Alistair woke up to a great deal of pain. Sucking in a quick breathe pain laced throughout his chest, and Alistair learned that if he just laid still long enough the pain would go down to a burning ache. Alistair’s heart beat raced in his ears and he recognized that Callum was trying to say something, but the fog of pain kept him from understanding. Opening his eyes to see the black and brown ceiling of the magma pools, Alistair called out, “Callum! Callum! Where are you?” A ball of fire appeared over Alistair’s head, out of reflex Alistair tried raising his right hand before his cracked ribs shouted their painful reminder against movement.

“I am here, My Lord! I am here!” Alistair felt relief at the simple presence of Callum. The little ball of flame dimmed its intensity and for some reason Alistair got the picture of a red hair boy kneeling next to him.

“By the Gods and Goddesses, I messed up Callum! I messed up big time! Agggghhhh!” Alistair rolled slightly to try and get pressure off of his ribs. It was the first time he was able to look at his injuries. His left leg was gone up to mid-thigh. His normal thick goat hide had been burned away to angry looking flesh. His right side of his torso had blisters all over it and purple bruising on the arm and ribs. “I keep going into these fights thinking that as an early Adventurer I was able to handle up to D class monster when I was an F Class Adventurer. I am starting to realize that stupid sword that boosted my body stats wasn’t the holy gift I thought. By the Goddess Otha, I was too lucky for my own good. Now I am facing fights without the usual equipment or support magic to properly take them on. I don’t suppose you have a healing spell or regeneration spell that you created recently?” Alistair smiled weakly at the fire orb.

Callum’s voice was deadly serious as he spoke. “My Lord, I haven’t created such a thing yet. In addition, there is only one way for you to recover from your injuries, and you are not going to like what you have to do. Even more so, you are going to hate what I propose next, but it’s the only way for you to regain your leg. You must crawl out of the circle and summon a Fire Salamander in your current state, I will try and take over the casting so I can automatically summon it for defense of the circle. The three salamanders that the Circle can support won’t be much, but it will have to do. Once, I have secured the circle… you will have to throw yourself over the ledge and destroy your current body.”

Alistair had wanted to laugh at the idea of him even trying to form a spell, but it was the last bit that truly took him by surprise. Callum’s plan was to have Alistair kill himself. Plain and simple, just throw your body off the ledge and be burned to death. Why not just try and claw his own throat out? At least then there would be meat for the Salamander to evolve. “Ok, Callum, there must be some logic to all of this, so let’s hear it.”

Callum hovered over Alistair’s missing leg like he was examining it. “My Lord, I originally didn’t tell you this because I didn’t want you to worry, but when you fought the elemental and lost there was no defense against it destroying the Summoning Circle and taking the stored mana. I believe it didn’t attack right away because the mana in the Circle was low and we hadn’t started gathering define mana threads. I believe with a few salamanders, the elemental will hesitate to attack long enough for us to do additional work on the dungeon. As for the part about killing yourself…. While I was in recovery, I started reading a book on Summoning Circles. When the Summoning Circle is first casted it contains several spells, like the pocket dimension, but it also grabs mana from the environment slowly alters its demon’s body. The spell used to move you between the pocket dimension and the here recreate's your body back to full health.”

Alistair was pretty sure that death by magma wasn’t going to be pleasant, but then again his near constant burning pain wasn't pleasant. At least now he was being given a choice, horrible amounts of pain for a brief moment or dull aches for weeks and months while Callum researches some type of healing spell. Still before the decision of choosing death or long wait in agony, Callum needed to have Alistair summon a salamander first. Taking a deep breath Alistair coughed and realized that he needed to take a shallow one before trying to focus on summoning a salamander. As started to organized his mind, the delayed fight prompt came up.

Event!You have captured a Fire Salamander!Today you have added to the list of creatures that can be summoned in your dungeon. Tiny Fire Salamander is now available for summoning. The Experience Points from a Fire Salamander is 100, you received a bonus for defeating a creature above your level of experience and equipment. Advancement of your spell mastery has increased by 20%. In order to evolve your creature you must reach Spell Mastery Level 2.

Congratulations! The Tiny Fire Salamander can turn into your first Boss Creature. By designating a Boss Creature for your dungeon level all creatures summoned on the level will receive a special ability unique to the type of boss. Additionally, the creature will evolve one rank level above the designated Dungeon level to protect your Summoning Circle.Would you like to designate Fire Salamander as the boss for this Level?YesNo

“Callum, come take a look at this.” Alistaiir croaked from his mouth. Alistair, was growing tried from the pain. Personally, he wanted to just press Yes and get on with the summoning, but he had thought back to all the other snap decisions he had made and decided to ask Callum before making his choice. For a moment Alistair closed his eyes and kept his body still to minimize his torment.

Callum floated over the prompt reviewing it. “Well that’s not very helpful! Alistair, I am not sure what to do here. I know with the Hell Animal it is supposed to be a boss and not a creature of the dungeon, do you mind if I go research this for a bit?”

Alistair nodded, because his body was asking to sleep. Not even being aware of Callum disappearance, Alistair drifted into a restless doze. His ribs constantly ached from the pain, but when he took a deep breath agony lanced his chest causing a fit of coughing that felt like someone punching him. When trying to roll to another position, his burns would rub against sharp obsidian pebbles on the ground. The pebbles would cut into the raw flesh and he would start bleeding all over again. Whenever, he opened his eyes he would see the blue prompt and once again the need to get this all over came to him. Perhaps if it wasn’t for the pain that moving his arm caused him, he would have simply selected Yes and been done with it.

Callum came back during one of Alistair painful bouts of sleep. He at least had the intelligence to wait till Alistair was once again awake to start talking. “My Lord, I have consulted the books in the General Help room. Ironically, they were not all that helpful. They stated that the first boss chosen for a dungeon will influence its entire theme. The example was for a undead dungeon. A ghost would influence the dungeon by collecting spirit type Monsters and a low moaning would carry itself out throughout the dungeon making spell casting difficult. If an Undead creature like a Skeleton was chosen. Undead Mana Monsters would be strengthen and necromancers would start to make deals and pacts with the Undead. The final boss for a ghost dungeon was likely a Grim Reaper spirit, while the undead dungeon would produce a powerful Lich with an undead guard. It seems that we have three choices: the Hell Animal, Fire Elemental, or the Salamander. I can guess that the elemental will be a giant Elemental from the God Plane of Fire. As for the Hell Animal, eventually a demon or devil from the God and Goddess Plane of Evil. As for the salamander… I don’t know, maybe a great beast?” The disappointment in Callum’s voice couldn’t be disguise as anything else.

Alistair looked up at Callum and perhaps it was the pain of his injuries or the fact that he didn’t like either one of the options with the Hell Animal or Fire Elemental. He touched Yes on the prompt and a huge shift in the surrounding mana occurred. Another prompt came up.

Event!Alistair’s Magma Pools has chosen to ally with the Dragon and Dragonkin races!Since the dawn of the world, dungeons have helped keep balance between the Gods, Goddesses, Mana, and the races. With the birth of a Dragonkin dungeon, you have chosen to help further their cause. Find a Great Wyrm in the Goddess Plane of Thought to gain quests as to your alliance. Wyrms, Dragons, and Dragonkin will be able to sense your dungeon and began to migrate to it as it grows in strength.

Summon your first Tiny Fire Salamander for it to evolve into a boss monster. You will not be able to evolve other Tiny Fire Salamanders until you reach Spell Mastery Level 2. Your dungeon level creatures will gain the ability Fire Whip. The Summoning Circle will now have a 30% increase in finding define Earth Mana. When creatures are not in combat they will natural began to build pathways and tunnels in the dungeon level.

“Well, that’s a surprise Callum! Seems like we have chosen to align with the ancient cause of Dragons and their children. We have to do something about our lack of knowledge… and equipment… and power… and everything.” Alistair closed his eyes and simply thought that he needed to spend more time in his pocket dungeon then here in his dungeon. “Well whats done is done, lets summon this Salamander and then I will roll myself into the Magma.” Alistair waited for Callum to move but when he didn’t he looked up at the Fireball.

Alistair waited till Callum was over at his usual spot and began to try and focus on summoning his newest monster. Normally, clearing his mind was instinctual, but the pain kept intruding on his thoughts. Alistair kept working on trying to focus on the tapestry of the summoning spell, but his mind kept seeing to a well-built wooden door. Finally giving up at trying to focus on the spell, Alistair opened the door in his mind. In a blur of blue mana light, Alistair was laying down on the bed in his pocket dimension. Small globes of light hung in the dim room and as he looked down on his being, he had both legs and was pain free. Callum’s door opened and the red haired boy rushed in hugging Alistair.

"My Lord, it seems our luck has changed for the better!" Though Callum meant it as a positive statement. Alistair felt a streak of dread come over him. Trying to shake it off, he simply hugged the boy back.

Smiling, Alistair laughed as the boy's hug tighten around him and he didn't feel any pain. “Well, I guess I know now how to get here. Just seems that I need to be in intense pain and my mind will come up with an answer. So let’s see if I can get back?” Callum released Alistair from his hug and Alistair focused on the door he had seen in his mind. His imagination conjured the door, but for the life of him he couldn’t seem to open it. It wasn’t till a soft tugging at his arm broke his concertation and he looked down at Callum. “What?”

Callum simply pointed towards a wall and as Alistair looked up, he realized that it was the same door in his mind. Smiling he took a step forward and opened the door. Beyond the door was what looked like a blue fog. Taking a deep breath without any pain, Alistair step forward and awoke in the Summoning Circle. Standing up on both legs, Alistair realized that he was healthy once again. Callum appeared and they began to laugh as they took their spots. Alistair nodded at Callum and opened the Loot Table for the salamander.

Loot Table for Tiny Fire SalamanderTotal Required Summoning Mana5Current Loot Table33.3 % Chance of dropping a Small Obsidian Tooth (Alchemy Component)25 % Chance of dropping a Small Obsidian Claw (Alchemy Component)Additional Items321% Chance of dropping a Single Dungeon Copper CoinPress any additional items you would like to add to the loot table. Warning! Monster does not have enough items to absorb all the free mana. Warning!A item in the loot table has greater than 100% chance of dropping. Please research Trade with your General Help Aspect. Cannot be summoned without increasing loot table.Loot Table for Boss Fire SalamanderTotal Required Summoning Mana25Current Loot Table300 % Chance of dropping a Obsidian Tooth (Alchemy Component)300 % Chance of dropping a Obsidian Claw (Alchemy Component)75 % Chance of dropping a Obsidian Dagger (Weapon Quality: Common)Additional Items3259.2% Chance of dropping a Single Dungeon Copper CoinPress any additional items you would like to add to the loot table. Warning! Monster does not have enough items to absorb all the free mana. Warning!A item in the loot table has greater than 100% chance of dropping. Please research Trade with your General Help Aspect. Cannot be summoned without increasing loot table.

Alistair immediate felt a headache come on as he began to look at the requirements to summon the Salamanders. No matter what he seemed to do, there was always one more requirement, one more thing to do. “Well Callum, we can’t summon the Salamanders, come on over and take a look.” Callum looked over Alistair’s shoulder and gave out a load groan.

“Well it looks like we need to get the Fire Beetles first and I have a whole bunch of reading to do. At least you can come and go from the Dimensional pocket now.” Callum sounded depressed at the thought of not being able to summon the salamanders or perhaps at researching something like Trade.