Leron POV:

  ?

  De’gon, the dungeon master, and his dungeon manager, Leron, were watching the battle unfold at the entrance to the second floor. They usually only checked in occasionally on Willow’s group, but ever since evolving into a Soullight Phantasm, De’gon’s watched over Willow to try to discover Willow’s new abilities. He needed to know what sort of danger a wisp’s evolution could pose to his reign over the dungeon. Fortunately for him, Willow still lacked a direct means to attack, against humans or monsters. Their greatest asset will continue to be their strategic mind and utilization of the dungeon to eliminate dungeon delvers. He was aware of Willow’s new skill, ‘Possession’, but wrote it off as it would be unlikely to work against stronger beings. He also saw Willow create shadowy silhouettes, but assumed it was another abnormal application of their ‘Glow’ skill, unable to see that Willow possessed ‘Illusion Magic’.

  ?

  With only a few hours passing since their evolution, De’gon wasn’t too concerned with Willow’s evolution, but the imp’s and stone golem’s evolutions were close at hand. Normally, an imp should evolve into a Quazit, and a stone golem into a copper golem, under the dungeon’s current environmental conditions. If the dungeon weren’t just the standard cave-type, then different variants of monsters could spawn and evolve, but that doesn’t pertain here. Skills can enhance or cause variation in a monster’s evolution, so there was always potential even in standard dungeons. Depending on what Pim and Vulcan evolved into, they could be a good addition to the dungeon’s strength, especially Pim.

  ?

  “Generon,” said De’gon, “you named the imp, correct?”

  ?

  “Yes. He displayed intelligence above normal imps, or at least a cleverness to survive multiple encounters with dungeon delvers. If he survived long enough to evolve, I thought he would be a good addition as a manager.”

  ?

  “He could be, as long as his loyalty to me is greater than to the wisp. Can you be sure of that?”

  ?

  “Yes, naming him should have been enough to at least prevent him from taking action against you. His allegiance may sway in direct conflict, but eliminating that wisp should solve any issues.”

  ?

  De’gon nodded, satisfied with his manager’s discretion. He knew his authority would allow him to force all dungeon monsters to yield, but relying on that would diminish a monster’s capabilities, aside from combat. Leron, standing on the other side of De’gon, bore witness to this entire conversation. He would not speak unless spoken to, so he remained quiet, but that didn’t stop the emotions roiling inside of him. These base-level monsters, not even a month old, were poised to become equal in rank to him. Monsters who were weaker than him were the focus of the dungeon master, even being prioritized over himself. He believed monsters without strength were nothing more than fodder for the humans. He opposed everything that was discussed, but held his tongue so as not to lower Degon’s opinion of him after nearly flubbing the previous test of strength. Then, a stroke of luck, for him at least, revealed itself in the ongoing fight. Willow managed to possess a human, but ended up being stabbed in the heart, leading to the death of the imp his fellow dungeon manager had such high hopes for. He didn’t know Willow’s current state, but surely this would deal with any potential upset to the status quo. Generon, however, could only grit his teeth as he watched Pim be cut down, his time and hopes wasted in his last act. One of the humans was then able to escape up the stairs, violating one of the conditions given to Willow to use Pim and Vulcan to level up.

  ?

  “Hmm, a shame to lose the imp, but at least the golem evolved into a variant of the copper golem. Some more time, and it should be strong enough to fight against any serious attempts to destroy the dungeon. But I’d rather not need to prepare for an invasion. Leron, deal with the human; it’s already weakened.”

  ?

  “Yes, dungeon master.”

  ?

  Kneeling towards De’gon, Leron prepared himself internally, confident in his ability. All he had to do was kill an already injured human, which should restore some of De’gon’s opinion of him. In an instant, he was teleported to the entrance of the dungeon, Garrus already three-quarters of the way through the first floor in the minute and a half since escaping from Willow. Leron could smell the blood streaming from him, wounded from deflecting Pim’s last attack with his handless arm. The air whistled as he ran as fast as he could to the entrance of the dungeon, but waiting there was Leron, anticipating the moment of battle. Leron witnessed his battle against Vulcan, where he avoided any fatal wounds against a stone golem, wielding only a sword. Against a flesh-and-blood monster, his skill would have shone more. Still, he was able to counterattack against Pim, who was even faster than Leron, so Leron remained cautious. Despite all expectations, Garrus sped up when he saw Leron, resolving himself to a gamble against a stronger opponent. Leron was surprised for a moment, but smiled in the face of this challenge. Unsheathing his sword and holding it to the side, he prepared to launch a horizontal swing to cover the most area and let Garrus’ momentum be his own downfall. Right before Garrus stepped into range, he flicked his wrist, launching his sword with the added momentum of his sprint. Leron, unable to expect a swordsman to purposefully let go of their only weapon, swung at the flying sword, knocking it out of the air, but allowing Garrus to get to the side of him, eyes only on the stairs. Screaming in humiliation, Leron thrust his sword to catch Garrus from behind before he got to the stairs. Hoping his unexpected strike would buy him enough time, Garrus was disappointed in the result, but the outside world needed to know about the dangerous elements emerging in this dungeon. Raising his elbow, he caught the tip of the sword with the point of his elbow, deflecting the sword at the cost of his arm from the elbow down. He slammed against the wall of the stairs , unable to fully resist the force of the blow, but that still wasn’t enough to stop him. Sacrificing his ability to ever wield a sword again, almost guaranteeing a slow death as he loses blood, he still persisted and climbed those stairs.

  ?

  Leron, now panicking, tried to give chase until De’gon’s voice rang through his head.

  ?

  “Stop! Do not leave the dungeon!”

  ?

  “I can catch him! He’s bleeding out. I’ll make sure he's dead.”

  ?

  “No! You are not allowed to set foot outside of the dungeon. That is final. Speak no more, you’ve already disappointed me enough.”

  ?

  Leron was tasked with a simple mission, and he had failed. The lone human had gotten away, almost surely to warn other humans of what was happening inside the dungeon if he lived long enough to find another one. He tried to take one more step to see Garrus’ fleeting figure, but a crushing weight around his core manifested, preventing him from doing so. De’gon’s authority as the dungeon master prevented Leron from disobeying a direct order, so long as he was in the dungeon. Should he step out of the dungeon, that authority would hold no power over him, which De’gon wanted to avoid at all costs. With nothing else he could do, Leron resigned himself to the consequences of his failure, staring at the stairs while he waited to be teleported back.

  ?

  “Shit.”

  ?

  Garrus POV:

  ?

  Garrus didn’t know how long he was running up those stairs, but to him, it felt like an eternity. The only saving grace was the adrenaline numbing the pain from his numerous wounds. There was almost no way for him to survive, but he ran anyway; that was the resolve he held. If he couldn’t be the one to bring back his student’s remains, then he could leave it in someone else’s hands; someone else could deal with that abnormal dungeon. Fortunately, as soon as he stepped into open sunlight, he ran into the arms of a dungeon delver. A party of dungeon delvers was about to make a journey to the middle floors.

  ?

  “Hey, man, watch where you’re goi- holy shit!”

  ?

  The rest of the party registered the state of Garrus a moment after the man holding Garrus, digging through their bags for any medical supplies. They began tending to Garrus’ wounds as quickly as they could, scrounging up some minor healing potions and bandages. Garrus managed to relay the information he needed to, hoping these dungeon delvers knew the proper procedure.

  ?

  “The dungeon, there’s a unique monster, and a dungeon mutation. Tell the guild, they need to know. This dungeon needs to be destroyed before a flood comes. They need to-”

  ?

  Garrus trailed off, going unconscious from the loss of blood. His fate is unknown, as only the gods can know if he received medical attention in time, but he achieved his goal. These dungeon delvers would head back to the closest town to inform the guild. Untold attention would be drawn to the “Hill-Valley Depths”, dungeon delvers amassing to investigate the dungeon. Soon, De’gon’s fears of an invasion would come true. Only two questions remain at this point. How will De’gon react, and how will Willow respond? The fate of the dungeon lies in their next actions.