Dungeon Annihilation 21

Jello Everyone! I hope the day is going well for everyone. 

Louella

The storm subsided almost like it had been a bad dream. The main thing was that I wanted to teach that dungeon host a lesson. I did my best to just suppress the urge for the time being though. It would do no one any good if I picked a fight with a dungeon. So seventy plus adventurers and I trekked home in the mud.

To be honest, I should be glad the issue ended as quickly as it had. The Marquis was set to arrive in a few weeks. It would have been a fiasco had we’d literally been at war with the tower. I still needed to meet with the Guildmasters to confirm the plans for his visit. I tightened my hand into a fist, my mana flowing smoother than it ever had before. At least now, they wouldn’t all treat me like a child.

I moved through the line of adventurers until I came up next to Jacqueline. “Thank you for paying the dungeon. I’ll make sure you’re compensated once more of the taxes come in.” Few people would have had a platinum coin among those that came to help. In fact, few people in the valley current would have a platinum coin considering it was worth close to a hundred gold coins.

“Oh, think nothing of it dear. I see you had a close call last night. I’m glad you managed to breakthrough instead,” she said as we walked.

“Yes. I nearly died,” I replied truthfully. I found it was best not to lie to the people that were helping you.

“Three of the resident mages did. They underestimated the storm and pulled in more than they could handle. I was unable to aid them in time.”

I looked at her in horror. I didn’t realize there were other lightning mages working to cultivate last night. “That… that is unfortunate.”

“Truly. But that is the way of life. You never know when you are going to be recalled into the cycle until it is that time,” Jacqueline said with a far-off gaze. 

“I hate to put this on you so soon after your guild’s loss, but a Marquis from Thonaca is coming to inspect the dungeon in a few weeks. I was hoping your mages could put on a demonstration of some sort.”

We walked in silence for several long moments before she gave me a curt nod. “I believe we can handle it. It might serve as a good distraction for the ones that were friends to the dead.”

“Thank you. I’ll leave you then,” I said moving away. I made my way around thanking all the adventurers that answered the call. I narrowed my eyes when I realized that Ivan was noticeably absent, but it was probably for the best. Had we gone to battle. He would have just sent his slaves. 

The crack of thunder drew my attention back to the dungeon. While the storm had reduced to the vicinity around the tower, it still covered close to twenty kilometers. The top of the tower was almost impossible to make out from the ground at this point. It would make telling the level of the dungeon much harder going forward.

“It is terrifying when you think of some of the legends regarding dungeons of the past. Especially Undead Queen Alara to the north.” I turned and found Cassie standing next to me observing the dungeon as well.

“That is what has me worried. Do we have another Alara on our hands, and if so, should I call the kingdoms before it gets out of hand?” I asked giving voice to my worries.

“I would hold off a bit longer. The host did pull back the storm for only a platinum coin. To me, I felt like the host performed a spell, made a mistake then was stubborn about not fixing it.”

“I hope you’re right.” Thinking about it, the host was quite… talkative. I wasn’t sure how truthful the voice was in its offer for power, but I doubted that it would even bother offering power to me unless it saw something it could use. It all depended on how intelligent the damn thing was.

“Come on. Let’s get back to the town. We have storm damage to fix!” Cassie said with more enthusiasm than I felt was needed. She patted my shoulder and pulled me along. 

~~~

I looked around the office that Commander Yin had set up. She had her armor set aside with her sword that looked like it had recently been polished sitting next to it. I had come here as soon as we got back from the dungeon and had begun discussing the Marquis’s visit with her. “Do you think you can handle someone of his personage?”

Commander Yin looked up from her map of the valley. It was much more detailed than mine and I made a note to ask her for a copy later. She had even marked areas that were becoming a problem. I didn’t think we’d have bandits this soon, but I noticed two separate camps marked in the passes leading to the valley.

“We should be fine. The Marquis has his own guards that he brings just about everywhere he goes. You would be hard pressed to make a move against him even on a off day. With the additional forces you hired and his own, we shouldn’t have any issues.”

“That’s good. The last thing we need is something to happen while he is here.”

“As I suggested before, I would try to make a connection with him. If you could get the Marquis’s backing your position as Lord here would be much more solid.”

I agreed with her there. There were few people that would want to offend the Marquis. Even fewer that did and could do anything about it. If I could make some sort of connection with him then I would be a lot safer here. At least from the nobles.

“I will try to do as you say, but unfortunately, it takes two to build a bridge.” I looked back to the map. “Should we be worried about those?” I asked pointing to the bandit camps marked.

Commander Yin glanced at the map before getting a wicked smile. “They sprang up quite recently. No doubt your neighbors are trying to harass travelers that are heading to this domain. Classic noble tactics. We’ll let them sit for a few days then deal with them. They are on guard having just established themselves in the area. Though, I wouldn’t be surprised if they pissed off an adventurer and they dealt with them for us.”

“If you think its wise to let this fester,” I said not sure that was really a good idea.

Commander Yin looked at me for several seconds with a raised eyebrow. “Alright. I’ll tell you the truth, but don’t spread it around or the trap with be sprung.”

“Trap?” I asked with even more concern now.

“I’m trying to catch someone. Rumors has it they like to go to frontier towns and spread… unholy powers to people. If I can capture one of these blasphemers, I can move up the ranks in the Golden Dawn.”

“How sure are you that they will come here?” The last thing I wanted was one of the necromancers to make their way to my town. I trusted Commander Yin, but not with my life. Not yet at least. Necromancers were some of the deadliest mages on the continent right now. Not to mention they were near impossible to tell from others.

“I have a contact. They assure me they will come. There hasn’t been a new dungeon in nearly fifty years. You think they will let that slide. We don’t need them turning this one to necromancy like they did the one in the North.”

I shuddered at the thought of the destruction that could be released if something like Undead Queen Alara was repeated down here. She had just been created when a War broke out and she fed off the tremendous death. No one was sure why, but she began using unholy mana. A drastic change from her nature mana of her creation.

“If you can assure the safety of the valley and the town, I won’t say anything more,” I said finally. If she was that sure they would attempt to make contact with the dungeon then better to let her handle this her way. The last thing I had time to do was get in her way.

“Thank you, Baroness. Trust me. I will protect this town with my life. On that I can assure you,” Commander Yin said with a salute and a head bow.

“I appreciate that. So do the couple hundred people now living here. I will be back when the Marquis finally arrives. We will need to coordinate our efforts. That way I will be able to sleep at night.”

“As you wish,” Commander Yin said with another bow. With a nod, I made my way out. Ezal and Iveta were standing in the hall next to some of Commander Yin’s guards. The air was tension, but I couldn’t tell what the cause was. Though if Iveta was back that meant it was time for me to embrace my hypocrisy.

~~~

“These are the best noble born slaves we could afford.” I looked over the five people. Two elves and three humans. Their families had lost their nobles rights in a war and were forced into slavery by their enemy. 

Observing each for about a minute, I turned on my heel at the last one. “I know you all hate the idea of being a slave. Quite frankly, I hate it too. But… I have to pragmatic in my current situation. I need people that are capable of math, writing, reading, as well as has a good head on their shoulders paperwork.”

The three women appeared to breathe a sigh of relief when they heard that. The men didn’t appear phased. Men slaves were usually sent to the fields or a battleground. They would happy just to be able to live. Whether they liked to do paperwork, well I hoped they were able to move past it if they did not.  

Women if bought by a noble served as concubines generally, if not sent to a brothel. As the three here were nobles, they were quite beautiful. Two elves and a human, I was actually amazed we were able to buy them before one of the more affluent nobles got ahold of them. 

“If you serve me properly, you will probably never know that you are a slave. I plan to allow you to carry on with your lives as if you were free. That being said my position is very precarious at the moment. I need people I can trust working with me. Sadly, that leaves my hands particularly tied.” I looked to Iveta. 

“You may respond,” she said with a bit of mana in her voice.

“We thank you for this salvation you have offered us,” one of the elves said dropping to the ground and bowing to me. The others joined her before I got a chance to say anything.

“Please stand up. Like I said I want to treat you like normal. The only thing I am going to bind you to is loyalty to the valley and privacy of the information you see coming through the townhall.”

“And you don’t realize what fate your follower has saved us from. Even if I don’t have to, I want to,” she said without lifting her head.

Iveta placed a hand on my shoulder and I turned to her. “They were going to be killed.” I raised an eyebrow as the women were of a high class. “With the recent war, no one has a storage of slaves. Nobles are much harder to break, thus they were going to be killed just to save the trouble.” 

I just nodded my understanding. After that, we transferred the slaves over to my ownership with the device Iveta brought from the original slaver. I let them have the rest of the day to rest. There was no reason to throw them into work when the sun was already setting in the distance.