The silence dragged on for what felt like years. Zoe's mana swirling around her group, imbuing the earth that surrounded them with power, gripping every piece of their being so she could rip them away at a moment's notice.

  It was an incredible sight, standing in front of them. The sheer mana that flowed through the platform below them into the guard in front of her was awe inspiring — even for somebody like her who had wielded what felt like infinite quantities of mana before. She wondered whether she would have been able to power the same enchantments herself, at her peak of power and felt herself come up lacking.

  Every bit of magic, every tiny scrap of mana the dungeon had was flooding through the dungeon. Pulled through the steps, the corpses left behind in their wake, the tower in front of them. The archers, the arrows. Some flowed through the dungeon, bolstering the barrier that surrounded them as it shimmered to Zoe's Omniscient Beholding, wisps of light dancing on the dungeon boundary with excitement.

  A light green level 716 Latent Keeper, Zoe could see even despite its attempts at remaining invisible thanks to the sheer quantity of mana filling its form.

  "Uhhhhh," Jeff whined. "Am I seeing that right?"

  "Leave?" Tom suggested.

  "Leave." Zoe agreed, pushing mana through her Teleport skill to rip them outside the dungeon. The Latent Keeper swung its sword, sheering through the air towards them the same instant, missing them by the smallest of margins.

  But instead of appearing in the safety outside the dungeon, the three re-appeared inside the dungeon, smashed up against its boundary like a wave crashing against a cliff. Wind rushed into them, pressing them up against the invisible barrier as the force from the Latent Keeper's swinging sword reached them even so far away on the other side of the dungeon.

  Zoe looked back towards the tower, and watched the wisps of mana rush around the form of the Latent Keeper's invisible sword as it lifted it from the stone platform. Its body shifted, turning towards the group and its sword raised towards them again as it seemed to wait.

  "Zoe?" Tom asked, reeking of anxiety and fear. "We haven't left yet.

  "I know." Zoe said.

  "We can't leave?" Jeff asked, his voice quivering in fear.

  "Why isn't it attacking?" Tom asked. "It's just standing there, sword raised. If I didn't know better I'd think it was a statue."

  "I don't know." Zoe said. "It attacked when we teleported."

  "Does it only respond?" Jeff asked. "It waits for us to do something, and then strikes back?"

  "I can try teleporting again?" Zoe suggested. "If it attacks us again, then you might be on to something."

  Tom nodded, with Jeff doing the same a moment later though with much less confidence.

  Zoe pushed mana into her Teleport skill again, ripping them a few hundred feet away. A deafening boom echoed out from the stone platform as the Latent Keeper's sword struck the stone platform faster than Zoe could follow.

  Rushing, twisting gales ripped through the air towards where they'd just been, smashing through the stone pillars in the way like flimsy sheets of paper. The gales slammed into the barrier, rippling along the edge of it in powerful waves of mana and wind.

  "Okay, so at least for right now it seems to only be responding to us. That's good, at least." Zoe said.

  "Can we attack it?" Jeff asked.

  "What if it stops only responding once it takes damage, though? What will we do then? I don't think we can handle that right now." Tom said.

  "In the first place, why can't we leave? Dungeon bosses don't do this. You can always leave. The barriers are to stop mana and attacks but not us. We should be able to leave." Zoe said.

  "Hmm," Tom wondered. "Maybe it's not the dungeon doing it?"

  "You think the dungeon created that thing, and that thing decided to create a barrier?" Zoe asked.

  Tom shrugged. "I've never seen a dungeon that makes the boss room impossible to leave, but I have seen monsters that make impenetrable barriers."

  Zoe turned part of her attention towards the barrier next to them, peering through it with her Omniscient Beholding. It was different to the normal barriers created in boss rooms, she realized. In the heat of the moment, she hadn't even cared.

  But boss barriers were shimmering crystal sheets that didn't block her from passing through. This was translucent — entirely transparent, even. It wasn't made up of some anomalous mana that dungeon's tended to work with but structured, organized mana. It wasn't made by the system or by the twisted nature of mana itself, but by an intelligent being.

  Which raised another, perhaps more important question for Zoe.

  If this wasn't a normal boss barrier, then was that Latent Keeper truly the dungeon boss? Would the boss be outside the dungeon proper, waiting at the entrance of the tower? The entire tower some glorified loot room filled with minions?

  And for that matter, even if the beast was so high level, it was still relying on an incredible amount of mana to sustain itself. If that mana was cut off, levels or not, it wouldn't be able to output even a fraction of the power it currently could. Maybe it wouldn't even have those levels to begin with if it weren't being powered by such an incredible amount of mana.

  Mana, which to Zoe's sight was being channelled through the platform below its feet.

  "That's not the dungeon boss." Zoe said.

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  "Ah." Tom's eyes widened, with the hint of a smile creeping up on his face.

  "What do you mean?" Jeff asked. "What do you mean it's not the dungeon boss? Why does that matter?"

  "Look at it." Tom said. "Look at the platform its on."

  "Yeah, it's terrifying, Tom. I can barely look at it there's so much mana." Jeff squinted.

  "But look at the rest of the dungeon." Tom said. "Is it as blinding?"

  "No..." Jeff trailed off. "But it's not there, it's on the platform. Why does that matter?"

  "It matters because the actual dungeon boss is probably in that tower, and defending itself with this statue." Tom explained. "Which means the statue probably can't leave that platform, or it'll be too far away from the boss to be controlled properly."

  "Why does that matter? It can attack us from there anyway." Jeff said.

  "Because all we have to do is get it off the platform to beat it." Zoe added. "If we can push it off, then we win. The boss itself will be tough, but if it's relying on a statue like this to defend itself then we can probably handle it, and it should follow the normal rules of letting us retreat anyway."

  "No," Tom shook his head. "It matters because we have Jeff."

  "Wait..." Jeff began to grin. "Do you mean?"

  Tom nodded. "Yes, I mean it's time for a sinkhole."

  Jeff radiated with excitement and passion, twisting together with a powerful feeling of devotion and loyalty as he stared at the distant platform.

  "Zoe," Tom said. "Can you get us a little closer?"

  Zoe nodded, and teleported them across the dungeon to a few dozen feet away from the platform. The Latent Keeper's sword slammed into the ground again, launching another devastating wave of wind and mana out at the barrier where they'd been. It lifted its sword and pointed it towards the group again, waiting for them to make another move.

  "Okay, Jeff." Tom said. "You're not destroying the tower. Ideally just the platform, but you're not touching the tower."

  "Mhm," Jeff hummed lazily, passion and fear wafting off him in waves of devotion.

  Mana began to swirl around Jeff, the ambient wisps rushing in to a growing void of nothingness that was building up within him. His eyes glazed over, the whites creeping over his pupils and turning to a dark brown.

  "Zoe," Tom said. "When he uses his skill you need to teleport us away. As far as you can. Outside the dungeon if you can. It'll take a while before he does, so make sure you're paying attention."

  "Will it be that bad? He's only level 443. He's strong but is it really that terrifying?" Zoe asked.

  Tom sighed. "He's a sinkhole wizard. Everything he's ever done has been for sinkholes, every class he has is for sinkholes. Every feat he has, every skill and every ounce of mana he's worked on, is for sinkholes. His spikes are strong, and he calls them sinkholes. But sometimes I think that's just because if he doesn't convince himself that they're truly sinkholes, his classes wouldn't even be able to use them.

  "But what he's about to do is a real sinkhole. A level 443 mage purpose built for this exact purpose. He might not be as high level as you were, he might not be as versatile as you were. But right now, a man who has spent his entire life dedicating himself to sinkholes is going to fight against the dungeon itself to create a sinkhole." Tom explained. "I'm sure you know what that means."

  "I see." Zoe said. There were few things that could truly affect a dungeon. Simple damage would repair itself, in time. Creatures would be brought back to life, their wounds mended and weapons restored.

  But every so often, a dungeon would bare the scars of battle. Remnants of powerful magic that had run rampant, infecting even the anomalous mana itself. Craters left behind after powerful mages cast their skill, beasts that wouldn't respawn because their very souls were ripped apart. The power required to overwhelm a dungeon was unbelievable — and if it was run by an intelligent beast, would just be repaired in time anyway.

  Several hours passed, before the mana gathering within Jeff seemed to burst from his form, bits of earth dripping off his body like droplets of water on a rainy day.

  "SINKHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLE" He shouted, the immense power within him rushing out, forcing its way into the dungeon's grounds. The dungeon's mana fought against it, the chaotic twisting wisps reaching out to try and stop Jeff's violent barrage of power. But they were smashed through and ripped apart. The very seams that held the dungeon together breaking under the unfathomable weight of Jeff's channelled mana.

  And then there was a crack, as the earth below the platform vanished. Ripped out of reality like it had never even been there to begin with. Nothing but a pit left behind, dozens of feet deep. The Latent Keeper showed no reaction, beginning to fall like a mindless, mundane statue.

  Zoe teleported the group away, the barrier that had once blocked them no longer impeding their movement as she ripped them hundreds of feet outside the dungeon boundary.

  But even from so far away, the sight was blinding. Mana swirled within the dungeon, twisting and winding its way around in raw chaos. The stone steps crumbled, falling into the pit. The ornate pillars that lined the steps fared no better as they too fell to the powerful mana that tore through the dungeon.

  The barrier shimmered as mana smashed up against it, wind and rocks thrown even outside the dungeon's boundary, tearing through the surrounding trees. Minutes passed of chaos raging in front of them before things settled down, leaving a single tower somehow standing tall in the middle of a massive sinkhole.

  Jeff sighed. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

  Zoe eyed the man with more than a little suspicion. This was a very high level dungeon. Well beyond his level. Yet he overwhelmed it with such ease. How? Even if he was purpose built for creating sinkholes, that was still an unbelievable feat.

  "Jeff," Zoe said. "What are you?"

  "I'm a sinkhole wizard." Jeff said, grinning with glee.

  "What is a sinkhole wizard," Zoe asked.

  "Well," Jeff gestured to the dungeon ruins. "We make sinkholes."

  "How did you do that? You're only level 443." Zoe said.

  "It wouldn't have been possible if the dungeon didn't give me so much time. And I have some feats," Jeff admitted with a smile. "Some good." He grimaced. "Some bad."

  "What feats?" Zoe asked.

  "We have more important things to worry about. Do we want to fight the dungeon boss before it can repair the damage?" Tom asked.

  "Yes," Jeff said.

  "Agree," Tom said. "It should be weak, and we should be able to retreat."

  "Agreed," Zoe said. The dungeon boss would likely have a powerful well of mana, but if it was dumb enough to let Jeff spend such a long time channelling a powerful skill then it wouldn't be much of a problem, Zoe imagined.

  She teleported them closer to the dungeon. The mana within still rampant and chaotic — even for a dungeon. Entering the dungeon, it felt somewhat grating on her senses. She teleported them to the tower — which was still somehow standing, despite the wreckage that filled the dungeon.

  Far below at the bottom of the sinkhole was the Latent Keeper, unmoving as mana tried to stretch down the tower's base but couldn't make it to the bottom of the pit through the mundane, unattuned earth.

  They entered through the large open door, the gate that had once been hanging from one of its hinges now a part of the rubble below. Inside was a spiral staircase that led up to the next floor.

  Floor after floor of the tower was filled with dozens of invisible stone archers that had been stripped of their mana, fallen to piles near tiny windows on the wall. Until they reached the top, when a familiar, shimmering blue barrier erupted around them.

  In the centre of the top floor was a small crystal, radiating an incredible amount of mana, and just as much fear. Wisps of light reached out of it like tentacles trying to grasp at anything it could use.

  A green level 716 Latent Soul.

  It seemed almost sad, Zoe felt. This little crystal, barely conscious enough to be able to defend its home but not capable enough to cast even a single skill. The incredible amount of mana it had to wield should have been enough to thwart any attempts Zoe's group made to defeat it.

  Yet it could do nothing but flail about with strands of power as Tom let loose a single arrow that shattered its form. Bits of crystal clattered to the ground making sharp, almost sombre noises as they broke against the stone tower floor.

  *Ding* You have cleared the Latent Power dungeon. Would you like to claim your reward?

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