The Tower in the Shadows

"I told you it was here!"

Atania fluttered around. She was nervous and excited for two reasons. First, of course, was her recent imprisonment. The fear of being trapped in that iron cage shaped like a lantern was still fresh in her mind, but she had decided to return upon the command of the Matriarch. She fled home as soon as she had escaped and the Grove Matriarch was furious with her, but she relented as she told the story of her imprisonment and how she had escaped. The Matriarch commanded upon the end of the tale to take one of the elder members of the Grove back to where she escaped. Together, the two travelled across the now-frozen and snow-covered valleys for many days.

As they came into sight of the tower, the second reason for her fear and nervousness was before her. This seemingly abandoned watchtower contained a dungeon. She remembered the fear she experienced when she sensed it, looking her over. When she sensed the hunger, it was only by luck and her natural speed that she had escaped the place.

The elder sent by the Matriarch was one of the eldest within the Grove. It was at her command that they had taken longer to get here on their journey. She had made sure that they were not being followed or tracked. Tilnas was her name and she was known to be one of the most cunning and paranoid members of the Grove. In her youth, she had travelled the land far beyond the mountains that they now call home when it was not safe to do so for their people. She and the Grove Matriarch were responsible for the illusion spells that protected them from outside hunters.

"I see it, new foolish acorn!"

Together, they were standing in the branches of an evergreen tree. It was one of the best locations to hide. Other trees had lost their leaves and were now barren and bare. Many had snow and ice covering the branches like the ground was now layered in a thick blanket of white powder. Tilnas glared at the younger pixie as she fluttered around.

"Now we see if your tales are true!"

Tilnas looked up the small hill, which was no more than a minor incline if truth be told. A Cythian Empire Watchtower was located on this high point. She had seen many over the years when she travelled abroad before that dark time came to her people. The humans of that empire loved to put their towers all over the place; they were once common sites but no more.

"How do we move to?" Atania paused in her fluttering and landed next to the older pixie.

"With shadow and cunning foolish acorn. Two things you lack!" Atania flinched under the criticism and stern scowl from the older pixie. "Dull your glow and approach we go."

In response, Atania's magical glow dimmed as she focused on hiding it as the elder taught her. Once Tilnas was satisfied, they set off to investigate the human-built tower. Tilnas had not survived this long by being stupid and as they moved to the tower, she cast many more illusion spells to help protect them from any possible danger or watchers.

She cast a critical eye over the tower and its adjoining buildings as they approached. The age of the structure was clear to see, but even to her non-magical vision, the lack of wear on the tiles and stonework should have been a giveaway of something being wrong. All the roofing tiles were covered in the same layer of snow that blanketed the whole valley. She suspected that it became during the warmer months that vines and other plants would be growing up the walls. The window shutters and all the doors were closed on the lower floors. The building looked empty and abandoned.

She shifted her vision into the magical and the building lit up.

"Acorn right powerful magic here."

"My tale true. Dungeon." Atania exclaimed happily.

"Speak not. We approached closer and I will make sure." Atania flinched under the elder's rebuke. "Stay eagle-eyed while I learn more."

The two pixies flew to the tower's main doors. They were closed and in good condition, with little sign of wear from the elements. Tilnas flew up to the doorway and gently placed her hands on the wood and iron doors. Atania turned her attention outward to the hill and surrounding trees.

Tilnas expanded her magical senses outwards and into the wood, metal and stone. The younger pixie was right; it was a dungeon and it was expanding at the moment. She could sense the terrible powers contained within this building. Reaching down with her magical senses, she could feel the ground along were being changed and altered.

She reached further, trying to understand what type of dungeon this was in relation to its magic, but she realised she had gone too far when the dungeon's attention suddenly turned to her. She instantly withdrew and backed away from the doorway.

"What fear you?" Atania asked.

"Tale true. Dungeon. But young one. Strange one." Tilnas answered, a look of confusion on her face.

"How know this?"

"I know, acorn. I know."

Tilnas knew that the dungeon was aware that they were here, maybe not exactly where it was a young and weak example of its kind. But it knew. She looked at the building, thinking about what she had felt while exploring with her magical senses. This place was strange, stranger than any dungeon she had ever encountered before. She had never encountered one so young but with such control. Typically, dungeons are aggressive and hungry, constantly seeking to expand and strengthen themselves. This one was different. She could sense the focus and the fact that it had manipulated its aura to mould itself into this building showed a frightening level of intelligence for one so young.

The other odd thing she had sensed was actually the lack of core magic type. Every dungeon she had ever heard of or encountered had a core magic type to start with. From what she had learnt, they usually gain this literally within hours or days of being "born". For some reason, this one did not have one or had not taken one yet. Because of the area they were in. She expected it to be a shadow magic-based one, as it was one of the most common types due to the geography of this area.

"Tales true. Return we must to the Grove Matriarch." Atania nodded in agreement with the elder's decision. "But first. Offering must be made."

"Offering?"

"Foolish acorn. Escaped due to your wits and speed. No. Dungeon chose not to eat you!" Atania again flinched under the scowl and criticism. "Balance must be maintained. Offering in return for your foolish life. Now come."

The two pixies flew up towards the top of the tower. They stopped when they reached the third floor, which was the open plan section of the tower for the guard to look out from. Tilnas reached into a small pack she was carrying around her waist. Atania knew this to be a powerful magical item that other races called a dimensional storage bag. Tilnas quickly pulled out several items far too big for more containers and threw them onto the stonework near what looked to be a hatch that led down into the tower. Atania recognised them as seeds, but she was unsure of what plants they would grow into.

"Come we go. Back to the Grove. The other elders and the Matriarch need to know your tales were true."

The two pixies flew away back to the tree line. Tilnas stopped and looked back towards the tower. She had not told the younger pixie but sensed a void in that tower that frightened her more than its intelligence.

"Strange one. Strange one indeed."

With that, she turned and followed her younger Grove mate back into the deep woods.

## ## ## ## ##

"What is that!" I exclaimed.

I sensed something, or one was probing my aura and dungeon. I shifted my focus from my new floor to the entry room of the building above. Whatever the source of what I was feeling was on the other side of the main doors. I focused my attention on them, but it seemed that I spooked whatever was on the other side as it withdrew suddenly.

I went up to the edge of my aura, allowing me to see just beyond the wall and the doors. Unfortunately, whatever was out there was too far from me to see, as my vision could not extend beyond my aura. I could just make out two figures, I think. But what was odd was the size and the fact that they were, I believe, several feet off the ground.

Pixies?

That was the only thing I was aware of that could even come close to matching the vague outline I was seeing. If they were pixies, what were they doing here?

"Well, this is unexpected." I said to myself.

The two figures began moving and quickly disappeared from my sight. It was then that I realised that the building's roof and a heavy layer of snow were sitting on it.

"Snow? When did that happen."

Before I could ponder this new development, I sensed something entering my dungeon, not through the doors for windows but up on the tower's third floor. Something was hitting or being thrown into the open area. I quickly moved to this part of the building and once I was up there, I looked out and could see the vague images of the two figures again.

One of the figures had come closer to the tower, still not close enough for me to make out, but it seemed to be throwing things into my tower. It didn't take long for the figure to do whatever it was doing and they quickly left. Looking around, I noticed that what they had been throwing into my aura were…..seeds.

This part of the tower was designed for a sentry to stand upon a lookout over the area. Some snow was now sitting in the floor section under the gazebo-type roof. I wondered why I had not noticed the snow in the first place entering my aura. But as I thought about it, I realised I didn't even pay attention to the rain that came on some level; I must just ignore it.

This thought quickly left my mind as I focused on the seeds. Were they a trick? Or some form of trap? I spent several minutes procrastinating on what to do, but ultimately, I decided to do what a dungeon does and absorb it.

Alert!

Nyralia's Gift seed x1 (Common).

Blue Orchid seed x1 (Common).

Spring Daisy seed x1 (Common).

Unknown seed x1 (Unknown).

Your alchemist knowledge is insufficient to understand these plants' purposes or identify any that are unknown to you. Gain the alchemist skill or raise your core level to attempt to identify these plants.

"Okay. I can learn alchemy. Cool."

So, I now have the ability to grow some plants if I want to. Evidently, they had some use, as the system identified them as some form of alchemist ingredient. It was good that I could identify three of them as common, but I had no idea what to do with them. As for the fourth, that was a complete mystery to me.

Digging around stories I had read about dungeon cause, in theory, I could plant the seeds and create flowers or whatever the fourth one was. They would grow underground as, according to all the stories, they could feed off the mana within my dungeon. I could also alter the plant later down the line when I understood my abilities and what I could do with them.

What to do with them?

This was new and unexpected from what I had planned to do after my first floor was finished. After some more procrastinating, I decided not to do anything for the moment and go back and finish what I had planned initially. I went back down into my dungeon to where my core was located. Here, I activated mana sight as I wanted to explore the ability some more.

My vision suddenly shifted again. I was watching the mana around the floating like a very light mist. I focused on some of it, trying to understand what I was looking at and if I could manipulate it somehow. I messed around and tried several things for an hour before noticing something odd about some of the drifting mist. I saw it moving like it was travelling on currents. It was not very quick to move, but it was definitely moving. I quickly identified a dozen different currents moving through my dungeon. They all had one thing in common: they all intersected with me at some point. My core seemed to be the nexus that everything was travelling through.

"Damn it!"

I exclaimed as this negated my hopes of staying hidden. Any opponent or creature with anything similar to my mana sight would be able to identify where I was—it was time for experimentation quickly.

Over the next few days, I tried different things and ideas and ultimately made a breakthrough. I discovered that air flows could affect the current of mist. I had to make several more alterations to the dungeon, but these were only minor things to create a draft between rooms, my first floor, and the building above. This caused a vortex of mist to flow around the central tower and obscured my location.

I had heard the ringing sounds of alerts, but I was too engrossed in what I was doing to pay attention. But now I was finished, I decided to look. I was pleasantly surprised to notice that they were all level-up notifications and that my mana sight had risen from level 1 to level 4.

I was happy that I had to improve one of my skills by three levels, but I was also concerned. I had become so fixated on the task that ignoring my alerts could be a significant problem. They could have been anything from an attack to something entering my dungeon, but I completely ignored them. I needed to rectify this and think of the wiki. I knew that there was an option.

I could change the way the alert is signalled. I changed the parameters of the alert message. I separated them into two categories: priority and secondary. Priority would ring and sound as usual but would keep ringing until I acknowledged it. The secondary would only ring once and stay flashing in the corner of my vision. This should hopefully prevent me from ignoring anything important; I become fixated on the task at hand.

The improved mana sight had made things more apparent when I was in this altered vision. Not by much, but a little and I noticed a detail that had escaped me before. Occasionally, in the mist, I would find a vein of black. It was not often I saw it, but they were there now and again, and out of curiosity, I decided to follow it as it travelled around the current of the dungeon. Eventually, it reached my core and entered it like all the other clumps of mist. From experience, I knew the mist passed through my core and nothing else happened, but I noticed something different this time. The black vein was gone.

"Eh?"

Upon witnessing it, I received an alert, which I read immediately. It turns out that the black vein I was following around is void corruption—the very stuff my core was created to process and make safe. It seems that I am naturally absorbing any in the air around me, but it is not enough to increase my corruption waiting on my character sheet.

"Right then. Another thing I need to add to the list of things to learn about."

This had been a fun side excursion that had led to some exciting discoveries. But I turned my attention back to what it was planning to do: to find out what my last skill did. Core Refining.