The negotiations were going to be starting in a few hours. We had some preparations to finish before it began…

So what did we decide to do? It was obvious really, we couldn’t hide, what with the dungeon imploded around us. Also, we couldn’t stay put simply because the shadowmancers would eventually return to try and figure out what happened. Thus regardless of what we did, we would have to leave the area. We all agreed on this. Thus our actions now were based on whether we were negotiating with the adventurers, sneaking past them or wiping them out.

It was a tensely divided decision. Starla of course was against killing everyone, although if I said to let the adventurers flee she might have come around…

Rox wanted to kill them all, we would be able to plunder their equipment and also decrease the chance of us being tracked… but we might suffer from their retribution and we didn’t know how strong the city was. Starla didn’t know enough about the governance of the city, nothing about the army thus I assumed the worst so as not be taken by surprise.

Caution and vigilance.

Never be taken by surprise.

Prepare for every eventuality.

And always make plans for the unexpected because it will always happen.

The survivor’s code. The mantra we used, taught to every person that ever joined us. Preparation, caution, vigilance.

And that means, we must use the safest path. This was a new world, filled with things I had no clue about. With strange monsters and beings, many cities and nations. And I knew nothing about any of them. There was no international communication here, the mana in the air interfered with anything long distance.

Back on earth, mana had destroyed almost all the technology we had… something about mana seemed to mix with fire and electricity. Cars exploded and wires shorted as soon as the mana in the area built up to any amount.

And the mana on earth was thin, not like here. Here I could feel it entering into me, being absorbed by me… you could see the spark of mana when skills are being used.

One of the things that gave me hope was that the mana here might allow me to grow much stronger than I was on earth. The sparse mana on earth meant we couldn’t endlessly grow stronger under its influence. No we had to be like scavengers, stealing mana from monsters. Hunting down the weak monsters, cutting out their monster hearts and absorbing the monstrous mana within. We had to ration it to the strongest. We made a team of elites… and of them all, I was the weakest, yet the most important. Because with my ability, I could give every new person who joined us a 5-10% increase in their fighting ability… permanently.

But here? No more rationing, I could absorb the mana from the very air around us. It was giving food to the hungry, water to the thirsty.

To while away the time till the meeting I looked over the last of the spoils from the fight. All of the shadowmancers had died, thus all their equipment came to me… though it was obvious they were weak amateurs, they only had Rank E robes and staves. I sent them to Eva’s magic team. They were better than nothing.

Black Robes (Rank E, Magic Power +1)

Made from cotton, these robes offer little to no protection from physical attacks

They were made to be used by magic users, thus they are inscribed with some magical formations

Effects

1) Magic Power +1

2) Magical protection 2% (dissipates 2% of the power of magical attacks against the user)

Apprentice Mage’s Staff (Rank E, Magic Power +2)

Made from yew and covered with a paste made from a mana dense green and yellow beetle

These are the simplest type of magical staff, the paste from the beetle allows extra power in magical skills

Effects:

1) Magic Power +2

2) Increased accuracy of magic skills +10%

Seeing as how I didn’t have any equipment for the magic users whatsoever this wasn’t a bad result. My only gripe is that I couldn’t absorb the equipment from the adventurers that these guys killed at the entrance to the dungeon… the other adventurers had pulled them outside probably to be buried…

I shook my head, I wasn’t going to resent people who had respect for the dead. I frowned, I hope that was the corruption or the dungeon instincts talking and not my own self.

Now to the main prize. The leader of the Shadowmancers was well equipped, the scene of him pulling orb after orb out to do battle was entrenched in my mind. I pulled out everything that was equipped on his body, his body having been absorbed by me already.

I paused, I was still basically empty of mana which was a pity.

I looked at the pile that was in front of me. I saw a robe, two rings, a necklace and of course that amazing staff of his. And of course the darkened dungeon crystal… even though I had absorbed its abilities, the dungeon crystal remained. I was… suspicious of absorbing it. I figured there’s probably a lot of mana in there… but what about corruption? I sighed when I looked at it and then put it away.

I then picked up the robes.

Dark Mage Robes (Rank D, Magic Power +10)

Made from the wings of a Dark Winged Bat, these robes provide both magical power as well as great defence for magic users, both magical and physical

Effects:

1) Magic Power +10

2) Physical Defense 10%

3) Magical Defense 15%

I had a bit of shock… I am lucky I managed to pierce into his heart how I did… fuck, he was split seconds away from pulling out another orb when he finally died too… I’m so lucky I managed to pierce through these robes damn.

Sweat beaded on my forehead at the thought of how close I had been to death… if I had lacked even a bit of power, would the robes have defended against my attack? I didn’t know.

So much for fucking caution, I tried to be prepared but fuck, who the fuck sends a Rank C mage with a 10 000 monster army against a newly born dungeon?!

… and the city threw a Rank B warrior at us too. Fucking hell.

Shaking my head I brought the two rings and necklace closer.

Shadow Ring (Rank E)

The essence of a wraith was trapped and then forged into this ring.

Effect:

1) Shadowspawn within 100 metres gain 5% boost in abilities

Wow… this was a low rank ring but the skill attached was from the Law group which was a bit rarer back on earth. I looked at the next one.

Magic Ring (Rank E, Magic Power +3)

The stone in this ring is from a refined manastone embedded in a ring of silver.

Effect:

1) Magic Power +3

The lead shadowmancer’s ring was better than the staves his underlings were using…

I held the necklace and checked it… and my eyes widened in shock.

Dimensional Storage Ring(Rank C)

Through the interactions with mana, the elements can condense, just like mana does into stones. What people do not realize is that space can be a form of energy as well… and it also interacts with mana. Thus, rarely, it can be condensed into a stone.

These stones contain within them a small sub-space that can be used to store with but a thought, and brought out again in the same fashion.

Living things cannot be stored, nor can other dimensional objects.

Time is slow within the dimensional storage.

A small injection of mana is needed to both store and to summon objects.

Effects:

1) Dimensional Storage (15 cubic metres)

Active Effects (requires mana):

1) [Store]

Adds objects into dimensional space

2) [Summon]

Brings out stored object

3) [Observe]

Through a mind link, allows user to see everything inside the dimensional space

A Rank C equipment! This was a Rare rank Equipment!

I immediately used one of the active effects, injecting some of my mana into the necklace to see inside the space…

And I saw orbs. Mountains of orbs… holy fuck, this was where he kept all those fucking orbs he was using!

I looked at them… orbs of lightning, Rank E, orbs of fire, Rank E, orbs of Light, Rank E… the list went on and on…

How many were in here? Even with how many he used in the battle against us, the space was still half filled up…

I didn’t have time to look through all the different types of orbs. Putting the necklace around my neck I picked up the staff.

Dark Cloud Staff (Rank C, Magic Power +35, Intelligence +10)

This is a staff made of a magical wood called the Dark Evergreen Pine. Afterwards, it was coated with the blood of a Dark Cloud Wolf’s blood. The monster heart of the beast was placed into the tip of the staff.

Within the heart lies a skill formation that was the signature skill of the beast when it was alive

Effects:

1) Magic Power +35

2) Intelligence +10

Active:

1) [Dark Cloud Reflection Shield]

With an injection of mana, if struck against a surface, a Dark Cloud Shield will surround the user protecting the user from both magic and physical attacks momentarily – all attacks will be reflected back with the exact same force

Another Rank C equipment… damn…

It was then that Max came up to me.

‘Sir, we should start heading out, we’ve dug another little exit so that we won’t stumble on the guards outside the cave…’

I looked at Max. He seemed to be troubling over something.

‘What is it Max? Speak your mind.’

He looked at me still with a troubled face.

‘Well sir, I know we can’t stay here because this whole place has been compromised but… well why don’t we just skip the meeting altogether? We can run away and be long gone before they realize we aren’t coming…’

Right, our decision… we had decided to flee. Without killing them. Rox truly wasn’t happy but I overruled her.

‘Max, you know my reasons, I explained to everyone. We have 3 objectives that we have to fulfill in this meeting. First we must meet with them and Starla must tell them herself that she is coming with us. Else we could have an angry Adventurer’s Guild after our hides. Second, we need to gain some measure of trust with the adventurer’s guild so that they will block any motions from the mages to come hunt us down. That armoured swordswoman Tetiana is Starla’s friend and our best bet.And lastly, we must appear peaceful yet powerful. Peaceful so they are not afraid of us, yet powerful so that they know we aren’t afraid of them.’

He nodded since I had already explained this before.

‘Look Max… if the meeting doesn’t go well, you know what our backup is right?’

Of course he knew, if we failed to have a peaceful talk and wasn’t able to leave peacefully… and flee… then we would revert to plan B.

Plan B was kill everyone.

The [Wanderer] skill was amazing as it allowed us to move the dungeon… but of course it had limitations. One of them was that all dependent dungeon creatures were going to be stuck inside the dungeon crystal or else when I left the dungeon… well everything would be destroyed. That was why the shadowmancer could only summon his monsters during the dungeon master’s duel.

Thus pretty much everyone would be stuck inside when I move around. The only exceptions were those that originated from outside… so Max, Levine, the bees, Starla… some of the squirrels and hares but a depressingly low number of them.

I wondered if because they were bestowed souls, whether I could leave them out… but I didn’t have time, nor did I have a volunteer to test it. If it came to an emergency… well I could summon out a few and see if they died… that seemed like a truly inhumane way to do things though.

‘Alright Max, get the group together. We are going to have this meeting and then leave.’

We were ready. Everyone was ready to move out and all the beasts, creatures, animals and even humans I could absorb into the dungeon crystal’s space had been taken in. The slimes were not given souls and I couldn’t absorb them for some reason… they would die when I left.

I looked around. My party was a dozen fully armed squirrels, 10 armed hares, Max, Levine and Starla. This was everyone who was going to be moving.

‘Remember everyone, we could end up fighting… but keep all weapons sheathed.’

The plan was to have Max and Starla along with most of the squirrels and hares to go to the meeting while the rest of us start moving out. How the meeting went was going to be up to those two. But regardless we were slipping away. I felt a bit bad putting so much risk on Max but he was the most capable of my underlings so I had no choice.

Readying ourselves one last time, we moved out of the new secret exit and split up. The pair moved out into the forest before they would head back to the adventurers and mages while the rest of us started moving deeper into the forest, our eyes constantly on the lookout for danger. I made half of the squirrels act as messengers up in the trees looking over Max.

I… I was actually happy. This was the first time I had left the dungeon and felt the sun on my skin… A dungeon master that leaves his dungeon haha, actually a dungeon master that took his dungeon with him!

I was going on a journey!

While Alex was looking over the spoils of war and Max was organizing everyone to leave… I was left with a duty only I would be able to do.

I front of me sat an opened cage.

Yet the one within… didn’t move. Almost as if he couldn’t.

I knew… that he was alive, but it was…

It was heart-wrenching to see him.

A dungeon fairy without his wings, without his dungeon crystal… he would have no power.

And it turns out, he didn’t have much longer to live. Life is cruel sometimes. To defeat the shadowmancer meant to defeat him during the dungeon master’s duel… but that also meant the destruction of the dungeon crystal.

I know Alex still had the dungeon crystal with him. He probably wouldn’t absorb it until we found a new place to make our dungeon.

Sigh… I didn’t know what to do with this broken dungeon fairy.

I flew closer to the cage. I didn’t want to touch that vile thing but I wanted to bring the fairy out of it.

As I got closer, the fairy looked up at me.

Dead eyes… such dead looking eyes.

‘Hey little guy… um… how about we get you out of there?’

Well, talking with one of my own kind definitely wasn’t a strong point of mine it seemed… fucking hell, look at this shitshow. Caged and wingless… I shudder at that horrible treatment.

A whisper… he was replying!

‘Leave me… without… my wings… and my crystal… I’ll die within a few days… if not a few hours.’

He wasn’t wrong. Dungeon crystal, dungeon master and dungeon fairy. The trinity. Yet the key was always the crystal and the fairy. They couldn’t survive without each other… because the crystal was a focus of our power. Without it we couldn’t use mana.

And in this world, someone who couldn’t use mana would instead be poisoned by it… dying within a few days.

And without his wings he didn’t have the ability to fly and find another soul stone to nurture into another dungeon crystal. A fake dungeon crystal sure, since the ones we used are created as part of our life-cycle… but a fake was better than nothing. At least it’ll allow him to live.

‘Why don’t you come out of that cage? Ah, I have something you might like! It’s called honey and it’s delicious!’

He just looked at me.

When I thought he was just going to carry on being silent, he slowly got up and started walking out!

Finally he was out of that blasted cage!

With a thought I used a bit of the dungeon crystal’s power to absorb the cage. I didn’t have to tell Alex I was allowed to do that. It was sort of against the rules but rules can be bent a little. Hell Alex had bent so many… I think he’s rubbing off on me.

‘So what brings… er… a dungeon fairy around these parts…’

What do you say to a dying man? Fucking hell. I knew how he was going to go too. As the mana left his body, he wouldn’t be able to protect himself… and his body would age, hour by hour. As if decades were flashing by.

A dungeon fairy lived as long as his or her dungeon crystal… which could mean forever… or a very short life.

‘What’s your name?’

Fuck, why did I ask him that? Maybe that fucking shadowmancer didn’t even let him have a fucking name! I mean he kept his dungeon fairy in a cage! And ripped off his wings!

‘I don’t… I don’t have a name.’

I was slapping myself inside my head. Stupid! Stupid! Shit, think of something else to say!

Before I said anything else that was stupid, the dungeon fairy started speaking. When I first saw him, he looked like a young teenage boy… but now, he looked like a young middle aged man… fuck… wasn’t this too fast? Was it because his wings were ripped out as well?

He started speaking… about his life…

‘… born into a clan hundreds of thousands of miles away from here…’

He was born into a family of dungeon fairies that had an affinity with beasts from plains…

‘… I was happy, even without a dungeon master for decades…’

The clan lived far away from any of the intelligent races. Thus for them, finding a dungeon master was difficult. So they did what they could, they became one themselves. Obviously not as good since you can’t expand your power as well, but the dungeon creating instinct couldn’t be ignored.

‘Things changed after the shadows fell onto the land. My brethren were enslaved, chained into servitude. The shadow lands? A land of monsters, demons dressed in dark robes and telling those that are enslaved to feel thankful for the grace they were shown.’

The Shadow Empire… was the Shadow Empire going to become a future enemy?

‘I wasn’t captured with the rest of my family. While I was fleeing my family’s massacre, I ran into a young wood elf… and I offered to make him a dungeon master. He was on the path of freedom, so rare these days, yet somehow seemingly the workings of fate. At least so I believed. We ran, fled into the wilderness. We were on the run and hiding for more than a decade as the country fell into ruin around us. We had to avoid cities because we couldn’t tell if the humans were shadowspawn or not…’

As I listened, I couldn’t help but imagine the image of a young wood elf and his dungeon fairy hiding and living in the wilderness while all around a looming shadow crept ever closer. But even as I listened I felt my heart tighten… there was only one reason he was talking so much to me right now. It was to tell his story…

‘It was in the 11th year that we were caught. I watched as the shadows took over my dungeon master. I… I barely felt the pain as the wings were ripped from my body. I had lived so long with him, he was a brother, a friend and the one I trusted most in the whole world. And then they had stolen his face, his soul. My dead friend ripped the dungeon contract within his own soul and his body followed him into death… and then the shadows corrupted my dungeon crystal. They forced a new master on me, stripped me of my name, stripped me of my power, stripped me of my friend. I don’t have a name because I am already among the dead…’

He looked so aged now. His face looked lined, his arms trembled as he lifted his hands to look at them, as if they would answer him. As if they would explain to him why this could have happened.

‘Little one, leave me here. Those adventurers will find my body within this chamber and it should help to spread some misunderstanding…’

I felt a wetness in my eyes. I had never seen one of my kind die before… captured? Yes, but not die… not like this… and still he wanted to use his own death to help out another.

‘Mr. is there nothing we can do to help you?’

‘Little miss. I’ve lived long enough. We dungeon fairies can be immortal but what’s the use of immortality if I can’t share it with someone I care about? With him I saw so much of this world… I’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe. I saw colossal ships collapse from fairy fire off the coast of Garanth. I’ve watched the mana falls flow into the sky at the edge of Soren’s Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.’

He looked so peaceful sitting there. Leaning up against a rock as if he had just drifted off to sleep.

My thoughts were heavy as I flew to join the rest as we left the dungeon.