The bookshelves finish shifting, and I’m left in a small room, with the portal to my home swirling behind me. Dee floats next to me, partially see-through.

  “As a guardian, I won’t be able to fight with you in a private dungeon.” Dee says, floating over to one of the books, “But! I can give you advice and guide you. Plus it’s super cool actually seeing a private dungeon.”

  I pull my gloves tight as I look at the corridor leading into the maze of books. “You haven’t seen a private dungeon before?”

  Dee nods enthusiastically, “Honestly, they’re super rare, and hoarded by the rich. This is exciting!”

  I take a step forward. The shelves loom tall over me, and I can’t help but take a deep breath and smile. The smell of books is one of my favorites. “How did you know so much then?”

  “I studied dungeons back on my homeworld. I thought it might come in handy as a guardian on the frontier.” She places her hands on her hips and gives me a wide smile.

  I let out a small laugh, then continue deeper into the hallway.

  I take a turn and catch my first sight of a wisp. It floats at the other end of the hallway, not having noticed me yet.

  A deep breath, then “[Enhance Body], [Unmatchable Speed]”

  I run at the wisp at a breakneck pace. It turns at the last second, and a blade of wind fires at me.

  I spin around the blade of wind, then jump over a second one until I’m right next to the thing.

  My fist flies forward, striking the wisp.

  It explodes into sparkling dust that slowly falls to the ground.

  I drop my buffs, and stare at the slowly disappearing sparkles.

  “That was easy.” I say.

  “It’s the first enemy of the first level. You’re a level five Beta Tester.” Dee flits over to me. “There’s a reason I wasn’t worried about you handling this alone. The boss might give you a little trouble, but it’s the second level where you’ll want to start being careful.”

  I hum softly, then continue down the path. “To be fair, the system hasn’t exactly gone easy so far.”

  “You do like to tempt fate, don’t you?” Dee asks.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never raised a flag in my life.” I whistle as I walk, then pause as a thought occurs to me, “You know, I think I’ll finally tell Rose that life changing secret tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow, when all of this is over, we’ll finally get that date I’ve been hoping for. A proper one this time.”

  Dee snorts, “You’re crazy.”

  “People don’t tell me that as often as they should.” I turn the corner to see two wisps this time. “I think they’re just being polite though. [Enhance Body] [Unmatchable Speed]”

  This time, they see me coming, and I’m dodging between more blades. I roll under the first, then cartwheel through two more and land with both hands in the air. Sadly, another blade of air ruins my celebration, cutting into my side in a wound that instantly heals thanks to my gloves. I’m forced to punch both of the wisps into oblivion.

  I move past them to find a small chest in the middle of the floor.

  “Are mimics a thing?” I ask, then before Dee can answer, I shake my head and open the chest. A small unlabeled bottle with purple liquid rests inside.

  “Chests can be trapped.” Dee confirms. “But there shouldn’t be anything like that in Thoth’s library.”

  “[Identify bottle]” I say, and a helpful little blue window pops up.

  I look at Dee as I slip it into my inventory. “You didn’t see anything.”

  “Only if I get some when you open it.”

  “Deal.”

  We make our way deeper, and the bookcases grow taller, until the ceiling is only a tiny light in the distance. I fight my way through five more blue wisps before I encounter my first green wisp. Instead of airblades, it has the earth itself shoot up at me as a spike.

  Thankfully, I’m fast enough with my abilities that I don’t really have to worry about the spikes, and I quickly punch another wisp into oblivion.

  “Do they die when I hit them?” I ask.

  Dee shakes her head. “Nope! But that’s also why they give reduced experience for leveling. It’s said that there’s a secret level where these little guys evolve themselves, giving you higher levels of your dungeon to fight through. The system arch-” She pauses, stopping herself from saying something. “There’s just not much information about the inner workings of private dungeons.”

  Well that’s an interesting little tidbit she gave me, arch what? Maybe I’ll ask Taylor later, I do owe her a visit after all.

  I continue forward, until the bookshelves abruptly end at two large wooden doors.

  “Looks like we found the boss!” Dee says, fluttering over to the doors. “Are you ready Elena? This one should be fine, but…” Dee pauses, her gaze looking at the doors as she just floats there. “Hathor.”

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “What about her?” I ask.

  Dee glances at me, and she hovers for a second before answering me “Nothing, it’s just strange that she would sponsor private dungeons on a Beta world. She likes to keep to herself.”

  “I’ll be ready then.” I say, pulling my gloves tighter.

  I walk up to the doors and push them open. Light shines through glass windows in the ceiling, illuminating a wondrous circular library with a spiral staircase winding around the main floor and up to an open second and third floor, where the shelves continue to climb upwards. The main floor has several comfy couches and tables, with a desk against one wall.

  In the middle of the floor is a humanoid figure the size of a small child, shining with a soft white light.

  She lays on the floor in the middle of the room, a ray of sunshine resting right on her, and highlighting her golden hair. As I watch, she stretches and turns over, resting her head on her arms.

  I step fully into the room, and Dee is pushed back by wind, and thrown out of the boss room, the doors closing behind her with a slam.

  I hide a smile at the surprised look on the little fairy’s face. While the disappearance of my fairy is mildly worrying, her expression was hilarious. I shake my head and look at the girl in the middle of the room.

  The girl pushes herself up, her hair hanging down to the floor. A soft “Hm?” echoes out as she looks at me.

  Her face brightens with a smile, as she jumps off the floor and hovers in the air. Her golden irises look at me curiously “Oh! Hello. You’re the first one, aren’t you?”

  I tilt my head, “Hello. I do like being first. What am I the first of?”

  She floats over to a table, her feet touching the wood daintily as she stands on her tippy toes. “The first Beta Tester of course! Or technically, the fifth, now that I look at you. But the other four aren’t doing so well, now are they?” She shakes her head, then holds out her hands, the sunlight gathering around her fingers, “Are you ready then?”

  “Almost definitely. Are we going to play a game?” I ask, making my gloves glow so that she’s not the only one glowing.

  A girl has got to show off every once in a while.

  She leaps into the air, and hovers there, “You could call it that. Oh, before we start, are you a good person?”

  “Sometimes.” I answer, “but you can’t expect a girl to be perfect.”

  She smiles, and a bolt of sunlight fires at me.

  “[Enhance Body] [Unmatchable Speed]”

  I jump out of the path of the bolt, then roll under a second one.

  The bolts hit the doors behind me, but do no visible damage to them. I leap forward, using my speed to approach the girl.

  I’m only a few feet away from her when a wall of golden light explodes in a circle around her.

  I reach into the earth with my root chakra, and cast one of the spells I’d learned long ago. “[Defence Of The Earth]”

  The ground rises up in front of me, and the wall of light splashes off of it, hitting the rest of the room and doing no visible damage to the books.

  I leap over the wall, my fist aiming for the girl’s body.

  She smiles, and my fist strikes through her without hitting anything. She dissipates into light, and the ray of sunlight she’d been in warps around me. Hundreds of spears of light form out of the sunlight. I bring up my fists, creating a small shield as the spears shoot towards my body.

  My body glows a light yellow as the spears fade into my skin, leaving me feeling a little warm.

  Laughter echoes from a few tables away. I turn to see the girl sitting there, her feet dangling off the edge of the table and kicking the air. “That was scary! And poo, you stand too far in the graces of Ka’Ma’at.” She jumps off the table, and lands with her feet hovering a few feet over the ground. “Well, I lost. Yes system, I cannot win against Ma’at’s judgement.”

  She smiles wide, as she fades into little particles of light. “I’ll see you soon, Beta Tester Elena!”

  I give her a smile and salute her with two fingers. I have no idea what’s going on! But that’s fine. She seemed nice.

  She fully disappears, and a chest pops into existence in the middle of the floor where she’d been sleeping.

  Dee bursts through the door, lightning circling around her. “Yes! Yes system! I know. I know. You can’t just lock me out like-” She pauses as she looks around the room, then appears in front of me in a flash of lightning. “Are you okay? No injuries?”

  “I’m fine.” I say, walking over towards the chest. “I won, I guess.”

  Dee lets out a breath. “That’s good. Hathor pushed me out. What did you get?”

  I open the chest, revealing a black and purple masquerade mask, feathers artistically arranged on top and to the side of it. Next to the mask is a small white coin, with a smiling humanoid figure carved into it.

  I identify both Items.

  “Aww, just a wisp summon?” Dee shakes her head. “Well, you can’t win them all. Maybe those blades of air will be useful against certain enemies.”

  I look at Dee, then back to the coin. “Yeah, I’m sure I’ll find a use for it. The mask is pretty though.” I pick up the mask, studying it, then I place both items in my inventory.

  “And there it is!” Dee points to a shimmering portal next to the librarian’s desk. “I wonder what kinds of workers Thoth’s library will let you employ.”

  I look up at Dee, she never mentioned workers. She doesn’t notice my look as she flies into the portal.

  I shake my head, then take one last glance around the gorgeous library.

  I can’t wait till I can actually look around this place. I hope this room doesn’t change after the library becomes part of my Humble Abode.

  With a smile on my face, I step out of the portal, and return to the small basement of my house.