Within minutes of departing from the inn that I had chosen to live in, Riezel and I found ourselves in a short line of adventurers waiting to get into the Emerald Cavern. While we were waiting I gazed at her new human form.
The "human" standing beside me was a tall, curvy brunette, who held a divinely created bow and carried a full quiver. She had pale skin, dark brown eyes, and stood 183 centimeters tall. She wasn't nearly as tall as I was, but extremely few people were. I was the tallest "human" I had ever seen, and judging from Riezel's memories I was taller than some of the gods and demon lords she had encountered.
I wordlessly established a two-way telepathic connection between the two of us and began to speak into her mind.
"Hello there. From here on out we'll be able to speak into each other's minds directly. This is a two-way connection that will persist even if the distance between us is interdimensional." I informed the demoness, sensing her momentary shock. A few moments later she sent me a message back.
"So this is a grand adonis power too? What a race." She remarked, idly. I smiled, externally as well as internally at her comment. As I made that comment I also went ahead and created Riezel's identification before materializing it into my hand and slipping it into hers.
While we in the line, I listened to a few of the other adventurers idly converse. I was fortunate that not everyone had telepathy and thus that most people needed to talk to communicate. Ahead of Riezel and I was one male warrior-style adventurer and two female support-style adventurers in the form of a ranger and a rogue and they were swapping rumors.
"I heard from a friend that a young warrior exploring the shore was knocked unconscious, by goblins no less, and awoke near the edge of a small village unharmed. That shouldn't be right, but the thing that's weird is that goblins have actually been spotted near where she was scouting." The male adventurer told his two companions.
"Seriously? Those monstrous little rapists beat her and then left her alone? Was she sure it was goblins and not like... gnomes or another small race?" The rogue asked, speaking surprisingly loudly for someone whose profession revolved around stealth and silence.
At precisely that same moment we drew close enough to the entrance to the dungeon to see the national flag of Vanheim. Riezel was looking around and noticed it, which caused her to make an idle remark.
"Is that a... flag? Human civilizations are so cute." She commented, telepathically. Meanwhile, the ranger in the three-person adventuring group began to speak as well.
"I'd actually heard those same rumors as well. If they are true then the only way I can imagine them making any sort of sense is if we assume someone else, hopefully, someone less malevolent than a normal goblin, has taken command of that particular tribe. If we're lucky maybe someone like a nymph has taken command of the tribe. It seems they've chosen to live on the shoreline, down past the civilized area. If so it's certainly possible that they've either been dominated by a sea-creature, or even that a strong humanoid has appeared and taken charge of them." She remarked, speculating on what odd circumstances might have made the goblin tribe less hostile to humanity.
"Did you hear that? One of those humans just wondered if a nymph took command of a goblin tribe..." I asked, speaking directly into the mind of my demonic companion. She chuckled, the sound husky and attention-getting.
"I doubt that. I mean it's not impossible but it's certainly not likely. It's more likely that the goblins are led by a smarter member of their race, or another humanoid such as a human took command of them." She replied, idly. I chuckled and nodded at her, keenly aware that that was indeed more likely.
The three-person adventuring group was ahead of us in line and shortly after conversing about rumors they were allowed entrance into the dungeon. To enter the dungeon the three of them walked too and then through a wall, disappearing behind it. Once they were gone, I mentally turned to Riezel and began to converse with the demoness.
"So we're exploring this dungeon today for a few specific reasons." I began, causing Riezel's attention to turn back to me. She knew very few of the powers possessed by my kind and so I figured I ought to begin there.
"As a grand adonis I possess a number of powers that could be useful in this place. Chief among them is a truly special power possessed only by a grand adonis named 'Seduce the world'. With it, we can give form to spirits of inanimate objects, places, and more. We can seduce those spirits and make them as loyal to us as we can make other people we seduce. I want to test the limits of that power." I explained, revealing one of the reasons why I wanted to come here.
"I'd like to see if this power works on dungeons. If it does... Well, I'll go from there, but if it does that's the sort of news that can transform how humanity uses dungeons." I explained, unsure if my power really could work on dungeons.
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It was one thing for my "Seduce the world" power to work on a tree, a river, or even an inn. Those were small things that weren't innately hostile to mankind. Dungeons on the other hand... Dungeons birthed monsters, monsters who invariably attacked humanoids even ones hated by other humanoid races such as orcs and ogres.
Even in the minds of scholars like the people of the National Arcane Academy, there were no known instances of a dungeon being helpful to humanoid races. Dungeons were, for some reason lost to time, well, and truly hostile to humanity and the humanoid races. However, I was not a human. And neither was Riezel. I wasn't here to attempt to unearth some ancient truths lost to the passage of time, I was just here to see how far my powers could take me.
I knew I'd be able to understand monsters. That much I was certain of. What I didn't know was how my other powers would affect my ability to traverse a dungeon.
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A few minutes after I explained to Riezel my purpose in coming to the dungeon we found ourselves in front of a uniformed guard. Behind him was a pathway that led to the proper interior of the dungeon. He studied my companion and me before wordlessly holding out his hand to request our identification.
Riezel and I handed him our cards and he began to look them over. He studied them for a few moments while beginning to speak to us.
"Welcome to the Emerald Cavern. This is a dungeon that is older than the kingdom of Vanheim. Do you have antidotes or another means to deal with being poisoned?" The guard asked. His voice was apathetic and I wasn't sure if it was because he was tired or if it was because he didn't care, and I didn't feel like finding out.
"I can deal with us being poisoned." I "assured" him. He handed us back our cards and nodded in response to my words.
"Have either of you been dungeoneering before?" He asked, and Riezel nodded at him that she had. He glanced at her and studied her. I could sense his immediate attraction to her and inwardly chuckled that he now felt remorse for being so stoic and not taking a more active interest in explaining the dungeon. That said, he also felt a pang of guilt. I still didn't feel like reading his mind, but if I had to guess I'd have bet that he was a married man.
He allowed us through and therefore granted us entry into the dungeon. We stepped past him and walked to a wall behind him. Now that we had permission to enter the dungeon the wall turned transparent and we could see, and when we reached it, walk, through it. The instant that we did the two of us hissed in quiet pain, as our supernatural senses suddenly adjusted to the interior of the dungeon.
Behind the wall, we found ourselves in a large entry chamber. It was empty and the only thing in front of us was a stairwell that took us onto the first floor of the dungeon. I glanced at my companion and nodded. She nodded back, and without a word, the two of us walked to and then down the stairwell.
The stairs themselves were made of indestructible emeralds. This was something I learned when I absorbed Respen's memories, including his expeditions into this very dungeon. The stairs were solid and so far it seemed that nothing could even chip them. They glinted and gleamed in the darkness.
We walked down fifty stairs and when we reached the bottom of the stairwell we found ourselves inside the actual dungeon. Ahead of us loomed a large cavern that stretched for kilometers. The floor and the walls glittered and hinted at wealth for those brave enough to try and mine in this place.
Riezel and I both had superhuman senses. I could hear the distant chittering of faraway insects, and smell the scent of blood, sweat, and rotting corpses. Riezel could hear what I heard and she rose her bow, while also grabbing an arrow. Together we took our first steps into the true dungeon, on guard and ready for anything.
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Dungeons were a subject of scholarly research among both humanity and elvenkind. Elves like Respen came to places like the National Arcane Academy partially because of their proximity to dungeons, which gave them a chance to do field research while being in a place that has the amenities one can reasonably expect from a human city.
Thanks to my subtle theft of Respen's knowledge I knew a fair deal about dungeons. I knew that even elves had never seen a dungeon that wasn't hostile to humanoids, I knew that every dungeon had a core, and I knew that though our historical records suggest that in the mythic past we did know about the Emerald Cavern's core, such knowledge has been lost to time which suggests that the core itself either dove deeper, and thus created new floors to get away from humanity, or gained a source of power that allowed it to strengthen itself.
Dungeon cores used magical energy to create monsters and those monsters hunted any humanoids who entered the dungeon. The fighting done in dungeons, especially when the fighting involved magi, produced magical energy that the core could use to replenish the stores of magical energy the things used to produce monsters in the first place. When dungeon monsters perished they also became magical energy again, and thus were recycled by the dungeon. This phenomenon was not observed when it came to naturally occurring, biological monsters.
Dungeon cores could also create traps and even treasure. And each dungeon thus far encountered by humanity or elves, to the best of Respen's knowledge, had some gimmick that made it an appealing place to explore. The Emerald Cavern's gimmick was obvious: it was a place where the brave could extract unlimited emeralds from the floor, from the walls, and according to historical records covering the dungeon, even the ceiling.
As far as Respen and other dungeon scholars in the National Arcane Academy knew, there was no known reason for why dungeons were hostile to humanoids. They simply were. However... Would they be hostile towards me? That was something I was curious about.
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Once Riezel and I had taken our first, cautious steps into the dungeon I glanced at the floor beneath my feet and with a look of determination attempted to use my "Seduce the world" power. I focused for several moments while Riezel watched my back, and when nothing happened a look of confusion and disappointment crossed my face. Internally I asked the system what had happened and the text boxes that answered me surprised me.
[You are not close enough to the fragment of the core to be able to give form to this floor's guardian spirit. When you enter the boss room and defeat the boss within you will be able to summon the spirit and seduce her to your side. In doing so, if you wish, you could bring her to the side of humanity. That would allow you to make this floor a safe zone and allow humanity to gain a real foothold in this place through which they could launch a real investigation into the dungeon.]
[However, conquering this floor does not conquer the dungeon. After this floor is conquered, if you bring the spirit to the side of humanity, the rest of the dungeon will react, aggressively. To truly maximize the efforts you put into conquering this floor it is advised that you work with local authorities to secure the floor against future invasions from lower floors and while preparing to follow through and conquer the rest of the dungeon.]
"So I can conquer this place... I just need to either do it fast and in one aggressive invasion or do it floor by floor, with the aid of the government..." I remarked, internally. I turned to Riezel and began to speak.
"We're only gonna spend a little bit of time in here today. We're gonna explore, encounter some monsters, take some emeralds, and leave. I'm developing a plan." I told her, speaking aloud. She nodded in my direction, while still continuing to visually scan the area in front of us. We began to slowly and cautiously explore the main cavern we were in, stepping well and truly past the stairwell for the first time.
We made our way deeper into the cavern, and as we did I kept my senses sharp and alert. When we were far enough away from the stairwell that a human wouldn't have been able to see it, I pointed a hand at the floor and reached out with telekinesis. I closed my eyes and focused on exploring the floor at my feet for emeralds, as a plan began to form in the back of my mind.
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Unbeknownst to him, it was the dungeon explorer's decision to use his telekinesis that would cause him to have his first encounter with monsters since becoming a higher being.
The young man's choice to explore the world beneath him with his mind sent ripples throughout the dungeon. When the young man's mind reached and gently took hold of several emeralds and began to pull them towards himself, the dungeon felt the strange power and sent a surge of energy and a single command to the group of monsters closest to him and his companion.
"Stop them." The dungeon whispered into the minds of its creations. The monsters, hearing this command, began to roar, and the sound of skittering insect legs began to resound throughout the main cavern, as no less than ten of the strange creatures birthed by the dungeon raced towards the dungeon's newest intruders.