As Beatrix made her way down to the second level of the dungeon, she was a bit surprised to see that when she got to the bottom of the stairs there was a large archway before her that looked as though the dungeon was trying to emulate some sort of ancient temple of some sort. 

The tightly packed dirt gave way to smooth sandstone and torches lit the large room in front of her on sconces. She stepped into the new area and couldn't help but wonder why the dungeon's lower level wasn't the same style as the other parts of the place. Was this normal? Shrugging off the thought, she cast Minor Detect Life again and had a look around. 

As expected, there were signs of life off in each direction, and a lot more of them than she had seen in one place up above. The room branched off in many directions, so she would just have to work her way through here systematically. There were two doors leading off to the left from where she stood and she headed off towards the first one. 

The doorway led to a long, wide hallway that curved off further to the left and on pedestals here and there, she saw sandstone carvings of lions and hawks. The place was so still that it kind of bothered her. She eventually found her way to another large room, which held a pedestal with a small chest atop it. As for the room, it was packed tightly with the humanoid monsters she had encountered earlier when fighting the antlion. 

Insect heads swiveled in her direction as she stepped into the room and then the enemies charged her in a frenzy. Beatrix knew that she did not want to get scratched by those barbs on their arms again, as she only had one more of the panacea potions left. She readied her weapons and quickly engulfed her sword in flames and her shield in frost before advancing to the nearest four foes that approached.

Two of them darted for her head on and when the one on the left made a swipe for her, she smacked it away with her shield, and heard it shriek as its arm froze solid where it had been touched and with one fluid motion, she stabbed the flaming blade of Requiem into the face of the other enemy.

Beatrix continued dancing between her targets, freezing and burning the enemies left and right. She wasn't always able to deliver the killing blow right away, and thus had to keep moving around the room. She made sure to keep her back to the wall at all times so as to not be completely surrounded, and after cutting down all of her foes she took a deep breath and stepped over to the treasure box. 

The box was silver and about the size of a small loaf of bread. She circled around the pedestal, looking for traps before she opened it up. Inside the box was a silver key with a sapphire affixed to the top of it. It wasn't unheard of for dungeons to generate locked rooms, so this would probably be useful down the road at some point. She placed it into her bag.

The square room held nothing else interesting, and sand occasionally fell through the cracks in the stone and onto the floor. Beatrix brushed her long hair back behind her shoulders again and took out a water flask. 

It's kind of hot down here. Once this job is done, I think I'll be more than ready to leave this climate.

After backtracking to the main room, she took the next door down the line and found that it dead ended at a large set of stone double doors with a keyhole in it. There was a small painted emerald above the keyhole.

"Looks like this place is going to be a pain," Beatrix sighed and turned back, returning to the main room once more.

There were two other doors leading from this position that she hadn't tried yet. One that was straight ahead of the entrance to the second level and the other which was originally to her right. Using Minor Detect Life once more, she could see some faint signs of life in the far reaches of the two remaining directions. That meant the passages ahead were both potentially long, or empty, which she believed to be unlikely.

As she made her way down the corridor that had been straight across from the entrance to this level, she began to hear the sound of stone pounding against stone. As she continued the sound got louder and louder until it was almost enough to give her a headache. After a few more minutes of walking she came to a section of corridor where large stone spikes were smashing into the ground and then pulled back up by some sort of mechanism. 

It looked like the idea was that if she wanted to get through she'd have to run through at the exact right time, but that just sounded idiotic to her. Who just runs underneath a gauntlet of spikes? There didn't appear to be any monsters in the vicinity, but when she checked again there was clearly a cluster of enemies on the other side of the trap. 

Any unsuspecting adventurer group who had come along and just ran through would be met with an ambush and nowhere left to run. That just wouldn't do for her. Once again her pendant would come into play. Beatrix hated wasting the charges, but she still had one more use left after this one before the artifact would need to be recharged. She gripped it and willed the earth magic into her hand just as she had before and stepped up close to the deadly trap.

Once the spell was prepared, she painted the ground ahead of her and two walls of stone grew out of the stone floor and pushed the spikes up out of the way. When the magic ran out, she found that the spikes were still slamming down a bit, and she would have to crouch, but at least she could walk through the dozen or so paces that it would take to get past the trap. 

Taking a deep breath, she began to make her way slowly through the trap. The constant pounding of the mechanism right above her was seriously giving her a headache, but at least the spikes couldn't turn her into a bloody paste on the ground. Her summoned stone was holding against the onslaught and she pressed on more quickly now. 

Once she was through, the corridor opened up to a medium sized pentagonal room. At the center of the room was a large stone griffin with wings outstretched mouth open as if it was about to snap up some prey. Around its neck was a chain that had another key dangling from it. She could see the green glint of emerald from across the room. She had chosen the right path.

Around the room there were statues of warriors on pedestals and the moment she stepped all the way out from the trap, the statues came to life; including the griffin. Beatrix grimaced as the beast's beak snapped loudly and it stretched its heavy stone wings in the enclosed space. Only one thing was certain; she couldn't fight all of these things at once in her current condition. She needed time to prepare.

Moving quickly, she backed back into the trap and when she saw the statue warriors following she turned and ran as quick as she could through the trap while in her crouched position. The griffin would not be able to fit through the small space, and she watched with delight as the first couple of statues' heads were caved in by the falling spikes as they hadn't ducked down. 

Surprisingly, after a few had died, the others crouched down and made their way forward. Damn. I had hoped they would just keep getting themselves destroyed. I guess they aren't quite as stupid as they look.

Fighting stone constructs would normally not be an easy task for a swordsman like herself, but as a veteran soldier, she always prided herself on being prepared for the worst. She focused on activating the magic stored within the ring on her left index finger. The silver ring began to glow a pale yellow and she continued to back step as the stone soldiers worked their way forward at a crouch.

Once the magic was ready, she dropped her shield and held her blade in front of her and ran her hand across the blade. The enchantment from her Stonecutter Ring was able to magically sharpen a blade to the point that it would be able to cut through nearly anything, save diamond or mythril. The cost exacted for using the enchantment was high, and truth be told, having to use it here would take away nearly half the profit for the contract, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

Requiem's sharpened edges glowed with a steady pale yellow light and the ring on her finger crumbled into dust. The magic would last for two minutes, so she had to move fast. The first of the enemies broke through and she cut it down right as it exited. With her physical strength and the blade enchanted like this, it cut through them as easily as a hot knife through butter.

The stone creature's body crumbled into dust as she cleaved it in half and she couldn't help but be happy that she wouldn't have to move a bunch of heavy rocks out of the way to get to her true target. She didn't want to give them a chance at a fair fight, so she continued mowing them down as they came out, until there were no more enemies. She only had about a minute left on the enchantment, and she needed to fight the big monster still, so she rushed through the trap to the other side.

As she came out, a giant claw smashed her to the ground. It had apparently been waiting for her to come through. Her head smashed against the hard stone floor and her head rang as warm blood began to trickle from her left eye socket where it had likely been broken when she hit the ground. 

Beatrix' armor thankfully held up and she wasn't crushed completely by the weight of the enemy, but that was where her luck ended as the griffin casually threw her across the room. Blood found its way out of her mouth as she impacted the sandstone wall of the room. Beatrix slid to the ground.

Get up! Focus!

It was easy to yell at herself in her mind, far easier than it was to actually get back up. Her vision was blurred and blood was running into her eye. The loud footfalls of the beast's claws coming across the floor towards her could not be ignored, either. Beatrix just barely regained her senses enough to move as the griffin swiped its massive claw towards her head and she was able to roll out of the way and back onto her feet. 

The adrenaline was pumping through her veins and she had only precious seconds left of her Stonecutter enchantment. She needed to make them count. Matted hair stuck to the side of her face as she got herself into a sword stance and waited for the beast to attack. It moved with surprising speed for something made of stone, and shot its head forward, sharp beak ready to snap her in half.

She was ready, however and slashed upwards, shearing the beast's head in half while jumping lithely to the side. The monster collapsed and a cloud of sand exploded outwards. The dust stung as it pelted her in the face, and she closed her eyes tightly to avoid taking any more damage to them. 

Once the room fell still, she opened her eyes once more and surveyed the room which was now covered in a solid layer of dust. Her head was still pounding and she retrieved a potion and drank it down. The internal damage she sustained when she was thrown against the wall was healed up first, and she must have been hurt more than she thought as the magic stopped working and she was still in pain. She retrieved one more potion and drank it down, which did the trick, as the wound around her eye closed up and she could feel the cracked socket repairing itself.

While the potion was doing its work, she began kicking around in the sand until she found what she sought. The chain holding the emerald key clinked against her gauntlet as she pulled it out of the sand and examined it. The key was identical in size and weight to the one she had found earlier, and the only difference was the gemstone. Beatrix tucked the item away into her bag and proceeded to take the long trek back to the first room of this level. 

"Finally... no more pounding spikes. I'm going to need a long bath to get all this sand off of me after this is said and done," she said aloud as she wet a rag with a water skin and wiped the crusted blood off of her face. Now that she had the emerald key, she had two options of where to go next. 

She considered taking the route that had the locked door, but it made more sense to check each branch individually before moving deeper. Since there were apparently locked doors everywhere in this place, she didn't want to miss something important and have to back track. Her stomach grumbled just as she was about to head in the final unexplored corridor, and she made a mental note to make sure she had a good meal when this was all said and done.

For now, she would just bear with the hunger. She didn't have time to waste on eating, and didn't want to free up her shield hand just to stop some small hunger pains. Time had slipped away from her, and being underground like this, she couldn't say for certain just how long had passed. She had surely been winding around in the tunnels above for several hours, and she knew that she had spent a good amount of time traversing the second level so far as well. 

Her research had indicated that there were only two levels in this dungeon before it began rampaging. Dungeon cores were living things, however, and who knows how much it had changed itself in the time it had gone out of control. Beatrix once again cast Minor Detect Life as she made her way forward, and saw that there were enemies just around the corner, and a lot of them at that. The room ahead must be packed full of them. 

The question at hand would be if the monsters were organic or more stone creations. Without her Stonecutter Ring, she would be hard pressed against any more of that type. She still believed she could handle it if things came down to it, but it would not be easy, and she would have to be much less careless than she had been when she got caught by that stone griffin.

Beatrix put her back against the wall and followed the curve of the hallway slowly, taking great care to go as quietly as she could. There was a limit to how much she could do of course, as she was wearing heavy metal armor, but it was better than going in and being surprised. As she got closer, she could hear scraping noises and the clacking of mandibles. 

More insect type monsters.  This time, I think I'll try something a little different.

She peeked around the sharp turn in the hallway and saw that there was a similar looking stone doorway blocking her path. As with the other one she had seen, this one had a small key hole with a symbol painted above it. Beatrix breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the sapphire key was the one needed.

Before she opened it, however, she needed to prepare for the fight that was waiting for her on the other side. She gripped her sword firmly in her right hand and held it out in front of her. She concentrated her magic into her shield hand and ran it across the flat of the blade. As she did so, the high-pitched chirping sound associated with concentrated electricity sounded in her ears as yellow sparks of energy burst to life along Requiem's sharp edges. She didn't like having to use this aspect of her Elemental Blade magic, as it drained her mana at a prodigious rate, but no one would argue against its effectiveness. 

Once the blade was sufficiently charged up with her magic, she retrieved the sapphire key and placed it into the hole. The lock clicked loudly as she turned it and then the metal part of the key turned to vapor, and the small sapphire dropped to the ground. The doors automatically began to swing open and she didn't wait for them to fully open before bursting into action; her mana was already bleeding away.

After bursting through the doorway, she finally got a good look at what kind of enemies awaited her. A teeming mass of gigantic centipede monsters were crawling all over one another in the center of the room. They were protecting something, she was sure of it, and she would soon be finding out what that was.

The monsters' carapace was the same color as the sandstone and when she charged around the corner, dozens of the monsters came skittering towards her. Some stayed in the back line, and reared up, spitting acid in her direction. Luckily, she was fast enough to block the acid with her shield. At this point, she expected that type of attack from insect type monsters.

The ones that were charging towards her were bigger than the acid spitting variety; nearly double in size. Beatrix swiped the air with her electrified blade and a steady bolt of electricity arced out from the tip, slamming into the first centipede and then spreading to each one nearby in a chain. 

All of the centipedes that were charging her flopped to the ground writing in pain as they began to smoke. The smell was bad enough to turn her stomach, but she didn't pause for a moment and strode further into the room, jumping aside whenever acid came her way. Once she was in range, she sent another round of chain lightning from Requiem into the center of the mass of centipedes.

The undulating mass of creatures screeched as they died. Beatrix didn't let up and continued to pour energy into her sword until there was no longer any movement. When all was said and done, there were around fifty dead, smoking husks left in the room. Her mana reserves were dangerously low, but the damage had been done.

Striding up to the pile of smoking centipedes, she pushed them out of the way until she revealed what they had been crawling over; another small chest. Upon opening it, she found yet another key; this time one affixed with a ruby.

Looks like I made the right decision in checking this area out. It would have been a major pain if I had been forced to come back here later. Time to go through the emerald door.

Beatrix was down to less than a hundred MP and she was suffering from a mana headache from expending so much of her power in such a short burst, but she had some potions with her that should help. It was clear that she had underestimated this place a bit, and she now saw why normally a whole team of mid-level adventurers would be needed to tackle it. If not for her advanced level and experience, she would have been dead several times over by now.

Next time she took on a mission like this, she would make sure to bring a couple people along. Beatrix grabbed the sapphire from the floor on her way out of the room and proceeded to drink all three of the mana potions she had prepared for this expedition on the way back to the emerald door. Her mana headache had subsided and she was ready for whatever else this place could throw at her. 

The emerald doors swung open just as the sapphire ones had and revealed an empty hallway that wound downward at a gradual slope. She bent down and picked up the gemstone, placing it into her pouch, and continued on her way. The passageway continued to spiral for a long way, going ever deeper into the earth until she came face to face with a group of insectoid fighters. 

Unlike the ones she had faced before, these ones were of different types. Instead of just the kind with the barbs along their arms, she saw that some had arms resembling swords or ones that ended with heavy spiked balls that resembled maces. It was amazing the amount of customization that the dungeon could do with its monsters. She didn't have time to admire the dungeon's handiwork, though, as they immediately attacked her once she came into view. 

It seems that these ones can't wait to die.

Enchanting her shield with flame, she backhanded the first insectoid that came close; one of the barbed arm variety. It crashed to the ground in a slump and she fluidly moved into her Blade Dance style of swordplay. She was careful to not let them get around behind her in the wide corridor and batted away their weapons when two attacked her in unison. 

She was low on health potions at this point, and any injuries that she sustained would have to be healed using magic. The cost was high and it didn't really heal very quickly or very much, so she didn't want to have to do it unless she was in a dire situation. Beatrix smacked away a spiked fist of the mace-wielding type of insect next and then darted in close to stab it through the chest. 

The battle continued with her swatting their attacks aside and then delivering the coup de grace until she was the last one standing. Without paying them more thought, she continued down the hallway. There were more weaklings in patrols of between three and five combatants each time along the way, but she was able to easily dispatch them. 

Just as she finished up the fourth patrol, the hallway flattened out and then an entrance to a room was not far off. The room was rectangular and fairly large. On the far end of the latest room, she could see another closed stone door, which she assumed would be needing a key like the others. This was the only exit, so she had to assume she was on the right path. The odd thing was that the room appeared to be empty, and considering the roaming patrols of insectoids, and how the dungeon had gone thus far, it didn't make sense that there wouldn't be anything here. It made her feel a bit uneasy.

Beatrix activated her Minor Detect Life skill and saw nothing in the room, not even on the ceiling. Something is definitely going on here. Is there something in this dungeon that could hide from my magic? 

The thought wasn't outrageous, and needed to be seriously considered. She had been relying on the spell a lot down here, but it was far from unbeatable. Beatrix stepped into the room while holding her shield up in front of herself as she side stepped her way around the room, watching for any sign of movement.

As she moved, she couldn't help but feel that there were eyes on her, even though she didn't see anything. There was definitely something or somebody here. Just as she was almost to the other side of the dungeon, she caught a glimpse of movement towards the center of the room. Beatrix reacted quickly and yanked her belt knife free from its sheath at her waist, and threw it at the spot where the air had shifted.

The knife flew true and she would be lying if she were to say that she wasn't surprised when the air shimmered and a large man in full plate mail side stepped the knife. Beatrix cursed under her breath and took stock of her opponent. He was tall, and had broad shoulders underneath his pitch-black plate. She could see the glow of one red eye through the eye slit of his horned helm and he carried a sword that was nearly as long as he was tall. 

A low chuckle rumbled across the empty room from the man who rolled his shoulders casually as he unclasped the great sword and gripped it with two hands in front of himself in what she recognized was a Tiger Style stance. "You've done well to get all the way down here by yourself. An adventurer? Must be pretty strong, but your fun ends here. I can't have you messing with our plans for this city."

"Who are you?"

"Does it matter? I don't feel the need to waste time talking to a dead woman."

With that, the man charged forward, his great sword had ignited with glyphs along the flat of the blade. The weapon was clearly enchanted like her own. She brought her shield up as he swung at her with an overhead swing. The raw power behind the blow surprised her and she was forced down to one knee with a grunt. 

The mystery man raised his boot to kick her, but she pushed herself up and spun to the side, slashing at him with Requiem. The enemy was more skilled than she would have liked, however, and easily dodged the attack. Not wanting to let up, she pressed him, slashing at him and avoiding his broad swings. His style of fighting utilized strength, but Beatrix had always preferred a more balanced kind of combat. 

She just needed to get in close as he had reach on her. Just as she thought she had him, he let go of his blade with one hand and came in close to her, planting a gauntleted fist into her face. Beatrix' world blurred for a moment and she was thrown off balance. What was worse was that he was somehow swinging that enormous sword with one hand and she had to get her shield up.

The weapon collided with her shield and she grunted as she was flung like a rag doll to the side. Fighting this guy without using her magic was not going to work. She quickly cast the lightning magic on her blade once more and just as it began to crackle she saw that the man's blade was doing something odd, it was emitting some sort of negative energy and sucking the light out of the room. It caused the blade to almost glow black.

As his enchantment continued, she suddenly felt very heavy as though the weight of the world was pushing down on her shoulders. What kind of magic was this? She gritted her teeth. It would take everything she had just to move under this pressure. 

"You really are a tough one, aren't you? You fought well. Die with honor."

She didn't want to waste the energy to respond, she needed to do something, her legs felt as though they were going to break. The man was moving towards her at a steady pace as though he had all the time in the world. Maybe he did. He was absolutely confident that he had her. Beatrix only really had one hope, and she wasn't even sure it'd work.

She flicked her eyes down to the ring on her middle finger. It had been passed down through her family for six generations and it had never been used. Her parents and their parents before them had always cautioned that it was only to be used under the most dire of circumstances as it only had one charge and was, as far as anyone knew, unique.

The man was close now, he stared down at her with that red eye of his and she couldn't help but shudder. He calmly gripped his sword with both hands and raised it above his head. He wasn't even concerned that she would try to counter attack. The truth was, it took every ounce of strength she had to just stay upright and keep her shield up in front of her.

If he brought that sword down now, he would break her guard, and cleave her in two. In the blink of a moment, she activated the magic in the ring on her finger. The ring glowed a brilliant green and a translucent bubble expanded out from her, engulfing the enemy swordsman. His movements slowed to nearly a stop and she dropped her shield to the ground.

Beatrix couldn't help but grin as she forced her free hand over to grip her sword in a two-handed grip. Using both arms, she pushed with all of her might and brought the blade up, inch by inch. The man was completely immobile now, but the bubble that had expanded outward was now contracting and shrinking. 

Move! Do it! Push!!

She painstakingly shoved requiem further and further towards her foe's eye slit, and just as the bubble of time was nearly back to them, she succeeded in ramming the blade home. She felt resistance as the blade went into his face, and then the weight holding her back suddenly disappeared and she shoved her blade home and then ripped it back out of his face slit. 

Time returned to normal and the man dropped lifelessly to the ground, his great sword clanging to the ground behind him. Beatrix' body was not ready for the transition from slowed time to normal, and her stomach lurched, causing her to vomit on the enemy's armor at her feet. The ring on her finger had stopped glowing, and she had expected it to break like her other single use rings would, but it didn't. 

She examined the ring, and it appeared that it had no charge left from what she could tell, but maybe someday she could find a way to restore its power? Whatever kind of magic the enemy had used, it had been something she had never seen or heard of before. She was more than a little lucky to be alive and she knew it. 

"Let's see what you look like under that thing." 

Beatrix reached down and pulled off the helm of the enemy. He was a demon, and only had one eye. The man had a curious tattoo on the side of his right cheek and didn't appear to be carrying any kind of items other than his sword. Beatrix grabbed the weapon and put it into her bag of holding for safe keeping. It was clear now that the dungeon going on a rampage was not a random occurrence. This man, and whoever he was working with had wanted to bring down the city for some reason. 

Her work wasn't done yet, however, so she left the corpse on the floor and headed towards the door. It turned out to be a standard door and after she went through, there was a small hallway that lead to another door which had the ruby keyhole. She took a deep breath and turned the key in the lock.

She watched the doors swing open and readied herself for another fight. Dungeon cores were always guarded by powerful boss monsters, and she was surprised to see a giant stone viper with two heads on the ground. The top half of it had been cleaved cleanly off and the dungeon core sat on a pedestal behind the body. 

Beatrix had seen a dungeon core before, and there was definitely something wrong with this one. The orb was solid black with purple lightning electrifying the air around it. Whatever they had done to the thing had really messed it up, she needed to destroy it immediately. The enemy must have cleared the dungeon and then taken it over from here to lock the doors. How long had he been down here? 

Not wasting any time, Beatrix closed the distance to the orb and readied her blade. Dark energy crackled around her, but she didn't let it frighten her. She had a job to do. She brought her sword up and slashed downward as hard as she could. The blade resounded against the crystal dungeon core with a crack and she was shoved back by a powerful explosion as the core ruptured. All of the light in the dungeon went out instantly and she felt the place begin to shake. 

"Time to go." 

She ran back out of the room as quickly as possible and at a full sprint charged up through the dungeon. She heard the sound of rooms collapsing behind her, but didn't dare look back. Beatrix ran until she was out of breath, and then ran some more. She never let up and climbed ever upward as the dungeon folded in on itself right on her heels. When she finally emerged from the dungeon entrance, and it crashed into a mound of dirt behind her, she fell to the ground gasping for air. 

Her vision faded and she passed out on the ground.

***

Beatrix' head was throbbing when she finally regained consciousness. She was in some sort of dark room, and when she sat up, she realized that she had a chain strapped to her wrist and a collar around her neck. 

What the fuck is going on here!? 

She ripped at the chain, trying to pull it from the wall, but it didn't budge. She felt weak. She had been drugged and had a magic negation collar on? "Where am I? I demand to be set free immediately!"

The sound of a chair scraped somewhere off in the distance and she heard the sound of people talking. 

"She's awake. Go tell the king, he said to let him know immediately."

"Sir!" 

She heard the sound of keys jangling in the distance and then a door shutting. I save their city from certain destruction and they throw me in the dungeon? The Adventurer's Guild is going to burn this place to the ground when they find out what they've done to me! 

Beatrix sat down on the cot again and cursed aloud. They had taken all of her belongings, and she was sitting here in her underclothes without any way out. The only thing she could hope for was that the jailer would be dumb enough to come in her cell. That and the hope that they wouldn't execute her randomly, but if they had been going to do that, they would have already. 

Time seemed to creep by until finally she heard the sound of keys rattling in the door that sectioned off the cells. Torchlight flooded the enclosed space and she had to put her hand up to shield her eyes as the sudden change in lighting caused her eyes to hurt. 

"Leave me."

"Your highness, she's dangerous!"

"Do as I say."

"Sir!"

The door closed and the man holding the torch came over to her cell. There was a stool over by the wall and he grabbed it, sitting just out of her reach in front of the bars. He didn't say anything at first, and cocked his head to the side as though he was listening for something before leaning in. 

"You were too late and played right into my hands."

"What the hell are you talking about, Azir?! I came here to save your wretched city!"

The king leaned in closer to the bars and his eyes glowed a familiar red for a moment. "Azir is dead. I took his place when you went into the dungeon. You provided the perfect distraction for me to get the job done. For that, you have my thanks. Although, I wish you hadn't killed Rufus. I still don't know how someone of your... limited skills... accomplished that. But no matter. I will see that you get all the blame for the dungeon rampaging, commoners are idiots after all, and you will be allowed to rot down here."

"Who are you?"

"I'm Magnus, and I now rule this country. Goodbye, Beatrix. We won't be meeting again. Don't worry... I'll be sure to have you fed the minimum required to keep you alive for years."

The demon impostor got up from his stool and exited the room leaving her in darkness with only her thoughts to keep her company.