Dungeon Imperiled: Dark Dungeon 02 Read online

  Maybe the next one would get the robes I made.

  Ebony appeared in a popping noise.

  “Everything okay sexy?”

  She was bouncing on her toes, which did interesting things to her upper body’s more salient assets. She was dressed in a dark blue, almost black, barely there dress, and her smile was brilliant.

  “Everything went great, I only left when I heard noise outside the library. All good, just didn’t feel like flying back. I’ve got some more books for you.”

  She winked, and cast the spell to transfer knowledge down our link, and my mind categorized all the knowledge as it came in. She’d found a book on water magic, which was the one elemental sphere I was lacking knowledge in, though I still believed there was tons I didn’t know about the other spheres. I could use books on all of them.

  She also had several books on other planes of existence, but I could already tell they wouldn’t be that helpful in dealing with Jennesar or their gods. Still interesting stuff though. She jumped up and glided to the crypt and sat down on the edge and crossed her legs. Then she stretched for me, like a cat, a sexy gorgeous cat.

  “I’ll go back tonight,” she said softly, and then added sultrily, “Anything I can do for you in the meantime?”

  My naughty little imp was gorgeous, and perfectly proportioned for her foot-tall size. But size didn’t mean much of anything to me, since I was a crystal and even smaller. I cared about my sexy imp quite a bit, and she made a tempting picture. She had a very curvy body, pert and gravity defying breasts a size too large for her frame, and her luscious bubble butt always felt good in my hands. When I had hands that is, inside her head. Even her tail was sexy.

  She had red tinged warm brown eyes, and her leather wings were soft, like velvet, and her face was ethereal in its beauty. She had full lips, and a long graceful neck. Her red hair flowed in curly tresses down to her knees, and she had an exuberant personality which made her truly beautiful. She was pure demon, but again without the corruption of twisted hatred both toward herself and others. It made me wonder if she could love. She’d never said any such thing, but I could swear I could see it in her eyes, and in her actions.

  I know, demons lie, but I’ve never detected a deceptive bone in her body since the first moment we met.

  “You may want to go in your home, and lay down, or you’ll fall off when I cast the fantasy mind trap spell.”

  She giggled a little naughtily, and was off like an arrow shot from a bow.

  I set my partitioned mind on the task of maintaining the dungeon, watching the gnomes work, overseeing my ongoing experiments in magic and summoning elementals, and then I cast the spell and followed it into her mind.

  We were already in bed, naked, and she was curled up against me and I was on my back with an arm around her, holding her tight. Her body was so soft, warm, and supple against mine. Her fantasy usually didn’t waste any time with such things like clothes and standing. She sniffed my neck deeply, and sighed in contentment as she kissed my neck.

  I kissed the top of her head, carefully. Didn’t want to poke out my imaginary eyes on her cute little horns. Her red hair was soft and luxuriant against my lips, and my body was already reacting to hers, as she squirmed and moved against me to get comfortable.

  Her voice was shy, with a tinge of embarrassment and desire.

  “Will you hold me for a while? Before I climb up top and fuck your brains out I mean,” the second part was said really quickly and nervously, as if she was trying to make up for some silly desire she had with the other.

  I caressed her hair, and teasingly stroked down her wing, and then reached across my body with my other hand to caress and tilt her face. I stole a soft lingering sweet kiss.

  “I’d love that sexy, anything you want.”

  I was ashamed at the relief on her face at my acceptance, why was she so nervous? I also didn’t know how to fix it, except to continue treating her well, and wait for her to come to terms with her desires and feelings. I wondered just what she’d gone through in hell before coming to serve me, the fake dungeon core.

  She was magnificent, and I held her for quite a while, as we chatted and stole sweet kisses from each other. It was incredibly intimate, and in that moment my heart was hers, just as her soul was mine. There was no rush at all, there was just us, together. I hoped her heart would be mine too one day, if it wasn’t already. Perhaps I was selfish, falling for both my servants, but I was a… I wasn’t even sure. But I wasn’t human, and neither were they. If they didn’t mind, I sure as hell wouldn’t.

  She never did fuck my brains out that day, but I took care of that part of things later from behind when she got on her hands and knees. She did make slow love to me first though. From above, she looked like a goddess as she rode me, it was one of the most intense and intimate experiences in my life, not to mention pleasurable. The feeling of being one with her, the sensations of her velvety heaven around me, and the intense way our eyes locked together as we joined our bodies added up to a mutual blissful completion that blew my mind.

  Could a dungeon imp love? I was pretty sure the answer to that question was a resounding yes. Though, she just showed me, and never said it. I didn’t say it either, but I did hold her in my arms for a long time after. Even her cuddly soft side was exuberant, she reveled in being in my arms, and held tightly, I could feel it…

  I waited until I could no longer feel Ebony, she was on the way back to the library after it grew dark out. Then I focused and absorbed all the water spells she’d passed me, and broke them all down to their basic components and patterns. That took some time, but not that long. I had a good handle on all six spheres now, but I was far from mastering any of them completely.

  There would always be more to learn, which was both daunting and exciting to me.

  Lila said, “You had a good time.”

  I replied, “Yes I did, how are things going?”

  I left off that I missed her, there was no point in saying it. I was sure she could feel it in me, just as I felt it in her.

  Lila laughed, “I’m good, not as good as you though. I don’t have much to report, except that the church soldiers are conscripting. I don’t know for what yet, but it probably isn’t for anything good, like throwing a party.”

  “Do you have any plans when you get to the capitol?”

  Lila replied, “High level targets will be hard to get close to, because their light magic will shield against the mind spells you taught me. But a lower level cleric should be easy enough to pinch, and learn all they know. That should lead me to my next mark.”

  “Understood, be careful. It’s important to learn enough to make plans, but safety first, even if I can just rebuild your body.”

  She was an angel now, a spirit being, and her body on this mortal plane was almost unimportant. With her soul bound to me, if she died her soul would return to my side, just like that. I was also fairly sure if I was gone, that if she died she would be banished to one of the higher planes, just like a dead demon is returned to the lower planes. It gave me comfort, but I still worried about her.

  Lila teased, “Yes yes, careful, got it. I’m actually travelling with a merchant and his caravan, so it’s all good. He’s very generous too, and all I had to do was spell him.”

  Her meaning was clear, she wasn’t sleeping with him for the cost of travelling with him, but he thought she was.

  I think I actually felt jealous, he may not have had her in reality, but he had an illusionary mind image of her, without her presence in his mind maybe, but still. Jealous or not, I wanted her safe, and she was safe where she was, so I needed to get over that bit of silliness.

  She giggled, “Don’t worry lover, this body and mind belong to you exclusively. Although the former will have to wait until you get one of your own.”

  I laughed, “Now that’s what I call motivation.”

  Her wicked laughter abruptly turned into a resigned sigh, “Got to go, I’m here whenever you
want to talk, and I’ll contact you when I have something new.”

  Chapter Four

  Teleportation. I’d taught the spell to both Lila and Ebony, and I’d been fooling with it recently. It was a fairly cheap spell magical wise, and after some experimentation I’d figured out it’s even cheaper using an enchantment. So, I started testing more earnestly for most of the rest of the evening, and roped in a couple of demon test subjects for it. Everything seemed to go well for a while, until one of the demons had their arm dangling outside the field, and left it behind.

  Ouch. I grew him another arm, and then scrapped the small round enchanted stand idea, and I enchanted an alcove, a whole little room. Then I used the door being closed as the activation, that way even a deadly stupid adventurer couldn’t leave an arm behind, and I tested that. I worked in another enchantment that would recognize people, and how far they’d gotten previously, no tokens needed. One of the reasons I’d only put shortcuts to levels three and six, was that the amount of stairways needed to do every level was daunting, not to mention needing to keep an eye out for cheaters.

  Then I designed the system to connect the end of a floor, with the beginning of the floor below it, that would be the only instance where a person could go farther then they’d gone before. It was integrated with magic that would show an illusion of all the choices an adventurer had, to go to any alcove they wanted where they’d been before. They just had to hit the target choice and the enchantments would take care of the rest.

  After a bit more thought, I added a check to make sure the person with the least amount of access had precedence, so some cheeky initiate couldn’t sneak on with an adept and get to floor nine. Lastly, I set it up so if the chosen target room and level was already occupied, it would let the adventurer know and wait until it was clear. I was pretty sure I had all the bases covered, and I had it all planned out.

  Later that night when everyone was out of the dungeon, I closed the dungeon, and then removed all the stairs except for the entry and exit stairs from the temple to the first floor. I didn’t want to modify anything on the surface, lest they accuse me of becoming a runaway dungeon. The alcove on the bottom of the stairs would be a teleport room though, and they could go where they wanted from there, or in the case of a new person, they’d just walk through and into the dungeon level one.

  It only took me an hour to fill in the stairs and set up the eighteen teleport chambers, two for each floor.

  There was a couple more advantages to the new system, that wasn’t a big deal really, but was convenient and would save me on magic. I could leave the gnomes on a hidden level ten instead of sinking the whole floor down again, and build the dungeon level ten below it and so on, the teleport chambers would just skip over gnome level ten. I couldn’t do that with the stairs, because they’d be twice as long as all the other levels to skip over the gnomes, and the adventurers would get curious and suspicious, perhaps enough to investigate what lay in between. Which honestly, sounded like a pain in the ass.

  The second advantage was that I was fairly sure this would increase the death rate. Groups with shortcut stairs to six could go straight to seven, and then might be too tired for eight which was more risky. But if they cleared seven, and decided the next day they should try eight they might die. In other words, it would be easier for the adventurers to push too hard, and get ahead of themselves.

  So, it worked as a new system. No more stairs save to the first level from the surface. The alcoves themselves would be safe rooms as well, I didn’t want my mobs to get moved around on accident either.

  I reopened the dungeon, and just waited the rest of the night, outside of my continued watching of the gnomes and running spell experiments. It was a little boring to be honest, and I was tempted to chat with Ebony or Lila, but I knew the first was busy learning information, which she loved to do as much as I did, and Lila was actually sleeping. So, I sucked it up, it was my idea to send them out there after all…

  Catalina smiled as she moved to meet the representatives from the elves and dwarves. She hadn’t even had time to see Jerrold, Suzy, or meet Mina yet. When they heard the two groups were coming, her father had given her permission to negotiate with them for whatever they wanted, save giving away the kingdom.

  She was pretty sure he was only joking when he’d said that, so had laughed rather than been insulted.

  “I’m princess Catalina, I welcome and greet you in the name of my father, and of the king.”

  The dwarf looked impatient and irritable, but then that was fairly normal for their race, they were brusque and didn’t give the formalities of the human and elven races any weight.

  The Elven woman was old, she looked around seventy or perhaps older in human years, which meant the woman was probably over a millennium old. Standing next to her was an elf male in his middle years, but he was still quite handsome as most of their race were.

  The Elven woman smiled, “Princess, delighted to meet you and pleased at our welcome. I am Aleesia Everim, and this is my grandson Gaeleath Everim. Our dwarven friend is Reitus Steelforged.”

  Catalina wondered if those names would twist her tongue or not, but she maintained her smile.

  “I am authorized to negotiate for any needs you may have?”

  Aleesia said, “We are camped a mile back in the woods, may we use that area? We find ourselves the most comfortable in the trees.”

  Reitus snorted, “With their heads up in the air, and their feet off the ground. Me clan and I would prefer some stone over our heads, may we use this field nearby the keep lassie?”

  She nodded, “You may both stay where you are as a courtesy as you visit, but if either of you seek a more permanent settlement we can come to an accommodation?”

  Aleesia smiled, “How about five percent of any profit we may make here, is that a fair rent if we stay to set up shop?”

  Reitus growled, “Three percent, and not a copper more.”

  Catalina smiled and looked away, which made Reitus scowl.

  She said with a little humor, “I’m afraid I must decline both offers, the set tax is two percent. May I assume your both willing to pay it?”

  Aleesia laughed, “You’re a delightful child, yes with my thanks.”

  Reitus scowled, “It used to be five percent three centuries ago, I suppose two will work.”

  She realized he was disgruntled he’d miscalculated so badly.

  “Yes, and the farming tax is still that high, five percent of the crop yields or equivalent value in coin. The taxes were lowered for skilled labor long ago, and still represent ninety percent of our revenue. Would you like to join me in the tavern for a drink? Or are there any other needs?”

  Aleesia said, “We have a lot to get done to set up, and the travel was wearying, but perhaps another time, in a day or two. I’d love to sit down and speak with you.”

  Catalina nodded, “It would be my pleasure,” she turned to Reitus, “You master dwarf?”

  Reitus snorted and walked away.

  Aleesia sighed, “He’s really a teddy bear, but like me he has a lot to do, just no patience to talk about what should be obvious to him. Dwarves are easy, a lack of manners isn’t an insult, a true offense will be extremely clear as they insult you to your face.”

  Catalina agreed with a small laugh, “I understand, and thank you.”

  She waited until they walked away, and then headed for the tavern with a knot in her stomach. It wasn’t about the elves or dwarves either, she’d actually been hoping to be further delayed by them. She wasn’t looking forward to meeting this Mina, or seeing her cousin. She knew her cousin wasn’t really heartless, and that Sienna’s death hurt him, but she just couldn’t see it and he’d moved on almost immediately. It was irrational, but she was still angry with him about it. Still, she wasn’t quite as much of a basket case as last week, though she still cried at odd times when the loss came rushing back.

  She pasted a smile on her face and walked into the tavern. It didn’
t take her long to find her cousin and Suzy, along with Lady Mina. She couldn’t help but immediately compare, and Mina’s looks couldn’t have been farther from Sienna’s if she tried. Perhaps it had affected her cousin more than she’d thought, and he’d over-compensated.

  Sienna had pale skin, where Mina’s was dusky, like a dark tan. Sienna had wavy red hair, where Mina’s was midnight black and straight, it looked almost liquid, as it flowed down her back. Sienna was petite, where Mina was taller, very curvaceous, and had much more prominent and generous breasts. Sienna’s face had been mischievous, where Mina’s was soft, almost comforting in its beauty. Sienna had brown eyes, where Mina’s were a light gray, like seafoam.

  She knew it was wrong to compare them, and she knew it was wrong that she hated this interloper already. The emotions should have been beneath her, and she knew Mina didn’t deserve it, but there it was. She walked over with a smile on her face, and steeled herself as she gave Jerrold a hug, and then shared a warmer embrace with Suzy.

  She smiled and nodded at Mina politely as she sat, Mina beamed back at her happily.

  Mina gushed, “It’s so nice to finally meet you, Jerrold has told me so much about you and I’m glad you’re here.”

  Oh shit, she was nice too? Her mind did it again, even though it was so damned wrong. Sienna was flirty, Mina was playful and happy. She felt a surge of guilt, not sure if it was for her misplaced feelings of anger toward Mina, or because she was about to really truly move on. Another party ready to delve in the dungeon, Sienna replaced just like that.

  She also knew it was ridiculous to conclude that Mina was playful and happy from just one spoken sentence.

  She plastered on a smile, “It’s good to be back, and nice to meet you.”

  Mina said in an upbeat voice, “I already got a room, if you want to share? We could talk, get to know each other?”

  She replied perhaps too quickly, and too angrily, “I already have a room.”