Moving past the deteriorated door I entered a much nicer cityscape than the one I was just in. This level had the same style of structures as the ones below it. However, there were runes of light everywhere lighting the streets. It wasn’t all that difficult of a runic to place but all it did was act as a light source. What bothered me was that unlike the level below, it was quiet. Yes, there was the sound of water streams that flowed through the small canals beside the street but there wasn’t anything else.

Wandering through the strangely lit abandoned city without any noise was starting to make me paranoid. Every distant slight noise sounded like an assault on my mental health. It was freaky and what scared me the most was that I saw no signs of life. Not even a bone could be found in this city. However, once I reached the center of the city after a few hours I found the possible reasoning for the lack of bones. A giant serpent sleeping against a large gem emanating heat and light.

The serpent was around a hundred and fifty feet long with large diamond patterns across its body. The tip of its head was more rounded and on its tail was a curved sword-like bone. Dealing with it wasn’t an option. If it woke up then I would surely die. Thankfully, it wasn’t near the stairs to the next level. Sneaking past it, I made my way to the stairs and slowly made my way up them. Pushing the door to the next level open as quietly as possible I could almost feel my heart skip a beat. I was afraid that the slightest sound would alert that serpent. My fear became true though, as the wood on this door had rotted just as badly as the one below.

Crashing to the floor in front of me with a loud thud sent a chill down my spine. Knowing that there was no chance that the serpent didn’t hear that I began running for my life into the next level. As I ran I heard the sound of another crash. Looking back I could see the giant serpent wriggling after me. Unlike the floors below me nor like the ones near the top, there was a large wall in front of me with a single doorway just big enough for the serpent to get through. Nothing else stood at the end of this level except a few statues and the small winged creatures that used them as their homes.

Running into the doorway I began running down the halls. It was like it was one large maze. I was too busy trying not to get eaten to see it though. With the snake just behind me, I ducked into every side path that I came across. Until I came to a dead end. This was it for me I guess. Nah, I still haven’t finished getting through the prologue.

Just as I had given in to my fate, all of the walls shifted like some kind of sliding puzzle game. The serpent, which was just behind me, was crushed between several walls without mercy. There was no chance for it to escape. I was thankful that I wasn’t going to get eaten anymore but now I was lost in a changing maze. The walls all looked the same and the only thing that stayed the same was the floor and the canals of water that ran through specific parts of the maze.

For nearly a month I wandered through this maze. However, that is just a guess. It could have been way less or way longer but my sense of time here was seriously off. Eating through nearly one whole bag of rations as I wandered around. The only reason I was able to survive in the maze for so long was because of the water canals and my rations. Otherwise, I would have died of starvation. Over time I began noticing that the walls switching places wasn’t random. Every five minutes the walls shifted. Counting the time between the shifts was all I could do to stay sane.

No matter what I did there was no doubt in my mind that I was going crazy. From talking to myself to extreme paranoia. The worst part was the silence outside of the shifting walls. If I didn’t talk to myself then there was nothing to block out the loneliness I felt. I had wished for someone to talk to. At least to have another entity with me that didn’t want to kill me. I doubt that anything like that serpent would be nice to have around.

By complete accident, I happened to be in a spot that lined up with the doorways from each end. When the walls shifted it created a straight path between the two. Looking behind me I saw the broken doorway from before so I ran forward to reach the entrance before it shifted again. I’m pretty sure that the maze was to keep people from going any further but I didn’t know why. All that was down there was a now dead giant serpent, strange creatures, and a destroyed city.

Walking up the curved stairs to the next level felt satisfying. All I wanted was to find a place to sleep for a while. The door to this next level wasn’t like the last two that I had seen. It was made of a strange metal that didn’t have a single spot of rust on it. Pushing it open I realized why. Beyond this door was the floor containing the great Imperial library. Light came from light runes placed strategically to illuminate every inch of the gigantic library. Circular shelves lined the circular walls with rows upon rows extending beyond what I could see. Unlike the other levels which were only twenty to thirty feet tall, this one stood near fifty.

Level after level of books and scrolls with lofts and ladders beyond even what the Grand Magic Academy had. There was more knowledge in this room than any one person could ever learn. If it wasn’t for the fact that I had only two months of rations left I would love to stay here forever just to study. Even if I did have enough food and water to last a lifetime I didn’t have the luxury of keeping this place to myself. As I walked through the halls I noticed that there was a lot of dust. Some of the books, tomes, and scrolls looked like they had never been touched. How they haven’t turned to dust after all this time was beyond me.

In the center of the library, I found a single corpse sitting at a table with several papers scattered in front of it. One of which was a letter addressed to whoever finds it. Removing the wax seal I began to read it. Much to my surprise, it was in the common mage’s language. Usually only used to keep those without knowledge from learning what was inside.

To whomever finds me,

I hate to say it but I have failed. My master has died setting up the last of the traps along with all of the secrets he kept about them. He had placed them at specific spots in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh levels of our great city. However, I lack the knowledge to disable them all. A team of around a hundred set off in hopes of reaching the teleportation circle that resides in the lowest part of our city. I wish I could have talked them out of it but it was no use. They would not believe that the teleportation circle was inactive. It has been three months and they have yet to return. With my best effort, I searched through these old books for knowledge but to no avail. I am just far too inexperienced of a student. Without much food left I fear for the worst. If you find this and I have passed on then I apologize. I failed. My master was stupid for entrusting me with this task after teaching me practically nothing.

~The worthless student, Norhatta, son of Borahatta

“This guy couldn’t figure out how to disable those runes? His master really did teach him nothing.” I said to no one in particular before returning to my search of the next stairway. I figured that since I was probably going to be finding my back to the surface for a while I might as well take some tomes for some light reading. Looking through a few of them, I found some that were in common mage and stuffed them into my empty ration bag.

During my search, I found a strange wall pathway. I figured it may lead to the stairs but instead, I came to a large square room with a magic circle in the center. At first glance, it seemed like a classic summoning circle but for some reason, there were runes that I didn’t recognize placed all over it. It must have been some form of ancient Imperial summoning circle that I never learned about so I left it be.

Though I realized that this being here was a blessing. I could summon a servant and then it would keep me company. Being alone any longer would be hell so I began searching for the stairs even more so. Not because I wanted out but so that I could find animals to use as sacrifices. After a good half a day of searching I finally found it. It was a long curved stairway that went along the outside of the library up to the next floor. However, I found that the library was a lot smaller than the floor it resided on. Several passageways that led to various different rooms filled up the outside of it.

Among these rooms, I found some straight razors and a mirror which I used to take care of the beard that I had been growing. Though that isn’t really important. Upon reaching the next floor I noticed that there were quite a few of the small winged creatures flying around the underground city. Along with the winged creatures were a few Ragest which surprised me a bit. However, their faces were deformed and their eyes were completely black. It didn’t matter to me though. I was going to be using them to create a servant.

Getting them down the stairs was an issue though. Ragest don’t usually do well with any kind of incline. Stairs especially. However, I found that using some magic to make them float down worked well. The issue with this method was that I was pretty tired after getting a single Ragest down the steps. So tired in fact, that I accidentally dropped the next Ragest down the equivalent of three flights of stairs. It survived without much injury but it was sure pissed off. Keeping it away from the library proved even more challenging than calming it down.

After about a week of moving Ragest and catching the weird bird things, I finally had what I thought was enough of a sacrifice to summon a servant. Using blood from my finger I made a sigil that identified me as the servant’s master. Then after herding all the Ragest into the room much to their displeasure I started the ritual. It wasn’t that special as all I needed to do was activate all the runes within the summoning circle.

Placing my hands on the edge of the circle, I released my essence into the circle. The dark room was quickly illuminated by the circle as all the animals turned to dust around me. Lightning began to shoot out of the circle in a way that was unlike other summoning circles. My hands began to burn but I didn’t care. I was going to see this thru to the end.