Chapter 70 (2 of 2) A Useful(?) Authorizer (debatable)(needs discussion)

A young boy was lying sprawled out on the upholstered cough, a snore escaping his mouth. His silvery hair was haphazardly spread across the furniture’s cushions and one arm lackadaisically hung off the couch.

The door to the room burst open and Lucille marched in. “Scytale, time to get up! We need to go!”

The humanoid snake sprung to his feet, his hands held in a pose ready for combat. “Huh? Wha? Enemies? Where?”

Lucy sighed and shook her head as she walked over to the table in the room. “There aren’t any enemies, Scytale.”

“No
 enemies
” He blinked his eyes blearily and then gave her a lazy salute as he collapsed back onto the couch. “Aye aye, Cap’ain.” He promptly continued to snore once more.

After grabbing the scroll off of the table, she walked back over to her bond and rammed the heel of her boot into his side. “Get up.”

“Owowowow!” Scytale groaned as he curled into a fetal position, clutching his stomach. “Why are you so violent today? Did you get annoyed by the Demon Emperor again?”

“No. Although, he’s partially the problem.” She took out her pocket watch to check the time. “I got his help to access a specific Old Era plane I wanted to visit, but he didn’t bother to check with me about what time I wanted to go there. I’ll only have access for the next twenty-four hours and I was informed the Athenaeum had already processed the request, and I don’t want to waste a second.”

Her bond sat up and ditched the injured act to stretch his arms above his head. He let out a yawn. “Alright. Will there be fighting?”

Lucille shook her head as she placed things like her brass jug artifact and other miscellaneous items in the living room into her dimensional bag. “Not much. We’ll likely still come across monsters as we’re going to a Dungeon, but I’ll just sweep them all away with a powerful spell if it’s needed.” She entered the kitchen and kneeled to open up a cabinet within.

“A Dungeon? Really?” Scytale stood up and crossed his arms. “I mean, I’ll never complain about a fight but why a Dungeon again?”

“Calling it a real Dungeon is debatable. But you’ll find out soon enough.” She stood up, walked into the living room, and then pointed at the snake. “Go and get changed into something better for adventuring. This will hopefully take less than twelve hours, but we can never be sure. I’m heading to my room to get changed as well.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” He walked off with an eye roll. “It’s not my money paying for these clothes so why should I be worried about getting them ruined?”

Lucy narrowed her eyes at him but he ignored her and left the room. She let out a slight sigh and headed off to her own room. She picked up a leather belt from her bedside table.

Time to see the quality of Sedric’s work.

Once she was ready, they met again half an hour later in one of the hallways. Scytale followed her as they walked through the Commission’s Headquarters.

“So
 what’s the game plan?” he said. “Are you going to do the invisibility trick again? It won’t work as well without me to distract him though.”

Lucy gave her bond a strange look. “What?”

“You know
 sneaking through the Commission’s gardens, avoiding the staff
” Scytale shrugged. “How are we going to go about it?”

She cocked an eyebrow. “Scytale, I have no idea what you mean. Why are we sneaking anywhere?”

“To avoid Vincent of course!” he exclaimed. “This will end up being a second secret trip, won’t it? We need to escape the Commission before he finds out what we’re planning.”

“
excuse me?”

Scytale flinched when he heard the familiar voice and Lucy sighed as she turned around to face her scowling aide. Vincent had his arms crossed and was scowling at them after he had just turned an intersecting corner.

“May I ask just what exactly you’re trying to hide from me?” he asked crossly.

Lucille whacked her bond over the head. “Nothing. This idiot serpent here didn’t realise I was walking towards my study with the exact intention of talking to you about this.” She placed her hands on her hips as she looked at her aide. “I wanted to ask the Archduke for help in accessing a specific Old Era plane owned by All-Aeon Athenaeum, but he accepted and arranged permission sooner than I expected.”

Lucy shook her head. “I only have twenty-four hours to access this plane and I didn’t want to anger him by asking him to change the access date.”

“
I see.” Vincent frowned and crossed his arms. “I would prefer if you took someone else with you, however. Possibly Hargrave?”

“As much as we’ve been in a Dungeon together before, he’s not officially a guard of mine,” she replied. “I’m willing to let him come to places alongside me more frequently, but this trip is too sudden for me to accept requesting him to come.” Lucy shrugged. “With luck, it won’t take more than a few hours. I know the location on the plane I want to go to and the task will hopefully be very quick to complete.”

“Hmm
” Vincent ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “I suppose I don’t have anything to say in this situation.” He gave her a suspicious look. “This isn’t another thing you want to hide from me, is it?”

She smirked. “No. But as we’re in a rush, I’d prefer to explain it once we’re back. It will be easier to explain it then too.”

He slowly nodded. “Then I wish you a safe journey. Don’t get into any trouble.”

Lucy turned around and gave him a small wave as she walked off. “I won’t.” Next to her, Scytale changed into his serpent form and flew onto her shoulders.

Vincent departed behind them and they soon made it to the entrance lobby of the building.

‘So, what’s the name of this oh-so mysterious Dungeon?’

Well, it’s called the Grotto of the Metal Heart Dungeon. And what makes it special is that
 it’s intelligent.




“Count Lucille Goldcroft
” The stern middle-aged mage behind the desk scanned the documents she had picked up from the Pioneer division of All-Aeon Athenaeum on the Aeonic plane. He looked up to study the winged serpent on her shoulders with suspicion. “And the snake?”

“A bond,” she replied with a calm smile. “To my knowledge, Athenaeum regulations state that they’re treated the same as the individual.”

He gave her documents one last look before sighing and stamping them with a dark purple seal emitting rays of mana. “Alright. You may leave the Pioneer branch on this plane and explore any part of the Ruby City plane that you wish.” He handed over a small hourglass hanging from a necklace and pointed to it. “That will tell you how much time you have before you need to return. Athenaeum regulations require you to be present in the Pioneer Hall half an hour before the teleportation time.”

The mage narrowed his eyes at her. “Remember, you must return before it’s time for teleportation.”

Lucille gave him a wave as she walked away. “Yes, yes, I remember. Good day and farewell to you, sir mage.”




The streets of the ‘Ruby City’ were very quiet. Besides the few mages stationed in the city to continue researching the plane, all the buildings were empty. They were perfectly preserved and made of a pale red semi-translucent stone, which was where the city presumably earned its name of ‘Ruby City’, but they were abandoned. Even the Pioneer Hall was just the repurposed outer hall of the city.

The further into the city they walked, however, the more devastated and demolished the structures became. Scytale, who was back in his human form, paused and squatted to inspect the ground. “Hey, uh
 Lucy?”

“Yes?”

“Is it just me or is the ground sloping downward?”

In response, she smirked and pointed at the sky. “Why don’t you change your form and take a look for yourself?”

He considered it with his eyes narrowed at her, clearly suspicious of her motives. Then with the glow of golden light, he changed into his true-sized amphiptere form and flew up into the sky.

He let out a slight woot of excitement at being able to fly so high and with his full 10-metre-long form and then soared up. He flapped his wings to stall his flight for a moment and observe the city below.

“
woah.”

The Ruby City had seemingly collapsed inward at the very centre as if some giant had punched the city square with all their might. The effect of the impact could be seen in how the entire city had sunk into the ground in the very centre, sloping the marble roads. Scytale could see traces of shockwaves in the multiple rings of shattered buildings every hundred metres. He flew back to his bond and landed on the ground in his human form.

“This whole place is completely messed up,” he stated, looking slightly stunned. “Who ticked off a Titan?”

“I believe what actually occurred was that a plane shard struck the city,” Lucy replied. She walked up to a mound of rubble and climbed on top to observe the city. The ground after the point where she was standing declined sharply for a few metres, forming a cliff. “The impact left a crater in the centre and destabilised the city. All the inhabitants were dead before that happened, though.”

“And I’m guessing that this ‘intelligent’ Dungeon lies in the middle?” her bond asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Indeed. Because it arrived with the plane shard,” Lucille informed him. She walked up to the cliff ledge and coated her hands and feet in a layer of earth mana to mould the stone into hand and footholds as she climbed down.

Scytale turned to stare at the impact crater in the centre of the city. “
an alien Dungeon?”

She huffed a laugh as she jumped down onto the wall of a building that was slanted. Its walls were fused with its foundation and so the building hadn’t slipped into the deep crater below. She walked up the slanted wall and leaned over the rooftop edge to look down. “If you equated the situation to Earth then yes, the plane shard would be the meteorite containing a foreign inhabitant. The Dungeon Core left the plane shard before the Athenaeum got their hands on it and can be found in the tunnels below the city.” She turned around to look up at her bond on the cliff edge. “Anyway, get down here so you can help me if I accidentally fall.”

“Just grow wings like I did!” Scytale regained his serpentine body and white-gold wings and flew down to land on the building beside her. “The power of flight solves many problems.”

“I think you have a clear bias, bird-brain-”

“Hey-”

“-but wings would be too bulky for a human like me,” Lucy continued. She looked over the edge again. “I could either do this the long way or the short way. The long way would be safer, but the short way might be fun
”

“What’s the short way?”

Lucille blinked and turned to face her bond. Then she smiled and spread her arms. “Scytale. Catch me if this doesn’t work.”

Scytale’s slitted eyes flew open. “Wait, you’re not going to-”

Lucy took one step and fell backwards off the building. The wind whistled past her as she shot towards the centre ground of the crater head-first. The diamond embedded in the front of her belt glowed with dark blue light.

“Hey! You psycho bond! What in the seven realms do you think you’re doing?!” Scytale shouted as he flew after her.

Her smile only grew wider. Scytale summoned all his mana to try to catch up to her but when she only had a couple of metres left before she hit the ground, he was still a few centimetres away.

“Lucy!”

Instead of a crash, there was nothing. Lucille’s fall was brought to a halt barely a metre above the rocky ground, and she stayed there in mid-air for a few seconds. The glow on her belt died down and she finally dropped to the ground. She sat up as Scytale landed on the ground beside her.

“Well, that was exciting,” she finally said.

Scytale narrowed his eyes at her for a minute or two before he turned around and spread his wings in preparation to fly off. “That’s it. I’m done. See you back at the Headquarters. I’m going to go find someone else who actually explains things to hang out with.”

“Stop sulking and get back here.” She grasped his tail and dragged him back as she smirked. “I wanted to use the force repulsion spell on the belt. I had already analysed the item with my spiritual energy to ensure Sedric’s work was up to standard.”

“I wasted like, a bajillion points of mana!” he complained, flapping his wings indignantly. “What if you got attacked after this, huh?!”

Lucy crossed her arms. “That won’t happen. And this is your fault for being lazy and not bothering to check my plans for yourself. I can’t explain everything to you all the time.”

Scytale turned away from her while grumbling to himself. “Dumb annoying bond, always picking on me.” He raised himself higher to look around. “So... the tunnels, right?”

“Right.” Lucille nodded and got to her feet. “We go in, make contact, and
” Something caught her attention and she turned around.

Scytale blinked when he saw the ornate marble and gold archway set into the side of the crater, with polished steps leading into the darkness. Runes of an ancient dialect of the Empire gleamed along the entranceway’s frame. It looked brand-new, compared to everything else of the destroyed city around them.

“Uh
 was that always there?” Scytale asked with suspicion. “I swear I didn’t see that when flying down here. Then again, I was preoccupied with trying to catch you before you became red paint
”

Lucille smiled and stepped towards the archway. “It looks like our mysterious Dungeon is as interested to meet us as we are to meet it. It’s time for us to go in.”

As she took her first step in, she swiftly suppressed all System notifications alerting her to this ‘Grotto of the Metal Heart Dungeon’. She wouldn’t be killing any monsters today.

_________________________________________________________________________

One had appeared again. The malignant orb smaller than its own facsimile by a factor of ten had spawned in one of its testing chambers. A normal and intended occurrence, as it showed its energy diversion pipes were functional. The last time an orb had spawned outside of its material domain it had cost it an estimated 34 cycles of the sun to resolve. It was glad it didn’t have to bother with that again.

It pondered what to do with the new orb. The orbs had been decreasing in number over the past fifty cycles and so this new one would be a valuable resource until it expanded its material domain once more. The presence of mana-borne humans on the western side of the plane meant it was facing difficulties expanding in a way that wouldn’t alert them.

The Lore-Base of {REDACTED} suggested that these humans had ancestral connections to its former plane but testing had proven that they were ignorant of its own existence, and its purpose.

Not that I truly know my own purpose either.

It returned its perception to the newly spawned orb. The Lore-Base it had access to alerted it that these orbs were what it had been created to consume, control, and imitate, but the past {1.46 x 10^8} cycles had long since been enough for it to understand that they were very different. Still, the orb could be consumed for energy that would allow it to either expand, perform tests on its own spawned {Monsters}, or it could let the orb absorb some of its energy to see if it would generate new {Monster} types for it to subsume and recreate.

Once it checked its priority list though, it made its decision and consumed the orb. It needed to expand and due to the ratios of elemental mana near the orb at the time of its spawning, it had a very small possibility of becoming an undocumented monster type. Its core thrummed with the glow of power as it rerouted its energy pipes to divert the misty energy the orb had turned into. Then it stored the energy in its metallic core.

Two foreign entities on the edge of its perception immediately attracted it attention when it realised they weren’t {Monsters}. One appeared to be a human female with a somewhat weak presence, but the other


A
 {Magical Beast)?

It was an existence from a foreign dimension. The Lore-Base had records of these mundane creature mimics crossing into the Main Dimension from elsewhere, and apparently its creators had theorised that these beasts came from another dimension on scale with the Main Dimension, but it had never seen one in person.

I thought the {World Tree Renewal} so many cycles ago would’ve disturbed the dimensional fabric too much for the foreign dimension entities to cross over.

Yet cross-referencing with the Lore-Base alerted him to the fact that the human-like female next to the {Magical Beast} was also a foreign dimensional entity. She didn’t have an affinity for any of the essential elements.

It wanted to study them. And
 the Lore-Base let it know that the magic-borne humans it had detected in the outer city borders wouldn’t treat it with the respect due for a creation of the {REDACTED}, whatever that meant. But it wanted to communicate with these foreign entities. It had no memories of true communication, even with its creators, as it was just one of many produced by them.

And I want to put my bipedal mimicry projection to use for the first time!

Ignoring the warnings of its Lore-Base – it had already learnt that the knowledge stored in the Lore-Base wasn’t always useful for the current era – it opened an entrance to the first of its many floors. It hoped to bring them further into its perception so it could potentially listen or translate the conversation between the foreigners.

Surprisingly, the foreigners didn’t seem that wary
 or the female didn’t, at least. The {Magical Beast} kept flickering its tongue in a possible instinctual attempt to sense danger. Not that it would work on an artificial construct such as itself.

Anticipating the knowledge these entities would bring it so it could update its Lore-Base, it tried to scan them with its perception. It paused when it was rebuffed by a force emanating from the female. That same force rebuffed its attempts to scan the {Magical Beast} only a few nanoseconds later.

Nothing has negated my perception before. The Lore-Base tells me that can happen if


It became giddy with a new emotion it quickly categorised: excitement. The female had extrasensory perception! That was a force that even its creators, important researchers of {REDACTED}, discovered months before the {World Tree Renewal}. It needed to know more.

Then it gained a slight sense of worry as its Lore-Base informed it of what the potential reactions of someone it had scanned could be. It studied them to see if the female or {Magical Beast} was mad.

All they had done was stop to discuss
 something. It didn’t know what yet as they were conversing in a language somewhat unfamiliar to it. It was a variation of the {REDACTED}’s tongue, but many words had no apparent phonetical descendancy from the {REDACTED}’s language.

But it could understand the {Magical Beast}. It seemed the creature spoke using a formal of information transferal over extrasensory perception. It focused on the creature’s words.

“You’re really sure there was nothing hostile about the fact it tried to search your soul? That sounds extremely sketchy to me.”

‘Soul’. It stored that knowledge in its Lore-Base. The {Magical Beast} knew the source of the extrasensory perception. Not even its creators had stored that information in its Lore-Base, although that may have been purposeful.

The female replied in calm, clear tones that suggested she came from a position of education. It quickly tried to match the syllables to the phonetics of the {REDACTED}’s common tongue but was making slow progress.

Then a strange feeling overcame it for a moment. The entire dimensional of the plane seemed to distort when faced with an inexplicable power and then snapped back into its normal. It was left pondering over the sensation.

It became shocked when it realised it could now understand the female, because she was speaking in the exact {REDACTED}’s tongue.

“-so don’t panic, Scytale. It’s just a curious child.”

Child? The stage between infant and adolescent in the bipedal mortal races? I want to know why she classes me as that. Her biology informs me that she is only just past adolescence herself, while the cycles I have lived would far outlive her.

“Curious child
 you give the dumbest descriptions to stuff that can kill us. And don’t pretend you can’t see how it’s eavesdropping on us too.”

So the {Magical Beast} also has extrasensory perception. But why didn’t he use it?

The female shrugged and continued walking. “That’s normal for anyone with spiritual perception. I don’t blame it. But let’s continue heading in. I want to speak to the owner of this domain sooner rather than later.”


speak? To it? The female wanted to communicate! She knew it was intelligent! This was a major discovery.

It immediately abandoned all plans of testing their strength using its {Monsters} and instead altered its material domain to allow them easier entrance to where its perception was stronger. It listened keenly as the two foreigners continued to talk amongst themselves.

“Would this so-called intelligent Dungeon even understand you?” the {Magical Beast} asked with scepticism. “If it comes from an Old Era plane than it wouldn’t be able to translate modern languages. There aren’t any Obelisks on this plane either so it wouldn’t have a System port to translate words.”

System? Obelisk? It appears he’s using them in a context I’m unfamiliar with. Do they have something to do with that strange force I felt?

“We’re close enough to its core for the System to have already activated,” the female replied casually. “I presume that after or during the time we’ve spoken to it that it will gain a Status. Besides, I’m speaking in Imperial Common instead of English so that before it gains a System port it might be able to understand some of my words.”

“If you say so
” The {Magical Beast} looked around. “Is it going to talk to us anytime soon?”

“Hmm
” The female tapped on her chin and then smirked as she placed her hands on her hips. “Well, we need to ask the owner of this domain first. Artificial Dungeon, do you want to communicate yet?”

It was being addressed. Indecisiveness struck it for half a microsecond before it made its decision. It gathered its energy and rerouted it through the nearest pipe to the foreigners. Then it activated its projection, speaking in the {REDACTED} common.

“Greetings.”

_________________________________________________________________________

Lucille and Scytale watched as light mana began to form into a vaguely humanoid shape five metres away from them. Then the image gradually began to gain facial features and definition until its skin had been painted a silvery-grey tone.

The young male figure that appeared to be made out of solid steel gazed unblinkingly at them.

“Greetings.”

Scytale stared at it. “Uh
 hi?”

Lucy gave the projection a wave and smile. “Hello. Do you have a name?”

“I am known as a Miasma Containment and Redistribution Unit, or an M.C.R.U,” the projection stated robotically. The projection showed no signs of life and didn’t blink or change the position of its eyes. It appeared like a statue.

Lucy tilted her head. “But do you have an identifying label?”

The projection didn’t immediately respond. “
My serial code is 345.293.874.021-”

“Oh, sorry to interrupt, but that wasn’t what I meant,” Lucy interjected with a hand held up. “In this era, artificial existences such as yourself are very uncommon, and so any individual capable of communicating on equal terms with another is given a proper noun as a label. In the case of a name or serial code as long as yours, we’d give each other a shortened or ‘Nickname’.”

The artificial Dungeon seemed to think. “Who determines these labels?”

“A ‘relative’,” she replied. “In this era, the bond of a magical beast is also part of this definition and can hand out names.”

“Relative: a biologically, legally or informally close sapient individual that one has close ties to,” the Dungeon recited. “You are the first individual to converse with me since the end of the last era. That would make you my closest sapient individual, would it not?”

Lucille blinked with slight surprise but shook her head. “Names are not normally given to mature individuals.”

“You called me a ‘child’ previously,” the Dungeon pointed out.

She huffed a laugh. “I did, but in this context, you can’t be considered a child. But I think there are more important things to talk about.” Lucy pointed at the projection. “I’m sure you have lots of questions, but if I answer them all, then we might be stuck here for months. So how about we restrict it to two each and then negotiate from there?”

“I need clarification on whether that counts as your first question. And I also request to be able to ask further questions in the event I need additional clarification from your first answer,” it stated.

Scytale let out a groan. “Two peas in a pod, the both of you. Why can’t I be around normal people for once?”

Lucy shot her bond an exasperated look and waved to him to move. “Go and explore the other parts of the Dungeon if you’re only going to complain about this. I’m sure our new friend here won’t mind if you investigate its wonderful domain.”

“I would like to know what a Magical Beast from a foreign dimension thinks of my design,” the artificial Dungeon spoke. “But I request to know if the Magical Beast will ask me three questions too, and if so, whether that rhetorical question counts.”

“No, his question doesn’t count,” Lucy said with amusement. “My bond only came because he was curious about you, but he has no other motives in that empty brain of his. You can ignore him and his questions until we’re done.”

“Hey! Don’t listen to her! She’s trying to trip you up!” Scytale yelled.

The projection showed no change in expression. “Based on the level of communication the humanoid female among you both has shown compared to the Magical beast, I will assume that I should pay more attention to the female’s words instead of the beast’s.”

Scytale clicked his tongue. “The one time I actually shut up, this is what happens.”

Lucy pointed at the winged snake. “Go on, be off with you.”

The white-gold winged serpent grumbled as he flew off to explore the other rooms of the Dungeon. She turned back to the projection.

“While it’s entertaining to talk to you, I think we need to set some ground rules about these questions before we start,” she began. Lucille held up a finger. “Unless either you or I begin our question with: ‘This is my allocated question’, we won’t count it as one of the questions. It’s up to the individual to decide whether we answer, however. And secondly
” She raised a second finger. “I hope for this exchange to be equal, but if we must we both reserve the right to not answer a question, in return for allowing the other the possibility to ask another. Are these terms acceptable?”

“If I understand correctly, because you did not state ‘This is my allocated question’, then your question is up to me to answer, to which I will say I find the terms acceptable,” the artificial Dungeon responded. “Could I ask the first question?”

“You may,” she replied with a smile.

“Then this is my allocated question: How did foreign dimension entities such as yourselves access the Main Dimension?”

“Ah. Well, that’s because roughly a hundred thousand years ago, multiple realms or ‘Main Dimensions’ as you refer to them gained the ability to contact and transfer between them through a construct named the ‘System’,” Lucille explained. “This System is capable of translating all languages and everyone gains access to special abilities.”

“
I want to ask more, but
” The Dungeon’s projection was still expressionless. “What is your question?”

She smiled. “This is my allocated question: Would you be willing to organise a deal with me so you can see what the world outside this plane looks like?”

The Dungeon fell silent for a good minute or two. “
depends on the terms of the deal but yes, I would. Then this is my second allocated question: do you intend to kill me?”

Lucille shook her head. “No. You’re a rare existence with unique capabilities, and someone who could be a valuable resource if you learnt more about the new era. I want to organise a deal with you to allow you to see what lies outside this plane in the other realms, while you use your Dungeon-like capabilities to help generate materials for me. If you were killed, it wouldn’t benefit me as much as if this deal occurred.”

“I’m immensely curious about this deal.”

“And I’m willing to discuss it in depth with you,” Lucy said with a smile. “But before that, I have one last question to ask, and this is my allocated question.” Her expression went serious. “Could you please show me your core?”

The projection wavered slightly, the first show of emotion from the ‘Miasma Containment and Redistribution Device’ yet. “The core is the most important part of my domain. Why must you see it?”

“Because to adequately express my intentions to you, I need to be close enough to see your core,” she replied calmly. “And it’s important because in the event you accept my deal and I want to relocate you to a younger plane with more potential and resources, I need to know if it’s possible.”

“
relocate? To a new plane?” The projection wavered again. “Intermediate? Or Advanced? Higher Order M.C.R.Us were cleared to be placed on higher planes but not my model. Will it have more Monster varieties? Will there be more resources to consume and study?” Its words flowed out at a rapid pace. It seemed almost
 excited.

Lucy tilted her head. “That depends. Would you be capable of dimensional expansion like true powerful Dungeons if you gained enough power?”

“Possible. But it may take a few thousand years without more powerful Dungeons to consume.”

She grinned. “I own land where an Ancient Dungeon can be found. If you permit me to design a few of your higher levels, then I’ll let you take over it. This Ancient Dungeon is on a Minor plane.”

“Minor? Minor plane? The third strongest plane rank?” The projection completely disintegrated until the artificial Dungeon caught itself and reformed it. “I’ll show you my core. Take these stairs.”

The stone a few metres away from Lucy’s feet split open to reveal a series of steps descending into darkness. She called over Scytale as she nodded for the Dungeon. “I’ll do that then.” She smiled again. “I’m looking forward to seeing the technology of the nation that’s the predecessor of the Eternal Empire.”

The projection disappeared as she began to walk down the stairs. She was soon accompanied by Scytale who flew down to meet her.

“So, what did I miss?”

“Nothing much. We’re just heading towards its core,” she replied.

“Okay, cool, its core
 wait.” He stared at her. “The Dungeon’s core? The place where its boss monster is supposed to be?”

Lucy blinked as if she hadn’t considered that. “That’s a point. I wonder whether this artificial Dungeon has a boss monster or not.”

“That is not the point!” Scytale exclaimed. “You’re heading into danger right now!”

“I highly doubt that.”

“Argh! Stop being so over-confident and just listen to- huh?”

The overwhelmingly bright warm glow of light emanating from the room at the bottom of the stairs distracted him and they exited the staircase to see a massive underground chamber plated with metal. Tunnels of thick steel plating ran to and from the centre of the chamber, in which a giant metal ball the height and width of five men levitated. Interconnected sheets of metal clinked and grinded as the outer shell of the ball constantly morphed and restructured itself as flows of six-coloured mana rushed through the pipes into its centre. The metal orb beat mechanically, as if it was the heart of the plane itself.

The faint presence felt coming from the projection of the artificial ‘Dungeon’ was much stronger now, and the reason why the ‘Dungeon’ showed itself as having metal for skin was made all the more clearer to them. They could feel its attention focused on them, filled with intense curiosity, anticipation, and caution. The mind that they could feel with their spiritual energy was very similar to the two daggers in a way – immature and emotionally undeveloped, but carrying characteristics like intelligence and strange inhuman senses that only an artificial soul could have.

Scytale stared at the core.

“That’s a golem.”

“It is,” Lucy replied with a calm smile.

He turned to stare at her. “I thought you said this was a Dungeon?”

“I did,” she said, her smile growing wider.

“Then what the heck is this thing?!?!”

~~~~~~

In silent mourning for the dungeon core stories I'll never write... because this story is too damn long!