Revenge of the Sorcerer King 2 -15

Well its friday already. Thank you for all the feedback on the four previews I showcased. Along with those, there is doll dungeon, Annihilation, Revenge. So we shouldn't be lacking any content next year.  Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 15

Alessa

After leaving Irgire, I went and converted three more women. Two of them went beserk and required heavy handed treatment. I had to find out a new way to get some blood or the prisoners in the cells wouldn’t have any arms left. Oberon had wanted to let them stir for a while but it had been close to a week since we got back and I felt they might go insane if they weren’t talked to soon.

I gathered the six new vampires as well as Sarius and met Oberon at the throne room. Helena was with him and judging by his expression he wasn’t enjoying the company. I decided to save him and quickly walked into the room. 

“Oberon! I present you my Familia!” I shouted with a grand gesture at the new vampires.

“Well? What do you rate them?” he ignored me and asked Helena. I only let my eye twitch once and turned to my vampire mentor.

“She had good material to work with. They are all quite beautiful. Given her own level I guess I can’t complain too much on their own level. I give her a B plus.”

I let my arms drop to my sides and sighed. “Can we just go to the dungeon already. Being with you two together makes me want to kill things.”

“Funny you should say that. I feel the same way when she is here,” Oberon said with a lazy wave at Helena.

“Do you want me to get Irgire?” I asked deciding to change the subject.

“You can ask if he wants to come along. He might need more time to recover from being stone for so long.” 

I made my way over to Irgire’s room and found him stretching. He noticed me and finished his stretch before he stood up. “What can I do for you?”

“I wanted to ask if you felt like heading into the dungeon with us.”

He appeared to think it over for a minute before he finally nodded. “I could use a good fight to limber up. I feel like my strength is restricted more than it should be.”

“Ah! You’ve never leveled up before. Um, it would probably be best for Oberon to explain it to you. Even though he’s only used it for a few months. He understands it better than most of the people born with it by now.”

“Got it. Then I am right behind you!” 

There wasn’t much more to decide after that. Soon we found ourselves in front of the ruins. We had a nice little army with us with my vampires, the goblins, Vaunn, and of course, a shit ton of undead. I felt sorry for anything that we met inside this place. Everyone was wearing armor and gear that had been recently crafted. You could tell the fairy made items from the undead. They just had a different feel to them even though they looked the same. 

Oberon and Helena moved forward and started to inspect the doorway. I moved closer even though I knew there wasn’t anything I could do to help. Oberon slid his hand over the surface of the doorway. 

Finally, Oberon took a step back while scratching his chin. “Funny. I’ll need to remember to thank Lucifer when I see him next time.”

“Is that what these are? That script isn’t very common anymore, so I wasn’t sure,” Helena commented stepping back as well.

“Yep. Angelic runes. He probably intended to use this place during his reign and sealed it so it could grow without intervention.” 

“Can you break them?” I asked worried we wouldn’t get to dive the dungeon. I was planning on gaining at least two levels tonight as well as get my new vampires up quite a bit.

“Yes. The question is whether I should. Lucifer will know that I have broken them. He won’t know the location, only that someone broke some of his runes. My concern is how many locations are still sealed by angelic runes.” Oberon explained. “I could be giving myself away.”

“I know of two dozen off the top of my head. They are heavily guarded by different fractions, so I haven’t seen any of them up close. But I do know of their existence.”

“Oh, well that makes me feel better,” Oberon said as he reached forward. “Angels were always so full of themselves. They always hid the answer inside the runes and usually in very obvious places.”

Oberon reached forward and pressed a spot on the wall then began infusing it with mana. Soon the entire surface was glowing before the door started to crack and shatter. There was a sudden gust of wind from inside as the doors turned to dust revealing a dark tunnel leading into the ground.

“Couldn’t we have just tunneled around the door?” I asked looking at the place behind the doorway. 

“Nope! It might look like its heading down into the ground behind the doorway, but we’re actually going through a portal of sorts. If you tunnel from a place inside the dungeon you would eventually re-enter this realm. It’s all quite fascinating,” Oberon said with a large grin before he walked into the dungeon without a worry. At least we didn’t have to worry about being trapped inside the place that wants to kill us. 

I followed Oberon and Helena through the open gateway when a prompt appeared before my eyes. 

“Welcome to The King’s Treasure Box. This is a Max level dungeon. Turn back if you intend to live.”

“That’s comforting,” I heard Helena mumble ahead of me.

“So, there is a max level?” Oberon asked.

“So, there is a max level?” I asked after I read the message. 

“I don’t know. The highest level I know of is the Hizin leader which is rumored to be eight hundred and fifty-six,” Helena replied with a shrug. “First time I’ve seen a dungeon give a message.”

Everyone carefully made their way into the dungeon. The tunnel so gave way to a large entrance foray like that found in a castle. Only this one could hold several hundred people with ease. Statues lined the walls with all the races displayed. In the center was a large statue of a man in mage robes holding up the ceiling with a magic spell of some sort.

Magical flames floated throughout the room illuminating everything was a surprisingly soft lift. Brown stone made up the floor while the ceiling reminded me of the night sky. We couldn’t see anything that appeared threatening from the start, so we came further into the room. 

“Does that look familiar?” Helena whispered in my ear almost causing me to jump. I followed where she was pointing at the face of the mage in the center of the room. Like she said, it did have a sort of resemblance to someone, though I wasn’t sure.

“Wait! I remember seeing a painting in one of the castle rooms. That’s Oberon!” I whispered back.

“Looks like the dungeon might remember him then,” Helena said with a very long sigh.

“Is that bad?”

“No. I’m just getting tired of it.”

I laughed before covering my mouth with my hand. I shook my head and moved over to where Oberon stood. He was starring at two passages that led into the dungeon. 

“Left or right?” I asked once I was next to him.

“Why don’t you choose,” Oberon said with a gesture. 

I glanced at each in turn, but nothing really called to me about either of them. They were literally identical. I just went with it and pointed right. Oberon nodded then turned back to the rest of the group. “I want us to split up. Helena will go with one group and I the other. That way I think we’ll have someone decently powerful enough to handle whatever is thrown at us.”

“Then I will take the vampires,” Helena said as she grabbed my hand with a grin.

“Yeah that is probably best. I’ll take the undead and Ted as well as half of the goblins. You ladies take the rest, just try to bring them all back.”

Helena gave him a smirk before she moved to the passage I chose. I wasn’t sure I was comfortable splitting up with Oberon. While Helena was certainly powerful, this was the dungeon he created when he was a mortal. I thought it would be safer to stay with him. 

“Don’t worry. If it plays out like a normal dungeon then the first couple dozen floors will be low level minions,” Sarius of all people said as he gestured for me to follow after Helena.

“You forget,” I said as I started walking after her. “This place was created by Oberon.” I saw Sarius’s face drop as I turned the corner. 

Oberon

Once the vampires had all left, I turned back to the undead and goblins plus Ted and Irgire. I’d brought quite a few of the undead I felt were more combat based from the mines. They were all nearly twice my level and would make good testing dolls moving deeper in the dungeon. 

I remembered creating the dungeon, but all I technically did was plant the seed. The thing didn’t have an interaction for the year after that other than me feeding it mana when I could. After my death, Lucifer sealed it, so I wasn’t sure if it had ever seen actual living beings before. We were likely the first test subjects it had ever had.

The passage had kept the well-constructed look until we turned the corner. After that it reverted to rough hued tunnels that were only illuminated every couple meters by a crude torch. I felt like the dungeon had given us a taste of what it could do but was making us suffer through this lower quality until we proved ourselves. 

“Are you sure it is wise to split us up?” Ted asked from next to me. He’d made a lot of progress with his undead, and while they weren’t quite on par with mine, yet they were certainly deadly in their own right. Ted liked to add special effects to his undead that mainly involved poison. I really felt sorry for the guy that wronged in the past. Given how Ted operated, I had no doubt he would cause the man to suffer for an exceptionally long time.

“Yes. Helena could probably handle anything the lower sections of this dungeon could throw at her and Alessa is a decently powerful individual in her own right. Add to that six very fresh vampires that are eager for blood. I would hate to be on the other side of that force.”

“I suppose you have a point.”

We continued down the tunnel until we came to a cavern. There was only a large crystal in the center that changed up the dull gray of the bare stone walls. I didn’t notice any passages leading out of the dungeon and seriously worried that due to no one ever coming to the dungeon the poor thing had lost its marbles. 

I ordered several of the lowest level undead into the room to check for traps but nothing happened. Ted tilted his head as did Gobluke but we moved inside as well. I was sure this wasn’t the core as that crystal would have many more magical sigils around it. It was essentially a magical device after all.

“I guess Alessa choose the correct path after all,” I said rubbing the back of my head.

“Looks like it.” 

I turned to head back to the entrance when I found it was gone. “You have got to be kidding me.” Ted spun around and saw what I was talking about and started to run towards where the entrance had been. I turned back to the crystal and decided to check it for magical workings.

A surge of mana rippled through the room as an image of Lucifer appeared. “Welcome! Welcome! You are either one of two sorts of people. A descendant of that bastard Oberon or and adventurer that doesn’t know how to leave well enough alone.” 

I glanced at Gobluke. “Well he’s not entirely wrong.” I could technically fit into both those categories, as I could remember when I was an adventurer not leaving well enough alone. Not to mention, Irgire was here as well. 

I refocused on the image. He had paused for dramatic effect. “Since you want to journey through this dungeon so badly, I’ve left you a little gift. You are going to have a lot of fun with it.” The image started laughing crazily before the crystal started to vibrate until it began to break into smaller shards. 

“Brace yourselves!” I shouted at everyone in the room before there was a flash of light that made it impossible to see anything. I felt the telltale signs of teleportation magic being used and then found ourselves in an entirely new room. Another crystal like the one that just shattered was present and pulsing gently.

I heard laughing and turned to find Irgire laughing hard. He saw everyone looking at him and waved us off until he finally stopped. “Sorry! Sorry. I just couldn’t help it. I was trapped in stone for over seven hundred years and now I’ve found myself trapped all over again.” 

I lowered the hand that had been forming sigils for a spell from behind my back. I wasn’t about to have another person betray me again. I patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry. I got this.”

This time the entrance was back, and we could see light spilling from the other side. I ordered the undead to investigate while we hung back. I wouldn’t put it past Lucifer to leave another trap for when we got here. I just hoped we were still in the dungeon and not another place all together. That would complicate things after all.