Dungeon Tour Guide ch. 59 (BOOK 1 COMPLETE) (Patreon)

Let me know your thoughts. Is this a satisfying end to the first arc?

I blinked awake, forcing myself to get off the ground. How long had it been? I’d stayed half-conscious through the usage of my dungeon half, but I’d just been so tired that I’d done little more than keep the debris away from the [Bard] and myself.

Speaking of which…

Rose was singing, I realized, a cheery, hopeful melody with words that… was that Japanese? Huh.

I got myself to my feet, raising my head to glance at her, and—

Oops. I looked away.

Right. [Revivify] didn’t bring equipment back. As she sang, I cast a [Replicate], molding cloth into a makeshift robe for her.

“You’re awake,” Rose said, pausing in her singing. She looked at the ceiling first, then turned to my human body. “Thank you.”

“You’re alive,” I muttered. “I did it.”

“You did,” Rose said, wiping at her eyes as discreetly as she could.

She stepped over to me and wrapped her arms around me, squeezing just a bit too tight to be comfortable. The [Bard] leaned her head into my shoulder, and in the absence of her song, I could hear the quaver in her voice, the way she shook ever so slightly.

I hugged her back. “You’re okay now, alright?”

Rose sniffled, but I felt her nod. “Thankyouthankyouthankyou…”

She trailed off, her voice fading as she continued, and I let her. First resurrections were rough.

“Come on,” I said, patting her on the back, “there are people waiting for us. How long has it been?”

“Th-thirty minutes,” she said, sniffling again. Rose released her deathgrip on my ribs, recomposing herself. “You looked pretty out of it, so I just hit you with a [Song of Rest].”

“Got it,” I said, looking around.

After the [Elder Archmage] had teleported the entirety of the town’s population out, I’d collapsed half of the dungeon in on itself, and the area we were in was no exception. With my [Reshape], I’d avoided dropping boulders on us, but there was still stone around and above us.

I cleared it, smoothing out the parts of the dungeon that I still had control over. To my surprise, the spell was more responsive than before, operating with noticeably improved speed and control.

Well, I had leveled up twice while killing those last two.

I searched my feelings, looking for anything akin to regret, and I found nothing. They’d killed me once, killed Rose, and they’d kept on going. I wasn’t happy that I’d killed so many people, but I didn’t feel negatively about it either. It just… was.

But that wasn’t what was important right now. I had achieved level 5 over the course of the last hour, but that could also be put on the backburner.

For now, I had people that I needed to talk to.

“Stay close to me,” I said, offering a hand to the blue-haired [Bard]. “There’s patches of the dungeon that I can’t sense.”

“They cut you off from your own dungeon? Doesn’t that mean that they, like, took parts out of you?” Rose asked, accepting the proffered hand.

Her hand was delicate and warm and so very alive, and that ambivalent feeling towards the dead Kingsguard tilted one degree back towards the ice-cold hate.

“Kind of, I guess,” I said, stepping forward.

I walked slowly and deliberately around the areas of [Annihilation], guiding Rose as I did. Some of the spots were pretty obvious—it was hard to miss the dungeon going from vibrant red blood against brown rock to dark grey on light grey—but there were subtler parts, areas where the color had started to return, areas hidden in shadow.

My senses still didn’t work there, and I suspected that they were probably still lethal. Hopefully, it’d fade with time, but for now we would have to avoid those too.

“This was [Annihilation], right?” Rose asked, staring into a spot that’d gotten hit with the kill aura pretty bad. “Troy identified it midway through the fight. Said that getting hit by it just severs you from reality.”

“It was,” I replied. “I didn’t know that about the effects.”

“Looks like parts of reality just got put on a shitty CRT TV,” Rose joked, keeping her steps as deliberate as mine.

She was forcing her jokes, I could tell, but I didn’t press her on it.

“Uh, do I need to be worried about those?” Rose asked, pointing at a [Mirror Beast]. “Wait, no, never mind me, I forgot you control them.”

“I don’t exactly control them,” I said. “But yeah, I can kind of direct where they go.”

Which, I realized, was an ability that I hadn’t made use of while my human body was asleep. Some of them had gone missing. I didn’t have an exact count on them, but there were traces of [Annihilation] that led to the safe room and beyond, and even an idiot could guess what that meant.

That was unsurprising but concerning. I’d gone all out to execute the [Colorless Sorcerer], and doing that in a dungeon tended to induce breaks, especially when the monsters trying to breach said dungeon were ones that had temporary reality-altering effects on them.

At least [Mirror] would wear off eventually. Hopefully the other adventurers had managed to deal with them.

We got our answer when we made our way to the first room. It was a bit hazardous, but liberal application of [Reshape] cleared a safe path for us. I didn’t need to hide what I was doing in front of Rose, though given the amount of dungeon reshaping I’d done during the fight, I wouldn’t be surprised if others had figured it out.

Outside, half of the smoking wreck of a village had been replaced by a crater. I couldn’t judge the total size of it from here, but it had to have been well over a hundred feet in diameter.

“What the hell?” I asked. “You familiar with that?”

“That… probably means we won. One moment.” Rose let go of my grasp, then cupped her hands together.

When she sang, she didn’t cast any particular spell. Instead, she simply wove mana into the words, amplifying the volume and creating a very noticeable mana signature.

“Was that a distress call?” I asked. “Being here with me is that bad?”

“Oh, come off it,” Rose said, mock-punching my arm. “I’m calling them back here.”

It didn’t take long. Less than a minute after she called out the note, two [Mass Teleport]s landed in quick succession.

Everyone was here. The Duelists of the Weave, Minus One, Lisa and the two Alder Corporation guards, the [Elder Archmage], and… even Iris.

They were a little surprised to see us, to put it lightly.

The leader of the mighty Alder Corporation ran forward immediately, practically colliding with her daughter.

I gave them some space. They needed it.

Well, as much space as they could have when there were still [Annihilation]-affected areas. They weren’t too close to it, and the affected areas were pretty obvious, but I kept [Reshape] at the ready anyway.

The rest of the group was a little more reserved in their venture into the safe room.

“You lived,” Ryan said, face hidden behind his helm.

“Got Rose, too,” I said, pointing at her. “[Revivify] is one hell of a spell.”

Troy’s eyes were red, but his voice was sure. “Thank you for surviving, Lucas.”

“Are the Kingsguard dead?” Lisa asked, one hand on her sheathed sword. “If not…”

“Dead,” I said. “Killed by [Mirror Beast]s. It didn’t look like a good way to go.”

“Good,” Iris said, still clutching her daughter. “I’m glad to hear my contribution made an impact.”

“Your contribution certainly helped,” I said, keeping my voice neutral. “It would have been much appreciated if we could’ve used any of the artifacts, though.”

Iris winced. “I apologize. Our calculations did not indicate such a fervent response, and I had expected that the dungeon would be largely safe. That’s why I evacuated everyone here, as a matter of fact.”

“Speaking of dungeon safety,” the [Elder Archmage] cut in, creating a flaming blue orb in his hands and extinguishing it. “There was a break from this dungeon. Twenty-seven [Mirror Beast]s.”

“Not much I could do about that,” I said, shrugging. “I was a little busy not dying.”

“I do not blame you,” he said. “It was a cowardly move to abandon you, but I sought to preserve as many lives as I could. For that, I am truly sorry. You have my utmost respect for your survival.”

Yeah, that was honestly fair. I wouldn’t have expected every last one of them to lay down their lives for me anyway. Besides, the fact that he’d managed to take all the civilians out with him was a massive point in his favor.

“Why not teleport Rose earlier?” I asked, tacitly accepting his apology with a nod. “And why didn’t you take her with you? I know I’m a dungeonbound, so I can’t leave, but why not her? Surely you could’ve revived her.”

“My best teleportation skill is for the living only,” the [Elder Archmage] replied. “I had to wait until the end to attempt teleporting her because her song was the only factor preventing the grey mage from using [Obliterate] fast enough to kill us all.”

“Got it,” I said. “And just to be clear, you eliminated the break?”

“That crater is his,” Troy said. “His vow doesn’t stop him from killing monsters.”

“Some people are big fans of property damage,” Arthur added.

“We helped a bit,” Ed said. “Killed the strays. All the real dangerous ones, he handled.”

“I got three,” Anderson said.

I looked at the flattened, blackened crater again, then back at the [Elder Archmage], who was still giving me an apologetic smile.

“That’s good to know,” I said. “Iris. I want access to the artifacts.”

“I can’t—“

“Leaving the artifacts unusable nearly cost me my life,” I said. “It did cost your daughter’s. I saved her life, and I’m not saying that I wouldn’t have, but I think that that warrants some goodwill. I think it’s pretty clear at this point that this dungeon is a point of interest for the Kingsguard. I need protection beyond what the dungeon has to offer me.”

“…something can be arranged,” Iris allowed, wincing. “We will have to hash that out later.”

“Acceptable,” I said, nodding. “Man, it’s going to be a pain to live in this dungeon…”

“The [Annihilation] continues within,” the [Elder Archmage] noted, his eyes flaring with [Manasight]. “You are bound. This is unacceptable.”

“You can remove it?” I asked.

“Given several minutes, yes,” he said. “There is a high-level ritual to be performed.”

That explained why he hadn’t done it before, then.

“Come on in, then,” I said. “I’d love to be able to, y’know, actually live here.”

“Wait, hold on a sec,” Rose said, breaking herself away from her mother’s grasp. “Mom, we had a talk about this, right?”

“We did,” Iris said. “You’d like to implement it?”

“Implement?” I asked. “Am I missing something?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Troy said. “They’re always like this.”

“I’d like to requisition your help,” Iris said, addressing the Duelists. “This might take a while, and I believe that the dungeon is currently uninhabitable.”

“I’ve got no problems with that,” the [Moon Cleric]—goddess, I still didn’t know his name—said. “Not like I had anything else planned for the day.”

“Let’s get moving, then,” Iris said. “With me, if you’d please.”

A minute later, she was gone, taking everyone but the [Elder Archmage].

“Allow me to apologize again,” the old man started. “I—“

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, dismissing him. “Come on. Let’s get this sorted out.”

___________________________

“You’re sure you want to keep the visual effect?”

“Sure,” I said, shrugging. “The dungeon will put the stone back together, but it’s cool as shit. I can include it in the next tour I do.”

“I am not one to begrudge your requests.”

All told, it took the [Elder Archmage] nearly two hours to remove every last spot of [Annihilation] from the dungeon. It hadn’t granted me control over those locations—it looked like I was going to have to waste a few days of [Assimilate] pulling myself back together—but it had removed the part that would kill me if I stayed in a dead zone for too long.

“How’s Troy doing?” I asked. “You’re his mentor, right?”

“I am,” he nodded. “The boy has seen vast improvements in his skills ever since he began adventuring.”

“Has he, now?” I asked, trying not to let the smug satisfaction show on my face.

“He has learned much of magic,” the mage said, stroking his beard. “This, he learned from me. But of adventuring? Teamwork? Strategy? This, I never taught him, yet he excels in it. You’ve done a marvelous job, guide.”

“Thanks,” I said, smiling. “I do my best.”

“A shame you are bound,” he said. “But I anticipate the name of Lucas, Tour Guide to the Dungeon… you, too, will become a legend in your own right.”

“I like the sound of that,” I said. “I feel like I need a grander name than that. The dungeon, I mean.”

“That can be arranged for,” the white-haired mage said, his eyes twinkling.

_______________________________

“I did say we had a plan,” Rose said. “Why so surprised?”

“I thought you meant something small,” I said. “Not… this.”

Apparently, the reason why Iris had enlisted so many people to help her in getting stuff wasn’t because she just wanted an excuse to leave the dungeon—she’d actually had that much.

“Okay, I get the big table and all, given that everyone’s here now, and the bed’s nice,” I said, “but why the paintings? The bookshelves?”

“Atmosphere is important, you know,” Iris said. “It is rather appalling that someone of your stature be forced to live inside what amounts to a cave for this period of time.”

“Well, I’m not complaining.”

It had taken them a total of two hours to get everything moving—the [Elder Archmage] had chosen to do something other than [Mass Teleport] them, apparently—and now it was looking to take another twenty minutes to get everything set up.

All told, I had enough furniture to set up my own library, bedroom, living room, vault, and even a store. The latter was something that I wanted to keep in mind—I had no use for money, but it would be nice to barter for other things that I couldn’t just [Replicate].

“One more thing,” Iris added. “Let me call them over.”

‘One last thing’ turned out to be a fetch quest that required another fifteen minutes, but I couldn’t doubt the results.

“That is… quite a bit of food,” I said.

“Yep,” Rose said, smiling. “Say what you will about Mom, she knows how to celebrate survival.”

Steaks from managrass-fed cows, the local beef-riceball delicacies, flatbreads, something akin to pasta that had been grown with mana, a dozen types of cheeses and meats that I couldn’t name, eight different flavors of wine—wait, was there a legal drinking age here? I couldn’t remember, but I supposed it didn’t matter—and that wasn’t even a quarter of it.

We sat and we ate and we drank and we talked, all of us chatting the day away as if half of us hadn’t been at each other’s throats (okay, maybe not each other’s, just mine) a few weeks ago. Anderson and the Duelists of the Weave in particular, I noticed, were getting along well with the others, and nobody was giving them grief in return.

It was a good day to be alive.

“I offer a toast,” Rose said, standing up and raising her untouched glass, sloshing the purplish-blue liquid within. She ignored the pointed glance that Iris gave her. “I think this is pretty obvious, but here’s to Lucas for saving my life. For saving all of us.”

“To Lucas,” Troy agreed, standing with her. “For teaching us how to work as a party.”

“For showing me that I need to take charge.” Ryan stood as well.

“For knocking some sense into me.” Anderson, the [Sharpshooter] who still had to wear his anti-friendly fire bracelets, smiled like he’d been my friend all his life.

“For having patience with us.” The Duelists stood as one, each of them giving me a similar phrase.

“For keeping the Guild in business.” Lisa’s statement was at least half sarcasm, but it was no less warm for it.

“For resurrecting me,” Ed said.

“For training us,” his other half added.

“For protecting my daughter.”

“For saving the fallen where I could not.”

“To me, I guess,” I finished, raising a glass. “And to the dungeon for helping me at every stage. Here’s to me and to many, many more tours of Centerpoint Dungeon.”

It was a bit of a cheesy name, but it felt right somehow. After all, it had been this dungeon that so much conflict and growth had been centered on, and it was looking like it was going to stay that way.

The [Elder Archmage] winked at me before downing his glass, and the rest followed.

I raised my glass once more and joined them.

______________________________

Name: Lucas

Class: [Dungeon Core] lv. 5

Spells (ordered by: used recently)

[Spawn Monster]: D

> [Spawn Snake]: C

>> [Spawn Earth Snake]: F+

>> [Spawn Displacer Snake]: D-

> [Spawn Earth Construct]: C

>> [Spawn Displacer Construct]: D

> [Spawn Displacer]: D+

> [Spawn Mirror Beast]: D

> [Spawn Skeleton Dragon]: F

> [Spawn Devouring Ooze]: F

[New spells available!]

[Reshape]: D+

[Create Water]: F+

[Create Fire]: F+

[Replicate]: F-

[Dungeon Perception]: C

[Assimilate]: D-

[View more spells?]

Stats

[Spawn Speed]: F+

[Capacity]: D

[Mana]: C

[Endurance]: D+

Name: Lucas

Class: [Healer] lv. 4

Unique Skills

[Divine Healer]

Spells (ordered by: used recently)

[Greater Restoration]: lv. 40

[Revivify]: lv. 40

[Multiplicative Heal]: lv. 40

[Healing Stream]: lv. 40

[View more spells?]

Stats

[Magic]: 200

[Agility]: 19

[Strength]: 16

[Focus]: 22

[Endurance]: 18

One week since the dungeon had survived the most intense Kingsguard attack I’d ever witnessed, and people were already asking about it.

“You’re the new Guild trainee,” I said, glancing at the freshly-minted badge on the man’s shirt.”

“Yes,” he said. “There were so many delays, and they said Lisa was busy, and—“

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “You’re here to verify the events of last week?”

“I am,” he said. “Uh, are those people—“

“We’re adventurers,” Rose said.

“Hi,” Ryan said. “Don’t mind us.”

Troy simply waved, his other arm around his friend’s shoulders.

“C’mon,” I said. “Let’s show you this place.”

In the week since, I’d largely rebuilt the other half of the dungeon. At level 5, I had gained the ability to use [Spawn Rock Snake], [Spawn Displacer Snake], and [Spawn Displacer Construct] without using [Combine], and the latter spell’s cooldown had decreased quite a bit.

This half, though, I’d left mostly untouched. For now, I was sure people were going to want to see it, and I wasn’t going to stop them from observing.

“This is a defunct [Annihilation],” I said, pointing at a greyed-out area of land.

“Don’t want to get hit by those,” Troy says. “It does something nasty to your health.”

The rest of us laughed, the Guild trainee joining along nervously.

“Hey, isn’t this the room where we almost died to regular snakes?” Rose asked, pointing to the ceiling where remnants of the poles still remained.

“It is,” I said. “You’ve come far.”

There wasn’t really much more to show, since the bulk of the actual interesting part would just be in mana signatures, which were long gone and recorded by Troy’s teacher.

Still, I could understand wanting to view the aftermath of an intense battle, especially when one was a low-level adventurer like this new Guild guy.

Once he was done engraving the scene of the broken half of the dungeon into his mind, I led him to the half I’d rebuilt.

As I walked, making small talk with the Guild trainee—Karl, apparently—I thought over my next steps.

The Kingsguard had spent too many resources on trying to attack me already. I doubted they were going to attack again anytime soon, but they were bound to come again, and they would do it with a vengeance.

There would come a day where I would have to react to them again, but I was getting tired of doing that.

Now, I’d act. I’d train people and equip them and send them out into the world to stop those incursions before they’d ever started.

I was going to have to change to accomodate the ever-shifting situation, but some things were just going to be beyond my control.

At the end of the day, I was still a tour guide. I wanted to survive for as long as I could, yes, but I also wanted to live, and that meant doing what I loved.

“We’re done sightseeing now,” I said, allowing myself a genuine smile. “Would you care for a proper tour?”