It was two weeks, and I had finally got around to viewing the levelling of Puck and Larry.

  I started with Puck. This was the second time he had levelled up, as the first had been when the ogre had attacked the Dungeon. During that level-up, he concentrated on his speed and reflexes.

  "Let's see what's going on now."

  "Health and strength increase. I can see why, but I think that's the limit his form can take in those stats."

  Puck's Pixie Form was both a perk and a restriction to him. It limited the size of the number he could have in some of his stats, but it granted him bonuses and advantages in others.

  I didn't see any other increases in his skills or spells, so overall, it was just a bonus increase to strength and health. After the last fight, I couldn't blame him, and giving him that little extra chance to survive was a good idea. The glancing blow he took from the Fearfiend was enough almost to kill him.

  "Now, Larry."

  Larry followed a similar path to Puck, increasing his strength and health. However, I noticed increased intelligence the second time he did this. He had no spells, and I saw no increases in his skills. I was a bit disappointed, as I hoped to see something else improve as well, but it seemed I would not be that fortunate this time.

  The irony was not lost on me that my two wandering floor bosses were my minions' two most powerful level-wise. Several guardians had come close to receiving levelling bonuses but had been killed every time they had come close, resetting the essence count. I found it frustrating, but I was forced to live with it.

  The first adventures of the day had arrived, and I looked them over. It was the dwarfs from a few weeks ago. I had not seen him return to the Dungeon since they were caught up in the Void Corrupted Monsters raid. They all seem now healed, and their equipment has been repaired. I watched them travel down the stairs, ignoring all the floors until they reached the 6th. It looked like they would start from where they had left off.

  I decided to watch them as they crossed the last few floors. I was interested in how they would handle them and what they could do. When they fought the Fearfiend, I saw them use many skills and abilities they had not demonstrated before. I was eager to see if those abilities would be used again against my minions or if they thought they were below the threat needed to use them.

  The snakes on the 6th proved to be more challenging than they anticipated. The group was similar to the Minotaur's: tough and heavily armed. They were more effective against large monsters that use numbers. The snakes' employment of speed and stealth was a clear sign of their weakness in strategy and group layout.

  There was much cursing and swearing from the doors, but they eventually started to overcome the snakes. They were not happy with the choice of minion on this floor. The discovery of the silver vein did excite them, and I overheard several conversations about coming back and mining it at a future date. For now, it seemed that they were concentrating on getting to the end of my Dungeon.

  Now that they better understood the snakes, they could engage them much more effectively, but they still complained. Several more injuries were taken during this time, but they were making good progress now.

  As they moved towards the last cavern, they speculated that the floor guardian would be a larger version of the ones they fought. They believe this because of my previous use on all my other floors. The sixth-floor Guardian proved to be quite the challenge for them. The Guardian's enhanced camouflage and speed made it far more challenging to kill than the ones that they had fought before. The group sustained many injuries, and in the end, the spellcaster had to cast multiple area-affecting spells to burn the grass and force the Guardian out so it could be killed.

  They spent longer recovering from this fight than the others, as they had more injuries.

  They moved down to the seventh and, this time, were not as confident in their conversations of victory. They seemed a bit shaken by what had happened on the sixth floor. I had learned that they were a gold-grade team and that the floor was silver. They had overwhelmed and beaten it, but weren't happy about it. It seemed they didn't like fighting creatures that relied on camouflage and speed, believing it was an honourable or fair fight.

  I found this attitude quite perplexing and strange. As a gold-grade team, they were supposed to have been able to fight pretty much anything. Looking over the dwarves and equipment before me, I wondered if such monsters were a rarity for them. Being rare, they were not used to fighting them, which could explain their attitudes.

  Krag seemed to be the type of monster they were happy fighting, and they got a fight. Krag was in fine form today. Angry with his performance against the void-corrupted monster, he was out to smash something hard. The dwarfs proved to be what he wanted and needed. The dwarfs got the challenge that they were looking for.

  Neither side held back in this fight, with multiple skills and spells being used.

  It seemed that workers had experienced fighting ogres before, but Krag was something they had never encountered before. If you solve, skills and spells had taken him by surprise, and the dwarves were forced to take more injuries as he battered them with his mace. This didn't mean they were hitting him back just as hard or with less determination. The dwarf's priestess was working overtime, keeping the fighters standing and in the fight.

  Krag was ultimately overcome, but he made them work for it. This gold-grade team was visibly battered and bloodied after the fight. They were breathing hard and treating their wounds as fast as possible to prevent them from worsening. The moonlight rose as a welcome reward for the fight and for what they got from killing the ogre.

  They stayed longer on this floor, recovering than any of the others. They seemed aware that this was almost the end of the Dungeon, and they were taking their time getting ready for what came next. They were unsure what was on the next floor from the conversations I had overheard, but they knew it would be harder to beat.

  Eventually, they descended the stairs to the next floor. The boars were more what they were used to fighting, but the introduction of the rats was a nasty surprise for them. They adapted their tactics to take that into account, and the battles continued. They seemed to be holding their skills for when they encountered the Guardian. The pattern had become evident over the earlier floors. They would work together to defeat the minions and then unleash all their skills upon the Guardian to take it down quickly.

  They entered the cavern, which was set up like the aftermath of a battle. Even before they entered it, they were on alert. They moved together in a defensive formation, ready to engage anything that appeared.

  The revenant waited until they were closer and then sprang into action, leaping up from the moss-covered ground and attacking. [Multi-Thrust] and [Touch of Death] became its signature opening moves. The speed and competence of its attack took the dwarves by surprise. They were a competent group, but even they were stunned by the speed of the attack.

  One of their frontline fighters was caught in the shoulder after deflecting the first sword strike. His armour took most of it, but the sword sliced through it, and the spell attached was released. He collapsed back in a cry of pain, hitting the moss-covered floor. The others quickly acted to protect him and drive off the attacking Guardian.

  The next few minutes turned into a furious exchange of blows and counters. The adventurers utilised all their skills as they desperately sought to vanquish the foe that moved in and out to attack them. The revenant employed its superior speed and ability to dodge and block to evade the dwarf's responses.

  There was a lot of cursing from the dwarves, both in the human language and their own. Even the spellcaster, who rarely got involved, was now throwing out attack spells, trying to hold off the revenant. The Guardian fought one hell of a fight, but the dwarves eventually wore it down. It was fast, but they were stubborn on Hardy, and in the end, their numbers were the factor that took the day for them.

  The revenant's defeat marked the end of the Dungeon for them. They collected the rewards offered for the Guardian's defeat and tended to the wounded. When they first came here, they were unsure what to expect and dismissed the stories they heard, but now they were not.

  I heard the grudging tone of respect in their voices now.

  I watched him leave the Dungeon, one of them being almost carried by the others from the fighting and the wounds sustained. During their second descent, I thought about my minions.

  In all my years here, I only had two minions level up the entire time. Upon the death of any minion, the essence count resets to zero, which is the level they were at when they died. That meant if Larry died anytime soon, he would be reset to an essence count of 0 but still be at Level 3. Due to him and Puck levelling up, the respawn costs and the deficit I had to pay for it also increased. I was now four CP lower.

  Krag and the third-floor Guardian were the two that had come closest to levelling up outside of my wandering floor bosses. But they had been killed before they had to cross the threshold, losing all the essence that they had built up.

  I had often considered this problem over the years, but had never seen a real solution. I could not protect any of the minions in battle, as they were assigned to positions or areas and required to fight any adventurers that appeared.

  I had concluded long ago that this was another means of control from Oda, stopping my minions from becoming far too powerful. Why, I did not know, as more powerful minions would attract more powerful adventurers to fight them. That, in turn, would give me more essence, which would cause me to level and process more void corruption.

  There was something I was missing. Oda had not lied to me but had gone out of his way to limit me as much as he could, to the point of almost crippling me. The whole thing with mana, of being unable to contact or communicate until recently, and finally, the levelling system will be a means of isolation and control.

  I found it vexing and confusing why he would do this to me. I was processing void corruption and affecting the world, even in whatever limited and small way I was. The amount of void essence in the air coming into my Dungeon hadn't increased or decreased unless there was a void-corrupted monster in the area. And I always knew there was one here because it was generally smashing through my doors and attacking my Dungeon to get to me.

  I was passively absorbing it and removing it from the essence flow of the world. I knew this because I could see it constantly when I looked at myself through my Mana Sight. Since my recent breakthroughs in how corruption flowed through my Core, I was removing it faster. I had seen the amount of essence increasing as I levelled.

  This constantly brought me back to the question of the limitations he had put upon me.

  After long bouts of cursing and swearing at that particular deity, I thought of it over the years. I kept returning to the same conclusion over and over, not that he was a dick which he was. No, I was missing some puzzle piece or piece of information that would bring it all into focus and have me understand.

  I found it incredibly frustrating, but this limited me.

  That does not mean those limitations bind me. It was taking me time, but I was working around them slowly. My Dungeon and Core reflected this.

  But the question at the back of my mind was constantly burning and was frustrating. It was always there, never leaving me. What was I missing?

  With nothing else to do now, I pondered that question repeatedly, never finding the answer. The lack of resolution was getting to me now, but I was still working away, remembering and reviewing everything that had happened since I first met Oda.

  Trying to find the answer.