You have obtained 1900 achievement points for slaying 19 Proto-Tribulations

  New Achievement Unlocked: Dungeon Reaper. 5000 Achievement points obtained.

  You have accelerated the destruction of several dungeons.

  When using Heart of Darkness, you can choose to create a temporary dungeon that lasts only for a set duration, ranging from one day to one hour. Temporary dungeons get an AP discount — the less they last, the cheaper they become.

  New tags created for temporary dungeons will be forgotten as soon as the dungeon ceases to exist

  New Achievement Unlocked: Pack it together. 5000 Achievement points obtained.

  You have fused nineteen dungeons into a single one with your death.

  You have gained a new passive ability: Essence Gestalt.

  Essence Gestalt? Billy felt like he could scream at the inconsistency of his respawn module. Sometimes it provided explanations when granting new powers, and sometimes it didn’t. He suspected that the more useful the power, the less information it offered.

  Corpse-camping had become one of his most frequently used abilities, yet he had to figure out how it worked through trial and error. He wryly smiled as he recalled that he initially believed he would receive a space gun. It felt like a lifetime ago, even though only three months had passed since Activation Day.

  He was floating in the blue room, checking his status. He had almost 13,000 AP remaining. Thank God for that; no more AP starvation, at least for a time.

  He opened his eyes to find Jenna checking on him.

  “Are you feeling alright, Billy?” she asked worriedly. “I know you always come back, but it's always awful to see you go.”

  He stood up, swaying slightly, and looked around him. As far as the eye could see, the dungeon looked like an upgraded version of Belona, much like it did during its days of glory. He could not discern any signs of malfunctioning magitech or abandoned buildings.

  And no inhabitants either. It looked like a ghost city.

  Billy summoned his Essence Sight to take a second look at the megadungeon.

  Name: New Belona

  Rank 7

  Motif: Belona Reborn

  Tags: Symbiotic, Reproductive, Spatial, No Mobs, No Cores.

  He tapped the new tag, and a small information text appeared floating over it.

  Spatial: The dungeon will sustain up to one gateway power per rank, as long as one of the ends of the gateway is physically inside it when the dungeon is first created, or it upgrades.

  It was a large metropolis inside an even larger one.

  New Belona could probably easily house at least one quarter of the whole Beli Population.

  “What do you make of it, Billy?” Bob asked as Billy’s magical powers analyzed the dungeon.

  “No Cores. It makes sense, as all the dungeons behave as a single one. It would be dangerous to have more than one Core.”

  “No mobs, either. I think the city is meant to be occupied by the Beli. Lots of Bosses, high-ranked ones, as they benefit both from the No-Mobs and No-Cores tags. And they are not based on the Progression or the Avatar system; they are all based on Bounty.”

  Billy could hear Pob talking through the Blood Link—he had been the first Beli to get it from Dignity.

  “We are standing outside the nearest entry to your position. Is it safe to go in?”

  New Belona was still surrounded by a circular, ever-flowing river, much like the Progression dungeons had been. Modern bridges crossed that river and led to the city inside. He could vaguely see Pob and his four Beli patrolmen standing on the other side of the rift.

  “It is safe,” Billy confirmed. “You may come in.”

  As soon as she heard those words, Beliza dashed away from the group and crossed the bridge, much to Pob’s dismay.

  She was in for a long run, as the bridge was nearly half a mile long, but she crossed it without tiring, at the speed of a cheetah.

  She must have some kind of Bounty blessing active, Billy thought.

  She crashed into them, hugging Jenna. “What cards were you using, girl?” Jenna laughed. “You ran as if your ass was on fire.”

  Beliza proudly showed her hand, only to be astonished by what she saw. The Golden Joker had appeared, glowing brightly and waiting to be transformed into a new Arcana.

  “Congratulations, Beliza! You got a new Arcana,” Bob beamed at her.

  “Not surprising, given that your Call is taking the initiative, isn't it? You certainly took it back there. I think you gave poor Pob a heart attack.”

  If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  Beliza did not answer. She was looking awed at them.

  Something was amiss here. Getting a new Arcana was always good news, but the girl was not only happy-she looked on the verge of fainting.

  “What’s the matter, Beliza?” Jenna asked softly.

  “You do not understand,” she explained. “I haven’t drunk my Experience Tonic; I only use it before a fight. And yet, I got a Golden Joker.”

  “Is that possible, Billy?” Bob asked him.

  Billy nodded, “I have long suspected that actions taken inside Symbiotic Dungeons grant experience, even in a locked system.”

  Bounty was back in Belona.

  At that moment, the Joker in Beliza’s hand flashed and transformed into a new Arcana: The Two of Hope.

  Then, something unexpected happened. One of the surviving Fluids bolted out of a window, desperately flying toward the nearest dungeon exit on its four wings.

  Suddenly, all its blood poured out of its body toward a glowing figure floating in mid-air, holding a shimmering cup. The cup drained the blood as if it were thirsty for it, and the Fluid fell to the ground, turned into a desiccated corpse.

  The newcomer looked like a beautiful woman, nearly 10 feet high, dressed in robes that blew in an inexistent wind. She held one glowing cup in her right hand. Another eight goblets orbited around her head.

  Billy used his Essence Sight on her.

  9 of Cups: 84 Arcana Boss.

  It was one of the dungeon bosses, modeled after a Beli Card. The woman floated slowly towards them. This was a symbiotic dungeon, but the attack on the Imperial had been ruthless and vicious.

  Sensing their apprehension, the woman talked to them in Beli. Her voice was sonorous and metallic, like the tolling of a bell.

  “You are all welcome in New Belona. The invaders are not, under pain of death.”

  She turned her too-perfect features towards Pob. “Tell your people we expect them. This city is theirs.”

  Her feet touched the ground as she approached the Losers. “As for you, who made this possible, I have three gifts—one for each of you.”

  The Boss gestured, and one of the cups—thankfully not the one that had drained the Imperial’s blood—floated towards Jenna. “Drink from it, and you will gain knowledge of a hidden vulnerability.” Jenna looked doubtfully at Billy, who nodded at her. She took the floating cup and drank from it, a puzzled expression crossing her face.

  Another cup floated towards Bob. “Drink from it, and you will overcome a self-imposed limitation.” Bob drank from the cup, reacting very much as Jenna had.

  Finally, a third cup approached Billy. “Drink from it, and gain clarity.” Billy lifted the heavy cup to his lips and drank from it.

  It tasted bitter, like lost knowledge and forgotten abilities. Suddenly, he understood how Essence Gestalt worked.

  Now, whenever he wanted to respawn as a shape from his akashic library, he had the option of choosing several of them. This would allow him to create a new shape that mixed the abilities of all and could even develop new ones.

  He could not predict the results. The power of the new shape would depend on how many achievement points he had spent, with the maximum not exceeding the cost of the most expensive component.

  The gestalt created would not be part of his akashic library.

  An interesting but unpredictable ability.

  The Arcanic boss began to float again in the air, preparing to leave.

  “Wait,” Billy called out. “This dungeon has the reproductive tag, too. How does it work? The Beli need to know. There are more dungeons in the city, even if they are tamed.”

  “The city holds our essence,” the 9 of Cups answered. "All new dungeons in it will become part of New Belona. The New City will rival the old one in size.”

  Then she left.

  The following morning, they held a war conference with Pob and the Imperial family.

  “As far as we know,” Eleon explained, “the Fluids have been nearly destroyed. Boral himself managed to escape with one-fourth of his army. We do not know what he intends to do with the Spirit Cores he took from the Proto-Tribulations, but we suspect it won’t be anything good.”

  “How many did he manage to extract?” Bob asked.

  “One of our spies watched them leave the dungeon just before it transformed. He counted six Spirit Cores,” Eleazar replied.

  “Was Andara slain in the battle?” Jenna said while she paced up and down.

  “We do not know. No one who fought at the center survived. Many of the corpses were buried under the foundations of New Belona during its creation. It is very possible we will never find her body,” Gala answered.

  Eleon noticed the Losers' gloomy faces. “Look, it was not a total victory-Boral escaped, but it was a very important one. The threat of the Tribulations has been dealt with; with no dungeon seeds and no way to create more Progression dungeons, the Belona invasion is over.”

  “If that is the case, why hasn’t Discovery contacted us?” Bob asked Eleon.

  “We have assumed that she is forbidden to interfere with the invasion. But there is no invasion anymore, and she is still hiding. What does that mean?”

  Eleon sighed. “It means this is far from over.”

  “There is still one important matter left,” Jenna said quietly.

  “What are we going to do with you?”

  The Imperials looked expectantly at her. “You can’t stay in the city. Bounty is back, and Evolution is gone. Sooner or later, the Beli will take justice into their own hands.”

  “We know that,” Eleon said sadly. “We were hoping you would take us with you to Earth.”

  “Not a chance,” Jenna answered curtly. “Earth has an active system. You would evolve and gain new powers there. We are not going to let any would-be invaders into my homeland. Not after what you did here.”

  “We tried to undo the damage we caused,” Eleazar protested.

  “You only did it because your late father ordered you to,” Jenna replied. “You have proven you can be an obedient little soldier, nothing more. The only one among you with a conscience is Eleon.”

  Eleon stood up, trying to make a case for his people, but Eleazar ordered him to sit down. “She is right, Eleon. We do not deserve their trust. We may be better than Andara and Boral, but that is a very low bar.”

  “What do you intend to do with us?” Gala asked. “Many of the Unfocused are innocent.”

  “We are not like that,” Bob answered, angry at what the question implied.

  “This morning we took a visit to that dungeon you inadvertently created when you came to Belona.”

  “We killed all the bosses but one. It is safe now. Your people will remain there till this whole sorry business is over. Then we will look for a better solution for all of you. You have our word on this.”

  They rose in silence and headed for the door. At the last moment, Eleazar turned around.

  “We do want to help,” he said.

  “I know,” Jenna answered, “but you don’t deserve it.”