Chapter 26

The next day, I was in King Thanitis’s camp. The army was organizing to march back to Myrecilla tomorrow. Everywhere was activity as barons and counts darted about to make sure their men had everything packed.

The treaty was signed. Daleitha and the devas would be traveling south with him. Once they were in the city, we could figure out where the embassy should go. They would coordinate it with me so I didn’t destroy parts of the city on accident.

I was chatting with King Thanitis when the pudgy Lord Shorvin burst in. He spotted me and rushed over. I gritted my teeth. I did not like this man. He was a weasel who had caused me so many headaches.

“Lord Leo,” the nobleman said. “There you are. I’m so glad to see you. There’s been something terrible that’s happened on my lands. A dungeon builder has appeared within a day of my castle!”

“Where?” I asked.

“To the west,” he said. “He’s attacked my people. Some are hurt and dead. You are pledged to defend Myreman from rogue dungeon builders. Are you going to do something about this?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Then you’ll take care of it?” He gave me a look of hope.

“If this is so close to your castle, don’t you have soldiers?” I asked, hating this man. He hadn’t done a thing for Astovin, which was also on his estates, but a few days away.

“I brought most of them with me,” said Lord Shorvin. “It’ll be days for me to get my men there. I just got word. More could be dead by now, and if we delay...”

“Why do you even have that title of lord if you don’t use it to help your people?” I demanded, my anger boiling out of me. Just the sight of him made me want to strangle him.

“Because it’s my birthright!”

I snorted. “Because one of your ancestors got lucky. You’ve been coating without doing anything. Just hiding in your castle and enjoying some good food.”

The lord shifted, cheeks red.

“But I’ll take care of it,” I said. “It’ll mean establishing my own outpost near your castle. Just a day away or so.”

“You can’t!” gasped Lord Shorvin. “My king!”

“The treaty states Lord Leo may establish outposts throughout the realm so long as he doesn’t use it to prey on the citizens of Myreman and only for their defense.” The king grinned. “You’ll just have to tolerate it if you can’t defend your territory.”

“Where is it exactly?” Leo asked.

“Hills to the west of my castle,” answered Lord Shorvin, his shoulders sagging. He wiped away the sweat on his jowls. “That’s the best I can tell you.”

“Well, Your Majesty, looks like I have work to do,” I said and nodded to the king.

I returned to my dungeon, Hagza teleporting me back. Once I was in my Vault, I summoned Fara and her maps. She started her calculations while I thought about who should man my first outpost. Outpost Alpha. It would be the start of the tunnel leading toward what we hoped was the Water Shrine.

“Okay, Lord Leo,” said Fara. She looked up from her calculations. “I think this should get us close enough to it.”

She handed me the requirements. It might have to be adjusted for elevation.

I began driving the tunnel. Twice, it breached the surface as the elevation sloped lower to the west, but I soon had it at the distance. I thrust it up and created a quick turret. I teleported Vilkas there to report on exactly where it had come up.

“You’re in the hills,” she said. “Definitely. I can see a castle to the east in the distance. It’s far. Maybe a day’s travel.”

“Thanks,” I said and teleported her back to her post.

I set up designing the outpost. I made it stand a hundred feet tall with a ladder that could be lowered down the side for the monster girls to climb up and down. I could put in a door, but it would be easy for adventurers to break in, and that would cause problems. Having my dungeon sprawl would make it more likely to have intruders, keeping me from easily moving around my forces.

I added living quarters for the monster girls on the top few floors with a spiral staircase in the interior that led to the ground floor then down into the dungeon. After I had done all that, I considered who I would make for it.

I scrolled through my Level 1 monster girls I hadn’t ever used. I had treants, gorgons, gnomes, red caps, wendigos, choirs, fire sprites, lemures, and cockatrices. I settled on red caps. They were Metal monster girls and vicious fighters.

I had gained them when I killed Ziamili. He had a red cap companion that I didn’t want serving me.

I reached out into the Void Crystal, focused on my mission. For once, I wasn’t going to fuck these red caps right away. I had a dungeon builder to stop. People could be dying, so I wasn’t about to let getting my dick sucked by a new monster girl slow me down.

I found the red caps and the image of a tall woman with pale skin and fiery hair appeared in my mind. She actually wore a red cap perched on her head. She had a natural grace to her with big boobs and no pubic hair. She looked utterly human.

“Rudsa, Karsi, Ciniti, Kauja, Vardarbiba, Vacinsa, and Taktika appear!” I cried as name after name appeared in my mind.

The red caps spun out of the darkness throughout the vault. They appeared, their big boobs heaving. They grinned with lust while violence brimmed in their eyes. They looked eager to fight. To kill. Their caps didn’t look so much as red as drenched in blood.