Dungeon Annihilation 3&4 (Patreon)

Hey Guys! Sorry for no upload yesterday. There was a really bad storm that knocked the power and internet out. I've been busy cleaning up my store to get it back to operating condition. That said I don't have any new chapters for you. So I'm using some of the Annihilation chapters I'd written a while ago. I'll try to get a chapter up tomorrow, but if I don't I apologize!


 

Chapter 3

Louella

I lifted the book from my face as I heard a banging at my door. I frowned as Ezal, my battlemage and maid, knew not to disturb me during this time. I had to put on a happy face for these villagers and could only stomach it for so long. This was my private time.

Tossing the book to the side, I got up. “What is it?”

Ezal opened the door. “Mistress. A hunter has come with… disturbing news,” she said.

“Did something eat one of their cows?” I asked with a snort.

“No. I think you should hear the report,” Ezal said shaking her head. I looked at her more seriously. Ezal would know if something was serious or not. If she was acting like this then it might truly be a worrying matter.

“Very well. I’ll be there in a minute,” I said waving my hand for her to close the door. 

I got completely off the bed and moved over to my vanity. I quickly brushed my long black hair into a bun. Checking to make sure I was presentable by this village standards, which weren’t much, I looked over my appearance one last time before I looked at the mirror with my red eyes staring back. I grabbed my battle-wand and walked out into what counted as my sitting room.

I wanted to glare at the mansion that was little more than a cabin. I had my loving father and his harlot of a lover to thank for my living conditions. A new wife certainly didn’t want the daughter of her husband’s dead wife to inherit anything, so she forced me to flee here. Father didn’t so much as bat an eyelid when I was nearly assassinated.

I ground my teeth just thinking about it. Thankfully, I had friends in the Thonaca Kingdom and was able to buy the Rank of Baron and this land that nobody wanted. I now owned nearly seven hundred kilometers of undeveloped monster infested land that had only cost me a single month’s of a noble’s income. I swore I would fry that hussy and my worthless father someday. 

I took a deep breath and cleared my thoughts. Putting on a smile, I walked into the room to find Koil, one of the village’s hunters, sitting on the wooden bench looking nervous. He wiped his palms on his tousers several times when he saw me.

“Mister Koil, correct?” I asked sitting across from him.

“Yes, Baroness.”

“What do you have for me?” I asked while I motioned for Ezal to make some tea. 

“The stranger’s hut, Baroness. I was passing it this morning and noticed something off. I went over to investigate and found blood outside the entrance of the hut. I drew my sword and checked inside, careful of monsters. Everything was gone, almost like it had been wiped clean. I fear that the stranger may be responsible for Miss Rim’s daughter’s disappearance two days ago. I found a spot that looked like someone was slammed against the wall.”

I narrowed my eyes at his story. The stranger had shown up a few days ago. He had gold and appeared to want to keep to himself. This village was full of people like that, so we didn’t think much about it.

“Hold off on the tea, Ezal. We’re heading out to investigate this,” I called over to her. She closed her hand and the flame vanished from under the pot she was holding. 

“Should I gather some of the hunters from the village. It might be dangerous,” Ezal asked coming back over to me.

“No time. From the sounds of it, the deed has already been done. We just have to hope we can find some clues.”

She nodded and we left the house. Koil stayed with us, likely out of a sense of duty to protect us women. A few minutes later, we made it to the hut. A look around releaved that Koil had told the truth. Everything was gone. Wiped clean. 

“Do you sense anything?” I asked Ezal worriedly.

“Someone started to use very dark magic, but . . . I believe it failed,” she answered after scanning the area for a while. This was why I was glad she was a battlemage. “Other than that, I can’t tell what happened, but my guess is that the spell didn’t accept the sacrifice and absorbed everything in the area to try to make up the mana cost.”

“Burn it,” I ordered her and stepped back. 

A second later, a fireball sailed into the shack and ignited the entire thing like dry tinder. We watched it burn until nothing but ash remained. Unholy magics were not to be played around with. The last thing I wanted was a ghost to start haunting the valley. Though, those are reportedly rare according to the academy. 

“Koil. Tell the other hunters to be vigilant. While it looks like everything was consumed, you know its better not to take necromancers lightly.”

“I will, lady Louella,” Koil bowed then quickly headed back into the village.

“Please inform the girl’s mother what likely happened here.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Ezal replied with a bow. 

I glared at the pile of ash. I had only been here for two months. I had hoped for a bit more time before everything started going to shit. I just shook my head and made my way back into the village. I stopped at the little bakery to buy some bread as the smell made me realize I was quite hungry. 

I watched a few of the villagers go about their day will I nibbled at the hard bread. I almost needed some water to be able to stomach it, but that wuold have been considered rude. I ended up channeling a bit of mana to my mouth to make the chewing easier. 

I was almost done with the bread when Zuin, another of the village hunters rushed into the village square. He was breathing heavily. He glanced around the square then locked onto me. I groaned internally as I wondered what had happened now. 

“Lady Louella!” he shouted as he ran over to me.

“Mister Zuin. What is that has you in such a frenzied state?” I asked trying to project an air of concern.

“I was… I was hunting my normal ground when I spotted tracks. As they were humanoid, I followed them and nearly stumbled into a goblin scout. Had I been any unluckier… I managed to back track the scout to his host. They are roughly a hundred strong,” Zuin explained with heated breaths.

“Where were they headed?” I asked grabbing the man’s shoulder with more force than I had meant to.

“North, along the base of the valley wall. They likely plan to avoid us for the time being until they can test our strength.”

“Damn it. If it’s not one thing its another today,” I said scowling at the news. “Zuin. You know the woods. Watch them for me.”

“Yes, Baroness.”

Ezal joined me a few minutes later having heard the news from the villagers. We quickly made our way back to the manor. I had brought a messenger hawk so I could have some form of communication outside this blasted valley. It ate it’s weight in food, but at least it might be earning its keep now. 

Less than ten minutes after we got back, the hawk was on its way to the Ebonyfalls’ Adventurer Guild. I just hoped they would be able to respond in time before the worst happened. I turned to Ezal. “How many do you think you could take out before you were overwhelmed?”

She regarded me with a serious eye for a moment. “Twenty. Depending on types. With your support upwards to fifty.”

“Well. At least we can take out half,” I said with a sarcastic laugh. Maybe I’d managed to avoid my time, and now death was trying to collect. 

~~~

A week passed with nothing happening. Well, that was not quite true. A massive building had appeared up the mountain in the north. I had surveyed the entire valley when I first arrived, and it was not there two months ago. I didn’t want to risk any of the villagers, so no one had approached it yet.

There was a pounding on the manor door early on the seventh day. When Ezal opened the door, one of the hunters that volunteered to watch the pass in case more goblins followed the first group, stood with an excited look. “The adventurers have arrived!”

“Seven days. I wonder why they were able to get here so quickly?” It usually took two weeks unless you had a decent horse or monster as a mount.

“Maybe they got lucky and used the transfer node,” Ezal ventured. I nodded it was the only way they could have gotten here this quickly. I quickly jumped to my feet and we made our way to meet the party. I was not impressed with what I found once I reached them.

There were only ten and they were barely into tier one. All their equipment was tier one as well, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. They quickly made their way to me and gave Thonaca Kingdom’s greeting that was given to most rank holders. A quick hand to the heart and a slight head bow. I returned it with a bow of my head.

“Baroness Louella, a pleasure to meet you. We come to complete the commission of goblin eradication. Luckily, we were in the area doing another quest and they sent us the commission in case it was an emergency,” said a man in the front as he pulled out a sheet of paper bearing the guild’s mark. 

I looked it over quickly, then nodded and gestured to the forest to the north of the valley. “Thank you for responding so quickly. The villagers and I have barely been able to sleep these past seven days knowing so many monsters were so close to the village.”

“I promise that your commission will be completed without fail. While we may look green, we are a solid C-rank party and have completed more than one such commission. I am the leader, Herald,” the man said after taking the commission back from me.

I nodded. The details were described in the message I sent. The guild wouldn’t send a party of a fool’s mission. “The goblins entered a mysterious building that appeared on the mountain side several days ago. They have not emerged.”

“A ruin?” Herald asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“I’m not sure. As I said, it appeared overnight a few days ago. None of the villagers are skilled enough to test such a theory,” I replied with a shake of my head.

“Interesting. We would like to set out first thing in the morning,” Herald said getting nods from the rest of his party. 

“I would like to accompany you. I need to access this ruin for the safety of my village. I have mage training, with my element being lightning. My guard is also a trained Fire battlemage,” I asked the leader after I thought it over a moment.

“That would be much appreciated, but if things go sideways, we must protect ourselves first,” the leader answered, but he seemed reluctant.

“Not a problem,” I assured him, not offended, as this was common practice among adventurers.

Chapter 4

Regan

I watched the goblins crowd around the entrance to my dungeon. A wide opening that faded to darkness only a few steps inside. I planned to add lights later, I just wasn’t sure how I wanted to go about it yet. 

The goblins sniffed the air around the dungeon before a large one that was almost the same size as a human shoved his way through the group and took in my two floor tower. It snorted before it forced two goblins inside. They looked around before they ran back out and told the big guy what they saw. 

The big one waved toward the entrance and all the goblins moved inside. I counted a hundred and two of the goblins after they all made inside. When I saw that my mana started to tick up as more of them entered, I decided that I could let them stay for a few minutes. 

The horde had a variety of weapons. Mainly wooden clubs. A few of them had rusted swords and daggers. Likely taken from a victim. I realized that my goblins were unarmed. Well, I would just have to hope the best for them. I told Zombie to come out of the tunnel, just in case things got hairy. 

It was late in the evening, and the goblins appeared to tired from the day. The big one had the horde move to the side of the entrance then had a couple dozen run back outside. I was wondering why until they came back with arm full of wood, fruits, berries, and a few carcasses of wildlife. 

I was keeping my goblins in the farthest part of the first floor, so a fight didn’t break out. The big goblin had set a few of his brutes as a sort of guard around the makeshift camp. I rubbed my mental hands as I considered how to acquire my new batteries. I wasn’t about to let something generating mana to leave so easily.

“Set. Fade to shadows and let me know when their guards fall asleep.”

“Yes, master.” I followed her path through the dungeon until she was near the goblin’s camp. I held my breath until I was sure that none of the goblins had magic that could sense her. I didn’t know the standard of this world, but I wouldn’t put it past the goblins to have some sort of shaman. 

Nodding when I was sure she was safe, I moved over to my two dozen goblins. Other than the one that wore the skeleton, the rest were almost mindless. The only weapons I could create were the knives from the shed, plus the bone knife. 

I debated for a few minutes but decided on the bone knife. Its mana cost was cheaper than the metal version I had available. It seemed the runes didn’t count towards the cost as they were carved into the material rather than written with an ink or other material. Still after creating just short of two dozen of them, I was left with barely any mana.

“Master. Most of the goblins are asleep. If you approach from the left side, you should be good.”

“Good job, Set,” I sent back then looked over my motley group of goblins. Deciding to play it safe, I ordered them as accurately as I could think to do. Which was almost to the letter as I was a computer programmer.

My goblins came to the edge of the camp’s light and I could see a hidden battle lust start to wash over a few of those at the front. It must be genetic for them to affect my goblins as they were nearly soulless. I had the goblins mark individual targets and sneak up on the sleeping camp.

With a gnarled hand wrapped around a gnarled mouth, the seven guards on this side of the camp were grabbed and carried into the shadows without any of the sleeping goblins being any the wiser. I made sure to kill the airflow, something I found I could do, as seven of my goblins plunged the daggers into a respective goblin’s heart. Wouldn’t want the smell of blood awaken the rest of their targets.

After the assassination, the goblins changed. Dark and death mana flooded into their bodies smoothing out some of the nasty skin. A few grew slightly taller, but most stayed the same. The biggest change was the spark of intelligence that I could see in their eyes.

“Again,” I sent to the goblins.

The newer form of the goblins crossed the distance to the camp in half the time and twice as quiet. Pairs of them picked up their sleeping victims and made for the shadows. A few seconds later, I had seven more of the advanced versions. 

Another trip and the goblin camp had lost two dozen of its members. The biggest surprise was when the last goblin killed his target. It was the one with the skeleton wrapped around him. I’d saved him for last incase something went sideways during the operation. 

When he stabbed his goblin, the death and dark mana flowed not only into him but his skeleton covering. The bones started to fuse with the goblin and soon I had a pale green goblin with bone spikes sticking from various parts of his body. Even the bone knife had fused with him and the runes were etched on his claws. 

I had my forces pull back for the moment. The first operation had been a success. Spending a little mana, I turned all the dead goblins into skeletons and had them wrap around the rest of my unchanged goblins. 

Now it was time to take some prisoners. Each death had produced a large amount of mana but having them long term would get me the biggest net gain. Plus, I had enough to do some renovations. Ordering my goblins to stay on guard, I moved to the second floor. 

Looking around, I tried to decide the best way to do this. I would need cells. “Set. Will I still get mana for creatures locked in my dungeon correct?”

“Yes, Master. Though you will gain more if you give them a way out. The universe will decide how much mana you gain.”

“That isn’t too hard to arrange,” I said with a small chuckle. 

I moved over to a wall and created a room with bars as the walls. It was large enough to fit all the goblins and then some. There was only one door and I created a simple phrase to lock it. In English I wrote, ‘Am I locked up?’ the correct answer being ‘Yes’ would unlock the doors. I might have to change it down the road if I find out English was a thing on this planet, but for now, it should serve to keep the goblins contained.

I moved back to my goblins. “Start transporting them to their new home,” I ordered the bone goblin as I was starting to see him as the leader of this band. They moved forward towards their target with silent footsteps. I grinned as I watched the first batch being carried towards the cells. 

A few minutes later, the two dozen goblins that were giving me a grand total of four mana an hour shot up to ten mana an hour. There were still almost fifty goblins to lock up and that include the big guy who was giving me ten mana on his own. He would the crowning jewel in this ugly crown.

Everything was going well, my goblins were only a few steps from their next batch when one of the goblin guards that was asleep fell over from the stick he was leaning against. The loud guttural shouting combined with the clattering stick woke just about every other goblin in the camp.

With less than a second to decide, I ordered my goblins to aim to disable the other goblins. Without missing a beat, they shot forward and brought their knifes down on arms and legs. A few losing the limb in the process. Blood sprayed into the air and the enemy goblins roared in anger and pain. 

The big guy shouted as he brought his rusted scimitar around to face the enemy. With a guttural roar, he pointed at my goblins and the remaining goblins charged. Mine roared back and charged with equal ferocity. When the goblins collided, it turned into a full-on brawl. Mine were at an advantage as they had the skeleton armor that I created from the goblins they’d killed earlier. 

The clubs would bounce off the bones, while the few swords would bite into the bones but due to being dull and rusted would get lodged or fail to cut too deep. My goblins, on the other hand, would usually wound a goblin enough with a swipe of their claws to take them out of the fight. Especially, the bone goblin, if he stabbed a goblin, they would be drained of their mana and absorb it into himself.

“Set. Is that bad?” I asked mentally pointing at Bony, my bone goblin.

“He might cause some trouble if some overly righteous mortals catch wind of him,” Set answered looking the goblin over.

“Lovely. I guess I’ll treat him like a weapon that I use for the people I want to make sure die,” I said mentally shaking my head.

“That would probably be safest until you gain a few more floors.”

I turned from Bony back to the fight at large. Most of the outsider goblins had been incapacitated. All that remained was the big guy and two of his more well-equipped goblins. My goblins circled around them and they proceeded to roar and hiss at each other baring large amounts of teeth.

The big goblin looked around at his fallen horde and the last two goblins still standing then violently threw his scimitar to the ground. He flew to his back side in a crosslegged sitting postion and slammed his hand on his chest. The other two goblins looked at him like he was crazy. He said something else and they followed suit tossing their weaposn to the ground. 

“I guess they surrender,” I said to Set who nodded. “They might have wished to have chosen death.”

My goblins grabbed the three roughly, making sure I noticed, to dig their nails into shoulders and arms. The escorted them to the cells then made several trips to bring the rest of the injured goblins to the cells.

“Congratulations, master. A prefect victory,” Set said bowing towards me.

“There is only more were that came from,” I replied as everything from the goblin camp sank into the ground as I absorbed it. The first floor of the dungeon returned to pitch black.