Dungeon Master 07 and I exchanged a wary glance before cautiously advancing toward the center of the chamber. As we moved forward, more details came into focus. Lining both the left and right walls were large, ominous pillars, standing tall and formidable. Ten rows of them stretched forward from the entrance, creating three columns, one along each wall and one running down the middle of the room. The central pillar, thicker and more imposing than the others, dominated the space with its sheer size.
Between these pillars, large cylindrical tubes stood ominously, their presence even more disturbing than the pillars themselves. Some of the tubes contained humanoid figures, frozen in place, while others housed more abstract or monstrous forms. Normally, I’d be on edge, worrying about whether these figures might come to life. But Dungeon Master 07 and I both knew that these were just remnants of whatever twisted experiments had taken place in the room the dungeon the room mimicked from, nothing more.
Yet, what struck me most was the overwhelming sense of technological dominance in the room. Exposed cables, pipes, and vents snaked across the floor, walls, and ceiling, making the space feel like a dark, advanced workshop or laboratory. The mechanical and industrial elements seemed to pulse with a life of their own, as if the room itself was watching us. Under different circumstances, I would’ve been fascinated, eager to unravel the mysteries of this place. But right now, my focus was elsewhere: on the thing this chamber was named "Guardian Chamber" for.
Our cautious steps eventually brought us to the centerpiece of the chamber. At the far end of the room, opposite the entrance, was a raised platform that resembled both an altar and a throne. Sitting on this platform was a humanoid female figure, its unnaturally white hair catching the dim light in the room. The figure was seated in a large, throne-like chair, and as I used my [Eagle Eyes] to take a closer look, I noticed that the chair was connected to various cables and mechanical arms.
At first glance, it might’ve appeared human, but as I scrutinized it further, I could see the mechanical components beneath its skin. In that moment, it was clear that this figure wasn’t just sitting in the chair, it seemed powered, or perhaps was once put together by the machinery surrounding it. Aware that this thing was the guardian of this domain, I also instinctively felt that this was no ordinary guardian.
I hadn’t even appraised the thing yet, but already, every hair on my body was standing on end. Dungeon Master 07 seemed to share my unease. His expression was tight with worry. "What’s the stats on that thing?" he asked, his voice tense.
"I’ve tried to appraise it, but it’s not appraisable yet," I admitted, my eyes never leaving the humanoid figure on the throne. He simply nodded, though I couldn’t tell if he had guessed the reason or not. Frankly, I didn’t care, my attention was locked on the figure, as I repeatedly cast appraisal, a deep unease growing in my gut. This was going to be a problem, and I didn’t have the means to gauge just how big of a problem it was.
As I stared at the figure, I noticed a subtle movement, a slight flutter of its eyebrows. Then, with a disturbingly human gesture, it slowly opened its eyes. They shone with an unnatural white light, a light that some might’ve mistaken for a holy radiance. But to me, it was something else entirely, something artificial. Those eyes, cold and mechanical, looked at us with a condescending expression that sent a shiver down my spine.
The figure stood up from its chair, detaching itself from the cables that had been connected to it. As it rose, a pair of large, white wings unfolded from its back. The sound they made as they deployed was distinctly mechanical, confirming that every part of this being was engineered, not organic.
"This… this isn’t good," Dungeon Master 07 muttered, his face going pale. "Dungeon Master 08, if you can appraise it now, tell me this isn’t what I think it is. What’s it saying?"
He wasn’t the only one desperate to know what we were up against. I too was. From the moment we’d entered the room, I’d tried to appraise the figure, but until it spread its wings, I hadn’t been able to get any information. Now, however, the interface appeared before my eyes, and what I saw confirmed Dungeon Master 07’s and ultimately my worst fears.
As I read the interface, my mind swirled with questions, urgent, primordial ones tangled with others less pressing, but all together forming a chaotic mess in my thoughts. How does this make sense? This model wasn’t in the catalog, when did it become a thing? Why does this guardian have a name, a real name, not just a model number? Is this place run by something like us, or by something merely sentient? How? Why?
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
My mind raced to piece together answers, but it was a futile effort, at least in the heat of the moment. I only realized how lost I was when Dungeon Master 07 snapped me back to reality. "Oi, Dungeon Master 08! Are you with me? What’s the appraisal say, is it what I think it is?"
I looked at him, then back at the winged, mechanical construct, and finally at the interface before my eyes. Dread seeped into my voice as I answered his question with a single, "Yes," and confirming nod.
The moment a Highbreed manages to invest 100 points in their Faith attribute, something achievable around level 35 if Faith is the highbreed’s primary scaling attribute, they undergo an evolution. This transformation allows them to divest of their human nature to be part of the angel race, as something called "Angel," the most basic subrace of humanoid angels. Despite their newfound angelic nature, they retain largely human characteristics, mainly that they are still mortal, they can die of old age. The key difference is access to unique angelic attributes and a new leveling system, which opens the door to further evolution to a much stronger subrace of angel, one such evolution down the line is becoming something called an Archangel.
For a Highbreed to transcend their mere "Angel" nature and become something more, an "Archangel," additional requirements must be met. Alongside the 100 points in Faith, the Highbreed, if he does not desire to evolve into an angel but want to become immediately an archangel, must have at least two other attributes leveled to 100, a feat usually achievable only by level 50. Additionally, they must possess a level 4 Longevity skill.
Archangels, if one were to compare them to humans, are to the Seraphim what kings are to an emperor. Unlike the common Angel, they are long-lived, if not outright immortal. Archangels are the closest humanoid beings to the Seraphim, making them the second strongest humanoid race of the angelic humanoid hierarchy.
As I examined the mechanical construct before us, I couldn’t find any clear confirmation of what it was mimicking. But with my extensive knowledge of all races, both monstrous and sentient, I knew at a glance what it was mimicking with those wings, that halo, and that aura. Without even appraising the construct, Dungeon Master 07 and I instinctively knew that the mechanical construct before us was mimicking an Archangel. The appraisal only confirmed the dread we both felt.
The construct operated using a strange metric, different from the familiar status info like MP, HP, SP, offense, defense, or even level and titles. When I appraised it with my identification skill, I was met with new, confusing values. But after spending time in this dungeon, spawn-hunting, I’d grown skilled at translating these strange values into something more familiar. It wasn’t an exact science, but it allowed me to gauge the spawn's strength accurately. And in this case, the stats displayed for that angelic construct scaled the same way an actual Archangel’s would. This realization led to one immediate, logical conclusion:
I wasn’t alone in that decision, Dungeon Master 07 also made a break for it. But we barely made it a dozen meters before we both came to a screeching halt, a grim realization sinking in.
"You’ve got to be kidding me," I winced.
I immediately turned back toward the guardian, appraising it again, searching for something I knew should be there. But, to my surprise, I found the complete opposite.
As a former Dungeon Core, I knew exactly what I would do if an invader stronger than my guardian made it to the guardian room, the most important place in the dungeon. You, as a Dungeon Core, would have two choices: let your guardian fight and hope for a miracle, or you can activate a special option. This option boosts your guardian's strength, but at a price. If the guardian loses, you lose control over all the GP you've harvested. This particular option comes with two significant effects: it boosts the guardian's strength to equalize the fight, and it strips the invader of any chance of escape.
The condition set, there are only two possible outcomes: either the guardian falls, or the invader does. I’d always wondered what that stripping of the possibility of escape felt like for an invader. Well, now I am experiencing it firsthand. I felt it to my bone, if I tried to retreat, I would lose everything. It strangely didn’t make me particularly worried about my life, but I knew that anything else, anything I had gained, would be stripped away by the dungeon’s established conditions. Whoever or whatever was controlling this dungeon was willing to bet everything.
"Crap, crap, crap," Dungeon Master 07 cursed under his breath. "Tell me, how bad has it gotten?"
I used my "appraisal" again. "You’re not going to believe this, but it’s actually the opposite," I said, pointing at the mechanical angel.
---
[Project MC-13AA Interface]Name: Fia
Race: Mechanical Construct
Model: Project MC-13AA
Title: Dungeon Guardian
[Status]M.A: 39928 / 39928
V.D.F: 43,740
Offense: Calibrating...
---
"I see no boost here. If anything, it’s been crippled, about 35 percent of its status value is missing."
Dungeon Master 07 frowned, struggling to process the information. I had to force myself to accept it too. Maybe, despite all my experience as a Dungeon Core, there was something we’d been missing about how this option actually works. Perhaps it was simply meant to equalize a fight against a strong opponent, not guarantee victory as we always thought it did. But deep down, I knew this didn’t make sense either. After all, we mostly used this feature to bully invaders far far weaker than our guardians, stripping them of their chance to run and still receiving this massive stat boost.
To avoid getting tangled up in too many thoughts, I decided to temporarily accept that we might not have fully understood how that mechanic worked back then, and that our misinterpretation of how the boost functioned was the most plausible explanation.
After a brief moment, Dungeon Master 07 chuckled. "I have no idea how this happened, but you’re telling me this has become winnable?"
"I wouldn’t know if the boost applied to its HP, MP, or SP, since those don’t show up. But as far as M.A. and V.D.F. go, this isn’t as hopeless as it seemed a moment ago," I replied, tightening my grip in determination.
There is no way I’m dying in this place.
"I see. Since whoever is behind this dungeon wants to strip us of everything so badly…" He let out a sigh before unholstering his greatsword from his back. His golden and white armor extended, covering his face and forming an equally white and golden helmet, leaving only his eyes exposed. "Then that means there’s only one thing we can do: respond in kind."