Levi sat for a long moment in the room where he’d killed the Soul-Seeker until his breathing and pulse slowly returned to something resembling normal, trying to decide if he should press on or retreat.

Control dungeons were always tricky. He knew that. Somehow, he’d gotten complacent again. Every time he thought he was fully prepared, something came along to shatter his certainty.

Or maybe it had always been like this. He was used to being part of a larger unit. Usually there were other people around him also adapting to the shifting circumstances, others making the deadly mistakes, others falling to obvious traps.

Soloing dungeons really was as bad an idea as everyone always said. Two could do it, barely, but he’d gotten lucky so far. He couldn’t count on surviving another near-disaster.

“We need to figure out how to revive Skarm, and I need more levels ASAP.”

Gremlin Two squeaked in query.

“Oh, right, you’ve never met Skarm. He’s your partner in minionship, probably going to appoint him boss of the gremlin division.”

Gremlin Two looked up pleadingly.

“I’m not saying you’ve done a bad job, of course, just that he’s got seniority. You were amazing.”

Gremlin Two nodded agreement.

“Now, let’s look at your stats before we do anything else.”

He looked over the sheet, but there wasn’t much changed from last time. Just one more stat point to spend. Looked like gremlins were probably similar to everyone else, in that they’d only earn ability points every threshold level. And if he had to guess, that threshold level would be 5, same as humans.

So far, he’d kept Gremlin Two to his tankier build, but there wasn’t a whole lot of point in stacking health on a gremlin. Sooner or later, Levi would start getting sturdier minions to serve as frontliners, and then the gremlins would be back to their original purpose as scouts or stealth attackers.

He put the point into Spirit.

Gremlin Two Unassigned Levels: 0 Stat Points: 0 Ability Points: 0 Primary Type: Horned Gremlin Horned Gremlin Level: 3 Subtype: None Strength: 2 Health: 60 Health Regen: 3 /minute Psyche: 0 Mana: 0 Mana Regen: 1 /minute Spirit: 1 Stamina: 60 Stamina Regen: 2 /minute

He knew he should be closing in on level 5 himself, but it would probably be at least one more dungeon before he was able to cross that threshold. Which left the question of whether it would be worth it to continue in the Control dungeon, or leave and come back later.

In the end, he could only get the levels he needed by continuing to delve dungeons. Control may be more dangerous in some ways than the others, but every dungeon was going to be a life-or-death struggle. Every dungeon was going to do its best to slaughter him.

And Levi wasn’t going to let them.

He waited long enough for his stamina to reach a decent amount, then lost patience with the sitting around doing nothing. More monsters could show up behind him at any moment, it would be best to press on until they reached the treasure room.

“If it’s safe, poke me. If it isn’t, I’ll try to protect you.”

Crossing to the next door, he closed his eyes and pushed it open.

He heard Gremlin Two’s footsteps scamper in, then he ran back and poked his leg. Levi opened his eyes.

“Oh, huh.” A treasure room. “Of course.”

Four items, but they were items that made Levi’s face break into a grin.

A mana and health restorative went right into their respective pockets on his belt. The others…

Shortsword (Manablade, Standard)

Abilities: (Insert power stone)

Power stone: 0/1

Upgrade Slots: 0

Leather Greaves (Legwear, Standard)

Abilities: (Insert power stone)

Power stone: 0/1

Upgrade Slots: 0

“Beautiful.” He ran a hand across the manablade, still shorter than he was used to, but better than the dagger. He passed the dagger to Gremlin Two without hesitation, strapping the new shortsword to his belt. The greaves he equipped as well, feeling marginally less vulnerable now his legs weren’t exposed. “Still no power stone though. Not even a token.” He buried his disappointment and stepped through the next door.

Disorienting wrongness assailed him, then deposited him back outside the dungeon. He blinked for a moment, unsure of himself. “That’s it? A bunch of empty rooms, one monster, and a treasure room?”

It had been challenging enough, but… it still felt lacking.

Well. At least now he knew what to expect. He’d need to rerun the dungeon a few times at least until he got a few Control tokens out of it. But… he wouldn’t be trying it again until he had at least one more minion. Two against a foe that could instantly take you out of play was insufficient.

“Guess we’d better get back to the first dungeon?” He squinted at the sky. “It should be refilled by now.”

Then he frowned.

“Wait. What about my special extra treasure?” He’d used the map, there should have been something more. His loot was above average for a dungeon of this level, but not by so much that it was outside the realm of normal. Not nearly enough to justify the map.

He turned back to the hovering glint.

Control Dungeon: Level 1+

So. It was still marked as plus.

“We missed something.” He stepped back inside.

The empty rooms remained as empty as ever, slowly tilting downward until they culminated in what he now knew to have been the boss room. The deflated Soul-Searer had long since disappeared back into the dungeon, but he searched over every part of the walls and floor in case he’d neglected to notice something important.

Nothing.

Which only left the treasure room.

Unlike the bright polished marble of the other rooms, the treasure room had the same rustic stone appearance as he’d expect from a standard Destruction dungeon. The central table with its glorious presentation of rewards remained utterly standard, so much so that he’d entirely forgotten he was here following a secret map.

Gremlin Two tapped on his greaves, the sound satisfyingly deep, almost drumlike - though it made Two jump in surprise at first.

“What is it?”

The gremlin pointed to the table. It wasn’t so much a table as a rectangular block of stone, but Levi approached it anyway.

“What about it?” He ran a hand across its surface, checking for any secret buttons or seams. Nothing.

Gremlin Two tapped his leg again, then pointed up at the table again. When Levi clearly didn’t understand, the gremlin crouched down on the ground and very pointedly looked up at the stone block.

Levi got to his knees beside the treasure table, running a hand down its side. He found a faint depression, then leaned down to get a closer look.

Something pale white was embedded in the stone, forced upward at an angle, coming so close to filling the depression that if he wasn’t looking right at it he’d have missed it completely.

With the tip of his sword, he levered the object out. It fell to the floor with a ringing plink, light dazzling as it sparkled off it like a diamond-cut opal. Like pure crystalized mana.

Unbound Seed Fragment (Rare)

1 of 3

Unite what was broken

He turned it this way and that. It was smooth, polished, and beautiful, all but vibrating with the strength of mana contained in it. Locked in it. He tried pulling the power out, but it didn’t even radiate. It seemed to be a perfect mana seal, holding unfathomable power without any leaking.

Its shape and size were too long and thin to be a power stone, but he ran a finger down the rounded outer edge, then the flat plane where it was sheared off. He could imagine it being almost exactly the right size if two more fragments were united to it.

Was there such a thing as a flawless power stone? If so, he could power a weapon or armor almost indefinitely. Even a theoretical flawless stone would expend power when impacted, but the option of having an armor’s protective power on all the time without worrying about the perpetual mana drain would be an unbelievable boon.

Manablades and other active mana-powered items were ultimately prohibitively high in mana cost due to the ultimate inefficiency of the circuit. No power stone held power perfectly, so any time a weapon or item was active it would be constantly leaking. Therefore, no one kept their sword activated when not in a fight, and armor was generally only powered in brief bursts when attacks were anticipated.

With an effort of will, Levi reigned in his imagination. He shouldn’t get his hopes up too far. ‘Seed’ as a power stone tier would be a bit of a stretch.

More likely it would be an actual seed for some rare tree: valuable in the long run, but useless to his immediate plans. He’d never seen a tree seed that looked like a crystal, but he’d also never pursued crafting professions. For all he knew, there were all kinds of weird seeds out there.

Still, even just a rare plant seed, he could trade for quite a bit once crafting got up and running. It would be worth his time regardless of what the ultimate prize at the end might turn out to be.

Now was not the time for speculation.

He squatted down to look into the indentation, hoping... and yes, there it was. Behind where the Seed Fragment had been located, he saw the tip of a page.

The next step of the treasure hunt.