Pov Vivian

  I watched as my grandfather continued to read the report I gave him. Each time he was done with a page, he tossed it behind him, and as that paper slowly fell to the ground, it disintegrated into dust.

  “So they’re planning another breach. Took them long enough to stop being cowards. Tell me, what do you know about their plans? And have you managed to keep our people away from it?”

  “I believe they would have kept pushing it back if things were going faster in the labyrinth and if the water pressure wasn’t increasing. They plan to do the same thing as before when they tested what’s on the other side of the next wall. Multiple ice mages will block the entrance and freeze the water on the other side, then melt their way through so they’ll have a path to set up another breach.”

  My grandfather nodded at that. “I assume they’re planning on offsetting the next breach?”

  “Yes, they hope the pressure will blow back, hurting the dungeon as much as it would the outside world.”

  “And will it?”

  I took a moment to think about that. “To a certain degree, but I believe not as much as they hope. They’ve been running the calculations for quite a while, but ever since the first breach two years ago, water mages have been calculating and planning how to deal with so much pressure.”

  “Some of them are starting to believe that because of their work, the dungeon started to fill the first layer with water again, as pressure is quite hard to work against. And, well, as you know, there’s a lot of water coming out of the two breach holes right now.”

  “So who are they going to sacrifice?”

  “They’re not sacrificing anyone. They’ll do remote triggering of the melter.”

  My grandfather started to laugh at that. “Well, that’s stupid. You know I had to stop going to those meetings because it was literally making me stupider. But I guess they don’t have any other options if they aren’t willing to think outside the box. It’s like no one ever listened to me when I talked about fortress dungeons and how to deal with them. Tell me, have they considered sealing off the entrances?”

  “More and more are advocating for it, but even I have voiced against it because it must have other entrances as well. It wouldn't be so stupid. I believe there are entrances on the outer shell, but its outer shell surface area is incredibly large, and finding a gateway that could be incredibly well hidden would be incredibly hard—especially because it has increased its territory quite beyond its first defensive layer.”

  “Yes, my granddaughter it’s doing some annoying things that is making gathering information harder. Whoever is advising it is incredibly intelligent. But you said that, that dragon Ismael didn’t seem to be in charge of anything. I still find that hard to believe. A dragon so powerful being able to hide so long would be quite tricky.”

  “I can never be 100% certain, but grandfather, I honestly believe that it’s just an ally. I believe their deal was that the dungeon would take care of its species and make a place for them to live in exchange for the protection of that dragon.”

  “If you say so, I will take it as a fact. So, I see you believe that in the labyrinth we will make it to the core eventually, but this time scale of 50 years—do you believe it’ll really take that long?”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  He once again threw the paper behind him, and I watched it disappear into dust before I spoke. “The problem is with the melters. They’re slow to get through the dungeon stone and real stone mix. They are working on solutions, but it will take time.”

  “I also believe they’re working on some sort of dungeon-damaging bomb only meant to hurt and crack the core from far away. The dungeon’s agents often target those facilities, so I think it’s actually afraid of that technology. More resources are being put into it.”

  “It could be purposely diverting resources. It’s a clever one—so many forget that so often.”

  My grandfather finally reached the final page, and when it disintegrated into dust, he properly looked at me for the first time during this meeting. He looked at me for quite a while before he asked me another question. “Tell me, my granddaughter, with everything you know about this dungeon and the way we are doing things, how long do you think it will take for us to, so to say, win?”

  “Like I said before, I think we will reach the core in about 50 years?”

  Immediately, my grandfather started to slowly shake his head.

  “You’re smarter than that. Think. Will it let us easily continue to work in the labyrinth? No, it’s constantly, even with our best efforts, shifting the labyrinth, stranding many of our people in who knows what part of it.”

  “If anyone thinks that remote control activation will actually work, well, they’re mad. And then there are the raids on all our facilities to stop the making of dungeon-fighting weapons. And, of course, will it ever stop advancing while all of us are working here? No, it will just get stronger. So, I ask you again—how long do you think it will take us to win?”

  This time I didn’t answer immediately. I could see in his eyes that he wanted a proper answer, an answer I had actually thought through.

  “I honestly don’t know, because we still don’t know its mana generation capabilities. Everyone says that they know, but no one actually knows. Just the amount of water it can produce to fill up that first layer of defenses so fast—it just doesn’t add up. It also hasn’t advanced since its breakthrough to platinum. Everyone thinks that it’s because it’s spending so much mana. It makes sense in that way, but it still feels off to me.”

  I went silent after that, trying to think things through. It was doing so many things that should be impossible. One of the things was that the water coming out of the breach holes seemed to be real water, and the fact that real stone was mixed in with dungeon stone—that should not be possible, yet it is.

  “One thing that’s always been off about this dungeon is the mana. It’s making way too much of it, but somehow its breakthroughs are not triggering before its floors are done. It’s just so off—everything is so off.” My last words there got a little bit heated, so I sat back against the backrest.

  “It has taken me a while to go through our records—yes, I even brought those with me. But I could only bring out a few from the storage crystals I have. Do you know why I always want this meeting here, and why I want you to not write your reports anywhere but here?”

  “Grandfather I know, no one believes me once again, and the only person who thought the same disappeared two years ago. The dungeon can see outside itself—another thing that should be impossible.”

  “Actually, not. The old texts from the ages long past are broken down and incredibly hard to read anything on them, but I’ve researched dungeon fortresses for a really long time and can infer context.”

  “Back in the day, it seems dungeons often picked skills that allowed them to see the outside world. Many things we know about dungeons are just rules we’ve made up for them. Most of the reasons for those rules have been lost to time, but I believe I’ve found something important.”

  He then started to explain the rule about no bugs allowed in the dungeon. I was really confused until he reached the end of his explanation. “You see, insects have a habit of reproducing incredibly fast. As you know, if dungeon monsters have children, they can leave the dungeon. But it appears they can even generate mana like any other adventurer when they’re inside the dungeon.”

  “I’m pretty sure there are limitations, but skills can often get rid of pesky limitations, now can’t they? So, what do you think? Could that explain things? What if it had millions of that kind of creature? I believe that’s how they’re referred to in the old texts.”

  My mind immediately started to click the puzzle pieces together. The reports of bugs, small critters, the number of monsters that were in the dungeon not mixed together but with different types and different evolutions of the base form. The number was so huge. My hands started to shake, and I felt a panic attack coming. “There’s no way we can win!”

  Then I felt his large hands on mine. “Relax, my child. Do you really believe it? You said it yourself—that dungeon isn’t advancing. Is there any chance that we might win?”

  “There’s no way it’s not. It must have found a way to hide them, it’s the only explanation. I refuse to believe anything else. That’s where it got all its agents that caused so much chaos. They weren’t adventurers. That’s why we couldn’t find any trace of them—they just sort of appeared out of nowhere. They were all from the dungeons. And to have so many geniuses, so good at such specific things, the numbers of them... Grandfather, what should we do?”

  I looked into his eyes, which seemed so kind.

  “You don’t have to worry about that. Leave that to me. I will send you away from here for a while. You have some things back at our previous home. Gather all of them and every last member of our clan. We have tough choices ahead, but we have to make them together.”

  “Yes, Grandfather, I understand. I will get my mind in order before I return. Even if we told anyone about our discovery, I don’t believe they would actually take us seriously. In fact, I think they would lash out in fear.”

  He just nodded at that and sat back down. For the first time in my life, I saw so much weight on his shoulders that they were actually being pushed down a bit.