Beware the Dungeon Master Chapter 3 (Original chapter Chapter 56)

I peered into the globe along with Mab and Oberon as twelve fairies armed and armoured similar to the ones in Titania's court flew towards the entrance of what would be my dungeon. It would be interesting to see exactly how they fought against the Mad King's soldiers.

"As you might imagine, we fairies are not strong of arm like large humanoids are." Titania informed me, "In combat, this is reflected by us using ranged weapons such as bows to offset that, as we can enchant arrows easily. We also use magic to distract and confuse our enemies."

"My soldiers also use it offensively." Mab drawled with a slightly crueller smirk, "The only ones who don't use it offensively are dear Titania's soldiers."

"Why you-!"

I ignored the squabbling Fairy Queens and focussed on the globe. There were three soldiers on the first floor, all armed to the teeth. The Captain Titania had ordered to lead the fairies made a series of hand gestures to his subordinates (a sign language?) and three of them muttered something for a moment before vanishing.

{Invisibility? No…they bent light around themselves.} I said, rather impressed.

"Correct!" Titania smiled at me and patted my new body with one hand. It felt…rather pleasant.

The first Knight had no warning; three small arrows sailed at him out of nowhere and shot through the slits in his visor, killing him instantly. His body crashing to the ground alerted the other two that something was up.

The other fairies had flown in and set up while the first Knight had been busy dying and had set up a few traps using magic and illusions. The second Knight charged right into them, solid light piercing through his armour as if it was paper.

"My, my, my." Mab smiled as the Knight fell to the ground, "Here I thought you disapproved of using magic in direct combat, Titania?"

"I do, but I have been forced to compromise my ideal when confronted with these…Slave Knights of the Mad King." Titania answered tightly, "I still do not permit my soldiers to use magic offensively, but they can use it for defences and traps."

Surprisingly, Mab put a comforting hand on her sister-Queen's shoulder. "Don't worry, sister. The Mad King will fall."

Titania smiled back and then turned to watch as the last Knight of the first floor fell, peppered by arrows that also pierced his armour easily. After that, the other seven Knights were similarly slain in rather short order.

"So what do you think of my warriors, Taylor?" the Queen of the Seelie Court asked.

{They work well together and seem to know their limits.} I answered, {I'd honestly say that I'm impressed by their skill."

This earned me another pat.

"Thank you, dear." Titania smiled, "Now then, I think it's time we headed out to claim your dungeon."

In a very short period of time, Titania, Mab and Oberon were ready to head out, with a handful of retainers carrying sacks and chests full of what I guessed were my initial starting loot, so to speak. Titania, once again, levitated me along beside her.

"Really. Floating her around like that." Mab snickered, "You're subtle teasing is just as entertaining as always, sister dear."

"Her emotional reaction is rather amusing, yes." Titania smiled apologetically at me, "Sorry, but we fey do tend to prank people, especially us fairies."

{Compared to what Emma did to the original me, this is nothing.} I answered with a mental shrug. It had been quite some time since I had thought about my dead ex-best friend. Or rather, the dead ex-best friend of my original. It was so hard to get that straight in my mind.

Nodding at that, the Fairy Queen led the group to a largish circular doorway that had a swirling vortex humming inside of it.

{What's this?} I asked.

"You would call it a wormhole." Oberon replied in his deep voice, "We refer to them as Aether Ports or Fairy Gates. A Master Port like this one allows instant travel to any location with a Secondary Port installed. Only someone bearing the correct magical signature can travel to a Master Port, however. One such as Titania, Mab or myself."

{Huh. Cool.}

Travelling through the Port was…weird. I had never teleported before, so I couldn't liken it to that, but it felt weirder than being near Labyrinth once she got her Shaker power fully deployed.

{I don't suppose I can change the way the entrance looks?} I asked dryly, eying the unimpressive and roughly cut doorway to the dungeon with a distinct lack of favour.

"It's a part of your dungeon; of course you can." Titania answered to my surprise, "At least you will once we get you settled. There are some rules for Dungeon Cores to follow, but we'll get to that later. For now…"

She led the party into my dungeon and I was just as unimpressed with the corridors of the first floor of my new domain. They were tall, wide and had no traps, from what I could see. Hell, there weren't even any rooms branching off from the path! Was the last guy a complete scholar or what?

My irritation with the previous Dungeon Core rose as we descended the remaining seven floors, each identical to the last. Well, this certainly wouldn't do. I was going to have to do some serious renovating.

At the end of the Eighth Floor was a large wooden door that had been broken through. It wasn't designed to stop armed and armoured intruders; more like keep irritating students out while the owner graded their papers.

{Do these knights have no subtlety?} I asked in exasperation as I added replacing the door to my to-do list. {And the last guy was a moron. Keeping his door out in plain sight like that? Please.}

"He was the model of the absent-minded professor." Titania sighed, "Absolutely no survival instincts whatsoever. Still, he didn't deserve what happened to him."

The inner room as a bit better, with an altar of some sort in the centre of a wide, circular room. It was atop a stepped dais that was at least a metre high. Lying shattered on the ground around the altar were the remnants of my predecessor. I couldn't help but want to shudder at the sight.

"Have Jaris' remains gathered for interment at the memorial." Titania directed the squad who had cleared the dungeon. They did so, reverently gathering up every shard of the remains of my predecessor and placing them in a box that Titania produced from one of the sacks.

"His name was Jaris Shanks." Mab sighed, "He was ninety-nine years old when he volunteered to be the first native-born wizard to be turned into a Dungeon Core. We needed to know if it could be done, rather than relying on outside souls as we had done up until that point, as Zion and Eden were getting close to our world at the time. It was judged to be a success, just barely. He was barely an indigo."

{What do the colours actually mean?} I asked.

"They display the…it's hard to describe it in English. The…timbre? The essence? The flavour? The strength? The quality? All of those combined, of the soul of the Dungeon Core." Oberon explained slowly, "You are the strongest type of mortal soul, the Rainbow Soul. At the very bottom is the Black Soul, made from animals. The more vibrant and bright that a colour is, the better suited a Dungeon Core is to being a Dungeon. A number of factors influence the colour of the souls, but self-sacrifice, willpower, determination and the amount of suffering that a soul has endured in its previous lifetime are all factors. I'm certain you can see why you are a Rainbow Soul."

I had sacrificed everything to kill Zion. My mind. My future. My morals. My body. My good name. I sacrificed everything that was me, in order to save Earth Bet and all the other parallel worlds. I knew I would be seen as a monster, as someone just as bad as Zion, but I had done it anyway. I had done what had to be done, because no one else would have been able to do it.

At least, my original had done that. I was a recording, a copy, a mere echo, of her, but I would have done the same thing, made the same choice. Zion had simply had to be stopped, regardless of the cost to myself.

{…I do.} I answered quietly.

Once the last of the shards of Jaris Shanks were swept up, Titania and Mab inspected the altar and the entire room in fact for any kind of magical booby-trap that would activate if a new Dungeon Core was installed. They found several, all designed to drive a Core insane or shatter them if certain conditions were met on the altar, with several magic-sapping curses embedded into the walls, floor and ceiling that would have made it almost impossible for a Core to gather any magic.

{I really don't like this Mad King guy.} I remarked as the two Queens cursed in a strangely musical language as they waved their hands, drawing eldritch symbols and arcane formulae in the air hat sank into the rock of the walls in order to neutralise and exorcize the magic-sucking spells already present.

"Welcome to the club." Oberon deadpanned.

That startled a laugh out of me.

Finally, the two Fairy Queens deemed it safe for me to be placed upon the pedestal. Titania did it herself, with her physical strength rather than levitating me, which couldn't have been easy considering I had to weigh at least as much as she did. With a click, I settled into place on the altar.

And I could see…everything about the dungeon. Its exact dimensions, how old it was, and even what the materials that made it up where. It was quite the heady rush.

"Taylor?" Titania enquired worriedly, "You OK?"

{Y-Yeah…just…being all but omniscient inside a certain area is a bit much to get used to quickly.} I answered shakily.

"You aren't quite omniscient, but it is a good comparison." Mab agreed, "You adjusted to it quickly though. Must be the effect of being linked to the Queen Administrator Shard for so long."

"Very likely." Oberon agreed, "Now, Taylor. Run through your knowledge of insects from your planet. Samples will appear on shelves on the walls."

Cracking my mental knuckles, I did so. Spiders, flies, beetles, wasps, bees, ladybugs, butterflies, moths…images of the various creatures that I had commanded and researched over the years flashed through my mind as I remembered them. On the outside, the fairy guards shifted uncomfortably as a Black Widow, Brown Recluse, Trapdoor Spider, Hornet, Killer Bee and other deadly insects and arachnids popped out of nowhere and onto shelves. Others that I hadn't controlled, and thus had a less thorough knowledge of, were slower to appear. Much to the confusion of some of the watching fairies, one thing that appeared was a crab.

"A crab?" Mab raised an eyebrow.

{My power wasn't the ability to control insects, Mab; it was the ability to control arthropods above a certain size. That includes caterpillars and crustaceans.} I informed the Queen of Air and Shadows, {It basically depended on the size and complexity of their brains. Lobsters and crabs aren't exactly breaking any intelligence records. I never bothered to try, but I think I could have controlled fish too.}

"Interesting." Mab mused, "Your power was more flexible than I anticipated and it shows that this dungeon is also more flexible than we had imagined. A crab…and is that a lobster?...shouldn't be able to manifest here if all this place should do is generate insects and magical constructs."

"I think when the Core before Jenis couldn't generate any mammals or birds, we didn't think to explore the less tried animals." Titania sighed, "I doubt it would have interested or helped poor Jenis, but it's good to know."

"Titania was the one who agreed to transmigrate poor Jenis, so she feels some responsibility for his fate." Oberon muttered to me, "She won't make that mistake with you, so expect to have a visitor at least once a week."

I was fine with that. I rather liked Titania, so having her over was not a problem.

{Um, something just occurred to me.} I said sheepishly, {Would these Slave Knights or whoever made the spells that were in this room have booby-trapped the rest of the dungeon too?}

Both Titania and Mab slapped a hand to their foreheads and fluttered over to my altar.

"Yes, they would have." Mab growled, irritated at not thinking of it herself, "Fortunately, we can use your connection to the dungeon as a conduit to find and neutralise the spells they may have placed. Do we have your permission to do so?"

{Go ahead.} I invited.

The two Fairy Queens placed their hands on my body and I felt the brush of their minds against mine. I showed them the dungeon and all the information that I was receiving via my connection to it. They took that and ran several spells across it at the speed of thought, revealing a load of spells designed to inhibit the gathering of either dark or light magic or both, as well as a few spells that were even now draining some of my magic in order to fuel an explosion spell of some sort.

The burning anger coming from Titania was blazing white-hot, while the quiet rage of Mab was as quiet as an assassin on a moonless night. Neither of them liked the types of spells that had been implanted here and they were not going to stand for it. With a concerted effort, the two Queens eliminated the spells infecting my dungeon and retrieved my stolen magic.

"That was quite the nasty surprise, Titania." Mab said once she opened her eyes.

"Agreed." The Queen of Light and Illusions said, "All of this is a lot more extensive than I would expect for a minor dungeon as this has been until this point. None of the other dungeons we've reclaimed have been nearly so booby-trapped. Why this one in particular?"

An idea came to me. {Coil.}

Three heads snapped around to gaze at me.

"Explain." Mab ordered.

{Coil could guess that you can and have transmigrated other Parahumans from Earth Bet after the Mad King made him a Dungeon Core.} I answered steadily, {When he heard about this place, he likely worried you would do exactly what you have done and transmigrate me in order to oppose him. He probably convinced the Mad King or one of his slaves that having me here would be a Bad Thing, and arranged a takeover. I think things went off the rails when the Slave Knights smashed Jenis' body though. I think the plan was to secure this place against being taken over by me by keeping Jenis in control.}

Oberon nodded slowly. "That…seems like a reasonable hypothesis."

"Considering your original was directly responsible for the death of his original, it is likely he'd be wary of giving you a place like this, which is almost tailor-made to your strengths." Mab agreed.

"Well, we scuppered his plans fairly quickly." Titania scowled, "I will be examining the other dungeons we have recaptured for more spells such as what Mab and I found here. Subtle tittle things. Had we not used Taylor's Dungeon Core Connection as the medium for our scan, we would not have found them."

"I shall help you, sister. Some of those spells couldn't be detected with just your control over Light and Illusions or mine over Air and Shadow, but with both combined." Titania's opposite counterpart said grimly.

"For now, we should finish Taylor's inauguration." Oberon stated.

"Quite right." The Queen of Light and Illusions nodded, "Taylor, these sacks contain the starting amount of weapons, armour, accessories, gold, silver and copper for you to use as loot in your dungeon."

At her signal, the sacks were upturned, with swords, shields, pikes, halberds, daggers, axes and numerous coins of the various metal types. There were also numerous earrings, rings, necklaces, bangles, armbands and pieces of armour that seemed to be very mishmash in design. The sacks were even added, which gave Taylor an idea for the first floor boss…

"What you need to do is reach through the connection that you have and feel for the treasure, including the Knights who were defeated, and then try to draw them within you." Mab lectured me, "Try not to attempt to absorb Oberon, as he would be most irked."

"Indeed." The Ruler of the Wild deadpanned.

Reaching out, I did as asked and felt for the treasures that had been placed on my main room's floor. I deliberately ignored Oberon and then reached out to grab at the ten fallen Slave Knights. Then, with a sharp tug, I drew them inside of me.

In a flash, the treasures were gone and I knew that they were all inside of me. The Knights, on the other hand…their equipment was inside me as well. But I couldn't feel their bodies.

"When a Dungeon Core draws a dead human body inside of themselves, they convert the body into magic." Oberon informed me when I voiced my confusion, "You will have noticed that the amount of Darkness magic you have at your disposal has increased, correct? These Slave Knights are positively ripe with it."

Now he mentioned it, I was aware of that fact. There was also something else…

{I also have a type of magic that Titania's download didn't tell me about.} I observed, {It's Slavery Magic.}

That got their attention.

"We've never captured someone in order to study the magic before!" Mab whispered eagerly, "If we could study it, the knowledge could be invaluable against the minions of the Mad King! We could free them of his enslavement with enough research!"

{I'll use the knowledge of enchanting that Titania gave me –} I started to say before the woman in question interrupted me.

"No, that power is corrupted and foul. Even with it inside of you and not doing anything, I worry for you." She snapped, "I know!"

With a gesture, she pulled an orb from nowhere. It was made of glass and was the size of a cabbage. It floated for a moment before she lowered it to the floor.

"Absorb that and then put it near the Slavery magic." She ordered, "It should suck all of it up."

I did as ordered. As she had hoped, the Slavery Magic was pulled into the orb and out of me. It was a bit of a relief, because it had been fighting to get free from my control.

"What now?" Mab asked, "The law clearly states that she cannot simply hand it over to you."

"Then we had better walk Taylor through the creation of her first magical beast." Oberon boomed.

"OK. Taylor, choose one of these things and channel magic into it, focussing on growth." Mab told me, waving at the wall of insects.

{Who's fighting it?} I asked. Mab, Titania and Oberon just smiled at me.

"WE are." The three said.

Hoo-boy. Last thing I wanna do is kill my new bosses, but I do wanna test to see exactly how well I can do without any instructions. Looking over my collection, I choose to create a mindless butterfly, a Monarch butterfly to be exact. Fitting for three monarchs to fight.

{So, I just insert magic into this husk of a butterfly?} I asked.

"Very slowly and carefully." Titania warned me, "Especially as all you have is Darkness magic. That can be very tricky in large quantities."

Mentally frowning, I followed my orders. I envisioned a slim thread of Darkness magic flowing into the butterfly and making it grow larger. There was an effect almost immediately as the small insect swelled to three times its natural size, which was still not all that impressive. I fed more magic in, increasing the size of the pipeline from a thread to a cord, which made the butterfly grow again and again, first to the size of a corgi, then to the size of a Shetland pony.

Its colouration had changed too. Before, its wings had been the usual reddish-orange of its species. Now they were mottled black and white, with the black parts drawing light within their embrace.

"That should be a suitable challenge." Oberon nodded, "Definitely worthy of the Containment Orb full of Slavery Magic. Now, name your creation. Crude as it is, it deserves a name."

{…I suck at naming things.} I said after a moment, {But…how does the Dark Monarch sound?}

"Not bad." Mab smirked as she drew her dagger from her belt, "Now wrap a strand of magic around the orb and the Dark Monarch and imagine the orb appearing where the Dark Monarch will be when it is defeated."

Doing so was actually fairly easy. Had Titania given me more information than she had said when she downloaded knowledge into me earlier?

{Done.} I announced and then granted the Dark Monarch instincts akin to a wild dog and ordered it to take flight. With a rapid fluttering of the wings, the Dark Monarch Butterfly lifted off for the first time. It looked wrong. Something the size of Earth's smallest pony shouldn't be able to fly like that; it was physically impossible, especially as it had no endoskeleton. Still, here it was.

"I wonder what abilities it possesses?" Oberon mused as he pulled a sword out of seemingly nowhere.

"I think it can negate or absorb light. Look at its wings." Titania remarked. She had a staff of gnarled wood in her hands. It looked like a very long chopstick.

"Yes. Taylor must have subconsciously designed it to specifically counter you." Mab grinned, "Of course, it could also protect itself from my Shadows. We'll just have to see, shan't we, dear?"

"Just so." Oberon rumbled, "Taylor, order it to attack us and then do nothing."

Reluctantly I did so.

With a shriek, the Dark Monarch unleashed a small tornado of black pollen at Mab. Oberon made a giant leaf appear with a gesture of his free hand and it blocked the pollen. Titania flew up and unleashed a blast of light from her staff that should have struck the monstrous insect on its head.

Instead, the blast disintegrated and flowed into the wings, turning them partially white.

"As I thought." The Queen of Light and Illusions sighed, "Mab? Your turn."

"With pleasure." The Unseelie Queen smirked. She slashed her dagger and unleashed a crescent-shaped blade of darkness that sliced through Oberon's leaf and the cloud of dark pollen as if they were not even there. It looked to be about to cut the Dark Monarch in half, when a shield of light appeared in front of it and cancelled out her attack.

"What in the…?!" Mab breathed in shock.

"I see…it absorbs light and uses it to counter darkness and shadow magics, possibly even weapons imbued or enchanted with those effects." Oberon deduced, "I wonder if it works the other way around?"

"Just kill it, Oberon." Titania sighed, "We can get Taylor to let you experiment later."

"As you say." The King of the Wild nodded and then seemed to teleport, bisecting the Dark Monarch with one cut of his blade. As the first monster I had ever made fell to the ground, the Orb appeared in mid-air and was swiftly caught by Titania's magic.

{I'm a bit sad that it lasted such a short time.} I sighed.

"It lasted a handful of minutes against three of the most powerful beings in the world." Mab corrected me, "That is something to be proud of, Taylor. I would place this as a Boss monster for the Fifth Floor, perhaps even the Sixth. That pollen was highly corrosive; look at the remains of Oberon's [Leaf Shield] spell."

Indeed, the leaf the size of a manhole cover was being eaten by the black pollen that coated its two halves.

I noticed something. {Hey, I have some Light magic! Looks like whatever Light magic it absorbs but doesn't use in battle comes to me when its defeated.}

"That is a highly useful ability." Titania said, looking impressed as she beckoned one of the soldiers to carry the Orb, "Now then…let's see what materials are useful in it."

As an insect, the Dark Monarch didn't really have much to offer. The eyes were apparently useful for Dark resistance potions, and the wings still absorbed light and shadow, much to Mab and Titania's curiosity, but that was it. When they had harvested all they could of it, the corpse dissolved and I noticed I had about half of the darkness magic I had used to alter the Dark Monarch back.

"That's normal." Titania said when I mentioned this, "The materials take up most of the magic you use to create the monsters, so you automatically reabsorb the rest when the materials are taken."

The next little while was spent setting up the magical tithe system that would supply me with magic from all three of the fairy monarchs, which was very rare, or so Mab claimed. Finally, we got to the stage where they were almost ready to leave.

"Before we leave, each of us has a gift for you." Titania smiled, "Oberon, you first."

The King of the Wild Forest nodded. "I was watching Earth Bet when I felt a soul leave you unwillingly. I collected it and held it in case you were ever transmigrated here."

Cupping his two hands, a grey core appeared in them. I curiously reached out with my mind and felt a familiar being inside of it. A mind I had controlled before, not as Khepri, not as Weaver, but as Skitter the Warlord. It was…

{Atlas? Atlas, is that you?!} I gasped.

From the core, I felt recognition and loyalty. It was my Atlas!

Smiling lightly, Oberon made another hole in my altar and placed Atlas' Core in it, just to my left.

"Most Dungeon Cores cannot sustain a Subordinate Core for quite some time after they are created, but with our magic aiding you, you will be able to do so for Atlas." Oberon told me.

{Oberon…thank you.} I said hoarsely. Leaving Atlas behind had been the hardest thing for me to do when I became a member of the Wards. He had starved to death thanks to Panacea's dratted injunction to him that I had to order him to eat. Now we both had a second chance.

"My turn." Titania smiled and held up a glowing orb, "It isn't much, but I I have gathered some small Light Crystals that you can embed in monsters and increase the power and potency of any Light or Illusion magic that you give them."

{Thanks. That will be useful.} I said sincerely, still a bit awed that I had Atlas back.

"And of course, the best is saved till last." Mab smirked, "Now, ordinarily, Titania would be providing you with a Dungeon Fairy, one who has the duty of guiding you and informing you of magic and the rules of being a Dungeon. I have asked, and she has agreed, to cede that task to a fairy of my choosing. One who comes from Earth Bet, in fact, and one who owes you more than she can ever truly repay you."

With a click of her fingers, another fairy emerged from Oberon's shadow. Long red, hair, a well-proportioned figure and those eyes…there was no way I'd forget this person.

{E-Emma…?!}

Emma Barnes, my original's ex-best friend flinched at the anger and disbelief in my voice. "Hey Taylor."

Hehehehehehehehe.