Dungeon Annihilation 11 (Patreon)

Hey Guys! So double upload today. There just aren't enough days in the week for me to upload once a day! haha! But hey, that means more content for you guys! Though I have had some delete his pledge due to me uploading too much, I will never understand that one. Anywho. Here you go!

P.S> When I truly hit full time I don't know what I'm going to do. lol


 

Louella

Establishing myself with all the guilds was more of a headache than I cared for. Most weren’t nobles but were still people that nobles would need to watch themselves around. Given that my noble title was basically a laughable joke, I was put in a rough spot with some of the masters. 

At least a party had already reached the first boss room. They were nearly wiped out but the information they brought back was still helpful. The boss was quite intelligent from what the remaining party members report. Calling himself Pride, he took down a C rank party in less than five minutes. Not a feat that a recently born dungeon should be able to do.

I shook my head and went back to work on the stack of papers. They were mostly messages from various nobles and parties that were a bit too famous to travel unannounced to a new dungeon. Mainly the parties from Lecazar that would technically be crossing the border. 

“I’m going to have to dive the dungeon, aren’t I?” I mumbled after reading the message.

“Why would you have to do that?” Ezal asked from her own desk. As my bodyguard, she was being forced to work on paperwork while we were at the manor. At least she took it like a champ. 

“Because my tier one level four and we already have tier two people coming to the valley,” I replied handing her the message. Under different circumstances I might have just thrown it away but given my current circumstances, I couldn’t afford to be quite so judgmental.

Ezal read it over before she tossed it to the desk in front of her. “Well… that’s not good.”

I gave a small smile at her reaction. I couldn’t blame her. Ivan the adventurer. He was famous in Lecazar as what was known as a slave diver. He would buy a large group of expendable slaves and dive as far as he could into the dungeon. A rumor has it that he entered a dungeon with a hundred slaves once and only returned with four.

“Like I said, I need to start diving the dungeon to get stronger. That way I could actually refuse this scumbag entry into the village.”

“Maybe the dungeon will claim his life,” Ezal said with a snicker.

“We can only hope.”

We lapsed into silence for a while as we worked on more of the paperwork. Other than some nobles requesting information of the profitably of the dungeon. I made sure to respond to all of those, as they would set up ventures here if it was worth it. I made sure to keep it vague but hopeful on the outlook.

A knock sounded at the door and Iveta walked into the office. She had a few letters in her hand that had arrived from messenger hawks in the few hours we’d been working. I did my best, but a groan still slipped out. Iveta didn’t miss and only grinned as she handed them over.

“Don’t worry. They’re all from the settlement guilds. An offer of ten silver a month got quite a few families looking to relocate out here,” she said. 

“Oh, thank god. I don’t know if I could stand reading another self-absorbed noble’s flowery script.”

“You have flowery handwriting,” Ezal commented without looking up.

“Yes, and I’m a woman. Most of these are from men that have better handwriting than I do,” I shot back. Some of them even had perfume on them to flaunt their wealth. I just found it over the top. 

“Let them write pretty. For most, that’s all they’re good for,” Ezal said waving her hand in the air.

“True.” I thought my father was the same way, until it turned out he was willing to get a lot dirtier than I expected for his plans to go the way he wanted them to. The thought he might have his own daughter killed had never crossed my mind until the day an assassin was flinging spells at me. Thank god for the amulet I’d just gotten that reflected the spell or I wouldn’t be here right now. 

Ezal finished the document she was working on then cracked her neck. She turned to me. “If you want to dive the dungeon, we’re going to need a decent team. Just the two of us won’t make it very far.”

I nodded. We were decent mages… Ezal was a decent mage, but we needed frontline fighters and a scout. From the sounds of it, we needed several scouts. The memory of the goblin’s arm extending from the scouts chest from when we went in the first time still haunted me every now and then. 

“We’ll have to recruit. I’m sure we can snag a few good adventurers as they come into the valley. Noble parties are well received as the usually are able to leave the dungeon,” I said meeting her eyes. 

She laughed. “The rumor about dungeons being able to know who not to kill debate. Certainly, from what I saw with this one, I would be inclined to believe. The question then, are we worthy of the dungeon keeping us alive?”

~~~

“It is a pleasure to met you, Sir Ivan,” I said with a very fake smile on my face. I had absolutely no love for slavers. Espeically, one that uses them in this fashion. If it was up to me, I would have him detained then hanged, but alas power makes right.

“As it should be. Do not worry yourself, I will be heading into the dungeon tomorrow morning. Once I have bested all that the dungeon has to offer, I will be on my way,” Ivan said with a smug smile.

I ground my teeth at the attitude he was giving me. Still, I took several deep breaths to calm myself and put my smile back on. “A few parties have made it to the boss so far, while all of them failed to beat him, there is a lot of information on him as he usually allows one or two of the members leave.”

“This is a goblin dungeon, yes? If no one has bested the first boss then the quality of adventurers in this area must be quite low.”

“I can’t vouch…” I started to say when a man walked by me. My eyes followed him for a moment as I tried to place him. He was heading from the dungeon and appeared to be by himself. A black ax rested on his back. The moment passed as he turned a corner and I shook my head. Ivan looked at me like I was missing a few marbles. “Sorry. I can’t vouch for that but I can say the dungeon is much more challenging than other goblin dungeons on record.”

Ivan snorted. “I will be the judge of that. Direct me to the best inn that the town has. I will not be sleeping in a tent.”

“Yes. That would be the Valley’s Flower. Part of it is still undercontruction but several of the rooms should be open.” I glanced behind him to the several dozen slaves that looked like they were about to collapse. “Though, I’m not sure there is enough rooms for all of them.”

“Are you daft? Why would I waste coin on rooming slaves? They will sleep next to the carts!” 

“Of course.” I just wanted to strangle this infuriating man. How the hell does he think he is? I just hoped he didn’t cause any problems for Talinda. He wasn’t above sending thousands of slaves to their deaths every year. He might try something with the beautiful elf.

After he left Ezal turned to me. “It took all my will power not to burn that man to a crisp.”

“I am willing to bet he has that effect on everyone he meets.” I looked to the north where clouds of fog had started to be a constant sight since the dungeon started releasing so much water. We’d also gained a nice lake to the side of the valley. From the reports I’d gotten, fishing was amazing there due to the water being dungeon water. 

While I had worries about the local wildlife, those were the least of my concern. The adventurer population was booming thanks to the amount of coin that you can gain just from the first floor of the dungeon. It made me worry about what could be obtained further up. 

The good news associated with that is the amount of coin I was getting through taxes. Combined with the guilds and businesses that were paying to rent land and have buildings put up for them, I was no longer broke. If I didn’t have to worry about my position being stolen from me, I would be able to retire and likely live the rest of my life in comfort from what came in from the dungeon.

Again, it came to power. I needed to increase my cultivation. The best way for me to do that is to practice in a storm, but that was not very practical. A dungeon was the next best thing for me as their mana was less aspected compared to doing it say in my room. That was the main reason that I solidify my decision to dive.

“Hurry and recruit a party. I want to dive the dungeon soon,” I told her. I turned on my heel and made for the manor. 

~~~

Ezal gestured to the party lined up behind her. “These are the best that coin can buy.” I looked them over with a critical eye, even though I could only tell superficial information. The group of four certainly looked nice and well trained, but I felt they were green to dungeon diving. 

“I supposed introductions are in order,” I said nodding to Ezal.

“Starting from the left. We have the heavy defender Tez. He is known for protecting his party with his tower shield and crushing his enemies with his hammer. Next we have Sara, a rogue with an affinity to dark. Being a cat beastkin, she is able to detect even the most difficult traps.”

“Very nice,” I said taking in the mountain of a man and the woman that was almost shorter than a dwarf. Her cat ears twitched as I looked her over.

“Careful about getting too close,” she said with a purr then handed back my coin purse.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Don’t mind her! She might have sticky fingers, but she’ll give it back if she likes you. As well as a dead bird sometimes,” Tez roared as he patted her head. I worried that he was going to pound her into the ground but noticed that she was flexing her body so the impact was negated to some degree.

“Moving on, we have Mary and Flin, they are from the first party to encounter the boss. As they haven’t formed a new party yet while they recovered, I went ahead and invited them. Mary is a Tier one level four priestess, while Flin is an archer with decent skill. I tested them all and they all met my standards.”

Mary bowed her head with her arms crossed in front of her chest. “May the grace of Lelune be with you.”

“Thanks for the opportunity!” Flin said while rubbing the back of his head.

“Thank you all for accepting to form a party. As I am the Lord of this town, our dives might be far apart, but I’ll make sure to compensate you during that time. As I’m sure Ezal here has told you, I am a lightning mage. Let us work together to reach greatness,” I said. I moved down the line shaking hands with each of them.

Sara yawned in a very cat like fashion. “I like to take a cat nap just before noon. Can we factor that in?”

I just put my forehead in my hand.