Chapter 18

Note: Thanks to Alex for beta reading this!

I fixed the image of the mountain that my dungeon lay beneath. I could feel its dimensions. How it rose from the surrounding range, thrusting up proud into the air. I was on the west side of the range. There was plenty of room north, east, and south for me to expand.

I sent my first shaft north. I created a hallway that ran and ran and ran in a straight line. I thrust it out into the rocks. It formed in moments, the Void Crystal humming between my fingers as I created the simplistic tunnel. Just a basic hallway. No traps. No rugs to cover the bare stone. Not even bricks, just shafts carved out of the rock itself.

The cheapest tunnel. The longest one I could build without dismissing my monster girls to get more power.

That felt too callous. If I wanted to protect my heart and not become like these cock-sucking twins, I had to not think of my monster girls as things. They were people. Flesh-and-blood girls who had their passions. Their wants and desires.

I wouldn’t abuse their love. I couldn’t. It was bad enough to make them fight and die for me.

I felt no Mana Vein pumping magic through that tunnel. I didn’t expect to find it on the first go. It was like mining for diamonds in Minecraft. You dug tunnels spaced two blocks apart. This allowed you to see as many blocks as possible.

Increased your chance of finding the rare resource.

I shifted my tunnel over ten feet. It reached the same distance to the north but passed through different rocks and minerals. Touched different parts of the mountain.

Nothing.

I didn’t let that disappoint me. You sometimes got lucky searching for diamonds. Other times, you went through a lot of iron pickaxes.

Third tunnel north. Fourth. Firth. I went methodical, building out from my dungeon. Some could reach farther than others because of the layout, but I covered the northern side effectively. I shifted my stance, my feet starting to ache from standing up.

I felt Lana watching me. She had delivered Halia’s statue to the dungeon. I had put my poor paladin in her own room, a shrine to hold and protect her statue. It was off the bedroom. I had conjured flowers to surround her.

My hands clenched my Void Crystal. I would carve out Ziamili’s heart and steal his Earth Glyph.

North was a bust, so I shifted to east. I worked as methodically. I sent the tunnels out deep into the mountain range, passing beneath other peaks. I longed to feel that magic flowing through me. That increase to my power and abilities I needed.

“Come on,” I muttered as my dungeon changed again.

“You can relax, Leo,” Lana said. “Today was harrowing. You can get some sleep or enjoy your women. I can hear them moaning in the bathroom. Let’s soak in the hot springs.”

“No!” I growled, my hands clenching down on the Crystal. How could I relax when I was so powerless against the twins?

“Leo,” she said in this placating way that made my shoulders tense.

“I can rest later. This is too important.”

Her curvy form pressed into my back. Round breasts that tingled with her electric current. Her crackling wings hovered over us. She kissed at my neck, her arms holding me tight. She stroked over my chest, brushing the four glyphs tattooed into my skin. Each was made of cuneiform-like markings to from stylized representation of Lightning, Dark, Life, and Water.

“You’re not alone in this.” She nibbled on my ear. “We’re in this with you.”

“Because I brought you here. I plucked you out of your life and put you in this madness.”

“And am I complaining?” Her arms tightened around me. “I’m happy to be here with my number one fan.”

“Am I? I put you in danger. What sort of fan does that.”

“You were such a fan, you chose me out of literally billions of women. How can I not be flattered by that? Impressed. Leo Baldwin, I am not sad to be here. I’m not angry. I’m thrilled. I’m free of my life. My addictions. The casting couch. And there is something about this world. Something special. You’re going to figure it out. Working with Fuegin will help.”

“But only if we can survive. It’s not just the twins. Others will attack. More powerful adventurers will come. I have to upgrade.” I swallowed, terrified I would be forced to replace my will o’ wisps and wildhounds, my oozes and mermaids and satyrs. I made them. Created them with my will. I was like their god, but what sort of god treated their creations like that?

As toys. Things. I fucked them, made them die for me, then put them into eternal sleep.

“I have to get stronger,” I growled. Then I wouldn’t have to abandon my monster girls. I could have the strength to keep Sviesos and Hela, Doodh and Skela and Cikata. I could have them all.

I sent out more tunnels to the east as Lana held me. Her presence was a comfort. It was tedious work. Fatigue began to nibble at the edges of my mind. My stomach growled, hunger building as I sent my exploration tunnels east, driving them through the stone of the mountains, passing different veins of stone all mixed.

Nothing to the east.

I worked south now, growing desperate. I sent tunnel after tunnel thrusting into the stone. My heart tightened as each one was a failure. Where were these Mana Veins that were supposed to be worming their way through the world.

“You’ll find one,” said Souleen. “Just be patient. They’re out there.”

“What if I got screwed over?” I sent back to her. “What if I got the patch that didn’t have an abundance of Veins. In any random distribution, there will be clusters and there will be voids. What if I’m in a void?”

“Don’t give up, Lord Leo!”

I sent the last tunnel south, my stomach tensing. Nothing. This had to be the one. I had to breach the Vein. I could feel the one flowing through my dungeon. It wound about, flowing like an invisible river. There had to be something and...

“Fuck,” I groaned, my hands falling from the crystal.

“No luck, huh?”

I glanced over at Maya. She leaned against the wall. Not a trace of the ice remained in here. How long had she been there? Her watery flesh rippled. She put a conciliatory smile on her lips like she would when I got my ass kicked in Call of Duty. She would be sitting on my bed, idly flipping through a magazine while giving me supportive comments.

And when I lost...

“Fuck,” I muttered, my hands falling from the humming Void Crystal. “We’re in trouble, Maya.”

“Isn’t that life?” she asked. She thrust the bowl she held in her hand. A savory stew steamed in it, the thick gravy mixed with meat and vegetables. My mother’s cooking. The scent watered my mouth. I sighed and held out my hand.

She placed the bowl in it. I moved from the Crystal and leaned against the wall. I sank to the floor and sat on my ass, not caring it was uncomfortable. Maya sat cross-legged before me, her naked tits jiggling and then they just rippled, small waves washing across her body, following the three-dimensional curves of her flesh.

“What’s the problem?” she asked. “We won today.”

“He struck out on finding any Veins of Mana,” Lana said.

“Yeah.” I stirred the pewter spoon through the stew. It smelled good. My stomach rumbled. I should eat, but I felt like such a failure. We had lucked out today. Barely won. “I can’t find any more. I sent out tunnels east, north, and south.”

“What about west?” Maya asked.

“The dungeon has used that space already. I would have found anything west.”

“Hmm,” Maya said.

“I guess I need to think about the diagonals,” I said. “Go northeast and southeast. Hit the territory I missed.”

“And you tried up and down, right?” Maya asked.

I froze.

“I mean, we’re in a mountain, right?” She looked up. “You’re not just looking on the same level, right? What is it called in Minecraft ... The same Y layer.”

“Fuck,” I muttered, my brain hurting.

She giggled. “You did forget. What, hunting for diamonds only at level 12 or something.”

I rolled my shoulders. In Minecraft, there was a variety of opinions on which Y level you should hunt for diamonds. They spawned between layers 15 and 1, but too low you hit unbreakable bedrock and were more likely to hit lava pools. So people talked about doing it on level 11 or level 12 or level 13. Different people had different ideas, but just because one level might be the best for searching didn’t mean you wouldn’t be mining above or below what you’re looking for and never find it.

“Shit,” I muttered and took a big bite of my stew. A piece of softened meat and vegetable. I chewed the warmth in my mouth and swallowed. “God, I’m an idiot. We have a peak above us, and who knows how deep into the earth I can drive my dungeon.”

“It’s okay that you’re an idiot, though, Leo,” Maya said, a mocking smile on her face. “You have plenty of women around you that can think for you.”

I gave her a leveled look.

She fired me back an innocent grin.

I finished my stew, scooping out all the bits of meat and vegetables and then drank the gravy. It filled my belly with warmth. Something invigorating and had me eager to get back to work. I had a second wind.

“All right,” I said. “Let’s explore up and down.”

Souleen beamed at me as she perched on the Void Crystal. My little spirit hummed happily. She rubbed her hands together. She wiggled there on the Void Crystal, looking so pleased. Hope invigorating me, I grabbed the Void Crystal.

I sent a tunnel straight down. Before, I was sending the horizontal ones out two or so miles. Now I went down. A shaft that bored into the mountain. It grew hotter and hotter the lower I went. I recalled that the crust of the earth was something like six miles thick on average, but humans had never gone more than a mile or so down because it got so hot.

I believed it.

I could never build my dungeon so low and ... I doubted Mana Veins would flow that deep. So I shifted tactics. I felt the limit of where things were comfortable, about a half-mile down. Instead of one tunnel, I created four tunnels and shot them down, covering more ground faster. I bored beneath us over and over.

“Nothing below us here,” I said. It could be more spread out. “Time for up.”

I could feel the mountain above us. The peak rose a good mile above us, but not directly over our heads. I created two tunnels that neared the surface and—

Gasped.

The Void Crystal burst with a black light. It hummed louder, sucked with more hunger. The rush of power that slammed into me sent me stumbling back. I gasped, my mind expanding with the power. I could feel new spells whispering through me. More powerful magics that I could use.