Dungeon Annihilation 15 (Patreon)

Morning guys! So I guess Patreon is adding sales tax to many pledges. I'm not exactly sure what that entails other than some people will be charged a bit more by Patreon. I think if its the five dollar pledge it should be in the range of fifty cents but we'll have to find out tomorrow. I hope its not too bad for everyone. But enough about business. 

Louella

It was the day after my party returned from the dungeon dive. As I suspected being in the dungeon for a full day created a substantial backlog of paperwork, but I was already working on fixing the problem.  I hated the idea of using slaves but if I could give them a better life than I felt it was a worthy thing to do. Besides if not me, then someone likely much worse.

I had already sent Iveta to the nearest city to purchase them, but it would be a few weeks before they returned. If they were lucky, they would be able to hitch a ride on one of the first airships heading this way. The village was about to become much busier thanks to the docks nearing completion.

I was already drafting plans to deal with the rush of people and crime but without a substantial increase in Golden Dawn presence the crime would like get out of hand as the town grew. While I owned all the land in the area, it would be impossible of me to inspect every person requesting land or a building. I just had to do my best to make sure no known crime lords managed to take hold here, though that was another balancing act I didn’t care for.

A knock at the door pulled me from my thoughts. “Enter!”

Ezal walked in and stood in front of the desk. “Mistress. I just thought I would inform you that Ivan has entered the dungeon.”

I frowned at the information but nodded. “That pig. I hope the damn thing eats him.” The thought of him brought to mind the dragonkin from the other night. “Any news on who that black dragonkin was?”

“I’m sorry. We’ve not found any evidence he entered through either of the passes. Nor has anyone said they saw him before that night. A few witnesses claimed they saw him head towards the dungeon. Maybe him and his company attempted it and failed like the others.”

“I don’t know. Something just felt… of with him,” I said not really able to put my feeling into words. 

“I understand. I will be attending to the rest of my duties if that is all?”

“Yes. Though, be ready to leave. I want to head over to the mages guild in a bit.”

“Understood.” Ezal turned and walked out of the office. The room returning to silence, I took a deep breath to calm myself. I wasn’t sure what it was about that dragonkin, but he just irritated me. Almost even more than Ivan had. I shook my head to try and clear my thoughts then got back to work.

~~~

A half construct tower surrounded by tents of all sizes stood in front of us as we walked into the lot set aside for the mage’s guild. A mixture of adventurers and commoners mingled in the grounds in front of the tower. I even saw a few children making their way into the tower. 

“Baroness Louella! The Guildmaster got your message and is ready to meet you.” I turned toward the voice to find a man with green robes walking towards us. I nodded and Ezal and I made our way to him. “Please. Follow me.”

We walked into the tower but had to stop and watch the magic being used to help construct the tower. Unlike many buildings that were constructed with the use of Terra magic then shaped with the other aspects or left as is. This building was being constructed with a higher level of technique. 

Rather than just form the tower as one giant pillar of stone. It was being built brick by brick. We watched as a plat of bricks was moved up via air magic. It had to weigh hundreds of kilograms but the four mages made it rise swiftly. Once it reached the correct height, builders from the Builders Guild quickly moved the wall up. All while various mages were doing magic over the bricks. 

“This is impressive.”

“Standard practice for a new tower. You can’t exactly have a run of the mill building when you get hundreds of mages together. Damn place would be rubble in a week.”

“Fair enough,” I replied with a laugh.

He led us over to an office that I knew the Guildmaster wouldn’t settle for. He knocked on the door and we were told to enter. Guildmaster Jacqueline sat behind a desk reading a book while a pen wrote on a parchment without her touching it.

“Guildmaster Jacqueline. Thank you for meeting with me.”

She put the book down, but the pen kept writing. I needed to get me one of those. “Anything for our little Baroness. What can I do for you?”

I ignored the mocking and looked her straight in the eyes. “I want a tutor for lightning magic.”

The pen stopped for a second then kept going. “That is both an easy request and a hard request to fulfill. As you know, lightning mages are seen as worthless until Tier two, but the coin completely flips once they hit that mark. Lightning mages become some of the most sought-after mages in the spectrum.” 

Jacqueline stood up and moved over to a counter were a tea pot sat. With several deft movements she had a pot of hot tea ready in moments. “Surely you have someone here!”

“Well there is one person. She also comes highly recommended. One of the best if you will,” Jacqueline said taking a sip of the tea.

I gulped at the cost of hiring such a person for tutoring as well as the idea that someone so skilled was in the valley. “Can you introduce us? Maybe we could work something out?” I asked.

“Well. You’re looking at her.” She snapped her fingers and an arc of lightning jumped from one finger to the next. “Tell me. What can you offer someone of my standing to help you?”

“Money?” I asked jokingly with a chuckle. Jacqueline just smiled without saying anything. I thought about what I could possibly offer her. This dungeon was quite unique compared to other dungeons. It’s the first time that I’ve heard of the first boss taking more than two weeks to defeat. That meant it had a lot of offer. “You meant having enemies when I first met you. I can’t help right now, but as my power and my valley grow then that changes quickly. I would mightly indebted to the person who helped me get there.”

“Oh, you are lovely. I knew I liked you. You want to spend a few evenings with me on a more personal note?” Jacqueline asked batting her eyelashes at me.

“I’ll take a rain check on that. How about just some magic lessons for now.”

“Pity. You’re not bad on the eyes. I’ll be over to your manor in the coming days. I can’t exactly teach you here.” She gestured just as a loud noise from the construction leaked into the room. “That’s with double layering of air magic, I’ll have you know.”

“Good deal. You won’t regret helping me!” I exclaimed reaching forward to grab her hand. After shaking it, I turned and pulled Ezal toward the exit. Jacqueline’s voice made me pause midstep.

“Lady Louella. I have sensed some… disturbing mana fluctuations from that dungeon of yours. I would be careful.”

I looked back and nodded. We left the mage’s guild and I decided to check up with the adventurer’s guild while we were in the area. Both the mage’s and adventurers guild functioned better when slightly away from populated areas. Most of the new people in the town were focused over here so the rough stone street that some terra mages threw together was crowded by hagglers and adventurers.

Weaving through the bodies, we made it to the adventurer building with Ezal only having to burn one man’s hand. After asking her, she wasn’t sure if he was trying to pickpocket her or coup a feel, but either deserved the hand being burned to a crisp. The man’s screams did help us reach the building easier. Nothing like getting elbow in the face by a half giant in full plate, from what I heard from one of the guards. 

The inside of the guild was much less packed. As only the first five floors have been explored, there weren’t a lot of quests for the dungeon yet. Everyone was just trying to make an easy copper from the fresh adventurers in the area. Ezal asked one of the receptionists to notify Cassandra for us.

“Mistress. Are you planning to enter the dungeon again soon?”

I turned to the voice and found Tez’s with several wounds covering his unarmored body. “What happened?!” I asked worried.

“Went in with another party. Boss destroyed us, but I think I’ve learned enough to defeat him.”

“I’m just glad you’re alive.”

“That boss likes to leave the last person alive. Hard to be proud of your accomplishments if no one knows about them. It is a sort of brag.”

“That’s very human of him,” I muttered. Never heard of a dungeon monster wanting to brag about its victories. Made me wonder about the person that created him. “We’ll try to dive again in a day or two. Get healed up.”

“Will do,” Tez said then walked out of the Guild building. One of the guards at the entrance rubbed his nose and I realized where the story came from.

“Lady Louella. The Guildmaster will see you now.” I nodded and we were led to an office on the fourth floor of the building.

Cassandra sat at her desk looking at a few bones. She placed them to the side as we came in. “My Lady. Welcome to my humble abode.”

“I hope you don’t have to sleep here,” I said glancing at the pile of bones on her desk.

She laughed. “Some nights. Now. I’m sure you’re hear about your little dungeon…” A knock interrupted her. “Yes?”

“Reporting. Guild observer nine just sent that the dungeon grew again. If measurements are similar to the last known tower dungeon then it places the power level at tier one level four.”

“Thank you. Place a bulletin.”

“Yes ma’am.” The messenger saluted then left.

Cassandra turned back to me. “Your dungeon is growing quite quickly. I fear that it might attract parties that you’re not ready to deal with yet.”

I took a deep breath and sat in the chair opposite her. “Its not giving me much choice in the matter. What exactly do you expect me to do?!” I whined placing my head in my hands.

“Watch your back. Anyway, I really don’t have much more to report than the last time you stopped by. The dungeon boss is still killing everyone that goes against it. Though we’re about to have a survivor party enter. They’ve all fought the boss and know what to expect.”

“I will pray for their success then,” I said mustering a smile.

After a bit more time chatting with Cassandra, we left the guild and went back to the manor. I was exhausted after what felt like I just sold my soul to a demon. I would just have to hope that Jacqueline’s lessons paid off before she stole my chastity.

Chapter 16

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.

I decided to ignore them for the moment.