Chapter 14

Note: Thanks to Alex for beta reading this!

I began my exploration for the First Dungeon. But I was also hoping to find more Mana Veins. So while I was helping Fara with her goal of understanding dungeon builders, I was working on finding more power. I needed it. I wanted to get to the next level of magic. I had to be stronger.

The mayor’s warning had me worried. Neither Halia nor Fara had any idea of what Lord Shorvin could be doing that was worst than calling on stronger adventurers to attack me. “Unless it’s a crusade,” Halia said. “That would be bad.”

“A crusade?” I asked. “A holy war.”

“If he can get the Temple Authority to agree to call on a crusade, armies will be gathered to attack you. Not just bands of adventurers, but a concerted effort to siege you out and kill you. It’ll be thousands and thousands of soldiers, weaker than adventurers, but numbers have their own weight.”

“Damn,” I muttered. “That sounds serious. What do we do?”

“Well, if it was a crusade, and those are rare since it means weakening strong territories threatened by their own dungeon builders to, frankly, attack one that is as remote as us. We are not threatening Myrecilla yet.”

“Never,” I muttered. I had no intentions of attacking the city to the south of us. It was beyond Lord Shorvin’s estates.

“And Mayor Bevlin would have heard the call,” added Fara. “That sort of event cannot be kept quiet. Instead, it will be on the tongue of every crier and carried by every merchant. So I cannot think of what it is. Unless he has made a pact with another dungeon builder.”

“Does that happen?” I asked in shock.

“It ... has.” Halia squirmed. “There have been those who use dungeon builders to destroy rivals. It is a course of folly since you cannot trust most dungeon builders.” My paladin glanced at me, giving me an apologetic look.

I raised a forestalling hand. “Should we start reconnoitering his estate? Use the wildhounds or the arachnes?”

“It’s dangerous, Lord Leo.” Halia put her hand on her blessed sword. It had been her father’s. She had inherited it after he had died trying to kill Fuegin. Anguin had a reputation for killing several powerful dungeon builders before he met his aim. From what I understood, Fuegin was the most powerful of us. He had conquered several kingdoms and ruled them. He claimed he made things better in his territory and that he had only done it to protect himself. They kept escalating their attacks on him, so he had to respond in kind.

I wanted to believe that since he was the only dungeon builder who had extended me a hand in friendship. He wanted to learn about our origin and purpose, too. Until he showed himself false, I would give him a wary sort of trust.

I sunk tunnels into the mountain beneath my dungeon, exploring. It was always strange driving exploratory shafts. I could feel the stone melting away. I was digging through the layers of rocks and the minerals they had. When I removed my tunnels, what I had destroyed, whether veins of precious metals, clusters of precious gems, or interesting pockets of stone would all be restored. Like the world remembered what was here before I had meddled.

My dungeon was an intruder that was replacing sections of reality with my Will. So long as my words shaped my dungeon through the Void Crystal, I imposed my desire upon this world. So why would this First Dungeon still be around?

“You sure it exists?” I asked Fara in between sessions.

“Of course I am,” she said.

“But how. If the Void Crystal is destroyed, surely this all vanishes.” I looked around. “At least once any minds not bound to the Crystal exit the dungeon.”

“They stay,” said Halia. “They can become haunts for bandits or dragons. Even if the Void Crystal is destroyed. Those that are not destroyed because the builder was too cunning in hiding it, do not decay. They remain as they were in the past.”

“I see,” I said and sank more shafts.

Three times adventurers attacked, stopping my exploration.

The first group did not get past the basilisks and the werebears in the entrance. Though a few of my monster girls died, the poor adventurers hadn’t stood a chance. Between the basilisks’ petrifying breath and the werebears’ brute strength, they were in for a tough opening.

It annoyed me I had to stop exploring and deal with it. I didn’t want to kill adventurers, but I was growing less and less concerned about it. More calloused to their deaths. If they turned and fled, I would let them escape, but if they kept going, it was their own fault.

The second group penetrated farther. Smerta and Feya coordinated the defenses from their forward command room. The group made it to the stalactite room and there met their end, but not before hurting my monster girls.

That pissed me off. Every time I had to bring a monster girl back to life, she had suffered for me. She had endured pain. Their deaths weren’t always pretty. Mages threw fireballs and lightning around. Rogues used poisoned blades. Warriors hacked with massive weapons.

My monster girls suffered for me. Every time they came back to life, though, they had smiles on their lips.

They were proud that they had died for me.

Which made me hate the adventurers more and more. I could feel it wearing down my humanity. It was hard not to care when a cute wildhound came back to life, and I knew she had died bloody.

The third group was stronger still. They decimated the defenders of the First Labyrinth. Smerta herself died. They had a Paladin of Lord Anshar with them that had been able to endure her weapon and then took off her head. They left so many dead monster girls in their wake.

They penetrated the Lightning Column Room, their mage warding them from the electric attacks while their priest bolstered their spirits. They broke through to the second labyrinth. But here, the tide turned. The arachnes struck from ambush.

Before they were ready, their mage was wrapped up in webbing, their priest bitten and dying of poison. The rogue managed to kill one arachne, but the others webbed up the paladin. Though he called upon his cold power, the arachnes held him long enough for the rest of the werebears and basilisks to arrive and finish off the party.

I had many, many monster girls to revive after them.

It was frustrating, but my dungeon defenses were working. My monster girls were doing their jobs. They were happy fighting and dying, which only made my heart heavier. If they weren’t cute girls I loved, this would be so much easier.

I wouldn’t have this growing anger in me. This resentment that I had to watch out for.

It wasn’t long after the third battle, that I sank a tunnel deep and ran into something. I broke into an open space. Not a natural cave. I could sense that I had found a tunnel. I explored down it, opening up space around it.

There it was. A man-made hallway.

I released the Void Crystal and glanced at Fara. “I think we found it.”

The elf glanced at me from the desk she had me set up in the Vault where she was doing her work, writing down what she had learned about dungeon builders and monster girls for sharing with the world in the future.

“You are certain?” she asked, her already large eyes even wider.

“I think so,” I said.

I paced in the Vault, then I sent out a telepathic message: “Usiku and my companions, meet me in the map room. Halia, you, too.”

I hurried out of the Vault, Fara on my heels. The elf seemed giddy with excitement. We passed through the living quarters. Most of my companions were in here. I had expanded the living areas. Added what few games they had in this world, which amounted to backgammon, checkers, and various versions of chess that had strange rules I wasn’t used to.

We all headed to my throne room, the largest part of the dungeon. I headed straight for the map and shifted it down the levels to where we had found the tunnel. It was deep underground. I showed off the room and there it was, the tunnel around mine.

“Your dungeon didn’t break through it,” said Maya as she studied it.

“That makes sense,” Hagane said, adjusting her glasses. “If Fara’s version of history is correct, Meskalamdug wasn’t killed in his dungeon but had retreated to it and was never seen again. Presumed dead. Then there is an active Void Crystal down there making sure his dungeon is intact.”

“Yeah,” I said. “That makes sense.”

“We have to explore it,” Terra said. “This is so interesting.”

“It’ll be dangerous,” my mom said.

“Oh, yeah,” Crystal said. My big sister glanced at me. “You up for getting dirty spelunking someone else’s dungeon.” She smirked. “Wait, you already are a dirty, dirty boy.”

I gave her a look.

“You have to take a guard with you, Lord Leo,” Usiku said. “Monster girls that can explore for traps. You want to make sure you have the best at sniffing them up. The wildhounds. All of them.”

“Yes, the puppies are so good at it, big bro,” my little sister said, her red wings fluttering.

“And a mix of other monster girls,” Maya added. “For protection.”

“Not too many,” Lana Fulmine pointed out. “There should be nothing alive in the dungeon, just traps. You’ll want to leave enough up here to protect the dungeon. We can survive having the wildhounds pulled out, just not too many of the others ones.”

“I am coming,” said Fara. Her ears twitched. “I must come.”