- Nelly from this point on, there will be no orders what spells to use. Use your magic at best of your abilities. The same goes for the rest as well. Unless you receive a direct order use your skills to the best of your abilities and judgment.

  - I do not understand? - Trevor looked at me.

  - That is easy. We will face unknown monsters. We each may know their weaknesses, and may not have time for discussions. So use what you have individually, while working together. That is all. Let's go! Luara take the lead, and watch out for the traps. You will also be responsible for map making.

  Floor eight had higher ceilings in the corridors, and I did not like it. It could mean bigger monsters or something worse. Turned out it meant traps. Pitfalls, blades coming out of the walls and floors or fire shouting out of all sides. Luckily for us we had a scout with trap detection skill. Luara even spend some time learning how to disarm trap from a former adventurer. We did not bothered to disarm them, but Luara warned as were not to step, so we were able to explore the floor without falling in a hole full of sharp spikes.

  Monsters were mostly flying types, or the others were killed by traps. There were all kinds of giant insects. But not tough enough to survive my arrows. It was harder when they were too numerous and got closer, but we used huge fire balls that Nelly through in the direction that Luara pointed. We spend a day and a half on the floor before finally finding stairs that led to the next floor.

  Next three floors were jungle like, with light coming from crystals embedded in the ceiling. Floors were filled with giant plant like monsters that used their roots and leaves to bind their prey and had big mouth inside heir flower heads. Our main weapon became Nelly's Freeze spell that froze their bodies and allowed as to break them afterwards. The floors were one giant cavern and we were able to cross all three of them in three days. At least that was according to Luara's inner clock. But her sense of time never failed us before and I learned to trust it long ago.

  Floor twelve was overgrown with glowing moss and filled with carnivorous sheep, covered with nasty thorns under their wool. They hunted in huge packs, but were no match to us, at least not after Nelly's Slow spell cut their speed in half.

  Two days of attacks that happened almost every hour we managed to find stairs to floor thirteen. We used up half of our anti-sleep potions and many stamina potions, which we were forced to use to fight off sheep attacks. They were not as strong as numerous and biggest danger on floor twelve was exhaustion. We managed to cross it mostly unharmed, thanks to our stamina potions, but after first hundred I lost the count of monster-sheep that each of us killed. Nelly had to use up most of her mana potions, but we still had the ones that Luara kept in her magic bag, and I also had ten of them.

  We rested on the stairs and used opportunity to eat and take a short sleep. We needed that, not to regain our strength, but to give needed rest to our minds. Mostly that was necessary for Nelly. Casting spells took a lot of concentration and stamina potions only partially helped with it.

  By Luara's calculation we already spend eleven days in the dungeon, which was more than third of the time that we had before the goblin arrival.

  - We will have to hurry up, - I said to my companions, before entering floor thirteen: - Nelly try to conserve your magic. Rest of us will need to cover for that, but you may run out of potions, if we won't.

  But things turned out differently. Next two floors were filled with undead skeletons of all kind animals and monsters. Nelly and I took turns using our spells to destroy them. That was faster than fighting them and more efficient. Taking turns in using our spells allowed us to restore our mana naturally and conserve our mana potions. Luara was scouting ahead and warning us about monsters and when it was Nelly's turn she used her glowing stone bracelet to throw it in front of undead, to provide Nelly with visible target.

  Four days later she told us to keep quit and took us further away from the entrance to next cavern.

  - We reached the stairs. But there is a problem. The room is guarded by floor guardian. It is the reaper.

  Reaper of souls. High ranking undead. Armed with a scythe that ignored any attack it was resistible to magic and physical attacks. All Adventurer guild books that mentioned the monster gave advice to run away as fast as you could, if encountering the Reaper.

  - I read that low level spells will not affect him. Not with my spell power stats at least, - informed us Nelly.

  I sighed. Ideally I would prefer to avoid fighting, but he was guarding the only entrance to next floor. If that would be the dungeon core room there was option of someone leading away the monster, while the rest of us would take the core, but we had no idea how deep this dungeon was.

  - Stay here, and do not go near the room until I call you.

  - What are you planning? - asked Trevor, but I cut him off.

  - Follow my orders lieutenant. Now keep quiet.

  I closed my eyes and casted Conceal and Haste spells. I took my sword and when I got close to entrance used Holy aura on it. As soon as I went inside Reaper flew towards me. With dark cloak and hood above his skull, he was a monster from nightmares. Glowing eyes focused on me and he prepared his scythe for an attack.

  - Holy word! - Life magic spell struck him and monster staggered. He was dangerous and single attack even a scratch could be fatal for me, but he was not my first undead floor guardian. Just like the others he was not immune to even low level Life magic spells.

  I waited for his attack and easily avoided it. Haste spell gave me all the advantage I needed for that. My sword covered in Holy aura cut through monsters skeleton body and broke several bones.

  Reaper turned around and attacked again. I jumped around him, wounding his body, but time was not on my side. I needed to finish the fight before my spells stopped working.

  - Holy word!

  Another spell hit reaper's body and threw him back.

  - Annoying fly, - hissed monster.

  So, even dungeons made reapers were intelligent. I did not answer. I could tell him something cool, but if I would lose, it would be really lame in the end.

  Instead I focused and waited for his attack. Most dungeon monsters lacked originality and used the same attacks. Learning their patterns and finding weaknesses was one of the easiest ways to defeat them. Reaper did not disappoint. He used the same attack from above. I dodged it, and slashed his head, this time using all my strength. My sword broke his skull in pieces and went deep inside it body. Blade stuck, but the strength of my blow threw reaper's body on the ground. I left my sword in him and jumped back. I waited for an attack, but cloaked body did not move. Just in case I used Holy word spell one more time, but it destroyed the cloak and most of the bones, revealing magic stone. I ripped it out and only then felt that fight was finished. Reaper left behind his scythe, and after using my Exorcism spell I put it inside my magic bag. Second floor guardians magic stone. Not a bad loot. I took my sword and let the others know that it was safe co come inside the room.

  - You killed him? - Luara looked at bones, not believing her eyes.

  Nelly run towards me and hugged me.

  - I thought that you will die.

  I patted her head: - You should learn to trust that I know what I am doing, and that I can take care of myself.

  - I will definitely do that, - she wiped away her tears and nodded.

  - Lets take some time to rest and take a short sleep. We should be safe in floor guardian's room for a while.

  * * *

  We needed around two days without sleep and minimum rest time to eat, to get through next floors. They were filled with reptile like monsters and several drake packs. Even some monsters, in caverns with high ceilings, that reminded me of pterodactyls. They were the hardest opponents, but we got rid of them after luring them inside the corridors were Nelly and me finished them using our spells. We also killed another wyrm there and managed to reach floor nineteen. It had small lava streams inside it and reminded me of the lava worm. I hoped that we will not meet that monster. I did not believe that we will be able to kill it. Last time I only survived because monster decided to play with me, not believing that I was a threat. Next time I may not be so lucky. Air inside the floor was hot and I sweated all the time. I had to use my water creation spell to cool us down and used up all my mana potions. But without it we would not be able to move around.

  Only monsters that lived there were golems made of lava. Our swords were useless against them, just like most of our spells, but Nelly's freeze spell took care of them. The stairs were again guarded by a floor guardian. It was flaming lion, more powerful feline version of flaming tiger. I used my Slow spell on him and we run around distracting it while Nelly used her Freeze spell. She needed to cast her spell six times before flaming lion fell on the ground defenseless.

  We had few close calls, getting his attention after Nelly's spells, but managed to kill it, after all his legs and most of its head was covered with ice. Trevor finished it by piercing his heart and we collected out fourth magic gem. I wanted to collect flaming lion's skin, but heat was unbearable. We used our last anti-sleep potions and had only nine stamina potions left. We also had only four mana potions left, that belonged to Luara.

  We took inventory of our potions, and I did not like the results. Ideally I would prefer to rest more, but the heat from floor nineteen was reaching even stairs, and heat would not let us rest.

  We had no choice but to enter floor twenty. Just in case I ordered everyone to drink stamina potion, and Luara gave all her mana potions to Nelly.

  - At least I do not feel the heat from downstairs, - Trevor wiped of sweat and sighed relieved. Heat was hardest on him, because of his armor.

  - Let us hope that it won't be something worse, - I cautioned him and took out my bow. I put it inside my magic bag on floor nineteen, since it was useless anyway.

  Floor twenty was similar to floor three. Caverns and corridors covered in glowing moss that allowed Nelly to see her surroundings even without her glowing stone bracelet. First two caverns were empty, but third one was occupied. After seeing monsters we did not needed to talk. We turned away and run. Nelly and I were casting haste spells, to increase our party's speed. Caverns inhabitants hundreds of wolf sized rats woke up and were following us. This dungeon loved its rats.

  We managed to retreat to the stairs and took our stand on them. Nelly behind us and we in front of her. This was not our first time facing the swarm of monster rats, but never this big. Still we used our usual strategy, Nelly casting Slow spell on monsters and we killing them, and protecting our mage. In front of us was wide cavern, but stairs had smaller entrance. We could not use wide swings, to avoid getting in each other's way, but it also meant that we were close enough to each other to prevent rats from getting to Nelly.

  After casting her Slow spell and slowing down first wave of rats for us, Nelly pointed her staff at them and casted another spell.

  - Inferno! - she called loudly and part of the cavern was consumed with fire. It was level four Fire magic spell. Fire consumed part of the cavern and several dozen rats, leaving behind only black scorched bones. Even their magic stones were destroyed by fire. That was most impressive spell that I ever saw. Level four Inferno spell could not be compared to my Fire ball, which only created meter wide fire ball.

  - Leave casting Slow spell to me, and use your inferno spell, - I ordered her. Rats were dangerous because of their numbers, but I spend years practicing spell casting during battle. Fighting monster rodents and casting magic was not a problem for me.

  Nelly followed my instructions and battle that could have lasted hours ended up in twenty minutes. Most of the rats were burned by Nelly's inferno spell. She had to use two mana potions, but it was worth it. Her spell heated up the ground and many rats died just trying to get past it. Little girl grew up to be one scary mage.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  I used my water spell to clean my sword from blood and guts and looked at Nelly.

  - Good job. That was impressive.

  - Like always, - shattered Luara: - And also little scary.

  Trevor nodded looking at the battlefield: - I did not believe until now that a single mage could defeat an army, but I do not doubt anymore that legends and stories are true.

  - I just did my job, - Nelly was clearly getting uncomfortable, and we all stopped talking about her spell.

  - Let us take a short break, until ground cools down. Anyone need stamina potion?

  Luara and Trevor shook their heads and I used opportunity to close my eyes and take a shirt nap. Anti-sleep potions were good to keep us alarmed and awake days in a row, but not as good as long night sleep.

  We carefully crossed rat cemetery and continued our dungeon exploration. Two days later we encountered six more rat packs, and had to use corridors to make our stand. But thanks to Nelly's spell we defeated for more giant rat packs. Nelly run out of mana potions and I started considering retreat. Without her magic our chances to defeat hundreds of rats were not that good. During our last fight she used up all of her mana, and we ended up covered in bites and scratches, before killing remaining rats. Without mana potions we needed to let Nelly rest at least four hours, so she could restore her magic. And that was only possible thanks to her Mana rapid recovery skill. Monster rat packs number eight and nine forced us to use stamina potions, after Nelly run out of mana, and we started to run low on stamina potions as well. If things will continue that way we will have to continue dungeon exploration old fashion way. Carefully and very slowly. And if this dungeon had dozens more floors we will never reach the dungeon core, not with our remaining food supplies. That was a depressing thought.

  I was thinking about our bleak future, when we found a room that resembled mausoleum.

  Inside it was an altar with a body on it. Body was covered with dust and looked like a preserved human in cracked armor.

  We went inside looking around. Behind altar I noticed a door. I never heard of such places inside dungeons.

  Then body moved, and monster opened his eyes and looked at us.

  - Welcome to your resting place, - he smiled at us, showing his yellow teeth.

  We jumped back and pointed our weapons at him.

  - You managed to get past my pets. That is commendable, - he laughed and I felt chills running through my body. This monster felt different than any other floor guardian that I met before. Even more dangerous than skeleton dragon.

  - Who are you? - asked Trevor.

  - How rude of me. Let me introduce myself. I am koshey the immortal.

  Koshey? I read about such creature. Powerful mage that hideaway his mortality and became unkillable. Powerful sorcerer, even worse spellsword, who could not be killed by magic, weapons or artifacts. At least mid-ranking floor guardian. I licked my dry lips. This was bad. Even worse we were not prepared for this fight. Koshey looked directly and me and grinned.

  - How nice of you. You brought my property back.

  - What do you mean? - I asked surprised.

  - My crown. It was rudely stolen from me short while ago by some adventurer, who run away with my crown leaving his companions to my mercy. So he managed to survive and even leave the dungeon. How surprising. What happened to him?

  I remembered a story that merchant who sold me my headband told me. Long ago B rank adventurer party entered the dungeon. Only one of them returned with an artifact, that even sage could not appraise. He went mad and died, after selling the artifact to merchant's father.

  - He died, - I replied to koshey. So all this time I was wearing Koshey's crown.

  - How delightful. And did you came all this way to return me my property?

  - What does it do?

  - You are wearing it and do not even know its properties? Oh, well. You did bring it back to me so I will tell you. Every time you kill someone with mana and consume their life force, small amount of your victim's mana, less than one percent of one percent is used by the crown to strengthen your weapons, cloth, armor or artifact, any object that you have on your body. As you grow, my crown makes your things grow as well. Fitting artifact for me - the immortal. I am attached to my things. Just look at my armor. I need my crown to restore it to its original glory. I missed my crown so much.

  That was impressive. Turned out my stuff was getting better and I did not even knew about it. Fine, I made my decision. I will make the crown - MY PROPERTY!

  I stepped forward and ordered everyone:

  - Stop! I will deal with him myself!

  * * *

  As long as Trevor remembered himself he wanted to be an adventurer. He was born in a small village and used to play with other children in the woods. One day they were gathering berries, when they were attacked by ogre raiders. They tried to run away, but were too slow. Then the adventurer appeared. He was alone, armed with a sword and faced eight ogres to protect children. Ogres were big, strong and scary. Even at his young age Trevor understood, that most that he will be able to do, will be buying time for them to escape. Other children run away, but he was too scared to move. He was the only one, who saw what happened next.

  Adventurer used his sword and defeated all eight ogres. By the end of the fight, he was standing alone, without a scratch, surrounded by fallen enemies.

  - Are you all right boy? - he asked Trevor, after cleaning his sword. All Trevor was able to do was nod: - Then go back to your village. This place will not be safe for a while. And do not blame yourself. Everyone get scared sometimes, even me.

  That day changed Trevor's life. He decided to become a heroic adventurer, just as strong and noble as the one who saved his life. He did not know the adventurer's name, but in his heart he decided to repay his debt, by saving and protecting others.

  With his commoner job, his chances of being successful were minimal. But he was stubborn and determined, if nothing else. He used a stick to practice every day, imagining that he was holding a sword. As soon as he grew up and became fifteen years old, Trevor left his village and parents an went to closest town to become an adventurer. He registered in adventurers guild, but the life of a rookie adventurers was not filled with fame and glory as he imagined. He was not allowed to take high ranking jobs, and had to take low ranking jobs, like cleaning the sewers, gathering herbs, cleaning streets, building houses or cutting firewood.He reached the limit of his patience and went to closest forest, armed with a knife and a club. He decided to hunt down some week monsters to level up and finally become stronger. His first monster was horned bunny. But it was too fast for Trevor, and wounded his leg. Horned bunny run away after Trevor hit him with a club, but wounded adventurer lost consciousness from blood loss, while returning to Grimsburg. That was when passing by adventurer party led by Evan found him. Trevor never find out, why Evan decided to take him under his wing. He accepted him as a member of his party and taught him the way of the sword. He also taught him about skills and their importance to adventurers.

  But six month later Evan lost his arm, and after rest of their party members died, Trevor joined new party. Again only thanks to master Evan. His new party turned out to be nothing like he expected. He started leveling up with incredible speed, got adamantium armor and weapons, and even reached his dream by getting Knight job and Swordsmanship skill. He even managed to earn enough money to join Adventurer academy and learned skills that until then were only a far away dream.

  Then came the month when he received answer from the king. He had a chance to repay his master, but in exchange needed to leave his party and a girl that he loved. And then Myne died and their party was disbanded. The same month was the best and the worst in his life. After losing Myne, he continued his education in Adventurer academy, putting all his soul and effort in learning new skills and mastering swordsmanship. Then he joined Knight academy and improved his swordsmanship by learning new techniques and getting new skills. As a knight he served the king, protected kingdom and its people, by exterminating monsters and hunting bandits.

  As a commoner Trevor was always send to most dangerous missions, and was ordered to perform tasks, that others did not want to do. Things got worse, when Graig, a former student of Knight academy, who he defeated in battle, became his superior. But Trevor did not mind. After Myne's death he felt empty inside, and was glad to distract himself. First by learning and training and then by going to dangerous missions.

  He became known as Trevor the brave, royal knight and master of the sword. It worsened his relationship with Graig, but other officers recognized his potential. Then he was send to protect Grimsburg. He met his former teacher Evan, who became one of the strongest adventurers in Grimsburg, after getting back his hand, and then general of Grimsburg army. During his forced retirement from adventuring, he continued practicing swordsmanship and teaching others, and, after mage regenerated his arm, Evans skills with a sword reached new level.

  Trevor was best swordsman in his unit. Promoted to lieutenant he even led rookie royal knights to battle, to protect Grimsburg. He lived his childhood dream: by becoming an adventurer, then sword master and protector of people.

  Now he was reunited with his former party members, and was finally able to stand alongside them as equal. He still admired them. Luara was an excellent scout and her swordsmanship were different than his, but just as impressive. Nelly became most powerful mage that he ever saw, and Avone reminded him of spellswords from his childhood stories. He was glad to stand side by side with them again, and they even tried to conquer Grimsburg dungeon. Fulfilling their party's original goal.

  Now between them and dungeon core, was this floor guardian. He was strong, dangerous and probably strongest floor guardian that Trevor ever saw, but he was confident, that together they will defeat him. And then he heard the words...

  - Stop! I will deal with him myself!

  Avone stepped forwards and put her sword between koshey and Luara when panther-girl stepped forward.

  - What? We need to kill him together! Do not be stupid!

  - My headband was his property. I will get it the right way, by killing him myself and keeping it to myself. That is the way it is supposed to be, right? - Avone turned to koshey and he laughed.

  - Indeed it is so. If you can kill me, then I acknowledge that you are worthy of wearing it and I leave it to you, as its new owner.

  Trevor could not believe his ears. Avone sounded insane. He was so surprised, that he stood in his place, not moving.

  - You cannot! - tried to object Nelly, but Avone cut her off.

  - Stay where you are!She took out her headband, and put in on the ground.

  - That is insane, we need... - started Luara, but Avone again interjected.

  - I said stay away. This is my fight.

  She took out her dagger and faced koshey with two blades in her arms. Koshey smiled and took his giant sword. He was holding it with one arm, as if it was a toy. Then they started their fight.

  Trevor thought of himself as a master of a sword, but koshey was just as good as him. Maybe even better. He was not the fastest opponent that Trevor ever saw, but his skills with a sword were flawless. Every move was polished and Trevor finally understood what it meant to face an opponent who had hundreds of years to polish his skill.

  But Avone was just as formidable. Her moves were precise and polished, beyond anything that Trevor was capable of. She almost danced around koshey, attacking him, blocking his attacks by guiding them to the side or bending her body and avoiding his attacks by millimeters. Then they stopped, facing each other. Trevor noticed the look in Avone's eyes. In the past she use to look around with a look that reminded him of scared animal. During her battles, she also looked scared but determined. But now the look in her eyes changed. Her eyes were cold and emotionless. That was scary and worried Trevor.

  - Not bad, - commented koshey: - You are skilled opponent, but I am immortal.

  - There is something you should know, - answered Avone. Then, without finishing the sentence, she attacked koshey. They exchanged blows and stopped facing each other. Their bodies were pressed against each other. Trevor did not even saw their last sword exchange.

  - Your armor has cracks in it, - said Avone, in that motionless voice of hers. And then koshey crumbled and his body turned to ash. Empty pieces of armor fell on the ground, except his breastplate. Only the Trevor noticed her dagger, holding koshey's breastplate in the air. Its blade pierced the armor threw one of the cracks, right in the place where the magic stone was supposed to be.

  * * *

  After I killed koshey I felt his energy entering my body. It was pleasant, but also painful. Energy went inside my every cell and I fell on my knees. Soon the feeling went away and I was able to breathe again.

  I remembered once reading about such experience. Hero of the past killed in a single combat monster whose life force was measured in tens of thousands health points. He felt that way after receiving creature's energy all at once. Just how strong was this koshey?

  I got lucky that all dungeon monsters had a weakness - their magic stones. Unable to live if it was removed from their bodies or destroyed - it made almost all of them vulnerable. According to legends real koshey became immortal after hiding his death in a secret place, but dungeons version did not possess such luxury. I got lucky. And I also used my Haste spell to give me and advantage.

  My party members run towards me, but I waved them off.

  - I am fine.

  I turned around and placed koshey's crown on my head. Until then it always felt strange using it. But this time I felt that it was mine. My crown! Avone's crown, not Koshey's crown!

  - That was amazing, - Nelly looked at me with shining eyes. I sighed. More like calculative and also his armor had cracks in it. Without it we all would be dead. I used my Exorcism spell and put koshey's armor and sword inside my magic bag.

  - Let us look, what he was guarding.

  I hoped for a treasury filled with gold gems and dozens of high ranking artifacts.

  Luara checked the door, and after confirming that there were no traps, she opened it. Inside it was single pedestal with large black crystal, with silver sparks appearing and disappearing in its middle. Dungeon core!

  - What is that? - asked curious Nelly. Trevor and Luara carefully looked at it, staying outside the room. I went inside and placed dungeon core inside my magic bag.

  - Get ready we are leaving.

  - What!?

  - We got the dungeon core, - I grinned: - Our mission is over.

  Magic circle appeared between us and I waved at it.

  - Get inside, all at once. Now!

  They listened to me and we all stepped inside. Bright light blinded us for a moment. Once we were able to see again we noticed dungeon's entrance.

  - Congratulations sir Trevor! Royal knight just conquered the dungeon. At least that is what you and Adventurer guild will report.

  - But... - started Trevor.

  - No buts. We were never here. It was all you. Or did you forget our deal with guild master Fiord. Now, let us get back. I need soft bed and two days sleep. Ou, and before I forget. Luara give me magic gems.

  Panther-girl took out three magic gems that we got from floor guardians. I had one more, that I got from the reaper. I distributed three magic gems between them. Now everyone had one of them.

  - Your reward, or part of it. Now all magic gems are distributed equally, - I smiled. Each of magic gems was worth more than hundred gold coins. Not as much as we could get if we would collect all magic stones from monsters that we killed, but still a lot.

  They all stared at them, but followed me when I moved towards Grimsburg. I was tired, and warm bed and a bath waited for me.