Dungeon Annihilation 16

Evening everyone! I don't have much to say just wanted to drop this here you you all. 

Regan

I felt a large amount of mana start to enter my aura early in the morning, Glancing over to the source, I found Ivan and his slave band making their way down the new path from the town that had been constructed in the last few days. Certainly, made it easier for me to tag all the people about to enter my dungeon, but that was my little secret.

“Set,” I called for my dungeon fairy. She appeared a moment later. “Things are about to get interesting around here.”

“Do you think he will succeed? That is a lot of bodies for Pride to fight against.”

“Depends on how smart he is, I suppose.”

We watched the group of over fifty mortals gather in front of my dungeon. I was impressed that Ivan was actually close to the end of tier one from the mana sensation I was getting from him. They made their way inside and he began ordering them into ranks. The slaves weren’t anything special. I was barely getting mana from some of them.

What was interesting was the magic that bound them. I zoomed in on one of the slaves where the crest that pulsed with subtle magic sat. I studied it for several minutes while they walked through the first floor. I even ordered the goblins to ignore them for the moment so I wouldn’t be distracted.

The magic runes were compared to the magic script I was learning by studying the dungeon magic. If I compared them to computer language, these runes were like fully formed processes while the magic script was more along lines of code that formed that process. My dungeon magic was allowing me to understand the script that would make up the runes.

I copied all the runes into a book I had recently started. While most things pertaining to magic and the dungeon were crystal clear in my mind. I didn’t want to risk losing that knowledge. Plus, I might be able to sell this knowledge depending on how the rest of the world was structured. 

Done for the moment, I decided to ignore them and go work on some more projects around the dungeon. I had been racking my brain, crystal, on how to get saltpeter to create gunpowder. I was hoping that Hedo would bring me some, but it’d been almost a week already and I was getting tired of waiting.

I raised the dungeon up another five floors while moving the lake to the top. I believed I had all the chemicals I needed to make nitrate potassium which was the hardest chemical to get for gunpowder. There had been abundance of sulfur in the mountain, likely a dead volcano. Then of course some charcoal which I got by burning some trees that my goblins pulled into the dungeon.

I thought I would have to make ammonia, but mortals still created it on this world. I was glad the fundamental chemistry of the people still worked the same as humans from Earth. It made gathering certain chemicals and elements easier as they were produced by the body. 

Moving to the middle of the new five floors, just in case I blew something up, I created a quick lab. I only needed to create about a handful of the chemical before I can create it for mana. I mentally cracked my knuckles as I got to work. A lot of this was going to be trial and error. Set flew nearby and sat on a post to watch.

A few hours later and half one of the floors missing, I had finally finished making potassium nitrate. I could see why gunpowder had lasted as the humans’ primary weapon on Earth for as long as it did. Just making the chemicals involved was destructive. Compared to saltpeter, gunpowder was easy to make as I just had to mix the grains of the three chemicals together. 

“Is it safe to approach, master?” Set asked from outside the top floors. When the first explosion happened I nearly lost her. 

“Yes. I’m finished for now.”

She flew up to make makeshift lab and ran her hand through the black powder. “What magic is this?”

“Gunpowder. Or this world’s version of it. Without some tests, I won’t know if it’s the same or less than my last world’s.”

“If that explosion from earlier was any hint. I would wager few can withstand this force,” Set said glancing at the large hole in the floor. I had to admit that was a surprise as well. One of the parties had turned and fled the dungeon when it happened.

With a thought I repaired the damaged floor and looked at my creation. With black powder, many options open up to me. The question was how to implement them carefully. A few guns wasn’t going to be enough to destroy the world after all. Besides actually making guns required another set of skills.

I glanced around the empty floors. I was sitting at tier one level seven after all the mana I had gathered. That let me have thirty five floors, but I was only using twenty of those with my new addition. I didn’t like the fact that as soon as I added floors someone ran off to tattle on me. I got a nasty idea. A bit of optical illusion should solve that problem. I mentally rubbed my hands at the thought when I felt someone challenge Pride.

Moving over I saw that Ivan and his slaves had reached the fifth floor and were challenging the boss. It appeared of the fifty slaves that made their way into the dungeon, only thirty remained. I shook my head at the inefficiency of it. Ivan stood behind his lines of slaves as they pressed forward on the bridge.

Poor Pride did his best, but his main thing was being nimble and maneuvering the threats to toss them off the bridge. Ivan had done his research and had the slaves behind the front row grab them. Pride wasn’t able to throw them easily. Ivan and his two members that weren’t slaves tossed spells at Pride, not worrying about the slaves they hit in the process. 

After about five minutes and ten slaves, Pride was defeated for the first time. He got the last say, however, as he threw his damaged and dying body over the edge of the bridge and fell laughing the entire way down. Ivan looked thoroughly pissed but grabbed the sword that Pride dropped before he jumped and the Boss token that appeared after he died from the fall.

For the first time, someone climbed the stairs to the next floor. There were gasps of awe when they saw the city spreading out in front of them. I wasn’t sure what they cultural design of their cities was like but from the sight I was seeing the gothic city was quite unique. I zoomed on Ivan to see what they would do.

“This is both amazing and terrifying. What you want to do my lord?” one of the two lackies asked Ivan as they overlooked the city. I had created the stairs to bypass much of the city so they would emerge on a terrace. That way people could understand that I wasn’t your everyday dungeon.

Ivan squeezed the boss token and the teleporter responded by glowing slightly. He walked over and looked at the circles of stone with magic runes around them. He yelled for a slave and had them stand on the circle. With understandable terror on their face, Ivan handed the token to him and told him then pressed the button on the pedestal next to the discs while ordering him to come back if he found a similar room.

With a flash of light the slave vanished. He reappeared on the first floor in a hidden room that you can only see out from. It was amazing what you could do with dungeon magic. Shaking, he peered out from the entrance then as if against his will he returned to the discs and pressed the only other rune that was glowing on the pedestal.

He reappeared in front of Ivan then explained what he saw. Ivan nodded then ordered him back with the other slaves. The slave just looked happy he was still alive.

“We’re returning for the day. Slaves first! Hurry up!” The slaves rushed onto the discs nearly falling off the edges. One woman was pushed by the press and half her body ended up off the platform just as Ivan pressed the rune. With a scream, her lower half was sliced clean off while her upper torso remained. 

She was still alive but wouldn’t last long. Blood started to pool around her as it followed the path of least resistance. With a look of disgust, Ivan ordered her pushed off the platform then pressed the button to teleport back to the first floor. I looked at the torso of the woman wondering what I should do. I did have a spell I wanted to test, but worried about using it on damaged goods.

I decided to go ahead and use the bind spell considering she helped me find a new feature for my teleporter. I used mana to seal her bleeding for a few seconds and returned blood pressure to her body so she would regain consciousness. With a slap from Set, the woman came around.

I didn’t want any illusions on the woman’s part, so I formed my eviler version avatar to have a conversation with her. With wide eyes, the woman stared at me. “Nice to meet you. I am… Earle. I am either your salvation or your damnation. Tell me, do you want to live?” I extended a shadowy hand to place it over her heart. An interesting side effect of my avatar was that I leeched the heat from the air.

“What… are… you?” she asked with pained gasps.

“Now, now, now. Does that really matter? I’m offering you a second chance. Even if I turned you into a monster, wouldn’t that be a blessing for you. No one would judge a monster for ripping the heart for a slave driver,” I said shaking my head after standing up.

At the mention of Ivan, her eyes hardened. With a nod she held her blood-soaked hand out. Strength filled her body as she said. “Very well! As long as I get the chance to kill that bastard, you can have me mind, body, and soul.”

“Very nice!” I reached forward and took her hand. Mana surged from my avatar into her body. Everything grew quiet instantly. “What is your name?” I asked with a whisper next to her ear. 

“Raven!” she screamed before the mana overtook her. Her legs reformed consisting out of shadows, while her upper body darkened. She had been an elf in life and her ears remained only with the ends leaking trails of smoke. Her eyes, which hadn’t closed since the process started never once blinked.

The mana pulsed from her as the spell finished. The light in the area darkened considerable just from her presence. She stood, completely naked, but sure of herself and without shame. Her eyes leaked shadow as well.

“How do you feel now that you have become mine?”

She flexed her fist a few times while taking deep breathes. When she was satisfied, she kneeled towards me. “Powerful, master.”

“Very good.” I placed my hand on her head and gauged her mana as well as studied her mana brain. This way I could make copies of her in the future. It was similar to the process my boss worked on. “Then what do you want to do?”

“Kill the man responsible for my would-be death!”

I laughed as I liked her spirit. “And you will but not right now. Ivan is useful to me. He has already brought me this wonderful gift,” I said as I stroked her cheek. “But I will allow you to accompany me when I go into town.”

“Thank you, master,” she said bowing her head.

First to get you dressed. You’d cause quite the stir if you went like that. She was rather decent before the spell being an elf. I wasn’t sure why fantasy worlds always had elves be abnormally beautiful, but she’d had it full strength. The dungeon magic only served to heighten it.

Using the metal and leather I had in my dimensional storage, I created a tight-fitting leather gambeson. Along with a black coat that had some defensive and movement spells woven in. I was about to make a weapon for her when I thought it better to get her weapon of choice. “What weapon do you feel most comfortable with?”

“Before I was sold into slavery, I used two short sword, master. I would be most comfortable with such weapons.” 

I created copies of the best swords that had come into the dungeon so far then realized that Pride’s and Wrath’s swords were much better compared. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel right walking through the town with her using them. It could mark us as a target. “These are the best I got for now,” I said then mumbled, “going to have to set up a workshop and make some creatures that know how to work with metal.”

“Thank you, my master. I will serve you well.”

I nodded then glanced outside the dungeon. Night had just about fallen, and I felt it was safe for us to head into town. “Set get ready to head into town. I want to see if we can cause some trouble.”

After altering my avatar and Set creating hers we moved over to the town. Other than the smoke leaking from her ears and eyes she appeared like a normal mortal during the night. We would have to be careful if we went inside any establishments. It took us even less time to reach the town now that the path had been cleared and all the mortals used it. We had less to worry about when flying. 

Set and I carried Raven between us until we reached the edge of the woods. From there were joined the crowd of workers and adventurers heading back into town. Many people just gave us a once over then left us alone. I’d made a sword for my avatar since I felt being visibly armed would be more offputting to most people that might try anything.

I took a gander and was right when I found Ivan at the tavern from the other night. He appeared to be in great spirits as he was laughing and generally enjoying himself. I didn’t have to think of a way to nonchalantly approach him as he spotted me coming through the door.

“Sir Earle! Come! Join me!” he shouted. I noticed there was a slight slur to his voice so he had to have started early.

Before we headed in, I grabbed Raven’s shoulder and whispered in her ear. “Do not cause a scene. This is an order.” I could sense the magic constricting around her slightly. She must have been planning to jump him when we got closer. I patter her shoulder. “Don’t worry. All in good time.”

We made our way over to Ivan. “Sir Earle. I am glad you are able to join me. I’ve had a very profitable day.”

“I had heard that someone conquered the boss for the first time. Dare I place my coin on you Sir Ivan?” I asked taking a seat at the table next to his party.

“You’d win that bet! Waitress! A round for my friends here!” Ivan shouted at the girl.

“Thank you, my friend. Tell me did you manage to get anything off the boss?” I asked hiding my smirk behind the mug the waitress brought. Other than the sword, Pride had thrown himself off the bridge to spite Ivan.

“No. Damn thing tossed himself,” Ivan said with an annoyed grimace, but smiled as pulled out an amulet. “No matter. With this I can make plenty of money for a while.”

“What secret does your trinket process?” I asked then ordered from the waitress. The food was the best in town apparently. I could only grin as I thought about a Gluttony floor. That would keep just about everyone in this forsaken world from proceeding further for a very long time.

“Allows me to bypass the first boss. I’m charging ten gold to give access to the higher levels.” I thought about some of the parties that came into the dungeon. I wasn’t sure if it was a common denominator, but they were all quite broke. It took a hundred silver to make a gold coin and a hundred copper to make a silver after all.

“Are any of the parties around here going to be able to afford that?” As if to prove my point, the bouncer, a recent addition apparently, threw two men out for not being able to pay their bill.

Ivan considered that for a moment. “You do have a point. What do you suggest, sir Earle?”

I noticed that Ivan’s party members looked particularly surprised when he asked me for advice. I grinned as I took a swig of the piss that passed for ale here before responding. “First, do you know if people can use the bypass without the token?”

“No. I ordered a slave to try and it didn’t respond to him.”

“Then there you go. You can charge to bring some parties up to the next set of floors then they have to pay you a percentage of their findings before they can return. You can use your slave force to ‘guard’ the bypass and not have to risk yourself until you want to move forward. Which would be after someone else has given you as much information on the floor as possible.”

I felt the table shudder a bit and turned to find Raven was almost visibly vibrating from what I can only assume was rage. I reached over to place my hand on her thigh then extended my claws. She took a breath from the pain but calmed down. I removed my hand and licked the blood, which had a nice mana taste, from my fingers. Ivan looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

“I needed something to wash the taste of the food here from my mouth. Just think of it as a dragonkin thing,” I said playing it off.