King of the Realm
Page 1
Dawn of Adventure: King of the Realm
The Dungeon Master's Quests: Journey into Glory a LitRPG Series
Andrew Bardsley
Copyright © 2019 by Andrew Bardsley
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Books by Andrew Bardsley
The History System Chronicles
Book One in the Series: The First Era
Book Two in the Series: The City god
The Ether World Series
Book One in the Series: Into the Ether
Book Two in the Series: The Inscribed Angle
The Dark Part of the Soul
Book One in the Series: The Unknown god
Dawn of Adventure: The Dungeon Master's Quests: Journey into Glory a LitRPG Series
Book One in the Series: Origins
Book Two in the Series: Dungeon Master
Book Three in the Series: Dungeon Battle
Book Four in the Series: King of the Realm
Book Five in the Series: Legendary Weapons
See Author’s page
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B07LGBBBYD
Contents
Chapter 1 More Magical Learning Needed
Chapter 2 The Dragon‘s Reward and Burden
Chapter 3 Journey’s Beginning
Chapter 4 Waylaid
Chapter 5 An Invitation
Chapter 6 A Difference of Opinion
Chapter 7 Into the Wilderness
Chapter 8 Central Kingdom
Chapter 9 University Entry
Chapter 10 Entering the Library
Chapter 11 The Masters of the University
Chapter 12 Palace Ball
Chapter 1 More Magical Learning Needed
Ceras’ room was quiet as he passed the time in deep study, the only noise coming from the movement of the parchments. The table was cluttered with all of the books he had been using to try and solve the magical quest for his progression to legendary level. They were set out in large and untidy piles, spread across the dark wooden surface of the table that had been carved from a tree stump.
Ceras had put his whole mind and soul into the task of solving this puzzle that he had set for himself, but the solution had eluded him for several months as he had studied intensively day and night, burning the metaphorical midnight oil.
“Still stuck?” asked Hidden-Caverns, with the concerned tone that he only used on occasions where he thought that Ceras was particularly upset, as the rest of the time his voice tended to drip with sarcasm.
“Yep. Still have problems and no solutions.”
“Is there anything that I can help you with?”
“Nope, we seem to have explored all the knowledge that we have gained from the books we already have between us,” said Ceras as he looked up into the air, defeated. “Just need more knowledge to progress further. Without more information from previous magical masters, we'll never progress to the legendary level.”
“It definitely seems that way, doesn't it?” came the subdued voice of the dungeon’s mind.
“Yes.”
“When do you think that you’ll be going to the university, then?”
Ceras stood up and stretched his muscular body as he looked around the comfortable apartment that had been his home for some time. He started to put some of the books from his desk back onto the bookshelves with all the other books that he had acquired over the last two years. He noticed that none of them had even a speck of dust on them, as the gremlins that did his housekeeping were top-notch cleaners - and cooks as well, now that he thought about it. Ceras had been living in the dungeon since starting his adventurer’s period of service close to two years ago. In this time a lot had changed in his life, most of it for the good, but being a dungeon master was not all easy work as the death of the dungeon’s mind, Hidden-Caverns, would mean his real death. This meant that early on in his tenure as dungeon master, he had to fight off a significant threat from a high-level duke and his army.
The easy part was the near-endless resources he could call on to make almost anything. One example was the level of comfort he was now used to, in particular the splendid accommodation he enjoyed here.
Symania had designed and organized the housing for each of the adventurers to such a high and luxurious standard that it was a pleasure to live there. The simple luxuries were ever-present now, like being fed wonderful meals all the time by the gremlins who came through the small door in the wall, and never having to worry about any housework. Having grown up on a farm he’d had plenty of chores to do as a child, so he did not miss the tasks the gremlins did for him around the house. He had even developed a friendly relationship with some of the monsters, and would sometimes join them for a card game for relaxation on dark nights. He had found that the gremlins were smart and very devious in their card-playing tactics, winning almost every time as they wagered for coppers.
One of Ceras’ sources of constant bewilderment was where the food came from, as he only saw it brought out of the small hatches around the house on a tray, often carried by a toothy-grinned gremlin. There must be a kitchen somewhere in the dungeon with monsters cooking away, but he had never found it. When he questioned Hidden-Caverns about it he always changed the subject. Ceras hoped, for goodness’ sake, that the cooking was not being done by the goblins, anybody but them… and maybe not the orcs either. Then he started to think about which monster he would want to be cooking for him. Shying away from those thoughts, he came back to reality as he placed his books back in their proper places.
“Hello! Dungeon calling dungeon master!” said the voice of the dungeon as he finally managed to get a response from Ceras. “I think you zoned out for a second.”
“Sorry about that.”
“So, back to the question: when do you think that you’ll be leaving for the university in the capital city of this wonderful kingdom of ours?”
“Well, now is as good a time as any,” said Ceras thoughtfully. “The dungeon has been unchallenged for a while. I need to get this roadblock cleared or else I’ll never advance to the legendary level, which for our long-term survival is getting more and more important.”
“I’m with you on the whole no-death-objectives of your quest.”
“I thought you might be.”
Ceras went into his own little world again, adopting the vacant-eyed expression everybody had when they were using the goddess blessing. He looked at his stats on his character sheet, checking them for the thousandth time since receiving the blessing.
Character Name:
Ceras
1st Class
Wizard
Character Total Level*
49
Major
Strength
Fortitude
Agility
Number
219
219
219
Major
Intelligence
Charisma
Knowledge
Number
720
60
222
Minor
HP
MP
Stamina
Carry Limit
Number
975
7544
1105
448
Regen Sec
21.9
145
2.9
N/A
The numbers indicated that, thankfully, he was now very close to gaining the experience he needed for the leap to legendary level as he only had level fifty left to complete.
His main problem, the one that frustrated him as if he was forever hitting his head against a solid stone wall, was the requirement to complete a magical task that was worthy of a master-level wizard. This was his head-banging sticking point - with the help of Hidden-Caverns, Ceras had learned everything about magic that could be found in this province, but still he did not have enough of a knowledge base to reach the higher level.
The pair, one a disembodied dungeon and the other a young and inexperienced man, had discussed the possibility on and off for the past year of him leaving to go to the capital city and enter one of the universities, or at least gain access to its library. This, now more than ever, seemed like their only hope to enable Ceras to complete the task of gaining his legendary level.
“Lost you again! You keep doing this! At some point I’m going to be telling you something important and you will be off in your own world again.”
“Sorry, just thinking.”
“I sometimes wonder if you ever do anything but ‘just thinking’. You have the absent-minded magicians down to a tee. All you have to do now is grow a long grey beard, since you already have a staff.”
Ignoring the sarcastic dungeon, who in his opinion never stopped bothering him, Ceras pulled up the dungeon stats to check on their progress.
Dungeon Name:
Hidden-Caverns
Major
Energy per hour
Gold
Extent
Number
4114
300
206
Major
Intelligence
Charisma
Knowledge
Number
720
60
222
As expected, they were doing well, as thanks to the forest wisp’s blessing he had a wonderful advantage of increasing all his warrior stats, allowing him to put all his points into intelligence. Hidden-Caverns had wanted all the stats from the level's progression over the previous years to be placed into knowledge, but Ceras had fought against that tooth and nail. Sometimes he had to give in with much relief from the exasperated dungeon, who sometimes could be like a tantrum-prone toddler not getting a sugary treat.
One of the main arguments in Ceras’ logical defense of putting all the points into intelligence, was that the dungeon was getting double the level anyway because of the skills he had selected. But as with any toddler, no logic seemed to work in convincing the dungeon that he did not need more sugar, or in his case, more levels.
So Ceras had to listen to hour after hour of lectures from the dungeon about the importance of being deeper. This was when Ceras had started to learn how to zone the dungeon out and get on with his life, but every so often he would get caught out when the dungeon was saying something that need his interaction.
Ceras used the goddess blessing to check the skills he had selected so far.
Skills
Name
Mastery
Effect
Spell efficiency
Master
Increase the spell efficiency by 150%
Double mana
Master
Double your mana
Double your Knowledge
Master
Double your Knowledge
Double your Intelligence
Master
Double your Intelligence
Double your Charisma
Master
Double your Charisma
Ceras had not selected any more skills while progressing up the level toward legendary, as he had wanted to be very careful in his selection. It would have long-term effects when he was a legendary wizard, or so he had been told by the dungeon.
“Still not there, I keep losing you,” said Hidden-Caverns in exasperation, as if he was a wife whose husband never listened to her.
“I’d better get out of here,” said the distracted Ceras as he started toward the solid wooden door leading to the outside. “I’ll need to talk to the others if I plan to leave for a while.”
Unlike his previous apartment, the house did not lead to a tunnel close to the center of the dungeon. The lowest level of the dungeon, which kept having to move downward through the dungeon’s innate magical system it had been created with, had been changed a lot over the last two years. Symania had been very insistent that if the adventurers were to live in the dungeon all the time then it was healthier to make it as much like the surface as possible.
With a lot of cajoling, Symania had persuaded Rhef to work on the lowest level of the dungeon. The effect had not been as dramatic as some of the levels Rhef created, which was her only gripe, but it was beautiful and not filled with dangerous monsters. She expressed this on many occasions whenever anybody would listen, or didn’t want to listen but was forced to by the sometimes overbearing young woman.
Ceras exited the double wooden door that was adorned with carvings of magical symbols that Symania so loved to include in all of her creations, leaving his brightly-lit room behind. He entered a bright clearing in a forest with short grass and flowers that seemed to him like a magical garden.
This is a beautiful space; I will miss it when I’m gone.
The forest around him was filled with ancient trees with short grass and meadows of flowers among them, giving the landscape a manicured look as the wood sprites themselves were its gardeners. As Ceras would often catch flashes of light as the sprites moved around the forest.
Looking back toward the door of his house, Ceras’ gaze moved to look at what had been the center of his life for the last year and a bit. The house was made of several massive trees, all of which had been interwoven together by the magic that was used to create them, forming a natural organic-looking structure as if it was part of the landscape and not man-made. The only hint that it was a home was the windows in various places to allow light into the dwelling. The roof and walls were all part of the trunk and branches of the trees, with green leaves giving the top of the house a canopy that creatures could nest in. Ceras loved the sound of birds singing when he awoke in the morning, with the magical sun in the large cavern creating a perpetual springtime.
Walking across the grass clearing. along a path where he had compressed the grass over time into a thin trail, he headed to one of the portals dotted around the lowest level cavern to access the rest of the dungeon portal system.
Rhef had designed the cavern this way, with large open areas to give the young adventurers enough room to feel like they lived in complete isolation. There were miles of physical distance separating them from each other, but the portals gave them access to anywhere in the dungeon almost instantly. This provided the best of both worlds and was something that Ceras appreciated and would miss when he left the dungeon to go to university.
Along his walk he picked some of the blue lilac flowers from the meadow clearing, strolling happily as the scenery in this level always cheered him up. The flowers were for Symania as she always appreciated flowers for the hospice that she ran on the surface at the castle. Symania was always talking about how a good environment was helpful to the patients’ recovery. As Ceras took a deep breath of the fresh air he had to agree with her sentiments, as this paradise-like environment certainly made him feel better.
After a few minutes of walking he reached the large, upright pond-like surface of the portal, set in a stone ring with magical symbols marked around the edges. Before Ceras breeched the portal’s dark, undulating surface he spoke to the surrounding forest, as Hidden-Caverns was forever listening to him in the dungeon.
“Where is Symania, Hidden-Caverns?”
“She’s in the hospice in the castle,” said Hidden-Caverns. “Do you want me to set the portal to the top of the keep?”
“That would be great, tha
nks.”
Ceras stepped into the dark, liquid surface and soon reappeared at the top of the keep as space and time, for a second, wrapped around him. Ceras noticed that the portal room at the top of the keep was deserted, so he took a chance to look out at the large and growing city that was surrounding the dungeon castle.
To the side of the portal room was an entrance to a large balcony that was often used by visitors as a lookout over the landscape around the dungeon. This enabled them to see the surrounding city that was being built high in the foothills of the mountain.
The surrounding area had changed dramatically over the last two years. It had started off as a mine in the middle of nowhere that had long been abandoned by the guild in the area, to become the new city that Ceras now saw before him.
The hilly valley was no longer filled with steep cliffs and deep gorges; it was now generally flat, as the rocky material from the dungeon excavation had been used to create a level plain for the city’s base. In the clear sunlight, Ceras could see his city that had formed upon this plain stretching off into the distance.
Many of the houses were made out of the rock material that had been dug up from the dungeon, creating solid but slightly foreboding stone structures all over the city, ready to be occupied. In the distance Ceras could see the gray, solid stone city walls that towered above the hills below as they dropped hundreds of meters from the rocky top of the city. This would be an oppressive sight for anybody who would want to attack the city, Ceras hoped. Cleosre, the architect of the city, had often referred to the mountain city as a bowl perched on the top of the foothills of the mountains.