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  [???]

  The man peered through the quartz windows cautiously. He had waited for about three hours, listening for the tell-tale signs of sleep. The rise and fall of the subject’s chest. The harsh rattle of a deep sleeper’s breathing and the occasional snorting snore.

  With a pained expression he uncoiled and dropped down silently through the open window. Landing in a crouch, his cloak settled onto the floor behind him with a soft whispering slap. He froze. Silence. Phew, too close, he thought, relieved that the sleeper remained undisturbed.

  He waited, unmoving, until the soft snoring started up again. Once he was sure that the sleeper was not about to awake, he gently and gingerly stretched out the muscles that had cramped up in his hiding place. He whimpered slightly as the knots worked themselves free and blood flowed back through his limbs.

  Still no disturbance to the regular, metronomic breathing of the sleeper.

  With small steps, placing his toes first and heel last, he crossed the bedroom and sneaked along the corridor outside the door with silence as his companion. Pulling a sliding door open until there was just enough to slip through, he was gone. He shut it with a soft snick, looking around eagerly.

  It was about five in the morning, and he had been forced into action by the time. The man had gone to bed late and slept fitfully for the first hour or so, and now, the maids that would arrive for morning duties were due in but an hour. Plenty of time for his job, if he remained undisturbed.

  He crept over to the desk. He perused the piles of paper until he found the one he wanted. Easing it out of the stack was tricky but with a quick glance, he had studied the document enough to determine it was indeed the one he wanted.

  He set it down carefully on the table and unrolled it fully. Taking out a scroll he carried with him, he laid it on top and took out a stick of chalk. The scroll and the chalk allowed him to create a copy of the document. Rubbing the chalk over the scroll, a copy formed on his scroll.

  The tools were magic, and though he didn’t understand how they worked, they did work. And that was good enough for him.

  It took him a few nervous minutes to complete the work and then a few more to check it was accurate before he was happy. Replacing the original he left. At the opposite end of the corridor was a window. He opened it up, climbed out, and shut it with a slight bang.

  Pausing briefly outside, he breathed a deep sigh and left. Moving as quickly as possible from the scene of the crime, taking a few powerful heavy steps, he leapt and scrambled up the wall bordering the building. He paused briefly before rolling off and landing gracefully on the other side of the garden wall. Job done.

  With a quick check of the document, he set off, grabbing his pack from a nearby bush as he strode off into the night.

  ***

  In the dead of night, the trees of the forest looked alien and quite spooky. But the man wasn’t afraid, he was never afraid. Not of anything mortal men could comprehend. And a forest at night was certainly comprehensible. When you had looked evil in the face, what more was there to be scared of? Only fools were scared of the unknown and the man wasn’t a fool. It was when the unknown became known that you had any right to be scared. And even then, rarely.

  It took him the best part of the night to get far enough into the forest to where he could summon his master.

  With the city now out of sight and out of mind, he stopped in a clearing he had used before. Dropping his pack at a nearby tree he scoured the ground for rocks. He would need them for the magic.

  Placing the rocks in a circle, he set down some pebbles in the centre before throwing a scroll into the very centre. He waited.

  Before long the scroll began to smoulder, the yellowish paper releasing a thin tendril of smoke as it began to bloom in white before curling up and catching fire. It had been rolled up and tied with a black ribbon before and once the ribbon broke and the scroll had burnt to a crisp, a series of wards and a pale blue barrier rose from the ground in a perfect circle until it created a uniform half dome around him.

  It had two purposes, or so he had been told. The dome helped collect and filter the mana it received from his master and then to project the particles his master sent off into the night to allow them to communicate. The wards blocked outgoing noise and mana pulses from within, or so he believed. That was what the master had said, and he had no reason to believe master would lie about this.

  He unsheathed a dagger and sliced his hand from side to side three times and pressed his bloodied hand to the pebbles in the middle. Making sure to smear enough blood over them. Soon a ghostly, pale-green head formed over the rock. It pivoted around and stared into the night for a few moments.

  After a brief but agonising moment of silence it spoke in a battered rasp that made the hardened man cringe.

  “Where is it?” his master screeched.

  “Here my lord” the man replied, trying to hide the shudder in his voice. His master was a terrifying man, powerful, worthy of respect, but terrifying. Part of him wished they had never met, but he knew his master could give him what he so desired. Not much longer now he thought to himself.

  The Projection laughed a horrible mocking laugh. “Are you afraid of me? He fears me! Good! You know that corrections must be made when you’re at fault! They’re always at fault” the projection rattled off.

  The man thought his master might be insane. But he had helped him gain the power to resist and had promised so much more. He would endure. Oh yes, would he endure he thought, visualising the power that would soon be his.

  “They think I’m crazy, imagine that? Me, crazy? Jealous, just jealous. GIVE IT TO ME!!!” the floating head said in that horrible, rasping, petrifying tone as it seemed to remember what it wanted.

  With a gulp of nerves, the man presented his copy to the man. Holding it up to his eyes.

  “Sub satisfactory” the projection said sharply.

  “Where is the original?”

  “He still has it my lord, I didn’t want to give my presence away, is it not good enough?”

  “Good enough? Yes, we will see. Go, find this place and explore. Bring me back proof that this is not a wild story. If you do well, perhaps I might grant you what you seek.” it told him before disappearing in a burst of smoke whose wisps drifted away on the air. The wards popped with a sizzle and the man began to roll the map back up.

  He cleared the stones from the ground, erased all traces of his presence and packed his bag.

  It took a while to follow the map. Up and down the land he travelled, until he was close enough that the map was not helpful any longer, the looming mountains and foothills providing a multitude of options for him to explore.

  Hours later he was still riding around, looking for the place when he stumbled upon clean rock, a small river of shattered shards that trailed down the mountain for a while.

  He stared up the slope, looking for any sign of what had happened. Nothing. He followed it nonetheless and soon he found the cave.

  An entrance as black as night, surrounded by clean rock as if the wall had been blown out, the clean rock faces coming from the shattering of the stone.

  The cave had an ominous pressure, a feeling that made him feel small and weak. It rose the hairs on his arm, and he shivered involuntarily.

  Regaining control over himself he shrugged off his pack, drew his dagger and leapt into the darkness. Master would see, oh he would see. The man was NOT useless.

  This would prove it.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  ==========

  [Dungeon]

  A strong zap ran through the dungeon, drawing my attention immediately. As I raced upwards the heartbeat sound began to ring out once more, distracting me from building. I wondered happily to myself which group it was, the goblins or the man.

  It was the man!

  No, wait, it wasn’t. This man was too tall and too thin, he didn’t look the same at all.

  At the bottom of the initial stairs, a man. He had fallen face first down the stairs. I laughed out loud – ish, it wasn’t really out loud. I can’t believe he fell for it. I loved it.

  Gathering his wits, I observed him, he wore a black cloak with black leather armour and a short sword and dagger. The dagger was out in his hand. He stopped to observe the floor for a moment, and I wondered what I would get to see from this new challenger.

  Around his neck he wore seven, small plates of material: stone, copper, bronze, silver, gold, iron and steel.

  Taking a closer look, I realised they had engravings on, odd the other man, hadn’t had these plates on him.

  Perhaps they meant something.

  One read:

  Name: Elisabeth Jarnis

  Class: Mage – Evocation (Mj (W)), Creation (Mn)

  Rank: Silver

  Group: Adventurer Group 53642

  Looking at the man, I had my doubts that he was in fact a lady called Elisabeth Jarnis. Something clued me in, you know, being that he was a man and all.

  The plates confused me, they had to have a purpose, and the inscription had given me a clue it was some sort of grading system for adventurers.

  If so, it was something I would be wise to figure out. Especially if it could give me a clue as to future adventurers’ strengths.

  Since the man had a variety of these different name plates on his person, I had a feeling he wasn’t such an upstanding character. Someone that I had best be a bit wary of.

  I assumed that having a variety of plates he had to be reasonably strong, certainly stronger or equal to whatever one was the highest rating of the bunch.

  But what that meant and how strong he was, was not something I could intuit.

  He set off, having finished scanning his surroundings and soon he was comfortable again. Making his way through the foliage with ease.

  Every time he discovered one of my little creatures he would kill it, even if it wasn’t a mob. I didn’t like this man.

  *** 4 hours later ***

  I was getting annoyed with the man: he had stolen all of the treasures from the trees and had quickly passed through the second level as well. During his exploration, he had killed the water elemental in its hidden cavern and I was getting very annoyed. He had to have had some treasure finding skill to find all these hidden areas so soon and he was ruthless. Clearly much stronger than the other man or the goblins and I was getting slightly worried he was stronger than me.

  But what could I do about it?

  He just started walking through the levels and, in short order, he had passed through both swamp and rainforest, killing everything he could find, including all of the animals, and not just the monsters.

  I really hated this man.

  I hoped he would get taken out by the boss but with the ease at which he had passed the monsters by, I knew it was unlikely. The sense of foreboding was building, and I knew I had to act. Moving myself down a couple more floors, I searched through the store until I found it. I had looked over this option a while ago but put it on hold due to the expense. Now I thought it was necessary.

  Buying both items I winced at the cost – 5970 points – it was an awful lot, but I thought I would need it.

  Quickly focusing in, I used them on the dragon statue, drilling into the centre to place the mana heart. Sealing up the outside I smoothed it out before willing the empower creation onto the dragon.

  I moved back, watching it tear itself free for a moment and stretch. It was truly extraordinarily beautiful and as it settled back down it gave no hint that it was alive.

  ~~Empowered creations must be locked down by the system for controlled use, as such a number of options have presented themselves for you consideration. Please select an option from the following selection.:

  Normal Boss

  Hidden Boss

  Hidden Trap Boss

  Dungeon Guardian

  Roaming Boss

  Living Statue Boss / Guardian*

  Note: Due to the form of your empowered creation a minimum danger level of 3.2 is applicable~~

  Looking through the options, I slowly figured out what they meant. A normal boss was self-explanatory, a hidden boss was one that could be activated by a set chain of events that only adventurers could perform (normally intentionally and as such would have a higher danger rating).

  A Hidden trap boss was something that was triggered by adventurers making a mistake and as such would have a lower danger level when compared to the hidden boss.

  A dungeon guardian was a creation that was vastly overpowered for the level but could only be activated at the cost of dungeon points against specific groups or people.

  A roaming boss was a boss that roamed all the floors randomly taking out groups of adventurers if it saw fit.

  And finally, was the living statue boss guardian. It would act like a hidden boss at a lower level unless manually activated to become a guardian that was overpowered for its level. Thus, it had two different danger levels. This option was what I preferred but it did require another 500 dungeon points to unlock.

  Wincing, I selected it.

  ~~Empowered creations must be locked down by the system for controlled use, as such a number of options have presented themselves for your consideration. Please select an option from the following.:

  Living Statue Boss Danger level: 3.2 – 4.6

  Living Statue Guardian Danger level: 5.0 – 7.3

  Note: Due to the form of your empowered creation, a minimum danger level of 3.2 is applicable.

  Note: The higher the guardian danger level selected, the high the mana upkeep required to house this creation.~~

  Deciding not to wimp out I went with a 3.9 danger level for the Boss mode and a 6.9 danger level for the Guardian mode. Going up by an extra 0.1 on either option had increased the upkeep by a lot.

  When I was done, I sat by watching the man as he just drew the nature floors boss to him, kiting it around before slashing through its legs toppling it and cutting its head off. Ducking away he sauntered down the stairs.

  Now I was very glad that the dragon was operational.

  Though I was still confident he wouldn’t have been able to make it all the way to me, I was glad to have not taken any chances. The manticores could probably take him down, but that was a bit too close to comfort for me and I couldn’t wait to see the dragon.

  The first ice level was going to be his downfall and I couldn’t wait.

  He entered the first ice level with apprehension. I thought he could tell that it was going to be something different. The safe zone had the black fog again and it seemed to alert him to that fact. He trod with care, expecting more stairs. This time though, he didn’t fall.

  He stepped out into the level with care, despite the fact the ice was textured to provide grip. Looking around, he edged out along the wall, observing the level.

  It took him a few minutes to gain confidence in moving around, but when he did, the floor was no longer a problem. Though he slipped slightly when the yetis exploded up, surprising him. Defeating the yeti took him a while as he only used his dagger, but he didn’t end up taking too many hits, it was another impressive performance.

  I heard him mutter, “Stupid dungeon” a few times as he slipped slightly on the floor.

  I waited, restless as he edged closer.

  Eventually, as I expected, he made his way over to the centrepiece. Roaming around like a cat stalking its prey. He stood, staring at the dragon for a moment. I nearly caved and released the dragon early, but I wanted to see if he would notice it being alive first. Hopefully not.

  He didn’t, which was excellent and as he walked forwards to touch it, I activated the creature.

  Two ice doors slammed the exits closed trapping him in my ice world, with the dragon. Death was assured.

  A dark red pulse lit the room as the mana heart activated, its faint blue colour pulsing with dark red as it activated its guardian mode.

  It roared as it tugged itself free again, in time with the red pulsing of the heart.

  Thick veins of rich, ruby-red energy grew forwards, threading into each of the dragon’s limbs as the beast came to life.

  Looking through the dragon’s eyes, I observed the man. He had frozen in shock, obviously not expecting the sculpture to come alive. With a snort, the dragon roared and stepped down, off the podium and focusing its baleful gaze on him. The man began to run, weaving through the level with unnatural ease. We followed, smashing through the ice and yetis that had awoken, sending shards of ice and gouts of Yeti blood cascading over the walls and snow and also over our scales. It froze quickly in the permeating cold.

  We were catching and soon our pressure forced the man to dodge, slipping on the ice and crashing into a snowdrift.

  We missed with the first bite, before slashing out with our claws. Ripping through the man’s leg and chest with ease, shredding the soft flesh into bloody ribbons. The man screamed until his voice cut out, hoarse and bubbly as his lungs filled with fluid.

  I slipped out of my creature watching as the dragon stood over the man and roared out its victory, dominant as he lay bleeding his life out onto my floor.

  The dragon stepped forwards, the talons of its feet, slowly sinking into him. The flesh split like an over-ripe tomato and large beads of blood welled up along the rips before slowly rolling down the sides of his calf.

  Gradually the pulsing rivers of blood that oozed out of his wounds slowed down until his heart no longer beat. Its rhythm tired and dead.

  The dragon bent over, taking a large bite of the man. Savage and brutal, its only mercy the fact that he had died just beforehand.

  As the dragon ate its fill, the ‘ding’ of notifications tore my gaze from its feast and brought me a winning smile.

  ~~Congratulations: you have killed your third sapient being. For doing so, you have been awarded 3,000 dungeon points. Well done. In addition, you have been awarded 3x mana gain from this death. ~~

  ~~Congratulations: you have killed your first human. For doing so, you have been awarded 5,000 dungeon points. Well done. In addition, you have been awarded 5x mana gain from this death. ~~

  ~~Congratulations: you have reached 2x mana concentration including reserve, as such you have been forced to level up: Level 43 ~~

  ~~Congratulations: you have reached 2x mana concentration including reserve, as such you have been forced to level up: Level 44 ~~

  ~~Congratulations: you have reached 2x mana concentration including reserve, as such you have been forced to level up: Level 45 ~~

  With the mana from the man and the bonuses for my kill I had levelled up to level 45 and gained a bunch of dungeon points too. This was perfect.

  I quickly fixed the floors, redistributing treasure wiping away the blood, resetting the mobs and animals that had been killed and then I savoured my status once more. Everything was going rather well.