"I..."

  In the middle of a dark round room, a sphere hang in the air somewhere five centimetres above the wooden table. This sphere - the core of a newly created dungeon, and the creature, which stood near it, was its new master. Wings, as black as night itself, slowly swayed in rhythm with creature's breathing. The creature opened his violet eyes and looked around the room. There in iron holders were torches, emitting soft yellowish orange light. Walls of dirt looked wet, but sturdy nonetheless. Finally, he noticed the core. An alluring sphere of pure energy glowed softly.

  The mysterious thing called the creature, making it desire to touch it. The moment his hand touched the core his mind was overwhelmed with an unending stream of information. The creature screamed in agony. Knowledge of completely different fields of study seeped into his brain. Languages, concepts, basic things like that he shouldn't eat stones, and, finally, about him. About who he was, what his purpose was... An expression of pain appeared on his face, making him shut his eyes and clench his teeth with a quiet crunch. Ten minutes of agony later it all ended.

  The hand was finally free to move. And he, breathing heavily, fell on the damp earth, trying to get at least a little fresh air.

  "I... I am Astaris?.. Master of the dungeon..."

  It took some time for knowledge to get in his head properly. The amount was catastrophic.

  Astaris raised to his feet. His black and red mantle was airty already. However, it could be seen how the clothes slowly cleaned up from the dirt clinging to it. Swaying and holding onto his head, he walked out of the core room and walked towards the exit. Astaris knew where exit was, since the core had given him that knowledge. Information was sorted surprisingly quickly. Like a well-oiled machine his brain quickly processed newly acquired knowledge. He lacked information about the outside world though. It was strange that he was givsn only such basic information. What was the reason? He secided to stop asking himself questions anyway...

  First he had to learn what was around. After walking a short distance, Astaris got used to his body. He could walk comfortably, without any noticeable problems. His head still hurt though, still working on processing all the acquired knowledge. He looked down at his feet when he was almost at the entrance.

  A small blob of slime was in forty centimeters away from him.

  He crouched, wincing in pain a bit.

  "A guardian? Or an enemy?"

  Astaris qatched the slime in silence. It didn't move though and it seemed as if it was staring right into the soul of a creature in front of it.

  – Right... Your kind cannot speak...

  Astaris stared at the small monster, waiting for any smallest movement.

  – Do you have a name?

  Nothing happened.

  – What are you doing here?

  -Nothing happened.

  – Could you move at least?

  But even then, nothing happened.

  He sat and watched the creature, even if it didn't show sings of life. Black colour of its semi-translucent body was interrupted with lots of glowing particles, like stars on night skies. He hadn't seen it yet, but according to knowledge he now had they were quite alike.

  – I will call you Blob!

  Astaris smiled and poked his new acquaintance. This made the surface of Blob ripple like water. Small stars in its body moved and shone because of foreign interference.

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  – Good! Now you are my subordinate!

  Suddenly, silver light moved from Astaris's body to the monster, surrounding it and leaving its mark on the soul, making it follow its master's will. But the strange thing qas that energy didn't stop flowing. The whole process took three hours of constant strain.

  And finally he managed to do it.

  "That was... Difficult..."

  Finally, after what felt like eternity of attempting to subdue Blob, Astaris stood up.

  – Stay here for awhile. It's not like you mind it, right?

  The slime didn't move.

  – Alright, doesn't seem like you're in the mood for conversation.

  Finishing his monologue, he finally went to the exit.

  It was basically a large arch, approximately seven metres tall and four metres wide. Big guys could easily enter, but they wouldn't make it far, since the entrance was quickly getting smaller the further you went. As for the surrounding lands... In two metres from the entrance began a dense forest. An unknown mix of deciduous and coniferous tress, and bushes made an absolutely impenetrable curtain, which completely hid the entrance into the dungeon. Astaris was looking around when he accidentally noticed a red dot, which was easily seen through the leaves due to its bright colour.

  "Interesting..."

  He started walking towards the dot, pushing branches aside. But after reaching the middle of the path, he stopped and listened to his surroundings.

  Steps could be heard from afar. Astaris hid behind the tree. He pressed his wings to himself, hoping that he wouldn't be noticed.

  – Goddamned forest! Who thought it was a good idea to leave it in this place?

  A man, who was a head lower than Astaris, was dressed in light armour, with a two-handed sword on his back. With a shorter blade he cut everything that stood in his way towards the designated tree.

  – You know that it's for the sake of safety...

  A woman in full plate armour replied. The arkour was painted black, with lots of cuts and scratches. Some were small, others deeper and larger. On her back was a huge shield, that had seen countless difficult battles.

  – What do you mean 'safety'? It's a forest full of monsters! If we haven't been hiding the whole way here we would have been killed and eaten! Damned Wilhelm, couldn't he find a more appropriate place?

  There was also a woman in a white mantle, with patterns made from gilded strands. Her hair was black and she held a stave with a blue crystal on top. It was probably a mage or a healer... There was also a man with a longbow and a short sword hanging from his belt. He wore plain shirt, leather boots and trousers, though there were also elements of armour on his chest and arms.

  - – Fine-fine... Let's just get the package and leave as soon as possible.

  The first adventurer dug out a small bag from under the tree. It didn't look expensive, but it was obvious that the thing inside was valuable. They looked around and, not seeing anything, left. It wasn't strange that they couldn't notice anything. The forest was so ridiculously thick it was a miracle if you could see further than ten metres. If it weren't for a bright red handkerchief on the branch and a good angle, Astaris would've never thought there was something. Not that it mattered now anyway.

  Adventurers left quickly after taking their item. And Astaris returned back to his dungeon, saddened that he couldn't learn the contents of the bag.

  – I have met people, Blob! Isn't it amazing?

  The slime wasn't impressed. It was still, as always.

  – Fascinating... How are you able to be still for so long? It's probably very boring...

  Astaris leaned towards his guardian and poked it.

  – I'll take you with me.

  Astaris picked Blob up and carried it to the core room. They walked through the dark corridors of the dungeon, each step sending ripples through the slime.

  – Look, using this ball you can see every point in the dungeon.

  Astaris placed Blob on the table and using the sphere showed him the place where they had just been.

  – See? You were here.

  The slime, however, didn't react... As always.

  – I made a decision! You'll be my right hand.

  Random fact: no kind of slime can die from aging. But their immortality is compensated with weakness. Dungeon masters are immortal, much like the slimes.

  However, unlike slimes, Dungeon masters are born with nice bonuses. Some get great physical strength, others - speed etc. But let's return to our protagonist...

  "I doubt I could subdue anything stronger than slime if it took me so long with Blob..."

  Astaris clenched and unclenched his fists, as of confirming his thoughts.

  "So I just have to stay here and hope no one finds my dungeon?

  – Well, seems like we'll spend a lot of time together... My name's Astaris...

  He smiled at the small monster and petted it.

  "I have to try something though, haven't I?"

  Time passed rather quickly. He made lots of attempts subduing monster, but they all went wrong. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't handle the strain and lost consciousness. He caught monsters in traps and tortured them for a long time, trying to break their wills. But even after that, he couldn't do anything. In the end, he gave up after several hundreds attempts.

  He made mind on what he wanted to do. If he couldn't subdue monsterd, he would spend time with Blob and making stuff from wood. Surprisingly sharp stones were indeed sharp... Those were the only things he could do. Of course, one might think that it's pointless and incredibly boring. But Astaris tried to be content with what he had. And... Fifty years had passed since his birth...