Dungeon Spawned: Dark Dungeon 01 Page 3

  Then I worked on rewards, and put a chest in this room with a few gold coins, some silver, and a few nice new weapons. I also figured out random rewards for the small creatures, and a little better for the minor level bosses. I wished I knew enchantments.

  That gave me an idea, I broke down the dark magic for curses, which were really just enchantments with negative effects. I knew how to use air to make something light, and I knew how to use earth to make something sharp. I had the minor healing and protection enchantments as well.

  I put the protection enchantment on the boss’s armor, and then experimented with a sword. It took me what was probably days, and I’d destroyed countless swords, but eventually I had a sword that would never dull, and was lighter than normal. I had my boss grab it, and I absorbed his other sword.

  I was well on my way to finishing the floor four layout, and as always, I’d been expanding my crystal. I’d hardly even needed to concentrate on it anymore. I went back then and added a few simple traps that would only kill an unwary idiot, keeping in mind Ebony’s warning about dungeon killers. People I didn’t want to meet.

  The last thing I did was curse the crypt I was in, to hide the holy sword’s aura. I was pretty sure they’d leave me, the dungeon core alone, but if they took the sword I’d lose access to the holy source. It was a risk I’d have to take, and I just hoped the obvious chest in the room would make them think the crypt wasn’t worth breaking into.

  No, I changed my mind. I just couldn’t risk it, I imagined the humans would put their greedy hands on everything. I used my magic to shape the dungeon, and the sword sunk into the stone, and disappeared below. As long as I didn’t sink it below range, I could keep it out of the dungeon proper. I did leave the curses though, as a last ditch defense if someone came to kill me.

  Now I was ready. I was building the next three floors, but the first three were completed.

  “Umm, Ebony, how do we get those dungeon divers you were talking about to come?”

  She giggled, “Just keep growing, they’ll find you eventually, they always do…”

  Chapter Three

  “That’s a little brilliant,” Lila said throatily.

  It distracted me, “What’s brilliant?”

  Lila laughed, “I’m bored, so I was examining our little prison through your senses. The layer of dark and light, it’s far more intelligent than I gave you credit for.”

  It was? I’d thought it was a screw up until I figured out the band thing. Oh crap, she can read my mind.

  She giggled, “I see, well the reason you did it is still kind of smart. But it’s having a secondary effect. The layer of dark and light magic before your thick banded layer is acting like a barrier and hiding your dark aura from anyone outside the crystal. It’s why Ebony is so convinced you’re just a normal dungeon. All she can feel is your outside layer of bands, which while getting stronger is still extremely weak.”

  I checked on Ebony, she seemed to be creating some sort of imp lair in the corner of the room we were in. I supposed it was rather dusty and dreary out there. I wondered if it stunk.

  Lila must have been bored, because she answered my thought.

  “It could start to, if you don’t take care of that sort of thing. You need to maintain your zombies. You should also use that air magic that mostly just sits there. You can easily freshen the air of the dungeon with air magic, even without a spell.”

  I was already monitoring the dungeon entrance, the whole thing really. I was also building my crystal, absorbing magic from five of six magical spheres, and digging out more floors. I’d just gotten started on number five. Yet, it seemed easy enough for my mind to do yet another task, and I started to clear out and refresh the air with raw air magic.

  “Wouldn’t a spell be more efficient?”

  Lila replied, “Of course it would. But I don’t know any, so until you learn one to imbue into the walls of your dungeon you’ll have to do it the hard way.”

  I’d probably need to see some kind of air enchantment first, I wasn’t sure how to organize that type of magic at all, and couldn’t even experiment. Better yet, I needed to kill an air mage that was carrying a spell book. Judicious bits of raw air magic however, would make the air simply circulate with the outside far better than it normally would. I played around with it for a while until I was satisfied I wasn’t wasting more magic than I needed to.

  “Come on baby, don’t you trust me?” a wheedling male voice said.

  What was that? I moved my focus through the dungeon, and then above to the surface building. It was within my power’s reach, but I hadn’t done anything with it on Ebony’s advice, sticking to below ground. There were a couple of humans up there.

  “This place gives me the creeps,” a female voice replied.

  The young man grunted, “It is a bit creepy baby, but we need a place to lay low. This old keep is off limits by orders of the Duke. Even the soldiers won’t violate that. We just need a couple of days, it’s not that bad. I bet we could find ourselves a real bed while we count our take.”

  Thieves? Young thieves perhaps.

  “A bed?” she asked suspiciously.

  He replied, “Come on baby, don’t you love me? I’m going to take care of you.”

  There were a few moments of silence, and I could feel the tension. I could also feel excitement from Lila, though I wasn’t sure why.

  The young lady cried out, slapped the man, froze a second, and then ran. She didn’t run out though, she ran directly away from the man, and into the keep chapel, followed by the man while tears ran from her eyes.

  “Stop!” he yelled angrily and with frustration of some kind I didn’t understand.

  I could sense her fear as she looked around frantically, and saw the entrance to the crypt. Creepy or not, apparently she thought that was better than the alternative. She ran for it and down the stairs, the man on her heels.

  I must admit, I felt quite excited, humans, in my dungeon. Of course, they weren’t exactly warriors, paladins, clerics, or mages.

  She was running faster than I’d thought, and when my skeleton jumped out of the niche on the wall it failed to grab her, but it did take down the pursuing man in an accidental tackle, and slashed with its clawed bone hands.

  She turned at the noise, saw the blood fly, and shrieked in terror.

  A second skeleton went to grab her, but to my disappointment she ran and escaped back up the stairs.

  The man fought with his fists, which wasn’t very effective against an undead skeleton. It didn’t take long before his throat was ripped out, and his body ripped apart in tatters. As soon as he died, I felt a rush of energy from his soul, the remainder of his life force. I had no clue what to do with it, but I held it contained in the magic. His soul fled.

  I examined the body, with the soul gone I now had complete access to it. The corpse had several diamonds in the pockets, perhaps his ill-gained loot. Otherwise, nothing new. I claimed the diamonds, I might have been able to make more but for now I didn’t have to. Besides rewards, the structure of it would be ideal for holding magical enchantments. After a moment of consideration, I raised him as a zombie and put him on the second floor.

  Ebony said, “Awesome, they’ll be coming soon.”

  I thought that through, at first, I’d been disappointed the young woman had escaped, I couldn’t even feel her in the building above ground anymore. But if she was going to bring back more people, that was a good thing, right?

  “Umm, Ebony? What do I do with the life energy?”

  Ebony snorted, “You need to absorb it into your own, or convert it to magic, the conversion from life energy to magic is huge. That’s why dungeons grow so much from an adventurer’s death. It should be intrinsic knowledge.”

  It actually wasn’t intrinsic, I had no idea what to do. First, whatever I was, I didn’t have life energy like a human, my soul and essence, my life energy, was of the dark. I also had no idea how to convert life energy to magic to store in th
e bands.

  I felt Lila’s annoyance, “Damnit, fine. Of course I know how to do this, since I convert life and soul energy to power as a succubus.”

  Her memories flashed into my mind. I hadn’t gotten it earlier because it wasn’t exactly magic. It was an exercise of power and will.

  I modified the process she showed me slightly, and started processing the life energy into fire magic since I had no other source for that one. The band for fire magic reached saturation long before I was finished, so I used the rest to top off air and earth, since those were the weakest elemental spheres that I did have to draw from.

  I came to a few conclusions from that process.

  That soul had not been a trained fighter with extra life or magic, and it had almost been too much for me to process and store. I had to build faster. What would happen when I killed a real adventurer, or perhaps more than one? I started to build layers faster, nothing had illustrated just how weak I was than almost being overwhelmed trying to absorb a powerless thief.

  I spent magic to speed up my floor building as well, and decided to let my reserves be around thirty percent of my capacity, which would help too. There was a quick burst of progress for level four, but as I started to spend magic as it came in and hovered around thirty percent it slowed again.

  “Thanks Ebony.”

  The imp smiled at me.

  “You too Lila, I’d have been screwed without your knowledge,” I said internally, “But why did you help?”

  She growled, “Because my only hope of ever escaping is you being powerful enough to figure it out. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to be a sex demoness without a body?”

  I really didn’t, not back then.

  Chapter Four

  Princess Catalina, heir to the ducal district of Tenemin, and third heir to the kingdom of Nysten, was bored out of her mind.

  Her father, Duke Anwar, cousin to the king, was holding court. She knew it was important, and she was raised on politics. One day, she’d rule this portion of the kingdom, but all she really wanted to do was run and get the hell out of there. She was eighteen, listless, and bored.

  “Pay attention Cat,” the court mage whispered into her ear from across the throne. Daniel was an older man, and stood to attend the other side of her father’s throne. At least she got to sit down, poor Daniel had to stand all day.

  Catalina repressed the urge to say something snarky back. She was a fully capable air mage, and had been learning air magic as long as she’d been mired in politics. The simple air spell to whisper at a target without anyone else hearing, was child’s play. Sometimes she thought her political and magical training had started before she was weaned. Still, at least air magic wasn’t boring, in fact she never felt more alive than when she used it.

  That was the problem, she wanted to go out there and grow as a mage, but as the heir she had very little opportunities to even practice, all her time being taken up with other things. The idea her father would ever allow her to go dungeon diving was ridiculous. She on the other hand, didn’t think so. Even in a worst case scenario, if she died she had a younger brother and sister, both air mages as well.

  She sighed internally, while keeping her polite political face on and paid attention.

  “This is the woman your grace. She claims a skeleton killed her friend out at the old keep right outside the city.”

  Her father said, “And what were you doing there? That area has been off limits for hundreds of years, and for good reason.”

  The princess’s eyes widened slightly at the fear in her father’s voice. She doubted any but her and the court mage could pick it up, but he was definitely afraid of something. It sparked her curiosity.

  The woman blushed, “I tried to prevent him my lord, I’m not sure why he decided to visit that cursed place.”

  Her father grunted, and then said, “Very well. Captain, hold her and question her for the full truth. I also want you to take some soldiers, including a couple of mages and check it out.”

  She itched to go, and almost asked, but it would be pointless. Her father would never let her go along. Most male heirs got to go into the field, and gain the experience as part of ruling. Her father kept her in the castle like she was some precious object to be protected and coddled. She hated it, but she also knew her duty…

  Catalina knocked, and entered her father’s study later that day after the audience.

  “What is it Cat,” he asked.

  Catalina sighed, “Father, why were you afraid earlier. What is it about the old paladin’s holding that makes it a death sentence to go inside?”

  Her father sighed, and studied her for a moment. She could see it in his eyes when he made the decision to tell her the truth.

  “I suppose as heir you might as well know, since it will be your responsibility in the future. Sir Gerald Lanweth was a simple landless paladin. He found a dark crystal of power during his travels. One that was so powerful he feared it ever falling into the wrong hands. He spent much of his life in an effort to destroy it, but it resisted his every attempt. It was seemingly indestructible, at least he didn’t find a way to do it.

  “He feared the stone would corrupt most men, even he was tempted by the dark promise of its power. But as he grew older, and put his sword up, he worried what would happen when he passed on. So, he met with our ancestor, Duke Arian, and requested aid. Duke Arian’s writings about the crystal are disturbing, the almost hypnotizing power of the crystal ensnares the mind. Suffice it to say, you can read about it when you are duchess.

  “Anyway, Arian was moved to help the paladin, and gave him the title of earl, along with a deed of land with control over the keep with a small temple in it, which had catacombs beneath it. The land originally belonged to another Baron, who had passed away without an heir a short time before that, so the land reverted to Arian. Regardless, Arian promised Gerald the land would stand empty and protected after his passing, which took another twenty years during which they became close friends. That crystal, along with Gerald’s holy sword to suppress the stone’s unholy aura, is in the deepest part of the catacombs.

  “So why am I afraid? Because if there are undead there now, I’m not sure it will be possible to keep it a secret any longer. We must find another way to deal with it. Worse, I can only assume the stone is behind it, and that is disturbing news.”

  She felt the urge to go investigate herself, and wondered at her own sanity. Still, it was tempting for her.

  “So, what will you do if the stone is awake and raising the dead?”

  The duke blew out a breath, “It depends on the circumstances. Patience Cat, we’ll see what the soldiers come back to report.”

  She nodded, “Thank you father,” and left him to his work. She had a free moment and headed toward the library to hopefully learn more magic. She couldn’t help but remember the tone of his last words, he might as well have just said if they come back.

  Carlton, high cleric of Boduna, Goddess of Order, for the city of Tenemin stared at his latest dispatch from the crown city. His counterpart Verin in the crown city, and head of the church in all of Nysten, was a pain in his ass.

  Tenemin was the southernmost city in the kingdom, by the border of Jennesar. Jennesar was a theocracy run by the church itself, and something he knew his counterpart wished he could implement here. Of course, that was impossible, the gentry would put them all to the sword if they tried.

  His goddess was of order, and he only cared about those under his care.

  Regardless, the jackass had accepted a visitation request from one of the bishops of Jennesar, which was roughly the equivalent of his ecclesiastic rank, plus the rank of a Lord. His orders required him to have a small team on the border in a week to escort his visitor to the crown city.

  It was foolishness, the jackass would be lucky if he wasn’t hung, and Carlton would be lucky if he didn’t share the gibbet. He was no stranger to ambition, he’d managed to claw his way up to high cleric of a d
ucal holding, but he wasn’t suicidal. Problem was, he had his orders, and as stupid as he thought they were, he’d no choice but to follow them. He could only hope there wasn’t a conspiracy afoot like he feared.

  There was a knock on the door, and he snapped, “What is it?”

  The door opened revealing a young paladin. He scoured his mind to come up with a name.

  “Sir Cary, what is it?”

  Sir Cary said, “Something interesting happened at court today,” and the young eager man proceeded to tell him about undead skeleton being sighted at the old Lanweth holding.

  He pursed his lips tightly in thought. Cary was partnered with another paladin, Diana, and they both worked with the Cleric Selwyn. He wasn’t sure though if they should make the effort on the word of a young woman who’d obviously been dishonest, at least in part. He made his decision and delivered his orders.

  “Let the soldiers check it out, and head back to the castle where you can hear the results. I want to know if there’s any truth to this before we start investigating. Still, give Diana and Selwyn the information, and have them prepare a cleansing kit just in case.”

  Cary bowed, “Right away your eminence,” and left the room.

  Chapter Five

  “What are you doing?”

  Ebony was on the first floor, and I could feel the new life within my reach, I just wasn’t sure what it was about.

  Ebony said, “I told you in the beginning, I can leave the dungeon. I’m transplanting some herbs and flowers from nearby. Did you know your just a half a mile from a large city? Between that and the catacombs you couldn’t have picked a better place for a dungeon if you tried. Anyway, they’re basic ingredients right now, mostly poisons, but some healing herbs as well. You should study them so you can recreate them as needed.”

  I replied, “Oh. Thanks Ebony. Just basic ones?”

  It didn’t take long to absorb the basic life forms and patterns. They were just plants. I actually had it done before she even replied.

  Ebony nodded, “Yes, I didn’t find any rare ingredients near here, but that will change. When you absorb rare potions, or even rare herbs from an adventurer’s pack after death, you should be able to figure out the plant or flower it came from, and make them. Still, even weaker poisons and health potions will have their draw. You’re still young for a dungeon. Weaker adventurers won’t need advanced potions.”