by D. R. Rosier
Dungeon Imperiled
Dark Dungeon: Book 2
Author: D. R. Rosier
Copyright 2017. This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue
Afterword:
About the Author
Other erotic fantasies by D. R. Rosier:
Non-erotic Fantasy titles:
Book Description
Prologue
The highest of Jennesar sweated fiercely in fear, as his knees ached from resting on the floor so long. He felt the usual awe when in the presence of his goddess, and even love, but this was the first time he ever felt afraid. He’d started the night with dread after the report of the death of Salvatore and the mission’s failure, he couldn’t believe that bitch had shipped his head to him as a message.
The gods couldn’t force him to do anything, yet they could give advice if he asked for it. In the past, following her advice had always turned out well for him and the church. He wasn’t even sure why he’d been directed to destroy a dungeon, but he understood all too well that failure meant danger for Jennesar in some way.
What really terrified him though, was that the goddess wasn’t acting as her usual aloof self. There was, he hesitated to assign fear to his goddess, but at very least she felt off balance.
She said, “The dungeon must be destroyed, the future of Jennesar depends on it.”
He supposed that could explain it, although he still had no idea why. Of course, she couldn’t tell him that. A direction was one thing, but knowledge and understanding was forbidden to be passed. Even the gods had rules.
He said, “In a few months, this will all be a moot issue, and we can destroy the dungeon at our leisure.”
She replied, “That may not be soon enough, send some of the light council if you must.”
He was shocked by that, both the idea and that she’d said it. What could possibly be so important she would skirt the rules so brazenly? Her words had been far closer to an order than a suggestion.
He bowed his head further, “I will make preparations for both, just in case they fail.”
He found it hard to believe they would fail, the light council were made up of all the non-church master level fighters and mages in Jennesar. Still, he wouldn’t have believed Salvatore would fail either, and anything that threw a goddess off her game had to be a serious threat.
He sighed in relief as his divination spell expired, and the presence of the goddess faded. He felt reluctant to do that again, at least until the dungeon was destroyed. After a time in the silence, his confidence came back. He was highest, the ultimate ruler of Jennesar, and he was poised and in control. Salvatore’s failure was just an aberration, a temporary setback.
He stood and left his private temple. He smiled in anticipation as he saw the two new and young female acolytes that he’d spied just this morning, laying in his bed, dressed just as he had ordered. They looked lovely, and frightened. He could wait until morning before he sent orders to the council.
“Join me in my bathing chamber,” he ordered.
He needed to wash off his sweat, and the stink of fear. Hopefully the young ladies would not be afraid once that was done, he preferred his women enthusiastic in bed. But either way, they’d serve…
Chapter One
It’d been a week since I evicted Lila from the stone, and gave her a new body. Things had calmed down a little and seemed mostly back to normal. Those three scary as hell masters from the guild had gone through and rated my rearranged dungeon a couple of days ago, and their opinions seemed to align with mine from the reports I read.
“Master,” Ebony said crisply, with no cuteness or sexiness involved.
Ebony had been rather jealous of Lila’s upgrade in status. I’d tried to talk to her about it a few times now, but every time I even tried she just ran off to sulk or do some all important task. She wasn’t angry or hateful, just jealous. I knew that part was built into her, the desire for power, I supposed life would have been worse if she’d had that corrupting twisted hatred and anger that Lila used to.
“Yes sexy?”
I could see as she fought off a smile, maybe she’d be ready to talk soon? I could order her to do it, but then she’d really make my life hell, even as she obeyed. I might be a rock, but I wasn’t that stupid.
“Never mind, it’s not important,” she said with effort, and then zipped off.
Yup, she’d be talking to me soon. I actually had a pretty good explanation, if she’d just listen to it. Ebony wasn’t twisted up with corruption, and seemed quite happy to be who she was now. I also needed her here to assist me, and in my opinion any change to her would be a detriment. She was perfect the way she was, at least to me she was.
I tracked her up and out of the dungeon, and she was headed for the forest. No doubt to find another life form I didn’t need, just as an excuse. I already had the pattern to create several different trees, bushes, animals, flowers, and herbs. She’d gone to get a new one several times a day the last week in an effort to avoid me.
I had enough in fact, to build a large cavern level and make it a forest, but I’d decided I had a reputation to maintain as a dark dungeon, and that wouldn’t be happening anytime soon. Let the light and other elemental sphere dungeons make trees and rabbits.
Although, a dark forest had some small appeal to me, but I didn’t have any mobs I’d want to put in it. At least none that would fit in that motif.
I sighed, or I would have if I had a body. I felt like I was missing something.
Lila teased, “Aww, do you miss your Lila?”
I replied, “How can I miss you, nothing has changed.”
No, she wasn’t trapped in the prison with me anymore, and was now in Jennesar as my spy to find out what I needed to do, and who my enemies were. I needed to understand everything about them, and how to strike back against my enemies. If I just hunkered down in the dungeon defensively, I’d die when they eventually succeeded. No, I needed an offensive plan for when I was ready.
Even though she was gone, the dark magic bond still existed between our souls, so we were as close as ever. In fact, I could even use the bond to cast the fantasy spell on her from many miles away. Not much had changed at all really.
Lila said, “Not true. I’m not constantly in your mind anymore, to see what’s going on in the dungeon. I have my eyes and other senses now, and though we can still feel each other constantly, it’s only when we talk, or concentrate, that our minds fully connect.”
Okay, granted there was that one difference. Could I actually be missing that? Could I actually want a voyeur in my mind watching my every thought?
Lila snickered, “Of course, to show off your brilliance as you do twenty things at once. Face it, you’re an exhibitionist Nur
ien. Why else would you enjoy it so much when I watch you and Ebony…”
I replied accusingly, cutting her off, “You’re an angel now you know.”
Lila laughed in that throaty sexy way she had, only now there was a lighter joy in it, since becoming an angel, and she said, “Yes, a dark one. Besides, I’m pretty sure teasing isn’t evil. In a way, it’s a form of love.”
My mind froze for a second, I knew Lila was capable of love now that the evil corruption had been burned out of her, but she’d never said anything like that before. After an awkward pause, I changed the subject. I didn’t want to pressure her, and she already knew how I felt. It’d only been a week since I’d changed her, and the change was huge. She was still acclimating to it.
“So, anything to report yet? It’s been a week.”
Lila replied, “Basic information. The Highest and church are the ruling class and absolutely controlling of the population, but they’re very clever about it.”
“Clever?”
Lila explained, “The highest makes all the laws, policies, and dictates the direction of things, but they don’t enforce any of it, or at least, they only enforce it on what they call the council of light. The council of light is made up of non-church masters. High powered mages and warriors who control the localized lawmen. Those are the ones that organize things and implement and enforce the laws, not the church soldiers, clerics, and paladins who are aimed outward from Jennesar.
“The peasants aren’t stupid, but when the choices seem to be between going to temple and dealing with the nice cleric that makes them feel safe and loved, or break the law which forces them to worship and try to avoid both the temple and getting tortured by a non-churchman, that tends to affect the psyche. They know the church is in charge, but their hate is mostly misdirected anyway to the enforcers. Forced or not, these people are mostly happy to get to temple for the worship services. There are exceptions of course, but only the outliers in the population. It’s kind of brilliant, and mental manipulation and conditioning on such a large scale my old demoness self would have been impressed by.”
“Anything else beautiful?”
I felt a surge of affection followed by embarrassment, and pretended not to notice either of them.
She replied, “No, not really. I’m heading toward their capitol slowly in my human form, and I’ll watch for a while before doing anything.”
I agreed, “Be careful.”
She sent agreement, and then her presence faded. I could still feel her of course, our connection. But like she’d said, it was very light, and only conveyed a shadow of emotions unless we were speaking to each other. Most humans would probably think it far too intimate, but I could admit that I craved the closer connection we used to share. It was necessary though, and though I thought Lila missed me too, she was much happier in her own body and getting up to mischief on my behalf, than as a prisoner.
I still had over fifty life forces left in sex demon cavern, and I had plans to expand the dungeon. My crystal has been growing the last week, constantly, but it still wasn’t ready to support much more so I’d wait. I was also still having problems with more powerful elementals. I kept experimenting but I was missing something.
I seemed to have a strong intrinsic grasp on creation, and understanding the building blocks of magic that I knew. That intrinsic knowledge didn’t seem to extend to creatures from other planes though, and I believed that was holding me up. Well, most other planes, I hadn’t had a problem making an angel, and that made me wonder just what the hell I was. Maybe I was from that plane too, and that’s why?
There was still a whole lot I didn’t know about magic, I could be creative with it, but only on the building blocks I already knew. I was sure I’d figure it out eventually, and find the right combination of things to keep the elementals in line.
Ebony zipped back in empty handed, and said accusingly, “I feel worthless. You’re not a normal dungeon, and your knowledge already far exceeds mine. You haven’t asked me a question in a long time.”
Okay, maybe I was stupid, I’d thought her issue was about jealousy and Lila. I mentally trashed my prepared speech, and thought for a few seconds.
I said, “You helped me figure out how to expand a week ago, it was your idea to move levels around.”
She made a face, it was cute in a sad kind of way.
“Besides that, I mean. I love to flirt with you, and I very much like that other stuff we get on with together, but I need to be more useful than that. I feel like… a kept dungeon imp.”
I said, “Well my sexy one, I have an idea, if you’re willing to listen?”
She sighed and nodded, a small bit of hope on her face.
“I do need your help to grow as a dungeon, I need you here with me. I need magical knowledge, advanced theory, and books on other planes of existence. I’m getting tired of waiting for mages with spell books to die, and most of the time they don’t have anything new in them. Specifically, right now on that last request, I need books about the gods and elementals.”
Elementals so I could figure out my issue, I was really tired of experiments in that area, not that I’d stop, but it was beyond obvious I was missing a critical piece of information. Of course, I needed to know about the gods because some of those seemed to be my enemy. That was… daunting. There had to be a way to fight back though, and from this mortal plane. If there wasn’t, they wouldn’t be so desperate to kill me.
Or so I told myself.
Ebony frowned, “How will I do that?”
I said, “I’m going to teach you a few spells. That will both hide you and conceal your demonic aura from detection. I’m also going to teach you to teleport so you have a quick escape. Then I want you to sneak into the keep mage library, and start reading. The last spell I teach you will enable you to pass on that knowledge to me through the link.”
Ebony frowned, “That will be dangerous, if I’m caught, or even just seen it could be disastrous. Sending me out to get information will brand you as a rogue dungeon if they learn of it.”
I replied, “I know, but some risks must be taken. I think this one is manageable, and I trust you. I don’t think I have the time to grow slowly like other dungeons. Salvatore failed, but Jennesar will send others, and soon. I need to grow faster defensively while I build an offensive plan. The spells I give you will minimize the risk, especially if you go there at night when the library ought to be empty of people.”
Ebony smiled and posed sexily, I’d have smiled in relief if I had a mouth, it was good to see her happy again.
“I’ll be careful master, and the information will make me stronger as well. I just wanted to make sure you knew the risks. I’m actually thrilled about the opportunity.”
Excellent. I had my minions, lovers, ladies? All the above I supposed. I had them happy and doing things to forward our progress, and after teaching her the promised spells I turned more of my focus toward the dungeon. I’d done what I could to protect myself and them for now, and I found concentrating on my dungeon helped keep me calmer.
The adventurers were doing fairly well, despite me moving the traps and ambushes around every night. There weren’t many deaths at all on the higher levels, those adventurers were wary and good at what they did. Most of the time the deaths were by stupid initiates in the first or second level of the dungeon, which was fine but also frustrating. I learned nothing from them, and only gained a little power.
I supposed I was greedy, but only because my life depended on it. As I’d told Ebony, my enemies certainly weren’t being idle.
The gnomes were working hard, but still about a week away from having the first room sized puzzle trap completed, and a second one would be ready about a week after that. The golems wouldn’t be ready for a few months, but it was still interesting to watch the painstaking process. Of course, once I knew how to make a golem, all it would require for me to make it was a few moments, and enough power.
I had to admit, planning out an
d running a dungeon to gain power was kind of a blast, and I enjoyed the challenge of it. The challenge of creating encounters that gave the adventurers a chance, and then outwitting them, was addicting. I even enjoyed losing as it made me work harder for next time. I was determined that, if at all possible, no matter what happened or where I ended up at the end of all this after I’d had my revenge, I’d somehow keep the dungeon too…
Chapter Two
Catalina glared up at Daniel from under the blanket. Her eyes felt bloodshot and her head stuffy with sleep and grief. She’d cried again last night and imagined she must look a fright. Life could be hard, and she knew people died, but never one that she’d loved before, not since her mother, and she’d only been a child then.
What hurt the most was she’d never, not once, told Sienna what she’d meant to her. She’d come home a week ago, and had mostly hidden in her rooms since. Even the servants started to avoid her short tempered reactions. She knew she needed to snap out of it, get passed it, but easier said than done.
“Daniel, why are you in my rooms?”
Daniel looked at her with pity, and that made her angrier.
“You need to get passed this, or at least pretend you have. The other nobles will start talking, and they’ll doubt you have the strength to be heir. Your father has been patient, but you haven’t even discussed the battle with him since you’ve been home outside of your initial report. As heir, you simply can’t afford to show this much weakness.”
That just made her feel guilty on top of everything else. She was putting her father in an awkward position. Daniel was right, she needed to pull it together, or at least act like she wasn’t falling apart on the inside all the time. It would become a problem in the politics of the court, if it wasn’t already.
Still, he shouldn’t be in here.
“Get out Daniel, I’ll attend to my father shortly.”
Daniel gave her a look that said she wasn’t too old to be spanked, which was ridiculous but made his point, as he turned without a word and left the room.