For some reason, being captured felt like the most humiliating moment of the dungeon’s life. In fact, it stung so badly that it had become the main reason keeping him from destroying his avatar. From a logical point of view, that would easily solve all of Theo’s problems. The chances of anyone else making it this far were slim to none, and even if, by some miracle, they did, they would end up in a situation similar to Theo and Liandra.

Back in Rosewind, Theo moved the furniture about pondering his dilemma. Destroying the avatar would only cost him a bit of energy. At any point, he could make a second one, or even not bother. Of course, he’d lose all the experience the avatar had gained, as well as the heroic trait… which considering how rare it was, made it a huge shame. What really bothered Theo, though, was the arrogance that had come from the red knight. The creature—it was definitely too large to be human—had made a number of degrading remarks, topping it off by calling Theo’s avatar puny. Just for that, the dungeon intended to break free and take the so-called Lord mandrake pay.

“Move along, puny wizard,” the red knight said, as he pulled Theo's chain.

The dungeon slammed several doors to vent its frustration. As much as he wanted to cast a massive fireball and scorch everyone around, but the anti-magic field manacles prevented that. Even if it wasn’t for them, it was unsure he could cast a spell, anyway. The whole region was surprisingly anti-magic, as if there were layers upon layers of enchantments protecting against such an eventuality.

“Last time, I listen to a hero,” the dungeon grumbled to itself.

It was her idea of ending up getting caught. If that had been a cunning plan to get the enemies to drop their guard down, it had worked. There was no way the forces of Lord Mandrake could have lowered their guard anymore now that both intruders were chained, separated and taken off under heavy guard to different parts of the enemy stronghold. Apparently, there were different restraints for heroes and spellcasters—unlike Theo, Liandra’s constraints had been thrice hexed to keep her from using her hero powers.

Despite all his hurt pride, however, even the dungeon had to admit that the evil Lord’s operation was impressive. A vast portion of the mountain had been hollowed out and transformed into an organized latticework of halls and chambers of barracks, factories, mining sections, and living quarters.

“Quite a lot of troops you have here,” Theo noted as they passed through a chamber the size of an airplane hangar. The only difference was that instead of airplanes it held dozens of dirigibles and thousands of goblin flier equipment. “Must be expensive to maintain.”

“Lord Mandrake has more wealth and knowledge than you can imagine,” the red knight said. “Soon he will become ruler of the continent, then the world itself.”

Only a fanatic would make such claims, although with such a number of troops, who knew? It very much depended on the opposing forces in the world. Rosewind would be no challenge whatsoever, which was far from ideal considering that Theo’s main body was located there.

After being taken along a suspiciously long route—that conveniently illustrated a vast part of Lord Mandrake’s armies—Theo was thrown in a small stone cell and had the door slammed shut behind him. The room was dim, completely bare, with no windows, and a single torch to act as a light source. Still, one had to admit that it was exceptionally clean and rather warm.

Finding a corner that looked suitable, the avatar sat down and leaned back. It seemed it was going to be one of those days…

“Spok, do you know anything about a Lord Mandrake?” Theo asked in its main body.

The name is rather common, but nothing relevant to your situation, sir, the spirit guide replied. It has to be someone new.

“Whoever it is, they have enough resources and willpower to hollow out a mountain in one of the worst places in the world, and also build a vast army using gnome-work technology. Doesn’t anyone come to mind?”

I’m sorry, sir.

“Just great,” Theodor grumbled.

On the positive side, the Goddess Paris is extremely pleased with the care with which Cmyk has been tending to her temple. He even managed to gain her a few new followers.

“What does that have to do with anything?” the dungeon snapped. He remembered giving his minion the order, although he was surprised that it had taken it to heart. Cmyk wasn’t the most diligent of beings… in fact he had a policy of doing as little as he could get away with and yet that still made him famous in town, be liked by nearly all, and managed to make several dozen friends in less than a week. Now even a goddess was pleased? Even in this world, things were so unfair…

I thought that it might cheer you up, Spok said.

“What would cheer me up is… you know what, forget it!”

The avatar stood up, then tore off the shackles from its hands. Enough was enough. He no longer cared about pretenses, or whatever convoluted plan Liandra had come up with. That was one of the problems of heroes: they always made things far more complicated than they had to be. Theo was going to break out, find the heroine, beat up the whoever this Lord mandrake was, then get out of here and back to finish the stupid task of capturing the stupid thieves! And once all that nonsense was over, he’d finally get back to some well-deserved rest.

With a clang, the manacles fell to the stone floor. Normally, it would take the strength of a hundred men to bend the special anti-mage alloy. However, Theo had the strength of an ancient dungeon with energy to spare.

So far so good. The question was what to do now. Cell door was made of reinforced iron at least half a foot thick and everything else was solid stone. The more annoying aspect of the situation was that with the room itself being five feet in every direction, Theo couldn’t even get a decent charge. It was going to take a bit more than strength to get out of this one.

“Just to be sure, I can use all of my dungeon abilities, right?” Theo asked back in Rosewind.

Potentially? Spock replied as fear mixed with uncertainty. Experience had taught that whenever Theo asked a simple question, there was a lot more beneath the surface, just like a deadly iceberg floating in the ocean.

“Perfect!” Theo’s avatar pressed back against one of the walls. “Room creation.” He placed his hand on the floor. Instantly, a new room emerged, located just beneath the cell.

The only reason that the spirit guide wasn’t panicking by this unusual development was because the anti-magic zone prevented it from seeing what the avatar was up to. When the ability had been originally created, no one had even considered that it could be used in such fashion. Creating rooms was a standard way for a dungeon to expand—a main survival skill, as it were. Even in the case of some extravagant dungeons that surrounded themselves with moats and ogre pits not connected to their main structure, they were in the same area. What Theo had just done was tens of thousands of miles away, and built with the intent never to be used. The only reason he could even do that was because of the heroic trait granted to his avatar. Being at such a distance, the room didn’t feel like part of the dungeon. Theo couldn’t sense or control it in any way. However, he didn’t need to. The whole goal was to use it to escape. And as someone who had occasionally played Minecraft in his previous life, he knew exactly how to do so.

When in doubt, dig deeper, Theo thought as he jumped down from the ledge of his cell and created another room. Eventually he was going to find a way out… or hit a magma vein, which would result in the same thing.

Room after room appeared, taking the avatar lower and lower. Succumbing to boredom on a few occasions, he made a few rooms sideways, just to try his luck, but when that yielded no results, he continued down.

After ten floors, Theo started feeling annoyed. After twenty, doubt crept in that he had gone in the wrong direction. Given the stack of rooms he had already created, going back up was by no means a cherished option. The solution had to be to keep on going. However, with each new room he made, the climb back up was going to be all the more cumbersome.

Thirty rooms passed, then forty, and fifty. After passing sixty, the process had become a repetitive motion that Theo did with his avatar without even thinking about it. As such, he was utterly surprised that after creating the next room, he found it had no floor. What was even more surprising was falling through into a room that he hadn’t built.

“What the heck?!” a high-pitched voice squeaked.

No taller than a foot and half, a small creature with skinny arms and a rather large head looked at Theo. Three layers of thick glasses rested on its nose, right beneath a leather helmet.

Theo had never seen a gnome in his current or past life, but he had no doubt he was looking at one now. The glasses, large floppy ears, and clothes with dozens of pockets and twice as many strange devices sticking from them were dead giveaways.

“How did you get in here?” the gnome asked, once the initial shock had passed. “Can’t you read I’m not to be disturbed?!”

“I didn’t come through the door.” Theo’s avatar pointed up at where the ceiling was.

The argument was good enough to make the creature look up, then back at Theo, unable to come up with a comeback. It was at this point that the avatar decided to look around. The room was a lot spacier than the ones before, full of complex cools and machinery. In one section, further away, Theo instantly recognized a model of a goblin flying device. Without hesitation, he then went in that direction.

“Hey!” the goblin shouted, running behind in an attempt to keep up. “Where do you think you’re going? This is delicate and valuable equipment!”

“How valuable?” Theo asked, stopping in front of the contraption.

It was obvious that this was a prototype—it was smaller than the ones the goblins had, not to mention far cleaner. It also had several components that Theo didn’t remember seeing when disassembling the goblin fliers.

“More valuable than you could afford!” The gnome rushed between Theo and the prototype. “Who exactly are you?”

“I’m Theo. And you are?”

“I’m Vlyan Switches, lead chief engineer of this facility,” the gnome said with pride.

“Lead and chief?” Theo looked at him.

“There are a few other chief engineers,” Vlyan said in disgust. “But they’re nowhere near my level. All they can do is make crude flying cauldrons. No finesse, no ingenuity whatsoever. I’m the true artist here.”

“So, you work for Mandrake.”

“Well… I wouldn’t say work exactly,” the gnome looked to the side. “It’s a more mutually agreeable arrangement.”

Theo remembered that phrase well. What is usually meant was doing all the work so that someone else higher up could claim the credit. In this case, no doubt the gnome had been in serious debt and bought off by a warlord with serious ambitions.

“You make most of his weapons?”

“Only the good ones. The other chief engineers take care of the boring stuff. Not that anyone acknowledges me.”

Looking around, there were quite a lot of interesting designs sharing a similar motif. Vlyan was clearly obsessed with enhancement gear. The goblin fliers allowed goblins to fly. A few other prototypes allowed their wearers to have extendable arm-blames, contracting shields, and a whole lot of other contraptions of questionable functionality. As Spok had said, while the craftsmanship was meticulous, some of the ideas were outright useless.

“Any chance you have a map of this place?” Theo asked.

“A map of mandrake mountains?” The gnome laughed. “I’d need more paper than I can carry. Besides, what’s the use? I spend most of my time here and know every place I need to go to. Where do you need to go?”

“There’s a friend of mine that’s kept prisoner… You see, she’s a heroine.”

“Wow! A real hero!” The gnome sounded quite enthusiastic. “How did she get here? There are hexes and runes all around here that prevent heroes from finding this place. Not to mention the goblin armies, the battle ogres, the mercenaries…”

“I brought her here,” Theo interrupted

“You?” The gnome adjusted his glasses, then looked over the avatar from head to toe. He didn’t say anything, but it was clear that he found the statement more than a bit doubtful. “Riiiight,” he concluded.

If the dungeon had blood, it would be boiling. This was the typical reaction of know-it-all superiors would give Theo in his previous life each time he created something worthwhile. Looking at the small creature, there were a whole lot of things he could do in response. The avatar’s strength alone was enough to tear up the gnome’s helmet along with the glasses. However, that would be petty. After all, there were bigger fish to fry.

You’re lucky, the dungeon said to itself. So damn lucky.

“Just tell me how to get to the prison cells,” Theo grumbled.

“You know there are a few thousand of them here, right? Well, most of them are empty, though. Just workers who cause problems are put there for a week or two. If there really is a hero, they’ll be kept in the hero cells.” Vlyan looked at the ceiling, deep in thought. “I’d say it’s all the way up there.”

Drat! Theo cursed mentally. I knew it! I should have gone sideways… But digging down was so satisfying.

“Tell you what, just catch the ascender to the very top, then…” he paused for a moment. “Then you’ll figure it out.”

“Thanks…” The avatar made its way to the single door of the room.

“Oh, and look out for the guards! They’re really nasty!”

“Yeah, yeah…”

Look out for the guards, Theo kept thinking as he entered a long, dark corridor. Who does he think I am? Some idiot who was born three days ago?

From a technical standpoint, that was exactly what Theo was, or at least his avatar. It didn’t help that neither in his current or previous life did he have to sneak about. When it came down to it, despite all his abilities, he was as proficient as a walrus in a library. The first twenty-steps or so went without a hitch. Then came the corner, beyond which Theo came face to face with two massive knights in full armor.

There was a moment of awkward silence. In his mind, Theo was cursing his luck, while also wondering how long this would delay him. On the guards’ part, they were unused to finding any intruder walking along the corridors of their hideout. The first two real prisoners had been captured less than an hour ago and securely locked up in the special cells close to six-hundred feet above.

The walking pieces of metal looked at each other, then at the avatar. With reflexes far exceeding the average person, they drew their weapons—a massive mace and a giant battle-axe—then charged forward. Theo, in turn, knelt down and created a room below their feet. Unlike all the previous rooms he had created, this one was thirty feet deep, with sharp stone spikes on the floor. There was a loud crashing noise as both unfortunate guards fell down to their doom. Interestingly enough, upon impact they didn’t get impaled by the spikes, but rather broke up into far smaller pieces.

 

CORE CONSUMPTION

2 arcane core fragments converted into 1000 Avatar Core Points.

 

Core fragments? Theo wondered. As hard as it was to believe, the massive knights were nothing more than automatons powered by an arcane core. That explained why they were so large and never removed their helmets.

“You’ll pay for this!” a pair of ghosts floated up from the remains, shooting off through the walls.

“Ghost powered automatons.” Theo shook his head. He had to give props to Lord Mandrake for the idea. They were a lot more efficient than having a real army, not to mention perfect at intimidating others. Swords and spells would be useless, though even they couldn’t win a battle against gravity.

 

AVATAR LEVEL INCREASE

Your Avatar has become Level 7

+1 Mind, WOUND HEAL skill obtained

300 Core Points required for next Avatar Level

 

WOUND HEAL - 1

Allows you to heal scars, burns, and other flesh wounds by spending the appropriate amount of Mana (at least 10). Inefficient for broken bones, missing body parts, poisons, or illnesses.

Using the skill will increase its rank, increasing the speed and efficiency at which a wound is healed.

 

“Seriously?!” Theo shouted back in Rosewind. “Of all the possible skills I had to get healing…”

Healing is a highly valued and quite rare skill among people, Spok said in an attempt to calm the dungeon down. Wizards are willing to spend vast amounts of time and money to learn such a skill, since it’s normally reserved for clerics, not to mention that having one is enough to set them up for life.

“Are you suggesting I open a healing clinic? Because there’s nothing more I want than having people bother me at all times day and night?”

You could assist the heroine you’re with, should she be in trouble? The spirit guide offered, conceding the previous point.

Without saying a word, Theo modified the spiky room to have a ceiling, then continued walking forward. As of yet there didn’t seem that anyone had noticed him, though with a pair of moaning ghosts it wouldn’t be long before his escape was discovered. The solution was to free Liandra as quickly as possible and defeat Lord Mandrake, or vice versa.

“Spok, how am I on energy?” the dungeon asked.

You’ve been wasting a bit lately, but nothing to be concerned over, the spirit guide replied. Of course, that would prolong the period you’ll have to wait before moving to a new place.

That was a bit annoying, but it didn't matter much. As long as Theo had a quick means to defeat enemies, it was worth wasting some energy. On the other hand…

“Spok, the energy I gain through my avatar, can I use that?”

No, sir. Sadly, the energy you acquire there is only to advance the avatar itself. However, if you happen to find some intact dungeon cores and bring them here…

The dungeon thought about it, then thought a bit more. It was a ludicrous idea, but if there happened to be any lying around, he could place them in his dimensional ring. At the end of the day, it wasn’t going to hurt.

Navigating through Mandrake’s stronghold ended up being quite easy. Everything was perfectly organized, not to mention it had well-defined signs and other visual indications all over the place. It was almost as if it had been created by an evil bureaucrat with severe OCD.

It didn’t take long for Theo to find the ascender. The device was exactly what he thought it would be: a one-way elevator that eliminated the shortened time needed to reach the top. The ingenuity of the contraption was only surpassed by its stupidity. For the sake of everything, Theo couldn’t imagine how the gnomes had managed to build something of the sort. Normally when something went up it had to come down. In this instance, the large cabin seemed to continue up and up, and then… nothing.

Portals, Theo thought. It had to be portals. Although now one achieved magic in an anti-magic field remained a mystery.

For better or worse, he wasn’t left to wonder long. Halfway up, the sound of metal clanking on stone told him that his escape was well known throughout the stronghold. It was bound to happen, of course. It had been quite a while since he’d roomed the first two guards. Come to think of it, it was more impressive that it had taken them so long to react. In spite of the overwhelming strength of the amassed fighting force, Mandrake’s guards were highly incompetent.

“Surrender!” a deep voice boomed from above. Moments later, the entire mountain seemed to shake.

Theo tried to cast an aether shield, but the spell was instantly negated. He was down to dungeon skills and abilities, possibly brute strength as well. Just as the ascender reached its top destination, one of the metal knights crashed through the door, flying past Theo until he hit the wall behind with a slam.

That was new. Guards weren’t supposed to do that. Curious, the avatar turned to look at the motionless hunk of metal, just in time to see three more pile onto it, flying by one after the other.

Isn’t that sweet? He thought.

“Theo?” a familiar voice called from behind.

The avatar froze in place, then slowly turned around, looking over his shoulder as he did.

“Liandra?” he blinked. The woman was standing less than twenty feet away, holding an impressive double handed sword with one hand. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to free you, of course,” she replied as if it were the most natural thing ever. “This place is like a maze! You can’t find anything.”

Internally, the dungeon sighed. Undoubtedly, the woman had a lot of positive skills, but orientation wasn’t one of them. Getting lost in a place as organized as this required significant skill.

“I managed to get out on my own,” he replied. “Was on my way to find you. How did you get that sword?”

“I’m a heroine, remember?” Liandra smiled. “Our chosen weapons come to us.”

Theo’s eyes widened.

“Actually, I just broke the hex cuffs and beat up the guards before they could put me in the cell. My father taught me how to break most hexes when I was six. I then went to get my gear and here I am. How did you break out?”

“Oh…” Theo stepped out of the ascender cabin into the corridor. “I used some of my mystical powers.”

There was a long moment of silence. Both kept looking at each other, creating an awkward moment. The woman wanted to hear a bit more details relating to his escape method, while Theo was extremely reluctant to provide any.

“So, we find Lord Mandrake and kill him?” Theo asked. “I mean capture him, of course.”

“That sounds like a plan, but it’ll have to wait. We must free the prisoners first.”

“I thought that we were the only prisoners. I mean… I overheard one of the knights saying so.”

“We might be the only VIPs, but there are several hundred villagers locked up in here, forced to build the weapons for the tyrant’s armies. We must set them free.” Liandra grabbed Theo by the hand and dragged him along the corridor.

“Wouldn’t that be easier if we defeat Mandrake first?”

“I know you’re new at adventuring, but trust me on this. I’ve seen it dozens of times. The first thing an evil overlord does is take all captives hostage and force a decision: save them or fight him. The best solution is to free them first and then deal with the rest.”

That sounded so both wrong and the only proper thing to do.

“But won’t he just escape that way?” Theo would have, or better, he’d set up a trap so that when someone tried to rescue the prisoners, they’d end up all dying.

“He might, but people will be safe and the threat will be neutralized for a while. Also, even if he does, we’ll be there to chase after him, right?” She glanced over her shoulder, a smile on her face.

The prospect of wasting even more time chasing after some world-ruler wannabe made the entire building the dungeon was made of shiver. However, all he could do was smile and nod with his avatar. The best he could hope for was that it wouldn’t come to that. As long as they reached the kidnapped villagers fast enough, it was all going to be—

A sudden torrent of flame emerged at the end of the corridor.

Theo reacted without thinking, using his dungeon skill to create a side room and pull Liandra into it. The reaction was fast, though not fast enough to prevent part of the heroine’s shoulder from getting scorched.

“How bad is it?” Theo asked, seeing the woman shake with pain. Not a sound came from her mouth, but looking at the state of the flesh the pain probably was considerable.

And I can’t even use heal wounds! Theo grumbled to himself.

“Lord Mandrake is extremely displeased that you shun his generous hospitality,” a deep voice said.

Glancing into the corridor, the pair saw the red knight slowly approaching.

“I’m here to show you what happens to those who displease him.” The knight drew a pair of flaming axes from his back and held them firmly.

“I got this,” Theo whispered, then placed his hand on the floor and created another room.

The floor beneath the red knight vanished, revealing a deep spiked pit. Unfortunately, the hunk of metal didn’t fall in. Instead, he remained there, levitating in the air with orange flames coming from the soles of his boots.

“Oops?” Theo looked at Liandra. Things just got a lot more complicated than he expected.