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Chapter Fifteen
The horizontal elevator worked out great. It used more of my resources, but I had plenty. That last adventuring party had given me a nice boost, something I didn’t want to think about. We all crowded onto the elevator and it moved us sideways down a horizontal shaft that I had made to reach the dungeon below us. I had to start branching out to find it.
It was a shame I found no Mana Vein. I needed two more to get the next level of magic.
“Whee!” Garnet shouted as she stood at the front of the elevator, her black pigtails whipping in the wind behind her.
I shook my head at my little sister.
Fara had dressed in her leaf gown and had her pouch on. Her long ears quivered. She looked like she was going to Disneyland for the first time. I guess visiting a dungeon counted as that. We reached the end of the tunnel in a few minutes, traveling nearly a mile out from the throne room. From here, there was another elevator that took us down.
And it was deep. Two miles into the rock.
Hagane adjusted her glasses as we descended. “The temperature should be increasing, Leo.”
“It’s hotter outside the walls,” I told her. “How did you know that?”
“The deeper you go into the earth, the hotter it gets. It’s a limit to how deep we can dig mines down. The deepest one, a gold mine in South Africa, has temperatures that are nearly impossible to work in. And you say this goes down two miles?”
I nodded.
“We should be boiling.” She looked at the walls and touched the smooth surface whizzing past. “But, I suppose, your dungeon keeps a controlled environment even with such pressures upon it.”
Fara was writing furiously with her phoenix quill, burning her words into the parchment. I glanced at it. The writing looked similar to cuneiform but looked more cursive. Like it had evolved from beyond wedge shapes being pressed into clay tablets.
I felt my own glyphs on my chest almost burning me for a moment. Cuneiform-like symbols. Cuneiform-like writing. What was the connection? I wished I knew more about ancient Mesopotamia. But it wasn’t anything I could do now. No internet for me to access. No Wikipedia for me to access.
Maybe I should get an academic or something for my next companion. I had four more I could get. Fire, Wind, Thunder, and Death. Who? I didn’t know any women who were experts on the Near East, did I?
The elevator reached the room I had made around the tunnel. The stone walls ran through the room. I couldn’t change them. They were a barrier to manipulating the Void Crystal. It had been the first time I ran into someone else’s will.
“Ladies,” I said, motioning to the pickaxes I had placed down here. “Let’s get to mining.”
“Lord Leo!” barked the wildhounds. They surged out ahead of the others, rushing to grab them. Slepkavi came next, the orc grabbing a pickax. She had an Amazonian build. Strong and sexy all at the same time.
Daant grabbed one and sighed. “I can’t hold anything in my paws, or I could really tear this down.”
“I think it will be okay,” Kin said, nodding to the pack of wildhounds.
Their black tails wagging, they were attacking the stone tunnel with enthusiasm, slamming their pickaxes into the joints of the stone. I watched on impassively. Garnet was darting around the room, flying and flitting and unable to stay still. Slepkavi hammered away with the wildhounds. They slowly opened a hole onto a dark tunnel covered in dust.
“It’s so deep,” Maya said. “I can’t believe it. I wonder where the entrance to it is?”
“Well hidden,” Fara said, her ears twitching even more than before. “No one ever found it.”
“Must be a shaft going up somewhere in the mountains,” I said, glancing up at all the stone above us.
“It’ll be a labyrinth,” Mrs. Lucina said. “We should make markings so we don’t get lost.”
“That’s a great idea, Mother,” Kin said. It seemed the Light monster girls saw Mrs. Lucina as their surrogate mother the way the satyrs and werebears saw my mother as one.
“My webbing can suffice,” Nimhe said. “I can leave it to mark our passage. It will last for weeks.”
“Smart,” Garnet said and then landed on Nimhe’s back and hugged her from behind, riding her like a horse. “You’re so smart.”
“Thank you, little sister,” Nimhe said, the Dark monster girls seeing Garnet as their sister.
“Hela, lead your sisters,” I commanded. “You’re our scouts. I want you to find every active trap. The monster girls are all gone, but the defenses are still going to be in place. Our safety is in your hands.”
“Lord Leo!” Hela gasped and turned to me. “We won’t let you down.”
The pack of nubile monster girls flowed in and spilled in both directions into the tunnels. They were sniffing around, thrusting their cute rumps up into the air. Nimhe scuttled in next with Garnet still riding her followed by Prekrasnyy and Kin. Then Daant and Havas entered. Piaro ventured in next. Slepkavi had her sword out and was standing at the back with Usiku and Paanee, Ataşehir travesti the rear guard. Fara edged closer and peered into the hole. Maya was at her side. Halia had her sword out, ready to leap into the hole if anything attacked.
“There are traps,” shouted Hela. “We’re disabling them, Lord Leo. Give us a few minutes.”
I nodded.
Fara squirmed, her hips wiggling from side to side. I could feel her excitement. We all could. Mrs. Lucina’s halo pulsed. Maya breathed heavily. Garnet was inside having fun. I was already regretting bringing her along.
I loved her, but she didn’t take things as seriously as she needed to.
“It’s dusty in here, big bro,” Garnet reported. She appeared in the breach, no longer on Nimhe.
“Lose your ride?” I asked her, amused. I shifted my grip on my lightning spear. It doubled as a walking staff.
“She’s exploring the ceiling for traps. You might have brought more arachnes.”
“Too late now,” I said, glancing at Fara. She was on the verge of just darting in there.
“Traps are disabled,” Hela cried. “The tunnels branch at both ends. I could not tell you which is the right way to go.”
“Well, let’s go right at every option,” I said. “So long as we do that, we’ll get through any maze. Wildhounds, sniff down every branch about thirty feet just to make sure there are no dangers. You have point. Nimhe, you’re right after them, then Kin, Prekrasnyy, Piaro, Sviesos, Daant, and Havas. Usiku, rearguard is yours.”
“Lord Leo!” my monster girls all shouted together, all sounding so excited.
Halia stepped into the hole and I followed her. The tunnel was ten feet wide. The wildhounds had dug up floor tiles and pried out false ceiling tiles and wall bricks to disable the traps. A pit trap had to be walked around.
My heart pounded in my chest. We were the first people to walk in here in five thousand years. The thick layer of dust wasn’t surprising. I felt like one of those explorers who had broken into the Egyptian tombs a hundred years ago. Venturing into the unknown.
I smiled as I looked around. The tunnel was the same sort of bricks I used. If it wasn’t for the layer of dust, I could mistake this for part of my own dungeon. It was even the same temperature, comfortable.
And yet, it felt oppressive. This dungeon did not want me in here. I wasn’t the owner. Meskalamdug had been dead for a long time, but the dungeon still waited for him to return. Was his Soul of the Void Crystal sitting on her perch wondering where he was? Was she waiting in vain for him to return?
Or had she died with him?
“Brilliant and revealing, let the light of Lord Shamash float!” I chanted. A ball of light appeared in the air, the Beginner Tier Light spell shedding light for those of us who had to see. It bobbed before me as I followed my monster girls into the dungeon.
Heading right, I walked amid my monster girls. Garnet managed to take my left arm, my right holding my spear. She clung to me, humming in delight. Fara was just before me, her eyes darting around, recording her thoughts. It was slow going as the wildhounds and Nimhe cleared the territory for any traps.
Halia sneezed.
“Gesundheit,” I said.
She turned and glanced at me. “That’s a strange word.”
“It’s German for ‘Good Health’,” Hagane said, her eyes flicking around the tunnel as much as Fara.
Halia nodded and then sneezed again and a third time, making such cute sounds. I understood why, the dust was thick. The wildhounds were sneezing up a storm ahead as they sniffed around, moving slowly as they covered territory, working together to make sure they missed nothing.
“I am glad I do not breathe,” Hagane said as Garnet was the next to sneeze.
“Lucky you,” said Garnet.
“Yes,” Mrs. Lucina said. My busty angel-MILF’s nose twitched. She looked on the verge of one and then stopped.
“It’s coating my feet, though,” muttered Maya. “I can feel the dust starting to infiltrate my body. It’s so disgusting.”
“You should have Leo make you sexy thigh-high boots,” said Garnet, the only monster girl that wore anything other than armor, like Slepkavi had.
“I can taste it,” Paanee hissed. “Blegh. Every time my tongue flicks out. And it’s coating my scales, Massster.”
“I’m sorry for making you all suffer,” I said.
“It’s not suffering, Lord Leo,” Du called, her head shooting up and looking back at me. Though the wildhounds all looked similar, I could tell them all apart.
“We never mind, Lord Leo,” Sviesos said, glancing back at me. The will o’ wisp smiled, dazzled, the roiling plasma, a mix of sapphire and azures swirling together, dancing across her cheeks. The first monster girl I had created moved with a light step.
“You don’t have to breathe,” muttered Garnet. “But that’s okay, big bro. We’re exploring a tomb. That’s so neat.”
We came across more branches, going right each time. Nimhe marked the walls with webbing forming an arrow that pointed Ataşehir travestileri which way we had gone. Once, we hit a dead-end that had a nasty trap the wildhounds had disabled.
“It would have fired a giant gout of flame down the hallway and incinerated us all, Master,” Marwo reported.
“Damn,” Maya said. “Fire, huh?”
“Most of the traps are fire,” said Hela. “I suspect that was his primary glyph. But we also have found spectral traps. Life stealers.”
“Death magic?” I asked.
The wildhounds nodded.
“Fire and death, huh.”
“He was most infamously known for Fire,” said Fara. “Other than that, none of his Glyphs were known. He was an early one. The opportunities for him to get other glyphs might have been rare.”
“He had a lot of power but not as many options,” I said.
We backtracked and Nimhe put an entire web across the dead-end to let us know never to go that way again. We kept going, moving deeper and deeper until we came to a large room that had a circle inscribed in the middle of the floor.
“What is this?” I asked when we found the circle. Well, two circles, one a few inches smaller than the other. Cuneiform markings were inscribed along the edges.
“A summoning circle?” Hagane asked. “Like used in magic?”
“Summoning what?” I glanced at my animated statue. “I summon with the Void Crystal. Why would he be different?”
“The markings are very strange,” said Fara, sketching it. “I believe they are what wizards use to enchant items and what their scrolls are written in. There are glyphs worked into it, too. Wind.” She pointed to three cuneiform-like arrows stacked on each other and pointing the same way. “And Light.”
I recognized seven arrows radiating out from a middle, their heads touching to form an inner circle like a sun with long rays.
“It’s repeated over and over at eight points on the circle,” Fara continued. “Then there is arcane writing in between. This is not dungeon builder magic. This is wizardry. Why would it be here?”
“It’s a teleportation circle,” Halia said. “Some dungeon builders figure out how to work magic. It links to somewhere else if you know the words to speak.”
“Where?” I asked.
Halia gave me a helpless shrug.
“Copy it, Fara,” I said. “This could be useful.”
“I am, Lord Leo,” she said.
“This could be the entrance,” Hagane said. “Imagine if there is a room up high that links to here. A way to get out of here and still have an ‘entrance.'”
I shook my head. “There has to be a way out. Always. Otherwise, it would be too easy for us to find. This must have led somewhere. Probably been destroyed. It’s five thousand years.”
“It is fascinating to see that wizardry as it’s used today is this ancient,” Fara said. “It rose in response to the dungeon builders. Scholars who studied their glyphs and created their own way of working it. Fascinating stuff.”
“Yes,” Hagane said. She stroked a metal finger across the cuneiform-like runes that were around the edges. “Very fascinating.”
After Fara had copied the teleportation circle, we returned to exploring. I wanted to find the entrance. This is connected to my dungeon right now. That meant there was a point of vulnerability, if a small one. Plus, it would let us know where we were in the labyrinth. This could stretch on for levels. If he was as powerful as we suspect, he could have a massive labyrinth.
But so far we hadn’t found it.
“I wonder if he has a single shaft going up to the surface,” said Halia. “And then it’s cleverly hidden. A chimney, like. If it popped out at the top of the peak, it must be impossible to find.”
“And then he used the teleportation circle to get in and out?” I asked. “That makes sense. Lets him have the entrance and use another way to get in and out.”
“A room like your old donkey cave,” Usiku said. “Not connected to the rest of the dungeon but still has an exit. He’s the only one who knows the passcode. It must suck for getting his monster girls in and out.”
“He could always create a proper opening to temporarily let them out,” I said. “They could flood out, reset it, and then use the teleportation circle.”
“And it’s far from the heart of his base in case someone figures out his code,” Garnet said. “Smart. He thought about things.”
I nodded.
“If he hadn’t been killed outside of his dungeon,” said Halia, “he could have grown even more powerful. The world didn’t know much about dungeon builders. He might have taken it over.” She shuddered. “It must have been so scary for our ancestors. They didn’t have wizards to lay wards around cities or clerics praying to the gods.”
“No clerics?” I asked.
“The gods were the ones who came to us to show us how to fight the dungeon builders,” said Halia. “Or so the priests teach.”
Fara nodded.
“Very interesting,” Hagane said.
“Something you want to add?” I asked my nerdy monster girl.
“Not yet, Leo.” She had a slight smile on her lips. “I want to Travesti ataşehir be sure of my suppositions.”
“Okay,” I answered, curious. “What happened to Meskalamdug after he was killed? I know the monster girls vanish, but our bodies don’t.”
“I hope they dismembered him and sent the pieces to the eight pillars of the world,” muttered Halia.
“There is a scrap of a poem that said his body was spirited off,” Fara said. She flipped through her journal. “Here it is.
…and died.
His minions vanished all save wife.
His body in arms, she took to flight.”
“That’s it?” I asked. “He had a wife who wasn’t a monster girl and could fly?”
Fara nodded. “It is much debated. This is the only reference to his wife, but as I have long lamented, we had lost much writings and knowledge of the past before the Great Library was constructed. It took us time to perfect wizardry and for the priests to fully understand the powers the Lords and Ladies had given us to defend ourselves. I cannot at all begin to think what the passage means, but if wizardry was advanced enough in Meskalamdug’s time, it is possible he married a mortal woman who mastered wizardry. Halia proves that our peoples can fall in love with a dungeon builder.”
“And I have seen mages fly,” Halia said. “It might even have been her work making the teleportation circle.”
We found stairs that led up to a large room that had six different passages leading off it. I blinked at that. The room itself didn’t seem dangerous. The wildhounds sniffed out of it while my impatience was growing. Six passages. Any of them could lead to the way out. We had already been down here a few hours by now.
“Wildhounds, break up into pairs. The odd one out, go with Nimhe. Explore these tunnels. Disable traps. We don’t need all of you sniffing at the same territory,” I said, stretching my back. “That will let us cover four of these tunnels. We’ll stay here and see what you find.”
“Yes, Lord Leo,” my wildhounds cheered.
“As you command, Lord Leo,” Nimhe said.
They split up into pairs. Gwyllt, the odd one, jumped up beside Nimhe. Then they all headed down the four new tunnels. The wildhounds were sniffing while Nimhe scuttled, her head turning. She had those fractal eyes.
“Usiku, let’s get a perimeter set up,” Halia said.
“That’s a good idea,” Usiku said. “Let’s go monster girls. Sviesos, you stay with Lord Leo since you’re ranged. The rest, I want you all standing by.”
“There’s nothing down here,” Garnet said, her wings fluttering.
“Better safe than sorry,” Maya said. “Let’s not take chances.”
“But what could be down here?” Garnet glanced over at Fara. “What sort of things can be lurking in a dungeon that has no great connection to the surface and has been abandoned for four thousand years? That’s a fricking long time. All the monster girls have gone. Poof.”
“Some monster girls survive the death of their masters,” Fara said. “They’re rare. No one quite knows how it happens. Perhaps they found a new way to sustain themselves without the connection to an active Void Crystal. Maybe one in a thousand. It’s hard to say.”
“So there might be a monster girl down here?” asked Garnet.
“Probably not,” Fara said. “Four thousand years is a long time.”
“A dragon could have found his or her way down here,” added Halia. “But I doubt that. They tend to make nests in abandoned dungeons that are easy to get into. This place is not easy. We’re too deep. No dungeon builder has ever gone this deep before. Not that I’ve heard of.”
“Dragon?” Garnet asked. “Aren’t those just a type of monster girl?”
Halia shook her head. “They’re rare beasts, but they’re not created by dungeon builders. They are native to our world.”
“Dragons are the original monsters,” said Fara. “They haunted this world before the dungeon builders. They are even, rarely, subjugated by builders. The females, anyways. They can be bound like Halia or I can. They are creatures of immense power, associated with one of the Twelve Elements. Because of all their power, they can be quite lazy. They have a hard time regaining the mana they expend. So they spend a great deal of time hibernating. They sleep away eons before emerging to cause problems then retreat to a lair when they are running low on mana.”
“Huh,” Garnet said. “A dragon would make such a neat pet, big bro. We totally should get one.”
“I don’t think so,” I muttered.
“But I’ll take care of her, big bro!” My little sister charged over to me, her black pigtails flying behind her. She stood coquettishly before me, her eyes fluttering as she stared up at me. “I would feed her and clean up after her and everything.”
“A dragon’s not a puppy,” I said. “It’s a much bigger responsibility.”
Garnet puffed out her cheeks. “I’m not a child. I’m eighteen! A succubus! I can handle it.”
I arched an eyebrow at her. “No. We have more important things to do than go out and hunt down a dragon.”
“But…” She gave me the cutest, most adorable begging look ever. “Pleeeeease?”
“No. You have the wildhounds for pets,” I said.
“I love the puppies, but I’m ready for a dragon.” She squirmed in place, her tail swishing back and forth. “I’m responsible.”
Maya snorted.
“Now Maya’s picking on me, big bro!”
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