Isla Culloden has succumbed to her wounds but cleared the test. Her Recall and Resurect to Elkins had been allowed.

  “It’s OK, son… She’s alive,” Papa Allinder tried to console his son.

  "It's my fault," Rowan shook his head. "I should have warned her about how dangerous that guy is. A total psycho."

  Inside the Triumphal Arch, a portal had opened, but it had a warning: Solo Quest. Only one of the Champions who cleared the Gate challenge can proceed. There was also an hour timer, counting the remaining minutes before the access shut down. Aside from the structure, another portal appeared, marked Dungeon’s Exit. It also had a timer, and Fenrri was already organizing the departure of the rest of the group.

  Fortunately, Rowan had a Bourbon flask in his inventory. He took a mouthful to calm his apprehension, then decided. “I’ll go.”

  “My challenge was about embracing my Class and becoming a true warrior. Let me do it,” Papa Allinder offered.

  “Embrace it starting tomorrow,” Rowan cut his father's pleas short. “You’re too new at this. And that moron is on his honeymoon.” Ten feet farther, Hubert was arguing with the Goblidog, jumping around to stop the monster from humping his leg. “Hubert!" Rowan yelled. "Go home. I don’t like you. Don’t visit. If I ever see you near my house, in that weird black dress of yours, asking for a confession or shit, I’ll shoot you.”

  “Go fuck yourself…” Hubert snapped. “Take those the Swear Jar and shove it up your... Sorry, so sorry," the priest slapped his mouth… "Man, this monster gets on my nerves. I take it back. You’re not so bad after all. If we had new elections, I’d still vote for you.”

  “GO AWAY! ALL OF YOU!”

  Rowan pushed Papa Allinder through the portal by force, and fortunately, Hubert took the hint and left. Before passing through the portal, the Goblidog gave Rowan the middle finger. Rowan took another mouthful of Bourbon, then entered the portal to the Lair, spear in hand.

  As soon as the gate closed behind him, Rowan retched. An unbearable stench of death and decay clogged his nostrils. There were bodies on the floor of the… cave? Tunnel. It was a tunnel carved in stone, ten feet in diameter, slowly descending. The bodies were bloated, and cooked. Through the destroyed hazmat suits and military fatigues, puss oozed. Twisted guns lay around on the ground.

  What could have done that?

  [Dungeon’s FAQ]: The Final Boss.

  Whoa… Rowan jerked back. A FAQ? And you can read my mind?

  [Dungeon’s FAQ]: Affirmative.

  Why haven’t you talked before? I’m sure you could been of great help on the first floor.

  [Dungeon’s FAQ]: The entity known as I, The Warlord, previously known as The Lord of War, blocked my access to the first eleven floors.

  Never mind. FAQ, what kind of boss are we talking about?

  [Dungeon’s FAQ]: That information is restricted. You are supposed to find out the Boss’s strengths and weaknesses on your own. I can, however, fill in the blanks if you discover enough relevant information.

  The stench has diminished in intensity because Rowan’s skill, Sensorial Filtering, was doing a good job. He proceeded onward with caution. Asking the FAQ who the dead people were was useless. Human military, or some mercenaries, maybe cartels, and with no True Class, or they would have disintegrated into Mana.

  As he advanced, there were more remains, but they had transformed into charcoal. The last group was made of six empty armors, standing up, fused together, and to the stone floor, facing the downward end of the tunnel. He cast an Inspect, to be sure.

  Intergalactic Mercenary’s Armor, Standard Issue, model MK2 x6. Ruined.

  They were probably hired by those who wanted to buy the Swarthy Elves as slaves. All gone now.

  [Dungeon’s FAQ]: Correct. An unlawful attempt to claim the core was detected. Corrective measures have been implemented, eliminating the criminals.

  A hundred feet ahead, there was a faint light, the tunnel’s exit. Gluing himself to the wall, Rowan stepped on gingerly. The next room was in sight, and it was a vast cavern, lighted, as the tunnel, from a faint ambient light emanating from spots on the walls and ceiling. In its center was a dragon, curled on itself, and snoring.

  Fuck… that’s big…

  The story was now complete. The previous group had awakened the beast, who unleashed some fire attack at the tunnel, killing everyone. Stopping at the door, Rowan took time to think. What were the ways to kill such a beast? Sneaking on it was out of the question. That was a construct, and constructs don’t really sleep. The floor of the cavern had some form of trigger. Did the tunnel have it too? Preparing to enter The Space, if needed, Rowan tapped the tunnel’s floor with the end of his spear’s shaft. There was no reaction from the dragon.

  Let’s assess my abilities a little.

  Returning to his tracks, he passed the melted Mercenaries and stopped. Keeping his attention to the cavern below, he willed his spear to divide into metal threads, as The Warlord had exemplified. At first, he got just a bent spear shaft, but he kept trying. On the third attempt, Rowan obtained two filaments. After fifteen minutes, he could reliably summon six, and their length was considerable: thirty feet or so, like the Warlord’s.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Next, he tried to push the filaments in the armors' openings. It went bad, at first, either all aiming at the same space, or hitting the armor with clunking sounds. His heart skipped a beat, but the dragon was still asleep.

  Some idiot must’ve stepped in the cavern before they figured out things…

  Another fifteen minutes later, his skill had improved. It was not fast, by any means, but fast enough for what he had in mind. He returned to the cavern’s entrance and rushed in after activating Joint Trip. Ten seconds later, he was at the dragon’s head’s height, and preparing to introduce the filaments inside the dragon’s body. At the last moment, he changed his mind, not so keen on parting with his weapon, and decided to go for the rebars instead. He picked two, went deeper inside the dragon’s head, where the brain was supposed to be, and let the bars go.

  Instantly, the dragon turned toward the tunnel, releasing a torrent of flames so hot the stones turned red, smoldering. Panicking, Rowan plunged all his rebars in the monster’s head, kept his Joint Trip active, and ran toward the opposite end of the cavern, hiding behind a large rock formation. The tunnel itself was now closed, covered in a molten lava plug.

  Joint Trip has consumed two stacks. 6/10 remaining.

  It was bad. The heat could be felt even where he was, and the dragon kept going. Rowan tried to make himself as little as possible and not make any noise.

  Sonar and Insight have made a successful check against Dragon Construct, Level 80. Strengths: no vitals, its body is acting as one item. Weaknesses: Lack of sentience. Absence of a true dragon's perks: Oppressive Presence, Sensorial Detection (Hearing, Smell).

  [Dungeon’s FAQ]: You have unlocked enough data to allow me to fill in the blanks. A Dungeon cannot reproduce a true dragon’s perks. For instance, Oppressive Presence can kill anyone with a WIL under fifty and stabilizes dimensions around the Dragon, forbidding attacks from The Space. As a replacement for that ability, this construct has only one big pool of HP and no specific vitals.

  The dragon finally returned to its snoring. There was now a generic tag above its head: Dragon Construct level eighty. Rowan could also see the health bar hovering around eighty percent. Soon, however, the rebar bits were ejected from the monster’s body, and the health bar slowly grew back.

  FAQ, If I’m killed, will I be Rezzed in Elkins?

  [Dungeon’s FAQ]: Under emergency procedures, The Lair prevents Rezzez and/or Recalls and also has a forcefield forbidding escaping it through The Space.

  Fuck… If I don’t kill it in one go, I’ll be weaponless and screwed. You should use your brain more, Rowan. Test things first. Fuck… Here we go.

  Rowan activated Joint Trip and moved up, stopping at the neck. Extending his weapon in threads deep inside the Dragon, he prepared to project the Snowstorm through them and exited The Space.

  The expected mayhem followed. The dragon roared, shooting his fire again at the tunnel, following its programming. It took it two long seconds to realize where the damage came from. And despite the pulsing damage from the Snowstorm and the metal spikes, it was still alive.

  I’m toast.

  The Dragon tried to turn its head and burn Rowan for another three seconds but failed because its neck was too short and unwieldy. It did find a replacement solution, jumping up and hitting Rowan against the cavern’s ceiling. It hurt and made him release his weapon.

  Delayed Truth activated. You have 0% HP. You have 10 seconds to heal yourself.

  Rowan hung on, like on a rodeo bull, keeping up R?svelg even without the weapon. Six seconds later, he cast a Combat Heal and entered The Space, activating a Health Potion and running away as far as possible.

  He was down to three Joint Trips and intended to keep them, so he hid again and returned to the normal dimension. To his surprise, the heat was not so intense anymore. The dragon was encased in a thin sheet of ice and struggled to take it off, hitting itself against the walls, fortunately far enough from Rowan. The HP bar was low, and descending. There were DOTs on the dragon, the equivalent of a Cold and Bleed damage, Rowan guessed.

  Anticlimactically, for the fierceness of the fight, the Boss disappeared. Rowan's weapon fell, in the form of a metal ball now, hitting the rocks below and bouncing off a few times before stopping.

  You have destroyed Dragon Construct, defensive protocol, level 80. You have cleared the Shore dungeon and are allowed to claim its core. +10 free APs. You have leveled x4 and are now Lvl. 78

  Additional rewards:

  He dismissed the notification because there was something more important to do.

  “FAQ, are you still here?”

  [Dungeon’s FAQ]: Affirmative.

  “Question. I have a Perk that is supposed to reduce Mana Consumption by a quarter, yet my Snowstorm had the same cost, forty Mana per second. Is the first perk applied only to spells?”

  [Dungeon’s FAQ]: I’m not familiar with that Perk, but I can, however, hypothesize. Not all Perks, Spells, or Skills start at maximum efficiency; they must be trained. My supposition is that the cost reduction applies to the value of the perfectly trained perk, and you haven’t reached that threshold yet. If you open your Menu, you’ll see a downward arrow under Perks. Press it, select the type of perk, and expand the detailed description.

  Yeah, I didn’t check that… that arrow is so tiny. What? The real cost is twenty Mana per second, which is reduced to fifteen through my Second Charisma Perk. Shit… I have to train more.

  “Second question. On several occasions, I got exactly the perk I needed. I needed a cold AoE, so I got a Cold AoE. I wanted a Mana cost reduction, and I got a Mana cost reduction. Is it possible that weird entities, let’s say, someone whose name starts with War and finishes with Lord, could influence what perks I gain?”

  [Dungeon’s FAQ]: I am unaware of that entity’s full capability, but I have a vast database about how gaining Perks works. The System is known to unlock Perks that the Awakened needs if they have demonstrated the proper affinities.

  “Last question. I don’t intend to keep this dungeon but to consume it. Is it possible to transfer you to my Town’s core? Like an app or something? You were quite helpful.”

  [Dungeon’s FAQ]: It is possible if you’re willing to spend the required energy. Disclaimer: You should check the proper procedures for using this Dungeon’s core. Consuming this core into a lower level one, albeit of a lower tier, could malfunction. However, I theorize a merger should be possible, pending conditions.

  “Good. OK, time to claim the fucking Dungeon core.”

  A pedestal and an exit portal appeared where the Dragon had slept. When asked if he wanted to claim the core, Rowan selected the Yes option. Before going into the portal, he checked his reward.

  Additional Rewards: Shared Insight and Changing Class Opportunity for Isla Culloden.

  This is a bonus reward for standing toe-to-toe with me, I, The Warlord, in a sparing match. Pff… OK. I won’t lie. For winning against me in a sparing match, albeit on Easy Mode. Never mind, that’s not important. THIS is. Before and during her test, I detected the following feelings from your wife, Isla Culloden: She’s upset with you because she thinks you look down on her and consider her unpolished and uncultured. Suggested solution: make her feel like a princess, beautiful and admired. You will find enclosed in an attachment a box of the best chocolate in the Galaxy. As a part of your reward, The Warlord took the liberty to fiddle a little with your wife's Class to increase the quality of her self-esteem.

  I, The Warlord, remind you that everything is allowed in love because love is a battle.