A Whisperer is a magical tree that usually grows in clumps. The roots of the trees are connected to each other, fusing them together into a collective known unimaginatively as the Whispering Woods. Depending on the scale, the entire grove is assigned a Tier. Upon reaching the scale of Tier 1, the collective condenses a shard called Scribe that can record every sound within the range of the grove in the form of notches on its bark. When the wind blows through the trees, it triggers the shard to read out the recorded sounds, causing mortals who stray into the woods to fearfully assume that the forest is haunted.

In combination with other skill shards, this property can be used to convert text to sound and vice-versa. And in fact, written language originated from the study of these traces on the bark of the trees. Till this day, irrespective of how phonetically diverse two languages are, they all share the same unified script. Whisperer truly deserves its moniker – the Font of Scripts.

Sand’s field of view changed abruptly as he was swallowed down by the demonic face. Staggering, he regained his balance and took stock of his surroundings. White. Pristine white floor, featureless ceiling and blank walls, all in a perfectly cubical room. His eyes widened as he realized the true nature of the demon gate. It was a Dungeon – the embryonic form of one.

If he wasn’t wrong in his analysis, then the shard used to teleport him here was a Spatial Tunnel shard. And it had to be at Tier 5 to merge so flawlessly with the Tier 5 Trial Light shard. That wasn’t all, there had to be a time shard of a similar level otherwise it wouldn't be practical to use the Dungeon as a storehouse that was frequented by people.

A space shard was absolutely necessary for a Dungeon to form. Without it, the Dungeon would lack the concept of space and would just be an infinitesimally small point. And if the Dungeon was to allow the survival of life within it, a time shard was indispensable as well. Without a time shard, the interior of the Dungeon would be frozen in time like a still picture. Many of the natural Dungeons found scattered around the world suffered from this problem. If any living being strayed within such a Dungeon without an appropriate time skill, they would be forever stuck there like an insect preserved in amber.

Even then, not just any time shard would do. One had to be selective. Depending on the skill possessed by the shard, the speed of flow of time within the Dungeon formed would vary greatly. For example, a Agility shard would make the time within the Dungeon flow faster relative to the time in the outside world. This was both an advantage and a disadvantage. While it allowed the environment within the Dungeon to develop at an accelerated pace, letting the Dungeon mage produce resources much faster, it would also reduce the lifespan of anyone who entered by ageing them faster. A Slow shard would have the exactly opposite effect, slowing the relative flow of time instead.

Then there were even stranger Dungeons such as ones with shards such as the Day, Week, Month or Year shards as a constituent element. They would reset to their initial state after a fixed period of time that was determined by the shard in question. This was particularly useful for some very specific resources such as plants with short life-cycles that totally exhausted the fertility of the soil they grew in.

But the cost of promoting a time shard to Tier 5 was astronomical, especially with the rarity of the food required to sustain it. Thus, the mages had to consider the utility of their time shard of choice. If it was something useless like a Clock shard that did nothing but tell time more and more accurately as it promoted up the Tiers, they wouldn't be able to make ends meet unless they were vigorously subsidized.

‘It’s an Embryonic Dungeon. No wonder the attack on it failed. Given the function of the Spatial Tunnel shard, the attackers could have been transported directly to some dead space and left there to suffocate. The difference between a Mortal Mage and a Dungeon Mage is truly vast. It’s a qualitative change – something quantity can't make up for. After all, once you form your Dungeon, even as an embryonic form, you become the lord of an entire world,’ mused Sand as he explored the blank room, searching for an outlet.

The reason he was sure that the Dungeon was incomplete was firstly, despite the presence of space and time, there wasn’t any earth, sky, vegetation or life. In fact, if he wasn’t making a mistake in judgement, then even the gravity and the air present was the result of lower Tier shards used in an auxiliary fashion. The fluctuating weight of his body even within the confines of this small room was the best proof. If it had truly been integrated, then the force would be uniformly distributed. Secondly, in his previous lifetime, he had never heard of the news of a Dungeon Mage in Gehenna. The strongest mage in the city was the Chieftain – a Violet Mage.

‘This Embryonic Dungeon is probably the accumulation of generation after generation of city lords improving it and integrating their Tier 5 shards into it posthumously. Most cities probably have something like this…’ he speculated.

This was something new to him. Even though he had been a Dungeon Mage in his previous life, he had been on the run and fighting for his life for the most part. That had forced him to focus his time and energy on growing strong. He hadn’t joined any human organization either, preferring to simply assist them on a freelance basis. Thus, he hadn’t been entrusted with the knowledge of this grade of secret.

‘Given more time, it has the possibility of evolving into a full-fledged Dungeon. Though that is quite unlikely.’

Just haphazardly throwing skill shards together wouldn't result in a valid Dungeon. Shard incompatibility was a huge issue. The only reason Sand had been able to promote to a Dungeon Mage so smoothly in his previous life was because of the inheritance of a Dungeon Mage that he had stumbled upon. If not for the detailed record of exactly which shards to use and the attainments of the mage in feeding and cultivating them, it would have been impossible for him to achieve the height that he had.

Even then, it had been a path filled with trials and tribulations that made him exclaim in surprise at the fact that he had successfully traversed it every single time.

‘Now, where is the exit? Surely, they didn’t send me in just to trap me in here,’ frowned Sand as he couldn't find any sort of breach in the hermetically sealed cube.

Suddenly, the token he had placed in his pocket vibrated and flew out of his pocket, levitating towards one of the walls. Sand couldn't help but feel a little silly for forgetting about it in his shock at contacting a Dungeon so early in the timeline.

When the jet-black token approached the wall, it seemed to fold outwards in a strange, disorienting manner, forming a hexagonal portal that was spanned by an inky membrane. The token flew back to Sand and fell in his outstretched hand.

‘Truly the Spatial Tunnel shard,’ he affirmed before stepping through the membrane.

Passing through the portal felt like crossing a field of static. Every hair on his body stood upright as the tingling sensation covered him.

His field of view changed again as he came out on the other side. Shivering involuntarily, he rubbed his arms and pressed down on his vertical hair to tamp them down before taking stock of his surroundings.

It was a room very similar to the one he had just come from, except for the fact that it was several times larger and cuboidal. Rather than a room, it was more of a lengthy corridor with recessed compartments that lined both walls. The walls, ceilings and the compartments were made out of the same white, featureless material that composed the rest of the Dungeon.

Genesis stone it was called. The base material every Dungeon was made of at the time of its birth. It could evolve into any material influenced by the shards that composed the Dungeon. For some reason, the moment genesis stone was taken out of a Dungeon, it would spontaneously combust in heatless transparent flames and integrate into nature leading to speculation that it was actually a solidified form of mana. The presence of the genesis stone was another indication of the immaturity of this Dungeon. In a full-fledged Dungeon, all the genesis stone would have already been converted to other materials like soil, air and water.

Walking up to the shelves, Sand observed that each and every one of them contained a shard with a plaque made out of umber wood describing them.

When he tried to reach out and touch a shard, his hand bumped against a transparent, achromatic barrier. Unflustered, he tried using the token. The barrier dissolved at the token’s approach but just before it passed through the boundary of the compartment, an information transmitted directly into his mind in the form of a mechanical voice, making him pause.

‘I have to exchange the token for the shard. The moment I make the exchange, I’ll be transmitted out of here,’ confirmed Sand, testing the veracity of the information written on the plaque.

His gaze fell on the innocuous plaque that had been covered by a mild gloss upon the token’s proximity. ‘Whispering wood. As I thought, each one is a plank hewn from whispering wood. How luxurious,’ he exclaimed internally.

Whispering woods were quite rare and ones that grew to the scale required to condense a shard, rarer still. Using so much of the timber to merely annotate the shards demonstrated the rich resources of Gehenna.

Along with the instructions on how to use the token came information on the particular shard Sand was observing. It was a tiny flesh coloured crystal cube that had hair-thin strands of crystal emerging from each of its corners and digging into the slab of flesh upon which it was placed.

“A Tier 1 Strength shard that has been obtained from a Desert Spider,” read out the voice directly in his mind, “Advantages: Eight strands; each able to amplify the force of a limb. High levels of amplification. Disadvantages: Uneven amplification resulting in exploitable flaws. Parasites upon the muscular tissue – requires protein-rich diet. Relatively expensive compared to other strength shards.

“Advice: Use in conjunction with a transformation class shard to grow extra limbs to leverage the full potential of the shard. Requires the user to strengthen the skeleton to bear the amplified strength.”

Sand nodded at the description. It was quite succinct and gave a good idea of what the prospects of the shard were. The same Strength shard, depending on its origin could vary widely. For example, Sand was sure that Kreg’s Strength shard originated from a Stone Camel and uniformly increased the quality and output of his muscles. Additionally, depending on the origin, the shards would require different foods. As a predator, the Desert Spider fed on flesh and its shard was adapted accordingly. The Stone Camel on the other hand ate sand so Kreg had to eat the same. For that, he would need an auxiliary gourmet class shard called the Iron Gut shard that would help him digest the sand.

That would have the advantage of drastically reducing the feeding costs.

Feeding, Combination and Utilization. These were the three arts inherent to magical cultivation for Mortal Mages. Dungeon mages had to proficient in one additional aspect – Dungeon Management. If the mage was inept in any single field, he could give up any idea of achieving success.

Sand walked away from the Spider Strength shard. It was a very good shard even with its feeding cost and could tie in very well with an Asura Transformation shard looking more than impressive. A requirement necessary for him to garner the attention he needed for his subsequent plans.

But it wasn’t what he was looking for. He had a very clear idea of the shard he wanted. In fact, it could be said that the shard was the very reason he was so eager to be here in the first place.

Strolling leisurely through the aisle, Sand took inventory of every shard he came across. All the ones in this room were Tier 1. He was sure that the higher Tier shards were in other, similar rooms. Each shard was stored in a different manner appropriate to it and the dazzling variety of skills broadened even his outlook. After all, he was a free mage without the backing or education of an organization.

From time to time he would stop to check the description of a skill, memorizing its characteristics, advantages and weaknesses. This information was a similarly huge harvest, on par with the skill he would get.

Finally, after touring the entire corridor – counting exactly nine-hundred and four shards in the process – he stopped in front of a particular compartment that contained a jagged ruby-red crystal that was floating upon a stone bowl filled to the brim with blood.

It was the rare skill that had cemented his reputation as the Bloody Devil in his previous life – the medical skill shard: Phlebotomy. His eyes were profound as he reached out and picked it up, depositing the token in its place.

The mechanical voice rang out in his mind once again. “Tier 1 Phlebotomy shard that has been obtained from an Oasis Leech. Causes wounds inflicted on an opponent to bleed profusely and makes them difficult to heal. Advantages: Superior to an ordinary Bleed skill due to the added effect of detoxification of the blood-stream. Disadvantages: Decreased bleeding volume compared to an ordinary Bleed shard. Feeds on the user’s blood. Requires nutritious diet that promotes formation of blood. May result in chronic anaemia.

“Advice: Use in conjunction with Blood Manipulating skills for maximum effect.”

Then, a dark vortex appeared, swallowing him up and transmitting out of the Dungeon.