Dungeon Robotics (Book 7): Collapse

by Matthew Peed

  “Don’t try to push them. If it looks like they are well prepared, turn east and head for the next city. I don’t want to pull the overly Lelune-controlled cities into something we really can’t afford to deal with right now.”

  “Yes!” he replied with a salute, then the image dissipated.

  I took a deep breath and grabbed the next report.

  “This is in regard to the schools, Your Highness. The number of children is getting too high for the number of teachers to deal with. The headmaster is worried that the quality of education might start dropping.”

  I read the finer detail, then nodded. “Increase the budget for the education section. Make sure to mark that it is to be used on finding and recruiting teachers. Add an expansion to the school to the list.”

  “It is either madness or genius to live in a dungeon,” she said as she added the information to her glass tablet. Regan would be able to see what it said and could decide whether he wanted to do it or not. He usually managed to get us a reply within twelve hours.

  “I’m fairly certain it’s both,” I commented.

  That’s how the morning went with my staff and I dealing with the clerical functions of the city. In the future, this would all be dealt with by various departments and subdivisions. But it was looking like that was quite a ways away. The glass tablet dinged as I got a message from someone. I really had to thank Regan for the thing. It made communication around the city tremendously easier.

  He gave the devices to us to manage the Queen’s District buildings but had made some alterations at my request when I told him how useful they would be. So much parchment saved with this magical device. There was even a section that dealt with calculations. It was marvelous to say the least.

  Cassie’s voice came out of the tablet. “My lady, there are some . . . interesting adventurers here that I feel you should meet.”

  “I’m done for the morning. I’ll be there in half an hour,” I sent back. Putting the glass tablet into a special pouch, I turned to the assistants. “I’ll be back in a few hours. Keep up the good work.”

  “Yes, Your Highness,” they all replied, saluting.

  I nodded, then collected my guards, and we left the castle. In the carriage, it only took a few minutes to arrive at the Adventurers Guild, which had grown again. It looked like Cassie had hired one of the builders that’d gotten ahold of some of Regan’s building techniques.

  The crowd of adventurers parted for me. I tried to ignore the murmuring of my nickname “Storm Queen.” While it spoke of power, I wasn’t sure if I deserved it since most of my power had been gained through Regan. Not that I was complaining, but I was worried about the future. I was shown to Cassie’s office, which was nearly an entire floor on its own now.

  I glanced around as I made my way in. “Been shopping?” I asked. There were weapons, armor, tools, and all manner of other things lining and filling every surface in the room, not to mention spilling over onto the floor. I could sense mana lingering on just about every surface of the objects.

  “Being the most successful Adventurers Guild master has its perks. Including the pay. Though, I think I love this thing the most!” Cassie said, holding up the glass tablet.

  Regan had started to sell them at his tower along with several more versions of the cultivating stone, with certain requirements of course. Thanks to those, the average tier in the valley was two, before all the newcomers.

  I patted my pouch. “Indeed. I don’t think I could live without it anymore.”

  Cassie laughed. “Let me call in my guests. They were supposed to arrive months ago. Before the tournament in fact, but some business in another town delayed them.” She tapped something into the tablet.

  A few minutes later, a group of three people were shown in. Two were beastkin, while the third was a good-looking human. I was getting a feeling of massive power from each of them.

  “Allow me to introduce the Ardent Lords! The best adventurers in Thonaca for the last four years. They’ve been doing some quests in Lecazar for about a year now though, trying to earn a name there as well.”

  “Your Highness,” the male beastkin said with a bow. He grabbed the girl’s head and made her bow as well. The human just stared at me, and I was afraid he was mentally challenged despite his good looks. “Nero! What are you doing?” said the beastkin.

  The human, Nero I guessed, blinked, then walked over to me without hesitation. My guards reacted and pointed their swords at him with deadly intent. He glanced at them, and I saw true power. Power that I’d only seen a few times. I was reminded of Regan for a moment. Not sure of his intent, I stepped forward, flaring my mana around me.

  He stopped at once. “Excuse me. I meant no disrespect. I only wanted to ask you to be my bride,” Nero said, going to one knee.

  I backed away, disturbed by the sudden change. Who fucking proposes after only just meeting someone? I couldn’t think of anything to say but didn’t have to, as the male beastkin shot forward and smashed his fist over the back of Nero’s head. Either he was very skilled, or he had gotten in a lucky shot, as Nero dropped face-first into the carpet.

  “My apologies! This idiot doesn’t know when to shut up.”

  “It’s . . . it’s alright. What is your name?”

  “Yuno, Your Highness. This is Sera, my younger sister. The idiot on the floor is Nero.”

  “Your sister?” I asked. I looked between the two of them and only barely made out any family resemblance. Of course, it might have been the beastkin features making it hard for me to tell. His were quite prominent, but hers were almost nonexistent. He was deeply tanned, while she was almost deathly pale.

  He gave a low, obviously humorless laugh. “We get that a lot, but she is most definitely my sister.”

  “I meant no disrespect. It is a pleasure to meet you all. I assume you are here to dive the dungeon.”

  “Sort of. Do you know what happened to the Celestial that attacked your valley a few months back?”

  “Morka? She’s in the dungeon,” I replied. It wasn’t a big secret. Those two dragons came out at least once a week now and took a “walk” through the damn valley.

  “She is a Celestial, right?” Yuno asked with narrowed eyes.

  “Ask Lord Regan. She’s technically his right now,” I replied with a shrug.

  The room suddenly shook from something exploding. I turned to see Sera lying spread-eagle and staring at the hole in the wall. Judging from the angle, she was the one who’d caused it. She turned to Yuno. “That was awesome!”

  I rubbed my temple when I saw she wore almost the same maniacal grin that Julie made when she was around Regan. I noticed her mouth was smoking. The girl must have tried to eat something.

  “My Tolo beans! Those were expensive and meant for an emergency!” Cassie cried when she saw what was in the girl’s hand. Tolo beans were a natural explosive. I was amazed she’d survived putting something like that in her mouth.

  Yuno sighed before handing Cassie a handful of white gold. I started to wonder if they were the most active of the parties coming to the valley to pay for the actions of these two.

  “Looks like the dungeon is about to see some true challengers,” I commented.

  “Yes. We will be diving in the coming days. We just need to gather some more information,” Yuno said, nodding. “Cassie, do you know where the Chaos Party is staying?” That normally would have been a breach in etiquette, but Cassie liked people to call her by her nickname.

  “Main Street Inn. No, actually I think they’re renting two rooms over in the Regus Complex.”

  “Thank you. We’ll be on our way.” Yuno bent down and threw Nero over his shoulder before grabbing Sera by her collar and dragging her out of the room.

  “Well, that was interesting.” I said after they left.

  “And I thought the Chaos Party was bad,” Cassie muttered.

  “Keep an eye on them. We don’t need any more irregulars around here causing problems,” I said afte
r turning back to Cassie.

  She shook her head. “They’re not exactly the kind of people you can just have tailed.”

  “I’m sure you have your ways.”

  “That I do. Very well. I shall keep an eye on them. Though, if something happens, I’ll make sure to haunt you,” Cassie said with a catlike grin.

  Chapter 3

  Regan

  All the activity came to a stop in the valley, Steel Spire, and Tearfalls as the snows got too strong for the areas. I thought I’d seen deep snow on Earth, but this was ridiculous. Outside the cities, the ground was covered almost three meters deep, and it only got deeper the farther from the heat you got. The north was almost completely buried.

  I suppose it shouldn’t have come as a big surprise, given that mana played such a strong role in every aspect of this universe. While I didn’t pay it much mind, the summer I’d lived through had certainly gotten to hotter temperatures than Earth would have seen. I would need to research it over a few decades to see how much Celestials’ bodies played a part.

  Fire mages appeared to be in great demand everywhere as they worked to melt the snow. From the few scenes I witnessed, they made sure the other mages knew it. All and all, everything was rather peaceful for the time being. From the few scout satellites I’d gotten in place around the valley, it was clear that even the undead were relatively unable to pass the snow and ice.

  We had tracked a few what I liked to call “nests” of undead. I believed they were naturally forming, as I couldn’t find any evidence that necromancers were involved. Based on what we’d learned from the beastkin that recovered some of their intellect, these were more of a problem than the necromancers truly were.

  The snows freed up a bit of my time to work on a looming threat. Quite literally in fact, as the moon loomed over the station. Its orbit was bringing it closer to the station’s location by the day. I would have to deal with it whether I was ready or not. While doing it at the station would provide more resources to work with, I risked the station if it went sideways.

  “Jarvis, situation report.”

  “Sir, our sensors are showing an increased buildup of energy on and under the surface of the moon. Whatever is there is very active,” the holographic image of Jarvis reported.

  I nodded, then leaned back, staring idly at the device. I’d increased the level of technology around the valley in an effort to raise the levels of the mortals around me. I was only one dungeon core, constantly working on something and even more often being pulled this way and that. My effort to save Alara had shown that there were systems in place in the world that would result in me being cut off from my dungeon for spans of time.

  I trusted Louella. Having worked with her for several months now, I believed that she was the sort of mortal I wouldn’t mind spreading my technology to. That being said, I had a backdoor program in all the tablets that let me monitor everything they were being used for. I had been betrayed in the past. I would be a fool to let it happen again.

  I was confident in my ability to survive anything thrown at me, and even if something were to happen to my main core, I had redundancies in place. It never hurt to be too careful. Thinking about the valley reminded me of Louella’s bloodless win with the Lecazar bloodline. It might not be a bad path to take in the future when possible. “I wonder, can I communicate with whatever is on the moon?”

  Jarvis perked up at my comment. “Given the sophistication shown by the golems that boarded the ship, I believe the possibility will be high. However, without knowing their directives, it could be quite dangerous.” He was right. If they were constructed to keep the planet at a certain level, then our communicating with them would be like painting a target on our backs.

  “Keep me posted. We don’t need any surprises.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I moved over to the shipyard. With my mining floors going full throttle, I was currently sitting at a fleet of twenty-five ships of the battleship or cruiser size. I also was working on two carriers. They were much larger and were taking a while to assemble. As I was conserving mana, they were being built by hand.

  Add to that all the fighters, frigates, bombers, and minor vessels being built, the station was always a hive of activity. Soldiers were being assembled in another bay, all equal to tier two with capabilities to fight tier three if they worked together and had the proper equipment.

  “Ulin, how are the goblins and gnomes acclimating to space?” I asked the goblin overseer. After I’d built Tearful Tower, the tower in Tearfalls, I’d moved them up here as I promised I would. A few goblins came along, as there were magics that I wanted tested in void environments.

  “Master, everything is smooth sailing. The Ly’call are friendly, not to mention fast learners. The gnomes and goblins enjoy their time up here. I would like to report that a few dozen have had to return to the surface. They couldn’t handle the emptiness of the void.”

  “Is that so? I was hoping with the facilities on the station they would be able to cope.” I’d built parks, entertainment, recreational options, and many other things that they could spend time doing while not attending to their duties. Along with the fully artificial gravity, I was hoping they would be able to handle the station.

  “With the portals, it really isn’t that big of an issue, Master. We were considering setting up rotations to preemptively handle the stress.”

  I hadn’t thought about that. Truly, with the portals the surface of the planet was literally a hop and a skip away. It might have been a mana expenditure, but considering they were using established portals, the cost wasn’t too high if several dozen went through at a time.

  “That sounds splendid. Go ahead with that plan. Where is Izora?”

  “She should be in the range, Master.”

  “Thank you.”

  I moved to the range, a large facility set up to allow my people to practice with various types of weapons. Standing at the edge, I saw Izora flying through the air with over a dozen shadowy figures on her tail. She was ducking and weaving as blasts of mana exploded in the air around her. A small reactive barrier countered the blasts. I was impressed with her use of magic, as it allowed her to conserve mana while still blocking the damage.

  She banked and came around, leveling her lance at the shadow figures. Firing rapidly, she released bolts of mana into the coming figures. They blasted apart if they were struck in the head or chest. Once she passed through the group of enemies, only three were left, with varying mock injuries. She didn’t make it out injury-free, though, and blood dripped from a cut on her shoulder.

  Motes of light formed around her a moment later. Within the time span of a blink, the motes shot toward the remaining figures and burned holes through them. The figures fell to the ground but broke apart before they hit the surface. With the battle over, Izora fell to the ledge and landed.

  I clapped at her show of skills. She’d always been a good fighter, but she was taking to flight and aerial combat well. Maybe if things had gone a different way, the gnomes would have eventually developed wings, given their love of the skies.

  “Lord Regan, it’s been a while,” Izora said with a curtsy when she saw me.

  “Forgive me. Matters around the world are keeping me busy. I am pleased to see my head priestess training so hard. What spurred this on?” I asked, looking around the range once again. Given the amount of damage I saw, she must have been at it for several hours.

  “I heard a nasty rumor,” I heard her mumble.

  “Pray tell?” I was curious what could cause her to be so annoyed.

  Several emotions played across her face for a good minute. “A certain necromancer is being called your angel! It’s disgusting!” she shouted finally.

  “You must be talking about Julie,” I said with a chuckle.

  “WHY didn’t you send me?! I could have been your herald!” she cried while extending her wings. The light reflected off the gray-black surface. Mana appeared to be pulled into them.

/>   “Purpose. Frankly, she suited the situation better. Yours was here with your people.”

  She noticeably deflated. Izora was one of the most rational people I had met on the planet. I knew this was more of an emotional outburst. Basically, she was jealous. That someone was jealous of Julie, though . . . I shook away the thought.

  “I understand. I still want to serve you as more than a figurehead,” she said with a small voice.

  “Glad you feel that way. I have a job for you,” I said, placing my hands behind my back.

  “What is it?”

  “I need someone to be my face in the city of Tearfalls. There are a large number of potentials there. With my gaze turned to the stars, I will not be able to be as active as I would like. Do you think your people will be able to handle themselves without you?”

  “They basically are anyway. I am only a queen in name. It may as well be a ceremonial title.”

  I looked her over. Recent events had really thrown the gnomes for a loop. Not only did they lose their city but also their queen and king in a span of a few months. Not to mention the large number of gnomes that left the city during the mutiny. They were in a rough place. Their princess-turned-queen was doing her best to deal with that.

  “Then choose who you want to go with you. One of your main tasks will be to find the location of a dungeon that was near there. The Adventurers Guild will have information on it.”

  “I think Vern would have more information than they would. She’s lived and breathed dungeons for the last seventy years of her life.”

  “Ah, the crazy one,” I said, thinking about the only person to be level with the challenges. I had her writing whole books at this point. If she wanted to, she could reach the floating islands’ floor, given the library rules. She would have to go alone, as that was different from the regular challenge rules.

  Izora chuckled. “She can be a little focused at times. She knows her stuff, though.”

  “I didn’t say otherwise. I rather like her kind. Willing to go to such lengths for knowledge. I think she and Luna are good friends now.”