“Once upon a time I was a great Golden Hero. Oh yes! I was a ranked SS Adventurer and set out to the grand Labyrinth of Morack to defeat and purge the Kingdom of Lorithal of its great evil. Once completed, I would have been given the Adventurer Rank SSS and a small kingdom by going into the dungeon land and conquering one. There I could live in peace with my five wives and harem of mistresses. I would give all my loyal companions noble rights and lands and we could even expand the kingdom by killing a few more dungeons. Ah yes, I was going to be a great King! Rich from dungeon wealth, powerful from monster experience, and beloved by my people. Yeah, that was the dream. Stupid, Minotaur!” Grey dim soul mist spoke to the crowd of bright colored souls.

“See I was the Great Hero Thorian the Fair! What you never heard of me?! Come now, I was the premier hero in six kingdoms. I killed the Hydra of Shamin! Fine, so you haven’t heard of me… probably because you are a souls like me waiting for rebirth, you have forgotten all of this. Anyway, there I was marching across the kingdom of Lorithal, my golden banners of lions whipping in the air. I was bringing a thousand conscripted adventurers to follow me into the Labyrinth. Oh we were a sight to see. Mages throwing fireballs into the air, knights like myself in golden enchanted armor, priests of various faiths chanting, even our gnome henchmen carrying our supplies were resplendent. Sure, I cut through fields of vegetables and wheat to make better time to the labyrinth, but the kingdom would owed me for destroying this great evil. So what were a few dozen peasant fields?”

“Anyway, we camped outside of the dungeon town, Morack. In I went and told the town council I had come to destroy the labyrinth! Oh they argued about how it helped with the kingdom’s enchantments and even created wealth for the low ranking adventurers. You know the same old argument from every dungeon town. Didn’t they understand that once I destroyed their dungeon I could become a king? Besides, the wealth that I brought out of the dungeon could be used to help them resettle in real towns and villages, instead of making wealth off of monster components.”

“No, I decided I would hear no more of their silly arguments and went to claim my destiny! I sent wave after wave of adventurers into the labyrinth to start mapping the easier levels. Sure many of them died!" A bright blue soul mist seemed to pulse with light. "Oh you were a F ranked adventurer? Don’t worry, I understand your pain, I spent several weeks there myself until destiny stepped in and gave me my first magical sword off a common Kobold Worker. No it wasn’t just some lucky random drop! I was destine for greatness from the start! Listen, I started telling you my story don’t interrupt me about dungeon mechanics and loot tables! It was destiny!” Several brightly colored souls started wondering off from the little dim grey one.

“Anyway, sure we lost a few hundred low ranking Adventurers, but we had mapped and cleared the first twenty floors. So in we went, and set up camp inside the labyrinth. Weeks went by as more adventures and myself went down more and more floors. By the time I had reached level 980, the camp was no more then my main core group of S companions. Each level became more dangerous than the next as we faced creatures of legend, but as we made it to floor 994 it was populated by a clan of Minotaurs. Stupid creatures had changed the entire level into some kind of great maze with multiple level changes and moving walls and sections. Not to mention the clan had breed mages and gladiators, so they had enchanted armor and weapons along with their filthy mental magics. I lost six of my oldest companions to the brutes before I finally broke through to their champion.”

“Ah he was a magnificent monster. Nearly ten feet tall with enchanted tattoos covering his body. Back and forth we battled as my priests cast healing spells on me and Joseph. Joseph was the fighter who was in charge of fighting the summoning circle Minotaurs that would pop up to try and repopulate the floor. Joseph was doing a wonderful job as I fought the Minotaur to his frenzy point, and then it happened. See I had a friend Leeroy Jaykins; great thief who could disarm any trap or perform a critical hit from hiding better than any person I have seen. Well the enrage Minotaur hits him across the left arm with his axe. Of course, it literary disarms him, anyhow he starts freaking out. I mean come on Leeroy, the priests healing spells will stop the bleeding and after the fight we can put the arm back on. But no, Leeroy freaks out and starts running around screaming for “HOTs”. What is a HOT? By the Gods, you really were an F ranked Adventurer, it’s Heals Over Time. Anyway, Leeroy blocks the healers line of sight from Joseph and one of the summoned Minotaurs gets a critical, making Joseph’s head look like cherry pie. Yeesh, well at least I won’t have to remember that now!”

“So there I am fighting this Beast of a Minotaur, sword blocking every swing of its axe. It’s damage aura of Maze Mirror opening my flesh in a growing pattern of a maze. Healers are dying quickly as my mages and other warriors are trying to get the summoning circle under control. I faint left and then right. Seeing the opening I have been waiting for and thrust my sword deep within the Monsters ribcage. I know I have won, its red glowing eyes are fading and all I have to do is wait for it to dissolve from bleeding damage. Then the mystic blue mana light begins to dissolve the beast and condense itself into a loot box the size of a wagon. Smiling, I turn around and BAMN! An axe comes down on my head! A Freaking Common Monster from the summoning circle kills me! Can you believe it?! A stupid sneak attack and I am dead! Life and Death are just so unfair, anyway I feel the tug of the Gods. Sorry I can’t stay and listen to all of your stores, but let’s face it, it would have never beaten mine.”

The little grey soul orb started moving away from the colorful crowd of souls with a self-assurance that it had done a great job of brightening their afterlife with his storytelling. The soul orb traveled and traveled finally coming to a grand marble room where it sat on a large pedestal. The little grey ball started to brighten at the thought of its great reward, after all he had spent his life killing mana monsters and helping people from the horrible evil that were dungeons. Soon a giant being came in through a misty gateway, its bright golden skin and beautiful radiance told the orb that the being was a god that had come to judge him. A large grand wooden desk polished to a golden brown shine appeared and the God pulled out the magnificent chair behind it. “Greetings Thorian, I am sorry that the Goddess Illastra couldn’t make your judgement, but she flat out refused to.”

The little grey soul dimmed, he had prayed to Illastra all of its previous life. He had been faithful to her tenets and did his best to follow the Battle Maidens faith. “Now, now, Thorian. You shouldn’t take it personally. She said that she couldn’t tolerate your previous life’s personality. See I am sure that all the good work will allow me to place you back on the world and you can try again.” As the God dug in the drawers for something. Thorian’s soul was in a state of shock and anger. What did the God mean that he shouldn’t take the Goddess dismissal of him personally. After all he had devoted his life to her and just because of some type of personality conflict he wasn’t going to get a heavenly reward?!

The God pulled out a large canvas bag with Thorian’s name on it and a large alchemy balance. “Alright, Thorian the bag contains all the good and bad deeds you did in your life as black and white stones. I will pull out a stone and read the deed to you, placing it on the scale to weigh where you will go in the next life.” The God reached into the bag and pulled out the first stone, it was white and about the size of his little finger. “Ah see a good deed. Killing of the Hydra of Shamin, by doing so you stopped the monster related deaths to the local fisherman and the fish.” The God placed the stone on the right side of the scale and then reached back in for another one.

A black stone one tenth the size of the white came out. “Oh it’s a bad deed. Let’s see. Led Andy Miller to his death fighting the Hydra of Shamin. Andy Miller was fated to another ten years prior to you conscripting him as part of your adventurer team. Well don’t worry, since he decided to follow you, your bad decision to have him test dangerous waters in armor is not quite as bad as murder, just on the scale of bad choices.” The grey orb began to shake, if Thorian remembered correctly twenty people had died under the attack against the Hydra. Not counting the ten that lose their lives to the swamp before finding the hydra.

Black stone came after black stone, every person that he had led to their deaths because of his bad decisions were weighed against the good he had done. As the scale quickly tip towards bad deeds, Thorian became more and more worried about where he was going. In fact even the God began shaking his head as the scale for his bad decisions and evil deeds began to overfill. Finally the God stopped and just looked into the bag, shaking his head he simply placed the bag on the black stone side and let the scale hit the desktop with a thud. “Thorian, I am not going to say you were evil. Most of your sins were due to your arrogance and lack of leadership. However, your arrogance is so bad that I can’t even use my standard, ‘You will reincarnate as a mana monster for the next thirty lives and then be cleansed as a soul.’ So I am going to have to reincarnate you into a Dungeon Demon. You must live at least a thousand years as a Dungeon Demon starting when your dungeon level reaches 500! So speaks the will of Salurin!”

Boom, Salurin’s voice echoed in the room like a thunderclap and Thorin's soul was thrown from the pedestal with great speed heading to the world below.