Path of The Dragon Mage (Book 3) 6. Good To Be Prince (Patreon)

While Corvus had been busy wrangling the overall management of the city, he had put Starella in charge of the dungeon reconstruction project.

True, Starella couldn't speak with the Nest Guardians, the subterranean species of dragons who lived in secret below the city, but Cosmos could.

And if he could only communicate in simple terms, which made it almost impossible for Starella to build true allies among the Nest Guardians… So much the better.

Sometimes, I really am my mother's son, he reflected. He was prince by blood through his father's line — biologically if not legally — but from his mother's line he was heir to the Shield house: one of the oldest and craftiest noble houses in the kingdom.

You act like it's a bad thing, Charm reflected in his mind.

Through their bond, he knew she was she had settled back on the rooftop and was sunning in the exceptionally intense afternoon heat of Meadow city.

Some of the nobles, led by Lord Gemstone, had approached her after the meeting to get more information about the incoming palace messengers. Charm was drowsily ignoring them.

I think after my nap I will have them bring me goats. Then I may think about a scouting flight to see the progress of the messengers.

As long as you aren't seen, Corvus thought back.

Her response was a mental snort.

One of her first essences she had absorbed gave her in illusion spell. Aloft, Charm could make herself look like an arrow of migrating geese.

Go talk to those dirt dragons, she told him dismissively. I will deal with these nobles.

He sent her a wave of gratitude. She knew automatically when he was beginning to feel overwhelmed by the pressure of the nobles and enjoyed stepping in to make their lives miserable. He and Charm me for a good team.

Turning his mind away from the bond, he realized that he and his group had traveled further than he realized. In fact, they were nearly to the short tunnel that led to the winners lounge just outside the dungeon.

The winners lounge was not the true access to the dungeon — just the opposite. It was originally designed as a place for those exhausted from their trials to relax, celebrate, and of course, exchange the tickets for magical items and other bonuses.

From there, there was a short, mostly intact tunnel system which had once led to the middle of the merchant district inside the city. Now that district was overgrown with jungle to the point of being unrecognizable to the locals.

However, here and there were visible signs of rebuilding. The locals had learned that it was better to build with the aggressive tunnel growth then try to conquer it. Cut jungle greenery had a habit of growing back twice as thick within hours of being cleared away.

However, vines and shoots could be easily managed by guiding them into appropriate shapes.

Some enterprising soul had lit on the idea of clearing out a patch of jungle. Then, when the new sprouts inevitably re-grew, they could be trained into simple shapes like arches, and weaved together with other vines for a sturdy structure.

The idea was to build and sturdy weaving into an arch shape, and then rebuild a stone structure underneath. Constant maintenance was needed to keep vines from finding and growing into any crack within the structure, but more and more people were picking up the knack. They were moving out of the noble towers which helped relieve the overcrowding.

Slowly but surely, Meadow City was returning back to life.

Corvus was pleased to see, too, that while the common folk seemed wary of the procession… There was no bowing and scraping at the sight of Corvus and Starella. There was no outright fear, either.

He could not imagine his grandfather or any of the other royals able to walk among the common folk like this.

The entrance to the winners lounge tunnel was essentially a dark, forbidding hole in the side of a mostly forgotten stone wall. He, Gwen, Roan, Starella, and Hattie followed by her two guards walked in. The locals watched curiously, but none bothered to follow. The darkness was too forbidding, and they had plenty of other work to do.

The tunnel beyond the entrance had been mostly cleaned of debris, though the stone walls could use a bit of patching up and a good deal of scrubbing.

Soon, it opened up into a larger cave system. Corvus took one look around and turned to his cousin. "How much of this was you're doing?"

She smiled back at him, satisfied. "I used my talent —er — Path skills to lift the heaviest boulders away. The rest was done by the Nest Guardians. They practically tripped over themselves to help royalty." Her tone made it clear she thought this was only proper.

Good thing she had not twigged to the fact that the dragons weren't helping royalty, so much as helping Corvus.

Corvus shook his head and took a moment to gaze around the changed lounge area.

Once, it had held furniture for people to relax and, as well as a store for the engineers to trade in their tickets and purchase magical prizes based on their Paths.

Time had not been kind to the lounge. The furniture had rotted to nearly unrecognizable lumps. Then, the nest guardians had moved in and converted one of the side caverns once used for training, to a sandy nesting room for Royal dragon eggs. The sudden appearance of the jungle above had caused roots to weaken the stonework, filling boulders and letting in dripping water.

Now, the remains of the furniture and other debris from a society long past had been hauled away. The roots had been tidied up and trained to the outer walls where they looked much like winter-bare climbing ivy. Broken glass from the storefront had been cleared away and replaced with decorative wooden panels that Starella had found in the towers storage vaults. There was still much to be done, but the rehabilitation of the cavern was off to a promising start.

"I have several cleaning crews working on the outside entrance tunnels leading from the tower," Starella told him. "Of course, none are Path Walkers which means they can't pass through the barrier. But they can certainly wash centuries of mildew off the walls. Tomorrow, several professional artists will see what can be done to restore the murals."

Hearing their voices, Granite, who spoke for the Nest Guardians, lumbered over. All in the group were used to seeing the subterranean dragon except for Hattie, who made a quiet gasp and dropped to one knee.

Granite blinked at the girl and then looked to Corvus. "How... can the Guardians... be of assistance... my prince?" he asked in a slow, rumbling voice.

Corvus, who'd been gesturing for Hattie to stand, turned back to the dragon. "You and your people have done a fantastic job here."

"It is... our pleasure. It is... good to see... the dungeon restored."

Corvus's smile faded as his eye caught the ring of glowing runes on the other side of the room. A ring which matched a tattooed runic collar around the neck of every Nest Guardian.

Yes, it was Granite’s pleasure to serve but was that because he wanted to help or because he was compelled?

Corvus had promised to alter the runes and set the Nest Guardians free. In the last hectic week, he hadn’t found time. Now with the arrival of the palace messengers…

What would happen to Granite and his people if he was forced to abandon the city?

Gwen squeezed his hand. "What's wrong?"

Corvus considered not saying anything for a moment, but he had decided upon giving Starella the secret to hatching a royal dragon egg that he would trust her. More than that, he was tired of thinking in circles.

"I have too much to do and not enough time to do it," he muttered. "The smart thing to do would be to delve the dungeon as many times as humanly possible before the royal messengers arrive. Good news or bad, I know I'll need to be stronger than I am now to face it. But I need to work on the Nest Guardian's rune collar. And that’s not even counting her." He swung a pointed finger to Hattie who looked surprised but not alarmed. "Some of the rumors about the Capitol were about demons, and now one shows up on our doorstep? It's not a coincidence." He sighed and rubbed at his forehead again, feeling the strain. "I'm pulled in too many directions."

"What can we do?" Gwen asked.

"I don't know."

Starella snorted. "Yes you do. You delegate, of course. Do you think King Orphus personally oversees all state matters?"

"Of course not, but how do I delegate dungeon diving or rune work?" He waved an annoyed hand to the ring of runes on the far wall. "I already asked Perry and he has never seen these before. I have a library of books, but no time to read them. I--"

"Do nobles work their own fields?" Starella asked. "Do they send their own children when the draft is called?"

"They should..." Roan muttered.

Corvus was getting annoyed. "Are you suggesting I hire people to read for me? Because that's not going to--"

"No, dummy." She stomped her foot. "But you can hire people to get stronger and help defend you and your city right now. You were planning to open the dungeon, weren't you?"

Corvus hadn't often found himself stumped, but for a blank moment, he was.

Then it hit him.

"The tunnels could use clean up, but they're safe enough to let the first waves of people in. Nobles would be among them – at least those who are willing to give up their Talents in exchange for a Path." This was not a bad tradeoff considering that the strength of magical elemental talents waned unless the nobles made constant trips to the Capitol. And that might not be an option anymore.

Another thought hit him, and he looked sharply at Starella. "You want me to tax the tickets."

She smiled. “As I said, you need to think like a royal.”

"I'm not sure if I like that idea. The dungeon should be an opportunity for all Path Walkers."

"Who gave the orders to have it cleaned up? Who made a truce with the nest guardians in the first place?" Starella said. “And yes, you didn't pay for the supplies or the labor out of your own pocket, but you used the city treasury resources, did you? Where do you think the taxes would go back to?"

Corvus frowned. He couldn't deny that.

“You're not restricting access from anybody," Starella said. “You would be ensuring upkeep, and part of that is with a portion of the winnings.”

Gwen frowned. "So, you're saying that instead of dungeon diving himself, he should just skim off the top of the people who do."

“Yes," Starella said.

“But I still won’t exactly be leveling up, will I?"

“It is not a perfect solution," Starella allowed. “But you do get some immediate benefit from opening up the dungeon and, some of the magical items in the store might be able to help.”

He knew that Charm would definitely like more essences for spells to work with, and if there was something to help with his rune craft…

“How would this even be done?" he asked, “logistically. Should I put manpower into counting people's tickets and taking off, what, five percent off the top?”

“Ten percent," Granite said, speaking up unexpectedly. “Was… traditional.”

“What?" His gaze turned to the dragon.

"Traditional? Yes…. Taxes were traditionally paid to all dungeon elders."

“Dungeon elders," Corvus said, testing the words out. He found that he liked it.

"What is he saying?" Gwen asked.

He forgot that when and the others did not understand Granite. That was a benefit of his latest subclass, Dragon Diplomat.

"He says a ten percent tax was used in the past. But how did they enforce it, Granite?"

The dragon gestured with a clawed hand to the circle of runes around his neck. "You are… The master here now. There is… an option… in your store settings.”

Okay. One more thing to be done, but luckily, this seemed to be doable.

“Show me,” he said he followed Granite into the store section. The dungeon scanned him and brought up his profile.

Sure enough, there was a section for settings, and administrative settings.

He hadn't seen this before. It hadn't been here he was almost certain of it the first time that he accessed the store.

But then again, that had been right before he seized control of the dungeon’s runes. He thought that it was meant only to control the Nest Guardians. Not the entire dungeon.

He glanced up to see Hattie's reaction, seeing if the visible window amazed her.

She looked suitably surprised at the window, but mostly seem to be quiet and watchful.

He found the taxes function under one of the tabs settings. It helped that the layout was very similar to his own Path system. Locating the option to change the taxes, he found the taxes went up in intervals of one percentage at a time.

“So, looks like it automatically skims the tickets off the top,” Corvus said, “One out of every ten tickets is not given and is instead deposited into my own account.”

“It's good to be Prince," Roan said. He looked to the others. “Want to test it out and see if this works?”