Somewhere in a dimension illuminated with shadows a lone silhouette worked diligently to perfect the dangers it had created in it’s own realm. So far all his work lay exposed for the world to see. Left intentionally uncovered for ease of navigation during its creation, if one were to watch from above the massive network of interweaving tunnels would confuse and disorient you for long moments before you could understand how exactly the entire structure was laid out before you. You had to feel bad for the people that would eventually wind up being stuck inside the confusing mass of tunnels. Essentially everything was one massive multilevel maze except it was much more devious than that. Instead of progressively working your way deeper in levels the further you navigated the maze, you navigated all 3 of the levels the maze used at the same time. Teleportation pads were used in order to progress up or down, taking you to different levels several times during your travels and preventing potential invaders from easily mapping an area and working out which levels were where.

If that wasn’t bad enough, there were traps that were not exactly meant to kill instantly but might as well have killed you for what they did. Some hallways that seemed like a straight path might suddenly spin 90 degrees after stepping on a pressure plate, setting you on a completely different path. Although they were the rarest, the most dangerous of the traps were the ones that either dropped you a level or pushed you up a level. Not only did this set you on a path and cause you to lose track of your surroundings entirely, but the platforms that lifted you were big enough to prevent you from escaping when the trap activated but small enough that it would only catch 3 or 4 party members at most if they made the mistake of staying close together. These traps were almost guaranteed to separate the unlucky victims from the rest of their party and sentence them to an inevitable death.

There were some things about the maze that was helpful to intruders, however, throughout the entire maze, there were torch sconces every 30 paces. They, of course, weren’t lit but any smart adventurer could work out the idea to light the torches they passed as a means to indicate a path they had previously traveled. If someone managed to figure this trick out the torches were magically enchanted to stay lit the entire time someone was present in the instance. That changed once a torch was removed from the sconce, however. When removed, a lit torch will only stay burning for approximately 2 hours before finally burning out.

The silhouette was working in the deeper portions of the maze, placing intricate imagery along the walls of odd looking creatures fighting each other. Occasionally he chose a picture at random to imbue with magic and the image would seem to swallow the shadows around it before taking on a life of its own. After a few moments of moving the image would still and assume the previous position it had maintained, appearing no different from the other pictures painted along the wall.

……

I stretched my back as I forced the imagined aches from my muscles. “AAAgggh It feels good to stretch after all that tedium!” I looked around and admired my most recent work. I called them shadow lurkers, and they were my stealthy assassins scattered all over the maze I had just finished in my dungeon. I looked up at the nonexistent ceiling and willed myself upwards. My body floated into the space of my dimension and I examined the progress I had made so far. Each floor had a different theme in this maze. Since you traveled different floors constantly during the exploration of its winding pathways, you had to constantly be on your guard and changing tactics as both your environment and the enemies you fought were constantly shifting. My first floor was my personal favorite because of the intimidation factor it had on the first encounter. The environment was a catacomb filled with the undead. What made the fights so dangerous is that the undead in this floor weren’t your normal undead. They were shadow possessed undead. The very first fight when you entered the maze was against 3 shadow possessed skeletons. Standard procedure would be to just grab a mace and batter them to pieces. That wouldn’t work with his skeletons though. The shadows possessed the bones themselves not the skeleton as a whole. It would drop for a few seconds before the shadow gathered the will to assemble the skeleton again, splintered bones and all. This could potentially catch unwary intruders that had wrongfully assumed it was finished.

In essence, the creature was a shadow golem using the undead remains as a vessel. Its core was hidden inside the skull and if one were to smash the core, that would destroy the shadow golem. However, if you only bashed in the skull and didn’t touch the core itself, that did nothing to affect its functionality as it proceeded to shred you to ribbons. Other than destroying the core you could also use light spells and fire spells to great effect. Light magic was most effective since it is a direct counter to shadows but fire took a little bit more work to get the same results.

I was happy when I made these monsters since its weaknesses were similar enough to actual undead that the more dimwitted adventurers might take longer to realize that they weren’t fighting the actual undead and might make more mistakes as a result. Like trying to use healing magic to finish off a boss or something. Healing magic had no effect on his undead since they weren’t actually unholy creatures with evil origins but unthinking golems made from pure magic.

I had scattered normal bones and bodies to help my actual minions blend in more easily and catch the enemy off guard but not too much to be unfair for invaders. The entire point of this maze is to wear down the strength of intruders, not kill them instantly. “Everything looks in order on the first floor, but how about the second one?” I created a ceiling for the first floor to enclose the tunnels and seal off the rest of the dimension from them before moving to my second floor.

The theme for this floor was a more open cave system with narrow channels or pathways that you occasionally had to squeeze or crawl your way through them. It took a while but I eventually worked out a mechanic that would change the size of the smallest tunnels to barely allow the largest member of invading groups to be able to fit inside them. The point of this level was to allow travel throughout the maze easily enough but create points periodically that made the act of retreating during a fight either impossible or extremely difficult. After all, when you are being attacked by an enemy, you can’t defend yourself and crawl through a tunnel that only comes up to your waist at the same time.

The walls and floor are very uneven giving it a more natural cave feel to the whole thing. The main danger in this cave was the over abundance of enemies. Sometimes it was giant ants, or a giant worm mini boss, or even the occasional wolf pack. You were constantly at risk of being overwhelmed in each fight from either the large numbers of enemies or overwhelming power in a confined space. There were very few traps in level 2 other than the occasional unstable floor or ceiling. Well, no ceiling YET at least, not until he made sure everything else was finished. If too many people stood on a weakened floor it could potentially collapse and drop them to the floor below.

Satisfied everything was in order I started installing the ceiling in level 2. I paid careful attention to areas where pathways crossed above other pathways or in some cases, the first floor got close to the second level. I installed a weakened ceiling that could collapse and block off tunnel progress in the current tunnel and force the party to climb up the debris of the cave in and start over in the newly opened tunnel and figure out where they were all over again. I examined my handiwork one more time before moving on to the third and final floor of my maze. I decided to go with an ancient ruins vibe. This level has the highest concentration of traps, and not just the floor changing traps either. If you don’t watch your step, you are bound to trigger the occasional dart, poisonous fog, spike pit, and even a few guillotine pendulums.

One trap was especially devious even though I only made one instance of it but the kill potential made the rarity of it a requirement in order to be fair. It was simple boulder trap that would roll down a ramp in a long straight corridor before dropping down another trap door that only opened for the boulder itself and resealed behind it. What made this trap so dangerous though was the trigger was set on a delay at the beginning of the hallway. When stepped on, it started the timer and approximately 60 seconds later the boulder was set loose with another 5 seconds of warning from the rumbling noises it made before dropping from the ceiling. Of course this functioned as a secondary trap. The ceiling that dropped down ends up blocking the previous passage and forms a ramp to the next level. If a party is quick enough, they might get through the hallway before the trap activates. I timed it so that a party moving at a normal walking pace would just reach the point where the ceiling drops down as you hear the rumbling of the boulder so I had the chance of splitting the party when some rush past the dropping ceiling and others chose to fall back.

The enemies in this level are similar to the traps. Striking when you least expect it. I had created crude artwork of figures fighting or dancing or any other scene imaginable on all the walls on the third floor. A small portion of the images, probably 1 out of every 50 of them, were replaced with a shadow lurker. These were basically simple minded creatures that hid their vulnerable body inside a pocket dimension which rendered them incorporeal, but not invisible. They could change their body shape to match their surroundings but couldn’t strike at a target without exposing themselves to danger. They were very fragile and could be destroyed with a simple slap to the face, but the potential they had for ambushing targets made them too dangerous to just ignore. I only gave them all one command, attack an enemy that wasn’t paying attention to it.

“Finally! I’m finished with this! Now I just need to slap a ceiling on this last floor and create my boss room at the end.” I do just that and move on to get the details right for the boss room. After all, anyone that makes it through this shithole of a dungeon needs the most impressive bullshit ever to not make all that they went through seem meaningless. Another 8 hours of work and I’m finished. “Save dungeon layout as Maximum difficulty. Name it… umm… Trial of Shadows: Path of Blood.”

Dungeon layout saved. Trial of Shadows: Path of Blood has been added to the Dungeon folder. Current number of saves… 18.

I sigh whenever I see how many dungeons I created so far. I’ve spent 4 months in this dimension now doing nothing but creating new dungeons. Thinking back on everything, it still hurts when I think of what happened to me. I lost everything in my previous life and have only had hardships so far in this one. Except here. I spent all my time working on building different dungeon layouts in order to prepare for the onslaught of players set on killing me. The constant work was actually a soothing experience and helped me to keep my mind distracted. This latest dungeon was probably my most brutal and difficult one. I didn’t plan on ever using it except on the true assholes that stumbled their way into my dungeon.

For now though I was almost entirely on my own. No one ever visited me. Well except for Amy. She came in to check on me every 24 hours of real time but that time varied in here. The first time was about 3 weeks after I arrived and the last time she visited was just last month. So far, 4 days have gone by in the real world and I had 3 more to go. With an AI’s time distortion, that left me with a shitpile of time to kill… unless I decided to just leave right now. That could probably happen, but I was enjoying all the time I had to myself. Even though the dimensions dark oppressive atmosphere never changed, I never tired of it either. It felt oddly comforting to me actually. It must have something to do with my shadowy origins.

“Hmmm… Speaking of shadowy origins… I never really practiced with the magic abilities that Amy said I had… I think I have enough dungeons and it would probably be a good idea to develop some skills with fighting. It would totally suck if they got all the way to my room and just slapped me silly because I didn’t know how to fight.” I look around me. There are almost a score of dungeon layouts scattered all over the place. I had installed a mass teleport rune underneath the rift gate inside a room big enough to hold 1,000 people. A bit excessive, I know, but I prefer being over prepared to not being prepared enough. On top of that, the rune can only teleport 100 people at a time. So even if they bring a 1,000 strong raid group by some miracle, I can simple break them apart into the separate dungeons or even just take in 1 group at a time to frustrate the hell out of the people waiting at the rift gate.

I find an open space near the rift room and quickly create an arena where I can practice and not blow up any of my hard work. “Okay… sooo magic powers. How do I activate you? Hmmm…” I decide to go with the cliche and will something to happen. Instead of using magic I create a stone block. “Shit. I accidentally used my earring. Umm… disable Earring of Creation?”

Dungeon Creation abilities have been disabled temporarily.

“Okay, let’s try that again.” I once again will something to happen. “Come on shadows. Come to me, obey my orders.” After a long 5 minutes, nothing happens. “Shit. This isn’t working. How about another cliche?” Instead of trying to make things happen through force of will I go in a different direction and try to extend my awareness of my surroundings. I relax my body and just let the environment overwhelm me. After a few minutes of not effort, I feel the sensation of a coolness sliding over my fur. I look down to see that half my body is enveloped in shadows. At my excitement the shadows quickly start to retreat from me, as if the sudden emotion is what is pushing them away. Instead of fighting their retreat I calm myself as quickly as I can and open myself up to the world again.

The shadows stop leaving once they reach my calves and, after some hesitation, slowly work itself back up my body. I stay calm for as long as I can. It’s not easy because the more the shadows envelope me the more suffocated I feel. Like the shadows are a physical blanket smothering me. The most difficult moment is when my entire body has been covered in shadow and it had reached my chin. The suffocating feeling increased when it reached my mouth and nose and I could feel panic start to surge within me. I forced it down though and the shadows only paused for a moment before I was able to subdue the fear within me. A few seconds later the shadows covered my eyes, then my head, and finally my ears.

I sat there for a long while, unable to breathe and covered in shadows. Nothing happened and my instincts were threatening to take over my actions. No one liked being suffocated, and I was no different. I stopped trying to stay still after a full minute of nothing happening and I let my emotions get the better of me. Panic grabbed hold of me when the shadows didn’t retreat when I was no longer calm and I started to struggle. I tried to brush the shadows off my face with my arms but that did nothing as the shadows remained on me, entirely unaffected. After more ineffective thrashing my burning lungs couldn’t take it anymore and I reflexively opened my mouth and inhaled a lungful of air, except there wasn’t air, only shadows.

The moment I had opened my mouth the shadows poured inside it, down my throat and into my body. The surprise of the aggressive intrusion made me cough, but I need air to breath which made me inhale more shadow and cough more aggressively. I was stuck in an endless cycle of hacking coughs and breathing shadow and my consciousness faded as my lungs continued to burn. The shadows poured into my stomach and then poured into my lungs. Suddenly the cool sensation the shadows gave off soothed the burning feeling of my lungs and they stopped hurting so much. I continued to cough and inhale desperately but now my efforts were making me feel better and my vision slowly cleared up again. I could only see blackness though, I had forgotten about the shadows covering my eyes since they had been closed the whole time. As I opened my eyes, I was introduced to a new world of pain as my eyes burned as if covered in acid and making me forget all about the discomfort I felt earlier inside my body. My mind became foggy and I started losing focus on what was happening. I welcomed the empty darkness of unconsciousness as I passed out.

……

When I woke up my entire body ached and I coughed violently and cleared my throat out so I could breathe properly. I could breathe. Oh, thank you! I took great heaving lungfuls of air to celebrate the marvel that is oxygen before taking stock of my surroundings. I was still exactly where I was sitting before. Right in the middle of the arena, I had made. I then noticed I had a new notification and I opened it.

Congratulations: You have gone above and beyond the requirements of using shadow magic and fully embraced its nature. In return, the shadows have fully embraced you. The fact that you survived its embrace is a miracle in and of itself.

Effect: You are now a creature partially created of shadows. Complete immunity to shadow and darkness based magic. Attacks imbued with shadow magic will only increase your strength. 100% affinity towards all spells and abilities tied to shadow magic. Using Shadow magic will come more naturally to you. Because you are not an entirely corporeal creature anymore, normal attacks affect you to a lesser degree. 50% resistance to physical attacks not imbued with magic when you are not exposed to magical light.

Penalty: Light magic is a major weakness. When exposed to magical light your shadows can be nullified and expose you to attack. 50% more damage from light based spells. Fire magic is now a minor weakness. Fire based magic inflicts 10% more damage to you.

I gape at the notifications. “I’m a creature of shadow now? Whoa.” Now that I notice, I can kinda feel something a bit… more about myself, like an extra limb. I reach out and try flexing that “limb” and I am surprised to see the very shadows shifting in front of me. I twist the limb into a ball-like shape and the shadows oblige me and form a sphere. I smile to myself “This is going to be a lot of fun! I guess I gotta a couple months left now. Might as well get some practice out while I have the time.”