Night was falling on the Misty vale dungeon, a time of great danger but also greater rewards, the small party left their camp in search of those greater riches, they hadn't payed the new ridiculous protection "tax" and it seems like it was paying off.

The newly trained hogs caught the scent of the wards set without the other condition and in minutes they were wreaking havoc in the abandoned camp. As soon as they broke the enchantment the lizardmen descended on the camp and after pillaging anythin of value set an ambush to the weary adventurers for when they returned to what they thought was a safe zone.

A masked man was counting his spoils from the latest endeavors of his skirmish, he taught the dungeon how to break the wards that had foiled its attempt to recapture the harpy queen and in return he was getting either the money from the purcase of 'improved' wards or the spoils of a successful dungeon dive, he was also considered a hero for jumping in at the last minute to save what was left of the dying parties and it started getting him more and more followers, those not staying in line soon found out that the dungeon had many hidden rooms and a certain person was a very skilled and enthusiastic torturer.

It was an odd way to do things but Misty vale's conciousness was satisfied with the results, it got more adventurers killed in four months than in the past decade with the wards creating invisible havens inside its domain and allowing invaders to rest and regain health and strength, breaking the wards using mundane monsters that were attracted to them was the idea of a certain human and the agreement not to break certain seals was paying off as it still let some adventurers to push into the deeper parts of the dungeon but being aware of them let its monsters to ambush those fools at unexpected places.

All in all it was a fine deal and the dungeon entity knew it could go back on its side whenever it wanted. The other weird thing about the whole endeavor were whe prisoners, they were proving to be worthwhile to hold in their own right as adventurers seeing one of their own held captive would go into berserk and make mistakes that had them join their comrades as bait for the next group, and if some escaped they would soon return with even more victims for the dungeon and its mortal ally.

Winter had finally come and vine hollow had taken on a white theme to accommodate its surroundings, the white flowers had given off a special minty scent that was chilly and invigorating at the same time, the town had expanded the winding road leading to it and even had a few taverns dotting the now comfortable shortcut to the kings' crossroad where a lone decrepit old tower stood as a reminder for days past.

The tower was another of Azure's children, when he heard the youths watching over the little ones talking about their new hideout now that Vine Hollow was getting cramped the old dungeon decided to make another core and had one of the youths carry it for a promise of a reward, the older child only asked for an enchanted spear to give to his brother when he was appointed captain in the guard so the dungeon had no problem supplying such a minor artifact for the much greater satisfaction of carrying out his experiment. Remembering past failures this time it had taken months growing and educating its younger self before setting it off to the world.

In the main barracks at the town one new guard captain and two older commanders were trying their best to contain their emotions as they were questioning the said captain's brother.

"Tell us again please how you came about possessing the king's bane spear." The oldest man in the room said with an almost smooth voice, Zur had never even heard of an artifact grade spear like this, it was a magnificient weapon with depths of magic and a wealth of secrets that could occupy a legion of artificers for a decade and this boy just handed it over to his brother.

"Posses what" the boy Tam, sounded a bit hesitating.

"Where did you get it and how?" Zur corrected, reminding himself he wasnt interrogating a criminal mastermind.

"I was in the kids' dungeon, and like everyone does i asked the dungeon spirits to protect Ebi and then the stone told me what to do", after a hundred times retelling the story he already knew what the next question would be but he let the grownups ask anyway.

"What do you mean the stone told you what to do? Which stone? How did it talk to you?" It was the younger commander Kor and he had much less noble thoughts about this child, it was obvious Tam stumbled on some secret of the children's dungeon that would let a more experienced man get rich if he could just make that boy tell them what he really did and not this nonsense literal fairytale.

"Its the Sedi stone with the altar where you can make a wish and if your heart is true then the dungeon would grant it, and i was really scared for Ebi when he became captain so the dungeon gave me a quest to conquer my fear and prove i really meant it, so the stone told me to take the jewel to the lowest part of the old tower and i did it even though i was really scared most of the time, but the jewel was glowing so it drove away the darkness and when i got to the lowest part of the tower the jewel broke apart and everything was shiny for a little while and then the spear was there and i knew it would protect Ebi if i would give it to him so i did"

Even after hearing it again the three men couldnt believe it, and they wouldnt have if not for the weapon that had caused all this mess, in the Bane series wepons a "king" level was never heard of, the greatest weapon in the kingdom was a fiend's bane sword and it was a legacy of the royal family passed down from the first kings, and now this king's bane spear had surpassed it in all applicable tests, the problem was that there wasnt even a known way to give the weapon to another person, you couldnt sell it or lose it and the spear would protect itself and its owner from theft and attempts to murder him, even the lowest tangle bane weapons would allow some protection and it was known that fiend's bane weapons could destroy a noble house to the last remnants if it percieved danger to its bloodline holders, the men didnt want to imagine what this dangerous thing would do if somone had tried to steal it from Ebi, there were allways fools who thought enchantments were only some tale that old men told to make others shy of their treasure, but that was the reason for dungeon runestones they would keep the loot impartial to ownership and allow the adventurers to sell their loot through the guilds and establishments, but this boy wasnt an adventurer, it was a good thing he meant to give the weapon to his brother and that it recognized the recipiant as part of the holder bloodline.

The team had entered the dungeon and was immediately assaulted with acrid smell and flashing lights, they blinked a few times and then started a careful search of the cave complex, taking a right angle they formed a small protective wedge keeping their support members with their back to the wall, the leader had taken point and was checking every nook and cranny for traps and other dangers when after a few minutes their warrior cried with frustration, "what kind of crap is this Fern? Is that even a real dungeon? Where are all the monsters", just as Kai finished the sentence a dire bunny had crossed their path and the whole party jumped grabbing their weapons.

"Stop jumping at shadows and focus, the man said something about an altar and that thing over there looks like any altar i ever heard of so lets move it" the bunny was nibbling on the grass and Reeve slashed it with his axe when they passed it, the monster became a puff of light and they all knew it was a real dungeon even if not a very big one.

Nothing more happened before they reached the altar, everything was quiet around them and they gathered around Atir their mage when she was deciphering the ancient runes on the stone overlooking the altar. "Step off and let me concentrate, 'Ceti the warrior prince may your dreams life where you are gone'. It doesn't say anything about a quest or hearts, just some memorial to an old noble"

Fern looked around as the fairy lights seemed to move closer to them, "Could it be a riddle? Dungeons dont usually have memorials in them".

Atir examined the altar again from all sides when Reeve cleaved at one of the bobbing lights, another puff of light was all he needed to get into a rampage of squishing the annoying bugs, Fern looked worried, "stop that reeve", she called out but it was too late, the berserker was already at his play.

Reeve heard Fern but this whole early morning thing to a cave was definitely not his favorite thing, and it didnt seem like any kind of loot was going to pop out from reading century old riddles so he was smashing at the stupid light creatures, "come off it Fern, its not like there are any real monsters here, i would give anything for a good bout with some minotaurs or a hydra, even that dire bunny put up more of a fight than these things", when he stopped talking he heard them rushing from between some trees.

Fern turned to look at the horde that was descending on them, there were at least thirty minotaurs and a four headed hydra towered them at least twice in height than the two and a half meters of the smaller monsters, their party had no chance so she grabbed the protesting Atir and called the retreat, they barely made it outside when Shai cried in pain, Reeve hoisted the small ranger and they all kept running and didnt stop for a little over an hour.

Fern kicked Reeve, "couldnt you ask for some bloody loot you big oaf?"

Reeve was catching his breath after putting Shai down and looked puzzled at his leader, "what are you talking about?"

She looked back at the surprised berserker "It looks like the stone had given you your wish you crazy bum, at least we know its working, next time just shut up"

After Shai chugging down a small healing dumpling that restored the slash on his back, they returned to the dungeon, But instead of the peaceful meadow this time they found a minotaur war camp with hydras penned and over five hundred warriors surrounding the stone altar, they retreated back to town and decided not to report who got the monsters into the Vine Hollow dungeon that they heard was some kids' playground.