Chapter 3

I went back to the girls with a smile on my face and showed them what I got from Grendel. Jewel nodded and smiled at the treasures I had. “Master it’s kind of funny isn’t it? A few months ago we would have looked at all of this and found ourselves lucky. Now it’s just so much enchanted junk.” That was when I got an idea.

“How about we turn this in, and buy a horse and wagon?” They all looked at me and then nodded. “We will get a nice pile of gold from this and it might not be all that healthy to stay here after this.” They nodded and then Jewel smiled. She reached into her safety kit and pulled out her core which was red. The others did the same and saw their stones were the same or orange. It looks like that XP magnifier also worked on the cores.

We decided, in the damn boss room, that the “floor cleaners” would turn in their cores while everyone waited in the wagon. I agreed and then ported to the first level. When we came out a couple of the guild people were there to meet us. “Good job on getting to the final level. Please follow us.” We did and were isolated in a room with two couches and a few chairs. An old man came walking in and sat on the couch opposite from me. “May I see what all you awaited in that final fight?” I hefted the pack I filled onto the table and put everything out. He instantly grabbed the storage bag and looked at it. “I can’t remember the last time I saw a bag made from a Minotaur scrotum.” That made all the girls squirm.

He then pulled all the enchanted items I had stored in the ball sack. “Oh my, I have never seen so many items of great value come from the depths like this before.” He cast a spell on each one and we all leaned in as if we hoped to get to keep something out of this. He eventually leaned back and shrugged. I am sorry but we will be buying all of these items from you.” The disappointment was palatable.

“Please wait here as I will need to get your payment together.” I nodded and he was gone for quite a while. We didn’t do anything but grumble, so the guards had a story to tell. The old man came in and there were two men carrying a medium sized chest behind him. When it was set down they then picked up everything, and then the old man grabbed the storage bag. “This I think I can allow you to take with you. You might need it to take that chest out of here alone.” I nodded, put the chest in the bag, and then shook hands.

We walked from the guild to the nearest stable and soon we were riding out of town. Now one would think a group of people who had just taken down a labyrinth would be seen as too big a target to hit. But there are always idiots in the shadows. We had thought of getting a wagon, but we were lucky to find a very nice, though used, carriage. Thankfully Samael’s parents had him trained in horsemanship and how to manage a wagon.

As evening fell we found a nice area to camp for the night. As the ladies started getting the horse set up, I hopped into our plane and looked to see how things were. My chin hit the ground as I looked at the number of points available. I figured I would get some point boost from taking down three boss monsters, but it looks like taking down the labyrinth counted too.

I took a deep breath and, after making a few modifications, turned my little space into a well appointed two bedroom ranch style house. I almost cried at seeing all the old amenities of home again. As I looked around, it reminded me of the home I had bought for mom and abuela to live in after I made it big. That really did cause more than a few tears and I took a few breaths.

“Master, Master are you in here?” I stepped out of the bedroom and walked down the hall to see all the ladies looking around at our new home. “Hey, slip those shoes off in the house,” I said hearing my mother in that. They all did so quickly and the expressions on their faces were a combination of wonder and joy. Mom always said that there was nothing like high end wall to wall carpeting to relax tired feet.

We walked from room to room and just looked at everything. The running water shocked the hell out of them at first, but then they adapted. The flushing toilet was a massive hit with them; no more night soil to dispose of. I had built a modern replacement for our makeshift bed and when the girls went to it there were a number of whimpers from all of them. A second bathroom with a shower off of the bedroom perked them up as well.

A gas stove, or as I explained four little campfires, confused them. A refrigerator received some nice ideas as well. They began opening cupboards and closets amazed at all the pots, pans, and dishes within them. Like I said, it was a fully functional modern home. There were two things included and to tell you the truth I was worried about them. Over the fireplace was a wide screen tv and, in the corner, was a large desk with a desktop computer and printer.

“Master this place is wonderful. It feels like we are in heaven.” All the girls agreed and then talked about what they thought of everything. I walked over to the desk, sat down, and pushed the power button on the computer. A symbol that looked like an ached window from a cathedral, with the windows colors, popped up. I then went through a long set up and there was my desktop.

I brought up a browser window and it only showed a search box. I typed in ‘news’ and all of a sudden the screen looked like any other news page, but the information was all about the world we lived in. There was the latest news on labyrinths and their locations. One story was about the mystery party of women that beat the Twilight dungeon.

I looked and found a link for shopping and that took me to a place called Dungeon Master. It was a shopping site but from what I could find supplied things mostly for this world. Then I found other things that were straight out of Amazon. I looked at the payment options and found it had a prepaid card and direct deposit. I headed to the FAQ and as I read Jewel came over to see what I was doing.

“Master, what are all these pictures of items?” I chuckled. “Well it seems like we have access to a magical store.” She looked closer and then at me. “How do we buy these things?” she asked and I shrugged. “That is what I am trying to find out.” She backed off, pulled up a chair, which of course brought everyone over to see what the leaders were doing. I kept reading while Jewel explained that I was learning how to operate a magic store.

Ok, so what I thought was attached to the computer as a USB coffee warmer was actually a payment pad. I put things I wanted to sell on that pad and hit exchange. This would take said item away and GP would be added to my account. All sales were final and all items sold would be recycled into the dungeon system.

I took out a bag of gold, placed it on the little pad, and hit exchange. Everyone was watching so when it disappeared they wondered what I was doing. I navigated to the food department, found my favorite sodas, and clicked purchase. There was a thump where the back door was and when I asked Jewel to open the door she found a large cardboard box waiting in a room that looked like a large closet.

“Put that in the kitchen please,” I said as we all headed over to look in the box. I opened it up and there was a case of familiar red and blue cans. I pulled them out, popped the top, and sipped. Damn it had been a minute since I had a soda and it felt so good to have one again. Well after that I showed the girls how to open a soda and, when they took their first drink, it overwhelmed their senses. Acidic, sweet, bubbly, and wet were all new experiences for them.

After the sodas, we decided to head back outside to check on our camp. We all looked and saw our horse straining as the rope holding it to the tree. A group of men came walking up and they did NOT look friendly. “It took us a while to find you, but we finally did. Now, how about you hand over your gold?” Then he grinned at the ladies. “We may even let you live after we’re done.” I rolled my eyes and five of them hit the ground with Ice Lances through their guts. Two more died to fire lances, and the others barely had time to strike a pose before their heads were removed.

We were debating whether to loot the bodies or not, when Jewel and Lynx thew up their hands and went to the bodies. At the same time, the twins bounced off to look for their horses and equipment. “Master, they didn’t have much besides some crap weapons and their guild cards.” We piled them up and then Elise and I torched the bodies. Yin shouted out and handed me a storage ring. “Too bad we will never know what was in there.” And I had an idea.

We went inside and I touched the ‘found’ ring to the storage vault. I heard a tone and when I looked in the vault a new shelf had been added. We went through it all and the only things of value were some extra cores in the green. It was then we remembered, after all the other shocks to our systems, that the dungeon chest was in the vault. We all sat around the chest and I had Kim open it up. The number of coins and gems were too much off the bat, so we just started scooping them out and then putting them in stacks of ten.

Watching everyone do this reminded me of sitting around the couch making coin rolls out of mom’s tips when I was little. “Master look at this.” Yang said as she pulled out a small shield. She handed it to me and when I touched it the shield fell from my hand as the words Barrier magic has been acquired rang in my head. I looked around to see everyone watching me. “What spell did you learn this time Master?” Silver asked and I shrugged. “Something called ‘barrier magic’”.

Well that got a huge amount of excitement and the girls scoop scooped faster. A silver spear came out and greater sharpness rang in my ears. This got everyone’s attention as they looked at the spear. Then something unexpected came out. A large golden hammer was laying there, but it wasn’t a war hammer. Hammer of the Elder Dwarves rang in my head. Then a list of smithing skills began to go off one after another in my head.

That was the last of the items, so all the girls began stacking and sacking the gold in one hundred count bags. At thirty thousand we got tired of counting so we just poured them back into the chest. There was probably just as much in the box as we had bagged, so that was one very good day.

Jewel had pile of gemstones and I asked the girls if they wanted any of them. They all looked and shook their heads. “That’s all too gaudy” seemed to be the common opinion. I bagged them all and was about to put them on the shelf when I had an idea. I took them over to the desk and exchanged them for store credit. It seems that one bag was as good as the rest of the coins in the chest which meant we could fill the house with goodies if we wanted, but I stuck with just the fridge.

The girls all loved soda so I bought a little bit of everything to give them a large selection to choose from. The fridge was then filled with all kinds of things like sandwich meat and condiments. The freezer was now stocked with ice cream, popsicles, and frozen veggies. After many boxes being delivered and the items put away, it lead us all to falling in our new bed and embracing sleep.

When we finally got up it was almost noon, which surprised everyone. We tied the new horses to the back and I drove the carriage in the direction of our destination. Jewel joined me outside, while everyone else stayed inside in my plane and relaxed. “So master, are you willing to keep the humans as your slaves beyond the date?” I shrugged. “If they want to stay with us as friends, or as my slaves, that is up to them. I will love and accept them however they want.” She cuddled up to me. “They would be able to give you human children.” She said in a neutral voice, but I knew it impacted her deeply.

“What are you talking about? I don’t care if my children are human or demi.” She sighed and I decided to let her know the truth. “I mean you can decide if you want to bear demi or human you know.” She gripped my arm a little tighter. “Master that isn’t how it works.” I kissed the top of her head. “No, that is not how it works for most people. You forget I am master.” She sat up and looked at me.

“Master are you saying that if I want, my child can be human?” I nodded. “I kind of like the idea of stroking our child’s little kitten ears, but like I said that is up to you.” Well we almost ran off the road, because she began to rain kisses all over my face. Once I stopped the carriage I found I had a lap full of cat. “Master isn’t playing with me are you?” I cupped her cheek and pulled her into a kiss. “I would never make a joke about something like this.” I brought up my stats, did a few taps, and then showed her the buttons.

Her finger traced the words “create human child” and “Create demi child”. She also looked up and stroked the button on fertility. She closed her eyes. “Master please, hide that away or I will demand you put a child in me here and now.” I did that and she took a deep breath. “Husband can we not take long getting to the dwarven kingdom? Now that I know I can have your human child, my belly is aching to be pregnant.”

She sat on me, took a few breaths, and then smiled at me. “Would you mind if I told the other demis?” I opened the portal and she jumped through. I was about to close it when Kim came out and joined me so I wouldn’t be alone. “Master, why is Jewel so excited?” I thought about it for a second. I explained to her that, because of my magic, my wives can decide if our children will be human or demi.

She looked at me in shock. “That would mean their children would never be slaves. I can see why she was so overcome when she came in. When the others learn of this they will be just as overcome.” I nodded. “Sam, I know we have a lot of time left on our contract, but the others and I have been talking about this situation.” I was listening to her while keeping an eye on my map. “You know you can trust us to keep your secrets don’t you?” I nodded. “I have never really doubted you, but it was a condition that Jewel needed to feel safe.”

She nodded. “Would you mind if we stayed with you for longer than a year?” I shook my head. “That has always been between you and Jewel. Honestly I don’t think I could be happy if you all left, but that is not for me to decide is it?” She leaned against me and pulled my arm against her. “You know we all have fallen in love with you don’t you?” I shook my head. “I know that you love this party, because you have told me. I know you all love my demis because you have told me. Only Elise had told me that she is in love with me and wants to stay with me.”

“Can’t you just tell when you are with us?” I kissed the top of her head. “Your actions say it, but I can’t just presume your feelings for me. That’s dangerous for all of us.” She nodded and sighed. “Then I want you to know that I love you my master. I have been afraid to tell you my feelings since the day I kissed you in the alley. When I felt that axe bite into my body the only thing I could think about was that I never told you my feelings.”

Well that was quite the thing to tell me at that moment. “In the last few days I have been trying to find a moment to take you aside and express how much I love you.” She gave a little laugh. “I can take on a giant Minotaur without a qualm, but talking to you about my heart scares me so much more.” I could feel her wiping her tears away. “Then you should know that I felt the same way. As I poured my magic into you to keep you alive, all I was thinking was that I wanted you to stay with me for the rest of my life.”

Kim smacked me at my chest and sobbed a few times. “Dang it why did you have to that to me right now? My heart is pounding and all I want to do is pull you into the bedroom and make babies with you.” I chuckled at that. “Hey, I thought the whole reason for the Floor Cleaners was so you wouldn’t end up making babies and cleaning floors.” Kim sat up and pulled my face in for a kiss. “Floor Cleaners is dead and gone. All we have now is Samael’s slave girls.”

She pulled back and smiled while looking into the distance. “I like that, it would be a great name to register as a party.” I rolled my eyes and she kissed me again. We then rode along in the quiet. I picked up life ahead of us and realized it was a nice little town. I opened a door and shouted “Hey everyone, looks like we are at our next town so get ready to hop in the carriage.” I could feel the carriage move as more and more bodies stepped in. “Master, the demi girls said to just go on without them today. It seems they have some decisions to talk over.”

I had a good idea what that was about and figured they were allowed to sit this one out. A guard stopped us as we pulled up and he looked behind to see the spare horses. “Have some trouble?” I nodded. “Bandits hit us last night. Found out the hard way some drivers are out of their class.” He nodded and looked in the carriage.

“Good afternoon ladies, I take it you are the adventurers?” They all nodded and showed their cards. “Alright, these all check out, so feel free to enter. There is a stable to the right of the gate where you can leave your carriage and sell these horses.” I nodded and did as he said to do. We only got a few gold for the horses and saddles but we didn’t really want them anyway. I asked if there was a demi friendly inn in town and he directed me to the one closest to the dungeon.

The inn was nice, clean and had a demi workforce. When I rented two rooms with large beds the dog girl looked at us and simply asked to see my card. She registered me and told me the price per night including meals. I paid for a week and then we all moved up to one of the rooms. The nice thing about places like this was that people didn’t ask too many questions.

Once the door was closed we all went to our house to relax. When we walked in no one was in the living room, so I headed to the bedroom. When I walked in all my little lovers were on the bed waiting for me. “Master, are we all settled in?” I nodded and then sat on the edge of the bed. “You all look very happy.” I said and they nodded. “We were talking about what you showed me and understanding what was in our future.”

I took Silvers hand since she was closest. “Master, one reason few demis want to have children is because we all know the only future our children have is slavery. Those lucky enough to live in one of the free nations still worries their child may be taken from them and enslaved.” I let them know that idea didn’t sit well with me. “But you showed me that you not only want to make love to us, but want to have children with us.” I nodded. “That has always been true.” The love they sent me made my heart flutter.

“Because master really is the master we have a chance to not only have children, but have them grow up as free people no matter where they go. Even if our children can’t make human children with demis, they can go out and find demi slaves and bring them home to be free.” It made me think of the Underground Railroad.

Thoughts began running through my head. “Master, are you ok?” I nodded. “Girls, I know you and the others are thinking about settling down, but could you all hold off for another year or so?” This got them all looking seriously at me. “The more time we can spend taking down dungeons, the more gold and items we can collect.” They all looked at me questioningly. “We already have more gold than we can ever use.”

I shook my head. “We have enough gold for us to live off of for a very long time. I agree to that, but how much gold will I need to buy more demi slaves?” Jewel was the first to figure that one out. “You could go from one major city to another and collect young demi girls to bring to the dwarven nation.” I nodded and they all looked thoughtful.

There was a knock and we turned to see the others come walking in. “So you are thinking of taking the money we earn, so you can buy more young demi slaves?” The others all stood there look angry. “Were you going to leave us out of that mission?” Jewel rolled off the end of the bed and grabbed her friend around the waist. “Of course we weren’t. You are our sister and that means you are a part of every decision.”

Kim kissed Jewel and then they hugged. “Ladies, we haven’t been planning this, it just came up five seconds ago. So what do you think?” Elise came over and took Jewel’s place in the bed. “We think it is the perfect thing to do. You told us that the more experience you get in the dungeon the larger this place gets.” I nodded since that did come up in a past conversation. Elise put her arms behind her head and leaned back against the headboard. “Then get ready to work us to the bone, because we want a castle filled with demis.”

Well that was the real beginning of our life’s mission. First, we would go into every dungeon between here and the dwarven kingdom. Not all the way, but simply far enough to get to a level with few divers. Then after leaving we would begin to make a database of level maps, treasure rooms, everything there was to know about them and then we would exploit them over and over.

Silver purposed that once we had a sizable base in the center of the dwarven nation, so I could go out traveling to as many nations as possible. “This nation is rather backwards in some ways. Only the larger cities have portal mages that will take you from one point to another for coin. If we can get you to one of those places you and a group of us could put transfer points in hundreds of dungeons everywhere.”

Yang put her hand up. “Have you thought that we can also train girls to fight like us? That way some of us can stay home and have the children we all want from master.” Well that idea got her a lot of hugs. Amanda smiled and gave a chuckle. “Master will then have an army of demis crawling through every dungeon in the world. They would have to have a human with them to act as the master of the group, but still I’m sure our master can seduce anyone he forms a party with.”

With that the unofficial “Samael’s slave girls” party was created.

Since it was still light out, I told the girls I was stepping out for a bit to visit with Freming. I asked Kim to join me and I opened a portal to his forge. I stuck a flag out this time and felt him tug on it to let me know he was waiting. When I stepped out he was standing there looking pissed. “So you beat the damn dungeon and leave town without saying goodbye?” Kim stepped out with me and gave him a hug.

“Freming, you have no idea what we went through after reaching the bottom. As soon as we stepped out the guild took us to the offices. We were given a chest of gold, which left everyone gossiping about who just struck it rich. Even after we left, master had to kill five men who knew about the gold and tried to steal it.” Freming listened and nodded along.

“Alright, I guess I just wanted to hear what kind of goodies you got out of it, and that you were all ok.” Kim sighed and pulled out her chest plate. “By the seven tits of the gorgon what the hell happened to this?” He turned it over and saw the padding was soaked in blood. “I caught the leading edge of a Minotaur’s axe. It threw me across the room and master was barely able to save me.”

Freming pulled us into his vault and looked around. “Ok, if you’re going to fight like that not even dwarven steel will help.” He found what he was looking for and pulled out a silver chest plate. He put it up against her body and looked it over. “Give me three days and I will have this fitting you perfect.” I looked at it closely and then at him. “What is this made of?”

Freming tried to play it off but I didn’t let him. “It’s mithril, a few steps higher for armor than dwarven steel and a grade below adamant. Don’t worry about the cost as you probably don’t have the gold to pay for it.” He said angrily. I held up my hands. “I wasn’t going to offer gold.” He smiled and nodded. I reached into my ring and pulled out the mithril spear I had found. “I was going to offer this.”

Well once again I got to see the man’s eyes bug out of his head. He took the weapon in his hand and looked over every inch of it. Then he reached back and threw it at a steel chest plate on the wall. The head went through and then another few inches went into the wall itself.” He walked over, pulled it out without any effort and looked at it again. “Dwarven forged and spelled.” He looked at me and nodded. “I’ll take it but the balance towards you seems to only get greater.”

I asked to talk to him in private, so he guided us to his office. “If trading a mithril weapon doesn’t call for secrecy I’m worried about where this is going.” We sat down and I shrugged. “It seems I found another orichalcum item, but it’s not a weapon.” Now he looked very interested. “Have you ever heard of something called the Hammer of the Elder Dwarves?” His hands began to shake and I could see he was greatly torn. “Don’t pull it out, I don’t want to see it.” He took a few deep breaths. “If there is one thing I would betray even you for, it would be to simply touch that damned tool.”

That caught me off guard. “You don’t have to worry though. I know you would hand it to me as a gift with a smile. The thing is, for a dwarf, there is a price. If the hammer doesn’t find us worthy, instead of giving its knowledge, it takes everything from us and leaves a dwarf a hollow shell.” Then he squinted at me. “You touched it and it filled you with knowledge didn’t it?” I looked away and he smacked himself in the head.

“What the hell is it with you? Every time I think you are at your limit you look at me and say “I’m just getting started.” He shook his head and looked at the ceiling. “Master, shouldn’t he know about the plan?” I thought about it but the dwarf leaned in. “And what plan would that be?” He asked. “Well we are thinking that we ought to dive in every dungeon possible, loot them for everything they hold, and then use the gold to buy demi slaves.” He looked at Kim and then me. “So what is so secret about something like that?”

I smiled at him and he started squinting again. “We use the gold to buy slaves. We arm and train them into divers. Then those girls farm the gold from every dungeon we can find. With that gold we find more demis, buy them, and train even more of them.” He tilted his head. “The thing is we base ourselves in Dargon. Those who don’t want to fight will be freed and allowed to find other work.”

“So you will be legally taking as many demi slaves out of these nations as you can and allowing them to be free citizens of Dargon?” We nodded and his smile grew. “You do know that the border between the human lands and the free nations is heavily patrolled and spelled to keep slaves from escaping?” I shrugged. “Who said we will be crossing the border?” Then he remembered my portal skill.

He looked around his shop and sighed. “You know I left Dargon as a beardless and brainless boy who wanted to see the world beyond his father’s forge. I fell in with a good for nothing old man who taught me to work a forge better than most.” He smiled at me and began to laugh. “To be honest I am getting tired of these people. I mean I have a few friends, but for the most part people seem to think dwarves are just another form of demi. Maybe it’s time I found a new path?”

“Where would you go?” I asked and he pointed at me. “Tell me where you’re thinking of settling and I’ll head there. You will need a dwarf to smith for you on the cheap after all.” I nodded and realized this guy was far more of a friend than I deserved. “Not to mention I can get together with a dwarven cobbler and start making steel toed boots. That will save a lot of miners squashed toes.”

We slapped hands on the deal and then we went home. We found everyone in the living room talking and eating earth snack foods as usual. “Well it looks like Freming has decided to join the effort. He said that when we get to Dargon he will move to the same town, and set up shop to keep us supplied with whatever we need.” Everyone cheered and we spent the rest of the day relaxing and making plans.

That evening Jewel asked me if I could take her back to Kratar. I asked why and she said she wanted to sell her core, and then buy a dog girl. When I asked her why she said while they make good warriors, they make the best cooks, maids and nursemaids. I got the idea and so the next morning the two of us got ready to leave and I asked people if they wanted to stay inside or go out. They all looked at me like I was nuts. “Master, why go out to eat bad food and smell filthy people? We have everything we need right here, and all the people we care about as well.”

Well after that I made a portal and waved a white flag on a long pole through the gate. It was smacked out of my hand, so I figured it had to be a certain grumpy bastard. We stepped through and I was right. “So, what have you all been doing?” he asked. We gave him a rundown of our latest deeds and he nodded along. “Yeah, when you score big there is always some moron who thinks they can pull a fast one instead of doing honest work.”

We told him why we were back and told him we would be back when we were done. After selling her core we headed straight to the slave quarter and met the man who had been helping me find all my loves. We told him we were looking for a dog girl and he grinned as he guided into the cells. “You are in luck, I just got a shipment of new domestics in the other day. All well trained and ready to do whatever you could want.”