Selvara had spent a few relaxing weeks in the fairy world while her dungeon heart had increased in size by several levels. The other fairies had greeted her enthusiastically and congratulated her on surviving the dangerous early days with her dungeon. Her friends had been a little angry at first when she refused to reveal the name and location of her dungeon. But after the eldest fairy had reminded everyone that one of the most important duties of a dungeon fairy was to keep the secrets of her dungeon, they stopped complaining. At least she had been able to report that her dungeon used a chimera theme. After that, the others had suggested enough ideas for chimeras to keep a dungeon busy until the legendary twenty-fifth level. Unfortunately, most of them required animals as a component, which they didn't have on hand. Of course, she didn't reveal that, as it would have provided clues to Malvorik's location.

  Selvara's mysterious dungeon was by no means the only topic. The fairy world was in a frenzy. More dungeons had been created in the last few months than in the previous two centuries. She therefore only met the fairies, who had just returned to report and recover a little. As the period during which her dungeon heart was inactive for the growth phase drew to a close, she said goodbye and opened a portal back to her dungeon.

  The portal opened in the heart room, where she immediately saw from the glow of the crystal that Malvorik was already awake and active. As always, a map of the dungeon could be seen on a mirrored wall. She snorted, fluttered over to the crystal and tapped on it: "This can't be true. I leave you alone once and you build again without any sense or reason. There are new rooms and corridors going up again! You can't keep hollowing out the terrain without creating traps and monsters. If this continues, there will be a completely unprotected path to the surface. You're far enough up to come across mineshafts. You're building up to your maximum visibility, that's dangerous!"

  

  "You wouldn't believe where dungeons have popped up if they hadn't listened to their fairy. Truldaqua, the water dungeon, for example."

  

  "But that was never the intention. He dug his way under a lake without realizing it. The water then came in over such a large area that he couldn't close the hole with his existing astral energy. By the time it had regenerated enough, it had filled up. All his monsters drowned. He used up the next few increases completely to get special skills with which he could create underwater traps. Pitfall traps are no longer effective. Neither were crossbow traps and poison arrows. Then he had to wait until he could choose new monster races that live underwater."

   Bright lights sparkled in surprise in the facets of the crystal heart.

  Selvara leaned back and made a self-satisfied gesture: "Of course. In what specifically?"

  

  "You see. Told you." The dungeon fairy sat down smugly on the floor beneath the dungeon crystal and crossed her arms, "Now remove your tunnel and repair the channel with the exact same type of stone that was used to build the rest. Make sure you use the same pattern."

   He was undoing the overlapping tunnel walls and was just about to begin the makeshift sealing of the hole again before he set about the finishing touches when his building skills suddenly failed him.

  Intruders! Dungeon construction blocked

   He shifted his view into the corridor, where two sources of light had now appeared. In addition, a waterfall flowed directly into his labyrinth. He tried frantically to dissolve the water, but was unsuccessful. With a casual thought, he transferred his vision to the mirror wall.

  "Send up the Lurker! You have to take care of the intruders! Forget the water ingress. It's not that bad, you can dry it off afterwards."

  While the Lurking Shrike ran off on its short legs and the knuckles of its large hands, the two watched helplessly as the two intruders struggled to their feet. The large empty room was poorly lit by the glowing helmets of the two. The walls were too far away to step out of the shadows. A steady stream of water poured down from the dozen-step-high ceiling and splashed onto the stone floor, forming an ever-larger puddle. The younger intruder leaned heavily on his staff, trying hard not to strain his left leg. The older one tore the rucksack off his back and rummaged around in it. Then he took out a bundle of rope with a throwing hook.

  

  "Don't panic." Said the panicked fairy fluttering around the room: "One is injured. Your Lurker has a chance to finish them off. You still have the choice of a second monster race. Take one, any one, create one and send it off!"

  

  "That's right. You can only call Lurking Shrikes as normal monsters once you have selected a second monster race. You can then define your new monster as a boss and create several Lurking Shrikes. However, none of this helps us at the moment. Perhaps this moderator has left behind a nasty curse after all."

   He fell silent and the crystal darkened as he gloomily watched the intruders.

  Albus now threw his grappling hook up for the second time and managed to anchor it at the top. There were enough gaps in the bricks to find a foothold.

  His colleague watched him, still leaning heavily on his staff. After a few initial anxious glances, he paid only casual attention to his surroundings. As a result, he did not see the hairy creature approaching him quickly from behind. The sound of footsteps splashing in the water was drowned out by the roar of the falling water. As Albus triumphantly turned to Arnheld with the rope securely in place, he saw the attacker behind him and shouted a warning. The Lurker grabbed the turning sewer worker and closed both long-fingered hands tightly around his neck. His cry was stifled by gasps. He lost his grip on his staff and fell to the ground under the onslaught.

   Malvorik had not yet been able to test his new spells and now looked disappointedly at the image of the mirror wall, where the area around the battle had turned slightly gray, but was not filled with the expected complete darkness.

  

  "What do you mean?"

  

  "It has become dark. You forget that you are a dungeon heart. Inside your dungeon, you have perfect darkvision. Apart from the intruders and your crystal, there are no light sources here at all. See how the guy with the staff reacts!"

  Albus held his wand in a fighting stance, obviously knowing what he was doing. He not only used it to poke around in the sewers, but was also quite prepared to defend himself against the giant rats and occasional criminals roaming the sewers. Now, however, he just looked unfocused into the void and swung his staff aimlessly around in wide sweeps. The wrestling match between the dungeon monster and Arnheld could barely be heard over the rushing water and he obviously didn't want to accidentally slay his colleague. The Lurker had wrapped his short legs around the canal worker's lower body and was holding on tightly. With his injured leg on the wet and therefore slippery floor, he had no chance of getting up or shaking him off. The hands of the lurking strangler, which were made for this task, remained firmly closed around his neck. His movements were already beginning to weaken when he gave up trying to pull his hands away from his neck and instead reached into his belt to draw his dagger. The short blade dug into the strangler's side. His fur and muscles protected him from the blows, but he had nothing to offer against the steel. One hand detached itself from the neck and followed the shoulder in the darkness to the forearm, where he held his opponent. The other hand was enough to continue cutting off the air supply through the neck. The free fist struck the monster without aim, becoming weaker and weaker, which it stubbornly ignored.

  Malvorik's crystal lit up hopefully as Arnheld's movements slackened and he went limp. The Lurker let out a triumphant growl. In the next moment, the oak staff thundered against the Lurker's skull, sweeping him from his victim. Albus had abandoned all caution and swept through the room with sweeping blind swings. Now that his hit had given him a target, he continued to strike. The Lurker remained lying on the ground, blinking dazedly. Once, twice, the wand passed through the air above him as Albus slowly approached.

  

  "No, but you could take possession of the Lurker and control it. Have I explained that in more detail? Probably not. It usually only comes up in the second year. When a normal dungeon heart starts to understand simple sentences." She ruffled her long hair. "You're messing up the whole training plan I learned."

  

  "Exactly! So, here's how it works..."

  He interrupted her:

  "Crap. Maybe there's a reason why Golgoroth usually uses psychopathic killers after all."

  The strangler crouched up and tried to get close to his opponent, but was almost immediately hit in the arm.

  The two watched in the mirror as the strangler took another heavy blow that sent two teeth flying off in a high arc. Blood seeped from the burst lip and disappeared down the neck, into the thin fur.

  

  One thought was enough to lift the darkness that hindered his Lurker more than the intruder. Albus flinched for a moment, blinded.

  

  Albus whirled the wand around in the middle as something pulled on his boot. Not so strong that it would normally have done anything, but on the slippery stone floor it was enough to throw him off balance. Reflexively, he braced the staff backwards at an angle to catch himself.

  

  The spell knocked the tip of the staff aside. Once again, the smooth floor aided the effect. The canal worker fell to the ground, flailing wildly with the staff. Splashing, he tried to get to his feet again, but the strangler threw himself at him with his full weight and took him in a chokehold. The wand was no longer of any use to Albus in direct hand-to-hand combat. He dropped it and tried to get his hands off his neck. In vain. He punched the Lurker in the face, in the sides, kicked it in the crotch with his knee. Nothing elicited so much as a grunt from the monster. Here it was in its element. The blows became weaker, the wriggling of the legs stopped. The strangler did not let up until the last bit of life had been drained from his victim. Only then did he open his hands, stand up and let out a muffled roar of victory. The only sound the monster had made so far.

  Bonus! First victory in the dungeon: 100 XP

  Opponent defeated:

  Simple worker level 2: 10 XP: 60% = 4 XP

  Simple worker level 5: 25 XP

  Undistributed XP: 129

  Missing points to the next level:

  Dungeon Master 300 / Mage 300

  Prey Analyzed:

  2x helmet (enchanted with permanent light)

  Artifact analysis successful:

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Spell learned: Permanent light (level 2)

  2x simple clothing, 2x leather boots (waist-high, waterproof), 2x simple stick, stonemason's tool, shovel, throwing hook, rope, climbing hook

  "Have you actually got rid of the water ingress yet?"

  

  Mana capacity (current: 0/ maximum: 40/ temporary: 129)

  "You just discovered a temporary mana supply, didn't you?" The dungeon fairy sounded smug to see him surprised.

  

  "For every point of experience, you also get one point of temporary mana once the battle is over. Even beyond your usual maximum limit. The temporary mana evaporates again after an hour. So you should use it up quickly."

  The dungeon heart turned its attention to the hole from which the brackish, stinking broth was still flowing.

  

  On the mirrored wall, he created a precise sketch of the dungeon from glowing lines in alignment dot perspective.

  The dungeon fairy looked at the sketch with interest: "What are those strange worms growing out of the top?"

  

  "Wait a minute! You can't just take over the existing tunnels!"

  

  "No, I mean, that's not how it works. You take over an area and create your own tunnels. You don't just take over existing areas.>

  

  "The dead and abandoned city of Manavgatt."

  

  "Quicker into trouble, you mean."

  The crystal flashed indignantly:

  "What do you have? More intruders?"

  

  "You have opened your dungeon to visitors. From now on, you can no longer close it permanently. Create a ladder or spiral staircase up the side of the tunnel. Then build a hidden door and close the tunnel. The entrance may be hidden and secured, but it must be able to be opened by level 1 heroes."

  Malvorik nodded mentally and set to work.