We don’t need to shape the dungeon until we get the crystal back. Meri can already detect people nearby, plus we could set out some goblin scouts, so Creature Sense doesn’t seem like the best choice. Improving the Interface sounds good, though.
He didn’t waste any time and spent the last two points and upgraded Dungeon Interface from I to II.
His vision flashed, and a new panel appeared. It was labeled Prowess, and the names and ranks of dozens of skills blurred by as they filled the display.
Some were obvious, like Running and Swimming. Others he’d never heard of and would require more study. He focused on one labeled Magic and blinked when the display shifted.
I’d have preferred that it provide more detailed information on the attributes and abilities already listed in the Interface. Not add dozens of new lines with little more than labels.
Another page of names had replaced the first, and they were listed in descending order. Arcane Magic was the first entry and had the number eighty-six next to it. Below that was Harness Mana with eighty-two. The numbers dropped quickly until most of the labels were dark and followed by a dash.
Would have helped if the Interface provided more context, but if this directly boosts my magic, then it’s what I need to improve. I’ll still wait a bit though. Sthuza wasn’t wrong; I don’t have to rush it.
While he had the Interface open, he decided to compare Cindra’s stats against his. Again, it responded to his intention and brought up the hellhound’s page next to his.
A quick comparison showed much of what he expected, but there were a few surprises. Her strength, stamina, toughness, and constitution were all much higher than the stats of even his enhanced body. So high that he had to double-check. By comparison, her agility, speed, and dexterity—while still superhuman—seemed low.
Would have expected her mental stats to be lower. Hells, she’s only thirteen points behind me in intelligence.
‘Intelligence is often quite subjective, Master.’ Sthuza whispered in his mind.
True. Still, Cindra is smarter than the majority of humans. Or elves.
‘Yes, but how many intelligent humans would be perfectly content to spend their days chasing prey, licking their crotch, and mating?’
Is… is that a trick question?
Behind him, Sthuza sputtered, then giggled. Grinning, Gabriel returned his thoughts to the display.
His physical talent had been average at best, most of them in the high forties. At the same time, his mental stats had been near the limit for an unaugmented human before he met Merideva.
Not that having a ninety-eight intelligence means anything if it’s not applied properly.
Now, all of his attributes were over ninety.
Meri boosted everything to the upper end of human capability. Maybe the cost to raise them past that increases rapidly? There are plenty of stories about the things archmages do to expand their potential beyond mortal limits.
If he was right, it would be easier to boost Cindra’s mental attributes to match his than try to equal her physical prowess.
Three hundred and sixty strength is insane. I bet Torrik doesn’t have more than a hundred and fifty.
He thought back to the rapid cost increase for boosting his intelligence.
Need to learn more before I spend what’s available. Still have no clue how hard Essence will be to get from here on out.
Gabriel compared his stat sheet with Cindra’s for a few minutes before he sighed and closed the Dungeon Interface.
Plenty of time to figure this out later. Right now, I need to focus on getting the Domain Crystal back.
◆◆◆
The next thing to do before we head out is to test my new abilities.
A quick thought about his Minions ability brought up a simple pane of text that gave a brief description of the power.
So I can choose monsters to turn into my Minions… and I have a limit of five right now.
He continued to read through the information before him, then paused to reread a section that caught his eye. It took Gabriel a minute to confirm that he had read it correctly.
“Sthuza, it looks like Minions can respawn after a period of recovery,” Gabriel said. His eyes were glued to the panel.
“Yes, Master. That is one of the main advantages of Minions. I am uncertain of the details, but it seemed like the more damage they received, the longer it took for them to recover. Even if they are killed with death magic, their soul remains bound to the pocket dimension within your own.”
He twisted to face her in surprise. “Wait, pocket what? Is that why I felt weird when I upgraded that ability?”
The gorgon nodded, her dark-green lips quirking to one side. “That would be my guess. But have no fear, your Dungeon Master powers will not harm your soul. Far from it, in fact.”
After what Estrial did to it and seeing how Kelith wailed, I can’t help but worry. Soul damage is far worse than physical pain.
Gabriel relaxed and let out the breath he’d been holding. “That means I have a dimensional pocket in my soul now, though. Is it like the ones created by an S-crystal?”
Again his Prime nodded. “As far as I am aware, it works similar to the highest tiers of S-crystals, protecting the soul of the entombed creature.”
“And I can just assign a monster to be a Minion, as long as I have a free slot?” His thoughts were already racing with the advantages that would give them.
I could protect Sthuza and Cindra from death. Though, even if it makes them immortal, doubt I’d feel comfortable risking them unnecessarily. But eliminating the chance of them dying would make life a lot easier.
Sthuza frowned at him and shook her head. “If you are planning on making Cindra and me into Minions, Master, you are in for a disappointment.”
“What? Why can’t I?” he asked as his shoulders slumped, and he slouched forward.
“Because bonded cannot also be Minions. More to the point, though, you are not powerful enough to entomb Cindra, let alone a greater gorgon,” Sthuza replied gently.
“So… I’m stuck with goblins?” Gabriel asked, and he shot a disappointed glance at Cuix.
The goblin warleader was wearing more bandages than actual clothes and looked more like a southern noble prepared for burial than a battle-ready warrior. She flashed him a too-wide grin and batted her yellow eyes at him. “I don’t know what this entombed thing is, but if you’s looking to make use of me, I’m game,” Cuix said in what she no doubt thought was a sexy voice.
Gabriel turned back toward his bonded. “Not right now, thanks,” he muttered while suppressing a shudder.
Seeing his distress, Sthuza arched a slender eyebrow at him. ‘Are you sure you are not interested in making the goblin a Minion and taking her into your soul, Master?’
His mask of disgust drew sharper, and he frowned at his Prime. Don’t even joke about that. I’m grateful Cuix helped protect Meri, but I don’t want anything more to do with her that I have to.
‘My apologies, Master.’ Sthuza replied, sounding remorseful. The slender gorgon bowed toward him, and then called Cuix to join her in the makeshift kitchen she’d set up.
With everyone else occupied, Gabriel turned his thoughts back to his new abilities.
I’ve used Dungeon Command and Sense before, so I know how those work. Maybe I should try them out now, though, just in case any unanticipated details crop up. Will be interesting to see what changed with the rank increases.
Gabriel nodded to himself and then dropped down to kneel on his shins and started a basic centering routine.
Before he’d made it more than halfway through the first part, his breathing slowed, and his pulse was a gentle, steady beat within his chest.
A single thought sent his consciousness spiraling about. He flinched at the sudden onslaught of stimuli as his senses encompassed the dungeon.
The first time Gabriel had used the ability, it felt like his head was going to explode. Using it again after leve
ling up didn’t hurt as bad as before, but he soon realized that he’d once again connected to the entire floor, rather than restricting his senses to Meri’s Domain.
Despite his intention to withdraw from the riotous sensations crowding his mind, everything settled before he could act.
After a few seconds, he was able to focus and make sense of the feedback, so he quickly glanced around the dungeon. It took several minutes to get used to shifting his presence from one point to another. He slowly got the hang of it and realized he could move about without traversing the space in between.
Once he felt comfortable shifting from room to room and gliding up and down among the floors they’d already visited, Gabriel let his curiosity take control. The moment the thought occurred to him, he dove deeper into the dungeon. It took only seconds to reach the sixth floor, which he’d skipped on his previous trip.
First, he spotted a pastoral field filled with massive minotaurs and all manner of small wildlife. Instead of a typical cavern, though, the ceiling looked like a bright spring afternoon—complete with the sun blazing down from high in the light-blue sky.
The peaceful scene drew his interest, and Gabriel wanted to stay, but a strange presence tugged incessantly at his mind. He resisted for a moment until the pull became too strong to ignore.
The moment he stopped fighting and descended to the next floor, the force pulling him downward vanished. Gabriel overcompensated, and his perspective lurched and swam wildly. It felt like he was spinning in a dozen different places at once.
Gabriel focused and reduced his awareness to a single room on the floor and waited until the vertigo faded. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought the floor was near where he’d met Sthuza. When the world stopped spinning, he looked around and then flinched back in horror.
Undead abominations crowded a massive stone sepulcher that was stacked high with countless bones and age-worn treasures. Dozens of zombies shambled about the room. Off to one side, several well-dressed ghasts worked with smoking vials and powders at an acid-scarred table littered with glass tubes and jars of colored dust.
A quick survey of the well-kept chamber revealed armored skeletons stationed at each of the four entrances. Six pale-skinned nyatari women sat at an ornate table, holding a heated discussion.
Despite his intent to study them, his vision drifted past the feline beastkin. At the far end of the massive room, a beautiful woman sat on a nightmarish throne of skulls.
Gabriel shifted his focus to the exotic beauty, drinking in her dark-blue hair and snow-white skin. A strange compulsion came over him, and it took all of his willpower to resist approaching the eerie being.
He held himself back even as he continued to study her. She was dead—or undead—like every other creature on the entire floor.
He felt a strange aura about the woman. Almost like he could sense her longing for a life long-since forgotten. Unsure of where it came from, the same feeling left Gabriel confident that nothing living resided on the floor.
Before he could continue to investigate his strange certitude, the unpleasant tugging from earlier grabbed him again. The second it brushed against his mind, the exotic woman’s head shifted, and her glowing eyes seemed to stare right at him.
Already tired from his last struggle against the creepy entity, Gabriel shifted downward again. If he stayed much longer, he might succumb to the undead beauty’s strange presence.
It took several breaths for his senses to settle this time. But when they did, he studied his surroundings then relaxed after the search revealed the area was empty.
The room he first viewed, and those nearby, all looked similar to the worked-stone region at the heart of Meri’s Domain. Since he was finally on what appeared to be an unoccupied floor, Gabriel started to broaden his presence.
He was still trying to get a feel for the scale of it when the pulling sensation returned. Like before, an unpleasant darkness clawed at his mind.
Not expecting it to strike again so soon, Gabriel was unprepared for its assault and found his consciousness dragged forcibly to another, darker level.
Being pulled down instead of initiating the shift himself rattled Gabriel’s mind. It felt like he’d taken a bad tumble down a long staircase by the time his thoughts finally cleared, and the world stopped spinning.
He had still not gotten his bearings when the presence returned, stronger and quicker. Part of his mind screamed in panic and threatened to block any attempt at coherent thought. Gabriel fought against the instinctual fear that threatened to overwhelm him and focused on returning to his body.
Instead of rushing back to Meri’s Domain and the sweet comfort of his dungeon-bound body, he gasped as he slammed down to another floor. Then another after that.
Dread blossomed in Gabriel’s mind as more floors raced by.
CHAPTER THREE
Again and again, the dark, chittering entity pulled Gabriel down. The floors rushed by, each a yawning void of darkness. With every level he passed, a foreboding pressure crushed down upon him.
Gabriel’s head grew muddled, his thoughts thick and sluggish like goblin-grass sap. He tried to use what little focus remained to block out the cacophony of sound and sight.
It didn’t help. Floors rushed into his mind. Their enormous scale and complexity overwhelmed him and drove a white-hot spike of pain through his head.
Each level that filled his consciousness melted away in a riotous blend of light and sound. Then the world flashed again, only to be replaced by another, fouler floor deeper in the bowels of the ancient dungeon.
We’re doomed! There’s no way we can defeat something this vast.
Hearing his own thoughts in his mind drew Gabriel’s focus away from the stupefying vistas before him. The brief pause allowed him to slowly regain conscious control.
How large is the dungeon? I know Sthuza said there were thirty-seven levels, but this is insane. No one mentioned they could be so large.
As his train of thought solidified, the turbulent descent seemed to slow down. Each floor now blurred into being before him at a rate that he could process and then disappeared slower. Thankfully, that allowed the throbbing pain in his head to lessen.
A prayer passed his lips as Gabriel struggled against impenetrable darkness. He strained his eyes, but he might as well have been blind. His heightened vision failed him entirely. The gloom settled around him like a weighted net, crushing his mind and body.
Pinned against the smooth stone floor, he shuddered at the rustling of insects writhing about. At first a faint whisper, the sound of chitinous vermin grew into a horrific symphony of clacking and scurrying.
Gabriel struggled to slow his breathing, to smother the terror building within. Something brushed his hand. He jerked it away, then blinked at his sudden freedom.
Need to return to Meri. This isn’t real, it’s just a trick of the mind.
The moment Gabriel had that thought, the ground dropped out from beneath him. He plummeted into a pit of shadows.
At least I can see again.
Pure black gave way to a kaleidoscope of muted grays. The shadows danced and cavorted merrily, mocking him with their impossible movement.
He stared in horror as the spectacle before him slowly came into focus.
Thousands of chitinous monsters surrounded him. Some were no taller than a chicken, while others were closer to his height.
With the strange sights now making more sense to him, Gabriel turned his attention to the denizens of the deepest levels. Chittering creatures shifted and stirred around him. As soon as he tried to identify them, or make out any details, the hordes turned their glowing eyes toward him.
Then the world blurred, and he staggered against the change. When he reopened his eyes, he was on a new floor. The monsters here were similar to those he saw on the previous one, only larger.
The creatures before him turned to face him, and Gabriel shuddered at the sight of their armored visages. Gleaming mandibles, claws, and fang
s gnashed and clacked as the insectoid beings stared at him like starving wolves drooling at a wounded deer.
I’m not here. Sthuza and Cindra are at my side. Any second now, I’m going to return to my body. It’s safe and sound back in Meri’s Domain.
I’m safe.
Gabriel repeated the words in his head, willing his mental projection to return to his body. When the spine-tingling symphony of horror grew fainter, he thought it worked.
He expected Sthuza to comment at any second. To hear her voice or at least sense her soothing presence in his mind.
Eyes squinched shut, Gabriel blocked out his anxiety and forced the rapid panting to slow. Ten seconds later, his breathing was calm and relaxed, and Gabriel smirked as he opened his eyes.
Sthuza wasn’t there.
The surrounding chamber looked almost exactly like the one in Meri’s Domain. Except that the black altar, already foreboding enough, was coated in foul, oozing blood.
The dark liquid shimmered as his gaze locked onto it. Slowly at first, the gory horror shifted and flowed. Thick ropes of undulating black blood defied gravity and reached out toward him.
Gabriel’s calm breath jumped back to rapid gasps, and he staggered away from the profane abomination. One step back, then another, but on the third something wet, thick, and hungry coated his foot.
His heart leapt into his throat and choked off any further breathing. He started to cast a spell. Mana rushed through his internal leylines and flowed easier than he’d ever experienced.
The surge of arcane power calmed his terror, and Gabriel worked to form the glyphs for a potent shield spell.
Doesn’t matter how much mana it takes. Keep that shit away!
With a supreme act of willpower, he kept his focus on the next step of the spell, and before long, he sighed as a magical barrier formed around him.
The spellshield repelled the sticky blood entity. Gabriel felt the tension in his body melt away as the blob retreated from his knee, then his calf. After a few seconds, his foot popped free from its gooey grip.
Gabriel relaxed as the shield pushed the gory monstrosity back.
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