Sleeping was a simple thing to most of the world’s creatures.

One would put their bodies into a relaxed state and have a good night’s rest. This involved leaving the waking world behind and visiting a world beyond the reasoning of most mortals, but they went none the less and dreamed dreams of a better time and place. Maybe the dreamer would dream of the future, of loves lost, of bittersweet memories that could have been different, or of being naked in front of a large crowd.

Waking was no different and no more difficult than sleeping. Once the body had enough rest, the mind would pull the self back to its mortal form with promises of the warm, waiting sun or of the waters calling to be explored once more.

For more or for less, that was the way of most living things.

However, that was not the life of a dungeon core.

Sleep was a foreign concept to a core. Something that was done for pure necessity to preserve mana during the quiet times when the adventurers were gone and challengers of even the natural world were scarce. It was something done only in the most dire of circumstances. There was nothing natural about it, and usually, a dungeon core never awoke from such a state. Usually, a sleeping core was either shivered, devoured, or replaced.

Even so, Silpha never considered herself normal.

She, at least she considered herself a she still, remembered little about this particular time. Sure, she remembered how it all started well enough. She’d been told by the Overseer to run an early dungeon on the first floor to train the adventurers for the greater challenges to come. Due to her water affinity, she was assigned a simple, familiar monster for the adventurers to tackle — a slime.

They were by far the most versatile Silpha had ever worked with, but slimes were disgusting creatures that did little more than eat and kill. No, she preferred the grace of the merfolk, of the leviathans, of the creatures that could swim and fly; however, that was her lot though. There was incentive to do well. The Overseer had promised her that she could wield more power when they reached floor twenty. Even so, slimes were a unique creature and could be bred to do almost anything.

So, Silpha did what came naturally. She built her dungeon, added trials, and made it so the simple creatures would evolve and challenge anyone who came.

As she had been told, the first adventurers had come and ventured into the dungeon, but they left before they could see her dungeon guardian. Silpha was disappointed, but then again, groups had to know their limits. It was part of the learning process. To her great surprise a few hours later, a new group had arrived. They were weaker than the first by a margin, but she thought nothing of it and challenged them as she had been instructed. It was the most fun she’d had in days. Silpha watched them work together, put their strange skills to work, and defeated even the conditional challenges they created for themselves.

All in all, they survived well until they reached her guardian’s chamber. For them, that was a turning point. The group nearly fell to her Hoard Slime, but something changed when they regrouped and pushed through.

Then, the unexpected happened, and Silpha rubbed her metaphorical hands together as their leader fell into her mana vent.

He should have died and been one more source of power for her with the group following soon after as they began to scatter. Of course, if they lived, she would have compensated the party for his death, but it never came to that.

Somehow, the [Monster Tamer] had survived.

Worse than that, he’d even seen her.

Still, that didn’t matter, the mana density would have killed him in a matter of moments.

Then, it just kept getting worse.

He didn’t die.

He learned to swim. That in itself was worth researching, but Silpha attributed the idea mostly to aetheric madness.

Mists below, it hurt to remember what came next.

He put her in a bag — a bag!

The indignation of it all.

Somehow between being put into a bag and waking up in… wherever she was, things had changed. Silpha had lost control of her mana, feeling significantly weaker, rougher, like she’d fallen to less than half of her own power and couldn’t find more. As strange and curious as the situation was, that just couldn’t be though.

As a test, Silpha reached out, searching for something, anything to give her an idea of where she was. Instead of her influence reaching to the far corners of this place and learning more, her power turned in on itself, and she felt a backlash like nothing she’d ever felt.

Pain was a memory Silpha didn’t cherish. It was almost as distant a memory as having a body or fear. Still, she kept probing, search, recoiling as she searched for a hole in the defenses, a way to do anything else, a way to escape, but the defense was as complete as if the Overseer had created the prison himself.

On a whim, Silpha checked her Interface for any special events or notices and was met with something wholly unexpected as she reviewed what had happened.

She hadn’t just been trapped.

The [Monster Tamer] had challenged her for dominance —

—

Challenge in progress:

Myles Chase (Influence 17) Versus Silpha (Influence - Grand Dungeon).

Due to a factor of over ten times that of Myles Chase…

Skill activated - Toss of a Coin.

The outcome of the challenge has changed.

You have lost a challenge against Myles Chase (Skill: Toss of a Coin).

—

— and won.

The skill was one she wasn’t familiar with, but that wasn’t what concerned her. She’d been challenged in the heart of her power, and for all the power and immortality that came with being part of the Grand Dungeon, she’d lost. Silpha put all her power into it as she tried to remember, but her usual perfect recall was fuzzy —

And there was more.

—

You have been soul bound by [Monster Tamer] Myles Chase.

The effect cannot be undone.

As a bound Dungeon Core, you cannot perform a hostile action towards Myles Chase and his allies.

Your abilities have been restricted by an effect: Monster Pen Maintenance

Your usable mana has been reduced by 70%.

Your stats have been reduced by 70% in accordance with ambient mana and restrictions.

The following Skills and Traits have been restricted by your soul bond:

Influence has been restricted to act within the space granted by [Monster Tamer] Myles Chase. Absorption has been restricted to items granted to you by [Monster Tamer] Myles Chase. Fabrication has been restricted to your personal space and cannot create an item to kill [Monster Tamer] Myles Chase. Items cannot be created to be stronger than that of the lowest floor Myles Chase has visited. Avatar is bound to the same rules as Fabrication. Summoning has been restricted to your personal space and cannot be used to create a monster to kill [Monster Tamer] Myles Chase or created outside of your control specifically to be tamed by or kill [Monster Tamer] Myles Chase.

Empathic Bond (Simple) has been created between you and [Monster Tamer] Myles Chase.

Myles Chase [Monster Tamer] has been branded by your dungeon.

—

As flabbergasted as she was, Silpha was fascinated at the turn of events. Sure, she had been disturbed at the turn of events, but she could have died. Instead, she was presented with a new opportunity to learn and see the world — starting now.

As a dungeon core created by the Overseer, Silpha had been granted an extensive personal codex detailing everything from modern languages to obscure classes the Runners were assigned during the Run, and using this extensive knowledge of Classes, Skills, and Status Effects, Silpha discovered the bond’s purpose. It was… intriguing as she considered the depth of the skill. Empathic Bond was a way for her and the [Monster Tamer] to communicate on a fundamental level, using emotions rather than words so that they could read one another movements and feelings to grow used to working together. It grew naturally over time as the pair, the monster and tamer, grew closer.

It had potential for great things, but there was a problem with it.

The connection was so basic, so unrefined to the point of being useless.

The restriction that came with the ‘taming’ to her skills irked her to no end, but having such a basic mind magic applied to her just seemed insulting.

So, Silpha reviewed the restrictions and reviewed just how in depth the status was. Being two way, it was power granted to her…

Her influence could work wherever she was granted space, and the connection worked very similar to her connection to an Avatar when she made it…

Did the restriction care where that space was?

The Empathic Bond’s magic was something akin to an enchantment mingling with the mind and soul while using other underlying enchantments to allow for progression of the connection without subjugation of either mind via the process. The idea fascinated her, and to test a theory, she sent a wisp of influence through the link.

There was no backlash, and her Influence mingled with the enchantment.

Silpha was practically giddy with ideas and went to work.

Using her own skill as a starting point, the dungeon core began to rewrite the enchantment’s abilities to more suit her need. There were many parts she couldn’t override due to the depth of the ingrained soul power, but there were parts she could tease out.

With a slight overlay, Silpha overwrote the Empathic Link with something more suitable for communication and solidified it with a snap of her Influence.

—

Silpha, Dungeon of the Purifying Wake has altered the bond to [Monster Tamer] Myles Chase using her personal Influence.

Soul Bond - Empathic Link has been modified into Soul Bond - Dungeon’s Thought Construct.

Soul Bond complexity has been artificially increased from Simple to Of One Mind.

Stats cannot be boosted due to the method of skill evolution.

—

Due to the increase in connection between you and your Tamer, Myles Chase has obtained your blessing and access to the skill Avatar.

Due to his Classes, Avatar is not a viable skill.

Skill Synthesis in progress.

A New skill has been created for the [Monster Tamer] Class — Monster Tamer’s Avatar

New skill has been recorded and arranged in the [Monster Tamer] Grand Codex.

***

Monster Tamer’s Avatar

Skill Type: Active (Unique)

Restricted Skill: Grandmaster Monster Tamer (Unique - Dungeon Core Modification)

Cost: 50 SE

Cast Type - Chant

Cast Time - 60 Seconds plus a varied additional time for body modification. Time increases with complexity of the changes and species differential.

Duration - 24 hours, until canceled, or until Critical Damage has been obtained

Cool Down - 24 Hours

Distance: Touch

Success Determination: Soul Link Status

Effect: Deepen the connection between your soul and the soul of another living creature bonded to you and merge your forms, classes, skills, and personalities to create the [Monster Tamer]’s Avatar. In this state, Tamer and Monster become one, adding the two stat pools together and averaging them with a skew to a higher levels of each. Strain of the skill is split between the two bodies evenly upon separation.

Only a single avatar can be created per species type and is lost upon the death of the bonded monster. New Avatars of a prior species can be attempted after the expiration of the Soul Shivered Debuff but becomes increasingly difficult with each monster’s death of that species.

If this skill is used with a spirit class or other astral creature that has no corporal form, you will suffer from the Astral Walker status for 24 hours.

This skill cannot be used on Dungeon Cores, undead, or plague creatures.

Status Effect - Astral Walker: You have touched a realm beyond the physical and lost part of what binds you to the physical world. As an Astral Walker, the physical holds no bounds to you. Your Body and Dexterity are weakened by 90%, but your Will and Influence are increased by the same margin. As this status resolves, if your Will reaches over 50 as an effect of this and your Body would drop below 1, Astral Walker is replaced by Soul Walker.

Status Effect - Soul Walker: For the duration of this status, enter a comatose state and become a spirit entity. The Common language is replaced by Soul, and you may see and interact with spirit entities during this time. You cannot be seen or interacted with except by those with abilities that can see or interact with souls and spirits. Damage you receive and deal becomes soul based. Soul damage cannot be healed at an accelerated rate.

—

Silpha winced slightly. She hadn’t meant to trigger a skill creation, and that level of a skill being implanted into the soul probably hurt… a lot.

If she had shoulders, she would have shrugged. Side effects couldn’t be helped during the creative process.

He hadn’t died after all. That was a win in itself seeing as she would have more than likely suffered heavily from the empathic backlash of losing someone bound to her very soul.

Putting that aside, Silpha knew she had been putting this off long enough. She reached out with her mind over the much more organized connection and opened her thoughts to the one that had trapped her.

If Silpha could breath, she’d have been holding her breath. First impressions were important after all.

“Tamer, we need to talk.”