Revenge of the Sorcerer King 2 - 19

Hey Everyone! How's the weekend treating you? Not sure if any of you are on Twitter, but I started one since everything I read about succeeding as a self-published author is social media, social media, social media. 

  @peed_matthew

Chapter 19

Alessa

An hour or two passed before we reached the city. The goblins made for their district for some much-needed rest. I sent the undead to be re-incorporated with the undead in the city. There were a few higher level undead that retained some ability of commanding and Oberon let them deal with the day to day stuff. 

I ordered my undead into a newly repaired warehouse so they would be out of the sun. I wasn’t sure what would happen if my undead joined the mix and decided it would be better to wait until Oberon returned before messing with the system like that. My vampires went off to their quarters while I headed for mine.

While I couldn’t sleep, I could tune out the world for a few hours and give my brain some relaxation. A mediation technique that Oberon said used to help mages back in his day, was one such way of doing this. Before that, I decided to check with Khaar to make sure everything was fine in the city. 

Coming into the thrown room, I saw the golem sitting cross legged like the time before just in front of the throne. Oberon had told him he was allowed to sit in the throne, but the golem refused to do as such. When I entered the room, Khaar stood up without any indication that he noticed me.

“How fares the city, Khaar?” I asked walking towards him.

“All is well. The city is operating within master Oberon’s parameters.”

“That’s good. Anything I should be aware of?”

“Last night the prisoners tried to riot. Their foolish endeavor resulted in three of them being terminated while many others were injured. I have executed directive four, and further separated the prisoners.”

“Damn. That will mean less food for the vampires I plan on changing today.” With my level increase, I felt I could change five or six of the girls today while we waited for the sun to set. I could try to seek some goblin volunteers but willingly getting bit by a vampire usually meant they would want something in return.

“I have already factored that into my calculations along the parameters that master Oberon set for me. I have redirected some of the undead to capture and retain monsters that have suitable blood mass for the vampire community being created in the city. Master Oberon stated that the number of vampires will only increase as time goes on. Thus I have had the goblins instruct the undead on monsters that would serve your purposes.”

“Well done! I’m glad all over again that Oberon put you in charge when he’s gone. I don’t think I could have come up with that solution so quickly after receiving the problem. I might have stuck to my ways and went to raid a human settlement.”

“I had calculated the merits of that option. The losses would have been high. The risk of our identity would have been high. Total defeat was also possible without more higher level undead under our command. I deemed it not worth the risk.”

“I see. Again. I am glad your in charge. And since it looks like you have everything under control, I’ll be in my quarters in the event you need me.”

“Understood, Lady Alessa. Please have an enjoyable day.”

I waved to the golem and left the throne room. I truly felt better knowing that even if Oberon isn’t in the castle there was an excellent stand-in. After a few turns, I found myself in my quarters. I had planned to mediate as soon as I got back but changed my mind. The bath was calling my name. 

With a gesture, the blood armor condensed even further until they were silvers roughly ten centimeters long. I placed them on the table before stripping the rest of my cloths and remaining armor off. I might be durable enough to take a sword edge and not even flinch, but the same could not be said about the clothing. If I hadn’t started using the blood armor, I would have been naked as a newborn after a few more strikes.

“If I look like this, then the others are probably worse,” I muttered before rubbing the back of my neck. I would need to get them re-outfitted before we headed back out to the dungeon. And maybe teach them a bit more about the subtle art of dodging the enemy’s attack. 

With a bit of mana, I started the bath. Glancing inside at my mana pool, I was amazed at how large it was now. Your pool was decided at birth, but your access to it increased as you leveled. Oberon confirmed this. Looking at my pool now, I felt like a sea was looking back at me. I rarely ran out of mana during combat if it was full when the battle started. 

What I wanted to know was whether it was thanks to Oberon, being one of the most powerful sorcerers in history and my ancestor that I had such a huge mana pool, or if it was because I became a vampire. I didn’t plan on arguing with anyone about it though.

Once the bath was full of steaming water, I got in and sank up to my shoulders. Again, I might be durable, but I could still get filthy. Even with my use of water magic to help clean myself during the last day, there were places that you just couldn’t get outside of a bath. With a sigh, I sank all the way into the bath.

Oberon

The next floor rang with a sense of finality. The reason I thought that was there was a large castle in the middle of the floor that resounded with last boss vibes. Surrounding the castle, was a decimated city. Something about it gave one the sense they were looking at a picture someone painted after someone else described the scenery. A sort of fakeness. 

“Why does that look familiar?” Ted asked.

“Because it is modeled after Oberon’s castle,” Irgire responded and Gobluke and Gobrin both nodded. “I stared at it for nearly a day straight before we came down here. I’m pretty sure.”

“Well. No reason to stand around then. Let’s go meet my admirer.”

With that, I started forward down the stairs. We had came out on cliff that was at least a hundred meters above the floor. The stairs looked to be part of the challenge as they were craved haphazardly and if you didn’t pay attention, you’d find yourself reaching the bottom of the cliff much faster than you’d want. 

“I’ll go ahead and scout,” Irgire said unfolding his wings. I nodded and he leapt from the cliff. Glancing down, I felt I could survive the fall just fine, but didn’t want to risk a trap or ambush at the bottom on my own. It wouldn’t be funny to encounter something that straight dispels necromancy.

The stairs didn’t offer any challenges or traps. Once we reached the bottom, I glanced up to the top and figured the dungeon must want any challengers that reached this point in the dungeon to give its finally boss a true challenge. Shaking my head, I turned back towards the castle in the distance.

I had the undead move to the front, and we started marching. I was impressed with the distance. The floor must exist over several kilometers. It made me wonder what sort of battle the dungeon hoped to be fought here. 

We made it to the castle entrance without anything stopping us. There was a sense of disappointed among the goblins. They were enjoying the power increase that they saw while down here. Some of them didn’t want to let up on the level grab.

I ordered the undead to push the doors open and we made our way through the castle. It really was built like mine, and had the same layout. The dungeon might have let the walk to the castle be easy, but the insides were another story. Suits of armor started to jump down from their placements along the passage and began to bar our way further in.

Letting the undead deal with them to get a gauge on their strength was the correct choice. They barely stood a chance against the moving armors, as they were torn apart. Realizing the significant level jump between the elementals and the armors, I ordered the party back. No reason to suffer loses that could have been avoided.

The moving armors didn’t follow us. It appeared they were set to guard their designated areas and not to pursue. We moved back to the last room that was large enough to host all of us comfortably, a dining room of some sorts. A large table stretched down the room that could sit over a hundred people easily. The leaders of the party gathered around me as we discussed what to do.

“Given the size of their mana, I wager they are around level two hundred and upwards to two fifty,” I said taking a seat at the head of the table.

The others joined me, they seemed to have naturally positioned themselves without any arguing on who should sit where. I hoped that continued after we managed to leave the dungeon. In fighting for reputation was one of the things I hated most.

“What were those weapons made out of to cut down the undead so easily?” Ted asked with a nervous tick as he tapped his foot. Given the others’ silence it rang out particularly loudly. Not that I blamed him. Weapons that could deal with the undead were on my high priority list of things to find a counter for.

“Likely Arzamite, or Holy Steel. That means my dungeon has come in contact with one of the gods or goddesses. This just got more annoying.”

“How would that affect you?” Irgire asked from my left.

“I don’t know. Unlike the other undead, I don’t particularly have a problem being undead. Plus, I know many of the gods and goddess personally. Its hard to say how affected I would be.”

“What should we do?” Gobluke asked. “We could head back and level up more fighting the last couple floor so more.”

“I thought about that, but you have to give the dungeon credit. With the intense level gap between floors, even if you fought the elementals for months. You wouldn’t be able to catch up with the next set of floors.”

Irgire slammed his fist on the table. “Then there must be another path back through the dungeon.”

“That is very likely. Dungeons can certainly trap individuals, but they are almost required by the universe to have a way for said individual to get out.”

“Then we should leave the castle and search for a way out of the dungeon.”

I looked at the force I had at my command. Roughly twenty-five goblins, over a hundred undead of ranging levels. Then there were the leaders of these parties. No matter how we tried, we couldn’t bring to bare the true might of such a large force in the tight passageways of the castle. 

“Here’s what we’ll do. I want you to select someone from your ranks to lead the goblins and you will do a search of the area around the castle. If you find something, I want you to guard it unless the enemy is too powerful for you to handle. Send a runner to wait at the gate. I will order the undead to search as well. 

As for us, we are going to attempt pushing the castle with a smaller force. I believe with my magic and Irgire’s poison, we stand a good chance of taking down the living armor. If we can manage to take a few out, we can then equip Gobluke and Goblin in the armor that survives and we’ll actually have a force capable of handling their holy weapons.”

“In that case, I think we should take the west wing path,” Irgire said.

“Why is that?”

“This place is obviously a copy of your castle back in Haven. The West wing, has high ceilings, and I can do much more from the air.”

I considered the plan then nodded. “Good idea. We’ll go with that.”

We discussed a few more ideas but nothing really changed about the plan. The goblins and undead filed out of the dining room and back outside and began their search. No longer having the undead to rely on for our tank, I had Grodo move to the front. I wanted to keep the golem in reserve but couldn’t justify him not helping. He was higher level than the living armors, but I already proved that meant little. 

My first objective was to acquire on of the Azramite swords from one of the living armors for Grodo. That would even the field for my side more than any level would. I readied my spells as we turned the corner of the first hallway leading to the west. 

Eight living armors jumped down from their placements. The hallway was only large enough for three to fight at a time which was a saving grace. I pointed my hand at the middle one, and used my Destruction Ray. The spell carved a chunk from the chest of the living armor, but it kept moving without difficulty. I noticed mana pooling into the damaged area, and it started to repair itself slowly as it walked.

“Maybe you guys would like to work for me?” I called out as the moved closer getting no reply.