Staring at the dungeon entrance that was lined with blue stones Falean experienced a sense of dread and struggled to push it down. Glancing at Veronica, she said,"Tell me exactly why I have to do this, and why I have to do this alone?"

Veronica patted her back and said "Because I'm too high leveled for the challenges in the maze. If I were to kill one of Jenna's monsters, at most, I would get one experience point. Not really worth it for me. This dungeon is only set up at the moment for one person to undergo it at the time. What's more before you ask, Jenna is extremely tired from summoning those five monsters to give a good run through of the dungeon."

"Well didn't Jack sign a contract with that kid? He's a beginner so why don't you send him in?" Falaen said, glancing towards where David was tossing a ball against a wall.

"We did consider it, but he doesn't have a full contract with Jack. Not to mention given his attitude issues I don't think he would even give his full effort in the dungeon and would likely give up halfway through."

Falaen hated to admit it, but she was likely correct. While she did not have a problem of going through the dungeon for Jack. In fact she had travelled in one in the empire before. She had even been looking forward to seeing exactly what kind of dungeon Jack had created. That is until she had seen what monsters Jenna had created from those hydra teeth. 

Zombie hydra men. While not the strongest monster she had ever faced, in fact it was downright weak. She had no doubt a single blow from her would cause immense damage to them. The only ability they really had was to spit blinding bile from their skulls. However despite their weakness their appearance sent dread throughout her body and she had to prevent herself from screaming when they had popped out from the ground.

Shaking her head from that horrifying memory, she Jack and Bella walking towards them. As he got closer, he said "Are you ready to begin the first trial run of the dungeon?"

"I am, but I have to point out that I am not exactly happy about doing this. Are you able to at least give me some hints on what I will be experiencing in the dungeon?"

Jack put his hand on his chin and looked in thought for a moment and finally said,"I can't tell you exactly what you'll face as that would ruin the test. What I can tell you is that due to the limited number of monsters summoned by Jenna, most of the dungeon has been designed around puzzles and traps. In addition there are multiple routes throughout the dungeon, so I don't even know what path you will take."

Bella stepped forward and said "For this first run of the dungeon all we ask you to do is to reach the end of the first-floor dungeon. This floor is meant to be a test for first time adventures to dungeons and potentially even a time trial if the dungeon becomes popular enough. As for the traps that we laid out, do not worry none of them are lethal in nature. Most of them are meant to provide a hindrance more than anything."

"That is correct. I know you are powerful enough to defeat the monsters so that should not be an issue. But if something should happen there are numerous escape routes that will activate in the case of an emergency and we will get you out safe." Jack added and then said "Please do your best. I would have liked to run it several times before we left, but we don't have the time. We must leave tomorrow afternoon to meet up with Megan."

Following Jack, she found he took her to the back of the temple where a large door was. "This is the main entrance to the dungeon. In the future there will be a way for people to get to lower floors from here, but for now we only have one floor available. You got this Falaen." Jack said to her.

Nodding, she pushed open the large stone door and made her way into the dungeon. As she walked down the dungeon hallway, she could hear the stone door close behind her locking her into going through this dungeon. The hallway slanted slightly downwards for the first thirty feet before it leveled out.

Compared to the other dungeon, she had been through it and was surprisingly clean. There was a warm glow coming from some crystals in the roof of the hallway and it was lined with blue bricks that she didn't recognize. If she didn't know there were monsters in this dungeon she would have mistook it for a place people lived in rather than the dungeon it was actually.

Reaching the end of the hallway, she stepped into a small circular room in which there were three closed doors on different sides. Falaen could see that they were made out of a dark wood and on each was carved a symbol. From right to left there was a leaf, a sword and finally a black circle. Compared to the other dungeon, she had been through it and was surprisingly clean. 

In the center of the room, there was a pedestal with a glass case on top of it. Going to it, she could see inside the case was a piece of parchment with a short message written in a blue ink on it.

"There are three doors in this room creating three fates. Oh please adventurers listen to this advice of mine. Do not deviate from the path of light, or you will face the curse of moonlight. Deviate not from the path of a warrior, or you will face the curse of bloodlust. Deviate not from the path of cleanliness, or you will face the curse of filthiness. Pick your fate."

From the message, she guessed that she could only go through one door. Thus, she had to choose wisely lest she regrets the choice she made. She guessed one of the monsters likely lay behind the door with a sword. Falaen wasn't sure what it meant by the curse of moonlight, but guessed it likely lay behind the leaf door. She took a quick look around to see if there were any other clues in the room.

Other than the carvings in the room and the pedestal there was nothing else in the room. She made a decision to go through the circle door as she felt it was the least likely to have one of those monsters behind it. Just to be safe however she transformed into her battle clothes. When that was done, she went to the door and opened it carefully peering in.

Seeing that there was no monster she walked in and the door closed shut tightly behind her. There was a short platform that she was currently on and a set of stairs that led to a rather dirty looking hallway. In fact the only clean part was a line that ran down the hallway. Falaen guessed that she needed to stick to the line, or it would trigger a trap. Looking closer she could see a pressure plate hidden beneath the dust and dirt.

Stepping carefully down the stairs, she began to follow the line. It was slow going as the line was barely bigger than the width of her feet. The hallway had gone on for nearly sixty feet before it opened up to a large room. The clean line split up into four paths that went into the room forming a maze. What was more the lighting was lowered, so she could only see clearly a few feet ahead before the line disappeared into the maze of dirt and grime. There was only a single door that was obviously the exit.

Going into the maze, she saw that the crisscrossing lines were spaced just larger then the width of her full step. Which meant if she wanted to switch lines she would have to jump. Complicating that was the fact the lines thinned considerably making her have to walk carefully on her tiptoes. Which was quite painful and awkward in the high heel boots she was currently wearing.

Having no way to ascertain which of the lines actually led to the exit, she picked one and began to follow it through the room. She had nearly reached the other side of the room near the door, when the line, unfortunately, ran out. Frustrated she backtracked and took another path that did take her closer to the door but again did not reach it.

Falaen looked back and debated briefly going back but her feet were starting to cramp up from the unpleasant way she was walking. If she tried to go back, she would likely step off the line and activate the trap. However she was close enough to a line that she could see led to the door. So she made the decision to make a jump for the line and to be careful as she could leap for it.

As she landed, she winced as her toes ached from the impact, but she managed to land without triggering the trap. However just as she was about to make her way to the exit door, the ground shook violently for a few seconds. Due to her awkward stance, her foot slid out from under her and onto one of the pressure plates. Just as the ground stopped shaking she heard a click coming from the ground.

From the walls and the roof small tubes emerged and sprayed down the room with a blue slimy goop. Falaen had no chance of dodging as the goop went everywhere coating her head to tail with the disgusting goop. All the surfaces were now incredibly slippery, and she slid on to her ass several times as she moved through the now slimy room.

Even worse the goop seemed to get everywhere on her, it soon even went inside her clothes and made her skin tingle from its odd warmth. Falaen even found it getting into her mouth and it had an unpleasant taste and texture. With it so slippery it took several minutes to get to the exit door, despite the fact she was only a few feet from it when she had been slimed.

When she had finally managed to get to the door, she had a hard time securing a good grip on the door handle. As she had managed to finally push the door open she slipped out into the hallway beyond. While laying on the ground she wiped off as much of the blue slime as she could. Eventually, she managed to get most of the slime off, except for what had soaked into her clothes. Falaen tried cleaning them off using the equipment screen but she was informed that the service was restricted while inside the dungeon.

Annoyed she found she had to deal with the squelching sounds coming from her clothes as she walked. The hallway looked clean so she wasn't worried about triggering another of those slime traps. Continuing forward the hallway led to a new room in which a cage was holding one of the monsters that Jenna had summoned.

As it was locked away in the cage, Falaen wasn't freaking out at the moment but it still made her queasy to look at. It was a level two monster, yet in every regard it was weaker than her. Yet the sight of it made her want to turn around and run. She would have to discuss this irrational fear with JP. He would have more insight into why she felt the way she did. Thinking of JP reminded her of something that she needed to tell Jack when she got out.

Falaen took one more look at the Zombie Hydra man. It was dressed in a light tunic and pants and neck down had a humanoid body. But it was the heads that terribly shook her, the seven long necks with human skulls attached to them. Even the way the heads bobbed and jerked around looking at her through the cage made her nerves shot with terror. Looking elsewhere she examined the rest of the room.

On another pedestal near the door, she spotted another handwritten message. "In this room there are three ways to open the exit. You will need only to complete one of them to unlock the exit. However should you decide to complete all of them you will receive a prize."

"The three ways are as, follows, solve the puzzle on the door, and it will open automatically. A wall can be climbed, at the top are chests one of which contains the key to the door. A lever near the cage will unlock the cage. If you defeat the monster, it will drop a key to open the door."

After reading the message that Jack had wrote, she made her way to the exit door. On it she saw the puzzle the message mentioned. It was one of those tile slide puzzles that you had to move around in order to make a picture. Falaen was terrible with this type of puzzle and had no desire to mess around with it. Notably as she wanted to get out of this dungeon as soon as possible, and these took her a while to solve.

Moving back she found a rock climbing wall one side that went up thirty feet into the air. She could see multiple places where she could grab and climb. Near the top on small ledges she could see five boxes where in one of them the key likely was. She had taken climbing lessons but she would not say it was one of her top skills. All the same it didn't look extremely tough and she could likely manage it. Plus if she did fall, at the bottom was what looked like a cushion.

She glanced towards the cage and thought however there might be a swifter way through this room. Falaen hesitantly went up the cage and pulled out her wand and fired a soul beam at the monster inside of it. When the beam reached the side of the cage, a field appeared and blocked the beam. Surprised Falaen quickly examined the field before it disappeared.

 

 

Falaen sighed. There went that idea of a quick exit. While fighting the monster was still the fastest there was no way she wanted to let it loose. So she settled on the climbing wall and walked up to it. A paper was stuck to the wall with another message. "There are five chests at the top. The middle chest contains the key to the next room. The others contain equipment that would be quite useful for the challenge ahead. However, you are only able to open two of the chests so choose wisely. In addition you must climb to the chest, or they will not open."

Falaen looked up the rock wall and plotted the easiest route to the middle treasure chest. Once she found the optimal path, she took off her boots as it would be an easier climb with them off. Being careful to make sure that she had a good grip she began the slow climb up the wall. It was not a challenging climb as the holds were generous and easy to grab onto. The only issue she discovered was the residue of the slime clinging to her clothes. It was rubbing off onto the rocks making it a bit harder to keep her footing on the rocks. As such she had to take care to step on parts that she had not rubbed against.

The ascent to the chest was easy, most likely as the rock wall seemed to be built for beginners. When she got to the top, she cracked open the case and took out a large bronze key. She attempted putting it into her inventory only for it to be rejected as another restriction from Jack. She could not place dungeon key's into her inventory. So she lowered it to the floor.

While she was up here she decided to open another chest. Going back down a bit, she made her way to another chest and opened it without trouble. Looking into the chest, she found that inside of it was a distinct looking ring. It was made out of a black metal and had a pair of what looked like bat wings carved onto it. When she took it from the box, she heard a clunking sound and saw the other chests were withdrawn into the wall. Having no more reason to be up here she climbed back down to the ground and examined the new ring she had picked up.

 

 

After reading the description Falaen assumed the next room would likely involve moving around in the darkness. She also saw that she had gained a basic climbing skill after ascending that wall. Picking the key off the floor, she went to the door and unlocked it. Going through the door, she was glad to get away from that caged monster even if it was no threat to her. The hallway was short and was lined in black bricks. Another message was attached to the wall before a black door.

On it was written "Take care for beyond this door lies the realm of darkness. You must go through this realm seeking the exit without creating light. Should you create light; a monster will be set upon you and you will have to fight it in order to escape the realm of darkness. Several traps if you activate them will create a flash of light calling the monster to you. There are two exits you can seek, while both will open in the darkness, should you create light one will remain locked forever. While there are numerous dangers in the realm of darkness so are the opportunities. Seek them out, and you will be richly rewarded."

After reading the message twice to make sure she hadn't missed any clues, Falaen placed the ring onto one of her fingers and approached the black door. The second she did so the lights in the hallway went out and she felt the door open. The message was not joking when it said it was the realm of darkness because it was so dark that she was unable to even see her hand if she held it up to her face.

Stepping into the realm of darkness, she found that her footsteps echoed in what must be quite a large room. Taking a moment to think, she considered the best way to find the exits. As the exits were most logically placed in the walls, the best option would be to follow one wall until it led her to an exit. However Falaen only had a limited number of charges in the ring, if she ran out she might not spot a trap and activate it. She definitely did not want to fight one of those monsters in this dark room.

Given that one of the exits was likely in the wall straight ahead, the next best option would be to use the ring to get across and search the room. However given the size, the charge might not be enough and then she would be in the dark wandering around without any way to tell where she was. Obviously the fastest way would be for her to fight the monster and use a light to find the way out, but besides not wanting to fight the monster in this place she had another good reason not too.

From the message outside it indicated that if there was light one of the doors would lock. Which likely meant one of the paths was most likely better than the other. While she was sure Jack would be happy if she took either path, she did at least want to put some effort into it. After debating a bit, she decided to make a compromise between her two options and go at an angle and hopefully reach the side before the charges in her ring ran out.

Taking a deep breath she focused on the ring feeling the magic within it come alive. Closing her eyes, she felt the ring send out its pulse and a view of the surroundings appeared around her. While the sight did not extend very far, she was able to make out what looked like bottles hanging from the city scattered around at chest height. She guessed these were some form of trap and made sure to keep low to the ground to avoid walking into them.

Walking crouched she would take it slow until she struck the very edge of what the ring showed. Then she would carefully proceed to feel the ground with her hands for any traps for another five feet before once again activating the ring. Falaen was making good progress until her hands found what appeared at first was a hole in the ground. Frowning she activated the bat sight and saw it was actually a set of stairs that descended into the darkness.

This posed a problem to her as this room seemed to have at least two levels to it. She had already used up ten charges to get to here, not to mention she had yet to reach the wall. There was no way she had enough charges to check both levels. Gritting her teeth, Falaen made the decision to continue down the stairs. It was only by chance she had managed to find these stairs, so the better door was most likely down them.

Carefully descending the stairs in the absolute darkness she found they only went down at least one floor before Falaen reached the bottom. She let out another pulse from the ring and nearly bolted back up the stairs. Right in front of her a figure stood. She let out another pulse and saw it had not moved, and she could now see that it resembled a store mannequin. It was in a bent form as if it was attempting to touch its toes if it had any.

Wondering what sort of sick joke they were thinking of leaving this mannequin right here, she made sure to avoid it just in case it was another trap. As she continued forward, she found this lower floor was filled with pillars. As she sent out another pulse, she glanced backwards, and her skin began to crawl as she realized the mannequin had moved to follow her and worse it was holding something in its hands. 

Really creeped out, she moved a bit faster keeping an eye behind her when she would send out a new pulse. While she didn't hear it moving, it also didn't seem to move faster then her. It was keeping up the same distance between her, though it's posture seemed more and more hostile. She nearly created a light when she saw more of the mannequins popping out from behind pillars. 

When she had gotten down to the last three pulses she saw the edges of what appeared to be a door. At that moment she felt something shove her towards the door, and a second later there was a great crash as something heavy hit the ground behind her. As she grasped onto the handles of the door, she sent out one last pulse and glanced behind her and saw a vague outline of multiple mannequins being thrown about by something that she could not see. Then the door closed and the lights came on.

Falaen saw that she was in another short hallway and another door with a strange black and white checkerboard pattern on it. Pushing open the door she found herself walking onto a balcony which overlooked a large room. Across from her on an opposing balcony was one of the base mind clones waving at her. She had been reading something when Falaen entered and scrambled to standing and said "Oh hello there! I'm BM4 or Ariela. I'm so happy that you chose this path."

"Greetings Ariela." Falaen looked around and saw on the balcony in front of her was a board with a black and white checkerboard pattern. On it were pieces of carved stone lined up on either side. A similar scene could be seen on the floor below. "So what is this?"

"When we were going over ideas of what could work for the dungeon we decided on adding several game rooms. This particular one is a game called chess my favorite. I learned it from observing the dreams of Jack. If you happen to look to your left and to your right you will see either side of your balcony has a door. We will play this game and if you win you will be able to open the right door. If you lose, you will have to go through the left door and fight the monster inside."

Falaen nodded, and she had not heard of chess before, though now that she thought about it, she could remember seeing a similar board within JP's room. She was therefore at a major disadvantage. "So why are you here? I would think you would want to be up in the temple."

"Ah well, we originally wanted to make the game rooms fully automated either by using a simple intelligence program or by using an intelligent monster. Lacking time, we were only able to make the pieces on the lower floor move in conjunction with the movements on the boards on the balcony. So until we get this whole mess sorted out, my sisters and I will take turns running the game rooms."

"How many game rooms do you have?" Falaen asked.

"Right now we have two other games. One is a card room which will allow various different games to be played, and the other is a simple dice game. But this one is my favorite. Whoops I'm forgetting that not everyone is familiar with the game. To help you out a full copy of the rules is placed next to the board. You can have as long as you want to review the rules and can review them during the game itself. Just let me know when you are ready to start."

Falaen saw the notes that Ariela mentioned and began to read through them. It went surprisingly in-depth into the rules and even provided some tips. After reading it twice she felt she understood the rules enough to play. "Alright I think I am ready to begin the game now."

"Before we begin this is supposed to be a beginners run through the dungeon. So we have made the decision to decrease the difficulty of the games. Typically you can only win chess if you get your opponent into checkmate, or they forfeit. In addition for this event, you will also win if you are able to capture my queen. The same won't apply for me, so you don't need to worry about losing your queen. Since you are on the white side, you can go first."

Looking down at her board, Falaen contemplated the first move she should make. After debating several moves she settled on moving her left knight out. In response Ariela moved out one of her pawns. Accordingly the tense battle went, Falaen soon found she enjoyed planning each move out. She managed to take Ariela knight with her own knight only to be frustrated when it was taken by one of Arielas pawn.

It was definitely one of the most mentally taxing battles she had ever faced. She spent several minutes contemplating each move before she finally managed to capture Ariela's queen. However, it was a bittersweets victory, because she recognized that she only won because of that handicap. She would have definitely lost with Ariela's next move.

"Wow, Falaen you did a really good job for your first time playing." Ariela said. "With a little more practice I think you would be a very difficult opponent in chess."

Falaen shook her head and said "I think you went easy on me in that last part. If you had not moved your queen that last move, I would have lost." 

"In fact it was the opposite Falaen. I was getting so into it, I actually forgot that we had set that rule. I was focusing way too much into getting you into checkmate, especially after you managed to get me into check. I narrowly escaped that trap you were making. You are nearly on par with my sisters. As you have won, you are allowed to go through the right door. Plus I'll give you some hints for what's ahead. There are only two sections left. After them you will reach the treasure room of the dungeon and the exit."

"Much appreciated for notifying me." Falaen said. "If I get a chance, I will definitely like to play with you again."

"I would too. See you later." Ariela said waving goodbye as Falaen went through the exit.

A short hallway led to a small room that was built out of the blue bricks. The only thing that she could see in the room was a small blue table on which a box sat. Next to the box was a large red button. When she went up to the table, she saw that there was another written letter next to the box as well.

Picking up the letter she read it. "Thank you adventurer for going through this dungeon, you are on the last stretches of this dungeon. When you entered this room, you will likely have noticed that there is a big red button on the table. If you decide to push it, the door to the exit will open. But if you push it, a baby animal that is inside the box will die. If you wait a half-hour, the door will open automatically. At that time the baby animal will be released back to its mother.

After reading it Falaen realized that this was definitely one of Jack's tests to see if those who went through the dungeon were suitable to be his users. Knowing Jack however, she did not think he would ever risk harming an animal just to see if a person was worthy. Not to mention he didn't even specify exactly what type of animal would be in the box. If it was a bug, she would not even hesitate to push the button.

Still she understood where Jack was coming from even if she thought it was not the best way to check it. So she took a seat on the floor and waited thirty minutes for the door to open. Just as it passed, she heard a loud clicking sound and the door opened. The box itself made some sounds and then opened.

Inside the box was another letter from Jack. "No animals were harmed in the production of this dungeon. If you signed up for the speed run this trial will not be counted towards your official time."

While this was an interesting morality test, Falaen immediately saw a problem with it. It would likely only work a few times before word of it began to spread around thus ruining the test. She would need to sit down and discuss with Jack other ways to test the morality of a person. As the door was now opened, she went through the exit and went into a hall which led to a giant wooden door. A tacked on message was on the door.

"Congratulations Adventurer on making it this far. This is the last challenge of the dungeon, ahead lies an arena where you will face a monster which you must defeat. If you are able to kill them, you will be able to reach the treasure room beyond."

Falaen sighed as it looked like it was time for her to finally fight one of the Zombie Hydra Men. Taking a moment she prepared herself to face the monster and readied her wand. She shoved open the door and walked as confidently as she could into the room. It was a rectangular arena and as she walked into the room the doors slammed shut behind her. From the middle of the room the center slid open and a cage monster rose up.

When the cage had fully risen up it opened up and the Hydra Zombie Man came walking out of it. All of its multiple heads were moving in unpredictable ways that made the hairs on Falaen's neck stand up. It spotted her and commenced it's awkward walk towards her. When it got close to her, it began to spray disgusting black bile out from its mouths at her. Leaping to the side, she aimed her wand at it and sent a large blast of soul energy right into the monsters heads.

Taking the blast without dodging, a couple of its heads simply shattered and broke into multiple pieces. Despite the heavy damage the monster took, it continued to limply move after her while spraying bile with it's remaining heads. She kept backing away, keeping out of its range and shot a few more bolts at it. With a third hit the monster let out a painful wail and collapsed into a melting pile of goo. Falaen sighed in relief as the monster was ultimately killed.

Eventually, all that remained of the monster was a large hydra tooth. Picking it off the ground, she planned to give it to Jenna later. The exit door opened, and she went through and saw a treasure room in which three chests stood. A message was tacked on the wall near them. "Thank you for your patronage of this dungeon. You may choose one of these chests as your prize for completing the dungeon. If you found a chest key in the dungeon, you may use it to open another chest."

Each of the chests had the same appearance. Going with the left one she pulled open the lid and in the large chest was a bag of what looked like small silver coins and an amulet that was made out of silver. Taking it out she saw a simple design carved on it. Examining it she saw it was an enchanted amulet.

 

 

Taking it she placed it on her neck and went to the exit. It was the small chamber with a button on one side. Pressing it, she found it was a lift and it took her up. When it stopped she found herself outside near the temple. The sun had long set, and it was dark out. Jack was nearby and greeted her "Good Job Falaen. Do you want to go over the dungeon now?"

She shook her head. "No, right now I want to take a shower and go to bed. Which reminds me, Jack JP wanted me to pass on a message to you. He and the soul council within you will be sending a dream to you tonight. He wants you to visit him after you see the dream."

With that she began heading to the temple, she saw Bella heading towards Jack and said "That was a good dungeon design. I'm impressed, there were some really scary parts. Like those mannequins."

Bella looked confused and said "What Mannequins?"

"The ones you put in the realm of darkness room."

"We didn't put any mannequins into the dungeon." Bella said.