Dungeon Spawned: Dark Dungeon 01 Read online

  Oh shit, I’d have to stick one obvious monster in there now. Thanks for the tip Selwyn, not that you can hear me.

  The two spike traps with false floors above them started to glow green.

  They were careful even then, as Diana and Cory held their swords and moved forward, and Selwyn kept watch on their back as he followed. The niches the skeletons weren’t truly invisible, but they were almost impossible to detect from the front side of the room, the angles gave it the illusion it was a solid wall. As soon as Selwyn passed the traps in the ground he called out.

  “Two skeletons behind, I have one.”

  My undead minions started forward, as Selwyn held up a symbol and called up on his god and started to glow with a white light. The skeleton going for him collapsed into a pile of bones as it entered the light.

  The second skeleton attacked Diana, who wielded a sword. I hoped it would get stuck, but no such luck, the damn thing glowed with white light and cut the skeleton in half like a knife through butter. The skeleton’s one attack was stopped easily by the bitch’s… I mean the paladin’s armor.

  Cory said, “That wasn’t so bad.”

  Diana laughed, “First room snookums, if the dungeon is good it will get a bit harder each room. Let’s see what the dungeon left us.”

  Cory said softly in question, “Snookums?”

  Diana smirked, “You called me hon. I love you Cory, but leave the pet names alone when we’re diving in a dungeon huh? We can’t afford to be distracted on duty, least of all in this place. Don’t forget I’m in command here.”

  Cory nodded, “Yes ma’am. Sorry.”

  Diana shrugged it off and looked around.

  Diana and Cory found a couple of bronze coins while Selwyn claimed some healing mushrooms from the corner.

  I asked, “Sexy, are these adventurers then, they seem smarter at least.”

  Ebony shook her head, “No, not yet. If I had to guess I’d say the local church wanted to evaluate you independently. The guild probably won’t get here for a week, you should be done with floor six by then.”

  I returned my attention to the group of three when they entered the next room. The two paladins destroyed the three skeletons in there in seconds. My only consolation was that Selwyn person wasted mana on a find trap spell, I didn’t put any in there.

  Diana said, “Do you feel that?” as they approached the next room.

  Cory asked, “What, I feel a lot of things.”

  Selwyn laughed, “The magic level?”

  Diana nodded, “This dungeon doesn’t just have dark magic, it has light. Perhaps more, the guild will find out.”

  I guessed that they could only feel the light magic, and knew dark magic was there because of the undead.

  Cory sighed, “That’s a good sign though right, if the dungeon has balanced magic it probably won’t go rogue, like if it was all dark.”

  Selwyn grunted, “Maybe, it probably doesn’t hurt.”

  “Is that true?” I asked.

  Ebony shrugged, “Most of the balanced dark dungeons do have more than just dark magic, but not necessarily light. Dungeons that can process all six elemental spheres are very rare, I’m a very lucky imp.”

  Diana went through first, and if I’d had a body I’d have jumped with glee, when the extremely large undead dog tackled her and took her down, into the range of two more skeletons.

  The skeleton managed to tear into her arm while the dog tried to bite her throat. Unfortunately, she was very well armored there.

  Cory screamed a war cry of rage and fear, and hacked the dog off her breaking it apart. Diana immediately rolled and got to her feet while Selwyn got the skeleton with a holy bolt of light magic. Cory handled the last skeleton while Selwyn cast a healing spell on Diana.

  I sighed in disgust, “Undead are too weak against light magic.”

  Ebony smiled, “Let’s see if they go down, the undead knights and mages can take a lot more damage. Not sure about the zombies.”

  To my disgust, they didn’t venture to the second floor, and the zombie at the end didn’t give them much of a challenge either. After a quick discussion, they’d backtracked and left the dungeon, seemingly satisfied they knew enough for a tentative report. They seemed more than willing to allow the guild to do a full discovery and report, whatever that meant.

  I took a few minutes to reset the undead they destroyed, respawn the flora taken, and then I made one extra skeleton for the first room…

  Chapter Seven

  “Lila?”

  She sighed impatiently, “What now Nurien?”

  “Well, I might have a solution for you. I remade the mind trap spell. The core is the same, I just changed the targeting, and set a trigger so you can end the dream world if you so wish.”

  She seemed to perk up, “Really, you did that for me? What does it do now?”

  “It targets your greatest desires and fantasies, instead of your greatest fears.”

  She replied, “Why?”

  “Self-preservation, I don’t want to share my mind space with an insane demoness.”

  I’d also hate to see her suffer, but I couldn’t tell her that.

  She smirked in my mind and said sultrily, “You just did, you big softie.”

  Shit!

  She laughed, “Well, go ahead, hit me with it. Wait, how do I break out of it?”

  “It will end when your greatest desire or fantasy is temporarily sated, or just say Ebony is one sexy imp.”

  She snorted, “Really?”

  I replied teasingly, “No, of course not. Well, the first part was true, for the second just focus on reconnecting with my thoughts and mind, our magical bond will still be there so it should pull you out and back into my mind, and is easy enough to do.”

  She snickered, “Very well. And… thank you.”

  I formed the magic for the spell, using the abundance of energy trapped within the prison made it simple. Then I cast it through our bond to bypass the light barrier. I felt her mind leave mine, and be focused elsewhere.

  I rejoined my mind together, there was no point hiding it, I’d already given myself away by revealing my compassion. Considering she was stuck in here with me in this crystal prison, and didn’t have a chance of overwhelming my will and mind for my power, I supposed in the end it wouldn’t matter. Plus, she was bound to me, and could only betray me with silence, not by lies or actions.

  Although, I may reinstate it again if I ever want to surprise her in the future.

  “Hey sexy.”

  The sexy imp turned around, she genuinely was kind of beautiful, in an overly ripe and luscious way despite her size. Luckily, I didn’t have a body so wasn’t really tempted by that beauty. Plus, I was coming to like that smile she gave me when I called her sexy.

  “What is it master?”

  I asked, “So how do I get more monsters. I mean, undead and demons are good for now, but I’m greedy and want more.”

  She replied, “There are several ways. I can take animals from the forest and bring them back here for you to modify and experiment on. That’s probably the easiest way. Another way is any dark creatures that feel your dungeon may come and volunteer service for a term.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  She replied, “Mutually beneficial. If you bind them as servants you hold on to their souls when they die and can bind them back into new bodies you create. So, by serving you they have a chance to gain power, and even gain new abilities from your experiments, relatively risk free. Once their term of service is up you would release them, and they’d return to the world stronger. There is one more benefit, dark creatures or races are usually hunted down and exterminated when caught killing humans. Working for a dungeon is the exception, where challenging and killing humans is not only not retaliated against, but encouraged by the crazy bastards. Dark creatures generally enjoy that sort of thing.”

  “That kind of makes sense. Okay, other ways?”

  “You can modify plants, or
create oozes which are non-sentient magic creatures made of goo.”

  I replied, “I’ll pass on those, one unintelligent monster type is enough, and I already have skeletons and zombies, any more ideas?”

  She tilted her head, “Not that I can think of.”

  I said, “Good enough, I’ll let you know when I’m getting ready to expand again. If no creatures show up before then, I’ll have you grab those animals.”

  She nodded absently, and headed for her home in the corner.

  “Lila?”

  There was no answer, which surprised me. What happened in our minds when cut off from the real world happened very quickly. Which meant she’d been in there for a very long time. Long enough that I was worried. Worried enough to do something stupid.

  I peeked within the spell to check on her, what I didn’t expect to happen was that I was sucked right into her mind, and into her fantasy.

  It’s impossible to describe those first few moments. I’d never had a body, not that I could remember anyway. I had no reference for having a body, but Lila was an old and powerful demoness, and knew very well how a man’s body felt, as well as what they felt like when she was with them.

  The pleasure was insanely intense, and for a moment all that existed was the hardness at my center, waves of pleasure radiating out into my body and my mind at the feel of her soft lips, and hot warm mouth taking me in. Her tongue was soft, long, and she knew how to use it as she sucked my cock.

  No, she didn’t suck my cock, she worshipped it. I could feel her ecstasy, joy, and a deep peace from her as she pleasured my sensitive length with her tongue, lips, throat, and hands. What was even more shocking, was I felt love, devotion, loyalty, and a deep desire to serve. That on top of my own awe and pleasure at all the new sensations I was drowning in was just too much for me to handle, and my body seemed to lose control, and my mind seemed to lose connection with everything but the bliss as I exploded.

  I barely heard her moan in ecstatic bliss as she milked my seed into her mouth. Accepting it with devotion, like it was a gift she’d been longing for.

  I was shocked as I came down, I also felt horribly guilty as she looked up at me with adoration, for breaking into her fantasy and violating her privacy. I also couldn’t slip out, it seemed I was stuck here until she released me. Which… was bad. I only had the barest tentative connection with the dungeon, it was a good thing it was empty right now. Perhaps I should have stayed partitioned after all, then at least part of my mind would be dealing with business.

  The rest of the details started to make it into my pleasure shocked brain as I finished coming down. I had expected fire, darkness, and perhaps perversions from a sex demoness. But as I looked around and took everything in, it looked like somewhere a god may live. There were marble columns, statues, and art so beautiful it touched the soul.

  I myself, was sitting on a throne, and I could tell I had dark hair, blue eyes, and a body built like… well like a god.

  The biggest shock of all was Lila herself. She didn’t have red skin, a tail, or horns. She did have wings though, but of the purest glowing white. She was on her knees in a diaphanous gown of white that blurred but hardly hid her body. Her body was voluptuous, but not overly so as if in demonic mockery. Her skin was fair and without blemish. Her golden tresses almost reached the floor as she kneeled between my legs and looked up adoringly at me with vivid blue eyes that looked like the sky on a clear day. Her lips were full, and set in a smile.

  What did this mean, this was her greatest passion and fantasy? To be an angel at the foot of a god? Not a demon at all. I froze, suddenly afraid of her reaction if she realized it was me, not that preventing that was possible. I knew already she would hate me seeing this vulnerable admission of her soul, more than she’d hate herself for it.

  “Lila,” I said softly, an apology and an admission all rolled up in her name.

  She frowned in confusion for a minute, but then her eyes narrowed, and then widened in horror, embarrassment, and rage. I had invaded her most private thoughts, desires and fantasies, ones that she might not have even realized she’d had until the spell hit her.

  “I was worried, I didn’t know this would happen when I checked up on you.”

  She clenched her jaw tightly, and then the body I was in, her body, and the world went up in flames. It was torturous for a couple of seconds, and then I was kicked out of her mind.

  “Lila?”

  She growled, “Don’t talk to me, and never use that spell again.”

  I could feel her emotions, they were turbulent and all over the place, fierce, and then she surprised me again. They settled on one emotion as the storm died down, an endless abyss of grief I couldn’t possibly comprehend. What had they done to her? What had they done to my Lila?

  I partitioned my mind and put my thoughts about the fantasy encounter in it, partly to spare her having to hear the pity in my thoughts, and the rest of the reason because of my own selfishness. Selfishness, because no matter how shocking that had been, I felt an increasingly building desire to feel that intimacy with Lila once again. The cold sterile void of the crystal was no longer enough.

  Chapter Eight

  Carlton felt frustrated. He was no stranger to politics. He was one of the youngest to ever achieve the rank of high cleric of a city at the young age of thirty-two. He didn’t get there by not being able to read the currents of political intrigue. He was aware there were a few highly-placed people in the crown city that wouldn’t see even a tame dark dungeon as a good training exercise location, as he read the latest dispatch, but that wasn’t why he was upset.

  He couldn’t figure out what the Duke was up to, or what he was hiding. It didn’t make sense, dungeons were a cash crop and the Duke was dragging his feet. Carlton also had the feeling he was on the man’s shit list for sending out his own dispatch, to the guild. He imagined they’d be here in a couple of days to evaluate and rate the dungeon’s status in both power and dependability. So far, there’d been no indications of it being rogue, or even unbalanced, which made the Duke’s lack of action even more suspect.

  There was a knock on the door.

  “Enter.”

  Diana, Cory, and Selwyn walked in. He evaluated them, they looked confident and were a good team. At first when Diana and Cory started pursuing a personal relationship he’d considered breaking up their team. So far as far as he could tell, they weren’t letting it interfere with their work. Which was good, they were one of the best teams he had.

  “Report,” he said calmly.

  Diana said, “The group from Jennesar is on the way to the capitol, we assigned twenty soldiers for the job. They were very close mouthed, or I should say, they went on about amicable relations between our kingdom’s churches. He was good, I almost think he believed what he was saying himself.”

  He snorted, “I bet. And the other matter?”

  Selwyn and Cory exchanged glances, and then Selwyn spoke.

  “Nothing. All the lords and ladies of the court seem just as baffled, and they’re grumbling about it. Our source in the castle servants hasn’t heard a damned thing either. If the there’s a reason the Duke is wary of the new dungeon, he’s keeping it close to the vest.”

  Cory said, “Same here your grace, none of my contacts can explain his actions.

  Carlton grunted, he really hated to be in the dark. It was hard to prepare for the unknown.

  Diana asked, “Orders sir?”

  Carlton said, “I want you three to work with the guild when they get here, set up the training schedules, and keep an eye on things. I may stick my hand in as well, be more visible. Until we find out what’s going on, be wary but not paranoid. We’ve always enjoyed a good relationship with the Duke of Tenemin. I don’t think whatever it is, is aimed at us, but it will surely affect us. Dismissed.”

  He brooded as the two paladins and the cleric left his office. He hated being in the dark.

  Lila still wasn’t talking me and seemed withd
rawn.

  So, I threw myself into the dungeon, trying out ways to build crystal lattices faster, though it was easier said than done. The time it took to build each layer of bands was slowly increasing because the area was increasing. I was getting larger in extremely minute amounts. On the good side, the payoff was still the same because of the same reason, larger layer, the larger the amount of magic I was able to absorb, hold, and channel.

  I was also sure I was at my limit for now, for the size of my dungeon. Not will and mind wise, if I had access to the great amount of dark magic inside my core on the outside, I could build a hundred levels in an instant with plenty left over, and watch over it with mental resources to spare. No, what limited me was the small amount of magic I could control on the outside. As a result, I tried to be as efficient with my limited magic as possible.

  Another part of me was trying to automate the loot system to a certain extent. I found I could imbue my creatures with a small amount of creation embedded into their forms, that would trigger when they were destroyed. I integrated it with the magic to form them in the first place, so I could set rewards that matched the difficulty. I also created several different options for each being I could create or summon. The exceptions to that were the original enchanted items I made for the floor bosses, sometimes they would drop after, sometimes they’d be wielded or worn during battle.

  Yet another part of me was busy breaking down the spells I did know, to see and experiment with different ways to put that magic together. For now, I was limited to mostly light, fire, and dark magic, as all the spells I knew were in those spheres. Earth, air, and water would have to wait until I gained more knowledge, yet that was only in the way I formed and shaped the magic. Much of what I was learning would translate eventually.

  I was applying the new knowledge in both spells and enchantments.

  I’d also revamped the undead mages so they used more than raw magic, for those spheres I had spells for. I’d imbued the ability to cast certain spells on them, instead of just flinging around raw magic for crude attacks and shields. They’d still be stupid of course, but throwing a curse to slow an enemy down was almost always going to work out for any situation. The same with protection spells.