Pov Vivian

  I woke up and noticed that I was alone in my prison. Where had Ismael gone? Immediately, I tried to send a message to my grandfather, but I still couldn’t get through whatever the dungeon had done. Somehow, not having that huge dragon here made me feel even more insignificant. It was like I couldn’t do anything to change my situation, even when I didn’t have a guard watching over me.

  There was a way out of this cave, and without the huge dragon blocking it, I could easily see it. But I was still inside the dungeon, there was nothing I could do to escape. This dungeon had been quite busy. I have felt it strengthening the stone here after it reached platinum rank, which meant I couldn’t even easily break through the stone here, not to speak of the dungeon stone probably surrounding every floor.

  Well, this place should still be connected to the pathways outside—the mana here isn’t stale—so there should be a way out for me. Yet I was under no illusion that Ismael would come after me and capture me easily enough, as I couldn’t hide here; the dungeon would easily locate me. Yet my mind was trying to tell me something—something I was missing.

  It finally clicked after the food delivery didn’t come. Was the dungeon under attack right now? That would mean Ismael was probably fighting, and so were most of the dungeon’s strongest allies. Without further delay, as I had already wasted way too much time figuring this out, I started to run towards the opening out of this cave—or at least I hoped it would be.

  The tunnel seemed smaller than I expected, but I guess Ismael could change his size easily enough, so there was no need to make the tunnel leading out of this room too huge. I was about to reach it when I felt the gateway open up behind me.

  “There’s no need for you to run. You couldn’t get out even if you wanted to. There is no escape from these kinds of rooms—it could even stop me from leaving,” I heard a human voice say. It sounded quite similar to whenever Ismael talked in my mind. I turned around to see a sophisticated human smirking at me. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who that actually was.

  My running slowed down, and eventually, I stopped. There was one thing I didn’t really understand: what did he mean by there was no escape and that even he couldn't get out of this place without the dungeon’s say-so? From what I can sense, the area around here is quite big. There’s no way this could be an isolated pocket with mana this well-circulated.

  I watched as he turned back into the huge dragon he actually was. It was quite fascinating to see, but now I had to go the long way around to get back to my bed.

  “So, where were you?” I asked while still walking. It was always annoying when he looked towards me with that huge head of his, as the wind generated by his movements was quite bothersome. At least this time, I didn’t need to shift back my bed since I wasn’t near it.

  “I just had to observe a little fight. You know, the diamond ranks of this generation seem quite disappointing. If you’re all like the one I saw, well, my job will be a lot easier,” he communicated. He spoke so casually, but the implication was frightening.

  “Did the dungeon do something to the Guild Master,” I said. He’s probably the only diamond rank nearby that I’m pretty sure wouldn’t be an ally of this dungeon. Ismael started to chuckle at that.

  “No, you silly girl, he wouldn’t be of the new generation. But perhaps you don’t know much about him. I have no doubt in my mind that he could have done some real damage, but he isn’t here and will probably never return. Well, perhaps, but I guess time will tell,” he communicated.

  After that, Ismael closed his eyes and found a comfortable position. Whenever he did that, there was no point in asking more questions, as he wouldn’t answer me. And I don’t think trying to announce anything would be a good idea. So, once again, all I had left to do was try not to be bored.

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  A day passed, and I was waiting for lunch and an opportunity to talk to my grandfather. Lunch came, but not the communication crystal that allowed me to speak with him.

  “Ismael, don’t you have the deal with my grandfather? Or can I speak to him later?” I asked. He looked towards me, and after a little bit, finally spoke.

  “No, little one, you won’t be speaking to him through that crystal anymore. Just sit tight.”

  "Wait, what do you mean? What has happened?" I tried again and again, but he simply wouldn't speak to me anymore. This was bad. Really bad. For a moment, I thought that maybe something had happened to my grandfather, but that was a ridiculous notion.

  A quick confirmation with my skill that allowed us to communicate confirmed that he was still alive. Even if I couldn’t use it to communicate with him because of the interference, at least I could check if he was still alive.

  I tried to ask the people who brought me food, but they never spoke. I tried to grab one, but a transparent barrier stopped me from doing it. I looked towards Ismael, who had one eye open and looked quite displeased.

  After that, I stopped trying to get answers. I didn’t understand exactly what had changed, but obviously, the dungeon's secret had been discovered, and there had been some sort of conflict outside. What that really meant, I had no idea.

  I suddenly woke up during the night. It was the 4th night after they stopped letting me speak to my grandfather, but now the gateway was open during the night, and no one was coming in or out.

  Everything was so dark here at the moment. Usually, the cave was bright, but only during the day. I continued to look at the shimmering edge of the gateway that promised freedom, even if I knew it was a lie.

  "That’s not a lie, little one. You should really go through that before you are trapped here forever."

  It took me a moment to register his words, but I didn’t wait another moment and immediately rushed towards the gateway. Were they really keeping their promise of letting me go? It was so hard to believe, but what else was I going to believe in?

  So I jumped through the gateway and realized that I was in the entrance hall of the dungeon on the surface. I recognized the huge pillars and just walking past those meant that I was out of the dungeon.

  I started to run towards them, but even before I picked up proper speed, my steps faltered, and I slowed down. I had gotten so used to the quiet that I hadn’t noticed it before, but now that I did and looked around, there was literally no one here.

  The place seemed abandoned, with no souls anywhere around here. It took me way too long to realize that. I should use my senses, and that actually made me cringe a little bit. How could I already be so rusty? My panic grew as I didn’t sense any living beings for quite a while, but then I breathed out in relief because eventually, I did sense living people.

  There seemed to be quite a few up above where the airship port is, and further into the city, there were people. But currently, I can feel only about thirty thousand people when I should have been able to feel millions. I sensed another diamond ranked in the biggest plaza in the city, so I decided to walk towards it.

  That diamond rank felt weird, like he was unconscious. It was incredibly creepy to walk in this empty city, and I still thought that perhaps this was some kind of trick—that maybe I was still in the dungeon and this place was made to mess with my mind. But I knew that it wasn’t.

  It was also time that I contacted my grandfather. It was harder to initiate the skill to speak to him than I thought, but not because of any actual problem. It was just because of me—he was forced to work with the enemy, and I felt ashamed because of it.

  “Grandfather, are you there?” I asked in a shakier voice than I really meant to. There was a short pause, and my anxiety grew with every second, but eventually, I felt the connection solidify, and I finally heard my grandfather’s voice.

  “Vivian, is that you? What happened? I’m on my way to you right now. Are you safe?”

  Those words were so nice to hear. I could once again communicate with him freely. “They let me go. What has happened?” There was another moment of silence before he spoke.

  “Almost a week ago, the dungeon revealed its true self and declared independence. We don't know exactly what's going on there, but we know that another diamond rank reached there before us. But we haven’t heard from him.”

  The implications were staggering, but I had kind of expected something like this. “I think he’s still alive. I will reach his position soon. But grandfather, the city… it’s basically completely empty. There are so few people left here. I think they all went inside the dungeon.”

  “Shit,” I heard him curse before he went silent for a bit. “Sorry about that. It’s just that now a few of our plans won’t work, and the dungeon will have a lot more mana to work with.”

  We continued to speak as I gave him as much information as possible, and eventually, I reached the diamond-ranked person I had felt in this plaza.

  “Well, he’s alive, grandfather. He’s still unconscious, seems to be slowly healing, but someone beat him close to death. I told you that Ismael was away a bit, but from the context, I don’t think he fought personally. So they have one or multiple diamond ranks capable of taking out a pretty strong diamond rank, at least rank-wise. I don’t know his combat capability.”

  Eventually, we stopped speaking, so I stopped channeling mana into the skill. I just sat down next to the unconscious diamond rank and decided to wait until the others reached here. It will still take them about five days, but they are coming with a decent amount of strength, and from what my grandfather told me, they were gathering even more.

  This certainly was a huge mess.