Chapter 46

Note: Thanks to Alex for beta reading this!

The next day, after reviving all my monster girls and spending that time recovering, I thought about how to redesign my dungeon. I conjured a table and paper and was sketching some ideas when Nina Naughty entered the room.

“Sup, Director,” my devil said, her big boobs jiggling. My favorite porn star in the world hopped on my desk, glancing down at my writings.

“What’s up?” I asked her. “Bored? How’s the translating with Fara going?”

“Tedious,” she said. “We have been trying to figure out what characters are the most common and figure out what they mean, but cuneiform is, well, it’s partly syllabic which means each mark represents a syllable instead of just one letter. But it’s also partially logographic. Like Egyptian hieroglyphics, they also represent concepts. Like bird, wheat, bear, man, woman. The concept of punctuation isn’t a thing, either. No spacing between the characters. So it’s hard to say what is and isn’t words, but we made some progress.”

“Oh?”

“Meskalamdug is looking for his mother,” she said. “We have figured that much out.”

“Mother?” I asked.

“We can’t figure out the name. We think we’ve found the name, but mother and search are the only words we’ve deciphered so far.” She sighed. “It would be great if we had a Rosetta stone.”

“That’s how hieroglyphics were broken, right?” I asked.

She nodded.

“And how about cuneiform?”

“That’s the bible’s fault,” said Nina. She had this impish grin. “Ever heard of Aramaic.”

“Uh ... No.”

“It’s the language spoken in Jesus’s time. Some of the new Testament is written in Aramaic and many of the Second Temple writings of Judaism are also in Aramaic. You see, the Jews started speaking Aramaic, a close tongue to Hebrew, after the Babylonian exile. The original inhabitants of Babylon, the Akkadians, were a Semitic people. They spoke Aramaic. Their script is the square Hebrew letters used to this day. They also used their own form of cuneiform. There is a monument we found that has the same message written in Aramaic, Akkadian Cuneiform, and Sumerian Cuneiform. It was the key. And from there, we found dictionaries. The Babylonians made dictionaries of Sumerian words. It was all rather simple after that.”

“But we don’t have these dictionaries.”

“Not unless you want to make your next monster girl an expert in cuneiform,” she said. “Do you know any?”

“Nope.”

“Well, we’re working on it, Director.” She paused. “There is something else.”

“Hmm?”

“What are the names of the gods of this world?”

I stared at her. It was a strange question. “Ahh...” I said them all the time. What were they. “Lord Enlil and Lady Uttu are lightning.” My first glyph. “Lord Zuen and Lady Ninazu are Dark.” I rubbed at my head. “It’s easier to say them casting spells ... Uh ... Lady Ianna is life. So is Lord Dumazid.”

Nina winked at me. “Lord Gibil and Lady Lamashtu are of Fire, Lord Anu and Lady Tiamat are of Air, Lord Enki and Lady Ninli are of Water, Lord Abzu and Lady Ki are of Earth, Lord Anshar and Lady Kishar are of Ice, Lord Nabu and Lady Nisaba are of Metal, Lord Nergal and Lady Ereshkigal are of Death, Lord Shamash and Lady Sherida are of Light, and Lord Ishkur and Lady Kittu of Thunder.” She arched an eyebrow. “Are any of those names familiar?”

“Er ... Did you say Tiamat?” I leaned back in my chair. “I know that name. It’s ... it’s a dragon goddess in D&D. The evil dragon goddess. And Baphomet is a good god. And Nergal. He always struck me as sound like a death god.”

“Tiamat is a dragon god in D&D because, in the Sumerian pantheon, she was the Goddess of Chaos. A great beast who was disemboweled to create the world.” Nina landed in. “They’re all Sumerian gods. Some are obscure, but all twenty-four of the Gods of this world are from our world, Director. I had Fara write them down. They all started clicking. Many of them are married in our world. Enlil and Enki are brothers. Shamash is the Sky God. Ianna is another name for Ishtar, the fertility goddess.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“That this all comes from Sumeria,” she said. “The glyphs, the first dungeon builder, the gods of this world. None of them were native. Not them. Not the monster girls. Only dragons, as far as Fara knows. So why are the gods helping the people they invaded. And why are they your enemy?”

“They let me use their magic,” I protested.

“Let them, or do you take.” She arched an eyebrow. “Like how you take the mana veins and use them to power your dungeon.”

“Fuck,” I muttered. “I never thought about it. But there must be a reason that Lady Sherida has blessed Halia. That she supports us. A schism in the gods.”

“Maybe.” Nina Naughty leaned forward. “This mother that he’s searching for. I think she’s important. She might be the Incarnate. I don’t know. But his name. Meskalamdug. I feel like I’ve read it somewhere. It’s on the tip of my tongue, but I just can’t quite remember it.”

“What do you need to translate this?”

“We need to find more ancient sites that have cuneiform. Build up a larger vocabulary.” Nina hopped off the table. “But we’ll keep at it. If I can figure out what the mother’s name is, maybe that will trigger something.”

“Keep at it,” I said. This all came from Sumeria. Why? “You know, there’s something that I’m curious about. Led ... He didn’t seem to get his second power from conquering another dungeon builder. He didn’t give me access to two Level 1 monster girls. So how did he get Light?”

“Ask Smerta,” said Nina Naughty. “She was his first, right?”

“Yeah,” I said. “That sounds like something I need to do.”

As Nina Naughty left, I headed to my Vault and grabbed the Void Crystal. I concentrated and summoned Smerta to my presence. My valkyrie appeared wearing her armor. She blinked in surprise and then smiled. Her armor vanished.

“Feeling frisky, Leo?”

“No,” I said. “You were with the twins from the beginning, right?”

She rolled her eyes. “Of course. Led summoned me that first day. It was heady. We were right by the dwarves. He and Ziamili teamed up. They conquered the dwarves. It was easy with Zmiaja. She was Ziamili’s wife, the gorgon.”

“Her,” I muttered, anger swelling in me. I didn’t want her, and she hadn’t wanted to be mine.

“Then we had to deal with his other dungeon keeper. He had metal. Ziamili killed him.” Smerta shrugged. “He got Metal while Led, well, he was more interested in poking around in his dungeon. I spent a lot of time outside. One day, he just had Light. I didn’t care how he got it. I was keeping the dwarf slaves in line.”

“I see,” I said, frowning. “He didn’t leave his place.”

“Nope,” Smerta said.

“Did he teleport around?” I stared at her. “Did he tell you how he made that teleporter?”

“They sacrificed a mana vein for that. They were excited. They had a tip about a dungeon builder that had more glyphs. A protector of Astovin. They wanted to take you out. So they established the teleporter outside your dungeon and moved us through. They sent Ziamili to raid Astovin and pull you away while we hit the dungeon. Only you got back too soon and ruined our first attack.”

I smiled. “Yeah, we tend to do that.” An idea was popping into my head. “I’ve been told there are other ways to gain powers than killing a dungeon builder. You said Led liked to spend most of his time inside. What was he doing?”

“No idea,” Smerta asked. “He didn’t tell us. He had his study. His private space. No one was allowed in. Especially not Feya.” The valkyrie shrugged. “They did not get along. They fought all the time. She was mad I was chosen first.”

“You didn’t love him,” I said. “Why not?”

“He didn’t want us to love him.” Smerta smiled. “You do. He wanted us to desire him. A difference, no? You can hate what you desire. No, it is wrong. Destructive. You can despise yourself for giving in to it.” She smiled. “Love is different, is it not. I think that matters how monster girls act. It’s all dependent on you. Our builder.”

“Thanks,” I said. I grabbed my Void Crystal. I wanted to go out to the dwarven lands. “Can you ask Fara if she has accurate maps of the Vorianil Mountains and where the Twins’ dungeon is at?”

“South of Great Kharabarnath, the dwarven capital,” she said. “I’ll get it done.”

“Thanks.”

I delved my thoughts into my Void Crystal. I had ideas, but first, I needed to find Mana Veins. I began writing over Meskalamdug’s dungeon, destroying what he made. Mana Veins had to intersect the place. Bit by bit, I worked, searching. I needed more power. What if the Gods sent another “saint” like Anguin to attack me.

What if another dungeon builder with more strength than me attacked? I had to be ready.

Halia stood on the green, the village’s pasture still damaged from the attack. She looked out at the villagers who had gathered. “Who here wants to be an adventurer?”

A few of the young men thrust up hands. One girl did, too.

Halia smiled. There were always a few. Her promise to her father swept through her. “I want to train you. Mold you. Help you develop your skills as warriors. I hope to find others. Thieves and mages that can teach their skills. Maybe even more clerics of Sherida.”

I can’t trust the other gods.

“Why?” Mayor Bevlin asked, staring at me.

“I want those who want to fight for our world!” Halia cried. She pulled her blessed sword from her scabbard. “I want men and women who will stand with Lord Leo and attack those dungeon builders who are plaguing our world. He cannot do it on his own. He needs supporters. He needs brave men and women who will stand against those who are evil. Who hurt us.”

Men like Fuegin! Leo trusted him, but Halia knew that he was a snake.

“Swear yourself to Lord Leo and earn the benefits of serving a dungeon builder,” Halia cried. “We will be ambassadors and defenders. Paladins and knights and saviors of our world. Something has to change. The way we have operated for all these thousands of years is not working. We must work with the good ones.”

All of the villagers were nodding. They were all looking excited. Men and women and even children. The brash ones pushed forward. Young men I had grown up with like Karvin, Melin, and Nomaz. With them was Bellia, one of the girls kidnapped by that disgusting Jindag. She looked eager.

“We have thought about it,” said Mayor Bevlin. “Since the attack yesterday, we have been discussing it. We were not able to evacuate as fast as we could have if ... if we had been Lord Leo’s vassals.”

Halia blinked.

“It is true that he can teleport his servants about his domain?” Mayor Bevlin asked. “He could have taken us into a place of safety in his dungeon. Those who could not fight.”

“Yes,” Halia said slowly. “But only if you’re inside the confines of his dungeon.”

“We are a target now,” said Mayor Bevlin. “Leo has challenged Lord Shorvin’s dominion over us. He might raise an army. Send more adventurers. Not just to attack Leo, but us. He has sworn to protect us, well ... We wish to swear to him.”