CONQUEST: The Dungeon Core Gambit Book One

by Antony W. F. Chow

  Lemia took a look at Ryota, nodded in satisfaction, and started walking down the mountain trail. Pewma and Tensa followed her, and then the two newlyweds walked together. Yozka walked behind them, followed by Rygota and the two Earth Elementals.

  Markos toyed with the idea of dismissing the elementals but decided to keep them for now. Whenever the party travels beyond the domain of the dungeon core, the elementals will be helpful as guards and protectors. However, he changed their mana links slightly so that Yozka and Sibalt were each responsible for the upkeep cost of one elemental.

  Chapter 25

  The Journey Begins

  The descent down the mountain took a shorter amount of time than the ascent, partially due to the fact that Markos had created a staircase on the face of the mountain. The party reached the bottom of the steps in under an hour.

  They were greeted at the base of the mountain by Fast Runner. The wolf pack barked and made their presences known.

  Again, Lemia was spooked and drew her ax. However, Markos managed to convince her that the wolves were also his allies.

  Of course, it was easy to convince the dwarves when Sibalt was able to scratch Fast Runner's right ear without drawing a bite from the wolf.

  The animals in the forest have agreed to become your allies, Fast Runner reported mentally.

  Good work, Markos responded. Where are the nearest human villages?

  Head north.

  Okay. When we approach the human village, please hide. We don't want to spook them.

  Fast Runner barked and ran back to her pack. The pack was nearby but kept their distance from the party. They scouted ahead to ensure no monsters awaited their master.

  "The alpha wolf said we should head north. That is the location of the nearest human village. Before we enter, I would ask that you dwarves wait outside because I don't know if demi-humans will be welcome," Markos said.

  Alethea stomped her foot in protest. "I'm your wife! I should be going in with you!"

  "Where the Earth Singer goes, we will follow," Lemia added.

  Pewma and Tensa nodded in agreement.

  Sibalt shook his head. "See? We can't go in together. Besides, I need to convince the humans to move to the new town that we will establish next to the dungeon entrance. We can't gain their trust if you're present," he pointed out.

  Alethea turned her head away from him. "Someone will be sleeping alone tonight. Hmph!"

  Her bodyguards guffawed.

  Sibalt rolled his eyes and simply continued walking northward.

  The dwarves hurried and walked in front of him. Alethea pointedly ignored him for the next several hours until they reached the village in question.

  However, when they arrived, the party made a horrific discovery: the village had been destroyed! There were dead bodies of women everywhere.

  The wolf pack searched the vicinity for signs of bandits but found none.

  Lemia approached one of the victims and examined her body closely. The victim's throat had been slit and she had a peaceful facial expression. The blood had dried but no maggots were found in the body. "The raiders probably came during the night," she speculated. "Wasn't too long ago."

  Pewma and Tensa entered all the houses and found no one inside. Every female villager had been killed and their bodies were dragged out in the open.

  "This is despicable!" Sibalt yelled in anger. The scene reminded him of his past ordeal when he was forced to flee his own village.

  He was placated by Alethea, who hugged him tightly.

  "The village was raided for their males," Yozka concluded after confirming that all the victims were females. She noted that only the children and the elderly were killed. The young women were missing. "The young women were also taken, probably to be sold into slavery," she added.

  "We'll bury the dead," Lemia offered.

  Markos held up a hand. "No. I will take their bodies and revive them as my minions. They will join my dungeon," he ordered. However, the land he stood upon was not yet part of his territory and he couldn't create a tunnel to take the bodies away. Instead, he created a half-dozen Supreme Earth Elementals and ordered the minions to take the bodies back to his territory.

  The elementals cradled the dead bodies in their arms and slowly headed back to the mountain.

  Once the minions were gone, the dungeon core unleashed his fury--by burning the empty houses. The party stood a safe distance away from the roaring flames which hungrily devoured the scenes of the horrific massacre.

  Alethea offered a prayer to the Earthmother for the victims. The group stayed until all the fires were finally extinguished; they did not wish to leave and permit the flames to spread out of control.

  Once the last flame burned out, Markos continued walking northward and his companions silently followed behind him. "Could this be the act of the same group that raided Sibalt's village?" he wondered aloud.

  "Anything's possible," Yozka replied. While the two were linked via the Hivemind and therefore, could communicate silently, Markos felt that an open conversation would be best to relieve his lingering anger at the wanton destruction of the village.

  Fast Runner suddenly appeared and nudged her nose against the back of Sibalt's leg. We have the scent of the raiders. If we encounter them, we'll let you know.

  Thank you.

  While the party continued their northbound journey, the dungeon core was busy expanding his underground territory. It was a slow, tedious, and time-consuming process to convert the rocks into building material and then use the converted material to expand the dungeon. But without doing so, Markos could not exert influence over that area of the terrain. The dungeon core assigned Jessica to oversee the expansion.

  At the same time, Markos began to examine the slave collars that he had retrieved from Ryota's tomb. When he used his Analyze ability on a sample, the dungeon core was quite surprised by their sophistication. Back on Earth, iron, leather, or rubber were typically used to make such collars. And pronged collars were used as a form of punishment by slave owners, typically to prevent runaways from attempting to escape again.

  The collars in Markos' possession were made of steel, which was highly unusual for slave collars. In addition, the Analyze ability unveiled the presence of a magical diagram. It was invisible to the naked eye. The diagram was a circle with four symbols: a droplet (for water), smoke (for fire), leaf (for earth), and 3 horizontal lines (for wind).

  Curious about the magic on the collar, the dungeon core decided to ask Ryota directly. I'm looking at one of the slave collars I found in your tomb. I discovered a magical diagram on it.

  I was wondering when you'll ask me about them, Ryota replied. The magic enchantment creates Compulsion, which compels the slave to obey his master. It is a form of mind control magic. During my time, spellcasters are usually proficient in just one or two elements. Thus, it was burdensome to create these Slave Collars of Compulsion. So they were considered a luxury and used sparingly or by powerful slave owners as a status symbol.

  Thank you for the explanation. Markos severed the telepathic link. He decided to create a supply of these collars just in case the group encounters the raiders. The dungeon core used his Replicate ability to make a dozen steel collars and then began the slow, arduous process of enchanting them with the Compulsion magic.

  During this time, the Hivemind maintained control over the earth elementals which were carrying the bodies of the villagers. They reached his domain in a few hours and the dungeon core immediately created an opening for the minions to enter his dungeon. The elementals placed the bodies of the villagers on the ground and then they were dismissed.

  Jessica! Please examine these bodies and tell me what undead minions I could create out of them.

  The dungeon faery flew quickly to reach their location. She hovered in the air and examined the bodies with a critical eye. "Master, they were low-level humans in their past lives. You could turn them into zombies," she answered.

  Very well. Go a
head.

  Jessica nodded. She closed her eyes and reached for the Dark element. She poured the element into the bodies and created a spark of unlife within each one. The zombies rose from the ground and stood attentively before the dungeon helper.

  "Created: Zombie x 15; 500 Health, 500 Mana each." Markos examined them closely. Their bodies were decayed and they looked disgusting in his eyes. However, the spark of unlife was strong within each zombie; they were powerful and they were obedient. He toyed with the idea of ordering them to patrol his dungeon. However, he remembered Jessica's warning not to reveal his access to the dark element. Thus, the dungeon keeper decided that the safest thing to do was to put them in storage until they were needed.

  Since they were already undead, the zombies did not need to eat. Markos used Earth Work to create a small cavern to hold them. The cavern was then moved further underground.

  Markos checked his UI and looked at his minion count.

  Name: Markos Turloch

  Class: Dungeon Core (Evolved),

  Stage 3 (Infernal)

  Helper: Jessica, Dungeon Faery

  Health: 23,000/30,500

  Mana: 23,000/30,500

  Domain: 15.6 square miles, 13.8 units available

  Minions: 28/80

  Assimilated: Sibalt (Human Herbalist, Level 3,

  10,000 Health, 10,000 Mana),

  Yozka (Human Witch, Level 15,

  2,000 Health, 2,000 Mana),

  Allies: 8 (Giant Nematode, Level 6),

  (Giant Queen Ant, Level 10)

  (Deet, Level 8)

  (Fast Runner, Level 7)

  (Iyelda Nowrins Galgot, Level 20)

  (Clear Eyes, Level 12)

  (Big Eater, Level 12)

  (Ryota, Level 20)

  Keeper Abilities: Convert raw materials,

  Create walls, Befriend creatures,

  Create traps, Create minions,

  Analyze, Heal others,

  Earth affinity (Godly),

  Fire affinity (Supreme),

  Hivemind (34/80), Split core (6),

  Transfer stats, Reset dungeon,

  Create minor objects, Replicate,

  Create major objects,

  Supreme summoning,

  Water affinity (Supreme),

  Air affinity (Primary), Assimilate,

  Dark affinity (Primary)

  Markos immediately noticed his decrease in Health and Mana. He was short by 7,500 each to be precise. The reason was that Jessica gave each zombie 500 Health and Mana. That had to come from somewhere; it came from the creator of the minions, which was the dungeon core. Thus, his personal Health and Mana were reduced by the amount transferred to the zombies.

  But the dungeon core did not mind at all. Since he had access to the four elements, he didn't need to keep a large mana pool. Furthermore, his primary core was not in danger of being attacked; the core will simply regenerate its health over time.

  Moving on, Markos noted that he currently had 28 minions altogether, out of a possible 80. But his Hivemind could only control 80 separate entities, and the split cores counted against this limit. Thus, Hivemind stood at 34/80. He could create another 46 minions at most.

  Of course, Markos could dismiss some of the weaker minions and then replace them with stronger ones. There were a few minor elementals patrolling his dungeon. However, he preferred to leave them there in order to encourage adventurers to explore his dungeon.

  In addition, there were numerous elementals guarding his secondary cores and those could not be dismissed either. The only "expendable" group were the zombies he had just created; they served no purpose at the moment. Thus, he resolved to dismiss them if he needed to clear out his minion slots to bring in stronger minions.

  With his housekeeping sorted out, Markos turned his attention back to the party on the surface.

  Chapter 26

  Ambush

  The visit to the destroyed village had dramatically dampened the party's mood. The dwarves were noticeably jittery and they walked slowly through the forest. The wolf pack continued their scouting of the area with increased vigilance but encountered no threats. When nightfall arrived, the party finally made camp.

  Sibalt made the two Earth Elementals merge with the ground so that the minions were hidden from view. Since he was continuously feeding them his Mana, they could be brought back to the surface in an instant.

  The party ate some of the food salvaged from the village after Alethea confirmed that the food had not been poisoned by the raiders. They ate freshly made bread with jam and cured meat.

  Markos was not thrilled by the idea of taking food from the homes of the dead villagers but he understood that it was going to be spoiled since no one was alive to eat them.

  When the party began to set up a watch schedule, Ryota spoke up. "I don't need sleep. I can keep watch throughout the night," he offered

  "Very well," Markos nodded in appreciation. He felt the weariness in his assimilated young man's body. Neither Markos nor Sibalt was accustomed to traveling long distances. The two were more than happy to let Ryota take the night watch and permit Sibalt to sleep more.

  Markos placed Sibalt's bedroll near the campfire and Aletha soon joined him under the same blanket.

  Her comrades chuckled but kept silent.

  Yozka slept on top of one of the hidden elementals. Her bedroll was the furthest away from the campfire. The seclusion gave her a bit more privacy, which was her personal preference as she, too, was not accustomed to traveling in a group.

  A few hours later, during the darkest hours of the night, a half-dozen strangers furtively approached the camp while hopping from tree to tree.

  One of them opened a bottle, dipped the tip of an arrow into the bottle, and then closed the bottle. The person loaded the poisoned arrow and pulled back the drawstring. Targeting the night guard, the arrow was released and hit Ryota in the chest!

  The others, all shrouded in cloaks, immediately dropped from the trees to attack the camp.

  "Walk up! We're under attack!" the skeletal lord yelled as he pulled the arrow out of his chest and snapped it in half. The foul smell of poison hung over his body. Ryota pulled out his claymore and slammed the flat of his blade against the closest attacker.

  "Argh!" a female voice cried out as the force of the blow threw the enemy back. The cloak snared on some tree branches and ripped off, revealing a black skinned woman with long ears protruding sideways.

  Ryota recognized her as a dark elf! He immediately turned the sword slightly in his grip so that the edge of the blade was pointed in the direction of his enemy. "They're dark elves! Their blades are poisoned!" he warned.

  His opponent held two poisoned daggers and ran up to him.

  Ryota used the superior reach of his claymore to cut her in half.

  Markos pulled his human avatar off the ground and commanded the elementals to arise. Each Earth Elemental grabbed two of the dark elves by the torso; he ordered his minions to squeeze his captives until they were slowly crushed to death.

  The four attackers cried out in agony but Markos ignored their death cries. His mind had returned to the burned out village. His heart was a raging inferno and nothing will sate his thirst for vengeance except for their deaths!

  One dark elf remained free. Recognizing Sibalt as the summoner of the elementals and therefore, the greatest threat, she aimed her poisoned arrow at Sibalt. Before her arrow was fired, Yozka threw a Fireball at her. The flames engulfed the bow and forced the archer to discard it. The dark elf pulled out two scimitars and prepared to fight by herself; she was the last surviving member of her party standing.

  The three dwarven guards quickly surrounded her.

  Markos used Earth Work to turn the ground beneath the dark elf's feet into quicksand.

  The dark elf recognized the danger and tried to jump out.

  However, Lemia, Pewma, and Tensa kept jabbing the pointed top of their axes against her torso and knocked her back into the pit.


  Soon, the dark elf had sunk to her hips. The more she struggled to free herself, the faster she sank. Eventually, she sank to her neck and finally stopped moving. She glared defiantly at the three dwarves, who glared back at her fiercely.

  Fast Runner appeared once the fighting was over.

  What happened? I thought you were our scouts? Didn't you detect their scents? Markos was furious at the failure of the wolf pack and he made it clear through their shared link.

  The alpha wolf barked. Tree huggers. No scent on the ground.

  The dungeon core sighed. It was a legitimate excuse. If the dark elves were moving from tree to tree, then no wonder the wolf pack could not follow the scent of these dark elves on the ground.

  Moreover, this attack taught Markos a very valuable lesson: there were big holes in his party's defense. If Ryota was not immune to poison and warn the camp of the attack, then the females in his party would have been killed while Sibalt would be taken back to the dark elves' hideout.

  Were they the ones who attacked the village? Markos had his suspicion but asked to confirm it.

  The wolf approached the last dark elf and sniffed her scent. Fast Runner recognized it from the village. Yes.

  Markos took a moment to allow the Hivemind to consider what to do this captive.

  Sibalt was burning with rage. He wanted to execute her immediately because he suspected that she was part of the group that had raided and massacred his old village. His thirst for vengeance was overwhelming and it took the combined willpower of the other two members of the Hivemind to calm the young man down.

  Yozka was sympathetic to his anger but counseled to keep her alive and squeeze her for information on the rest of the dark elves. She knew that there were other dark elven raiders in the forest. If left alone, these elves will eventually harass the new town they will build near the dungeon entrance.

  Markos had the tiebreaker and he decided to side with Yozka. The dungeon core retrieved a Slave Collar of Compulsion from the dungeon. A few minutes later, a stone hand rose from the ground and opened its palm.

  Sibalt took the collar and approached the captive.

  The dark elf heard the sound of footsteps and looked up. When she saw the slave collar in his hand, she realized what he planned to do. The dark elf started struggling to leave the pit. However, she was still stuck.