Nelly fell on her bed and examined her pendant. She just returned from the dungeon visit and even managed to level up, but after events in the dungeon her leveling was not so significant to her. Her memories of her st encounter with mid level floor guardian were still fresh on her mind.

  By now they reached floor ninety, and Nelly expected that their next visit will be st one. As far as she knew, the deepest floor of any dungeon was one hundred and they already managed to reach floor ninety, so their next dungeon hunt should be the st.

  Just as Avone told them, they encountered many monsters that could use magic, and were able to defeat them, mostly thanks to magic resistance artifacts that Avone got them.

  Avone also gave Nelly Eye of wolf god - powerful artifact that protected her from innate magic abilities. She told Nelly that she her job will be to protect all party members. Nelly did not believe Avone, when she heard her words, and thought that Avone was still treating and protecting her as a child. That changed when they reached floor seventy and encountered mid level floor guardian.

  He unexpectedly appeared in front of them, and Nelly felt fear, just looking at him. It was giant bck wolf whose steps made the dungeon shake. He looked at them and wolf's eyes fshed. Nelly felt her pendant warming up, but nothing else happened. She looked at her companions and noticed that they were frozen in pce. She looked back at the wolf and paled.

  It was Abyss-wolf. Mid ranking floor guardian who had ability to use his gaze to freeze his opponents in pce. Even Nelly's hero Avone was frozen in pce. She was the only one who could do something.

  Her instincts screamed at her to run away, but Nelly squeezed her staff and considered her options. Most floor guardians, had natural resistance to magic. Nelly remembered what Avone told her.

  "Even if you cannot use your magic directly on a floor guardian you still can use it on yourself, your party members, or on your surroundings. So if you cannot kill it with your magic, then buy yourself time to think or run away."

  Nelly took a deep breath and casted her spell. Luckily for her Abyss-wolf was silently approaching them, which gave Nelly enough time to cast her magic.

  She casted Swamp spell and turned are ground below Abyss-wolf wolf into swamp. Monster jumped forward, but underestimated Nelly's spell range and his feet sunk into the ground. Abyss-wolf roared in anger and moved forwards, but his movements were slow and he barely moved towards his prey.

  Nelly used her favorite Lightning spell, but it barely inflicted any damage and mostly angered the monster. Nelly bitted her lip. If only she could use fifth level spells, she could definitely defeat that monster.

  Nelly shook her head and concentrated. Avone always told her that in battle she should use what she got, because there is always the way to win, and not to think about what she could have.

  Nelly squeezed her staff and released her Inferno spell, putting in it as much mana as spell could handle. Wave of fire flooded the cavern, and wolf roared in pain. When fire died down, Nelly saw monster eyes, filled with hatred towards her. His fur was burned in many pces, and he suffered painful looking burns.

  That was not enough. Nelly considered using water magic, to conjure ice, but that could solidify her swamp and allow monster to move on solid ground. So fire it is, at least until she can come up with something more useful. She used Inferno spell three more times, before monster approached border of the swamp. Monster roared in triumph, but Nelly was ready for him. As soon as he jumped on solid ground, Nelly used Ice prison spell, incasing him in ice. That slowed floor guardian, but he used his strength to break the ice.

  Nelly's heart froze in fear, she was running out of ideas, but then she heard words near her that changed everything.

  - Sacred arrows!

  Arrows of light pierced wounded monster and he roared in pain. Nelly did it. Bought enough time for monsters spell to run out of time, and now her friends joined the battle.

  When arrows stopped Nelly saw the monster. He was still alive, but badly wounded and could only crawl towards them.

  - Sacred arrows! - said Avone, and another batch of light arrows finished the monster.

  - Good work, - said Avone and patted Nelly's head: - Luara get the magic stone. Trevor your on lookout. Nelly get some rest and use mana potion. If we run into someone else with simir powers we will be again counting on you.

  Nelly eyes were wet. She did it, she became stronger and now could stand proudly alongside her companions.

  * * *

  Almost three years - I sighed - we needed almost three years to conquer the dungeon in Kota and defeat its st guardian. It turned out to be Ice queen. Luckily Nelly already reached master level with her Water magic skill and quickly casted Water protection on us. That allowed us to survive her spells, and gave me time to cast my Burning sun spell. After that things went easy, and we quickly finished weakened ice monster. As a result all my party members leveled up by the end. All except me. I waited till the end, hoping to evolve by killing monsters, but no such luck. I had to destroy dungeon core and then used another leveling potion to get two levels higher. At least we also recovered another King of Iron mountains artifact. It turned out to be small silver diadem that allowed user use up to level three elemental spells and increased mana by three hundred, and spell power by three. In my opinion it was wasted on Luara, but I did promised her all King's artifacts, so I allowed her to keep it, but send her to Mage guild to learn some spells. Not that she needed it, but it gave me a month, which I spend in Bcksmith cave, delivering artifacts, supplies and killing monsters in nearby dungeon. And now we spend another three years in town called Garya conquering one more dungeon. Again my companions were able to evolve, but I had to destroy dungeon core to reach next level. It did gave me opportunity to use up one more leveling potion and I reached level thirty four.

  We managed to conquer dungeon in Garya without me getting dragged into another mess with the gods, which was a positive development for me. Luara got another artifact called Boots of dragonsyer which increased her strength by five and speed by one. That artifact was way more useful for Luara than the previous one. We also earned a lot of money, and I gathered thirty two low level magic gems and six mid level ones, which was enough to make me a leveling orb. I did have more than enough money, to order me several orbs, since we managed to find many artifacts, not to mention magic stones and monster materials, all of which we successfully sold and earned several hundred orichalcum coins, but I had to postpone ordering orb making, since there were no sages nearby, who could create me a leveling orb.

  After that we went to Mina to conquer st dungeon and complete the set of Iron mountain king's artifacts.

  Ares turned out to be right. Last dungeon was swarming with monsters. My strategy was to take things slow and clean up floor by floor, slowly going deeper and deeper. We could kill monsters way faster than dungeon could create them and already reached floor sixty. After killing tens of thousands of monsters Nelly even reached next level and finally her Wisdom skill reached master level. I also used one more leveling potion, and now had only one more left, but my Wisdom skill also reached master level. Now, both me and Nelly could use level five elemental spells. Well, we will be able to use them, once we actually learn them.

  I decided that my party needs to take some rest, which will give us time to learn new spells. I was pnning also to learn level five spells, but first I needed to attend to my dungeon guardian duties. So, I was pnning to spend few weeks in a dungeon near Bcksmith cave and then learn some powerful elemental magic spells.

  After visiting Bcksmith cave and making sure that my castles inhabitants are doing well, including Lyndria, who successfully reached my castle and now was another of its inhabitants, I went to the dungeon.

  During my st visit on the second floor, I found floor guardians room, guarded by another draugr, with treasure chest inside it, and now was pnning to kill the monster and appropriate his gold, or whatever else he was guarding.

  I considered casting Sacred arrows, but such powerful spell could even damage artifacts. Instead I silently approached floor guardians room and casted Holy light spell. It was powerful level three Light magic spell, that created holy light, which could purify even high ranking undead.

  Draugr squealed in pain, when light burned his skin. Not waiting for his end, I run inside and cut off his head. Monster fell on the floor, and I wiped out the sweat. Killing such powerful monsters was always a risk, but it was possible, as soon as I could prepare and make the first move.

  I cut out his magic gem and after that opened the chest. I was disappointed, since there was just a single parchment inside. No gold or powerful artifacts, which was little disappointing. I rolled open the parchment and my eyes widened. Its first line spelled high ranking and forbidden skills and their description. Parchment contained information about several dozen skills and described their abilities. Most of those skills I never even heard of: Apex hunter, God's speed, Sage's wisdom, Supreme demon-god mana control, Knight of darkness and many more. I almost started crying - those were skills that I definitely wanted, but could not get any more.

  I sighed and pced the scroll in my Female purse. There were things that I was better not knowing about, especially if I could not get them. I went outside the room, when below me appeared bright light. All I could do was to notice magic circle, which suddenly appeared below me, and then light fshed in front of me, and I was blinded for a moment.

  I blinked several times and touched myself. I was fine and was not missing anything. Maybe magic circle did not work? My eyesight slowly returned and I looked around. I was in a different cavern, and dozen drakes were waking up and looking at me with surprise. I was standing in the middle of their pack, and drakes did not realize immediately what happened.

  One of them smelled the air and threateningly growled. That was not good.

  I got lucky, since drakes were kind of slow, and it gave me enough time to arm myself with my Poison fang and Poison cw daggers, and wound closest monster. Drakes run towards me, but at so close range they crowded each other and were too slow to catch me. I danced among them, using my dual wielding sword style, and managed to wounded them without being eaten and squashed by their rge bodies. After that, I needed some time running around them, to avoid drakes before they succumbed to poison and fell on the floor.

  I was standing among their dying bodies and was breathing heavily waiting for them to die. After making sure that I was the only living creature in the cavern, I took a seat and looked around.

  This pce was unfamiliar to me. Judging from the events, I fell into a trap known as teleportation circle. A magic circle, that sent his victim to a random pce in a dungeon. For all I knew, I could be in a floor one hundred by now.

  No - I calmed myself down. I just fought drakes, so I could not be too deep. The main problem was that I had no idea where and how deep I was. I examined my equipment. I still had all my artifacts, and in my Female purse was collection of potions. I still had more than hundred Anti-sleep potions and several hundred stamina potions. We did used quit a lot of stamina potions in the st dungeon, but buying them by the hundreds did paid off. I also had several dozen mana potions, some elixirs and all kind of potions against abnormal statuses like petrification. So that was good. Also, I had enough food to st me two weeks and could use my magic to create drinkable water. Usually I carried enough food to st me several month, but I left most of my food in Bcksmith cave. Mental note - in the future leave food before leaving not after arrival. That is if I can get out of here and will have that future.

  At least I did learn from my past mistakes and had enough parchments, feathers and ink for map drawing, so I could make as many maps as I needed. So mapping and sneaking around for me, until I can get out. Not like it was the first time when I got lost in the dungeon.

  I looked around. All drakes were dead. Usually I would collect their magic stones, but now, my survival and getting out of the dungeon took priority, and I had to abandon all those coins.

  I casted Conceal spell on myself and went through the closest exit. Next cavern was empty, but the one after that was filled with giant leaches. By giant I mean elephant sized ones. I wanted to run back, but for me back meant deeper into the dungeon - probably. I took a deep breath and casted Sacred arrows spell. I needed to use the spell two more times to eliminate all leaches, but their defenses were week, comparing to their size. I was forced to use mana potion and again leave all magic stones, to not waste any time. Several hours and half a dozen mana potions ter, I finally reached exit to the upper floor. I got lucky and stairs were going upstairs instead of downstairs, where I did not need to go.

  Upper level was nothing like anything I saw before. It was made from crystals. Like everything - floor, ceiling walls and even first cavern was made purely out of crystals. Some parts of the dungeon were bright and made from almost transparent crystals that allowed me to see deep inside them, but there was nothing beyond them, just more crystals, or so it seemed to me. Others parts of the dungeon were made from dark, almost bck crystals. There were also blue, yellow and all the rest colors that I could name.

  First monsters that I encountered were also made from crystals. They were big golems, and my Sacred arrows, for the first time, were less effective than I was used to. They cracked the monster-golems, but did not destroyed them. I tried to run away, but took a wrong turn and ended up in a dead end. Monsters were slowly approaching, but only way out was past them. I tried Fire ball and Magic arrow spells, but they were even less useful that my Sacred arrows.

  With no other choice, I used my Barrier destroyer. My first strike cut off monsters arm, and after that I easily hacked them into pieces.

  I was heavily breathing, standing over pile of crystals. I tried to use my Dark cw sword, but, even with my advanced strength, I managed only to crack the golems arms. I did destroy it, but only after several blows. Luckily for me, my Barrier destroyer sword probably saw monster crystal bodies as a natural armor and easily cut through it. Without it, I may not be able to survive this encounter.

  I lost track of time exploring crystal floor. I tried sleeping, but crystal golems did not stayed in one pce, but walked around the floor, and I got a feeling that, as soon as I fell asleep, I was woken up by their loud footsteps.

  Monsters moved in packs of four to ten. They were indestructible by normal methods and probably strong, but not very fast. After some experimenting, I found out that using my Haste spell and my Barrier destroyer allowed me easily enough to dispose of the crystal golems. Most difficult thing was the fact that there were a lot of them, and, whenever I stopped for rest, they found me, and I had to either run or fight them. I gave up on rest and instead relied on stamina and anti-sleep potions, looking for a way out.

  I was never so happy to reach the stairs to upper floor, but next floor turned out to be another crystal floor, infested with what seemed tens of thousands of crystal golems.

  I lost count of used potions and days, when I reached next floor. When I saw it, I wanted to scream. It was another crystal floor.

  After several dozen stamina potions I did encountered another crystal creature. You would think that some diversity would make me happy, but this was not the case. It was a crystal dragon. Big lizard like monsters made out of crystals. Dragon was walking around the dungeon, and made a lot of noise, which allowed me to prepare and cast a protection spells on myself and Burning sun above the dragon. As soon as big ball of fire manifested above the dragon and started melting everything around it, including cavern walls, ceiling floor and also dragons body, giant monster roared and opened his mouth. Bright beam of light hit my burning sun and it exploded. Loud sound stunned me, and I lost my hearing. Explosion also cracked caverns ceiling and walls, and huge pieces of crystals started falling on the ground. One of them hit me, and I fell on the ground. At least falling pieces of the dungeon also distracted the monster from me, as well.

  Stunned by the explosion and falling crystals, all I managed was crawling to one of the darkest parts of the cavern and casting Shadow veil on myself. At least dark crystals provided me enough darkness for my spell to work. I stayed in one pce praying for dragon not to notice me.

  After things in the cavern calmed down, angry creature looked around and roared in anger. He used his paws to swipe away some of the crystals, but did not noticed me and left the cavern through corridor behind me. I waited till his footsteps died down and exhaled in relief. I survived my encounter with floor guardian, but now I needed to escape as soon as possible. I used one of my elixirs and another stamina potion, and then run to the opposite site of the dragon.

  I was too afraid to sleep or rest and ended up using at least dozen anti-sleep and thirty stamina potions. There were still many crystal golems, but I got rid of them as fast as I could, trying to make as less noise as possible. I spend all the time on the floor listening to sounds, afraid that I will again encounter crystal dragon. I did encounter him once again, while I was searching for the exit. But this time I did not tried to fight him, instead I found closest part of the dungeon with dark crystals and used my Shadow veil, to again hide from the dragon.

  He walked past me with his previous melted parts already healed, and I once more made sure that I had no chance or any way that I would be able to kill this monster. Not with any spells or any weapons at my current disposal.

  I got lucky again, and dragon walked by without noticing me.

  Next floor was again filled with crystals, but at least I did not encountered any crystal dragons. The only reason I survived and got to next floor was my supply of potions and my Barrier destroyer sword.

  Next floor was familiar looking one, with dark earth caverns and familiar insect and animal like monsters. My Conceal spell allowed me to sneak up on them and use best possible strategy, to clean the way in front of me. I did encounter some floor guardians on upper floors, but nothing on the level of crystal dragon. Still my encounter with that dragon scared me so much, that I ended up using dozens of anti-sleep and hundreds of stamina potions.

  * * *

  I woke up feeling something warm and wet on my forehead. I jumped up searching for the sword on my belt.

  - It is all right, - said someone, and I felt calming hands on my shoulders. I looked around and saw Lyndria. She was sitting on the side of my bed and now pushed me back on my bed. Through the fog in my memories, I remembered crawling out of the dungeon. My food supply run out days ago, but by that time I reached second floor and knew my way out. My thoughts were too clouded. Too much anti-sleep potions made me dizzy, and I barely understood what was happening around me by then. I only managed to return because the way back was familiar to me, and the thought that I managed to get out alive helped me to stumble back to the castle.

  I fell back on the bed and managed to whisper one word:

  - Food.

  Lyndria nodded and soon came back with some soup. She fed me like a sick child, but I was too weak to eat myself.

  - What happened, - I whispered. My throat was dry, and I could barely talk. I was not wounded, but I felt week and my lips felt dried and cracked.

  - You returned more than a month ter after leaving. You were barely crawling and were half dead, when bunny-girl found you. We carried you to your bead, and Elena used healing spells, but you did not woke up. You slept for almost a week. Few times you woke up, but were delirious, but at least it gave us a chance to feed you. Are you all right?

  - Felt better, - I whispered. I finished the soup and fell asleep again.

  Next time I woke up from a nightmare. I had them all the time, but this one was scary enough to wake me up.

  Instead of Lyndria near my bead was sitting bunny-girl. As soon as I woke up, she brought me bowl of soup and fed me with the spoon. I was able to sit down by myself and noticed little boy peaking inside the room. That was four year old son of Elena and Maximus. He also had a little sibling, two year old sister whom they proudly showed me earlier. Unlike before, the number of inhabitants in my castle started to grow. The food supply was still a problem for them, and they relied a lot on hunting. Well they relied on elf-girl, since she was the only decent hunter among them.

  Good news was that dwarf found abundance of iron ores nearby and also coal deposits, and now spend most of his time in a smithy. So, they could produce all necessary iron instruments and weapons by themselves.

  Bunny-girl started sharing with me all the news that happened in Bcksmith cave, and soon I fell asleep listening to her.

  By the next time, I was able to eat myself and even get out of the bed. I sent bunny-girl away and went to the window. Air in Iron mountains was always chilly. Not cold enough to freeze to death, but cold enough for me to want to hide under the bnket.

  I tried to remember what happened. I remembered fighting crystal dragon, then reaching upper floors, but after that my memories were hazy. Probably because I used too many potions and went almost a month without sleep. I knew that using too many anti-sleep and stamina potions was dangerous, but back them I did not saw another way how to get out. I got lucky, that I did not lose my ability to concentrate and use spells.

  I did get too overconfident, thinking that, if I take things slow, I will be able to go deeper and deeper inside dungeon, killing monsters one at a time. In the future, I will need to be way more careful.

  I returned to bed, and soon Lyndria came inside the room.

  - How are you feeling?

  - Better now. I should be back on my feet in a day or so.

  - You scared us a lot.

  - Did not think that most people here will care about that. Should not they be happy if I die.

  - They like you more than you think, - smiled Lyndria: - They are not free to leave, but most humans do not have such luxury, and life here is not so bad.

  - Never thought about it that way.

  - How short sided of you. What happened to you?

  - Got stuck in a dungeon.

  - So that is where you always go, when you visit. To the ancient dungeon? Don't you know how dangerous those pces are? Especially if you go there by yourself?

  - I think, I got some idea about it. But I need rest. We can talk more tomorrow.

  - Very well. You look cuter when you sleep. And not so grumpy.

  I grinned: - Well, probably we all do. But for now, unless you want to join me or sing me a lulby?

  - Well, your bed is most comfortable in a castle.

  She cimed to my bed and pressed against me. She was soft and warm, and it felt so safe. For the first time, I did not see any nightmares and got a good night sleep.

  I lost too much time getting out of the dungeon and had not enough time to learn high ranking elemental spells. So, instead I stayed in Bcksmith cave and learned some new Light magic spells.

  Unlike me Nelly was able to learn level five elemental spells and finally she was powerful enough to use Guild portal spell and take me to any pce, where we registered before. I decided to take some time before our dungeon dive and visit familiar pces, mostly to finally get myself coffee and sugar.