Alice thought she’d gotten used to the Unnamed Dungeon’s abnormalities. That was until a bright orange [Banner] flashed into existence during dinner. Unlike those found at the Save Point’s entrance this [Banner] was only visible to her and written in strange characters. Alice stood in the kitchen trying to interpret the script for several moments before it began shifting into the familiar Illian characters before her eyes.

Self-Quest Tutorial!

The dungeon has recently gained the ability to issue [Quests] and wants to understand how they work! You have been randomly selected to assist the dungeon in this endeavor. Of course the dungeon intends to properly reward you for the assistance. If you agree to these terms please accept this quest.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO ACCEPT THE QUEST “SELF-QUEST TUTORIAL!” FROM “UNNAMED DUNGEON”? YES/NO

‘Now this could be interesting!’ Every scholar in Brooksdam was eagerly discussing the dungeon’s potential intelligence and would pay a hefty price for information.

Glancing over at her party, who were arguing over something trivial, she made up her mind. No need to split the reward with them.

“Let me finish dinner and get to my room first. I’d rather do this somewhere private.” Alice whispered.

Alice hadn’t been expecting a response but was surprised when she got another private [Banner].

Understood!

The dungeon understands you wish to keep this exchange private and responds in kind! Please finish any business you need to attend to before accepting the original request! (Also the dungeon would rather keep its intelligence as secret as possible as it believes that information being public could be dangerous to its wellbeing. Failure to do so could result in retaliation.)

WOULD YOU LIKE TO ACCEPT THE QUEST “UNDERSTOOD!” FROM “UNNAMED DUNGEON”? YES/NO

‘Well it’s still an easy job even if I can’t sell the information. Not sure how it would retaliate but incurring a dungeon’s wrath seems an awful idea.’

After eating her prepared dinner Alice went to bed early under the guise of exhaustion. Now aware that the dungeon was watching her the healer chose not to take an evening bath and simply accepted the original quest. What followed was tedious, interesting, and terrifying.

In exchange for keeping the dungeon’s privacy and assisting with the quest system experiments, Alice was gifted 25,000 Rhilos. If she was frugal Alice could easily rent her room for another 4 months and pick up that new staff she’d wanted. But the process of getting that money took several hours.

It hadn’t taken Alice long into their conversation to get a read on the dungeon’s personality, which was incredible in it of itself. Put simply it was overly curious and excitable. Even considering how slow communications were at first, only speaking through the quest messages, the dungeon had wanted to know every single minute detail about [Quests]. Ranging from what a [Quest] looked like from her point of view, traditional types of [Quests] offered by other dungeons, to even if the way it was constructing its text came across as overly formal or casual.

Honestly Alice found herself catching onto the dungeon’s enthusiasm and enjoyed her time running experiments. Eventually the dungeon asked if it could speed up the process with a returning creature and Alice foolishly accepted. That was when she first met Mary.

The Stalker had emerged from underneath her doorframe as a small shadowy circle before rising into her true form. Mary was about the same height as Alice but was much more athletically built than the healer. Alice had first fallen back in fear at the powerful monster on instinct before Mary revealed she couldn’t act violently in the Save Point without consequences. Her carnal fears were further put at ease when Mary changed her appearance to mimic Alice’s own. Despite still being a monster changing into a familiar figure helped her relax.

While not a scholar herself Alice was immediately fascinated by just how perfect Mary’s mimicry was. She wasn’t casting any illusion magic or using enchantments, her body had actually changed to become Alice. The imitation was so prefect that the feeling of her skin, blonde hair, faint scent of perfume, and even her secret birthmark were all replicated.

After investigating the Stalker for several minutes she politely coughed and said, “The Master wishes to continue asking questions.”

Sitting back on her bed Alice began “This Master of yours sure loves his questions...”

“You must forgive him, he hasn’t spoken to anyone other than us [Named] so directly in weeks. I believe he’s simply nervous.” She said giving a knowing look towards the ceiling.

“I see... Your Master is a him then?”

“Of course.”

“I wasn’t aware dungeons had genders.”

Pausing for a moment to listen to the dungeon Mary explained “The Master doesn’t think other dungeons have genders either. It’s his understanding that he is a special existence among dungeon cores. He also asks you don’t inquire too deeply.”

Raising her hands casually Alice answered “That’s a shame but I get it. Revealing too much would be dangerous to your wellbeing after all. You’d have to be stupid to do this without a Truth Circle after all!”

Mary nodded in agreement but the dungeon seemed oddly silent until Mary pulled the stick of white chalk from her shadow. They’d perform the ceremony before Alice left in the morning or received her payment.

Suddenly Alice started blushing and while looking down in her lap asked, “If you’re a boy dungeon then... have you been watching the female adventurers bathe?”

Mary blinked slowly before she burst out laughing. Alice didn’t understand what was so funny but eventually she found the Stalker’s humor too contagious and began laughing herself.

Wiping tears from her eyes Mary finally got out “My Master... is VERY anxious... to let you know... he hadn’t thought of it when he made the Save Point! Apparently he can’t fix it now that people are in here!”

The night carried on in a generally light hearted manner until Mary and Alice performed the Truth Circle ceremony. Alice had never heard of a monster making a pact with a human but everything worked as intended. Now if she ever broke her promise and informed others about what she’d learned tonight Alice would be killed or at the very least maimed so badly she could never live a normal life again. An obvious incentive to keep the truth hidden.

By the time Mary bade Alice goodnight she’d been left with much to think about. This had been one hell of an experience and not just for the Rhilos. She was probably one of, if not the, first sapient to ever speak directly to a dungeon core. During their conversation she’d even gained some insight into the core’s psyche. She’d been especially interested in why the dungeon killed people. The answer he gave through Mary had surprised her.

“I never wanted to kill people. From my perspective I just appeared in this world without any idea where or what I was. All I did know at first was that if someone touched me I’d be enslaved, and through enough trials that I could make creatures to protect me. Mary here was the first- “the Stalker gave a beaming smile at this “-but soon came everyone else. Somewhere along the way I began taking pride in my creatures and the environments they live in. Adventurers will come in regardless of my actions so I might as well make the dungeon something exciting to explore. Personally I’d have preferred no violence, but I don’t think that’s possible. I doubt the people of this world will be so quick to understand what I am.”

Rolling over in her sleeping bag as she recalled his answer Alice murmured “Yeah, you’re right...”

A dungeon is a resource. Nothing more nothing less. Even if one was alive, sacrificing their freedom to the advantage of several hundred thousand sapients is not hard to justify. Creating places like the Save Point and tools like the Teleporters are a good step but he’ll need to do more if he wants to stay free. For hundreds of years dungeon masters have obeyed laws to increase dungeon productivity and lower danger for delvers. If the core can outclass the long held standards there’s a chance he’ll be left alone. Why would the government attempt to fix what wasn’t broken after all.

But all that was above Alice’s station in the world. She’s just a simple healer. Hence why she’d been selected for the experiment at all. She’s an average adventurer who just so happened to get a lucky opportunity.

Falling asleep Alice chuckled to herself “Worried about [Quest] grammar! Hehehe...”