by Dakota Krout
Chapter Thirteen
I was on my way to chat with Navigation Bob when I felt something tingle. Glancing around with a hint of confusion, I felt an expanding field of Essence pour over my newest floor. Oh! Oh, yeah! The convergence of ley lines over what had been the ocean dungeon was finally giving me Essence! It was enough that I couldn't use it all at once, and the corruption Cores that I used as filters were working overtime to clean the enormous amount of water taint that was coming through. I was worried I might need to offload some corruption collectors into the reservoir. Frankly, I was surprised that I hadn't been required to do so until now since the net of ley lines was continually expanding and growing. I had needed to fly for days to reach this disturbance in my network.
I'd get one of the Bobs to figure out their placement. No, actually… the amount of tainted liquid Essence flowing through the reservoir would likely pop someone who tried that with a fleshy body. I'd have to take care of it myself. I really needed to find a way to delegate this stuff. Maybe I could make a few golems that could handle the situation? That would work… if they were able to draw out the necessary Runescript. That was unlikely. I needed to talk to Bob first.
"Pardon me, Great Spirit, but… are you giving me a name based off the work I do here?" Uh-oh. Right, I hadn't shared with them how I was remembering their individual functions.
Deciding it was better to be honest, I took a deep 'breath' and spoke,
Bob had tilted his head to the side. "No, no. I wasn't upset. Actually there are so many of me right now that we are having a difficult time speaking to the Goblin who is doing the work we need. We've been wearing numbers, but that has been feeling a bit degrading. Perhaps titles are what we need in order to function. Someone had suggested that we take different names, but who wants to be the one to give up a name given to them by the Great Spirit?"
"Ah. Right. This one is going to be a bit harder of a sell. There is a known dungeon in this area, and there was a town in this location because of it. It isn't a Mage rank dungeon just yet, but from what I understand and from the rumors of power fluctuations coming off of it… the dungeon is not far from attaining the Mage ranks. I think that we have a couple of options. We could take the Core as it begins to ascend or nab it before it can. Grabbing a Mage-ranked Core would be much harder than taking a C-ranked one." Navigation Bob pointed at the map as he explained, and I agreed with his assessment.
"I'm… I'm not sure what's happening here, Great Spirit." Navigation Bob hadn't had me bouncing ideas off of him like this before. Oops. I tried to keep my manic side to those that were already 'in the know'.
Before I forgot to do it, I connected to the portal leading to my reservoir. Working through portals was tricky for me, but this place was technically still part of my dungeon. That made it manageable, even though I needed to expend a slightly higher degree of Essence and attention in order to make things happen on the other side. I needed to carve Runes along nearly the entire thing, from top to bottom, so it was a pretty draining experience. Luckily, the whole thing was mostly empty because the liquid Essence could have otherwise easily activated the Runes before they were ready. Being extra cautious, I even waited to add the activation sequences until after everything else was completed. I had to say, this place was pretty… freaky. It was neat, don't get me wrong, but someone who didn't know what it did could easily mistake it for something sinister.
The container was four hundred feet below where the base of my mountain had initially stood, and the interior was a sphere with a twenty yard diameter. This thing could contain over four million liters of liquid Essence at max capacity. This sucker was huge. The exterior was corruption-enhanced granite, followed by a layer of tungsten, lead, a very thin layer of Mithril, and then ceramic on the interior. To anyone scanning it with Mana or Essence, this should look like a giant ball of fecal matter. If that doesn't convince them to leave it alone, perhaps the actual night soil that I deposit around it would be enough if they started to dig. An entire city above me dumping their… stuff leaves a lot of cleanup. I could just absorb it for the Essence, but I like to think that this was more fun. I had even added some Runes to the area that would keep it 'fresh' for a few decades.
I inserted the corruption Cores throughout the ceramic layer and watched for a few minutes to make sure that everything was working correctly. The corruption in the air and liquid began rapidly decreasing, and I felt the strain of it around my own Core lessen significantly. Perfect. I was worried that there would be a buildup of corruption on my lower floors that would get out of hand and drive away my new potential tenants, not that there were many Mages strong enough to get to the lowest level. The Moon Elves were the elite of the Dark Elf race, and even they only had four guards that could take up position on this floor.
Well, I suppose that wasn't strictly accurate. Mainly, the difference was that other Mages were taking their time mapping out floors six and seven so they could be aided in cultivation or so their protégés could. I was also learning something interesting from the A-ranked High Mageous 'Madame Chandra'. She had come down here and begun mapping the floor all by herself. Back and forth she went, gathering all the possible ways I had learned to make plant Essence. She even seemed surprised by a few of them. Who would have guessed that earth, air, water, and fire were a way to make plant Essence? All four basic elements to form a single second tier type of power? It was because plants made breathable air by taking carbon from the air and ground. They did this from some interaction with light and water, and fire was a lower fragment of light. Fascinating stuff.
Well, after finding that out, she had gotten pretty excited and a teeny bit mad. From there, she had mapped all of the possible ways to achieve nature Essence, and after exhausting all possible avenues, she plopped down right there and began to cultivate. That hurt a bit because she drew in Essence like a whirlpool pulls in ships. Then… the most bizarre thing happened. She got… weaker? No… her cultivation rank dropped. She was pale and shaking, but when her eyes opened again and she smiled, I was in awe of her. She… she had upgraded her law! I hadn't even known that was possible! Was it because plant was a subset of nature? Could anyone enhance their powers with the knowledge I was offering? I needed to make the traps here deadlier. This… now it made sense why people kept freaking out about the paths I had made. I was going to need to put some kind of Boss monster between the tiers, or this place would be flooded with extra powerful Mages in no time flat.
Madame Chandra went from rank A-nine down to A-three, but as her power began to ripple out from her, it struck me as more condensed, more dangerous, more whole. She was now a tier-three nature High Mageous instead of a plant High Mageous. As she sat there, she seemed to be concentrating. She…! She just went up a rank! Two! She jumped to rank A-five over the course of a few hours! How? Her knowledge of and affinity for nature must be incredible!
She seemed to have progressed enough and got to her feet wearily. I could hear her speaking to herself, and I
listened in closely. "All those years… and that was the key. Fire! I still can't believe it, but now it makes perfect sense! He even told me that fire had a place in the forest, and I laughed at him! I could have been here for a hundred years! I'm a stubborn old fool, needing to see it drawn out for me like a child. So many things that eluded me are clicking into place! My goodness, I bet fire could even be used in the growth cycle of- *oof*. Goodness me, that confirms it."
I created and dropped a jawbone on the ground just so I could visually represent the astonishment I was feeling at this moment. She had just increased in rank again! How deep was her understanding of the natural world, and how many revelations must she have had to reach rank A-six? I was figuratively drooling at the thought of gaining access to the memories, ideas, and concepts that must be floating around her brain. She took stock of her surroundings one more time, then began making her way into the next tier, this time frowning as she traced out the possibilities for upgrading into a higher law. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that the patterns became confusing for her. At the very least, she wasn't going to be moving to a higher understanding right now.
Still, her progress and increase in power was sickening. Where before she had been powerful, now she didn't even need to call upon her Mana to dominate my golems. She would walk up to them and give them a friendly pat on the chest, and they would crumble into dust. By attacking in this manner, she even shattered their Cores. The resulting blasts of Mana seemed to thrill her, and she stood in the reverberating power like someone enjoying the wind from a thunderstorm. Then she vanished.
Chapter Fourteen
“Hold, good folk of Basketville! Trust in your training, prepare the war hounds, and stand ready to fight!” The Mayor of Basketville stood on the ramparts of his town, doing all he could to bolster the spirits of his people. He knew, he knew, that this would be a battle they couldn’t win. But he had to try; he had to inspire and give hope to the people counting on him. The Mayor looked behind him, gulping and trying to hold back the tears threatening to pour down his cheeks.
The undead were here. There were ranks and formations of skeletons and zombies, but from his vantage, he could see that there were Abominations coming up from the rear. They were marching, getting closer and closer… then all at once, the undead stopped and a Demon, an abyss-blasted Demon stepped out of the mass of bodies and waved at them.
“Human filth.” The demon called lazily, obviously having used this same speech multiple times. “I am here as an ambassador of The Master. I have been instructed to give you all a choice. You are to join us, or you will die. These are your only options, and not choosing or delaying will ensure your demise. You have one minute to answer.”
The Mayor listened to his people shouting, and noted the silence of his town’s defenders. They were prepared to die, as long as they died fighting. No one had expected an option where they would survive the day, and this offer was breaking the resolve of more than one person. The Mayor needed to take matters into his own hands. “How do we know that we can trust this offer?”
“The Master demanded that I give this choice to all before we fought with them, and to accept whatever answer they gave us. I am bound to follow his laws.” The Demon shrugged, then decided that enough time had passed. “Your choice?”
The Mayor looked at his people, who had just gotten a spark of hope for the first time in weeks. “We… we surrender. We will join you.”
“Excellent. Open the gates so that we don’t need to smash them. I am so glad you made the right choice.” The Demon took a step forward, and the ranks of the dead moved as he did. The stone walls surrounding the town were ignored as the gate opened and the dead poured inside. When everyone was under control and accounted for, there was a slaughter that lasted mere seconds.
The Demon, coated in rapidly drying blood and viscera, gave a happy sigh as he cracked open a rib bone and sucked out the marrow. He looked around at all the slain townsfolk that were being reanimated and laughed. “I love it when they don’t see it coming. Thank the abyss that the order from The Master was so vaguely worded. After all, they did choose to join us…”
CAL
Two dozen of Minya’s cultists were approaching, and I was having fun watching the people move past gigantic Cats that had been ordered not to hurt them. The Cats seemed to be enjoying themselves as well, flexing their claws and releasing deep rumbling growls. Every single time they did so, all of the humans would flinch. They were all only humans, as it turned out. I listened in on them, laughing at what they were speaking about.
"You think that she's just bringing us here as a sacrifice to the dungeon?"
"Does it matter? If that is how I can serve the dungeon best, then so be it!" This lady had some serious advancement opportunities coming her way.
"Finally free from all that menial labor! Ugh, those guild members are insufferable! I only hope that I get the chance to ram an enchanted weapon into their guts someday when they trespass!" Taking note of that guy for sure; he may not like what his job was going to be down here if he couldn't stand adventurers. "If I ever had to bring them their dainty meals or tea again, I would have added as much poison as possible and made a run for it!"
Yeah, I didn't think he would last long in his new position. Maybe I should let them see their new quarters before asking them to make the oath to my service. In fact, I would give them a day in the hot spring pool that I had created, plenty of tasty food, and let them sleep in their new beds. If that didn't make them ready to say yes to anything, I didn't know what would. …Then again, they knew what they would be getting into. In terms of the oath, that is. Minya was leading the group down the service tunnels, which were usually reserved for Goblins or relaxation areas for my Mobs. Before they could enter the eighth level, I figured it was time to get this show on the road.
One by one, Minya had them swear their oaths. I felt a connection spring up on each of them and smiled as I scanned them. Standard humans. Mostly non-cultivators looking for a cheat, a way around working for power. One or two of them, the real fanatics, actually had some serious health issues. One had all of his affinity channels blocked, and the other seemed to be on the verge of organ failure.
Ah. Opening a meridian would have killed her, so there was no way to cultivate past the lower levels without expensive and extensive healing. Most groups wouldn't want to devote those kinds of resources to someone who may not be able to repay them. I marked these two as leaders and looked at the last human without an oath… and grinned. Thank goodness, I had thought that my Cats would be going hungry!
The man in question was one of the worst complainers. He was fiddling with something and seemed to be getting frustrated that it wasn't working. It was either a beacon of some kind or an object that would facilitate his escape in most
other situations. In this scenario, he was surrounded on all sides by corrupted stone, and I was in total control of all Essence in the area. This far down in my depths, my Mana was coating everything, and his low-ranked Essence couldn't break through even with the help of the Inscribed item he was carrying. Now he was beginning to panic. Interesting, it must have been some sort of escape device in that case. I was appreciative of the gift, but it was really too bad that- oh, there goes Snowball.
The other humans began to panic when one of their own was snatched away with a startled shriek. A snack for me and my Cats!
"I'll tell you in a minute. We need to get these people somewhere safe first." Minya looked around with some expression on her face that I hadn't seen before. I'm guessing it was something like 'not in front of the new people'. That was fine. I opened the doors slowly, adding an air of majesty and wonder. The first set of doors opened by splitting in half, one part going upward, one down. The next doors opened by going to the left and right, and the final set split diagonally.
All of these were now my people and so could hear me when I spoke to them. For the very first time, they listened to the voice of the dungeon!