Dungeon Novel: Chapter Twenty-One (Patreon)

“Unbound are you okay?” He heard Elvinia asking. “It is a tier two pattern, I should have warned you I am sorry.” Unbound’s mind throbbed with pain the spikey Undead had taken up large amounts of room within his knowledge banks.

“Tier two?” He managed to ask, even as the battle between the Undead, Necromancer, and Boss raged. The spiky undead felt ridiculously strong compared to his other patterns, only the elementals seemed to compare.

But as the pain raged within his mind his control over the Void elemental slipped and it charged out towards the necromancer. It destroyed the stone separating it from the rest of the Dungeon and the necromancer fell over as the last skeleton blocked the Void elemental momentarily.

The spiky Undead shattered the Elemental Bosses core and shot several spikes at the Void creature, distracting the elemental whilst the necromancer recovered. She shot several spells at the Void creature, but the mana was simply consumed or dissipated as it charged at the spiky Undead.

Unbound weakly called off the Void elemental but with his struggling powers the Void affinity within him cried out for the destruction of those that came against him. His mind dipped again, losing itself within the exultant instincts within his core.

He was vaguely aware as Elvinia slammed her tiny fist on the gem of his core and he lost the connection between himself and the Void elemental. The elemental dissipated before the necromancer eyes and the whirlpool of instinct Unbound was lost in faded as his usual clarity returned.

His head hurt, Elvinia had fallen unconscious and a possibly hostile party was less than ten meters from his core, the one vulnerable part of him. His own connection to the Void felt, muted and he was summoning as many elementals as he could of other affinities.

Fire, water, wind, earth, and the first light elemental he had summoned appeared in large amounts around his core gem. Five, ten, fifteen, and twenty before his mana ran dry, he couldn’t pull upon his Void affinity mana for a moment, probably whatever Elvinia had done, as the necromancer walked into the room.

Her hood was down and Unbound was struck by how, beautiful, she was. If he was still human, she would be so far out of his league he would have never met her. She had a pale face with high cheekbones and almond-shaped navy-blue eyes. A light blonde hair in ringed curls that were cut just below her shoulder and she wore a serene expression that was partially cracked with shock.

Nearly dying to something you could not hurt and then coming face to face with an army of elemental beings would probably shock most people, no matter how composed. She halted there, the spiky Undead healed and stood next to her like a bodyguard as she looked upon the elementals and the core.

“What the fuck was that?” The words streamed out of her mouth. The massive contrast of her words with her appearance threw off Unbound for a moment. He remembered her speaking earlier with dignity and formality and now she seemed far more. Normal.

“Dungeon I fucking know your sentient, so I repeat. What THE FUCK was that?”

Unbound didn’t know how to reply, currently with Elvinia unconscious in her separate part of the Dungeon he had no voice to speak with the necromancer, and with no mana, a large part of his Dungeon was bereft of defenders.

He had filled up the first floor again and respawned the Queen ant that was currently producing ants at an accelerated rate but his Dungeon was barely 70% strength at the moment, less without any ability to currently produce Void elementals.

The necromancer seemed less and less patient as well, the Undead seemed ready to attack the elementals and wisps of mana curling around her still cloaked hands.

Unbound started to mentally prodding at Elvinia and after a moment she groggily woke but seemed to suffer a massive headache.

“What Unbound?” She half grunted half snapped at him.

“Is that the Dungeon Fairy?” The necromancer lady asked from in the core room, her voice making Elvinia still slightly.

“She is guarded by twenty elementals,” Unbound reassured mentally. “You can speak to her.”

“Hello, necromancer.” Elvinia went on the say more formally. “What do you seek?”

“Fuck off with the formal crap. I said WHT THE FUCK ALMOST KILLED ME?” She shouted out with palpable anger.

“Well seeing as you brought a Tier Two creature into a new-born Dungeon it is sort of your own fault. Why the hell would you do that?” Elvinia shouted back. “Why the hell are you here?”

“To speak with the Dungeon. It is what I have been shouting before every Boss. And then I nearly get killed by some Eldritch abomination.” The necromancer shouted back with the mana wisps swirling faster around her hand.

“What for?”

“For protection. To hide.” The necromancer said back. “I have items and knowledge to trade for it too.”

“And what do you need protection from?” Elvinia asked suspiciously.

“That is connected part of the knowledge I am to trade with you.” The necromancer said shortly.

“Then why would we host you if we don’t know what could be after you. And what we would have to deal with.” The necromancer screwed her face up and rocked her head from side to side considering.

“If I am to tell you, strongly consider hosting me, I have other knowledge I can provide and I can help you create other defenders.”

“We can consider, say who will be chasing you.” The necromancer took a deep breath before nodding.

“The necromancer guild is going to war with the rest of the war. And I didn’t want to get caught up in it. I became a necromancer because it was the only job that worked with my affinity.”

“So, what does that mean?”

“It means the necromancers want every resource they can get their hands on, including new-born Dungeons.”