Victor paused in his story both to take the drink Mina offered and to gauge her reaction to his tale, thus far. It was easily apparent that she was curious, but she also had a look urging him to continue on with his story. Victor gave a sigh before he continued with his tale. “Where was I, Ah yes, the Aftermath of Greentooth Cavern. There was much celebration when we returned, though some nobles were disgruntled at the fact that the Princess and I got all the attention, it was to be expected. Due to what happened there, in the cavern they changed the plan a bit.

Instead of simply brute forcing the Dungeons, as they had planned, they started scouting them out more. This was mainly due to almost losing the Princess, as while she was one in name only, she held the attention and loyalty of nearly the entire army at the time. In the Months afterwards we cleared most of the other Dungeons, a few we sealed, others we destroyed. Through that time we became closer, though we hadn’t progressed to lovers yet. Tara had wanted to wait until it was all over. We discovered what had caused the Overflow, or what could have caused it, I am still not sure."

It was when there were only 3 Dungeons not dealt with. They were the Whispering Abyss, the Elemental Labyrinth, and the Cave of the Forgotten. The Labyrinth was home to several sentient beings, ranging from Elemental Golems to true Elementals, that was why it was only watched and not assaulted. The upper levels housed primal elementals and there had been an agreement that the Kingdom could hunt and train there, as long as they did not try to go to deep into a place they did not belong. The Whispering abyss was saved to be the Last, as it was and probably is the most dangerous Dungeon in the Kingdom.

The only choice that was left was the Cave of the Forgotten. Myths told that long ago before most of the current Kingdoms and Empires rose up, there was an Imperium whose name has long since been forgotten. Due to unknown events, this powerful and awe inspiring Imperium fell, in a single night. Its forces scattered, and legends tell that some tried to make a home in the Cave. Now all that was left of them were the ruins and vengeful spirits that roam the once peaceful cavern. It was not quite as dangerous as the Abyss, but it was not far off.

The Cave was different from the other Dungeons, it, like the Elemental Labyrinth was a, well a Labyrinth. Labyrinths are technically a sub-type of Dungeon. Normal Dungeons had levels, which were mostly set, with some small variations from time to time; Labyrinths on the other hand were far different. Labyrinths were ever changing, even while people were inside. Once there was a time when the Kingdom tried to map it by keeping an Exploration team in there then sending other teams in to map it. However the initial Exploration team vanished, mostly, only one man survived. His story shed some light on the subject, as the other Teams entered the Labyrinth shifted and crumbled.

It had started reshaping itself, this caused most of his Team fell to their deaths, but he somehow survived. This gave some insight into Labyrinths, suggesting that unlike Dungeons, Labyrinths had a set amount of space and material they could occupy at a time. Normal Dungeons on the other hand were seemingly endless and unlimited in a sense, but are more limited in certain ways that Labyrinths weren’t. Normal Dungeons can be taken control of by Mortals through certain rituals. Certain ancient Dungeons on the other hand can have developed sentience and can make contracts or bonds to make a mortal into their Dungeon Master.

Dungeon Masters are unique beings, I don’t really know much about them. Even after encountering one in the Labyrinth, but anyways, enough about that. Despite the ever-changing complexity, we somehow made our way through the levels. The first few levels only contained weaker types of Spirits and Ghosts as well as Skeletons. Normally, Skeletons are somewhat frail monsters, though they come in nearly as many variants of goblins do. It was only when we reached the 5th level that we started encountering traps and Variants. Typical traps in a Dungeon can vary from simple pitfall traps to more complex ones involving random teleportation traps.

They can take you to a random hallway or perhaps even a Summoning room. Those are particularly dangerous as the room you arrive in will be full of monsters. Some such rooms are only constrained by the mana received from the core; this can make the room spawn near endless amounts of monsters. Luckily we didn’t encounter anything like that, though once more the Princess and I were separated from the rest of the group. The two of us wandered, for an untold amount of time. Despite how it sounds, the Wandering was not without threat. We encountered many monsters, of different types, not just the undead variants we had been encountering up to the separation from the rest.

The place she and I were did things to us, made us see and do things that we wouldn’t normally do. We fought our way to the depths of the Labyrinth. Both of us had been heavily injured in the last fight, due to some peculiarities of my abilities and what that creature had been. It was during that fight that the two of us bonded on level that had been missing before. Though I was hesitant to use that aspect of my abilities, it was needed at the time. Despite the fact that I was ripped away from my world and brought here, I had grown close to some.

The Arch-mage was a friend as was the Captain of the Guard of the time. They like many subservient to the kingdom were less than agreeable with the actions the Kingdom took. Despite that we became friends, from what I understand none of them are here anymore. Anyways, we had stopped to rest and recover outside the Final chamber. We thought it was the Final chamber, at least, and in a sense it was. What lay within it was a sight to see, there were massive stone rings that housed portals of sorts. They were not unlike those seen in several popular Sci-Fi shows, though of a more magical origin.

There were many of them, they numbered beyond counting. The Portals were set up flanking a large stone Throne of sorts. Seated on the Throne was a gauntly clad figure, who was naught but skin and bone. The Figure wore and ornate crown that despite its apparent age gleamed in what little light graced the room. That was not what was truly startling about the scene. What made us pause was that from each port Hordes of monsters poured out. They weren’t just the base monsters, but many Variants as well. Most of them broke off and went down corridors leading from the room.