After reaching Madam Erin’s dungeon, Dyson and I made it through the first of three new floors of her dungeon. These floors are unlike any Madam Erin has in the rest of her dungeon, and with the use of one of the traitor’s items, we are becoming more and more certain that Madam Erin may be in trouble.

After a few hours of roaming the floor seemingly at random we uncover the ladder heading up to the next floor, and Dyson begins the climb. As he reaches the trap door for the next floor he flings it open and peers into the floor above.

I start to follow him up the ladder but before I hear him call out, and before I have a chance to react, he releases the ladder and jumps backwards off of it.

Dyson: “Get back!”

When he jumped backwards off the ladder, I couldn’t tell because he was blocking my view, but as I let go of the ladder to do what Dyson said, I notice he isn’t alone. I don’t see how I could have missed it even with Dyson blocking my view, as this creature is over twice the size of Dyson.

The creature itself is gigantic spider. It is large enough I don’t quite see how it even managed to make it through the trap door in the ceiling much less at the speed at which it must have passed through it to attack Dyson.

The giant spider has a human-like face, but unlike the monstrosities I faced in the corrupt dungeon, it seems natural. Doesn't make it any less horrifying, as each one of its thick armored legs that look more crab like than spider, but are as black as Dyson’s armor, and are the size of my waist, ending with two dagger-like curved barbs at their end.

Dyson's armor is truly a marvel, a field plate with rotating double and triple joints that offer a complete range of motion without compromising even one bit on its defense, and yet the monster still manages to force its blade-like toes (feet? claws? this thing doesn't make any sense as a living being. It is clearly a monster through and through, a thing meant to kill, and nothing else) into its non-existent gaps. Constantly exerting itself trying to pull it apart.

Dyson doesn't takes kindly to its efforts, though, and punches it on the face, sinking its nose in with a sick, wet crunching noise, then doubling down again to punch its eyes... no, right on top of its eyes, its eyebrows, for some reason.

It takes me a moment to understand, but what he's doing is causing it bleeding wounds, the type that will bleed straight down unto its eyes and make it impossible for it to see. He's overpoweri- no, he's dismantling the thing bit by bit, first taking its eyesight, then smashing its ears before swatting away its legs.

Without its eyes, it cannot accurately aim for the joints in Dyson's armor anymore, and it starts to frantically run its claws over him as it tries to do so again, to no avail.

Dyson: “Don’t! Stay back!” –He calls while I start to prepare to cast a spell while he grapples with two of the spider's legs, as three others continue to try and find purchase into his armor's joints.-

Dyson manages to bend and break one of its arms. There's a howl as the thing's arm bends the wrong direction, then snaps altogether before Dyson finally manages to draw his sword, promptly slicing off two more of its legs. After this, the spider leaps away and seems to need to re-assess itself, having lost three legs in the last two seconds, along with most of its ability to see.

The spider turns towards me, and lunges, yet Dyson manages to get between us. To no effect, however, as it was actually going for the ladder, scurrying back up through the trap door and into the floor above.

Dyson:”Are you alright?”

“It never got anywhere near me, so the question is, are you alright?”

Dyson: “I wasn’t expecting something to attack as soon as the door swung open, and its legs are a bit of a problem, but now that we know what we are dealing with, things should go much more smoothly.”

“As long as there is only one of them…”

Dyson: “It was quite strong, and if grappling like that is standard for the breed, it would take some time before I could break free and help you, should one aim at you.”

“What is it you want me to do then?”

Dyson: “You are just going to have to wait in the previous room until I manage to clear it out, and just make sure you don’t let the door close so we don’t end up separated.”

“That creature passed between floors, I seriously doubt it will have any issues passing from one room to the next. It isn’t hard to name even non-sentient monsters to allow them to move from one floor to the next, but that means they are at least not rift monsters.”

Dyson: “Unless that is something else the traitors have managed to change. However I don’t think there is more than one, at least in the room above, or surely the others would have attacked as well.”

“What do you think it is doing now?”

Dyson: “They have amazing regenerative abilities, so I would say it is recovering from its wounds while building us a trap with its web.”

“Shouldn’t we get up there and deal with it before it has the chance then?”

Dyson: “We?” –He says, but then starts climbing the ladder with his sword in his hand.- “Whatever is up there I will try to keep it there. I don’t want you to move until I give you the all clear. Do you understand?”

There isn’t really much I can do, so I don’t argue and cone Dyson heads through the trap door, entering the floor above, I hear sounds of combat, but have no idea how it is going. After a short while it becomes quite again.

It remains that way for at least another minute, which causes me to begin to worry, but Dyson then pokes his helmeted head through the hole, and tells me to head up the ladder.

When I reach the next floor the entire room is full of the creature’s web. It is so thick you can’t even see the walls or ceiling, so I can’t even be quite sure how large this room is for sure. The spider creature lies dead a couple yards away, while Dyson seems to be searching the room.

“This room is completely full of spider webs, are you sure there was only the one?”

Dyson: “Pretty sure, but don’t let your guard down. I don’t see any doors, but the last floor didn’t have any until the door was shut either, so go ahead and shut that hatch.”

I close the hatch and it disappears just like in the floor below, but this time if any new doors appeared, I can’t find it…

“Do you see anything?”

Dyson: “Not yet.” –He says as he starts hacking at the cobwebs with his sword.-

Dyson is hacking in the direction opposite of the way Madam Erin should be at, until he uncovers a doorway, then pulls and cuts at the webs to get at it.

“That door is going the wrong direction. Shouldn’t we take one on this other side?”

Dyson: “If there is a door over there, I don’t believe it will lead us to Madam Erin. Just trust me.”

“I can’t exactly go the other direction myself, so I don’t really have any choice in the matter, do I?”

Dyson: “Just trust me. Now, you stand over here behind me, and after I open the door, you just make sure it doesn’t shut again until we are want it to.”

I nod, then move behind Dyson. He makes sure I am out of sight before readying his sword and opening the door…

As the hours pass, we go through quite a few rooms. I haven’t seen any of the monsters except through the corpses Dyson leaves behind. There are some rooms that have several corpses in it before I step into the room, but I am rather sure we have backtracked through the rooms again this time, so I am not entirely sure if he was fighting more than one, or it is one of the corpses from a previous pass through the room.

Either way, that means the monsters are at least being replaced after we leave the rooms, but we still don't know if they are rift monsters or not.

Dyson: “If my hunch is right, this next room should have three of those spiders in it, so whatever you do, you stay on guard, and out of sight.”

“Three? Are you sure you can handle that many?”

Dyson: “Of course, I just can’t protect you while doing so. If nothing else I can use this sword’s ability and pull them into a void, but there would be nothing preventing you from getting pulled in as well.”

“How can you be so sure there is going to be three of them though?”

Dyson: “Each room has only had one of them, with the exception of the rooms we have passed through multiple times. Each time we reenter a room the number of spiders increases, so since this is going to be our third pass through this next room, I assume there will be three of them this time.”

“So we really are backtracking!”

Dyson: “Not exactly, but you are going to have to just trust me.”

Once he enters the next room the sounds of combat seem to last forever and three is nothing I can do but stand here holding the door…

Not long after the room goes quiet, Dyson calls out giving me the “all clear”. When I enter the room there is indeed three spider corpses, but the shocking thing is Dyson’s appearance. Dyson’s armor is always immaculate, and I have never seen as much as a scratch on it.

However right now it is covered in scratches, one of his gauntlets is missing, and he is holding his helmet under his arm, and half of it has been caved in. The sleeve of his shirt, which can be seen on the arm missing the gauntlet, is torn and covered in blood, Dyson himself doesn’t seem to have any wounds on him now, but there is quite a bit of blood that doesn’t belong to the spiders on the spiders and the ground.

For a dungeon core to lose blood like that is quite shocking so I ask him. “Are you alright…?”

Dyson draws a line in the air and tosses the helmet through it before saying. “It will only take a few hours in my dungeon’s inventory for it to be as good as new.”

“Not your armor, are you ok?”

Dyson: “Healing myself is far easier than repairing my armor, and it has been many years since the last worked up a sweat in battle.”

“Sounds like you’d rather take damage then allow your armor do its job…”

Dyson: “My armor is non-replaceable. If it got damaged beyond repair it would be gone forever.”

“Remember if all else fails my dungeon can recreate it at least, although the xp cost is quite high.”

Dyson: “I completely forgot about that, perhaps I should invest in preparing a backup set of armor once we get out of here.”

“If you give me the xp, I will gladly help you, but we should worry about Madam Erin for now…”

Dyson: “Indeed. If my hunch is right we are only a few rooms away from the one in which [Menu] is showing you.” –He says before we move on.-

As he said, after two more rooms, and several more spiders we enter the room in which my [Menu] is displaying for Madam Erin’s location. Unlike all the other rooms, this one does not have any spiders, or any webs for that manner being a perfectly bare and empty room.

“Do you see anything…?”

Dyson: “You can come in now. I don’t think there is anything here.”

After entering the room with Dyson I open my [Archjusticar Menu] and when looking in on Madam Erin’s location I see Dyson and myself, but through the screen or my own eyes, I don’t see any signs of Madam Erin anywhere.

“I was hoping we would find something here… If I can’t even find her with my [Archjusticar Menu] I don’t know how we are going to find her.”

Dyson: “What I am finding strange is the lack of anything in this room. Every other room had the spiders and their webs, but this one doesn’t.”

“Madam Erin apparently isn’t here regardless what [Menu] says, so should we continue, and hope we find her ahead somewhere?”

Dyson: “There is something about this room that leaves me a bit unsettled, but I don’t think we have any other options.”

I shut the door to the room, and it disappears like all the other times, but another door doesn’t immediately appear. Dyson on the other hand begins to snap his head around quickly looking around the room.

Dyson: “What did you you!?”

“I just shut the door… But no other doors appeared this time.”

Dyson: “Not that! Where are we!?”

“What do you mean?”

I then notice something off as well. The screen displaying Madam Erin’s location is still open, but instead of us standing in that room we are no longer there. From a quick search of Dyson and myself it displays the same empty room as well.

“Are you saying we got transported somewhere…? I didn’t feel anything.”

Dyson: “We were definitely teleported to another location, the question is where, and now that we are here, what do we do now? There doesn’t look to be any more doors appearing this time.”

“And Madam Erin isn’t here either.”

Dyson: “I just tried to teleport as well, and it seems we are still under the effects of one of those items. Does that mean we just got transported within Madam Erin’s Dungeon somewhere, or is this the effect of another one of those items?”

“They must of teleported us in the same manner as they did when we tried entering Barry’s dungeon.”

Dyson: “The teleportation was subtle, so I could see why most of you would miss it, but if that is the case we could be anywhere now.”

“I am more worried about the fact that [Archjusticar Menu] still shows us being in that other room.”

Dyson: “At least we know what happened to Madam Erin now. She is probably trapped in a room just like this one.”

“What do we do now? Is there no way out of here?”

Dyson: “Not that I can tell.” –He says while checking several of the walls.- “They can’t possibly keep one of those items active forever, so we will have to wait it out.”

“There is another option…”

Dyson: “I’m listening.”

“I might be able to get out of here, and possibly both of us, but the question is. Do we want to just leave here? We haven’t found Madam Erin, and if we leave we will have to start all over again.”

Dyson: “We won’t be able to do anything while being trapped in this room, so if you have a means for escape I suggest we take it. We can attempt something else to try to find Madam Erin.”

“I don’t want to discuss too much of it here, but if this works it means you will have to become one of my justicars as well.”

Dyson: “If it gets us out of here, do it.”

I open my [Archjusticar Menu] and add Dyson as one of my justicar. Once he accepts I grab ahold of Dyson’s arm and attempt to use the teleport ability to reach Ceres, and since Dyson is a justicar now he should be able to come as well.

I don’t know if this will work or not, but I accept the justicar point cost while crossing my fingers and closing my eyes tight. The pull on the back of my chest indicates that the ability is at least attempting to work, but I am afraid to open my eyes until I hear a familiar voice.

Ceres: “Well isn’t this a surprise…”

I open my eyes to find Dyson and me standing in the middle of a lecture hall full of students as Ceres appears to have been holding some kind of class.

Dyson: “How did you do that?!”

“Sorry to interrupt, but we were in a bit of a spot…”

Ceres: “Alright everyone. We will have wrap it here for today.” –She says to the students as she dismisses the class before turning to Dyson and myself and saying.- “We should probably go somewhere to talk.”

After transferring us to one of Ceres’s private meeting rooms Dyson has a look around and Ceres says. “So what exactly happened? Last I heard you were supposed to be speaking to the girls about becoming your justicars.”

We fill in Ceres with what has happened while I check my [Archjusticar Menu] to make sure it shows Dyson and me in Ceres’s dungeon rather still in that empty room, and it seems to have righted itself displaying us correctly.

Ceres: “I see, but if you both teleported out of there, how are we going to find Madam Erin?”

Dyson: “Returning to that area should be simple enough. It may take a few hours to get to that point again, but the question is how do we get to wherever Madam Erin was taken to?”

“There was the third new floor that we still hadn’t reached, If we can find out who is behind adding those floors to Madam Erin’s dungeon then perhaps that is our way of helping Madam Erin.”

Dyson: “As I said, I had a bit of a hunch about that, and now that we are out of there I can tell you what I know. I got my place as a dungeon core by doing dirty work for the Elders, and after I refused to continue to kill dungeon cores on their whims, that was when they forced me to kill Bert to become a dungeon core again.”

“I have heard this before….”

Dyson: “But what you didn’t hear is before I killed Bert we had a rather long conversation. He was only 20 years old, but he had big aspirations. He told me of how he wanted to set up a dungeon with rooms that worked exactly like those ones in Madam Erin’s dungeon. Of course, that kind of set up for a dungeon would be impossible, and he has been dead as long as I have been a dungeon core, by my own hands, so I know it can’t be him, but someone took his idea.”

“Like you said it should be impossible to build a dungeon that way, so he probably didn’t have any worries about telling others, but if he told you, and you weren’t even a dungeon core at the time, who knows how many others he told about it…”

Dyson: “That is where it gets interesting. One part he didn’t tell me about, I learned from a journal I took from his dungeon after he died. In it he said the doors themselves weren’t the trap, it was the fact that the doors had to be taken in a curtain order to reach the next floor, and in that journal it had the order in which the doors had to be traversed for three separate floors. By the fact we made it through at least the first floor without problem, I would say someone had to be close enough to him to see the journal.”

“Bless…?”

Dyson: “She had a grudge against me ever since I killed Bert, and then the Elders after I become one. We know she tried to kill Fredrick once, so she could have become one of the traitors to strike back at the Elders.”

“If that is the case, instead of going back to Madam Erin’s dungeon then we need to go to Bless’s dungeon.”

Dyson: “That is what I was my next course of action, but I think for that one you should sit it out. Making me one of you justicars I use those abilities of yours myself, and we don’t have to risk putting you in danger.”

“I didn’t make you one of my justicars for you to just cut me out!”

Ceres: “What he is saying makes sense… You just don’t have the strength to go up against one of the traitors, and if he has to watch over you, it could put him at risk as well.”

“I put our group together because the Elders were too busy doing their own thing, and now you are going to just push me out?”

Dyson: “We have always been trying to deal with the traitors, but we never had any credible information, so now that we have a shot, I can’t risk wasting it by you getting into trouble again.”

“And what am I supposed to do while you go to Bless’s dungeon?”

Dyson: “Well Lucille and Laura are probably working to end the civil war in Merretta, but they should know that Madam Erin is missing.”

“So now I’m just a messenger?”

Dyson: “Unless you can quadruple your level, then yes.”

Ceres: “I wouldn’t go that far, Two-Twelve has done a lot of good, and you wouldn’t even know Madam Erin was missing if it wasn’t for him. Levels aren’t everything, but I do think we should let Dyson handle Bless, while we do what we can.”

I know they are right. It isn’t like I could fight Bless even if she wasn’t a traitor, but still feel left out. I let out a deep sigh and say. “Fine, but don’t use any justicar points unless it is absolutely required. They may also be in a panic because we somehow managed to escape, so don’t let your guard down.”

Dyson: “Then I better hurry while we still have the element of surprise.”

“And keep us informed!” –I say as Dyson teleports from the room.- “Are you sure leaving it to Dyson was the right thing to do?”

Ceres: “I know you want to help, but the entire reason you formed your group of dungeon cores, is because you knew you were not enough to handle the situation on your own, and even then it still wasn’t enough. I think we have no other choice but to leave it to Dyson.”

“Well, I just sent a message to Belinda telling her what was going on, so I should probably go tell her I made it back alright before I leave to speak with the other Elders.”

Ceres: “And you might have cleared one class of students, but I have two more classes I was going to personally attend to today, so I should get back to work as well.”

“You don’t seem very worried about the danger Madam Erin is in…”

Ceres: “It doesn’t help to dwell on that we can’t control. Dyson is our best bet, so that is the best we can do.”

“I can’t help but to worry that Dyson might have been wrong about Bless, or what if something happens to him or Madam Erin?”

Ceres: “If you don’t like it, you will just have to get stronger.”

“I have been trying, but it isn’t that simple…”

Ceres: “Nobody said it would happen overnight, or be easy, so until you do get strong enough to help, it is best to just do what you can do, like informing the other Elders about what is going on.”

With nothing else for me to do I head back to the house to catch Belinda up, and then send a message to Lucille and Laura, about needing to speak with them. It takes a while for them to respond, but to make matters easier for them I use [Gate] to reach Lucille’s dungeon rather then making them meet at the neutral zone.

Laura: “We are working as fast as we can, but a war doesn’t just end overnight!”

“That isn’t why I wanted to speak to you two…”

Lucille: “Then what is it this time, we do have better things to do than cater to your every whim.”

“Madam Erin seems to have had a run-in with the traitors, and she could be in danger. Dyson is working on helping her, but we don’t know if we are looking in the right direction or not.”

Laura: “What do you mean Madam Erin could be in danger?”

I then tell them about what Dyson and I have been doing all day. After which Laura says. “That is impossible, I know the traitors gain a fair deal amount of strength, but there is no way Bless could acquire that much power!”

“Even if it isn’t her directly, she could be assisting the traitors, and if not, then she could know who else knew of Bert’s ideas.”

Lucille: “What is it you expect us to do about it?”

“I thought you two were busy putting the war to an end? Besides I believe Dyson is just trying to keep me busy by telling you what is going on, but surely there is something you can do to help?”

Laura: “It sounds like Dyson has the matter taken care of, besides it was you that wanted us to end this war.”

“Madam Erin could be in grave danger, and you not even going try to help her?”

Lucille: “From the way you described it, it doesn’t sound like there is much we can do.”

Laura: “Besides the sooner we get this civil war taken care of the sooner Merretta recovers, and I can then show you what the humans are really capable of. If something does happen to Madam Erin, we will need the Merretta army. And to that end, you may actually be able to assist us.”

“I just came to tell you what happened with Madam Erin in hopes you could help, but instead you are asking me to do something for you?”

Laura: “You wanted to end this war as well, so you can’t say you are disinterested in helping us bring it to a quicker resolution.”

“I’m not disinterested. It is just I think Madam Erin’s life is a little more important than ending the war quicker…”

Laura: “And what of all the lives that are lost in that extra time it takes for the war to end, because you refused to help?”

“That isn’t fair…”

Lucille: “It doesn’t seem like there is anything we can do to help Dyson, so that means you surely will not be of any help, so if anything it is doing just like Dyson asked. Keeping you busy while he takes care of matters.”

“Fine, I am not saying I am going to do it, but what is it you want?”

Laura: “Aaron hasn’t exactly been in the good graces of the Gowen kingdom, since the kidnapping, and with Gowen’s rise in popularity over the last few years there is skepticism from kingdoms like Exeter, and Calhoun against Southern Merretta. Many of them didn’t like the way Aaron’s father ran things, but they at least knew what to expect from him, but if you can put in a good word with the King of Gowen, that should go a long way for gaining backup for Aaron.”

“That is ironic that you are asking my help when I was the one that was kidnapped to cause that discord between Gowen and Southern Merretta…”

Laura: “Exactly, and if you were to tell the Gowen King to support Aaron then it would go a long way to leaving the ones that are challenging him with nowhere to turn to.”

“I will speak to Gowen’s king… But I will leave it up to him what he decides.”

With that I end my talks with Lucille and Laura, but instead of heading home I arrive at the Gowen capital instead. This really seems quite pointless when Madam Erin’s life is at stake, but I guess that is what I get for not having the strength to fight back. I then let out a deep sigh and request an audience with the king…