“Report for you, Ma’am.”

  Melle Mialana, Director of the Delving Society, looked up at her secretary, Garielith (Gary) Faltinor, and nodded toward her desk instead of replying. As he approached, she continued writing her letter and only stopped once he had placed the report where she had indicated. The cream-colored paper stood out pleasingly against the rich red wood of the desk.

  “Thank you, Gary," she murmured distractedly as she opened the message she had been waiting for. The runes, etched onto the paper with great skill, lit up, and her System responded by transcribing them directly. Most of the information was routine, but there were two notable exceptions.

  Attention!

  Feral dungeon break!

  The dungeon, commonly known as The Drowning Dark, has begun devouring the countryside. Powerful creatures have been loosed, and the casualties have been collected and returned to the dungeon. Requesting immediate assistance and complete support in the church’s fight to destroy this menace.

  - High Marshal, Cael’Fen

  Attention!

  Possible dungeon activity sensed in the Far North Reaches within the Sylcyne Forest. Requesting permission to ascertain specifics.

  - Silver Core Delver, Natalia Talios

  Melle glared at the first exception, slamming her fist on the table so hard it cracked. She stood up and began pacing, even as the desk healed itself from her blow. “By the gods above and below, I told them this would happen!” She punched the wood again and felt it crunch beneath her fist, her Gold Core strength almost shattering the magically enforced furniture.

  Gary simply stood and watched her impassively, his elven eyes watching and assessing her reactions. “Not good news, I take it then,” he drawled in his slow accent. She whirled on him, and he held his hands up in surrender. “Simply stating the obvious, Ma’am. No need to bite mah head off.”

  Melle groaned and moved toward him, holding her hand out. Gary reached out and clasped his hand to hers, forming the necessary contact for System Synchronization. He blinked as the information revealed itself to him, and his lazy expression hardened. His mouth tightened into a thin line. “I see,” he said in an even tone, a tone that Melle had come to learn meant he was enraged.

  Melle nodded and then sent the other interesting notification. She watched as his face softened a minuscule amount before it reverted back to its normal placid state, with only his eyes denoting the rage he still felt at the first missive. She returned to her desk and took her seat, picking the missive back up and going through protocol. She burned the report thoroughly to ash, so the only remaining record of it was in her System logs. Then she sat and stared out the window that provided a view of the capital city’s southern side.

  The hustle and bustle of the citizens calmed her even as her mind churned with guilt and rage. She should have disregarded the churches and their commands and rooted out that dungeon when she had the chance. Instead, it had been allowed to fester deep beneath the earth until it burst forth like a freshly popped boil.

  Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a cup being placed before her. She turned from the view to find that Gary had made a cup of tea for both of them, and out of the strong stuff at that. She didn’t begrudge him his choice on today of all days.

  “So what will you do?” He asked softly.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Melle sighed deeply before answering. “I’ll try to wring whatever I can out of the gods and their followers for this debacle, but they will have their delvers. As much as I despise them, I pity the victims more.”

  Gary nodded and broached the subject of the possible core to the north. “Do you think Natalia has what it takes? She still hasn’t gotten over her grandfather’s supposed death.”

  Melle knew what he was referring to. A couple of months ago, Natalia had felt the death of her grandfather. She claimed that the System had notified her. As she refused to share the details of the notification to prove her claims, the Delving Society refused her request to go search for his killer. She claimed that he wouldn’t have just died and had, therefore, been killed by someone or something. Natalia and her party had become a laughing stock among other delvers because of that fact, with many claiming that she was going as crazy as her grandfather.

  Melle simply nodded her head in confirmation. Regardless of the girl's beliefs, she was a fine delver and an accomplished fighter. Her party was skilled as well, and the whole team worked hard. As a Silver Core, she could handle any dungeon they stumbled across or at least get a good feel for its power level.

  “If she does find a dungeon, she will use her leverage as its discoverer to push for her requests to be granted,” Gary warned, his tone back to its lazy drawl. Melle simply waved a hand, and Gary seemed content to let it be. He, like her, had too much on his plate now to worry about some revenge mission. The Drowning Dark would consume all their time and energy for now. If it got too bad, they might even have to ask one of the Platinum Cores to step in, and no one wanted that.

  So they sat in the quiet before the storm and sipped their tea, watching the people flow on by like a living river. Both of them let the rage in their hearts rest for the moment, knowing that, all too soon, they would have to negotiate with the very people who had stoked the flames of their ire. However, they were wrong. The Drowning Dark was not the worst thing on the horizon, for far to the north, a miasma was growing in strength and testing its chains.

  ---------

  There was indeed a dungeon in the Sylcyne Forest, the dungeon of Valterra Unok’Davaas, the Playground of the gods. A dungeon that had seen better days, having just gone through a raid of Fae and Fallen creatures. The Fae he had slain, except for the leaders, and the Fallen he had claimed, what was left of them. As for his own creatures, many of them shone with the light of Ascension, but many more had been slain.

  Still, life went on for those who had survived, as they attempted to get back to normal. There were far too many dead for the third floor to return to the brawling mess it had been before, but there were still conflicts, mainly over the spoils of war. Three slugs munched on the bodies of salamanders, their newly ascended stony backs providing all the protection they needed, and their potent acid deterring the rest.

  A mouse flittered among the corpses, gathering as many little sparkling knick-knacks as possible before scuttling off to build a nest. A large mouse gathered her brood close, snapping at them to keep them in line. A newt took prizes here and there before disappearing into the damp depths of the fourth floor. Razor-sharp coils sliced through grass stems as a large snake glided away from the battlefield. Similarly large, a legless lizard moved from place to place, waiting for its tail to grow back.

  On the fifth floor, mice picked their way among the fallen fae, ensuring they were dead and gathering their weapons. There was true devastation in the funnel room, which was once the Archmage Calamvor’s living room. Wyvres shrieked in pain as the Aether in their blood attempted to put them back together. Rats squeaked pitifully as they tried to find the wounded among the dead while glaring at the large no-longer-Fallen that had done the deed.

  More of his kind had gathered just outside the house, looking at the mansion in half terror and half hope. They, in turn, were watched by four mice. The three Mouse Rangers and the Mouse Sneak had missed most of the battle, but they hadn’t missed the fact that the invaders had come from outside the borders of the dungeon. The Mouse Rangers were now gathering supplies and making the new weapons that their instincts were guiding them to make.

  The Sneak remained staring at the once-invaders. She burned to take them out, but they were now part of the dungeon, and they hadn’t participated in the fight to delve deeper. She would have to find other prey. She turned away from the new Risen and said goodbye to her fellow mice. She was heading deeper. She would go to whatever lengths she needed to make sure she was strong enough for the next group that came.

  The Rangers, for their part, didn’t waste much time. They gathered what they could and began moving away from their master's territory. They would search the surrounding area for any sign of more invaders while bringing anything of note back to the dungeon. They would make sure their master wasn’t surprised again. As for the dungeon himself, well, he had a lot on his plate.