《The Heart Grows》


 Chapter 1

    He wasn''t dead. There wasn''t much else he was sure of, but he wasn''t dead. Dead would have implied an end to many things, he was sure, so the pain he was feeling meant he wasn''t dead. Though he couldn''t move.


    A kaleidoscope of images assaulted him. Dark places, cold places, all moving and twitching. No, it was his perspectives that were moving. That disjointed movement was the primary source of his pain. He tried to raise arms he couldn''t feel and cup hands he didn''t have to cover his eyes, but the lack of those things meant he had no respite from the tunnels and darkness that weren''t dark enough for his liking.


    Two points of view seemed more right than the others. They were the right distance apart and didn''t seem to be inches from a surface. Of all the perspectives, though, it was the most stationary. But, when it did move, he realized that it was at the end of a tunnel.


    Whatever it was he was looking through, it didn''t like the light. A green-scaled arm reached into view and occluded his sight for a moment before he was looking at the biggest damn crystal he''d ever seen.


    Something about the crystal seemed strange, but try as he might he couldn''t figure out what. Strange, though, was discounting it glowing and literally floating in the air. It glowed with a soft pink-white light that whatever creature he was looking through (and he had figured out he was looking through a creature''s eyes) didn''t seem to mind.


    Things slowly started to make sense and, combined with his memories, it all sank-in and he realized what was going on. He was in a game. It was all a big game! A dungeon manager game. Looking through the creature''s eyes, he figured, made him the creature.


    Now if only he could figure out how to raise his arms.


    It was 3 days of screwing around trying to do anything before he figured out he was definitely not the creature. He knew it was 3 days because the light from outside kept changing. But, like a baby closing its hand around their parent''s finger moments after birth, he finally managed to nudge the creature.


    "Huh? What?" The eyes of the creature moved as it spoke and turned toward the too-bright entrance.


    Movement and a slight dimming drew his and the creature''s attention to the entrance of the cave. It took a few moments for the shapes to resolve and 3 humans to step in. All the different viewpoints let him pick out features from many angles¡ªsome of them upside down¡ªbut he''d been practicing looking.


    "It''s just a kobold. Worker, too. Kill it, William," one human, a male, said.


    He watched as the second of the leather-armored people reached over his shoulder and pulled a stylized long-rifle to his shoulder. Movement was impossible¡ªas was the ability to not watch as the large hammer came down on the back of the barrel and a loud crack sound echoed in the cave.


    Two points of light, two of his views of the world, disappeared.


    "Alright, Pen, head in and see if this useless hole has anything in it." It was the first speaker again. As the third human ran forward, he nodded to the second¡ªwho started reloading. "This one can''t have been here long if it only just got its first worker."


    The third human, a female by the shape he saw through all those odd eyes, walked up to what he realized was him now. The dungeon heart. He wasn''t the kobold¡ªhe was the dungeon!


    Her hands roamed over the handles of her knives, one on each hip, and she crouched down first to check the kobold. "Through the head. At least he made it quick. William isn''t known for being kind."


    Standing up, the woman turned to her companions. "It''s dead. Nice shot, William. Do you ever miss?"


    "You''d know better than anyone, Pen." The first man had walked down the tunnel toward the heart. In his hand was a strip of paper. "Has he ever hit you while you attack the same target?"


    He could see the woman''s eyes locked on the piece of paper in the first man''s hand, and he could see her eyes rise from it and focus on William. "No¡ª"


    "There''s a first time for everything."


    He screamed in his own head, unable to make a sound as he watched his second murder ever. There was nothing he could do but watch as red blossomed front and back on Pen''s lower torso. The bullet, he could see, had gone right through her and come out her back.


    "You didn''t get it, Pen. There were so many jobs you made us turn down¡ªjobs that would have made us rich enough to never have to travel to a shitty little village that is barely big enough to have gotten its first dungeon!


    "All the times your fucking conscience got in the way of us getting paid¡­ You should have seen this coming."


    Walking up as he reloaded, William shook his head. "Sorry, Pen. We had some good times, but you know the rules¡ªcoin comes first."


    Pen dropped to her knees, one hand over the hole in her gut while the other reached to her backpack.


    "Potions? I replaced them with colored water on the way out here. Your talisman?" The first man screwed up the paper in his hand. "This dungeon will figure its shit out eventually. Who knows, it might even be worth raiding in a few years, but Pen, you''re gonna be its first meal."


    "Won''t it be an honor, Pen? Hardly anyone dies in dungeons anymore. They walk in, get hurt or beat down, their talisman yanks them to safety and they come back. By the Abyss, I know you have a standard insurance to cover that." Finished reloading, William brought his rifle into a line with Pen''s head. "But not this time."


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    "Don''t waste the shot, William. She''s bleeding fast¡ªyou hit something important. Bye, Pen, you were wicked fast once, but today¡ªJust a little slow." Turning, the first man started walking down the tunnel and out, soon followed by William.


    Sobbing. He heard sobbing. "Fuck you, Peter! Fuck you, William, I¡ª" The sobbing turned to a cry of agony. "Fuck the whole fucking world." She turned her head and looked at the heart¡ªat him. "It''s just you and me then."


    He watched her drag closer and closer to the heart, leaving a trail of crimson behind her. She reached him and raised a hand stained red to the huge crystal. "Please, I don''t know if you can hear me or can even make sense of what I''m saying, but if those assholes come back¡ªkill them. Use me as food, use my weapons, use whatever gear those bastards didn''t steal, and kill them."


    Something, he begged, anything. Pen''s bloodstained print on his dungeon heart seemed to throb as he willed a way to control the dungeon.


    <blockquote>


    Accept Willing Sacrifice? [30s remaining]


    Accepting a supplicant with the appropriate medium present can integrate them into the dungeon.


    Yes/No


    </blockquote>


    It was a fancy-looking text box, but it was a text box. It had two buttons at the bottom and a timer ticking down. He read the contents of the box again and again, trying to make sure it meant what he thought it meant.


    The only other thing he''d managed to do so far was poke things. So, with 5 seconds remaining, he poked Yes.


    <hr>


    Penelope felt herself in even more agony as a blast of pink energy poured from the heart, shot through her bloody handprint, and lanced into her. She screamed more and more as her body twisted and every muscle, bone, and sinew pulled itself apart and put itself back into order again. Even her skin rebelled and flayed itself from her body.


    "Are you okay?"


    The words felt loud in Penelope''s head, but more they were felt and not heard. "Arr?" The sound coming from her mouth was odd and didn''t seem right. She looked up at the dungeon heart, her eyes piercing the darkness like never before, and tried again. "Graar?"


    "I don''t think I can understand kobold. Can you try speaking in¡ªuh¡ªhuman?"


    Rolling her eyes, Penelope wanted to shout at him that she was definitely and absolutely trying to speak common, but it was hard to because kobold mouths weren''t designed for it. And that''s when her brain screamed because it had worked out exactly what was wrong with her. Looking down revealed ruined leather armor wrapped around a small kobold''s body. Her body.


    This was a bad time to panic, though. Penelope closed her eyes and focused on centering herself. She tilted her head back down and looked at the ground. Her weapon belt was on the ground. When she picked it up, she realized how she''d shrunk. No longer pushing nearly five and a half feet tall, she gauged she must be almost half that. Slinging the belt over one shoulder, she tried to ignore the clawed green hands she was working with and instead made sure her knives were secure.


    "Not talkative? I don''t blame you. What the fuck was up with them?"


    Turning to look at the dungeon heart, Penelope now realized what was talking directly into her head. She started by swearing. Her mouth still wasn''t any better at making words, but the hissing, spitting, and growling she managed was more cathartic than actually filling anyone in on what had gone down. Finally, with a talon on each hip, she glared at the heart.


    "You were dying. I didn''t know what else to do. I just pushed as hard as I could to find something to save you. I¡ªI didn''t mean to turn you into a kobold."


    She blinked in surprise at the sincere worry in the mental voice. After what had just happened, she couldn''t exactly hold the heart responsible. William and Peter, she knew, would have just found somewhere else convenient to kill her.


    That''s when Penelope''s last words caught up with her. She''d begged the heart for help and it''d actually gone a step further. It hadn''t just used her body as food, it had given her a second life¡ªa new life. Wobbling a little as she tried to walk for the first time on new legs, Penelope approached the heart and didn''t stop until she pressed herself against it and hugged it tight.


    Without words, she hoped her actions could reassure the dungeon heart that she appreciated its effort and attempt to save her life.


    <hr>


    The town, after getting the news of a dungeon nearby, planned for a celebration. New life breathed through the dirty backstreets and rushed along the paved main street. Every kitchen was busy cooking, baking, and preparing for the night to come.


    While the afternoon rolled on, however, three people sat around a small table in a private room of the local tavern. Brolly Windchime, Christine Sellswell, and Howard Tailor all wore a grin.


    "We did it," Christine said. "We have twice-a-month merchant caravans coming in."


    "My merchants are planning to expand into finer goods. Steel and tin can only go so far." Howard, just like Christine, spoke with an upbeat tone. "Brolly?"


    "We''re a little behind on the fort. We''re going to need border walls for the city and more guards, but with at least one dungeon now, we can expect to see adventurers arriving with those caravans." Brolly smirked at his two co-leaders. "And, it''s not like we don''t have coin to pay for guards."


    "Tax rise again? You''re going to choke us, Brolly," Christine said, knowing that she had the best chance of convincing the captain of the guard to try something else.


    Howard just laughed at the sour expressions on both his co-leaders of the town. "You don''t get it. We''re going to have adventurers coming through. We''ll be lucky if we can make enough talismans to keep up, to say nothing of the demand for healing potions and other equipment. We''re going to need to get Brother Rupert in here, I think."


    "You think that canny priest will let us into his coffers?" Brolly asked.


    "He will if he wants my caravans to bring him supplies. A failed delivery or two should see him start to run short on incense, holy wine, and patience." The glint in Christine''s eyes told both her co-leaders that they never wanted this woman upset with them.


    "If he refuses, we could always look for another priest and arrange a new church in town." Howard reached to his pocket and pulled out a small ledger. "My cousin is a cleric in the Sisters of Grace¡ªwe could have ourselves a far more willing priestess to undercut Rupert''s prices within two weeks."


    Christine paused and tilted her head a little to the side. "Sisters of Grace? Isn''t that a fertility sect?" At Howard''s nod, she chortled. "I''d pay for a shrine at the very least. Talk to your cousin, I''ll talk to Rupert. It doesn''t hurt to hedge our bets."


    "Fertility, Christine? Planning to settle down at last?" Brolly asked.


    "More people in town means more goods trade, sir knight. More goods to trade means more gold and means you get more funding too. A fertility god blessing us would be far better than the abyssfire and brimstone that Rupert feeds us."


    All three went quiet as a hum ran through the room.


    "It''s waking?" Christine asked.


    "Of course it''s waking. The dungeons are here." Brolly reached his hand forward and put it palm down in the middle of the table.


    Reaching out at the same time Christine did, Howard smiled and tried to tap down his excitement. "To Northridge."


    <hr>

 Chapter 2

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Level 1


    Heart 400/400


    Workers 1/5


    Monsters 0/10-2


    Traps 0/10+2


    Rooms 1


    Food 76


    Timber 400


    Iron 40


    Mana 0


    Quest: Build 5 Traps


    </blockquote>


    It was completely and utterly insane, he thought. There were dialogue boxes, resource counters, and even a quest. He still couldn''t remember where he''d come from, but for some reason these games stuck in his head as fitting the world¡ªand so they did.


    "I can''t figure all this out. Where''s the build menu? Nothing fits the room we have and¡ªI think I need to give orders to widen paths out to make rooms or something," he said, though he was sure only Pen could hear him.


    "Give¡ªdig." Pen looked at his heart with a resignation on her reptilian face that looked comical.


    "I don''t want to order you around. It feels¡ª"


    "Give dig!"


    She looked angry now, but he could see¡ªfrom some upside-down viewpoint that was becoming more natural by the minute¡ªthat she was also grinning. Trying to focus, he poked at the rock near the entrance, just inside the dungeon, and it turned green with a little pickaxe symbol on it.


    Pen shoved her arm into his heart and pulled back with a pickaxe in her grip. She spun around on one foot and started marching down to where he''d marked to dig.


    Dungeon games, he well knew, rewarded mazes and clever trap-building. He lined up his poking and drew an S shape with elongated lengths so that the tunnel would snake around, then clicked on the old bit of path and told it to be replaced with rock.


    Opening the trap menu, he found the usual assortment of starter traps that games would give. A slowing trap, a wall-spikes trap, a crushing trap, and a spinning trap. The problem was every time he looked at one of the dangerous traps, he remembered Pen staring down at her gut¡ªbleeding out.


    "You know about dungeons, right?" he asked.


    Pen, who just destroyed the first hunk of wall with her pickaxe, looked back at the heart of the dungeon. "Yeah. Been in frargg." She stopped and wobbled her chin a little side to side. "Been in few."


    <blockquote>


    Rock 1


    </blockquote>


    Ignoring the new resource that popped up, he focused on chatting with Pen. "Are traps¡ªare they safe? I don''t want to hurt anyone, except for Peter and William, but you know what I mean, right?"


    "Traps hurt ''n'' kill." Working away with her pick, Pen broke down another section he''d marked for demolition. "Kill monst too."


    "Monsters?" He looked at his menu some more. Pen didn''t seem like elaborating right away.


    The next section broke down and Pen looked around at the work she''d done. "Monst. Other dung. Wild ones. Monst." She spat on both hands and got back to work.


    He hated that he''d need traps, but if he had things other than adventurers to keep out, he''d need something. He poked the crushing trap and then poked the two bits of tunnel nearest to his heart. The traps didn''t place right away, they just had green glowing outlines that showed him where they would be; like Pen''s digging.


    "You name?" Pen asked him.


    "You''re going to think it''s lame. Travis. I don''t even know how I got here or became this. A week ago I was just a human."


    Pen put down her axe for a second and walked back to the edge of the tunnel to look at Travis. "You dungeon now."


    "Yeah, and you''re a kobold now."


    She flashed both rows of her fangs she grinned so much. "We both screwed." Turning, she grabbed the pickaxe and returned to her digging. "Kobold dung more traps. Nasty traps."


    Looking at the status again, Travis noticed anew that he had +2 traps and -2 monsters. "Where I come from, we don''t have dungeons, but we have games that are like being a dungeon. I''m trying to figure it out like that."


    "Game? Strange game. Make sure wirrg." Pen shook her head again. "Stupid mouth. Win."


    "Yeah. You''ll want somewhere to hide after these traps are done. Then those shooters can''t get you." Looking at what he''d planned, Travis noticed a problem with that. Halting the work order on the two traps, he made another dig order to add a little curve at the end, then put the traps in front of that. "Uh, can you come and work on this bit first?"


    Walking to the end of the tunnel she''d dug, Pen looked back toward his heart. "Good plan. More traps." Closing the distance with the spot quickly, she narrowed her eyes at the spot where the two traps would be. "Good trap. Put a pit in front."


    "A pit? Right, so they climb out of the pit and step into this thing. Added that."


    <hr>


    Penelope had never heard of a dungeon heart that could talk before, but then she''d never tried. Finding out this one was a human was doubly strange. What really took the cake, for her, was Travis not having heard of dungeons¡ªbut having games about them.


    She mused on her thoughts while she worked. The traps she knew well enough, having taken a good deal of them apart in her life, but what surprised her was how fast her mind started looking for ways to improve them. The crushing traps, she wondered, could have slime applied to secure items or clothing to them, and the pit trap really should have spikes in the bottom.


    But spikes and sticky slime would take work. She''d need somewhere to cook slime down to make it extra sticky, and she''d need the slime. Spikes would need work with an axe and timber.


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    It was uncanny for her how relaxing digging was. Purely cathartic on too many levels, she felt like she could just dig and dig forever and she''d never get tired of it. She knew it was part of being a worker for a dungeon.


    "You have dart trap?" Looking back down the hallway, Penelope ran one clawed hand over the wall she''d just built up. "Go here." She only had to wait a moment for the order for a trap to come. Building the trap was surprisingly easy. It was like every time she looked down for the next part it was already there.


    "Traps need parts late¡ªlater." She caught herself about to growl-yap this time. It was getting easier to talk, though she didn''t want to test herself out with too many words. "Need more kobolds."


    It was the truth of the matter distilled down. Kobolds were never alone¡ªthere was always a dozen more behind you with daggers, spears, spears with daggers on them, daggers with spears on them, and all of it dipped in something nasty to wear you down.


    Now that all sounded like the best fun ever. "Kobold getting in my head."


    "I don''t know how to make more. There''s nothing here I can poke to make more. Your thing was a popup and I tried to make sure it didn''t say it would kill you or anything before hitting yes. I wonder if it will work again? Like, can you drag someone close to my heart and I can make them into a kobold too?"


    "Dangerous. If they beat me up, they kill you." Walking around the triggers for her traps without any problem, Penelope made her way to the tunnel-maze again.


    He was silent a while. Enough time for her to finish the maze off and even fill-in the middle pieces to ensure people had to navigate all the way around it. "You okay?"


    "Just not used to being¡ªLife isn''t this dangerous where I''m from, okay? I mean, people still die, but no one''s daily job is literally trying to kill me."


    He sounded scared to Penelope, and she had to wonder what kind of weird place he was from that didn''t have dungeons or, well, bad people. Dodging back around the traps and around the double-dogleg that broke line of sight with his heart.


    "You come from nice place." She walked up to him and wrapped her arms around his core. He was scared and dealing with things she had no idea about, but he sounded like a nice person to her¡ªparticularly since he''d saved her life. "I protect you."


    "Yeah, and I''ll protect you, too."


    Hearing his voice now more cheerful, Penelope let go of the hug and rolled her shoulders. "Need somewhere sleep. How good you at game?"


    Giving new orders to her, Travis said, "Pretty good. The trick to them was remembering what each area has and customizing your dungeon to deal with it¡ªwhich I can''t do here because I don''t know what''s around. So I¡ª"


    "Yeah, but I know what''s around. Your entrance there is pretty well hidden, the others wouldn''t have found it if I didn''t have dungeon-finding tricks. You''re nestled at the base of a mountain range with forest all around outside. With some work, I could stack branches and rocks up at the entrance to hide us even more."


    For her size, Penelope had to marvel at how strong she felt. The pickaxe was almost weightless in her hands and swung with ease against the rock and compacted dirt.


    "Probably the best thing to do is turtle up and explore as much of the build tree as we can before anything else shows up. When something comes in, we make sure we can deal with it."


    Travis'' words confused Penelope a little. She understood scraps of what he said, but felt she was missing a lot of the meaning. "Okay, but what does that mean?"


    "Right, no gamer lingo. So, we''ll keep hidden, fill this place full of traps, and I''ll try to work out how to build out the best defenses we can."


    "You need resources from outside. Wood, food, maybe other stuff." The repeating cadence of her pick striking the cave was a rhythm that Penelope shouldn''t have enjoyed as much as she did. It was a song that thudded and danced in her blood. "Leather too. We could lure animals inside though, and get food and leather."


    What constantly surprised her was there wasn''t any rock or dirt when she finished chipping away, and the walls were all shored up just fine.


    "I only see wood and food here. I guess leather comes later. I think it costs one food per day per worker. I''ve got seventy-six food left, so there''s no worry about that.


    "When it let me make you into a kobold, there was something about a catalyst. Do you know what that would be?"


    "No clue. I was a little busy dying and stuff." Penelope was trusting her words more and more. She still felt an urge to yap and growl, but she could control that while she was focused on digging. "What would be a catalyst?"


    "You''d probably know more than me. This stuff is all kinds of confusing. I guess when we find someone who wants to hang out with us cool kids, we try recreating what happened to you. Uh, minus shooting them."


    She liked the way he thought, even if it was strange, and she liked the way he cracked jokes that were sometimes morbid. Huddling in the corner of her new home, Penelope let out a soft little bark of relief at having gotten away from the two worst influences in her life¡ªeven if it had taken her death to do so.


    <hr>


    It took Penelope three days, but she finally had the entrance suitably concealed to her liking. There was a felled branch that looked like it had been ripped from a nearby tree that covered most of the opening, with leaves and forest floor detritus over it that made it look years old.


    What was annoying her was how she felt like there was a target painted on her back. Being inside the dungeon felt right, and out in the forest she just felt exposed. "Can you hear me out here?"


    "Better than that, I can see through your eyes even out there. That''s some great work on the entrance. The only humans we might have that will test it, hopefully, will be campers looking for timber to burn."


    He was so naive and trusting that Penelope almost had to slap herself. The scene had played out in her dreams each night since her "death". All the ways it could have gone. What if she''d had a spare talisman? What if she had been a little more careful about keeping her only talisman a little closer? What if she hadn''t told them not to take the missions she didn''t want to take?


    The questions had continued to ping around her head while she worked. The mellowness and calm that working for Travis gave her was perfect for picking them apart until she finally had the real question: What if she had never trusted anyone?


    But she had to. There were some things and some people you had to trust. The mages who ran the talisman system, the priests who you paid to bring your dead butt back to life, and usually the friends you adventured with. They were all people you absolutely had to trust with your life.


    Dropping to her hands and knees, she crawled through the brush that hid part of the entrance and was inside and in the wonderful darkness again. It was like putting her armor back on or walking into a town with actual guards patrolling¡ªsafety.


    After everything she''d been thinking about, regarding distrust, she felt a compulsion to trust Travis. "Okay, that''s the safety side of things. Now we need to ensure we don''t run out of food and start getting some leather. Cue me up a side room from this entrance and put a pit trap in there."


    "We''ll need bait and some way to deal with whatever falls in the pit."


    It amused her that Travis didn''t want to hurt people but had no problem building a pit for catching animals. "If we had a room for working with wood, I could make spikes for the pit¡ªand put up a sign warning people of a trap."


    Already with her orders to dig a trap room, Penelope picked up her pickaxe (that was just out of view and at her side, not that she''d left it there) and started on the new two-room tunnel. Just as she finished making the pit trap, she felt a pull for more orders. "You got it figured out?"


    "Yeah. I found a menu with rooms I can build. Uh, timber mill, smelter, tanner¡­ There''re a lot of entries here. I don''t know if we can even get enough kobolds working here to fill the buildings with workers. Also, thanks for the idea of a sign."


    Penelope shrugged and started walking further into the dungeon, around their traps, and finally to the back area of the dungeon. Pulling out her pickaxe, she started digging. "You''ll probably want tunnels here. All of these areas are kinda core to you, and we''ll need them accessible easily. Oh, you are making a tunnel."


    Rolling her shoulders with each strike of the pick, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world for Penelope to keep digging.

 Chapter 3

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Level 1


    Heart 400/400


    Workers 1/5


    Monsters 0/10-2


    Traps 5/10+2


    Rooms 2


    Food 71


    Timber 343


    Iron 40


    Mana 0


    Rock 44


    Gold 20


    Quest: Gather 100 Food


    </blockquote>


    Another day had passed, but Travis contented himself with the fact that Penelope and himself were safe. The first quest had quietly completed without him realizing it, and it had given him gold as a reward.


    Penelope had finished off his timber mill (costing him 50 timber), worked on some spears, and added them to the bottom of the front door pit trap. It had cost him one food for her to bait the trap.


    His head was swimming with all the plans and needs for his dungeon. In games, he normally preferred to go with undead builds, since most games have them auto regenerate. He didn''t want to see if Penelope auto regenerated. "Hey, uh, Pen?"


    "Yeah?"


    "Can you tell me what''s by your right foot looking at you?" It was something that''d been bugging Travis since he finally figured out how to handle the sight thing.


    "Big, fat, lizard. Looks like he''s probably good enough to eat, but I don''t think I want to go that far until you''re actually running short on food."


    It was a surprise for Travis. "Lizards! I guess it makes sense. I can see through their eyes too."


    "Right, you can see through my eyes. I keep forgetting that," Penelope asked.


    "Yeah."


    "That seems a little weird, but I¡ªIt''s really hard to think anything bad about you. It''s like you are in my head." She froze a moment before barking with laughter. "That''s so stupid now I hear myself say it. Of course you''re in my head¡ªyou''re the dungeon heart."


    The words stung Travis. It hurt to know he was in control over someone and hurt more still since he couldn''t give up that control. "We''ll figure out a way to free you¡ª"


    "What?! No way. You need me in here, Travis."


    "Yeah, but¡ª"


    "No! No buts. We need each other. You saved my life when you didn''t have to, and I bet you''ll do it again. We''re a team, Travis." Pulling back from the tunnel she was digging, Penelope glared right at one of the lizards. "And I''m not so stuck obeying your orders anyway. Look, I can even stop digging."


    Travis laughed at the show of willpower, mostly because she held her pickaxe in one hand and he could see her clawed fingers tightening and squeezing the handle. "For how long?"


    "That doesn''t matter. I can do it." Penelope picked up her pickaxe, turned, and started digging again. "Besides, I like digging."


    "Did you like digging before you were turned into a kobold?" Her answer made Travis smile¡ªon the inside, of course, since he no longer had a face.


    "I didn''t get to find out." She spun around to look back down the tunnel she was digging. "I heard something at the entrance."


    Travis was confused as why he couldn''t see the front entrance for a moment, then he realized it was because most of the lizards had apparently crawled around the pit to start nibbling on the bait.


    It was so stupid that Travis had to groan at not seeing it coming. "I can''t see anywhere except around you and the pit¡ªmost of the lizards went and started nibbling at the bait."


    Penelope didn''t breathe a word as she carefully advanced up the tunnel and to the zig-zag to look around it and see what it was she had heard. At the same moment one of the lizards looked up from where it was trying to bite at the corner of the haunch of meat to see a huge, shaggy bear looking at it.


    Travis held his metaphorical breath as it sniffed forward, trying to reach the meat at the back of the trap without stepping on the mechanism. "A bear. Well, it''ll be smelly, but I guess the hide will be good. Also, I hope the meat is edible. Does it know there''s a trap there?"


    "It smells me on the trap. It''s unsure." Penelope was whispering, her head turned back toward the tunnel behind her while she spoke.


    I watched the bear solely through the lizards'' eyes as it reached all the way to the back of the trap to grab the meat¡ªand leaned its weight down to grab it.


    The roar of the bear as it fell was punctuated by an even louder, furious shout as it hit the spears at the bottom.


    "I hope the spears kill it. I don''t have a bow handy to deal with it." Penelope walked up to the edge of the pit and looked down as only silence and stillness came from the depths. "Wow."


    A spear had caught the bear under its neck and gone through into its skull.


    <blockquote>


    15xp gained


    Experience 15/100


    </blockquote>


    A good tingle ran through Travis at that. XP caps, he mused, meant that was how much he needed to level. "It''s dead. I''m pretty sure it''s dead, anyway, I just got experience for it."


    "Experience?"


    Fumbling for a non-gamer answer, Travis finally settled on, "Uh, used in games to measure how far until you get more powerful. I guess bears are worth a bit. I''m fifteen out of a hundred."


    "I don''t think I''ve ever seen a dungeon like you, Travis. But, I guess I haven''t looked at this side of dungeons."


    "Trav. Just call me Trav. It''s shorter and way easier to say if you need my attention in a hurry."


    "Okay, Trav. Just keep up calling me Pen and we''ll be fine I think." Penelope stood at the edge looking down for several more minutes. Finally, she said, "I think it''s dead. Nothing will play possum that long."


    Watching as she nimbly climbed down into the pit, Travis watched her quickly move around the bear and ram a knife into one of its ears, digging it down. He knew she knew exactly what she was about, but it still weirded him out a little.


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    "I''m going to need to make some kind of rope to pull this out. Even if I cut it up down here, I don''t think I can pull it up. Ugh, and there''s a downside to using the pit trap like this¡ªhalf the hide is full of holes."


    If Travis had a hand, he would have slapped it against his head (assuming he had a head, too). "I should have thought of that. Damn, do we have anything we can use that will kill them with less damage to the hide?"


    Climbing back out of the pit, Penelope shook her head. "No. Not unless you have a rifle, powder, and bullets handy?" Lifting her head, she reached around to her back and Travis watched as a length of rope appeared in her hand. "This is way too handy."


    <hr>


    Penelope had found one big advantage she had as a kobold. She tied the rope around the bear''s torso just behind its front legs, climbed back out, and gave it a pull to make sure it was secure. What she didn''t expect was to half lift the bear up with just a test pull.


    "Guess I''m just lower to the ground and have a body built to work instead of fight." Digging her talons into the rock under her, Penelope leaned into the rope and started pulling hard. The bear left the ground, and she felt all its dead weight hanging over her shoulder as she walked¡ªalways keeping one foot anchored to the dungeon floor.


    When it was all the way out, she figured it was easier to set the trap again and finish dragging the body to the back of the dungeon.


    "How are you able to move all that? You lifted it up what, fifteen feet?" Travis asked her.


    "Kobolds are strong when it comes to work. Plus I''m also on my home turf here¡ªyou. The real trick will be when I have to disarm all our traps to haul it past. Do I just stuff it into you or do I need to butcher this thing myself?" Hoping against hope that she wouldn''t damage the skin too much, Penelope kept dragging the bear back through the tunnel.


    "Tannery and butcher both require metalworking, which requires a smelter and a blacksmith. It gives a bonus to what you get from each animal. Just try stuffing it in. If you need to break it down into smaller bits, do it."


    "Trying to keep a slim figure, Trav?" It was teasing, she knew, but Travis had proved to be someone she could joke with.


    "Yeah. If I get too big, I won''t be able to fit through the dungeon and go for long walks in the moonlight anymore."


    Penelope almost fell in the pit trap from laughing too hard rather than disarming it. "Damn it, that was a good one. Oh, huh, remind me to put some spikes in the bottom of this trap."


    Once she got the bear to the heart, she shoved it up and just started tipping it into the giant crystal. When she started shoving the head in, there was a flash of pink light before she felt the bear yanked from her grip and pulled into Travis. "Huh. Did that work?"


    "Yeah. I got fifteen food from that and five leather. Okay, setting the upgrade on that pit trap. Oh, I can upgrade you to use ranged weapons now. Here we go, it''ll cost you two wood to get a spear."


    There was a pull toward the timber mill, so Penelope started walking back toward it with a bounce in her step. A spear, she mused, would mean she could hunt better game outside.


    <hr>


    The work team was mostly common laborers. Digging holes and positioning posts was grunt work, but it was still work that needed to be done. Howard Tailor had pushed Tannyr Stoneshave to drop her current task and build a new church, and while she hated leaving something unfinished, she would be as happy as the next person that Rupert had some competition in town.


    The annoyance of leaving the barracks unfinished was growing stronger the longer she worked on the church. The first day it was nothing but normal dwarven anxiety for something that wasn''t perfect, but by the third day she was almost chewing her fingernails in annoyance.


    It wasn''t something that was specific to Tannyr, either. The locus that had grown was vexed. It couldn''t very well order the humans that had formed it (like a dungeon could), but Northridge was not big enough to need two churches, nor did they even have a second priest. So, like any good mother hen, it herded and tried to shepherd its charges away from that to more useful tasks.


    Waking up with the surety of another day of anxiety ahead of her, Tannyr went through her normal morning routine, fetched her tools, and headed off to the worksite. When she got there, she felt oddly bereft of that burning sensation. She looked around the site in a bit of a daze as to what was different.


    A wagon was rolling up at the front of the new church''s steps, and despite herself Tannyr found herself not just attracted toward it, but drawn there. The wagon was nondescript, but just as she reached it the most amazing and beautiful woman Tannyr had ever seen in her life opened the doors and stepped down to the ground.


    Fairheart looked at the partially constructed church, then her eyes strayed¡ªfollowing wisps of magic from every stone¡ªto the dwarf that stared at her. Walking over, she raised her hands, palms up. "Blessings upon you, good lady dwarf. You do wonderful work."


    Blinking herself out of a daze, Tannyr looked at the woman who, if her ears had anything to say about her lineage, was at least half elven. "Sister." She dipped her head. "We''ll have the structure built within another five days."


    Her own church. Fairheart should have been waiting years more for the first chance to get a secondary position at a church, but then her friend had approached her with a story and a plan. "Five days or ten, I trust a woman who puts so much heart into her work to build a fine church. My name is Sister Fairheart, but please, call me Farah."


    "Well, Farah," Tannyr said, unable to hold back a big smile due to the field of raw joy the priestess pooled around herself, "I said five, and I mean five. If you''d like, I could stick around a little longer and help make the building into a church."


    "I''d appreciate that very much¡­" Fairheart raised one eyebrow.


    Tripping over herself vocally, Tannyr thumped her own forehead. "S-Sorry, Farah. My name is Tannyr Stoneshave¡ªjust call me Tann." What shocked Tannyr was how much she felt attracted to Fairheart. Not physically, but something else. It took a moment for her swimming head to filter out the word she was looking for¡ªspiritually. "Sorry if I''m rambling, but I''ve been feeling lousy these last few days."


    "I''m not surprised. Northridge didn''t want you to build a second church with only one priest in town. I could feel the locus welcome me as soon as we spotted the town¡ªjust after dawn."


    What Fairheart said confused Tannyr at first, until she remembered the talk of dungeons popping up nearby. And, about then, she started to remember a little of the party the town had held at the news¡ªshe remembered the hangover, though. "Right. Can''t say as I''ve felt that before. Why would the locus be paying so much attention to us? We''re just builders."


    Snorting, Fairheart raised an eyebrow at Tannyr.


    "We are!"


    "You are building the backbone of the town. Every building carries the song of your hammer and the warmth of your heart. You are the arms of the locus, forging it bigger and stronger with every day." Walking closer to Tannyr, Fairheart leaned down and pressed her finger under the dwarf''s chin¡ªtilting her face up into the soft kiss.


    Fairheart''s lips were soft, warm, and literally magical. A fire that Tannyr hadn''t felt before lit inside, and she felt a lurch in her body as if something was waking. When the gentle kiss ended, the priestess gave her a stunning smile and a wink before turning. "Have a wonderful day, Tannyr Stoneshave, and know that the mother''s light shines upon all her daughters."


    <hr>


    Brolly Windchime had hoped the barracks would be finished before the church, but he concurred that they needed more coin coming in and that meant a more forthcoming clergy in town. A priestess of the Sisters of Grace was a boon for any growing town, what with their ties to fertility.


    The one thing about the barracks that was finished was the noticeboard at the front of it. There were a few missives already stuck to it, mostly the various businesses in Northridge advertising for employees, but now he had something significant to add.


    The map he affixed to the board showed the town, the limits of the wall, and one little skull printed off in the jagged foothills to the north. Dungeon, it read, Vermin¡ªrot.


    Rot dungeons were annoying. Even slight cuts would get infected and any existing wounds or infections would go wildly out of control¡ªor worse. The two adventurers who had announced the dungeon hadn''t mentioned any other, but Brolly was sure there would be at least one other.


    At least a vermin dungeon would be somewhat less of a worry than more organized affairs. Goblins, beastmen, undead, dragonkin¡ªBrolly shuddered to think of what some dungeons might mean. Though, at the same time, if they had a famously dangerous dungeon, it would attract more adventurers.


    "Interesting times ahead," Brolly said.

 Chapter 4

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Level 1


    Heart 400/400


    Experience 15/100


    Workers 1/5


    Monsters 0/10-2


    Traps 5/10+2


    Rooms 3


    Food 82


    Timber 339


    Iron 40


    Mana 0


    Rock 44


    Gold 20


    Leather 4


    Quest: Gather 100 Food


    </blockquote>


    Three days of hunting and all Penelope had managed was wounding a rabbit that had managed to still get away. It left Travis feeling more disappointed for her than she seemed to be herself. "Maybe we''re going about this all wrong."


    Fetching her spear from where it had almost hit a large rat, Penelope made some growling noises before she said, "What?"


    The tone was so laden with frustration, annoyance, and a hint of anger that Travis winced¡ªmentally of course. "Traps, Pen. I''m sorry I told you to make the spear, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time. Why don''t you try making a bunch of little snare traps and just come back and check them each day?"


    Her head jerked up and she let out a bark of a laugh. "And here I am, a kobold, and I didn''t immediately think of using traps. Okay, let me see what I can come up with. I''ve seen where their holes are, I can set snares around the entrances and see if we can''t get some more leather and food like that."


    While she''d been trying to hunt, I''d gotten to familiarize myself with the interface more. There was a huge section dedicated to commanding and influencing monsters. I don''t know why, but I just didn''t have a desire to use them.


    Crossing to the construction menu, I still didn''t have any way to make monsters. I had a list of buildings I could make, all marked as Tier 0 that were all involved in materials and such.


    <blockquote>


    [Kobold Quarters]


    [Timber Mill]


    [Smelter]


    [Tannery]


    </blockquote>


    Then there was a traps menu. The traps listed had grown by a few. There were now some extras added, but they were likewise Tier 0.


    <blockquote>


    [Pit Trap]


    * [Reinforced Platform]


    * [Spikes]


    [Dart Trap]


    * [Sharper Darts]


    [Crushing Trap]


    * [Spikes]


    [Spiked Arm Trap]


    </blockquote>


    It was all reassuring to Travis to see that the timber mill had improved the traps, but seeing an entirely new trap was even better. The idea of adding a smelter next was strong, but there was a problem with it that Travis could practically smell coming¡ªfuel.


    Instead, Travis opted for the tannery next. He was sure it would upgrade something and he also wanted to test out a theory.


    Upgrades were next. Each of them had resource costs associated with them¡ªnot that Travis was sure why it should cost 100 gold to be able to have 5 more kobolds, or how the gold would be used, but that didn''t seem to matter. This was a game after all.


    <blockquote>


    [Workers 1]


    [Draconic Monsters]


    [Draconic Constitution]


    [Lizard Feeding]


    [Boss Upgrade 1]


    [Tier 1]


    </blockquote>


    These were interesting to Travis, but since every single one required either 100 gold or 100 food, he couldn''t even think of them yet. And he didn''t even want to think about 800 gold, 400 timber, and 400 food needed for Tier 1. Instead, he turned his attention to the last menu¡ªand it was empty. Not just empty but grayed out.


    That''s when he noticed his iron and leather tick down by one. "Did you do anything needing metal or leather?"


    "Yeah. I made up a pile of snares. Got twenty in all. How much did I use?" Penelope sounded completely unrepentant, but then she had been told to set traps. "Too much?"


    "Relax. It used one iron and leather. We don''t have much, but one is fine."


    Travis watched as Penelope blew out a snort and started setting the traps. Each one was a loop of wire secured to a long and springy sapling, held in place by a little loop of leather. "This will replenish some leather. Any more plans?"


    "Tannery next. Smelter would be good, but until we have some diggers, I don''t think it''s worth it. What are your thoughts?" So far it had been a simple task of getting what was needed to survive, but now Travis wanted advice. "You''ve been in some dungeons, right?"


    "Been in a lot, have never had to worry about trying to build them." She paused a moment, moving to the next spot and crouching down to set another snare. "Right now we''re getting food and leather, so we need bonuses to those. The smelter will give us something good?"


    "It unlocks metal parts for traps."


    "That makes it tough¡ªI do like traps. Do you know if the tannery will unlock anything? A new trap maybe?" She slipped-in the entrance and paused to glare at the empty and unsprung pit trap.


    "To think, all the times I played these games and complained about a forced tutorial¡­ I wish I got a tutorial to tell me how to do stuff." Queuing up some more digging orders beside the timber mill, Travis started to feel like they were getting a grip on things.


    Navigating the traps with a few bounds, rolls, and a bow, Penelope letting out a barking laugh and approached the first bit of new digging. "Why do you make it all straight and corners and stuff? Can''t make it round?"


    "It was pretty normal for these games to only work on square sections of dungeon."


    When Penelope worked her way through the first section, she took a step back and looked down the hallway at Travis'' crystal. "Travis, this isn''t one of your games. I''ve seen plenty of dungeons with curved tunnels."


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    Travis was starting to get an idea that something about his dungeon made it special, but he felt the need for more information before he could just say my dungeon acts like a game and call it done. "Can you tell me about dungeons? Other dungeons, that is."


    Spitting on her palms, Penelope started her pickaxe swinging again. "Dungeons. There''s always two distinct things about ''em; they have a preferred monster type and a theme. I''ve seen most monster types¡ªyeah, even draconic, which is what you are¡ªand I''ve seen every single theme. Other monsters are bugs, spiders, wolves, greenskins, undead¡­ there''re a lot. Same with themes.


    "Themes can get pretty crazy. Sometimes you get entire dungeons underwater, others that seem to be full of creatures made from plants, eldritch horror-twisted creatures, poisonous¡ªand I mean everything is poisonous in those, trap-crazy, and more. This¡ªyou, Travis¡ªare the first I''ve seen like this."


    "Yeah," Travis said. "That''s what I figured. The whole game thing seems to be my theme. The shape and stuff seems to be part of the downside of making it easier for me to understand." Taking a metaphorical deep breath, he centered himself. "At least it might make me a little less predictable than others."


    "Trav, you have one worker and no monsters¡ªadventurers won''t need to predict you at the moment."


    Travis was about to reply when he saw movement at his entrance. "I just saw something," he said to Penelope. A moment later he added, "It''s a person!"


    <hr>


    Dropping her pick, Penelope ran for the heart room, dug her hand''s claws into the wall a little to help her turn faster and was up to the chicane that hid Travis'' heart from the hallway a moment later. As she slowed, she reached to her belt (that was hanging over one shoulder like a bandoleer) and drew her daggers.


    "He doesn''t look much like an adventurer," Travis said to her.


    "What do you mean? What''s he wearing?" Again Penelope was amazed at how well she could see in a pitch-black dungeon. All the lizards that seemed to be around stood out against the walls and she could readily tell where every stone was¡ªand all the traps.


    "He has some kind of jacket made of fur on, rough pants that don''t look like armor or anything, he has about a dozen knives on his belt, but none of them look¡ª"


    It was all Penelope needed. "Must be a trapper. If he thinks I''m a rival who has made herself a cave home, he probably won''t stop until he''s found me to yell at."


    "I think he''s saying stuff, but I can''t hear his words well enough. Damn lizards must have terrible hearing."


    "Hey! I know you''re in here! No point hiding¡ªI just want a chat!" a man''s voice echoed through the dungeon. The voice seemed to be getting closer to Penelope.


    With no immediate danger in sight, Penelope sheathed her knives and focused her attention down the hallway. "Guess he missed the pitfall trap at the entrance, but he probably found my snares outside. Okay, so, do you think you could turn him into a kobold?"


    "I don''t even know how I did that with you. You were bleeding out and smearing blood everywhere, then bam, I got a box asking if I wanted to save you." Travis wasn''t completely onboard with the idea, even if Penelope was. It was one thing saving a person''s life and another converting someone who wasn''t hurt.


    "If I can tie him up, we can get a few chances at trying. I don''t want to kill him, though¡ªnot unless we have to." Penelope was going to say more, but she saw the trapper round the corner into the hallway.


    "This damn place is spooky as a dungeon and I can barely see. Who in the Grove''s name would build a home in the dark like this?" As he walked forward, the man kept one hand on the wall.


    "Wait, he''s not even checking the ground for traps," Travis said. "He''s going to fall into the¡ªpit trap."


    Penelope had heard the horrid noises people made when they fell down a hole they weren''t expecting to. There was a shout of surprise a moment before the pain of his landing turned it to a far more terrified scream. "Shit. Shit. Shit." Dodging the other traps, she looked down the pit to see the guy laying wrong on the ground fifteen feet below her.


    He''d clearly tried to catch himself at the bottom, and Penelope was thankful she hadn''t gotten around to putting spikes in the trap yet. "Hey, you need a hand out of there?"


    "Who''s that? Did you dig this damn hole?"


    "Well, duh. Like it''d be safe to just sleep in a cave when there are bears in these woods. Why the hell did you fall in my bear pit?" As she lowered a rope into the pit, Penelope could see the guy wasn''t able to see anything, not even the rope she dangled in front of his face.


    "Grab on."


    He only seemed to notice it when she made it slap him in the face. He fumbled and grabbed the rope, pulling himself upright with it and, she noticed, favoring his right leg. "You hurt?"


    "Damn near broke my ankle when I fell down here. Why don''t you have any lanterns in this place?" She was hauling him up easily enough, her claws gripping the floor with ease while her hands found good purchase on the rope.


    "I do. You walked past them all in the dark." Lying came easily to Penelope. "Look, if we just get past this bit here and around the corner, we can sit down in my kitchen and I''ll see to your leg." When he emerged from the hole, she reached out for his wrist and guided his hand to her shoulder. "Lean on me and stay close."


    "Y''ain''t human. What are ya?" His hand closed down tight on Penelope''s shoulder. For a moment she wondered if she should just walk him into the rest of the traps and cut her losses.


    "Kobold. Don''t worry, I''m alone here."


    When the guy laughed, Penelope was so surprised she almost tripped over. "That explains digging and trapping. Maybe we can figure something out with the traps." He moved with her, stepping around triggers he couldn''t see until a soft pink glow got his full attention. "That''s a¡ªThis is a dungeon! You lied to me!"


    "Actually I didn''t. Well, not about the important bits. The traps are to protect against bears and I am the only kobold here. Trying to fix that right now, actually." Crouching just as the man shifted his weight to her shoulder again, Penelope ducked backward and pushed him.


    Stumbling forward, he fell to the ground at the base of Travis'' heart.


    "Okay, Trav, give it a try!" she shouted.


    It didn''t feel right, but with the alternative being dragging the guy to town and having him tell everyone where they were, he couldn''t see another option. "It''s not working. Nothing''s coming up. Maybe there needs to be blood?" Travis asked her.


    That''s when something that had been bouncing around in the back of Penelope''s head finally came to the fore. "Oh, for¡ªThe reason wasn''t just blood, it was my blood. Ma always told me my great grandpa had far more scales than sense¡ªshe told me tales of him being a dragon."


    "What''s all that talk about? Who''re you talking to?" The trapper started to try getting up while reaching to his skinning knife. In the dim pink light he tracked as Penelope circled around him, sliced her palm with one of her daggers, and pressed a bloody red palm print on the dungeon heart. "What are you¡ª?"


    "I got it!" Travis sounded excited. "Should I¡ª?"


    "Just do it before he takes a swing at me with that knife!" But the trapper wasn''t looking at Penelope when she spoke, he was staring at Travis'' heart and raising his knife hand into the air.


    Travis shivered at the intent in the man''s eyes, seeing dozens more like him rushing into their ill-prepared dungeon.


    Pink light wrapped around him and started shrinking his body. She watched as his arms and legs thinned, his face drew forward, and a thick tail left his rear and tapered down to a fine tip. The changes to his legs ripped the seams in the back of his pants, but thanks to his size reduction the rest of the pants remained intact. He was practically swimming in his jacket by the time the glow began to fade. When he started to topple, she rushed up and caught him.


    "You won''t be able to talk much at first. Just relax and breathe. You''re alive and we''re not going to hurt you. Trav, how are things on your end?" Penelope asked, trying to reassure the poor guy and make sure everything worked right.

 Chapter 5

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Level 1


    Heart 400/400


    Experience 15/100


    Workers 2/5


    Monsters 0/10-2


    Traps 5/10+2


    Rooms 3


    Food 82


    Timber 339


    Iron 39


    Mana 0


    Rock 50


    Gold 20


    Leather 4


    Quest: Gather 100 Food


    </blockquote>


    They were arguing. It had been surreal for Travis to hear them at first. Penelope could talk just fine, but the guy had struggled to pronounce words¡ªthough anger seemed to be a great motivator. While they were arguing, Travis turned his attention to another problem¡ªif only to distract himself from what they''d done.


    By his calculations, his rock resource should be higher. He should have over sixty rock, but only had fifty. There were caps on health, workers, and traps, he reasoned, were there hidden caps on the other values?


    Quickly looking through his menus, he found a new item had appeared. Storage Warehouse: 70 timber and 5 iron. Well, he figured, he had that.


    "You didn''t have to attack me like that! I would have left and not told anyone!"


    "Bullshit! You''d have raced back to town for the bounty on dungeon locations. Admit it!"


    The worst bit, as far as Travis was concerned, was that he couldn''t just walk away. The second worst bit was he couldn''t cover his ears¡ªeverything his workers heard, he heard. So, deciding on the most practical method possible to solve the problem, he set a new room opposite the timber mill to be dug out and the new tannery to be placed in the existing room.


    "Ugh. Really, Trav? Just ordering us around?" Penelope asked.


    "You know I can''t block out hearing what you hear. You can argue while working, right?" Travis only had about four seconds to wait before Penelope pulled out her pickaxe and attacked the new digging task. "So, uh, what''s your name?"


    "Stephan." Looking a little twitchy, Stephan glanced down the hallway in the direction Penelope had walked. "Why do I want to¡ª? You''re the dungeon, aren''t you?"


    "Yeah, and before you ask, I have as much idea what''s going on around here as you do. Probably less. One day I was living my life¡ªin another country¡ªnext thing I know I have a dying woman crawling up to my heart and begging for help." The idea of holding back barely crossed Travis'' mind¡ªhe felt he owed Stephan as much truth as he could take. "My name''s Travis, but just call me Trav."


    Walking toward the empty room, Stephan kept glancing back at the pink glow of the heart. "Y-You were a person? Human, I mean."


    "Yes. The oddest thing, though, is I used to play games that were like running a dungeon, and for some reason I''ve become what Pen says is the first game dungeon."


    Stephan started pulling bits and pieces out from behind his back as he built tanning racks and some drums. Now that he had two workers, Travis found it a little harder to focus on what they were both doing. "She was really dying?"


    "When I saw her first, she was coming into the dungeon with friends. I only had one worker and no idea what to do with anything. Her friend shot my worker and then shot her."


    "Sounds like nasty business, but I see why she wants to protect you."


    "Us, Stephan. You''re part of us now." Travis tried to put the best spin on it he could. "Did you, uh, want to bring anything here? I can make you your own room if you want?"


    "You mean I''d make my own room? Appreciated, but this''ll be my room anyway. I''m a trapper, Trav, this is my livelihood." Looking at the room, Stephan gave a content nod. "Want me to help¡ªuh, Pen? I could go out and get my stuff. Could check my trap lines too."


    Travis answered first, not wanting Penelope to argue more. "Go ahead, and let me know if I can do anything to help. I''m sorry it came to this, and¡ªand I hope you don''t think too badly of us for what we did."


    <hr>


    Letting out a tired breath, Stephan stood up straight and made his way out of the tannery. "After hearing what she''s been through, I can''t blame her for wanting to protect you." He entered the room where Travis'' heart was and approached it. Reaching out, he pressed his palm against it. "And, for what it''s worth, I''ll do what I can too. I guess we are all in this together." It still rankled, a bit, but so far his life had been disappointment after disappointment. Looking around the room, he realized this wasn''t exactly the worst.


    Focusing back on the here and now, Stephan could feel the very heart of Travis under his palm, which seemed weird to him. His whole life, Stephan had sought to deal with living things. Himself, first and foremost, but also his parents, siblings, and finally the animals he dealt with every day. Travis wasn''t living like everything else was living¡ªhe was a hard lump of crystal that made a dungeon around himself.


    Turning again, putting the pink glow of the crystal heart behind him, Stephan started down the hallway. Marveling at the difference that kobold eyes made in a pitch-black dungeon, he spotted the triggers for the traps as easily as if they glowed. "Why aren''t there spikes in the bottom of the pit?"


    "That was our first pit trap. Pen was going to upgrade it once she was done with the tannery. I guess you got lucky in that respect."


    The voice simply being in his head was starting to almost seem natural to Stephan. He jumped past the pit trap and kept going down the hall, through the zig-zag, and out through the fake deadfall. The forest seemed more alive than ever before. New smells and sights met his senses, but he could feel an almost palpable sense of exposure.


    "Feels weird out here. Everything seems too big and the sky"¡ªStephan looked up to the flickering sunlight coming through the canopy¡ª"is too big and too close. I guess I have to put on my big boy pants."


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    <hr>


    "What am I building in here?" Penelope was still in a bit of a huff about Stephan. She could sort of see where he was coming from, but this was too important and Travis was too vulnerable right now. She looked around the empty room with curiosity, waiting for the work order to come.


    "Warehouse. When you were digging the tannery, I noticed my rock stores weren''t going up. A new building appeared in my menu that allows more storage."


    The sound of his voice in her head reassured Penelope. She''d gotten used to him so quickly that it felt normal. She wasn''t sure how she knew what she needed, but when she approached the building and reached out for tools and resources, they were just there. Shelving, huge buckets, as well as a sign at the front. "Eighty-two food? Two hundred and nineteen timber? What''s all this?"


    "That''s my resource count. I guess this lets you know what I have. The room says it has room for two-hundred more resources. I am not sure specifically which one, or if it just gives two hundred more to all of them, or even just two hundred extra in any combination. I guess this is testing it out."


    Penelope laughed. "So, to test it, want me to dig?"


    "How much would you¡ªOh, right. If I''m at the limit now, I just need one more stone to test this. Then you could go get some wood and test the timber mill."


    With a nod, Penelope collected her pickaxe and headed to the end of the hallway to dig out two new bits. "How was that?"


    "I got fifty-two rock now! It worked!"


    "Right, but now we need to test if it is stuck holding rock or if it can hold other stuff. I just need to get some timber, right?" Now having gotten used to the game-like world the dungeon was, Penelope twirled the pickaxe on her shoulder and it turned into a wood-cutting axe.


    "Wait, that won''t work. I''ve already had way more than the amount of timber I have now. You''d need¡­ You''d need around two hundred more before you would have a chance of seeing any in the warehouse."


    "Well, that sucks. So, what else do you want me to do?" Walking down the hallway, Penelope was aware how much her tail had changed how she moved. Each step rolled her hips, but the extra motion not only felt natural, but seemed completely stable.


    "If this is anything like the games I played, and so far it has, there should be some ore veins around. I want you to do some digging to hunt for them. This might feel like make-work, but if it pays off and we get iron or gold, that means we can get some great upgrades."


    Travis'' voice held some trepidation that Penelope interpreted as worry that he was putting her through a bunch of hard work for nothing. She wanted to reassure him. "Well, if nothing else, it will save us some digging later when we expand a lot more." No sooner said than she found a bunch of digging orders. Swapping back to her pickaxe, she set off to start looking for shiny things.


    <hr>


    Brolly Windchime watched, covertly, as the group of four perused the noticeboard. They were the first of the new breed of Northridge tourist¡ªdungeon-delvers. When they reached out and pulled down the notice that showed the location of the first dungeon that''d appeared, he all-but jumped for joy.


    "Yer lookin'' mighty happy there. I didn''t see you at sermon last noonday, Brolly." Rupert, his features set in a perpetual scowl, had followed the captain of the guard of Northridge to see what he was up to. What he''d found was someone experiencing excitement and joy. He would have none of that. "Those types will ruin this town. Mark my words."


    Spinning around, Brolly beamed at Rupert. "Good brother! It''s such a lovely day, and has been all week¡ªso much so I had my hands full with the new guards and their boundless energy." He didn''t say that with the completion of temple to the Sisters of Grace, he had no need for hellfire and brimstone lecturing that was the brother''s preferred topic.


    The coffers tray had been hard to pass around when there were so few people in his temple. Rupert shook his head. "I heard about where you were. That bloody harlot of a priestess. Mark my words, Brolly Windchime, following the teachings of that sort will bring you nothing but trouble!"


    Piss off you old windbag was what Brolly wanted to tell Rupert. What came out instead was, "The town needs to grow, Brother Rupert, and the teachings of the Sisters of Grace have been known to encourage more than just the sowing of oats."


    Rupert spat on the ground and mumbled a dire curse under his breath, not that he put any of his willpower behind it¡ªhe might dislike how things were going, but that didn''t mean he''d do such dark things.


    Dismissing Rupert''s mumbling, Brolly walked over to the barracks that had only just been completed. One of the four dungeon-delvers turned and looked at him, and as if she were some kind of human meerkat, the three others turned too. Brolly got a chance to size them up.


    The woman had some light chain armor on and wore a shield and two-handed sword on her back, while a shorter longsword decorated her hip. Her expression looked ever-wary, her eyes flicking around even while her head was turned toward Brolly.


    The first of the men wore equipment similar to the woman, though instead of a two-handed sword on his back he had an axe. This man, with lighter features than any but the half-elf in town, had a warm and welcoming smile.


    The third party member was short, stout, and carried a small steel shield buckled to his left arm. He carried the usual assortment of knives for an adventurer, but whatever primary weapon he preferred seemed missing. His expression was that of surprise when he saw Brolly, raising one side of his fuzzy unibrow.


    Finally, was a young man with fuzzy red hair holding a thin stick made of willow. He didn''t have the robes of a mage, but there were a lot of tells that physical combat wasn''t his specialty¡ªnot the least of which being the fact the gem on the end of his staff was glowing slightly.


    It was that third man who stepped forward and thrust a hand out toward Brolly. "Brolly Windchime?" When Brolly didn''t reply, he went on. "Brayden, Brayden Smith! Come on, you have to recognize me!"


    It took Brolly far too long to remember. "Bray-the-Ass?" Skipping the handshake, Brolly grabbed his friend around the shoulder. "It''s been too long! Are you raiding dungeons now?"


    "Only with the meanest bunch of dungeoneers you''re ever gonna meet. This is Jack"¡ªBrayden pointed at the mage¡ª"and the other two are Porter and Fife. Here, we saw a dungeon on our way into town, but it wasn''t the one you have on the map here."


    "Now you done it, Brayden. I don''t think I''ve ever seen a guardsman look so happy." Leaning forward, Fife waved her hand before Brolly''s face and laughed. "You do have a bounty on dungeon information, right?"


    Shaking off his shock, Brolly gestured to the barracks. "We have a bar in here. Let me get us all a drink and talk about it. Rates are standard for dungeon-delving¡ªyou have my word on it. What type of dungeon is it, to start with?"


    <hr>


    Staring, Brolly shook his head. "I wouldn''t have believed it if I hadn''t seen it."


    "We poked our heads in, it''s got rabbits for workers, digging out the whole interior as a huge open field. The theme seems to be Verdant, there''re trees, grasslands, and not a single predator." Brayden could still feel the weight of coins in his belt pouch. "You''ll want to fence this off, build a tower nearby, and get farmers down here. Also, find something to feed this that isn''t its own animals."


    "Yeah. I must admit I didn''t expect there to be something like this as one of our dungeons. Less adventurers will come for this, but the gains to the town will be immense." Pulling out a sheaf of paper, Brolly started taking notes of the ground around the dungeon entrance. "Are you heading to the one up north?"


    "Yeah. With Jack''s magic and a solid shield-wall, we should be able to deal with swarms and the bigger vermin that tend to fill such places. Rot will still be a problem but with Brayden along we will be able to at least poke our heads in the door without dying," Porter, the man with the axe and shield, said.

 Chapter 6

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Level 1


    Heart 400/400


    Experience 15/100


    Workers 2/5


    Monsters 0/10-2


    Traps 5/10+2


    Rooms 5


    Food 82


    Timber 219


    Iron 29


    Mana 0


    Rock 52


    Gold 20


    Leather 4


    Quest: Gather 100 Food


    </blockquote>


    Travis was shocked when Stephan finally returned. He''d had a backpack that looked comically oversized compared to him and had his arms filled with yet more things. Most of what he carried was baled hides that he carried, silently, through to the tannery. When he strung them out in different places in the room, Travis got a big boost to his leather.


    "I''ve got more things I''d like to bring. Furniture, mostly, but it''s mine and I''ll be damned if this"¡ªStephan gestured at himself¡ª"will make me not want everything I''ve worked for." That said, he turned and started marching out again.


    "Stephan, is there anything I can do to help?" Travis asked.


    Stopping at the entrance of the dungeon, Stephan pushed aside the brush to see that twilight was closing in around the forest. He sighed. "No, Trav. I''ll get over it soon enough, but it''ll take a little time. You could say I hadn''t planned to be turned into a kobold at all this week."


    It took Travis a moment to realize it was a joke. "Well, I can promise to be the best home I can be, if it helps?"


    Barking a laugh, Stephan nodded. "Yeah, it kinda does. Tell Pen I''m not mad at her just¡ªI''ll be back in a while with some furniture."


    Turning his focus back to Pen, Travis watched as she stood alone in the empty room among their other work areas and started swinging around herself with her daggers. It took him a moment to realize what she was up to¡ªshe was training. Her body didn''t seem to be moving right, but the longer she was at it the more natural it looked.


    She started over, her movement much smoother now as she turned, kicked, slashed, and even bit at imagined opponents. When she paused her shadow-boxing fight, Travis cut in, "I have a new trap."


    "Oh? What''d you get?" Sliding her daggers back in her sheaths, Pen turned for the entrance to the room and started off.


    "Sludge trap. Slows things down and has some nice upgrades on it. Extra Sticky makes it so anyone trapped has a chance of being stuck completely, and Bait¡ªwell, I guess that works like the pit trap."


    "There''s a better upgrade for them, but I guess it will take the smelter¡ªfilling the slime with caltrops. Just about the most annoying trap, even at high levels it is a nightmare to deal with a hall filled with them." As she walked, Travis noticed Pen was walking far easier, though her hips rolled more.


    "I guess it''s time to make the thing, then. Okay, let me put that down for you to build." Travis selected the room to place and set it into the area Penelope had been practicing in. "We need iron and gold. More food, too. I have some kind of quest to get a hundred food. Not sure if we need to gather a hundred more than we had or if we just need to get to a hundred."


    "What are we at now?" Pen asked, turning back to the room with the build order.


    "Ninety-two after what Stephan just brought in. I guess if he can catch more stuff with his snares, we''ll get there eventually." Watching her work made no sense to Travis except if he considered his whole dungeon a game. Penelope just drew tools and resources out of nowhere and quickly built the smelter in the middle of the room. It came with an annoying loss of iron, but the rock cost of the smelter barely ate into how much Penelope had mined earlier.


    "Alright. If we''re going to mine, we need to set some traps in that tunnel. I don''t want to accidentally break into a monster cave and get rushed by nasties." Penelope started back toward the mining tunnel.


    Travis, however, had a better idea. "No, we do this right. Until we have that tunnel secured, I''ll loop it around and join it to the entrance tunnel. Then we can add more traps there."


    "You¡ªOkay, Trav, you are legitimately good at this. An old dungeon would never have the smarts to do something like that, let alone a new one like yourself. Lay it out and I''ll dig it." Penelope had barely a moment to wait before Travis had the new tunnel pattern set and had set down a whole line of the new traps.


    <hr>


    Like with the mine tunnels she''d first dug, Penelope got into the motion of digging and left her body to do the work while she mused on what had become of her life. Her pickaxe moved and she thought about Stephan. Despite her lying to him that she really didn''t think was lying, he was a handy guy to have with them.


    She mused more into her own specialties¡ªwhich so far consisted of dungeon knowledge and a good pair of arms for digging. After a few cross-ways tunnel sections, she turned in the direction of the entrance and got her pace going again.


    Travis, she knew, needed more workers. More kobolds, which meant more people to lure into the dungeon and not kill. Pondering further, she realized this would either require more tricking people (like with Stephan), or using the threat of death. The beauty of the sludge traps, she well knew, was they took their time in killing.


    "Trav?"


    "What''s up?


    "I don''t want to trick people into becoming kobolds. It''s kinda dishonest." She dug out another section of tunnel and turned the corner toward the first arm of the big S at the entrance. "So what if we put down a bunch of those sludge traps, filled them with caltrops, and offer to rescue people from them if they agree to help?"


    "Well, I mean, I don''t really want to kill people, but if they''re trying to get to my core¡ªand I only have one floor right now, so that''s the only target¡ªthen I need to use deadly force." Travis paused for some time, still not having answered the question. "Okay, that sounds fine. But we don''t want idiots, so I''ll screen people to see who we want to keep."


    "We all have to live with whoever we do recruit. I think it would be best if all of us okay anyone¡ªanyone who''s an adventurer, anyway. Don''t get me wrong, I used to be one, but that just means I know the type more than anyone." Penelope hefted the pick and looked back at her work. "Anyway, now I need to do more digging. Iron and gold are the orders of the day, right?"


    "Right, and if anything jumps out at you, lead it to the traps. But you need to go back through to where the tunnel joins to my core room and fill-in that little section so everything gets funneled around. Here''s the build order. Try to make sure you''re on the other side of it."


    Walking back, skipping around their traps, Penelope ran her hand over Travis'' core before finding herself at the to-be-filled-tunnel. "Okay, I get what you mean." Backing into the new section, she poked at the ceiling with her pick and the rock came tumbling down to fill the gap.


    Turning, she looked at the tunnels that should have been pitch black. "I used to have trouble seeing in dark dungeons. Even pondered getting some of those fancy goggles that let you see everything in black and white no matter the light level. This is much easier. Okay, point me to a rock face and let me at it!"


    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    The order appeared soon enough, so she got stuck into extending the main tunnel and adding more spurs to it. When she got just six hunks of rock into the first seam, her vision was filled with dirty yellow. "T-Trav!"


    "I see it, Pen. Says it''s a gold seam. Try, uh, hacking at it with your pick." His voice sounded excited in her head. When she swung her pick at it a few times and a large hunk of yellow broke off, he cheered in excitement. "That was fifteen gold, Pen! Fifteen!"


    That was a stupid amount of gold to just get. Without a second thought she swung again, and again, and again. Three more times she liberated hunks as big as the first. "How much now?"


    "We have eighty, but I can see it appearing in the warehouse, so I must not have much capacity for it normally. Oh, and that warehouse is really full of rock." He sounded, to her, a little worried. "We''re going to need more warehouses."


    "Let me grab a bit more of this. What''s the first cool upgrade we can get with just gold and rock?" Swinging again, Penelope really liked the idea of getting a lot of gold. It was a strange notion, but she was already making plans of spending the night in the warehouse on the gold that was likely there.


    "Nothing, really. Well, except for unlocking Draconic Monsters. Do we really want monsters? I mean, I figure most dungeons like them for killing adventurers, but that''s not what I''m about.


    "There are unlocks for increased max worker count. I think we''re good for that right now.


    "If we can get some iron, there''s an upgrade to make one of my creatures a boss. I don''t know how that would work, without monsters, but it doesn''t require the monsters upgrade to work."


    "That''s a lot of stuff, actually," Penelope said. "Boss monsters come in a few flavors. There are level bosses, mini-bosses, and dungeon bosses. First can be a monster that''s tougher on the floor. Second are every five floors, and they can be really nasty. Third are usually about as bad news as you''ll get. In a dragon-themed dungeon like this, it''ll be a dragon.


    "As for regular monsters, I think I''m fine with just traps. We can control traps. Monsters seem¡­ I don''t know, just more trouble. Stick with kobolds, we''re the best monsters you''ll ever need."


    "Okay, so if we get some iron, we''ll get the boss thing and see where that goes. There''s also a Tier 1 unlock, which is a pile of gold, timber, food, and experience. Let''s save up for that, but in the meantime we really need iron and¡ªGet to the door! Stephan''s in trouble!"


    <hr>


    All the blankets and hides from his bed were wrapped up in a bundle. He had several joints of curing meat bound together, and finally a small bale of straw was his final load. Just days ago he would have struggled to lift any one of the loads, but despite having become shorter and lost the musculature of a man who worked hard his whole life, he hefted all three onto his back.


    "It''s not all bad, I guess." As he walked out of his small cabin, Stephan looked at his vegetable garden that he''d used to supplement his diet. "I''ll get back to that, too. It might need to be hidden a bit, but I could get away with some tubers and onions at least."


    As he started to walk back, Stephan felt more and more comfort start to return. All the skittishness that he''d gained while walking in the forest¡ªoutside of the dungeon¡ªwas fading as he set his sights on returning. He was halfway there before he felt the forest still around him.


    A chill filled Stephan unlike even the iciest waters could produce¡ªhe knew there was a bigger predator than him in the forest. Not changing his pace, he tried to think of what was around him and around the dungeon entrance. "Trav, if you can hear me, I think there''s something hunting me."


    There was only silence. Stephan tried to summon some calm so he could think more clearly. "It will be close getting back. I have a load of stuff from my cabin, but none of it''s anything I''d want to give up¡ªleast of all the food. If I run, it''ll attack me sooner rather than later."


    As he moved, Stephan was trying to step around sticks and other dried things to avoid making noise. If whatever was following him was doing so by sound, he figured, it might be a way to avoid it.


    The evening''s twilight was descending over the forest, not that darkness harmed his chances of seeing things. The hidden entrance to the dungeon was in sight when he heard a branch snap that seemed to echo¡ªbut sounded right behind him. "I''m not going to make it."


    Then he heard Travis'' voice. "I saw you were in trouble. Pen is just coming out the front now, get ready to duck to your right when she does."


    With his legs pumping hard, tail swaying slight to balance himself, Stephan''s eyes were fixed on the hidden entrance until he saw Penelope. As she started bringing her arm back, he took a wide step to the right and heard something fly past the side of his head.


    A screaming yelp made Stephan turn his head¡ªhe saw a wolf half again as tall as he was tumbling into the forest floor with a bleeding and ruined eye. There was another right behind it, bounding over it, and bearing down on him.


    "In here!" Penelope held the bushes aside for Stephan as he approached the entrance.


    The wolf, a direwolf given its size, was right on his heels and he could practically feel its breath on the back of his neck. No sooner did he get inside the tunnel than he heard it crash into the dead-fall that was concealing the dungeon.


    "Down here. Come on!"


    Penelope''s voice was, to Stephan, that of an angel. She got his legs moving faster as he rounded the corner and entered the tunnel. As he turned left into the entrance of the S, he noticed the new tunnel leading off into the dark.


    When the first direwolf reached the corner, the beast struggled to get itself around the corner without losing all its speed. Behind it could be heard the injured one, snarling and furious.


    "Come on. We just have to get past the traps."


    Stephan dodged the trap triggers with dexterity that should have been beyond him with the load he was carrying. He rushed around the little angled bit of tunnel after the traps and pressed his back against the wall. "W-What¡ª?"


    There was a scream and the sound of a direwolf falling into a pit trap. The screaming whine from it at the bottom was the surest sign that Penelope had installed the spikes in the bottom. A moment later there was a dull thud, then a second, and finally a screech from the half-blinded wolf as it found the dart shooter.


    Leaving the supplies on the ground, Stephan followed Penelope to the corner and peeked around. The beast was snapping blindly at the air, blood coursing down from a second ruined eye. Blind, it looked panicked and furious. It backed up a few steps before its hind leg came down and found nothing under it.


    "Now." Her claws digging into the stone, Penelope rushed forward at the direwolf. At her side, Stephen had no idea what exactly the plan was, but he dropped his shoulder at the same time she did and shoved at the wolf.


    For a second, as Stephan pushed against the wolf''s flank, he felt the strength of the beast to be too much. He growled through his clamped-closed jaw and dug his claws into the stone under him and pushed with everything he had.


    The direwolf tried to turn to deal with the two kobolds, but that put it off balance and with a final attempt to snap at one of them it fell into the pit as well.


    With all his weight and strength against the animal, Stephan toppled forward and started to shout¡ªonly to have Penelope grab his arm with one hand and the frame of the triggered crusher trap with her other. "Thanks!"


    Pulling Stephan back from the edge, Penelope patted him on the back. "Thought I''d lost you outside. Travis was shouting at me to do something to slow them down. Direwolves, by the way."


    His voice shaking a little, Stephan nodded. "I know¡ªI know what direwolves are. They shouldn''t be around here. There is a small pack of gray wolves in the forest. I¡ªI sort of have a deal with them. Pots of clean water, any extra critters I don''t eat myself I get from my traps"¡ªhe shivered and shook his head¡ª"those monsters would have killed them."


    Looking down into the pit, Stephan could see the two wolves in the bottom¡ªmotionless¡ªand could smell the strong scent of blood.


    "I need to go find my knife. I''ll be back as soon as I can," Penelope said, dodging around the edge of the pit trap and down the tunnel toward the entrance.


    Crouching down, Stephan noticed a different smell coming from the pit. It was more than just the blood and the offal¡ªit was something he''d never smelled as a human, though. The strangest thing about the scent was it got stronger the longer he sat there, and when he stood up a little it faded.


    "What''re you doing? You haven''t taken care of them yet?" Penelope asked when she returned with her knife.


    "There''s something odd. One got stuck real good, I can smell its guts and blood, but there''s another smell here." Sniffing some more, Stephan''s head snapped around as Penelope got close beside him. "You smell like it too."


    Looking down, Penelope took a deep breath, but didn''t notice anything. When she turned to look at Stephan, and opened her mouth to speak, he looked like he''d just had a religious experience. "What?"


    "Your breath. That''s what I''m smelling¡ªbreath." Stephan looked down at the two bodies in the pit. "One of them is playing possum."


    Penelope chuckled. "That¡ªThat''s a neat trick, St¡ª"


    "Just Steph. Call me Steph."


    "Got it, Steph, and thanks."

 Chapter 7

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Level 1


    Heart 400/400


    Experience 35/100


    Workers 2/5


    Monsters 0/10-2


    Traps 5/10+2


    Rooms 5


    Food 92


    Timber 219


    Iron 24


    Mana 0


    Rock 133


    Gold 110


    Leather 39


    Quest: Gather 100 Food


    </blockquote>


    Travis was in a panic over how fast things had happened and how completely helpless he''d been once the coordination process of getting Stephan back to the dungeon had been accomplished. He''d barely noticed when twenty experience had poured in for the dead direwolf in the pit, and had assumed it had been for both. "Are you sure? It must be the carbon dioxide."


    "Carbon what?" Stephan asked. "I don''t know what it is in their breath, but I can definitely smell it coming from down there and from Pen''s breathing. So one is still alive. How do we kill them?"


    "It''s¡ª" Travis tried to work out how to describe what he knew of breathing. "When you breathe, you inhale good air and exhale most of the same but with something else in it. That''s what you''ll smell. I think."


    "Is there anything else that will smell like that?"


    "Bad air in tunnels. I guess that''s why kobolds can smell it at all." Focusing on the vision from one of his lizards, Travis could see the slight rise and fall in the wolf''s side. "If this is going to become a common thing, we need spears. Even if all they are is sticks with a sharpened end."


    "The trap is fifteen feet down. Even if we had spears that long, we couldn''t angle them down far enough in the tunnel. What we need are shortbows." Penelope was going over the traps, resetting them back so they could trigger again.


    That''s when it hit Travis. "No, even better. We dig the traps deeper and fill the bottom ten feet with water." He remembered rat and mouse traps that worked like that. "This is just like building mousetraps."


    "Whatever you plan, that doesn''t help us right now. We need some way to kill that direwolf that doesn''t involve climbing down there or waiting it out," Penelope said.


    Stephan looked around, then up. "Why don''t we bury it and then dig it back out after it''s suffocated?" He pointed at the ceiling. "We could just collapse the tunnel down. It''d probably ruin the pelts, but the meat will be fine."


    When he tried to give the order to break the ceiling, though, it wouldn''t take. Then he remembered the rule with dungeons: you can''t block the path to the core. Three dig orders and some quick work by both his kobolds freed the pit to be able to be collapsed.


    It didn''t take them long to drop the ceiling in and then dig it all out again. The downside was they''d lost the trap itself. With some wood, Penelope rebuilt the trap and put plenty of spikes in the bottom while Stephan hauled the two bodies out.


    <hr>


    Stephan couldn''t help but feel a connection with Penelope now. He pondered on how it took life-or-death situations for both to forge that, then shook his head and got back to showing her how to hang and skin the wolves. "Now that we have them draining, we can start working on the pelts."


    "But didn''t you say they''d be worthless with holes and rips from rocks?" Penelope knew about knives and other blades only from her dungeoneering work. She''d gotten Stephan to explain each that he''d carried and what they were used for.


    "Worthless to sell. You can always stitch holes together or trim several damaged hides and make a blanket out of it. Their fur kept them warm during winter¡ªit can keep us warm too." Stephan performed his trade, emptying the entrails into a second tub to where the blood was pooling and then started to cut the hide loose. "And now we pull down. Try not to pull the carcass away from the tub¡ªthat blood can be used for cooking or weapon smelting."


    "Just checking, is that what we use to make leather sludge for Sludge traps?" Travis asked them.


    It was hard to get his head around, but when Stephan focused on the blood he swore that¡ªfor just a second¡ªa little box appeared. "It¡ªYeah, it''s leather sludge. No idea how that works, but it works. So we can make traps with this?"


    "We can! Pen said that this style of trap is really effective and doesn''t need resetting. We''re running low on iron, but Pen found gold so hopefully some more mining and we can get some iron too." To Stephan, Travis'' voice sounded excited and hopeful.


    It was a little odd for him, given his lack of usual contact with others, but hearing Travis feel inspired also reassured him. He explained what he was doing to Penelope as he worked, and even that gave him a good feeling. Not that he had any designs on Penelope, just having another person¡ªanother kobold¡ªto talk to.


    By the time he punched the hide off the second wolf, he nodded to the two hides. "Now we gotta dry these. That takes time. It also gives us a chance to find holes and marks that need removing." He tossed the first hide over a drying rack and let Penelope do the second. "Holes here and here on mine. You can see that neck wound where the spike got it."


    "This one must have been the possum-player. Look at all the abrasions." Penelope was brushing the fur aside with her claws to see where all the damage had been done. "You know, both heads are fine. We could make some great helmets out of them."


    "We could do that. Let''s get this all sorted out so we can get those new traps built."


    <hr>


    "Where''d they go?" Jack, the party''s ice mage, asked. "There was meant to be a dozen of them got stirred up by that rot dungeon, right? The reports said¡ª"


    "We all read the report, Jack, and the quest. Also, I doubt there was a dozen. If there was a dozen direwolves in this forest, the village would have heard from the local trapper. One or two, maybe, but not a dozen." Fife often resented Jack''s wordiness. She knew he''d been to a magic college and she didn''t need him to show off his smarts every time he opened his mouth.


    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    "But¡ª"


    "Jack," Brayden Smith said, "shut it. She''s been in this game longer''n you have. Remember what I said? You can''t think your way around a sword-strike."


    The intense desire to argue that point filled Jack, until he remembered how much he depended on Fife and Porter to keep things at bay from him. "S-Sorry, Fife."


    "We''ll get you broken-in eventually, lad." Porter reached out and thumped Jack on the shoulder. "But there was one thing¡ªwhat if the beasts killed that self-same trapper? Bray, your buddy say how fast this guy can run?"


    "No one can out-run a direwolf, Porter." Brayden had been about to say something else, but in the short moment between one breath and the next he realized the forest was dead silent. "Ware. Something''s here with us and it''s got the animals shit-scared." He drew his morningstar as the rasp of two swords coming free met the air.


    Not having as much experience as the others, but having enough sense to remember his role, Jack cast the barrier of protection that froze the air around them into a fine lattice of invisible ice. He let the three turn their backs to him while he spread his awareness around, fighting to hear or see a disturbance that would tip him off.


    "I''ve got two circling around this side," Porter said. "Tell me you have more than that shield, Jack?"


    "He''s got more than that shield. Four here," Fife said.


    "Lord of Honor! Hear my prayer and guide our weapons!" As he called out the plea to his deity, Brayden''s weapon began to glow, as did the swords of Porter and Fife. "I have three. They''re getting ready to dogpile us. Jack, you have something?"


    "Yeah. Yeah I do. I gotta time it just right, though. Don''t move out of this circle and don''t try to hit them. Let them come to us." Jack had been practicing a new spell he''d come up with and now he was going to use it for real.


    When the direwolves charged, everyone felt it as the beasts as big as donkeys rushed forward. Brayden felt a chill in the air that always came before Jack worked some heavy magic. When the first of the beasts got close, a tiny dart leapt from Jack''s staff to it.


    "Gotcha." The strain on Jack''s mana was immense. He''d practiced the spell on rabbits in a burrow, but the difference between a bunch of tiny bunnies and direwolves was felt in every fiber of his being.


    "What¡ª?" Fife didn''t get a second word out as the direwolf less than ten feet away suddenly exploded into shards of ice.


    The shards wasted no time. Some bounced off the shield Jack had put up, while the rest spun around looking for targets. A shard connected with another of the wolves, the beast stopping for a moment before it too exploded and added more magical shrapnel to the air.


    One after another direwolves were hit, were frozen, and were exploded. When the fifth exploded, Jack dropped to his knees as his magic load became too much. The shards circled, but their strikes no longer instantly killed¡ªbut another direwolf was felled by them anyway.


    "Three left by my count." With the spinning shards all gone, Brayden stepped out of the circle and engaged one of the wolves.


    "I like that spell, Jack! You should use it more often!" Fife stepped out of the circle too, crashing her shield into one of the wolves and slicing the throat of another that over-extended itself toward her.


    Porter held back. Standing closer to Jack¡ªwho was spending the contents of his breakfast onto the forest floor¡ªhe trusted his companions with the remaining threats. "You good there?"


    Wiping his lips on his sleeve, Jack struggled to see straight when the world wanted to keep turning. "How many''d I get?"


    "You took six on your own. Even Fife can''t complain." Years of honed reflexes were all that saved Porter¡ªand Jack. Turning to the side as he noticed the slightest flicker of shadow, he got his sword around first and fell backward as another of the beasts landed on him. When it snapped at his face, he got his sword¡ªsideways¡ªinto its mouth and braced the sharp weapon with his other mailed hand. "One more!"


    "Get on it, Bray!" Fife felt teeth clamp down on her shield arm, using the distraction to thread her sword through Brayden''s direwolf''s head. Releasing her grip on the hilt, she reached behind her back and drew her long dagger.


    "By Brogdar''s might I smite thee!" As Brayden''s weapon arced toward the wolf on top of Porter, it started glowing brighter and brighter until it lit the forest with a near-blinding light.


    The weight of the beast, its head now staved in by his companion''s morningstar, fell down on Porter with even more solidness. It was no long an active, shifting mass, however, and he was able to shove it aside. "Fife?"


    Panting, Fife had wrestled with the wolf. She let the thing have her armored arm while her weapon-hand brought the dagger down into its throat over and over. Kneeling on it, she kept stabbing and stabbing, finally using the knife to slice the beast''s jaw muscles so she could get her limb out.


    The forest was still quiet, but it was no longer the dead silence of earlier. The predators were all dead and bleeding.


    Leaving Brayden to help Jack up, Porter approached Fife and reached down to her. "You got three of them?"


    "One got my arm pretty good. I''ll be paying a visit to that priestess in town when we get back." Reaching to take Porter''s hand with her good one, Fife snarled as she stood up. "Jack! Where''s that brilliant bastard?"


    "Magic feedback got him. Give him some time and he''ll be good as new." Putting one arm around Fife and hugging from her good side, Porter kissed her cheek. "Nice work."


    Jack took his time standing up. The world wasn''t rotating quite as fast as earlier, but he didn''t like the way he kept listing to one side. What he didn''t expect was for Fife to offer him her shoulder to lean on. "Thanks."


    "Leave the scalping work to the other two. You done good there. Never seen a spell like that before." Fife felt every bit the adrenaline-fueled battle-high. She knew it would crash at some point, but she didn''t care.


    "Been working on it. First time using it on big things." Reaching for his water bottle, Jack used the first few mouthfuls to rinse his mouth of the horrid taste. "Glad it worked so well."


    <hr>


    The "donation" clinked into the little stone well. "That was getting nasty. You shouldn''t wait so long to seek healing." Fairheart withdrew her divine magic from Fife''s arm.


    Trying to fight the urge to punch the preachy priestess, Fife shrugged her shoulders. "Couldn''t be helped. It''s a long walk back from the south forest. Besides, I had to shove something in the bloody direwolf''s mouth and it didn''t look like my shield would fit."


    Sighing at the reply, Fairheart used her most serene smile. "If you ever need more care, please don''t hesitate to come to my temple."


    Shaking her head to clear it of the last vestiges of the magic, Fife stood up and pulled her leather shirt back on. "Yeah, yeah. If Bray would just learn a damn healing spell, we wouldn''t have this kind of problem."


    "I told you, Fife, I''m not that kind of priest!" Brayden shouted.


    Despite their loudness, despite Brayden Smith worshiping a different god to her, and despite the mage who wove his own magic, Fairheart had to keep smiling. "There is so much life in you. Have you considered paying for full coverage?"


    "Bray thinks we should. Your town''s growing and can support a few adventuring parties now. Would you take that healing cost as part payment?" Fife was all business when money was being talked about.


    "I would. There would also be a discount, too, if you''re taking jobs from town itself." It was a deal Fairheart had worked out with Brolly Windchime. Hands washing backs and such. "The offer is open until you leave town again."


    "I''ll talk to the boss. I don''t like the idea of needing too much healing, but better to have it and not need it¡­" Fife lifted her mail over the top of her leather and settled it into place. "Thanks."


    "Blessings upon you!" Fairheart walked slowly to the collection bowl and fetched the gold coins¡ªmentally counting out the share that belonged to the town on Northridge.

 Chapter 8

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Level 1


    Heart 400/400


    Experience 55/100


    Workers 2/5


    Monsters 0/10-2


    Traps 5/10+2


    Rooms 5


    Food 90


    Timber 219


    Iron 24


    Mana 0


    Rock 133


    Gold 110


    Leather 51


    Quest: Gather 100 Food


    </blockquote>


    "Just try adding one. I want to test some things with food." Travis examined the pile of goods Stephan had retrieved from his cabin and was most focused on the haunches of meat. What he eyed most intently was the quest to "gather 100 food".


    Unbinding the haunches, Stephan lifted one off the stack and looked at the huge dungeon heart crystal. "I just press it against your crystal?"


    "Right, yeah. You''ve been working with the tannery a lot. I guess just stringing things up in there gives me the resources. For other stuff you just have to poke it into my crystal heart." He didn''t have long to wait. Travis watched as Stephan shoved the joint forward and his food ticked up to 102.


    Now he was watching for it, Travis saw the old quest disappear and a new one show up.


    <blockquote>


    Quest: Make one of your monsters into a boss!


    </blockquote>


    What he really liked seeing was the reward for the food quest seemed to have been 20 iron. "Woo! Guess what? That was twenty iron for getting all the food."


    "How does food get us iron? That doesn''t make sense!" Using his knife, Stephan started slicing hunks of meat from another haunch. "Pen! You hungry?"


    Realizing Pen was digging deep into the back of the tunnels, Travis asked her for Stephan. "Steph wants to know if you''re hungry. He''s working on cutting up a haunch of meat. Oh, and we got more iron!"


    Putting her pickaxe down, Penelope shook her head. "How did you get iron?"


    "Okay, so I had this quest thing to get a hundred food. With what Steph just gave me, it put me over that. I got twenty iron as a reward. That''ll help with our traps. So, do you want some of that meat?" Travis looked back to Stephan. "I''m asking her. She couldn''t hear you."


    "Yeah, I''ll take a break now then. Tell Steph I''m on my way." Tucking her pickaxe away, Penelope started loping down the tunnels.


    Letting Steph know, Travis focused on what needed building next. He waited for the pair to meet up and start eating. "Okay. So we need those new traps. I can have another seven in total, so I think it would be best to have them in the maze-S at the start there. Make it a big long line of them so people can''t try to jump over."


    When all he got was nods from the pair, Travis moved on. "Then we need more storage. We have plenty of wood, and now have some iron, so I think two more would be a good idea. All this rock is filling me up."


    "You can''t use it for anything?" Stephan asked.


    "Not that I can find. Maybe I''ll get something next tier." Planning out his next changes, Travis looked at the work area already established. "I have an idea for what I want. I just hope these rooms don''t need to be bigger in higher tiers."


    "We can always use some of that rock to move them, right?" Penelope asked.


    "Yeah, I just hate the idea of being inefficient for anything. Okay, so traps here and more room digging here. I might use some tunnels now to make things safer and easier for later." Adding the tunnels for the new rooms was easy, but Travis still had no leather sludge for the traps. "How long until we get some of that sludge?"


    Finished with his meat, Stephan gulped the last bit down. "I could get you some now. It''s in buckets but if I empty that into the trough in the tannery, that should be in your resources, right?"


    "Yeah. Give it a shot. We need five units of it for each trap. In all, each trap needs five leather sludge, five timber, and one iron." Travis would have rubbed his hands together with glee, if he had hands.


    Standing up and stretching, Stephan advanced along the hallway and turned into the tannery. The two direwolf carcasses had been hanging for a good few hours and their hides had been drying too. He poured all the blood and guts into one trough and followed it with another smaller bucket of what had dripped off the hides. "How was that?"


    "That was eighteen in total. So three slime traps worth. Nice work!"


    <hr>


    Stephan wasn''t used to the feeling of pure joy that praise from Travis brought him. It was a very kobold thing, he figured, but it wasn''t exactly bad. "So that''s enough for three traps. We just need to get more critters to skin and I''ll be able to get you more. If there are any more of them"¡ªhe gestured to the two direwolf bodies¡ª"that might be hard."


    "Let''s get these three traps built first, then you can head out and see if there is any sign of more. They''re big predators, I figure they''ll be eating everything they can get their teeth around here¡ªwhich means less game to be spotted, right?"


    It was sound reasoning to Stephan, on both parts. "Right, give us the order to build the traps then."


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    Inhaling slowly as the need to build came on him, Stephan had to admit that so far Travis had seemed to do all he could to not give them orders or treat them badly. "Thanks." When he realized that sounded a little odd, Stephan clarified. "For not just ordering us around. I appreciate that you totally could¡ªbut don''t."


    When he reached the heart room, Penelope had already left. Making his way down the hall, he saw her just in time for her to duck right at the end of the hallway.


    Four wooden panels were carefully laid out and Penelope was starting to pour from a bucket into the middle of the first trap. "Okay, I didn''t realize they were that big. How are we meant to get around it?" Walking up to where she was, Stephan started laying down the boxwork for next of the three traps.


    Flashing her claws, Penelope gestured to the slight shadows on the walls. "Gouge out some hand and foot holds there. When you need to get past, jump up and claw your way along." She pulled a bunch of little folded metal spikes from her pocket and started scattering them around in her trap.


    Stephan kept an eye on Penelope as they both worked. She was definitely a little faster than him at this kind of thing, notable that by the time he was just getting his wall-holds formed, she slipped past climbing on the wall and started boxing up the next trap. By the time he scattered his caltrops and was stirring the tree sap in, she was smoothing out the layer of sticky muck in the third one.


    Rather than climb the wall and go past her, Stephan moved to the front end of the line of new traps. "I''m going to check my snares and see if those two were the only direwolves. Are you okay doing any digging that Travis needs?"


    "Yeah-yeah. I got all the digging covered. Just don''t let anything blindside you out there. The first sign of danger, you leg it back for the dungeon and lead whatever it is into these." Penelope stood up from finishing the third trap. "If you do bring something back, it''d be nice to get more of these down."


    Leaving the dungeon, Stephan could see how much damage the two direwolves had done to their camouflage. He did what he could, but without a lot of work he wasn''t going to be able to hide the entrance again.


    The forest, when he left the safety of the dungeon, felt far more alive now. Stephan could smell animals and trees and hear plenty of movement. Finding his first trap line, he started going along looking for anything the beasts had missed.


    Every single trap was sprung. Every single trap held just pieces of whatever he''d caught. It was disheartening, but the noise of the forest was reassuring still. He walked all around the normal game trails and then, down one particularly far from the dungeon, he froze.


    The scent on the air was that of death. Lots of it. A little gore too. When he found the first of the direwolf corpses, he knew something really big had happened. There were chunks out of nearby trees, the ground was ripped up in places, and the beast''s scalp had been removed.


    That surprised Stephan. "Bounty hunters?" He shook his head and went looking for more of the bodies. Sure enough, there were four more. "Trav? I found five direwolf corpses out here. Looks like there was a fight with a bunch of hunters. They scalped them and¡ªOh wow. There were more, but someone used ice magic to explode them."


    "Ice magic? How can you tell?" Travis sounded curious.


    "There are little shards of flesh. They would have been frozen at the time, but the way they are separated shows that no knife cut or tearing happened." Uncoiling rope, he started to bind the wolves together and make a loop he could drag them with. "I''m bringing these back. Even if we can''t use the meat, we can definitely use these hides and the sludge."


    <hr>


    Robert Arskith shook his head. "I still don''t get that, Katelyn. No one is staring at you." He nudged his big sister in the side.


    "Yeah, that''s because I am wearing robes so heavy they''d make a high-elf whore look plain. And if you want to keep all your teeth, you won''t comment on that comparison. We have everything we need except that map." Risking pushing the hood of her cloaklike robe back, Katelyn Arskith felt at least a few pairs of eyes evaluate her based on her face and hair. She hated that.


    "Okay, I''ll go and grab a map. You wait here and try not to seduce the entire town." Robert ignored the deathly glare his sister gave him and headed into the adventuring hall that the town had built. Part barracks, part tavern, and part information center. It was the latter he was there for. "Hi, I need a map of the surrounding area¡ªparticularly the new dungeons."


    When a bored voice replied, "Two gold," Robert dug two of the appropriate coins from his inner jacket pocket.


    "They better be good maps." He took the offered map and paid for it, then unfolded it and headed for the exit. Once outside again, he looked around for his sister. "Of course she''s talking to a guy. I can''t leave her alone for five, damn minutes." Stomping over to where Katelyn was trying to ignore someone in the local Guard''s uniform, Robert said, "Hey, Katelyn, you want to get serious about work?"


    Looking to her brother in complete and utter relief, Katelyn let out a sigh. "I gotta go. You know how it is, monsters to kill, dungeons to explore."


    "You, uh¡­" Timothy Devin, a guard for the town of Northridge, trailed off as the love of his life walked off. "This sucks."


    <hr>


    Tannyr Stoneshave rubbed the sweat from her brow. It wasn''t a forgefire that had her so hot but working in the bright sun. Dwarves, she told anyone who would listen, were meant to be underground or, failing that, in large buildings lacking windows. "We need that wall built as soon as possible!"


    "I believe they''re working as fast as they''re able, Tannyr. It''s my crafters holding us back. Only three tree fellers and two carpenters isn''t enough¡ªnot that it''s their fault." Howard Tailor was still running tallies on the production worksheet to ensure they could build the wooden wall and barracks before any projected threats were due. "Winter is too close."


    "Winter don''t matter, Brolly said. He told me that dungeons like this will keep producing in the dead of winter. We just need to keep safe up here and keep working at it without overwhelming the damn hole." Try as she might, Tannyr would not relax for a moment while she had a job to do¡ªand this was probably the single most important jobs of her life. The future of the town could rest on protecting this jewel of a dungeon. "We could start building the front as stonework while working on the wooden palisade?"


    "That¡ªI''ll need to divert all the quarried stone that was going to Northridge to here, but that would definitely give your workers something to do, and it will get the fortress fenced in faster. If we can get Christine to bankroll some stone from elsewhere, we could get a tower built, too."


    Nodding, Tannyr rolled her shoulders and took a deep breath. "Runners!" She then left Howard to writing letters while she walked up to the dungeon''s entrance. "And we still need to get a bunker built around this." She touched the raw dungeonstone at the entrance and jerked back. To anyone else it would feel like stone, but to a dwarf a dungeon''s rock felt wrong.


    Facing that minor "fear", Tannyr started measuring the entrance for the stonework and doors that would be put around it.

 Chapter 9

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Level 1


    Heart 400/400


    Experience 65/100


    Workers 2/5


    Monsters 0/10-2


    Traps 8/10+2


    Rooms 5


    Food 102


    Timber 204


    Iron 39


    Mana 0


    Rock 171


    Gold 110


    Leather 51


    Leather Sludge 3


    Quest: Make one of your monsters into a boss


    </blockquote>


    "That''s a problem, Pen. My warehouse just filled up." Travis felt an alarming sense of being unable to do anything further. It felt, to him, like he''d eaten way too much and couldn''t wretch it up. "You, uh, could use it to fill in the tunnels."


    "How many do I need to¡ª" Penelope stopped just as Travis gave the command to fill the first two of the mine tunnels in. "Okay, got it."


    It didn''t take long for her to do it. Travis watched as rock disappeared out of his warehouse and filled up the tunnel. At the same time he acknowledged Stephan hauling the direwolf corpses back toward the dungeon. There was a lot going on now, with two kobolds, but he thought he was handling it fine. "Okay, we need a warehouse next. I''ll put in the plans¡­"


    "Go for it. Ah, there we go. Okay, another warehouse on the way. Thanks, Trav."


    It was a relief to hear her thanking him. Travis constantly felt the edge of panic that he was being too controlling. Penelope had dug out the new warehouse¡ªtemporarily connecting to the bottom of the S maze, and had set down a new warehouse there when Stephan hauled the direwolf corpses in the front door.


    "Pen, Steph will need help getting these direwolf bodies over the pit traps. Can you help him?" Travis asked.


    "Sure can. We could even dig out¡­ here." Penelope ran her claws along the edge of the maze wall until just before the sludge traps, then pulled out her pick. Travis barely got the dig order in place than she hacked away the wall for Stephan.


    "Oh, that makes it easier." Pulling the direwolves through the gap, Stephan got them out of the way just in time for Penelope to fill the hole back up with stone again. "These should¡ª"


    "Adventurers are coming in! Two!" Travis caught sight of the pair ducking under the camouflage and just missing stepping on one of his lizards.


    <hr>


    "This is where some direwolves had been killed. Either there''s a dungeon here attracting monsters, or we''re barking up the wrong¡­ hole in the ground." Robert looked around the forest, not seeing anything moving. "Are you sure we can do this?"


    "Legally? As long as we don''t destroy the core, we can do what we want. If you''re asking do I have enough magic to kill every beast in a dungeon"¡ªKatelyn smirked and produced a wand from a small brace of them in the sleeve of her robe¡ª"I can do that too. You just need to slow the core down long enough for us to make friends."


    "You mean enslave it?"


    "Friends are friends. We want the dungeon to grow, but we want it to grow on our terms. It has taken so much time to find a young dungeon to try this on, that I was starting to worry we never would." Katelyn drew her book out and started flicking through it. Finally, finding what she was after, she flicked some phosphorous into the air and spoke three words of power.


    Robert didn''t have words at first. It was a spell his sister had spent almost a year working on while he made the perfect mix of reagents to drug a dungeon heart. A trail¡ªa line of phosphor that glowed in the presence of magic¡ªtraced through the air and deeper into the forest. "You did it. We did it!"


    Reaching out, Katelyn ruffled Robert''s hair. It was something she hadn''t done in some time, but this close to their objective she was riding a mental high. "Don''t count our dungeons before they''re enslaved."


    Ducking away from his sister''s attention, Robert noticed something moving ahead of them. "What is that?"


    Immediately preparing an offensive spell, Katelyn looked around. "You''re seeing things. Come on." With a flick of her fingers the inferno wall spell was released before she''d spent more than a tiny amount of mana on it.


    The path toward the dungeon was slow and winding. Threads of magic never traveled in straight lines, but rather twisted and wound around based on the magic around them. Eventually, though, the siblings found the dungeon entrance.


    "Something''s tried to hide this. Look, there are fresh drag marks here." Crouching, Katelyn ran her hand over the entrance where dirt was dragged into the stone interior. "This implies intelligence."


    "Not that again. It''s just a bunch of goblins or kobolds that have done some hunting and dragged animals in. The branches here look like they were just randomly dropped from a tree. Dungeon. Hearts. Are. Dumb." Pushing past his sister, feeling more than a little annoyed, Robert pulled out a light stick and gave it a good shake.


    Ducking through the concealing branches too, Katelyn could feel the essence of the dungeon all around her. She''d been in dungeons before, but never so young and never with just herself doing all the tasks a normal party would. Snapping her fingers, a wisp of flame appeared beside her and just above her head. "Stay behind me, Robert. Even a young dungeon can have surprises."


    "Is that food?" Robert looked opposite where his sister was to see a small side room that had a joint of cured meat sitting on a little platform. He took a step in that direction, only to have his sister''s hand grab him by the shoulder. "What?"


    "That''s a pit trap. By the gods, Robert, you almost walked into a pit trap built to literally catch animals." Katelyn stepped up beside him and kicked at the ground just a few inches beyond¡ªand the ground flexed. "This place can''t be greenskins, it doesn''t smell."


    "You can tell just from the entrance?" Stepping back from the edge of the pit, Robert turned and held his stick up. "I figured there would be skulls and bones everywhere."


    "Dungeons, Robert, are like a gong farm. They take in everything given and find a use for it." When her brother stared at her in confusion, Katelyn rolled her eyes. "Sewage. Shit. Ugh¡­ Look, they''re efficient. Nothing will be left just lying around so long as there''s a use for it."


    Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    "There''s a split ahead. Do we go left or straight?" Robert asked.


    "Everyone has a different system. I always take right wall and follow it. Dungeon layouts are never the same, and even if things look better down one passage, you need to map the whole thing." Kicking at the stone floor, Katelyn smiled at the tracks. "Two legs. So if it''s not goblins working here, it''s kobolds. Watch out for the big lizards, they can be a pain thanks to their scales shrugging off hits. Ignore the kobolds, they will never attack."


    Robert snorted. "Right. Throw burning potions on everything."


    "No. We don''t want to hurt the kobolds. They will be our workers soon."


    The reminder made Robert smile and dial back his sarcasm. Half an hour later he wasn''t smiling and he was ready to deploy his entire repertoire of sarcasm should his sister try to put things in a good light. "This isn''t the core, this is a mine, sis."


    "Yeah. I''m starting to think you''re right. I was worried we might miss something like a rear entrance to the main section, but this is just mining rock and gold." The gold had been a surprise, but Katelyn was as immune to its luster as her brother¡ªalchemy and magic were their destinies, they had no need of wealth.


    "So we head back to that intersection at the front and try the other way?"


    "Yeah I¡ª" Katelyn was in agreement, but there was something that had been eating away in the back of her head. Two somethings in particular. "This dungeon feels odd. I haven''t seen anything that tells me what theme it might be and everything''s so¡ªsquared. The tunnel is exactly as high as it is wide. There are only hard corners. It''s like someone built the dungeon with a ruler."


    "Ruler?"


    "I know you use rulers and gradient measurements in alchemy."


    "Oh, right. Thought you meant kings and queens. So at least this dungeon can get us some money if nothing else. You saw the size of that gold vein, right? And it was practically pure gold." That was when Robert''s light stick snuffed out. Drawing another from his coat pocket, he activated it and returned the used one. "At least I can refill these damn things."


    Turning the corner back to the entrance tunnel, Katelyn took the lead down the new tunnel and turned left to a long, empty passage. "I have never seen a dungeon this young. If it is intelligent in any way, we might be able to train it as a pet rather than as a slave."


    "I guess we''re going to find out just how smart they are, then. Could you imagine the research we could write. Books. Fame!" Robert shivered at the prospect, excitement distracting him as he walked beside his sister.


    The first Katelyn knew of the trap was her left foot wouldn''t lift up when she tried to step forward. For a fraction of a second she was well aware of what kind of trap it was¡ªas she was pitching forward. "Robert! Get back! It''s a sticky trap! Ow."


    Robert, though, was having a similar problem¡ªthough he was still standing. "It''s just sticky, right? Let me get some solvents out and I''ll have you free." He started to reach through his supplies and pulled out a vial.


    Katelyn shook her head. "No, it''s not¡ªUgh, this hurts. They filled the stuff with caltrops. I''ve got them sticking in all over and whenever I move more are¡ª"


    Poking her head around the bend in the tunnel, Penelope saw that they had two adventurers caught. Ducking her head back, she started running. "We need to get behind them and push the other down into the trap. He''s got alchemy supplies."


    Pulling out a vial of universal solvent, Robert poured it over his feet and jumped out of the trap. "Okay, I''m out. You know what this stuff does to clothes, right?"


    "I know what it does to clothes, but I also know what this trap is doing to me. I won''t last another five minutes like this, Robert, get me out!" Katelyn hated the idea of going still, but every movement only dug more of the nasty little spikes of metal into her.


    Reaching in and grabbing another solvent¡ªhis last¡ªRobert pulled the stopper out. "I only have one of these. What part do you want out?"


    "You are fucking kidding me?! I thought you were prepared for this!"


    "Well, you didn''t tell me I''d need to bring a dozen of the things!" Knowing his sister''s preference for casting, Robert leaned over her and poured the solvent along her right arm. "Once your arm''s free, use it to¡ª"


    "Not that arm! All my wands are in that sleeve!" Despite the loss of the wands, Katelyn pieced her mental state back together. "Okay, okay. Sorry, Robert. Can you grab my cloak and pull me out of this when I say so?"


    "I can try. It''ll cost you a pair of boots, because I''m going to have to step into that crap again." Taking a step forward, Robert bent down to get a firm grip on his sister''s back. "Are you ready?"


    "Yeah."


    "Okay," Robert said. "One, two, th¡ª" Something shoved him hard in the back, pushing and tipping him forward and over Katelyn, at which point his trapped foot spun him to land on his back in the next trap along. "What the¡ª?" His brain caught up with him and he felt pain lancing all down his back, legs, and arms.


    "What the hell did you do?!" Katelyn asked.


    "I pushed him. That''s my job." Jumping in, landing on Katelyn''s back, Penelope reached down and shoved the wizardess'' arm back into the slime. "Sorry, but this is how it has to be."


    "You can speak?" Robert asked, eyes locked on the ceiling because his head was literally glued to the floor. Trying to reach his hand to his vest caused a bunch of the caltrops to press a little harder, but it was the new one at his neck that had him worried.


    Jumping onto the wall beside Katelyn, Penelope landed next on Robert''s stomach. "Of course. A mage and a chem nerd. What''s got you two peeking down here?" Reaching into Robert''s cloak, Penelope fished around until she found what she was after. Holding up the recall talisman in her claws, she showed it to him. "More importantly, who knows you are here and what will you do now?"


    "Why should we¡ª?"


    "Robert, shut up." Katelyn''s mind was racing. Either this dungeon was something really new, maybe a new type of theme, or the monsters were just super smart. She definitely didn''t want to answer the first two questions Penelope had asked. "Well, unless you dig us out of this goop, I''ll just activate my final stand spell and we all explode."


    "That''s a bluff. You''re not a sorcerer¡ªnot with all those wands I see melting by your hand¡ªand I don''t think a smart wizard would have entered any dungeon with just an alchemist to help them. Where''s your melee?" Penelope picked through Robert''s things, slipping potions she recognized out and tossing them to Stephan¡ªwho was now waiting at the other end of the line of traps. "And the talismans will only work if you die with them on you."


    "Y¡ªYou are going to offer us an alternative, right?" Robert asked.


    Tapping her chin with a claw, Penelope looked over to Stephan. "What do you think? Would we get any use out of an alchemist and a wizard?" When Stephan shrugged, Penelope sighed. "Steph thinks you aren''t worth saving. I guess we''ll leave you here and then feed you to the dungeon heart once you''re¡­ not stuck anymore."


    When the kobold jumped off him, Robert shouted, "Wait!" Panting, feeling blood leaking from a dozen wounds, he stammered. "W-We don''t have anyone waiting for us. No one knows we came here. Please, we can help you!"


    "Shut up, Robert!" Katelyn would have loved to have two hands free right then¡ªone to zap her brother and the other to facepalm with. "Don''t tell them anything. Something weird is going on in this dungeon and¡ª" She winced when a weight landed on her. She couldn''t see what it was, but she knew claws when she felt them on her back.


    "You''re making this a very easy decision. Steph, grab our little brewmaster over there. He''s valuable if he wants to make a change. This one can die." Penelope hated the decision, but Katelyn was giving her no choice.


    "Sis! Give it up! Even if they use us as slaves it''s better than just dying." Robert winced when he heard cutting along his cloak. All the way down his back a knife worked to sever his clothes¡ªhe even felt the kobold''s scales against his skin as it got to his legs.


    "Sis? Sister?" Penelope leaned over Katelyn''s shoulder. "That changes things, little wizard. These traps will bleed you out¡ªslowly, it''s not a fun way to go¡ªbut we aren''t looking for slaves. We want allies."


    Penelope watched Katelyn''s eyes widen and, for a moment, she saw calculation in them¡ªthen Katelyn closed her eyes.


    "Crap, she''s bleeding faster than I thought. Toss him down over there and help me with this."

 Chapter 10

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Level 1


    Heart 400/400


    Experience 65/100


    Workers 2/5


    Monsters 0/10-2


    Traps 8/10+2


    Rooms 6


    Food 102


    Timber 134


    Iron 34


    Mana 0


    Rock 168


    Gold 110


    Leather 51


    Leather Sludge 3


    Quest: Make one of your monsters into a boss


    </blockquote>


    Travis was in a panic. "Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap¡ª"


    "Calm down, Trav. This is exactly what we planned." Penelope was carrying the wizard¡ªwho was now practically naked¡ªdown the hall and past the traps. "Are you ready? Just go for it the moment you get the option."


    "You think she''s useful?" Travis asked, watching as she got the woman all the way to his heart.


    "I think she''ll probably bleed out soon if we don''t turn her into a kobold. Wizards aren''t known for their toughness." Slicing her palm, Penelope smeared a bloody print onto the crystal surface.


    <blockquote>


    Accept Willing Sacrifice? [30s remaining]


    Accepting a supplicant with the appropriate medium present can integrate them into the dungeon.


    Yes/No


    </blockquote>


    The message came up and, despite his misgivings, Travis hit yes. The change was fast, though the wizard was still unconscious as she shrank and reshaped into a kobold.


    "Wait, what¡ª? Was that Katelyn? You''re turning us into kobolds?!" Staring at the kobold that his sister now was, Robert Arskith''s eyes were wide. "You¡ªWe¡ªUh¡­" Lifting his head up, Robert focused on the heart. "That''s the dungeon heart?"


    "Yeah, now come over here. I want to see if I have to cut myself every time or if you can go through this without me making more of a mess on Trav."


    Travis felt shock. He had a 3rd kobold and was about to have a 4th. "P-P-Pen, make sure he''s okay with this."


    Penelope let out a sigh. "Travis¡ªthat''s our buddy there¡ªwants to know if you''re okay becoming a kobold. You know you''ll be stuck here and¡ª"


    "The dungeon is called Travis? What do you mean, stuck? And how does this even work?!" Without any of his equipment¡ªnaked as he was¡ªRobert wasn''t going to be going to have any way to resist. "Wait. No. That''s Katelyn? That kobold?"


    "Your sister, right? Yeah." Penelope sounded a little more relaxed. "You get to stay here with her."


    "It wasn''t meant to go this way, you know? I''d made a special potion that would drug a dungeon heart. We were going to take over and build a tower and everything." As he spoke, Robert walked over to the unconscious kobold. "Hey, sis, I guess you don''t have to worry about being ogled by mouth-breathers anymore."


    The blood print on Travis'' heart was gone, inspiring swearing from Penelope. "Okay, well, no one said life was easy¡ªthe first or second." Pressing her knife to her palm again, she opened the cut back up and pressed her hand to the crystal.


    <blockquote>


    Accept Willing Sacrifice? [30s remaining]


    Accepting a supplicant with the appropriate medium present can integrate them into the dungeon.


    Yes/No


    </blockquote>


    Again the message came up for Travis, and again he agreed. "I''m going to need to upgrade to have more workers at this rate."


    "That''s not a bad thing, Trav." Penelope picked up Katelyn. "Steph, can you grab this other one and we''ll put them in the sleeping quarters."


    <hr>


    Katelyn hadn''t expected to wake up. She certainly hadn''t expected to wake up in the dungeon. Waking up feeling like her body was wrong, in a dungeon, was not even contemplated. She opened her mouth to say something, but all that came out was an odd growling chirp.


    Slowly, carefully, she ran her tongue around the inside of her mouth. The first thing she realized was she had much more inside her mouth than she should have. Flat teeth replaced by sharp and serrated ones were another new thing.


    Jerking up, Katelyn looked around the cave she was dumped in. There was a soft pink glow from the only exit and she was sitting on a bunch of animal hides that were thick and soft with fur.


    When a clawed and scaled hand reached out and touched hers, she jerked to stare at the kobold beside her. At first she panicked, but the small draconic creature didn''t look hostile.


    "Hey, you''re both awake now? Okay, I guess I should explain some stuff. Yes, you''re a kobold now. No, there''s no going back. I''m Travis, the dungeon. That''s your brother beside you."


    The voice wasn''t just clear, it didn''t echo in the caves and tunnels she knew she was in. It was steady and sounded nice. It also said it was the dungeon. Turning her head to look at the kobold beside her, she stared into its eyes.


    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    In the pink light streaming in, his eyes didn''t tell her anything, but when she held up one claw and pushed magic out by snapping her little talons, a red flame jumped into being just above her digits. With that red light reflecting in his eyes now, she recognized her brother in the kobold.


    She wanted to tell him it would be okay, that she would burn them a path out of the dungeon, but there was two problems with that. The first problem was she couldn''t speak. Every time she opened her mouth to say something, a little chirp or growl was all she could make. The second problem was that¡ªthe dungeon felt like home.


    Rocking forward, she stood up with an odd, fluid ease. Transferring the flame to her shoulder, she looked around the room and its very square proportions.


    "You won''t be able to talk well yet. Pen said it takes a bit of practice to work it out. If you want to come out and say hi, I''m in the next room."


    It was the dungeon''s voice again. There was a strange sense of worry from it, like something was wrong. What confused her was the whole "I''m in the next room" part. If they were the dungeon, she reasoned, they were everywhere. Turning to look at her brother, and finding him standing, she walked to the entrance of the room and saw exactly what Travis meant.


    The big crystal looked uncut, but still had broad facets around it. It was as tall as she was, sitting on a slightly raised pedestal, and glowed with the pink light she''d seen in the sleeping quarters.


    "Hey. Travis said you were both awake. He''s the big rock there that keeps this whole place together. I''m Pen, and this is your new home." Penelope walked around the room to approach the two. "I''d say sorry about turning you both into kobolds, but let''s face it, you weren''t here to sell us spices."


    The truth didn''t hurt. Katelyn hadn''t expected to wake up at all, so finding herself still breathing and still able to do magic was two pluses. She pointed to herself and shrugged her shoulders.


    "Try to talk. Think about the word sounds you want to make. Your mouth can make them, it just takes practice. As for what to do with you, that''s up to you. If you can''t do anything else, you can always dig, but I see your magic still works. I don''t think his knowledge of alchemy would have gone anywhere either. Trav, is there anything you can¡ª?"


    "Actually, yeah. When she cast that fire spell, I had a new room appear in my menu, Library. Also, I got one mana now."


    There was excitement in Travis'' voice, or so Katelyn could judge. This wasn''t how dungeons should be, wasn''t how they should act, and turning people into kobolds? None of this was right. "Ugh¡ª" She paused and tilted her head. "Ugh, ergg, ssss¡­"


    "Keep working at it." Penelope pulled her pickaxe out and hefted it to her shoulder. "Okay, Trav, what am I building next? This library, can you make one now?"


    "Let''s see. Okay, it''s telling me it needs four times the space of these other rooms we''ve been building. Also, lots of timber, some leather, iron, and a pile of rock! Alright! Marking somewhere to dig. You good for it, Pen?"


    "Yeah. I can show these newbies how to dig, too. Come on, your hands might be soft, but they''re still scaled. Reach into Trav''s heart and think about a pickaxe, then pull one out." Turning, Penelope headed down one of the dark tunnels leading away from Travis'' heart.


    Trying to understand what Penelope had said, Katelyn looked at the heart, but was startled when her brother just reached his arm in and pulled it back with a pickaxe in it. Repeating what she''d just seen, she focused on the same thing and pulled back, but rather than a pickaxe she got a long staff. It seemed strange to her at first, but when it was all the way out of the heart she felt her own magic echo in the staff.


    The hovering flame jumped to the end of the staff and the whole thing caught alight in an instant, burned to a smoldering crisp, but otherwise seemed still a usable magic staff. It was almost enchanting the way her magic called to her through the staff. Katelyn had never had such an item before¡ªalways preferring wands¡ªbut now that she held it she could feel the way it amplified her magic.


    "I didn''t expect that. Looks like you don''t get to dig, I guess. Want to show me what you can do?" Travis asked Katelyn.


    To Katelyn, a small square in the distance caught her attention. It was down a long tunnel that had branches leading off from it. She felt like she wanted to dig, but all she had was her staff. Excitement bubbled up.


    Pointing the staff down the tunnel, Katelyn let her magic pour along the length of her new staff. As power ran down the length, red embers glowed to life and wisps of smoke poured off the staff before, in the distance, the wall of rock just melted into lava that disappeared.


    "Holy shit! I got lava from that! Katelyn, you''re awesome!"


    The praise was surprising, but more surprising was how good it felt to get it. Seeing her magic literally turn a wall of rock into lava, though, was some really crazy stuff. She started walking down the passage toward the wall to inspect it.


    "I could fill a pit trap with lava. We wouldn''t get any drops from things, but it would stop most creatures from getting past. Or a few pit traps in a row! This has so many cool ways to be used!"


    When she reached the wall, Katelyn examined the burned rockface by running a claw down it. The claw, to her surprise, bit into the rock and sliced a line into the surface. "Niiii¡ªssss." When the order for more destruction came up, Katelyn''s eyes glowed with red fire.


    <hr>


    "Lava? Look, Trav, whatever you think you can do with the stuff, it''ll be useless. Lava cools too fast and it''s not like we can do anything with it in the meantime." Penelope led the way down the side tunnel and into the rear portion of the dungeon. "I take it you''re not sending fire-girl down here to help?"


    "Well, the lava says it can be used in the smelter to heat it. That''s a good start at least. It doesn''t seem to be cooling down, uh, wherever it''s stored." Travis, despite the dose of reality, still sounded excited. "I''m letting Katelyn practice her magic. Instead of a pickaxe, she got a really cool fire staff from me. She''s making more lava! This is so cool!"


    Rolling her eyes, Penelope reached the gold vein. "Okay, I can feel you have placed the order on that room to be cleared out, so if you add one to dig up to it from here, we can get a move on."


    When she''d dug through to the room, Penelope could feel the massive size of it before even sinking her pick into the rock. "Alright, uh, what was your name?"


    "Rrrr¡ªorrr¡ªbiiiii¡ªt." It hadn''t come out right the first few times, but when Penelope had dug the first incursion into the room, Robert managed to get the syllables out.


    "Robert?" When Penelope got a nod, she held out her clawed hand. "I''m Penelope, but just call me Pen. The P sound will be a bit hard at first, but you''ll figure it out. Anyway, you feel that need to start digging? That''s Trav mapping stuff out for us. He can kinda see the whole place laid out, so it''s way better if he designs the dungeon. He''s also really good at it¡ªbut don''t tell him."


    Travis'' sigh made it to both Penelope and Robert.


    "Okay, so we just have to follow our instincts and dig. Don''t worry about the rock, it''ll disappear and land in a warehouse." Turning to face one of the remaining rock faces, Penelope started getting her digging on.


    Behind her, Robert hefted his pickaxe and started swinging away too. After two sections dug each, he seemed to have figured it out enough that Penelope was confident she could just let him go.

 Chapter 11

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Level 1


    Heart 400/400


    Experience 65/100


    Workers 4/5


    Monsters 0/10-2


    Traps 8/10+2


    Rooms 6


    Food 102


    Timber 134


    Iron 34


    Mana 1


    Rock 272


    Gold 110


    Leather 91


    Leather Sludge 43


    Lava 7


    Quest: Make one of your monsters into a boss


    </blockquote>


    Stephan was the best right now, as far as Travis was concerned. He was happily doing his thing, working on finishing up the leather hides while every other kobold seemed to want directions.


    Once Penelope and Robert were finished digging out the library, Travis gave the final order to open the room to the inner dungeon area and fill in the tunnels leading to the gold mine. The next step was to issue the order to build the library. "That''s a lot of resources, but this should be worth it."


    "Do you think I could buy a few extra books? I know Robert will need some gear too if he''s going to set up his lab here." It took Katelyn several tries to get the words sounding right, but she finally got her mouth around them as she walked into the library-to-be and approached the center. "Hey, I can feel a need to¡ª"


    "Build. Come on, it''ll be your library, after all," Robert said, having had time to practice his speaking while he''d been digging.


    Travis watched as the three worked together to lay down the flagstone floor of the library, then build all the shelving. The odd thing was that as they worked, other work just seemed to complete around them. When it came time for them to use the leather, though, they instead found stacks of books laying around.


    "Where does all thee¡ªthis stuff come from?" Robert asked.


    Penelope shrugged her shoulders as she set more books on shelves. "The materials are from Trav''s stores. The books? I have no clue. This dungeon is some kind of weird theme based off all the games Trav''s played about dungeons. Haven''t you noticed there are no curves or anything, either? All hard corners."


    Katelyn froze during the explanation. "Games? What manner of game is this?"


    "Dungeon games. Basically, doing what I''m doing; running a dungeon. It wasn''t real, though¡ªbut this is." Travis wondered briefly if he was going to need to keep explaining this to everyone who came in.


    Robert, as he finished setting books out, said, "Okay, I need you to fill me us in here. Who are you, Travis? I thought you were just a dungeon heart but¡ªbut you''re speaking as if you were someone before you became a dungeon."


    The rush of sensation as the library was completed made Travis shiver. What was even wilder still was he noticed his mana ticked up by one. "Nice work! Hey, what can you do in here?" The excitement was getting to him. Travis yanked himself back to the topic and trying to help fill his new friends in. "Right. Focus, Trav. I was just a guy. The world I came from had no magic, or at least I am sure it had no magic, but one day I just wake up and I''m a big pink gemstone in a hole."


    "You figured all this out from playing games?" Katelyn asked.


    Travis felt confident now in his answer. "Yeah. I mean, Pen has helped a lot. She''s an adventurer¡ª"


    "Ex-adventurer. Full-time kobold now, and happy with it," Penelope said.


    "Really?" Robert asked. "We were¡ªI mean, we came here to take over the dungeon and sort of control it. Didn''t expect it to turn out like this, but if I get my alchemy equipment I guess I won''t really mind so much."


    "I need more books. I''m a wizard, remember? While the staff is a nice present, and I love how much it amplifies my fire magic, I would like to study and learn more."


    "Uh." Metaphorically biting his lip, Travis had to ask. "What were you going to do if you took control of me?"


    "Build a wizard tower on top of you. Experiment linking my mana to yours so I could cast a lot bigger spells. Uh, maybe try to steal the magic of your monsters for my own." Katelyn slumped down on the floor. "It seems a bit silly now, I guess. I could have used gold to buy more magic tomes."


    "We could try doing that last one. I have plenty of gold. How hard would it be for a kobold to buy things in a town?" Travis asked.


    "Kobolds are monsters. No one would so much as look twice if we were killed. They''d take our gold, our lives, and just laugh." Katelyn reached out for one of the books and picked it up. "What''s a let''s play?"


    It made sense to Travis that the books in his library would be full of things he knew. He just wondered how much this might taint everyone¡ªor worse, reveal way more about him than he wanted to. "It''s a kind of guide to playing a game."


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "This one''s a romance novel," Robert said, flicking through another book.


    "Hey, uh, those are¡ª" Travis wasn''t sure how to tell them not to flip through him so casually.


    "Ahem," Penelope cleared her voice. "Trav, are these your memories?"


    "Yeah. I don''t mind you reading some, but can you not poke into my personal life?"


    "Rr-right. Sorry, Trav." Robert closed the book he was reading and put it back on the shelf. "Should we put ones you don''t want us to read all together?"


    Travis really wanted to just end the conversation and move on, so decided he''d do just that. "If you ask before taking one, that''d be okay. Anyway, I was thinking, what if we could buy stuff in town? Katelyn, you want more books. Robert, you''re an alchemist, so you''d want equipment too. Pen, Steph, do you want stuff too?"


    Penelope shook her head. "What I really want right now is to make you safer, Trav. We need iron, we need more sludge traps, and we need more upgrades for them. I''d like to start getting involved in poison and magic traps, too." She looked around at the others to find them staring at her. "What? If we''re not going to use monsters, we need the best traps we can make."


    "You, Pen, are way too kobold. You know that?" Travis couldn''t keep the laugh from his voice. "But you''re not wrong. So, does anyone have a way to disguise themselves and sneak into town? We can get plenty of gold, we have plenty of skins to sell¡ªwe just need someone to do the buying and selling."


    Everyone was silent as Robert started to laugh. Turning to her brother, who had a barking fit mid guffaw, Katelyn was the first to demand an answer. "What are you laughing at?"


    "You¡ª" Robert was caught in another giggle-fit. "You remember that old slur for lizard-kin?"


    Katelyn''s face fell. "No. You¡ªJust no."


    "Yes! It will work!" Turning to look at the others, Robert''s grin was far too big for him to speak properly, and he spent three goes trying to get the words out before he had to stop, shake off his expression, and try again. "Two of us wearing a big cloak will look kinda like a lizard-kin."


    <hr>


    Penelope just stared at Robert while Stephan started laughing hysterically. She''d heard the same jokes, mostly from her two former companions, and usually while trying to grift a lizard-kin target. "Okay, jokes aside, it has merit."


    Everyone stared at her, but Penelope just shrugged off their opinions. "The opportunity is way too good to just give it up out of hand. The trick will be to always pay good price for everything, so we''re considered worth being quiet for, but not so much that it raises suspicion."


    "We''d need to mint the gold into coins, but what coins?" Robert asked, seemingly trying for all his worth not to laugh.


    "Trav, do we still have the coins and stuff I had on me when I¡ªuh¡ªdied?" Penelope asked.


    "They''re in your sleeping room I think."


    "Cool. I had a range of coins from different places. We don''t want any local stuff, because it''ll be too easy to discover as forgeries, but if we go with somewhere a little further afield¡ªOh, right, lizard-kin coin would help sell it, and I have some of that." Loping out of the library, Penelope headed down the dark corridor and passed Travis'' heart before finding the single room they slept in.


    "Trav, it might be a good idea to dig more rooms. I¡ªI know it''s nice as a kobold to sleep with other kobolds, but there''s a lot of us now and we should start giving the choice to everyone." Picking up her bag of coins, Penelope started looking through them as she walked back to Travis'' heart. There was a good variety in her bag, but she quickly found one of the ones she wanted. "Here we go. We need to make a clay cast of each side of this, then melt some gold and pour it in."


    "Stephan''s going to try making the cloak. Robert and Katelyn are arguing over who will be riding on whose shoulders." Travis'' voice had a hint of laughter to it. "Pen, what are the chances this will work?"


    "Pretty good. A lot of people don''t notice things when there''s a bag of gold on the table. Greed will distract them while we get what we need. You don''t realize it, but dungeons tend to be seen as a good thing by most cities. Apart from a few combos, they are a source of income for adventurers, and those adventurers need support from the nearest town to function." Walking down the tunnel, Penelope smiled and nodded to Stephan before turning left into the smelter.


    "Can you give me clay or something? Wait, wood might do. I could probably carve the pattern I need into it with my claws, and the gold melts at a low enough temperature." Reaching down, Penelope instinctively picked up two short planks of wood. "Thanks, Trav."


    <hr>


    Despite what Travis had said, Robert felt bad for having snooped into something personal and, feeling like a bit of a third wheel so far as setting up for their trip to Northridge went, he decided to go ahead and just sort the books anyway.


    Picking up on what her brother was about, Katelyn started doing the same. She got armloads of books and took them to the side of the library and started sorting them into three stacks¡ªthose that looked personal, those that looked interesting, and those that spoke of dungeons.


    The two siblings worked together and, by the time Penelope returned with a sack of coins, they had started setting the personal stack on the far-end bookshelf. Katelyn looked over and asked, "How did the forgeries go?"


    "They look like crap, and wouldn''t pass the scrutiny of any money-lender guildsman, but the gold is more pure than the coins should have anyway, so we aren''t exactly ripping them off." Penelope set the bag down on a reading table to one side of the entrance. "We just need Steph''s cloak and that should be enough to try this madness out. I''d suggest we all make lists of things we want and things we need¡ªand be honest about the two."


    "Want to help us put these books back first?" Katelyn asked. "We''re making this far bookshelf off-limits. It''s all personal stuff that was obvious just from looking at it. The middles stack is more about technology and ideas that might be useful. The last, and there''re only a few, are books that seemed to be about the dungeon games Trav played."


    "Hey, uh, thanks for this. I just¡ªwe all have stuff we don''t really want to share and¡ª"


    "Travis," Robert said, "it''s fine. We do all have that stuff, and it shouldn''t be gone through without permission." It surprised Robert how much he sympathized for Travis, but it didn''t take him long to figure out why. Becoming a minion had changed him in subtle ways he was still trying to grasp¡ªfeeling supportive of Travis seemed to be the latest he''d figured out.


    His plans, to poison and control a dungeon heart, were shredded. He couldn''t even contemplate trying it now. The odd thing was Travis was perfectly happy giving him everything he wanted anyway. He had myriad resources¡ªand would get far more as the dungeon grew¡ªand he need never fear being usurped.

 Chapter 12

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Level 1


    Heart 400/400


    Experience 65/100


    Workers 4/5


    Monsters 0/10-2


    Traps 8/10+2


    Rooms 7


    Food 102


    Timber 31


    Iron 24


    Mana 2


    Rock 172


    Gold 60


    Leather 68


    Leather Sludge 43


    Lava 7


    Quest: Make one of your monsters into a boss


    </blockquote>


    All the lists had been made and etched on thin pieces of wood. Kobold claws, it turned out, were just about the best tool for engraving ever, or so they''d all found out. "So what do we do while they''re out?" Travis asked Penelope and Stephan.


    "Is there anything we''re low on from outside?" Stephan asked.


    "Timber. Definitely timber," Travis said. It didn''t require more than a glance at Penelope to tell him what she wanted¡ªshe had her pickaxe slung over her shoulder. "More digging? Do you want to dig out rooms, look for iron, or grab some gold?"


    "Change our sleeping arrangements first. I''d like to keep the common room, but set up some smaller rooms. Can we build doors?" Walking toward the common sleeping room, Penelope reached out and ran her fingers over Travis'' heart.


    Her touch made Travis shiver a little. Penelope''s claws were delicate against the facets of his heart, but he''d seen what she could do to rock with them. "We can, but I think they''re a bit bigger than what you''ll want. Not that we can''t use them, but they use up fifteen wood each."


    "Ouch. Okay, for now we can just hang some furs up or something. Maybe I''ll head out and chop wood with Steph when I''m done here. Care to lay out something for me?"


    I quickly set out a tunnel leading off the edge of the current sleeping quarters that had four good-sized rooms attached. "I managed to fit four rooms in here. We can always move the tunnel leading to the mining area to add more. There should be room in them for furniture too, if you want. I might have to see about some way to add lighting."


    "Talk to Robert for lighting. Alchemists make some of the best lights¡ªones that don''t ignite things, too." Penelope spat on her hands and got to digging, which left Travis contemplating his options again.


    One of the things he''d personally told them to buy was iron. They needed a lot and had little. Going over his options again, the Boss Upgrade needing 200 iron was glaring at him, but Tier 1 upgrade required no iron. Travis was still a bunch of resources and 35 xp short, but he knew how to get those.


    He looked at the pile of cured meat that Stephan was hanging to dry and pondered another upgrade. Workers 1, which gave more worker slots, was 100 gold, and that led to Faster Workers for 100 food. "Hey, Pen, any chance you could hit up the gold for a hundred or so after this?"


    "Got your eye on something, Trav?" Penelope had the tunnel dug and was now working on the rooms.


    "Yeah. With a hundred gold I can unlock to have up to ten workers. Then after that I can spend a hundred food to make all of you faster."


    "Faster? You mean I wouldn''t be dawdling so much digging?" Giving a laugh, Penelope left the first room and moved to the next. "I like that idea. Work smarter and all that. Okay, I''ll get all these done and go get us a pile of gold. I figure if the siblings manage not to screw up in town, we will have a use for all the gold we can mine."


    Eyeing off the 400 gold price of the Boss Upgrade and 800 gold price of the tier upgrade, Travis could agree wholeheartedly.


    <hr>


    "Hey, Bray, come and check this out." Brolly Windchime was doing his job extremely well, that is, he''d delegated his actual job completely so all he had to do was make executive decisions and keep a slight eye on the town itself. What he''d discovered while out on his lunchtime walk had left him running to find his friend.


    "Brolly, if this is some goose chase, I''m going to¡ª" Brayden Smith left the threat unfinished and turned to his friends. "I''ll be back in a few minutes."


    The walk to the merchant square of town was a short one. Brolly kept the pace up so they were there in no time at all. "That cloaked guy over there. What do you see?"


    "The one with the donkey and cart?" Already getting bored, Brayden sighed. "Brolly, it''s just a lizard-kin. You do know not everyone is human, right?"


    "We have a dwarf and a half-elf in town, Bray, and I grew up next to a nice lizard-kin family. I know exactly what a lizard-kin looks like¡ªand that isn''t it." While he watched, the target of attention reached into a pouch and pulled out two gold coins.


    Whistling, Brayden elbowed his friend. "They seem to be paying well, and that looks like the lizard''s coin to me."


    "That''s it. They seem to pay with gold for everything. They had to buy the cart and donkey at first because they were buying so much stuff they couldn''t carry it. I''ve counted over thirty gold change hands so far."


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    "Brolly, take your helmet off for a sec." The moment his friend took his helmet off, Brayden thumped him on the back of the head. "You''re honestly upset there''s a nice stranger in town filling your merchants'' coffers? Are you mad?"


    "Look at their feet. Look at their claws. Look at their face whenever you see into that cloak. That is not a lizard-kin." Putting his helmet back on, Brolly narrowed his eyes at the cloaked figure, then swore. "It can''t be."


    "Can''t be what? Two kobolds in a cloak?" Brayden started to turn when Brolly''s hand grabbed his shoulder. "What?"


    "It is two kobolds in a cloak. I just saw an extra hand reach out from inside the cloak."


    "There are a dozen things wrong with what you just said, not the least of which being that it''s a stupid slur. What''s wrong with¡ª" Halting in his tracks, Brayden saw that extra hand too. "It''s two kobolds in a cloak."


    "I told you!" Leaning back against the stonework of the building beside him, Brolly paused. "What are we supposed to do?"


    "Aren''t you the guard captain?"


    "Yeah, but my job is keeping the peace." Gesturing at the pair of kobolds finishing up another transaction (buying a stack of books), Brolly let out a sigh. "They''re not breaking the peace. It''s just two dungeon monsters spending a lot of gold to¡ª"


    The words died in Brolly''s throat. Kobolds, he knew, were dungeon monsters. The town knew it had a vermin dungeon, an animal dungeon, but no one had mentioned a dragon dungeon. "We have a dragon dungeon."


    "You have a dragon dungeon with kobolds who are smart enough to come to town with dungeon gold and buy things." Pointing at the pair, Brayden smirked. "They ain''t killing anyone nearby just by being there, so it''s not rot. The question, Brolly-me-lad, is how you want to handle this?"


    "It''s¡ª" Raising a hand up to his face, Brolly rubbed at the corners of his eyes. The soft leather of his glove''s palm smoothed away the worry lines and the grit gathering in the corners of his eyes both. "I need to call a meeting. This is far too important a decision for me. Can¡ªI can''t believe I''m asking this. Can you keep an eye on them, make sure they don''t break the peace. I''d get another guard to do it, but I don''t trust them enough not to lose their heads."


    "Five silver and you have yourself a kobold-sitter." As an experienced adventurer, Brayden didn''t have to think hard to come up with a value that ensured he could pay for drinks later on.


    <hr>


    "And where are these kobolds now?" Christine Sellswell''s fingers itched and the description she''d gotten. Gold¡ªlots of gold¡ªhad just poured into town.


    Brolly shrugged his shoulders. "By now? Either they''re still buying up half the market or they''re long-gone. That''s not important. What is¡ª"


    "¡­ is that we can get gold out of this dungeon without any adventurers taking their cut." It wasn''t a hard vote for her. Peaceful customers with lots of gold to trade were not a problem¡ªthey were a solution to problems. "You don''t need me here to say I am fine with this so long as the peace holds."


    Howard Tailor shrugged too. "I''d like to see what they''re buying before I make a summary judgment, but I certainly don''t have any reason to want to cut off a source of gold. Can we do anything to help encourage peaceful trade?"


    Fairheart was only present because her coffers drained into the town''s more often than not. There were only four groups of adventurers so far that had passed through town, and two of those had signed on to extended contracts. "You will want to ensure any excitable types are told not to attack the¡ª"


    "This is an outrage! An affront to the gods!" Rupert pointed his hand at Brolly, finger stretched out. "Your path is clear. They are monsters¡ªkill them and take their cursed gold so the church may purify it."


    Everyone else at the table looked anywhere but Rupert and his gesticulating finger.


    "Brother Rupert, how would you see these peaceful dungeon dwellers treated?" Her voice soft, Fairheart not only wanted to calm the old priest for his own sake, she wanted to see the town continue to grow.


    "Bloody harl¡ª" Biting back the curse, Rupert cleared his throat. "It is obvious what must be done. Dungeons are there to be harvested and farmed, as is written in the holy scriptures. They are a gift and a curse. It''s easy to forget about the second in the face of the first."


    Fairheart didn''t smile, doing so would ruin her ploy. "And if these minions were seeking divine guidance?"


    "Monsters can''t be redeemed. They are monsters and nothing more. And don''t give me any of your soft words!" When his words didn''t turn a single person in the room to his case, Rupert called on the power of his faith.


    The burning light of divine magic shined from Rupert, causing most in the room to shield their eyes from the living vessel of the power of repentance. But one face remained looking at him and didn''t flinch at his magic.


    "You would actively harm this town because of your own pigheadedness?" Fairheart was at the edge of her patience. "You have done nothing but cause trouble here by butting into things neither of us have any right to. Our"¡ªshe raised her voice when he tried to speak over her¡ª"duties are to the hearts and souls of the townsfolk, not their sword arms or minds. We are only here as a formality. Sit down, shut up, and let them decide their own fate¡ªas all the gods intend!"


    Rupert''s eyes widened as her voice carried more power than just the goddess of the Sisters of Grace. Even his own god''s power radiated through her. Sitting down, his anger simmering, Rupert glared at the three heads of the council.


    "Now, I''ll shut my mouth too and let you make your decision." All smiles again, Fairheart could still feel tingles not just of the power of the good gods, but also the dark ones. Every deity had reason to uphold the core freedom to choose between good and evil.


    Brolly was first to recover and nodded his thanks to Fairheart. "The Guard will require a slightly higher tithe. We''ll be patrolling to ensure the creatures reach the town safely and extra guard details will be set on the market square."


    "Oh, that''s perfectly fine. It won''t be a large tithe, but to ensure the safety of all concerned a larger guard presence is welcome." Christine had never seen Rupert put down and shut up so effectively before. His own presence had been dwarfed by that of Fairheart, and she had no doubt the priestess would be a greater political force in the town¡ªno matter her own protests on such matters¡ªonce word of this got out.


    "Then we''re settled?" Howard asked.


    The sound of Rupert storming out of the room came and went¡ªand none present wanted to acknowledge him.


    After a moment, Brolly turned to Fairheart and said, "Thank you for that. This sort of management requires irregular thinking and I fear Brother Rupert lacks any flexibility."


    Fairheart kept her mouth closed and rose to leave. In the back of her mind she was already contemplating the wording of a letter to Rupert''s order.

 Chapter 13

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Level 1


    Heart 400/400


    Experience 65/100


    Workers 4/10


    Monsters 0/10-2


    Traps 8/10+2


    Rooms 7


    Food 102


    Timber 131


    Iron 24


    Mana 2


    Rock 172


    Gold 200


    Leather 68


    Leather Sludge 43


    Lava 7


    Quest: Make one of your monsters into a boss


    </blockquote>


    With more gold mined and the worker limit upgrade purchased, Travis felt excited to be progressing up the tech tree. It was still baby steps, but they were needed to accelerate development. Stephan had dragged a bunch of trees in, and was working with Penelope on cutting them up into lengths when Travis felt the siblings getting close.


    Thankfully, what with spiders loving to catch bugs at the entrance to his dungeon, Travis could see when they got within the terrible eyesight of one of the fat lizards that sunned themselves at the entrance and hunted bugs.


    "They''re back and they have a horse and cart." That got both Penelope and Stephan''s attention. The former was about to start working on traps while the latter was working on cutting the wood up¡ªwhich Travis had found out meant they got an extra bit of wood per tree.


    First to reach the entrance was Penelope. With her eyesight there, Travis could see way more details. "Trav, that''s not a horse. That''s a donkey. The cart''s full, too. Hey! What did you guys get?"


    "Everything!" Robert bounced forward, the big cloak rolled up under his arm. "Some of the stuff is still on order, my glassware and some of Katelyn''s books, but we found a smith in town who was happy to sell us as much iron as we could afford. We got paper, pens, ink, chalk, rope, a bag of grain that was overpriced, whetstones, and fire-makers."


    It was an amazing haul by Travis'' standard. Basically everything they wanted for ten minutes with a pickaxe. "What are we going to do with the donkey?"


    "Make a room near the entrance, put torches in it, put some grain and grass in there." Stephan reached the entrance and helped them unload bars of iron. "We''re going to need an easy way to get this into the dungeon itself."


    Penelope shifted to make herself part of a chain to lift the iron from the cart and pass/toss it to the next kobold in a line until they got it inside. "It''s easy enough to break the wall here, but we''re going to have more traps soon. Maybe we could fill-in the pit trap for catching animals¡ªsince those direwolves killed most of the bigger game¡ªwe could hook it around and link to where the new warehouse is."


    "We need more warehouses, too. A lot more. Maybe ten," Travis said. "Is it overkill? Maybe, but we can always tear them down later if it turns out we don''t need them."


    Stephan worked on the wall to bypass the sludge traps and they started stacking all the resources a little deeper in.


    When it was all unloaded, Travis put up a build order just beside where the latest warehouse was. "Next time we could just drive the cart in. I''ve set up a dig order inside a bit. You can put the donkey and cart in there."


    Robert reached into a bag hanging at his side and pulled out a light stick. Activating it, he urged the donkey inside. "You know, I''ve never had a pet before. You''re kinda neat."


    "Donkeys have an advantage over horses in that if you feed them well and keep them happy, they will literally march into death with you," Penelope said. "Get them angry or annoy them and there isn''t a single hope you''d ever get them to do what you want."


    "Sounds like Katelyn," Robert said, leading the donkey down the hall and into the warehouse. "I''ll leave him in here until we have the room done."


    "Unhitch him. Give him something to eat. I''ll carve you a brush to take care of him properly later, for now just try running your fingers through his coat and if he twitches, stop." Stephan gave Robert a firm look, and seeing both sides of it made Travis feel a little weird.


    With two kobolds digging and one melting, the room was quickly cleared and Travis was already planning the new entrance. He highlighted and set build orders without making a way for the kobolds to reach them. "Uh, you guys can''t feel that, can you?"


    Penelope looked vaguely in the direction of Travis'' heart. "Feel what?"


    "I was planning out some stuff and didn''t open up a way to reach it. Since that doesn''t bug you, I can plan things out way easier this way." Travis quickly drew his plans in, lining up tunnels and rooms and leaving strategic bits out so it would be easier to build section by section.


    "Before we go any further with building, we can use up some of these resources and I''ll make some more sludge traps," Penelope said.


    "Got it. Here we go on the trap orders. Wait, I''m out of traps. Oh, we can break the one at the entrance."


    Feeling the order to break the animal trap at the entrance, Penelope dodged around the slime traps and made her way up to fill-in the pit first. When she was done with that, she filled the room, too. "How is that?"


    "Perfect, that gives us one more trap back. Okay, adding that one." Trav added the remaining build order.


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    <hr>


    Carrying the few books she''d managed to find in the town that would be of use, Katelyn left for the library. She skirted the traps, gave Travis'' heart a distracted smile as she passed him, and then made her way to her new home.


    "Wow, uh, what did you do?" Travis asked.


    A puzzle to do with a dungeon heart? Katelyn''s curiosity was piqued. "I put some new books in here. Did you feel it?"


    "I know what''s in them. It doesn''t make a lot of sense, but I know them. It''s weird, like I just have this stuff memorized. Are they advanced books?"


    Puzzle pieces slotted together. Katelyn grinned and nodded. "Yup, these are on master-level magic theory. I don''t know why the bookstore had them, but I will order a lot more basic ones next time so you can catch up. First thing I want to do, though, is make some runes."


    "Runes? What do they do?"


    "Lots of things. There are runes you can feed mana into when you make them so they do a triggered effect. There are others that you can have use ambient mana. The last are ones that need you to channel mana into to use." Reaching behind her back and thinking rock, Katelyn felt a heavy hunk of stone in her claws and pulled it around. "That''s a cool trick. I saw Penelope using it when she was building this place. Anyway, my first thought is that I make some explosive runes. Handy little things, hard to make and use a lot of mana, but when they break they release it."


    "You have hand grenades? That is awesome!"


    "''Hand grenades''? I guess they are hand-held grenade weapons. Okay, that will work as a name. More fun ones we could have, though, are ones that will explode when someone is nearby. They will detect someone''s mana field and then set off with a charge. I never really thought of them as being useful for attacking a dungeon, but defending one¡­"


    The rune she needed was readily memorized. The only limit to stop anyone making explosive runes was having enough mana to create the things. Smirking as she used her own clawtip to carve the pattern, Katelyn started doing just that¡ªfilling the pattern up with mana until, with a little pop to its magic, the rune was made. "That''s one."


    "How many can you make?"


    "You''re asking the wrong question, Trav."


    It took him only a few moments to come back with, "How long does it take you to get enough mana back to make another?"


    Katelyn hadn''t expected a dungeon heart to be sapient. She''d hoped as much, but her heart was set up for failure when they''d first arrived. Finding out Travis was smart enough to solve a problem for the actual key element was exciting for her¡ªhe was smart. "Knew you could figure that out. With good meditation, about an hour. How many of these do you want me to make?"


    "Let''s just go with three per kobold, so twelve in all."


    With a laugh, Katelyn reached behind her back and thought rock again. "I don''t really need any, since I have my own mana to use for attacking, but I like the idea of being extra prepared. The last time I entered a dungeon, all the mana in the world didn''t help me."


    "Huh?" Travis sounded confused. "What do you mean?"


    "Well, turns out there was a bunch of clever kobolds and a wicked-smart dungeon heart putting down sticky traps." She waited to hear Travis'' laughter before starting her own. "I''ll try to figure out what others I can make. Debuffs and snares are probably better for our style of dungeon, but I believe that in bad situations, extra fire is always a good idea. Also, you''ll probably get a new level soon, which means we can start building a huge maze of traps."


    "I don''t know if I''ll get lots of traps to place. I mean, it would be good, but¡ª"


    "Nah. We don''t have to rely on the dungeon system for traps. We''re kobolds; making traps is what we do! A trap can be a whole section of dungeon that''s under water or things we can trigger ourselves. Our traps are limitless¡ªbut we might need more kobolds to pull this off." Settling down, Katelyn started to center her magic and focus on drawing-in more to fill her reserves. Talking didn''t really slow that process down much, but if she had to think too hard she knew her recharge rate would suffer. "Pen said you have expanded the amount of us you can support. We''re going to need food and bedding for more, and we need to attract some out here."


    "I still feel bad about forcing this on people. You and your brother were¡ª"


    "Trav, we were here to take over control of you and probably screw everything up in the process. We had no idea there was so much for a dungeon to do. We figured it was all automatic. Would I have come out, knowing what was going to happen?" The question made Katelyn think, which slowed her meditation somewhat but was worth it in her opinion. "Possibly not. But part of me would still have been curious about it. Others coming out will be here to take advantage of you in other ways, don''t feel bad about giving them a better lot in life than what any other dungeon would have done to them.


    "The world might not be ready for a friendly dungeon that just wants to survive, but we can make sure that the world doesn''t get anywhere near your core or your friends."


    She wasn''t sure if Travis was busy doing other things or if he was just thinking about what she''d said. She made two of the runes before he finally spoke to her again. "Thanks, Katelyn. It means a lot to hear that."


    Opening one eye as she reached for more stone, Katelyn grinned. "It''s not all sunshine and roses. I can feel being part of the dungeon in my head. It''s mellowed me out a little toward you, even made me just accept being what I am¡ªbut the staff you gave me is the most powerful focus item I''ve ever seen. For that alone I''d have considered coming here a success, but I want to see what we can build."


    <hr>


    Penelope smiled at newly-built warehouse. "Okay, what''s that give us, Trav?" She patted Robert on the back.


    "That''s our third. Want to try adding iron now?" Travis asked.


    Walking out of the warehouse and down to where the wagon was, Penelope waved to Stephan. "We''re going to try putting half the iron into storage now. Don''t be surprised if something weird happens."


    "Weird? In this dungeon?" Stephan laughed. "I get it. I''ll just get this guy cozy and then I might go and get some more trees. With all those warehouses to build, we need lumber more than ever."


    Walking up between the bars at the front of the wagon, Penelope braced herself and took a firm hold. "You get in here too. This is a bit much for just one of us." When Robert took up his place, she started to lift and, together, they rolled the wagon into the new warehouse.


    From there it was simply a matter of picking two bars of iron at a time from the wagon¡ªone from each end of the load, to keep it balanced¡ªand they unloaded half of the stock.


    "That got us two hundred iron. This was great!" Travis'' voice was excited and eager. "Okay, that''s half of what we need for the boss upgrade. If you build two more warehouses, we can then store enough gold to buy it."


    "Why do we want that again?" Penelope asked.


    "It''s a quest," Travis replied, as if that was all the incentive he needed.


    Shrugging her shoulders, Penelope patted Robert on the shoulder. "Come on, we have more digging to do!"


    "Is it weird that I like digging so much?" Robert asked, pulling his pickaxe out from behind his back.


    "Digging is what kobolds do best!"

 Chapter 14

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Level 1


    Heart 400/400


    Experience 65/100


    Workers 4/10


    Monsters 0/10-2


    Traps 12/10+2


    Rooms 8


    Food 102


    Timber 261


    Iron 214


    Mana 3


    Rock 246


    Gold 199


    Leather 68


    Leather Sludge 18


    Lava 7


    Quest: Make one of your monsters into a boss


    </blockquote>


    Katelyn was working away on her runes, Stephan was out cutting down trees and checking his traps, and that left Robert and Penelope digging. Travis waited for them to ask him to place new areas to dig before doing so. He opened up the planned tunnel from before the sludge traps at both ends and let the pair start digging toward each other.


    Rock. Travis kept trying to think of what to do with it, but so far all it was good for was libraries and runes. The latter was only one at a time, though, and at the rate Penelope and Robert were generating it, they were going to end up with a lot more. Essentially, he figured out they would require one warehouse for every three or four other warehouses¡ªjust to hold the rock excavated.


    When they had it dug out, Travis had them seal up the tunnel nearest to the new warehouse for a square to keep any potential attackers from using the new tunnel to bypass the sludge traps. "Okay, that lets us safely dig out the next bunch of warehouses without uncovering anything that could storm to me and kill me."


    "We might be overreacting to this possible threat," Penelope said, "but I''d rather not risk it. Not when it''s easy enough to plan a bit ahead and do things right."


    Sending her digging down a long leg of the new area, Travis set one of the new rooms to be dug out. As he did, he realized that they didn''t have enough room. "Okay, I need this room here dug a little before the other stuff, and we need a warehouse in there."


    <hr>


    Robert was working away, enjoying the simple act of doing what Penelope had insisted was what kobolds did best, when the last projected hunk of rock to clear collapsed to reveal a dark cave beyond. "Travis!"


    "What''s in there? It feels like I should be panicking about something and it''s making me panic ab¡ª" Travis'' voice cut off when a kobold-sized spider pounced out toward Robert.


    "Run!" Penelope''s hands moved before the threat was even fully visible. Her daggers in her hands, she slammed both into the side of the spider as it raced past her. Hemolymph sprayed out of where one of her daggers had sunk into the soft body. She had but a moment to consider her options when she found the weapon stuck and gave it up. "Go! Go! Go! Get to the traps!"


    "Katelyn made some explosive runes. Just pull them from my inventory and throw them so they break where they hit!" Travis'' voice was loud in everyone''s heads, but Robert was the first to reach behind his back and pull one out. He paused at the first T intersection and aimed at the wall beside a spider¡ªjust as Penelope raced past.


    His aim was off, what with Penelope dragging him around the corner, but the runes didn''t need accuracy. The blast sent a shockwave up and down the hallway¡ªand he saw the lifeless body of one spider slam into the intersection. "I got it!"


    "Yeah, I got experience for that. Damn, I didn''t want to do this, but¡ª" Travis'' voice echoed to all the kobolds for a moment before each and every one of them noticed a change. They moved faster. "How''s that?"


    "Great thinking, Trav! Okay, let''s get to this next corner and repeat the explosive trick again. I''ve got this one." Penelope reached the corner first and drew her arm back¡ªturning. "Four of them behind us."


    Robert reached the corner and jumped over Penelope''s head before landing on the wall. He used his claws for three steps on the wall to get back to running on the floor¡ªthen a second blast sounded and he smelled the burning scent of spider and rune explosives. "Nice! How many?"


    "I didn''t stop to count. That''s your job as we pass the entrance. Get a rune ready!" Penelope was legging it after Robert now. "Damn this is a rush, and we haven''t even gotten them to our traps yet!"


    "The traps will probably be useless, Pen." Robert reached the entrance first and turned. "Six coming." In his hand was two runes. He passed one to his throwing arm and launched it far, then sent the second one a bit closer and ducked back.


    Penelope had to drag Robert along the tunnel some more as they passed the dark entrance of their dungeon. "Two? You used two?"


    "I knew what I''m¡ª" Robert froze at the sight before him. His sister stood at the corner that led to the traps. Her staff, her hands, and her eyes blazed with fire. "Run past her, Pen, and don''t stop until you''re past the traps."


    The moment her brother and new friend were out of her line of sight¡ªand a bunch of spiders were all that were in it¡ªKatelyn released her magic. "Die! Burn!"


    Robert stared. He''d seen his sister use magic plenty of times, but this was the first she''d just let loose with fire. Normally she was all about control and using only the bare minimum of power¡ªnow she was all about making the walls of the tunnel glow red.


    "I can''t see well. How many are there? I just maxed out XP!" Travis seemed to need to shout to get over the roar of fire magic.


    Knowing what was coming, Robert waited until his sister''s flames winked out¡ªfirst in her hands, then her staff, and finally her eyes. "I gotcha. Come on, sis, you done good."


    <hr>


    "How''d you get past the traps carrying her?" Penelope had been getting ready for the next step of the fight, but in the time it took Robert to dodge past the traps, no more spiders came.


    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    "Don''t know, don''t care. She used to always be so clever about using the least amount of power to do anything." Robert cradled his sister in his arms. "She''s still breathing, just drained everything she had at them."


    "Well, get her down somewhere to sleep. When you get back up here, we''re going back in. Trav, how many more runes do we have?" Penelope crouched down and kept her eyes locked on the corner ahead.


    "I have five more. Katelyn has three on her still."


    Sighing in relief, Penelope didn''t move from her spot until Robert came up behind her and touched her shoulder. "You okay?" she asked.


    "Yeah. Get a rune ready while I get back past these traps." Clinging to the wall, Robert swung past the traps and landed at the other end without incident. He moved to the end of the hall and peeked back toward the entrance. "This looks clear."


    Working their way slowly down the tunnels, Penelope and Robert took turns peeking while the other stood back¡ªeach holding a rune in their hand ready to throw.


    When they reached the tunnel that led to the room that had broken through to the spiders'' room, Penelope whispered, "Trav, can you cut off the planned dig areas nearby? At least the bits we can get to?"


    "Got it. Sorry, I should have done that as soon as I could."


    "Don''t worry, we were all in a bit of a panic. Hey, there''s my knife." Penelope walked over to the wall where her dagger was buried¡ªto its hilt¡ªin the stone. "I think I''ll have to dig around it to get it out." Walking cautiously to the room that had broken open the spider nest, Penelope peeked around the corner.


    Inside the room she could see a much bigger spider.


    "There''s one left. Really big," Travis said.


    Turning her head only enough that she could direct her mouth to the hallway and not into the nest, Penelope whispered. "Okay, we repeat what we just did. Corner-by-corner, hurling runes at this thing. Ready?"


    "Wait, why don''t we both throw our first one at the same time?" Robert asked.


    Penelope smiled and nodded. "I like that idea. Okay, come on. I''ll take the first corner¡ªyou keep running to the second, okay?" Gathering at the corner, spotting the huge spider and getting a nod from Robert, Penelope drew her arm back and together they threw their runes at the giant spider''s many feet.


    "It''s pissed!" Travis told them both.


    Having spent more time as a kobold than Robert, Penelope reached the first corner quickly, drew another rune from behind her back and prepared to throw it.


    Running past, Robert let out a bark of excitement as he raced past Penelope, the hot wind of the explosion on his back.


    Waiting until she saw the huge shape leap out of the side room, Penelope shuddered at how fast the thing seemed to move even as she tossed her rune right in front of it. "It''s coming!" she shouted, racing as fast as her legs could carry her down the hall and around to the next corner.


    "Those are your last two runes. When those are done, lure it to the traps," Travis said.


    Robert threw his rune at the beast''s feet and ran off as another explosion sent a concussive wave of pressure through the dungeon. "Get ready, Pen!"


    When Robert ran past her, Penelope saw the spider round the corner he''d just vacated. To her left was the entrance of the dungeon and, behind her, she knew the traps were carefully placed to catch most foes. "Keep moving"¡ªshe threw her rune and started running too¡ª"I''ll keep it busy at the sludge traps, you get ready at the crushers."


    Neither looked back, taking the U turn before the sludge traps as fast as they could and running along the thin ledge on the side until they landed back on the clear side.


    "Go!" Penelope turned to face the direction the spider would be coming from. She had just one of her knives left, but hoped she wouldn''t need to use it.


    The spider, still moving rapidly, rounded the corner. Spotting Penelope, it leapt forward with blinding speed and landed so that half its legs were in the penultimate trap while half were in the one bordering Penelope. When it pulled at its blackened legs, one ripped free but the other seven held fast.


    "Yeah! Got you!" Keeping her dagger out, Penelope backed away from the spider. "Trav, can you figure out how hurt it is?"


    "Hurt¡­ Hurt¡­ Hurt¡­ Oh! Health bars! It''s three-quarters dead and its dropping!"


    Crouching, her leg muscles coiled like springs, Penelope watched as the spider ripped another of its legs in half trying to get out of the sludge. "Rob, I think it''s safe. It''s mired down in the sludge traps!"


    Almost at the same moment Robert rounded the corner, the spider strained to get clear of the sludge traps and ripped two more legs off. Now its abdomen was pressed down in the muck. "It''s dropping faster now. I hope it hasn''t messed up the traps," Travis said.


    "Trav?" Penelope asked.


    "Yeah?"


    "Remind me never to question your odd building system ever again. You warned me about this and I wasn''t really seeing what you meant." Advancing on the spider, its body stretched out and stuck down in the muck, Penelope reached over its complicated mouthparts and eyes¡ªthen brought her dagger down into the middle of its head. "Wish it wouldn''t have taken something this nasty to show me that."


    <hr>


    "More adventurers?" Brayden asked his friend. "Looks like they have the sort of makeup to deal with that vermin dungeon." He was sitting in the adventurer tavern and enjoying a beer with his friend.


    "Two fire wizards, two clerics, and a shaman. That''s definitely what I''d want to take into a vermin rot dungeon." Brolly Windchime nodded to one of the clerics when they looked around. "You going for the new vermin dungeon we got?"


    "Vermin and rot, yeah? You''re in the city guard?" Walking over, the cleric nodded at Brayden too. "M''name''s Nathaniel. Our party is Felna over there, Ogmera, Stratus, and Tom." He pointed out the other cleric, the shaman, and then the two wizards.


    Being a half-elf, Nathaniel wasn''t exactly stand-out among humans, but the classical beauty that all half-caste elves shared was marred by a huge scar over one ruined eye.


    Felna was an odder sight for being deep within the predominantly human lands¡ªa tiger-striped cat woman wearing chainmail and a breastplate that completely belied her kind''s normally high reflexes.


    Ogmera wore a simple shirt and trousers, but her fetish-covered staff gave away her profession to any who knew about shamans. Somewhat like Felna, though, she wore some chainmail that looked like it could do with a good clean.


    The two wizards, Stratus and Tom (elf and human), were dressed similarly in singed and smoldered robes that bore softly glowing runes around the hems. They were leaning together discussing something.


    "Captain of the Guard," Brolly said, "and it''s good to have some specialists to deal with such a nasty combination. You''ll be the first to explore it, and there is a bounty for doing so."


    "Glad to hear that. We''re about to head off. The local priestess was mighty happy to allow us to bind at her temple. Right-friendly place you''re building here. Do you have a list of anything in particular you want mapped in that dungeon? We had planned to clean it all out clear to the core, then leave it to grow back."


    "You''re free to clear it as often as you like. We haven''t had any parties who''ve been up to such a nightmare." Leaning back on his chair, Brolly looked over the party again and had to admit, they definitely had the skills.


    "Thank you. We''ll be heading out, then."


    Waiting until the whole group left, Brayden cleared his throat. "That seemed to go well."


    "Better than the two the other day. We''re still not sure where they got up to." Brolly hefted his glass up and swigged down some short beer. "I''m worried they¡ª"


    "If they died, they''d have wound up back here with their talisman missing. That''s the great thing about adventurers, Brolly, you never have to worry if they''ve gotten themselves killed."

 Chapter 15

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Level 1


    Heart 400/400


    Experience 100/100


    Workers 4/10


    Monsters 0/10-2


    Traps 12/10+2


    Rooms 8


    Food 2


    Timber 261


    Iron 214


    Mana 3


    Rock 293


    Gold 199


    Leather 68


    Leather Sludge 18


    Lava 7


    Quest: Make one of your monsters into a boss


    </blockquote>


    Travis'' heart would have still been pounding¡ªif he had a heart that wasn''t made of crystal. The huge spider was dead, not that he got any experience for it. "What do we do now?" he asked.


    "Butcher it. I''ve done this kind of work before. The important things to get out are any poison glands, the spinnerets, and then carving the joints up so we can pull it out of the sludge. Remember that party I was with? As if those two bastards would have done any of the work." Penelope climbed up onto the spider''s body and set to work. "You might as well rest up if you need it, Robert. Check on your sister."


    The process reminded Travis of a video he''d seen once, of someone "breaking down" a lobster. Her motions were quick and efficient, and when she wasn''t using her knife to cut into joints, she was using her claws and arm strength to jimmy something loose.


    "Pen?" Travis was thinking carefully of how to suggest what he planned.


    "Yeah, Trav?"


    "If I do take the boss monster upgrade, it will target one of you, won''t it?"


    "You''re thinking of using it on me?" As she worked, Penelope glanced back in the direction of Travis'' heart. "I''ve never seen a kobold upgraded. It''s normally one of the lizardfolk or their pets. The biggest danger of dragon-themed dungeons is that almost everything is not only intelligent, but devious."


    Travis filed that little bit of information away. "Can you think of someone who would be better to use it on? You''ve been around the longest, Pen, and I still owe you for helping me so much. Let me do this."


    "Okay, but if it gets freaky, can we undo this?" Penelope asked as she got the last leg free.


    "No clue. On the plus side, you''d be way stronger."


    "Alright. Once I get this thing off our traps, and get all its bits sorted, we''ll get back into digging."


    Penelope didn''t sound so much resigned as excited. Travis wanted to see what the reward was for the quest, and wanted to reach that next tier. "I hope I get more traps at tier one."


    "And more kobolds. It''d be neat if you could work out how to just make more workers, though by this point it might be part of your dungeon style that you can''t." Sliding down the front of the spider''s body, Penelope landed just before its head.


    Travis wished he could look away from the grisly scene of Penelope cutting into the monster''s face and slicing out its venom sacks¡ªwhich it apparently did have. "Oh, Stephan''s back with more wood."


    <hr>


    The smell of burning was all around the dungeon. Looking left and right, Ogmera kept her mask on as she pushed more magic into her aura. "There''s a lot of rot here. I can feel it fighting my protective shell."


    "More fire?" Stratus asked.


    Ogmera snorted a laugh. "More fire is a good solution. Tom, if you wouldn''t mind?"


    Crouched, Felna looked around while trying to keep her low-light vision from getting too ruined by all the pyrokinetic spells raging around her. "How long did the sheet say this dungeon has been here?"


    "Only a few months at most. It built fast." Nathaniel, like Felna, was crouched low and moving slowly so the wizards and shaman could have a clear line of sight to their work. Like Ogmera, they both wore the enchanted masks that would keep dangerous spores and particulate from their lungs. "How''s the mana flow?"


    Few were the wizards who had a cleric focused on feeding them mana. Tom enjoyed his job and he enjoyed his companions. "I''m holding at around half a tank. Stratus?"


    "Same. Even with an extra push, I can sustain this without issue." Unlike many of his fellow elves, Stratus didn''t feel the slightest disdain for shorter-lived races. Their candles were shorter but burned no less as bright as his own. "Anything bigger than a rat yet?"


    "Nah. Keep burning and I''ll save my mana," Ogmera said, preparing a rooting-thorns spell just in case.


    Fast as the dungeon had grown, it was still on one level and there was only so much it could throw at them before all the creepy crawlies were spent. They burned all the way through the winding tunnels, letting Ogmera harvest what she needed, until they reached the heart.


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    "They''re so beautiful." Standing now, Felna walked a little closer to the heart and reached her hand out to cast a status spell at it. Knowledge filled her. The amount of monsters it could support, its traps and where they were located, even its age flooded into her. "Okay, got it. Let''s get out of here. You have everything, Og?"


    "If you''re asking me if I have a small fortune in poisons and toxins to sell, you are correct, Felna dear. Let''s make our way out, boys. By the numbers now." Ogmera turned. "Lead the way, Felna."


    "No boss in here?" Nathaniel asked, renewing the mana regeneration buffs on the two wizards.


    "Nope. It hasn''t found the resources needed to make a monster into a boss. You get to relax." Felna, standing straight now, started walking back down the tunnels, her eyes now attuned to the dungeon''s light and presence. "Trap here. Trigger is to the left of my left foot."


    "How long until it will be back up to strength?" Falling in behind Felna, Ogmera made room for Stratus to walk beside her.


    "At the rate it''s seething? Probably two weeks." It was always easier for their group to get out once Felna had formed a bond with the dungeon. Entirely one-way, the link allowed her to feel what the dungeon felt, know what it could do, and she could also read its intention. Right now the latter sense told her that the dungeon absolutely hated her. It loathed her. It wanted her corrupted, dead, raised from death, and then killed again. "This one is feisty."


    "It wants to kill you, use you to breed monsters, or use you as an ingredient in its poisons?" Og asked.


    "From what I can tell, all three. Possibly at the same time." Felna shrugged her shoulders and led the group down a side tunnel that was a shortcut to the entrance. "Like I said, feisty."


    <hr>


    "You used all the timber I just got?!" Stephan slumped a little, though he did walk along the new area and admire all the new warehouses. "I know, I know. I get it. We need timber to store stuff to buy things we need. Maybe we need to all go out and bring wood in?"


    "Probably not the worst idea ever. Trav wants to get the boss monster upgrade first and¡ªI''m still not a hundred percent on being the one who gets that. I mean, I know we need it, and I''m probably the best with combat, but I just¡ª" Penelope drew out her one remaining dagger and flicked it between her hands. "I just don''t know how much of me is me anymore."


    Walking up and into Penelope''s personal space, Stephan raised one clawed digit up and tapped the side of her head. "There have been some changes, but for the most part we''re still us up here¡ªwhere it counts."


    Smiling, showing off her fair share of teeth in doing so, Penelope moved fast and kissed Stephan''s cheek. "Thanks. I needed to hear that."


    Feeling more than a little proud of himself, Stephan felt his stance shift to a more upright one and he felt an urge to do something¡ªprove himself more useful. "It''s mostly urges. I want to make Trav happy and help him, and after that kiss I want to prove myself to you." What little social faculties Stephan had were screaming in panic. "Not that¡ª"


    "Sorry, Steph, I don''t¡ª" Huffing, Penelope berated herself mentally for the kiss. "I was just trying to say thanks. I prefer¡ª"


    "Oh." Stephan''s eyes widened and he nodded. "S-Sorry."


    "You remember when Katelyn first came into the dungeon?" Penelope started walking down the hall, making her way toward the gold vein they''d found.


    "Yeah. I remember seeing her and¡ªOh."


    "Right. Oh, but more, oh my." Pulling her pickaxe out, Penelope led the way deeper. "So we''re looking for¡­ How much gold do we need, Trav?"


    "Two-hundred and one. Literally. But we should probably try to keep a hundred spare to cover shopping in town."


    Penelope and Stephan both broke into laughter.


    After some time walking through the dark tunnel, Penelope managed to squeeze out, "Shopping!"


    Just hearing the word again made Stephan lose his carefully won calm and break into giggles a second time.


    "This is because most dungeons don''t send their minions into town, isn''t it?" Travis asked.


    "No, they do send minions into towns. That''s common, actually. Dungeons almost exist to overwhelm a nearby town and destroy the human presence therein." Penelope approached the gold seam and prepared her pickaxe. "It''s just that none apart from you actually send minions to shop in town."


    "What? It''s a valid tactic!" Travis'' voice had some laughter in it too now. "Plus, it worked. We get what we want, they get gold. Everyone''s happy we did our¡­ shopping!"


    Penelope had to lean on her pickaxe. Stephan, however, fell over onto the floor and was rolling on his back with laughter.


    When the two had recovered, and after some hard work mining away at the gold vein, Travis told them to stop. "We have six-hundred gold now. I let you keep going because it really doesn''t hurt to have extra. I just need you to unload the last of the iron from the cart and we can get that upgrade."


    "Are you ready, Pen?" Stephan asked.


    "I was in the dungeon delving business for ten years with the same people. I thought I''d gotten to know them pretty well. When I walked in this place, and one shot me, I realized how little I actually trusted them. Trav, you, even the siblings are more friends than those bastards ever were." Taking a deep breath and rounding the corner to walk into the dungeon proper, Penelope shook her head. "And now I feel this need to protect you all. I want to make sure you don''t get hurt like I got hurt. If I lose more of what humanity I have left doing that¡ªIt just might be worth it."


    Slipping past the sludge traps, the pair made their way to where the cart was still parked in one of the warehouses. Unloading the iron was quick, and they got it done with little chatter¡ªeven if one occasionally said Shopping.


    "Are you ready, Pen?" Travis asked.


    Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Penelope said, "You know, I think I am. Thanks, Steph, I¡ª"


    "Hold up. Not here. Go to your room and get comfortable," Stephan said, shooing her out of the warehouse with his hands. "You don''t know if this will be instant or take some time. And, if it''s the latter, I don''t want to have to carry you somewhere safer."


    Slipping past the few traps before Travis'' heart, Penelope felt her bravery resting on a knife''s edge. The last time she''d let Travis change her, it had been a split-second decision. She''d been about to die and figured he could do with her corpse what he wanted anyway. She ran her claws carefully over his heart as she passed¡ªlike she always did¡ªand walked through the former sleeping room and down the tunnel to the room she''d claimed as her own.


    In the pitch black, still seeing just fine, Penelope crawled onto the pile of hides and blankets she called a bed. "Trav? Do it."

 Chapter 16

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Level 1


    Heart 400/400


    Experience 100/100


    Workers 4/10


    Monsters 0/10-2


    Traps 12/10+2


    Rooms 10


    Food 27


    Timber 131


    Iron 199


    Mana 4


    Rock 319


    Gold 219


    Leather 77


    Leather Sludge 27


    Lava 7


    Quest: Make one of your monsters into a boss


    </blockquote>


    "The quest hasn''t updated yet. I bet it''s going to happen when she wakes." Travis hated that it hadn''t updated. He focused his attention on the quest note and tried to will it to complete. "Ugh. She''s perfectly safe. It''s not like something will slip past us and kill her while she''s still changing."


    "Trav?" Robert asked.


    "Yes?"


    "Relax. It''s been what, a few hours? That''s nothing. One of the more important lessons an alchemist has to learn is patience. You know how I was going to use a poison to subdue you? That took me weeks to brew from start to finish." Robert swung his pick with practiced ease. It felt good to dig, Penelope had taught him that, but he also buzzed with anticipation and hard work was a good way to deal with it. "Do we need more warehouses?"


    "All five of the remaining ones I''ve planned are probably going to be required. Maybe more. We need a lot of wood and a lot of food." Travis had willed some lizards into Penelope''s room. He watched her even as she slept. A little creepy, he figured, but he owed a debt to her¡ªmaybe twice now. "Also, it''s been at least three hours. I keep track by how many explosive runes your sister makes."


    "When I have some glass, some water, and a little time¡ªI''ll make you a clock, Trav." Robert marched to two of the remaining planned out warehouses. "Okay, Trav, let me at them."


    "Okay, but just a word of warning, we don''t have enough timber to make any more warehouses." Working out what he could do without timber, Travis had to concede what he needed was for Stephan to wake up and start chopping more wood. The alternatives were, of course: "Once you have these two dug out, would you mind going and mining as much gold as you can?"


    "How much gold are you looking at?"


    "We need eight-hundred for the tier one upgrade." Travis hated how much that sounded like. "And we need four-hundred food and the same of timber. You and Katelyn will probably need to make another trip into town when everyone''s awake again."


    <hr>


    Waking up was strange. Everything felt strange to Penelope. She could still see in the dark, though it was still obvious that it was dark, but there was some kind of new quality to her sight. Rather than get up and get back to work right away, however, she remained comfortably curled up in the dark.


    This ability to be lazy was new to her¡ªnew since she''d become a kobold at least. With the need to obey lifted, she could see it for what it was.


    She''d been under the direct control of Travis.


    It was something she''d already known, but this was the final proof of the matter. She was now aware, however, just how much control that entailed. Now that she wasn''t restricted by it, Penelope''s thoughts opened up to myriad things that she''d wanted in life. Traveling had been one of her biggest pleasures, and was again.


    Slow, deep breaths. She stretched out in her own head to feel for more things that''d been denied her. Her revenge was still in the forefront of her mind. Sitting in one place reduced her chances of getting it, but part of her saw surviving and being happy as a good enough revenge¡ªeven if another part of her wanted to see William and Peter struggling in sludge traps.


    That was one thing she could definitely find consensus on with her previous, controlled self. Relaxing further, she kept focusing inward. Going outside had been scary. Was that because it was leaving the dungeon or was it more that kobolds just don''t like open spaces? This and more questions about her state of mind were hard to classify without an outside, free kobold. The problem was that kobold are dungeon monsters and weren''t self-sustaining outside of them.


    That''s what she''d always been taught. If a dungeon''s heart is destroyed, all its minions die. Could a dungeon release its minions?


    There was a lot to work through and Penelope wanted to get it clear in her head before going out and talking to anyone. Travis had, with his boss upgrade, freed her from the control that a kobold was usually under, and she wanted to know what this meant for her now.


    The major thing she could deduce from everything, though, was that he was doing everything he could not to take advantage of it. But, apart from the need to follow dig orders, she didn''t know if he realized how much control he had.


    "Travis?" Penelope asked.


    "Yeah? Oh, you''re awake!"


    The excitement and relief in his voice was reassuring to Penelope. More and more she started to realize how good Travis was. He could have easily just taken over and used them all¡ªinstead he seemed more like a friend. "You know none of us could leave if we wanted to, right? I mean, we couldn''t even want to."


    "Yeah." His tone was downcast. Penelope was thinking of saying more when he added, "I figured something like that. It''s why I don''t want to do this to people unless they either want to join us or were actually kinda assholes. Though, I don''t want asshole kobolds either."


    That made her smile a little and sit up in the darkness. Her legs felt a little odd, as did her arms. Her back was the weirdest though¡ªshe could feel way more going on back there than she''d had even as a kobold. "Do you know how far it was going? I remember feeling scared just going outside. I don''t know how Robert and Katelyn manage it without going crazy."


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    "Maybe it has to do with me sending them out. Like, they''re working specifically doing something I wanted them to do. You were just hunting for food which¡ªit was for you, I guess."


    "So I need to speak to Steph about that." Leaning forward, Penelope gathered her legs under her and stood up. "I''m not controlled like that anymore, Trav."


    "You''re not?!"


    "Nope. I guess, being a boss monster, I need some freedom." Penelope rolled her shoulders and felt more movement behind her. "And I think I have wings now."


    It took just one step for Penelope to realize the motion and rhythm of her walk, that she''d practiced as a kobold so hard, was now different. Looking behind her¡ªand ignoring her wings for now¡ªshe noted her tail was longer now. "And more tail. I''m curious what the rest of the boss changes will be."


    Stepping out of her room, she found the new gait a little more than just the extra tail and wing movement. She had slightly longer legs now and it made her hips want to sway. "No comments from you about how I''m walking, either."


    "What do you mean?" Trav asked.


    Penelope took a few more steps to demonstrate. "Look at this. My hips are all over the place."


    "I hadn''t noticed."


    "Liar." She couldn''t help laughing at her accusation, though, and it relaxed her to hear Travis laugh too. "I''m going to have to learn to move all over again thanks to this. It''d better be¡ª" She froze as she stepped out of the old sleeping quarters and looked down on Travis'' heart. It had grown but only in the number of facets. She walked closer and put her hand out on top of the heart and felt her connection to Travis.


    "You''re a lot bigger." Travis sounded impressed. "Like, you''re bigger than you were as a human."


    "Are you trying to tell me I was short? I know I was short. It made me a better rogue to be short." Penelope walked down the hallway to the traps she''d first built. "I can just step over some of these triggers I had to jump over before."


    "Pen?" Robert asked from behind her.


    Turning, Penelope looked back at Robert and realized that she was going to be taller than all her comrades now. "Yeah. Turns out Trav wanted a bigger kobold."


    "Wow. Okay. Do you want me to do anything?"


    The question surprised Penelope. She was a boss, but did that imply something about the others'' relationship with her now? It was yet another question for her to toss on the pile, or she could test it right now. "Hop on one leg for a minute. I need to test something."


    It was a perfectly easy to follow request, but also completely stupid. When Robert shifted his mass to one side and started hopping, a shiver of disgust ran through her. "You can stop, sorry Robert."


    Balancing easily back on both legs, Robert looked up at Penelope with some confusion on his face. "What''d you need me to do that for?"


    "Do you think you could not jump on one leg if I asked you to again?" Penelope asked. "I''m pretty sure that all kobolds have to obey everything Trav commands, and now me too."


    "Well, yeah. I knew about Trav being able to. Didn''t realize you''d be the same¡ªbut it makes sense." Robert looked around at the traps. "I had a thought, too."


    A distraction was just what Penelope wanted. "Yeah?"


    "Yeah. We dig up these traps here, use two of them to fill out the sludge trap line, then use the other two to make the back two sections a pit filled with sensing explosive runes." Robert jumped, stepped, and hopped around all the triggers for the dart, crusher, and pit traps, then walked down to the area in question. "That way, if anyone managed to jump past the traps¡ªdown they go into an explosive pit."


    "That''s a good idea, actually. Better than making a lava pit." Following, Penelope surveyed the changes and nodded. "That''d definitely work well. Any thoughts on it, Trav?"


    "It does worry me a little when you talk of removing traps, but I think I get what you want. I''ll ask Katelyn to swap to making the triggered explosive runes. I don''t know if they take longer to make, but let''s get four per pit," Travis said.


    "So eight in total." Robert scratched his chin and looked at the floor. "Given she takes about an hour to make a solid explosive rune, we have some time to do other stuff."


    "Wood. We need lots of wood for more warehouses," Travis said. "Steph is already out cutting down trees."


    "Let''s go help him, Robert." Penelope froze as she realized how she sounded and how Robert''s inability to resist a command might react to it. She was about to say something when he patted her shoulder.


    "Relax, Pen. I can tell when something is an order and when it isn''t. You just want some help cutting down trees, and I''m fine with that. Gathering resources is what kobolds do best." Instead of working past the traps, however, he instead headed past the donkey and cart rooms and pulled out a pickaxe.


    "Right. I keep forgetting it''s easier to just do that. Not like we don''t have plenty of rock to back-fill."


    <hr>


    It had been a major bit of work, but Tannyr Stoneshave could finally breathe easy that the wall had been completed. It wasn''t all stonework, of course, but even the wooden palisade was impressive enough to keep predators and even low ranked dungeon monsters back while their archers could pepper them from above.


    The other key part of this was the huge entrance that had been bricked in around the dungeon. A huge vault door had been fitted with the ability to be locked. Tannyr had one of the keys to it, as did the three elders of Northridge.


    Spotting a group of guards eating their lunch, Tannyr made her way over to talk to them. "Right, now we need to fill out the garrison here. Where''s that lad Windchime?"


    "Back in Northridge, ma''am. Want me to send a squad to fetch him?"


    "It''d be quicker if I go and drag him back here myself." Turning toward the dungeon entrance, Tannyr made sure the door was locked with her key before fetching her old armor and her sledgehammer. The old, dwarven-made steel was harder than anything humans had ever made short of magic-imbued metals.


    A dwarf at a trot was never as fast as a horse, but her stamina meant she could keep the pace up the whole trip back to the town. She walked to the guardhouse and asked around, then made her way to the tavern to find the three leaders of the town sitting down and snacking while they chatted. "Sorry if I''m butting in, but I thought you might all want to hear this. The animal dungeon has a full wall around it, mixed stone and timber. It also has the entrance seal installed."


    "Good news indeed, Lady Stoneshave." Howard Tailor was always happy to treat his most talented crafter with more honor than she deserved. Her muscles and mind had planned and built Northridge from a little hamlet to the huge town it was today¡ªher work, in fact, had helped trigger the event to put Northridge on the map. "Won''t you sit down? We were just discussing how we''d go about encouraging said dungeon."


    Knowing when it''s time to just shut her mouth and listen, Tannyr did just that.


    "We''ve already had some delvers find it producing grass turkeys, so we could further align it with fowl by giving it a bunch of chicken to take care of." Christine Sellswell was already quite taken with the idea. "That would give us eggs and feathers in addition to the meat."


    Brolly Windchime nodded, but tapped the papers before him. "Cows would give us milk and hides too. Hides make for some good armor."


    "You can get the same from goats, plus they are faster to grow," Christine said.


    "Plus we could include other birds as well. Peacock feathers sell well to nobles and the like."


    "Cows and horses. A dungeon-bred horse would be an amazing animal!"


    Howard just looked across the table with a bored expression at Tannyr. He gave a half-smile and raised an eyebrow only to get a smirk from Tannyr. "Why don''t we introduce all of them?" he asked. "See what the dungeon is happy to work with."

 Chapter 17

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Level 1


    Heart 400/400


    Experience 100/100


    Workers 4/10


    Monsters 0/10-2


    Traps 12/10+2


    Rooms 11


    Food 29


    Timber 67


    Iron 213


    Mana 5


    Rock 462


    Gold 318


    Leather 84


    Leather Sludge 29


    Lava 7


    Explosive Runes 3


    Triggered Explosive Runes 2


    Quest: Reach Tier 1


    </blockquote>


    "Oh, I figured out what it did now. We just got ten percent onto all our resources. Wish I''d known that was the reward before running us low on wood. And now we have more rock." The state of things wasn''t terrible, but Travis wished he''d known the reward before getting Penelope''s upgrade.


    He couldn''t speak to them, but the sight of Penelope pulling an axe that was almost as big as Stephan from behind her back had impressed him. She''d gone to work cutting down trees at a ferocious rate and, so far as Travis could tell, the others seemed to work better around her.


    "Huh? Were you talking to me?" Katelyn asked. She was working on the triggered explosive runes in the Library.


    "Not really, just talking to myself I guess. I wish these stupid quests would tell me what the rewards are for them." Mentally poking at the interface that was his link to his "body", Travis couldn''t figure out how to find some of the things that were normally easy to figure out in games. "This is like a freakin'' beta test."


    "What''s a beta test?"


    The question was a good distraction for Travis, and given Katelyn''s chuckle she seemed to recognize the humor of it. "It''s when something isn''t finished yet, but someone decides to let people see and use it. Usually missing important features."


    "Oh!" Katelyn leaned back a little from her meditation. "There are spell guides like that. A simple spell for summoning imps, only they have no duration and there is no tuned banishing spell. There was one wizard group that had to literally pay adventurers to clear out their spire."


    Travis couldn''t keep from laughing at the image. "That sounds horrible!"


    "It almost led to the complete destruction of the wizards and the city. Imps are annoying at best¡ªwhen you summon and have control of them¡ªbut they are downright chaotically destructive when let off the chain." Looking up at the ceiling, Katelyn smiled. "Glad I wasn''t responsible for that."


    The last bit of what she said sounded more like relief than a joke, prompting Travis to ask, "You make any mistakes like that?"


    "None that I''ve told anyone about." Closing her eyes and leaning forward again, Katelyn started work on the next rune. "You might not have noticed but I was¡ªI had to deal with a lot of attention. As a woman, that is. I would always keep my cloak hood up and try to keep from anyone noticing me.


    "So, I was in my second year at the wizard''s guild in High Hope and I''d taken a shower. Well, I need to say first that the second years'' dormitory is a floor above the first years''. Anyway, everyone else in second year seemed intent on showering then, so I slipped downstairs, knowing the first years hadn''t moved in yet."


    "They had?" Travis asked.


    "No. It was deserted when I went down there. I guess, having a whole shower block to myself, I may have spent a little too long enjoying it. Climbed out to find my bathrobe missing. All I had was one undersized¡ªfor the job¡ªtowel.


    "I never found out who swapped my things, but as soon as I stepped out of the shower area I found out that the first years were moving in right then. Eyes, so many eyes." Shuddering, Katelyn let out a bark of laughter. "You have no idea how much of a relief it was when you made me into a kobold."


    "What?!"


    "I thought about using my magic to disfigure myself. Maybe a nice big scar across my face. To test that, I tried holding an illusion up."


    Hearing the pain in Katelyn''s voice made Travis recoil a little at how society had treated her. "Did it work?"


    "In a way." Katelyn finished the rune and started meditating again. "They just never looked above my neck. Nope, if I was going to do the job, I''d have to mangle all of me up. It would have been horrifically painful and it would have made things ten times worse."


    "People can be such assholes sometimes." He wanted to hug her. Travis wished he could offer Katelyn a shoulder to cry on¡ªand he could tell she was crying by how her vision decreased.


    "You''ve done plenty, Trav." Reaching one arm up, Katelyn wiped away the tears while being careful of her claws around her eyes. "There wasn''t even much pain, well, except for those damn sludge traps."


    "In my defense, it was Pen''s idea to use them. She said they were annoying and frequently a problem." Travis was proud of how effective the sludge had been.


    "Yeah, but most dungeons will have like one trap. They won''t fill a whole damn hallway with them. There are ways around them, too, but we can work on that. Ask Robert about improving the sticky gunk in them so the next alchemist along doesn''t just dilute them out or something."


    "I wonder if I''ll get an unlock when he makes something? Maybe an alchemy lab?" More than anything, Travis wanted to make the siblings comfortable and able to do the work they''d been planning to. Minus the whole controlling the dungeon thing, of course. That was all the more incentive to let them spend their gold in the town.


    "Hopefully, though Robert can build his own easily enough. We should probably go back to town and buy more stuff. We need food, right?" Katelyn asked.


    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    "Yeah, we need food. We also need a lot of gold. Oh, and we need to protect ourselves. If we can''t keep people from taking all our stuff, we can''t exactly keep growing. Oh, and we need a bolt-hole. I only wish I could move my heart to the far end of it." Travis had never seen hearts be mobile in any games he''d played, but he held out a little hope he might be able to move some day.


    <hr>


    Work wasn''t any easier being bigger, but Penelope sure felt better about being outside. Behind her was a string of stumps she''d made of trees, and crawling on them was Stephan and Robert, each with their own axes stripping off branches and hauling them back toward the dungeon entrance.


    The sunlight was still annoyingly bright, but Penelope had started to pick up what was a kobold thing and what was being a dungeon minion thing. The latter, now, she completely lacked. "Hey, Steph, Rob," Penelope said, "is it just me or does the forest not feel as exposed anymore?"


    "Definitely," Robert said. "Though, it seems to have more to do with being near you. When we haul the trees back to the dungeon, I start to feel a little worried again just before reaching the entrance."


    "Huh. Well, I guess I should try to cut the trees a bit closer to the dungeon, then. Don''t want to make it a straight line leading to the entrance, anyway." Hefting the oversize axe on her shoulder, Penelope walked back about halfway to the dungeon and started thinning more trees.


    When Stephan walked up to her and stopped after dragging the furthest tree down the line she''d cut, Penelope looked at him oddly. "What''s up?"


    "Someone''s watching us. There''s movement in the grass just beyond the treeline. At least two heavy armor users. Should we retreat?"


    His voice was a little shaky as he explained it and Penelope knew why¡ªhe wasn''t an adventurer. "Not yet. If they''re just watching us, they will know we''ve seen them if we retreat with all this timber on the ground. Let''s not cut down more trees and just clean up what we have here." She spat on her hands and got another swing on the tree she was working on. "And next time you drag anything back to the entrance, duck inside and let Trav know what''s going on."


    <hr>


    "I''m not sure if that''s the biggest kobold I''ve ever seen or a lizardman, but that axe is not what I''d call standard equipment for cutting down trees." Jack was crouched down behind the ridge and watching the work party with a critical eye. "What do you make of them, Brayden?"


    "Unless the stupid dungeon made a kobold a boss, that has to be a lizardman. My eyes can''t see as well as yours, Jack. Can you see a dungeon?" The assignment had come with several bonuses, for which Brayden Smith was quite happy. The biggest payday would be identifying the dungeon theme, location, and get out without any casualties.


    Jack shook his head. "We''ve been in this part of the forest. If I could have seen the dungeon then, I would have."


    "Could have been that awesome spell you used." Fife admired almost anything that could kill half a pack of direwolves in seconds. "Next time, instead of shards, can you make the ice into fists?"


    "Ha! Yeah! Punch the wolves to death. That''d be so much cooler." Raising his mailed fist and holding it out to Fife, Porter got a firm bump from her.


    "Will you two keep it down? We don''t want these kobolds running away." Groaning, Brayden glared at the two fighters in his party.


    "Yeah we do," Fife said. "We want them to run so we can chase them and find out where their dungeon is, then we''ll peek inside and figure out what theme it''s running, and get back to town by evening."


    "You saw that barmaid?" Porter nudged Fife''s elbow. "She had to have some elf in her somewhere."


    Fife rolled her eyes. "Yes, Porter, we''ll get back to the pretty barmaids once this job is done. What you think, Brayden?" Despite her assessment, Fife knew well that Brayden was the most tactically minded of the party. She also knew that not following his advice was a good way to wind up hurt or dead.


    Rubbing his chin, Brayden nodded. It wasn''t part of their contract to leave the dungeon critters alone, just not to kill them. "I like it. Okay, Jack, can you get us some haste?"


    "Alright." Porter started to stand only for Brayden to grab his arm. "What?"


    "Don''t kill them. If you get close to them, feign a trip and let one of us help you up." Brayden glared at Porter. "These kobolds are smart enough to barter and mint their own coin. If they ever wind up making peace with the town, they could tell them we defaulted on a quest and lied."


    "Ugh. Alright. I won''t kick the kobolds all the way back to their dungeon. Come on, let''s get them moving." Jerking his arm from Brayden''s grip, Porter looked to Jack. "When you''re ready."


    It wasn''t a fight and it certainly wasn''t an engagement. The moment the four of them broke cover (with Jack''s spell enhancing their movement for all of a minute) the kobolds turned tail and ran. Brayden watched as the bigger one met their gaze for a moment with its big axe on its shoulder before it turned almost casually and started to run.


    "You said we can''t kill the kobolds. What about that lizardman?!" Porter asked.


    Elbowing her partner in the ribs, not that his armor would have let him feel even a hard blow there, Fife glared at Porter. "Don''t ruin this gig. Brayden''s word is law out here. You fuck this up, you fuck us up."


    "Come on! Don''t be such a goody-two-shoes! They''re dungeon monsters. We''re adventurers. We kill dungeon monsters!" Pounding his legs, Porter was gaining on the lizardman he saw, and he was just about within range of a good shield slap, when something tangled up his legs and he went down.


    Brayden stopped while Fife kept running. He''d seen the woman trip Porter over. "You damn idiot. What did I tell you last time?"


    "You only said we couldn''t kill the kobolds! Even the quest says that. I only signed up for this shit-show to bash heads." Porter glared up at Brayden and started to get his feet under him. "You need me for¡ª"


    Even Brayden didn''t see Fife''s fist coming for Porter''s cheek. "Fife!"


    "Only joined the group to ''bash heads''?" Fife''s anger came in a kick that took Porter''s legs out from under him. "You wouldn''t have gotten in this group if you weren''t fun to hang with, and now you tell me you''re only here to bash heads?"


    Porter was seeing stars from the second punch. Fife''s fist might have connected with his chainmail, but she was wearing steel gauntlets. "You¡ª"


    "Brayden, I can see in your eyes. Give him his marching orders. He''s done." Fife glared at Brayden, daring him to say anything other than what she wanted.


    It wasn''t much of a choice for Brayden. On one hand he had a solid fighter in Fife and on the other he had an annoyance who seemed to think the party was some kind of democracy. "We''re going back to town after we find out what this dungeon''s theme is. When we get back, you''re through, Porter."


    "Over a bunch of kobolds?!"


    "Over putting yourself before the job at hand." Turning his attention from Porter, Brayden called out to Jack. "Figure it out?"


    "No clue!" Jack was standing at the entrance of the dungeon, a flickering ball of ghostly fire above his head and a dozen ice spells balanced on the tip of his tongue in case something happened. "It has a theme, but it''s like nothing I''ve seen before. Look down this tunnel and tell me what you notice?" The last he asked when Brayden and Fife reached his side.


    "Looks like a dungeon, Jack. Mind clarifying?" Brayden asked.


    Fife cut in before the sorcerer could. "It''s straight."


    "Yeah," Jack said, "it''s like someone built this thing using a straight-ruler and a blueprint. These kobolds are a little freaky. I''m going to put this down as unknown theme."


    Brayden shrugged. He would have liked to have the full quest payout, but if Jack couldn''t figure the dungeon''s theme out, they were out of luck there. "You okay, Fife?" He turned to the woman.


    "Yeah. No. I don''t know. Ugh, you were right, Bray. I shouldn''t have gotten with another adventurer." She looked at Jack and pondered some things, then let out another sigh. "Come on. I want to beat that bastard to the barmaid."

 Chapter 18

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Level 1


    Heart 400/400


    Experience 100/100


    Workers 4/10


    Monsters 0/10-2


    Traps 12/10+2


    Rooms 12


    Food 29


    Timber 367


    Iron 213


    Mana 6


    Rock 462


    Gold 318


    Leather 84


    Leather Sludge 29


    Lava 7


    Explosive Runes 3


    Triggered Explosive Runes 7


    Quest: Reach Tier 1


    </blockquote>


    Penelope hadn''t let anyone go back out until she was sure the adventurers had left, and Travis was perfectly okay with that. Now they had the wood in, however, things were more relaxed. "Well, the town knows we''re here now," he said.


    "Yeah. It was going to happen eventually. It all seemed a bit bizarre though. They got in a fight with each other after one of them almost caught me and tripped. I couldn''t hear what it was about, but I think they were annoyed with him because he screwed up and didn''t get me." Penelope walked down the tunnel to the newly dug area and tapped her chin. "Trav, we need to link this section into the main area now and angle a tunnel around for the front traps."


    "We still need more timber. Probably as much as you got just now again. Let''s dig this out first." Focusing on the plan he''d built, Travis sketched out a new tunnel to lead to their digging area and then connected it up to the tunnel from the front door.


    With her speed upgrades and new strength, Penelope ripped through the task quickly. Robert joined in with some minor sections, and by the time Katelyn had gotten them to the eight triggered explosive runes they needed for their traps, a swathe of new tunnelwork had been built.


    "I can feel you have more rooms planned. Do you want to link them up for Robert to dig while I move those traps?" she asked.


    "Hey, who''s the dungeon here? Yeah, give me a sec and I''ll get things rolling. We have all the resources we need now for the traps." Linking up the last three planned rooms with temporary tunnels, Travis also requested the dart shooter, two crushers, and the pit trap to be removed.


    "Trav, we might want to send Robert and Katelyn to town to buy more stuff soon, but I''m worried about those adventurers. What if they set a trap or see through their brilliant disguise?" With her pickaxe on her shoulder, Penelope came almost three-quarters of the way to the ceiling of the tunnels they were digging.


    "Then they use whatever tricks they can to escape and get back here. Katelyn isn''t exactly a lightweight when it comes to magic."


    "That doesn''t help them if they have more than one mage coming for them, or worse, a sorcerer." Shivering, Penelope reached the sludge traps and edged her way around them. "Wizards are clever, and can use their magic in ways you won''t see coming. A sorcerer will just throw a hundred times more magic and batter everything down like a ram."


    "Right, and that''s partly why I need them to go to town. I need knowledge of this world. If Katelyn can get me a book about magic, or even a history book, I can learn everything I need so much faster." Watching as she skipped past all the sludge traps, Travis checked that he had all the remaining traps set for destruction. "It feels weird and kinda disturbing to remove traps."


    Starting on the traps, Penelope started disassembling them and removing them from the walls. "Yeah. These ones protected us when we most needed it. Still, can''t deny how good those sludge traps are, and they will get better hopefully. I''ve seen some of those with all kinds of nasty poisons in them."


    "The last quest reward increased all my resources by ten percent, but because I''d just spent a lot upgrading you, we didn''t get a lot out of it. Should we try to get a stockpile besides the amount needed for tier 1?" Travis asked.


    "Could be a waste of time. I''m sure that just powering through and getting more stuff to build would be better. Do you know what happens at tier 1?" The last of the traps to be pulled up, the pit, required filling in with rock.


    "You''re probably right, and no, I don''t know what it gives apart from completing the quest and hopefully unlocking more to do." Travis waited until she''d gotten done building the two sludge traps before setting two pit traps up in the last two sections of the curve. "Hey, you know, if we''re not going to use this, we can fill the rest of the tunnel back to my heart with scattered gravel and stones¡ªand mix in more triggered runes."


    "Yeah, that''s good thinking. I''ll add the precise upgrade to these pit traps and set them to drop at the slightest touch." She fit the cover of the first one, then dropped into the second trap and started pulling runes out from behind her back. "Now for the special prize."


    Travis would have bit his lip in worry if he had a lip to bite. Instead, he just watched through Penelope''s eyes as she set down what amounted to high explosive mines and then covered the pit she put them in. "Those make me nervous."


    "They make me nervous, too. Katelyn, though, proved her crafting skill with that fight against the spiders. How''s Robert working?"


    "He''s getting the last three warehouse rooms dug out, then I''ll have him hook them to the main area and start building those last five warehouses." Scanning around the dungeon, Travis gave Penelope a rundown. "Katelyn is taking a break from making runes, which I totally understand, and Steph is working on some hides he found."


    "Yeah. After all the rushing around of the last few weeks, I think we might need to calm things down so we can have breaks and stuff. All work and no play, right? And I feel¡ªWell, we dealt with those spiders easily enough, and I figure we''re as well dug-in as we can be for now that¡ª"


    "Relax, Pen. I get you. We have been a little crazy-busy. Time is in our corner now. We won''t rest on our laurels, but we don''t need to drive ourselves into anxiety overload and depression by working twenty hours a day," Trav said. "Well, maybe you don''t, but if I can work out how to sleep one day, it''d be nice."


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    "You can''t sleep?"


    "Nope. Just sitting here trying not to go insane. Weird, though, I don''t feel tired and I don''t get any weirdness from it. I''m just always awake."


    <hr>


    Brolly Windchime held the peak of his nose with two fingers while his friend Brayden Smith and Brayden''s party members Fife and Jack sat across from him at the table. "So, let me get this straight. The meathead you had with you thought it would be good sport to do the one thing I said not to do and has maybe screwed up any likelihood of us having the dungeon trading with us more?"


    Fife felt the worst of the party. She glared down at the table rather than meet Brolly''s gaze. "''He was a bloody idiot."


    "I''m sorry, Brolly, I thought I had him on a tight leash. Turns out he was playing me as much as the rest of the party. He''s out¡ªgone¡ªand when my message gets to my superiors, he''ll never get a party with a holy-order member again." Brayden had given up any hope that their quest would get paid out now. "And I know we didn''t get the dungeon''s theme, but there was one thing I can tell you for sure."


    Staring as his old friend pulled out his holy symbol, Brolly raised an eyebrow.


    "By the word of my patron god, Brogdar Evil Slayer, they''re not evil. I checked them before the last scampered into the dungeon. That''s not much, but it¡ª"


    Taking a slow breath, Brolly smiled. It was good news and some he had scarcely hoped for. "You put that in writing and you can have full pay for the quest¡ªincluding all bonuses."


    Jerking her head up, Fife looked at Brolly. Squinting, she pondered her chances. "That important, eh?"


    "Yeah. Brother Rupert¡ªthe old hellfire and brimstone priest in the south quarter¡ªwas so against trading with these kobolds that he threatened to start a riot. Poor old bastard doesn''t have that many followers anymore, but he was part of the town since we started, and it''d be wrong to turn him out because he''s not precisely what we need anymore." Slumping to his elbows, Brolly poked the table with a finger. "But a declaration by Bray''d be something he couldn''t argue against. I don''t care if they''re good, just that they''re not evil. You heard that group came back from the rot dungeon up north? Scored big on some new toxins. We''re going to need to take care of that dungeon, too."


    "You''re like a mother hen, Brolly. All these eggs to take care of." Brayden, relaxed now his party was going to get paid, leaned back in his chair. "A kobold dungeon that wants to trade, a verdant animal dungeon that any city would covet, and you turn out to have some weirdly nasty rot dungeon that is farmable. What¡ª?"


    "Sir!" Running into the tavern, Timothy Devin saluted his commander.


    "Spit out your report, Tim," Brolly said.


    "Sir, the lizardkin trader is back. You said to¡ª" Timothy was surprised as not just his commander, but all three of the adventurers were on their feet and running past him. "They''re in the trading square. Buying iron and¡­" He and the bartender were the only ones still in the room.


    <hr>


    "Stop jiggling around, Robert." Sitting on her brother''s shoulders, Katelyn Arskith reached up to pull the leather hood just a bit further forward. "They''re coming back, act natural." When the merchant returned, Katelyn smiled at them. "You can load the grain on?"


    Holly Miller, the only grain merchant in Northridge, smiled at the strangest intelligent creature she''d ever seen. They wobbled around, muttered to themselves, and if she didn''t know better she''d have sworn their face looked a little like a kobold''s¡ªbut she''d talked with the merchant guildmaster in the city and had been given advice to trade with them however she saw fit. "Of course. It will be by the barrel, if that''s fine? Those hemp bags from last time are just too troublesome to handle."


    "Perfectly fine!" Watching as the merchant''s assistants rushed over and started loading the barrels on the cart. "Please mind that first barrel. It''s full of glassware."


    Small talk was ever the tool of merchants when it came to getting useful information, and Holly smelled the potential for more gold. "Glassware? Are you opening a tavern in town?"


    "Tavern? Oh! No, nothing like that. My br¡ªfriend is an alchemist. I''m just picking up some things for him that he ordered." Aware of her almost slip, Katelyn didn''t want to give the game away when she and Robert had gone missing from the town recently. "Put it on top of that iron if you need to."


    Their next stop was the book merchant, where about a third of the books she''d ordered had arrived. Katelyn was excited to talk shop with the merchant, given they were a hedge witch and knew the fundamentals of what she was researching. "I don''t suppose you''re looking for somewhere to move to where you could build the biggest library ever?"


    Robert Arskith, who had been doing all the walking so far, reached a hand up to poke his sister in the side.


    "Sorry!" Katelyn had to excuse herself before the woman even replied. "Ugh. Had something annoying for dinner and now¡ªWell, you don''t want to hear about that, but my patron is interested in expanding his knowledge, and another magic user to instruct him would be greatly appreciated¡ªand rewarded." She ignored further poking and clamped the claws of one of her feet on Robert''s upper arm.


    Llewellyn, the merchant in question, reached up and removed her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "If my cut wasn''t so good¡­" She cleared her throat. "I''m contracted to work here for five years. In that time they''re going to build me a library, a house, and a moderate garden." That she didn''t want to live in a dingy, dark, dangerous¡ªshe fished for more D words¡ªdilapidated, and dank dungeon was an understatement. Alliteration, even in the depths of her mind, never ceased to gratify her.


    "Oh." The news that there were contracts involved annoyed Katelyn. Despite the fact that the dungeon effectively broke all ties, she didn''t want to literally kidnap people and drag them to it. "Well, keep it in mind. We''re always hiring. Anyway, I''m after some teaching books on magic. Basic stuff."


    "Teaching young ones or adults?" Pulling out a slate and stylus, Llewellyn was poised to take notes.


    Lying about her motives, however, was something Katelyn was perfectly fine with. "Adults, but it needs to be basic. I''ve recently found a student with a lot of potential that is from a deplorably backwards village."


    "I don''t have anything catering specifically to that, but if your student doesn''t mind children-oriented material, I have several copies of Introductory Magic, Elemental Affinities, and Spirits And Bargains." On her slate, Llewellyn started to note how much she would normally sell them for, given the transport cost, and how much markup for the odd coin.


    "Those are perfect," Robert said in a whisper.


    "Shush or she''ll hear you," Katelyn said in an equally discrete whisper.


    Llewellyn wanted to shout that she could hear them whispering to each other, but she actually kinda liked talking to Katelyn. The money was good, too. "So¡­?"


    "We¡ªI''ll¡ªtake all three." From the corner of her eye Katelyn spotted a book she recognized that wasn''t part of a first-year student''s back-destroying load. "Is that Arskith''s Arcane Abatement?" She pointed to the open book.


    Looking at what she''d been reading, Llewellyn raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. I''m trying to refine my ritual magic to be more efficient. So far it''s hard going¡ªArskith''s theories should work for witchcraft, but all her focus was on wizardry."


    It was a completely new idea to use her own work on a completely different field of magic. "What isn''t making sense?"

 Chapter 19

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Level 1


    Heart 400/400


    Experience 100/100


    Workers 4/10


    Monsters 0/10-2


    Traps 11/10+2


    Rooms 17


    Food 29


    Timber 3


    Iron 184


    Mana 7


    Rock 605


    Gold 118


    Leather 84


    Leather Sludge 19


    Lava 7


    Explosive Runes 3


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Quest: Reach Tier 1


    </blockquote>


    Travis saw through Katelyn and Robert''s eyes when they reached the forest again. He also spotted them through Penelope''s gaze as she was cutting wood. The wagon the poor donkey was hauling seemed piled high¡ªsomething that Travis was excited about.


    The worst bit for him was waiting for them to get close enough he''d be able to talk to them.


    "Travis!" Katelyn started bouncing up and down beside the wagon. "I got you some books on magic. Also, there''s a really nice witch in town who is happy to help me teach a new student. She ordered a pile more books."


    "She was totally onto us," Robert said.


    "If she was, it was because you kept talking! Stomachs are not meant to talk." Katelyn smirked over at her brother. "And Robert got all his glassware and chemicals. It''ll be interesting to see if you get anything special for him doing his thing like you did for me."


    "You got the iron, right?" Travis asked, not wanting to interrupt but needing to know. So far none of them had looked under the large canvas covering of the wagon.


    "Of course we got the iron, Trav. It was like the townsfolk were trying to be extra nice today." Robert led the donkey and cart into the dark tunnel and pulled out a light stick. "Trav, can you mark where I need to dig to get through to the warehouses?"


    Watching as Robert continued down the tunnel away from the sludge traps, Travis marked the spot and watched him dig through. "What about the food?"


    "Oats. Lots of oats. Just like you said, Trav." Beside Robert, the donkey seemed more than happy to plod along and be led in the dark cave. Stopping the cart at the intersection of the first warehouse and the supplies room, he unhitched it and led the donkey to its room.


    Travis turned his attention to the work going on outside. Katelyn had surprised him by helping with the logs. He could see them talking to each other, and wondered what they were talking about. For a brief moment he wondered if they were talking about him.


    It was all getting too much. Travis had been keeping his attention on growing while shoving all the harder to think about things down. Survival had been everything, but now they''d reached a point where things were a little more relaxed. He could stop pushing everyone and that started with getting them more comforts and shorter work hours.


    First and foremost that he could do was get Robert somewhere to do his work. Even if alchemy wasn''t part of his dungeon system, he could still give the guy room to do his thing. While he pondered that, he noticed his iron was going up rapidly. Focusing on Robert''s view, Travis saw him unpacking the cart. "You don''t have to do that right away. Take a break if you need to."


    Robert set another two bars of iron down in the warehouse and shook his head. "I can keep going for two reasons. First, you need someone to do it. Second, this is blocking all the stuff I got."


    "I''ve planned out a room for you. I don''t know if whatever the dungeon wants me to make will be that large, but I figured you could do with your own storage area too. I don''t know how well I can store chemicals."


    "Good to know. I''ll try unpacking one of the cheaper and more plentiful ones and see." Walking back to the wagon, Robert fished around in a crate at the front and lifted out a large glass bottle that was wrapped in some kind of wood. He set it down in Travis'' warehouse and¡­ nothing happened.


    "I got nothing. What is it?" Travis asked.


    "Just some purified water. Okay, good to know. I guess I need that storeroom and some shelving in it." Putting the big bottle back, Robert returned to unloading iron ingots.


    Travis wished he could sigh. Here he was trying to do what he could, but he didn''t know what else to do. He remembered how Stephan had told him that the tannery would be his home, but here he was making the poor guy cut down trees rather than doing his passion. Then there was Penelope that, despite her claim that vengeance was all she wanted, surely had something she wanted to do besides that.


    He could only watch the kobolds working and fight the urge to treat them like the games tended to do. "We need to have a meeting. Or, at least, we need to talk about what we''re going to do going forward."


    "What do you mean?" Robert asked. "Do you want me to go out and get the others?"


    "No. We can wait for them to come in, but I''d like¡ªThat''s too weak. No, you deserve to have your own lives. Yeah, you''re happy to do stuff for me, and I get that you can''t really not feel that, but I want you to have choices in what you do¡ªboth for work and in your free time. Like you and your alchemy or Katelyn and her magic."


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    Robert laughed and leaned back against the wagon. "You musta been pretty rich. Where''d you came from, Trav?"


    It wasn''t the reply Travis was expecting and confused him a little. "Not really. Why?"


    "Well, you talking about free time as if anyone but a noble or rich merchant has any. Trav, where are you from?"


    Travis sighed, at least he would have if he had a body that wasn''t mostly rock. "A completely different world to this one. We have¡ªIt''s hard to explain. There''s no magic, alchemy follows rigid rules and we call it chemistry, and you only need to work about eight hours a day to get enough money to live off."


    Robert shook his head. "Around here the only people who get that kind of leisure time are the rich and powerful, or successful adventurers. I''ve talked to Pen, she was good enough that she had a little time to herself, but that comes with risks." He paused a moment, then reached into the cart and rolled off a barrel of oats. "So, eight hour days?"


    "Yeah. And you get two days out of seven off."


    "Off?"


    "You don''t have to work at all."


    Robert whistled. "And that''s really how it is where you''re from?"


    Travis laughed at that. "No, but it''s how it is meant to be. The reality is people finding loopholes in laws and employing people for less than a living wage."


    "Ah. Not quite perfect, then. But you want to make your dungeon perfect?"


    "I like to think I wouldn''t work my friends like a horrible bastard." Pausing as Robert dumped the barrel grain in the warehouse, Travis was shocked. "That''s two-hundred food per bag!"


    "There''s another two in here. We didn''t know how effective they''d be." Robert walked back to the wagon and double checked. "Yeah, there''s a ton of this stuff in here."


    "Alright, so one more of them in, then I want to do an experiment. Did you get the pot?" Travis was excited now. He had plans to test mechanics and would need someone''s help with that. Robert, being an alchemist, fit the bill.


    "Yeah, but what do you mean by experiment?"


    "Will cooking the grain give more, less, or the same amount of food as raw grain?" Travis asked.


    Robert tilted his head to the side and grabbed out the camp pot his sister had purchased in town. "That''s an interesting way to look at it. Is there a reason to suspect this?"


    "Yeah. The timber mill, the tannery, and the smelter all give bonuses for processing things before adding them to my storage. I thought we could see if doing that without a special room would work too."


    "Right, so we cook a small quantity¡ªlike a handful of oats. Then we add each to your storage and see if the values are different." Robert lifted the pot out and located his equipment he''d purchased in the cart. "I can get onto that right now."


    Wincing at how eager Robert sounded, Travis realized that getting kobolds to chill and ditch work a bit might be harder than he''d thought.


    <hr>


    When the two kobolds were out of town and out of earshot, Fife let out a bark of laughter. "Gotta admire the guts of ''em. We chased them into their dungeon and they''re right back out, pretending they''re a lizardkin. I like these guys. Hey, Brayden, do you think that big one would take Porter''s spot in the party?"


    Jack elbowed Fife. "You want a kobold to warm your bed?" He got a punch back. "Worth it," he managed to say through gritted teeth.


    "Okay, so the meathead didn''t ruin your thing here." Brayden Smith gestured in the direction the kobolds had left. "So what now?"


    "Now is the boring part." Pointing back at the merchant district, Brolly Windchime rolled his shoulders. "Now we have to go to all the merchants and get the details of their encounters. Find out what the kobolds are buying, how much our merchants are gouging them, arrange to have the gold restruck with our own coin molds, and encourage the good merchants to continue to do business. Everyone gets a cut."


    "How much are you making on this?" Brayden asked.


    "The town is making a good amount. We can afford to offer more incentives to people to move here¡ªparticularly guards and skilled workers. If I can, I''d like to get an earth wizard to perform a survey here." Pipe dreams though they had been before this new revenue stream, Brolly was excited to boost the growth of Northridge into a full city.


    Jack whistled. "Sounds like a good growth opportunity. I can see why Porter''s stupidity worried you. Why, though, don''t you formalize trade? Build an outpost near the dungeon, offer the kobolds protection, offer to build them a door."


    "That''s a lot to offer a dungeon, a door might be going too far, but an outpost and preventing adventurers from getting in would be a good idea." Walking toward the market square, Brolly thought about it. "There''s no reason we can''t build the defenses and let them man them. Or even have them hire guards from us."


    <hr>


    Penelope shrugged her shoulders. "No reason we can''t pull that much timber in again tomorrow. Then you can get your upgrade, right?" She''d started to feel a new connection to the others, the bond that fortitude she''d given them outside now pinging in her head to tell her where all the kobolds were and insight into their moods.


    "We still need a pile of gold as well. Maybe have Robert mine while the rest of you haul trees in?" Travis asked. "And, when I get that, you''re all having a day off of celebration, followed by another day off. That can be your first weekend."


    "Our first what?" Confusion poured in to blend with Penelope''s own, though she realized Robert wasn''t feeling it.


    "Trav wants us to have spare time. Where he''s from, they only work eight hour days and they have two days of doing nothing out of every seven." Robert acted casual with his description, trying to back Travis up with his words.


    Penelope had never heard of such a thing. "Trav, what''s all this?"


    "Well, I figured we are safe enough now. So, I want to give all y''all a bit more freedom. After tomorrow, I''ll hit the upgrade button and you can have two days without having to work." Travis sounded firm and set in his conviction.


    Raising one eyeridge and looking at Travis'' heart, Penelope waited a moment for him to explain further¡ªbut he didn''t. "Why? I mean, what if there''s a pile of new stuff that needs doing when you get Tier 1? What if someone comes?"


    "Then we''ll deal with it," Robert said. "Emergencies are still emergencies."


    Travis wished they could see him nodding his head. He didn''t want to be that boss who asked his workers to repeatedly work on their days off, but for one-offs they could make things work out. "There will always be something to work on. I don''t think a dungeon can ever be without work for its inhabitants, but it''s important to me that even if you are bound here, you can have lives spent doing things you want to, not just because I told you to."


    "We''ll just wind up doing work stuff anyway, because the way you treat us already means we get to do stuff we enjoy." Her arms full of books, Katelyn had been on her way to the library with her new hoard.


    "Trav, I guess you''re the boss. If you want to give four kobolds the day off to do whatever they want, we get the day off," Penelope said, shrugging.


    "Two days, Pen. Two days," Travis replied.

 Chapter 20

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Level 1


    Heart 400/400


    Experience 100/100


    Workers 4/10


    Monsters 0/10-2


    Traps 11/10+2


    Rooms 17


    Food 429


    Timber 453


    Iron 585


    Mana 9


    Rock 609


    Gold 1003


    Leather 114


    Leather Sludge 49


    Lava 7


    Explosive Runes 7


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Quest: Reach Tier 1


    </blockquote>


    Travis had let them build up a little extra gold. With Penelope, Robert, and Stephan working at the vein at the same time (after a little effort to free space around it), they''d built up to a thousand gold. They''d then headed out to get a little more timber, and now it was time.


    "Did you do it yet?" Penelope asked.


    "Not yet." Travis was more than a little worried. When he''d triggered Penelope''s upgrade, she''d been unconscious for hours. What if he did the same? "If I go unconscious while this is upgrading¡ª"


    "We''ll protect you, Trav," Penelope said, cutting in quickly. She got a round of yeahs from the others that was a relief for Travis to hear. "Even if it''s our day off."


    "Here goes nothing¡­" Travis hesitated only a moment before hitting the button.


    <hr>


    A deep, rumbling roar echoed through the dungeon. A feeling of vertigo struck every one of the kobolds and their ears were able to pick up the distinct sense of being deeper.


    "Trav?" Penelope asked. "Uh, Trav?" When there was no reply for a whole minute, she sighed. "Looks like he''s out of it for a while. Okay, the last thing we do before taking our break is to check the dungeon. Robert, check the entrance. Steph, check the warehouses for any signs of damage. Katelyn, you check the processing rooms and your library. I''ll head down to the gold mine to make sure it''s not messed up."


    "How long do you think he''ll be out for?" Robert asked.


    Thinking, Penelope didn''t want to give a false impression of what she thought was happening. "I''d say most likely a few hours. Worst case would be a full day." She dug her way through to the rear of the dungeon and filled in behind her. Robert used her hole to slip out and head down the tunnel toward the front before she closed it up again.


    Just as she was done looking at the gold, Penelope heard a shout from the entrance. Leaving the vein be, she ran as fast as she could down the dark tunnels and rounded the corner to see Robert standing, staring at the front entrance. "What''s wrong?"


    Walking closer, Penelope looked to where the entrance should be. "Wait. Tier 1 is a second level?!" Taking the stairs at a lope¡ªskipping every second or third in her haste¡ªPenelope got to the top and saw an entirely new tunnel that led to the entrance. "And the dungeon shifts down? Huh, wouldn''t have guessed that."


    "This is going to annoy Trav. We''re going to have to move stuff up to this floor so we can process wood and all that without hauling it downstairs." Robert looked around at the dungeon walls. It felt so strange to see a straight line that let sunlight flow in.


    "Either way, we don''t have to worry about moving all our warehouses down, though." Turning back to the stairs, Penelope was already wondering what Travis would do with a whole new floor of dungeon to work with. "We''re going to be doing a lot of digging soon. Mark my words. So, what are your plans for today?"


    "Steal some of your blood, start working on better ways to make people into kobolds than you having to cut yourself." Robert caught himself admiring Penelope as they got back down into the developed floor¡ªand not just her cunning. "Uh, Pen?"


    "What''s up?" Pulling out her oversize pickaxe, Penelope dug a quick shortcut past the traps.


    Robert was about to compliment her¡ªabout to tell her she looked amazing. He froze up. "Nothing. Nothing I guess. I also want to sample the sticky gunk in those sludge traps and see if I can improve it. Sticky gunk good. Sticky gunk that isn''t flammable and doesn''t get washed away with common solvents, even better. What about you?"


    "I think I''m going to try making some spears. Some good spears. We have some iron and there''s an anvil in the smelter, so why not?" Weapons were something that Penelope understood. She liked the runes that Katelyn made too, but now she was bigger and stronger than the others, the boss of the dungeon, she expected that she''d need to be able to fight. "Unless we can get ourselves a weapon smith or something, one of us is going to have to get used to swinging a forge hammer."


    Robert filled the hole in behind them almost on reflex. "Better you than me. I''ll see you in the smelter, though. I have plenty of glassware, but there are some things I need to make. Namely the glass tubes for the clock I want to make Trav."


    <hr>


    In her library, Katelyn sorted through the treasure trove of new books. She put the ones on basic magic theory aside¡ªthose would go on the shelves when Travis was awake again¡ªand started sorting the others. One was a yearly roundup of all the latest techniques discovered and perfected over the last twelve months. She leaned herself against a shelf and started flicking through it.


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    Five new summoning rituals for everything from a multitude of imps to grabbing possessions at a distance. She saw immediate usefulness in the latter one, given she could position it at, say, the bottom of the pit traps they''d set and then trigger it remotely to pull explosive runes in.


    There were other, less interesting spells, nothing that she could find useful or fun. Turning her attention to a book she''d specifically ordered, she read the title with glee When A Little Fire Isn''t Enough. It was weird for her to go for fire spells. All her life she''d focused on reducing the costs of her magic and overly efficient spellcasting, but here she was with one of the most dirty and wasteful magic foci as her primary deal now.


    Evocation was fierce for its mana costs, but reducing spells and making them more mana efficient was her jam. First, though, she needed somewhere to practice. The library was not an option, nor was a random hallway someone might be walking down.


    Making her way to Travis'' heart room, she melted the wall in the corner that opened to the back tunnels, stepped through, then prodded the ceiling with her magic to cause it to tumble down and seal back up. "I could get used to this. It''s a little like geomancery but with far more style."


    Trying to judge where she wanted to work, she made a short bit of tunnel and then a long thin room, then joined it back to the library before pinching it off from the back tunnels. Humming away happily, she held up one scaled hand, drew her mana into it¡ªher staff flaring bright with embers¡ªand released the fireball to hurtle down the hallway and impact the far wall with a thud and a wash of flames.


    "Okay, that used a lot of mana. Let''s see what I can do about putting more load onto my focus staff." It was a low-risk-high-reward trick used by wizards since the first magic user carved a pretty piece of wood. This time, when she cast her spell, the staff flared into actual fire in her hand and the resultant fireball used around a third of the mana as previously. "Nice, but I want to be able to fling these all day, so I''m going to need to modify the spell itself."


    She was about to retreat back to her library when she thought of something nice she could do for Travis. "I''m going to see if my magic works on the gold."


    <hr>


    The buildings had all been fine. Stephan had even checked on the donkey and found them upset, but quickly calmed with a quick petting and a handful of oat mash. Each time they went out to cut wood, he''d check his traps and bring any extra game inside and skin them, but now the tannery was full of hides and he had plans.


    Timber was easily acquired, he only needed to think about the dimensions of the wood and he could pull it out from behind his back. The first frame he made was big. Big enough to hold not just a normal sized kobold, but Penelope.


    He knew there were clever ways carpenters could join wood together without bindings, but he wasn''t skilled enough with joinery to manage those. Instead, he made notches in each length near the ends and used leather twine to bind the timbers into a box shape. Next he stitched several hides together and stretched the leather out over the frame, securing it with more stitching.


    The result, when he was done, was a soft suspension bed that would be perfectly sized for Penelope. Fetching more timber¡ªshorter this time¡ªhe repeated the process three more times with smaller frames and less hides.


    Strutting a little as he carried the beds into Travis'' heart room, Stephan stacked them against the wall with a sense of accomplishment¡ªjust in time to hear swearing coming from the smelter. Scratching his head, he decided to ignore it and go back to working with the leather in the tannery. He wanted to make more rope.


    <hr>


    "That should have hurt." Robert looked at the glass on his hand with curiosity. It was hot¡ªhe''d heated it in the flames himself¡ªand now it was a ball of still-glowing-red putty in his hand. "I guess there are some advantages to being a kobold. Oh well, I''ll just toss it in again."


    He was trying to make a thin tube of glass with a tiny hole in the middle to use to meter the water flow in the clock he planned. The problem was that while he needed a hot fire, Penelope was using the same fire to heat iron. "You got it too hot."


    "No, I got the fire just right¡ªfor working iron. We need another smelter, clearly." Penelope gestured at the spear-tip she was working on.


    Smooshing the glass into a ball in his hands, Robert shrugged. "Well, we have another whole day. I call next on the smelter. Who knows, maybe Trav will get a proper glass blowing room or even an alchemy room?"


    "There''s a good chance of it, though you''ll probably have to do some alchemy before that might pop up. I wonder how he''s dealing with this?"


    "He''s probably relaxed and analytical or screaming in panic. Maybe both at the same time." Smoothing out the surface of the glass with his hands, Robert realized his scales were actually polishing it. Tilting his head to the side a little, he kept at it.


    "Yeah. More of the later lately. He seems intent on making life in here pretty good¡ªfor kobolds." Satisfied with her first effort, Penelope set it aside and grabbed another piece of iron. "What are your thoughts for spears?"


    "To avoid using them at all opportunity. If I still have an explosive flask left, I''d rather drink it than use a spear." Robert kept working on the sphere, curious as to what it would end up like when he was done.


    "It''s weird to have nothing to do. I mean, as an adventurer and dungeon delver I had a lot of downtime, but I¡ª" Freezing, her hammer held high as she was about to start working on the next spearhead, Penelope started grinning like a fool. "We need to make a still."


    "We''d have to go into town and get some copper or, preferably, copper piping." Though his hands still worked on the glass, Robert''s mind was now rushing around to come up with all the objects he''d need. "I have the temperature gauges, and I can make the rest with enough copper and time, but we need that copper."


    "You and your sister could go back¡ª"


    Robert jerked as if hit. "Not Katelyn. If she gets in on this, we''ll never hear the end of it. If we just hand her a drink, she''s fine, but don''t ever let my sister help you refine any process. Ever."


    Waiting a while to let her mind digest that, Penelope hammered the next spearhead into shape. "I could go in alone, I guess. Hey, could you make me up a hundred gold for the copper¡ªOh, and I''ll need a grindstone for this too, so make it one-fifty."


    Setting the glass sphere down in the crate with the rest of his glass-blowing supplies, Robert stood up. "I got it. I''ll just go next door and grab the gold."

 Chapter 21

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 1/10


    Heart 1600/1600


    Experience 0/400


    Workers 4/12


    Monsters 0/12-2


    Traps 11/15+2


    Rooms 17


    Food 29


    Timber 33


    Iron 581


    Mana 11


    Rock 607


    Gold 1403


    Leather 102


    Leather Sludge 49


    Lava 38


    Explosive Runes 3


    Quest: Reach Tier 1


    Quest: Kill an adventuring party


    </blockquote>


    Travis woke up with a startled cry. He felt tiny and restricted. The first bit was on account of waking from the weird dream and the second was because he was tied up in his bed covers. "What the hell?"


    It felt weird to be breathing. Weird to be able to move arms and legs. Everything about being human felt weird now. Panting for breath, he worked to disentangle himself and get off the bed. His bed. In his room.


    The important thing, though, was being back in his home. His house. Not a dungeon. Standing up straight, Travis took a deep breath and took a step¡ªonly to not be able to move. Looking down, he saw that his feet had turned into heavy stone bricks.


    "This is a dream, isn''t it? Weird." The dream wanted Travis to feel afraid as his legs started turning to pink crystal, but he struggled against it. "But is this a dream that me as a dungeon is having or was all that and this a dream human me is going through?"


    As the change spread up his body, he let out a string of curses. "Just get it over with so I can wake up for real!"


    <hr>


    She felt ridiculous.


    "I feel ridiculous. How do you not constantly flash people while wearing this?" Penelope had the big cloak wrapped around herself and the hood up, but with no fasteners on the front it kept blowing open.


    Robert just laughed, especially since in the dungeon most of them barely wore anything at all. Right now he was wearing his old shirt with the bottom of it torn, folded upward, and tied around his midsection. "Whoever is on the bottom usually holds it closed. We have a system."


    "I have no clue how people haven''t noticed this yet. Either we''ve been lucky, they''ve been blind, or they¡ª" She stopped as something sunk in. "Or they know and just want our gold."


    "There''s a way to test that," Robert said. Reaching out to the big bag of gold coins he''d made, he took one and used the scales of his hand to polish all the markings off it. "Try spending this somewhere. If they complain, just tell them it''s really worn. If they don''t so much as blink, well, they know what''s going on."


    "I just wish I didn''t look so much like an idiot doing it. I guess I could buy some clothes while I''m there. We have plenty of gold, and normal clothes aren''t expensive." Picking up the sack and one of her makeshift spears, Penelope tucked the blank coin into her palm and set out. "I''ll be back soon, I hope. If things get crazy, I''ll dump the gold and run."


    "That''s what we always said we''d do. Then we could ride Gray¡ªthat''s the donkey¡ªto freedom!" Robert saluted Penelope lazily and then caved the tunnel exit in so the sludge traps were once again the only way to Travis'' heart.


    The walk from the dungeon to Northridge was uneventful, though Penelope made mental notes about how obvious it was some woodsmen were working in the forest. She sighed, however, because there wasn''t a lot they could do about hiding the fact they were working the forest.


    When the town was in sight, Penelope felt an itch. Her spear was sharp and her hands quick, she knew she could surprise more than a few of the townsfolk before they caught her. Her blood started pounding hotter, and her fist tightened around the haft of her weapon.


    "No. This is something else doing this to me. It''s stupid." But, even checking her sudden bloodlust didn''t stop her excitement. "Stupid dungeon. I don''t want to hurt them. They''re giving us resources for a little gold."


    Taking a good, deep breath and letting it out slowly, Penelope put one talon in front of the other and walked right into the town. "First thing, I need to test this." Transferring the sack of gold from one hand to the other (holding it with her spear-hand), she flipped the coin to make sure it was as clear of markings as when Robert had worn it down with his hand.


    She froze as she walked into the city center, looking around at the merchants selling everything from tools to street food to raw materials. There was always, however, one place where someone could go to get a meal and a drink. Locking her eyes on the tavern¡ªobvious with its sign hanging out front¡ªPenelope shrugged her shoulders and made her way over to it.


    When the doors opened, Catherine Clearwater had been expecting an adventurer. She was well in the know regarding all the goings-on in Northridge, so when she spotted a kobold in the doorway she didn''t immediately scream for the guard¡ªthough the spear in their hand looked a bit more serious than what she''d heard they normally brought. "H-Hello there. Welcome to the Flaccid Falchion. Can I help you with anything?"


    Kill her, take her money. The thoughts were getting annoying, but with repetition they were getting easier to completely ignore. "Ale and something to eat would be nice. Someone to talk to, maybe."


    "The first is easy." Catherine started pouring the ale from the magically chilled tap, filling a glass up with the foamy drink. When she set it down on the bar, and spotted the gold coin sitting there, she reached out and took the coin without a word. She knew the rules¡ªyou take the coins, ignore whatever was on them, and paid out based on half the gold''s value. Town takes a quarter of the sale, merchant gets the other quarter.


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    Lifting the mug of ale, Penelope realized she hadn''t drunk a single sip of anything since becoming a kobold. Working her lips, she finally managed to tip some in the side of her mouth. The taste was almost holy, given her parched body. She realized, after taking another long drought, that this could be a dangerous combination.


    Struggling not to laugh, Catherine had to ask, "Good?"


    "You have no idea. It''s been weeks since I''ve had a good brew." Penelope couldn''t stop herself taking another swig. "Our d¡ªvillage is mostly all young, uh, lizards. None of them can appreciate a good drink, and it''s something I want to fix. Any tips for someone starting out brewing?"


    "See Lotti in the market. She''ll sell you everything you need. She won''t be there right now, she spends most of the day brewing. Tell her Cat sent you." Grabbing up a clean bowl, Catherine turned to the fire at the end of the bar where a big pot of stew was staying warm.


    When the barmaid turned back to her with a spoon, some bread, and a bowl of stew, Penelope''s mouth started watering for a different reason. "That smells great."


    "You have been out in the boonies if you think garrison stew smells good. As I was going to say, that''s the second thing on your list, but if you want the last item as more than just friendly banter, I can go get Brolly?"


    The way Catherine had said it, to Penelope''s ear, meant that anyone in or around the town should know who Brolly was. She shrugged and nodded, figuring she''d just have to talk her way out of a situation if it came up. "Sure."


    With the barmaid leaving the taproom, Penelope got stuck into her meal. Between the food and the ale, she could almost imagine being her old human self again. Every now and again a glance at her talons would divest her of that notion, to say nothing of the acrobatics she did trying to drink.


    Just a moment after she''d finished, Penelope heard the door of the tavern open. Turning to look, she spotted the barmaid walking in behind a tall, handsome man wearing armor. He had a longsword at his side. Panic grew and Penelope found her hand reaching closer to the spear leaning beside the bar at her side.


    "I heard you wanted a chat?" Brolly asked as he walked over to a table. "Come and have a seat and we can discuss any topic you care to." He recognized Penelope by the description Brayden and his party had given of her. With her height, it was far harder to place her as different from a very thin lizardkin, but if he had to pin her down he''d say an oversize kobold.


    "Yeah, uh, can I get another mug of ale?" Standing, Penelope clutched the spear in her hand and grabbed the small sack of gold coins. She made her way over to the table Brolly sat at¡ªthen nearly jumped when the barmaid set a mug of ale before each of them.


    His mind racing with questions, Brolly struggled not to just come out and ask her about the dungeon. "So, I hear you and those other lizardkin have a village nearby?"


    "Y-Yeah! A village. We, uh¡­ We found some gold in a river up there. Figured we would mint it to our nation''s mark." It was one of the stupider excuses for why her coins all looked like a toddler (a competent toddler) had cast them.


    Brolly, first and foremost, didn''t want to spook the kobold. She was smart, for a dungeon mob, but there was a definite tension that they both knew what was going on but wouldn''t say. Either the pressure would grow too big, or one of them would finally tip their hand. "I''m sorry about that adventuring party. They were ordered not to harm any of you, but that one got too carried away. You won''t see him again."


    Penelope''s instincts rushed in and she wanted to fight her way out of the tavern. She''d use her spear to leg-sweep the guard, screech at the barmaid, and then¡ªHer mind froze as two humans and a half-elf walked into the tavern, all three recognizable as the party that had chased her¡ªminus the human who''d tried to catch her. "I need to¡ª"


    "Relax. You''re safe here and your gold is welcome." Almost face-palming at the timing of his friend, Brolly reached a mailed hand across the table and touched the back of Penelope''s talon. "They''re friends. You don''t have to run aw¡ª"


    "Holy shit, that''s the dungeon lizard we saw chopping wood!" Fife marched across to where Brolly and Penelope were sitting. "Hey, no hard feelings about Porter, okay? Guy was an ass about trying to catch you. I''m Fife, this is Brayden and Jack." She thrust her hand out toward Penelope, who stared at it.


    "Fife¡­" Old human reactions came naturally. When a hand was thrust out to Penelope, she clasped it and shook. For a moment she contemplated running, but they were all ignoring the bag of gold and were focused on her. Sitting her weight back on the chair, she felt a pang of defeat. "You know about the dungeon?"


    "Yeah! Even poked our head in. You guys are really good about measuring your lines. A lot of dungeons are all twisty and a mess. Hey, what are you in town for today?" It was just about the most interesting time of Fife''s life. Talking to a dungeon monster¡ªthat she normally beat the stuffing out of¡ªwas different.


    "C-Copper. Yeast." She couldn''t believe she was having this normal(ish) conversation with an adventurer.


    "You want to brew alcohol?" The idea fascinated Brolly. "You could just buy some to tide you over. Hey"¡ªhe raised his voice¡ª"Cat! Get a small keg of whiskey ready to travel!" Turning back to Penelope, Brolly felt a new excitement rush through him. "Look, we just need to know if you need some help out there? Trading seems like a good idea, assuming you don''t want to get angry and send out waves of monsters to attack us. We figured out two other nearby dungeons, but there might be more. Have you seen any others?"


    Penelope just shook her head. "We¡ªWe have things under control. There were some direwolves, but¡ª"


    "Oh! Those! You should have seen it. There was like twenty of them just out in the forest near your place. Jack here shot an ice-thingy into one and it exploded, then hit a bunch of the others and they exploded." Fife reached out and grabbed Jack and pulled him closer. "He''s a great sorcerer, you should see some of the stuff this guy can do!"


    "Fife," Brayden said, "back off and let them breathe. Go to the bar and get something to drink." When Fife looked at him like a kicked puppy, he almost yielded to her desire to talk at Penelope. When she moved, grumbling, he got a clear view of Penelope and smiled. "There. She''s a bit overwhelming¡ªwhether you''re talking to her, trying to stop her punching you, or moving through a¡ª" He stopped to not mention how good Fife was with sword in hand.


    Warrior priests were not all that common, but Penelope knew they shared at least one power with paladins¡ªthe ability to sniff out evil. When he did nothing but sit there, she figured he wasn''t detecting anything evil in her. "Dungeon creatures aren''t evil?"


    "Nope! Well, most of the ones I''ve bothered to check registered evil, but you don''t¡ªand those other two don''t. I figure that''s good enough for me and Brogdar."


    "So, how can we do more business?" Brolly asked.

 Chapter 22

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 1/10


    Heart 1600/1600


    Experience 0/400


    Workers 4/12


    Monsters 0/12-2


    Traps 11/15+2


    Rooms 17


    Food 29


    Timber 33


    Iron 581


    Mana 14


    Rock 607


    Gold 1303


    Leather 102


    Leather Sludge 49


    Lava 38


    Explosive Runes 3


    Quest: Reach Tier 1


    Quest: Kill an adventuring party


    </blockquote>


    "No." Travis was getting bored of his subconscious.


    An image of his high school English class appeared with all the other students there, staring at him, while he stood at the front of the room naked.


    "No."


    Travis bit into an apple, and immediately his teeth stuck in it and others started falling out.


    "Eww. No."


    Spiders¡ª


    "If this is anything but a journey-to-Australia dream, no."


    His dreamspace was quiet for several millennia, or maybe just a few seconds, then Travis was a dungeon again. It seemed normal¡ªPenelope, Stephan, Robert, and Katelyn were all there and doing their things. Everything was calm until adventurers started to pour in. They had guns (modern rifles, for some reason), Molotov cocktails, and one had hand grenades.


    He tried to remind himself that this was wrong and people invading his dungeon wouldn''t have those things, but being a dungeon again felt right, and so he was sucked deeper into the dream.


    <hr>


    It felt wrong. So very wrong. Penelope walked back to the dungeon with three adventurers at her side. She had to constantly shove aside the part of her that wanted to attack them and make a run for it, though it wasn''t too hard given they were helping her carry stuff.


    "So, will you give us the tour?" Fife had a barrel under each arm¡ªone full of grog and the other copper piping¡ªand despite having her arms full, she felt excitement buzzing through her. A dungeon with creatures that weren''t trying to kill her? That might, perhaps, open a bar? "Can we see the heart?"


    "Fife, no." Brayden didn''t want to stomp on Fife''s excitement too much. Having her find something that let her forget Porter was a good thing¡ªhaving her become best friends with a bunch of kobolds, however, was a little more than he was prepared to put up with. "If they ask us, it''s fine, but we aren''t going to get pushy."


    Penelope wholeheartedly agreed with Brayden. "No offense, but I don''t think we know you well enough yet. We''ll see about setting up a bar at the entrance, though." It was crazy to Penelope that Fife had even asked that earlier. The even nuttier thing was that it would be good. They could turn resources into local currency should their gold run low.


    "Hey, none taken. I''ve seen my fair share of hearts and from what I get, dungeons don''t like you seeing them." The uneasy feeling of a whole city of monsters hating you was part of what Fife meant, though she wasn''t articulate or caring enough to go into it. "You know adventurers are going to come in here to fight, right?"


    "We''re not just ready for that, we''re anticipating it." Penelope held her tongue from explaining further.


    Still worried, Brayden wanted to offer more help, but wasn''t sure what he could do apart from words. "Brolly said he''d try to distract adventurers from finding your dungeon, but they will still come. Are you sure¡ª?"


    "We are. Trust me, I know what is coming and we''re preparing for it."


    Jack cleared his throat. "I''ve been wondering something. Well, wondering and listening."


    "Spit it out, Jack. I hate how you keep circling around stuff like that." Fife would have punched him in the shoulder if her arms weren''t full.


    "You speak too well, miss kobold. You make contractions, your word choice is excellent, and you speak as if you have been a native speaker for a score of years or more¡ªnot a six month old dungeon monster." Raising one eyebrow as Penelope stopped, Jack waited for her reply.


    The question pained Penelope. Jack was too smart for his own good, she thought. "It''s complicated. There is more to it than what I''m saying, but I''m not ready to explain it."


    "No malice there at all, and no evil intent." Brayden shrugged his shoulders. "We all have secrets, Jack. If she says this one is hers to keep, it''s definitely hers to keep."


    Fife, who hadn''t stopped walking, took a moment to look back at Penelope. "Maybe you''ll trust us one day. Until then, let''s get you brewing the weirdest damn stuff in the whole kingdom!"


    From there, everyone let it drop. Penelope was much relieved when they reached the dungeon with no further more-than-she-wanted-to-answer questions. "Well, you might as well help me get it to the actual entrance. Come on."


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    "Wait, you said you didn''t want us seeing the heart. What gives?" Despite her confusion, Fife was still walking after Penelope. She definitely wasn''t going to look a gift-kobold in the mouth.


    "This is nowhere near the heart. Particularly since we just got our second level." Penelope couldn''t help but smirk at that. A dungeon as young as Travis was shouldn''t have a second level yet. Part of that was the town''s help in trading with them, of course. "We haven''t started building into it yet, but that''s because we were having a celebration for getting there."


    "I imagine buying all that iron and grain helped." Reaching out his hand to the wall of the dungeon, Jack ran his palm along it. "How do you get these so straight?"


    Penelope shrugged. "Beats me. We dig, walls are straight."


    Taking the stairs down, relying on the light stick Brayden activated for light, Fife smirked at the familiar tunnels. "Ah, this used to be your entrance, huh? What happened, it went down and made room above it?"


    "Yeah, seems that''s how dungeons work. I guess we''ll find out when we get the third level." Leading the group to the trap section, Penelope pondered leading them into the traps¡ªbut rejected that idea. There was no way she wanted to listen to Fife for the rest of her kobold life. "This is the end of your ride."


    "Sludge traps? Holy shit, look at them. You built a whole corridor of sludge traps! I''m glad you''re friends, ''coz I''d hate this place." Fife set her barrels down and dropped to a knee at the first trap. Reaching her hand in, she felt the stickiness of the sludge immediately¡ªand got a caltrop stuck in her palm for good measure. "Whoever designed this is not someone I want to meet."


    "Thanks, but you''ve already met her." Fishing around in her bag of badly-pressed coins, Penelope pulled out ten and tossed them to Brayden one by one.


    "What''s this for?" Not that he was unhappy to get paid gold¡ªthat was literally one of the few things that Brayden Smith was never unhappy about¡ªbut he was wondering what the twist was.


    "For not being assholes. For stopping your former party member from doing a number on me. For being more than typical adventurers." When she looked at them, all three looked a little nervous and embarrassed. "And I promise you''ll be the first outsider to try our kobold beer, Fife."


    "See? Now that''s what I''m talkin'' about. If you ever need a hand with something, just let us know, eh? We''ll fight damn hard for that much gold¡ªand harder for friends." Wiping the sludge off on her leg, Fife held out a hand for a shake.


    Without realizing what she was doing, Penelope reached forward and clasped forearms with Fife. The move was, traditionally, a way for adventurers to promise something between them. Her eyes met Fife''s and she realized the fighter recognized it. "I gotta be going. Party to plan and all that."


    "C''mon, let''s get out of here." Brayden turned, still not believing what he''d just seen.


    Jack looked from Fife to Brayden. "But she just¡ª"


    "Hustle your butt, Jack. We have gold to spend and there''s not enough ale in this dungeon¡ªyet¡ªto get me drunk." Fife bodied Jack away from Penelope and back the way they''d come.


    When the sound of the adventurers had faded from her sharp hearing, Penelope started swearing. She swore at length, she swore in new and creative ways, but she didn''t stop until she''d gotten their goods behind a wall.


    <hr>


    Katelyn had been practicing her new spells. They were odd and weird and she wasn''t quite sure how to deal with them. It had taken her hours of focus to scribe them, and even then they all seemed about five times more complicated than any spell she''d ever cast.


    It took her two hours of study to realize what it was she was seeing. "These aren''t wizard spells." It was a given that a wizard spell could have any of her usual techniques used to simplify them, add extra flexibility, and even reduce their mana use¡ªbut she was sure they weren''t wizard spells.


    They cast like wizard spells, they performed like wizard spells, but they weren''t.


    "Alright. If I accept these aren''t wizard spells, and that they came from me becoming a kobold, that means these are kobold spells." It was a small step, but one she knew needed to be taken. Calling them kobold spells meant it was obvious why her wizard techniques weren''t working. "So now I have a new field of magic to pursue¡ªkobold magic."


    "Heyyyyy sisssss."


    Freezing her mental charge down the path of unraveling a new spellcasting system, Katelyn turned to the doorway of the library and looked at her brother. "You only slur like that when you''ve had something to drink. I know that can''t be the case because¡ª"


    "Lighten up and come out here. We got some booze." Holding a half empty mug in one hand, Robert held the other out toward his sister. "And we have some celebrating to do."


    "What? Robert, I don''t think we should¡ª" Stopping herself short before she went too far and convinced herself it was a bad idea, Katelyn stood up and walked over to take the mug from Robert. Lifting it to her lips, she took a long hit of it, almost half emptying the mug.


    And that''s when it hit Katelyn. "Where did you get this? This isn''t rotgut."


    "Pen''s got all the details. Come on, or they''ll finish all the good stuff." Robert led the way back to Travis'' heart where Penelope and Stephan were both sitting down and talking. "Here she is. Are you going to tell us now?"


    "Yeah!" Penelope still didn''t feel perfect about the last bit, but she was determined to think the best of Fife, Jack, and Brayden. "Get a top-up and relax." She waited for Robert and Katelyn to do that, and for Stephan to pass them each a tin plate of sliced meat, and then started telling her story.


    <hr>


    "Hey, Brayden?" Fife asked, after half a walk back to town in silence started to get on her nerves.


    "I saw it too, Fife. I don''t want to leap to any conclusions, but things are starting to stack up into an odd picture." A really odd picture, Brayden could admit in the privacy of his own head. "And no, we ain''t telling no one about it¡ªnot even Brolly."


    "Two clients," Jack said. "Two clients means we don''t blab either''s secrets to the other."


    Holding out his hand, Brayden opened his fingers to show the ten coins in it. "Exactly."


    "Can we talk about it, at least?" When neither responded, Fife continued as if they''d agreed. "She used to be an adventurer. Knowing language so well, knowing traps, and that agreement clasp confirms it. So what happened to her?"


    "Cursed, maybe?" Jack asked.


    "What about the other two?" Closing his hand, Brayden tucked the ten coins into his pouch. "Are they the same?"


    Fife mulled over the words and moved to a different question. "What if it''s the dungeon doing it? Is that why she doesn''t want us to see the heart?"


    "We''ve got too many questions and not enough answers. For now, let''s agree not to ever go deeper than those traps until we get to the bottom of this." Now Brayden''s hand closed around his holy symbol, the sharp points digging into the leather of his gloves. "Because I don''t have plans that include spending the rest of my life in a dungeon, digging holes for a living."

 Chapter 23

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 1/10


    Heart 1600/1600


    Experience 0/400


    Workers 4/12


    Monsters 0/12+1


    Traps 11/15+4


    Rooms 17


    Food 29


    Timber 33


    Iron 581


    Steel 0


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 14


    Rock 607


    Gold 1303


    Leather 102


    Leather Sludge 49


    Lava 38


    Explosive Runes 3


    Quest: Reach Level 2


    Quest: Kill an adventuring party


    </blockquote>


    After so many stupid and aborted nightmares, Travis'' subconscious finally released him from sleep and¡ªhe felt weird. There was too much of him, he had some kind of new hallway that gave him vertigo, and then there was a few changed bits within what should have been established dungeon.


    It clicked, too, that he was still a dungeon. That was, if nothing else, a relief. He was familiar with being a dungeon now.


    So the feeling of too-muchness, Travis could now tell, was the fact he had a new floor. Swapping between them was easy, though the images he got were far more sparse. He pondered this, counting up his lizards and finding about the same number as before¡ªwhich was the problem.


    The new hallway was part of the first problem. A whole new floor to expand into. He worried at the idea, not having played any games that had multi-floor dungeons, but the concept was easy enough to figure out. His old floor had shifted down and there was a new one above linked to it with stairs. Easy!


    The last problem he''d immediately seen was a new tunnel near Katelyn''s library. That was kinda a no-brainer. She''d needed some room to do something and had melted it herself. There was even a bit more lava in his inventory to make up for it.


    That''s when he noticed his other resources. "What the hell is up with all this gold?!"


    Every kobold in the dungeon turned their heads to face his heart at the same time. Katelyn had been about to start firing her attempt at a modified fireball, but released the spell without casting it. Robert was messing around with some glass. Penelope was carefully bending what looked like copper pipe. Stephan was carving little kobold figurines out of wood.


    "Sorry, I didn''t mean to yell, but why are all the warehouses now filled with gold?"


    "Don''t look at me," Penelope said, "I spent some gold."


    Another surprise for Travis was the way Penelope slurred her words. That''s when he watched her reach for a mug and lift it to her mouth.


    "That might have been my fault," Katelyn said. "I wanted to see if melting the gold vein with magic would produce gold for you. It worked?"


    One of his kobolds was drunk, another had decided that fire must make things better¡ªTravis was terrified to ask Robert and Stephan what they''d been up to, but he had to know. "Okay, well, we can deal with that. Gold is useful, at least. Robert, what have you been doing? You got your glass and stuff?"


    "Yeah. I need a room for it, though. Figured, since you got the library after Katelyn did magic that me making something alchemical might unlock a lab." Sitting still, he was using a small rune that emitted fire to heat something in a glass vial.


    Travis knew the moment the reaction completed.


    <blockquote>


    Alchemist Lab unlocked.


    </blockquote>


    "It worked! We have an¡ªHoly crap, I have so many new things to build!" If Travis could control his eyes, they would have widened. "There''s a Glassmith too, wait, Watering Hole? Why would we unlock a¡­"


    "I''m not that drunk." Penelope sipped at the ale she''d slipped some honey into. "Anything else? New traps?"


    "Okay, more rooms. Kitchen, Wyvern Beastpens, Lesser Wyrm Den, Blacksmith, Trap Factory, Charcoal Burner, Stoneworks, Mushroom Farm, and Tailor are all visible, along with the other three I said. Ooh, traps! Boulder Trap, Rocks Fall, and Snare¡ªbut they''re all grayed out. Oh, it says I need a Trap Factory, but that needs steel to make. How do we get steel?"


    "Charcoal and iron smelted at high temperature. Probably the Blacksmith you mentioned could do it." Robert cleaned up the simple reaction he''d performed and set about cleaning his glassware. "So, where are we putting the Alchemist Lab?"


    "It''s a bigger building, it seems. Gotta put it in the big room I''d already planned out. Hey, the Glassmith will fit in the smaller one to the side. Perfect." Travis was already planning some things out. "Wait. Wait, wait, wait! I have Research!"


    Taking a long swig of her sweet ale, Penelope stood up and started walking toward Travis'' heart. "Trav, there''s something we need to talk about."


    <hr>


    After giving Travis a moment to rave about the research, which all seemed to take a lot of time to do, Penelope sat down and described her encounter with the town, with the adventurers, and with alcohol. "So I think they might know I was an adventurer. I''m sorry."


    Penelope didn''t often drink to deal with her problems, and she wasn''t nearly drunk enough to forget them now, but she welcomed the slight dulling of reality that the drink brought. She sighed and looked into the bottom of her mug. "This doesn''t solve problems, though. It doesn''t even make them better."


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    "This doesn''t change anything." Travis'' voice cut through Penelope''s morose thoughts and made her pay attention not from any control he held over her, but from her confusion. "Now we know we''re welcome there, we don''t have to worry so much about striking our mark on the gold. If they know how we get new kobolds, though, that might be an end to adventurers coming in."


    Laughing, Penelope stood up burped. "Trav, you will never have that problem. You might get less if the local town isn''t handing out maps to find you, but adventurers have ways to find dungeons. It''s easier the bigger they are. I mean, the bigger you are. Having two floors will make you a prime target for dungeon-seeking spells."


    "There''re dungeon-seeking spells?" Travis asked. "Oh, Katelyn just said that''s how she found me."


    "Right. So, you''re still going to have idiots turn up and want to explore a dungeon. You know what I say? We set that Watering Hole up by the entrance and get them nice and drunk before kicking them out or offering them a new home." Penelope liked the idea of offering adventurers ways to spend their money instead of attacking the dungeon itself.


    "That could work. Don''t most adventurers go into dungeons to get money, though?"


    It was a good point and one Penelope didn''t have a great argument for. "Honestly? Yeah. Maybe you will get a reputation enough that we''ll attract adventurers with full pockets. We also need to work on something upstairs so that we don''t have to haul trees and stuff all the way down here. Maybe a warehouse?"


    "Yeah, warehouses would¡ªI have building upgrades now! This is awesome, we have so much stuff to do."


    The enthusiasm made Penelope smile. "One other thing. Those adventurers? Their leader is trustworthy."


    "Why do you say that?" Travis'' tone was inquisitive and curious.


    "Their leader, Brayden, is a priest of Brogdar." When that didn''t make Travis gasp, she figured she''d have to explain it. "Brogdar Evil Slayer is a bit of a wild card. If you have a hint of evilness about you, you''re pretty screwed if you run into one of his followers. He said outright I don''t register as evil. That''s good, though. Really good. Their priests are known for being fair."


    "Wait, there are gods here? Actual do stuff gods?"


    "Yours don''t?" Penelope asked, somewhat confused.


    Travis made a sound akin to what Penelope would if she was asked something crazy. "Yeah, I''m not going to get into that. We don''t have magic where I''m from. I''m not sure what that says about the gods of my world."


    Blowing out a breath, Penelope wished she hadn''t stopped drinking. "I don''t have much use for them myself, except for the talismans."


    "You talked about those when Katelyn and Robert¡ªuh, joined us. What do they do again?"


    Penelope hadn''t realized he hadn''t figured them out. "You can trigger them yourself or they trigger automatically when you die. You land at the shrine you got them from. Of course, if you''re dead, you had better hope you paid the priest or priestess enough to resurrect you.


    "Most of the good religions are fine for it, but if you don''t pay or swing the wrong way, you have to find someone a little less reputable. There are some that will take anyone, but they charge more."


    "That sounds rough."


    "You have no idea. Will and Peter were in the latter category. They''d always complain about having to go to neutral shrines and pay extra." Walking right up to Travis'' heart, Penelope put her hand on it. "You''re getting bigger."


    "I guess I doubled in size, dungeon wise, so this reflects that? What''s the biggest heart you''ve seen?" There was an almost-shiver in Travis'' voice.


    "I''ve seen the heart of a three-floor verdant dungeon." Penelope took several steps backward, holding her hand up before her. "If you get that old, you''ll be out to about here."


    <hr>


    "Just queue it up. I want to get this thing built, Trav." Robert pressed his palm to the rock, feeling the dig orders just past the first layer. He didn''t want to just dig, though, in case he opened up something bad.


    "Alright, alright. It''s meant to be your day off." Travis added the two dig orders that would let Robert dig out his alchemy and glassblowing area.


    Hefting his pickaxe, Robert lunged into the task. "You don''t get it. Alchemy is what I do for fun. It''s¡ªIt''s everything. I am in complete control when working on something. I can make us just about anything!"


    After Robert found a junction and moved past it, leaving a planned spot for someone to dig, Penelope arrived with her larger pickaxe. "I thought you could use some help. I want to test this out."


    Together they cleared the 133 sections of rock and opened up one smaller room and one that was four times the size.


    "Thanks for that, Pen. Okay, now I want my alchemy stuff in here and my glass stuff in the other one." Robert gave a firm nod, and for some reason he couldn''t stop his rear from swaying side to side (he refused to think of it as tail-wagging).


    There was a moment of silence before Travis started laughing.


    "What?" Robert and Penelope asked at the same time.


    "Okay, okay. I''ll put this down, but first you need to go and thank your sister. These buildings need a thousand gold each." With that said, Travis placed the plan down for an Alchemy Lab. "Wow, a lot of iron and¡ªrock! Hey, I didn''t notice, but most of these Tier 1 buildings need rock!"


    "A thousand gold. You''d better be able to make some hot stuff." Penelope walked forward and knelt down to start building.


    Robert helped, his rear keeping up its swaying as he built stone benchtops that had runic heating and cooling plates built in, as well as cupboards and cupboards of generic glassware. It was a surprise that there were things that didn''t represent the resources Travis had told him the room cost, but it was still a sweet bonus.


    "What about the Glassmith?" Robert asked.


    "We need more gold for that. Uh, Katelyn? Can you go and melt down another thousand gold?" Travis asked. "She just said she would after her current rune is done. It''s exciting to have all this new stuff. I feel so¡ªI''m getting carried away, I know, but I think there is something about dungeons that we just want to grow."


    "I can believe that. Every dungeon I''ve ever seen¡ªincluding you¡ªseems hell-bent on growing." Penelope shouldered her pickaxe. "So, what are we low on¡ªapart from gold?"


    "The usual, timber. Also, more food would be good, though our best bet with that is going to town to buy more. Do you think they''ll have more?"


    "I''ll do another run into town¡ªafter my day off." Penelope stuck her tongue out in the general direction of Travis'' heart.


    "And, I''ll connect this room with the central dungeon rather than the side path," Robert said, looking back at his alchemy lab and promising himself he''ll be spending the rest of his day in there.

 Chapter 24

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 1/10


    Heart 1600/1600


    Experience 0/400


    Workers 4/12


    Monsters 0/12+1


    Traps 11/15+4


    Rooms 17


    Food 29


    Timber 33


    Iron 481


    Steel 0


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 14


    Rock 640


    Gold 103


    Leather 102


    Leather Sludge 49


    Lava 38


    Explosive Runes 3


    Quest: Reach Level 2


    Quest: Kill an adventuring party


    </blockquote>


    "Wait, my trap and monster limit went up. I mean, the base amounts of both AND the bonuses. We can have eight more traps now." It was a revelation, but implied there were two sources of the increase. "Okay, so if the base amount is calculated by my tier and level, why''d I get more bonus?"


    "You had a quest for getting to tier 1, right?" Robert asked. He was in the process of testing the sludge from the sludge traps, though Travis was still a bit annoyed that he was working on the second of their days off.


    Travis examined his stats a bit more. "Oh, of course, the quest! Now I have one to reach level 2. There''s no upgrade for that. Does it just need experience? Hrmm. There''s only one way to figure that out."


    Robert was adding a series of chemicals to various samples of sludge. He looked up from it for a moment. "Does everyone from your land think like this?"


    "You mean poking at things to find out how they work?"


    "Yeah."


    The question was good enough to warrant Travis spending some time thinking about it. "Not in exactly this way or to this extent, but we have scientists who do this constantly and for most of their lives. We kinda got a lot of the big questions answered that way, though some still took an idiot taking the wrong path to discover."


    "I think around ten percent of alchemists and even less than that of mages even try to improve things in this way. Most will just buy a book of spells or recipes and just improve based off other people''s work. That''s why Katelyn and me came out here. We figured if there was one place new magic and alchemistry could be researched and discovered, it''s a dungeon." Robert added small amounts of different substances to each sample. "I know that''s true for me, and given how Katelyn''s been muttering about kobold magic, I''d say she''s found her new home to be just as she imagined it too."


    Travis was a little in awe of Robert''s words. He''d felt terrible about their conversion, but here Robert was telling him that this was his ideal life. "Make sure to tell me if there''s something else I can do for you. It actually makes me happy to know you''re enjoying yourselves."


    "Perfect. We can all help each other, then."


    <hr>


    Penelope now felt a little more self-conscious walking into town leading the donkey and cart. She''d made a shopping list, and had brought a huge bag of gold with her to spend. It should have been terrifying, but she had an ally walking beside her.


    "What do you guys eat?" Fife asked. "You''ve got the teeth for meat."


    Despite everything that''d happened with Porter, Penelope found herself more comfortable with the adventurers than with the other folks around town. For one, she could feel a tenseness around the merchants that¡ªnow that she knew they knew¡ªwas obviously because she was a wild dungeon monster. "Yeah, we mostly eat meat. There''s been some oats on the menu lately, but we normally toss some meat in there too to flavor them."


    "Ha! That''s good adventuring food that¡ª" Stopping mid-boast, Fife realized where her words were going and why Penelope knew about such things. "Right. Yeah. So why all the grain then? How many mouths do you have down there?"


    "More than the faces you''ve seen, Fife. The grain is mostly to keep this guy fed and pay for upgrades. You wouldn''t believe what happens behind the scenes in a¡ªIn one of our villages."


    Fife saw the word as a good substitute for dungeon. "Right. Village. Got it. So your village got bigger. Any new traps? I still have nightmares about that sludge setup you got."


    "You want to know the best bit about sludge traps?" When Fife nodded, Penelope wiggled her tail a little more than was strictly needed to walk as a kobold. "We have a k¡ªlizardkin¡ªworking on making them better."


    "Ha! I wanna see some poor sap caught in that stuff. So, when''s the tavern going up?"


    "Just as soon as we get enough stuff to build it. Oh, right, need more iron. Come on." Leading the way, Penelope realized she felt like an adventurer again. Fife was her kind of people, when she''d been human, and the comradery and language suited her just fine. "Hey, Fife, you ever thought of settling down?"


    The question caught Fife off-guard. "Huh? Give away the adventuring? Nah. I figure I keep going until I get unlucky enough to die. Why?"


    "The village is looking for new members."


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    Fife stopped in her tracks. The comment confirmed everything she''d suspected. "Huh, I was right."


    "What?" Penelope asked.


    "I''m not normally right about these things. It''s a new experience. So, how would it work? I come to the d¡ªvillage¡ªand settle down? No more fighting?"


    Laughing, Penelope couldn''t stop barking as well as the idea caught her by surprise. "No fighting? A dung¡ªvillage?"


    Fife paused a moment to process the words, then nodded. "Okay, that was stupid to ask. But I''d stay a¡ªI don''t know how to say it and not give the game away."


    "It''s stupid to have to keep it going, but I did notice you aren''t the only adventurer group in town. Yeah, you''d be like the others. I dunno, maybe you could become a floor boss or something and get some more stats or something." Penelope shrugged.


    "Right, and how would you get the village to make me the floor boss and not one of the other¡ªuh¡ªvillagers?" Fife paused when she spotted a stall selling a stick decorated with various meats. "Hey, how much?"


    Penelope rolled her eyes and pulled out a gold coin. "Two, please." She passed the coin to the guy and he gave them both two. "We have a lot of clout with the village."


    Fife got plenty of time to mull that over as they walked across the square to where the ironmonger was set up. The meat had a spicy and hot sauce on it that made eating it difficult without a drink.


    "Hey! Do you have any iron or steel?" Penelope hadn''t had a single problem with the hot sauce, the stuff tasting just like a sweet tang to her, but now she was at the ironmonger she realized Fife was struggling to eat her second stick.


    "Waiting on fresh shipments. Should be another two days, but I have a few bars of each I can spare for the right price."


    Penelope knew she was going to get ripped off, but the speed that Katelyn could melt gold off that vein made for a severe lack of caring about getting the absolute best price. She needed the goods, they were selling. "How much?"


    Ignoring the bartering, Fife walked away a little to investigate the town weaponsmith''s latest work. "Mind if I hold them?" she asked the young man who had arms thicker than her legs.


    "Yeah, yeah. But no ideas or I''ll call the Guard," the weaponsmith replied with a bored tone. Then he spotted the sword at her side. "That''s quite a piece of work there."


    Seeing the nod toward her hip, Fife perked right up. "You better believe it. Enchanted and everything. Stays sharp and self-repairs nicks." Drawing her blade, she held it out hilt-first to the man. "When it''s your ass on the line, you make sure you have a good, reliable weapon."


    Examining the sword, the weaponsmith whistled and nodded. "It''s one nice piece of steel. You don''t have any elemental effects on it?"


    "Nah, we have a great sorcerer in our party. Guy is a wonder to watch him work¡ªdon''t tell him I said that. If I can''t hurt something with cold steel, I let him have his big rescue moment." Taking her sword back, Fife checked it like she always did, then slid it back in its sheath. "One thing I''ve been looking for, though. Do you sell pistols?"


    Penelope''s head turned at the mention of guns. She''d already dealt with the price and was just trying to argue the ironmonger out of more metal.


    "Nah, no pistols. I knew a guy down south that worked that stuff. Was there something in particular you wanted, or just wanted to browse?" Guns were a spectacular way to deal with things, but they attracted a similarly spectacular price. Knowing the deal on marking up prices for the kobolds, and seeing that Fife was a friend of theirs, the young man saw a lot of gold in his future. "I could always get one or two sent up here?"


    Fife sighed. She really wanted a pistol as a last resort weapon, but the cost was prohibitive. "I don''t really have the¡ª"


    "Send them up. If they''re good, we''ll take them," Penelope said, giving a wink to the ironmonger. "Some powder and bullets too. All the stuff needed for, for a hundred shots from each."


    It was a dream come true. The weaponsmith pulled out his tablet and started scrawling on the wax with his stylus. "I don''t know exactly how much they''ll cost, but it will be consistent with the going price down there, plus the usual overhead."


    Penelope knew all too well about that overhead. "If they shoot straight and have all the kit, I''m sure we can work out a price we''re both happy with."


    When they''d loaded the iron and steel, and rolled the wagon out of earshot of the weaponsmith, Fife turned and stood in front of Penelope. "You can''t buy me a gun. That''s a crazy debt I can''t¡ª"


    "You saved my life and you weren''t even in my party. Everyone in the¡ªvillage¡ªwould consider that a debt we owed you." Penelope gave Fife the hardest look she could until the other woman sighed and let out a grunt. "Yeah, you did one little good deed, but it was important to me. So, thanks. If the guns aren''t good enough, we''ll talk to someone who can get us good stuff."


    "All this time I''ve been kicking the ass of villagers and I should have been saving them." Fife shook her head and let out a whoop of excitement. "Have you thought of going back to your old life?"


    They''d been dancing around her history so much that Penelope was surprised when Fife just outright asked it. "Yeah and no. I was in a party with two assholes I''d rather see fed to a dungeon than walking around. They stabbed me in the back and that was the reason I joined the village. Kinda the start of all of it. If I left now, what would the others do without me?"


    "Tell me about it! Jack and Brayden would be like two lost lambs if I wasn''t there to beat them over the head when they''re about to do something stupid." Fife left it completely unsaid that in the majority of times it was her doing something stupid and usually Brayden who shouted her back into line.


    "Those two who were coming in? One of them is working to make my brewing kit right now, the other is trying to figure out new and inventive ways to blow stuff up with magic. And you know what surprises me?" Penelope waited until Fife asked what. "I wouldn''t have it any other way."


    "Yeah. Wish Porter had kept his head about him. It was nice to have a big guy I could rely on, but then that was the problem in the end." Sighing and moving to walk beside Penelope again, Fife contemplated better days.


    Out of sight of the pair, Porter said, "See? That''s a lizardman from the dungeon. They''re trading with it and everything."


    One of the five people with him laughed. "No sweat. Just show us where this dungeon is and we''ll clear out all the damn lizards. Then we can all get a piece of that pie."


    "You really want me to come in too?" It was a dream come true. Bigger parties meant safer fights against more powerful dungeons.


    "Sword and board, right? Always a spot for that¡ªmore meat for the grinder, as they say."

 Chapter 25

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 1/10


    Heart 1600/1600


    Experience 0/400


    Workers 4/12


    Monsters 0/12+1


    Traps 11/15+4


    Rooms 17


    Food 29


    Timber 233


    Iron 481


    Steel 0


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 16


    Rock 640


    Gold 1603


    Leather 152


    Leather Sludge 99


    Lava 38


    Explosive Runes 3


    Quest: Reach Level 2


    Quest: Kill an adventuring party


    </blockquote>


    Cutting down more trees, checking traps, and melting gold. Travis realized he had no actual way to stop any of them from actually working, especially when Katelyn learned that poking her tongue out at his heart was a way for her to win almost any argument.


    It was almost a relief for him when Penelope approached the dungeon entrance (the new one) with the donkey loaded up with supplies and what seemed to be an extremely drunk Fife laughing and stumbling along beside her.


    "Uh, Pen?" Travis asked when she reached the entrance. "Why did you bring back an adventurer?"


    Penelope barked a laugh. "I tried to tell her to go back, but she found me on the outskirts of the forest. I couldn''t just leave her there."


    "You couldn''t if you wanted to! I''d follow you and get into your booze!" Fife punched Penelope in the shoulder. "Hey, who''re you talkin'' to?"


    "The dungeon, you drunk maniac." Punching Fife back, Penelope led the way into the dungeon. "You got a light? I don''t mind leading you, but you''re going to be in pitch black soon."


    "Oh, yeah. Hold up." Fife reached into a pocket and pulled out an alchemical light stick, managed to activate it on her fourth try, and then held it out like a sword. "Lead on to the grog!"


    "I told you, we don''t have any¡ª" Penelope was fast. She grabbed Fife when the woman wobbled and started falling backward. "Ah shit. Now we have a problem. She passed out, Trav."


    "How much do you trust her? She''s not going to go crazy and try to break my heart, will she?" Defensiveness was baked-in now. Just the thought of having someone not part of the dungeon behind the traps made Travis'' whole mind itch with worry, but what worried him more was Fife getting hurt by something in the outer tunnels. "Bring her in. She''s just one adventurer and we have a lot of explosive runes now."


    "Got it. And for what it''s worth, I trust her not to go crazy. She''s probably going to wake up with a hell of a headache, though."


    Travis watched Penelope lift Fife onto the cart and lead the donkey down the stairs carefully and along to the appropriate wall. Just a few good hits had the wall down and the donkey was soon parked in its stall.


    With Fife over her shoulder, Penelope sealed up the tunnel and walked down the dark hallways and into the room well illuminated by Travis'' heart. "Don''t worry, I''ll sleep in the common room here and she can have my bed."


    Sighing at the feel of Penelope''s claws trailing on his heart, Travis watched her carry Fife into one of the sleeping rooms. "Do you think it would be a good idea to offer her kobold conversion?"


    "I already¡ªugh, she weighs so damn much for such a slim woman. I already did, Trav. She wants to see the world a bit more, though I think she''s just a little scared of commitment right now. Maybe if she found out someone actually is in charge down here and it''s not just every kobold for themselves, that would help." Setting Fife on her bed, Penelope tucked some furs around her and then extinguished her light stick.


    "We could always advertise in town. Surely there would be some people interested in settling down to a life of toil."


    Leaving the sleeping area, Penelope sighed. "Trav, I know you''re joking, but if you told people they only had to work five days out of seven you''ll be lucky to have enough room for them all."


    "Wait until they find out about holidays and annual leave." When Penelope froze and stared at his heart, Travis outright laughed. "Come on, don''t you ever just want to take a week off and relax?"


    About to answer right away, Penelope stopped and sighed. "I won''t lie. I became an adventurer to make it big so I wouldn''t have to do the boring work. Now I find the boring work is a lot more interesting than I thought. Besides, you let me help plan out and build a dungeon¡ªthis is the most fun I''ve had in my life."


    "What about the spiders?" Travis asked, a little confused at Penelope''s answer.


    "Are you kidding? That was awesome. Do you know how expensive good, reliable magic explosives are? Here we have Katelyn just giving them out!"


    "So you like it here because you get to build a dungeon and throw explosives?"


    "Well, and you have so much gold. I was going to save it as a surprise, but I got a merchant to get a gun or two. I bribed Fife with one because she was being helpful and escorting me around town. I wonder if we''ll get anything special for bringing a gun in here like we did alchemy and magic?"


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Given what had happened in just one day of letting a bunch of kobolds do their own thing, Travis had to wonder if getting them guns would be the best thing ever or lead to his destruction.


    <hr>


    Waking up with her throat on fire and her head aching was not a new thing for Fife. Doing so in a comfortable bed was something new, as was being alone. Silence was new, too, and she found it agreed with her.


    The idea of closing her eyes again and going back to sleep was appealing, but two bodily urges pushed her on. Climbing from the bed, she was appreciative again of the dark, but she needed to be able to see. Her favorite light stick was missing, but after some checking of the bed she found it and gave it a twist.


    With the dark pushed back, Fife shrouded her eyes and looked around at the squared-off rock walls around her. "That explains why it''s so quiet. Where am I?"


    Pushing aside the thick, sack-like curtain, she saw a long hallway with similar sleeping rooms and a pink light at the end of it. Walking down the hall with a little urgency, she rounded the corner and froze. "Oh shit. That''s¡ª"


    With an almost reverence she walked forward and touched the giant heart before her. It wasn''t the biggest she''d seen, but she hadn''t seen many¡ªand none had been friendly. "Huh. I guess you run all this then? Shame you can''t talk, I think a dungeon would be pretty interesting to talk to¡ªUh, do you have a pit or something where I can¡­ take care of business?"


    When a kobold poked their head around a corner on the other side of the heart, Fife was about to ask them, but they were already gesturing her to follow.


    "Down here. We don''t¡ªkobolds don''t need to do that, but we have a donkey we take care of and shovel out his stall every day. I''m Steph."


    Rushing after Stephan, Fife was glad that they seemed to understand her urgency. Down a hall a bit, then a hard left, then more hall, then another left and she finally saw some light and could smell the donkey.


    When she''d relieved herself, Fife realized that Steph had retreated down the hall a little. "Uh, can I get a drink somewhere?"


    Stephan tilted his head to the side for a moment, then nodded. "Pen is on her way. She''ll help you¡ªYour friends are at the entrance! They aren''t happy!"


    "I bet they aren''t. From what I remember, I got pretty drunk and followed Pen out here. They probably think I''m a kobold by now. I''m not turning into a kobold, am I?" The idea of it had some appeal to Fife, but she was sure there were still things she wanted to do before being stuck in even the most accommodating dungeon.


    "Down here, Fife. Let''s go and tell your friends to relax before they get stuck in the sludge traps¡ªor worse, make it past them." Penelope hefted the biggest pickaxe Fife had ever seen and started wailing on a wall just down the hall.


    A tumble of rocks that seemed to disappear as soon as they were freed from the wall revealed to Fife that there was a tunnel on the other side of the wall. "So your front door is actually just a bunch of traps even you can''t get past?"


    "We can dig and fill the tunnel in just fine¡ªwe don''t need a door to reveal where our weakness is." Penelope led the way down the hall while Fife followed her, keeping her light stick aimed at her feet.


    When they rounded a corner and came up behind Brayden and Jack, Penelope stopped. "Hey, what are you doing?"


    "Where have you taken F¡ª?" Brayden froze mid-demand. Walking beside Penelope was Fife, her features a little green but otherwise not just alive but still human. "What''s going on?"


    Fife groaned. Her head was starting to pound again and she wanted nothing more than to crawl back into the dungeon and sleep in the silence. "They''re not trying to kill me or turn me into a kobold or anything. I was talking to Pen on her way back to the dungeon and¡ª"


    "And you were drunk, as I can smell," Brayden said.


    "I wasn''t going to leave her to walk back to town on her own, besides, she passed out before she even got this far." Penelope reached up and rubbed at her eyes. "Speaking of sleeping, I think I might go and get some done myself. If you don''t have anything else to accuse me of?"


    For a moment Fife thought Brayden might snap back, but then he lowered his head. "I apologize for my words and intentions. You have proven yourself honorable today and the priests of Brogdar recognize that."


    "Brayden, you shouldn''t go making promises to dungeon bosses," Penelope said, walking back down the hall. "We''re going to try to open up some sort of dungeon tavern up top. I''ll let you know when it''s done¡ªand I owe the first drink to Fife anyway."


    "Damn straight you do!" Fife felt a little energy reenter her system at the reminder of the deal. Turning, she glared at Brayden and Jack. "Can''t take you guys anywhere. Look, I saw the heart. It''s a big one, bright pink, and I felt¡ªI dunno. I think it knew I was there and I think it called one of the kobolds when I needed to use the jacks."


    "You think it''s as smart as a person?" Jack asked.


    Fife shrugged. "No idea, but wouldn''t that be amazing? What if it was someone before too?"


    "Any other time in any other place I''d call you insane, Fife. Here and now, though, I''m not discounting anything." Brayden stepped out into the pre-dawn light and stretched. "And it goes without saying that none of this goes to Brolly."


    Jack and Fife both nodded.


    <hr>


    "Tomorrow we''ll be going in. If you can get a talisman from the local church, well and good, but unless we all can we''ll stick with what we already got. I don''t care about a week''s travel, but dying because the local priestess decided we weren''t worth her effort is not a way I want to go." Sojourn pointed to the map he had spread out. "The dungeon''s only an hour''s fast march.


    "The plan''s simple. It''s a young dungeon, first floor still. Luddy"¡ªhe nodded to the half-elf rogue who was cleaning her fingernails with a dagger¡ª"you find and disarm traps." Next he nodded to the seven and a half foot tall half-cat that looked like the other half of his parentage had some giant in him. "Wild, you back her up. Anything looks like messing with her, I want to see it in chunks."


    Grunting, Wild looked over to Ludmiller. "Got your back."


    "Harry, try to keep our noise down. I don''t want them hearing us before we''ve secured as many traps as we can. Brace, me and the new guy will have your flanks. If you start running low on resources, call it and we retreat." Turning his gaze upon a dwarf woman who had a perpetually pissed-off scowl on her face, Sojourn was happy to see her features relax just a little.


    "And when the fighting starts?" Harry, a bard, was strumming his lute while tuning it.


    "Then you either pitch some spells if we need it or you get that bloody rapier out and give your arm a proper workout." Sojourn looked around the party one more time before settling his gaze on Porter. "Follow my lead. If I move forward, you move forward. If I pull back, you pull back. If I see you run before Brace calls it, I''ll make sure you don''t get ten feet."


    Porter rolled his eyes. "I''m not a chicken. I''ve been in the shit in a dungeon before."


    "Good. Tomorrow at first light."

 Chapter 26

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 1/10


    Heart 1600/1600


    Experience 0/400


    Workers 4/12


    Monsters 0/12+1


    Traps 11/15+4


    Rooms 17


    Food 29


    Timber 233


    Iron 481


    Steel 0


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 17


    Rock 640


    Gold 1603


    Leather 152


    Leather Sludge 99


    Lava 38


    Explosive Runes 3


    Quest: Reach Level 2


    Quest: Kill an adventuring party


    </blockquote>


    It was time, Travis decided, to turn his attention to magic. Katelyn had added a pile of new books to the library, and he could feel them as little wells of information floating in the back of his mind. Reaching for one and focusing on it, he found it to be like opening a Wikipedia page worth of information.


    Only, of course, the Wikipedia page was lodged firmly in his memory. The book he''d opened had been Introductory Magic, and now Travis knew how mana flowed and was stored in a human body.


    Starting at the beginning of the book, Travis knew all about various ways to meditate and restore mana. He recognized that Katelyn was doing that when she made runes.


    So he tried to meditate.


    The first instructions were how to sit, how to relax, and how to focus on the energy coming into his body. Well, he couldn''t sit, it was hard to relax when he was made entirely from non-organic rock and crystal, but the energy¡ªmana¡ªwas another matter. Around his crystal he realized he could see the flows of magic if he focused just a little.


    He was in a hurricane. There was a swirling mass of mana around him spinning like fairy floss. Reaching out into it with imagined hands, he scooped a little thread toward him.


    The thread was tiny, thin, and took all his focus to keep it from tearing. Travis had no idea how long it took, but when the last little bit of that thread whipped around and poured into him, his Mana ticked up by 1.


    <blockquote>


    Mana Manipulation upgrade unlocked for dungeon heart room.


    </blockquote>


    Excitement boiled through Travis, opening up his menus he found the upgrade in question.


    <blockquote>


    Mana Manipulation (Dungeon Heart Room)


    Cost:


    4000 Gold


    100 Rock


    +1 Mana gathered


    Can be purchased up to 4 times


    </blockquote>


    "That''s a lot of gold. If I get all of that, it''s sixteen thousand gold. Okay, so that''s cool. What can I spend it on?" He didn''t aim the question at any kobold in particular and didn''t expect an answer. So, opening up the menu for Dungeon Spells, he took a look within.


    <blockquote>


    Fire Wall


    Cost:


    5 Mana


    or


    1 Mana + 10 Lava


    Creates a wall of flames that does high damage to anything moving through it.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    Collapse Tunnel


    Cost:


    5 Mana


    or


    1 Mana + 5 Rock


    Collapses a section of tunnel.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    Create Trap


    Cost:


    10 Mana + material cost of trap


    or


    2 Mana + double material cost of trap


    Places a trap of choice with specified upgrades at selected location.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    Create Lode


    Cost:


    50 Mana


    Creates a random resource node appropriate to the dungeon floor''s level in a random rock square somewhere within 10 units of an already built tunnel or room.


    Level 1: Gold or Iron


    Level 2: Gold, Iron, Coal, or Sulfur


    Level 3: Gold, Iron, Coal, Sulfur, Mithril, or Adamantine


    Level 4: Gold, Iron, Coal, Sulfur, Mithril, Adamantine, Platinum, or Divinium


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    Attract Lizards


    Cost:


    1 Mana


    or


    0 Mana + 5 Food


    Attracts a group of lizards to the target location.


    </blockquote>


    The last one made him giggle, but the one to create ore was amazing. "I need more mana. I need all the mana." It also let him see the progression of materials for dungeons. Just the name divinium made him shiver in anticipation.


    Excited, he almost asked Penelope about it before he realized she was sleeping. Katelyn, however, was meditating. "Hey, uh, Katelyn? Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"


    Meditating to restore her mana, Katelyn cracked one eye open and turned her head slightly toward where she knew Travis'' room was. "Yeah, go ahead."


    "I was playing around with meditating, and found out how to pull threads of magic into me. It gave me one more mana and unlocked upgrades for my heart to increase my mana regen. Then I looked at my spells and I am a little surprised by one. It lets me make resource nodes that depend on the level of the floor I cast them on. The best, for a 4th dungeon level, has divinium as one of the possible nodes. I take it that''s good stuff?"


    Travis could see the careful swirls of mana that Katelyn had been funneling into herself evaporated as she fell sideways in laughter. "Did I say something wrong?"


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Trying to get up, Katelyn failed and flailed on the floor in laughter for a full minute before managing to recover herself. "Travis! Divinium is not just rare and expensive, it''s priceless. Nations would bankrupt themselves for a few bars of the stuff. It only comes from dungeons. If you get to a level where we are mining that, and we trade it, Northridge will be the richest city in the world."


    "Oh." Travis tried to recover his wits in light of this. "So how do we get to a point where we can do that?"


    "Grow! More kobolds! More floors! More power!" The new round of laughter from Katelyn was far more evil overlord and less excited kobold. "But seriously, we need to get bigger as fast as we can. Keeping ourselves useful to the town means we continue to grow and they grow. Also, it means they''ll get more books."


    Katelyn froze and turned toward Travis'' heart again. "Wait, you can build things to gain more mana regeneration?"


    "Yeah, but it''s not cheap."


    Katelyn got back into a sitting position and looked at the notebook she''d been working on. "How ''not cheap'' are we talking?"


    "The amount of gold we have now, that''s filling up our warehouses¡­ times four."


    "Trav, I like the way you say our."


    "We are all working together. You mined the gold for me, the others will build enough warehouses to hold four thousand gold, and then we all get cool spells and stuff. Oh, do you like lizards?" Travis couldn''t help himself.


    "Lizards? That''s a little¡ª" When the spell went off, a small stampede of tiny feet rushed into the library and, in particular, where Katelyn had been sitting. "TRAV!"


    <hr>


    The sun had only been in the sky for two hours. Sojourn looked at the dungeon entrance and whistled. "Nothing fancy so far. What do you feel, Harry?"


    Extending his magic senses, his particular bent focused on empathic magic, Harry took in everything the dungeon was telling him. "It just got its second floor. If it''s done anything with it yet, I''ll dance a jig."


    "That new? Well, we can hardly disappoint our newest party member by stomping all over this ugly pit. Come on, let''s start. Just like I told you, we do this by the numbers and kill everything. If it moves in there, kill it."


    "What about the core?" Porter asked.


    "We don''t touch cores. Killing a dungeon draws the worst kind of attention." Unsaid by Sojourn was you should know that.


    Ludmiller advanced and stretched her senses to their limit as she stepped foot in the dungeon. It would know they were here now, but that couldn''t be helped. "Wild?"


    Purring, Wild hefted the two dark metal axes that were his preferred weapons and nodded to the rogue. "Got your back." It was a common phrase from him, mostly because it was one of the few he knew. He believed strongly that actions spoke louder than words.


    A long and straight hallway beckoned, and Ludmiller knew she would be first in and last out. She didn''t skip joyously down the hallway, no matter how clear it looked. Every step was spent in slow advance, listening to her senses like a spider waiting for a vibration in its web.


    Dungeons, she knew, were tricky. They could use magic to place traps. They could cut you off from your friends with infernos or rock-slides. Despite what she''d told Sojourn, a straight and trapless floor was a worry that she couldn''t overlook.


    "Why are we going so slowly? It''s clear to the stairs ahead, see?" Porter asked.


    Harry strummed a gentle chord that hushed the rustle of clothing and the lilt of his voice. "Hear that, Luddy? Our newest party member just volunteered to take point."


    "Sure. I love watching new meat get impaled by spikes." Ludmiller didn''t turn back to look at Harry, instead taking another careful step. "Brace, what was it you said, it''s easier to just let the newbie ride their talisman than heal them up from traps?"


    Glaring out from the gaps of her helmet, Brace couldn''t stop a grunt from breaking free¡ªher version of laughter. "Yeah. Pull your weight or you''re dead meat."


    "I''d suggest not pissing off either of the lovely ladies of our party, Porter," Sojourn said. "Between them they keep us safe from death."


    Always moving, Ludmiller followed the tunnel to the stairs without further criticism. When she reached them, she nodded to Wild. "You have point to the bottom of the stairs, got it?"


    Wild just nodded and stepped past Ludmiller, the grip on his axes tightening as his own sharp senses told him that things would be getting exciting shortly. He liked exciting.


    "Soj, give me some light." Waiting for the little hooded lantern to flicker to life, Ludmiller moved around Wild again, her hip brushing his lower thigh. One day, she thought.


    The view to her left was a dead straight tunnel that led to darkness that even her own sharp eyes¡ªbacked by the faint illumination of the lantern behind her¡ªdidn''t fully penetrate. "Left wall or right wall?"


    "Follow nose," Wild said, gesturing with one axe forward and to a right tunnel.


    Closing her eyes, standing dead still, Ludmiller did just that. Inhaling slowly, picking out the scents of her party members one by one and discarding them. She smelled kobolds everywhere, but down the tunnel to her right she could smell fire. "You are smart and strong."


    Ludmiller liked the way Wild purred as she delivered the compliment. She''d given it truthfully, too. There were street smarts, there was magic smarts, there was even pure book smarts, but Wild had an uncanny sense of truly natural places¡ªand dungeons were some of the most natural of them.


    Advancing, now picking up more scents she''d missed under the smoke-smell, Ludmiller reached the next intersection and took the left branch. She froze, however, one step into it. "Sludge trap ahead. Strong or many." As she spoke, she pulled out two vials of general sludge nullifier.


    Rounding the corner, however, Ludmiller was greeted with a horror of a sight. "You said these kobolds were smart? No, they''re fucking terrifying. This whole length of tunnel is sludge traps."


    Unscrewing the top cap of the first vial, Ludmiller aimed the pressurized nozzle ahead of her. "I only have enough if we stick to one side."


    Taking the right wall, she advanced. The first two traps were dealt with by one vial, then the next two by another. In all she used all five of her sludge nullifier and still hurt her feet from stepping on caltrops hidden in the weak slime that was left.


    The smell of the reaction was destroying her olfactory sense¡ªLudmiller was nose-deaf by the time she reached the last of the slime traps, and the thought of using up all five expensive alchemical potions was starting to eat into her thoughts. Stepping forward, she led the party around the corner and, just as Wild stepped up behind her, she heard a retaining pin slip.


    There was an instant moment of horror as she realized she''d missed a trap. It was the sound that no rogue worth her salt wanted to hear, and it was right under her feet. She jumped¡ªjumped for her life.


    While Wild''s reflexes were just as sharp as Ludmiller''s, he didn''t hear the warning she did and was too slow getting any push-off from the platform. As he fell, he tried to lash out with his axes and get a grip on the stonework, but the rock just crumbled as he continued his fall.


    Landing in a roll, Ludmiller looked back to see Wild, Porter, and Brace tumble into the hole. Her heart didn''t even manage to beat again before an explosion rocked her, deafened her, and erased her party members from the dungeon''s presence.

 Chapter 27

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 1/10


    Heart 1600/1600


    Experience 300/400


    Workers 4/12


    Monsters 0/12+1


    Traps 11/15+4


    Rooms 17


    Food 29


    Timber 233


    Iron 481


    Steel 0


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 16


    Rock 640


    Gold 1603


    Leather 152


    Leather Sludge 99


    Lava 38


    Explosive Runes 3


    Quest: Reach Level 2


    Quest: Kill an adventuring party


    </blockquote>


    It had been a shock to see the adventurers pour into his upper floor. Travis had watched them advance through very carefully, and when their rogue started to disable the sludge traps, he''d begun to panic. "Penelope, they''re using something to make the sludge traps not stick to them."


    Standing at the corner, the second of the pit traps just in her sight, Penelope held one of the explosive runes in her throwing arm and two more in her offhand. "Calm down, Trav. We''ve got this."


    It was infuriating to have to sit back and not do anything. Travis watched through both Penelope''s eyes and a little lizard in the bottom of the pit trap, when the second pit trap registered two people standing on it. The mechanism slipped its pin free and that also triggered the first pit trap to open too.


    He thought four people were going into the pit, but in the end the rogue had managed some kind of inhumanly fast jump to land on the ground while the huge cat-person with the biggest hand-axes ever, a human warrior, and a dwarf fell into the pit a moment before Travis'' lizard went to the great terrarium in the sky.


    The blast was enough that Penelope ducked around the corner to let it spend some energy on the tunnel without spending it on her. When she peeked back, she and Travis could see the scorch marks on the stone and the one survivor on the inner-side of the pit trap trying desperately to get to her hands and knees¡ªand falling over in the process.


    Rushing down the hallway, Penelope grabbed the rogue, rifled through her pockets and shredded her talisman, then dragged her back down the hallway. "Trav, we need to get some monsters in here. There''s still two more alive."


    "Not for much longer." Katelyn, smirking at Penelope, walked past her and advanced on the pit traps. "Did you see what they are?"


    Travis cast his summon lizards spell again, leading to a small stampede of lizards rushing to the compromised sludge traps. "Uh, one is holding a smoldering lute and the other has a long sword and it''s glowing."


    "Casters. Fun. Well, you said our sludge traps are ruined anyway, might as well spend some mana on these guys." The dull red glow of Katelyn''s staff flared bright into sizzling embers. Smoke started to pour from the length of magical wood and she uttered a single phrase.


    <hr>


    No matter how much he shouted and screamed, Harry couldn''t hear himself. Lifting his free hand to his ear, he pulled it back wet to see blood on his hand. With magic that relied on sounds, being deaf made it impossible for him to work. Hooking his lute over his shoulder, he drew his rapier just as he realized it was getting brighter.


    Sojourn wasn''t exactly sure what had been in the pit trap, but he had a good idea his party members would all be back at their various temples a few moments from being revived. Convenient as it would be to join them, he''d rather make his way out of the place if he could. "Come on, Harry!" He could barely hear himself and repeated the words louder, grabbing the bard''s shoulder.


    Katelyn shifted just enough to the edge of the pit trap that she could see the back of one of the adventurers. Breathing deep of mana, loading up one of her new and more mana-efficient kobold fire spells, she sent a gout of flame down the hall.


    Watching as the man he was trying to guide along the hall was washed in fire, Sojourn turned to run¡ªonly to come face-to-face with a fire wall dungeon spell blocking off his exit. His hesitation lasted until the kobold casting the spell jumped off a wall and over the pit traps, landing right behind him.


    Staring in shock at the kobold before him, Sojourn slowly reached his hand toward his sword.


    "If you move another inch toward your weapon, I''ll¡ª" Katelyn cut herself off by hurling a twinned fireball spell at Sojourn.


    Dispelling the first spell that sped toward him, Sojourn spun to the side and evaded the second while drawing his sword. By the time he got it up and pointed for a strike, there were more fire spells coming at him.


    The fight settled to a back and forth of spells and, in Sojourn''s case, sword swings. Katelyn had some experience sparring with armed opponents, but the flexibility of Sojourn''s style was annoying her.


    Establishing what Sojourn''s attack patterns were, Katelyn knew she only had to overwhelm him with her magic¡ªso long as her mana was up to it. She eased into a repetitive style of alternating fireballs and small bursts of flame, guiding Sojourn into a cadence of her own choosing. A small hail of average fireballs should have been followed up by a larger blast that he''d parry after dispelling the swarm. Just when he was done with that dispelling and would be expecting to parry or evade, she sent out a river of flame at him.


    Sojourn''s eyes widened for a moment and he managed a small string of curses before the flames washed over him.


    It seemed like seconds passed between when he experienced the agony of burning to death and when he jerked upright on an altar. Oddly, there was a gag in his mouth.


    "Not a screamer? Sorry, we take precautions now." The old priest reached over and untied the gag. "Welcome back to the living, blah blah blah. You know the drill, that will be a hundred and twenty gold."


    <hr>


    Struggling against the big kobold dragging her along, Ludmiller reached for her daggers¡ªonly to find them missing. There''d been a few moments after the explosion where she''d blacked out, and now she knew the kobold had taken advantage of that to disarm her.


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    She shouted, screamed, and cursed the kobold¡ªnot that she could hear her own voice. The blast had done damage to her inner ears that she knew would require healing magic to repair.


    Dragging Ludmiller to the kink in the tunnel just before Travis'' heart, Penelope let go and turned on her. "Alright, since you seem to be the only one who survived, you have two choices."


    After a moment of Ludmiller not responding, Penelope reached down and grabbed the woman''s head, forcefully turning it from side to side and seeing the blood that had trickled out her ears. "Well, crap. Robert! Can you find me something to write with?"


    Grabbing up a piece of wood he''d been using to scrawl on with a piece of charcoal, Robert jogged down the tunnel in the stride he''d learned watching Penelope walk. He was glad kobolds couldn''t blush since that last thought would have made him do so. "Here."


    Taking the wooden slate and using her forearm scales to abrade away enough of it to leave it clean, she wrote carefully with a piece of charcoal. "Thanks, Robert. We should probably try to get some tallow-wax slates."


    Watching what the kobolds were doing, Ludmiller read the slate as Penelope wrote on it.


    <blockquote>


    2 choices


    stay here, become worker


    go town, throw in jail


    </blockquote>


    "Jail?! This is a dungeon! There''s nothing wrong with¡ª" The slap on her cheek could have come with serious damage, given Penelope''s claws. Instead it just shocked Ludmiller.


    Turning the wood over, Penelope wrote more.


    <blockquote>


    You come to attack


    We defend


    Make choice


    </blockquote>


    "So, uh, working? What would I be doing?" It was a struggle to keep her voice from shouting with her ear damage.


    Using the palm of one hand to shave down the wood under the word worker, Penelope changed it to kobold.


    Rocking back and pressing herself against the wall, Ludmiller couldn''t believe what she''d read. She looked at Penelope and Robert and the first thing she asked was, "You were both adventurers?" When each nodded, she had her answer.


    Jail was a big thing, though it might not be. She had to wonder what law she''d broken that they''d think the town guard would go along with. Of course, if the kobolds were all adventurers turned into kobolds, that meant that what they were doing¡ªattacking their dungeon¡ªwas literally attempted robbery and assault. That was worrying.


    "How long does it last? Here, I mean?" The reply of a shrug wasn''t reassuring. Ludmiller had trained her whole life to sense and disable dungeon traps. Could she give that all away? No. No she couldn''t. "Take me to town, then."


    Turning to Robert, Penelope shrugged. "Looks like we take her to town. I have no idea what Brolly Windchime will do about it, but he seemed serious about protecting us."


    "I still can''t believe they saw through our disguise." Robert took his tablet back and shrugged. "Want a hand taking her in?"


    "Yeah. We''ll truss her up on a branch and carry her in like that. Give her one last choice just before we reach town."


    Watching the kobolds get rope, tie her up, and tie her to a branch was nerve wracking. Ludmiller had her person checked over and they took everything she owned. It was the most embarrassing treatment by dungeon monsters ever¡ªdoubly so because they weren''t even proper monsters, they were just kobolds.


    <hr>


    For the townsfolk of Northridge, seeing a kobold or two in town was still news, but not as much as it would have been months earlier. Seeing them hauling a human on a pole between them was very interesting. Rumors were rushing around town faster than a fireball could fly, and that led to Brother Rupert catching wind of it.


    Stepping out before the beasts, Rupert summoned every ounce of presence he could from his conviction. "What is the meaning of this?"


    The shock that he saw in the two monsters'' eyes salved Rupert''s recently dented pride and made him feel far better about his hard line against evil.


    "This adventurer and her party assaulted our dungeon, destroyed our property, and didn''t wish to work off her debt." Penelope''s voice was as steady as she could keep it, but there was an undertone of fear of this one, small man. "We brought her here because we don''t have a jail to hold criminals."


    Struggling not to let his surprise show, Rupert was more than a little dumbfounded that monsters would have knowledge of law and order. "You surprise me, beast. Of all in town to tell this story to, you brought it to the one here who could verify every single word." Flexing his power, Rupert turned it on the woman they were carrying first.


    What the priest found shocked him. Sure enough, they''d attacked the dungeon. The dungeon creatures hadn''t attacked until the adventurers caused damage and walked into a trap. "Were all your party carrying talismans?"


    "She can''t hear you. She was too close to an explosive trap when it went off and her hearing is¡ª"


    Rupert interrupted Penelope in the most expedient manner. Reaching out with his hand, he pressed it to Ludmiller''s cheek. The rush of magic into her sought out her ears and restored her hearing at great cost in power. Normally such a healing, Rupert mused, would net him quite a bounty¡ªbut such things were required to seek truth and start the process of reparation. "Now. You can hear me?"


    Ludmiller was shocked to be able to hear. She recognized the holy symbol of the priest, though, and realized this could be going bad for her. "Y-Yes."


    "Your party all held talismans?" When all he got was a nod, Rupert felt a sense of relief. Without loss of life, there was far less complication. "Then you will pay these beasts for their damaged equipment. So is the law metered." He looked up at Penelope meaningfully.


    "Oh, right. The damage was¡ªthe first set of traps will just need leather sludge and sap to repair, that is little cost. The proximity explosive runes are not cheap. Such magic weapons cost hundreds of gold each." Penelope tapped her chin, wondering how far she dared push things.


    "You have means to make them yourselves?" Rupert asked. The nod he got showed honesty¡ªsomething he valued. "Then a value of one hundred gold each seems fair. How many did they destroy?"


    "Eight of them."


    Ludmiller''s heart sank. Eight hundred gold was more than she had spent on the trap-destroying vials she''d used on the sludge traps. It was greater, in fact, than the cost of all her equipment. "H-How long would I have to pay this off? I don''t have my adventuring equipment and¡ª"


    Rupert turned his attention from Ludmiller to Penelope. "She has no way to pay you what''s owed." The words were harsh not because he was talking to what he considered a beast, but because he was disgusted that the beasts were acting more civilized than the half-elf. "You can place her in the custody of the town, to work as a laborer. You will get your pay, maybe, before she dies of old age. The town will have to spend gold feeding, clothing, and guarding her. You would be better off dragging her back to your dungeon to work, and I will allow that if you swear to me she will be treated fairly."


    Ludmiller''s future was rushing back and forth between the priest and the kobold, narrowing down to the two options. She panicked, mostly because she didn''t seem to have the final say in which it was.


    "I''d rather not make the decision myself." Penelope held up her end of the pole easily with one hand, turning to look at Ludmiller. "What''s your name?"


    "L-Ludmiller."


    "Well, Ludmiller, what would you prefer. This town is growing, but so is the dungeon. We''re hoping they can grow stronger together. I can promise you as many meals as you wish, back-breaking work for five days out of every seven, and two days where you can relax and wonder how lucky you are that you aren''t working in a chain gang for the town."


    "But I''d become a kobold?"


    The news that the dungeon could turn people into kobolds was new to Rupert, though the two specimens present didn''t seem unhappy with their lot. He filed the information away to examine when he wasn''t meting out justice. "The town will work you every day until your debt is paid."


    Closing her eyes, Ludmiller shivered and said, "Take me back to the dungeon."

 Chapter 28

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 2/10


    Heart 6400/6400


    Experience 100/1600


    Workers 4/15


    Monsters 0/16+1


    Traps 11/25+4


    Rooms 17


    Food 312


    Timber 283


    Iron 481


    Steel 0


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 17


    Rock 638


    Gold 1603


    Leather 248


    Leather Sludge 195


    Lava 28


    Explosive Runes 3


    Triggered Explosive Runes 2


    Quest: Have 10 adventurers in the dungeon at once


    Quest: Kill an adventuring party


    </blockquote>


    Travis was still looking through what had changed when Penelope brought back Ludmiller to the dungeon. To him, both looked annoyed at the situation. "What''s going on? Did she change her mind?"


    "No, Trav, she didn''t change her mind. We ran into a priest in town and, as luck would have it, he got right to the crux of the matter for us." Penelope entered the lower dungeon and headed away from the traps. "You have a light?" she asked Ludmiller.


    Reaching into her jacket, Ludmiller pulled out an alchemy light. "Yeah. My party used to handle the light for me, but I kept one of these anyway. Girl can''t be too careful."


    "Yeah, I hear that. This whole thing started for me when my old party made it clear they didn''t want me anymore¡ªby shooting me and leaving me for dead in here. The company I keep now is a lot better, trust me."


    Watching Penelope lead the adventurer down the hall and through a wall, Travis felt nervous. Another person to convert? Also, that new quest was pretty big, but now he had a definite plan for how he was going to get XP and grow without becoming known as the murder-hole.


    "You won''t need your light anymore. Look how bright Trav has gotten." Penelope led her charge toward the heart room.


    "''Trav''? What do you mean bright?" Ludmiller froze at the tunnel that led out into the heart chamber. Her eyes were locked on Travis and her mouth hung open.


    "Hey, Trav. So long story short, spending her life in here is preferable to spending a life of hard labor for the town. I think Robert and Katelyn should watch this. I''d really like it if I didn''t have to cut myself for every convert." Walking up to his crystal heart, Penelope pressed her hand flat on it, palm firm against a large facet.


    The bond Travis shared with Penelope would have brought a smile to his face¡ªif he had a face. She had always been there and always been strong. "Hey, you know how Katelyn took out those last two?"


    "Yeah?" Pulling a knife out, Penelope brought the sharp blade to her palm and struggled to make a cut.


    "I got level two from that. Hey, hold up for Robert and Katelyn."


    <hr>


    Robert, Katelyn, and Stephan all walked into the heart room together, looking at the new recruit. Penelope gave a wave at them. "Hey."


    "I need a sample of that, and I want to try something else first. Can I borrow a knife?" Robert pulled out small vials with stoppers and offered one to Penelope. He sliced his own palm with the knife and leaked some of his bluish blood into the second vial, stoppered it, and smeared his palm on Travis'' heart. "How is that, Trav?"


    "I got nothing. Pen, you want to go now?" Travis asked.


    Using the back of her arm to clean the crystal, Penelope opened her hand and pressed her palm to it. "Now?"


    Travis''s heart seemed to flare a little brighter. "Yeah! Ask her to step closer."


    "Step closer, I''ll catch you." Penelope kept close and made ready to grab for Ludmiller when she inevitably fell¡ªand she did a moment later. The way she just shrank into her clothing, a glittering wave of scales spreading over her body as she rapidly transformed, was the best tell for Penelope.


    "Oh!" Travis'' shout caught them all off-guard. "I just figured out what I got for reaching level two¡ªtwo of the warehouses got upgraded for free. Also, her turning kobold satisfied the quest to kill an adventuring party. All the traps reset for free!"


    Shaking her head and looking around, Ludmiller tried to ask who was the new voice and where was it coming from. What came out of her muzzle was an incoherent whine when she bit her own tongue.


    "Just relax. Calm down. Try making sounds with your mouth and throat until you can figure out how to make normal word-sounds." Penelope helped Ludmiller to stand, and kept an arm around her just in case the newest kobold in the dungeon fell again. "Hey, Trav, how about we set a special day off for new kobolds to get used to their bodies?"


    "Sure," Travis said.


    Clearing his throat, Stephan walked past the two siblings. He''d spotted both times that Ludmiller had jumped at Travis'' voice. "That''s Travis, just call him Trav. He''s the dungeon itself. You''ll get used to him being able to talk in your head. For now just focus on trying to learn how to speak."


    Sighing and giving a nod, Ludmiller looked down at what had become of her hands. Her digits were finer, sharp claws on their tips, and scaled with a mottled light green compared to the darker color of the rest of her scales. Reaching down to her hip, to where her daggers should have been, she remembered that she was technically still a prisoner.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    "Hey, looking for these?" Penelope held out Ludmiller''s weapon belt, complete with the daggers, hidden knives, and minor tools of the trade every dungeon-delving rogue (or kobold) would need. "You''re in this now, that makes you worth trusting."


    Taking her gear and strapping it on¡ªthen having to loop it around her waist a second time so it wouldn''t fall off¡ªLudmiller nodded. After a few attempts at thanking Penelope, and only managing barks, she gave up for the moment.


    Travis'' made a small sound in their heads to get everyone''s attention. "Okay, so we need a lot of gold for some upgrades, and that means a lot of storage. If anyone is feeling up to digging, I can mark out a new area for warehouses. Also, Pen, we need traps in the upper floor. I''m thinking some stuff that will seem to be serious, but just waste any resources for anyone trying to make a point of attacking.


    "Keep them near the stairs, but I want to have a loop around to bypass them. There''s some research we can do that I think will be the best way to get lots of experience, and since that''s all it takes to gain levels, I want to reach the next tier-up point as soon as possible.


    "There is a spell I can cast that will create new resource nodes, and the deeper the layer I cast it on, the better the chance of getting stuff that is worth a lot to the town. I don''t care if we don''t make full value for it, I want that town growing rich."


    "Yeah, I''m up for digging. Anyone else?" looking around the assembled kobolds, Penelope nodded to Robert when he pulled a pickaxe out. "What about you, Ludmiller? You can practice talking while you dig."


    It was the moment when she realized that while she had her things again, and there were no chains on her, she would be expected to do hard labor. Nodding, she looked around for a pickaxe.


    "She needs to learn how to get her pickaxe and tools. Robert, can you show her?" Travis asked.


    "Right. I was thinking of the best way to do this, actually." Walking up behind Ludmiller, Robert pressed his pickaxe to her back so the handle rested there. "Okay, reach back and grab the pickaxe."


    "This is stupid," is what Ludmiller wanted to say, though in trying she managed to not bite her tongue at least. Wrapping her hand around the handle of the pickaxe, she pulled it out and before her. Turning, she saw that Robert was still holding his pickaxe. "Wha?"


    "You just have to think about the tool and imagine it there. It''s some kind of dungeon magic¡ªand now it''s magic you can do." Robert reached his pick up to his shoulder. "I can feel a pulling to the east tunnels. Are we expanding storage there, Trav?"


    "Yup. Storage will be down here. I''d prefer it if Pen did the upstairs digging, at least until I can get more lizards around here," Travis said.


    "Lizards?" Katelyn asked, her curiosity rising.


    "Lizards! The way I see seems to be complicated. I can see and hear through all of you, I can see the tunnel layout of the dungeon, and I can see through the lizards that live down here."


    "So we get more lizards? How do we do that?" Penelope asked. "Wait, explain it as we work. No point wasting time standing around."


    "I''ll go back to making those proximity runes. They worked well, I feel." The delight Katelyn felt for how well the special trap had worked was evident in the way her staff flared and shed cinders onto the surrounding floor. Turning, she started to saunter off, already reaching behind her to pull out a stone to start work on.


    Following Robert, Ludmiller had way too many questions to not be able to speak. As they approached a T intersection in the tunnels, Robert walked up to it and dug quickly, ripping into the stone there and creating a hole.


    "This is how we get around the traps. There''s no point in making the most amazing trap hall in the dungeon if we can''t get past it ourselves. Just make sure to seal it up behind you when you''re done." Robert turned right and felt the pull of a lot of digging work waiting to be done. "Can you feel that? That''s Trav setting build orders."


    It was like an itch in her fingers Ludmiller couldn''t ignore. "Dig?" The word surprised her with its clarity. She was proud of getting at least one word out cleanly.


    Sealing up the hole behind her, Penelope left Robert and Ludmiller to the right path as she took the left. Up the stairs and into the first floor, she felt a touch more vulnerable up here, though that was probably the light of the entrance. "Okay, so right here. This will be the back tunnel around the traps?"


    Travis caught the words from Penelope. "Yeah. The reason we''re doing this up here is there is a research project that gives experience to me for having outsiders in the dungeon."


    Working her shoulders at the improved pace Travis had paid for as an upgrade¡ªstacked with her boss status and huge pickaxe¡ªPenelope started ripping through the rock with her own thoughts racing. When she reached a corner, she said, "We need a dungeon or something, too. A holding cell. It''d probably be best on this floor. Much as I''d like it defended better, it''s harder for anyone to accuse us of being up to no good if we can give the guards from town a tour."


    "That''s a good point. There''s no room called prison or dungeon or anything yet, so I guess we just keep unlocking stuff. It was hearing Fife going on and on about wanting to drink out here that gave me the idea for all this. I wonder if that''s how things are meant to work? In one of the games I played, there was brewing, but it was used to make your dungeon creatures happy. I guess we''re supposed to use a prison to keep them locked up and get experience from keeping them like that?"


    "Yeah, I''d say that''s probably the intent. No reason we can''t do it differently. We still need to make sure no one can raid us, and I like the plans so far for that. We could even make an actual maze in here, though a wizard could navigate it easily enough. Talk to Katelyn about that." Throwing herself at her work, Penelope could sense that Travis'' attention had shifted elsewhere. She was fine with that.


    Turning his attention back to the other diggers, Travis watched as each swung their picks with the same speed as Penelope, but lacked the power she used to break it up twice as fast. "You''re both doing great. I think I might upgrade a few more warehouses, but I''ll ask Steph to help with that."


    As Ludmiller found, digging was oddly therapeutic. The act of putting pickaxe to rock was ridiculously easy for kobold bodies, and she was ripping apart stone with a pace and strength she wished she''d had as a human. The places to dig were marked, somehow, and she didn''t have to think about the work at all¡ªso she focused instead on everything that''d been happening while also talking to herself about the events.


    Travis was the biggest revelation. The dungeon wasn''t just populated with intelligent beings¡ªit was an intelligent being itself. He sounded male, and she could remember the way Penelope had stroked the heart with her hand. She wondered if they''d been a couple before this? People could be turned into kobolds, so why not turn people into dungeons?


    That was intriguing and terrifying to her. She worried at the thread of existential horror but it didn''t go anywhere else. Travis had clearly wanted another worker, she was stupid enough to work for a party that took her to the nightmare of all traps. Now she was going to pay for that.

 Chapter 29

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 2/10


    Heart 6400/6400


    Experience 100/1600


    Workers 5/15


    Monsters 0/16+1


    Traps 14/25+4


    Rooms 19


    Food 312


    Timber 83


    Iron 351


    Steel 0


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 18


    Rock 728


    Gold 1203


    Leather 248


    Leather Sludge 195


    Lava 28


    Explosive Runes 4


    Triggered Explosive Runes 3


    Quest: Have 10 adventurers in the dungeon at once


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    Travis looked at the work so far. He''d been spending most of his time focused on magic and swirling it toward him like Katelyn did, while Penelope dug furiously and built the Watering Hole, a Storage Room, two hidden and reinforced doors, and added a new upgrade to the warehouse¡ªstorage dropoff. It reduced the room''s storage capacity to zero, but let kobolds drop off goods there. Perfect for a by-the-entrance way to get stuff into the dungeon, though it had resulted in a tiny adjustment to his plans.


    "Okay, guys and gals, we are going to need some timber next. Steph has pulled-in some, but we''re way short and need a lot more for warehouses. Either Robert and Ludmiller or Pen, could you¡ª"


    "I got it, Trav. I''m kind of finished with the first part up here. I want Ludmiller to chat with me about traps. I have some ideas, but I think she''d be a valuable resource to have involved." Stowing her pickaxe and drawing her woodcutting axe, Penelope stalked toward the entrance of the dungeon. "Plus, being outside doesn''t bother me."


    "Got it." Turning his attention back to Robert and Ludmiller, Travis filled them in. "Pen is going to cut wood. If you feel up to it, continue digging here."


    "Kay." It was a simple syllable, but it was something Travis had watched Ludmiller struggle with. He waited for Robert to nod too before moving on.


    Katelyn was working on runes. He could appreciate that she was working on their defenses¡ªa terrible and amazing defensive trap¡ªbefore her own projects. Her handling of the last two adventurers had made him shiver in a proud moment. She hadn''t toyed with them, kicking them out of the dungeon had just been business for her.


    "You know, I can actually feel you when you focus on me now." Katelyn quirked an eyebrow at the lizard sitting on the mantle above her meditation spot. "What''s up, Trav?"


    "This really seems to be working. All of this. Thanks for that assist with the extra adventurers." It was hard for Travis not to gush. She''d been literally amazing and he wanted to fawn over her for it.


    "Idiots thought they could just walk into a dungeon with a wizard protecting it? Nice fire wall, too." She was still meditating, but she seemed to be getting better at holding a conversation and do so. Travis had to wonder if she just hadn''t let herself get interrupted enough in the past.


    "Thanks, though I really want to get enough mana and regen to start casting this one dungeon spell regularly. Basically, it produces resource nodes. I think that might be a good way to flood the town with raw materials and give them some serious buying power." Travis was already getting excited at that. "It will make us closer partners, too."


    "What about the genius loci?" Katelyn asked. "I never felt it when I went to town, but it might start to get curious about us¡ªwell, you."


    Confusion reigned for Travis. "Huh?"


    "Okay, you know dungeons are aware¡ªwell, not usually as much as you, Trav¡ªcities grow and get the same way. It''s like there''s a spirit of a city, but while it seems interested in keeping certain types of people around, and putting things in various places, it generally doesn''t worry about individuals.


    "That''s where I think we''ve been slipping by it. The genius loci would have freaked out if the people of the city freaked out, but because they accepted us without any hesitation in their greedy hearts, the city accepted us. How it will deal with so much more dungeon stuff encroaching, I don''t know. If it becomes aware of us, and doesn''t like us, it might start trying to influence everyone in the city against us."


    It wasn''t a good picture, but Travis liked to think he could at least convince the city that trading was a good idea. "Hey, what if it''s only ignoring us because we''re helping it grow?"


    "Then we''ll keep helping it, I guess. If it''s that easy to keep happy, we should be fine." With her current meditation complete, Katelyn pulled out another rock and imbued it with the pattern for a triggered explosive rune. "Four more and we can rearm that trap."


    She settled back down to start meditating again. "So, what do you want to know?"


    "The magic in the books isn''t helping. Okay, it did help with meditation and gathering mana, but I just can''t cast spells like that." Travis felt a little excitement leave him at the reminder. "So how am I meant to get new spells?"


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    "Probably the same way I do. I lost all my wizard spells, you know? I can''t cast them properly anymore. All I have now are kobold spells." Letting loose a relaxed sigh, Katelyn gestured to the small rows of books on a small shelf beside her. "I''ve been trying to rebuild all my wizard spells as kobold spells, but it''s slow-going."


    "How would I do that?" Travis asked.


    Tapping her chin with one clawtip, Katelyn thought about the situation before letting out a laugh. "So, everything you know is on a book somewhere in here, right?" When Travis gasped, Katelyn poked at the air with her claw and abandoned her meditation. "Right! So I could help you with these spells, maybe trying to produce new ones for you."


    "That''d be great, but you should probably finish the runestones first. I know it''s boring work, but now that I''ve seen them in action, I know I''ll feel way safer with them protecting us."


    "Right, but you can''t tell me what to do on my time off, can you?" Katelyn smirked at the lizard.


    Groaning, Travis couldn''t stop from laughing. "Maybe it would have been easier if I''d just let you take over. Then you''d have to make all the hard decisions."


    "Nope. Not it. You gave me a place where I get to spend most of my time playing with magic. Now you have to put up with the fact I''m going to spend most of my time playing with magic."


    <hr>


    "Okay, we have two missing. Porter, who''s probably at the town near the dungeon, and Luddy. Doesn''t she normally go to that goodie-goodie shrine over on Peterson road?" Sojourn was still trying to deal with the usual after-death-aches and pains.


    Shivering at what she remembered, Brace shook her head. "Last I saw, she dove away from the false floor. You were at the back?"


    Sojourn looked to Harry. "We both were. The dungeon picked the perfect time to throw a fire wall up, just as some kobold literally set the whole place on fire."


    "That was crazy. I barely noticed them and they blasted me with fire. My hearing was shot because of the blast, and then I was on fire and screaming and I woke up here. What was with the gagging thing?" Harry could still taste the horrid thing they''d had in his mouth when he''d woken up. He hadn''t even screamed that much.


    "Not elf fault. Good traps. Too good." Wild had bitten clean through the gag when he''d been revived. It was a very ignoble thing to do to someone, he thought, but his mind was now on what had happened to Ludmiller. "Where she?"


    "That''s what I intend to find out. Gotta go to her damn shrine and ask when she revived." Sojourn and his party spent the rest of the morning of their return to the living sorting through their gear to work out what was destroyed beyond use and what they could salvage. Their weapons and armor were, mostly, fine. Some had pieces of shrapnel and others had become pieces of shrapnel. In all, they were severely in the negative for the attempt on the dungeon.


    In the early afternoon, just as the group was meeting up after their lunch, Sojourn sat down to a dour party. Everyone was now short gold to pay for a new talisman and get a fresh resurrection-promise from the shrine, as well as replace and repair equipment.


    "She not only didn''t trigger her talisman, the priest confirmed that her talisman was destroyed. Either she got one at the town near the dungeon, she is still alive, or the dungeon beasts shredded her talisman and then killed her," Sojourn told the party everything he''d learned from the shrine he''d visited. "So that leaves us short of coin and returning to that damn town to see if she''s there. If not, we book it out of there and leave that cursed hole."


    "Or we just cut and run. That place is too hot for us." Brace stared at Sojourn. "No dungeon could be worth that much lost gold. We still need a new rogue¡ªLuddy wasn''t worth spit in the end."


    Wild stood up and began walking away from the table.


    "Where you going?" Harry called out.


    "Find Luddy."


    <hr>


    It was distasteful, but to honor his god, Rupert knew the corpse before him needed to be brought back so that the soul that inhabited it could seek to restore itself before facing judgment. The ritual wasn''t complicated but it always took raw divine power to accomplish. Pressing his hand to Porter''s chest, he focused on the debt the man had to pay.


    Porter came-to screaming. He screamed the pain of far too much explosion hitting him from all directions at once. Then came the realization that he was alive. He managed to clamp down on his screaming and sat up. Then he fell backwards again as he became too dizzy too fast.


    "Sit yourself back and listen, boy. You need to do more of that." Rupert used some divine force to keep his hand pressed to Porter''s chest. "You incurred a debt attacking that dungeon. I already passed sentence on the only true survivor of it, and they are working off the monetary value of the debt. You have a spiritual debt to her. What will you do?"


    When the hand was removed from Porter''s chest, he sat up again and glared at the priest. "Get out of this town and never come back. Sod the lot of you."


    Grabbing what items were sitting to the side of the altar, Porter stood up on legs that became more stable as he put weight on them. Marching out the front door of the shrine, he froze.


    "By the power vested in me as protector of Northridge by the council and the people they represent, you''re being detained." Brolly Windchime nodded to the four guards to collect the man.


    "What?! You can''t be serious! What are you holding me for?" Porter''s hand strayed, naturally, to his sword belt. The problem was his weapon was rolled up in his gear. He glared at Brolly.


    "Destruction of property. Since another is already serving time to pay for the costs of the damage, yours will simply be punishment for aiding them in that. Take him to the jailhouse." Walking away from the scene, trusting his guards to do their work, Brolly noticed three faces watching from nearby. He approached them and nodded first to Brayden, then Fife, and finally Jack. "You saw that?"


    "Stupid bastard deserves everything you give him. You don''t want loose cannon adventurers hanging around." Fife spat after her words and turned her back on Brolly.


    Giving his party''s tank the space she seemed to need to cool off, Brayden Smith held out his hand to pat Brolly on the shoulder. "I was going to head in and talk to the priest here."


    "He''s a hard man, but I think a growing city needs that." It had been a hard thing to hear how Rupert had handled Ludmiller and how he had kept the body of Porter while he communed with his god for guidance. "If any of you need me, I''ll be doing paperwork."

 Chapter 30

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 2/10


    Heart 6400/6400


    Experience 100/1600


    Workers 5/15


    Monsters 0/16+1


    Traps 13/25+4


    Rooms 19


    Food 312


    Timber 583


    Iron 351


    Steel 0


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 18


    Rock 843


    Gold 1203


    Leather 248


    Leather Sludge 195


    Lava 28


    Explosive Runes 4


    Triggered Explosive Runes 7


    Quest: Have 10 adventurers in the dungeon at once


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    Even badgering Katelyn to get her to work on her own stuff hadn''t worked. Travis grumped silently as she ate. He grumped as she yawned. He even grumped as she walked off to her sleeping quarters.


    "Why doesn''t everyone do more stuff for themselves?" Travis asked Penelope while she was hauling logs into the dungeon. "I tried to tell her to take some time to do something she enjoys, and she laughed at me."


    Penelope laughed at Travis, only making his grump a little stronger. "I know you don''t like giving orders, Trav, but that one was perfect. She''s obviously enjoying her work."


    It was obvious once she''d pointed it out to him. He was all set to figure out a better way to order Katelyn to have fun when Stephan and an adventurer stepped into his dungeon. It would have been panic-inducing, especially when two more adventurers stepped in, but he recognized her. "Fife and her group just came in."


    "Do they look ready to fight?" Penelope dropped the tree she''d been hauling in, turned, and started marching to the entrance.


    "They have their gear on, but I don''t think they''re here to fight. Fife isn''t smiling, though." That last bit worried Travis. Every time she''d visited, she''d been excited and smiling like a little kid. "She looks dead serious about something."


    "Here she comes." Stephan looked more comfortable now he was in the dungeon. Travis could hear him but, thanks to the lack of lizards near the entrance, he could only see Stephan from Penelope''s eyes.


    "Yo! Pen!" Fife didn''t look like she was ready to go for a weapon, which made Travis far more relieved. "Heard you had some assholes come in?"


    "They heard about the adventurers?" Travis asked Penelope and Stephan.


    "Not all of them were assholes. At least one is working out pretty well." Striding up, Penelope gestured to a side tunnel. "Pretty sure I owe you an explanation and the first drink of our new tavern."


    Travis felt he could relax. Robert and Ludmiller had both taken breaks, and all he got from Katelyn was long, vaguely growling snores. He turned his attention to the research he''d need to make this place really hum with experience.


    First was fifteen days worth of research on Reaper. It doubled the XP he''d get from kills. Given how things had gone with Ludmiller''s friends, Travis liked this idea. Even if they never had another group stumble in, that was a requirement for Timesink. Timesink was simple: Gain XP over time for having adventurers in the dungeon.


    55 days in total to research them. He just wished he could tell everyone to research and get it done in 11 days.


    Then he had a thought: if Penelope did everything faster and better than the others, would having her work on these reduce that time?


    He also wanted to add sleeping quarters and picketing for animals. The latter, he expected, would be best as a big open area with wooden fittings. Then it hit him¡ªhow much of a town would fit in a dungeon? Travis had plans!


    <hr>


    Walking behind the bar, Penelope was surprised to find there was a cask of beer already there and ready to go, as well as glasses and¡ªstrangest of all¡ªlittle bowls of nuts. She poured four beers and kept one for herself. "So, what was up with them?"


    "Huh?" Fife asked, pulling back from the excellent beer she''d already started on. "Oh! The idiots who didn''t contact the town for info on your place and just came straight here¡ªwith that idiot Porter? Not a lot. Brolly asked us to come out and see if you had any extra complaints. They found Porter in town after the priest there revived him."


    "Wait, what?" Penelope shook her head. "I mean, yeah, they came here. I didn''t realize Porter was with them. Their rogue led them down the sludge traps, neutralizing each one, but they missed the¡ª" It was too late now. The layout of that room was known. "There is a double-pit trap at the end. Not normally a problem for a group, but Ludmiller missed it and led the whole lot of them over that."


    Curiosity was eating at Jack. "A pit trap killed them? What did you have at the bottom?"


    "Well, Katelyn, she''s a wizard, makes us explosive runes. She had some in the bottom that only go off when a non dungeon-creature goes near them." Penelope liked the stunned expressions she saw. "There were eight of them."


    Brayden whistled at that. "No wonder they didn''t make it through. The priest said you claimed the one survivor on account of her not being able to pay for the damage. That''s this Ludmiller?"


    Nodding, Penelope took another swig of beer. "Gave her the choice. She could either work it off for the town or with us. She chose us, knowing what that would mean. Maybe she should come pay a visit to let you know how her first day of work''s gone?"


    If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Picking up on the vibe and not wanting to give his presence away, Travis spoke to Ludmiller. "There''re some adventurers at the door¡ªnot from your party. Pen thinks it would be a good idea if you went up and showed them you''re okay. Also, there''s beer there for you."


    "Bee¡ª?" Ludmiller perked up at that. She still hadn''t mastered speaking with a mouth full of sharp teeth and a tongue that was long enough to cause trouble, but she could get basic ideas expressed. "I comi¡ª"


    "She''s on her way up. I''ll direct her to use the main tunnel entrance. We don''t want to let everyone know there are hidden doors in here right away." Travis hadn''t spent more than a few moments on the conversation with Ludmiller, though it did mean he lost track of what was going on in the tavern.


    "That brings us to the other important thing. By a unanimous vote of the three leaders of the town, you are a dungeon under protection. Like with that other one they got, a verdant and animals one." Jack sipped the beer, content to witness a surprised kobold trying to absorb the full impact of what he''d said.


    "So that''s why Porter got arrested?" Penelope hid her smile¡ªor tried to¡ªbehind the beer as she took another drink.


    "Yes and no. They''d like to make an example of him for going behind the town''s back, but the law wasn''t in effect until after they''d delved this place. He''ll get off, but it will be a good warning for anyone else stupid enough to try it." Delivering news meant Brayden didn''t need to betray either of his clients'' personal information. Plus, getting paid for a job and getting free beer was a no-brainer for him so far as work went.


    "Yeah, but I know what that means. You need to map our dungeon." It was distasteful to Penelope. "That''s a hard no. Even if it would get us protection."


    Clearing his throat, Brayden nodded. "We have delivered the information as we were contracted by Brolly Windchime to do. Now, as nothing more than friends sharing a drink in a tavern, let me give you some advice. Insist it be someone other than us. Modify your dungeon for spirals and loops, make people go back and around in circles. They will need to see your dungeon''s heart, but you could have some friends there willing to deal with anyone who gets the wrong idea."


    Travis perked up at that. "I like that idea. We can pay them gold or whatever. Hell, we can give them lodgings here for life."


    "Lodgings?!" Penelope had been so shocked to hear of Travis'' plans that she''d blurted it out. "I¡ª" Now she faced the curiosity of three adventurers.


    Leaning back, a smile spreading over his face, Jack asked, "Who''ve you been talking to? You seem a little zoned out every now and again, and now it''s obvious you have someone talking to you."


    "Might as well tell them if they''re going to become our hired guards," Travis told Penelope.


    "I suck at this stealthy crap. I was a good rogue¡ªnever got caught out by a trap. You might as well say hi to Travis. Fife has met him once before, though she probably doesn''t realize who he was." Penelope shrugged her shoulders.


    "Where is he?" Fife asked.


    "You''re sitting in him. Trav is the dungeon. You saw his heart. The weirdest thing about this whole situation is he wasn''t always a dungeon."


    Walking into the tavern, Ludmiller looked around and spotted the group sitting at the bar. She walked over to them and had to jump a little to get onto one of the stools. "Hey."


    "Wait, one thing at a time." Fife was trying to get her head around the Travis situation. "So you''re saying that the dungeon was a person too? This is nuts. Were they an adventurer too? What were they? Where are they from?"


    Pouring Ludmiller a drink, Penelope shrugged. "To figure all that out, you''d have to ask him and listen to his answers. As for what I think, he''s a genuine and nice guy. He doesn''t want to hurt anyone, but he has made it clear he won''t allow others to harm him or us in any way."


    "He nice." Ludmiller didn''t want to stretch her new ability to talk too much, so she stuck to simple. Lifting the beer up carefully, she took a few goes to be able to drink from it¡ªand wound up just shoving her snout into the glass mug.


    "Yup, he is. Now"¡ªPenelope filled Fife''s mug back up, because of course it was empty¡ª"he wants to hire you for the task you were just talking about. What do you want?" She gave her best smile, which she knew probably had a lot of sharp fangs. That''s fine, in her book, these adventurers were used to dealing with creatures with more teeth than them.


    "Gold''s always nice," Fife said, smirking. "And I hear you have plenty of that."


    "Gold is¡ª" Travis was cut-off, though.


    "Please, we could pay anyone a big pile of gold to do a thing and they''d do it. What do you want that a dungeon could provide?" Penelope nodded toward the mug in Fife''s hand. "Free beer in here for life? What about new equipment? We''re not going to be limited to iron and wood forever. Trav is already exploring the possibility of metals that would make you wet your pants, Fife."


    Turning to Jack, Penelope tapped a claw on the bartop. "And you¡ª"


    "Jack," Jack said, when Penelope seemed to be fishing for his name.


    "Jack. You''re not a wizard, because you don''t want to talk my ears off¡ªfiguratively these days¡ªabout how magic works. Sorcerer, right?" Penelope waited for a nod. "Okay, reagents. You want a gallon of lava that somehow doesn''t seem to go cold?"


    "The opposite would be better."


    "Well, what about access to one of the best wizards I''ve ever had the displeasure to be stuck in a dungeon with¡ªwho has invented a new line of magic in the last few days? She''s written books and is writing more."


    Jack tapped his chin and let a little power draw a snowflake in the air. "New magic?"


    "I''m sure she said something about that. Whenever that girl gets the chance, she talks and talks. Hey, want some explosive runes? They''re great for dealing with anything you don''t like. She makes them¡ªI think I mentioned that already?" Penelope pulled three explosive runes out that she''d been keeping on her person. "Had some spiders recently. We don''t have spiders anymore."


    Travis could appreciate the angle. "What about Brayden?"


    "Brayden. A warrior priest has little he requires apart from his equipment. Like Fife, I know you can practically smell the mithril, adamantine, platinum, and divinium that a big dungeon can produce. We''re working on getting to those. What we also need is people. If we bring in more people wanting to spend time here, they''ll need spiritual leadership." Penelope could see her spiel wasn''t biting for Brayden as well as it had for Fife and Jack.


    Brayden hadn''t become a settle-down-and-preach priest. He was a warrior priest, he stood as a bulwark between people of all sorts and evil. "There are plenty of gods. That priest in town you took Ludmiller to¡ª"


    "Yeah, I don''t have much for you but a place you could call home, other dungeons nearby you could test yourself on, and a growing city. We plan to get bigger. We want to get more people to willingly become kobolds in here. What do you want us to do to secure your services?"


    It was a lot of little things. Brayden could see what Travis had planned¡ªa dungeon that was as much a city as Northridge¡ªbut even the deal of being the sole priest for such an enclave didn''t fit in with his vision of his future. "Let''s go with what you''re offering Fife for now, with negotiations as we go."


    "I can live with that," Travis told Penelope and Ludmiller.

 Chapter 31

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 2/10


    Heart 6400/6400


    Experience 100/1600


    Workers 5/15


    Monsters 0/16+1


    Traps 13/25+4


    Rooms 19


    Food 312


    Timber 783


    Iron 251


    Steel 0


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 23


    Rock 738


    Gold 203


    Leather 223


    Leather Sludge 195


    Lava 28


    Explosive Runes 4


    Triggered Explosive Runes 7


    Quest: Have 10 adventurers in the dungeon at once


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    Things were on track. Travis had gotten Robert to build the glass smith room adjacent to his alchemy lab, then he and Ludmiller had built some extra bedrooms before they each found one of their own and slept.


    Stephan had returned to cutting down trees. He''d worked for a few hours before likewise finding somewhere to sleep.


    Penelope had stayed up far later, chatting with the three adventurers and discussing what the best way to handle relations between the city and the dungeon were. Listening in was a nice distraction for him from the peace that had settled over the dungeon.


    When the adventurers left and Penelope went to the sleeping quarters to sleep, Katelyn was just getting up and swapped places with her. "Trav," Katelyn said, "today we''re going to work on your magic."


    "But we still have one triggered rune missing."


    "That''s easy to fix. I already have a full tank, so¡­" Pulling a rock from behind her back, Katelyn imbued it as a triggered explosive rune. "Now, give me a chance to have breakfast and I''ll put all these runes in the traps again, then we can talk about magic."


    It was hard to be so excited and, at the same time, patient as Katelyn went about her morning routine then carefully added the bombs back to the trap.


    "I like the change to this tunnel, Trav. Having the main entrance lead directly to your heart seemed a bit stupid, but I didn''t want to say anything." She climbed out of the pit trap and carefully reset it. "Though you''ll want to get Robert to move the donkey and cart rooms upstairs. Having the poor animal right beside this powder keg is probably not all that nice to it."


    "Yeah. I''ll get Robert to move it when he''s awake. I think we need some other things upstairs. A timber mill at least, and probably a tannery too. Keep them in a hidden section that''s really close to the entrance." Adding a pair of rooms to the first floor planning, Travis mentally tapped his chin. "I really should build a maze up there, too. Something to really screw with adventurers and make them¡ª"


    "They''ll map it. It won''t do much more than slow them down." Katelyn paused and looked at her hands. "But you could pepper it with triggered runes. If I could build up my mana a bit more, I could even scribe regenerating ones."


    "I like that idea. They''re great because they don''t count as a trap. Can rogues even disable them?"


    "Yeah, and they''re worth a small fortune. Imagine a rock you could throw, have it blow up everything in an area, then you can just walk in and pick it up again. All they have to do is re-calibrate it to trigger on dungeon creatures." Walking to the heart room, Katelyn seemed to bounce with new energy. "First, we need to get you faster mana. It might just be a way to trigger more upgrades for you, but you being able to use spells more often is a good thing. That fire wall, for example."


    "Those adventurers sure seemed reluctant to go through it."


    "Yeah, that''s reasonable, too. It was hot and I couldn''t see to the other side of it. As far as I could tell, you''d filled the whole hallway with them." Sitting down and setting about relaxing herself beside his heart, Katelyn said, "Now, I want you to focus on only your heart room, but first, let''s start with everything."


    "Everything?"


    "Yup. Reach out and feel for the whole dungeon¡ªevery tunnel, every room, and every trap. Focus on the entirety and tell me when you have it."


    At first Travis just looked at the plans. He spread his focus in a wide net and felt out each room, even adding his awareness of each kobold and lizard within that. Finally, he poked open all the menus. "G-Got it. Wow, this is a lot to take in. I even opened all the menus and stuff."


    "Perfect. Now I want you to focus on it all until it is all getting your attention. Just a huge, whole that is you in the extended sense."


    "Right."


    "Now, one by one, close the menus. As you close them, focus on willing them out of your attention. Narrow yourself down to the dungeon and only the dungeon." She waited for him to acknowledge her again. "Now, slowly, roll your focus back from the entrance. The tunnel up there, the new tavern you built, even any planning. Bit by bit, focus on it, accept it, and let it go from your mind."


    It was a heck of a task, but as Travis worked at it, gave up the light of outdoors, the watering hole, the maze he''d been planning out, and even the stairs, it was like the rest of the dungeon became more real and there. "Okay."


    <hr>


    Katelyn could feel a greater density to Travis'' presence and mana in general. She wondered if his nature was purely mana. "The stairs are first to fade out. The tunnel from the gold mine is next, the new planned areas, their tunnels, even the one building down there you''ve finished. Draw yourself tighter toward this room. One by one examine the warehouses, the traps, even the donkey¡ªlet them all fade from your awareness."


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    It was definitely growing more mana-dense, and Katelyn almost felt overwhelmed by Travis now. It was a heady mix for a kobold with no protection against the whims of the dungeon. "The glass smithy, the alchemy lab, my library, each of the rooms grow in intensity and then wink out one by one until you just have the sleeping rooms and this room.


    "Each kobold needs a special little touch, a focus on them to remember who and what they are before you hone down more and more to just one room, this one."


    Katelyn''s eyes were wide now as she meditated too¡ªbut in her case it was to keep afloat in the most mana-dense environment she''d ever been in in her life. It was almost like drowning, only she could breathe this weighty mass with comical ease. Katelyn only worried about what it would do to her.


    "I can see the mana in this room," Travis said. "I can feel it, too, through my heart¡ªbut I can see it with your eyes. It''s amazing!"


    Amazing was such a small word for how Katelyn felt. Her personal mana was full and then some¡ªthat was without doubt. Each breath she took added a little more to her. She opened her mouth to explain something, to beg Travis to spread out again, or plead with him to never stop¡ªshe wasn''t sure which¡ªbut no words could make it out of her body.


    Seconds slowed to hours for Katelyn, but the eternity between each of her heartbeats paled into nothingness when she felt Travis'' magic focus down further onto her. It pushed, prodded, and wrapped around her like a cloak, becoming so thick and dense that it felt like she was bundled up in a cloak made of iron.


    "That''s interesting. Your mana is just like mine, except for the density of it. You can hold so much mana, but with the density of mine in you, it''s like you hold a hundred times more."


    "A hundred times" seemed like a gross understatement to Katelyn. This was supposed to be an opportunity for Travis to experience his own mana, but so far he seemed more attentive to her.


    A little more pressure from him and something seemed to give way inside Katelyn. Gasping, she managed to focus her eyes again¡ªonly to see Travis'' mana and presence thick in the room¡ªand thick in her. "How are you¡ªwhat did you do to me?"


    "There was some kind of barrier. When I poked it, it disappeared. Did I hurt you?"


    "I don''t think so. I think¡ªmy mana is denser now. How did you do that?" Katelyn felt amazing. She felt like there was no spell she couldn''t cast and nothing she couldn''t do. Reaching out a claw, she gently touched Travis'' heart.


    "Like I said, I just touched you. I¡ªI need to let go of this focus, it''s too much."


    The mana in the room drained to a more natural level and Katelyn could focus more. She was still uncomfortably aware of how much more mana she had. "I feel itchy and bloated. This is all your fault." Laughing as she stood up, Katelyn felt exactly as she''d said. "Did it help you in any way?"


    "You could say that. I have two new spells!" Travis sounded excited and Katelyn had no doubt he was. "The first is Concentrate Mana. I think it does what I just did in here¡ªfocuses a bunch of mana so you can charge from it. That costs one mana per cast and each cast seems to last an hour."


    "It''s not really charging, so much as you cramming mana into me like a¡ªlike a sausage." Katelyn had fumbled for a good analogy but, in the end, had grabbed at the worst like it was a life preserver. "But I could see this being useful. I actually have more raw mana in me like this. Also, we were trying to find ways to improve your mana, not find useful new ways to use it up."


    "The second spell," Travis said, not rising to the bait, "is another resource creation one. Create Mana Shrine, works like that one that makes a mining resource, but makes a mana regenerating shrine appropriate to the level. I assume it has a limited use."


    "It''d be pretty crazy if it stuck around forever." Katelyn spun in a circle, almost tripping on her tail in the process. "I''m going to go use this mana up and see if it comes back this dense." Walking down the tunnel and to the library, Katelyn pondered the best way to try using up all her mana.


    Pulling a rock out from behind her back, she closed her eyes and focused on the rune to make a triggered explosive rune, but brought the recharging form into it too. The more mana she spent now, the faster the recycle time would be once it was made¡ªassuming she could make it.


    Katelyn poured mana into the stone, feeding the patterns and reinforcing them, marveling at how easily such a huge quantity of mana could be worked¡ªbut then it stopped. She let out a whine as the rune was almost done. "Trav! Can you cast that concentrate mana spell on me?" she asked as she struggled to hold the partially-finished rune from dissipating.


    Travis acted first and asked second. Ticking down his mana, he flooded the library with it and asked. "Why did you need that so soon?"


    The flow of extra mana was exactly what Katelyn needed. Converting the mana that pooled around her and sending it into the rune, she felt the crafting complete with a sigh of relief. "I did it!"


    Katelyn could also feel the mana flowing into her, filling her at about the same rate as if she were meditating, though still with a greater density.


    "So I guess now we find good spots for them in the maze and cement them in place? I was planning to let that be Ludmiller''s project, if she wants it," Travis said.


    "Yeah. That would be a good idea. She''s new and needs to have something to do. Just a problem with these, they only reset every four days. It''s the best I can do until I can hold more mana." Setting the rune down on the little lectern, Katelyn was used to the sight of it disappearing enough that it didn''t bother her to see it just fade out of existence.


    <hr>


    "So that''s it? The kobolds are fine with us inspecting the dungeon in its entirety so long as you are there safeguarding it? Seems too easy." Brolly Windchime sat at the table with the three adventurers, taking their report after they''d all slept off their hangovers. How they''d gotten blind-drunk in a dungeon he wanted to find out.


    "We have contracted to the kobolds for this service, Brolly. You know we won''t take their pay and split, and I think they know that too. They''re not evil. They have every right to feel safe." Leaning back a little on his chair, Brayden Smith waited for his breakfast to be brought out.


    "If you want to tell them we are ready to go ahead in two weeks, that would be perfect." As soon as he said it, Brolly watched as Fife''s arm reached out toward him. "You''ll get paid for the courier work."


    Jack barely paid any attention at all. He''d spent the morning researching the name Penelope had told him¡ªthe wizard they had in the dungeon. Katelyn Arskith was a genius, or so the witch who worked in the local bookshop had told him. Researching new ways to make magic more efficient and easier, she''d suddenly gone missing and her old school was offering a reward for her whereabouts. He didn''t care one bit for a reward¡ªhe wanted to meet this wizard and learn everything she could teach him about magic.

 Chapter 32

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 2/10


    Heart 6400/6400


    Experience 100/1600


    Workers 5/15


    Monsters 0/16+1


    Traps 26/25+4


    Rooms 33


    Food 400


    Timber 1403


    Iron 14


    Steel 0


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 47


    Rock 1643


    Gold 2000


    Leather 455


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 51


    Glass 500


    Explosive Runes 10


    Triggered Explosive Runes 8


    Quest: Have 10 adventurers in the dungeon at once


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    After two weeks of waiting, and building out his interior like crazy, Travis was relieved to find out the caravan of supplies had arrived in Northridge. They''d not been idle, of course, digging, digging, and more digging. He''d also experimented with more magic, but apart from hitting his mana limit of 40¡ªand triggering a mana storage room¡ªthere were no new surprises.


    Almost a third of everyone''s time had been spent out cutting wood. Katelyn, of course, had been hard at work meditating so that she didn''t get a mana headache every time Travis boosted her mana, in the moments that she did brave being stuffed with ten kobolds worth of mana, she produced enough runestones that they were flush with them. Again they''d had to stop processing leather sludge because they had so much of it.


    A timber mill had been built near the entrance, because dragging logs down stairs had gotten old the first time anyone had done it. The donkey and its supplies had been moved near the door too, as well as a set of rooms had been excavated for Brayden, Fife, and Jack to live in when they were in the dungeon.


    The first cartload had been entirely iron. All the iron the poor little donkey could pull. Robert and Katelyn had gone to pick it up, but Penelope went back for the second load. While she was out of the dungeon, Travis asked the others to do as many buildings and upgrades as they could. Nineteen new warehouses and a bunch of doors placed carefully to hide things that adventurers shouldn''t be seeing.


    The moment Penelope led the donkey and cart into the dungeon, however, Travis got a new notification.


    <blockquote>


    New building unlocked due to firearm-equipped minion.


    </blockquote>


    He was so excited to find that he''d just unlocked a gunsmith building that he almost missed the dozen people stepping into the dungeon behind her. "This is the exploration group?" he asked Penelope.


    "Okay!" Penelope gestured down to the left after entering. "I need to drop this lot off, so I might as well show you the bar, our storage dropoff, and our accommodations for non-dungeon employees. If you guys want to show some of them down there, I''ll show the rest the more hidden parts."


    One of the inspectors cleared their throat and turned to Brayden. "This is a live, dragon-typed dungeon. We were led to believe it was pacified." He gestured to Penelope. "I thought¡ª"


    "Think what you like. Listen to what we say, that goes double for Pen there, and you won''t have a single problem finding your way around this place safely and be out before sunset." Brayden looked like he''d said the same words over and over again already. "This, down here, is our quarters when we''re working near the dungeon¡ªor if Fife gets too drunk to walk back to Northridge."


    While Brayden unlocked the secret door that led to the quarters the dungeon denizens had made for them, Penelope unlocked another. Both doors had appeared like just another stone wall in the dungeon, which was the whole point. "In here''s our warehouse where we drop stuff off. It''s built so things never get stored here."


    Four of the inspectors followed Penelope, one looked around the empty storage room and asked, "What do you mean, drop off? Who carries it from¡ª"


    Unhooking the donkey, Penelope tipped the cart and let all the goods on the back slide to the floor of the warehouse. The moment the bars of iron and steel, bags of grain, and books touched the floor, they disappeared. "Magic. Dungeon stuff. No idea. We dump it, it ends up stored deeper in."


    "Why are you trusting us so much?" Another of the inspectors asked.


    Travis paid close attention to them, now. The one who''d asked the earlier questions had looked kind of young and bookish to him. They had notepads, rather than wax tablets, and seemed to be perpetually pulling a pencil from a new pocket to write or draw with. The new one asking questions looked a lot older and a lot more world-smart.


    "Because it''s worth it. If we''re classed as protected, we''ll be off-limits to adventurers." Leaving the cart for now, Penelope walked the donkey back to its stall and got out the brush to give it a quick brush down. "We keep spare grain in the next room. Feel free to look around if you like, just don''t enter the maze. We have traps in there that you wouldn''t survive."


    The younger and more studious one said, "We must map the entire¡ª"


    Sighing, Penelope seemed to focus even more on the donkey. "Look. We use proximity-triggered explosive runes. I can show you the entrance and exit of the maze, and any other trapped sections, but if you enter them¡ªyou''ll die."


    "They sold you explosive runes?!" the older guy said, only Travis thought he seemed more angry than shocked.


    Rubbing her claws through the donkey''s coat and whispering a quiet thank you to it, Penelope turned to face the man. "No. We have a wizard kobold who is making them. I would suggest not raising your voice to her, though. Her element is fire and her temper matches it." She didn''t care that it was all a lie, she didn''t owe them the truth.


    <hr>


    It had been far too long since they''d left their dungeon¡ªtheir old dungeon. "Keep moving! It''s around here somewhere!" The spell wasn''t energetic to maintain, but it required focus, and constantly concentrating on it made Short Claw irritable.


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    "Creatures ahead. A big one, big as a human. Three small. Smell like dragons."


    It was an unfavorable matchup, Short knew all too well. Smaller ones, kobolds, were always guarded by the much bigger ones. That they only had one bigger one with them probably meant it was a dungeon boss of some kind. "We need to circle around¡ªthis isn''t our dungeon."


    Short Claw''s swarm had started with three other spirit shaman like him, three dozen goblin hackers, five big orcs, and one ogre. Now he was down to just ten of his hackers, two orcs, and the ogre¡ªand he had no other shaman with him.


    It took two days of careful movement to edge around the dragon dungeon. Circling so far had pinged a second dungeon to him, but he hated the feel of it¡ªcold as a grave. Goblins had no love for the undead, and the opposite was true, but the way the abominations just kept coming ruined a goblin''s survivability.


    Continuing to sweep around the city, Short felt another dungeon''s presence just as his scout reported a group of adventurers. "What are they?"


    The unnamed scout just stared at Short. "Adventurers."


    Smacking himself in the face with his free talon, Short Claw reached out and grabbed the goblin by the back of its neck. "Show me where they are. I need to know what their classes are." Where they were turned out to be several low hills away. When Short crawled up onto the last to see the adventurers for himself, he saw them literally standing outside a dungeon. "Lots of magic. We don''t want anything to do with them but¡ª"


    A swarm of bugs leapt out of the dungeon and charged for the magic users. One snapped his fingers and the swarm burst into flames, leaving behind a green sludge that burned the grass.


    Taking a slow, deep breath, Short Claws'' eyes glistened with excitement. "This is perfect. Poison and bugs means poison and goblins better. Let adventurers clear it, goblins move in."


    <hr>


    It was getting toward nightfall when the adventurers left the dungeon. They came out covered in muck and Short Claws could hear them clearly laughing. It both pleased and stung him that they would treat one of the dungeons that way¡ªthere would be significantly less bugs now.


    Shimmying backward from the edge of the hill, Short stood up and reached out for the nameless goblin hacker. "You did well. This is going to be it, Sharp Eyes." A name was a badge of power and honor to goblins. As a shaman he could grant them, but they must be earned. "Tell your brothers¡ªwe move-in tonight."


    Running back to camp, Sharp Eyes stood proud and strutted the last few steps. "Short Claws told Sharp Eyes to say, we move-in tonight!" The cheer Sharp Eyes got had them cheering too, but also checking their weapons.


    "Sharp Eyes get name from Short Claws?" Axer, the ogre of their swarm, asked. His name, of course, was due to the axe that was as big as two goblins stretched out. The blade was filthy from where he''d used it to butcher the various game the swarm had collected.


    Nodding, Sharp Eyes held out his little dagger to the ogre carefully. "Bless?" The tiny knife disappeared in the huge, meaty fist of the ogre. Holding it up, Axer stabbed the little weapon into a particularly nasty boil he''d been nursing for just such a situation. When Sharp Eyes got it back, the green-black gunk on the blade was dripping down the handle and had coated the whole thing well. Excited at such a bountiful gift, Sharp Eyes took the knife. "Smells good!"


    Short Claws returned to their group to find Axer petting Sharp Eyes on the head. "Ready?" The reply he got excited Short''s blood. Their fervor was contagious. "Then let''s take our new home!"


    Marching out, they reached the dungeon before nightfall and Short Claws extended his magic into it. Excitement made him want to charge in. The dungeon hated intruders, but they wouldn''t be intruders soon. "Those adventurers cleared the way. Axer, in front of me. I tell what turns to take."


    Just stepping into the dungeon had a dampening effect on the goblins. Several started to cough, and Axer''s pus-filled and poisonous boils began to grow larger still. Yet, it didn''t slow them down. There were so few bugs that Axer could deal with most by just stomping his way in, and the few venomous things still alive couldn''t get through his thick hide.


    Short Claws kept calling the direction at each intersection. He couldn''t afford to burn his mana on an actual spell, but this dungeon hated intruders so much its fury sang to him and guided him. When he finally felt it so close he could touch, he shoved at Axer to speed the big, slow ogre up.


    The heart room was still on the first floor, and it glowed with a menacing green that reflected in the eyes of all the goblinoids. Walking right up to it, Short Claws pressed his palm against it. For a second his eyes glowed green in sympathy with the dungeon heart. "Soon. Soon you will have a mighty horde of goblins. These insects are nothing compared to an army."


    Showing not a hint of sympathy, the heart strained to create more minions. Its breeding pits churned and the few nests of larger pests started filling with eggs as it poured resources into driving the newest threat out.


    "Perimeter. You know how this works. Guard me, don''t let anything distract me from the ritual." Short Claws started reaching into his various bags and sacks that hung from his person. Dipping talons into them, he started drawing symbols on the heart, on the stone around it, and on himself. The last substance he added to both hands acted as a spiritual conduit for his magic, and when he braced both palms against the heart and started chanting, his magic echoed in the runes.


    "You will be stronger with us, I promise." The heart, rather than listening, fought against Short Claws.


    Axer wasn''t the smartest goblinoid in their swarm, but he was the smartest ogre. He was also the only ogre. When the first rush of snakes slithered from a tunnel, he moved over to put himself between them and the smaller goblins¡ªgiving the things a good stomping.


    "There! Over there, Axer!" Sharp Eyes called.


    Turning, Axer saw a large scorpion, about the size of a dog, sinking its tail into one of the goblin hackers. "Gutwrench! Kill that!"


    Raising his shield and cleaver in his hands, Gutwrench the orc stomped over and smashed the scorpion''s tail with his shield before driving his cleaver through its back. "Get up!" he shouted at the goblin, but shrugged when it didn''t. "Tighten ranks! Protect the shaman!"


    Axer knew that was exactly what Short Claws had already said, but there was something special about the goblin hackers when they heard an orc screaming at them¡ªthe little guys seemed so motivated.


    The first hour was rough, though the dungeon was running on basically no resources. None of the deadlier venoms were used, no brain-rotting toxins, and nothing that could stop an ogre or orc in their tracks.


    Swarms of tiny bugs, handfuls of bigger ones, and everything in between was thrown at them. All that happened was piles of bodies built up around the heart room and Short Claws got further through his ritual.


    One hour stretched into two, then six, and finally twelve. In the small hours of the morning, as sunlight dared to slip into the entrance of the dungeon while two orcs, an ogre, and three goblin hackers still fought¡ªShort Claws felt his ritual finally beat down the defenses of the dungeon and the first tenuous bond formed.


    The dungeon heart was scared, panicked, and unsure. It could sense a lot of threats within it and only a few brave fighters gathered around its heart.


    "See, goblins are much better than snakes and scorpions and things." Short Claws petted the heart, feeling its warmth. But, there was confusion there too. It was unsure of what to do with all the monsters it didn''t recognize. "We''ll protect you. We''ll build you bigger and stronger." Leaning his forehead against the heart, Short Claws smiled. "We''ll be your minions, your workers, your army."

 Chapter 33

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 2/10


    Heart 6400/6400


    Experience 100/1600


    Workers 5/15


    Monsters 0/16+1


    Traps 26/25+4


    Rooms 43


    Food 400


    Timber 1403


    Iron 1014


    Steel 0


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 49


    Rock 1643


    Gold 2000


    Leather 455


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 51


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 10


    Triggered Explosive Runes 8


    Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    Travis left Penelope to show the people around. He double checked everything else in the dungeon to make sure it was ready. The odd thing he''d noticed was that one of his warehouses looked different. "Robert, can you check the warehouse nearest to the sludge traps?"


    "Got it, Trav. Anything special I''m looking for?" Robert slipped out of the new hidden door that led to his lab and the glass smithy.


    "I''ve only got some lizard eyes in there, but it looks like the room is full of gold." Just when he''d finished saying it, Travis realized that one of the quests had changed. Checking his resources, he found that gold was his most abundant¡ªwhich seemed odd to him but in a good way.


    Reaching the room, Robert looked in and then activated a light stick. "Yeah. Trav, you have a lot of gold in here. Look at these racks and supports¡ªthat''s not wood or even iron, it''s steel!"


    "I just noticed that my get 10 adventurers in the dungeon quest completed with the inspectors coming in. Guess this is what it got me. How much gold do you think''s in this room?" Proud that he''d solved the little drama, Travis noticed that Penelope was leading the investigators down the stairs. "We have company coming. I told Pen to lead them down toward the gold mine first. If you''d like to open the tunnel to the inner area?"


    Robert snorted. "How far down into the warehouses do you want me to open it?"


    Travis tried and failed to hold back his laughter. "I think the end of the tunnel would be good. Good thinking, too. Once that''s open, can you run around and make sure all the secret doors are closed and locked?"


    "On it. Wait, you could get Katelyn to check the doors." Trotting along the dark tunnel, Robert closed off his light stick and tucked it back into a pouch on his shoulder harness.


    The harnesses, Travis thought, were a great idea Stephan had come up with. Kobolds, or at least the kobolds that lived in his dungeon, hadn''t shown much of an affinity for clothing.


    "Stephan?" Travis asked. "Do you know what a kilt is?"


    "Kilt?" Stephan had chosen to ignore the investigators. Travis was always reluctant to push him, mostly because he''d been the first (and he hoped only) time he''d just grabbed someone to be a kobold.


    "Like a leather wrap around your waist. You could add a belt so it can be used to carry tools and equipment."


    Tilting his head this way and that, Stephan picked up a piece of leather and chewed on it. "A leather skirt? I don''t know if you noticed, Trav, but whatever gets in your head when you become a kobold, it doesn''t seem to leave need clothing in there."


    "Right, but it would mean¡­ I''m pushing again, aren''t I?" Travis asked.


    "A little, Trav, but you''re doing it in a way that doesn''t feel like a command. I''m okay with that kind of pushing. I''ll ask around if anyone wants this or some other kind of clothing¡ªbefore you try, Trav, leave it to me." Stephan spat out the hunk of leather in his mouth and picked up a needle and some gut-thread he''d made and got back to work.


    Travis made a mental note to not bug anyone about clothing¡­ for a week or so. He had a problem with the phrase good enough when it came to the dungeon. Everything should be better. Everything could be better.


    "And this is where we can''t proceed into the dungeon floor itself because traps." Penelope stepped to the edge of the slime trap and held up her light stick. "All the traps, and some of them are explosive. I''m not going to tell you which ones."


    "You need to put a sign up." It was neither the snooty one nor the note-taker. One of the inspectors that had toured the adventurers'' rooms upstairs seemed to think Travis'' dungeon needed to be OSHA compliant. "Warning anyone working in here that there are traps."


    "Tell him we''ll put up a door. Will that satisfy him?" Travis said to Penelope.


    Penelope''s head snapped to look in the direction of Travis'' heart then back to the guy who asked her the question. "We can put a door up and write on it ''adventurers this way''. Oh, we could do that at the maze, too."


    Travis couldn''t help giggling at the facetiousness in Penelope''s tone. It might be a joke, but he was pushing to make his dungeon safe for those visiting, and if that cost him two traps and let him make a joke at the same time, so be it. "Doors everywhere! Signs telling people to be careful of stubbed toes!"


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    Penelope lasted a whole second before barking with laughter. Every time Travis suggested another silly sign or door, she started all over again until she literally had to lean against the wall to contain her laughter for fear of falling into the sludge.


    "What''s going on?" Fife asked. "Pen, are you okay?"


    "We need¡ª" Penelope shook her head and giggled furiously before continuing. "We need to add a gong with a sign on it, ''Caution"¡ªshe giggled some more¡ª"long drop."


    Fife blinked a few times before she started to smirk, then she broke into laughter too. "Where¡ª" She just shook her head.


    Travis figured he should stop tormenting Penelope in case he gave the game away about being the dungeon itself. "I''ll stop. Robert opened up an entrance to the storage area at the end of this tunnel. Feel free to use the time to work off the giggles. Hey, maybe I should put a sign on a door at the entrance that reads, ''beware of puns''?"


    Gritting her teeth, Penelope managed to say, "This way," before stalking off to where Travis had told her where Robert had dug.


    <hr>


    Penelope hated how good Travis was at making her laugh. Not that she''d had much time to explore that in the past, but he had come up with a dozen ideas that were so stupid she couldn''t even think about them without grinning. "We dig and fill our own entrance when we need it. Takes only a handful of seconds to do it, and it''s safer than trying to get past the traps."


    "You modify the dungeon? But doesn''t that mean the layout changes? This is fascinating." Cartography, the profession Blake''s family had tried to force him into, had been useful to learn if only because it gave him the supreme attention to detail and drawing skills needed to map a dungeon.


    Of course, Blake had mapped dozens of dungeons before, but never¡ªabsolutely never¡ªone that had asked to be mapped. Well, he assumed there was some level of intelligence to the dungeon and that the strange kobold creature with the odd sense of humor wasn''t completely in charge. Clearing his voice, he asked, "Who runs the dungeon?"


    Stopping in her tracks, Penelope looked back at the walking stack of notepaper. "What do you mean?" She felt a tiny hint of nerves rising that the bookworm had stumbled onto a question she didn''t want to answer.


    "You think a kobold really knows the answer to that?" Jack asked. "She''s as likely to say the dungeon runs itself or that she runs it or even that the goddess of nature runs it."


    That, Blake thought, sounded like they were evading his question, but that meant that the group of adventurers escorting them were working for the dungeon, and though he could think of myriad reasons why anyone might hire adventurers, a dungeon hiring them seemed even more interesting than his question.


    When Penelope led the way through the new tunnel and back toward the west, Blake stepped to the side and let everyone pass him as he carefully tuned down his light stick to a bare whisper of light. He judged the group was out of earshot before asking, "I know someone will be listening. Can I talk to someone?"


    "You can," Robert said. "Getting an answer to your questions is more complicated."


    Blake couldn''t see an inch in front of his face, but the sound of the kobold, apparently right beside him, didn''t make him jump. "What''s all this about? Why did a growing city''s council vote unanimously to declare an active and otherwise hostile dungeon to be off-limits to adventurers? Not just that, but even offering to protect it?"


    "You want all the reasons? It will cost you. We''re not here to answer this question for you, so it''s an extra." Listening to Travis in his head, Robert didn''t need much of a hint to know what to ask and what to offer. "We''ll answer that one if you promise to bring us writing slates. Good wax ones. I''m sure you have the money to do that."


    Bartering goods for information wasn''t a new concept, but doing so with dungeon creatures was unheard of. "Okay. A slate for a question?"


    "Two slates per question." When Blake nodded in the dark, Robert continued. "The answer should seem obvious now. We trade with the town. Some resources we don''t have, some we do. We have gold, Northridge has iron, glass, books, oats."


    It was obvious, now. Without even seeing his paper, Blake made two marks. "Who runs the dungeon?" He added two more.


    "The dungeon runs the dungeon. We dig and build it. It''s as simple as¡ª"


    "Don''t. You are hiding so much with that it might as well be a lie. Does Pen control the dungeon or¡ªor is the dungeon its own entity?" Blake wanted to know so much that a bunch of wax slates was the least of his worries. He made another two marks on the paper.


    "The dungeon does its own thinking, of a sort. It guides us, it can order us to do things we wouldn''t normally do, and there''s not a rat''s arse bit of resistance we can put up to that." Robert wasn''t sure if he was acting well enough, but he was telling the absolute truth. "That''s six slates."


    "Yeah, I got that. So, how smart is the dungeon?"


    Robert almost swore. "I don''t suppose telling you that I''m not answering anymore questions would make you forget you asked?"


    Blake snorted and shook his head. "Then I get to choose the answer I want based off what you absolutely wouldn''t want to tell me, which would be that your dungeon is smart enough to design mazes, build a tavern, and plan to entertain adventurers it keeps on retainer for doing jobs for it."


    "I could knock you out and bury you in a wall so fast your head would spin." There was no malice in Robert''s words. Even to his own ears they sounded hollow. "But you broke off from the rest of the group, even helped Pen hide you being missing. What''s your angle here?"


    "I''ve always wanted to be in a dungeon. To explore it, to find its secrets, to know¡ªI know it sounds silly."


    "Doesn''t sound silly. Dungeons are pretty cool. You can trust me because I''m a kobold who lives in one." Looking back behind himself, Robert saw a dull glow getting brighter. "Follow me. I''ll show you something those others won''t get to see."


    In the absolute dark, Blake let a kobold lead him down tunnels hidden in the dungeon, past something that clicked, and then into a lit room. There was a fire in a forge, though it was a dull one, but Blake could see several buckets of what looked like glass beads as well as tongs and other glassworking equipment. "You make¡ª?"


    "Glassware. I''m an alchemist. Those sludge traps out front? Those have been¡­ improved."


    Now Blake could see Robert clearly, he could see that there were burns along his arms, little splatters of different color that the glass had probably left, and in that head that barely came to his stomach was a pair of eyes that looked worryingly smart. "Lucky I''m just here to draw maps. If they asked me my opinion on this place, I¡ªI don''t know if I''d tell them to send the army to destroy it or build a city around it."


    "Either would be wise, but I''d like your opinion. Would you like to live in a dungeon?" Robert gave his best fang-filled grin, hoping that he didn''t look too much like a predator.

 Chapter 34

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 2/10


    Heart 6400/6400


    Experience 100/1600


    Workers 5/15


    Monsters 0/16+1


    Traps 26/25+4


    Rooms 43


    Food 400


    Timber 1403


    Iron 1014


    Steel 0


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 50


    Rock 1647


    Gold 2000


    Leather 455


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 51


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 10


    Triggered Explosive Runes 8


    Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    Travis liked this way better. Robert and Blake were discussing science and dungeon life, and it seemed like the young man was interested in joining them. The only thing that worried him, as always, was that last little reveal. Oh, by the way, staying here means you become a kobold too. Which could lead to: Yeah, no thanks. I''ll be fine heading out with your greatest secret, though, right?


    Pondering it more, he wondered if there needed to be some kind of apprenticeship. A way for potential recruits to ease into dungeon life without getting all the details dropped on them. "Pen, do you think it would be a good idea to offer non-prisoner recruits an apprenticeship in the dungeon? So lodgings and wages to work here, then once we trust them we could tell them about the kobolding process and¡ªOh, you''re still busy."


    Penelope was still giving the guided tour, using hand signals to position Fife, Brayden, and Jack in front of any doors they didn''t want the inspectors looking in. "Now, there''s one place you''re going to want to inspect, but I warn you not to get too close or use any magic on the heart when we enter the room."


    Even Travis stopped what he was planning and waited as Penelope unlocked the hidden door in the rock wall and opened it into his heart room. He felt every single kobold''s attention shift as Fife stepped into the room. It was a new instinct he had no idea how to control. "It''s okay, everyone. Sorry, I''m a bit nervous about having so many in the room with me."


    Fife marched right over to Travis'' heart and drew her sword¡ªthen about-faced right as he was about to go full panic attack. "Just a reminder, we''ve been hired to make sure things go smoothly¡ªbut we were hired by the kobolds." She then used her sword to strike some sparks on the floor of the heart room, two feet from the heart. "And see how far this is away from this here heart? That''s as close as you get."


    "That goes for the mana manipulator there," Penelope was quick to add, pointing at the glowing blue crystal that sat on its own pedestal beside the heart.


    "As my fellow employee said, this is all to make sure your inspection is both safe and goes expediently. We don''t want misunderstandings." Brayden gestured around the room. "As you can see, no monsters rushing to attack us, no traps. The dungeon is far more interested in financial and physical growth than luring people to their doom."


    It was hard to break his focus from what was going on in his heart room. It was literally his most vulnerable place and any non-dungeon creatures in there made his tunnels itch. But, he had to let Robert know his idea. "Robert, if he wants to work here, offer him a week trial. He can live in some quarters down here. Maybe I''ll convert the old donkey room."


    Robert coughed halfway through speaking and quickly recovered. "If you''d like to help plan this place, we do have a position vacant. The dungeon likes designing, but has a lot of work to do and some specific requirements. There''d have to be a week trial period¡ªyou understand we can''t just let anyone see the whole place, but we have the upper floor we need designed."


    "Really? I¡ªI''d have to let everyone know. They would be worried if I just disappear in here." Blake paused and laughed. "Like I am right now. I wonder if they even noticed I was gone?"


    Figuring it was a good time to reunite the group, Travis said, "They haven''t. You could probably wander in, though, they''re arguing with Fife about getting to see the sleeping quarters."


    "Let''s head back to the group. We can let everyone know the plan from there. They''re in the heart room at the moment." Robert walked to the door of his lab and opened it into the tunnels of the dungeon. Producing a light stick, he gave the end a twist and activated the chemicals within.


    <hr>


    Showing the group of inspectors out, Penelope couldn''t hold back her smug grin. They''d argued so much about the sleeping quarters, that when she''d eventually shown them¡ªthey hadn''t so much as looked for the library or alchemy lab. It was a small victory, but it was a victory. "So," she said as they neared the entrance, "as you could see from our dungeon, we''re not planning anything that would breach the conditions of the protection."


    "Yes, yes. Everything looks in order. If you are willing to follow the terms, I''m sure you, Northridge, and the kingdom will all benefit. Strange as it''s been, I approve of this business relationship. It''s a shame more dungeons aren''t willing to align themselves with good, honest capitalism." About to step outside, Fey Drexler, the accountant in charge of the investigation, paused. Looking over her shoulder, she spotted their map maker talking to one of the kobolds. "Mr. Blake?"


    "With my job complete here, I''ve been offered a position working for the dungeon. They have a floor here they need to build-out, and more human-scale facilities they want to install. I think¡ªNo, I know this is something I would prefer to do. Here are the maps I''ve made of this dungeon." It had been a struggle to say. Blake had been nervous about their reaction to his choice, but as he held out the papers he''d drawn up Fey gave him a thin-lipped smile.


    It was odd to hear of a dungeon hiring people to work in it, but Fey could feel nothing but pride that a dungeon had found the correct way to do business. "Of course, Mr. Blake. The remainder of your pay will be left with the local bank or money-changer. I''ll deal with the paperwork myself."


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    His heart beating fast, Blake watched the group of inspectors leave the dungeon without another glance backwards.


    "Hey, so they have a new ko¡ª" Fife froze as Penelope put an arm around her shoulder and tapped out a pattern she knew. Adventurers had more than just verbal communication¡ªwhen things needed quiet, they could use gestures and a series of tapping motions to pass messages. What she got from the sharpened talons of Penelope was quiet.


    "Blake, you can either stay up here behind the hidden doors or you can live in the lower section." Penelope drew her arm back from Fife, glad she stopped her before the secret was blurted out. "The only problem with the lower section would be you''d have to wait for one of us to open a tunnel any time you want to leave or enter."


    "What''s the going rate for a cartographer?" Penelope asked.


    It was a stiff reminder to Blake that he wasn''t going to be doing the job just because he enjoyed it. "Uh, it''s about¡ª"


    "A gold a day," Robert said. "Right?"


    Penelope was going to argue, but then she remembered that at worst, he''d be working for seven days and that was it. She nodded. "Sounds agreeable. Okay, I want you working with Ludmiller. She helped design the maze we have already, and picked out where to add the explosives to it."


    "A maze is good, but I think there''s something you''re missing. People like mazes. What you want is something utterly boring and annoyingly mind-numbing." Blake was already imagining what he could do. "How far can you dig in here? How long in each direction have you managed?"


    Poking her head around the corner that led to the bar, Ludmiller focused in on the conversation, listening to Blake''s questions. "I don''t think we''ve tried doing that yet. The problem is that we need to store all the stone we dig out. Uh, right?"


    Looking at Robert, Blake got a nod. "Okay, so how much stone do you have stored?"


    "Almost 2000. And don''t ask how big or small one stone is." Penelope pointed back toward the bar and started walking. "One stone is what you get when you dig out around ten cubic feet of rock. It''s also what Katelyn uses to make one explosive rune." She sighed. "Dungeons are weird."


    "So if you have so much trouble storing it, why don''t you get her to make the rune stone, not scribe it, and then just drop a thousand of them in a tunnel you don''t use?" Blake asked. When all the kobolds around him were silent, Blake gave a nervous laugh. "A drink sounds good right now."


    Putting her arm around Blake''s shoulders, Fife let out a laugh. "Come on in. I am not sure where the drinks come from, but they''re free for employees."


    <hr>


    Travis had let his employees enjoy themselves. That was part of what he was trying to do, and them wiping out after a tense day was just perfect for it in his book. But, as most of them were all fall-down-drunk, the big feline-kin stepped into the dungeon.


    It had taken Wild some time to travel back to the dungeon and to locate it. He hadn''t asked around town, of course, because he didn''t like speaking. He fought several roving monsters to reach the kobold dungeon, and when he stepped inside it looked different. The huge, long tunnel was there, but so was a side tunnel.


    "Pen? Robert? Ludmiller? Agghh! Anyone?!" Travis shouted.


    Katelyn, deep asleep, didn''t wake to the shouting, nor did Stephan who was sleeping just one room over from her. It was maddening to Travis, but then Fife roused and turned to the doorway just as the huge guy walked in. "Who''re you?"


    Narrowing his eyes, Wild glared around at the kobolds in the room. Reaching to his sides, he drew the big, dark axes. "Where Luddy?"


    Fife was having a moment where adrenaline was sobering her rapidly. She had regrets, like having taken off her armor to arm-wrestle Penelope, or leaving her shield propped against the wall ten feet away¡ªworking for Travis and getting drunk, though, were not among them. "Hey, big guy, why don''t we just calm down?" She recognized his stance and type, he was all offense and only agility for defense. If she had her shield, she could wear someone like this down. If she had her armor, she could do it with style.


    Drawing her sword, Fife put herself between the slowly-rousing kobolds and the monster of an adventurer, turning slightly to the side to fence. "Normally I''d wipe the floor with¡ªWhoa, are those dark adamantine?" She cursed both aloud and in her head.


    Wild rushed at Fife, one big axe out to deflect her blade while he brought the other around at head height. Silent, he had nothing to say to one celebrating the death of his friend.


    Drawing her blade back from the strike meant to knock it aside, Fife managed to angle her weapon and knock the second axe high¡ªwhile ducking a little for good measure. There was too much around her, though, for fencing to work. She needed room to dance around the huge guy, and he already proved he knew how to use his weapons.


    "Wild?" Ludmiller reached a clawed hand up to rub at her face. "Hey, Wild, what are you doing?"


    Grunting, Wild swung with both axes at the same time¡ªone from each side¡ªaiming them to cross over where Fife''s arm was and where she''d have to move it if she wanted to strike him. Sure enough, as he swung, she drew back and gave ground. He repeated the move, eyes spotting weakness and body instantly acting to exploit it.


    "You know this guy, Ludmiller?" Fife asked, using her sword defensively to try to deflect one axe into the path of the other. It would have worked if Wild was in any way capable of having his heavy weapons deflected.


    "Wild! Stop fighting! It''s me, Luddy!"


    The words jolted Wild. Both arms were drawn aside and ready to give another swing that would force Fife over the back of a chair. "Luddy?" He turned and looked at Ludmiller, but didn''t see the beautiful half-elf he''d always known. "Trick?"


    Looking down at herself, Ludmiller sighed. "It''s not a trick. What¡ª" She smiled and let out a slow breath. "You taught me that more than sight or sound were useful in a dungeon. Smell was so much more than I ever thought it would be. That''s what defeated me in here. The smell of that damn solvent in the sludge traps ruined my sense of smell. I didn''t notice the metallic twang of the pit trap mechanism."


    Wild''s arms lowered as Ludmiller walked toward him. A kobold without weapons was not a threat to him at all. "Luddy lived?"


    "Yeah. Kinda. My hearing was shot. They dragged me to town¡ªOh! You can''t fight this dungeon, Wild. It''s protected by the crown."


    Fife walked over to the bar and around it. She''d spent only a little time behind bars, and it was mostly to spend some time with a barmaid or barkeep. She pulled out two mugs and set them under the keg of ale. "I am too sober for this shit. If someone finds my shield¡ªWho am I kidding. That big guy will tear me apart even with my shield."


    Walking to the bar, but sitting sideways so she can keep an eye on Wild and Ludmiller talking, Penelope reached out and took the second mug Fife had poured. "Do you have any idea what''s going on?"


    "So now you ask?" Travis'' voice was at a pitch that even he could tell was approaching unhinged. "That was one of the adventurers in Ludmiller''s party!"


    "Oh shit." Penelope drank half the mug while looking over it at Wild, who had by now slipped his axes back into their homes at his sides. "One of her party members. Seems to have come alone, I think. Maybe they were something?"


    "Never get with a party member, Pen. It doesn''t work out. Things are fun for a while, but sooner or later they''ll do something to make you regret it and you still have to be in a party with ''em." Fife matched Penelope.

 Chapter 35

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 2/10


    Heart 6400/6400


    Experience 100/1600


    Workers 5/15


    Monsters 0/16+1


    Traps 26/25+4


    Rooms 43


    Food 400


    Timber 1403


    Iron 1014


    Steel 0


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 50


    Rock 1647


    Gold 2000


    Leather 455


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 51


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 10


    Triggered Explosive Runes 8


    Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    It was very nearly a mess, and Travis hadn''t had anything he could do. Right now his newest visitor and Ludmiller were talking things over together, and he was doing his best not to listen in on them while they did it.


    "Are you alright, Fife?" Penelope asked.


    "Yeah, yeah. The big guy didn''t hit me with those things. You''d have known if he had¡ªI''d be screaming and swearing a lot more." Fife marched over to where her gear was sitting and started pulling it on¡ªespecially her new holster and pistol. "In the future, I am wearing all my weapons and armor at the bar."


    Honestly, in Travis'' opinion, he couldn''t blame her. "Tell her she''s a guard of the dungeon and is fully warranted to wear whatever equipment she likes while here. Even if she''s drunk."


    Penelope relayed the words with a laugh. "And besides, this is all before the traps and stuff. If you ever need to retreat, just run down the back hall and let Trav know to fill it in behind you."


    "Who''s Trav?" Blake asked.


    Fife started to laugh, almost to the point where she fell off her stool. "Well, that secret lasted all of one night, Pen." She looked over to where Blake was looking at them with curiosity mixed with confusion. "Trav is the best dungeon in the world. Not only doesn''t he want to kick my ass, but he serves ale, too."


    "Might as well tell him now, Pen. Just try not to mention where kobolds come from." Travis let out a sigh and turned his attention, briefly, to Ludmiller and Wild, who were stepping out of the room they''d been talking in. "Do you need help with anything? Does he?" he asked Ludmiller.


    In the dimly lit hall designated for visitors and residents, Ludmiller smiled. "You really didn''t listen in?"


    "I mean, I could have. It takes real effort to not at least be aware of you, but I feel you all deserve private time."


    "You never really intended me to be a prisoner, did you?" Ludmiller asked. "You wanted someone to work, but¡­" She sighed when Wild''s big hand-paw closed on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "He wants to stay here too. I told him that might mean he''d have to become a kobold."


    "One condition." Wild''s voice was deep and seemed like he was trying hard not to growl¡ªand failing. "Make me floor boss."


    "What''s a floor boss?" Travis asked.


    "Oh, we haven''t got one of those yet, have we? We have Pen, but she''s the dungeon boss. You''ll probably get the upgrade soon, then. It''s basically a monster you dedicate to be the big-bad of a floor. They get huge bonuses when fighting on the floor they''re designated to, and they usually have specific rooms just for them." Turning to look up at Wild, Ludmiller explained, "Travis hasn''t gotten the option for that yet."


    "Soon. Second floor. I be first floor boss when get." Wild nodded, as if it was a done deal.


    Travis was taken aback. "And he''s fine with that? I mean, if the option never comes up¡ª"


    "If Trav doesn''t get a floor boss?" Ludmiller asked.


    Shrugging his big shoulders, Wild gestured vaguely toward the entrance. "Then I hunt food."


    There was a lot to think about in the deal. Travis wasn''t sure about this whole floor boss thing, but he would have liked to use it as a reward for someone. Then again, he remembered the all-too-recent demonstration of Wild''s brutal fighting style. "Okay. I''m fine with this. He loves you, doesn''t he?"


    "Y-Yeah. I don''t know why, either. I got him killed." Ludmiller leaned against Wild as they walked down the hall. "The rest of my party didn''t seem to care about me."


    Focusing his attention on the tavern room the pair were approaching, Travis spoke to Penelope. "You''re going to be needed in the core room. Wild wants to join us." He just finished when Wild and Ludmiller walked into the bar. "We came to an agreement."


    Fife''s hand slid down from her drink toward her sword as Wild entered. Travis didn''t mind so much, not when it was her job to keep him safe.


    "Well?" Brayden asked, his eyes never leaving Wild. "Is your friend our friend, Luddy?"


    "Wild wants to move in. He¡ª" Ludmiller looked at Blake and then to Penelope, a questioning look on her face. At Penelope''s nod, she shrugged her shoulders. "He''s okay with all of it, but wants to be the first floor boss when Trav gets the option to have one."


    <hr>


    Wheels started to turn and gears mesh in Blake''s head. The kobolds weren''t just more individualized than he''d expected, they were all very different people, with an emphasis on people. He stared between each, his mind racing at this new revelation. "You have a way to turn people into kobolds!"


    Penelope looked over to Robert, noticing he looked a little tired still¡ªand more than a little hungover. "Robert, you might as well answer all his questions. No sense holding it back from him now. And, Trav, this whole gradual thing isn''t going to work. We can''t go a whole day without spilling it."


    Leading the way down the back tunnel, Penelope noticed Fife was following their little procession. "Made up your mind too, then?" she asked.


    "What? No. Just¡ªYou know me, Pen. Curiosity and all that." Fife had stopped lying to herself about how curious she was about most dungeons¡ªand this dungeon in particular. Stray bits of information had saved her ass more times than watching something a little too long had forced her to use up her talisman.


    "You sure? We could always use a kobold to clean out the donkey room. Robert normally does it, but that''s because he likes the donkey." It was good clean ribbing. Penelope noticed a bright light come from behind her and knew that Fife had pulled out a light stick. "You wouldn''t need that if you were a kobold."


    "Look, I can''t. You know Jack and Bray would be lost without a sword and board to stand up front." It was getting to be an old and well-worn argument. "And besides, how would it have been just now? Could I have stood up against the big guy for so long as a kobold?"


    "No," Wild said. "Arms too short."


    "Exactly! With a shield I''d have held you off, maybe, but if I was lower to the ground and had less reach¡ªyou''d just have knocked me off balance and brought a cleaver over the top of my shield."


    Wild just nodded. He had enjoyed having a reasonably worthy foe, even if the fight had been short, but more of his focus was on Ludmiller beside him. When they slipped out of a hidden door, he realized the whole upper dungeon had been heavily rearranged since he''d last been in. He also noticed a familiar smell. "Runes?"


    "Yeah. We have a maze around us. This tunnel comes out at the center. There are several places in the maze where Katelyn''s latest little presents are hidden. These ones recharge themselves over a few days." Gesturing to the hall where the maze merges in, Penelope put her back to it and started down the stairs. "You''ll remember this part, uh, Wild wasn''t it?"


    Wild just nodded, and nodded again to the question as he ducked to get down the stairs. The dungeon seemed far less hostile this time. Sure, he''d had a little fight with the woman upstairs, but that was before he knew Ludmiller was still alive. "Same, but different."


    "Well, you probably went right last time. Down to the sludge traps. We don''t go there unless we''re building new traps. This way." Turning left, Penelope led the way down to the easiest link to the inner dungeon, breaking down the wall quickly and showing everyone through. "Normally, to get past all the traps like this, takes a lot of trust. I trust Luddy when she says you aren''t a threat."


    Ludmiller had finally worked out what had felt so strange since she''d been in the dungeon¡ªit was not having Wild with her. The big guy wasn''t just a friend, she could see that now, they were kindred spirits. The time they''d spent apart had made her life feel a little empty. Now, though, she could walk with more purpose and surety. "Are you sure, Wild? Trav would be fine with you staying here as¡ª"


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    "I''m sure. You''re here, I''m here." The little squeeze Ludmiller gave his hand as he said it made Wild purr just a little. He reflected on how painful two weeks without knowing if she were alive or dead had been. How much anger he''d been forced to hold back when he''d wake up at night with her scream in his head.


    When Penelope opened the hidden door, Wild was impressed¡ªit had smelled just like any other wall. But, the sight within stopped him in his tracks. The giant pink crystal could be nothing else but a dungeon heart. He dipped his head toward the heart, realizing now that the dungeon was trusting him a lot to allow him here with his weapons. "How work?"


    Fife was all eyes as Penelope approached the heart and pressed her palm to it. The slow stroke of her fingers didn''t seem like any kind of incantation, and Fife easily jumped to the conclusion there was more of a bond between Penelope and Travis than she''d thought. A smirk replaced her curious, blank expression.


    "Hey, Trav, you up for making a new friend?" Penelope asked. She tickled his crystal with her claw tips, not leaving any marks but liking the way she imagined it felt¡ªif his previous comments and vocal tics had told her anything.


    In this one room, and this one room alone, Travis could see and hear everything going on with his own senses. He didn''t need Ludmiller and Penelope''s eyes and ears to watch Fife fidget and Wild stand proud. "I should ask instead if you''re ready for this. You''re the one who has to spill blood every time."


    "Yeah, but it''s you they bond to. Well, let''s get this over with. Big guy, when I press my blood onto the stone, you just need to walk up and touch it. Got it?" Penelope drew one of her regular daggers and drew the edge up and under her scales on her palm.


    Fife felt crazy. It was the same urge she got when she stared down a dungeon monster that was beyond her skills to defeat one on one, only to have her party members back her up and bring down¡ªwhatever it was. Her left foot moved as Penelope brought the blade along her palm.


    She took two steps further when Penelope pressed her palm against the heart. Against Travis'' heart. It was weird to know a dungeon''s name, but Fife wanted to know more. She wanted to know what he sounded like, how he talked, and she wanted to know everything about this odd place. Reaching her hand out, she felt like she hit a wall¡ªa kobold-shaped wall.


    "Fife! What the hell?" Penelope struggled to hold Fife from advancing. Being a dungeon boss gave her strength beyond her appearance, but Fife had spent a whole lifetime training her muscles to be able to shove aside dungeon bosses and force them off balance. "Fife, stop this!"


    Shaken from her daze, Fife ignored Wild stepping around her. "I need to know."


    "Okay, okay. It''s cool, but you need to tell me before you do, okay?" Penelope, seeing Wild pressing his hand to Travis'' heart, was relieved that her friend wouldn''t be able to do something inadvisable now. "Trav, are you cool for a second, uh, new employee?"


    Shocked, still dealing with having his Workers stat tick up by one, Travis replied, "Sure, as long as she''s okay with it. Oh, and get her party members down here. I don''t want Jack or Brayden thinking we talked her into it or, worse, forced her." He paused a moment before remembering that quickly communicating between different kobolds was his job. "Robert, can you escort everyone down to my heart room? Fife wants to join up, and I don''t want Brayden or Jack thinking we did something to her."


    Brayden recognized the look of someone hearing a higher power. In this case the higher power was Travis, he knew, but it still reminded him of the rapturous faces some acolytes had the first time they felt their god''s will. "What''s up?"


    "Fife trying to do something stupid. Trav is still talking to me, so this is hard to explain, but she wants to become a kobold." Holding up his talons to fend-off any accusations, Robert went on. "He wants you and Jack down there to either talk her out of it or make damn sure you don''t think we''re doing this to her without her full approval."


    Jack burst out laughing while Brayden swore up a storm. Robert hoped that was a natural reaction and they weren''t going to get angry. "Oh, Blake, you might as well come and watch if you want?"


    The walk back down to the heart was filled, at least from Robert''s point of view, with Travis freaking out.


    "She almost just did it, too. If it weren''t for Pen, Fife would have just slapped her hand on my heart and¡ªI guess I could have denied her by not accepting the sacrifice, but still. How can an adventurer be so freakin'' crazy?"


    "Trav, calm down. Let Pen keep control down there and just don''t agree to take Fife until her party has spoken to her." Robert glanced back at Brayden and Jack as he led the way down the stairs. "Trav is in a panic because of how Fife acted. He''s trying to get away from thinking of this as capturing or something done against someone''s will. Well, unless someone comes down here to attack him."


    "Like you?" Jack asked.


    "Like me and my sister, yeah. We came down here looking for trouble, and found it, but we both are pretty sure we got a good deal in the end." Robert checked the usual tunnel "entrance" they all used, and sure enough it was already open.


    "You just leave tunnels open like this now?" Stepping through the hole, his light stick half activated, Brayden ran the fingers of his glove along the stonework.


    "In an emergency, Trav can use a spell to fill them up. We could probably leave this open all the time so long as he keeps some mana in reserve for it." It didn''t take much convincing for Robert to agree with his own assessment that it wasn''t laziness.


    When they arrived in the heart room, Jack was the first to say anything, and it was a string of curse words followed by, "There''s a lot of mana in here."


    The reminder that he was full jerked Travis back to his other project. "Right. Uh, let me help with that."


    A rumble caught everyone off-guard. The ground didn''t perceptibly shake, but everyone knew something was off. "What the hell was that?" Penelope asked.


    Getting to show off, Travis couldn''t help but sound excited. "A new mana shrine. It''s somewhere on this floor and somewhere near where we''ve already dug. It''s a three by three room, so it shouldn''t be too tough to pin down. I''ll set up some plans to find it and then we can fill-in behind. The aim would be, right now, to get as many of these going as we can so we can generate a lot of resource nodes."


    "If I didn''t know better," Brayden said, "I''d think you were looking to equip an army. Now, you don''t have an army, so where does that leave us?"


    "Trav says he''ll happily equip the kingdom''s army¡ªfor the right price." Penelope struggled not to laugh as she said it. "Or a church''s."


    "You don''t have to butter me up. I''m already onboard with this. Well, maybe not this." Gesturing at Fife, Brayden asked, "Hey, Fife, what''s up here?"


    Fife had been staring at Travis'' heart, but now she turned to look at Brayden and Jack. "You know what I''m like, Bray. I need to know this."


    "Yeah, but there''s no coming back from this one. Your talisman isn''t going to save your ass from being a kobold."


    "You think I don''t know that? Come on, life''s an adventure. There''s always the small chance that a monster rips your talisman or some kind of weird magic stops it. We all know the odds. This is just¡ª"


    "You''ll be scared to go outside alone. The sky will make you keep looking up for threats and, when you''re looking up, you''ll get vertigo." Robert walked over to Fife and stood beside her. "You''ll be short. Pen might be tall, but that''s because she''s got the dungeon boss thing on her. The only place you''ll truly feel comfortable is in the dungeon."


    Fife''s hand still itched. It was an unknown. She wanted to feel it, even if everyone was telling her to be careful. She was reminded of moths smacking themselves into lantern glass. No one had told her no, though.


    Marching himself over to step between Fife and Travis'' heart, Brayden reached out and put his hand on Fife''s shoulder. "I''d hate to lose you as a party member, but I respect your decision¡ªyour sober decision. Trav, can you not accept Fife for a week during which she isn''t to drink a single drop." Knowing Fife well enough, Brayden was already dodging the punch she was sending his way.


    "You can''t decide that, you¡ªyou bastard!" Fife turned back to look at the heart. "Trav, a week would¡ª"


    "Trav agrees, Fife," Penelope said. "In the last day you got so drunk you couldn''t walk, and then got in a fight with¡ªShit, Wild?"


    Looking at his talons, formerly paw-hands, Wild was astounded at the difference. From claws that had been almost useless to ones that looked like they''d make short work of rock. The voice in his head, that Ludmiller had described to him as being Travis¡ªthe dungeon, wasn''t what he''d expected. The young man sounded equal parts nervous, excited, and determined. It was a unique set of traits.


    Wild tried to answer Penelope, though his new mouth was different enough from his old one to make that impossible¡ªfor now. Instead of giving her a verbal reply, Wild just nodded to her.


    "Wild, I''ll do everything I can to get you to be floor boss, like I promised." Travis had to assume it was either going to be triggered from building up the first floor or from reaching a particular level. He was already pondering how to make the first floor have more rooms without putting anything too precious there.


    "What about me?" Blake asked. "Can I¡ªDo I need to?"


    "Trav says," Penlope said, "that he needs some smart minds building up the first floor for him. You fit the smart mind bit, but having someone to implement their plans would be more useful. It''s your choice, in the end."


    "Listening to everything you''re planning, Trav, you''re going to be amazing. You''ll be a cornerstone of the kingdom and will be making it and Northridge rich beyond measure. You''re going to build your dungeon huge. There will be innovations in here that nowhere else in the world will achieve." Blake walked closer to the heart and reached his hand out to touch it. "I want to be part of that. I want to help you become amazing!"


    Listening to Travis, Penelope walked up to his heart and cut her palm again. She only needed to smear it lightly over the huge crystal, but she liked to drag it out¡ªto tease him a little. "Alright, Trav, do your thing."


    Feeling a rush of pressure, Blake staggered back from the Heart and fell to his rear. Staring up at the glowing pink crystal, a sense of profound oneness poured over and through him. The heart seemed to grow larger as that feeling spread through his body. Scales poured over him, his bones and muscles reshaped themselves, and even his eyes and fingernails changed. It was the single biggest rush of his life. He felt connected, but not just to Travis and the dungeon, but with all the other kobolds. "Wow," he tried to say, though it just came through as a distorted yip.


    Fife''s eyes were as wide as saucers. She didn''t so much as blink as Blake became a kobold before her. When he was done, she was focused on his muscles and form. A tail, she concluded, would make things a little odder, but she loved the way his arms seemed to cord with new muscles. "Damn you all. We have a perfectly good tavern and now I have to not drink there."

 Chapter 36

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 2/10


    Heart 6400/6400


    Experience 100/1600


    Workers 7/15


    Monsters 0/16+1


    Traps 26/25+4


    Rooms 43


    Food 400


    Timber 1403


    Iron 1014


    Steel 0


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 3


    Rock 1667


    Gold 2000


    Leather 455


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 51


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 10


    Triggered Explosive Runes 8


    Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    Having put aside the problem with Fife, Travis focused on what he could do. He had a new building unlock while everything was going on, and finally felt confident enough about being safe that he called on Penelope and Robert to work together on the next step of his plan.


    "I want you to start researching Reaper. It gives double experience for kills, which means we level up faster." Travis went on to explain his plan. "Reaper leads to Timesink, which gives me experience just for having adventurers in the dungeon."


    Penelope and Robert both froze, their mouths open as if they were going to argue with him but stopped.


    "That''s your plan? The tavern, sleeping quarters¡­" Penelope shook her head but was grinning. "You''re a¡ª"


    "¡­ genius!" Robert laughed. "Right, so I don''t know how to research things, but I figure you can sort that out. Wow, we need more than just the tavern. We need to get traders in here. Merchants. Do you think we could have a larger market than Northridge?"


    "Maybe, but I''d rather not compete directly with them. If we did have our own market, we''d encourage the town''s merchants to come and buy from us. Okay, so we need a road, too, but first let''s get free experience from paying people to live here." Travis would have rubbed his hands together with glee, if he had hands. Selecting the first research, he activated it. A new interface appeared with several check buttons and the list of his current kobolds. The options were: All Free Workers and All Workers. He didn''t want either of those. Dragging Robert and Penelope from the roster to the open research slots, he kept a close eye on the pair.


    "Okay, that itching I get when I need to dig but aren''t? Yeah, I have that now. Library?" Robert asked.


    Penelope nodded to him. "Let''s go there. I''ve got the same feeling. Hey, I wonder if I count as more than one worker because I''m the dungeon boss?"


    "I hope so, that''d be great." Travis split his attention between the pair heading to the library and Stephan, who was digging the tunnel around the perimeter of the second floor to find the mana shrine. "I''m sure there''s probably some trick to finding it that I can''t figure out, but this pattern will find it¡ªeven if it uses a lot of digging."


    "You said that before, Trav. Is something wrong?" Stephan''s voice held a bit of concern.


    "No! I mean, no. I just didn''t expect the one to be digging to be you. You seem to prefer it outside."


    "I''m a kobold now, Trav, digging is what we do." Laughing, Stephan took a break and leaned back from the end of the tunnel. "You said you had a spell now to collapse tunnels, right?"


    "Yeah. It costs five mana to use normally, or one mana and five rock."


    "So, if you think you''ve got too much rock, couldn''t you just burn up some mana and destroy four rock per one mana?"


    The concept was an easy one to follow. "Yeah, that''d work. Right now, though, I think I''m going to prioritize mana regeneration. I''m sure, eventually, there''ll be some use for it all. It''s like Minecraft¡ªnever destroy anything since it can become useful eventually."


    "Minecraft?" Stephan asked.


    "Uh, another game where I''m from. It''s not important except it had a huge part of it be around resource management. Like all these warehouses. That brings up another thing we need to check for, how much room we actually have to build." Travis was still trying to banish his memories¡ªor maybe nightmares¡ªof chests and chests full of cobblestone. His warehouses full of rock did not help him shake off the packrat sensation.


    "So, mana regeneration. What''s that for?" Squaring up on the rockface again, Stephan got back to swinging his pickaxe.


    "Well, every few hours I get a regeneration ''tick''. Basically, I get some mana. Right now I''m getting my baseline one, one from having the library, and another one from the mana manipulator in my heart room. When we find this shrine, it will add another five, though I suspect they have a limited lifespan."


    "Mana regen to get more mana regen?"


    "Oh! Right. The mana regen is because I want to get a LOT of resource nodes. On this level, that''s gold, iron, coal, and sulfur. That means we have all the materials we need to make iron, steel, and of course gold." Travis also had suspicions that the sulfur and coal could be used to make gunpowder too.


    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    "If we have all the resources and the gold, why are we trading again?"


    "I want to trade because it makes us a resource to the kingdom. Kingdoms protect resources. They discourage others from trying to do bad things to them. We''ll still have our own traps and dangers, but I like the idea of encouraging the kingdom to just stop anyone nasty from coming in here."


    Stephan seemed deep in thought as he dug through several more sections of rock. "Before this, I was just a simple guy. I''d do my trapping, maybe bring down a tree that looked like it needed felling, and I''d visit town maybe a few times a year to sell things and buy the few items I couldn''t make or fix myself." He took a deep breath and let it out. "Now you have me calculating timber requirements, providing food for everyone¡ªyou gave me more meaning and more excitement than I could have hoped for.


    "I guess what I''m trying to say, Trav, is that despite how things went initially, how angry I was about it, this is probably the best thing that''s ever happened to me."


    Travis had to take a moment to parse that. "You know being a kobold affects how you see me and your work here. Are you sure that''s not it?"


    "That is a bit of it, but I''ve had a lot of time to think, Trav. Outside, working in the forest, your effect on me is weaker. Don''t try to counter that, I''ve tested it." Stephan broke down another section of rock and advanced along with it to the next rockface. "You''ve taught me a lot about investigating myself and my surroundings, too. Looking back just a year ago I find myself wondering how much smarter I am about analyzing problems now."


    <hr>


    Wild liked to present a simple side of himself. In combat that meant being methodical and careful to make every strike serve a purpose, no matter how reckless his efforts might look. In conversation, he tried to stick to short sentences, single words, or just grunts when possible.


    Ludmiller, though, was different. He didn''t want to wear a mask when talking to her. He didn''t want to pretend to be a big, dumb berserker. Which was the reason he was happy to accept a change in¡ªjust about everything. He didn''t stand taller than everyone around him. He didn''t have muscles bulging upon muscles. For the first time in his life his vocabulary wasn''t limited by his image. "Lud¡ªmiller."


    Sitting at the foot of the bed, Ludmiller perked up at hearing Wild speak her name. "Wild?"


    Focusing on being a new self, Wild nodded and said, "Yearr. Harr to talk." He sat up on the bed, finding his new musculature and skeleton moving oddly compared to his old form. "My things?"


    "They''re here, Wild. Just relax." Ludmiller shimmied up the bed and reached out to Wild to help steady him. "You didn''t have to¡ª" She froze, unable to say another word as Wild kissed her. Her mouth curved into a smile and she found herself relaxing.


    A little time later, when they emerged into the heart room, Ludmiller looked at Travis'' heart with a big smile. "He''s up and about now, Trav. Is there anything we could do to help now?" The instinct to find work to do was too great, and Ludmiller absolutely wouldn''t shy away from asking.


    "You know, I think I do have a plan for you. It''s something to do on the top floor, too." Travis was a little embarrassed at what had felt like a public display of affection to him. He knew they''d kept it in a pitch black room, but it was hard to look away when they were kissing basically right next door to his heart. "I have a kitchen room, and thought it would go well beside the watering hole. The only problem is I might have compacted things a little much down there. So we need to work out a better design."


    "Isn''t Blake meant to be helping with design too?" Ludmiller asked.


    "Yeah. He''s been in the library working through my books in there to find one where I keep a map of this place. He has a plan to make coming into the dungeon a nightmare unless you come down the back hall."


    "That''s a good thing. Still, we need to make the open section as warm and inviting as possible." Taking Wild''s hand, Ludmiller led the way down the tunnels toward the library, unlocking the door using the hidden latch and slipping inside.


    "It''s absurd, and I don''t think it will be infinite. How could it be?" Katelyn gestured to the notepad with a growl. "Nothing in the world is infinite. Even magic has limits."


    Blinking her surprise, Ludmiller watched as Blake stabbed his clawed finger at something written on the page.


    "Hey, uh, calm down," Travis said to all four present, though it was meant mostly for Katelyn. "You can test it easy enough, and it''s not like we don''t have room for rock or lava."


    "Blake?" Ludmiller asked as she stepped further into the library, "Trav wants us to work on adding a kitchen to the public side of the top floor. He said you could help with planning."


    "What shape?" It took a lot of focus for Blake to get his mouth to make the right sounds. Katelyn had told him it will take a day or so to wrap his head around it, but that speaking will come naturally again.


    Travis said, "It''s a ten by five. Uh, see these big squares? Ten of those on one side and five on the other."


    His eyes flicking over the map, Blake smiled and started sketching. "Plan this."


    Travis, only too happy to oblige, did exactly that. He liked the plan and the idea of changing how things would work from a more this is the open side and this is the hidden side perspective. When he watched what Blake had planned, he started laughing at how cruel it was.


    <hr>


    The night was cold. Brolly Windchime was in his office writing up the last of the paperwork for the dungeon inspectors with his fireplace roaring behind him to ward off the chill that seemed desperate to invade the stone-clad room from every possible direction.


    A loud thudding on his office door, just before he planned to turn-in for the night, caused Brolly to sigh in resignation. "Come in."


    "Sir!" Scott Gaoler, one of the town''s more enthusiastic guards didn''t step into the room, merely opening the door to report, "Reports from the watchtowers that there are undead gathering to the southwest!"


    It was the last thing that Brolly had ever wanted to hear. They suspected there was a fourth dungeon, but to find out it held undead was a blow. Undead, he well knew, meant they had what would soon be intelligent monsters planning to rip the town apart. Standing up, he reached out for his sword belt and shield from the arming dummy in the corner of the room. "Any ideas on numbers?"


    "They just said a lot, sir."


    "It''s going to be a rough night. Go to the center of town, to the new church, and ask the priestess to ring the bell. We might need every arm in the town and then some." One last thing ran through Brolly''s mind as he strapped the belt on¡ªhe''d need to warn the kobolds.

 Chapter 37

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 2/10


    Heart 6400/6400


    Experience 100/1600


    Workers 7/15


    Monsters 0/16+1


    Traps 25/25+4


    Rooms 43


    Food 400


    Timber 1403


    Iron 1014


    Steel 0


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 6


    Rock 1784


    Gold 2000


    Leather 455


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 51


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 10


    Triggered Explosive Runes 8


    Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    "I''m sorry."


    "Trav," Stephan said, swinging his pick again, "don''t sweat it. It''s just a block here and there. You''re still doing a better job of this than anyone else could."


    "Yeah, but¡ª"


    "No buts. Buts are for dungeons that fail before they get a second floor. We''re going to get as many floors as we can and¡ªOh, left here?"


    Focusing on his map and the digging plan, Travis made an affirmative noise. "Yup. It still sucks, and I just know if I hadn''t picked up on the gaps being there it would be in one of them. Now it will just be in the last section of the last¡ª" Travis froze as Stephan''s digging opened up a 3x3 room with a huge crystal in the middle of it. "That''s it!"


    Stephan stared at the huge crystal. It wasn''t quite as big as Travis'' heart, but it was definitely something that looked special. "Where are we?"


    "In a perfect spot. Go to the middle here¡ªOh, I''ll just add an order. There." Travis waited for Stephan to dig the block between the mana shrine and the alchemy lab, then put in an order to back-fill a bunch of tunnel. "Just block that back up to the big corner back there. We''ll work out something better for connecting this into the dungeon itself." Then he also removed all the rest of the planned "searching" tunnel plans.


    "Do you have anything particular for me to do when I''m done with that? I''d like to make more beds for our new friends." Stephan was already in motion, triggering the tunnel squares to collapse one after the other.


    "That actually sounds like a nice idea. Thanks, Steph." Travis left him to his work and focused his attention upstairs. There was a LOT going on there, complete with plans being thrown out and redone, doors moved, tunnels dug, and a whole new room made ready for building.


    The plans for the "make adventurers run in circles to confuse and annoy them" section was still to be built. "I like the thought of having this be a working tavern. Do you think we could hire some people from Northridge to run it?"


    Ludmiller nodded while stalking around the new kitchen-designated area. "That would probably be a good idea. Give any visitors a familiar human face. I think we should narrow down the area around the timber mill on the other side of the entrance. We could make room for more housing there."


    "If we do that with the tavern, everyone who works here will need their own homes. I wish doors didn''t take up trap slots," Travis said, lamenting the mechanics of the dungeon he was part of.


    "Hold up. Doors count as traps?" Blake was shocked. "There''s a limit to your traps, Luddy said. Why don''t we get a carpenter in to make regular timber doors and install them?"


    "They''ll probably count as doors too, though I guess I could build up all my traps and then add doors like that. Or even have other kinds of sealing off rooms." Taking a metaphorical deep breath, Travis decided it was time. "Are you ready to build a kitchen?"


    Looking confused, Blake asked, "How is this meant to work? Won''t we need tools and equipment?"


    "Pen showed me this with the doors we put in. Here¡ª" Reaching behind her back, Ludmiller pulled out a hammer and started getting construction materials too. "It''s probably a 60/40 split of magic and actual work, but it works so we shouldn''t really complain."


    Mimicking Ludmiller''s motions, Wild crouched down and started building the kitchen. In all, Travis watched them build a bit here and there, while the majority of the room seemed to just build itself. Just before they finished it, a new tick of mana came in and Travis let out a surprised shout of excitement.


    "What''s wrong?" Ludmiller''s hands drifted to her belt, while beside her Wild hefted his two axes.


    "Nothing! I mean, I just got the first burst of mana from the new mana shrine. This is great! I''ll be able to make so many of them! Then we can make piles of resource nodes to get iron and gold and everything!"


    <hr>


    "Wait," Travis'' voice echoed to all the kobolds. "There''s someone at the front door."


    Penelope, who''d been sitting in the bar chatting with Fife, lifted her head and stood up. "Bring your gear and maybe get your friends." Rounding the corner, she looked toward the entrance and saw a young man in the town''s guard uniform. "Hey! What''s going on?"


    "Northridge is under attack! Undead are pressing our defenses and Commander Brolly sent me to¡ªto ask for help!" Timothy Devin felt uncomfortable. He''d never entered a dungeon before in his life, and what scared him the most was how this one didn''t seem to intimidate him at all.


    Staring at the guard for a moment, Penelope realized that things could go very south if Northridge was overrun by undead. "Luddy, Wild, Katelyn¡ªwe need to move right now. Trav, let Katelyn know to get her butt up here. Fife, Jack, Brayden!"


    "I''m getting them. Hold on." Fife marched into the common room of their quarters and saw Jack puzzling over something on the table. "Trav has a job for us. The town''s under attack."


    Leaving the adventurers to get ready, Penelope checked her knives, grabbed two explosive runes, and looked the guardsman up and down. "You''ll need to lead us back the way you came. How many of them are there?"


    "The whole town took up arms. We''ve been fighting for four hours."


    "Necromancer, then. Change of plans, we''ll be moving up behind their ranks. You know how to tie your armor to be quiet?" When Timothy shook his head, Penelope started attacking his armor. Unbuckling some of the more useless straps, she used them to pad between the larger plates at his thighs and shoulders. "This quietens your armor down. It might come off sooner rather than later, but where we''re going it won''t matter. Trav!"


    "Yeah?" Travis asked her.


    "Tell Stephan to make a door up here to hide everything. Right at the entrance here." Penelope gestured at the entrance of the tunnel that led to the tavern. "If we don''t come back, you need to button this place up tight and make more traps than you know what to do with."


    "Please come back, Pen," Travis said.


    "I plan to. Where are¡ª" Penelope cut off as Fife and Jack stepped out of the hall, followed by Brayden. From the new hidden entrance to the lower floors, Katelyn stepped out, her staff glowing red with cinders flaking off it. "Okay, let''s go. The town''s been fighting undead for hours without end, which means they have a necromancer putting them back together in the field. We need to find it and kill it."


    Stepping to the edge of the dungeon''s exit, Fife looked back and smiled. "Trav, you''re gonna give me enough gold that I can plate my armor in it, right?"


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    "He says yes, come on, Fife!" Penelope couldn''t help but grin, though. She followed their guard to what she judged was east of Travis'' dungeon. Then they turned north-east for a bit and all of them froze at the sound of clanking bones and armor.


    Certain gestures were not just common, they could be universally understood. When Penelope held up her fist, closed, everyone stopped and waited. Not a minute later a flare of sickly green light illuminated the forest ahead of them and chilled them to their bones.


    Penelope looked at Ludmiller and Wild, then nodded forward. Together they crept slowly through the undergrowth, stopping when they got within sight of the staging area. There was a skeleton sheathed in dull green light in the middle, while a dozen other skeletons with various weapons and armor roamed about.


    "Doable. We''ll want to pull them into an ambush. Hit them hard and fast, then rush the camp before the necromancer can raise them again. We¡ª" Ludmiller stopped when the necromancer lit up the forest again with his necromancy, raising a dozen piles of bones from the ground. "We do it after this. You go back and tell the others and¡ªand we''ll bait them."


    "No. You both go back. Leave this to me." It was more words than Wild had said during one moment for most of his life. He reached out and patted Ludmiller on the shoulder and stepped toward the camp. "Go."


    "Wait"¡ªLudmiller stepped forward and grabbed Wild from behind¡ª"I love you." She pressed her lips to his cheek, nuzzling and then kissing him before letting him go again. "Don''t die."


    Grabbing Ludmiller by the wrist, Penelope started back to the group. "We, uh, don''t have¡ª"


    Blushing, Ludmiller shrugged. "Love is more than just where bits go, Pen."


    "I guess. Okay, we can''t trap anything, because Wild won''t know about the traps in advance, but I have two explosive runes, and we have two magic users." Rejoining the group, the pair quickly explained the plan.


    Reaching down, Fife started grabbing up handfuls of mulch from the ground and smearing it over her armor. "Gold plated? I think we''re going to need something better than that. I will say one thing for him, Trav sure knows how to treat a girl." Drawing her sword, Fife rolled her shoulders in anticipation.


    Everyone else had their own little rituals, but they''d all seen fighting before and knew what they''d be doing¡ªexcept Katelyn. "I just burn them, right? Anything special I need to worry about?"


    "Don''t cross your magic with mine," Jack said. "And don''t burn up everything you have right away. Our job is to pick off ranged attackers and knock down things that are already badly hurt."


    Brayden Smith lowered himself to one knee and looked around the motley group gathered. "Brogdar, we both know what''s coming isn''t anything but the blackest evil. They kill to exist and have no morals about it. Strengthen us, your right fists, so that we might crush the darkness and lead a path to the dawn." His prayer was not a normal one, and Brayden knew it didn''t have to be. His god listened, though, to such prayers because they often led to the greatest victories.


    The weapons in everyone''s hands began to softly glow¡ªnot even the kobolds present were immune from the blessing.


    "Here they come," Fife said, just as Wild ran past her like his tail was on fire.


    The first of the skeletons, moving remarkably fast for an undead, crested the slight rise and got a pace over it when Fife''s shield came up to slam it sideways. Rusty sword flying from its grip, the skeleton started to right itself when a glowing black axe came for its neck.


    "There are more coming." Wild''s previous party hadn''t had a good defensive fighter, and seeing how easily Fife was knocking the skeletons down¡ªsetting them up for easy kills¡ªmade his blood rush in excitement.


    A dirty arrow flew past Fife''s head when she stepped over the ridge. Then another thudded into her shield. Keeping the attention of the two bow-using skeletons, she was happy to see one burst into fire and the other freeze solid before she even got two steps closer to them. "Come on, our turn to attack a meat-grinder." Keeping her shield up, Fife marched past the smoldering skeleton¡ªleaving the frozen one for Wild to shatter¡ªand made her way to the necromancer''s guards.


    Penelope led Ludmiller off to the side a little from their main group. Circling around the skeletons marching up to meet Fife, they got a lot closer to the necromancer than they would have otherwise been able to.


    Taking one of the stones Penelope passed her, Ludmiller tapped Penelope on the shoulder three times, then made a questioning gesture. When she got an affirmative, she limbered up her arm. Green light flared from the necromancer, and things got a little crazy.


    "Throw!" Penelope drew her arm back and tossed her stone at the necromancer, glad to see Ludmiller doing the same.


    The ground around the bony skeleton mage started to shift with dark magic, but the first of the runestones hit its head and crumbled. The blast, followed a moment later by a second concussive thud, sent the necromancer flying away as its latest batch of minions started clawing their way from the ground.


    Rushing along the edge of the camp, Penelope and Ludmiller spotted where the necromancer was¡ªand it was getting up. "I hope this works¡­"


    Ludmiller hadn''t seen a lot of firearms. The things were expensive, unreliable, or both. Just as Penelope''s hand raised the pistol to shoulder height, though, the gun started to softly glow with silver-white light.


    The crack of the pistol was loud, louder than anything else in the forest¡ªincluding the explosive runes. The blessed weapon sped its bullet forward, the ball of lead flying straight and true.


    Watching as the necromancer''s skull exploded as the ball discharged its energy into one side, flew through it, and hit again on the following wall, Ludmiller and Penelope started turning to run. Crumpling to the ground, the light left the undead abomination as its final summoning brought a group of skeletons back to undeath.


    Brayden had almost forgotten how good it was to fight evil. His arms sang with the purity of his work. Beside him, Fife covered his weak side and helped form the pair of them up into a better shield for those behind.


    Fire lashed out to crackle and burn bones to brittle sticks while, on others, ice caked up joints and limited mobility. Wild darted around, seemingly always there a moment after a skeleton was unbalanced by one of the magic users¡ªhis axes hungry to deliver devastating blows.


    The strikes, though, weren''t as effective as Wild was used to. Before he''d become a kobold, he would have been walking through these paltry undead and killing them with ease. The reminder of his sacrifice, though, made him remember why he''d made it.


    Fife finally cleared a bit of breathing space by stomping a frozen skeleton''s skull with her boot, and looked up to see Penelope and Ludmiller running at them with another group of skeletons chasing¡ªas well as some kind of abomination.


    The thing stood ten feet tall, was a mismatch of fleshy limbs, and its eyes glowed green with the hunger of death. Loping after the two rogues, it stomped on one of the skeletons and ignored the flailing undead as it stomped it to its final rest.


    Spotting the behemoth of a zombie coming their way, and the skeletons, Jack sighed. "Hey, Katelyn, do what you can to the zombie, I''m going to deal with the skeletons. Fife can''t take both." Preparing his ice-shard spell, he aimed the initial target at one of the skeletons right in front of the zombie.


    Sure enough, the zombie crushed the bespelled skeleton, which promptly exploded into shards of ice that swirled around¡ªdrawing on Jack''s mana as one after another the skeletons froze and exploded too. The final rush of shards dug into the zombie but couldn''t kill it.


    Recognizing magical exhaustion, and liking his style, Katelyn crouched over Jack to protect him while raising her staff. "This is probably just as bad an idea, but what the hell." Motes of light flared in her staff, growing brighter until the whole length of wood glowed red. "Next time, I''m bringing a bucket of lava."


    Fighting a huge foe¡ªand controlling its movement¡ªwas an entirely different kind of fight. Fife led with her shield, shoving her whole weight against it as she collided with the zombie. Only the quick work of her sword kept its arms back. It tried, of course, but reaching at her with clawed limbs vs her cold steel only resulted in the zombie losing fingers, a hand, and in one case a whole arm below the elbow.


    A rush of flame over Fife''s head made her grin savagely. "I would have normally said to burn the skeletons and freeze the zombies. These things stink when they burn." She braced against her shield and heaved it back a few more paces, opening up breathing room for the rest of their group.


    Ludmiller and Penelope drew their daggers and came in behind the zombie. With its attention on Fife, they sliced at its legs¡ªsevering its hamstrings before dancing away from the falling titan.


    Working with Wild to hack off the zombie''s limbs as close to the torso as possible, Fife felt a bit like a butcher at work. It was a grisly task, but she eventually had it on the ground with only its head still attached to its body. "You know what, big guy, I have a great new toy for dealing with this situation." She stuck her sword into the ground and drew her pistol. "You have no idea how long I''ve wanted to have one of these to do this." She leveled the barrel at the zombie''s head, smiled down at the snapping jaws and the pure fury in its eyes¡ªand pulled the trigger.


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 38

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 3/10


    Heart 14400/ 14400


    Experience 1100/3600


    Workers 7/19


    Monsters 0/20+1


    Traps 25/35+4


    Rooms 45


    Food 400


    Timber 1403


    Iron 1014


    Steel 0


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 19


    Rock 1784


    Gold 2000


    Leather 455


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 51


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 8


    Triggered Explosive Runes 8


    Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    Watching his experience tick up, then level him up, excited Travis. It had trickled in at first, but then two big amounts happened, and another handful of small bursts finished it up. Then he had to wait.


    "They''ll be okay, Trav. Pen knows what she''s doing, and from what I heard about Wild, he would be useful in a fight." Stephan sat with his back against Travis'' heart. "You have a counter for how many workers you have, right?"


    Travis was checking that before Stephan even finished his sentence. 7/19 was reassuring to see, and highlighted how many more kobolds he should have. "Thanks, Steph."


    "Since you sound so relieved, I''m guessing things are normal?"


    "Yeah, as normal as things get around here. I got another level out of whatever they''ve done so far, and it raised a lot of caps. More traps, more kobolds¡ªif we can find enough to hire." Travis went searching through his menus and dug up some new options. "Hey, I can make a stoneworks¡ªack, lots of steel."


    "Stoneworks, huh? That sounds neat. Maybe it can do something with all that rock we get?"


    "And I have an entirely new upgrade set, floor-specific upgrades. Ah, the one Wild wanted, Floor Boss, needs steel too. Guess we need to start getting that. Hey, you''re right. Stoneworks unlocks Worked Stone Walls that uses 1000 stone and makes it so the walls of that floor can''t be tunneled through by enemies who don''t have tools. Wait, things can burrow through my walls?!"


    "You''re asking the wrong kobold. Robert might know." In his claws, Stephan held a knife and a small wooden statue he was working on. He carved off wood as often with his claws as he did the knife.


    "Well, he''s asleep. I guess we just take the description as lore and keep going. Wild''s floor boss upgrade is there. We can cover most of it right now, but it needs some steel." Travis browsed his menus again and eventually found what he was after. "Right, charcoal burner to make charcoal out of wood, then blacksmith to make steel from charcoal or coal and iron. Well, looks like there''s more digging and tree-cutting in our future."


    Stephan laughed at that and shook his head. "Joke''s on you, Trav, I enjoy working in the forest. Which reminds me, I want to start planting some trees. Fast-growing things, since it seems like your system doesn''t care which is used. Also, I started stretching the leather to make more beds. Should have enough for all our current kobolds, including a larger one I''m making for Wild and Luddy, and any extras for the other rooms. I also want to poke around that new kitchen. I''m sure there''ll be something in there we can take advantage of."


    <hr>


    For a goblin shaman, there wasn''t much better in life than establishing a new dungeon that synergized so well with their kind. New choppers abounded, digging the dungeon out into new tunnels and mazes¡ªand especially new rooms.


    Leaning his head against the heart, Short Claws could feel the love the dungeon had for him spilling over. "And I you. I promised you we''d be better than bugs." A wave of strength poured into Short Claws. In the short time since the goblins had been part of the dungeon, it had grown two floors down and was expanding faster and faster. That was the goblin way, after all.


    Power surged in his body and his ties to the heart grew more focused and strong. His mind expanded in every direction at once, growing and filling with more magic. Laughing, Short Claws reached his hand up and touched the heart again. He stood taller, felt stronger, and knew he was no longer a goblin. "Soon we''ll attack that weak city. Then we kill the dragons and take their dungeon. Then we re-kill the undead and take theirs. We will swarm, mother, and we will send out many m¡ª"


    "Short Claws!" Sharp Eyes ran through the dungeon as fast as the wind, his bow slung on his back with the filth-covered arrows. "Short Claws!"


    Moving to meet Sharp Eyes, Short Claws almost tripped on his new legs. His new power and height had changed his form. His legs had grown a little longer, but it was mostly a more hunched-over pose now. He knew what he was¡ªthe dungeon had made him into a hobgoblin war-shaman. "What?"


    "Undead are marching here! They have a lot of clanky old bones, a fleshy thing, and two green-glows." Having become a goblin scout, Sharp Eyes'' mind had grown expansively too.


    "Two green-glows?!"


    "They had three." Baring his dirty fangs, Sharp Eyes saw pride in his leader''s look.


    "Good work. We need to kill the green-glows first. Get Axer and flank them. Take some orcs too." Short Claws tightened his grip on his rotting staff¡ªit was time for the rot-goblins to go to war.


    <hr>


    "Are we going back now?" Fife asked. "If they made a push on the town, they could press their advantage on the dungeon."


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    "No. Trav sent us to deal with this, we deal with it. Push on to the town and we''ll deal with their forces from behind." Penelope looked at Timothy, the guard from Northridge that had alerted them, and raised an eyeridge. "What are the chances the town held out?"


    "The priests were working at building a wall of holy power that would repel the undead. If they finished that, they will be holding." A little worried, because he''d expected to have all the undead just fall over if the wall was finished, Timothy''s voice wavered a little.


    Nodding, Penelope finished checking her daggers for chips and started off toward Northridge. Moving as they did, they didn''t encounter many undead. There was a stray or two, but Katelyn and Jack were making a game out of which of them could deal with threats most effectively. She particularly liked how they compared mana-use. "We''re close. Katelyn, take over dealing with all the stragglers, we''ll save Jack in case there''s a big group."


    Brayden Smith had been about to mention something similar. He was used enough to dealing with their small group, but to him it always seemed like Penelope was one step ahead with the larger group''s tactics. "We should be able to see the palisade soo¡ª"


    A rush of divine magic flared from the city ahead and a shimmering barrier slammed into place not a dozen feet ahead of them.


    "Well, I guess that''s our job done?" Katelyn asked. "Only, I don''t want to test how that barrier treats kobolds."


    Brayden nodded and looked to Penelope. "A good plan. Without knowing the exact wording used in its construction, you could be harmed greatly by such a barrier. If you want us to escort you back to the dungeon, we can, but I''d suggest letting us go report on what we saw. They owe you a debt for this."


    It was hard for Penelope to do, but she focused on Travis'' interests and goals. "There should be no debts between allies. Tell them to let us know if they need any assistance shoring up their defenses." She gave a nod to Brayden and turned to Ludmiller, Katelyn, and Wild. "Come on. I hate to think what would happen if they sent a necromancer along with a raiding party on our dungeon."


    "Note, get my brother to add bone-eating acid to the last slime trap. That would keep most undead incursions out." Smirking, Katelyn walked alongside Penelope. "Let''s go. Maybe we should run?"


    A shiver ran through Wild at the idea of running with his new family. He''d been testing his new body and finding it wanting in a lot of ways, but the claws on his feet were excellent. "Yes. Let''s run."


    It should have been an hour''s travel by foot, but at a run the group made it back to within sight of the dungeon, only to spot two necromancers working at the entrance. They all halted, out of view of the undead, and crouched low.


    Leaning closer to Penelope, Katelyn asked, "Can you pull items from the dungeon''s storage?"


    Trying, Penelope shook her head¡ªat which point Katelyn passed her three explosive runes. "You were holding out?"


    Katelyn shrugged. "We blow up the necromancers, rush in behind the rest and sneak into the dungeon. There are eight more runes we can pull out, plus let the bony bastards walk through the maze."


    Weighing up the three stones, Penelope considered giving them to Ludmiller and Wild, but both were relatively new to their bodies. "Okay. We''re going with Katelyn''s plan. As soon as the third one is in the air, we rush them and get those necromancers down fast. If they have a zombie, we''ll try to keep away from it and rush for the dungeon."


    Rolling her shoulder, Penelope held two of the runes in her left hand and the other in her right. "You ready, Katelyn?" Getting a nod, Penelope drew her arm back, aimed, and threw the first of the runes at the nearest necromancer.


    The second stone was in Penelope''s right hand before the first hit. A moment before she let go of it, the first explosion sounded.


    Wild watched as not only did the runes explode, but Katelyn launched several of her own explosions into the necromancers. He was upright and running when the third rune exploded. Clawed hands drew out his axes and his eyes focused down to slits. One of the necromancers was nothing but a scattering of bones and dust, while the other looked to be pulling itself upright again.


    Penelope could see the weight of the axes slam into the necromancer because she was only a few steps behind Wild. With Ludmiller at her side, they circled around each side of Wild and started working on the necromancer with their weapons. They were distractions at best, though, but distractions were exactly what Wild needed.


    Each strike of an axe slammed into the advanced skeleton like a forge hammer on low grade iron. Pieces flew from the necromancer and, eventually, too many bones were missing for its necrotic energy to repair and it slumped to the ground like its strings had been cut.


    Wild turned to the dungeon entrance and stalked toward it, his every sense focused and trying to sense what was immediately within. When he stepped his taloned feet on the stone of the entrance, he heard Travis.


    "Wild''s here! The others are outside! Wild, what''s going on?" Travis was trying to keep his panic down. The explosions outside had surprised him, but in a good way¡ªof all the creatures he knew, only kobolds used such explosives.


    "Killed a necromancer and zombie attacking town. Two necromancers outside are gone now. Where are skeletons?" Wild squinted into the dark but couldn''t see any enemies.


    When Penelope, Katelyn, and Ludmiller filed in, Travis felt some semblance of elation that his defenders were home. "Take the back tunnel. The skeletons and the huge zombie things are trying to figure out the maze. Robert, Steph, and Blake are in my heart room."


    "Yeah, good call. We''ll let them trigger the explosive runes in the maze. Wait, how many zombies were there?" Penelope''s blood ran cold when she recognized that Travis had used the plural things.


    "Three."


    "I wish Fife was here," Wild said as he slipped through the door last and closed it behind him.


    "They didn''t touch the kitchen or bar. I guess since they have a way to get down here," Travis said, "they wouldn''t bother. Oh, there goes the first explosive."


    "Yeah, I felt that." Penelope led the charge through the donkey''s supplies and down the tunnel. When they reached the door that hid it from the maze''s end, she heard a second blast. "Those are really useful for figuring out where things are."


    "I know, I know," Travis said. "We need to get those lizard upgrades so I can see more consistently."


    Taking the steps fast, the group reached the lower dungeon floor and raced around to dig through and slip into the safe area. Bringing the tunnel down behind them completed their trip home.


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 39

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 3/10


    Heart 14400/ 14400


    Experience 3100/3600


    Workers 7/19


    Monsters 0/20+1


    Traps 25/35+4


    Rooms 45


    Food 400


    Timber 1403


    Iron 1014


    Steel 0


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 19


    Rock 1784


    Gold 2000


    Leather 455


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 51


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 2


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    Ludmiller and Wild had gone back to the area just after the pit trap and started laying more triggered explosives. Travis watched them work, Wild keeping an eye at the corner while Ludmiller set the runes down carefully.


    While they worked, Robert and Penelope roamed around making minor adjustments here and there. The two warehouses that opened onto that tunnel were being adjusted to open to the rooms opposite.


    "We should have prepared this better. With more traps now, we can make this better." Travis couldn''t help himself. With the skeletons coming up to the sludge traps, he also started thinking of the entrance and how dealing with undead was going to impact the idea of his trading.


    "They''re coming to the first¡ªthey just walked into it." Wild could see as the skeletons got mired in the sludge, but it didn''t seem to be doing much damage to them. "Isn''t this supposed to kill them?"


    "These traps are only low quality. They will kill them after a while." Placing another of the explosives, Ludmiller looked up to see Penelope opening up a tunnel between the two rooms that used to be used for the donkey. "What are you doing?"


    "Making a new tunnel so there''s less chance of all these going off at once." Circling back around to the tunnel, Penelope brought the ceiling down on a square so creatures would be forced to go through the joined rooms. "Wish we could do more, but they could be coming through any second, and I don''t plan to be here when these start going off."


    Travis let out a mental cry of anguish as everyone backed away from the traps. He was now blind to the undead''s progress. "I need more lizards."


    "If you got more lizards, Trav, you wouldn''t let anyone send them into a deathtrap like that. Besides, we''ll know when they make it through the sludge when they hit the pit trap." Hefting her pickaxe on her shoulder, Penelope looked back at the tunnel from the point where Katelyn''s secret door was.


    Travis hated waiting. He targeted the corner and summoned lizards to it. His vision clarified and he saw the huge zombies waiting while skeletons marched over their brethren, deep into the sludge traps¡ªbefore becoming mired and falling down to become the bridge for the next skeletons.


    Part of him hoped the undead were mindless and weren''t intelligent enough to know they were literally less than cannon fodder for their dungeon¡ªwherever that dungeon might be. They got two traps from the end of the hallway when he started getting experience for the ones at the start dying.


    The zombies started picking up and throwing skeletons onto the sludge traps, marching forward over them as they went. More experience rolled in as Travis felt a sickening sensation at the realization that the zombies would make it at their present pace.


    <blockquote>


    You have reached level 4!


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    New building options unlocked!


    </blockquote>


    Not just new building options, Travis saw, a whole new menu. But, despite his excitement, he was practically staring at the zombies as they reached the end of the line of skeletons¡ªone sludge trap short of the pit.


    The second zombie just pushed the first down and walked over it. The delicate mechanism Penelope had built into the trap accounted for various adventurer mass and tried to only spring when three or more were on the trigger surface. It had no chance of resisting the mass of one huge pile of flesh and bone.


    "I''m replacing those with repeating ones," Katelyn said, rolling her eyes as the whole dungeon trembled. "Did that trap get them all?"


    "It got one," Travis told her. "They''re good xp, too. Another one climbed down into the pit and¡ªcrap, it pulled the third one out of the sludge trap it was in."


    "How many is that?" Penelope asked.


    "One dead¡ªfully dead. One has minor injuries and is coming out of the pit. The other climbing out behind it is at full health." Travis realized how bad that sounded. "So we know that eight explosives will kill one, but if it''s four or less, we''re fine."


    Wild rested his talons on the handles of his axes. "I don''t know if I can do this and come out the other side. I am not as strong as I was, but I am faster." Stepping to the edge of the tunnel, he looked down it.


    Walking up and standing beside Wild, Katelyn shoved him in the shoulder with one hand. "You''re forgetting something¡ªI''m here. Trav, when the zombie is in sight of me, cast your mana boost on me."


    Travis waited. He pondered spending mana to call the lizards to the zombies, but it would be a waste. Even one mana was a waste.


    One explosion went off. Then another. A third and fourth sounded. A fifth. A sixth.


    "There! I got xp!" Travis couldn''t help but feel happy that at least they had one of the behemoths down and the next taking damage. "Two¡ª"


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    Another explosion interrupted Travis. An eighth and final triggered rune went off. Travis focused down Katelyn''s senses. His vision pierced the darkness and, finally, a charred zombie pulled itself around the corner.


    The thing had previously had five legs and far too many arms. Now it had three legs and only four arms. Its own vision pierced the dark tunnel, or so Travis realized, because it started to run. He cast the dungeon spell and placed a square of concentrated mana around Katelyn.


    <hr>


    The mana field boiled around Katelyn. She''d had a little experience with it now, which meant she no longer fell over randomly. "Small victories." Her spells were efficient. She''d started working on them while making the runes, though she was hardly up to her old level with them yet. Still, she prepared a swarm-fireball spell that just took mana and produced more and more explosions¡ªand fed it all her mana.


    The pitch-black tunnel was, for a brief moment, brighter than the driest desert at a summer midday. Hotter, too, far hotter.


    Wild shielded his eyes against the stream of fire pouring from Katelyn''s hand. Even that wasn''t enough as the stream of what he realized were fireballs started connecting.


    As suddenly as she''d started the barrage, Katelyn felt light-headed and cut her magic off. When Penelope caught her, she smiled up at her savior before she lost consciousness.


    It wasn''t Wild''s first dance with a zombie. Even the one earlier wasn''t his first. Normally, though, they were disabled by a tank or mage first. Drawing his axes, he rushed forward to meet the charred monster.


    "Robert, get your sister back to the heart. Ludmiller, with me. We need to get around that brute and get to work." Passing Katelyn to Robert, Penelope spared one more look at Wild before running down a side tunnel and into the nearest warehouse.


    Wild wasn''t scoring many hits, and the few he landed did minimal damage. Instead, he wove a wall of flashing steel with his axes and shifted around to take full advantage of his speed. He was just ducking a wild slash at him from the zombie''s claws when a dragon roared¡ªor so it sounded like to him.


    The pistol''s recoil barely moved Penelope''s arm. She backed up as the zombie started to topple, and eventually made room for the thing as it collapsed now that its head was missing. "Get its limbs off. I don''t want there to be anything left of its arms in case it''s playing possum."


    "Fife just came in the front! She''s carrying someone." Travis only saw what was happening because there was one very fat lizard that''d found the kitchen and had been too slow to race down to his summons downstairs. The reptile watched as Jack, Brayden, and another male in guard livery followed her down the secret tunnels and deeper into the dungeon. "They''re coming down fast. They have another guard with them."


    No sooner did Penelope have the back entrance open than Fife was barreling past her with a dwarf in her arms. "What''s going on?" She raised a hand up to shield her eyes from the bright light sticks they were carrying.


    "Trav! Can you save her?" Fife was thankful all the doors were open. She''d seen before how fast necromantic curses could kill and turn someone into an abomination. "Ugh. This would be easier if I was a kobold already."


    "What?" Brolly Windchime hadn''t seen inside the dungeon, and never in his life had he expected to see the core of an active dungeon. "I thought you said the dungeon can cure her?"


    Fife rolled her eyes and set the dwarf down at the base of the heart. "It can. Well, it should be able to. Trav, get Pen down here and do your thing. Pen!"


    "I''m here, Fife. What¡ª?" Choking off her question, Penelope could see the green mist that was even now eating away at the dwarf''s flesh. Pulling out her knife, she pressed it to her palm and smashed it against Travis'' heart. "Do it fast, Trav."


    "What do you mean? What''s going on? I¡ª" Now it was Travis'' turn to be surprised. He felt the life of the short woman ebbing and fading. She was dying just as sure as Penelope had died in this same room. He didn''t waste time. As soon as the prompt came up, Travis accepted it¡ªand joined a fight.


    Another dungeon''s taint was all over the woman. Travis could feel it sinking its claws into her body and mind. The two things he had going for him was his size and his mana.


    The icy grip of the undead dungeon tried to speed the process of acquiring a new form for its ranks. Sturdy, it knew the being shouldn''t have lasted as long as it did under the assault of such necromantic poisons¡ªbut that only made the prize more delicious. When another dungeon intruded, striking with speed and ferocity, it tried to finish the job quickly.


    Instincts and fury filled Travis that he''d never encountered before. Weapons came to him to deploy and use on the intrusion on the sacrifice that was his to claim. Ripping and tearing away the curse, he shredded the hold the other dungeon had and invested his own power in building the almost-lost dwarf to life.


    Gasping her first breath in nearly five minutes, Tannyr Stoneshave flailed and bared her teeth at the kobolds gathered around her. Pressing her back to the warmth of what she thought was a powerful hearthstone, she noticed the others in the room for the first time. "Grargg?"


    "Hey, relax. Take it easy. You''re alive." Travis wasn''t sure if talking to her was a good idea or not, given how surprised she was at Penelope and Robert, but he hoped if nothing else the mental effects might help her relax. "You can''t talk yet, your mouth is too different."


    Frozen in shock at hearing a voice speaking clearly inside her head, Tannyr turned to what she felt was the source of the voice. A crystal bigger than she was glowed bright pink behind her. Reaching out a hand toward it, she felt warmth and life within. The voice, she knew through some faculty she didn''t understand, had come from the crystal.


    And that''s when Tannyr Stoneshave saw her hand¡ªgreen, scaled, and bearing talons¡ªand started inspecting the rest of herself.


    Seeing Tannyr alive, Fife turned to face her party and Brolly. "Alright. All non-kobold, non-females out. She needs to chill and not have guys staring at her right now. Head up to the bar and try not to annoy the kobold with the big axes taking apart the zombie in the hall."


    "The undead infected you," Penelope said, touching Tannyr on the shoulder. "I don''t know the specifics of what happened, but you''d have been dead in minutes. Hell, you should have been dead already. Trav saved you."


    "That''s me. I''m Trav¡ªerr, Travis. I''ve never had to fight another dungeon like that to protect someone, but I think everyone is worth fighting for."


    Tannyr thought the voice sounded fierce and, at the same time, vulnerable. She rubbed her hand over the heart and it dawned on her what it was and what that meant the voice was. "Darng?"


    "Yeah. I''m the dungeon," Travis said. "Uh, welcome aboard, I guess."


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 40

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 4/10


    Heart 25600/ 25600


    Experience 2500/6400


    Workers 8/23


    Monsters 0/24+1


    Traps 25/45+4


    Rooms 45


    Food 400


    Timber 1383


    Iron 1004


    Steel 0


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 27


    Rock 1767


    Gold 2000


    Leather 455


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 51


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 2


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    What had shocked Travis more than the struggle to protect Tannyr from the necrotic curse of the undead dungeon was the news that there had been others so cursed that they hadn''t made it.


    Tannyr had seemed odd. She had settled down in his core room with her back to him and just sat there. He felt, he realized, protective of her. He''d already fought off another dungeon to save her, but it had cost her her cultural identification¡ªshe wasn''t a dwarf anymore.


    "You don''t have to stay here. You can still work for the town."


    She turned her head to the side and looked at him through one eye. He wondered what she felt about all this. Would she be angry at him for making her a kobold?


    "I mean it. You didn''t ask to be here, you didn''t ask to be a kobold, and I don''t¡ª"


    "Than you." Her words were clipped. Tannyr hadn''t been practicing out loud with her voice, but she had apparently been thinking about how to speak with a muzzle, a brace of sharp teeth, and a long tongue.


    "Fife said you are a stonemason. I have a lot of stone¡ªwell, it''s just rock. There''s even a special building I can make. Stoneworks. I can''t build it yet, but if you ever want to make use of it, it''s yours." Sighing, Travis didn''t know what to do. He didn''t know her. Even Penelope had given him some clues as to her personality before becoming a kobold. "You can stay here if you want, but I need to focus on Pen and Robert. They want some new work done in the dungeon and I need to lay stuff out for them."


    Travis didn''t expect her reaction. Tannyr jumped to her feet, wobbled a little, then looked directly at him. "Sho me."


    <hr>


    After her initial anger at what had been done, Tannyr Stoneshave had to conclude that it wasn''t Travis'' fault. It wasn''t even the townsfolk''s fault. There was, in fact, only one thing at fault¡ªherself. She''d turned down a shield so she could more effectively swing her hammer. She''d insisted on being front-line where she could protect others. She had paid the price.


    The irony of it all, as she walked through a dark dungeon tunnel, listening to the dungeon''s directions, was that she hadn''t shrunk at all like the others obviously had. She had gained what she figured on about two inches in height.


    The dwarf in her¡ªthat was still part of who she was¡ªwanted to examine everything. The darkness had never held a secret from a dwarf''s eyes, and Tannyr was relieved that it didn''t hide anything from a kobold either.


    The mechanisms of the hidden doors, the intricate gold-wrought patterns of the mana manipulator in the heart room, even the smelter she''d walked past (its warm glow calling to her) demanded examination.


    But Tannyr walked on, eventually finding Penelope and Robert discussing the designs of a maze.


    "¡­ a huge maze that will make them wander around for hours." Penelope pointed upward. "That''s what bought us so much time to get down here. They got slowed down in the maze. Why not add another maze?"


    Robert pointed at the tunnel where it would join up with the outer ring to make entering easy."Because we need this room to grow. The loop we have around the second floor is great, but it''s starting to constrict. The changes we are making here are working, but if we go with a huge design, that limits how far we can build. And, worse, if we build around it, we are limited in how much we can defend."


    Looking between the two, Tannyr walked up to the stone wall Robert had been gesturing to and ran her claws down it. "Show me. Map." When neither moved, she frowned at them. "No map?"


    "I can make a map. I''ll have to get Blake to make it, though," Travis said. "Right now he and Wild are looking at the maze. They say the undead didn''t actually leave the main path. They walked directly through the maze without taking any other paths."


    Tannyr smirked and nodded to that. "Adven¡ª" She almost choked on what her tongue tried to do. Starting over, she hoped they figured out who she meant. "They make map. Take straig path. Maze not good."


    "So a huge long path?" Penelope asked. The inclusion of Tannyr was welcome in her book. She had heard of the sorts of stonework dwarves built¡ªit was a good fit for a dungeon.


    "No. Twisting. Run fast in long tun. Slow in twisting." Her mouth was still causing problems, but Tannyr was getting better at it the more she turned her attention to how things sounded. "Trav can make?"


    "Yeah, I can make a twisting tunnel that isn''t a maze. That''s actually a good idea. Thanks, Tannyr." Travis examined his options and figured out the best way to handle it all. "Okay, setting up some planning. Robert, do you want to dig it while Pen escorts Tannyr to town?"


    "Town?" Tannyr asked. She''d heard him talk about her going back to her old life, but she was a kobold now. Despite the town''s recent embrace of kobold gold, she doubted they were that open to a dungeon race living among them.


    Travis could almost feel Tannyr''s confusion. "If you want to. At the least you have all your things there. If you want to move here, you''re welcome to."


    "I need to work ''n town." Carefully pronouncing the words, Tannyr got through the sentence almost perfectly. "Can come¡ªcome and help here too."


    "We know speaking is frustrating. We all went through it too." Penelope reached for the trick that let her withdraw items from the dungeon''s inventory, and produced three of the explosive runes. "Come on, we can go now before that undead dungeon spews out any more crap."


    Exiting the safest area of the dungeon, Tannyr was surprised by how intricate the design was. The idea of using simple digging and collapsing tunnels as a secret door made her laugh, as did the secret door that bypassed the maze. "I want to see the maze."


    Walking through the maze, Tannyr approved of the odd little extra bits that made every twist and turn look like it continued into the dark, though she ultimately thought it all a waste. However, she did love the idea of the self-resetting mines. "What they digging?"


    "Basically your idea. That section is a twisting length of tunnel that just eats up time. We''ll probably put some more explosives in there. I like it when things die without costing us anything." Penelope led her past there, leaving Ludmiller to digging the tunnel out. "And here on our left is a timber mill, so we don''t have to drag trees deeper into the dungeon to process them. To the right¡­ Ah, a new door. Not a bad idea. In here''s the bar."


    Poking her head in, Tannyr was shocked at how nice the place looked. There was a woman behind the bar that she half recognized. Something about her hard eyes reminded Tannyr of¡ªThen she remembered. "Fife?"


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    "Tannyr? Figuring out the kobold thing?" Fife finished cleaning the bar and walked around it. "Glad we managed to get you here in time. Normally, that necrotic attack thing kills ya dead in minutes."


    "Thank for saving me. For¡ªThank you too, Trav." It seemed important to say. Tannyr felt like sitting down at the bar and drowning her sorrows¡ªbut that would only lead down a rougher path.


    "I take it," Travis said, "if she had a talisman she would have been savable?"


    Penelope looked at Fife and slowly nodded. "Yeah, but she''d still need to be revived. That isn''t free, even if the churches in town were fine to do it. Their gods demand that such acts benefit the church."


    "Talk to that priest you met last time. See if he wants to¡ªto start an account. Everyone in town gets a talisman and, if they die, I''ll pay to bring them back." With two kobolds just staring blankly, Travis wondered how crazy his idea was. "What?"


    "Trav, you''re insane." Penelope started laughing. "Tell him, Fife."


    "What? You guys need to tell me what he said." When both seemed to break into more laughter, she groaned. "You won''t be laughing when I get to be a kobold. And I want to be a floor boss too, Trav!"


    "I''m kinda okay with Fife being a kobold if I make her a floor boss too. Only, I think I need a third floor before I can have another."


    Curtailing her laughter, Penelope managed to get out not just what Travis'' plan was, but also his agreement to Fife''s terms. "He said, though, that it might take a while to get a third floor. Haven''t seen a dungeon like him before, so no clue how slow or fast floors come."


    "Eh, whatever. I''m game for it. I can sit up here and teach visitors the finer points of getting drunk and sometimes bash skeletons." Fife felt a sense of relief at having negotiated her future. The one thing she needed to know, above all else, was what Travis sounded like. "Wait, what was that about talismans?"


    "Yeah! He wants to foot the bill for resurrections and talismans for anyone that needs one." Penelope tried to hold back more laughter. "Anyway, do you want to come back to Northridge with us? Taking Tannyr to see if she''s fine staying back in town or how she wants to do this."


    "Can you get me 50 steel?" Travis asked.


    Penelope groaned. "And he wants 50 steel. We''d better get the donkey and cart, because I''m not carrying that back."


    <hr>


    They were almost to town and Tannyr still hadn''t made up her mind. Her clothes still fit her, which was weird, but her boots had no chance. Not that her claws weren''t up to the task of providing her with steady footing.


    Everything about being a kobold seemed weird, but not bad. They approached the palisade entrance, that had been rushed to be made usable, and it was Fife who shouted for them to open the gate.


    Inside the town seemed different. There were people rushing around doing things, one of her own work crews was shoring up the palisade with bags of dirt, and everyone seemed to have a sword, axe, or hammer either on their hip or a spear close at hand.


    "You''ve returned then, eh?" Brother Rupert wasn''t looking at Fife or Penelope¡ªall his attention was on Tannyr. "Dungeon saved you, but twisted you to its own ends? What are your thoughts on this?"


    It was a surprise to have the old man see right through her change. Tannyr shrugged her shoulders¡ªsomething that was much less impressive now she lacked any. "Saved my life. Better alive and owing debt than dead."


    "We''ve got a deal for you," Penelope said, drawing Rupert''s attention.


    "Follow me. Deals are to be made under the gaze of the scales." Turning his back on the three, Rupert led the way back to his temple. His god wasn''t interested in the usual worldly desires. His god wasn''t even a god. Rupert adhered to the scales, the balance of debts and deeds that all should adhere to. Pushing open the doors to the temple, he stomped inside. "Mind your feet."


    Walking deeper into the temple, Rupert walked up to the scales and focused on the balance they had always played in his life. Filled with the heat of his own conviction, he sat down. "What deal?"


    "Talismans. One for everyone in town." Penelope pulled out a sack of gold and set it on the pew beside her. "And more gold to be paid if and when you have to revive people, but only for townsfolk."


    Rupert felt more than a little startled, though he managed to avoid showing it. "That won''t be cheap. It''s two-hundred gold per."


    "Are you going to charge us the rate the merchants do?"


    Screwing his face up, Rupert spat on the floor beside him. "No. You pay the actual rate at whatever quality your gold is. I won''t have economics worked in my temple." He found it humorous that they knew exactly how much the town was skimming from their prices. "The talismans are fifteen each."


    "Is there a bulk price? There are a lot of people in town." It was risky to haggle with the man, Penelope realized, but at the going rate it would almost bankrupt them to pay it. "I have five-hundred gold in there."


    "A rate for an entire town has never been established." It was an understatement that Rupert was proud of. "But, five-hundred seems fair. Let''s make it one-hundred gold per resurrection. I predict a future where this might become a bulk price too."


    "That''s acceptable. We''ll send more gold when we can, so we can ensure you have enough to perform several before you have to come and bang on our front door."


    Looking at the sack of gold, Rupert felt the scales shift¡ªthe dungeon''s influence on the town weighing against the good it was doing. That a lot of gold came into his coffers was a welcome extra weight on that measure. "Your coin is good here, but be aware, some may seek to exploit this."


    Penelope didn''t doubt that. "I trust your judgment on those cases." She liked the way he smiled. It was a hard smile, but she knew it wasn''t aimed at her. "Oh, this excludes any adventurers who try to delve into our dungeon, of course. They can pay for themselves¡ªif they make it out."


    <hr>


    Even after seeing Penelope argue with Brother Rupert, something Tannyr had been stunned to see, the question over whether to stay in town or return to the dungeon was a tough one for her. She felt a pull toward the dungeon, but the town needed her now more than ever.


    Penelope was leading the donkey around the market, trying to find anyone selling steel. Tannyr, however, spotted a very familiar face. Leaving the little grouping, she approached Howard Tailor. "Howard?"


    Stopping when he was addressed by the kobold, Howard took a few seconds to mentally connect the dots. "Tannyr?" When she nodded, he let out a sigh. "So you survived, then. That''s¡ªI won''t say good until you do. Would you like to talk about it away from the others?" A strange sense of unease seemed to build within him. Seeing his old friend remade as a monster, in his estimation, was to blame.


    "Yeah. I need to talk to someone about it." Turning and nodding to Fife, Tannyr followed Howard to a nearby market stall and through the door at the back of it. The building was familiar enough¡ªTannyr had built it. A smoldering fire was soon coaxed into a full flame and he set a bottle and two glasses on the table between them.


    Silence deepened between them, but eventually Tannyr managed to say, "It wasn''t the dungeon''s fault. Or the kobolds. I just¡ª They offered to let me return to Northridge and go back to my life."


    "Do you want to?" Howard poured a glass for each of them and settled back in the chair to enjoy the brandy.


    "Yes. No. I want things back to how they were. Building is my passion, you know that. I could build this city for the next four-hundred years and still die with a trowel in my hand and a plan for the next building. The dungeon needs that too. Undead attacked them at the same time it hit the city. They''re working hard to come up with ways to remain useful to Northridge and still defend themselves.


    "And I get that. I see their tunnels and my hands itched to start building in them. I watched one of them working¡ªtunneling¡ªand it was everything I could do not to find a pickaxe and join in."


    "We could get another master mason, Tannyr, but not one like you. Never one like you, old friend."


    The tone in Howard''s voice hit Tannyr hard. She grabbed the glass and downed the potent liqueur, barely tasting the fantastic vintage. "It''s a shame the city is so far from Travis¡ªthe dungeon. If we could build a fort around both, together, it would make my decision so much easier."


    "With the locus quickened, we can''t do that now."


    "Yeah, I know. Oh, you need to speak to Brother Rupert. He made a very strange deal with Travis."


    "Who is Travis?" Howard sipped some more of the fine brandy.


    "Trav is the dungeon. He''s alive and thinking and every bit as smart as anyone. You''re not just dealing with kobolds, Howard, not even with kobolds that I''m pretty sure were all people before¡ªthe dungeon itself can think and negotiate." Reaching her taloned hand out, Tannyr poured herself another brandy. "And you know the crazy bit? He cares for Northridge. He cares for people. He just¡ªThe deal with Brother Rupert is to secure talismans and cheap resurrections for everyone in the city."


    Howard was appreciative that he''d drunk most of his glass of brandy when it fell from his grip and hit the floor. Even the sound of the finely crafted crystal-glass hitting the carpet didn''t get his mind moving again. It took ten seconds before he could get a thought to his mouth. "It what?!"


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 Chapter 41

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 4/10


    Heart 25600/ 25600


    Experience 2500/6400


    Workers 8/23


    Monsters 0/24+1


    Traps 26/45+4


    Rooms 45


    Food 382


    Timber 1383


    Iron 1004


    Steel 80


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 18


    Rock 2437


    Gold 1300


    Leather 455


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 51


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 10


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 6


    Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    The better part of a week of work can see a lot done within a dungeon. Travis had cast the spell to create mana shrines twice, and was sketching out a plan to find them. The time-wasting tunnels in both floors had been completed and some other minor works had been done to correct a few errors they''d found during the invasion by the undead.


    Travis, though, had something important he had to do. "Wild? I have the resources and we have the time to do this now."


    Turning his head from the rockface of the new tunnel he''d been digging, Wild stood up as straight as a kobold could. "Where is the best place?"


    "Definitely your bed. When I made Pen into the dungeon boss, she was out for hours." Travis double and triple checked his resources. It was going to put him a little low on gold. He turned his focus to Katelyn, who''d been burning through her mana making runes. "I need to top up my gold in a bit. Would you be free to melt some down?"


    Lifting her head from the tight focus she held, Katelyn smiled at the sound of Travis'' voice in her head. "I''ll be done with the next repeating rune in an hour. Is that okay?"


    "Perfect. Thanks." Turning his attention back to the upgrade, Travis realized something that could be bad. "Uh, Wild, we might want to move to the floor you''re meant to be the boss of. Sorry, but I don''t know if that affects things, and I don''t want to find out after that I screwed it up."


    Stopping before he dug his way into the central part of the dungeon, Wild shrugged and turned around. "Not screwing up is good. First time being a dungeon?"


    The question shocked Travis with how succinctly it got to the crux of the matter. He actually laughed at how well it typified the problems he had encountered. "Yeah. Yeah it is."


    "And you not make many mistakes. Good." Heading back up the stairs, Wild made his way through the secret door in the maze and along the back entrance. "There space here. Build room?" His hand rested against the stone.


    Travis had to admit that Wild somehow just knew the dungeon layout, despite the twists and literal mazes. "Yeah, let me set something up for you." So he gave a quick plan for a 5x5 room with an entry, then added a simple door to it. Twenty-six more rock gained, fifteen timber lost.


    "Well, here we go." Travis opened up the menu and selected the upgrade.


    <blockquote>


    Floor Boss requires 10x10 room.


    </blockquote>


    "Okay, apparently we need a bigger room for this. Here." Travis laid out a bigger room for Wild. He kept his focus close, knowing that this was an important obligation for him. When Wild had finished digging the room, Travis let out a sigh. "Ready?"


    Walking to the middle of the room, Wild sat down and nodded. "I am ready."


    The moment Travis selected the upgrade, Wild fell sideways and slumped on the floor of the room. And it was a room now, Travis realized. A quick check revealed a new room upgrade that only applied to the room that''d just appeared. "Enhanced Equipment," Travis read to himself, "boosts the equipment a boss has. A hundred steel and a thousand gold. I need to get steel production going."


    <blockquote>


    A gold vein has depleted!


    </blockquote>


    Travis felt his non-existent blood run cold. Rushing his focus to the vein, he saw a cooling puddle of gold fading as it emptied into his storage. "What happened?"


    Katelyn stared at the spot. "I just started melting it down and it vanished!"


    "I got a message saying it was depleted. I guess they have a limit on how much gold they have." Considering his options, Travis checked his mana. It had ticked up again while Wild had done his digging. "We need more gold quickly, but if I place a node on this floor it could be one of several things. So, since the first floor has only two outcomes, I''ll cast it there."


    Travis hadn''t meant to actually cast the spell, after all, he thought he didn''t have enough mana to do so. But, when he idly prodded the activator¡ªthe spell was cast for 5 mana. "What the hell?! Five?!"


    "Calm down, Trav, what happened?" Katelyn put her hand on the wall as if to sooth her panicked dungeon.


    "I was just thinking about casting it at the first floor, but it should have needed fifty mana. It only used five!" Thinking about game mechanics, Travis realized what might have happened. "It''s scaling. I think it''s scaling the cost depending on what floor I cast it on, but it only shows the maximum. That would make sense with the mana shrines too. Five mana to cast one, but it only puts out one extra mana a tick. If its costs scale like that too, it''s actually more efficient to dump all your mana shrines on the first floor!"


    "Wait!" Katelyn''s shout echoed through the library. "Travis, don''t do this yet. We know the gold vein depleted, what if the shrines do too?"


    That was the balance, Travis realized. Whenever something in a game looked too good to be true, particularly at so simple a mechanic, it was. "Right. Of course you''re right. But it''s still a good idea for gold. We need gold. Iron would be nice too, but I think I can just dump all our mana on lodes for the first floor and not be concerned about it. We need to find the shrines on the second floor because then we could be dropping a LOT of first floor lodes."


    "But, we don''t want to go searching for them until we need them, okay? The more you can place, the less work we have to do to find each one, as long as we don''t go looking for them." Katelyn snapped her claws, causing all the rocks around her to start trembling as she walked back along the tunnel toward their storage area. The tunnel collapsed in dramatic fashion.


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    <hr>


    Penelope, having spent the afternoon resting after digging out the various winding paths, sat up on her bed and stretched. There was no shouting in the dungeon, for which she was thankful, but increasingly she was learning that almost ten kobolds in a dungeon made for a certain amount of chaos¡ªand that chaos was at its greatest when they were noisy and when they were very quiet. "Trav, what''s going on?"


    Travis turned some of his attention to Penelope, reading a mental catch-up for her. "Wild is becoming the first floor boss. It comes with a room¡ª"


    "Why didn''t I get a room?"


    "No clue. Maybe you get it as an upgrade? Anyway, I had Katelyn melt some more gold off the vein to top up again¡ªand the vein ran out. I figured I''d place some new ones on the first floor, since that gives a greater chance of getting one, and found out they only cost five mana to place there. So I put down five lodes in total. Hopefully we get a mix of gold and iron." Travis moved his attention with her, following Penelope as she walked out and took a shortcut through to the stairs and up to the first floor.


    "Anyway," Travis said, continuing, "Katelyn is still working on more repeating runes, since those are just so amazingly good. Robert and Steph are outside, Robert''s keeping watch while Steph goes through his trapline. I promised Blake he could help look for the lodes up here. Ludmiller is in the bar talking with Fife and Jack."


    "Where''s Brayden?"


    "He went to town to deliver the two-hundred gold to the priest. He''s also going to check that Tannyr''s okay." When Penelope passed the new door, Travis added, "That''s where Wild''s room is. The upgrade said he needed a ten-by-ten room."


    "Floor bosses are pretty tough. It''ll be good to see him more his old self¡ªcombat wise." Penelope kept walking and passed through the donkey area, the warehouse drop off, and finally through the doors leading to the bar.


    Fife and Jack were sitting by the big fireplace, roaring flames chasing back any amount of chill and leaving them both looking quite cozy.


    Spotting Penelope walking in, Fife grinned up at her. "Hey, Pen, how''re things?"


    "Oh, doing great. Wild is on his way to being the first floor boss¡ªhe even gets a boss room. Our gold vein ran out, and I have this weird feeling we''re going to have some kind of encounter with monsters." Walking through the bar into the kitchen, Penelope asked, "You two hungry?"


    "I just ate. Whatever that stew is in there, it''s pretty amazing." Jack wasn''t exaggerating. Having spent years on the road eating rough, with short relief periods in taverns eating some truly delicious food, he could now say dungeon food was the best he''d eaten. "Do I want to know what goes into it?"


    "Tell him it''s a mix of game, oats, and probably water. I don''t know how it comes out like stew, but who cares if it does the trick?" Travis told Penelope.


    Repeating the message, Penelope shrugged. "If it tastes good, who cares. Better than living off pemmican and salted pig fat." As she walked to the back of the room to grab one of the loaves of bread that were just always, mysteriously, there¡ªshe felt something strange on the other side of the wall. "Trav, Wild''s room is on the other side of this, right?"


    "No. Kinda. He''s off to your left. There''s nothing in front." As soon as he''d said it, Travis watched as Penelope pulled out her pickaxe and, with not a word, dug a hole through the wall to reveal a small three-by-three room with a big pillar of reddish rock in the middle. "Ha! That''s an iron vein!"


    "What''re you yelling about?" Fife poked her head into the kitchen and spotted the hole in the wall and the small room beyond. "Is that just there? What is it?"


    "Iron. Well, that''s one of five, but the best bit about it was I could feel it through the wall. Trav, you don''t need to make the tunnels as close together if I can do that, right?" Penelope hefted up her pick and dug at the vein with a solid swing.


    "Right. But that means the first thing I want you to do is just walk all the outer walls of this floor and the second one. You might find another like this." Travis was relieved that something had gone right for them. Just as he was starting to set out a search pattern for the first floor that would take advantage of Penelope''s newly realized skill, he noticed his mana tick up. "Got more mana, adding another lode."


    Jerking her head around toward the direction of the stairs, Penelope shouted, "Wait! Keep some mana in reserve in case we get more enemies attacking."


    "These one-sided conversations are going to bug me until you make me a kobold." Grabbing a loaf of bread on her way past, Fife walked back to the barroom and settled back at the fire.


    <hr>


    Brolly Windchime had been confused at first. He had a few hundred talismans in the bag Brother Rupert had given him, and he''d been told to hand them out to everyone. "Everyone? What do you mean?"


    "Everyone." Raising his finger, he poked Brolly in the chest. "Everyone gets a talisman. Everyone who isn''t a complete idiot gets resurrected if they die. The only exception being if they attack the kobold dungeon or break the city''s laws."


    "That''s specific." Grabbing the first talisman out of the bag for himself, Brolly stuck it into a pocket on his coat. "Who pays for all this?"


    Rupert glared at Brolly, keenly aware that everyone needed a little privacy, and had decided that he would keep the deal with the dungeon quiet. After all, if the town knew he was collecting gold from them, they would want him to charge the special rates and fees. Economics should have nothing to do with the balance of justice. "Howard knows. You should ask him."


    Striding toward the pair, Brayden Smith still wasn''t sure how to handle Rupert. The priest''s god was more neutral than Brayden''s, but the same sense of justice radiated from him. It meant that day to day, Rupert''s alignment could swing based on the acts of those he''d dealt with¡ªBrayden preferred knowing where a priest stood. "Brother Rupert, I have¡ª"


    "Wait!" Looking between the two, Brolly finished up staring at Brayden. "You mean the dungeon is paying for this? To what end?"


    Taken aback by the string of curse words Rupert let loose with, Brayden shrugged his shoulders. "I think the idea is that people can''t get rich and pay the dungeon if they''re dead. Knowing that there were others, not as hardy as Tannyr, who didn''t make it was a wake-up call. So, undead, huh? Any clue on their theme?"


    "They sent out two attack forces at the same time. Three if you count the milling undead that they put down at the verdant dungeon. I think that implies it''s a horde dungeon." The thought, even now, sent a shiver up Brolly''s spine. Undead were annoying at the best of times. "Our best bet will be to get a lot of something flammable and pour it in."


    Brayden shook his head at that, passing the bag of gold to Rupert. "While I like the idea, it would be better if we could get enough adventurers to just keep farming it. Better to get experts in to deal with the undead than to cripple another source of income." He gave the priest a nod. "Anyway, I need to get back. I''m sure Katelyn is trying to set fire to the rock or something. Who knows, maybe there''ll be more undead at our door already?"


    "Our?" Brolly asked.


    Shrugging his shoulders, Brayden gave a good-natured laugh. "It''s an agreeable faction to be aligned with right now, and doesn''t compete with my vows. Plus I get some good dust-ups out of it¡ªagainst evil no less. Don''t spend all the gold in one place."


    Watching his friend walking away, Brolly sighed. "None of this has gone according to plan."


    "You have new soldiers coming?" Rupert asked.


    "Yes. They''ll be here in the next week. Plus the adventurers'' guild is sending some delving parties. I just hope our walls will stand."


    "I''ll make sure of it. I have been working on a ritual of reinforcing."


    Turning his head to Rupert, Brolly was surprised at the normally cantankerous priest being so forward. "Those that died¡ª"


    "Will be marked down on the walls of my temple. They will be the last to have fallen here." His conviction flaring, Rupert felt the full might of his ideal burning within him.


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 42

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 4/10


    Heart 25600/ 25600


    Experience 2500/6400


    Workers 8/23


    Monsters 0/24+1


    Traps 27/45+4


    Rooms 46


    Food 378


    Timber 1168


    Iron 404


    Steel 30


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 10


    Rock 2515


    Gold 450


    Leather 492


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 51


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 10


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 7


    Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    If nothing else, Travis was secure in iron for a while. Penelope had wandered back and through the tunnels to the living area that Fife, Jack, and Brayden used, and found another iron lode. It hadn''t taken her long, but she couldn''t exactly run along the tunnel.


    Wild still slept in his new room. Travis was content to let him take his time, given all the help Wild had been so far. He hadn''t seen him fight except for the end of the undead struggle and when Fife had tried to stop him from going crazy, but when Fife had sat in the bar and told him what had happened, in all its detail, it had made Travis even happier to have agreed to make him a floor boss.


    When he checked in on Katelyn, Robert, and Blake, the three had all fallen asleep in the library. Katelyn had been regenerating her mana to make yet more of the repeating runes, while Robert and Blake had been working on research. When he checked Reaper, the research had 8/15 days filled.


    "Trav! I''ve found something else. Maybe." Penelope''s shout got Travis'' attention. He found her quickly enough (for some reason there were always a few lizards hanging around her, but also her own vision narrowed her spacial location down. She was in the first floor twisting hallway and holding her claws against a wall. "It''s weaker than the others. Maybe I can feel two deep?"


    "Dig it out. The worst that could happen is we have more spiders or something." Travis didn''t waste any time, quickly adding a few blocks of planning for her to follow.


    Penelope was fast at digging. Almost as quick as she drew her pickaxe, she dug the first square of rock away. The second came a moment later and she was staring at a pillar of gold. "Damn I''m good."


    "Yeah you are. Okay, so, new plan here. We don''t bother doing the whole searching tunnels thing on the first floor. We just keep making lodes until we make some close enough for you to find them. By the time the others start to get in the way, we can get Katelyn up here to just melt them down into warehouse-filler."


    "I love how you think, you know that? Okay, but don''t spend mana on anything here now. We have gold, we have iron. We need to find those shrines down on the second floor, make more shrines, and find them, and¡ªWe need to start getting steel, too." Penelope turned as Travis set out more planning. "Don''t want it like this?"


    "Let''s conceal it to an offshoot of the wood processing tunnel. It''s not far¡­ twenty squares." Travis felt excitement, it was like when they''d just started but now they had all the safety measures they needed. "Oh, and if you want, it would probably be a good idea to place some of those repeating runes in our twisting tunnels, particularly the one just after the sludge traps."


    <hr>


    It was a nice and relaxing evening for Penelope. She worked while most of the dungeon slept. Even the three adventurers had retired to their quarters while she dug out the new tunnel for the gold vein''s safety. She went back after the tunnel part was done and filled-in the hole she''d made initially finding it.


    "What about the iron one that connects directly onto the main entrance?" she asked Travis.


    "That one''s in the way of everything. I am pretty sure that Wild''s boss room needs to be part of the way for enemies to go down into the dungeon, but that iron vein is right in the way of everything. Maybe we can just link it into Wild''s room when we figure out how it all works." Following her focus (and her lizard fan-club), Travis watched her brush her claws over the door to Wild''s room. "If it''s anything like your upgrade, he''ll be out for a few more hours."


    Penelope just sighed and nodded. "I wanted to test a few things with him. Typically, a floor boss gets bonuses only when fighting on their assigned floor, but I am fairly sure they get it when fighting in the presence of the dungeon boss."


    "More reason to allow Fife to join the dungeon and make her a floor boss," Travis said.


    "Exactly. We might not have many that will be front-liners, but we''ll have some seriously great people." Taking the stairs down, she reached behind her back and thought of the delightful little explosives. "Alright. I think three of these here would be a good start."


    "Wait, here?!"


    "No. I mean in the twisting tunnel after the traps." Walking down the hall a little, Penelope swung her pickaxe and broke into the inner dungeon on the first switch-back of the new hall. "The trick with catching people who remove traps for a living is to put them in a place where they can''t touch the trap without blowing their face off. No one likes that, by the way."


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    Watching as she worked, Travis noted how she dug her claws into the wall to embed the rune firmly into the rock. "They won''t set each other off, will they?"


    "My senses are telling me no. I''ve dealt with these things before, and the hard-edged dungeon walls help a bunch. I''ll save three for the twists here and let Blake use the last one in the twists upstairs." She made her way to the short length of tunnel Robert had dug and hefted her pickaxe again. When she got up to the face of the rock, she lifted the pick and swung.


    The rock collapsed unnaturally fast, crumbling away to reveal what looked like an empty cave with a blue glow to the left. Taking a step forward, it was only that blue glow shimmering in the air that gave Penelope any warning at all that there was something huge and almost invisible right in front of her. Jumping backwards just as her pickaxe was jerked from her hands, Penelope screamed.


    "What''s going on? What is¡ªOh shit." Travis didn''t hesitate, he threw up a Fire Wall between Penelope and the huge cube thing that was trying to grab at her. "Get up and run!"


    The massive slime didn''t care about the wall one bit. Its kind barely knew about the dangers of fire, let alone pain, though it did take on a darker hue as its outer layer got slightly carbonized.


    Turning and running for the intersection, Penelope spared a moment to grab the lizards that''d been following her around and made a quick decision and turned left. "If anyone''s awake, Trav, can you get them to dig me a way through to the middle? These damn slimes are fast and I don''t think I can make my pickaxe again."


    Travis turned his attention to the kobolds in the library. "Wake up! I need help!" After a moment of nothing, Robert stirred. "Robert! Wake up!"


    "Trav, what''s going on? Why are you yelling?" Robert lifted one talon up to rub at his face (carefully).


    "There''s a huge slime thing chasing Pen! Go to Katelyn''s spell-testing hallway and dig a tunnel where I show you." Travis tossed a plan for a single square that would create an opening. "Pen, I managed to wake Robert and he''s going to open a hole for you back near the core. You didn''t skip leg day, did you?"


    "Leg what? Forget it. I''ll make that, no problems, just get the tunnel dug now!" Practice and training at moving with a big kobold''s body stood Penelope in good stead. She took the tunnel at break-neck speed, rounding the corners by digging her claws into the stone to swing her body around faster. There was no greater sight for her than Robert at the tunnel he''d dug, waving her toward it. "Coming through! Don''t ask my permission to fill it in!"


    The problem for Travis was that the slime had scoured the floors clean in its movement down the tunnels, leaving him blind thanks to it devouring any lizards that got in its way. Then he saw it, at the stairs, starting to head into the twisting tunnel.


    "It''s in the twisting tunnel now, uh, it looks odd though."


    Shivering, Penelope shook her head. "No way it made it back that fast. Did the one you saw have the burns around it?"


    "What''s going on?" Katelyn asked. "Why''s everyone in my library?"


    Penelope set her lizards down, giving each a reassuring rub on the head. "I started working on the tunnel to find the mana shrines and opened up another cave. This one was full of huge slimes. There''s at least two out there, and I know for a fact the sludge pits are not going to bother them at all."


    "Ugh. And the explosives are going to be useless too. Well, not completely useless, but slimes are strong against concussive forces. We should go and grab all the ones out of the pit trap now before the slimes get to them." Seeing everyone''s incredulous look, Katelyn shrugged. "We might be screwed."


    <hr>


    Fife yawned. She hadn''t had such good sleeps as when they''d moved into the dungeon. It went against everything she figured was true, but knowing the dungeon and knowing it would protect her made her feel actually safe.


    The room around her was always a constant temperature, if a little on the cool side of comfortable. She climbed from her bed and started pulling on her clothes, starting with her shirt, shorts, pants, and then chainmail.


    The buckles were all well-oiled and worked perfectly. She didn''t feel dressed until she at least had her chain on. A set of greaves slotted over the top of her boots and up her shins, she buckled those down, then reached for her breastplate and started buckling it over her chest.


    With the last few straps tightened, she let out a happy sigh. Finally, there was her sword, her pistol, and her shield. She felt complete. Well, she could grab her helmet too, but she hated the thing. "Never sits right." She set the helmet back on her arming dummy and headed for the door.


    Through the living room, she made her way down the hallway and paused before continuing to the bar. She liked the bar, she''d conquered the bar, but she wanted to go and talk to Travis¡ªas much as she could talk to him.


    She had to break out a light stick, of course, but it was a new one that Robert had made for her. Not a recharged one. Not a second-hand one. She grinned at the fact she now had better equipment than she''d ever owned in her life.


    Knowing where all the secrets were on the doors helped. She reached the end of the tunnel and opened the door to take the stairs down, and it was only the fact that her light stick was so bright and new that she saw the slime twenty feet away.


    "Fuck." Fife backed up through the door again and slowly pulled it closed, hoping the slime hadn''t sensed her. The loud thud against the door just as she pulled it closed set that hope to rest. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"


    Running for all she was worth, which was pretty quick even in armor, Fife rushed back to the living room she''d left only moments earlier to find Jack and Brayden there. "Not sure what happened, but there was a huge slime at the top of the stairs, and it didn''t look friendly!"


    Brayden, who didn''t have his full armor on yet, cursed and rushed back to his room.


    Jack, however, was wearing his cloak and was ready to deal with anything. "It could be worse, Fife."


    "How could it be worse?!"


    "We could have undead coming in too."


    Available at: https://www.royalroad.com/profile/220350/fictions</a>


    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 43

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 4/10


    Heart 25600/ 25600


    Experience 2500/6400


    Workers 8/23


    Monsters 0/24+1


    Traps 27/45+4


    Rooms 46


    Food 378


    Timber 1168


    Iron 404


    Steel 30


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 9


    Rock 2539


    Gold 450


    Leather 492


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 41


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 10


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 4


    Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    Travis spotted Fife with one of his lizards as she, with Brayden and Jack behind her, advanced down the back tunnel and to the center of the maze. He wanted to scream a warning at first, but when they found the first slime in the tunnels they squared up on it and started dealing with them.


    He stared at the silent battle they waged, Fife bashing at the slime with her shield again and again, then quickly pulling it back before the creature could absorb it. Jack was the powerhouse here. He froze and chilled the slime, causing parts of it to solidify so that Fife could hack them off, so they took their time cutting through the slime until it was only so many pieces of inert gunk.


    While he watched the party take apart a slime, Penelope, Ludmiller, and Katelyn rushed down the hall to the pit trap, removing all the runes on the way.


    Robert, meanwhile, retreated to his lab and started mixing up his strongest solvent.


    "The worst part is not knowing how many of them there are. Wait, no, the worst-worst part is not being able to tell Fife where the ones I do know about are. Actually, just mix both of those problems together and you have¡ª"


    "Trav, I get you''re having a bit of a nightmare situation here, but we need you to keep it together." Penelope passed two runes to Katelyn. "We need to know where Fife''s group is so we can meet up with them."


    "Or better," Ludmiller said, "get them down here so they can guard this hallway."


    "You know Fife is going to scream if we make her march through that time-wasting tunnel system we built, right?" Penelope asked, dropping into the pit to start gathering up the runes at the bottom.


    Travis couldn''t help but laugh, the distraction being just the right thing to break his panic. "Yeah, but we can offer her boredom pay."


    <hr>


    "It''s a joke," Penelope said.


    "Sorry, Pen, but if Trav said he''d pay us boredom pay, and he''s going to make us do something boring, I''m going to take that." Fife had been relieved when she''d seen a wall collapse and Penelope stick her head out. So much so that she''d led their group deeper into the dungeon without a thought. "How many of these holes did you have to open until you found us?"


    "Five. What were you doing this far along the side passage?"


    "We were making sure there were none down there. Don''t get me wrong, it would be kinda cool to live in a dungeon full of slimes, but we''d be less inclined to hang around." Brayden was checking over his gear, making sure he hadn''t misplaced anything important¡ªlike the talisman he carried. "Okay. How are we going to do this?"


    "Well, we have one game piece that can sweep them up but several dead-end tunnels leading to one point. So, we clear up the tunnels and do a little creative digging to cordon them off when cleared. First, I need you to sweep the tunnels clear, leading to the stairs." When Travis was done explaining it, Penelope repeated it for the adventurers.


    Fife rolled her shoulders to free them up a little, hefted her shield, and then looked at the sludge traps. "Uh, Trav, not that I don''t love the idea of you having this nightmare set of traps here, but how are we meant to get past it?"


    "Yeah, I can help there. Trav''s setting things up to isolate the twisting tunnels and shortcut from the stairs to here, then we''ll go back around and do the back tunnel to the stairs. That will leave the lower part¡ªcleared."


    Nodding to Penelope, Fife smiled. "Also, this is a good bit of work. We used to run with two shields, but in a tunnel like this I can keep any advancing threat on lockdown for Jack to deal with." She held out her mailed fist to Jack and got a light, though not reluctant, fist-bump back. "Okay. Point us in a direction and we''ll start doing our thing."


    And she did. Weaving through the tunnels while Penelope sealed things up according to Travis'' plan behind her, Fife stalked two of the big slimes, keeping their attention while Jack worked them over. The tunnels were, otherwise, just as boring as she''d been promised.


    Having been waiting at the stairs, Penelope smiled at the group as they came around the corner. "Okay, now, with that clear I can seal this up and we can move to the back tunnel. Shame these things didn''t make life easy and just come right for Trav. Would have been simpler."


    "Aren''t you worried about them coming through the sludge traps?" Jack asked.


    "Robert has worked on something that should burn them pretty badly. It''s now mixed into two of the sludge traps, and he''s making more of it as we speak. This way." Digging into the central dungeon, Penelope led the way through to the kobold bedrooms and opened another tunnel that broached to the back tunnel.


    There turned out to be no slimes in the back tunnels, but Fife found something exciting just as they neared the stairs up again. "Pen! Pen!"


    Looking around the corner, from where she was waiting, Penelope spotted Fife. "What''s up?"


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    "Okay, seal this off first, or whatever you need to do, and then come and look in here." Fife stood at the intersection that led to where the slimes'' cave was.


    Relaying the timing through Travis, Penelope collapsed the tunnel as Ludmiller opened it up to the inner dungeon. "Right, now, what do you want me to look at?" She walked toward the group and, when she saw what Fife was gesturing at, she felt confusion. "How''d it get so big?"


    There was a truly immense slime in the mana shrine that was revealed in the slime cave. It was so big, in fact, that it couldn''t get out of that shrine room.


    Jack walked forward, his senses sharp and ready to lead him back to safety. "I think it''s feeding off the shrine. Look, it grew so big it can''t leave the square room."


    "Pen, I have a great idea with that. We could build the winding tunnel to loop through that mana shrine and then come back out. If the slime is feeding off the mana, it''ll be hard to kill, right?" Travis asked.


    Breaking into a gale of laughter, Penelope nodded and almost fell to her knees. "Trav says he¡ªhe''s going to use it to stop invaders. He wants us to leave it alone for now."


    Brayden got the idea first. He chuckled. "With that mana shrine, it''ll be near unkillable. The only downside is you can''t get to the shrine yourself."


    "We''ll see about that. Maybe it will become usable when we build a tunnel up to it or maybe it won''t, because of the slime." Penelope just shrugged. "Ready to head upstairs?"


    "If one of those things has messed up my bar¡­" Fife started up the stairs, anger rising at the idea of needing to clean up her favorite watering hole.


    "Wait!" Running up the stairs, Penelope stood at the entrance to the maze. "Uh, remember, we have explosives in there that go off whenever something that isn''t a dungeon monster goes near them?" At Fife''s surprised look, Penelope rolled her eyes. "I know where they are, let me lead and if one isn''t exploded, that means nothing came that way or any slimes are in side tunnels."


    When Penelope reached the outer radius of the first explosive, however, she could already see it had gone off recently. After the undead had triggered their toys, she had assessed everything with Katelyn to make sure they would recharge and trigger again. They had. "One has been this way."


    Jack put his hand on Fife''s shoulder. "That doesn''t mean they have triggered the rest of them."


    Fife was thankful he''d said it, not that she''d admit that. She just gave him a nod and walked forward behind Penelope. "Are you likely to dig into these things often?"


    "I''m working on a better way of finding resources and stuff, but we''re always looking at expanding¡ªand when you dig anywhere you haven''t dug before, there''s a chance of finding these." Walking on, Penelope slowed her pace and paused. "Hold here, checking the next one."


    Each one had exploded¡ªuntil the last. The moment Penelope found it, she shouted, "This is intact!"


    At the shout, Fife''s senses sharpened and she spun about. "Behind us!"


    Brayden barely heard the warning before he felt something soft and wet flow around his arm. Screaming in agony, he tried to pull back from the slime¡ªonly the slime was much heavier and was well-anchored to him besides.


    The scream of her friend had Fife moving faster than she ever had in her life. Shield up, she rushed past Jack and slammed the wall of steel into the slime. "Get off him you bastard!"


    The impact loosened the slime''s grip on Brayden''s arm, but not enough to get him free. The ripple through the huge cube jerked him off balance first one way and then the other. Before he realized what was happening he was off balance and falling toward the slime.


    "Jack! Kill it!"


    "I''ve got you!"


    The shouts were all muddled in Brayden''s head. He looked down his trapped arm and saw that his armor''s bindings were melting and pulling apart to reveal his fingers and hand were no more than bones by now, while there was more flesh the closer to him he looked. Something pulled hard on him¡ªtrying to get him out of the slime before it got any further.


    Penelope might have only been a kobold, but she had the strength of a boss monster. She tried her best to ignore the way Brayden''s arm became easier to pull free¡ªmostly because she could see the cleaned white bones floating in the slime and dissolving already.


    Only when Brayden was free of the slime could Jack unload. He let loose with so much magic that rime formed on the walls of the tunnel as water condensed out of the very air and froze. He didn''t stop until the slime was completely solid¡ªand then he fell over.


    Travis, staring at the screaming priest as Penelope unbuckled his armor, could do nothing else as each plate she removed revealed the slime had spread under it. There were holes in him. There were green-lipped gaps in Brayden where the slime kept eating.


    Feeling one of his lungs collapse, Brayden reached his one good arm up to grab Penelope by the shoulder. "Get me to the heart!"


    "Fife! Carry him!" Penelope swung her pick in two big arcs, ripping away a hunk of rock to reveal the secret tunnel back entrance to the stairs. "Move!"


    Behind them, as the slime crumbled and cracked, a half-melted talisman covered in green slime hit the floor of the tunnel.


    Carrying her friend on her back, Fife didn''t question Penelope nor did she slow. The kobold ahead of her sliced through any rock that got in their way and forged the fastest route to her friend''s safety that she could.


    "Someone seal up this hole!" Penelope considered just slicing her way through the last door that opened into Travis'' heart room, but it was actually faster to just open it. In the pink glow of the giant crystal, she bared her palm and sliced across it with her knife.


    As pain blossomed in Fife''s back, she set Brayden down beside the heart and held his remaining hand up to touch Travis. "Go! Take him before this shit eats him away!"


    Travis didn''t hesitate. He''d heard Brayden''s words through Penelope and knew the man''s wish. When the query came up, he instantly approved it. The drain on him wasn''t as bad as when he''d fought for Tannyr, but he knew that missing organs and limbs cost him a lot more to restore than a fully intact body.


    "You''d better make it two," Jack said. "Fife has slime all over her back and I think it''s under her chain mail."


    "Fife?" Penelope asked, reaching out to her friend.


    Trying to answer, Fife coughed and bubbles of green slime stained her lips. She reached up to wipe it away, then wished she hadn''t. When she saw Penelope bring her knife up to her palm a second time, Fife grabbed her wrist.


    "What¡ª?" Penelope saw that in one fist Fife held an intact talisman and, before she could finish asking what Fife intended, her friend pulled the dagger into her own throat.


    <hr>


    Sitting up on the altar, Fife reached her hand up to her neck.


    "It''s going to be one hell of a scar." Brother Rupert offered Fife a hand to help her move. "A problem at the dungeon?"


    Barking a laugh, Fife shook her head. "No, well, yes. We dealt with it. I''m a bloody idiot. That was my chance."


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 44

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 4/10


    Heart 25600/ 25600


    Experience 2500/6400


    Workers 9/23


    Monsters 0/25


    Traps 27/49


    Rooms 46


    Food 378


    Timber 1168


    Iron 404


    Steel 30


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 9


    Rock 2539


    Gold 450


    Leather 492


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 41


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 10


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 4


    Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    Travis wished he could spend time with Brayden, but the best he could do was let him be while the dungeon was repaired. The most important bit had been to fill the gap Penelope had made that broke the maze¡ªthat had just taken one kobold (Ludmiller) to fix.


    Next was to divert two legs of the twisting tunnels to the new mana shrine. That wouldn''t take long, but it was important to isolate the last slime away in a room it couldn''t escape. Robert and Steph had both gone to work on that.


    Filling in the cave was Penelope''s job, with Blake assisting. It wasn''t a glamorous job, but it was important to get things squared back down to tunnels so nothing new would have annoyingly large staging areas.


    Katelyn spent the time the rest were working setting out the runes again. The explosive ones in the pit, the repeating ones in the short tunnels after it, and then she set out the last four repeating ones in the second-floor twisting tunnels.


    It was Katelyn to whom Travis spent the most time talking. "What are we going to do once the runes aren''t as effective? Even those zombies seemed to shrug off one or two of them."


    "There are higher ranked runes. Runes to do other things, too. I can try experimenting with them. Explosives are just¡ªI synergize more with fire and explosions now. Robert''s been working on the sludge traps'' stuff and he has something that will work on anything that walks into it." She pressed a new rune into the stone wall just after the mana shrine. "I wanted to look at that slime, too."


    "Is it really stuck in there, or is it just content with the mana shrine feeding it?" Travis asked.


    "That''s something I want to know too, Trav." Katelyn set down the second and third runes, then when she was finally done with the fourth she stood up and turned in the direction that led to the mana shrine. "I''m short-cutting, Trav, because I hate this tunnel."


    "I don''t blame you. If everyone hates going through this tunnel¡ªthat means it''s working, right?"


    Katelyn just laughed, melting her way through rock (increasing the dungeon''s lava supply) and using their reserves to fill-in behind her. When she was finally in the tunnel leading to the mana shrine, which the other work crews had already dug, she slowed and took her time. "I can barely see it with normal vision."


    "I see exactly what you see, and you''re right. It''s like clear glass." Travis noticed, after Katelyn did something with her magic, that the slime started glowing a brilliant white. "Wow, what happened?"


    "Magic-sight. Normally you use it to trace patterns someone has drawn with magic. In this case I think it''s because that slime is literally entirely mana." Walking right up to the entryway of the room, Katelyn paused before she got too close for comfort. "If you lit the entry here with dim lighting, the glow of the mana wouldn''t make it so obvious. I think most adventurers would just walk right into it."


    "That''s the idea. I''m reminded that I need to get a lizard farm. I think we might build it on the top floor. Maybe a hidden door at the end of the maze?" Travis was mostly just musing, trying to get Katelyn''s thoughts on it.


    "Well, they can get past the sludge traps. They won''t be able to get past this guy." Katelyn jerked her thumb at the slime. "Maybe we should have put him leading up to the last part before the sludge traps?"


    "Yeah, I could do that. Just make them walk one last loop around all the twists and then come into the sludge traps." As he was thinking it, Travis was already sketching the design out with his planning mode. "Okay, setting that up for someone to dig."


    <hr>


    Sitting alone in the dark was never quite so nerve-wracking before¡ªnot that it was actually dark for Brayden Smith, Priest of Brogdar Evil Slayer. Kobold vision, he''d found, shoved back darkness around him and let him see the rock, the bed, and even his own holy symbol.


    Speaking wasn''t required for communing with his god, not for a good many years. In every day he''d set aside time for silent prayers to his god, and though he didn''t expect it, Brogdar reached down¡ªthrough immense layers of rock and dirt¡ªand found his priest sitting in the dark in a form not his own.


    Brayden was suddenly on a battlefield. Around him, demons and devils fought with angels of war. He faced off not with something evil, but his god.


    Brogdar was an immense being, but to spar with a kobold he''d had to squeeze himself down to a tiny manifestation. Shield met mace, blade deflected from bracer, and the pair entered combat.


    It was an old method that Brayden''s god had communed with him. His heart sang in joy as their weapons clashed and his blood pumped.


    What was strange and new was Brayden''s body. It moved mostly how he had as a human, but there were some actions¡ªlike swinging his arms around to the side¡ªthat he couldn''t do. He did manage to catch his god off-balance at one point by lashing out with his new claws¡ªof course that earned him a shield bashing against his hand that left his fingers numb for a few moments.


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    The one thing of Brayden''s that wasn''t different, though, was his faith. He sheathed his mace with angry light and felt the familiar fire of devotion rise like an inferno inside him. If there was one thing that would give him the courage to go on, it was seeing his god''s dedication to reaffirming their bond.


    At last, though, Brayden could feel his time approaching. He would wake, soon, and that meant he had to, "Yield!" He took a step back from Brogdar, dropping to a knee and bowing his head until he couldn''t see the weapon and shield raised against him.


    "Rise, Brayden Smith, priest and warrior. I would have none of my followers bend their knee¡ªeven to me."


    Standing up from a kneel usually took a little work, as it was meant to. Kneeling was supposed to put you at a disadvantage, but Brayden found the way his leg bent now meant it was as easy as rising from a crouch. "Thank you. I¡ª"


    "You put your life in the hands of fate to protect your friends. Now you will be working for another but¡ªbut even this strange being and its minions carry much good within them. Work with them, Brayden Smith. Share my name and my teachings, bring light to their dark home. Protect them from the darkness and evil that has threatened the world since time began."


    Brayden jerked awake. The room around him wasn''t dark, and it wasn''t just his new vision that allowed him to see. Red light glowed from his body¡ªfrom his hand¡ªand lit the room with the holy light of his god.


    The glow was another reminder that Brogdar hadn''t forgotten him. Standing up, he looked to the side where what remained of his armor sat. The chainmail was ruined. His buckler that''d been in his off-hand was gone¡ªeaten by the slime. He found his weapon still intact, along with the three-quarters melted talisman. "Stupid bloody th¡ª"


    Brayden''s eyes widened as he realized he could talk clearly and concisely. "Thank you again, Brogdar." It might be a mild blessing, but it would let him speak of his god''s acceptance of not just the kobolds but the dungeon itself. "Travis?"


    "Oh, you''re awake? Wait, you can talk?!" Travis was incredulous. "How?"


    "Not everything can be stolen by death and a change in species. I wasn''t exactly asleep¡ªI was communing with Brogdar, my god.


    "He reminded me of my purpose and my oaths, and he also assured me that he holds no ill will toward you. My task now, it seems, is to extend his protection to all in the dungeon¡ªeven yourself." Hefting his mace to his shoulder, Brayden was surprised to find it resized to him specifically. "I believe Jack and I need to travel to Northridge to collect Fife. I''ll be seeing you again shortly."


    Travis wasn''t sure exactly how to take that. He hadn''t encountered any gods in the world, hadn''t even felt the presence of one. As his mind roamed over the thoughts, he realized he was wrong. Just now Brayden had never tried a single syllable as a kobold and yet he spoke perfectly. That the mace the warrior priest was holding seemed to have changed size too was weird.


    Walking past the pink glow of Travis'' heart, Brayden was reminded of what had been done for him. He was a literal dead man walking. His luck had run out and he''d been drowning in the slime that had been consuming him. "Thanks, Trav." He reached out and pressed his hand to the heart, his thoughts reaching for a blessing of strength and letting Brogdar make it so.


    "What¡ª?" Travis felt a rush of vitality pour through himself and the dungeon. A glance to his mana showed it as full, and even felt his vision sharpen throughout the dungeon as more lizards just seemed to appear. "Th-Thanks."


    "It is a small repayment for the new life you gave me, Trav. Expect more." It was the most bullshit Brayden had ever spun in his life. He walked from the heart room and down the hallways¡ªarm sheathed in red light¡ªtaking the turns as they came and soon left the inner part of the lower dungeon through a hole in the wall. He followed the tunnel along, knowing instinctively where the stairs were, and ascended.


    What surprised him was how motivated and industrious the kobolds felt. He could hear echoes of Travis'' voice discussing matters with them, asking for input and giving his own. He hadn''t realized how much the dungeon was a product of those working in it and not Travis before.


    Jack was in the bar, sitting behind it and pouring himself the odd drink of glacial water. When a kobold walked in with a mace and a glowing right hand, he felt more presence enter the room than just his old friend. It had been a worry¡ªthat Brayden would be saved but his god would abandon him¡ªnone of that seemed to be the case, however. "A drink?"


    "One for the road. Is that water? I''ll have that." Brayden walked to the counter and had to jump to get on a stool. The water, when he downed it, tasted fantastic. "Fife wimped out?"


    "I wouldn''t say that. The priest in town will have words about turning up in so many pieces and, probably, melting his altar." Swigging his water down, Jack felt the cool fluid spread through his system in moments. "This is wonderful stuff. Shall we go and find our errant ablative fighter?"


    Pausing a moment, Brayden cursed. "Gold. The priest will want gold."


    "Reach behind your back," Travis told Brayden. "Feel the neck of a bag I put there? Now pull it back around."


    It amazed Brayden to see. When he opened the neck of the bag, he saw it was full of gold coins. "Thank you, Travis. I will see this reaches the priest."


    "Buy some armor too. Get something good. A shield¡ªUgh, listen to me. Just get what you need." By the end of it Travis was practically rolling his eyes at how he was armor-splaining to someone who knew a lot more than he did.


    "Of course." Heading out with his gold, his mace, and his friend, Brayden felt a slight chill pass over him the moment he left the dungeon. "Brogdar, give me strength." The little prayer did just what he needed. The fear of exposure and being away from safety sloughed off him.


    <hr>


    When Fife saw Brayden and Jack, she smiled at them. She''d been waiting out the front of Rupert''s temple, just leaning against the wall. "New gear? Trav treating you well?" She was wearing a borrowed shirt and trousers herself, though the one thing that''d survived the slime was the pistol she wore at her hip.


    "Yeah, you''ll be needing some too. Let me pay the priest first." Brayden stepped to the doorway and spoke a soft prayer to Brogdar and then to "the power watching over the temple" before he entered. The holy statue, a giant set of scales, took on a glimmer of energy. Brayden knew well that Brogdar was content to pay reverence to the scales. "Priest! I have come to pay debt."


    "Ah, walker of dark paths to restore balance, be welcome." Brother Rupert gave Brayden a nod of his head. "Debts paid forge alliances stronger than steel."


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 Chapter 45

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 4/10


    Heart 25600/ 25600


    Experience 2500/6400


    Workers 9/23


    Monsters 0/25


    Traps 27/49


    Rooms 49


    Food 493


    Timber 1342


    Iron 404


    Steel 30


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 51


    Rock 2539


    Gold 0


    Leather 492


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 41


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 10


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    Wild finished his growth just as Penelope dug into the new mana shrine, then a moment later Travis had a new tick of mana at the new rate. It was a rush, but also they''d secured the new pattern layout that led into the twists of the second floor. "How do you feel? Ludmiller is on her way."


    Standing up, Wild revealed his dramatically increased height and muscles. Rolling his shoulders, he flashed a sharp set of teeth. "Thank you, Travis. This boss room is strange, though. It''s empty."


    "I just had a bunch of new upgrades appear that will help with that. Uh, we want this to be an arena, I think. That means people can''t get past here unless you allow them." Travis was examining the new upgrades he''d just found for boss rooms. "That will let you have a cohort too, eventually. We need gold."


    Ludmiller crashed (not quite literally) through the door right then and Travis decided it was best to leave them be. "We really need to work on the second floor some." Blake and Penelope were the targets of his words, they were both leaning on their pickaxes and discussing where things could go from the current situation. "Also, we need gold, steel, wood, and food, but I want those lizards."


    "Lots of upgrades planned?" Penelope asked.


    "Yeah. Wild''s new boss room has upgrades that let me make it into an arena where attackers are forced to fight or negotiate to get through. Any thoughts for your own? I figure we''ll get it eventually."


    Penelope straightened up and started walking back toward the heart room, Blake following just behind her. "What are the choices?"


    "Right now we have arena and lair. Arena seems to be intended to make the room a challenge that attackers have to get through. Lair is a place to regain health and mana faster. Second upgrades for both allow me to assign others to assist." Travis stretched his focus to Katelyn, who was doing research for the Reaper upgrade. "Katelyn, could you go up to the first floor and melt some gold for me?"


    Standing up and stretching, Katelyn marched out of her library, still with a book under her arm, and passed Penelope and Blake. "Travis needs more gold and, apparently, I''m the best at getting it." She shrugged as she walked through the crossroads.


    "Wait, you''re going the wrong way." Blake pointed toward the heart room''s door. "There''s a quicker path down here."


    Following along, Travis was itching to get more gold. He had a plan on how to spend it as fast as Katelyn could melt it¡ªat least for a few things. Katelyn melted the rock where she needed to to get upstairs, while Penelope filled the hole in. "Okay. So I want to start expanding, uh, I think it counts as south of here. On the other side of the library and alchemy lab. We could bring the new mana shrine there into the design, but I am wary of expanding until I make a few more mana shrines."


    "But you want your lizards first, right?" Penelope asked.


    "Right! I hate being blind to half my dungeon. The thing I wanted to talk about was steel. I see a lot of upgrades that need it, and now we have iron as a resource we can mine, it''d be great if we could also make it into steel. So, where do you think is best for the blacksmith, and do you know of anyone we could, uh, hire to work it?"


    Penelope sighed. "I could do it. I don''t know much about making stuff, but I have the strength to work steel¡ªand the spare time to practice and learn. At least, until we have an actual blacksmith wander in here."


    "Okay," Blake said, pulling a map out from behind his back. "This is as up to date a map as we have. I think we would want to put the charcoal burner you mentioned on the first floor¡ªin case it makes a lot of smoke we need to clear¡ªand then the blacksmith down here, beside the heart room. We also want to make a more formal way to get down here than the mess we have now. You can''t make extra stairs or entrances, I suppose?"


    Perking up, Travis replied, "Yes! I can make more stairs. It says I can make one per tier, so that means I can make one, and it costs twenty-thousand gold, a thousand rock, and a thousand timber. We don''t even have the room to store that much gold."


    Penelope looked over the map and tapped the area below the heart room. "The ultimate decision there is, Trav, do we push to the limit of our current tier and then build exactly what we need for tier three, or do we spread out and build ourselves within tier one?"


    "While I''d like to power up to tier three," Travis said, "I think we need to be more solid with our position first. Those undead aren''t going to sit idle forever, and I''d like to fight them on our terms again, with friendly stone around us."


    <hr>


    Sitting in the tavern, Tannyr Stoneshave nodded to the kobold sitting across from her. "Yeah, but not yet. The town needs more work done to have these walls hold against another undead attack, but I appreciate the offer."


    Fife, sitting beside Brayden, shrugged her shoulders. "Trav asked because he has a quest to get ten minions in his dungeon at once. He''s at nine, and that''s counting you."


    "The talismans are really reassuring folks. Just thought I''d say it. Even just working on the walls, there''s less worry about our crane breaking or a stone slipping. Old Brother Rupert has changed his tone a bit too. Turns out a bit of gold in the coffers mellowed him out." Lifting a mug of ale, Tannyr gulped down nearly half of it before remembering her body-mass was significantly lower¡ªand with it her tolerance for alcohol. "So why''d you make the jump?"


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    "I went and let half of myself and my damn talisman get eaten by a slime. One moment I was coughing up slime as it ate away my insides, next I was alive again and feeling renewed." Brayden Smith held up his hands, now more talon-like, and snapped one of his fingers. A wreath of red power surrounded his fingers. "In more ways than one."


    Tannyr didn''t follow Brogdar, but she could feel the strength the god carried in that show of power. "I''ll come if he needs me, but I''m not going to go alone. Send someone out who can fight worth a damn and I''ll follow them back."


    "Perfect," Fife said, leaning back a little more and relaxing. "Because Trav doesn''t want the town to fail either, that''s why he''s paying for the best resurrection service in the kingdom, I guess." She''d already gotten a replacement talisman, and paid out of her own pocket for a second one¡ªone was in her shirt pocket, under her armor, the other was in a new pocket she''d paid to get sewn into the thigh of her pants.


    "We''re heading back now." Jack reached for his staff and used it to help him stand. "We''ll probably be coming back to town every week or so. Just make sure to let us know if you want an escort."


    "Thanks." Tannyr looked at Brayden specifically and nodded. "And tell Travis thanks. I don''t think I said it enough."


    Standing up too, his ill-fitting armor hanging off him in places and strapped tight with belts in others, Brayden nodded. "I will, but I''m sure he knows. Come on, Fife."


    They walked to the bar and paid their tab, then got so far as the door before Brolly Windchime blocked the way on his way in. "Fife, Jack. Have you seen Brayden?"


    "Down here, Brolly, you idiot." Brayden was about to kick Brolly in the shin, but at the last moment remembered that his toes had inch-long talons on them now. He knew his friend was wearing greaves, but he didn''t know how they''d take such a shredding.


    "No¡­ Really? I mean, I get why Tannyr did it, it was that or death, but you?" Brolly stared at his friend, brain trying to reconcile the short draconic creature with his big friend.


    "Well, I was thinking that life was too easy. When Fife and Pen were trying to find a slime, well, I spotted it and got so excited I just had to hug it." Brayden gestured to himself. "Now we''re about to head back to the dungeon. Is there anything you need?"


    "The council of the town met last night. We were, honestly, surprised about the whole talisman thing. It''s something so maddeningly simple that I don''t know why we didn''t think of it first." Brolly gestured to a table.


    Brayden shook his head. "We''re just leaving. Cut to the chase, Brolly."


    "Howard and Christine are worried the dungeon might be trying to pull a coup and take over the town. I told them they were being idiots and not to look a gift dungeon in the mouth, but they have been hurting because there hasn''t been as much gold flowing lately." Hating having to put his friend on the spot, Brolly slumped his shoulders. He held out the scroll he''d been given. "So I got this."


    "What is it?" Fife asked, grabbing the scroll and opening it. "Prices?"


    "And stock levels. A big flow of gold would help calm them down."


    Brayden laughed as Fife rolled the scroll back up. "I''ll let Trav know. He''s a good sort, and I think he has plans. Like that steel, for example. I am positive he''ll take every bar of it he can lay a kobold''s hands on."


    "That''ll keep Christine happy, that''s for sure. Food is another thing that would be appreciative, but we can also start selling lumber. Now our palisade is up, and Tannyr''s working to replace it with stone walls, we have an excess of timber." Gesturing to the scroll, Brolly sighed. "Look, after the assistance you gave at the attack, they''re being complete idiots to pull all this. Just make some token gestures at the very least. We need gold now more than ever."


    "I''ll see what we can do. There''s a lot of work going on right now. Trav was expanding his mana production when he tunneled into a chamber full of slimes. That''s what got me." Edging past Brolly, Brayden was thankful for his smaller stature. "We''ll be back in a few days."


    Outside, Brayden felt the weight of the sky on him again, but when he called on Brogdar''s blessing even that faded. There was a certain pride he could feel that his god still had a use for him and still protected him. "Come on, Fife, Jack, let''s head back before nightfall."


    The few-hour march back to the dungeon went smoothly right up until the entrance was almost in sight. They were well within the area where Stephan had been felling trees when the woodsman himself stepped out from behind one. "Crouch down."


    Adventurers through and through, the three dropped low at the sound of authority in Steph''s voice. "What''s wrong?" Fife asked.


    "Five skeletal archers are wandering near the entrance. I can''t get back in to warn Trav." Lifting a claw, Stephan aimed it at the ridge where even now the archers were just barely visible through the bushes.


    "We take them," Fife said. "I''ll move up along the slope over there. Bray, you come up behind me. Jack, when I have their attention, you know what to do." She looked at Brayden and waited for his nod or a revision to her plan. When she got the nod, she started moving.


    The move up the slope¡ªusing a large tree between them and the skeletons as cover¡ªwas surprisingly easy for Brayden. His talons moved silently on the leaf mulch on the forest floor, and the light layer of chain armor was quiet thanks to being pinned down by the belts. Moments before he expected Fife to do her thing, however, he felt a calling.


    Stepping out of cover, Fife had her shield up and ready to take the first round of arrows. The shield, which she''d purchased in the market the previous evening, was not her old shield, though. Four arrows hit the body and broke off at their heads while one punched through. "Come here you old bags of¡ª"


    Jack watched as Brayden rushed past Fife. Evading the swatting bows the surprised skeletons threw his way and dodging one fast skeleton that managed to draw its sword and swing, Brayden raised his fist in the air and a single, clear word echoed through the forest.


    "Begone!" Power roared from Brayden¡ªholy power that had no time whatsoever for evil undead. As the red wave of force shot out of his hand in a circle, it sliced the skeletons in half but left everything else standing.


    Fife had heard of clerics who could dispatch undead with the force of their conviction alone, but her friend Brayden had always been a more beat-them-on-the-head type of holy man. Now he stood there, half his normal stature but carrying more than his fair share of his god''s power. "Nice!"


    The oddest thing for Brayden was how good it had felt, and how much raw conviction he still had burning within him. An act of divine magic that strong should have cost him more than he felt missing, but it almost seemed like a drop in the ocean. "Quick, before more turn up."


    As soon as Brayden stepped into the dungeon, he felt a new warmth. It wasn''t Brogdar, though his god was still supporting him. No, Brayden felt Travis. "We''re ba¡ª"


    "Why did we just get five-hundred experience?!" Travis asked.


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 Chapter 46

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 4/10


    Heart 25600/ 25600


    Experience 3000/6400


    Workers 9/23


    Monsters 0/25


    Traps 27/49


    Rooms 49


    Food 593


    Timber 1342


    Iron 2404


    Steel 30


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 14


    Rock 2416


    Gold 4000


    Leather 492


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 50


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 10


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    The rate at which Travis could get things done now was a wonderful new shock. Katelyn had been melting gold and iron while Blake had been tunneling out to the new iron node on the first floor¡ªand in the process had uncovered another of the yet-to-be-discovered iron nodes. Katelyn''s gold-melting had resulted in Travis quickly asking Robert to build the last three mana manipulators in his core room.


    Sixteen mana per tick, and more if he could find the new mana shrine he''d just spawned. What was the counterpoint to all this was having skeletons hanging around the entrance of his dungeon. That he didn''t like one bit.


    Robert, when he wasn''t building upgrades for Travis, was sitting in the library working on unlocking Reaper. "Fife and the others are back." The words were said softly to every kobold in the dungeon except Wild and Ludmiller¡ªTravis was still focused on ignoring them until they were done. It wasn''t easy, either, since just thinking in their direction led him to catch looks through their eyes if he wasn''t careful.


    The three (Fife, Brayden, and Jack) were seated in the bar and talking with Penelope while Travis listened in. It was useful because it was a complete distraction from what was happening a few rooms down. "Well, if there are going to be skeletons hanging around, I want to start having daily patrols to ensure they aren''t there, as well as traps in the forest to maybe catch them for killing later or even to just warn us they''re near," he told Penelope and Brayden.


    At the same time, Penelope and Brayden started explaining what Travis had said, then stared at each other and broke into laughter. Penelope took over and repeated Travis'' words.


    Fife nodded to that but asked, "Aren''t you going to ask?"


    Clacking her talons on the table, Penelope asked, "Ask what?"


    "You need me as a human. I saw how Wild was, he still has strength, but he can''t move enough and he ain''t big enough. Until you can make me a floor boss, there''s no point in me becoming a kobold." Fife gestured to Brayden. "For magic users it seems to boost them if anything¡ªyes, Jack, I think you should if you want¡ªbut you need me to be your shield."


    "I don''t care who we have to pay, we''re getting Fife upgraded equipment. Brayden, you need some too." Travis could totally see where Fife was coming from and, given her desire to join them, he understood why her situation was a tough decision for her. "And thank her, for me."


    "Trav wants to thank you for making that choice. He''s going on about getting you whatever gear you want to replace your old stuff. Also, we need to talk about spending in town." Gesturing to Jack, who pulled a scroll out and set it on the bar, Brayden continued. "Brolly told us the town''s council is worried about the influence you have, but also they need gold. He provided us with a manifest of all the goods merchants are currently holding for sale in Northridge."


    "The steel," Travis said right off the bat. "I''ll blow mana on more gold veins and we can buy everything on that list if they want. Hell, I''ll send the town gold as a tithe if it will help them pay for more defenses so I don''t have to send you over there to help them."


    Brayden took care of repeating Travis'' words this time, which put a big, goofy grin on Fife''s face. "Jack, can you tally up how much gold we''ll need?"


    Nodding, Jack took the scroll back and then looked at Fife. "So long as you have to repeat everything for Fife, I figure I might stay as I am, that way I can have a think about things."


    "You don''t have to become a kobold, Jack, but the option''s open," Penelope said. "Now, Trav said there are going to be some opportunities opening soon for some new positions. We hope to get my boss room to unlock soon, which we''re going to make a lair as fast as we can. Then I can add someone in the dungeon as a healer there. It should give whoever that is a boost."


    "You''re both against me." As he said it, Brayden laughed with more than a little barking-squeaks in his mirth. "From what Fife says, I owe a little of my improved magic to you, Trav, but even Brogdar has seen fit to bless me. What we didn''t say was I killed those skeletons. Fife didn''t even get within range to lay her sword on them when I felt called. I rushed past her and let loose with divine magic."


    "Hells yeah he did!" Fife said, downing her drink.


    "Point is, I thought settling here would be settling. It''s not. You''re pushing me to get more powerful. Brogdar''s pushing me to get more powerful. I''m seeing more combat here than I think we have in over a year." Shrugging, Brayden pointed to Jack. "How much gold?"


    "At their exchange rate? Seventeen thousand should be about right if you round up to the hundred."


    Penelope closed her hand into a fist, her talons scratching the wood. "That''s more than we can store by a long shot. Okay, so we''ll start taking it bit by bit. We want steel first, right Trav?"


    Travis remembered what was on the sheet and already had a priority in mind. "Steel, food, timber. Why do they have so much timber?"


    "Because they''re replacing palisades with stone walls." Brayden paused a moment then cleared his throat. "Trav asked why they have so much timber for sale."


    "I don''t care if it''s used, I''ll still buy it. Do you think they''ll do delivery for us?" It was half a joke, but Travis considered it carefully. It would be a significant amount of work to haul all this stuff back to the dungeon. "If they won''t, make sure we ask for a discount."


    "I can tell when you two are listening to him. It bugs me a little. Isn''t there any way you could figure out something that lets you communicate with me?" Fife asked.


    "Yeah," Penelope said. "What you do is follow me down to his heart, I cut myself and press my palm to his heart, and you¡ª"


    Fife punched Penelope in the arm. What seemed to surprise her was having her punch just checked by raw muscle. "Damn, if only he''d made me the dungeon boss. How strong were you before all this?" She wrapped her hand around Penelope''s upper arm, tried to squeeze to test the muscle, and found no give at all.


    The moment one of Travis'' lizards spotted the monsters, he called out, "There are undead at the entrance!"


    <hr>


    Penelope and Brayden both jumped to their feet and checked, finding the door between the entrance and them to be closed.


    "What''s going on?" Fife asked. She stepped out from behind the bar to follow.


    "Undead again. We have one rune still active in the maze, a bunch in the lower twists, and the ones after the sludge are all ready to go." Penelope rubbed her talons together. "Trav, we''re going to wait up here for their forces to get into the upper winding tunnels, then we''ll go out and deal with any necromancers up here. Tell Wild and¡ª"


    "He already told us," Wild said after opening the hidden door that led to the back entrance to the second floor. "Shame we don''t have a second exit."


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    Jack froze. Looking at Wild, he asked, "Dungeons can have more than one entrance?"


    "Trav has an upgrade to get a second one, or stairs. It''s too expensive right now." Wild drew his axes and felt their weight. Mentally, he noted he needed to add more weight to them now¡ªhe was stronger than he''d been.


    Ludmiller was trying to hide her blush. Looking at the door, waiting for the order to go outside and deal with whatever they could find as quickly as possible, she tried to put the personal side of her new life in some perspective.


    After some moments of no one saying anything, Travis finally announced, "They''ve entered the twists up here. Okay, head out and kill any necromancers."


    "You''re forgetting something, Trav," Brayden said. "How many are there and what have they got?"


    Travis mentally winced. "That''s the less fun bit. Ten zombies, thirty skeletons, and what looked like six big dog zombie things."


    Brayden swore, then swore again, finally getting out the description on his third try¡ªthen he swore another time for good measure. "Well, we''ll leave them to the tunnels for now. Hopefully our new pet slime likes eating zombies."


    "They''ll have something up there protecting the necromancers. Jack, you hold off to deal with any extra trash they bring in. I''ll deal with whatever big thing that''s guarding them. Wild, Pen, Luddy¡ªyou three on my target. I want it deader than dead. Brayden, try to have some fun with them." Fife checked her gun belt, grabbed up her shield and sword, and rolled her shoulders.


    Emerging through the reinforced door and out into early evening light, Fife''s senses were sharp and tuned for anything out of the ordinary. She scanned around as she carefully examined the forest. "I can''t see an¡ª"


    "Over there." Brayden raised a hand and pointed in a direction that felt wrong. He focused on it and felt several distinct bad sensations. "Five necromancers. How fast did that undead dungeon spit these out?"


    "Horde dungeon, definitely. Probably one of the most powerful matchups with undead." Jack clenched his hands into fists to warm up his fingers. "Are we doing this, Fife?"


    In the dungeon, a blast rocked the first floor as a small group of skeletons found the explosive rune. The violence of the blast shattered their bones and sent their undead energy back to the dark mages who''d bound them.


    The ritual the necromancer unleashed gathered up the free essence and pulled the minions to it. Reaching deep into the ground, it found myriad bones there with which to invest the energy into. The bones writhed and twisted, animal parts becoming human parts as the dark power that burned within the necromancer assembled its minions again. Even before they clawed their way from the ground it had imbued them with its power again¡ªmaking them able to be recalled.


    An explosion rocked the forest. The necromancer¡ªthe first kind of undead that had its own functioning mind¡ªsnapped its attention around and looked upon the group that had sallied from the dungeon. It was smiling; its face always smiled thanks to being no more than a skull.


    Dark beams of energy raked at the trees. Fife, blessed by Brayden as she started advancing, watched as the rays fizzled out moments before contacting her. She drew her pistol and, when nothing moved immediately to stop her, sighted at the nearest necromancer.


    Spotting a skeleton approaching from Fife''s blindside, Wild stepped in to intercept it and brought one axe down on its outreaching arm, kicked its knee with his foot, and brought the other axe around at its neck. The power of his dungeon-given body sang to him and he began building his own rhythm as more skeletons advanced.


    The loud crack of Fife''s gun echoed in the forest, but something big had pulled itself free of the ground at the last moment. A zombie, nearly ten feet tall, seemed rather disdainful of the force a gun could produce. It advanced on Fife and reached her moments after she''d holstered her pistol and prepared her shield and sword.


    Penelope left the roaming skeletons to Jack as she lobbed explosive runes at three further-back necromancers. They seemed so focused on Fife and Wild that they hadn''t put up any magical shields at all. Two good blasts seemed to finish two of them off completely, and with the pack clustered together, she expired another with a third rune.


    Wild edged around the zombie and worked to cut off any limbs that reached for him. Once he had it mostly being focused on Fife, he started to expose its spine with heavy slices of his axes. He''d just done so and put one axe head through the thick bone when something hit him from behind.


    Spotting the dark magic lashing out from one of the two remaining necromancers, Jack and Brayden moved to counter it.


    Ludmiller rushed toward the other remaining necromancer that was free-casting, reaching it just as it launched a second dark energy beam at Wild. Rage and fury welled up inside her and she started ripping at the skeletal mage with her talons, tearing it apart bit by bit just as Jack encased the final one in ice, only to shatter the frigid bones.


    Feeling terrible as dark, burning magic ate away at him, Wild tried to turn and run toward their support but his legs didn''t work right. Falling sideways, he hit the leaf-litter just as the zombie fell too. Holding up his axes to try to block it, the weight of the thing hit him like a tunnel collapsing.


    Brayden rushed forward. Reaching the fight as Fife heaved the zombie''s body off Wild, he checked the downed kobold but found no signs of life. "Brogdar, I beseech you to return him from the afterworld!"


    <hr>


    Wild was dead. He knew that to the core of his being. His body was stripped of its life and he was a bare soul. There was a strange noise that was getting closer, though. It took only moments, but he finally heard it ask:


    "What¡ª? Who are you?" Travis asked.


    "Wild," Wild said. "What happened? I was fighting. Their necromancers got me and a zombie fell on top of me. I died!"


    "You did? Uh, so¡­" Travis was confused. If Wild had died, why was his soul here? Checking his menus, he found the one with all his minions on it. There was a number beside Wild''s name and it was getting lower and lower at a rate of one a second, or so it seemed.


    <blockquote>


    86343


    </blockquote>


    The number seemed odd. Travis tried to do some math on it, but without anything to write on he couldn''t factor it easily. "I wish I was better at math. Uh, Robert?"


    "What''s up, Trav?" Robert asked, looking up from the book he''d been reading (Dungeon 201: How Not To Lose Your Workers, by Travis) as part of his research.


    "What''s, uh, eighty-six thousand, four hundred significant to? It seems to be seconds."


    Pulling out one of the tablets he''d gotten from Northridge, Robert started factoring from the bottom up by multiplying things out until he got a number close to what Travis had told him. "Sixty seconds in a minute. One-thousand four-hundred and forty. Sixty minutes in an hour. Twenty four. That''s how many seconds in a day, Trav."


    "You are amazing, Robert. Thanks. Oh, there are undead in the tunnels. The others dealt with the necromancers outside." Travis turned his attention from Robert back to Wild. "As far as I can see, you''ll respawn in a day."


    "''Respawn''?" Wild asked, confused.


    "Come back to life. I¡ª" Travis stopped speaking when Wild''s presence vanished. "Huh. And his time has disappeared."


    <hr>


    Opening his eyes, Wild stared at the underside of the canopy in confusion. He wasn''t sore, just confused. "I was dead."


    Brayden was staring at Wild in shock. He''d never performed a resurrection before¡ªthat magic should be far and away beyond him. He''d called for Brogdar''s aid and it had been given. "Were. Not now." He reached a shaking hand down to Wild, glad when he could use it to haul him upright again¡ªbecause it stopped him from shaking.


    Penelope picked up Wild''s axes and passed them to him. "I didn''t know you could resurrect, Brayden."


    "Neither did I," Brayden said with a laugh. "Took a bit out of me, too. So, if resurrection works, should we test talismans?"


    "That''s something we can work on later. Let''s get back to the dungeon and clean up whatever is making it through the defenses down there." Penelope pointed, unerringly, to the dungeon entrance.


    The group wasn''t missing much in the way of resources. Fife reloaded her pistol on the walk back and, the moment they were in the entrance, Penelope grabbed three more runes to replace the ones she was down¡ªbringing her back to eight.


    Travis sighed in relief when everyone walked back into the dungeon. "You''re back! What happened to Wild? He died and I had just figured out he has a one-day respawn when he was gone¡ªOh, hi Wild!"


    "Brayden resurrected him. No, he didn''t know he could. Where are the undead, Trav?" Penelope asked.


    Watching as the group took a hard left and started their way down the back entrance, Travis began his report. "I spotted them going into the maze. There was an explosion in there shortly after you left. When they were coming down the stairs, there were a few skeletons missing. They''re working through the winding tunnels now."


    After Penelope repeated Travis'' words for her, Fife replied, "You know, I love those bomb things." Fife reached the bottom of the stairs and looked around. "I smell zombhounds." Walking to the T-intersection, she turned slightly, and realized the smell came from straight ahead and not the right. "Trav, did anything go down the back?"


    "I only saw them start down the stairs. I didn''t see which way they went and assumed it was like last time." Travis was kicking himself for that assumption.


    Passing that on to Fife, Penelope walked to the intersection and shook her head. "Nope. We''re not going down there with undead potentially in front and behind. Come on, let''s head to the center and then figure stuff out from there."


    Heading down the dark tunnel a little ways, she opened a hole where Travis indicated and led everyone in. Just as Penelope was about to fill-in the gap, she saw the zombhounds coming. "Screw you," she said, and sealed it up.


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 47

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 5/10


    Heart 40000/40000


    Experience 1400/10000


    Workers 9/27


    Monsters 1/29


    Traps 27/59


    Rooms 49


    Food 585


    Timber 1342


    Iron 2404


    Steel 30


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 30


    Rock 2416


    Gold 4000


    Leather 492


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 50


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    "Where''d they go?" Travis was confused. He''d gotten a string of xp events after a few explosions in the lower twisting tunnels, but then it had all stopped and settled down and no undead had come out. "Was it the slime?"


    He''d been putting off checking all his stats while his group of hunters tried to solve the problem, but eventually he glanced at them and immediately saw some weirdness. "Uh, I now have a monster."


    "Is it the slime?" Penelope asked, following along behind Jack to provide eyes for Travis. "Sorry, Travis is just freaking out because he now has a monster and I bet it''s the slime."


    "Makes sense," Fife said as she reached the corner that led right toward the slime in question. "Feeding it, giving it a home¡ªTrav, you totally have a pet monster now."


    There was an odd sense Travis got as Penelope approached the slime. He could see the slime¡ªand the mass of bones floating inside it¡ªwith Penelope''s senses. And, he could feel her presence too in a weird way.


    There was a smell, a sense of heat, and little more. Travis had heard, in his previous life, that some bugs could smell your breath and sense the warmth of it in the air. "This is weird, but I can feel you''re there. Like, the slime knows you are¡ªWHAT ARE YOU DOING?"


    Extending her hand, Penelope pressed her palm against the slime''s surface and felt resistance. "Just making sure it''s friendly. A normal slime would have let me push inward."


    Travis wished for a hand to face-palm with, but then he realized he''d need a face, too. "Brayden, can you make sure to tell Fife not to do this? The slime might be friendly to kobolds, but I don''t know if Fife would count. Yet."


    "Fife," Brayden said, leaning down and using one of his claws to scratch a long line across the tunnel several sections before the entrance to the slime''s chamber, "you are not allowed closer to the slime than this."


    "But it''s a friendly slime! When would I ever get the chance to¡ª?"


    "Fife!" Penelope turned around and glared at her. "The slime is still hungry after gorging on mana constantly and then devouring¡­ how many zombies was that again?"


    "Ten, and don''t forget the dogs too," Travis said.


    "Thanks, Trav. Ten zombies and a pile of dogs. Hell, it''s even eating all the skeletons and I can still feel its hunger." Penelope smiled at the slime and turned to look at Fife. "So maybe don''t offer yourself up as its next meal, okay?"


    "Ugh. Okay! I get it!" Fife glared at the line and then looked up at the slime. "One day I''m going to be a kobold, though, and then I''m gonna pat you so much you''ll fit in the tunnels again."


    The group formed up again, Penelope cut through the barrier between the entrance and exit to the slime room, and then sealed it up behind them as they pressed on.


    Travis watched their progress, checking his new stats and menus as they checked each of the explosive runes to ensure they were expended. "So, Pen, I''m level five now. We have more traps to lay¡ªwait, I''ll tell Ludmiller that. It''s her job to see to the traps on the first floor. Your upgrade appeared. Five thousand gold, a thousand steel, two hundred leather, and five hundred food."


    "Can we hold that much gold, Trav?"


    "Yeah, if we get rid of some timber and stuff first. I think building some of the new buildings will help with that. Also, I want my lizards!" The last came out in a laugh of frustration that Travis felt to his very core. "I''m going to plan out a room right now for lizards." First, though, there was a pair of dungeon upgrades he had to purchase. They were expensive in food cost, but that wasn''t a huge issue if he could get more supplies of grain from Northridge.


    It didn''t take Travis long to see the ideal spot to add it. It would require no worrying digging outside their existing perimeter. He set down a planning mark right beside the glass smithy. "Is there anyone who can help me with digging out a room?" he asked the rest of the kobolds.


    Blake was first to speak up. "I can, Trav. Where do you need me?"


    Giving directions, Travis felt mounting glee. "Thanks. It''s just over near Robert''s glass smithy. I¡ªI just found a new building. Lizard village! It''s huge, too. Well, we can build that later."


    "A village for lizards?" Blake smiled broadly. "This dungeon really is the oddest¡ªand most wonderful¡ªI have ever heard of."


    <hr>


    Reaching the spot Travis had indicated, Blake felt the pull to dig out the marked section. Rolling his shoulders in preparation, he began digging. "Trav? It feels more rewarding to dig in planned out areas. I wonder if this is to encourage kobolds?"


    Travis was jerked back from his excitement by that. "Yeah. Yeah, it probably is. Would you rather I didn''t do the planning thing?"


    "Hell no. This feels great. Just musing on it. Pen told me about there being mental changes, and I figured I''d try to document them all." As he spoke, Blake dug out along the path Travis had laid out. "Two forward, turn right, dig, dig, dig¡ªTravis!"


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    "What? Something''s wr¡ªOh! Well, that throws a spanner in the works for this project, but I wondered where that new mana shrine would turn up." Right before Blake''s nose was the newest mana shrine. "Okay, moving this along a bit more. We won''t run into more mana shrines now."


    "Aren''t we getting close to the back tunnels?" Hefting his pickaxe, Blake walked back out to the tunnel and started digging the next section.


    "You''re going to be butting right into it, actually. Don''t worry, when you get down there, you can go and fill-in to block the section off from the stairs." Travis watched as Blake worked, digging out the area and filling-in the required bits to make it a nice, uniform room. "Okay, now let''s make it a lizard farm."


    The happiness in Travis'' voice actually lifted Blake''s spirits. He remembered how the others had shown him to work and started assembling the building. The inside of the building was myriad little holes and tunnels in the rock, with little feeding stations here and there made out of wood. The moment it was done, lizards seemed to scoot out of everywhere and mill around Blake''s legs.


    When he crouched down, one of the lizards ran up Blake''s tail and up to his shoulders. "These little guys are pretty cute, you know?"


    "I saw Pen with a pair that seemed to follow her around. I wonder if that''s another mental change?" Travis asked, investigating his menus now and finding room upgrades. "Oh! Quick, add this upgrade to the room!" It cost him five hundred iron, but Travis was beyond caring about that now.


    It took Blake barely a moment to complete the upgrade, but all the lizards now seemed to have dull, reddish scales. Looking at the one on his shoulder, he ran a claw carefully along them. "What is this?"


    "Iron! Their scales are now made from iron and they are much tougher." Travis wanted so much to be able to pick one up, but he had to settle for the lizards being doted on by others. "Oh, that reminds me. Blake, I want you and Ludmiller to get together and plan out some traps on the first floor. There''s no point being stingy with them, since I can have so many."


    "Isn''t there a trap factory someone mentioned?" Blake asked. "Maybe we should build that first?"


    "You know, that''s a good idea. Uh, let''s not build it on the inner side of the traps, though. We can merge it there when it''s dug out."


    "Got it, Trav. Wait, back in the shrine?" Shrugging as he walked out of the lizard farm, Blake got back to digging. The process was similar to the farm, only the room was far bigger. He opened up the tunnel, then rushed to the back of it and sealed it away from the tunnel leading to the stairs. At last Travis gave him all the work to build the trap factory.


    "You know what I really love about this?" Travis asked while Blake built the room. "Using up rock. This room cost two hundred of the stuff!"


    "Any idea what it does, exactly?"


    "It says traps and their upgrades only cost half as much." The prospect of that was good, but there was something Travis suspected that excited him more. "And I''m pretty sure it will unlock more traps."


    "Then let''s find out together." There was a lot more to build in the much bigger room, but taking it bit by bit he worked his way around, building examples of traps and scale models and things, as well as the tools that would be needed to make them. In the end he was building a little model of a rolling boulder trap and the room just clicked as being completed. "That got it?"


    "Whoo hoo! Giant boulder traps, pendulums, deadfalls, a prison, explosives!" Travis was in heaven at the new unlocks. "Okay, we''re going to need a meeting of everyone involved with trap designs to go over these new toys."


    <hr>


    The meeting was a big success. New plans were formed, mostly with Ludmiller''s input, and she was actually feeling sorry for any adventurers who might be stupid enough to try to take-on the dungeon. "All I did was think of the worst-case-scenarios for what I would have faced. This is just nasty."


    "It''s mostly going to be undead hitting it, you realize?" Penelope asked, though she too was smiling. This was the kind of trap setup she would have built if she was told she had nearly unlimited resources. "And it leaves room for some spectacular upgrades to make things worse."


    Travis giggled. "You all know what I think already."


    Wild bowed his head. "It uses up rock. Rock equals dead attackers."


    "Exactly! Now, we need to organize some trips back to Northridge to get steel, timber, and food. Any volunteers?" Travis asked.


    Straightening up, Penelope tapped her chest with one claw. "I can go. With the slime being such a good boy, I feel we are reasonably safe from the level of undead they''ve been throwing at us lately. Necromancers will always be annoying, but the winding paths might even result in them having to come into the dungeon lest their buffs fall off the others." She didn''t exactly regret stealing Travis'' lingo for herself, it was faster at explaining some mechanics of undead combat, but it also felt like there was a loss of dramatic power when their necromancy was described away as a "buff".


    "Take Katelyn. She can see about getting me more books about magic. Maybe take Steph, too." Travis pondered others. "I think Brayden should go and speak to Rupert. Take him a thousand gold to cover any expenses. The rest, about five thousand gold, is for you to buy as much stuff as you can and get them to haul it back here for us. Tell them to hire guards if they need to." Quickly changing his focus, Travis asked Katelyn to grab enough gold to make up the difference.


    "I want to use some of the trap slots to add some things into the second floor twists. Could also use some actual traps in the maze, too. Just to keep things on their toes." Having two rogues in the dungeon was a new delight for Travis, and he wouldn''t have it any other way. "Okay, that''s probably all we can do now. Build the bypass tunnel and one of the main ones at the same time here, so there''s a quick way to escape, then we can look at working on the maze and adding the traps."


    Turning his attention to the library, Travis saw Katelyn, Robert, Stephan, and Brayden reading over books¡ªall of them working on the reaper unlock. "Thanks for getting this. More levels seems to be paying off, and with all the undead coming in this will double the reward."


    Lifting her head, Katelyn turned to face the direction of Travis'' heart. "How are the mana reserves coming?"


    "Good. That extra shrine is helping. The shrine the slime is in now counts as mine, but the slime has a five mana upkeep." When his words got a confused look from Katelyn, Travis clarified, "It costs me five mana to keep the guy around."


    "Worth it. He ate a whole undead raiding party. What''s up, anyway?" The greatest thing, at least on a personal level, that Katelyn had found about becoming a kobold was that her back never got stiff from reading too long. It was pure joy.


    "Trip to Northridge. I''d like you to go with them as support and to get me as many books on magic as you can find. Fill the shelves in here if you can. Also, take Steph and Brayden. Steph, Brayden, we''re organizing a trip to Northridge. I''d like you both to go too."


    "Me?" Stephan asked. He put the book he''d been reading down. "Why me?"


    "We''re buying a lot of timber and I''d like to know how useful it is."


    "Oh! I can do that. We can test things out with different grades of timber, too." His mind racing, Stephan reached for the tablet he''d gotten and started writing down notes on it.


    "I''ll go and let Fife and Jack know we''ve got work." Brayden was glad he''d been picked to go¡ªhe really wanted to talk to Rupert about the amplification of his powers.


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 48

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 5/10


    Heart 40000/40000


    Experience 1400/10000


    Workers 9/27


    Monsters 1/29


    Traps 27/59


    Rooms 51


    Food 81


    Timber 692


    Iron 1304


    Steel 5


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 80


    Rock 2452


    Gold 1050


    Leather 432


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 50


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    Stuffing a wagon with seven thousand gold had been an interesting test of physics. Thankfully, with Stephan''s woodworking skills, fixing the two broken wheels hadn''t taken too long. "Buy a bigger wagon in Northridge," Travis told the group as they left the dungeon entrance.


    It was a little frightening to see most of the stronger members of the dungeon leave. Travis, though, had a new friend who seemed a little overpowered. Turning his attention to the dull set of sensations that came from one of his mana shrines, he focused on the big slime that seemed perfectly content to live within.


    He tried to ask it questions. "Are you happy here?" But the slime didn''t respond. He tried meditating with it, like he had with Katelyn, but it showed no actual response. Then he decided to try something else.


    "Okay, so you like mana, right?" He didn''t expect an answer and he wasn''t disappointed. "Okay, so I have a way to give more mana, let''s see if you''ll react to that." Winding up, he cast Focus Mana in the room with the shrine.


    He got a response. Actually, Travis got several responses. First and foremost the slime turned a bright blue color, with ripples and waves of blue flowing through it. Second, he got an intense feeling of happiness from the odd creature and it just seemed to pulse with excitement.


    "You like that, huh? Well, why don''t we see about widening out these tunnels so you can roam a bit more, and I might just give you that as a daily treat. And I guess I could use it to steer you around, too. Yeah, this will work great." Travis gazed around his dungeon, looking for someone he could ask to help with this project. Robert was asleep, Wild and Ludmiller were digging in the first floor, but he spotted Blake in the library reading a book. "Blake, could you help me with something?"


    Folding the book closed, Blake stood up and, just like Katelyn did, looked in the direction of Travis'' heart. "What''s up, Trav?"


    "I want you to dig out some room for our new friendly slime. I want to give him some room to move around." There was a lizard nearby, so Travis got to watch as Blake''s face grew more and more concerned as he spoke. "If it helps, I''m pretty sure he won''t hurt you."


    "Okay, even if he doesn''t want to be friends, I think I can still figure something out. The slime needs about twenty feet of room, right?" Blake asked.


    "Yeah. Pretty much three squares of space."


    "Well, I guess we go see how friendly he is, then." Blake walked back to the shelves and carefully put the book of Travis'' memories back where he''d found it. Marching to the spell-testing area was the quickest way to reach the slime cave. He dug through the wall there into a back tunnel, headed up past the stairs, and dug across into the tunnel between the slime and the sludge traps.


    <hr>


    The slime was only visible because it was straddling a mana shrine, though Blake recognized more glow than normal. Walking closer, he felt a weird sort of kinship with the slime. "This could be the stupidest thing I''ve done for a while."


    "Stupider than throwing your lot in with a dungeon?" Travis asked him.


    "Probably. Hey there, big guy. Want to be friends so I can give you some more room here?" Raising his hand, Blake held it out to the slime and touched it. His hand, even his claws, pressed against the surface of the slime and just rested there. He could feel, just as Travis had, the slime''s simple emotions of curiosity, happiness, and excitement. "Aww, you just want to be friends, don''t you?"


    The slime could feel a fellow dungeon creature, it could feel the dungeon itself, and the life-giving mana that the dungeon provided. The spell, the one that had fed it so much mana it almost felt satiated, made it want to spread out and fill the entire dungeon in joy. Its new friend, it realized, was here to help.


    While the nice kobold worked, the slime soaked up more and more mana until the dungeon''s spell ended. When one of the passages that led into its home was dug out enough that it could move, it did so, gliding over the floor and picking up every stray rock or grain of sand, cleaning it of all organic matter, then dropping it again.


    "You''re not so bad." Working away, digging out the tunnel area but making sure that anyone coming through would still have to face the slime, Blake kept up a steady stream of calm words. The slime seemed to keep back a little, giving him room while also keeping relatively close. "Okay, that''s one side."


    The slime pressed all the way up to Blake and for a terrified moment he felt his arm slide into it, then it slipped back out. "Oh, you really are extra-friendly, huh? Just like the dog I had when I was a kid. He''d always lick my hand so much." He patted the surface of the slime, now a little inundated by the feelings of the happy slime. "I bet there will be more undead along soon. They seem to have a thing for our dungeon."


    <hr>


    The wagon almost didn''t make it to Northridge. There was no sign of any undead, thankfully, and so with more gold than most kobolds would know what to do with, Penelope decided on an order of business. "First we go by the temple, drop Brayden off with a thousand gold to talk to the priest there. We''ll swing by the market and¡ª"


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    "No. We don''t go to the market. This much gold¡­" Stephan didn''t even want to look at it. It was more gold than he could even think about¡ªthough he had to. "We go to the head of the merchants. When you have a hundred gold, you go to the sellers. When you have five thousand gold, the sellers come to you."


    It struck Penelope that she''d never really brought Stephan to town before. "You know a bit about this kind of thing?"


    "Not everyone came to Northridge to make a fortune. Some of us just wanted to get away from something." Stephan looked away before he said too much. "Come on, we take this to the head of the merchants here and tell them what we want. If they don''t make offers we like, I''ll take the gold to the next city and see if they want to sell stuff to us."


    After dropping Brayden off with a few sacks of gold, they moved on to the market. Penelope gave Katelyn her own portion of gold to go to the bookstore and relieve them of as much stock as she could, then Penelope approached the merchant who''d gotten the pistols she and Fife now had.


    "Oooh, a long gun? How much for this?" Fife was pointing at a brand new firearm sitting on the shelf behind the ironmonger.


    "Twelve hundred of their gold."


    "You use a sword and shield, Fife. A pistol works because you can put your sword away for a few seconds to fire, but you''re not getting a long gun." Penelope flashed her teeth at Fife, glad to see her friend was grinning back at her. "Now, where can we find the head of the merchants here?"


    "C-Christine Sellswell? Over there, behind the awning. Just knock on the door and someone will come out and see you. Uh, are you sure you don''t want a gun? Finest you''ll buy."


    "Maybe later," Fife said. "Looks like we have business elsewhere right now."


    Christine Sellswell wasn''t exactly expecting a pair of kobolds to enter her office just before evening, but she recognized that it wasn''t something that should surprise her, either. She expected demands from them, though, not¡ª "So you want to place orders?"


    "Are you willing to negotiate?" Stephan had taken over the conversation from Penelope. It wasn''t that he wanted to, but he knew how this worked.


    "Always. What do you want?" Leaning back in her chair, Christine held up her tablet and got a stylus ready.


    Holding up his own tablet, Stephan read down the list. "Two thousand units of steel. Four thousand units of grain. And as much again of timber."


    It was easy. Christine jotted down figures. "The going rate for¡ª"


    "No. That''s not how these orders work and you know it." Tapping his claw on his tablet, Stephan shook his head. "Not at all. You see, we tell you how much we''re willing to pay and you tell us if you are able to meet that order. If you don''t, we don''t do business."


    It was getting out of hand, Penelope realized. This wasn''t what Travis had wanted. She opened her mouth to argue but Christine was already talking.


    "Right. What are your prices for steel?" In the back of her head, Christine wondered who Stephan was to know so much about business.


    Holding up his tablet, Stephan turned it around and showed it to Christine. His writing was more precise than he''d ever been with a tablet or pen, thanks to his talons. "I think you''ll be able to meet our orders."


    The prices weren''t quite as good, Christine could see, as their markup on gold would normally give, but they were still generous prices. "This comes to¡ªforty-three hundred gold."


    "Our wagon outside has enough to cover that and whatever fees you have for delivery." Slipping his tablet back in the little bag he''d brought with him, he slung it over his shoulder. "And there should be twelve-hundred left for a little purchase, and enough to see us all safely housed for the night."


    "Wait, delivery? There are undead roaming the forest, how am I meant to¡ª?" Stopping herself, Christine realized she was walking toward a precipice. "How much, exactly, will cover delivery?"


    Penelope decided it was her turn to answer. "About five hundred gold or so."


    "I''ll arrange for delivery as soon as I can." It was enough to take the anger out of her. Christine could hire wagons, hire guards, and still have a good amount of that left over for her own coffers. "As soon as you bring me the gold, of course."


    "Give me a minute and I''ll get it." The look Christine gave her, Penelope had to admit, was the best part of the whole situation. Once they''d hauled all fifteen-hundred gold bars in, she went back out to give Fife the good news.


    <hr>


    The day had worked out well. Fife had gotten the local armorer to make her some actually-fitting chainmail, a nice heavy shield, and when Penelope had surprised her with the long gun, she might have just hugged her friend.


    Settled into the tavern, and in high spirits, she was having a sip of ale when the door burst open and a bloodied half-elf cleric half dragged a human in. He was followed by two more¡ªanother cleric with yet another human and an elf that looked like his robes were almost burned away.


    "Please! We need healing!" Nathaniel looked around the room, his eyes a little wild at the sight of actual monsters in the tavern. When one walked over to him, he was halfway through spitting a curse when the kobold spoke.


    "Brogdar, give this one strength so she might fight another day!" Brayden''s power reached out to the bleeding woman and closed her wounds. He still wasn''t used to how little such healing taxed him anymore, but he was damned if he''d let people be harmed. Walking over to the other human, what looked like a wizard to him, he was just in time to see a flash of holy light before they vanished. "Talisman. Where were you bound?"


    Being addressed by a kobold was a bit of a surprise for Felna. "H-Here. The priest of Balance."


    "Ah. Good, Brother Rupert will have your friend safe. Do you require healing?" The mute stares annoyed Brayden a little, but he could understand adventurers not trusting a kobold. "Brogdar, a minor healing for the lot of mute fools."


    "F-Forgive us our surprise." Stratus cleared his throat. "We''ve had a bit of a day. The vermin rot dungeon to the north should have been ready for another run and we headed out." He winced at the memory. "It seems goblins have infested it, taken over, and now you have rot goblins to your north."


    "Brolly''s gonna hate that. Well, might as well head over to the temple and collect your friend. I''ll let the commander of the guard know when he''s done with his meeting." Brayden sat back down at the table with Fife. His eyes roamed over to where Katelyn and Jack were talking.


    Sitting up, Ogmera looked around at the tavern. She could still feel the warm glow of holy magic in her body. It wasn''t a lot of effort to feel-out which cleric had healed her. "A kobold? Interesting."


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 Chapter 49

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 5/10


    Heart 40000/40000


    Experience 1400/10000


    Workers 9/27


    Monsters 1/29


    Traps 27/59


    Rooms 51


    Food 81


    Timber 692


    Iron 1304


    Steel 5


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 30


    Rock 2497


    Gold 1050


    Leather 432


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 50


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    Travis was starting to get worried. One of his armored lizards had wandered close enough to the entrance to see that the sun was reasonably high in the sky, but his kobolds hadn''t returned yet. The one comfort he had was that his worker count was still at nine.


    Still, his mana ticked ever upward, and so Travis spent it on another mana shrine (somewhere on his second floor) and three more resource nodes (on the first floor). There was no plan to hunt for them immediately, but he knew they would show up.


    He was getting curious at how much kobolds could dig in a day. At least the last few days he''d witnessed had shown that they could manage around forty squares of rock in a day if they didn''t do much else, though Penelope always seemed to outperform everyone by nearly double.


    Blake had been happy to dig some more work on the second floor for him, and Travis was getting ready to expand out the warehouse building to reach enough capacity to get some major upgrades¡ªand to finish his quest to have ten thousand gold.


    "Travis?"


    The voice surprised Travis because he thought everyone was asleep. "What''s up, Wild?"


    "I was thinking. Since my room is now part of the dungeon''s entrance, and it will have a lock soon to stop enemies getting past me until I''m dead, we need to remove the back door to the rear tunnel. That''s a weak spot." Wild, Travis had noticed, was a lot more talkative since he''d become a kobold. The extra eloquence also spoke volumes about Wild''s sharp mind.


    "Yeah. I know that''s going to be an issue. Hopefully the new planned traps will stop a lot of enemies before they reach you. Plus, we can have Brayden come in after they leave and resurrect you. We might even be able to make talismans so you can be brought to Brayden, instead." Travis made quick plans to remove the door that was there and fill-in the connection to the back tunnel. "Would you like sleeping quarters up there, too?"


    "I''d like that," Wild said.


    "We''d like that." Ludmiller, Travis could tell, was cuddled against Wild. It was hard to listen to them and talk to them without looking through them, but he was getting better at selectively making himself blind.


    "Then I''ll start preparing something. There''s a bit of room there, would you like any other rooms close-by?" Travis asked.


    Wild laughed and Travis could hear him rolling over. "Another lizard farm would be a good idea. You were complaining about vision problems up there. Having more lizards fixes that."


    "Why just one?" Ludmiller asked. "There''s room there for several. As many as you can fit, Trav."


    "A door," Wild said, "on our bedroom. I like the lizards, but I like my lovely lizard more."


    Ludmiller''s laughter caught Travis off guard. He felt, he realized, a little jealous. Despite all the weirdness going on in their lives, Wild and Ludmiller had found love and ways to express it. Travis, though, couldn''t ever leave his location. "I have it planned out. When you get up, head on up there and we can build it."


    "We''ll be out soon, Trav." Wild''s tone held a joy and purpose that Travis was at the same time both happy to hear and wishing he could hear it in his own voice.


    Backing off from the couple, he returned his focus to the second floor and where he wanted to lay out more warehouses. It would be another big excavation project, though he was happy to have ways to spend rock at last.


    It became elaborate, and Travis found enjoyment in the way he could make five-by-five rooms come together with long paths past them. There were a few places where there was a janky bit of room, but he even had plans for that. Three-by-three rooms for more mana storage, were, Travis decided, a good way to take up additional space.


    The only seriously complicating part of it was to design everything in such a way as to not accidentally link up to the built dungeon and yet be able to connect easily between the inner and outer sections. He also planned Penelope''s boss room to cozily fit inside this area.


    Travis was just putting an outer loop around the whole plan to allow for future expansion when his viewpoint at the entrance of the dungeon changed rapidly enough to pull his attention away from his plans.


    "Pen! Welcome back!" Travis felt real excitement at seeing the group return.


    <hr>


    "It''s good to be back, Trav. Why are my hands itching to get out my pickaxe?" Not that Penelope minded the sensation, it meant the dungeon was about to expand after all, but she hadn''t expected it after all the time away.


    "Oh, I''ve been planning some more things out. Wild and Luddy are going to get their own quarters up here. Then, downstairs, I have a massive new storage area planned, as well as your boss room and tons of mana storage." Travis realized then that the three-by-three room that was adjacent to his heart room would fit another mana storage too. "How did everything go in town?"


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    "Good. Stephan showed he was holding out on us with a knack he has. We got everything we wanted, they''ll be leaving one of the wagons they bring the stuff in, and we got Fife another toy. I''ll leave the rest of the details to Brayden." It didn''t take much for Penelope to open the hidden doors. She led the donkey one handed, giving it a pat on the nose for being so forgiving.


    Wondering about the donkey, Travis looked at his research and wondered if it would be sane to get the Persuasion upgrade and then make the donkey a dungeon monster. "Well, you probably all want a little rest. Maybe dump the wagon in storage, take care of the donkey, and relax a bit while we discuss everything?"


    Travis went back to laying out his extra rooms, giving a glance to people as they got settled and situated in the tavern. Stephan, he noticed, seemed to migrate himself to the kitchen while Jack made his way to the bar to start pouring drinks.


    Sitting at a table on her own, Fife was looking over her new equipment. The armor she''d ordered would take a few days to make, as would a shield of the weight she wanted, but her favorite new thing was on the table in front of her. She now had a rifle, and liked the idea of using it in some of the longer tunnels to deal damage before the bad things reached her.


    Eventually Ludmiller and Wild made their way up, and after Travis prodded them, Blake and Robert too.


    "Okay, there''s a bit to get through. Some news, good and bad, and some business opportunities." Brayden pulled out his slate and started reading from it. "First, Steph is going to be doing our trade negotiations from now on. You''re still okay with that?"


    Poking his head around the corner of the kitchen, Stephan nodded. "I should have mentioned it before, but I¡ªI came here to get away from my family. Traders, all of them. Not what I enjoy doing, but if it''s only a little every now and again, I don''t mind too much."


    The news surprised Travis. In hindsight, though, there were a lot of little things about Stephan that hadn''t added up at the time he''d done them. To Stephan, and only Stephan, Travis said, "You don''t have to do it if you don''t want to."


    The offer made Stephan smile. "There''s no way my family could find me and drag me back now. I know I complained at first, but I realized that I was completely free now. I''ll work hard for the dungeon, Trav. We got a good few supplies coming."


    "Thanks." Turning his attention back to the group in the bar, Travis nonetheless saw Stephan bring out bowls of stew with bread.


    Brayden dunked some of his bread in his stew, after thanking Stephan, and chewed it thankfully. "This is great stuff, thanks." He turned his eyes back to the tablet. "Brolly, the commander of the garrison in Northridge, wants our help outfitting the guards there. In particular, he would like us to buy long guns for a twenty-man squad that would greatly alleviate their defense problems. That''s a big investment, though, at around twenty thousand gold."


    "I''ll create a lot more resource nodes here, then. I added three today already. Hold off expanding the maze until I have the rest." Travis, to get himself started on that, put out two more right away.


    Nodding to that, Brayden moved on. "We have all the steel and timber we could ever need on the way here. There was five hundred units of grain, at least by your conversion, that we brought back with us, and there''s another three thousand five hundred coming."


    Travis felt a little giddy. "I''ll have to make sure to use some resources now and hopefully make some room. Oh, and we have plans for a ton more storage warehouses down on the second floor. I''ve staged the digging so it doesn''t all need to go at once, but we''re going to need all of it eventually.


    "First priority, though, with all these resources is to get Wild his arena and get Pen her second upgrade. We could even set things up to use half of that steel right away, the moment they dump it in, to start that upgrade and spend a pile of resources."


    "Fife," Brayden said, "you have the most experience in bigger dungeons. Can you remember all the stages of a draconic dungeon boss?"


    "Huh? Oh. From what I remember: bigger and meaner, wings, breath attack, huge claws, sharp bits everywhere, and massive. Then you end up with a full-on dragon." Lifting her head up, Fife saw Penelope looking right at her and realized how she must sound. "Ah, shit. Pen, it¡ªyou started off smaller, so even at huge¡ªwhere a boss would need way more room than these tunnels¡ªyou should still fit."


    Katelyn tapped the butt of her staff on the floor a few times to get everyone''s attention. "There are spells that can reduce the size of someone. I''m sure we can figure something out, Pen. In fact, I promise I can."


    "You''re going to use this to justify buying more books, aren''t you?" Penelope asked, smirking.


    "Of course."


    "So, priorities," Travis said, steering the conversation back to the immediate. "Some minor digging tasks to make things ready for Wild''s boss room upgrade, more traps, upgrades to storage and Pen, more research, and then digging out the new storage area."


    Pulling herself up from chatting with Fife, Penelope said, "That sounds good, Trav. I''d like to talk with you about what you want me focused on next, but that can wait until after this meeting. Is there anything else?"


    Feeling a little excited at that, Travis agreed. "Yeah. I mean, no, nothing else now. We can discuss it later." A second after that, excitement turned to something a bit darker. "Uh, we just had a zombie step in the front door."


    Trying to look as relaxed as possible, Penelope leaned back in her chair. "How many?"


    "There were ten of them. Lots of skeletons coming after them and¡ªOh wow. Huge skeleton. Has a big sword and shield, and it seems to be glowing with green energy." Travis wondered if anyone was going to tell the humans. "You might want to tell Fife and Jack."


    "Hey, Fife?" Brayden asked.


    Fife could tell something had happened but not what. Curiosity in her new toy was currently eating her focus, though. "Yeah?"


    "An undead lord just came in the front. We need to give him and his buddies time to head down a bit and then do you want to test out your gun on some necromancers?" Brayden could see Fife''s eyes light up at the prospect. "Yeah, I thought so. Sorry, Jack, but cold ain''t so useful on skeletons."


    "I get paid either way. Besides, I assume there are zombies?" Jack noticed Katelyn was looking excited and couldn''t deny he felt the same way. Though they came at magic from different disciplines, and their elements were fundamentally opposed, there was always great anticipation when a fight was inevitable.


    "Maybe Squishy will kill them before they even reach the sludge?" Blake asked.


    "''Squishy''?" Penelope asked.


    "The¡ªuh¡ªslime. Squishy''s really nice."


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 Chapter 50

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 5/10


    Heart 40000/40000


    Experience 5400/10000


    Workers 9/27


    Monsters 1/29


    Traps 27/59


    Rooms 51


    Food 581


    Timber 692


    Iron 1304


    Steel 5


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 26


    Rock 2497


    Gold 1050


    Leather 432


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 20


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    All through the warrens of tunnels the undead were now in, Travis could track their movements with his lizards. An army of lizards, it seemed. He put up a few fire walls and cleaned out all the skeletons.


    "I can''t believe they just walk right into the fire wall. Even the zombies didn''t care, not that it seemed to hurt them any. All the skeletons are dead, though. Uh, re-dead." With most of the kobolds gone to deal with any necromancers that were outside, Travis was happy to talk to Blake while he set about adding a new trap to the lower twists.


    The tunnel that had long lengths that arced around the twists, just before it reached Squishy''s home, was perfect for their newest toy. Blake had to dig a square out first, but when he did Travis was quick to place down everything needed to build the trap.


    Building the huge trap, Blake dusted off his hands and stepped back. "They''ll probably get brought back by the necromancers. It will, at least, give them something to spend their mana on. Okay, got the basics of this. Any upgrades before I head back?"


    "Yeah. We''ll want Spikes, Metal Core, Precise, and Hot Stuff." Travis planned the upgrades to the trap and Blake was just as quick to install them. "Thanks. It''s good to see how one of these will work before we start putting them down en masse on the first floor."


    "Happy to help. Normally I just sort of hide from these kinds of attacks, but it''s good to be able to come out and use my skills to fight back." Standing up, he looked off down the tunnel. "I kinda want to see what happens, now."


    "Well, you have Squishy behind you. Why not?" Travis asked. "They are taking their time. The zombies just reached the stairs."


    <hr>


    "How many skeletons was that?" Katelyn asked. "Looked like a pile."


    "Twenty by my count." Looking at Penelope, Fife got a small nod from her. "Trav must be having a ball in there." She had no worries about what Travis was up to, he had a lot of tunnel for dealing with and slowing down skeletons. "Anyway, they''re gone. I want to try to pick the head off a few of these necromancers."


    "What are there, seven of them? Go for it. I''ll have my pistol ready in case they actually figure out where we''re shooting from." Drawing her gun, Penelope set down her powder horn, shot, and wadding beside it. A glance to Fife showed her doing the same thing.


    Fife hadn''t practiced with the rifle yet, but she had been using the pistol as often as time would allow. Checking the flint to ensure it was dry, she lowered to one knee and sighted down the rifle''s barrel, the little notches lining up soon with a necromancer''s skull. Breathing out slowly, she moved her finger to the trigger and started to slowly squeeze it.


    The crack of the rifle unloading echoed through the forest. Smoke rose around Fife, but a slight breeze drew it away as she dropped and started reloading her gun.


    "That''s one down. Nice shot." Penelope watched the necromancers going a little crazy trying to identify what had happened to the one of them that had just fallen. Beside her, Fife was reloading the gun.


    When she was done reloading, Fife lined up the next necromancer and repeated the process of dispatching it. "We need to get more of these. Wait, we can make guns with the new building, right?" She started the process of reloading the gun, only to hear a pistol shot ring out. "Wha¡ª?"


    "They''ve seen where we are. Keep shooting, though. While they stand back and throw magic at us, they aren''t bringing anything in the dungeon back." Penelope started reloading her pistol.


    Fire lit up the forest as Katelyn got bored of hiding. She gestured at the nearest of the necromancers and conjured a ball of flame inside it that burned a hot blue. It took only a few moments for it to reduce most of the skeleton''s body to ash. "This is easier than actually engaging in¡ªZombie!"


    Rising to her knee again, Fife spotted the huge undead stack of meat and put a shot through its chest. Grumbling when it didn''t go down, she picked up her sword and shield and stood up. "Right, we gotta do this the old fashioned way. Come on, you bastard, let''s dance!"


    Grabbing the rifle and reloading it, Penelope watched as Fife slammed against the zombie with Wild only a step behind her. Now that Wild had regained quite a bit of height, he was far more capable at swinging his axes.


    "In Brogdar''s name, I bless this field of battle!" Brayden wielded his conviction like a weapon, his prayer and plea pulling down his god''s favor and lit the forest floor with a bright white light. The zombie was first affected, the white burning into its four legs and slowing it, while the necromancers beyond seemed to struggle with their spells.


    Penelope tried to shoot another of the necromancers in the head, but shot low and shattered the undead''s spine instead. Katelyn burned another of the necromancers down, and then Fife and Wild¡ªwith their zombie dead¡ªdealt with the remaining ones now that they couldn''t effectively cast their spells anymore.


    <hr>


    Brolly Windchime sighed. "Sometimes it''s like talking to a brick wall."


    "You did just tell them they can''t attack a dungeon. Adventurers usually don''t like that." Tannyr Stoneshave shrugged her shoulders at that. "Let them go after the goblins or the undead. Plenty of cities only have two dungeons¡ªsome only have one."


    "Thanks for coming on such short notice. It helps to reinforce that we are allied." His eyes shifted to the group sitting in one corner of the tavern, and Brolly asked, "You had any trouble from anyone?"


    "Only the city." At Brolly''s raised eyebrow, Tannyr nodded. "You''re used to the positive feeling, right? The sense that everything you''re doing is going well?"


    That caught Brolly off-guard. He had been feeling pretty good about Northridge, and why not¡ªit was prospering. "Y-Yeah. That''s the city, isn''t it?"


    "Right. I don''t get that anymore. It''s not angry at me, but it''s not happy and joyful that I''m here." Looking down at her talons, Tannyr felt a little bereft at that thought, but at the same time she couldn''t hold her change against Travis at all.


    "I''ll have to talk to Penelope to see if she noticed this." It was something that had caught Brolly off-guard. He couldn''t very well ask the kobolds to come into town if it actively fought against them mentally, but at least being neutral was a start. "Are you going to go back to the dungeon, then?"


    "Not yet. I want this town to have strong walls, first. Walls that can hold back an undead rush from one direction and a goblin horde from the other. Trav wants that too."


    "Walls? He can build¡ª"


    Rolling her eyes, Tannyr let out a short bark of laughter. "No, Brolly. He wants the town safe. You''ve helped protect him and he''s grateful¡ªplus he isn''t stupid. The town is an ally and a shield. The rot dungeon is almost exactly opposite from him. Goblins are always going to come here before they get around to him. Plus you shield him from adventurers. If there''s no profit in dungeon delving, and the risk of being declared unlawful, no adventurer is going to want to step foot in his dungeon. At least, not to actually attack it. The ale they have is pretty good."


    Appreciating the joke at her own expense, Brolly laughed. "Alas. Northridge abandoned¡ªall its citizens retreating to the local dungeon to seek refuge and better quality ale."


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    Tapping her mug twice on the table (a dwarven salute and acknowledgment to a well-told story), Tannyr nodded. "You know he''ll be making firearms soon. I don''t think I''ve ever seen a dungeon develop firearms."


    "And I''ll make sure Christine''s merchants sell him every damn bit of steel they can buy, while shipping finished rifles out to double the profits." It had been an offer, initially, to have Travis buy him all the guns he wanted, but he could work with the dungeon just giving them guns too. "I''ll fill the city with rifles to keep the damn undead and goblins out and line the road I''ll build with my own damn hands if I have to with riflemen."


    Lifting her mug and finishing it, Tannyr let out a loud burp. "He''ll only be using steel for a little while longer. There are far more spectacular metals a dungeon can utilize."


    "Wait, you can''t¡ª?"


    "Mithril guns, Brolly. How long before he starts making adamantine cannons, too?"


    Brolly didn''t know if he should sweat in panic or shiver with excitement. He wound up doing a little of both, then downing his own drink. "We have to defend that dungeon. It''s more valuable than the verdant one."


    "I think you understand things now. Northridge needs Trav, and Trav needs Northridge." Standing up, Tannyr said, "I''ll finish the walls, but then I''m going back to the dungeon to make sure nothing can get into it without the kobolds'' letting it."


    <hr>


    "Horde undead and now rot goblins?" Stomping her way along the now-worn path, Ogmera cursed how sore her feet were. "If you ask me, this place is cursed."


    "But that''s what makes things so interesting, don''t you see?" Stratus gestured around them with his staff. "Normally you''d expect to see undead hiding behind every tree¡ªthe town should have been attacked a dozen times over! No, the old priest back there was right, there''s work for adventurers this way."


    "I''m with Og." Felna''s paws itched with every pine needle and branch she stepped on. Forests weren''t her thing. Dungeons, either, but a queen had to find work where she could. "But I like gold, and you heard the merchants¡ªthis dungeon pays gold for work."


    "Merchants lie as often as they take your coin. What I want to know is this priest''s motives. That was definitely divine magic, and I don''t know of a single god for dragonspawn." Nathaniel kept running over the memory again and again.


    "Brogdar," Felna said. "I know the feeling of that power anywhere. A lot of them came to assist in that demon incursion on the sands near my home. Been healed by them before and seen them use that same power as a hammer."


    Ogmera grunted her disdain. "No sane god would lend their power to such evil creatures."


    "Which means either Brogdar the Evil Slayer has gone a bit sideways, or the kobolds weren''t evil." Tom finally joined the conversation and immediately berated himself mentally. "So, we''re here for gold?"


    "No. I wouldn''t traipse through a damn forest for just gold." Ogmera squinted and swirled her magic in the air¡ªtasting the dungeon ahead. "We''re here for a lot of gold."


    "You know, that makes working for them a much easier prospect." Felna grinned so much her whiskers curled a little and her fangs showed. "I could even deal with being in a forest for a lot of gold."


    Stratus froze at the sound of a gunshot. The weapons were rare enough that few could afford one let alone practice enough to use it effectively. Another report was encouragement enough to start constructing a shield. "Stay close, I can''t shield us all if we spread out."


    Advancing still, they came on the field of battle just as the kobolds were cleaning up and piling the necromancers together while Katelyn used her magic to burn them away to ash. A little wary of the big kobold with the rifle, Stratus kept the kinetic shield up as they neared them.


    There was a sense of worry for Brayden when he spotted the adventuring group approaching. They had a magic shield up and had what he could see were at least three casters. He also recognized the holy symbols of two clerics¡ªone of them the Golden One the other the Sandwalker. The former was firmly a good-aligned god, the latter was more neutral, though never evil. "Is there something a priest of Brogdar can do for you today?"


    Realizing things were far too tense, Ogmera stepped closer¡ªto the edge of Stratus'' shield spell. "We''ve come to see if you have any work for us before we depart."


    "Two fire wizards, clerics, shaman?" Fife asked, recognizing a common setup for dealing with vermin dungeons.


    Ogmera nodded. "I won''t lie, we don''t have anything that would be able to stand toe-to-toe with the kinds of brutes that an undead dungeon will send, but we can offer healing and firepower."


    "A lot of firepower," Tom said.


    Walking forward, putting herself between the two groups, Penelope nodded. "Sure. We''ll need to negotiate price, but you can relax in the tavern until we have ensured the undead are redead." She smirked and turned, walking past Fife and passing her friend back the rifle. "Nice weapon, Fife. We''ll have to make more." Pausing, she looked back. "Well?"


    <hr>


    Travis spent his one mana to trigger the boulder trap. The sound of it was glorious. Grinding and crunching, the huge boulder gained speed as it rolled down the tunnel toward the approaching zombies.


    Blake poked his head around the corner to watch the huge boulder on its seemingly unstoppable trip down the tunnel until, with a loud crack, it shattered¡ªand a zombie pushed its ways past the broken remains. "I guess that wasn''t enough. Uh, resetting the trap¡­"


    Laughing, Travis happily paid the five rock cost to rearm the trap, then another mana to trigger it right away. "It''s like bowling. I got experience from two zombies in that last hit, you know?"


    This time Blake wasn''t sticking around. "I think I''ll go see what Squishy is up to. Those zombies looked a little too close for comfort."


    Travis counted, "One, two, three, four! Ha! That was a good one." He watched as Blake reached out to Squishy with one hand and patted the slime, then he flattened himself to a wall and wiggled sideways past the dungeon''s only monster. When the first zombie, one of only five remaining, came around the corner, Squishy surged toward them.


    Blake felt Squishy rush past, moving with a frictionless rush that had him pop out the other side unhurt. Turning, he watched through the slime as the first zombie just stepped right into it and stopped. It was weird to see the slow pink shimmering around the zombie suspended inside the slime, but the thing seemed determined to keep moving, and it did try to walk through Squishy to reach Blake. "Is it going to¡ª?"


    The zombie stopped at the edge of the slime nearest Blake. It clawed and hammered on the inside wall of the slime, but couldn''t break through. One by one its extremities fell away from the body as its powerful digestive system went to work. Then a second zombie stepped into the slime, then a third, and fourth. "Squishy, you''re my favorite slime ever," Travis told his monster, then he cast Focus Mana on Squishy.


    To Blake, the effect of the spell was frightening. Arms, legs, heads, and organs just started boiling away inside Squishy as the zombies were quickly reduced to nothing more than bones and their magic was undone. "That seems effective."


    The undead lord rushed forward, shield up, and slammed into Squishy. Being a rather clever slime, as far as slimes go at least, Squishy knew about two topics instead of just one: hunger and friendship. Hunger was a slime''s constant driving force. Squishy wouldn''t be as big as it was if not for its hunger for mana. When the dungeon and Blake had taught it about friendship, it had rejoiced to find itself twice as smart as other slimes. Now it had a nasty big food-thing that was stabbing and cutting at it!


    "Blake, you really want to leave here now. I don''t think Squishy can stop this one." The undead lord was carving up Squishy, and the only thing slowing it down was the constant flow of mana into the slime¡ªit was also the only thing keeping the slime alive.


    Turning tail, Blake ran down the tunnels and took a sharp right, digging his way through the wall and rushing through. Collapsing it behind him, he breathed hard. "Is Squishy going to be okay?"


    "If I can keep him alive with just mana, he''ll be fine." Travis couldn''t see the undead lord ripping its way through Squishy, but he had a perception as if the thing had ripped all the way through the slime and out the other side. "The undead thing is still coming, but Squishy seems okay. I''ll keep feeding him mana for a while. Are you going to go see what happens at the sludge traps?" It was at this moment Travis noticed Fife and Penelope march over the threshold of the dungeon. "Boulder traps are good! We have the undead lord down here about to hit the sludge traps!"


    "Trav, we have another group of adventurers here who are looking for work. All of them have some amount of ranged skill, with two fire wizards." Penelope opened the doors through to the tavern. "Do you think this big guy is likely to get through the sludge traps?"


    "If he does, he has how many explosive runes to face? I''ll let you know how it handles the sludge. Robert''s been working on it lately." Travis didn''t have long to wait as the huge undead approached and stepped into the sludge without apparent care¡ªand became stuck immediately. "I think this might be¡ªHoly crap! Robert, your sludge is dissolving this skeleton!"


    "It is?" Robert, waking up from his sleep, looked around his dark room for a bit. "Wait, there''s a skeleton in the sludge traps?"


    "Undead lord, I think it''s called. Anyway, it now doesn''t have legs below its knees¡ªAnd it just fell face-first into the sludge. What did you put in that stuff?" Travis was learning a new appreciation for Robert''s work.


    "The sludge? Oh, right, I used a modified version of the enzymes from one of the dead slimes and added an acid to it that doesn''t denature the enzymes. It should work like a turbo-acid." Robert yawned and started walking down the tunnels toward the trap section. "So it works?"


    "Works? Works?! I just leveled up from that thing. This is great!" Travis felt like dancing. "Oh, there''s a few skeletons wandering around in the tunnels. They''ll find Squishy soon enough."


    Available at: https://www.royalroad.com/profile/220350/fictions</a>


    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 51

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 7/10


    Heart 78400/78400


    Experience 1800/19600


    Workers 9/35


    Monsters 1/37


    Traps 28/79


    Rooms 51


    Food 575


    Timber 665


    Iron 1293


    Steel 5


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 43


    Rock 2484


    Gold 1050


    Leather 432


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 10


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    "I gained two levels in that fight." It was astonishing to say, but Travis felt excited at how useful it was to have the undead coming in. "Oh! I see why. Reaper is doubling the experience from them. We really need to get Timesink next, though, with all these new adventurers."


    Travis would have liked to have just told all the kobolds to go to the library and start researching, but the fact was the dungeon needed work done and their new prospective guards would need to be interviewed. "Okay, Pen, what are your thoughts on these adventurers?"


    Penelope was sitting across from the five at a big table in the barroom. She ate some of the stew Stephan had gotten them from the kitchen and sipped at her ale. "You came here to see if we had any work for you, after the vermin dungeon got infested with goblins?"


    While they were discussing things, Travis started adding more plans for further living quarters in the dungeon. The iron nodes around that area were in the way, though he was loath to get Katelyn to just melt them to slag and throw it away.


    Wild and Ludmiller were starting work on their own rooms, too, but he had an idea for how to gain more room. The big room he''d had dug at the end of the long tunnel at the entrance could be made into a foyer. The iron node behind it was unfortunate. A thought occurred to him. "Pen, do you think the town could build its walls out of iron instead of stone? We have a pile of nodes that are in the way and all¡­"


    "Trav, that''s probably better asked later."


    Freezing, Travis remembered what Penelope was doing. "Right, sorry. Hiring. How much do they want?" For a moment he located Robert and Blake. "Can you two work on a new area for me? We''re probably going to need more rooms soon." Their acknowledgements let him get back to the conversation going on.


    <hr>


    Penelope was relieved when Travis'' focus seemed to return and stay in the room around her. "Right, so, what are your capabilities? What can you offer us that we''d pay you for?"


    "Healing and protection spells, care of our clerics, powerful fire magic thanks to our wizards, and I can offer my services as a potion maker, curse-lifter, or curse-layer." Ogmera gestured to her party mates as she described them. "Plus Felna can share senses with dungeons."


    "What?! What does that mean?" Travis said to Penelope.


    Running numbers, Penelope tapped her claw and glanced toward where she felt Travis'' heart was. "That sounds useful enough. One gold¡ªthat''s one each." She flashed her fangs to them, noticing that the two humans among them seemed a little distracted staring at her teeth for a moment.


    "Five gold? That''s hardly¡ª"


    "Per day." Penelope watched as the group of them seemed to reel back in surprise. "You want more than that?"


    Ogmera struggled to contain all her questions. Their normal wages worked out far less than that. "That''s days worked?"


    "No. We''ll pay you to sit around on your rears and drink ale if there''s nothing happening. But we''ll also pay you to hunt undead with us."


    "I''ll need a moment to confer with my party." Standing up, Ogmera leaned on her staff and started walking to the entrance. Finding fully-furnished and clean rooms in a dungeon wasn''t a terrible surprise, but finding them serving ale to adventurers was. Still, she prided herself on flexibility.


    As soon as they were outside, Felna spoke, "You saw her eyes when you mentioned I can link to a core? She wants that ability, or she wants me to use it."


    "You''d use it for this kind of pay, right?" Nathaniel asked. When Felna nodded, he grinned back. "Then that''s not a problem, but we might want to ask for more for special services."


    "Just ask for a gold and a half per day," Tom said.


    Nathaniel shrugged his shoulders, "But only on condition our vows aren''t required to be broken. I won''t go against my god."


    Smiling at her fellow cleric, Felna was onboard with that. "My vows aren''t as strict, it''s true, but you''re my compass far more than I would admit to another follower of the Sandwalker."


    Realizing everyone was now looking at him, Stratus held up his hands to placate them. "I don''t have much to add here, other than to say there''s more here than just money. Ask them about lodgings and equipment. This is a dungeon¡ªdungeons are nothing if not resource rich."


    Tom just smiled and said, "I''ve trusted all of you with my life, more times than I can count. This is just another job."


    Nodding around to everyone, Ogmera led the way back into the dungeon. Down the long and dark tunnel straight-on, she could only imagine what nightmares there were in store for attackers. She gladly turned left and then right to enter the cozy little tavern-like taproom. Advancing back on the table Penelope was sitting at, she sat down. "One and a half gold a day, each. You cannot ask any of us to do something that would be considered against any of our gods''¡ªcollectively¡ªviews. We will also want options for equipment should you be able to produce anything suitable."


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    Reaching behind her back, Penelope focused on the amount she wanted. "Okay, let me get this sorted." She set down the first bag of a hundred and fifty gold, then another, and continued until she had five of them on the table. "That''s your first hundred days'' pay. Also, I don''t believe Brayden would let me do anything against his god''s will. He''s a welcome addition to the dungeon for that. Oh, and the dungeon will pay for any resurrections and talisman costs, so long as you see Brother Rupert in Northridge or Brayden here."


    Felna jerked at that and stared. "Can the kobold priest resurrect?"


    "He''s only recently become a kobold. His god has shown more attention to events in this location, which is unsurprising given his change. Any of you are welcome to join us too, once we''re sure you''ll fit in here." Penelope stood up and turned for the tunnels. "If you''ll come with me, I''ll show you where Trav is building your quarters."


    <hr>


    Ludmiller was sitting in the middle of Wild''s boss room surrounded by lizards. There were over a dozen of them, and more walking out of the adjacent tunnel every minute. "Aren''t they just adorable?"


    The sight did make Wild happy, perhaps even giddily so, but it was only tangentially related to the lizards present. "Something looks adorable, yes."


    Turning her head and tilting it up, Ludmiller smiled with a radiance she felt welling up inside. "I meant the lizards."


    "I meant a lizard." Stepping closer, Wild reached a hand down to her. "Trav, when can we upgrade this room to an arena, and when can I have a cohort?"


    Drawing his attention down at the sound of his name, Travis caught what Wild asked. "It''s a priority. When we get enough steel and timber, you''ll get it. I hope it unlocks more upgrades too."


    "Thank you, Trav." Wild was impressed, again and again, by his dungeon''s sincerity and dedication. "The next time undead come for the dungeon, I''ll be here and ready with my axes."


    "That I''d like to see, but we''ll have a few traps to soften them up before they get here." Travis noticed Katelyn was working in the library. "I''ll leave you two to it. Do you want me to let Steph know you have new quarters?"


    "Hmm. No." Wild locked his eyes to Ludmiller. "I will make the things myself, if you''ll provide the resources?"


    "Of course." Travis waited a moment, but Wild and Ludmiller seemed to find more interest in each other than continuing the conversation.


    Katelyn had transferred herself to the trap factory. She liked how effective her new burn spell had been on the skeletons, and was trying to come up with a trap version of it. Needing a focusing rune, something far easier to make than the more advanced runes she''d been creating, she was working on making it a floor trap that would poke up and spin, creating a circle of that intense heat. "Trav?" she asked when she sensed his attention.


    "What are you working on?" Travis couldn''t help himself.


    "I am trying to design a new trap for you to use. I think you''ll like how it operates." She had to use some gold and iron to carefully mount the rune in such a way as it could spin, then all she needed was a smaller rune¡ªtrivial really¡ªto add the desired rotational force. "It pops up out of the floor and spins, covering the area with high intensity fire."


    Thinking about it, Travis couldn''t help but figuratively smile. "You''re right, I do like that. What''s the trigger?"


    "You get to activate this one by dropping a mana field on it. It will keep burning the longer you leave the field there." Using her own fingers and claws, Katelyn heated the various metals to shape them and work them easier. Eventually creating a rotating-trigger that would cause the trap to pop up when it starts to turn. The harder bit was making it so it would drop again when finished. That took a third rune.


    "Any ideas on how much fire it will produce?" Travis asked, fascinated by the work she was doing with the trap''s various mechanisms.


    "Uh, about ten feet. So three rock squares." Carrying the whole assembly over to one side of the room where other traps were displayed, Katelyn set it down and watched the full size trap shrink down into a tiny model. "Did that get you a new trap?"


    "Heck yes! It even has upgrades that can be added. Needs a pile of mana to create, but I figure that''s because of the runes. Thanks, Katelyn, this is amazing!" Not for the first time did Travis lament his complete inability to make simple physical contact with someone. The trap had obvious synergies he could already imagine with pit traps and sludge being the obvious ones.


    Making Travis happy was its own reward for Katelyn. As a kobold in his dungeon, she knew it was wired into her to want to help the dungeon heart, but she also just liked knowing he was doing well. "You''re welcome, Trav. I''ll try doing more when I get ideas for them. Maybe I could make something that''s a wall trap that shoots a long path of flame down a hall."


    Travis couldn''t help but laugh at that. "Do you have any ideas for traps that aren''t fire?"


    Katelyn, grinning like a fool herself, tapped her chin. "I don''t understand the question. There are things that aren''t fire?"


    After a good few minutes giggling together, Katelyn started for the door. "I mean it, Trav. Any time you need something, let me know. Even if it''s just a hug." When she heard his laughs snap short, she realized that might be something they''d all missed. "Ah. I think I see now. Get ready, Trav, because I''m coming for a hug."


    "What are¡ª?" Travis was surprised by the turn of speed she put on. She took the zig-zagging tunnel extra fast by using her claws on the tunnel walls for grip. Racing through a mana shrine, she was outlined in a blue glow for a moment before she was into the main warren of tunnels.


    It seemed like no time at all before Katelyn reached the door to Travis'' heart room. She knew the trick to opening it and did so, slipping inside. "I never thought about it before, Trav."


    Watching her approaching his heart, Travis felt a surprising amount of excitement, anticipation, and a moderate amount of embarrassment. "What do you mean?"


    "You. You''re stuck without a body. You can see through us, hear through us, but can you feel through us?" She walked all the way up to the now larger crystal. "You saved me, you know? I hated contact with people; guys especially. As a human, I had a look to me that got to be so annoying I would hide within my robes. Now, this?" Stepping up to within touching distance of his heart, Katelyn tapped her chest with a claw tip. "This was a release for me."


    Travis was tongue-tied. He didn''t know what to say at all. She was thanking him for making her a kobold because people ogled her too much. Then, just as he was starting to come up with something, she leaned forward and kissed his heart.


    "That''s how much you mean to me, Travis. You''ve given me everything I''ve ever wanted. That I didn''t see this need¡ªsomething I could help with¡ªhurts a bit, but I can fix it now." Turning her head to the side, Katelyn rested her cheek against the heart and stretched her arms as far around him as she could, even if that wasn''t very far thanks to his new size.


    Available at: https://www.royalroad.com/profile/220350/fictions</a>


    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 52

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 7/10


    Heart 78400/78400


    Experience 1800/19600


    Workers 9/35


    Monsters 1/37


    Traps 36/79


    Rooms 54


    Food 575


    Timber 395


    Iron 1293


    Steel 5


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 43


    Rock 2696


    Gold 300


    Leather 402


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 10


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Quest: Have 10 minions in your dungeon


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    Travis had so many lizards he barely knew what to do with them all. There were now eyes on every corner of every tunnel in the first floor, and several were migrating to the second floor. What he didn''t realize was how much Ludmiller liked the little guys.


    "Not in our bedroom," Wild had told Ludmiller, though Travis could already hear uncertainty in his statement the second time he said it.


    "Trav?" Penelope''s calling of his name drew Travis'' focus to her. She was walking back from a new area for the adventurers that had signed on. "Any digging for me to do? I have some things to think about."


    "Huh? I mean, yeah, there is some more to dig in the start of the twists up here."


    "Good enough for me." She reached the doors at the end of the tunnel and got through them easily enough. "Digging just lets me focus on my thoughts better. Plus I know we have a ton of digging projects¡ªI can feel them in my head."


    "Just don''t put down the boulder traps. With Ludmiller doing a lot of the work up here, I don''t want to step on her toes." Travis pondered things and made some more additions to planning. "Just adding a few more tweaks here, too. It turns out you need an extra square for the boulder traps."


    "I felt that. This whole wall has to go, does it?" As she walked down the tunnel, Penelope ran her claws along the wall to her right. "Well, I might as well start here. Thanks, Trav, for giving us all a home."


    "Well, two can play at that. Thank you, Pen, for not leaving me alone." Travis waited for a reply, but when all Penelope did was start digging, he left her to her thinking time. So, turning his attention to the lower floor, Travis linked up a few of the long tunnels with planning to start the ball rolling down there.


    He found Robert already making his way to the sleeping tunnels to get through to the right spot. "I''m going to make an extra mana shrine too, when I have the mana. I might even focus on those for a bit to get my regen right up."


    "How much did you just plan out to dig?" Robert asked, knocking a hole through the wall before filling it back in.


    "Not much. Just a few tunnels and one room. Do you want some more rooms?"


    "You can always hook me up later if I finish early. Maybe send Blake down here too if you want some major work done today." Pulling out his pickaxe, Robert lined up on the first bit of digging he found and got to work.


    Travis scanned for Blake, only to find him already working on digging in the maze. Ludmiller and Wild, too, were digging away in there. Travis retreated to where Katelyn was in the library and focused his attention on her.


    "Hey, Trav. What''s up?" Katelyn asked.


    "Everyone''s working. Well, everyone who wants to is working. I don''t feel up to pushing Brayden or Steph to digging if they don''t want to." Travis reached out to the pair. Stephan was making more beds while Brayden was talking to the new arrivals. "I wanted to know more about magic." Almost as an afterthought, Travis saw his mana rise over fifty again and created another mana shrine somewhere on the second floor.


    "You didn''t learn anything from me teaching actual spells, right?" Katelyn stood up and took her research book back to the shelves, then picked out a book she''d purchased about dungeon spells.


    "Nope. Wish I could."


    "Right, so let''s work on dungeon spells." Opening the book, Katelyn smirked and flipped through to the glossary.


    <hr>


    The book Katelyn held was The Compendium of Dungeon Hazards - Vol. 3: Dungeon Magic. She flicked to the first page of the actual book and found the fire wall. "I''m surprised you didn''t pick these up just by me putting this book on your shelf."


    "It doesn''t exactly work like that. I could read the books you put there, but I don''t get a lot of time for reading and it''s all just dry information." Travis tried to explain the problem in a way that was understandable. "Imagine it like someone just stacked books beside your bed. You know there are books there, but you need to pay attention to them and only them to get anything from them."


    "I''d read them, then."


    "But every time you try, you fall asleep."


    Hissing and leaning back a little, Katelyn glared in the direction of Travis'' heart. "You just described a wizard''s nightmare. Let us go looking for something for you. You know fire walls, a personal favorite, and you know how to collapse a section of tunnel. Floor spikes made from ice?"


    "That sounds like fun. Let''s learn that."


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    After twenty minutes of reading about the spikes and explaining it to Travis, Katelyn was about ready to admit defeat. "Okay, let''s try something different." Leaving the book behind, Katelyn marched into her spell testing chamber. "Show me how you do a fire wall."


    "Just the spell? In here?" Travis caught Katelyn nodding by watching his view bob a little. "Alright. Ready?"


    "Go fo¡ª" Katelyn could feel the mana forming just before her and studied the patterns as the wall formed. "Wow. Alright. That''s a lot to figure out, so let me get my head around what you just did and use that to show you the pattern for the ice spikes."


    Travis waited while Katelyn retreated to her corner of the library and drew on her tablet. She seemed to spend quite some time there, but Travis was determined not to look away unless it was an emergency.


    "Okay, Trav, I think I have this. Just a few more¡ªAnd done." Katelyn closed her eyes, imagining the shape in her mind again. "I hope that seeing this will make you learn it. That seems to be how most of this works, right? You get a trigger and just suddenly¡ª"


    When Katelyn opened her eyes and looked at the pattern, Travis had a moment of shock before a message popped up. "I got it! I got it as a spell!"


    Closing the book and dropping her tablet, Katelyn turned around and rushed into her testing room. "Hit it, Trav!"


    "It needs ten mana, unless I have a pile of ice."


    <hr>


    Tannyr Stoneshave had gotten up early, eaten some of the leftover stew she''d made the previous night, and set about getting all her tools in order. They were special to her. She''d worked with the smith who''d forged them to ensure they would fit her hands and never need more than polishing for all her days¡ªit was the biggest joke to her that they fit her talons just as well.


    Rolling the oiled cloth up that held her tools, she secured them to her pack that already held blankets and her holy figurines. Walking around the house she''d lived in since before the city had awoken, she snuffed out the candles and then hefted her pack onto her back.


    Outside it was still dim, with false dawn spreading fingers of light across the sky. Despite only wearing a light shirt, it didn''t feel particularly cold, and so Tannyr closed the door and made her way to the southern gate of the city.


    The wagon train was being formed up around three big wagons. Outside the gate, she could see another dozen horses with logs lashed to drag behind them. She looked around, trying to locate Brolly in all the business. When she finally saw him, he was talking to a bunch of adventurers she didn''t recognize.


    Walking up, she did her best to ignore the wary looks from the adventurers. "Brolly, when''s this lot moving?"


    "Tannyr," Brolly Windchime said, turning to face her. "They''ll be moving before sunup, I hope. This won''t be a fast ride, but we have the numbers to ensure we''ll make it. Brayden will be arriving soon."


    That was, Tannyr realized, going to be a lot of adventurers in one place. "Okay. I''ll just wait to the side, then." To the side, Tannyr clarified in her head, and on the wall where she could keep an eye out. The stonework gate was a marvel that she''d spent half a week assembling. The extra work crews from the south¡ªprimed and ready to work for the excessive amount of gold Northridge offered now¡ªhad done a good job in finishing the walls off to a far better standard than she''d feared.


    The first rays of the sun peeked over the horizon and lit the ground up as true dawn broke. Tannyr spotted, to the south, a group of people approaching, along with a kobold in their midst. But there were too many.


    As they got nearer, she realized there was the other adventuring party, the one that''d been clearing the northern dungeon when it had still held nothing bigger than a boot. Climbing back down the tower stairs, she stepped out into the warm morning and came face to hip with Howard Tailor.


    "Tannyr. You''re certain about this?" Howard had known Tannyr for a good chunk of his life. She was older than him by several decades, and he hoped she''d still be around after his time.


    "Yeah. Northridge has its wall, now I need to go and make good on my promise to get the dungeon up to speed too. Did you know the undead have been hitting them every day or two since the fight here?" Tannyr heard the horses out front being worked into motion. "I''m sure I''ll be back some day."


    "I had heard that. It''s part of the reason why we''re paying for the escort. The timber, especially, is all profit."


    Tannyr looked up at Howard and nodded. "I promised I''d have this town quickened, but if you ever need another boon of me, Howard, you know where I will be." Speaking about the early days of the town becoming a genius loci left her feeling a little melancholy.


    Without another word, she started out the gate and in the direction of the adventurers approaching. The moment she left through the gate, she felt a weight ease off her shoulders. Stopping, she turned to look back at Northridge with actual anger bubbling up. "Really? After all I did here and you¡ªyou are happy to see me go?"


    "Tannyr!" Brayden walked over to the woman. "Leaving with us?"


    "Bloody thankless town. Yeah, I am." Turning her back on the fickle town and its genius loci that now, apparently, hated her, Tannyr walked beside Brayden as he doubled back. "You seem to have found some more friends?"


    "That other lot? Yeah. Trav paid them a hundred days wages in advance and now they''re happy to do whatever they can. Almost like they want more gold." Balancing his mace on his shoulder, Brayden walked alongside Tannyr. "We''re due for another undead raid today. That''s why we brought the firepower. Plus, two extra priests mean we can shore up anyone lacking healing on the way."


    "You said there might be an undead raid?" Brolly asked, stepping up to walk beside Tannyr and Brayden.


    "Yeah. They started spitting out undead lords now. Won''t be long until we get bloody wizards too." Brayden spat on the ground.


    Brolly nodded and made his way to the front of the train of wagons to warn everyone of the news. The adventurers, at least, looked excited for the work.


    The attack, when it came, was brushed aside almost with complete ease. The head of the wagon train was just reaching the dungeon when the undead all came into view across the mostly cleared floor of the forest. There was a brief moment where all the teamsters were worried, and then the wizards and sorcerers started doing work.


    With two fire and one ice mage from the dungeon, and numerous other ranged attackers, the undead walked into a warzone they were not prepared for. The fight was almost over when Katelyn poked her head out the door, causing the last necromancer¡ªwho''d been hiding from the other casters¡ªto implode in a blast of flame. "Welcome to the dungeon, refreshments are inside on your left. We have widened the tunnel out a little to help get this lot stored as quickly as possible."


    Available at: https://www.royalroad.com/profile/220350/fictions</a>


    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 53

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 7/10


    Heart 78400/78400


    Experience 4000/19600


    Workers 9/35


    Monsters 1/37


    Traps 36/79


    Rooms 55


    Food 2565


    Timber 2325


    Iron 1288


    Steel 1005


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 71


    Rock 2910


    Gold 300


    Leather 402


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 10


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Quest: Reach Tier 2


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    Having such a huge amount of resources poured into him was an astounding feeling. Travis could see most of his warehouses now filled with timber, grain, or steel. It was a relief to get a surplus of the very resources that were annoying to gather.


    What had been a surprise was when Tannyr had stepped into the dungeon and his quest had completed. Four new points of dungeon appeared to him, all of them on the second floor. They were three-by-three, and he had a brief glimpse in each to reveal gold, iron, coal, and sulfur.


    He waited until she was settled and the resources all stowed before making a more focused greeting. "I just want you to know, I appreciate you coming back. You''re not a hostage here. If the town needs¡ª"


    "Travis, I appreciate it. I really do. But my promise is only one reason I''m coming back. The town hates having me there. I mean, it''s toned down from hate, probably because it recognizes that I was helping, but the town''s spirit was actively trying to push me away." Tannyr set down her pack and carefully lifted her tools down and set them beside her bed. "You''ve been doing a lot of work in the dungeon. Do you have a building for working with stone?"


    Biting back his own need to apologize further, Travis focused on the need at hand. "I figured you''d want to have a hand in it. Do you have a preference as to what floor to have it on?"


    Seemingly deep in thought, Tannyr spent a few moments in silence before shaking her head. "No. Wouldn''t it need to be near the storage where all the rock goes?"


    "You know, I think I have the perfect spot on the first floor. There is plenty of room around Wild''s boss room." Travis quickly marked out the place. "It''s up to you if you want to do that now or just relax. Today is technically a day off."


    "A day off? I haven''t even done a day of work yet. Nonsense." Grabbing her tools, Tannyr left her room and cut a hole through the wall to reach the tunnel that headed upstairs. Dropping the ceiling down behind her, like she''d seen others do, she started to head up. "I suspect it might just be a lack of knowledge, but you construct this place very efficiently for a dungeon."


    "You wouldn''t say that if you saw some of the compromises we''ve had to make. There are some messes on the first floor where a lode of iron or gold just turned up in the worst possible place. That said, I like to think I was pretty good at games like this."


    "Games?"


    Travis hadn''t realized the little secret of his hadn''t spread beyond the initial few kobolds. "The cat''s out of the bag on that one. Yeah, games. I guess something happened to me, like I died or something. Anyway, I woke up in a dungeon, right? Only, where I come from dungeons don''t exist, but there are games where you manage one."


    Nodding, Tannyr didn''t seem at all surprised. "Sounds like a complicated game. Dwarves play such games, though the rules are such that it could take years to learn them fully."


    Travis'' first reaction was to boast how easy the games were on computers, but he dug his heels in on that. Playing a dungeon game, as a board game, would need a lot of rules he realized. "Well, we had ways to make running the game easier, but it still took some dedication to master. I guess since I''m still here, it means it paid off."


    Tannyr climbed up the stairs and turned to the secret door. Robert had shown her the way to activate it when he''d led her down, and now it was a simple case of finding the right piece of broken stone to press and it opened. "Could I have my bedroom up here too?"


    "Sure can. I''ll let Steph know to make you an extra bed, if you like?"


    "I can manage that myself. A big part of masonry is boxing things up with wood and ensuring it''s all square." She stopped when Travis connected the planned room to the tunnel right beside her. "Is this how you tell people what to do?"


    "If you''d rather not, I can leave you to it yourself. You need a square in that direction, then start a ten-by-five room."


    "So you don''t just order us around?" Tannyr set down her tools and glared at the wall. "How did they"¡ªshe reached behind her back and lifted forward a pickaxe¡ª"ah, right. This is a weird place."


    "You get used to it." Travis split his attention over to Katelyn and asked her, "I know it''s your day off, but I could really use some gold."


    "No problems, Trav." Katelyn was in the bar chatting with Tom and Stratus¡ªthe two fire wizard adventurers Travis had hired. "Sorry, gentlemen, but I just have to take care of a job really quick."


    Figuring she''d been in the library, Travis mentally winced at breaking up her conversation. "Oh, I didn''t mean to interrupt¡ª"


    "You''re fine, Trav. We''ll have plenty of time to talk about the finer points of fire-based offensive magic." Walking out of the tavern and down the tunnel to the gold lode nearest the entrance, Katelyn tapped her staff on the stone floor and sent out her will and mana to melt the gold free.


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    "That''s enough, Katelyn, thanks." Travis noticed that he didn''t have more than a corner of one storage room free.


    "It''s a shame your spell doesn''t count hired people as minions to buff their mana or we wouldn''t need all these traps¡ªyou could just put me, Stratus, Tom, and Jack in the hall here and nothing would get in."


    "I''d still rather let them die in the traps. For a start, if they do have something too big for y''all to bring down, that''d be an issue. Besides, Squishy is always hungry." Travis listened to Katelyn''s laughter all the way back to the bar.


    <hr>


    Tannyr was surprised how easily she moved when mining out sections. Her pickaxe practically flew through its arcs and carved out huge sections of the rock. For a stonemason, to find such ease in her digging was fantastic. She had half of the room excavated by the time Travis exclaimed wordlessly in shock. Pausing, she asked, "What''s wrong?"


    Travis was dumbfounded. "Did Pen come and help you? How did you excavate so much so fast?"


    Shrugging her shoulders, Tannyr smirked. "You mean the others aren''t as fast as this?"


    "Pen isn''t as fast as this. I guess this is what it means to be a stonemason?"


    "No," Tannyr hefted her pickaxe, "it''s what it means to be dwarven." Walking back to the rockface, she started working again. The tool sang in her hands, its voice triumphant every time she connected it with the rock again and again. She cleared the room out in what felt to her like an hour at most.


    "At this rate you''d be able to do eight times that in a good shift¡ª"


    "Are you daft? Make it ten."


    "Okay!" Travis actually laughed. "So ten times fifty leaves you five times faster than Pen."


    "Maybe I could show her a few tips? See what she''s doing wrong. Hey, where can my quarters go?" Tannyr looked around the room and reached a hand to the wall. "I think you have iron behind here. Let me just¡­"


    Her pickaxe demolished the wall and revealed she''d been right. "See? Iron."


    "Ugh. More iron. Well, I guess we need to get to making our own steel too now." Travis was ready to start planning a small room, then paused. "What do you want with this? Want me to plan it, or do you want me to tell you how much room you have?"


    "I figure a few rooms will do me. I want somewhere I can plan things out, a bedroom, and somewhere to store my plans." Tannyr was already pondering how she wanted it to be. "If you don''t care about this iron, can I use this as part of my rooms?"


    Travis checked himself before he commented on a dwarf wanting an iron seam as decoration. "Sure can. So long as you don''t go further to the left than the room here already is, you have as much space as you want. Go nuts, but if any monsters appear, lead them to the maze door, got it? Oh, and I''ll set up here to have a door, and the room here to be made into the stoneworks."


    Waiting for Tannyr''s grunt of acknowledgment, Travis reached out to Wild, carefully, and found him sitting with Ludmiller in one of the lizard farms.


    "Trav?" Wild asked.


    "Yeah, just checking before I interrupt something. I have the resources for your¡ª" Before Travis got to finish, both Wild and Ludmiller were on their feet (though the latter still had a lizard balanced on her shoulders).


    Walking out into the open and plain area of his boss room, Wild looked around. "Let''s start."


    Fifteen hundred gold, five hundred timber, and a hundred steel later and the materials were on the floor of the soon-to-be-arena. As Wild and Ludmiller worked to build it, the room''s ceiling seemed to stretch upward, and lava flowed around the edges of the room. In the middle, a huge sand-covered circle denoted where fights would take place.


    The entrance became a simple set of doors, but the exit that led to the maze got a huge, steel door that looked impossible to open. The door that led to the back tunnel, likewise, looked a lot more sturdy¡ªbut still retained its camouflage.


    A popup grabbed Travis'' attention. "I purchased the cohort upgrade there, and it''s asking me to select two minions. Ludmiller?"


    "Of course." Ludmiller''s focus was all on Wild as she spoke. Something about him seemed different, though it was hard for her to pin it down to anything in particular. "Who else?"


    Clearing his non-existent throat, Travis asked everyone, "Wild''s arena is built and he gets to pick two to be his cohort in there. He picked Ludmiller, but does anyone else want to be part of the guard?"


    "Yeah. You know what, I''ll take him up on that. A rogue, a wizard, and a melee fighter¡ªshould be a good combo." Katelyn didn''t care that the two wizards she''d been talking with looked at her strangely. Well, she did, so she said, "I''m talking to Trav. Just signed on as the first floor boss'' cohort. Want to come see our room?" When they stood up with her, she led the way.


    "Katelyn has volunteered," Travis said after he noticed no one else seemed interested.


    Wild had closed his eyes to feel the new strength burning in his body. Upgrading the room to an arena had imbued him with more strength on top of his boss bonus. A glance at Ludmiller revealed she too looked a little different¡ªbut it wasn''t strength.


    Ludmiller noticed right away she seemed to blur around the edges a little. Focusing on herself, she sensed a new ability in her repertoire and activated it. A chill stillness surrounded her, and when she held her hand up, it was almost invisible.


    "Luddy? What happened? Where are you? Trav! Where¡ª" Wild froze mid-panic when he felt Ludmiller''s touch on his shoulder. "Shadow walk?"


    "If going invisible is shadow walking, then I guess so," Ludmiller said¡ªbarely a whisper to Wild''s hearing. "This is going to be useful."


    When Katelyn opened the back door into Wild''s arena, she saw a small stone bridge rise out of the lava she''d almost walked into. "Neat. Hey, Wild, you want someone else for your cohort?" After she stepped into the room, Katelyn felt Travis'' attention on her for a moment, and then her breath caught in her throat.


    Travis stared through Wild and Ludmiller''s eyes (as well as various lizards that braved the room) as Katelyn''s staff shattered into a red pillar of pyroclastic rock that caused heat ripples in the air around it. Her hand didn''t burn, far from it, Katelyn gripped her new staff as her eyes glowed into yellow embers and a hot shimmer of air left her mouth. "Are you okay, Katelyn?"


    "I am far better than okay." Katelyn had never felt so firmly in control of her new element. Power burned through her and she realized she could control the lava in the room too. "Hey, Tom, Stratus, check this out!"


    Stratus laughed. His world had turned insane. He''d only seen a draconic pyroclast once in his life, and the party he''d been with had gotten away from it so fast they hadn''t stopped running until they were two towns away. "I don''t believe I should step into an active arena alone, all things considered."


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 54

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 7/10


    Heart 78400/78400


    Experience 4000/19600


    Workers 9/35


    Monsters 1/37


    Traps 58/79


    Rooms 63


    Food 2557


    Timber 804


    Iron 1134


    Steel 605


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 62


    Rock 2222


    Gold 305


    Leather 402


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 10


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 5


    Quest: Reach Tier 2


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    With everyone getting another day off, most had spent it actually doing hobbies or celebrating the recent acquisitions. Travis was perfectly okay with all of this. Katelyn had been one exception, making more runes. Wild and Ludmiller had spent a day getting their bedroom constructed, and so too had Tannyr in her own quarters.


    The following day had seen a flurry of digging, trap building, and creating new mana shrines. Three new shrines had been created, and the one found early had left Travis annoyed that it ruined the symmetry of his new warehouse building.


    "I can''t believe I''m saying we have too many gold mines, but Trav, we have too many gold mines." Blake looked at the second maze-based gold mine and shook his head. "How many more of these things are around here?"


    "I don''t actually know. It''s not like I have a notepad to keep track of these things. There might be a few." Travis wasn''t concerned with the gold mines. They were perfectly fine where they were. "Luddy, this is a masterpiece," Travis said, splitting his attention off to examine her work. She was checking over what Travis would now call the bowling alley.


    The other major upgrade that he''d purchased was from the stoneworks for the first floor, upgrading all the floors and walls to a worked stone finish. The final thing for that day had been to seal off the new warehouses from the stairs and integrate them into the central area of the dungeon.


    "So, more digging?" Tannyr sounded, at least to Travis, as eager.


    "If you want. I mean, I can set you up to dig all day long, but I won''t."


    Frowning, Tannyr glared at the mirror behind the bar. "Why not?"


    It was weird for Travis to see the face of one of the kobolds, but he was glad Tannyr took the initiative to do that. "Because you aren''t a slave. Even Luddy, who according to the town is an indentured worker, isn''t a slave. I don''t want to push you to do things you don''t¡ª"


    "How old are you, Travis?" Tannyr asked.


    The conversation was monopolizing Travis'' attention, but he felt he owed it to Tannyr. "Including before I became a dungeon?" At her nod, he sighed. "Twenty."


    Tannyr sucked in a sharp breath. "You speak like someone ten times your age. And, even if you were, I would still have thirty years on you." She let it sink in for a bit. "What I''m getting at is if I want to dig, give me something to dig. Don''t tell me you don''t want a slave, because I am not one."


    It was a proverbial gut-blow. Travis had to reorient his concepts of responsibility. "Alright, but I know that mining out planned areas is sort of like training, giving you mental rewards for doing work, so I''m going to stop you every hundred sections and see if you want to keep going."


    "I already noticed that. I''d judge it''s no worse than drinking. But you let us have as much time in the bar as we want." Raising her eyebrow, Tannyr smirked at her reflection over the top of her ale mug.


    "You want me to close down the bar?" Travis hoped his joke would be taken well, and when Tannyr started laughing he knew it had been. He used the eyes of everyone present to build a weird three-dimensional view of the room, with several lizards around filling in most of the gaps that the kobolds left. The room was almost packed, to the point where he considered the idea of building a second one beside it and linking them up. "Don''t worry, that''s definitely not a plan in any way. If you have any ideas for things you''d enjoy, let me know and I''ll try to make it happen."


    Lifting her mug up, Tannyr saluted herself in the mirror. "That''s a better deal than most places. Thanks." She took a long pull of the ale and let out a very relieved chirp-like burp. "This is good stuff. Better than the ale in town."


    "Yeah I¡ªUndead!" Travis shouted the last word for all kobolds to hear¡ªprobably even Squishy. "There are dozens of skeletons coming in. There''s a lord with them again, necromancers and other magic users, there''s some kind of¡ªIt just came through the door like it wasn''t there!"


    <hr>


    At the table across the room where three wizards and a sorcerer had been discussing magic with stacks of books scattered around them, Katelyn stood up. "Sounds like a raid. Wraith coming, I think. Everyone to the back of the room."


    Getting up and scurrying away from the door, Tannyr turned to see the indistinct ghost pass through the door and turn to look into the tavern. Her time spent dying of necromantic energy made her not at all pleased to see the thing. "Can someone here kill that?"


    Here, where she was a cohort of the floor, Katelyn was constantly holding back her power. It was like a constant clenching of her mental fist to keep it from spilling over. Releasing that grip, she let her fire out and met the gaze of the undead wraith advancing into the room. Gesturing with a finger, she extended a single coherent beam of light/heat out and speared it.


    Wraiths, being immune to physical attacks, could only be harmed by magic. As the beam of light pierced it, it screamed silently and rushed forward faster¡ªonly for the other magic users to send their own power out to lash at it, freeze it, and incinerate it further. Its hate fizzled out before it managed to reach the magic users.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    More were pouring into the bar. Katelyn started spitting out a flurry of fireballs at the wraiths just as an enriching blue light boiled around her. Feeling her mana become denser, she started to bark with laughter¡ªdoubling the output of her spells.


    "Uh¡ª" Stratus looked between Tom and Jack, seeing them both having stopped casting. "Is she doing this all on her own?"


    "Seems to be¡ªOops, there''s a lot." Tom, along with Jack, both lashed out at the last of a rush of wraiths that had slipped in.


    The shout had woken Brayden up. Rushing out into the hall, he saw several wraiths floating down the tunnel, their barely substantial claws held out and reaching for him. "By Brogdar, I will not stand to have you here!" The wrath boiling within him, Brayden knew, was only partly his own. His god detested undead, and with a flood of magic that felt as vast as the ocean, he pushed out to them and burned them with holy fire.


    "What the fuck is going on?" Fife stomped out of her bedroom, half dressed, and glared at Brayden. When she saw that he was wrapped in holy flames himself, she asked, "There''s fighting?" with a new eagerness in her voice.


    "Undead again. Looks like the other dungeon has unlocked wraiths and other things. The incorporeal stuff ghosted through the doors, but the rest are marching down the tunnels." Brayden left his party member behind to get ready, opening all the doors to check that no wraiths had gotten past. "Trav, can you see anything in the back tunnel?"


    "No, I think it''s clear. There are more wraiths coming!" Travis considered just dropping rock to block the wraiths'' path to the tavern area, but he felt confident that between Katelyn and Brayden, nothing was going to get through.


    Buzzing with all the mana she was being fed, Katelyn was excited to see more wraiths pass through the door outside, but before she could raise her magic to lash out at them, they imploded with boiling, white light. "What was that?"


    "Holy flames. Brayden must have gotten annoyed by the new visitors." Jack grinned to see his friend accounting well for himself. "Are we going to head out to tackle the necromancers?"


    "The necromancers aren''t outside. They''re going down after that swarm of skeletons! They changed tactics." Travis couldn''t help but sound nervous, but at the same time he was excited that all the monsters seemed to be filing into the tunnels, not stopping to notice the boulder traps.


    Making his way out of the nearest lizard farm, Wild set his little friends back down on the ground. "Travis, don''t kill all of them. I wish to test myself, Luddy, and Katelyn. Can you ask them to come down here?"


    Travis passed along word and focused his attention on catching the necromancers as best he could. The problem was that there were zombies in front of them and thirty skeletons behind. He sent boulder after boulder at them, but when they withstood all that a particular tunnel could dish out, they would then just resurrect the fallen skeletons.


    The tunnels were packed solid, but Travis waited for the necromancers to bunch up around a corner before unleashing two boulders right into the midst of them. A rush of experience hit his coffers and he let out a laugh as he finally got the last of the resurrecting annoyances. What was left¡ªafter a careful use of additional boulders¡ªwas the lord, a zombie, and three of the other magic users. "Wild, I have whittled them down to just five. Letting them come through to you."


    Wild, welcoming his female cohort to the arena, beamed in excitement. "Are you ready?"


    Ludmiller winked at Katelyn and kissed Wild before she vanished into thin air. The room might be illuminated by the lava around, but Ludmiller still was wreathed in shadow. She slipped across the room quieter than a breath and waited by the door.


    With the door closed behind her, Katelyn took a breath in and let it out again. Red specks of light sizzled on her exhalation¡ªburning cinders scattered to the air. "Keep them away from me, Wild, and I will make them regret their choices in death."


    The intense heat of the lava was nothing, Wild realized, compared to Katelyn''s presence. She was like the heart of a volcano, pressure and inescapable heat both, and she was searching for a target to release her will on.


    Stomping into the arena, the undead lord stepped past Ludmiller and moved decisively for Wild. She let it pass. Next a zombie shambled in and ran toward Wild too. She let that pass. The three magic users who piled in next were a problem for their group, though. One in particular she recognized as not being undead. Moving around behind the offending humanoid, she brought out her knives and lined herself up on it.


    Just as Katelyn started incinerating the zombie, she spotted one of the magic users reach out and extend a wave of sickening green magic toward her target. Flesh grew back, bones were pulled back into place, and the searing of her flames was undone. She was just setting up a huge fire detonation among the casters when Ludmiller appeared from the shadows behind the cleric, already extracting her blades from the two deep wounds she''d made. With a cackle, Katelyn incinerated the zombie to end it.


    Wild still didn''t have the reach of his old form, but his new strength made his strikes far more effective. He deflected the lord''s strikes while hacking off the limbs of the zombie that got too close. He fought on, taking several hits from the lord that got through his guard, but unlike his recent brush with death, now he felt far more durable. "Kill the zombie!"


    Turning her attention from where Ludmiller was dealing with the two mages to the tower of meat and bone that still menaced Wild just with its size alone. "My¡ªpleasure. Trav, a mana field please?" The resulting flood of mana hit both her and Wild, but the influx of power boosted her damage potential to new heights. Gesturing at the zombie, she started plowing fireball after fireball into it like a swarm, but rather than small ones she used the full-sized version.


    The heat washing over Wild''s scales, along with the lack of any attacks from the zombie, told Wild that he had one problem left to deal with. When the lord swung his next attack, Wild brought one axe up to slow the blade and the other across at an angle¡ªa hammer and anvil of an attack that led to a high-pitched cracking sound echoing around the arena.


    The undead lord''s sword was broken just past the hilt.


    Wild jumped up and brought both his axes around at the lord''s neck. Each blade passed within a hair''s breadth of the other and bit into and through the hard, old bones holding its head to its body. As he came down from the jump, he dug his feet-talons into its ribcage and twisted his body to the side, shoving the thing behind him across the floor and only jumping free of it a moment before it landed in the lava.


    Panting with excitement, seeing the world only in shades of hot and cold, Katelyn slowly reined back her combat thrill¡ªthere were only two other things moving in the room: Ludmiller and Wild. "That was fun."


    "Hey, uh, I think I leveled twice in all that," Travis said.


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 Chapter 55

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 9/10


    Heart 129600/129600


    Experience 6800/32400


    Workers 9/35


    Monsters 1/37


    Traps 59/79


    Rooms 64


    Food 2443


    Timber 804


    Iron 1134


    Steel 605


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 78


    Rock 2157


    Gold 305


    Leather 402


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 100


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 5


    Quest: Reach Tier 2


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    "This is going to be my room?" Penelope walked around the huge space. It was as big as Wild''s arena. "I like the idea of having some room to stretch out. You know I''m probably going to end up as an actual dragon, right?"


    "We don''t have to upgrade you all the way. If you said this was as far as you wanted to go, this is it." Travis was indeed perfectly happy to let Penelope live how she wanted. "So don''t feel pressured."


    "I do feel pressured, but not by you. It''s everyone in here¡ªno, they''re not pressuring me either. I see them all working so hard to protect all of us, to build and grow and¡ªIt would be wrong if I don''t put my all into it too." Walking to the entrance, she let out a sigh. "How much is it going to cost for my next upgrade?"


    "Five thousand gold, a thousand steel, five hundred food, and two hundred leather. That is my next target for a major upgrade. The next goods delivery, and a little time processing gold, will get us there." The cost of the upgrades were becoming staggering the higher level Travis got, but they were at least one-off upgrades. Though, he admitted that this was going to be an upgrade several of his floor bosses would need too. "I expect Wild will want an upgrade soon enough, too."


    "This work-around for steel production will only last so long. We need to start smelting our own. Also, didn''t you say we could get farms now? Why don''t we have a few of those to at least offset the food we''re eating?"


    "They use a lot of timber."


    Standing up from her crouch and stretching, Penelope made her way to the tunnels again. "Yeah, it seems like a lot of things need lots of timber. That''s something we should prioritize from Northridge."


    "Shame there''s no way to grow trees underground." Penelope walked back down the tunnel and through to the heart room. "Wait, are there any above-ground buildings yet? Maybe you can build a lumber yard or something outside?"


    "That might be something I get to do next tier. One more level and we get to start collecting resources for that."


    "How much is it?"


    "I don''t know. Some of these upgrades don''t show up until their prerequisites are met. Since my level reads as nine out of ten, I figure next level it ticks over and needs a tier to unlock more." Looking around, Travis tried to figure out how long he''d need to work to get some of the research unlocks too. "Do you think there will be more research after the tier-up?"


    Penelope walked around his heart, examining how it was growing, running her claws over the surface, and feeling the wisps of the three mana manipulators doing their work. "How many workers could you have by now, Travis?"


    "Thirty-five."


    "And your longest research is?"


    "A hundred and fifty days. Oh, I get what you mean. If I had all the workers I possibly could, that research would be done in just five days." It was, Travis realized, very useful to have an outside perspective on this. "Okay, so we need more kobolds in this dungeon, don''t we?"


    Penelope laughed and leaned her cheek against Travis'' heart. "How do we get them?"


    "Advertising?"


    Penelope struck a dramatic pose. "Embrace a lifetime of servitude!"


    "Ha ha." Travis threw as much sarcasm into his laugh as he could. "But, seriously, most people move to a town like Northridge and don''t ever move away again, do they?"


    "Yeah. Something like that. You get some, usually researchers and long-lived races who will probably move on after some time, but mostly, people just settle down and work their whole lives somewhere." Penelope froze and groaned. "You walked me right into that. Well done. So, you put out word that our dungeon is just another great place to come and raise a family. Oh, and make sure you bring your family first, because once you''re a kobold¡­"


    "Yeah, but it''s not like we have to make their kids into kobolds. Let them live here rent free until they''re old enough to make the decision for themselves." It felt like the right way to do things. "And, if we set up the living quarters on the second floor, have that only accessible from stairs to the surface or via Wild''s arena to the back way down¡ªit''d make it super safe."


    "You''re already planning for another floor?!"


    "I''m planning for two more. Unless the spells just don''t show info about stuff more than two floors away, four is the limit. That means I have to be ready to have the first floor, now, sunk two more down. I figure when I get the next one, that whole floor will just be a twisting, huge maze and time-waster that people can get lost in forever. When the last one is added, I''ll then have stairs going to the tavern from there, but just have the entrance lead straight to the second floor¡ªthen we build out the first floor into a huge residence."


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    Penelope started to laugh. Barking and hissing too, she almost doubled over and finally sat down and put her back to Travis'' huge heart. "Trav! You are amazing. Half of this is just¡ªThis is why I trust you. Why I''ll give up every shred of myself to keep you safe. I''ll protect you"¡ªshe turned her head and pressed her cheek against him¡ª"just so I can see what you''ll build next."


    <hr>


    "Travis'' dungeon has drawn the entirety of the undead dungeon''s focus. The way they''re handling it, I don''t think they mind. I got the impression that the dungeon gains something from defeating them." Brolly Windchime read through the notes he''d written up of the little visit to the dungeon. "They have repelled¡ªcompletely destroyed, that is¡ªseveral raids and are getting one every two to three days."


    It was with a choke of panic that Christine Sellswell listened to the report. "They have two to three of these attacks a week?! And they just deal with that?"


    "From what Brayden¡ªthat is, Brayden Smith, the priest of Brogdar that has joined the dungeon¡ª says, they are holding the undead back and expanding their own defenses further. I presume the undead dungeon will be ramping up its attacks both in quantity and quality of attackers, so we probably want to deliver all the resources Travis has ordered." Giving Christine a raised eyebrow, Brolly gestured to her.


    "Right. We''re loading up to deliver the second half of their order. I''ve already arranged for more steel to be delivered, and the work crews who finished off the stone wall have been put to work harvesting and planting trees. From what our negotiations seemed to uncover, wood and food are their main requirements, with steel as a stop-gap until they can produce their own at quantity.


    "At some point things are going to swing the other way. We''ll be buying or trading, at less-than-favorable positions, high quality materials from them. That''s when we have to dig our heels in and start selling to the kingdom at large for a large profit margin.


    "I would suggest, at our first opportunity, building a road and series of forts leading to the dungeon. We must protect our investment here¡ªand I think even the dungeon would agree on that." Done with her particular notes, Christine looked between Brolly, Howard, and the two priests in the room. "Any objections?"


    "It won''t be cheap," Howard Tailor said. "Those forts won''t build themselves. We''ll need more stonemasons, more workers, and more soldiers."


    Smirking, Christine lifted out two sacks of gold. They were hefty sacks, with two thousand gold in them collectively. "I have talked to my merchants. We are willing to invest in this¡ªheavily."


    "Your workers and guards will all receive full protection against death." Brother Rupert wasn''t prepared to give up gold to this plan, not unless pushed. "There are no better conditions anywhere in the kingdom for such workers."


    "That''s appreciated, I''m sure, by the workers and our guards." Looking at Brolly, Christine got a nod from him. "And will make hiring workers far easier. I''ll start the process. Howard, anything to add?"


    Looking over the notes he''d been scribbling onto his tablet, Howard nodded. "Since this would be a project to directly assist the dungeon, we may be able to ask for Tannyr''s assistance in designing the forts. We will still need talented masons to do the cutting and preparing of the rock. I''ll arrange for the first such fort to be built around our quarry."


    "Regarding hiring guards¡ª"


    "How many do you want? I''ll add that to my agents'' list."


    Chuckling, Brolly said, "Appreciated, and if you could make a note that experience with long guns would be a bonus. I talked to the dungeon when I was over there, through an interpreter, and they seem to think that with a little lead time they could be making firearms for us. Now, I know you were excited to see raw resources sold through Northridge, but we could have some of the finest weapons in the kingdom in our possession soon."


    "And for sale?" Christine and Howard both asked at the same time. They each looked at the other and laughed.


    <hr>


    Tannyr Stoneshave looked at the design and nodded her head. "This will work. I can have this done quickly and then work on the second floor." Pulling out her own tablet, she began copying down the information that Blake had passed her. "Trav, Pen said you wanted to reach a research target?"


    "Oh! Yes! We have so much to dig th¡ª"


    "I''ll do the digging. It''s a waste of others'' time¡ªunless they want to. Ask them to research instead and leave the rest to me." Tannyr slipped the tablet into her shoulder bag and stood up from her planning table. "I wonder if being a floor boss would give me any bonuses to digging?"


    The question sent Travis'' thoughts spinning. Increasing Tannyr''s digging speed, by even a small percentage, would be huge. "If it comes to that, you''ll probably be the boss for the first floor¡ªwhen we get the fourth floor."


    "Isn''t that Wild''s job?" Walking down the tunnel from her home, Tannyr squared up against the corner where the tunnel turned inward on the maze.


    "When I get a new floor, it appears at the top and becomes the first floor."


    Reaching behind her back and pulling out a dungeon pickaxe, Tannyr shrugged her shoulders. "As long as you have it planned out. Dedicating a floor to just digging would be a good idea, I think."


    His talk with Penelope had prepared Travis for the conversation well. "Oh, I''m going to go one better. I''ll have that floor dedicated entirely to being residences and support for them. We''ll use custom stairs to link that to the bottom floor, so all that will be considered a safe area behind the traps and defenses."


    Pausing after digging through two chunks of rock, Tannyr smirked. "Glad you have the macro-level plans sorted. Guess I''ll be designing things on a smaller scale than that." And, with that, she started eating through the rock at a furious pace, carving out the new tunnel to secure the gold mines.


    Turning his attention to the rest of the kobolds, at least the ones awake, Travis told them, "I''d like to spend a few days focused on research. With eight of you doing that, it would only take four and a bit days to get Timesink researched, which would give me xp for just having Fife sitting on her butt in the tavern."


    "Got it, Trav," Katelyn said, "but did you still need some gold mined?"


    "Yes, thanks."


    After repeating the request so Fife could hear it, Brayden passed back her reply. "Hey, Trav, Fife says she''ll sit on her ass all year if it will help."


    "Thank you, everyone." It was going to be a quiet few days. Travis wondered how long the town was going to take for the next delivery.


    "Hey, uh, Trav? I think there''s something down this way into the rock." Without asking, Tannyr diverted herself from the straight path and dug just three squares over. "Ah, more gold." The following two days of digging held more such surprises, with an extra mana shrine discovered on the second floor.


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 Chapter 56

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 9/10


    Heart 129600/129600


    Experience 6800/32400


    Workers 9/43


    Monsters 1/45


    Traps 59/99


    Rooms 65


    Food 2401


    Timber 804


    Iron 1134


    Steel 605


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 44


    Rock 2968


    Gold 5305


    Leather 402


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 100


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 5


    Quest: Reach Tier 2


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    It was weird, but so long as everyone was in the library and just saying they were researching Timesink, Travis noticed the research time tick by even if they were discussing combat and recent events.


    He''d been chatting with Tannyr while she dug, discussing what kind of rock he was filled with, when the wall in front of Tannyr collapsed into a huge cave. "Tannyr, run!"


    <blockquote>


    One of your minions has uncovered a cave dragon nest.


    </blockquote>


    Tannyr didn''t seem to need a further invitation. Turning on her heel, she started to run and then a blast of sound slammed into her¡ªknocking her to the ground. Something dark and wrapped in shadows even a kobold could barely see through rushed from the hole.


    Through the darkness of it, Travis could sense wings, claws, a long neck and tail, as well as a scaled hide. The dragon arched its neck and seemed to aim its head at Tannyr¡ªsomething vile and green leaking from the corners of its maw.


    Reacting fast, especially when Tannyr didn''t seem to get up and move right away, Travis dropped a fire wall in the gap right before the dragon''s head. The spray of green stuff (that Travis assumed was either acid or poison) hit the flames and was halted, but the dragon wasn''t completely stopped by that.


    "Get up and run!"


    <hr>


    The command echoed in Tannyr''s head. She''d heard Travis ask her to do a lot of things, and she''d volunteered to do plenty more, but she''d never felt an aching need in every limb to stand up and run. Her limbs felt possessed, and before she knew what she was doing she was scrabbling on the tunnel floor and running down tunnels as fast as she could.


    "What do I do? What do I do?" The command, more than the fear, drove her on. Down one tunnel, around a corner, then a few more of each and she was at the T intersection that led upward or into the twisting tunnels.


    She was just about to turn up the stairs when the rock face before her crumbled as Penelope''s pickaxe ripped through it. Tannyr didn''t hesitate for a second. There was a pull of safety in the visage of the dungeon''s boss that made her hum with excitement.


    "Have any gone upstairs, Trav?" Penelope looked into the darkness of the tunnel and, at the far end, saw the dragon that had chased Tannyr. It was running toward them and she could feel a chill down her spine. "Wild? Brayden?"


    "Nothing''s upstairs. This is the first one to come out. It said there''s a nest!" Travis said.


    Slipping past Penelope, Wild drew his axes and stalked forward to meet the dragon halfway. Behind him was Brayden, who was already beseeching his god to offer protection to everyone around him.


    "I''m coming too. You might want to send my brother up to get Fife and Jack to come down here." Katelyn stepped through the gap and, when Penelope nodded to her plan, waited for Robert to come through as well before she gestured at the gap and closed it up with rock. "Trav, we got this."


    Wild reached the dragon first and dodged its snapping bite. His axes moved like snakes, striking against the thick hide of the creature¡ªthe first skidded along the scales but the second bit into its shoulder before he drew it back to keep his momentum up. "It''s plenty long enough. If you can''t get a clear shot here, aim for the back, Katelyn."


    While they''d been researching, Katelyn, Wild, and Ludmiller had been discussing tactics, and this was one of the big ones. It was hard to keep her spells from harming Wild or Ludmiller if she launched them against the monster close by, but landing the spell at the back would make it safer¡ªwhich is what Katelyn did. With a snap of her claws and a flare of power, an intense burst of flame blistered and burned the rear of the dragon, forcing it to try to get away from the attack and open itself to attacks from Wild.


    Gleefully, Wild brought down both axes on the dragon''s neck as the beast screamed and tried to run away from the searing heat. Opposite him, having moved with an enviable speed and grace, Penelope had to jump over the dragon as it passed while bringing her daggers down and into its spine.


    Screaming, the dragon turned on Penelope as the last one that hit it and sank its teeth into her arm. Twisting, it threw her aside and turned to confront Wild next¡ªonly for a beam of searing fire to lance through it.


    With the dragon crumpling beside him, Wild worked fast to slice through its neck and sever its head. "You alright?"


    Brayden was already working, gesturing with his hand at Penelope, he whispered, "Brogdar, heal her." It was still such a surprise at the fierce amount of power his god was giving him. He let it flow into Penelope, and a searing green smoke boiled out of the wound a moment before it closed. "Poison."


    Watching her skin finish knitting and her scales reassert themselves over the wound, Penelope stood up. "We need to guard this spot to stop them getting past us. When Fife and some more firepower get here, we can go down further."


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    While they waited, they were all tense. None of them were willing to put their weapons away in case another dragon surprised them.


    Travis watched as everyone upstairs started marching down with Fife at the lead. Even Ludmiller joined them, leaving the boss room unguarded. "Fife had to be woken up. Jack and the other party are coming down. Luddy''s coming too."


    Stomping down the stairs, Fife looked around and spotted her friends. "I hear you have a problem with dragons?" She was well aware of all the relieved looks everyone gave her as she walked past them. Bumping her fist with Brayden, Penelope, and finally Wild, she rolled her shoulders and started forward. "Okay. Keep behind me. We have so much firepower that I don''t want anyone but me going toe to toe with these things. Anyone recognize them?"


    Shaking his head, Wild said, "They''re definitely a dragon of some sort. Poisonous bite, scales that are hard to cut through, and Travis told us there were two different ranged attacks¡ªone is concussive, the other is either acid or poison, he doesn''t know which."


    "Trav! I call dibs on the first adamantine shield you can make! You hear me?" Looking down the tunnel, Fife grunted. "And I need some more light. We all will. Pen, can you take care of that?"


    It wasn''t a surprise to hear her wanting such a shield. Travis had heard that adamantine equipment was nearly impervious to all damage. "Tell her she''s got it. She''ll also get to be a floor boss around then, too. Robert has some light sticks in the dungeon storage, you should be able to pull some out."


    Pulling two such light sticks out, Penelope lit them both up in one hand and made sure they were pointed forward. "He says you got it, Fife, but you''ll be getting your scales about then, too."


    The march down the hallway was accomplished with some haste, but no small amount of care. Fife didn''t want to trip or leave her support behind. When she reached the corner and peeked down, she had to wait for Penelope to move up behind her and point the light sticks around so she could see. "Crap. Back up!"


    There was neither room nor time for Fife to back away from the corner before a dragon charged toward her. Bringing her shield up, she had barely a moment before it opened its mouth and screeched. Like Penelope and Wild just behind her, Fife snarled at the sound that threatened to shove her down and stun her.


    The backline of the group would have fared far worse¡ªif not for Ogmera''s quick reaction. When she heard the call to back up, she figured exactly the kind of bunched-up situation Fife was trying to avoid. Thrusting her palm forward, she put up a wall of air just in front of Brayden.


    When the dragon drew back and seemed ready to breathe again, Fife pushed forward and delivered her shield to its face with a resounding crunch sound. The dragon coughed and spat its poison instead of spraying it¡ªwhich Fife caught on her shield and laughed away. "Come on, back up and give us some room ya big chicken!"


    Travis was in awe of Fife. She bodied the dragon back down the tunnel, shoving her weight into it again and again to make room at the corner for her support to get around it. So effective was her bullying of the beast that she backed it all the way up to the intersection that led to its nest.


    Katelyn, with two other fire wizards beside her, put together her best fire spell and unloaded it on the back of the dragon. Molten fire formed a huge ball that rolled over the dragon and lingered atop it. At the same time a pair of fire lances shot out, one from each of the wizards, to impale the dragon''s wings and open gashes in the membranes.


    Jack, without a good target to use his ice magic on, instead aimed right in front of Fife. When the dragon closed its mouth after snapping at Fife, he froze the thing''s jaw closed.


    The combined work was enough to get the dragon extinguished without any further problems¡ªFife didn''t even take a single hit. "Alright, Pen, get me some light into this place."


    That meant Penelope had to edge around Fife and slip in behind her at the same time Fife took up position in the tunnel that led down to the cave. There were no dragons in sight, but Penelope felt a great annoyance at the monsters being present¡ªlike she was meant to be the only dragon in the dungeon. In the distance, beyond what the light sticks could reveal, she watched two dragons move into sight and start coming down the tunnel. "Two more coming, Fife."


    "Moving up!" Fife marched into the tunnel far enough to reach where the first two rooms joined it. "Brayden, are you still with me?"


    "Yeah, Fife, you know I can''t follow anyone else''s ass into battle!" It was old, comfortable banter. It was also how Brayden reassured Fife that he would have her back if she needed his healing magic.


    "Great. Keep watching. Wild, Luddy, check out these two rooms and tell me if there are any dragons in them. Pen, keep that light up for me." Fife waited, finally seeing the two dragons ahead of her looking down the tunnel toward her, both appearing less than eager to approach.


    "Clear!" Wild said.


    "Clear here, too!" Ludmiller said.


    When both had stepped behind her, Fife started advancing again. "Okay. Ladies and fire mages, burn me some dragons!"


    Just as Katelyn was getting ready to unleash, she felt Travis'' mana spell wash over her. The staff in her hand practically exploded into sparks and, instead of the small concussive blast she''d planned, a huge ball of fire expanded to about three times the normal size it would have been, then evaporated to leave a hole in the air itself.


    Fife knew she should have been terrified of what Katelyn had done, but the concussion of the mid-air cavitation actually blew the head off the second dragon and seemed to break the tail of the first one almost in half with the force. That it almost knocked Fife herself unconscious was a minor thing. "Ha! Give it to them!"


    More blasts, though not from Katelyn, rained into the surviving dragon. The damage it had taken from the concussion had left it dazed and not fast to respond to further strikes. It did get up against Fife and snap at her, gouging at her shield with its fangs and the talons of one foreleg before it brought the other up and raked her shoulder.


    Leaving her wound to Brayden, Fife braced behind her shield and drove it into the dragon''s face, shoving the monster back and stunning it with the force of the impact. More fire spells lashed the beast, leaving it to drop at Fife''s feet. "Another two rooms to check. Same again¡ªWild and Luddy!"


    When the two side rooms were declared cleared too, being empty, Fife marched to the entrance of the cave. Inside was what looked like a mound of rock with an opening in it. A little light revealed it to be the exit of some kind of tunnel. "Okay. We have this nest thing ahead and to the left. Priority is dragons first, then the nest. I''m sure attacking it will have some more come out. Everyone ready?"


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 Chapter 57

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 9/10


    Heart 129600/129600


    Experience 14800/32400


    Workers 9/43


    Monsters 1/45


    Traps 59/99


    Rooms 66


    Food 2401


    Timber 804


    Iron 1134


    Steel 605


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 41


    Rock 2969


    Gold 5305


    Leather 402


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 90


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 5


    Quest: Reach Tier 2


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    Bonus Quest: Destroy dragon nest on second floor


    </blockquote>


    Watching Fife fight against the predictable dungeon monsters was a sight to behold for Travis. Every movement was perfectly timed to accomplish something whether it was advancing safely down the tunnel or driving one of the dragons back.


    He grumbled about one thing, though. "If they weren''t so aggressive, I would instead just put up a bunch of auto-reset traps and leave them here as an experience farm."


    "How would that work?" Penelope asked, moving up with Fife, holding the other woman''s rifle at the ready.


    "This dungeon seems so much like a game it makes me wonder if that''s what my theme literally is. If that''s the case, things like these nests might just last forever." The idea of a fully functioning XP farm that didn''t require any observation really appealed to Travis. "Because, at a guess, I''m going to start needing a lot of experience to level up."


    "I''m not exactly sure how that will work, Trav, but I gave up doubting your intuition on this stuff over a floor ago." Shielding her eyes from a blinding flare of flame, Penelope let out a laugh at how destructive three wizards could be.


    For a brief moment the cave that''d been opened up was a furnace. Even the dragons trying to escape couldn''t bear the heat of the spells. When the mana cleared from around the toasty, cherry red location of the dragon nest, Fife let out a whoop of excitement. "Great work! Hey, Trav, that''s how we deal with problems like adventurers!"


    <blockquote>


    Your dungeon boss'' involvement in scouring the dragon nest from the dungeon has resulted in them being eligible for upgrade!


    </blockquote>


    Travis was so fixated on the message that it took him hearing Katelyn''s cheering to actually check Penelope''s next upgrade. What he saw made him cackle with excitement. "Okay, so that dragon nest counted as a quest, and the reward just made Pen''s next upgrade free."


    While Penelope explained what happened to the others, Travis made a commitment. "Tell everyone they''ve earned a bonus. No one was hurt and no resources used, except a little lava and mana, so I''d like to show my thanks. Do you think a hundred gold would do?"


    "I think a hundred gold is overkill, but we have plenty. Okay, listen up everyone. As thanks for the timely and professional work dealing with all this, Trav has told me to release a one hundred gold bonus to you all." Penelope held out her hands in a placating gesture. "This is Travis showing his own appreciation for your work. We might not do this every time, but hey, gold is gold."


    "Maybe it could be every time. It would encourage people to come and protect us. Oh, you need to go and get comfortable so we can upgrade you¡ªif you want to, of course."


    Trying to shush the cheers of the group around her, Penelope only managed to get through to Fife. "I gotta go, Trav''s doing my upgrade now."


    "No way? I thought you needed another delivery for that?" Taking her gun back from Penelope, Fife pulled out her own glow stick so she could see.


    "That''s why we got all the extra gold. Clearing this out did something that makes my upgrade free. He wanted to know if I actually wanted to keep going down this path. How can I not? I know what the end result is, but I also know what I need to protect."


    The admission, along with the way Penelope walked along the tunnels scraping her claws against the stonework, made Travis more sure than ever that he had the best kobolds a dungeon could have.


    <hr>


    "Robert told me you''re getting close to getting another level. That''ll be cool, eh?" Fife sat in the heart room, her back pressed against the giant crystal heart. She was a little tanked, sloshed, and otherwise imbibed¡ªand the big mug of ale in her clenched fist was not the first she''d brought down.


    Travis couldn''t speak back to her, but she knew he could hear her. "Having me as a kobold would be great, but have you thought about making me a¡ªa drake warrior or something?"


    She sighed and swished around the ale in her mug. "I''m fine being a kobold, Trav. Just thinking about stuff, ya know?"


    Draining the mug down to the last drop, Fife turned it upside down and set it down beside the other two empty ones. "''s not that I don''t trust everyone, but I don''t want anything bad to happen to Pen. That''s why I''m on guard." She picked up another mug, the last of her full ones, and took a long sip. "Best thing about bein'' down here is it keeps the ale cold."


    Fife was well aware she''d reached the point in her drinking that she would have extreme difficulty getting up again, which only encouraged her to remain in place and drink what ale she had left to her. "Nights like this are going to be so much better when someone else can hold up the other end of the conversation. I hear you have them all doing research, for something or the other. Wait, was that the thing where you get that experience thing from just having adventurers in here?"


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    Another long sip of her ale later and Fife laughed. "That means I''d still be helping even if I get drunk in here. You''re really smart, ya know that?" Another sip of ale and Fife noticed things getting far more sideways than they''d been moments ago. Laying on her back at the base of Travis'' heart, she laughed at her own clumsiness, then lowered to a giggle, quieter still to a chuckle, and finally to a snore.


    Their conversation, one sided as it was, still posed a few questions for Travis. He wanted to know if he could make people into tougher things than kobolds. Not that kobolds weren''t all awesome in their own ways, but seeing Fife as a seven-foot tall wall of muscle would be cool.


    When a few lizards gathered around Fife, soaking up her warmth and getting cozy, Travis turned his attention elsewhere.


    <hr>


    Tannyr was cleaning up the mess in the tunnels she''d been working on. She had some help from Stephan, who was mostly focused on butchering the dragons, but otherwise she was trying to work out how to correct the mess the cave had made of their plans.


    Clearing away the already-planned rock was a start. She then began filling in the sections that would reform the rooms of the dungeon that had been the original plan. Her last step was to link it up to the inner dungeon and then, giving a wave to Stephan as she walked past him, sealing the tunnel behind her so she was once more in the outer loop.


    Moving down the loop, she dug out the next section of four rooms and linked those into the center, but when it came time to do the one after, she found another surprise. "Trav, another mana shrine."


    "Oh! Thanks, Tannyr. Hrmm, what to do with the extra room? I think some mana storage would work nicely there. We''ll need more gold to get those up." Travis watched her work while he chatted. "Are you sure you''re¡ª?"


    "Going to cut you off right there. I like this. I''ve spent a few years already underground, working stone, and you can rest assured I enjoy the cool quiet of these tunnels far more than the tavern up by the entrance." Tannyr made her way to the next area to dig out. "Not that I don''t like you talking with me, but this is something I could do all day and not get bored of it."


    "There''s not much else I can do but trust you. That said, you still get two days off from doing what I want you to do each seven." Travis tried to ignore her laughter at the last bit. With Penelope undergoing her upgrade and everyone else researching in the library, he was bereft of any conversation partners.


    As hard as Travis had tried, Squishy just couldn''t hold up his end of the conversations they had. What he could do, he realized, was get a little work done cleaning up plans here and there. He also paid the thousand rock needed to upgrade the walls and floors on the second floor.


    Upgrades, he realized, were something he''d been a little behind on. Thankfully, with the Tier 0 upgrades being so cheap, he could grab a few of them right away. Draconic Constitution (gives all his creatures regeneration 1, or so it said), Workers 2 and Workers 3 (which increased his worker limit, led to¡­), and Sneaky Workers were all purchased¡ªthe final one of which said it allowed workers to slip through walls.


    There was one upgrade he was avoiding¡ªLizard Swarming. It would make lizards try to steal any non-dungeon creatures'' items. He would have loved to have it work on enemy attackers only, but there were too many people living in the dungeon to be able to keep the lizards under control.


    When yet another mana tick occurred and he had a healthy surplus, Travis cast the spell to create another mana shrine.


    <hr>


    The next day was a busy one. Beside Tannyr''s suite, they built the gunsmith and started planning out more traps to thin the numbers of enemies that would reach Wild''s room.


    Tannyr was carving out the second floor again just as Travis spotted a human enter the dungeon. Of all the kobolds, only Katelyn was on the first floor. "Katelyn? We have a new visitor. Could you go and see what they''re up to?"


    In the process of melting a stack of gold off one of the veins, Katelyn nodded. "Sure. How is your gold looking?"


    "Just passed six thousand. That should do me for a few hours." Travis watched through lizard eyes as the human (wearing a guard uniform) knocked on the door that led to the bar.


    Just as someone in the tavern opened the hidden door, Katelyn reached the door opposite and opened that. "You have a horse with you? You can lead it in there too," she said aloud. "Trav, we need somewhere for people to put their horses. Maybe we could convert the storage drop off there since we have the other one now?"


    "Good thinking," Travis said. "Could you go and find out from them what they need?"


    "Mmhmm." Waiting for the guard to get his horse inside too, Katelyn closed the outer door behind them and ushered him into the tavern area. "You''re ready to get the other share of the resources for us?"


    "Yeah, though Captain Brolly has other things worrying him. The goblin dungeon to the north of Northridge is getting more and more active. They have patrols out and we''re expecting their first expedition any day now." Timothy Devin had found himself volunteered as dungeon liaison after his earlier meeting here, not that he minded too much. "The captain has secured an order for ten guns and needs the gold promised to pay for them."


    "We can bring that tomorrow. How much?" Katelyn settled down at the table Timothy was closest to and gestured for him to sit too. Since her change to being a kobold, she felt far more relaxed in the presence of men¡ªbecause she was sure they weren''t trying to work out how to get her to lift her robes. "Sorry, I should have introduced myself. I''m Katelyn."


    "Tim," Timothy said. "Ten thousand gold will cover them. He said he got a good deal."


    Katelyn laughed and nodded. "You''re speaking to the right kobold, then. I''ve just dug out five thousand or so, I guess I know what I''ll be doing later today. Will you be going back to town with our group, then?"


    Looking around the taproom, Timothy saw a group of four humans to one side playing some kind of card game while another sat apart from them, writing notes on a tablet while he flicked through a book. "That was the plan. Expecting more undead?"


    "Yeah. Probably some time today. You''re welcome to watch the fun if they arrive." Standing up, Katelyn gestured to the kitchen. "Are you hungry? We always have a pot of stew on."


    Perking up at the mention of food, Timothy nodded. "A bowl of stew would be good, thanks."


    "Katelyn, hate to ruin your date, but I just watched some zombhounds run in the front." Travis adjusted his voice mid sentence, ensuring all the kobolds heard the second half.


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 Chapter 58

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 9/10


    Heart 129600/129600


    Experience 28800/32400


    Workers 9/43


    Monsters 1/45


    Traps 59/99


    Rooms 68


    Food 1985


    Timber 751


    Iron 1034


    Steel 405


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 58


    Rock 2515


    Gold 6073


    Leather 402


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 90


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 5


    Quest: Reach Tier 2


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    Having undead in the dungeon wasn''t quite the panic situation it used to be. Travis kept everyone apprised of where they were and how their necromancers were faring against having random boulders slam into them.


    For a moment Travis considered one thing that''d started becoming awkward about the dungeon and that was giving people accurate location information by description. What he wanted was to name some parts of the dungeon so they would be easier to reference quickly. Where the undead were marching now was, of course, the Bowling Alley. Boulder traps everywhere and an unhealthy amount of long tunnels made it the obvious name.


    "I slowed the zombhounds down with the first two boulders, but you might want to get ready to face them, Wild." Wild and Ludmiller had both been in the library working on research, but they made their way up through the tunnels and met Katelyn at the door to the arena. Travis reconsidered the name and came up with Wild''s Arena.


    "What have we got coming, Travis?" Wild asked as he stepped into the arena. As he did, his muscles visibly bulged and he became far more solid and stoic.


    "There were fifteen zombhounds, ten zombies, and ten necromancers. They also brought their lord, but he looks meaner now. I guess that would be their boss getting an upgrade?" He shuddered to think of that.


    "Isn''t the only one out of all that¡ªthat can survive Squishy¡ªthe lord?" Katelyn asked, stepping into the arena and suddenly flaring with pyroclastic energy. "I forgot how it feels to be here. It''s like I''m more alive than normal."


    "Yeah." Ludmiller faded from view as she stepped into the room before her presence was visible by Wild''s blush. "Same plan as last time? I''ll wait by the door and let them pass, then take out any remaining necromancers. Wild, what do you want me targeting after that?"


    "Zombhounds, zombies, and then the boss. Katelyn, I want you burning the zombies down as fast as you can." Wild judged the heft of his axes. "Travis, how are they liking your boulders?"


    "Well, I think I found an interesting thing. There''s definitely a limit to how fast necromancers can bring their undead allies back. I killed all but one, and it took nearly a whole minute to get around to bringing back another." Travis then used two boulders, timed just right, to collide with the remaining necromancer and kill it for good. "Right, there are six zombhounds I''m letting through. They''re moving fast and I don''t want to waste all my boulders on them. Now working on the zombies."


    "Spacing them out is good. Gives us time to work our magic." Ludmiller was standing by the door, careful not to get too close to the lava¡ªdespite it not actually feeling that uncomfortable to be near. Peeking around the corner, she spotted her targets. "Here they come!"


    Watching the undead beasts race into the room, Travis counted them off as they passed Ludmiller and then saw the sixth and final one get opened up completely down one side while a second gouge appeared in its head.


    Wild seemed to be everywhere at once. His axes were black blurs in the red light of the room''s flames, and behind him was an even bigger fire. Each time Katelyn gestured to a zombhound, it would implode with flames.


    With no wounds on them at all, Wild cleaved the second-last undead''s head off while Ludmiller ripped open the last with her daggers.


    "Set up again, you have two zombies and the lord coming," Travis told them.


    <hr>


    Two zombies lurched into the room and Ludmiller let them pass. She waited and saw the undead lord march past her. She took two steps toward him, Katelyn''s first blast of magic landing on one of the zombies, and barely saw the huge sword as it swung toward her.


    It wasn''t at all what she''d expected. She danced back from that swing, only to have the lord slam her with its shield.


    Seeing stars and trying to regain her focus, Ludmiller felt the bite of the undead lord''s sword strike her neck and cleave through.


    There wasn''t any light. It was actually rather dark where Ludmiller had ended up. There, in the darkness, she felt something huge and powerful stir.


    "Luddy! You''re okay. I can see a timer ticking down for you to automatically respawn."


    Travis'' voice was all around and permeating the darkness. He just seemed so huge and reassuring that Ludmiller found herself relaxing. "How long does that take? A day, right?"


    "Yeah. It looks like Katelyn is blowing up the zombies while Wild is cutting down the lord. Hey, you want me to call Brayden to resurrect you?"


    "Wait for the fight to be over. I can''t believe I didn''t wait to see if he could see through my invisibility." Trying to close herself off, though, seemed impossible. Ludmiller watched through two pairs of eyes as Wild stood between Katelyn and the undead lord.


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    Knowing that they were as safe as if they had talismans took a lot of the worry out of the fight for Ludmiller. She watched Katelyn burn the lord again and again with magic, watched Wild dodge and cut at the monster, with a detached sense of enthusiasm for their skills.


    In the end, though, even with the insane damage that the pair could put out, the lord was just too much for them. Wild went down first, his axe biting too hard into the lord''s shield and getting stuck¡ªbefore it brought its sword around in a double slash that stripped away the last of his vitality. Katelyn didn''t have long to go after that. She got one more good spell in before the lord took her through the middle in a slice that¡ªlike Ludmiller¡ªleft her in two pieces.


    The door leading out of the arena opened and the lord, with none of his retinue, started heading deeper into the Maze.


    <hr>


    Travis felt a little down, given three of his friends had just died, but the respawn counters were reassuring as they ticked down. Explosions sounded in the Maze, one after another, as the undead lord stomped toward the center.


    As its feet reached the bottom of the stairs, something else got Travis'' attention¡ªPenelope woke up. She didn''t exactly fit on her cot anymore, for one thing her legs hung off the end and her wings had torn up some of the furs.


    Rolling to her feet, she stood up and up and up¡ªalmost brushing her head on the ceiling. "Mmm. Trav? How big am I?"


    "Come out into my heart room and I''ll tell you." He didn''t really need her to do so to know she had grown significantly. The way her head was almost at the same height as the ceiling was a good give-away. When she stepped into the light of his heart, Travis gasped.


    "That big, huh? Wow, I can reach out to the top of you now." Stepping up to Travis'' heart, she did just that and pressed a claw gently on the top of it. "Anything fun happen while I was asleep?"


    "Wild, Luddy, and Katelyn are all respawning. Big wave of undead came in and it looks like their lord got an upgrade. He''s working his way through the Twists now." Travis noticed that Penelope''s weapons had become larger too. One was the size of a short sword and the other was a huge blade¡ªas big as the lord''s. "Do you want to tackle him?"


    Drawing her weapons, Penelope looked them over. The short sword was the right size for her to use as a dagger, but the great sword was far closer to being a short sword to her. "Yeah. Let me give this a shot. And send someone to fetch Fife and the others. Probably Brayden."


    "Brayden''s already up there. I sent him up when the lord saw through Luddy''s stealth and beat her down. He''s trying to bring them back, but he¡ªOh, he got Katelyn up. Brayden, can you let Fife and the others know we might have a situation downstairs?" After hearing an affirmative, Travis passed it on to Penelope. "Oh, and all of you, you shouldn''t have to dig through walls anymore. I got an upgrade that says you can just pass through one block worth of wall."


    "If I can figure out how that works, I''ll let you know." Walking toward the wall that would let her bypass the Twists and shortcut into Squishy''s shrine, Penelope faced the first wall she needed to pass. "Alright, wall, I need to be on the other side."


    She walked at the wall and it was definitely still a wall.


    "Okay, let me try again." Pushing forward with just her hand, Penelope tried to focus on the feeling of reaching through mud. That worked. She followed her arm and, with a silent rush of pressure, was spat out the other side of the wall. "That''s neat. Okay, time to help Squishy take out that big bastard."


    When she slipped through the rock a second time to get into the tunnel from Squishy''s shrine to the final traps, Penelope could hear a dull explosion in the distance. "How many is that, Trav?"


    "Three. One more and it will be in the final run to get down here. How are you going to tackle it?" Travis shoved back the nerves he felt at knowing the undead dungeon''s boss had crushed all his defenses so far.


    Smiling and reaching her claws out, Penelope ran the back of her hand down Squishy''s side. "Now, Squishy, you wait back here and sit on your shrine. When the bad guy comes and attacks you, I''ll step through the wall and get him to turn around¡ªthen you pull him in. Got it?"


    Travis was a little dumbstruck as to how the slime might understand her, but it seemed to be.


    The fourth and final blast of the Twists went off and the wait was on. A few lizards were making the tunnel where Trav had his last boulder trap as their home, so he spotted when the undead lord entered that tunnel. "I''m going to throw a boulder at him, then he''ll be in here. Ready?"


    Just giving a nod, and expecting Travis to see her vision bob, Penelope waited. She heard the click and rumble of a boulder¡ªheard too the sound of it crashing into a shield¡ªand further bone dry steps as it entered Squishy''s area.


    It took Travis a moment to figure out what was going on. The lord hadn''t charged at Squishy, but when he felt an intense pain from the slime, he remembered seeing what Jack had used on them before. "Pen! The lord is freezing Squishy!"


    Pushing her fist through the wall, Penelope followed it and came out just behind the lord. She didn''t wait long to draw her off-hand sword while bringing her claws down the undead''s back¡ªraking away armor and the remains of whatever tattered flesh it had there.


    The arm the undead lord had been pointing at Squishy with reached to its hip to draw its weapon as it turned.


    "Leave my friend alone!" Penelope drew her sword at the same time as the lord and, when he swung at her, she caught its heavy blade with her short sword and knocked it aside while bringing her own weapon down on its shield.


    She didn''t have to beat the lord, but Penelope was finding that fighting it was easier than she''d thought. Its blows, that should have knocked her weapons from her grip, were caught solidly and divested of their power. Cracks and breaks were appearing on the lord''s shield where her own great sword had collided with it several times.


    Not that her main weapon felt like a great sword. It was light and responsive in her grip. She was enjoying the fight in that it was against an opponent that wasn''t quite good enough to get by her defenses.


    After some back and forth, with no wounds scored for either combatant, Penelope finally had things set up just right. Screaming her rage at the acts the undead had perpetrated before reaching her, she tossed her swords aside and started clawing at the lord. Grabbing its sword with one hand and its shield with the other, she raised one leg and braced against its pelvis. "Sorry, but you''re nothing but food," she said, kicking it with such force that it lost its grip on weapon and shield and, flying backward, stopped moving several feet into Squishy''s body.


    Watching the disarmed skeleton trying to claw its way through the slime¡ªwith no evidence of success¡ªPenelope collected her own weapons and walked over to Squishy. "He was getting you pretty good, wasn''t he?" Leaning forward, she pressed her head against the surface of the slime. "Don''t worry, big guy, I''ve got your back."


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 Chapter 59

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 10/10


    Heart 160000/160000


    Experience 40000/40000


    Workers 9/47


    Monsters 1/49


    Traps 59/109


    Rooms 68


    Food 1981


    Timber 801


    Iron 1034


    Steel 705


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 58


    Rock 2515


    Gold 6073


    Leather 402


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 90


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 5


    Quest: Reach Tier 2


    Quest: Get 10,000 gold


    </blockquote>


    What surprised Travis was that when Squishy ate the upgraded undead lord and Penelope dropped its weapons¡ªhe got steel and timber from them. It was the first time he''d gained any kind of salvage. More importantly, though, he had reached the max level for the tier and the upgrade had finally become visible.


    <blockquote>


    Unlock Tier 2:


    15,000 Gold


    5,000 Timber


    5,000 Food


    40,000 XP


    </blockquote>


    The groan he emitted could be heard all throughout the dungeon by the kobolds. "Sorry, everyone. Okay, I got the details on the unlock for Tier 2. Fifteen thousand gold, five thousand timber, and five thousand food. So, when you go to escort the next delivery, I want you to take as much gold as you can haul¡ªliterally as much as you can haul. Steph, can you arrange for more food and timber to be delivered?"


    "I''ll handle it, Trav," Stephan said.


    "Thanks, Steph," Travis said. "Okay, I want it to mostly be our adventurer employees helping with the delivery, since that''s partly what we''re paying them for. As for everyone else, I need timber and food, so we''re going to get all those empty rooms made into warehouses. Katelyn, can I get you to prepare to mine iron and a lot of gold?"


    "Priority is gold first, right?" Katelyn asked, already standing up from her seat in the tavern.


    "Right. I want that wagon groaning under the weight of what we can haul to town. Everyone not helping with mining or resetting traps, can you please help out by cutting down trees?" It had become second nature to phrase everything as a request¡ªalways asking if people can help rather than telling them. He couldn''t do anything about the mental compulsions that drove kobolds, but he could make sure they didn''t trigger into something no one wanted. "Except Tannyr. I''d like you finishing off digging and also set up an experiment for me¡ªif you could?"


    Ludmiller and Wild got to work rearming the Bowling Alley, Katelyn headed upstairs to start on getting more gold, which left everyone else except Stephan and Tannyr heading out to cut down trees.


    Tannyr was working her way along the new tunnels in the lower areas of the dungeon and was humming happily to herself. "Where do you want me digging first?"


    "It''s been way too long without us being able to make our own steel. So, let''s make a Blacksmith. I have a good spot for it in the newer area." Travis gave her directions and finally led her to a room that had already been dug to a five by five, but he had changed the plans.


    When Tannyr sliced through the rock as if it was barely there, Travis paid the cost of the Blacksmith he wanted there.


    <hr>


    It never ceased to amaze Tannyr how things were built in the dungeon. Bang a desk into shape here, push an anvil to a pile of bricks there¡ªnext thing she knew there was a raging fire in the furnace and she was standing in the middle of a blacksmith work area. "Okay, Trav, all done."


    "Nice! That unlocked a few extra traps for me. Okay, just down the hall is where we can put the charcoal burner. Then a few mana storage rooms, then more warehouses."


    Cozy in the grip of the stone around her, Tannyr walked to the side of the room and said, "Pen taught us all how to do this. Much quicker to get around." And with that she pictured her arm pushing through the rock¡ªand stepped through it.


    "You know what, I actually just modified things a little. Let''s just go with three warehouses."


    Digging out three more rooms, then modifying a tunnel, Tannyr was in her zone. She ignored building the charcoal burner for the moment and instead just set about digging what she could. Finally she went back and built the charcoal burner and two more storage rooms. "There. More dig¡ª"


    "So close to ten thousand gold. But we don''t have enough timber, so you might as well keep¡ªCrap, there goes another gold mine." Travis had to turn his attention to the first floor where Katelyn had just melted down the last of that gold vein. "Time to move to another, but we don''t have any room for more. When are they loading the wagon?" The last he directed at Stephan.


    "I can start now if you''d like?" Standing behind the wagon just inside the entrance of the dungeon, Stephan jumped up into the empty bed. Reaching behind his back, he started pulling out the odd little bars of gold that were surprisingly heavy.


    Watching his gold go down at a rate comparable to the springs under the wagon, Travis let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Steph. Now all we need is piles of wood and we can start building a lot more storage warehouses."


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    While he waited for Stephan to load all the gold into the wagon, Travis started some calculations of his storage. With the one big specialized gold warehouse, twenty-two that had been upgraded once, and another twenty-one regular warehouses, he figured he had almost eleven thousand storage in there. But the numbers didn''t add up, especially from his first figures on how much he could store. That meant that his own capacity for storage increased as he leveled.


    It was reassuring, though it didn''t change the fact that he was probably going to have over a hundred warehouses before he got to Tier 4.


    "Trav, I think this is it. Fife is taking bets on if the wagon will make it and I don''t think I''ll be joining the pool if I put more in," Stephan said.


    "Okay, you have just under seven thousand gold worth of bars there. Use that to order more timber and food, and when their wagons are returning tomorrow we''ll fill them up with gold." With his plans set in motion, Travis watched as the group headed out¡ªand he felt much emptier.


    There was something reassuring about having people living in his dungeon¡ªa level of background noise that let him ignore non-issues and discern what was important. With just Katelyn and Tannyr left in the dungeon, Travis couldn''t help but watch all the lizards scurrying around.


    When Penelope hauled in several logs of timber, Travis let out a sigh of relief. "Just knock down the wall there if it will help fit it in easier."


    "Travis!" Tannyr''s voice drew Travis'' attention to her. "I found another mana shrine."


    "Ugh! Why are they always in awkward places? Okay, give me a second to adjust this." Travis worked fast to redesign the area not dug into a series of three by three rooms for mana storage. "There."


    When Penelope started working on the logs, Travis quickly paid for the upgrade in the timber mill to boost output, at a cost of one hundred steel. Then the others started hauling in trees too. He took a guess and figured out each large tree was giving them a hundred timber.


    Tree after tree was hauled in until Travis could see his timber finally reach three thousand. "Okay, we can call it there. Don''t take down any more trees, just bring what you have." What they had was another two trees.


    When it came down to it, he spent two thousand, six hundred and sixty timber and a hundred and ninety iron to build thirty-eight more warehouses. "This is insane, but it should help."


    "I think," Penelope said, as they all filed down into the lower dungeon, "that Trav is fixated on warehouses. Anyone else think so?"


    Travis groaned at all the voices that called out in support. "Come on! It''s not like that. We need to be able to store twenty-five thousand stuff to get to Tier 2."


    "We know, Trav," Blake said.


    "We''re just having a little fun. So, thirty-eight? That''s how many each?" Brayden asked.


    "Four and a few left over." Stephan was first to answer, cutting several others off. "Trav, can you get the stuff set out for us?"


    "It already is. Just find a room, build a warehouse, then look for another." As they all filtered out into their rooms, Travis watched as each was turned into storage for the dungeon. When the construction was finally done, Travis had to admit it was crazy. There were almost ninety warehouses in his dungeon now, and they still wouldn''t quite be enough. "The good news is that it gave me enough storage to get the have ten thousand gold quest completed. The bad news is that there still isn''t enough storage to get to the next tier."


    A round of groans from everyone made Penelope wince in sympathy for Travis. "Hey, we can''t let that get us down. We knew this would take work. How much room do we have now, Trav?"


    "Okay, so we have three thousand resources worth of stuff. We have fourteen thousand, six hundred more, so we''re about seven thousand resource space short. The fastest way to get there now would be to harvest a lot of timber and start going wild upgrading what we have to the first or second upgrade." Travis was checking out the stats as he spoke, building a bigger picture for himself of what he needed to do.


    "Right, so the downside of building more warehouses is that it takes more space, needs us to dig into more dangerous areas, and finally we have to store all the rock we get." Blake tapped his chin with a claw. "The upgrades are more expensive than just building more, but at the same time why¡ª"


    "Why don''t we see what the gold quest gives us?" Katelyn asked.


    "Okay, that''s good. I know some of you have been working long hours, so consider this night time. Go up to the tavern and have a drink. We don''t have any undead scheduled and the town will be sending us a lot of presents tomorrow."


    Despite his heartfelt request that they take some time to themselves, Travis noticed that Robert went straight to his lab, Blake found his design for the first floor and started revising it, and Katelyn went up to the first floor and found one of the gold veins.


    "Okay, Trav, tell me when." Tapping her staff on the floor a few times, Katelyn built up a good flow of mana and opened herself to the vein to pour heat in. She only stopped when Travis shouted at her. "Is that it?"


    "Yeah. The quest completed but I''m not sure what I got or where I got it." Travis was trying to work out what his reward was. Eventually he thought to check out that one warehouse he had that a quest had upgraded previously and¡ªfound it exactly the same. However, he did notice a gleam in a few of the other warehouses nearby. Eventually he realized what it was. "Every single warehouse just got upgraded to its next level!"


    "So, do we have enough storage to make it now?" Katelyn asked, backing off from the still softly glowing vein of gold.


    Travis felt elated at first, but then he noticed something. "I don''t even know, we might have but there''s a new quest: defeat an enemy dungeon."


    "Oh." Katelyn started making her way back to the tavern. "Let''s just¡ªWasn''t the town hoping to keep these other dungeons alive to get resources from them?"


    "Yeah, well, they might have to put up with just me. Thanks again, Katelyn."


    "Trav, you don''t have to thank me for doing everything, though a wizard tower would be nice when you can build one." Katelyn turned the corner for the bar.


    "If is probably more like it, but you''ve got it. A wizard tower would probably be like me putting on a hat, after all, and I think I''d look good with a big hat." Travis didn''t have to split his attention any longer because all the kobolds of the dungeon were in one room.


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 Chapter 60

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 10/10


    Heart 160000/160000


    Experience 40000/40000


    Workers 9/47


    Monsters 1/49


    Traps 58/109


    Rooms 110


    Food 1980


    Timber 600


    Iron 634


    Steel 605


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 51


    Rock 2447


    Gold 10094


    Leather 377


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 90


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 20


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Quest: Reach Tier 2


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon


    </blockquote>


    Travis was getting nervous. The delivery from Northridge was late. Not just late, but really late. In fact, it hadn''t turned up at all during the day it should have, nor the night thereafter (not that he had expected them to come at night), and now the following day was dawning and he was starting to expect undead to arrive once more.


    With nothing more to dig, for now, he had given the kobolds their first day of the weekend without reservation¡ªbut with the constant nibbling worry in the back of his head. "You want to know the worst thing about not sleeping, Pen?"


    "I could think of a few, but go ahead and give me what you got." Sitting in the heart room, Penelope was sitting with her back resting against Travis and her wings hanging at her sides.


    "That when everyone else is asleep, and I''m left keeping watch through lizard eyes, I can''t stop thinking of all the problems that could be brewing." The closeness of Penelope was about the best thing Travis could hope for right then. With so much of her pressed against him, he felt her own strength as his. "But now I''m wondering what other existential dread you think I can get up to at night."


    "If I don''t tell you, you''ll obsess over it, right?"


    Travis wished he could nod. "Yeah, so that comes in at number two."


    Penelope laughed and stretched her wings out one at a time. "I bet it''s not easy keeping watch, too. The worry that something will come in and won''t stop until it''s reached you."


    "Not anymore, and I think that was something about being a dungeon more than just me. It itched to not have enough traps and defenses, but now I can see things getting cut down before they even reach my second floor. That''s a big ol'' cozy feeling." Travis actually felt smug about that. Knowing that he was safe from whatever the undead dungeon could throw at him was a huge relief. "What else you got?"


    "Confident now, are you?"


    "Mmhmm!"


    "Stephan is out there."


    That one hit Travis. "Oof. Yeah, that''s one thing that I spent all night worrying about. I''m protective, but I still feel really responsible for him. He never asked to be here and he didn''t exactly threaten us."


    "That was my fault." Pulling her legs up against her body, Penelope let out a soft whine. After some time of being silent, with just Travis'' presence around her, she finally opened up further. "I misread what you intended. I figured we''d just grab people. I¡ªI didn''t think of how you''d feel about it."


    "You were okay with it?" Travis realized how accusatory his words were the moment they were out. "Not that¡ª"


    "It''s fine, Trav. Yes, I was at the time. The old me was dead and gone. By the abyss, the old me would have probably been just as fine to go along with it. Will and Peter were a bad influence on me." As she spoke, Penelope curled her wings around herself and seemed to try to disappear.


    "But you know it''s wrong. You''re different from them¡ªbetter." Travis wanted to scream at the injustice of not being able to hug Penelope. "When he gets back, talk to him."


    "Now you know what I worry about when I can''t sleep. How do I even start this? ''Sorry for kidnapping you''?" Talking did cause Penelope to unfold a little. She stretched her legs, arms, and then her wings.


    "It''s a hell of an opening line."


    "Yeah. I''ll figure something out. Thanks, Trav." Turning her head, Penelope pressed her lips to Travis'' heart and then turned back away¡ªblushing.


    <hr>


    Stephan felt the weight of the sky pushing in at him from every direction at once. He huddled up against Jack''s side a little closer. Behind them was more gold than most adventurers would see in a lifetime and it worried him that they were just rolling along without any protection apart from said adventurers.


    But neither Fife nor Jack had proved to be that kind of greedy, and the new group they''d started paying seemed in high spirits too. But irrational fears were just that, irrational. He could no more easily reason himself out of worrying than he could be human again. "How long until we reach Northridge?"


    "Not long now. The new walls around it should be visible soon," Fife said. She shared the slight worry that Stephan did, but less so for the other adventuring group and more about what might happen if the people of Northridge saw how much gold they were carrying.


    When the high walls of Northridge were visible, everyone let out a little sigh of relief. They drove their wagon under the heavy gate''s portcullis and Fife called a greeting to the guards there. "Ho! We come from the dungeon! Are the wagons ready to roll?"


    "You''ll have to talk to Sellswell," Brolly said, walking up to the side of the wagon. "We''ve had a few probing attacks from the goblins, any chance of getting the payment for our guns?"


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    Patting the side of the wagon behind her, Fife said, "Got just shy of seven thousand, but that''s all our wagon can haul. When you drop off the resources tomorrow, you can load up with as much as you can haul back."


    Freezing mid-step, Brolly had to double down and think harder on how much gold that would be. "I''ll order more rifles."


    "Don''t bother, Trav just got a place to make steel and a gunsmith. If you can find someone to make guns, get them out to us and we''ll make sure everyone in town has two guns." Fife''s smirk was, of course, because she already had two guns. "Just show us where this merchant is, and we can get this rolling."


    They got directions to where a huge array of sturdy wagons were being prepared in the merchant district. It was choked with people working, and not least of those was Christine Sellswell. She had the master ledger for the deal, the goods already paid for taking the highest priority, but she assumed there was going to be a special request. When she spotted the wagon rolling low on its axles approach, she didn''t need to see the kobold on the bench to know where it was from. "Hello! We''ve been waiting!"


    Seeing all the merchant activity, Stephan felt his self-assurance shove his concerns aside. "We need some additional things," he said as they got closer. Jumping down from the wagon (and with Fife and Jack following him), Stephan approached Christine with his tablet. "You have the timber?" He waited for Christine to nod. "We would like to double that. Also, the grain? Can we triple that?"


    "The steel¡ª?" Christine asked.


    "Steel is less important. We can make that ourselves now with iron and timber. We would still like what you are sending here."


    Looking at her notes, Christine''s heart raced as she realized she had enough wood to cover the expanded order and, if the town went a little short itself, enough grain. A short-notice order, though, meant she could adjust the prices a little. "We can haul it, but we can''t leave today. Tomorrow morning at the earliest. There will be a surcharge."


    "We''ll pay for it on arrival. We would also like to start an account with the town." The idea came to Stephan as he spoke, and he was sure Travis would be onboard with it. Just giving them gold to hold in town, and even spend if they needed to, meant they could order whatever they needed as they needed it and not worry about payment. "Would this be okay?"


    "I see where you''re coming from, given how much that wagon is sagging. How much gold will you load us up with to bring back?" Christine asked, ready to write down a sum she could start to work with¡ªand trying to hide how eager this deal made her.


    "We have almost seven thousand coin worth in this wagon. Yours seem more sturdy, so you might get ten to twelve. We''ll fill as many as you bring." He didn''t relish being the one to tell Katelyn she''d be busy for a day or so melting gold veins, but Stephan knew she wouldn''t complain too much. This was for the dungeon after all. "This way you can use the funds to pay the priest for resurrections, buy more weapons and armor, or anything else you think will help the town. We will expect an invoice regularly, of course, but you can claim the wages of a scribe to do the work there too."


    "That sounds reasonable." It was more than reasonable, Christine knew, and she was sure that Stephan knew too. "We''ll have the extra order loaded tomorrow, just as soon as I can find more wagons to haul it in. Can we use that one of yours?"


    Grinning, showing off his teeth, Stephan said, "Of course, and I won''t even charge you for it. Oh, we also need to cover the price of the guns the town watch were purchasing."


    Christine waved a hand at that. "We''ll work out the details at the first ledger review. I''ll admit I was skeptical about the relationship with your dungeon, even wary, but I believe I understand what you plan. You wish to invest in Northridge."


    "Literally what Trav said." Stephan looked down at his notes and nodded to them. "I think I''ll need to take some of this to Brother Rupert, and then I''ll leave you to oversee things and get a room in the tavern."


    <hr>


    When Brolly Windchime saw the kobold and his group of mage-heavy support heading to the tavern, he made his way over too. There was still the question of payment for the rifles, and he didn''t want to have an outstanding debt with the sellers.


    Slipping into the tavern shortly after the group from the dungeon, Brolly felt a weight of comfort settle around him in the familiar room. He nodded to the barmaid and walked over to where Stephan and the dungeon''s hires sat. "Greetings again. I trust you''ve settled things with Christine?"


    "Yes. She will be acting as the dungeon''s agent when it comes to handling funds in Northridge. She will be able to dispense the full pay for the guns to you after she returns from the dungeon." Stephan kept up his I''m just a broker ploy, which had been working to keep back his fears so far. It helped that he was in an enclosed building again. "We expanded our order, so we will be here for an extra day while she tries to find, repair, or buy as many extra wagons as she can find."


    "More steel?" Brolly asked.


    "No. We need to get wood and food to expand to our next level. I still don''t understand why it takes specific values, but it does and that''s all there is to it. At our next level we are planning to start trying to produce mithril and adamantine. You may want to have your crafting guild entice some high quality smiths to work with it." Stephan could see Fife grinning from ear to ear. "And make sure some are weapon and armor smiths."


    "Yes!" Fife pumped her fist. "This is going to be the best. Have you ever seen how hard an adamantine shield hits things? I''ll be a walking dreadnought!"


    "With guns," Jack added, earning a quick nod from Fife. "I believe we would like to start offering invitations for people to move in. Preferably as kobolds, though the dungeon is amenable to humans working there. In fact, that has its own advantages."


    It was the oddest request yet, but one Brolly could certainly help put into action. "Any trades in particular?"


    "Gunsmith, armor smith, and weaponsmith¡ªare the main ones we''re after. Apart from that, good, honest laborers who want to work somewhere different are welcome. Families, too. Though, for laboring we would prefer them to become kobolds. Trav was specific that he won''t convert children unless their lives are in danger." Jack spared a glance at Stephan, who he thought looked relieved. He''d gotten the distinct idea that Stephan was far more comfortable talking money than anything else apart from the work he did in the dungeon.


    "The goblins," Ogmera said, cutting into the conversation without a hint of a care. "I hear they are starting to swarm. These guns you''re buying are a good start, but I might suggest using some of the extra gold to hire more fire wizards. You want those corpses burned¡ªpreferably from afar."


    "I think it would be a good idea if we had a little chat about that." Brolly was relieved to have experts in rot dungeon problems on hand, though he wished it was still vermin they had to deal with.


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 61

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 10/10


    Heart 160000/160000


    Experience 40000/40000


    Workers 9/47


    Monsters 1/49


    Traps 58/109


    Rooms 110


    Food 1973


    Timber 600


    Iron 634


    Steel 605


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 47


    Rock 2447


    Gold 10094


    Leather 377


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 90


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 20


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Quest: Reach Tier 2


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    Mana Shrine depleted


    </blockquote>


    It was something Travis had been expecting. That still didn''t change the fact that it annoyed him that shrines would run out. "Dungeons have to keep growing. Even when everything''s unlocked and you have everything you could ever need, a dungeon has to keep growing."


    "Huh? What''s up, Trav?" Penelope asked.


    "The mana shrine near Robert''s lab just expired. I was contemplating that even once a dungeon is as big as it ever needs to be, it needs to keep growing because shrines and resource nodes will keep expiring."


    Shaking her head, Penelope said, "I don''t think you do. I know it would take a lot of effort, but when you get your final floor, it would probably be a good idea to shift everything from this one to that. I don''t mean in a rush, but gradually shrinking that final floor.


    "It would make putting shrines and nodes down in a tight cluster easier. You could put down a ton of them, until you can''t make more because of space requirements, and then just dig out into them and slurp up all the resources as fast as possible. Then fill them all in and do it all over again."


    "That''s a neat angle, yeah. It could also work with larger areas, there''d just be a lot more resource nodes." Travis picked away at the idea, then started laughing. "You know, we need a more reliable way to move bulk amounts of goods to Northridge."


    Sometimes Travis felt constrained by the level of technology in the world being where it was, though sometimes the opposite. "Do you know what trains are?"


    "Yes, Trav, we have trains here. We''re not that backwards. It just takes a lot of steel to¡ªOh." Now Penelope laughed too. "Okay, I get what you mean now. So we''d build tracks from here to Northridge?"


    "That depends. I got a quest to destroy another dungeon. If we were to destroy the undead dungeon, and I''m not saying we do, building a railway to get goods to Northridge would be a great idea since it would be less likely to be attacked."


    Wincing at the description, Penelope put her thoughts into words. "Dungeons are very rarely destroyed, Trav¡ªthey''re too valuable. If one proved so dangerous the local town cannot defend itself against it, then the kingdom could be petitioned to send an exterminator." She used a claw to draw a circle into the rock of the floor, sketching a little map of the town and the dungeons around it. "There''s another thing, though. There are old stories that sometimes an area will spawn another dungeon if one is destroyed. It doesn''t happen often enough that you''d notice, but if that''s true, wiping out the undead dungeon could result in something worse appearing."


    "That could be a problem, but even if every dungeon we destroyed came back as another dungeon, they would be smaller than me. They would be weaker and we could keep rolling the dice until more of the¡ªwhat is that other one called, verdant animals?" When Penelope nodded, Travis continued. "Right. So we just keep destroying dungeons until there is us, the town, and three verdant animal dungeons."


    "Trav, you''re audacious and completely dismissive of how all this dungeon stuff is meant to work, and I love it. You''re going to give the people in Northridge a headache, and they might actually fight against you on this one, but I think they will like it in the end. So, how do we go about attacking and defeating the undead dungeon?" Standing up, Penelope walked over to the wall of the dungeon and used the side of her claw to shave an area smooth. Then, she started to write a list. "We need to locate it, ensure we can interdict any forces it throws at us, and then start exploring it. The town might even be able to give us a bounty for that."


    "Should we tell the town what we''re doing?" Travis asked.


    "That''s a good question. I don''t know. Okay, new entry over here." She walked over to another section of the wall and started writing.


    <blockquote>


    Protected by dungeon:


    Penelope


    Wild


    Ludmiller


    Katelyn


    </blockquote>


    Turning her head to look back at Travis, she raised an eye ridge. "What does this tell you is our next high priority?"


    It became far clearer for Travis now. "Boss rooms, making people into bosses and cohorts, expanding tiers to have more bosses."


    "There''s something else. Brayden. He needs to become a cohort as soon as possible. So long as he lives, and you live, we can bring anyone back." Penelope started on two new lists: New Kobold Priority and Boss/Cohort Priority. She added Fife to the former and Brayden to the latter. "I''ll talk to Fife about her thoughts on this, but I believe putting her arena on this floor would be best. When she gets that boss upgrade plus a floor upgrade plus her arena upgrade, she''ll be impossible to bring down."


    Gesturing back to the first list, the one with what they needed to do to defeat the undead dungeon, Penelope used her claw tip to score a line under the interdiction part. "There is no point risking lives going into there. Wait, did you ever test if talismans worked with dungeon creatures?"


    Travis remembered back to his briefest thoughts on that. "No. There were two huge problems with that and I didn''t want to even try bringing it up until they were dealt with¡ªbut I guess they are now. With Brayden we have a way to bring someone back in case they fail, and with the priest in town we have a way to reliably get talismans."


    "So, do you want me to test this right now?"


    "No. That''s no good either. The timer thing I get might interfere with the talisman. Also, don''t talismans need to be bound?" Travis asked.


    "I don''t think it''s binding so much as the priest not wanting to bring you back if they don''t recognize you. We shouldn''t have that problem with Brother Rupert." Scraping a little more flat area at the top of the list of things to do to defeat the undead dungeon, Penelope added: Test talismans. "Okay, so next time someone goes to town, we have them buy a talisman from the priest. Then we can test that." He let a simulated gasp out. "Fife just stepped in the front door!"


    <hr>


    "Knock knock! I hope someone''s home!" Fife looked down at the lizard sitting beside her foot, staring up at her. "Trav, you wanna send everyone up here? We got so much stuff and they''re going to want all the gold they can carry."


    She waited, tapping her foot. Fife was just about to start talking to the lizard again when the door beside her opened and Brayden looked up at her. "Ah, cool. Is everyone coming to help?"


    "Trav told me to remind you that he can''t hear through lizards. Also, he can''t read lips. Yeah, the others are coming. Any problems on the road?" Peeking out through the entrance, Brayden could catch a glimpse of a lot of wagons.


    "This is going to unlock the next floor, right? Then I don''t need to yell at lizards so much." Despite her annoyance at the wait, Fife picked the lizard up and set it on her shoulder. The lizard, knowing a good source of warmth when it found one, wrapped its tail around the curve of her neck and under her chainmail. "The road was fine. Steph talked them into sending more stuff right now, so we took a bit longer to get everything moving. Undead should be coming any day now, right?"


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    "Yeah I¡ª" Cutting himself off when Penelope stepped out of the door, he made room for her to get past.


    "Holy gods and goddesses, Pen. I spend a few days away from this place and forget how big you are now." Fife had to look up to look Penelope in the eyes. "This is how many upgrades?"


    "First one made me a boss," Penelope said, drawing her huge pickaxe out and ripping down the wall in front of the storage room. "And the second gave me bigger wings, height, and more teeth than I know what to do with." For effect, she flashed a smile at Fife.


    Eyes fighting against the dim light, Fife found herself grinning like a fool. "Steph also promised them we''d fill all their wagons to capacity with gold. They''re going to hold any excess as credit."


    "That''s perfect!" Travis couldn''t help but get excited. "I was hoping they''d be okay with that, and that we could trust them, because it does two things. It puts them in our pocket and it means I have an excuse to just fill their pockets with gold."


    "Generosity doesn''t hurt us, I guess. If it makes the town happy and makes them want to trade more with us, it''s fine. Maybe you could lease a part of the city." Penelope started swinging her pickaxe, ripping apart the wall that hid the storage drop-off and the timber mill at the front door. "That way you''d have somewhere in town to establish offices and store gold, while also giving you an excuse to keep giving the town gold."


    When she was confident Penelope had started to open up the dungeon for delivery, Fife walked back outside and had to shade her eyes even at the sun filtering down through the trees overhead. "Alright, start bringing them in. Two at a time should be okay, Pen''s making you plenty of room."


    "Trav, get Katelyn up here and melting down gold. We can fill up their wagons as they''re going back out again." Brayden looked at Penelope, then at the first wagon approaching. "Pull that up on your right, by the open storage room there. When you''re unloaded, swing around and park on the other side to get loaded with gold."


    Walking into the dungeon¡ªher first time in any dungeon¡ªChristine Sellswell first had to acknowledge that it was dark. Locating a kobold with a staff, she asked, "Excuse me, I understand I can speak to the dungeon itself?"


    Katelyn stopped and looked the woman up and down. "A lot of us will be busy and you''ll need someone to translate. Trav, would you get my brother up here? One of the merchants wants a chat."


    "My name is Christine Sellswell, I''m the head of the merchant guild in Northridge."


    "Robert''s asleep. Ludmiller is coming," Travis told Katelyn.


    "If you''ll come into the tavern here, Trav has Ludmiller coming to talk on his behalf." Katelyn noticed that a wagon was already getting loaded with gold. "You''ll have to excuse me, though, I need to go get some gold for your wagons to haul back."


    "You mine the gold?" Christine asked, pausing at the doorway to the well-lit tavern area.


    "I melt it. It''s the fastest way to get it out of a vein. Sorry, I really have to go if this isn''t going to get backed up so much you''ll be spending the night here." Leaving Christine with that apology, Katelyn started back down the back tunnel and toward the gold veins. She nodded to Ludmiller as they passed. "She''s in the tavern."


    "Thanks, Kate." With a bounce to her step, Ludmiller wound her way to the tavern and stepped inside. Christine Sellswell was sitting at a table with only a lizard on the chair beside her for company. "Trav, are you watching?"


    "Yeah. She seems self-assured and not at all afraid of entering a dungeon. Kinda weird, but that''s merchants," Travis said.


    "Would you like a drink?" Ludmiller walked around behind the bar and was already filling a pitcher with water for herself.


    "Small beer will be fine," Christine said, trying to not feel shocked at having another kobold around. "You''re Ludmiller? The former adventurer?"


    Carrying two pitchers and two glasses, Ludmiller approached the table. "Yup. What did you want to talk about?"


    "This is mostly addressed to the dungeon itself. I believe it is¡ª?"


    Ludmiller cut in with Travis'' quick reply. "Trav says he''s sentient. He can talk, feel, and even make bad jokes."


    Christine tried to ignore the jokes part. "Perfect. Firstly, I''d like to thank him for being so open with Northridge and myself, but I want to know his plans. Stephan, the kobold that has been negotiating with me, seems most insistent that Trav wants to invest in Northridge. What I''d like to know is how, why, and with what goal in mind?"


    Listening to Travis for a moment, Ludmiller nodded and started repeating it. "He wants me to answer those in reverse order, if you''re okay with that?" She waited for Christine to nod. "Long term, he well recognizes that he will be safest if there is a town with its own army of well-equipped soldiers protecting him because he is the backbone of that town.


    "Why? Because your town can get a lot more done in a shorter amount of time if you can pay better rates for goods, and more gold in an area attracts more people willing to work hard for it, and more people means you get to the point of having a well-equipped army faster.


    "How? He''d like to rent some land in the city."


    It perplexed Christine. "''Rent''?"


    "Exactly. He''s sure that the price will not be too much. He wants a nice building where he can store some goods, gold, and have room for any guests of his or kobolds to rest and do so in comfort. He knows that as Northridge grows, so too will the price increase." Ludmiller could see the moment when Christine figured it out. Right as she''d mentioned the price increase, realization had dawned¡ªwrit large on the merchant''s features. "You understand now, I think."


    "I believe I do. This building, as well as any staff that work there, could be provided by our city, for a very competitive price." Christine knew when she was being handed a present, and now she knew why she was getting such a gift. "It would surely make negotiations easier if we had a nearby consultant who could make decisions on Trav''s behalf."


    Her eyes widening a little, Ludmiller let out a bit of a wheeze. "He asks if five thousand gold a month, plus another thousand for guards and servants, will be enough?"


    In Christine''s head, five thousand gold of clear profit, every month, seemed like a very good way to buy into the town''s good books. The best books, in fact, since five thousand gold could buy a lot of paper. "That sounds like a fine price."


    After her earlier reaction, Ludmiller''s eyes almost bugged out at what she needed to ask. "There was another matter, though your guard captain will probably want to be the one to discuss it. He thinks you would be a perfect envoy to bring it to his attention. Trav is sick of being attacked by undead. It happens every few days, and while we''re repelling the attacks readily enough, it isn''t without resources being spent. Would the town be fine with us eliminating the undead dungeon nearby?"


    "Destroying a dungeon without just cause is against the law of the kingdom." It was annoying, because Christine was absolutely fine with the friendly dungeon wiping out the undead and the goblins. "I will contact a master of law to advise us on how to go about getting the legal right to eliminate it."


    "There are two more matters. The first is something that will be simpler than kingdom law, he promises. He will be trying to open a new entrance to the dungeon soon, and he will be trying to make it as close to Northridge as he can. Will this be okay?"


    "If he can do that, it will be very helpful. I can''t see anyone objecting. There was another thing?" Christine had pulled out a tablet to take notes on, using shorthand to quickly and effectively use the best of the space she had.


    "The other would be to build a railway from Northridge to more populous parts of the kingdom." Ludmiller was at the point where nothing she was told would surprise her. She drank a glass of water and started pouring herself another.


    Christine''s hand started moving, writing down details and trying to come up with round figures. "That would require a lot of gold. Probably more than a lot of gold¡ªit would require a great deal of steel. I presume Trav would be willing to pay for it?"


    "If he pays the whole price, he will be charging to use the service. If Northridge wishes to share some of that burden, particularly by helping arrange the work to be done, he would be content to split the profits. He said it would be an essential part of moving goods and gold out of Northridge, and moving people in."


    "It will also be a long-term project. These things aren''t built in days or weeks."


    Ludmiller nodded. "He figures it might take years, but it would be best to start now."


    Laughing, Christine couldn''t help but feel excitement boiling inside. She''d expected Northridge to grow and herself to build a future for her family in it over her whole lifetime. What was proposed would make the town not just into a city, but into a huge economic center of the kingdom. "I''m going to have to hire a dozen people just to figure out how to start this, but I will do so. I will put together a report for you in a month''s time, less for the more immediate things."


    Standing, Christine realized that over the conversation she''d barely drunk one glass. Shrugging, she carefully touched a gem on the side of her tablet and the thing chilled down to near freezing, ensuring the wax wouldn''t melt. "Thank you for your business, and I look forward to future dealings."


    "That went well," Travis told Ludmiller. "I expected them to be worried about killing other dungeons, but she seemed¡ªI don''t know, kinda fine with it, or maybe even keen. The other stuff all seemed to interest her. I think we have a solid ally."


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 62

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 10/10


    Heart 160000/160000


    Experience 40000/40000


    Workers 9/47


    Monsters 1/49


    Traps 58/109


    Rooms 109


    Food 7951


    Timber 12600


    Iron 634


    Steel 605


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 47


    Rock 2447


    Gold 3084


    Leather 377


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 90


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 20


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Quest: Reach Tier 2


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon


    </blockquote>


    On one hand, Travis couldn''t exactly complain that they''d sold him too much timber. He looked at the numbers, though, and realized he had to use it up if he had any hope of fitting enough gold to reach Tier 2.


    It had cost him another gold vein to get them all loaded back up with gold, but that wasn''t a problem. What was a problem was having so much timber. But there was no rush, and it was a weekend, after all. "Pen, can you rebuild the entrance and then we can seal back up and get ready for the next undead raid. I expect that pretty soon."


    "Yeah, I got it, Trav. So we have too much timber now?" Penelope was getting to her task, already setting to repairing the wall that hid their warehouse dropoff and timber mill.


    "No. It''s impossible to have too much of anything. But yeah, we have a lot of timber. Food, too. I have some ideas for using it up but there''s no rush." Travis was trying to remember something he''d seen in his menus when it finally came to him. "Wait, let''s try something different."


    Penelope halted in her tracks and looked at the three sections of wall she''d already restored. "What are you going to do?"


    Paying for the Upscale add-on for the first door, Travis was able to stretch it to take up four squares instead of one. "That!"


    It didn''t take Penelope long to do the work of completing the wall, which now looked like it lifted up into the ceiling somehow. "Can you do that for two more lengths? Then we could have this whole wall open up, right?" She got to work when two more "doors" appeared to line the length of the tunnel, almost to the first bend.


    "Exactly! And no more adding and removing rock. Also, I can make the front of each of the rooms their own doors¡ªthough with those there''s no point hiding them or anything."


    Penelope nodded as she finished the next door in the row. "This should help with all future logistics, too."


    Wondering if she''d heard the word from him or if it existed already, Travis didn''t honestly care since she''d used it well. "The most important thing, now, is getting a new dungeon entrance that''s closer to Northridge. Things are about to get way more rapid when it comes to providing supplies and trade."


    "You know I''m not going to be all that useful for negotiating and trades, right?" Penelope asked.


    "Me either, honestly. I have ideas, but I think it''s going to be Steph who at least manages the numbers. Right now I''ve asked and gotten permission to try opening a closer entrance to Northridge. I''ve pledged to fund a railway from there to the nearest big city." Travis kept going, despite the wide-eyed stare of Penelope. "And I have asked if they would be okay with us defeating the undead dungeon and destroying its core."


    "Who''s asking for us? That merchant who wandered in?"


    "Yeah. I figured she''d be the best to ask, since an actively threatening dungeon is going to be the biggest disruption to trade possible. She''s arranging for the right people to ask on our behalf." Travis was admiring the work Penelope was doing, after she raised the second outer door, when he spotted undead coming in the entrance. "Undead attacking! Everyone get ready."


    <hr>


    Snarling in anger, Penelope left the third door and straightened up. She was caught on the wrong side of the tunnels from safety, but then she decided that maybe it was time for a test. "I''ve got this."


    Stepping around the door that she''d just finished, Penelope smiled as a zombie seemed confused for a moment that she was just suddenly there. The monster''s confusion didn''t last long as her main-hand weapon jumped into her talon and took its head off.


    What Travis hated the most about the undead was the quiet, parchment-scraping sound they made as they started rushing forward. It was like nails on a chalkboard to him.


    Instinct took over. Penelope felt something grow in her chest and opened her mouth just in time for a mist-like rush of green to pour from her mouth and engulf the undead swarm. The necromancers and skeletons among them were the first to fall. Bones turned a somehow more pale white and then started to run like taffy as their owners just ceased working and died.


    Travis was shocked at the devastation caused by her breath attack. Of all the undead, only the zombies and lord seemed to shrug most of the damage off with three wizards and two clerics seemingly ready to fall down. "Can you do that again?"


    "Not for a bit!" With the rush of battle boiling in her blood, Penelope fell on the zombies that pushed forward to meet her. Her history of swordcraft as a rogue led to familiarity with her weapons, though she wished she''d had a bit more training with heavier blades.


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    The first two zombies to reach her fell¡ªone losing its head to her main weapon while the other took her off-hand blade to its head. The first of the wizards'' spells hit her. They were pure damage in nature, and ripped at her life force. But it certainly wasn''t enough to kill her.


    Giving everyone else in the dungeon a blow-by-blow account of the fight, Travis couldn''t help but feel pride growing inside himself. Penelope was ripping through the enemy and, even if the lord was about to approach, it looked like that might not even be a problem for her.


    When the last zombie was felled, the undead lord could finally step up to face the dragon lord. Sheathed in dark magics, it battered away the dragon''s first strike with its shield and brought its sword in from a slash at its unprotected stomach.


    Penelope used her off-hand to deflect the blow so it missed her. She backed off a step and used the positioning to bring her main-hand in for a stab with the huge weapon. The sword seemed to burn with its own sickly green energy as it pieced the undead lord, and Penelope could detect a chemical-burning smell as acid began to devour the undead flesh.


    The undead lord jumped back, removing the blade from its body by dint of getting out of the dragon''s range. With its mages behind it, the abomination knew it just needed to delay the fight for them to eventually win. It braced its shield and prepared to parry as it marched back toward the imposing draconic dervish that stood before it.


    But, despite the undead lord''s confidence in its wizards and clerics to take care of the defending boss, their casting seemed to have ceased. Turning, it stared as an inferno raged where the remainder of its forces once stood. More, though, the flames were rolling down the tunnel slowly toward it.


    Katelyn, being on the floor she was assigned as a cohort, had a significant boost to her magic power. Her mana output wasn''t just from the floor bonus, though¡ªshe had blue motes of light bubbling around her, making her mana extra dense and regenerating her at a furious pace. With her arms sheathed in fire that didn''t burn her, she pointed her staff at the undead lord and screamed, "Burn!"


    Penelope didn''t give the undead lord time to turn around and chase down Katelyn. She sheathed her off-hand blade and sank her talons onto the undead''s back, pulled it toward her, and sank her sword into its neck in a smooth action. She just wished it actually stopped moving.


    Thrown down the tunnel¡ªdeeper into the hated dungeon¡ªthe undead lord was slowly regenerating. It started toward the entrance, its hatred for the dragon boss burning with ice inside it. Discarding its shield, it took hold of its sword in both hands and charged.


    "Huh, it''s back." Aiming herself at the charging undead lord, Penelope opened her mouth and exhaled again. The green mist clung to the blade first, the weapon becoming pitted and corroded at an astounding rate. The rest of the undead didn''t fare much better, and by the time she had to deflect the weapon it shattered on her own.


    Twisting to the side, deflecting the undead lord with her primary weapon, Penelope brought her short sword around and used the monster''s own momentum to bring the blade completely through its neck.


    When its head hit the floor of the dungeon, Penelope was panting with the rush of combat. Turning, she spotted Katelyn stepping out of the inferno with not a single burn on her. "Thanks for the help."


    "You didn''t look like you needed it, but this is my floor. I''m not letting you have all the fun." The fire licking around her felt more like a pet than dangerous, though Katelyn snuffed it out when Penelope approached. "What were you doing up here?"


    "Fixing up the walls so we don''t need to dig them out anymore. Check this out." Activating the hidden mechanism made one of the quad-doors fold up and slide into the ceiling. Penelope looked pleased as punch.


    "On our day off?" Walking through the open door, Katelyn settled beside one of the inner doors; the one for the warehouse there. "Still, I guess the holes needed filling in."


    "For a few days, at least. We''re going to need to move this stuff up to the new floor when Trav gets his next one." Finishing the door that sealed off the area, Penelope moved over to the final door. "As for days off, every day feels like a day off here. Not sure if you''ve noticed, but Trav doesn''t do orders, and I sure won''t. If you want to do some work on a day off, go for it. All you have to worry about is Trav whining about it."


    Laughing, Katelyn finished her door quickly, thanks to it only having the one upgrade that made it cover more area. "So, we''re doing the big tier upgrade tomorrow?"


    "Probably not. We have¡ªWe have more timber than current projects require." The wording amused Penelope. She looked at Katelyn and saw a raised eye ridge. "It''s true."


    "You can just say we have too much."


    "Nope. Trav was adamant that you can never have too much of anything. Besides, we can just upgrade some warehouses to clear some space¡ªand make space at the same time." Finishing off her own door, Penelope rolled her shoulders a few times and winced. "Though I might see if I can find Brayden and get some heals. That was pretty intense."


    "Sure. Now you start thinking of the damage you took. They were raining a lot of death magic on you." Katelyn stepped closer, examining her friend. "But you seem to have resisted a lot of it."


    "They threw a basic boss and a bunch of old bones at a dragon¡ªof course I wasn''t going to let them live. Well, survive. Hey, did you see my breath attack? Acid!" Feeling accomplished for that, and having used it twice to good effect, she straightened up. "Hey, Trav, how about we use up some timber on upgrading warehouses?"


    "That sounds like a good idea, actually. All the warehouses at least have the level one upgrade, that means it will cost steel as well, but I think we can drop that surplus down a bit. There are some other things that need testing, too. I wanted to build a mushroom farm so we can get a constant food income. We''re going to need that if we start recruiting more." Travis turned his attention to ten warehouses and purchased upgrades for each of them. "Okay, rooms are ready for work."


    "Right. We''ll do the warehouses first, then we can look at the new stuff." Penelope opened one of the doors and stepped out of the hidden area. "Hey, did we get much experience for that stuff?"


    "None at all, sorry. We''re at max. Only getting the tier upgrade will unlock more."


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 Chapter 63

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 10/10


    Heart 160000/160000


    Experience 40000/40000


    Workers 9/47


    Monsters 1/49


    Traps 62/109


    Rooms 109


    Food 7945


    Timber 10480


    Iron 589


    Steel 605


    Charcoal 0


    Mana 88


    Rock 2447


    Gold 3084


    Leather 377


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 90


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 20


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Quest: Reach Tier 2


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon


    </blockquote>


    "More space! Mwahahaha!"


    "Alright, mister, we''re going to have words about your addiction to warehouse upgrades." Penelope couldn''t stop laughing after her gag, looking at the last of the ten warehouses she''d upgraded. "At least tell me that''s enough."


    "Nope! We still have way more timber than we need for the tier-up. Food too, and rock is taking up a ton of space. It''s fine, though. If we can get more steel, there''s almost fifty more of these things we could upgrade."


    "Ugh! Okay, what else? I''m warehoused out."


    "Tannyr got super bored and demanded I give her something to dig, then Luddy found out my plan was to build a lizard village, and now they''re both trying to figure out how to best get it right beside Wild''s boss room." Travis was watching the pair as they pored over a map of the first floor. "It''ll be a big one, too. Twenty-five by twenty-five."


    "Well, they sound like they have that sorted. Was there anything else you wanted to build?" She started walking back through the tunnels to his heart room.


    "I wanted to try building a mushroom farm. It seems weird, since it says the size is variable in five by five squares. So I figure we can use it to fill gaps that things have left." Already looking for a good spot to put such a building, Travis realized he had a good candidate in the rings looping around his lower floor. "And I have just the pla¡ª"


    Trembling mentally as Penelope walked a circle around his heart, her palm stroking it, Travis felt a giddy-happy feeling fill him. "That''s really distracting."


    "Tell me if you want me to stop it."


    "I didn''t say that. Anyway, I''ll mark out a huge area. Once Tannyr is done upstairs, I''ll get her to come down and help with it."


    Watching Penelope get to work, Travis turned his attention to where Tannyr and Ludmiller were poking at the map. "Figure out a spot for it?"


    "No," Tannyr said.


    "Yes," Ludmiller said.


    The pair looked at each other, sighed, and reversed their answers.


    "I want to have it back onto the arena so we can have lizard armies fight with us." Ludmiller gestured to her plan to have the lizard village connected to the arena with the bypass tunnel circling around it. "This lets us do that."


    "It''s also awkward. What I propose is we put it over here, behind the drop off warehouse and timber mill. That will mean the lizards can slip out into the tunnels and cause havoc with attackers." Tannyr tapped a claw at her preferred location.


    Looking over both choices, Travis decided to make the best decision. "Both. Definitely both. We''ll have one village over here, supporting the arena, and another over here, to harry attackers."


    Both gasped in surprise, and Travis figured he had things sorted. "But let''s build the arena village first. Okay, I like this spot, but I have a question for Tannyr¡ªdo you want your area connecting before the loop or after it?"


    "Huh? Oh. Before. That way I can make a storefront down here and use it to show off things the townsfolk might want to buy." Tapping a point just between her stoneworks and adventurer rooms, Tannyr hefted her pickaxe. "So, how about we get started?"


    Tannyr and Ludmiller worked together, digging for all they were worth to clear the huge room out behind the gunsmith and stoneworks. They spent hours digging until Tannyr suddenly let out a string of curses. "Trav!"


    Penelope had been digging along well, opening up the huge long section of room Travis had wanted dug out. Robert had wandered in and started helping when Tannyr''s cry got Travis'' attention.


    The moment Travis spotted what she was looking at, he cursed. "This is my fault. Stupid gold mine!"


    "We''ve got another five units to dig to finish off this huge room?" Tannyr asked. When Travis made an affirmative grunt, she sighed. "Well, finish off this row and then we''ll expand the other side five. You''ll need to change the routing of the bypass tunnel."


    "Yeah, I can work on that tomorrow. Damn, I wanted to get this finished so we could have a pile of cute lizards." Travis looked at the huge room and had to just give up on each project for the day. "Was working on a mushroom farm downstairs with Pen and Robert."


    "Free food?" Tannyr asked.


    "I hope so. I don''t mind at all, particularly since we have a lot extra right now, but did you know that everything that comes out of the kitchen and bar literally just uses ''food'' as fuel? If we could get those mushrooms producing that same food, we could even open our own tavern in Northridge."


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    <blockquote>


    Timesink research completed!


    </blockquote>


    "Wait, who was doing research?" Travis asked, directing his voice toward everyone.


    "Uh, me, Steph, and Blake," Katelyn said. "What happened?"


    "We just unlocked Timesink¡ªbut as we are now we don''t need any XP. Do you want me to assign another research target?" It occurred to Travis that he had needed to specifically assign people to research topics, but somehow Katelyn had managed to trigger it herself. "Well, I guess the best one for us is Flush. That makes it so when there are multiple costs for things, gold price goes up but other costs go down."


    Penelope was the first to respond. "I won''t lie, Trav, that sounds perfect for our situation. Start us off on that."


    Setting that as the target, Travis settled in as the night approached and the dungeon became quieter. He kept a vigil, of course, in case they had any unexpected visitors. Though, with all his traps armed and the various explosives primed and ready, he didn''t worry too much.


    <hr>


    The morning after almost single handedly defeating the undead dungeon''s latest attack, Penelope made her way up to the tavern area and started on some breakfast while waiting for more kobolds to wake.


    Being the only one awake meant she got to contemplate some things with a clear head that she''d missed at the end of the previous day. She felt strong, and her one woman stand against the undead lord had proved that. Having melted away most of his support just with her breath, she had genuinely been quite fine just beating him and his cohort up.


    "Do you want to finish the farm today?" Travis asked.


    "Yeah. We''re probably going to need some more help. Robert and I barely managed not even half of your plan yesterday." Picking up her bowl, Penelope slurped down the stew with abandon.


    "I''ll ask Robert and Blake to help. They should be plenty. Tannyr and Luddy ran into a problem with the lizard village. There was another gold mine in the way. Speaking of, I might create a few more down here. I need to use up mana again."


    "Gold mines, after what just happened?" Penelope couldn''t help herself, she laughed at the image of them trying to build some more significant rooms but only finding gold mines.


    Tannyr stepped into the tavern and looked around. Spotting Penelope, she relaxed a little and went to get her own meal. "You want another bowl?"


    "Mmm? Yeah, thanks. Don''t let Trav''s gold mines get you down. We''ll burn through gold soon enough when we start spending more of it and less of the other stuff." Penelope made sure Tannyr wasn''t watching and picked up her bowl to lick it clean.


    Bringing out two fresh bowls, Tannyr noticed Penelope putting her bowl down. "Just a bit more digging and then we can see what these lizard villages can do. It''s weird, but I''m finding more and more to enjoy down here."


    Robert and Blake arrived, sought out the kitchen and started on their own stew. The room was silent as everyone ate. Penelope seemed to be trying her best not to just pick up her second bowl and gulp it down, but she had to admit she was exceptionally hungry. The second bowl defeated, she walked to the kitchen to find her third.


    Over the course of the day, Travis watched them digging away. When his mana reached a suitable number, he decided more mana shrines would be a good idea.


    It was late afternoon by the time the two projects were completed. The mushroom farm, technically eighteen mushroom farm plots, was done first, and all eighteen plots were built for the same overall cost. "Thanks, you guys, this should mean we never have to worry about buying food ever again, though if we want to start getting a positive rate going, we''ll probably want more."


    "Not a problem, Trav. You know how it goes, we''re all working together down here. Free food is always going to be the best course of action." The dark structures stretched on for quite a distance in either direction, and on each of the little stone beds was a tray of mycelia. "Do we have to harvest this ourselves?"


    "We''ll find out to¡ª" Travis halted mid sentence as he felt a new notification hit him. "They finished the lizard village! Also, I think Tannyr found another iron vein."


    Everyone heard his excitement and headed for the first floor to see what had happened.


    <hr>


    Christine Sellswell smacked the piece of paper. "You don''t get to make that call, Brolly." She glared at the Guard captain. "Technically, the dungeon can just march into that undead hole whenever he wants and just stomp them and break the heart. It''s not like there are laws against dungeons attacking each other."


    "There are when they have been made a citizen of the kingdom. Travis must not break that heart." Folding his arms over his chest, Brolly Windchime shook his head. "You know these laws. We can''t¡ª"


    "I''ve already sent word and gold ahead. My family''s law firm in the capital will be petitioning on Travis'' behalf. That was something he asked me to do." Letting her predatory expression play over her face, Christine dusted her hands for effect. "The other matters are arranging for a railway to Northridge. That will be hideously expensive, but that shouldn''t be a headache for long. Travis has decided he wants a more firm presence in Northridge apart from just a few allies¡ªhe is going to lease the old Brown estate."


    "That hardly seems fair to him," Howard Tailor said. "You''re at least going to clean it up for him, I hope?"


    "Of course. I''m going to be hiring staff to keep the building neat and tidy. This leads us to the last big thing. When he has his next floor, he''s going to try to open a new entrance close to the city. I don''t pretend to know how any of this works, but he thinks he can do it." Christine had notes to pass out, showing her tallying of events so far and their costs. "Your rifles are paid for, Brolly. Stephan, the kobold who traveled here last, also asked that we try to recruit potential new kobolds for the dungeon. Families would be preferable, though he said their offspring need not convert until they can make the decision for themselves."


    Staring a little incredulously now, Howard tapped the sheet of paper where that last bit should have been. "Just like that?" At Christine''s nod, he scoffed. "There is certainly no harm in trying. I admit I am curious to see what items the dungeon will be willing to make and what it will leave to us. Did you get any information on that?"


    "I was merely ensuring the interests of my own guild be met. I would suggest, Howard, that if the crafters of Northridge wish to be represented, you may wish to send someone of your own out to the dungeon." Christine was glad to see her opposite number smiling and giving her a small nod.


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 Chapter 64

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 10/10


    Heart 160000/160000


    Experience 40000/40000


    Workers 9/47


    Monsters 1/45


    Traps 62/109


    Rooms 111


    Food 7438


    Timber 7980


    Iron 539


    Steel 605


    Charcoal 500


    Mana 84


    Rock 3450


    Gold 84


    Leather 377


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 90


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 20


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Quest: Reach Tier 2


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon


    </blockquote>


    The last thing that Travis asked for the day was for Penelope to go and designate five hundred timber to start processing in the charcoal burner. Several lizards had wandered into the little room and spent the night there while everyone slept.


    The fire of the charcoal burner was comforting, as was seeing through the eyes of all the lizards in the village. They seemed, to Travis, to have roles. Some would march out and track down bugs (mostly by going outside) while others built little lean-to buildings for them to rest in.


    Queuing up six more warehouse upgrades brought the amount of timber he had down to a far more manageable level, though it did use up all his steel. "It was about time we started making our own, anyway."


    The quiet of his dungeon was somewhat peaceful. Not being able to hear through lizards had an advantage because although he had mastered the art of tuning out a kobold''s senses, the lizards seemed hard-wired to him¡ªalmost like his heart was.


    A few lizards marched out the front entrance of his dungeon and started sunning themselves on the stone there. He could see enough through them to watch the sunrise through the trees and it was nice to experience.


    No sooner did the first rays of dawn shine over the horizon than Travis noticed his mana and food tick upward. It was a reminder that a new day had come and with it all the challenges that had become familiar to him in this strange world. Two more gold mines purchased for the second floor brought his mana back down from over a hundred.


    "Mmm. Morning, Trav."


    Penelope''s voice drew Travis'' attention to her room. She was huge, now, compared even to what Wild had been. She had a pair of wings that she often kept clung tight to her back, and she stretched as she got to her feet. He was watching her from multiple angles thanks to several lizards who seemed to follow her everywhere.


    "You look amazing," Travis said with full honesty.


    Jerking in surprise, Penelope smiled after a few moments. "Not beautiful, not hot, and not sexy?"


    "The first, definitely. The second¡ªyour breath is acid, not fire." Travis liked seeing her laugh. "And the third¡­" He took his time finding the right words. "We can''t exactly do anything about it, but yeah."


    "Yeah?"


    Travis laughed and replied, "Yeah. There are more warehouses to upgrade, too."


    "Of course there are. Did the charcoal finish?" Picking up her sword belt, Penelope strapped her weapons on. "Also, will this give us enough space to go to the next tier? I feel like it would be a good time to."


    "I don''t know, this whole thing doesn''t tell me about my free space, but let''s give it a try. If you get the warehouses done, I''ll get Kate to melt as much gold as she can before I explode."


    <hr>


    Penelope didn''t mind upgrading rooms. It was work, and kobolds liked work, but she was having a lot of trouble keeping her excitement in check. A new tier to the dungeon would mean a lot more expansive growth and she could remember that from last time.


    When she''d gotten the sixth (and last) of the warehouses upgraded, she walked down to the blacksmith. "How late was it before Kate went to sleep?"


    Travis laughed at the assumption. "About two hours after you. She just won''t stop reading¡ªunless Steph asks her."


    "Is it wrong to be so happy that people are finding ways to make relationships work in here?" Pulling out some iron, Penelope set it in the furnace and added what felt like the right amount of charcoal. She wasn''t sure what she expected, but the shiny steel ingots falling out wasn''t it. "Trav! This is ridiculous!"


    "Oh? You''d rather actually do all the work? Hey, can you just dump two hundred iron in and do that again?" Travis dutifully absconded with the ten bars Penelope had produced.


    "Two hundred? How much do you have right now?" Penelope tried to think of the amount, reaching behind her back to pull out ten at a time. "Ugh. You should get Robert to do this. He''s way better at pulling resources out than I am."


    "Robert''s been working on making the sludge traps so corrosive that I worry it will eat through the rock and we''ll just end up with really deep pit traps." Travis briefly looked in on Robert and found him in his lab, watching a chemical bubble away in some glassware.


    Katelyn caught Travis'' attention, though. She was sitting at a table in the tavern with Stephan across from her. "What''s up?" Travis asked.


    "Me, now. You want me to get you some gold today, right?" Katelyn sipped at a glass of water.


    "Yeah, I think we''ll have enough storage now. Pen just upgraded a few more warehouses. Pick a seam on the top floor that''s in the way and go nuts with it. I''ll tell you when I start overflowing," Travis said.


    "You are talking to the dungeon?" Felna asked, interrupting Katelyn''s conversation.


    Nodding, Katelyn looked at Felna and her eyes traced the stripes and feline lines of her body. There was more muscle there than most cat-kin wore¡ªwhich reminded Katelyn a little of Wild. "You''re the priest who has the heart communion spell?"


    "Yes." Felna brightened at being recognized, and more so at the woman probably guessing her intent. "I would like to try casting it on your dungeon before this next advancement, if that would be alright with him?"


    "Yeah, I''m okay with that. Steph, would you mind leading her down?" Travis asked.


    "Follow me. Do you have a light source?" Standing up, Stephan looked at Felna. For an adventurer, it was a strange sight to see them without a weapon and without their armor. "You aren''t armed?"


    "A matter of trust," Felna said and followed after Stephan. "Sorry, you know my name, may I have yours?"


    "Stephan. Call me Steph." He tried not to bat an eye at the way she summoned a ghostly green flame with one hand, but Steph was impressed by the ease with which she navigated the dark. "You''re not scared of this place?"


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    "I''ve been in many dungeons, but all the others have hated that I was there. Always, they have this malevolence directed at my mere presence. It probably comes part and parcel with being an outsider. Your dungeon¡ªTravis¡ªdoes not harbor ill-will toward me. I would not be able to sleep in here if he did." Being paid a regular amount of gold every day for just being ready to work purchased a lot of honesty in Felna''s mind.


    "I don''t know if Trav could actually hate anyone, though I have heard from Pen that her ex party members are two such that he''d happily feed to Squishy." Grim as it was to think such, Stephan had heard the story from Penelope''s lips, and it hurt him to know that humans were capable of such things. "He''d probably even make friends with the undead dungeon if it gave him a chance, though that would be up to Tannyr."


    "Tannyr was the dwarven stone mason who died defending the town, wasn''t she?"


    "You''ve heard that Trav can turn people into kobolds, right?" Stephan looked back over his shoulder and up, waited for a nod, then continued. "She''d been poisoned by the undead dungeon. It had laid claim to her and was killing her. Trav intervened and fought back to protect Tannyr. That made her into a kobold."


    "I can see why it would require appeasing her, yes. Your dungeon seems unique in its understanding of not just human, but also dwarven behavior."


    Thinking about it, Stephan couldn''t help but shake his head and grin to himself; out of sight from Felna. "Trav listens to people. He asks questions that sometimes make him seem vulnerable and weak, but it''s always to find out what we want and what would help us. He could order us to do anything. I helped him test that it works. Outside of that, you want to know how many times he has ordered someone to do something?"


    The path seemed very long, with Felna sensing an almost complete loop at one point before they took stairs down to the second level. "I would assume, by the loyalty you all show, that the answer is none?"


    "None. I didn''t enjoy the idea of going to negotiate the purchase contracts in Northridge, and I can''t say digging out a dungeon was high on my list of things to waste a slow afternoon with, but I will do them without him ordering me because I know they need to be done. We have someone better at digging now, but I still like to spend a little time with a pickaxe. It''s a kobold thing."


    When Stephan stopped at the bottom of the stairs, Felna expected him to turn right and follow the tunnel. Instead, he turned left and pulled out his pickaxe. "Where are¡ª?" She stopped, watching as he cut a section of stone away to reveal another tunnel. He stepped through and started digging at the wall opposite. "Don''t get a lot of visitors down here?"


    "Not really, and those who do are welcome to¡ªDon''t go down there!" Stephan stopped Felna in her tracks by grabbing her arm and pulling her back. "That''s where Squishy is, and no one knows how he''ll react to a non-hostile."


    "''Squishy''?" Felna asked.


    "A slime that''s about twelve feet cubed. He''s huge and the only thing you''ll notice about him is the few undead bones still dissolving inside." With his charge duly warned, Stephan got to work on the next wall and opened a path to the inner area of the dungeon.


    "Right. You have a giant slime called Squishy." Shaking her head and smiling, Felna could feel the dungeon heart was significantly closer. It seemed strange to her, but then she realized the original path must have a long way to travel before it reached here. "What are¡ªOh, sealing me in."


    "You''re safer in the inner parts of the dungeon than you are upstairs. There are no traps between us and the heart, now." Stephan finished closing the two gaps he''d made up by dropping rock from the ceiling and led the way further in.


    Each step she took, Felna could sense herself getting closer to the heart. The mana in the air thickened more and more, and she felt almost intoxicated by it. A long tunnel brought them to a T intersection, but rather than left or (following Stephan) right, she stopped and looked at the rock before her. "Camouflaged door?"


    "Our library is in there. Trav''s heart is down here." Stephan waited until Felna was following him before turning again and walking to the hidden door that protected Travis'' heart. "We try to hide things at the intersections leading to them. The library, in particular, we wanted to keep hidden from invaders." He used his body to block the mechanism from sight as Stephan unlocked and opened the door.


    Felna took a step backward at the intensity of the mana in the room ahead. It rushed out and swirled around her, then seemed to suck back in. The motion was almost like the waves of an ocean, and it took her a few moments to get used to it. "That''s quite intense. The mana density here is many times the strongest dungeon I''ve encountered."


    Travis watched as she stepped forward, an adventurer he wasn''t as close to as Fife or Jack, but she froze at the sight of Penelope standing beside his heart. The awe mixed with fear on Felna''s face didn''t surprise him, to be honest, not after he''d seen what Penelope could do against the weaker undead lord. "Pen, relax. Tell her to relax, too."


    Penelope hadn''t realized she''d been tense. Forcing her muscles to relax, she stepped a bit closer to Travis'' heart and reached one hand out to it. "Hey. This is Trav, he says you need to relax. If you don''t do anything stupid, we can all be friends."


    "Y-Yeah." Felna found herself stumbling over her words like a kitten. "Sorry, but as I said, this is the most intense mana field I''ve ever encountered. It''s¡ª" Stopping and lowering herself to one knee, Felna reached for a little flask at her throat and muttered a soft prayer to her god.


    Strength filled her, but not strength to fight. The Sandwalker, like all felines, was a curious god, and practically sat on her shoulder as it fed her the strength to move and think in the intense magic. "Sorry, I needed some help."


    "Trav says he can feel your mana and the mana of something else. That''s your god?" Penelope asked.


    Felna nodded. "By the holy dunes, yes. You may not feel it, but the mana here¡ªif I wasn''t protected right now¡ªwould have me in a comatose heap, drugged out of my mind. Can we do this spell and figure out the effects afterward?"


    "He wants to know what it does."


    "The spell links me to a heart¡ªto a dungeon¡ªin what I suspect is a similar manner as you. I retain my autonomy, but I can feel the dungeon''s will and its emotions. I can also perceive a little of what it can. You''re still willing to do this?" Almost wanting to shield her eyes, Felna managed to look at Travis'' heart as she asked. "It''s not permanent, either. It should wear off within a day or two¡ªunless I put more energy into it than usual."


    Penelope laughed and gently rubbed at the spot where her palm was on the heart. "You''re both as bad as each other. Yes, he''s okay with it. If you are, cast the spell."


    Felna drew her mana out and struggled not to lose track of it in the greater flow of the dungeon''s mana. She built her spell and cast it as one breath, pressing her magic to it and sending it into the heart.


    The spell completed and Travis felt the connection form with Felna. She became¡ªShe wasn''t of the dungeon, but she was definitely linked to it. "Hey, uh, can you hear me?"


    Eyes widening, Felna nodded in surprise. "I can."


    "Well, that''s neat. Hey, can I try something else that only works on dungeon minions?" Travis thought it best to ask Felna before just doing something, particularly when he could still feel her god''s magic hovering about her.


    "O-Okay." No dungeon had ever actually spoken before. Felna liked the young, deep voice that sounded in her head whenever he spoke. She was just about to ask what he was planning when all her mana exploded and swelled.


    The world around Felna turned from the pink glow of the heart into a bright blue, and she felt like she was ten sizes too big for her body. She dropped to her knees as her own mana seemed to have swollen and grown in sympathy with the dungeon''s spell. "What is¡ªHey, what''re you doing?" It was hard to get her words in order, it felt like she was so full of mana that even her thoughts were crowded out.


    "Well, that proves it. You definitely count as part of the dungeon with that spell cast. I wonder if the spell was adapted from the magic dungeons used themselves?" Travis was mulling over the thought when he noticed Penelope step forward and catch Felna before she hit the ground. "Uh¡­"


    "Trav, I''ll take her upstairs and explain why their cleric looks like she''s spent too long imbibing mellow wart." Picking up Felna, Penelope started to make her way out of the heart room.


    "Mellow what? Stephan, why are you laughing? What happened to her?" Travis asked.


    Since it seemed harmless, Stephan felt confident in treating the situation with the mirth it deserved. "Trav, she''s addled out of her mind on your mana."


    "Oh."


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 65

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 1


    Level 10/10


    Heart 160000/160000


    Experience 40000/40000


    Workers 9/43


    Monsters 1/45


    Traps 62/109


    Rooms 111


    Food 7445


    Timber 6780


    Iron 124


    Steel 420


    Charcoal 458


    Mana 53


    Rock 3450


    Gold 15255


    Leather 377


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 90


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 20


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Quest: Reach Tier 2


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon


    </blockquote>


    "So they have more than fifteen thousand in each one," Katelyn said as she stepped back from the gold vein. "Do you have an upper limit for what they hold?"


    Travis wished he could record things. He spent a moment lamenting that before he remembered what Penelope had done in the heart room. "Can you write down fifteen thousand here on the wall? Just use a claw on the stone."


    "That¡ªHey, that''s actually a great idea. That way we can figure this out and more easily deal with these things." Using her claws, Katelyn drew neatly on a stone by the entrance, adding the date and the amount removed. "So, you''re full now?"


    "Yup. That little melted blob on the ground? Uh, can you give that to Felna as an apology from me?" He still felt bad about her reaction to the mana boosting effect.


    "What''d you do?" Signing her name beside the wall note, Katelyn crouched down to pick up the cooling lump of gold.


    "She used her spell on my heart. It''s not exactly the same, but it feels similar to the bond I have with Pen. I can see and hear through her, and she can hear me, but I can''t give her orders. To test if she was truly considered part of the dungeon, I used Focus Mana on her."


    Katelyn opened her mouth to say something, but her laughter beat any words out. "That''s why you need to apologize! Remember how it hit me when you did that? She''s going to have a headache for a week as her brain deals with the bloat of her mana!"


    "I forgot! I figured, since Brayden didn''t have a problem with it, that she''d be fine too."


    "I''ll tell you a secret about Brayden¡ªhis god is doing a lot of work to buff and strengthen him. I''m not saying that Felna''s isn''t, just that Brayden has a lot of Brogdar''s attention. Religious casters don''t go from being average warrior priests to powerful clerics overnight." Turning the lump of gold over in her hands, Katelyn used a little of her mana to heat her fingers so she could reshape it. "On the plus side, she''s going to like having her spells be much more potent."


    "Can you ask her how easy it would be for the spell to be shared with others?" Travis asked.


    "Why don''t you ask her? You said she can hear you."


    "When you had a headache, did you want to hear me asking you how bad it was?"


    Walking from the tunnel, Katelyn let out a laugh. "Good point. So, you have enough resources to upgrade now, right?"


    "Yeah, I just want to make sure everyone is on the same page and I want to make sure you''re all going to be prepared for anything. There will be plenty of food and everything, even if I''m out for a long time."


    "Trav?"


    "Yeah?"


    "You know how I''ve been reading your books, and how I keep everything I read private?" Katelyn rounded the corner leading to the apartments where the adventurers were living.


    Travis did know, and he was relieved she kept such things to herself. "Yeah."


    "There''s a saying I read in one that I like, so I''m going to give it to you right now. No time like the present. Just tell everyone what you''re doing¡ªand do it."


    <hr>


    "I have the resources. If anyone needs me, I''ll be unconscious until the upgrade is complete. If the undead come again¡ªwhen they come again¡ªwipe them out as quickly and safely as possible. Pen, keep everyone safe for me."


    Laying down in the dark room, Felna let out a soft groan at the voice in her head. Her displeasure wasn''t so much because of the headache she had, but because now she had to get up and tell her group what was going on.


    Swinging her legs off the bed, she groaned as the movement of her head made the world seem a little less stable. "Wait¡ª"


    It wasn''t in her head, Felna could feel the ground under her feet rumble as if it were shifting. Now moving with haste, she rushed to the door and flung it open to their common room. "The dungeon¡ª"


    "Is rearranging." Standing in the doorway, and having seen the panic on Felna''s face, Brayden held up one mailed hand to pacify her. "This is normal, don''t worry. We have everything under control. There will be a guard posted at the main tunnel, and we are not going to take chances with any attackers."


    "Is Felna awake?" Katelyn asked as she approached the apartment. "Trav wanted me to give her a gift as an apology for her headache."


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    Nodding and making way, Brayden could feel the weird intensity Katelyn gave off as she passed him. She, Ludmiller, and Wild all had it, he''d noticed, but only on the first floor. He pulled himself up short and had to remember it was now the second floor. "Yeah, though she looks a little pale. You okay?"


    "I''ll be fine when the dungeon stops moving and when my magic is back to normal." Sitting at the table in the common room, Felna felt grateful they''d paid to have furniture hauled out to the dungeon with the latest shipment. She lifted her eyes when she spotted something from her peripheral vision set on the table. "What¡ª?"


    It was a cat. A very beautiful cat. Holding up one paw, it was cleaning the pads underneath it while one eye seemed locked on Felna. What was most startling was that it looked like it was made from pure gold.


    "If you''d like, I could melt it down to coins, but Trav sounded really sorry for what he did to you, and I thought you''d like something special." Shrugging her shoulders, Katelyn had estimated it was probably around thirty coins worth of gold, but it wasn''t like she hadn''t just stuffed the storage of the dungeon literally to overflowing with the stuff. "As for what he did, I don''t think your magic will go back to how it was. Once I was affected by it, I had the same problem. It''s not a quantity issue, just density. Every time you use some of your magic, you will get about six times more.


    "The good news is, it won''t change how you work your magic or how fast you regenerate¡ªyou will just have far denser magic and hence more potent spells. If you''d like a full explanation, I''m working on a book about magic."


    "A book?" It took all of Felna''s effort to pull her eyes away from the gold statue and look at Katelyn. "You''re the wizard that Stratus and Tom are always talking to?" Being wizards too, it seemed sometimes like they wouldn''t shut up about the ''brilliant kobold fire mage''.


    Being unremarkable was new to Katelyn, but being admired purely for her theories and hypotheses was now right up there with the best things Travis had done for her. "Yes. I''ve been helping both of them refine their mana usage to make better use of their energy. Now, one thing Trav asked was if you could teach that spell you used to others?"


    What surprised Felna, when she touched the statue, was that it was still warm. Not just held in a hand warm, but there was a persistent heat inside it. "I wish I could, but it''s a secret of my order." She looked from the golden statue in her hand to Katelyn, expecting to see her at least somewhat upset. The kobold was smiling, though.


    "Well, that''s all he asked me before he hit the switch to upgrade. He''s in torpor or something now. What I''d like to know, though, is if you can cast the spell with a different person as the target?" Katelyn sat down at the table, turning the chair sideways so her tail didn''t get kinked awkwardly against the chair''s back. "I know at least three magic users who would like to have that mana spell used on themselves."


    "Let me guess, Stratus, Tom, and that sorcerer from the other group?" Felna asked.


    "More than that. I bet both Ogmera and Nathaniel would both jump at the chance of having their spells made more potent."


    "We''re a party of magic casters built around exacting calculations for mana use and regeneration¡ªof course they''d want it. How long does the headache last, though?"


    "A few days at least. Try casting simple spells to reduce your mana; that seemed to help with me." Katelyn looked at the statue that Felna hadn''t put down yet. "Do you want a matching one that looks the other way?"


    Closing her eyes and putting the statue down, Felna glared at Katelyn. "What? But this is already too¡ªIt''s hard to accept your value on gold, you know. I guess it''s your lack of avarice. What''s your story? How did the dungeon get its hooks into a wizard prodigy?"


    "That''s not a long story, so sure. Robert, my brother, had come up with a potion he swore would let us drug a dungeon heart and make it addicted to it. We had it all figured out. We''d slip into a new dungeon, I''d keep everything back with my magic, and he''d drug the heart. We''d have ourselves the best source of resources and¡ªIt didn''t go like that. Pen was smart. She waited until we were working through the sludge traps and then it all went south. They offered us our lives if we stayed in here."


    "You aren''t angry about that?" It appeared a little too convenient that everyone was so easily okay with becoming kobolds. "Seems like a bad deal for your freedom."


    "He built me my own library. He gave me a budget for books that just has yes written on it. But you know what he gave me that makes everything worthwhile? He gave me something new to research. The magics of dungeons and monsters are rarely explored. The overlap between it and what regular magic users have is startlingly wide sometimes.


    "Take for example that spell you used on Trav. He thinks, and I''m inclined to believe him, that it''s actually a very similar bond to that of a dungeon boss. If that''s the case, it implies that one of your holy order, at some point, managed to examine a dungeon boss in detail within its dungeon." Katelyn noticed Brayden had left, though she couldn''t really figure out when he''d slipped away.


    "Interesting. If that is its source, I''d be curious to find out how it came about too." That''s when it finally clicked for Felna. She reached one paw up and pressed her forehead to it. "You wanted to know more about the spell so you could duplicate other dungeon effects."


    "That was an additional goal. I have managed to adapt at least one spell for Trav to use, so civilized magic can become dungeon magic. There hasn''t been as much luck with adapting civilized magic to kobold magic, however. Everything I try to cast now just turns into an appropriately powered fire spell. But, I understand that you don''t want to share it. At the very least it proves my theory correct."


    Felna still didn''t trust that Katelyn wouldn''t try to wring the spell out of her. Every clerical order had its secrets. Some held knowledge of machines or medicine, but hers held their magic close. "So what do you plan to do with that now?"


    "Now? Now I will try to examine more effects around the dungeon and see if I can emulate them." Katelyn stood up with the help of her staff, turned, and walked to the door. "How''s your head?" she asked before making it through the doorway.


    "It''s feeling better, but I think I''ll go back to bed."


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 66

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 10/100


    Heart 160000/160000


    Experience 3450/90000


    Workers 9/67


    Monsters 1/69


    Traps 62/159


    Food 2438


    Timber 1780


    Iron 124


    Steel 420


    Charcoal 458


    Mana 53


    Rock 3450


    Gold 255


    Leather 377


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 90


    Glass 800


    Explosive Runes 20


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 5


    Quest: Reach Tier 2


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon


    </blockquote>


    Dreaming again, Travis was completely aware it was a dream, only he felt like it was more a standoff with his subconscious. "Well?"


    ". . ."


    "Look, I know you¡ªwell, I¡ªdon''t get much time to interact these days. Not sleeping each night makes it hard to dream. Why don''t we go for a happy one?"


    ". . ."


    "Don''t be like that. This is getting a bit meta, I think. Come on, just a happy dream? Maybe something where I can actually hug Pen?" Travis felt a measure of acceptance. "Cool, now we''re decided on that, why don''t we start?"


    Travis felt the world shift and he was once more in the dungeon and in the dark, though there was a soft silver glow behind him. A glance down, first, revealed he was a kobold. "Oh you¡ª" Turning, he saw the big silver dungeon heart behind him and heard Penelope''s voice in his head.


    "Trav? What''s going on? Why can''t I move?"


    Starting with all the swear words he knew, Travis began cursing out his subconscious. When the crystal Penelope started crying, he got more creative and loud.


    <hr>


    Penelope sat in the heart room with her back against Travis'' crystal. He was silent, the whole dungeon felt silent, but at the same time she felt more in focus. It was unsurprising given her status, that when the dungeon itself was unconscious, she was in charge. "I thought you were going to do some research?"


    Walking deeper into the room, Katelyn started to examine the lists and notes on the wall. "See, that was what I thought, too, but I forgot to ask Trav to get us working on one of the longer research goals. On the plus side, we unlocked Flush easy enough. How long does this take, anyway?"


    "No idea. We''ve only done it once before. If it''s like then, he should be finished tomorrow." Noticing Katelyn''s interest, Penelope nodded toward the wall. "I''d like to get some chalkboards here. Trav needs to be able to keep notes, and this is the only room he can see without having to worry about a lizard or kobold being here."


    "I''ll contact my friend in town and get her to order some. All the walls, right?" Katelyn reflected on how blind she''d been to not see the way Penelope doted on Travis. Even now, with him unconscious, she wouldn''t remove her touch completely from his heart.


    "Thanks, Kate, that''d be perfect. You know where the gold is, just take as much as you need¡ªbut let''s wait for Trav to be back. I don''t want us being any amount of short-handed¡ªnot with the boulder traps not working because Trav isn''t here." Penelope sighed and leaned back, putting as much of her wings as she could in contact with his heart.


    Katelyn groaned and reached out a hand to Penelope. "Come on. You can''t wallow in here. He won''t be back for some hours at the earliest." Taking Penelope''s larger hand in her own, Katelyn pulled her into motion and away from the heart. "We''re going to the library, not the tavern."


    "Oh?" The news intrigued Penelope. She stopped resisting and followed after Katelyn¡ªwho was much, much smaller than her.


    "There''s a few books I think you''d like to read. They aren''t invasive¡ªnot like some of his later ones are¡ªbut they might help you get a bit closer to Trav." Opening the door to the library, Katelyn nodded inward. "Now, get cozy on the pillows over there."


    Finding herself a spot on the pile, Penelope lay down on her stomach and found the position rather comfortable. It took her a few seconds to realize that going through with all the changes of the dungeon boss would mean she''d be stuck like that. When Katelyn brought her a book, she accepted it without a word and started reading. "This is from when he was just a small child. Fourteen?"


    "Read it. I think you will have a lot confirmed about Trav." Katelyn crouched before the writing desk Stephan had built for her, dipped a quill into an inkwell, and started writing about her latest theory of combined magic.


    <hr>


    Penelope had waited through the hour when Travis should have awoken. "More than a day, then." She looked to Robert, who had a water clock he''d built from glassware. The intervals on it were standard, so she was well aware that the moment had passed. "It''s my watch upstairs. Everyone take a break and find something to do."


    "Pen, can you put these in the maze on your way up?" Katelyn held out five new repeating explosives. "I figured we could use some more of these there. I have good places marked for them on this slate."


    Taking the slate and the explosives, Penelope walked down tunnels and pushed her way through walls to reach the stairs. For a moment she considered going and saying hello to Squishy, but she didn''t want him to eat explosive runes. Up the stairs and, rather than head through the secret door, she wandered into the maze.


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    It should have been hard for anyone to find their way around the maze, but for Penelope it was simplicity itself. She had an affinity with the layout of the dungeon that went beyond her own senses. She knew from testing that the explosives could set each other off if they were within around four dungeon squares of each other. She lifted up the map and examined it in the pitch black. "I like the idea of spacing them out, but that assumes an attacker doesn''t have someone to soak the damage and a healer to keep them upright."


    Smirking in triumph, Penelope walked all the way through the maze until she was only a handful of dungeon squares before the door into Wild''s arena. She then crouched down and used her claws to carefully embed all five runes into the rock wall after a sharp corner. "Because screw the first thing out of any fight where Wild dies."


    Walking to the wall just before his arena, she slipped first through that then twice more before she worked her way between the rock to the entry tunnel to Wild''s arena. Wild was sitting in the middle of it, surrounded by lizards, giving each of them petting where he could. The heat of the lava scattered around the edges of the room only seemed to give the little reptiles more energy. "Heya, Wild."


    Looking up from where he was being inundated by lizards, Wild let out a soft chirrup under his breath before saying, "Welcome to my little vigil, Penelope. You can relax here, if you wish. I will wake you if anything comes."


    "Nope. I gotta head up the tunnels to the entrance in case we get any more wraiths coming in. Thanks, though." She crouched down and gave one of the lizards a rub around its shoulders. "You know, I never really saw lizards as being this¡ªthis affectionate and emotional."


    "They''re still not allowed in our bedroom, but Luddy wants more of them. I tried to tell her we have hundreds now, because of the village, but I think she wants another village." Wild, for all his trying to put on a stiff demeanor, would gladly crumble in a moment for the love of his life.


    "She might get that wish soon. Trav has big plans for the second and first floors¡ªthat is, this is now the second. You know what I mean." With one enterprising lizard climbing up her tail and back, Penelope sat still to let them get all the way to her shoulder.


    "You can''t get through walls while carrying a lizard," Wild said. "I think it''s because they are living creatures."


    "Oh. Well, I guess I''ll walk the long way around. Stay strong, Wild." Standing up, Penelope walked closer to him and held out her fist¡ªand got a bump from his smaller one.


    Watching as the, to his kobold senses, curvy dungeon boss left his arena, Wild had to close his eyes and remind himself he was very much a spoken-for kobold and that the woman he loved deserved to be the sole target of his affections. Standing up, he drew his axes and started working through his combat forms¡ªperforming a mock dance that had proved plenty deadly during his life.


    <hr>


    The walk through the bowling alley revealed even more lizards to Penelope. She leaned down as she passed each to give them a pet and a little reassuring attention. She even told one, "He''ll be back soon, don''t worry." Though, she knew it was herself she was trying to reassure.


    Looping around, she came to the final approach alongside the new, secret array of doors she''d built herself. At the end of the tunnel, Ludmiller was standing and looking up the stairs. "I''ve come to relieve you," Penelope said.


    Smiling at her friend, Ludmiller nodded. "He''s still asleep, then?"


    "Yeah. Guess things get more intense the higher tier he gets. Wild''s still in his arena standing guard, too." Walking up to Ludmiller, Penelope reached up and lifted the lizard from her shoulder and offered it.


    "Nah, you''d better look after him. I''m going to go to sleep, then take over Wild''s watch after that. He''s very serious about his promise to protect Trav, and I''ll stand by him in it." Instead of heading down the tunnel directly to the arena, though, Ludmiller entered the tavern.


    It only took a few minutes for Penelope to see Ludmiller return with a huge bowl of stew. "What''s this?"


    "When did you last eat?" Ludmiller asked.


    "Uh, I think¡­" As she trailed off, Penelope had to take ownership of the bowl Ludmiller was shoving at her. "Thanks."


    "No. Thank you. When you''re done with it, just give a shout. There are a bunch of people sitting in there that are just talking. One of them can come and grab the bowl. I''ll see you at the end of your watch." Turning down the tunnel Penelope had come from, Ludmiller managed to only yawn three times before finding the right place to slip through the wall.


    The stew, as always, was delicious. Penelope mused a little over the size of the bowl, and had to wonder if Stephan had made it just for her. What still troubled her was how they hadn''t actually gotten any meat added to the dungeon''s storage for a while, but the stew still had big hunks of meat in it.


    Fife walked out of the tavern and approached Penelope. It still amazed her that she was literally living in a dungeon and the boss was right beside her. "Hey, you''re really wolfing that down. Kate said Steph made your new bowl."


    "Thought so." With her mind turned to Stephan, Penelope felt the old self-loathing return for what she''d done to him.


    "Hey, when this is done with, then I guess I can finally find out what it''s all like, huh?" Hating the slight worry in her voice, Fife tried to reinforce her words with bravado. "I bet it''s going to be awesome. Like, I''ve seen how much stronger Wild is now when he fights in his arena. I''ve even got the perfect place picked out for mine."


    Glad of the distraction, Penelope asked, "Where''s that?"


    "Well, you gotta understand that I have already picked out one of my cohort, and I think you''ll find he''ll make fighting me absolutely terrifying." Fife took a swig from her ale. "What I have to wonder is if I can have the dungeon boss in my cohort?"


    Penelope stared at Fife for several seconds before she burst into a roar of laughter. It felt good to be surprised and have a little of the pressure reduced. "I doubt that''ll work, Fife."


    "Then I''ll go back to trying to convince that hot elf guy to join up too, because me, Squishy, and a cleric would dominate anything that stepped foot in the bottom floor." Her eyes burning with challenge, Fife saw the shock register on Penelope''s face and accepted that as was her due for such a crazy idea. "Anyway, I''ll take the bowl back if you''re done? Luddy made me promise."


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 67

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 10/100


    Heart 160000/160000


    Experience 24150/90000


    Workers 9/67


    Monsters 1/69


    Traps 62/159


    Food 2470


    Timber 1780


    Iron 124


    Steel 420


    Charcoal 458


    Mana 720


    Rock 3450


    Gold 255


    Leather 377


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 90


    Glass 744


    Explosive Runes 20


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Lay siege to the nearby town.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    You have reached Tier 2!


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    New Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    Quest Complete: Reach Tier 2.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    New Quest: Lay siege to the nearby town.


    </blockquote>


    Along with the swelling of his consciousness, the flood of messages about quests threatened to give Travis a headache in his first minute of being Tier 2. Opening his awareness first to his heart room, Travis felt Penelope leaning against him, one wing curled halfway around his heart¡ªand she was snoring.


    Opening up his "eyes", Travis started looking around the dungeon. Every stretch of tunnel, every corner, and indeed every room had multiple eyes in it¡ªexcept for Wild and Ludmiller''s private room. Not that Travis minded not seeing in there.


    The tavern was his best target. Katelyn, Jack, Brayden, and everyone of the other adventurer group were in there talking, only it seemed more like Katelyn was giving a lecture on magic. All the magic users were paying close attention, so Travis figured he''d talk to one of the others present first. "Uh, hey, Stephan. Miss me?"


    Jerking his head up, Stephan looked around the barroom. "Trav just woke up."


    "Uh, give me a few moments," Travis said to them. "I''m trying to figure everything out. Also, how long was I out?" Travis had tried to keep the last sentence to the two in the bar, but anyone else with their eyes open got the rest.


    "Got it, Trav," Ludmiller (who was on watch in the first floor) said.


    "Exactly seven days." Katelyn slipped a piece of cloth into her notebook and closed it. "Quick rundown¡ªthere have been no undead incursions in that time, we''ve put down a lot more explosives in the maze and the windy tunnels downstairs, and we''ve been buttoned up like you asked. Also, we need to start another research."


    "Right. I''ll do that¡ªHuh, I guess I found out what the reward was for reaching Tier 2. All the research options I had from Tier 1 are now free." Travis looked through his options and spotted Persuasion: Can bind one non-dungeon creature (including adventurers) per tier as a dungeon monster. "I don''t know if they''re all free. There are some new ones that aren''t, and they have hundreds and hundreds of days of research needed."


    "Anything that stands out?" Katelyn asked, holding a hand up to placate her students.


    "Persuasion. It lets me claim monsters or people as being dungeon monsters. Is that meant to make them into dungeon monsters, or is it like that spell that Felna cast? I do remember it was one of the most expensive of Tier 1, so I''ll get it."


    Purchasing the option made all the prices come back for the rest. It wasn''t completely unexpected, given a similar thing had happened with Penelope''s boss upgrade cost. "Okay, got it. The quest reward was only for one upgrade, though."


    "That''s fine. Now, set another one ready to go please?"


    "I''ll start out Questing, that gives bonus experience whenever I finish a quest." Travis duly selected that research for training. "I''ll leave you to your, err, class?"


    "Just helping our allies gain a stronger understanding of their magic and ways to use it." Sitting back down, Katelyn opened her notebook and continued her lesson.


    Travis investigated what spells he had to work with. He''d gained a few, several that he couldn''t afford to cast, even with over seven hundred mana. Create Mana Shrine and Create Lode''s costs had jumped to 500 mana each, which he figured meant that was how much they would cost on the bottom floor.


    With a mental sigh, he cast Create Mana Shrine and produced a huge shrine somewhere on the bottom floor¡ªamong all the smaller shrines. With his mana sorted, Travis turned back to the research. There were several big ones that led from things in Tier 1, including two that chained off Persuasion.


    <blockquote>


    Helping Hands (requires Persuasion): Friendly, non-dungeon creatures can gain bonuses as if they were dungeon creatures.


    </blockquote>


    That had Travis drooling. Being able to mana boost his adventurers would be amazing, but¡­


    <blockquote>


    Allies (requires Helping Hands): Friendly, non-dungeon creatures can commune with the dungeon heart.


    </blockquote>


    "Uh, Katelyn? I hate to interrupt you again, but I think I found something very similar to that spell Felna cast." Travis repeated the descriptions for the two upgrades and was surprised to hear her start cursing. The cursing continued, so Travis turned his attention back to new things.


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    There were piles and piles of research options that required one of four rooms, or required the research from those buildings. Almost all of them seemed to be adding classes to creatures of the dungeon. Priests: Paladins, Clerics, Inquisitors¡ªMages: Wizards, Sorcerers, Arch-Mages¡ªSoldiers: Barbarians, Tanks, Rangers¡ªthe last set of four were slightly different, with the base one being a buff to kobolds, followed by: Trappers, Crafters, Diggers.


    It seemed to be an entirely new mechanic that let dungeon creatures get the same archetypes that adventurers had. Travis liked this, particularly if he could get another cleric capable of resurrection. He moved on, though, because he had a pile of menus to explore.


    Floor Upgrades were next, and there was only one there so far¡ªhe knew more would show up as he got the prerequisites for them.


    <blockquote>


    Floor Boss (2) (requires Floor Boss). Cost: five thousand gold, a thousand steel, five hundred food, and two hundred leather.


    </blockquote>


    That was a hefty amount of steel, but Travis could see getting that for Wild shortly. Fife too, when she was brought in. The odd thing was there was a second set of costs for it: six thousand gold, nine hundred steel, four hundred and fifty food, and one hundred and eighty leather.


    It took him a moment to rack his brain and remember the odd pricing research he''d done. More gold, less of everything else.


    He liked this a lot.


    Dungeon Upgrades had nothing new. Not a single thing he could get beyond Tier 1. That meant everything there had prerequisites he didn''t have.


    Room Upgrades had a lot of exciting stuff. An upgrade for a Smelter to let it work with mithril and adamantine. He recognized that meant he needed to start harvesting those. Also, like with Floor Upgrades, there were alternate costs on everything.


    Even better timber processing, a boost to researching speed, and a weird boost to the mushroom farm called Necromantic Fertilizer that needed XP gained from undead kills to purchase rounded out the other mundane things for Tier 2 Room Upgrades that he could see. The last was even more weird¡ªthree upgrades for the Lizard Village.


    <blockquote>


    Exploration Focus: Lizards focus on exploration outside the dungeon area. Will venture outside and provide dungeon with sight beyond its borders.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    Combat Focus: Lizards take up arms (and armor) to defend the dungeon against invaders. Using ambush tactics, they will slowly eat away at invader health and resources.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    Resource Focus: Lizards will locate resource nodes and harvest from them. They will also locate undiscovered nodes and burrow through rock to show them to the dungeon.


    </blockquote>


    Travis liked all of those a lot. He liked them so much that he wanted to build a dozen lizard villages. A hundred! He imagined putting four big villages by the entrance and giving them all Exploration Focus¡ªsending hundreds of lizards out to explore the world.


    And also finding all those resource nodes on the bottom floor.


    "Trav?"


    Penelope''s voice, from right beside his heart, called all of Travis'' focus away from his menus. "Good morning, Pen. Sleep well?" he asked.


    As she ran her claws lightly over him, she yawned. "I feel like I should be asking you that too. I did sleep well, but waking up was so much better. You were down for a week this time."


    "Kate told me. A whole week without any attacks from the undead? That''s really weird. Unless it was upgrading things too. I can''t really blame it given the way you ripped apart its boss last time. Hey, I was going through new things. There''s some amazing stuff here."


    "Slow down, Trav. There''s something important I need to tell you." Standing up as tall as she could, and now once again dwarfed by Travis'' heart, Penelope kissed the stone. "I love you."


    It was three words that could drag him back to reality so fast it made his non-existent head spin. "Thanks for keeping everyone safe and for being¡ªfor being amazing, Pen. I love you too." The tightness of her reply¡ªan enormous hug¡ªwas almost overwhelming. Travis had a momentary flashback to his dream, then threw the nightmare away¡ªthis was the real world and not being able to hug back was his curse. He didn''t need to hear Penelope''s cries when she lived through the same horror.


    <blockquote>


    The dungeon heart is under attack!


    </blockquote>


    "What''s going on?"


    "We''re under attack?"


    "Trav?!"


    The shouts, the panic, and the rush of everyone trying desperately to reach the bottom floor and Travis'' heart was touching, but Travis realized what''d happened and needed to put a stop to it. "I''m okay! I''m not hurt!"


    And then Travis looked at his stats and, sure enough, he''d lost 4 points of health¡ªto a hug.


    "I was getting Pen to test something. This was my fault, sorry!" Travis wished Penelope didn''t look so shocked and embarrassed. "Really. Please. Just go back to what you were doing. I am at one hundred and fifty-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-six still. Pen''s right here beside me. I''m safe!"


    Everyone slowed down and even Squishy stopped trying to squeeze into smaller tunnels to reach him. "I wanted to see if my hunch was correct."


    Opening the hidden door and approaching his heart, Katelyn narrowed her eyes at Travis. "What exactly was your hunch?"


    Travis didn''t want to lie, but he also wanted to spare Penelope the embarrassment that was evident on her face. "That I¡ªuh¡ª"


    "It was my fault." Penelope said. "I woke up and found him awake too, and then¡ªand then I got overwhelmed and hugged him."


    Ludmiller, arriving with her hands on her daggers, heard the last bit as she walked in. "You hugged him hard enough to damage his heart?"


    "I didn''t mean to! I was¡ª"


    "Hey, everyone, can we calm down and go back to dungeon stuff?" Travis asked, though neither Katelyn nor Ludmiller seemed inclined to listen to him. "It was an innocent mistake."


    Walking over, Katelyn elbowed Penelope. "It''s the most adorably terrifying thing I''ve ever heard. And it''s also amazing."


    "Just about the most romantic thing I''ve seen all day." Ludmiller turned and smirked as Wild walked in. Walking over to him, she put her arms around him and hugged him tight against her. "It was Pen. She hugged Travis'' heart so hard it did damage."


    Looking a little alarmed, Wild hugged Ludmiller in return. "Travis is watching the entrance now? No more watches?"


    Thankful to find a topic to change to, Travis said, "Yes. I''ve got lizards up on the first floor looking around now. They''ll let me keep watch. We have a whole new floor to build, and I''ve got plans for it!"


    "So, what cool new stuff do you have?" Penelope was all for distractions.


    "Well, so far I''ve gotten¡ª" Travis started explaining the research, the floor upgrades, the room upgrades, and his favorite, the lizard upgrades.


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 Chapter 68

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 10/100


    Heart 159996/160000


    Experience 24150/90000


    Workers 9/67


    Monsters 1/69


    Traps 62/159


    Food 2470


    Timber 1780


    Iron 124


    Steel 420


    Charcoal 458


    Mana 220


    Rock 3450


    Gold 255


    Leather 377


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 90


    Glass 744


    Explosive Runes 20


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Lay siege to the nearby town.


    </blockquote>


    "Okay, so I have new quests. I still have one to destroy another dungeon, but there''s two more that are even more terrifying to think about. I need to capture an adventurer and put them in a jail. I also need to siege the town." Travis was surprised by how little Penelope reacted to his news. "I''m going to have those two slots unable to be completed forever!"


    Walking around the heart room, Penelope was reading over the lists they''d made on the walls. "No you won''t. Firstly, we have a bunch of adventurers we can stuff into a jail any time we want. Just give them ten gold and they''d be fine with a day or whatever''s required. You could even build things all sneaky and actually surround one of their living areas with jail. That might not work, though."


    It surprised Travis how she''d come up with that. So far, it had mostly been him exploiting how the various systems of the dungeon worked. "Let''s go with the first idea. I don''t want to spring a surprise jail on people."


    "Right. So about sieging the town. What would we have to do for that? Actually attack people, maybe reach the wall, or do we have to encircle the town?"


    "We can try two of those things easy enough by visiting the town. Also, we have the okay from Christine to try building an entrance closer to the town, so we should probably do that. There are a few things I need your input on with it." Travis looked around at the scratching notes on his wall. "Can you make a map there?"


    "What of?" Penelope asked, already working her claw over the stone to smooth it out.


    "Northridge, us, the undead dungeon¡ªThe whole area. We have enough resources, we need to figure out where it will go."


    <hr>


    After mining out around twenty thousand gold, Katelyn had made her way down through the dungeon to the heart room. When she opened the inner door, she heard Travis and Penelope arguing¡ªthough the former had been keeping himself from being heard by the dungeon at large. "Hey, I have the gold. What''s up?"


    "Trav thinks it''s safe to open our entrance into these grass flats. We should be on a hill at least. You want your defensive positions to be high ground." Waving her hand at the map, Penelope indicated the spot where an X sat.


    Travis railed at not being able to manipulate the map directly, but he was working on the problem at hand. "But we don''t. The town said, Christine and Brolly, that they would defend us with an outpost. So, we build that around that entrance. The important bit is that we can get rails and have flat ground between us and the town. We can have the new entrance connected directly up to Wild''s arena."


    "There are two problems, Trav," Katelyn said. "The first is what happens if the undead swarm in, get past the Bowling Alley, kill Wild, Luddy, and me, and then charge up through that tunnel to attack the outpost from within? The second is that even if we try a better method, that tunnel needs to have living quarters for the garrison, storage areas and dropoffs, and¡ªlike Trav said¡ªit needs to be flat and lead to the town directly."


    "Pen, can you flatten me some rock, I''ve got an idea." Travis focused his mana to a point and swirled it around in front of Katelyn. "Kate, can you see that?"


    "You''re going to need to be¡ªOh! Your mana?" Reaching out a talon, Katelyn poked at where Travis had made a little swirl of mana weave around itself over and over.


    "Right. I want you to move your claw and follow the mana on the wall, okay?" Travis asked. When Katelyn approached the wall, he started to draw. "This is the first floor. There will be three sections to this. One will be the main entrance going straight down to the stairs. Eventually, at the next tier, the top floor will be wall to wall traps and not much else.


    "Right, so here. There will be two entrances on the current first floor. One will be the entrance we have now, the other will be the shortcut to town. The shortcut will have sleeping quarters, a tavern setup, all the good stuff we need. Then there will be the monster of all switchbacking tunnels, like the Twists down near Squishy." As he described it, he had Katelyn do a rough design. "Something it would take them days of marching to get through. Whatever it is, it needs to give us enough time to block off the ends as needed. We don''t even want traps in there.


    "The last thing on that level will be a set of stairs leading down here. That''s because we''ll make the rest of that floor specifically for living quarters for kobolds and adventurers we''re allied with. The bulk of that floor, in fact, will be mined out for rock, too, I think. It will be a reasonably safe place to mine and build where anything we find there shouldn''t be too nasty to fight, and we can lead it to the tunnels going to our traps."


    "Okay, that is a good idea. Maybe have the tunnel split off to the twists here or another tunnel that has the tavern and stuff, so if things get bad there, they can withdraw in there, link them up to the inner section, and block it off completely here." The idea would take kobolds to implement, but Penelope wanted to get everything done right the first time. "Let''s get Brolly to give some input on this. Those guards should also have several talismans each."


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    "So, how does this entrance thing work?" Katelyn asked.


    "I have no idea. I figure I''d need to target something with it, but since I can''t see outside, how would that work?" Travis checked his resources, then double-checked them. "Ah well, here goes nothing."


    With the two costs displayed, Travis opted for the one that cost more gold and less other resources¡ªit made sense to use gold as much as he could since it was so easy to acquire. Selecting it brought up a question for him¡ªSelect first minion to define endpoint.


    "Whoa. Okay, I think the way this works is I select two of you, one to act as each end, then you get to pick the spots it connects. You two up for it?" Travis asked.


    "Yeah!" Penelope and Katelyn said at the same time.


    <hr>


    Having left the dungeon with every single mage they had to defend Katelyn, Penelope ran as fast as she could along through the forest. She felt big and dangerous, and when she got to the edge of the treeline she spread her wings¡ªand completely failed to fly.


    "No flying? What are the point of these things?" Regaining her running pace, she folded her wings to her back and kept moving.


    All the energy of an upgraded boss monster made her feel impossibly powerful, though she had no delusions that she couldn''t be beaten in a fight. The foothills smoothed out into wide grassy plains. In the far distance she could see farms with wooden palisades around them. She aimed for the big wall of the city in the distance.


    Brolly had been on patrol with his newly formed squad of riflemen when he spotted the dragon boss in the distance. "Hold! Do not fire at them!" To reinforce his order, he rode his horse around and in front of the squad and did his best to keep his mount steady as Penelope approached.


    "Brolly! Good to see you again. How are the guns?" Penelope slowed considerably, fully aware of how dangerous those weapons would be if they decided to aim them at her.


    "The guns are working very well. We had an undead attack here several days ago and the weapons meant we could pick off their necromancers at a distance. Their lord did a good number at the base of our wall, but a few well-placed shots took him down." Much as Brolly would have loved to chat about his new pride and joy, he figured that Penelope running at the city meant something odd was up. "Anything we can help you with?"


    "Actually, yes. Christine Sellswell told you we plan to open a new dungeon entrance closer to the city?" Waiting for the nod from Brolly, Penelope continued, "I''m here to do that. Would this be a good place for it?"


    Brolly had never raised one eyebrow quite as much as he did. "You can really open one here? We could get a fort built around it quickly. Faster still if you could provide some stone from your stores."


    "Exactly my thought. Kate is back in the dungeon marking one end position, apparently all I have to do is stand here and focus on this as being where¡ª" No sooner did Penelope actually think that than the ground started to shake.


    Even Penelope jumped aside and made room as the ground swelled up, building into a small hill about twenty feet high¡ªand then a hole opened in the front. The moment that entrance opened, Penelope could feel the dungeonness coming from it. "Guess it works like that, huh? Okay, so we were thinking that we would have most of the stuff inside the entrance¡ªsleeping quarters for the guards, trading area for merchants, another tavern, and kitchen. We also have a plan to make it as secure as possible against invaders from the forest entrance and to protect the guards should the fort you build be overrun."


    "That is a lot of foresight. When I heard you were planning to place a dungeon entrance closer, I expected it would be on the edge of the forest¡ªnot on our doorstep. This is a good spot for it and I''m sure Christine will be salivating to move goods and gold rapidly in and out." Looking at the mound, Brolly knew he was about to become busy. "It will take some days to get our builders working on it. You can protect this entrance from being flooded by undead¡ªfrom your side¡ªuntil then?"


    "We''ll have our best digger on the job." Penelope stepped back into the dungeon but turned to nod toward Brolly. "We''ve got our own gunsmith built. All we need now is to make a few dozen weapons and I''ll have a rifle in the hands of every guard and militia in Northridge."


    He couldn''t help it. Brolly was grinning like a maniac as Penelope reentered the dungeon. Wheeling his horse around, he looked at the faces of what would no doubt be the first of the rifle squads of Northridge. "Come on. Let''s finish this patrol and get the good news back to town."


    <hr>


    It was strange how easy it was to produce them. Tannyr would beat the steel into a long rod, she''d load it onto a turning device and bore a hole down the middle of it, then she''d machine the fiddly little trigger system and priming mechanism. Shaving down a piece of timber for the stock, she''d put it all together and somehow have a rifle in her hands.


    Not being a mage or a fighter, she left the latest project of Travis'' to those that were and continued on with her work¡ªsoon making nine more. She was about to grab the steel to make another when she felt Travis'' attention upon her. "We got ripped off, Trav."


    "I nee¡ªHuh?" Travis felt confused, what with being ambushed by words he hadn''t expected. "What do you mean? Also, can you come up to the first floor?"


    "Digging? And I mean those rifles we paid the town to get. I made ten of them for fifty steel and ten timber." Setting the rifles aside on a bench, Tannyr watched them disappear. "Those appear in your inventory?"


    "Yeah, they did! We have a shortcut to Northridge set up, and it''s time to start securing that from the tunnel leading down¡ªand do some really tricky stuff with stairs." Travis felt new excitement build. Not only was he getting better situated, but Tannyr had shown that they could provide assets that could be traded to the town for even more protection.


    "You know the deal, Travis. Map it out for me and I''ll dig it up faster than all the others put together." Unsure whether it was dwarven or kobold pride that made her so excited to do the work, Tannyr didn''t exactly sweat the difference. The fact was she had been saved from death to complete her life''s work, a true magnum opus. She would build a dungeon that would never fall.


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 Chapter 69

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 10/100


    Heart 159998/160000


    Experience 24150/90000


    Workers 9/67


    Monsters 1/69


    Traps 62/159


    Food 2470


    Timber 870


    Iron 124


    Steel 370


    Charcoal 458


    Mana 255


    Rock 2627


    Gold 251


    Leather 377


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 90


    Glass 744


    Explosive Runes 20


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 9


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Lay siege to the nearby town.


    </blockquote>


    "Nice," Penelope said, turning the rifle over in her hands. "And we can make these easily?"


    With Tannyr digging along the marked area Travis had set up for her, Penelope (also digging, though slower than Tannyr) couldn''t be heard by her¡ªso Travis replied. "Tannyr spent a bit of time making them, but she seemed to hint that they weren''t hard. Right now, though, we need to protect the town from just giving the undead a shortcut to their doorstep. Hey, you know another idea we could use? Now we have the guns to give every kobold one, we need a practice area for shooting them as well as some nice long tunnels to make the best use of them."


    "I like your thinking, love."


    Travis didn''t need to see Penelope''s face straight on to know she was grinning. With her snout crinkling up a little at the lower edges of her vision, he got enough of a hint. "Do you have any idea how good it makes me feel to hear that, love?"


    "Yeah, Trav. Yeah, I think I do." Penelope''s pickaxe swung fast, but where Tannyr seemed able to just keep digging and only shore up her work every ten or fifteen squares mined out, she had to do it every second one. No amount of speed and size could take the work out of that.


    Directing Robert up to place a hidden door was another step in preventing the undead from utilizing his new exit. Placing it right where the monstrous squiggly pattern Tannyr and Penelope would connect with the tunnel from the forest was the ideal spot, of course. "Just there. Thanks, Robert."


    "No problem, Trav. Almost got this latest batch of sludge ready to use. It''s acidic, sticky, and resistant to fire. We can''t put caltrops in it anymore, but I don''t think that''s so much of a problem when Kate can just burn things to death when they get stuck in it." Climbing the stairs into the first floor, Robert turned to where the door needed to be installed and set about building it. "I almost get annoyed at how I don''t get to dig anymore. Do you think I could¡ªmaybe¡ªdo a little after this?"


    "Of course you can." Travis tried to hide his droll tone, but a little of it slipped out. "I''m thinking we just go ahead and trap the whole tunnel leading to the stairs out there with sludge. What do you think?"


    "Wasn''t the point of Wild''s boss room being there to protect possible innocents who wander in?" Walking down the tunnel, Robert heard movement behind him and jumped. "Undead?"


    "Yeah. Undead." Focusing on all the kobolds, Travis said, "Looks like the undead are back. There are a lot of them, too. I guess that beat down by Northridge pissed them off."


    "Do you want me to head out there and delay them?" Penelope asked.


    "Let them get into the Bowling Alley and head down. No point in making you respawn when they have a pile of necromancers." He watched as Wild, Katelyn, and Ludmiller made their way to their arena. "Do any of you want a gun?"


    "Trav," Katelyn said as started up the stairs from the bottom floor, "the only reason we got guns was because someone brought one in, right?"


    "Uh, yeah."


    "Do you really want to potentially give the undead a rifle to take back to their dungeon?"


    "Good thinking. Right, no guns then. Thanks for thinking of that. Okay, Brayden, can you let the others know we have a party starting?" Turning his attention to Brayden, Travis could see the priest was doing exactly that. "Oh, of course you are already. Thanks!"


    While she moved, Travis reflected on his health regeneration rate. It seemed slow, particularly for how much maximum health he had, and he hoped that there would be upgrades to take up the slack.


    <hr>


    It hated what happened. The dungeons had always kept their distance¡ªsending only small forays against Its clever minions. Noisy, violent defense had been arrayed against the latest incursion by the undead, and It had been positively delighted to see them dispatched with ease.


    Then one of the dungeons opened a passage directly to Its doorstep. What was worse, it was the dungeon that kept infiltrating minions¡ªeven stealing Its own! It raged at that intrusion¡ªthat act of aggression¡ªbut It had been excited to see that dungeon''s greatest minion array itself against Its best force. With glee It had waited for the crack of those noisy, violent weapons.


    But those sounds of victory did not come. Instead the dungeon''s minion had parlayed with Its greatest defender. They had conversed and parted ways amicably.


    It raged. It hated. It was also curious.


    Dungeons were meant to kill and maim and destroy Its kind. They were at odds always, and always there would be conflict. This dungeon did things that didn''t make sense to It.


    The dragon dungeon sent minions, and It could tell they made Its own minions happy. Despite everything that told it to the contrary, It had to live beside this apparently passive dungeon, it seemed, though It wouldn''t be happy about it.


    <hr>


    Marching down when Travis had assured her that the undead dungeon''s minions were in the Bowling Alley, Penelope made for the back corner of the tavern, nodding to the adventurers as she passed them, then she pushed her way through the wall of stone between there and a lizard farm. "Hey, hey, don''t panic." She reached down to rub the spines on the back of one of the lizards. "I''m here now."


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    "Here they come!"


    Ludmiller''s voice from the next room distracted Penelope from the lizards. She turned the corner out of the farm and used her claws to help keep her balance. Breaking into a run when she saw a zombie step up to Wild, she let out a roar and ran from the side tunnel into the arena¡ªslamming into the zombie that wasn''t as imposing as when they had been more solidly built than her.


    Watching as the zombie went flying against the wall and landed on the lava there, Wild turned his attention from it and to the undead lord. The thing looked meaner than before, but he didn''t fear it at all¡ªnot given Travis wouldn''t let him die, and especially not with Penelope here to back him up.


    Stomping one foot down on the zombie''s head, Penelope drove it against the burning rock as hard as she could. When it stopped moving, she turned to see Wild had engaged the lord. In the corner behind Wild, with her back to the wall and standing on the lava, Katelyn flared bright blue with flames and sent her wicked fire out to the monsters still gathering in the room.


    Leaving Ludmiller, wherever she was, to her own devices, Penelope lunged over and imposed herself between the mage and a rushing pair of zombies. Using her long sword to decapitate one, she dug her short sword into the neck of another and then shoved it backwards with her shoulder.


    Skirmishing with the zombies, Penelope had no sooner dispatched the first two, than three rushed in and engaged with her. She used her long blade to fend two off while she bisected the third''s head down the middle. When Ludmiller appeared beside Wild¡ªattacking the lord with him¡ªshe realized she had a perfect arc of fire and shoved the two zombies back.


    Then Penelope exhaled, bringing her acid up and out again.


    The green wave poured out around the next few zombies charging into the room. It hung on the air and bathed one cleric¡ªdrawing a scream from him as his flesh melted from his body. By the time the zombies reached Penelope, Katelyn had given the back row of the undead forces another refreshing bath of intense fire. Not that she could pause to admire the flames. The three half-melted zombies had rushed up to her and were clawing at her from in front and each side, but even when their claws connected they barely marked her scales. Their closed-fist strikes, however, did hurt her.


    "Pen!"


    Ludmiller''s shout came just after Penelope had cut another zombie down. Turning sharply, she bashed one of the remaining zombies with her tail and thumped the other in the face with a wing as she rushed over to shove the undead lord away from a wounded Wild.


    Slamming her blades against the lord''s again and again, Penelope snarled and growled at him as she worked her anger out on them. Clawing, slashing with her swords, even buffeting the undead leader with her wings¡ªshe rained blows down on it while Katelyn and Ludmiller cleaned up the rest of the room.


    Just as Penelope was about to dig her blade through the undead lord''s skull and end it, a pair of daggers came through from the other direction and cleaved the skull in half. Shimming around the edges of her form, Ludmiller looked furious. "What¡ª?"


    "Wild''s down. Too much necromancy on that bastard''s blade." Taking a moment to smash the two halves of the skull, Ludmiller spat on the body. "Trav, can you get Brayden in here? I need to hug Wild and then teach him how to use a shield."


    "He''s on his way. I told him the moment Wild''s timer started." Travis turned his attention to the spirit of Wild that was with him. "It won''t be long."


    "I need to get stronger. That thing will eventually gain another tier itself, and be comparable to Pen." No sooner was he done telling Travis than Wild felt the pull of Brayden''s magic dragging him back to his body. "I promise I''ll get stronger!"


    "You don''t¡ª" Travis cut himself short when Wild vanished from the ether and started lifting himself off the floor under Brayden''s hands. "You don''t have to protect the whole dungeon on your own, Wild. You, Ludmiller, and Katelyn are the first line of defense here. All I expect from you is your best."


    Wild huffed out a breath. He hated losing a fight, but it wasn''t even as much a defeat as using a talisman was anymore. What he did like about this, though, was the crash-tackle from Ludmiller. "Sorry, I must have tripped."


    "Next time, Wild, leave their boss to me and you clean up the trash, okay?" Having sheathed her weapons, Penelope reached down a hand for Wild and Ludmiller to take. "Maybe give some magic a try?"


    Wild hauled himself and Ludmiller to their feet with Penelope''s rock-steady arm. "Magic? How would that help me?"


    Katelyn cleared her throat. She liked the idea of her friends learning some magic tricks, but in Wild''s case she knew she wasn''t the right magic user to help with it. "Talk to Jack. He''s a sorcerer, so no book smarts needed, and he has some genuinely good ideas for enchantment-type spells. Imagine if your axes could slow down an enemy and freeze their limbs in place?"


    Wild''s smile was more than enough to give a very good idea of his thoughts on that.


    <hr>


    "Lots of new faces, Commander." Christine wasn''t one for slacking off, but she needed a break from her accounts. Walking around the town center, snacking on wares from various street merchants, she''d been overwhelmed by how busy it was.


    "You''ve been filling the town with a lot of gold." Walking around with Christine Sellswell was a great pastime for Brolly Windchime¡ªit meant he got a lot of great, free food. "Plenty of strong backs and sharp blades means we get the dungeon''s outpost built fast and secured."


    "I''m not talking about your new hires, Brolly. There were some that came in on my last caravan that looked"¡ªChristine searched for the right word¡ª"out of place."


    "We''re succeeding. Years ahead of schedule, and with an influx of new blood settling in¡ª" He bit off a hunk of the marinated meat on a stick they''d gotten from the last vendor. Chewing it thoughtfully, Brolly focused on his next words. "We''re a city. We have a dungeon that''s somehow more cooperative than even the average verdant dungeon. I don''t know if you felt it, too, but something shifted in the city itself when Travis opened up his new exit. There was anger¡ªbut I felt it ease as we continued our patrol. I think the city''s accepted the dungeon."


    Whistling, Christine nibbled on her lunch too, but not so much that she couldn''t gulp it down and continue talking. "That''s good. I was more than a little worried about all this. Hopefully Travis getting rid of that undead dungeon will help the city relax more. The paperwork is proceeding there¡ªwe have a magistrate in the capital who was willing to take us seriously."


    Brolly passed Christine his stick and strode away from Christine a moment, and approached an old man who was looking lost. "Can I help you, old timer?"


    Turning and glaring at the young man that''d called him old, the man realized he was talking to someone with rank at the very least. "Yeah. I heard there was an interestin'' dungeon out here that can"¡ªhe paused, trying not to blush as he knew his words could be interpreted as lunacy¡ª"can heal the one thing the blasted clerics can''t."


    Christine, hearing that, nodded. "You''ll want to talk to our guard commander here. He''ll get you out to talk to the dungeon."


    "Talk to the dungeon?"


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 Chapter 70

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 10/100


    Heart 160000/160000


    Experience 24150/90000


    Workers 9/67


    Monsters 1/69


    Traps 62/159


    Food 2475


    Timber 1420


    Iron 124


    Steel 370


    Charcoal 458


    Mana 325


    Rock 3102


    Gold 24314


    Leather 377


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 90


    Glass 744


    Explosive Runes 20


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 3


    Long Guns 9


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Lay siege to the nearby town.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    Mana Shrine Depleted!


    </blockquote>


    It was the last thing Travis wanted to see. His mana regeneration was already tiny compared to his total, and he could appreciate that he was going to need to gear up to a lot more mana regeneration. So, with that in mind, he needed to get Fife integrated, he needed to dig her out a boss room, and he then needed to make a lizard village to sniff out resources.


    Penelope and Tannyr had been digging most of the day, preparing the new entrance tunnel, and he''d gotten Katelyn to melt down another gold vein.


    "Change of plans everyone. My mana shrines are depleting and with how many I''ve created we need to find them. That means I need to get Fife her boss room so we can start poking around down here, or at least get the stairs built so things can be channeled to the top floor. Then, if we can get a lizard village, I can get an upgrade that lets them find these resources."


    Stepping back from the rockface, Tannyr tilted her head. "I think I follow that. You got the gold for your stairs, right?"


    "Right, and with the timber that we just got from the forest, that should cover all its requirements. Thanks for that, Pen." Travis started mapping out what he wanted. The stairs would be able to be switched so that they either led from the inner dungeon of the bottom floor to the residences on the top floor or, with a quick change to a few walls, the entrance to the dungeon and the latest digging project.


    "You''re welcome. So, where are these stairs going?" Penelope asked.


    When Travis was done guiding everyone into place, Tannyr had adjusted the tunnel down to the second floor from the main entrance a little and Penelope had gotten her own tunnel work done around the stairs coming down to the bottom floor from the second. He prepared the cost and activated it. "Okay, set yourselves up where you want the stairs. Pen, Tannyr¡­" He paid the cost, with extra gold of course, and targeted Tannyr and Penelope.


    "Right here," both said at the same time, causing an entirely new staircase to burrow its way through the rock up and down¡ªto meet in the middle and create the link.


    "That feels weird. Anyway, now we have a set of stairs going all the way back up to the top. Pen, can you break the link to the twists down there, and we can see about doing some new digging." Travis was already queuing up a new loop around the bottom floor to connect to the stairs so anyone digging could escape and lead potential monsters to all the traps.


    "Okay. Trav, do you want me digging up here or down the bottom?" Tannyr asked.


    "Down the bottom. Katelyn, could I bother you to get me six thousand iron or so?" Switching between listeners had become a fine skill for Travis. He''d honed it¡ªand avoided full broadcasting¡ªso he wouldn''t interrupt sleepers and couples who were otherwise engaged.


    "Trav, I tried getting iron. It takes me forever and uses tons of mana, I¡ª"


    "I''ll give you a mana field." Travis had forgotten how much harder it was for Katelyn to melt iron than gold. Her sigh, ending in a chuckle, reassured Travis that he hadn''t overstepped. "Thanks, Kate."


    "Like I''d turn you down for this kind of thing. I guess I''ll work on the one in the residential area. Do we know what''s happening with all that now you plan to move residences upstairs? Are we removing it?"


    "I think I''ll make rooms for them up there and offer it. Though, there''s something to be said for having your quarters near to the action. Sort of like a garrison."


    Tilting her head to the side, Katelyn nodded. "Yeah, I get that."


    <hr>


    Dungeons, in Kelvin Silversong''s estimation, were never this close to a small city. He paused, which earned a huff from his kin, and looked back at the wall of the city behind them. It was still in sight, for which his old muscles were particularly thankful. "You didn''t have to follow me, Portentia."


    "Just. Call. Me. Potia. Ugh, you''re so terrible, granddad." It wasn''t exactly the worst thing caring for her great grandfather, he had so many stories that it kept her from getting bored, but he wouldn''t remember to use her name. Portentia "Potia" Silversong let out a groan (she deemed it the seventh for the day¡ªbut it was actually the ninth). "They said this dungeon was tame. Maybe they dug this out?"


    "No dungeon is tame, Portentia. Not even those insipid verdant ones. This, from what people said, is a dragon dungeon. When things go wrong, you get back to the town and don''t you dare try to come back for me."


    "''When''? Granddad¡­" She let the words trail off, her own silence the disapproval she hadn''t the words to voice.


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    "It''s a dungeon. Dungeons don''t play games, Portentia. We''re here to get you the gold you need to set up a forge in Northridge¡ªor whatever other end of the kingdom you could bear to call home¡ªand that''s all. Folks say it will make a deal for those willing to pay the ultimate price. That deal will be your gold." Marching closer to the dungeon, Kelvin spotted a fat lizard sitting by the entrance.


    Walking over to the creature, Kelvin crouched down and reached a hand out to pet the lizard on the head.


    "They like being stroked under the chin."


    "Really? I¡ª" Kelvin froze as he looked from the lizard and noticed the legs of who''d spoken. Ice gripped his chest as his eyes traced up from there, spying the form of what had to be the dungeon''s boss. Wings, claws, two swords, and a decidedly almost-a-dragon muzzle gave it away. Standing, he very carefully didn''t reach for the spear on his back. "To whom do I owe the pleasure of meeting?"


    Penelope was wary. The elf before her looked positively ancient, but the spear and light armor he wore marked him as a lancer¡ªa martial warrior capable of dealing high damage without getting close. The equipment was both ornate and well-used, a combination she knew meant she could be in trouble if there was a fight. Dipping her head a little, she said, "Penelope, just call me Pen. I''m the boss of the dungeon."


    Kelvin nodded at that, given the sense of strength and assurance about her, but the name seemed strange. "I am Kelvin Silversong, and this is my great granddaughter, Portentia Silversong¡ªthough she gets rather upset if you call her that. You took a human name?"


    "Was human, so I kept my name. We do things a bit different from normal dungeons here." Jerking her thumb back toward the dungeon, she asked, "Wanna go somewhere safer? We have a tavern on the second floor that''s great, and I will vouch for your safety."


    "You''ll forgive my doubting you, but I have yet to meet a dungeon boss that wasn''t trying to kill me." Flashing his best apologetic smile, Kelvin didn''t unwind a single muscle that was ready to draw his spear. "I am an elf of his word, though, and I can assure you that nothing out here short of a bullet will harm us while we talk."


    "Lucky that I''ve met my share of adventurers who didn''t try to kill me. Okay, then." Safe with the knowledge that at worst she''d have to respawn, Penelope sat down on the ground and stretched her wings out. "So, what business do you have here?"


    It was getting harder to listen to his distrust. Kelvin noted the way Penelope sat, giving him advantage over her should a fight start. He had seen how resilient a boss could be, though he was sure he had her number should push come to shove. "Well¡ª"


    "Granddad is being an idiot." When the dragon looked at her, Portentia wasn''t sure if she should be terrified or if Penelope was going to break out laughing. "Well, you are! I''ve tried to talk him out of it, but¡ª"


    "But you don''t have a say in what an adventurer does with their life." Judging his kin as being a bigger threat right now than the dungeon boss, Kelvin took his eyes off the dragon and looked at Portentia. "I said you didn''t have to follow me. I could have hired anyone to take their gold and give it to you. You decided to come with me."


    "Of course I did! Mom even tried to talk me out of it, but I guess¡ª" Freezing a moment before she gave voice to her thought, Portentia sighed and said it anyway. "I guess I''m as pig-headed as you are."


    Glancing back at Penelope, Kelvin was again surprised by her, this time when he recognized real mirth on her face. "You see what an old man has to put up with? A man I trust told me a woman he trusted had made contact with a dungeon that wanted fresh blood. I''m an old elf, too old by half, but I know I will be worth something to the likes of your home. So I''m here to negotiate a price, in gold, to be paid to my most annoying great granddaughter."


    "Fresh blood¡­" It took Penelope a few seconds to put the meaning together. Her eyes widened and she held up both her talons¡ªpalm out¡ªtrying to ward off the impression that Kelvin had. "They¡ªwe¡ªdon''t mean blood literally! We have a way to turn people into kobolds. How do you think I got like this?"


    Portentia caught on faster than her great grandfather. She started to giggle, then laugh, then she had to sit down because her mirth was getting too much. "Granddad! You''ve been so focused on this trip as¡ªas being your last! They don''t want to kill you, just put you to work!"


    Glaring at Portentia, Kelvin managed to be angry for nearly a second before he laughed too. "I set myself up for this." The dragon, he noticed, wasn''t laughing. She was looking intently at him. "You''ll still pay, right?"


    Shrugging her shoulders, Penelope asked, "How much gold do you want?" She recognized Kelvin as more than just another pair of hands to work¡ªhe was a skilled fighter. "Tell me a number."


    "Just like that?" Kelvin asked.


    "Just like that. Why don''t I give you a number and we can work from there?" When Kelvin nodded, Penelope held up a clawed finger. "One thousand gold."


    Shaking his head, Kelvin chuckled. "I could sell my spear for more than that. Ten thousand for these old bones."


    "Steph should be doing this," Penelope muttered. "Four thousand. I''m not absolutely sure, but from what I''ve noticed you will not have old bones anymore. The oldest kobold in the dungeon, Brayden, looks the same age as everyone else."


    "Yes, but I''d be a kobold, correct?"


    "Right. We are recruiting for boss cohorts, though. Several members of the dungeon are significantly greater in stature than the average kobold."


    "Dungeon boss or floor boss?"


    "As a matter of fact, I need to pick my own cohort. Five thousand and you''ll be my first pick." Perhaps, Penelope mused, she would make herself an arena after all. With a fighter like Kelvin backing her up, they''d be insanely powerful. "We need a second healer, if I''m honest. Maybe I''ll ask Felna if she wants to make our deal a little more permanent."


    At the curious look she got from Kelvin, Penelope elaborated, "There are seven adventurers currently living in the dungeon. Five of them are being paid per day for their work, the other two have made their own deals. Felna is a cleric of the Sandwalker."


    "Six," Kelvin said. "Err, thousand gold."


    "Deal." Penelope stood up and approached the old elf. Holding out a talon, she offered to shake. When he did, she glanced over at Portentia. "And you''re here to make a similar deal?"


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 Chapter 71

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 10/100


    Heart 160000/160000


    Experience 26600/90000


    Workers 9/67


    Monsters 1/69


    Traps 62/159


    Food 2476


    Timber 520


    Iron 116


    Steel 370


    Charcoal 308


    Mana 355


    Rock 2202


    Gold 314


    Leather 377


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 90


    Glass 744


    Explosive Runes 20


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 6


    Long Guns 9


    Bullets 500


    Black Powder 500


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Lay siege to the nearby town.


    </blockquote>


    The upswing in XP, from having Kelvin spend the night in the dungeon while his granddaughter had returned to Northridge with a note from Penelope to secure her payment, had surprised Travis. By his reckoning, the old elf was worth almost three times what all the other adventurers he had living in the dungeon were worth combined.


    It almost made him want to ask if Kelvin would spend a month just chilling and hanging out¡ªbut Penelope had given her word to him and her word was as good as Travis''. "Are we doing Fife at the same time? I feel like she''d want to watch, at least."


    "Of course Fife will want to watch. I''ll ask her now." Penelope had been making sure the workers on the first floor were safe¡ªstanding guard herself until the city got their own garrison built and populated¡ªbefore passing that duty on to Wild while she headed downstairs.


    Travis had asked Tannyr to continue digging out the new safe area on the first floor while Blake, Robert, and Ludmiller were starting on the bottom floor work he''d wanted. When the new kobolds were converted and sleeping off their change, he''d ask Penelope to go work with Tannyr.


    Taking the stairs down, Penelope entered the tavern and looked around. "Where''s Fife?"


    From where he was sitting, talking with Felna and Ogmera, Brayden nodded toward the tunnel into the sleeping area. "She''s sparring with that new guy."


    Travis was surprised no lizards had made it to the room they were in. As Penelope got closer, though, he could hear the clash of weapons. They''d appropriated the big room with an attached iron vein, and just as Penelope stepped inside, the fighting stopped.


    "You''re too damn fast by half, old man." Fife was panting, bringing her shield around to her side to clear her view. Spotting Penelope entering, she nodded. "Hey, Pen, what''s up?"


    "I might ask you the same thing. Trying to get your head pierced or something?" Penelope asked.


    Kelvin beamed, twirled his old spear and brought it to the specially placed hook on his back. "I was attempting to teach the young miss to keep her shield below her eye level."


    "You old bastard! Pen, he''s faster than a snake and has twice my reach. I had no chance of keeping that damn dagger-pole away from me without my shield." Sheathing her sword, Fife walked up to Kelvin and held out her hand to shake. With the little ritual done, the pair turned their attention to Penelope.


    "So, I was just thinking, did you two want to go down and become kobolds?"


    <hr>


    Fife was buzzing with excitement. Marching down behind Penelope, she couldn''t stop her palms from itching to draw her weapons for no reason she could figure out. Sword, shield, and now her own pistol, had always been the first reaction to any excitement. For Fife, excitement usually led to something bleeding. "What''s it feel like, Pen?"


    "I can''t really remember it. Something about dying at the time and all that." Leading the way through the warehouses, Penelope felt a little odd about how this part of the dungeon seemed like the treasure rooms she''d seen in others¡ªbut all broken up. "Trav, is there a reason you didn''t just build all these warehouses and stuff in one big area?"


    Travis was glad he could tune every kobold in the dungeon out of his shout. His mind raced, though, to come up with a good reason. "So that if some hostile group is down here, raiding all our stuff, we can plan out a defense rather than stumbling into a huge, open area."


    "That makes sense, I guess, though adventurers tend to do better in tight tunnels than monsters do." When she realized that she was talking to Travis and only giving half of the conversation, she turned her head. "He said it''s to slow down pillaging and make it easier to get the party bottled up."


    "Seeing as your best fighters are all ex adventurers, from what the young lady here has said, it''s a sound tactic." Overall, Kelvin had been rather surprised at the level of calm in the dungeon, given it had several adventurers living within it. It had been a fascinating revelation to find them not just living within, but comfortably so. "Is there a particular process for this¡ª" He cut off mid-sentence as Penelope led them into the heart room.


    "Hey, Trav! Are you ready to get in my head?" Fife asked, sauntering over to the heart. When she was within range, she reached her hand out and carefully touched the huge gemstone.


    "He says he''s been dreading it," Penelope said as she walked up to the heart herself and pressed one palm to it.


    Turning to look at Penelope, Fife asked, "Really?"


    Feeling more than a little worried about cutting herself with her swords, both of which seemed to be enchanted in some way now, Penelope instead just used one of her claws to prick the index finger of her other hand. "Why don''t you ask him yourself?"


    Fife''s eyes widened and her pupils narrowed to dots at the sight of the blood on Penelope''s finger, and then Travis'' heart. Getting close enough that her body was touching Travis'' heart, she didn''t notice Penelope''s wing curling around behind her as she raised her hand up¡ªtrembling a little in excitement¡ªand pressed it to the blood on the huge crystal.


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    Watching as Fife shivered and started to collapse, Kelvin took note of how Penelope cradled her and carefully guided her safely to the ground at the base of the huge crystal. Fife had been out of his line of sight for only moments, but she already had a scaly hide and had shrunk several sizes. "Is that how it works?"


    "Yeah. I used to slice my palm like an idiot, but this way is much neater. Besides, I don''t want to slice my palms with these swords. It might be painful." Pricking another finger, Penelope smeared it on Travis'' heart. "The best bit is I don''t almost pass out."


    "But we do?" Kelvin nodded to where Fife lay on the floor. He stepped forward, nonetheless, and when he raised his hand to the blood smear on the heart, he sensed the wing looming up behind him. Pausing, he asked further, "How did you do this before you had wings?"


    "People fell down a lot more." Penelope caught Kelvin as he started to fold up. She always got a close-up view of the action as skin and hair became hardened hide and scales. She guided him to the ground beside Fife as his face pressed out into a kobold muzzle, and a tail grew behind him. "Two more in one day, Trav. Been a while since we''ve done that."


    "Once, Pen. We got two at a time once. Okay, now it''s twice. How are they doing? They both seem a little more out of it than anyone else has been." Travis didn''t need to see through Penelope''s eyes to see how tenderly she picked them both up and carried each to a room to recover.


    It didn''t take long for Kelvin to wake. He felt very strange, given he''d spent over fifty thousand mornings waking up as an elf and now he got to experience his first as a kobold. Sitting up, exploring his body, he was surprised to see his weapons and armor sitting in a neat wooden rack at the end of the bed.


    Opening his mouth to speak, he paused and closed it again. There were too many teeth, too much tongue, and entirely too much muzzle for him to deal with yet. It took several moments of quiet contemplation for him to realize that the room he was in was pitch black, yet he was able to see clearly¡ªif without color.


    "Hey, uh, I guess this is the full introduction time. I''m Travis, though everyone calls me Trav. I guess I should welcome you to the dungeon¡ªme."


    "Yorrrrr¡ª" Kelvin bit back his attempt at speech. The words had come in his head, so he wondered if the dungeon could understand his thoughts in reply. After a moment of trying to think loudly, he remembered that Penelope had spoken out loud to the dungeon.


    "Sorry to say, but everyone has to get used to speaking with a muzzle in their own way. From what I''ve seen, trying to make appropriate noises helps. If you need it, you can grab a slate from Pen out in the heart room and write down what you need," Travis said.


    Standing wasn''t as hard as Kelvin would have thought. He judged his legs as being more capable than the average human''s, probably a little less nimble than the average elf''s, but their strength seemed far and above both species. He nodded at those and reached for his armor and spear¡ªand realized how much height he''d lost.


    In his own estimation, though, that wouldn''t impact his combat style as much as some. His reach came from his spear''s length, not from his height or the reach of his own arms. Speed and precision were everything to him, and from what he''d managed to evaluate, being a kobold wouldn''t harm either once he worked on his muscle tone.


    The big gain, from Kelvin''s point of view, was how much easier it was to move. Old bones and the damage of a long lifetime of violent interactions had left scars and marks on him that made moving around a series of little pains and restricting stiffness¡ªthat was gone.


    The new gains from becoming a kobold weren''t easy to use at the exact moment, so he turned his thoughts back to Travis. He''d expected a mental influence that would guide his steps and arms. What he''d gotten, instead, was a man that sounded if not old, then not young. "Not¡ªjarrrr. Jarrrr." He stopped and thought about the word and how his mouth worked, then shrugged. "Jarrrk?"


    "Not sure what you mean, sorry. Head on out¡ªFife is already trying to figure herself out."


    Shrugging his shoulders (something that felt different in his shoulder joints than when he was an elf), Kelvin walked to the door carrying just his spear and wearing his old shirt. It wasn''t that he felt there was a need to cover himself, which was an odd sensation, but rather just a habit.


    Pausing at the doorway, he looked down and ran a quick inspection¡ªand found nothing of note. Which was, of course, noteworthy. Kelvin hadn''t asked about the intimates of being a kobold, but it wasn''t a great loss to him. He had seen his children grow and had even watched their children become adults and raise their own. With a deep breath, he pushed aside the heavy drape that covered the door and walked out into the tunnel. At the end of the hallway a pink light beckoned.


    "¡­ can''t believe Pen hasn''t told you all the best swear words yet! Pen! You are being deficient in your duty as dungeon boss!" Fife had not spent her weeks in the dungeon, among its denizens, idly. She''d studied kobold movement and how their mouths moved when they talked. Speaking had been the easiest thing when she just put together movement and sound.


    Travis wished for a brief moment that Fife was having as much trouble speaking as Kelvin. From when she''d sat up in her bed, she''d spent two seconds barking before getting her mouth under control and talking. "I already know plenty of swear words, Fife."


    "Really? Because I doubt you''ve heard goat gro¡ª"


    Grabbing Fife, Penelope clamped one hand over her mouth and held her snout closed. "You can regale Trav with your vocabulary later, Fife. Hey, look, Kelvin is out and trying to figure out how to kobold."


    Looking around, Kelvin spotted the tablet in Penelope''s hand and took it. Figuring out he could use his claw, he started writing in the wax.


    <blockquote>


    This is not what I expected. I hope this isn''t some elaborate joke, Travis?


    </blockquote>


    "It''s not a joke. I try not to give any orders around here. There''s this¡ªWell, if I tell you to do something, without making it a question or a request, you kinda have to do it. It''s not right, though. I try not to, but there have been times¡ª"


    "Wait, you''ve actually given orders?" Penelope asked. "When?"


    "Uh, last one was when Tannyr was paralyzed by one of the cave dragons when she broke through to their cave. She was just laying there on the ground and they were getting closer and¡­ I commanded her to get up and run."


    Struggling free of Penelope, Fife turned to look at the huge crystal. "Trav! That''s not a bad thing."


    Kelvin nodded in agreement. It was strange, he figured, but as far as potential afterlifes went, this wasn''t the worst.


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 72

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 10/100


    Heart 160000/160000


    Experience 29700/90000


    Workers 11/67


    Monsters 1/69


    Traps 63/159


    Food 2471


    Timber 550


    Iron 111


    Steel 1370


    Charcoal 358


    Mana 355


    Rock 3429


    Gold 314


    Leather 377


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 300


    Glass 650


    Explosive Runes 20


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 9


    Long Guns 9


    Bullets 500


    Black Powder 500


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Lay siege to the nearby town.


    </blockquote>


    It had been a heck of a day. Travis had gotten Tannyr to focus on the safety built into the second entrance area while Blake had started digging the tunnel on the bottom floor looking for mana shrines. What he''d found had been a huge one. If Travis could have danced, he would have. His mana had shot up for the rest of the day and he was content to leave the digging at that for the moment.


    Katelyn, Fife, Kelvin, Stephan, and Brayden had spent the day talking about being kobolds and researching the newest passive experience income from quest completion, and the rest had been free to do their own thing.


    Robert, though, had revealed his latest work. "This stuff should terrify even the undead. Look." Having spent time changing the old sludge out and adding his own in, without any caltrops, Robert drew out a potion vial from a pocket. "Standard issue flashfire."


    When he tossed the vial at the wall beside a sludge trap, the air itself ignited the mixture within and a gout of flame poured down onto the sludge.


    ¡­ and sputtered out.


    "Is the glass melting?" Travis asked.


    "The glass is melting. Look, even the stopper I''d sealed on has started to dissolve in the acid. And, you know the best bit?" Robert asked as he crouched down and put his hand in the highly acidic muck. "It doesn''t harm kobold scales, though I would not suggest anyone get it on their face."


    That surprised Travis more than the efficacy of the sludge. "Uh, make sure to warn everyone about that. Walking through the stuff might seem great if there are no other solutions, but if you trip and go face-first into it¡­"


    Pulling his hand out, Robert used the stone wall to wipe the sludge off as best he could. "And you don''t want to drop anything in it."


    "Okay, now, I have a lot of spare trap slots. Want to make the maze more exciting?" For Travis, nothing seemed like as good an idea as filling the second floor maze full of the new and improved sludge traps. "Because I like the idea of undead going into that and never coming out the other side."


    "Uh, there''s a problem with that." Robert gestured to the trap before him. "It took me a day to make enough of this for that one trap."


    Travis swore without focusing on anyone¡ªthe words only there for his benefit. "Well, would buying anything help speed it up? Maybe get someone to help you?"


    Thinking on it, Robert nodded. "I''ll make a list of things to get from town, and I''ll ask Pen and Luddy to help. They''ve both had experience dealing with alchemical traps and items."


    <hr>


    "I don''t make them nervous?" Penelope asked.


    "What makes them nervous is undead. The rifles have been helping with that. Besides, these are all established workers; they know the help you''ve provided in the past." Brolly Windchime gestured at the squad of guards with rifles, then patted the pistol at his own side. "I didn''t like the idea of you trying to take that dungeon out, you know, but I''m starting to see upsides to it."


    "Right, did you want some more guns?" Jerking her thumb back to the dungeon entrance behind her, Penelope added, "I can grab you another five right now." Something was itching in the back of her mind and she couldn''t remember what it was. Going back to the dungeon would mean she could ask Travis.


    "I would never say no to an offer like that. I trust there will be more coming to outfit this outpost?" Following along, Brolly couldn''t help but feel excited at the idea of Northridge becoming a manufacturing hub for guns. The moment Penelope had stepped inside, she started producing guns out of thin air¡ªthough he''d talked to Christine Sellswell and knew this was how dungeon creatures could retrieve items from the dungeon''s stores. "We got a new smith in town. Perhaps I should send her out to sign up?"


    "Her great grandfather already has. He made it clear she wasn''t to become a kobold for a good hundred years at least." Passing Brolly the guns one by one, she quickly asked Travis, "Hey, Trav, what was that thing you wanted me to try out here?"


    "Can you try punching or scratching the city wall? I want to see if that registers as laying siege to the nearby town for this quest."


    Penelope asked, "Are you sure you want to do that now and not wait until you have that new research done?"


    "There will be more quests. I want to know how much we can cheese them."


    Laughing, Penelope shook her head. "Sometimes, Trav, I think I have all your language figured out¡ªthen you say something like cheese them and I have no clue what you mean. Oh, I''d meant to ask too, how much steel and wood do we need per gun?"


    Brolly found hearing half a conversation, somehow, more interesting than hearing the whole thing. The last bit, though, he was particularly curious in knowing the answer to.


    "A rifle uses five steel, a pistol three, and both need one timber."


    Seeing Brolly''s interest, Penelope smiled. "Five steel for a rifle, three for a pistol, and we need a little wood for both. Would you be amenable to me testing some things on your city wall?"


    Brolly knew how the dungeon counted weights and measures for various things was different from their own system. Ingots and bars counted for two and five dungeon steel. "If I get you a thousand steel and some trees, and you make these weapons for us, you can pull down a section of wall on your own for all I care." He turned, rifles in his arms, and nodded toward the city. "We can do whatever you want with the wall now."


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    Stretching and walking along beside Brolly, Penelope felt huge compared to him. It was an odd feeling to contemplate that she would only get bigger until she was a huge dragon. "Any problems with the goblin rot dungeon?"


    "They keep probing our defenses. We''re holding solid and took your advice to hire some fire mages to burn the corpses. I''ve talked with the masons, and they''re making a long-term project out of extending the wall out to a second ring that would encompass your entrance there." Approaching the wall, Brolly nodded to the workers (these ones looking a little nervous at seeing a half-dragon so close) who were disassembling the wall to build a gatehouse. "Feel free to test out anything you wish on this section here. It''s being torn down as we speak."


    "Thanks. Trav gets these quests that¡ªWe don''t know how or why, but they are magic and give us stuff for doing things. The latest ones are to capture an adventurer in a jail and lay siege to the nearby town." Waiting for Brolly''s raised eyebrow to reach its peak, Penelope continued. "We don''t plan to build siege engines, unless we have to, and even then we don''t want to actually do anything harmful. We''re starting with the obvious to see if it works¡ªI''m going to scratch your wall."


    Passing the rifles to one of the guards who came out to check on them, Brolly shook his head in disbelief. "This is the craziest stuff. Here I thought dungeons were all mechanical and well-understood, then you lot upend all that with¡ªwith this. Go ahead, lay siege to us."


    The moment the dungeon boss laid its claws on the wall, the city knew it. The feel was, to it, a harbinger of pain and agony to come. Turning its attention to the spot, it felt the sensation stop. It wasn''t easy to narrow its attention to what one of its officers could perceive, but Brolly Windchime didn''t offer any resistance, either.


    Everything seemed different with how beings perceived things. One direction, one set of eyes, a single point of focus. The dragon was big¡ªtaller than Northridge''s current point of view. It wasn''t fighting and didn''t seem hostile, though, which confirmed to Northridge that its inhabitants had formed some sort of treaty with the dungeon. When the two turned from the wall and started back toward the new entrance to the dungeon, Northridge was able to see what was going on there.


    Walls were being built. Guards stood around the low hill. Northridge had finally beaten past its fear, panic, and hate of this dungeon toward curiosity. The dungeon wasn''t harming Northridge, which meant Northridge could turn its attention to actual threats¡ªthe undead and the goblins. With better targets than an apparently peaceful dungeon to turn its anger on, it left dealing with the dragons to its officer.


    "That did it! Hell, I can''t believe scratching the wall counted as siege. The new quest is to fill out all the possible boss positions." Travis was super happy with himself. With the level of flexibility the dungeon system had given him on quests, he would have to spend a lot less effort completing them.


    "Trav said it worked. Thanks for that." Penelope winced as she saw Brolly gulp in the face of her smile, remembering that such an expression betrayed a terrifying array of teeth that, combined with her size now, could look like she was thinking of eating someone.


    The smile did worry Brolly for a moment, in that brief this is a big predator way, but when Penelope''s expression sobered he felt like an ass nonetheless. "Hey, no problems. I think there are some more people in town who want to sign-on. Should I bring them out in the next day or two?"


    "Yeah. At this point we''ll take anyone, but if they have any skills¡ª"


    "When you''re recruiting old-timers, they''re bound to have some skill that will be useful, right?" Brolly asked.


    Penelope laughed. "We''ve been pretty lucky so far. That old elf we had sign up? One of the finest weapon masters I''ve ever seen. He''s downstairs figuring out how to use his new body."


    That was news to Brolly. "We''re still trying to get an update about sanctioning that undead dungeon. Christine said the main angle her representative is using is that being a dungeon means its in your nature to want to destroy other dungeons."


    "How''s that working out?" At Brolly''s shrug, Penelope sighed. "We''ll start besieging them, then, and wait for news. In the meantime, I''ll keep watch up here. Short of attacking me with everything they have, I don''t think their boss can take me down as I am."


    "Boasting, or have you tested that?"


    "The latter." This time, when she smiled, Penelope got an answering smile that looked almost as predatory as she knew hers was.


    <hr>


    As was always the case after finishing a quest, Travis was left at a loss as to what he''d gained. No stats had changed, so he started looking around for any physical changes¡ªbut again he came up blank. Looking through buildings and upgrades gave nothing, and neither did research this time. Finally, he started checking each individual room''s upgrades and, when that didn''t work, each inhabitant. That''s when he spotted it.


    His first target, Fife, gave a selection of classes he could pick from that each said zero gold as the cost. Dungeon Soldier, Barbarian, Tank, and Ranger were the first four, but there was also Dungeon Kobold, Trapper, Crafter, and Digger.


    A check of the others showed the same thing, including Wild and Penelope. "Okay, so I found the reward for ''sieging Northridge¡ªI can assign a class to you. Probably only one, but it''s something new." When he checked Brayden, he found a different set of combat options (Dungeon Order, Cleric, Paladin, and Inquisitor). Katelyn had Dungeon Mage, Wizard, Sorcerer, and Arch-Mage. Travis read out all the options.


    "Interesting," Penelope said from inside the Northridge entrance. "Is this some kind of specialization on top of whatever adventuring skills we have? Are there any descriptions for these?"


    After repeating the question for the others, Travis tended to agree. "I think so. Also, as usual, no descriptions. Who wants to be¡ª?"


    "I heard you call me a tank before," Fife said. "You said it was something about being unmovable and keeping attention, so, lay it on me." She felt the moment he''d accepted her challenge. Fife felt more solid and like her old self. Her muscles, small as they''d been since she''d become a kobold, swelled and she felt far more strength in them than before. "Wow, that''s a rush! Anything new on your end?"


    "You have skill progression!" Travis stared at the simple list. There was one skill currently unlocked, Resistance. It read like a standard damage absorption plus constitution bonus would in games Travis had played. "Okay, you currently have a single skill, Resistance."


    "Resistance?" The moment she said it, Fife felt a new level of solidness to her. Drawing her sword, she pressed the sharp blade to her scaled arm and drew it slowly along her toughened flesh. Then she pressed harder, and harder, and let out a whoop of laughter. "Hey, Brayden, punch me!"


    Not willing to look a gift horse in the mouth, and not having had a chance lately to give his friend a thumping for the fun of it, Brayden stood and did as Fife asked, delivering a blow to her gut that should have doubled her over¡ªinstead he just about hurt his fist. "That''s¡ªFife, that was like punching a rock!" He couldn''t help but smile at how happy she looked.


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 73

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 10/100


    Heart 160000/160000


    Experience 32800/90000


    Workers 11/67


    Monsters 1/69


    Traps 63/159


    Food 2471


    Timber 550


    Iron 111


    Steel 1370


    Charcoal 358


    Mana 695


    Rock 3429


    Gold 314


    Leather 377


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 300


    Glass 650


    Explosive Runes 20


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 9


    Long Guns 9


    Bullets 500


    Black Powder 500


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Have your full contingent of bosses.


    </blockquote>


    Since Travis knew his maximum mana was seven hundred and twenty, he spent five hundred making a new mana shrine somewhere on the bottom floor. Fifty mana every eight hours was just too amazing not to push for more of that.


    Before the work had been wrapped up on the fort for the previous day, he''d gotten Penelope to ask Brolly to arrange for more timber to be delivered. Also, he was sure the guard captain was rushing around trying to buy steel to trade for guns¡ªsomething Travis was fine with.


    In all, everything seemed to be progressing well, which was why he was worried. The other shoe, he knew, had a tendency to drop at these kinds of moments.


    <blockquote>


    Research complete: Questing


    </blockquote>


    "Thanks, Kate, that finished off Questing. I think the next step will be to get Advanced Questing, which boosts the experience gain." Travis went ahead and selected that as the next research in progress. "But before you get too far into that, would you mind getting some gold and iron? I think it''s time Fife got her bosshood and we get to test out Questing."


    "Sure. Let me head up and burn off one of those gold nodes that keep getting in the way. Hey, Fife, want to come and help me get the stuff to get you your boss status?" Rising smoothly to her feet by just unfolding her legs, Katelyn reached out and picked up her staff.


    <hr>


    Following Katelyn, Fife felt far more at home in her new body after doing some sparring with Kelvin, and he''d said much the same to her. Though she had her newfound Tank power, she was still shorter than she used to be. "So you do the mining because of your magic, right?"


    "Because I can melt gold and iron, though the iron takes more work and I usually get Trav to feed me mana."


    Everything was new to Fife. Walking, talking, even thinking seemed just a little different. In the back of her mind was a new cluster of urges and wants that she was still trying to unpack and examine¡ªchief among them had been almost reverence for Travis. Before he''d been an interesting friend, now he was her home. "He really doesn''t give any commands, does he?"


    "Not anything we wouldn''t want to do, for sure." Reaching a familiar spot, Katelyn tapped on the rock. "On the other side of this is a tunnel. You''ll get used to remembering where they are, but I''d recommend keeping up with that new map Trav is keeping in his heart room. Let me teach you to¡ª"


    "To step through the wall? I''ve been here a while, remember? What was it Luddy said, just imagine the rock is a wall of mud and push through?" Ignoring Katelyn''s exasperated expression, Fife did just what she said and pressed herself against the wall with the mindset that she was harder than it.


    "Trav, I appreciate that this makes it way easier to train someone, but I''m going to need some private time later to scream," Katelyn said, ignoring the chuckle in the back of her head. Stepping against the stone, she pushed herself through the intervening gap and joined Fife on the other side.


    Fife didn''t notice Katelyn appear, she was already walking down the tunnel toward what would be her boss room. The room itself didn''t hold any great sentiment for her, but its occupant did. Stepping into the room, she was surprised at how hard it was to see Squishy, but she certainly felt him when he pressed against her. "Whoa. Hey there."


    Holding out a hand, like she would for a dog, Fife felt Squishy pull her fingers and palm into himself before spitting them back out again. Some instinct told Fife that he was just getting to know her¡ªlicking her hand, or at least his best approximation. "You know, you''re going to become even more awesome when you become my cohort, right? You''ll probably fill this room from floor to ceiling and wall to wall."


    Katelyn gave Fife some time to make friends before clearing her throat. "Well, if you want, we could leave that pillar of gold ore there or I could melt it down for Trav?"


    "Wait, you mean like keep it there kinda like a trophy? Because we can?"


    "You''ve seen Tannyr''s quarters? She has one just like it, but iron." Katelyn shrugged her shoulders and looked around the room. "Also, any thought on a theme?"


    "You know that sludge Trav has going on down that way? I think me and Squishy are going to spread some more of that around. Bully some undead and goblins into it. Wait until there''s nothing left but bones. Laugh at their melting bones. That kind of thing. Anyway, Squishy, I''ll be back soon and we can get to working on tactics, ya know?"


    Squishy didn''t understand words and could barely perceive things that weren''t part of the dungeon as being not food, but he actively liked the noises and contact the latest denizen showered it with. Its new life, reborn as a dungeon monster, suited it quite well. It liked being fed regularly and having others that would help it find more exciting¡ªmobile¡ªfood.


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    "So I think we''ll keep the gold one. It looks neat. Besides, we can set up sludge around it so nothing will want to get close." Pressing her palm against Squishy one last time, Fife turned and made for the tunnel again, behind Katelyn.


    "It''s so different like this. There''s no light at all. How am I seeing anything?" Despite the complete lack of illumination, Fife was able to see perfectly well and follow her friend.


    Leading the way through another wall and up the stairs, Katelyn sighed. "There''s a lot to this I can''t fully figure out. We can see in the dark, but it''s not magic. I think it might be related to the dungeon itself. I guess we''ll find out when we start attacking the undead dungeon. If we need to use some alchemical lights, then we''ll know for sure. Okay, this gold node will do. Hey, Trav, are you ready to tell me when to stop?"


    "Go for it. This one has been mostly used up, right?" Travis asked.


    Looking at her marks on the wall, Katelyn nodded. "Should be a good four thousand left in it. Let me test that."


    Fife, having known Jack for a while, knew how magic users could get when they relaxed and had fun. What Katelyn was doing might be considered work, but the intense heat and cackling was a sure sign that the wizard was enjoying herself immensely.


    As soon as she''d started, and melted some of the gold, Katelyn stopped¡ªthe former vein of metal now gone. "Easy as that. How much was it, Trav?"


    "There were five thousand three hundred. That means there is some variation in how much gold is in a node." Travis checked his storage again. "Well, there might have been a hint more. I tend to ignore anything under a hundred if I have thousands."


    Fife snorted at that and nodded. "I can understand that. I don''t have a head for numbers. If I have more than ten of something, I have enough to¡ª"


    "I''ve watched you count cards in the tavern, Fife," Katelyn said. "I''ve watched you balance your wagers while Jack stays well away from the table. You don''t know numbers? You don''t have a head for numbers?" She stared at Fife until her target shrugged. "Whatever. That''s enough gold. Now we need some iron, and Trav will need to give me some mana to do that. Iron doesn''t melt nearly as easily."


    "Have you tried focusing your heat on a smaller point?" Fife asked. She''d been walking behind Katelyn and almost plowed right into her when she stopped suddenly.


    Spinning on one of her talons (and leaving a little gouge in the stonework floor), Katelyn fixed Fife with a glare. "For someone who tries to pass herself off as being an idiot, you sure know a lot about how the world works."


    "I keep my eyes open, you know?" Fife shrugged as they approached an iron seam that was just off to the side of their current passage. "I know it''s not something everyone does, but it''s saved my ass a few times."


    "You''re telling me. Half the time I wonder if some people will even see something standing right in front of them. Hey, Trav, how much do you want from this?" Katelyn pointed at the iron vein before her.


    "We could probably use a few thousand. Let''s go with five. I''ll tell you when." Travis cast a mana field over Katelyn, giving her plenty of energy to get what he needed.


    Focusing herself down more than normal, Katelyn didn''t use the expediency of a spell to focus her mana¡ªshe just let it burn.


    Watching as the white-hot lance of magic burned clear through the iron, Fife tilted her head a little. Something was bugging her, but she waited until Travis told Katelyn to stop before asking, "Why don''t you use this kind of thing in combat?"


    "Because it doesn''t work in combat. Iron and gold don''t have any innate magic. Creatures and plants¡ªliving plants¡ªhave their own magic inherent to them that makes using this kind of uncontrolled release almost ineffective. Since the beam itself is targeted magic, it will get resisted by natural magic fields." Katelyn had to admire the sizable hole she''d melted right through the iron seam. "You are going to be like this with everything, aren''t you?"


    Smirking, Fife nodded. "Sure am. Like I said, curiosity might get me into more messes, but I learn more about the world that way. Also, you have probably noticed, but I was pretty hard to kill already. Now? Now I am tempted to tell you to show me how that spell doesn''t work."


    Just left to stare, Katelyn sighed. "You''re crazy."


    "Hey, I didn''t say I would do it, just that I''m tempted. I need to know how far I can trust this tanking ability." Fife couldn''t help but swagger a little, and not just because that was the kind of movement that kobold hips tended to enforce. "Guess I''ll keep working with Kelvin. What I wouldn''t give to have met him five years ago."


    "He probably wouldn''t have been as interested in teaching you five years ago." Stretching, Katelyn turned back toward the tunnel that led to the library. "I''ll leave the rest to Trav. Unless he wants me to get any more resources?"


    "This is enough. Okay, Fife, come down to one of the sleeping rooms and we''ll get started. It''ll take a day for you to complete this change," Travis said.


    "A day? Huh. I didn''t count on this. Well, sooner I start the sooner it''s done, right?"


    "Yeah. Having you stay down here keeps you safe while the changes happen." Travis waited for her to walk through the heart room and find an empty sleeping area. "You ready?"


    Another step along the journey of life was ahead of Fife. She closed her eyes and lay down on the bed, wiggling to get cozy. "Yeah, Trav, I a¡ª"


    Travis would have smirked if he had a body still. He''d cut her off mid-sentence with the upgrade, a lizard at the door watched her slump down onto the bed and finally¡ªquiet.


    Fife''s dreams were calm, restful, and fulfilling. She spent some time digging, some time fighting, and all the while she could hear Travis'' voice soothing her¡ªnot that she picked up the words, just how warm he sounded. And why shouldn''t he? He was her dungeon, after all.


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 74

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 10/100


    Heart 160000/160000


    Experience 32800/90000


    Workers 11/67


    Monsters 1/69


    Traps 63/159


    Food 2463


    Timber 385


    Iron 5292


    Steel 1320


    Charcoal 358


    Mana 279


    Rock 4134


    Gold 4028


    Leather 377


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 300


    Glass 635


    Explosive Runes 20


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 9


    Long Guns 9


    Bullets 500


    Black Powder 500


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Have your full contingent of bosses.


    </blockquote>


    With Fife asleep and unable to be roused, Travis decided digging anything on the bottom floor would be a very bad idea¡ªwhat with the chance of digging out tougher monsters than even the cave dragons. With that in mind, he asked Tannyr to take a break from digging and work on making some guns.


    Katelyn was working on something new that involved a lot of gold and wouldn''t tell him what it was, not that he minded. The patterns she was working the gold into, though, looked similar to the mana manipulators that sat around his heart, which gave him an idea what it might be.


    And, in looking at them, he noticed they had an upgrade.


    <blockquote>


    Advanced Mana Manipulation:


    +9 Mana gathered


    15000 Gold


    500 Rock


    50 Steel


    </blockquote>


    Each one had that. It wasn''t a hard decision, though he''d need yet more gold. The rock he already had plenty of, the steel too, plus he could swing the cost his way even better by just spending more gold.


    "Kate, I know you''re working on¡ª"


    "Hold on, Trav, I''m focusing here." Katelyn''s voice was a little strained. Travis waited, and waited, and when she finally finished some intense magic design with the gold, she said, "Okay, what''s up?"


    "Kate, I know you''re working on some kind of mana manipulation thing, but I have an upgrade for the ones in my heart room that give me nine more mana regeneration per each one. It uses gold, rock, and a little steel."


    "So you need me to get more gold?" Already standing, Katelyn ran her claw tips over the work she''d just completed. "This is almost done, mind if I complete it first?"


    "Go ahead. I''m curious what you''re spending your day off doing, actually."


    "This is a mana foci¡ªWell, it will be a mana foci when I''m done with it. See, they let you refine your mana at the cost of, well, the foci." Her claws, nimble and far more capable of being used for delicate work than the heated irons wizards normally used, pinched sections together as she assembled the device. "You see, I was hoping that it might trigger¡ª"


    Something in Travis'' system seemed to click and he got a message.


    <blockquote>


    New building unlocked due to mana foci-equipped minion.


    </blockquote>


    "Kate, I got something unlocked. Gimme a second." Travis went looking through his list of buildings and found it. "Magitech Workshop. Says it allows for the simple manufacture of magitech." At her confused look he clarified. "Magitech is a term from my world. It usually means something like a mix of magic and technology, or at least equipment for automating magic."


    Tapping a claw on the foci she''d made, Katelyn looked thoughtful. "Yes, but why is it the word used in the dungeon?"


    "I¡ª" Travis stopped. "It used the word tank too. Hold on, am I even speaking English right now, or is it something else? What language am I speaking right now?"


    "Trade-common. It''s a mish-mash of languages. It''s used in the kingdom because everyone is taught it." Katelyn rolled her eyes. "But the odds of it being the same as a language from another world are so minuscule as to be non-existent. So, something weird is going on and when you talk, we hear trade-common. When we talk, you hear¡ªdid you call it English?"


    "Now you see the kind of weirdness this is for me?" Travis asked.


    Katelyn laughed and rolled her shoulders. "Trav, I''m a kobold. You think this wasn''t weird for me either? Anyway, what do you need¡ªgold, right?"


    "Right. If you keep melting it down, I can spend it to increase the manipulators." Travis considered his options. "It will be eighteen thousand gold per, but that will mean there''s a ten percent discount on the rock and steel."


    "You like having stores of rock now?" Katelyn asked, grasping her staff and leaving the library.


    "Rock is a reminder that I am growing. Rock is¡ªWell, long-term it''s needed for the boulder traps, but for now it''s nice to have a few thousand of it just in case I need it for something big." Watching along as Katelyn navigated her way to the second floor, he remembered something he''d wanted to bring up. "I think it''s time I experimented with some monsters. Squishy has been so awesome and I think I was being silly¡ªsomewhat. I still don''t want to create sentient monsters."


    "So¡­?"


    "So wyverns and burrowing wyrms are creatures in Tier 1 that we could get. I don''t know what comes in Tier 2, since those are probably hidden behind metal requirements or something. Or maybe even require the Tier 1 buildings or upgrades." Catching glimpses of Katelyn by wandering lizards, Travis was aware of how much more aggressive she looked on the second floor.


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    Katelyn barked a laugh. "You know, Trav, if you get wyverns, the odds of Fife being the first to ride one is practically one hundred percent."


    "She''s tough enough now that she''d survive falling off, so I don''t care."


    Laughing more, Katelyn made her way to the same gold vein she''d been working on previously. "Even if she died from it, she''ll be back in a day anyway."


    "Yeah. I like that about this place. It''s more dangerous than back where I''m from, but at the same time I can make sure no one dies." Even to Travis that sounded a little weird, but he didn''t overly care about it. Protecting his friends was important to him. "Okay, I''ll tell you when, but you''ll probably run out of vein before we''re done."


    "This is the second-last gold one on this floor, I think. I don''t begrudge Fife wanting one to herself, but we might want to create a few more on this floor, now it''s the second, and exploit them." That said, Katelyn started unloading her fire onto the pillar of gold and rock.


    His gold count jumped quickly, reaching eighteen thousand after a little time. The vein was much reduced, but not gone as he paid for the first upgrade. In his heart room, a big pile of twisted gold patterns appeared in stacks on the floor around one of the manipulators.


    Katelyn kept going, not noticing any overflow at all. When the vein disappeared, she finally stopped her spell. "Well, that''s it for this floor. I''ll head down and use that bigger vein up in among the storage warehouses."


    "That paid for one of the upgrades, and I have a little over five thousand again."


    <hr>


    The second gold vein took a little longer to use up, and so Katelyn moved to the third floor. The gold vein there, she had to admit, was reassuringly bigger and thicker. She burned away at it until Travis told her to stop, at which point she stepped back from it and asked, "How much was that?"


    "I got the other three paid for, so that''s fifty-four thousand, and we''re back to five thousand again. That means you just got thirty thousand directly out of that one." Travis was impressed with the haul. The gold node had been created when the floor was still the second, so he figured it was still a second-level gold mine. "I wonder if they go up by the same factor of ten?"


    "That would mean this one''s a bit over one tenth done. Wait, almost a fifth?" Katelyn was feeling a little drained as she scratched the gold count into the wall. Not being on the second floor left her weaker, and she''d been so intent on her new focused heat melting method that she hadn''t realized what it was taking out of her. "Guess I come up and build your new manipulators?"


    "Stephan already started on one, but I think there''s another room you''re more curious about." Travis didn''t have to take a huge mental leap to know Katelyn would want to get a Magitech Workshop up and working as quickly as they could. "First thing''s first, cost. It''s a higher cost than we have room for gold, and that''s not even trying to use Flush to make everything else cheaper."


    "Ugh. Don''t tell me that. How many more warehouses do I need to convince Pen to build for you?" It was a classic joke around the dungeon now that Penelope would be forced to spend the remainder of her life building warehouses.


    "I have Storage Management, which boosts each warehouse two and a half times. We just need to get mithril for it. The reason I can see it, I think, is because I got the upgrade for free with a quest. Not that I can upgrade more until we can mine mithril."


    "Okay, but automated magic stuff, Trav! What does it say about the building?" Katelyn was practically dancing along as she giddily imagined what she would be able to do.


    "Starts off, minus ten mana regen. Well, that just means these new manipulators will be put to work. It allows us to make mana foci, wands, and staves, and it says it unlocks an upgrade for mana shrines." The idea of losing ten mana regen stung, but it was only a minor cost when compared to what he would be getting soon enough. In the world of dungeons, mana and gold were the two most valuable things. "It requires thirty thousand gold, five hundred glass, five hundred mana, and two hundred rock to build."


    "Those extra resources aren''t surprising. Glass is a good magical insulator, it''s why alchemists prefer the purest glass for their work. The gold is likely to build contraptions to work with all that mana you''ll be constantly pouring into it. And mana, well, that''s unsurprising. I expect a lot more things are going to need that." Reaching the heart room, Katelyn saw Stephan assembling one of the manipulators quite competently. "Hello, Steph." She walked over to him, and before he could do more than stand up and look at her, kissed him on the cheek.


    Even Travis had to admit that it was good to see Stephan smile so much. He''d always been a bit of a loner in the dungeon, something Travis could relate to from his time before coming here, and it was nice to see the pair doing so well.


    "Hello, Ms. Arskith. Any new magical breakthroughs today?" Stephan asked. The kiss had surprised him, but not in a bad way. They''d been keeping mostly to themselves of late, but now that there were some other couples in the dungeon pairing off, he felt more reassured about their relationship being more public.


    "Mmm, yes. A new building I get to play with, when we have enough storage. Also, these wonderful things. More mana regeneration for Trav means I get to work with more things too." Hugging Stephan tight, Katelyn kissed his cheek again. "And we also need to look at building some rooms for us."


    "I''ll be putting more resource nodes on the second floor," Travis said, trying not to interrupt their moment. "So if you''re okay with making a suite there, it would be easier since we''ll be digging a lot there anyway."


    "That floor is fine by me." Any floor, really, agreed with Stephan. Though, with how hard some of the monsters were to deal with on a second floor, he didn''t like the idea of digging an extensive new area on the third. "Didn''t you say there was an upgrade for the lizards that lets them find resources for you?"


    It clicked. Travis realized what he''d been missing and why the second floor was his first key to streamlining resource farming¡ªthere was already a lizard village there. "Steph, you''re the best. Thanks for reminding me of that. I''ll be upgrading those lizards as soon as we get that timber delivery from Northridge."


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 Chapter 75

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 10/100


    Heart 160000/160000


    Experience 32800/90000


    Workers 11/67


    Monsters 1/69


    Traps 63/159


    Food 2457


    Timber 385


    Iron 5292


    Steel 1320


    Charcoal 358


    Mana 400


    Rock 4134


    Gold 4028


    Leather 377


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 300


    Glass 635


    Explosive Runes 20


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 9


    Long Guns 9


    Bullets 500


    Black Powder 500


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Have your full contingent of bosses.


    </blockquote>


    "Hey, Trav, I''m back! Bigger and better than before!" Fife was moving around her room, getting the hang of walking again, or so Travis figured. "So, are we ready to do my room and get me all juiced up?"


    "Nope. I don''t have enough timber. We''re waiting on a delivery from Northridge." Travis was appreciative of the fact that the dungeon was reasonably quiet¡ªapart from Fife, who was jumping up and down and moving around a lot like she was dodging things. "What''re you doing?"


    "This is such an improvement! I''m still as fast as a regular kobold¡ªprobably a bit faster¡ªbut now I feel like I could just crash through walls and not notice."


    "Please don''t. I like my walls where they are, thank you." Travis froze at a familiar sight and sensation. "Undead coming in. Looks like the lord and a whole mess of skeletons."


    "I want to test myself against that boss. Trav, let me go in and block it in the tunnel just before Wild''s arena." Grabbing her chain armor, Fife pulled it on and scooped up her weapon belt and shield before running out of the room.


    "Fife''s going to try tackling them before they reach Wild''s arena. She wants to test herself and I''m inclined to let her. No guns, anyone. I don''t want that dungeon getting access to ranged weapons like those." All the combat sorts were scrambling to get to their positions. Travis tingled at the idea he had so many of his friends to protect him as he protected them. When Fife reached his arena, Wild nodded to her.


    Katelyn and Ludmiller reached the arena after Fife and both poked their heads out the door to see she was checking over her equipment.


    "Good luck, Fife." Ludmiller, already slightly indistinct thanks to her stealth effect, still managed to give a ghostly thumbs-up.


    "How many undead will Trav let through to you?" Katelyn asked. "Because he said they have a lot of skeletons."


    "However many come down this hall, I won''t let them pass." Fife wasn''t the boss of the second floor, though, and while she''d woken up with a lot more energy, Travis could tell she was a little diminished from that. She was still, of course, a floor boss.


    On cue, the first group of skeletons rounded the corner and started marching toward Fife.


    <hr>


    Calmness. That''s what Fife was striving for. The undead approached, and she felt big and solid enough to fill the entire tunnel. Bracing her feet and using her tail for balance. Her practice with Kelvin had been paying dividends and her awareness of her body and how it moved was increasing with each day. "Come on, you have a fight on your bony hands here!"


    Banging her sword against the edge of her shield, hoping to incite the undead to come at her, Fife felt her arms surge with power. The first group of skeletons tried to rush her. That resulted in several getting in the way of the others while she crushed two against the wall with her shield.


    Parrying two attempted hits by more skeletons aside, Fife started getting down to business and crushing the undead. Not willing to let them advance on her, she started pushing forward. "Trav! If they wind up back in the alley, start giving them incentives to keep coming at me, okay?"


    "Fife, you want to see something even cooler?"


    The offer from Trav had Fife''s excitement rise to new levels. "Don''t ask, just do it!" Every step she took cost more than one skeleton its unlife. Slamming her shield into them or punching them with her mailed fist, she was about to the corner that led right when she felt a rush of heat coming down the tunnel.


    As she got to the corner, the blast reached it and flung high temperature bones against the wall to her left as hapless skeletons were caught in some kind of inferno. "What was that?!"


    "A new fire spell I got. Like it?" It had cost him a hundred and twenty-five mana and a hundred lava, but the explosion had been worth every point of both. As per its description, it had sent out four jets in each of the four directions, seemingly with unlimited distance. It didn''t turn corners but as he watched Fife round the bend, there was not a single skeletal minion left standing¡ªexcept the other dungeon''s boss. "Also, you leveled up. Something called regeneration. I figure that''s something to keep you standing."


    "Regeneration?" When she said it, Fife felt a new rush of physical strength flood her as her wounds starting to heal. "This is amazing! Is there anything left? You did leave something for me, right?" Fife spotted the undead lord as she finished speaking. Blood pumping in her veins, she charged down the tunnel at it¡ªshield up and using it as a powerful wall she intended to crush the boss with.


    The crunch when Fife connected with the boss was a salve for her soul. She didn''t simply hear bones break, she felt them, but despite the damage the boss didn''t give an inch.


    Baring her teeth, Fife took the first swing of the boss on her shield and tried to slip inside the big skeleton boss'' guard¡ªonly to catch its own shield in her face. "That barely hurts! Was that all you got?"


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    It wasn''t, or so Fife discovered. Trading blows back and forth with the boss, she started bleeding from several wounds but after a few moments they started to close. Its blade marked her flesh with a stinging line of cold each time, but it was like they were scratches rather than real cuts.


    "Hey, uh, Fife?"


    "Kinda busy, Trav!"


    "It''s that you''re not actually beating him. He''s just kinda wailing on you and you''re blocking him."


    "That''s my job! I get in the way and¡ªoh." Fife took a step back from the boss and the pair eyed one another up and down. "You could go back to your dungeon. I won''t let you go a step¡ª" The sound of fingers snapping behind her was a prelude to seeing the undead lord explode into flames. Fire engulfed it, but a particular little white-blue streamer of flame wove and danced around before it started to carve holes through the huge undead.


    "Trav said you might want a little help, Fife." The flames Katelyn wove¡ªhere on the second floor¡ªwere the hottest of any she''d ever produced. She roasted the undead lord and, with Fife between them, it had no chance of reaching her.


    The undead''s intent was clear. Fife braced herself against its charge, blocking its momentum and shoving it back and away from her. It burned while it tried twice more to get past, and twice more she bodily checked it and kept her friend safe. With its glowing eye-sockets fixed on her, Fife gave the monster her best toothy grin. "Just die already."


    Trying two more times to rush past Fife, the undead lord eventually started coming apart. First its sword arm burned up and the weapon clanged to the floor of the dungeon, then one of its legs was consumed by flames to leave nothing behind, and finally the fires Katelyn had summoned burned through its skull and reduced all the rest of the undead to ash and the odd thicker bone here and there.


    "Okay, so I can get in his way and stop him, but I can''t kill him. While that kinda sucks, I think I did pretty good. Did I get a third level, Trav?" Checking herself over, Fife finally found a cut she remembered getting¡ªclose up and leaving pristine flesh behind.


    "No, but your bar is full. I got a good bit of XP from that too, but not enough to upgrade the mushroom farm¡ªit needs all its cost in XP from undead. Thanks for the help, Kate." Travis tried to ignore Fife''s swearing. He''d noticed he was losing food which meant the new farm was not enough to give him a net positive. He wanted the upgrade to double its output.


    Stopping her cursing, Fife let out a sigh and leaned against the wall. "Well, I''m happy."


    "You are?" Katelyn walked up to the still-smoldering pile and kicked the largest remaining piece¡ªthe spine. With the bone turning to ash and collapsing, she seemed happier.


    "Yeah! This isn''t even my floor, and I managed to fight that big bastard to a standstill! He couldn''t kill me!" Slinging her shield to her back, Fife puffed out her chest. "Also, that''s the undead beaten back for a few days. Weird how they sent all those skeletons."


    Travis found it odd too, but was more worried about future probing by the other dungeon. "If they were trying out new tactics, they failed utterly."


    "See, that''s the thing with horde dungeons," Fife said, "they can make a lot of monsters really easy, but they seem to have difficulty making more powerful ones. With spells like that one you used¡ªwe should have no problems dealing with them."


    "You won''t have access to spells like that when you''re invading the other dungeon." Travis saw the smile on Fife''s face grow wider and wider.


    "No, but we have some efficient fire mages. Are you forgetting we have Stratus, Tom, and Jack?" Katelyn asked. "Or me?"


    Travis thought about that and (unseen and theoretically) nodded. "That''s where we''re going to have an advantage. With all the firepower you four can bring, undead like those skeletons will be less than yard trash¡ªthey will be that dungeon wasting resources. Which is exactly what we want. If the dungeon is wasting resources and you are slowly pushing deeper, we are winning and will win. But this all comes down to weariness too. The undead won''t get tired, but Jack, Stratus, and Tom will."


    Everyone stood still and looked on in shock for several moments before Katelyn managed to respond. "You''re right. Also, Trav, sorry if I thought you didn''t already have plans for this. You do. We need to formulate them and discuss it all. In particular, I''d like to ask Kelvin about besieging a dungeon. Of us all, he''s got the most experience."


    <hr>


    When the wood delivery arrived, it was paid for with rifles, but not before they built a timber mill, upgraded it as much as they could, and ran all the logs through it. The final upgrade was twelve hundred gold and nine hundred steel, but even that Travis was happy to pay. In all, it turned the five thousand timber in logs into fifteen thousand.


    "Trav, why did we bother getting so much timber only to wind up stuffed full of it, then?" Kelvin asked. The others were talking about what they would use it for, but he was still mystified as to why they needed so much.


    "Because we have the space and timber is one of the hardest-to-get resources," Stephan said. "And it is required for most rooms we need. Like Fife''s arena. But, the most important one, Trav has an upgrade for the lizard village that lets them find resources he''s summoned. This alone will save us a lot of headaches on that floor."


    Rubbing his chin, Kelvin thought about it. Then he thought about it some more. "It all seems rather arbitrary. The costs involved are astronomical compared to what the rooms seem to need. Why do they need gold at all?"


    "Because it is arbitrary." Travis felt a rant starting. "It''s horribly arbitrary. Where I''m from, we have games that let you play like a dungeon, and they use gold for everything¡ªlike this. Oh, Kelvin, have you ever besieged a dungeon?"


    "I was involved in one once. A town was trying to establish itself and had neglected work on their wall. A dragon horde dungeon needed to be locked down until they could mount a proper defense, so the group I was in, along with two others, were hired to blockade them. Nasty fighting, that. Nothing is so dangerous as a cornered monster¡ªand we had the whole dungeon cornered." As he spoke, Kelvin dredged up the less than pleasant memories of that time. "What did you want to know?"


    "How many shift rotations were needed to maintain the siege, what should we expect inside the dungeon, and¡ªif you know it¡ªwhat happens when a dungeon''s core is destroyed?"


    Kelvin whistled at that and took a slow breath. "You sure know how to show an old man he hasn''t seen everything."


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 76

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 10/100


    Heart 160000/160000


    Experience 64600/90000


    Workers 11/67


    Monsters 1/69


    Traps 63/159


    Food 2441


    Timber 8130


    Iron 2292


    Steel 945


    Charcoal 5058


    Mana 606


    Rock 2334


    Gold 1057


    Leather 197


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 200


    Glass 635


    Explosive Runes 20


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 15


    Long Guns 19


    Bullets 500


    Black Powder 500


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Clear your dungeon of invaders.


    </blockquote>


    Travis hadn''t noticed at the time, but another quest was completed when Fife became a boss and the reward had been the upgrade for her boss room being free. His charcoal burner had been busy, as had the smelter making steel.


    The steel was the slowest part of the process, but was at least automated. He watched Penelope dump the three thousand iron and three hundred charcoal in, and his count of steel slowly rose over two days.


    Once he had enough, he got Katelyn to melt down some more gold for the lizard village upgrade. He tried to watch for what would change about the lizards with the upgrade, but part of it required the building of little huts for the lizards and, one by one, groups of them went in and came back out with little hardhats and tiny pickaxes.


    This had earned them a lot of excited noises by every inhabitant that saw them. Fife, Katelyn, and Penelope had all crouched down and helped the lizards get ready for their tasks while Ludmiller had made plans to move into the lizard town (only complaints from Wild had stopped her).


    Which was when a fresh attack of undead came into his dungeon. This one had the undead lord and twenty-three zombies. "We have the next undead wave coming in now. I''m going to obliterate them so we can get this plan started."


    Travis had ensured his mana was well stocked for this exact moment. While the adorable little lizards started digging into the walls of his second floor, he waited for the undead to march halfway down the straight tunnel in his first.


    When they were just where he wanted them, he cast the spell he''d tested with Fife. As the flames rushed down the tunnel in the only two directions it could, Travis reflected on asking Katelyn to make more lava for him.


    When the flames had done their work, the first half of the column of zombies were in various states of "done-ness" ranging from extra crispy to medium rare. The ones behind them were only lightly seared, though, so Travis cast the spell again. Each casting took a hundred and twenty mana plus a hundred lava, but Travis was now satisfied with the effect. Every zombie was down and only the undead lord, hiding behind his shield, still stood. "Okay, I only have the lord left. I want to try another spell on him."


    Before doing so, however, he paid for the upgrade to the mushroom farm. Watching his food stock slowly tick down had become far too annoying.


    The ice spikes spell that Katelyn had invented for him were cheap, though they''d be cheaper if he could get some way of making ice. He mused over the possibility of inviting Jack into the dungeon so he could make ice. Aiming the spell, Travis started with the ice spikes. One cast. Two casts. Three casts. Four casts.


    The undead lord didn''t look happy, at least not to the lizard that was watching it rip free of the huge ice spikes that impaled it every other step.


    At ten mana each, Travis was happy it only took nine castings before the undead lord stopped¡ªstuck and unmoving on the last pillar of ice that penetrated its body. "Okay, that''s them stopped. It''s all up to you now." It wasn''t quite a level, but Travis didn''t mind that¡ªthere would be more XP soon enough for him.


    <hr>


    "That''s exactly what I am filing. A request for the aforementioned dungeon, named here as Travis, permission to exterminate a dungeon under the law Management of pest dungeons, section three, subsection b." Calmness and knowledge were half of Brevity Delling''s job. This particular set of laws were strange, but when she''d been asked by a friend to intervene for a dungeon¡ªshe had jumped at the opportunity to add some new precedent to law. Having her name printed in one of the big books of landmark decisions was such a dream that she was surprised she wasn''t buzzing with energy.


    There was no formal opposition to Brevity''s case. Normally, if such an action wasn''t agreed by the local city''s governors, they would have their own lawyer here to argue the case that a dungeon should be left as is. Instead, she had a signed document agreeing to the terms of the dungeon destruction.


    The Lord in residence didn''t need to glance at the opposition bench to know this was open-and-shut. The dungeons of an established city belonged to that city to defend, control, and exploit to their heart''s content, destruction was another order of business. "What is the given reason?"


    "Self-defense. The dungeon has killed several townsfolk as well as minions of Travis. It is costing valuable resources and, I don''t think I need remind m''lord, we don''t¡ª"


    "There will be a short recess. Brevity, please see me in my office." Standing, Lord Constance left the room and entered his adjoining office, leaving the door open. Only when Brevity was in and the door closed did he ask, "I don''t care if the paperwork is all filled out, you can''t honestly have me believe that this dungeon is your client?"


    "In this matter I am working jointly with¡ª"


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    "Yes, yes. I told you, I''ve read the paperwork. What''s going on?" Finding his seat unbearable, Constance instead turned to look out the window and down on the city below.


    "It''s real, Con. The rumors of strange gold, pure as that of the kingdom, are also true. This letter of consent was signed by the dungeon''s boss monster. The paperwork checks out, and no one objects, so what is the problem?"


    "No other court sees as many dungeon-related cases as mine, and no other lawyer has the experience of dealing with them as you. Why are we entertaining this? We both know dungeons inside and out." Glancing at his staff, in a glass case in one corner of his office, Constance closed his eyes for a brief moment of remembrance of his younger days.


    Brevity hadn''t seen the inside of a dungeon, but she had pored over reports and had a good idea of all the states a dungeon could be in¡ªwhat had been described of the Northridge dungeon, however, had shaken her. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a gold coin. Gold coins were common. Gold got used for several essential-to-civilization products, so it wasn''t merely in circulation¡ªit was a commodity unto itself. "Look at this coin and tell me about it."


    Taking the coin, Constance examined it. "That big merchant consortium''s mark, the banking guild¡­" Turning the coin over revealed the third mark that looked like a lizard head. "I haven''t seen an origin mark like this. Where is the source?"


    "That''s dungeon gold. It was reforged and pressed legally by the merchant guild that is tied to Northridge, with the observance of the bankers, but it was obtained from the dungeon in question." Smirking as she prepared for her reveal, Brevity waited for the right question.


    "There is nothing new or strange about that. Dungeons are raided for their gold reserves every hour of every day in some capacity."


    "I should have mentioned, Northridge traded timber with the dungeon and it paid in gold¡ªthat gold. My fees, however, are being paid directly by the dungeon without any expectation of anything except results."


    "And that''s why there''s no adventuring guild mark? No town mark?"


    "Exactly. That dungeon isn''t just a dungeon¡ªit''s Northridge''s trade partner," Brevity said. When Constance held out the coin to her, Brevity shrugged and took it. "Can''t have people thinking I bribed you."


    "This does change things. My main argument was why does the dungeon need our permission, but if it wishes to do business, it must follow our laws. The laws have a series of counters for dungeon extermination, and you have ensured all those have been cleared and neatly proven." Constance reached up and rubbed his chin. "Granted, then. Let''s return to our positions and go through the motions. After my docket is cleared for the week, I would quite like to see this dungeon that asks permission and trades its gold freely."


    <hr>


    Penelope hauled the tree closer while Wild was cutting up the previous one. While they worked, Katelyn and Ludmiller were standing guard and nearby Jack, Stratus, and Tom also maintained vigilance.


    Ogmera, meanwhile, was brewing tea. She had a big pot on to boil and had a nice fire going while she watched the work progress. When her water was ready, she lifted it away from the fire''s heat and dropped the wire-bag filled with leaves into it. "Shouldn''t be long and we''ll have this place far more civilized. I don''t know why Travis didn''t open an entrance right here like he did the town."


    The only two kobolds present that weren''t either a boss or part of a cohort were Brayden and Kelvin, neither of which were being put in the front line. Brayden gestured to his tablet. "We''ll have the palisade up by the end of the day. Northridge''s riflemen will be here by midday tomorrow."


    "You don''t need to keep reading my plan back to me, Brayden. Dungeons need external resources, we''ll deny that to this one. When it''s weak, and we have this permission, we''ll move in and put it down." Kelvin still was excited to see his plans play out. Besieging a dungeon and choking its supplies was a big step toward controlling it.


    The crack of a black powder rifle discharging shook the forest from its stillness and, standing on her position above the dungeon''s entrance, Fife was already in the process of reloading her ranged weapon. "Group of archers coming from the west!"


    Katelyn''s head snapped around to spot the movement of bleached bone skeletons advancing on their position. Fife had their attention and they were actively shooting at her while she was laughing and getting ready for another shot. "Giving me a free shot, huh? Bad move." Thumping the butt of her staff on the ground, she called up her flames and sent a detonation seed out, landing it in the undead''s midst¡ªthen setting off the magic concussion that shattered all but two of the skeletons.


    Standing back up, Fife aimed carefully at one of the remaining skeletons¡ªcompletely ignoring the arrow it fired and hit her with¡ªand making its skull explode with another rapport of gunfire. "Who wants the last one?"


    The shadows parted beside the last one and a pair of blades caught its throat and further down its back before Ludmiller pulled sharply, parting its spine in two places and dropping the skeleton to the forest floor. "Way ahead of you, Fife."


    Kelvin turned back from observing the action to the tiny fire that Ogmera was serving tea from. "Are all the women in the dungeon this dangerous?"


    "Only the kobolds," Ogmera said, passing Kelvin a tin mug of the hot brew. "The rest of us are quite calm and collected."


    "Don''t listen to a word this witch says," Nathaniel said as he sipped his own tea carefully. "She''s crazy. Ow!" His words had gotten him a bonk on the head from Ogmera.


    "The dungeon will notice when its patrols start going missing. Soon enough it will swarm out with everything it can." Hating the proximity of the source of undead energy, Brayden poured a little extra something from his flask into the tea, then sipped it with obvious glee.


    "What''s with the spirits? We''re supposed to be on duty." Her whiskers twitching in dislike, Felna was more than a little on edge herself at the necromantic energy in the air.


    "It''s not alcohol. I blessed my flask because holy water, even a small amount, fortifies you against the undead energies that grate on your nerves." The accusation went ignored by Brayden, mostly because he had the same opinion on drinking on the job.


    "Oh. Oh! Can I have some too?" Felna held out her cup. "Sorry for¡ªfor that."


    Tipping a small measure of holy water into Felna''s cup, and then Nathaniel''s when he held out his, Brayden shrugged his shoulders. "Being this close puts you on edge, I get it too."


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 77

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 11/100


    Heart 435600/435600


    Experience 19100/108900


    Workers 11/73


    Monsters 1/75


    Traps 63/174


    Food 2437


    Timber 8123


    Iron 2292


    Steel 910


    Charcoal 5058


    Mana 467


    Rock 2334


    Gold 1057


    Leather 197


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 0


    Glass 635


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 15


    Long Guns 16


    Bullets 400


    Black Powder 400


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Kill another dungeon''s boss.


    </blockquote>


    Travis'' quest to clear his dungeon of invaders was completed when the adventurers all left. This gave him a level-up and, so he discovered, unlocked all the lowest tier dungeon upgrades. By then Katelyn had finished off Advanced Questing, which meant he got a substantial amount of experience from that.


    Another trickle of experience came through, one of many, as Fife, Penelope, Katelyn, Ludmiller, Wild, Kelvin, and Brayden inevitably got kills. It was reassuring for him to get those little trickles. Over the day they''d been gone, Travis had spent his mana only when it was full and let it build back up again.


    "You''re going to need to buy actual resource nodes on the bottom floor soon. We''ll want those exotic metals, Trav." While the others were out, Tannyr had been busy. She had a stack of five long guns stacked in a weapon rack beside her and was working on the sixth.


    Travis mentally sighed. Given how she''d been the one he''d had to command to break the cave dragon''s stun, he wasn''t sure why Tannyr was so excited to have another such encounter. "I know, it''s all¡ªThere''s going to be nasty things on that floor. I don''t want them coming after us when we aren''t completely ready."


    "We have enough deadly traps to make a goblin blush. Trav, plan it out for me and let''s dig that lizard village down there." Standing up from the seat she''d made for the workbench, Tannyr put the completed rifle on the rack with the others¡ªa moment before they all disappeared. "Get Robert to wait at the top in case you have to shuffle around the tunnels, but let''s do this."


    Travis didn''t mind admitting, in his head, that he was intimidated by Tannyr. She was older than him by so many years that humans where he was from never lived as long as her. He estimated she was about eighty percent confidence by weight, which meant she could bully him along with her ideas¡ªlike now. He started planning out a dig to get a new lizard village built on the bottom floor.


    The easiest way to put it where he wanted it, which was above the mushroom farm, was to rework the loop around the zig-zags that led to Fife''s arena. But that didn''t sit well with him, and he wanted to make a big loop around anyway so that mining in distant areas would be easier. So he planned out a new loop outside of the first, then put down a big dig plan right beside the lone iron mine that''d been placed there by a quest.


    With it all planned out, he drew his attention to Robert. "Tannyr is going to start digging out a lizard village on the third floor. Could you hang out on the first and do some shuffling of tunnels if something goes wrong?"


    "I thought we weren''t mining down here until we had everyone back?" Robert started walking despite his questioning. "Wait, did she talk you into this?"


    "A little, but looking at the plans I can make it safe for her. Seriously, she''ll be able to get out of there really fast if things go south." Travis only wished he wasn''t trying to convince himself as much as Robert. "We''ll be stalled here for a while if we don''t get something like this going."


    "Trav, you don''t have to give me a sales pitch. Without the undead able to attack us because of the blockade, things should be much quieter around here anyway." Robert passed Tannyr in the tunnel coming down from the second floor. "Let me know when it''s safe to come down and help. I still like digging, even if I don''t get to do as much these days."


    "I made a circle of the room. That should mean if there is anything nasty there, it should be found on that first loop around. Once we have that dug out, you can come down and help." Travis kept up with both, glancing between Tannyr and Robert¡ªtelling the former when the latter was in place.


    It didn''t take long for Tannyr to stop in the first section of loop digging and mine out two squares perpendicular. "Ah, gold. Should be the equivalent of a second floor one." When she reached the end of the first run, and found a mana shrine, Travis certainly wasn''t going to complain. "Now, into this wall?"


    "Yeah, you should be able to feel where to end up. This runs straight down to the outer part of the square. It will break out into an iron node at one point, but that should be fine." Travis felt nervous watching her work. If things went bad, though, she could always run down the tunnel and dive into the other loop and go through the arena. He clutched that thought tight as she worked.


    <hr>


    When Tannyr felt the planned paths go left and right, she stopped. "This is the start of the square?"


    "Yeah. It''s near the top of it, so if you go left you should have to turn right fairly soon. Going right will take you to the iron node and within one block of the inner tunnels. That should be another way you can escape if things go bad," Travis said.


    "That''s the important bit, Trav. Planning out for when things go bad means that if they do, we all know what to do. So, since it will be the safest bit, I''ll go right and find that iron node." Turning, Tannyr started digging¡ªpausing whenever she felt the need to reinforce the tunnel. From experience she knew the big, open room was faster to dig than these tunnels, but she wasn''t going to complain about Travis'' new way of doing things, what with him already giving in to her idea.


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    Digging and shoring up the tunnel was like meditation for Tannyr, and she knew it was that way for most of the others. The dark held no secrets from her eyes, not that it would have before either, but she had noticed she could see further in the dark as a kobold. "I can feel it. Next square should¡ª" As her pickaxe bit through and demolished the next square, she revealed the reddish ore. "Bingo. Okay, following through."


    She dug along the path, turning left, then further along left again. A few more squares, though, and she felt the pull of metal ahead. "Trav, there''s something ahead. Metal." The string of curses he let loose actually made her proud of him. "Nice work, though I can teach you some dwarven ones later."


    "I don''t need help with more swear words, I need a section of this place that isn''t riddled with resources." After a moment Travis continued, "Don''t laugh at me!" He was laughing too, though, by the end of it.


    "Can''t help it. This isn''t in our way in the same way as the iron one was, by my count. I just hope there isn''t anything in the middle, though, if it''s a gold vein we can have Kate melt it down fast and use it to pay for upgrades." She shrugged, spat on her hands, and got back to digging.


    When she''d gotten all the way around and formed up the square edges, she stopped for a breather. "Okay, Trav, that''s the square worked out. You can probably get anyone you want down here now. The odds of something being in the middle of this are pretty low. I didn''t feel any metals, either."


    "I''ll let Robert know. Feel free to dig inside the square as much as you want."


    <hr>


    "They''re not sending much out." Fife was sitting back on the palisade they''d built. The platform that''d been lashed together let her aim her rifle down at the entrance to the dungeon and present as little of herself as visible as needed. Not that she cared too much about it¡ªit was fun for her to taunt them.


    "We''d only beaten up all their stuff yesterday, they will be low on resources." Penelope crouched beside Fife, watching the dungeon with her own rifle loaded and ready. "Honestly, it''d be nice if they sent something bigger than a zombie out. Where are those wraiths they used that time?"


    "It might send those if we''re lucky. Do you think they could hurt me?"


    "I am positive they could hurt you if you did something silly like charge at them. Remember, they normally drain your life directly. Let the magic users deal with that." Despite the sentiment, one of Penelope''s hands strayed to her side where one of her swords lay sheathed. A sword that had magical energy around it now. "Or me."


    "Bloody dervish is what you are now. Can''t exactly be a rogue when you stand taller than everyone else." Her attention not wavering for a moment, Fife spotted the undead lord reach the entrance of the dungeon. "Eyes forward, your buddy''s back."


    Lining up her shot, Penelope kept the rifle trained on the lord''s head. "Got him. Call it."


    "Fire." Fife said the word and pulled the trigger of her rifle a moment later. Penelope''s shot rang out so soon that it was almost lost in the noise and smoke of Fife''s. The undead lord hit the ground not two steps outside the dungeon''s entrance. "Nice shot. Hey, there''s more stuff coming. Zombies, I think." Turning her head to where Katelyn and Jack were crouched, Fife could see they were on it. "We''ll reload. Save one or two for us."


    Alternating blasts of fire and ice worked wonders on even necromantically reinforced flesh. By the time Penelope reloaded her rifle, three quarters of the zombies were down. Bringing it up, she aimed at the head of one of the nearest zombies. "I''ve got the right."


    "Left for me then." Fife didn''t hesitate to fire, her round shattering the head of the zombie and embedding in the gut of the one behind it. A moment later Penelope took another down. There were two left standing. "Back over to you!"


    "Did you notice my bullet?" Penelope asked. "There was a green flash of light behind it."


    "Wasn''t looking. You think it''s an effect like your swords?" Fife took her time to run the brush down the barrel. It probably didn''t need it, but she wanted to make sure her gun was clean and in perfect condition at all times.


    Penelope kept her head above the edge of the palisade long enough to make sure that Katelyn and Jack nailed the last two. "Nice w¡ª"


    "Soldiers behind!" Ludmiller''s shout got everyone''s attention. Heads turned as if on swivels to see what was coming, only to spot thirty of the city Guard marching up. "Our allies."


    Scott Gaoler gave the order to halt and keep weapons upright. He recognized several of the kobold heads that poked out of the various blinds and woodwork ahead of them. "Sergeant Gaoler reporting. I hear you have a dungeon that''s bottled up?"


    "That''s some good timing, Sergeant. Fife, keep your eyes peeled up here, okay?" Penelope waited for a nod and for Fife to turn back around before she dropped off the edge of the platform. "Can you and your riflemen hold the entrance while we push inside?"


    Grinning, enjoying the responsibility of the position his captain had put him in, Scott saluted. "Can do, ma''am."


    <hr>


    Robert and Tannyr glared at the glowing blue shrine before them. Travis might be happy about getting more mana shrines, but having one in the middle of their projects was not conducive to their good mood.


    "What now?" Robert asked.


    "Trav, queue up some digging to shift the room away from this as short a distance as possible." Walking up to the rock, Tannyr pressed one palm against it. She felt when Travis marked the planned blocks. "Thank you."


    "Let''s take a break, Tannyr." Robert patted the mana crystal. "This wasn''t a bad find, and I''ve been up and working for plenty of time today."


    Grunting, Tannyr wanted to argue¡ªbut she ultimately decided to surrender with grace. "Yeah. We''ve dug enough today. Sorry, Trav, if I push too much. I like to get projects completed."


    "You''re both fine. Nothing got uncovered and there was no danger." Travis had noticed the trickles (and one rush) of experience. It was a relief to get some tangible evidence that their plan was progressing.


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 Chapter 78

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 11/100


    Heart 435600/435600


    Experience 71925/108900


    Workers 11/73


    Monsters 1/75


    Traps 63/174


    Food 2463


    Timber 8123


    Iron 2292


    Steel 910


    Charcoal 5058


    Mana 350


    Rock 2850


    Gold 1057


    Leather 197


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 0


    Glass 635


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 15


    Long Guns 16


    Bullets 400


    Black Powder 400


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Mine some mithril.


    </blockquote>


    Trickles of experience came in, which Travis definitely approved of, and then one of his quests completed for no apparent reason. But, seeing as it was the Defeat another dungeon''s boss one, he wasn''t surprised.


    When a new resource was revealed¡ªsome kind of blackish rock that wasn''t coal¡ªhe was.


    He''d gotten one tick of mana with the two new shrines before another in his dungeon despawned. Robert had slipped out to dig a little more (cleaning up the edge of the proposed lizard village where it butted the new mana shrine), and then had gone to sleep.


    From there his mana was almost full again, so he waited until the last few minutes before his next tick to buy another mana shrine on the third floor.


    Now, two whole days since Penelope and co had set out to besiege the undead dungeon, he was starting to get a little more antsy. "I''m worried. There hasn''t been any XP for over eight hours."


    Lifting her head from the bowl of stew she was devouring, Tannyr sighed. "Have any counters appeared?" The silence that was her only answer gave her time to attack her food again.


    Travis felt a little stupid for not realizing that. If they''d died, Penelope, Katelyn, Wild, Ludmiller, and Fife would all appear with timers. He waited for Tannyr to finish before apologizing. "Sorry, and thanks."


    "It''s natural to worry. Reassuring for me, too. When you need almost a quarter of a day of arguing to let me do something slightly dangerous, that''s how I know out of all the dungeons I could have landed in, this is a good one. So! Do you have the last bit of that room marked out?" Busing her bowl to the kitchen, Tannyr took the time to wash up as she spoke.


    "Yup. There are nine squares of depth lost to that mana shrine." Travis had to figuratively bite his non-existent lip against warning her again. "I think Robert is working on a new liquid for a trap today, but I don''t think we''ll need his help upstairs."


    "Getting more confident, are we?" Tannyr rinsed her hands off and walked out of the kitchen.


    "If you mean, am I confident that monsters will come after me instead of going to the surface? Yeah. Also, if they do try to run the tunnels to the town, I have plenty of chances to make them regret their life choices." Travis talked while Tannyr took the stairs up to the first floor and then the quick one down to the third. He was about to reply when he saw her start stepping through the walls, taking a shortcut to the new area without having to go through the arena or the delaying tunnels.


    "Ah, there it is. I can feel the pull of the marked places. Thank you, Travis." Walking across the room that was lit only by the soft blue glow of the mana shrine, Tannyr drew her tools out from behind her back and got to work.


    Bigger rooms, or so Travis had noticed, tend to be dug out faster than long tunnels. Tunnels needed repeated shoring up but open areas needed far less work¡ªand even less still with Tannyr.


    <hr>


    "Trav?" Blake had been looking over the new area and planning out the area for the garrison some more when he''d heard voices. Finding the source to be a group of people milling around at the bottom of the stairs with an escort from the town. "A little help?"


    For Travis, having a blind spot was odd, but when there weren''t a lot of lizards on the first floor already, and they all spent their time hanging around the other entrance, he was kinda stuck with one kobold''s eyes. "Okay, so you have Brolly Windchime there, he''s the guardsman, ask him what''s up and we can sort things out."


    Blake, on the whole, was happy drawing maps of dungeons. He loved doing it so much that when a dungeon had directly offered him a job designing a dungeon, he''d jumped at it and even given up his humanity for the chance. He was a map person. A dungeon person. He was not a people person. "Uh, excuse me? Brolly?"


    Hearing his name, Brolly turned and looked down at the kobold. "Ah! You''re¡ª" He stopped himself from taking a likely bad guess at the name of the kobold.


    "Blake, sir. What''s going on?"


    "Blake!" Brolly couldn''t remember who Blake was, but that didn''t stop him from pushing on. "More new residents, or potential residents. I don''t think I asked how many workers you can support, but at some point food would become a problem, right?"


    "The problem is, Blake," Travis said, "without Pen, we can''t make anyone into a kobold."


    "We actually have food under control. We could even expand further, from what I understand. Now, about more applicants¡ªthere''s a problem. You know that Penelope and the others are out right now?" Looking around, Blake was surprised to see¡ªamong the mostly elderly and obviously infirm¡ªa family. "Are there any emergency cases? You''d have to pull Penelope back from the other dungeon¡­"


    "No, no emergencies, but a few of these older folk aren''t in the best shape. So Penelope is the only one that can do the, uh, thing?" Groping for a term to describe turning people into kobolds, Brolly just didn''t bother trying in the end. "That will be inconvenient. We''re still waiting for word about destroying that damn undead monstrosity."


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    Travis groaned and wished he could throw his head back in annoyance. He also wished he had a head. "Damn, I''d hoped that would have been done by now. Tell him we are going to need to have them put up in to¡ª"


    "Most of them are fine with places in the city, but the family over there won''t be. It''s complicated, but their little one¡ªthey look a bit like a goblin. It''s uncanny." It still seemed weird for Brolly, but weird was sending out two squads of riflemen to back up a dungeon as it rips apart another dungeon, and he''d only given that order two days ago. "They need somewhere that isn''t a town that gets regularly raided by goblins."


    "Tell them we have room for the family. I''ll figure something out and we can build them a room on the second floor where it''s safer." In a way Travis could understand the sentiment, but he also hated the idea of that kind of racial blame being leveled at a child.


    Travis turned his attention to Robert and where he was working on some alchemy. "Robert, can you come up here? I need some help digging a new kind of room."


    "Yeah, Trav. Mark it out and I''ll get on it. This can wait a bit." Even if it couldn''t, Robert was happy to put something aside to turn into tar rather than let Travis down.


    Dragging his focus back to Blake, Travis said, "I have Robert coming up to help dig a residence on the second floor. Being near adventurers and, particularly, having the tavern there means they can get food easily enough until I can work out what to do with them."


    <hr>


    "I know dungeon delving is ninety percent planning, but I think we are going too far. Come on, we can roll this place!" Penelope felt cooped up and she hated it. But at the same time she respected what Kelvin and Ogmera were saying. "I just want to make this damn dungeon realize it can''t go out and¡ªand¡­ Ugh."


    "Something wrong, boss?" Fife asked.


    Penelope glared at Fife for the new moniker, mostly because it fit. "I''m feeling too much like a dungeon boss and not enough like an adventurer. Sorry, everyone, I''ll try to keep this urge under control."


    "Big, nasty, dragon wants to kick some ass. I totally get that, though. I want to go in there and beat down every door looking for the bony bastard too." Fife crossed her arms, but the grin that settled on her face probably spoke volumes for it not being simply all bluster.


    "We have our talismans, most of you have your ability to resurrect back at your dungeon, but Brayden and Kelvin don''t. We need to work out a way to know when we''re in over our heads and need to pull out¡ªand how to do that sanely without risking their lives beyond what they already are." Ogmera nodded toward the two kobolds in question. "This is compounded by one of those being your primary healing."


    Looking at Brayden, Fife shrugged her shoulders. "It''s simple, really. We go in with Felna and Nathaniel to cover healing. Brayden and Kelvin stay out here." When everyone looked at her like she was crazy, Fife asked, "What?!"


    "That''s actually a good idea. They can remain out here and help take down anything that slips past us." Jack looked from Fife to Brayden. "Sorry, but it is the sensible path."


    Sighing, Brayden nodded. "I get it. I do. Pen, when we get back, we''ll get your arena done if I have to dig it myself¡ªwith a spoon. Take care in there."


    "I''ll help, don''t worry." Penelope shot Kelvin a look too. "Both of you''ll be in my cohort."


    "So we''re good?" Standing up from her crouch, Fife reached to her back and grabbed her shield. When there was nothing but grunts of assent, she drew her sword and was first over the palisade. "Come on! I want to go and chew on their heart!"


    Her blood pumping, Penelope was set to jump over the wall too when Brayden grabbed her by the arm. "Huh?"


    "Don''t let hunger guide you. Listen to Ogmera and the others," Brayden said, looking up into Penelope''s eyes.


    Nodding, Penelope continued her intent and jumped over the wall. By the time the rest of the kobolds and the humans formed up before the dungeon, Fife was already peeking inside. "Okay, order of march. Fife is up front, no question about it. I''ll take second, then Ogmera''s group, with Katelyn, Wild, and Ludmiller bringing up the rear. They may have loops and blind tunnels where we can''t easily rearrange our order."


    Wild grumbled a little, but saw the sanity of the plan. That it meant he got to work with his cohort specifically did please him, though. "With us three, I''ll try to parry anything that comes at us from behind. Luddy, Kate, please kill anything fast."


    This was new to Katelyn. She nodded to Wild and bumped her shoulder against Ludmiller''s, but she still felt a thrill of excitement when they all stepped into a hostile dungeon. Travis, when she''d first tried her ill-fated attempt at taking control of him, had seemed almost inoffensive. The undead dungeon had a weight to it. The air itself felt intimidating and unfriendly. "No complaints from me. If I see something that isn''t this group¡ªit''s cooked."


    "She sounds worse than you two," Ogmera said, glaring at Stratus and Tom. When she noticed their attempts at innocent expressions, she groaned. "Just make sure you don''t burn any kobolds."


    "I have it on good authority," Tom said, "that Miss Kate likes being set on fire."


    At the front of the party, Fife was excited to find her first encounter. She wanted to do her thing and be the big bad shield at the front. She was surprised when Penelope''s big hand grabbed her shoulder and held her still. "What?"


    "Trap ahead. I''ll tell you when to stop." Even in the dark Penelope could sense the difference in air of a trap, and when Fife was about five steps from it, she spotted the pressure plate. "Okay, stop here."


    "What kind of trap is it?" Fife asked.


    "Spikes. There''s a steel arm camouflaged on the wall there. It will swing out and impale you."


    When she followed Penelope''s gesture, Fife saw the outlines of the bar and judged her height. "Got it. Here goes."


    Penelope froze in shock as Fife walked forward and triggered the trap. The big arm swung off the wall with incredible speed and hit a raised shield.


    "Our group never had a rogue, Pen. It''s nice knowing when the traps are about to spring, though, but it does take some of the excitement out of dungeon-delving." Using her sword, Fife smashed all the spikes off the arm and then used her shield to bash the whole thing down. Broken, she ignored whatever Penelope might want to do with it.


    At the back of the party, Katelyn was feeling more and more oppressed by the dungeon. The weight of it around her and the difference from Travis'' dungeon made it all feel so wrong. "I hate this place," she muttered.


    "Right there with you," Ludmiller said.


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 79

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 11/100


    Heart 435600/435600


    Experience 71925/108900


    Workers 11/73


    Monsters 1/75


    Traps 64/174


    Food 2459


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Charcoal 5058


    Mana 476


    Rock 2875


    Gold 1057


    Leather 197


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 0


    Glass 635


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 15


    Long Guns 17


    Bullets 400


    Black Powder 400


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Mine some mithril.


    </blockquote>


    There were enough lizards around on the second floor that Travis could watch the family as they ate a meal in the tavern. Two parents, two children¡ªone of the children had green skin, fangs, and a pair of long ears that stuck out to the side and hung down a little.


    "How often does this happen?" Travis asked Robert.


    "Going to have to be more specific, Trav." Back in his lab, Robert was working on a new flammable agent for traps.


    "The family."


    "Oh, the curse thing? Uh, I don''t know. People don''t usually talk about it much."


    After hearing Penelope''s story of an ancestor that was a dragon, it wasn''t a big leap to make for Travis. "I don''t think it''s a curse. Pen said her ancestor was a dragon. I assume any dungeon monster could¡ªuh¡ªget free?"


    Stopping his work for a moment, Robert leaned back and looked vaguely in Travis'' heart''s direction. "Even if they could, they still couldn''t¡ªUh, what I mean is, even Pen doesn''t have¡ª"


    "Someone did. Maybe it''s only a thing for fully upgraded bosses?" Travis asked.


    "Goblins are only the lowest level, though." Turning his attention back to his work, Robert started writing notes on his tablet.


    A thought came to Travis that he liked. He liked it enough that he wanted to voice it. "It doesn''t matter, though. I don''t care if they''re a goblin, kobold, or¡ªor any other race. If the world doesn''t want them, they''re welcome here."


    Robert, who paused writing, said, "That''s a big commitment, Trav. Do we have room for all those kobolds?"


    "No, probably not, but I don''t want to make that a requirement. Look, they have a home. They can go into town if they need to. They''re safe. I don''t need them to work, not if I expand the mushroom farm. It''s probably time we tested out the full extent of the floors, but I think they might not have a limit. That means I can have as many people living comfortably in here as I want."


    "You keep doing this." Laughing, Robert leaned back and stretched his back. "Dungeons aren''t meant to be altruistic, Trav. You''re meant to be greedy and mean and want to destroy everything."


    "I want to destroy the undead dungeon."


    "Only because it''s gotten really annoying and picked a fight with you."


    "But it''s the¡ª"


    <blockquote>


    Your raiding party reached the second floor of an enemy dungeon!


    You gain:


    10,000 Food


    10,000 Timber


    10,000 Iron


    10,000 Steel


    10,000 Gold


    50,000 Experience


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    You have reached level 12!


    </blockquote>


    "¡­" Travis stared at the message, even as it faded. Wheels clicked and revelations came. "That''s why the damn undead dungeon kept attacking me! Robert! Dungeons get experience and resources when their minions attack another dungeon for each floor they reach!


    "They were farming me because I kept letting their groups reach the second floor. Ugh, I hate not knowing the mechanics of this damn thing! I need"¡ªTravis took a slow, deep (and very much entirely mental) breath¡ª"a tutorial."


    Robert was quiet for a bit. He made a few more notes on his tablet before saying, "So Pen and the others got to the second floor of the undead dungeon?"


    "Yeah. I got a pile of experience and a huge amount of resources. They don''t seem to be using any space, though. Let me try to buy something that costs more gold than I have in storage." Even with so many resources in a big bonus like that, instinct made Travis pick the cost that made it use more gold and less of other resources.


    With his attention spread out over all his warehouses that he could see, he paid the price to get a lizard village built in the newly cleared out room Tannyr had dug. Sure enough, not a single bit of gold disappeared from his rooms.


    "It seems like it''s some kind of buffer," Travis said.


    "Buffer? Like a neutral chemical?"


    Stumped at Robert''s question, Travis realized he''d have to explain. "It''s more like a storage beyond the normal storage. In this case all the payment appears to come out of it first, so it''s not using our actual gold, timber, or food."


    Shaking his head, Robert shrugged and got back to his work. "I have never heard it used like that, but I''ll take your word for it. So, attacking the other dungeon is good. Maybe we shouldn''t kill the undead dungeon but just have it for farming like this?"


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    "It''s tempting, but I still like the idea of doing things without making my friends go and fight."


    "Fife, I''ll point out, likes to fight. She''ll probably get bored if we don''t have undead coming in regularly or if she can''t go out and beat them up."


    "Yeah, but we can deal with that when we get it. If Fife getting bored is the worst thing we have to deal with, I''ll count us as being lucky. I''ll get someone to bring that family down to my heart so we can have a conversati¡ª"


    "I''ll get them. Blake''s a great guy and all, but he really loves his maps and plans." Turning a little stopcock off on his glassware, Robert stood up and headed for the door.


    <hr>


    It wasn''t easy. Life had been going well for Jacob and his family until four years ago¡ªthough even he had to admit the problem really started in the last season. His wife, Grace, had been swelling with their second child. He''d worked hard to pay for some healing potions in case the birthing went bad, but she''d delivered their little Mixie without any of the trial their son, Axel, had been.


    As he walked through the dark tunnels, guided by a kobold that had given them each their own alchemical light, Jacob reflected on how they''d managed to keep Mixie a secret for a little over three years.


    "How deep are we?" Axel asked.


    "It''s impossible to tell." Robert didn''t need the light he held to see, but the others would feel more comfortable with more light around. "We''re still trying to work out if the floors are unlimited in size. We do know they''re in some kind of stable pocket reality."


    For a moment Axel had pondered another question, but quickly snapped his mouth closed when the answer he''d gotten had been completely useless. Holding his hand, walking beside him as easily as someone three times her age, his little sister was looking around at everything. His hand drifted to his belt where he had a light forge hammer on a loop. It might not be as good a weapon as swords and axes, but the arm strength he''d built apprenticed to his father made it more than effective.


    The guard captain that had promised to take them to the dungeon had told Grace that it would be safe¡ªthat this dungeon was fiercely protective of anyone living inside it. She only had to glance at her children to reignite the fear that he''d lied. When the small kobold led them into a pink-lit room, though, her fear dissolved into wonder.


    An immense crystal dominated the room. Glowing with pink light, the massive thing could be nothing else but a dungeon heart. Grace stared at it, never having seen one before in her life¡ªbut somehow feeling a slight pull from it. "H-Hello?"


    "That''s Trav, or Travis. This is his dungeon¡ªHe''s telling me it''s our dungeon, but I think you get the idea. He said he wanted to talk to you here so you''d understand that he is being honest. Something about making himself vulnerable." Robert gestured to what even he felt was at least somewhat awe inspiring still¡ªthe heart. "So, first, we don''t know if you''ve heard any rumors or stuff about us, but all of us living in here, except for Squishy, weren''t dungeon monsters. I came here with my sister, wanting to take control of the dungeon and use it for experiments."


    Of the four newcomers, Mixie was the most taken by the heart. She walked over to it and poked it with one clawed finger. "Big!"


    "Her claws are sharp they''ll¡ª" Grace cut off at the raised palm Robert offered her.


    "Travis has a lot of health. He said it''s okay." Robert crouched down and ran a claw lazily over the floor. "You want to know what the deal is, right?"


    It was exactly what Jacob wanted to know. Nothing in the world was free, and after speaking to some of the others that''d come out to the dungeon, he knew what the price would be. The dungeon wanted workers and had a way to turn people into kobolds. "Yeah, but I bet I can guess."


    "Nope, there is no deal." Robert shrugged. "You''re allowed to stay here as long as you want, without any requirement that you become kobolds¡ªthough it would be helpful if you did. If you want to work, Trav will give you room to work. If you want to have a bigger family, he''ll add another sleeping area for you." Robert had to admit, it felt good to be altruistic. "Food, drink, a home, safety, and you''re free to leave whenever you want. No strings attached. Huh, what do strings have to¡ªOh. Another saying I don''t get."


    "Why?" Grace asked. "Is it because of Mixie?"


    Robert had expected that. He listened to what Travis said and nodded. "Yes. This is exactly because of¡ª"


    "She isn''t cursed," Jacob said. "She never saw a single being outside the three of us until she was almost four."


    "Trav says he knows what likely happened. Something about¡ªHuh, that does make sense. So there are patterns in us that our bodies use to make up plans for how we look. Some of the pattern is used, some is ignored, and some goes from used to ignored or the other way around over our life. Sometimes a pattern will even skip a generation." As he spoke, Robert tried to make a mental note to get Travis to explain this to him later. "You both have bits of goblin pattern in you, but your bodies never used it. When you had your son¡ªHe probably has it too. Mixie, though, the patterns lined up just right and her body saw that perfect pattern and used it."


    "So it really wasn''t a curse? How do you know all this?" Jacob asked.


    "I don''t know all this, Trav does. If you''re going to trust anyone to know about curses and how people are put together, I think you''d probably want to trust someone who has put people together already." Robert shrugged at that, ignoring the slight lie in it.


    Walking closer to the heart, Grace held out her hand toward it and took a slow breath. "You mentioned work? I''ve never really¡ªI have worked in a tavern before. I was a cook."


    "Was?" Robert asked.


    "They told us that we were idiots. That we had to take Mixie and¡ªand leave her in the forest. They said¡ª"


    "They said," Jacob continued for his wife, "that a goblin had swapped her. Our daughter would be dead, but¡ª"


    Robert nodded. "But Trav knows that is a load of piss. She''s your daughter and you can raise her here."


    It didn''t make the decision hard for Jacob. Ever since people had learned of his daughter, he''d found out he wasn''t welcome anywhere. Now he had somewhere. "I''m not the greatest blacksmith you''ll find, but I''m good enough with a hammer and furnace that my old master called me his equal. If you want something made or repaired, I''ll do my best to get it done."


    "I noticed you have a kitchen." Grace sounded hopeful and, at the same time, a little excited. She enjoyed cooking, but months on the road without anywhere to cook more advanced than a pot over a campfire had left her a little dejected.


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 Chapter 80

    It wasn''t exactly happy that a dungeon had built so close, but the dungeon had yet to do more than send a minion to scratch its walls. It was unsure what that meant, but so far no further evidence that the dungeon wanted to kill It surfaced.


    When It discovered Its soldiers easily throwing off both the goblin and undead attacks, It felt satisfied that It was safe. Further when the strange dragon dungeon attacked the undead with Its own guards in support.


    With nothing else to do, It decided It needed to grow and become more. So It slept and grew.


    <hr>


    When Northridge awoke, it felt revitalized. Never before had it experienced such clarity and focus. It gazed out through over a thousand eyes, some of which were glaring at the horrid undead dungeon, others were looking around at the various little bits and pieces of itself that comprised their lives.


    It stretched out, watching its brave soldiers guarding the walls, a caravan of wagons rolling slowly toward it from the southeast, and even its guard captain playing dice with a kobold¡ªand losing.


    Northridge reflected on what it had seen from this dungeon, and what it knew of dungeons from all its flashes of memory. Dungeons came in three kinds, those that were nurtured, those that were exploited, and those that were destroyed. It had two kinds that it could figure out, but also this third one.


    The dragon dungeon didn''t require nurturing, it wasn''t so dangerous it needed extermination, and from what Northridge could tell, it wasn''t amenable to exploitation.


    There was something Northridge could liken it to, something that all its townsfolk had a good concept of¡ªa city. Musing on the idea, Northridge liked the way it connected and fit their relationship. With that problem settled, it could appreciate the dungeon wanting to shorten the path between them. Reaching out and straining toward that dungeon, it tried to express this change in status.


    Northridge lacked the kind of micromanagement that a dungeon would do, but it could give buffs and bonuses to people as part of their work¡ªand did so when it recognized the essential work crews. Those working on its walls got the lion''s share, while each of two of the city''s greater minions¡ªa merchant and a craftsman¡ªeach got their own boosts.


    Fascinating as it was to watch and experience everyone''s daily routine, Northridge had certain goals it wished to accomplish. Its walls were mighty as they were, and would provide a good fallback point should any large attacks come, but it wanted to grow.


    That urge, along with instilling the need to grow larger into its leaders, brought up a memory. It was all instinct at the time when it happened, but the single mason who''d built most of the stone buildings had died and the dungeon had saved them. Northridge mentally recoiled from how it had treated that mason¡ªhow it had pushed her away.


    It banished that instinctual you''re not welcome aspect of itself as foolish and altogether a bad idea from the start. Northridge promised itself it would move forward with the intent of growth¡ªeven with a dungeon ally.


    <hr>


    Ogmera had never been in a party quite like what she was part of at that moment. They''d been in the dungeon for two days now, slept on rotation at night, and breached ten floors so far¡ªbut what she found oddest was having such a competent tank leading the way that not a single undead monster could break into their line.


    She also had never experienced dungeon fighting with other dungeon monsters as allies. "This seems too easy."


    "Nah. It''s as easy as I like it." Fife, too, was exploring new experiences. Some she liked, some she didn''t, but so long as it was something different she was enthusiastic enough to keep going. Food was the latest¡ªor lack of it. She hadn''t eaten since they''d set out from Travis'' dungeon, nor had she slept more than a few hours total. "Wish we''d find the heart of this thing so we can¡ª"


    "We can''t, Fife. We''re fighting down to it, going to have Felna do her thing to it, then we''re leaving. This is an open threat to the dungeon to back off." Penelope had her back to the group that were chatting because she was on watch. "And if we get the okay to, we come back in and do the job."


    Standing up from her resting crouch, Fife rolled her shoulders and flicked her tail¡ªanother new thing she enjoyed entirely because it was new. "Maybe it will be tougher by then, hey?"


    "You''re a battle addict." Penelope reached a hand back toward Fife and tapped her shoulder. "Mind keeping watch? I want to go back up to the surface and see if there has been some word on it."


    Smirking, Fife nodded. "There might be some back-spawns. Be careful."


    "It''s not like any of the monsters this high up are a problem for me if I keep moving." With Fife in her place, Penelope made her way past the rest of the group and up the stairs to the previous floor. The tunnels were quiet and still¡ªwhich was not the best indication that they were empty, given it was an undead dungeon.


    "How much longer do you want to break for?" Fife asked.


    Looking over the non-kobold contingent, Ogmera said, "Five minutes and they''ll be fed and ready. You''re not going to slow down because we don''t have Pen?"


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    "Do you want us to slow down, or do you want to have her silently impressed that we didn''t waste any time?" Fife didn''t take her eyes off the tunnel ahead. Just like Travis, the undead dungeon was full of twists and turns, but at the same time she could feel a pull down one path no matter what forks they''d come to. "Because I want to¡ªIncoming archers. Kate, with me."


    Stepping past the others in their group, Katelyn took up position behind Fife. In her time since becoming a kobold she''d been in several combat situations, but they had all been defensive fights. Delving into a dungeon was new to her. The sound of arrows hitting a steel shield sent a shiver down her spine¡ªthe skeletons were doing their best to kill them, but Fife seemed akin to a wall between their group and danger. "Tell me when."


    "They''re staggering their shots. The dungeon is probably directing them, since it saw us do this so often. Okay¡­ now!" There was something about the way every drop of moisture in the air vanished and the back of her throat ran dry¡ªthat made her blood pound.


    The burning heat that rushed past Fife and fell upon the skeletons was a heady brew to Fife''s love of combat. She kept watch as the only skeleton that didn''t get burned to a crisp by the spell fired an arrow. Shifting her shield a little, Fife deflected it from hitting Katelyn. "Nice work."


    "Thanks for the block." Katelyn snapped her claws together, sending a little burst of flame to the last skeleton that burned clear through its neck. "We''re moving soon? Where did Pen go?"


    "Few more minutes, yeah. She went to see if we got permission to empty this hole out properly. I think she wants to give Trav a hug, too." Relaxing her shield arm a little, Fife listened to the noise of their group as they all got ready for more fun (at least fun as Fife thought of it). "Felna, on me. Think you can locate the spawners?"


    Shrugging, then realizing Fife couldn''t see the gesture, Felna replied, "I can try. Until I can link to that core, I can''t tell you for sure. We''re good to move."


    "How long does that last, anyway?" Stepping forward, experience over the last several days having taught Fife how fast she could move, she started to pay more attention to the tunnels and the crumbling stone around them.


    "Before whatever Kate calls what Trav did to me, I could hold it for up to five days if I focused. Now, though, I might be able to go a few weeks. I guess we can test that here." Felna wasn''t looking forward to linking her mind to the undead dungeon''s heart. "I hate these things."


    "Have you ever tried to push back against the dungeon? I remember hearing about two mages fighting a duel in their heads once. Maybe you could¡ªTrap! Hey, some sludge. Luddy, you got Robert''s stash, right?"


    "Just burn it. You don''t need to waste anything special for sludge," Felna said. "Tom, come up here and burn some sludge traps for us."


    It annoyed Fife only a little that she couldn''t simply march through the traps. Even if it didn''t snare her enough to stop her, it would surely cause problems for someone. "Yeah, that''s a better option. Okay, come up on my left and we''ll move through this when it''s gone."


    <hr>


    Penelope didn''t encounter a single enemy in her run to the surface. The dungeon seemed to be focusing all its resources on defending against the spearhead of the delving team. Before stepping out of the entrance, she stopped and shouted, "It''s Penelope. I''m coming out. Don''t shoot me or I''ll get upset!"


    After pausing for a few moments, she stepped into the open with her hands well away from her swords. When there was no crack of a weapon discharging, she relaxed a little. "We''re good?"


    "Yeah." Standing up from behind the palisade, Brolly was relieved that she''d given the warning she had. "Been boring up here. Are the rest behind you?"


    "No. The dungeon''s a deep one, though, and I wanted to find out if we could kill it when we reach the bottom." Walking to the wall of logs, Penelope jumped up, grabbed the top, and vaulted over it to land beside Brolly. "So, any news?"


    It took a lot of self-control to not try to defend himself, but Brolly did nothing more than tighten his grip on his rifle. "None, but we haven''t had our first supplies delivery yet, so we don''t know. Any idea how much longer you''ll be in there?"


    "If you want to leave, I don''t think you''re needed here after all. The only worry is if the goblins come up here and try to invade. Our group would be ready for that, though." Sitting down with her legs hanging over the edge of the walkway, Penelope looked at the small camp that''d been established. "I might run back home and see if Trav has any news."


    "Can you go via Northridge? I''ll admit I''m a little nervous about leaving the city short on guards."


    Dropping off the palisade, Penelope gave a weak salute and a grin before she started to run.


    <hr>


    The boss of a dungeon entering the area around Northridge set off a minor headache for it. Focusing its attention down to the guards on its walls, it peered out through their eyes to spot the half-dragon as it ran to the entrance of its dungeon.


    It took every ounce of Northridge''s focus to not push the guards to raise their rifles, sight down on the monster, and shoot it. Calm. It steadied itself and found curiosity at seeing the being on such an urgent mission.


    As Penelope stepped inside the dungeon entrance, the feeling of being watched left her. Not that she didn''t nod to the guards watching her movement, but there was something else that clawed at the edge of her senses to detect. "Trav, are you¡ª?"


    "Ten floors! Pen, I get resources every time you reach a new floor! This is why the undead dungeon was attacking! Wait, why are you here?" Travis asked.


    "Because it''s deeper than we thought and I hoped you might have gotten word about killing the dungeon." Rubbing the side of her head, Penelope was glad Travis had stopped yelling. "So we got some resources out of this?"


    "Not just some, a lot of stuff. It''s like a bu¡ªIt''s a pile that doesn''t take up space. There hasn''t been any news about the killing the dungeon but I don''t think I want to, now. Not when we can exploit this too. There must be a timer on how often we can delve to get these rewards. I bet it''s three days, which is how often they were attacking us." His mind had been racing since the first reward, the surety that they could use this only growing each floor they took. "I don''t care if I have to pay Northridge to build a fort around that dungeon. It''s worth exploiting it."


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 Chapter 81

    The fascination Northridge had for the dragon dungeon was akin to a scientifically minded teenager with an ant colony. While it still held back the mild horror that the ants could very well swarm and hurt it, the city was careful not to disturb them.


    Its own workers were building a new protective tower around the dungeon entrance, which while concerning to its pre-awakened self, Northridge could recognize as essential to defending what had probably cost the dungeon significant resources.


    Northridge had significant resources itself, though all it could do was track them. It couldn''t force its minions to do particular things, but it could nudge them. But, for the moment, it observed and studied¡ªlearning how its own economy functioned. The biggest thing it learned was there was a huge pile of gold in the one big building owned by the dungeon. That gold slowly seeped out into the hands of workers, merchants, and even the guards that tended its own walls.


    And, when resources flowed into that dungeon, more of the gold flowed out of the dungeon''s building. It wasn''t a hard cause-and-effect to follow. Northridge, like all genius loci cities, was intensely interested in trade, and trade was what this dungeon seemed to breathe. Giving the builders and guards working on the new tower some boosts, it noticed something new.


    A kobold had left the dungeon and was conversing with the workers. Instincts were strong, and like with the dungeon''s boss it felt the aching desire to drive the kobold away¡ªbut it recognized them. Checking its desire to cause them anguish, Northridge did what it could to send aid to Tannyr. Though it couldn''t boost her directly, it did send all the encouragement it could to its workers.


    <hr>


    Tannyr, having learned what it felt like to have the genius loci''s attention when she''d lived in Northridge, was dreading being anywhere near the city again. But she felt the lightest touch before it was gone, and the workers she''d been talking to about aligning a wall extension with the city practically glowed. "Are you feeling okay?"


    "Great. Better than ever, actually," one of the workers said.


    "Reminds me of working on the new outer wall at the capital. Do you think Northridge''s loci has evolved?" another asked.


    "Couldn''t have," the first replied. "It''s nowhere near big enough."


    It ran through Tannyr''s mind that the city might have evolved. "I need to check something." Leaving the workers looking a little surprised at her capriciousness, she headed over to the dungeon entrance in the middle of the growing ward. The moment she was inside she felt warmth and support. "Trav?"


    "What''s up? How are the walls going?" Travis asked.


    "About as well as can be expected¡ªWait, no. They''re going fast, actually, and that''s what I want to talk about. You know how cities form a genius loci when the dungeons around them quicken?"


    The language was thick with recently acquired words, but Travis worked his way through it. "Yeah. You said it doesn''t like you very much."


    "It hates¡ªhated¡ªme. That''s the thing. The work is going faster than it should, and when I felt the city''s touch just now, it wasn''t angry at me. The guys up there thought it might have evolved, but it''s way too early for that."


    "What do you mean, ''evolved''?" Travis asked.


    "Oh. Sometimes it''s easy to forget you don''t know all this. As cities get bigger, they evolve. At first they''re barely even noticeable¡ªI guess unless you''re a monster trying to live there. Then, when they have a few thousand people in them, they evolve. Get smarter. You''ll start to notice them affecting people working around the city with magic. It raises the morale of the whole city and makes them better at defending against dungeon attacks and¡ªworse things."


    "What''s worse than disease-carrying goblins?"


    "We''re not exactly the only kingdom, Trav. It''s peaceful here only because there is a sizable army ready to meet invasions." Prodding the wall of the dungeon with one claw, Tannyr laughed. "If you ever want to feel like a small fry, Trav, consider what would happen if several hundred soldiers marched into you. It doesn''t happen often, but the military has been called on to sanction some dungeons."


    Travis shuddered, his heart literally shaking a little. "Okay, no more horror stories for this dungeon. So, the city''s smarter now? More active?"


    Nodding, Tannyr added, "It''s helping them protect your entrance and it seemed to accept me without any antagonism. I think it might have learned that at least one dungeon isn''t worth making an enemy out of."


    "That''s a relief. I wish I could, uh, talk to it. I mean, it would be nice to have someone else to complain to when all my kobolds are bullying me." Then it struck him that there was more to this. "So if the city isn''t an enemy, and it''s smarter, can it understand people? Could you talk to it?"


    "A much older city, definitely. Northridge shouldn''t even be conscious, though. It''s too young even if it is. We''ll have to give it time and be its friend until then."


    "So we keep trading, help Northridge¡ªthe people¡ªprotect the city, and deal with threats like the undead dungeon for them. Thanks for explaining it, Tannyr."


    "You''re welcome, Travis." Stepping back out into the morning air, Tannyr gazed around. The workers were back at their tasks, marking stones that needed to be lifted to the wall and placed. A wall, she well knew, was a delicate act of using as little mortar as possible, since it weakened the wall overall, so stones were chosen such that they''d fit together as perfectly as possible with as little work required to the stone as possible. As a master mason, she could keep the shapes of hundreds of stones in her head and mentally rotate them to fit together better.


    "What''s it like?"


    The question, from one of the guards, caught Tannyr by surprise. "Being a kobold?" At the woman''s nod, Tannyr shrugged her shoulders. "I see better in the dark than I did as a dwarf, I can dig through the ground like a hot knife through butter, and the sky still terrifies me a little. You get used to it, though." She recognized the weapon they were carrying. "I see you have one of the new rifles. How does it fire?"


    The confusion over if Tannyr had asked how it worked or if it was operating well resolved in the guard''s mind to the latter. "Straight and true. Whoever makes them, they''re doing a great job."


    Tannyr couldn''t help but smirk at that. "You''re looking at her."


    <hr>


    It was weird news to bring, but Penelope was used to everything lately being sort of weird. "Brolly!" she called as she approached the palisade. "Are you awa¡ª?"


    "Yeah. Come on up. What word from Northridge?" Relaxing from his vigil, Brolly waited on the wall for Penelope to jump up.


    "You can head back whenever you want. The strangest thing though, is my orders. It appears that the reason this damn hole kept attacking us is that dungeons gain resources for delving each floor of an enemy dungeon. Now Trav''s happy about what our work here has gotten, and he''s willing to give this damned hole a reprieve¡ªjust so we can do this again. Also, we got approval to sanction it if we need to." It still surprised her that they had got that permission, but hearing Travis rant about how much resources they had helped confirm in her mind that they probably shouldn''t.


    "So you will?"


    "No, but we are going to make delving into this place a regular thing. Also, now we know how they got all the resources to keep building up, we''re going to have to make the forest entrance a lot more deadly. Sorry about that." Looking over the top of the palisade, Penelope eyed the entrance of the dungeon.


    "Are the resources really that good? Also, don''t sweat making that entrance a deathtrap, put up a warning sign, though." Standing up, Brolly stretched and looked around to ensure his guards were in their right locations. "Gather up! We''ll be moving out in ten minutes!"


    "It''s an almost-free resource. We''d be fighting this place''s minions anyway, so this way we get a lot of pay for the work. Besides, I think Fife would get bored." Vaulting over the wall, Penelope landed in the no-man''s-land in the middle. "Good luck on the march home!"


    "And same to you on reaching the bottom." With a good salute given, Brolly turned to his guards and set about getting them moving. "Oh, I just about forgot about you two." He looked at Brayden and Kelvin. "You''re welcome to come back to Northridge with us, then use the second entrance there to get home."


    Looking back at the entrance of the dungeon, and then to the city guards, Brayden nodded. "It would be safer. I have a bad feeling about something. Like the wind just changed and a storm is coming."


    "You feel that too?" Kelvin was a little surprised to find the young (to him) priest matching his own thoughts to words. "My hand won''t stop reaching for my spear."


    Brayden felt a sobering shock at the old former elf''s words. "Should we go with them? We''d be a bigger target."


    "Let''s run. Two kobolds can be harder to find and stop than a squad of soldiers."


    The soldiers, Brayden knew, all had their own talismans. They could fight to the last man and still wake up in time for dinner. "Yeah." Raising his voice, Brayden said, "I think it would be faster if we ran back to the forest entrance. Keep an eye out for trouble, Brolly."


    "You too. Okay, let''s move!"


    <hr>


    The more the pair ran, the more they felt urgency to get back to their dungeon. Brayden counted his strides, lengthening them as much as he dared without risking tripping in the undergrowth.


    <hr>


    It didn''t take Penelope long to run to the bottom of the dungeon¡ª13 floors down. Her gait combined with a complete disdain for the few weakling undead that were back-spawning let her breeze through each floor until she found her friends at the bottom¡ªwith their backs to a giant crystal. "You found it, then?"


    "Yup. How''d you find us?" Fife asked, reaching a claw out and tapping the anemic heart.


    Laughing, Penelope stepped over the body of the undead lord and approached the glowing green crystal. "You left a trail of corpses, Fife. Oh, Felna, did you try linking to the core?"


    "Not if we''re going to be destroying it," Felna replied. "I don''t want to know what that feels like."


    "So!" Katelyn tapped her staff on the floor a few times to get attention. "Are we breaking this thing?"


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    "Nope." Penelope explained the situation with resources and farming dungeons, and tried to leave out the implication that it was exactly what the undead dungeon had done to Travis. "But," she said, moving on to keep her compatriots off balance, "we have permission to, if we want to. Word came back that Travis may destroy this thing if he wants."


    Fife couldn''t help herself¡ªshe was grinning from one side of her face to the other and showing off all her teeth. "You hear that, big guy?" Tapping her shield gently on the heart, she leaned a little closer. "You and me are going to spend a loooooot of quality time together. I bet your boss is going to invent a way to talk just so he can swear at me. You know, maybe I should get a second bedroom dug out in here?"


    "Alright, alright. Let the poor thing be, Fife. Brayden and Kelvin were heading back home, now it''s our turn. I expect the dungeon won''t bother trying to stop us, but let''s keep our eyes peeled in case it tries some kind of crap. I''ll take point, Fife at the rear. Form up when you''re ready." Drawing her swords, Penelope felt excitement boil up inside her. Even if most of the dungeon''s attackers would be behind them, she hoped to run into something that she''d be able to slice up.


    Moving up behind Penelope, Ogmera appreciated the sickly green glow of the swords that somehow outshone even her own alchemical light. Extending her will, she wove her magic around Penelope in a way that would make doing battle with her a comedy of errors. A dozen little bad luck charms woven together, tumbling over each other to find purchase on anything that would seek to slow the half dragon down. "Don''t slow down for anything. They''ll have trouble hitting you¡ªjust kill and move. Let Nathaniel heal you after the encounters."


    "He can heal while moving?" The magic covering her felt a little odd to Penelope, but she trusted Ogmera to know what she was about.


    "He can. Clever lad. Felna! You have Fife. Nath, up here behind this behemoth." Winking at Penelope, Ogmera stepped back to the middle of their group.


    Regretting only that she hadn''t killed more than a few in her dash down through the dungeon, Penelope aimed herself to the tunnel that led back to the stairs to the next floor up. "Are we ready?" She waited for a series of affirmatives before she started her march.


    In the first ten floors up from the heart, there was the odd skeleton, but nothing that so much as got in the way of her swords. Several she pushed down and simply stomped on to kill. A mere three floors before the surface she paused and called out, "Anything behind us, Fife?"


    "Nope! If I didn''t know any better, I''d say the dungeon wants us out of here as fast as we can go."


    "Rejected so soon, Fife?" Katelyn asked. "Will your heart recover?"


    "Don''t worry, Kate, I''ll be back in a week to say hello again."


    The tunnels, Penelope had noticed, were fairly basic, despite the atmosphere being a little creepy. She spotted a skeleton turn the corner at the end of the current tunnel and look her in the eyes before turning back around.


    Setting off again, she took the stairs two at a time to get to the fourth floor¡ªwhere she stopped. In the darkness her eyes could pierce was a group of heavily armored soldiers with large shields and spears. "Kate, get your ass up here. I''m no expert, but are they¡ª?"


    Cutting Penelope off with the answer, Katelyn stared at the big men in armor advancing on them. "Balavian knights. What are they doing in here? Uh, they''re going to attack us. They''ll think we''re monsters."


    "Hey! You lot! This is our dungeon!" Ogmera stepped up beside Penelope, using a hand to push the mountain of a boss not a single bit. "We''re sanctioned to delve it by the local¡ª" A stabbing pain in her shoulder shocked Ogmera. She hadn''t seen the crossbowman before they''d fired, but now she could see two more lining up on her. "Fffff¡ª"


    Spotting the blood on Ogmera''s face, Nathaniel pulled her behind Penelope and focused on her with his healing magic, begging his god for aid while he pulled the bolt from her right side.


    "Fife! Up here!" Penelope glared at the soldiers, flinching when two more crossbow strings sang their death song. One was off key, though, and broke before sending its bolt tumbling in a rough arc against the left wall, the other slipped off its bolt and never did more than signal the bowman''s intent.


    Gritting her teeth as she passed Ogmera, leaving the woman''s care to their clerics, Fife walked past Penelope and brought her shield up. "Seems to me like you bastards should buy a lady dinner before¡ª" Two crossbow bolts hit her shield and the third her cheek. Fife could feel a bruise there but her flesh held against the barbed bolt-head. "Well, now you''ve pissed me off. Light ''em up while I go make a pain of myself."


    The next line of crossbowmen had swapped up to stand behind the armored troops and were trying to sight around Fife, but her aggression drew their fire. At such close range, one of the bolts actually grazed her weapon arm, but her own effect on their front line was far more effective. Against her old self, the soldiers might have grunted and been forced to shove back against her shield, but with the power of a boss monster and with her own dungeon''s boss right behind her, Fife crashed into the first soldier, knocked him down, and stomped on his face with her talons as she worked her momentum into the second.


    Pillars of fire almost ruined Penelope''s vision as she reached the line of soldiers beside Fife. Her friend was savage with her shield and claws, but her sword was mostly spending its time parrying spears away. Penelope hit the first spear poked her way so hard the haft was pulled from the soldier''s grip and she managed to get close to him. He checked her first swipe with his shield, but when she bit down on the top edge of it to hold it steady he had nothing to stop her other blade with. "Talk to me, Fife!"


    "I''m a bit busy, Pen. How are our mages doing?" Snapping her own teeth at a soldier to make him bring his shield up, she drove one talon down onto his booted foot and tightened her grip down into his flesh. "Did someone tell these guys who we are? Why did they attack?"


    Penelope saw the danger first. She opened her mouth and shouted, but the line of soldiers opened up before them and the light ballista, with a bolt as thick around as Penelope''s arm, fired. Fife, who always seemed so solid and unmovable, flew back as the weapon caught her in the chest. It pierced clear through her shield, through her armor, and the head dented the rear plates.


    Snarling in shock, and noticing the incendiary show had paused, Penelope took a deep breath and exhaled her most potent magic. Finally, the enemy soldiers started doing more than snarling and grunting at her attacks¡ªthey screamed. The acid burned through flesh faster than armor, but when it got caught between the former and the latter she knew it would be doing its worst work.


    The ballista''s crew ran screaming, as did several rows of the heavy troops and crossbowmen. Penelope had a moment of relief to feel like they''d managed something when she saw two more of the siege weapons armed and aimed toward her down the tunnel. "Sh¡ª"


    One of the weapons fouled by the grace of Ogmera''s spell. The other didn''t.


    The pain of the hit drove all thought from Penelope''s head for a few moments. She was a wounded monster and flew into a rage. The only thing that remained in her red-drenched brain was that her allies were behind her.


    Fife was staring at the ceiling of the tunnel. She tried to complain about the pain in her chest, but when she exhaled she only felt bubbles coming from the back of her throat. She wanted to swear. She wanted to tell her friends to burn the enemy until ash remained. She wanted to get up and keep fighting, but instead she died.


    <hr>


    Travis was surprised when Fife appeared. After listening to her swearing for far too long, he saw Katelyn appear. The only problem was they both appeared with timers, and both were merely floating presences. "Uh, what''s going on?"


    Her mind processing her death, Katelyn tried to single out the important things. "Are Brayden and Kelvin back yet?"


    "No. What''s going on?!" Travis was frantic now, particularly when Penelope appeared next.


    "There were soldiers attacking the dungeon¡ªnot from our kingdom. They were from the Balavian Empire." Katelyn''s mind raced as she tried to make sense of it. "They shouldn''t be here. This is¡ª"


    "It''s the start of a fucking invasion!" Fife was finally done with her tirade. "Those weren''t mercenaries. The Empire doesn''t do mercenaries. The only legal profession there for fighting is in the military. Whatever they''re doing here, it''s with the backing of the whole Empire. You have to warn Northridge!"


    Travis didn''t want to. He fully liked the idea of getting all his kobolds back home, filling all the entrances with sludge traps, and then hiding until whatever was going on outside ended. But he couldn''t. "Tannyr?"


    Stretching and straightening from her bed, Tannyr had never been woken by Travis before and it immediately had her alert. "What''s wrong?"


    "Everything. Fife, Pen, and Kate¡ªNow Wild too. They all just died and said the Balavian Empire soldiers attacked them in the undead dungeon. Fife thinks it''s an invasion. I hate to ask you, but can you go to N¡ª?"


    "You don''t have to ask that, Trav, because the answer is yes. Give me a second to grab my guns and I''ll take the message to Northridge." Climbing swiftly from her bed, she grabbed the belt and holsters from her nightstand and the two pistols from the rack beside it. A powder horn and a bag of shot was next, along with one of her rifles.


    <hr>


    Ludmiller had vanished when the last of her fellow kobolds had died. At her feet, Stratus, Tom, Felna, and Jack all lay with her own dagger marks in their chests. In a moment their bodies faded as the talismans triggered¡ªand they were sent back to Northridge.


    She didn''t understand the language the soldiers used when they rushed forward and looked around for corpses, but she recognized what swearing was no matter the tongue. Between Fife and Penelope''s blocking, their party''s mages had done a real number on the attackers. There were charred corpses and wounded being tended to by the enemy far in excess of what a single delving team should have managed.


    The Balvarian''s didn''t have any real magic to speak of, nor were they as forward thinking with machines and firearms as the kingdom was, but they certainly had a way with armor and training. Their tactics had been effective in the end, after all. She watched as two of the enemy looked around for any trace of their group, but either they couldn''t sense her or they didn''t know to look for a kobold that could be invisible in the dark.


    A large woman stomped through the ranks of downed soldiers, past all the dead, and right up to the searchers. Her authority was plain to Ludmiller in her bearing and her willingness to bark orders. More soldiers started scurrying around and a new line of front-liners formed up and started heading deeper into the dungeon.


    Ludmiller saw an opening. The soldiers were mostly facing the other way and their leader was two steps away. She could have gone for the kill and dealt with the woman¡ªbut right now it wouldn''t matter. She kept pace with them as they walked deeper, floor by floor, only catching a few skeletons here or there. A pair of zombies slowed them for a moment, and soon they were in the heart room of the undead dungeon.


    More orders were given by the woman, and huge men came forward with the biggest sledgehammers Ludmiller had ever seen. These weren''t weapons for fighting people and they weren''t tools for construction.


    The first time one of the hammers came down on the glowing green heart, Ludmiller felt the dungeon scream around her.


    Swing after swing, shriek after shriek. She''d never experienced a dungeon''s anguished cries before, but Ludmiller found herself in tears as she moved carefully around the heart so she was beside it. So close, she could feel the air and magic compress with each blow of the black-headed hammers on the heart. Ludmiller, probably due to some aspect of her own bond with Travis, could feel when the dungeon heart was one strike from death.


    Apparently, so could one of the soldiers¡ªor he had enough experience at this task to know when to stop. The shout from the commander stopped one of the men mid-swing. He held his hammer back and ready while the commander came up and stood right beside Ludmiller.


    There was fury boiling around the undead dungeon heart as it sensed its death was imminent. It hated these creatures, it hated them worse and more than it hated the others. The dragons were another dungeon, and practically kin, but these things were horrid and they wanted to kill it. They hurt it and hurt it, they killed the dragons. Now, as it watched their leader remove something from its neck, it felt a new horror.


    Ludmiller didn''t recognize what the thin chain the woman was unspooling was, but the tiny thing pulsed with some kind of magic of its own. She looked up at the dungeon heart and realized in that moment what the chain was for. Binding magic, sealing magic, controlling magic. The heart before her felt it too and begged for mercy¡ªbegged for death.


    Field Captain Donna of the Balavian Empire was relieved something was going right. She''d lost more to that one odd fight than she''d expected the whole dungeon to have done. Recon had told her that this was undead, so they''d prepared with prayers and counters to death magic¡ªwhat they''d gotten was dragons that seemed almost impossible to hurt and a group of heretic-mages that defied belief.


    Now, though, her task would be complete. She measured up the sickly dungeon heart for its new adornment and was about to lay it down into the fissures the dead-iron hammers had made when a pair of scaled arms appeared beside her, two daggers extended and already sunk into the green dungeon heart.


    Donna wasn''t magic sensitive, but she didn''t need to be to know the dungeon died. The heart crumbled to dust as the grinning kobold face flickered and then faded from view again. Screaming with her anger, she drew her sword and swung for where the body of the kobold should be, given its only possible escape route¡ªand her weapon drank well.


    Before Ludmiller could process the speed of the commander''s attack, two crossbow bolts slammed into her and delivered her from the dungeon and back to Travis'' care.


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    And then everything changed¡ªwhen the Balavian Empire attacked.

 Chapter 82

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 18/100


    Heart 1166400/1166400


    Experience 12925/291600


    Workers 11/115


    Monsters 9/117


    Traps 64/279


    Food 2459


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Charcoal 5058


    Mana 488


    Rock 2739


    Gold 1057


    Leather 17


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 0


    Glass 635


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 15


    Long Guns 40


    Bullets 1000


    Black Powder 1000


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Mine some mithril.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    Your raiding party has destroyed another dungeon''s heart!


    You gain:


    200,000 Experience.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    Quest Complete: Destroy another dungeon.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    New Quest: Kill 200 invaders.


    </blockquote>


    "What the hell?" Travis, already panicking over having his "raiding party" defeated combined with Brayden and Kelvin''s plight, was stunned into silence after his first exclamation.


    "Did that say the dungeon is defeated?" Penelope asked.


    "Yeah. What gives? Who killed it?" Fife asked.


    "Me." Ludmiller''s mental voice silenced everyone. "I helped ensure everyone got back to Northridge, then hung around to see what they were going to do.


    "They were beating on the dungeon''s heart with hammers and¡ªI just knew that the next hit would kill it. It screamed in fear. I never expected to hear a dungeon do that.


    "Then there was this chain they got out. The dungeon was more scared of that than dying. I got¡ª That chain would have enslaved the dungeon. I don''t know how I knew, but it felt wrong and when the dungeon begged me to kill it, I did."


    The silence, given how many were in the aether with him, was deafening to Travis. Finally, he had to break it to get people talking again. "Then you did the right thing. We tried to stop them and failed, which means we need to become stronger. The first step of that is already happening. While you were in the dungeon, Tannyr was busy digging out another lizard village on the third floor, and I have it upgraded to find resources." From where they could see¡ªthe passive view of where stuff was in the dungeon, but not the active eyes he got to see through¡ªTravis pointed out where the new lizard village was and the various nodes they''d uncovered. "Also, we now have wyverns. They''d be rideable already, but I ran out of leather and told Steph he couldn''t go out trapping."


    "What about Brayden and Kelvin?" Ludmiller asked.


    <hr>


    Keeping their heads low in the undergrowth, Brayden and Kelvin were running as fast and quiet as possible. Behind them they could hear the clatter of horse hooves and the baying of war dogs. "They''re trying to flank and reach the forest entrance first," Kelvin said.


    "Then we divert to the city. They won''t expect monsters to make a run for Northridge." Without another word they turned together, claws digging into the ground under them and aiming them toward Northridge.


    When they broke from the tree line, it was like a nightmare scene. There was an army marching in from the northwest. People were working in the distance, cutting down trees, while wagons and troops slowly spread out to surround Northridge. Both of them froze for a moment to take in the horror.


    "This is insane," Brayden said. "We have to get there."


    "We''ll make it. They''re taking their time moving in since they control the road. We can''t reach the dungeon entrance, but we can make it to the far end of the city." Gesturing, Kelvin focused their attention on the end of the city where the wall had a portcullis that led to the verdant dungeon.


    With a nod shared between them, they took off running again.


    A group of horsemen broke away from the main besieging force and charged ahead¡ªaimed at Brayden and Kelvin. The two ran as fast as they could, but with the distance they had to keep between them and the encircling force, they knew the six riders would reach them before they made it to the wall.


    Running themselves to exhaustion, they were only a few hundred feet from the wall¡ªwith the horses barely a hundred behind them¡ªwhen the first rifle report sounded. When they looked briefly at each other, worried what they''d see, the pair realized neither of them had been shot.


    On the wall, Tannyr was reloading her rifle while five riders chased after the pair outside the wall. "Don''t rush, you stupid old dwarf. Powder, wadding, ball, tap it down." When she got to the end of her grumbling, she raised the rifle to her shoulder again and sighted down the long barrel. "Who has the shiniest buttons? Ah, I see a ribbon."


    The second shot was music to the pair. They got a big morale boost from knowing someone was looking over them. By the time the third shot sounded, Kelvin had had enough. Stopping, he turned and lifted his spear from his back. With his blood humming to the staccato beat of his heart, he stepped to the side to meet the lead rider''s horse in a flank and used his weapon to score a line open along the animal''s neck¡ªbetween its light armor¡ªand freeing one of the big arteries in its neck from the duty of pumping blood to its brain.


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    "Brogdar! Give my allies your protection that they may live to see your light!" Power rushed through Brayden, his god not holding back in an effort to support his priest. That wasn''t to say he was safe from attacks¡ªhe had to bring his shield up to deflect a spear strike one of the riders attempted to impale him with.


    Leaving the fallen rider to get up (or hopefully get shot), Kelvin felt his skin toughen and a supernatural awareness of the weapons around him as Brayden''s spell settled over him like a cowling. As he brought his spear around in a spinning arc to unhorse the next rider, he noticed another six mounted soldiers riding hard for them. "Brayden! To the wall!"


    Not needing an invitation, Brayden backed away from the last mounted man, hearing the report of another rifle shot before his combatant was down too¡ªslumped sideways in his seat. "Get a rope down!"


    Setting her rifle aside, Tannyr did exactly as Brayden asked¡ªdropping a rope she''d already looped around a merlon. "Got it?"


    "Tannyr? Yeah! Keep shooting!" Grabbing the rope, Brayden started up the wall as fast as his legs could take him. Below, he could hear Kelvin shouting something up at him.


    "Faster! They have archers!" Kelvin wasted no time in securing his spear, then tying the end of the rope around himself, and finally starting up the wall behind Brayden. He was halfway up when the first arrow struck the wall beside him.


    The moment Brayden was up, and she''d fired her next shot, Tannyr grabbed the rope with him and started pulling Kelvin up faster¡ªwhich is how she saw an arrow slam into Kelvin''s back. Lunging, she reached out to grab his arm or anything but couldn''t make contact.


    Hauling on the rope as fast and hard as he could, Brayden begged his god wordlessly for the strength and timing to save his friend. A moment before the rope would go tight, he braced his legs on the stonework and coiled the rope around his armored forearm.


    The scream of muscles that were forced to take up the dead weight of Kelvin at the other end tried to tell Brayden to release the rope, but he wasn''t ready to count his friend as lost yet. Hand over hand, working as hard as he could while Tannyr drew her pistols and fired two rounds at the attacking mounted archers, he started pulling Kelvin up the wall.


    Dropping the pistols and reloading her rifle took the longest fifteen seconds of her life. Tannyr didn''t argue, didn''t complain, and didn''t falter in her determination to drive the soldiers off. After she took to the wall again, lined up a shot, and threaded a bullet through the head of a rider and the chest of the archer mounted behind him, she heard a second, third, and fourth report.


    Along the wall, a group of city guards were reloading. Tannyr gave them a nod while working with her own rifle to have it ready¡ªas Brayden hauled Kelvin up and over the side of the wall.


    Two arrows in his back and one through his throat. Brayden winced at the sight and felt for any sign of vitals. Finding none, he took a moment to break the arrows off and remove the shafts. There was no spray of blood from burst arteries, just the slow leak of a corpse. "Brogdar! Your servant beseeches you, do not allow this ally to fall this day!"


    The city of Northridge felt the powerful divine magic pouring down for the seventeenth time that day. A god reached through their minion and touched the body and soul of a fallen warrior and connected the two once more. It could have fought against the magic, and given it was a kobold working it on another kobold, it would have before it had awoken¡ªbut it was too aware of the army gathering around it like a noose.


    Along with the draconic missive sent to the god, the city sent its own to the same power. Please help me protect my people. I can offer naught but the welcoming arms of my city to your followers, but I add my prayer to your priest''s in the hope of surviving to make good on my promise.


    As well as the power he channeled into Kelvin, Brayden felt a new river of energy begin to flood through his soul. The hand of his god¡ªa mailed fist¡ªrested on his shoulder and offered him a greater part in the coming war than he would have otherwise held. Standing, he spread the blessing out and over the walls, gates, and hearts of the city. For a moment everyone felt the power of good wrapping them like a warm coat on a cold winter''s night.


    The folk of the city, unsure what to do with the slice of divine magic each had been blessed with, took it as an ephemeral protection against the darkness, but the city itself did more. Stonework shifted, writhed, and moved of its own accord. Sections of wall grew taller, towers sprouted, and a pair of thick stonework arms reached out to hug the dungeon entrance close and welcome it as a new section of the city.


    When the magic stopped flowing, Brayden fell to his knees and then to all fours. He''d heard Katelyn describe what it had been like to have Travis'' mana pumped through her, but this felt an order of magnitude more.


    "Can you hear me, dungeon?"


    The words surprised Travis. He''d been freaking out at seeing his worker count tick down by one, only to have it rise back up again. Now, with all his bosses aligned in his mental space, he heard a new voice. It was strong and reverberated with power. "I¡ªYes. I can hear you. Uh, who are you?"


    "I am Northridge. Your entrance is welcome within my walls." Northridge was surprised at the humanity within the dungeon''s countenance. It couldn''t see the spirit it was now conversing with, but it had a sense of it. "I know dungeons and cities aren''t meant to work together¡ªquite the opposite¡ªbut I believe we have a common enemy."


    For a moment Travis could see through Tannyr, Stephan, Brayden, and Kelvin''s eyes. All four were in the city, though, and three of them were looking out over the army currently besieging Northridge. The view was gone as soon as he got it. "That''s definitely a problem. They''re sending people into my other entrance right now. I will not allow them to reach you through my tunnels."


    It was a relief for Northridge that it didn''t need to spell that out. "Then let us turn our energies to holding off these attackers until the siege is lifted."


    "If you need something, anything, ask. The raid we did on the undead dungeon provided a lot of resources. One thing we can give right away is more guns." As soon as he said it, Travis felt a twinge of excitement from the city.


    "I have a lot of walls to keep safe. More guns will be appreciated."


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 83

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 18/100


    Heart 1166400/1166400


    Experience 245025/291600


    Workers 11/115


    Monsters 9/117


    Traps 64/279


    Food 2459


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Charcoal 5058


    Mana 488


    Rock 2739


    Gold 1057


    Leather 17


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 0


    Glass 635


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 15


    Long Guns 40


    Bullets 1000


    Black Powder 1000


    Quest: Kill 200 invaders.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Mine some mithril.


    </blockquote>


    "Was that really Northridge?!" Penelope asked. "It shouldn''t be that far advanced yet!"


    "If it wasn''t, I''d like to know what the heck it was." Travis ran through the conversation in his head. The city seemed welcoming, which was different to how some of his friends had described it previously. "We''ll probably find out more when Brayden comes back. The only reason I can think of for losing a worker and gaining one again would be if he had to resurrect either Tannyr or Kelvin."


    It was an agonizing wait. With everyone''s timers to respawn slowly ticking down, and with three other kobolds out of the dungeon, Travis felt bare. At least, he did until a group of armored figures stepped past the threshold of his forest entrance.


    "They''re coming in," Travis said. It was a solid line of heavy troops at the front with two ranks of crossbowmen behind them and, bringing up the rear, more lightly armored soldiers rolling two ballistas. "Can you guys see them?"


    A chorus of "no"s came back, but Penelope said, "Yeah. It''s kinda hard to figure out, though. This is all through lizards'' eyes, right?"


    "You kinda get used to it. Anyway, I''m going to let them get to the end of that tunnel and then burn them." He had no compunction about killing these soldiers. Given what everyone had said they were doing in the undead dungeon, they were here to enslave him.


    When the soldiers reached the corner, Travis set his target as the corner square, reluctantly paid the full mana cost, and cast Rolling Inferno.


    As the spell went off, a new group''s armored front line stepped in the front door. What he figured were screams from the soldiers were short-lived as they and any flammable equipment they wore was engulfed in the inferno. A flood of XP rushed in, though not enough to level him up.


    It was satisfying to know he could protect himself. "That seems to work well on them. I don''t know if it''s more worrying or less that they are easier to deal with than the undead."


    "Can you hold them off for the day needed to respawn us?" Fife asked.


    "If I let them get to the bowling alley and into the maze, I think I should be fine. Can I get someone to dig out the new big mana shrines the lizards found?" Knowing that he''d solved a major problem and filled the dungeons with cute creatures was a huge weight off Travis'' mind.


    <hr>


    The wall was amazing. Tannyr walked up to it and pressed her palm against the stonework¡ªand felt the solidness of it anchored to the world like it was a mountain. She''d sensed, briefly, the touch of the city, and it was no longer angry at her. "Thank you."


    Northridge had trouble hearing the words, since no one was close enough, but they were spoken into the wall itself. It was a healing moment. Distractions abound for the city. Brolly was on his feet and giving orders. The guards who''d been brought back to life with him were a little slower, but still managed to get on the wall and had their weapons ready. Weapons that came from the dungeon¡ªNorthridge knew.


    The other dungeon, the one that was the city''s primary food source, was cut off. Northridge wished it had opened a second entrance nearby too, but there was something else the city could accomplish. Pushing the thought out, it assembled a quest in the minds of its three highest officials.


    <blockquote>


    New Quest: Build a tunnel leading to the Verdant dungeon in the southeast


    </blockquote>


    The information came more as an abstract thought than as clear text, but Christine Sellswell, Brolly Windchime, and Howard Tailor all knew what it meant to get a clear sending from a quickened genius loci. While Brolly was too busy organizing guards for the walls, Christine and Howard started making plans and contacting stone workers, though it was Christine in particular who said, "The dungeon¡­"


    <hr>


    "Dying always gives me a sore neck." Tilting his head one way then the other, Jack looked to the group he was walking beside. Ogmera, Felna, Nathaniel, Stratus, and Tom. "Do you get that?"


    "Always makes me need to use the jacks. You''d think death would clean you out, but I guess I''m unlucky like that." Nathaniel shrugged.


    "My eyes always lose focus for a few hours after I come-to," Ogmera said. "Though I''ll have to thank Ludmiller for that knife work. Look, she managed not to ruin my shirt!"


    They shared a laugh at that as they headed along the road that had been grown into place by the city itself.


    "It was weird enough to hear them talking about the city quickening and growing stronger walls, but seeing this?" Felna walked over to the new section of wall and touched it before realizing that there was a kobold doing the same not much further down toward the dungeon entrance. "Tannyr?"


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    Turning to look at the new arrivals, Tannyr breathed a sigh of relief that, apparently, everyone got out of the undead dungeon. "Ready to head home? Pen and the others will still be waiting to respawn, so it will mostly be a few of us kobolds and you lot¡ªoh, and the new people we took in."


    "Guess we missed that." Ogmera didn''t slow down her pace, walking along the path and toward the dungeon. "And don''t worry, we all got new talismans."


    "Brayden! We''re ready!" Tannyr called out, getting a wave from Brayden by the dungeon entrance. Kelvin was crouched down beside him and she could tell the two had been talking about something pretty deep¡ªit''s why she''d wandered off in the first place.


    The relief Travis felt as Brayden stepped through his Northridge entrance would have made him sigh aloud if he still had to breathe. "You made it! Can you tell Brolly that they have tried to invade me already, but I dealt with the troops they sent in?"


    When Brayden repeated what Travis had told him, Jack nodded. "I''ll let them know." He turned and left the dungeon again.


    Feeling relief at returning to the dungeon, Tannyr held out her claws and ran them along the wall. Rock. Dungeon rock. She smiled and closed her eyes so she could focus entirely on the feel and smell of rock. "It''s good to be back, Trav. It got really crazy out there." She only whispered the words, but knew Travis could hear her. "Now, I think I''m going down to my workshop and calming my nerves by not going into the sunlight for a whole year."


    She walked like that, blind and trusting, all the way to the wall she needed to push through to reach the stairs. Down further, she stopped only when she bumped into someone. Opening her eyes revealed a now familiar sight of the second floor. "Hello, Mixie. Out exploring?"


    "Shhh! Mom doesn''t know I got away." Mixie was hiding around a corner. Completely ignorant of how mangled her speech was, between goblin fangs and a recent growth spurt, the young goblin wasn''t the best at enunciation.


    "You need to listen to her¡ªat least right now. We have angry people coming into the dungeon. Please don''t go out this door." Picking up the squirming child, Tannyr lifted Mixie onto her back to carry. "You can come down and look at what I''m working on, but we have to tell your mom first."


    "Do we have to?" Despite having to go fess-up, Mixie was excited to see what Tannyr did. Getting told off was worth that.


    Walking into the tavern and then through to the kitchen, Tannyr only had to follow her nose to know that Grace, Mixie''s mother, was working. "Grace?"


    Turning around to see her daughter riding on the shoulders of a kobold, Grace gave a beaming smile. "Miss Tannyr. Let me get her¡ª"


    "She''s fine, really. I was going to let you know I''ll take her down to my workshop. We have some less desirable types coming into the dungeon, and I don''t want Mixie meeting them." The look of dawning realization and relief on Grace''s face told Tannyr that she understood things.


    "Oh. No, I wouldn''t want her meeting¡ªmeeting less desirable types. Would you like some dinner before you go?" It was easy for Grace to fall back on what she knew best. The kitchen, once she had figured out how to work with it instead of against it, let her put her own spin on various dishes.


    "Actually, I''ll take one"¡ªTannyr rolled her eyes upward to indicate Mixie¡ª"or two, to go. You''re about to have a lot of hungry guests. The adventurers we normally have here are coming back down. There''re two kobolds and six others."


    "I should have enough. Here, take these." Passing over one big bowl of stew and one smaller one, Grace pondered on how much easier it might be if she could simply talk to the dungeon in the same way the kobolds did. There was one problem, though, that kept her from truly contemplating that.


    Heading down the back tunnel, Tannyr walked comfortably through the darkness. "You know, I might need to build one of those residences down here." She walked past her stoneworks and on to the gunsmith. Inside, she made sure there was no gunpowder laying around and let Mixie down from her shoulders. "This is where I make all the guns."


    "Oooh! Are they good?" Jumping and climbing up onto the workbench, Mixie watched as Tannyr set a rifle down on the bench, followed by two pistols.


    "They work, which is the important bit. They''re loud and dirty, but there isn''t much to rival them. Unless, that is, your name is Fife." Getting a selection of brushes, Tannyr set to work cleaning her weapons after the work she''d done in Northridge with them.


    "Will I get to have my own gun one day?" Sitting down to watch, Mixie pulled her bowl of stew closer and started shoveling it into her mouth with a spoon.


    "Hrmm." Tannyr paused to eat some of her own dinner. "I''ll tell you what, when your mom and dad think you are old enough to start using a gun, I''ll make the best one I can for you." The stew was as good as ever. Tannyr had eaten countless meals, but it was rare for even a master stonemason to have her own cook ready to make food whenever it was needed. "Your mom makes good food."


    "Yeah! But, getting sick of stew." Despite what she said, the stew still tasted great to Mixie, so she kept shoveling it in.


    "Sick of¡ªStew is the best. There have been times when I would have dreamed of eating a stew like this. I''ll never ever get sick of stew." It might have been a little exaggeration, but Tannyr was fine with that. Keeping Mixie safe and busy while her mom did vital work didn''t take much out of her. "Hey, Trav, do you have any work for me?"


    "Northridge wants more guns. I think they''ll be satisfied when everyone in the town has two. Other than that, I have Robert digging out some short tunnels to connect up the two new big mana shrines the lizards found. If you were really bored, you could do that." Travis was distracted¡ªhis mind split between Tannyr, the adventurers that stepped into the tavern, and the five friends who were all talking in the place he normally considered his head. And then there was one more situation when he saw Christine Sellswell step into the dungeon entrance. "I might need your help, Tannyr."


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 Chapter 84

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 18/100


    Heart 1166400/1166400


    Experience 245025/291600


    Workers 11/115


    Monsters 9/117


    Traps 64/279


    Food 2459


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Charcoal 5058


    Mana 715


    Rock 2752


    Gold 1057


    Leather 17


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 0


    Glass 635


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 15


    Long Guns 10


    Bullets 1000


    Black Powder 1000


    Quest: Kill 180 invaders.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Mine some mithril.


    </blockquote>


    "Okay, Trav, I''ve worked out how to make this better sludge with leather sludge," Robert said. "Did it trigger anything?"


    Keeping a vigil on the forest entrance was annoying, mostly because he knew they would come again. A single mana tick so far, after Tannyr dug out a path to the two new mana shrines, had reassured Travis that he would definitely be able to keep the attackers back with spells.


    Looking through the trap upgrades, Travis let out a whoop of excitement. "Yes! Superior Slime! Flame retardant and resistant against countermeasures, highly acidic. Fifty leather sludge."


    "How much do we have?"


    "Three hundred. Oh, but I bet I can use Upscale on them. That will double their cost, but increase their size by four." It didn''t take a lot of math to figure out what he could do. "So that''s twelve squares of the stuff."


    "Okay, queue them up and I''ll go and make them." Robert turned from his workbench.


    "Robert, I''m not going to do that. If you die up there, and they get a hold of your body, there''s no bringing you back. Brayden can''t resurrect you without your body and you''re not a boss or cohort. Your sister would kick my crystal, and I am fairly sure Blake would take his turn too." Travis did his very best to ignore the surprised expression on Robert''s face. "I have over eight hundred mana. That''s enough to burn down a lot of soldiers. Especially if they come into the second floor and try to pass the bowling alley."


    Looking chastened, Robert sighed and slumped. "Alright, but I feel like I''m going stir crazy down here."


    "Yeah, well, I¡ªUgh. Spoke too soon. They''re sending more people in. Two of them without any support." Changing his targeting, Travis spoke to all the kobolds in the dungeon. "Okay, listen up, we have more invaders. They seem to be spacing themselves out to stop me from burning up everyone. I''m inclined to let them walk into the maze.


    "First, though, I''m asking you to seal up the entrance to the tavern. We don''t need them spotting that door and cutting it down. Also, Stephan, can you make some changes to the top floor to seal off the passage down to the third? And Robert, can you open up the bottom of that tunnel to the inner section of the dungeon? If things go bad, I want you all to be able to escape."


    "We''re not going to seal you up like that, Trav. No way." Robert was vehement, and though he couldn''t hear them, so were all the other kobolds.


    "It''s not just for that. I need to give the city entrance a way to reach my heart if they aren''t going through all the traps. So that tunnel will go¡ª"


    "Well, link it up to before the sludge traps at least. I don''t want you having no defenses. If we need to evacuate," Robert said, "we can push through walls or dig them out."


    "Right. Of course I thought of that. Can you do that, please?" Travis asked.


    "Sure can. Set it up and tell me when I need to swap over." Reaching behind his back, Robert left his lab with a relieved smile on his face.


    Travis was about to welcome Christine into the dungeon when he saw invaders step in the forest entrance. "Tannyr, can you get Christine to wait outside? We have guests coming in from the forest and they look angry."


    <hr>


    There were scorch marks, deformed armor and shields, and the worst thing¡ªbones. Bjorn clenched his teeth as he walked past them, shield raised as they moved deeper. "Stairs ahead," he said as they rounded another corner. Given the way the jet of flame that''d left the dungeon had traveled¡ªdead straight and seemingly forever¡ªBjorn was happy to see corners.


    "Careful, there could be traps." At Bjorn''s side, Erik was as wary for the slightest sign the dungeon was going to spring a trap. Clearing his throat, he called back to the entrance, "Clear up to the stairs. No traps. We''re going deeper into this damn pit."


    Down the stairs the pair went. As soon as they got to the bottom, Bjorn stopped. His eyes strayed from looking past his shield to looking at the twin pendulums on it¡ªone of which had swung toward his right. "Hidden doors here. On the right. Hold and we''ll mark them."


    "Nothing on my side," Erik said, checking his own pendulums and seeing them not deviating. "Weird pit this, all straight lines."


    "You saw what it did to the first squad. Straight lines and that fire abomination are bad news." With a piece of chalk, Bjorn marked the first section of the door, then they moved forward. "This whole wall is a huge door."


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    "Mark it and let''s move. We only have to reach the next stairs and we can leave this damned pit." Pausing every few steps was annoying enough, but Erik found himself despising the long tunnels. Their chemical lamps were making plenty of light¡ªbut it wasn''t darkness that terrified him. "Where are the beasts?"


    "Yeah. I don''t like it one bit. There were a bunch of wyrm beasts in the bone pit. Heard they were teamed up with the southerners." Bjorn spat on the ground and marked the last section of wall. "One of the wyrms turned on the southerners, killed every last one. Cap''n was furious. The wyrm even killed the pit." Reaching to his throat, he rubbed the small carved stone on a leather thong around his neck. "That''s the last of these. Move to the corner."


    The march to the first big corner of the second floor filled both warriors with trepidation but, reaching it, they breathed a sigh of relief.


    "Bjorn! You clear?!"


    The shout from the stairs behind them needed an answer. "Yeah! We passed some doors on the right! We''re around a corner." And with that the two marched deeper. A small chicane to the right and then a left corner into a huge long tunnel. "Can you see the end of that, Erik?"


    "Hold up." Reaching to his belt, Erik pulled free a ball that looked crushed. He gave the two halves a twist, wound up, and tossed it down the tunnel. Both of them backed up and waited for the loud pop that followed, then looked around once more.


    The tunnel was lit up from one end to the other in green, glowing gunk that clung to the walls, the ceiling, and even the wall at the far end.


    "I hate this pit," Erik said.


    "I hate all pits. Cap''n should have just tossed a barrel of poison in and we could leave." Starting the march down the tunnel, Bjorn kept his eyes half closed to shield them from the slowly dimming light around them. "Light balls last a lot longer now."


    "Small favors." The crunch of gravel and stones under their boots as they headed down the tunnel echoed from one end to the other.


    "Bjorn! Is it clear?!"


    "That halfblood bastard always calls out your name, I notice." Erik elbowed Bjorn. "Too much time spent watching your arse, I''d say."


    "If I catch him, I''ll kick his arse back to the north. No! Long tunnel!" As the light faded, Bjorn figured they reached two-thirds of the way down the long tunnel. When they reached the end and looked around the reversing corner, he groaned. "I have a feeling a fiend made this."


    "Yeah. Hold on." Clearing his throat, Erik shouted, "Clear!" then he added a quieter, "Another light ball?"


    "Nah. Skiis would have been a good idea, though." Bjorn chuckled at the joke with Erik as they advanced down the long tunnel. As they reached the end, he mused, "Do you think it ran out of its blasted witchery?"


    "Who knows. Would you stake your life on it?"


    "Never. Pits are too damn clever by half." As they reached the end of the tunnel, Bjorn called behind them, "Clear!"


    What followed was a series of switchbacks that chilled the two men to their bones. Each time they rounded a corner they saw a repeat of the pattern. It was as if the dungeon would go on forever. But, finally, they came to the dungeon''s first T intersection.


    "Let them bunch up on us. We need to figure things out. Which way do you like?" Bjorn asked.


    Setting his shield alongside Bjorn''s, Erik said, "Left. Always left. Hasn''t killed me yet."


    "Good enough for me. You caught up yet?!" Bjorn shouted. Waiting felt like forever. The sound of his voice echoing off the sharply carved stone.


    "Yeah, Bjorn! Clear to move?!"


    "Bunch up! We have a fork!" Waiting further for the crunch of the next group''s boots to be heard, Bjorn said, "We''re taking left. Head right and see what you find." In his mind he added, and maybe we''ll see you in the afterlife, but he wouldn''t say it out loud. That was the best way to court bad luck.


    Erik scanned ahead at the edge of their vision. It seemed like these tunnels went on forever until they would abruptly stop and turn. He still hadn''t seen the end when thunder sounded behind them. Sudden, staccato report and echoes of a rifle. Turning his head, he saw Bjorn doing the same when another rifle sounded¡ªthis time in front of them.


    It felt like no more than a sore throat. Bjorn reached his free hand up to his neck and, in the light of his chem lamp, he saw a lot of red. He tried to shout to Erik, but the soreness in his throat turned to a bubbling sound. A chill certainty settled over the big man. Setting down his shield, he reached to his back and leaned forward.


    Momentum started to build and Bjorn''s vision turned as red as his blood. His big axe felt comfortable in both hands, but his muscles were now burning up. Ahead, he saw the creature he knew as a wyrmling, holding one of the feared weapons.


    Despite the blood and pain, he managed to force a shout from his throat as he rushed at the tiny creature. It slung its weapon to its back and drew a smaller one. The last thing he saw as it started pushing itself into the wall was a bright flash that illuminated the inside of the tube.


    Erik stared at the body of his friend. It wavered there, having stumbled to a stop before the wall. Finally, it tilted forward and then simply leaned on the squared-off stone. "The wyrms have blasting rods!" The words chilled him to the bone. Backing up, shield held high and before his face, Erik got ten steps before the report of another gun sounded. Then another.


    Unlike Bjorn, he never had a chance to enter his swansong. The rage of a life ended in such a cowardly way weighed heavy on his fear and he dropped to the ground.


    <hr>


    "Blasting rods. There''s no mistaking that sound. Thirty good warriors went in there. Four came out and one of those will not walk when his rage finally wears off. Field Captain, what are your orders?" It was about the worst news First Sergeant Gunhild could have given. The dungeon was too much work to secure. They could pour their entire detachment down into it and the dungeon would consume them all.


    "We still have two other options. There''s a tame pit closer in as well as the greenskin poison hole. Loathe as I am to leave these damn wyrms, put a barrel of poison in to show our respect for our fallen brothers and sisters, and let''s bury the entrance. Starve a pit, Gunhild, and you defeat the pit." Turning away from her most reliable subordinate, Donna raised her voice. "We move to the west! Prepare a gift of poison for this damned hole!"


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 Chapter 85

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 18/100


    Heart 1166400/1166400


    Experience 261025/291600


    Workers 11/115


    Monsters 9/117


    Traps 63/279


    Food 2459


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Charcoal 5058


    Mana 715


    Rock 2753


    Gold 1057


    Leather 17


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 0


    Glass 635


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 15


    Long Guns 10


    Bullets 1000


    Black Powder 1000


    Quest: Kill 142 invaders.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Mine some mithril.


    </blockquote>


    "What are they doing?" Travis asked.


    "That much powder isn''t going to do anything." Penelope sounded worried. "Why does it have such a long fuse?"


    "Explain," Robert said, "what they''re doing, Trav."


    "They put a big barrel inside the forest entrance. Pen said they put a small keg of gunpowder beside it, but it isn''t enough to damage the dungeon walls. Now they''re sealing the entrance wi¡ª" Travis cut off as Robert dropped the vial he''d been working on and started running. "What''s wrong?"


    "Get everyone out to the city side, Trav!"


    The urgency and panic in Robert''s voice made Travis act without needing to know why. "Get everyone out right now! Tannyr, can you make sure Jacob and his family get out?"


    Robert continued his sprint. He passed by everyone organizing to leave via the back stairs to the city, he shouldered his way through doors and walls where he had to, until he got to the top floor and rounded the corner to see the fizzing fuse on the small powder keg. "I''ve heard of this. It''s an old way of clearing out dungeons. The kingdom doesn''t use it anymore, but I guess these invaders do."


    Travis remembered something from his high school history class about a particular poison gas used in trench warfare¡ªand if he''d had a gut, it would have twisted in a knot. "It''s poison that''s heavier than air, right? So it flows down into the dungeon and¡ª" He couldn''t finish the description.


    "Yeah." Robert plucked the fuse out of the little powder keg and tossed it away down the tunnel. Picking up the little open-topped keg of powder, he lifted it behind his back. "There, the immediate danger is dealt with. If this breaks, it will still be annoying, and I don''t know if I can lift it."


    "What do we do with it then?" Travis asked.


    "Get it into storage if possible. It should be fine there. Or, better, seal it up in rock and never ever open it. Any poison that you can explode and still have it be dangerous is stuff I don''t want to be around." Robert stared between the barrel and the sealed entrance beside him. "But more importantly, I want to get it away from the entrance and set off that explosive here. That way they will think they have killed us all."


    Watching through countless eyes, Travis contented himself with unlimited speculation of all his bosses while Robert crouched beside the barrel of nightmares. Eventually he said, "Okay, the only living soul left in here is you and me and a bunch of lizards. Don''t die and don''t kill the lizards or I am told that Luddy will not forgive you."


    "She''ll have to get Brayden to bring me back from the dead, then." Robert spat on his hands and started rolling the barrel along on one edge, carefully getting it further and further from the entrance. When he was two thirds of the way to the first corner, he set it down and pulled out his pickaxe. "This gets me to the storage dropoff, right?"


    It surprised Travis, but in a good way. "Of course! If you can get the barrel in there, the storage system will process it. Yeah, anywhere along here and you will reach the tunnel leading to the dropoff."


    Robert broke down the wall and was facing the Northridge exit, complete with Brayden looking in. "You might want to back away from there. If this breaks, the wind should get rid of it, but I wouldn''t want to get any of this stuff in you."


    "I was going to say the same thing, but if you want to do this alone, there''s a good idea right here." Stepping into the dungeon, Brayden approached Robert with a long length of rope. "Tie this around your waist. If you have an accident, I can drag you out with the rope."


    Robert opened his mouth to argue, then snapped it closed. "Thanks," he said as he tied the rope around himself.


    <hr>


    Waiting for Brayden to leave the dungeon again, Robert steeled himself. "I''ve dealt with things more deadly than this probably is," he told himself. "I''ve just never dealt with so much before. It''d be nice to have Kate here to cast a breathing bubble around me." He paused for a moment and smirked. "Hopefully you don''t respawn in the middle of a toxic cloud."


    With that said, and glad that he couldn''t hear his sister, Robert started working on getting the barrel further along. Short, careful sweeps of the top were manageable, then he''d reposition and shift the angle he was starting at.


    It was slow going, but he got the horrid mess a short distance down the tunnel and to the entrance of the dropoff. "We got this, Trav. Okay, just¡­"


    Swinging himself to the side, Robert got the barrel barely inside the specially upgraded warehouse and it disappeared. "Ha! Perfect! Now, where was that keg?" Reaching behind his back, he pulled out the keg of black powder.


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    He filled in the hole he''d made, untied the rope, and pushed his way through to the other side. "Does it tell you what that stuff is?"


    "Poison, greater. Says I have twelve-hundred units of it. Much as I wish there was a way to destroy stuff, I kinda don''t want to if it wants to happily sit there." Travis watched as Robert set up the keg of black powder with a long path of powder trailing along the ground away from it.


    Pulling his little alchemical lighter from a pocket of his loose jacket, Robert tipped it so that it spilled a little of the pyrophoric liquid onto the rock at the end of the path of powder. A blistering white flicker of light made him screw his eyes closed as he turned and ran. Laughing as only someone who has lit a fuse can, Robert rounded one, two, and then a third corner and pushed his way through the rock to the top of the stairs leading deep into the dungeon.


    <hr>


    Gunhild had been getting worried. She''d seen the fuse lit herself and had ordered the entrance sealed, then waited as the rocks were piled up. A minute passed. Then another. Finally, there was a deep rumble and the rocks at the entrance settled. "Okay, seal it now. You heard the captain!"


    Ever since the order had been given, the sappers had begun mixing the mortar. Once the rocks had stopped moving and everyone cheered at the revenge upon the dungeon, they started pouring the mixture over the rocks.


    More and more they applied. "Bury it good. Make sure it works into the cracks of the surrounding rock face. There you go. That damned pit will starve and die for what it did!" The commander of the sappers, Sergeant Knud, continued giving orders while more of his squad mixed up greater quantities of mortar for the task. There was still more work ahead of them, of course¡ªthere was another dungeon to try to control, and this one had a defensive position atop it. "Keep at it! Make the captain proud!"


    <hr>


    When Christine Sellswell approached the dungeon entrance again, she was awed by how the city had wrapped its wall around the entrance. There was a group of kobolds starting to walk into the entrance even as she advanced, as well as a family that looked a little out of sorts. "Excuse me?"


    Stephan paused as he heard the voice. He turned and looked back to see Christine. "Can I help you?"


    Relieved to find someone willing to talk, given the situation that seemed to have engulfed the region, Christine approached Stephan. "Yes. I need to discuss things with the dungeon. We have a quest, you see, and it involves digging."


    "Digging is what kobolds do. How much digging?" A weary smile was the best Stephan could manage under the circumstances.


    "It''s probably best if I go over it once so we don''t have to repeat anything. What I''d ultimately like is if you could build another entrance for us, and let us use it." Walking beside Stephan, Christine was at ease around the kobolds as much as she was around anyone. Particularly Stephan, since she had discovered he was a skilled negotiator.


    Shaking his head as they crossed the threshold of the dungeon, Stephan said, "I don''t think Travis can open another entrance until he reaches his next tier."


    Hearing the tail-end of the conversation, Travis clarified. "Yeah. That''s a hard limit right now. The stairs to the bottom floor cost me a¡ªOh wow, I got a new notification warning me that one of my entrances has been sealed. It, uh, is a quest to unseal it. Nope, don''t want to do that."


    Stephan nodded and passed on the information, "Travis confirmed for me that he can''t open another entrance. Come on down and we can discuss this in a more suitable location."


    "Lead on." Christine followed as Stephan led the way, even when he dug out one of the walls and led her through it, only to seal it up again behind. The familiar bar required another bout of digging to open, but given the siege she could understand the need for security.


    Pulling out a chair for Christine, Stephan waited for her to sit at the table before he parked himself opposite her. "So, you want some digging done?"


    "Northridge, that is, the genius loci, has issued us with a quest to establish a tunnel to our outpost around the verdant dungeon to the southeast. Our detachment there could well use reinforcing and relieving, I''m sure Brolly will tell us, sooner rather than later." Christine brought out some paperwork and a spare tablet to write on. "Can you help?"


    Travis'' swearing almost caused Stephan to blush. He instead smiled to Christine. "Excuse us a moment, Travis is formulating a plan."


    "Plan? PLAN?! That''s miles of digging! And it would be real rock and dirt and all the problems a real hole would have! Tannyr, can you come and talk sense into them?" The situation was untenable. If Travis wasn''t reasonably sure he was safe from outside attack now, he wouldn''t have even given it a second thought. "Tannyr?"


    "Yeah, yeah. On my way, Travis. What''s going on?" Tannyr had been getting back to making rifles, a job that now could only be done with Mixie perched on her shoulders watching the process carefully. Now she turned for the exit of the room.


    "Where are we going?" Mixie asked.


    "They want us to dig a tunnel from the city to another dungeon! I don''t even know where it is, but none of you have seen it." More lizards, Travis decided, would be needed. He would flood the city with the little guys to remind Northridge that¡­ He lost track of his thoughts.


    Laughing, Tannyr stalked down the tunnel, through the darkness. "He wants me to do some digging. That dungeon is about ten leagues away from the current city wall, Travis, and I have seen it."


    "Leagues?" Travis tried to make sense of the thing, and saying it made him think thirty miles. The number had popped into his head. "Right. Okay, so that''s a long way. What are our options?"


    "Getting it done this year? Not a lot. I can dig through rock like butter, but this won''t be in a dungeon and¡ªWait, that''s it!" Moving a bit quicker, Tannyr let out a laugh.


    On her shoulders, Mixie laughed too. "What''s funny?"


    Tannyr rounded a few corners before answering. "We need to sneak into another dungeon and ask it to open a new entrance, then sneak one of its minions out!"


    When Tannyr entered the room with a goblin on her shoulders, Christine froze. She had heard there was a goblin-cursed family living in Northridge, but she hadn''t met them. Breaking her focus from Mixie, she spared her most understanding smile for Tannyr.


    "We need to send a diplomat to the verdant dungeon," Tannyr said, "probably two. One from Northridge and one from us."


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 Chapter 86

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 18/100


    Heart 1166400/1166400


    Experience 261025/291600


    Workers 11/115


    Monsters 9/117


    Traps 64/279


    Food 2459


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Charcoal 5058


    Mana 1167


    Rock 2752


    Gold 1057


    Leather 17


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 0


    Glass 635


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 15


    Long Guns 13


    Bullets 1000


    Black Powder 1000


    Poison, Greater 1200


    Quest: Kill 142 invaders.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Mine some mithril.


    </blockquote>


    The timers hit 0 one by one over the course of a few minutes. Travis felt flooded with relief when, finally, Ludmiller appeared and he was alone with his thoughts again. Not that he minded too much, the alternatives were not appealing, but he was used to having this one place be sacrosanct.


    "Did I level up?" Fife asked.


    Inspecting her, Travis said, "You sure did. Level four. You have another passive ability, Healthy, and an active ability called Riposte."


    "Healthy? Whoa!" Fife grew half a foot in an instant and there was a soft green glow around her. "This is cool. What did it do?"


    "Probably means you can take more actual damage, but the other one has a description. It says you will parry every attack for ten seconds and hit back once for each." It was a relief to see something have a description. "Luddy, are you ready for this mission?"


    Having spent all the time since her return to a corporeal state either hugging Wild or hugging an armful of lizards, Ludmiller let out a sigh. "Yeah, but I''m going to take a lizard with me. Who knows, maybe that other dungeon will like lizards."


    Wild, with a lizard sitting on his head, nuzzled against Ludmiller''s neck. "You know that means you''ll have to leave them behind, right?"


    Looking panicked, Ludmiller let out a little whimper and set down the armful of lizards. "I guess I''m going alone," she said with a light tone.


    "Thanks, Luddy. If this works, it''ll be a big help and might make us a new ally." Ever since his welcome by Northridge itself, Travis had been feeling a lot better about his personal future. For better or for worse, they were linked now, and he hadn''t had any sign from the city that he''d regret the decision to open an entrance close by.


    Leaving Ludmiller to arrange what she needed to run to the verdant dungeon, Travis turned his attention to Penelope. "Pen, the city has a whole mess of people that want to come and work here. It''d be really neat if you could interview them and let me know what you think."


    "That family, Trav. What''s going on with them?" Penelope made her way slowly up to the first floor and to where they planned to build the new tavern. "Also, I wonder if you could convince the city to let us house everyone in here and use the above-ground for business and military?"


    "You mean for the butt load of experience? Not a bad idea. We''d be leveling up fast as anything with that, though not from killing anything." The more Travis thought on it, the better an idea it seemed. "We might have to widen the entrance and do a lot more digging. That means we need some new pairs of hands."


    <hr>


    Northridge watched as the smallish kobold stepped out of the dungeon and marched to the top of the wall. It was carrying a sling on its back with five rifles and had a vicious pair of knives on its hips. Through the eyes of guards and people of its city, it watched her as she drew level with the merlons on top of the wall¡ªand vanished.


    It wondered what was happening, so reached out to the dungeon. "Dungeon, what is the meaning of your invisible minion?"


    "I can''t build a new opening for some time, but if the verdant dungeon can, I figure asking it is the best shot. Then it could send a minion back with Luddy and open a new entrance in here so we can both support that outpost."


    The notion of having the dungeon save itself was novel and appealed to Northridge. Right now their resources were short, and much as it didn''t want to give any advantage to the invaders, it also couldn''t spare any effort on saving the food-bearing dungeon. "Good. It will be hard enough surviving this without expending more effort on that dungeon. Though, its resources will be missed."


    "I''m working on that, too. I can provide food, I''ll need to scale up my mushroom farm to do it and build a pile of kitchens. Also, do you think people would mind living on my first floor?"


    Despite how far it had come since quickening, Northridge knew that the dungeon was sharper at certain problem solving tasks. "I will not hold them from doing so. You gain from this?"


    "I get XP, uh, my ability to level up and become more powerful is based on an abstract statistic. It increases when I have people who aren''t my monsters inside me."


    Northridge was unsurprised. The dungeon could grow simply by having people living within it. It already had one family and several adventurers within. "That would be acceptable. We both grow stronger as each of us grows stronger."


    "I''m glad you think like that, Northridge. I''ll have Stephan contact Christine and get that rolling. We also know there are some folk in your city who want to become kobolds. I''ll be sending my boss to deal with them."


    From Brolly''s talk with the subjects, Northridge knew that those seeking to join the dungeon were of no other use to the city. It was prepared to give them homes, since most were skilled in some way and at an age when they could pass those skills on, but truly it would be grateful if they weren''t a burden on its now limited food supplies. "I''ll give her a quest to assist them."


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    "Thank you."


    Again and again Northridge found curious delight in dealing with its most strange dungeon ally. It had listened to its own townsfolk, and they had this manner of speaking that involved niceties. It was most often used between those showing respect and families. "You''re welcome." Northridge was content with its statement being taken in either light.


    <hr>


    Walking quietly through the enemy line wasn''t hard. The invaders had made hundreds of small camps that weren''t joined together, plus they hadn''t yet finished the earthworks that would have at least made Ludmiller''s initial escape from the siege a little harder. As it was, she was being careful not to make a noise, but otherwise had unbroken ground to move across.


    She wished it wasn''t early morning, but it had taken her until the break of dawn to respawn. Night would be so much easier, and she hoped she could bring whatever minion the verdant dungeon could spare back during the following night.


    From a pouch at her side she pulled out the little map that Tannyr had drawn for her. She ran. Running with her magical stealthiness made it shimmer and jitter around her. The faster her movements, the more she was at risk of being seen. Still, with none of the invaders in sight, she saw no reason not to run.


    The sun slowly rose up the sky¡ªalmost to midday when she saw the smaller siege line around the dungeon''s fort. Slowing to a trot, she eventually gave that up too and walked to the enemy camp. This was a much tighter formation. They had earthworks constructed and were huddled down behind them. To one side was a group of unarmored workers assembling wooden structures that were bound with rope. As she watched, Ludmiller witnessed the raising of a big upright pair of logs with a pivot on them. As more hardware was added, she whispered one word aloud, "Trebuchet."


    She only knew the machine because she''d seen some young men in a town she''d passed through with her party build one for fun. This looked about three times the size of the one she''d seen, and the amount of work going into it¡ªand the size of the boulders that were being rolled over to it¡ªcaused her some panic.


    It was too much of a threat to risk leaving it. Slipping around the lines, Ludmiller approached the workers who were even now adding the weapon sling to the huge siege engine.


    Looking it over, she decided the best place to sabotage it was where it could not easily be examined. With her claws, she started to scale one of the braced uprights and made her way to the pivot. It was a steel fitting that had huge nails hammered through it and was bound over with rope. She inspected the hardware, finding the rope easy enough to cut¡ªbut that wouldn''t weaken it.


    The thing only had wooden parts where more strength wasn''t needed, because everything she remembered seeing those young men do with mere rope¡ªwas done here with steel. Thinking it over, she felt the huge axle start to turn as they cranked the swing arm down and the massive counterweight into the air.


    A plan started to form. It would require her to fail in part of her mission, but dealing with this threat was a bigger issue. The counterweight was a massive metal cable net. Dozens of huge rocks hung in its grip and were suspended under load from the short end of the arm. The cable was not thick, but there was no way for her to cut through that.


    Crawling out to the arm, she looked back to see the workers loading a huge stone into the weapon''s sling. She wouldn''t have long to do this, she realized, so she stood up on the wood and walked along it to where the counterweight hung.


    Shimmying down to the net, she reached to her back and the one thing she was carrying there apart from the rifles and their bullets. Working fast, she lodged the small keg of black powder into the net and hoped that it would go off from the shock alone. Behind her, she heard someone call out a complex series of instructions.


    She jumped, rolled, and came back to her feet. Walking away from the siege weapon as fast as she could manage without giving herself away, it was hard not to run. Every word she heard from the siege engine crew made her want to dive for the ground.


    The worst that happens, she told herself, is that I wake up sharing Trav''s headspace again. She got halfway through the camp before the shout came. It was a short word, sharp, and she knew what it would mean.


    Creaking wood could be heard as the giant machine reacted to the pull of gravity on its counterweight. As the first rock was hurled into the sky, the counterweight crashed into the ground with impressive force. There was an indescribably short moment of time, barely a sliver, as the keg of black powder was hit with a shock wave from the impact.


    The detonation among the rocks of the counterweight sent the rocks flying in all directions at high speed. Both uprights of the trebuchet, many people who''d been working on it, and a large section of the surrounding camp were hit by the rocks-turned-missiles.


    Having dropped to the ground the moment she''d heard the call to fire the machine, Ludmiller slowly stood back up after the event and saw the devastation her sabotage had caused. It was, without doubt, a war zone. Men were screaming, some crawling along the ground with what limbs remained to them. She blotted it all out, turned toward the fort (and the one stone that had hit it) and walked away.


    By the time she reached the wall, Ludmiller was hardening herself to the horror she''d caused. "They were trying to kill people from Northridge," she told herself as she set her claws into the concrete of the wall. The huge blocks of stone were not easy to climb, but her limbs were built for gripping to rock. When she reached the top, and saw a group of guards watching the mayhem behind her, she breathed a sigh of relief.


    "I''m going to become visible now, please don''t hurt me."


    The words, from out of nowhere, had the opposite effect to what they intended. All the guards were on immediate alert, drawing their weapons and looking around for who''d spoken.


    "Who''s that? Show yourself!" Timothy Devin shouldn''t have been in charge of the little guard post, but Brolly had seen fit to make him sergeant of his squad. Now, surrounded and with someone he couldn''t see speaking to him, he was ready to start cutting at the air itself.


    Then, beyond the reach of their swords, a kobold appeared. Sergeant Devin blinked in surprise, barely holding himself back from charging her. The rifles on her back were a welcome sight. "Are you from Northridge?"


    "Yes. I''m on a mission for the city and my dungeon. I brought rifles, black powder, and ammo¡ªbut I thought you might rather not have that trebuchet hurling boulders at your wall." Ludmiller nodded toward where the siege machine had been as she unhitched the rifles from her back and set down all her load. "Sorry."


    "Uh, yeah. Thanks for that. Can you get more?" Passing the weapons to his guards, Devin wished he had the means to fire them now.


    "I can, but hopefully we can relieve you in the meantime. The whole city has been besieged, but I''m here to negotiate with your dungeon." It was crazy, but Ludmiller hoped this would work out.


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 87

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 18/100


    Heart 1166400/1166400


    Experience 275112/291600


    Workers 11/115


    Monsters 9/117


    Traps 64/279


    Food 2459


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Charcoal 5058


    Mana 1119


    Rock 2252


    Gold 1057


    Leather 17


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 500


    Glass 635


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 15


    Long Guns 12


    Bullets 500


    Black Powder 500


    Poison, Greater 1200


    Quest: Kill 135 invaders.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Mine some mithril.


    </blockquote>


    Turning rock supplies into lava probably wasn''t the most efficient way to secure more of the spell ingredient, but Travis didn''t want to deal with any monsters given the amount of digging Katelyn''d have needed to do.


    It had been a surprise when the kill counter on his quest had quickly dropped by six, then another one a little later, but he suspected that was Ludmiller''s doing. More XP was always something helpful. With evening upon his part of the world, though, Travis turned his attention to the meeting that was about to start in his tavern.


    Brolly Windchime looked to his two equals (Christine Sellswell and Howard Tailor) as well as the dungeon representative (Stephan) and cleared his throat. "We are officially hemmed in. They spent all day building palisades to connect up their camps. If our plan to bring the verdant dungeon closer works now, it will be a surprise¡ªbut it''s a risk we had to take.


    "Tactically, we''re secure. Thanks to Travis, we''re stocked with enough powder and ammunition¡ªand even a steady supply of guns. The only worrying thing I''ve seen so far is that they''re still cutting down trees even after they finished the palisade. We need to expect them to build siege engines."


    Travis swore at that. "Sorry, Steph. If only we had some cannons."


    "Cannons should help with siege engines, but we haven''t gotten them unlocked yet, have we?" Stephan asked. "Talking to Travis."


    The look of excitement on Brolly''s face faded after Stephan said they hadn''t unlocked them yet. "Would it help if I brought one in? We only have a small one¡ªmore a toy than anything¡ªbut it does work."


    "Travis says to try that. Being able to make you cannons would help, correct?" When Brolly nodded, Stephan continued. "Moving on, then. Ludmiller has killed seven of the enemy so far, Travis has told me. She hasn''t appeared back here yet, so she''s still alive and working." He looked back down at his tablet. "If you could have those people who wished to become kobolds head back in¡ªPenelope can change them now. Last thing, with the extra workers, we will be able to expand the living quarters in the upper section. More rooms plus a big kitchen and eating area would be helpful?"


    Brolly nodded and set about explaining. "If they''re going to start peppering the city with siege weapons, evacuating the civilians to your dungeon would be advantageous. We have enough food for two months in our stores¡ªthat would be a higher priority to secure. The city has water from two wells."


    Nodding to the estimation, Christine said, "Our main problem is that no one will notice us missing for at least that long. It takes two weeks to travel to reach the next city and the next caravan wouldn''t be due to leave for another week. The rule of thumb is you wait twice as long¡ªso that''s a month and a half."


    After listening to Travis explain, Stephan smiled at that. "So even if they took the earliest time, Northridge would have two weeks of food left, with no time for the kingdom to raise an army and relieve the siege. Then the perfect solution is to move the population in here. We''ll make more mushroom farms¡ªso many we can feed the whole city¡ªand you can save those food reserves."


    It was too much for Christine. She slumped back in her chair, threw her head back, and started laughing.


    A moment later Brolly joined in, but Howard managed to resist the urge. "Is this going to cost us?"


    "No. Travis says the people of Northridge are welcome to live in or out of the dungeon and the food will be provided free." Hanging his head and looking up at the ceiling, Stephan asked, "Can''t we at least ask for¡ª"


    "This is final. Everyone gets somewhere to sleep and food to live off. If we start having problems with food building up in storage, we can just dump it outside or let it burn up in lava." To Travis, this matter was no different from Mixie and her parents. "Northridge protected us and took us in. For better or worse, we''re working together now."


    Relaying the speech, Stephan looked at Howard for sympathy. "Why he asked me to negotiate I don''t know. Travis normally only gets me to discuss trades. This isn''t trade."


    "It is, actually," Howard said. "Travis is buying his way to a partnership. Not to mention there wouldn''t be a Northridge left if we don''t find a food source. Brolly, how do most sieges end?" The way he spoke implied he already knew the answer.


    Schooling his features, Brolly held up four fingers. "Either the siege is lifted by an outside force; the besieging army breaks through the wall and overwhelms the defenders; the defenders run out of food, water, or become sick; or the besieging army run out of food, water, or become sick."


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    It was a grim list for Travis to process, but he had to ask, "What if the defenders break out and kill the attackers?"


    After Stephan passed the message on, Brolly shook his head. "Never happens."


    <hr>


    Having a queue of people in the heart room was new. Having that queue stretch out the door and down the tunnel a little ways helped reinforce in Penelope''s mind that finding a way other than cutting her palm was a great idea. "Okay. Fife, Brayden, Robert¡ªare you three ready to do this?"


    "Yeah. As long as we take our time, this shouldn''t be a problem." Brayden looked at the collection of old and sick people. The declining health of an aged body couldn''t be cured by even the greatest of healers¡ªbut a dungeon could sidestep that. "Okay."


    Penelope used a claw to open up a scratch on her thumb and then smeared it on Travis'' heart. "First up."


    One by one Travis accepted the people, fifteen in all, and the three assisting would guide them out to Penelope''s boss room and to a waiting bed there. At last they had all the old-timers and even one woman who had been suffering from a magical curse, but then someone else stepped into the room.


    "Fife and Brayden," Jack said, nodding to his friends, "I think it''s about time I made my decision too. It wasn''t easy, but I will agree to becoming a kobold on one condition."


    Fife, pumping her fist, froze mid gesture. "What condition?"


    "I''ll be one of your cohorts. You need fighters as your bosses and their minions. I''ll gladly spend my days around this hole in the ground if you give me that amount of time to research my power." In the end, Jack knew that was an excuse. His friends had put down roots here¡ªthe kind you can''t walk away from¡ªand he wasn''t going to leave them to their fate alone. "So, please, tell me you can do that and show me what I have to do."


    Strutting forward, Fife fell-in beside Jack. "Pfft, this is the easy bit. Trust me, walking around and talking like this''ll be just like you imagined it. Press your palm to the blood print Pen makes."


    "If you drop me, I''ll never forgive you." Walking as directed, Jack stood with the heart on his right and Penelope on his left.


    "I''d say to ignore her," Penelope said as she prepared another smear of blood, "but you know her well enough to do that already."


    Jack laughed as he pressed his palm to the bloodstain, and then the world got disjointed and he felt his body changing¡ªthen darkness drew him into its loving embrace.


    "Ice mage! Ice mage! Wooo!" Travis couldn''t help himself. So far he hadn''t wanted to pressure Jack, but he was hoping the idea would come to him sooner rather than later.


    No sooner was Jack fully changed than Fife hefted his weight up into a princess carry and headed to one of the nearby rooms. "I got this. I promise not to bang his head on the walls too much. Oh, can I make him my cohort now?"


    "You did. You literally¡ªWhy am I even here?" Travis let out an exasperated sigh-sounding noise. "You''re doing everything yourself anyway."


    "Aww. Don''t be like that, Trav. If we didn''t have you around, could you imagine how much of a mess we''d be in? You''re great at running this place. None of us have even died yet." Setting Jack on the first bed she came to, Fife left him to get cozy and sleep off his changes. "Well, none of us have died without coming back. That''s the main thing."


    "Fife, if I could, and Pen wasn''t around, I''d totally hug you for that." Travis ignored Fife''s laugh as he turned his attention back to the meeting and what had transpired. "What we''re going to need to do, on the first floor, is do a lot of digging. I''ll plan everything out, but if we''re going to have newbies digging up there, I want as many hard-hitters as possible to step in when they open up any caves."


    "Got it. We should probably sleep now too while we can." As soon as she said it, Penelope realized how futile that was going to be for her. "Except, of course, my bedroom is full of new kobolds. Okay, change in plan. Fife¡ªlet''s build you sleeping quarters."


    "Alright! I totally need a bedroom, and Jack will want one too. Hey, do you think we should move Brayden down as well? I take it he''s going to be your cohort along with Kelvin?" Fife asked.


    "Each set of quarters has two bedrooms, Fife. You can have one here for you and Jack, then Pen gets her own, she''s the boss after all, and Kelvin and Brayden can share another." Travis was laying down the law mostly because he was still worried about how dangerous digging in on the third floor would be. "So long as there are no monsters in small rooms, we can fit the bedrooms beside the lizard village. Then, if we really want to, we can adjust things and have Pen''s boss room immediately after yours, Fife. Hell, she''ll be the dungeon boss, so she can always walk up to your boss room and have some fun in there."


    "Waaaaait." Fife''s eyes widened in the glow of his heart. "Are you saying that we could have all six of us in my room? Squishy, me, Jack, Pen, Brayden, and Kelvin? What could ever make it past that?!"


    "This would mostly be to stop monsters that we''ve mined out. So, yeah, having all of you bunched up to slaughter them would be the right way to do it." Travis had already been planning it out, but having Jack in the equation now made him confident that they had a last line of defense that was akin to the entire rest of the dungeon and then some.


    While Penelope, Fife, Brayden, and Kelvin worked on their own new rooms, Tannyr got back to making more rifles. She sat at her desk and made them again and again, assembling all the parts needed and crafting the finished result. The job was repetitive, and though Mixie would have made it go slower, she missed having the young girl there to talk to.


    Robert, too, was working hard. In his lab he was preparing more of the precious black powder while Katelyn, of all of them, sat in her library researching for all she was worth.


    The last few denizens of the dungeon were doing their part. Stephan was following Christine around the city as she found people who were immediately willing to relocate to the dungeon. Fifteen families was the initial quota. They had room for that many, but they would need to get the tavern and kitchen built too.


    Blake was on the upper floor, building rooms as fast as he could. He was joined by Wild, who sped the process up.


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 88

    Ludmiller watched as the guards opened the huge vault door of the dungeon, and the moment she stepped into it she felt a similar wrongness as when she''d entered the undead dungeon. "How dangerous is this place?"


    "No more dangerous than your average farm animals¡ªunless you piss them off. Please don''t piss them off." Timothy had left his guards on the walls. Their fort was small enough that it was going to be hell for the enemy to assault, but given their best weapons were spears, it was going to cost lives to defend it. "I can''t go any further with you."


    "Yeah. I understand that. How do I let you know when I want the door open again?" Checking her gear, Ludmiller kept one eye aimed into the dungeon as they talked.


    "The rope there, to the side, pull that twice¡ªfast¡ªthen three times slow. If we hear it, we''ll unlock and open the dungeon. If you hear the door move before getting five slow return rings¡ªit''s not us." It was a grim thought, but Timothy had to face the fact that unless Ludmiller managed whatever she was doing, he probably wouldn''t survive the week. "Good luck."


    "Thanks." Ludmiller waited while the huge door was closed and the thunking of bolts indicated it had been locked. "Okay. This will be easy. I find the boss of the dungeon, ask it nicely to be friends and spend a lot of resources to open up an entrance at the city, and we can all be happy."


    It took Ludmiller almost twenty seconds to laugh at the fantasy. "Nope. I am sure there will be blood involved. Okay, so, no hiding the fact I''m here." She started walking down the tunnel that seemed far more natural than Travis'' ever were.


    The tunnel opened out into a huge chamber. It was lit from above by some kind of light, and there were rabbits grazing at what looked like real grass. Crouching, Ludmiller ran her claws through the grass in wonder. The rabbits ignored her when she stood up and walked to the center of the room. A small pond there was filled with the cleanest water she''d ever seen. "This is¡ª"


    "Why are you here?"


    The voice in what should have been an animal filled dungeon shocked Ludmiller. She spun around to see who spoke, only to be face to face with an elfin-featured woman. "A dryad?"


    "Leave, please?"


    "I can, but I need your help first." The look of surprise on the dryad''s face almost made Ludmiller laugh. "The city that''s protecting you is under attack. The men out there will be dying to make sure those horrible people don''t come in and kill you."


    "I will be reborn."


    The tone was haughty, banishing Ludmiller''s mirth. "No you won''t. They already tried to do something weird to the undead dungeon." The memories of the core''s panic gripped Ludmiller. She hated that it had been up to her, but was also relieved she could do what the dungeon needed. "It begged me to kill it before they could wrap it in chains. All you need to do is trust the city and trust me¡ªand open a new entrance within the city''s walls."


    Glaring at the tall kobold, the dryad rolled her eyes. "We can''t do that. The city would¡ª"


    "We''ve already done it."


    It seemed incredulous to the dryad. "Your dungeon is attacking the city?"


    "No, it''s a partnership. The city protects us with its walls and we provide it with weapons and gold."


    Tilting her head to the side for a moment, trying to understand what Ludmiller was saying, the dryad finally felt her dungeon shift in the back of her head. "Oh! I get it now. Dragon dungeons are really sneaky and you''re going to try to kill us all." While Ludmiller stared at her, the dryad laughed. "You didn''t think we''d figure it out because¡ªHey!"


    Grabbing onto the dryad''s wrist, Ludmiller stalked across the grass to the entrance. With her free hand she rang the bell in the exact way she''d been told. "I''m not listening to your inane fantasy. This is real and the only way I can prove it is to show you." When five slow rings of the inside bell happened, Ludmiller relaxed.


    It was clear to the dryad that not only was Ludmiller stronger than her, but she also figured it would come to a fight if she tried to go against this. When the door opened, she was startled to see a grim-looking man with blood leaking down one side of his face.


    Her dungeon wasn''t about fighting and didn''t like the idea of doing so, which was why it had made her how it had. Walking forward, breaking the dragon''s grip with a little twitch of her magic, she reached out a hand to the warrior. "You are fighting for us?"


    Timothy had never seen a dryad before. Standing shorter than Ludmiller, who was already shorter than him by some margin, the perfectly proportioned¡ªnaked, green¡ªwoman looked surprised. "Is it talking?" he asked Ludmiller, having not understood the creature''s words.


    "Yeah. You can''t understand her?" When it was obvious he hadn''t, Ludmiller translated for him.


    "For you and for ourselves. We''re surrounded, and they aren''t taking piss off as our final answer." Pointing up to the walls, Timothy was resolute in the fact they would hold the wall until the last of them fell. "We''ll be okay, though." His hand went to the spot on his armor that the talisman was under.


    "What does he mean by that?" the dryad asked.


    "So you can understand him? Okay, so our dungeon pays for everyone in the town to have talismans. I could send him and his people home right now." Ludmiller''s hand strayed to her hip.


    "What''s a talisman?"


    The question was a surprise, but Ludmiller had to remind herself the dryad hadn''t had many visitors. "It''s an anchor that pulls them and their body back to its creator if they die."


    Without the reassurance of her dungeon around her, the dryad shivered. "So they are here just for us?" Ludmillers nod was the final nail in the coffin for the dryad. Reaching her palms toward Timothy, she sent a burst of healing magic at him.


    Eyes widening in surprise, Timothy didn''t need a translator for what she''d just "said". He crouched down and looked the dryad in the face and dipped his head. "Thank you."


    "Can you get your dungeon to open a new entrance? Then these people don''t need to guard this one anymore. You could open a new one, and then we''ll seal this up." Gesturing at the door, Timothy smiled at the tiny woman.


    "They want to take our animals." Looking up at Ludmiller, the dryad pouted. "They always want to take our animals."


    Ludmiller nodded. "Yeah. They''ll want something from you for that protection. Some animals or even gold would probably do. I think Travis has some stuff planned for food for the town."


    "I''ll try to get my home to do it." Walking back into her dungeon, the dryad shivered happily at the feel of being safe again.


    "Not that I don''t appreciate the healing, but is that a good sign?" Timothy managed to drag his eyes away from the dryad to Ludmiller.


    "She''s onboard with the plan. She''s going to convince her dungeon. Definitely not as stupid as you''d think for a dungeon monster¡ªshe figured things out from my description and your wounds."


    "What if she can''t do it? What will you do?" He couldn''t take his eyes from Ludmiller''s weapons. He knew the answer¡ªhe just wanted to hear it.


    "I won''t let them keep you alive and take your talismans. I never enjoy that side of my work, but it''s one I take as an important duty. It will be clean and you will wake up a moment later in Northridge." Ludmiller looked into Timothy''s eyes, hoping he could see the dedication she held toward him.


    It was weird, and Timothy knew it should feel weird, so he wasn''t really worried about that feeling. "I''ve never died before." City guards didn''t usually have the gold to afford talismans. He certainly never thought he would be protected by one while being a guard. "Thanks. For what you might have to do and for giving us all talismans."


    "Hopefully we can open a way for reinforcements through the dungeon and you can walk home." It was the best she could come up with, and Ludmiller was greatly relieved that the awkward conversation was interrupted by the dryad. "How''d it go?"


    "I need to travel to the location for the new entrance." Feeling the buzzing power inside her, the dryad felt strange. It was a big step for the dungeon, and for herself. "Please don''t make me regret this."


    "First we need to test something. I was hoping you''d be a little smaller, but it might still work. Climb on my back." Crouching and offering the boss of a dungeon her back was not easy for Ludmiller, but trust was a two-way street. Small hands came first, then feet bracing on her tail and then around her waist as the dryad climbed up. She stood, testing the weight and finding it not a terrible burden. "Now, Timothy, can you still see us when I¡ª"


    The pair faded from view. Timothy''s eyes widened again at the reverse demonstration of Ludmiller''s entrance. When he shook his head, they appeared again. "You were gone. Both of you."


    "Perfect. I can get you out of here, we can run back to Northridge, and then get back in the same way." Not bothering to let the dryad down, Ludmiller walked with her to the ramp leading up to the wall and then ascended to the battlements.


    When they were on the wall, and all the soldiers were visible there, the dryad scrambled down from Ludmiller''s back. "Wait. I need to help them. Gather them around me. These are your injured?"


    After Ludmiller repeated the question, it didn''t take Timothy long to fetch the soldiers and have them form a circle around the diminutive form. A burst of green light later and the lines of pain on people''s faces were gone and the guards each stood up after an appreciative nod. "You know, if you keep providing healing to the guards, you won''t need to pay a single silver to have the city''s favor. Hop on and let''s get back and open the way to safety."


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    After she walked a lap of the wall, invisible, Ludmiller found her preferred spot. "Do you have a name? Mine''s Ludmiller. You can call me Luddy, though."


    "Breath of Spring." Holding tight as Ludmiller climbed out onto the exterior of the wall, Breath of Spring focused her thoughts on not imagining the drop below them or the fires of the camps surrounding the fort and her home. "Can you only do this at night, Luddy?"


    "No, but it''s easier at night. People will be tired and not looking for a sneaky kobold with a wise dryad on her back. From here on, we need to be quiet, though. No matter what, don''t say a word." Dropping the last body length to the ground, Ludmiller landed in a crouch with her body low. She wasn''t above crawling out, but if she could she would happily run.


    It was the same side she''d come in on, but a little further along the wall. The ruined siege engine was off to one side, and the digging work here hadn''t quite finished linking the palisade up. As she moved in silence, Ludmiller saw far too many open backs and bared throats. Her fingers practically itched to draw her weapons and send a few of the soldiers to a more eternal sleep. But she fought that instinct. A patrol passed by, not twenty feet from where she huddled. They had bright lanterns in one hand and naked blades in their other¡ªand there were five of them. Waiting for the soldiers to leave the area was agony, but at last they moved on and left Ludmiller''s path open.


    She didn''t walk and she didn''t run. Crouched low to the ground, she used her tail to balance her weight and only touched down with her hands every now and again in her almost-crawl to get across the dangerous, patrolled ground.


    Clinging to the back of another dungeon''s monster should have been what Breath of Spring was most terrified of, but it was walking, clanging, death-dealing humans around them that were the source of her concern. She pressed herself against Ludmiller''s back and screwed her eyes closed to ignore everything but the soft thudding of both their hearts.


    When Ludmiller stood upright again, she whispered, "We''re past their picket lines. They might have a few patrols out, but I doubt they''ll see us." She began building speed, sacrificing silence for a long loping run that ate up the distance.


    "Should I get down?"


    "No. I can carry you like this and I don''t want a stray archer spotting you. We need to get this entrance done in time to save that fort." She was partly lying, of course. Ludmiller''s build¡ªafter becoming a cohort¡ªwas all about speed and agility. If it was Wild, he could have carried them both and not raised a sweat.


    The world outside her dungeon was beautiful, Breath of Spring decided. There were living things everywhere. She wanted to climb down from Ludmiller''s back to feel the ground that was the source of so many living things. "What happens if they get to my home?"


    "I''ve heard stories about the empire. They''re against magic of all kinds, and destroy any dungeon they come across. There was an odd thing in the undead dungeon, though. They tried to bind it with a chain that felt¡ªit felt wrong. I don''t know how, but I''m sure that the chain lets them control a dungeon." It still horrified Ludmiller. She shivered a little at the thought of the dungeon that had begged to die rather than live like that. "It tried to invade our dungeon, but Travis'' floors are a maze of tunnels and traps, and then we have guns, too."


    "And you''ll protect my dungeon too?"


    "Yes. Travis is¡ª He''s the strangest dungeon I''ve ever met."


    That''s when something started to dawn on Breath of Spring the more she listened to Ludmiller. "How many dungeons have you seen?"


    "Dozens. Travis couldn''t figure out how to make his own kobolds, but figured a way to make them with people. I made the big mistake of trying to attack him with my party." When Breath of Spring said nothing, Ludmiller tilted her head to the side and angled it so she could look back at her passenger.


    "So you were a human?"


    "Nope. Half-elf. The funny thing is, life''s gotten better since becoming a kobold." She thought back to her life before stumbling into Travis'' trap. "More exciting, at least."


    The admission surprised Breath of Spring. She figured she should share something herself, but there was only one major detail she knew that would prove interesting. "I''m only two days old."


    Peeking back again as she loped ever onward through the dark, Ludmiller nodded. "You''re wise beyond your days, then. Did you know how to speak when you first woke up?"


    "I didn''t know that I could speak then. Not until I heard you speaking and replied. My home wanted me to get rid of you but you seem¡ªI wouldn''t have done very well." Breath of Spring giggled at the idea of fighting Ludmiller. She was sure that she''d barely have seen the kobold coming for her.


    "You''d have beaten me," Ludmiller said. "Because hurting you was one surefire way I could fail in this mission."


    "What do you mean?"


    "If I''d hit you or, worse, killed you, your dungeon would never have agreed to this, let alone you." Ludmiller waited for a reply, but Breath of Spring was quiet. Focusing on her running, she kept them moving through the dark night.


    In the far distance, before the light of the sun could touch them directly, the sky itself started to glow. Ludmiller could see the fires of the besieging army in the distance, and the closer they got she could start to hear the percussive echoes of rifles.


    "What''s that noise?" Breath of Spring asked.


    "That''s what my dungeon is known for now. Guns. You need steel and wood to make them, but once they''re made you only need a little powder, some fabric, and a metal ball and you can do great harm to whoever you point it at." It made Ludmiller smile to hear the gun reports¡ªit was like music to her.


    "And your dungeon uses them to defend the city?"


    "Yeah, but we give them to the people of the city to be used to defend themselves. You''ll see. We work together to keep all of us safe." As the walls came into sharper focus, so too did the siege camp around Northridge become more discernible. The gap that Ludmiller had slipped out of was gone. The earthworks around the city were complete, though the army wasn''t exactly a perfect circle. Like the outpost, there were patrolled sections between encamped soldiers. "Okay, quiet now. I need to focus on this and get us inside or this whole trip was for nothing."


    To Breath of Spring it seemed like a terrible idea to be sneaking along while it was so bright. She wanted to say that to Ludmiller, but the kobold had been right about one thing¡ªthey needed to stay quiet. Thankfully, there were a group of defenders on the wall and they were pointing what she''d learned were called guns.


    Each sound of a rifle discharging got and held the attention of the army. Like a huge swarm of ants, they boiled around the city and its occupants. Dropping to that low crouch-walk, Ludmiller got within only a handful of paces of a guard patrol before reaching the palisade.


    Unlike the one they''d built at the undead dungeon, this was logs that were pointed inward and upward rather than an actual wall. Being careful to avoid getting too close to any of the soldiers, she climbed out along one of the logs and then dropped between two of them.


    Each step across no-man''s-land was punctuated with rifle fire. Ludmiller had to wonder at how much black powder they were making that this punishing rate of fire could be maintained.


    On the wall came a shout and then a laugh. "You greasy, wet-behind-the-ears bastards think you can hurt me? Bring me your best and I''ll punch ''em in the face!" Fife''s bravado caused even more cheers from the wall.


    In her heart, Ludmiller was overjoyed to hear such a taunt¡ªher head wished Fife would do it on a section of wall far away from where they were stalking. Eventually, even moving as slow as she was, Ludmiller reached the wall and, walking along it so she wouldn''t have to climb to the tower overlooking the portcullis, she started up.


    By the halfway point her muscles were aching and she strained to keep her claws from shifting. The huge rocks used to build the wall required extra navigation, side to side, to find the cracks for her claws.


    Only a few feet from the top, Ludmiller''s muscles screamed at her and she felt one of her claws slip. Then another. Panic flooded her as one arm came away completely and then she¡ªfelt a strong grip close around her arm. Looking up in surprise, she saw Brolly Windchime reaching over the edge, his hand closed around her wrist. "How''d you see me?"


    "Didn''t until I got a buff from Northridge. I got you both." Heaving the two up, Brolly had trouble still seeing them¡ªbut he could feel Ludmiller''s arm solidly enough. "Who''s your friend?"


    "This is Breath of Spring, she''s the boss of the verdant dungeon. Where are we going to put this next dungeon entrance?" The feel of Breath of Spring climbing off her back was a sweet relief (even if her normally indefatigable body felt heavy and sluggish), but even though she stood a little taller, she saw her new friend hiding at her side. "It''s okay. He''s one of Northridge''s people."


    "What should I say to him?" Breath of Spring asked.


    Ludmiller could practically feel the confusion and panic radiating from Breath of Spring. "He can''t understand you. You should probab¡ª"


    "I can understand her." Lowering himself to a knee, Brolly held out his hand to the tiny dryad. He could feel Northridge paying close attention to events through him. "Welcome to our city. If you can open an entrance to your dungeon here, we will be in your debt."


    The posture and words Brolly used broke through Breath of Spring''s nerves. She was here to do a job. "Your soldiers are holding on as best they can. I healed them, but¡ª Just show me where I can put our new entrance."


    "Northridge seems to be pulling me toward Travis'' entrance. Can you place it there?" Brolly asked.


    "Show me." Despite having been carried so far already, Breath of Spring had no trouble with actually keeping up with the pair. Brolly seemed to move at a slower pace to accommodate her, while Ludmiller seemed to move at what she thought was the kobold''s normal pace. It was, therefore, up to Breath of Spring to try to not look like she was running.


    She could see the way the walls stretched out to wrap around something, but it wasn''t until they got to the corner that she could see into the interior of the alcove. It felt mildly terrifying. There was a dungeon entrance there and it was huge.


    "They''ve dug out the entrance?" Ludmiller asked.


    "With people moving in and trying to maintain a flow of food out, it was deemed required. It will make that entrance harder to defend, but if it comes down to that, we''re all in a lot of trouble." Brolly made his way to the nearest ramp down the wall.


    When Ludmiller felt Breath of Spring''s hand reach into her own, she gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Travis isn''t a scary dungeon, I promise."


    Her promise didn''t relieve all the worry in the dryad, though. "Will we be opening my home near here?" Breath of Spring asked, trying to avoid looking at the other dungeon entrance. There were people walking in and out of it constantly¡ªso much so that she eventually got curious and watched them enough that she missed Brolly''s answer. "S-Sorry?"


    "You can put your dungeon entrance beside this one. I''ll have my guards go through and come out in the outpost to relieve the guards there." Brolly knelt down again. It cost him nothing to turn on the charm for the dungeon and he could see it even got the dryad to smile.


    Closing her eyes, Breath of Spring walked to a spot that felt right¡ªbeside the other dungeon entrance¡ªand triggered her end of the spell.


    <hr>


    The emergence of a second dungeon within its city walls would have taken a light swat to deny, but Northridge instead welcomed the new party and attempted to project goodwill at it. What''s more, it could feel Travis doing the same.


    Nature had no part of the place where it had breached. There was no forest nearby, no trees, just stone and two towering pillars of power that stood opposite it. In all, the little dungeon had expected this. Unlike other dungeons, it couldn''t send its minions out to attack and had been able to grow as large as it was only because the people had built a big wall around it and fitted a huge door.


    Troops marched into it, fifty in all, and it was worried they would march down to its heart and crush it. Instead, as promised, they walked up the tunnel to its original entrance and rang the bell there.


    With its attention split, the verdant dungeon noticed one of the towering pillars, the other dungeon, was attempting to reach out to it.


    "Can you understand me? You can''t understand me, can you?" Travis was almost banging his head against the problem, but at the same time trying to project an outward appearance of calm. The verdant dungeon was every bit as meek and scared as a wild animal, so he did the only thing he could think of to tempt it to trust him.


    When the other dungeon made contact with it, the verdant dungeon reluctantly accepted the contact¡ªwhat other choice did it have? The moment came and went and the dungeon flew into a rush of excitement.


    The buffers drained by half. Travis considered it resources well spent, and the way the verdant dungeon seemed to radiate love now¡ªlike a small nuclear furnace¡ªhe was sure they appreciated it. He was still flush with resources and, soon enough, that steel would all be obsolete anyway. With a new ally assured, he went back to planning out how to get connected to the mithril lode.


    Available at: https://www.royalroad.com/profile/220350/fictions</a>


    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 89

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 19/100


    Heart 1299600/1299600


    Experience 3699/324900


    Workers 27/121


    Monsters 9/123


    Traps 67/294


    Food 2459


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Charcoal 4938


    Mana 1101


    Rock 2262


    Gold 1057


    Leather 17


    Leather Sludge 300


    Lava 500


    Glass 635


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 15


    Long Guns 12


    Bullets 1700


    Black Powder 1700


    Poison, Greater 1200


    Sulfur 880


    Quest: Kill 109 invaders.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Mine some mithril.


    </blockquote>


    Travis wished the toy cannon had triggered something, but the lack of an unlock from it made him focus more on building. Growing, after all, would bring bigger things.


    With the verdant dungeon settling in, and a fresh contingent of soldiers heading through to guard the fort around its other entrance, Travis had settled in his new workers into the dungeon by first having them dig out their own quarters.


    The other serious thing had been to start mining their own sulfur for black powder. His lizards seemed intent on finding mana shrines as quickly as they could dig out tunnels linking them up.


    "I can''t believe you gave half your resources to them," Robert said, processing more of the black powder in an ever-continuous process now.


    It wasn''t the first time Travis had defended himself on the idea. "I have a good reason for it. Besides, if she can provide half the food for the city, why should we work our butts off digging more farm area? If my guess on floor delving is right, they will pay back way more than what I gave them, and it was only the rewards from delving the undead dungeon."


    "You could have tested that with less resources." With his latest batch mixing, Robert stretched and rolled his neck. "I think it''s time you filled the twists down here with sludge traps, Trav. Put up locked doors if you have to, to keep people out, but it''s time you get way more serious with killing things we don''t want coming into the dungeon."


    "Yeah. Okay, let''s do it now. I can afford two upscaled sludge traps with your special sludge. That''s eight squares of it." Travis was planning it now, but something caught his attention as he started assembling the costs of the traps. "Wait! I can game this. Okay, so a sludge trap can have the bait upgrade, but I can change the bait upgrade for shiny, which means the trap has a gold cost!"


    "Why would that¡ª" Robert broke into laughter.


    "I know! With a gold cost I can use Flush to reduce the cost of all the other resources for four gold." Setting down plans for three sets of four square traps. "That way I can afford three traps with four squares each instead of two."


    Leaving his black powder to sit, Robert headed out and made his way to the twists. "So you give the other dungeon as many resources as you can stuff into it to make extra floors, then we go and take a walk through it?"


    "That''s my plan. Remember, the first floor gives nothing, but each floor was a huge stack of resources. More than enough that we''ll get our investment back in no time. Plus, they can come here and say hi. Maybe she can even take a swing at me if she has a quest for it." Travis gave directions to where he had put the traps. It was a few sections of the tunnel that were like all the rest¡ªonly now they would be extra deadly.


    <hr>


    Tannyr shrugged and left the gunsmithy to one of the new recruits. She hadn''t been a smith and she''d managed to make guns, so she figured a farrier, the recruit, at least had some experience with working metal. "So, Trav, you wanted me for something specific?"


    "Yeah. We''ve got lots of kobolds in here now, and even with Brayden now in a cohort, I would like a way to get more revival options. Also, more incentive for mages. So I need a room fifteen by five and another fifteen by ten. I think these are what''s needed for classes."


    "Only two?" Tannyr asked.


    "There are another two. We will build the Temple first, and once we explore that we can decide if we need all four. But, if these are what give us classes, we will want all four of them."


    "I heard Fife going on and on about how she was unstoppable in that undead dungeon. When she said it took a siege weapon to finally stop her, I expected someone to call her out on it." Marching up to where she felt the new section of the dungeon had been planned for her, Tannyr ran one hand along the worked stone wall. "Do you think there''s something in that grab-bag for me?"


    "There was a specific class called digger, but I don''t think you need that. You already dig fast, and now we have a lot more people who are happy to dig. What I think would be better is the same thing Fife got. Think about it, eventually we will be digging on the fourth floor, which will mean big nasty things jumping out of the walls and trying to eat you. Being able to laugh at them and get away would be best." Travis didn''t plan out too much in case the whole thing turned out not to be what he''d thought. "Despite being able to bring you back with Brayden''s help, I''d really like it if you never required that."


    "What makes you think I wouldn''t prefer to have an actual class that helps with shooting?" Finding the face of the area Travis had marked, she ran the claws of her left hand over it while pulling her pickaxe from behind her back.


    Upstairs, on the first floor, Travis noted that the newest additions to the dungeon were digging away. Some were more focused on clearing rooms out while others apparently relished in digging tunnels. Among them, helping with the strength of their presence, were Fife, Penelope, and Jack.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Jack was, of course, learning how to work a pickaxe with a similar amount of inexperience as the other recent converts. He swung the tool that he''d somehow pulled out of thin air and relished how easy the work was and how it freed his mind to focus on other things¡ªexcept for one little interruption. "You''re not going to help?" he asked.


    "Oh, no! See, a floor boss supervises." Fife smirked at Jack''s back, even though she knew he could see behind him with only a slight turn of his head. "Besides, you''re learning all this."


    The quarters he''d been digging out only needed a little more before Jack was done. He kept quiet as he swung, bringing down the rock before taking a moment to shore up the wall. "Why, though? I thought¡ª"


    "Spiders!" Penelope shouted. She was a few rooms down from Jack and Fife, but the big cavern that opened up seemed wall-to-wall with the big pests. In the past she''d been terrified of engaging with such monsters, but now she was far more sure of herself. "Head out the door and wait for Fife and Jack to come in," she told the worker who''d been with her while digging.


    She didn''t wait for her friends to come before giving the first few spiders the kind of greeting only an acid dragon could. Bringing up the now-familiar power inside her, she opened her mouth and sent a cloud of spider-melting acid out of herself and into the cavern.


    "Oooh, more experience? Spiders?" Travis asked as Penelope drew her swords. "You want me to burn them or are you good here?"


    "Don''t you dare"¡ªlashing out at the first spider to make it around the acid cloud she''d breathed, Penelope cut it down with her second slash¡ª"waste mana on this. Huh, these always seemed more solid."


    "You were about half your size back then and didn''t have all this magic." Travis had wanted to show off a little, but admitted to himself that she had been right. He watched through Penelope''s eyes, the eyes of a few curious lizards watching from the door, and soon Fife and Jack''s as well, as Penelope cut her way into the nest and, when she was ready enough to unleash it again, breathed more of her acid on the remaining arachnids.


    "What, that was it?" Jack asked.


    "I think I''m in looooove." Stepping into the room, Fife looked around. "You didn''t leave anything for me?"


    "If you did some digging, you''d be first to reach a few yourself." Penelope stuck her tongue out at Fife. "Anyway, this lot is done. I''ll get the venom sacks from these and we can keep going."


    The whole fight had been short-lived. Penelope had melted and cut her way through the spiders as any dungeon boss should first floor monsters. Meanwhile, on the second floor, Tannyr had already started work and was digging out what would become the Temple room.


    It didn''t take long for her to finish it, not at the furious pace she could dig at. When the room was all shored up, Travis paid the price to make it into a Temple¡ªand of course he spent extra gold to reduce the cost of the rock and steel. It took a while to build, too. He watched in a detached way as Tannyr built the altar, stone pews, and great golden statue of¡ª"Is that a dungeon heart made out of gold?" Travis asked.


    "It''ll be so much better with a coat of paint." Tannyr was doing her best not to laugh. The Temple wasn''t finished, and already she''d pulled out a blunt chisel and hammer and was beating a big smiling face into the gold heart. "Perfect!" she said, when she finished the smiling face.


    "I can''t believe you drew a smiling face on it." Doing his best not to laugh, Travis finally gave up and snorted with laughter as Tannyr finished the building.


    The moment she did a loud gong sound went off in Travis'' headspace and he felt new presences start circling around. Deities, he realized, all watching closely to see what he would do. "Brayden?"


    Hearing Travis call his name, Brayden stood up from his seat where he''d been chatting with Jacob in the second floor tavern when he felt the call. "S-Sorry, I have¡ª" Travis called him again, but this time there was a second voice over Travis''.


    Jacob stood up when Brayden did. They''d been discussing making armor when the priest had started to act strange. He followed after, feeling an odd sensation growing¡ªas if they were being watched by something powerful.


    The walk wasn''t far. The new tunnel was nearby and the new room was the first turn to the right. As soon as his foot crossed the threshold, Brayden felt his god''s presence swell to an intensity he hadn''t felt outside of the huge cathedral where he''d taken his vows. "Brogdar?"


    Stopping at the door, Jacob could only stare as the huge gold statue at the front of the room reformed and shaped itself into the image of an armed and armored figure¡ªthe only odd part was that the figure was a kobold.


    Watching her work melt away into the new form, Tannyr could feel the divinity weighing on the room and stood up. "I think you''ll want to make this place a little more comfortable," she said, patting Brayden on the shoulder as she walked out. Once outside, she asked, "Did that work, Travis?"


    "Yeah. It unlocked the research for all the divine classes and I now see a cost on the four classes. Damn but they''re expensive. Priest is a thousand gold, cleric is ten thousand, paladin is five thousand gold and five thousand adamantine, and inquisitor is the same but with mithril. And that''s after spending three hundred days of research time."


    Whistling, Tannyr looked up at where Jacob was standing. "If you want to talk to Brayden, you might want to find something else to do. His god is in there with him, and I think they both have a lot to talk about."


    "Ah. He was discussing getting me to make some armor. I''ve worked steel before, and made a few breastplates and such, but I don''t think I''ll be able to work on any of the more exotic metals." Still unwilling to take the deal the dungeon had given his whole family, Jacob sighed. "I wish I could accept your deal, but Grace and I still want a big family."


    "He''s okay with that. You did see that we have over a dozen new faces, plus around thirty townsfolk living here now? Travis doesn''t mind sharing and, honestly, neither do the rest of us¡ªeven if Robert gets a little odd about it sometimes. Live your life here, have a dozen little terrors that want to learn how to run a forge or shoot a rifle or swing a sword or¡ªanything. You''re welcome to join more fully when you are too old to make more." Pulling out her pickaxe, Tannyr started measuring where the next room would be.


    Nodding, and filled with more determination than ever to learn how to help the dungeon, Jacob said, "Thank you. I might go and see about finding a forge to practice with."


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 90 (Character Listing in Notes)

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 19/100


    Heart 1299600/1299600


    Experience 112386/324900


    Workers 27/121


    Monsters 9/123


    Traps 71/294


    Food 2459


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Charcoal 4758


    Mana 1143


    Rock 1966


    Gold 1057


    Leather 17


    Leather Sludge 15


    Lava 500


    Glass 483


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 12


    Bullets 1700


    Black Powder 300


    Poison, Greater 1200


    Sulfur 700


    Quest: Kill 73 invaders.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Mine some mithril.


    </blockquote>


    "No."


    Travis agreed with Fife and voiced that, "Yeah, sorry, not going to do that. If Breath of Spring''s dungeon will supply animals to skin, fine, but we aren''t going to use the wyverns."


    Puffing her chest out, Fife nodded her head to that. "Good, because anyone who wants to hurt Claws, Fangs, Fluffles, Mister Cutie Pie, Death, Talons, Eggbert, or Fife Junior will have to fight me first."


    "It''s probably time to see how she''s settling in," Ludmiller said. "Breath of Spring and her dungeon, I mean. You gave them a lot of resources."


    His new denizens were all relaxing today; having earned a little time off now they had their sleeping quarters all built. He had plans, of course, to build the remaining rooms¡ªhe simply needed more rock for it. "I wanted to try something else, too."


    "Oh? What new plan is this?" Penelope asked.


    "Forget work days, forget days off. I''ll post a list of things I need done in my heart room and people can pick them off and do them whenever they want. This other system wasn''t working, anyway." When everyone looked shocked, Travis groaned. "Come on, it can''t be that weird?"


    "No one will work!" Robert said, and when everyone nodded to him he continued. "Well, I mean, I will. I''d go crazy if I couldn''t get any work done. Besides, you promised me I could work in my lab."


    The silence worked in Travis'' favor. Every single one of them started to slump and lower their heads as realization dawned. "Okay, so we''ll set that up," Travis said.


    The first to react, Ludmiller stood up. "I''ll go talk to Breath of Spring and ask if I can take a tour of her dungeon. You''ll know if they have a second floor."


    "I''m going to make more black powder. The city is going through that at a crazy rate. I don''t mind, though. It''s good." Robert walked past his sister and put his hand on her shoulder for a moment.


    "Brolly said he wants some help dealing with more siege engines that are being built. It turns out they burn pretty good." Katelyn stood and snapped her fingers¡ªsummoning her staff from nowhere and setting it aflame. "I''ll get some research done when I''m back."


    Penelope waited for the rest to leave, her hand casually pinning Fife''s leg to the chair beside her. When the bar was empty, she asked, "Fife Junior?"


    Laughing, Fife leaned back so her chair was balanced on two legs. "She''s the small one. I was trying to train her to bite things and let her chew on my arm for a bit. Fangs too, though he eventually started to mess up my arm enough that my healing kicked in. Hey, Trav, when are we going to get saddles on them and fly around dropping bombs on the guys upstairs?"


    "Find me two hundred leather and we can get right on that," Travis said. "More leather means more sludge, more sludge means more of those amazing sludge traps."


    "Wait, you actually built more of those? Where are they?" Penelope asked.


    Travis was busy planning more areas for digging on the first floor, but replied, "They''re in the second floor''s maze. Robert placed them so they were in the sections where the tunnels converged. Also, that meant they had a lot of explosive traps nearby."


    "I might go topside and practice shooting some more. Maybe I can get a level out of it." Standing up, Fife paused. "Huh."


    "Something wrong?" Penelope asked.


    "All my life I''ve only killed dungeon monsters, and I thought people would feel different."


    Pondering it for a moment, Penelope nodded. "I''ll come up too. We can chat about it on the wall while we shoot."


    They left Travis to think about it alone, and though he worried about the topic, he had to settle for letting them figure things out for themselves. "It''s not like I''m ordering them to do it."


    <hr>


    As she stepped into the verdant dungeon, Ludmiller felt a sense of peace. She knew it probably wouldn''t be as hostile as it had been the first time, but to find the dungeon welcoming was new. "Uh, hello? Is Breath of Spring here?"


    The feeling didn''t change, but Ludmiller spotted a rabbit bouncing over to her. Crouching, she held out her hand to it. "Well, aren''t you cute?"


    "He told the others he is coming to kill the intruder," Breath of Spring said. Walking up to Ludmiller, she didn''t stop until she hugged the kobold. "Welcome to my home."


    If she hadn''t been crouching, Ludmiller would have had an awkward hug around her leg. As it was, Breath of Spring was at a convenient height to put her arm around and return the embrace. "Thanks. I came to ask if you were okay and to talk about trading."


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    "First, there is something my dungeon wants to show you. Come, please?" Letting go of the hug, Breath of Spring took Ludmiller''s hand and started to step away with it.


    Following, Ludmiller let herself be taken on another tour of the dungeon. Now, though, there were a lot more animals. Sheep that had huge, spider-like abdomens and eight legs each¡ªthat purred when she petted them; rabbits that had bat wings and would soar around a huge cave; and some kind of goat that had bright blue sparks arcing between their horns were a small selection. She had, of course, heard of such animals. The nightmare-sheep grew in verdant animal dungeons, though they were far less aggressive than if they''d been in any other kind.


    A shiver ran through Ludmiller as they walked down one tunnel to a new spot. "Is this a different floor?"


    Nodding, Breath of Spring giggled. "Our home was so excited to have all those resources from your home¡ªTravis¡ªthat there are five floors now. We''re trying to come up with what we''ll put on each one, but for now the path deeper is short."


    The floors, Ludmiller discovered, were arranged oddly. It was literally a switchback from the first floor down, with the tunnel that went deeper starting right beside where the previous one let out. At the bottom of the last one, though, she saw it.


    The heart of the dungeon was green shot through with brown. It glowed warmly and without a hint of malice that she''d felt from the undead one. Reaching out a clawed hand, she pressed her palm to it. "I''m pleased to meet you, and glad you took us up on the offer of opening a new entrance. It must have been expensive."


    Walking around the heart of her home, Breath of Spring ran her delicate fingers over the crystal. "Thank you so much for helping us. We''ll all work to provide the town with everything we can."


    "That''s something I wanted to talk about. Remember when we showed you to the bottom of our dungeon?" Ludmiller waited for Breath of Spring to nod. "Well, did your home get extra excited after that?"


    "Y-Yeah. I''m getting a feeling like I should go again. What did it do?"


    "A dungeon gets resources for visiting the floors of a dungeon. I was going to ask if I could see your lowest floor because it really helps Travis too." Ludmiller waited before asking, "I''d also like to ask if you''d be willing to trade for, uh, rabbits?"


    "Just like the city folk. They want rabbits too. We know how homes like ours are normally treated, but it still hurts to let our family go like that." Breath of Spring frowned and leaned against the heart. "But we agreed. I agreed. Our protection will be most of the cost, of course, but we''d like some more gold."


    "Oh, we can pay gold. You''re also welcome to come and walk to the bottom of Travis whenever you want. I know we don''t have many floors, but what we have is open to you." The question of deals settled, Ludmiller could relax. "How are they doing at your other entrance?"


    "It''s hard fighting. I planted a tree for them, but it will take many years to grow and give the kind of protection that would help. Sometimes I meet them coming back and make sure they''re all healed up. Do you want to see?" Straightening, Breath of Spring led the way to the top of her dungeon.


    The door to the fort was open, and Ludmiller could see the tree that''d been planted¡ªit was shorter than she was. Early afternoon light spread across the wall and the one big tower rang with repeated rifle shots. "Can I go up and see¡ª"


    "Ludmiller!" Rushing toward the kobold, Timothy Devin dropped to one knee. "I can barely believe you managed to get this done. I didn''t expect to make it back to the city without a talisman, but then all those reinforcements piled through."


    Still in a hugging mood after Breath of Spring''s greeting, Ludmiller stepped over and hugged the guardsman. "Hey, I told you I''d get you out. Speaking of getting out, why are you here?"


    "Commander Windchime has put me in charge of the fort. It''s not so bad taking care of things here now, but I wonder if I could ask you another huge favor?"


    Surrendering her grip on Timothy, Ludmiller watched him stand up to twice her height. "Sure, what''s up?"


    "They built another siege engine, but we shot several of the men putting it together. Now they''ve dragged it back out of range of our guns. Would you mind delivering a present?" Walking over to a stone, reinforced building, Timothy drew out a small barrel with a fuse in the end of it. "This is half filled with black powder and the rest is chains. Could you drop it off at the base of their weapon?"


    Laughing at the joke, Ludmiller nodded. "I can do that. And, since you''re such a good customer, delivery will be free this time." She took the keg and patted her weapon belt where her alchemical equipment was. A striker sat there, exactly where it should be. "Give me a little bit of time, and try to avoid shooting in that area."


    When Ludmiller walked up the ramp and onto the wall, Timothy crouched down to Breath of Spring. "Are you able to come up to the wall? There are no injuries, but the guards always feel better when you''re around."


    Blushing, Breath of Spring nodded and followed Timothy up the ramp to find the soldiers on the wall. She could feel the mood lighten and even heard a few cheer. They definitely started talking more excitedly. "Did Ludmiller already go over?"


    "The ghost of the fort? Yeah, she looked grim," one of the soldiers said, then turned to Timothy. "She taking out the siege engine again, captain?"


    "She sure is. Getting to the point where I might have to pay a visit to her dungeon and ask if she can be stationed out here." Timothy was careful not to look at the siege engine that was, even now, having the finishing touches being put on it. "Try and keep your fire away from that spot."


    "She already said that, sir."


    They didn''t have long to wait. A yell from the picket line was all the warning they had before an explosion rang out. Breath of Spring hid behind Timothy while the rest of the guards cheered from the wall. When she poked her head up, it was to see that the machine in the distance was no more. There was burning grass and a huge hole where it used to be. "Wow."


    The walk back to the fort while still unable to be seen made Ludmiller feel a little worried at how easy that had been for her. One moment she was setting the keg down at the base of the trebuchet, then lighting the fuse, and finally the hustle away from it as fast as she could without drawing attention.


    By the time Ludmiller climbed back onto the wall and became visible again, she was regretting that she was the only kobold who could move unseen. "Was that the only package you wanted delivered? I should get back to Travis and find out what he got from all this."


    "I''ll come too. We can figure out how much you''ll pay for rabbits and what else we might want to trade." Leaning closer to Timothy, Breath of Spring waited for him to crouch before she jumped and pecked him on the cheek. "Keep my home safe."


    Standing up straight, Timothy saluted Breath of Spring. "Yes, ma''am!"


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 91

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 20/100


    Heart 1440000/1440000


    Experience 9486/360000


    Workers 27/127


    Monsters 9/129


    Traps 71/309


    Food 2643


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Charcoal 4758


    Mana 1143


    Rock 1966


    Gold 1057


    Leather 17


    Leather Sludge 15


    Lava 500


    Glass 483


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 12


    Bullets 300


    Black Powder 300


    Poison, Greater 1200


    Sulfur 700


    Quest: Kill 33 invaders.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Mine some mithril.


    </blockquote>


    As soon as Ludmiller stepped foot back in the dungeon, Travis cast Attract Lizards on her. It was a single point of mana that got lost in the endless stream in and out, but her laugh of excitement was exactly what he''d hoped to inspire. "You got us so many more resources! This is awesome!"


    "Thanks. Aww, these little guys are so adorable. Travis, can you cast this on me whenever I feel unhappy?" Ludmiller asked, now with lizards up to her knees.


    "Deal. Just say the word and I''ll bury you in lizards. She has four extra floors already?" Evening might have fallen, but some in his dungeon ignored the normal day-night cycle and he had given up trying to regulate people''s lives. "I had a big announcement earlier, something I want to show you too."


    "Okay. Breath of Spring is right behind me. She wants to negotiate prices for access to her dungeon''s bunnies." Ludmiller selected two particularly adorable lizards to ride on her shoulders and then started forward. "Are you coming, Breath?"


    "Why are there so many lizards? Why are you wearing two?" Breath of Spring had to step carefully around the swarm that Ludmiller waded through easily. She stopped when one stood directly in her path. Tilting her head to the side, she reached out her hand only to have the lizard flick it with its tongue. "Awww."


    "You can take him home with you, if you like," Ludmiller said. "Give her some room, everyone, we need to head down to the tavern. Trav, is Stephan awake?"


    "Sleeping, and I''m not going to wake him. Part of my new rules." Travis mentally relaxed. "No alert to wake anyone unless it is an emergency. This isn''t an emergency. But it''s fine, I can help you with the negotiation. I don''t want us to have a big advantage here, anyway. Hopefully we''ll be neighbors for a long time."


    "Okay, so why don''t we set a limit on the negotiations. So we''ll start with a month?" Ludmiller asked.


    It was a good idea, or so Travis thought. "I like that. You''ve got this."


    "That seems fine. I think my home wants to upgrade me soon, so hopefully I''ll be better at these sorts of things after that." Breath of Spring followed the stairs down and into the warm room where a group of other kobolds were sitting around and talking.


    "Luddy?" Standing up and turning to Ludmiller, Wild caught her up, hugged her, and gave her a kiss. "This is your new friend?"


    Clearing her throat, Ludmiller quickly pulled back from Wild and nodded. "Breath of Spring, this is my partner, Wild. Wild, this is Breath of Spring. She''s the boss from the verdant dungeon."


    "H-Hello." Looking nervous, Breath of Spring gazed at the big kobold in obvious surprise.


    Letting Ludmiller slip from his grip, Wild bowed to Breath of Spring. "Welcome to our dungeon. Your first visit was a little too quick for us to meet."


    Smiling, Breath of Spring took a deep breath and nodded. "My home was worrying about me. I didn''t want to leave home for too long. I reassured my home this time."


    "Excuse us, Wild. We need to negotiate the price of rabbits." Ludmiller brushed past Wild and led Breath of Spring to an empty table. "Now, what does your du¡ªhome, need?"


    Breath of Spring let out a sigh. "I don''t exactly know. Home wants something. Home got excited when your dungeon¡ªoh, your home¡ªgave it things, but I don''t know which it needed the most."


    "Luddy," Travis said, "I can gift it with resources one at a time. Then we can figure out which of them her home likes most."


    When Ludmiller repeated the suggestion, Breath of Spring beamed in delight. "That will work, won''t it? I''m sure we''ll need other resources, but for now we can let my home decide what home wants."


    Travis, still half listening, turned his attention toward the other dungeon itself. "Uh, hello?" What he felt in reply was akin to the cute little sound that a cat makes if you wake them or the sound of a dog''s tail thwapping softly. "What do you need the most of?"


    But Travis only got confusion in reply. "Do you want this?" He sent some gold. Just a hundred. The other dungeon got excited about that. "And this?" Next was timber, and again there was some excitement. Then he sent food, and the other dungeon got extra excited. He still sent iron, steel and some of the leather he''d gotten from Ludmiller exploring the verdant dungeon, but none of it excited them like food did. "Uh, okay. Hey, Luddy, I think I figured out that they want food."


    "Travis has been talking with your home, he thinks food is what it wants," Ludmiller said.


    "Oh! Uh, well, how much food per rabbit?" Breath of Spring asked.


    "Tell her we''ll start with two hundred and fifty," Travis said.


    When she heard Ludmiller repeat it, Breath of Spring asked, "How much is that? How many animals will that feed?"


    "Well, a while back it would feed one of us for one day. With upgrades now that will feed a kobold or human for four," Ludmiller said, after Travis explained it to her. "Will that be¡ª?"


    "We''ll take it!"


    Travis lost touch with the pair as Ludmiller left the dungeon with Breath of Spring beside her. He was busy planning. With the need for food and stone, he was marking a huge area for digging out. Marking it and posting the job on the notice board, he realized he hadn''t given Ludmiller the full talk of what the new work system was.


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    <blockquote>


    Your minion has entered another dungeon, but you delved it too recently to gain any rewards!


    You must wait 11 days, 22 hours, and 53 minutes before delving again.


    </blockquote>


    Travis would have face-palmed if he could. He could put the numbers together and figure out that the undead dungeon had raided him every three days, and he''d gotten four rewards from "raiding" the verdant dungeon, at three hours each floor, and got twelve days. "I figured it out¡ª Oh. She''s gone. Right. Uh¡­" He realized that all his inhabitants were either asleep or deep in conversation.


    Except one.


    <hr>


    "Hey there. So, they tell me you can hear people in your heart room. I guess I always felt a dungeon''s presence was greatest there, and I was curious about casting this spell now I''ve had a bit of practice with all this mana you''ve given me. So, if you''re cool with it, uh, give me a boost and I''ll see about communing with you again." Felna ran her fingers over the heart, careful not to extend her claws.


    Her answer was immediate. A rush of blue light enveloped Felna and she felt like her reserves of magic had swollen out to a dozen times normal. The complex spell normally took finesse and careful casting, instead she threw a pile of mana at it and let it bond her consciousness to the dungeon''s. "I guess this is a lot more intimate hello."


    Travis heard the voice clearer and had found himself able to see through her eyes. "Hi, Felna. Anything else I can help you with, or did you just want to spend tomorrow with a headache?"


    "Any different from last time?" Felna asked.


    "Yeah. It''s as if you were a minion. I¡ª Huh."


    "What''s ''huh''?" The sound surprised her to the point where she was now a little worried.


    "Well, my Monsters count went up by one. Can you try ending the spell?"


    When Felna fumbled for it, and couldn''t sense the spell as active, she knew she might have gone too far. To double check, she sat down in the middle of the floor, closed her eyes, and started meditating. What surprised her almost as much as the fact that she couldn''t purge any effect on herself was that Travis didn''t talk to her during the focus period.


    Opening her eyes and stretching, Felna shrugged her shoulders. "There is no spell anymore. This is odd."


    "There''s a research skill I have that lets non-dungeon creatures talk to me like this. I wonder if this spell is based on that? Why did you want to do all this, anyway?"


    "I''ve always found it interesting to commune with a dungeon. I have bonded with verdant dungeons, too, and they always felt so calm and relaxed. You''re nothing like that. Normal dungeons are angry with me, and try to give me commands sometimes, but they never talked." Standing and reaching out to the heart, Felna ran her fingers over it. "So curiosity is part of it, but I¡ªI guess I''m just done with roaming. They say when a Sandwalker priest stops walking, they are ready to die. I guess I found something worth hanging around for."


    The information was intriguing to Travis, mostly because it explained his newest friend so well. "So none have ever actually spoken?"


    "Nope. The biggest I''ve communed with was thirty-five floors, and that was strong. It was hard to not do what it wanted. Sandwalker protect me, if I''d ever contacted something bigger¡ªI might not have had the strength to leave." She blew out a breath and leaned her back against Travis'' heart. "Ogmera''s gonna kill me if she finds out."


    "Good thing Brayden can bring you back from that. I''m curious if your talisman will work¡ªbut not curious enough to ask you to test it." Travis realized that now Felna might be in the same situation the others are in¡ªand started schooling his words around her. "There are hundreds of days of research between now and being able to do this on a more repeatable basis¡ªwithout your help."


    "I heard Kate talking about research. What''s that? Another dungeon system?"


    "It''s weird, but yeah." Travis watched Felna use her claw to draw a pattern on the floor. "There''s piles of things to give me advantages or access to stuff. Everything now takes ages to research, but I''m trying to unlock the dungeon class things¡ªlike what Fife has. It turns out the buildings weren''t enough to do it on their own. Each class requires more research."


    Felna let out a laugh. "Sounds like you have more to keep track of than a city''s accountant."


    "Yeah. The dungeon system helps me keep track of things, but I have to make all the decisions. Right now we''re trying to scale up food production and sleeping quarters. I want the city to survive no matter what, and if that means me having to become home to its citizens, then I''ll handle that."


    "Don''t you gain something from having non monsters in here?" Knowing the answer, Felna got distracted by the large, flat piece of stone that had writing on it in chalk. Lists of tasks, some ticked off, others showing numbers.


    "I get experience, which lets me grow bigger and do more stuff, yeah. Oh, that''s my new system of handling work. I post that and let everyone figure out what they want to do. Some get exemptions, like Robert, Kate, and Wild."


    "Why Wild?"


    "He''s my first boss that anyone would encounter if they want to delve into me. He''s basically a gatekeeper." Travis focused on his mana and used it to levitate the tiny piece of chalk again, and added first floor digging to the list.


    "You''re a weird dungeon, Trav. I don''t think I would have ever considered this"¡ªFelna gestured around herself¡ª"as a potential home, but you''ve made it comfortable. I''d like to try taking my group to scout the goblins soon, see if we can''t encourage them to attack these idiots outside our walls."


    "The trick will be getting you out there, though if we start a tunnel soon, it could be something to work toward." Travis added another note to the wall to have someone discuss adding a tunnel under the wall.


    "Maybe I should try the spell in the verdant dungeon too?" Felna asked.


    "Nah, she''s already pretty awesome. She helped me figure out what resources she needs too." When Felna turned and looked at his heart in surprise, Travis laughed. "What?"


    "''She''?"


    "She feels like a she. I think she''s happy to not be alone anymore. I hope she''s not too angry when we start taking her rabbits." Travis tried to articulate the general feel of the verdant dungeon, but was failing at it. "I don''t want to say it, because she might grow beyond it, but she feels like a pet."


    Reaching out to Travis'' heart, Felna stroked him. "Good boy." When he started to sputter in her head, she laughed. "Oh, relax. But, if that''s how she feels to you, maybe reward her for giving them up?"


    "We arranged to pay. You''re right, though. Associating a reward with giving them up should make it easier." Vague memories of having a pet before waking up as a dungeon told Travis that it would work. "Did you have a pet when you were growing up?"


    "No, but I had three little brothers. It worked the same way with them," Felna said, walking out of the heart room. "Can you still hear me?"


    "Loud and clear. Also, I can see through your eyes now."


    Grinning all the wider, Felna focused a moment and made herself go cross-eyed.


    "Hey, stop that!"


    "On one condition. You build me a temple too, and one for Nathaniel if he wants it."


    Travis, who was quietly buying all the upgrades he could for the wyverns, was fine with that. "Sure. It''ll take some resources, but I''ll get it built sooner rather than later."


    Purring to herself, Felna barely felt the weight of the figurative collar she''d put on. "That''s fine." Her paws didn''t even itch.


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 Chapter 92

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 20/100


    Heart 1440000/1440000


    Experience 75747/360000


    Workers 27/121


    Monsters 9/123


    Traps 71/294


    Food 3093


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Charcoal 4758


    Mana 1143


    Rock 6243


    Gold 1057


    Leather 17


    Leather Sludge 15


    Lava 500


    Glass 483


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 12


    Bullets 1700


    Black Powder 300


    Poison, Greater 1200


    Sulfur 700


    Quest: Kill 5 invaders.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Mine some mithril.


    </blockquote>


    It had been a busy half a week for not only Travis, but the whole dungeon, city, and his new friend dungeon. Kobolds like to dig, so he''d set a mammoth digging task to hollow out a huge room to fill with mushrooms. The only thing that Travis hated about it was that he wouldn''t get any more undead XP to buff the room.


    Ludmiller was out each day, "delivering packages". It had brought him a lot of XP from the destroyed siege machines, but with everyone busy it meant he didn''t get much more research done.


    After Travis had paid the cost for riding saddles on the wyvern den, Fife had found them and had wasted no time riding one out to the city. Getting it used to the townsfolk had been the more difficult task, since the beast (Fife Junior) was quite bitey.


    With around two hundred food being generated in the dungeon every day, and that value effectively doubling through the kitchens, he was feeding half a thousand of the town''s inhabitants. The next task was to get everyone building out the residences.


    "I want a better rifle," Fife said. She was leading Fife Junior down through the dungeon to their wyvern pen on the second floor. "And, you said we have a mithril node, we just have to dig through to it, right? Well, I''ll do the digging for that."


    Travis pondered this. He''d not seen Fife do any real digging at all, so he knew she wasn''t keen on it. Which is why he knew he had to get the most out of her while she was negotiating. "And you can dig out some more rooms down there while you''re at it. All that, and I''ll prioritize the first mithril gun for you. And you''ll have to get the first one hundred mithril."


    Scooping a handful of meat from a trough that seemed to never empty, Fife offered it to Fife Junior¡ªwho almost bit her hand off trying to eat it "gently". When her new best friend was content, Fife started walking down to the bottom floor. "Okay, but if I''m going to be digging, you might want to get Pen to back me up."


    "Pen is busy upstairs. If you find anything, get to safety and then head up to help her there." Travis started highlighting places for Fife to dig. First on the menu was a new large gold mine, then smaller versions of the mana shrines that the lizards had uncovered.


    With those done, he had a long path for her to dig to reach the mithril node. She got exactly sixteen squares along when she opened up a cave. Gazing through Fife''s eyes, Travis couldn''t see anything in the cave. "What''s going on? Where are the monsters?"


    "Are you really going to look a gift cave in the mouth?" Fife asked. She strode forward a bit and pulled out her pickaxe again. "How much further?"


    A weird itching sensation reached Travis, but he ignored it as nerves and pushed on. "Eight more sections, then you can turn right."


    Digging as instructed, and following Travis'' plan, Fife dug out the last section to see a dull grayish crystal before her. "Crap, Trav, that''s a lot of mithril! How does it work, though? I''ve seen pictures of it in guide books, and seen the armor it makes, but¡ª"


    "Can you mine some so we can find out? I figure it''ll be like steel, we stuff it in a furnace with something else and out comes what we need to make stuff." Travis didn''t exactly want to push her, but he felt that if he tried to make sense of how things worked in the dungeon, he''d go crazy.


    "Spoilsport." Fife approached the fortune in ore before her and sighed. "Travis, have I told you how much I love you? But only for your cool stuff. Also, no one ever bought me a gun before. Well, technically Pen did, but it was your gold."


    "Fife?"


    "What is it Trav?"


    "Thanks for being you. For putting yourself between all the bad things and our friends. It means a lot." Travis knew he sounded a bit mushy, but he didn''t care. Fife, to him, was amazing. "I don''t know how you can do it."


    "Oh, that''s easy." Between swings, Fife answered, "You see, it''s when you realize you can''t run away as fast as everyone else. If you don''t get good at not dying, slow people kinda die. Then I started wearing heavier armor, got thinner, and next thing I know I have friends who don''t care what I looked like. All so long as I can run the slowest."


    "I''m going to tell Squishy to hug you next time you go to your boss room."


    "Oh, sure." Fife picked up each chunk of mithril and a moment later they disappeared. "Pick the one creature in the dungeon I can outrun." She smirked for a moment. "Not that I would outrun the big guy. He gives great hugs!"


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    <blockquote>


    Quest Complete: Mine some mithril.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    New Quest: Give classes to 10 of your creatures.


    </blockquote>


    It didn''t take much looking to find where his reward was. "You know how I had a quest to get mithril?" He waited for Fife to nod¡ªshe was still mining the stuff. "Well, the quest gave me a hundred ready-to-use mithril."


    Fife groaned and tossed her pickaxe away to the side, where it vanished. "Perfect. Now I never have to dig again!"


    <blockquote>


    Quest Complete: Kill 200 invaders.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    New Quest: Send a spy into the nearby city.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    Quest Complete: Send a spy into the nearby city.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    New Quest: Delve to the bottom of a dungeon with at least 20 floors.


    </blockquote>


    Travis felt overwhelmed. Ludmiller had been out doing her "package deliveries" again. He reminded himself to get her whatever class he could before things went further with her adventures. Now the problem was to find what he''d gotten from his stupid quest system.


    "This quest thing is so broken. Luddy just completed the kill two hundred invaders quest, then it gave me a quest to send a spy into the city. That completed and gave me a quest to delve another dungeon with at least twenty floors. That means that the goblin dungeon has twenty or more floors. I can''t figure out what they gave as rewards, either." Glancing around his interface, he spotted one quickly. "Right, I got two hundred thousand experience. That''s nice. Uh¡­"


    "Maybe you should write down what you have so you can tell easier?" Fife asked, heading out of the mithril mine and heading back up the tunnel.


    "That would never work. These values are constantly changing, anyway. Also, some are really hard to fi¡ª Ah, I found the reward for the other. A lizard village has appeared on the first floor and it already has Exploration Focus."


    Fife laughed at that before picking up her pace. "I want to see what adventure lizards look like. I hope the city likes lizards."


    <hr>


    Sitting in the dining room immediately inside the dungeon''s city entrance, Christine cleared her throat and looked around for any kobolds. One would come running out of one of the connected kitchens every few minutes with a huge pot full of stew, only for people to collect it and carry it out of the dungeon and to the city. It would be a bewildering process if only she hadn''t organized most of it. "Travis, can I have a word?"


    Two kobolds froze and nodded toward her, one said, "He''s sending someone to chat now."


    It didn''t take long before a familiar kobold walked up to where she was sitting. Smiling at her visitor, she reached to her side and picked up a lizard to put on the table. "Sorry to bother you, Stephan, but what are these all about?"


    "There is a lizard village that we got, unfortunately, for free. It also came with the exploration upgrade. It was part of a quest reward that Travis'' system gives him for, in this case, spying on the city." Stephan reached a hand out and scratched the little lizard that was now wearing a cloak. "I like their waterskins."


    "I can appreciate that most of them are spreading out over the wall and heading out into the enemy lines, but a large number of them are also making their way deeper into the city." Despite how much she liked the kobolds for their hard work and seemingly limitless supply of gold, Christine had to bring the issue up. "I''d like you to stop sending them out if you can."


    "We can''t and that''s the problem. There is an advantage." As he spoke, Stephan listened to what Travis was telling him. "Travis can see through them. He can''t direct them, but the lizards have already helped us find three new sets of siege engines that we didn''t know they were building."


    "Oh."


    "Ludmiller will go out a little later to deal with those. We are in the process of establishing a mithril production system, and we''re going to make some better guns. Travis wishes to give a pistol to each member of the council, as well as Brolly a rifle." It was a bribe and Stephan knew it. It would be a small price in resources for settling a big problem. "All we ask is that you don''t sell them."


    It was enough to make Christine drool. Mithril guns were unheard of. Normally, such items were reserved for the most wealthy adventurers, high-born army commanders, and kings. "I don''t know of anyone who could pay me enough to satisfy the merchant in me."


    Stephan laughed and tilted his head to the side as Travis asked him to bring up another idea. "We''re going to try some actual tunneling to open an entrance outside the city. Some of our adventurers want to try goading the goblins into attacking the army."


    "Why don''t you sneak Ludmiller out into the forest somewhere and open a new dungeon entrance? Like what we did with the verdant dungeon."


    "Because we can¡ª Oh. We might be able to try, I guess. It depends if the forest entrance now counts as fully sealed or not. Travis, can we try?" Stephan asked.


    "Wait," Christine said. "If we could get an entrance past the enemy, we could send riders to raise the alarm."


    Travis had been set to argue about spending almost a thousand of his precious rock on something frivolous, but with such a goal as lifting the siege early, it would be worth the risk. "Tell her we''ll try." While the conversation was going on, the last of the day''s food was being shipped out of the dungeon.


    Ramping up his food delivery, Travis had dispatched two thousand food worth of meals to the kitchens, though they had turned it into enough to feed double that. From his new ability to see outside, he was trying to track the distribution¡ªand watched as about two-thirds of the city was fed from his coffers.


    When Ludmiller stepped back in his entrance, Travis decided it was time to try this trick again. "Luddy, do you want a break or are you ready for a special one?"


    Her nose still full of the smell of black powder post deflagration, Ludmiller said, "Give me an hour to cuddle Wild, bury myself in lizards, and get some food." The only thing about the list was she''d have to consider what order to do the things. Passing the kitchen complex that''d been built near the entrance, she detoured there to fetch something to eat. When she was done with her food and started heading to the second floor¡ªlizards started running at her from all directions. "Thank you, Trav!" she managed to say before being buried in the rambunctious reptiles.


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 Chapter 93

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 20/100


    Heart 1440000/1440000


    Experience 75747/360000


    Workers 27/121


    Monsters 9/123


    Traps 71/294


    Food 3603


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Mithril 3


    Mithril Ore 50


    Charcoal 4758


    Mana 1161


    Rock 3263


    Gold 1057


    Leather 217


    Leather Sludge 215


    Lava 500


    Glass 483


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 5


    Bullets 300


    Black Powder 300


    Poison, Greater 1200


    Sulfur 700


    Quest: Give classes to 10 of your creatures.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Delve to the bottom of a dungeon with at least 20 floors.


    </blockquote>


    Travis ended up spending a whole extra day focused on getting everyone outfitted, getting new rooms finished, and trying to solve an odd problem. He knew he''d lost a few of the smaller mana shrines, but he''d also uncovered a bunch of new ones and linked into them¡ªbut he wasn''t gaining as much mana as he thought he should.


    While Stephan was out presenting their gifts to the city council, Travis had Katelyn check every single mana shrine they had to make sure nothing odd was happening. "Could it be some kind of soft limit to income?" he asked.


    "Mana doesn''t exactly degrade like that." Circling around to the newer area, Katelyn shook her head when she finished the last of those. "I can''t sense anything. No dulling, feedback, or even damage."


    "Thanks for checking. I''ll keep an eye on it. Oh, I have your class next. Dungeon Mages is another three hundred days of research, but we''re burning through it fast now." Travis was nervous about Ludmiller going out again. He''d offered her some mithril armor, but she had refused it because of the noise it made.


    "Get me more kobolds, Trav, and I''ll get your research humming along faster and faster." Katelyn stopped suppressing her magic, letting it flow down her arms, through her staff, and engulfing her body. "And, Trav, thanks for not pushing me to have a gun."


    "You''re joking, right? How would you even use one like you are?"


    Katelyn made sure to flare brightly with flame. "Exactly! Fife kept telling me I should get two pistols, but I think she''s gone a little gun-happy. But, you know, it makes me think. What if I could find another way to fire something from them?"


    "What, use magic?" Travis asked.


    "Yeah. I couldn''t use a wooden handle, but what if I got a rifle barrel attached to my staff, loaded it, then I could cause an explosion behind the bullet and fire it. It wouldn''t be much, but then I''d have something to use on magic resistant enemies."


    "How common are things that are magic resistant but not physically resistant as well? You''re one of our biggest hitters, and besides, we''ve all worked so hard to be at a point where we don''t have to do things we don''t want to." As soon as he asked, Travis could see Katelyn deflate a little. "You could still try it if you want. Being a cohort, it wouldn''t even matter if you, uh, blew a few guns up in the process."


    Pausing, Katelyn shook her head. "I think I''ll stick to magic then. Random explosions don''t sound fun. Oh, did you get those rabbits from the verdant dungeon?"


    "Yeah. About those. I thought rabbits would be tiny things. Barely big enough to feed one or two people. Those rabbits were as big as a dog!"


    "Now you see why a verdant animal dungeon is so valuable. Rabbits are the least of their creatures, and they''re so much larger than anything you can grow naturally or unnaturally. Wizards have worked for centuries trying to create the perfect set of conditions to grow rabbits that size." Katelyn shifted through a wall to get to the inner sanctum and shorten the distance to her library. "Anything else?"


    "Nah. I think we have things in hand for now."


    <hr>


    Field Captain Donna was not happy. She was also not willing to put up with the ranting of the other field captains. "Shut up, Astrid!" Glaring at the woman whose job was to build siege engines, Donna snarled. "How many walls have your engineers destroyed?"


    "If you don''t both calm down, I''ll order you stripped and will have you fight to the death of one¡ªor preferably both of you." Field Captain Hilda looked between her two specialists. Of the three, she was higher born, stronger, but younger. Neither had a head for large scale warfare, which was why she''d been put in charge of keeping this border skirmish in order. "Are you done?"


    Being dressed down by someone of equal rank fueled Donna''s anger more, but Hilda had a point. Both of them had screwed up. Her in trying to take the various dungeons of the area and Astrid in not breaching the walls of the city with her siege engines. Taking a step back and dipping her head to Hilda, Donna said, "I will hold my tongue in your presence."


    "You brown-nosing piece of¡ª" The sound of a blade being drawn had not fully registered in Astrid''s ears before she felt the edge of the weapon at her throat. Her own blade was still sheathed and she had nothing to stop Hilda from running the exotic metal through tendons, blood vessels, and windpipe.


    "Are you done, Astrid, or will I make you be done?" Hilda asked, her tone colder than her weapon. She waited for Astrid''s eyes to cast down before taking the blade away from the woman''s throat. "We all have had setbacks here. The heretics'' damn ghost is slipping through our ranks and destroying your machines. The viciousness of the two pits you encountered, Donna, was not anticipated. The only thing we had going for us was time, and yet even that runs short."


    Donna straightened. She would pay for having failed, but Hilda had offered a measure of protection. She hated that her little sister was the one protecting her. "I will assault the greenskin hole to the north. We will¡ª"


    "You will not. We have bottled them up in their makeshift fort and I will not send more good soldiers to their deaths in that damned rotting pit. Even an ending poison wouldn''t promise victory in that damned hole." Despite sharing blood ties with Donna, Hilda would still have removed her sister''s head if she hadn''t seen reason. "Do you still have the smaller siege weapons?"


    "We lost two in that dragon hole. I have eight others." Donna looked at her sister with more than a little curiosity. "What do you have planned for them?"


    What Hilda wanted was an end to the siege, a good bout of sacking, and then returning to their own lands in the north. "From what the scouts tell me, we have at least two more weeks before anything could come to stop us. Four if they want to bring a force that could be problematic. I want to be in that city in two days. Ready the wolf warriors, Astrid. You can regain your honor by fighting at their head and observing the old ways. Build a ram and let''s break that door down."


    Turning and leaving the command tent, Astrid tilted her head back and sniffed the wind. "Blood, fire, and a noble death." The words made her smile. "I''ll take two from three. Raise the wolf standard! We will take the gate by force tonight. Build the howler." Her first sergeant raced off with the news, carrying the good news to the engineers and her own squad of warriors.


    The walk to her own tent was short, but each step made Astrid more sure of her role. She would be the first to howl at the moon from within that city''s walls. "Prepare my heavy armor. My stole too." She allowed her squires to remove her field armor and replace it with the heavy armor that she called her juggernaut.


    Each plate of the metal known as adamantine overlapped two others. All the joints were covered in two layers of mithril chain. It weighed more than she did and cost a large ransom. It took two squires working together to get the breastplate on her. The other pieces were assembled, strapped down, and tightened until only her head was visible beyond the dark armor. "My stole."


    The huge wolf pelt, complete with hollowed out head, was draped over Astrid''s shoulders. The smell of the skin was intoxicating enough without the old crone bringing a wooden bowl into her tent. As the engineers prepared their equipment and the sun dipped down to the horizon, Astrid drank the contents of the bowl.


    The result, firstly, caused her insides to tie up in knots. Cramps all through her gut halted digestion in its tracks and ensured that the toxins in the stew would do their job.


    Every muscle in her body was on fire. Energy flooded her and she resorted to the meditation she and every other ulfhednar had been taught since they were first identified to carry the wolf curse. Slowing her heart down, calming her breathing¡ªAstrid stood just inside the entrance of her tent as she felt the world around her narrow.


    "How long has she got?" a squire asked the old crone.


    "That she hasn''t gone wild already speaks well of her spirit. If she isn''t berserk now, she soon will be."


    The squires looked at each other, worry etched on their faces. Together they moved to the tent and pulled back the flaps.


    Full moon. It wasn''t required for Astrid''s talent, but it helped. Her arms and legs began twitching, the motion hidden well by the heavy armor. Underneath, flesh writhed and skin sprouted a thick pelt of midnight black fur. Reaching out, Astrid clutched the handle of her battleaxe and stepped into the cooling night.


    There was no longer a sense of hot or cold¡ªAstrid''s whole body was on fire. She wasn''t fighting the toxins inside her but embracing them. Ducking under her pennant, she lifted her now inhuman head to the sky and howled.


    With the whole Balavian camp going silent at the noise, more howls started to rise here and there. In ones and twos they rushed to Astrid''s side. She knew well, even as the call of blood filled her head, when her pack was gathered. The engineers had worked fast to build the ram and line it up¡ªseeing it, she knew what she had to do. "Forward!"


    At the last moment someone passed Astrid her helmet which she shoved on over her lupine features. With her heart speeding up, there was no barrier that could hold her back.


    When her shoulder hit the crossbeam of the ram, Astrid barely slowed. Almost a dozen others slammed against their own beams and the ram lurched forward into a fast pace. On the wall ahead of her, she could see the glint of steel tubes raised and aimed at her. Astrid no longer cared about the enemy and their weapons¡ªshe only had to smash in the door and the pack would feast.


    Donna watched in the darkness. Astrid and her wolves slammed the battering ram up against the front gate and started the huge log swinging. The level of noise from less than fifty fighters had even her own blood boiling in sympathy. And that''s when the first target presented itself.


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    Up on the wall, the city guards stepped out from behind merlons with their guns raised to their shoulders. The first, a young sergeant, sprouted five feet of ballista bolt before he could discharge his rifle.


    The ballista bows, with an added band of steel on each, would not last the night. The extended range that the modification gave let them snipe the defenders on the wall from outside rifle range.


    Swinging the battering ram, Astrid was hidden from the defenders'' sight by the large awning over their ram. As the fight went on and the door started to weaken, she was only feeling more excitement. The peculiar sound of splintering wood¡ªpoles the defenders were no doubt using inside to reinforce the gate¡ªwas music to her ears.


    Everything was going perfectly. The ram was breaking more supports with each swing, and Astrid could hear more cracking wood now than she could howls from her pack. One sound, though, registered above the din of battle¡ªleathery wings cutting through the night sky.


    "You bastards tried using this crap on us. Let''s see how you like it." Fife lit the fuse on the bomb with her alchemical striker. The crackling, hissing cord burned shorter and shorter. "Well, Junior, if we don''t make this, I¡ª" She had to cut herself off as a ballista bolt flew through the air where they''d been flying a moment earlier. Patting the shoulder of her wyvern, she looked down to find her target.


    The bomb fell from Fife''s grip and tumbled through the air as it fell. The fuse was protected enough by a metal tube so that it wouldn''t go out. The explosive, though, was the smaller barrel of the two that made up the device.


    Astrid turned her head when the smell of crackling black powder drew her attention. A keg had landed in the muck beside the ram and though she was not much more than a slathering beast at that point, part of her connected the dots as to what the bomb was.


    Arching her back, Astrid looked up at the moon and howled mournfully as the charge detonated and a thick yellow fog puffed out all around them. It was already too late, she knew, what with being in the middle of the cloud. She would never make it to the edge before falling over dead. Pulling a dagger from her belt, she jumped up onto the roof of the ram and from there onto the wall above the gate.


    Digging her dagger in, Astrid saw several other wolves repeat her trick¡ªclimbing out of the death cloud. With claws and whatever blades they had available, the wolves scaled the wall as their packmates died in silence below. It was not a good death, they knew, but they would make the soft southerners pay for each wolf slain.


    Landing on the wall, Fife shouted, "Pull back! They''ll be over the wall soon! Ready your guns!" Something shoved into her side, but her armor held and the ballista bolt was deflected from its attempt to spear through her. Her wyvern, she was happy to see, was screaming its defiance at the army outside.


    Drawing her shield with one hand, Fife pulled out one of her new pistols with the other and waited. The first armored head that looked over the wall was gifted a steel shot at close range¡ªwhat worried Fife was that the round deflected off the heavily armored wolf. "Shit."


    Fife had to give full credit to her new equipment; the huge beast''s claws weren''t tearing away her shield. She thought she was handling it well until another of them blindsided her. The punch collided with Fife''s side and threw her off the wall and down to the city street below. Only reflexes kept her sword in her hand. Looking at the wall, she watched as six of the juggernauts stood tall; as if surveying the lay of the city for their next move. "I need that adamantine gear."


    Spotting those of his troops not heeding Fife''s advice falling from the wall, Brolly Windchime sucked in a breath of worry at the carnage above the gatehouse. They were monsters out of legend. Huge armored hulks with great claws, wolf features, and death in their eyes.


    As he raised his new mithril rifle, Brolly whispered a prayer to any god that would hear him and to the city itself to guide him. And then he spotted a gap in their armor. The plates of adamantine overlapped on all the exposed joints except for the one that needed the most amount of movement. Stilling his breath, he sighted and fired.


    Astrid''s victory howl, and the answering howl of her pack, lasted for barely a moment. Heads raised, they''d boosted their own morale and crushed that of their enemies both. One of her packmates had shown a little too much enthusiasm and raised the battleaxe they''d brought up the wall high into the air.


    The crack of Brolly''s rifle was answered by the stillness of one of the wolves. The round had entered through a gap under its raised arm and the steel shot pinged around inside the hollow cage several times before muscle, bone, and finally brain arrested its motion.


    Fife managed to roll to the side to avoid having the beast land on top of her. The axe that had been the wolf''s undoing was not in its hand though. High above, Astrid locked her eyes on the man who''d delivered a deathblow to one of her pack and she casually jumped from the wall to the ground below.


    "Brogdar, give my allies strength!" The shout, pure and charged with the certainty of a god''s backing, spread a wave of power throughout the city. Even Brayden was surprised by the fervor of Brogdar''s support.


    Still grumbling at Fife having taken off without her, Penelope loped through the city as fast as she could. Her new armor felt amazing and light for what it was, and while she''d been worried her new swords wouldn''t be magic, she seemed destined to turn whatever blades she carried into nightmares of acid. She passed Brayden at a run, though he fell in behind her.


    Brolly, staring at the axe-wielding monstrosity charging at him, barely managed to lift his pistol and shoot at it. The round pinged off when the wolf was thirty feet away. When it halved the distance again, a second creature stepped up beside and then in front of him.


    Flaring her wings, Penelope brought up all her fury and anger into a belch of barely gaseous acid that poured over the charging wolf. She had her blades up to meet it as its hissing axe slammed against her crossed blades.


    Expecting the beast to curse at her or say anything, Penelope was shocked to see bloodshot yellow eyes staring back at her from inside the helmet atop its head. She struck one blade at that face while knocking away its axe with the other. What she didn''t account for was the claws of its free hand raking her at her left arm.


    Stepping up beside Penelope to catch a second wolf''s slash on his shield, Brayden snarled out, "Lend me your aid!" and cast his healing magic at Penelope.


    Fife got to her feet again after the second wolf passed, looking around to find three of the wolves focused on her. "Ha! Pen only gets two and I get three? Figures. This is what it takes to pay for¡ª" She cut her monologue short and stepped back, blocking a slash from one of the wolves. "...pay for some good armor." As she spoke, she realized they weren''t so much focused on her but what was right behind her¡ªthe chains that held the gate bar in place. "Ah. So that''s how"¡ªshe blocked another swing and parried away a probing claw¡ª"it is?"


    The fighting intensified. Fife parried and blocked what attacks she could, and when one wolf tried to slap her aside, she took it on her armor and hacked halfway through their exposed wrist to dissuade further attempts to knock her down.


    None of the wolves felt the chill as the night air fell upon the city. If they did, they would have certainly noticed it was happening unnaturally fast.


    Fife recognized the rime growing on the armor of the wolves, but felt barely the slightest cool breeze herself. When the three seemed to burst into wild and hectic swings to bring her down, she snarled a single word at them, "Riposte."


    Time slowed. Fife watched in slow motion as their attacks came at her, and she had infinite time to move and intercept each¡ªthen get her own swing back. She sliced talons from their huge hands, cut wrists and hands, and broke every finger on one with a slap of her shield.


    Ten seconds had seemed like forever, but it was over in a blink of an eye.


    The rime had grown more pronounced and the breath of the wolves hung heavy on the air. As Fife watched, their swings got slower and slower until she could keep up without taking any hits on her armor. She knew of one such spell that would do it mostly because it was one Jack enjoyed using. "I''ll give you a kiss you''ll never forget you lunatic sorcerer," she said, getting under the guard of one of the wolves and bringing her head into the frozen armor of the wolf''s belly.


    Adamantine armor wouldn''t break, especially not with such a light impact, but Fife''s head had the same hardness and resilience as the rest of her, causing the thin layer of ice that had formed inside the wolf''s armor to spall and drive small shards into its gut. They weren''t much, but they broke the skin and gave Jack''s magic a new place to infiltrate.


    With his newfound, dungeon-given power, Jack picked out each delicate little shard and poured more ice into the wolf directly. Its organs froze first, then it spread out to its legs and, when it started to fall, its arms.


    Fife knew she needed to not get hit by the shards that were coming. Taking a hit from one of the remaining two wolves, she aimed her shield at the frozen, falling wolf as it tumbled toward the stones under her feet.


    The explosion was surprisingly (to both Fife and Jack) contained within the armor. No large shards of ice got loose to find other targets. But, just from observing her two remaining opponents, Fife could see that they were less sure of themselves.


    Penelope wasn''t built as tough as Fife. She could deflect some hits, and parry others, but it was Brayden''s healing that kept her upright and brawling with the two seemingly unstoppable monsters. Her blades were starting to have an effect on some of the armor pieces of the wolves, but on the whole she couldn''t get past it¡ªand her breath had proved weirdly ineffective on them.


    Brayden, too, wasn''t having any luck damaging his enemy. He traded blows with the wolf, but he had only escaped being drawn into a battle of strength through the power of his god. All his focus was on the wolf opposite him, and Penelope.


    Surveying her options, Katelyn could see that Brayden needed to have the stress taken off him first. While he remained standing, Penelope could too, and from what she could see of Fife, she figured that fight was mostly under control. "Okay, then, I don''t think heating all that armor up is something I can do quickly, but here''s a neat trick a friend taught me."


    With his next heal spell on Penelope, Brayden noticed that the wolf he was fighting had a small dot appear on its helmet. The trail of light behind the dot seemed to shimmer from red to blue to blinding white. The dot grew smaller before a tiny puff of metal left the spot.


    The sizzling smell of burning meat met Astrid''s nose. She looked around and spotted Katelyn easily enough. "Heretics!" Her shout was half howl and was answered with a few sharp sounds¡ªfrom far fewer wolves than she''d led into the city. Turning, she looked at the door to see there was only one wolf still fighting to open it.


    Fear beat strong in Astrid''s heart, but up until then she hadn''t seen the certainty of her own death before. A yelp from beside her and that horrid smell again alerted her to her ally''s demise and caused what little cognition she had remaining to register the imminence of her death.


    "Yield!" Brayden shouted, putting the strength of his god into his voice. "Take a knee, wolf, and you may live! I swear it on my honor!"


    Under different circumstances, in a different battle, Astrid would have let the fear overtake her. A gut churning with the berserker poison would not let her bend her knee. With a warm sensation growing on her forehead, she drew her axe back and threw it. The adamantine weapon pinwheeled through the air and buried itself in Katelyn''s shoulder, digging deep into her neck.


    Without the risk of a mage to fell her, Astrid let loose the psychotic rage that boiled inside. Unleashing ferocity and fervor unlike any she''d felt in her life, the pure state of infinite battle-lust subsumed her. She danced around blades, not caring as they bounced off or bit in. The dragon''s blades were the worst offenders, but she grabbed one with her bare hand and threw it aside.


    Penelope, with only one blade remaining to her, tried to deflect the next claw only to have her remaining blade snatched away and cast aside. She had no choice but to grapple, hand to claw, with the wolf. "Brayden!"


    With a choice between checking on Katelyn and helping Penelope, Brayden realized it was as much triage as battle smarts. "I''m behind you. Brogdar, guide this ally to your path and lend her your strength!"


    Fife, with the last of the three wolves now a melting puddle of meat, watched as Penelope grew. She reached the same size as the wolf she was wrestling, and then continued to grow. "Whoa¡­"


    When she was half again as big as the wolf, Penelope transferred its left arm to her left grip so she could hold both limbs in one hand, then reached up and ripped the helmet off Astrid. The wolf inside the armor had blood flowing from its nose and its eyes were stained with crimson as well. "Cleanse it!"


    "What?" Brayden asked.


    "Poison. Cleanse this wolf of poison, Brayden!" Penelope had to give up her grip on the helmet and grab as Astrid got a hand free.


    When Brayden uttered words she barely comprehended, Astrid felt the first tickle of fear again. The magic she feared so much plowed through her. Her righteous fury failed first, then her conviction, and finally her reserves of strength ran out and, eyes wide, she fell to the ground while her heart still beat.


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 94

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 21/100


    Heart 1587600/1587600


    Experience 194747/396900


    Workers 27/133


    Monsters 9/135


    Traps 71/324


    Food 3603


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Mithril 3


    Mithril Ore 50


    Charcoal 4758


    Mana 994


    Rock 3263


    Gold 1057


    Leather 217


    Leather Sludge 215


    Lava 500


    Glass 483


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 5


    Bullets 300


    Black Powder 300


    Poison, Greater 1200


    Sulfur 700


    Adamantine Scraps 24


    Quest: Give classes to 10 of your creatures.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Delve to the bottom of a dungeon with at least 20 floors.


    </blockquote>


    "Giant, armored werewolves?" Travis asked. "Did anyone know they had giant, armored werewolves?"


    There were a lot of heads shaking. Even the oldest among them, Tannyr and Kelvin, hadn''t a clue.


    It had been a huge mess, with Katelyn being killed, but part of the cleanup had been Brayden resurrecting her. Travis asked, "Okay, so, this seems like a good time to build that jail. Blake, can you plan it and tell me where to place it?"


    "I''ll make a start on that. Any floor in particular you want it on?" Standing up, Blake started to walk from the second floor bar and down the back tunnel.


    "I was thinking about the third floor. Maybe beside the lizard village? That way I can keep an eye on anything in there and if they want to get deeper, they have to get past Squishy." Travis was updating the three maps in his heart room himself now, ensuring that anyone with access to him could see everything in the dungeon.


    "I''ll go too. If we''re digging down there, it''s best to have me ready to take things on." Standing up to follow, Fife tapped Penelope on the shoulder. "You too, boss."


    "Ordered around like a commoner!" Penelope fell off her seat and flopped onto the floor. "How will I cope?" Having gotten a good laugh from everyone, she got back up and followed after Fife.


    "What about the rest of us?" Tannyr asked.


    Travis looked at his board of things to do (which was separate from the regular work list) and noticed the obvious. "Right, more mithril would be a great start. Can you go and mine some and I''ll have someone figure out how to smelt it?"


    "Got it. How much do you need?"


    "Make it a thousand. We need to figure that out. Brayden, how long can a person be dead before the resurrection won''t work anymore?" Travis asked.


    Calming down from laughing at Fife and Penelope, Brayden shrugged. "I don''t know. From experience talking to others, though, I''d say we have until the body starts to rot. Usually a few days. Why?"


    "And if we froze the bodies so they don''t rot?"


    Brayden looked at Jack. "I see where you''re going. They would probably keep a lot longer then."


    "Hold on." Jack looked around the table. "Who am I freezing so we can resurrect? Those wolves?"


    "Yeah. They''re the first of the enemies we''ve managed to catch and had Brayden around for. I have questions for them and I figure putting them in a prison will also give some good XP." That''s when something that had been eating away at Travis, since the attack, made sense. "They didn''t have a talisman on them!"


    "Only the richer soldiers would be able to afford one, but that wolf-woman we saved was wearing a small fortune in adamantine," Kelvin said.


    Brayden nodded. "They all were. It doesn''t make sense."


    "The empire is fanatically against magic." Felna walked into the tavern, rubbing at the side of her face with a hand. "Also against outsiders. I''d show you how I found that out, but I paid extra to be resurrected without the scars." Slumping into a seat, she tipped her head back and looked up. "They are also way into dying the right way. Bringing them back from a death in battle, I think, would be one of the worst things you could do."


    "How do you know so much about them?" Katelyn asked.


    "Because they also take slaves." Felna delivered her best and most significant I think that covers everything look. "I hid my talisman and got one so angry they killed me. Free ride out of that nightmare." Shrugging, Felna tilted her head forward when a bowl of porridge was set before her. Sniffing at it, she looked up at Axel and nodded. "Thank you."


    "Hey, uh, I saw you got some mithril." Putting a mug of short beer down, Axel shifted his feet and kept looking down.


    Felna raised a feline eyebrow and smirked at him. "You want to try your hand at working it? That hammer at your side looks a little big for a carpenter and a little small for combat."


    "Y-Yeah. My dad''s a smith and he''s been teaching me. I''m pretty good, but he said we can''t use the dungeon''s tools because¡ª" Sighing, Axel shook his head. "And I don''t think I want to be a¡ª Not that being a kobold is bad! It''s just¡ª"


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    Focusing on Axel, studying his calloused hands and muscled arms particularly, Felna asked, "What if I told you there might be another way?" His surprise spurred her on. "There''s a binding I can do. You won''t become a kobold, but you''ll be able to hear Travis and, maybe, use the dungeon''s tools."


    "Felna, we don''t know if it will work like that," Travis said. "What if he''s stuck or something? Or what if it actually turns him into a kobold?"


    "Travis is reminding me that we have only tried this on one person, me. We don''t know if it has side effects, though the only one I''ve noticed is having a dungeon in my head talking at any hour of the day or night." Rolling her eyes skyward, Felna asked, "There, is that enough warning?"


    "Dad wouldn''t. Mom still wants more kids and they know about¡ªyeah. I''m old enough to make my own choices. Can we go do it now?" The look in Axel''s eyes spoke of a need to break out on his own and make his mark, and given the group around him he got a lot of nodding heads. "Please?"


    "You''re sixteen?" Looking at her meaty porridge, Felna started shoveling it into her mouth and gulped it down as fast as she could.


    "Sixteen makes him an adult?" Travis asked.


    Felna nodded, still eating.


    Nodding, Axel said, "Yeah."


    Not stopping her frantic pace, Felna grabbed up the adulterated mug and stood when she''d had her fill. "Come on, then, before any of us think clearer. I''m pretty sure this needs to be done in his heart room."


    <hr>


    "And that''s it?" Fife asked. She looked over the thin room that ran beside the tunnel that led to the lizard village on the third floor. "What if you went the other way?"


    "So it was up against the village? We could do that. Hey, and that fits better too. Good eyes, Fife." Blake adjusted the design to be the place Fife had suggested. "Trav said the prison has a cost per two-by-one section, so I think that will be each cell size. That means we will hopefully get thirty-two cells."


    "With a hall down the middle. Okay," Penelope said, rolling her shoulders, "let''s go do this." With the other two following her, she led the way as they slipped through stone and tunnels, first passing through her own boss room and then reaching Fife''s. The figure of a woman, arms and legs corded with muscle, glared at her when she entered the room. "Hey, I know you can''t understand us, but we''re going to make your bedroom for a bit. I hope Squishy isn''t¡ª"


    Fife had ignored Astrid and ran straight to Squishy. Giving the slime her best headbutt (which bounced off harmlessly), she asked Squishy, "Not giving you any trouble, is she?"


    Fairly advanced for a slime, Squishy was nonetheless not all that smart. It felt a lot of affection for the other denizens of the dungeon, but the woman in the room was not a friend but also not to be food. Squishy''s dungeon had made that clear.


    Dungeon monsters rated low on Astrid''s scale of things to treat with respect¡ªexcept as opponents. She snarled at their strange language and tried to call on her berserker side, but weakened as she was she couldn''t manage it.


    Worse, though, than the dragons was the slime. The thing had not moved since she''d woken, but she had tried to leave the room and the thing had moved to block her. With only a thin wrap of fabric to protect herself, Astrid didn''t plan to fight a slime bigger than any she''d seen before.


    One of the three got Astrid''s focus because, unlike the bigger two, Blake wasn''t a fighter. He didn''t wear armor, carry a weapon, or even move like he was used to dealing with an enemy trying to kill him.


    She''d died, Astrid was certain of it. She''d panicked and screamed as she''d gone down, tried to lash out and take one with her¡ªor so she liked to think. The truth was she''d been terrified. All knew that the foul magic of the southerners could even violate the bond of a good northerner and their afterlife. She hated to think about it, but she had to wonder if she would have begged to be saved by them.


    "Is it just me," Blake said, "or does it look like she''s really pissed off about something?"


    Fife snorted. "Yeah. Remember what Trav told us Felna said? They love going down fighting. I gotta respect them for that¡ªbut the better thing is to go down fighting and live to come back and do it again."


    "That''s the truth." Penelope pushed through the last bit of wall and emerged into a tunnel with lizards everywhere. When Blake came through behind her, she''d already picked one up and had it on her shoulder. "I adore their little hats."


    By the time Fife reached the tunnel the other two were in, each of them had a lizard on their shoulders and were talking to them. She didn''t need to be asked to follow suit, though she picked up one lizard for each shoulder. "Okay, Trav, can you mark the area for digging?"


    Penelope was sure that with anyone else, Fife wouldn''t have pitched in. She mused on it being another part of the weird thinking that kobolds had. None of them would bow down to her, but in ones and twos, they all deferred to her. "Nice pace. Keep it u¡ª"


    As the square Penelope had been mining away collapsed to reveal a huge cave beyond it, Fife dropped her pickaxe and drew the tools of her trade. Not asking permission, she shoved Penelope aside and put herself firmly into the gap. "Trav, tell the rest we have a situation."


    "Got it! Your cohorts are coming. Blake, head back to the village and then skip through the residences. I''ll guide you." Travis was so focused on getting Blake moving that he forgot to phrase his words as a request. "Sorry, Blake," he said, "I didn''t mean to order you."


    "Able to focus better away from the danger," Blake said. "It''s fine, Trav. I would have been slow to move, anyway. Where am I headed?"


    Leaving Travis to handle the logistics of getting help and ensuring Blake was safe, Penelope drew her rifle and aimed it over Fife''s head. "Watch your ears. I''ll shoot when I see something."


    Shield forward and down slightly, Fife tried to hear or see what was inside the cave. When a huge claw swung her way out of the blackness, itself a pasty white, she was quick to get her shield between it and herself.


    "Holding!" Penelope had to fight not to aim and pull the trigger. The claw was massive¡ªas big as Fife was¡ªand opened as it reached for them. To the left of the huge claw, she saw something else approach and turned her gun to it and fired.


    The loud echo of the gunshot was like its own weapon in the confined area. The huge stinger that''d been plunging toward them jerked back after the ball from Penelope''s rifle almost ripped the end of it clear off.


    "Cave scorpion!" Fife shouted.


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 95

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 21/100


    Heart 1587600/1587600


    Experience 194747/396900


    Workers 27/133


    Monsters 9/135


    Traps 71/324


    Food 3603


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Mithril 3


    Mithril Ore 50


    Charcoal 4758


    Mana 994


    Rock 3263


    Gold 1057


    Leather 217


    Leather Sludge 215


    Lava 500


    Glass 483


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 5


    Bullets 300


    Black Powder 250


    Poison, Greater 1000


    Sulfur 700


    Adamantine Scraps 24


    Quest: Give classes to 10 of your creatures.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Delve to the bottom of a dungeon with at least 20 floors.


    </blockquote>


    It was terrifying for Travis, and he suspected Fife too, to stare into the darkness of that cave and have claws lashing out. "That thing must be huge!"


    "I''ve seen them as the bosses in vermin dungeons. This is bigger than any of those, though. Why do you have things hiding in your walls, Trav?" Fife did her best to keep her shield between herself and the giant pincers as they rushed out at her from the darkness. "Hey, Pen, lob some runes in there. I want to see what I''m dealing with a little better."


    Pulling out three of the runes, Penelope tossed them one at a time over Fife''s head. The first to get close to the huge shape lit the cave up with its flash of explosive power. The second and third drew a screech from the scorpion that had Penelope let out a roar in challenge. "Let me head in, Fife. Keep it from getting out, but don''t interfere."


    "Where''s Katelyn? Jack? Get some mages down here, Trav!" Fife called out, making room for Penelope to get past her and quickly moving back to block the gap again. "And get Brayden."


    "They''re coming." Travis tracked the approach of his combat-focused inhabitants. "Ogmera, Felna, and Tom are coming too."


    <hr>


    Penelope wanted to test herself. The moment she was past Fife, she breathed out a spray of noxious, acidic breath that clung to and started burning the scorpion. What was odd was it allowed her to see it easier. "Hey there, big guy. See, this is my dungeon, not yours."


    The first claw to come at her was met with a double slash of her swords, swiping it aside and leaving a pair of burning green scorch marks on it. The problem she noticed, though, was for all the explosives, acid, and swipes with her swords¡ªPenelope couldn''t see any damage that wasn''t superficial.


    "Trav, this might be a tough one." Penelope started to back up to where Fife was, focusing on parrying the attacks. She barely got past her friend when the scorpion''s stinger came forward again and, looking fully healed, tried to impale Fife.


    "Not on the first date!" Raising her shield to deal with the stinger, Fife knew she left herself a little open. She brought her sword low, and only barely managed to fend off the clacking claw that tried to grab her leg. "Where''s our mages?!"


    "They''re coming," Ogmera said as she walked up behind Fife. "Let me shine some light on that ugly. How can you even see in here?" Pulling out a spare alchemical light, she twisted it on and tossed it into the cave.


    Now, with proper illumination, Travis got to appreciate how huge the cave scorpion was. "Pen, didn''t you shoot its tail off?"


    "That grew back fast. Did you manage to hurt it at all?" Fife asked, her eyes now tracking the thing far easier thanks to the light.


    "Regenerating isn''t usually their thing. I guess this is the kinda thing we have to deal with on the third floor, huh?" Walking back over to Fife, Penelope looked in at the huge beast. "Ugly as sin, but that venom could be useful."


    "Could we tame it, like Squishy?" Travis asked.


    "Squishy wasn''t angry to start with. He is a nice slime and only wanted to mellow out with a mana shrine. This guy"¡ªFife used the pommel of her sword to bash away one strike while she used her shield for another¡ª"is doing his best to make me an ex-kobold."


    Wrapping her magic into a spell, Ogmera worked it into her fetish and cast the luck charm. Normally she worked the opposite version¡ªone that gave good luck, but with her target being a singular enemy for a change, she instead cursed the luck of the scorpion.


    "Whatever you just did, I love it. Luck curse?" Fife asked.


    "Hey, we''re here. Did we miss anything?" Katelyn stepped into the area with Jack beside her, then stared at the huge form. "Oh shit. Uh¡ª Trav, can you drop a mana field here on me and Jack?"


    Felna moved to stand close to the pair, too, and shivered as the blue light suffused her. "Thanks, Trav."


    Jack didn''t comment on the feline healer gathering with them in the mana field. "Alright. Let''s work on that tail first. I''ll freeze it, then you flash boil my ice, got it? Third segment up from its butt."


    Having an experienced combat mage to guide her was a huge relief to Katelyn. She waited for his ice to form and for him to give her the gesture and then poured heat into the frozen muscle tissue.


    The explosion, and the tail breaking off, got a cheer from Fife. "Alright! Nice work. Now, about the claws. I''d like those gone too if¡ª Oh, come on!" She could see the stump where the tail had been removed starting to seethe with flesh and lengthen. "Keep hitting it!"


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    With the mana of the dungeon itself pouring through them, Jack and Katelyn alternated freezing and boiling the limbs of the scorpion. Even with half of its legs, tail, and one pincer gone, it still kept Fife on her toes. But the problem was it regenerated all its limbs at the same pace. They''d reached a point where they could only take a limb off as fast as it could regrow another.


    Clumsy as the scorpion had become with Ogmera''s curses, it was still deadly enough that no one but Fife wanted to go near it.


    Tom reached the fight next, and seeing that the other two mages were unloading as fast as they could to keep it partially disabled, he worked a different line. "There''s going to be some bright light, so don''t look at me. Hold onto your pants!"


    It was an old trick Tom had learned fighting the big bugs in vermin dungeons. Making sure to shield the light ball he was in the process of creating so it acted more like a directional lamp, he shifted the color of light it output from pleasing yellow to green, to blue, and finally further through violet and to a point where he knew it would hurt people to see it. With the color set, he turned up the intensity of the sphere floating above his head.


    The body of the scorpion started to glow in sympathy to the high frequency light. First it was a soft shade of green, then it grew brighter and brighter¡ªbut what Fife noticed immediately was the huge arachnid became orders of magnitude clumsier. "Whatever you''re doing, you crazy wizard, keep it up!"


    Tom could keep it up easily enough, but it was draining his reserves. "I can handle this for at most five minutes, then I''m out. Where''s Stratus?"


    "Coming!" As he walked to the end of the tunnel where everyone was gathered, Stratus could see the glowing, giant cave scorpion being worked on. "That is a superior specimen. Having trouble finishing it off?"


    "Can you lend us a hand, Stratus?" Tom nodded to the scorpion. "It''s not being courteous at all."


    Laughing, Stratus sank into his focus and started working on one of his favorite spells. Normally a single target would be a problem for Stratus. His magic was seemingly stuck on affecting a large area at once¡ªit was why he''d been delighted to get a job adventuring in vermin dungeons. The other time his magic worked a treat was when there was something big.


    Centering his flame field spell directly in the scorpion''s center of mass, he started pumping his mana into it for all he was worth. Katelyn and Jack''s explosive trick did wonders for extremities where there was an exoskeleton to crack, but Stratus'' magic acted deep inside the scorpion.


    Fife let out a whoop of excitement. "Whatever you''re doing, keep it up. It''s slow and¡ª Pen! Get in there and finish it!"


    Having spent the time reloading her pistol, Penelope slipped past Fife and approached the beleaguered scorpion. It didn''t even seem to notice her. "Sorry, big guy. I would have liked to get you outside and let you play with a certain army, but I don''t think even Fife would have managed to lead you past all those people without you trying to kill them." She whirled around in a spin, her blades slicing out and severing the weakened armor around its head. When the inner workings of its head were revealed, she aimed the pistol and, at point-blank, fired.


    Shivering at the sensation of leveling up again, Fife kept her eye on the downed scorpion, ready to deal with it if it somehow stood back up and kept fighting. "That''s it, I think."


    "I got experience for it. Wow, a lot of experience." Travis liked how professional everyone had been, but couldn''t help being worried that it had taken, effectively, several dungeon bosses and two adventurer groups to beat the thing down. "Do you think it would be worth building one of these a special chamber and making it so it can''t get out, but is in the path to my heart?"


    "The problem¡ª" Felna cut herself off from immediately replying and explained Travis'' idea to the rest of her party. "I was just going to say that with all the trouble trying to kill one, having it with a path to your heart isn''t a good idea. We''ve seen the tight holes scorpions can get into."


    Ogmera nodded. "One that big would have to squeeze, but it could probably fit down your tunnels."


    "Change of plans. Kill every scorpion we find that doesn''t want back-scratches," Travis said. "Wait, Pen, I got a new boss upgrade for you. Boss Upgrade Three. One hundred thousand gold, fifteen thousand food, two thousand mithril, and two thousand adamantine. It''s a lot, but I think it''ll be worth it. Oh, and Fife, you got level five. New ability: Reinforced Armor."


    "Reinforced Armor?" Fife asked, then shivered as she felt her body changing. Around her, the mithril armor seemed to bleed onto her body and became part of her. Large scales on her back, around her arms, and along her cheeks hardened and grew into ridges. She took a slow, deep breath and then looked down at herself. "Far out. This is amazing! I am my own armor!"


    Leaving Fife to her self-exploration, Penelope walked around the scorpion''s body. "Do any of you know how to butcher one of these? There''re three full tails over here you can probably get venom from. It kept growing them back."


    Sighing in resignation, Felna nodded. "I''ll go get my tools. This will take some time and I might need help. I''ve taken apart plenty of scorpions, just never one this big before."


    Travis was relieved at one immediate problem having been dealt with. The army outside still had a whole city of well-armed guards to fight through to reach him, but monsters in his own dungeon were more imminent and real. "Thank them, please? Your group I mean. I know you''re getting paid well for the work, but it''s still appreciated that you are willing to do it and not leave me to rot," he said to Felna.


    Passing on the message, Felna nodded to everyone. "I''ll go get my harvesting tools. Try not to let Fife eat the thing before I get back."


    Flashing her teeth, Fife laughed at the joke. "Hey, are my teeth made of metal now?" She tapped one with the tip of her sword and, when she heard a metallic clinking noise, almost cut her gum laughing anew.


    When a new tick of mana hit Travis, he realized the little drain on his income was increasing. "Uh, I''m not imagining this. Something is using up a chunk of my mana income¡ªand it''s getting worse."


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 96

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 21/100


    Heart 1587600/1587600


    Experience 297834/396900


    Workers 27/133


    Monsters 9/135


    Traps 71/324


    Food 3603


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Mithril 3


    Mithril Ore 50


    Charcoal 4758


    Mana 994


    Rock 3263


    Gold 1057


    Leather 217


    Leather Sludge 215


    Lava 500


    Glass 483


    Explosive Runes 5


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 5


    Bullets 300


    Black Powder 250


    Poison, Greater 1000


    Sulfur 700


    Adamantine Scraps 24


    Quest: Give classes to 10 of your creatures.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Delve to the bottom of a dungeon with at least 20 floors.


    </blockquote>


    With the immediate threat dealt with, Travis turned his full attention to the mana problem. "So, what has changed?" he asked Katelyn and Jack.


    Still buzzing after the fight with the scorpion, Katelyn shrugged. "We haven''t done anything with the shrines for a while, nor the manipulators in your heart room. Are you sure this isn''t some kind of balance thing?"


    "''Balance thing''?" Jack asked.


    "Travis'' dungeon type maps very closely to a type of game where he is originally from. We''re tentatively calling it a game dungeon. Those games often had ways to balance the difficulty by changing some things or even adding entire new systems. They''re all intended to make the game more challenging, for those that enjoy that."


    To say Travis was shocked was an understatement. He knew Katelyn had been reading his books¡ªhis memories of his life¡ªbut this seemed like some really intense research. "Yeah. That. I still think this needs a tutorial."


    Katelyn breaking into fits of barking laughter would have made Travis blush if only he still had a body. "Oh, come on. Sometimes doing is a good enough tutorial, but not when everyone''s lives are on the line. I don''t want to risk people dying because I couldn''t figure things out fast enough or, worse, didn''t know something."


    Jabbing her thumb in the direction of Travis'' heart, Katelyn gave Jack a grin. "And that''s why I work as hard as I can to make his life easier. He worries about everyone."


    "Can we focus on this mana problem?" Travis asked.


    "Let''s examine one of the big shrines first." Being in the library, Jack led the way to the heart room and the detailed maps there.


    Following along, Katelyn didn''t bother closing the doors behind her. Their effectiveness was lost now that there were no plans of being attacked. It was a different feeling now that the entrance of the dungeon was more or less secure. "If it was some kind of balance mechanic, what would it be based off that keeps changing?"


    Thinking on it, Travis voiced the obvious. "Between the previous tick of mana and the latest one? Experience. Possibly how much space the dungeon takes up. We have that huge new area on the top floor."


    "And a new cave opening up could have tipped us into the next level of balance. So, what are we trying next, Jack?" Katelyn asked.


    Looking at the map, Jack was counting something, but it wasn''t the number of shrines. "Just figuring out how we can move between these easiest. I want to test a theory."


    Travis was curious, but was beaten to the punch of asking by Katelyn.


    "What''s that?"


    Jack was about to ask when Felna entered the room. She dimmed her alchemical light and held up a big leather bag. "Do either of you know where I can deposit this so Trav gets it?"


    Katelyn''s nose wrinkled up at the smell from the bag. "What is that?"


    "Three plump venom sacks, a pair of scorpion oysters, and an egg sack." When Felna opened the bag, Jack and Katelyn both stepped back from her. "It''s not that bad. Besides, it''s what will be going into the food for the next day or so. Scorpion is delicious when poached."


    The purring coming from Felna let Travis know her full opinion on the scorpion flesh. The looks of horror on Jack and Katelyn''s faces made him glad he didn''t have a body with olfactory nerves. "You could have asked. Any storage room will do, like all the ones you passed on your way here."


    Shrugging, Felna replied, "Well, we''re surrounded by those. Are you doing anything more interesting than going back to losing all my gold to Ogmera at dice?"


    "Trying to figure out why Trav keeps getting less and less mana." Jack headed out of the heart room with both companions and headed south. "How do you know this way is south?" he asked. "On your map it says ''south'', but is it? I didn''t think compasses worked well in dungeons."


    "They still don''t, but it''s easier to just draw this way is south on the map and make it so." When they reached the first warehouse, after turning west, Katelyn looked much relieved when Felna emptied the contents of her bag into the storage room. "What does your system say about that, Trav?"


    <blockquote>


    You have found the spawn of a powerful dungeon monster: Cave Scorpion!


    New room added!


    </blockquote>


    "I got a new room! Something to do with the scorpion eggs I think. Uh, here it is. Cave Scorpion Pit. I guess Fife will want one of those so she can put a saddle on it and ride it into a fight." Looking it up, Travis saw that it was the same size as a boss room. "It''s the same size and cost as a boss room. I have no idea what that means. Will it give me another boss?"


    "Well, you have a room right there for something that size. Pen doesn''t need it anymore, since she wanted her boss room to be an arena." When they reached the last north-south tunnel in the central area of the dungeon, Katelyn followed Jack north until they were one section away from the outer ring.


    "If that''s true, I could make that room the junction for the stairs going up to the top, the end of the maze, and the tunnel leading to Fife''s room." Travis mused on it. "Hey, Fife, I might have a new pet for you to make friends with."


    Splitting his focus between Fife as she lifted her armored face from the top of a tankard and looked around¡ªand the investigating team in the basement¡ªhe filled Fife in and watched as Katelyn melted down the bit of rock to get Felna through the gap, then brought the ceiling back down to fill it in.


    "New friend? What you got for me, Trav, and don''t tell me you want me to dig it out." Giving a wave to everyone in the lower tavern, Fife started heading down the back tunnel toward the bottom floor. "Also, where am I going?"


    "New friend is a cave scorpion, where you''re going is the room that was going to be Pen''s boss room, before we changed plans and set her up to support you." Travis was relaxed right up until he noticed his mana drop by a hundred. "Crap! Something¡ª"


    "What in the name of shifting dunes is that thing on your mana shrine crystal?" Felna asked.


    Looking through the eyes of Jack, Katelyn, and Felna, Travis had a disconcerting sense of wrongness. Two sets of eyes saw nothing. One set of eyes saw what looked like some kind of nest attached to one side of the huge crystal. Crawling out of the nest, a winged slug-thing took off and flew over the heads of Jack and Katelyn.


    "Smite!" Searing fire poured from Felna''s clenched fist and hit the slug-thing out of the air, burning it to crisp. "Torch the room!"


    "Do it! I just lost one hundred mana for no reason! There''s something in there only Felna can see." Travis, watching through Felna''s eyes, watched Katelyn fill the room with a swirling inferno that burnt the nest to a crisp. "Fife! Get Tom and Stratus down here. Take them to¡ªto the mana storage we have in the library! Hurry!"


    She reached the library as another hundred mana evaporated from his storage. "Wait, Kate, my heart is a mana crystal, right?"


    Fife and Katelyn both took off at a run, one heading back to the tavern she''d left a moment ago, the other to protect her friend. "Felna! Keep up with me!" Katelyn shouted. "If I can''t see these things, I need you to aim for me."


    By the time Katelyn, Jack, and Felna reached Travis'' heart, Fife was herding the two wizards down to the third floor. "Don''t worry about anything physically attacking you. Travis said there are flying things attached to some of his mana crystals and so far Felna was the only one who could see them."


    "Fife, have Tom wait at the intersection coming up, then you go with Stratus down further to clear out the tunnels and rooms." Travis was beside himself. Not only was his dungeon infected with these things sucking his mana, but he couldn''t see them and they could be coming directly for him. When Felna finally made her way to his heart room, and spotted several of the slugs flying down the east tunnel toward him, he shuddered inside the crystalline prison of his heart.


    Katelyn sighted down Felna''s arm and launched blast after blast of fire down the tunnel before her. "Any more?"


    Smiting one last one that had evaded Katelyn''s magic, Felna shook her head. "That''s all of them, but I bet there is a hive forming on your storage crystal."


    Jack walked down to the door and secured it. "Can we get more eyes down here? Felna can guide one of us, but it would be best if we could seal off areas and search for these things."


    While Katelyn and Jack sealed off the heart room from the south, and Felna searched the few attached rooms for the parasites, Stratus marched along the tunnel to the end, checking the mithril node, the cave that Fife had opened, and the back to the first mana shrine. He shivered as he studied it, then stepped back out of the room. "The nest on that shrine is huge; as big as the crystal itself. Fortunately, you have a pair of wizards who have made careers out of burning bugs."


    Fife''s eyes widened for a moment as the fire engulfed the room. It wasn''t a blanket or a typical blast spell. One moment the room was normal, and the next, its entire volume of air was replaced with fire. What shocked her, though, was that she could see a black outline within the flames. "That''s the hive?"


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    Remembering what Katelyn and Felna had seen, Travis could confirm Fife''s vision still couldn''t detect the hive¡ªbut she could see the space it displaced in the firestorm. "Yeah."


    Clearing the fire only when he saw the hive was completely burned away, Stratus stepped into the warm room. The crystal was fine, as were the walls. The smoldering remains of several parasites were not having a good day. "You can see them now?"


    "Now I can. They became visible when they died, I think." Fife walked in and stomped her armored talons down on one. "Now we move back toward Tom, right?"


    "Yes," Travis and Stratus both said at the same time, though the latter couldn''t hear the former.


    "Okay. I get this. So we come along here, clear out the big one, clear out the side one from the coal, and meet back up with Tom. What if they have gone into the twists or upstairs?" Fife asked.


    "You''ll need to build a door at the intersection. We will isolate safe places. Also, if they''d gotten into the twists, the runes would be popping off, I''d think." Travis set the wheels in motion there, placing where he wanted the doors to be so Fife could build them.


    Katelyn had, meanwhile, secured the area immediately around the heart room. The mana manipulators were still doing their thing, but Travis had lost another two hundred mana in that time. When that was done, she gave the door that led out into the rest of the dungeon a nod. "That''s the only way in, now. Trav, make sure no one opens that door. Actually, Jack?"


    "Yeah, yeah. I''ll guard the door. I can''t see these things, and I don''t know if my ice can hurt them, so I might as well wait back here." Gesturing at the door, Jack used his ice to seal it closed.


    <hr>


    Fife finished building the two doors, despite having never done so before, it was as easy as picking up the few pieces that were scattered on the tunnel floor and pushing them together. By the time she was done, two very simple doors with steel bands stood in the T intersection. "We do the northern tunnel first. For a start, I have no idea how we''re going to do the twists down here without you two triggering all the runes."


    "Yes, but if we trigger the runes, wouldn''t these mana parasites do the same?" Tom asked. He''d already started walking north along the tunnel, a mage light of his own creation hovering above his head.


    When he reached the corner that led to the first mana shrine, he looked down the tunnel and spotted a group of the flying slugs coming right for him. While his area flames might not have the natural intensity that Stratus'' had, he was in the same profession as his fellow wizard¡ªburning bugs.


    Red-blue flames rolled down the tunnel like a wave charging for a beach. As they hit the flying slugs, each was burned to a crisp in a moment. Tom let it roll on, reaching the mana shrine beyond, then there was a soft whomp sound and the fire was coming back at him fast.


    "Here," Stratus said, using his own magic to shape and form a chimney that channeled the fireburst around the corner and down the tunnel further. "I noticed that the hives tended to have a surplus of mana. My own spells were space-limited, so instead of growing bigger they burned hotter."


    It was a standard enough magic diagnosis. Tom nodded and walked down the tunnel and inspected his work. Seeing no more living parasites, he returned to the tunnel where Fife and Stratus waited. "Next?"


    <hr>


    "I''m down to four hundred and ninety-nine mana." Travis watched as Katelyn and Felna walked through the library.


    "Anything in here?" Katelyn was terrified. The library had become her home. She spent more nights slumped in the corner with a book still open before her, reading of the impossible things Travis knew, than she did in the quarters that were her own bedroom. To have to use fire in the library seemed sacrilegious.


    Moving around the room, Felna kept one eye on the doorway while she gazed into every place she could see. "Nothing in the¡ª There are two here. They''re not building a nest, though, they''re trying to eat this mana light."


    "Mana lights! You can use those to get their attention. Fife said Tom saw one doing the same thing to his light, only Tom didn''t let them anywhere near him," Travis said.


    "Light? I can make light." Katelyn spoke a soft prayer to her books that they wouldn''t take her actions amiss when she said, "Oh, shield your eyes, Felna," and when the cleric had¡ªshe created a flash of light so bright that she saw her bones through the arm she''d put before her own face.


    "Looking!" Felna said, a little dazzled even though she''d taken precautions. Sure enough, the two parasites had left the tiny mana light and were racing toward Katelyn. "They''re buying it. Go out the door and do another."


    Leaving the room, Katelyn drew in a deep breath, covered her eyes, and flashed a beacon again. When she felt something slap itself against her staff, she hissed angrily and made her staff burst into a conflagration. The outline of the two slugs, as they burned up, made her unreasonably happy. "I hate to think what it will be like there."


    "What are you worried about?" Felna asked. "You don''t have to see the ugly things."


    When Katelyn walked within view of the mana storage crystal, she shivered. The things themselves might be invisible to her own vision, but she could see how dim the normally vibrant crystal was. "Stand back and burn anything that tries to escape."


    <hr>


    It took them hours to check every room and every tunnel. They put up doors on every mana shrine once they''d checked over them, to make sure that if any of the creatures remained, they would starve to death.


    When at last Travis got a mana tick, he let out a cheer. "That''s it! That''s how much I should have been getting! Three hundred and sixty-six." One thing brought him back to reality, though. "Someone needs to talk to our prisoner."


    "Huh? Why?" Fife asked.


    "If you were killed by dungeon monsters, brought back to life by them, then dragged into their dungeon and locked up in a room with a giant slime¡ªwould you be feeling happy and cozy and not like you''re going to be lunch?" Travis waited for Fife to look surprised. "So, yeah. If we have someone who can speak their language, great. If not, Felna, could you cast your spell on them?"


    Everyone looked blankly at each other, and Felna realized that she was the only one among them that had any knowledge of the northerner language. "Okay. Okay. I can probably explain enough to her to get her not to attack me. You seem to understand her best, Travis, so I''ll cast my spell. How long do you want it for, and can Fife come down to keep Squishy from getting too personal with me?"


    "Squishy is a good boy. He''d never¡ª" Fife stopped at Felna''s glare. "Okay, okay."


    <hr>


    Astrid lifted her head when she heard footsteps approaching. They weren''t talons, nor the particularly light sound of the mithril sabatons she''d seen the dungeon''s armored combatants wearing. Just boots.


    Stepping into the boss room was weird for Felna. It was occupied, but not by the boss. Still, Squishy was enough to keep the main exit locked and safe. Her eyes turned to the second occupant of the room. "Hey."


    The word, spoken in the low-tongue of her homelands, made Astrid look up at the catkin woman and studied her features. "You speak?"


    "Yeah. Little." Looking at the woman, Felna was aware of the scale she was built on being a bit more than the average person. If Astrid wasn''t crouched, she''d be well above six feet. Her shoulders were huge and broad, and without more than an arming shirt and light breeches, her muscled limbs looked like tree trunks. "Name? Felna." She gestured to herself.


    There were magics that the priests said could be done with names. Foul magics, they said, but they called all magic foul. "Astrid."


    The name was in a thick accent, though Felna had heard it before during her short stay in the Balavian Empire. "We''re not killing you. We want answers. You give them, we let you go."


    It took a moment for Astrid to put the broken words together, but when she divined the meaning behind them, she laughed. "You won''t. This is a hole. Things come down here armored or they die."


    "Can I cast a spell on you, that will help you understand?"


    The words didn''t make sense to Astrid. It came through to her as "let me¡ª¡ªdo something¡ª¡ªhelp knowledge." She shook her head. "Why ask? I''m your prisoner. If you want to do something to me, you have every right to."


    It was Felna''s turn to not understand the full meaning of the discussion. "Travis," she said aloud, "promise you won''t do anything against her will? If she wants to be left alone, don''t speak to her until the spell expires."


    Taken aback by the promise Felna asked, Travis agreed wholeheartedly with her. "Yeah. I had hoped you could ask her permission first, but the language barrier is too strong?"


    "Did you expect her to believe that I could make the dungeon speak to her? Well, here goes." Felna put a very small amount of her dense mana behind the spell. From her experience, it would be between an hour and a day. She aimed the magic squarely at Astrid, with her own link to Travis as the dungeon side of things.


    The connection was far more tenuous than what Travis had established with Felna, but it was there. "Hello."


    Astrid jerked and looked around, trying to find out who was talking. She couldn''t put her back to the wall of the boss room because of the horrid sludge that lined the room. Her eyes kept on the move.


    "Okay, I can see you''re not dealing with this well. I''ll be honest. I am the dungeo¡ª"


    "What did you do to me?!" Astrid glared at Felna and, when the woman didn''t reply, she rushed over to her¡ªbut had to stop short when the huge slime moved between them. Touching the slime would be her death as surely as if she stepped into the sludge in the room. "Holes can''t speak. Holes are monsters; demons!"


    "She cast a short spell on you so you can hear me. You didn''t tell me to stop, so I''ll keep talking. My name is Travis. Everything around you is me. I promise you I will not see you harmed or killed in here."


    Astrid found the most personally comfortable space to crouch again, the corner, and glared at the slime. "You killed others in here. You lie. Holes aren''t people."


    "I am."


    "No!" It was quiet again. Astrid now realized that the voice she''d heard hadn''t been sound at all. She played over the words again and again in her head. That voice had said that it only continued talking because she hadn''t told it to stop. "What do you want?"


    The wait had been over ten minutes. Travis noted that some of his newer kobolds were now up on the wall of the city with rifles. His lizards were giving him a much needed view of the world outside his entrance. "Why are you attacking Northridge? Why did you try to enslave the undead dungeon?"


    "We''re attacking the city because the growing season was short this year and our army was big enough that if we didn''t return, that would count the same as returning with food to survive the winter." It was a hard truth, but Astrid accepted it as all soldiers did. They were born to fight and die. "Donna has an artifact of the holy church that allows her to make holes into her puppets. She was supposed to have the dungeon send wave after wave of fighters to aid in breaking down the wall early."


    "You''re telling me all this freely. Why?"


    "You captured me. I must serve you for a year. It is tradition." Astrid didn''t have to reach far to see that even if it wasn''t the hole she spoke to, it was at least the one controlling it. "What will you have me do?"


    "Then I can release you from that service? I can impose restrictions on you if I release you?"


    Astrid expected to be fitted with a steel collar and chains. She hadn''t, however, thought that her captors would discuss her release. "My honor would demand I follow your command for a year¡ªthough I won''t lie to my fellow soldiers. If they ask me what your order was, I''ll tell them."


    Answers for questions were fine, but Astrid wanted to know one thing. "Did my pack die well?"


    "They all died fighting, like you very nearly did." And, like Astrid, their bodies were still held. "I could have them brought back too if you want. You''re not causing trouble and answering¡ª"


    "No!" For Astrid, being resurrected had been a blessing and a curse, but she believed her packmates wouldn''t see it that way. "They fought well and died well."


    "And you? Would you rather we left you dead?"


    "Y¡ª" Astrid couldn''t do it. Asked directly, her honor demanded she be truthful. "No."


    "You didn''t want to die." The lack of a denial was all Travis needed. "You don''t have to go back. Your allies won''t know you died and were brought back to life."


    Choking back the feeling that she wanted that, Astrid brought her anger to the fore. "You''d hold me here forever?"


    "What do you want?"


    Astrid snapped her mouth closed to stop herself saying what she did want. She then managed to whisper, "Stop talking to me." And, when no replies came, she settled into her own head to think on what she wanted and what it might mean to her.


    Available at: https://www.royalroad.com/profile/220350/fictions</a>


    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 97

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 21/100


    Heart 1587600/1587600


    Experience 300371/396900


    Workers 27/133


    Monsters 9/135


    Traps 98/324


    Food 3613


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Mithril 53


    Mithril Ore 100


    Charcoal 4558


    Mana 963


    Rock 1147


    Gold 1057


    Leather 217


    Leather Sludge 215


    Lava 501


    Glass 483


    Explosive Runes 2


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 15


    Bullets 300


    Black Powder 1050


    Poison, Greater 1000


    Sulfur 600


    Adamantine 24


    Adamantine Ore 0


    Quest: Give classes to 10 of your creatures.


    Quest: Capture an adventurer and put them in your jail.


    Quest: Delve to the bottom of a dungeon with at least 20 floors.


    </blockquote>


    Eighteen new Residences, expanding the mushroom farm, and finishing the Jail generated a lot of rock, but the residences ate it all up and then some. Also, using a full day of mana generation, he placed another mana shrine and an ore lode. He''d also gotten someone to dig the single square that gave him a revealed mana shrine, and added a simple metal door there and a heavy steel door on the jail.


    Another small mana shrine disappeared, but he wasn''t panicking about that. What he liked the look of was the adamantine lode his lizards found. "If there was something I could hug apart from you, Pen, it''s all those lizards on the bottom floor. How much longer do you think Luddy will be?"


    "She''ll take as much time as she needs to, Trav. You know she''s always careful." Penelope was on her way to deal with their prisoner-outside-of-jail problem. "Has she talked since yesterday?"


    "Spell wore off not long after she told me not to talk to her. I want to help her, but I won''t make decisions for her." Travis wasn''t exactly a historian in his old life, but he knew enough that making choices for others wasn''t the best way to do things. He might not have always been in a position where he could allow such, but now he could. "Put her in the jail until I get credit, then we''ll let her go and see what she does."


    Nearing Fife''s boss room, Penelope rolled her shoulders. "Okay, time for you to come and take a load off."


    Following along, Astrid seemed reasonably passive, at least as far as Travis could tell. He was about to comment on that when he got an indication of a building project that had finished. There was only one that would trigger like that. Sure enough, Ludmiller walked in from a newly opened dungeon entrance. "Luddy! You did it?"


    "Yeah, Trav. Get someone else to fix this up as we''d planned, move the door, and tell Brolly that we have a way to smuggle riders outside the patrols." Looking completely wiped out, Ludmiller got a few steps and stumbled, looking wobbly enough that she leaned on the wall for help.


    The first to arrive was Wild. He didn''t speak, simply plucked up Ludmiller from where she''d stopped moving and turned to walk off with her again.


    Blake arrived next, having been helping the builders work on their new residences. "This is going to end things early, isn''t it?"


    It felt nice to see a light at the end of the tunnel. "Yup. Once Brolly gets some horses and troops through, they''ll ride like hell for the next city. If they don''t know we''re under siege, they will inside of a week."


    <hr>


    Axel brought his hammer up and down, again and again, breathing the same air as the intense furnace. The spell the cat kin had cast on him hadn''t changed him much at first (apart from hearing the voice of the dungeon directly), but when he''d stepped into the blacksmithy, he''d felt like he''d come home.


    His first task had been to make himself better lighting, not that the forge fires weren''t already bright, but he wanted to see the metal glint and for that he''d made four large braziers out of iron. His hammer felt weightless as he pounded out the metal. The sound echoed up and down the tunnels of the dungeon like sweet music.


    "Hey, Trav said you were down here and I should talk to you about armor and a shield."


    Lifting the metal piece from his anvil, Axel lowered his hammer and looked at the woman who''d walked in. Well, not exactly a woman¡ªa kobold. He''d learned her name after meeting her. She was the loudest individual he''d ever seen (or heard), but Travis had told him to expect her. "The adamantine, right?"


    Dungeon-wrought metal. There was no other way to get the stuff. Usually a carefully cultivated verdant dungeon could, over the course of decades, be coaxed to produce a seam of mithril or adamantine, but it only went to mastercrafters. She wanted it, Travis wanted her to have it, and Axel was buzzing with excitement that he was going to be able to work with it.


    Fife closed her eyes at the sound of obvious excitement to match her own. "Yeah! I want to see if I can absorb it like this mithril stuff, and if so, do we get the mithril back, and also if I can wear adamantine armor over adamantine-absorbed armor!"


    The mechanics of that boggled Axel''s mind. That she''d absorbed the mithril half plate she''d been wearing and now bore it on her hardened body was interesting enough to try. "You got the leather shirts, boots, and pants?"


    "Two leather shirts, two pairs of leather pants, two sets of leather gloves, and two pair of¡ªthey are like leather boots." As she rattled them off, Fife set the garments on the workbench beside her. "Do you want any help with this?"


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "Start pumping the bellows there until I tell you to stop." Axel''s blood sang as the room grew hotter. Fife pumping the bellows was relentless and indefatigable. "Okay, get me a piece of adamantine."


    It took Fife a moment to realize what he meant and then a moment more to work out why. "Right. Here you go." She reached behind her back and thought of adamantine. The heavy weight in her hand was a shock. Fife had seen the metal before, but she''d never held it.


    The reverence that Fife displayed, staring at the metal like it was the most precious thing in the world, echoed in Axel''s heart. He took the adamantine from her, feeling her claws try to hold it a little longer before she let go. "We''re going to make something amazing."


    Together they worked. Fife kept the forge blindingly hot to work the adamantine while Axel would put the metal in, take it out, and beat it into shape. The dungeon system accounted for much of the expertise, and soon enough he''d beaten out two breastplates, two sets of greaves and thigh guards, a helmet, sleeves, and boots.


    The rivets for attaching the leather garments and straps took more work, more precision than the bulk work of the large plate pieces. He stepped back from the armor. As each piece had been finished, he''d set it to harden by bringing it slowly back up to high temperature, then quenched it. "Well?"


    "It''s done?" Fife asked.


    "Yeah. I still need to do a sword and a shield." Axel looked at the rest of the leather. "And a whole other set. The dungeon has given me the instinct to know what to do¡ª One day I''ll make the dive and become a kobold too, but I want to try having a family of my own first."


    "I tried that. It didn''t work out." Fife started with the boots and greaves, buckling each on and testing the weight of them. Compared to mithril, which was hard and light, the adamantine would be almost unbreakable and as heavy as if she weighed three times as much. Still, the more she put on, the bigger her smile got. Last of all was the helmet, and fitting it over her head made her let out an excited barking laughter. "Alright. Ready to test this?"


    At Axel''s nod, Fife closed her eyes and said, "Reinforced Armor." A surge of magic rushed over her. The adamantine drew tighter and tighter against her until it felt suffocating. Then, however, there was a sigh of relief as it pulled tighter still and became part of her.


    A loud clank drew Axel''s attention to a pile of mithril armor appearing on the floor beside Fife. Picking it up and setting the old armor on the bench, Axel watched it fade away and become part of the dungeon''s stores. "Fife?"


    Solidness was such a small word for what Fife felt. Her body was no longer covered in a suit of the heaviest armor she''d ever worn¡ªshe was now one with it. Drawing her sword, she studied her face in the reflection on the naked blade. Her teeth were now a dull gray, and when she tapped them with her mithril blade, she felt the weapon tremble. "If I wasn''t a kobold, Axel, I''d marry you!" Spinning around, Fife leapt at the human and hugged him.


    Catching Fife was impossible, as was hoping to arrest her momentum. She instead tackled Axel to the workbench and pinned him there in the hug. She stood a foot shorter than him, not that it mattered. "Hey, you want to start on the suit you''ll be wearing, then?"


    It took another six hours to make the second suit. Axel was aware that his muscles were screaming and he needed rest¡ªbut Fife''s energy was contagious and this was the greatest moment of his life. After twelve hours of work, he had Fife put on her actual armor. His eyes studied every line, everywhere there could be a gap. There were gaps, of course. Armor couldn''t be made without them. "How is it? Take a few steps."


    Each time Fife''s booted foot landed on the stone she felt the ground give a little. There was a solidness to her now that defied even what she knew magic could do. "If I could be killed now, I would be surprised. I''m going to sleep in this."


    Laughing, Axel said, "Then you''ll want me to make you an adamantine bed, because even stone won''t take the weight of all that repeatedly."


    Even after the spell and becoming a peripheral part of the dungeon, Axel hadn''t felt as at home here as he did now. With his own hands he''d improved the dungeon and made its defense stronger. "Travis, I know you said there would always be a place for us here if we wanted it, but I didn''t like that. It feels wrong to be¡ª It feels wrong to owe you without giving back."


    Travis had left the two alone to their manic metalwork, but now he focused his attention on Fife and Axel. "I meant every word. But, by doing this for me, you and your children are extra welcome. There wasn''t a debt and I wasn''t holding anything back, but if you need gold, food, or more space¡ªjust ask."


    "I''ll have to see." The fact was Axel did want to do things in the city, but the siege was putting a damper on his chances of spending time with a woman he''d met. "Maybe after all this mess is dealt with."


    "Wait!" Fife''s new mass took an extra moment to settle before she could ask, "You have someone topside, don''t you?" His blush told her enough. "What''s her deal?"


    "Huh?" Axel asked.


    Fife started walking again. The dim glow of Axel''s alchemical light was a nice ambiance in her opinion, especially with the way it played off her armor. "What''s she like? You''ve figured out what she likes to do and stuff, right?"


    "She''s a blacksmith too. She''s too old, though. People would¡ª"


    "Screw ''em. She appreciates metalwork? We''ll go up together. When she asks where I got a suit of adamantine armor, I''ll tell her you made it for me. If I was a blacksmith, that''d totally get my attention. Not many blacksmiths get to work this stuff, you know?"


    Detecting a horribly comedic sense of bad timing on the horizon, Axel nonetheless realized he had no way out of this. "Alright. We''ll head up and¡ª"


    "It''s dark outside. Has been for three hours," Travis told them. "Go and sleep¡ªif you want."


    Recognizing Travis'' signature asking if they want to follow every order, Fife laughed. "He''s got a point. It''s been a long day. Tomorrow, though, we''re tracking down this girl and showing her how amazing you are!"


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 Chapter 98

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 21/100


    Heart 1587600/1587600


    Experience 316683/396900


    Workers 27/133


    Monsters 9/135


    Traps 101/324


    Food 4297


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Mithril 500


    Mithril Ore 260


    Adamantine 15


    Adamantine Ore 500


    Charcoal 4408


    Mana 1039


    Rock 1013


    Gold 1057


    Leather 216


    Leather Sludge 215


    Lava 501


    Glass 483


    Explosive Runes 25


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 10


    Bullets 800


    Black Powder 550


    Poison, Greater 1000


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 120


    Sulfur 450


    Quest: Give classes to 10 of your creatures.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 27/66 | Monsters 9/67 | Traps 101/162


    Quest: Delve to the bottom of a dungeon with at least 20 floors.


    </blockquote>


    Three days had passed slowly, the siege settling back down to a protracted affair once more. Travis had been careful in expanding his floors, increasing the size of the bottom floor mushroom farm and hooking up a string of resource nodes his lizards had found to the dungeon proper.


    Astrid was still a problem. She was in his prison for now, and that meant she was getting time to think about what she wanted to do.


    Research had finished on Dungeon Order, which allowed him to make Priests. The reward for jailing Astrid had been one free research¡ªhe''d snapped up Dungeon Mages, which unlocked the Mage class.


    Building wise, they''d built a Martial Hall and a Crafting Hall, and started research on Dungeon Kobolds. All this had been accomplished by asking his new workers to spend as much time as they could in the Library.


    "Most people don''t want to live in a dungeon, Trav." Fife was leaning back on a specially made steel chair in the tavern, her feet on the table and a mug of ale in her hand. "Beats me why; it''s lovely down here!"


    "Is it really that bad for normal people?" Travis asked. He felt like fidgeting now. He had a lot of workers that were sitting in his library and simply talking, relaxing¡ªmaking numbers go up.


    "Trav, if they''re sensitive to the feeling of dungeons, and a lot of people are, and they haven''t gotten used to it, like adventurers have, then it will grate on their feelings constantly. You can''t sleep like that." Fife had made the executive decision to never take the bulk of her armor off, but made an exception for the helmet, because it made drinking hard. "So we''ll keep a few rooms spare. If people want to try it, we let them. We can offer free accommodation to any adventurers, too."


    "That will work, yeah. Honestly, normal people don''t give much experience, so unless most of the town were in here, I wouldn''t be getting¡ª" Travis froze as he saw their prisoner standing up and at the bars. She seemed to be saying something he couldn''t hear. "Felna," he asked, directing his question to the cleric, "our prisoner wants to talk. Could you come down and work your magic on her again, please?"


    Snapping her eyes open, Felna yawned and stretched on her bed. Sitting up with the fluid motion of a feline, she arched her back but kept her eyes closed. "I need to start charging overtime rates when I''m sleeping. What was that again?"


    "Astrid wants to talk. Where''d you learn about overtime?" Travis asked.


    "Since everyone else was in the library yesterday, I figured I''d tag along. You lived a fascinating life." Pulling on underthings, arming clothes, and her armor, Felna opened her eyes and looked around her bedroom. "Let''s go see what the big kitten wants."


    <hr>


    Reaching the bottom of the dungeon, Felna found Fife waiting for her. "Giving me a shortcut? I can reach her just fine now we have that jail."


    "More like I''m being ready in case she tries something stupid. Besides, to reach the jail easily, you''d need to take the stairs down to here from the top floor. Oh, we got that priest unlock thing. Did you want to bug Trav about seeing if you can get that on top of your adventurer stuff?" Fife twirled the pickaxe in her hand and brought it against the wall with a crash that broke away a hole into the tunnel between her and Penelope''s boss room.


    Following along, her glowing light illuminating Fife''s armor from behind, Felna said, "I am not ready to make that pounce yet. Try asking that young smith."


    "That''s a good idea. Thanks, Felna," Travis said.


    "Hey, Squishy! Hope you haven''t been getting bored down here? Pen keeps killing stuff before it can come play." Fife walked over to the huge slime and reached out to hug it as best she could. "Hey, did I ever tell you how one of the other slimes you were with killed Brayden and would have gotten me, too?"


    "Are you talking to me or the slime?" Felna asked, doing quite well at hiding her laughter.


    Turning and looking back at Felna, Fife smirked and said, "Squishy is the best listener."


    Felna groaned and walked down the tunnel toward the corner and stopped. "Isn''t the prison meant to be here?"


    "Sorry, Squishy, I gotta go show the newbie around the dungeon." Giving the affectionate slime a pat, Fife walked down the tunnel to where Felna was. "See, if you were a kobold, you could do this."


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    "Oh, sure, just walk through the wall." Felna stood and waited for Fife to break down the rock from the other side. "Show off."


    Hearing talking, Astrid waited for the kobold and the catkin to approach. The cat-kin knew a smattering of her language, but the lowest form of it¡ªleading Astrid to the easy assumption that she''d been a slave at some point. The kobold was taller than most, but still far shorter than she herself¡ªbut the look of the creature terrified her. Not only were they wearing a fearsome suit of armor, but Astrid could see more of the metal had replaced large patches of scales on the kobold''s head. "I want to talk."


    Waiting for Felna to cast her spell, Astrid kept looking over Fife. It wasn''t hard to tell what the metal was¡ªit was the same kind that she''d worn as a wolf. The magic sank into her and she heard that voice in her head again as if it were clear as day. "Yeah, I wanted to talk. I''m useless down here. Give me something to do."


    "How can I trust you?"


    Astrid slumped as best she was able which, given her muscle mass, wasn''t a lot. "Because I can never go back to my troops. Because I would rather rot in a hole than go back and die."


    "Wait. They''d kill you if I let you go?"


    "Of course. I should be dead¡ª I was dead. I am tainted now." Looking down at her hands, Astrid snarled. "They will think I am dead already."


    Travis had to fight from snorting at the sincere story. "I know that feeling."


    Jerking her head up and snapping away from the self-pity, Astrid snarled, "What would you know of this?"


    "I used to be human, from a different world." Travis figured he could always deny it all if she told anyone, not that she could, given no one spoke her language except Felna, and she''d been reading his memories anyway. "I don''t even know what I did to get stuck like this. But you know the worst part? I finally found someone I love¡ªand I can''t touch her."


    "Oh." The information was a lot for Astrid to take in. "You were human?"


    "Yeah," Travis said. "Not from here, though. A different world where there was no magic."


    "Such a place would be a haven to my people. Magic is abhorrent to us. It¡ª" Fumbling for a word, all Astrid could do was repeat the religious views of her people. "It is forbidden and evil."


    "Magic is magic. What you do with it is what matters. It''s like a sword or an axe." Lacking a better way to describe it, that''s all Travis had. "Except for when gods use their own magic, I guess. Brayden, the cleric who brought you back to life, worships Brogdar. He''s a god that hunts down evil."


    "False gods¡ª" was the first thing Astrid said, but she regretted it immediately.


    "False gods," Travis said, "or gods that don''t exist, would mean Brayden brought you back from the dead with his own magic. Brayden''s amazing, but I don''t think he can do that." As soon as he''d said it, Travis realized something else that meant: he brought kobolds back from the dead. Did that make him a god, or was he using another god''s power?


    "If he is fighting against evil, why would he bring me back?"


    The answer wasn''t exactly a hard one for Travis to deliver. "You''re not evil, I guess."


    "But I killed his people. I killed guards on the wall. I killed the mage." Astrid wanted to snarl the words, and did. "To you, I''m evil."


    "No." When Astrid tilted her head to the side, Travis elaborated. "You''re no more evil than I am. I have killed people, maybe not as many as you, but I have definitely killed adventurers and some of your soldiers who came in here to attack me."


    "They had no other option but to come in here. Donna is a harsh commander and wouldn''t take insubordination. She was the one who was in charge of taking control of a dungeon to use as shock troops." It wasn''t intelligence on her people, it was just a chain of command. There were no tactics that weren''t already visible. "Ten days ago, I would have used the argument that all holes are evil, but I didn''t know about you, the human you, then."


    "So, what do you want to do now? You said you wanted to talk, and we''ve talked."


    That was it. Astrid was left without a moral foot to stand on. All she could figure out was that neither the dungeon nor she was evil and, in a way, were even kindred spirits of a sort. "Do you hire mercenaries?"


    It wasn''t a hard choice to make. Travis could accept her, let her work, and have her adjust to a different way of life at her own pace. "You will be paid half as much as the others for a year, to cover your acts against myself and the city. You will live in an area built specifically for you, and each day you will return to the dungeon and sleep there. If you leave without a good reason, that will be breaking your contract."


    "It is a better deal than I would get locked in here or at the hands of my people. I accept on the condition that after a year, the last clause will be removed." Astrid wasn''t sure exactly how she could clasp arms with a dungeon, but at that point the walking pile of armor stepped in and unlocked her cage. Holding out her hand, the kobold took her forearm in a mailed fist and shook it.


    "Trav, I hope you''re not screwing things up here. She''s going to need armor and weapons, because I''ll be damned if she''s going to be on the payroll and not get our gold''s worth out of her. Also, I want to see her do that big wolf thing again. That was so cool!" Fife pointed to the exit of the dungeon. "Come on, the first thing I want to do is see if I can outdrink you!"


    <hr>


    "She killed a few on the wall," Hilda said. "As did your siege weapons."


    Nodding at that, Donna watched as the sun rose over the horizon and sent its golden rays into the sky. "I''m having thirty fake trebuchets built now. None of them will be any good, but they will keep their blasted Ghost busy while we sap the wall."


    "Astrid loved her siege weapons too much. We don''t need to blast the wall down from afar if we can collapse it. You have a week, then I expect you to open the gates one way or another¡ªjust like Astrid." Hilda used a dagger to clean her nails. "I''d rather not lose a sister."


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 Chapter 99

    Sitting, with her palms pressed to the heart of the dungeon, Breath of Spring meditated. Things had been progressing so fast that she wanted¡ªneeded¡ªto slow down and commune with her home. Unlike Travis, her home didn''t talk directly. Instead, she got feelings and urges, and she had to interpret those.


    Interpreting anything her home wanted had, before a new entrance had been opened, been hard. That was not much the case anymore, but she still enjoyed spending time with her home. Her thoughts reached out to the crystal and pushed words into it, but Breath of Spring only got feelings back. "You like him?" A little touch of confusion was her answer. "Travis. Dragon dungeon."


    The excited wash of happiness was more positive than anything Breath of Spring had ever felt from her home before. It boiled up in a huge wave and wrapped around her so much she was giggling along with it.


    She didn''t want to be a killjoy, but there was more to discuss. "They take our bunnies." She expected her home to be upset. Instead, a feeling of acknowledgment was all she got. "They''re killing them!"


    For the first time since the dungeon had made its boss, it used its command voice to push a concept into her. It was something so core to the dungeon and the world itself that it was almost sorry it had to do so. When it was done showing Breath of Spring what nature meant, it wanted to cry along with her.


    Tears rolled down Breath of Spring''s cheeks. She leaned closer to the heart and pressed her cheek against it, letting her home''s warmth suffuse her. After a few more minutes of sitting there, crying for all the death going on in the world of animals, Breath of Spring let out a sigh. "I don''t have to like it."


    So Breath of Spring sat and waited and let her mind work over this new knowledge of the world. From grass to bunnies to beings¡ªeverything was born to eat and be eaten. Except dungeon creatures weren''t. Well, most dungeon creatures weren''t, and her home''s creatures didn''t need to eat to survive, but they did still eat grass and such. "But they can think."


    When her home didn''t offer anything but warmth, Breath of Spring thought on it more. Everything needed food. Humans, elves, dwarves, and all the other species could think clearer than rabbits and spider-sheep. "They can think, but not as much as others. All the outsiders need food and a way to stay warm, don''t they?"


    Breath of Spring let out a sigh and stood up. "I think our deal with Travis is too good for us. He''s being nice to help us get more food. I''m fine with that, though he probably wants more from us for less."


    When her home made a noncommittal noise, like it was fine simply giving bunnies to Travis, Breath of Spring stomped her foot. "No. I''ve been talking with Luddy, and she told me to talk to Steph, and he said Travis should pay for each bunny."


    Waiting to feel what her home''s reply would be, Breath of Spring had the realization that the kobolds in Travis'' dungeon were trying to help her and her home until they could figure things out for themselves. It was a bit of a surprise, but she liked that the first people she''d ever met were nice.


    When her home finally gave her the equivalent of a shrug, Breath of Spring slumped back on the ground. "I need a friend! You need to make at least someone else who can talk in here. Please?"


    The dungeon stirred around Breath of Spring. Her home trembled, then a voice called out, "Hello? Is anyone there?"


    Sitting up, Breath of Spring jumped to her feet and left the little chamber where the heart was and looked around. What she saw shocked her. A tall¡ªhuge compared to Breath of Spring¡ªhalf horse half elven woman stood nearby. A black coat of hair all over the equine body blended with a similarly dark mane that cascaded down from her head. When their eyes met, the new creature trotted over to where she stood and lowered its forelegs and took a knee before her. "Um, hi. Who are you?" Breath of Spring asked.


    "I don''t know! Wait, I think I might be called Huntress. Does that sound right?" Huntress asked. Her mind, only being a minute old, was still exploring her body and surroundings. There were two things she was sure of, though, the little creature before her was important, and the huge crystal behind her was amazing. "What am I?"


    "My name''s Breath of Spring. I don''t know what you are either, but I know someone who will! You''ll like her, I promise." Pointing to the stairs leading upward, Breath of Spring led the way. She was bubbling with excitement by the time they reached the first floor. Huntress hadn''t said anything, but Breath of Spring had noticed her ears looked like they were on swivels, and she was looking around at everything with an open-mouthed wonder.


    Walking across the first floor of their home, Huntress was excited to see it so big. Each floor was a monstrous, open cavern filled with grass and shrubs that the many animals fed on. Her palms itched to draw her bow (she knew the word, but didn''t know how she knew it) and chase them. When she spotted a group of metal beings, carrying long weapons that instilled fear in her, she drew her bow. "Run, Breath, I will protect you!"


    When the arrow connected with Timothy Devin''s armored back and deflected, he turned around while raising his rifle. He spotted the centaur immediately and was about to fire when a voice stopped him.


    "No! Don''t hurt her! Don''t hurt him!" Breath of Spring had never shouted so hard in her life, which wasn''t a long time, but it was still a big first for her. "Tim, please don''t shoot her. Our home just made her and she doesn''t know you''re¡ª Huntress! Put your bow away now!"


    His eyes might have started by being locked on the centaur, but Timothy drew his finger back from the trigger and aimed the rifle first to the side, then lowered it completely. "Stand down, everyone." The command worked its magic and the guards behind him likewise lowered their guns. "All of you go on ahead, I need to have a conversation with Breath of Spring."


    Still with the centaur''s bow trained on him, Tim slipped his rifle onto his back and the strap that held it, and he crouched down. "Sorry, Breath, I get a little startled when hit with an arrow."


    Walking up to Timothy, Breath put herself firmly in front of him as she turned around and looked at Huntress. "Put your bow down. We are a peaceful dungeon and this man helps protect us."


    Slowly lowering her bow and easing the string until she could remove her arrow, Huntress tilted her head a little. "I don''t understand. Who are they?"


    "This is Tim. Tim, this is Huntress. Our home made her only a little bit ago. Do you know what she is?" Breath of Spring asked.


    Having dealt with Breath of Spring for a week now, Timothy was used to at least one woman disdaining clothes. Huntress, though, was another order of magnitude. It was far easier to not get distracted when you looked down. "Huntress, sorry if I caused alarm. You''re a centaur."


    "Centaur?" Relaxing more now she realized the human wasn''t going to draw his weapon again, Huntress walked a little closer. "Do you come in here often?" She looked down at Breath of Spring. "Do you let adventurers in here often?"


    "They''re protecting us, really!" Breath of Spring was on the defensive. "You have to understand what''s happening out there. They would have overrun the fort and taken over our home!"


    "''They''?" Huntress asked.


    "Right. You wouldn''t know about the siege. Come on outside and I''ll show you. You have my word you won''t be harmed." Timothy stood up and turned, making his way toward the fort exit of the dungeon.


    Looking down at Breath of Spring, Huntress wasn''t sure what to do. Things were more complicated than she''d ever have dreamed. What staggered her more than her home''s boss welcoming adventurers in was that there was no sense of danger from their home at all. When she stepped out of her home, however, even the presence of her home''s boss couldn''t erase the smell of horror in the air.


    The scent of over a thousand soldiers who''d been eating, breathing, defecating, and dying around the entrance to the dungeon shocked Huntress. Her slit eyes narrowed to faint lines and she wanted nothing more than to run back into her home, lock the big door, and hide from it all. "What is that?"


    "That''s a siege. They have been trying to kill us and take control of your home for weeks now. Thanks to Breath of Spring and your home, we have regular reinforcements from the town to hold out. Oh, and it wouldn''t have been possible without Luddy." Heading for the ramp up to the battlements, Timothy paused when he reached the bottom of it. "If you want to see what we''re dealing with, you''re welcome to look up here. Though you need to keep your head down since they''ve been concealing small ballistas among their numbers."


    Walking mutely up the ramp behind the human, Huntress feared what she would see at the top. When she reached it, however, she realized the truth was worse than she could have imagined. They were surrounded. There were people everywhere. Hundreds of angry faces turning her way.


    "Huntress," Breath of Spring said as she came up beside her newest companion, "we''re safe in here. They have plenty of resources to hold out." She touched one of the centaur''s legs with her hand, needing to make contact with her newest friend to reassure her.


    "How? We''re surrounded."


    "Come back down and I''ll show you." Breath of Spring reached up to take Huntress'' hand before realizing she couldn''t reach it. Sighing, with a little smile, she nodded toward the reinforced entrance of their dungeon. "It''s why we let them enter and exit our home."


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    Wanting nothing more than to leave the horror of the siege behind, Huntress followed after Breath of Spring all the way back into their dungeon. The weight of oppression and dread slipped partly off her shoulders once inside. "How do they manage to stand on those walls and fight?"


    Walking as she talked, Breath of Spring explained, "They do it because they know they have a city and two dungeons to stand at their backs. They are as much a wall against all that out there as the wall is. Here we are, the other entrance." Gesturing to another dungeon entrance, Breath of Spring walked toward it. "Don''t draw your bow out here. No matter what you see, they are all friends."


    Carefully lowering her bow in as non-threatening manner as she could, Huntress passed it to Breath of Spring. "You had better hold this. I don''t want to get our home in trouble."


    Taking the bow and trying her best not to laugh, Breath of Spring led the way. "This is Northridge. It is a city. That dungeon entrance there is Travis. He''s a nice dungeon." Looking up at Huntress, Breath of Spring realized it was a good thing she had the bow. "It''s okay, Huntress. Travis is a nice dungeon full of nice kobolds and¡ª Hi, Pen!"


    What terrified Huntress was that the dragon was taller than she was¡ªand Huntress herself was the biggest thing she knew of. Claws, swords, armor, and a smile. It was the last thing she''d expected to see on the face of another dungeon boss. "P-P-Pen?"


    "Hey there, Breath of Spring. Your dungeon has a centaur? They''re a floor boss for a verdant animal dungeon, right?" Penelope forced her smile to not expose her teeth. Unlike even a kobold''s small fangs, she had a ferocious set of mouth cutlery. "Where are my manners? Hi, I''m Penelope, but please, call me Pen. Do you want to come in and have a drink?"


    <hr>


    Being in another dungeon should, Huntress figured, be terrifying. It was strange compared to her own home, where there were big open spaces to gallop and lots of different kinds of animals around. There were kobolds, a dragon, and lizards. Lots and lots of lizards.


    "How do you manage not to step on them?" Huntress asked.


    "They get out of your way." Fife sat down at the table of the second floor tavern, landing on her favorite seat and making the metal of it whine a little as it took up her weight. "It''s not so bad in here, but down in the bottom floor, or around Wild''s boss room, they''re pretty thick on the ground."


    "A little like our rabbits when¡ª" A human woman set a bowl of stew before Huntress that smelled wonderful. She looked at the metal spoon beside it and picked that up. "What''s in this?"


    "As near as I can tell, a lot of mushrooms," Fife said. "Right, Grace?"


    "It all comes from Travis'' food storage, and I believe that''s all from mushrooms." Passing out a bowl to Fife and another one each for Breath of Spring and Ludmiller, she gave them all a nod and walked back to the kitchen.


    Sniffing at the bowl, Huntress shrugged and started eating the meal. The food tasted great, but given her limited knowledge of food, she wasn''t surprised it was so good. "I''m sorry for wanting to shoot everyone with my bow."


    Fife snorted. "From what Luddy said, it''s understandable. Hey, I mean, if you want some target practice though, I''m your gal."


    Staring at Fife, Huntress tried to figure out the words she''d used in a way that didn''t mean the kobold wanted to be shot¡ªand failed. "You want me to shoot my bow at you?"


    "Well, arrows, but yeah. We don''t have anyone who uses a bow, just guns. Hey, do you want a gun? We have some steel ones or I could get someone to make you a mithril one." Tapping her chin (something that elicited metallic clinking sounds), Fife smirked. "Or I could get someone to make me an adamantine gun and you could have my old mithril one."


    "What''s a gun?"


    Reaching behind her back, Fife pulled out one of the handful of steel rifles that was in storage at any point in time and set it on the table. "Now, it can''t fire as fast as a bow, and you gotta keep it clean and dry, but there''s a reason I''m fine with you firing your bow at me and not one of these."


    Picking up the weapon, Huntress was surprised by the weight. "It''s heavy." Not that weight was a problem for her, though. "Where do the arrows go?"


    "Trav explained why it''s worse than an arrow¡ªor I read a book of him remembering learning about it." Fife pulled out a round iron bullet and put it on the table. "The shot is lighter than an arrow, and is a bit thicker around than the point of an arrow, but they go way faster than an arrow. Trav, how much faster was it again?" Pausing for the reply, Fife took a swig of her drink. "He said it''s ten times faster. That means there''s ten times the energy behind half the weight."


    When Huntress looked at her with a confused expression, Fife clarified. "It hits harder with one shot than you could put behind five arrows."


    "So how do I nock it? Do I nock it?" Looking over the weapon, Huntress drew on instinct and lifted it up to her shoulder, sighting down the barrel.


    "You have to, yeah, and like I said it takes longer to prepare your shot." Pulling out a second rifle, Fife held it up and demonstrated loading it. "So you put a tiny amount of powder back here put the rest of the pre-measured amount from this little twist of paper. Then some paper goes in, and the shot after that." As she spoke, Fife demonstrated loading her rifle.


    "And that''s it?" Huntress asked.


    Pulling out another measure of powder, Fife dusted it along the table and then pulled out her alchemical firemaker. The moment she touched the little fizzing fire to the powder, it burned a line rapidly across the table. "The trick with this stuff is that it burns like that, but if you set it off in a closed space, like the end of that barrel, it all goes off in one big bang." Standing up, Fife nodded toward the door. "Come on, let''s go have some fun with these."


    Watching the kobold move, with the barrel always pointed upward, Huntress held hers the same, figuring that if it can make the little ball come out ten times faster than an arrow, she''d have to be careful not to point it at anything she didn''t want to have said ball in it.


    Leaving the dungeon, she was once again aware of all the creatures in the town and, when Fife led her to the top of the wall, the multitude of angry bodies beyond the city''s walls. It was then she realized what their targets would be. "Oh."


    "Don''t have any qualms shooting them. They are here to kill us and everyone here." Reaching the wall''s crenelations, Fife leaned against the gap between merlons and settled her weight down on the rock. "Hey, Northridge, here to offer a little support."


    Neither kobold nor centaur could feel it, but the city of Northridge had heard the words and appreciated them.


    "Also, this gets me and Trav experience points. That''s important for his kind of dungeon, or so he says. More experience points means he gets bigger, quicker; and I get more levels in Tank. That''s a special thing that he did for me. Maybe your dungeon will get something like it too. Okay"¡ªFife lined up on an odd mound far in the distance¡ª"I don''t like the look of so many unarmored people hanging around like that. It usually means they''re up to something. Let''s see if we can''t scare them away from whatever they''re doing."


    Mimicking Fife''s stance, though she braced on top of the merlon and not beside it, Huntress focused her attention to what Fife was looking at. "They look like they''ve been digging. There''s dirt all over them and one looks like they''re covered in dust."


    Letting her rifle rest, Fife lifted one hand up to shield her eyes and squinted into the distance. "Huh. Now that you mention it, they have picks and shovels. We might have to put the shooting lesson on hold, I think this is important."


    Huntress followed Fife along the wall, then down a ramp to the ground and into a big building. The place was built a lot like the tavern in the dungeon she''d just left, but with a lot more space¡ªand a lot of non-kobolds. The room had gone silent when they walked in and she felt like all eyes were on her. "Is something wrong?"


    "They''re not used to a gal who doesn''t mind showing herself off, is all." Fife led the way to Brolly''s table and wondered for a moment how to get his attention away from the topless centaur. Lifting her fist up, she brought it down on the table hard, the adamantine in her scales crashing hard into the wood and making the furniture creak. "They''re digging."


    "Huh?" Brolly had his attention drawn away from Huntress by the apparently belligerent Fife. "Who''s digging?"


    Climbing up onto a seat that was a tiny bit too big for her, Fife liked the way the wood complained at how heavy she and her armor were. "Our friends outside are digging. I was teaching Huntress here how to shoot, and she spotted a bunch of them carrying digging tools out of a hole."


    Wincing at the picture that description built, Brolly let out a sigh. "We''ll need to deal with that. They''ll be trying to sap the wall."


    Fife winced. "Let Trav know if there''s anything we can do. I''m sure Luddy can help by slipping something nasty in there, or I could fly over the top and¡ª The poison!"


    It took a moment for Brolly to figure out what Fife was talking about. "That stuff you used at the gate?"


    "Exactly. Robert says it is heavy and sinks, which is why they use it in dungeons. If I can drop one of those in the entrance, after they''ve gone in to dig, they probably won''t make it back out." Using a claw tip to inscribe her plan on the table, Fife finished up with "=XP" at the end of it. "But first I need to find a wyvern that can carry me with my new upgrades."


    Brolly, now taking more notice of Fife, widened his eyes. "That''s not all armor, is it?"


    Unbuckling a vambrace, Fife showed off her scales underneath and their dull, metallic sheen. "So I got this cool thing where I can take a suit of armor I''m wearing and make it reshape to be part of me. Then I put on another over the top. Oh, and did I tell you, we got an adamantine node now?"


    Leaning back in his chair, Brolly stared into the middle-distance above Fife''s head. "When we can reopen trade, we''re all going to be rich."


    "We''re already rich. We need to use it to make this place the best city in the kingdom and so fortified that no one will ever think of doing this again." Fife pointed at the picture she''d drawn on the table.


    "If we could steal Tannyr out of your dungeon for a while, I''m sure we could do something spectacularly overkill. Until then, though, let''s hold out until these northerners get sick of dying and leave." Brolly pulled over a tablet and started scrawling notes on it. "Thanks, Fife, if you can take care of it yourselves, do so. Otherwise, could you show me on this map where you saw them coming out of?"


    Marking the point without cutting the map up with her claws, Fife slipped off her seat and to the ground with a clank from her armor and a relieved squeak from the chair. "I''ll come down and let you know how things go myself."


    Once they were both outside the building, Huntress asked Fife, "Why were they all looking at me?"


    "They''re not exactly looking at you, Huntress. They were looking at your chest. It''s a guy thing. Well, a guy and girls who like girls thing." Fife barked out a laugh. "We could go and get you a shirt to wear, if you want?"


    Looking down at her chest for a moment, Huntress looked back up and around the town. There were men and women walking around (though some of the latter were looking at her), but she noticed none of the people had bare chests. "Oh."


    "Come on, let''s get this news to Trav and then we can do some shopping. A good leather shirt will help when you want to wear some armor, too." Fife gestured back toward the southern end of town, where their dungeons were.


    <hr>


    The road wouldn''t be safe. Forced to run the three horses through old game trails in the forests, the rider speeding away from the besieged city had planned to ride each horse near to exhaustion to reach the next city as early as possible.


    Riding through forests blind wasn''t safe either, but she was taking the most direct route of the three riders Brolly had sent, and she was determined to get through first. "Come on. Keep up the pace and I promise you can rest for a year when we get to Far Reach." One hand was clutching the reins tight while the other rubbed the neck of her horse¡ªkeeping track of its health so she wouldn''t kill it before getting there.


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 Chapter 100

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 21/100


    Heart 1587600/1587600


    Experience 376370/396900


    Workers 27/133


    Monsters 9/135


    Traps 108/324


    Food 5437


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Mithril 800


    Mithril Ore 122


    Adamantine 515


    Adamantine Ore 402


    Charcoal 4008


    Mana 2380


    Rock 1111


    Gold 1057


    Leather 216


    Leather Sludge 215


    Lava 501


    Glass 483


    Explosive Runes 30


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 30


    Bullets 200


    Black Powder 1500


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 76


    Sulfur 1058


    Quest: Give classes to 10 of your creatures.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 27/66 | Monsters 9/67 | Traps 108/162


    Quest: Delve to the bottom of a dungeon with at least 20 floors.


    </blockquote>


    Two priests. Travis wished he could stare at them both, but he had made an honest deal. "Tell her she''s welcome to accept the same contract as Brother Rupert. It''s not my fault she didn''t come to negotiate a contract."


    Brother Rupert, or so Travis could tell, looked very pleased with himself. The only reason Priestess Fairheart had come to see him at all was the wagon loads of some fifty thousand gold that he''d sent to Rupert.


    It''d been five days since the riders had left through his new exit, each with several horses that hadn''t been all that happy to walk into a dungeon.


    Like a certain priestess Penelope was talking to. Travis watched and listened to her explain the agreement.


    "So, you can have the same deal. Everyone gets to choose which order they want their talismans from. We''ll trust you to account accurately." It was less a statement and more a reminder from Penelope that the dungeon held most of the strings, at least the cash supply. "Do you need funds to start with? Maybe a few hundred talismans and enough for fifty resurrections?"


    Fairheart looked startled. Travis didn''t overly care about the gold¡ªgold wasn''t a commodity that he had found a limit for yet. "Tell her she''s going to need a few wagons and people to move it."


    "Oh. I¡ªI''ll go arrange that." Standing up, Fairheart made her way out of the top floor tavern and out of the dungeon.


    Rupert had watched Fairheart leave and, when he judged her well away, let out a laugh. "She thought she got locked out of the deal, and then you handle it like that?" Reaching out to the table, he picked up the mug of ale and set two tiny gold coins down.


    "You don''t need to pay for ale here," Penelope said. "It''s all¡ª"


    "The scales must balance. This siege has kept me busy, you know. I''ve been scouring the city looking for someone who might be sensitive to balance, to assist with my duties, but there is no rest for these old bones." He took a long pull on the ale and let out an appreciative burp.


    Penelope drank too, nodding her head to the priest. "When we made that deal, you were one of the few people in this town to trust us."


    "Imagine it! A dungeon bringing an adventurer to me to pass judgment! And, from what I remember, you were carefully wrapping the council around your claws. Don''t deny it, girl, you have bribed your way into the city¡ª Don''t give me that look. Bribes are just balance where the prices aren''t easily quantifiable." Digging into his robes, Rupert pulled out a handful of gold coins. "I''ll give you five gold to hop on one leg." The glare Penelope gave him earned a laugh from Rupert. "Fifty gold?"


    "No."


    "See! This is my point! The price of you hopping on one leg is a matter of pride, and pride is one of the more expensive things. What if I offered five hundred thousand gold"¡ªRupert was fast to hold up his hand¡ª"hypothetically?"


    "For five hundred thousand? I''d ask you to show me the gold, then I''d round up Luddy and Katelyn so we can do a proper dance."


    Rupert laughed uproariously. Barely keeping from spilling his ale, he gestured with one finger. "But¡ª But see, that''s the point. You have a price. You know what it would take to balance out that act. We have established costs, and now bribes are possible."


    "I''m glad we made friends with him," Travis said to Penelope. "Because if he was our enemy, it would have made a lot of this harder."


    When Penelope passed on Travis'' words, Rupert laughed again. "I consider it part of my calling. Some might call me a fool for ascribing meaning to random events, but this would have been a lot worse for the city, too, if we hadn''t established a fiscal relationship."


    "How many has he revived now?" Travis asked.


    "A somber question, brother, but how many have you brought back since the start of this?" Penelope asked for Travis.


    Settling down a bit more on the seat, Rupert closed his eyes. "Two hundred and thirty-seven." A beatific smile spread across his lips. "I''ve been able to save the lives of over two hundred people without breaking my vows¡ªentirely because of you and Travis. If you ever wonder why I am firmly on your side, that''s a lot of weight in your favor on the scales."


    <hr>


    After several days of dropping poison gas bombs over holes hadn''t done much but use up black powder and poison gas¡ªand taught the northerners how to sight-in their light ballistas¡ªthey''d had to pick a different method to deal with the problem.


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    Ludmiller was in the tight tunnel that the sappers were digging. Using all the tricks that Wild had taught her, she followed her instincts and senses into what was practically a dance in the barely-lit caves.


    Stepping around laborers who were carting out the rock, she picked the exact moments when no one was looking to poke each with one of the tiny, hair-like wires. Travis had called them acupuncture needles, and had explained they were supposed to help people with pain and tension¡ªbut with each one stained brown with a few drops of the scorpion venom, they would not be alleviating anything except for lives.


    Robert had promised her that two drops of the stuff was enough, but not so much as to kill someone instantly. She had five minutes from when she''d poked the first of them with a needle to when she needed to be outside the tunnel.


    In her head, Ludmiller counted off seconds. She''d been busy, and now only had a quarter of her needles left. When she entered the last section of tunnel, though, and saw the rock of the wall being supported by hefty wooden beams, she winced and almost cursed. The sappers were undermining the wall.


    They seemed excited, and Ludmiller managed to get half of the engineers pricked before she saw them setting out a keg of black powder. She stepped close to the engineers handling the explosives, noting the long fuse and the hourglass that sat beside them.


    When the sand finished running through the glass, one of the engineers lit the fuse. As they all turned and began marching out, she managed to prick half of the remaining enemies before turning her attention to the keg.


    "What do I do? The timer indicates they''re not blowing this one up alone, so they will be breaching the walls today. I can kill this fuse, which will only mean someone will run back in here and light it again, but all that will do is cause a delay on this section." Looking at the keg and the wheelbarrow that it was sitting on, Ludmiller groaned. "This is a bad idea, Luddy, but it will stop this one sap from going off and I can warn Trav faster."


    Hefting the handles in her grip, Ludmiller started rolling the big keg out from under the support beams and down the tunnel. A glance at the burning fuse gave her an idea how long she had until they expected the blast.


    Her five minutes were long-since up, and she knew there would be people dying outside who''d left the tunnel. The fuse still had a good bit of time to it, several minutes or so she reckoned, so she paused, shoved it almost all the way into the keg, and ran like crazy with the wheelbarrow trundling along.


    The wheel hit a rock and gave out a moment before the fuse wire burnt down into the keg. Ludmiller saw several surprised sappers ahead and gave them a grin as she faded back into view¡ªthen she was with Travis again.


    "Travis! The¡ª"


    "What killed you?!" Travis had gone from relaxation to maximum panic.


    "They''re sapping the walls. I took out one tunnel and all the workers, but you have about two minutes before others will bring down sections of wall. Tell the guards!"


    The panic had gone beyond anything Travis could have come up with. He hadn''t the words to say how stressed he suddenly felt, but managed to get the ball rolling. "Everyone, the city''s walls will be sapped in around two minutes. Warn the guards, Pen, and then everyone who is a boss or cohort get ready to defend the city!"


    He turned his attention back to Ludmiller. "Where did you die? Can we get to your body?" A barked laugh was the last thing Travis expected.


    "No, Trav. I took the powder keg out from under the supports for the wall and set it off further up the tunnel. If there are two pieces of me left, I would be surprised."


    "Wild, Luddy died. She''s waiting to respawn. She made sure it was fast and¡ªand she''s telling me she took out a lot of their sappers and destroyed one of the sapping tunnels." Travis tried not to laugh at the additions Ludmiller was telling him to pass on. "Oh, and she says she loves you."


    "Tell her I love her. I was fixing up our apartment after we had to shift the lizard homes away from my boss room. Do you want me to stay in here to protect you, or do you want me to go out there and deal death?" Picking up his new axes, Wild weighed them in his hands. Heavier than his last ones, he knew the adamantine would not let him down. He kept his old ones, of course, in case he wanted to throw something.


    "Squishy is in Fife''s boss room, he''ll keep that door closed. Go out and rally with Pen. Everyone who can be resurrected for free will defend the town." Travis turned his attention back to the priest, who''d stood up and was on his way out of the dungeon. "Can someone tell Brother Rupert what''s happening? He''s leaving the dungeon."


    Penelope waited by the entrance until everyone reached her. Nodding to Fife, who was the last to arrive, she got started. "The guards have been warned. We have about thirty seconds before the walls will be sapped. We don''t know where the others are, but get ready to move to fill any gaps the moment they open. Fife, I want you here. Guard the entrance to Breath of Spring''s dungeon."


    Heading out of the dungeon entrance, a series of deep bass thuds sounded around the city and stopped the group dead in their tracks. Four blasts that were now accompanied by more rumbling.


    "That was at least four. Kelvin, Katelyn, I want you to head to Rupert''s temple and guard it. Brayden, keep Jack with you. Wild, with me." Penelope was running through their resources and didn''t like how short they were compared to what was coming.


    "Don''t forget us. Where do you need us to be?" Felna asked, having heard Travis'' panic call.


    "Head left along the wall. Find the nearest break and incinerate anything that steps foot through it. If Brolly finds you, tell him we''re doing what we can and follow his lead." Drawing her swords, Penelope started along the right wall, heading for the ramp up to the ramparts. She spared one glance back at Fife, an armored juggernaut that had backed herself into the entrance of the verdant dungeon and planted her shield there.


    <hr>


    "Fife? What''s going on?" Huntress asked.


    "They got a wall down, maybe in more places than one." Fife spared a glance back at the centaur. "If you keep behind me, use your bow instead of the rifle. I don''t want to be deaf for whatever is coming."


    Breath of Spring arrived too and caught the words Fife''d told Huntress. "With my healing, you will never fall."


    Pausing in her mental preparations, Fife turned around, crouched down, and kissed Breath of Spring on the cheek. "For luck. Also, because we''re about to become best friends. You heal me, I keep the bad people away."


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 Bonus Chapter

    It was a cunning trap. Jill-The-Knife Lizard worked her wire-thin tools into the lock and, with the most deft of digits, worked the trapped pins into the correct position and opened the door. "Easy as that," she hissed. Her party members looked impressed, and well they might be, because Jill-The-Knife was blessed by the gods themselves and the greatest goddess in particular. "Now, what''s insi¡ª Rat!"


    Ratslayer-The-Hammer Lizard stepped forward, putting himself between Jill-The-Knife and the beast. When the rat crashed into him, not only didn''t he shift, but he drove his distinctive head into it and knocked it backwards. "Not today, rat. You don''t know who I am, clearly.


    "I am Ratslayer-The-Hammer, and that means killing you is the focus of my life, rat." His claws were worn down from days digging rock and his scales hardened to an oxidized metal finish, but that didn''t stop him from punching the rat to death where it stood.


    "Ratslayer! Get back¡ª Ah, blowflies." For all Ratslayer-The-Hammer was a good friend and a stunningly effective slayer of rats, he tended to get tunnel vision. When two more rats swarmed around his friend, Alistor-The-Cold raised his staff and splayed his digits forward, projecting a cone of freezing magic toward the rats.


    The beasts struggled on, fighting their own bodies as their limbs froze up, their necks, heads, and finally¡ªwith mouths open and reaching for Alistor-The-Cold¡ªbecame completely frozen in place and stopped.


    "Ratslayer! You can''t just¡ª" Alistor-The-Cold cut himself off short as he saw what his friend was up to. There were five rat corpses between them, and Ratslayer-The-Hammer clubbed another down with his fist. Sighing a lizard sigh, Alistor-The-Cold got out a tiny hammer and chisel then set to work inspecting the rats he''d frozen for loot.


    "Did you find any loot, Ratslayer?" Jill-The-Knife asked.


    "Jill! Come quick! This one has two hearts!"


    Shivering at her friend''s idea of "loot," Jill nonetheless laughed. "Make sure to get them both, Ratslayer." She turned to look at the last member of their party. "Frilly, is there anything you need from these first ones, or can we move on once Ratslayer has his, uh, loot?"


    Smiling beneficently, her frilly neck folded down, Frilly-The-Pious nodded. "I can move on whenever we''re ready. Did our friend, Ratslayer, take any injuries?" She saw the big brute of a lizard turn around in the sharp confines at the sound of her voice.


    Ratslayer-The-Hammer rushed over to Frilly-The-Pious and lowered his head. "I was bitten and scratched, but it must have been a miracle that they didn''t get through my hide."


    Reaching a clawed foreleg up, Frilly-The-Pious patted Ratslayer-The-Hammer on the head. "Perhaps you should keep back with the rest of us next time, though? There were two rats you walked past and¡ª"


    Tears sprang up at the words. Ratslayer-The-Hammer dipped his head lower still until his chin touched the ground. "My lady, I promise to not let the battle lust overtake me but my style of fighting requires advancing to avoid harm to myself."


    "Say no more, handsome warrior, I will be close."


    Filled with a new drive to do better by his fellow party members, Ratslayer-The-Hammer set off, keeping an eye behind to ensure they weren''t getting too far back.


    "Hey! Let me go ahead!" Jill-The-Knife had to run over the top of Ratslayer-The-Hammer to get past him due to his bulk. "You''ll never survive some of the traps in here, Ratslayer."


    The deeper they went, the more rats they fought. Ratslayer-The-Hammer was true to his word, holding back with the party and letting the rabid monsters come to him for a change. This tactic did result in him getting in situations where he needed healing, but he had Frilly-The-Pious right behind him.


    At last they came to a big set of doors that had Jill-The-Knife''s full attention. She pressed the side of her head to the doors, even licked at the air under them, but finally she took to the lock with her tools.


    It was a simple lock, and though she hadn''t dealt with its exact type before, she got it open in short order. "Everyone ready?"


    Getting only nods in reply, Jill-The-Knife checked again the hinges and shoved both the doors inward, stepping to the side to let Ratslayer-The-Hammer past her.


    The monster, sitting proudly on its throne, was not one rat but ten. The rats scurried forward, their mass constantly moving so there was always fresh claws and teeth facing Ratslayer-The-Hammer.


    "What is that unholy abomination?" Frilly-The-Pious asked.


    "Rat King!" Alistor-The-Cold shouted. "You need to kill the individuals to slow the rest down, but be careful, Ratslayer, they''re fiercely smart!"


    Jill-The-Knife looked, in dumbfounded shock, between her allies and the monster. "It''s just ten rats with their tails tied together."


    "Look out, Jill!" Frilly-The-Pious was already acting as she shouted. Casting a healing spell intended to land a moment after one of the rats (that had apparently not been part of the king) lunged out and made a grab for her.


    No sooner did the rat get its teeth around Jill-The-Knife''s left arm than the spell hit her. The pain was wiped for an instant and, with the rat holding still for her, she gave it a quick ear exam with the pointy end of her dagger.


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    Ratslayer-The-Hammer was dealing with the worst of it, but was doing so in his own style. As the rats rotated around and came into range, he''d punch them in the head, treating the Rat King as a huge speed-ball.


    Soon there wasn''t much left but the sound of screeching rats as, forced by the rest of their Rat King to keep attacking, the rodents were beaten down by Ratslayer-The-Hammer. Finally, as the Rat King dropped to the ground unmoving, a huge white rat with a battleaxe clutched between its teeth came rushing to avenge its King.


    "No." Alistor-The-Cold stepped up beside Ratslayer-The-Hammer, raised his hand, and gestured expansively at the rat''s legs. They started to freeze up, but not quickly enough. Ratslayer-The-Hammer stepped past him again and punched the rat in the head.


    When the rat shrugged off the punch and brought its axe down, it was Ratslayer-The-Hammer who was the target. The weapon struck true and the big lizard reached up and grabbed the axe, then punched the rat again.


    The giant rat seemed to only draw strength from the blows. Screeching, it jerked the weapon back from Ratslayer-The-Hammer and swung it again, clipping Ratslayer-The-Hammer in the side of the head with the flat of the blade. Turning its attention to Alistor-The-Cold, it screamed defiance and rushed at him.


    It was all going wrong. Jill-The-Knife tried to distract the rat from the sorcerer but it was too intent. In the end, only the damage done to its weapon saved Alistor-The-Cold from a fatal blow. As the rat swung the axe, the punches and chill caught up with the head and it shattered, leaving the heavy haft coming down on Alistor-The-Cold''s noggin instead.


    There was nothing else for it. Jill-The-Knife stepped between the enraged rodent and Frilly-The-Pious and tried to stand her ground. The rat rushed at her, discarded the handle of the axe and bit down on her foreleg.


    "No."


    The feminine voice echoed around the room, shortly followed by glowing yellows and reds as flames leaped high from a lizard that''d just walked in behind the beleaguered party. When the big rat let go of Frilly-The-Pious''s leg, it stared in the newcomer''s direction. The lizard wizard spoke further, "I am your doom, rat. Burn!"


    Flames in blue and white lanced from the wizard to the rat, and the smell in the room¡ªalready bad thanks to a King Rat residing there¡ªgot so much worse as burning rat was added to the bouquet.


    Panting and dropping to the ground in relief, Jill-The-Knife watched as the rat ran screaming, only to die on the far side of the room.


    <hr>


    Waking up in a tavern wasn''t anything new to Ratslayer-The-Hammer, but he hadn''t expected to wake up at all this time. Looking around, he spotted Jill-The-Knife and Frilly-The-Pious sitting nearby, talking with another female lizard.


    Beside him, still unconscious, was Alistor-The-Cold. "Wake up, old friend. We''re safe, but something odd is afoot."


    "He''s awake," Frilly-The-Pious said. "And, now both of you are, come on boys and join us. We were just discussing things with¡ª"


    "Infernus-The-Wizard. Thank you for aiding in my escape." Bowing her head, Infernus-The-Wizard Lizard was waiting for all the questions she was about to be pummeled with.


    "Who are you?"


    "What were you doing in that place?"


    "What did you do to that rat?"


    "Can I get a drink?"


    <hr>


    "Ugh. Fife, really?" Katelyn slumped back in her chair, the lizard sitting on the table that wore a little set of robes and carried a twig looked at her and flicked its tongue out.


    "Hey, I''m thirsty! This is a totally cool game, Trav, but it has the getting beaten up bit all wrong. Ratslayer-The-Hammer would never get knocked out by a rat!" Fife was rewarded for her bad roleplaying when Mixie brought her over a mug of ale¡ªonly spilling a little. "Hey, thanks!" Taking the ale, Fife reached out to ruffle the girl''s mop of hair but she was already running across the tavern.


    "Ahem," Travis said, unable to make the sound so having to improvise by saying it. "While you''re all sitting there¡ªgetting drinks¡ªan old lizard walks up to the table. He says, ''Slaying the Rat King has made the house owner very happy, even if the whole house smells of burning rat now.'' He gives you each a gold coin for your troubles."


    "Just one?" Brayden asked, dutifully writing the gold coin down on his wax tablet.


    "The gold coins are as big as your head. It''s enough to keep Ratslayer in ale for a month if he doesn''t drink too much," Travis said.


    Beaming with delight, Ludmiller made sure to add the gold coin to the list of items her character had. It wasn''t that her lizard rogue was some kind of packrat, far from it, but gold was always fun to collect when it wasn''t stupidly limitless.


    "Can I roll to drink too much?" Fife asked, eyes glittering beneath the dull metal brow that was her hide now.


    "Sure," Travis said.


    "Does a¡­ sixteen¡ª Wait, I have plus five constitution. Does that help?" Fife asked.


    Travis laughed. There was something good about bringing back some of his own childhood and teaching it to new friends. "It makes it harder to get drunk, and means you have to drink a lot more to drink too much. Add them together."


    "Twenty-one?"


    "That''s how many drinks is too much."


    "Then I¡ªthen Ratslayer-The-Hammer¡ªdrinks that many and one more! Ratslayer-The-Hammer is not safe to be around and should come with a warning!" Fife tipped back her own ale and downed it all in one swig. "Jacob, can you send your girl over with another?" she shouted to the bar.


    "Okay," Penelope said, having been sitting on the sidelines and watching, "do you have room for one more?"


    "Uh, I''d rather keep it at five maximum," Travis said, and saw Penelope''s face show annoyance. "But, if you can find three more who want to play, I think Katelyn would be a good DM."


    "Me? But I''ve never been a dungeon!" Her mind, though, was already spinning with ideas for a story. She rolled her staff in her hand, and let out a laugh. "I guess I can give it a try. Okay, Pen, if you can get three more, I''ll try to do something fun."


    "Hey, Brayden, what''s up with you playing a girl lizard?" Fife asked.


    "What''s with you playing a boy lizard?" Brayden asked, shooting the question back at Fife.


    Fife took a swig from her new ale; not having noticed Mixie had dropped it off. "Eh. You know me, I''ve been an omnivore all my life. Figured it''d be a laugh."


    "Is it?"


    Looking down at her tablet, Fife shrugged. "Ask me again after nineteen ales." She held out her current mug, avoiding the book in the middle of the table since it had the rules of the game in it. "To Trav''s weird games, good ale, and better friends!"


    Everyone in the tavern cheered at that. Katelyn quickly closed the rule book before it did get doused in something they''d regret. She smiled, thinking how the dungeon was more of a home to her now than anywhere she''d ever lived before.


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 101

    "Well?" Hilda was wearing her heavy armor. She might not have the heritage of Astrid, but she didn''t for a second want to risk her own neck to the guns of the city. As for that city, it was shrouded in smoke¡ªthe result of masonry having a very bad day.


    The runner stopped, catching himself on a picket so he didn''t have to slow down. "Something happened to the gate sapping. Most of the squad are dead and their charge went off early. A through C charges went off as planned. D failed to bring its section down. E blew wide open. The four that are open are under heavy fire from the walls, but their shields are holding."


    "Any sign of the Ghost?"


    "There''s a rumor the gate tunnel went off how it did because of the Ghost. Nearly everyone who walked out of that place fell over dead before making it ten steps from the entrance. When they started dying, some guards were sent in. Someone said they shouted Ghost a moment before the explosion went off." The messenger was worried enough about the Ghost let alone what Hilda might do if he had mentioned them.


    Nodding to what she''d expected, Hilda turned her head to look at her sister, Donna. "What about it? Should we wade in and make sure of this?"


    "That''s how father taught us." Holding out her arm, Hilda was glad for the fierce clasp Donna took of it. "If it''s not worth dying for, what are we even doing here?"


    Donna laughed. "It''d be a shame if we didn''t set this place on fire for Astrid, or soak its flagstones with our own blood." Turning to look at the messenger, she asked, "What''s the nearest breach to here?" Like her sister, for this auspicious day, she''d worn her heavy armor.


    Pointing to the south of the gate, the runner was in awe of the pair. His palm itched to find a sword, he felt naked without armor. Dropping to one knee, he bowed his head to the two battle goddesses who left his presence.


    As the pair approached the breach, they saw there was perhaps a ten foot wide gap of rubble where the wall had collapsed. Their soldiers paused for barely a moment to acknowledge them before renewing the charge.


    Grabbing the helmet from her hip, Hilda put it on and let the comfortable, well-known weight settle as she buckled it in place. She waited while her sister did the same, and they both drew their swords together.


    Not prone to the rage of battle like Astrid¡ªand definitely not bearing the wolf spirit¡ªHilda marched through the ranks of her soldiers and heard their constant chatter go silent. They paused before her, then crowded in behind. Each step brought her nearer to the breach. As she started up the rubble, she gave orders for it to be worked into a ramp to make the taking of Northridge faster.


    As her eyes came level with the top of the crest, Hilda saw why her soldiers weren''t already sacking Northridge. A mess of small things all piled together in her head when she saw a half dragon and the biggest kobold she''d ever seen dealing death to her soldiers.


    The reason; there were dungeon monsters and adventurers working together.


    The source of the Ghost''s powers.


    "The damned hole has infested the city." Even now she could see the guards of the city behind the dungeon monsters, reloading rifles. "This is heresy, Donna. Let us end it!"


    The fighting around them grew fiercer as their troops, emboldened by the commanders taking the field, rushed forward and into a fury of swinging weapons. The drumming of rifles, mostly aimed at Donna and herself, resulted in far fewer deaths than the defenders likely wished. She brought herself to face the dragon.


    When her blade first met the green weapons of the dragon, Hilda could feel a strength rebuff her effort to simply crush the beast''s defenses. When a second sword came at her, she began to dance. Strike after strike met either her shield or her own blade, but after the dragon seemed to tire of trading parries and blocks, it opened its mouth and exhaled.


    Holding her breath, Hilda raised her shield to protect her face from the spray that poured out. A little of the acid worked between the plates of her armor, but it burned itself out trying to eat through the mail underneath. "My turn."


    Done with games and testing its strength, Hilda started advancing. She battered both weapons away with her sword and shoved it bodily backward with her shield. When the dragon bumped into one of the guardsmen who''d been distracted while reloading, it made the fatal mistake of turning its eyes from Hilda.


    Like a cobra striking, Hilda took the dragon''s left wrist, her weighted adamantine blade cleaving its scales, its flesh, and the bones underneath. With the song of battle playing loud in her heart, Hilda tried to press her advantage only to have her dance partner swap.


    Hilda''s world was filled with axes. The oversized kobold swung them with such a ferocity and speed that she thought it was some kind of berserker. She spared a glance in Donna''s direction, to see her among the riflemen now, mowing them down like wheat to her scythe.


    The problem was, for Hilda, the kobold with axes was good. He shifted his weight and danced around her, leading the few swings she managed into clanging strikes of blade on blade¡ªand the kobold''s weapons were each heavier than her own.


    A glance past the kobold showed Hilda that the dragon was now slowing down her sister, but only long enough for the riflemen to retreat. She''d really rather have killed them all, but opening up the hole in the wall was worth their time here.


    From one stroke to the next, the kobold started to back up. One step at a time and seemingly with eyes in the back of his head. It was annoying, but Hilda had no chance but to step back and let the creatures retreat. "Donna! To me!"


    "I almost had that beast!" Donna, nonetheless, retreated to her sister''s side. "I am starting to see a pattern here. Is this city under the control of the dungeon?"


    Still pumped up from the fight with the kobold, Hilda shrugged her armored shoulders. "Or the other way around. That chain you carry, could these southerners have them too?"


    "The priests swore to me this is a one of a kind artifact. They told me no other exists. They may be lying." Shrugging her shoulders, Donna took note of something. "The bodies are gone."


    Snarling and spitting on the ground through a gap in her helmet, Hilda said, "Cursed dark heresy. They bring back their dead somewhere in the city. Scouts! Locate their worship halls and find what ones are active. Go!


    "Move that rubble! Come on, open this hole up!" Turning her attention to the nearest sergeant, Hilda grasped their shoulder. "Combat squad, come with us. Let''s find this hole and end its connection to the city. Sister, call up your engineers to cap it off."


    <hr>


    Standing atop the southern tower over the main gate of Northridge, Brolly Windchime took in everything that was going on. The city itself felt like it was in a panic. Its beautiful walls had been undermined, despite Ludmiller''s best efforts to stop the sapping work, and now the attackers were breaching the gaps this created.


    There was one large breach and three smaller ones. The large one, surprisingly, was the easiest to defend. More rubble meant that the attackers were struggling to pick their way through the hole in the wall, and that gave his shooters plenty of time to line up, take their shots, and pass off the rifle to be reloaded.


    "Sir! They''ve broken through the southern gap nearest us!"


    Snapping his attention around, Brolly walked to the wall overlooking that breach and saw two swordsmen in the dull metal armor that could only be one material. Heavy interlocking plates and full helmets that gave little chance of avoiding the armor. What should have been there was corpses, a dragon, a kobold, and four squads of riflemen. "What happened?"


    "We think it was their commanders. They were unstoppable, sir. Even the dungeon-kin couldn''t do more than keep them off our people while we fell back. The rest of my squad is in the temple."


    The last sentence had a meaningful edge to it that Brolly recognized. "Good work getting word to me so fast. Go and see to your squad and get them up to speed as fast as you can." The pride of the messenger, previously vacant, shone through again after the praise.


    "Thank you, sir." Turning, the guardsman descended from the rampart.


    Looking at the roguish lizard sitting to one side of his map table, Brolly said, "I don''t know what condition you''re in to help, but anything would be good right now. More of that poison, if you have it?"


    There was no answer, of course. Brolly knew the lizards couldn''t talk, but he sure hoped they could listen. "Right. You can''t solve all my problems." Turning away from the map, he nodded to a runner. "Get me ten of our best marksmen and the ten people they trust to reload their guns."


    It didn''t take long for the twenty guards to climb to the top of his tower. Equal parts men and women, he certainly wasn''t going to discriminate. "Your targets are two officers. They''re wearing adamantine armor and their helmets have tight vision slits; vertical and horizontal. If you can get them both, great. If you can only get one, it''s still good. We need to blunt their attack now that this has become street-by-street fighting. They were last seen near the southern breach nearest here.


    "The first to nail one gets my rifle." Brolly lifted his gun from his back. It was sinfully lightweight for what it could do. "And I''m fairly sure Travis will make one for whoever gets the second one. You can have as much ammunition as you think you''ll need. Please hurry, and good hunting."


    <hr>


    Sketching a salute to Brolly, Anichka turned to her friend and smirked. "Come on, sis, we have a job." Her pale skin and human features didn''t quite match those of the common ethnicity in the city.


    A job was what Anichka had called any work or task they''d been hired to do since they''d first come to the kingdom ten years previous. Shouldering the two spare rifles, Tammy nodded to her friend, her vulpine features betraying her excitement. "Yeah, yeah. I was starting to like this place. No sense in letting these bastards stink it all up."


    "Tam, you''ve gone soft on me. Warm baths and cozy beds. What next, you''ll find yourself some girl with soft hands to keep it warm for you?" The rifle strapped to Anichka''s back was loaded with only a little oiled leather covering the open barrel.


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    Taking the stairs at a jog, Tammy barked a laugh. "Come on, Annie, you know I prefer rough-and-tumble more than demure-and-soft." The cool air outside, as the day started to chill toward evening, made Tammy wish for a soft bed. "What about targets of opportunity?"


    "No. We have two targets. Once those are down, we shift position and look for more¡ªbut not until they''re face down and bleeding on my fair city."


    "Your city?"


    Reaching one gloved hand out to run along the crenelations as they jogged down the length of the wall, Anichka nodded. "I''ve lived in a lot of cities, Tam. None felt like this. No city is worth dying for, but for this one I''d kill."


    "Have killed, Annie. Don''t think for a second I don''t remember every time I passed you a loaded rifle." The ones on Tammy''s back were, like Anichka''s, loaded and ready. "So two soldiers in heavy armor with cross-patterned helmets? And they were not far from here."


    "Just two! How hard can it be?"


    "Don''t you dare say that. Come on, we''re getting off the wall. Not like we can cross the breach anyway."


    Nodding to that, Tammy searched among the houses nearest the next ramp down from the wall for any clues as to how to move on from there. "Rooftops?" she asked.


    "Nah. Rooftops only work when we want to hide from people below¡ªwhich we do¡ªbut I bet they''ll start putting archers on the wall looking back into the city. Better to use the streets and houses." Anichka took the ramp down to the city streets and felt her alertness going into overdrive. She looked around the deserted streets, thankful at least that the townsfolk had been taken to safety. "Down here. Let''s get some muck on our skin so we don''t stand out as much."


    When they reached the ground, they headed for the nearest building, a house, and entered. Inside it looked like the owners of the home had literally stood up and walked out, leaving a meal halfway through preparation. The only thing indicating that people weren''t about to come downstairs from the bedrooms above was the chairs tipped over.


    Ignoring the inside of the house, they made their way out the rear door and into the alley beyond. Without a word, Anichka started looking for the mud they''d need while Tammy kept watch. After the right muck¡ªneither too odorous nor dry¡ªthey each ensured the other had every bit of exposed skin or fur painted with the stuff. Giving each other a knowing smile, they left the confines of the alley, moving fast across the street to its opposite.


    It was slower going, and they had to pause more than once while Balavian troops moved down the streets only to see them engage with a squad of guards. They spent nearly an hour moving in this manner, maintaining the silence between them, before they came to what Anichka had assumed was the enemies'' main target.


    They slowed further as they reached the edge of Northridge''s Bulge, as the addition of two dungeons to the city had been called. A quick look around revealed Balavian troops keeping to cover while a kobold that looked like it was made of adamantine and a centaur fired rifles at them again and again.


    In the softest of voices, Anichka whispered, "I like this game. Nice distraction and loud noises. Let''s work around to the shadow of the wall over there."


    Tammy nodded and planned out a path to move from house to house. She''d tucked her tail into her pants leg, even if it could be covered in mud¡ªit was a dead give away in silhouette that she wasn''t one of the northerners. So, from shadow to shadow, they spent nearly ten minutes moving three houses to the shadow of the wall.


    Any noise they might have made was covered by the repeating reports of gunfire from the two dungeon monsters, so all they had to worry about was being seen. Finding an upstairs bedroom, Anichka nodded to Tammy. "Here," she said.


    They worked together quickly. Tammy checked over the guns, making sure each was ready to fire and fire true. Anichka focused on getting the room itself how she wanted it. She''d spent a lot of time thinking about firing from cover, and avoiding being seen, and pushed a dresser up to just-shy of a windowsill, before easing the window open.


    With a clear view of the open area before the two dungeons¡ªand at what Anichka estimated at a hundred and twenty degree angle from the kobold and centaur, she drew up a chair and balanced the first rifle Tammy passed her so the barrel was inside the window by half a foot. "Do I know how to call ''em?"


    Tammy looked out the window, keeping herself well back from the glass and sill, and saw a bunch of the Balavian troops with shields approaching the dungeons. Just behind the shield line was a pair of uniquely armored sorts with dull gray armor and cross-slit helmets. When she drew back from the window, she had a big smile for her friend. "Both targets sighted."


    "I want both those rifles, Tam." Slowing her breathing, Anichka sighted down the rifle. She''d clamped on little hooks of metal and painted a few dots on them. "How''s the air?"


    "Still here, but I can see a clothesline on the other side of them that is drifting to the right."


    "Got it." Instinct and practice gelled together to tell her how much she needed to allow for wind. They weren''t at her maximum range, but they were far enough that her carefully polished ball of steel would curve.


    Listening to the steady rhythm of the two rifles firing, she picked out the timing of each and, when the kobold was due to fire, she picked a target out of sight of her targets and gently drew back the trigger.


    The room itself absorbed a lot of the noise. The glass window shook but Anichka''s earlier work with the curtains ensured they didn''t so much as twitch. The round traveled and hit the dirt behind the dragon dungeon with a noticeable puff of dust. It was a little left and down of where she''d intended.


    Tammy was swift, her hands sure as she set the first rifle back on the bed and fetched the second and set it into Anichka''s grip. Now wasn''t the time to dawdle¡ªshe started to ram the brush down the spent gun, cleaning it out before the process of loading it began.


    No one had noticed her shot, Anichka surmised, given all the soldiers were still fixated on the kobold and centaur. She watched as a volley of arrows flew toward the pair, only for the kobold to release her rifle to its sling and lift a shield before the centaur.


    The centaur, too, swapped their tactics and started firing a bow while the kobold covered them. Anichka silently cheered them on while she sighted down on one of the commanders.


    When the moment was right, and with no sound to cover her shot this time, Anichka fired again. In her head she measured the flight of the ball. She knew how the wind would pull it, lift it, jostle it. When she was sure it was about to land¡ªone of the commanders fell over. "Next gun, fast."


    By the time Tammy got the gun in her hands, though, the second commander had turned away from them. Anichka cursed under her breath and waited for another opportunity.


    <hr>


    Fife hadn''t expected what had to be a one-in-a-million shot to cause the splash of blood from the helmet. She stared open-mouthed for a moment, expecting the northerners to find the shooter but, to her own surprise, even she couldn''t figure out where it''d come from. "Did you see that?"


    "Someone out there is very good with their gun." Huntress knew roughly what arc the shooter was in, but she deliberately didn''t look that way¡ªinstinct making her not draw attention to their unseen ally. "They''re pulling back."


    "No they''re not," Fife said as the remaining commander screamed a blood-curdling battlecry. "Get ready; I think they''re angry."


    Seeing her sister felled by an unseen foe shook Hilda to her core. Donna lay on the filthy stones, spilling her fine blood without having drawn her sword. It struck her how much her own threats and curses had meant nothing¡ªa game at most¡ªbut another daring to deliver her such a dishonorable death was too much.


    With her sword out, and her sister''s sword in her offhand, Hilda turned to the two dungeon monsters¡ªthe only foes she could see¡ªand let a berserker rage turn her world blood red.


    Removing her rifle completely, Fife tossed it behind her and picked up her shield. "Breath, keep me standing. I have a bad feeling they''re going to be a bitch to kill."


    From behind Breath of Spring, vines and grass spread to the very ground under Fife''s feet. Living energy rushed up and into the kobold to channel the very might of the dungeon itself into this unlikely champion. Breath of Spring let her own magic flow with that of her home, strengthening and fortifying Fife beyond even the dragon dungeon''s gifts.


    Lifting her shield to meet the first strike from the maddened fighter, Fife used the momentum of her body to shove back. As the commander snarled at her through the vision slits in her helmet, Fife parried the off-hand blade and struck for the gut¡ª


    Only Fife''s weapon clanged off the adamantine.


    Everything was red, but the kobold before her was the only thing that mattered to Hilda. She clashed her weapons on Fife''s shield again and again, always surprised at the speed and strength of her foe. It was, at least to the tiny part of her still rational, a beautiful dance. They were both clad in similar armor, had their choice of weapons that were the best non-magical materials available, and both had skill and stamina to perpetuate the fight.


    If it weren''t for the fact Hilda was wielding adamantine swords herself, she would never have inflicted a single wound on the kobold. As it was, moments after each glancing blow scored across Fife''s scales, bubbling life magic restored the metallic flesh to pristine condition. Being impregnated with adamantine as it was, it also left its mark on each of Hilda''s swords.


    The fight continued, neither of them giving ground nor taking any for more than a moment. Fife used her shield to gain brief moments of reprieve from the relentless Hilda, while Hilda continued to pummel Fife with blows that should have killed her many times over.


    Hilda recognized, though, that while she was starting to feel the strain of her furious assault, every action Fife took was as efficient as it was deadly if she didn''t react to it correctly. The thing that Hilda admired most, though, was the kobold fought her without a helm. While she''d tried to take the creature''s head off, each time it had lowered its adamantine-scaled brow and battered her blade aside as if its head was a shield.


    The first time it had happened, Hilda had written it off to some kind of profane ability, but each time she struck the kobold''s head, she heard the distinctive sound of adamantine on adamantine. The realization that she''d met a foe she couldn''t simply cut down sank in and drew her back from the edge of madness.


    Fife was surprised when Hilda stepped back. The eyes looking at her from the helmet still held hatred, but also respect. "What''s the matter? Don''t you want to find out which of us is stronger?"


    Hilda spat through the bottom part of her helmet''s vision slit. She couldn''t understand the words, but she knew what typical post-combat bad-mouthing was when she heard it. For now, though, she had over ten thousand soldiers who had just found the prize they''d been promised to be a hollow shell. After the long fight through the city¡ªand finding every house, workshop, and store empty along the way¡ªshe didn''t hold any hope for their sacking turning up anything valuable. "I don''t know what you did, but you have soured this raid. I''ll leave your twice-damned city and its pits to their own cursed marriage."


    Turning, Hilda kept her head tilted forward and raised an adamantine-clad hand to her brow to shield her from further precise shots. Her troops had followed her order to fall back, so it was a miserable walk back across open ground to the cover of the houses, dragging the body of her sister all the way. "We''re leaving. These heretics deserve this cursed place."


    "Are they going away?" Huntress asked.


    "Well, they''re pulling back. That''s a good thing." What angered Fife, though, was Hilda hadn''t fought to the death. She''d expected a great brawl¡ªeven needing to use her many healing abilities¡ªbut the commander had shed her rage and left. "That was some nice armor she had."


    "Do you know who fired that shot?"


    "No idea. Hey, Breath of Spring, I think we''re safe now." Crouching down, Fife reached out a hand and pulled the dryad into a hug while one eye was kept on the entrance and city beyond. "Thanks for the healing."


    "You''re going now?" Breath of Spring asked Fife, her voice betraying worry.


    "Nope. Trav''s got a pile of kobolds with guns, traps, and so many explosives he might even kill the whole army if they were stupid enough to delve him again. You only have Huntress and me. I''ll stay here until I get the all-clear that they''ve all been sent packing." Fife stopped crushing Breath of Spring to her, but still kept herself between her friend and the open dungeon entrance.


    <hr>


    No matter how fast they moved, Anichka and Tammy couldn''t keep pace with the soldiers pulling back from the dungeons'' entrances, and once they were behind there was no hope of getting a shot at the front of the commander''s face.


    "We got one. That''s a freakin'' mithril rifle, Annie. Forget gold, if we sold it, we''d¡ª" Tammy stopped when her friend froze in place. "Look, I know you''d never sell it, but it could get enough for us to live comfortably for the rest of our lives."


    "I know, Tam. I know. They didn''t find us and we got the shot. Let''s head back to the barracks and give them the good news." Putting her arm around Tammy, Anichka gave her friend a good half-hug before they set off at a more sedate pace.


    Available at: https://www.royalroad.com/profile/220350/fictions</a>


    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 102

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 21/100


    Heart 1587600/1587600


    Experience 376370/396900


    Workers 27/133


    Monsters 9/135


    Traps 114/324


    Food 5437


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Mithril 800


    Mithril Ore 122


    Adamantine 515


    Adamantine Ore 402


    Charcoal 4008


    Mana 2380


    Rock 1243


    Gold 1057


    Leather 216


    Leather Sludge 215


    Lava 501


    Glass 483


    Explosive Runes 30


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 30


    Bullets 200


    Black Powder 1500


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 76


    Sulfur 1058


    Quest: Give classes to 10 of your creatures.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 27/66 | Monsters 9/67 | Traps 114/162


    Quest: Delve to the bottom of a dungeon with at least 20 floors.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    Earlier¡­


    </blockquote>


    The rush to add more tunnels leading to the huge mushroom farm on his first floor had been a prelude to a veritable stampede of people. Well, not really a stampede. Everyone had been surprisingly calm about it. The tunnels were hastily lit and, by Travis'' count, over six thousand people poured through into his mushroom farm in under half an hour.


    He could see out into the city, watching as people poured toward the dungeon''s entrances and inside his own. He watched Brolly organizing the city''s defenses within his offices, but it irked him that he couldn''t hear any of it.


    The people had grabbed only important things they could bring with them. Stephan and Blake had done most of the work getting everyone into the dungeon and, when it was all done, adjusting the layout to force any would-be attackers to first navigate the entire dungeon before they could reach the refugees. Travis let out a sigh of relief. "Great work. They can burn the city down and destroy the walls¡ªbut Northridge will survive here."


    Northridge itself picked that moment to push its presence upon Travis. "I yet stand, even if my walls are broken. My captain sends out assassins to stop their leaders, you guard my people, and your minions have brought enough time to keep everyone safe."


    The procession of the two commanders through Northridge had Travis worried, mostly because they were coming straight for him. They had a cart with another barrel of the poison on it, as well as mining equipment.


    That was when Travis watched, through an adventurous lizard''s eyes, as two women set up their shooting location, overwatching the dungeon''s entrances. There was a weird disconnect, when he couldn''t hear people talking. Travis had to guess at motives for every action people took and, in this case, when the woman fired her rifle and deliberately missed.


    It took him a moment to figure out why: she was judging distance and wind by it. What really puzzled him was the commanders and soldiers didn''t react to the shot. He held his non-existent breath as the woman fired for the second time¡ªand hit one of the officers.


    <hr>


    Penelope had sheltered in a small building that seemed to be a bakery. Hunched over her arm, she''d run out of all the curse words she knew and was making new ones up when Brayden walked over to her. "Brayden! Can you fix this fu¡ª"


    "You know I can, Pen. Hold still and accept Brogdar''s light." Working his god''s name into the preparation for his spells wasn''t strictly required, but Brayden liked the reminder that each of his calls on Brogdar involved his god finding his actions to be true.


    Penelope hadn''t had this specific spell cast on her before, but she certainly wished she didn''t have to watch her hand reforming from bones, tendons, flesh, and scales. Nonetheless, when it was done with her, the spell had restored her hand. "Thanks, Brayden¡ªand thanks Brogdar."


    "Anything else?" Brayden asked. At Penelope''s confused look, he laughed. "Does anything else need healing?"


    "Oh!" Penelope had been worried she''d offended Brayden with her lack of knowledge of his god. "No. Everything''s fine. Why are you here? Shouldn''t you be defending the next¡ª?"


    "The wall repaired itself. I guess Northridge used some of its own magic. There was a handful of Balavian fighters still in when the stones started to pull back together and became a wall again. Pen, do you get the feeling like this¡ªall of this¡ªis some kind of mutually beneficial thing? Cities this young shouldn''t be doing this sort of stuff."


    "Trav will probably have a word for this. It''ll be something we''ve never heard before, but makes so much sense to exist once you''ve heard it. Come on, let''s head back to the dungeon and find out what''s going on from him." Reaching for her missing sword, Penelope was surprised to find it there in her scabbard. "And, after all this, I want all those boss upgrades. If I''m going to be a mean monster and defend this place, I''m going to do it with all the crazy powers dragons have."


    "I have no idea how you''ll get in the dungeon if you''re that big." Brayden dusted off his hands with another dedication to his god. "How''s Wild?"


    "You should have seen him, Brayden. I couldn''t get enough weight behind my swords to deflect their blows, but with those axes of his he managed it fine. I''d say I need my own adamantine swords, but how much longer will I be able to use them for?" Nodding to Jack, Penelope stood back up to her full height and together the four of them left the building they''d been sheltering in.


    Brayden picked the conversation back up after they''d left. "Get the damned swords you want. If these ones aren''t doing it for you, try something heavier."


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    Penelope stopped at the end of the block. Something in the air caught her attention and, when she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, she recognized it. "Burning. They''re razing the city."


    When Jack saw all three of his companions turn to look at him, he laughed. "Oh, sure, everyone look at the ice sorcerer when there''s a fire."


    "But you can do something about it?" Penelope asked.


    "Of course I can, that doesn''t mean it''s not funny. I''ll need to see what''s happening¡ªlet''s run back and get me one of Fife''s damned wyverns." Breaking into a mad dash for the dungeons, Jack didn''t let Fife distract him from getting inside Travis. "Trav, I need a wyvern. They''ve set¡ª"


    "They set fire to the city. I can see that. You can stop it?" Already passing on directions to kobolds on the second floor, Travis watched them bring the wyvern up to the entrance. "They''re coming."


    "And mana. I need as much as you can dump on me." Jack hadn''t worked the spell for some time. It was a large-scale magic that was meant to be subtle, but with Travis putting a mana field around him, subtle wasn''t what he planned. He meditated within that field, letting his mana grow more and more dense while he focused himself on the spell he was about to cast.


    Wishing he could stack the mana fields, Travis nonetheless worried about what Jack was doing. When Jack climbed on top of what seemed to be an exceptionally bitey wyvern, Travis sent one last message, "Good luck!"


    "Thanks!" Jack yelled a moment before exiting the dungeon on the back of the wyvern. "Okay, you''re going to go easy on me, riiiiiiiiii¡ª" No sooner was the wyvern out of the dungeon than it leaned back, spread its wings, and took off.


    At first Jack had no idea how to control the apparently wild beast, but after a few moments of it ducking and weaving he realized it was responding to his feet. Knees, ankles, and even his toes all seemed to mean something to the beast, and as he figured each out, he gave it a reassuring pat on the neck.


    When the wyvern was flying straight and level again, Jack finally relaxed a fraction. "Tap for turns, claws for roll, knees forward and back¡ªkeep mouth closed because bugs." He spat the large insect that had gone on an oral excursion behind him and looked for the nearest fire.


    It wasn''t hard, Jack realized, the Balavians were setting everything on fire as they pulled back. The biggest section they hadn''t burned out was near the gates of the city, reaching around to where the two temples were. It made sense to Jack, given that''s where all the defenders would be located, so he decided to help cement them in place a little better.


    Wheeling his wyvern around, Jack strafed the buildings on the opposite side of the street from the defenders. Flames licked his mount''s belly, but the line of frost he let loose turned a chilly day to the depths of winter. Wood froze, metal became dangerous to touch, and the flames were choked by the effort to combat the sudden chill.


    His wyvern seemed to get the hint, because it turned around and aimed them at the next line of burning buildings.


    <hr>


    "Twenty thousand?" The commander of Far Reach''s city guard registered real shock. "That''s more than their usual warband. How long do you think the city can hold out? Wait, that''s in this next section." He paused only briefly as he rifled through the pages. "The city has allied with a dungeon?"


    The tone of incredulousness didn''t fail to register. "Sir, it''s not a joke. We''ve been dealing with siege engines, attacks on our dungeons that wiped one out, and they sent huge wolf beasts at us."


    The last got the commander''s full attention. Pulling a tablet closer, he began scrawling a letter on it. "I see. I''ll bring what I can, but I doubt we''ll lift the siege with the standing garrison. I''m sending a request on to the baron for an army."


    With the draft of the paperwork done, the commander nodded to his door. "I''ll have a reply for you to take back within the hour¡ªwith fresh horses, of course. You can get back in?"


    "The dungeon opened an entrance far outside the siege lines. We used that to get the horses out in the first place."


    Nodding, the commander dismissed the rider. Once they were outside, he shook his head. "It''s amazing what these peaceful dungeons can be persuaded to do."


    <hr>


    Her sister''s body sat atop the pile of timber. Hilda stood before the pyre. The city had burned a little, but one of the cursed mages had figured out a way to extinguish the flames. Worse, the city itself was working profane magic to repair its walls. She cared for none of it anymore.


    When dusk fell, and the city wasn''t broken, she reached out for the burning torch beside her, picked it up, and cast it into the ritual grave. It didn''t light immediately, but as the flames started licking over the kindling it caught and started to send her sister''s spirit on.


    "I will not make it three officers," Hilda said at last, standing up while the body atop the pyre burned away. "Sergeants! Give the order: we will draw up pickets and fall back from this temple of heretics." They weren''t happy¡ªthere were no cheers¡ªbut Hilda could tell there was relief in each and every one of them.


    They were scared, she knew, and she understood why. This city disgusted her and stood as a defilement of everything her people held dear. She realized she''d need a far greater army for dealing with this den of evil.


    Walking closer to the burning fire, she reached a gauntleted fist to her chest. "Sister," she said, not speaking Donna''s name lest it pull her spirit back to the world, "I will do everything I can to bring a proper army back here to avenge you¡ªor I will die trying."


    <hr>


    Northridge, with its people leaving the dungeon, threw its full might into bringing its walls back up. It called down what higher powers it could¡ªBrogdar, Balance, and even the Graceful Lady¡ªand begged them to aid it as protector of their followers.


    What Northridge didn''t expect was the two dungeons pushing their own power into the pledge, beggaring themselves of mana to fuel the rapid repairs.


    With both dungeons having aided the city at the very moments it needed help most, it vowed to itself that it would not spare the riches of a prosperous city from them either. Building its walls back up as night fell, Northridge felt like it had survived a pivotal moment in its development. Now, however, it wanted the invaders gone from its doorstep so it could resume trade with its southern allies.


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 Chapter 103

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 22/100


    Heart 1587600/1587600


    Experience 366807/435600


    Workers 27/139


    Monsters 9/141


    Traps 114/339


    Food 5665


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Mithril 922


    Mithril Ore 0


    Adamantine 917


    Adamantine Ore 0


    Charcoal 4008


    Mana 33


    Rock 1243


    Gold 1057


    Leather 216


    Leather Sludge 215


    Lava 501


    Glass 483


    Explosive Runes 30


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 30


    Bullets 200


    Black Powder 1500


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 76


    Sulfur 1058


    Quest: Give classes to 10 of your creatures.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 27/66 | Monsters 9/67 | Traps 114/162


    Quest: Delve to the bottom of a dungeon with at least 20 floors.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    Your raiding party reached the bottom floor of an enemy dungeon!


    You gain:


    20,000 Food


    10,000 Timber


    10,000 Leather


    10,000 Gold


    50,000 Experience


    </blockquote>


    With everything that had happened, twelve days had never seemed like such a long time. His reward for Ludmiller''s "delving" to the bottom floor (now the ninth) of Breath of Spring''s home was welcome. Combined with a flood of experience from having thousands of people spend half a day inside him had pushed his level up and gave him enough gold to make some significant purchases.


    He couldn''t see the buffer, but he had started to keep a rough tally of what it should be.


    A little over a hundred thousand gold, about twice that in timber and food, about the same amount of leather, and he knew he had some iron and steel, but not how much. "Okay. I think I have this figured out. So, there''s about a thousand ore in each of the third floor mithril and adamantine lodes. We have used up about a hundred of each on various things¡ªFife, I''m looking at you."


    Weighing about as much as a car, Fife shrugged her shoulders. "I am what I am; and what I am is a freakin'' tank!" She was seated in the tavern on her new stool¡ªone made of mithril. "You should have seen it, Trav. That crazy bitch kept hitting me over and over, and even what I didn''t parry or block barely left a mark!" She looked around at her companions. "All I''m saying is, when I was still just an adventurer, if I''d run into a kobold decked out like I am now, I''d have been riding my talisman back before the fight even got started!"


    "I''ll take your word for it, Fife, and thanks." Travis wasn''t sure if he could have stopped the woman from reaching his heart¡ªnot in the state Fife had described her in. "Right, so. We have three classes unlocked now. Priests, Mages, and¡­ kobolds. Apparently the last one is a big boost to ''kobold performance''. Anyone want one of those?"


    Brayden raised his hand. "I''ll take Priest if I can change it later. How much is it?"


    "A thousand gold. Let me check something with Fife." Focusing, Travis examined Fife''s class and saw that he could pay to change it to either Priest or Mage. "Okay, that seems to be possible. Ready?" When Brayden nodded, Travis paid the cost. "There you go. And you have an ability called Focused Heal."


    Concentrating on his own self, Brayden felt only marginally different. "Focused heal?" Saying the words resulted in a torrent of power funneling through him¡ªand needing a target he chose Fife.


    "Oooh! Tingly! Hey, did you know Breath can do some really hardcore healing? I mean, that crazy Northerner kinda was beating on me hard enough to outpace my regeneration, but wow that gal just kept pouring out the healing."


    "If I can change it later," Tannyr said, "I''ll take that kobold one."


    "There. That one has a first level ability called Expanded Slip." It seemed far less obvious than the other names so far, to Travis, but he was sure it would be useful.


    "Expanded Slip? Oh, hey, that''s weird. You know how we can push through walls? I can feel in each direction that I could¡ªjust keep going." She walked to the southern wall, pushed through into the kitchen, then walked further to the wall there and pushed through five layers of rock into the tunnel before Wild''s arena. "That''s different. Trav, how far¡ª?"


    "Five blocks there. You have another two before you''re into the maze."


    Tannyr laughed. "Now this is useful. Tunnels? Who needs tunnels?!" She set about making her way back to the tavern.


    "Right. So I need seven more. Pen, do you want to ask around and figure out who wants what. Also, what you want," Travis said.


    "Mage," Penelope said, grinning without any reservations over how many fangs she was showing off. "I''m going to be too big for swords and stuff soon. Besides, what city in the kingdom has its own freakin'' dragon mage protecting it?"


    No sooner did Travis pay the cost than Katelyn banged the heel of her staff on the floor. "I''ll take that too," she said.


    Travis paid for a second Mage class. "Okay, you both got Magic Dart. Please don''t shoot up my bar."


    "Pfft! Use it on me if you want to test it," Fife said. At which point two magic spells slammed into her. "That barely hurt!"


    "But it did hurt?" Penelope asked.


    "I mean, a bit. Kinda hard to tell with Regeneration and Healthy. Pain is transitory." When everyone stared at her, Fife asked, "What? I''ve been reading more of Trav''s books. They''re interesting. Did you know tanks in his world are huge machines that can kill people from miles and miles away?"


    "Okay. So, I''ll ask Wild and Luddy when they get back from next door, but does anyone else want something to carry them over for the meantime?" Travis asked.


    "What happens if I swap classes right now?" Tapping her claws on the table, Katelyn looked at Tannyr as she entered the tavern again. "Would I get to keep everything my Mage class does?"


    "That''s a good question. Okay, here, have the Kobold class." Travis paid the thousand gold again and gave Katelyn the Kobold class. "Well, you now have Expanded Slip and Magic Dart. So it isn''t so much a restriction as something you can all work at maxing out."


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    Everyone at the table was silent. Travis wondered if he should break the silence, but it was Fife who got her head around it first. "I could be a wizard, tank, healer!"


    Travis snorted back a laugh. "Calm down, Fife. You''ve been spending every day grinding XP out there on the wall. What makes you think any of us will get that kind of time?"


    "I''ve been thinking about that, you know. Once all this is over, we''re going to be mostly making profit from trade, right?" Penelope looked around, getting nods. "Which means we have traps and bosses and all sorts of fun things''''¡ªshe waggled her eye ridges at Fife, and got a laugh¡ª"doing nothing, right?"


    A chorus of "yeah"s prompted Penelope to continue. "So we pay adventurers to delve. Give them a bonus per floor. Let them set a difficulty and arrange different paths. We could even cover their talisman costs."


    "So," Jack said as he swirled his drink in his cup, "giving adventurers a direct payment for fighting, not having them risk their lives, and we get experience and rewards? Wish that had existed before I became a kobold. Oh, can you give me Mage, too?"


    "Can you give me the Priest class?" Felna asked. She''d been sitting at the next table and listening to the business being conducted at the impromptu meeting. "I figure I''ll start with that, if you are okay paying for¡ª"


    "Felna, of course I''ll pay for it. Here," Travis said, paying another thousand gold. "It worked. You have Focused Heal too. You''re helping in ways that don''t require you to have scales or swing a pickaxe, Felna, but don''t think for a moment that I don''t value your help."


    "I''m worried the others will want to move on soon. When the siege is over, that is. I''ve been meditating as often as I can, and I think Sandwalker wants me here." Reaching one hand up, Felna rubbed at her ear with obvious irritation.


    Travis would have sucked in a slow breath, if he could still breathe. "Talk to them. Stratus and Tom seemed to enjoy their time here. There''s also that goblin dungeon nearby, too."


    "We''d need a tank for that, and unless you''re going to lend us Fife, we''d need to track down one we can trust." Felna tilted her head as the ear seemed to need a lot more rubbing.


    "Why not?" Fife asked. "When this is all over, it''s going to get pretty boring. Smashing some goblins, orcs, and trolls seems like a great way to pass the time. Plus I''d be getting Trav credit for delving into the dungeon."


    Drinking the last of her ale, Penelope said, "Felna would probably give us credit already, but there''s no reason you can''t ask any of us to come on a delve."


    "We''re probably going to attack it soon enough ourselves, right?" Katelyn asked, and got a series of nods. "So if you want to come with us on that, and get some experience for your Priest class, that should be fine too."


    "If anyone else has a preference for classes, let me know. Otherwise, you can all have the Kobold class by default." Travis waited for the rest to speak, then said the same to every other kobold in the dungeon. The cost was mildly exorbitant, but well worth it from his point of view.


    <blockquote>


    Quest Complete: Give classes to 10 of your creatures.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    New Quest: Kill the boss of another dungeon.


    </blockquote>


    Travis had a sinking feeling as he read the notice. The obvious choice was to persuade Breath of Spring to allow herself to be killed, but he didn''t want to inflict that on her dungeon. He wondered if she''d do it for pay. "I hate this quest system sometimes," he said to no one but himself, and moved on with paying for all the extra people he''d acquired as kobolds to have a class.


    <hr>


    After the meeting, Penelope was deep in thought about what she wanted. She had her pickaxe out and was making her way to the north-west tunnels where two adamantine and one mithril lode awaited her. Given she was the one to benefit most from it, she figured it was up to her to harvest the needed metals.


    "Trav, tell me you have another mithril lode for me?" she asked, when she reached the first of the spots. The silvery metal ore was easy to break but way too light for her liking.


    "Yeah. The lizards uncovered one to the south earlier today. If you get these, and mine that, you can start toward Boss Upgrade 3. Do you want to talk about that?" Travis also spoke to Stephan. "Steph, can you take these to Brolly? Uh, they''re in the gunsmithy, sorry. I heard that he''d given his own gun to that sniper who took out one of the officers. I want to match it with a pair of pistols for them and a replacement mithril rifle for him."


    "Sensible. It pays to encourage excellence. I''d suggest something else, too." Having been reading in the library, Stephan gave Katelyn a little kiss on the cheek, stood up, and headed out with a bounce to his step.


    "Good idea. Grab, uh¡­" Travis tried to think. It was hard to figure out what people might want and, in the end, decided to just throw more rare metal at them. "Maybe some pistols?"


    "Trav," Penelope said, "I think I''ve accepted it. You know what did it? I was facing off against those soldiers yesterday, and one had a particularly buffed-up breastplate. I saw myself in it, and it didn''t bother me. I feel like myself, even now, and I know I''ll still be myself even when I have more claws than I know what to do with."


    She kept up her work, ripping the mithril node apart with her pickaxe. It was so peaceful to swing the pickaxe and mine. In no time, or so it felt, the node was gone.


    "What I look forward to the most is flying. Fife and Jack both seem to have favorite wyverns now, even if I have no idea how one can carry Fife. The smiles on their faces after flying make me want this more than I ever feared it."


    She moved to the next node, emptied it of its adamantine, and shifted to the third in that cluster. Tannyr was already there, finishing off the last of it while she watched. "Thanks."


    "No need for thanks. This adamantine is going to be making more armor and weapons, as well as what we need for you. I talked to Axel¡ªhe''s excited to make armor for a dragon." Tannyr''s arms moved with speed and precision unmatched even by Penelope. "Where''s the last lode?"


    "Follow my directions," Travis said, and led them there. He watched through their eyes as the seam of mithril they dug to was whittled away. It was cathartic to see the numbers go up in his inventory, too. "Axel has been smelting it for you. The interesting thing is that he''s getting XP by doing it. So are you, Tannyr."


    "That makes sense," Tannyr said. "It would be hard for kobolds in normal dungeons to get fighting experience."


    "Are you saying I''m not a normal dungeon?" Travis asked, trying his best not to laugh and say the line straight.


    "You''re both terrible." Penelope walked through the dungeon to her boss room, then walked through to her sleeping quarters. "Trav, if you get the resources you need before I wake, trigger the upgrade. Oh, and before I forget, you get experience for having had someone enter your dungeon, even if they leave again a minute later?"


    Talking to Penelope in her bedroom always felt more intimate, somehow, than when she was in his heart room. "Yeah. Why?"


    "Nothing. Put up a sign at the entrance. Have it say ''come inside, get a bowl of food, and we''ll pay you one gold.'' I''m sure that will go over well." Yawning, Penelope stretched out on the huge bed Stephan had made for her, getting comfortable in the stunned silence Travis gifted her with. "I love you."


    "You''re amazing and I love you too." The words were so easy for Travis to say now because, without a single reservation, he meant them.


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 Chapter 104

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 22/100


    Heart 1587600/1587600


    Experience 366807/435600


    Workers 27/139


    Monsters 9/141


    Traps 114/339


    Food 5893


    Timber 7322


    Iron 2292


    Steel 905


    Mithril 2522


    Mithril Ore 400


    Adamantine 1787


    Adamantine Ore 1130


    Charcoal 4008


    Mana 1544


    Rock 1243


    Gold 1057


    Leather 216


    Leather Sludge 215


    Lava 501


    Glass 483


    Explosive Runes 30


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 30


    Bullets 200


    Black Powder 1500


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 76


    Sulfur 1058


    Quest: Kill the boss of another dungeon.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 27/66 | Monsters 9/67 | Traps 114/162


    Quest: Delve to the bottom of a dungeon with at least 20 floors.


    </blockquote>


    Several things were bugging Travis while Penelope slept. He couldn''t figure out what the reward had been for getting ten classes¡ªwhich was a pain that was all his own¡ªhe also had a very large woman sitting in his heart room, her back pressed against him, talking away in her own language.


    He couldn''t understand it, and that was something that confused him. He could understand the people of the city, he could understand his kobolds, he could also understand Breath of Spring. She didn''t seem worried by it, though. She talked and talked, not even stopping when various kobolds came in and picked up tasks from the workboard.


    The tone of her voice changed constantly. She ranged from soft and warm to sharp and aggressive, and every combination in between.


    Wanting to help her pass the time, Travis made a soft pink glow over the wax tablets in a box in the corner of the room. When Astrid stood up and walked toward them, he made his glow fade. She spoke again, her inflection rising¡ªa question.


    Another question from her that he couldn''t answer, but she eventually crouched down beside his crystal and made some marks on the tablet. Rune-like symbols that reminded Travis of Celtic art with twirls and lines that joined back up. She tapped the first one, held up a finger, and spoke a clear word.


    Travis wasn''t sure what she meant until she moved to the second, held up two fingers, and spoke the second word. It hit him that she was teaching him numbers. It was enjoyable to take the time to learn something completely new, and Travis spent a lot more of his focus on Astrid than the rest of his dungeon.


    When they got to twenty-five, though, she made a new mark between one and two, then wrote three under it. Travis would be the first to admit that he wasn''t the smartest when it came to math, but he''d managed to pick up a fair bit of quasi-Japanese from watching anime and Japanese movies with subtitles, and in high school he''d learned German.


    When she wrote down fifteen plus nine, he made a pattern on the wall with his magic: twenty-four.


    She laughed, a clear, pure tone that rang around the room. She said the word Travis had learned was twenty-four.


    To find out the next part, Travis put the same twenty-four on the wall, then put eleven after it, and wrote thirteen below them.


    Astrid, wearing a smile, wrote down the numbers on her own tablet and then added the missing subtraction symbol. They continued, Travis learning multiplication, division, and even managing to get his head around the Balavian version of statistics (from what he could gather, they used them for calculating effectiveness of troops and battle planning).


    In the end, they could both quote numbers and sums at each other easily and answer them. Travis, of course, couldn''t speak the words, but he''d learned them enough after a few hours that he could readily respond to just verbal challenges.


    <hr>


    Walking out into the heart room, Penelope looked on as Travis and Astrid were talking (Astrid was talking, Travis was drawing pictures with his mana). "What''s going on? Can you understand that?"


    "Hey, Pen. Yeah, she''s been teaching me her language," Travis said.


    Astrid jerked at the sound of Penelope walking into the heart room. Part of her wanted to call her beast and fight her way out, but part accepted that when there was an intelligent dungeon, its creatures were likely as much so. In the end, she decided giving them a nod would satisfy her code of honor.


    "Do you have all that adamantine and mithril processed yet?" Walking up to Travis'' heart, Penelope pressed her palm to it and kissed him.


    Taking a step back, Astrid surveyed the situation and realized what was happening. "I''ll go," she said, knowing Travis would understand her words. She gave a respectful nod to Penelope on her way out of the heart room.


    "Uh, Pen? You didn''t have to do that."


    "Huh?" Freezing, Penelope looked around in a slight daze, unsure what Travis was talking about.


    Biting back what he wanted to tell her, about Astrid, Travis thought he''d move on with what she''d asked initially. "There''s enough mithril and we''ll have enough adama¡ª Oh, we have enough. Well, do you want to do this?"


    "Okay. I''ll, uh, do it here if you are okay with that?" Penelope walked to the back corner of the room and sat down. She was just getting comfortable when she realized what Trav had tried to say earlier¡ªand what she''d done. "Did I really act like that to show her you''re mine?"


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    About to hit the upgrade, Travis paused. "Yeah, you did. Pen, there''s one thing you will never have to worry about."


    Pulling her legs up against her body, Penelope asked, "What''s that?"


    "I will never leave you. Sweet dreams, I love you." He liked the surprised, happy look on her face as he paid the costs, paying a little extra gold to reduce the usage of metals and food.


    <blockquote>


    120,000 gold


    14,500 food


    1,800 mithril


    1,800 adamantine


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    Not enough gold!


    </blockquote>


    Travis stared at the notice and laughed. "Hold on, apparently we can''t afford the Flush version."


    <blockquote>


    100,000 gold


    15,000 food


    2,000 mithril


    2,000 adamantine


    </blockquote>


    Feeling the magic wrapping her up, Penelope stared at Travis'' heart until her face was finally covered. Her last thoughts, she hoped, traveled to him. "I love you too."


    "I guess that means I had between one hundred thousand and one hundred and nineteen thousand, or so." It was a lot of gold, Travis realized, but he didn''t care. Nothing was too good for his friends.


    <hr>


    Watching her army pulling back from their picket lines stung Hilda almost as much as her sister''s death. She wanted to be gone from the city, but an orderly withdrawal was tricky to do without losing far more soldiers than she had in trying to take it. "How goes the north side?"


    "They''re slowly pulling back from the earthworks, ma''am. Should be done in a day or two. The south is going slower¡ªthey have Captain Donna''s group from the nearby dungeon fort folding into them." Reporting on the progress of her former Captain made Gunhild''s jaw tighten in anger. She''d been there when the attack had come and, being honest with herself, she wished it had been Hilda who''d been killed. "The east is the hardest. They''re pulling away slower and drawing around the south. They''ll be with us and ready to move in a week."


    "A week." Spitting on the ground, Hilda felt exposed. Her army''s morale was waning now their target had proved a bigger trap than they could handle, but if she could get most of them out they could still look for a second target. "So be it. Hold the withdrawal of the southern forces to cover the east."


    <hr>


    Clenching her fists, Astrid crouched, again, in the dungeon''s core room. It was a peaceful place that her culture had not prepared her for. Dungeons, or holes as her people called them, were places to be burned out, killed, and destroyed.


    But this dungeon wasn''t heretical. "What even is a heresy?"


    You okay?


    The words floated before Astrid. Pure magic¡ªthe perfect answer to her question. "I''m still trying to understand everything. It''s not easy." Even the cleverest slave she''d met had never picked up her language so fast. Astrid put it down to more dungeon strangeness.


    You don''t have to do it all in one day.


    Astrid snorted. "My entire life is a lie. Dungeons aren''t horrible."


    Would it help if I told you that most are?


    "No." Poking her finger at the magic of Travis'' words, Astrid was able to rework it into the rune for no. "I know you are an exception. Felna has told me as much. Has Hilda finished pulling back yet?"


    No. Her forces move slowly. I admire that she doesn''t want to lose people. Fife wants to use the poison on them, but I told her not to.


    The slightest shiver racked Astrid''s body. "The poison is bad. Terrible stuff. My pack¡ª"


    Your pack was attacking us. Fife was testing out the poison that night and got lucky.


    The words didn''t always make full sense, but Astrid was able to derive meaning readily enough. "Bad luck for us, good for you. That''s how war is."


    We sent out fast couriers over a week ago now. Brolly said that if they take more than two or three days, the first forces of a relief army will be here.


    It came as a shock to Astrid. "How did you get them out? We didn''t see any riders."


    Opened a new entrance in the woods to the south. Luddy slipped through the lines and placed it for me, well outside your patrols.


    "It is ironic that my people''s denial of dungeons has left us unknowing of your tricks. Dungeons in the north are never allowed to get this big, even if you don''t have many floors." It had been a surprise that Travis only had three. She''d woken up inside the dungeon and hadn''t known that she was barely down two floors. She had since had a chance to look at the defenses, though, and had paled at how much trouble her people would have faced in here. "My pack¡­"


    We haven''t disposed of their bodies yet. The priest in the city said that as long as they''re kept intact and cold, he can bring them back after several weeks. It can be a choice you make after your people have left.


    Travis had mentioned that to her before, but she figured he had dealt with the bodies already. Sitting down on the floor, Astrid turned her full attention to it. They would be angry, afraid, and furious with her. "There is one way to do this that will satisfy all of us.


    "Revive them one at a time. I will fight them each, one by one. They can kill me if they wish, and your herat¡ª Your priest can bring me back. If they want to die again, I will grant them the death in battle they will crave. If they want to live¡ª"


    I will offer them the same deal as you. Work for a year, then decide their own path.


    Nodding, Astrid stretched and tilted her head side to side. "Some will want to die. They will go down screaming and slavering. You know what that means, right?"


    Yes. As I said, we can afford to wait. Pen will be her new self and Fife will have found some more armor, I can bet.


    Laughing, Astrid had to agree. "She weighs more than I do when I am a wolf¡ªincluding my armor." At that thought, Astrid grunted. "My armor¡­"


    We have a smith who can make you new armor. He works adamantine well, and is getting better every day.


    Astrid nodded. "Yes. If I am to protect you, I will need my armor, a new axe, a sword, and a hatchet." She could still scarcely believe that she was conversing with a dungeon, in her own language, and felt comfortable doing so.


    Your wolf form, can it be transferred to another?


    "No. Either you are born to the madness of the wolf, or you carry no such burden."


    You don''t think it''s a burden?


    Astrid hadn''t realized she''d let that slip. "It''s what non-wolves call it. Their words, not ours. I feel more alive when I am a wolf. The whole world comes into focus and awaits me to hunt it, kill it, or spare it. When I am not a wolf, I feel small and weak."


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 Chapter 105

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 23/100


    Heart 1,904,400/1,904,400


    Experience 27,521/476,100


    Workers 27/139


    Monsters 9/141


    Traps 118/339


    Food 6,349


    Timber 7,322


    Iron 2,292


    Steel 905


    Mithril 922


    Mithril Ore 0


    Adamantine 917


    Adamantine Ore 0


    Charcoal 3,658


    Mana 3,965


    Rock 1,293


    Gold 6,057


    Leather 216


    Leather Sludge 215


    Lava 501


    Ice 10


    Glass 483


    Explosive Runes 30


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 30


    Bullets 400


    Black Powder 400


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 76


    Sulfur 708


    Quest: Kill the boss of another dungeon.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 27/66 | Monsters 9/67 | Traps 118/162


    Quest: Delve to the bottom of a dungeon with at least 20 floors.


    </blockquote>


    It was dawn on the third day after the enemy had started pulling back. Travis would have been happy to let the army withdraw and not bother them, but Brolly had told him the army would only go and harass another village or city, or face the kingdom''s army, with that extra strength. So he let Fife, Tannyr, and Ludmiller continue to do their things.


    Fife, of course, wasn''t allowed too far from the entrance. Travis had needed a little digging done and he wanted to have her ready to deal with any monsters discovered. In the three days, though, nothing had been found while they linked up a small group of resources.


    There were a few discrepancies he''d noticed over the previous days that only came to light when he had a good look around. Left alone for three days, his mana had shot up at a crazy rate, and he found out he had the Magic Academy to thank for that. It gave a boost to his maximum mana and the rate.


    He finished the current research project, Dungeon Soldiers, and that unlocked the Soldier class. He immediately switched the research to Helping Hands, which would let friendly non-dungeon creatures gain bonuses as if they were his creatures.


    All the mithril and adamantine ore had been smelted and turned into usable metal. He''d gotten Jack to make him some ice, at last, and then left the thermodynamics-defying water phase in a warehouse¡­ somewhere.


    The last secret Travis uncovered was where the missing quest reward had gone. There was a list of three buildings, each of them being described as External. "Katelyn! Katelyn! Katelyn!" Travis found her in the Trap Factory. "Oh, uh, what are you working on?"


    "Teleporting trap. I was talking to Kelvin about higher level dungeons, asking him about some of their unique traps. This one, apparently, teleports adventurers to the entrance." Giggling, Katelyn adjusted a golden piece of equipment on the bench. "And I know we''re not exactly seeing much in the way of adventurers delving us, but it would provide an instant exit for anyone."


    The concept wasn''t a hard one to figure out. The trap was meant to be put after a series of other traps, to force a party to go through them multiple times. Using it as quick transport was something Travis was kicking himself for not thinking of in advance¡ªthen he had to remind himself that he didn''t know about them in advance. "That''s a great idea. Those''d be really handy for getting around¡ªbut there was something else I wanted to talk to you about.


    "There are three external buildings we can construct. As far as I can tell, we only get one. One is a Fortress, one is to make an entrance hard to find, and the final one is a Wizard Tower." Travis felt a jolt of glee when Katelyn sharply inhaled. "I take it you have a preference?"


    "You big dummy. Of course I do. Do you know what each does?"


    "A Fortress removes the usual penalties for dungeon monsters fighting outside and it counts as a boss room, plus it''s a fortress." Travis left it at that until Katelyn looked about to explode demanding the next one. "Hidden Entrance gives an extra entrance, so I assume if you use it on an existing one, it hides that. And the Wizard Tower, which provides bonuses to magic users and doubles mana regeneration."


    "Huh. No detailed bonuses? How much is it?"


    Travis warmed to the topic, hearing the joy start to mount in Katelyn''s voice. "That''s the thing. After Astrid was sent to our jail, I got a quest completed, but I couldn''t figure out what it gave me. Turns out, I can have any one of these three for free. I still want to discuss this with Northridge and the council, but I''d like to plant a wizard tower in the city. For one thing, if this synergizes with some upcoming research, it could¡ª"


    "Helping Hands!" Stumbling sideways, Katelyn sat down on a stool beside her workbench and just stared blankly ahead. "Friendly, non-dungeon creatures can gain bonuses as if they were dungeon creatures. Travis, you''d supercharge every magic user in the city!"


    "Yeah, that was the thought. Do you think Northridge would go for it? I have no idea what it will do to our little outcropping of wall."


    <hr>


    Turning his attention outside the dungeon, Travis tried to focus on his memory of Northridge. "I need your counsel and permission."


    Northridge had spent its time reassuring its population with small morale buffs. Many homes had been ruined, but many had been saved and the disparity was going to take work from everyone to correct. "Yes, Dungeon Travis?"


    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    That it appended "Dungeon" to his name was a minor issue to Travis. He was simply relieved Northridge stood behind its word and seemed friendly. "I have several projects I''m working on, one being that I can place a Wizard Tower. It will enhance all my magic users and give me much more power to expend too."


    "I sense there is more?"


    "Yeah. You might not know, but there are two people, a smith and an adventurer, who have bonded themselves to me. They can get all the benefits of being members of my dungeon including far easier crafting for the smith and greatly expanded mana for the cleric. My next upgrade will allow anyone not specifically an enemy of mine to gain those boosts. The wizard tower may affect the entire city''s population."


    "That would be a great boon for those of divine faiths and worshipers of arcane power both." Northridge, after spending some time talking with Travis and the other, nameless dungeon, had found itself not using language to its best ability. With a bookstore in the town, it had sought to and had invested power with the keeper of the tomes¡ªand its vocabulary and diction had been improving ever since. It even knew what vocabulary and diction meant, now. "What would be the consequences should it not go to plan?"


    "Then you get a wizard tower sticking out of the side of you that you have already relegated to being where we dungeons are. There are two more options for this. The first would be to place a fortress somewhere. Potentially near the rot dungeon would be my choice for that. That way I could help contain the goblins, continue to grow from them, and provide a safe place for adventurers to head out from to attack them.


    "The second is the opposite. A hidden entrance somewhere. I doubt that would be at all useful for the future we''re planning. I don''t want to us to hide¡ªI want us to be strong together." Travis was almost panting as he finalized his thoughts.


    "A fortress on the road leading to Far Reach would be a far better use than the goblins. It would certainly shorten our supply lines and result in this kind of siege being almost impossible. You have mentioned trains in our past conversations, and hearing those discussed, I would very much like any railway area far from the city¡ªbut instantly accessible." The plans were, indeed, far in the future, but Northridge was starting to look forward to a time when they weren''t at risk of being destroyed on any given day. It had been watching the northerners packing up and leaving, and if it could have given them a shove¡ªit would have.


    The words carried a lot of interest and weight, but ultimately Travis didn''t see a point to wasting such a boon on a hardened location when they wouldn''t need one that would take any serious assault. He just didn''t see it offsetting every magic user being more powerful. "We already have that forest entrance I made that could be built out for that. It''s close to my city exit, and it isn''t like we cannot pool our resources to make a fortress there the old fashioned way. A boost to our magic users would be a benefit every single day that a spell is cast within your walls."


    "Our walls. You have defended them as much as I," Northridge said. "But that is a good point. I have notified my council, if they do not protest within a day, consider them as approving too."


    <hr>


    "Breeze."


    The word was soft and whispered to Travis'' thoughts like its namesake. It took him a few moments to realize the origin was the verdant dungeon. "Hey, uh, is that your name?" In answer he got approval, as a raw emotion, coiling around the word. "Got it. Did Breath of Spring help you pick it out? It''s nice."


    A shower of giggling, happy emotion poured from her, but still weak. Travis tried to reach back with the same, but barely managed a fraction of Breeze''s ability. "Do you have any other words?" A touch of sadness, but otherwise it wasn''t hard for him to figure out that Breeze would take time to develop more than the muteness it had evidenced so far. "Do you need more food?"


    Travis got an overwhelming sense of yes from Breeze. "Okay, well, send me some bunnies when you can, but otherwise¡­" His delves into Breeze had been giving food at a double rate compared to the undead dungeon, so he knew he had a lot to spare. Fifty thousand food was transferred from his buffer to Breeze. "Does that help?"


    The deluge of happy emotions from Breeze was like a warm rain in spring. Travis laughed and thanked it. "You really don''t have to. We''re all working together. If one of us lags behind, the others can support them."


    Travis didn''t think he needed to tell Breeze that it getting more floors meant he got more resources. He only wished he could figure out a way to build floors as numerous as it did. "They did? She did? He did? Life is getting more complicated after the army leaves."


    <hr>


    It had taken two weeks in total to get her army out and get them moving.


    Hilda kept near the rear of their line as the final withdrawal began. With the cunning of a city and a dungeon working together, she wanted no surprises from the rear. As with any other time you try to move over fifteen thousand people, it was a slow process and what information reached the rear was slowly sent.


    When a runner rushed up to her, though, she felt her adrenaline begin to kick in. "Report!"


    "A horde of green beasts! It''s like the other hole opened up and spilled a wave at us!"


    "Numbers? How many? If you say "countless," I''ll take your throat." Already riding the wave of excitement in her body, Hilda began to jog alongside their line and, in the far distance, could hear fighting going on. "Get our bows up here."


    Around her, people started moving to follow her orders. She wished again for her sister or even Astrid¡ªboth would have supported her by taking up various ancillary groups. Cresting a small hill, she saw what her column''s forward squads were fighting. Huge trolls belched, coughed, and bled as they battered back spears and polearms leveled at them. Orcs in heavy armor moved in wherever her troops were pushing back, securing the line that had cut off their retreat, but behind them all were foul magic users. "Get the ballistas up here! Sight in those heretics!"


    Just when she''d thought it had been one failure after another to take Northridge¡ªthis came along and reminded her that, to her people, she and all her soldiers were expendable.


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 Chapter 106

    Short Claws felt a buzzing excitement as his army ambushed the surface-dwellers. So long they''d planned, built their numbers, farmed the most amazing toxins and diseases, only to be denied their chance to besiege the stupid little town by another army marching in.


    They had waited, and waited, and finally were nearly bored enough to attack the army and go through them to hit the city¡ªwhen the army pulled back. Focusing his thoughts outward, Short Claws asked, "Are they almost in the gully?"


    "Count to fifty slowly and the first of them will reach it." Sharp Eyes was invisible to all but magic-enhanced vision. He sat in a tree and watched the huge column of surface-dwellers steadily march on. They looked unhappy, and he could understand why. He had observed their assault on the city and had seen them leave empty-handed. Lifting his bow, he breathed life into its sickly limbs and created a pox arrow for one lucky creature to catch.


    The attack started when Axer threw the first tree. Standing high on the hill above the gully, he recalculated his distance and threw a second. Around him other trolls began doing the same.


    When the surface-dwellers charged up the hill toward the trolls, Sharp Eyes sent a whisper of thought to Bash, the orc boss of the dungeon. From their hidden locations along the hillside, the orcs jumped from the ground and met the charge with heavy armor and heavier shields. Spotting one of the army that was shouting orders, Sharp Eyes put his little arrow into the man''s shoulder.


    The rot worked fast. Poisons were only the first wave of attack from the arrow. After those, molds grew rapidly, sinking their spores into the man''s blood and spreading wherever it took them. Tens, hundreds, millions of sites all over his body bloomed with fungal infections that quickly produced yet more poisons. His fate was sealed before the arrow had even finished penetrating his skin.


    However, while each of the dungeon monsters accounted well for themselves, this was merely the beginning of a battle. Short Claws had planned out many smaller shifts in the fight to keep the push of battle moving back and forth.


    When the surface-dwellers tried to pivot south, they found themselves in a bog created by a dam on the river¡ªupstream of which were dozens of beasts the dungeon minions had killed, infected, and left to pollute the waterway.


    The northmen weren''t always the ones ceding ground or lives, either. A fierce counterattack by a huge woman with a sword, flanked by a retinue of veteran fighters, forced a wedge into the goblin lines that sought to cut off one flank of the dungeon from the fighting¡ªand it worked.


    But Short Claws didn''t expect the fight to go completely his way. Summoning his power, he drew on the corruption of the orcs and trolls that the woman''s squad had felled, he supercharged the fungal growths in their bodies to bloom in long, thin tendrils of spore-spreading fruit.


    Soldiers went mad in an instant, grappling their fellows and dragging them down before their armor puffed out with fungus and they infected each other. Short Claws felt his power grow as over half the squad dropped on the spot. The survivors had moved to get upwind of the whole situation.


    With over fifteen thousand combatants involved in the battle, however, things were not going to be won by a single rout, no matter how effective.


    <hr>


    Hilda had barely gotten the cloth around her face before her allies had started to show signs of a plague from the hole. She shouted and led what remained of her squad away and to safety from the infected air. She had a city behind her, bristling with weapons and having formed a pact with foul heresy that made it impossible to starve out or whittle down, and now she had an endless army that, for every one of her soldiers it killed cleanly, it seemed to take five others with disease.


    The north, she realized, was cut off from her. "Check your masks. We''re pushing back to our line. If we can''t break through here, what chance does our army?" She didn''t have to give her reasoning to the few of her veterans remaining, but she figured she owed them that much. "We''ll push south. There won''t be a relief army coming yet, so we can edge around and find another city to hit."


    There wasn''t any grumbling among the soldiers. Bracing themselves and checking their masks, they set off back downwind with the aim of rejoining the main force.


    Looking for where the fighting should be, Hilda wished she hadn''t sent Astrid and her wolves at the front gate of the city. Their powerful metabolism and almost god-like resilience could withstand such diseases as a rot dungeon could produce. Dispelling the dream of seeing a pack of the wolves running over the hill, Hilda felt the air shift a fraction and started to turn.


    The horrid-smelling green arrow deflected from her pauldron instead of finding the gap between her bevor and her collar. Snarling, she didn''t have to see the archer to know where it was. Instinct drove her to draw a dagger and send it back toward Sharp Eyes.


    So much strength had been behind the throw that it flew in an almost flat trajectory, speeding toward and burying itself in the collarbone of the goblin that had fired the arrow. When the dungeon boss fell from the tree, visible once more, Hilda managed a small smile.


    Between them and their army were goblins, orcs, and a few trolls. Hilda scythed through them like wheat. With the support of half a dozen other shields and swords, there was a line of destruction wrought through the goblin line up until they met up with their force again.


    Getting a flood of reports, Hilda didn''t like the news one bit. The path to the south had been cut off, the ground made too swampy with poisoned water to get through, and the northern path was now completely blocked by the monstrous creatures.


    Hilda wanted to ask for Donna''s opinion, or get Astrid fired up to lead a charge through to victory, but now she was all alone at the head of the army and she couldn''t see a way out that wouldn''t involve not just death, but probably worse for many at the hands of the goblins.


    There was a foe who had the respect to simply kill them, however distasteful it felt to contemplate facing them again. "Turn the column around. We go back to that damned city and throw ourselves at their walls until we pile up high against them. There is no way out of this, but at least they offered us a good death¡ªan honorable death."


    She might as well have played a dirge. All the soldiers around her seemed shaken until one held out his arm to Hilda. Taking it, in a mutual clasp, he nodded to her.


    "We fight. We kill. We die. We are born of the ice and snow, and this is the way of our lives."


    The words spread. An old warriors chant, Hilda felt it boost her resolve and that of everyone around her. "We fight!"


    "We kill!" It became a chant now as they turned the army around and began moving back toward Northridge. "We die!"


    <hr>


    "They''re coming back?!" Brolly was at the entrance of the dungeon and was about to head inside to give Travis the good news that everyone was fine with him building a wizard tower when an out-of-breath runner reached him. Looking back at the man, he stepped inside. "Travis! The northerners are returning!"


    Penelope felt her mind start up again. Her awareness restored, she reached out to feel how changed her body was¡ªand heard Travis start swearing. "What''s wrong?" Her body, she realized, might be too big for the normal tunnels. She went to take a step and started to crouch, only for her size to shift as she shrank down so that it would only be a tight squeeze. She shuffled backwards again.


    "The army pulled back while you were asleep. Well, they''re coming back. Brolly said it and ran back off again. Why would they come back after spending days carefully pulling out?"


    "Ask Astrid. I can''t get my head around being these weird and crazy Balavians." A quick assessment of her body instantly sparked confusion. She had way more tail than before, and now her wings felt huge by dint of her sensing a lot more with them.


    Turning her head revealed another change¡ªher neck was longer. She glanced down to see her hands were now mostly talons, though they were sheathed with a soft green that she felt would be similar in effect to what her swords did. "Okay, do I walk on all fours now or can I stand up?"


    Looking around the heart room, everything seemed much smaller now. "Trav, I''m going topside. That way I can see how big I am and find out what''s going on. I can also figure out if I can walk upright." It worried at her thoughts how easy it felt to walk using her hands as feet. She knew it had been coming, but not that it would happen so soon.


    "Is anything going cray¡ª?" Penelope stopped in the middle of her question as the dungeon shook. "What was that?!"


    "Wizard tower," Travis said, as if that really answered the question. "Okay, it''s a big tower that''s now my entrance. Huge tower! I need more than a lizard''s eye view of this thing!"


    "I''m heading out, I said. It''ll just take me a bit to figure out walking in these halls. The twists are out of the question now, I think." What she liked, when she tested her new claws out, was that she could literally carve her way through the rock with them. She didn''t want to think about digging a bigger area that might need shoring up.


    Stairs, it seemed, were a problem. She had to squeeze a little more to take them, but got to the first floor of the dungeon quickly by taking the direct ones.


    She made it all the way to the entrance without having to pass anyone, which was a relief, but she heard several people gasp when she got outside¡ªand looked down at everyone. Not down as in a little taller than normal, down as in she lifted her head and was almost twice as tall as the people nearby. "Uh, hi. Look, don''t worry about me. I had a little growth spurt is all. Someone said the northmen were coming back?"


    Shaking out of her shock at seeing a dragon up close, Portentia Silversong raised her hand and pointed in the direction of the guardhouse. "Commander Windchime. Do you know if Axel is inside?" If her great grandfather wasn''t a kobold in this very dungeon, she might have run screaming from the lunacy of giving a dragon directions, but he''d told her about Penelope and how she was going to be getting bigger and bigger. It didn''t make facing a dragon any less panic inducing.


    Without thinking, Penelope said, "Trav, is¡ª? Oh, hold up, I need to go back inside and find out¡ª"


    "I can hear you out here! You''re faint, but I can hear you, Pen! What did you need? Also, can you look up at my tower?" Travis asked.


    Turning her head and looking up, Penelope laughed. "You have a hat! Anyway, is Axel inside?"


    The wizard tower was a single spire, thicker around than the other towers of Northridge, it also shot about three times higher than any other¡ªincluding the main gate. "Axel''s working in his forge." Travis wished he could spend some time examining the tower more, but Penelope looked back down to Portentia. It shocked him a how far down that was. "How big are you out there?"


    "He''s inside. Trav, let him know he has a visitor. Also, I''m too damn big, but there''s not much we can do about that now." Spreading her wings, Penelope froze before taking off when Portentia was trying to wave to get her attention. "What''s up?"


    "You, uh, might want to walk. If I was on guard duty, had a rifle, and saw you flying directly at me¡­" Portentia winced at where the sentence was going.


    Blinking in surprise, then nodding, Penelope let out a long breath. "Thank you. I''d have gotten my ass shot if I''d done that. Okay, walking there. I hope the city itself isn''t worried about this." Walking off up the street, trying to ignore the shouts of people along the way, she realized she wasn''t as big as she''d heard dragons would be. "Trav, can you still hear me?"


    "Faintly, but I can! Can you hear me?" Travis asked.


    "Yeah. Okay, this is neat. So I guess that means you are more part of the city than ever now?" Feeling like she was lumbering, Penelope nonetheless kept her wings folded against her sides and tried to keep her big tail from hitting anyone or anything.


    Finally, reaching the guardhouse, she considered that she wouldn''t fit in the front door. "Hey, uh." The two guards had been watching her with a little boredom on their faces. At least, with such a relaxed meeting, they weren''t going for their weapons. "Can one of you go inside and get Brolly out here?"


    "First it was lizards, now this. Faith, what do you think that dungeon is feeding its critters now?"


    "I dunno, Herb, seems like it''s working, whatever it is." Sergeant Faith winked at Penelope. "I''ll go get him. You''re the dungeon''s boss, right?"


    Penelope nodded, doing her best not to look at the guards as if they could be a snack. "Yeah. I got another upgrade, what with all the insanity of this siege we thought it would be a good idea."


    "Can''t say as I''ve ever seen a dragon defend a city, but if they really are coming back¡ªI''ll have something new to brag about to future recruits," Corporal Herbert said. "She won''t be lon¡ª"


    Brolly opened the door and froze. He hadn''t been told about the new upgrade, and for a moment his hand reached down to the sword at his side before he pulled it back and sighed. "Pen?"


    "Yeah. New upgrade. So, we have the army coming back? Any reason why?" Being quadrupedal, she was finding, solved and created problems. Problems like how to carry things were new, but how do I stop myself from gesturing with my hands while talking was a problem now behind her. She didn''t mind that last one.


    "Remember how they were blocking our plans to start delving into the goblin dungeon, giving it time to do whatever it wanted to?" Waiting for Penelope to nod, Brolly went on. "Turns out the goblins were raising an army, probably to besiege the city. They decided to attack the northerners as they retreated. Now, remember that talk we had about dealing with rot monsters being done with magic?"


    Penelope winced at the idea, but from the way everyone reacted to her motion it didn''t translate well to a dragon. "Ouch. Makes me feel sorry for them. That''s no way to go. Okay. So, what if we cover their retreat and offer them a deal?"


    "We can''t. Part of the charter for founding a city involves taking oaths, and one is to not give aid to invaders. If it were only a matter of not calling them that, it might work, but we''ve already sent out requests for aid." Brolly sighed. The time for calling it all a mix up and starting over was gone, but he would rather that army have left for good. "So, if they''re coming back to put us between them and the goblins, all the good, but if they attack us again, I can''t turn a blind eye to that."


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    Having never heard of the oaths before, Penelope had to accept that and move on. "So what do we do? Attack them and move onto the goblins behind them?"


    "We don''t have that kind of range. I''ve put all the guards on alert. They''re working in shifts to man the walls again. I''d hoped this was over, but it seems like even if we kill every last one of the northerners, we then have a goblin army to fight. At least that''ll be easier." Brolly remembered the other news he had for the dungeon. "Right, I forgot to tell you. Let Trav know that we''re okay with him building the wizard tower."


    Before Penelope could reply, Travis coached her on how to handle the indiscretion of building the tower before he had permission. "Don''t tell him we did it anyway. He doesn''t need to know that. You can tell him that I can hear you anywhere in the city now, though. That should distract him and help him think I just built it. If they figure it out later, I''ll tell them with news of the army returning, I wanted to push forward with all major works."


    Penelope at first wasn''t sure what to say about it, but shrugged again and moved on. "Trav said he can hear and see where I am now. Might only be in the city, but I let him know you were okay with the tower." It wasn''t a lie, she thought. "I suppose I should fly out there and take a look at things."


    Still getting used to having flying cavalry, Brolly nodded. "So long as you don''t think they can hit you, go for it."


    "You''re going to strafe the goblins, aren''t you?" Travis asked Penelope.


    The concept of strafing was new, but Travis had explained it to Fife in her hearing. "Yeah, I think I got this." Her answer was for both Travis and Brolly¡ªthough she was glad the latter didn''t hear the former''s comment. "If I see a target of opportunity, though, I''ll take it."


    Brolly watched her walk off to an open square that, while it wasn''t empty of people, it was after they all realized it was where a dragon planned to go. She spread her wings, jumped, and launched into the sky. Despite knowing she was a friend and despite having praised her for defending his city, Brolly felt a small hit of irrational fear at seeing such a huge predator. Dragons, typically, saw people as fodder, and his subconscious knew that and wouldn''t give the idea up.


    Flying was everything Penelope hoped it would be. Her body knew how to do it and her muscles seemed particularly good at working her huge wings to keep her in the sky. Circling around the top of the new wizard tower, she reached out for Travis. "I don''t know how any of them will take seeing me like this, but hopefully the idiot northerners don''t have time to get any kind of ballista set up."


    "Make sure you come back, okay?"


    "Of course I will. Love you, Trav."


    "Love you too." Travis watched through her eyes as Penelope grew distant and, then, faded completely. It was nice to know she wouldn''t die so long as he survived. "And good luck."


    <hr>


    The world was so much easier to understand from the sky. Penelope circled around the whole city once to get her bearings, then turned toward the goblin dungeon. The ongoing battle wasn''t exactly hard to see. There were tens of thousands swarming along. The goblins seemed less numerous, but they definitely had the energy to chase the northerners.


    While not looking exactly like they were retreating, the northerners seemed focused on the city before them¡ªonly their rearguard seemed to pay the goblins any mind at all.


    Instinct told Penelope where the perfect spot was to begin a dive toward the goblins. As she tipped toward the ground, a strong pressure began to build inside her. She knew what was coming and welcomed it. Lined up with the second row of the goblins pursuing the northerners, she opened her mouth and came in about twenty feet above the goblins and breathed down at them in a line.


    Hilda had been focused on the monsters chasing them. Time and again they''d skirmished and fought off the advances while their column pulled back toward the city. Each encounter she''d lost more of her veterans. Now, with none of her elites left and only regular infantry, she was losing more troops faster. Where the dragon had come from or why it was attacking the goblins, she didn''t know, but the sight of it spraying acid down on the enemy lines made her warrior spirit cheer. A foe, at last, that she could die to and know only honor. "Pull back! Move fast before it comes for us!"


    The wide swathe Penelope''s acid carved through the goblins sated something inside her she didn''t know she had. She pulled up, pumping her wings hard to get height above them, before banking around and coming down again.


    "It''s hitting them again." Gunhild, her whole body screaming with exhaustion, stared in awe as the monster came down and burned its way through the monster army.


    "I don''t understand why it''s only attacking them. It could have hit us as easily, and we wouldn''t throw cursed sorcery and trees its way." All her intent of running to the city to die had faded for a moment, and Hilda could only stand there and witness a slaughter so complete and profound that it dwarfed what the monsters had done to her own army. "If it''s part of one of the holes in that city, what hope have we of escaping this field to find a good death?"


    Again and again Penelope strafed the goblin lines. She killed thousands of them, turning their rout of the northerners into a stall and, finally. When the goblins had all withdrawn rather than face her wrath again, she wheeled around and sighted on the group of soldiers who''d been the rearguard.


    When the dragon turned toward them, Hilda swore she could feel the line of her ancestors at her back. The power the beast displayed sent shivers of fear through her that she clamped down on and ground away. "Ready yourselves! Our lives will be sung about for generations if we can fight this beast without filling our pants!"


    Slamming into the ground, Penelope kept a full length of her body between her and the fighters. The burning inside her seemed ever-present and wanted out, but instead of sending it in a line toward the fighters, she lifted her head and shot it into the sky.


    Having seen that very breath attack fell trolls, orcs, and goblins already, Hilda had no doubt her own fate should it have caught her. That''s when she realized what Penelope was doing. "It''s posturing. Why?" Keeping her hand on her hilt, not drawing her weapon yet, Hilda walked closer to the beast. "Are you here to kill us?"


    The words were hard to follow, but Penelope''s recent dreaming had carried some of them to her. She knew Travis had been learning it, and now she had proof that his mind bled knowledge to her while she slept. She was at least able to follow Hilda''s words. "No. You will leave!"


    Hearing it speak passable Balavian, Hilda drew her hand back, slowly, from her hilt. "We cannot. Goblins forced us back."


    Following enough, again, Penelope shook her head. "I''ll kill them all. You leave. Never bring an army here to fight us again."


    Still itching to fight and die, it was only Hilda''s honor to her soldiers and the hope to get them out of this that kept her from drawing her blade and facing a glorious end at the dragon''s claws. Bowing her head in a nod, her eyes never leaving Penelope, she only had one goal left now. "Turn the column around! We''re leaving!" Only when she turned, to see who had heard her, did Hilda realize that every one of her rearguard had run. "Shit."


    The expletive almost made Penelope laugh. It was such a normal thing that when she coughed, and rubbed her nose with the back of one talon, it didn''t register as odd until flaring pain started to shoot through her.


    Spinning around toward the dragon, Hilda spotted the white lines of mycelium around Penelope''s nostrils and cursed. Off, in the distance, a hobgoblin spellcaster looked far too happy with himself. "Try not to cough." Reaching to a pouch strapped to her hip, Hilda pulled out her spare toxin cloth and rushed at the dragon to press it against her nose. "This kills the spore. Inhale."


    Taking a shuddering breath, and struggling not to cough, Penelope stared down the armored limb to Hilda''s eyes. There was fury in them that she didn''t understand, but she could tell it wasn''t aimed at her. More breaths came before the burning in her lungs abated. "Get on."


    In the moment it took Hilda to figure out what Penelope meant, the dragon seemed to regain more of its strength. She moved fast, though, when the intent resolved itself in her mind. Running past the dragon''s head after shoving the wadded up cloth in one of Penelope''s nostrils, Hilda considered how she would tackle the task before her.


    Trying to ignore the indignity of the rag in her nostril, Penelope lowered herself as much as she could before she felt Hilda''s mailed hand grab her spine and the woman''s bulk heaved up and onto her back. It felt weird, and she hoped Fife wouldn''t get wind of it¡ªthis was not a role she intended to submit to again. Spreading her wings, she looked over at the goblin that''d used its magic on her, and saw that there was a group of trolls and orcs with it now.


    Inhaling to fuel her breath, Penelope almost gagged at what pain still inside her caused her natural acids to falter. Turning her head to the side, she spat out a ball of white mucus and acid that, she hoped, was only a short-term side effect of whatever the goblin had cast.


    With no experience killing dragons¡ªsince her homelands never let a dungeon get big enough to have one¡ªHilda didn''t know what to expect from Penelope. When they were close to the goblins and still Penelope hadn''t exhaled on them, Hilda decided she was best fighting how she''d been trained. "Down here! Let me down!"


    Masking her lack of experience with landing by crashing with style, Penelope and Hilda had the orcs bearing down on them while the slower trolls were not far behind.


    "We move forward. Watch my back¡ªI can''t see well behind me in this armor. If you¡ª" Hilda had started to duck as she saw the tree trunk winging its way toward her from the corner of her eye. When Penelope moved her foreleg and intercepted it, Hilda was starting to see more upsides to fighting beside a dragon.


    The tree didn''t impart nearly as much energy to Penelope as she''d expected, and after she battered it aside she realized that she''d braced far more than she''d needed to. "Got it." Being an adventurer, and continuing to work with them, she knew how to listen to good advice. Stepping forward when Hilda did, she used one talon to take the head off the more brash orc that was leading the charge.


    Ducking under Penelope''s strike, Hilda brought her shield up to meet the next orc''s attempt at slashing Penelope''s talon, then she took the beast''s arm off at the elbow.


    At first, they were only dealing with the orcs, but after the pair of them had cut down all but one or two, trolls started taking their places. The trolls, at least, provided better targets for Penelope. She could go to town on them with her talons, wings, and in one case she bit down on the forearm of one and braced her foot against its shoulder to rip it free.


    With the fight wearing on, and the goblins being forced onto the back foot, their caster was doing everything it could to keep them in the fight. Spells to speed up and strengthen were cast repeatedly as more reinforcements arrived.


    Despite having spent all day fighting the goblins, Hilda still moved like the wind and cut like an axe. Her heavy sword never lacked for momentum and her shield was always fast enough to deflect blows that could well have caused her harm. As the engagement wore on, she thought more on the whole campaign and how poorly it had gone. Her sister had been so convinced that the chain would work and they''d control a dungeon to use against their enemy, and even though it hadn''t been the dungeon itself that had killed Donna, she still knew it had a hand in it.


    But that was war. Living. Gambling. Strategizing. Dying. Winning and losing.


    And now she was engaging in heresy. By the oaths of her people, she should cut down the dragon and the goblins and, because she knew she had no hope of defeating them all, die trying. Only there was a wild rush of excitement in her that could only come by killing all these green menaces.


    Standing taller than any of the goblins, Penelope could see when no more reinforcements were arriving. What they had on the field, it seemed, was all they were getting on the field. The last of the trolls she ripped in half, sending each piece in a different direction.


    The orc Hilda was fighting against was not just bigger and stronger than the others, but it seemed to have far more experience fighting. While her expertise was not dungeon fighting, her time listening to her sister''s prattle about holes made her sure she knew this was what a boss was.


    Parrying and blocking were the main orders, though Hilda was on the lookout for a chance to strike effectively. With so many opponents during the day, throwing tired muscles against such a heavy defense wouldn''t see her through to the end of the fight.


    The orc moved with the same indefatigable motion that Penelope herself felt. She wanted to move in and bash it down, but Hilda was too closely engaged for her to risk it. Finally, after an entire day of fighting the minions of the goblin dungeon, Hilda''s block came a moment too late and the orc was given its chance to push on her.


    Matching the strikes had become too much and, with its cleaver-like axe smashing into her chest armor, Hilda was thrown off balance and felt the orc''s shield connect with sword arm¡ªknocking her limb aside and leaving her exposed.


    What felt like thunder opened up as something grabbed Hilda and dragged her backward. Falling to her rear, she watched the dragon move to stand over her and had a close-up view of its chest flexing.


    The orc barely had time to raise its shield before Penelope breathed onto it. The acid ate into the armor, melting not the adamantine plate, but the steel pins and straps holding it onto the orc''s body. With its armor coming undone, and various patches of its skin smoldering, each of Penelope''s strikes hit their mark and rendered it piece by bloody piece.


    At last, with just the goblin dungeon boss standing, Penelope shifted herself away from Hilda and walked toward the hobgoblin. "You are going to be endlessly enjoyable to fight and kill."


    More annoyed at the defeat than intimidated, Short Claws raised his staff and started to chant. His focus narrowed to the dragon as he prepared to unleash his worst plague upon it; something that would, when released, kill everything around them¡ªincluding himself.


    It was a surprise to Short Claws when a heavy, black blade cut through the back of his neck and appeared in the bottom half of his vision. The action and location of it had not only severed his windpipe and stopped him from finishing the spell, but it had cut the strings from his head to the rest of his body.


    Reaching out with her talon, Penelope closed it around Short Claws'' head and squeezed. When blood and gore seeped out between her claws, she finally let go. "You fight well."


    Hilda could only laugh. The way the dragon had killed the goblin, along with the whole fight, was the most intense experience of her life. She dropped to her knees and reached up to pull her helmet off. "You too. I never believed my sister when she spoke of beasts in dungeons putting up a fight, but you¡ªyou would be an opponent I could happily die fighting. That damn armored lizard of yours, too."


    "You fought Fife?" Lifting her foreleg up, Penelope pressed it against one nostril and blew, shooting the rag out the other one along with a huge spray of snot and dead fungus.


    "Someone I never want to fight again, but I can''t help but feel the need to." Only after saying it did Hilda realize she''d started thinking of them as people. Talking, she deduced, was the key. Once a monster spoke to you and had bled with you, it was no longer a monster. "I don''t know where to go from here."


    "I have a friend who can think his way out of any problem, and I''ve started picking up that trait myself. What do you need?" It was easy to ask, hard to contemplate, and probably impossible given the city''s obligations, but Penelope wanted to try. She might not actually die, even to the goblin''s diseases, but Hilda had helped her.


    "If my army can''t return with riches or food, we can''t return. We all know it¡ªit''s a way of life for our kind. If I can''t claim riches from your city and return with them, it''s expected that we''ll throw ourselves on your walls until none of us survives." Grabbing up the disgusting rag, Hilda used it to clean her blade, though all that really accomplished was trading goblin gore for dragon snot.


    Not completely understanding, Penelope put it together with what they''d deduced about Astrid and started to understand how screwed up Hilda''s life was. "You can''t go back, and your army got mauled by the goblins too much to try another city." Her mind raced to find a solution. The city needed plausible deniability, which meant that the army couldn''t be around when reinforcements arrived from the kingdom. "How many are left in your force?"


    "I was marching out of here nine thousand strong at dawn, not including followers. I have less than half that now." Hilda nodded down to where her army was, even now, waiting for her to lead them in a final charge against the city. "We can''t stay here."


    "How much gold, per person, would be enough to buy your way back home?"


    It shocked Hilda to hear talk of buying them off when they posed no threat. "Why would you do that? We are your enemy¡ªbut for one fight. If we march home with gold, people will ask what city we got it from."


    "You could tell them you raided a dungeon and took it. Maybe these goblins had it? How much?"


    "They''ll send us back next winter. They''ll expect more." There were hundreds of arguments that were popping up in Hilda''s head, most of which had to do with her own people ratting on her.


    "So, you come back with a smaller force. Bring a few hundred who are sick of how things work in Balavia. Without the eyes of the kingdom on us, we can give you reasons not to go back." For a moment Penelope could see Hilda contemplating it.


    It was frightening how fast the dragon eliminated barriers. Hilda tried to keep her head above water and establish why she should be left to fight and die. "And what, retire? I''m a soldier, bred to be a soldier among soldiers. Trained to lead and destined to die doing it. What would I do in this soft land?"


    "''Soft land''?" Reaching over to the goblin boss'' corpse, Penelope hefted the headless body up. "They will think you dragged back gold from a dungeon. You fight dungeons well. Why not make that your profession here?"


    "It would take ten gold per person, and no more. Too much and you''ll have multiple armies wanting to come down here immediately. Less and I won''t be able to negotiate food for the rest of winter."


    Running the numbers in her head, Penelope nodded at the sum. "Then we will get you fifty thousand. It will take time. Several days, but no more than five." It was a lot of gold. She was sure Travis didn''t have that much in him right now, especially since he''d paid to upgrade her, but they had gold seams to mine and could make more. "Can you figure out a way to justify it?"


    "I''ll have to."


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 107

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 23/100


    Heart 1,904,400/1,904,400


    Experience 332,421/476,100


    Workers 27/139


    Monsters 9/141


    Traps 118/339


    Food 6,349


    Timber 7,322


    Iron 2,292


    Steel 905


    Mithril 922


    Mithril Ore 0


    Adamantine 917


    Adamantine Ore 0


    Charcoal 3,658


    Mana 4,950


    Rock 1,293


    Gold 6,057


    Leather 216


    Leather Sludge 215


    Lava 501


    Ice 10


    Glass 483


    Explosive Runes 30


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 30


    Bullets 400


    Black Powder 400


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 76


    Sulfur 708


    Quest: Kill the boss of another dungeon.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 27/66 | Monsters 9/67 | Traps 118/162


    Quest: Delve to the bottom of a dungeon with at least 20 floors.


    </blockquote>


    From the top of the wizard tower Katelyn could see for miles outside the city walls, which was good for Travis because it meant he could see that far too. XP was rolling in and all Katelyn could tell him was that she saw lots of dust on the horizon.


    <blockquote>


    Quest Complete: Kill the boss of another dungeon.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    New Quest: Kill 100 city dwellers.


    </blockquote>


    Travis said a good few swear words. Normally he would have kept them to himself, but Fife had asked nicely if he could share any such with her, and he''d found that doing so put a huge grin on her face every time. "I just got a quest to kill a hundred people from Northridge."


    Leaning back on her chair, Fife nodded to Huntress and said, "I gotta talk to Trav¡ªmy dungeon¡ªfor a second. Okay, Trav, so just pay them and have one of us make it quick and painless."


    "Rupert might not like that. Would he be okay, do you think, if we paid him extra?"


    "We have the weirdest conversations, but I appreciate the new swearing. Okay, I''ll go and ask him." Fife stood up and stretched.


    "There is literally no rush on it. We¡ª Pen''s back. Wow, she''s got a lot of XP. Maxed out her mage class!" The moment Penelope was back over the city''s walls, even flying, Travis asked her, "What happened?"


    "Lots of stuff. We need to talk about possibly getting some refugees. Hilda was not having a good day." She didn''t elaborate further, focusing on losing altitude to land.


    With her circling lower and lower over the city, Travis was surprised to see that far from the guards threatening to shoot Penelope, they were cheering her on. "I have to figure out how to get these lizards so they can hear." While she was in the process of landing, Travis made a note in his heart room to ask Rupert about the use of resurrections for things other than violent or accidental situations.


    "I''ll talk in my boss room. Let everyone know there''ll be a meeting there, can you, Trav?"


    <hr>


    As Penelope pressed forward, toward Travis'' dungeon entrance, there was a weird sensation as her definitely-bigger-than-the-entrance bulk easily compacted down so that she was able to walk in the tunnels.


    She knew she was smaller inside, but she still felt her mass and power. Sparing a nod for a few townsfolk who were waiting to head into the kitchen area, she thanked them for having lunch in the dungeon, and kept moving.


    Taking the long stairs directly to the bottom floor, she disregarded the stone and pushed her way through to her boss room. Inside what should have been a ten-by-ten room like the others, it looked like she had closer to forty-by-forty. She relaxed and stepped further in and decompressed into her full size. "Ohhh. I like this," she said, seeking out a big stone bed in one corner, right beside the angry-looking acid that bordered the room.


    Fife was the first to arrive. She''d left Huntress behind with an apology and a promise of more lessons. "Oh wow. Look at this place! I didn''t come down here to check it out since you got your new powers, but damn! Trav told us you''d become a dragon now. Hey, try biting me!" Looking around the huge, vaulted boss room, Fife was perfectly aware that this was far too big to fit where it was on the map. "What happens if we tunnel in from another direction? How much acid is that? Where did your swords go?"


    "Fife, take a deep breath and wait for the others. Trav, how many are coming?" Penelope had to lift one foreleg to shove Fife back from trying to grab at her. "What are you doing?"


    Fife glared at Penelope. "Let me hug you¡ªjust once."


    "Once?"


    "Definitely once." Fife waited until Penelope nodded and then rushed up to her and hugged against her friend''s neck. "Oooh, you''re so soft!"


    "If you make this awkward, Fife, I''ll¡­" What Penelope didn''t want to tell Fife was that it felt nice to be hugged. Since becoming a kobold and finding herself in love with Travis, she hadn''t gotten much close contact. "A little more''s okay."


    Travis watched Penelope relax, and though he felt a touch of jealousy of Fife, he could see that the woman he loved got something she needed. "Katelyn and Luddy are almost there. Wild will get the Cliff notes from Luddy, he said. Felna and Astrid are coming down too. The rest said they''d catch up on news later."


    "Astrid? Huh, yeah, good idea. I should have probably said to get her down here." Penelope eventually pushed Fife away when she could hear more people arriving. "Okay, enough."


    Fife surrendered Penelope and let herself be pushed backward. She wondered, for a moment, who would win in a shoving match, but then Ludmiller, Brayden, Katelyn, Felna, Astrid, and Robert arrived. Blake walked in a moment later. "Is this all, Trav?"


    "All that''s coming. I''m relaying it to a few others, but otherwise we might as well start. Pen, what happened?" Travis asked.


    "Okay, let me get it in order. First thing, flying is exactly as amazing as you can imagine, and then some. When I flew out, I saw the northerners coming back toward the city with an army of goblins behind them." As she began talking, though, Penelope could see the confusion on Astrid''s face. She repeated her beginning, in the language that she''d picked up from Travis, and saw surprise register now instead. "After waking from my upgrade, I found I''d shared some stuff from Trav. It was very useful."


    So, with a little repeating herself every so often (to fill Astrid in), Penelope told her tale. She embraced her memories and recalled every emotion as she''d strafed the goblins. When she got to the part where she''d told Hilda to leave, Astrid barked a laugh.


    "You let a wolf more dangerous even than me go, then. Now her army are hungry for victory and don''t care for their own lives." Astrid liked the story, though. She hoped that Hilda would see sanity and leave this place.


    "That''s not the end of it," Penelope said, then repeated for Astrid. She explained the attack of the elite goblins and their bosses. Of the magical spores that had almost taken her down (or so she assumed). When she explained that to Astrid, she nodded.


    "Fungus magics from a rot dungeon are the foulest of all. It would have been a slow death, gasping for air and only drowning as its rot grows inside you. If you''re lucky, and die away from your friends, they might not catch it too."


    "She saved me, then. Hilda stuffed some kind of rag over my nose and it killed the fungus," Penelope said in the northerner language.


    Leaning back and looking up at the cave-like ceiling of the room far above, Astrid worked over the meaning behind it in her mind. "She respects you¡ªprobably more than she did me. Be careful, though. Respect doesn''t mean she doesn''t want to kill you herself."


    The language was still a little thick to wade through, but Penelope was sure she got the gist of it. Hilda probably wanted to fight her to the death. It seemed such an important thing, yet Penelope broke into a laugh. "That''s perfect. I''ll bribe her with that."


    Astrid felt her demeanor slip a moment. "Bribe?"


    "A day of downtime, when things are more peaceful, is perfectly fine by me. If she wants a fight to the death, she can have one, but she''ll have to pay for it." As she described her rough plan, Penelope watched as Astrid''s more open expression showed first shock and then actual laughter spilled from the huge woman. "You think that would work?"


    "Work? Are you joking? If you offered her such a fight, she would actually take over this city, raise a new army, and take over the whole lowlands kingdom for you. Promise her a fight like that, and deliver on it, and you will get her to do anything." Struggling to recover, Astrid finally gave up and let her laughter roll for a while. Every time the idea surfaced again, she lost herself in the mirth it brought.


    "And if she loses? Do we offer her resurrection?" Penelope asked.


    Astrid shrugged, but was still surprised at how easy it was to talk to a dungeon monster. "Sure. Let her fight as many times as she wants. Thousands of battles in which she gets to experience the rush of battling something stronger than her. She''ll be in love with you, if you''re not careful."


    "What about a wolf?"


    That question pulled Astrid up short. "You mean a fight to the death against me in my wolf form?" Thinking on it, Astrid didn''t know if she could complete the transformation without the drugs. "Old stories tell of wolves who would control their forms and slip from human to beast form in the blink of an eye. Now, we always use the brew from the wise women. They prepare it from herbs and feed it to us."


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Intrigued, Penelope asked, "Do you need it?"


    "I don''t know. This is the moment where you tell me to try." Flashing a smile, Astrid gestured around the room where most of the dungeon''s bosses were arrayed. "This is the perfect spot and the perfect company."


    Hearing Travis'' translation, Fife''s eyes started to dance at the thought of it. "I want in on this. How do I tell her I want to fight?"


    Looking over at the juggernaut that was Fife, Astrid knew exactly what she''d said without understanding the words. "I guess this is the part where I try to become my wolf. Give me a moment, it takes¡ªconcentration."


    "Rules," Travis said, interrupting Fife''s excitement. "No weapons, no armor. You can have your inbuilt armor, Fife, but she''s definitely going to rip you apart."


    While Penelope translated that for Astrid, Fife groaned and set down her sword and shield. "It''s probably a good thing I''ve been practicing with other weapons, then." Bunching her legs, Fife bounced in place a few times, flexing the big sickle-claw on each foot as she landed.


    Closing her eyes, Astrid blotted out the dungeon and its monsters from her mind. She was just herself, a single individual. A lone wolf. Drawing on the latter thought, she tried to feel for the first times she''d changed and her inner self had spilled out.


    She''d been thirteen and was frustrated from her sword practice. The arms-master of her house was trying to teach her a disarm maneuver that she didn''t think she was strong enough for. With frustration rising within, she''d gotten angry¡ªangry enough to want to kill.


    The second time she''d spontaneously become a wolf, well after the huge party to celebrate her first change, had been when she''d been spurned by her first love. She was fourteen, and he was nineteen. In her own eyes, it had been the perfect match and she had no clue why he wasn''t interested in her.


    That, in her life, had been the sum total of times she''d become a wolf without the aid of a wise woman''s brew. They weren''t even the only times she''d gotten angry, but the truth was she''d been angry and wanted blood. She wanted to make someone pay and, she hoped, that was the key to it.


    Focusing on Fife, she remembered the battle she''d led against the gates of the city. It had been Fife that had dropped the poison outside that had killed most of her wolves. It had been Fife that had held the gate''s controls, seemingly single-handed. It was now Fife that stood before her, itching for a fight, and for that Astrid got more than angry, she wanted to kill Fife.


    All eyes were on Astrid when she stood up, but Fife was more in tune with watching the woman''s body than her furious expression. She was already built on a scale that defied what Fife knew about muscle development, but now Astrid''s muscles seemed to pulse and flex with a new life behind them. Fur started to sprout, and Fife clenched her hands so tightly that her claws drew blood from her palms. "She''s doing it."


    Astrid''s vision narrowed and she could only see the one kobold standing before her. The way Fife''s body moved told Astrid how to fight, how to bring her down, and how to kill Fife. Adamantine seemed built into nearly every part of the kobold; scales, claws, and even small horns betrayed the dull metallic glint of the dense metal. When Fife grinned, Astrid saw adamantine impregnating her teeth.


    It was going to hurt, biting and clawing at Fife, but that just made Astrid want to kill her more. To test herself and learn how to bring down such a foe. Feeling her blood burning, she found herself looking down even more than normal at Fife as she grew taller. When the wealth of scents of those around her intensified, she knew there was no going back. She tried to remove the restrictive shirt and pants she''d been given, but her claws sliced through them without any resistance.


    "You know, I forgot how bloody big she was. This is awesome!" Waiting for the moment when Astrid stopped growing, Fife charged her. Ten feet away, she planted both feet on the ground, coiled her muscles, and shot into a forward jump.


    Instead of dodging the leap, as any normal fighter would, Astrid instead swung one long arm around and forward to try battering the kobold out of the air. It partially worked. Fife''s mass was the biggest part of her momentum, and while she did deflect a head-on attack, she felt an adamantine claw dig into her side and slash her from front to back in a deep gash.


    Dodging back after landing, Fife avoided a backhand from Astrid that would have sent her flying. She knew Astrid had the strength to toss her around, and the first failure to do so was more surprise than lack of ability. "How''s the thinking? You still you, or just blood-crazy?"


    Astrid had to pause a moment and step back. She looked at Penelope, who translated for her. "Still me." It was hard to talk. Her mouth certainly wasn''t made for it and yelling always worked better. This was a test, though, so Astrid did what she could. "You''re heavy and fast. Never seen something be both before."


    "I''m full of surprises. How''s the cut?"


    Twisting a little, Astrid was surprised at how deep the slice was. Her body, though, was perfectly happy to ignore the pain as she parted the clean edges. "Deep. You might have hit something important." Letting go, Astrid focused her attention back on Fife. "Ready for more?" The feral, hungry look in Fife''s eyes made Astrid realize the woman was practically a kindred spirit. She barely waited for Fife to nod before rushing at her.


    Bracing against the first swing, Fife dug her talons into the ground and pushed into Astrid''s second. She fought back the impact and grabbed the arm and pulled.


    Tipping forward, Astrid fell onto Fife and their melee turned to a grapple. She thought her overwhelming strength would win her the fight easily, but Fife proved as stubborn as ever and somehow pinned one of Astrid''s arms to the ground by kneeling on her wrist.


    Fife was quickly giving up on thinking about it as a fight between equals. They were both so asymmetric in various ways that general humanoid tactics were out the window. She winced as Astrid bit down on her left arm, and knew that while her scales would give, the crushing force of Astrid''s jaws would probably shatter her bones soon enough. Returning the favor, she clamped her own mouth around the wolf''s free arm just below her shoulder. Unlike Astrid''s bite, Fife''s was far more focused on working her teeth into the soft flesh and severing tendons.


    When the fight had degenerated to a savage contest of wills and jaw muscles, Penelope decided it was well and truly over. Rising up from her cozy spot, she walked toward the pair and filled her lungs. "Stop!"


    The bellow stunned Astrid and, from the look of surprise in Fife''s eyes, it had a similar effect there too. Carefully, following the command of the dragon looming over her, Astrid opened her jaws and released Fife. It shouldn''t have been possible that, in such a rage as she''d been in, that one shout could stop her in her tracks¡ªbut it was.


    Fife too followed the order. Wincing a little as she drew back from Astrid''s ruined arm, she realized she''d have to be the one to fully disengage thanks to her grip on the other shoulder.


    Satisfied that the fight and the test was done, Penelope turned to look at Brayden. "Would Brogdar be averse to you healing these lunatics?"


    "And reward one friend for learning new tactics she can use in combat while the other manages to exert some control over her destiny? I don''t think Brogdar would punish those that try to better themselves. I certainly wouldn''t." Directing his magic first to Astrid, Brayden let himself become a channel for his god''s power.


    When it was her turn, Fife closed her eyes and let the divine magic do its work, though apart from some bruises and the broken bones, she was fine. Looking at the looming wolf that towered over her, Fife stuck her hand out. "Good fight!"


    The sentiment was obvious to Astrid, and although magic still felt a little itchy to her sensibility, it was mostly a redundancy from many years fearing and hating it. She thrust out her hand and grasped Fife''s forearm. "I hope I''m not stuck like this."


    When Travis repeated Astrid''s words for Fife, she tilted her head. "Why wouldn''t she want that? She''s stronger, faster, and has a hell of a right-hook."


    Penelope did the work of translating for Astrid, and hearing the question, she immediately said, "Because I''m not¡ª" and there she stopped. Looking around the room, she was acutely aware that there was only one being present who would be considered normal in the city, and Felna was just as fuzzy as Astrid was. Looking at her huge hands, she wondered what it would be like to practice and train with a sword, like she was, rather than to simply release her feral side and attack.


    Sitting down, Astrid tried to focus in on herself. She still felt hungry and wanted to attack, but her will could keep it at bay. What worried her was if she lost that control. In her time spent talking to Travis, she''d learned about the hard mental control he could exert on every kobold in the dungeon¡ªbut he didn''t. She wished there was an option like that for herself; a way to give someone she trusted a safety switch.


    Travis, having mostly been listening and translating, was surprised to see a question box appear before him.


    <blockquote>


    The werewolf, Astrid, wishes to join the dungeon. Agree?


    </blockquote>


    The popup surprised Travis. "Uh, Pen, I just got a thing that is asking me if I want to make Astrid part of the dungeon. Can you figure out what she did?"


    Hearing the question passed on, Astrid looked up at Penelope. A mixture of fear and interest rolled through her. Travis had done a lot for her, including giving her her life back, but this was putting herself back in his hands¡ªmental hands, at least. "I was meditating on what Fife had said. Why wouldn''t I let go and become human again?" She took a slow breath and reached around for the words she needed to explain without straying too far from simple language. "I thought that I could, but only if I had someone who could stop me from going wild. I remembered what Travis was saying about how he can control all of you."


    "Well, all them," Penelope said. "He cannot control me. It''s a perk of being the dungeon''s boss. I guess you wanted this a lot, huh?" She gestured at Astrid.


    "Being a wolf? I feel more comfortable like this with every second that passes." Balling her huge hands up into fists, she closed her eyes. "If he doesn''t want me, I am not surprised. As much as I want to live like this, I know it would be too dangerous."


    "Stop being so"¡ªPenelope fished for a word good enough to fit her intent, but didn''t know one and picked the next best¡ª"stupid. Travis trusts you. He let you sit in his core room without any guards. If you want to be part of this crazy hole in the ground, tell him."


    Taking a deep breath, Astrid searched herself. "Can it ever be undone?"


    "We don''t know."


    "So if I''m in, I''m in for life."


    "Yeah. Seems that way. It was a good deal for me since my life was only going to be a few more seconds." Penelope watched over Astrid, not needing to defend against the hulking wolf, but at the same time curious as to her thoughts. "You don''t have to answer now."


    Taking a deep, slow breath, Astrid looked at Penelope and nodded. "I know that, but this is what I am and it feels¡ª It feels right. Travis, if you have room for me, please accept me into¡ª"


    The rush of feeling knocked Astrid over. She stumbled, fell, and climbed back to all fours before lifting her head to look around. Her vision was sharper than ever, but even if it weren''t she''d know that something had changed. For a start, she could understand Fife as she retold the fight from her own point of view. Looking back to Penelope, she asked, "He did it?"


    "I did it."


    "He did it."


    The second was clearly Penelope speaking, but the other voice was one she''d heard before only under the effects of a powerful spell. "Travis?"


    "Yeah. I guess this throws your contract out the window, but I''m fine if you want to keep it up anyway. Welcome to your new home."


    <blockquote>


    Pack Den unlocked!


    </blockquote>


    Travis shoved aside his shock and checked the stats. Again, it was a room that looked suspiciously like a boss room. If nothing else, he figured, it would be a nice place for Astrid to call home.


    Available at: https://www.royalroad.com/profile/220350/fictions</a>


    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 108

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 24/100


    Heart 2,073,600/2,073,600


    Experience 392,511/518,400


    Workers 30/151


    Monsters 10/153


    Traps 118/369


    Food 6,349


    Timber 7,322


    Iron 2,292


    Steel 905


    Mithril 870


    Mithril Ore 0


    Adamantine 916


    Adamantine Ore 0


    Charcoal 3,658


    Mana 4,950


    Rock 1,293


    Gold 133


    Leather 216


    Leather Sludge 215


    Lava 501


    Ice 10


    Glass 483


    Explosive Runes 30


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 30


    Bullets 400


    Black Powder 400


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 76


    Sulfur 708


    Quest: Kill 100 city dwellers.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 30/66 | Monsters 10/67 | Traps 118/162


    Quest: Delve to the bottom of a dungeon with at least 20 floors.


    </blockquote>


    One thing Travis had appreciated, over the five days they''d been running supplies and gold out to Hilda''s encampment, and that was being able to delve Breeze. She''d gained another floor, which meant of the fifty thousand gold, she supplied all of it and then some. Thinking on it, he realized he''d thought of Breeze more and more as she.


    He''d gained a level and then some from the "delve," plus the daily flood of XP that he got simply from feeding people. He''d spent a ton of mana on making regular nodes on the third floor, wanting to build up mithril, adamantine, and steel reserves. Three townsfolk who had been on the fence about taking up the offer of living in the dungeon made their choice to join, which gave him a little more workforce.


    "Breeze?" Travis asked. She hadn''t said a word since telling him her name. The only acknowledgment he got that she''d heard him was a feeling of warmth, invisible and encompassing, pouring over him. It was her way of saying hello. "Do you want some more food? I have plenty."


    Excitement. Anticipation. She painted the gestalt between them with her emotions, and Travis was left to run the gamut of those. Not that he minded, she was like a warm hug. A warm, platonic hug. When he shifted his first attempt, a hundred thousand food, Breeze fairly exploded with excitement.


    From what he''d managed to work out, food for her was like gold to him. He added another hundred thousand, and then a third. It left him with, he was sure, at least a hundred thousand remaining, which was enough for the city to survive until he could delve her again, factoring in mushroom farms and what Breeze was providing. Feeding her more food to grow and expand would add more buffer to the city.


    Travis had long-since realized that his farms couldn''t feed the whole city, but even the quarter he was supporting now was too much for them. Where the bulk of his food provisions came from was delving Breeze.


    Penelope was loading up with the final payment of gold to Hilda. Twenty thousand gold seemed insane to carry, yet with it cast into two huge pillars, she could carry each with two limbs and still keep her wings free. "Be careful," he told her.


    "I will be. I''ll make that offer to Hilda this time." Testing the weight of the gold, Penelope stretched her wings out on the top of the huge wizard tower. "We should have told her to wait by the hidden entrance."


    "Well, it wouldn''t be hidden if we told everyone about it. Besides, the couriers we sent south will be coming back by that. One thing I know for certain, if we organized them to be there, the couriers would arrive with an army at their back. Murphy never fails."


    "Murphy? Oh." Penelope set the gold down so she could facepalm. "It''s weird, Trav. I sometimes don''t understand words you use, but the moment I say it out loud, the meaning comes to me. How much of you gets crammed into my head each time I upgrade?"


    "I don''t know, but so far it''s only been knowledge, not actually my personality, right?" While Penelope was getting ready to fly off to make the final delivery, Tannyr, Blake, and Robert were working on the two new rooms (Pack Den and Scorpion Den) he''d gotten recently. Fife, Jack, and Brayden were there to watch over them, but since most of the work was in the cave where the scorpion had been, it wasn''t a high risk dig.


    "It''d be nice to know how many more are to go, and what happens with the next one. I''ve heard about dragons bigger than I am now, but that was in a verdant dungeon, where it had tons of room to grow that big. Nothing bigger in a normal dungeon, though." Hefting the golden pillars, Penelope spread her wings once more. "I''ll be going now. Either I''ll see you when I fly back, or Hilda will get feisty and I''ll see you sooner."


    "If she hurts you without your say-so, all our deals will be torn up and I''ll send Fife after her with a pack of wyverns." Travis hoped that merely the image of Fife coming at someone would terrify them. "I love you, Pen. Stay safe."


    "I''m a dragon, Trav, I''m never safe. Love you too." Beating her wings and launching herself off the tower, Penelope gained speed and, when she had that, altitude.


    <hr>


    Even with stupidly heavy loads, Penelope loved to fly. The speed and safety of the sky combined with so much freedom to move around was a scout''s dream, and though she wasn''t exactly a scout-rogue anymore, she still enjoyed it.


    Her target was far west, over the river and away from the road leading to Northridge. The gift of flight meant that distance was not the problem it might have been at one point. Hilda was doing her best to keep her army hidden, but keeping that many people completely out of sight was impossible. So, circling around a small clearing away from the army, Penelope swooped and spiraled down without flapping her wings, soon slamming into the ground near Hilda''s collection group.


    "The last payment." Hilda could put a lower-bound on how strong Penelope was, now, by how many of her people it took to drag the gold back to their camp. There was witchery involved, she knew, but that still put the dragon at a level of strength that made Hilda''s sword hand itch.


    Letting go of the pillars, Penelope let them sink into the ground appropriately. "Like last time?"


    "I think they''re getting wise. Just leave them." It felt somewhat like defeat to be taking a bribe, but at the same time it got her people home and once more part of their communities. In winter, having gold wasn''t better than having food, but it was close.


    "Have you thought about our offer?"


    Jerking her head up to look Penelope directly in the eyes, Hilda nodded. "I''ve talked to some of my oldest soldiers. They were the first to suspect this ruse. They''ve also seen the most magic and are far more forgiving. I''ll bring back any who want to return. I admit I''m tempted to bring an army and besiege that damn goblin hole."


    "Promise not to kill the heart or attack the town, and you are free to. We would like to do some delving in there, but if they are going to raise armies, we''re going to want to keep them down." It was time enough for Penelope to bring up her other offer, she thought. "There was another thing, something more personal."


    Her interest piqued, Hilda ceased examining the gold and looked up at the dragon looming over her. "Yeah?"


    "When you come back, I want a fight. Just you, me, and whatever weapons and armor we like." Seeing Hilda''s jaw drop open was the cincher. Penelope would owe Astrid a favor for this. "To the death."


    Grabbing her traitorous right hand before it could leap for her weapon, Hilda fought to control herself. The words were intoxicating, but while she longed for the challenge of a lifetime, she couldn''t do it now. "When I come back?"


    "Yeah. We can fight again and again. It''ll be great!"


    The words confused Hilda. "But¡­ ''to the death''?"


    "I have a priest who could bring you or I back, though I come back after a day anyway." The reaction she got to that was a bit of a recoil, but Hilda didn''t completely withdraw from the conversation, which told Penelope that she was tempted more than she was repulsed. "Again and again, claws, sword, shield, teeth, and breath. The only thing I ask is that you engage in the fight in my boss room. You have my word you will be able to enter and leave freely."


    It was insane. Everything she''d been taught was that monsters weren''t to be trusted, and yet she had fifty thousand gold that screamed to the contrary. Then there was the entire magic issue. It was disgusting to her on a cultural level to even contemplate allowing herself to be defiled in such a way¡ªyet, if she lost, honing her skills to try again made her chest clench in excitement. "I will have to think on it. When I return, we will fight at least once."


    "I look forward to it." Penelope rolled her shoulders, spread her wings, and took to the sky again.


    Feeling like a piece of her fighting spirit was now clutched firmly in the dragon''s claws, Hilda shuddered at the thought that she''d be able to fight her. "Not nearly as much as I do."


    <hr>


    It disappointed Fife when nothing jumped out of a hole in the wall at them. There were no giant scorpions, no wingless dragons, and now she was frightfully bored. "Trav! Do we have anything fun to do?"


    "Actually, Fife, there is. It''s something you''re going to enjoy. Can you grab out an adamantine rifle and a bag of adamantine balls?" It was something he''d asked Brolly about and the man had been more than happy to allow it. "I remembered that shot that saved you having to deal with two walking juggernauts, and even though we gave them another rifle, I want to make sure she has something that can really deal with armored enemies in the future. Head down to the guardhouse and find the woman who made that shot and give her the rifle and ammo."


    Perking up, Fife lashed her tail in excitement. "This''ll be cool!" Reaching behind her back, she pulled out a beautifully crafted, if heavy, adamantine rifle and ammo. Tucking both under her arm, she started for the stairs leading up. "Don''t open any new places until I return!"


    "They''re going to build those rooms, you know. Little baby scorpions running everywhere. They''ll be so cute." Travis was mostly focused on torturing Fife with her decision to deliver the gun.


    "You consider this payback for not helping dig, don''t you?" Smirking, Fife knew the ruse for what it was¡ªthis was a pearl of a job and she''d enjoy every bit of it.


    "Yes, Fife, it is. Deliver the gun, make her happ¡ª"


    "Gold, Trav. Give the girl some gold too. Here, that officer was probably worth at least five hundred." As she trudged to the top of the stairs on the entry floor, Fife pulled a bag of gold out from behind her back. "Or maybe it should be a thousand? You have ruined my sense of value."


    "You think it''s bad for you? I never had a sense of the value of gold here. All I know is that''s as much as we pay some people in a year. But, yeah, I''m cool with five hundred gold. I can still see and hear through you, outside the dungeon, but I won''t be able to speak."


    "Wait, why would you need to? Take this down, find the babe who pulled off the shot, give her her prizes. What could go wrong?" Fife asked, just after stepping outside the dungeon. In her heart, she knew those words would drive Travis mad. She''d done a little more reading, and found some of his superstitions, and those words featured high in the list.


    Sauntering along through Northridge, she had her shield on her back and her sword at her side, but it was the gun that she gave the most care to. When she reached the entrance to the guardhouse, what was still a tavern on the ground floor, she looked up a little at the two guards at the door. "Hey, I''m here to meet someone. Really good with a gun. Pulled off some crazy shot a week or so back."


    "Head in. You''re looking for Annie and Tam. Pair of ''em are tight, but the captain''s cool with that since they work so well together." Pointing to the door, the guard laughed. "Assuming you can find them. With things cooling down, he''s got all the guards back to normal rotations."


    Reaching the door, Fife used her shoulder to shove it fully open as she walked inside. The smells, sights, and sounds of several dozen people dressed in the kind of rough linen used for arming shirts, steel, and leather greeted her. Despite Fife''s mass, she was rocked back by it a little, but more by the memories it brought up.


    Fife didn''t regret her choice to become a kobold. Every day she found something new and amazing to snare her curious mind. But, this place and places like it had been her home for many years before she''d settled down. Closing her eyes, she took in the sounds and smells alone, then coughed.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    The room fell silent. When Fife opened her eyes, everyone present was looking at her. They''d likely seen her on the wall shooting out into the northmen lines, or flying on a wyvern and dropping bombs or worse into their midst. "I''ve been in here almost a minute and I don''t have any ale yet. What''s up with this place?"


    A rumble of laughter went around the room, but Fife noticed several sets of eyes didn''t leave the gun in her hand. Steel, like the guns the guards had, was polished up and then oiled so it wouldn''t rust. It betrayed itself with that oily sheen. Mithril held its highly polished look even after oiling, not that it needed rust protection. It tended to have a weird multi-colored hue after heat treating.


    The adamantine gun in Fife''s hand, though, was the same dull metallic color of her armor. No one else in the room had a trace of the metal on them.


    Approaching the bar, Fife looked at the stools that were free and could tell, just at a glance, that none would survive her trying to sit on them. So she stood up as tall as she could and barely managed to reach up onto the bar. "I''ll take an ale and information. I''m looking for someone."


    Pouring an ale, the barkeep set it on the edge of the bar for Fife. News of her fight to stop the commander of the enemy had spread, and she''d gained an almost mythical reputation because of it. "On the house. Who''re you looking for?"


    "Annie and Tam." Picking up her mug, Fife took a long pull from it and sighed. She closed her eyes to savor the flavor.


    "Hey!" the barkeep roared. "Annie! Tam! Get yer asses over here!"


    It was part of what Anichka liked about Northridge. A weird little city on the edge of nowhere, that had a weird, friendly dungeon. If a city could accept kobolds and dragons, it shouldn''t have a problem with a foxkin like Tammy. "What''s up?" she asked, approaching the bar.


    "You''re the one that took that shot that saved my ass from fighting two of those monsters, right?" Fife asked. She had a longer pull on her drink. Strapped to the woman''s back were two rifles, she realized, and the shine of them told her she had the right person.


    "Yeah. What about it?" Anichka recognized Fife from the dungeon entrance.


    Fife downed the ale and turned to look up at the pair. The human woman looked confrontational, while the foxkin at her side seemed more inclined to her friend doing the talking. "Those mithril guns won''t be much better than steel for shooting with¡ªjust lighter." She lifted up the adamantine rifle, the ammo, and the bag of gold. "My boss said you should have something that can do a little more. This won''t break¡ªever. Feel free to load as much powder in it as you want. There''s a bag of adamantine bullets there. If you need more, come and ask."


    A modest fortune in rifles already hung from Anichka''s back, but this was something else. Tammy had never seen or even heard of a gun made from adamantine before. It was an unknown. A rarity beyond rare.


    Anichka was far more pedestrian in her ogling of it, even if she really wanted to stare at the dull metal forever. "In other words, you want us to test it. Sure, I guess." It became impossible to hide her smile. When Fife passed her the gun, she gained a new appreciation for the kobold''s strength. After the moderate weight of steel guns and the feather weight of her new babies, the adamantine gun was solid in a way that defied belief. "Heavy."


    "You''ll get used to it for a rifle that you can put a lot more powder in. Next time you see an armored idiot in full adamantine, thinking they''re invincible, you won''t need to aim for the vision slits to kill them." Fife took another swig. "Oh, and the gold is to make sure you don''t have to sell any of those. My boss forgets stuff like that, but I remember the pain of selling my sword to get food. If you ever need a job, come and talk to us before leaving town."


    Tammy grabbed for the bag of gold as Fife turned, opening it. "This is full of gold."


    Waving over her shoulder, Fife said, "Yeah! It is!" And left the bar. She could have hung around and plied the pair for stories, but it would have decreased how awesome she looked, and that was almost as important as a cool tale. Besides, she figured she''d be seeing more of them here and there.


    <hr>


    After having sat around for four long days while Far Reach''s military assembled, and then having to lead them along the road to Northridge, it was a relief for Kaylith to see the city in the distance. Odd, but also a weight off her mind. A huge tower now dominated the roofline of the city. "That''s Northridge."


    She hadn''t been the first to make it to Far Reach, but of all their scouts she had the most experience on the road between the two cities¡ªso she''d volunteered to guide and advise the relieving army''s commander.


    "Looks like we weren''t required." Lieutenant Longscale looked at the mess around the walls of the city, not paying any real attention to the tower, but rather the earthworks and rocks that had been used to obvious effect by the besieging army. "We''re here now, might as well go see what''s needed."


    The lizardkin leader of the force had seemed a little stiff to Kaylith at first, but she had realized that he was expecting to lose a lot of soldiers. Seeing his mood shift from wary-gruff to wary-curious confirmed it¡ªhe wasn''t an asshole, he just cared for his people. "The tower is new. The walls look solid. I wonder why they left?"


    "Pull the scouts in. I don''t want them walking into an enemy army out there. The city doesn''t look breached, nor overrun. Look, those aren''t northmen clearing the mess around the front gate." It was a relief, but also a worry. "Once we''re in there, I''ll want to know exactly what happened. It is obvious you weren''t lying, this much siege-works isn''t possible without thousands of people working together, but something''s odd here."


    Kaylith appreciated the way he was coming at the problem of a missing army. "You don''t have to march into the city itself, sir. The dungeon entrance is actually closer, and you could¡ª"


    "None of that. My commander might be willing to entertain a hostile dungeon offering assistance, but I won''t risk lives on it. We''ll march to the city gates. If you want to ride ahead, or take your chances in a dungeon, that''s your business." Nodding to his second in command, Longscale was relieved to hear the orders going out to move. "I certainly won''t order someone into a dungeon."


    Shrugging her shoulders, Kaylith directed her horse toward the treeline, then dismounted and led it on foot toward where she knew the dungeon entrance was. There was a clearing, an open bit of ground where the undead dungeon had been, and past that¡ªfar less conspicuous because it hadn''t been cleared¡ªwas Travis'' dungeon.


    Outside, where Longscale was marching toward the city, he recognized the large siege engines, missing their metal parts, behind the more fortified rock cover. Some, though, still had the metal attached¡ªbut the metal looked bent out of place and damaged. "This siege was tough on both sides, I''ll wager."


    When they reached the gates, Longscale was pleased to see them open and welcoming, along with definitely-not-northmen city guards within. "Ho there, Northridge?!"


    Having rushed to get prepared when the lookouts announced a relieving army marching in, Brolly Windchime strode to a line a toes'' length within the portcullis. Welcoming he was, stupid he tried not to be¡ªthere were plenty of rifles loaded but not immediately pointed at the potential allies. "From Far Reach, are you?"


    "Got it in one. I heard you had a little problem with northmen. Settled it already?" Dismounting from his horse, Longscale walked toward the gate and kept his claws away from his sword. "I''ll be honest, uh, Brolly Windchime, isn''t it?" At a nod, Longscale continued. "I didn''t expect to see the city still standing."


    Brolly gave the signal to raise the steel gate. "Bring your people inside the walls. We have room to billet them out. We can discuss events at your leisure, uh¡­?" Holding out his hand when the portcullis was fully raised, Brolly was relieved to see the lizardkin reach out to shake hands.


    "Lieutenant Longscale of Far Reach." Walking under the portcullis, he couldn''t help but notice claw marks gouged into the flagstones. "The fighting got intense?"


    Following Longscale''s gaze, Brolly nodded. "We were lucky to have the friends we do. Imagine a beast more wolf than man, standing ten feet tall, and covered in adamantine plate. They had axes fit for beheading that they carried in one hand."


    "Dungeon beasts?"


    "No. The northerners forsake all contact with dungeons, but luckily we don''t. I sent word to our local dungeon allies to send representatives. I''m sure you were told we have close relations with our dungeons?" Brolly wasn''t surprised in the least at the scornful look on Longscale''s face. "I''m not lying, lieutenant. I''m not sure if you''ve noticed, but all my guards carry rifles¡ªdungeon-made rifles."


    Cursing, Longscale shook his head. "I don''t mean to tell you how to run a city, captain, but a dungeon having guns is a nightmare." Now that it had been mentioned, Longscale did notice that every single man and woman in uniform had a rifle, while those with the shoulder markings of officers also had pistols. No city, shy of a major trade hub or the capital itself, could afford such modern militarization.


    "Ah, there they are now. The kobold is Stephan and the dryad is Breath of Spring. Without them and the interests they represent, the city wouldn''t be here today." Reaching the door to the guardhouse, Brolly nodded to the two dungeon dwellers. "Steph, Breath, I''m glad you could both make it on such short notice."


    About to question Brolly''s sanity, Longscale froze when Stephan opened his mouth.


    "We''re honored to be brought into such a meeting as equals. The pacts between us are well served this day." Stephan, not more than a kobold in the ranking of the dungeon, was almost as dwarfed by the human and lizardkin as Breath of Spring was.


    "I too, and my home, am glad to be invited. I know we''re a lesser c-concern than Travis, but¡­" Trailing off, Breath of Spring bit her lower lip as the attention of the two huge beings was bearing down on her.


    Dropping to one knee, Brolly reached out and took Breath of Spring''s small hand. "Lady Breath of Spring, your home provides a wealth of food for our city. Don''t for a moment think you are not welcome to be part of such matters."


    Seeing Breath of Spring being given such respect brought a smile to Stephan''s muzzle. Some days he wondered if he was slipping back to the life his family had tried to thrust him into, but then moments like this happened and he was reminded that here he dealt with friends, not fiends-in-disguise. "I believe I may have some input about where our foes have gone. Penelope saw them fleeing north when she flew over the goblin dungeon earlier."


    "''Flew''?" It took an agonizing moment of confusion before clarity reached Longscale. Kobolds were part of dragon dungeons. Dragon boss monsters could fly at their most powerful. The full scale of what madness this city had entered into started sinking in. "A dragon?"


    Looking up at Longscale, Brolly surrendered Breath of Spring''s hand and stood. "Penelope Bogblood is a dragon, yes. She aided in the defense of the city and continues to ensure our safety to the best of her ability. Her dungeon, Travis, provides fully a quarter of the city''s meals each day, and it was only his risking a new tunnel into the southern forest that allowed us to contact you. Please, lieutenant, the stairs on the left lead to my workroom."


    Grunting, Longscale followed the directions and made his way up, eventually stepping into a room with multiple tables, a map of the city in the center of the largest, and surrounded with chairs. When directed with a gesture, he took a seat. "What happened here?"


    As Stephan listened to Brolly describe events from the city''s guard''s point of view, it sounded fantastical. A dungeon shouldn''t be able to merge with a city like Travis had, nor should they be able to bring a second dungeon into the gestalt, but they had. When he finally got to the retreat of Hilda and her army, he prepared himself for the specially formulated lie.


    "¡­ and that''s where I will pass over to Stephan. Penelope has been keeping us updated on the army." Brolly knew that Penelope and Travis had done something. He''d seen her flying off the top of the tower, carrying huge, leather-covered pillars in her talons. There was plausible deniability, and if there was one thing Brolly trusted, it was that Travis was on the city''s side.


    "Penelope has been flying out each day. The army ran afoul of the goblin dungeon, which chased them to the other side of the river. They reformed there over several days, then moved on north today. The good news is that Pen torched a lot of goblins after the northerners left." A sincere smile was in order, and easily provided. Penelope had indeed burned the goblin numbers down. "Now we''re consolidating and planning how we''ll push on from here. We don''t want this sort of situation to happen again, so we''d like to discuss paying for a railway to be built, joining our two cities."


    "Paying? Sorry, uh," Longscale said, fumbling for Stephan''s name, "Stephan, I am a soldier, not a merchantman."


    "If I told you that is why I volunteered to come to this meeting, would that reassure you more?" Stephan gave his best toothy smile to Longscale. "We also plan to spend significantly to upgrade the city''s defenses. Travis has talked about ringing the walls with cannons, so no army can hope to besiege Northridge again."


    But for having seen all the guards with rifles, Longscale would have laughed and walked out. As it was, a cold weight settled in his stomach at the idea of having to march on such a city. "Am I to understand you won''t be needing my army or the one we have requested?"


    Brolly sighed and shook his head. "It won''t be required, no, though I believe Stephan has an offer."


    "Compensation is required, I''m sure?" Stephan asked. When Longscale nodded, it confirmed what they had been discussing together from the moment their scout had come back through the dungeon. "Then Travis will offer to forfeit payment directly to you. Since we asked for assistance, we will pay for it not being required."


    There hadn''t been any intent to have to collect such a default, but it was preferable to fighting. "That is acceptable. You know the normal rate?"


    "Wages for all the soldiers, food to cover their upkeep, as well as a bonus to the city of origin. We will need an accounting of that from you, and will be able to furnish it within several days. If you wish to spend those days waiting, you could take it back with you." That they would make use of the workforce of the army was never in doubt. Stephan looked at Brolly and nodded. "I think this concludes the formal matters?"


    "Yeah. Unless you have anything else that would require our dungeon allies'' attention?" Brolly asked Longscale.


    Not sure what the dungeons could do, apart from scout, provide food, and gold, Longscale was at a loss as to anything further. "I don''t believe so. I''ll need to send a messenger to advise my commander of the situation. I doubt you''d want to have a second army arrive to pay off."


    Brolly laughed and nodded. "Indeed not. We''re already planning our return to commerce, and though it''s not my job to oversee that, I will be doing a lot of work to ensure that such proceeds safely."


    Sliding from his seat, Stephan stretched his shoulders. "Thank you, Captain Brolly, for ensuring we all stay in the know. I''ll have your gold, sir Longscale, at our earliest possible moment."


    "I''ll go too. Your hunters are keeping to the agreements, so my home is satisfied with things." Breath of Spring nodded to Brolly, then spared another for Longscale before she, too, climbed down from her seat and left beside Stephan.


    Only when the two were gone did Longscale ask, "Was that a dryad wearing a shirt? What does ''The Grass is Greener in My Dungeon'' refer to, exactly?"


    "Would you have found it easier to talk with Breath of Spring if she was naked?" Brolly asked, trying to keep his laughter from bubbling up. "We have an odd little community here, lieutenant, but it works. Please, ask your soldiers not to get excited if they see kobolds, dryads, or dragons around."


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 109

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 24/100


    Heart 2,073,600/2,073,600


    Experience 392,511/518,400


    Workers 30/151


    Monsters 10/153


    Traps 118/369


    Food 6,349


    Timber 7,322


    Iron 2,292


    Steel 905


    Mithril 870


    Mithril Ore 0


    Adamantine 916


    Adamantine Ore 0


    Charcoal 3,658


    Mana 4,960


    Rock 1,330


    Gold 105


    Leather 216


    Leather Sludge 215


    Lava 501


    Ice 10


    Glass 483


    Explosive Runes 30


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 30


    Bullets 400


    Black Powder 400


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 76


    Sulfur 708


    Quest: Kill 100 city dwellers.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 30/66 | Monsters 10/67 | Traps 118/162


    Quest: Delve to the bottom of a dungeon with at least 20 floors.


    </blockquote>


    "Okay, but will I get to ride them?" Fife asked.


    "They might be wolves like Astrid, Fife. Look, if they are normal wolves, and you don''t crush them with your weight, and they like you, and you get the gold for both, I won''t object to you trying." Travis felt more than a little trepidation over the deal, no matter how many clauses he packed into the offer.


    "Okay! You''ll have so much gold, you won''t know what to do with it all! Uh, how much gold do you need?" Fife walked out of the building area and looked left and then right down the tunnels. "And where is the gold?"


    "On your right. End of the hall, take another right. And, Fife?" Travis asked.


    "What''s up, Trav?"


    "Thank you."


    Laughing, Fife reached out her hand to the wall and brushed along it with her claws. "Trav, you''re one of those people who becomes an instant best friend. You work your butt off to keep everyone in here happy, you aren''t a miser, and¡ªthe most important bit¡ªyou built me a tavern! I mean, I know it''s not just for me, but you built an extra tavern so I could be queen of the first one! No one has ever built me a tavern before.


    "And then there''s all this cool armor. It was a dream to one day afford some adamantine plate. Maybe get the sword and shield first, then work my way up to each piece. You are amazing, and don''t let anyone ever tell you you aren''t." Turning right before the end of the hall, Fife saw a door she remembered. "Right, this is a mana shrine and then gold and¡­ sulfur?"


    "Coal, but the rest is right."


    "How''s Steph doing?" Fife stopped at the door and leaned down to pick up a lizard that was trying to get through. With her charge on her shoulder, she went through the door and the next.


    Having tried his best to listen in, Travis groaned. "I can''t hear them. This is annoying. They''re right there."


    "You trusted Steph to do all the work up there so far. Trust him a little further." Spitting into one hand then the other, Fife reached behind her back and pulled out her pickaxe. "Besides, what''s the big deal?"


    "The big deal, Fife, is that he''s lying for us. When Hilda returns, and the way Pen was talking, she will be back, that''s going to be noticed. Hell, when Astrid walks out there as a wolf, they''re going to notice, but we can at least cover that up by telling them I made her a minion." Travis felt like he slumped, even if he absolutely, physically couldn''t.


    "No one saw her face, right? She had that fancy armor and helmet on. Also"¡ªFife started to swing her pickaxe, building a rhythm and digging huge chunks of gold-bearing ore from the seam¡ª"I want to fight her again myself."


    "That will help some, but she''s kinda big and unmistakable. I guess you''ll want to try riding the scorpions, too?"


    "If I can, I will."


    The meeting stole Travis'' attention for a moment. "Oh, they''re leaving the room now. Doesn''t look like things got angry or anything. Now the new guy is leaving, he''s a lizardkin, I think you call them?"


    "Yup. Lizardkin are good fighters. They also make good hunters, but you don''t see so many this far north. Too cold for ''em, I think."


    "Brolly is writing something on some paper. Oh." Travis could read well enough, thanks to the lizard Brolly kept on the shelf behind his desk. "''Travis, keep your minions close. Nice work on Stephan, he didn''t let on for a second.''" Brolly then balled up the paper and tossed it into the burning fireplace. "He knows we did something, but he probably doesn''t know what. He also doesn''t seem inclined to volunteer any information, so I think we''re in the clear."


    "That''s good. Do we have enough here already?" Fife didn''t slow, her war-trained muscles able to keep swinging the pickaxe easily despite the repeated harsh impacts.


    "Uh¡­ Yeah. I think I might put a request on the board to get us gold. We''re going to need more soon. We can provide a lot of iron and steel for a railway, but gold is needed for everything. Also, we need to build an outpost around the forest entrance."


    "We''re going to be something pretty serious, aren''t we?" Tossing the pickaxe aside, where it vanished, Fife turned away from the huge seam of gold and toward the exit. "Will there still be room for a meathead tank?"


    "Fife, remember the plans? We have a goblin dungeon to manage and we''ll be offering to pay adventurers to delve us. I may need two of you!"


    Passing the big mana crystal, Fife''s face was illuminated with the blue glow of mana. "You say the coolest things, Trav. So, I''ll always have something to bash my head against. Good to know."


    <hr>


    Astrid had never spent so long in her wolf shape. She thought she''d feel imposing and overwhelming, but short as kobolds were, it wasn''t a lot shorter in comparison to her larger self. "Travis, are you sure I''m okay to be like this?"


    "You are welcome to be however you wish. A warning, though. We have a relief army here now. If you go outside, make sure you have either Fife or Pen with you, okay?" Changing commands into questions had become Travis'' latest favorite trick to take the edge off them. When she nodded, he said, "Okay, Fife got some gold."


    That pulled Astrid from her contemplation of herself with a new thing to think about. "Just like that? She mined how much?" As she listened to him, she started to wonder about what language Travis spoke. In her head, it sounded like her homeland''s language, complete with accent. But, at the same time, he could speak to her and Fife and each would understand the words. Astrid knew for a fact Fife didn''t speak her language.


    "Thirteen thousand gold. She''s a boss, remember, and this is her floor. That matters a lot. Though, if you want to see crazy, go and watch Tannyr mining out an area or Katelyn gathering gold. Here''s Fife now." Travis tried to keep conversations local to one area constrained to that area, so that he could advise those present when something was approaching, even if he could see both points of view. "Okay, Pack Den first?"


    Fife felt more than a little camaraderie for Astrid now. Having faced off, and found Fife a capable fighter, it was easier to interact with her. "Your choice. Want your new home first or will we make scorpion babies?"


    That was another thing that surprised Astrid about language. When Fife spoke, it definitely wasn''t Astrid''s native tongue, but she understood it all the same. And, so did Fife. "Wolves. I need somewhere to fight my brethren, when Brayden brings them back. I won''t revive them without a home."


    "Alright," Travis said. "A Pack Den, ten thousand gold, two thousand food, a thousand timber, and two hundred adamantine. I don''t know where this system pulls the numbers from, but your room needs adamantine. With discounts that will be twelve thousand gold, eighteen hundred food, nine hundred timber, and a hundred and eighty adamantine. I am not exactly sure how much gold is in the buffer still, but even if it''s empty, we can afford that."


    His attention focused on that first room now, Travis paid the amount. His store of adamantine was reduced, of course, but he was relieved to see his gold still didn''t go down. In fact, no other resource went down. "I have no idea how much timber I have left in there, but there was enough."


    "Where is the room?" Astrid walked in and looked around.


    "We gotta build it!" Fife could feel the tug of a room build in progress, and let herself start doing the work. When Astrid didn''t follow suit, she paused and looked at her. "You okay? You don''t feel you know where things need to go?"


    "No." Astrid watched Fife nailing boards together and then moving on to build a weapon rack. "Am I supposed to?"


    "Astrid counts as a monster, Fife, not a worker. I guess she doesn''t get that same building/digging stuff," Travis said.


    Groaning, Fife kept working. "You and Squishy have it so easy. He doesn''t have to build or dig either."


    "I am not sure if being compared to your slime is a compliment, coming from you, or a curse." Smirking, Astrid leaned her back against the wall and watched as Fife worked.


    "I''m only doing this in the hope of getting to ride a cool wolf monster. Floor bosses shouldn''t have to do this kind of thing. I should be a monster too!"


    "Nope. Just a kobold," Travis said. "Besides, last I heard, you liked being a kobold. Weren''t you the one who literally came-to after the change and was giving others advice on it, like you were practically born to be a kobold?"


    "Lies! Slander and lies," Fife said. The moment she finished building the room, there was that usual odd sensation as whatever magic powered the dungeon filled in the missing bits. "Woo! It''s built! Aww, no boss door. I guess tall and fluffy doesn''t get to be a boss."


    "Boss? I could become a boss?" Astrid asked, trying to figure out the odd feeling of comfort she had. It was as if she were back home in a pile of warm bodies on a cold night, waiting out the storm in a longhouse, and it had started the moment Fife had finished.


    "Once I get another floor, I probably could do that. If you want to be a boss, and I am fine with that, then you''re going to need to earn it, though. Pen, Wild, and Fife all proved themselves fit for their roles. Wild is the guardian to the serious parts of the dungeon. There are no automated traps before him. Then Fife is a rock, a place where invaders can''t get past. Pen is insurance. She can easily shift to Fife''s room, and from there she can back up Fife and Squishy."


    "Between Wild and Fife?" Astrid asked.


    "Explosives, a maze, and enough horrible acidic gunk that will glue you in place to make even an army stop and reevaluate their life choices." Travis turned his attention to the room and found two sets of options. "Okay, so I can buy wolves and¡ªI don''t think you''ve used this term, but where I''m from, people who can turn from human to wolf are called werewolves."


    "You could create others like me?" Astrid stared at Fife, but it was Travis she was asking.


    "I wouldn''t¡ªfor a few reasons. First, there would be no way for them to leave if they didn''t want to be here. Signing up to be a kobold or monster might be a forever thing, but you''re making that choice. I"¡ªTravis choked a little, but forced himself to continue¡ª"things were tough when me and Pen first started. We did something we''re not proud of. Stephan didn''t join the dungeon by choice. I regret that decision, even if he tries to say it is okay. He never had a choice because we felt we didn''t have a choice. We have a choice now, and that isn''t a mistake I''ll make again."


    Astrid felt she should have been surprised by Travis'' deeper thinking on the matter, or that he had regrets on how he''d acted in the past, but she''d stopped thinking of him as just a dungeon and was instead seeing him as a living, breathing creature. So much so, she sometimes felt surprised that he wasn''t some magic user hiding somewhere in the dungeon. "Then why build it?"


    Eyeing his gold, and looking at the upgrades on the new room, Travis made a choice. The first was to buy the room''s Bloodied Wolves upgrade for ten thousand gold and five thousand food. Finally, his gold stored depleted by a noticeable number. Of the twelve thousand Fife had added, he''d lost about two thirds of it. His food, however, still didn''t budge. "Two reasons. I figured it would be a neat place for you, if you want it, and for this." He paid for one Bloodied Wolf.


    Movement in the corner of her vision made Astrid turn toward it. A wolf that seemed about half the size of her¡ªwhich made it five feet at the shoulders¡ªlooked between Fife and her. It appeared, in her unique opinion, majestic. Shrewd eyes peered at her from a head covered in a shaggy coat. Its mouth opened and she saw the gleaming white fangs that had a tint of red to them. Standing up, she walked toward the wolf with one big hand out to it.


    "Aww, we have a puppy!" Fife couldn''t keep the big grin off her face, and walked over to where Astrid was now ruffling the shoulders of the wolf while it leaned against her. As she got closer, it became apparent that the wolf was taller than Fife. "Big puppy!"


    The wolf, already cognizant of the home it was created by, of the other wolf-monster it was in the presence of, and the boss of the floor it was now on. Walking to its little boss, it licked them from tummy to nose.


    Falling backwards, Fife flailed for a moment while the wolf focused their attacks on her face. "Ack! Call them off! Astrid! Travis! Help!"


    Astrid couldn''t hold back a bellow of laughter. The wolf probably wasn''t heavier than Fife, but she could see the height advantage gave it the needed leverage to keep her pinned. "Now that the siege is over, I''d like to deal with my pack-mates."


    "What do you need me to do to help?" Travis asked.


    "A pair of adamantine swords. One each. No armor will be needed, but if we are going to fight, I want it to be done fast."


    Travis contacted Axel directly, the young man had been sitting in the gunsmithy discussing metals with the newest member of the dungeon. "Axel, would you be able to make a pair of adamantine swords?"


    Lifting his head, Axel nodded. "Right now?" he asked, already standing up. "Actually, I''ll do them now anyway. I need practice. You want to come and help, Cera?"


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    With that sorted, and Travis feeling a minor bit of guilt about not paying closer attention to his newer recruits, he looked for Brayden.


    Holding the big hammer in his hands, Brayden started to step through a series of motions to build its momentum. He danced around, swinging the hammer again and again at invisible opponents. The floor of the martial training hall was as good a place as any to train, and with his temple nearby he could still feel a strong connection to Brogdar.


    He could feel Travis'' attention on him, and he valued his friend''s patience as he completed the movements that strengthened his body and mind. Walking to the weapon rack, he set the oversize (to a kobold) hammer down. "What''s up, Trav?"


    Travis couldn''t see another way to say it, so got right to the point. "Astrid wants to talk to her friends¡ªthe dead ones."


    "The wolves? It will be an interesting endeavor. They died in war, serving a cause that, to them, was just. I will not be able to revive them all at once, but let''s make it four a day and work from there." Brayden had been meditating on the issue himself, trying to seek his god''s guidance. All he''d felt was an urging to find his own path. "She still plans to let them fight her to the death?"


    "She and Fife are discussing a way to ensure it. Fife will stand in judgment. If they want death, and kill Astrid, Fife will give them what they want." Travis gave them time to digest the order of events before asking, "Is this right, Brayden?"


    "Is anything right, Travis? I asked Brogdar to guide my steps, and he didn''t reply with anything beyond following my own heart. Life is a test, but I don''t know if there is a way to fail beyond stepping outside of what you want to be. I am a warrior, a bringer of life to those who push back darknesses both mundane and meta. If this is what she and her kind consider appropriate, I will comply with their desires." Walking from the room, Brayden started to make his way down through the dungeon. "How is Katelyn doing with the teleporters?"


    "She ran into a hiccup there. The core of it will require gold to function. I''d rather it didn''t, and she''s of the same opinion. She''s gone back to the drawing board." Travis looked at his gold and realized that he was going to need a lot more. Resource nodes only cost mana, and with the new reserves and faster regen from the Wizard Tower, he felt confident spending four thousand five hundred on nine new nodes. "You know, I just realized that if I keep adding more and more resource nodes, and the lizards find them all, we''ll be able to see where there are pockets of no nodes which will be monster caves."


    "What about if the nodes appear in caves? Remember Squishy''s original shrine?" Brayden could remember it quite well¡ªhe''d died shortly after. He didn''t regret that death, or the fights that led up to it¡ªit had been an inevitable and required step along what he had realized was his journey to protect an important soul from straying from the path of goodness. He reached out and ran his claws along the wall, then took the stairs down.


    From far in the distance, Brayden could hear the sound of hammer on metal. He knew the young man, Axel, had accepted a place in the dungeon to gain access to rare metals, and hoped that the deal wouldn''t sour¡ªhe still wanted some divinium armor.


    "That''s a good point, but I think I''d be able to sense if a room was in a cave like that. Especially mana shrines. If you head to Fife''s boss room, then go north from there, you''ll reach the new wolf area."


    "Thank you, Trav." Brayden pushed his way through the rock, gliding into Fife''s room, bowing his head to Squishy, then heading north and negotiating two more walls. The new room, he had to admit, was looking good. "Is that a wolf eating Fife?"


    "Yeah," Astrid said, grinning at the wolf that was wagging its tail and play-wrestling with Fife. "My gold''s on the wolf."


    "If the fight goes long enough that she gets thirsty, Fife will win. I don''t think Pen could stop her when her throat gets dry." Walking up to Astrid, Brayden put his hand on her arm. "I''m ready to bring them back, and you back, when you need me to."


    "They won''t like this, and they won''t like you. When we do it, you''ll stand with Fife and I''ll put myself between them and you both." Astrid knew they''d be furious enough to bring out their beast. When that happened, she doubted there would be anything else to do but put them down.


    "Axel is making a pair of swords now," Travis said. "The bodies of your pack are in the back of the cells next door. It was the best, and safest, place to store them."


    It was news to Astrid. She had been avoiding the jail cells for entirely selfish reasons. Standing upright, she turned and walked for the door. "I''ll bring the first. They are preserved?"


    "Yeah. Jack made a pile of ice in there that doesn''t melt. I don''t know how he does it, but it means they have been frozen all this time." Travis kept following Astrid as she walked out and down to the jails. "Their cells are locked, but you should be able to figure out how to open them. I didn''t want anything coming in here and eating them like this."


    "You took better care of them than I did. Leading them at the gates was¡ª" Astrid squeezed her eyes closed and stood still for a moment. "I''d been ordered, without being ordered. Because I hadn''t knocked down the fortress surrounding the dungeon to the south-east, or the walls of the city, Hilda gave me the option to redeem myself and lead a blind charge at the city gates."


    "You would have if Fife hadn''t been there. She held the gate versus three of your wolves, and when Jack supported her, she killed them."


    "She is an unbelievable warrior. She also killed many outside the gate with that gas." Hating Fife for being a better warrior was pointless. Astrid would far rather train with her and surpass her. "We were warriors set against one another. I am glad that''s no longer true."


    When she stopped at one body, Astrid closed her eyes and breathed a little heavier. "His parents gave him one of the old gods'' names. Hreti. A cursed name, some would say. He was like a little brother to me." Digging her claws into the ice around him, she dragged the block containing her pack-mate''s frozen form out and picked it up. "It''s hard to think that he can be brought back. We burn our dead when we can, to stop such prof¡ªsuch magic being done."


    "You''re amazing in a way," Travis said. "You adapted to all this so fast. It''s been, what?"


    "Not even a month. When I realized I don''t want to die, and that it was only because of you that I didn''t and don''t¡­ I had to change myself. I had to discard what I knew and what I believed. I didn''t know if it was right or wrong, but it would get me killed. All I have is my training and my strength¡ªand even that is borrowed from you for letting me live.


    "This is hard to say, because I like a lot of the people who taught me how to fight, but you are the most amazing man I have ever met, Travis The Dungeon. You admit when you''ve made mistakes, work hard to back up every word you say with deeds, and you support so many lives¡ªprotected so many¡ªthat you would have the bearing of a king in my homelands."


    Travis didn''t know what to say to that. When she''d carried the frozen body all the way back to the Pack Den, he still didn''t know. "Axel, how are the swords coming?"


    Pausing in his hammering, Axel carried the new blade back to the forge. "First is done. It''s much faster if I let the dungeon system do the work, like Tannyr said, but I don''t get to customize anything. The way you spoke, these don''t need to be customized?"


    "Yeah, nice work. They might be simple blades, but adamantine is still adamantine. There are people who would kill for your weapons." Travis couldn¡¯t help but give Axel a little ego padding. He''d quickly become an essential part of the dungeon. He was aware of Fife, Brayden, and Astrid talking about the mechanics of any fights, and figured they''d be best to handle that side of things.


    Able to feel when he had Travis'' full attention, Axel felt only slightly nervous. Thankfully, following his instinct and letting the dungeon system do all the work, all he had to do was hammer the edges of the cast weapon a few times and it came out of his forge sharp and ready to use. "I hate that they are so plain. Can you lie to Fife and tell her I didn''t make these?"


    "No promises. Thank you, Axel." When Axel set both blades on the completed bench, they both vanished and appeared in Travis'' inventory. "Okay, Fife, please fetch the two blades."


    While Fife was doing that, Brayden started his resurrection ritual. It was longer than normal, because the body was so long-dead and encased in ice. He would have had Katelyn deal with the ice, but a cooked wolf was probably going to be harder to resurrect than a frozen one.


    Looking at the sword Fife gave her, Astrid tested the edge and found it deadly enough, and given its adamantine construction, that edge would hold a long time. "I still don''t know what to say."


    Fife checked over the second blade, testing its edge. "Yeah, me either. I think the most important thing is not to lie. Explain what happened, how you feel, and their choices. Emphasize that if they want to leave and head back north themselves, we will not stop them."


    "Three choices. Life here. Life in the north. Death." While Astrid hoped against hope that it would be the former, she would be happy if they all chose the second too. "I don''t want to kill my pack."


    "He wasn''t exactly pack, but I had someone who was close on the battlefield and in the bedroom, who turned out to be someone I didn''t want to be around. If you want, I''ll fight them if all they want is a death at arms."


    "No. It''s my responsibility as their pack leader. If I can''t kill them myself, there''s something wrong." Standing up straighter now, and trying not to reflect on why she always crouched down to speak to kobolds, Astrid could hear Brayden''s voice reach a fever pitch as he beseeched his god for the power to undo death.


    Brayden felt the moment Brogdar connected with him and, through his power, brought life back to the body. First, the ice cracked and fell away. Then the wolf''s body warmed and the myriad processes that were required for life started anew. Deep inside, where the poison had done its deadly work, damage was undone and nerve tissue repaired. Finally, once Hreti''s body was warm enough all over, his heart began to pump.


    The final thing before the wolf was able to fully awaken was his energy. Enough fuel added to his body to sustain it for a time.


    When Hreti''s eyes snapped open, and the darkness of his death fell away, he screamed. Muscles that had gone without movement for weeks bunched and tightened, pulling him up and allowing him to stand. He was still in his wolf shape, which seemed wrong to him, but then a familiar smell hit his olfactory like a hammer. "Astrid?"


    Neither Fife nor Brayden could understand the northerner language, but they didn''t need that to hear him ask for Astrid. Backing away to give Hreti room, Brayden did his best to circle around behind Astrid to Fife.


    "Hreti!" Astrid forgot everything as she rushed forward. Wrapping her arms around him, they embraced and each sank their muzzles into the neck of the other. Breathing deep, she closed her eyes and experienced a pure, selfish moment of joy.


    Indulging in a similar joy, Hreti squeezed Astrid, but eventually he opened his eyes and saw the two kobolds in the room. "What is going on here?" He felt on-edge, even if Astrid didn''t seem to be. "Did we take the gate?"


    "No. When we got in, you were right behind me. That kobold over there covered in more adamantine than we ever wore was guarding the portcullis. She''s a better fighter than I am, and dealing with Agnes, Yvette, and Bjorn wasn''t too much for her to handle." It was hard to describe, and harder to keep talking, but Astrid had only ever feared one thing¡ªand this wasn''t it. "They beat us, Hreti."


    Confusion reigned. Leaning back from Astrid, Hreti asked, "Why are we alive?"


    "Because of them and because of the best ruler I''ve ever met. We''re in a dungeon¡ªa hole¡ªHreti." Astrid let Hreti go as he backed up from her. "They aren''t heretics and they aren''t monsters. They''re just people like us."


    "How? How could they be people?" Pointing at Fife, Hreti fixed his mouth into a snarl. "Look at them, Astrid! They are nothing like us!"


    "Neither is Hilda. Neither was Donna. Being different didn''t make us monsters." Astrid left it unsaid that the same applied to Fife, Brayden, and Travis. She decided to move on. "I¡ªI was terrified. I lied so much. Unafraid of death? No, I only thought it wouldn''t happen to me. Well, I came to a point where my life was in the hands of another and¡ªand I begged for it."


    "What did you do, Astrid? You made a deal with them?!" Panic, anger, and confusion dominated Hreti''s mind. He kept pointing at the kobolds. "You sided with the heretics?!"


    "Yes!" Astrid snarled the word out. "Yes, I surrendered to them. I offered them a year of servitude. They granted me that. They¡ª" She realized she had no more words to explain herself. All the anger left Astrid and she held out her huge, taloned hand. "Do you trust me, Hreti?"


    Yes, he realized. He still trusted her, but he needed to know it was actually his pack-leader, Astrid, that was before him. "I followed you into fight after fight, Astrid. Certain death was always what we faced, but you stood at the front and led every charge. Behind you, I could never falter." He looked at the hand offered and knew he''d reach for it¡ªthen he saw the naked blade in her other hand. It felt right. "But only if you still are Astrid. Prove to me, wolf with no name, that you are who you say."


    Hearing Travis'' translation, Fife laughed, distracting both wolves from their moment. "It''s not always the fight you want, is it Astrid? No plan survives the first clash of blades. If he wants you to prove yourself to him, then do it." Walking toward the two behemoths, Fife smirked at them and held out the second adamantine blade to Hreti. "You can''t understand me, wolf-man, but I hope one day you will remember these words. I understand you perfectly. Fight well."


    Looking at the blade in his hand, what would have been a longsword to a normal sized person, Hreti judged it both horrible and beautiful. It was simple, but it was a killing tool. He''d seen many blades, but he''d never seen an adamantine one so unadorned. "What did it say?"


    "Fife? She said she understands you perfectly, and wished you luck." Astrid found herself stepping back as the room felt far more hostile. "What are we fighting to?"


    "Three marks. The leader of our pack wouldn''t balk at losing a little blood." Hreti rolled his shoulders and started to unpack himself, feeling out his extremities and looking around the ground they would be fighting on.


    The room was dominated by a rocky cave in one corner and what seemed like a safe path through from one exit to the other. The ground was uneven; a challenge to footing. Gathered in one corner was Fife, Brayden, and the newly created wolf, all watching the two huge wolves circle one another.


    Three marks meant Astrid could afford to lower her defenses a little. The biggest danger was, without armor and with the swords they had, that could mean far more than a scratch. "Keep your offside arm up. Better to take a mark than lose your fingers trying to grab my blade from reflex."


    "Every fight is a lesson?" It was reassuring and normal. This was exactly how Astrid treated every combat encounter. "My pack leader was like that, but she wouldn''t hesitate to¡ª" Dodging back, Hreti realized he''d let his focus slip. To regain that loss, he tossed his sword to his off-hand, led with it, but swung his claws as his main attack.


    "One to you." Astrid hadn''t expected the attack and caught the claw to her arm. She bled only a few moments before scars claimed the wound. Stepping back, she realized that she was thinking back to her recent sparring with Fife again and again. Fife fought far more defensively, wearing an opponent down and then punishing their lack of stamina. That was the wrong kind of fight here, even if it was a superior tactic.


    Once he''d backed away to give Astrid time to recover, Hreti ran at her. Just before he reached attack range, he threw the sword at her face and brought both claws up to rake at her ribs. He expected her to react to the blade more, expected her to make a grab for the weapon or turn from it. Instead, as he fully committed to the attack, she headbutted the blade''s flat and grabbed both his wrists.


    Following through after the headbutt, Astrid opened her jaws and clamped down on Hreti''s shoulder, sinking her teeth in while keeping his hands away from her.


    Rolling his eyes sideways to look at Astrid, Hreti recognized his pack leader again. This wasn''t a defensive attack, this was how the beast inside them wanted to fight. "Let go."


    Astrid snarled, held a moment longer, and then released Hreti''s neck. Stepping back, she was waiting for Hreti to do the same when he rushed at her. Her eyes widened, and if not for her remembering he had no sword, she would have acted defensively.


    Wrapping his arms around Astrid, Hreti buried his face into the mane of fur at her neck and he cried. "It''s really you." He felt her arms encircle him and pin him close. Without a hint of aggression or reluctance, he wagged his tail and wept into her. "I died. I really died?"


    "Yeah. You died, but that isn''t always an end when you have friends." It filled in a part of Astrid''s soul to have Hreti, one of her pack, back. "I''ve learned so much since they took me in. They protect us from the city, too."


    "The city? Where are we?" His tail wagging slowed and stopped as Hreti remembered the kobolds. "The city had a dungeon inside it, didn''t it?"


    "Two. One is this dungeon, his name is Travis. The other is full of animals and grasslands. They don''t fear their dungeons, here, they have accepted them as allies."


    "You"¡ªthe question was turning over in Hreti''s head¡ª"you''re part of this dungeon, aren''t you? You let it bind you."


    "He, not it, and yes. I am part of the dungeon now, but I asked to be. Travis doesn''t ask more of me than I want to give. He is¡ª He has plenty. He has so much food and resources that he supplies the city. Gold, food, weapons¡ª Remember how many we thought were dying in here, daily? He pays to bring them back. The gods of this realm ask only a donation to bring life back to those who lost it¡ªand he paid for every soldier we killed."


    Slumping back, Hreti looked up at Astrid with shock permeating his emotions. "We had no chance. They were endless."


    "We had a chance. When we charged the door, we had a chance of taking the city. We should have all pressured Fife and beaten her down, or distracted her while others raised the portcullis. Arrogance cost us, but mostly Penelope. She''s the dragon here." It was hard for Astrid to think of her as anything else now, but she felt she should correct herself. "She was a half dragon before. The biggest among them."


    "This is a lot to take in."


    "You''re the first, you know. I will try this with the whole pack. If they want, they can stay, leave, or gut me where I stand. I''ll even give them a fight to the death if they want it." Astrid grinned, showing off her teeth. "I don''t fear death anymore."


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 110

    Astrid felt both relief and a curse to have Hreti sitting to the side of the room, watching over her second attempt to bring one of their packmates back. Skarde was having none of her arguments. Every time she mentioned the dungeon or magic, he''d spit the word heretic at her. "Then choose."


    "You have made a foul deal with this hole?" Skarde kept none of the anger and fury from his words. When Astrid nodded, he spat on the ground. "And Hreti hasn''t?" Another nod. "Then I''ll fight him. I want a clean death. Burn me afterwards." His eyes were fixed on Hreti, not Astrid.


    Hreti had insisted on a more formal fight arena. They would both be given a shield, a sword, and the terms would be decided just prior to the fight. "Take up your damned weapon and shield and fight me, then." Unlike Astrid and Skarde, Hreti was once more his human self. He''d donned a fine set of mithril plate armor and marveled at how light it was. His people, generally, had no use for the weaker of the two metals; it was either steel or adamantine.


    Hefting a shield in his off-side talons and one of the adamantine swords in his good hand, Skarde tried to pull back from the pure rage that would have normally driven him in this form. He focused on Hreti across the open ground of the dark room, his eyes picking out every detail. Hreti had been his first choice for two reasons: he didn''t want to die to a heretic and of the two, he trusted Hreti to kill him cleanly.


    Looking across at his pack-mate, Hreti heaved a sigh, and then banged his shield with his sword. When Skarde did the same, he advanced, but not slow and steady like a good soldier. He had enough wolf in his heart, though not showing, to charge at Skarde.


    The rushed tactic took Skarde off-guard. He tried to pivot away from the flash of metal, but had to raise his shield to block the strike before Hreti tore his side open. Stealing the momentum of the blade, the shield nonetheless lost its integrity to the edge of adamantine and broke apart.


    "You''re a pig-headed old wolf, Skarde, but you''re one of the best fighters I''ve trained with," Hreti said as he drew back, his own shield intact. "It''s an honor to fight one who has fought so long and so well."


    Skarde could see his end in the younger man''s face. Swift, good with his sword, and moving with the instinct of a soldier twice his age. "And an honor to fight a talented one, but you have two more shields to break, lad."


    The next time Hreti took things a little slower. He circled around Skarde, always advancing on his off-hand. Positioning, he knew, could be Skarde''s weaker points. As he took one step, putting him just beyond Skarde''s reach, he juggled his sword to his other hand and swung fast.


    Skarde had never managed the trick of hand-changing his sword, but he''d lived long enough to have counters for it. He deflected the sword with the edge of his shield, then brought his own blade to crash into Hreti''s shield to salvage a draw from the encounter. Despite smelling his death approaching, he gave Hreti a big grin.


    "Recognized that counter. Knew you would use it." Picking up a fresh shield, Hreti slung it on his right arm and kept the sword in his left. "You always had a dozen counters for every trick I could master. Did you teach me all of them?"


    Laughing, Skarde picked up his final shield and fitted it to his still wolfish arm. "Not even half!" It was bluster. Skarde had never held back in teaching Hreti or any other wolf the tricks he knew. Even when Hreti had surpassed him, he hadn''t held back.


    Hreti hated what he was planning. The big wolf before him knew a lot of counters, but there were some he didn''t. Turning to face Skarde again, Hreti dug his feet into the dirt-covered rock and sprinted at the big man. Though Skarde was still in his wolf form, the fact he was holding a sword and shield would be the important part, or so Hreti hoped.


    "Wha¡ª?" Skarde had to bring his own shield up to protect his face from Hreti''s thrown shield. The metal edges clanged, but neither broke from the impact. The action had been enough, though, to put Hreti into the blind-spot created by the shields. Skarde''s eyes widened as, when the shields finally ceased blocking his sight of the faster man, the tip of his sword was coming up toward Skarde''s chest.


    Astrid lowered her head and closed her eyes a moment before Hreti''s blade drove home into Skarde''s torso. She already knew the angle and position of the weapon would set it between two ribs and guide the tip to the major arteries above Skarde''s heart. Her keen ears could hear the gasped breath, the shuddering motions of someone trying to get the blood flowing into their head again¡ªand failing.


    Turning her head up, she howled at the pain of losing one of her companions¡ªone of her pack. When a second voice met hers, she snapped her eyes open to see Hreti having turned back into his wolf form, destroying the light armor he''d been wearing, and loosing his own cry.


    Only when their howls ended did Astrid stand up. "Travis, I''d like to burn his body by the forest entrance."


    "Yeah. Do you need wood or will you drop a few trees to use?" Travis asked, trying not to get in the way of their ritual.


    "We will need wood for his pyre." Walking over to her lost pack-mate, Astrid reached down and hefted his body up and over her shoulder. She hated losing him, and worse still was the knowledge that she could have Brayden revive him, but she knew not only would Skarde hate her for it¡ªshe''d hate herself for doing it.


    The walk wasn''t as labyrinthine as it could have been, not with Fife and Brayden ensuring the tunnels were open and shortcuts made. As she neared the exit, Astrid nodded to Fife and Brayden, and took Skarde out with only Hreti as her companion.


    <hr>


    "Okay, Pen, we need to talk. You maxed out mage. What do you want next?" Travis was relieved now everything was calm, that he could talk with his love. That it was business only slightly bugged him. "Or do you want to know what spells you got first?"


    "Sure, lay on me what I can do while I think of what to work on next. If those goblins are going to keep sending out armies, I''m going to get all the levels in everything." Penelope stretched out in her boss room, enjoying that it was now big enough that she could really extend her wings.


    "Okay. You have Magic Dart, still. You have Fire Rain, Shield of Mana, Ice Storm, Forgefire, Confuse, Elemental Shift, Summon Spirit, and Shield Other." Travis read off the impressive list for Penelope. "I have an idea what some will do, but you''re definitely going to want to talk to Katelyn about this."


    "Yeah, yeah. Any other classes researched?" Penelope asked.


    "Not yet. I have the four basic ones, and unlocked Helping Hands. I don''t know if anyone in the city has noticed yet, or even if it''s affecting them. Maybe they do need to be in the dungeon to count?"


    Penelope ran through the list in her head. "Shield of Mana?" A shiver ran through her as her green scales shimmered with blue light. "Ooh, I''ve seen wizards use something like this on other people. Really nice way to help someone take a few hits before getting hurt. Right, testing. Northridge doesn''t have a lot of magic users. You have the two priests, our own resident adventuring group, and that''s about it."


    "So we ask our regular contact, Rupert?" Travis asked.


    "Yeah, I can do that. In the meantime, you might as well give me the Soldier class." Standing up, Penelope still had moments where she forgot she was now quadrupedal. She grunted and glared at the wall¡ªthen breathed a gout of finely atomized acid. The stone fizzled and hissed for a moment, but the green mist slowly poured down it and into the moat of the stuff around her room.


    After squeezing into the tunnel, she then felt a shiver. "So I''m a Soldier now?"


    "According to this you are. Do you still have those spells?" Travis asked.


    "Shield of Mana." Laughing, Penelope nodded. "Yeah, I still got that. What did that cost to do?"


    "A thousand steel for Soldier. I think I''ve got a pile of that still in the buffer. Enough to eventually give it to everyone. You should have Shielding Stance."


    "Shielding Stance? Oh, I felt that. Any idea what it does?" Making her way through a gap that Fife and Brayden had left, Penelope started taking the stairs up to the surface. "At some point it would be nice to get stairs down here to my room. Or another big room up near the surface that a dragon can fit in."


    "Why not use the tower? There are rooms in there that should be big enough for you."


    "I like being underground, though, and I also like being close to you. The tower is nice, because I can be lazy and fall off it to fly, but I enjoy napping close enough that I can reach you fast." It wasn''t so much of a squeeze for her in the last part of the dungeon. With the tunnel still being extra wide, she could make it past people without pressing them against the wall. She nodded to each as she passed and even paused when Mixie came running out and wanted to pet her nose. Stopping, Penelope made a soft rumble that, after Mixie had run off squealing in excitement, she realized was a purr.


    Only when Penelope had slipped from the big doors of Travis'' tower did she shake herself and shiver. Her wings were now merely folded at her sides and no longer sandwiched there. "I have no idea how this will work if I get bigger. I might have to start living in the tower then, and only come down for special occasions."


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    "So no more snuggling around my crystal?"


    "Trav, I would destroy an army to snuggle you." She let out a deep laugh as she walked through the city street. "I did destroy an army to snuggle you." After a week of flying and walking around, Penelope could see that she was just another common sight for most folk. Except for the children. She seemed to be followed by a perpetual swell of young faces all peeking out from behind crates, barrels, or bags. Part of her wanted to stop, pull apart their hiding spots, and shout Boo at them.


    Travis wasn''t privy to Penelope''s thoughts, but he did feel the need to get something off his proverbial chest. "I''m sorry this upgrade had to go so far. It seemed like something we needed, but¡ª"


    "Don''t, Trav. I''d made peace with this a while back. Without a dragon, you''d always appear weaker than the city, let alone when Breath of Spring gets her boss upgrades. It''s not so bad, especially since I can fly." Penelope put a lot of joy into the final words, especially since taking to the skies did engender that level of giddy happiness in her.


    Trying to let it be, Travis knew he''d apologize again at some point, but for now he moved on. "I still remember that first time Robert and Katelyn came to the city to trade. We''ve all come so far thanks to that."


    Blushing a little as soldiers nodded and saluted at her, Penelope remembered the feeling of panic back then. "I felt so exposed. When it was just you and me, or when we had the two of them and Steph¡­" She winced at bringing up his name. Like Travis, she felt bad about that act. Almost at her destination, she took note of the guards at the temple. "Looks like the priest gets his own squad of guards to defend him now."


    "Even when things were getting really grim on the walls, there was always a squad here," Travis told her. "I don''t know if he negotiated that or if Brolly was not taking chances. Either way, a good investment."


    "I''d invite you in," Brother Rupert said, responding to the commotion he heard in the street outside his temple, "but I am not sure you would fit. I will probably need to add a larger section to the temple if you are going to be Travis'' messenger with any regularity. What can I assist you with?"


    "We¡ªTravis, that is¡ªgained a new upgrade¡­ When did you get that?" Penelope asked.


    "Yesterday," Travis said.


    Penelope nodded. "A new upgrade yesterday. It is a boost to specifically allow allies to receive boosts as if they were dungeon creatures. Have you noticed any change in your spellcasting?"


    "I am not sure if you noticed, but my services have seen a recent downturn in their requirements. I''d exclaim about the horror of peace breaking out, but I rather like giving sermons to the living." With his piece said, and the situation already understood, Rupert focused himself and cast a simple heal spell. At least, it should have been a simple heal spell.


    After having trained as a neophyte for over a decade, and then spent years as a priest in his own right, Rupert had a grip on what his divine magic could do and how much he had to work with. Now, however, instead of the calm river he''d cultivated with his dedication and training¡ªhe had a wild river that only fed his spell more power while he tried to draw back and reduce it. When he finally managed to control his spell and finish it, Rupert looked around and felt a touch of his magic in everyone nearby¡ªwhen he''d only planned to heal himself. "Interesting."


    "You just said ''interesting'' like Katelyn says interesting. So?"


    "Something is enhancing my mana. Both my own capacity and my conduit to the Scales seem greatly increased. I''ll need to send a message for someone to come and investigate it further, but I didn''t detect any hostility." Rupert had previously sensed something a little like what he described, but it was only when he''d visited the most developed city in the kingdom. "I believe I should contact that dear lady Fairheart, before she does something that would be spectacularly entertaining."


    The gleam of anticipation in Rupert''s eyes told Penelope all she needed to know about how quickly he would contact his peer. "I''ll leave that to you, of course. I wouldn''t want to overstep or anything."


    "He''s going to prank her, isn''t he?" Travis asked. His vision through Penelope''s eyes dipped slightly. "Figured. I guess with the siege lifted there''s not going to be as much gold flowing to either of them, but Rupert got the bulk of it. Speaking of gold, I have a pile of people mining it now. I want to pay this army to go away."


    Nodding to what Travis had said, Penelope wound up turning it into a slight bow toward Rupert. "Thanks for confirming that it worked. That effect should be city-wide." She thought about waiting for a reply, but decided against it. Being a dragon surely had perks that included avoiding small-talk. Still, she waved her wing toward Rupert as she turned and started to walk off.


    Sighing as Penelope left, Rupert let out a small laugh. "A little more exciting than working in the inner parts of the kingdom. Oh, no, Your Balanceship, I look forward to roughing it." He spat on the ground and then laughed more. "The way this is going, they''ll own the damn city. Better than a noble doing it."


    "You heard that last bit?" Penelope asked Travis, her hearing more than up to the task of hearing Rupert''s angry rejoinder to the conversation. "We''re going to have to be careful of that."


    "Brolly said some stuff about it once too, I think. I get the feeling that there are still a lot of ways this could all screw up for us if we don''t take the right path."


    "Sounds like Brolly is my next person to talk to. It''s funny, Trav, but being a dragon seems to be opening doors." The oddness of the phrase hit Penelope the moment she''d said it. "That''s one of your sayings, isn''t it?"


    "Yeah. And that''s probably a good ide¡ª Oh. Interesting. There are a pair of soldiers from the relief army trying to shake someone down in the alley nearby. I can''t hear what they''re saying, but they''re talking to a gun merchant who doesn''t want to be there. Second alleyway on your left."


    Following Travis'' directions, Penelope paused at the entrance and looked in. Sure enough, two soldiers in the foreign army''s livery were standing over a man who was on the ground.


    "It''s not much, you see. Only, we saw you had sold out and, what with being owed for this disappearing northerner army, we figured you could help pay," one of the soldiers said.


    "Pen, Stephan just left the dungeon and he''s getting some city guards to come here. Only stop them if they try to hurt the guy again. Let him give them any gold they ask for, we can sort that out later," Travis said to Penelope. "Ugh. I hate stuff like this. They don''t need to do it."


    Nodding her head, Penelope managed to make eye-contact with the merchant and she winked at him.


    "P-Please, I don''t have much! The dungeon is giving away guns to anyone who wants one. Why don''t you go ask them?" Seeing a dragon standing behind the two thugs, the merchant did his best to defuse the situation. He didn''t want to be there anymore. When they didn''t seem to take to that idea, he pulled a gold coin out of his pouch. "Take it, then. This is all I¡ª"


    "Don''t lie to us. We saw how full that pouch was just now." Swinging his leg back, the thug intended to kick the merchant¡ªbut his leg got hooked on something and he almost fell over. "Wha¡ª?"


    Turning too, the second soldier spotted the inches-long talon that had hooked his sergeant''s greave and froze. "D-D-D¡ª"


    "I think you should both sit down and wait right there." Penelope stretched her neck out and loomed over the two, but the alley wasn''t quite wide enough for her to get more than one leg to them, which she''d already done. Of course, she could breathe on them, but something told her that Brolly would be upset if she did that. Travis too. "Did you know that my dungeon can see anything happening in this city? He likes merchants. He likes the locals. Can either of you two guess what he doesn''t like?"


    "Keep them talking. Steph is almost there and he has a few friends," Travis said.


    With one claw hooked on the straps of the guy''s greave, Penelope cleared her throat at the absolute silence of the pair. "Nothing to say? You''re lucky, really. If it had been Fife that caught you shaking down the guy who sold her her first gun, she''d probably have taken your arms off, or worse¡­"


    "W-Worse?" Realizing his leg was trapped, the thug looked back and up at the dragon, starting to reach full-panic.


    "You''ve seen her, surely? A bit shorter than you, wearing so much adamantine that she laughs at a rifle shot. She even fought one of those northerner commanders to a standstill." Penelope tried to keep the talk going, making them focus on her while the other end of the alley was open. "Yeah, you were lucky it was me and not her. She has a temper, too."


    It was a morbid fascination that kept them both there, listening to the dragon''s patter as she described a demon wearing kobold skin.


    "Then there''s Katelyn. Hooo boy. If Fife has a temper, Katelyn is a keg of black powder. I saw her melting holes through adamantine. She was taking out those huge brutes the northerners sent at us, the wolves. Well, she focuses all her fire magic down to this little dot, and anything that touches¡ªeven adamantine¡ªjust melts and boils away." In her groove now, Penelope moved on to others. "And then there''s Robert. You know, I thought sludge traps were the worst thing I''ve ever seen in a dungeon, then he went and made the sludge fireproof, potion proof, and also acidic enough to melt a human into a puddle in seconds. Nice guy, though, but fiercely protective of the merchants in Northridge."


    "Are you going to do something?" the merchant asked.


    "I have been doing something. I''ve been keeping these idiots'' attention on me so the city guards could get here to catch them." Penelope smiled broadly, showing off all her teeth to their best effect. When the two thugs turned to run¡ªone ripping his greave free of her claw¡ªthey both stopped before they''d taken two paces.


    "You handled that great, Pen!" Travis was trying his best not to giggle, but was failing at it. "I would have told you they were close, but I didn''t want to interrupt."


    Timothy Devin hadn''t been happy with his break being interrupted. He was rotating off duty at the south-eastern dungeon fort when he and his squad had been co-opted by Stephan. He knew enough about that particular kobold to know his commander, Brolly Windchime, listened to him. Now, with the explanation on the way, he could see the problem. "Hello! I''m sure you both understand the trouble you''re in. Sir"¡ªhe turned his attention to the merchant, who was standing up¡ª"you want to make a complaint?"


    "I absolutely do! They were trying to shake me down! If the¡ªuh¡­" Something in the merchant''s brain sparked, warning him to not insult a dragon. "If this heroic dungeon creature hadn''t happened along, I don''t know what would have become of me!"


    Edging around the two thugs after they''d been disarmed, Stephan approached Penelope at the other end of the alleyway and didn''t stop until he''d slumped against her foreleg. "I''m glad I don''t have to worry about you getting hurt anymore, but next time can we find a different kobold for the action?"


    Travis winced at the question. "Sorry, but you were the closest, and I didn''t want them to get away with that." He always felt bad about putting undue weight on Stephan''s shoulders. "Take a few days off if you want. Let Pen pull her weight as spokesperson."


    "Hey, just because I''m bigger now, doesn''t mean you can make jokes about my weight." Penelope leaned low and tilted her shoulder down. "You want a ride back to the dungeon?"


    "Let me guess, ''Don''t tell Fife''?" Stephan accepted the ride as graciously as he could, even having to use his claws to get onto Penelope''s back.


    "Got it in one. If she finds out I''m giving out rides, I''ll never get her off my back." Rolling her shoulders and spreading out her wings, Penelope checked around to make sure no one was too close, then launched herself into the air. "And, after this, I need to talk to Brolly."


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 111

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 25/100


    Heart 2,250,000/2,250,000


    Experience 179,987/562,500


    Workers 30/157


    Monsters 11/159


    Traps 118/384


    Food 7,945


    Timber 7,322


    Iron 2,292


    Steel 905


    Mithril 870


    Mithril Ore 0


    Adamantine 916


    Adamantine Ore 0


    Charcoal 3,658


    Mana 160


    Rock 1,330


    Gold 22,580


    Leather 216


    Leather Sludge 215


    Lava 501


    Ice 10


    Glass 483


    Explosive Runes 30


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 30


    Bullets 400


    Black Powder 400


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 76


    Sulfur 708


    Quest: Kill 100 city dwellers.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 30/66 | Monsters 11/67 | Traps 118/162


    Quest: Delve to the bottom of a dungeon with at least 20 floors.


    </blockquote>


    Travis felt on-edge. Two days had passed while Astrid woke her pack one by one. In all, eight had chosen to die on their feet, which left her with just four of her family remaining. There was Hreti, Njal, Trygve, and Liv. Of the four, Liv was the only other woman.


    What he hated most about the whole thing was that he''d gained experience for the eight wolves that''d been killed which, along with the daily dose of experience from townsfolk visiting for food, put him over the edge into level 25.


    They''d also been mining gold. Lots of gold. As much gold as they could¡ªand then a bunch more. He''d been shipping gold out to the dungeon''s tradehouse in the city until it had the required amount to pay the relief army. And even that had become a source of contention.


    In the city itself, there was a lot of animosity from Northridge for the army that''d arrived. The city, seeing a few bad apples roughing up its merchants, had led to Northridge retaliating against the whole army in a similar manner as it had against Tannyr, so the relieving army moved to establish a garrison outside.


    With Northridge angry like a mother hen sensing danger, it was Breeze that mentally tackled Travis into a hug. He was genuinely surprised by how good it felt to share emotions with Breeze, and didn''t hide that it made him happy to have her attention. "Something fun?"


    A flicker of sight, of networks growing, spreading, and becoming mushrooms. "Oh! Are the mushrooms Breath of Spring took growing?"


    Another giddy wash of excitement spun Travis into a mess of joy that he didn''t try to fight. "I''ll be arranging for a lot more seeds and animals to be brought up from Far Reach, then. There''s no reason to hold back anything that you might find useful to grow."


    It was now he was sure she could understand language, because there was no way such a complex idea would have worked as simple emotion, yet she felt excited and eager. She¡­ "Breeze, are you a girl or a guy?" Her confusion pushed him to clarify. "Uh, Brayden is a guy and Fife is a girl."


    A single mental flash of imagery was all Travis got from her in reply. The image was complex, yet simple: a dungeon. "Right. I should have guessed. Hey, the big meeting is starting. Pen, you can still hear me, right?"


    <hr>


    "Travis is watching now. Sorry, he was dealing with other things," Penelope said, sitting up proudly in the town center with a half-ring of tables before her. Present was the council of the city, several merchants, a few other crafters, both the religious leaders of the city, Breath of Spring, Huntress, Penelope herself, and Stephan. "Most importantly, we have the gold to pay this army to go away."


    Brolly wasn''t the only member of the council to sigh with relief. "They want twenty thousand gold." It was an astronomical number for an army to take a two-week ride.


    "Twenty thousand, nine-hundred and fifty. His quartermaster wanted more, but I brought up the cost of dealing with their less-desirable element." Christine grimaced at that before nodding to Penelope. "Thank you, again, for dealing with that problem."


    "We''re all in this together. Fife wouldn''t have let me hear the end of it if that guy got hurt. She probably would have marched into their encampment and demanded to fight them all to the death." Snorting a laugh, Penelope added, "At least that would have reduced how much we owe them."


    "It would have cost Travis more, though. But, let''s move on. What are our plans going forward?" Christine asked.


    "Travis has some ideas of his own." Stephan stood up from his seat, mostly so more people could see him beside Penelope. "The following are the main points. We will be adapting the dungeon to allow adventurers to delve and fight as they wish, with payments granted based on how far they get. Training courses and, of course, weapons will be sold.


    "Though, we will sell them through the merchants of Northridge. There is no point in us keeping all the gold when we are perfectly happy sharing the profits. The cost of weapons and armor will be set at one half market value. You will be free to mark up from there as you wish.


    "The next project will be to build another outpost. That southern exit we built to get our messages out will be convenient, so we''d like to reinforce it and propose it as part of our third major project.


    "A railway. We''ve discussed this before, and I believe you talked with some folks about it, but we would like to push this forward. We''ll use that fort as the station, widen the entrance there and link it up with the city directly to allow swift movement to and from it. Gold, iron, and steel can be provided."


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    All three council members visibly stiffened. A project that fit perfectly within each of their purviews. It was Brolly that spoke first, though.


    "Tannyr will be helping with the construction? We can provide the labor as well as the stone." Stone was obtainable from nearby, a quarry had been established along the south road and it only took a lot of strong backs to drag it where it was needed. Brolly had plenty of strong backs. "With the location being in the south, that''ll be closer to our quarry. Have Tannyr speak to me and we''ll see about getting started. As for adventurers, I''ll push advertising in Far Reach with Christine''s support?"


    Christine nodded to Brolly, happy to assist with bringing more people into the city.


    "I too can vouch for some workers toward that. You will be providing raw materials to trade too?" Howard was practically salivating at securing access to the raw metals that older cities only dream of.


    "Of course. Raw materials will be provided at a similar half the market value." Stephan didn''t even need to glance at his notes. He''d memorized all the required information and gone over it several times to ensure he had it right. "You won''t want to export them. The city isn''t going to be hungering for gold." Laughs, some nervous, spread around the tables. "I believe Breath of Spring has something to add?"


    Breath of Spring stood up, too, given her stature sitting was barely of a height to see above the table. "I know you want more crops and meat animals. We are starting to produce mushrooms in our darker areas, though mostly for our own food resources, but specific crops can be planted elsewhere, as well as animals added to my home. We can either make a deal where you provide the samples for free, and harvesting costs will be minimized¡ªor we can buy the samples ourselves and you will be paying a higher fee to harvest those locations. It is your choice."


    Christine nodded to Breath of Spring. "Seeing as I''ve been in charge of food supplies thus far¡ªbecause no trade meant I had little else to keep me from annoying my fellow council members¡ªI believe we can afford to buy any crops or animals you wish, and perhaps even make suggestions as to what might be good to plant."


    Brightening at the level of cooperation, Breath of Spring smiled at Christine. "Thank you! I''ll wait around after this so we can discuss it." She waited for Christine to nod before sitting back down.


    "We need our fort finished," Huntress said, standing up. "You can use the tunnels from Travis to Northridge, and then through our home to the fort. We will pay for this. Also, I believe it would be a good idea to get a cannon for Travis."


    Everyone froze, realizing that was something they had, collectively, forgotten about. Penelope finally broke the silence by raising a claw in the air. "I will also recommend that."


    Laughter, from everyone at the table, filled the square as they all appreciated the fact they''d almost let the item slip from the agenda.


    When the mirth died down, one of the merchants beside Christine stood up and turned toward Penelope and Stephan. "Once again, I''d like to thank you both and, I understand, Travis too. The entire siege was a most dreadful event for a merchant to be part of, and to have myself threatened further¡ªby supposed allies¡ªwas unbearable."


    Rumbling softly, then suppressing the purr that was bubbling up inside her, Penelope nodded to the man. "I was relieved I could act in time to stop them. While I know it would be a great boon if Travis could watch the streets constantly for such threats¡ªparticularly with more people arriving as we seek to expand¡ªthe fact is he can''t watch every inch of the city, his dungeon, and keep all our projects on track. We will always do what we can, but only if we can see it."


    "Thanks, Pen. I am glad I don''t have to talk to people," Travis said.


    Stephan did his best not to laugh at Travis. Instead, he let his humor play out into a smile for the merchant. "You''re welcome, of course. I would like to talk to you later, since you are a weapon merchant, about establishing a line of gun sales."


    Everyone present could see the raw excitement in the man''s eyes. He nodded vigorously and sat back down to let the meeting continue.


    "One more thing, and though it''s part of my own purview, I believe it will affect us all," Brolly said, remaining seated. "I''d like to expand the city walls out. Increasing the maximum distance from the center of the city, of each corner, by at least three times. We will need far more stone, and I want to make this a wall to end all walls, that will only need expansion long into the future."


    "You''ll need to time that with gaining more citizens," Penelope said, her mind running over the simple facts. "There was only just enough to man the walls as it was. If you finish this, and haven''t got the people to defend it, that wall becomes a trap."


    Howard, planning all the wonderful wages and taxes for his members, cleared his throat. "Which means we should prioritize the already built fort, the new southern fort, and the railway. Such a connection will ensure we have a steady flow of new faces in the city¡ªmany of which will decide that such opulence is for them."


    "That last bit reminds me." Christine winced as she had to figure out her phrasing. "We''re going to have some distinguished guests here soon. They will not be invited and they will not leave an avenue open to force them to leave, but they will assume they can take charge of things. What I''m saying is, we''re going to have nobles start sniffing around."


    Stephan mentally winced at the assessment, and also agreed with it. "They will seek to evaluate first; then, when they like what they find, they will find ways to insinuate themselves into control structures; and finally they will worm their way up the structures until they are sitting where you three are now." He nodded toward the three city council members. "You''ll see a lot of them coming, but the one that you don''t spot is who you will find yourself sharing a council seat with, and eventually answering to."


    When he saw he had the full attention of the three council members, Stephan tapped his claws on the table. "Which is why I have some suggestions. I''ll present them to you each tomorrow, if you have time for a short meeting with me?"


    Looking at each other, Christine Sellswell, Howard Tailor, and Brolly Windchime all nodded.


    Available at: https://www.royalroad.com/profile/220350/fictions</a>


    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 112

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 25/100


    Heart 2,250,000/2,250,000


    Experience 179,987/562,500


    Workers 30/157


    Monsters 11/159


    Traps 118/384


    Food 7,945


    Timber 7,322


    Iron 2,292


    Steel 905


    Mithril 870


    Mithril Ore 0


    Adamantine 916


    Adamantine Ore 0


    Charcoal 3,658


    Mana 2,458


    Rock 1,330


    Gold 22,031


    Leather 216


    Leather Sludge 215


    Lava 501


    Ice 10


    Glass 483


    Explosive Runes 30


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 30


    Bullets 400


    Black Powder 400


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 76


    Sulfur 708


    Quest: Kill 100 city dwellers.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 30/66 | Monsters 11/67 | Traps 118/162


    Quest: Delve to the bottom of a dungeon with at least 20 floors.


    </blockquote>


    Travis left Stephan to negotiate. It had become apparent that Stephan was so much better at it than anyone else that Travis didn''t even bother to listen closely. Instead, he turned his attention to his dungeon.


    First thing, of course, was the fact his warehouses were packed full of gold. Each of them had a moderately priced (now that he had plenty of gold and mithril) third upgrade that would boost his storage significantly. He was ready to start upgrading all of them when he peeked at a few more¡ªand found them lacking the second upgrade. "Pen is going to kill me."


    "Thirty-seven. Ugh, that''s a lot of storage space!" He set a job in the heart room''s message board for the first batch of warehouses, then he went over the total cost to upgrade everything. "So, ninety-eight warehouses need the third upgrade. A thousand gold, a hundred steel, and ten mithril."


    Travis sighed. "I don''t have enough mithril, but I can see a mithril node down south there. Okay. Mark that to get a little tunnel to it, select what I can already and set the upgrades on those." He paused, noting he was out of gold. "Add note to mine more gold. Finally, I make a note to mine the mithril node out completely and fill the room in when done."


    Long gone were the days of Travis having to micromanage everything. He''d been true to his word in not dictating how or when people worked. He nudged the gold mining to the top of the list after buying a third of the warehouse upgrades and looked around for other things that needed upgrading.


    The big surprise had been Penelope''s boss room. Now there were two upgrades there. The first was allowing the second type of boss room to be applied in addition to Arena: Lair. Not having the gold to upgrade that, he made a note in the heart room to start the upgrade when someone started mining.


    The second upgrade in Penelope''s lair made Travis laugh at how on-the-nose she''d find it. "This is perfect, but it''s not cheap. A hundred thousand gold and XP, but it solves my gold storage problem for a while." The upgrade, for once, told him how much of a difference it would make. Storage for five hundred thousand gold.


    "With so much space, and the upgrades to existing storage rooms, we''ll have plenty of space for more resources." Metals, after all, were why Travis was such a big part of the city. As various people found the changes on the notice board, Travis watched some of them wander off to various places to start taking care of things.


    "Travis, I want to talk to you about a project."


    The words drew Travis'' attention down to a corner in the second floor tavern where Blake and Ludmiller were sitting with three tables around them. Two tables held maps, one held some mugs. It had been Blake that had spoken, but by the way both of them studied the maps, it was a team effort. "Sure, I''ve got time. What''s up?"


    "You said you wanted to open a dungeon path and pay adventurers to delve it." Ludmiller seemed to be buzzing with energy. "We''ve been working on plans. The important parts are multiple paths for different difficulties. That way people can practice their work in a dungeon without all the danger normally inherent in dungeon delving. Then we want to have it so that the sections also help teach the adventurers skills they''ll need for avoiding problems in other dungeons."


    "We could even hire some of them to give us advice on building, and I''d like to commission someone to travel around and buy us maps of dungeons to study." Blake was reading from his tablet that looked well-marked and ready to be cleared and used again. "Also, bring us more monsters from dungeons to kill, in case we can get access to them for use as authentic encounters."


    Travis got the sense that they were both excited about the project, but he wanted to lay down some ground rules. "Okay, I''m all for this, but there are some things I don''t want. No buying thinking creatures. If we need monsters that can think and plan, I will ask for volunteers. Already, I don''t like the idea of killing anything just so I can have it as a possible monster to use. If we get any monsters, they''ll be allowed to live here regardless, but I won''t have anyone killing them."


    Both Ludmiller and Blake seemed to deflate a little and slump down in their chairs.


    "That''s our fault." Ludmiller fiddled with a knife she was holding. "It''s easy to get lost in a combination of old thinking¡ªas an adventurer¡ªand kobold thinking."


    "Well, we can still swarm them with wyverns, scorpions, and a few kobolds, right?" Blake asked.


    "Yeah," Travis said, relieved the pair weren''t throwing all their plans on the fire. "We can try swapping monsters with Breeze to start with. If we gain some new types from that, we''ll expand further. In all, she might be better at providing a dungeon experience."


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    Nodding, Blake scratched out some of his notes on his tablet and started making new ones.


    Ludmiller, however, smirked and looked up at the ceiling. "Trav, you called Breeze ''she''? Are there male and female dungeons?"


    "Look, I know I''m male. Northridge definitely feels male. Breeze feels¡ª I don''t want to force her or anything, but she feels female. I''m trying to not make a big deal out of it. I asked her about it, she didn''t seem to mind either way." Looking over the plans they''d been working on, Travis liked their idea of keeping it all on the first floor. "This is good, but remember that if I get another floor, this will all shift down."


    "What will that do to the two entrances?" Blake asked.


    "Last time we only had the one, and when the dungeon moved down, that one was re-linked to the top floor. Now that entrance is gone, and we only have two purchased entrances." Travis knew his mental shrug wouldn''t show to them, but it made him feel better.


    "One question, Trav," Ludmiller asked, "what about all the traps and stuff we already have? Do we want to get rid of that?"


    "I trust the townsfolk. I trust the town council. I even trust Breeze''s minions. That incident with the soldiers from Far Reach''s army shaking down merchants, though, reminds me that we''re about to have a lot of people in Northridge who weren''t standing on the walls defending us, working in their businesses to keep everyone fed and clothed, and weren''t doing their part to keep this city from utter destruction. For now, the traps stay." The city, and all its inhabitants, felt like family to Travis. They''d fought and died, and he''d made sure it was never too big a price for them. They were a rock of a community. "So, let''s get designing. It will give everyone with the base kobold class some XP too."


    When another mana tick happened, Travis resigned himself to spending it all on his search for metal nodes, hoping for gold.


    <hr>


    Sitting down, Stephan couldn''t help but feel pride in his plan. "You know why I know all about this?" he asked, sliding a slate tablet across to each of the three council members.


    "Do we want to know which family will be missing you?" Howard asked.


    Shaking his head, Stephan smiled. "That life is gone. That Stephan died in a pit in a dungeon he walked his stupid ass into. A kobold killed him and then the dungeon got a new kobold." He glanced down at his tablet, but didn''t require the notes on it to continue. "We need all three of you to take on titles. The city, the dungeons, and the people will all agree to it. There''ll be a big ceremony. It will cost a reasonable fortune to establish new noble lines, but it will be the best way to keep any of the families out."


    Brolly was set to ask how much, but from the corner of his eye he saw Christine''s face blanch. "Travis can pay for it?"


    "We are a tenth of the way toward paying for the first. There''s going to be a lot of unneeded materials coming out of the dungeon. When Travis tries to create gold, it''s a random chance between gold, iron, coal, sulfur, mithril, and adamantine. We might just have to dump the sulfur on a wagon train and sell it somewhere¡ªor give it away. Maybe we could bury it in the quarry?"


    "Peerage costs range around a million gold per title," Christine managed to say. "You really plan to pay one for each of us?"


    "Would you rather we only pay for one of you?" Stephan laughed at the worried looks each of the councilors gave the others. "Only one of you being a noble wouldn''t work. It would unbalance the council and provide leverage to destabilize. It will take some time, but I promise we''ll have the gold for this."


    "Railways, forts, cannons¡­ How much gold do you have down there?" Howard asked.


    Stephan didn''t need to check his notes. "We have nine large seams of gold we''re getting ready to process. That''s over two million gold worth." He enjoyed a moment of shock on their faces. "So, I''d suggest hiring someone to begin constructing your heraldry, a scribe to draw up your family trees, and prepare a letter to send along with the payment."


    "You''re serious." Brolly closed his eyes. "What will we have to expect after this? How will these invading nobles treat the situation?" The siege was only over for a week and change, and yet he already wished to have the simple threat of the northerner army at their door once more.


    "They won''t be able to pull rank, which is a major part of their game. What they will likely try to do is ingratiate themselves with one of you in particular, compromise your power structure to the point where it looks like you''re engaging in crimes to overthrow the others, and then slip out from under you so it all crashes down." Tapping at his tablet, Stephan nodded to each of them. "You have the notes before you. I can present more when I know what noble families are trying to infiltrate the city. My best advice is find people you absolutely trust and fill your control structures with them. I know, right now, we all trust each other. That''s a good start."


    Christine read the tightly spaced writing on the tablet before her and sighed. "You make it sound like this will be another siege. Will it really be that bad?"


    "Of course it will. The stakes are a city producing millions of gold, weapons and equipment in quality and quantity, that is entirely self-sufficient within its walls. Northridge will be a shining jewel for any family to grab and add to its collection. This is the biggest game and the people playing it play for keeps. Make sure you''re all carrying several talismans at all times." It almost pained Stephan to have to remind them of that. The look of real shock that they''d be targeted directly hurt him as well. "Now, I believe you each have business with others to take care of."


    When Stephan left the room, Brolly was the first to speak. "That was enlightening. You do both have talismans on you?"


    "After the months we''ve had, of course I do, but I thought I only needed one?" Howard asked.


    "Three is best. One is kept easily accessible, another sewn into your shirt and pressed against your skin, and a third to hide in your underthings."


    Available at: https://www.royalroad.com/profile/220350/fictions</a>


    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 113

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 25/100


    Heart 2,250,000/2,250,000


    Experience 99,925/562,500


    Workers 30/157


    Monsters 11/159


    Traps 118/384


    Food 7,945


    Timber 7,322


    Iron 2,292


    Steel 905


    Mithril 970


    Mithril Ore 0


    Adamantine 916


    Adamantine Ore 0


    Charcoal 3,658


    Mana 5,370


    Rock 1,331


    Gold 39,103


    Leather 216


    Leather Sludge 215


    Lava 501


    Ice 10


    Glass 483


    Explosive Runes 30


    Triggered Explosive Runes 0


    Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0


    Long Guns 30


    Bullets 400


    Black Powder 400


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 76


    Sulfur 708


    Quest: Kill 100 city dwellers.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 30/66 | Monsters 10/67 | Traps 118/162


    Quest: Delve to the bottom of a dungeon with at least 20 floors.


    </blockquote>


    Another sixty thousand gold had been shipped into the city (and the associated gold node mined out completely), the mithril node had been wrung dry, and every single storage warehouse upgraded. Finally, he''d upgraded Penelope''s boss room to have a Hoard, Lair, and an upgrade to Lair he''d found: Hospital.


    The Hospital upgrade boosted health and mana regeneration in the room, and he got to bind another creature to Penelope''s cohort as a dedicated healer.


    "Hey, uh, Felna?" Travis had waited until she was awake. He didn''t like the idea of intruding on her time too much, but on the flip side she was getting paid in addition to being his minion.


    "Mmm. My favorite dungeon." Felna was laying on the highest floor of the wizard tower, stretched out on her back and reading over the scriptures of her deity. "I was meditating, but for you I will always make time. What is the topic for today?"


    "I''ve been working on upgrades for some overlooked rooms in the dungeon. All my warehouses are now at least two and a half times bigger. Don''t ask how that works¡ªI don''t know. The other one was Penelope''s boss room was able to become a Lair and then Hospital. Mana and health regenerate faster there, and I can assign a healer to the room."


    "You already have Brayden in there. Why not make him the healer and slot someone else into the role of cohort?" Felna still hadn''t moved a muscle. She was content to absorb what sun there was and keeping her side of the conversation as the only sign that anything had changed at all. "Then you could add Astrid or one of the wolves."


    "There is Fife and Squishy in the next room over. Having a second healer there is a good idea. Also, I''ll be asking Astrid or a wolf if they want to bunk with Fife." Travis got to the crux of the matter. "I''d really like if you accepted this, but if you don''t¡ª"


    "I never said I wouldn''t." Sitting up, Felna stretched out various muscles in ways that would make a contortionist blush before standing up.


    It took Travis a moment before he realized she''d been laying down without her armor or a shirt on, mostly because his attention had been focused through her eyes. As always, however, there were lizards everywhere. "If you need some time to¡ª"


    "Stop it. Ugh. What is it with you and being so gentle all the time? You''re a dungeon!" Reaching for a long shirt she''d worn to the top of the tower, Felna pulled it on and started to walk down the stairs while Travis sputtered in her head. "Too much flirting and I''ll have Pen upset with me, and seeing as she''s a dragon¡ªI don''t want that."


    It was getting exasperating to Travis, but he couldn''t stop listening to her going on and on about it. By the time she reached Penelope''s room, his non-existent ears were burning. She froze, though, and was staring at Penelope in shock. It took a moment for Travis to realize she was actually staring at the almost forty thousand gold in a pile at Penelope''s feet.


    "Trav said we have room for another healer in here. You want the job?" Penelope asked Felna.


    "That depends. Are you going to spend the next five minutes mincing words and asking me if I do or not, even after I said yes?" Felna seemed completely fearless as she walked over and crouched at the edge of the gold pile. Running her hand through it, she couldn''t help but laugh. "I''ve never seen this much gold before."


    "You want it? Take whatever gold you can carry out." Penelope flashed her teeth at Felna, as if daring the feline kin to take her up on it.


    "No thank you. I know how heavy this stuff is when you try to carry more than a handful of coins, and I also know that I''ll get mobbed outside if I literally carried out armloads of gold." Crouching down, Felna raised an eyebrow. "So, are you going to¡ª" Felna''s eyes widened and she trembled for a moment.


    Travis could feel mana pouring into her, and noticed she seemed to have a firmer sense in his dungeon. He waited until she stopped looking quite so discombobulated to ask, "So, how is it?"


    "Like I had a million little pains all over me from bones that I''d broken, wounds I''d taken, and even weird diseases from rot dungeons¡ªand they''re all gone now. I don''t know how or why, but I feel stronger, tougher, and I think Sandwalker is purring somewhere."


    "''Purring''?" Penelope asked.


    "Yes. It''s smug and annoying, but it is a sign you''ve done something that pleases them. What''s up with the gods being invested in this? Brayden said that Brogdar has been supporting him too. That was partly why I trusted you¡ªfor all Brogdar and his followers seem single-minded sometimes, they absolutely won''t abide evil." Looking down at her hands, Felna frowned. "I think I''m the only person I''ve ever met that became a dungeon boss encounter, excluding kobolds."


    Penelope shrugged her shoulders. "Don''t try to get me to explain how any of this works or anything. I don''t know of any other kin that have been made into a dungeon monster. You and Axel are the first. Oh, and Astrid."


    "Never seen a girl with so much fur be so unwilling to keep it clean." Sniffing in disdain, Felna pointed a claw at Penelope. "You make sure she and her friends wash regularly, or Travis will be smelling more like dirty dog than fresh gold."


    "Anyway," Travis said, trying to regain some semblance of involvement in the conversation, "I''ve got a big project down in the south of the dungeon. Would you two like to help?"


    "Travis, of course we will," Felna said, smiling wide enough to show off her own full complement of teeth.


    <hr>


    Fife was getting bored waiting for everyone to arrive. Propped against the wall in the south-west area, she was gazing into a large mana shrine with Brayden and Jack beside her. All three of them being kobolds made her oddly happy, and the two of them felt like brothers to her. "Think we''ll find another cave scorpion? That was fun to fight."


    Brayden sighed. "We don''t know how far we have to dig this out. If we run into mana shrines or ore nodes¡ª"


    "It would be easier with the ore node if we mine it out, right? Even if we leave a pile on the ground, it''s better to have this closer than further out," Jack said.


    Nodding, Brayden ran his claws over the rock wall behind him. "It would be great if we find a gold vein. You heard what Stephan needs?"


    Fife drew her sword and started inspecting the blade. There were one or two marks on it, and she knew every single one was from fighting Hilda. "Over three million gold, right? Buying Brolly and his friends peerage, or so he said. No clue why. We should just pass a law that allows everyone to punch nobles in the face. It would solve more problems than making more nobles."


    Inhaling the mana-rich air, Brayden waggled his hand side to side. "Brolly isn''t so bad. Besides, you could be drinking in a lord''s tavern, Fife."


    "Maybe you could marry him and be Lady Fife!" Jack said, then broke into laughter.


    "Hey, Trav, it only costs a million gold to get a title, right? How long until I get that much?" Fife asked.


    "You can''t, Fife. There is more than gold involved. Being city founders is the basis of their case. The gold is simply to grease the wheels. Why would you want a title?" Travis asked, genuinely curious.


    "There''s another reason for sending all that gold." Stephan walked into the room, hefting a pickaxe to his shoulder. "Normally a city is taxed in many little ways to ensure they support the kingdom and all it provides to them. That''s a nice and steady flow in bits and pieces. Sending three million gold to the court of King Brave will be a big statement about our loyalty. The city, I mean."


    "So we bribe the king? We can do that?" Fife asked.


    "Yes, but we don''t call it a bribe. He knows it''s a bribe, we know it''s a bribe, everyone else definitely knows it''s a bribe but, if they say that, they are accusing the king of taking it. So the king, thankful that we show our loyalty, honors the three council members with titles for doing such a good job building their city. There are downsides, too. It advertises Northridge as a rich town." The sound of heavy footsteps approaching made Stephan look down the tunnel. Tannyr and Penelope were approaching, the former in the lead.


    "I hope you''re ready for a brawl," Tannyr said, "because we have a ton to excavate, and I can feel it in my bones that there''s something out there."


    "Of course there will be, now." Fife grabbed up her shield and helmet, walking for the door to the south-west tunnel. "I was reading about this, and it''s something Trav''s people figured out. If you say something bad will happen, then something fun is definitely going to happen." She flashed her teeth in a grin.


    Snorting and following her to the door, Jack didn''t make the mistake of trying to push past her. "Yeah, Fife, but you like fighting these things."


    Snorting with laughter, Fife nodded. "Yeah, okay, you got my number there. Alright, so the best way to get started on this, since we''re mining blind here, is that I''ll stay beside Tannyr while she starts. When we get a bit of tunnel opened up into a wider area, then Pen can come in too."


    "I like this plan," Tannyr said. Advancing to the door of the southern-most small mana shrine, she opened it and walked up to the stone at the far end of the room. She pressed her claws against the rock and closed her eyes. "There is iron. Not close, but it''s dead ahead. I can feel the mana shrine to the right, and more iron and mana off, further, to the left. Trav, I keep moving on a straight line, right, through any nodes until we don''t find one for ten sections?"


    "Yeah. That will ensure that the space will not be intruded on by any mana or resource nodes. This is exactly the problem I want to fix. Another village will mean the lizards can keep up exploring nodes as I create them. Two will give me some wiggle room in the future." Travis hated asking them to mine on the third level, given the danger it had proved to be, but it was better to get this done now and not after it had become the fourth level¡ªor so he reasoned.


    "Hold on. I thought we were just digging one?" Fife asked.


    "Get with the program, newbie." Tannyr stuck her tongue out at Fife and, while a living pile of adamantine spluttered, started digging.


    Brayden and Jack went before Penelope, waiting right behind Tannyr and Fife, with Stephan and Penelope in the back. As she watched Tannyr digging, Penelope asked, "Why''d you come down for this?" directing her question to Stephan.


    Pulling out a pickaxe, Stephan tossed it from hand to hand a few times as he spoke. "Because I don''t get to mine as much as I like. It''s nice to get my mind off all this politics and maneuvering. Even Fife likes to dig sometimes."


    "That''s a lie!" Fife shouted. "A blatant lie spread by malcontents."


    Breaking through, after a few more sections of digging, Tannyr laughed aloud. "Can I call ''em, or can I call ''em?" She walked up to the iron vein she''d dug into and ran her claws over it. "You''ll get to be part of a railway."


    While the others piled up in the room, Fife walked around the huge iron-bearing node. "Trav, you''ll want a door after the mana node."


    "I can handle that." Edging past Penelope, Stephan enjoyed the whole adventure this was becoming. "I remember when we first got doors."


    "We have so many now. Okay, there''s the plan for one. Another ordinary, iron-cored door." Ever since the bug things that ate mana, Travis felt more than a little paranoid about blocking off all his mana shrines. "So, ten more squares out from there, Tannyr, and we should be fine to put down the first lizard village."


    "Got it." Tannyr rolled her shoulder joints as much as they would rotate and then got back to digging. Ten sections later and she stopped. "Now you''re going to mark an area for me to start on, right?" As soon as she finished saying it, Tannyr felt the pull of the rock. "That''s it. Give me something to dig for you, Travis, and keep mining forever!"


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    With all their preparations and planning for the worst, Stephan and Tannyr cleared out the whole first room over the course of a day''s work. With grumbles from Fife over all the fights they could have had, they got some rest and returned the next day ready to go.


    Only to find a very disgruntled Ludmiller standing in the entrance with her taloned hands on her hips. "You thought you could build more lizard villages without me?"


    Tannyr rolled her eyes and headed for where the second village would be. "You''re the queen of lizards on the second floor. This is the bottom floor."


    "Ahem. I am queen of lizards on every floor. Tell her, Trav!"


    Sighing audibly, Travis said, "Ludmiller is the lizard queen. I agreed to this when¡ªwhen she was doing good work during the siege."


    "Exactly! So, as my first lizard decree, I will build all the lizard villages!" Turning her back on the group, Ludmiller walked to the middle of the already cleared room. "Travis, let''s do this."


    Turning his attention to what interface he had access to, Travis noticed his gold was spiking up nicely. Nearly two hundred thousand gold now, and most of it was stuffed in his one specially upgraded gold warehouse and Penelope''s lair. "Okay, here goes."


    At the exact same time as Travis triggered the room construction, Tannyr broke a block that opened out into a huge cave.


    "Pulling back! Fife!" Tannyr had practiced this in her mind many times now, and since the practice with building on the top floor, it was much smoother for her to remove herself from danger and let Fife face it.


    Two arrows smacked into Fife''s raised shield, earning a laugh from the woman. "On your toes! Whatever''s in here can use a weapon!" Peering into the darkness, it always weirded her out that her ability to see in the dark seemed to halt at the edges of the dungeon.


    "Luddy, they''ve got a fight next door," Travis said to Ludmiller, then repeated a broadcast to all the combat-focused folk of the dungeon. He watched through Fife''s eyes as more arrows clanged against her armor and, finally, Brayden cast an illumination spell in front of Fife''s feet.


    Glad for the light, Fife shifted her shield up as a spindly, pale-skinned goblin with the lower body of a spider swung a sword her way. "Goblins! Uh, spider goblins! Jack, gimme some support here."


    While he listened to Brayden begging his god for protection, Jack examined the goblin drider and started a chilling spell that he hoped worked as well on the enemy as it did on normal spiders.


    Watching the drider''s legs ice up and become rooted in place, Travis spoke fast to forestall a quick kill. "Can we try talking to them first?"


    The question surprised Fife, but it put the worm of an idea in her head. "Yeah. Hey, stop hitting me!" She''d shouted the words at the stuck goblin, but it continued to try to attack her. "You only have a steel knife you¡ª Stop hitting me with that!"


    "Brayden," Jack said, "do you detect evil in this creature?"


    For the first time in his life, when using the blessing from his god that let him cut to the core of a creature''s darker motives, Brayden felt rebounded. "I can''t feel evil in it, but it''s like it''s not there instead of being not evil. I don''t know."


    Not willing to completely ignore the creature''s blade, Fife saw other driders approaching from the edge of Brayden''s spell. "Your call, Trav. What do you want us to do? There are more coming."


    Travis watched as more arrows bounced off Fife and another of the driders reached her, only to find that she can deal with two at once easily. In the distance, there were more coming. "It sounds like¡ªlike they''re not even alive. Just weird dungeon-stuff." When he saw the drider, though, there was a single face he saw reflected in the wild expression¡ªMixie. "Katelyn! Can you get down here?"


    "We don''t have time, Trav," Penelope said, watching as more of the monsters started to rush at them out of the darkness. "If you can''t come up with something, we gotta start clearing them."


    There were four of the driders stacked up on Fife now. She wasn''t tall enough to stop them skittering over her head, but when Penelope squeezed up behind her, Travis knew none would get past. "Sorry, Katelyn, false alarm. Okay, everyone, clear them out."


    Using her talons to shove the drider that had reached her, Penelope took a deep breath and glared at the creature as it tried to race toward her. Fife didn''t need Travis shouting in her head to know when Penelope started breathing. She stepped back several paces so that she stood under Penelope''s jaw and let the driders experience the acidic breath as it poured over them and dissolved their exposed flesh.


    Travis wished he could close Penelope and Fife''s eyes so he wouldn''t see the driders dissolve. They would need a plan for next time. Possibly-intelligent enemies meant there was a chance to rescue them from whatever the dungeon system was doing, but right now they didn''t seem to be intelligent.


    A new sense of vision edged past Penelope and Fife, sliding easily toward where their tunnel opened out into a huge cave. Travis had a message pop up for him, asking if he wanted to send a single minion in to possibly get a big reward. "Hold on, Luddy, I have something coming up saying we can get a reward if only one of you tackle this area."


    "Fife," everyone but Fife said at once.


    "Me," Fife said, then laughed. "Okay, so how does it work? I gotta kill my way through all this? What if I don''t have the damage to kill whatever it is in there?"


    Penelope huffed out a breath that sizzled on the wall beside her. "I''ll go. I can''t heal, and I can''t fly in there, but I don''t think any of this can stop me." Making no attempt to hold back, Penelope pushed past Fife and then Ludmiller, swatting the driders with her talons and trusting her claws to do their lethal best.


    Their lethal best was very effective.


    Wading into the open chamber, Penelope reevaluated her idea of sending Fife in and realized a lone, conventional fighter would have been a bad choice. There was movement all around her and, even with Brayden casting more light spells behind her, many were still hard to see.


    Penelope wished she had Hilda with her again. The pair of them had practically danced together in the field, every motion designed to decapitate and destroy. Now she was left in a solo dance that made her feel more unwieldy than she knew herself to be.


    Arrows skidded and deflected from Penelope''s hide, and Fife found herself sighing at the sight of a dragon causing devastation. "Some days I wish I could do half that much damage. Look at her go."


    "Fife''s in looooove," Ludmiller said, leaning up against her friend while Jack used his magic to completely freeze an approaching drider. "Does Trav know you have a thing for strong girls?"


    "You''ve heard how much she goes on about those two snipers who took out Hilda''s sister, right?" Travis asked, earning him a laugh from everyone, even Fife. "How are you faring in there, Pen?"


    "I dealt with all the spider goblins, now it''s orcs with four arms each that I''m facing. Still nothing more than I can handle, and there seems to be less of these than the goblins." Of all her appendages, Penelope was finding her tail to be most useful in this kind of fighting. The enemies kept trying to get around to her sides, and all it took was a big swish of her body and she could send a whole group of them away at high speed. "Does Fife really like me?"


    "Probably." Travis kept his voice focused just for Penelope. "She isn''t taking her eyes off you, but I think she looks at Astrid the same. She likes anyone who has a unique fighting style."


    Clearing away the last of the orcs by removing its upper torso from its lower, Penelope spoke while waiting for the next wave to come. "She''s going to have a lot of friends in Astrid''s pack, and if we get Hilda to hang around, they''re going to be best friends."


    "Hopefully she can find someone to be more than friends with, so she stops watching my girlfriend''s tail."


    Penelope smirked, and was about to reply until she saw the troll step out of the darkness. It was wearing plates of dull metal draped around its huge form in a comically bad mix of armor plating with big gaps between. Swinging her wings up, Penelope brought them down and forward while doing a little hop.


    Rushing backwards and getting some space, Penelope inhaled for another breath of acid and sprayed it out before her in a line of misty death.


    The acid didn''t seem to do much to the troll except make it more angry. It charged at Penelope and held up a rusty mace that looked to be nothing more than a boulder impaled by a spike of steel.


    Turning to one side, Penelope tried to lure the troll to attack her head¡ªwhich worked¡ªand then swung her tail to knock it off its feet¡ªwhich didn''t work. When the weight of the mace came down on her left shoulder, pain exploded from both her foreleg and her wing joints. Penelope screamed in pain and lost control. Grabbing at the troll with her right foreleg, she started to savage it with her teeth, clawing at its face with her right wing.


    Infuriated at the raking claws, the troll dropped its mace and grabbed Penelope''s neck with both huge hands and then brought its leg up.


    The crack echoed through the chamber as the monster''s knee hit Penelope''s neck between its hands. The troll turned to look at the entrance of the cave and roared.


    Travis swore a whole string of swear words. Penelope, who had just appeared in his mental space, likely heard every one of them. "Screw it. Get in there everyone. Kill that damn thing!"


    "Trav, you don''t have to get so worked up. Fife and Brayden will lock it down while Jack and Luddy kill it. We only lose out on the reward for solo killing it. I need to get better at using my body." Penelope could watch what was going on. "I don''t get how you can look at things through so many eyes at once. Which one of these is Fife?"


    "Fife is the one with no one in front of them. She''s kinda awesome like that." Travis got the close-range view of Fife raising her shield toward the huge mace as the troll brought its weapon down at her. It would have been utterly terrifying for him, were it not for Brayden''s view behind her and seeing her barely flinch as the huge weight came down. What shocked Travis was seeing Stephan walking forward with the others. "Uh¡­? Crap! Sorry. Forget that order. Can you please go in and kill it if you want?"


    Stephan sighed as the mental grip left his mind. He rocked on his feet for a second and took stock of things. "Thanks, Trav."


    "Oh, this guy''s gonna be fun. Hey, Jack, you want to slow him down for me?" The next swing that came at Fife was a horizontal swipe that was aimed at her head. Ducking and raising her shield, she deflected the mace upward while she pushed in close and cut at the heavy corded muscles of the troll''s leg.


    Waiting for Fife to get her sword free of the troll, Jack started to work his normal slowing spell, wrapping it around the enemy, but having to feed more power than normal into it before it took and started to do its work. "It''s slowed, Fife. Don''t know for how long."


    "Long enough! Ugh." Fife winced as the mace came down again and again, the troll swapping hands to send it back at her faster. "It''s not moving slower!" The only consolation was that with it wailing on her, and her shield holding, it wasn''t going after her allies.


    Ludmiller had spent the time Fife bought them to stalk around behind the troll. It showed no indication it had noticed her, even as she laced her daggers with scorpion venom. Even as she got in the perfect position, and readied herself to leap up on the troll''s back, she thought about having some new daggers made.


    A pair of stabbing pains in its back was the first warning the furious troll had of Ludmiller''s attack. It tried to twist and brush the kobold that''d dug her sickle claws into its back off, but she''d pressed herself tight against its spine, and in the act of trying, opened itself up to more attacks from Fife.


    The change, when Fife looked up and saw Ludmiller''s ghostly form extending her daggers and ramming them into the thick muscles around the troll''s neck, was startling. All its attention shifted to that spot and it was everything Fife could do to hack at its legs, slam her shield into it, scream and shout insults¡ªand still it was focused on getting Ludmiller''s knives out and her off.


    And removing herself from the situation was exactly what Ludmiller wanted to do. Pulling her knives free, she pushed up and back with her claws still dug into the troll and vaulted over its reaching arms. When it spun around to deal with her, and couldn''t see her, she smiled wickedly at what Fife was preparing to do.


    Grinning like a fiend, Fife had to struggle not to shout at the troll as she brought her blade across and into its legs. Its hamstrings, though, were far tougher than they had any right to be, so although she would have removed any lesser enemy''s ability to stand, the troll turned around to stop her from trying again.


    Jack started with firing ice spears at the troll. Aiming at its head and upper torso seemed safest since Fife was so much smaller than it. None of the pillars seemed to do much more than distract it, but even still a distraction was enough, he hoped.


    The troll seemed far slower to Fife now, and something had stolen much of its strength. Her only guess was the rime around its legs, not that she had time for too much contemplation when it was still a significant threat.


    Brayden, who had watched Fife''s titanic fight with the troll and decided she could tank it well enough, had turned his attention and magic onto Penelope. Bringing a kobold or a human back from the dead was a surprisingly small prayer for him now, but a dragon was something far different. He had to invest every inch of Penelope with his magic before he could even start to impart life into her.


    "Oh!" Penelope giggled as she was pulled away from Travis and back into her body. Aches and pains from having her neck broken faded and she got to her feet and shook herself off. The fight was much easier to make sense of through her own eyes, and the first thing she did was aim her breath at the troll''s head and exhale a scorching line of acid into its face.


    The double dose of venom, combined with having its face burned and hamstrings half-cut, made the troll slow down significantly. It turned all its rage on the seemingly immobile kobold right in front of it. Forsaking its mace, it balled its huge hands into fists and started to hammer Fife over and over again.


    Of the two fists, Fife could only catch one swing in two on her shield, while the other kept thudding into her armor. She got sick of getting punched and tried to parry one of its swings, only to have her arm hit instead. Pain blossomed as a loud snap sounded. Clenching her teeth, ignoring the way her arm bent the wrong way now, she huddled behind her shield and weathered the blows while Penelope and Ludmiller both piled onto the troll.


    The pain eased, though, as Fife felt Brayden and his god''s touch pour into her. Even while she blocked and took the troll''s fury, she worked her arm¡ªreigniting the agony of the fracture¡ªto ensure it pulled into the right shape as it healed.


    Jack did his best to chill the troll. Though his magic slid off it as often as he got anything to stick, he slowed the rain of blows on Fife to a crawl, buying Penelope and Ludmiller plenty of chances to get strikes in and get out of the troll''s way again.


    After nearly three minutes of wailing on it, eventually the troll dropped to one knee. It reached out to Fife with one hand, lost its fingers to her sword, then grabbed her around her midsection with the other. As it raised her up toward its filthy mouth, she braced her shield out and between herself and its crushing jaw.


    Finally, after doing her best to find the spot she wanted at the back of the troll''s neck, Ludmiller jumped up to its shoulders, braced herself in place by digging a dagger into the troll''s neck, and shoved her other blade up and under its skull¡ªdeep into what served as its brain.


    The troll wobbled in place. Ludmiller, sensing their work was done, jumped back off it and landed on the ground just as the troll started to tip and fall over. The sound of the thing hitting the floor was met with cheers and a roar.


    Watching his XP jump, Travis let out a sigh of relief. "Okay. Next time, we don''t¡ª"


    Penelope growled to cut him off. "Trav, no. The chance was a good one, and the troll was easy to kill with all of us. Who knows what we might have gotten if I''d beaten it?"


    "Next time I want you to let me try. That troll wasn''t so tough!" Fife flashed her teeth and set about cleaning off her blade and checking her armor for damage.


    "''Next time''? Ugh!" The worst thing for Travis was not being able to slam a door and leave.


    Available at: https://www.royalroad.com/profile/220350/fictions</a>


    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 114

    "Three, damn, weeks." From the time the army had sent back the all-clear, it had taken three weeks for the first caravan to arrive. She hadn''t known what to expect from a city that had survived a northerner attack without the need for reinforcements, but what stood in the middle of the meadow wasn''t it.


    The walls stood proud. There were the remains of earthworks that looked like they''d been used to siege the city, and the huge gatehouse stood intact and without any sign its gates had been demolished. It was exactly how the report she''d bribed to get said¡ªincluding the strange tower.


    It was the perfect cover for her. She had a wagon packed with the usual goods a new city would need, plus a few extras hidden in a compartment that there was always a market for. When she reached the gate, the guards there looked bored. "General goods. Here''s my manifest."


    The guard looked at the slate tablet he''d been handed. "You''re Liz?" He waited for her to nod. "The cloth will go well. I don''t think you''ll have much luck with the hides, but these fine tools should make you a fortune." He passed the slate back to the woman and walked around behind her covered wagon.


    Folding the slate closed, Liz tucked it into a large satchel bag and wrapped her hand around a dagger. The weapon was nothing like what her family would normally carry¡ªit was exceptionally unadorned and business-like.


    "You''re clear. Wave her through!"


    Breathing a sigh of relief, Liz shook her reins to encourage her horse to lean into the weight of the wagon and followed the nice guards to where they showed her she could pull up. The moment she did, a woman with what looked like a slate tablet covered in paper approached her. "Can I help you with anything, Miss¡­?"


    "Christine Sellswell, head merchant and council member for Northridge. I just need your name, guild affiliation, what goods you are selling, and what you want in trade." There was nothing in any of the merchants Christine had encountered so far to indicate any weren''t exactly what they appeared. Still, she had promised Stephan to personally check over each¡ªand she trusted his inkling that they would have a spy or two coming soon.


    "I''ve got my manifest. Here''s my affiliation." Liz passed over her tablet and a stamped card of steel with all the credentials of a normally affiliated merchant¡ªthough in her case it was a realistic fake her family had paid very well for. "I heard you had plenty of food and metal, and thought I might be able to make a killing on some cloth and leather. The guard said you don''t need so much of the latter, though. What about tools? I''ve got high quality scissors, knives, needles¡ª"


    "We''ve got plenty of weapon blades, but nothing for fine work. There''s one good tool blacksmith in town, and he''s working every hour of the day and not keeping up. Do you want gold for trade?"


    "We''re merchants. Gold is always king." Jumping down from the bench of her wagon, Liz focused on her horse first. She couldn''t unhitch it yet, but she could lead the poor horse to where someone was putting out troughs of water for the caravan''s animals. She paid the young woman who was doing so a handful of small coins and started brushing her horse down.


    Taking time like this and having an excuse to look around at people was ideal for her line of work. She noted that though Christine had several people helping her, the council member was inspecting the manifests and affiliations personally. "Who tipped them off?" she mused softly as she worked, the words going no further than herself and her horse.


    Most of the other merchant wagons had more than one person working in them. Here and there were twos and threes unpacking some goods, setting up on the tailgates of their wagons or anywhere else they could put out their wares.


    Liz bided her time. She finished going over her horse with the currycomb, which afforded her the opportunity to witness an interesting moment. What looked to be a young lizard kin walked up to Christine. Fully expecting the merchant to foist the child off to someone else, Liz was surprised when the two began talking about something that, if Liz were any judge of body language, she was sure Christine was taking more seriously than her work.


    Making it look like she was counting things, Liz focused on Christine''s lips and did her best to follow what she was saying. "They''re all fine. Everyone has¡ª¡ªand they have¡ª¡ª." There was a pause while the lizard kin spoke, though Liz couldn''t make sense of their mouth. Then Christine spoke again. "Sure. The group on the right are¡ª¡ªand on the left are new¡ª¡ª."


    A little worry hit as Liz realized she was on the left. Christine probably knew some of the merchants that had traveled regularly, but the lizard kin walked toward her side and right up to her own wagon.


    "Hello," the lizard kin said, its voice sounding oddly adult to Liz, "I''d like to buy all your cloth."


    Liz spared a glance around for any adult lizard kin who might be anxiously hunting for their offspring but, when she didn''t see one, she turned her full attention to the one before her. The child was well-dressed, wearing a long vest, short leggings, and a cloak over the top of it all. It was nothing like any lizard kin fashion she''d seen before. "Do you really? How much money do you have?" She kept her tone light, wondering what the lizard kin''s angle was.


    The lizard kin tilted his head to the side. "There are three other wagons with cloth, but Councilor Sellswell told me yours is higher quality. Do you wish to sell it or not? Name your price."


    An alarm bell rang in Liz''s head. This was wrong and she could feel the situation turning to something she didn''t want. "I think I might have made an assumption, and for that I apologize. My name is Liz, I''m a traveling merchant. The cloth I carry is not high grade¡ªbut it''s better than what the others brought. I''m looking for five gold per square yard."


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    "Perfect. You have ten bolts, Christine said?"


    Definitely not a child, Liz decided. She nodded to that. "A thousand gold per bolt."


    "There''s a building on the west side of the merchant hall in the middle of the city. Please make your way there and I''ll arrange payment. There will be facilities for you to quarter your horse and stow your wagon, if you wish." And, with that said, the strange lizard kin was gone.


    Whoever, and whatever the creature had been, it seemed to Liz that they were respected. "Eliza Sussaridge, what have you gotten into here?" She thought about the question some more, then walked around and took her horse''s traces. "Come on, we have to go see a very short lizard about some gold."


    <hr>


    The city hadn''t been as well-off as Eliza had thought. Most of it seemed fine, but there were signs of a fire here and there. She could see that some sections of the wall had seen intense fighting, while yet others showed signs of repair. She wasn''t well-versed in the actual mechanics of city defense, but she''d learned to notice the aftermath.


    What surprised Eliza the most was the way the populace behaved. There was no gauntness in them, no shadows in their eyes, and no twitchiness. She got a few disapproving looks from the city''s merchants, but when folks had been through tough times together, she knew they were often distrusting of strangers.


    Finding the trade plaza, she noticed a large building with Council Hall written on a sign out front. Beside that, on the west side, was an almost equally large building that seemed like nothing so much as a warehouse with some kind of office attached.


    Without a better choice as to where to sell her goods, Eliza figured on using the strange lizard kin''s directions until someone said she couldn''t anymore. Leading the horse to a hitch at the side, she was surprised to see another of the small lizard kin come out.


    "Did Steph send you?"


    Even for lizard kin, the female looked and spoke odd. Her form was, like the previous of her kind Eliza had met, short and somewhat stocky. This one was wearing a skirt and a plain shirt. Her mouth was longer and thinner than most lizard kin, too, and seemed to have far sharper teeth.


    "Uh, the male in a vest and leggings?" At a nod, Eliza continued. "He wanted me to sell him the cloth I''d brought in."


    "Ah! Yes! We have been looking for some. Feel free to use the stable around back. There are sleeping quarters inside if you wish to make use of them or, if you''d rather not, I can recommend a tavern." Her tone warm, the strange (to Eliza) lizard kin gestured to the cobbled path leading around and behind the building.


    She took her time. There was no point to rushing what seemed to be the relaxed part of a merchant''s life¡ªthat''s how Eliza expected folks got caught. At least, that''s what she''d been taught got folks caught. She unhitched her horse and brushed it down properly. There was a cask of sour oats from which she scooped a good amount into the food trough. And, only once her animal was settled did she start to wonder further on her current situation.


    "You can tell a lot about someone by how they treat animals."


    The voice was familiar. When Eliza turned her head to look, it was the first of the small lizard kin. She shrugged her shoulders. "He does his best to get me from place to place. He works just as hard as I do¡ªmaybe even more¡ªand it''s not like he can get his own food out of the cask."


    "Well put. I have a donkey that is surprisingly okay with being underground. He did a lot of work for me, but now I let him relax and eat all the grain he wants. I give him a good brush down each day. He saved us a lot of hard work in our early days here, but now he''s practically a member of the family." Reaching the side of Eliza''s horse, the lizard kin ran a hand down each leg, slowly, and checked the hooves. "Good condition too. How was the road to Far Reach?"


    "After an army marching over it, twice? Not the best condition, but not the worst road in the kingdom." Eliza still couldn''t get the idea out of her head that there was something more wrong about him than being a particularly short race of lizard kin.


    "You''re taking all this pretty well. Some of the other merchants refused to do business with us." Raising an eye ridge at Eliza''s confused look, the lizard kin added, "You haven''t seen a kobold before, have you?"


    It felt, to Eliza, like being dunked in an ice-cold river. She stared openly now, not quite understanding what she was seeing, but her mouth seemed to have no filter. "You''re a kobold? From a dungeon?"


    "That explains why you didn''t react beyond that first, cryptic interaction. I believe introductions are probably best. I am Steph. The dungeon I work for is Travis¡ªhe''s the one with the huge tower on the south side of the city. Are you with me so far?"


    Eliza took a slow breath. Part of her training included adapting to strange situations quickly. Her mind was racing now, trying to piece together everything she knew of kobolds into a coherent picture, but them being openly trading in a city didn''t fit any of that lore. With a nod of finality, she pushed all her assumptions aside and started over. "I think I said before, I''m Liz. Nothing odd about me, though, just an elf who loves to turn hard miles into gold."


    "We turn hard work into gold, and are pleased to share that gold with those who are willing to travel for us. You can stay here for free, if you trade with us. Alternatively, you could stay in the dungeon itself or collect meals there. We actually pay you for either of those."


    Struggling to keep abreast of the conversation, Eliza took a slow breath. "Can we start over from the bit where you want to pay me gold?" She put on her most hopeful smile¡ªthe kind any merchant would wear when discussing payment. "A room for a night would be good. The city lets a dungeon move itself inside the city''s walls?"


    "Two, actually. And we didn''t so much move as we had to open a second entrance before we got boxed-in by the northerner army. They sealed up our forest entrance just after we''d opened one within Northridge."


    This was going to take some time for Eliza to work her head around. What they described almost sounded malicious. "Why would you pay people to eat food in a dungeon if the dungeon was giving them the food?" He smiled, showing more fangs than Eliza was comfortable with¡ªeven if Steph was short of three feet tall. "Sorry if I sound like I don''t believe you or don''t trust you. This isn''t a common situation."


    "We''re aware of that. How about I make one part of all this more bearable. I have the gold inside. You can either take it in bars or in local coins, with a ten percent bonus. The money changers in Far Reach have a deal with us, they mint our gold into coins there and apply a legal stamp to it. We''d do that ourselves but, as you know, we haven''t been able to import any new talent for over a month." When he twitched his head to the side, Steph paused a moment and nodded, then turned back to look at Eliza. "You''ll have to accept my apology. My assistant, Millie, will arrange your pay and offloading of the cloth."


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 Chapter 115

    Eliza Sussaridge was counting the gold coins. They were rough-cast without a stamp on them except for a crude picture of a dragon, but when she put them on scales with one of her own coins, they weighed the same. For a moment she wondered about forsaking her mission and instead becoming her cover.


    When Steph walked in accompanied by another kobold (this one taller and in armor) Eliza''s focus got split. Behind the pair walked two young women (a human and a fox kin) that seemed adorned with guns. The eleven thousand gold Eliza was counting suddenly seemed like pocket change as she eyed the weapons¡ªtwo of them were obviously mithril and, even though she''d never dealt with it before, she could judge that the dull metal one that the fox kin hefted with some sign of weight was adamantine.


    If Eliza could have cursed, she would have. No one except a noble with more gold than sense had weapons made of such exotic materials. She instead kept a straight face as she counted the coins.


    "Sooo," the armored kobold said, "Brolly said you two were the best for this thing, so let''s talk. He''s fine lending us a whole squad to go with you two as escorts. You''ll all get as many talismans as you can carry, and you''ll be delivering this¡ª"


    Realizing that they''d stopped talking and were looking at her, Eliza cleared her throat. "Want me to count this somewhere else?"


    Steph shook his head. "You''re okay to keep counting there. We''ll move. Fife, ladies?" He stood up and gestured to an office built into one corner of the large, open warehouse.


    "I''m not a lady?" the kobold, apparently named Fife, asked as she stood.


    Banter aside, Eliza was well aware that the two women with all the guns seemed to take note of her appearance. They didn''t simply look, either, they paid the kind of attention that those in Eliza''s profession didn''t like. Not wishing to break her cover, she returned to what the merchant she appeared to be would do¡ªshe counted gold.


    <hr>


    In the room she''d been assigned, Eliza had slept through the night with her bag of gold, several daggers, and numerous talismans on the harness she wore under her sleeping gown. Suspecting there might be some kind of attack, she was pleasantly surprised to wake and find everything exactly as she''d left it. Even the telltales she''d placed on the door, magical and non-magical, were still intact.


    Resolving to find herself a tavern that had a bath, Eliza got dressed in some clothes that weren''t road-stained and started carefully equipping her tools of the trade again. Daggers, picks, slipping tools, a hidden set of vials containing useful chemicals, and a small stack of papers she could use to accomplish various deeds legally.


    The last was an assortment of coins, each woven into a belt that could be wrapped around her waist to hide them and still make them easy to retrieve. Even if Steph had implied it was easy to get gold in Northridge, she hadn''t found a city yet that had someone important who wouldn''t like more.


    Not for the first time did she question her job, her mission, and her motives. She took advantage of the corrupt, she pushed them out of control, and she ensured those who knew how to lead were in charge when all the dust had settled. Her work was dirty because she had to deal with the dirt. "Okay. Time to face the dirty."


    She left the kobold trading house. Left them with her wagon and all its dirty secrets. She needed to find and make contacts, and the easiest contacts to make were those she knew the price of. It was a short walk to the trading square and all the gold-hungry folks that dwelt there.


    Of all the merchants, she found one who was packing up his stall. She approached. "Can I help with anything?"


    The young man looked up from where he was packing cases of weapons away. "If you want to buy my place in the market, you''ll have to ask the councilor."


    "You''re leaving? I''m Liz, by the way." Helping despite his lack of answer on the subject, she started sealing up the cases with practiced efficiency. She was surprised to see most of them full of new guns. "There''s a gunsmith in town?" This tickled her memory, and brought to mind that every single guard she''d seen in this young town had been equipped with one or two guns. That was something odd that she was prepared to kick herself for not realizing at the time.


    "I''m leaving for now. John," the man said, thrusting a hand out to Eliza and shaking hers. "I''ll be coming back once I''ve sold this lot and hired the people I need to. This city is going places, and mark my word they need strong arms to help it get there."


    "You really think a small city like this can grow fast?" Sometimes information and opinion cost something other than gold. Eliza was fine paying for the merchant''s time with her own labor.


    "I''ll tell you one thing: It''s not the goods that I''m moving that will make me the most gold from this run¡ªit''s working for the dungeons."


    Eliza kept working for a moment, nodding¡ªthen froze as the plurality sank in. "Dungeons?"


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    "Yeah. I thought the verdant one was just for farming, but it seems like its boss has figured out some things from Travis. Breath of Spring is her name, and she is paying me an unbelievable amount for seed-stock." John laughed and shook his head. "I normally trade in weapons, but I''m happy to fill my wagons with grain and cram in crafter folk where there''s room on the way back, if they''re willing to sell me weapons to trade."


    Having to bully herself into simply absorbing the information and moving on, Eliza nodded. "I sold some cloth to Steph. He''s from this Travis dungeon?"


    "Travis, yeah. He''s nice enough. You can''t talk to him directly, but with one of his kobolds to speak for him, it all works out fine. The other dungeon is another matter. Rumors are it''s not as awake as Travis or even Northridge, but its boss is learning from Steph, and that makes her scary-smart."


    "How many dungeons are in this city?" The question slipped out in a rush. Eliza blinked in surprise at having asked it, but John seemed to take it with a laugh. "Sorry. I''m trying to make sense of this place. The road gets a bit dusty, and finding somewhere more permanent might be a good plan."


    "It''s okay. You''re helping me out here, and it''s nice to have someone to talk to. There are two dungeons in the city, Travis and the verdant one. Both are safe to explore on the first level, though you should ask someone inside for assistance. Travis has an exit somewhere in the southern forest, while the verdant has an exit to its original location, a fort to the south-east. A quick warning, don''t annoy either of them. Offer to do business, sure, but gaining their ire will make you a target of Northridge itself."


    "How old is the city? I didn''t think it would have quickened by now."


    "Northridge is full of surprises. When the northerners attacked and breached the city walls, we hid in the dungeons until all of them were cleared out, then Northridge repaired its walls with magic. So, yeah, it''s quickened, and we''re all glad it is."


    Stopping herself from expressing the shock she felt, Eliza shrugged. "I guess this place really is moving up fast. I still have some things to sell, so I might see about renting your stall here."


    "Go ahead, but if you ask me, the real money is coming out of the dungeons. Find work you can do for them, and you''ll go a long way." John hefted the last crate onto his wagon and nodded. "That''s that done. I''ll probably be back in a few weeks."


    The truth behind that was a problem for Eliza. She had to discern if the dungeons, the city itself, or the councilors were in charge of things. If it was the first, she''d have to prioritize and build an entirely new attack system to accomplish her ends. "I''ll keep a seat warm for you."


    With her source of information depleted (and vacated), Eliza decided to make a move on the council first. It wasn''t far back to the central hub of the city, and as she approached the front door she saw the juggernaut of dull metal leaving. A dungeon monster, for sure, though Eliza was unable to figure out what kind. The armor, sword and shield, and several guns on their person (all holstered and sheathed) were the best indication that she didn''t want to get involved with them.


    She gave the monster time to leave before she walked up to the front door and knocked. After a few moments an older man answered the door. "I''m here to see Councilor Sellswell."


    "Ah. Of course you are. Do you have an appointment? Do come in." The man gave Eliza room to enter and she found herself in a large entry hall that had goods stacked around the walls: sacks of produce, crates, and weapons all featured among the stock. "Have a seat. Would you like a drink?"


    It wasn''t too uncommon for a city council to have a retainer, even for a city this small. Eliza was just about to reply that she would like something when Christine Sellswell walked into the room and looked around.


    "Ah, the new merchant who sold to Steph? Sorry, Howard, but she already sold all the high-grade cloth she''d brought in."


    "Blast," Howard said. "I''ve sent word to Far Reach that we''ll buy any cloth they can ship, but I believe Liz here and her caravan left before the message arrived."


    Eliza realized she''d been played by the old man. He wasn''t a retainer at all. "I can assure you that if I''d heard such a missive, there wouldn''t have been space for anything but myself on my wagon."


    Howard gave her a big, fatherly smile. "I''m very glad to hear that. Now, what can we do for you?"


    They weren''t going to make this easy for her. Singling out a leader and isolating them was her normal go-to. "Firstly, I''d like to rent a stall in the market. Despite the generosity of Steph and his sponsor, I still have things to sell."


    "Ah yes, Travis has had his feelers out to buy plenty of products, but he needs specific things. Fine tools aren''t exactly what he needs. I wouldn''t bother bringing weapons into Northridge¡ªunless you have a cannon." Christine put enough emphasis on the last words that it piqued Eliza''s interest.


    "A cannon? How much is he¡ª?"


    "Go and ask him. I think he has a bounty on the first to be brought here," Howard said.


    She''d been cornered and Eliza knew it. "I guess I will. How much will the stall cost me?"


    Christine didn''t need to look up her paperwork, she answered as though this were common business, which Eliza figured it was. "Standard fee is twelve percent of sales. You can have John Cartman''s stall."


    "How would I arrange a meeting with Travis?"


    The resulting walk across the city gave Eliza time to collect her thoughts and sort through the information she''d already gained. There were two dungeons, one less active than the other, but both capable of being a significant part of the city. The city itself was quickened and, more, seemed to be cozy with the dungeons.


    It was all a side issue, and one for someone who came after her to ultimately solve. All Eliza had to do was figure out where the holes were in the council''s grip and drive spikes into them. There were three members, the paperwork the city had lodged told her that much, but the identity of the third, Brolly Windchime, was a mystery. If she had to guess, she would call it the leader of the city guard. That was always the harder nut to crack. No, she would sympathize with the merchant, Christine Sellswell, and remove Brolly and Howard from the equation.


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 Chapter 116

    It wasn''t hard to find the dungeons. The tallest building in the whole city was a tower belonging to Travis¡ªthat was also the entrance. Eliza walked toward it, trying to ignore the second dungeon entrance nearby as she focused on the dungeon that should hold only death to someone lacking extensive combat skills.


    She advanced on the doors, which stood open, only to see someone walking out with a bowl of stew and a spoon in it. They weren''t an adventurer, nor even a merchant or guard. "Is this the dungeon?" Eliza asked them.


    "Huh? Oh, you must be new in town. Yeah, this is Travis. Head on in and have some breakfast. The stew''s good!"


    The glowing recommendation aside, Eliza was still nervous¡ªhaving never been in a dungeon before. She walked to the doorway and stepped inside. A shiver ran down her back. An old part of her, pure instinct passed down by generations, told her this was a bad place to be. She almost ran¡ªalmost turned and left and kept going until she found her contact in Far Reach and told them to stick their job where it would fit.


    "Excuse me. Travis told me to invite you to come and talk. You''re one of the new merchants in town?"


    The asker, just like Steph had been, was a kobold. The top of their head was about waist height to her, and they wore a skirt and a shirt.


    "Y-Yes. I¡ª The dungeon invites me in?"


    "Travis did, yes. Please, come to our tavern, and we can discuss things. My name is Celeste, but please, just call me Cele." Celeste headed to the right, and led the way into what was unmistakably a tavern.


    Taking careful note of the directions required to escape, Eliza had followed and was surprised by how cozy the tavern looked. There was still the slight feeling of being in a dungeon, but the atmosphere in the tavern was that of warmth and coziness. There were city guards sitting at one table, shooting dice with a dryad who seemed excited about losing. At another table was a young man and a woman, both with a bowl of food before them, actively discussing metallurgy.


    Led to a table, she sat down opposite the kobold. "Two councilors suggested I come and talk about a bounty. You require a cannon?"


    It took a moment for Celeste''s face to visibly change from curiosity to excitement, or so it seemed to Eliza. She felt she was starting to pick up on the facial features of kobolds¡ªwhich was a skill she had never thought would be a requirement of her profession.


    "Travis asks, in this order, ''Do you have a cannon? How much will you take for it?'' Between us girls, I think he wants bigger toys, is all. Given the recent neighbors, though, it''s understandable." Celeste gave Eliza a wink.


    "I don''t make a habit of hauling around artillery pieces, no. I can provide you a time-frame and a cost, however. If I can send word out to Far Reach, I can have one of my associates there order a cannon and, when I go to pick up my next round of goods there, I could bring it back with me." And here Eliza thought she''d have trouble finding what a dungeon would want that would ingratiate herself with it.


    Celeste tilted her head to the side and nodded. "Travis says he wants to know how long it will take and how much it will cost you?"


    "I don''t normally trade in cannons, sorry. If you''re willing to compensate me for my time, effort, and the cost, that will be all I require." Of course it wouldn''t. Eliza was perfectly happy to spend some funds on a no-profit deal if the reward was a favor.


    Laughing, Celeste replied, "Travis said that if he didn''t reward you above what is the bare minimum, it would make him look like a miser and upset several women whose opinion of him he values. Bring him a cannon, he says, and he will make you rich. Before we go further, would you like something to eat or drink?"


    "I''ll take some porridge, if you don''t mind?" Eliza was not above taking advantage of a new mark if they were willing to pay for her food.


    It said something about how person-like the dungeon''s residents were that Eliza had become so comfortable in such a short amount of time. It was easy to ignore the rows of sharp teeth, claws, and talons when they could joke and converse so glibly. When Celeste returned a moment later with a bowl of stew and a large mug of small beer, Eliza took them gratefully. "Thank you."


    "You''re welcome! It''s a relief, you know, to be able to work my old job again. After all these years, I thought bustling around and sharing stories with travelers was in my past. Travis warned us all that this might be something we can never escape, but as alternatives go, I welcome it." Celeste paused for a moment, laughed, and nodded. "Travis thinks I''m being silly. Having more of us around means he isn''t lonely, either. Brave young men shouldn''t be allowed to get lonely."


    Pausing in spooning up the delicious meat porridge, Eliza couldn''t stop herself from asking, "Isn''t Travis a young dungeon, though?"


    "Oh, he''s a young dungeon, but I''m no spring chicken. I''d come out to Northridge on the power of a lifetime spent scraping and saving coins. It was odd, but I had this desire to be among a young city when the time came for me. I didn''t expect a dungeon to offer me more time." When Eliza had frozen, Celeste seemed to notice. "Guess no one told you about that, huh? All the kobolds here are former people. Pen too, when you see her."


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    One thing after another seemed to shatter Eliza''s worldview when it came to this dungeon. "You were¡ª?"


    "Human. I was sitting around, counting my days left, when word spread around Northridge that Travis was offering an alternative to slowly sputtering out. We didn''t know it was for sure a forever thing, back then, but he suspected it was. And, if it is"¡ªCeleste smirked and even giggled¡ª"I won''t be complaining."


    With a fragile voice, Eliza asked, "How old are you?"


    "Sixty-four years young. Yesterday I spent an hour digging with a pickaxe. A year ago, I could barely walk without a pain in my left hip. If I spend my days now laughing happily in a body that doesn''t age¡ªI can hardly begrudge a little work for this fine young man now, can I?"


    "Fine young¡­ Travis, the dungeon?"


    "Of course. He gets a little worked up from time to time, but that''s to be expected. He''s young, I''d judge in his early twenties¡ª Travis, you stop butting in." Celeste paused for a moment, then laughed. "You''ll never order me to stop, and I won''t tell her anything that isn''t common knowledge anyway. Relax. Now, where was I? Oh, early twenties, caring, and if I''d found him when he wasn''t a dungeon, I''d have gotten him to a temple so fast your eyes would spin in their sockets. And, before you stop sputtering in my head, I wouldn''t overstep that nice young dragon''s claim."


    The information absurdity and density was becoming a problem that Eliza needed time to deal with. She compartmentalized aside the mental process of understanding the conversation and, in the front of her mind, focused on taking it all as accepted and moving forward. "That sounds perfectly reasonable. I regret nothing so much as not having found myself a man who is as willing to spend weeks of travel in dangerous lands as much as myself."


    "Go and get him his new toy, and he''ll uproot himself to wander around in a wagon beside you if you''re not careful!" The idea of it, and whatever Celeste heard from Travis made the woman break out into laughter while Eliza focused on eating her food. "Mark my words, though, he''ll reward you for your time spent getting it."


    Pausing, almost done with the bowl, Eliza took a swig from the small beer. "I''ll send word right away, then. I''ll allow a week to move the rest of my goods, and by the time I reach Far Reach, they should have a cannon there waiting for me. Were there any other small goods I could transport? Outgoing or incoming?"


    Nodding her head, Celeste sighed. "Apparently we have an exclusive weapon contract with a merchant already¡ªfor selling¡ªbut he wasn''t interested in armor. Travis says he could have our blacksmith work on some¡ªthough it wouldn''t be fitted."


    Movement from the corner of Eliza''s eye caught her attention as the young man who''d been talking with a woman approached. "Hey, uh, Travis said you wanted stuff to sell?"


    "Uh, yes. Do you make goods?" What confused Eliza was how the young man knew to come over. She pondered hand signals from Celeste, or even some kind of magic spell.


    "I''m the metalsmith for Travis. I can make swords, shields, and armor, as well as more common things. Oh, Travis is telling me I can''t make weapons for you."


    "Yes, I heard that." Eliza''s mind raced while she spoke, trying to come up with something she could sell that the young man could make. "My name''s Liz. What metals do you have to work with here?"


    "Iron, steel, mithril, and adamantine. Hey, there''s an idea. Do you think you could turn a profit on adamantine tools? Forge hammers, files, leather knives¡ªthat kind of thing?" Turning, the man looked back at the woman he''d been talking with. "What do you think? Adamantine tools so they never wear out?"


    "You''re crazy, Axel. No one would pay for that!" the woman replied, shaking her head.


    "She''s right," Eliza said, "no one would pay for adamantine tools. But I am always interested in trading good steel."


    "Funny story about that," the young man Eliza now knew as Axel said, "steel is about to become in high demand. Not as high as adamantine, but there will be some smiths that will soon wish they had an adamantine hammer."


    Information was something Eliza was always prepared to get for free, if she could. "Oh?"


    "Travis wants to make Northridge grow faster, and he says that the key to doing that is trade. He wants to build a railway." Axel sat down at the table. "So we''re going to be using a lot of steel for tracks."


    It was an auspicious example of how fast Northridge was growing. Eliza knew that her work here was more important than ever, now. "Why don''t you just pay for someone else to make it all? You seem to have plenty of gold."


    "Travis says it''s because he wants it done faster. We have the city council organizing the construction of stations and the train, but it will be up to us to provide steel for the rails. We''re going to need more smiths to make them, and that''s where the gold will be going." Celeste shook her head and looked down, vaguely. "Travis, if you''re going to talk all technical like this, why not have the lad do it?"


    Axel laughed. "Drop off a list of what you want made and how much you''re willing to pay for it. We''ll figure something out. Oh, Travis says you can buy things using the cannon''s bounty as a mark, or something. I don''t understand that sort of¡ª Oh. So we take the cost of anything she gets now out of the bounty? What happens if she just runs off?"


    "I wouldn''t get to trade here ever again, and listening to how high you''re aiming with this city, I think that would be the stupidest thing I could ever do." Standing up, Eliza needed to get out of the dungeon and think. There was so much she''d locked away so she could keep functioning that she wondered if she would be able to get any work done for the rest of the day. "You''ll excuse me, I''ll have to go think of what I could sell down south. I also need to empty my wagon."


    "No sweat. I''ve mostly been working on projects here and there. We need a lot more adamantine armor made, and even when I''m done with that, I am sure there will be more work for me. It''s almost like a dungeon never gets quiet." Axel nodded to Eliza and Celeste and headed back to the table where the other woman had been waiting for him.


    "He''s a good boy, our Axel. He has a good eye for girls, too." Celeste laughed and then paused. "Oh, here''s your payment."


    Catching a flicker of gold out of the air, Eliza looked at it. It was a gold coin, of the type the dungeon traded. "Payment? What for?"


    "For breakfast." Winking, Celeste scooped up the bowl, spoon, and empty mug. "Fair trails, merchant."


    "Fair trails." The words were automatic and practiced. Eliza said them so many times to other merchants that it didn''t strike her as odd that Celeste had said them until she was halfway back to her temporary lodgings.


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 Chapter 117

    Anichka looked at the table. She had no clue how deep under the city she was, nor did she particularly care given the welcome and the offer. "All of them?"


    "All of ''em. I did everything I could to make them as light as possible so you could carry more. Why bother with swords and shields when you can pack ten pistols?" Tinpot picked up the first of the special guns in his claws. "See, I thought that the handle was too much weight being wood, so I replaced that with more mithril, but even so, it accounts for a quarter of the weight. Trav showed me how to hollow it out with a stretched square pattern, and that helps, but I thought to myself, Tim, why don''t you put another barrel on there?"


    Picking up a second of the twin barreled pistols, Tammy couldn''t help but feel these kinds of weapons wouldn''t be fair for anyone to be on the wrong end of. "They are very light for how much death they could deal." She looked over at Anichka and drew back her lips for a feral grin. "Did you try making the other idea?"


    "It''s ludicrous." Walking to the end of the table, Tinpot lifted the two final pieces free of their leather holster. "They are heavy, and ugly, and are going to ruin someone''s¡ªwell, a lot of people''s day. Filled with more shot and powder than any other pistol we''ve made, these should work exactly how you asked."


    "They''re still lighter than I feared they might have been. You should try carrying Annie''s rifles." Setting the shot-pistol down, Tammy started lifting up the leather holster and fitting it around her waist. The heavy buckle, she knew, would need to be tight for it to not shift too much.


    "Trav also had us work on some leather dusters for you both to hide at least some of all this."


    Reaching for one of the two leather vests, Anichka lifted it up and over her head, settled it into place, and started stocking it with pistols. "Three million gold. I guess it needs to be guarded, but this might be overkill."


    "Would you trade the gold for anything?" Tammy was pulling on her own vest and reaching for pistols.


    "Let me think. I have you, I have a friend who gives me guns, and I have a city full of people I trust. Nope." Each of the pistols needed to be tied to a string that was attached to the vest. Anichka adjusted the strings of woven leather so they were just long enough that she could hold the pistols with her arm fully extended and, when she let each go, they fell to hang around her thighs. "It''s another job."


    "You''re doing better than I would. A million gold is enough to live like a noble for the rest of your life." Tinpot laughed and held out one of the dusters to Anichka. "Three? Three buys you both that and lets you be wasteful with it."


    Gesturing to her chest, Tammy talked over Anichka''s laughing. "Gold doesn''t buy this and gold doesn''t buy a city that accepts you for who you are. We''ve been looking for a while, and Northridge is for us."


    "And now we have to leave it. But we''ll be back." Anichka tugged the big duster coat around her shoulders and let it drape closed at the front. The leather was slightly stiffer there, hiding the bulges of the guns under it. "We can''t afford to bump into anyone."


    "If they''re that close, and we don''t trust them¡ª" Tammy patted the belt she had the two shot-pistols in.


    <hr>


    Four wagons, each riding so low on their sprung axles that it was obvious the huge things were filled to the brim with something heavy. Each had four big horses yoked to them. There were two more wagons. The one at the front held a squad of Northridge soldiers, each having become a better-than-normal shot with their rifles. The one at the back only had one elf in it, and she was nervous.


    Riding horses hadn''t been something Tammy had ever found enjoyment in, but here and now she was given little choice. She looked over at Anichka and nodded. "You ready?"


    "Yeah. What do we really know about that merchant at the rear?" Having a last minute addition was a little unsettling given their circumstances, and led to Anichka being on edge.


    "Merchant. Rolled in about a week back with goods to sell. Trav purchased most of it. She''s getting him a cannon."


    "Really? We could have¡ª" Anichka snapped her mouth closed as the wagons rolled forward and the merchant in question drew even with them. "Don''t worry, ma''am. Nothing is stupid enough to mess with us."


    Eliza was about to reply with something pithy and relaxed, when a shadow passed them. She didn''t need to look up, but did anyway, and tried to pin down the fear before it showed on her face¡ªnot that it worked.


    "You''ll get used to Penelope," Anichka said. "Nicest dragon I''ve ever met." Clucking her tongue, she urged her horse to keep pace with Eliza''s wagon.


    "How many dragons have you met?" Eliza asked, the fear on her face tempered by morbid curiosity.


    Laughing, Anichka gave her horse''s neck a rub. "Just one!"


    When she caught up to Anichka, Tammy reached out a hand so they could make physical contact. "You''re being rough on her. She''s just a merchant."


    "She''s also an outsider. I trust everyone in that city, who fought and bled and died with us. I trust the dungeons and everyone living in them. But, she''s not part of Northridge." The feel of Tammy''s hand in hers made Anichka smile, though. "It feels weird. I''d trust a beggar from Northridge more than I''d trust the King''s Guard."


    "That''s nothing new. No one but the king trusts those assholes." Tammy winked at Anichka. "Come on, Annie, she''s only a merchant. There''s nothing dangerous about her."


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    "I''ll trust her to want every coin in our wagons. That''s literally her life''s calling, Tam." Tilting her head up, Anichka watched as Penelope swooped overhead again. Her confidence in Penelope was mostly real, but something about having a dragon overhead¡ªa creature that was a predator of kin like her¡ªmade her want to find a cave somewhere and hide until she was gone. It made her statement about trusting everyone in the dungeon feel like a lie, but she still did. "Can we keep an eye on her anyway?"


    "We don''t need to, remember? Our job is to keep an eye out for highwaymen." Tammy rolled her shoulders and nodded forward. "We have about a month of travel ahead of us, regardless."


    <hr>


    Each morning, Eliza would wake from her own sleeping spot amid the tools in her wagon, walk up to where the soldiers were camped, and she''d share a meal and describe the roads ahead. She''d kept notes, of course, of the road. It always worked out well to know how to leave a town the fastest, and even if it wasn''t as quick as riding a talisman, it was far less obvious. The big wagons that the dungeon had commissioned continued onward and she was right behind them.


    It wasn''t a huge leap for her to figure there was something heavy in them. They''d loaded each wagon out of sight of anyone she could bribe or beg. It was obvious what they''d be hauling. She wanted a look inside to be sure, of course, but four huge wagons full of adamantine were practically a king''s ransom.


    It took eleven days for them to cover the distance between Northridge and Far Reach. Once in the city, Eliza parted ways with the caravan and headed for an old warehouse that was used by her cover organization. The moment she was inside the large doors and her eyes had adjusted, she began speaking¡ªa full report. She didn''t know the person taking it down, but when they started hesitating at some of the wilder facts, she glared at them until they resumed writing. "And, where is my cannon?"


    "It''s probably at least a week out. The railway line is damaged, and they''re hauling it here behind a cart."


    <hr>


    The news made its way to Tammy and Anichka a little later, once they arrived at the railway station in the city. "That will add over a week to this. Do we wait here for the railway to start running, or push on?" Tammy asked.


    "We push on. There''s nowhere to store this safely in the city, and if word gets out there are four heavy wagons sitting somewhere, prying eyes and grasping hands will come to investigate." Anichka hated the decision, but she''d been given strict instructions to keep the wagons moving. "Come on, let''s get rolling."


    With a quarter of the day remaining to them, they pushed out the south gate of Far Reach and headed deeper into the kingdom.


    "At least the road''s better," one of the cart drivers muttered around the campfire that evening. There was no more light but what their fire was putting out, but fully half the guards were seated around it eating the stew that''d been made.


    "Tam?"


    "Yeah, Annie?"


    "Let''s sleep on top of a wagon tonight." Anichka had been getting a strange feeling ever since leaving Far Reach. "I keep¡ª"


    "Feeling you''re being watched?" The asker was the sergeant of the guard squad, Thomas Brave. "Got it too. I''m going to double the watch tonight. Holler if you hear anything."


    It was hard to sleep, when Tammy and Anichka finally got comfortable on the flat, box roof of what was usually the second big wagon of their caravan. What was worse was waking up, with the moon overhead, to the sound of movement near the next wagon back.


    Tammy raised a digit to her mouth and woke Anichka with one hand over her partner''s mouth. They made eye-contact briefly, then each nodded. They were soon crawling slowly to the back of the wagon, each having opened up the front of their dusters, when a shout went up.


    "Who goes there?!" one of the guards called.


    The movement got louder, and the women shielded their eyes a moment as alchemical lights got tossed into the vicinity of the rear two wagons. There were ten men that Anichka could see, and she suspected more that she couldn''t. "Brigands!"


    Tammy was moving before Anichka shouted. Their rifles had been set beside them on the roof of the wagon, and she had the first checked and passed to Anichka in short order.


    Weeks of shooting from a high wall had let Anichka get used to her guns. Even more practice with the new mithril ones let her fire the first round of the engagement and account for one brigand. The shout of shock from the attackers made her lips curl into a smile. "Next."


    Taking the first rifle back, Tammy passed Anichka the second gun and she got to work priming the first one for her. "Use pistols until I''ve got this one ready."


    Nodding, Anichka had a target-rich arc of fire. One of the brigands, who was shouting commands to the others to charge at the guards, fell to her next shot, just as the guards themselves started adding their own rifle shots.


    When Tammy didn''t have her third shot ready, Anichka drew a pistol from her vest, aimed, and fired first one shot, then squeezed the trigger a second time to fire another. "I like these. You ready, Tam?"


    Tammy had barely finished loading the gun and passed it over. "How was the aim?"


    "The pistol? Good, but there''s some drop at this range." Anichka lifted the reloaded rifle to her shoulder, aimed down the sights and steadied her breathing, then fired again and passed it back. She drew another pistol while Tammy worked to reload, lining up another brigand who was taking cover from the guards shooting, but had left themselves wide open to her high-angle.


    "Do they have guns at all?" Tammy asked.


    "If they did, they''re not using them." After the initial shots of the guards, they''d been mostly quiet. Anichka could assume they were reloading, and it was confirmed when shots other than her own started ringing out again.


    A roar split the night, and then screams. Brigands started running in all directions, and Anichka was covering them to see if they might rally.


    When a huge quadrupedal wolf stepped out from behind the wagon, its mouth dripping with gore and its big tail wagging, it was such a relief to Thomas. He was already thankful for Tammy and Anichka having the foresight to get some high ground, but when the idiots had opened a wagon and freed one of Travis'' wolves, it had been a whole other problem for the attackers.


    The commander of the guards looked around at the scene and let out a sigh of relief. "Okay, half of you, with me. The rest keep watch and try to not shoot us."


    Tammy reloaded both the rifles and set them down beside Anichka, watching as her partner cleaned and reloaded her pistols. "The wolves were a good idea."


    "And the lights. Lit them up nicely for me." Anichka waited for the all-clear, for the wolf to be loaded back in the wagon (after many pats from the guards), and for her own nerves to calm. "Nice work waking me, Tam."


    Yawning, reaching for the covers, Tammy curled herself back up beside Anichka. "Mmm. I never thought I''d still be this sharp. After the constant shooting back in the siege, I got used to constant noise." When she poked her nose under the covers, Anichka was already asleep.


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 Chapter 118

    Looking at the dungeon entrance, Fife felt like screaming a war cry and charging in. She held back that urge with the weight of experience she had in surviving by not acting like a lunatic. "So, just a reminder, this isn''t going to be some kind of bug hunt like you''re used to. You stay behind me and¡ªif something comes up behind us¡ªthat''s your number-one target for offense. If you keep me standing, I will stop anything from hitting you. Oh, and enemy spell-casters are second priority.


    "Luddy, you know your deal. Assist me, swap and distract anything that comes up from behind. Huntress, are you feeling up to this?"


    "Are you sure my bow will be useful?" Fiddling with her weapon for what she knew was at least the hundredth time, Huntress'' confidence in herself was as low as her suitability for the party. "I haven''t exactly done anything like this before."


    "You''ll be fine. You''re a dungeon floor boss, so you will appear in your home if anything goes wrong and, after the beat-down Pen gave this dungeon, it isn''t going to be too much trouble to deal with. So long as Felna and Nathanial are quick on the cures, we''ll not have to worry about our backup plan." Fife looked at Ludmiller and got a return nod from her.


    Not knowing the common terms, Huntress asked, "What''s the backup plan?"


    Adjusting the anti-rot mask Felna had made for her to wear, Ludmiller pondered how she hadn''t had to perform the duty many times, but took on the task of explaining what failure would look like. "That''s where I make sure everyone''s talismans trigger properly, so no one gets trapped in the dungeon by making it a clean kill. Fife, though, will be a problem. You''re not easy to hurt."


    "You''ve got that venom, right? Just keep hitting me with that until it works."


    "That wouldn''t be a clean kill, Fife. The venom works fast, but¡ª"


    "Luddy, if you leave me alive in this place, I''m going to haunt you." Fife let out a laugh. "Anyone else got any questions?" When the rest of the group, Nathaniel, Felna, Ogmera, Stratus, and Tom all shook their heads, Fife turned and put her helmet on, drew her sword, and gave her shield a thump with the blade to make sure everything was tight and fitted.


    "Have you ever seen her put her helmet on?" Ogmera asked, walking behind Fife.


    Felna shook her head no. "First I''ve seen her use it. But I didn''t see the fights between her and the northerner women."


    Nathaniel shrugged. "Then let''s get serious. Og, you''ve got resists, I''ll take the first stint healing. Felna, feed us all mana and we''ll get through this."


    There were guards at the dungeon entrance, and the moment they saw Fife approaching, they rushed inside. She looked around for anything that might come up behind them and bottle them up, but there was nothing around. "Okay, come on."


    As she followed the group, Huntress couldn''t keep from twitching. They''d traveled for the better part of a day and she still wasn''t used to the barding that covered her equine body. Despite the work Fife had done with her to buffer parts of it with cloth to quieten it down, each shift of her legs made a soft sound that was slowly driving her insane¡ªor so it felt to her.


    It took a moment for Fife''s eyes to adjust to the dim interior. Part of her mind took note to get her shield enchanted to produce light on its front. Before the lighting could become an issue, two mana lights flared behind her. "Right. Fire mages. Now I''m remembering why I like you guys. Jack''s light is always so pale and small. Make sure to tell him tha¡ª"


    Huntress, with her height, could see over Fife easily and spotted the two orcs approaching. Drawing her bow back, she nocked an arrow and fired at the first. She hadn''t aimed specifically for the creature''s face, but her practice with the bow (along with the ingrained skill from it being her weapon) had led to her hitting what she looked at.


    The serrated tip of the adamantine arrowhead¡ªmeant to dig in, stay in, and leave as much damage as possible if removed¡ªburied itself far into the orc''s head. It cut through bone like it was paper and sunk far in. The goblinoid screamed, reached up, grabbed the arrow shaft, and yanked. A fountain of blood shot out of the wound and the orc wobbled a moment, then fell to the ground.


    Wincing a little at the now slumped-on-the-ground orc, Fife stepped forward to engage the remaining one. It was butchery. She knocked its shield and cleaver aside with her shield, checked its movement with her shoulder, and dug her sword into its gut¡ªand drove the weapon upward.


    The orc barely got a sound out before she''d gotten her weapon through whatever it used for breathing. It managed another weak swing that she checked on her shield before it too fell to the floor. "I guess it''s starting with the weaker stuff. Fine by me, and they didn''t seem to have any¡ª" She cut off as both corpses started to burn. Looking back, she saw Stratus smiling.


    "They might not look like they''re diseased, but they are. Better to burn them and clear the air than let their shaman turn them into fungal factories." Stratus had been working with Katelyn on narrowing his focus from its usual wide area. So far, he''d managed to get things down to a fifteen foot diameter¡ªwhich he was proud of.


    Left staring at the burning corpses, Huntress was surprised at how effective her arrow had been. "Why did it pull it out?"


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    "Orcs aren''t known for their smarts. That was an adamantine one, right?"


    "Yeah. Axel made me a few hundred of them."


    "Cool. He''s nice like that. Well, if I had to guess, you hit something inside it that was important and it wanted whatever that was doing to stop. Very straight-forward thinkers, orcs." Wiping her sword off on one of the burning bodies, Fife made sure the blade got a good bit of flame on it before she stepped past. "This isn''t getting us any floors cleared, though."


    Clearing his throat, Stratus said, "Make sure to pause after everything''s dead, so we can ensure they''re all burned."


    "Can you tell I don''t normally deal with rot dungeons?" Fife asked, stepping around the orcs as she advanced down the tunnel. Unlike Travis, these were twisting and winding and rough stone. "Uh, Luddy?"


    From just in front of Fife, Ludmiller replied, "It''s clear for two more turns. I can''t find any traps. Maybe it''s trying to focus on living defenses?"


    "The opposite of your build strategy." Felna was enjoying being back in a hostile dungeon, even if it was one that she could still feel the hate of despite having bonded completely to Travis. "Though, you had living defenses despite being trap-focused, so don''t ignore the possibility this place has traps despite being monster focused."


    Fife groaned. "Is she always like this in dungeons? We could go somewhere else, you know. That old undead dungeon would be awesomely spooky now."


    "She''s only trying to be the party''s mom when Og isn''t talking." Nathaniel was relieved that Fife knew what her job was and, at the same time, was willing to listen to their suggestions without making it an issue. "Ludmiller, you''re going to find the stairs for us?"


    "Yeah. Also, call me Luddy." Making her way deeper into the dungeon, Ludmiller turned this way and that looking for monsters heading toward her party so she could trace their origin back to the way down.


    Fife, meanwhile, was truly living her best life. While Ludmiller poked her head around every corner and looked for traps and a way down, Fife sliced, bashed, and got in the face of every orc and goblin that got before her. Then, at the end of a long, winding tunnel, she spotted something new. "This is a black orc. Tougher, smarter, and with at least ten times the patience of a regular orc. It''s probably a floor boss here."


    Rather than stretch away from her support, Fife held her ground and let the boss come toward her. Her grin, hidden by the helmet she''d worn for this expedition, turned to a frown when the tips of Ludmiller''s glowing green daggers poked out from the orc''s throat. "Oh, dammit, Luddy. This was going to be a fun one!"


    Pulling her blades back out of the orc''s neck, Ludmiller used a scrap of the creature''s leather armor to wipe them clean. "The sooner we get past these higher floors, Fife, the sooner we get both our dungeons resources. Plus, you get to fight bigger things."


    It was an angle Fife hadn''t put any real thought into, but ultimately she sighed and nodded. "Sure, sure. Let''s keep pushing." Her hand went to her hip, instinctively, to check on her pistol¡ªthat wasn''t there. "Wish we could bring our guns in here. I bet I could have cleared all this just with a pistol."


    "Fife, we''ve all been through this. Trav got the ability to make guns by the hundred when one of us held a gun in there for the first time. The damn trolls would dogpile you to get it." Ludmiller poked her tongue out, which lacked impact because she was still partly invisible and had cloth pulled over her muzzle. "I''m heading down. The next floor''s stairs are at the end of this tunnel and to the right. This place should be worth a lot of stuff if it''s as deep as I think."


    "At least thirty floors." It was a surprise to even Felna that she''d spoken. The dungeon knew how deep it was, so she¡ªthrough her tenuous link with it still¡ªknew how deep it was. "It remembers me. I don''t think it likes Travis'' hold on me."


    "Didn''t it hate you already?" Ogmera asked.


    "Well, yes, but now it wants to kill me because I belong to something else. A thought I resent. Travis has been nauseatingly walking on eggshells when it comes to the possession thing. He refuses to give me a command." Despite herself, Felna smiled as she recalled the various memories of her barbing him about it.


    "You can talk to dungeons?" Huntress asked. When Felna nodded, another question came to her, "Have you ever encountered one that didn''t hate you?"


    "Yes. Quite a nice little dungeon, actually. His name is Travis, and he squirms when I play with him." Felna couldn''t stop herself from purring; just a little.


    Huntress, having spent enough time around Fife to learn how to shoot and figure out what is a joke and what isn''t, and despite understanding that Felna was making a joke, asked, "You made a dungeon squirm?"


    "It''s how she flirts." Ogmera smirked and winked at Felna. "She likes to find a guy who won''t run away from her, then she talks about uncomfortable things until they''re dazed, then she pounces. This is the first time she''s tried it on with a dungeon, though. Honestly speaking, Travis is a step up from her usual targets."


    Tom did his best not to laugh and replied, "If you ask me, Travis could do better."


    "A step up, I''ll add, given the last piece Felna chased squirmed too¡ªright into her coin purse. What was his name again? Filch?" Ogmera was struggling to finish before either breaking up laughing or Felna pouncing on her. The latter, she mused, was probably worse for her. She wound up dodging Felna while laughing.


    "If you''re all done, I think Fife is urging us to follow." Stratus gestured to where Fife was walking past the incinerated orc boss.


    "I didn''t expect Fife to be the responsible one," Huntress said as she moved with the group to catch up. The way down was a simple ramp, rather than the cut-stone straight stairs that were Travis'' preferred or the spiral staircases of her own home. Regardless, she felt inside that it was an accomplishment to make it this far already, and smiled at the little lecture Breath of Spring had given about the importance of tracing these paths: resources.


    The floors were not the vast open halls of her own home, nor were they the highly strategic, trap-filled nightmares of Travis'', but once they''d gone down four more they resolved into twisting halls filled with nothing but goblins and orcs.


    When they reached the end of that twisting, dank floor, she realized how lucky they were that Ludmiller led them in a more direct route to the next ramp. Trudging down, though, she realized it was going to be the norm from now on. "Please don''t tell Mixie I said this, but I hate goblins."


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 Chapter 119

    There wasn''t any further interruption of their journey, which left everyone on edge with no outlet. Anichka and Tammy huddled under an oiled cloth tarp on top of the second wagon, desperately keeping their powder dry while a light rain came down. The road had been packed well with gravel, keeping even their heavy wagons from sinking.


    "There''s the marker. We''ll see the walls of Hearthhome by sundown," a guard called out from the first wagon, and they kept rumbling ever onward.


    "Walls are only half our problem. We need to get this on a train and headed to the capital. You heard what Steph said¡ªwe can''t relax until we''ve handed this over to the King''s Guard." Her voice low, Anichka had one of her rifles in hand and was ready to start firing if she needed to.


    "Mmhmm. We might even save some gold on hauling, since we''re going to need less miles on the train." Checking over the two rifles in her care, Tammy tapped at the powder with a dry finger to see if it clumped. "Is it weird I don''t care about gold so much, Annie?"


    "This is all Travis'' fault, but I blame Fife too." Going quiet for a bit, listening to the wheels turn and the huge wolf in the wagon below her breathe, Anichka spotted movement behind them. She was already lifting the rifle when the horse-rider came fully into view. With the gun aimed to the side of the lone horseman, she watched them race past the wagons without the lone rider so much as glancing up at her. "It was easier back in Northridge. When you know every face, you know who isn''t a target."


    Tammy spent some time thinking about the problem as the sun crawled toward the horizon. "That''s changing already. New folk coming into town¡ªmerchants and more settlers. You heard what the boss lady said. There will be more jobs for us, but we''re going to need more skills. Fancy guns can only take us so far. There''s a line of wagons ahead¡ªat the city gate."


    "Tam, are you finally going to learn how to fire one of these?" Anichka asked, turning and looking back along her body (under the canvas) and seeing what Tammy was describing.


    "I can shoot a rifle as well as any of the other guards, but I know someone I can help out who shoots way better." Not taking her eyes off the queue of wagons as they pulled up to the rear of it, Tammy recalled that this city, Hearthhome, was a hub for multiple nearby settlements, and as such saw a lot of traffic. "We came through here, remember?"


    "Yeah, though not all of it. How much can you recall?"


    "You got so drunk one night you passed out, then I dragged you out of the city the next day. We didn''t stop until we got to Northridge."


    Stretching over with one hand, Anichka tickled the back of Tammy''s lower leg through her pants. "Skipping Far Reach was the best thing we ever did."


    "Plus they don''t like fox kin." Twitching her leg, Tammy didn''t bother trying to dissuade Anichka from her action. "Four wagons to go and then our first is up. Oh, three. They just let one in."


    Anichka managed barely a minute before letting out a whine. "I hate waiting around like this."


    "You spend ages lining up shots. How can this be any different?"


    "It''s boring waiting, Tam. Ah, was that another?"


    "Yeah¡ª Oh, those two must have been together. We should probably get down from here¡ªdon''t want those guards opening up one of these wagons and finding a friendly puppy." Slipping over the edge of the wagon''s roof, Tammy slipped herself down and held up her hands.


    One by one, Anichka passed the rifles down to Tammy, taking the time to fit the leather covers over the firing mechanisms. She slid down the wagon to land beside Tammy. "I forgot how much weight is strapped to me. Still, I''m not going to go anywhere without them."


    With their weapons stowed on their backs again they walked to the front of the line of heavy wagons and overheard the conversation in progress. "¡­ get these on a train for the capital. Not our problem anymore once they arrive."


    "What''s the cargo?" the gate guard asked.


    "That''s between our bosses and the King. We''re supposed to deliver these to the King''s Guard, then our job is done. Until then, we keep our mouths shut and do what we''re told. You know how it¡ª Ah. Here''s the two lieutenants now. Annie and Tam, I was just telling Sergeant Gradle here we can''t say what''s in the wagons."


    For a moment, Tammy thought she recognized the sergeant. He was a bored man working a boring job that, if he was doing things right, made sure he never got paid too much and things never got too exciting. "You showed him the paperwork from our bosses?"


    The gate guard said, "Yeah, yeah. Signed for by a reputable trading company. Any booby-traps on them?"


    "Four big hounds. They got plenty of food inside, but they''re always a little mean if someone they don''t know opens the doors." Tammy looked over at the wagon. "Ran into some less-than-friendly types on the way here. One of them made the mistake of opening a wagon."


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    "How many?" In the utter boredom of waving through wagons of grain, a mysterious set of wagons, beset by brigands, was going to be the highlight of the guard''s whole month. "Did you get any of them?"


    "I counted twelve, but couldn''t see what the squad could. Most of them had knives or short swords." Tammy looked at Anichka and raised an eyebrow.


    "Oh. Right. We took four that I can verify. Our hound got one." Anichka looked at the caravan guard.


    "Our squad took out three more, so ten in the end. Though, two of my men swore they got another two that managed to limp off with their wounds." Nodding to Anichka, he added, "Camping on the roof of the wagon was a great idea."


    Shrugging, Anichka said, "It''s no city wall, but we still had a good view of things. Wish I''d spent more time practicing with my pistols¡ªI missed a shot with one."


    With the banter matching what the caravan seemed to be, and with the paperwork correct, the gate guard had nothing else to do but let them in. "Well, this is all in order." He passed the paperwork back. "I couldn''t offer you a round of drinks to hear the rest of that story when I''m off-shift?"


    "Sorry, Sergeant, we''re on the clock," Tammy said, giving him her best smile. Despite what she''d feared, the man hadn''t been as unfriendly toward her as many in the kingdom might. Once they were on the train that they were going to hire to carry them and no one else, all the worry would be over.


    <hr>


    What disturbed Eliza Sussaridge more than the fact she was coming back to this insane city was that her horse didn''t seem to panic at the sight of Penelope far above. Her wagon was rumbling along the road, in the middle of another caravan of traders, with a cannon hitched to the back of it.


    The ride back had given her a lot of time to think about all the details she''d gained. She''d put together Celeste''s information, along with myriad other little tidbits, and come to a bizarre set of facts for how Northridge worked.


    At the top, first and foremost, was an awakened city, a draconic dungeon that was either fully cognizant itself or its minions were doing a spectacular job of maintaining such a charade, and a far lesser (and in her mind not as aware as the genius loci of the city) verdant dungeon.


    After that, the three city councilors. She had identified them, the first was the captain of their guard, Brolly Windchime: a man she''d found details on that suggested he was a commoner-born, but had raised to reasonably high ranking in the King''s Guard before he''d gotten the bug to eke out his own place in the world. The second was a craftsman, Howard Tailor (the one that''d caught her off-guard pretending to be a servant), who had a prestigious history in the far south of the kingdom, creating luxury goods¡ªshe was annoyed that she had less information on him than the others, but such was the limit of modern intelligence gathering.


    The third, and final, member of the council was Christine Sellswell. The third daughter of a trading family that had two sons older than her, Christine shouldn''t have amounted to much. That''s why the woman had been of particular interest to Eliza. Like all traders that have the skill in their blood, she''d only needed a small amount of gratuity from her family to make a living¡ªbut where Christine had stood out was turning that small stipend into a grand venture. She held major shares in every trading company north of the capital, and when the location of Northridge had been decided, she''d worked her contacts to attract settlers and footed the bills to found the city. In essence, Brolly defended the city, Howard managed the crafting, but it was Christine who owned it; as much as anyone could own a city.


    Then there were the dungeons. She knew that the dragon, Penelope, was the boss of the dungeon, but in all things social it seemed like Celeste and Stephan were in charge. Celeste''s conversation with her had been strange. She''d expected the kobold to have a weird accent or be barely capable of speech at all, but she''d not only been outgoing and vocal, she''d been warm. She spoke like a seasoned barmaid bringing drinks and a meal after a long time on the road¡ªand Eliza suspected that was absolutely the case.


    Stephan was a merchant, courtier, and strategist all rolled into one. At first, she''d suspected he was just the former, but after a few days she''d recognized his machinations as a literal show for her benefit. It wasn''t often she encountered people as experienced with doing underhanded things as she was herself, but in Stephan, Eliza saw a real threat. She may have been made by him, but at the same time he may be treating all merchants with that level of caution. Until she had more information, she wouldn''t know either way.


    There were others, of course. The city numbered over five thousand, and she had caught glimpses of those others. The two women with more guns than they could fire (some of which were worth more than what a dozen wagons could haul), the kobold wearing a royal ransom in adamantine, and the boss of the verdant dungeon, Breath of Spring.


    It was more complicated than such a young city had any right being, and she laid the blame firmly on the weird situation with the dungeons. Some cities had expanded enough to merge with the fort around their verdant dungeon, but such dungeons were kept firmly under control. What she''d have to deal with was a situation unlike any Eliza had heard of before.


    On one hand, that terrified Eliza. On the other, though, she was excited to get the job done now, and see the city put into the right hands to run it. Never mind how much she''d get paid for the work. It was one thing to do a job she thought was right, and getting paid for it, and quite another to do said job and like it.


    She was just enjoying a new rush of confidence when a crash sounded beside her. Turning her head to look at what had hit the ground with the force of a siege munition, Eliza''s eyes widened as she realized the massive thing was a dragon.


    The world closed in around the edges of Eliza''s vision as the dragon shook itself off and walked up to her wagon. As it opened its mouth, she felt terror and panic war with the inevitability of unconsciousness. The last thing she heard as she slumped back on the bench of her wagon was an excited, gravelly voice ask, "Is that Trav''s cannon? He''s going to be so excited you¡ª Are you okay?"


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 Chapter 120

    It wasn''t the most flashy or fun part of a dungeon delve, but Fife knew that the "fun" stuff only came after the boring stuff was done. "You know, Trav has a great saying for this kind of thing. He calls this yard trash. Literally, rubbish you have to deal with to get to your destination. He''s got a lot of great words."


    Privately, Felna wondered if Fife would be less talky if she wasn''t fighting. They''d been fighting for the better part of nine hours by her own estimation, and not once had either kobold or the centaur faltered or acted less than completely aware of their situations. She waited for Ludmiller to return (and speak so she knew they were present) before calling to her. "Luddy, we need a break."


    Blinking in surprise, Ludmiller had to remind herself that no matter what, she didn''t get tired anymore. "Right. Sorry. There''s a bit of an advantage to being a kobold."


    "At least a part of it is being linked to a dungeon. Now that I think about it, the times I''ve used my spells on dungeons in the past made it a bit easier to keep working past my limits. I wonder if that''s related?" Felna, even now, could feel Travis'' influence draining her fatigue, and the impact on her magic was absolutely astounding. "Regardless, we need a break."


    "There''s a blind tunnel this way. We can set up at the end of it and ward it." Ludmiller jutted her thumb in the direction of a tunnel, then remembered she needed to give a firm direction. "Second tunnel on your left. There''s a fork halfway down it, take the right."


    Fife took the turns described and spotted the end of the dungeon tunnel. "Okay. Get in there. I take it one of you has a Fortify Stone spell?" She looked among the casters and Nathaniel nodded. "Great. That''ll help stop any surprises."


    "We all have it. We don''t like accidents in these kinds of places." Stratus shuddered at the memory of having a dungeon dig into what should have been a safe place. "Only need to live through that once, thank you very much."


    Tom lowered his head at that. "When I was starting, our whole party got ambushed and given an express ride home like that. Whenever someone new to the business asks what spells they need to acquire, I tell them some damage spells and Fortify Stone."


    Given everyone in her party were casters, Ogmera was glad to have such a sensible group assembled. "Watches?"


    "Don''t bother." Fife stretched and rolled her shoulders. "I''ll take ''em all. I don''t need sleep, but getting a day or so each week is nice. If we spend that long in here, we''ll take a day where you all watch and let me rest."


    "Oh no. You don''t get to have all the fun. Half and half," Ludmiller said. "We don''t have to push ourselves with this."


    Grunting, Fife nodded. "Okay. I''ll take first, you take second. Sleep close. If something goes wrong, you''ll be the first I wake."


    "Have you noticed something?" Ludmiller asked, settling down to crouch beside Fife, watching out into the darkness with the light of the little camp behind her. "There are no lizards or anything like that in here."


    Freezing where she stood, Fife looked around and only said, "Huh."


    "What does that mean?" Ogmera asked.


    "Trav sees three ways," Fife explained. "He sees and hears anything in his heart room, he sees and hears through us, when we''re in the dungeon, and he can see through the lizards."


    Huntress put the facts together. "So they can''t see where we are?"


    "Maybe. Either the dungeon can see everywhere anyway, which I doubt since it hasn''t figured out my stealth yet, or it will be blind until a goblin makes contact with us." More of the situation seemed to unfold for Ludmiller. "And maybe not even then. Have you noticed that we haven''t been mobbed by more than one floor of goblins at a time? What if the dungeon can''t see with them at all?"


    "That would definitely take one worry out of this. If the dungeon can''t see through its minions, and the minions themselves aren''t that smart, what about using an illusion spell to make the tunnel look like it ends sooner, or even get a mind-mage to put something like a nothing interesting ward up." Tom liked the idea of the latter, mostly because such were highly efficient from his way of thinking.


    "Do you always do this?" Huntress asked, reaching back and rubbing her left forequarter that wouldn''t stop twitching under her armor.


    Fife didn''t look back, but still asked, "Gossiping?"


    "No, she means coming up with all these ideas and theories." Ogmera pulled out some dried bread, murmured a quick Create Water spell, and set about trying to make the tack more edible with some portable soup from her pack. "It''s a good way to unwind. Helps you get your mind off the fact we''re in one of the most hostile places in the world. It''s also good to talk these things through before we forget the details and while we can still test them."


    That led Huntress to another question. "Oh. When you talk about spells and magician types, does that limit who can do what kinds of magic?"


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    "Well," Stratus said, chuckling a little, "yes and no. A wizard can cast any kind of magic he puts the time and coin into learning. With a scroll or spellbook, that becomes even easier. Sorcerers are limited to spells they have discovered themselves, but their magic can create new and unseen-before magic. A cleric is to a wizard as a shaman is to a sorcerer." He nodded toward Ogmera, Felna, and Nathaniel.


    Ogmera cleared her throat to cut in. "None are better than another, we all work in a different manner. Some spells can be learned by sorcerers and shamans, but they need another of their type to teach it."


    Looking at Tom, Huntress asked, "So, if those spells would be helpful, why don''t you just learn all of them?"


    "Price. Time. I could get the cheaper versions, and it would take a long time, but there are things I''d rather be doing."


    "Are the expensive ones reusable?" When Tom nodded, Huntress went on. "So why not get Travis to buy them and then all of you could learn the spells?"


    Tom''s mouth opened to reply that no one could afford to be so philanthropic, then his brain froze as he realized that Travis had already been as much, and from what he''d heard from Felna regarding the plans Travis made, would be far more.


    "Thank her for the idea, Tom," Stratus said.


    Snapping his mouth closed and managing a chuckle, he nodded. "I''ll bring it up with Miss Katelyn and Travis when we return. Thank you for pointing out the not-so-obvious."


    Blushing a little at the compliment, Huntress pushed on with her questions. "Are there any spells for archery?"


    "That''s more my thing," Ogmera said, "or, rather, our thing." She gestured to Felna and Nathaniel. "There are some that have worked to learn magic to accompany their archery, as well as some that learn archery to accompany their magic."


    Felna cleared her throat and rolled her eyes at Ogmera until the shaman stopped. "She wants to know the spells, not the life-history of everyone who has been within ten feet of a bow." Trying to ignore the way Ogmera poked her tongue out, Felna went on. "The spells pertaining to archery fit into several fields. Ones that make your arrow do magical things, ones that make it hit harder, ones that ensure it hits, ones that similarly enchant a bow, and finally ones that can be cast on a quiver.


    "For arrow effects, there are poison, elemental, chemical, and more esoteric things. Believe it or not, I have seen arrows that heal. They combined those with an enchantment on their arrow to make it not hit physically as hard, and could heal at great distances.


    "Bow enchanting is harder, and you''d need to learn enchanting as a whole art, though I understand Luddy''s daggers were enchanted simply by becoming a dungeon''s floor boss?"


    Ludmiller nodded, her back to the group so she wouldn''t ruin her vision. "Pen also had her swords enchant whenever she picked them up. It was really cool¡ªuntil she couldn''t hold them anymore."


    That was something that had confused Nathaniel. "I had been wondering why she didn''t have them. She should get some lances, though, for when she''s flying. I imagine having a dragon throw an adamantine lance at you would hurt. Though, for her they would be dart sized."


    "Even the weight of them would make them impressive. She would be able to just drop them, with no throwing, and they''d still do¡ª" Fife froze, her brain ticking over incredibly fast. "Bombs. Dammit, I''m an idiot. Why doesn''t she carry runes or other explosives?"


    "Don''t be silly. The problem with runes, now, is that we can''t use them where people will be in the dungeon. Do you want to explain to Travis why we blew up a delegation?" Ludmiller asked.


    "Ahem." Tom managed to get their attention, but could only tell by how the pair had gone quiet. "You can select the trigger and intensity with runes. If the trigger is goblin¡ªand you keep that young hellion Mixie away from them¡ªand the intensity is set low enough, you could have them as a trigger that does not do much more than pop, to ignite a keg of powder."


    "We don''t have much in the way of huge armies to fight anymore. That''s the point of doing this¡ªwe keep the numbers down here and don''t have to worry about a goblin army on our doorstep." Despite not needing sleep, Fife yawned and settled her mind to the dull-but-necessary task of watching for danger. "Wake up in five?"


    "You want us to sleep-in, in a dungeon?" Felna asked.


    "Why not. No reason an extra few hours each day we''re in here is going to be a problem. This is a long-haul, after all, not a sprint."


    Huntress was having trouble getting settled. The twitch in her muscles had moved around, seemingly dancing all over her body in defiance of her efforts at getting used to the armor. She would have removed it, but it wasn''t so uncomfortable she couldn''t put up with it, and it took someone''s help putting it on. So she closed her eyes and tried to imagine how happy her home was that it was getting a pile of resources from her work.


    <hr>


    Waking up, Huntress looked around. At first she was worried. She didn''t know where she was, how long she''d slept, or the humans nearby. Then memories started to fill in answers and she let out of a soft sigh. "We''re¡ª"


    "Shhh. There''s a goblin down the tunnel. Fife is keeping watch while Ludmiller investigates. This is going to be a test of our theory that the dungeon can''t see through its minions."


    Stratus'' hand on her mouth, and soft words in her ear, brought her worry and excitement in equal measure. She knew her home could see everywhere within itself all the time, and Travis could only see particular places, but this would be a big advantage if they could ensure that no survivors escaped their fights. She nodded.


    There was barely even the sound of struggle before Ludmiller and Fife returned, the latter cleaning her sword. "If they''re able to see through their minions, then we will have company soon. If not, we have a tense hour of waiting and some of the best news ever," Fife said.


    Huntress was patient. She realized it was probably down to her origin and name, but she liked to think she had spent enough time waiting for Fife to make sense in the past to have learned the virtue on her own. So, with the others, she waited.


    "I think that proves the point," Fife said after some time. "An hour with no response means the dungeon can''t see through its minions."


    Ogmera nodded along, but added, "Or it cannot speak to them. Or it can''t understand where things are within it."


    Fife just stared at Ogmera for ten seconds before grunting and rising to her full height. "Let''s get back to work."


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 Chapter 121

    Memories came with their arrival in the kingdom''s capital. Anichka felt her lips form a frown she couldn''t seem to banish.


    "We''re not staying here, Annie. Delivering this load of junk and heading home." Tammy knew her emphasis on the last word worked when Anichka stopped frowning for a moment. "Bad memories?"


    "From another city. Too many people and too much happening." Squeezing Tammy''s hand, Anichka leaned over and used Tammy''s shoulder to rest her head. "I wonder how they''re doing back in Northridge?"


    "The wolves are still calm. I imagine if things went to shit back there, they''d be trying to rip their way out." Shrugging, Tammy put an arm around Anichka''s shoulders and squeezed. "You can even hide behind me, if you want?"


    "No. I can handle it." Always aware of how Tammy acted around people she didn''t know, Anichka wasn''t going to abandon her to the societal wolves. "We''re almost done." Shaking herself mentally and a little physically, she stood up and grabbed hold of the door frame. "Come on. That''s a lot of wealth we''re dumping, and I want to make sure we''re giving it to the right people."


    Tammy groaned and closed her eyes. "Don''t you even think that we would accidentally give all this to the wrong people! Ugh. Annie, you''re the worst sometimes. Let''s get this done and hope they don''t ask us to leave our weapons somewhere."


    "Now who''s tempting fate?" Anichka started checking the powder charges on her pistols for the third time that day as the train slowed down for its station.


    Walking to the end of the car they were in, Tammy looked back on the flatbed loads behind them. The first of the huge wagons blocked her view of the rest of the train. When the final jolt came, she smiled. "Nearly done."


    Stepping off the train, Anichka rolled her shoulders and slowly buttoned up her duster. "Tam, do you ever think this kinda thing will be over?"


    "You said that when the northerners left. I think, with Northridge, life is going to be full of moments li¡ª" Tammy''s words were cut short by a kiss on the cheek.


    "That''s for saying the best thing ever when I need to hear it." Drawing back, Anichka reached to her duster to unbutton it again. "We didn''t account for it being warmer here, did we?"


    "I don''t think it hurts for two guards in charge of a lot of wealth to show they are armed." Likewise unbuttoning her duster, Tammy waited with Anichka while the train backed up against a ramp on a side track. Walking alongside it, she noticed that the squad of guards that''d accompanied them were on the other side. "It''s nice to work with sensible folks."


    Nodding, Anichka let out a piercing whistle with two fingers in her mouth, giving a thumbs-up to the few guards that turned their heads her way. "Weird, though. I don''t think I''ve ever really trusted anyone but you in a fight. But them? I trust them."


    "More than me?" Tammy asked.


    "What? No. But they''ve been through Northridge with us. Fought and died and fought again. All that." The wagons were being carefully rolled down, with big block and tackle rigs to make sure they didn''t just take off on their own.


    "Those the guys we''re meant to be giving this lot to?" Nodding her head toward two soldiers in plate and mail, who also wore a white tabard with a golden crown on it, Tammy walked in their direction.


    "You''re the delegation from Northridge?"


    Nodding, Anichka reached into a pocket and pulled out the paperwork copy she''d gotten from the councilors. The twitch in the stance of the two guards reminded Anichka that seeing someone with sixteen loaded barrels worth of pistols wasn''t all that common. Passing the papers over, she smirked. "We didn''t expect too much trouble on the way, but better to be ready for it and not face it, than face it and not be ready for it."


    Grunting, one of the guards said, "True enough. Got yourselves a gunsmith up north now?" He waited for his partner to verify the documents as, in the background, he took stock of the big wagons being unloaded. "Those aren''t large enough to carry as much gold as was reported."


    "They don''t. Councilor Sellswell sent a manifest." Shifting the rifle on her shoulder so its strap didn''t bite as much, Anichka nodded toward the wagons. "It''s all approved weights, whatever that means. Where are we doing the handover?"


    "We have two squads coming. Until they arrive, it''s still yours." Passing the paperwork back, the guard nodded toward Tammy. "Are those adamantine?"


    Talking shop should have meant relaxing, but Tammy was too aware that they had four big wagons that they still hadn''t passed off. "And filled with shot. Annie''s got a good eye at any range, but with these I don''t have to be."


    Anichka was antsy. She had a fortune behind her and two guards acting like it was nothing out of the ordinary. "We have some hounds in the wagons, too, guarding them. It won''t be a problem if we let them out to stretch their legs?"


    Looking at Anichka with wide eyes, Tammy figured it would work, but there was a lot that could go wrong. "Uh, Annie, is that wise?"


    "There''s a lot of eyes wandering toward us. They''ll make a good distraction."


    The guards, curious, shrugged. "Sure," one said, "if they bite anyone, it better be while they''re reaching their hands toward your gold, though."


    "It''s fine. I doubt anyone will be thinking of gold with our doggies out and stretching." As the wagons rolled closer to them, Anichka walked to the back of the first and the guards there. "We''re letting the hounds out to stretch their legs."


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    "They haven''t signed for the delivery?"


    Rolling her eyes at the question, Anichka shook her head. "They have some guys who are going to do it soon. I asked them if we can let our hounds out for some air." With the laughter of the guard of the second wagon in her ears, Anichka unhooked the door of the wagon and whispered, "Good girl. Fife and Travis said if I mention their names, you''ll keep being friends, right?"


    When Anichka opened the door a little wider, a snout was the first thing to poke out. The second was a tongue that licked from the bottom of her chin to the top of her forehead¡ªtwice¡ªbefore she managed to splutter and step away from the huge Bloodied Wolf. Almost predictably, the wolf used a paw to widen the opening of the doors and jumped onto Anichka, knocking her down and standing over her, licking her face repeatedly.


    "Are you going to do this every time?" Anichka put up with the attention mostly because she had no way of actually stopping the horse-sized wolf. "And now I have three more to open."


    When the wolf was all licked out, and was far more content with petting than standing over her demanding scratches, Anichka closed up the wagon and led the way to the next. If the wagons hadn''t drawn people''s attention already, a wolf that was as tall at its shoulder as the woman beside it had. What Anichka liked was that people were edging away from them, rather than toward them.


    Sergeant Thomas Brave slapped his face with his hand. "Annie, is it wise to let dungeon monsters out in the capital?"


    "Dungeon monsters? Nah, these are our hounds. Big hounds. Big and friendly hounds. Definitely hounds." Anichka was giggling by the time she walked past. "Besides, a threat isn''t a threat if it''s hidden. I didn''t like the look of the folks trying to get closer to us."


    "When are the King''s Guard going to pick up this lot? We''ll be getting a train ride home as soon as we''re done."


    "Wait," Anichka said. "We''re going home right away?"


    "Do you really want to get bored in the capital and not get back to Northridge as soon as possible?" Thomas asked.


    "That''s a good point. Okay, minimal fuss. I want to get home and find out what''s the next insane thing I get to do." Walking down the wagons, repeating the line to each of the Bloodied Wolves, Anichka collected all four while keeping to the side of the wagons nearest the no longer crowded street.


    It took nearly an hour for the promised guard squads to arrive, during which time Anichka and Tammy had spent their time walking along the wagons, letting the big wolves sniff and rub against whatever they could find, and generally make distractions of themselves while the squad of Northridge guards kept a closer watch.


    The biggest problem seemed to be when one of the wolves started marking the wagons, then they all started marking the wagons. When the first started walking toward the King''s Guards, however, Anichka had to distract them.


    As the troops approached, an older woman rushed toward the caravan and, trying to figure out who she should talk to, focused on the sergeant of the guards. "Excuse me? I believe we have the same client."


    "I doubt that. Please, move along. We''re on import¡ª"


    "Travis, the dragon dungeon of Northridge?" Brevity Delling didn''t often get a chance to put someone completely off-balance, but this was one moment when a light breeze would have knocked the man opposite her over. "I heard a delegation from him was arriving, and seeing this little show you''re putting on, with four Bloodied Wolves acting like they aren''t literal killing machines incarnate¡ª It wasn''t a very large leap of deductive reasoning. My name is Brevity Delling, and you''re very lucky I''m here."


    Thomas Brave, used to weird situations as he was, still wasn''t going to let the woman walk all over them. "Look, my job is to keep the wagons safe. Whatever you''re trying to sell me¡ªI''m not in the market for." He was welcoming the sight of the King''s Guard approaching, expecting Brevity to leave.


    Lieutenant Saber was not the kind of man who put up with silliness. He looked at the wagons, at the woman who''d rushed over, and felt a headache approaching. "This is the delivery from Northridge?"


    "It is. Do you need to count it?" Thomas tried to keep his tone even, but the truth was he had had enough of the job. It was part of his duty, though, and he would still ensure it was completed¡ªbut if he had a choice, he''d rather spend a year on night watch.


    "He will." Brevity cut in before either man could say another word. "And you''ll have to have a representative present while they do. That way no one can claim the numbers were wrong."


    Saber shuddered at the thought. "We won''t need to count it. We will weigh it. I understand it is three quarters gold and the rest is in adamantine?" At Thomas'' nod, he smiled. "Excellent. We''ll weigh all four, unload them, and then weigh the wagons for the net weight of the product."


    Stopped in her tracks, Brevity gave a nod. "That sounds acceptable. My clients will be present, of course."


    "''Clients''?" Saber asked, turning to look at Thomas.


    "I don''t know, sir. She arrived and claimed she''s employed by our boss. I''ve never met her before." It took Thomas up until this point, though, to realize she had given him an out. While he wanted to trust the King''s Guard, he realized that if they tried to screw him over for a chunk of the gold, it wouldn''t be his word that was trusted. "But, if that''s the protocol, I guess we''ll have to do it."


    When the King''s Guard directed his men to move the wagons and Thomas was left with Brevity nearby, he turned his attention to her while his guards took care of watching the wagons. "I''m not going to pay you, but thanks."


    "Travis paid me already. I keep telling you, he''s my client. I''ll send him a bill." Brevity, as much as she loved the idea of having a client who''s a dungeon, still wasn''t going to go hungry. "How did things work out with the undead dungeon I had sanctioned for him?"


    Now that she''d pointed out a specific event, Thomas realized her story might be straight. "He took care of it, but only because the Balavians invaded, besieged the city, and were going to do something bad to use the undead dungeon to attack us. He moved his entrance into the city, aided the verdant dungeon in doing the same, and saved all of us a dozen times over.


    "So, your arrival and sprinkling Travis'' name around¡ªit didn''t sit right. Now I know you were saying that to try to help, it''s not a problem anymore. You know why we have three million gold worth of wealth here?" When he was done, Thomas gave her his best I''m just a guard, ignore me look.


    Brevity could guess why such a ridiculous number would be appropriate. There was a specific thing that only the king could grant and took such largess. "Buying titles?" When Thomas smiled at her, she laughed aloud. "A good gambit for preventing a leadership takeover by a titled-but-not-landed noble. You kept this quiet enough, too, that it will likely work. You''re returning to Northridge?"


    "After a brief shopping trip. We''ll be hiring a train to take us back."


    "Would you be willing to take one more?" It was Brevity''s best chance of contacting her client directly, and even if it would disrupt her work, she was not going to miss the opportunity.


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 Chapter 122

    Things had turned a corner when they reached the twenty-fifth floor.


    Gone were the simple tunnels of goblins and the odd orc. Now Fife found herself pressed by multiple orcs, archers, and several rot-dealing magic users. Her armored hide might provide plenty of crags for the spores to get into, but her healing and armor meant that a quick flash of fire magic barely harmed her¡ªand removed all the spores.


    When she tore her way through a wall of orcs to the boss room of the floor, Fife found herself facing a troll and dozens of goblins. Having been fighting for ten hours, though, she knew the others were tired¡ªeven if she wasn''t. "Let''s kill these bastards and find somewhere safe."


    Felna looked between her companions. Ogmera, Tom, and Nathaniel were almost out on their feet; Stratus looked like he was struggling to keep slinging spells; and even she was feeling the effects of pulling the double duty of mana regeneration and healing. She wished for one of Travis'' mana fields, a warm cup of milk, and a cozy bed. "Then let''s kill them. Stratus, fill the chamber ahead with fire and let Fife figure out what''s still living."


    Glad he didn''t have to restrain himself, Stratus edged up behind Fife until he could see into the next room and began channeling his magic into a stack of wide-area spells that burned things every second and repeated five times. How much mana was an easy choice¡ªhe dumped almost everything he could.


    The goblins in the room, Fife could see, didn''t get a chance to scream before the fire scorched them. When Stratus kept casting the spell, over and over every half a second, the heat of the chamber became oppressive even from her position outside it and behind her shield. She''d seen him cast this before, but never so many times, and knew to time the flames dying by when his final cast happened.


    Low on mana, Stratus let out a sigh and slumped against the wall. When Ogmera caught him, he was surprised at how much strength she still possessed. "Thank you," he said, the sound of a wild kobold in far too much armor charging into the room stealing his thunder.


    Following Fife into the chamber, Felna heard a bow twang from behind her as Huntress came along as well. She envied the centauress a little; the steadiness of an equine form and the ability to fire arrows accurately at the same time should, she theorized, translate well to magic. She couldn''t let herself be distracted, though, casting a purify spell on Fife the moment she got near the troll.


    Seeing the troll bringing its weapon down in a huge overhead strike, even before she reached it, Fife decided to change the momentum of the fight and sped up. Out of reach of the troll, she jumped and swung her legs forward and raked two huge gouges out of the troll''s stomach.


    Because its target had gotten too close too fast, the troll''s swing missed and the huge axe crashed into the stone. Pulling at the weapon with one hand, it noticed the rips in its stomach and tried to use its free hand to hold its insides together.


    With a melee fighter so short, Huntress could keep letting her arrows fly. Shaft after shaft buried into the troll''s neck and head. Others failed to pierce its thick hide. What worried her was if they were having any effect at all. Despite the arrows sinking deep into it, the troll was more concerned about swinging its huge weapon from side to side with one arm to force Fife to back away, and hold itself together, than to pay any attention to Huntress.


    Cursing the axe''s maker with every foul word she had discovered in Travis'' memoirs (and a few of her own), Fife judged it as having too much mass and momentum to try deflecting or parrying. While her sword could carve chunks out of the soft steel, it would cost her the grip on her sword doing so. "Dammit, just die already! Huntress, aim for the eyes!"


    "The eyes?!" The eyes of a troll, Huntress was finding out, were tiny little orbs of hate that were between a hugely thick brow that overhung them a little and cheekbones that could deflect bullets. Still, she did as Fife asked and aimed at the troll''s face. Arrow after arrow broke after the arrowheads dug into the solid bone masses around the eyes, but finally one shaft sang true and threaded the needle.


    Wavering on its feet, the troll lost its vision in one eye instantly, and when it reached up to rub at the spot, it shoved the shaft of the arrow deeper. Thinking got harder and its focus wavered; the troll looked down at the small metal thing in front of it and tried to figure out what it had been doing to it. When that small thing got closer, a strange pain in the back of its lower leg made the troll fall down.


    Fife ended the butchery with a quick stroke to the troll''s neck. Her blade cut through its flesh like a hot knife through butter, and even the heavy bone of its spine gave way when she hacked it between two vertebrae. "And I''m going to confiscate this on grounds that it might be useful."


    Watching as Fife lifted the troll''s crude axe with her shield hand, Felna smiled and looked around for side tunnels. The ramp to the next floor down was obvious, but she didn''t want to deal with that yet.


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    Ludmiller willed herself to be visible and waved to everyone. "This way. The tunnel stinks, but it''s a blind one and there are no traps."


    "Good enough for me. All of you go ahead, I''ll bring up the rear." Waiting for the whole group to pass her, Fife followed them, keeping an eye on the boss area for as long as she could before turning away and stalking off.


    When she reached the end of the tunnel, Fife scrunched her snout a little. She could complain about the smell, but given that Felna and Ludmiller were the only ones still awake, she didn''t want to be too noisy. Crouching down, she set the big axe on the ground beside her and looked to her right. "Let''s stay here for half the day tomorrow. Extended fights might be fine for you, me, and Huntress, but the others aren''t taking a whole day of fighting well."


    "Yeah, I agree." Ludmiller could see that Felna was struggling to do the rounds of the tunnel and ward against digging. "Want me to take the first watch?"


    "Let''s say fourteen hours of downtime. I''ll take seven, then you take seven. That lets us both get some normal sleep too." Fife was going to ask if that was okay, but Felna reached them at that moment.


    Fighting back a yawn, and losing, Felna waited for her mouth to close before saying, "We need a long break. Today was brutal for most of us."


    "We were discussing that. What about fourteen hours of downtime?" Ludmiller asked.


    Slumping her shoulders and letting a soft hiss out, Felna nodded. "They need it. I''ll admit, though, that I need it too. Travis'' bond is far more useful than I''d thought, but constant fighting for most of a day is beyond what I could handle as anything but a sporadic event."


    "We need to be smarter about this. Let''s make six hours our maximum unless we have a short series of fights remaining to clear a floor," Fife said, looking up at Ludmiller and Felna.


    Felna thought about it. "Make it seven."


    "That sounds reasonable," Ludmiller said. "We don''t want today to happen again, so we need to figure out a way to fall back and not be seen doing it. I guess I can help with that."


    "Wake up the others and make sure they eat something. You two have something as well." Reaching for her bag of rations, Fife noticed the gore on her right gauntlet and sighed. Water to clean off with wasn''t something they had the luxury of.


    Noticing Fife''s dilemma, Felna said, "Take your gauntlets off." When Fife complied, she smiled and cast a spell that was common to a race that prized cleanliness above all else. "You''re welcome, and thank you."


    Fife put up with Felna patting her on the head only because the cat kin had made her evening a little brighter. "Thanks," she said in reply and pulled a stick of dried and pounded-hard meat from her supplies and started her sharp teeth on rendering it down to edible pieces.


    <hr>


    Ludmiller woke up of her own accord. Lifting her head, she looked around the dimly-lit cave and took in the delightful odors of a rot dungeon. "Hopefully I''ll go nose deaf soon." She sat up and into a crouch, looking to where Fife was similarly crouched.


    When Ludmiller walked up beside her, Fife nodded. "You''re twenty minutes early."


    Opening her mouth to say it didn''t matter, Ludmiller got distracted and asked, "How do you do that?"


    "What?"


    "Know the time like that. We''ve been underground for days."


    "I count the seconds." At Ludmiller''s shocked look, Fife shrugged. "It''s not that hard to do¡ªunless I''m sleeping or doing something that requires a lot of thought."


    "Fighting?" Ludmiller suspected the answer already, and Fife confirmed it when she nodded her head. "Well, whatever. It''s your turn to sleep. Go and find somewhere cozy and let me keep watch."


    Fife stood and walked just behind Ludmiller, giving her an easy path to rousing Fife for assistance.


    Settling in, Ludmiller let her mind wander while she stared out into the dark tunnel. Thoughts of getting home, of spending time with Wild, and sprawling out in the lizard villages and letting the delightful inhabitants bury every inch of her to share her warmth made Ludmiller smile as she tried to avoid doing Fife''s trick and counting¡ªthe problem was she couldn''t stop counting and she kept losing her place.


    It wasn''t long, though, before she heard sounds ahead of her. Thanks to Mixie, she knew the sound of a bored goblin, and this sounded like that but louder. Stepping backward slowly, she reached a hand out to Fife''s shoulder. When Fife moved, Ludmiller said, "Goblin voices," as softly as possible.


    Not moving except to nod her head once, Fife remained still on the floor of the tunnel even when Ludmiller vanished from sight.


    By her thinking, Ludmiller was sure it had been at least eight hours since the others had gone to sleep, possibly longer. They''d all be able to wake up fresh, at least. Shifting her weight slowly, she hugged the tunnel wall as she made her way toward the voices.


    The boss room, when she reached it, was being cleaned. Goblins were gathering up bits of troll and flash-fried goblin warriors and dropping them in sacks. She really didn''t want to know what they''d do with them, but she had suspicions. After a minute of watching, she saw a huge troll finish its walk up the ramp. Wearing armor and carrying a pair of huge cleavers, it slumped into the big stone seat at one end of the room.


    When Fife smelled Ludmiller, she moved at last and rolled to her feet. "What''s going on?"


    "Goblins were cleaning out the boss arena and a new troll moved in. Two cleavers this time." Ludmiller patted Fife on the shoulder. "You still have about five hours of sleep."


    "Dammit, Luddy, as if I can sleep now knowing there''s a troll out there I get to kick the crap out of."


    Smirking, Ludmiller settled back into a crouch and noticed that, despite her words, Fife was asleep again within a few minutes. After another few hours, when the party started to rouse, she held up a finger to her snout and then explained what was waiting down the tunnel.


    In the end, the group got bored of waiting less than an hour later, roused Fife, and headed back to work.


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 Chapter 123

    Today''s chapter continues the out-of-order chaos that has been going on, but I promise that next week you''ll get a wrap-up of the dungeon delve. Now, on with the show!


    <hr>


    Waking up, slowly, Eliza Sussaridge was aware something was decidedly wrong. Her wagon was moving under her. She never slept on her wagon while it was moving, and thus she was on high alert when trying to speed up the waking process and get her faculties about her.


    Slowly, she checked her various hiding spots and, finding them intact, she checked her coin pouch and less hidden items. Everything was there. Lifting her head, she saw that a dragon was walking along beside her wagon, the lead for her horse clutched somewhere in its wing.


    Memories of having a dragon all-but attack her came back, and Eliza had to cling to the reality that she wasn''t actually dead. "Uh¡­?"


    "Sorry I startled you. I''m just excited to see if Travis gets what he thinks he will with the cannon."


    Penelope''s tone was less gravelly, which helped calm Eliza down a little, but she was starting to fixate on why her horse wasn''t freaking out. "S-Sorry, but I have to ask, and I hope you don''t get upset with having to answer or anything, but you''re making me want to get up and run, but my horse doesn''t seem to care that you¡ª"


    "For the first part, I''m a big predator that hunts and kills humans for food. Horses are fine. You''re fine, aren''t you?" Penelope stretched her wing forward a little and gave the horse a rub on the head. "The second part is because Katelyn''s pacification aura she cast on me only affects animals and not people. It can''t work the other way around, which is good, since people are a lot easier to convince that you''re not going to kill them than donkeys."


    "You sound like you''re talking from experience," Eliza said, the words slipping out as if she weren''t chatting to a dragon.


    "Steph and Robert have a donkey. It got used to the dim lighting of the dungeon pretty quick, and while it acts like a dad to all the wyverns, it doesn''t like me being bigger than it." Flicking her wing, Penelope tossed the reins to Eliza.


    Catching the leads, Eliza did her best to look relaxed. On one hand, she thought, Penelope seemed to be the most laid-back dragon in the history of her species, on the other she remembered the joke about being the only dragon someone had known. Used to dealing with canny thief-takers and brutally pragmatic frontier folk¡ªas well as bloodthirsty lesser nobles¡ªEliza put Penelope on a fairly high shelf among the people I can be friendly with who can kill me as soon as look at me. "So, the cannon?"


    "When we first got some firearms from a local trader, Travis got an unlock from having ''one of his minions'' carry it into the dungeon. That''s how he got a special upgrade to build firearms himself. We''re all hoping he can get the same thing with cannons."


    "You want to make cannons?" Given the flow of guns leaving Northridge, Eliza could see it become one of the most important cities in the kingdom if it also provided cannons. "And sell them?"


    "Probably. We''ve talked about the future, and one thing Travis wants to do is reward everyone who ever stood by him. The city itself, Breeze, and every guard, merchant, crafter, and child that stood in the city when things were tough. There''s a small group who are happy to live inside, which is great, but not everyone can get past the feeling of danger a dungeon can put out. What I''m saying is, they all put their lives on the line for us, and we did the same back, and that kind of loyalty is worth rewarding.


    "It''s not going to be as rewarding for new folks coming in, but we''re not going to leave the city behind. Northridge is a work in progress, and there are plenty of ways to mark yourself as being someone worth depending on. Like getting a cannon for us. If it works, great, if it doesn''t, you still went to the effort of doing it when no one else had."


    Eliza had a moment where she was struck by the altruism of it. The dungeon wanted to reward all that had protected it, even if from what she''d heard it had done a lot of the protecting, and it wanted to make its city grow? If it wasn''t a lie, she was impressed. "The kingdom already has cannon factories. I admit it will be a major export, but only if you can make them in good enough quality."


    "We will. We have several smiths working now, and one of them is taking a keen interest in making guns. I believe it will be a small jump to cannons. Our first target will be to arm the city with enough for its current and future wall, have enough for our growing outpost to the south, and more to reinforce Breeze''s fort."


    Though the information was coming thick and fast, none of it was actionable. It was interesting, though. "And then there''s your railway?"


    "Railways and fast logistics are how a city on the northern edge of the kingdom can still participate in the major economics of the kingdom. With it, we''re no more than a week or two from the capital. Without it, we are almost a month away. You''re a merchant¡ªyou know what impact time has."


    "Where does a dragon come up with knowledge like this?" As soon as she asked, Eliza realized she sounded offensive. "Uh, you don''t have to answer if you¡ª"


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    "Steph, mostly, but also Christine Sellswell. What that woman doesn''t know about trade isn''t worth knowing. So when there are important meetings and I can insinuate myself into them, and being a dragon makes that easy, I listen as hard as I can and remember. If they put up with me, I''ll even ask questions." Penelope let loose with that gravely laugh again. "I''ll be the first commerce dragon in the kingdom."


    They''d reached the gates, and despite herself, Eliza was still startled at the warm welcome for Penelope by the guards; they didn''t simply put up with her, but took her in as a friend.


    "Hey there! You brought Travis his cannon?" Brolly Windchime, of all the guards, seemed able to avoid crowding around Penelope and instead diverted to Eliza. "You might as well cart it to his entrance. Do you have a list of what you''re carrying?"


    Pulling her satchel of paperwork from behind her seat, Eliza opened it and lifted out the manifest. It still wasn''t everything, but she''d disposed of her more illicit cargo in Far Reach since there had been no opportunity to make use of them. "Only half a load of fabrics. Steph wanted more, but Travis wanted a cannon."


    "True enough. If you let Pen distract everyone, and slip through in the confusion"¡ªBrolly winked at her conspiratorially¡ª"you''ll probably make it there and still have plenty of hours to organize a room."


    This, Eliza knew, was the problem. A guard commander could afford to be friendly with new folks, someone running a city couldn''t. She smiled, trying to appear his ally rather than what she actually was¡ªhis enemy. After all, she was just the kind of person who should be kept out of cities. "Thanks!"


    Driving her little wagon through the city was easy enough. The roads were all packed stone, making the ride through the city fairly normal. There didn''t seem to be any thieves about, which was something Eliza knew would change.


    When she reached the entrance to the dungeon, she was surprised to see Penelope waiting for her. For a moment she was confused to see the dragon again, but then she remembered the wings weren''t for show.


    Penelope wasn''t alone, though. There was a group of kobolds around her, as well as a very short goblin. As soon as she was close enough to start a conversation, one kobold rushed around to the back of the wagon and started inspecting the cannon. "Uh, I also have some cloth."


    "Good! Good! We''ll buy that too." Steph''s words drew Eliza''s attention, and she looked around to spot him walking toward the wagon "Now, we posted a reward, but what would it take to encourage you to settle in Northridge as your central hub? You''ve been a big help so far, and we''d like to encourage more of that."


    It was completely out of the blue. Eliza knew the right answer to give, according to her cover, was that she''d think about it, but a stronger voice said take the offer and use it to your advantage. She decided to take a middle ground. "You know, merchants gain power when there is a lot of gold around. I''d be stupid to say no, but I also need to take care of a few things in Far Reach too."


    "Well, we''d hope you would still be happy to work between the two cities, though once the railway is in place, you will likely wish to simply contract hauling to the manager of it."


    The predatory grin on Steph''s face told Eliza everything she needed to know about who would be the manager of said railway. "That''s fine for goods that have a time limit, but if your prices are too high, there will be plenty of things that can be hauled by wagon, cheaper."


    "Would you be interested in figuring that value out?" Steph asked.


    In a way, it felt like selling-out her fellow merchants but, since that was literally a cover story, Eliza saw more opportunity to ingratiate herself to the dungeon. "For an ongoing discount on whatever price is decided, sure."


    "Four percent?"


    "Twelve."


    Steph laughed and shook his head. "Ten, then. Our stonemasons are building out the new outpost, which we hope to have hardened enough that it could break the goblins should they see it as a weak point."


    "But you need to be able to build cannons." Eliza had heard the stories around town, during her time in Northridge previously, about the goblin army. Allowing herself time to muse on it a little, she realized that''s partly why Penelope was so terrifying¡ªshe had destroyed an army.


    "Exactly! Fife, roll it in, please." Turning to look at the back of the wagon, Steph saw Fife and Tinpot talking excitedly together. "Fife!"


    "What?" Fife, the kobold that was a walking pile of guns and armor, asked as she approached where Eliza and Steph were talking; looking mildly upset that her conversation was interrupted.


    "Don''t you want to be the one to haul it inside?" Steph asked.


    Fife''s demeanor changed completely. She seemed to tilt upward a bit and her mouth pulled into a grin that showed way more dull metal teeth than Eliza ever wished to know existed. "Really? Me?! Woo!" When Fife ran back to the cannon, Eliza could swear the ground actually shook with each of her steps.


    "Is this safe?" Eliza asked, giving Steph the most worried look she could manage.


    "Safe? Oh, absolutely. See Brayden over there?" When Steph pointed to another kobold that was wearing lighter armor, Eliza nodded. "Well, he can resurrect folks. Uh, the cannon isn''t loaded, is it?"


    The wagon shook a little and in a moment Fife was wheeling the field gun along, showing no sign of strain as she hauled the huge gun on her own. Eliza had paid two men to help her fit the thing to the back of her wagon, and this sight was a little beyond belief. "You just have to wheel it inside, right? Then you¡¯re done with it?"


    "You''re thinking of selling the cannon if it works, aren''t you?" Steph asked. Fife was almost to the open doors of the tower.


    "Would I be a merchant if I didn''t try to live the dream and sell something twice?"


    Eliza, along with everyone else, went quiet as Fife reached the doors and kept pulling the weapon inside. It wasn''t a huge step for Eliza. This wouldn''t affect her payment¡ªSteph had promised her that¡ªbut there was anticipation and excitement in the air that stopped her from breathing when the (comparatively) big kobold pulled the cannon the last bit inside.


    "Okay," Fife could be heard saying, "but did it unlock the¡ª Shit yeah!" She dropped the cannon''s trailing arm and ran back out. "We have a new building! Trav got a Siegeworks!"


    Not realizing she was cheering along with the others, until she heard her own voice distinctly, Eliza made the executive decision to have fun for one day in her life.


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 Chapter 124

    It was a phenomenal sight. Fife was like an indefatigable machine. She cut her way through goblins, orcs, trolls, and hobgoblins like they were wheat and she a scythe. Nathaniel barely needed to feed her any healing spells for most fights. He was, he knew, a little in awe of her.


    They descended to the thirty-seventh floor, a depth he''d never reached in any dungeon before, and they started encountering heavier resistance. Stratus and Tom were casting their cleansing fire almost constantly, and Nathaniel had to unleash cure spells more often than heals as diseases and infections reached for them without the need for corpses.


    Not that he found it hard to identify when anyone had the various maladies he could cure¡ªeach of them was a fast-acting toxin that slowed, blinded, hampered, and even some that tried to put the infected to sleep.


    Nathaniel was so focused on keeping the others upright and healthy that he didn''t notice his own fungal infection¡ªgrowths forming around his nose¡ªuntil Felna''s magic poured into him and banished them. He spared her a glance and a nod before getting back to his task.


    "Fife!" Felna called from beside Nathaniel. "FIFE!"


    Pausing the ever-moving rampage of destruction, Fife stepped back from the corpse she''d just made and asked, "Yeah?"


    "This is our limit," Ogmera said, one hand holding a cloth to her face. "We can''t cure the toxins fast enough as it is. We either back out and leave or Ludmiller sends us all back."


    Fife rocked on her feet and looked around. "Right. Sorry. Hard to remember what it used to be like."


    Nathaniel shivered at that. <em style="font-weight: 600">If their whole party were kobolds, would they have just pushed through and emptied the dungeon, he wondered. With the decision to turn back made, he was happy to go along with either plan. "Maybe we could try a fast withdrawal?"


    "Oooh! I like that. Uh," Fife said, sounding a bit uncertain for once in her life, "that''s when we run back to the entrance and only engage things in our way, right?"


    "In a manner of speaking. Stratus and Tom become our leads. They burn up anything in our way and we charge through. You and Ludmiller can be our rear guards, but let Huntress try to disable anything chasing us before you engage." Lifting out a fresh carving of a hare from her pack, complete with four rabbits'' feet hanging from it, Ogmera swapped it with the two dice that had been attached to her staff. "And no heroics. If we do this right, we''ll move faster than the dungeon can respond and be out the door and back to the light in no time."


    Huntress, overhearing the conversation, asked, "You''ll be able to keep that pace up?"


    "Moving upward fills you with a lot more energy than going down. We''ll manage," Stratus said as he squared his shoulders.


    "Yeah, babe. It''s like¡ªI know that Breath of Spring is up there, somewhere, and that makes fighting <em style="font-weight: 600">toward where she is easier than <em style="font-weight: 600">away." Fife had only barely finished her explanation then her blood ran cold. "Incoming!"


    Nathaniel heard the impact as two trolls with giant hammers each started wailing on Fife and, to his shock, Fife didn''t move¡ªbut she did cough. "Spores!"


    Tom was the first to react. His Flashfire spell burned fast in the air, singeing hair a little, but leaving a fine gray powder dropping to the ground. Felna was faster on the cure spell, getting Fife with it, but Nathaniel was afforded the sight at the end of the tunnel that worried him.


    A goblin creature, a hobgoblin he estimated, surrounded by a sickly gray/yellow miasma, gestured in their direction. A trail of stark white mycelia carpeted the floor, spreading out from the hobgoblin and toward their party. "Stratus!"


    Balling up flame and sending it out between Fife and the hobgoblin, Stratus didn''t look any worse for wear, but Nathaniel still pushed some of his own mana to the wizard.


    The mycelia, cracked and blackened, sprouted again white and whole at the edges nearest them. "We have a problem!"


    "Hotter. Hotter. Hotter." Stratus was chanting away, pulsing his magic over the creeping fungus, but nothing seemed to stop it for long. In the distance, the hobgoblin was chanting, obviously providing the creeping death the vitality it needed to resist the repeated incineration.


    Intuiting the problem, Huntress started sending arrows whizzing down the tunnel toward the hobgoblin. None struck it down, but it had to find cover while the deadly shots kept coming. "Move!"


    Fife cut the legs out from under one of the trolls, stepping back from the other and using her shield to cover her. Huntress, walking backward just as slowly, kept up her shooting at the hobgoblin while everyone else started making their way back along the tunnel toward the next floor up.


    Nathaniel looked at Felna, gave her a nod, and moved up close to Fife with Stratus at his side. "I''ve got you. Felna''s working with the others to clear a path for us. Keep moving backward and we''ll try to disengage from this lot at the stairs. Stratus, how are you holding up with mana?"


    "Not well. Those spores need a lot of heat, and over that area it uses a lot of power." As he spoke, he started to cast again.


    Reaching into his reserves, Nathaniel poured mana into the man and reached an arm around him when he seemed to falter. "Lean on me if you need to."


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    Fife stepped backward with every beat of an internal drum only she seemed able to hear, but it created a rhythm that everyone could work with. When she caught the remaining troll with a slash across its gut¡ªcleaving its armor as she went¡ªshe let out a whoop. "Huntress, nail that bastard!"


    Stratus shook his head and kept moving down the tunnel toward the way up. "She can''t. The goblin put up some kind of mana shield. It looks like it needs to be concentrated on, though, so at least it can''t spread those spores. Don''t let up on it."


    "I don''t plan to." Drawing and firing over and over, Huntress plucked out the last of her adamantine-tipped arrows and sighted it directly on the hobgoblin. The shield, when she released, flared bright and struggled to stop the adamantine.


    A glance back revealed to Nathaniel that the hobgoblin''s shield spell failed. Beside him, Huntress entered a frenzy of action, loosing arrow after arrow as soon as she could draw her bow, making the hobgoblin retreat from harrying them. "Move! Run!"


    The dash to get up the ramp to the previous floor required Nathaniel to help Stratus up, the wizard visibly strained by the effort of maintaining his flames in the tunnel behind them.


    When he got to the top, Nathaniel could see Ludmiller flickering in and out of view, dancing around a troll while Ogmera inflicted the monster with curses and Felna did her best to distract the beast when it came to swinging its huge hammer.


    "Get him on my back."


    Nathaniel turned his attention to Huntress, nodding in reply to her command while she stood at the top of the ramp, bow drawn. Not knowing if she''d seen him, he said, "Come on, old friend, do what the nice lady asks and you''ll get a free ride out."


    Stretching to get onto Huntress'' back, Stratus groaned and barely got his leg over her back before angling himself upright. "Forgive me, lovely lady, I''ll try not to make this any more of a problem than¡ª Oh damn."


    Nathaniel opened up and sent more mana pouring to Stratus as he blanketed the ramp tunnel with flame. Huntress, beside him, held her arrows back while Fife moved past them all to engage the troll. "Is that damn goblin going to harry us all the way up?"


    "Only if we don''t kill it." When the hobgoblin looked into the tunnel to enhance its creeping fungal attack, Huntress sank two arrows into its shoulder before it could get out of the way. "And I don''t think my arrows are doing enough damage."


    Fife, finishing off the troll by the simple act of getting its attention and letting Ludmiller do her work on it, saw how beat up her friends were. "Okay, this isn''t going to work. We need the fast ride out. Are you all cool with this?"


    Nathaniel looked up at Stratus, then at Huntress. He nodded. From the corner of his eye, he saw Ogmera doing the same. "This is the dungeon boss, isn''t it? The plague goblin that Pen spoke of." He grunted. "I''d like to go down fighting it, but I have heard what rot goblins can and will do. Make it quick."


    Tom walked up to stand beside Huntress. He put a hand on Stratus''s thigh and took over incineration duties for the tunnel. "Ludmiller, make sure we''re the last."


    It wasn''t enjoyable for any of them. Waiting for Ludmiller to work was almost worse for Nathaniel than¡ª


    <hr>


    Gasping, waking up, Nathaniel was in a temple. He recognized the scent coming off the woman beside him. "Priestess," he said, coughing and spitting out a gold coin that rattled onto the floor.


    "Your god favors you, or so I understand is the meaning of that gesture." Walking around the man on her alter, Fairheart ran her fingers over his shoulder and the fading scar at the base of the rear of his neck. "Ludmiller was careful."


    Memories flooded back and Nathaniel nodded. "She used to be an adventurer, she knows the ways. I didn''t even feel it."


    "All your party except Felna came back through my temple. The others returned to their homes, and I believe your feline friend is in Travis'' care. She had a¡ªa link that superseded my goddesses'' talismans." It shouldn''t have annoyed her as much as it did, but she was nothing if not competitive to win and support the hearts of the city. "You may have two more talismans from the table."


    "Travis pays well?" As he slipped off the altar and knew what was coming. He rubbed his right ear as the ringing and hissing started. "Always. Every damn time."


    "A side effect?"


    Nodding, Nathaniel sighed. "It''ll fade in an hour, but it''s always loud and not a cure or dispel yet has managed to stop¡ª" He froze as a pair of gentle lips touched his ear. Warmth spread into him and the ringing faded away. "Y-Y¡ª"


    "You''re welcome, Priest Nathaniel of the Golden One. Know that you are <em style="font-weight: 600">always welcome in my temple." Brushing her lips against his ears one last time, Fairheart lashed out with the smallest lick. "There are few enough half-elves in Northridge."


    Shivering at the attention, Nathaniel struggled to focus on ensuring his party were recovered. "Are my friends revived?"


    "No. I am due to do them next." Sparing a glance to one side and the smaller temple that housed the bodies her talismans summoned, Fairheart asked, "Perhaps you''d help me regain some mana before I do?"


    The followers of the Sisters of Grace, Nathaniel knew, had rituals that would boggle the mind and beguile other parts. He cleared his throat. "Uh, perhaps rouse them first and I''ll take care of recharging your mana in full?"


    "Devoted to your friends and willing to help one of another faith? You aren''t like any other Golden One priest I have ever met." As she spoke, Fairheart began drawing on her mana. He knew it was an excuse as much as she did¡ªwith Travis'' traits affecting the whole city, her mana wouldn''t run dry if she had to bring every single person in the city back one after another. "Give me a moment."


    <hr>


    "Huh. Where is this?" Felna asked.


    "Hey. Uh, this is where everyone bound to the dungeon ends up if they die. Things didn''t¡ª Oh, there''s Luddy. You got a lot of floors, but not the bottom?"


    "We were about to return home, Trav, when the dungeon boss started harrying us. Fife made the decision to leave the fast way. Uh, where is Fife?" Ludmiller asked. "I made sure to give her five doses of that damn poison."


    "Ow! Shit! Luddy!" Fife cut loose with a few more swear words, blistering the mental ears of those sharing Travis'' headspace. "That poison sucks!"


    "I told you!" Ludmiller tried to mentally cuff Fife but realized that if her daggers didn''t so much as slow the woman down, her wit likely wouldn''t do any more. "Oh, Felna? Trav, does she have a timer?"


    "Timer?" Felna asked, still trying to get a grip on where she was and what it meant to be here. That Ludmiller and Fife weren''t worried was a relief.


    "Same as yours, Luddy. Just under a day. I guess that''s the advantage of all this temple stuff, huh?" Travis felt relieved that they''d gotten out without any issues. "Why''d you go through all this, though? Why not fight to the death?"


    "Because goblins take captives, Trav, and none of us wanted to see what a rot dungeon would do with captives." Fife yawned, not that she was tired. "So, anything fun happen? Get some resources?"


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 Chapter 125

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 30/100


    Heart 3,240,000/3,240,000


    Experience 454,845/810,000


    Mithril 3,722


    Adamantine 2,209


    Mana 6,420


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 51


    Quest: Kill 87 city dwellers.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 43/66 | Monsters 14/67 | Traps 80/162


    Quest: Reach level 50.


    </blockquote>


    Life had become a study in ignorance, for Travis. He did his best to ignore a lot of things that didn''t matter anymore. Sure, he copied down a list of <em style="font-weight: 600">all the dungeon''s resources each day so his friends knew what was running low, what needed to be used, and what was just fine¡ªbut he didn''t need to keep checking on it.


    Too, the insane new plan for harvesting the bottom floor of his dungeon safely required him to ignore what was literally a king''s ransom in resources that had built up around the east, north, and west sides of his dungeon tunnels¡ªbecause they were dense enough now to block any possible resource node spawns except for in the south, which is where they''d mined out and back-filled. He refused to even mark the nodes on his maps.


    Even the workers and soldiers marching through his entrance every day required ignoring. They were passing through to the under-construction fort that was being built around his previously hidden entrance.


    What he was happy to pay attention to was the steady flow of cannons out into the city once Liz had brought him an artillery piece.


    The first week since sending the gold had been consumed with planning and preparations. Fife, Huntress, Ludmiller, and Ogmera''s party had returned from the goblin dungeon, which had been the source of a flood of resources and experience.


    Breeze, too, was someone worth paying a lot of attention to. She was building out floors faster and faster, until Travis finally had Penelope ask Breath of Spring how she grew so many¡ªonly to find out it was food. The more food she got, the bigger she got. So, Travis started shunting any excess food he could to her, and given how much he''d gotten from the goblin dungeon, that meant she had shot down into mid 50s territory quickly¡ªwhich had resulted in him finishing his quest. It had taken him a while to figure out what the reward had been, but the discovery that all his metal ores now smelted for fifty percent more end result was a happy one.


    Quests were something he had to pay attention to, but not too close. The killing city dwellers one had come easier when he found out that converting locals into kobolds triggered it. So, when new folks arrived, spent a few days in town to get up the nerve to ask, and joined¡ªthey counted.


    Northridge itself was growing, too. Travis had felt it working magics in a lot of subtle ways. When he''d directly asked the city about it, he''d gotten a straight answer: enchantments to make it easier to sleep, to ease bad memories, and enhancing the endurance of those who had to work. It made Travis jealous to hear about such effects.


    Travis watched Katelyn as she worked. Without anything else to steal his focus, he sighed as he felt like he could relax once more.


    "What''s up?" Katelyn asked. She was in Travis'' heart room, inspecting the Mana Manipulators there. "I think I could adjust these so they can store mana too."


    "That''s part of it. You know my mana regenerates nearly ninety percent, three times a day?" When Katelyn nodded, Travis continued. "It feels like a waste. I mean, we already have a surplus of iron and steel. Gold on tap, and every time Axel or Tinpot want to do something, they''re asking me to get them more mithril and adamantine to process. I want our railway to happen faster."


    Snorting with laughter, Katelyn shook her head. "Trav, we all do. Something''s holding up the approval in Far Reach, though. Christine said it shouldn''t take this long, but one of the landowners has the baron in their pocket and isn''t budging."


    "Why don''t we go around them, then?"


    Katelyn froze at that. She turned and looked directly at Travis'' heart and took a slow breath. "That wouldn''t be easy. We''d have to detour around them. They''re not a central hub, though, so it <em style="font-weight: 600">could be done. Want me to get Steph to have another meeting with Christine?"


    "If you see him before I do, yeah. How are things going between you two?"


    Letting out the sigh to end all sighs, Katelyn sat down on the floor and let her back press against Travis'' crystal. "He''s great, but I feel like every step needs to be slow. He''s had something happen in his past, and I think it hit him hard¡ª Trav, it has nothing to do with you, that''s one thing I <em style="font-weight: 600">do know."


    How she''d figured out he was going to interrupt <em style="font-weight: 600">and that he was thinking it was him and Penelope that were the problem, Travis had no clue. "Okay. On the plus side, you have all the time you need."


    Snorting a laugh, Katelyn reached a clawed hand up into the swirling mana around her, weaving it until shapes were formed. A train, a group of kobolds, a huge crystal. "I don''t know if that is scary or a relief. Things seemed so much easier when there were only a few of us in here. We all had things to do all the time, and if we didn''t do them it would turn out bad for everyone. Remember how long I spent in the library, struggling to regain my mana to make more explosive runes?"


    "I¡ª" Travis froze and laughed. "Steph just came in. He''s on his way down. I worry that I''m asking too much of him. I know he has some history in this kind of thing, but¡ª"


    "No. He''s <em style="font-weight: 600">loving this, Trav. Ask him." Standing back up, Katelyn stretched and rolled her spine from one side to the other. "He knows you wouldn''t pressure him to do all this stuff. He could dig tunnels, do some hunting, and you''d never ask another thing of him ever again. That''s <em style="font-weight: 600">why he''s happy to help."


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    Travis let that sink in as they waited, and eventually Stephan stepped into the room and was ambushed by a wizard. It gave Travis a weird feeling of pride when he saw his friends getting together. Watching them hug¡ªand in his heart room he couldn''t avoid paying attention to it¡ªwas a little awkward though. "I''ve got a crazy idea and I want your opinion," he said, when the two broke apart.


    Stephan looked at Katelyn, who shrugged, and turned back to Travis. "On a scale of one to Fife, how crazy is this?"


    "Not too crazy, I don''t think. So the issue here is, we want to shift goods into the kingdom via rail, and there is someone blocking us in Far Reach." Travis saw a human figure attempting to get his attention in the mining area. Axel wanted more mithril, it seemed, so Travis made another node and, since the lizards had literally nothing else to find on the floor, it appeared almost instantly; adding a plan to dig to the newly revealed ore. He then dragged his focus back to the conversation in his heart room with barely an instant lost. "So, why don''t we go around them? How much land does Far Reach claim? Can we build a line around them to¡­"


    "Hearthhome," Stephan said.


    "Right. It''s the central hub for trade, right?" Travis was pleased to see dawning recognition on Stephan''s face.


    "That will be perfect. We can start petitioning Hearthhome''s ruler, I think Earl Sanderson is still in power there, and do it very publicly. That way, Far Reach will get the picture very fast that we will cut them out of our trade completely if they keep up their idiocy. And, if they don''t, we go ahead with Hearthhome and give Far Reach what they deserve," Stephan said. "I''ll organize a meeting with Christine. She''ll like this."


    <hr>


    The ride had left Anichka with a few more reasons to dislike being away from Northridge. "I''m going to find the place with the biggest bath in all of Northridge, and I won''t be leaving there for a week."


    "Better make sure it''s huge, because I''ll be there with you. Someone needs to invent a better horse¡ªone with more padding." Tammy would have tilted to the side and rubbed her glutes, but from experience that only made the ache worse. "Next time, we will bring a wagon."


    "And a bigger gun," Anichka said. "How big could you make a gun if it used a wagon to hold it steady?"


    "Tinpot would know, and if he didn''t, Travis would. What''s that sign ahead?" Tammy clucked her tongue and urged her horse forward. The two slow moving wagons, smaller than their huge tithe ones, held the guards in one and the goods in the second. The wolves milled forward around Tammy and Anichka''s horses. "Northridge, that way?"


    It took Anichka a moment to realize what was the direction indicated, apart from a newly paved road. "Travis'' second entrance. They must have fortified it while we were away. Do you think that shifty merchant got Travis his cannon?"


    "Don''t call her <em style="font-weight: 600">''shifty''. For all we know she''s on the up-and-up." Tammy looked back as the wagons approached. She pointed down the stone-paved road leading toward the forest. "It looks like Travis'' new entrance is being used now."


    "We''ll be able to get the wagons in?" Thomas Brave asked. He was sitting beside the driver of the first wagon, doing his best to pay attention and not surrender to excitement at being almost home.


    Shrugging, Anichka turned her horse to the side trail. "If they''re directing all traffic that way, I hope so." Anichka kept one eye on the wolves with them. If anything was amiss, she knew they''d turn from the playful oversize puppies they pretended to be to get pets in an instant. Instead of getting angry, though, they started wagging their tails the moment they were near the forest.


    Stepping out, wearing only a light suit of mithril chain armor, Astrid recognized the wolves (of course) and the guards. She bared a huge grin full of teeth at Anichka and Tammy. "You saw the sign?"


    The wolves were first to reply. They rushed over to Astrid and all seemed intent on being the closest to her at the same time. For her part, Astrid reached out to the lesser members of her pack and roughed up their fur while their tails seemed intent on creating a hurricane.


    Not having the full story of Astrid''s changing sides, Anichka was always a little wary around the big woman. With her in her wolf form, and almost as tall as Anichka was while on her horse, validated it in her own mind. "Yes. You''re the welcome party?"


    "More like the <em style="font-weight: 600">unwelcome party. The goblins have sent out a few scouting parties. My pack has been hunting them." The smells on the bloodied wolves of far-off lands, cities and forests, tickled at Astrid''s senses. "Any trouble getting the delivery through?"


    Seeing Tammy was happy to let her talk, Anichka gave the report. "The tracks between Far Reach and Hearthhome were out, so we had to drive the wagons all the way through to Hearthhome. Ran into some fools with more bravado than sense. We shot them up, then they opened a wagon."


    Astrid let out a laugh while crouching to give her returned friends a few nips. "Any survive?" At Anichka''s nod, Astrid felt a little disdain. "I guess they will think twice before attacking any wagon trains from now on. Were they the reason the train didn''t run?"


    It was a link that made Anichka lift her hand up and press it to her forehead. "I didn''t think of that at the time. It makes sense for brigands to disrupt the train and force folks in a hurry to take the road instead."


    "Next time," Tammy said, speaking up so Astrid could hear her, "we''re bringing you with us."


    "As if I would be allowed within eyeshot of your capital." Astrid started walking alongside the road, keeping pace with the two riders. "Even with these classes Travis can give, I doubt I could survive whatever the standing army there would put forward to end me."


    "We let those wolves out to play while the King''s Guard watched over us. I think, if you wore some kind of fake collar, we could convince them you''re well-behaved." Anichka could see, ahead, the wall of a stone fort among the trees.


    Remembering all too well the suspicion of the guards, and Anichka''s efforts to show the bloodied wolves as being tame, Tammy groaned. "You are not going to get Astrid to roll on her back while you rub her stomach."


    Putting Tammy''s words together with the description of events, Astrid let out a bark of laughter. "You were petting bloodied wolves in the middle of the capital? Didn''t anyone recognize them?"


    "Yeah," Anichka said. "And she came with us."


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 Chapter 126

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 30/100


    Heart 3,240,000/3,240,000


    Experience 454,845/810,000


    Mithril 3,722


    Adamantine 2,209


    Mana 6,420


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 51


    Quest: Kill 87 city dwellers.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 43/66 | Monsters 14/67 | Traps 80/162


    Quest: Reach level 50.


    </blockquote>


    While Anichka and Astrid talked to the new arrival, once they were within his second entrance, Travis realized the name was familiar. "She''s my lawyer, I think. I guess I should talk to her."


    Astrid gave the slightest of nods, acknowledging that she''d heard him. "Travis wishes to speak with you. Follow me." She led the way to the tavern, which on the whole was only about thirty steps from the entrance, but there was a difference between wandering somewhere and being led by eight feet of humanoid wolf.


    Sitting at one of the little tables (little compared to her), Astrid looked at the woman who sat down opposite. "You needed to talk to him?"


    "Oh, uh. Not exactly. I wanted to see his dungeon." Brevity seemed to relax a little before replying, "I mostly have kin as my clients, you see. Arguing on behalf of a dungeon was quite a surprise. Lord Constance, the lord of the court that oversaw the case, admitted that he hadn''t seen the like of it before."


    "I''m getting a weird vibe from her," Travis said to Astrid, "not bad¡ªjust weird¡ªbut that seems pretty common around here. Sorry to put you on the spot with her, but Steph is busy talking with the council and Celeste is discussing business with Liz." When Astrid raised an eyebrow, he mentally sighed. "Just a little strange."


    Astrid tilted her head then nodded and, laughing, Astrid said, "I''m Travis'' third choice. Great. Well, if you want to see anything in the dungeon, I can show it to you. Might need some help getting around the deeper parts, because of some explosives that will go off if you get close, but I can get someone to help." She paused for a moment, then asked, "You deal with laws?"


    Travis was as curious as he suspected Brevity was, given her surprised expression.


    When Brevity nodded, Astrid explained, "I''m Balavian. Travis saved me from my own stupidity. No, Travis, don''t argue. He offered to let me work off what debt we invented between us, but later I made the choice to become a minion for him. Where does that leave my status in the kingdom?"


    "I''m not an expert on that, but you should know that none of Travis'' minions have <em style="font-weight: 600">any protected status. Dungeon monster killing can be penalized at a city level, but outside of their local city, you¡ªand everyone from this dungeon¡ªcan be murdered without any repercussions.


    "Would my client desire me to change that? I regret it won''t be as easy, or as cheap, as having a local dungeon sanctioned, but with the right team I believe I could secure you and yours protection to a similar level as common citizens enjoy."


    "Tell her to name a price," Travis told Astrid, "and then, if she needs more, double it."


    "Travis says do it. Figure out what it will cost, and he''ll pay for it." Astrid hated negotiating where money was concerned. Try as she might, it felt wrong to use money when force had always been her trade. "And if you need more, he''ll pay that too. He enjoys spending money like I enjoy hunting."


    "I noticed that when I saw the gift you sent to the King. You will get an answer as soon as he''s done counting it, I''m sure." While not sounding exactly money-hungry, Brevity certainly couldn''t keep eagerness from her voice.


    "You''re not unlike me, I think," Astrid said. She waited for the lawyer to blink a few times in surprise before continuing. "You are hungry to hunt. I can smell it on you."


    Brevity looked prepared to deny the accusation, but finally nodded. "In a way, yes. My normal clients are cities wishing to sanction a poorly acting dungeon, or even a trade group demanding access to a verdant one. Very rarely do cases involving an active dungeon come my way that have any kind of happy ending. Your dungeon, Travis, is unique in the history of the kingdom. New laws will be required specifically to accommodate you and your people."


    Narrowing her eyes, evaluating the words, Astrid nodded. "You are a wolf, then. A wolf seeking glory from combat. Your weapon is your mind, and the glory you seek is to be known as a mighty warrior."


    Travis pondered the similarity and the framing. "You might be overthinking it, Astrid, but at the same time it might be right. Everyone wants to leave their name on the history books <em style="font-weight: 600">somewhere." When he got a shrug for a reply from her, he took it as a good sign to leave it be.


    <hr>


    Stephan looked across the table at the three. "It''s only a matter of time, now. The King should send official word via a royal courier, along with some witnesses to swear you into your titles pending a summons to the capital for full investiture."


    "That''s the big hurdle, right? We know someone is paying attention to Northridge, and at least someone in Far Reach is challenging us." On the whole, it was the most annoying thing about founding a city, so far as Brolly Windchime was concerned. "Will we all have to go together?"


    "No. Given you''re all leaders of the city, the King will call on you one at a time. It''s not good to leave a young city without a guiding hand." Flipping the paperwork around in his claws, Stephan moved on. "Next order of business, dealing with the perpetual interruption to our plans for a railway. Travis suggested a good idea."


    Perking up, Christine gave her best tired smile. Meetings had become far more busy and intense lately, and it was all because their southern neighbor was sending caravans. "What is it?"


    Practically feeling the stress rolling out from Christine, Stephan smiled and gave her a nod. "We will send a delegation to Hearthhome and offer to build a railway to them, skirting around Far Reach."


    "Huh?" Christine tried to make sense of the words. "But it''s nearly three times as far to Hearthhome as it is to Far Reach."


    "Closer to four, once we avoid all of Far Reach''s claimed land. We will need to have guards regularly along the line in forts. Sabotage and wild animals would be an issue. That would mean we have to charge more to pay for repairs and guards. The most important part would be making Far Reach nervous that we are cutting them out of our revenue chain. It will discourage any further blocking and, hopefully, make them come to us before we go further than talking to Hearthhome."


    "Sorry, I am having trouble keeping up here. My workload has been increasing thanks to all the new trade, and I can''t find anyone who would be of help. Liz offered, but for all she''s got all the right credentials¡ªbut she''s new to the city." Christine had to stifle a yawn.


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    "She''s new, but she has been of assistance to us," Stephan said, musing on the problem. "I''ll ask around the kobolds for anyone with experience as a clerk. If you''d like, I could spend a day now and then¡ª"


    "I''d marry you in a heartbeat if you could help me get six hours of uninterrupted sleep." The look Christine leveled at Stephan, she hoped, made sure he knew she was joking. "Howard, would you be willing to make the trip to Hearthhome?"


    "Yes, of course." Howard didn''t feel much better than Christine looked. His own work had been growing, though not as fast as hers, and she was far younger and more capable of recovering from late nights and early mornings. "We''ll need to wait until after the courier brings us news of the titles. Perhaps I could even do it on my way back from being invested?"


    "That would be excellent," Stephan said. "I suspect we have at least one saboteur in Northridge already. I''ll try to organize some traps to catch them, but keep an eye out for someone acting strange or, worse, helpful."


    All four froze; not so much as breathing. Brolly was the first to recover and say the name that had jumped to the front of all their minds: "Liz."


    <hr>


    Eliza laughed as she processed the stack of inventories from traveling merchants. "It''s no problem, really. I said I''d help." Help with the task she''d engineered to be a problem. It didn''t take a lot of work, after all, to persuade merchants to bring all manner of useless junk to Northridge.


    For Christine, keeping a viper close was better than giving them room to edge around to your back. Her time spent building a minor trade empire stood her in good stead for lying in the woman''s face. "I still have no idea why they''d bring low grade steel all the way here. They''re not the only one, either. It''s almost like someone is deliberately posting false requests."


    Had she gone too far? Eliza didn''t think so. There was no connection between her and the group spreading the false messages. "If you''d like, I could go and take a look around. I''m sure I could figure out if it was deliberate or just some fool writing out your messages wrong."


    "Oh, please, no. I have both our hands full dealing with things here. You are fine with the pay to handle this, right?" It was the one part of the ploy Christine hated¡ªpaying their spy. The more annoying thing was that if Eliza had been honest, she''d have made a great addition to the city. "Do you have the paperwork on the reply to our request for rail connection?"


    Turning in her chair to the cabinet beside her, Eliza quickly found what Christine was after. "No luck again, I''m afraid. Someone in Far Reach has a stick up their butt about this one." Which was exactly what Eliza had planned. That particular problem would be solved by the scion on their way to Northridge. It was one of Eliza''s more standard setups: a big problem impedes the growth of the city, the leaders can''t handle it, in walks a noble who is honest and helpful and clears up all these problems like a snap, said noble takes a leave of absence, the problems return¡ªand then their hero returns to fix things.


    "Typical. There''s always a palm that needs more grease. I was thinking of sending Howard to take care of it, but he has to visit his nephew." That was the official word, and Christine''s next task was to ensure that Eliza didn''t find out about the title ceremony. It would be easy enough, since Travis was the ultimate distraction.


    <hr>


    "This is not your council building."


    Howard Tailor smiled and nodded. "I understand the confusion, but our council building is all business. This hall is far more suited to get-togethers and social functions; though with our recent visitors from the north, those have been in short supply."


    Nodding, the young man looked around. "Suitable, then. You will all be present for the ceremony, and you understand I¡ª" He stopped talking as a woman came in, walked up to the two of them, and then stopped. "Is something the matter?"


    Christine Sellswell didn''t dress in rags. She had good cotton and wool clothing, fine boots, and even enjoyed the luxury of modern undergarments, but what the man before her was wearing would leave her best fashion choices as poor reflections of what clothing could be. "Your Highness, I am Christine Sellswell. Sorry to arrive late, but we have a <em style="font-weight: 600">minor problem that needed dealing with. Brolly Windchime is on his way."


    It wasn''t common for people so far from the capital to recognize when a representative of the king was actually one of his sons, but Stewart Brave nodded his head in acknowledgment of the title. "A problem more important than your investiture?"


    Sighing, Christine started to explain, "The reason behind the investiture move is that we knew we''d eventually have a noble house make a move to wrest¡ª"


    "Ease," Howard said.


    "Right. They want to take hold of a new city that seems to be doing well for itself, without risking one of their little sh¡ª"


    "Scions."


    "Right. Sure enough, we found one such agent trying to manipulate events to import some¡ªscion." Christine didn''t need to have ten years of studying faces under her belt to see the mirth and consternation mixed on Stewart''s face. "So, to distract her from this ceremony, I took her to the local dungeon and left her there."


    That got Stewart''s attention. "You left her in a dungeon?"


    "While I''d have liked to leave her in the hostile one outside Northridge, since that isn''t for vermin such as <em style="font-weight: 600">vipers anymore, I put her in our resident ally dungeon. She is absolutely safe¡ªmore''s the pity." Christine heard armored footfalls behind her. "That is, hopefully, our commander of the guard now."


    Brolly Windchime was annoyed. He had been overseeing the deployment of cannons around Breeze''s fort when he''d gotten word his attendance was required. What was worse, in his book, this was all a bunch of wasted time and money to stop outside interference from nobles when he could just not let them into the city in the first place. "How long will this take?"


    "Not long, I assure you. These are your portfolios, your titles are, naturally, baron and baroness. My father was more than happy with your pledges to the strength of the kingdom, and he assures you that you three are, and your families shall be, his chosen representatives in Northridge.


    "Your titles are from now, until such time as you die or lose the King''s favor, in effect. You can attend upon the King at your earliest convenience to be formally recognized, but that''s a minor thing and more that he would like to meet you in person. I managed to secure you a member of the College of Arms to attend¡ªshe was in my retinue. I''ll leave her in your care to design each of you a coat befitting your city."


    "There was another thing." Christine hadn''t talked to anyone about it, but of everyone she knew short of the king, his son would be the one to ask. "As I mentioned before, we have a dungeon that''s an ally. I am not sure if you were briefed on it¡ª<em style="font-weight: 600">him¡ªbut we will be declaring Travis¡ªthe dungeon¡ªas a person of standing within Northridge. All his workers and monsters too."


    "Is that wise? It''s a verdant dungeon, I take it?"


    "No. Travis is a dragon dungeon, and one that has proved his loyalty to Northridge and its people many times over. What I''d like to ask is how would we go about extending this protection under the precinct of the entire kingdom?"


    Stewart sucked on his teeth. It was an old habit from his youth he''d not quite managed to shake. "I will talk to my father when I return. Can you stand as witnesses on the dungeon''s behalf?" He got three solid nods that impressed him a little. "A little¡ª"


    "Another million?" Christine asked.


    "If it''s in adamantine again, that would be more than enough." It was a weird situation, but he knew how much his father loved equipping his army with the best materiel, and getting huge wagons full of adamantine had caused the King to take much notice of this little city that was still finding its legs. "The only other thing here is you all need to take a knee."


    Howard, Brolly, and Christine did so.


    "As a representative of the King and with his command, I welcome you three, Baron Brolly Windchime, Baroness Christine Sellswell, and Baron Howard Tailor, to the peerage and wish you and your lineages good tidings in the rulership of Northridge."


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 Chapter 127

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 30/100


    Heart 3,240,000/3,240,000


    Experience 716,599/810,000


    Mithril 3,722


    Adamantine 2,209


    Mana 6,420


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 51


    Quest: Kill 87 city dwellers.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 43/66 | Monsters 18/67 | Traps 80/162


    Quest: Reach level 50.


    </blockquote>


    The jump in his XP on the first day wasn''t as surprising as it would have been if Travis hadn''t been told by Howard <em style="font-weight: 600">who the representative of the King had been. It was enough to make him curious how much XP the King would be worth coming into his doors. It had been a slight shuffle to ensure Liz wasn''t anywhere near the entrance when he passed through, but the pretense of inviting her to the second floor tavern had ensured she wouldn''t find out.


    "Do you think, if I offered him any price he wants, he''d spend a month in here?"


    Penelope, who was curled up on the top floor of the tower with Felna laying beside her, shrugged her wings a little. "Hard to say. The offer would need to be good. You might be able to petition to operate as a jail for the King."


    "What are you two talking about?" Felna asked, not even lifting her head from the warm wooden platform she was adorning.


    "Trav got a pile of extra XP for the prince that came to give the council their papers. He hasn''t stopped going on about it all week." Penelope stretched a wing out, pushed it to full extension, then pulled it back in. "He wants to pay the guy to spend a month here."


    "He was pretty, wasn''t he? For a human."


    "Is that all you think about?" Travis asked.


    "Mmm, no. If he was warm, too, that would make him a far more delicious target. Too rich, though, and I don''t want a half-caste bastard son. Probably less than he does." Turning, Felna stretched herself out on her stomach and let out a soft sigh. "You were thinking of making me a temple? I want it up here."


    Reaching out one talon, Penelope started running her claws down Felna''s back, earning a deep purr from the cat kin. "I don''t know if he can do that. You could have one on the first floor, though, close to where people come and go. Second floor might put you too close to Brogdar''s temple. Third, well, you have the wolves down there."


    "Astrid and her pack are very unlike the Balavians I knew in my time north of here. They treat people with respect and do not look at me like I am chattel." Squirming a little, Felna let out a happy sigh. "No. This <em style="font-weight: 600">is the perfect spot."


    "Oh, we have a party trying out the dungeon today," Travis said.


    "You finally got someone to agree to that?" Felna asked. "Who''s on resurrection duty?"


    "Brayden. They trust him, since their own cleric is a fellow Brogdar follower."


    <hr>


    Fife stood in a fake boss room. She had two smaller scorpions with her and, even through the door to the next room, she could hear the wolves fighting. She wasn''t wearing her full adamantine gear, but she wasn''t too upset. Painted on her iron chestplate was <em style="font-weight: 600">Boss in green paint. What bugged her was she''d absorbed a new suit of armor and given up her adamantine scales¡ªfor leather. "This damn stuff itches. I like hard adamantine scales."


    The scorpion to Fife''s left chittered in commiseration and leaned against her thigh. When she reached down to rub its head, it chittered more and the other one pressed against her opposite thigh.


    "You guys are so cute. Wish we''d had you during the siege. Imagine charging at the enemy with a thousand of your friends! It would¡ª I don''t hear fighting anymore." Lifting her steel shield and sword, Fife peered through the darkness at the door to her "boss room."


    The door, she knew, wasn''t complicated. It did however have a surprise. The sound of a wall-mounted spear trap discharging made Fife grin. "It''s the little things, you know?" Beside her, one of the scorpions bobbed its head up and down¡ªwhich given that was part of its body meant the whole creature tilted forward and back. "They''ll heal up after that, but I''m hoping they''re low on mana now. Brayden never had a big tank, so I think that''s a trait of Brogdar''s followers."


    Sure enough, the softly murmured calls of thanks to the god in question were audible through the door. Fife nodded. "We need to change the rules so I can head out if I hear anything suspicious."


    "Fife, that would be too much to start. Let''s gauge their strength first."


    "Alright, Trav, but I''m totally going to monologue." Right then the door was shoved open violently by a big lizard kin. Fife looked at the guy. He was wearing good steel plate and was just about twice as tall as she was¡ªbut only barely as wide as her. "Warriors for good, you have stepped into my lair!


    "For centuries I have waited, biding my time as I hear footsteps above. Now, though, I finally get to have my fun. Prepare to die, mortals!"


    Bracing his big shield, the lizard kin prepared to intercept Fife, now she''d had her little fun. What he didn''t expect was for her to run wide and pounce past him to come down on his party''s sorcerer. "Pull back to the door! Give me room to engage!"


    Digging her sickle claws into the magic user''s shoulder joints, Fife felt the rush of air toward her of an impending shield strike¡ªand completely forgot she didn''t have her usual mass. Sent sprawling by the fighter, she was pleased to see her two pets rush up behind him¡ªone sinking its stinger into his thigh, the other bouncing off his sabaton. "Fall back. Let me get this guy so you can take out his friends."


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    Not needing to hear the call for a venom cure when she could see it, the cleric of Brogdar called on her deity and sent her spell toward her protector, even as she carefully stepped backward. A glance at their caster showed her blood on his robes, but he wasn''t in danger of falling dead at any moment like cave scorpion venom could leave even a big lizard kin like her friend.


    Fife could see the defensive position they were taking up. The party''s tank set himself in the doorway¡ªfilling it¡ªwhile the sorcerer and cleric were right behind them. The natural cave she''d unearthed while building this area was helpful, now, as there was a crag out of sight of the doorway. "Pattern three!"


    The crackling fire in the cavern lit the place well, but when he lost sight of the unnaturally strong and resilient kobold, the lizard kin knew what she was planning. "I have to move in. Get everyone healed again and we move."


    The healing spells were unmistakable. Fife groaned at the sound but didn''t begrudge the party their perfectly normal tactics. She peered at the scorpions in the dark. "Okay, plan twelve. You remember that?" When both did the bobbing nod, she smirked with a flashing smile of teeth. When the sounds of prayer ended, she got ready to play her part in the plan.


    It was a good plan, the lizard kin knew, because it''s how he would have managed the situation. Keeping in cover and forcing his party into the room was the only way the kobold could get her minions into position. "More light!"


    Keeping close behind her fighter, the sorceress lifted her staff and (ignoring the slight pain in her shoulder) bolstered her light spell.


    "Above!"


    That was Fife''s signal to charge. One of her scorpions had been climbing along the ceiling of the cave and, now, was doing its best to land on the priest. When she rounded the corner and ran at the fighter, she saw him turn to face her and leave the rest of his party to remove the scorpion threat.


    Fife slammed her shoulder, braced behind her shield, into the lizard kin. She brought her sword around and worked the tip up and under his tassets, finding scaled flesh below. "Get ''em!"


    While the lizard kin''s return blow came down and onto Fife''s shield, the second scorpion that had been riding on her back worked its way up his arm and delivered its venom through a gap under his arm.


    Pain lanced through the lizard kin''s sword arm. He hissed sharply and used his shield to batter the scorpion off his arm, but that let the kobold strike a second time. Cursing the name of every armor smith he knew, he swung his shield in a wide arc to shove the kobold away, hitting her in the head with it due to his aiming a little too high.


    Her bell rung, Fife let loose a shout of pure joy and slammed her shield back into the lizard kin. She was having such a good time of it, in fact, that she wasn''t aware why she was having trouble moving until she looked at one leg and saw a green vine snaking from the ground and twisted around it. The lizard kin shanked her under her right arm with his short sword as she gaped at the nature sorcerer sending more vines to lock her down. "Fu¡ª"


    With both the "boss''" arms restrained and her immobile, the lizard kin had a chance to kill the scorpion that had stung him and immediately felt the wash of a venom cure. "Kill it!"


    If Fife had been in her full armor, complete with adamantine sword, she would have made quick work of the vines now tying her tighter and tighter. She nodded toward the archer as he drew back his bow. "Good fight," she said.


    When fighting the goblin dungeon, Fife had been delighted at how fast Huntress had loosed arrows, but it was nothing compared to the young woman standing before her. In a second she had two hafts sticking from the gap at her neck. Ten seconds later she felt them overwhelm her passive healing ability and she slumped in place.


    Panting hard, the archer slowly lowered her bow and checked her arrow supply. "I have never seen a dungeon creature take that much damage before except that goblin boss last year." Lowering her goggles, she gazed around and pointed to the worked stone tunnel on the other side of the natural cave. "That would be our next target."


    Fife watched through lizards along with Travis as the four person party neared the final room. "A million gold says they fall in the pits."


    "You don''t have a million gold," Travis said with a laugh. "But, you''re on. I bet they find those and open the door."


    "Wait!" Walking forward and brushing her hand along the floor, the archer shook her head. "Trapped. Pit. Can you wind some vines along here?" No sooner did the sorceress spread out a line of crawling vines toward the pitfalls did one, two, and finally three traps trigger. "Great work. Now, let me pin these up¡­"


    "Told you." Travis was smug as he watched the four work their way across the pits. "You owe me a million."


    "Put it on my tab." Fife said, as the archer reached for the handle of the door and opened it. With no one close to hear the blast, Fife had to rely on watching a little wooden sign dropped down in front of the archer with the word "BOOM!" written on it in sparkling red paint to know when the trap triggered. The archer opened her mouth as if to swear¡ªthen the cannon in the room fired.


    Travis and Fife both broke into gales of laughter. The four adventurers were covered from head to foot in sludge containing an endless sea of bright silver flecks. It was the finale, and a reward and punishment both.


    "Does that mean we failed?" the lizard kin asked.


    "If they''d had real ammo in"¡ªthe archer got to her feet and managed to spit out a huge wad of glittering silver¡ª"that thing, we''d all be dead. This is the perfect funnel, and we walked into it."


    "There''s something written on the back of the sign, under all this gunk." Wiping the weaker-than-normal sludge off the wood with her arm¡ªwhich was also covered in the stuff¡ªthe archer laughed. "We get to take whatever we want from here. It says the fight is over and their cleanup crew are coming in."


    "Hey, Trav?" Fife asked. "Do you think he''ll want to spar a bit?"


    "You can ask him once Brayden has you up again. Also, I want to give them some cool stuff as thanks for this. You think some armor and weapons might be appreciated?" Travis asked.


    "If you do that for everyone, you won''t just equip all the kingdom''s adventurers, you''ll make a lot of friends. Let''s do it!"


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 Chapter 128

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 31/100


    Heart 3,459,600/3,459,600


    Experience 158,665/864,900


    Workers 45/193


    Monsters 34/195


    Traps 80/474


    Mithril 6,390


    Adamantine 1,133


    Mana 6,420


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 51


    Quest: Kill 62 city dwellers.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 45/66 | Monsters 34/67 | Traps 80/162


    Quest: Reach level 50.


    </blockquote>


    A week had come and gone. The group of adventurers had practiced again and again, which meant they came into the dungeon every single day. More still arrived. He allowed Fife to have more and better armor, and with the extra difficulty she even overwhelmed and killed them a few times.


    He''d made it a challenge, now, that if they could clear the mini dungeon with Fife in a layer of adamantine, they could get a set of armor and weapons each of either mithril or adamantine. Not a single party had turned down that chance, and so he started getting more and more challenges where Fife won¡ªand he got almost a full level of experience from it.


    He watched as Fife got beaten, after several attempts, and the current party made their slow way to the cannon room for the first time. Since they were in the <em style="font-weight: 600">no pulled punches mode, the cannon was loaded with scrap metal.


    It was a disappointment when their rogue found the trigger for the cannon and disarmed it. They moved into the treasure room, which Travis had half filled with gold, and read the message sitting on the table within.


    <blockquote>


    Congratulations. Take as much gold as you can carry, and ask Fife for directions to our smith for your new armor and weapons. Please note: the fighting is now over. Do not attack anything you see in the dungeon.


    </blockquote>


    "Alright, Brayden, they''ve read the note. Head in and get Fife back on her feet. Their mage really did a number on her."


    "Got it, Trav." Brayden moved slower than normal. It had to do with him wearing a full suit of adamantine for protection. "You know, maybe I should just get Astrid to come in here after this in her full armor. I hate being in this giant tin can."


    "It''s not tin!" Sounding offended, Fife let out a few curses. "That''s good armor, that is!"


    Approaching Fife''s body, Brayden let out a laugh. "Water mage? This is some very nice work." He braced himself and mana started to pool around him as he beseeched his god to restore life to Fife.


    "It was cheap, is what it was. How am I meant to fight back someone who fills my armor with water and then uses it to constrict me?" Grumbling some more, Fife didn''t stop even as she jerked awake back in her body. "And that''s another thing, I need better healing. Trav, can you make me a priest?"


    Travis contemplated going right ahead as she instructed, but first felt the need to explain something. "I''m pretty sure that will make you weaker, Fife. You might not be able to wear all your armor. The info I can see about Tank is that its best stat is physical defense and its worst is offense. Priest''s best stat is <em style="font-weight: 600">mana."


    Stopping, Fife grumbled and shook her head. "Yeah, okay. Let''s not do that right now."


    The group of adventurers, leaving the treasure room, all paused at the sight of Fife on her feet again. "Sorry for the attack, ma''am," the mage said. "We wouldn''t have gotten past you any other way."


    Laughing, Fife made a dismissive gesture. "It''s fine, really. Shows me a weakness in my defense I need to work on. You can make it up by coming and having some ale, then explaining how I could avoid that."


    Travis let out a silent sigh of relief. As much as Fife seemed like she held a grudge, she never did. He turned his attention back to his stats and sighed. "These quests are taking forever."


    Turning to leave, Brayden wandered around the dungeon to check each room and rearm the traps. "We have time, Trav. I meant to ask, what did we get for the dungeon delving one?"


    "Oh, right, I told Axel about it¡ª When we smelt raw ore, we get twice as much product out of it. Nothing but pure crazy dungeon magic." Travis laughed. "That one had been bugging me almost as much as the <em style="font-weight: 600">kill city dwellers one. The adventurers are helping with that."


    "<em style="font-weight: 600">''Helping'', yeah. I need to go and thank Brother Rupert for his support. Without him boosting our reputation, I don''t think half of them would take the risk." Brayden slipped his gauntlets and helmet off. "Do we know how Howard has gotten on?"


    "Not until he gets back. He''ll get his title and make all his promises to the King, then come back and pay the visit to Hearthhome. That should kick the hornet nest over and make Liz panic." It had come to Travis as a shock to find out the trader who''d helped so much was a spy among them. "Think she''ll take the bait and not realize we all know?"


    "She''ll figure it out, Trav. She''s not an idiot, for all she is a fool to be working for whoever she is. I was talking with Steph, and his thoughts on it are that it''s almost full indoctrination. They pick people who don''t have any other option and they feed them lies and half-truths until they think they''re doing their job for the good of everyone." Leaving the training dungeon, Brayden marched right to the original watering hole and found a party already in progress. "Don''t mind if I do."


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    <hr>


    "Two shots in a rifle?" Anichka asked Tinpot, looking at the gun and examining it. "Is it meant to be broken like this?" She glanced over to Tammy, who shrugged.


    "Yes!" Tinpot had spent an entire lifetime enjoying his craft, but now he''d found something new and exciting. Firearms had always been for those with far more money than he, and no one would risk a precious weapon in the hands of a tinker who had no idea what he was doing. Now, though¡­ "I was reading one of our boy''s books"¡ªthat was another thing that he''d learned to enjoy, reading¡ª"and he speaks of wondrous weapons that would spit more shots in a second than a line of our rifles could manage in a minute."


    Sighing, Tinpot wished he had the know-how and the tools to make some of the magic-seeming guns he''d read about. "But these things need to come in steps. I am trying to make the more basic designs, and the first of those is a gun that loads from the back."


    "Show me," Anichka said, feeling bubbling excitement. Of all the people she''d met, excluding Tammy, he was the first she''d ever connected with in their first meeting.


    Picking up the gun, Tinpot made sure he was aiming it down to the testing wall of soft dirt. "I needed to come up with two new inventions to make this work. First I got help from the nice wizard lady. Her work with traps was exactly what I needed to make the hinge mechanism here. Her brother solved the other problem for me." With the gun broken open, the over-and-under barrels were nothing more than high precision tubes. He pushed the little metal-wrapped bullet and powder combinations into each of them and snapped it closed again. "This chemical is sensitive to shock. The two arms of the firing mechanism will strike them one after the other. It''s loaded, Annie."


    Keeping the gun aimed at the wall of dirt, Anichka inspected the mechanism. "I don''t have to put powder in?"


    "Point and shoot." Tinpot waited for her to line up and fire, each barrel performing perfectly, much to his relief. "Now, lift the lever on the side and break it open again."


    Following the instructions, Anichka marveled at the two smoking metal canisters. "How do I get those out?"


    "Just tip the gun back a bit. When the bullets fire, they shove backwards on the empty cartridge¡ªso they don''t get wedged in tight." When the two canisters came out easily, Tinpot passed her two more of the precious cartridges. "Now reload."


    Anichka''s fingers almost trembled as she did so, slotting her ammunition into their holes and then snapping the gun closed again. "Tinpot, this changes everything."


    "That''s what Mister Travis said!" Watching as Anichka fired two more shots, Tinpot felt the excitement pouring off her like it was a palpable wave. He couldn''t deny he felt it too. "This should speed your firing up, yes?"


    Tammy nodded and held up one of the cartridges. "How hard are these to make?"


    "Not terribly. The tricky part is pushing the bullet into them. You can''t use a hammer because"¡ªTinpot turned one over in his hand to tap a claw on the percussion cap¡ª"if that goes off, you have to start over, and maybe ask Brayden for some assistance."


    "Should I save the empty ones?" Anichka asked, before firing twice more. The gun didn''t kick as hard as her flintlock rifles did.


    "Oh! Yes! I can pop the cap back out and add more of the special chemical to them. Maybe I should add some kind of bag to catch them in?"


    Tammy shook her head. Like Anichka, she''d warmed up to the kobold gunsmith quickly, and felt more comfortable talking to him than most other folk. "I can keep a bag on my belt. We''re going to need a lot of them, though. You''ve seen how fast Annie can find her targets, and if I can reload as fast as you showed, with just two of these we could keep a constant fire rate of a shot every two seconds."


    "Can you make the guns lighter? Maybe use mithril?" Anichka asked.


    Shaking his head, Tinpot tapped the steel prototype. "I have found it''s better to make the barrels out of thin adamantine. It''s lighter than an equivalent amount of mithril to contain a similar amount of powder. The problem is working it thin enough takes much longer. I''m trying to fix that."


    Travis was at a loss with Tinpot. He loved that the guy seemed so determined to recreate the things from his memory books, but at the same time there was probably a lot of stuff in there he hoped no one ever tried to make. Still, him figuring out how to make a breech-loading rifle was beyond amazing to Travis. He didn''t interrupt the conversation going on, but he did feel pride that these new tools would only come from his dungeon.


    <hr>


    Blake was in his happy place. His own private quarters had a large wooden drawing board that Stephan had made for him. Real paper adorned the board as he drew precise and measured lines with a straight edge and some graphite.


    Glancing at the diagram that he''d stuck to one side of his board with a little blob of the basic sludge Robert made for their traps. "Are you sure this is what you want?"


    "We''re giving away adamantine and mithril too freely. I want to make three tiers of difficulty in mini dungeons." Fife tapped the page she''d painstakingly worked on. "This will be the new mithril dungeon. Then I have an adamantine dungeon, a magic dungeon, and a firearms dungeon."


    Stopping, his claws having barely finished ending a line, Blake turned his head to look at Fife with an eyebrow ridge raised.


    "Too much?" Fife asked.


    "We''ll need more when we reach the next big level milestone. These give us a good supply of rock, too." Blake was shaking his head and talking fast. "Then we can have specially designed combos of equipment, encourage adventurers to try for what they specifically want, and they can die over and over!"


    Bouncing in place, which Fife realized would shake a building if she wasn''t standing on flagstones, Fife pointed at her drawing. "So you want more of these?"


    "As many as you can make. Uh, Travis?" Blake was a touch worried about getting Travis'' attention, mostly because he knew how busy the dungeon was now.


    His name, asked as a question, snapped Travis'' focus to the work room. "What can I help you with, Blake?"


    "We want to build more dungeons on the second floor. How many more traps and creatures can you make for it? We might use, uh, ten to thirty traps per dungeon." Looking at Fife, Blake got a nod from her on the numbers.


    "Well," Travis said, already feeling excited about this, "If you used the maximum amount, I''d have enough traps for ten more. As for <em style="font-weight: 600">monsters, with ten dungeons, I could let you have about twenty per dungeon. And those numbers will keep going up, so uh, go crazy and build cool stuff!"


    "Thanks, Trav. I guess I need to get busy," Fife said.


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 Chapter 129

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 31/100


    Heart 3,459,600/3,459,600


    Experience 437,797/864,900


    Mithril 5,902


    Adamantine 3,422


    Mana 6,420


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 51


    Quest: Kill 41 city dwellers.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 45/66 | Monsters 34/67 | Traps 80/162


    Quest: Reach level 50.


    </blockquote>


    "This is a dungeon!"


    The shout drew Travis'' attention to the new arrivals, who''d just stepped into his entrance from the forest fort and drawn their weapons. He could see, but the sound was muffled¡ªhearing at all meant a denizen was nearby, but more importantly there were city guards in that hallway.


    Several of the guards had lowered the tips of their pikes and held them at the ready, while others had raised their guns.


    "Fife! Can you get to the entrance? Brayden too if you can make it?" Travis watched things unfold from Axel''s point of view, which he only realized because Felna was on the tower talking with Penelope and the angle of the view was level with the guards. "Axel, can you hold back and keep an eye on how this goes down?"


    "Got it, Trav. Seems like a bunch of new blood, though they have good gear. I can''t really tell anything but the armor and weapons, but the steel armor two of them are in looks brand new."


    Travis watched as Brayden and Fife rushed up from where they''d been training in the Martial Hall. Tagging along behind them were Ludmiller, Kelvin, and Astrid.


    "Relax. The dungeon is an ally, not an enemy." The guard, a sergeant, was doing his job well in Travis'' estimation. He''d lowered his pistol back to its holster and held his open hands out to show he wasn''t armed. "See the doors over there? They lead out into Northridge. Nothing''s going to attack you unless you start something."


    And it was right then Travis realized he had a problem, and it was entirely his fault. "Wait! Guys! Please stop!"


    But it was too late. Just as the adventurers were sliding their weapons back in their sheathes, Fife and Brayden broke into the open. They had blood on their weapons and armor. Everyone drew their weapons again and, from what Travis could see, the archer in their party had even strayed his line of sight over Axel.


    An older woman, wearing far more elaborate armor than the adventurers, stepped through the entrance and seemed to take stock of things. "It has been a long journey. Lower your weapons, everyone, there is no evil here to fight." The way she said the last words made Travis start to wonder¡ªsince he''d heard Brayden speak with a similar, slight accent.


    Brayden, to Travis'' surprise, immediately hung the mace he''d been using on his belt. When Fife didn''t respond immediately, he thumped her in the ribs and said, "Put your weapon away."


    Wincing, Fife did as Brayden told her¡ªbut the adventurers didn''t. Their frontline fighters rounded on Brayden and Fife with weapons drawn.


    The woman in the elaborate armor let out the softest sigh and moved. To Travis, it was a rush of motion that seemed to flow around the adventurers as the woman put herself between them and his kobolds. Drawing a longsword from her right side and a shortsword from her left, she parried the attacks of both the front-liners of the party and turned each deflection into a disarm maneuver. The action was over in less time than Travis judged it took Axel to blink. "I asked nicely. Never raise your blades against a priest of Brogdar Evil Slayer again."


    Everyone in the room froze at her statement. The tone was a mix of confidence and resignation that made Travis feel relieved¡ªlike an adult had stepped into the room and threatened to take everyone''s toys away if they misbehaved. That she pretty much had done exactly that made him giggle a bit¡ªbut not where anyone would hear it. "Who is she? A priest of Brogdar?" he managed to ask Brayden.


    "High Priestess of Brogdar Alice Stormblade, welcome to Travis, dungeon of Northridge, and home to one of our temples." Brayden dipped his head slightly toward the woman, which told Travis all he needed to know about her, as if defending the lives of his friends wasn''t enough.


    Mutterings from the group went ignored. The guards present made motions toward the city-side exit, and the adventurers followed along. The sergeant made a point to collect the disarmed weapons. "Travis, do you want to press charges?"


    "Axel, can you tell them no?" Travis said.


    "He doesn''t hold a grudge, don''t worry. After all, if they want to adventure in a local dungeon, their choices are a hole full of poison or here." Where Axel had found that sharp wit, Travis had no idea, but he suspected a certain feline was the cause.


    "True enough. Go on, get out of here. If the Guard catches you lot causing more trouble, you''ll have some time in the stockade." The sergeant passed them their weapons before seeing them out.


    Alice looked around, then paused, then said, "You have a good relationship with the city guard, Travis. It''s a unique experience to encounter a live dungeon that doesn''t ill-wish anything unfortunate enough to have to enter it. How best should I address you?"


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    "Travis, or Trav," Brayden said. "It''s good to see you again, ma''am."


    "My advisors said you looked a little different now, but this is quite the change, Cleric Brayden. Is there somewhere nearby to get a drink and talk?"


    <hr>


    Fife was annoyed. The steel blade in her hands was covered in wolf, human, and kobold blood, and it was all inside her sheath too. The blade was easier to clean than the sheath, but she was making a start on the weapon because the last thing she wanted was her practice blade to cause some nasty wounds.


    "You''ll want cleaning alcohol." Kelvin sat down beside Fife and set a large jug of strong smelling liquid before her. "It''s the only way to stop anything from growing in there. Works on your insides, too."


    "Thanks. Yeah, I normally try to keep it clean, but I''ve been working with Brayden long enough that when he gives a command, my arm is already moving. You know what I mean?"


    Knowing he had a far away look on his face, Kelvin sighed. "Twice I''ve had that same closeness." When Fife didn''t say a word, he continued. "The first was a brave woman who never backed down from a fight. When she said jump, I jumped and wondered why afterward."


    "Was she cute?"


    "No. She was <em style="font-weight: 600">handsome. Strong shoulders, muscles like iron, a grip you couldn''t break until she was done, and a voice like a sergeant."


    As they talked, Fife unwound the bindings that held the two halves of her sheath and split it in half to start scrubbing with old rags. She took a swig of the alcohol and spat it onto the rags to help¡ªswallowing far less than she would have liked. She noticed Kelvin had a smile on his face as he described his former companion. "What happened?"


    "I followed her orders so well that when she told me to marry her, I did that too." Kelvin took one of the sheath halves and started cleaning it. "That''s how I wound up with a lot of children, grandchildren, and a few great-grandchildren¡ªthough they were all pretty great. I wonder if Portentia is still sweet on Axel? I need to catch up with that girl."


    "It''s easy to get distracted here, isn''t it?" Fife swigged more of the alcohol and used it to soak the rag anew. "Me and Blake have been working on a whole mess of new training dungeon ideas. I''m going to be digging them out soon. I hope we get some neat monsters to fight."


    "Excuse me." Sitting at the table with a pair of kobolds, one of which being the most armored thing she''d ever seen, Alice Stormblade nodded to the pair when each shrugged. "I heard you talking about the training dungeons. I would be interested in inspecting what you have so far."


    Fife, never having been hard to get excited about her favorite new project, left her sheath parts sitting on the table and stood up. "Sure! I''ve been playing the part of the dungeon boss in the first one, and it''s been great to hone my skills."


    "I''ll finish these for you, Fife." Kelvin relaxed in his seat as the pair headed off from the second floor tavern. Their voices faded, but he was well aware that the warmth of so many people living in the dungeon with him had become a treasure. "Thank you, Travis."


    "Huh? I only caught the end of that. Is something wrong?" Travis was a touch confused.


    Kelvin almost smacked himself on the head. He knew the best way to talk to Travis was to say his name first, then talk, but he didn''t find himself needing to get the dungeon''s attention all that often. "The opposite. I thought you''d have me doing hard labor with an unforgiving taskmaster for the rest of my days. Instead, you introduce me to the most amazing people I am not related to and allowed me to work to make everyone''s lives better. So, thank you."


    "Not that I need to say it, but you''re welcome. Hey, have you thought about what classes you want to work through?"


    "The easy choice would be to build myself up as a Soldier, then Ranger and perhaps Mage. I like where that young firebrand is headed, with guns as her primary damage and resorting to melee as a final solution, but I think I''d like to spend more time out of the action." Using a claw on a particularly nasty bit of muck in the wood, Kelvin sighed in relaxed contemplation. "Oh, did you want a boss for another one of your little dungeons? I wouldn''t mind getting in on that fun too. Hone my skills a bit more."


    "Would you like to design your own?" Travis asked.


    Kelvin had never contemplated such an idea before, but as he mulled it over it grew on him. "I think I would. At the very least, I''d like to design the encounters and traps."


    <hr>


    It was fascinating. Live dungeons had been studied, of course, but Alice had never been able to crouch down close to an active dungeon''s traps and listen as one of the denizens explained the reason for it being <em style="font-weight: 600">there and not elsewhere. "So you want them to gain confidence as they clear the sludge, and then they don''t notice this pit?"


    "Exactly! So many parties fall for this the first time they come through. This is going to remain the easiest difficulty area, though, so we want the traps to mostly be less than deadly. The focus, here, is the friends they meet on their way to see me." Lifting two digits up to her mouth, Fife blew a harsh whistle.


    Flinching despite herself, Alice stood back as two big scorpions rushed into the hallway, dodged the sludge, and milled around Fife. "Pets?"


    "These guys are my cohorts! At the regular difficulty, it''s just me and them, with me in steel armor. But, if a party wants a shot at better rewards or just wants to try something tougher, I''ll grab my adamantine gear and I''ll bring a few more scorpions. You know, the funny thing is I never really thought about the <em style="font-weight: 600">monsters in a dungeon as being all that smart. Goblins and lizards, yeah, but these guys can do some wicked tricks once we figured them out." Turning around, Fife called out, "Pattern three!"


    Alice didn''t know whether to laugh or stare in shock as one of the dog-sized scorpions clambered up on Fife''s back, while the other skittered along the wall and clung to the ceiling. She decided laughter was the best bet and shook her head. "Now I see why the reports I got seemed unbelievable."


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 Chapter 130

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 32/100


    Heart 3,686,400/3,686,400


    Experience 62,463/921,600


    Mithril 5,733


    Adamantine 3,364


    Mana 6,420


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 51


    Quest: Kill 19 city dwellers.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 46/66 | Monsters 35/67 | Traps 80/162


    Quest: Reach level 50.


    </blockquote>


    Travis was annoyed. Everyone else was getting work done while he had to manage babysitting. If it had been Mixie, he''d have been perfectly happy with that. The girl''s endless joy, curiosity, and energy was contagious. He''d only ever freaked out once; when she was jumping up and down on Squishy while the slime was giggling (he''d never imagined a slime could giggle).


    But, despite all the enjoyment to be had watching a little girl in literal goblin mode tear around the dungeon¡ªhe was stuck keeping Liz from attending the big meeting in the town hall. At least he had support. "Give her the next stack of forms. I don''t care if she starts to get annoyed at us, I <em style="font-weight: 600">want her annoyed at us."


    Blake passed over another stack of papers, each one needing to be read and signed. "I swear, Travis must have been a dungeon full of accountants in a past life. How he makes all this, and keeps track of it, I''ll never know."


    Travis wasn''t upset with being made the villain. Dungeons were meant to be evil and bad, after all. Also, the opinion of one woman who wasn''t an ally didn''t have any impact on him. He was focusing on her complaint about the paperwork, mentally smirking that she was getting a little bit of what she''d inflicted on Christine, when he heard Fife shout.


    "Trav!" Fife had backed up from the cave she''d just cracked open on the second floor. "I don''t know what''s in here, but it''ll make a great boss room!"


    "Sorry, Blake, Fife found something to fight and I need to focus on her. Do you think you can drive Liz into a mental breakdown by the time we''re done?" Travis could see the strain lines on Blake''s scaled face as he nodded very slightly. "Thanks."


    <hr>


    Fife had dropped her pickaxe and grabbed her shield from her back and drawn her sword. Peering into actual darkness was annoying, given that her vision let her see perfectly in complete darkness within Travis normally. But, with her recent time spent in the goblin dungeon, she still had plenty of light sticks. Twisting one, she tossed it into the cave and laughed. "Cave Dragons!"


    "I just got a quest for them. It wants me to tame one. That''s not how it worked last time. Is this something weird changing?" Travis asked.


    "Tame one? Okay, that sounds like the best option. I want pet dragons!" Advancing to the doorway, Fife braced her shield before her as several of the beasts within unleashed their fire breath at the same time.


    "Pet dragons are pretty awesome. Ask Pen," Travis said.


    Fife nearly choked on her own laughter before getting it under control and asking, "Hey, is there anyone else that could help? Maybe Huntress or even Breathy?"


    "''Breathy''?"


    "Shut up. It''s a cute name for a cute girl. Uh, Katelyn would be helpful too. Anyone?" By now the dragons were forming up at the exit of the tunnel, taking it in turns to breathe over Fife. "Bah, I''ll do it myself!"


    Travis didn''t leave her to do it alone. Reaching out his mental touch to as many of his new monsters as he could, he asked if they would help Fife fight some things. The resulting stampede, he decided, was totally not his fault. "I have some, uh, cavalry coming."


    "Whoever it is, thank them for me!" Fife advanced into the cave and started by slamming her shield into the first dragon''s head, knocking it silly, and then bringing her blade down on its neck. "I love this sword! Tell Axel I love him!"


    Ignoring Travis'' groan, she tried to push forward to dispatch the next dragon but came under assault by three at once, leaving her pinned down behind her shield and unable to make inroads on them. "Dammit. Where''s that¡ª" A roar behind Fife cut off her thought and, though she couldn''t turn to see what had made the noise, the sound of her friends advancing to her flanks made her laugh in pure joy. "Bitey! Bitey Too! Come on, let''s get ''em!"


    Driving forward, using the wyverns'' attacks to distract while she pushed in and dealt mortal wounds, Fife started making inroads. The dragons pushed back as hard as they could with fire breath and their stunning attacks¡ªthe latter were ignored by Fife, though she made sure to protect her friends whenever they were targeted with one. The breath attacks were tougher to deal with, and she shouted at Bitey Too when she could see him getting scorched by one. "Get back, guys. Let me hold the line here. Trav, you got more friends on the way?"


    "A few. One of the wolves is almost there, some scorpions. Squishy is annoyed they can''t make it there in time. He''s a good slime, though, and is keeping the path to me locked down."


    "He''s the best slime!" Fife, her spirits raised by the imminent arrival of support, snarled at the dragons and pounced at one¡ªremoving its head in the process and then having more to deal with behind it.


    She was alone again for a while, making no inroads but not letting the dragons out, when a howl behind her made her blood pump. She expected one of the big quadrupeds to rush to her side, but instead a much larger form holding a pair of adamantine axes and encased in as much adamantine as Fife was herself. "Wha¡ª?"


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    Slamming his shoulder into one of the dragons, Hreti let his bloodlust sing through him. His axes swung in gleeful arcs, butchering the dragon before him as he removed legs, and finally its head. "Travis said you needed aid."


    "Yeah! Damn wingless dragons keep surrounding me. You seem to have a cure for that." Fife was able to push deeper into the dragons now, getting all their attention on her while Hreti used the distraction to end the beasts. When there was only one of the dragons left, though, she stepped between him and it. "Wait!"


    Checking one of his axes mid-swing, Hreti couldn''t stop the other before it clanged hard against Fife''s shield. "Sorry."


    "Ha! It''s fine! Let me see if this guy is up for being friends." Fife tried to hide the way she shook her shield arm after the impact. As big as Hreti was, his swings had a horrendous amount of energy behind them. "Okay, buddy, what''s your issue? You want to¡ª"


    When the dragon snapped at her, clamped down on her arm, and tried to bite it off, Fife laughed. "Aww, just like Bitey. Are you hungry? Is that it? Trav, do you have some dragon-type food?"


    "Of course I do. You all eat it, remember? I am a <em style="font-weight: 600">dragon dungeon. Just think <em style="font-weight: 600">food and pull something out. I''m sure they''d rather eat it than your arm." Fife, her body covered in a layer of adamantine, was the most wonderfully stable thing in Travis'' life. The only times he''d seen her die were when she was good and ready to¡ªand he''d keep doing everything in his power to ensure it stayed that way. "Though, maybe I could have Grace come and season your arm. A little gravy, salt, and pepper ought to help."


    "Ugh. You''re the worst, Trav." Ignoring the chewing, which might be starting to find the joints in her armor but didn''t get past her hide, Fife reached behind her back with her shield arm and grabbed at something and thought, <em style="font-weight: 600">big meaty bone.


    What appeared in her hand was the better part of half a sheep''s back end¡ªraw and dripping blood. The bone was hacked off at about the hock, but there was a lot of meat on the thigh. "Huh, I didn''t know we got sheep. Well, would you rather chew on this than my arm?"


    Confronted with something that was chipping its teeth or a huge leg of lamb, the dragon eyed Fife for a good minute and, when she bopped it on the nose with the joint and it got a good smell of the blood, it spat out her arm and grabbed the offered meat.


    "There you go. Better than eating me, huh?" Fife kept hold of the bone while the wingless dragon ripped more and more meat off it, growling all the while but showing every sign of enjoying itself. When she reached her chewed arm out to pet its nose, however, the dragon paused and snarled at her. "Not ready for that yet, huh?"


    A crunching sound heralded the dragon being done with the lamb and wanting more¡ªsomething Fife was prepared to do. This time she lifted out a larger joint of meat and held it out. Once the dragon was grinding its teeth into that one, it didn''t care if she put her hand on its muzzle.


    "I''ll admit, there are more than a few wolves in the north that would become your best friend if you treat them like that." Hreti checked the edges on each of his axes before sliding them back into the holsters on his armor.


    "You speak¡ª Wait, you''re speaking <em style="font-weight: 600">dungeon talk, right?" Fife asked, looking back at Hreti. "When''d you join?"


    "Three days ago. I''m still trying to get used to this. Astrid said I didn''t have to, even Travis said I didn''t have to, but my honor said I had to." Hreti leaned against the rough rock wall of the cave. "I''ve been avoiding you."


    Fife raised an eyebrow and produced more meat for the dragon.


    "You killed me." The words came out in a rush. "You stopped us from getting that gate open, you held your ground against our whole pack and we couldn''t best you."


    Feeling her constant life regeneration closing what wounds she''d taken and restoring her hide to pristine condition, Fife laughed, startling the dragon for a moment until it realized she had another leg of meat for it. "You''d have kicked my ass if my friends hadn''t helped when they did. There''s only so much one defensive tank can do against you guys. I take it that''s your normal method? Overwhelm with numbers and violence?"


    "It works a lot more times than it fails. When it fails, though¡­" At a loss for how to finish the statement, Hreti let out a long sigh. "When I woke up, it was with a great deal of shame. I had failed Astrid. If I''d just managed to knock you aside long enough to work the gate, we''d have fulfilled our mission. To die completing a mission is the greatest reward any soldier could hope for¡ªto fail is the worst possible outcome. Astrid didn''t look angry, though."


    "She was pretty down when we first revived her. She didn''t know I was listening, but we didn''t have a jail at the time, so she was chilling in my boss room. I couldn''t understand a word she said, but she sounded upset with herself." Fife ignored what Travis was trying to tell her as she produced another hunk of meat for the dragon as it let loose a belch of sulfurous gas. Travis didn''t sound particularly urgent or worried. "Squishy is the best to talk to, you know? He listens, never cuts you off, and doesn''t judge."


    "Squishy is the slime?" At Fife''s nod, he said, "I had never thought of it that way. When I need to talk and get something out, I will usually find something dangerous to hunt. The goblins of the rot dungeon are good for that. They listen real good when you''re cutting them up."


    "You want to come on our next run down there? I want to bring Brayden this time. Between him and Felna, we''ll have enough healing to push all the way to the bottom!"


    "Fife!" Travis had to yell to get through to her. "You can stop giving him meat. He''s tamed and we got a new room to build."


    Glancing at the dragon, Fife tilted her head to the side as she looked up at the huge head. "Aww, don''t worry, little guy, I wouldn''t let you go hungry. Here." She pulled out an entire pig this time, complete with an apple stuck in its mouth, and held it up to the dragon. "Don''t listen to the mean ol'' dungeon. You can eat whatever you want whenever you want."


    "What now?" Hreti asked.


    "Now? I get my butt back to work and finish digging this new training dungeon, then get Trav to help me fill it with traps!"


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 Chapter 131

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 32/100


    Heart 3,686,400/3,686,400


    Experience 261,843/921,600


    Mithril 5,560


    Adamantine 3,202


    Mana 6,420


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 51


    Quest: Kill 11 city dwellers.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 46/66 | Monsters 52/67 | Traps 117/162


    Quest: Reach level 50.


    </blockquote>


    Travis was more than happy with the way his experience was progressing. Numbers were going up faster, now, thanks to the ability to kill adventurers¡ªand have them enthusiastically thank him for it. "Life''s weird," he said to no one in particular.


    "Life is only as <em style="font-weight: 600">''weird'' as you let it be. Relax, Travis, and accept your <em style="font-weight: 600">new normal." Felna had deigned to come down from her tower and perform a minor service for Travis. "Soon you''ll be able to do this yourself, correct?"


    "Yeah. The research for <em style="font-weight: 600">Allies is over halfway. Then I should be able to talk to anyone this stupid system thinks is friendly." Travis paid close attention to the woman that Felna was standing before. "That should be another week or two at most."


    Alice Stormblade had spent several days entreating with the two other churches in the city, a whole day praying with Brayden (which Travis had expected to involve a lot less swordplay), and finally she was here to speak directly to him. "You talk to the dungeon often?"


    "Ugh. Go on. Tell her how disrespectful you are. How you talk at me until I beg you to stop, and then¡ªwhen I want to talk¡ªyou go to sleep. I dare you."


    Felna was struggling not to laugh by the time Travis was done complaining. "When he needs my counsel. I have the unique spell he requires, after all, though he won''t need it much longer. Are you prepared?"


    "As I''ll ever be. There is truly no harm in the spell?"


    "None. It cannot be dismissed, though your patron may be able to, should you need it. How long will you require?" Felna began the first hints of her mana weaving, the deep reserve she now had practically humming with a need to be used.


    Taking a slow breath, Alice said, "As long as you''re able to. I have much to discuss."


    "Travis, can I have¡ª?" With the mana field appearing before she''d even finished asking for it, Felna let out a little purr. "Thank you, Travis." Then, after it had filled her with as much mana as she could take, she cast the spell.


    <hr>


    The sensation of being connected to a dungeon wasn''t what Alice Stormblade had expected. There was pressure upon her defenses, and with her willingness, it slipped past them. "I will need to retire to the temple to continue. Thank you, cleric of Sandwalker, your order is always as supportive as it is elusive." She ignored the sound of Felna''s laugh as she made her way down the tunnels, these brightly lit to allow regular folks to travel without bringing their own light.


    Once she reached the temple, she stopped and drew her sword at the entry, held it up in silent prayer, then sheathed it again. Finding a seat in the front row of pews, she settled herself. "Thank you for waiting."


    "I can keep my voice to just one person, but I figured you''d like your own words to be private. As Felna said, this won''t be a limitation for long. I have no idea why I have the ability to research talking to anyone considered a friend, but I am going to take advantage of it¡ªlike I take advantage of a lot of stupid dungeon stuff."


    The rich tone and turns of phrase confirmed two things for Alice: Travis was his own being beyond a shadow of a doubt, and that he wasn''t always a dungeon. "You think it''s stupid? What exactly?" She was, though, curious.


    "Okay. So, the big one right now. People dying in the dungeon." At Alice''s brow-raise, seen through a ubiquitous lizard that sat nearby, Travis continued. "Well, we can resurrect them. Death isn''t permanent, and any adventurer willing to put in the work to get better can train safely."


    "I am aware of that. There is a reason Brogdar sponsored you and supported you. Finding the weakness in a fighter and showing them a way to surpass it is a fine skill. How are you taking advantage of this?"


    "Because I get¡ª My strength is measured in what the dungeon calls <em style="font-weight: 600">experience. Killing people who enter me gives me a lot of that experience. I have research that gives me a much lesser amount if they enter, each day. That''s why we worked out the idea of having people arrive and depart through my entrances on the first floor." Travis felt that he sounded like a heel for it. Discussing gaining strength by killing as if it were only a matter of numbers.


    "That has been a long-held belief, and one that we were fairly certain was truth. Though we had no idea of a name for the process." Waiting for a moment, Alice didn''t get any hint of a reply. Musing on his statements and hers, she smiled and said, "You thought I would disapprove of you getting stronger for killing adventurers?"


    Travis felt as low as he could get. Admitting it seemed worse than letting it fester. "Yeah."


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    "Brayden explained many things to me about you and the situation here. The compulsion that you don''t abuse, the relationship between yourself and everyone who lives here. You fight a daily battle of morals, to not abuse those you care for and protect. When an adventurer dies here, there is no negative consequence. Someone learns a new lesson, someone becomes stronger. To put it how my peer Brother Rupert would, the scales balance. You are not taking advantage of them, and they are not taking advantage of you.


    "Wait, before you try to refute that, let me say something else. Brayden speaks highly of you. He has felt Brogdar''s own mana in you, in the city, and mingling among the grounds of both. You walk a hard line, Travis of Northridge, every day of your life. You resist temptation and go on to walk the right side. Travis, there are people in this world who go their whole lives without having true evil such as you fight ever once occurring to them. It is regrettable that you faltered, once, but that has strengthened your resolve; am I correct?"


    "Stephan¡­" Travis said, imagining the words through clenched teeth.


    "Lived. Is alive. There were two other dungeons that, should he have stepped into them, would have done far worse. Even some of the more wild Verdant dungeons would have attacked an unarmed and untrained human and gained strength in his death. Was it wrong? Did you learn from it?"


    When Travis didn''t respond, Alice nodded her head. "From what Stephan said, you both have. He has assured me he will no longer try to delve into any dungeons without assistance, and you have not harmed another who didn''t mean you harm."


    "So, what, just forget it?"


    "Absolutely not. It is a lesson that carried a large price for both of you. Remember it, use it, but don''t let it dominate the connection you both share." When Travis didn''t respond, she felt it was time to move on. "I understand you took in some refugees from the northerner forces."


    Another sore topic, but Travis was happy enough to move on from the previous one. "I stand by my decision. Astrid and her pack were just soldiers doing their duty. They died doing it, and I wanted <em style="font-weight: 600">something good to come from that stupid siege. If you or your church are against that, I¡ª"


    "Brogdar gave Brayden the power to bring them back. If they were evil at heart, they wouldn''t have regained their lives. I have learned to trust my god''s actions and not other people''s judgements of right and wrong¡ªeven my own. What I wished to ask was if I could talk to them about converting."


    Now Travis could see a trap, and though he appreciated what the gods of the world had done, he wouldn''t force them on anyone. "That''s up to them. I will ask them, and if they agree to talk to you about it, then you can. Otherwise, I''d ask that you respect their faith."


    After having Brayden caution her on this topic, Alice nodded her head. "I will abide by their decision. I was under the impression, though, that they didn''t worship any gods."


    Travis started to ask Astrid while responding to Alice. "They don''t. I¡ª Ah. Astrid is coming here to discuss it with you. She speaks for all of her pack."


    Waiting, Alice contemplated that. She wanted to ask if he believed Astrid would shield her pack from religion. Her thoughts weren''t so much interrupted by the sound of the door to the temple opening and closing, so much as the heavy footsteps approaching. She turned her head to look, only to find herself looking up at a towering form above her. It took every ounce of her self-control to not draw her sword¡ªor even reach for it. "Astrid?"


    "Yeah." With anyone who lived in the dungeon, Astrid would have crouched to put herself on their level¡ªat least symbolically. "Travis said you wanted to talk."


    "I did. Regarding your faith." The moment she said it, Alice could see the way Astrid stiffened and seemed to close down. "First, I wanted to ask what god or gods you follow."


    "Do I have to answer?" Astrid asked, forcing her voice to her native tongue. "I don''t want to talk about our god to outsiders."


    The words were lost on Alice. She tried her best to keep her face neutral, but it was obvious the huge wolf creature beside her was talking only to Travis.


    Travis adjusted his voice such that only Astrid would hear. "Tell her that."


    "We have our own beliefs. I won''t share them." Astrid waited for the intimidating woman to open her mouth before speaking over her. "I don''t care if they aren''t real to you. They are to us."


    "Oh." To say it wasn''t the reason Alice was expecting was an understatement. She''d assumed they didn''t know their gods weren''t actually gods. That''s when something else hit her. "I thought the northerners only believed in one god?"


    Taking a long, deep breath, Astrid turned around and started walking from the room. She was terrified, in a way. Travis had arranged this meeting, and here she was ignoring what would have been considered an order by her superiors where she was trained.


    "You don''t have to¡ª" Alice watched Astrid leave the room. "I didn''t mean to push. It was just a question."


    Travis ensured both of them could hear his words. "She told you she wouldn''t talk about her faith. You <em style="font-weight: 600">did push, even if you didn''t mean it. I will not make her stay." Then, directly to Astrid, "Thank you for trying."


    Astrid stopped walking. Clearing her throat with a soft growl, she asked, "You''re not angry with me?"


    "No, Astrid. Not at all. I need to get all your pack to state the same, to me, and I will protect them all from needing to talk to anyone trying to convert them." A little startled when she closed her eyes, Travis asked, "Are you alright?"


    "I''m fine." Shivering and doing her best to stop her tears and hide them at the same time, Astrid continued walking. "I will talk to my pack. Thank you."


    Heading back to the forge on the bottom floor, Astrid felt like her pack had grown. First and foremost, she thought Travis would have made a great wolf and pack leader.


    Travis turned his attention back to Alice Stormblade. "There was a reason I held your order in so much regard, and that had to do with Brayden <em style="font-weight: 600">not trying to push his religion on anyone. I won''t stop you from doing it, but it doesn''t improve my opinion of Brogdar if you continue." It felt so odd to say.


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 132

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 32/100


    Heart 3,686,400/3,686,400


    Experience 261,843/921,600


    Mithril 5,560


    Adamantine 3,202


    Mana 6,420


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 51


    Quest: Kill 11 city dwellers.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 46/66 | Monsters 52/67 | Traps 117/162


    Quest: Reach level 50.


    </blockquote>


    Travis'' attention was stolen from Alice Stormblade by someone stomping their way through his entrance. A young noblewoman (she looked mid-teens to Travis) in fine clothes had an escort of two big men, each dressed for a fight, complete with longswords at their sides and a pistol on the other. Given the amount of expensive gear the two bodyguards had, Travis expected this was a noblewoman of a significant family.


    Three more people filed in behind them, each pulling a small cart behind them. All that, though, would have gone unremarked. The four and a half foot tall man at the front of the procession, shouting, was what made him take notice. "Sorry, Alice, I need to focus on someone making a scene upstairs, and I don''t like those going further than a little shouting."


    Standing up, Alice turned toward the entrance and started moving at a jog. "If it''s anything like last time, you may wish to have a priest there."


    Travis, despite his misgivings about Alice''s attempts to spread her religion, decided she was a good presence to have in any tense situation¡ªor so he''d seen so far. Even with Astrid, she hadn''t tried to push her motives past Astrid''s firm rejection. "Thanks, it would be appreciated."


    "You will explain this nonsense immediately! My mistress is in a hurry, and forcing us into this <em style="font-weight: 600">way station with no more explanation than ''you must enter here to reach the city'' is ridiculous!" The man stomped up to one of the guards and stared up at him. "You will cease this delay immediately!"


    From the way he acted, Travis figured he was used to his short stature reducing the chance of an argument coming to blows. In Travis'' estimation, the guards looked a little curious. "Who''s hearing all this¡ª? I mean, who''s nearby?" he asked.


    "Mmm. I got bored and was about to head back to my tower." Felna had picked another language to speak in, though Travis had no clue what it was. He glanced around with the lizards and spotted her leaning to a wall just outside the entrance tavern. "You have a noble lady there. I can''t tell what part of the country she''s from, because she hasn''t spoken. The bodyguards are of mixed ethnicity, but I think both have enough experience that they would make trouble for the guards present. The noisy one is from the lands south of the capital, though I''m not sure exactly where, but his accent paints that region as his home. Do you want me to get involved, oh master of the depths of my heart?"


    There were worse choices, Travis was sure. With a mental shrug, he replied, "Might as well. Remember, I got you if it goes to shit. Just hold still and let me burn everything."


    <hr>


    Felna levered herself from the wall, her purr rising in intensity. "You are such a darling¡ªbut don''t singe my fur, please." Walking over, letting her tail twitch at the end of each sway, Felna approached the Guard sergeant who was currently letting the shorter man shout at his breastplate. "Excuse me. Might I be of some assistance in expediting things?"


    The local language and vocal tics were easy enough for Felna to emulate, and she did so with a steadiness that she hoped would redirect the man''s ire toward herself instead. Both men turned to look at her at the same time, a pastime Felna often enjoyed, but in this case one looked like he had just won a battle¡ªthe other tried to hide the relief on his.


    "This oaf insisted we had to enter your¡ªyour <em style="font-weight: 600">barn before we could head on toward the city." Looking up at the cat kin, Harold felt at least some of his fury lessen. After all, the guard he''d been yelling at seemed to defer to this noblewoman, so she must be at least somewhat in charge.


    "Understandable. Please follow me." Turning, nodding to the guard and winking, she walked toward the city-side exit of the dungeon. "This is where our VIP guests pass through, you understand. I wouldn''t want you to think the common riffraff enjoy the careful guarding of our finest." As she sashayed, her tail doing a triple flick at each swish, Felna noticed the guards now all trying to avoid laughing.


    As Felna reached the doors leading out into the city, she turned and looked back at the group of travelers. "As you can see, for <em style="font-weight: 600">very important guests to the city, we employ the most advanced and undetectable teleportation systems. Even the greatest of wizards struggle to detect the subtle moment when it works."


    "Your services have been adequate." Stepping out of the double doors, Harold felt a lightening of the air, as if simply breathing became easier. There was something about the whole experience that offended his sensibilities, but he couldn''t deny that the teleportation system employed had cut time off their journey. He also mused that, if used for everyone, would be an excellent way to properly filter who could and couldn''t enter the city.


    Felna employed her greatest talents as the group moved past her: her sight, her olfactory, and her brain. The guards of the noblewoman looked competent with their tools and, she judged, more than up to killing a lot of guards should they be called upon to do so. The noble herself kept her eyes ahead and advanced with slow steps that the guards matched. They all smelled exactly how she''d expected¡ªthe sweaty-weary smell of people who had spent long hours on the road, poorly covered by floral scents.


    As the last of the three wagons passed, though, she spotted something on the ground by her foot. Shifting only slightly, she covered it until the group had left the vicinity of the dungeon entrances.


    <blockquote>


    I seek your aid. Please follow at a reasonable distance. You will be well rewarded.


    Stolen story; please report.


    </blockquote>


    Speaking again in the native tongue of a since-dead tribe of cat kin, Felna held the note open for long enough that she was sure her patron had seen, then screwed it up into a tiny ball and called enough heat to her palm to destroy it. "Travis, could you ask the lady Penelope to be ready should I need her? I''m going to investigate this."


    "Be careful. You have a talisman?" Travis asked, and called out to Penelope on top of the tower, "Something weird just happened. A noble entered the city and someone in their group dropped a note asking Felna for help. Can you make sure you can see where she is as she follows them to find out?"


    Outside the dungeon, Felna rolled her shoulders and nodded her head slightly. "I''m going for a walk," she told the guards. "If another hard case arrives, let Travis know. He''ll get someone up here to deal with them." As she got nods from them, she noticed the high priestess of Brogdar entered the hall and slipped away before she got caught up talking.


    Normally, Felna preferred to do her people-watching from a bit more distance, with her eyes closed, in a sunny spot¡ª She let out a sigh as she followed the noble and her entourage. "This is boring. Travis, can you hear me?"


    "Yeah. Can you hear me?" Travis saw the view bob a little. "Right, because you''re a boss-cohort. We need to make everyone like that if we can. It''s useful."


    Felna couldn''t help but purr as she walked; verbally sparring with Travis had become her favorite pastime. "I''m useful now, am I?"


    "You know what I mean, Felna. You''re so much more than <em style="font-weight: 600">useful. I''m pretty sure that mage tower would fly away if you didn''t keep it pinned down so well."


    Pausing a moment in surprise, Felna chuckled at the joke. "That''s a point to you, Travis. Oh, this is interesting. They''re walking into that house right there as if they own it. Can you get someone to check the council records to see who owns it?"


    "I''ve got a copy of most of the records here. Millie is going through them now for you."


    Felna focused on the building, trying to build an image in her mind to understand the floor plan from the outside. It was two stories, looked new (because there was none of the soot that houses built before the siege had), and appeared to have none of the sleeping quarters in the street-facing side of it. "I''m going to walk around the rear. There''s an alleyway there, right? Do you have lizards watching this part?"


    Shifting his view slightly, Travis found two lizards behind the building in a thin alley. "There''s an alley, but you''ll be conspicuous walking down there. It has a high wall and a little yard, I think. It''s not easy, but I can focus on this side if you''re nearby."


    Aware of a few eyes following her, Felna sighed and walked to where the street curled around where an alleyway finally split between the rows of buildings. She walked as casually as she could toward it, hoping the eyes were focused on her assets and not her intent.


    The alley didn''t smell, for which Felna was greatly thankful. She did notice that the walls, in places, had grime that she''d rather not have on her clothes or coat. Waiting until Travis told her she was behind the right building, she looked up at the shuttered windows and wall, then sighed. "If I get dirty doing this, you will be building me a bathhouse."


    No fool, Travis said, "I''ll build you one anyway. Or buy one. Whatever it takes."


    "Travis, if you offer that to a woman, you had best follow through. Trust me, the view will be worth your effort." Despite her situation, Felna''s tail swayed slowly behind her, giving an extra twitch or two at the end of each motion.


    Spluttering a little, Travis'' mental voice stammered in his attempt to reply, "I-I didn''t¡ª I mean, you''re¡ª"


    Getting two good handholds and bracing a foot on the wall, Felna smiled into the shadows. "So you do appreciate the view? I was starting to wonder." Quick as her species were known to be, she''d reached the top of the wall and jumped. All four limbs made contact with the side of the house at the same time, as her formidable claws found purchase on the brickwork. She didn''t need to mutter to Travis about not knowing exactly what to do next for him to tell her how close she was to the window. Turning her head to the side, she pressed one ear against the bricks.


    The sound of something heavy sliding around met her ear first. Trying to focus past it, she heard a male voice but couldn''t understand it. Slow, shallow breaths steadied her before she climbed around the shutters and toward the next one along. This time, when she pressed her ear to the wall, the voice was clearer.


    "I hope she got it, but what am I going to do if she didn''t?"


    Travis cleared his non-existent throat and kept his voice low in Felna''s head. "This was built two months ago. It was paid for by a merchant who has since left Northridge. We don''t know who managed the transfer, but it is technically empty. I guess that was a cover for this lot."


    Reaching behind her back, Felna drew a knife from a hidden sheath and worked at the shutters with it. She found the mechanism, slipped it up and into an unlocked position, then used the blade to lever the shutter opposite her open while leaning around the nearest one.


    "Hello? Is someone there?" The voice''s owner sounded young to Felna.


    Without making herself visible, Felna replied, "Yes. You left me a note?"


    "Oh, thank you. This entire <em style="font-weight: 600">thing has been terrible. Uncle told me I had to come out here to the edge of nowhere and neither Mommy nor Daddy could stop him, and I didn''t recognize anyone but then I noticed your holy symbol was the same as Felice''s." Stopping herself from talking too much, though she''d already spilled everything, the young noblewoman leaned out the window and turned her head to see Felna gripping to the wall. "All cat kin can do this, huh? Felice would sneak up and talk to me. She would teach me about the Sandwalker, and I''d imagine I was anywhere but locked up inside my uncle''s mansion in the city."


    Closing her eyes, Felna wanted to grab the noblewoman and run, but there was too much at stake¡ªand she didn''t know for certain she wasn''t being played. "May the sand burn your paws¡­"


    "¡­ so you learn some sense."


    "Who are the ones who brought you here?"


    "They''re my uncle''s people. I tried to beg them to let me¡ª Someone''s coming."


    No sooner did Felna lean back from the window than the noblewoman inside pulled it closed. She waited, hanging off the wall like a fuzzy barnacle, listening with her ear pressed against the brickwork.


    "I heard voices," a man asked.


    The young noblewoman groaned and said, "I was working on my diary. You know I talk to myself. I <em style="font-weight: 600">always read it out loud when I''m writing in it."


    A gruff, "Humph," could be heard before the man said, "Make yourself ready. Your uncle''s herald is arranging a meeting with the council to announce you have arrived." The sound of heavy footsteps retreating heralded the opening of the shutter again.


    "I can''t go with you now or they''ll notice I''m missing too quickly. Can you come back?" the noblewoman asked.


    "I''ll see what I can accomplish. Stay strong, kitten." Felna braced and jumped backward, somersaulting and landing on the fence, then dropping back to the alleyway. Walking away from the house, Felna asked, "Trav, can you get me into that meeting with the council?"


    "Pen is going to ask nicely. You should probably make your way there too."


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 Chapter 133

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 32/100


    Heart 3,686,400/3,686,400


    Experience 261,843/921,600


    Mithril 5,560


    Adamantine 3,202


    Mana 6,420


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 51


    Quest: Kill 11 city dwellers.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 46/66 | Monsters 52/67 | Traps 117/162


    Quest: Reach level 50.


    </blockquote>


    The meeting was swiftly held. Travis had gotten Stephan, Penelope, and Felna a seat at it¡ªthough in Penelope''s case the "seat" was more "a large space where she could fit part of herself." Christine asked for Eliza to be there, so they could judge her reaction, and had Howard''s second in charge of the merchants fill in for him. Brolly, to Travis'' surprise, invited Sergeant Thomas Brave and Breath of Spring.


    All the extras had ultimately been Stephan''s doing, and Travis wasn''t going to argue with him when it came to politics. He got to watch through seven sets of eyes, three of them non-lizard, and could hear well enough. Only Stephan couldn''t hear him in reply. "Are you all ready? They''re approaching the front doors."


    Penelope let everyone know, which is how the guests found them all in an animated conversation about whatever trade topic Christine made up on the spot. Travis watched the self-important man step in first, clear his throat, then repeat himself when no one seemed to even notice him.


    Travis kept up a running commentary for Penelope and Felna''s benefit. "Liz''s not happy with how we''re treating the noble group. I don''t think she expected us to welcome them with open arms, but this is¡ª Oh, Christine''s moving on."


    "Sorry, we''re expecting some important guests. You''ll have¡ª Oh." Christine didn''t sound the least bit actually surprised that when she lifted her head, the guests in question were present. "Are you going to announce your lady?"


    The short guy looked near apoplexy. Clearing his throat again, he enunciated, "May I present the Lady Elanor Fitzgerald, third niece of Marquess Fitzgerald of West Reaches." Stepping to the side, he bowed as the young lady from the window stepped forward with the two big guards at her side.


    Travis studied the two men, mostly because he knew everyone else was focused on Elanor. One, who had some vaguely feline features (slight muzzle, some sharper than normal canine teeth that protruded a little when he frowned, which he was). He had a sword and a buckler and under his shirt Travis saw a flash of what looked like chain mail. The other looked human, and had two equal length swords at his hips, and likewise seemed to have some kind of light chain mail under his shirt. Travis relayed his assessment of both to Felna and Penelope, then asked Fife about them too.


    "Sword and buckler, with chain armor, will be a defensive type like me. Other guy will be a dervish. I''m coming over and will wait in the crowd outside the city hall. Get Brayden, Luddy, and Wild to back me up. Oh, and Jack. I keep forgetting about him. How''s his magic coming along?"


    Relaying her request, Travis turned his full attention back to the meeting, only to find Stephan standing up and clearing his throat. "Forgive me, I''m not as eloquent as a herald, but since we''re lacking such I seem to have been volunteered for that duty." Walking around the table and gesturing to Christine, he began, "Baroness Christine Sellswell and Baron Brolly Windchime, both of Northridge." He sketched a bow toward the two council members.


    "Holy shit! Pen, can you see that? Look at Liz! She looked like she just swallowed a bag of lemons!" Travis couldn''t hold back his laughter, and neither could Penelope.


    The rumble from where she was curled in the corner of the warehouse-like room drew a lot of attention. She stood and walked toward the table. Both the bodyguards drew their blades, though no one else did.


    "And I should also add, Lady Penelope Bogblood, dragon boss of Travis, dungeon of Northridge." The bow Stephan executed was every bit as deep as he''d given Christine and Brolly.


    Nodding her head, Penelope sat down and said, "Thank you."


    <hr>


    Elanor''s eyes widened at the sight of a real, live dragon. When the dragon (a lady dragon, or so the lizard man had said) spoke, she could feel their voice in her chest. What was even more startling was that the dragon sat down as if being here was perfectly normal¡ªand the nice cat lady winked at Elanor. Hope leapt within her that she''d get away from the annoying people her uncle sent.


    "And this is Lady Breath of Spring, boss of Breeze, dungeon of Northridge." Stephan was enjoying himself immensely. Despite looking at the entourage of the visiting lady, he observed out of the corner of his eye that Eliza seemed in a complete panic.


    "Now that we all know who each other are, would her ladyship wish to take a seat and discuss why she asked us to see her?" Penelope liked the curious and devoid of fear expression on Elanor''s face. She smiled, happy to see the young lady''s expression turn to even more wonder.


    Looking over the assembled, Christine nodded and said, "As always, Lady Penelope has the right of it. Forgive us for being one member short at this time, Baron Howard Tailor is off taking care of some business for us." Gesturing to the lone place at the table, Christine felt every bit the predator that Penelope looked.


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    Elanor walked forward and took the last seat at the table, ignoring what her bodyguards were doing or why Harold might be glaring at her.


    "If you don''t put away those weapons, we might have to take exception to you drawing swords on a council member of the city." Brolly welcomed his role as noble if only so he could give such idiots an order with no ability for them to gainsay him. "And by that I mean right now. I''ll vouch for Lady Elanor''s safety."


    "Sheath your swords," Harold said under his breath, then raised his voice again. "Would Lady Elanor wish myself to be at her disposal while discu¡ª?"


    "No, thank you. You may leave." Elanor said the words the nice cat lady mouthed to her. It made Elanor''s eyebrows rise in surprise at hearing her voice so steadily say them.


    Unable to keep from purring, Felna wanted to reach out and pet the little "kitten" on the head and tell her she was doing great. There was something about her demeanor that shouted for her to protect the noblewoman. When Harold left the room, having to shove the guards before him, she let loose a little laugh. "Well said, Lady Elanor."


    Everything had turned upside down. Eliza hadn''t heard a single hint of the council members buying peerages, nor had she expected to see them isolate the noble she was here to guide to leading the city. Harold had been her contact, and now the man was excluded from this important meeting. "The lady isn''t¡ª"


    "Sorry, Liz. Is something troubling you?" Christine asked, her tone bordering on <em style="font-weight: 600">asking a child if they are feeling poorly.


    Scrabbling for the scraps of her plan¡ªthe plan that had worked so many times before¡ªEliza steadied her voice and said, "I don''t think it''s proper to question the young lady without her retainer present."


    "My lady," Stephan began, his face holding as neutral as he could, "might I know your age?"


    "Seventeen, sir." Elanor knew her manners, and knew that Stephan didn''t require being called sir, but he spoke <em style="font-weight: 600">exactly as a well-spoken gentleman would. "I don''t need Harold here."


    "There you go. Not only is Lady Elanor of age to make her own decisions, she has made one as a demonstration." Stephan inclined his head toward Elanor. "Now, what is it you wished to speak of?"


    "I¡ª" Her eyes snapping to Felna, Elanor saw the woman give her a little nod. Saying a little prayer to Sandwalker in her head, she said, "My uncle made them bring me here and wants me to take over the city."


    "You were supposed to meet with a conspirator in Northridge?" Stephan asked.


    Elanor looked around the room, her eyes ending up locked with Felna. "I am, but I don''t know who it is. Harold does, though." She paused for a moment, worry filling her. "You won''t send me back, will you?" It was only Felna''s smile that gave her hope.


    Penelope picked then to insinuate herself into the conversation. "What do you think, Liz? It seems like someone has infiltrated the city and will be acting subversive. How would we track down that kind of spy and what do you think should be the punishment?"


    All the shreds of her plans now lay in tatters. Eliza could see a pretty noose being fitted to her neck in the near future¡ªmoments after she''d been divested of all her talismans. While the dragon that was within striking distance was looking at her like she knew who the spy was, Eliza reached her hand down casually to her side.


    Prepared for the motion, and in the right position to deal with it, Brolly caught Eliza''s hand before it could make it to her belt knife. His grip was tight enough to keep her from making contact with the handle despite her leverage. "I think it''s a good question, don''t you?"


    Felna was out of her seat and moving before her own mind processed what she was seeing. Felna reached behind Eliza''s back and grabbed the elbow of her other arm and jerked it back against her stomach. "What were you planning to do with this powder? Poison? Killing yourself or the baron here?" She pried the little square of powder from Eliza''s hand and cast neutralize poison on it¡ªthe flare of blue flames was the affirmative answer to her question.


    Christine, meanwhile, turned to Elanor Fitzgerald and gave the young woman her warmest smile. "You have done nothing against the city, its people, nor its dungeons. In fact, you have helped us flush a viper out of our little home. You are welcome to stay as long as you wish. If you need somewhere friendly to stay, Felna has already offered lodgings."


    Looking at Felna, Elanor dared hope that the woman had been honest with her. She''d never have believed her parents would have let her uncle send her away like this, though, and it had her questioning everyone''s motives. "Truly?"


    Feeling a deep purring in her head, that was her god''s way of reassuring her, Felna nodded. "Yes, kitte¡ª" Her eyes lost focus for a moment, and despite blinking them, wouldn''t regain it. She coughed and felt her arms go weak. "Poi¡ª"


    While everyone else stared in shock, Brolly brought his free arm around¡ªfingers clenching during the swing¡ªand connected with Eliza''s jaw. His punch turned her head sharply and he felt her go limp in his arms. "Dammit, she had more poison. Is Felna dead?"


    Rising to her feet, Penelope reached across the table with one of her talons and grabbed for Eliza, only to have the woman vanish. "Talisman. Did she have one of ours?" Felna, though, was merely a pile of loot on the ground. Not that Penelope was worried about her¡ªorganizing a resurrection wouldn''t be difficult.


    "Felna''s here, Pen. She died, but she''s with me. Sorry, I might have broken her talisman by insisting she come here instead. Didn''t know I could do that," Travis said, relief leaking through his voice. "You need to reassure the girl. I don''t care about that damn spy, Felna made a promise and I intend to keep it."


    Penelope looked toward Elanor, who looked terrified. "Relax. Felna is safe. The spy got away, though. Felna says," Penelope had Travis relaying the words to her, "to tell her kitten that the dragon is her new best friend and will not let Harold or anyone else hurt you. She¡ª Ugh, do I have to?" Sighing, Pen rolled her eyes. "<em style="font-weight: 600">May the sand burn your paws, so you learn some sense."


    Elanor was getting a bad case of emotional whiplash. She had no idea how dragons worked, but the only reason this one would know those words would be if she was a friend of the nice cat lady. "You''re sure she''s okay?"


    "I''ll take you to her right now. Uh, once we''ve resurrected her." Penelope walked around the table, leaving the little pile of gear that Felna''s death, as a dungeon monster, had left behind. She crouched down beside Elanor and held out a foreleg to use as a step. "Climb on, but don''t tell Fife I let you ride on my back."


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 Chapter 134

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 32/100


    Heart 3,686,400/3,686,400


    Experience 276,843/921,600


    Mithril 5,560


    Adamantine 3,202


    Mana 6,420


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 51


    Quest: Kill 10 city dwellers.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 46/66 | Monsters 52/67 | Traps 117/162


    Quest: Reach level 50.


    </blockquote>


    "The best thing about being a dragon, Elanor, is that when people get in your way, you can ignore them." Penelope stepped outside the council building with Elanor Fitzgerald on her back. "Do you want to know how we do that?"


    "Y-Yeah."


    "Hold tight," Penelope said, spread her wings, and launched herself into the sky the moment the woman complied. Harold and the two guards immediately protested, but Travis wasn''t sure if they were aware how little their protests mattered to someone who could fly.


    Hearing Elanor''s squeal of shock turn to a laugh of pure joy brought a big metaphorical smile to Travis'' similarly not-actually-existing face. "You saw that?" The purr coming directly from someone in his head told Travis all he needed to know about Felna''s thoughts on it. "Brayden is on his way. He''s backing Fife up against those two bodyguards. I described them to her, and she sounded a mix between annoyed and excited."


    "What you did, Travis, was invite Fife to a party and ask her to bring some friends." Felna''s purring didn''t decrease as she spoke. "She is irrepressible. Beating her in a fight is never a victory, since it will encourage her to fight harder. I feel sorry for those goblins in their dungeon."


    Travis noticed Fife was moving, walking to stand in the doorway of the council building. Through several other pairs of eyes, he got to watch her stop and turn, then slowly lean sideways against the door jamb. The building groaned a little at her weight.


    "I don''t often push my weight around in the city, but the people inside have asked me to keep the peace here. You can wait out here and talk, if you want?" Fife''s tone was even, but Travis could definitely feel her eagerness to act.


    "You idiots. It''s only a lizard kin. Shove it aside!" Harold glared not at Fife, but the doorway she was standing in.


    "Brayden, Luddy, and Wild are almost there. Jack was busy in the library, and is on his way, but you have Stratus and Tom not far behind the others."


    Fife''s head perked at Travis'' voice. She stood straight up and, as the two guards advanced on her, reached to the shield at her back and drew her sword. "First, I''m a kobold, not a lizard kin. Second, what''s wrong with lizard kin? Oh, and third, also a floor boss of a dungeon¡ªthe bottom floor of it."


    Facing off against something only about two thirds of his height, the guard with the buckler walked up and tried to shove Fife aside. She shoved back and neither made any progress.


    Barking a laugh, Fife nodded up at the guy. "Good arm. You''d make a good delver if you got yourself a full-sized shield. Does your friend want to try next? You get a big toy if you manage to get me to move."


    Travis saw Fife''s defense of the doorway from fresh eyes. Two pairs across the street, approaching directly, and another pair that walked right by Harold and the two bodyguards as if they didn''t notice the owner. That made it easy for Travis to figure out when Ludmiller had slipped in against the side of the building.


    "Fife, Luddy''s two feet to your right. If this gets ugly, make opportunities for her," Travis said, giving her the good news.


    With the stage set, Travis contacted the only other person he could that''d be able to help. "Northridge?" He felt the presence of the city coalesce around the council building and then focus on the events at the doorway. "These are the compatriots of the spy we''d found. They are trying to bully a young woman into being their tool, and now they want to barge into the council building."


    Northridge''s focus, Travis could feel, narrowed on the council building and the fight brewing in front of it. "Champion of my walls, come forth and protect your city!"


    <hr>


    Jerking upright in his seat, then standing, Brolly Windchime felt power and purpose both flooding into him. The voice in his head was rich and warm, but underpinned with all the solidness of bedrock. He moved around the table of people staring at him, and only when he was approaching the doorway that led outside did he draw his longsword.


    "Fife," Ludmiller said, trying to avoid touching her friend, "step to your left two paces right now."


    It wasn''t like Brayden''s shouts, but Fife had plied her trade with Ludmiller enough to trust her words. She took the steps needed and felt a presence move up beside her. When she tilted her head to look up at Brolly, she let out an audible gasp at the flaming sword he carried.


    "Who brings violence to the council of Northridge?" Even to Brolly, the sound of his voice was odd. It boomed with power and was almost literally the last thing he would normally have said. With his free hand, he gestured to the two bodyguards. "You. Both of you. What do you have to say for yourselves?"


    Pausing, taking stock of the man now facing them, the bodyguard with a pair of swords sheathed them one at a time. "What I have to say is this job isn''t worth what we''re getting paid. Harold, you''re on your own. I quit."


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    Watching his partner walk away, the other bodyguard shook his head and likewise sheathed his sword. "And he''s the smart one. Yeah, screw this job."


    With the fury of Northridge still boiling inside him, Brolly turned his attention onto Harold. "What about you? Who was your master in all this?" The power in his voice startled Brolly. He''d heard of cities that bestowed their might to various followers of the city, but he''d never thought to feel it himself.


    "I-I am the legal representative of the Marquess of West Reaches! I demand you to bring his niece to me at once!" Harold, despite things going wrong, still tried to take the high road by flexing his position.


    Words came easily to Brolly. He''d never been much of a politician, even in his time working in the King''s Guard, but now he knew exactly what needed saying. "You are far outside your lord''s domain. I would suggest you organize a return to it by the end of the day." It was the kind of thing a simple guard could never say. It was an executive order, as if from a lord¡ªwhich made sense to Brolly now he realized he <em style="font-weight: 600">was a lord. "I''ll have you declared outlaw in Northridge at sundown."


    Harold wanted to argue further. He could build a dozen delaying arguments in his mind while he worked on something to get Elanor back so he could find his agent, but the look in Brolly''s eyes spoke to the conviction of the man. Nothing about this situation was good, so he did the only thing he could under the circumstances and returned to the house they''d been given.


    "That¡ªwas¡ªso¡ªcool! Hey, can I see what you did to your sword? Does it set things on fire? Can it cut adamantine?" Fife had her own sword back in its sheath and was doing her best to get a better look at Brolly''s weapon.


    Blinking in surprise as he felt the mantle Northridge had placed on him fade to a more tolerable level, Brolly looked down at his sword. Flames still licked from the steel, dancing in the air. Trusting the magic wouldn''t hurt him, he sheathed the sword. "I''ll figure that out later. Thanks for stopping those idiots from busting in."


    Fife, still wanting to get a look at Brolly''s sword, decided that she''d have to employ some strategy to gain access to it. "Eh. Seemed like a good thing to stop. You might want to post actual guards here from now on though. I caught on to some of what happened inside. Do you have everything under control now?"


    "Liz decided to take the worst way possible out of this mess. Felna stopped her from getting her first choice of poison up her nose, but the second hit both of them." Running the event back through his mind, Brolly reminded himself to issue a warrant for Liz. "I''ll need to go and take care of¡ª"


    "Can we spar later? I want to see how well your sword works."


    For all Brolly wanted to tell Fife no, he also wanted to see what the effect his sword had gained was, and valued her input on all things to do with martial combat. "I''ll see what I can do. With everything going on¡ªand this mess on top of it¡ªI have a lot of boring work to do where I don''t get to swing a sword at all." Fife''s gasp, a perfect reaction to his joke, prompted Brolly to add, "Exactly!"


    "Have you tried hiring an assistant or something? I know Christine had Blake helping her for a while there. Think someone else is now; Blake likes making dungeons." Rolling her shoulders, Fife slipped her shield off her left arm and slung it around to her back and onto a hook there. "There''s no reason not to get <em style="font-weight: 600">someone to help."


    <hr>


    With the weather growing warmer, wearing a heavy leather duster was less comfortable than Anichka''s latest foray south. She wasn''t going to give it up, though, since it still did a reasonable job of making her not look like a walking armory. "My Lord?"


    Howard Tailor reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Please don''t call me that. I told you, I''m just¡ª"


    "<em style="font-weight: 600">¡­ just a baron and council member of Northridge, <em style="font-weight: 600">sir." Tammy smirked a little as she said it. "You''re too important to sound like we are not offering the right amount of respect."


    Narrowing his eyes, Howard asked, "Who told you about that?"


    "Stephan gave us both a briefing about how to act around you, outside of Northridge." Anichka trailed her eyes over the other people present. Most weren''t nobles, so were waiting further down the hall of petitioners.


    "Did he now?" Despite his misgivings, Howard sighed and nodded. "Probably for the best. I¡ª"


    "Announcing Baron Howard Tailor of Northridge!"


    Taking a breath, Howard turned and followed the sound toward where the announcement had come from. The room was little more than an oversized office. It was furnished with sturdy chairs and a little opulence. The figure behind the huge desk looked up from a ledger and paused as she made eye contact with Howard. Dipping his head forward and bowing, Howard asked, "How are you faring, Judy?"


    The young woman he''d known all those years ago, third child of the Earl Sanderson at the time, had been far more carefree than the dignified lady now sitting in the seat before him.


    "Howard? Well, well, well. I''d heard there were some new additions to the peerage in my little corner of the kingdom. All it said was <em style="font-weight: 600">Baron Tailor. Take a seat, please." It had been a long day, and though it would make the next longer, Earl Judith Sanderson lifted her head toward her steward. "I''ll be spending the rest of my day with the Baron." The man nodded to her, stepped out, and closed the doors behind him. "This isn''t a social visit, is it?"


    "The last time I checked, Judy, you were third in line? I''m sorry for your losses." Waiting for her gesture to continue, Howard said, "It concerns Far Reach¡ª"


    "Shit." Judith''s hand threatened to break the stylus she was working with in half. "What did those oafs do this time?" The raised eyebrow pointed in her direction got a groan from her. "My father had built that city up. He''d sent his most loyal knight there to rule, as a retirement gift. By the time we got word he''d died, somehow without his talismans, of some mysterious disease that the churches couldn''t cure, some western noble had already swooped in and picked up the pieces."


    "They are trying the same thing in Northridge. We have a spy there¡ªthat is under a close watch¡ªand we''re waiting for them to move-in a noble to act. Things will get dirty for a while, but I can assure you we have this in hand. We are very fortunate to have allies that I trust implicitly." Howard went on to describe the city''s relationship with Travis, Breeze, and in particular Stephan.


    "That''s quite the story. I''d be less inclined to believe it if you hadn''t paid for three peerages before most cities quicken their genius loci. You have two guards out there with enough guns on them that my page, who is the son of a gunsmith, wouldn''t shut up about them. If he runs away to your city, <em style="font-weight: 600">you will be finding me a new page."


    "Well, bringing it back to Far Reach, they are delaying our construction of a rail connection with them. Please wait," Howard held up a hand to forestall any interjection. "We''d like to ask if perhaps Hearthhome would be more amenable?"


    It was ludicrous. Judith had been heir at the time her father had instigated the railway expansion to Far Reach, and it had been horridly expensive to obtain the steel needed. For some reason, though, she believed the man before her might be able to pull it off¡ªwhich is why she laughed.

 Chapter 135

    [from the diary of Baron Howard Tailor, council member for Northridge]


    Today''s meeting was important enough that I feel writing it down is required to fully collect my thoughts. While the two most heavily armed ladies in the kingdom stood outside waiting for me, I caught up with an old friend willing to speak plainly; a rare occurrence in political meetings.


    The northern earldom of the kingdom is under attack. I hope that gets the attention of whoever is reading this. No less than seven cities in the last ten years have had their leadership flipped from their preexisting ruling councils or nobles to a noble from the Western Reaches, and in particular the Fitzgerald line.


    The resistance we encountered in Far Reach is most likely due to this. Their previous lord had an accident and died, then was replaced by a conveniently placed noble in the city who took over without anyone raising a fuss.


    The little spy problem in Northridge is definitely revealed in a new light now. This isn''t a targeted strike, but another step in a plan to take over an entire earldom. I don''t know what we can do about it, other than provide a stable and safe center for anyone in the earldom who needs to take refuge.


    I will, therefore, recommend we execute Liz as soon as feasible. Even if we never find the conspirators, we cannot afford to allow her to keep acting within Northridge and, at the very least, deny West Reaches one of their agents.


    Also, I think we need to make contact with the King and make an official complaint. Anichka and Tammy are going to be furious to know their services will be needed for more rides to the capital, but we still need to send two more of us there. I will muse further on this while we travel to Northridge.


    The good news, though: Earl Judith Sanderson of Hearthhome welcomes our efforts to connect with her city, and will announce such in two weeks. This should get me passed through Far Reach and avoid being a target. More of a target than I am already.


    <hr>


    Putting his journal down, Howard looked out the window at the countryside speeding by. "We''ll be there before morning?"


    "Yeah. We should be another two hours out. We''ll get our rides unloaded and leave as fast as we can. Keep your duster on." Anichka had been spending her time counting and checking her ammunition. Her pistols hadn''t been converted to being breech-loading yet, but she had fifty rounds for her new rifle¡ªand she''d counted them five times already since leaving Hearthhome.


    "Excellent. It will give me enough time to leave a rumor with the gate guards on the way out. I''m sure they have spies crawling all over the city." Howard watched Anichka''s frown grow more intense. "You don''t like this traveling, do you?"


    "Not one bit. The alternative, though, is sending you with a bunch of guards who aren''t as good a shot as I am. If this had turned to violence, and you died, it would have left all of Northridge weaker. So we came because Northridge has done so much for us, and we have a duty to keep it safe for everyone else." Unlike last time, Anichka was a little less worried about traveling since they''d gotten their own cars at the back of the train: the rear one had their horses and the next was theirs. Outside of unpredictable attacks from the exterior of the train, danger was only able to approach from toward the front of the train, it meant they only needed one person on watch.


    "How many hours are you up to?"


    "I''ll wake Tam when we''re slowing for the station. I''m at seven hours awake. I can sleep in my saddle and let you lead my horse."


    Howard asked, "You trust me that much?"


    It surprised Anichka to think about it, but she nodded. "Yeah. You''re pragmatic."


    "I''ll take that as a compliment. So, we have an hour to kill." Noticing Anichka''s eyes drifting to his diary, Howard asked, "Do you read?" When her eyes hardened a little and she looked away, he added, "Would you like to learn?"


    <hr>


    Tammy woke to the sound and feel of the train shifting from a constant pull to coasting and then to slowing. She cracked her eyes open to see Anichka leaning over something that Howard was pointing at. Sitting up slowly, she stood and walked toward them.


    Tilting her head, Anichka saw Tammy was up and smiled. "I was going to wake you soon. It''s been over two hours since the sun went down."


    "If you''d like, I could teach you to read and write too?" Howard, feeling the train jostle as it slowed, began packing away his diary and tablet. "But it will have to wait until we''re home."


    "You''ll be too busy when we get home." Despite herself, Anichka was smiling. The word <em style="font-weight: 600">home now meant a place that she would reach and spend time at again.


    "With an assistant or two, I could have some spare time to teach you both." Standing up, Howard held onto a leather strap as the carriage bucked and shifted. He wanted to stretch his legs, though, because soon they''d be riding like an army of goblins was after them. "Far Reach, like Northridge, farms a Verdant dungeon for food, so there isn''t as much land that is claimed by them. That will mean a much shorter detour for our railway."


    "Is that important?" Tammy asked.


    Howard nodded. "Everything is important. Do you remember the shortest path between the railway station and the northern gate?"


    "Yeah, and it''s not a straight line. The shortest has a lot of turns and thin alleys to get past. If we take the wide open thoroughfare we can stretch their legs a bit and outpace anyone trying to run a message to the gate." Anichka looked a final time at the door that led to the front of the train. "But we''ll have to move fast. Come on."


    That Howard carried one of the guns she''d normally sling over her own back made Tammy smile despite the grim situation. She let Anichka take the lead, Howard between them, while she watched behind. The jump between cars was annoying only because the railcar with the horses wasn''t made to be accessible from a passenger car.


    Waiting for Tammy to swing out around the side of the train and into the door of the railcar, Anichka caught her and pulled her in with the horses and Howard. "We should still have a minute or two. Let''s get saddled and ready the moment it stops."


    Hefting saddles on, tightening girths, and tacking the three horses took all the remaining time until the train was barely moving, and when it finally stopped, Anichka hauled the door open and jumped onto her horse.


    They ignored the curses of the station staff as they rode down to the street and took off at a canter. After dark, the streets of Far Reach were quiet apart from their horses. No one attempted to intercept them before they reached the north gate of the city.


    Howard slowed his horse first and the two women did likewise to flank him¡ªhe noticed both had loosened their dusters despite the cold weather.


    "Ho there! Leaving so late?" the guard at the gate asked.


    "Heading for Northridge, with big news. You know how it is." Howard could see the guard''s brow raise a little. Information would buy them a quicker time at the gate, which he was fine with. "I''m bringing word back from Hearthhome¡ªwith all the trouble that Northridge''s council were having getting permission to extend the railway from Far Reach, they''re going to bypass the city completely and link directly to the earl''s city."


    The guard whistled appreciatively. "I guess that''s what happens when someone drags their feet."


    "All way above my head," Howard said while rolling his eyes. "I just carry the messages. Oh, another good one?" The guard was his to ply now, and Howard took full advantage of it. "Turns out the council in Northridge went and purchased themselves some nobility. Three newly minted barons! They must be hitting it rich up there to afford that."


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    Weighing up delaying the courier until someone else could verify the information, the guard tossed the idea. It was a normal thing to pay for a quick pass with a juicy rumor, and these were both going to get him paid a bonus. "Go on through. Make sure you get the good news through to them and get some rest, it sounds like you''re going to need it!"


    Not needing to be told twice, the three urged their horses into a trot, a canter, and finally a gallop away from Far Reach. Howard waited until the city was out of view around a bend before he breathed a sigh of relief. "That went well."


    Tilting her head this way and that, Tammy caught scent of their tailwind and said, "We''re being chased. I smell different horses behind us."


    "Numbers?" Anichka asked.


    "Can''t tell. Maybe a few. Maybe a lot."


    Dozens of thoughts crowded Howard''s mind. He wasn''t a military man, but he could reason his way around the options. "Far Reach has sent people out. They wouldn''t do that at night unless they had very good reason. Hunting down and killing a noble from their enemy is one. It won''t be an emergency dispatch to deal with brigands." Howard had a sinking feeling in his stomach. "Save three shots for us. I don''t want to get captured and killed without a talisman."


    "Can I shoot them?" At Howard''s nod, Anichka hardened herself for what she knew would be a terrible night. "Tam, scoot forward on your horse. Howard, take my reins and lead him for me." Anichka turned side-saddle (ignoring how everything now poked into places she wished it wouldn''t) and, when she got close enough to Tammy''s horse, used her stirrup to help her jump across and get her leg over so she could face backward. "I think I might want that new rifle."


    Slinging the weapon over her shoulder and passing it back, Tammy wrapped the reins of her horse around her right arm. "I''ve got fifty rounds for it too. Make them count."


    Slowing to a canter, Howard and Tammy kept their horses moving at a long gait that ate distance. The road to Northridge had a few bends immediately outside of Far Reach, but after making it to the first long straight, Anichka finally saw the riders.


    "That''s at least three guard squads. No colors on them, either, but they''re wearing armor. Dammit, they''re driving their horses hard now. Hold us steady, Tam." Anichka raised her rifle to her shoulder and sighted down it. A horse at (now) a gallop was not the most steady platform to fire from, but nonetheless she lined up on the group and aimed for the largest mass.


    She missed. Anichka cursed under her breath and waited out the horse''s stride until she had the ideal moment and fired again. She didn''t pause to see if the shot landed. Lifting the rifle away from her shoulder, she broke it at the breach and pulled out the two spent casings¡ªtossed them in her pouch and put two fresh ones in. "Armor don''t mean shit. These rounds have a little pin of adamantine Tinpot put in them."


    The sight of a riderless horse made Anichka smile with grim determination. She lined up again, waited a cycle of motion, and then fired at the figure in the lead. By the time she got to the end of her supply of bullets, she had managed to hit one shot in three. She cursed after every miss, but had learned to love the new rifle. "I got about a third of them. They must have talismans, or they''d be running."


    "We''ve got a reputation, Annie." Risking a glance backward, Tammy saw there were a lot of angry soldiers in the distance still chasing them. A bright, full moon was doing a great job of lighting things up, which was a small grace. "If that moon found some clouds, we could slip off the road somewhere."


    "How is your horse keeping up?" Howard asked them.


    "We need to swap," Tammy said. She looked over at Anichka''s horse. "Can you bring him closer?"


    Moving from one horse to the other went smoothly, and once again Anichka was facing backward and had Tammy''s bag of ammunition. "Okay, hold him steady." She couldn''t afford to miss too many shots, she knew, but when the next straight section of road gave her the chance to start firing, she didn''t do any better.


    After a hundred bullets, Anichka had thinned their numbers down to twenty riders on horses. There were plenty of horses still galloping along with their kin, and more than a few riders slumped dying-but-not-dead on their mounts. It pained her more to see injured horses. She could see that while the penetrators in her bullets were striking clear through the soldiers'' armor, the deflected metal of the outer bullet along with misses were leaving a lot of mounts that would need to be put down.


    <hr>


    Eliza Sussaridge groaned and sat up. Raising one hand to her left nostril, she blocked it and blew. There was nothing there, but even so she blew harder as the horrid feeling of filled sinuses assaulted her freshly alive again brain.


    She hated to admit how close she''d been to getting caught this time. "Ugh, I despise that." She blew her nose again, uselessly, trying to fight off the urge. "You need to get me to the Lord Chancellor." She lifted her head and looked at the priest who''d brought her back from the dead. "How long was I¡ª?"


    "No more than five minutes. I sent word the moment you appeared," the priest replied.


    Turning and sliding off the altar, Eliza looked around for her clothes and equipment. Spotting them, she walked over and set about getting dressed. Something she noticed was that none of her weapons, poisons, or spare talismans were among her things.


    Her mind raced. The air was far warmer, which made it clear she was in the West Reaches city itself rather than the north lands. She was back far earlier than she should have been, so they knew the news was bad.


    It wasn''t even like she''d failed before.


    Calmly, she put her clothes on, taking her time, trying to not show she was feeling on edge. "Where are the rest of my things?" she asked, but the priest was walking away already.


    "It''s standard for all visitors to the Marquess'' grounds to give up their weapons."


    The voice came from the entrance of the temple, and Eliza''s head turned on a swivel to spot the two big guards flanking the man who''d spoken¡ªthe Marquess David Fitzgerald of West Reaches himself. She bowed her head to him, earning a chuckle from the man. "This won''t happen again," she said.


    "Of that we are both in agreement. Eliza, what occurred out there?"


    "Someone was working directly against me, had spotted my acts and myself, and knew the exact methods to disarm my schemes. The local dungeon paid for the three council members to buy baronies. When your representative arrived, who seemed greener than anyone else you''ve ever sent, sir, they revealed their defenses and attempted to disarm me. I barely got my backup poison out in time." When Eliza raised her head, it was the Marquess himself who reached out with a knife to pass to her.


    "That''s partly my fault. You could say we are a victim of our own successes¡ªI have few enough nobles I can control to send!" Laughing, and glad to see a smile on Eliza''s face, the Marquess reached out his arm to settle it about her shoulders. "Come. Walk the grounds with me."


    The knife, Eliza knew, was symbolic. She set it down on the items table and followed the Marquess to the door and out into the warm sun.


    "Do you know who the counterspy was?"


    It was a complicated question, and Eliza wanted to make sure that was known. "Yes and no. The dungeon there is now part of the city. Its creatures walk freely in the town, and it has been offering the elderly the chance to become minions in it. It¡ª It turns people into kobolds. The one who figured my plan out was a kobold named Steph, though I have heard him called Stephan. No last name was given. I knew he was smart, but not so smart he could out-maneuver me."


    Crouching down at a flower bed, the Marquess was delighted to find a few weeds that looked like they''d sprouted that day. Kneeling beside the errant interlopers, he began dispatching the invaders. "They''re the hardest ones to see coming. We will have to send some more <em style="font-weight: 600">persuasive agents to deal with these problems. What of this dungeon?"


    "Well, dungeons¡ªplural. They have a Verdant animal dungeon too, but the main force in the city is a dragon dungeon, the type of which I couldn''t discern. It paid for the titles and it is exerting pressure to build a railway. It seems to have an agreement with the city''s genius loci; many I spoke with talked of the two forces working together during the siege there."


    The words were unbelievable, but still the Marquess filed them away for later unraveling. "What of my niece?"


    "She doesn''t like you, sir."


    "That''s putting it mildly! I''ve never seen such hate in a young lady''s eyes before! A firebrand if ever there was one¡ªjust like my brother. Harold was supposed to keep her in line." Here, he sighed. "That didn''t go well, I can assume?"


    "None of us had titles, sir. There were two barons in the room. They also had a dragon, who I think made Harold soil his pants." The laughter from the Marquess filled Eliza''s ears and brought a slight smile to her lips. "I tried to regain control, but then they made it clear they knew what I was. I¡ª"


    Standing up and removing his gloves, the Marquess tossed them aside. "Couldn''t be helped. That you stuck around that long was a testament to your loyalty, Eliza." He took a slow, deep breath. "You were worried I''d be angry?" He noticed her shadow nodding, but not looking at her as he was, he couldn''t see her face to judge it. "I offered you a dagger to defend yourself, if you felt you needed it. You put it down and walked past my guards."


    When the Marquess turned to face her, Eliza let out a sigh. "Like a dagger would have hurt them anyway, father."


    "Smart girl. Still, that only highlights your intelligence, which deserves reward. You''ll be recognized, bastard or not. I have arranged for a title of baroness for you. There are no lands, which is where your next mission comes in. There''s a little earldom I''d like you to have¡ªonce we''ve finished softening it up."


    Eliza swayed for a moment as the words made sense to her. Dropping to her knees, tears flowing down her cheeks, she took the offered hand of her father and kissed the ring on it.


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 Chapter 136

    It was inevitable. Anichka raised her voice and called out, "Stop. We can''t get away from them, and this straight road gives me the best chance of finishing them off with the other rifles." She looked over her shoulder to make eye contact with Howard. "Do you have a pistol¡ªone of the new ones?"


    "Two barrel¡ªuh¡ªmuzzle-loading. Nothing like your rifle."


    "That''s fine. Empty both barrels and let Tammy load them for you. Tam, make sure it''s enough." It wasn''t that she didn''t trust Howard''s skill at loading the gun, but she never doubted Tammy''s. When the horse was slow enough, Anichka slid off and slung her precious rifle over her shoulder. By the time she was on one knee, Tammy passed her the heavy rifle. The adamantine bore was thicker than it needed to be, but she still liked it for distance and stopping.


    With the riders pounding toward them, Anichka did her best to line up a shot when she judged one was behind another.


    The rifle sounded louder than anything Howard had heard before. The crack of its report echoed a few times before being lost. He took his offered pistol from Tammy with a, "Thank you," before watching her pass a smaller rifle to Anichka. "Perhaps I''ll learn to shoot a rifle when we return?"


    "Maybe a good skill for everyone in Northridge to learn? Free training and free guns for all." Done reloading the beast of a rifle, Tammy passed it to Anichka and took the other back from her. "How are they falling?"


    "Easily, but there''s dust rising in the distance. I don''t like this one bit."


    Shielding his eyes against the moon, Howard spotted the extra riders first. "There''s another group!" He did his best to ignore Anichka and Tammy''s cursing, but at the same time commended their creativity. "You both have multiple talismans?"


    The first group of riders, after her second shot with the adamantine rifle, were now within range of a pistol. Anichka nodded as she took hold of the next rifle. "Down to fifteen. You might want to go now, Howard."


    Glaring at the soldiers coming, Howard raised the pistol, brought his fingers to the double-trigger, and used it.


    Squeezing one last shot with her rifle, Anichka dropped it to hang on its sling and drew her first pair of pistols. "You''ve already lost! The baron is gone already!" She aimed with each shot, taking four of the men down and dropping the pistols. Before she could lift the next, Tammy let loose with two shot-pistols.


    Amid the horses screaming, Anichka brought up fresh pistols and fired repeatedly¡ªbut there were still two riders left as they got within striking distance. "Love you, Tam."


    "You t¡ª" Tammy was raising a pair of her shotgun pistols (aimed at the last two soldiers) while Anichka raised a pair of her own pistols¡ªaimed at herself and Tammy.


    The pistols never went off, though, as a huge wolf leapt across Anichka''s vision. It grabbed one of the men and tossed him away while a big axe cleaved through the second soldier''s neck and sank itself into a tree on the other side of the road.


    Howling filled the air as Anichka''s mind raced, coming up with the huge wolves and wolf people that Travis had saved. She holstered their rides home and reached for her rifle. "What''s going on?"


    "I don''t¡ª There, ask them!" Tammy pointed as Hreti, in heavy armor, ran across the road and grabbed his axe from the tree.


    "Good night for hunting!" Hreti called, loping back over to where the two guards were. "We were chasing down a goblin party, no doubt heading off to infect another dungeon. That''s what Kelvin said they do. Smelled more meat¡ªfound horses. Found you both."


    "A bit too late for Howard. He''ll be back in Northridge by now." Anichka looked down the road at the guards still riding their way. "And we have <em style="font-weight: 600">friends."


    "That''s great!" Hreti followed Anichka''s gaze down the road to see the armored figures, their equipment shining in the moonlight.


    "G-Great?" Tammy had never had to look up at someone as much as Hreti. The man was huge. In the back of her head she said a little thank you to any god listening that Hreti was on their side. "Sorry. Uh, Annie, want me to keep loading?"


    "Don''t let <em style="font-weight: 600">us keep you from your own hunt. There might be a lot of them, but I brought <em style="font-weight: 600">friends of my own." Tipping his head back, Hreti howled into the night air. Among the northern folk, the wolves had to maintain a certain decorum. They had to fit in with a society that only barely accepted them. Now, though, Travis was far more open to them exploring their own selves.


    The sounds of replies echoed around Anichka and Tammy. Voices howling out in excitement and joy. When Tammy passed Anichka her adamantine rifle back¡ªloaded¡ªAnichka said, "This will be loud."


    "The howls of your gun are¡ª" The sound of Anichka firing, up close, made Hreti revise his opinion of it a little, but nonetheless he continued. "¡­ a <em style="font-weight: 600">lovely howl! They called me here."


    Much closer now, more howls came before the forest disgorged more wolves. Hreti felt pure joy as Astrid, Njal, and Liv poured out surrounded by large wolves. "We have a hunt for stronger foes!"


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    Watching Anichka get a fresh rifle, Astrid let out her own howl anew, letting the song of it wind around the crack of the weapon. "Forward!"


    "Are we done firing?" Tammy asked.


    Anichka shook her head. "As long as the wolves keep giving me a line of fire, I''m going to keep shooting."


    <hr>


    Jerking upright as life returned to him, Howard looked around. "Where are Tammy and Anichka? They were going to be right after me. And why do I taste vinegar?"


    "I haven''t seen them. Is there a chance they surv¡ª" Rupert fought off the yawn to no avail. "You''ve been here for an hour. I''m sorry, but no one else has appeared."


    Grabbing a fresh talisman when Rupert gestured to them and suggested it, Howard made his way out of the temple still putting his boots on and finding somewhere for all his equipment. He set off at a jog, covering the ground as quickly as he could while repeatedly trying to spit the taste of vinegar out of his mouth.


    The dungeon area was always a hive of activity. A kobold was loading gold bars into a wagon as if it was the most normal thing to do. They waved to him and, because Howard was polite to a fault, he waved back to them and rushed inside. "Is there anyone here who can talk to Travis for me?"


    A head poked out of the tavern, beckoned to Howard, and then disappeared inside. Looking to the guards that were perpetually on duty in the dungeon entrances, he saw them all straighten but their sergeant shrugged.


    When Howard walked into the tavern, Millie nodded to a chair. "What do you need?"


    Taking a moment to put his words in order, Howard said, "We were leaving Far Reach when we noticed we were being chased. Anichka and Tammy killed most of the first group, but there were more behind them. They looked like guards from Far Reach."


    "Travis has been getting experience for the last hour¡ª No, he says a little less than an hour. The only ones it could be from are the wolves that are out hunting goblins. The experience for each kill, he says, is much more than what a goblin would give." Slumping back in her own chair, Millie yawned. "He said it''s similar to the amount of experience he got from soldiers in the siege."


    Sighing with relief, Howard slumped back in his chair. "Then I must offer my thanks to Travis and his¡ªfriends. Now I only need to figure out what we''re going to tell Far Reach and the King, officially, to explain our actions."


    "Stephan is coming," Millie said, standing up and making her way to the bar. "Would you like a drink?"


    "Coffee, if you have it." Hearing that Stephan was on his way caused Howard to sag in relief. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out his journal and set it down on the table, then explained aloud what had happened.


    Travis filled Stephan in on what he knew as the kobold left his sleeping quarters in the lowest level of the dungeon and used a teleport trap to reach the top. By the time Stephan stepped into the tavern, he knew as much as Travis did.


    When Millie brought three mugs of coffee over, and everyone had a moment to drink a little, Stephan began. "The young noblewoman here is being kept safe, and she has written an official letter stating her intent to stay in Northridge of her own free will. I know that doesn''t pertain to the issue immediately before us, but it is important. Were you able to see that the troops coming after you were Far Reach?"


    "No. They didn''t have the city''s uniform on from what Anichka said. She has better eyes than me at that distance. Oh! We can work the angle of the last time we''d moved through there we had been attacked by bandits." Making notes, Howard felt the problem was somewhat like an onion with layers he needed to peel back and find ways to neutralize.


    Nodding, Stephan liked that pitch. "We''ll lean on that. No one in Far Reach would have known you were passing through except for that gate guard, correct?" When Howard nodded, Stephan rubbed his jaw. "Perfect. You were riding out of Far Reach, spotted brigands chasing you, and being so few you dealt with them."


    Howard liked the edge Stephan put on it. "Put the onus back on Far Reach to explain why they sent a hundred riders without the city uniform to <em style="font-weight: 600">escort one noble?" At Stephan''s nod, Howard wrote that down. "I''ll make it sound a little more pompous."


    "They will claim the same thing, or try to. Could you arrange for similar dusters to Anichka and Tammy''s ones for all our Guard? I''m sure Breath of Spring could help provide the hides, and if not, we can."


    "Make those cloaks our uniform? A bold move, and one that can be arranged. After all, we have days before the pair will reach us." More notes went into his journal.


    "There''s one more aspect to this. Their soldiers likely wouldn''t have had talismans. Feel free to show shock and derision if questioned about that. Something along the lines of <em style="font-weight: 600">''What city wouldn''t pay for their populace''s safety?'' If it comes down to it, Howard, we will pay them the temple''s price of a talisman and resurrection."


    "They had talismans¡­ I think. That could still be a good angle to play, but a hundred soldiers will make that expensive. If we can shift responsibility for this to Far Reach, without having to pay a single gold, my sense of justice will rest easier." It still left Howard stunned whenever the subject of gold came up in relation to Travis. "But, thank you. All of you¡ªincluding Travis."


    "That sentiment is appreciated, Howard. Travis will be able to tell you that himself, soon. In another two days, he will finally have the research finished which will allow him to communicate with non-dungeon folk," Stephan said.


    Howard stopped to think on it, then asked, "Would that allow him to talk with anyone, anywhere in the city?"


    "We don''t know that yet, but given how the magic boost from the tower worked, it may. Too much of what he has to deal with isn''t explained or intuitive. It''s a wonder we aren''t making more mistakes than we are advances." Shrugging his shoulders, Stephan broke into another yawn. "Travis, I want you to find a boss I can be a cohort of. The way they can shrug off sleepless nights is, now, exceptionally enviable."


    "Are you sure about that, Stephan?" Travis asked, trying to hide his chuckle.


    Slumping, Stephan shook his head. "I''d never forgive myself if something managed to break in and I was taking up the spot of someone who could defend you. Sorry, Howard. Do we have enough that you can draft a letter?"


    "Yes. Go sleep if you can. I''ll go start the wheels in motion with an angry letter to Far Reach regarding the <em style="font-weight: 600">brigand attack." Howard stood up, now far more confident that the incident and their response wouldn''t harm Northridge.


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 Chapter 137

    [letter from the desk of Baron Howard Tailor, council member for Northridge; among many screwed up drafts]


    To His Royal Majesty, King Brave,


    I pray to all the good gods that His Royal Majesty is still in good health, and look forward to all future meetings and correspondences.


    It is with great consternation that I find myself writing so soon after my most auspicious recent visit. I was myself accosted on my return trip from the capital on the road immediately after leaving Far Reach. The ruffians seemed of great number but, as this wasn''t the first time our official delegation has been targeted in this region, I ensured I had protection.


    Nonetheless, I still had to rely on a talisman to ensure my own safety; a process I do not plan to repeat any time soon. I seek royal consent to police our roads and to detain any travelers who have no business with either city, between Far Reach and Northridge.


    With honor and loyalty, I remain the kingdom''s servant on the edges of the wilderness to the north,


    ¡ªBaron Howard Tailor of Northridge.


    <hr>


    [a brave young noblewoman''s journal]


    Miss Felna finally said I could go outside! She was being such a bore about it, but for being a dungeon, this isn''t the <em style="font-weight: 600">worst home I''d lived in.


    Don''t tell anyone, but there is a blacksmith in here that [line blotted out with ink]


    I shouldn''t have written that. It''s not seemly of a young noblewoman. But honestly! My uncle had sent away most of the young noblemen back home, the nice-looking ones at least, but even they didn''t show off their chest like a¡­ I will stop.


    Miss Felna is an ACTUAL priestess of Sandwalker. She promised to teach me all the prayers and devotions. She calls me <em style="font-weight: 600">kitten! Furthermore, she also talks to the dungeon, which I thought was weird, but there are worse things to talk to. Like my uncle. [a tiny caricature of a cat kin being sick is drawn here]


    I got to ride on a dragon for the second time today. A promise was required, again, that I wouldn''t tell Miss Fife.


    Flying in the sky is the most joyous feeling I''ve ever felt! There is <em style="font-weight: 600">nothing to hold me back up there. Freedom. Miss Penelope is so nice, but I don''t think I wish to ever make her upset with me. [a tiny picture of a dragon flying is here]


    Tomorrow I''ll be helping Baroness Christine with her work. Miss Felna said I could help with that, and it would be something I could do for the dungeon, too. I don''t know how working for the city will help the dungeon, but Miss Felna said it does. I have so many questions, and I think they will have a lot for me. Good night, journal.


    ¡ªa brave young noblewoman who shall remain nameless


    <hr>


    After the previous few days'' events, and then rising to find Howard on some sort of coffee-fueled rampage, Christine had regretted informing Travis that she would see Elanor. Glancing over at the young woman¡ªwhom she considered a spy, still¡ªChristine mentally reiterated that she didn''t want Elanor within any building that had the city''s records in it. "Why can''t this city be peaceful for one day?"


    Millie, who was already auditing the city books while looking for the last set of numbers that Liz had concocted, shrugged her kobold shoulders. "A city with a dungeon as part of it is never likely to know peace, even if Travis is the nicest dungeon in the kingdom."


    "World. I consider Travis the nicest dungeon in the world. There cannot be another like him or our kingdom would not still be independent." Sipping at her drink, Christine checked over her own work. "How are the books looking?"


    "There are holes everywhere. Every single report from Captain Brolly has been modified from what he submitted. The numbers indicate that he has been embezzling funds from the city." Finishing off her work of marking the latest reports, Millie slid them across to Christine with her own notes. "If I didn''t have his copies of the reports, I wouldn''t have noticed."


    "Because," Elanor said, "I was meant to notice them. Harold talked about the plan on the way here from my uncle''s estate. I don''t know what comes next, but that was the start. I''d learn about the city''s bookkeeping, and then be told the mistakes that were made, and you would be the one to have Baron Brolly Windchime <em style="font-weight: 600">revealed for the charlatan he is."


    Raising her eyebrow, Christine was mildly impressed at the noblewoman''s openness. "And what do you plan now?"


    "I''d like to go back to my parents. Mommy and Daddy were upset about sending me away¡ªbut they would do it again in a heartbeat. So, my current plans include making myself as useful as possible to you, Felna, Northridge, and anyone else here to secure myself somewhere away from my uncle." Without waiting for word from Christine, and despite her being a Baroness, Elanor walked over to the table where Millie sat and asked, "What can I do to help?"


    It almost felt too easy¡ªsuspiciously so. "And if this was actually the plan all along, to ingratiate yourself with us by ousting your no-longer-needed spy?"


    "Then give me a job you can trust me to do."


    <hr>


    Regretting her statement in hindsight, Elanor nonetheless pushed the broom along the shop floor, chasing dust bunnies into a corner where she dealt with them via a minor spell she''d learned from her nanny.


    The little chant that went with the spell rolled off her tongue despite her not being a cat kin, the tiny trickle of her mana¡ªthough¡ªoverflowed and a tornado of cleaning magic poured into the room like the exact opposite of a mudslide.


    Blinking in surprise, Elanor tried the cantrip again, and again a thundering rush of magic poured from her. In all, her two casts had scrubbed the floors and display counters of around a third of the room. "I don''t know why this is working, but I don''t care. If I can clean this shop up quicker, so be it."


    It turned a whole day of cleaning the shop into an hour''s work. There was the shop floor that she''d begun with, then there was a private set of rooms above that, and a storage area in the cellar.


    She still had no idea <em style="font-weight: 600">why Christine had told her to do this, but she could see the floorboards had seen a lot of use, even if Northridge was a newer city. It had taken several casts of her little spell, when she''d seen the mess of soot in the rafters, but even that hadn''t a chance to resist a superpowered mana cleaning cantrip.


    Elanor was so focused on getting everything in order that a knock at the door startled her. A moment after she realized there was no one to answer the door for her, Elanor walked over and opened it herself. "Miss Felna!"


    Pulling the noblewoman into a hug, Felna purred softly as she asked, "Working hard, Kitten?"


    "Yes, but also no. I was using a little spell to destroy the dust after I swept the floor, but instead of clearing a little dust off the floor¡ªit cleaned everything!" Pointing, Elanor gestured to the room behind her. "I''ve cleaned the whole store!"


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    "The magic in Northridge is amplified by Travis and his bag of tricks." At a look of startlement on Elanor''s face, Felna began purring a little louder to help calm her. "Do not fear it. Sandwalker assures me it causes no harm. Think of it as a present from Travis to everyone who works to build Northridge stronger and, thus, protect him."


    Pulling out of the hug, and thankful for the purring that always soothed her, Elanor put the information together and came up with a theory for how things were working. "So everyone in the city are his minions?"


    Felna couldn''t stop herself: she laughed. "Oh dear no, Kitten. Travis, on his worst day, never considers <em style="font-weight: 600">anyone a minion. Even the newest kobold who doesn''t know the workings of the dungeon isn''t referred to by him as a <em style="font-weight: 600">minion. I have tried to tempt and trick him into treating me as a piece on a game board¡ªbut he hasn''t fallen for it yet."


    "Is that what you think you''re doing?" Travis asked.


    Felna smirked at having baited his response so well. "Shush, Travis. How long do you have until you finish that project that lets you talk to anyone?"


    "It says four hours. Katelyn has twenty-seven people working on it right now, as well as herself. She seems to give a huge bonus to research speed."


    "So, you''ll be wooing every lady in Northridge within the hour? Kitten, I will fight to protect your virtue from this rabid beast of a dungeon." Reaching out, Felna carefully placed her paws over Elanor''s ears.


    Laughing, but not exactly understanding, Elanor twisted free of Felna''s grip. "He wooed you?"


    "Yes," Travis said, though only Felna heard him.


    "He likes to think he has, but Travis is a lot like you¡ªhe''s a big kitten." Felna stuck her tongue out, making sure Travis would see it from her own eyes. "He''s a very virtuous gentleman, a long way from where he''d rather be, trying to make the best of a bad situation."


    Felna rolled her eyes and laughed before Elanor could reply. "Travis is now trying to demonstrate he <em style="font-weight: 600">isn''t a virtuous gentleman¡ªby being a virtuous gentleman. He has some quirks, Kitten, but trust his word."


    "You said that the spy¡ªLiz¡ªwas working for Mister Travis as an agent-merchant?" What Elanor wanted was independence, but she also needed protection from her uncle and for that she needed to be useful. "He will require a new one. Someone to buy and sell for him, and to be a <em style="font-weight: 600">reliable voice in other places."


    "She''s not thinking¡ª" Travis said.


    "Therefore, it falls upon myself, as a brave young no¡ªas a brave young woman¡ªto offer my services to you, Mister Travis." Looking at Felna, Elanor didn''t need to see the excited flicks of the woman''s tail or smug expression to know she''d done something sensible. But then a worry hit her. "He, uh, can hear me, right?"


    Indulging in a little laugh, Travis said, "Tell her we will work out together how she can be protected and do whatever she likes. I¡ª Oh. Don''t worry. Hang on, let me try this." Redirecting to make both Felna and Elanor a target for his voice, Travis said, "Can you hear me, Elanor?"


    Jerking her head up and nodding, Elanor looked at Felna and asked, "Is that him?" When Felna nodded, Elanor felt even more astounded. Travis sounded nice, just like Felna had said, and now she would get to talk to him herself. "So, um¡­ Would this agreement be okay with you?"


    "It will be. You''ll need some guards and more talismans. Some armor and training would be a good idea too." Travis was already pondering if he could give Elanor a class when the option literally appeared asking him which class to buy for her. "Oh. Oh, wow!"


    <hr>


    The new research, for Travis, was amazing. "Can you help me look for someone to talk to?" he asked. "I can vaguely see around the ci¡ªyou¡ªbut I need more focus."


    "Dungeon Travis, of course I will." Northridge could sense a greater purpose in Travis, and couldn''t help but sympathize. Every time he himself obtained some new ability, he couldn''t wait to test its extent and use. The easiest target, for Northridge to locate, was his keeper of knowledge. That the librarian kept several pet lizards to keep the rat population down made it possible for him to narrow Travis'' focus on the woman. "Do you need anything further?"


    "No, thank you. Please, let me know if there''s anything I can do for you." When Northridge waved off his offer, he turned his attention to the woman. "Excuse me, but Northridge said you are the least likely to completely freak out and run screaming."


    The voice, coming out of nowhere because it was entirely within her head, didn''t freak out Llewellyn. She supposed this was a validation of Northridge''s hypothesis. "I dread to ask, but what manner of creature are you that can speak to me in this way?"


    "R-Right. Introductions. It''s easy to forget that not everyone knows me. I am Travis, the dragon dungeon." Being able to hear without a kobold nearby was new, too. Travis was excited at how useful this one bit of research had become.


    "Oh." Many, many questions now raced through Llewellyn''s head. She reached out for a notebook she perpetually kept with her ever since a city''s genius loci had first talked to her, and began writing. "I''m Llewellyn, it''s nice to meet you." She wasn''t sure what else to say. The dungeon spoke far more normally than she''d ever have expected, almost like a regular person. "Do you require a book?"


    "Sorry, not¡ª" Travis stopped himself. "Do you have any books on the laws of the kingdom?"


    "Some, but they change regularly, and the King is always the highest law." Standing up, Llewellyn walked through to where she kept professional references, and found several volumes. "Would you like them delivered?"


    "Please. You know your way to my dungeon?"


    It was such a normal conversation that Llewellyn could scarcely believe she was having it. "I''ll bring them right away."


    That gave Travis a chance to investigate and make a list of the research he had unlocked and what he still needed to do.


    <blockquote>


    Flush: When a cost has both gold and other resources, increase the gold required by 20% and reduce the other resources by 10%.


    Spicy: Any trap using lava can hold twice as much, this increases the cost of lava and also increases the lava effects.


    Reaper: Double the XP for all kills.


    Questing: Gain 10% of next level in XP per quest completed.


    Advanced Questing (requires Questing): Increase Questing bonus to 25%.


    Timesink (requires Reaper): Gain bonus XP over time for having adventurers in the dungeon.


    Persuasion: Can bind one non-dungeon creature (or adventurer) per Tier as a dungeon monster.


    Helping Hands (requires Persuasion): Friendly, non-dungeon creatures can gain bonuses as if they were dungeon creatures.


    Allies (requires Helping Hands): Friendly, non-dungeon creatures can commune with the dungeon heart.


    Dungeon Order: Allows monsters to become Priests.


    Dungeon Mages: Allows monsters to become Mages.


    Dungeon Soldiers: Allows monsters to become Soldiers.


    Dungeon Kobolds: Boosts kobold performance.


    Crafter (requires Dungeon Kobolds): Allows kobolds to become Crafters.


    </blockquote>


    Allies had been the big one, for him. Six hundred days of research, but the bonuses to kobolds and Katelyn''s own huge rate as a boss and a wizard seemed to have been almost as much.


    His earlier offer to Northridge, of support to him and his residents, could require a much bigger investiture now. Giving all the crafters in the city a class that would let them make more with less, giving the guards similar combat specialities to Fife, and the various magic users gaining expanded spells would all be within scope of that.


    Putting all that to the side, he looked over what he wanted next.


    <blockquote>


    Gold is King (requires Flush) 300 days: Replace any cost (for anything but mana) with 100x the amount of gold.


    </blockquote>


    It would mean less worrying about rare resources. Travis could just, he hoped, use gold to pay for things rather than mithril or adamantine. He hoped he''d even be able to use it to replace divinium and platinum.


    He also had all the various specialist classes, which were <em style="font-weight: 600">six hundred days of research ones. If he didn''t have so many kobolds now, it would take over a year.


    The passive XP gain route had meant that a whole other set of research had been blocked, too. He could have been getting huge bonuses for killing adventurers fast. The realization that there were probably passive bonuses in the classes too had led to him promising Fife that he would get Tank soon, though, so that made it his next research target.


    After a little focus, though, he realized something was off. "I haven''t gotten the bonus experience for quest rewards. I wonder¡ª" Sure enough, among the mass of resource notices he had, was a one-time pile of <em style="font-weight: 600">experience tokens.


    It seemed strange, at first, that the dungeon system would save them like this, but then he realized what it meant. "Use them earlier to gain a little experience, or wait for when they are worth more? Is that it? If it is, I am better off saving them for when I need them. Levels don''t"¡ªTravis paused, hating to have to say the words¡ª"matter until they do. Right now they don''t matter so much. I''ll save it."


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 138

    [a brave young woman''s journal]


    Mister Travis likes my idea. Baroness Sellswell doesn''t. I can''t find it in me to dislike her for it, since I was sent here to take over and maybe have her killed, but she doesn''t make it easy to like her. In essence, if I am serving under Mister Travis, it doesn''t matter if she likes me or not.


    I have an appointment to train with some people. Mister Travis says that even if I have guards, I need to be able to use weapons myself. Father and Mother had offered me such training, and while I had learned some hand-to-hand combat, I understand that I would never get to practice that if someone has a gun.


    And the guns! Even uncle, who had some of the greatest gunsmiths in the kingdom, didn''t have weapons like these. Pistols light enough that I could hold them pinched between two fingers. Rifles that his gunsmith said could put a hole through a castle wall with enough powder in them. The latest design, though, was a gun that could be reloaded from the back in seconds.


    The kobolds, he tells me, are all still the people they were before he changed them. I am not precisely sure how to take that. I am going to need to buy a lot of things, though, and he has offered to pay should I work for him and him alone. It makes me bite my bottom lip to say <em style="font-weight: 600">work for, because nobles aren''t meant to <em style="font-weight: 600">do that. But, that''s why this is no longer a brave young noblewoman''s journal.


    <hr>


    "When do I get to hit you?" It was all wrong. Learning to fight should have been with a longsword and fancy footwork, all action and parry and jab! Instead of four feet of shining steel to use, Elanor Fitzgerald had barely a foot of blade and was focusing on not letting Kelvin Silversong hit her. She had a shield and a short sword and she was <em style="font-weight: 600">sweating.


    "I''m starting to see Miss Fife''s way of things¡ªprotection is key. You can learn offensive styles later, but you need to know how to defend yourself first. If an opponent is faster and stronger than you, give ground until help arrives." As if to demonstrate, Kelvin sped up and focused on Elanor''s torso with every strike of his blunt spear.


    The change of pace was too much for Elanor. She threw her shield into every strike she could, and attempted to use her blade to knock aside ones that were too fast for her to move the shield to intercept, but his strikes had the solidness of iron to them. Stepping backwards was her only option, and she realized it was exactly as he''d said. When her back hit the wall of the training hall, Kelvin stopped his attack and held his mock spear upright. She could feel a new runnel of sweat down her back.


    "Tell me when you have your wind back."


    Staring in disbelief at Kelvin, Elanor very nearly tried to throw her nobility at him. It was right on the tip of her tongue when she remembered her diary and what the nobles of her home in West Reaches had done to her. "Can I have a drink?"


    Finding it harder to track time as a kobold, Kelvin had only Elanor''s condition as a guide. "Okay. Let''s go to the tavern and discuss your tactics over lunch. You will be spending the afternoon learning to shoot."


    The walk to the tavern wasn''t far. It was through a short tunnel and into a lit room where Elanor found a most blessed sight¡ªa chair. With a moment to take stock of herself, she realized that everything was sore in some way or another.


    Part of her wanted to rebel over the treatment. Swords, armor, sweat¡­ Elanor would have been more comfortable in a nice gown or a pretty sun dress. Before she''d flown on Penelope''s back, she would have even rather worn a bustle than to spend any amount of time <em style="font-weight: 600">sweating. But she wasn''t a noblewoman anymore. She had to throw that title away and start over. What she wanted was¡ª Elanor still wasn''t exactly sure. The guidance Travis had offered, along with a role, saved her of the need to crawl back to her family, but she felt like something was missing.


    "Here. Drink as much as you need." Sitting, Kelvin passed over a huge stein of water and settled down with his own. "Grace is sending someone with some stew. You know this isn''t a once-and-done thing? We have a week of this to get you to know the basics of defense, and then you''ll be training every time you''re here."


    "Yes. Will I eventually learn more than defense?" The water was crystal clear and surprisingly cold. It went down Elanor''s throat so easily that she had drunk half of it before she realized.


    "Sure. You can learn whatever you want. We have masters of archery, shooting, swords, axes, and spears. As well as someone who was known as the ghost of Northridge during the war, for her ability to slip into the enemy siege lines and cause havoc.


    "To get you started, though, Travis is going to give you a class. It will only grow stronger from you killing things, however, so you are going to need to build your skills up first and then participate in some fights. Fortunately, you reside in the only <em style="font-weight: 600">training dungeon in the kingdom."


    <blockquote>


    [A dungeon offers you the Dungeon Soldier class]


    Accept? Y/N


    </blockquote>


    The sense of something needing her attention was, now that Elanor experienced it, the weirdest thing in her life. "Why soldier? Can''t I use magic?"


    That got Travis'' attention. Rather than remain silent, he asked, "What would you rather have? I can give you Dungeon Mage, Dungeon Priest, Dungeon Kobold, or Crafter. I don''t think Dungeon Kobold would help, since that seems to be focused on enhancing aspects of being a kobold. Crafter lets you make things with less resources, as well as make <em style="font-weight: 600">better things with lower grade resources. We''re researching Tank next, which is what Fife has."


    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    "I would like for you to have that, or at least Dungeon Soldier," Kelvin said, mentally chewing on the idea. "Support types would be¡ª"


    "I can''t have armor, a shield, and use magic?" Elanor asked. Holding up her hand, she made one of the little light spells she''d been taught. Unlike her first time using magic in Northridge, she was a little more practiced with the amount of magic she''d receive.


    "Oh," Travis said at the same time Kelvin did. Both of them laughed a moment before Travis continued. "Unless you have a god picked out already, I think¡ª"


    Nodding, Elanor reached into the neck of her shirt and fished out a little amulet with a rough paw print pressed into the soft gold. "I''d like to be a priestess, please, for the Sandwalker."


    <hr>


    "Ugh, Felna! Stop purring so loud!" Travis tried to fight through the rumbling sound in his head¡ªthen realized his shout woke Felna up. "Uh, Felna?"


    "Is there a reason you''re waking me up before dinner time?" Stretching, Felna could hear purring in her head and shrugged it off as her god being very typically her god. Slipping her shirt on and pulling on some linen pants, she stood up and looked around the tower. The city below Felna looked inviting, though, so she decided to see what the noise was about.


    "I just heard purring in my head and thought it was you."


    Travis'' explanation froze Felna''s steps. She directed her own mind to examine the purring she heard, and realized it was coming from Travis and not her own head. "What have you <em style="font-weight: 600">done, Travis? Every time I take a nap, you do something."


    Travis ignored the accusation in Felna''s voice and got to the topic at hand. "Elanor wants to become a priestess of Sandwalker. Should I?"


    Stopping in her tracks, Felna reached a paw up to her face and closed her eyes. The intent of her god was obvious. "I think you already have approval, unless you think a god purring in your head means they''re upset?"


    "I always thought they had some way of calling their priests and stuff. Like a spir¡ª Oh, I left her sitting there. Hold on."


    <hr>


    As soon as Travis'' focus was back in the tavern, the purring grew stronger in his head. "I''m going to need to build a new temple, aren''t I?" he said to no one, and the purring grew stronger still. "Is she the reason I''m important to you?" Not waiting to see if purring could grow so strong it would do his heart damage, Travis prodded Elanor and paid a thousand gold¡ªa pittance compared to his daily tally sheet for it.


    Elanor wasn''t sure what to expect. After she pressed yes on the odd, floating button, she felt a little tingle run through her that made her feel warm at first, then hotter, then finally it felt like she burned all over.


    The fire rushed through her, not stopping as it seared her to her very essence. When it did reach her core, though, she felt like a question was left there. A simple one. <em style="font-weight: 600">Accept or reject the fire? it seemed to ask.


    The sacred sayings came back to Elanor. <em style="font-weight: 600">Would she risk walking barefoot on the hot sand? To be burned and yet learn a lesson because of it? She felt her own fire, mixed ambition, resolve, and a desire for freedom, rise in challenge. She accepted the fire, because it was <em style="font-weight: 600">meant to be inside her all along!


    Panting as she arrived, Felna rushed into the tavern on the second floor in time to feel the heat radiate from Elanor. She narrowed her eyes and sighed. "Well, that''s different. It''s not common for Sandwalker to accept a priestess without someone being put on a quest first, let alone one from human parentage. How do you feel, Kitten?"


    "Hot. Full of energy. We need a temple!" Jumping to her feet, spinning in place, Elanor pointed. "Is that where the other temple is?"


    Looking at the spot she pointed, Kelvin shook his head. "No, that''s where the wyvern pens are. Maybe some lizards too. Actually, a lot of lizards."


    "Lizards are tasty," Felna said, shrugging her shoulders. "But, yes, a temple would be nice. Travis, would you be so kind as to get someone to dig us a temple?" She made sure to flutter her eyelashes, having read some interesting things about that in Travis'' memory-books.


    "I said I would. I even offered you one already, but you were happy with the tower!" Groaning in frustration, Travis would have been truly annoyed but for one thing, Elanor''s smile.


    <hr>


    [a brave young priestess'' journal]


    Now they can''t send me back to my uncle! I feel like Sandwalker is curled around me, protecting me, filling me with her warmth. She doesn''t say much, but there''s a feeling like she will never leave me to fight anything on my own.


    Mister Travis is very nice. I don''t think anyone in my family has ever spoken to a dungeon before. Maybe they should have and be less (rest of line blotted out)


    My former family are terrible people and I am free to say that now because Sandwalker got upset with me for blotting out those angry words.


    Apparently, I am not meant to hold back with my thoughts. Miss Felna said Sandwalker doesn''t like those without a strong will, and that I must have such since I am now a priestess. I have a lot to get used to, but I will do it.


    Mister Travis said I still need to learn to fight defensively. He also wants me to meet with all his creatures and find ones that I¡­ I''m not sure why he used the word, but he said I need to "vibe" with them. Miss Felna said that means I need to be friendly and that I will share a rapport with them.


    I''ve already seen all the lizards. They are the most adorable little things. I don''t think Miss Felna likes them. They crowd around her whenever she sleeps in the dungeon and, she says, they steal her warmth.


    I leave my door open a crack so they can come in. It''s nice to have them crowd around and keep me company. Once I have some friends picked out, Kelvin said I need to try fighting some of the dungeons Miss Fife has made. Something about needing to get kills, and Mister Travis'' creatures can be resurrected.


    Don''t tell anyone, but I want to try to resurrect them myself. Surely bringing them back to life will be even <em style="font-weight: 600">more of this <em style="font-weight: 600">experience they keep talking about.


    I need to go. Mister Kelvin wants to beat me senseless again and probably make me¡­ sweat. It''s horrible!


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 139

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 33/100


    Heart 3,920,400/3,920,400


    Experience 92,949/980,100


    Mithril 4,991


    Adamantine 2,655


    Mana 6,420


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 51


    Quest: Kill 1 city dweller.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 49/66 | Monsters 52/67 | Traps 151/162


    Quest: Reach level 50.


    </blockquote>


    Elanor''s party was doing well. Travis was surprised that simply placing his minions under her command made them count as her party, which seemed to confuse his system and give him experience for them killing his other creatures <em style="font-weight: 600">and vice versa.


    It was exciting as well that creatures would fight <em style="font-weight: 600">better alongside her than similar ones did on their own. In an odd twist of fate, it was Elanor herself that counted as completing his quest.


    <blockquote>


    Quest Complete: Kill City Dwellers.


    Gain 1 level


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    New Quest: Locate The New Dungeon


    </blockquote>


    "Uh, Pen?" Travis could only stare in disbelief at the notification. "Pen!"


    "Ugh. I''m awake! I''m awake." Yawning, Penelope looked around the tower she''d fallen asleep on. "What''s the matter?"


    Travis noticed a second point of reference wink into being at the same spot. Penelope looked over and locked eyes with Felna for a moment, then the pair settled back down. It was a surprise to Travis that they got along so well¡ªa relieved surprise. "I just got a new quest to <em style="font-weight: 600">locate the new dungeon."


    Jerking her head up, Penelope cackled. "A new dungeon?! So the undead one was resurrected or did we get something entirely new?"


    "Hrmm?" Lifting her head again, Felna grumbled when Penelope moved from her. "My warmth¡­ Wait, a new dungeon? What quest finished?"


    "Uh." Travis wondered how to say it that wouldn''t result in angry hissing. "I only had one more <em style="font-weight: 600">kill to go until the <em style="font-weight: 600">kill city dwellers quest finished, and Elanor wanted to try a harder dungeon, so I let her take on Fife''s with three bloodied wolves as the boss¡ªit was too much for her and they beat her."


    "You killed my kitten?" Felna stopped moving; even her tail tip froze.


    Travis was unsure if she was furious, amused, or just curious. "She''s training for combat. She is setting her own pace now, and that pace is hard and fast. I don''t think I need to defend what I''m doing¡ªbecause she''s the one doing it. She''s already waking up in one of the two temples in town."


    Letting out a little chuff, Felna stretched and flicked her tail. "Good. She''s growing, learning, and has someone to catch her when she plays too rough."


    "So, back to the topic, that''s what I got a quest for. It seems adamant there is a new dungeon, though." Travis spoke to both of them now, enjoying the moment of them each stretching. He tried to tell himself not to use the word <em style="font-weight: 600">show, but between Felna''s constant teasing and Penelope picking up some feline tendencies herself, Travis wasn''t sure that they wouldn''t be thinking of it that way.


    "Then we''ll have to go find it," Felna said.


    Picking up on Penelope''s chuckle, Travis asked, "Both of you? But Felna, why do you need to¡ª?"


    "Fife is putting together her group to go back to the goblin dungeon. She''s getting Brayden, but she wanted to drag me back too. If she needs another, she should ask Nathaniel." Slipping her shirt and pants on, Felna stretched her back and shook. "Can we fly out to scout now?"


    "Jump on," Penelope said.


    Felna, showing off her acrobatics, vaulted off Penelope''s raised leg and did a flip into the air, coming down in a crouch on Penelope''s back before sliding a leg each side her neck and settling in place.


    "Showoff." Ruffling her wings, Penelope dropped from the ledge and let the rushing air lift her into the sky.


    <hr>


    The moment Penelope and Felna were outside the walls of the city, the pair breathed a sigh of relief. For Felna that was accompanied by a purring laugh; Penelope''s was instead a gravelly roar. "I''m keeping low. If you see anything, shout."


    "Of course. You''re starting your search near the rot dungeon?" Below them, workers were clearing trees from around the tree line while groups of guards kept a close eye out for the goblins. Already, huge trenches were being dug to build the footings of the new wall that would be a large bite taken out of the nearby countryside. Soon, they swept out and over that sea of green and she had to keep her focus on the gaps in the tree cover below.


    Scanning around with her own predatory vision, Penelope banked to the right to start circling around the nearest section of forest. "Has he noticed yet?"


    "Noticed what?"


    "Uh"¡ªPenelope spat out a larger than normal bug that found its way into her mouth, she hated talking while flying¡ª"us. This thing we have."


    "Are we a thing? Do you think we''re a thing? Other races have different feelings on sleep and bonding. If you think this is¡ª" Felna leaned out far to the right, one paw gripping a spine of Penelope''s back, and focused on something below. "Bah. A deer."


    "It could be another animal dungeon." Nibbling on her armored lip a little, Penelope said, "He didn''t seem upset by it."


    "He is nothing if not a man, Pen. Watching his girlfriend wake up, snuggled against another woman, is naturally going to leave him more curious than confused. If only he were a normal man, this would be <em style="font-weight: 600">far easier to solve."


    "You mean¡ª?"


    "Exactly. But he''s not flesh and blood. He has no such shortcut to his joy and bliss." Discounting another deer that was oblivious of Penelope''s presence, Felna spotted something different on the dappled ground. "What''s that?"


    Penelope''s vision nailed down through the canopy, peeling back the simple patterns that the creature was using as camouflage, and saw it by the heat it was giving to the mulch and dirt around it. "Something alive and warm. Want to say hello?"


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    "Pen, what are you¡ª Oh shiiiiit!" There was nothing else Felna could do but hold on for all she was worth as Penelope crashed through the trees and landed on the floor of the forest with a resounding thud that threw all the surrounding leaves into the air.


    Jumping from Penelope''s back, Felna caught sight of movement as whatever they''d found was running. When she realized it ran on two legs, it made her mind catch up to her feline instincts that already had her running after them. "Two legs!"


    Leaving Felna to take care of the early part of the chase, Penelope noticed the way their quarry was running in an arc and she dashed through the underbrush to cut them off. It wasn''t so much that she had any less to deal with than the other two, small trees, bushes, and even briers¡ªbut Penelope''s tough scales meant she just didn''t care.


    The sound of a dragon barreling through the forest held no fear for Felna, but she knew it would be different for their quarry. Flicking a little kinetic spell out to the gnoll''s flank, she tried to distract with some sound before¡ª Penelope crashed through the wall of thorns to the side and tackled the creature.


    Slowing her pace, Felna could see that there was a slight advantage to being a dragon. Right now, it was being able to pin a dungeon monster under one big talon. "Ah, gnoll. That''s interesting to have as a new dungeon. Can you figure out what type?"


    Sniffing, Penelope shrugged her wings and tucked them back at her side. "No rot. That''s a big step up from what we have already."


    With the gnoll pinned to the ground and unable to do much more than twitch, Felna crouched down beside its head. "I can never tell with them if they''re a worker or one of their fighters. Hello there. Would you like to talk?"


    The sounds had meanings. Understanding of language wasn''t yet fully cemented in the gnoll''s head, but it figured out enough of the two that had attacked it that it had no chance of beating them. It slumped, awaiting the killing blow it knew would come.


    It didn''t come, though. The two mismatched beings communicated and, finally, the huge one lifted its foot away. There was only one thing to do with a creature so large and powerful it can so easily limit your movement.


    "Did you kill it?" Felna asked. Reaching out her paw, she poked the shoulder of the big hyena creature, then she carefully stroked its fur there. "It''s alive and awake still. You scared the poor thing."


    "What''s scary about me?" Penelope managed not to laugh for a few seconds before rumbling her mirth. She backed away from the gnoll, letting Felna¡ªwho was mostly the same size as it¡ªcontinue the interaction.


    Looking down at the gnoll, and ignoring Penelope''s shenanigans, Felna said, "The big nasty monster is gone. Do you want to sit up? Do you need healing?" On instinct, she charged her paw with healing magic and pressed it to the gnoll''s chest.


    The touch of magic shocked the gnoll so much it jerked upright and looked around, realized it had messed up its attempt to play possum, and did the first thing it could think of.


    Felna was surprised at the gnoll''s speed as it jumped upward and toward her, grabbed her around the neck with one arm, and turned to face Penelope. "Using me as a shield isn''t a good idea. Pen can breathe all over both of us and the worst that happens is I need to cough sand out of my throat."


    Hesitating, Penelope tilted her head to the side at the sight before her and asked, "Felna, do you need rescuing?"


    "If he doesn''t relax his grip on my windpipe, you''ll have to¡ªurk¡ªrescue him!" For Felna, becoming a cohort to a dungeon boss had led her to many new levels of power both physical and magical. Maximizing her priestly dungeon class and starting on fighter had also given her a good boost. Planning a way out of the grip, and crouching just a little, she let her weight settle on the gnoll like she were a sack of grain¡ªonly to have the gnoll drop her and ruin the setup. "Hey!"


    Penelope laughed as the gnoll ran off. Felna''s indignity was too glorious, though she at least took note of which way the hyena creature had gone.


    "Ha ha. Very funny. Now we lost him." Getting back up to her feet, Felna froze and looked down to the sheath at her side where the shortsword she''d been training with since she''d gotten her class from Travis had been. ". . . And he got a very nice weapon."


    Now noticing where Felna looked, Penelope asked, "Adamantine?" At Felna''s nod, she shrugged her shoulders. "Brave gnolls get the best loot. He faced a dragon and lived. He deserves <em style="font-weight: 600">something for that. Come on, get on my back so we can figure out where his home is."


    Grumbling dire curses about gnolls so ungrateful for being healed that they would steal your sword, Felna vaulted onto Penelope''s shoulder and swung up and over her back. Then she had to duck because while she''d thought that Penelope would take to the air, instead she loped after the gnoll like a ferret trying to chase down its quarry.


    It might not have been the smartest gnoll in the world, but it knew for an absolute fact that if a monster as big as a dragon reached its home, there would be nothing stopping it from destroying everything. It was huge and deadly in a way that defied belief, and so the gnoll ran as fast as it could.


    After some time of chasing the gnoll through the forest, and being sure she was going in circles, Penelope stopped and ruffled her wings. "This isn''t working. He''s probably leading us away from his dungeon."


    "You don''t say? This is because you had to go and cause him to panic." Sliding off Penelope''s back, Felna dropped to her feet and walked around.


    After several minutes of following the gnoll, and nearly ten more of having lost sight of it, Penelope stopped and used a claw to shred the bark off a nearby tree in impotent fury.


    "I read that you hid Travis'' entrance when you were starting out. That can''t be coincidence. So, why don''t we look for any deadfalls and destroy them?"


    "We''ll end up destroying half the forest if we do that. We¡ª" Penelope had shifted around as she spoke, and just as she was saying it was time to head home and try again later, she heard a crash behind her as her rear left leg smashed through something.


    Felna couldn''t help herself. She looked at the smashed log that had been overhanging and hiding a dungeon entrance, and broke into laughter. "Pen! Before you were a dragon, did your ass get you into this much trouble?"


    Looking back, spotting a dungeon entrance, Penelope laughed. "You know, it probably did. This isn''t trouble, though, this is <em style="font-weight: 600">success."


    "So, we found the dungeon''s entrance. What now?" Felna jumped down the ridge they''d been on, slid down the wall a little, then landed on her feet at the entrance to the gnoll dungeon. "It''d be nice to figure out what kind it is, I guess. I wonder what the odds are that we''d have another nice friend like Travis?"


    Penelope opted to use a little flap of her wings to bring her gracefully down to the entrance she''d uncovered. "What if they <em style="font-weight: 600">knew Trav?"


    Walking into the dungeon like she owned it, Felna turned her head to look back at Penelope. "What if it was his mother? Could you imagine trying to explain ourselves?"


    "Fel, why are we going inside?" Penelope asked.


    "Two reasons. One, we''re going to figure out what this dungeon probably is. Two, we''re going to fight its monsters and lose." Felna flashed a big grin up at Penelope. "Look, right now, if the goblins find this, we''ll end up with <em style="font-weight: 600">two goblin dungeons. These guys need a kick-start, and killing an adventurer and a dragon would be an excellent way to do that."


    "Ugh. No. There''s a better option." Penelope had to squeeze a little to fit into the dungeon''s tunnel, but she managed it with enough room to spare that she could probably fight if she needed to. "Look, we''d be worth like a hundred thousand or so together. If we kidnap one of the gnolls, catch up with Fife, and have her drag the gnoll to the bottom of the goblin dungeon? <em style="font-weight: 600">That would be a boost for it. Hell, we could take them on a tour of Breeze instead."


    Felna froze. "You are the sneakiest dragon I have ever met. Certainly the sneakiest I have ever dated." Stretching up on her toes, Felna kissed the underside of Penelope''s jaw. "I like your plan <em style="font-weight: 600">much better."


    Nodding in satisfaction, Penelope paused. "Wait, when did we start dating?"


    Simply raising her eyebrow, Felna gestured to the dungeon depths ahead. "It''s not exactly traditional, but this counts."


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 Chapter 140

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 34/100


    Heart 4,161,600/4,161,600


    Experience 92,949/1,040,400


    Mithril 5,228


    Adamantine 2,890


    Mana 6,420


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 51


    Quest: Locate The New Dungeon


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 49/66 | Monsters 52/67 | Traps 151/162


    Quest: Reach level 50.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    Quest Complete: Locate The New Dungeon.


    Gain 20,000 XP


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    New Quest: Destroy another dungeon.


    </blockquote>


    The quest completing was expected. The new quest wasn''t. "Dammit! This isn''t what I wanted. Fife! Actually, sorry Fife. It''s Stephan and, uh, actually¡ªis Brevity still here? Oh, there she is. Brevity, can I talk to you?" For Travis, trailing his voice across three people and settling on just one wasn''t anything new, though being able to talk directly to his lawyer was.


    "Huh? What?! Where?! Who said that?" Brevity, who''d been reading a book in the dungeon''s library, jerked her head up.


    "Sorry. It''s me, Travis. The dungeon." It still felt a little awkward to him to talk to anyone apart from people from his dungeon, but he was getting better about it. "I''ll have to figure out how to announce myself or something. Anyway, I''d like to know how hard it would be to get another dungeon sanctioned?"


    "Because you already received approval once, it will be far easier now. You would need to get the council''s permission, but I believe I could easily have that goblin dungeon''s destruction order for you in around four weeks."


    "Could you start that? I don''t know how much gold will be required, but if you can tell me I''ll make sure you''re paid in advance." It would be a huge relief to get rid of the goblins. With a new dungeon growing, he didn''t want to have double the mess to deal with. "Oh, if it helps, after I killed the undead dungeon, a new one has appeared to replace it."


    Brevity sat there a moment, and if Travis was any judge, she was thinking furiously about something. Eventually she asked, "You can verify this?"


    "Northridge now has a¡­ Okay, I don''t know what the dungeon is, or where it is, but my scouts will be back soon. I only knew it was out there because I got a quest to find the new dungeon and sent Pen and Felna out. About two minutes ago I got credit for finding it, then got a new quest to destroy a dungeon. It doesn''t specify which, and if I had to pick I''d say that anything is better than that goblin dungeon. Even another verdant dungeon would be better. At least we could make friends with it." Realizing he was rambling, Travis clamped down on his mental thread and put an end to it. Then he noticed something. "If you had proof, would that help?"


    "I¡ª Uh¡ª" Brevity closed her mouth for a moment, took a deep breath, then tried once more. "Proof would be very helpful. Though I trust you, Lord Constance would only take first-hand testimony or something signed by the local peerage. How long will it take to get some?"


    "Pen and Felna are back. They have a gnoll with them. I guess that means it''s a gnoll dungeon? Oh, they said it seems like it is probably some sort of monster-focus, since it already had a huge gnoll in the dungeon. They didn''t bring that one, though." Travis turned some of his focus to Penelope and Felna, splitting his attention between them and giving Brevity directions to the teleporting trap that led to the entrance.


    <hr>


    Penelope was relieved it wasn''t the same gnoll that had stolen Felna''s sword, since that would have a chance of hurting her. She held them tightly enough that they wouldn''t be getting free, but not so tight as to hurt them. "Would you stop squirming? Your dungeon is going to love this. Trust me."


    Not understanding the dragon in the slightest, and now on the ground, the gnoll struggled to get out of the huge talon wrapped around it. But they weren''t in the forest anymore. Stones underfoot, stone houses, and the intense feeling of two dungeons in proximity caused it to go still.


    "Finally. Okay, we need someone who can body this guy around a bit. Has Fife left yet?" Penelope looked around, but couldn''t see their go-to tank. "Or maybe Wild?"


    "Wild''s on his way. Fife has left already, and took pretty much everyone else suited to combat with her. I should see if Breeze wants to make a big, friendly bull-guy or something." Travis mused on the subject while Wild made his way up and outside.


    Shading his eyes for a moment, Wild looked around and smiled. Whenever Ludmiller was away, he felt a little lost, but to have Penelope close went a small way to cheering him back up. "Travis said you need me to look after a new friend?"


    "It''s more of a guided tour. We found a new dungeon and kidnapped one of the gnolls from it. Since we get tons of stuff when we delve a few floors, these guys should get a good start to their dungeon if they are carried to the bottom floor of Breeze and then Travis," Penelope explained, and slowly opened her huge hand to give the gnoll a little movement. "Oh, and be careful of your axes, they have quick hands."


    Walking up to the bigger creature, Wild waited for Penelope''s talons to fully release them, then he gave the gnoll a nod. "Walk in front, don''t start anything, and your dungeon will gain a huge reward."


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    The gnoll, having experienced dragons and magic-using catkin, was not prepared for the shorter kobold to walk up like it was far more deadly than the gnoll. There was an aura of readiness to commit a lot of violence, combined with two dark axes, that made the gnoll not want to test the little creature''s fighting ability. When the kobold pointed at a dungeon entrance, the gnoll slowly nodded and walked in front of it.


    "Ugh. I''ll go too. I bet that damn gnoll will try something stupid and Wild will have to cut him in half." Felna looked up at Penelope, reached a hand toward her jaw, and gave her a tender little stroke there. "I''ll see you when I''m out."


    As the two walked off, leading the gnoll into Breeze, Penelope heard a gasp. When she looked, she spotted Brevity Delling. The woman had been an annoying itch for Penelope. Normally very direct, Penelope had been confronted with several problems that she had no answer to¡ªand normally Stephan covered for those. Brevity, though, handled far different problems. "You need something?"


    Travis winced. Penelope seemed a little cold and rough in her conversations with Brevity, and he had no clue why. "She needed to see the gnoll dungeon so she can report it back to the court. Would it take you long to show her the entrance?"


    Doing her best to ignore the annoyed tone Penelope had used, since at least half the people she''d met who knew her job used it with her, Brevity pushed on. "That would certainly assist in my convincing the court that a new dungeon <em style="font-weight: 600">is there. I''ll need some paperwork from the council stating that there were only four dungeons to begin with, but that shouldn''t be hard to acquire."


    "Wait," Penelope said, surprise dominating her exclamation, "how rare is it for a new dungeon to appear after a city has quickened?"


    "I''m not an expert on dungeons, but studying them is my job. I have never heard of this happening before. There are rumors, but they are just that. Unsubstantiated hearsay is not something I''d wager a case on. That''s why I want to document this."


    The hunger and fire in Brevity''s voice surprised Penelope. "Hop on, then, and I''ll show you." She knew not everyone would take that offer. In the sky, on her back, people were at their most vulnerable. She only had to turn upside down and do a quick loop and her rider would be having an annoying conversation with a priest.


    Brevity''s thoughts were much the same as Penelope''s, though she didn''t know that. Professionalism was important, though, and so she did as instructed and climbed onto a dragon''s back. "Do you, uh, do this kind of thing often?"


    Feeling the tight grip of her back spine, Penelope picked up what Brevity''s problem was without too much trouble. "If you''re asking has anyone managed to fall off my back"¡ªPenelope rolled her shoulders, spread her wings, and paused¡ª"the answer is <em style="font-weight: 600">not yet."


    Travis couldn''t help himself from laughing, though he kept the outburst as an <em style="font-weight: 600">inburst so as not to embarrass Brevity.


    <hr>


    Sweating had become a standard. It wasn''t exactly a standard that Elanor enjoyed, but more a byproduct of improvement and a sign she was working hard enough. Even without Kelvin, she still had the creatures of the dungeon willing to populate the tunnels of the various training dungeons she delved, while she had her own friends working on her side.


    The scorpions that were this mini dungeon''s bosses were not being cooperative. She circled around them while her big wolf friends, Bite and Bark, kept their attention. When she tried to poke at the nearest one with her spear, it turned toward her and the sting came down into her thigh.


    Elanor winced at the pain and swore several times under her breath as Bark lunged, grabbed the tail of the scorpion in its jaws and ripped it free from her leg and the scorpion.


    Centering herself, Elanor cast her Focused Heal on herself and felt it fight back at the cave scorpion''s venom. With the scorpion now turning back to fight Bark, she lunged forward with her spear to skewer the "boss" through its side.


    In the dungeon, Bark and Bite would both be perfectly happy fighting with full vigor, but with Elanor''s new ability, Inspire Courage, they were faster and more daring than ever. As one of the scorpions slowed due to the loss of internal hydrostatic pressure of its hemolymph, Bark took its time relieving it of both its claws and then its life.


    Using up another heal spell broke Elanor from most of her lethargy from the poison, and let her assist Bark in flanking the remaining scorpion and dealing with it before it could skewer any of them with its stinger. When she staggered back a step or two, and realized they''d won, Elanor let out a whoop of excitement. "We did it!"


    Celebrating as the huge wolves usually did, Elanor was on her back a moment later with a pair of lupine tongues licking her face. She laughed at the silliness and tried to fight them off with her hands, to little success. At last the wolves backed off and let her get to her feet again.


    The room was the same as when she''d first entered, though now the two scorpions were gone with a pair of claws and two stingers on the ground as the only sign they''d ever been there. Lowering her voice, Elanor whispered, "Sandwalker guide them to gentler dunes."


    Warmth and reassurance wrapped around Elanor like a blanket. She smiled and let it guide her to the treasure room for the mini dungeon. There was always a pit trap, which she avoided by dint of stabbing the floor repeatedly with the haft of her spear, then edging around it. "Keep back. There might be another cannon in here."


    Watching her friends slink back out of any potential line of fire, Elanor dropped low and crawled up to the door before poking it with her spear. When nothing happened, she poked it again. Eventually triggering the handle, she shoved the door open and was left with a sense of anticlimax. Checking the floor inside the treasure room, she found no trap there either. "No traps apart from the pit?"


    "If I put traps in every treasure room, people would stop being paranoid about traps because they''d know to always expect them. How do you know there isn''t a powder keg bomb in here somewhere?" Travis asked.


    "Because you''re talking to me, Mister Travis. You never talk until I have finished a dungeon and avoided all the traps." Walking over to the weapon rack, and trying to hide her giggles at Travis'' indignant spluttering, Elanor picked up the pistol sitting on the shelf. "You had him engrave it with my name?"


    "Tinpot was excited. He knew you''d finish this dungeon. He has the bullets for it upstairs, and he wanted you to have some better armor, too, so Axel is there too with that new mithril breastplate." Travis had never seen someone stuff their pockets with gold, turn, and run through a dungeon so fast before. If there was one thing he''d found out about his new ambassador, it was that she loved adventuring.


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 Chapter 141

    The sight of the goblin dungeon filled Fife with energy and drive. Not that she hadn''t been excited to delve already, but today she had a group that <em style="font-weight: 600">would be able to take the fight all the way to the bottom. It only pained her to hear that it might be her second last delve of the thing. But, there would be more dungeons. "I could fight every type of dungeon and monster in my lifetime, and never be more than a few miles from home. I love this place."


    Flanking Fife were Astrid, Njal, and Liv. The three wolves towered over Fife, but they all gave her room and deference as if it were her that was the biggest of them. Each wore heavy adamantine armor. Astrid carried a sword, shield, and had a huge axe strapped to her back. Njal carried a pair of normal two-handed axes¡ªone in each hand¡ªas well as a pair of swords at his hips. Liv had a two-handed cleaver with a blade as long as Fife was tall, and the weapon was weighted as if it should be used for cutting through city gates; she also had a backup sword and shield.


    Behind them, keeping close, was Brayden, Jack, Katelyn, Kelvin, and Breath of Spring. Bringing up the rear were several bloodied wolves, scorpions, and the final wolf, Trygve. Most of this group had their usual equipment, and Trygve had a big sword and shield with a pair of axes on his back.


    Centering himself as he walked toward the dungeon, Brayden looked around at his friends and, at least in his heart, family. Fife was practically his sister and Jack his brother. His circle of friends had grown far more than when he''d been just another adventurer. The huge wolves were new, but he''d seen them fight on the way to the dungeon and they were almost Fife''s equal when it came to efficiency of motion, though unlike Fife their focus was on attack. He sent a prayer to Brogdar, asking his god to protect his allies and himself.


    "Hey, Brayden, don''t forget that Inspire Courage thing. I was fighting with Elanor yesterday and when she used that, all her allies started hitting harder." Fife reached the entrance of the dungeon and looked back. "We all ready?"


    Walking around the bigger people, her eyes fixed on Fife''s, Breath of Spring walked up and crooked her finger for Fife to lean down to her height. She whispered, "Shared Heart," and kissed Fife.


    Brayden stared at the two, his magic-attuned sight letting him see a bond connect them. When Breath, giggling, stepped back to their group, he asked her, "What did that do?"


    "It binds her to me. I share her life, and she mine. She can''t die until I do." Breath enjoyed the warmth of closeness she felt with Fife, even from a distance. "And, I can heal myself a lot!"


    The entrance of the dungeon was wider than last time they''d been here. Fife didn''t mind so much. They marched inside and she could sense oppression in the air trying to shove back at her. "The first twenty floors will be easy. Let''s try to build our pace to something that can clear them fast. Jack, Katelyn, get ready to burn the air if we need it."


    Jack sighed. "I don''t burn the¡ª" He stopped when Katelyn''s raised eyebrow caught him off balance. "Okay, so frost does burn fungus. It''s still not <em style="font-weight: 600">''burning the air.''"


    It wasn''t until the tenth floor they encountered a boss. Up until then, Astrid, Njal, and Liv alternated point position and would slice through anything in their way. Walking up to the towering orc and smacking her shield with her sword, Fife bared her adamantine teeth. "That''s it, big guy, keep your eyes on me."


    "What is she doing?" Liv asked.


    "Watch. She is baiting the pest to strike her and lower its guard." Not part of the fight, Astrid spent the time checking over her gear again. The adamantine armor was a better fit than what she''d gotten from her former country. The straps were more strategically placed, better protected, and the young man had shown no fear while measuring or fitting her with it.


    As soon as the banded club the orc carried connected with Fife''s shield, two daggers sprouted from its throat and its eyes widened. Liv snorted at the display. "I see. Distraction and a hidden ally. They fight well together."


    Njal shivered at how effortlessly the orc had been killed with a single strike. The precision, he had to admit, was impressive. "Is there anything worth taking from these?"


    "Only their lives. Ugly beasts." Summoning a spark into being, Katelyn set a swirling inferno in motion around the orc, pulling it tighter and faster until it burned white-hot with the air it was sucking up. "Are we going to keep moving?"


    Reaching out one big paw, Astrid slapped at Liv''s fingers. "Don''t make the sign of heresy. They have their own gods, we have ours." She didn''t, of course, admit that she''d only barely kept herself from doing the same.


    Huffing a breath, Liv dipped her head. "Yes, pack leader." Then, when Astrid followed up with a firm slap on the back, she laughed. "I''m just itching to test these new weapons."


    "I know. I know." Turning to look at Fife, Astrid called, "Fife! Can we engage the next boss?"


    "Why don''t we take it in turns until someone doesn''t kill their boss with one hit?" Fife said, putting a lot of challenge in her voice. The look she got back from the three wolves at the front of their party¡ªhungry and excited¡ªlet her know she''d picked her challenge well. "Next one should be another five floors down."


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    "Then let''s pick up the pace." Sheathing her sword and swapping her shield for her axe, Astrid looked ahead into the darkness¡ªher eyes cutting through it like a knife to pick out the shapes of walls. "Which way?"


    Pointing, Ludmiller said, "Down that tunnel. The next few floors should be straight through. The dungeon isn''t very exciting or clever. Not at these levels. It has shifted some things around though."


    "So, deeper?" Liv asked, her hands flexing around the handle of the big cleaver she carried.


    Fife nodded while checking her sword and shield for damage. "You know what the poisons feel like. If you feel them, make your way back to us. If the worst happens, Brayden can bring you back so you can continue your hunt. Take Trygve too. I can keep an eye on all these with Luddy."


    When the four wolves raced off down the tunnel, Fife laughed and shook her head. "Okay. We''re going to have to double-time it to keep up. The advantage is that everything in these early floors will have to deal with <em style="font-weight: 600">them first. Do you need a ride, babe?"


    Breath of Spring patted the side of a bloodied wolf. "He said he would carry me." When the bloodied wolf crouched down to its belly, she scrambled onto its back and gave his big mane of fur a good rub with both hands. "Thank you!"


    "Take good care of her," Fife said to the big canine as it stood up. "Alright, let''s move!"


    <hr>


    Jerking upright, Elanor coughed and winced at the feeling of all her teeth wobbling. Running her tongue along the inside of her mouth, she squirmed at the sensation despite not actually feeling any teeth loose. "Why does that happen every time?"


    "The tooth thing?" Fairheart shrugged her slim shoulders. "Everyone feels the effects of their return differently. This appears to be <em style="font-weight: 600">yours. Your things are on the table over there." She pointed off to one side of the inner altar room of her temple.


    Up until she''d come to Northridge, Elanor had never died before. Now it had become a nearly daily occurrence. She was sure that Travis was pushing her to fight hard, but she didn''t know of anyone else doing this sort of training that weren''t adventure groups. "Thank you."


    Leaving the woman to get dressed, Fairheart made her way to what had become her office. She had never needed such a room before, but with the tight accounting that Travis requested, she found it useful to have somewhere dedicated to the task. She made a note on Elanor''s book and slipped it back onto the shelf. Soon enough, she hoped, the room would be too small for storing the books.


    She made a note in the ledger for Travis, too. The woman had seemed so fragile the first time Fairheart had seen her. She''d been shaking a while before she''d gotten her clothes and equipment, and Fairheart had sat with her and given her food. Now, nineteen deaths later, it seemed to be business as usual. "We are nothing if not the product of our environments. Lady, please watch over her and¡ªwith her own goddess'' permission¡ªhelp her walk her path."


    A knock on the door broke Fairheart from her prayer. "Come in," she said.


    Opening the door, Elanor was loosely wearing her breastplate over the thick leather shirt she wore, with her linen one under that. "There weren''t any replacement talismans."


    "I haven''t made so many talismans since I was a neophyte at the temple back home. Here''s another stack. Could you set them down in the resurrection room, please?" As much as Fairheart wasn''t exactly a fan of the training Elanor was doing, or violence in general, she was pleased when the woman took the tray of talismans out with her.


    Wearing trousers had just been a men¡¯s thing, in Elanor''s eyes, but she''d found dresses weren''t as useful in combat¡ªnot counting an armored skirt. Setting the talismans down, and taking one, she walked the now well-known path out of the temple and onto the city street again.


    Wobbling her jaw a little, Elanor grumbled a little at having been beaten by a trap. "I think I might need to work on my trap-finding skills." When there was no reply, she groaned. "Of course Mister Travis can''t hear me, I''m not in the dungeon and there are no kobolds around."


    Breaking into a run when she reached the main street that led to the dungeon sector of the city, Elanor felt a chill run down her spine as the sun faded¡ªthen returned. Looking up, she spotted Penelope flying low over the city.


    Racing to catch up with her by the end of the road, Elanor surprised herself by not even breathing hard when she slowed and called out, "Miss Penelope!"


    Stopping before entering Travis, Penelope turned to look at Elanor. She took in the barely-hanging-on armor and disheveled look and took a guess. "Resurrection?"


    "Yes. It was a pit trap full of spikes. He''d rigged it so all my weight wouldn''t be enough to trigger it, but when Bark stepped on it too¡ª". She sighed.


    Penelope lifted one big talon up to smack her face, only her head was a little too far forward to do it right and she ended up scratching at her neck. "Travis! Why are you making Elanor deal with traps? She is meant to be gaining experience, not learning how to delve dungeons."


    Hearing Travis struggle to calm Penelope, Elanor cleared her throat. "I asked him to." When Penelope looked at her, she continued to explain. "We tested things and found that traps give us <em style="font-weight: 600">both experience. Mr. Travis gets a small amount and I get a large amount if I make it past one without harm, and it is reversed if he hurts me or causes me to go a different direction with it. He gets the most if I die, of course."


    "Oh," Penelope said, her normal rumble inflecting upward in her surprise.


    "See! It makes sense. Sorry if that last one was too tricky. Do you want me to get Robert to change the triggers back to only needing you alone?" Travis asked.


    "No." Elanor shook her head. "Traps are too good. I can get used to feeling like my teeth are wobbling. You still get experience too, Mr. Travis?"


    "Yup. I got more this time than your last death. The traps definitely help."


    "Then we keep using traps and I need to find someone who can help me figure out how to avoid the better¡­ ones." Trailing off, Elanor couldn''t work out why Penelope had fallen over and started laughing. "What is so funny?"


    "Pen was a pretty great trap-finder before she became a dragon."


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 Chapter 142

    Being a dungeon wasn''t easy. Having been created from nothingness, with just one gnoll, it was hard to figure out what to do and how to do it. So the dungeon fumbled and poked and discovered that it could make a second gnoll! Woo-hoo! Progress!


    There were things it could build. Dens, Food Pits, a Dance Hall, and traps. It told its gnolls to construct all of them, but there weren''t enough resources. It sent its gnolls outside to get them.


    They brought in all sorts of things. There was dirt at first, grass came next, then some rocks, and finally a gnoll brought in a piece of timber! The gnoll gestured at the stick it''d carried in its mouth to the other, and with excited laughs, they ran out to get more.


    The thing that required the least timber was a Den, so it assigned one of the gnolls to build that. When it was done, a third gnoll appeared from inside the Den! This was exactly what the dungeon needed. More gnolls meant more resources and more resources meant more gnolls.


    It paused, though. More gnolls was good, but what it felt in its core was it should make <em style="font-weight: 600">bigger gnolls; much bigger gnolls.


    After some time spent harvesting timber and making more Dens, it finally decided to send its gnolls out for the resources to build something new. It needed rock and food for the Food Pit, so it had its gnolls fashion sticks to use as spears and told them to find food things, since it had already acquired a large array of rocks. A strange sense of foreboding hit the dungeon¡ªwhy should it be scared of rocks?


    What came back wasn''t exactly what it hoped. When the dragon stuck its head into the dungeon, it panicked. All the gnolls threw their spears at the dragon, and even if some actually hit¡ªthey bounced off. The huge beast took up the entire tunnel and stalked ever closer to its core.


    It was all over. Barely six gnolls and the dungeon had already faced a foe that could as easily wipe it out as blink. The beast stalked closer, but before it reached the dungeon''s heart a gnoll charged at it. It was a hopeless gesture, the dungeon knew, but in that brief moment it was so proud of its gnoll that it would have cried if it had tear ducts. Or eyes.


    Instead of crushing the gnoll, though, the dragon snatched it up in one huge talon and then backed out. The process wasn''t fast, but the dungeon could understand what was happening. It would be a tithe to a larger dungeon. It would take a part of everything it made and use it for itself.


    The feeling of loss persisted well after the dragon had left. Wallowing in it, though, wouldn''t help. As the dungeon worked through its next plan, one of the gnolls it had sent out returned with a prize. The weapon was made of a metal the dungeon couldn''t fathom. It sliced through timber and rock without effort and the core praised the gnoll who''d found it.


    After some time, and its gnolls bringing back far more timber than before thanks to the new tool, the dungeon got its first surprise: a reward for breaching a floor of another dungeon.


    An unfathomable amount of resources appeared ready for use by the dungeon. Masses of food, timber, and two other resources it didn''t know about: iron and gold. The dungeon had no idea what was happening, but it was not going to sit idly by.


    The gnolls got to work building, and by the time the first Dance Hall was built, a second rush of income happened. Of all its gnolls, only one was missing¡ªthe one the dragon had taken. It had no idea where the resources were coming from, but they were there, and a dungeon was nothing if not good at chewing through resources.


    Ordering a group of gnolls to make more Dens, it began ramping up its work to desperately try to use the excess income it was getting. Again and again, the resources rolled in, and always the same quantity.


    <hr>


    Felna was relieved the gnoll had calmed down. With Huntress guiding them, they had taken the fastest route to go down floors. "Everything about this city requires thinking in different ways to normal. Managing dungeon growth can be an art. You have to corral them, feed them only the resources you want them to have to maintain them but not let them become uncontrolled. Speeding up a dungeon is not a problem towns ever face."


    Huntress nodded. The only dungeons she''d ever known were her own home, Travis, and the goblins. She liked two of those and was willing to give them both all the resources she could get. "So why feed this one?" She nodded at the gnoll.


    "Do you think he can understand us?" Felna asked.


    "I could. Understand you, I mean." Huntress sped up a moment, taking the stairs a bit faster to be equal with the gnoll. "You understand us, don''t you?"


    Not able to fully parse words and sentences, the gnoll did get some idea of what the centaur at its side said. It nodded.


    Raising one eyebrow, Felna reexamined her situation and exhaled a long, slow breath. "I''m sorry for earlier. We wanted to help your dungeon and there didn''t seem to be an easy way to tell you."


    The strange feline offering an apology was the last thing the gnoll expected. Narrowing its eyes, it huffed out a grunt and dipped its head once. What most confused it was why they had taken it and were walking into a dungeon with it. The dungeon, it had to admit to itself, was so much larger than its home as to be impossible to contemplate. Floor after floor passed by as they took stairs downward, and each was massive.


    So far the gnoll had seen vast forests, cleared areas full of game to hunt, and even strange vines that were all tangled up and had bunches of tiny round fruit on them. Stranger still, there were non-dungeon creatures hunting and gathering food. It wanted to ask about everything, but didn''t have the words to do so.


    "Are you okay?" Wild asked. He had to look up at the gnoll''s face, but had caught it staring out into the field of wheat around them. "They''re harvesting the grain for Breeze. Breeze is the dungeon we''re in. Breeze pays them to work here because she has plenty of gold and tips them with a portion of the food."


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    The words slowly made more sense the more they talked. The gnoll intuitively understood the concepts, and started pairing them with the sounds the three creatures made. Eventually, after they had walked an endless amount of stairs down, it asked, "Why?"


    Everyone stopped and looked at the gnoll as it said its first word. Felna recovered first. "Why are there dungeons inside the city, why are we walking down these stairs with you, or why did we kidnap you from your dungeon?" she asked.


    It didn''t take much thinking for the gnoll to nod and say, "Yes."


    "A thirst for knowledge, unlike water, should never be denied. We have plenty more walking to do." Felna was about to start when she noticed Huntress looking at her strangely. "Yes?"


    "You''d deny someone water if they were thirsty?"


    "In some situations, yes. If someone is badly dehydrated and hasn''t been eating for too long, you have to temper their stomach or you risk killing them. I don''t think giving our friend here any information will hurt him or us." Turning her attention back to the gnoll, Felna launched into her description. "There was a great army that attacked the dungeons and the city. When certain death threatens, you would be surprised at the allies you would be willing to make. Travis, the dragon dungeon, and Breeze, the dungeon we''re in now, opened entrances into the city to become part of it and protect each other."


    Grunting, the gnoll tried getting its head around numbers by counting. First it counted how many other gnolls it knew, then tried for how many people it had seen in the city so far¡ªand quickly ran out of fingers and thumbs at ten. "How strong army?"


    Remembering the full description Astrid gave, Wild spoke up. "Fifteen thousand regular soldiers, a thousand trained in dungeon fighting, another thousand experienced siege engine specialists, and around a hundred veterans in the various captains'' retinues."


    The numbers themselves didn''t make sense, but the gnoll could appreciate the meaning behind them as <em style="font-weight: 600">more warriors than would fit in the city. "Other thing?" When they looked confused, it tried again. "Why kidnap?"


    "There''s another dungeon. Goblins took it over and now it''s goblins and rot¡ªdiseases and fungus. It grew fast by attacking the army, and it would kill your dungeon if it got the chance." Part of Felna pondered having Wild kill her when they reached the bottom, so she wouldn''t have to climb all the stairs back out again. "Each floor a dungeon''s minions¡ªthat''s all of us, I work for Travis¡ªdescend into another dungeon, the minions'' dungeon gets resources and rewards."


    The gnoll mused on that as it took the next three floors in silence. Finally, it asked, "Why?"


    With the silence broken, Huntress shrugged her shoulders. "I have no idea. Honestly, none. I woke up to find out there were invaders and other dungeons and a whole city around my home. It was confusing, and a struggle, but my home reassured me. No one knows why Travis and Northridge get on so well, or why they are both fine with my home. If not for them, though, I would have never been created." She shrugged again. "So I might be biased when I say that I welcome the strange relationship we have."


    "How much?"


    The question confused Huntress a little. "How much what?"


    Struggling with the concept of language, the gnoll realized it needed to add more context. "How much resources. How much rewards?" Its words were halting, now it was trying to convey more complex questions, but still understandable.


    "It depends," Wild said. "There is a difference between how much Travis gets and how much Breeze gets. Breeze gets lots of extra food, but Travis gets lots of gold and another resource, experience. He hasn''t figured out how to explain that to Breeze in a way she understands it."


    It was clear they were doing this to give its home these resources. The gnoll wanted to know when the other shoe would drop¡ªnot that it had much concept of a shoe. "Why me?"


    Felna looked up at the gnoll, who seemed far more relaxed now, and raised an eyebrow. "You tried to take on a dragon with a stone knife. Either you''re the bravest gnoll in your dungeon, or you''re the stupidest." She shook her head. "And from this conversation, the latter is an impossibility."


    "Why help?"


    "Because you deserve a chance to grow. The goblins won''t allow that, and would kill your dungeon for what rewards that would give them."


    The words seemed important to the creature, so the gnoll mused on them itself for some time. Finally, tilting its head a little, the gnoll let out a snort. "How much more?" When it got a confused look¡ªwhat it recognized as a confused look now¡ªit added, "To bottom."


    "We''re a third of the way down. I have asked my home about making the stairs into a slide, but the hunters from the city didn''t like the idea of that." Huntress had groused a bit about it at the time, but at least all the stairs were in one place. She''d seen how two other dungeons worked now, and putting the stairs down and up in different places on a floor was annoying.


    "Fifteen thousand. Thousand. Hundred." The words seemed even more complicated than the ones the gnoll already knew, and some of those were very slippery with meaning. "What they mean?"


    Felna and Wild looked at each other a moment before Wild finally nodded to her. Clearing her throat, Felna dove into the topic of numbers. Being the subject it was, it required several language lessons as well.


    Wild watched the floors go by. Being dungeon creatures, none of them had any real fatigue from walking constantly, so he admired the beautiful fields of flowers, the strange creatures, and even the forests that Breeze had built. At each floor, there was a moment where the stairs left the ceiling, where he could see out over the canopy of forests, the patterns of wind blowing over fields of grass, and even rippling water covered fields; small stalks broaching the surface in regular rows, reaching up to a sun that was entirely simulated.


    When they reached the bottom, Felna was relieved. She''d been approaching her limit for how much she could focus on one topic between naps. "Is Breeze still in here?" she asked Huntress.


    "Yes." Looking across at the gnoll, Huntress tried to gauge its hostility. "You can look too, if you promise not to harm my home."


    Of all the words the gnoll had heard, it had never heard any spoken with such reverence or determination combined. It knew the feeling, having faced down a dragon for its own home''s core. "I not harm home."


    Huntress led them all down a tunnel and to a huge room that held a crystal many times larger than its own home''s, leaving the gnoll staring in rapt attention.


    Every facet shone with light and energy that trembled in the air. There wasn''t a lot of light in the chamber, but somehow the massive crystal took what existed and multiplied it into a kaleidoscope of beauty. It was so much larger than the gnoll''s own home''s heart, of course, but in the depths of that seemingly limitless stone of power, it saw hope. Finally, the gnoll dipped its head and turned away.


    Huntress was relieved to have witnessed the honor of the gnoll for her home. She said, "Now we can use the new trick Katelyn taught my home."


    Staring at the seemingly blank bit of ground in an alcove they''d stopped at, Felna asked, "What?"


    "Step onto the teleporter trap, and you don''t need to walk back up¡ªall those stairs¡­" It had been a scramble as soon as she''d said what the trap did, but Huntress could hardly begrudge them all wanting to avoid a repeat of the climb down¡ªbut upwards. With a soft chuckle, she stepped onto the trap last, letting her friends go first.


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 Chapter 143

    The dragon dungeon was far different to both the gnoll''s own home and the verdant dungeon it had been in. For a start, the huge tower that seemed part of the city was its entrance. Dungeons, it felt, shouldn''t have entrances that looked like this. They should be fearsome pits of horror!


    Entering this new dungeon was, like the entrance, a strange thing. There were soldiers in here; creatures that carried big weapons, wore armor, and looked at a gnoll like it as if they were figuring out the quickest way to kill it.


    But they didn''t. They stood by and let a gnoll walk past them as if it was a normal event. This had the gnoll contemplating it and its dungeon''s role in the world further.


    "I need to leave." Felna gave the gnoll a bow. "Apparently my attention is required elsewhere. Have you chosen a name for yourself?"


    "Forerunner." The word, Forerunner knew, hadn''t been spoken to it before. It had come out of nowhere, but it liked the feel of it. "I go before; I go first." Looking into the feline''s eyes, Forerunner could see not just acceptance, but recognition.


    Listening, and examining the gnoll, Travis said, "Wild, can you make sure Forerunner gets any equipment he wants, and anything he might want for his dungeon?"


    "I can do that." Wild froze at the look of shock on Forerunner''s face. "Travis, I think he can hear you."


    "Sorry if it startled you, Forerunner, but can you hear me?" Travis asked.


    Nodding slowly, feeling panic within, Forerunner asked, "Have you stolen me from my dungeon?" in a very small voice.


    "No! I can talk with anyone I think is an ally. It''s a power I researched. It''s nothing else, I promise." Travis had never blurted out an explanation so fast before. It left him wondering how fast he could talk before his words would become a mess of sound that made no sense. Then he wondered if his talking made sounds at all.


    Processing that, Forerunner asked, "You call me ally?"


    "Until you prove otherwise. Dungeons don''t have to be enemies. Felna, Wild, and Huntress showed you that. The city here, too."


    Grunting, Forerunner shrugged its shoulders. "My home decide."


    "This way. We''ll head down. Do you need anything to eat or drink?" Wild asked.


    Forerunner was about to say no, but a spark of interest hit, and it wanted to find out what the kobolds ate. "Yes."


    Leading the way down to the second floor, Wild opened a door and led Forerunner into the tavern there. Inside, he realized there was a family event going on. Mixie was atop on a larger than usual chair that had her practically at table height and Grace, Jacob, and Axel were all sitting around the table.


    As four sets of eyes settled on him, Wild said, "Excuse us. We''ll go upstairs to¡ª"


    "Unc Wide!" Jumping down from her chair (which overbalanced it and sent it crashing backward) and hitting the ground running, Mixie froze when she realized there was another creature between her and Wild. She looked up at Forerunner and tilted her head to the side. "Are you Unc Wide''s friend?"


    Crouching down, Wild looked at Mixie''s curious expression. "This is Forerunner. He''s a guest that I''m showing around. His dungeon was only created recently."


    "Oooh." Looking up and up and up, Mixie made up her mind in an instant. "Does mister Foren want cake?" In Mixie''s own mind it was a completely silly question, but her mom had been getting very particular about asking people before she did something, and besides, if he <em style="font-weight: 600">didn''t want any cake, it was more for her!


    Looking over at Grace, Wild got a little nod from her. He straightened up and said, "You would be foolish indeed to say no to that offer. Grace makes the best food I''ve ever eaten."


    "Please," Grace said, "I insist. Any guest of Travis'' is a guest worthy to sit at my table."


    Jacob nodded to that. "Hear, hear!"


    Approaching the table beside Wild, Forerunner gingerly took a seat. He looked at the three humans in turn, then at Mixie.


    Ever observant, Wild noticed the fixated look Forerunner locked on the juvenile goblin. "She''s not from a dungeon. It''s a long story, but she is their child. Mixie, is it your birthday?"


    Nodding her head as she scaled the ladder back onto her special seat, Mixie started to count on her hand, "One, two, three, five!" She''d had to get onto her second hand to reach the total, but she bounced in her seat. "I''m five! Big girl!"


    The only examples Wild had seen of a child growing up were his siblings and now Mixie. As far as he was concerned, she was probably tougher at her age than they''d been. "A very big girl," he said, solemnly.


    As soon as her mother set the slice of cake down before her, Mixie attacked it with vigor. Though she was particularly aggressive, she also didn''t miss a single crumb. Looking up at Forerunner, she tilted her head to the side. "Eat cake?"


    Looking down at the plate before it, and taking its cue from Mixie rather than the other humans, Forerunner picked up the slice with one hand and tossed it into its mouth. A shiver ran from the tip of Forerunner''s short tail all the way up its spine and directly into the back of its skull. Eyes wide, it looked down at the plate with a note of sadness.


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    Seeing the despair evident on his guest''s face, Wild slid his own plate over to the gnoll. "Here. I know how good that is. You deserve it for not making today more of a struggle."


    Tail wagging, Forerunner broke the second piece in half to savor before experiencing gastronomical bliss again.


    <hr>


    Spitting on her hands and rubbing them clean on her leather shirt, Elanor marched as she''d been directed, her short spear held in one hand while she removed various pieces of armor and hung them off her belt. With her were her two big bloodied wolf friends Bite and Bark, Ripper (her new wyvern friend), and Snipsnap (a cave scorpion).


    "So, you''re not going to tell me until I get down there?" She marched down through the second floor, one hand on the back of Bark to guide her through the pitch black tunnels.


    Sighing, Travis gave in. "Your first job."


    That got Elanor''s excitement up to a new level. "Where are we going and what will I be doing? Are we delivering something or escorting someone? I need to¡ª"


    "You''ll meet the person you''ll be escorting. You also need to deliver a message to the royal court." Travis could actually hear her gasp of surprise through the wyverns in the wyvern pens. "The reason you''re having this meeting in my heart room is that you aren''t to tell anyone. Anonymity and secrecy will be your best weapons."


    Thinking about it, Elanor nodded. "So that''s why you''re not sending someone else to escort¡­ Right, you didn''t say. Did I level from that last fight?"


    "Yes. Level seven. You got Greater Heal. Felna told you about that one, right?" The topic was safer, and Travis was finally done with his big conversation so he could devote extra time to Elanor now.


    "You think there might be other spies in the city?" Elanor asked, taking the back door bypass of the maze directly to the stairs to the third floor. She couldn''t see, still, but the wall before her crumbled and a kobold holding a light stick gave her a bow. "Thank you, Robert."


    "Seems like big things are afoot in the heart room." Filling up the hole after Elanor and her menagerie had made it through, he caught up to her and passed her the light source. "You need this more than me. How has the training been?"


    "I''d say Travis has been doing his best to kill me, but I don''t think that was his best." It was always a sobering reminder to Elanor that she had never faced a single one of Travis'' bosses, or even his major monsters. "I gained another level, though. I think Travis has been getting some good XP from me, too."


    "Has he? I wouldn''t have thought so."


    "Actually," Travis said, "I think it''s because she''s a noble. Remember how the prince gave me extra XP? I think that''s what''s happening, only this system thinks I''m killing a <em style="font-weight: 600">lot of nobles."


    "It can really figure all that out?" Elanor asked.


    Robert paused a moment and looked up at Elanor. "What do you mean?"


    "Well, how does whatever is doing all the stuff in the background of Travis'' dungeon <em style="font-weight: 600">know that I''m a noble? What would happen if my parents disowned me? What would happen if I purchased an actual peerage? Would it know I am worth more or less?" Elanor asked.


    Rounding a corner and seeing the pink glow ahead, Robert could hear soft voices coming from within. "Well, here we are. Keep the light, and let Travis know if you need help getting back out."


    "Thanks. I''ll do that." Waving to Robert, Elanor mused on how much more relaxed she felt around men now. Before, she''d been intimidated by them (and more than a little intrigued), but now they weren''t strange entities. It wasn''t her first time in Travis'' heart room, but it was the most cramped time. Penelope was curled halfway around the room, tail coiled around the base of the huge crystal dungeon heart. Leaning against it while sitting, her back touching the facets, was Felna. "Am I interrupting anything?"


    "No, Kitten," Felna said. "You''ve been given marching orders, it seems."


    A moment later Elanor sensed someone moving behind her. She turned to see a familiar face that she''d nonetheless not learned the name of. The woman was well-dressed in riding skirts, wearing a large coat, and had a large case in each hand.


    "Have you met Brevity Delling?" Travis asked. "She''s my lawyer, and I need someone that won''t be recognized to escort her to the capital. You''ll have a wagon to ride on, that I have hired a merchant to drive. You can take your friends with you so long as you can keep them in the cart and hidden.


    "I''ve had Axel make you some new armor, a shield, and a significantly more deadly spear. I''m sorry for the short notice, but the wagon is being readied right now. You''ll be sneaking into it upstairs when the guards clear out my entrance, then continue to Far Reach and get your wagon on the train. Don''t stop until you reach the capital."


    It was definitely marching orders, and as limiting as it was, Elanor still felt free. She tried to get to the bottom of the feeling, and realized it was how she was commanded. Her uncle would have arranged everything, sent people to tell her what to do, and made sure she spent all of her time being bored and locked away. Travis trusted her to do her job. "And when we reach the capital?"


    "Brevity knows who to contact, but if anything happens and you don''t wind up in the local temples, go to the palace, get an audience with the prince, and make sure he knows you''re a representative for all Northridge. Stephan has paperwork for that." Travis waited a moment before saying, "If you can''t do it¡ª"


    Shaking her head, Elanor felt her blood burn in excitement. "No! I want to do this. You''ve helped me so much already, it''s time I help you."


    "That''s my kitten. Dump that armor, we''ve got some new things for you." Sliding her back up Travis'' crystal, Felna sighed. "Let''s start with something Tinpot and Axel worked on together: a chain shirt that''s made of the thinnest adamantine wire I have ever seen, that has plates of adamantine stitched onto the inside. I am not sure how it is meant to be better, but they assured me that it will stop bullets and swords, and weigh a fraction of a breastplate. You can wear it under a coat, too."


    Getting new armor had become just as exciting to Elanor as getting a new dress had been. She stripped off the last of her armor and, standing there in a leather shirt and trousers, she felt excitement bubbling up for the coming weeks. "Will I get a new pistol, too?"


    "Yes," Felna said. "Two, actually. You must save one in case you are about to be captured, however."


    It made sense to Elanor. She''d died almost every single day since she''d started training, and it had become such a minor thing that she accepted the need to do so to escape as merely part of life. "Are they the new breech-loading ones?"


    "Better. Have you read any of Travis'' books and heard of something called a <em style="font-weight: 600">revolver?" Felna asked.


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 Chapter 144

    [a brave young priestess'' journal]


    This will be a short entry. I''m writing this while Mister Tinpot explains the new gun he''s developed, so I need to write fast and please excuse the terrible blotting.


    He''s explaining how I need to clean it. There is oil, a little brush that looks like it is twisted wire with bristles along it, and he''s saying I need to make sure it is cleaned every evening after I use it. It''s such a small thing, too. The handle fits easily in my palm and there''s a little piece that is curved back toward my hand that moves as I pull the trigger.


    And the trigger! It''s smooth until I hear it release the mechanism that Mister Tinpot says will fire it, but then it''s stiff after that. I then have to lever the hammer (that curved part), which rotates the chambers, to ready it to fire the next bullet.


    It''s a surprise, really. I''ve heard about the two guards that Travis normally uses for this sort of work, and they carry a lot of guns to do what this little one does. The slowest part is reloading it. Mister Tinpot says if six bullets doesn''t get me out of the situation, I''d do better to draw my spear than try reloading. He''s also most insistent about collecting the little steel cups that hold the bullets.


    There are three kinds of bullets and he made me write them down.


    Red ones are for people in armor.


    Yellow ones are for people not in armor.


    Blue ones are normal.


    Miss Felna gave me the details of some of our people I should talk to in the capital in case I can''t see the Prince or if I am in trouble. She says she hopes I won''t need them, but that if I need help, they will give it.


    Our people. It''s nice to know that I will have people who recognize me for who I am now and will help me. Thank you again, Lady Sandwalker.


    Mister Tinpot is still talking. He explained why the yellow ones work so well, and it''s a little terrifying. They have tiny enchanted stones in them. Being fired isn''t enough to set them off, but when they hit something and stop, that will. There are twelve of those. The red ones are a solid bullet of adamantine that Mister Tinpot says will punch a hole through anything.


    I can''t write any further. I have to go now. I''ll get to test a few shots on the way, but I promised Mister Tinpot I wouldn''t use more than one of the red and yellows. From what he said, they aren''t trivial to make.


    <hr>


    A whole week of trundling along in the rain had Elanor feeling terrible. It was cold, wet, and though her armor had several layers of cloth and leather, the cold wind kept getting past her coverings. If it weren''t for the long coat and hat, the rain would have been leaking in too. "Less than a day? You''re sure?"


    The young woman riding the horse beside him made the merchant chuckle. "You''re worse than my daughter. One turn, a long straight, and then the final bend that leads to Far Reach. You keep your head down and don''t tilt your head back and keep the brim of your hat forward a little. Your name will be Anne, if anyone asks, and you''ll be my daughter."


    The subterfuge rekindled Elanor''s excitement for the job. She nodded to the merchant. "I can do that." Slowing her horse a little, she waited until she was at the back of the wagon and edged to the side to look within. Pelts. Two huge piles of pelts¡ªor so it looked. "Not much further. Are you fine in there?"


    "I''m laying between two fuzzy furnaces with a deadly cave scorpion. I''m just peachy," Brevity said. "I''m surprised you didn''t bring your pet wyvern."


    "I did. Ripper is flying above us and circling around lower at night. When the train is out of sight of Far Reach, I''ll get her to hide in the wagon, since you''ll be able to get out." It was all about planning, from Elanor''s point of view. She would have all her friends and no one was going to stop that. "If things get bad, we can ride her to the capital."


    Brevity wanted to scoff at first, but then she pondered the situation. "A wyvern? Could it¡ªshe¡ªhold both of us?"


    "I might have to take my armor off, but if a wyvern could hold Miss Fife in one layer of adamantine, she should be able to hold both of us." Lifting her head and looking around, Elanor saw that they were halfway around the first of the bends the merchant had mentioned and were onto the long straight path that she''d heard the last ambush had been on.


    The ride all the way to the gates, however, was uneventful. Elanor had been looking around at the trees and the underbrush, but couldn''t see anything to mark where the fighting had been. Remembering her time leaving the gates of Far Reach, she felt far less trapped and far more ready to act than she had in her whole life.


    <hr>


    It was the best fun of Fife''s life. Her innate regeneration, combined with Breath of Spring''s healing meant that the firestorm raging around her did nothing but heat her armor. She bashed and slashed at the shamans, their fungal spells not lasting more than a moment in the conflagration that Katelyn had conjured.


    "You were right, Captain. If there were ever anything akin to a god of battle, it would be her." Njal stared in open admiration of Fife as she laughed among the slaughter of hobgoblin shamans. "We''ll need to learn the bow and gun at this rate."


    "We won''t be doing battle with this dungeon too many more times, Njal. Travis is seeking permission to destroy this hole." Astrid longed to run into the inferno and dance alongside Fife, to kill and kill and kill more. Leader of a pack Astrid might be, but Fife was Travis'' chosen war leader, and she could well see why.


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    Katelyn was relieved that her levels in mage would be going up at last. She''d had Travis swap her class back after getting Expanded Slip and had noticed a boost to her magic power. Her magic was barely humming in her senses and she had the entire boss room flooded with fire. "She''s really into this, isn''t she?"


    Nodding, Breath of Spring giggled. "She''s using up a bit of mana to heal, but not as much as I would have thought."


    "Are you forgetting that you''re the dungeon boss of a pretty huge dungeon?" Katelyn asked. The green blush on Breath of Spring''s cheeks, even as she cast her next heal spell, almost set Katelyn giggling. "I''d meant to ask earlier, did you pick up a class before coming here?"


    Glad for the distraction from her home''s reality, Breath of Spring nodded. "I took Priest. I didn''t need to focus on a god, like Brayden, Felna, or that new priestess did, but that''s probably because my home is all I need. Well¡­ my home and Fife."


    "Speaking of that, where does she keep getting those shirts for you?" Katelyn liked the gags, mostly, and even understood most thanks to her time spent reading Travis'' books. Today Breath had hers covered by some light leather armor, but it had <em style="font-weight: 600">Queen of Fertilizer on it. She had earlier seen Fife walking around wearing a matching one that just read <em style="font-weight: 600">Bullshit.


    "She makes them, kinda. Fife has been"¡ªBreath of Spring took a moment to feed another heal spell to herself and, by the ability binding them, Fife too¡ª"buying dyes and shirts from a merchant in the city." Sighing, she shook her head. "But, she made me promise not to tell anyone about how she was making the letters."


    "And now she''ll never tell me, right?"


    "I think she''s done. You can stop the fire now." Pointing at Fife, Breath of Spring waited for the flames to die down before running over to her.


    "Whoa! Hold up. Don''t touch me!" Fife had to step back from Breath of Spring. "I''m so hot right now, I''d burn you. I''m kinda burning me."


    Blinking in surprise as she was warded off, Breath of Spring nodded sadly. "Tell me when it is cool enough to touch. I want to hug you so much!"


    The pain, Fife had to admit, would have staggered her back when she was human. The plates of the armor seared her scales and, with the adamantine that was part of her, seared deeper still. Her regeneration was taking care of it, though, so she could brush it off as not important. "Those guys were annoying, but that is definitely the safest way to deal with so many fungal-spewing assholes. How is the mana drain on that?"


    "Practically nothing," Katelyn said. "I use more mana making Tinpot his tiny runestones."


    "I don''t make runestones," Breath of Spring said, now finding her curiosity piqued, "but I could keep up with that healing all day and night."


    "Great. So that will be our tactic whenever we fight the shamans. Now, let''s see if they have any loot in here that wasn''t flammable." Fife rubbed her hands together and made a few white sparks by doing so.


    <hr>


    "That should be fine." Travis was paying close attention to Tinpot''s progress, at the gunsmith''s request, to see if there were any obvious flaws. "So you keep working the slabs of granite against each other, swapping them out for their opposite, until they''re all smooth."


    "And each should wear down the inconsistencies in the other until they are flat." Tinpot had acquired three small slabs of the rock that had been mined in the city''s quarry, and now he intended to put the plan into action on an initial scale. "It''s a little more than that, though. I have to do it in a specific order to match concave and convex, and work them all to the same flatness. I know I''ve asked before, but this isn''t something you have even an inkling of?"


    "Next time I get turned into a dungeon in another world, Tinpot, I''ll make sure to memorize all this stuff first, okay?" Travis let his mirth show in his voice, and earned a chuckle from his friend. "Remember, I was an entertainer."


    "Right. Well, we have time, and I can''t keep making revolvers to the precision I did Miss Elanor''s. That was mostly luck, I''m sorry to admit." The three slabs were only the length of his arms in one direction and half that in the other, but they would do for a start. "Now to get to work on these. If nothing else, I''ll have three nice stone tablets to¡­ I don''t even know what I''d do with them."


    Travis had to keep reminding himself of that <em style="font-weight: 600">having time thing too. Forever seemed daunting, but it didn''t seem to be right <em style="font-weight: 600">there all the time for him to worry about like everyday events were. "They''d still be mostly flat, though, so you could use them as a¡ª"


    "Stepping stone?" The gag made Tinpot smile.


    "You''ll get this figured out."


    "<em style="font-weight: 600">We''ll get it figured out. You have an analytical mind perfectly suited for solving problems. Don''t sell yourself short." Lifting one of the granite slabs up, Tinpot once again marveled at the new body he''d gotten. It might not be stronger than he''d been in his heyday, but it was such an improvement over how he''d been when he''d come into the dungeon that he couldn''t think of a reason to regret his deal. "And once I''m done, we''ll find out if making tools will give you an unlock that lets me make guns like that revolver with the dungeon system."


    "Any higher quality guns, with that, would be good. Even still, if you can make them reliably otherwise, that would make Northridge and us the most valuable asset in the kingdom."


    "So we''ll only sell them, then?" Tinpot asked.


    It was a big decision, and one that Travis didn''t want to screw up. Giving the designs and tools away would mean the whole kingdom could push into an industrial revolution of technology to rival its magic one. But, <em style="font-weight: 600">giving them up like that would also only buy him the favor of kings so long as they remembered where their toys had come from. "At first, yes. Once I get the more exotic materials, divinium and platinum, and we come up with more exotic weapons, then I think we could give away the designs to the older things."


    It made Tinpot sit back from his workbench and look at what he was doing, and think of the future. If this worked as he hoped, it would give him a huge step-up. He could make perfect things. He could make perfect tools. His thoughts fractured for a moment at the reminder of what he''d read in Travis'' books. Knowing it was all possible was the biggest motivation of all. "Every year we will make better things. I won''t stop until I have remade everything you remember, and hopefully more beyond."


    "You know," Travis said, "I''d like to see that."


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 Chapter 145

    This first step of their journey, a delivery of a message, was something personal to Elanor. She had Brevity standing beside her while she spoke:


    "I bring Far Reach a missive from Northridge and its allied dungeons. Those who are ruling within your walls are parasites. Their venom killed your rightful ruler. If you wish to fight against them, please provide my courier with a small boon to show you assent."


    Waiting a few moments, Elanor shrugged and looked at Brevity. "How would we know if it even heard me?"


    "If I was a city, and I had the one I''d grown up with and held dear murdered, I''d listen closely to those who came from other cities, hoping one carried a message like th¡ª" Brevity froze. Power pooled around the two of them, growing and swelling, and finally burning into an inferno of magic. "Wow."


    Elanor, her eyes wide, struggled to get her emotions under control. The burst of magic would be obvious to anyone with a talent for it, and her own family had that. "That wasn''t small, b-but I''ll take that as an offer of support. Northridge will petition to have them removed and, if they aren''t, will take things further. Thank you¡ªand I''m sorry for your losses." The train whistle blowing pulled her attention to their impending departure. "I''ll do what I can."


    <hr>


    [a brave young priestess'' journal]


    Miss Brevity Delling tells me that she''s sure there is someone on the train who is looking for us. It''s not surprising. I smuggled Miss Snipsnap under my coat and into the passenger car. Miss Brevity doesn''t know I did, but I won''t sleep soundly unless I have at least one friend watching my back.


    This will be so much better when we have our own train line. Maybe I could work for Mister Travis keeping the boorish types off? I wonder if he can open a new entrance in another city? That could make the entire train thing obsolete. He could pop open an entrance in the capital. I''m sure nothing could possibly go wrong.


    No, Miss Journal, I am not having an attack of the vapors. I know the King wouldn''t stand for that, even if the Capital''s genius loci did. I''m sure opening an entrance outside the city, at a negotiated distance, and allowing Travis to build a fortified station around it would be within the realm of possibility.


    Perhaps that is something I could ask the [large ink smudge]


    The train jolted me and I made a mess. I wonder what the prince looks like? Surely he''d be handsome, and daring, and rugged.


    Miss Journal, I am so sorry.


    <hr>


    Ludmiller cherished the little gift Travis had made for her. The pad of paper was a luxury that no adventurer would usually <em style="font-weight: 600">waste gold on, not given how hard it would be to write on it in the field. When Travis had told her there was something better to do it with, she''d scarcely believed she''d be able to make notes of a dungeon while delving it. Each floor she''d been in had carefully written directions that would make getting back out easier. She lifted her head when she heard her friends arrive in the boss room she''d been calmly sitting in.


    Standing up, she stretched and walked away from the three big trolls and to the entrance of the room. Fife was looking fierce, as always, but she remembered that the last boss had been Fife''s to fight.


    The wolves, she had found out, always talked together in their own language before engaging. Ludmiller had heard it enough that it intrigued her with its cadence and rhythm. Even when she''d listened to siege engineers working their machines unaware of her presence, during the siege, she thought it had a lyrical nature. Now, it sounded like violent music¡ªmusic that would be played on bone instruments.


    As she reached them, Ludmiller willed herself to become visible and flashed the wolves a toothy smile. "The big one favors his left leg. The other two have missing armor plates on their legs, it looks like there''s armor there, but it''s thin sheet metal."


    She got a nod for that and proceeded past the wolves to the rest of her friends¡ªmany of whom she now considered her <em style="font-weight: 600">party. "By my records, we should be about five floors from where we were last time. If Astrid and her pack were keeping this place from growing any great amount, we should be able to reach the bottom before tomorrow night."


    <hr>


    [Notes in the border of Ludmiller''s notebook, written with a charcoal pencil, on "Floor 37"]


    I miss Wild. These dungeon crawls are fun, and I like keeping in practice with traps and adventuring, but he is so fixated on protecting Travis. Not that it''s a bad thing. That big dungeon softy is the second-best thing that ever happened to me.


    Why am I writing this? I don''t even know. I don''t plan for anyone to read it, and I''ll probably smudge it before I get to read it again, but whatever. It''s weird, but I get the sense that people in Travis'' world wrote a lot of things down like this. I can see why, too. It helps me get my thoughts in order when I write them down.


    I think the bosses, at least, are being brought back to life. The trolls from this floor were, last time I saw them, on the thirtieth. I''ll sketch them so I remember for next time.


    [The following page has a picture of three trolls with some notes about markings]


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    What will happen after we destroy this place, I wonder? Will the gnolls be friendly like Breath of Spring and Huntress? I guess Wild is finding out right now. I think it''s good he spends more time outside. We don''t need to worry, so long as Squishy is still upright, and then there''s the cave scorpion and a bunch of Astrid''s wolves.


    It''s weird. He was so terrified of making monsters for so long. Now he has some, he seems much more relaxed about it. Maybe Pen - being who and what she is now - helped? Or maybe it was Astrid and her pack? Life was complicated and messy, even inside a dungeon where we don''t have to deal with things we don''t want to.


    <hr>


    Baron Brolly Windchime wiped his brow and looked over the city guards that were working beside the laborers. Penelope was snoozing nearby, which meant that they could afford to relax somewhat and bend their backs a little¡ªand he would never ask his people to do something he wouldn''t.


    Ever since the final encounter (he hoped) with Eliza Sussaridge, Brolly had found himself stronger and more capable. Northridge''s boons hadn''t been temporary, like he''d thought they would be, but rather they were now part of him. His sword, when he''d drawn it privately to test, flared to life sheathed in a fire that would only burn those he intended harm to.


    Right now, that meant he could pick up a log that would normally take five men to lift, and haul it on one shoulder. He''d gotten a few surprised looks at first. With his armor stripped off so he could sweat without needing to clean it, he noticed more than a few admiring looks from female and a few male workers.


    That made him think, of course. He wasn''t getting any younger, and his current title would become hereditary once he''d met with the King to have it fully realized. Musing on the thought as he hauled wood for those clearing the forest around Northridge, he decided he should look back and try to figure out who might interest <em style="font-weight: 600">him.


    Northridge might have begun attracting softer women, but he liked the look of women who had a core of physical strength. Not just that, but who would be capable of work¡ªand there were plenty of examples here today.


    Several had even, like him, stripped off shirts so they could work and sweat without ruining their clothes. That level of openness and commitment definitely made him smile back when they stole glances his way.


    He knew there would be those who would try to bind themselves to him for his name and power. Getting a hereditary title made you such a target, but if any woman thought she could live an idle life while he worked¡ªshe''d have another thing coming to her.


    A larger, fuzzier woman who looked new to town was hauling a log almost half the size he was. She was taller than him, which was something he hadn''t realized appealed to him as much as when he saw her. If she seemed to be turned off by his human self, she showed no sign of it as she winked.


    <hr>


    [Private journal of Baron Brolly Windchime]


    Cathryn. She had no last name, as most cat kin. She arrived in Northridge only a week prior to today, receiving a signing bonus from Christine''s missive to attract workers. Her eyes are so green they make me want to gaze into them for hours.


    Enough of pleasant things, the daily reports were all positive. We''re making good progress pushing back the forest to give long sight-lines for the new wall and its cannons. If the new dungeon that Travis has reported is not friendly, we will not allow it to encroach on Northridge or have any advantage against us.


    Stephan notified the council today that Elanor Fitzgerald had arrived in, and subsequently departed, Far Reach. I asked him how he knew, and he told me one of the northern wolves paced them from the trees, circled around the city, and witnessed them in their train as they left.


    That was a young woman I still hazarded to trust, but she has certainly gained a lot more than she had. To hear Stephan talk, she hates her uncle almost as much as the rest of us. Perhaps more. If she pulls this mission off successfully¡­


    I guess I might even come around to seeing her as an ally. It''s hard to make a call like that, given her family tried to kill me and my closest friends, but she''s nothing if not unique. Though, she''s no Cathryn.


    <hr>


    Randomness was never random. There was only order you didn''t see the pattern of yet.


    Sitting cross-legged in the middle of the market square, all around Ogmera seemed chaos. Every week brought more activity to Northridge. More people coming to the scent of gold. And, why not, she mused, it wasn''t as if Travis hoarded the stuff. Her own pockets were packed to bursting with it, and she feared that if she stayed much longer she might get pinned down by wealth, love, or the strange temptation to ask the impossible and live forever.


    She couldn''t focus on her work, and that annoyed Ogmera. Opening her eyes, she looked down at the cloth, wheat, and wood in her lap and sighed. It was going to be one of those days when even the wild order of a market square wasn''t enough.


    Letting the wills of fate lead her feet, Ogmera wandered around the square until a very specific patter caught her ear. It wasn''t the grand chaos-that-wasn''t-chaos of merchants selling, but a single man''s words to snare the ears of those with a little gold going begging.


    She found him in an alley with a little table and a group of people gathered around. She knew the game, knew the moves, and knew the words. Approaching the table, she also knew that two of the crowd were in on this.


    The man''s words drew Ogmera in just as they were meant to, but for the wrong reason. This was what she needed to make her effigy. Drawing back a little from the heady position close to the "game," she sat down and unfolded her things again.


    Not a trace of real chance or randomness existed. Every word and action was calculated to encourage participation in the redistribution of wealth. Ogmera put all that into the tiny effigy she made, and felt it build with power as she did.


    Without missing a beat, she took out more wood and began a second.


    "Oi, lady. You not gonna play?"


    Lifting her head, Ogmera looked the man in the eyes. He wasn''t pretty, he wasn''t handsome, but he had charisma that practically fountained around him. She wanted to help him, be with him, do anything for him¡ªsimply to stay close. He was, she feared, a stake in the ground with a leash.


    Her hands, finishing the second effigy, pressed a gold coin to it and imprinted <em style="font-weight: 600">wealth on the luck totem before holding the totem and coin up to him. "You are a fascinating man."


    Standing, leaving the man mute with the odd gift, she brushed off her skirts and tucked her tools into a pocket. "Thank you." Then she left with a smile on her face and surety in her heart that she''d not left anything to luck.


    <hr>


    [Stitched into the back of the effigy]


    Ogmera, Dragon''s Glory inn


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 Chapter 146

    For the most part, Northridge was happy with his efforts. An influx of new people eager to find themselves in a growing city with opportunities. They wanted to set down roots¡ªso he encouraged those roots tangled appropriately with those of his citizens.


    Even his avatar had caught the eye of an appropriate female.


    The dim touch of another city, of an acknowledgment, stirred Northridge to reach out to its greatest ally. "Dungeon Travis, Far Reach has agreed to help!" It liked the way Travis gave his full attention when it called out to him. Northridge liked Travis, considering him a very sensible dungeon.


    "Elanor got through to it? That''s great news! I''ll let Stephan know so he and Howard can move forward with their plans."


    Northridge worked through the words as best he could. From what he could divine, Travis didn''t know before being told. "I am at a loss for how you didn''t notice it, Dungeon Travis. I could sense the magic clearly."


    "I''m¡ª" Travis sighed mentally and imagined himself slumping a little. "I am not good with magic. Katelyn has been trying to teach me, but the only magic I can use is dungeon magic, and that''s not built the same way. At least, that''s what she told me. Maybe I don''t have the aptitude for it."


    "We are yet young, Dungeon Travis. We have many centuries to grow strong and learn all our abilities. You will learn this skill, in time, because it only takes determination for us to overcome something." Northridge liked the sound of that. Tight focus was a city trait, after all, and was one thing it believed it had in common with a dungeon with so few floors.


    "I don''t know if I''ll ever be able to think in those terms, Northridge, but I''ll keep trying. What else is there to do, after all?"


    "What indeed!" The joke amused Northridge perhaps more than it should. It did a slow examination of its population as a whole, and found them both content and excited. "You did know your smith and one of my smiths are interested in each other?"


    The topic caught Travis by surprise. "Axel and Portentia Silversong, wasn''t it?"


    "Yes. I believe they would complement each other. They would also have a high chance of producing children likewise skilled at a forge. To say nothing of it stabilizing his bloodline." It added up, to Northridge, like the ideal pairing. Better yet, it wasn''t one it had needed to push. "Do you know someone who would pair well with my keeper of knowledge?"


    "You, uh, think this is important?" Travis asked.


    "Of course. If not the city, then who else would ensure future generations come to be?" Northridge asked. "It is within a city''s power to encourage its population to come together."


    An idea came together in Travis'' head, but first he needed to check with Northridge. "What other things can you do? When you were young, you made Tannyr leave."


    The subject jerked Northridge up short. It was one of the city''s greatest mistakes, and one it could never take back. "I did that."


    "Can you also stop people from wanting to come together? Something like you did with Tannyr. Could Far Reach do this?"


    The questions halted Northridge in its self-pitying tracks. He couldn''t help himself, and started laughing. "We will have to send another missive. If Far Reach hates its current rulers so much, it can help us remove them!"


    "Exactly. You''re the best one to teach it how."


    It had a poetic <em style="font-weight: 600">rightness to it. Northridge mused on how to best explain his former enmity for Tannyr and put that into words that someone else could say on his behalf. "You have given me a great gift, Dungeon Travis. Thank you."


    "You''re welcome!" Travis was relieved to hear that Northridge had something else apart from playing the part of matchmaker to keep him occupied.


    <hr>


    Breeze was having fun. The humans didn''t get scared, even when they created new creatures. Rather than livestock for them to farm and hunt, they were creating a mix of beings. Dryads for the forests, to grow timber of all kinds; tall and strong. They''d also made satyrs to tend to the animals. The last was the little undines that plied the waterways in Breeze.


    The undines weren''t there to look after anything in particular. They normally took care of beguiling invaders and distracting them from their work and, Breeze had to admit, they were doing an admirable job of that, but it was far more playful than their purpose in a wilder dungeon¡ªto lure people to their streams and drown them.


    What Breeze liked most about them was the flow of warm energy that arrived whenever one distracted someone from their work. It wasn''t fair, though, so they came up with a way to make up for it.


    The first time an elf woman had been distracted and spent two hours staring in rapt attention at the undine dancing, she''d clearly been upset at losing valuable work time. The second time it had happened, and she''d turned away from the water to find all her work done, Breeze could hear her laughter.


    A reward, then, to the satyrs for helping with Breeze''s own harvest so that the workers would never stop coming back. And, if sometimes the satyrs did more work than the beguiled person could have, Breeze wasn''t upset about that. Breeze spent resources strengthening the satyrs, giving them both physical and magical prowess.


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    In all, Breeze was very happy with how things were going. Animals were dying, yes, but animals always died. The trick, Breeze had realized, was to have more floors than the city of Northridge would ever be able to farm, leading to an ever continuing growth downward. Growing was good, so Travis had told them. Growing meant more food which meant more growing.


    One of Breeze''s fondest memories was their first encounter with Travis. The warmth and strength in him had woken Breeze from a torpor that had seemed endless. With no other verdant dungeons to compare themselves to, Breeze didn''t know if that ever-sleeping state was the norm for their kind or if the other verdant dungeons that they''d heard about were just being lazy. Why only produce a little food when you could make an entire kingdom worth of food, and use it to grow?!


    Moments after the new friend, the gnoll, had left¡ªBreeze added a new floor.


    Breeze mused again on their nature, as they had many times before. Travis had asked if they were a <em style="font-weight: 600">she or a <em style="font-weight: 600">he. Breeze knew what the difference was, but it was hard to feel much attraction toward either. Not that they minded being called by either¡ªTravis had seemed most comfortable calling Breeze a <em style="font-weight: 600">she.


    Looking around, letting out a happy sigh that poured through her like a breath of wind, Breeze added another floor. It was a nice day.


    <hr>


    "She''s grown a lot more." Travis didn''t say the words to anyone in particular, but he needed to say them. Breeze wasn''t slowing down with her growth. He had counted floors. He wanted information, and reached out to Northridge''s Keeper of Knowledge. "Excuse me, is this a good time?"


    Leaning back in her chair, Llewellyn let out a sigh. "You gave me an unlimited line of credit to buy and share out whatever books I wish to anyone in the city. If I don''t have time for you, who would I have time for?" When the exasperating dungeon was silent a moment, she added, "Yes. I can talk now."


    The librarian (he no longer considered her a bookseller) always spoke with a measure of dryness that Travis was having a lot of trouble discerning from her sarcasm. "Right, cool. I need to know how big dungeons, particularly verdant dungeons get."


    "You''ll probably want this book when I''m done copying it." Standing, Llewellyn walked from her desk to the boxes of books she''d ordered and sorted, that had come in within the last week. She had to lift out several before she found the one she wanted. "Good, it''s in here. This is a dry old thing to read, but it was updated as of two years ago. <em style="font-weight: 600">Dungeon Statistics. Lots of numbers and details, but if you''re fine not getting the latest¡ªit''s also refreshingly cheap. Don''t worry, you''re not in this one."


    Curiosity piqued, Travis asked, "How do they get the data for these? That inspection group that came through months ago?"


    "I wouldn''t know. Weren''t we dealing with a siege then?" Flicking through the book to the first appendix, she began looking for a list of the tables and found it. "List of dungeons and floors: page six hundred and sixty-two."


    Travis took to counting the pages as she ran past them, rather than look at the tantalizing stats on each¡ªotherwise he knew he would go mad. When she reached the appropriate page, though, he whined. "Why isn''t it sorted most to least?"


    "Because not many people need data like that. Most adventurers don''t care about getting to the bottom, and those who are good enough to need the challenge of deeper levels already know the names of the dungeons they would attack."


    The way Llewellyn rattled off the explanation made Travis wonder. "Are you an adventurer?"


    "No."


    "Parents? Family?"


    "No."


    "So, how did you know¡ª?"


    "I already read the book. Look, when a city tells you you''re their Keeper of Knowledge, you don''t take that lightly. Then you start asking for help too, and throw gold at me to make sure I can get the answers you need¡­" Closing her eyes for a moment, Llewellyn took a deep breath. Arguing with one of her patrons wouldn''t be a good idea. "You worked hard to protect the city. I never thought I''d be talking to <em style="font-weight: 600">you, but thank you. You know how, but why is more important to me. I read this thick, horrid book on statistics because I thought it might be useful."


    Travis spotted a little smile on Llewellyn''s face with one of his lizards that was, he realized, laying on a cushion that was balanced on the windowsill¡ªsunning itself. "Well, thank you. I didn''t realize how much you''d dedicated yourself to this. If I can do anything¡ªand I mean <em style="font-weight: 600">anything¡ªto help, just tell me."


    It was a terrifying thing to be told, from Llewellyn''s point of view. Thanks to extensive documentation provided by Stephan, she knew that Travis had paid for the titles that their three council members now held, and that he was building funds to pay for a railway. Reaching for her mug of hot soup, she took a long sip to steady herself. "This building was fine as a bookshop, but with people borrowing books and returning them, I am not exactly moving them out. I might also need to hire someone to assist."


    Travis would have happily thrown a huge pile of gold at her and told her to have fun, but Stephan had been a good example of accomplishing more than one thing at a time with a little planning. "So a bigger building, an assistant, and a wage befitting a Keeper of Knowledge. If you get a much larger building, you''ll also need to fill it with books. The first I can easily arrange. For the second, I''ll ask if anyone here would be interested in the job, but if not you can hire someone. Next time, order the <em style="font-weight: 600">latest version of books and pass the bill to Stephan or his assistant."


    "Just like that? How much is my budget?" Llewellyn quickly held a hand up to fend off any answer. "No, I don''t want to know. If you want me to buy high-quality books, I''ll also fetch a book copying jig to make this easier. Thank you."


    "Now," Travis said, getting back to the original topic, "since you''ve read it, do you know what the average amount of floors is for a verdant dungeon?"


    "Most don''t get beyond thirty. There is one that''s got fifty, but it''s over two hundred years old, and is part of the capital." Llewellyn didn''t even bother to look at the book. "If I may, how many floors does Breeze have?"


    Only managing to hide his nervous giggle because he''d gotten used to talking to no one on occasion, Travis replied, "As of today? Eighty-three."


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 Chapter 147

    Forerunner felt far less terrified on their second flight. Not clutched in the talons of the mighty dragon, they rode on her back¡ªbut held no less reverence for her. The world, now that they had a chance to look at it from altitude, was far too big. Forest stretched in every direction, with only a single road¡ªand Northridge¡ªto break it up.


    They wore some of the gifts the strange dragon dungeon had given so freely. Amazing metal armor that was lighter than it should be, but still turned away steel blades. Though the armor wouldn''t turn away a blade the likes of which they carried. The metal was heavy and would cut anything, or so they''d been told.


    The forest near its home did a reasonable job of hiding the dungeon entrance from the air, but the gnolls working the forest were a dead give away that its home yet existed.


    "Hold on." Penelope liked seeing that the dungeon was still active. It would have been horrid to come back to a goblin raid. She sighted on a rise that didn''t have a gnoll currently on it, and surrendered to the pull of gravity with only a minor concession to using her wings to steer.


    The gnoll dungeon felt marginally less panic now when the dragon crashed into the ground just beyond its entrance. It looked through the eyes of each of the gnolls¡ªand had an odd extra angle that it assumed was a minion that had climbed a tree to be able to look from a higher vantage point.


    When that high-angle minion jumped down, revealing it to be standing beside the dragon, the dungeon felt more confused than shocked. It looked like the minion it had lost days earlier. A moment of reaching out to the gnoll revealed it was <em style="font-weight: 600">definitely that minion.


    "Stop!" Forerunner lunged forward to intercept the charge of a gnoll carrying the adamantine blade, ruining its chance of truly annoying Penelope by stabbing her with something that would definitely hurt her. "She not enemy!"


    The words were like a rush of power to the dungeon. It surged with new ability and felt its thoughts coalesce from the base concepts it had been working with to conveyable language. "Explain yourself," it told its minion.


    Dropping to their knees, Forerunner told their story. It wasn''t long, or complicated, but it spoke at length of the way it had been treated and clarified that Penelope and her dungeon hadn''t harmed them at all. Finally, it set out the weapons and armor that it had been gifted. "These dungeons, Travis and Breeze, as well as Northridge¡ªwant to be ally."


    "Dungeons and cities? Together?" The gnoll dungeon mused on the prospect. "Did they give me resources?"


    "Yes. Breeze is deep. You got resources for each floor."


    That was a moment of shock and terror for the gnoll dungeon. It had known numbers before it knew words. Numbers were more real than words, somehow, and it had counted each time it had gotten those mystery resources. "Breeze is mighty. What of other dungeon?"


    "Yes, Breeze <em style="font-weight: 600">is mighty. Strong and deep. Travis is shallow, but stronger." Forerunner could feel the confusion coming off its dungeon in waves. "Penelope the dragon is from Travis. Her home fought off an army of warriors almost twenty thousand strong."


    "There is another dungeon. I can feel it." The two dungeons and city were seeking an ally, but the gnoll dungeon couldn''t figure out what that meant for it. Compared to them, it was tiny. Barely a blip. Not even a resource-meal.


    "Yes. Goblin dungeon. It is not the challenge they face."


    Penelope cleared her throat, which to the gnolls nearest her, sounded more like a mountain deciding whether it should spew fire, rocks, both, or explode into devastation on a mass scale. "We seek another ally, your home, because it is wasted effort and resources to fight. If you trust us, we will share everything with you. Guns. Traps. Safety. We have enemies, but we are already engaging them and winning."


    "Then why?" Forerunner asked, speaking as its dungeon did with the same question.


    "Because we''re stronger together and because it''s nice to not live in fear. But in all honesty, you''d have to ask Trav to find out the full reason. Sometimes, when I think I start to worry that things aren''t working, he shows me a way to do everything better." Penelope did her best to explain it, but now she regretted not sending Stephan. Or, better, both coming, so Stephan could talk and she''d pretend to be the big brute who wasn''t nearly as eloquent.


    The honesty behind the dragon''s words came through to the gnoll dungeon. It thought about the problem and asked its gnoll to relay a question.


    "How dangerous is the goblin dungeon?" Forerunner asked.


    "A team of bosses from both our dungeons are killing its minions now. We thin them out whenever we can, and we have patrols to keep them from roaming. I would consider them the equivalent of half the army we fought, when they''re at the peak of their power." The only thing Penelope was fighting with herself not to do was give the new dungeon an ultimatum. Not that they wouldn''t start attacking it, too, if it became hostile. She liked Forerunner, and didn''t wish to have to kill them and their home. "If they find you, they will kill all your gnolls and turn you into another goblin dungeon. If you see them, send someone to get help. Don''t try to fight them alone."


    "I need time," the dungeon told its minion. "Tell them I need time. Ten risings of the sun. Tell the dragon to come back and I''ll give it an answer."


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    Nodding their head, Forerunner delivered the message to Penelope, who took a moment to wish them well before flying off. Forerunner wanted nothing more than to return to their home and let it worry about the big decisions, but given the nature of things¡ªif fighting started, they would be the one dying to the city and its two allies.


    "Minion, I have more need of you," the dungeon told Forerunner. It was an important moment in every dungeon''s life, but none more so than a dungeon with its focus.


    "Forerunner. My name is Forerunner."


    "Come to my core, minion Forerunner, it is time we have our first boss, and you will make a great matriarch."


    The news staggered Forerunner for a moment, before it let out a cackling laugh and broke into a run. It would stand as its home''s protector!


    <hr>


    "I think the railway extension should be the highest priority right now. It took us almost a week to get to Far Reach, and in that time we''re almost to the capital." Elanor was adamant on that fact. "It''s not simply a matter of convenience, either. The trade opportunities and new settlers that Northridge is missing out on with that added time will stunt the city''s growth."


    "I''m not going to argue that, but the fact remains that Northridge needs to finish expanding its walls. An influx of new settlers won''t happen unless there is room for them, and with that goblin dungeon still being a blight on the land, no one would be willing to live outside the city wall." Having long since mastered the art of splitting her focus, Brevity kept revising her submission to have a second dungeon sanctioned at Northridge. "If this application is approved, of course, the goblins will no longer be a threat."


    Stopping her line of thought on the railway, Elanor asked, "How often do dungeons get sanctioned?"


    "It''s not done lightly. Even if sporting six hostile dungeons, no city would ever dream of sanctioning them unless they were a threat to the city''s existence. However, I agree with Travis and his reasoning. They don''t <em style="font-weight: 600">need other dungeons than himself and Breeze. Between the pair of them, Northridge will become a major power in the kingdom¡ªrivaling the capital for resources." Modifying a few words here and there, Brevity saw the movement under Elanor''s duster again. "I can''t believe you have a cave scorpion hugged against you like that."


    "Snipsnap is careful not to use her claws, tail, or pincers anywhere that would hurt. Besides, I''d rather have her with me if we encounter any of my <em style="font-weight: 600">former family."


    "I could arrange for that too, you know?" At the surprised look from Elanor, Brevity shrugged. "Disowning your family is a minor process that only requires you be present to make the announcement before a Lord of the Court."


    It seemed huge. Elanor slumped back and felt Snipsnap squirm a moment before settling again. "Sorry," she said, patting at her tummy where the scorpion was soaking up her warmth. "If we have time, I''d like that. My parents¡ª They aren''t <em style="font-weight: 600">as bad as my uncle, but they didn''t stop him from sending me away."


    Not exactly a new story, Brevity thought. There were bound to be other black sheep who were being coddled and used by their noble families when they would make amazing people of themselves otherwise. "I''ll ask my old friend if he can help."


    "My family might try to stop¡ª"


    "Constance wouldn''t let them. He''s impartial to a fault." He''d certainly kept her from enacting some of her less aboveboard legal claims. Not that she''d try to get something dangerous past him, but there were ways of pushing things through the court system a little faster, and he knew about all of them.


    Elanor''s hand rose a little and she straightened in her seat. She lifted one finger and pointed down the train car. When the man approached, she tensed and readied herself for a fight.


    "I was told to head back here and let you know we''ll be another half an hour out of the capital." Rubbing the back of his neck, the train conductor nodded to the door that led to the wagon car behind the passenger one. "You''ll be able to disembark your wagon there."


    "Thank you. We''ll disembark the moment the train stops." Elanor''s fingers remained on the handle of her gun, though she didn''t intend to draw it unless the man came closer or showed any sign of aggression. She tilted her head downward a little, though her eyes never left him.


    Aware of being dismissed, the conductor turned and left the two women to their conversation. They had paid for two cars to themselves, and it wasn''t worth his job to keep annoying them.


    When the door closed behind the man, Elanor took her hand off her gun and Brevity breathed a sigh of relief.


    "In case I forget, thank you. I had no idea that being in Travis'' employ would be this inflammatory. It''s nice to know that he has people trained to operate in these situations." Brevity didn''t want to ruin the moment by adding anything about Elanor only recently having prepared for this. She liked the woman''s moxie and wanted to help her break free from the family that had tried to crush her spirit. "When we arrive, we''ll head directly for the court. I''ll lodge my applications there, then we''ll go to the castle."


    The entire walk from the station to the courthouse, leading her horse and the wagon, had Elanor on edge. Every time someone walked in front of them, her fingers twitched and she wanted to draw her gun.


    At the courthouse, which was two city blocks of buildings that Brevity had explained to Elanor held all the day-to-day administration that a kingdom could desire, she curried both horses and spent some time talking to Bite, Bark, and Snipsnap. "You''ll have to wait here. I''m sorry, but if I get caught in the castle with monsters, the best I could hope for would be a fast death after they take away my talismans."


    A little shiver ran through Elanor, and she knew instinctively that Ripper was circling far overhead. "I promise, nothing will hurt me on the way to the castle and back. Then I can talk to Miss Brevity''s friend, then we can go home again. I want to get Priest leveled up to full, then swap to Soldier. Hopefully, Mr. Travis will have the Tank class ready to go by the time I get back. I want all that armor like Miss Fife has."


    Specifically, Elanor wanted some of the fancy new armor that Tinpot made embedded. She pondered more on it, then revised her opinion to something lighter. Just like Fife, she could wear armor over the top. Movement beside the wagon drew her attention and she made a hand gesture to her companions to be still.


    "We''ll be speaking to Constance first thing in the morning. Once that''s settled, I will be presenting my case for a second sanction. It should be sorted by midday." Brevity spoke before she reached the back of the wagon. She''d seen how jumpy Elanor was in the train, and didn''t want to sneak up on her. "Shall we go see if we can get an audience with the King?"


    "With the King?!"


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 Chapter 148

    Nerves filled Forerunner. Even leading a dance and song recounting her time in the other dungeons didn''t settle her nerves. She stood up from a crouch, a little more comfortable now in her added height and shape, and reached out one hand to the huge crystal beside her. Well, not <em style="font-weight: 600">huge compared to Travis and hardly even on the same scale as Breeze, but she liked her home better than the two of them and wanted to defend the growth they''d made. "The dragon will come today," she said.


    The rush of growth in the dungeon had been the result of having so many resources, but the dungeon knew it was an excuse as well. It had five floors and had stocked each with three bosses¡ªbut none were as big and powerful as its matriarch¡ªForerunner. She who goes first and comes back. She who leads. She who brought the dungeon its greatest boon and its headache.


    After some time standing there, Forerunner leaned closer and shoved her head against the crystal, making a soft growl-grunt noise.


    The dungeon made a soft whine back to Forerunner and got a lick for its show of affection. "I know! I need to make a decision and I have spent ten days doing everything except that. I want to be strong, and stand on my own, but I read what the dragon said without words. If we don''t accept their help, they will attack us like the goblins, killing all and maybe even shattering me."


    When Forerunner didn''t reply, the dungeon realized it was its own decision to make. It mused at the problem of retaining its autonomy and not being slaughtered for existing, and came up with what it hoped would lead to a solution. "If only we''d been one of the first dungeons, we could have been as big as them already."


    "Whatever your choice, your pack is with you." Bumping her head against the crystal again, Forerunner jerked at the sound of shouting. "She''s here?"


    The newfound resolve the dungeon had practically evaporated as they spotted the dragon outside the wooden palisade that they''d built around their entrance. What surprised the dungeon was that a single kobold slid off the dragon''s back and landed on the forest floor.


    "My name is Stephan. I speak for the city of Northridge, the dungeons Travis and Breeze, and myself. I would have an audience with your dungeon."


    The gnoll dungeon had expected the dragon to be the negotiator. By all the rules of society it knew, the biggest and strongest should be in charge. It growled out and its minions lowered their spears; except for one.


    Stephan looked up at the gnoll with a fearlessness that had grown from the certainty that the worst they could do was kill him. "You''re standing in my way." When the gnoll bared its teeth, Stephan sighed and turned around. "Looks like the dungeon doesn''t want to talk. Ten days are up. We will take this as an act of hostilit¡ª"


    "Wait!" Forerunner had never moved so fast in her life. When her dungeon had relayed what the kobold had said, she had dashed all the way to the entrance before he''d even finished his sentence. "You were told to stand down," she said, marching up to the gnoll who''d challenged Stephan and striking them in the side of the head.


    Stopping in his tracks, Stephan turned and did his utmost to not be intimidated by the huge gnoll "Are you Forerunner?" Their nod confirmed his suspicion that the gnoll matriarch, easily ten feet tall and looming every inch of it, was the same gnoll that they''d made initial contact with. "And you don''t wish to challenge Northridge, Breeze, Travis, and myself to a fight?"


    The dungeon realized where things had gone wrong when Stephan had repeated the wording. He represented the other dungeons and the city. When its minion had challenged him, he''d taken it as a challenge to all that he represented. It wasn''t an interpretation that was obvious until it was pointed out in that way, and the dungeon realized how carefully it would have to proceed. "Tell them they are welcome within me and won''t be harmed or challenged."


    "No. It''s hard for the younger ones. They grow fast and think with muscles." Glad to be talking, Forerunner gestured to the dungeon entrance. "Come. You will be safe and unchallenged in my home. We will talk."


    Glancing back at Penelope, Stephan nodded to her and followed Forerunner into her dungeon. The most immediate thing that felt different from Travis, at least in his early days, was the light. There were smoldering torches spaced along the walls irregularly, but close enough that his eyes could pick out the floor and the shapes of rooms as they passed them.


    It was a whole underground village. Small wooden buildings were built into otherwise empty rooms. Gnolls worked practically everywhere. Cutting wood up, breaking stone, and even making weapons. "You have grown well from our gift of resources? How many floors are you now?"


    "We have five now and are working on a sixth. How long did it take you to make that hard metal?"


    "More than a year; three hundred and fifty days." The information wasn''t all that useful, in Stephan''s reckoning, given how much Travis had already handed the gnolls. "You won''t be joining, will you?"


    "My home says no, but has some things to talk about. We can''t trust you this quickly, but we should not be enemies." It surprised Forerunner to see Stephan smile at that. She thought the words would enrage or upset him, but her dungeon was adamant that she say them. "That isn''t bad?"


    "No. That''s very good. I was afraid you would see this as an ultimatum. That you''d think anything short of capitulation would result in extermination. I am <em style="font-weight: 600">glad there are things to discuss." The floor led down to the next, and Stephan realized that unlike Breeze, the gnoll dungeon was not building itself for ease of access.


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    They moved in silence unbroken except for the sounds of gnolls around them working. Stephan took careful note of how much growth the dungeon showed from what Penelope had described the first time she''d visited. "You''ve grown fast. That''s good. If this goes well, I could take you back to walk through Travis again and get more resources. Breeze has more floors, too."


    The statement caused Forerunner to stop in her tracks. "More? How many?"


    "We aren''t sure exactly, since it takes so long to find where she squeezes them in, but I suspect she''s adding one a day now." Stephan let out a sigh. "Travis has been researching her type of dungeon, and most don''t seem this active. There hasn''t been a verdant dungeon on record that''s as large as she is."


    Grunting, Forerunner started off again and, soon enough, they were approaching a room with a different glow from the fires throughout the rest of it. She watched as Stephan entered, turned his full attention to the heart, and bowed deeply.


    "Forgive my earlier treatment, but you must understand I cannot allow any challenge to those I represent to slide by without acknowledgment, as I am sure your boss would not." Trying not to couch his words too much, Stephan nonetheless wanted to start off on the right foot. "As I said, my name is Stephan. I am the second minion Travis acquired and though I am not a boss, he trusts me as his voice in matters where he cannot be heard himself. You don''t wish to ally with us and join the city, I understand, so what is it you wish?"


    It was somehow both the most and least direct language the gnoll dungeon had ever heard. The words seemed to twist and shape themselves to new forms that had multiple meanings. It had to swim through the pool of possibilities and state what it wanted. "We work, you pay. We fight, you pay. Sell us tools and weapons, and gnolls fight and work. It''s what gnolls do best. Tell them that."


    Hearing Forerunner explain the dungeon''s intent, Stephan smiled. It was a smile full of teeth that he knew could bite through bone or cut down an argument with ease. "That would be acceptable. So we will be business partners, with trust built on hard work and payment?"


    Nodding her head, Forerunner replied as instructed. "Yes. Gold, food, and wood."


    "Do you grow floors with those, or is there something else?"


    Tilting her head to the side a little, trying to make sense of the concepts her dungeon was giving her, Forerunner paused a moment to get things straight. "The dungeon grows from the strength of the pack, but needs resources for that too. Strength is physical, magical, and reputation."


    "Did those adamantine weapons increase your <em style="font-weight: 600">strength?"


    "Yes. Much strength."


    "Then we can pay you in gold, wood, food, <em style="font-weight: 600">and strength. As an ally¡ªeven outside the city¡ªthere is one other important thing Travis and the city of Northridge want made clear: your minions are not disposable. If anyone dies, bring their body to us and we <em style="font-weight: 600">will bring them back. No cost."


    The vehemence surprised the dungeon. "I agree to the deal, if you do. We will have to decide on prices, but this works."


    <hr>


    "He won''t see you."


    "Huh?" Lifting her head from where she''d been making careful notes in her journal, Elanor looked at the man who''d spoken to them. She stared for a few moments, paying attention to his deep green eyes, fashionable clothes, and in particular the sword and pistol at his waist.


    "Your Highness," Brevity said, dipping her head.


    Snapped out of her daydream of fighting alongside a brave, swashbuckling knight with a sword and a gun, Elanor managed to sputter out, "Oh! S-Sorry, Your Highness."


    "Father is feeling his oats these last few days. He''s in finer form than he has been for a while, and he is using his time to tackle serious matters. Follow me." Leading the way and expecting to be followed, Stewart Gallant took the pair to his own private office and had one of his personal guards close the door behind them. Once within, he lifted out a scarab brooch from his desk and activated the little thing.


    When the wings of the beetle snapped out, a crackle filled the air and two bright sparks¡ªone from the ceiling and one under the desk¡ªflared and then went out. "Scrying nodes?" Brevity asked, and got a nod.


    Stewart answered, "Yes. I am sure it has something to do with this spy problem you have in the north. Normally I take them in stride and feed them false information, but today is a touch more important. With my father in good health, I have a window to act. Your own spy, I understand, has been dealt with?"


    "Y-Yes," Elanor said, somewhat sheepishly. "My uncle sent one of his agents to attack the city and destabilize it, so he could invest me as its leader." The single raised eyebrow on the prince''s face made her gulp. "I¡­ uh¡­"


    Brevity decided to save the young woman before she implicated herself in regicide by mistake. "It wasn''t Elanor''s fault. She was being used as a playing piece in a game she wanted nothing to do with. She is renouncing her family tomorrow morning."


    "That would make you the niece of the Marquess of West Reaches?" Waiting for a nod, Stewart went on. "You are sure you wish to break ties with your family? You have the means to pay your own way?"


    Eyes wide, Elanor nodded. "T-Travis has instructed me in combat, and is helping me to train. He even gave me use of some of his minions and I am working for him to pay him back, uh, sir."


    "Sounds like you have landed on your feet running. Consider your ties to what used to be your family <em style="font-weight: 600">broken. That''s one thing I have the authority to do without consulting my father." Making a quick note on some parchment, Stewart made a second copy and used his magical seal to stamp both. "Here."


    Taking the slip of paper, Elanor looked at it in disbelief.


    <blockquote>


    I, Stewart Gallant, Crown Prince of the Greater Trade Kingdom, do announce to all, both noble and common, that the lady Elanor be not a member of the Fitzgerald household any longer. She is freed from the requirements of nobility and bound to the laws of commoners.


    </blockquote>


    "Thank you, Your Highness." Bubbling excitement gave Elanor the confidence to speak aloud her thanks.


    "You will be returning along the northern railway tomorrow?" Stewart asked. At the nod from Brevity, he smiled. "Then you will surely have room for a young noble and his footman. I wish to speak to the leader of Hearthhome and discuss what I can do to assist in her efforts to clear her earldom of these pests."


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 Chapter 149

    "Sanctioning another dungeon in Northridge? That will leave them with"¡ªpausing to check his paperwork, Lord Constance found what he wanted¡ª"two. Correct?"


    "Evidence packet two-A details the dungeons currently active in the area. Eliminating the rot goblin dungeon will leave them with three. Evidence packet three-A are the active accounts for the city, which show it supporting and growing simply from the two primary dungeons that have agreed to assist."


    Glancing over the packets and seeming to judge them simply by weight, Constance looked at Brevity. She looked entirely too ready to pounce¡ªlike a kitten with a ball of unsuspecting yarn. "Spit it out, Brevity. Don''t make me ask stupid questions if you have answers."


    "A dungeon destroyed by another dungeon seems to regrow after a one-year delay. The gnoll dungeon listed in two-A is new. At the time of my inspection, it had one floor and only a handful of minions. With this fact, I estimate there is a high chance that sanctioning the rot dungeon, using the dragon dungeon''s resources, will result in another dungeon appearing in a year."


    "Verified with your own eyes, of course?" At Brevity''s nod, Constance hummed. "That changes much. I would turn down a sanction for any city to reduce them to one dungeon. I would generally deny any to reduce them to two¡ªbut this will leave them with three, and the chance of a fourth growing."


    The look he gave her spoke volumes. Brevity''s career as a person of note and honor would be completely lost to her if she were lying about having seen the gnoll dungeon. "The facts I have witnessed are in those¡ª"


    "I trust your word, Brevity Delling. You have a fascinating client. Now, there was another matter you wanted me to look at?" As he spoke, Constance placed his mark on the paperwork legitimizing the sanctioning of the goblin dungeon.


    "That was taken care of by a fortuitous meeting with the Prince." Slipping her copy of the paperwork into her case, Brevity couldn''t help but smile to herself. "Thank you again, Lord Constance."


    "I am merely the vessel dispensing the rule of law. You provided every scrap of information I required to carry out my duty. Did you really speak to a dungeon?" The last Constance asked without any air of authority¡ªjust a curious ex-adventurer.


    "At first I needed an interpreter. Travis has since gained the ability to directly speak to anyone he has a presence with. He sounds like a young man struggling to keep all his friends safe and strengthen his rights. Which is something I <em style="font-weight: 600">do need to talk to you about. He seeks to be considered as a <em style="font-weight: 600">person within the kingdom." Brevity waited to get a surprised look from Constance, but it never came. "You think it will be hard?"


    "Brevity, I believe it would be impossible without a royal exemption. Given your recent connection, that may not be too far a leap. If I were in your shoes, I would attempt to strengthen that connection." Rising, it was all Lord Constance''s voice that came through, "That is my full opinion as both your professional colleague, and a lord of the court."


    <hr>


    Stewart Gallant shifted in his seat again. It wasn''t that he disliked trains specifically. He had things to do and the train would get him where he needed to do them, but the time spent waiting for it to get there was agonizing.


    His company, though, was absolutely intriguing. The half-elven lawyer had a fascinating history of hard work to keep the gears of the law courts grinding, and his information spoke of many successes in her career.


    The other was a complete enigma. A problem that his mind was finding itself distracted with. Elanor, formerly Elanor Fitzgerald, was a composed young woman that seemed to have a core of iron within her. She was armed, he had to admit, to the teeth. The guns she carried looked fantastical to him, and her hand practically jumped to the handle of the one on her left hip whenever she got startled. "May I look at your gun?"


    "Huh? I mean, of course." Carefully drawing her revolver, Elanor thought a moment before pulling the retaining pin, swinging out the cylinder, and emptying it of rounds. "Here," she said, locking the cylinder back in and passing it over.


    Almost dropping the gun while staring at the steel-cased bullets, Stewart could appreciate that she''d rendered an unusual weapon safe before handing it to him. "You don''t have to load it from the barrel?"


    "No. These are what Mr. Tinpot, our gunsmith, calls <em style="font-weight: 600">steel-cased rounds. They use a pressure sensitive runestone inside that detonates when the hammer of the gun strikes the back of the case."


    "They''re disposable?"


    "No. The runestone used is a repeating one, but not so fast that it would cause a double explosion." Holding out one of the rounds, Elanor watched the man look carefully over it. "That red-tip means it has a little blob of gold as the bullet, that holds a tiny pin of adamantine."


    It was stunning. The exotic materials involved, along with the knowledge to assemble them, would make every single bullet cost in the order of fifty gold¡ªif it weren''t already priceless. "And the yellow one there?"


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    "It has a second runestone, not as sensitive as the propelling one, that acts as the bullet. When it hits a target and stops¡ªthat''s when it will go off." Passing over one of the explosive rounds, making sure the bullet was not aimed toward the man, Elanor showed him the runestone markings. "My patron has an expert wizard working for him."


    "I find myself regretting not spending more time in Northridge, specifically its dungeons. Who did you say your patron was?"


    "Mr. Travis. He''s the dragon dungeon in Northridge."


    It was both nonsensical and explained much. He looked at Elanor with renewed interest. "You are a pledged minion of the dungeon?"


    "No. He has a way to talk to anyone in the city now, sort of. He complains about it not letting him just talk to anyone, because he has to be focused on them first, but I think that he can talk at all is a relief to him. Could you imagine how it would be, stuck in one location and only able to talk with a few select people?" Turning her head from the bullets she''d been contemplating in her hand, Elanor looked up at Stewart and felt a thud that had nothing to do with the train they were riding.


    Her eyes, Stewart noticed, were intense and focused, and seemed like they were scanning his face and measuring him for something. He gulped. "How long does it take to reload?" he asked, trying to find a safe topic for a prince to talk to a young now-common woman.


    The metaphorical spell broken, Elanor let out a sigh. "Too long. I can fire six shots faster than it takes you to count to ten, but then¡­" She held out her hand for the gun and round she''d passed him. When she got them back, she put bullets in all the chambers and closed it.


    Elanor popped the gun open again and started the laborious task of removing what would be six empty cartridges, then loading them back in one by one. When she was done, she spun the barrel and sighed. "I don''t do that if there is a seventh target."


    Intrigued, Stewart asked, "What would you do?"


    "Draw a weapon and the small shield hidden on my back." Elanor had the pleasure of seeing Stewart laugh. Raising a hand to her chest, she balled it into a fist and punched the armor beneath. "Another of Travis'' artisans made me some specialized armor. It will stop an edged weapon and bullet well enough, though I don''t wish to test it with any of the red bullets I carry."


    "You''re wearing adamantine armor?" Now it was shock that overcame Stewart.


    "In a manner, yes. There is a heavy cloth behind it on most of my torso, but there are thin plates of adamantine with a mesh of very fine wire holding it all together. It''s light enough I don''t feel like I''m wearing a breastplate, but resistant enough to allow me to fight to the end."


    The vehemence intrigued Stewart. From what he''d gathered, Elanor had only had no more than a month or two of training in Northridge, but she spoke as if combat and death were everyday things. "You''re that loyal to the dungeon?"


    "<em style="font-weight: 600">Mr. Travis, yes." Elanor was slightly upset at Travis being referred to as simply <em style="font-weight: 600">the dungeon, and sought to put that right. "No one wanted to give me work or take me in because of what my fam¡ªmy <em style="font-weight: 600">former family had set me up to do. Mr. Travis gave me equipment, gave me a purpose, and paid for my training."


    "I''m curious about your training."


    "Travis wrangled his system to make me a priest of the dungeon, which lets me calm and inspire his minions and, because I am not one of his minions myself, I can get experience from them and he gains experience when I die trying to complete one of his mini dungeons. He provides me with talismans, of course." Unconsciously, Elanor ran her tongue along the inside of her mouth searching for missing teeth that weren''t, of course, missing.


    "Oh." Priest could mean a lot of things to a lot of people, Stewart knew, but some had specific ideas about what <em style="font-weight: 600">priesting entailed. "So the dungeon creatures you said you''re traveling with¡­?"


    "Are part of my <em style="font-weight: 600">party. We know each other''s tactics, and they become stronger by fighting at my side. There are two bloodied wolves, a cave scorpion, and a wyvern. Bite, Bark, Snipsnap, and Ripper respectively. Ripper has been flying above the train, taking only brief naps. She really needs some rest soon, though."


    "We''ll be in Hearthhome in several days. I will use my authority to allow you to have your minions free of their confines and let your wyvern rest. Please don''t make me regret that." The names were descriptive, Stewart was sure, but Elanor being their master while away from their dungeon was another curiosity.


    Looking out the window, Stewart watched a marker rush past. He knew how to read their distance measures, and how fast the train could cover the distance they stated. They would be aboard the train for three days. He couldn''t help but smile a little, given the stimulating company he shared the ride with.


    <hr>


    [a brave young priestess'' journal]


    Well, Miss Journal, we are on our way home again. I am no longer my family''s child, nor am I their political toy. I have a piece of paper signed by a prince! A [blotched word] prince. Sorry for that. I shouldn''t say such things, even to you Miss Journal.


    He was very interested in my gun. He had a pistol as well, but his was a simple, single-barrel one.


    I''m nobody''s fool, Miss Journal. He looks at me the way I''ve seen men look at women before. I find myself looking back. He''s the <em style="font-weight: 600">crown prince, Miss Journal. I can''t feel those kinds of things for him now I''m not even a noble.


    I wonder what he''ll say when he sees Snipsnap? Of all my friends, she seems to scare people the most. I have no idea why, when she''s the one most likely to go to sleep if you pet her. Most people don''t put their hand out to pet her. I wonder if he will?


    He seemed a little surprised I am a priestess. I don''t know why he would; being a priestess is the best thing ever¡­ I heard a little purring just now, Miss Journal. It''s true, though. Knowing that the hot sands will keep me warm no matter how cold it is. Thank you, Lady Sandwalker, for allowing me to find a new home within my new home.


    I should go Miss Journal. Sleep isn''t far away. Miss Brevity is already asleep in her chair. I might get up and fetch Snipsnap from our wagon; she doesn''t like the cold very much, and if I pray to Sandwalker, she will let me heat my friend up.


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 Chapter 150

    It had been, ultimately, a disappointment to Fife. When the tunnels had turned to twisting labyrinths that had made Ludmiller curse every time she had to backtrack to them, Fife had expected things to turn nasty.


    What Ludmiller told her, of the boss room ahead, wasn''t an exciting fight. The boss hobgoblin shaman had a small group of other shamans with it, but there was no big fight otherwise. "Okay, this looks simple, but I don''t want any chances. Jack, be ready to freeze everything. Astrid, bring your wolves in and pull back as you need to. Katelyn, babe, I want this place to be so hot that that hobgoblin can''t respawn for a month without immediately burning to death again. Keep an eye out for surprises and"¡ªmoving fast, Fife grabbed up Breath of Spring and gave her a kiss¡ª"we got this."


    Making herself visible again, Ludmiller shook her head. "I can''t check if there''s more. That whole place is full of spores. This must be where they grow all their fungus."


    Holding her clawed hand out to Jack, curled in a fist, Katelyn got a bump from him as they stepped around the corner. The room ahead of her seemed to still as rime formed on the walls and all the moisture in the air condensed and then froze. She had to admire how much work he''d been putting in to develop his magic to use the expanded mana they had now.


    Practically able to feel the grittiness in the moisture he''d frozen¡ªthe spores that''d been suspended in it¡ªJack snapped off his mana and clicked one claw on the floor of the dungeon tunnel to signal to Katelyn it was her turn.


    Taking a breath of chill air, Katelyn reversed the process and turned the frozen moisture to steam by flash boiling it. The goblins within screamed as the air itself ignited for a moment¡ªthe delicate spores fuel for the flames.


    Jaw half open, inhaling the last clean oxygen she would until the room was nothing but ashes, Fife let out a growl of excitement and jogged into the inferno. The flames brought her armor up to an uncomfortable temperature, then a painful one. The leather straps on it were not burning away, though, which was something she could be thankful for.


    Standing with her staff held before her, Katelyn poured mana into her evocation, but she deliberately kept the flames to a soft yellow rather than the radiant blue she could produce. When she spotted two trolls entering the boss room from side chambers, she focused her flames on the left one and was pleased to see Fife charge at the right.


    Trolls, Fife knew, weren''t the brightest sorts. The two that had jumped into her little fight with the dungeon boss proved themselves pretty far down on the scale of mental adepts when they''d walked into an inferno.


    Around Fife, the flames seemed to dull a little, but a quick glance reassured her that they had intensified around the shaman and the other troll. It wasn''t going to be a problem, after all, because the wolves were behind and covering for the others.


    When Fife felt a cough bubbling up from inside, she knew something the shaman had done had probably gotten to her. Exhaling, she opened her mouth wide and drew a deep breath. Pain seared down her windpipe as the fire poured into her. The tingling need to cough more was gone, but she figured so was her ability to breathe until the next heal kicked in.


    <hr>


    <blockquote>


    One of your boss minions gained a new talent!


    </blockquote>


    "What the heck?" Travis jerked away from the project that Robert was working on to check the message again. "Okay, it''s not Pen, Wild, or the cave scorpion¡­ That leaves Fife. Of <em style="font-weight: 600">course it would be Fife. They should be done in that dungeon soon."


    No one answered him, of course, since he''d been yelling into the void of his own head. "Pen, Felna?" Travis asked, feeling a silly metaphoric grin as both jerked their heads up at the same time and made <em style="font-weight: 600">mrrp sounds¡ªthough Penelope''s was far deeper than Felna''s. "Sorry to wake you both up, but I just got a new, weird notification. ''One of your boss minions gained a new talent,'' it said."


    "Uh." Penelope stretched her wings and shook, feeling the afternoon sun pour its warmth into her. "Wild and me are here, right? So it has to be Fife."


    "Exactly," Travis said. "Whatever they''re doing in that dungeon, seems to be affecting her in some way."


    Finding a warm patch of Penelope''s wing, Felna reached up with her hands and took a firm grip on it and pulled it down to her. "It wouldn''t surprise me. There isn''t any information about what''s happening?"


    "No, and if they''re in the bottom of that place, and don''t take the fast ride out, it will take a week or more for them to get back given the last estimate of its depth."


    <hr>


    Not only did her breathing become easier, but Fife felt the pain of the fire fade around her. She felt a little constricted, though¡ªas if she''d grown taller. Ignoring the strange feeling, she engaged with the troll that wasn''t in the process of being turbo-roasted by Katelyn, and surged against its attempts to stomp and smash her. Her shield seemed to find every hit before it landed, deflecting it, while her sword took payment from the troll for every sloppy movement it made.


    "How are you feeling, big guy? That left arm doesn''t look so <em style="font-weight: 600">hot." Fife could tell her cocky barbs got to the troll when it repeated three telegraphed swings for her head. She dodged the first two and then met the third with her shield. With the momentum of its weapon broken, she stepped into the troll''s guard and traced her adamantine sword down from the troll''s sternum to its waist, following the joints in its armor to open the beast up. "Ugh, that smell," she snarled as she stepped back to admire her work.


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    Wanting to push her attack, Fife felt an urge grow inside and went with it. When she opened her mouth and <em style="font-weight: 600">pushed up from her stomach, a blast of hotter flames poured out and engulfed the troll. The huge monster dropped its hammer and tried in vain to put itself out, but unlike Katelyn''s fire that simply licked around its body raising the temperature, Fife''s flames <em style="font-weight: 600">consumed it.


    Stepping back and letting the troll go about trying to put itself out, Fife turned to the hobgoblin¡ªjust to see it run from the room. "Ah dammit! This always happens!"


    Turning back to her party, Fife shouted, "Hey! They ran¡­ away." She trailed off because Katelyn had snapped off her flames and let the wolves do their thing on the remaining troll. Walking over to them, Fife noticed something more than her familiarity with fire and strangely useful bad breath¡ªshe was taller. The wolves previously towered over her, though now she judged herself around the height of a normal human. "Uh, I think something weird happened."


    Walking over the hot floor, Breath of Spring looked up at Fife with her hands on her hips. "What did you do? You''re taller now!"


    "It''s weird. I was trying to deal with something that hobgoblin cast by inhaling some fire to burn it out of me. Next thing I know, I''m breathing fire back out and I don''t even feel the heat of the flames anymore." Fife shrugged.


    "So," Katelyn said, walking over to Fife and around her, "you don''t know how you grew bigger, breathed fire, or have wings?"


    "I''ve got wings?!" Fife turned around in a circle and didn''t manage to catch a glimpse of her wings or how they had grown out through her armor¡ªso turned in another circle. When a small hand grabbed hers, Fife stopped turning and looked down at Breath of Spring.


    Doing her best to suppress her giggles, and somewhat succeeding, Breath of Spring said, "Stop being silly and give me a hug."


    Remembering back to a book in Travis'' library that had given her so much great advice, Fife reached down and picked up Breath of Spring and said, "<em style="font-weight: 600">This is how you talk to short people." When the target of her affections opened her mouth to complain, she was engulfed in a hug that made her sigh in bliss instead.


    Katelyn, watching the air of the chamber for any hint of spores still active, asked, "Are we going to chase that guy down?"


    <hr>


    It shouldn''t have worked as well as it did. Forerunner watched over several days as her pack were given tools and set to work cutting down trees. At first the non-dungeon people were cautious of her pack, and for good reason¡ªeach gnoll towered over them. Her kin were bigger, stronger, and she was under no illusion that if they tried to attack, they''d all be cut down by the noisy weapons the humans carried.


    The status quo was maintained by payment. Wagons of timber, gold, food, and more adamantine equipment. Her pack were more than satisfied that a little time chopping down trees and ripping their stumps from the ground got them armor and weapons.


    Right now, that was enough for her gnolls. They ate well, they grew stronger, and didn''t need to risk their lives doing it¡ªbut that itself was a problem. Stephan had said that his dungeon''s main fighting force would return soon, and that they would gladly spar and fight with her pack, but she was a little nervous that they might start a fight before those sparring sessions could be organized.


    And that''s why she was out here, in the open, watching over her pack to make sure none of them got carried away. They seemed surprisingly at ease, the rhythm of their axes striking the mighty trees mirroring that of the great drums in their home. That''s when an idea hit her. "Fetch the biggest drums you can. Drag them out here if you need to," she told a nearby gnoll and, when they looked down at their axe, she took it in her own big hands. "I will cut in your place. Fetch the drums."


    Hefting the axe, Forerunner swung it with enough strength that the adamantine head bit hard into the tree. The resounding strikes of the other gnolls around her set the pace, though she hit her tree far harder than any other.


    Even after bringing the tree down, Forerunner felt relaxed by the work. She moved on, starting on the next mighty trunk, oblivious to the people around her breaking up the first and dragging it away. When the drumming started, she felt it thudding in her chest like a heartbeat. Swinging her axe to the rhythm of the drum, she tilted her head back and let out a slow whooping sound.


    After four beats of the drum, when Forerunner repeated the sound, other voices raised and came in perfectly in sync with her. The song, as it ebbed and flowed around her pack, empowered their limbs and spurred their axes on. Trees collapsed at an increasing rate as they carved a deep wedge into the forest and then pivoted and followed the contour of the woods.


    Such was their pace that Forerunner barely noticed the people behind them were falling back further and further. All through the day she kept up her song, supporting the tune despite the drummer having to move and keep pace with them. Finally, it was the sun itself fading from the sky that stirred her out of her march. Sinking her axe into the stump before her, Forerunner sang the last ululating cry and then let silence fall.


    Slowly, a few of the gnolls around her let loose chuckles of wordless joy. She barked along with them and hefted her axe onto her shoulder. Turning, Forerunner nodded to the people dragging logs back from the swathe they''d cut. They were far behind her gnolls now, but the determination on the people''s faces told her this would become a challenge both groups would become locked in. She whooped out a laugh to get her pack''s attention, and their drummer led their legs on a dance that brought them home to their dungeon.


    The joy she felt on entering was like a warm hug. Forerunner marched all the way to the bottom of the dungeon, her pack following along with yipping and cackling excitement. Gathering together in the expanded heart room, she told the story of their day so that their home would be able to feel it too. When she spoke of drums, a gnoll began to play, and soon enough they were all dancing, wrestling, or singing along to the music.


    Hope grew within Forerunner. Hope that this could work and they wouldn''t be wiped out for the first transgression between her pack and the people of Northridge.


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    This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA</a> license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged</a>, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.

 Chapter 151

    Five floors.


    Five twisting floors of spore-filled death and fleeting encounters with the retreating boss.


    Fife was not happy with the constant lack of finality, but she was enjoying how her body moved and worked. Her wings weren''t so useful in the tunnels, but she couldn''t wait to try those out in the open air. First, though, she had to deal with the hobgoblin. "We should have brought Ogmera with us. She could tell us how many floors there are to go before we have this guy cornered."


    Contemplating the unasked question, Astrid asked, "She wasn''t able to keep up?"


    Sighing, Fife nodded. "She has some advantages over a regular adventurer, but she should go full kobold. I wonder if Trav''s system would let her become a wolf like you guys?"


    The question intrigued Astrid. All her life she''d known that their gifts couldn''t be passed on, but dungeons did things differently. "It would be interesting to see how the wolf takes someone not drawn to close combat. I won''t lie, organizing the siege machines was not my preferred task." As she spoke, Astrid recalled the time she''d spent standing back among the engineers, wanting nothing more than to charge at the gates of the city. She''d gotten her wish, too. "She may not be useful as a magic user any longer."


    Fife shook her head. "That would be a shame. She''s good at what she does. Perhaps, if we have¡ª Luddy''s back."


    "Yeah, yeah. You''re showing off a bit now, Fife." It shouldn''t have bugged Ludmiller so much, she knew, but Fife somehow sensed her presence. "This floor seems unfinished. Basically a straight run to the boss room. There might be something significant about that, but I don''t know for sure."


    "As long as he has nowhere to go but down, I''m fine with this. More floors mean more resources." Drawing her sword, Fife thumped her shield a few times with the pommel to ensure the straps were secure on her arm, then advanced down the hallway. "Tell me where I''m going."


    "Left, then right, then straight on. Like I said, this wasn''t a complicated one¡ªexcept for a few side rooms." Ludmiller checked over her daggers again and smiled. "You''re welcome. There were two trolls and one of the big orcs."


    Trygve whined, regret painting his tone as he heard of what he could have hunted in the tunnels.


    "Don''t feel bad, brother," Astrid said, "celebrate having strong pack mates."


    She was right and Trygve knew it. Checking his blades, he nodded to Katelyn. "Lady Wizard, could you create an area of lower intensity fire?"


    Surprised a little by the request, Katelyn nodded. "With Fife''s new abilities, I don''t need to keep the whole chamber blazing hot. Why?"


    Eyes flashing, Trygve said, "I want to live long enough to engage with and fight something."


    The request startled Astrid a little too, but thinking about it made her blood pump faster. "Yes. If there are more than the one cursed goblin, we might as well all have some fun." She looked to Brayden. "You would be able to return us?"


    Since the leader of his chapter had retreated from Northridge, Brayden had felt a touch adrift in his faith. The only guide he had that he was walking the correct path were the continuing miracles Brogdar honored. He nodded to Astrid. "Brogdar sees much good in all of us."


    Holding out her right forearm, Astrid took Brayden''s in her grip. "You represent your god well."


    "And you yours. Let''s empty this hole." It didn''t take much, but it had been more than the high priestess of his order had done. Brayden closed his eyes and whispered a prayer of protection over everyone present.


    Magic no longer held the terror it once did for Astrid, and her pack were learning that too. As the warmth of Brayden''s prayer settled on her shoulders like a mantle, she welcomed it¡ªfor it did not deny her skills or prowess with arms. Even bringing life to the dead didn''t betray her warrior spirit, it only made a single defeat not a total loss. "Thank you."


    Brayden smiled. How he''d gotten through to the wolves when Alice Stormblade hadn''t, he had no idea, but they accepted Brogdar and himself as their companions now, which was enough for him. "Breath of Spring, you have Fife covered?"


    "Now that she doesn''t get hurt by Katelyn''s flames? Yes. Are you needed elsewhere?" Only having caught the tail end of Brayden and Astrid''s conversation, Breath of Spring was curious what they planned.


    Fife followed the directions all the way to a large room she judged to be over a hundred feet on each side with tunnels leading off into the darkness. Fife looked back at Breath of Spring, winked, and she walked in. Low flames erupted in the surrounding air, and when she saw a cloud of spores rush toward her, she took a deep breath and channeled out the fire that burned within her toward it.


    Short Claws was getting desperate. He''d been fighting a retreating battle, just like before, and had been waiting for that crucial moment when the invaders'' support group ran out of resources¡ªbut they hadn''t. In fact, they seemed to be getting stronger and bolder with every floor he harried them on.


    The best bacterial plagues, viral loads, and even fungal spores had all been destroyed in the purifying flames that seemed limitless. The fire mages they''d brought the previous time had eventually been overcome when Short Claws had burned magic to protect some exceptionally hardy spores, but the single kobold with the burning staff had not faltered and its flames had never failed to incinerate everything that''d been sent against them.


    Finally, though, things seemed to be going his way. Short Claws watched the unstoppable dragon-beast marching toward him. Not wanting to make things seem different, he built a mass of mixed microbiological terror, summoned a huge globe of water to act as ablative protection, and launched it toward his foe.


    Dodging to the left of the ball of death, Fife smirked as Katelyn''s fire encroached-on and boiled away the protective water sheath, then incinerated the biological load. She took one step toward the hobgoblin and froze. Her new instincts screamed at her that the floor was not what it seemed. Crouching, she tapped at the stone with the tip of her sword until what should have been solid rang hollow.


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    It was uncanny how the dragon had detected the trap. Short Claws cursed for all he was worth as they carefully found their way around the edge of the huge pit trap. Screaming an alarm, he called all the remaining bosses he had scattered around the room to rush the delvers.


    When the first arrow connected with Fife''s forehead, and bounced off, she knew that things had stepped up. Far to her right, four big trolls were charging for her; only increasing that feeling. "Getting rough, are we? Desperate?"


    A great howl interrupted whatever conversation Fife might have had with the charging enemies. The trolls closed the distance between themselves and her by only half before the first of the wolves, Astrid, slammed into them.


    With the trolls being dealt with, Fife turned her full attention to the hobgoblin. She broke into a run, skirting the pit she still didn''t know how she detected, and fixed her eyes on the goblin dungeon boss.


    Short Claws hadn''t expected his trolls to be met by armored beasts that could trade blows with them, but what surprised him more was how the heavy fighter of the dragon dungeon leapt at him. Not used to up-close fighting, Short Claws tried to dodge the attack by backing up. When the dragon boss landed on him, pain blossomed from where its claws hooked into his body.


    "Gotcha!" Fife hadn''t been able to engage directly with the hobgoblin yet, and finally getting her claws on him filled her with excitement. Even as the boss tried to get out from under her, Fife sank her talons in more.


    Bracing himself against the pain, Short Claws coughed and let loose a huge blast of spores into the dragon''s face¡ªonly to have it breathe fire back at him. He expected her to be sadistic, to threaten and cow him, but she brought her sword down to his throat in a rapid stroke that brooked no interruption. He had but a moment before he was scooped up by his dungeon''s magic.


    With the goblin dead under her, Fife stepped one foot off to the side and kicked back, sending the body into the middle of the pit trap and triggering it. She was acutely aware that its last attack would have killed her, if she hadn''t gotten her new upgrade.


    As the surrounding room drew back into focus, Fife noticed the smell of burning fur in the air¡ªand a lot of blood.


    Liv pivoted as Astrid slammed the troll in the face with a shield. She built momentum in the twist, swinging her cleaver around as Astrid ducked. At the peak of momentum, the huge weapon met with the dazed troll and sliced through armor, muscle, and bone as it cleaved the beast''s head off and sent its gorget, now split in half, to tumble to the ground into a growing puddle of blood.


    Standing back up straight, Astrid heaved her strength behind her shield and plowed through the headless corpse, shoving it onto its back and away to give Liv room to turn for the next troll. There was pain, despite her armor not having given way to any weapon. Her fur had mostly singed away now and her skin was burning inside her armor. None of that mattered when she could fight and kill and live life to its fullest with her pack.


    An arrow struck Astrid''s helmet, the tip piercing one of the eye slits and grazing her welted skin. She burned all over, but where that little piece of dirty metal had cut was an entirely new kind of inferno.


    Like a waterfall gives life to the plants it showers with droplets, the fungal spores stole it from Astrid''s flesh. She grabbed her helmet and ripped it off to let the cleansing fire scour the wound, but already she felt the burning mycelia hunting through her, seeking her heart. "F-Fife!"


    Head snapping around, Fife spotted Astrid through the flames and could see the bubbling flesh on one side of her face¡ªbloated and putrid¡ªchasing down her neck into her armor. With another leap, Fife cleared half the distance between herself and Astrid, slid along the rocks, rolled, and came up before the huge wolf woman as she started to fall.


    With one of her eyes gone dark, Astrid looked up into Fife''s face and struggled to beg her for the power to fight on. Fife opened her mouth wide and Astrid knew what was coming when she saw the red glow at the back of the kobold''s throat.


    <hr>


    <blockquote>


    One of your minions gained a new talent!


    </blockquote>


    Travis stared at the notification. "Okay, that''s the second time I¡ª"


    <blockquote>


    One of your minions gained a new talent!


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    One of your minions gained a new talent!


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    One of your minions gained a new talent!


    </blockquote>


    "This is getting weird. What are they <em style="font-weight: 600">doing in there?"


    <hr>


    The pain of the fungal infection faded, but the heat of the fire around Astrid no longer stung her flesh. She stared up at Fife through her remaining eye and found new strength and energy burning inside her. It was impossible for Astrid to figure out if her cry for help had been begging to be put out of her misery or be saved, but now that she could feel Fife''s fire still searing the rot out of her, she knew what she''d gotten.


    Astrid stood back up, her body boiling the toxins out of her blood and freeing her from further degradation at its pustular touch. "Thank you."


    Fife grinned and felt like a feral wolf herself. Astrid didn''t look to be burning anymore, despite Fife having unloaded as much fire into her face as she could. "Get your ass back to Brayden and let him fix that eye. I want you ready in case there is more to fight."


    "But the¡ª" As Astrid turned to survey the room, she saw why Fife had spoken as she had. The trolls were dead, another two of their number''s heads rolling free of their bodies, and Njal had found the goblin archer and introduced it to both of his adamantine swords. "Oh."


    Sharp Eyes had ways of dealing with creatures that desired to get up close and personal. Most of them, however, required the opponent to either be slow, have bad senses, or not be an armored juggernaut. The wolf creature that shredded him before he could get more than one countermeasure off was all those things. The small bag of spores he''d slung at the creature hadn''t dazed it enough that he could avoid his fate.


    The burning embers in Astrid''s eyes seemed to flare for a moment, and Fife grinned. "Looks like I''m not the only one. Katelyn! Flames down!"


    The wolves gathered around their leader, each of them pulling free helmets to reveal their formerly fuzzy heads¡ªsinged from the flames that had licked at their armor¡ªnow had patches of scales growing on them, spreading. "What''s this?" Astrid asked, reaching out with her gauntleted hand to rub the scaling on Hreti''s cheek.


    Shrugging, Hreti sheathed his swords and ducked away from Astrid''s touch. "I don''t know. Was fighting, then the fire didn''t hurt anymore."


    Fife had left the wolves to figure out what had happened and approached the room''s exit. It should have been stairs down, but instead it was another tunnel with a green light shining from its opposite end. She walked along the passage and found her target¡ªthe heart room. The heart of the dungeon was big, decorated with skulls around its base that all seemed to have mushrooms growing in them¡ªFife wasn''t stupid enough to get close to it. She figured, though, that it was about half the size of Breeze. "I''m not allowed to smash you this time," Fife said, stepping to the threshold of the heart room, "and I won''t hurt you, but know this¡ªwhen next we meet, you will be crushed." She let out a little wisp of flame from her mouth, eyeing the heart and wondering what it would be like to cut it in half.


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 Chapter 152

    [a brave young priestess'' journal]


    He won''t stop talking to me, Miss Journal. I don''t know if it''s seemly for a young lady to spend two days talking to the Prince, but he seems fascinated with everything. He even had me call my friends in! He''s patting Bark on her head right now!


    [large ink blot]


    Sorry for yelling and sorry too for the mess. We will arrive in Hearthhome soon. I felt the train start coasting a moment ago; it caught me off-guard. I don''t know what he plans to do there.


    Every time I try to ask for guidance, all I hear is purring. It''s nice, Miss Journal, but not in a this is what you should do, Elanor way. Perhaps that''s the point?


    He looked at me again. He keeps doing that when he thinks I''m not looking. I''m not a lady anymore, not officially, so I am not sure how I should act. Elanor Fitzgerald would have dipped her head demurely and tried to make it seem like she was beneath him (and I definitely were and am), but I don''t know what a normal woman should do.


    <hr>


    The train pulled to a stop and Stewart Gallant stood up, the bloodied wolf beside him rising to stand nearly as tall as his chest. He checked his gun, sword, and did his absolute best to get the wolf fur off his riding trousers but there was nothing else for it. "Shall we depart? You will be able to leave your wagon in the care of the Earl''s stables. This shouldn''t take long, but I''d like to be ready for anything."


    Turning his attention to Elanor, Stewart gave her a nod. "You shouldn''t need your friends, though if you want to bring Snipsnap, I will vouch for her." He pulled on his gloves and nodded toward the carriage''s door.


    The walk through the city streets, once they''d fetched their wagon, relaxed Brevity. While it was hard to feel safe in Far Reach, and the capital had felt less stable than usual, this was the heart of the whole northern wing of the kingdom. It was growing, surging, and from what she''d heard a stable seat of power that wasn''t playing underhanded games.


    Stewart was well-used to being pushed to the head of queues; outside the capital at least. Hearthhome was no different in that regard. With the wagon stowed in the stables, they''d marched past the few waiting supplicants and were ushered into the private study of the Earl.


    Earl Judith Sanderson stood immediately as the crown prince of the realm stepped into her office. She stepped around her desk and lowered herself to her knee. "Your Royal Highness. It''s always an honor to see you, sir." She waved at her guards to send them out into the waiting area.


    Brevity felt like she didn''t fit in this place. Stewart was a prince, Judith was an earl, and Elanor at least had experience in polite company. All Brevity had to fall back on was her time as a lawyer in the kingdom''s courts¡ªand in those you kept your mouth shut unless directly addressed. So, she did that.


    "I hear you have a rat problem up here." Done with civility, Stewart wanted to cut to the chase. "I have some all-too-believable reports of the leaders of cities mysteriously dying and a western noble nearby being prepared to pick up the reins and help return the region to stability. So, if you will indulge me, what is going on in the kingdom''s north?"


    Waiting for the Prince to take a seat, Judith sat down behind her desk once more. "From what my own information gatherers have told me, it seems that the Marquess of West Reaches has been utilizing deception and assassins to¡­" She recognized the look of the young woman standing behind the Prince. "She''s¡ª"


    "¡­ just a commoner named Elanor now. Her testimony forms a good part of the information I wish substantiated. It turns out house Fitzgerald isn''t ¡­ well, wasn¡¯t entirely populated by power-grabbing rats." With the matter firmly put to rest, in his own mind at least, Stewart gestured for Judith to continue.


    "Sorry, but it was a shock to see."


    Wanting to back up the Prince, Elanor cleared her throat and said, "You can say it if you want. My uncle is a horrible man who stands at the head of a family of horrible people. I am glad to be rid of them."


    It assuaged a lot of doubt to hear the fiery words from Elanor. Judith''s heart slowed from the racing pace it had gained at first recognizing her lineage. "Far Reach was beheaded by an assassin, a visiting noble claimed its seat, and the city moved on with the change before I was made aware of anything untoward. Then I hear Northridge also had some problems with a spy and assassin, but managed to deal with the threat. What I need, Sir, is your support in weeding out the noble who holds an illegitimate grip on Far Reach and whatever network of power they have established."


    "That''s a tall ask." One Stewart knew was beyond his powers as the crown prince. Only the King could wield such power over nobles. "With the number of complaints leveled, I am able to personally investigate, but if something isn''t immediately apparent I can''t take action." He looked significantly at Elanor.


    "I-I would be able to recognize my cousins¡ªformer cousins¡ªand other members of <em style="font-weight: 600">that family. I might even be able to goad them into speaking too openly." Elanor didn''t like the idea of playing political games, but she had promised Travis she would fight for him¡ªand this seemed like a fight.


    With a nod of encouragement, Stewart looked back at Judith. "We will try to make a problem of ourselves that cannot be ignored until they make a mistak¡ª" The sound of the door opening cut him off.


    There was a short moment where anyone seated would struggle to react and even those standing¡ªwithout combat experience¡ªwould be at a disadvantage. Elanor felt a shove from her god and her reflexes heightened. The door opening in her peripheral vision made her turn as fast as a cat to confront the man walking in.


    While the man stared at Stewart, a woman''s voice shouted, "What are you hesitating for, shoot her!"


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    Elanor watched, eyes wide and arms already moving in reaction, as he raised a pistol and took aim at someone behind her. She didn''t have time to draw her own gun to shoot him before he''d fire, so she flung her left arm up to spoil his shot.


    The fizzling crack of a flintlock discharging was deafening in the office. Smoke filled the air and made it hard to see clearly, but Elanor was aware of something that boded well in the chaos¡ªher left arm hurt.


    Sighting through the smoke on the man who stared at her in shock, Elanor squeezed the trigger down on her pistol. The answering shriek from her revolver had none of the smoke the old pistol design had discharged, and a more rounded <em style="font-weight: 600">bang rather than the sharper <em style="font-weight: 600">pow sound of the flintlock.


    "Two shots? What''s going on in there?" the female voice called again from outside.


    "Stay in here," Elanor said, getting Stewart, Brevity, and Judith''s attention. It relieved her to find them huddled behind Judith''s desk, which Stewart was in the process of turning over to act as a barrier. She focused on the door as she approached it. "I''ll draw their fire, Snipsnap, can you use me as cover to get on the ceiling?" A chittering noise as Snipsnap crawled out from under her armor and dropped to the floor was her only answer.


    The doorway was on Elanor''s left, and she didn''t want to dodge around it to come around the edge with her gun arm, so opted to peek first. A glance around the door frame revealed bloodshed in the hall. The Prince''s guard was on the ground in a puddle of blood, and there were four people standing over the house guards.


    The one that Elanor recognized made her curse and pull her head back. "Didn''t you kill yourself in Northridge?"


    "Cousin? Come out here before the shooting gets worse. We don''t have to fight. All we want is the Earl." Eliza drew her pistol and sighted on the doorway, wondering who would be the first to leave the office.


    Glancing again behind her, Elanor could see the Prince with his own gun out and sword drawn, while the Earl had drawn what looked like a dueling blade. She cursed under her breath, deciding that since she was a commoner now, she could act as she pleased. Lifting her left arm up so that the heavy sleeve of her duster, lined as it was with armor, covered her face¡ªand stepped into the doorway.


    Two shots rang from the hallway. Elanor felt one collide with her arm and the other her chest. Smoke from the pistols'' discharge choked those standing, so Elanor crouched to her knee and looked over her arm. Ignoring pain had become her daily life. This was just like her dungeon delves, there were enemies trying to kill her and targets she needed to avoid hitting. Besides, she thought, the impacts of pistol balls against her special armor was nothing compared to being poisoned to death by a scorpion.


    The smoke was rising, white and black and blinding, but then Elanor saw the first silhouette in the haze. The echo of her shot made her ears ring a little, but that too was something she''d gotten used to. In a smooth motion and without the hindrance of smoke, she cocked the hammer back and saw a second torso.


    When a double concussion sounded, Elanor knew that she''d gone past the two red bullets (hollow points) and had fired a yellow, explosive round. It also caused the smoke to scatter to the corners of the room.


    Eliza was halfway through reloading when she realized she was the only one of her group standing and her cousin was crouching at the end of the hall with a weird pistol. Not seeing Elanor reloading, she drew her rapier and charged forward.


    Drawing the hammer back again with her thumb, Elanor''s only thought ran to the fervent hope that whatever talismans Eliza might be carrying would get destroyed by the explosion of what she knew was another yellow bullet.


    There wasn''t anything left of Eliza above the sternum. Her head, neck, and right shoulder were missing, and Elanor assumed it was why there was a mess for someone she hoped wasn''t going to be her to clean up. Looking around for more targets, she noticed Eliza''s body fade away as what must have been a hidden talisman rescued her from the end of her life. "Dammit."


    "Elanor?" Stewart asked, and looked around the edge of the door much as he''d seen her do. The only things moving in the room were Elanor and Snipsnap. Groans from the floor indicated someone was alive. He rushed over to find his own guard still breathing. "You''re a priestess. Can you heal him?"


    Snapped out of her stupor by the question, and what felt like a prod in the center of her back, Elanor nodded and walked over to where the man lay in his own blood. She crouched down and used the biggest heal spell she could cast and murmured a prayer to Sandwalker under her breath.


    With shock causing his system to shut down from extreme loss of blood, the guard felt a breeze flow over him. In the air above him, a relentless sun drove back the darkness that was gathering at the edges of his vision. Then he coughed up a pile of his own blood that had been pooling in his lungs. The healing spell, something he was familiar with feeling, was a welcome sensation.


    Seeing the spell reknit his guard''s chest wound, Stewart let out a relieved sigh. Together, he and Elanor saw to those who were alive. While they did so, the single attacker who''d initially survived the bullet Elanor had fired succumbed to his wound. The other two of her targets scarcely had a full person worth of body parts between them. "Who were you talking to?" he asked at last.


    "That was my cousin, or so I''ve since found out. She was the spy sent to Northridge and, it seems, an assassin sent to kill the Earl." Elanor looked at where Judith stood. "You''re okay?"


    "You got shot. Your arm¡ª" Judith said, walking over to Elanor and grabbing her sleeve to reveal the wound. What she saw, after fighting with stiff plate-on-wire embedded into the leather, was a welt where there should have been a shattered forearm.


    "I have good armor." Elanor shrugged her shoulders. Feeling movement at her feet, she reached a hand out to Snipsnap. "Sorry, girl, I didn''t want to leave Eliza to you. She''d probably give you indigestion anyway."


    Judith tried to ignore the young juggernaut of a woman who had foiled an assassination attempt by putting herself in the way. There was a lot for her to plan for, not the least of which being why the attackers had expected a bullet to kill her when she had her usual set of talismans. That, though, begged more questions.


    <hr>


    Jerking upright on a cold stone altar, Eliza had her usual resurrection malady replaced by a ringing in her ears. She''d heard only the shot of Elanor''s pistol and not the concussion of the bullet impacting her own head triggering its charge¡ªbut now she dealt with the aftereffects. The priest was trying to say something to her, but when she gestured at her ears, they shrugged and pointed to her things waiting nearby.


    It wasn''t the estate in West Reaches, but she hardly expected that. Slipping some clothes on, Eliza grumbled all the while and cursed her cousin. Stepping out into the light, she buckled her weapon belt to her waist and took a relieved breath of air¡ªand coughed because all she could smell was singed hair and flesh. Despite the ongoing effects of her death, the Capital looked just as it had when she''d left.


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 Chapter 153

    Heart thudding in her chest, Elanor''s mind ran over everything she''d done while other guards came and dealt with the bodies, then household staff cleaned up the mess <em style="font-weight: 600">she''d made of the walls. All the while, Elanor stood outside the doorway to the Earl''s office, her eyes scanning the hall and her hand on her gun. "I killed them."


    "I know it won''t help, but you did the right thing." Brevity, standing beside Elanor, had managed to slow her racing emotions after the event. Her shaking at the loud reports of Elanor''s revolver had calmed and she no longer saw the young man breaking into the office every time she closed her eyes.


    "Everyone I''ve killed before has been resurrected. Mr. Travis doesn''t let anyone die in his dungeon for more than a day. Why didn''t they give all their people talismans?" What she hated more about it was she''d <em style="font-weight: 600">hoped her cousin didn''t have one.


    "Not everyone is lucky enough to have a patron that cares what happens to them. All the Earl''s guards had one, as did the Prince''s man. Not that they needed theirs with your healing."


    The healing, Elanor reflected, was something in her favor¡ªa purely good event. Anyone she could have healed, she healed. She focused on her link to Sandwalker and murmured a prayer of thanks to them. "Couldn''t we resurrect them anyway? Take their bodies to the local temple?"


    "There''s still a fact in this that precludes¡ª Sorry, lawyer speak. They were involved in a plot that endangered the Crown Prince. Even if they were brought back, it would only be until he passes judgment on them, and you know what that has to be." About to go on about the legal ramifications¡ªdespite her apology for getting too far into her job¡ªBrevity held her silence as the door behind them opened.


    Stewart let his guard precede himself and Judith. It wasn''t common for the royal bodyguards to acknowledge anyone when on duty, but it made Stewart smile a little to see the stoic guard nod to Elanor. Clearing his throat to get everyone''s attention, Stewart said, "We''ll be moving on, Miss Brevity, Miss Elanor. This action has given me enough justification to deal with the problem in Far Reach as I see fit. The Earl of Hearthhome found the talismans on her person to have been replaced by one of her servants, and now she''ll be cleaning her house out after the attack. She''s also expressed a desire to fortify the railway station to prevent such people from entering the city again."


    Elanor dipped her head and waited for the Prince and Earl to pass before she planned to fall-in with the group behind them, but the Prince stopped her from doing so with an offered hand. "Sir?" she asked, staring at his fingers.


    "I''d rather you walked with us. Your actions betray your combat training and speak well of your mentor." When Elanor looked at him a little dazed, Stewart tried a winning smile. "Please?"


    It was completely and utterly impossible for Elanor to resist, even in her state. She nodded and walked beside the Prince. "So you can act now?"


    "Under the purview of rooting out co-conspirators of the attack on the Earl and I, yes. Earl Sanderson has brought to my attention that similar attacks have happened in Northridge and Far Reach¡ªso I will travel to both of these locations to seek and remove this conspiracy." Walking down the hall, Stewart noticed the marks the fighting had left on the room mainly by the absence of a large tapestry that had been there earlier. "I would like you to join me, of course, since you have proved your loyalty and capability most aptly."


    In a moment of levity, Elanor wondered how the Prince''s guard knew where to go. Reaching the entrance of the Earl''s keep, she waited while the Prince said his goodbye to the Earl. To Elanor''s ear, it sounded very formal with no substance. She waited until they were outside to ask, "You trust her?"


    "Judith Sanderson was an investigator for my father before I was born. The earldom here was his gift to her for relentless work. I trust her to guard our backs so that no more surprises come down the line while we work in Far Reach."


    "''We work''?"


    "If my information is correct, I''ll be calling for the head of the current leader of Far Reach, and possibly whoever is in charge of their guards. It has been my experience that such people do not generally allow the tool of their destruction easy access to their person, so there will likely be more fighting simply to reach them." Now Stewart could see the holes in Elanor''s experience. "If you do not wish to continue to assist in this¡ª"


    "No!" Elanor shivered at the realization that she''d interrupted him. His raised eyebrow, though, prompted her to continue. "I mean, I only wished for details. Of course, I''ll assist you in any way I can. Mr. Travis and Northridge had us contact Far Reach¡ªthe city itself¡ªand it wants to fight them too."


    "The city? That is propitious. I admit I didn''t look forward to fighting a city''s avatar. If the city sits out, this shouldn''t be too taxing."


    "Far Reach wants to help, I think. I don''t know what that means, but it responded to me when I asked."


    Chewing on the information mentally, Stewart wasn''t sure how much he liked the idea of a city''s genius loci being convinced to fight its leaders. At least in this case, however, it could prove beneficial. "Well. I guess we''ll find that out in a few days."


    <hr>


    Fighting back up through the goblin dungeon was far easier. With the warren mostly cleaned out, Fife managed to keep everyone at a good trot. The few enemies that peeked out and saw their group either pulled their heads back into whatever tunnel they were hiding in or had two or more wolves race after them.


    She felt lighter on her feet, and though she wanted to put that down to the way she''d changed, Fife knew it had more to do with knowing they could clear the dungeon. "Astrid?"


    Loping along with Fife, her head uncovered, Astrid turned her face to look down at her savior. "Yes?"


    "When we come back to end this place, do you want to be the one to destroy the heart?" Fife didn''t need to hear Astrid''s breath skip its normal rhythm or hear a single word to know she would enjoy it a lot¡ªthe look of excitement on her face was enough.


    Delight at the idea of hunting the dungeon again and actually killing it made Astrid''s spirit sing. "It would be an honor to hunt and kill the largest prey."


    They ascended two more floors before Fife spoke again. "You don''t regret joining us?"


    Shaking her head, Astrid barked a laugh. "You have let us live as we always should have, free to hunt and kill. We spend nights under the cold moon and tell the tales of our ancestors. This is how wolves are meant to be." She slowed down a little, realizing she had lengthened her stride without meaning to. "Is it always like this?"


    "Wild, crazy, things to fight? Trav hasn''t let me down yet. Even before I became a kobold, he found me a bunch of slimes so big they devoured half of me before I realized it. Since then, I haven''t gone more than a few days without something fun to do. If you ever want a challenge, we can start digging new tunnels on the third floor."


    "That does sound fun," Astrid said, flashing her teeth and, spotting a troll in a side tunnel, baying to her pack and charging at it.


    Fife let out a whoop of excitement as the wolves dashed after Astrid. "Yeah. We might have to organize something to keep them busy. Shame we lost that undead dungeon."


    <hr>


    [a conflicted young priestess'' journal]


    I find myself in crisis, Miss Journal. Everyone tells me that what I did was right and just, but I still can''t put aside that I don''t like the feeling of having killed those people. A lady with a title could do that. She could simply believe the brave prince because he was a brave prince.


    Perhaps I should blame Mister Travis, then. If it wasn''t for his selfless acts, protecting the lives of not just his own minions but even his enemies, I wouldn''t have seen things from this angle?


    Or mayhap it is because, no longer being a noblewoman, I feel such things more keenly?


    There''s also my new perspective as a priestess. I can''t bring people back from the dead, but I definitely saved several people from needing someone who can.


    It''s not like they were good people. They tried to kill me, but it''s not like I would have stayed dead. I''m sure the Prince and the Earl have talismans, and I know Miss Delling has more than one. Why were those people so desperate they would risk their lives fighting me?


    Now, too, Bite and Bark won''t let me out of their sight. Here I am, sitting far away from the Prince and the others, with two huge wolves who whine at me every time I move. I have only barely managed to get Snipsnap to persuade them that I be allowed to write to you, Miss Journal.


    I am also reasonably sure Ripper is hanging onto the roof.


    The Prince keeps looking at me and smiling.


    <hr>


    Elanor felt a strange tingling. It began in her chest and spread out, reminding her a little of the warmth of her god. There was another similarity to Sandwalker in it, though, and that was the need to take action¡ªshe felt like there was some purpose she needed to undertake as soon as possible. Folding away her journal and tucking it into her pocket, she also put a stopper on the ink bottle and gathered her blotting paper.


    While the train slowed, and her big, fluffy friends whined at her, she checked her revolver and the loadout: four of the penetrating bullets and two explosive. Closing the mechanism carefully, she kept the first of the penetrators lined up to be the next bullet fired. "Sandwalker, guide my hand and my heart."


    The tingling Elanor felt seemed to grow, but was joined by warmth. "Thank you," she said and looked over her backup pistol. It was a smooth two-barreled flintlock that was loaded with a pair of soft gold bullets. She checked the firing mechanism and judged it ready for use. Finally, her spear and shield were the targets of her attention.


    "She''s going to notice if you keep looking like that."


    Stewart''s head snapped around to his bodyguard and he closed his eyes. "I can''t stop thinking about her. She''s so bold and self-assured, she cares about what cause she supports, and she refuses to forward any of her own agendas. She seems to be doing all this to honor the dungeon she has been training in. I feel like I need to understand her and at the same time want to see what she''ll do next. What do you think I should do, Harrow?"


    "Sir, my advice would be to give her a life peerage for having saved your life in Hearthhome, then marrying her before she finds a cause crazier than yours."


    The very idea of it hadn''t occurred to Stewart. Here he''d been, admiring the woman''s moxie and personal ethics; to say nothing of her prowess with weapons. "I''ll need to think about it."


    "Careful. A capable woman with her own signature zeal might attract other men while you think." Checking his own weapons quickly, Harrow nodded. "In fact¡­" A hand on his shoulder stopped him from standing up.


    "I get your point." Stewart didn''t let the jibe get to him, but the idea had found fertile soil. There was a political advantage to Elanor. She was unaligned except to the dungeon¡ªTravis, he reminded himself¡ªand she also knew where forks and spoons should be on a table, given her history. The ties to her old family weren''t just broken on paper, either. He''d seen first hand how she responded to the vipers from that nest.


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    Making his mind up, Stewart decided that if Travis held so much of her respect, he would have to match that. Easy enough, he hoped; he would treat the dungeon as her father and ask Travis'' permission to woo her.


    First, though, Stewart would need to clear out a rat nest in his family''s domain. Checking his sword and gun, he stood up and made his way to the front of the car and raised his voice. "I don''t know when things will turn ugly, so be on your guard. Miss Delling?" He waited until Brevity lifted her head. "You can wait here if you like. The train won''t be going anywhere."


    Brevity let out a relieved sigh and slumped back into her seat. "I trust you won''t require me for any witnessing or legal purposes?"


    "I believe I have such things covered." Stewart performed his duties, he mused, almost entirely for people like Brevity Delling. Her life should never be impinged by the need to be violent. She definitely shouldn''t be required to learn how to use a gun. He sighed softly, hoping that this wouldn''t take too many deaths. "Let''s be about it, then."


    Watching the train disgorge its usual load of traders, message-carriers, and people seeking their fortune in the frontiers, the two guards were waiting for sight of some odd characters, and they sure got them.


    The first man that stepped off the train looked like a soldier. He walked like he knew how to use the various weapons the guards could see him carrying openly, and a few of the ones they spotted outlines of under his cloak.


    Then came the man who left the train that put the first in context. A court dandy with a sword and pistol so shiny they didn''t look like they had ever been used, implied that the dangerous man was his bodyguard.


    With everything back in balance, the two guards were relaxed again¡ªuntil the third, fourth, and fifth beings debarked the train. The woman and her clothes marked her as one of the people of interest to their higher-ups. The giant wolves that stepped off behind her, and took up a flanking position on each side of the dandy, had them clutching their halberds. "Stop!"


    Elanor froze, her right hand itching to reach for the holster on her left hip. She was about to open her mouth when Stewart pivoted to look at the two city guards. There was a buzz in the surrounding air, and heat began to burn through her.


    "At ease, guardsmen." Stewart said in a mildly joking tone. "She''s also with me." When he wore his less ostentatious clothes, Stewart expected to be overlooked, but the utter ignorance the two men showed when they glanced at him stung a little. When one steered his halberd to aim at Stewart, a pair of growls rose on each side of him. "You would dare raise a weapon against the Crown Prince?"


    Harrow was ready to move the moment Stewart did. Until then, or if the man didn''t lower his weapon soon, he wouldn''t act. He wasn''t the Prince''s executioner, just his bodyguard.


    Feeling like he''d been hit, the guardsman drew his halberd back and into an upright position. "S-Sorry, Sir!"


    Ignoring the man''s lack of correct address, Stewart felt somewhat at ease that the situation hadn''t gotten out of hand. "Good man. Now, I take it her appearance is something you were to watch for? Don''t worry about reprisals if you''re only doing your job."


    The second guard, silent until now, cleared his throat before his companion could speak. "We were to bring any strange guests to the city, or <em style="font-weight: 600">specific guests"¡ªthe last included a nod toward Elanor¡ª"to the Baron and inform the head of the watch."


    "Perfect. Please let them both know that Miss Elanor is here and take us to see them both right away." Stewart knew it was jumping into the fire, but those who attended this likely interrogation would ultimately be the people he most needed to deal with.


    The relief was palpable in both guards. Carefully, they gestured to the keep within the city almost as one and dithered for a moment, trying to let the whole party go before them. When Elanor stood her ground, they decided that walking alongside the group was the best order of business, even if that meant they couldn''t keep a perfect eye on all of them.


    Elanor, of course, didn''t want the guards behind her because Snipsnap was clinging to her back, under her duster, and she didn''t want them to see her. She made a promise to herself, though, to not shoot them unless it was strictly required¡ªsince they seemed to be doing their jobs.


    As they neared the keep, Stewart saw a group of guards manning the main entrance. Remembering his time in Northridge, and how their own leadership instead had a more simple building to conduct the city''s business out of, he was gaining a radical new opinion on how close leadership should be with those they lead.


    "Wait here. I''ll let them know you''re coming in and to send word to today''s head of the watch. Do you remember who it was on duty today?" one of the guards asked his companion.


    The other man winced and replied, "The Baron''s younger brother."


    Stewart did his best to keep a neutral face and hoped, inside, that perhaps there were others like Elanor who didn''t toe the family line. When the guard notified his compatriots that they had guests, several of those inside scrambled for weapons while others raced inward. "If something happens, stand back and look shocked," he said to the guard still beside them.


    Doing his best to appear disinterested, the guard replied, "I should have volunteered for gate duty today. That''s relaxing, that is. No helping it now, though. Good luck, Sir."


    "You''ll be taken to see the Duke and the head of the watch," the guard said as he returned from the gates. "Move forward, we''ll have a few others fall-in with us to, uh, keep you contained. Sorry, Sir."


    "Did you tell them who I am?" Stewart asked.


    "Slipped my mind, Sir."


    The tone was exactly what Stewart hoped for. It wasn''t a huge thing, but these men wouldn''t get in his way. Advancing toward the rest of the guards, he cleared his throat. "We will be going in to meet with your masters. Please, keep your distance and don''t interfere."


    One of the guards gestured to Stewart. "We have to take your weap¡ª"


    Interrupting, one of the station guards said, "We only take weapons away from criminals. These folks came here willingly; none of them have broken <em style="font-weight: 600">the King''s law."


    Elanor tried to pay attention, but the heat inside her was growing. It wasn''t her god, not entirely, but she could feel traces of Sandwalker among the flames that seemed to burn her up. She didn''t fight them, instead trying to simply hold them within. Reaching out a hand to rest on Bark''s back, she used her friend to support her as she walked behind Stewart.


    She couldn''t take her time to look at the beautiful tapestries they passed, nor the large doors they walked through into the main hall of the keep. It was an utter surprise when she heard a voice she recognized.


    "Who are you?" Baron Richard Westerfield demanded. Appraising the two men and the woman, along with their pets, he rolled his eyes to his brother. Sitting as he was, and standing as his brother was, he felt somewhat at a disadvantage, but would be damned if he''d let it show. Then he noticed something. "Why didn''t you take their weapons from them?!"


    Before the man could begin to chew into his guards in earnest, Stewart said, "Sorry, Baron, but your men were hesitant to ask the Crown Prince and his retinue for their weapons. I hope this doesn''t cause a hindrance?"


    Jace Westerfield froze at the words and their implications. He was in the process of recalling the required distance to kneel when he heard his brother laugh.


    Raising a pistol to point at the Prince, Richard struggled to tone down his laughter. "And here I thought I was going to miss out. Jace, go and collect their talismans. Be thorough, and if they resist, stab them somewhere painful but not life-threatening."


    Elanor glared at her cousins. She''d recognized the voice because it was one belonging to a childhood tormentor. Time seemed to slow down as Jace advanced on them. The guards that had led them in retreated several paces while the guards that''d been present in the hall already, some ten men, braced their long polearms forward¡ªready to bring them down.


    <em style="font-weight: 600">They have no right to live here. Fire burned hotter inside Elanor, and it boiled down her arm to her fingers. <em style="font-weight: 600">Draw, the fire told her. Fighting for breath, she curled her fingers around the handle of her revolver. Elanor felt the heat of the weapon sear itself in her hand. The gun burned with the heat of midday in a desert combined with the will of a city.


    She thumbed the hammer back, which advanced the cylinder to the first penetrator round. One of the guards was moving, his polearm coming toward Harrow who was moving already to counter it. The thud of the explosive rune triggered by the hammer''s impact sent the adamantine round at the armored guardsman''s head. Barely acknowledging the hole appearing in the helmet''s brow, she brought the hammer back and lined up on the next guard moving toward them.


    Richard''s finger was frozen on the trigger of his pistol and the gun dipped. The gun was too heavy to raise his weapon all the way now and it felt like the walls of the room were pressing around him. The sound of Elanor''s revolver discharging again and again thudded like a giant heartbeat, counting out all ten of his personal guards in the room before finally lining up on him.


    With her eyes moving among the guards, Elanor had seen a burning outline of where each held a talisman. She had aimed true to kill each of them and leave those holy marks intact. With Richard, though, she could see that he had two. One talisman was at his right hip and the other was on the right side of his chest. Elanor neither understood how she had fired ten rounds from her six-shooter, nor how she knew that the next shot would be an explosive one. Sighting at the point directly between the two talismans, she cocked back the hammer¡ªand paused. Something needed to happen first.


    "For the crime of participating in a conspiracy against the rightful ruler of Far Reach that resulted in their death, I find you guilty." Stewart spoke the words, urged by the city itself to decide justice here and now. "For the crime of raising a weapon against the Crown Prince, I find you guilty. For acting in open rebellion against the rightful representative of the King, I find you guilty. The sentence is death without resurrection."


    It wasn''t forcing her, it wasn''t compelling her, but Elanor felt the city set her a task. <em style="font-weight: 600">Save Me, is how it felt to her. "Sandwalker, guide my hand true, and burn me if I stray." She squeezed the trigger, still aimed at that spot that would ensure, she knew, that the explosive would ruin both talismans.


    The low note of the revolver discharging was followed immediately by a crack as the charge detonated. Stewart was seeing first hand the immediate result of Elanor''s gun. The former baron was now in two parts. Any question as to him being dead was answered by the amount of blood that was on every surface within several feet of the body¡ªa body that wasn''t being spirited away by a talisman. "Thank you, Lady Elanor, for performing this service for the kingdom."


    The growl of the two wolves at Stewart''s sides was like a warm blanket. Now that the shooting had stopped, their deep voices¡ªpromising death to anyone who approached him¡ªseemed to echo all around.


    When Stewart looked at Elanor, though, he gasped aloud. Her right arm burned with the fire of a city''s wrath while her eyes glowed with a gold light that spoke to him of divine support. Dipping his head for a moment of quiet, he heard a squeal from near the former baron.


    Jace was on his knees. He should have been the city''s avatar, but not once in all his time as captain of the guard did he ever feel the hand of the city lifting him up. Seeing its chosen now, and the devastation she had wrought in the Prince''s name, terrified him.


    "Jace Westerfield," Stewart said, "do you have anything to say in your defense before I read out your charges?"


    The effect of those words acted like a strong breeze in Jace''s head. His panic blew away like cobwebs and he was filled with the certainty that he''d be judged a co-conspirator. Remembering the sound of Elanor''s gun¡ªthat terrifyingly final double explosion¡ªhe knew his life was measured in seconds now.


    Harrow''s gaze was fixed mostly on Jace''s right arm, watching for it to move to sword or gun. Unlike Elanor, who was likewise watching it, he also kept the man''s left arm in his periphery. That''s why he was moving before anyone else in response to the twitch of motion as Jace reached for and drew his pistol.


    Unable to get his own pistol up and aimed before Jace already has his own raised, Harrow knew this was going to be a bad trade. He had no idea who Jace was trying to shoot yet, but nonetheless only had one target himself.


    The two guns went off almost simultaneously. Harrow''s shot caught Jace in the wrist as his own finger was squeezing the trigger. With Jace having lined up on Elanor, the impact threw his hand to the side as he fired and instead of hitting the woman in the head, it instead caught Stewart in the neck.


    The city, Sandwalker, and Elanor herself were furious. Flames licked up around the woman and the radiant heat scorched the rug on which she stood. Her gun aimed, she fired again and again, the first explosive round denting Jace''s armor, the second, blowing a hole into it, the third went off inside his armor and ruined the talismans he wore, the fourth split the casing of his breastplate. The following five resulted in a crater and mess that would take an exorcist to identify as the former noble.


    "Elanor!" Harrow shouted, not for the first time and also not for the last. "Elanor! Heal the Prince!"


    With her narrowed vision now spreading wide, Elanor saw the Prince on the floor with blood pooling around him. Harrow was there beside him, holding onto Stewart''s neck and applying pressure¡ªonly slowing the inevitable.


    She fell to her knees, the fire still pouring heat off her, and despite the smell of burning blood and cloth, she reached out to Stewart. "Please, let me save him," she said, touching the man and feeling an answering fire within him.


    "Yes." The word was spoken by the wind blowing past buildings, through carelessly open doorways, and even the whistle of the train as the driver tried to maintain the boiler''s pressure. The stone walls of Far Reach shook and, in answer, the walls of every city in a wave outward answered. Not a crenelation in the whole kingdom was still as everywhere that word echoed in every voice of the land itself. As their future king lay dying, having worked to protect one of their number, the combined weight of every conscious city in The Trade Kingdom denied the need for talismans.


    Swaying, pinned in place by the force of magic rushing through her, Elanor cradled Stewart''s soul, rebuilt his body, and eased both together once more. The hurricane of magic stopped, its task done, leaving Elanor with only Far Reach and Sandwalker supporting her, and though they were both near and strong, she felt like a wrung-out rag; and promptly fell over.


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 Chapter 154

    It had been an exciting morning for Harrow. He sat on the table in the fancy room as some maids scrubbed the floor and disposed of the burned carpet. He glared at any guard who dared try to approach the sleeping cot he''d ordered brought¡ªor the couple that lay cuddled together on it. "Fucking mess." It wasn''t the first time he''d said the words in the last ten minutes, and he wasn''t sure it would be the last, but he did say them with a smile. "Shouldn''t take death, resurrection, and that much magic for a man to see reason."


    The maids, when they were done, had left only the barest hint of <em style="font-weight: 600">burned blood smell. The rest of it they had done a fantastic job of cleaning from the big chair that Richard had sat in as well as the scattered mess that had been left around his former brother, Jace. Even the ashes and lye they''d used had been cleaned off¡ªthough the chair itself needed some restoration.


    Harrow wouldn''t let anyone else in yet. The Prince and his savior, he had decided, needed some rest.


    When Elanor finally woke, she did so with her eyes practically glued closed by tears. Warmth and coziness were nonetheless supplanted by an awkwardly uncomfortable bed, but the quality of the bed was less important than the soul she could feel pressed against her own.


    She gazed down at the city from above it, watching all the people going about their day. She heard them talking; followed countless conversations about "all the noise at the castle" and "the maids gossip," but it was "did you hear a prince came and killed the bastard and his brother?" that had her attention.


    It didn''t make sense to Elanor how she could see and hear like this, but it was happening and she could hear a warm purring somewhere that reassured her she wasn''t doing everything wrong. Struggling with her real eyes, she unglued them and was looking into Prince Stewart Gallant''s face that was barely half an inch from her own. When his eyes opened too, she fell into twin pools so deep she found herself trying to remember the water affinity spell she''d been taught when younger.


    "You saved me." The words had fallen from Stewart''s lips, but truly they came from his heart.


    "By my count, you had six talismans." <em style="font-weight: 600">Had was the right word. They''d burned up in the combined fire she, the kingdom, and Sandwalker had used¡ªconsumed at the moment his body stopped living, but unneeded. "Here."


    Feeling her hand moving between them, Stewart''s eyes widened a little when Elanor held up a talisman.


    "The priestess who gave this to me wouldn''t refuse you, nor would it matter since everyone is already paid for." Elanor waited for him to take the slip of paper and then, hearing a louder purr echo in her ears, leaned forward and kissed him.


    "About time," Harrow said when he judged them both having enjoyed the kiss for long enough. "There''s business here to take care of. With the help of the wolves, I''ve kept the vultures at bay as best I could, but one of you is going to have to get up and announce to the people here what you''ve done."


    Jerking upright, Stewart looked around for Harrow and saw him cleaning his nails with a knife. "We haven''t done anything yet. We''re still wearing clothes¡ª" The huge grin on Harrow''s face told Stewart he''d just fallen for a setup. "Yes. Of course. We executed their baron."


    "And shot his brother more times than strictly required for defense, but I doubt anyone would argue with you there."


    Elanor could remember that moment of fury with perfect clarity. The feel of divine justice and the revenge of a city meted out through her was different to what had happened in Hearthhome. Here, she knew for a fact that the man deserved it. "How did I shoot so many times? I¡­ I should have emptied my gun twice over."


    "The actions of a city''s avatar are only limited by the will of the city and whatever gods may be watching. You''re a priestess of Sandwalker, a god not known for their tolerance of fools." Stewart''s eyes scanned the room, seeing the two wolves laying against the door along with a slight movement from Snipsnap hanging above it. When Elanor sat up beside him, Stewart put an arm around her and pulled her close for another kiss¡ªshe didn''t resist his advance.


    Looking over at the guardians who''d defended the room from intruders, Harrow nodded to them and walked over. "Can one of you make sure they stop to breathe at some point? I''ll go and tell the gossip mongers outside to get ready for a speech." Talking to two big wolves and a scorpion shouldn''t feel so normal, but Harrow knew being in service to the Prince wouldn''t be a normal guard job.


    <hr>


    The city wasn''t huge, but its square was filled with almost every single person within its walls at that moment. Stewart, who was used to addressing crowds, stepped up to the impromptu wooden stage and looked around the people gazing back at them. Softly, to Elanor just beside and behind him, he said, "I''d love to know who isn''t here. They''d be my picks for Richard''s people."


    Taking a slow, deep breath, Elanor reached out to the city itself, and was answered. "Show me again, please." Closing her eyes to the feeling of vertigo, Elanor was drawn out and upward to gaze down on the people of the city. As well as the folks gathered, there was a meeting nearby; plus a man on horseback at the southern gate.


    The meeting, after a momentary focus and listen, was about how they would handle their hold on the city being broken, and that they hoped their courier would get through. They weren''t doing anything, so she instead reached out to the man about to leave the city.


    The rider was easy to focus on. He carried a message pouch and had a second horse at his side. Stretching her own power, Elanor used the magic Travis'' class had given her and Inspired the horses¡ª<em style="font-weight: 600">Throw Him Off and Run.


    Far Reach, for the first time in over a year, felt a deft hand guiding its actions, and expending their own power through the link. It trilled in joy, and wreathed Elanor''s right hand in flame again.


    Clearing her throat, Elanor said, "A rider at the south gate. He lacks a horse now, but still has the message with him."


    The gasp from the crowd and silence as they stared at Elanor didn''t surprise Stewart. The city had made its choice, it seemed, and showed it for all to see. Murmurs of "Avatar" spread through those assembled, and some made gestures of platitude to gods or even held up holy symbols in thanks.


    "Two blocks away," Elanor said, the words echoing through the deathly silent square, "are the accomplices of Richard the false baron. Do not raise your hands to save them. Do not offer them water." The city wanted her to kill again, begged her to do so, and Elanor prepared herself for the task. When Far Reach shared with her a vision of the room, she channeled her Inflict Pain spell through it¡ªand Sandwalker added their own burning heat to the working.


    Pulling her attention out of the building, Elanor heard the gasps of the crowd and followed their gaze to where a billow of smoke rose from within the city. She only hoped that there were no nearby buildings in peril, and sent a request for that to the city, which filled her with warm reassurance. "You don''t mind that I usurped your judgment, Your Highness?"


    "If anyone ever questions it, I will swear an oath I asked you to dispose of the conspirators." Clearing his throat, Stewart raised his voice. "Good people of Far Reach, I believe you already know of the Lady Elanor, chosen of the city, and the dispenser of my justice?"


    The cheer that rose made Stewart smile, but he needed to regain control of the situation. "The former baron was found to be involved in a plot to kill the Earl of Hearthhome, myself, and other respected citizens. Lord Jace, the former guard captain, shot myself in the neck while being read his own charges. The rats, as it were, have been cleared out of your city and Far Reach itself rejoices." He paused, letting the crowd cheer themselves out once more.


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    "I would have any master craftsmen, heads of trading houses, and senior officers of the city guard attend upon us immediately so the city''s people and the city itself can finally have the leadership they deserve."


    Stepping down from the stage, Stewart tried to ignore the cheers from the crowd. He knew the person they''d vote for and he knew whom the city wanted. Long distance relationships didn''t work as well when each of you were tied down to entirely different cities. Kings rarely traveled and neither did city avatars. He looked for the highest ranking guardsman nearby, and explained the issue of the horseman at the south gate¡ªand their need to be brought to the castle.


    Trying to extricate herself from what was becoming a celebration, Elanor had to rush to catch up with Stewart. "Once we have this settled, we''re going to Northridge?" The jerk in Stewart''s step wasn''t lost on her, which prompted her to push further. "Is something wrong?"


    Turning his head, Stewart looked at Elanor, but he saw the group of people following them and had to bite-off what he was about to say. "Yes, but let''s not talk here." His tone was sharper than he intended, and though he wasn''t angry at Elanor, he could see confusion and hurt in her eyes.


    Resuming their walk, Elanor felt the people behind her crowd up a little. She opened her mouth to ask them to give her some room.


    "Lady Elanor, you will need our support, of course, but we wanted to ask w-what taxes you''d favor?"


    The question caught her off-guard, but she knew she dared not stop or they would mob her and demand more answers. Replying with an answer, too, would be a bad idea. While she pondered what she should say, another question came.


    "Lady Elanor, what will be your policy on the city''s dungeons?"


    And another.


    "Lady Elanor, will you be applying quotas on individual organizations'' railway access?"


    She realized they already assumed <em style="font-weight: 600">she would be taking over the city. Her feet stumbled a little, and she saw a future play out where she said <em style="font-weight: 600">yes. Travis could probably be coaxed to open an entrance in Far Reach. Its walls would rise higher and it would gain the same benefits as Northridge. The three barons of Northridge and she as Baroness of Far Reach. Travis would be okay with that, she knew, but she wouldn''t.


    Jerking back from the wonderful, velvet-lined trap that she now saw she''d jammed both feet into, her mind raced for a solution. By the time she was walking on a fresh rug in the keep''s main hall, she was starting to get an idea of what she <em style="font-weight: 600">wanted to be.


    With Elanor following him up behind the desk that Richard Westerfield had used, Stewart reached for the chair to pull it out for her, only to have her brace her foot against it as she walked past to stand in the same beside-the-chair place opposite him.


    Looking upon the assembled heads of their fields that had followed her to the keep, Elanor steeled herself to navigate her way out of the trap. "You''ll have to pardon my bluntness," Elanor said, "but I am not fit to sit in that chair." She didn''t want to point out that the chair wasn''t the fancy one Richard had sat in, but clearly a more modest replacement. "I am not a stateswoman, nor have I been trained to govern."


    Waiting for the shocked exclamations and requests for clarification to settle, Elanor held up a hand to speed the process before continuing. "Even Far Reach can attest that when I called on the power to save the Prince''s life, <em style="font-weight: 600">every city in the kingdom replied." It was a moment that Elanor remembered clearly. The kingdom, stretching out in three great arms from the capital, had risen to save its future king. "I am thankful to Far Reach for establishing the bond between us, but my service is far wider now."


    Stewart saw where she was going with her speech. He could feel her sincerity. What he wasn''t sure of was how the city would respond. Great powers, perhaps as powerful as dungeons in their own right, cities could be cruel to those they required to function¡ªpossessive too.


    "Far Reach"¡ªElanor could feel the city listening to her words and her heart¡ª"you were in need of a strong and sure warrior to free you, but you aren''t the only city suffering. Though they all answered my call when I needed the power to fight, some felt weak and others added missives of their own. The corruption within you has been excised, revealing a clean wound that can heal with the right leader¡ªbut I am no leader. I''m the exterminator the cities of the kingdom need to get rid of nobles who dream of conquest."


    Just like the citizens of Far Reach, Stewart stared at Elanor. Her right fist burned with flame while the rest of her seemed to radiate comforting warmth. He fumbled mentally to come up with something to say, but one of the city''s people beat him to the punch.


    "Does Far Reach agree with this?"


    Closing her eyes to focus on the city, Elanor could feel the conflicted emotions of it rolling around and through her. It wanted to keep her, to hold her out and use her to crush any other noble who thought they could control the city by murdering its chosen, but it too had sensed its siblings in peril. There was a chain of cities in the west that felt worse than it had. It agreed, but it didn''t want to. "Far Reach understands, but it will need a fair, honest, and loving leader quickly. Can you send a message to Hearthhome for the Earl to send someone worthy?" she asked Stewart.


    Nodding, Stewart ran through his thoughts at how this changed things. "The Earl has several family members who would be good picks. Perhaps I could instruct her to send three such for Far Reach to choose from?"


    At first Elanor only felt interest and what she sensed to be the city''s thought processes chewing on the idea, but its approval came after that. "Far Reach likes the idea of having a choice. I will consult further on how it would express its own mind without relying on an avatar, but I believe having a choice will suffice?" The rumble of agreement from Far Reach shook the room.


    "Was that Far Reach?" Stewart asked, noting the rapturous looks on the townsfolk''s faces. Elanor''s smiling nod was enough for him. "Then it is settled. Far Reach, if you are not satisfied by any of the Earl''s candidates¡ªlet Elanor know. She has my authority to send them back and request more." He nodded to Elanor.


    Closing her eyes, Elanor touched Far Reach again, imagining herself hugging the city. <em style="font-weight: 600">Can you call me at a distance like the other cities? Far Reach replied with more than a little uncertainty. <em style="font-weight: 600">Then we can test it when I reach Northridge. If you can''t talk through Northridge, and I don''t hear from you in a week, I''ll come back and check on you. Okay?


    Far Reach sensed the sincerity of Elanor''s mental words and her heart. Despite the loss of her not staying, the city could see the logic in her dedication to the kingdom as a whole. Straining against its still limited growth, it stretched and spoke its first words: "Thank you."


    <hr>


    Snow was hitting her in the face. The blizzard that had swept over the mountain, though, was Hilda''s best friend. She couldn''t talk to any of her party, barely a hundred and fifty soldiers, because the wind ripped the words from her throat. One shoe forward, then the other. Two thick hoods were pulled over her head, her helmet piled on top, and combined they let her glare out through the vision slits into the blinding white.


    One shoe forward, then the other. Horses would be less than useless in this. Nursing animals over the cold mountain would have needed more food, frequent rests, and stopping whenever the blizzard got worse. So, on netted snowshoes, her people marched on.


    The gold they''d hauled back had pacified the kingdom enough that they''d found warm fires for everyone, but it had led to a careful warm season she''d spent in the north. The riches had also purchased her time to find friends and carefully discuss her plan with them.


    Some had taken the news of mercenary work well. The previous winter had left many with the realization they might not have a home during the next winter¡ªso she found herself gaining allies willing to try a season or more in the south.


    But, not all held honesty behind their smiles. An army dogged them, even now, but where an army needed to haul supplies to reach them, fight, and return, her people only needed enough to reach the strange home that a dragon had promised her.


    They had lost some, of course, going over the mountain. Coming down the other side had been easier since they had swapped the snowshoes out for skis. When they had left the snow behind, many had thrown shoes and skis to the side and cursed at the mountains behind them.


    Hilda, though, had just been relieved to make it down the mountain with some supplies and people unfrozen. "Headcount!"


    Voices called out, the few sergeants she''d brought took tally and brought her the news. Of the nearly hundred and fifty men and women she''d started with, one hundred and four remained. Nodding at the news, she looked back at the mountain and bared her sword, pointing it up into the white peak. Bringing her left fist up, she bashed at her padded breastplate with it¡ªa salute to a worthy enemy.


    After enough time to count off each of the soldiers that it had taken, she slid her weapon back in its sheath. "Come, it should be no more than a week to reach the city."


    No cheer went up. Having lost almost a third of their people, everyone knew somebody whose bones would forever be part of the mountain. They''d known the risks, but it still hurt to lose so many.


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 Chapter 155

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 37/100


    Heart 4,928,400/4,928,400


    Experience 1,002,315/1,232,100


    Mithril 2,361


    Adamantine 635


    Mana 6,420


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 51


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 61/66 | Monsters 73/67 | Traps 151/162


    Quest: Reach level 50.


    </blockquote>


    Ogmera''s group, Travis was happy to see, were taking to the mini dungeons hard. They were dying less often than they were clearing, but with their own mini dungeons and unlimited resurrections, they were treating it as a sport.


    Travis was certainly far from wanting to stop such activity, since it was pushing his levels up higher and higher. Like with Elanor, he''d given them free rein to have whatever equipment they wanted. Each carried a pistol; Nathaniel had opted for some heavier armor; Felna had gone with some adamantine wire stitched tightly across her leather gear; while Ogmera, Tom, and Stratus had been raiding Travis'' library for Katelyn''s notes on magic.


    Other adventuring parties arrived, and sought to delve into a dungeon. In all, Travis had been growing himself well <em style="font-weight: 600">and outfitting people with guns, swords, and armor.


    "Travis?" Penelope''s voice pulled his attention away from contemplating the next expansion to the high tower she usually napped on.


    "Yeah?" Travis asked back, then focused his attention on her and, more importantly, though her to see what she was looking at. On the edge of her sight, on the road to the south, four figures rode horses, two bloodied wolves paced along beside them, and Travis was sure there''d be a scorpion and a wyvern somewhere with them. "Oh! Is that Elanor?"


    "Yes, but"¡ªPenelope''s point of view snapped around and her eyes focused on another group of people¡ª"that''s Fife, and the others coming back from the goblin dungeon and"¡ªanother shift to see a group of armored and armed warriors marching toward them¡ª"that''s Hilda."


    "Oh. Oh, crap. Uh, can you fly out and link up with Hilda? Lead them to¡ª" Travis felt a little panic hit. "Can you look at Elanor''s group again?" When the view returned to Elanor, Travis could see the the three other figures in a little sharper detail; one looked like a guard of some kind, there was Brevity Delling, and¡­ "The Prince! Okay, don''t bring Hilda to the southern entrance, bring her to the city gates."


    "Should I get Fife and the rest to escort them? I''d rather not have any of the city guard recognize them and want payback¡ªwithout a bulletproof wall to put between them."


    "Ugh. I need another entrance that isn''t guarded by the city. Get Fife to bring them in. They can be refugees or something. Let them keep their weapons, but don''t make a big deal of it. I hope that will work?" Travis wished he had fingernails he could chew in worry.


    "I''ll figure something out. Make sure Northridge itself is cool with things." Stretching her wings, Penelope launched herself off the tower and to the northwest.


    <hr>


    Flying low over the grassland, Penelope could tell that Fife''s group had spotted Hilda and vice versa. They stood back, neither approaching nor moving on. Swooping in on Fife''s flank, she landed with a neat flare of her wings and came to ground. "Don''t fight them!"


    "I wasn''t going to." Fife rolled her shoulders to show off to Penelope, but her friend didn''t take the bait. "Besides, they look like they need help more than a fight."


    Walking up on Fife''s other side, Astrid said, "That''s Hilda. If she sees us¡ª"


    "She''ll see some big scaled brutes in armor. You still have some time to explain all this to her." Blowing out a breath that had a little flame in it, Fife stepped forward and marched toward the group of northerners.


    The sight of Penelope made Hilda''s heart speed up. Adrenaline pumped into her system and it was all she could do not to draw her sword and attack as the others neared. Behind her and beside her, the small group of refugees that remained readied themselves and let their commander''s bravery steady their own nerves.


    When she was well within what she knew was Penelope''s breath range, Hilda walked forward. She stopped when she was only a few long strides from the fantastic beast that made her want to fight and die in glory. "Lady Penelope of the Unbeatable Southern Fortress, it is good to see you again!"


    After having talked with Astrid and learned all she could about Hilda''s mindset, Penelope knew that no matter what, Hilda would have the deadly fight she wanted. Now she just had to hope she could understand enough of the woman''s speech. "It''s always good to meet new allies. Would you like to share food and drink? You''re welcome within our dungeon as honored guests."


    "Your words are clear and ring with honor. It''s not as many as I''d hoped to bring, but it was all that would come." Hilda''s eyes scanned the group behind Penelope. There were several warriors there she''d welcome a fight with, not the least being the big, heavily armored draconic warrior that left divots in the ground with each step. She could well imagine herself spending an hour trying to beat through the defenses the armor and equipment implied. When she looked into the eyes of another fighter, though, Hilda''s eyes widened. She recognized the challenging, determined eyes of Astrid, even though she''d thought the woman long-dead.


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    Of course, Hilda knew that the dungeon could bring back the dead. Counting off the other members of the group, she came up several short for what had been the wolf pack that had charged Northridge''s gate. As she turned to walk beside Penelope, she said, "I recall some of your warriors."


    Penelope marched beside Hilda, their two squads tightly packed behind them. She knew what the woman was talking about and nodded to her. "We killed all but their leader. She didn''t want to die and wanted each of those under her command to have the same choice. Some took it, others died as warriors."


    "Before today, I wouldn''t have thought you knew what that meant, but I trust you''ve had a tutor in such things. You speak our language well." The city walls were in the distance, but to one side Hilda could see the foundations of a new layer of defense. "Sinking your foundations deeper this time?"


    "Nothing will be able to sap this wall. We''re also mounting cannons on it. If an army comes, it had better know how to fly."


    Her mind racing, Hilda could indeed see how the walls would be far more intimidating given the size of the foundations. With cannons on top, she would not bother trying to break such a place with a hundred thousand strong army. "It would be better to fight on the wall than against it¡ªthis time."


    "You liked the siege?"


    "It was better than freezing to death. We fought. We died. We managed to get in at least once." Shrugging her big shoulders, Hilda looked up at the dragon beside her and shivered. "Your promise?"


    Penelope laughed. "Of course you''ll have your fight. But do you want it now, when you''re fresh off a mountain journey, or after you''ve had a good drink and a meal?" People on the wall had spotted them, Penelope could see. There were people clustering on the nearest section and she could see Brolly running along to join them. "We should move over close to the wall so I can tell the commander that you''re not hostile."


    "You have the city under your sway?" It was hardly a surprise to Hilda, given their actions in the siege. "Did you make all the city folk into dungeon monsters, like those?" She nodded behind them.


    "Travis can only make two people part of him without changing what they are, and both those slots are filled already. We have a new dungeon that just appeared. If you feel up to it, you could train them to be better fighters. I think you''d get on well with them. I could use some training myself." Leaving Hilda looking shocked, Penelope walked to within what she hoped was earshot of Brolly. "Those visitors we told you about are here."


    Having gotten more and more used to the abilities Northridge had granted him, Brolly put one gauntleted hand on the crenelation and heaved himself forward and over it. The ground rushed up, but he caught his fall with bent knees and dropped to a crouch before rising back up. Only twenty strides from Penelope, he approached. "I don''t recognize your armor," he said to Hilda.


    Translating for Hilda, Penelope added her own reply, "You haven''t seen it before." It was true. Hilda wasn''t wearing the huge, imposing armor that she''d worn at the siege¡ªfor which Penelope was grateful.


    "Did you word it that way on purpose?" Hilda asked. "It sounds like he''s saying he doesn''t like my armor."


    "That''s not exactly what he''s saying. He doesn''t <em style="font-weight: 600">recognize it. He''s saying it that way because then you''re a stranger and not the woman who led a siege against his city," Penelope replied, in the northern tongue.


    Grunting out her dislike of the self-deception, Hilda said, "Ah. This is politicking. Well, tell him we are but a group of strangers, warriors seeking a strong home to call our own."


    Passing the sentiment onto Brolly, Penelope was relieved when he nodded. "Oh, you might not have this news, but the Prince is back. He''s coming through the other entrance. I flew out to guide this lot to the main gate because I thought it best not to have an accident happen."


    Panic led to relief in short order, and Brolly nodded his thanks to Penelope. "Thank you, ma''am. Northridge was meant to be more relaxing than the King''s Guard, with the odd raid by northerners. Now I have to deal with spies, princes, and friendly hordes."


    Unsure what the conversation had turned to, Hilda felt a little impatient. When had the two decided that she felt less of an issue to them? They brought her and her group around to the big main gate of Northridge that she''d never opened. When the gates were wide, she walked up to the edge of one and inspected it. The logs that had been lashed together with good steel told her all she needed to know¡ªshort of a battering ram much larger than what they''d used, they wouldn''t have made it through the gate.


    Fife hadn''t failed to notice that Astrid had put her wolves on the opposite side of the column from the newly arrived northerners. "So," she said to Breath of Spring, who was riding a bloodied wolf still, "how did you like your first delve?"


    "It was more intense than I would have thought. I didn''t realize you had to run so much! How do you keep running with all that on?" Poking at Fife''s shoulder, Breath of Spring traced the curve over to her back and where her wings had their own gaps in the armor. "Will these even work? They look like they have adamantine impregnated in them."


    Stretching one of her wings out, the opposite side to Breath of Spring, Fife tried to reach back but found her armor too stiff to do so. Instead, she extended as much as she could to look at the membrane. Sure enough, there was a dull metallic look to even the softest part of it. "Well, I guess I won''t be flying with them, but if they''re adamantine, I can probably try using them as weapons and shields."


    "What about the new people?"


    "We always knew she''d bring some back with her. This is less than I would have thought. They''re all excellent fighters. It''s going to be fun!" Tucking her wing back, Fife was pondering how to organize training and dungeon classes with the new arrivals, when Travis'' shout drew her attention.


    "Shit! Shit! Shit!" Travis shouted, not able to constrain his shock at the moment Stewart stepped into his entrance. "I can''t kill <em style="font-weight: 600">him!"


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 Chapter 156

    [a brave young priestess'' journal]


    We are halfway between Far Reach and Northridge. I think I might have an inkling, Miss Journal, about why Stewart was upset, but I am not quite sure why he isn''t anymore.


    He knows I am not likely to sit still for him to woo. Not that it''d take much wooing at this point. Every time I close my eyes, I remember the feel of him in my arms. Look, Miss Journal, I can''t help it anymore. He announced his intentions, and I would be an utter idiot and a moron to deny him.


    Maybe I shouldn''t close my eyes so much?


    He is happier, though, and having our own mounts hasn''t dissuaded him from riding beside me every chance he has gotten. Even now he sits beside me at the fire, doing his best not to read what I''m writing. Yes, Sir Prince, I am writing about you. [this last paragraph is barely legible because of pooled ink]


    I shan''t blot that bit with sand to ensure he can see it while I''m writing the rest. It will look terrible, but a writer''s sand conceals a thousand crimes, is what my teacher told me.


    In truth, I wish to return to Mister Travis so I can gain my level rewards and pick a new class. Each night, Sandwalker purrs her way through my dreams, inspiring my spirit and sending me visions of myself in armor, protecting the country that protects her children.


    Inquisitor is the word she whispers to me between breaths. It feels like something heavy, and she doesn''t do a thing to dissuade me of that, but I am stronger than I was and will grow stronger too. Oh, she''s purring again.


    I asked Travis to assign me the Soldier dungeon class next. I would like to get Tank eventually, but apparently he cannot assign that now without going through Soldier.


    <hr>


    The city was vibrant and active. Even with her soldiers, the people barely paid them any mind. Hilda was surprised that not even a dragon distracted the people from their daily work¡ªthough the children of Northridge rushed over to Penelope the moment they saw her.


    Cries of "Dragon rides!" and "Pen! Pen!" rang out, and Hilda got to watch as nearly thirty children did their best to climb onto a living dragon''s back and, for the most part, the dragon let them succeed. Part of her applauded these children, who could find courage in accepting as a friend a foe that would cause many to brown their armor in fear.


    They walked halfway across the city square like that before Penelope dropped to her belly and tipped sideways. The view, of the laughing children tumbling free of her in a show of acrobatics that surprised Hilda, seemed so natural here to her alien sensibility. "You seem well-respected here."


    "They remind me that even under all these scales and muscle, I''m still me." Rolling back to her feet, Penelope shook the dust of the cobblestones free and stood up again. "There''s something weird going on, so I will need to ask you to give me a little time before we have our fight."


    In all honesty, Hilda hadn''t wanted to have the fight too soon after crossing the mountain. She knew she''d lost some muscle-mass to the journey and wanted to join Penelope in battle in top condition. That Penelope sounded worried about something made her curious. "That is understandable. What is happening?" By the time she asked her question, though, Penelope had launched into the air.


    "She''s going on an important mission."


    A male voice, firm and young, shocked Hilda with the way it had simply appeared in her head. "W-What?!"


    "Oh, yeah. I''m Travis¡ªthe dungeon. I''m glad you came back. Pen said you are an amazing warrior¡ªFife too¡ªso I want to hire you and all your soldiers."


    It was the weirdest tangent, and the voice made her a little uncomfortable with how it spoke and claimed to be the dungeon, but that had been her deal with Penelope. "We will need to negotiate prices, as well as somewhere to live and train."


    "You''ll want to live outside? Not in the dungeon?" Hilda''s nod, seen through lizards and others nearby, had Travis continue. "Is within the current city walls okay, or would you prefer to be further out, within the new wall or even in your own fort?"


    "A keep? You have your own fortifications?" It surprised Hilda. She had heard some holes¡ªdungeons, she told herself to think¡ªhad structures built around them by their minions, but a large defensive structure was something new.


    "Two, sort of. One is to the south and is the main entrance to the city from that direction. The only guards there now travel from the city to it, though it will be getting further developed. The other is to the south-east, and it''s the secondary entrance of Breeze, the other dungeon in the city. Both of us have two entrances."


    Working her mind through the tactical situation, Hilda shook her head. "It''s no wonder Astrid never broke that fort."


    "It has a bonus. It doesn''t count as <em style="font-weight: 600">my area, so I can''t talk to you there. You will be your own people, with Breeze''s entrance to bring you back here quickly if you need to. I would suggest discussing with Breath of Spring, the dryad sitting on the wolf over there, what you could do for each other¡ªshe''s Breeze''s boss."


    Seeing Fife and Breath of Spring together, Hilda realized where she''d seen the both of them before. Her eyes narrowed and her breath quickened. "The warrior who fought my sister when she died."


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    "Her name is Fife. She¡ª Sorry, I need to focus my attention elsewhere for a moment."


    <hr>


    [A Few Moments Earlier]


    Grappling to get his voice under control, Travis focused down from the others, after apologizing, to explain to Elanor¡ªwho hadn''t heard him. "I just got a strange quest. It said the King has entered the dungeon and to kill him."


    "Hold on!" Elanor stopped everyone moving so she could focus on the exact wording. "I need to ask Mr. Travis something important. Mr. Travis, can you repeat that to all of us here?"


    "When the Prince stepped inside my entrance, I had a quest appear that said"¡ªTravis focused to recall the exact words¡ª"''The King has entered your dungeon. Kill him to gain an extra floor.''"


    Stewart, surprised at the rich, young voice that spoke in his head, blanched white at what he was being told. "You are Travis, the dungeon, correct?"


    "Yes."


    "And you identified myself as the king of¡ª" He couldn''t finish it. Stewart looked around. "We have to return. We have to go back to the Capital as soon as possible!" Even saying it made Stewart realize he had a way to verify it all. Calming himself, he changed his order. "First, can you take me to the middle of the city?"


    "Right." Elanor turned to look at the city guards and gave them the best smile she could muster under the circumstances. "Can you escort the <em style="font-weight: 600">Prince to the city center?" When they nodded to her, she stepped up beside Stewart and offered him her left arm. "If you need to, lean on me."


    It was ridiculous for Stewart to even think of leaning on Elanor, but he took her arm as a courtier would the woman he was pursuing and let the guards lead the way. They left Travis behind in short order, and the moment she stepped into the city, she felt the truth of Travis'' words.


    Northridge itself felt somber, but that wider entity, the kingdom itself, was in mourning. Pain stabbed at her and she found herself leaning against Stewart. What was worse, when she looked up at his face, she knew he felt it too.


    Feeling the pain of the kingdom more as he neared the heart of the city, Stewart recognized its mourning. He, like his father before him, had a bond with the kingdom''s genius loci, but for all Stewart''s life it had been a small thing, a sliver of a connection that merely reminded him that he had a duty to grow into. Now, that sliver was a rushing river. The kingdom lamented the loss of his father, but in him it knew it had a strong new leader.


    What completely stunned Stewart was that the woman beside him shared a link to it too. She was a blazing light of the kingdom''s focus, and right now that focus was him. When he stepped into the city center, and a bond formed with the city¡ªand then every city within the kingdom, Stewart fell to his knees and wept on the cobblestones.


    About to kneel too, Elanor felt the spirit of the kingdom strengthen within her and grow. It had a plea, it needed help. "We have to go to the Capital. Your father didn''t die, he was killed."


    The words, laden with the kingdom''s power and that of a god, hit Stewart hard. He felt angry, furious even, and felt the kingdom itself fan the flames rising within him. "How can I get to the Capital the fastest? Do you have any¡ª"


    "Your High¡ª Oh. Sorry. Your Majesty, Pen is coming, she has an offer."


    Travis'' voice in his head again surprised Stewart. More startling was how the kingdom''s presence within him didn''t object to it. "''Pen''?" he managed to ask before a dragon landed in the square before him. Stewart''s hand already jerked toward his sword, and Harrow had fully drawn his, but Elanor''s hand on his pommel stopped him. "Pen?"


    Stepping between Stewart and Penelope, Elanor gestured to the dragon behind her with the hand she''d used to stop Stewart drawing his sword. "This is Lady Penelope, dungeon boss of Mr. Travis. She is a friend."


    "Trav says you need a ride?" Having no idea how to address a prince, let alone a king, Penelope went with <em style="font-weight: 600">I''m-a-dragon-deal-with-it. "I can carry two, three if none of you wear armor." She looked at Elanor significantly.


    "Your Majesty," Harrow said, sheathing his sword, "take Elanor. Also, both of you wear armor. If someone killed your father, this is not something you walk into without some measure of protection. I''ll ride back on a horse myself."


    "Ripper could carry me," Elanor said, then tilted her head up to the sky to see where her friend was. "Ripper!"


    Ripper had been lounging on one of the mid-height ledges of the tower. After finally getting home, she had hoped to spend some time relaxing before returning to action¡ªbut hearing her mistress'' call had her scrambling.


    The air was buzzing with excitement. She could hear her dungeon home giving a multitude of orders, but none of those were for her. She crashed down beside her mistress and leaned sideways.


    A wyvern leaning against Fife might not move her at all, but Elanor stumbled a little to the side before bracing enough to hold back Ripper. "You could carry me if we go flying, right?" Another shove got a laugh from her. "Of course you could. Stewart, the kingdom is furious. If I''m going to be its weapon, I will be there with you."


    "If you''re all going back right away," Travis said to Stewart, Harrow, and Elanor, "let me provide you with some better equipment. Tinpot has some improvements on the revolver design, Axel has a revised version of Elanor''s armor, and your choice of swords."


    "Thank you, Mr. Travis. I''m afraid I tested out the armor and it does stop bullets, though the plates get a bit warped." Holding up the sleeve of her duster, Elanor was also glad she would get to swap the coat for a new one. "You have things in their sizes?"


    "Close enough to fit them. We also made your equipment to allow for a little extra muscle growth."


    The cloak, Stewart had to admit, hid that well. From the time with their armor off on the cot they''d shared, he could remember the muscle she was developing all over. "How soon can we be equipped and leave?" He used words to cover for the moment he spent recalling that time.


    "Elanor can bring you back to my entrance, and from there I''ll have Tinpot lead you around. He has some revised pistol designs. Though he''s been spending most of his time working on his new workshop equipment." Travis turned his focus to Penelope as Elanor, Stewart, and Harrow made their way back toward his entrance. "Pen, how far do you think you can carry them?"


    Walking slower toward the dungeon, Penelope reached out with one wing to give Ripper a little head-rub. The wyvern fell in beside her and they walked together. "I can carry two of them all the way there, but I worry about what kind of reception a dragon will get in the Capital."


    "You''ll have to put them down outside, then. If you can make it all the way, though, it would make the new King grateful to a dungeon, its boss, and all the others living within."


    Laughing at his tone, Penelope nodded her huge head. "How did all this start, anyway?"


    "A quest."


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 Chapter 157

    Sighting down the revolver, Stewart fired the gun. As he''d experienced with Elanor''s shooting, it had a different sound from gunpowder pistols, but the result when the bullet hit the stone wall at the end of the long tunnel sent a chill down his spine. "These change everything." The echo of the explosive round was still fading as he spoke. "Is there anything else I need to know about them?"


    "Save the empty casings if you can." Tinpot held out two bags to Stewart. "After some tests, we''re not going to make the adamantine ones anymore. The explosive ones are more effective and have less chance of harming others behind the target. The gold-only bullets stop in the first target, too."


    Remembering Elanor shooting all the bodyguards of Jace''s with single shots to the head, and each leaving a deep hole in the stonework behind them, Stewart could appreciate that. "I have fired with each hand in the past, so I think it would be best to load each gun with different loads."


    "That bit''s up to you. These pistols are much the same as her first model was, but I did add a little device that will make reloading faster. Open the gun." Waiting for Stewart to follow the instruction, Tinpot pointed to a little sliding actuator that slid down under the barrel. "If you push that back toward you, it will push all the rounds out at once."


    With the barrel hanging out to the side, Stewart cupped his hand behind it and pushed down on the rod. "I watched Elanor unload hers on the train. This should make things much faster. Thank you."


    "Glad I had made a few of these. We were going to give them to the barons of Northridge, but I can always make more for them if you need them in the meantime."


    Making a soft sound of throat clearing, Travis interrupted the two. "You wanted to be on your way as soon as possible?" The little jump from Stewart made Travis wince, particularly when Hilda adapted to hearing him faster. The nod, though, encouraged him to continue. "Pen and Ripper are equipped and ready. So are Harrow and Elanor."


    "I don''t doubt I''ll be shooting these by the time this is over. I needed to know how they feel." Reloading the cylinder, Stewart replaced the spent one with a fresh explosive round. "So long as she can get me to the station at Far Reach, we¡ª"


    "Pen said she can take you the whole way. She might not be able to get you <em style="font-weight: 600">into the city, but she can drop you off outside." Thanks to Ludmiller''s demanding they not let lizards into the firing range and Tinpot''s height and focus on the second revolver he was holding, Travis didn''t get to see Stewart''s face.


    "She can out-fly a train?" The moment Stewart asked, he realized the error of that thought. Ripper, after all, had kept pace with the train all the way to Hearthhome. "Right. Dragon. If she thinks she can, I will welcome the assistance."


    "I only wish I could send more with you, but Pen can''t even lift Fife, let alone fly with her."


    With Tinpot leading him back up, Stewart had some time to think to himself about what he was going to do. It was unprecedented, but he would not allow someone to usurp the kingdom, as he now believed they were trying. His hands drifted to the pair of holsters, stroking the handles of the most amazing guns he''d ever seen. When he got to the surface, he passed what seemed like dozens of people buying food from the dungeon.


    Watching the new king walking through the dungeon entrance, Penelope rolled her shoulders one more time to test the harness. "This will hold them?" she asked Howard.


    "If anything will. I would still advise that everyone hold on as tight as they can. Try not to lose our new king." There was only so many times Baron Howard Tailor could check over the straps he''d rushed to make. The saddles were the easy part, but making sure they and their riders wouldn''t come off had involved a little guess work, but mostly years of experience. "Your Majesty," he said, bowing as the King approached.


    "I''m not fully confirmed until I sit on the throne." A part of Stewart hoped to return home and find his father sitting there still, but he felt the kingdom itself mourn his father''s death. "But your loyalty is appreciated, as is your skill." Appreciated, he thought, and worthy of reward. "Lady Penelope, you are prepared?"


    It was one thing to be called a lady by a young noble and quite another to have a prince or king say it. Fighting to not betray her slightly dizzy emotional state, Penelope bowed her head. "I am ready to fly whenever you are to ride."


    Unsure what the correct etiquette was for climbing on a lady''s back in public, Stewart nonetheless did his best to climb up her offered leg and onto the lower part of her neck. His new coat, a duster similar to Elanor''s, hung over his shoulders and down his back into two parted flaps around his rear. Settling into the saddle, he found the extra belt and straps there. "I am to fasten this?"


    Howard cleared his throat, watching as Harrow climbed up to the second saddle. "Please, Sir, I would appreciate it if you did. That belt should keep you from falling off even if you lose your grip."


    "I believe," Stewart said, "that we''ll both follow the instructions of the more experienced. Ah. Are you ready, Lady Elanor?"


    <hr>


    [Several Minutes Earlier]


    Elanor slumped to the floor in Travis'' heart room. She''d just explained everything she''d done, and now felt drained of all but the horror of her actions. "I killed a lot of people." As she said it, she inspected the new revolver¡ªone of two she now had¡ªin her hand. "They tried to kill the Earl, Stewart, and Harrow."


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    "And you too," Travis said.


    Nodding, Elanor looked down at her hands to watch the ejector''s smooth motion. "It still feels wrong, but the worst was the conspirators that Far Reach found. I killed them, aiming the city''s wrath and giving it form¡ªbut I don''t feel bad for <em style="font-weight: 600">those ones."


    "Only the people you looked in the eye?"


    Remembering her cousin¡ª<em style="font-weight: 600">former cousin¡ªElanor shook her head. "I don''t think¡ª" She halted that sentence and moved on with her thoughts. "The old Baron and his brother; they deserved what they got. They instigated and managed all this. The guards they used, the man they sent to kill the Earl wasn''t even as old as I am. He had no talisman. I killed him, and he will never live again."


    Travis wasn''t a counselor, not by any stretch of the imagination, but he''d been through his own personal hell growing up as a dungeon. "When you came to me and asked to work for me, if I''d given you a gun and a bullet and told you to kill Stewart, would you have?"


    "What?" Shaking her head and staring at the huge crystal, Elanor felt horror at the idea. "I would never have done that!"


    "But that guy did. Those guards too. They knew who Stewart was. They still attempted to follow an order they shouldn''t have. Maybe there was a reason that seemed good to them to make that choice, but they would have ruined the lives of so many if they''d succeeded. You saved that many people by ensuring they didn''t."


    Silent for a moment, her thoughts running around that statement and picking it apart, Elanor sighed. "I don''t think I''ll ever be okay with it."


    "Good," Travis said, glad to see her head jerk up. "I know I don''t want to have a remorseless killer working for me. I doubt Stewart does, either. Your compassion for Far Reach is why it chose you to be its hero." She was shaking her head. "Did I say something wrong?"


    The worry in Travis'' voice made Elanor smile at last. "No. Well, sort of. It wasn''t just Far Reach that gave me strength and asked me for help¡ªthe whole kingdom did. It''s alive, Travis, like cities are alive."


    It was news Travis hadn''t picked up from her explanation of events, and it shocked him. Shifting his focus, he reached out to Northridge. "Northridge, is there a¡ª Is the whole kingdom its own person too? Like cities."


    "I didn''t know about it until the Inquisitor called for help. Dungeon Travis, every city in the kingdom came together to help her!" Northridge remembered the event fondly, perhaps most of all because Elanor was someone from his people. She''d renounced her family, so he claimed her. That was how it worked so far as Northridge was concerned. "There was something odd, though. It was like some cities weren¡¯t as loud as others."


    "Maybe," Travis said, "they are too far away to respond easily?"


    "Surely, that must be the answer. Which city would not support our new voice¡ªour new protector?!" Northridge wanted to shunt so much power the young woman''s way that she glowed, but he had his own avatar. There was also a feeling that any power invested into her should be done so by cities needing her help or by the kingdom itself. But still, he wanted to cheat.


    "Northridge, if she ever needs help through the kingdom link, can you include me?" Travis asked.


    "I do not know if the kingdom would accept the might of a dungeon, or even if I could send your strength, but I will try."


    Travis thanked the city and focused back on Elanor, having spent not much more than a moment conversing with Northridge. "I asked Northridge about it, he said I might be able to lend my strength next time you call on the kingdom''s power. If I can, I''ll try to pull Brogdar into it too. Though I haven''t had the best experience with at least one of his priests. Brayden and Brogdar themselves are every bit as genuine as I could want. You saw the new temple I built for you and Felna?"


    The heavy purring in her head threatened to deafen Elanor. She closed her eyes and visualized a powerful catkin warrior priestess hugging her. The purring grew stronger still. "I promise to bring your heat and love to those who most deserve it."


    Travis had to admit to liking how Sandwalker felt in his head. Warm and insistent, just like a big cat, he was surprised to find how normal it felt despite her being a god and he a dungeon. Brogdar, on the other hand, felt more like a friend that always had your back no matter what. Despite the differences between their powers he liked the idea of both. "You sure know how to leave a statement open to interpretation."


    Standing up, Elanor nodded. "It''s always good to leave one''s options open. Thank you, Mr. Travis."


    "Elanor?"


    "Yes?"


    "You can call me Trav if you''d like. I don''t think any¡ª Ugh, what''s the word I''m looking for?"


    "Impropriety?" Elanor suggested.


    "Yeah. Since we''re the only ones who can hear this now, and since it''s not like I''m a noble or commoner, you can call me that if you want."


    Walking over to Travis'' crystal, Elanor narrowed her eyes and searched its seemingly infinite facets for something that looked right. When she found it, she prodded the vaguely nose-shaped structure. "I will call you as befits the master of his own house, and lord of all he surveys."


    "Did¡ª" Travis couldn''t keep the laughter out of his voice, even as he wanted to feel indignant. "Did you <em style="font-weight: 600">boop me?"


    "Miss Fife told me to do it if you ever become too exasperating for words. She said it should put you in your place." It was, she realized, probably more intimate than calling him by a familiar name, but at the same time it was in a place that no one that she didn''t trust would see. "What do you think, Mr. Travis, of Stewart?"


    "You like-like him, don''t you?" Travis relied on the magic that let him talk to anyone to help translate his modern phrasing. Elanor nodded. "Does he like you back?" Another nod. "Then go for it. He seems like a great guy, even if he''s dealing with a lot right now. You''d make an awesome queen."


    Eyes widening, Elanor shook her head. "I wouldn''t be <em style="font-weight: 600">queen, though I would be <em style="font-weight: 600">queen-consort." Even saying that made her whole world explode¡ªdespite the loud purring. "But he¡­ And I¡­ He stands for something worth fighting for, and he has the same connection I do to the kingdom. He can feel it as well!"


    "Okay, so you want to know what I think about him?" Travis waited for Elanor''s blushing nod to continue. "He cares about the kingdom as a whole, about his family, about you, and seems willing to put his own life on the line for all of it. He''s having a bit of trouble getting used to me talking to him, but it''s something new for him, I guess. Follow your heart, Elanor."


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 Chapter 158

    "Do you still have the quest?" Penelope asked as softly as a dragon could. "I''m talking to you, Trav."


    Tuning his voice down to Penelope only, Travis said, "R-Right. It''s still there as a bonus quest. I don''t know if it will go away when Stewart leaves or not, but at least it isn''t taking up a quest slot."


    "With all these straps and saddles, I don''t know if I could do the job even if I wanted to. Is he secure up there?"


    "As long as he doesn''t unbuckle anything, he should be f¡ª"


    "Wait," Stewart said, as he felt Penelope''s muscles bunch under him. Elanor had given him a thumbs-up, and it had reminded him of something important. "Dungeon Travis?"


    Surprised a little by the request, Travis tuned his voice to the whole group in the courtyard and asked, "Yes?"


    "Now Lady Elanor is her own woman, supported in no small part by yourself. I consider you to be the person I must address." Clearing his throat, not caring who was listening, Stewart said, "I intend to pursue Lady Elanor. Do I have your approval?"


    Travis, thankfully, could turn his laughter inward. It was insane for his modern-attuned mind to think of someone asking for approval to court a woman, let alone ask <em style="font-weight: 600">him. "Felna! I need your help."


    While Stewart waited there, Travis explained his idea to Felna who was, thankfully, in the crowd to send her kitten off. She strode forward, eyes fixed on Stewart and not looking away. "You intend to chase my kitten''s tail?"


    The courtyard quieted; Felna''s words seeming to echo before leaving Stewart sitting in silence he needed to fill. "I would pursue her hand in marriage, but I wish her family''s approval."


    "You are a good man, or so I have heard. You can provide for her, care for her, and put her above all others to stand at your side?" Keeping her tail from twitching too fast wasn''t easy, but Felna was good at self-control. She held Stewart''s eyes with her own, daring him to speak out of turn.


    The whole situation felt detached from reality, but though Stewart had many things coming against him in the near future, this was one subject he was sure of. "I would have her as my queen-consort, if she would put up with me."


    "Then Travis and I are in agreement." Felna let him wait while she flicked her gaze to Elanor. "Kitten, if you want him, you best bare your claws for him." Fixing Stewart with her eyes again, Felna said, "You have our approval. Good luck with your journey."


    "Thank you," Elanor mouthed the words while looking at Felna. She hung low over the wyvern''s neck in preparation for takeoff.


    Travis couldn''t help telling her, "Keep him safe," as Penelope and Ripper took off into the sky above Northridge. After they circled a few times to gain altitude and flew off to the south, he turned his attention to the crowd who were starting to disperse. "Brolly, I think I have solved one of your problems."


    "Which one?" Brolly asked, more curious than worried. So far as he''d experienced, Travis had been nothing but positive in his assistance.


    "The fort around Breeze''s outside entrance, in the clearing to the south-east? I have a band of soldiers who would like to call it their home." It amused Travis a little that the army had tried so hard to breach that fort''s walls¡ªand failed. Now Hilda would have it as her home.


    "Are you going to open an entrance there yourself?"


    "No. Fife and Breath of Spring are talking with the northerners now, and they seem to be at least somewhat comfortable with Breeze. I admit, it''s a little odd, but that is a good spot for them to be out of the way."


    Thinking about it, Brolly concurred. "It gives them some independence and relieves us of needing to keep it manned. Go ahead with it. I''ll arrange for an official handover ceremony."


    That was one piece of business sorted for Travis. He had a lot of plans for new training dungeons, and hadn''t had anyone who could protect diggers. With Fife and the wolves back, he decided it was time to correct that.


    <hr>


    The few flights around Northridge that Elanor had taken were, she realized, rather tame. Penelope flew high enough to keep from casual sight and hopefully ballista range, and Ripper had done the same. The most notable thing was that flying higher was <em style="font-weight: 600">cold.


    Pulling her duster around her as tight as she could, she thought back to the little spectacle that had happened moments before they''d left. Stewart asking to <em style="font-weight: 600">pursue her, Travis and Felna acting as her parents, and the agreement¡ª She felt warmth blossom inside at the idea of it.


    It took her a moment to realize the heat wasn''t figurative. Sighing happily, wrapped in Sandwalker''s aura, she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Ripper''s neck, sharing her gift with her friend. She wished she could have brought her other friends, but even Snipsnap would add to Ripper''s load.


    Far Reach, when it felt a mighty invader soar above its walls, grew panicked with fear. The beast was mighty, and without an avatar of its own, it could not fight the dragon directly. But, something changed. The huge creature landed in the city center, heedless of soldiers rushing there, it lowered its neck and¡ªalong with a smaller member of its kind that the city now realized it had felt before¡ªdisgorged the King and the kingdom''s avatar to the cobbled streets.


    Elanor knelt, reaching to the cobblestones with her right palm. "Please be calm. Northridge has sent allies with us to speed the King to his throne." She had felt the trepidation within Far Reach and shared with it the warmth and honor she felt toward Travis. "She is from a dungeon, but a dungeon that has defended Northridge and seeks to strengthen the kingdom."


    Stewart had no specific connection to Far Reach, but through his bond with the kingdom he could feel it worrying at having a dragon land within its walls. "She speaks the truth. Northridge has welcomed two dungeons into its walls into a council not unlike its noble leadership."


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    For Penelope, it seemed almost like a mystical ritual. She had felt the will of the city against her, struggling to force her to leave¡ªand then the pressure stopped. Not knowing if the city would hear her, she said, "Thank you for trusting me." She wasn''t sure it was trust in <em style="font-weight: 600">her, but the city was calm, they''d already spent a half day flying, and she knew her riders needed a rest.


    <em style="font-weight: 600">Riders.


    It was a word Penelope had hoped to not become part of her life, but here she was with a riding harness. She lifted her head up and looked around. The city guards still looked wary, but seemed willing to defer to Stewart. Remembering the layout of the city, even from over a year ago, took a moment. Thanks to Penelope''s life spent delving into dungeons as a rogue, she had an uncanny knack for direction. "Well, if I''ve got to wear a saddle, I am going to get it taken care of."


    When the master of the city''s stables saw a dragon marching down the street toward his pride and joy (the stables themselves), he froze in his tracks. Stuck in that state, unable to figure out if he should scream in terror or run, he noticed details. The dragon wore some kind of harness with a pair of saddles on it, for one.


    "Can you help with these straps?" Penelope asked. "I think one is rubbing when I fly, and it might tear before my scales do." When the man continued to stare at her, Penelope turned a little further, showing where she suspected the straps were rubbing.


    Blinking away his shock, the stable master reached out to inspect one of the nemeses of his craft. There was only one way to fight this particular dragon and win, and that was with a sword of practicality. "This leather <em style="font-weight: 600">is rubbing. Do you need this support here to stay on¡ª Uh, I mean, do your¡ªyour <em style="font-weight: 600">riders need this strap in place? I am unfamiliar with dragon riding harnesses."


    "It was a rush job, but I trust the craftsman who made it to know what was needed, but he didn''t have any time to test this. Can you make it last for a few days'' flight?"


    "<em style="font-weight: 600">Flight¡­" The man had to mentally slap himself back to practicality. "The strap will need reinforcing and you will need padding added here, and probably on the other side, to prevent more rubbing."


    "We''re not planned to stay long. Can you get it done by morning?" Penelope had been surprised the man had stood his ground. What she wasn''t surprised by was that several of the guards had followed her and watched her from a distance even now. Behind them, children streamed into the street, peeking from behind walls and soldier¡¯s legs.


    "I can''t replace the strap. I can sew another onto it and fit some pads on each side. They won''t last long, but they should get you¡ª How much <em style="font-weight: 600">flying did this?"


    "Maybe three hours."


    Whistling, the stable master made his decision. "Then I best get started. Let me first check the other side." He''d intended to walk around Penelope, but instead she moved and reminded him that not only was she very large but also had been the one talking to him about the tack. "There is a little rubbing, but not as bad. This strap¡ªwith a little work¡ªwill survive the trip."


    <hr>


    Far Reach had been interested to hear of Northridge having multiple nobles leading it. With only a few words, it managed to coax Elanor to speak more of it. Hearing that the nobles weren''t even noble at first, but were merchants, crafters, and a guardsman inspired it, but it still wanted a noble¡ªit <em style="font-weight: 600">deserved a noble.


    But, it also liked the idea of having others, raised to nobility or not, that could be its champions and allow it to reach through them. By the time Elanor, the King, and the monsters were making ready to leave, Far Reach had made up its mind.


    The mortals that lived in and around cities came in many flavors, but Far Reach had discovered that few had the head for politics or the arm for soldiery. Thus, it had decided that if there was a canny, smart scion and a brave, martial scion among those coming from the south, it would take both.


    The train pulled in less than an hour after Elanor had left Far Reach with these new ideas. It knew the three nobles the moment they stepped off the train¡ªformally onto the grounds of Far Reach itself.


    Groaning, one of the three (dressed in fine lady attire of a large dress that was the height of fashion) sighed and gestured toward Far Reach as a whole. "I can''t believe we had to come here. What was wrong with staying in Hearthhome?"


    Rounding on her cousin, the second woman of the group (dressed in far more conservative trousers, shirt, and carrying a rapier at her side) smacked her own forehead. "Rachelle, you heard Aunt Judy. We''re here because the city is going to choose a new leader, and the Prince himself promised it to one of our kin. If you don''t want to be here, get back on the train and head back now." What she hated about talking to the first woman was how she managed to feel short.


    The third noble shook his head. "Casey, relax. The people here aren''t going to want another empty-headed brat. I don''t know why I''m here, but I guess I might be useful for hauling heavy things around." It was an old argument with his sister. She was head and shoulders above him when it came to numbers and politics, but for physical prowess he (like most people) could look down on her. He took the punch she threw him without so much as twitching.


    "You are both degenerates. Your brother has worn a dress more than you have, <em style="font-weight: 600">Casey." Sneering at the dirty cobblestones, Rachelle gestured to her two trunks of clothing. "Well, Cousin Brandon, you said something about lifting heavy things?"


    Surveying the luggage, Brandon smiled at the sight of his and Casey''s personal belongings. Striding over to them, he picked up his own chest on one shoulder and his sister''s on the other, and nodded to Rachelle''s. "I appear to be fully loaded, Cousin, perhaps you could carry your own?" The truth was his trunk was full of armor, while Casey''s had her writing equipment. Both being not insubstantial, he was straining a little¡ªbut it was worth it to see Rachelle turn a very odd shade of purple.


    As she walked from the train station to the keep, that she could see above the buildings every now and again, Casey could feel a force guiding her. When she took a glance at her brother, he too looked straight ahead with something holding his attention. Behind her, all she had letting her know that Rachelle was still there was a constant stream of complaints.


    Barely able to notice his sister, and completely ignorant of Rachelle, Brandon could feel something calling to him. His arm felt warm, hot even, as they walked the final block with the gate of the keep in sight, and the weight of the trunks barely even noticeable. The only way he knew Casey was still there was that she seemed to radiate some kind of heat, too.


    The usual weird feeling she had regarding the siblings seemed amplified, and the feeling of <em style="font-weight: 600">change in them shook Rachelle. Neither were smart as she thought of it, and both were terrible at behaving correctly in public¡ªbut now there was something arcane and supernatural about them. When she saw them walking toward the front gate of the keep, a barrier seemed to come into being, at least in her own mind. She wanted to follow them, to deliver more barbs and subtle critiques of their persons, but she couldn''t take another step forward.


    Shifting her heel, Rachelle found herself able to retreat from the strange wall. "Ugh, I don''t give a crap about this anyway. Bring my things back to the train!" she ordered the two guards who''d been stupid enough to do her bidding.


    Far Reach liked the siblings. They were <em style="font-weight: 600">exactly what it had wanted for its new leaders, though it still wanted a craftsman and a merchant. But, first, it needed to invest its two chosen avatars with its power.


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 Chapter 159

    Fife couldn''t stop side-eyeing Hilda. The fight against her and her sister, in the siege, had been a struggle for Fife even with Breath of Spring behind her. Every movement had to be planned against so many counters that would have knocked her down, but at least part of her disadvantage was gone now.


    Hilda could tell when she was being appraised. Even with the march over the mountain, the look of consideration on the big dragon warrior''s face made her blood sing. It was a challenge. She caught herself, though. "Are you sizing me up for a fight or for a bed?"


    Laughing, Fife was surprised at how deep her own voice was now she was larger. "A fight. I''m spoken for." Nodding toward the open area between Breeze and Travis, Fife asked, "How about a little fight. Whoever falls over first has to get the other a drink?"


    Muttering surrounded the pair as they made their way to the designated spot. Hilda unloaded her pack and the cold weather gear that had seen her safely to this haven from the north. She watched as her opponent unbuckled her vambrace. "You''ll want to keep that on."


    "I have two layers. My scales are adamantine as well as my plate."


    "Keep it on anyway." In truth, Hilda wanted to beat herself against the brick wall of a fighter until she couldn''t focus anymore, and could no longer stand. "What''s your name?"


    "Fife." Thankful that she''d gotten used to her heavier shield and longer sword¡ªboth gifts of her physical changes¡ªFife tested them anew and found the weight favorable to her new strength. Lifting her shield into place, Fife said, "Begin whenever you want."


    Hilda had no wish to delay. She summoned every bit of her remaining energy and charged at Fife. The feel of adamantine on adamantine made Hilda shiver with excitement. Her blade being checked on the first strike, though, was not going to dissuade her from reversing and probing Fife''s shield.


    The fight went on and on, and Fife knew she had the advantage. While Hilda was more skilled, and was regularly hitting her armor, the northern woman was slowing down. Fife''s stamina, even outside of Travis, felt infinite. She could parry and strike the ten thousandth time just as fast as she could the first.


    When Fife finally made her push, Hilda found herself without the speed to counter it. The deft adamantine blade flicked her own aside and Hilda felt her world tip as Fife''s shield shoved her back and down. Staring up at the draconic face, her fatigue finally got the best of her. "Dammit. One more, when I wake up."


    Sheathing her sword, putting Hilda¡¯s back in her scabbard, and lifting her up onto one shoulder, Fife looked around at the crowd watching. "I had the advantage this time, but I definitely want a rematch when she can stand up again!" The excitement of having such a skilled swordsman to spar with made Fife anticipate things slowing down a little so she''d have time for more.


    <hr>


    Two and a half days. Stewart had no idea how any creature, even a dragon, could fly for two days without eating or complaining. He was sure, though, that Penelope was only quiet because of the wind. He was cold, tired, and damp from his shoes to his hair, but this was still the fastest he''d ever traveled before. It was just past dawn when he heard her speak for the first time since Far Reach.


    "I can see the city!" To speak in any way audibly, Penelope had turned her head almost all the way to her back on her supple neck. "I''ll put you down outside!"


    "No! Uh¡ª" Stewart shouted back, but when Penelope looked at him in confusion, he pointed down and made an emphatic gesture. He was relieved she got the idea and circled down then landed on the ground. "I want you to fly into the city and onto the wall of the keep."


    Harrow recognized the silence Penelope bombarded them with was her trying not to call the King crazy. "Sir, perhaps explain why that wouldn''t be suicide for all of us?"


    "There is a way I can not only protect you as you fly in, but it will be proof of <em style="font-weight: 600">who I am. Can you carry Lady Elanor for this short distance?" He''d spent the last two days planning out and revising this, and now he could see how it would work. When Penelope nodded, he knew it would work out. "Perfect, because I have a shield spell that will stop anything from harming us, but I can only use it once."


    "The King''s Seal?" Harrow shifted in his saddle, which was a bad idea because it reminded his rump that he''d been on a dragon''s back for two days without relief. "Hold on, I need to stretch my legs or they''ll fall off when we get there." When he slid down one side of her neck and landed on the ground, he was reminded of learning to ride a horse for the first time, and spending hours in the saddle.


    "Yes. It has stopped armies before. It has stopped cannons and mortars." As soon as he tried to take a step, Stewart realized the wisdom of Harrow''s words. He struggled to walk around and, finally defeated, begged Elanor, "Could you spare us a heal, please?"


    The last thing Elanor did before leaving Northridge¡ªwell, before she''d listened to Stewart ask for the freedom to woo her¡ªwas to shift her class from Priest to Soldier. Her killing of a baron, his noble guard, and assassins, according to Travis'' system, had gained her a lot of experience that had pushed her old class to its max level, and she suspected she was about to get more. The Soldier class itself wasn''t exactly what she wanted, but it was a stepping stone for Tank. She looked at Stewart with a curious expression. "Mr. Travis said you were worth a whole extra level on his dungeon."


    Letting out a groan of relief as the healing spell rushed through one of his most tender areas, Stewart shook his head. "I would gladly gift him my own head on a plate, pending a resurrection of course, if the kingdom wouldn''t immediately pass to my cousin. She''s a good sort, and is trained in statecraft, but I would like to retain my position now I have it." The fatigue of two days seeped out of him as the last of Elanor''s magic did its work.


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    "So that is why Trav''s system acknowledged you as king?" Penelope asked. The previous change of leadership had been before her own time, though she had to remind herself to be more mysterious. She was a dragon now, and that meant she could get away with a lot of behavior no one else could¡ªwhich meant less dealing with red tape. And like that her mind skipped a beat as now she mused on how she knew the term <em style="font-weight: 600">red tape.


    "The kingdom will always have a leader." Stewart was tempted to propose on the spot for the relief that Elanor had granted him. "Which is why a king never carries a talisman." He spared Penelope a smile and walked over to her shoulder.


    "But you do," Elanor said, following Stewart.


    "This is breaking with tradition, but even if I die today¡ª Even if I wake up tomorrow in Northridge, with none of the bond the kingdom shares with its rulers¡ª" Heaving himself up first, then reaching down to help Elanor, who proved she didn''t need it by vaulting up behind him. "Even then, I would want to see my father avenged."


    Leaning forward, both their dusters providing a safe layer between them, Elanor whispered in Stewart''s ear, "Would you live for me?" She blushed the moment she''d said it but nonetheless wrapped her arms around his waist to hold on.


    Pausing as he was about to ask Penelope to take to the sky again, Stewart sighed and nodded. "Yes," he said, "but only if you keep whispering in my ear."


    <hr>


    Penelope looked across at the city. Its defenses put even Northridge''s new defenses to shame, and from the angle she was at right now it was clear the guards on them meant business. It was the only time she''d seen any city with a similar firearm availability as Northridge. Each guardsman had a rifle, pistol, sword, and a spear.


    The city''s walls weren''t the carefully measured square Northridge''s original ones had been. The kingdom''s capital was more like a wagon wheel without the outer loop. A star design that Penelope could see (from her vantage) that every approach could be covered by multiple sections of that wall. "Your shield had better work, or I''ll see you all in Northridge."


    Not a moment after Penelope saw the first eagle-eyed guard point at her did Stewart''s shield flash into place. A huge golden construct of force that seemed to burn all around her, she witnessed its effectiveness not a few moments after the first puffs of smoke arose from the wall¡ªand the cannonballs were vaporized before her nose.


    There was nothing to do but trust Stewart and keep going. Penelope soared over the wall, wrapped in the golden barrier, as cannons, ballistas, and even rifle fire now impinged impotently on the shield spell. "How long will this last?!"


    "Until¡ª" Stewart didn''t bother finishing. Penelope had carried him to the wall of the inner keep where the Royal Guard stood. It was a relief to him, at least, that they weren''t shooting.


    Landing on the wall, Penelope was glad she hadn''t had to <em style="font-weight: 600">make room for herself. Looking over her shoulder, she noticed that there was still the odd rifle shot coming her way. "Don''t drop your shield, we''re still under fire. Courtyard?"


    Replying with a nod, Stewart waited for them to descend and land on the cobblestones before dispelling his shield. Jumping down to Penelope''s leg, he let her lower him to the ground before acknowledging the waiting Royal Guards. "I need a report. What happened to my father?"


    "Five days ago, Your Majesty, his condition deteriorated. The healers couldn''t¡ª"


    Stewart held up a hand to forestall the medical report. "He was killed, poisoned. There was an attempt on my own life and that of the Earl of Hearthhome. I need to know if any high-ranking nobles have been present?"


    Clearing her throat, Penelope leaned her head down. She had, much to her surprise, grown comfortable having a head nearly the size of a person''s torso, but from the reactions of Stewart and his guards, they weren''t. "Sir, now isn''t the time for questions, but <em style="font-weight: 600">action." It was more born of her experience adventuring, but she caught him nodding to it.


    The words rang true enough to Stewart that he knew he had to cast off his former need to check permission before doing things. He also needed to harden his heart. "Bar the gates. Drop the portcullis, and raise <em style="font-weight: 600">my colors. Now, take us to wherever the Marquess of West Reaches has invested himself." The last he said to the Royal Guard.


    <hr>


    Elanor wished she could have brought Penelope with them, but once they were inside the castle itself, a lot of the halls were surprisingly narrow and wouldn''t let a dragon roam them. Stewart had left her in the throne room with orders to the guards that she was to be treated as a guest of the castle and a citizen of the kingdom.


    Now she was following Stewart through tight hallways and up twisting stairs, with the likelihood that she''d be shooting again. Even though she''d swapped her dungeon class to Soldier, she still felt the heat of Sandwalker wrapping around her, while the city and kingdom made up a triumvirate of power ready for her to unleash. "Are all the castle passages this tight?"


    "There are wider ones. These are the fastest," Stewart said, his mental map of the castle''s less-traveled halls guiding him. "This last staircase will lead into the hall outside the noble visitor suites."


    Hearing Harrow behind her struggling with the narrow passage, Elanor decided her lot wasn''t so bad. It took another two minutes before Stewart opened a door and led the three of them out into the hallway. The sound of metal on stone came from both directions of the hallway, but she noticed him approaching a large pair of double doors. "Stewart, perhaps you shouldn''t go first?"


    It was another case of thinking like a prince. Stewart nodded. "Elanor, I hate to ask it¡ª"


    Already reaching for her revolver loaded with explosive rounds, Elanor stepped forward and let out a little nervous laugh. "Don''t. I have enough talismans on me to make a priest''s offering bowl collapse under the weight of the gold in it. Sandwalker, cities of the realm, and the kingdom itself, lend us your strength that our aim will be true."


    Heat poured into all three. Elanor accepted it as her god''s blessing, and while Stewart was comfortable with it from his experience with the kingdom''s power, Harrow stared at his burning hand in surprise.


    "It doesn''t hurt¡­" Harrow said. "Should we wait for more guards to arrive?"


    "They''ve made this personal, and while I would feel safer with the guards, I can''t help but wonder if any have been compromised¡ªand I don''t want such at my back when this starts." Stewart waited for Elanor. When she raised her boot and drove it forward, he winced in sympathy with the wood paneling.


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 Chapter 160

    "But she''s doing okay, right?" Fife asked. "I didn''t think I hit her <em style="font-weight: 600">that hard."


    "She might look like an unstoppable juggernaut, Fife, but she''s still just human." Brayden watched Fife and Hreti sparring. "I promised her I wouldn''t use any magic on her, not that it would help anyway. She needs a few weeks of good food, light training, and no idiotic adamantine dragons fighting her. Got it?"


    Groaning, Fife held up a hand to Hreti. "Hold," she said, keeping her focus on Hreti. "I need to see that disarm you tried once more. How is Njal doing?"


    Watching the pair go through a combat sequence was like watching a dance. Brayden was slightly in awe of how far Fife had come with her skills. "He''s recovering. He was fine with me healing him, once the trait actually did its thing and he got his scales."


    By the fourth time deliberately playing into Hreti''s taunting swing, and having his sword catch hers at an annoying angle, she finally lost her grip on the blade. "Okay, let me get my sword and try it."


    Shaking his head, the fur now regrowing, Hreti said, "I''ve never seen anyone hold their blade after falling for that once, let alone three times."


    Picking up her sword, Fife walked back over to Hreti and held it out for him to inspect¡ªhilt first.


    The laughter surprised Brayden, so he walked forward to look over the handle. The four deep talon marks in the hilt were obvious. "Smart."


    <hr>


    The double doors flew open with the energy of Elanor''s kick. Inside she saw her uncle, her cousin, and three guards who turned to face them. The guards all reached for their weapons while the Marquess David Fitzgerald shook off the shock of the sudden arrival. "Prince Stewart! How good to see you! It''s such a relief that you''re¡ª"


    "<em style="font-weight: 600">King!" Stewart shouted. "When my father died, I became king by the will of the kingdom itself. I have proved that by arriving in this very city using the power of the King''s Seal. Put your weapons down, now. I won''t ask again."


    Reaching into his jacket, keeping his other hand away from his ceremonial sword, David said, "I''m taking out a notice, the last will of the former king. I think you''ll find it is enlightened reading." It was paper he removed, of course, but it wasn''t what he''d said. Two talismans, for the capital he was now in, fluttered from David''s fingers. "Shoot him."


    The city and the kingdom roared in Elanor''s ears. <em style="font-weight: 600">Protect him! they shouted, but that wasn''t her job. Harrow moved faster than her, putting himself between Stewart and the Marquess'' guards as they pulled their pistols free and aimed.


    Raising her revolver, Elanor felt as calm as a cat hunting. Of the three guards, she saw one had a slight head-start, and fixed her aim on them first. The sound of her revolver firing was a joyful song that the city, the kingdom, and Sandwalker all joined in with. The bullet flew fast and true, hitting the man in the chest.


    Eliza Sussaridge didn''t need to hear that second concussive blast to know that the woman shooting at them was Elanor. She''d seen first hand how effective guns were on her cousin, so she jerked on the igniter on her first grenade and rolled it underhand toward the doorway, hoping the motion wouldn''t get anyone''s attention. Like her father, she jerked out the capital talismans she''d been carrying.


    When Elanor didn''t react to the bomb rolling toward them, Harrow did. Using his pistol loaded with gold bullets, he fired once, cocked the hammer back, and fired again. The second bullet hit and split the casing open¡ªcausing the fuse to ignite the small charge within.


    The puff of fine white powder wasn''t as well distributed as the grenade would have done if left to its own ignition sequence. Eliza was relieved to see it engulfed the King''s bodyguard and was drifting toward the King and Elanor.


    <em style="font-weight: 600">Burn it. Elanor reached her left hand out toward the cloud approaching and followed the instruction. Flames wrapped her hand and then launched out. The dust quickly caught fire and a moment later nothing was left to show for the poison other than Harrow on the ground, convulsing.


    Feeling the same haze of righteous anger as she had in Far Reach, Elanor pulled the trigger again and again. The bullets that came her way were barely felt as she gunned down Eliza, David, and the last two of their guards. Panting, it took her a moment to remember she wasn''t alone and to perceive her companions.


    The room, Stewart could see, was a mess. Elanor hadn''t exactly stopped when each target was killed, but had kept firing on them¡ªnot that he minded the prospect of rebuilding the suite. What did make him angry was seeing all the bodies in the room fade away as their talismans took them to safety. "Damn."


    Kneeling at Harrow''s side, Elanor could see the blood leaking from his nose and heard a hacking cough from his mouth for a moment before he stilled, then disappeared. "Did Harrow have a talisman from here?"


    "No. He''ll be back in Northridge. He''ll be safer there until we can verify everything in the capital is under control. They seemed surprised to see us, but not unprepared." Avoiding the black soot on the floor, Stewart walked into the room and crouched to examine what the Marquess had dropped. "These are talismans for a temple not far from the keep. My guess is¡ª"


    Reaching for his head as a scream built, Stewart could see a mirror of his own shock in Elanor''s face. The kingdom, an entity utterly dependent on the populations of its cities, cried out in agonized pain as a large section of itself ripped free.


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    The kingdom stretched out in three arms. To the east was the oldest part of the kingdom, the Eastern Reaches. It had no less than fifty cities that spread out of the central home of the Duke that ran it. To the north, the youngest arm was still sprouting cities off the spur that Hearthhome and its earl commanded. The West Reaches formed its own hub of some thirty cities, but the link had been severed.


    Something reached through the bond to Elanor. Power flared and protected the kingdom from harm, searing the wound of the severed limb over with power and cauterizing it. She could feel more than just cities now. Travis and Breeze were within the kingdom physically, but now were part of it metaphysically. Through them, the power of gods flowed and cradled the panicked kingdom.


    Panting for breath, Stewart stared at the two talismans on the floor. There was no precedent for this. He struggled to collect himself and reassert his control over his own body, and heard the sound of vomiting behind him. A glance back showed Elanor was handling the schism worse.


    Having lost the pemmican she''d gulped down while riding Ripper, Elanor tried to shove down the pain that the kingdom felt. Stewart''s arm around her shoulders reassured her, strengthened her. She leaned into him. "He broke the kingdom."


    The Royal Guards reached the room and found Elanor and Stewart hugging each other for strength. The smell of seared flesh and stone dust from Elanor''s shooting combined with the growing smell from her vomit. "Sir?"


    Turning to the soldier, Stewart cleared his throat. "The West Reaches are in rebellion. Send a page to the army headquarters and have them meet here as soon as they can." He rattled off a dozen other orders, people he''d need to be aware that they were moving to a war footing. At last, though, he could smile a little. "Contact my cousin, Priscilla¡ªshe''s now heir to the throne and I need to speak with her."


    <hr>


    Something had been bothering the kingdom for some time. Every time its king and prince called upon it, there was a strange sensation from the west, as if something were fighting against it. The West Reaches was being noisy, and slow to respond. Then, when it gained its own avatar, the sensation became worse.


    Akin to what a mortal with a sore tooth would do, the kingdom worried at this sensation. There wasn''t pain, just a very <em style="font-weight: 600">not rightness.


    After the surprise Far Reach had, when its avatar landed there on a dragon, the kingdom saw fit to calm the capital in advance. That didn''t stop the mortal response, of course, but it saved its avatar''s minion from the fury of the most powerful city in the kingdom.


    The fight between its avatar and an upstart noble filled the kingdom with confidence. Of all the thousand-thousand little sparks of life that made up life within it, the kingdom had grown to love the bright flames of its king and its avatar. From its cities it had learned the curious game of matchmaking, and though it hadn''t deliberately intended to push the pair together, it could sense a bond between them.


    It celebrated the King''s solidification of his power along with them until the kingdom felt almost half of itself tearing asunder. The pain was beyond anything it had felt before. Over the years, it had lost a city here or there to outsiders raiding or dungeons growing too powerful. But, this was thirty-three of its cities, hundreds of thousands of lives, and countless dungeons lost as West Reaches tore up the bond it held with the rest of the cities east of it.


    Its scream of agony echoed through its king, its avatar, and every single city in the kingdom that formed part of it. It felt itself dying and leaking its essence out through the tear, and with that darkness seemed to close in around it.


    "Dungeon Travis!"


    "Wha¡ª?" was all Travis managed to get out before Northridge drew on his power. He knew the city well enough that he not only let it take from his strength, but he pushed more at it¡ªsending out a silent plea to the two gods that had temples within him.


    Breeze, too, felt a tug on the link they shared with Northridge, and without hesitation pushed their own power out and into the city and beyond. Feeling the pull increase, Breeze simply pushed more power out.


    "Brayden! Felna! Something''s wrong and Northridge needs more power! Can you¡ª" Seeing the pair break into prayer where they stood, Travis cut himself off and let them ask their gods. The power, when it came, was far too much for him to handle. The gods pushed up through the link he had to Northridge and then beyond.


    Travis could guess <em style="font-weight: 600">what needed the power, and who was probably on the other end of it. So he pushed with everything he had, not stopping until his mana was down to ten, since he was aware that Penelope and Ripper were both living off that.


    As sudden as the need for power came, Travis felt it ease. "What happened, Northridge?" There was no immediate reply. "Northridge?"


    "<em style="font-weight: 600">Dungeons."


    The word reverberated around Travis'' mind like a cannonball with no regard for personal space. It wasn''t the voice that Northridge used, and he could feel Breeze also reeling from it. "H-Hello?"


    "<em style="font-weight: 600">I have not had a dungeon assist me before. For that you have my thanks. It is your dragon that serves my avatar?" The kingdom didn''t often focus on any one city within its ranks, but having two dungeons assist it was a unique event. That the two gods that had sprung to its aid had come from them was astounding.


    "Yeah. Her name is Pen¡ªPenelope. What happened? Northridge called out for our help."


    The nuances of the phrasing were curious to the kingdom. From Northridge itself the information had come that both dungeons had given freely and with everything they had. Now, finding out they did so without any answers? Perhaps it was a new kind of dungeon or simply a unique relationship, but the kingdom was comfortable dealing with a dungeon that was so erudite and giving. "<em style="font-weight: 600">The city of West Reaches, the hub of the western arm of the kingdom, severed its ties with the capital. It cut me in half and I wouldn''t have survived if not for the support from every city, two gods¡ªand two dungeons. Thank you." Even as it thanked the dungeon, the kingdom still felt a distinct loss of a huge portion of the genius loci that gave it life. It felt a little like that dragon, but with one wing torn asunder.


    Travis put the facts together and didn''t like what he came up with. "Will this mean there''s a war coming?"


    "<em style="font-weight: 600">Almost certainly."


    "Can you give the King a message for me?" Travis only had a faint hint of assent, but it was enough for him to go on. "Tell him to let Penelope know where, and she can place a dungeon exit. I will support him with everything I can."


    The vehemence of Travis, echoed in Breeze, elated the kingdom. It had never worked with the dungeons of its cities before, but from Northridge it could feel no hesitation in its endorsement of them. "<em style="font-weight: 600">I will pass this on."


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 Chapter 161

    Examining the corpse that her own talisman had brought back to her temple, Fairheart frowned. There were minor signs of physical harm to the body, but what concerned her more was the more likely cause of death¡ªpoison.


    Poisons were a problem for her profession. It wasn''t a good look if you resurrected someone with divine magic only for them to get immediately poisoned again and die. The faiths definitely didn''t <em style="font-weight: 600">earn donations for such things, she thought.


    One aspect that had annoyed Fairheart about temple work was <em style="font-weight: 600">accepting donations. It had been quite freeing to have Travis simply offer to <em style="font-weight: 600">donate any amount required to ensure everyone in the city was protected. She had thought it would be a stiff argument to get him to agree to her being included in the deal when Rupert''s temple had aligned itself sooner, but in the end they both got what they wanted.


    "And you want to live." She carefully used a little glass vial to collect the bloody spittle, noting the tiny black dots in it. A second specimen was taken before she set both to the side and attended upon her task of preparing the corpse for its resurrection.


    First, she had to clean the poison out. Normally, on a living being, all kinds of careful <em style="font-weight: 600">remove poison spells could be employed. Corpses had no risk of suffocation and lacked any inherent resistance to magic, however, so Fairheart simply used a regular cleaning spell.


    After letting the spell work its literal magic for several minutes, she dismissed it and set about accomplishing the task of reuniting the man''s soul and his body, while imbuing the latter with life once more.


    The drain on her faith, amplified even as it was by Travis'' presence within the city, failed to accomplish the task. It was the oddest thing. Normally, if something were too much for her, it was because of excessive damage to the body or, in stranger cases, because the soul was unwilling to inhabit its former body. Now, though, it felt like her magic was digging through lead to reunite the body and its former soul.


    Fairheart did what any good professional would when encountering such a problem for the first time, she tried again. Her goddess bestowed power upon her and she used it to bind soul back to body¡ªand it failed again. "I think I need a second opinion."


    Casting a general protective blessing over her altar and the body upon it, Fairheart left the inner sanctum. Spotting her newest assistant, she bade the young girl, "Please let any visitors know I will return shortly."


    The city of Northridge was growing daily. Fairheart had noticed a flood of people coming into the city and had celebrated the burgeoning life with joy in her heart. What had surprised her most about the growing city was how active Breeze was. What had been a small dungeon that had begged them for sanctuary was now an essential part of the city with a wide entrance to let wagons and workers in and out. Her goddess was fond of Verdant dungeons, after all, and one becoming so large so fast was a wonder to behold.


    Her musings carried her the distance to another temple, one as large as her own but somehow far more imposing. Stopping at the entrance, she set her palm on the door and whispered a prayer, asking permission from the resident priest. The door opened not a moment later.


    "You don''t need to beg entrance, Farah. The scales don''t harm or hinder unless you bring intent to unbalance." When she made no move to enter, Rupert raised an eyebrow.


    "I have a problem. Try as I might, I cannot resurrect a man whose body arrived earlier via talisman." Fairheart was relieved when Rupert dropped the pretense and stepped through the door and out into the street. "He arrived with poison suspended in blood staining his lips. There was minor physical damage, but I followed procedure. I took two samples of the blood so we can identify the poison, cleaned the body thoroughly, and tried to bring him back."


    Listening, Rupert returned to Fairheart''s temple with her and shivered a little as the goddess that partly resided there greeted him. Dipping his head, he acknowledged the goddess and entered the holy place, eventually reaching the resurrection altar.


    Approaching the body, he reached out with his faith and felt for the condition of the corpse. It was intact, there was some internal damage, but it was nothing he hadn''t encountered before. "May I?"


    "I welcome your assistance. Please, go ahead."


    With that, Rupert focused his mind on the task of reversing entropy. There was a corpse before him, and he could sense the soul that belonged to it, so he called on his faith to restore their bond and invest the soul back into the body.


    Feeling something in the way, Rupert stopped before expending his full power. "There is something blocking this. If you''ll pardon me, I will call more power." Rupert did so once he had a nod from Fairheart. Offering his faith up and wrenching on the soul and body to combine them, he expended a measure of faith that would have restored a body if given just a head¡ªand failed.


    Taking his time to recover from the expenditure, Rupert ran through the process to examine where the failure had occurred. It was definitely not something in the body¡ªhe could feel how clean it was and expertly prepared. "Where is this poison?"


    Fetching one of the vials, Fairheart passed it to Rupert. "I have not seen its like, but I have had limited experience with poison."


    Uncorking the vial, Rupert smelled it carefully, then let his magic play over it. "It feels inert now, but there is the slightest hint of a curse about it." With that, he bent his power toward identifying the contents. The moment his faith touched it, the curse jumped out and tried to flee. Grabbing at it, Rupert pinned it down and then speared the metaphysical horror to the altar while giving a silent apology to the goddess.


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    Staring in shock, Fairheart called her goddess'' power to reinforce Rupert''s work. The air crackled with power as two gods bent to the task of aiding their priests in dealing with a new foe. "Is that a soul poison?"


    Nodding, Rupert began taking the curse apart with techniques far more advanced than mere cleaning. "Someone with a horrible amount of skill made this. Even a Rot dungeon wouldn''t make something this malicious." There were distractions and parts that the poison would use to evade detection, but Rupert stripped them free with the expertise of a butcher seeking an expensive, lean cut. When he was done, he''d stripped the curse of all misdirection and revealed its purpose¡ªand he didn''t like what he saw. "At the moment of death, it consumes and destroys the link between body and soul, leaving the person impossible to resurrect. It appears to be trying to conceal itself and what it did."


    "So he''s¡ª?"


    "He is beyond anyone''s ability to¡­" As he said it, Rupert trailed off in thought. He was definitely beyond his own ability to bring back, and any priest he knew, but it wasn''t just priests that could put a soul back in a body. "Do you have a cart for moving bodies?"


    <hr>


    Travis knew the two priests were more supportive of each other since the siege, but the pair looking so determined as they wheeled a cart across town toward him was new. When they reached his entrance, he had Brayden meeting them.


    Feeling drained still, from having roused his god to war for the kingdom, Brayden gestured deeper into the dungeon. He could feel the somber determination around the pair. "What can we help you with?"


    Fairheart, seeing the man''s life as being her responsibility first and foremost, replied, "A resurrection. We have a man who had one of my talismans who appeared to have died of poison. That poison attacked his body and severed the connection to his soul."


    "That''s Harrow, the King''s bodyguard," Brayden said after they''d rolled the cart into the timber mill room where he could get a good look at him. "Trav, what can you make from this?"


    "I can tell he''s dead. I''m a dungeon, Brayden. I can only see what you see. Is there something I can try, though?" Travis asked, making sure to speak to everyone present.


    "We cannot bring him back like this. I thought that we could try to, at the very least, use your methods to try to restore him. His soul feels willing to return, but we cannot unite it with his body." Rupert remembered the curse and couldn''t suppress a shiver.


    "Oh. Uh, I''ll have to talk to Felna about that. Felna?" Travis could see her sitting in her own temple, eyes closed, meditating. "If it''s not a bad time¡ª?"


    Opening her eyes, Felna eased her mind back from the relaxed state and then slapped the floor three times to banish the trance completely. "It''s never a bad time, Trav. What can I assist with?"


    Explaining what he knew, Travis moved to the guts of it. "I''d like to see if you can cast your communication spell on him, and if not, if I could try making him my minion in place of you, so that I can resurrect him."


    "Oh. Hrmm." As she walked out of her temple, Felna found her tail twitching in curiosity. "Where am I going?"


    Travis struggled not to stammer in his reply. "Up. Uh, the entrance. They''re using the timber mill up there that no one uses anymore. If it''s too much, I could get Axel to¡ª"


    "I''ll do it. Even though it will greatly inconvenience me and leave me feeling alone and distraught." Smiling, Felna shifted her walk from the hippy sway she normally affected to something a little more professional as she ascended the stairs to the first floor. She nodded to the guards present and made her way into the room Travis had told her about. Dipping her head to both priests, she asked, "Anything I can help with?"


    "We have a problematic case here. This man was returned to Priestess Fairheart''s temple of the Sisters of Grace." Rupert went on to describe the situation in full, ending on the last discussion he''d had with Travis about attempting to use the dungeon methods for resurrection.


    It was a tall order. Felna considered her bond to Travis to be one of the more stimulating things¡ªapart from becoming a priestess¡ªin her life. Giving it up, even for a moment, made her fur stand up. "We can but try. Without Lady Penelope present, we can''t use the normal methods for bonding someone to the dungeon. He might not be amenable to that, given last time I saw him he was guarding the king."


    "I would ask that neither of you share this spell or attempt to cast it yourself; this is magic unique to my faith." After waiting a moment for both to nod, she took a deep breath and worked her spell. "This is the first stage. It allows a person to commune with a dungeon. It will almost certainly fail to do anything, because Travis can commune with anyone now, but here goes."


    When the spell resolved and nothing happened, Felna frowned a little. "Travis, anything?"


    "I can''t¡­ Um¡­" Travis scrambled to look through his interfaces, trying to find if he had a new minion like Felna had first been. "He''s not here."


    "I expected as much. Let me try to take it to the next step. I''ll be back soon, Travis." While she''d normally go a bit further with her flirting, Felna felt it was a bit too somber a moment for her usual shenanigans.


    Part of Felna wanted to scream and demand he restore the link immediately. She would burn everything until she got her way. Thankfully for those present, she had a firm grip on her kitten-self and maintained her casting without more of a tell than a lashing tail. She could feel the magic extend from her, wrap around the body.


    "Still nothing," Travis said after she''d cast it. Part of him felt a little lost without Felna''s connection. He wanted to talk to her about that, but put it aside for when there weren''t a bunch of priests and a corpse decorating his workroom. "No. He''s not in any of my systems."


    "It cannot find <em style="font-weight: 600">him. His soul is unbound and unreachable." No sooner were the words out of her mouth than Felna felt the probe of dungeon magic. She didn''t resist, even welcomed the link as Travis'' presence rushed back into her.


    "You''re purring," Travis told Felna¡ªand only Felna.


    "I''m sorry, but this magic cannot help him." Felna tried her very best to be outwardly respectful of the situation, while inside she wanted to dance. "If you''ll excuse me, the other aspects of resurrection are not my forte."


    Leaving the two talking of preserving the corpse for later efforts, Felna made it as far as the stairs down before she let her purr out at full volume. With one hand stretched to the wall, she sashayed her way to the bottom floor, never stopping from touching the side. "Thank you for not leaving a lady waiting."


    Travis would have liked to spend more time focused on Felna, but he had a meeting starting with the council, Northridge itself, and Breath of Spring¡ªto whom he would have to explain that the kingdom was now at war.


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 Chapter 162

    Just after Stewart, Elanor, and Harrow walked into the main keep, Penelope looked around to take stock of her predicament. The guards were nervous, which wasn''t surprising in the least, but they seemed strong in their conviction and trust of the King. "Uh, now what?" she asked the nearest. The man looked startled, but quickly regained his composure.


    "We keep following the King''s order until he issues a new one. You didn''t eat anyone on the way in?"


    "No. All the people on the wall were wearing armor, and while I can melt that off people quickly enough, it also melts <em style="font-weight: 600">them too¡ªand I forgot to bring a bowl with me." She waited a moment and, when the guardsman could hold back his laugh no more, she grinned. "The truth is I have never eaten anyone. I haven''t been a dragon long, but I don''t want to get a reputation like <em style="font-weight: 600">that."


    Trying to stop his laughter, the guardsman managed to calm himself enough to ask, "What if the King told you to?"


    "Would you?" She snaked her head around on her long neck, now used to being able to look backwards at someone standing beside her. "If he needed it, really needed it, I would. Not that I''d eat the Marquess if his assassin is anything to go by. There''s a woman who likes her poisons."


    Wincing, the guard asked, "There has been a woman escorting the Marquess. She departed a week or more ago, but returned a few days ago. That''s her?"


    Turning her head to look at the front doors of the keep, Penelope nodded. "She was trying to kill the barons in the city of Northridge, then later the King and Elanor foiled her plans to kill the Earl of Hearthhome and the King himself."


    "Sounds like someone who deserves a conversation with the business end of a gun."


    "Yea¡ª" Penelope was cut off by what sounded like repeated cannon blasts coming from high in the keep. The sound, though, she recognized. It was the rapid report and explosion that Tinpot''s explosive ammo used, but chaining over and over for what sounded like nearly thirty shots. "Get on!"


    Even as his brain registered the end of the fusillade, the guardsman moved to follow the command. He held on and drew his own pistol as Penelope flew upward rapidly. When they stopped rising, he was staring in the shattered windows of a guest suite and could see Elanor and the King still standing. "Your Majesty?!"


    Elanor pulled from Stewart''s embrace and turned to the window, her gun lagging behind her vision only barely. When she saw it was Penelope with one of Stewart''s guardsmen on her back, she lowered her weapon.


    When the guards in the room moved to put themselves between Stewart and the window, he held up his hand. "It''s under control."


    <hr>


    What confused Stewart was how the capital hadn''t reacted to Penelope''s presence. He glanced to Elanor, who sat to his left. "You said the kingdom has acknowledged Travis?"


    "Yes. I can''t feel his presence, like I would in Northridge, but the kingdom now has <em style="font-weight: 600">dungeons as part of it. It said that <em style="font-weight: 600">both the dungeons in Northridge had offered support." Elanor still shivered. The kingdom had been in agony, what with so many cities cut out of it, but somehow Breeze and Travis together made up for a lot of that¡ªand she had no idea how or why.


    Stewart chewed on his thoughts for a moment. The rest of the throne room was a flurry of information being passed between officers, but there was still the dragon in the room to remind them that this was going to be anything but a normal war. Personally, he was glad to have a dragon in the room. Penelope seemed both ignorant and uncaring, though she had given him useful advice so far. "I can understand the importance of Travis, but the other dungeon was a Verdant animal dungeon. How could that compare to a city?"


    Lifting her head at the question, Penelope cut in¡ªas the room turned deathly silent. "Breeze has over a hundred floors now, and we believe she''s adding one to two a day. She seems to be speeding up."


    "That''s impossible," a voice called from across the room.


    Shrugging her wings, Penelope blew a little puff of air out her nose. "Tell <em style="font-weight: 600">her that. When she got past eighty floors, we stopped trying to keep count and just asked her boss to tell us."


    Stewart noticed Elanor nodding and thought over that. If that dungeon had only half its floors populated, that was enough food production to supply a city larger than the capital. "Travis seems to be a force of change in all around him. We will definitely take his offer of support."


    "Where?" Penelope asked. At the look of confusion on Stewart''s face, she clarified, "Where do you want me to open an entrance?"


    The absurdity of it, combined with the knowledge that Travis already had a dungeon entrance in one city, was too much for Stewart. He shook his head and laughed, but held out a hand to Penelope in a placating gesture. When he got himself under control, he said, "I''ll confer with the city and we will decide whether something within the walls or a new keep would be better. I understood he offered to assist in this war, but I didn''t expect it quite this close to home."


    "We can open two entrances, actually. I''d talked with him about it, and we considered the capital to be a good position for one. The second would have been best reserved for either the east or the west, but under the circumstances¡ª"


    "It would shorten communications and material transport to an instant. The railway between Far Reach and Northridge must be completed as fast as possible, so we can leverage this further. It is a shame that he is based in Northridge and not Hearthhome, but we can''t solve that without another entrance¡ªone that should be best reserved for the west, when we take it back." It was such a huge step that it made Stewart feel that they could beat the rogue cities to a war footing despite them already having planned for this. "I''ll see to arranging that as soon as I can. Travis knows we are engaged in a war now, and I intend to earn his assistance in carrying it out with as much alacrity and effectiveness as possible."


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    Penelope sat through the rest of the meeting between Stewart and his military leaders listening with mild disinterest. As Stewart had said, it had devolved into repeated complaints of the timeframe required to muster soldiers. Otherwise, things had gone smoothly.


    After that meeting, a new caste of leadership entered the throne room: religious leaders. Penelope watched the shock play over the faces of most as they came to show support for their new king, and came face-to-face with a dragon instead. She yawned at them in disdain, but recognized several of them as not being hostile¡ªand two that smiled at her. "High Priestess Alice Stormblade," Penelope said, "and you''ll excuse me, High Priestess of Sandwalker, I don''t know your name, but I do hold two of your priestesses in high regard."


    "Akila." Dipping her head a little, the catkin could feel the rumbling purr echoing through her and judged it as easily as she breathed. "Priestess Felna has been keeping our order updated on events in Northridge, as well as a novice priestess who shows great promise."


    Their little conversation was cut short as a young woman, not much older than Stewart, walked proudly up to the throne and bowed her head to him. "Your Majesty, we tried to save your father, but something was interfering with both healing and resurrection."


    Gasps and mumbling broke out in the room as the representatives and leaders heard the news. What hit Stewart harder, though, was remembering that Eliza had used a poison to kill Harrow¡ªand he remembered that it had only happened because Harrow had stopped the grenade from reaching him. He didn''t want to jump to conclusions yet. "Thank you for your efforts." Raising his voice, Stewart looked among the religious orders. "The Marquess of West Reaches has had my father, the former king, killed. His agent attempted to kill myself and the Earl of Hearthhome while I was there. He is complicit in the killing of the former Baron of Far Reach, and I suspect other nobles across the kingdom. He has aligned the western cities in a rebellion against us. For these crimes do I hold his life forfeit. There is a five million gold bounty to be placed on his head, and all his lands, titles, and those of his complicit family are forfeit. Please, spread this to all who hear your words."


    Silence, except for the sound of styluses scrawling down the words, took the room as every religious order''s head took note of the exact words said. Elanor sat there, feeling a little superfluous. She thought back to the fight in the suite, and felt not a drop of remorse for what she''d done. Inadvertently, she sensed Sandwalker, the kingdom, and the city take note of her anger and quickly dampened her fury to a warming flame. "Do you have a name?" she asked. "Everyone just calls you <em style="font-weight: 600">the capital, and I''ve never heard¡ª"


    "Home," the city spoke to Elanor, holding back as much of its will as it could not to panic the woman. "My name is Home."


    The name was wrapped in concepts of a warm fireplace, good food, and family nearby. Elanor easily supplanted the family she''d left behind with a newer and more welcoming one. "Will you let my friends make an entrance here? He''s a dungeon." The city itself swelled with anger at first, so she clarified, "Travis. He''s part of the kingdom now."


    Home froze in its anger. The kingdom, always a close companion, reassured it that the Inquisitor''s words were true. "It truly is a friend?" Even to itself, that sounded pleading.


    "I promise. It''s his dragon that got Stewart here in time. She''s nice too." Elanor felt one more moment of indecision before Home relaxed. "He also has resources and effects that will make you and your people stronger."


    Watching and listening to Elanor, even as the high priests and priestesses talked over her, Penelope braced her back legs and stood up. Her movement cut every conversation short as over a dozen pairs of eyes stared at her in surprise. "Your Majesty"¡ªshe''d heard enough people talk to Stewart now to know how to address him a little better¡ª"it''s time to introduce your city to Travis. Priestess Elanor, is the city in agreement?"


    Nodding first to Stewart, who was looking at her, Elanor said, "Home is ready, Lady Penelope."


    "Then by all means," Stewart said, standing up, "let us find a suitable location for the dungeon entrance."


    The throne room and the great hallway leading to it from the courtyard of the keep were, Penelope had to admit, the only places in the castle she''d be able to go. She let Stewart lead, of course, with Elanor at his side. None of the religious folks seemed inclined to elbow her out of the way. So, she let them deal with keeping clear of her tail as she performed her most dignified walk possible into the courtyard and, finally, to the main gates of the keep.


    When the city guards spotted Stewart wearing a crown, they froze for a moment. Then, recovering, they fell back and to the sides to provide a path for the strangest procession ever to leave the keep. They parted further when he turned and directed everyone to proceed along the path that followed the outside wall of the keep around to where it met the outer wall of the city. There was a wide swathe of road that kept the wall clear of buildings that would give any attackers an easier way within the keep, but where it met one of the inner points of the outer wall''s star was precisely the spot that Stewart wanted. "Lady Penelope, will this suit?"


    It was a dingy, out of the way corner, but Penelope could recognize it had the most important thing given what this entrance would be used for¡ªaccess to a huge, wide road. Nodding, she walked up to where the walls met and turned to face Stewart. "This will do. Travis?"


    The ground shook, but what Home felt most acutely was a new presence pushing into the locale. There was a dungeon entrance within the city already, of course, and it had its own keep built around it. The Verdant dungeon of the capital was dormant, quiet, and had never voiced a single articulate feeling.


    "Hello. I don''t know how this will feel, but I don''t want to hurt you and I hope we can be friends."


    "Uh. Hello." The greeting, friendly, supportive, and warm¡ªwas the last thing Home had expected. With the dungeon, though, came another link. Another city and another dungeon seemed to reach through this dungeon that had connected with it. The city was young, but strong, and the second dungeon felt like an avalanche of life and energy came with it, pouring into the city streets and easing the ache of hunger with the merest touch of its presence. It was overwhelming, a shock unlike any the city had experienced before¡ªand utterly welcoming.


    "Greetings!" Northridge wasn''t sure how to address such a massive entity, but it liked Travis'' first effort. "I hope we can be of some support with the war."


    Breeze wasn''t big on words, so they instead wafted warmth and mana into Home. Part of them wanted to open their own entrance into the big city too, but Travis hadn''t said they should yet.


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 Chapter 163

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 39/100


    Heart 5,475,600/5,475,600


    Experience 970,615/1,368,900


    Mithril 200


    Adamantine 200


    Mana 310


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 51


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon.


    Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 65/66 | Monsters 89/67 | Traps 151/162


    Quest: Reach level 50.


    </blockquote>


    Travis had begun to learn that having nobles and other high-ranked folks enter once a day was a big deal. Barons, earls, and high priests were all good¡ªbut two times now Stewart had been within his dungeon as <em style="font-weight: 600">King, and each day had resulted in over a million experience gained.


    The first task Travis had given himself, after Stewart had given them a place to emerge into the city, had been to widen that entrance to something a cart could move through and, further, expand the tunnel that led down to the resources on his bottom floor. It gained him a lot more rock, but now opened the way for the city''s miners to get to work.


    Fife had taken to digging a mini dungeon while preparing for the last delve on the goblin dungeon, as well as being on hand for a new project. Travis had to face facts¡ªhe needed to provide access for the humans to mine. So, they''d decoupled the various mazes and boss rooms to allow for a direct path from the first floor to the bottom. It was extra wide to allow the miners of the capital to "delve" without any risk of being harmed. Topped off with a new teleport "trap" near the mining area, and Travis was content to let them mine all they wanted. He had negotiated a deal for them to tithe a percentage to himself in either the metal mined or gold.


    Right now, though, Travis was letting everyone do the work he''d posted while he looked through Penelope''s eyes and listened through her ears as Stewart conducted a special court.


    <hr>


    Stewart liked to think that the courtiers that normally clustered around for any of his father''s ceremonies were reticent to approach because they were trying to calculate how to handle a new king whose policies could be vastly different from his predecessor. But, more realistically, he could accept that they were huddling because there was a dragon lying beside his throne with the end of her tail making a symbolic arc before Stewart. "We are here to establish the laws regarding a new dungeon in the region."


    The words, and the reminder that a lot of money was on the line, created a little courage in those assembled. Penelope watched one young man stride forward. He wasn''t dressed to quite the ostentatious degree as the others, but he''d clearly made a point of trying to fit in. She could see calluses on his hands and some muscles bulging under his fine clothing.


    "Your Majesty," the courtier began, bowing his head the appropriate amount before he continued, "would not the existing tariffs and laws regarding harvesting resources from the city''s Verdant dungeon apply?"


    Keeping his tone level, Stewart said, "No. They don''t apply. Those tariffs were calculated to subsidize the city. The new dungeon is not here to subsidize the city." Looking aside to where Penelope was pretending to be asleep, Stewart cleared his throat. "Lady Penelope, is your lord able to speak with us?"


    Lifting her head and looking around the room, Penelope couldn''t stop the draconic side of her mind from calculating if she could get all the courtiers with one breath attack, or if it would take two. "Lord Travis is always ready, Sir."


    "Excellent. Lord Travis, you have already negotiated with a trading consortium, am I correct?"


    "Yes, Your Majesty," Travis said, ensuring his voice went to Stewart, Penelope, and all the courtiers and guards present in the room. Stewart and the guards had, of course, had some time to get used to hearing him. The nobles present hadn''t, and were looking around in panic for the source of the voice. "I hope it wasn''t presumptuous of me but I have had good business dealings with the Sellswell merchant guild in the past, and already saw to negotiating a percentage tariff with them."


    Stewart had to stop himself from saying "excellent" again. "I won''t delve into how much your arrangement is, so long as you set a public price." This was the highlight of his day. Once they were done, he''d be back to the meetings to reassure every craft and commerce guild, as well as every noble, that he wouldn''t make any changes from his father''s decrees.


    "Please, Sir, what is the nature of this voice? Is it your dragon?" another courtier asked.


    The question was always going to come, but it was something Stewart had planned for. "The voice you hear is the dungeon himself. Lord Travis. I believe this will suffice to explain <em style="font-weight: 600">why this matter is unlike the Verdant dungeon?" He caught several nods, and took mental note to arrange for them to have an extra meeting. Some of them, though, looked as if they''d been served food with mold growing on it.


    "The standard fee for anything mined of gold, iron, mithril, or adamantine, will be thirty-five percent of either the quantity mined, or its equivalent price in gold. Miners will have a lit, twenty-foot-wide path from my entrance to the resources, and there is a teleporter <em style="font-weight: 600">trap that can carry anyone back to that entrance. Your people will follow directions and not mine where they are not told to do so. There will be additional resources that will be free to mine. These are coal and sulfur." Travis was reading what Stephan had written down. "If anyone wishes to negotiate a better contract, you are welcome to."


    "So that''s it? We can pay thirty-five percent of the market price in gold for mithril and adamantine ore? What''s the catch?"


    "You can make use of my smelters too, though we''ll have to build some you can have access to. They will increase the yield of your ore." Travis liked how quickly they figured that out. "Nothing. No catch. You can even have them for free if you give me that percentage when you''re leaving."


    Stewart shouldn''t have been surprised at how money-hungry his courtiers became when they realized how rich they would get. "I will reiterate that no harm to dungeon creatures will be tolerated. They have the protection of the kingdom, myself, and the guards that I will have placed within. I will have a proclamation regarding this once the details of this deal are finalized."


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    "There shouldn''t be a problem with resource generation¡ªI can create many of these nodes a day. But I would like to review the process in a year''s time and adjust the costs then." The shift Travis saw through Penelope''s eyes¡ªfrom calculating to an almost need-to-use-the-bathroom desire to exit the room made Travis laugh into the void of his mindscape. They were so prepared to ignore their earlier objections and worries in pursuit of profit.


    "There are the matters of safety," Penelope said, drawing everyone''s attention to herself. "You will not bring your own guards into the dungeon. If we see anyone attempting to bypass the tariff or steal goods from others, their sponsor will be held accountable for their actions. Affiliation will be established for everyone upon entry."


    "That should conclude the matters of mining rights in the new dungeon. The only remaining thing is a few little decrees. Lord Travis is hereby a citizen of the kingdom and is conferred a life-peerage. He will hold the rank of knight of the realm. Lady Penelope will, likewise, be a knight of the realm, a citizen, and carry an additional honor for service already rendered to the crown. The dungeon Breeze, in Northridge, will be granted citizenship, and each creature in both dungeons will also be made citizens of the Greater Trade Kingdom¡ªexcept lizards." Stewart looked to where the court records keeper sat and gave the woman an encouraging nod. "That should cover everything."


    Travis thought there would have been pushback from the group against such a thing, but he could practically see the dollar symbols in their eyes now.


    "You are all free to go." As soon as the words were out, the courtiers were bowing and rushing to take their leave. That he''d soon be speaking to money, and power, hungry idiots that he couldn''t dangle a carrot before dampened Stewart''s mood a little.


    Stewart was relieved and pleased to see that two of the assembled group remained. "Lord Hubert, Guildmaster Drover. I am glad you aren''t as ready to cast caution to the wind as the others." The former was a tall human man and the latter was a dwarven woman.


    "I don''t think either of us are as ready to be swayed by¡ªadmittedly¡ªvery enticing, shiny baubles." Sparing a moment for the levity of his words to fade, Hubert pushed on. "Sir, the former king was a great man. He will not soon be forgotten. But, we know he spent a lot of his time teaching you, <em style="font-weight: 600">Your Majesty, and we both know that it is vital to listen to the quiet words <em style="font-weight: 600">as well as the loud ones." Bowing as deeply as he could without compromising his balance completely, Hubert felt like a giddy schoolboy on the inside. He dearly wanted to put his family''s concerns into the latest venture of deriving riches from a dungeon willing to bargain directly¡ªbut he could always smell a better deal coming, even before it had arrived. "And for you, Lady Penelope, as you have already shown willingness to make private deals, I believe I would like to avail myself of that rather than bully my way past¡­ the impatient."


    "I''ll arrange an appointment with Travis'' senior negotiator," Penelope said.


    "I expect Guildmaster Drover will want to discuss her plans as well?" Stewart asked.


    Dipping her head an appropriate amount, Drover replied, "Of course, Your Majesty. As the kingdom''s metal-smiths, you''ll¡ª"


    Clearing her throat, Penelope looked at Stewart. "They will be making weapons for the war?" At Stewart''s nod, she looked back at Drover. "You will keep every bit of metal you mine, and Trav¡ªLord Travis¡ªhas an open offer to your smiths. It will lead to much more efficient use of materials."


    Any annoyance at being interrupted was washed away with smug satisfaction and a little curiosity. "At your earliest convenience, Lady Penelope."


    "If you both wait outside, I''ll escort you to meetings once we''re done," Penelope said. "Unless you want to take care of it yourself, Trav?"


    "No!" Travis sent to Penelope. "Okay, the last one will probably be fine, but it is probably best if Stephan handles any actual negotiations." He widened his voice to Stewart. "Just nod if you want me to give Lord Hubert a better deal than all the others."


    Dipping his head slightly, Stewart thought back to how Hubert had spoken¡ªacknowledging Stewart''s father, but not making any demands of Stewart. "Hubert, you and your father were both trusted advisors to my father, and I''d like to continue that relationship. Until further notice, you can contact me as you wish, though I might not always be free immediately. I think we have everything in order here?"


    <hr>


    Drover, Guildmaster of the metal-workers of the capital city, worked her way through the offer given to her by a smith and a kobold. She looked at Axel. The young man had definitely been smithing for some time, as evidenced by the corded muscles in his arms and his wide, strong shoulders. The kobold beside him was not a smith at all, but a woman beyond seventy years old, if she was to be believed.


    Choosing her words carefully, Drover worked through the offer again, out loud. "You''re offering any smiths who will be working on the army''s weapons, armor, or siege machines a class that normally only applies to dungeon monsters, but you can bestow on people¡ªthat will let them make more items with the same materials?"


    "Well," Axel said, unsure exactly how to address a guildmaster, but figuring he''d speak as he would to another smith, "eventually. You have to take the basic <em style="font-weight: 600">Kobold class first. You gain experience for doing anything related to work a kobold would. From that you will get stronger and heal quicker, but it''s a requirement for Kobold Crafter. That''s where you start getting unlocks specifically for reducing materials, making better quality items, and if your smiths would be willing to work in the dungeon, they could produce items faster."


    "You have to understand, Guildmaster, Axel is currently the highest level in this, and he is less than a third of the way through the class." Millie gestured to Axel at the appropriate moment. "This would normally cost five thousand gold, four thousand adamantine, and four thousand mithril per person, you understand, but we have recently come into a method to mine vast quantities of those without any work at all."


    The amount of resources it would cost to make each of her smiths have this dungeon class was horrendously wasteful in Drover''s mind, or it would be if she were paying the price. "How fast are those greedy sno¡ªthose nobles'' workers¡ªremoving resources?"


    Shrugging her shoulders, Millie smiled with a full set of sharp teeth. "It was deemed a good deal. They appear to be mining almost as fast as Trav can place new nodes, and they get upset whenever we get a run-on of sulfur and coal. We have begun paying a small premium for removing entire nodes of those."


    "The other offer." That was the odder one, somehow. "Becoming kobolds¡­ I will mention it to our retired master crafters. The choice will be theirs."


    "It might seem strange, but Travis won''t enforce his will on anyone, and they are welcome to live their lives outside the dungeon." Millie didn''t want to lie by omission, so added, "Though being underground feels more comfortable now, and I won''t deny that if he were to give me an order, I would have no option but to follow it."


    "I appreciate the honesty. As I said, I will pass that on." Standing up, Drover thrust out her hand first to Millie, and after shaking she offered it to Axel. "Lad, would you mind showing me these swords you mentioned?"


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 Chapter 164

    Opening his eyes despite the horror that would befoul his vision, David Fitzgerald, marquess of West Reaches, beheld the kaleidoscope of mismatched images and held out his hand. The priest passed him his clothes and, getting dressed, he asked, "Revive Eliza Fitzgerald-Sussaridge next."


    Not bothering to wait for confirmation, David put on his clothes, straightened them, and doggedly pushed himself to ignore the resurrection side effect. Leaving the temple on the grounds of his city estate, he walked through the carefully tended garden to his home.


    The house was, of course, a mansion¡ªpractically palatial. Advancing quickly to his office, David froze the moment he set foot in the room as a power so much greater than himself took hold.


    "You didn''t kill the new king." The strong, feminine voice seemed to echo throughout the world, at least in David''s mind.


    Like being constantly in a lightning bolt as it hits the ground, David nodded. It took an effort of willpower to reply. "He moved too fast and knew too much. We dealt with his father and I believe his bodyguard is no more, but the man still stands."


    Releasing its grip on David, West Reaches sighed with its husky voice. "I ripped us free of that annoying kingdom. It should have died with the number of cities it has left."


    "That''s one enemy out of our way." Circling his desk, David took a seat and reached to his correspondence tray. "How did the muster go? Anything slip through?"


    "A kingdom tax collector and their annoying little minions. There was also an adventurer who had no proof of dungeons run except east of here. They''re all waiting in the cells." The city''s smugness carried over in its voice.


    Relaxing, David closed his eyes to banish the strange vision that yet persisted. "I couldn''t do this without you."


    "Nor I you. Your daughter is about to knock on the door."


    "Come in, Eliza." Rather than her knocking, David was pleased to see her stride confidently into the room. "Shame about that whelp."


    Walking over to her father''s desk, Eliza knelt down beside it. "I''ll go back and finish the job."


    The unwavering dedication made David smile. "You are too valuable for that." Tilting his head away from Eliza. "Have the armies moved to the defensive line?"


    "They left two weeks ago. I cannot see them, but they''ll be in position." West Reaches felt like the luckiest city in the world. She had done what no city had done in the history of the kingdom. Now¡­ "David, there''s something else you need to consider now, <em style="font-weight: 600">Your Majesty."


    The way the city purred the last words into his mind had David Fitzgerald shivering from the base of his skull down to his tailbone. "That has a wonderful ring to it."


    <hr>


    [a brave young priestess'' journal]


    No, Miss Journal, I am not renaming you to that other thing. I can scarcely even understand that word, and yet Stewart [small ink blot]


    This has been absolutely beyond all reason. Stewart is giving orders like [small ink blot]


    I know he''s the king now, Miss Journal, but where do I fit into that? I think he wants me there with him, but when I''m sitting beside him, he doesn''t ask me anything.


    It''s a new day today. Four days since we flew into the city and I kicked down a door and shot up a room that looks like it cost more to furnish than all of Northridge. I''m going out to Travis and I''m going to fight and die and I will feel better after that.


    Most people would think that I was out of my mind to do that. I huffed just then, Miss Journal. I huffed deeply and I believe I shall fight until I die twice. Once will not suffice.


    <hr>


    Stewart had a hundred things to organize before lunch. Of those hundred things, about half were because Travis had accelerated all sorts of war plans that would otherwise have had a month or more to manage. He looked at Elanor and, more than anything, wanted to tell her she couldn''t put herself at risk. The problem was, for all his kingly power¡ªshe hadn''t asked him. "Though I wish I could rely on your strength, I will manage alone in the meetings."


    Sitting, as they were, alone in a room apart from a maid bringing them breakfast, Elanor decided to ignore decorum. She stood up from her seat on the opposite side of the table from Stewart, placed one hand on the table and vaulted over it to land beside him. "I''m going to ki¡ª" She blushed, however, as Stewart beat her to the punch.


    The sound of the maid scurrying out of the room broke them apart into a fit of giggles. Stewart debated telling his generals to find something else to do for the day while he spent it pampering Elanor¡ªbut that wouldn''t do. "I can look forward to your company tonight?"


    "I will be sore and sweaty, which means I''ll be in a great mood. Perhaps we could spar a little?" The fire Elanor felt inside threatened to make her blush, but Elanor didn''t care. She felt dangerously out of control when this close to Stewart, and being alone together in the room only made it worse. Or, in a word that would forever get blotted out of her journal: better.


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    "Sometimes I wonder which of us is doing the chasing and which is being chased." Stewart again felt intrigued and delighted at Elanor''s mix of nobility and rough courage that she would charge into a room, guns blazing, <em style="font-weight: 600">for him. "Try not to die."


    "That''s not how my training works. Well, that is, I <em style="font-weight: 600">try not to die, but I push myself hard enough that it''s a constant razor''s edge. I fight like every encounter may be the last I ever face¡ªand that''s because Lord Travis adjusts the difficulty for me. The harder I train, the less danger I''m in fighting for real." Elanor, rather than return to her seat, instead reached out and pulled her plate across. "That''s why I''ll be sore and sweaty. Trust me, <em style="font-weight: 600">my king, it will have me in a better mood by far than fidgeting quietly at your side."


    Wincing at the description, Stewart slumped back in his chair. "I don''t know what to do about that. I want to ask you things, but if I do, they''ll think I am incapable of making my own choices."


    Realization dawned and Elanor smiled at Stewart. "You want me there for support, though, don''t you?" He looked about to deny it, but then nodded. "Then let me be the inquisitor and warrior I am. I''ll attend your first meeting, and I will <em style="font-weight: 600">put on a show."


    <hr>


    Elanor could have gone absolutely berserk in the mini-dungeon. She could feel the kingdom, even hurt as it was, could still empower her to deliver devastating attacks with her pistol. While the thought of blasting her way through might have sounded cathartic, she knew that it would do nothing to improve her skills.


    Vocalizing her thoughts, she said, "Besides, I find myself actually enjoying this Soldier class."


    She''d forsaken her duster for actual chain mail and a cuirass of mithril. It was heavy, but wearing the hybrid armor in her duster for months now had left her holding up just fine. "Hold on, there''ll be a boss in this next room," she told her companions.


    Bark and Bite held back, Bark turning to look behind them while Bite kept their eyes forward. Elanor checked over her gear. She had a spear, medium-sized shield, and a single-shot pistol loaded with a gold ball. Her armor had some dirty spots now, where she''d bled a little from where an attacking wolf had gotten its teeth clamped around her shoulder, but her armor had stopped it from removing her arm. Taking a moment to meditate, she looked up at the ceiling to where Snipsnap and Ripper were clinging.


    Steadying herself, Elanor checked over the door for any trap triggers and, assuming there would be another pit inside, opened it¡ªand swore. "Really?"


    "Travis wants you to have a challenge." Hreti rolled his shoulders. Even in his human form as he now was, he knew he was an imposing figure. He drew a pair of adamantine axes from behind his back where they hung on his chain-mail shirt.


    "Okay, okay, let me just figure out if there are any¡ª Of course, another floor trap. He loves these things." With her crouched and trying to jam the trigger mechanism, Elanor knew she was making a target of herself, but Hreti stood back calmly and watched. "Not going to help a lady?"


    Tipping back his head and barking a laugh, Hreti shook his head. "When you spend your whole life being bossed around by a woman who could snap you in half, you don''t have much room for southern views. I''ve heard of your fighting. You have killed foes fast and with overwhelming force. I wouldn''t dishonor you by denying you a single challenge put before you." Having spent weeks as a wolf, it felt strange to Hreti to be <em style="font-weight: 600">just a human.


    Having secured the trigger, Elanor nonetheless didn''t want to walk straight across the trap. An earlier mini-dungeon had left an impression on her when Fife had tossed a rock at the mechanism while Elanor had been walking over the false floor. "One on one?" she asked.


    Hreti felt his pulse quicken and, if he''d been a wolf at the time, he''d have no doubt wagged his tail. "And a friendly bet?"


    Thinking, Elanor nodded. "If you lose, you teach me how to use an axe. I''ve always admired it as a weapon to be used in close quarters."


    "One-handed axe training? Admirable. And if you lose, you will come and run with the pack one night, and hunt with us, and tell us of your battles." Tapping the flat of one of his axes against the top of the other, Hreti signaled his readiness for Elanor to begin.


    Remembering her instructions from Fife, Elanor lifted her shield up to protect herself and tapped the edge of it with her spear, signaling her own agreement. She focused on her abilities and the edge they would hopefully give her. Elanor had to assume Hreti had at least as much in Soldier as she did, but she had the Priest class over him. She Enhance Defensed, Shielding Stanced, and stepped forward to close the gap; calling on Sandwalker through mumbling lips to Inflict Pain on Hreti.


    The sharp jolt Hreti felt made his face pull into an excited grin. She''d used it a moment before her spear''s tip reached his weapons. He deflected the spear with his left hand while bringing his axe up, hoping to whittle her shield down. Instead, bright white sparks flashed off hidden spars of metal in the shield.


    From there Elanor circled around Hreti, making sure to turn her shield so that his attacks always hit the spars of adamantine in it. Her spear gave her an edge in range, but Hreti''s axes always deflected it.


    Hreti was a little impatient. Elanor''s defensive stance was good, and he couldn''t ignore her spear because the moment he did, it would bury itself in him. Allowing an enemy to maintain their stance and plan ahead in a fight wasn''t Hreti''s style, though. Stepping back from her spear range, he raised his right hand up to his shoulder and brought the axe he held back a little.


    The first Elanor knew of Hreti''s plan to throw the weapon was the axe winging toward her face. She had no choice but to raise her shield into a dangerous position to stop the weapon, while turning to expose her torso a little. The exposure was calculated to give her a chance to see what was coming next.


    Leaning into and pushing through with his right arm, Hreti punched the shield with all his strength. He had no chance to parry Elanor''s spear, and caught it in his left shoulder. With her off balance, he wrenched his axe out of her shield and pushed his advantage.


    Dropping her spear, now that Hreti had moved too close for her to use it, Elanor reached instead to her belt. As the blinding pain of an axe cutting through chain-mail, flesh, and bone registered, Elanor pulled the trigger of her pistol¡ªthe barrel pressed to Hreti''s chest.


    The muffled discharge of the pistol and the pain of the ball breaking a lot of things in Hreti''s chest made the big man smile. He fell to the ground atop Elanor, and they bled out together. The last words he heard were:


    "We both lost," Elanor said.


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 Chapter 165

    Fife stared, completely distracted from her work building a war party to delve the goblin dungeon for the last time. "That. Is. Awesome! Did Axel make that for you?" She had to tilt her head up to look the gnoll woman in the face, which hadn''t been a problem for her even before she''d finally grown into an upright dragon that surpassed most humans. "I''ve always thought of using a heavy flail, but that''s something else!"


    The big gnoll woman looked down at the weapon at her side and bared her teeth in a smile of anticipation. The handle was as long as Fife''s forearm, the chains of it that length again (covered in nasty, sharp hooks), and the three cylindrical heads had spikes fashioned into them. "Good weapon. Cut down many trees for it." Rolling her shoulder, she squinted her already small eyes at Fife and tried to get an idea of her chances of beating the dragon. It didn''t matter. If they fought, it would be a joyous clash. "Want me show how works?"


    Taking stock of the gnoll again, she had to admire the compact defensive equipment which consisted of a segmented adamantine sleeve covering her weapon arm from shoulder to gauntlet, and a square adamantine shield.


    "After we deal with these goblins." The pure predatory hunger in the gnoll''s eyes was like a cascade of heat passing through Fife. She could remember something she read in one of Travis'' books, and liked the way the statement sounded. "Then we can live our best lives."


    Speaking up for the first time, the male gnoll bowed. "If it pleases the warmaster, I will write a song of the battle underground, and the mighty heroes celebrating in ritual combat?"


    Fife loved the idea and the title he''d used. "Yeah! We need more music around here." She watched as the towering gnoll killing machine with the flail leaned down and with the most tender of expressions on her face, kissed the male gently on the cheek. "You''re mates?" Seeing a huge warrior like the gnoll woman blushing was quite the sight.


    "Yes. He''s mine."


    A little away from the conversation, but nonetheless overhearing it, Astrid looked at Hreti as he grinned at her. His fur was thinner since he''d had Fife give him the same red dragon traits as the rest of his pack, but he had a lot of scales showing through the fuzz and looked to have the most armor coverage of them of their group. "You invited her to hunt?"


    "Yeah! She''s been on a great hunt!" Hreti raised an armored fist to his chest, thumping the adamantine plate he wore and making it clang loudly as if it weren''t any heavier to him than a cotton shirt. "She''s fearless and doesn''t hesitate to kill." He still wasn''t as used to the big lizard tail he had now as he would have liked, but nonetheless he felt it swaying side to side behind him.


    Raising an eyebrow, Astrid asked, "Are you chasing her tail?" The way he froze, like a young wolf caught in the act of stealing, made Astrid sigh. "Go ahead. You''re not a pup. But don''t challenge your competition. You will only win that woman''s heart with your own actions."


    Grunting at that, Hreti shrugged. "If I killed him, she''d be angry. She likes him more than just as a¡ª" He stopped himself from saying something that Astrid probably would have punched him for. "She wants lessons in using axes."


    "Keep your head on straight and don''t get distracted. We get to hunt a dungeon and kill it this time." Even saying it made a prickle of excitement run down Astrid''s spine. Their preparations were interrupted as Hilda approached. She watched her pack all stiffen a little. "Captain," Astrid said, greeting the hard-faced woman she''d specifically stopped taking orders from.


    Hilda let out a grunt of acknowledgment, not sure if she wanted to hear that level of formality anymore. "I''m not going to apologize for my actions. They were the right ones. The enemy¡ª"


    "Were more powerful than my pack and took us apart one by one, and we were each given a choice, a place by their side, death in combat, or exile. Now we have a place we can be ourselves." Astrid did her best not to snarl, but she felt a heat burn inside. "You''re not coming on this hunt, Hilda."


    Not prepared for this new Astrid she''d been presented with, Hilda let their history drop and instead attacked the current problem. "Why not? I''ve recovered."


    Stepping up into Hilda''s personal space, Astrid was happy that she could look down at the woman who''d ordered her pack to its death. "Because you''re only human, and can''t run for a week¡ªday and night¡ªwithout tiring. Because you can''t do that and then fight at the end."


    It stopped Hilda dead in her tracks. The wolves of the northlands had always been impressive fighters, but now Astrid had something more mixed in with her lupine heritage. "This is because you serve the ho¡ª" Hilda felt the imminent threat of Astrid''s reaction to her own almost-voiced insult. She could try to lie and call it habit, but the truth was she had intended to throw the words in Astrid''s face.


    With her own anger calming, Hilda took a slow breath and stepped back¡ªknowing full well what that would mean to Astrid and her wolves. "I offer my honor and my arm, for that is all I have left. Truly, tell me, is it that hard a fight?" Hilda couldn''t read the expression on Astrid''s lupine/draconic mix face, but the soft sigh that escaped her lips sounded like pure joy.


    "It is. We run, we kill, we do that for days and then"¡ªAstrid shivered¡ª"and then we will tear that hole''s heart to shreds."


    Now Hilda needed absolutely no translation of body features to know what Astrid felt. She grunted, took a deep breath, and said, "Good hunting."


    Snapping her eyes on Hilda''s own, Astrid dipped her head only slightly. "And you. I heard Pen is back in the dungeon, so you might want to take the initiative and ask her for your fight."


    It was Hilda''s turn to feel the joyful anticipation of combat. She wanted to say more to Astrid, but even as the moment came to do so, Astrid turned away and led her wolves to where Fife stood. Breathing a little heavily, Hilda wondered where she should go to find a specific dragon in a city that seemed to venerate the creatures.


    <hr>


    Elanor was feeling rather done-in. Her final delve, after being resurrected following her challenge with Hreti, had been completed without death. She knew she had a slight odor, but there was a bath in the suite that Stewart had arranged for her and she intended to use it.


    Leaving Travis'' entrance in Home, she walked along the road to the main gate of the keep, trailing her fingers along the wall. She could feel Home humming to itself, and the kingdom felt revitalized. The wagons queued up at Travis'' entrance, along with the few that had passed her hauling ingots of mithril, adamantine, and gold, were part of the reason. Or, so she thought. "Home, are you satisfied that Sir Travis means no harm?"


    "Friend. Dungeon Travis is my friend. So much new activity! I''m bubbling with power and I can feel more still pouring through all my inhabitants." Home felt positively chatty. Since the linking with Travis, Breeze, and Northridge, it no longer felt the loneliness of a city whose leader spent more time focused on the kingdom it was a part of.


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    "Sir Travis <em style="font-weight: 600">is the only nobleman I trust implicitly. King Stewart is almost there, but I might need a little more convincing." Another fully-loaded wagon rolled past Elanor as she reached the gate. When she was stopped, she sized up the guardsman. He looked serious about his business, and Elanor had to remind herself that he was literally one of Stewart''s guards now. "I''m here to see King Stewart."


    "And who are¡ª"


    "Escort her in. That''s Lady Elanor," another guard called, interrupting the man who''d stopped her.


    Elanor felt relief to not need to prove herself and, truly, she realized she hardly looked like a lady in her armor, carrying a shield, a pair of pistols, and a spear over her shoulder. "I don''t need an escort."


    "Begging Your Ladyship''s pardon, but we are still undertaking the new king''s investiture, and as you are aware, not all of our number have had the privilege of your presence." The guard, despite his initial fumble, was now absolutely calm and steady in his address of her. "So, to facilitate a smooth entry to the keep, it would be an honor to forestall any further missteps."


    It was a perfect disarming of any possible argument she could have. Elanor sighed. "You''re very good at that speech," she said, moving to walk beside the guardsman.


    The guardsman didn''t smirk, though his reply sounded like he had. "We represent the King. We must know how to speak to the nobles seeking his presence."


    Remembering the stones where Penelope had landed, and seeing the claw marks in them, Elanor felt buoyed up by the reminder that she got to both train in Travis'' mini dungeons <em style="font-weight: 600">and spend time with Stewart now. "And when he says to tell them to remove themselves from the clean cobblestones?"


    "Then we do so with every bit as much honor as the King would want."


    Entering the keep proper, Elanor held her silence as they slowly walked through the hall. She had seen plenty of petitioners waiting here on her way out of the keep earlier, but now, in the late afternoon, it was empty of all but guards.


    "Lady Elanor to see his¡ª"


    "Sorry," Elanor said, cutting off her escort. "I''d actually rather head up to my suite first and freshen up."


    There was no pained sigh. No apparent annoyance in the guardsman at all, merely a nod and a gesture to a side exit of the hall that she knew would take her to the upper level rooms.


    When they reached the floor where Elanor''s suite was located, he finally broke and asked, "You train with those weapons, my lady?"


    "I do. Lord Travis¡ªthe new dungeon in the city¡ªhas been sponsoring me with equipment and training. Today I spent several hours battling his minions in three small training dungeons he has designed." Approaching her quarters, Elanor was surprised when the guardsman opened the door and stepped in first, then made room for her. "Thank you."


    "Can''t be too careful." Bowing himself out of the entryway, the guardsman pulled the doors closed behind him.


    Alone in her rooms, Elanor began stripping off her armor. The cuirass had to go first. She carried it through to the bedroom and set it on the arming stand. Her chain mail went next, then her arming doublet, and finally her shirt, trousers, and underthings before entering the bathroom.


    The bath was an ornate tub of beaten steel, coated in ceramic. Above it, a gold mana filtering array stood with various stones and pipes running through it. Elanor reached for the little crystal on the end of one such pipe and brushed her hand over it.


    Hot water began spilling from the pipe. Elanor hurried to seal the drain with a lever before watching the intricate play of magic work in the system. She gathered soaps to the side of the bath, a handful of loose soap flakes, and then slipped in as it was almost half full.


    The heat soaked into her muscles and eased soreness she didn''t realize she''d had. She stopped the spout before the tub overfilled, and got to work cleaning herself off and finding all the little rub marks and wounds that she''d suffered in the mini dungeon after her second resurrection for the day.


    Clean, and letting the enchantments on the tub keep it warm for her, Elanor was on the verge of sleep when she heard the knocking on her bedroom door. Glancing at the water, and seeing it cloudy enough that no modesty would be lost, she called to what she thought would be a maid to, "Come in."


    There were a lot of things Stewart thought a lady could be doing in her private quarters that she wouldn''t ask for time before inviting him in, but reclining in a tub wasn''t one of them. "L-Lady Elanor!"


    Caught, Elanor almost squealed and slid down a little further into the water to hide herself. "Stewart. I didn''t¡ª Oh goddess, I didn''t anticipate it would be you."


    "I''ll leave¡ª"


    "Wait. Uh¡­" Her mind racing, Elanor blurted out, "There''s a chair in my bedroom. If you sit on it and face the other way, we can talk."


    With the option of several chairs, Stewart picked up the nearest and set it down, turned away from Elanor''s bathroom. "Was your day pleasant?"


    It was too much for her. Elanor laughed. "Stewart, I died twice today, had my arm cut off, and gained another level in Soldier for the fights I won. Also, I will be getting some axe training from the man who got my arm before I could shoot him." Splashing the water a little as her mood turned playful, she added, "And, I get to relax in a hot bath while talking to the most handsome man in the kingdom."


    Stewart was following her description of her training when his train of thought got completely derailed by the end. He smiled and felt a burst of desire to peek over his shoulder, but he was a gentleman. "Does it hurt?"


    "Dying? Not exactly." Elanor fished for words to describe it. "At the moment it is happening, things aren''t working right or you don''t have enough blood and you can''t exactly think straight. The pain fades, then you wake up on an altar wi¡ª Wait, you''ve never had to use a talisman?"


    Shaking his head, then realizing she might not be watching him, Stewart said, "No. My father didn''t want to risk the kingdom falling to another with his assassination while I was resurrecting. So, my training never included that, and then I found an amazing woman who keeps putting herself between violence and my person."


    "What did they ambush you with today?" Elanor asked, taking her time to drain the tub and rinse herself off.


    "Everything. Absolutely everything. It''s as if my father''s promises mean nothing to them." It was a struggle not to jump to his feet and rant.


    "So, why don''t you make an announcement of <em style="font-weight: 600">that?" Getting out of the tub, Elanor realized her mistake: all her clothing was in her bedroom. Pondering how to handle that, she took the executive decision and cleared her throat. "Close your eyes. I need to fetch something to wear."


    Stewart''s first reaction was to stare at the opposite wall, eyes wide, but he gathered his wits and his honor and snapped them closed. The sounds of footsteps upon the wooden-paneled floor made him try to latch onto anything that might rescue him from the goings-on around him. "I don''t want all of Father''s rules." The situation playing out had to be struck from his thoughts as he plowed through the problem mentally. "He was¡ª He made a lot of mistakes. Not moving faster on the Marquess was the latest, and last, but there were other signs that he wasn''t keeping abreast of matters. I don''t want to let the kingdom stagnate because its leader couldn''t keep up. I¡ª" Stewart froze as his senses told him someone was very close and in front of him.


    "I''m dressed appropriately, you can open your eyes." Elanor had put on a shirt, a pair of trousers, and her favorite shoes¡ªwhich were far from the more elegant things the ladies at court wore. She particularly liked the utilitarian "lady''s boot" because it allowed easier movement and sure footing while still raising her heels. That''s what she focused on now, at least, and not how pretty she thought Stewart looked when he blushed.


    Making a conscious effort to snap his mouth closed, Stewart stood up. "Dinner will be served as soon as we assemble." There was something creeping up in the back of his mind. It wasn''t fully realized yet, but Stewart felt like a little more thought on his courtly situation might reveal some larger truth for him. "After you?"


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 Chapter 166

    Between the King''s Guard, the Northridge Guard, and the various creatures in Travis, the dungeon was more secure than any fortress Hilda could name in the North. Shoving back the fear she still couldn''t banish where such purely magical things were concerned, she looked around the busy workers inside¡ªat the wagons loaded up with ore heading out¡ªand headed to the stairs that led deeper, but not all the way to the bottom where the miners were heading.


    "You wanted to talk to someone?"


    Hilda turned to face the challenge, and saw a kobold wearing a robe. She always had trouble trying to pick out males from females until they spoke, but this one sounded male. "I am looking for Penelope the dragon."


    Tilting his head a little as he listened, Robert nodded. "Trav, why didn''t you tell our guest yourself?"


    "Because I didn''t want to startle someone unused to this." Travis said to both of them, though only Hilda twitched at the sound of his mental voice. "It''s also getting harder to focus, what with a new city of information pouring into my head. Sorry, Hilda, as I told Robert, Penelope is in the capital right now, organizing with the King to open the last of my entrances somewhere in the East. Is it urgent?"


    Unsure whether to laugh or cry, Hilda opted for the former. "Trust my luck to challenge the only dragon who is busier than I am. She deals with kings and kingdoms, while I just¡ª"


    "She''s on her way," Travis said. "When I told her you were standing here asking for her, she told the King she had an important matter to take care of."


    Genuinely taken aback, Hilda asked, "Now? She walked out on a king?"


    "Not exactly." It was hard not to laugh at what he''d witnessed when he''d told Penelope that Hilda was asking for their duel. "Do you want to fight in the open or underground?"


    <hr>


    Walking out of the sally port of the city, Hilda felt like her heart was going to explode. She had her shield and sword, all her armor, and only needed to get word to put her helmet on and be ready for the fight.


    She was just working over the straps of her armor when she heard the beat of dragon wings. A shiver ran down her spine from the back of her head and, when it reached her tailbone, it rolled all the way back up.


    Penelope landed on the wall, displacing a few guards there to let Stewart off, then dropped off the other side and walked out to meet Hilda. Behind her, she could see Stewart asking what the odds were from a sergeant who held a writing tablet.


    Approaching Hilda, Penelope could see the intense look in the woman''s eyes that seemed to stare past her. "I''m glad to hear you''re feeling better. Do you wish to impose any rules on this fight?"


    "You said we can both come back from the dead?" At Penelope''s nod, the back of Hilda''s head tingled with excitement. "Then, to the death. Use whatever you wish." She lifted her helmet from her side and pulled it on her head, then fastened the strap under her chin.


    "I have a cleric of Sandwalker waiting to heal the wounds or resurrect us. Good luck."


    Hilda had a moment to nod to the well-wishing before Penelope jumped into the air. She''d expected it, but didn''t want to hold such a mighty foe down. Fully expecting Penelope to strafe her with her breath, she set her shield before her and kept her face from being exposed¡ªonly to feel a massive contact as much of Penelope''s weight slammed into her shield.


    For Penelope, hitting Hilda''s braced shield with her two balled fists was what she was sure flying into the city wall would be like. Still, she beat her wings and pulled herself into the sky and safety again.


    Hilda shook her arms and stepped out of the divots in the ground she''d made as Penelope retreated back into the sky. The impact had been monumental, but she''d held her ground. Now she followed Penelope''s loop through the sky and started panting slightly¡ªpumping her lungs like a set of bellows to fuel the fire of energy she''d need.


    Not wanting Hilda to have it too easy, Penelope spat a thin line of acid toward her, and was pleased when Hilda ducked behind her shield.


    It was a surprise for Hilda when, instead of smashing into her shield again, Penelope grabbed it with her back talons and flew directly upward. Letting out a laugh of pure joy, Hilda cut the straps anchoring her shield to her arm, and reversed the slice to score a line along Penelope''s scales with her heavy adamantine blade.


    The line of fire along the inner thigh of her left back leg made Penelope wince. She could feel wetness on her talon and knew she was bleeding freely. Grumbling, she turned around for one more strafe, threw the shield toward the base of the city wall, and cast Shield of Mana on herself before stooping into a dive.


    Expecting to get punished for the loss of her shield, Hilda prepared to dive aside from any lines of acid¡ªonly to get engulfed in flame. Snarling at the magic trick, she got most of the flames out and dove aside as Penelope crashed into the ground where she''d been standing. The impact of hitting the ground nonetheless knocked the wind out of Hilda, but she regained her feet quickly and faced off with the most deadly foe she''d ever encountered.


    The cheering from the wall stalled both fighters for a moment, each tilting their heads to see folks screaming in excitement.


    "Quite the crowd," Penelope said.


    "Yeah." Hilda didn''t take her eyes off Penelope, even when she stole a glance at the wall. "Was that fire magic?"


    "Mmhmm." The words rumbled from Penelope''s throat like a growl. "You said anything."


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    "You could have melted me where I stood¡ªlike you did to the goblin army."


    "That would have been boring and betraying my promise." Twitching when Hilda moved, Penelope couldn''t crab-walk sideways to match, so instead turned slowly. When she''d had enough of that game, she inhaled and blew a line of acid to stop Hilda''s motion.


    Seeing how slow Penelope was at turning, Hilda feinted a turn back the other way¡ªthen charged. Her first swipes with her blade went easily deflected by Penelope''s foretalons. Swinging wider to get more strength behind her stroke led to Penelope punishing her with a slice down her left side that found a gap in her armor and peeled half her breastplate back like it was made of tin.


    But, when Hilda withdrew from the engagement, she had positioned herself closest to the wall and, reaching down, scooped up her shield. She couldn''t fasten it to her arm with its straps, but she was able to hold it with her mailed fist well enough, and it protected the ruined side of her armor.


    The attack and maneuvering had been masterful, in Penelope''s mind. Hilda had perhaps misjudged how well talons could slice up her armor, but she had recovered her shield. Seeing nothing else for it, she tucked her wings in and bunched her haunches.


    Hilda only had time for one good breath between when Penelope prepared herself and then pounced. Wishing she''d opted for a polearm, Hilda''s mind raced as she watched Penelope approach at great speed. She had the tips of her wings out, something that Hilda knew would let her shift direction in the air. There was nothing else for it than to lower her center of mass, brace her feet, and present her shield.


    Knowing that engaging with Hilda in close quarters would always cost her in wounds, Penelope steeled herself and prepared her talons to ensure that both shield and sword would be busy. Hilda slammed her shield up into Penelope''s right talon, ignored the left, and drove her sword upward, tip connecting with Penelope''s chest.


    As the tip of her blade pressed in, Hilda''s face lit with a triumphant smile, only to be replaced as intense pain, beyond anything she''d felt before, made her right shoulder feel on fire¡ªthen suddenly cold.


    Only a few finger-widths of sword had pierced Penelope''s breast before she''d tightened her grip on Hilda''s upper arm¡ªand pulled. With the limb torn free, she found herself still struggling to subdue the woman with her right talon and, so, tossed the arm aside and used her left to dig her claws in on one side of Hilda''s neck and slice sideways.


    Feeling her life slipping away, and not able to speak because of the bubbling noise at her throat, Hilda managed to fix her eyes on Penelope above her, and wept at how perfect her end had been, while the dragon standing over her roared in victory.


    <hr>


    Waking up from death was a new experience for Hilda, let alone one so magnificent. She jerked, lifting her right arm immediately and, shocked at the sight of it reattached, tried to sit up.


    "Please wait. Since this is your first time experiencing this, you will have some disorientation. Your sense of balance will take a few moments to recover, and your shoulder will itch. You will also experience a sensation that will happen whenever you are resurrected in the future. It can be as small as a constant need to sneeze or as big as annoying feelings of muscle-strain." It was all the normal speech for Fairheart, but the look on the huge woman''s face held confusion and annoyance in equal measure. "You cannot understand me?"


    Before Fairheart could get her answer, though, a gentle knock on her inner sanctum''s door made her call out, "I have a reborn with me."


    "One of the kobolds from the dungeon is insistent. She says she can understand and talk to your reborn."


    The softly spoken voice drew Hilda''s attention. She recognized a word from it, "<em style="font-weight: 600">kobold."


    "Send her in." Fairheart knew a lot of the kobolds now in the dungeon. Many had spoken to her before finalizing their decision to join their fate to Travis''. When the door opened and Ludmiller walked in, though, she had to admit she only knew this one by her kobold reputation. The soft lighting of the perpetual candles in her temple seemed pushed back and actively repelled. "Ludmiller. You are here for our guest?"


    "Sorry to interrupt, but Travis thought it would be best to have someone who Hilda can understand present." Turning to face the impressive warrior, remembering her from the invasion, Ludmiller gathered her confidence¡ªand was cut off.


    "The Ghost." Hilda couldn''t believe how small Ludmiller was. Before her was a kobold she knew had wrecked her sister, Donna''s, efforts to take control of one dungeon, reduced every siege engine they''d had to rubble dozens of times over, and had almost cost them the one win they''d had¡ªsapping the walls. She dipped her head and instantly regretted it.


    Ludmiller was faster than Fairheart, shifting herself to Hilda''s side to catch the huge woman before her head connected with the altar. She held Hilda until she could balance and get herself upright.


    "Fast. Strong. Hard to see. Why is everything blue?" Moving slowly, Hilda stood with one hand on Ludmiller''s shoulder. It was even harder to balance, but she fought down nausea to keep her composure.


    "Blue? That''s probably going to be your <em style="font-weight: 600">thing each time you resurrect. Thank the priestess; she and her acolytes rushed outside the walls to pick you up and get you back here. Take two of the talismans there¡ª Actually, take a stack and store them at your new fort. Give them to all your soldiers."


    Guiding Ludmiller toward her armor, Hilda scoffed and picked up what remained of her bevor. "Need something stronger to protect against dragon talons. Spikes? Maybe reinforcement? How do I say ''thank you''?" When Ludmiller repeated a sound back to her twice, Hilda looked at the priestess and dipped her head slower, trying to avoid nausea and offense¡ªparticularly to someone who had gifted her with the ability to fight again. "Thank you."


    "Tell her she''s welcome, and to take some talismans." Dipping her own head in return, Fairheart felt her goddess smiling down on her. She didn''t like the word <em style="font-weight: 600">heathen, but she could see a little hope in offering Hilda and her people her goddess'' more natural faith. "And more for her soldiers. She can leave her armor here and pick it up when she''s more capable. There are robes to your left."


    "I did. I''ll see they get them." Focusing her attention back on the giantess of a woman balancing on her shoulder, Ludmiller told her, "She says you''re welcome. You can leave your armor here for now and wear one of these robes home."


    The thin cloth was as good as nakedness for Hilda, which got her thinking. "When we are born and destined to be a warrior, we are left exposed for a day and a night. I feel¡ª"


    "You''d spend a day and a night in the city guard''s jail. Folks might have gotten used to Breath of Spring and her minions walking around naked occasionally, but I don''t think they''d make allowances for you. The robe won''t protect you from the cold, anyway." Ludmiller glared up at Hilda until the big woman grunted, but kept the robe on.


    "My armor." The piece in Hilda''s hand was caked in blood, the leather straps were cut where they hadn''t been torn, and it had two deep gashes in it where claws had shredded it like paper. "I will be back for it. I want it to¡ªto remember my fight."


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 Chapter 167

    The fight had been exciting to see. Elanor cheered for Penelope, but it was still thrilling to watch the northern warrior inflict wound after wound. In her mind, she tried to follow the reasoning behind the moves and what alternatives Hilda had discarded for each specific action she took.


    She left Stewart with a few of his guards. He''d made bets both ways and had handily lost some gold. Elanor was sure he didn''t care; he was even laughing as he handed out coins to those he''d lost to. Descending the stairs of the wall, passing back through Travis, and then making her way into the keep in Home, she was mostly thinking of combat tactics. So much so, in fact, that she almost collided with a maid who looked utterly conspicuous as she stood around <em style="font-weight: 600">doing nothing in the hallway.


    Something, an inkling she had no real source for, prompted her to ask, "Is something the matter?"


    Freezing in place, fighting down the urge not to panic, the maid tried to remind herself of her duties¡ªone of which was to pay attention to the people she works for. "L-Lady, I''m sorry. I didn''t mean to, but¡ª" She clenched her hands and had to fight to get the words out. "A man in the kitchen¡­ I saw him adding something to the meal that will go to the King''s table."


    The words tumbled out in a pile, and Elanor was forced to run over them a second time in her head before she derived meaning from them. "Someone who shouldn''t be? Not the chef?" She got emphatic nodding as a reply. "Can you take me to where the meal is?"


    Nodding, the maid let out a sigh of relief as the lady, of whose taste in clothes she would not comment on, took charge of the situation. Leading her down to the keep''s kitchen, she opened the door and stepped inside. "It''s¡ª" She stopped, seeing the man lurking at the heavy door that led outside the keep into the courtyard.


    Elanor tried her best not to stare directly at the man, but nonetheless recognized him as not fitting in. He had workman''s trousers, pockets abounding and with a thick belt to keep them up. A simple, off-white shirt that looked like it had been washed often enough that it should have holes in it shortly, and a pair of work boots that appeared to have some kind of heavy support in the toe. She noticed, too, he had a smallish beard. There was not a spot of food on him, he lacked a kitchen apron, and his eyes seemed to bore holes into Elanor the moment the maid motioned her toward the prepared meal that was sitting on a stove top that she assumed was turned low.


    "Please, stay here and don''t let anyone touch these plates," Elanor whispered to the maid. She cursed her lack of armaments¡ªthe haste she''d made from her bath leaving her without even a pistol. Under her breath she added a whisper, "Travis, Home, if you can hear me, please have guards on their way to the kitchen of the keep."


    A woman, thin as a rake and wearing a perpetual frown, entered the kitchen and glared around. "Who are all these people in my kitchen? Katie, what are you doing over there? His Majesty is back and will want his dinn¡ª Here. Where are you going?"


    The moment the man turned to the door, Elanor moved to chase him. She shoved herself around the preparation table between her and the path leading to the door, and called out, "Stop!"


    While the man wrestled with the door to open it, Elanor glanced around for a weapon. With dinner already prepared and everything put away, though, she had nothing to use but her fists and her mind¡ªwith the addition of her faith. She opened her mouth, uttered a short prayer of a spell, and sent burning pain into the man''s legs.


    Screaming, the man braced his shoulder to the door and pushed hard. The door was heavy¡ªa defensive one¡ªand only opened slowly for him. The moment it was open, though, he was fleeing from the kitchen.


    Only a short distance behind the man, and still lacking a weapon, Elanor raised her voice. "Halt! Scoundrel!"


    Attention was the last thing the man wanted, and he could ill-afford to run for the front gate with the shouting hellion chasing him. Turning on Elanor, he drew a knife from a sheath at his side. "The hard way," he muttered.


    Seeing the flash of steel, Elanor stiffened a little. Calling on the city, she spoke a word aloud to draw its wrath into her for the coming fight, "Traitor."


    Having a young woman come at him unarmed was one thing, but when the man saw both her fists become sheathed in fire his heart dropped. There was nothing else for it but to face her. When she rushed him and swung at his face, he tossed his knife into his left hand and, deflecting her fist, slashed at her arm with the blade.


    The legends of city avatars didn''t do their power justice, the man thought. Her fist was like a freight train and though he deflected it from striking his cheek, it took so much strength to do so he hadn''t the chance to do serious damage with his knife.


    "Sandwalker heal me," Elanor said, her faith extending the god''s power to dispel the venom the blade had inflicted, though not quite strong enough with such a simple prayer to heal the wounds. "Give up and tell us everything, and I''ll make sure it will be fast."


    Under the circumstances, the man knew it was the best offer he could hope for, but he wasn''t going to take it. The woman was a target of opportunity, and without knowing if his poison had been cured, he hoped he would be able to end her. "I''ll pass."


    When he came at her, Elanor reached out to block his knife with her wounded arm, snarling through the pain as the envenomed weapon cut her flesh again. Clamping her hand around his wrist, she used her latest ability as a Soldier, Demolishing Strike, to punch him in the jaw. Backed as her fists were with the power of an avatar, the man''s head spun around and he wobbled before dropping to his knees.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    The King''s Guards came around the corner of the keep to find her pulling the man''s blade from his hand and throwing it aside while she held him upright. As they neared, weapons drawn, Elanor lifted her head to look at them.


    "A maid caught this man poisoning the King''s food. Can one of you go to the kitchen and stop his dinner being served?" She lifted his arm a little higher and passed it over to one of the guards when they got close. "I don''t know if he has any talismans."


    The guardsman couldn''t take his eyes from Elanor''s glowing fists. He knew what it meant when someone bore the flames of a city, but that wasn''t typically done in the capital by anyone but the King. Then he realized she had blood pouring down her arm. "You''ll need that taken care of. We have a cleric on duty."


    Looking down at her arm, Elanor blinked a few times before she recognized the angry red lines trailing up her arm from the last few slashes she''d taken. "Oh, righ¡ª" An odd tilting sensation took her as Elanor felt the world tremble. "Sandwalker, protect me." The last words came out as a whisper, but she felt a burning fire fill her even as she lost consciousness.


    <hr>


    Stewart was furious, but he needed to keep his cool. He nodded to Ludmiller, who''d been the quickest to reach the scene from the dungeon. "Please, make it fast and don''t let her suffer any longer."


    It was a duty that Ludmiller would never take lightly. Looking down at the woman on the bed¡ªwho was choking constantly, fighting to live¡ªshe rolled her to her side and drove her blade into the base of Elanor''s skull, leaning on her innate skills as Travis'' assassin.


    There was not a single talisman on Elanor. Stepping past Ludmiller, the high priest reached out his hands and cast his first spell. Cleansing magic rushed through Elanor, purging the poison from her with simple efficiency.


    Next, he reached out to the bag of gold coins that Stewart passed to him, judged them in one hand¡ªand smiled as power poured through him, rejoining Elanor''s soul to her body. She coughed twice and jerked upward. "Welcome back," the high priest said.


    Elanor''s teeth felt odd. Not as bad as normal, but a tiny bit wobbly. "Did the poison finish me off?"


    Seeing her sitting up and looking healthy again overwhelmed Stewart with relief, and he couldn''t stop himself from reaching out to her and pulling Elanor against him.


    "Actually, I killed you. The poison was too much once it had taken hold. It would have taken you months to recover. This," Ludmiller flicked one of her daggers out, spun it in the air, then sheathed it again, "with the help of the high priest, S¡ª"


    "I''m not the High Priest, just <em style="font-weight: 600">a high priest. And always happy to serve balance and order." Stepping back, he turned and left the room.


    Unable to stop fiddling with her teeth, Elanor was surprised at Stewart''s grip. It felt <em style="font-weight: 600">nice to be held by him, but at the same time she reached her left arm out and around, pulling him closer with strength that was almost his equal. "Is the maid okay?"


    "Who?" Stewart asked.


    Elanor looked over at Ludmiller, but got a shrug from her too. "I was walking along the hall that led to the back stairs when a maid got my attention and told me she''d seen a man poisoning our meals. I followed her to the kitchen, where I found the man still lingering by the outside door. When he tried to run, I chased him and called for the guards."


    "And then you beat him senseless with your fists, despite him having a poisoned knife, and handed him over to the guards." Ludmiller rubbed her jaw. "You were <em style="font-weight: 600">not the noble lady he was expecting."


    Laughing at Ludmiller''s grin, Elanor stretched and tried to extricate herself from Stewart. "I need to go and reassure her. The last I remember, the head cook was not happy with her." She realized that she was still wearing the same clothes she''d worn when she''d been in the fight¡ªand they stank of sweat and blood. "A change of clothes, first."


    Finally surrendering his grip, Stewart dutifully turned around, only to hear a snort from behind him before Ludmiller closed in on his side.


    "Your Majesty, I promise I won''t kill her again and will, in fact, slaughter anything else larger than a lizard that enters this room until such time as you return¡ªbut people will talk if Elanor steps out fully dressed while you were in here the whole time." Ludmiller imperfectly executed a bow, but didn''t straighten until Stewart was outside. The moment the door closed, she groaned. "You didn''t?"


    "I was in the bath and he was very gentlemanly about it." Slipping out of bed, Elanor looked down at what had been an outfit she''d planned to show herself off a little with, but was now ruined. "Do you have my¡ª"


    Ludmiller raided Elanor''s wardrobe and set out underthings, Elanor''s trousers, arming doublet, a shirt, and then began the task of ferrying armor over while the woman got dressed. "How can you wear all this?"


    "One piece at a time," Elanor said, smirking at Ludmiller''s groan. "And, with how today went, I might never take it off again. How long was I out for?"


    "It''s late. Several hours after sunset. The priest tried a lot of healing magic before he decided it would be better to kill you and cleanse the poison that way." Next for Ludmiller to present to Elanor was her weapons. "These are your revolvers, but Tinpot has some new things for you when you next head home. There''s also an oversized duster you can wear over your new armor."


    The two revolvers went into her holsters after Elanor checked them for what was loaded. She took the two belts of spare bullets and wrapped one each around her wrists. Next was a few daggers, her shield, short spear, and finally several talismans. "And, the last thing you get to take with you, until things are a bit calmer, is me."


    "You don''t have to¡ª"


    Travis cleared his non-existent throat, to remind them he was present. "Sorry, but I don''t want anyone to get close enough to touch you without Ludmiller being close enough to kill them. At least for a day or two."


    "Travis," Ludmiller said, "you weren''t watching just now, were you?"


    "No. I''ve had a lot of practice <em style="font-weight: 600">not looking, and I can assure you I didn''t see anything from when you made Stewart walk out. I''m still doing my best not to look¡ªand just listen." His tone was as even and droll as he could make it, but even Travis wouldn''t have trusted himself.


    Elanor let out a sigh. "Sir Travis, you once again prove yourself to be a perfect gentleman."


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 Chapter 168

    "Fife has enough people with her. She doesn''t need either of us; so relax." Ludmiller sat in the tavern on the second floor, her attention split between the meal before her and Wild at her side. "Squishy is happy to stay in Fife''s boss room. Travis is safe. You don''t have to stay here all the time."


    "I know it''s a rut now, but it''s a comfortable rut." Wild managed to keep one arm around Ludmiller''s shoulder while eating his stew with a spoon in his other hand. "I haven''t just been guarding the tunnel. The practice dungeons need bosses, after all."


    Leaning into Wild''s side, Ludmiller let out a happy trill. "Okay, but what about outside? I was thinking of visiting the gnolls. We could have some fun sparring with them, playing some music, a¡ª" Feeling Wild stiffen, she waited for him to speak his mind.


    The old memory had come on strong the moment Ludmiller had mentioned it. Closing his eyes, Wild remembered a time when everything seemed bigger than him¡ªa time when his mother would sing songs. "We sang and played together when I was young."


    Surprised at learning something new about her partner, Ludmiller gave him some more time to add more, but he seemed to have slid back to his pre-kobold recalcitrance with his speech. "You''ve never sung for me. I think I''d like to change that."


    Wild sat in silence for a few more moments, working the idea around his head. He knew he was falling into his old ways, so he squeezed Ludmiller and kissed her cheek. "Then we will go and, if they will let us, we''ll sing together."


    Their little moment was broken when a dragon worked her head into the room. Neither Wild nor Ludmiller felt a particular need to kick Penelope out of what was her own tavern.


    Nonetheless, Penelope froze when she saw the couple. "I''m not interrupting?"


    Looking at each other, Ludmiller and Wild broke into laughter. Recovering first, Wild shook his head. "No. We were talking of plans to visit the gnolls."


    Ludmiller turned to watch Penelope crawling the rest of the way inside. "Maybe we should widen all the tunnels like we did for that passage the miners use?"


    Stopping with her wings half inside, Penelope turned her head to look at Ludmiller. "Are you saying I''m getting fat now I''m a noble?" She squirmed some more before getting her hips to squeeze through the narrow door with some kind of space-warping happening.


    Slumping on the floor and reaching out with one talon to grab a keg of ale from behind the bar, Penelope glared up at Ludmiller, ruining the maliciousness of it with a smile. "Well?"


    "I am trying to think of something to say that won''t get me devoured," Ludmiller said. "Was that good enough?"


    "For now." Rearranging her back end, Penelope used a claw to knock the bung out of the top of the barrel and tipped it. It wasn''t as undignified as lapping, but licking the drizzle of ale that came out the hole was the best she could manage.


    "I saw your fight. That woman was incredible." Wild sipped at his own beer. "It makes me wonder how Fife stood up against her."


    Shaking her head, Ludmiller said, "I don''t think anything could kill her until she''s ready to let it."


    "Right?" Penelope asked. "And look at her now! She''s huge! I don''t think a cannon hitting her in the face would do more than make her stagger back a step. How''d that happen, Luddy?"


    "She and the wolves were fighting the boss of the goblin dungeon. There were spores everywhere in the air and any time Katelyn wasn''t spitting fire, the damn rot was spreading everywhere. So she filled the whole chamber with flames. Fife could heal through it with Breath of Spring healing her. I guess whatever magic makes the dungeon work finally got sick of her insanity and threw its arms up in the air and made her a fire dragon."


    Wild slumped a little. He reached down to his bowl, now mostly devoid of any large chunks, and picked it up. Tipping the remaining contents into his mouth, he felt satisfied at having filled his stomach. He didn''t want to be jealous of Fife, the wolves, and even Penelope, but they all seemed to leave him behind.


    "Do you want to spar?" Ludmiller was surprised how fast Wild''s head jerked up at that. His smile told her all she needed to know. Standing up, she held out a hand to him.


    Using Ludmiller''s arm to pull himself over the table, Wild waved back toward Penelope as he chased his mate out the door.


    Sighing, Penelope looked at her barrel with a little regret. "I hate drinking alone."


    "Then it''s lucky I came." Wearing an arming shirt, trousers, and some chain mail armor, Hilda walked into the barroom. "Thank you for the duel."


    Penelope watched Hilda take a seat at the bar. She looked more relaxed and calm, almost serene, than before their fight. "How are you settling into the fort?"


    Grunting, then getting up and circling the bar to pour herself an ale, Hilda said, "It''s perfect for us. Breeze"¡ªbiting back the old hatred for magic, Hilda pushed on¡ª"is generous with food. It''s hard to break away from our old ways of doing things, but we work at it."This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    Slurping some of the ale from her barrel, Penelope wanted to stretch her wings out, but there wasn''t enough room. "Breeze is¡ª" Penelope knew her own thoughts on Breeze were colored by Travis'', but she didn''t mind that so much since Breeze was a very open dungeon. "She''s something all right. Dungeon inspectors entered her almost a week ago, and we haven''t seen them back since. Breath of Spring promised they wouldn''t be harmed, but it''s a long way to her lower floors now."


    "The workers have made a unique method for reaching the thirtieth floor fast. It''s a small wagon on rails. I would not recommend it." Hilda shivered at the memory of hurtling down the floors only to be caught by a sheep with more limbs than she cared to think about. "Breeze''s monsters don''t like fighting."


    "Huntress does, though she''s not going to be much of a fight for you. Big centaur¡ª" At Hilda''s confused look, Penelope described Huntress instead. "Horse with an elf''s torso on top. Wicked-good shot with a bow, but close combat is her downfall."


    "Why?" Hilda asked, but at Penelope''s raised eye ridge, explained. "She has the body of a horse. Give her heavy armor, a halberd, the biggest weapon she can carry. She would be a fine close-quarters fighter."


    Penelope was caught out by the direct thinking. "That makes sense, but I think she prefers her bow. She went back into the goblin dungeon to get more experience¡ª Killing things makes people with dungeon classes get more powerful."


    Musing over her thoughts while looking into the bottom of her mug, Hilda finally let out a grunt. "Can I have one of these?" She felt it was bold to ask, which was one of her favorite qualities.


    "Of course you can. Your people too. It will help you grow stronger so you can beat me." Penelope flashed a fang-filled smile at Hilda, only to see her blush. "Was there something in particular you wanted to work toward?"


    "Stronger. Bigger. I can''t stop a dragon if I cannot hurt it."


    "There are two ready paths to improve that. Soldier has a mix of skills in it, some offensive and some defensive¡ªit also has some great stamina boosts. It leads to Tank, Ranger, and Berserker. If you would like to try magic, there''s Mage, which leads to Wizard, Sorcerer, and Arch-Mage. That Fire Rain I used on you was a Mage spell. I also shielded myself with my mana and used Armor Breaker, from Soldier, to tear your armor open."


    Hilda rocked back on her chair a little. Fighting a dragon¡ªPenelope¡ªhad been a dream of hers for as long as she''d lived. She had built it up so much during the siege and the trip north that it had become the goal of her life. Now she''d done it. She had pitched her body and training against a dragon. Now that dragon was here telling her she had more options. "Soldier, then. I will practice with that."


    "Trav, can you give Hilda the Soldier class?" Penelope asked.


    "Sure." Travis would have liked to have paid with gold, but Soldier class was a thousand steel, of which he had plenty, and the only way to change the price to gold was at a hundred-to-one ratio. "There. Let me know if the others in the outpost want some classes too. I can only give them inside Northridge, Home, or here in my dungeon."


    "Thank you." Finding it less weird to talk to a dungeon by the day, Hilda nodded her head. "How do I use it?"


    Pointing to some of the weapons, armor, and shields hanging on the wall behind the bar, Penelope said, "Grab a shield and say <em style="font-weight: 600">Shielding Stance."


    Curious, Hilda put her ale down and did as instructed. She held the shield before her without her sword and said, "Shielding Stance." A solidness seemed to support her. She held tight as Penelope reached out a huge talon and, with it clutched closed, smacked the shield with it. "I barely felt that."


    "It''s stronger if you are covering someone else with your shield, but there is a small benefit to using it alone."


    "What else can I do with it?" Magic like this, Hilda had decided, was a tool. Penelope still would have overwhelmed her if she didn''t know how to block and reinforce her stance, but this simply added a little more.


    "You need experience to get more abilities from it. Killing things is the best way of getting it." Lapping at her barrel again, Penelope paused to head-off Hilda''s next question. "We have training dungeons. They''re filled with our creatures, and you are free to kill within them. The other option is you work as a mini-dungeon boss."


    Turning and pouring herself another ale, Hilda thought it over. "I could organize skirmishes with my people and we would gain this experience for killing each other¡ªeven if we are brought back to fight again?"


    Penelope could see the angle Hilda was working on, and she liked it. "You would, and you can. But if you do it inside Trav, he''ll get experience for you. You could even ask Breeze if she would gain anything from it."


    "You would fight me again?" Hilda asked.


    "Of course. But remember, I''m gaining classes too. You could also ask Astrid and her pack for sparring. They''re learning new tricks every day, it seems, and the lot of them went back into the goblin dungeon to level up their Tank class."


    "Tank?"


    "Tank is the class that Fife has fully completed. Everything in it boosts defense in some way. Regeneration constantly heals your wounds, Reinforced Armor lets you absorb armor into your body¡ªFife has adamantine scales. Hard Head makes her impossible to knock out with blows to the head." As she described it, Penelope could see Hilda''s eyes widening more and more. When the woman drank half her mug in one gulp, she summarized, "The best defensive class we have, but you need Soldier at level ten to take it."


    "And levels equate to the abilities these classes give?" At a nod from Penelope, Hilda smiled. "Then I have a task¡ªto train my people until we are all ferocious, unkillable dreadnoughts."


    Closing her claws around her barrel and lifting it, Penelope said, "To growing stronger."


    It was a sentiment that Hilda could get behind. "Stronger and tougher!" She stood and carried her mug over to clunk it against the barrel Penelope held, and then drank along with her. "This is good ale. Can I take a barrel back with me?"


    "I''ll do one better¡ªI''ll carry it back for you." Draining her own barrel to the last, Penelope began turning herself around and making her way out of the dungeon. Leaving her own empty barrel beside the bar, she grabbed up two more and tucked each under a wing to make good on her promise.


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 Chapter 169

    With the sun setting, and his love by his side, Wild walked out into the chill evening air and made his way along a well-worn path toward the gnoll dungeon. On the edge of the forest, in plain view, the gnolls had a bonfire reaching its flames up toward the sky while a deep, ground-thudding beat reverberated from them.


    After a moment, Wild realized that the beat matched his footsteps. What he didn''t notice was that he had fit his motion to that song. As he and Ludmiller drew closer, the melody of the song carried to them. Yowling tones and staccato notes from some kind of wood percussion soon had them both moving more solidly to the beat and coaxed by the rhythm.


    As they got close to the gnoll camp, the music halted and a large gnoll stepped out of the group to face the newcomers. "Who are you who would come to our revelry? Do you offer words, music, or dance?"


    "I would offer all three, as does my mate." Ludmiller''s voice was firm and her eyes locked to those of Forerunner. "We would share stories and tales, songs, and dancing."


    "Then come, you are welcome at our fire. Eat, drink, and let''s see you dance." Turning her head to the drummers, Forerunner nodded and the beat resumed. "Your mate carries axes. Does he dance with them?"


    "We can show you, if you''d wish it." Reaching her hands to the hilts of her daggers, Ludmiller drew the blades free and twirled them in her hands. "Shall we?" she asked, looking into Wild''s eyes.


    Wild hadn''t sparred much with his mate, but his love for her and need to make her smile had his axes practically jump into his hands. Forerunner guided them to a circle where almost thirty gnolls sat around the bonfire. There was enough room between the gnolls and the flames that he realized it had been deliberately left¡ªfor them.


    The beat of the music had Ludmiller''s feet moving in short order, and as she danced around, she came up on Wild with her daggers reaching for him.


    Moving to match Ludmiller, and keeping to the same pattern, Wild parried the daggers with an axe and brought his other one around in a momentum-conserving arc toward her throat.


    Though the aim wasn''t to kill, Ludmiller treated the swing as the deadly threat it would be if they were fighting. She angled herself backwards, shimmered as her invisibility tried to compensate for the fire, and came back on Wild''s left side.


    Wild turned, an axe already moving to intercept an attack Ludmiller hadn''t begun yet. The clash of metal on metal joined the beat, and soon enough there was a recurring rhythm of parries and deflections.


    As their dance continued, the gnolls yapped along, matching the rhythm Wild and Ludmiller set. The drums sped up and, eventually, the dance reached its own ending as the tips of Ludmiller''s daggers pressed up and against Wild''s chest, and Wild''s axes kissed the sides of Ludmiller''s neck.


    Standing there, staring into each other''s eyes, they felt a rush of heat at the gnolls'' cheers. Sheathing weapons, both melted together into a kiss that drew yips of encouragement. Breaking apart only after they were both satisfied, Wild nonetheless blushed a little at the crowd they had.


    Forerunner was excited by the deadly dance. Few enough of her own kin fought with daggers that watching a master of them was a treat. "A good dance! Come, eat and tell us of your deeds."


    The gnolls'' food, Ludmiller noticed, was almost exclusively red meat. Haunches from several wild animals she recognized (deer, longhorn cows) as well as large puddings that, when she bit into, she realized was mostly fat and chunks of meat baked in some kind of intestine.


    Taking a breath after swallowing a particularly chewy bit of her meal, Ludmiller began talking. "Over a year ago now, an army marched here. Seventeen thousand strong, they circled around the city, around our dungeons, and had enough troops still to set up ambushes on the road to the south."


    When it came to the invasion of Travis in the early part of the siege, Wild took over the story and spoke of the very polished delving the northerners had done, and how they, as kobolds, had defended it. When he spoke of how the northerners had given up and sealed the dungeon, he leaned back a little. "That meant our only entrance was within the city."


    Forerunner felt the story would be completely unbelievable, except she''d seen the dungeon entrance in the city herself. "What about the other dungeon?"


    Ludmiller nodded. "Breeze. She had one entrance at the time, the outpost. It had been besieged and there was no way for anyone to reach it unseen." Standing up, she stepped into Wild''s shadow and used her skill to melt into the darkness and become invisible. "I was not seen."


    The description of sneaking through both encirclements and carrying Breath of Spring into the city to open a new exit thrilled the gnolls. Ludmiller had them hanging on her words, especially when she pivoted to her work after that. Stealing away into the enemy camps, destroying their equipment and killing them¡ªshe even drew her weapons and performed some of the attack-dances she''d invented when fighting the northerners.


    "And then the walls fell," Wild said. "The northerner army was held back in places, but soon they flooded the streets. We"¡ªhe gestured to Ludmiller and then toward the city¡ª"the creatures of the dungeons, did what we could to push them out. Fife stood guard at Breeze''s entrance while I guarded our own.


    "The fighting was a stalemate. One of the commanders of the northerner army fought Fife in a brutal fight. It was one woman who turned the tide, though."Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    When all the gnolls turned to look at Ludmiller, she shook her head. "A human. One of the city guards. She''s so skilled with a rifle that she sent her bullet through the commander''s helmet''s vision slit. It broke the will of the siege''s commander. She organized her army to retreat."


    Hearing the story from those who lived it made it all ring true to Forerunner. She nodded her head and, when neither seemed to continue, asked them, "And then goblin dungeon attacked?"


    About to toss the last of her sausage into her mouth, Ludmiller nodded. "Yes, but neither of us were involved with that. You will need to ask Pen, the dragon, for that tale."


    Giving a loud laugh at the reply, Forerunner said, "I will do that. It was a mighty battle, befitting of a strong dungeon and its creatures. Our sister is hunting in the goblin den with your warriors now. I''m sure she''ll return with many new stories."


    <hr>


    Trolls weren''t really an issue anymore. Fife enjoyed the fights, sure, but with her new strength and size she was batting aside their huge weapons and delivering devastating wounds against them¡ªand if any dared to show signs of rot or spores, she would exhale her flames and cleanse them.


    This troll, though, looked like more of a challenge. It towered above Fife, had a pair of the dirtiest old cleavers she''d ever seen, and had skin so thick and muscles so dense her blade had trouble cutting through it. When she, again, managed to block and parry its weapons, instead of trying another ineffective stab into its chest¡ªshe tossed her sword to her offhand, drew the revolver at her side, and shot three adamantine rounds through the troll''s chest and another three into its head.


    She had her gun back in its holster and her sword ready, but Fife needn''t have bothered. The troll wobbled on its feet and a swift kick sent it falling backward. "Second time. We''re almost to the bottom, so hopefully they won''t bring this guy back before we''re done."


    "Bored?" Katelyn asked.


    Cleaning her sword, Fife nodded. "A bit. This place isn''t much of a challenge at all now we don''t have to worry about the rot in here." With her sword cleaned, she sheathed it and drew her pistol to reload it. Tilting the handle down over a bag, she hit the casing ejector and all six spent steel casings popped out.


    "You''re welcome." Katelyn tapped her staff on the stone floor of the cave to cancel the spell she''d set in motion at the far end of the room. Her eyes drifted to the big gnoll again, and though she was covered in evidence of her violence, the rot didn''t seem to affect her.


    Walking over to Fife and Katelyn, the gnoll in question dipped her head a little toward both. Having seen them fight, she had a new respect for the pair. "Next floor?"


    Thinking about it, the dungeon had fallen into a repetitive pattern. Troll floor, orc floor, swarm floor. Fife nodded. "You should have a lot of orcs to fight, possibly the orc boss again."


    Licking her lips, the gnoll beamed in delight before starting a little chuckle. The noise built as her eyes dilated, and turning, she loosed a stuttering full-throated laugh that followed her as she charged deeper into the dungeon.


    Katelyn let her own mirth channel into her staff, cinders and ash falling from it as the whole thing flared with red light. "She seems happy. Should we keep going and see if she can stop herself after one floor?"


    "Honestly, Kate, I don''t care if she clears all the way to the bottom. The only thing I don''t want her to kill is the heart." Fife stopped to think a moment, then let out a laugh that was only a pale echo of the gnoll''s own. "We should probably double-time it if she''s not sitting in the boss room of the next floor."


    <hr>


    The train moved slow. Not so slow that it could be outrun by a horse, but certainly slow enough the driver could see if there was damage to the track¡ªwhich is why he saw where a rail had been removed. His hand latched onto the brake, pulling it on while easing the throttle back to neutral.


    "You see one?" the footman asked.


    "Yeah. Send a flare and shunt those crystals into the array, William." Working the controls, the driver had the pistons start working again, but this time they were driving the wheels backward. He yanked a small lever and dumped all his sand on the track to improve traction.


    Meanwhile, the footman loaded a small bag of powder into the flare tube mounted to the side of the locomotive''s cab, ensured the end of it was aimed away from their roof, and then dropped a large yellow ball in. "Sending it," he said, and channeled a little magic into the bottom of the tube.


    The <em style="font-weight: 600">thwoomp of the mortar charge sending the flare into the sky was almost drowned out by the locomotive working hard to build up speed in reverse.


    Behind them, another flare shot into the sky¡ªgreen.


    "That''s some good news, at least. Now we won''t plow into them." Handling the controls, the driver nursed the engine to get the most speed and acceleration he could get without depriving the boiler too much. Beside him, the footman was busy slotting crystals into a gold mana focusing array.


    Their mission only had one part left to it: get back and report where the break in the line was. With their engine accelerating backwards, the pair in the lead engine were nonetheless straining to hear the distinct sound of gunfire¡ªor worse, cannon fire¡ªbut it never came.


    <hr>


    Stewart waited in the dungeon. It was less a confusing and potentially dangerous magical piece of landscape, and far more a person¡ªone of his most important vassals right now. "Anything yet?" That didn''t mean he wouldn''t be anxious.


    The train trip should have concluded today. Stephan should be in the eastern duchy city of Polfay. It was, like West Reaches and Hearthhome, the central hub of its own arm of the kingdom. He had resolved to wait the entire day to step out into the eastern city and reassure it that all was well.


    "Still nothing. I don''t get a notification until Stephan tries to open the entrance." Travis missed being able to pace. Right now would have been a great time to wear a path into a rug.


    After waiting impatiently for five more minutes, Stewart asked, "Is Elanor delving?"


    "No. She''s sparring. One of the northerner warriors is training her in sword craft. We didn''t have time before, with her coming to the capital, to have her trained in much besides a gun, a shield, and a spear. That, and Hilda asked if we had any tasks for her group. I suggested training any guards that wanted to learn skills with a longsword. Elanor was the first to jump at it." Travis was about to continue talking about her training, but he got the popup everyone had been waiting for. "Here it comes."


    The new entrance was smaller than the existing ones only because it was fresh. Travis reached out into the new city and felt like an angry bear was coming for him. "Please! I don''t want to invade. I''m doing this on behalf of the King!"


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 Chapter 170

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Tier 2


    Level 48/100


    Heart 8,294,400/8,294,400


    Experience 1,339,715/2,073,600


    Mithril 23,851


    Adamantine 30,991


    Mana 10,200


    Poison, Greater 500


    Deadly Scorpion Venom 51


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon.


    Quest: Kill 10 Noble-born.


    Quest: Reach level 50.


    Situational Quest: The King has entered your dungeon! Kill him to gain an extra floor!


    </blockquote>


    Travis tried to pull back, but with the entrance opened, he was stuck with it. "Please! Don''t! I''m¡ª" Reasoning hadn''t worked so far, and for all the city was furious at a dungeon for intruding, he didn''t want to attack it either.


    Two huge forces moved. Each was connected to him in bonds that had become tight friendships. Northridge and Home braced and protected him, imposing themselves between the furious city and Travis.


    "Hold your ground! Travis isn''t attacking you!" Home''s voice boomed around Travis, cowing him a little and, he hoped, Polfay.


    It seemed like Polfay wasn''t ready to give up, though. "Who are you to stand before a monster?! Out of my way!"


    This was supposed to be Travis'' comfortable space. Somewhere he was safe from being attacked. In short, he''d had enough. "I am not a monster!" His shout seemed to stun all three, so he went on. "Yes, I''m a dungeon, but I want the same thing all of you want. People deserve to be happy and safe and do what they want. I''m trying to help you!"


    "Me?"


    Polfay sounded bewildered, so Travis used that as a wedge. "Yes. You, Home, Northridge, even the kingdom itself! There''s a war coming, and I want to help. Using my entrance, you can send wagons directly to Home. People, too." Now that Polfay wasn''t shouting, Travis was hearing far more emotion in their androgynous tones.


    "War?" Now Polfay seemed even more discombobulated. "The West? I felt¡ª What happened?"


    Home cleared its metaphorical throat and started explaining. Starting with the sluggishness of the western cities in responding to any pleas for help by the kingdom, they reached the point where West Reaches tore itself clear of the kingdom.


    Polfay''s anger and curiosity both seemed to desert them. "Then the kingdom is dead."


    "No." The presence of the kingdom itself was bigger than Travis could imagine. "With support from Dungeon Travis, Dungeon Breeze, and the gods¡ªI survived."


    Travis let out a relieved sigh as Polfay metaphorically took a seat in his mental landscape. His mindscape was quiet for some time. Finally, Travis couldn''t handle it anymore. "Are we good now? We''re doing this to help move around soldiers and materiel for the war effort. Also, your people are welcome to mine my resources."


    Polfay laughed at that. "I''m the greatest center for dungeon delvers in the kingdom, and you offer to let them mine you for free?"


    Home said, "Not free. It will cost the miners a percentage. Right, Dungeon Travis?"


    "Right. I think King Stewart is heading out to make an announcement. That should settle things, right Polfay?" Travis asked, doing his best to keep his tone level and not freak out over having a third city slowly invading his senses. Already, lizards were slipping out and giving him vision around his new entrance.


    All he saw was looming, huge figures (that were people to lizard vision) all staring at the entrance while some of the King''s Guard stood there, blocking anyone from coming in. Then he watched as Stewart left, flanked by even more guards.


    The biggest relief for Travis was seeing the situational quest going away. Maybe dungeons like Breeze wouldn''t care about not having one extra floor, but he had a <em style="font-weight: 600">lot riding on how many floors he had. It was the worst kind of temptation. He wondered if he could talk to the kingdom about maybe relaxing the rules for long enough to resurrect Stewart.


    <hr>


    Travis found, over the following day, that there was something even better than having a king wander into his dungeon regularly. Stewart, he had calculated, was giving him a million or more XP a day. When Polfay''s leader sent the fifty thousand troops they''d rallied marching through him, he managed to figure out that each was giving him around six hundred XP.


    As day cycled into night, he leveled up. Twelve times.


    <blockquote>


    Quest Complete: Reach level 50.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    New Quest: Create 100 weapons.


    </blockquote>


    "Progress!" Travis had only shouted it in his headspace, but the mental emanation acquired attention. He felt Breeze reach out to him, an unspoken question vibrating in her very being. "I finished another quest. I don''t know what it¡ª Oh! Guns!"


    What the quest had given him was a new research option that was already completed. "We did it, Breeze. Any gun we can make ten of will now be available for manufacture in the gunsmithy." He was giddy with the thought of it. No longer would Tinpot need to spend the better part of a day slowly constructing a single pistol from parts he''d spent a week making by hand. Breeze, though, only showed more curiosity at his answer¡ªand a little confusion. "Uh, something we have been trying to do for months."


    Breeze wasn''t sure precisely what it was, but they were content their friend was happy. But even though Travis was happy now, Breeze didn''t like how few floors he had. There was a simple solution to that, Breeze knew, and that was by spending food resources to add more floors.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Travis spluttered as the gift of resources hit him. "Breeze? What''s all this? Is that half a million food?!" The eager impression Travis got from Breeze did nothing to cover his confusion. "Why?"


    "Grow." Giving their fellow dungeon the mental equivalent of a head-pat, Breeze returned their focus to their interior again, seeing about adding more floors themselves.


    "What am I meant to do with this much food?" Travis stared at the notification for a few more moments before flicking it away. With traded resources sitting in a buffer, he didn''t see any of that food appear in his stats¡ªbut it still weighed on him by being there.


    Not that he was running short of much. He had a bit over five hundred thousand gold, most of which was piled up in Penelope''s boss room. There was also a large fortune of adamantine and mithril that he thought he might have to start giving away if the mining boom continued.


    "Uh, Polfay? Can we talk?" Travis asked.


    Having been used to being quiet, with only their avatar to converse with, Polfay hadn''t expected to be in discussions to on a daily basis and was a little nervous. It had listened to the King speak to its people and its leader, and Polfay had felt terrible for trying to attack Travis without giving him a moment to speak. "Yes." It had been following along with the interactions between Travis and the other two cities, as well as with Breeze, and so the stilted reply it just gave left Polfay feeling more nervous.


    "Right. So, I have a lot of food right now. Is there anything you can do with it? Can you turn it into actual food for people?" Travis asked. "Oh, here, let''s test it."


    When Polfay felt the food transfer to them, it felt confusion. Polfay had never just <em style="font-weight: 600">had resources like that before. Poking at mass of food, Polfay felt a way it could push the glut that would do something¡ªand did so.


    "Wow!" Polfay spilled the word out in their excitement. "That filled a warehouse!"


    "That was fifty thousand food," Travis said. "Do you want the rest?"


    "Why are you doing this? I attacked you."


    The question caught Travis a little off-guard, but he had an answer quickly enough. "You were only doing that to protect all your people. You saw a dungeon encroaching and fought it. In the past I made some bad decisions too¡ªones I <em style="font-weight: 600">really regret. It''d be hypocritical of me to be angry at you for that." He pushed the remaining of the five hundred thousand food over.


    It took time for Polfay to figure its way through the mess of emotions that statement triggered. But, Polfay liked that advice. To set aside confused actions and allow themselves to move forward was very good, but it also made it curious as to what Travis had done. To cover for their distraction, they shoved all the food they could into warehouses that looked like they should have food in them. At last, with nothing else to say that it could think of, Polfay said, "Thank you."


    "You''re welcome. If you ever need anything, just ask. We''re going to be together for a long time, I hope, and part of that is knowing when one of us needs help and when we need a little quiet. If you get what I mean." Travis hadn''t, until he''d woken up as a dungeon, done a lot of planning for the future. Now, however, he had to face facts that planning ahead was the only thing that had saved him so far, and would likely continue to.


    "Oh. Okay. My delvers are interested in you."


    "Great!" Travis was rubbing his metaphorical hands together in glee. "I have training dungeons that they can try. They get gold and rewards, and I get the resources I need to level up. Send them in, and the guards will explain everything to them."


    The reaction surprised Polfay, and it felt confident now in asking questions. "You want delvers?"


    "I do. I have organized with the local temples in Northridge to pay for adventurers'' resurrections. Just having them in my dungeon helps. That army the King marched through to Home? That got me twelve levels! And then there''s Stewart himself. He walks in to say ''hi'' every day, and I wind up getting a million XP just from that!" Travis barely managed to stop his flood of words. Polfay seemed interested in what he was far more than Home or Northridge. "Sorry. I''m not used to having someone asking about this stuff. Okay, I kinda am, but you''re a city and that <em style="font-weight: 600">is new."


    Polfay couldn''t help itself, it laughed. Peals of giggles and mirth rolled around the mental landscape before it could manage to get hold of itself again. "Sorry! I just¡ª"


    "It''s fine, Polfay. You don''t have to apologize."


    "I do! I''m not used to talking like this. My avatar doesn''t ask me many things, so the most I get to do is listen to people. You can hear me and talk back, so it''s new <em style="font-weight: 600">to me too." With the admission out, Polfay''s spirit felt lighter than it had in decades. "It''s good. I like talking. Can we keep talking?"


    "Sure we can. Did you want to know anything else about how my dungeon works?" Travis asked.


    "Please! What is this ''XP'' you mentioned?"


    <hr>


    Travis wasn''t sure if it was weird to chat with someone for ten days solid. The new adventurers from Polfay had been wary at first of using his mini-dungeons, but some groups had warmed up to them. Those groups had been, from what Felna had told him, fairly weak to begin with. He didn''t care¡ªthat was why he was doing this.


    "We''re leaving tomorrow, Travis," Penelope said. She''d escorted Stewart to the dungeon for the last time before the march to war. At least, in her case, she wouldn''t be marching. "Elanor is going too."


    "I figured she would. This is nothing if not a continuation of the fight she got pushed into. I wish I could send Fife along to guard you too, Stewart, but she''s still taking care of the goblins for me." Travis couldn''t keep his focus off Penelope though. It would be some time without her, and she was the most important person to him. "Stewart?" he asked.


    The seriousness in Travis'' voice took Stewart''s full attention away from checking over his armor for what felt like the hundredth time. "Yes?"


    "Last time I let Felna say it, but it''s the same sentiment. You take care of Pen, and if I hear she''s been hurt by your actions, I''ll rip myself out of the ground and hunt you down." Travis managed to keep his tone serious until the end, before laughing. "Just be careful; both of you. I like the changes you''re making, Stewart, and I''d hate to have to break a new king or queen in. Pen, don''t let him fall." Implied, he hoped, was that he didn''t want her to fall.


    "Trav, didn''t you learn anything from my fight with Hilda? She''s the most skilled warrior I have ever seen¡ªand she couldn''t kill me. She wouldn''t have gotten as far as she did if I hadn''t landed to fight her. Besides, Stewart won''t be that close to the front lines." Turning her head to look at Stewart, Penelope hoped he understood that when it came to battlefield placement, she was the mobile part of their pairing, and she got to make such decisions for herself.


    "Of course, Lady Penelope," Stewart said, bowing and lowering his eyes all the way to the ground¡ªaffording her the gesture that would have caused a stir had he used it in public.


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 Chapter 171

    [a furious inquisitor''s journal]


    We''re finally going to end this, Miss Journal.


    There were so many soldiers marching through Sir Travis that no one else could get in or out for a whole day. Now they''re all loaded onto trains and we''re sending them down the line as far as we can, safely, while the King and I fly. Oh, Penelope too. It''s hard to remember, when he''s riding her, that she''s still Penelope. I''m riding on Ripper, who is excited to see more of the world.


    What I don''t know, Miss Journal, is how to lead any of these people. Stewart said I only have to be a symbol to them. He said that would be enough. That annoys me, though. That''s what my uncle wanted me to be.


    No, Miss Journal, I don''t think Stewart is anything like my uncle. Stewart wants to keep me safe. He wants me to be a positive influence. Well, I don''t care. If I see somewhere I can help, I''m going to go and shoot at our problems until they go away.


    We are leaving. I hope the next time I am writing in here that the war is over. I would like to get back to my training. Mr. Hreti still owes me some axe training, and he''ll want to hear about all this.


    ¡ªInquisitor Elanor


    <hr>


    Elanor had learned the fine art of balancing with her knees and keeping her rump from Ripper''s back. Not only did it mean that the contest between Ripper''s scales and her rump never took place, but she was jostled around a lot less too.


    Ripper had no problem flying with her. She wasn''t sure what had happened, but her friendly wyvern seemed stronger and a bit larger now. Below, the train was moving at a good pace, but not one she couldn''t out-fly.


    Looking up at where Stewart was riding on Penelope''s back, she noticed him gesturing ahead and down. "Ripper, we need to follow them and land. Be ready for anything, though. There could be enemy scouts around."


    With a nod, Ripper spiraled down to land beside Penelope, the presence of her dungeon''s boss boosting her confidence even more than having Elanor close by did. After Elanor dismounted, Ripper walked over to Penelope and bumped her head against the dragon''s shoulder.


    Wanting to be part of the conversation, Penelope nonetheless used the palm of one wing to rub Ripper''s head and neck, getting happy little grunts from the wyvern. After all, a dragon could be part of any conversation they could hear, she figured, since her voice was so loud.


    "We''ll be at the end of the line in an hour''s flight. Scouts said the tracks had been broken there to force derailments." Stewart ran over the plan in his head as the trains passed them. The wide-open plain was useful for holding their conversation, because there was little chance of sneaking up. "The trains will stop before then and unload the troops. Shock troops will be out first, then our lancers will get on their horses. Engineers will be rolling the cannons off with the help of the infantry. They''re going to be busy, but if anything comes¡ª"


    "Then you get off my back and let me deal with it." Penelope glared at Stewart, unwilling to back down on that. "I don''t care if every soldier is carrying a talisman. If the enemy attack before they''re ready, I will be the first to attack them¡ªbecause I can get back here fastest."


    "And you''ll get on Ripper and stay out of magic and ballista range," Elanor said, leveling her own firm expression at Stewart. "We can fight and die and come back to do it again. <em style="font-weight: 600">You can''t."


    Holding his hands up in a placating gesture, Stewart knew when to surrender and live to fight another day. "Of course. You''re both right. We''ll do that in advance, then. When the trains stop, I''ll ride Ripper and you ride Penelope. That way you can both save the day and be heroes."


    Elanor and Penelope looked at each other and nodded in agreement with the plan, then both laughed.


    Recovering first, Elanor said, "I''ve been talking to the kingdom and practicing using their power. Specifically, the one that lets me keep firing without reloading. I can''t exactly balance all that well on your back while doing it, so I''ll wait for you to steady and call out."


    Penelope nodded. "That would work, though my breath should be more effective than any bullets."


    "Do I get a say in any of this?" Stewart asked, the grin on his face surprising even him. He wasn''t sure why, but the way they talked about protecting him was both endearing and a little surprising.


    "I''m far too big for you to order around," Penelope said, "and she''s too important to you. Besides, you want to win."


    When Stewart looked at Elanor, he realized that Penelope was absolutely correct. "I should never have let you both sit-in on my strategy meetings. It seems like you learned more from them than I did." The laugh from each of them was heartening, and he hoped their little plan wouldn''t be required.


    <hr>


    Tinpot, despite the rush they''d been in to make cannons for field guns, and the calm after the army had departed, now found himself once again feverishly making guns. Revolvers were first. He had a little rack of assembled guns at the back of his workbench, and boxes containing the parts to assemble them with.


    Eight revolvers, finally joined by a ninth. "One more to go." It had taken him a day and a half to get all the parts made for this, but now he was going to do it. "Travis, tell me if this works."Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    "I was trying to give you space and not crowd around you. I''m as excited as you are." Travis was practically buzzing with energy. Neither Elanor nor Stewart had appeared in the temples in Northridge yet, and Penelope hadn''t appeared, so he assumed everything was going alright with the war.


    He watched carefully as Tinpot assembled the gun just like the previous nine.


    Despite the pressure and excitement building, Tinpot wouldn''t make a gun that was less than perfect. So, glad that Travis couldn''t actually loom over him, he worked to complete the last revolver and as soon as he inserted the pin that retained the cylinder, he heard Travis shout.


    "That''s it! I got a message saying Single-Action Revolvers are craftable!" Travis wished he could dance, but had to console himself with the fact he could now have anyone <em style="font-weight: 600">make revolvers. "One adamantine, one mithril, and one steel. Tinpot, that''s practically nothing. In a week I could provide everyone in Northridge with revolvers."


    "They''d be identical, too. All measured to the exact same tolerance." Almost as much as the advances in gun design, Tinpot had found a zest for precision. Since those first wear plates he''d made, he had refined his process and gained higher precision and quality. But, something that was still tough to do was to make interchangeable parts¡ªthat problem was solved by the dungeon normalizing his designs to a single specification. "What next? The rifle version?"


    "Right. Yeah. Sorry, just thinking about what giving everyone a revolver would do to the world. Six-shot rifles are next. Oh, and we need to make ammo. I hope the system picks up on that."


    Tinpot shuddered at the horrible thought that the system wouldn''t pick up ammo and he''d be forced to make the casings and bullets for the rest of his days. "I''ll make those rounds first, to see if we get an unlock for them." Old though he technically was, Tinpot had found his youthful excitement growing. He''d never thought that someone would give an old tinkerer everything they want, to do <em style="font-weight: 600">what they want with, but here he was learning from his own work and creating entirely new things.


    His hands reached almost automatically, one taking an empty steel blank circle, the other picking up the dies he''d made for stamping casings. "This won''t take long."


    <hr>


    It was now actually boring. Fife sighed as she found yet another boss room empty. There were burn marks all over the place, and she could see blood-splatters from what must have been a big fight. Walking to where the boss would have been, she scuffed her talons against the rock and etched a claw mark into it. "Either they''ll kill everything, or we''ll start finding little piles of loot with their things." The sound of a gun unloading took her by surprise. Turning to the origin of the sound, Fife saw Huntress lowering her rifle. "What happened?"


    "They missed an orc." Cracking the rifle open, Huntress picked out the spent casing and swapped it for a fresh one. She then made sure to put the one she''d just fired into a bag. "They should have stopped in a few floors, I thought?"


    "Right, but they also have a very enthusiastic gnoll with them. So long as they don''t charge in and kill the heart before we get down there, it''ll be fine." Rolling her shoulders and wings, Fife checked that everyone was ready to move again and broke into a jog. "Let''s keep moving until we catch up to them. Huntress, have fun shooting anything you see that ain''t a gnoll or a wolf."


    Holding her loaded rifle in one hand, pointed in a safe direction, Huntress felt excitement grow. It would be the first and last time this dungeon had dealt with guns, and she wasn''t about to spare it. After spending months training with the Northridge City Guard, she felt confident in her skills with the weapon.


    She trotted along behind and beside Fife, with the wolves, other kobolds, and Breath of Spring (who was still riding one of the wolves) behind them. She got used to the sounds of the dungeon¡ªat least, the sounds of the mostly-empty dungeon. Their own various noises as they moved were easily dismissed, but the echoes from tunnels always tipped her off when a body was blocking some of the sound.


    "How do you keep doing that? You''re lining up on them before I can even see them." Fife didn''t slow their pace, though she was far too curious about Huntress'' skill to keep her mouth shut.


    "That''s because you can''t hear anything. Your armor is noisy, and if I was inside it, I wouldn''t hear the troll in that tunnel off to the right. The echo of our feet is being muffled by something big." She raised her rifle and gestured with the barrel in the direction of the tunnel. "And, honestly, it''s probably your turn."


    Aiming toward that tunnel, Fife felt the boredom slough off her and the excitement of battle return.


    <hr>


    Sitting at his desk, David Fitzgerald was reading the latest reports as they''d been dispatched to him. "They scouted out where we broke the railway line."


    West Reaches laughed. "A little presumptuous of them. There will be at least a month before the troops are moved to the capital, then days more as they bring them by train to our ambush. The provisions alone, for all those troops, will strip their weakling cities bare. Over half of the old kingdom''s most prosperous farm dungeons are in the West¡ªnow our West." Her rich tone broke into laughter. "Mark my words, David, they will not have an army on the field for three months without causing a famine across the east and northern arms of the once-kingdom."


    David didn''t mind admitting, in the quiet of his own mind, that West Reaches herself knew more about waging war than he did. She was old¡ªolder than the kingdom genius loci itself¡ªand if it wasn''t for her disdain for his father and her latching on to David when he was young, he wouldn''t understand as much as he did about warfare either. "On this matter I''ll submit to your council."


    "There is a wisdom all its own in judging where your own limits are and asking for help. You know more than many. For generations, the greatest threat the kingdom has encountered was marauding northerners, and they rarely stretched their supplies to reach the capital." West Reaches was sure David had learned more than he would admit of war in her private tutelage of him. She cursed his father again for the lack in his heir¡¯s education, but at the same time it had brought the pair of them closer. David had woken her from a slump that had lasted generations of his line, while she nurtured his ambition and taught him everything she could¡ªin such a short lifetime as a human had¡ªabout fulfilling that ambition. "Even if they send forces from the capital, your army has the training and the tools to deal with ten thousand soldiers without needing you there to lead them."


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 Chapter 172

    [a contemplative inquisitor''s journal]


    Armies, it seems, are like having a house full of very worrisome children. They constantly require amusement and if they weren''t told to do something, even if it made sense for them to do it, it would not get done, Miss Journal.


    They''re also crude. The jokes I hear them telling! I shan''t be repeating them, that''s for sure.


    Some of the jokes are funny. I still won''t repeat them.


    "Why do western military units always have ten soldiers and not twenty?"


    "Why?"


    "Because they would need to take their shoes off to count any higher."


    Terrible. I plan to blot it out when I can stop giggling.


    <hr>


    What Elanor refused to put into her journal was any description of mud. It certainly wasn''t as cold as in the north, but there had been enough rain recently to make the ground a quagmire once a few hundred feet had marched over it. The greatest problem for her, therefore, was being required to land to talk to anyone.


    Having her own tent was a luxury she didn''t expect. The respectful salutes from the soldiers as she passed them almost made her embarrassed. Only her experience as a noble lady and her attempt to not be a fool as a representative of Sandwalker kept her from blushing, stumbling, or both. She even managed to nod to the two bodyguards at the entrance of Stewart''s tent before stepping inside.


    Looking up from a map of the region that he was gathered at with two generals, Stewart did his best not to smile too much. "Lady Elanor. You haven''t been feeding too many men to your wyvern, have you? We can spare two to three a day, but more than ten and we''ll have a big problem."


    Elanor let out a weary, suffering sigh. "I''m keeping her under five. It''s the best I can do under the circumstances. Have our scouts found them yet?"


    "No, but the King''s dragon found them. There''s a huge line of infantry some hundred-thousand or so. The artillery are preparing to move to my preferred field, and the army will move too. Will you be attending the battle, Lady Priestess?"


    The question from one of Stewart''s generals earned a dismissive shrug from Elanor. She knew she didn''t owe these men anything¡ªnot even an explanation. "I''ll stick close to the King. I am not trained to fight in the field, but if a threat comes for him, I will put myself in its way." As she said the last bit, she tucked the flaps of her duster back to reveal the revolver on each hip.


    Stewart could well appreciate the wording Elanor had used; she made sure to commit herself to avoiding interference with the generals'' work. "The Lady is here in her roles as a priestess, avatar of the kingdom, a guard, and because I asked for her presence. I know your focus has been primarily on this war, gentlemen, so I''ll assume you were not aware of the fact I have declared my intentions toward the Lady Elanor."


    Not knowing how to feel about it, Elanor decided she''d talk to Stewart later and deal with the army they were about to engage. "When?" She spared a little time to wish that Tinpot had built one of the automatic weapons that he''d told her about. The idea that a single soldier could hold similar destructive power she did in her revolvers when she used the kingdom''s power to fire unrelentingly sent a shudder down her spine, though.


    His mind racing, leaping to conclusions given the previous topic, Stewart felt a mild panic take hold. "You want me to set a date?"


    The palpable tension in the air relaxed, each of the two hardened military men chuckling at the sight of the king and his intended focused entirely on each other. It was far easier to write off their words as love-addled now having seen them both truly in that state. One of them cleared his throat and said, "We plan to make contact with the enemy tomorrow evening."


    "We''ll be fighting at night?" Elanor asked. At a nod from the generals and Stewart, she continued her line of thinking, "Have you considered using something to encourage surrender?"


    "I''ve already talked to Lady Penelope. She doesn''t like the idea of me sitting on her back and asking them to surrender. They''re our people, but I know she''s right. It would only take one crack shot with a rifle and the worst would happen."


    "Then don''t stand up and make a target of yourself. I''ll ask Sandwalker, but even without their help I should be able to make an image of fire in the sky." As soon as she said it, a hot breeze blew through Elanor, and she heard soft purring in her ears. "And, I think Sandwalker wants to help too."


    Stewart smiled at that. "Then that''s decided. Sandwalker has been a major force holding the kingdom together, I won''t deny their aid now. For all a surprise attack would surely mean a more decisive victory, I''d rather attempt to have them withdraw."


    With the two generals'' expressions souring, Elanor knew that it was probably a sticking point. She''d leave it to Stewart to sort out, since she''d made her statement about not trying to interfere. If he needed support, and asked for it, she wouldn''t hesitate to stomp on some toes. "Then I''ll see to my preparations."If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    Waiting for a nod from Stewart, Elanor exited the tent to find Penelope waiting outside. The two guards at the tent looked relaxed, having seen her around the castle every day, but the soldiers further out, to Elanor''s eyes, looked a mix of awed, terrified, and curious. "Good afternoon, Pen."


    Penelope was relieved that Elanor had finally started using her preferred nickname, and returned the woman''s smile. "Good to see you again. Is the King free now?"


    "You better check. He has company." Half-rolling her eyes, Elanor nodded back the way she''d come. "Nice work on tracking them down. I might need your help for something tomorrow."


    Her interest piqued, Penelope looked at one of the guards significantly, who nodded to her. "I''ll make this report and then we can talk. I''m curious to hear what would have you distracted the day of a battle." She waited for Elanor to give her a nod before heading inside¡ªwhich, for a dragon, meant she poked her head and half her neck into the command tent.


    The second most concerning woman in his life poked her head into Stewart''s tent. "Ah, Lady Penelope. Good news?"


    "I flew your scouts to within sight of the enemy. You''re sure you don''t want me to strafe them a few times?" Pen could see the interest on the two generals'' faces as she asked that, but Stewart''s expression told her that he was not so enthusiastic.


    "As you described in the attacks on the goblins in the North?" one general asked.


    Stewart dismissed that with a shake of his head. "It would work only too well. If I could," he said, "I would gladly pardon every one of those soldiers and let them go back to their lives, or invite them into a commission in my army. Please, no strafing unless things become a problem."


    "Got it. Your scouts should be reporting-in soon, once they''re done changing their pants." Penelope winked at Stewart, and was pleased with his laugh. "It was going fine until they had to look down to verify numbers and memorize the terrain. Some people are born to ride a dragon¡ªothers less so."


    Welcoming the mirth, Stewart nonetheless had to face facts. "Did they see you? Any reaction?"


    "Nothing. I kept above the clouds except when the scouts needed to see. I think that''s when they saw too much. But, credit where it''s due, they waited until we were back on the ground before spending their breakfast on the ground." Penelope smiled, tilting her head toward the two generals before focusing back on Stewart. "When do you want me ready for tomorrow?"


    "Check with Elanor. She has a plan to try something, and Sandwalker appears to support it." Thankful Penelope seemed willing to go along with the charade that he had some kind of mastery over her, Stewart nodded. "Thank you, Lady Penelope."


    When Penelope left, Stewart had a moment to reflect that one of his citizens became the single most physically powerful being in the kingdom, and was still willing to listen to him. He turned his attention back to the two men in the tent with him, that he suspected had motives beyond what he wanted, but nonetheless had to put up with because they were the best at their jobs.


    <hr>


    Despite a day having passed, Stewart felt no more ready for the first engagement of the war than he had before a night of tossing and turning. With no one rushing into his tent overnight, he had to assume the artillery was in place, which meant the fight''s outcome was inevitable.


    He sighed and turned, sitting up and preparing to face the day. The armor Travis had gifted him took a little work to put on, but he hadn''t selected a group of squires yet, so he was stuck with doing such for himself.


    Securing his ornate sword on his left hip and his two-revolver-holster on his right, Stewart took a long, deep breath and left his tent. The small enchantments on his tent, that reduced the sounds outside it, had been working overtime. The camp was noisy with the sound of soldiers packing up their kit, preparing themselves for a battle.


    "Your Majesty, all is proceeding as scheduled."


    Stewart''s head turned to look at his guard. He nodded. "Glad to hear it." He sighed. "Did my father ever struggle with leadi¡ª"


    "Your father never led any army. He left any military actions to his generals and never set foot on a battlefield that wasn''t already washed of blood and cold of anger," the other guard said.


    It would be unfair to punish his guardsman for interrupting him after he''d told them explicitly they could. "I am not my father. I may have inherited everything from him, even this war, but that doesn''t mean I have to follow his examples. If you see things I miss, tell me. If I am in danger, you have my permission to beat me on the head, if required, and drag me back to the castle. But, I need to be here for this. Every single one of those soldiers rallied at my word, and our <em style="font-weight: 600">enemies are still my citizens."


    "Sir," the first guard said, "you don''t have to explain it to us. We''re with you until we die."


    When Stewart looked at the other guardsman, he got a nod. It made him remember Harrow, and the frozen body awaiting all this to be dealt with before they attempt to bring him back. "You''ve both got talismans?"


    "Two from different temples in the capital, and one from Northridge. Just like you commanded us to, sir."


    Stewart realized both of them were looking at him with a raised eyebrow each. He sighed. "Two from Northridge. If everything goes to shit in this, I want to make sure I end my father''s mistake¡ªmore than I want to hold the throne."


    "Don''t say that too loud. Besides, you have a dragon, an inquisitor, and the two best trained guards in the kingdom who are going to make sure you live to reach the capital." He gestured to where Elanor, Penelope, and Ripper were gathered before a nearby fire, the latter two getting nervous looks from the soldiers dispensing bowls of porridge.


    "I think it''s time for breakfast." Stepping away from his tent, his guards took up position slightly behind him and to each side. As he approached the cooks, he noticed they seemed more relieved with him present. Stewart had to remind himself of the ruse that he was in control of Penelope, and that he couldn''t very well break it now. "Morning, soldiers. What are we having?"


    "Beef porridge, sir!"


    Stewart wasn''t going to correct their address, not so close to battle. "Sounds good. And a drink." With a filled bowl, a mug, and his guards ordered to have something themselves, Stewart walked to sit with Elanor and Penelope, still not privy himself to what they planned.


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 Chapter 173

    When Fife stepped into the huge cavern where the hobgoblin dungeon boss had been last delve, she sighed. There were two bipedal wolves unmoving on the floor, covered in white mushrooms with blood-like crimson dots. The gnoll woman was busy smashing at a small army of trolls, while Astrid and her remaining fighters harried the hobgoblin and its orc guards. "Fuck." As she uttered the word and prepared to take action, another wolf went down when its own fire was a hair late in catching a cloud of spores. As she freed her shield and sword, Fife bellowed, "Katelyn! Fire!"


    Even before she got halfway across the room, Fife felt the heat bear down on her from Katelyn''s magic. It''d never been so welcoming as since she had gained her wings¡ªit was like home to Fife. The three dead wolves, covered in mushrooms and mycelia, seemed to burn, but Fife could see it was only the fungus that couldn''t abide the flames.


    With only herself and Hreti still standing among her pack, Astrid didn''t like her chances of beating through the mass of orcs before the hobgoblin''s spores finally found hold. Beside her, slamming his axes into the huge shields of the orcs, Hreti had a spreading mass of mycelia on his face. She drew up a deep breath and exhaled it over him.


    Heedless of his close call, Hreti went into a frenzy of swings. Orcs were dissected, decapitated, and ripped apart under his assault. The weapons of his enemies were denied no longer by his own axes, however, which meant his armor was the only thing between himself and death. The armor was good, great even, but the orcs used tactics to find chinks in armor and exploit them, and even as he cut them up and down, one finally got a filthy blade up into his chest.


    Astrid only feared being unable to take the kill she''d been promised¡ªthe dungeon''s heart. When Hreti went down, her heart sank and she prepared to go into her own berserk fury when a new fighter took her flank. Fife didn''t slash and strike wildly, she shoved and killed like a force of nature. Several Orcs were shoved out of her way, giving room for Astrid work at the woman''s side to be another weapon with only Fife''s shield between them.


    The wave of flame hit them both in the back a moment later, cleansing them, the orcs, and soon the hobgoblin¡ªand burning the latter two. None of the orcs fell, though, leaving the pair much more work ahead of them.


    Laughing for the pure, violent joy of it, the gnoll splashed about left and right with her heavy flail, ripping weapons from hands and flesh from bones as easily as it crushed bones. She had been coughing up monstrous amounts of phlegm for some time, but her body rejected the right of the diseases to take hold¡ªhelped along by the hobgoblin not focusing on her.


    Her laugh caught on a note, however, when she was down to one last troll. The beast stood taller than her and had huge hunks of metal in hand of each tree-trunk-like arm. Her mouth curled into a manic grin and her laugh began anew. "Come! Dance! Die!" she managed to scream at it between her laughter.


    The crash of the troll¡¯s weapons on her shield-arm drove the gnoll back a few paces, spurring her excitement and hunger to overcome her combatant. The troll was relentless, though, and the best she was able to do was swing her flail at its weapons to fend them off and hope they might wrench one from the troll''s hand¡ªbut it seemed to have too good a grip.


    It was a standoff. The raw violence she faced sparked joy within the gnoll, but she wanted the troll dead. With every passing second her hunger for victory increased until, when the troll drew back both arms at the same time, she could control her blood-thirst no longer.


    Remaining with the group at the entrance, the male gnoll watched his mate execute a feral rush within the troll''s guard, and thus he began composing an epic song of the fight in his head. While the troll''s weapons dug deep into the elbow-gap in her left arm, she clamped her jaws around the huge muscles of the troll''s neck and ground her teeth down. His heart soared as her shield arm hit the ground¡ªsevered. His hands found a drum at his side and he started to play while her jaws clamped ever tighter, until finally a loud crack echoed through the cave.


    As the troll buckled at the knees, its muscles no longer obeying the commands its brain issued through the severed spinal column, the gnoll jerked back and tore its head free of its body with her teeth. Panting hard, she looked at her arm with vague interest. Blood was pouring out of it at a worrying rate. Letting go of her prize, she felt her legs wobble under her before she fell to the ground as well.


    Gasping her last few breaths, feeling the chill of death swelling, the gnoll woman could feel the spores finally start to take hold and dig their fiendish mycelia into her flesh. She coughed one last choked laugh, and then was still.


    Forestalled from rushing to his mate, the male gnoll looked at the tiny hand on his shoulder and its owner¡ªa dryad dungeon boss sitting atop a big wolf.


    "She''ll be okay. If I can''t save her, I''ll see she''s brought back," Breath of Spring said, guiding her mount forward with her toes. Rubbing the wolf''s neck, murmuring her thanks to them for the ride, Breath of Spring jumped down when they reached the sight of the troll massacre.


    The fungus now sprouting in the troll corpses was spurred on by Breath of Spring''s presence, but since it had accepted her influence, it became bound by her. It tried to reach for the gnoll body, but the will of the hobgoblin was far away and it wouldn''t defy the source of all life walking among it.


    "Oooh. No more blood." Breath of Spring looked at the huge gnoll limb that was missing from its body with her hands on her hips. Letting a little huff out, she walked over to it and wrapped her hands around it, pulling it over to the rest of the corpse.


    Shaking her head when she got the forearm against the ruined elbow, Breath of Spring crouched down and smiled. "It''s too early to rest, Miss Gnoll. You have yet to hear the song your mate will sing. Come, stand back up and promise him you''ll hear it."


    Breath of Spring didn''t have a god to pray to. She instead acted as a funnel for the might of her home, pouring Breeze''s power into the body of the gnoll. There was no outward sign the magic worked, at first, but a jolt in the gnoll woman''s chest was a sure sign that it was taking hold. Moments later, her mouth opened and her big lungs took a breath¡ªthen another. Walking along the body to the head, Breath of Spring leaned down and kissed the gnoll''s cheek. "Wake up."


    Snapping her eyes open, the gnoll looked up at the beatific angel that took up half her vision. Her breathing was steady and her heart pumped hard. She gulped and stared into the soft green eyes.


    "If you get up now, I think there are still some orcs to kill."


    The words, spoken softly and with a slight giggle, nonetheless stoked the gnoll''s joy for combat. Careful of her savior, she lifted herself back to her feet, took stock of the broken armor around her shield arm''s elbow, and checked the weight of her weapon. "Thank you," was all she managed before her laugh started once more. Spotting where Fife and Astrid struggled with the wall of orc bodies around the hobgoblin, her laugh launched into fits of giggling glee as she found enemies still living.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    Seeing where things were going, gnoll-wise, Katelyn narrowed her flames and increased their intensity¡ªfocusing them around the hobgoblin and leaving the rest of the area clear.


    Beaming at the gnoll charging across at the fight, Breath of Spring dusted her hands and sought out the Astrid''s downed wolves. Each looked like a mess of fungus trying to eat away their corpses, but all she had to do was dig her own life magic into the weaponized mycelia and then draw away all of it¡ªand the mass died. She blew a gentle breeze across the first, Trygve, and what was left of the fungus was scattered as dust. "Brave warrior, now is not the time to rest." Pouring all the life back into Trygve, the circle it made by being returned to him was very fitting in Breath of Spring''s view. She leaned down and kissed him, on the lips, and his eyes snapped open as he took a deep breath that had been her own exhalation. "Welcome back."


    By the time Trygve got his head straight and got up, Breath of Spring had already left him and was focused on Liv. Reaching for his weapons, he heard a huge commotion and looked to see Fife and Astrid battling a dwindling group of orcs as the gnoll fighter had apparently slammed into two orcs, her flail swinging over their shields to catch on flesh and armor and tossing the two behind her.


    Running over, Trygve reached the first of the tossed orcs before it could get up, and quickly buried a hatchet in its skull. The second gained its feet before he could finish it off, but as it squared off against him, Liv moved up behind it and swung her axe in a double-handed twirl that took the green beast''s weapon arm off at the shoulder.


    With the gnoll on her flank, Fife was finally able to push through the orcs enough to threaten the hobgoblin. When the huge flail ripped away the final line of enemies and revealed her target to her, Fife dropped her sword, drew her revolver, and sent four shots into the dungeon boss.


    Seeing the barrel alight on him, Short Claws snarled and gestured with a broad sweep of his arm and breathed life into the spores he''d hung in the surrounding air. A thick web of mycelia grew, burning through his magic to make a wall of fungal matter that could have repelled even the gnoll''s heavy flail.


    As the bullets hit Short Claws'' shield one after the other, they exploded and sent huge chunks of the improvised barrier with them. The third, however, punched through the last of the barrier and exploded behind it¡ªand the fourth connected with Short Claws before detonating.


    The double-echoes of the explosive rounds shook the room, but none more than the goblin dungeon''s defenders. In the chaos of their lines, Astrid and the gnoll worked like butchers. In only a few short seconds they cut down the last of the orcs and both surrendered to their own vocalizations at the victory.


    "Right." Fife rounded on the pair, one howling and one yapping loudly. "Which of you two didn''t know when to stop?"


    Snapping her mouth closed on the howl, Astrid tried to dredge up some feeling of remorse, but completely failed to. "It''s her fault," Astrid said, pointing at the gnoll, who bit back her own raised voice to look at Astrid curiously. "She makes this way too much fun."


    "Good fighting!" the gnoll said. "Killed many!"


    Seeing a losing fight when she faced it, Fife focused on reloading her pistol while the rush of battle still carried the two. She was, therefore, surprised to have her girlfriend rush up to her. "Wait I''m cover¡ª" Her attempt to spare Breath of Spring getting filthy died in her throat as she realized the dryad was already sporting blood and gore on her light armor. "What happened?"


    With Fife crouching for her, Breath of Spring was tall enough to deliver a good hug. "Had to bring those wolves back. And the gnoll. They should wait for their support next time."


    The tone hit Astrid in a way Fife''s rebuke hadn''t, and she finally realized that she''d lost all her pack in the heedless attack on the dungeon boss. She let out a final huff and squared up. "Sorry."


    Fife shrugged and stood, hefting Breath of Spring up with her. "Understandable. I should have kept a closer eye on you all. The job isn''t done yet though." Looking at the tunnel leading out of the boss room, Fife shivered at the task ahead. "There is one more thing we need to deal with."


    Giving Fife one last squeeze, that Breath of Spring doubted her girlfriend felt but was worth it anyway, she jumped down and climbed back onto the bloodied wolf she''d been riding before, giving him lots of patting and telling him he was the best.


    Astrid''s heart thudded faster and faster as Fife led them down the side tunnel, a green glow growing brighter the further they went. Her voice was actually shaking when she asked, "I get to kill it?"


    "You get to kill it, but our allied dungeons will get to hurt it too. I hope they have quests or get some kind of bonus out of it." Fife turned a corner and spotted their target¡ªa huge crystal. It was big, as hearts went. It pulsed softly, but from her experience with Travis, she knew it could now see and hear them. She marched right up to it and said, "Sorry about all this. If you''d stayed a bug dungeon, we could have worked with you, you know? Bugs are kinda cool, but your goblins are too dangerous and there''s no way to stop ''em without stopping you."


    "Huntress?" Fife asked.


    Walking up to the heart, Huntress reached back to the gear she had slung on her equine half and unhitched the big sledgehammer. Judging the weight of the weapon, finding it a bit unfamiliar, she nonetheless brought it back, up, and then down on the heart.


    The scream of the dungeon caused Huntress to fall back a step. She felt the walls closing in around her and was ready to turn and run¡ªbefore a strong presence engulfed her. Her nerve restored, she looked down and at Breath of Spring. "Thank you."


    "If there was anything for Home to take from this, it should be done. Give the nice gnoll lady her swing." Reaching out with one hand, Breath of Spring patted Huntress on the foreleg while the dungeon heart before them wailed.


    Looking at the big hammer offered to her, the gnoll shook her head and held up her flail. She hadn''t expected to be offered an attack on the heart, but it felt like a fitting end to the fighting leading up to here. Limbering up her shoulder, she brought her flail up and around, the heads of it slamming into the heart once, then a second time as she brought the weapon back up. Like with Huntress, she felt her own kin rush to her side.


    Looking down at her mate, the gnoll woman swapped her weapon to her off-hand and reached down to rub his head and ears. "Safe. It can''t hurt you."


    Astrid held out her hand to the gnoll and saw she was more focused on reassuring her mate than the ceremony this had become. "Let me end this."


    Jolted a little, the gnoll looked down at her left hand and the almost weightless (to her) hammer in it. She nodded and held the weapon out. "Destroy it."


    Taking the hammer, Astrid braced her feet and readied to swing. "Now it''s time to end this hunt and claim these grounds as our own." She ignored the screech the heart made and held the hammer in her right hand.


    Raising the hammer as if it were nothing but a tool for securing nails into wood, Astrid brought it down with a crash on the heart. Again and again she struck, her strength driving the hammer into the crystal as her folded-back ears tried to ignore the wail of the heart.


    Feeling the dungeon rumble around them, Fife heard the screech of the heart reach a fever pitch, and then the regular smashing of hammer into crystal changed, a sour note echoing through the chamber. One more strike from Astrid and the heart shattered.


    The rumbling took on a more urgent tone. Fife raised her voice, "Let''s get out of here! Run as fast as you can and don''t leave anyone behind!" She didn''t like their chances of making the surface before the structure fell apart and the magic unraveled, but hoped they''d make it anyway.


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 Chapter 174

    It wanted a name, but it couldn''t think of a good one. It was an annoying sensation. Normally, when a dungeon wanted something, it would throw resources at the easiest path to getting it, but a name had no resources to apply.


    As it mused over how to invent a new resource for the task, it had an announcement.


    <blockquote>


    Your creatures have destroyed another dungeon! Your prestige grows!


    </blockquote>


    It mentally woofed out in a gesture it had taken from its gnolls. Pride flooded through the dungeon, and it felt another floor start to form. Only one warrior had been sent to fight in the goblin dungeon, and she¡ªthe most accomplished of all their fighters bar one, Forerunner¡ªhad taken her mate along to ensure her deeds would be spread by campfires.


    The prestige that flowed from the event far outweighed the effort put in, or so the dungeon felt, and it aligned with everything it had heard from the city dungeons. It wanted to hear from its warrior first, but considered the dragon dungeon''s offer anew and more favorably.


    They had company, though, or so the dungeon saw through the eyes of its people. A big warrior approached, its armor dull and extensive, reminding the dungeon of the metal the dragon dungeon had provided. When they didn''t draw their weapons to attack, the dungeon sent a positive nudge to Forerunner.


    Her dungeon now had two work crews, which Forerunner was happy for. More work, more prestige, more strength. The loss of their biggest tree-feller was felt in the speed of their work, but her presence in the goblin dungeon was a point of honor in and of itself.


    They might be humans, but they were excellent specimens and almost stood equal to Forerunner in height. "Come and sit," was all Forerunner said, then gestured to the fire pit that was, now, stacked with wood and ready to light.


    Unsure what customs the gnolls would have, but finding comfort in the short and to the point welcome to an eating area, Hilda followed and sat down opposite the huge creature. When smaller gnolls brought out a tray piled high with food and set it between the pair, she took the offer as seriously as she would from any home in the north. "Thank you for your hospitality." It was only then she realized the gnoll''s words had sounded like perfectly understandable northern low-language.


    "You have a job for gnolls?" Forerunner asked, taking a hunk of sausage that Hilda had left on the tray and biting it.


    "An offer. My people need to train. They need to fight those stronger, faster, and more deadly than themselves. I think you do, too." Taking a bite of what meat she''d grabbed, Hilda found her tongue burning with the searing hot spices in it. She did her best to not show it, though.


    Forerunner remembered a scout talking of this woman fighting the dragon, now. The male had sung of the battle, as he''d seen it from the trees near the city, and it had set her blood pumping at the time. "You want to fight the dragon again?" The shock she saw on Hilda''s face told Forerunner everything she needed. "I would, one day, challenge her too. It will take time, I think, because as we grow, she grows."


    Hilda broke into a laugh, but quickly stifled it at the look she got from Forerunner. The gnoll''s expression had been so perfectly <em style="font-weight: 600">curious that she had understood easily. "The people of the north believe dungeons are full of unthinking monsters. I have found the exact opposite at every turn. Yes, it will take hard work and practice, but I believe we could both defeat Penelope the dragon."


    It was enough to make Forerunner''s mouth hang open in a huge fanged smile. "I think we can train together. For strength and renown." There wasn''t much she could think of that would be more prestigious than defeating a dragon in single combat. But, before Forerunner could hope to do that, she would need to defeat the woman sitting across from her. "Train here?"


    "We have a fort with equipment, but we can train anywhere. Once those goblins are gone, there is no threat to any of us in these lands until, I understand, the next dungeon appears." Holding out her arm to shake, Hilda was glad to see Forerunner knew of the method of agreement.


    "The dungeon is dead. The warriors are returning from its depths now."


    That was news to Hilda. She knew the gnoll dungeon had sent someone along for the fight, so assumed there was some magical way for news to be returned. "Then let us turn our efforts to becoming the best warriors we can be."


    "Sunrise?" Forerunner asked.


    "That would be a good time each day to start training. I''ll see your warriors then."


    "Tell the wolf-woman her kin are welcome too. They fight good, or so I hear."


    Considering the extra offer, Hilda nodded and stood up only to marvel at how equal parts strange and good her life had become. There was no more fighting for food or struggling to find a place to sleep¡ªand all she''d had to do was leave some of her old ways behind her. As she walked from the camp, her deal with the gnolls made, she sighed and whispered, "Donna would never have been able to do this¡ªshe hated dungeons too much."


    <hr>


    Soaring high, Elanor found herself fighting for breath just a little. No matter how fast or how deep she gulped in air, it made her head a little light. "L-Lower!"


    Penelope perked her head to the side. They were above the clouds by a good margin, mostly because the day had decided to turn dark and wet. She spiraled lower, a weird sense letting her know where the army was below her despite the clouds between them. "Are you ready?"Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    <em style="font-weight: 600">Not yet, was what Elanor wanted to shout back. This was ridiculous, she thought, aware that if she fell, she at least wouldn''t get captured. A hot wind cut through the chill and filled her lungs with dry, breathable air. "Thank you. I don''t know if I am ready, but I better tell her something," she said, the words too soft for even a dragon to hear. "I''m ready!"


    The clouds, Penelope judged, should still be high enough that no ballista bolts would find them. Penelope worried more about magic. "Shield of Mana, Shield Other¡­ I think that''s all I got for magic. Elanor, if you have any protection magic, now would be a good time to use it." Hearing her rider mutter her own spells, Penelope waited for the all clear and said, "Well, here goes nothing!"


    Below, the Western army was stuck in hurry-up-and-wait mode. Their officers weren''t fools, they knew an enemy was coming, but whether it was a month or six was their problem. But, while they weren''t anticipating an attack so soon, their leaders weren''t such idiots as to not be prepared. There were earthworks around the picket, and in the rear was a wooden fort complete with some long-range cannons that were set up and manned¡ªbut few were aimed in the direction of Stewart''s army.


    In all, on the dreary day, they weren''t ready when a dragon smashed a hole through the clouds above, aided with a torrent of divine magic pouring in behind her. The first they knew was sunlight breaking through the otherwise perpetual gray clouds.


    And, so, turning their eyes up and squinting, the army witnessed a dragon above their position, haloed in golden light. Streamers of sunlight flickered off each wingtip and it seemed like each stroke of its wings cast aside more and more of the thick cloud cover.


    "Hear me, army of the West. Lower your weapons. Do not fight. Your cause is unjust!" The voice was neither Penelope nor Elanor''s, though it seemed to come from the latter. "The king comes, and with him the light of truth!"


    They were the first words Sandwalker had spoken in the mortal realm. They felt incredibly drained after the effort, and wanted dearly to curl up in a sunbeam¡ªbut they had to protect their chosen priestess. Even as their voice faded, the first group of mages of the Western army prepared a massive spell that would hurl a spear of ice skyward.


    Penelope''s eyes flickered around the camp, but the siege-bolt of ice, hovering in the air in the center of a circle of spell casters, drew her attention. From experience, she knew this kind of magic took extreme skill and training as a team to pull off, and she watched as the mages lined up on her, pouring their energy into the spear. "I''ve never done a lot of praying before, but Sandwalker, please¡ª"


    Hearing a prayer from a voice new to them made Sandwalker purr happily. They didn''t wish to test Penelope''s shielding magic against such a spell, and combined with the prayer it made interceding simpler. Launched skyward with unerring accuracy by the raw power of wizardry, it drew nearer at greater and greater speed. They reached out with more of their power and batted the ice. It didn''t miss by a lot, but Sandwalker didn''t care¡ªa miss was a miss, and their spell should never have missed.


    Elanor felt wrung out. Even as the mages below were going about creating another spell, she was still acting as the conduit for Sandwalker''s power. With her god taking a wait-and-see stance with the magic, the mere presence of Sandwalker''s attention felt like a huge weight crushing her.


    Another surge of magic, another deflected spear of ice sent wide of its target. Sandwalker felt personally attacked given how much effort had been put into deflecting the spells. Catching one bright sunbeam, the god whittled it down and tossed it at the next construction of ice.


    Penelope watched the growing spear hit by the searing light explode. The mages around the blast, their focus on offense rather than defense, didn''t fare well as huge chunks of ice impaled them. "Stewart didn''t want us killing anyone, but those bastards had it coming."


    Below, the Western army stared at the fire-wreathed dragon as it continued to hover, and the woman barely visible on its back¡ªthe pair appearing unfazed by the attacks. Some lost their grip on weapons and gear. Such freed hands made holy gestures. Those warding gestures all inspired a small reassurance and warmth, spreading to those around them as Sandwalker''s act attempted to subvert the opening battle of a war. Muttering started to spread, soldiers feeling in their hearts that a god had spoken to them, told them to lay down weapons, and their own commanders had ordered the god''s messenger slain.


    It was Penelope''s task now. She opened her mouth and bellowed as loud as she could. "Lay down your arms, on order of King Stewart Gallant, son of the late King Darren Gallant! The Marquess slayed the King''s father!"


    In all, it was a spectacle of the grandest design. A dragon, a god, magic flying, and a pronouncement that they''d all been lied to. It was a fantastic show that allowed Stewart to wheel his army into place and have his cannons set up with no one looking at them¡ªuntil he wanted them to.


    Aided with a spell to amplify his voice, Stewart addressed both armies at the same time. "<em style="font-weight: 600">This battle begins a war to reestablish the kingdom that David Fitzgerald, no longer a marquess, tried to kill along with my father. I ask you, as your King, to stand aside. I seek justice! These crimes are not yours! No more need to die this day!"


    Even in the sky above, Penelope heard every word clearly. She turned her hover into an arcing descent, bringing herself over Stewart''s army and low, landing at his side smoothly and showing her support clear as day. She lowered her shoulder and offered a foreleg for him to climb, so that her allegiance was obvious. Elanor jumped down the other side of her to make room, and in a moment he was seated astride her neck, just forward of her wings.


    Now came the tricky bit. Penelope was not all that elegant on the ground, but as she reared up into a fierce pose, forelimbs flashing her talons and wings balancing behind her, she angled her neck down so Stewart was visible.


    Holding the pose as best she could by leaning on her tail, she managed to mutter, "Please hurry, this isn''t stable," so that only Stewart and perhaps a few of the front ranks of soldiers heard. Thankfully, she noted the soldiers didn''t start laughing, though she knew if she did fall, she''d never hear the end of it. Under her breath she added, "I should have practiced this earlier."


    "<em style="font-weight: 600">Surrender now, or perish!" Stewart bellowed.


    Ten cannons in a line beside Stewart''s army belched out flame, a warning shot with no ammo loaded to make a statement and promise.


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 Chapter 175

    "It''s better than them ordering an attack." Stewart put his mailed hand against Penelope''s neck. "You can lower back down now. Thank you, again." It was a delicate relationship, he felt, but he didn''t want to make it an uncomfortable one for Penelope, and she had put on quite the show of strength for the opposing army to see.


    Dropping to all fours, Penelope spared a glance out of one eye, backwards, to see Stewart still using his legs to smooth the ride. She managed to suppress the urge to point it out after the flight to the capital. "Don''t jump down yet. If they ride a horse out to meet you, you can ride me out. The horse won''t freak out, you needn''t worry."


    "The horse is the least of my worries. They only presented a white flag, not a surrender. I think I know what is coming." Turning to the side, Stewart shouted, "Show them a white flag!"


    Penelope waited while both armies calmed down and the word was passed that there would be no shooting during the parlay. Finally, Stewart asked her to advance. "You understand what the downside of riding me out there is?"


    Trying his best to hold his tongue, Stewart caught an edge of humor to Penelope''s words. "The waddle?"


    "The waddle. So, I''ll take it slow, try to make it look more like a stately slither. I think this is why dragons have wings." Penelope started as she had said she would, walking with a slow deliberation that made the wobble of her hips reduced enough that she didn''t look like an overweight rat trying to get some dripping.


    They reached the middle of no-man''s-land after the other army''s delegate. The woman sat proud on her dun-colored horse. She had chain mail and some fancy plate pieces over her upper chest and shoulders, but otherwise wasn''t remarkable except for the tabard with a coat of arms emblazoned on it. The horse seemed completely at ease with standing within ten feet of a dragon¡ªits rider less so.


    Stewart didn''t need to think too far to remember her name. The woman sitting opposite him was older than he, but she had been at his father''s court several times during his life. "Lady Knight Charlie Downs." He dipped his head slightly, if for nothing else acknowledging her willingness to meet under a white flag before the battle.


    "Your Majesty." Charlie remembered the new king, of course, as the young man that she''d seen repeatedly at his father''s court. "My condolences on your father. You escaped the Mar¡ª" She couldn''t help but smile. "You escaped David''s plots?"


    Penelope shifted her stance, even made a show of drawing her lips back from her teeth. She waited for Stewart''s hand to pat her neck to calm again.


    Fighting back the immediate urge to flee, and more than a little impressed to see Stewart''s apparent control of a dragon as a mount. "I''ll stop asking the bloody obvious and skip the small talk. I can''t surrender, lad. I''ve sworn more oaths in my life, to bigger idiots than¡ªthat man¡ªand I''ve kept them all."


    He sighed. "I had hoped he would have sent an idiot with less honor than his sons. He isn''t completely a fool, though. You swore to hold this ground?"


    "This very hill. No army from the kingdom will pass us by."


    Stewart cursed the former Marquess under his breath. "And neither of us will break the truce once called. Can you at least allow any soldiers who don''t wish to fight to¡ª?"


    "Any that have had a sudden crisis of faith, you mean?" Sitting more relaxed now, Charlie nodded. "If they cite that demonstration, they may withdraw¡ªon one condition." When Stewart nodded, Charlie continued, "You don''t have that dragon fight for you."


    Reaching up to rub his chin, making a show of thinking about it, Stewart finally nodded. "She has hunted an army into the ground, or so I''m told. How about it, Pen, a fight here and now, or you can be the one to kill the former marquess?"


    The malice that shot through Penelope''s face made Charlie sit up straighter. The dragon''s eyes seemed to glow, and a green mist leaked past her teeth and from her nose, confirmation that the earlier display of fire had been a ruse by a god. Charlie shuddered at the thought of an acid-breathing dragon¡ªnot the kindest of beasts to fight. "Then negotiations are at an end. Shall we give the day an hour after returning to our lines before we start¡­ <em style="font-weight: 600">this?"


    "That''s amenable." Stewart paused before giving Penelope the signal to turn. "Charlie?"


    "Yes, sir?"


    "Please keep your head down, and surrender when winning is impossible." Stewart caught a wince on her face. "You have my word that I won''t allow <em style="font-weight: 600">any of <em style="font-weight: 600">my people to be mistreated."


    "Even a stupid old woman?" Charlie asked.


    "Especially a woman with more honor than her lord. Come on, Pen, you won''t be fighting today." Stewart tapped with his foot and Penelope turned, beginning her slow walk back to his forces.


    "You tried," Penelope said, when they were out of earshot of Charlie. "You''ve given as many soldiers as you can a way to refuse to fight."


    Stewart snorted a laugh. "You and Elanor, you mean. All I did was talk a weary soldier into doing something she would have done anyway. I was never going to ask you to fight. It''s too¡ªtoo brutal. I''ve heard stories of what you left behind in the field after the goblins fell." Letting loose a shudder he couldn''t stop.


    Before Stewart could say more, Penelope snorted. "I would have refused unless you were absolutely losing and in danger. If you think third-hand accounts of what I did to the goblins was bad, imagine being the one to do it. I turned the air to acid and rained it down on them. They died, but not cleanly. And, remember, talismans aren''t reliable when attacked with acid." Nearing their line, she said one last thing on the matter, "Also, I can''t judge which way the wind is blowing when flying. I can aim for your enemy, but you might not come away clean."If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Looking at their lines of artillery, Stewart sighed. "I still have one more card to play. I hope this fight can be stopped before more than a few shots are fired."


    Lifting one leg to make an intermediate step for Stewart climb down, Penelope said, "Seeing everything you''re doing to resolve without killing makes me want to fight for you more, you realize? Also, it''s weird how easily I can react to your body language and voice. Not bad, but I don''t think I want to get <em style="font-weight: 600">too used to it. It''ll be hard enough trying to tell Fife that she can''t have a ride."


    Pulling a device from his pocket, Stewart checked the dial on the front and nodded to himself. As his two bodyguards approached, he found the least churned-up ground he expected to see and lowered himself into a kneeling position. Even so far from where the kingdom now dwelled, the old lines of power where it linked to the western cities still pulsed a little with memories of the bond it once carried.


    "Thank you," he said, softly. Only Penelope and the kingdom heard him, and he didn''t mind the former hearing his words. "I''m going to need your power soon. Please, when you¡ª?" He didn''t even finish his request than power poured through him. City after city of the now-reduced kingdom supported and added their strength. "Thank you, again."


    Stewart remained there. He worked through his plans for the coming battle, for the war it would usher in, and ran the plans through their paces. So many things could go wrong and so many needed to go right¡ªor it would be a protracted mess that would leave the kingdom open to raids by any other nation.


    "Your Majesty?"


    Penelope''s deep and gravely voice cut through Stewart''s meditation. He opened his eyes and looked up at her. "Has something happened?"


    "There are five minutes until the hour''s up," Penelope said. When he looked at her in surprise, checked his timepiece, and looked further surprised, she explained, "I counted."


    Almost surrendering to the urge to ask if she was joking, Stewart reined-in the desire. Standing up, he ignored the mud clinging to his sabatons and walked to the hill where the artillery stood ready and primed for the fight. The gunners looked nervous, and he knew why: they were exposed. Normally, cannons and their sibling field pieces were guarded jealously by heavy infantry. They were spread out along a line to keep them from being a juicy target for the enemy''s own guns.


    He walked among the big guns. Many of the weapons were so new he almost expected to feel the forge''s heat still in them. So many thin-walled adamantine cannons that it would have made his father weep for joy. Down the hill he walked to the twenty-squad of riflemen at the front.


    They had been a personal request, when Stewart had heard the guards on the wall of Northridge saying they had the best riflemen in the kingdom. He''d dug a little, found out that the boast was well-supported by both the skill and weapons provided, and so he''d invited Northridge to send them.


    The guns, he could see, were the same dull metal as the new cannons. Each of them had a stack of the advanced ammunition that Elanor had showed him, and by the color each was painted¡ªthey were all explosive.


    "This is going to start in a minute. You understand who I want you shooting?" Stewart asked the squad.


    Clearing her throat, Tammy replied, "We''re targeting anyone with a fancy uniform and anyone giving commands, Sir." She had no idea why she''d been made the squad''s sergeant, but she intended to take the role seriously.


    A piercing whistle sounded, first from the other side and then from his own. Stewart knew what that meant¡ªthe guns were about to start firing. "Kingdom, grant me the power to protect these, our mightiest defenders, as they brave the battlefield for us."


    The first sounds of cannons barking their violence shook the battlefield. Behind him, Stewart was relieved that it wasn''t any of his¡ªthey were following his orders. He had made a huge target for his enemy; whoever still had cannons firing at the end of a battle generally won. Grouping his together hadn''t failed to draw Charlie''s eye, and Stewart was relieved when every shot collided with his golden shield.


    Charlie swore. She spat out as many foul words as she could, then made a few new ones up. Her intelligence on Stewart''s use of city magic was greatly deficient. "Tell the cannons to sight on the infantry formations! Don''t bother shooting at that golden sphe¡ª"


    Raising her rifle, Anichka cracked the chamber open and removed the spent casing from the barrel and dropped it in the bag at her side. Slotting another of the explosive rounds in, she closed the gun and cocked the hammer. She bit back a curse at having her spotter stolen to be a commander for the squad, but selecting targets was simply a matter of finding someone shouting orders.


    Even though he''d given the order himself, Stewart still felt terrible that the knight he''d only just spoken to had been felled. He scarcely would have believed they were within rifle range, but still the Northridge woman had felled Charlie with her second shot. "An army without leadership is a mob."


    Regular rifles were still far from within range of each line. The enemies'' cannons kept sounding, and every one of the big guns plowed their shots into Stewart''s barrier. With fewer and fewer leaders, the guns slowed their firing and eventually fell silent. Of the two armies, only one knew what they were meant to be doing while the other turned to officers and commanders that weren''t alive anymore.


    Elanor, who''d been recovering from her invoking of Sandwalker, nonetheless watched as the last few leaders tried to rally and make a stand, but the moment anyone with authority managed it¡ªanother long range rifle shot would rob them of their life.


    When the Western forces couldn''t seem to rally enough to even withdraw, Elanor had had enough. Walking through the front lines of the kingdom''s forces, she prayed to her goddess and to the kingdom for her own protection so she could end the farce the engagement had become.


    Both lines froze as they noticed the woman walking across no-man''s-land, her own golden aura¡ªfar smaller than the King''s¡ªprotecting her from stray shots until no guns sounded.


    She ignored Stewart''s calls for a ceasefire, for the white flag to be raised, and marched across to where disorganized soldiers stared at her¡ªbegging for a miracle. "<em style="font-weight: 600">Put your guns down. Sit on the ground! This battle is over!" Relieved when they nodded and followed her instructions, Elanor continued her walk.


    Relief flooded Stewart as the enemy began falling to the ground like a wave. They weren''t dead, but he could see defeat in the faces he could make out among the Western soldiers.


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 Chapter 176

    "I''m not sure if I like being feared like this." Penelope hadn''t realized how much it would affect her. They were halfway across the no-mans-land, and she could already see the eyes of the Western soldiers locked on her.


    "Stop, then. I''ll walk." Despite his command, and expectation that Penelope would follow it, she didn''t halt.


    "No. I might not like it, but it will not stop me helping you. You need to have an aura of power. Showing off the kingdom''s magic and riding a dragon loses its impact if you don''t <em style="font-weight: 600">ride the dragon. I''ll do my best to not spook anyone, but if something happens¡ªhold on tight."


    Stewart braced, thinking she meant to take off right then, but then he put together her train of thought. "Got it. And, thank you again." He sighed. "I''m having to say that a lot."


    "You don''t have to, but it''s appreciated." As they reached the first of the lines, Penelope recognized a lot of hand gestures¡ªholy in nature. She kept her teeth as hidden as she could when she said, "May the gods guide us all." The words drew surprised looks.


    "Smooth," Stewart said. "Can you take us to the command area over there?"


    Twisting her neck a little, Penelope caught Stewart''s pointing and nodded. The whispering among the soldiers was perfectly audible to Penelope. She listened to their wondering about what would happen next. One seemed to be priming a rumor that Stewart would feed them all to her. The big news, though, was what she''d said. She caught the eye of one woman telling her comrades about Penelope''s words and nodded to her. "Rumors about me are spreading faster than I could fly," she said to no one in particular.


    When they arrived at the command area of the Western army, obvious because of all the standards that were now lowered, Penelope went through the motion of raising her leg and lowering her neck.


    Elanor, having assisted the other priests present, stood up from where she crouched over one officer, having used her own spells to clean the wounds prior to the more experienced priestess of Balance doing a resurrection. "Your Majesty," she said, dipping her head to Stewart. "I hope you aren''t too upset with my actions, I¡ª"


    Cutting her off by dint of striding forward and pulling her into a hug, Stewart whispered, "Thank you," to her.


    A little lost at first, mostly due to the fact that with them both wearing armor, she couldn''t actually feel him hugging her. "Are you thanking me or Sandwalker?"


    "One at a time. I''ll pray to your god with my thanks later, but I wager they already are well aware of how I feel about them. Thank <em style="font-weight: 600">you for saving so many lives." Almost on the tip of his tongue was begging her not to risk herself again like that. It was stupid, selfish, and he only barely stopped himself saying it because his heart demanded it so loudly.


    Walking around the pair, Penelope watched as the knight¡ªa large hole where her chest had formerly been¡ªwas being seen-to by a priestess. The cleaning process was first, then as much of the woman''s armor as could be was removed, and finally the priestess poured magic into the knight until the huge wound healed and she took her first breath among the living again. "Welcome back."


    Looking up, Charlie wasn''t surprised she was alive again. What surprised her was the face staring down at her. Blotting out the sun was the visage of a dragon. "Give me some space?" When the dragon didn''t move, Charlie turned to look at the priestess who was beside her. "You didn''t resurrect me to be used as dragon food, I trust, so why is it here?"


    "You could ask me instead. The reason I''m here is to make sure you''re okay. The King seems to respect you." Giving the woman room to get up, Penelope lowered one wing to Charlie''s side to give her something to lean on.


    Standing on her own, Charlie grumbled at the state of her armor. She pressed her fist against her healed flesh, finding plenty of room around it before her arming doublet''s ruined fabric. "What hit me, a cannon?"


    "Explosive rifle round. I''d explain how they''re made, but I have no clue. Put the cased round into the rifle, fire it, it makes a hole the size of a cannonball. Sometimes bigger." Penelope drew her wing up and folded it at her side. "You couldn''t have picked a worse time to stand against the kingdom."


    "Fighting against the lad¡ª" Charlie had to school herself; not wanting to use the excuse of the resurrection to explain bad manners. "They don''t know the King can still use his shield like that. If I were you, I''d make sure no one gets away from here to tell that upstart about it."


    "Too late for that. Several of your officers had their talismans intact," the priestess said. "Unlike you, they did not wear theirs on a necklace above their chest, or they had a second."


    Penelope uttered a few curses under her breath, which didn''t do much to hide them from anyone''s ears. When She saw Stewart approaching, she cut her tirade short and gave him the same bad news.


    "That ruins our chances of this ploy being a surprise next time. Or our presence here being a surprise." Stewart reached up to Penelope''s shoulder and gave her a few good thumps as thanks. "I hear you''ve tipped our hand to your fellow knight. I guess I will do the proper introduction. Lady Knight Penelope Bogblood, this is Lady Knight Charlie Downs. Sir Charlie, this is Sir Penelope."A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Charlie''s eyebrows had risen about as high as they would go. "You made a dragon a knight of the kingdom?"


    "She''s shown more chivalry and honor than most knights I''ve met¡ªpresent company excepted, of course." Waiting for Charlie''s eye-roll, Stewart shrugged. "And you have to admit, she makes a better entrance than most knights. It''s a formality at this point, but do you offer your surrender here today?"


    "Yes, Your Majesty, when you kill every commander from the other army in the opening seconds of a battle, that is what defeat means. I surrender and ask that you spare the soldiers of my command." She doubted Stewart would take the hands of the soldiers. The amount of effort he''d put into harming as few as he could was obvious to her, but just as obvious was that he''d been prepared to use all those cannons if it hadn''t worked. "Wait, you never even contemplated sending the¡ªsending Lady Penelope to attack!"


    "If you''d attacked him at the railway line, I would have," Penelope said.


    "Bah. Where would be the honor in that? I would have deserved to be sent to meet the gods if I''d been so unsporting." Spitting on the ground, Charlie tested her range of movement. "Your priests do good work." She paused a moment and then sighed. "Very well. I surrender. I will not inform you of the disposition or position of any other forces behind me, nor will I say what that whelp in the West has planned. I will say he wasn''t expecting you for months, nor did they think you''d have any of the royal magics."


    "I could take a guess and say they expected the kingdom to be lacking in food and for a significant travel time to shift all these troops from the Eastern cities to the capital?" Watching the calculation in Charlie''s eyes, Stewart caught her nod. "You won''t believe how we''re doing it, but it relates to Lady Penelope."


    Curiosity burned in Charlie. She looked at Penelope, then back to Stewart. "And you won''t tell me because you''re shipping me back to the capital for public beheading?"


    "The first thing, but not the second. You''re out of this war, Charlie, but there''s still a place for you in the kingdom, and it starts with escorting your people to the capital and waiting for my return. Once I''m done with David, I''ll be back to figure out what to do with you¡ªbut it won''t involve the headsman''s axe." Taking a moment to look around the army Charlie had been in command of, Stewart was relieved the trains would be returning with more troops.


    <hr>


    <blockquote>


    Quest Complete: Destroy another dungeon.


    </blockquote>


    <blockquote>


    New Quest: Breach the walls of an enemy city!


    </blockquote>


    "This can''t all be from the dungeon, surely? Wait, ''enemy city''?" Travis looked over the XP he had gotten. "Hang on, I got two more levels there! How does that work? Pe¡ª" He froze. It had become so natural to ask Penelope for her thoughts that, without her anywhere near any of the cities he now existed as part of, he felt a bit dejected. "Uh, Felna?"


    Yawning and stretching, Felna lifted her head from the boss room of Penelope''s "dragon fight" mini dungeon. The lava in the room, or at least the heat from it, made it one of her favorite new haunts. "Mmmm, yes?"


    There was something unique, for Travis, about not being able to look at someone now. The only pair of eyes in the whole room Felna occupied were her own. "I''m not sure what just happened, but I got¡­ uh¡­ about ten million XP."


    Pulling on her clothes, Felna glanced around for any lizards looking her way and pouted. "That''s a lot, I think? I am not sure of numbers at that scale."


    "Oh! Uh, so take a thousand gold, then put that in a chest¡ª"


    "It''d need to be a pretty big chest," Felna said, and glanced down at her clothed self.


    Travis only barely caught himself from laughing at her joke. "Right. Big chest. Now get a thousand of those chests all filled with a thousand gold."


    Walking toward the lava moat that bisected the room, Felna whistled. "That''s a lot of gold. You have more than that, right?"


    "<em style="font-weight: 600">We have a lot more than that. Just the¡ª Hold up. I was trying to make a point there. So I got ten million XP from <em style="font-weight: 600">something. I got a quest completion for destroying a dungeon, so Fife and co took care of that, but I shouldn''t have gotten <em style="font-weight: 600">that much for it."


    "Are you forgetting that Pen is out doing her own thing, too?" The silence that met Felna''s words made her groan. "Sorry. I¡ª"


    "You''re right, though, even if I didn''t want to think about her being so far away. I guess the other reason I don''t want to think about it is that it would mean she killed a lot of people."


    Walking across what should have been dangerously hot lava, Felna felt the silence crowd in around her. Penelope, she knew, was a fighter. But there was a difference between a fighter and a force of nature on a battlefield. "I don''t think she''d do that. Maybe there are other things that <em style="font-weight: 600">count as killing an army?"


    "I¡ª" Travis narrowed his focus a little, letting some other conversations slip from him with a hurried apology. "You''re right. I''ve done nothing but dodge around my dungeon system''s rules and expectations. For all I know, she gets XP from being part of Stewart''s <em style="font-weight: 600">party, and what I got was her share for making the entire West surrender."


    Leaving a trail of silence in her wake, Felna left the small dungeon behind and finally asked, as she reached her temple, "Would you only get two levels for defeating a whole half of the kingdom?"


    It broke the tension in Travis. He laughed at the notion. "Probably not. I got what, ten, for Stewart''s troops marching through. I got a million XP just for having Stewart walk in every day."


    "Your ability to juggle all these absurd numbers is curious. Are such calculations often needed in your world?" Felna, in her god''s temple, felt a reassuring warmth pour over her like a hot day in a desert. "I think things are going well in the west."


    Travis felt the warmth too. It didn''t wrap around him, but it poured out from the temple to Sandwalker and made, for a while, the depths of his dungeon a warm and inviting place.


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 Chapter 177

    <blockquote>


    Dungeon Status:


    Floors 233


    Heart 86,862,400/86,862,400


    Food 17,099,193/21,715,600


    Mana 4,312/38,100


    Workers 935/935


    Monsters 739/940


    Traps 7/2335


    Quest: Destroy another dungeon.


    Quest: Reach 300 floors.


    Quest: Build 10 traps.


    </blockquote>


    Breathing was life. Though they didn''t sleep, Breeze found themselves drifting sometimes, but even in that low-activity state, they still breathed. Mana in from all the life they sustained; mana out to swell their creatures with life.


    <blockquote>


    Quest Complete: Destroy another dungeon.


    Gained 5 new floors!


    </blockquote>


    The message made Breeze burble with delight. They weren''t exactly sure how the quests worked, but they made numbers go up, and Breeze had learned from her friend, Travis, that numbers should always go up.


    <blockquote>


    New Quest: Open a new entrance.


    </blockquote>


    Breeze knew what that one meant! Taking care of their duties to all their creatures, Breeze giggled in excitement. When done, they reached out to their friend. "I need a new entrance!" They weren''t so much words as a mental nudge as to what she wanted to do.


    "I¡ª Err¡ª Why do you need one?" Travis sounded nervous. Breeze puzzled their way through his words and then figured out he wanted to know.


    "Need!" Breeze managed to actually say the word, mostly because Travis had given them an example of how to. "Need! Need!" Extra emphasis, Breeze decided, was required.


    "Okay! Hold on. I''ll talk with Polfay."


    Listening to Travis was always a treat for Breeze. The concepts and ideas he put into each mental vocalization had been what roused Breeze to wake up fully. Focusing on Travis and Polfay, Breeze did their best to track the concepts.


    "Polfay, you said you don''t have a Verdant dungeon, right?" Travis asked.


    "Travis!" Polfay, to Breeze, always sounded excited to talk with Travis. They''d been listening to the pair, using their long chats to gain a better understanding of cities, dungeons, and language. "I don''t. With six delving dungeons, though, we are wealthy enough to import food from other cities. Oh! Seven dungeons now."


    "Would you like a new dungeon? Breeze wants to open a new entrance, and I <em style="font-weight: 600">think she needs it for a quest."


    Breeze still wondered about how Travis¡ªand even her own creatures¡ªkeep referring to them as a <em style="font-weight: 600">she. It was a problem that Breeze understood a little better now that they''d spent so long listening to Travis and, in particular, Polfay.


    Polfay seemed to have no preference either, but examining that made Breeze realize that maybe they did. If they were going to open a new entrance in Polfay, that would mean a lot more contact with the other city.


    "Breeze is the dungeon that had all the food?" Polfay asked.


    "Yeah, uh. Breeze, when you gave me that food, I gave it to Polfay. They <em style="font-weight: 600">really need a lot of food since they don''t have a dungeon like you to give them any," Travis said. "So, are you cool with her opening up?"


    "I¡ª" Polfay stopped and made a choking sound. "I promised I would check next time. Can you wait a little while?"


    Breeze couldn''t help themselves. "Okay!" The word was one they''d heard many times, and with such a simple concept it wasn''t hard to convey. After Polfay seemed to focus somewhere else, Breeze turned their attention on Travis. "Gave food to Polfay?"


    "Polfay needed it, Breeze. I can''t get more floors with food. I need to have <em style="font-weight: 600">other creatures enter and hang around, or my minions kill things." Travis'' explanation still didn''t make much sense to Breeze. Food gave floors and floors gave more food. But he had said that enough before that Breeze figured he knew what he was talking about.


    That''s when a great idea came to Breeze. "Travis, creatures give more floors?" It was hard to understand how to fit the words together, but Breeze hoped it came out well.


    "Yeah. Like I had¡ª"


    "Then Breeze send friends to help!"


    <hr>


    The words were ominous. Travis wasn''t sure what Breeze meant by it, but he had a feeling he was about to find out. It took two minutes for the first group of centaurs to arrive at his entrance in the city. When he checked, there was a line of creatures stretching across the open courtyard between their dungeon entrances.


    "What is¡ª Oh. OH! Breeze, you''re a genius! How many creatures do you have?" Travis watched them advance into his dungeon, turn, and march back out. They made a loop and were going back to their own dungeon¡ªonly, there was an endless line of them coming from Breeze''s depths.


    Not so good with numbers, but doing their best, Breeze replied, "Lots!" It was the best they could do. They had values that came up, and they could deal with those, but conveying those concepts to someone else was beyond them. "Lots and lots."


    Travis marveled at all the creatures that Breeze had. There were lots of centaurs, minotaurs¡ªmore dryads, naiads, sprites, and satyrs than he could count¡ªbut not a lot of actual animals. It made sense, when he thought about it, since they were the core part of Breeze''s dungeon.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    "They said you can open an entrance!" Polfay felt giddy with excitement. There were very few cities in the kingdom that had six dungeons, and both the other two had Verdant dungeons among those six. Now, with seven dungeons, Polfay was the most dungeon rich city in the kingdom¡ªand soon they''d have eight! "S-Sorry. I mean, when you''re ready, Miss Breeze."


    Breeze laughed, joy pouring through them at the big city asking nicely. Sending one of their dryads deeper into Travis, with a request to open a new entrance when they''re outside the other side, Breeze waited.


    Travis could watch as a woman wearing heavy armor ran up to his entrance in Polfay and spoke to the guards there after coming to a stop inside.


    <blockquote>


    A city''s champion enters your dungeon! Slay them!


    </blockquote>


    "Ugh. Shut up!" Travis said, careful not to direct it to anyone in particular, before adjusting his target to Polfay''s champion. "Welcome to my dungeon. The dryad before you can open a new entrance for Breeze. If you''ll just show her safely out and where you want it?"


    Freezing in place at the odd voice in her head, the champion looked around in shock, trying to locate the source.


    "First time hearing Travis?" one of the guards asked her.


    "Travis?" she asked back.


    The guard froze, realization dawning on who he was speaking to. "The dungeon. He''s, uh, friendly. Ma''am."


    Pleased his hours spent telling crude jokes to the guards had paid off, Travis had gotten a reputation as being chill, and he even had a betting pool going with the guards as to how various adventuring groups did in his training dungeons. He''d learned from Stewart, though, and made sure to lose more than he gained. "I try to be. Polfay sounded pretty excited to have a Verdant dungeon at last."


    The articulation and confidence in the dungeon''s speech surprised the champion. She was far too used to Polfay''s withdrawn and uncertain way with words¡ªat least, how Polfay had been in the past. Realization dawned as to the source of her city''s newfound confidence. "Yes. On one hand, though, there are several cities that have seen to it to supply Polfay with food. This will be a disruption of the status-quo."


    Travis felt like recoiling from the last comment. If Polfay''s champion was like this, he realized why Polfay was probably a bit withdrawn. "Well, they''ll have to find other things to trade, or focus on population growth, so they can sell all that food locally."


    Escorting the tiny dryad out into Polfay, the champion sighed and shook her head. "You wouldn''t understand. Those families have been selling food to Polfay for generations."


    "Is here okay?" the dryad asked, pointing at the wall beside Travis'' own entrance.


    "Y¡ª"


    Travis could already see the problem, and cut the champion off. "Sorry, but no. You''ll want to make a bit more room between us, since there will be a <em style="font-weight: 600">lot of traffic into and out of Breeze. She lets anyone who wants to hunt or gather food in, so there will be a lot of people wanting access."


    "What? But it would be dangerous! You can''t have people entering dungeons without guards and¡ª"


    Polfay pushed down with their presence, shoving at their champion angrily to stop them. "Breeze is a nice dungeon! People can ask her creatures if they can harvest food just fine."


    "How would you know? A dungeon''s a dungeon!" The silence and lack of immediate response made the champion think she''d cowed the city straight into how it should behave. Standing straighter, she opened her mouth to tell the dryad to open the entrance¡ªwhen she felt the absence of strength and support. It was as if her muscles that she''d trained all her life to support her became, somehow, lesser. She realized, after a moment of experiencing the weakness that she couldn''t <em style="font-weight: 600">hear Polfay at all nor feel the city''s support. "P-Polfay?"


    The fury Polfay felt threatened to overwhelm them. Not only had the woman insulted Polfay''s new friends, but she had also tried to give an order to Polfay themselves. "Travis, could you tell the woman here that they are no longer my champion?"


    Having listened to the woman, Travis felt he was playing devil''s advocate when he asked, "Are you sure you want this?"


    "Yes. She has been like this ever since I''ve known her. I thought¡ª Back when my old champion died, I wanted someone young and brave and noble. Who is your champion, Travis?"


    Despite the heartache he''d been feeling about Penelope being away, Travis felt his emotions lift as he thought of how selflessly she acted. "My champion is the bravest and most noble person I know, but she was born neither of those things."


    "Please tell her I will find a new champion myself."


    Travis took in a big metaphorical breath and turned his attention to the stunned woman who was staring at her hand. "Polfay says they''ll find their own replacement champion."


    "What did you do to him?"


    The accusation in the champion''s demands surprised Travis almost as much as calling Polfay <em style="font-weight: 600">him. "I talked to them, told them about my life and listened to theirs." He didn''t hold back in sharing his words with Polfay, either.


    Breeze, meanwhile, was more focused on Polfay than their former champion. "Okay?"


    Polfay had a little experience with Breeze''s clipped and mostly emotional language skills, so figured out that they were asking and not telling. "Yes. It feels¡ª It feels good to finally do that. She''s right. It is talking to Travis that led to this. Hearing how other cities¡ªand the kingdom¡ªwork with their champions, I saw how she was controlling me."


    "Want someone interesting for boss?" Breeze asked.


    "Boss? Oh, champion. I want someone I can talk to. Someone who won''t try to control me, but will grow to be a partner in protecting and helping the people who live here. I want¡ª I want someone who doesn''t look down on dungeons."


    "Have dryad. Dryad bosses are good."


    Polfay froze all their mental processes as they felt the offer not just verbally, but also magically. "F-First, can she open your new entrance?" Swirling with a confusing mix of emotions and thoughts, Polfay found the idea interesting, if nothing else.


    "Oh," Travis said. "Right, I need to tell her that. Hang on. Uh, miss dryad, could you maybe move a little further away from my entrance?"


    Jumping at Travis'' voice, the dryad nodded and walked further from his dungeon entrance¡ªdoing her best to avoid the city''s former champion. When Travis told her, she focused like her home had told her.


    The wall split apart, a gaping wound in reality stabilizing even as it grew. The few folks familiar with Travis'' dungeon watched with more curiosity than fear, though the less dungeon-favorable screamed in panic as a new entrance tore its way into the city.


    What came next shocked the dryad. An invitation, or so it felt, backed by the warmth of her home and a new home. It was an offer to grow and be more than she''d ever been before. "Is, is this okay?" she asked, reaching for the invitation without realizing.


    A rush of energy flooded the dryad and she felt herself swelling outward and upward as it filled and changed her. Growing in height to match and then slightly surpass the former city champion, she realized the new home had a far stronger link. "Uh¡­ Hello? Are you my home now?"


    It was definitely unique to have a dryad as their champion, but Polfay felt that, being the most dungeon-rich city in the kingdom, it was appropriate. "My name''s Polfay and, yeah, I''m your new home."


    "Maybe," Travis said, interrupting the moment a little, "we should get your new champion some clothes?"


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    If you think for one dang second I was going to do maps of 233 floors, you''re out of your mind!

 Chapter 178

    It turned out to be quite exhausting, and one thing cats weren''t fond of was exhaustion. Though, the one exception to that was having a fine meal of fresh devotion and faith as a result, and Sandwalker fed well. They had, until now, left the mortal realm mostly to its own devices, only touching briefly on their own adherents. Now they had been pushed by a young human woman with a destiny so bright that a god of the sun could scarcely ignore her.


    "I could have handled that."


    Rare as it was for new gods to grow from a mortal, it happened from time to time. Sandwalker never felt bad about assisting her former kitten to his rightful place, but that didn''t stop them feigning ignorance of his presence for the moment.


    "Why did you step in at all, Mother?" The armor-clad warrior crouched and, removing his mailed gauntlet, carefully petted the sprawled-out feline on the head. "It''s not like you to take so much interest above the equator."


    All true, so far as Sandwalker normally operated. Rolling to their belly, Sandwalker stood up and stretched as they did, arching their spine and letting loose a happy mewl as Brogdar changed his petting to a long stroke down their back. Only when the little ritual was complete did they reply, "A young priestess-to-be asked for my help. In her paws lies the future of that entire kingdom. You and Scales didn''t see her until it was too late."


    Far from the most he''d ever heard his "mother" speak, it was nonetheless more than usual¡ªalso a small rebuke. "I was too focused on what my priests were doing. You seemed to have a claim on her that predated anything I could have managed."


    "You learn to see far in advance, as you age." Leaning against the hip of their kitten, Sandwalker looked up at his armored face and nuzzled into his hand. "I thought you had this continent under control?"


    "I <em style="font-weight: 600">thought we did. The main player is Scales, but something has stirred up ambition in a particular noble family. I don''t <em style="font-weight: 600">think it is another god, but it''s taking time to rule one out." He smiled at one thing, though. "Bookkeeper is having fun."


    "She always will."


    "Those dungeons have been adapting so much¡ª I heard her giggling." Brogdar had to slip off his other gauntlet to do his mother''s coat justice. "Her creations are amazing."


    That reminded Sandwalker of another of their priestesses. Shaking their head, they let out a sigh. "She feels trapped. She thought it would be easy to invest only a little of herself in a dungeon and its boss. My priestess does nothing by half."


    "Will you give her your advice?"


    "If she took the advice of another, when it comes to her heart, she wouldn''t be my priestess." Yawning, Sandwalker rolled her shoulders and then gracefully lowered themselves. Slipping onto their side, they closed their eyes.


    Knowing his mother, Brogdar left Sandwalker to their sunbathing while he tended to the flood of prayers coming from the aftermath of the little show Sandwalker had put on. Reassurance was the order of the day¡ªurging his followers to trust in events and denying the presence of any evil.


    <hr>


    Felna felt emotionally drained, but the gulf was refilling slowly¡ªin no small measure because she had found peace. Leaning back against Travis'' heart, she lounged every bit as relaxed as her god. She was purring, too, which spoke of how much her feelings had been bottled up, and how much of a relief it was to have hashed things out with Travis.


    She had no idea if Travis was focused elsewhere, but he didn''t warn her in advance before a tiny green head poked into the room and looked around. "Oh no, a brave goblin adventurer is here to beat me up and take over the dungeon," she said.


    Lifting the saucepan lid she''d secured to her right arm and the little carved wooden "sword" in her left, Mixie charged at Felna with a war-cry that would surely have chilled the very bones of any dungeon monster, what with the giggles and snorts mixed into it.


    Putting on as stern a defense as she could under the circumstances (sitting on her butt without anything but a sharp knife she''d never draw against the girl), Felna quickly succumbed to the ferocious attack and flopped on the floor. "I''m worth twenty gold and thirty experience points," she mumbled.


    Diving onto Felna, Mixie found her prize and liberated the woman''s coin purse. "One. Two. Three. Four. Five¡­"


    "When did you learn to count?" Felna asked, making a half-hearted grab for her money.


    "¡­ Twenny." Folding the top back over the purse, Mixie passed it back. "You said twenny gold."


    "I¡ªdid. Well, now you''ve beaten the dungeon monster and have free rein over the dungeon, what are you going to do?" Felna took her far lighter purse back and slipped it into the pocket she normally kept it.


    "Now I, queen Mixie, am in control of dungeon, I can marry whoever I want!" She glared at Felna, daring her to gainsay her new status.


    In all his time as a dungeon, Travis had found there was nothing quite so attention-getting as a warrior goblin rampaging into his heart room. The combination of noise, activity, and radiant gremlin energy created a potential that couldn''t be ignored.


    Looking up at Travis, and getting the mental equivalent of a shrug from him, Felna mirrored the gesture physically. "Okay."


    Nodding, Mixie sheathed her sword (sliding it through her belt and then twisting it so it didn''t fall down), set her shield aside, and cleared her throat. "You and Trav are now mawwied! Pen-Pen too!"


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    Felna''s blush, when Travis noticed it through her fur, made Travis happy he couldn''t be seen to blush. "Fel, please, say something so this doesn''t get awkward."


    The nickname snapped Felna out of her shock. She opened her mouth to shout a denial at Mixie, but the big grin on the girl''s face shattered any hope she had of a sane recovery. "Sure, kitten, why not." She stood up and then made a show of bowing to Mixie. "What does her royal majesty wish next?" Felna practically purred the words out, sweeping one arm around her body to make the bow look far more fancy.


    "We had royalty in our midst and I didn''t know? I''ll have to buy red carpet." Travis asked, mocking shock.


    "Did you expect anyone so regal could not be an empress?" Gesturing at the goblin girl clad in pots and pans, holding a toy sword, Felna repeated. "Your Imperial Highness?"


    "I want¡­" Mixie lifted the edge of her shield to her mouth and chewed on the hard metal rim¡ªleaving teeth marks. "Ride! Flying! I asked the wyvbirds, but they said no! Then want sword! Shield! Magic!"


    "Kitten, you don''t want much, do you?" Picking Mixie up and setting her in a seated position behind her neck, Felna carried the girl to the exit of the heart room, pausing there to look back at Travis. "We''ll talk more later, Trav. Could you let Mixie''s mother know where she is?"


    "Way ahead of you, Fel." Trying to not sound too smug, Travis nonetheless giggled to himself when Felna twitched once more. "She said Mixie should have two talismans on her, if she hasn''t eaten one again. Do you want a class, Mixie?"


    Eyes growing huge, Mixie nodded so much she almost headbutted Felna. "Yes! Yes! Yes! Wait! Mom said it''s okay?"


    Travis laughed. "She did! This one is a special one. You know why?"


    "Why?!"


    "Because it makes you an honorary kobold!" Travis purchased the class for a thousand gold and bestowed Mixie with it. "There, now you have an ability called <em style="font-weight: 600">Expanded Slip. It lets you walk through walls like a kobold can!"


    Gasping and kicking her legs in excitement, Mixie let out a squeal. "I''ll be the best honry kobold ever!"


    "Do you have both your talismans on?" Felna asked, doing her best to ignore the crazed little green devil on her shoulders.


    "Nnnnn¡ªYes!"


    "Are you sure? Show them to me."


    "They shouldn'' make the ink so tasty." Pulling out her only talisman, Mixie passed it to Felna.


    "You might as well finish this one too; you''ve licked the ink off." Passing it back, Felna headed for the second floor temple to Brogdar. "If you''re <em style="font-weight: 600">really good, and don''t eat any talismans, I might be able to convince a wyvern to take you flying more often."


    Mixie, realizing she was going to get to fly more, did her best to not eat the new talismans when she got them, and didn''t kick too much until, nearing the Wyvern Beastpens, she couldn''t help herself. "Are we really gonna ride one?"


    "No, silly. We''ll ride <em style="font-weight: 600">two; one each. You''re a big girl, after all." What Felna didn''t tell Mixie, of course, was that it would mean she could fly lower than the girl and try to catch the girl if she fell. "Pick one and ask them if they want to fly around some."


    Having grown a little in the time since moving into Travis'' dungeon, Mixie didn''t simply run around biting the wyverns until one took notice of her. "Hi! I''m Mixie! Do you want to go flying with me?"


    "Be careful, but don''t be too gentle with her, please. She needs to learn how to handle one of you properly, and she''s tough despite how small she is. She''s our friend," Travis told his wyverns, trying his best to reassure them that everything was okay.


    When the first two wyverns walked away from her without even letting her pet them, Mixie growled and turned to the third nearest. "I want to go fly!" She glared at the wyvern, daring him to refuse her.


    Tilting his head, the wyvern stepped closer to Mixie until the tip of his nose touched hers. Opening his mouth to reveal stiletto-like teeth¡ªeach as long as Mixie''s fingers¡ªthe wyvern roared at the girl, spraying her with his saliva and before closing his mouth and considering her more.


    Holding her ground, Mixie leaned forward a little so the wyvern had to lean back, opened her mouth, and roared back at the wyvern.


    Jerking his head back, the wyvern winced at the smell of the little goblin''s breath. When at last the girl stopped screaming at him, he felt an itching sensation in his nose and, unable to maintain his superior airs, sneezed.


    "I win! You have to let me ride you now!" Mixie said, reaching up to clean the wyvern snot off her face. Blindsiding the wyvern, she managed to jump high enough up his side to grab onto a wing, then climbed the rest of the way onto his back. "What''s your name? Mine''s Mixie!"


    From sneeze to having Mixie on his back had been only scant confusing seconds, but in that time the wyvern realized he''d lost to a far more ferocious foe. On the bright side, it meant he got to go for a fly. Leaning to one side, shaking the opposite wing, then swapping, he gave a little bounce. When Mixie was still seated, he decided it was good enough.


    Felna had much less trouble finding a mount. She approached the largest of the wyverns, leaned in close, and whispered promises of sanding scales and luxurious dust baths and she dipped a wing and let the priestess climb on. "Are you ready, kitten?" she asked Mixie, who let out a whoop of excitement and charged out the exit of the room. "Trav, I believe I may have overestimated my abilities."


    "You''ll be fine, Fel. Remember, you''re amazing!" Travis couldn''t stop laughing as the odd little group charged through the tunnels and up toward the surface. It wasn''t a hard decision to make where to send them, and soon enough the wyverns dashed into the open plaza of Northridge.


    Axel had a single moment to appreciate his little sister leading a charge out of the dungeon, before she was in the air and shooting skyward on the wyvern. The sound of his sister''s screeching climbing a few octaves as she gained altitude. Taking a slow, deep breath, Axel shook his head. "I don''t think I want to know. Trav, at least tell me Mom is okay with this?"


    "Your mom said, and I quote word for word, ''If you can find something to tire her out that doesn''t involve swords, do it." Travis watched through Axel''s eyes as the two wyverns and their riders became lost to his sight in the sky. "She has two fresh talismans, just in case."


    Shrugging his shoulders, Axel continued walking back to the dungeon. "I need to work on these rods for Tinpot. He has me using some weird new machines to make them. I like the flat table he made me and the ruler. The northerner commander, Hilda, asked me to make her some new heavy plate. I think I can create her the best armor she''s ever worn, but I''ll need to test some things first."


    "Use all the metal you need. We''re still sending a lot to the King''s smiths to work with, but there''s a new city worth of workers who are negotiating access, and that means more tithed resources." Travis wasn''t sure how much longer rampant greed would keep working, but in the meantime he wasn''t going to rock the boat.


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 Chapter 179

    Counting heads, Fife felt relieved when the last of the bloodied wolves hauled their tail out of the dead dungeon. "Those last few floors were a pain." She checked over her gear, thankful to find it all present. "Heading back to your dungeon?"


    The gnolls both nodded, but it was the big female that stepped forward and clasped forearms with Fife. "Good fighting! Good hunting! Now need good return." She didn''t care that her tail was flicking back and forth like crazy¡ªshe was riding the high of a mighty war, and she intended her entire pack find out about it.


    While the gnolls said their goodbyes to Fife, Katelyn turned her own attention to Astrid. "Is that how the undead dungeon died?"


    "I don''t know. Dungeons were always Donna''s thing. She was really pissed off that Ludmiller killed that dungeon." Astrid shared a grin. "She was a fine warrior, and a great leader. She died well: in battle." It was a melancholy sigh that escaped her. She had come south with the sisters because she respected and trusted them. Now, with the revelation that she could live a better life with her wolves, she didn''t know how to feel about what little antagonism she felt toward Hilda.


    "You look like you just bit a lemon."


    "Hilda ordered us on a suicide mission, whether she knew it was or not. I couldn''t argue, since I hadn''t managed to take Breeze''s fort. The worst part is, I agree with her decision, and wouldn''t complain if it had only been me charging the gates." Big and armored as she was, Astrid felt Katelyn''s clawed hand touch her armor because of the heat it radiated into her. Hot metal had never been more welcome than since she''d grown scales.


    "As an idiot wanna-be adventurer who tried to take over a dungeon and tripped into the best possible outcome for her life, I might not be the wisest person to offer advice, but it sounds like you, Hilda, and Donna were all served a pretty raw deal and had the misfortune to pick the wrong¡ªor right¡ªplace to raid. You both gained a new life, but Hilda lost her sister."


    The words hit hard. Astrid had lost some of her pack, but it had been their choice. For Donna, death had been a mighty but random fist striking her down in the heat of battle. It could have been either of them, from how Fife had described it to her, that would have been shot. She dreaded to think how it would be now adamantine bullets were being used in Northridge. "I thought you weren''t wise?"


    "I have my moments. Not a lot, though. Right now I want to get home, have a long sleep, and then continue my work on traps." As she spoke, Katelyn was aware that her staff glowed brighter in response to voicing her excitement. "What about you?"


    Astrid spent a few moments walking, thinking about it, and finally answered, "I think I need to go talk to an old friend."


    <hr>


    The abrupt halt in movement in what had become the crossroads between three cities¡ªthe main thoroughfare of Travis¡ªwas not unexpected. A huge dragon warrior, a group of adamantine clad wolf people, a literal burning kobold fire wizard, and a bunch of very boisterous wolves were a new sight for those from Polfay and the capital both, though the Northridge guards and workers merely offered nods and waves to the returning group.


    "Trav! You''ve been doing some work, I see. Oh, the goblin dungeon wasn''t a good place for a holiday, though we had a great barbecue." Fife made no effort to suppress her nature, looking around with limitless curiosity at the people she was blocking. Miners, mostly, but also wagon teamsters and general laborers too. "More cities?"


    "Yeah," Travis told Fife, while also telling the guards, "You might want to let Commander Windchime know that the goblin dungeon has been dealt with." He could have told Brolly himself, of course, but Travis had learned that there were proper channels for these things unless something was a dire emergency. Of the dozen guards present, two marched out to send word while the rest seemed to relax a little.


    He switched his primary focus back to Fife. "It''s complicated, Fife, but we have a good friend in the eastern city of Polfay. I''d like to say the same for their champion, but she¡­ There''s no kind way to say it, she was a bigoted bully. Breeze might have caused an upheaval by offering one of her dryads as a substitute. Polfay accepted her, and now we might need Breath of Spring''s help convincing Polfay''s new champion that clothing is a good idea."


    Fife managed to hold in her laughter until Travis got to the end of the sentence, then she supported herself with the wall so she wouldn''t fall over. When Travis repeated the events to the rest, Katelyn had begun supporting herself with her staff, and even the wolves were laughing about it.


    Astrid recovered first. "Travis, I would like to meet with my¡ªwith <em style="font-weight: 600">our¡ªkinsmen."


    The weight of the statement led Travis to believe she was actually asking a question. "You don''t need to ask my permission, Astrid. You have done your duty well in destroying that goblin dungeon. Take whatever time you need." When she visibly relaxed, Travis realized he''d figured out exactly what she''d asked.


    Turning to her pack, Astrid explained herself. "We have kinsmen here that we shouldn''t disdain as I have. Let me remedy that."


    Astrid led the way out of the dungeon and past a long line of creatures from Breeze, and then through the entrance. When she''d entered the goblin dungeon, there had been a sense of depth and power from it¡ªthat feeling was magnified now beyond anything she could imagine. Breeze wasn''t just <em style="font-weight: 600">big, they were <em style="font-weight: 600">enormous on a scale she could barely comprehend. She stood there, on solid ground, the sensation of standing on the edge of an abyss as she wavered a little.


    A little hand slid into Astrid''s own and a soft voice said, "Please, relax. Our home is not a place to fear."


    Breath of Spring''s voice broke Astrid from her daze. She looked down at the dryad and then lowered herself to one knee. "I didn''t get a chance to properly thank you for bringing my pack back to life¡ªthank you. As for your home, she is immense and¡ªand a little terrifying when I first felt the extent of her."


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    "You <em style="font-weight: 600">felt her?"


    "Y-Yeah." Shaking her head to banish the last of the sensation, Astrid looked at her pack¡ªnone of whom looked affected by it. "I felt a similar thing in the goblin dungeon, but nothing like <em style="font-weight: 600">this."


    "I don''t think Fife noticed that, and neither did I. This might be something unique to your pack. If you wish to test it more, or meditate on it, you are welcome to do so here. Even acclimatize yourself to the effect, so it doesn''t slow you down when first entering less hospitable dungeons." With her guests now calmed, Breath of Spring said, "I would have thought you''d be relaxing after the hunt. Can I help with anything else?"


    "We need to visit the fort where Hilda and her people are. There is an exit leading to there?" Astrid could see two exits, both of which had a stone courtyard visible outside them, though one had a huge door on it.


    "The entrance on your left leads there. On the right is¡­ Oh, a new city. I''ll have to investigate that¡­ Oh. Oh! I will have to investigate that now. I might bring Fife with me, so no one tries to, well¡ª" Breath of Spring had experienced a rather blessed life for a dryad in Northridge, but she wasn''t deluded enough to think that she wouldn''t be a target on the streets of an unknown city, no matter what courtly titles the King had granted her and her home.


    "Thank you, Breath of Spring, again." Astrid had found it hard at first to say such things, but opening herself up to her own desires as a wolf had led her to see how important interpersonal ties were outside her pack. Even still, it wasn''t lip-service. She was deeply thankful to the small dryad for her tending to Astrid''s pack when they''d made an ill-advised (but exceptionally cathartic) decision to keep chasing down the dungeon.


    Leaving the dungeon and entering the fort outside of Northridge, Astrid heard the rhythmic sound of training in progress. Looking around the courtyard of the fort, she saw the weapons training taking place¡ªpeople squared off in groups of four fighting two-on-two. What surprised her were the combatants. Gnolls were scattered among the groups, though none were as impressive as the one who''d accompanied her in the goblin dungeon.


    Hilda hadn''t expected to have Astrid and her pack walk in. She''d thought she would have to court the proud woman''s honor to get her anywhere near the fort. "Captain." It was as much as Hilda could do to start with. "Train with us?"


    "As we are or¡ª"


    Wearing only light armor herself, made of hardened leather, Hilda shrugged. "As you will. We are working with spears today." Gesturing to a rack of wooden hafts with padded leather ends, Hilda added, "Though your size will work against you."


    Shrugging her shoulders, Astrid caught one of the spears when Hreti, who''d made his way over to the practice weapons, threw one to her. "We''ll see."


    <hr>


    Forerunner felt her gnoll sister return before the scouts got word to her. Their home had already celebrated the victory, so the huge warrior with her talented mate had been expected for days.


    Planning a huge feast, on top of sending warriors to train with the <em style="font-weight: 600">Dragon Hunter, had been organized and now the fires were lit and meat set to sizzle. By the time the pair were in sight, the party was already underway, and gnolls danced and yapped to the rapid-beating drums.


    As she strode toward the celebration, the big, nameless gnoll who''d fought a dungeon <em style="font-weight: 600">and won paused, then leaned down to nuzzle her mate. "Your time. Tell of our journey. <em style="font-weight: 600">I bring <em style="font-weight: 600">you food."


    Wagging his short tail for all he was worth, the male gnoll strode confidently into the midst of the dancers and, when the next song seemed sure to start, he puffed up his chest and growled at the drummers. "Listen! I have a story to tell of war and killing and pack!"


    All the gnolls settled, including his mate, finding seats on logs around the fire. A haunch of deer was tossed his way, and though it was a bit larger than he''d usually grab, he appreciated his mate finding him the <em style="font-weight: 600">best meat. "The warriors gathered. Tall, strong, armored, with weapons sharp enough to slice clear through the largest of trees as easily as <em style="font-weight: 600">trolls. Some carried ranged weapons, guns, bows, magic. But, the mightiest of them all carried a flail, a shield, and a true warrior''s spirit!"


    His cadence was such that it gave the rest of the gnolls a chance to whoop and yip in excitement, and himself to catch bites of meat and a long swig of small beer (liberated from Travis'' stores).


    "The leader Tall, clad in so much armor she crushes rock under her feet! An unstoppable wall! Her mate, a tiny dryad smaller than the tiniest runt. Yet, the most powerful of the whole war party. Why? In her hands lay the power to deny death its due!


    "Their pack, wolves like mountains! Rip and tear with the strength of gnolls! Nothing could stand before them! With a gnoll at their side, they charged through the dungeon and left death and destruction behind them!


    "The final tunnels of the warren, the goblins and wolves both showed off their greatest weapons! The goblin leader sent disease to kill and choke! The wolves opened their mouths and breathed fire upon all!"


    When a grumble circulated the listeners, the mate of the orator stood up, her hand sliding down to the handle of her flail. The growl she issued silenced everyone. "I saw it. They breathed fire to scorch the muck from the very air! Do not doubt my mate''s word, unless you would challenge mine!"


    Waiting a moment, taking a few proud bites from the haunch, the male gnoll smirked around at those he''d seen muttering about his retelling. When his mate took her seat again, he continued with the story of fighting, dying, and fighting again.


    "A kobold, small as me. She wore fire as a cloak! She used it as her weapon! When she commands, all burn!" There were a few disgruntled yaps, but most of the pack were listening with perked ears again. He told the story at length, weaving his words and dancing around the fire to mimic the fighting moves he''d witnessed.


    "And then," he said, winding down from the description of Fife''s shooting the goblin boss to death, "the great war band passed out the rights to the final kill¡ªthe dungeon.


    "A mighty weapon, a hammer sized for giants! All took turns striking the foe! Gnoll have no need for hammer, used flail! The dungeon screamed as it was cut down! The leader of the wolf pack, Astrid, struck the final blow! The dungeon unmade!"


    Forerunner stood. She looked down at the small male and stomped her foot, almost as loud as a drum in the stillness following his tale. Then she stomped again, setting a beat that a lone drum took up. "Mighty warrior! Stand and face me!"


    Rising up, looking at her leader with a little confusion, the big gnoll warrior faced her without fear.


    "Great warrior; mightiest dungeon slayer. You show the world gnoll might. You did slay a dungeon with your might. With your own deeds have you earn the name, Raze." Turning to Raze''s incredulous mate, Forerunner continued, "For journeying far and deep, for showing no fear in your sacred duty to bring the truth of brave deeds done, you are now Skald, speaker of truth."


    Only the crackling of the fire could be heard for several seconds before the gnolls raised their voices to whoop and yip, some even breaking into cackles of laughter. A great chant began, repeating the names Raze and Skald over and over while the couple turned to each other.


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 Chapter 180

    [very much not a warrior goddess'' journal]


    The soldiers look at me like I did something amazing. They murmur my name and they sound [sentence unfinished]


    I don''t know what to feel about it, but I was only doing what I thought was right. I have only seen one battle of this war so far, Miss Journal, but I already hate it. There was nothing glorious or honorable about it at all.


    And the worst bit, Miss Journal? Stewart thinks I''m glorious too. Only he doesn''t worship me, at least, but instead he has this silly look on his face whenever he looks at me. Not that I''m spending a lot of time looking at him, Miss Journal.


    Our new troops arrive today. Stewart had the existing soldiers keeping guard on the Western force and some fixing the railway. We''ll send those other soldiers back on the trains that bring the fresh troops. It''s like a game of dancing chairs, running an army. Stewart said it''s important to keep troops busy or they will find things to be busy doing that you don''t want them to be doing.


    And soon we''ll have nearly three times as many. Stewart said we will be too big to move the army by train at that point, but we will move along the railway to use it to keep supplied. We haven''t used many munitions, apart from a few handfuls of the new rifle rounds, but these people need so much food!


    Maybe I''ll need to ask them to bring more ink, too, though Stewart seems to use plenty.


    ¡ªA Humble Priestess


    <hr>


    Flying, for Penelope, was the biggest perk of being a dragon. She had learned, watching birds, where to find the cozy updrafts so she could soar without needing to flap her wings, which made it more like lying down in the air than work.


    Despite the relaxation, she kept her eyes peeled¡ªsince that was her job. Two scouts rode on her back too, though she readily ignored them. They weren''t there to control her, and with the gentle gliding they weren''t at risk of being jostled off.


    Though she did hear them talking. They''d been chosen specifically because last time, they''d been the scouts best able to measure distance while flying. Right now they were doing their utmost to scribe maps onto tablets¡ªwhich made it the perfect time for her to spot what they were actually looking for. "Off to the right," she said, raising a claw and stretching it out to point at what she''d spotted.


    In the far distance she had seen it. Another army, about the same size as the one Stewart had taken care of already, digging themselves into the top of a series of hills. "Do you need me closer?"


    "No! This is fine!"


    Penelope did her best to hold at the edge of a mild thermal, her wings twitching here and there to cup the air enough to keep her up, but not so much she soared higher. So distracted by the action of holding still was she that when the scouts on her back called out they had everything they needed, she didn''t react at first. Their second call got her attention.


    Now came the equally important part: keeping a steady pace on the way back along the railway line. The scouts on her back were quiet, working hard to measure distance as the easy, soaring flight had devolved into her flapping on and off to keep their height.


    The new flying style was less enjoyable, but nonetheless Penelope still liked it¡ªbecause it was flying and took a moderate amount of focus. Intent on keeping her speed and altitude the same, Penelope took one of the scouts calling out to her for her to realize the army was below. "Hold on!"


    With the scouts growing more used to flying, and remaining on her back, Penelope felt justified in turning the descent into a crash-dive. Laughing with glee, she pulled out of it and pumped her wings hard, then reached her feet down to the ground and settled in place.


    One of the scouts all-but fell off Penelope, grabbing hold of the ground and not moving. The other jumped down and walked around to her head before bowing. "Thank you for the¡ªinteresting¡ªride, ma''am." There was laughter under his words.


    "Make sure the King has his report. I''m sure your friend will stop professing his love for the ground soon." Ruffling her wings and tucking them, half folded over, Penelope stepped aside from where the green-faced scout was struggling up to his wobbly feet while his companion was laughing. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw money changing hands between soldiers. One thing she was learning about soldiers was that everything could be gambled on. The avarice she felt at knowing there were coins changing hands and none of them coming to her, soured her humor a little.


    <hr>


    "This is not fair." Breath of Spring looked up, fists on her hips, but refused to hold back her smile at the sight of her former dungeon monster friend¡ªnow tall enough to look humans in the eye. "But I''m so happy for you!"


    For Polfay, the constant itch of having a dungeon boss nearing their very center keep was an annoyance, but it was fading. Breath of Spring wasn''t the only "dungeon monster" walking with Polfay''s new champion. Fife was akin to a walking, talking wall of priceless amounts of adamantine¡ªbecause that was precisely what she was.


    The guards of the keep, as they approached, looked tense. Fife could understand that, given her procession. With just Breath of Spring behind her, she could probably have made a good try at overwhelming the entire garrison of Polfay, assuming they didn''t get their cannons turned around. She looked askance at Breath of Spring and the far taller dryad (now with a loose fitting long shirt on), and got a nod from both. "Polfay''s new champion requires an escort to her rooms in the keep."


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    "''New champion''?" the guard able to keep her eyes up and level asked. She arched an eyebrow into her helmet. "Before I believe that, I''ll need some pro¡ª" She halted. The tall dryad''s right arm began glowing with an intense light that resonated with the magic of the city. The guard''s family had been living in Polfay for generations, and the knowledge of what that magic meant was instinctual. "Ma''am. Sorry I had to ask that, but¡ª"


    Stepping forward, feeling Polfay encouraging her, the dryad reached out a hand and cupped the chin of the guard. "It''s alright. I understand. Please, escort us to the¡ª To the city square. I need to announce something."


    "You could do that to the nobility first." The moment she suggested it, the guard froze. The flame around the dryad''s right hand burned again and, now, seemed even brighter than before. "I apologize if I''ve overstepped my authority."


    Polfay felt the cool and calm emotions of their new champion easing their anger. "Sorry. Getting the approval of the lords and ladies first was the standard way of doing things, but I want to change that."


    "Then we will." The dryad, realizing the guard was on the verge of eating random pieces of footwear, held up her hand to forestall any more worry. "Our home disposed their last champion because of that thinking. It''s the people that make a city, and its nobility are a small part of them."


    The last hour had seen the dryad''s language skills broaden hugely. A dungeon monster only had to know how to thank their home and do what they were told. A city''s champion needed infinitely more words, or so she''d found, but along with Polfay''s power had come the knowledge and kinship with all the people residing in them. She meditated for a moment with that power open wide, and in a second she added, "Sergeant Bethany, please escort me to the city square. The people of Polfay are already gathering."


    Having never seen the dryad before in her life, Bethany had a far more profound certainty that the dryad was now the city''s champion. She bowed her head. "As you wish¡­ P-Pardon me, Champion, but what should we call you?"


    It surprised the dryad to hear. Her mind raced as she realized that, living in a city-home, she would need a name. She didn''t need to ask Polfay, her new words gave her the name she should have. "Heart. My name is Heart."


    "Lady Heart, please allow me to escort you to the town square." Waiting for a nod, Bethany turned and shouted, "Corporal, we''re moving!"


    Seeing the guards quickly move to follow the request of their champion, Polfay calmed further and attempted to give Heart as many warm feelings as they could. This was how they were meant to be¡ªworking together to help everyone. Polfay could feel Travis, Breeze, Home, and even Northridge listening in, and wanted Heart to make a good impression.


    When she reached the city square, Heart found more people there than she''d ever seen before. Even more than lived in Breeze clustered into the huge intersection that normally sported lots of market activity. Now, they were all quiet as the urge to gather¡ªextended to them by the city itself¡ªnow turned to a need to pay attention.


    The people parted around her, not needing her guards to make a path. They seemed to feel her authority even as they looked on in surprise to see the bearer of it. When she reached the center of the square and stepped up onto the small stage there, placed for exactly such announcements, everyone went quiet.


    "<em style="font-weight: 600">Polfay had a disagreement with their former champion." The words came out far louder than Heart intended. Polfay, she figured, was using some magic to amplify her voice. "<em style="font-weight: 600">When that disagreement reached its head, she became the former champion and I became our new one."


    In the lull after Heart''s statement, Fife heard plenty of people voicing their own complaints to their neighbors. The former champion, she realized, wasn''t exactly popular. It culminated in one person shouting, "So, what are <em style="font-weight: 600">you going to do?[/i]


    "<em style="font-weight: 600">In case it wasn''t obvious, I am a dryad. Polfay allowed my former home, a Verdant dungeon, to open a new entrance here. That dungeon has over two hundred floors of crops and animals. You are welcome to harvest, hunt, and farm there yourselves. No one in Polfay will ever go hungry again." The wild cheering made Heart smile, but the implication of it was antithesis to her very upbringing and nature.


    "<em style="font-weight: 600">A city is its people, and I will not for a second lose sight of that. If anyone has any thoughts or complaints, you will be welcome to bring them to me and I promise, I will do everything in my power to ensure Polfay becomes a city where everyone will be safe, fed, and prosperous."


    Polfay could feel the swells of emotions coming from the populace as quickly as they happened. The people, they realized, not only didn''t like the old champion, but many actively hated her. "I thought I was doing what they wanted. How could I have been blind to her?"


    Travis said, "You can''t change the past. You can only learn from it and do better in the future." The words had been spoken to him often enough. He''d made mistakes, but he liked to think he was doing better <em style="font-weight: 600">now. "Is Heart listening to their emotions through you?"


    "Y-Yeah," Polfay was as surprised to feel that as they were at Heart''s actions themselves. "She''s using my magic to find out what they want!"


    "Heart loves her people," Breeze said, her words soft and breathy, laden with pride.


    "Fife," Travis said, directing his voice specifically at her, "can you stay with her for a while? She is going to be popular with the people, but I think the nobles of the city are going to be harder to win over."


    Nodding, Fife rolled her shoulders and stretched a wing out. "You got it, Trav. Does this mean I get to beat up a noble or three?"


    "Maybe. Just make sure they don''t hurt her. If Heart got killed now, the city might erupt into a civil war."


    In the midst of the cheering populace, who seemed to have barely noticed that Heart wasn''t entirely human or elven, Fife nodded her head. "Be the shield. Got it."


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 Chapter 181

    "I can''t be everywhere." Stewart''s words had no one but him to hear. He was standing alone in his tent, the maps his scouts had made laid out on the trestle in the middle. The enemy had a good position, though their force was outnumbered nearly six to one. Those odds might seem good, at first glance, but Stewart knew how important good terrain choices were¡ªand the commander of the other army had definitely made some good ones.


    Walking around the table, Stewart tried to picture the terrain as it was marked. The long, narrow hilltop the enemy were on stood alone with gullies all around it. The ridge was dotted with cannons that would make every nearby hill untenable. Climbing up would entice his foe into rolling munitions or rocks down.


    There was one aspect that had his attention, though, but he needed to talk to some soldiers about it. Setting a little pin into a ridgeline he liked the look of, Stewart marched out of his tent, retrieved a bodyguard, and walked to where the cannoneers were making camp.


    "Sire?"


    Relieved his questing gaze had gotten the answer he wanted, Stewart nodded to the lieutenant that addressed him. "At ease, Lieutenant. I''m looking for the commander of the mortar teams."


    "That would be Captain Davidson, sir. If you''ll follow me, I''ll take you to him."


    "Go ahead," Stewart said, and followed the soldier wordlessly, only stopping when they were definitely in the right area. Huge weapons on flat wagons were space around somewhat at regular intervals. Of the sixty guns, one lay on the ground while a crew worked on its wagon. One of the men fitting a new wheel to the wagon jumped and turned before saluting him. "Captain Davidson?"


    Not exactly in his full uniform, but still wearing his officer''s shirt, Davidson replied, "Yes, Sire."


    The man was built on a big scale. Looking nothing so much as a blacksmith but with a lower body to match, Stewart could recognize someone who had become so good at his job in the army that he''d been promoted almost beyond any position to continue doing it. "Do you need to finish that wagon? We can talk while you work."


    "Thank you, sir. If we plan to move tomorrow, I''ll definitely need to finish this. The wagons aren''t built to haul all this adamantine. These grand mortars need something bigger." Returning to his task, Davidson began hammering the new steel band onto the wooden wheel.


    "How far can you lob a shell?" Stewart asked, the numbers still fresh in his head. "I have a hill I need to empty out, and even the new long-range cannons will struggle to reach it. If you need more powder¡­"


    "It''s not the powder. We can cram as much as we want into these and they won''t break. It''s the ammo. Too much powder behind it and the ball deforms. It''ll fly off course or, worse, explode in the barrel." Davidson spoke as he hammered, his arm driving the heavy hammer to its percussive work.


    "What if I got you some of those adamantine cannonballs?" Relieved that he could surprise such a practical man, Stewart saw Davidson''s eyes widen. "Would that work?"


    "You''d waste adamantine on cannonballs?"


    "Already have. We were saving them for the city walls in West Reaches, but they''re no good if we don''t reach those walls. How far could you launch adamantine shot?"


    Davidson paused his hammering as his mind raced through the usual artillery calculations. Though, this time, he didn''t have to make adjustments for deformation. "With the big mortars, and solid shot, I could plant a ball a mile away."


    That was the kind of news Stewart appreciated: succinct, professional, and far in excess of his expectations. "We won''t need you to fire that far, but we''re going to spend some time on this and I''d like you to cover the hill with adamantine for me."


    "I''ve got two groups of three mortars that can do this. It won''t be fast without explosive charges, but I''ll turn your hill into a hole."


    <hr>


    Not taking chances, Stewart gave the men all the time they needed to get the four groups of the new cannons arrayed on the ridge with the two squads of heavy mortars, as well as a thousand soldiers digging fortifications to prevent cavalry charges from causing a rout.


    "You''re actually going to use me if they don''t agree?" Penelope asked, standing beside Stewart, her sharp eyes locked on the target nearly three-quarters of a mile distant. "We are sure they have word of our first skirmish?"


    "They should have. The officers that escaped by talisman would have reported to West Reaches within hours. They would have been debriefed and the information sent by train. It has taken nine days of marching to reach here¡ªwhich is plenty of time for their train to arrive and the information reaching the tent of this commander." It had annoyed Stewart at first that he couldn''t use the same trick twice, thanks to the size of his army and the time it took them to move, but that didn''t mean he was going to let it distract him from his task. "I''ll give them a chance to surrender."


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    Penelope smiled, not caring that anyone who didn''t know her would think she was snarling. "Let''s hope they do."


    Nodding, Stewart gave the signal and one of the young knights accompanying them raised a white flag to flap beside his own standard.


    A fountain of dirt shot into the sky, easily a quarter mile ahead of them. The sound of the cannon that fired reached them a moment later and Stewart felt his shoulders droop a little. "Captain! Show them they are within <em style="font-weight: 600">our range."


    Davidson, already on the right page, lit one of his fuses and used a gripper to push the tip of it into the breach of his mortar. As close as he was, there wasn''t any actual sound from the artillery piece¡ªit was all shock wave. Nonetheless, he felt in his chest when the propelling charge ignited and sent the ball of priceless metal on its parabolic flight.


    The plume of dirt shooting into the sky was a testament to the artillery team''s experience, since it was the middle of the defenders'' camp. A white flag was raised less than a minute after that.


    Turning her head, Penelope looked back at the mortar teams. "Your arguments seem to be persuasive." She lowered her shoulders and raised her left leg.


    Stewart wasn''t inclined to interrupt the laughter of his soldiers, particularly since they''d earned it. Climbing up to Penelope''s shoulders, he called down, "Raise our white flag, and keep my standard high."


    Once Stewart was settled, Penelope took off. This wouldn''t be a jostling ride, or one meant to fill a scout''s pants, but something to get from A to B without all the waddling. Gliding down the hillside, she passed the spot where the defenders'' cannon had hit and began gliding up the hill to meet the on-foot delegation.


    Landing, Penelope was about a hundred yards from a young soldier and a pair of guards. When she felt Stewart move, she lowered her shoulder and raised her leg for him. "Be careful. If they try something stupid, use your shield and get you out."


    "Of course, lady knight." Stewart wasn''t sure he had ever seen a dragon blush before, but there was a slight darker color growing around the membranes of her eyes. He decided she was either annoyed at something she ate, or feeling a little proud of herself. "This shouldn''t take long, I hope."


    Striding forward, Stewart didn''t recognize the young man wearing a general''s uniform from the kingdom''s own army. "I don''t believe we''ve met before. I am King Stewart Gallant."


    "First son of Baron Chelves, General Renard Chelves." The uniform was so new it still itched from the starch used in it. His horse, he noted, was oddly calm given the monster that Stewart had ridden on. "You appear to have us ranged. The only question is, how much adamantine has the kingdom raised that it can afford to make cannonballs of it?"


    "Enough we''d have a very good chance of hitting you on that hill. We could end this now. You''re no idiot. Give the word and you can exit this war and your army will live at the capital for the duration. Upon cessation of hostilities, you can release all your men and women back to their jobs in the West." The likelihood of the West starving unless he got this war finished by the next winter was high, Stewart knew, and the prospect of returning to normalcy should be a good incentive¡ªso long as the leaders of the various armies knew anything about their people, and cared for them. "I''m not going to charge your hill."


    "It''s a nice hill though." Renard held his chuckle as long as he could. "This is all stupid. My father was training me for this, though, and he''d like to at least hear that his son had gotten so far as to cause the King consternation. Would you let him know that?"


    "The only reason I have you snookered is because an unbelievable amount of adamantine is rolling through the kingdom now. Without it, you would have cost me tens of thousands of lives getting up that damn hill¡ªand you''ll be able to tell your father that yourself when this is over." Doing his best not to make it a threat, Stewart nodded back to his formation. "You''ll be allowed to carry your standard, if you lower it."


    "You leave no choice. If you truly have that much adamantine, you will level my lovely hill with my army a layer of frosting atop it. You''ll come in and fetch back your fortune in spent ammunition and still use it to flatten West Reaches. I will not see my soldiers die for no reason." It was a hard decision, but one he''d make on Stewart''s promise. "So long as you agree that none of my people are killed or maimed, I will answer as I must."


    "Don''t think I''ll let you hide in obscurity after this. You''ve impressed me with this location and your words." Turning, Stewart left the meeting and walked back, his rear exposed, to mount Penelope again. "I hope this doesn''t bother you."


    "Seeing the fates of thousands in the hands of young scions I''d rather be teaching delving tricks to? Or the way you keep giving me commands as if I were a horse?" Penelope asked.


    "The¡­ I do, don''t I? I''ll stop if¡ª"


    "I think I figured out why it <em style="font-weight: 600">doesn''t bother me. If you wanted to tell me to turn to the left, what would you say?" As Penelope reversed course, she kept her head to one side a little, her wide field of vision letting her see behind her.


    "''Turn left''?"


    "Exactly. That takes a lot more time than tapping your boot on my left side. Also, I can feel that while flying, but your words are a bit muffled by the wind sometimes." Stretching her wings, Penelope breathed out a sigh of joy as she pulled wind down with them and jumped upward. For as long as it took to get into the sky and stable, she held off further speech. Once they were level, though, she continued her line of thought. "So, since we both understand it and I can respond faster to it, why not use it? I draw the line at eating apples, though."


    "Sugar cubes it is," Stewart said, and fully appreciated the jostling for Penelope''s reply¡ªand was surprised at how comfortable he was with her playful motion. She was nothing like riding a horse, but he was fairly sure he had become the most composed dragon rider in the history of his kingdom.


    By the time they landed, Penelope could say for sure that she <em style="font-weight: 600">was comfortable with Stewart riding her. He never once voiced such a joke where anyone else would hear, and he took his medicine well. She set down by the mortar teams, and with a glance back the way they''d come, saw that the white flag was still up, but the general''s was not. "Even better."


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 Chapter 182

    "We need to consolidate. They have captured two whole armies now¡ªone of them even surrendered to him before any serious action took place. Let''s pull our troops back to here and issue our ultimatum, and ride out the siege until he cannot afford to maintain it." David Fitzgerald still fumed over one particular fact. "They wouldn''t have failed if the kingdom had died, like you said."


    West Reaches fumed at her inaccurate information as well. "Ripping free <em style="font-weight: 600">should have killed it. It was so fragile! It hadn''t even quickened until half of our cities were built. I don''t understand how it survived."


    "Well, we did our best." Taking the heat out of the topic, David moved on. "Obviously something unforeseen happened. Do you know of a way we could try again?"


    "Short of joining and repeating the process, no. They seem to be moving fast and forcing engagements, which means they are using up a substantial amount of resources."


    Nodding, David finished drafting orders to call back his forces for the defense of the city. "From the report, the shield wasn''t as large as what he managed at the capital. Perhaps you have wounded the kingdom, at the very least, which will result in us having an edge. How is Eliza doing with her studies?"


    "What did I tell you of her early years?"


    Laughing, David leaned back from his work. "That I had best ensure she is never wronged. You taught her well back then, too."


    "She learns faster now. I only know of one of your kin that took to the arts of violence as well as she has, and I made him my champion." The warmth in West Reaches'' voice was genuine. The moment she had taken David on as her champion, she''d felt the heart of a kindred spirit for the first time in many years. "We just need to hold our ground and grind them up on my walls."


    <hr>


    It was a strange thing. Looking at the entrance to the dungeon, Constance felt a tremor pass through him¡ªa chill reminder of how many such places he''d been in before. Doing his best to hide it, he asked, "Are you sure it''s safe? This isn''t a passive dungeon."


    "He''s my client. I assure you, not only is he very accommodating¡ªhe also pays well." Brevity approached the entrance but stopped short to let Constance make his own mind up. When he walked forward, she matched his pace and they stepped into Travis'' entrance.


    The familiar, old sensation of stepping into a dungeon ran down Constance''s spine. His hand tightened on his staff and he unconsciously shifted his weight, mind racing back to the preparations for a fight that had served him so well in the past. Then reality asserted itself on his mind and he realized they were blocking the path of a wagon. He stepped to the side to let them pass and gained a clear view of the main intersection on the first floor of this very strange dungeon. "My word."


    Dungeons were rarely well-lit, except for extensively worked Verdant dungeons, but the open area ahead was not only illuminated well by lamps, but sunlight streamed in from several other openings.


    "Hi, uh, welcome. I don''t think I should thank you for making the decisions that let me deal with those other dungeons, but I guess I can thank you for doing your work efficiently."


    "That was the dungeon? Err, Travis?" Constance asked.


    Nodding once, Brevity performed the introductions. "Indeed. That is Sir Travis, knighthood conferred by King Stewart himself. If you speak aloud, he can hear you. Sir Travis, this is Lord Constance, the magistrate who oversaw your cases."


    "It''s a curious experience to meet you, sir. I must admit, after the first case I heard, I have been following all the news I could about your situation. Seeing the King ride into the city on your dragon was itself quite the event." The memory of that made the shivering worse, and Constance felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He had fought dragons before, with his party, but those days were long in his past. "I''ll admit, I was skeptical about your claims at first¡ªI still am a touch. Old habits and all that."


    "Well, everything got through in time for us to deal with other dungeons. So you won''t hear any complaints from us about it." Travis felt like he was walking on eggshells, even though he''d had higher-ranked people enter his dungeon before. Constance was, as Brevity had explained, a deceptively important man. He didn''t have any high titles, but his word would carry as much weight¡ªif not more so¡ªthan any noble except royalty. "I''ve arranged for a guided tour if you''d like?"


    "That would be quite the even¡ª" Constance''s stopped dead when he saw the giant of a dragon warrior. His blood ran cold as memories rushed to the fore.


    Following Constance''s vision and spotting Fife, Brevity was halfway calling out to her when she saw the signs of distress. Constance was sweating, his hands were flexing, and when he took a step back from the big warrior, first-hand accounts she''d read of adventurers who had spent too long in dungeons clicked into place. She moved herself to get between him and Fife, making herself take up his full line of sight. "Constance? Sir? It''s okay. You''re safe."


    It took Travis a moment to figure it out. He remembered Brevity mentioning that Constance was a former delver, and the way the man had been tensing up¡ªand now entered a panic¡ªspoke of one thing. "Brevity, help him outside." The next he sent to Fife since she was already taking steps toward the pair. "Fife, can you stop, please. Lord Constance needs some space."


    Halting in her tracks, Fife tilted her head to the side. "Seen one too many dragon dungeons, I take it?" She backed up a few steps, keeping her hands away from her weapons. "What is he? I see a staff, but is he a wizard or sorcerer?"


    The walls were crowding around Constance. He could feel the heat of dragon breath on the back of his neck as Brevity guided him to move. It wasn''t until he felt himself free from the aura of the dungeon that he could take a full breath again.


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    "Some adventurers have trouble stepping into dungeons. Been inside too long, or seen too much inside." It was another thing, like using talismans to leave a dungeon, that adventurers didn''t like to talk about. Fife grunted. "It''s not your fault, Trav, and it''s not his either. He probably felt the <em style="font-weight: 600">dungeon-ness of this place and¡ª"


    Travis cut in on her. "We call it PTSD where I came from. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It can get triggered by experiencing things related to what caused the event in the first place. Sorry for cutting you off, but I forgot about that feeling. Only adventurers get it, right?"


    "The feeling? Yeah. All these miners and stuff don''t have the <em style="font-weight: 600">experience of it. Maybe they will, if they spend enough time mining here, but I don''t think it will affect them the same." For the first time since she''d made her decision to throw her lot in with Travis, Fife felt impotent. She could go outside and ask the man if he needed help, but she knew that her appearance might trigger him again. "Is he doing better out there?"


    Travis watched as Constance seemed to recover his composure bit by bit, with Brevity telling him he was safe and to walk with her. "I''m sorry for this." He kept his words tightly focused on Brevity.


    "You''re talking to him?" Constance asked when Brevity was quiet for too long. At her nod, he sighed. "It wasn''t anything he could help with. Just an old delver who has spent too long in dark places."


    <hr>


    Heart listened to the people talking in the meeting. She focused all her attention on what they were saying, but it didn''t make sense. The motives didn''t align correctly and she knew for a fact that they had, as her advisor had put it, other irons in the fire.


    "Ahem." It wasn''t Heart that cleared their voice, however, but the kobold standing to one side of the desk that belonged to the avatar of the city.


    The room went quiet. Two barons and a viscount looked at the dryad in their midst with varying levels of annoyance. The kobold sitting beside her was a problem for them, though. When he spoke, she agreed. When he cleared his throat, therefore, they had to pay close attention.


    "It would seem, honored sirs, that we are all at an impasse." Stephan poured on the charm but was relieved he had a steel fist inside his velvet glove. "The problem at its core is that there are many people who will not be able to profit from importing food for Polfay.


    "Allow me to be blunt. You each are representatives of noble houses based in other cities. You and your families will lose money and standing by Polfay having its own Verdant dungeon, even if it shares that dungeon''s resources with another city. Breeze, in fact, has enough of a food surplus that even providing food for the capital to ship off for the war effort isn''t significantly slowing their expansion.


    "The times of bringing <em style="font-weight: 600">bulk unprocessed food into Polfay are over." Finishing his statement, Stephan was pleased to see the viscount at least had a calculating look on his face. Stephan''s hand glided over the tablet he had before him, claws marking the wax as well as any stylus.


    <blockquote>


    Heart, you should pay heed to what the viscount will say, he looks to be planning more than reacting


    </blockquote>


    "You can''t expect merchants to pivot their businesses so quickly!" one of the barons said. "They''ll need time to shift their routes to profitable goods."


    Stephan nodded in full, apparent, agreement. "Yes, and as you see in the proposal, estimates are that the people and businesses of Polfay will require months, themselves, to fully take advantage of Breeze''s raw goods. Are you proposing these merchants won''t be able to adjust their practices within four to six months?"


    It was a jab, but a calculated one. Stephan knew each of the three men from his <em style="font-weight: 600">previous life as the umpteenth son of a noble house that reached as far as Polfay. The viscount was, in his estimation, the more ruthless of the three.


    "I think," the viscount said, shaking his head a little, "our new avatar''s advisor is correct in many things¡ªwe <em style="font-weight: 600">are at an impasse, but one pregnant with possibilities. Perhaps we should take this up at the next meeting tomorrow? Or would a week be a better timeframe?"


    Having read Stephan''s words moments before he rendered them unreadable, Heart smiled and nodded to the man. "Of course. Take all the time you need to work over the figures. A week it is."


    The viscount loitered while the two barons seemed eager to avail themselves of their presence. "You put them both in a state of disarray, while practically pointing them at a solution that they seem barely able to comprehend. Might I have your name, Mr¡­?"


    Stephan knew that there was a danger in using his full name, or even the assumed name he''d used since joining the dungeon. Hoping it wouldn''t cause offense, he used a real name of a former guest of the dungeon. "Skarde," he said.


    The name, clearly northern in origin, was noted and pinned to the kobold''s features within the mind of the viscount. "Then I look forward to future dealings with you, Lady Heart and Mr. Skarde."


    When all three were gone, Heart groaned and flopped onto the desk she sat behind. "Ugh. Why can''t they say what they mean? They are all tied to those merchants."


    "No, it''s more than that. They control those merchants. Each of them is a representative of a much larger noble lineage in each of the feeding cities to Polfay. There are two ways to go from here, and I believe the barons will try for the former¡ªthey will ship their equipment here, buy raw foodstuffs and process them.


    "The viscount, I believe, will take a better path. Watch as his merchant houses begin pivoting to providing equipment to Polfay. Equipment needed to process the flood of raw foodstuffs coming from Breeze: millstones, butchery tools, even large quantities of salt. He will also make a killing in the meantime selling finer foods.


    "If none of them come up with prices low enough, we can buy the equipment ourselves from Home and sell them to the local merchants. It would be best if you don''t get involved, but keep a backup plan in case any of them try to push your population too far."


    Stephan had always hated this sort of cut-throat political game. He had despised his family for being a major source of it. But, now that he was working as part of an altruistic enterprise, he found himself enjoying it.


    "Mister Stephan¡ª"


    "Steph is fine, please, Heart."


    "Steph," Heart said, her smile growing at his insistence on a nickname, "Dungeon Travis told me you didn''t like all this."


    "I am appreciating it far more, now I am not part of one of those families. You know, I was sent to Northridge to insinuate myself into whatever leadership grew there, to extend the family''s reach into the growing North. The misunderstanding that saw my change to being a kobold was profound and life-changing in many ways, but the few negatives of that event have quickly given way to the positive aspects¡ªlike my cousin not recognizing me."


    Gasping, Heart looked at the closed door where the three men had left. "Which one?"


    "Baron Brown Pants," Stephan said, a predatory grin on his face. "Damn fool will miss out on this opportunity, and I wouldn''t have it any other way."


    "Is that why you lied about your name?"


    "Absolutely. Stephan wasn''t the name I was born with, nor was Steph, but my family knew I used both. I hope Astrid and her pack aren''t upset I borrowed one of their names."


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 April 1st Chapter

    Sheathing a pair of longswords, the warrior looked around the mess of destruction around her. It wasn''t an uncommon sight to see a tall orc covered in countless battle scars in a dungeon. It was odd when the adventurers rushed over and checked to make sure she was okay. "What? I''m not hurt! Not by this trash."


    Rolling his eyes, the party''s priest slapped her on the back. "Mixie, I don''t care if they''re trash¡ªyou''re not."


    The rush of warmth surprised Mixie. Several pains she had barely noticed stopped, leaving her feeling even better. "Next area?" She reached out one big, meaty hand and grabbed the priest by the shoulder. Pulling him against her, she said, "Thanks, Axel."


    <hr>


    Clearing her voice, Elanor said, "Mixie, he might be your brother here, but¡ª"


    "No. He my brother in game too. Look! Wrote an elabi¡ª elaba¡ª <em style="font-weight: 600">big backstory how he was adopted by Verdant goblin dungeon, and grew into being a priest of dungeon." Mixie passed over a fifty-page manuscript written in surprisingly neat penmanship. "The special bits are pages five through twenty-three." Finally taking a breath, Mixie looked up at Axel in time for him to ruffle her hair.


    Blinking rapidly at the booklet, Elanor flicked through to the relevant pages and read a few paragraphs.


    "There''s a summary on page forty-eight, just before the glossary," Axel added helpfully, not mentioning how long Stephan had spent with her to help her write it.


    "Can we get back to it?" Astrid asked.


    <hr>


    "These tracks lead down the tunnel." Hand brushing over the marks on the dirty floor, Astrid drew her bow and looked down the passage in question. "Three."


    "Well, looks like we get to dance some more!" Drawing her swords again, Mixie stalked down the tunnel with the rest of her group following. She didn''t care about making noise¡ªthat was how she made sure she was the first target for anything coming their way.


    Only, what came their way made her pause. "What are they shouting?" Mixie asked when the group of lizardmen charged at her. The reason she asked was they didn''t have any weapons out and looked to be in shabby rags rather than armor.


    "I can''t understand them."


    "Me either."


    Elian''s ears twitched. This was a significant event for a rabitkin. She chewed on one nail for a moment and her eyes widened. "Don''t hurt them! They''re running away from¡ª"


    "Me." Stepping around the corner, the dragon eyed the party and licked its chops. "See, I eat things like you, so, <em style="font-weight: 600">GET IN MY BELLY!"


    <hr>


    "Does the dragon really say that?" Astrid asked, trying to hide the smirk on her face.


    "Oh, totally." Travis'' tone was as calm and even as he could make it, which meant it was neither calm nor even, and giggles escaped him. "He''s a rather overweight dragon. It looks like he''s been eating well."


    "I run up and bite him!"


    "Roll to attack, Mixie."


    <hr>


    Clamping her jaws around the dragon''s leg, Mixie tightened her muscles, but the dragon didn''t seem all that harmed.


    "What are you doing?" the dragon asked, lifting the leg with an orc attached and shaking it. "Let go!"


    Growling, Mixie clamped down harder and said¡ªnothing because she couldn''t talk with a dragon leg in her mouth.


    The rest of the party, not leaving their tank alone to fight the dragon, moved into action. Astrid drew her bow and unleashed arrows. Several of her shots hit the beast, but none broke through its scales.


    "Can you do anything to stop it?" Axel asked. "Because I don''t think Mixie and Astrid are doing so well."


    Elian laughed. "I am a wizard. Not only do I have every spell in existence prepared and almost ready to use at a moment''s notice, but my mind could run rings around the beast and still decide what spell I will use to bring it down. Watch as I conjure a mighty sphere of fire to engulf it and burn it to¡ª"


    Cutting in on her, Axel said, "Call me crazy, but its scales are bright red. Doesn''t that mean it would be immune to fire?"


    Derailed in her attempt to explain why a fire sphere would seem to be the right spell at first, Elian changed to an alternate spell. "I cast Lightning Bolt!" The electrical charge was launched into the air and hit the dragon squarely in the face.


    "Ow! That hurt!" Shaking its leg with Mixie still attached, the dragon squared off against the other three members of the party and exhaled.


    Astrid rolled along the ground, getting under the fire. Elian and Axel weren''t so lucky. Looking a little more crispy than a wizard should under any circumstance, Elian managed a gasp of pain before Axel reached out and healed her, then did the same for himself.


    Shifting her grip a bit higher up the leg, Mixie flexed her muscles and, to the dragon''s (and everyone else''s too) shock, flipped the drake over and onto its back. "Rrrrar!"


    "Is she?" Astrid asked.


    "Can she do that?" Elian asked.


    Axel just shook his head.


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    <hr>


    "I''m gonna name him <em style="font-weight: 600">Bitey!" Mixie said, reaching out to grab the nearest lizard, lift it onto the table upside down, and work her claws over its belly. The lizard looked like it wanted to protest, but after a few good squirms didn''t get it free, it slumped into surrender.


    Travis tried to head off the immediate responses of everyone and asked, "Mixie, how many points of Handle Animal do you have?"


    "Fifteen! Oh. Plus five!" Leaning forward, Mixie blew a raspberry on the lizard''s tummy, which had it squirming again.


    Astrid, who''d thought she''d built a pretty good hunter that could work with animals, sat in mute shock at what she heard. "But doesn''t that only work on things with a type <em style="font-weight: 600">animal?"


    "Got feats," Mixie said, rotating the character sheet that was actually a five-page booklet so Astrid could see. "Also, counts as a mount, so I can use Horse Whisperer."


    About to argue that the dragon wasn''t a horse, Astrid realized what was going on and smiled. "Very clever. Well done, Mixie."


    Beaming happily, Mixie pumped her fist in the air, almost but not quite knocking the lizard off the table in the process. "Yes!"


    <hr>


    "I can''t believe I''m letting you do this," Bitey said. "And Bitey isn''t even my name! I am¡ª"


    "A good boy!" Mixie leaned forward from where she sat astride the dragon''s neck, reaching out to pet its head. A low rumbling purr echoed off the walls as <del>Flamescale Burninator</del> Bitey struggled to assert himself, and failed utterly.


    When they got to the final floor of the dungeon, a loud voice boomed, "Know this, heroes and mount¡ª


    "I''m not a mount! This is only temporary!" Bitey exclaimed. "I''m only carrying her because¡­ Because¡­" Bitey tilted his head to the side as Mixie''s claws worked into a particularly hard to reach ridge on one side of his head.


    "He''s a good boy!" Mixie said, and with no interruptions or complaints from Bitey.


    "Ahem! You will not leave this place alive!" The echoing made it hard for them to figure out what tunnel it came from, other than <em style="font-weight: 600">not behind them.


    "Well," Elian said, "there are four tunnels. We can split up and each go down a different one."


    "Never split the party," Axel said.


    "Always split the party," Bitey said.


    "Pack stays together," Astrid said.


    "Woooo! This tunnel!" Mixie shouted, poking the dragon''s neck on each side with her ankles and sending the <del>poor creature</del> majestic beast into a half-panicked run.


    "¡­" All three stared at the tail of the dragon as it whipped around a corner in the tunnel, but it was Axel who recovered fast enough to say, "I guess we''re going down this one. Come on."


    Astrid, normally the trap finder of the party, worked on the assumption that the dragon would have triggered and ignored anything lethal for them, so rather than take her time advancing down the hall¡ªshe ran.


    Shouting from ahead of them spurred the other two to match Astrid''s speed, and so the three raced down the tunnel that narrowed more and more until it reached a door that was decidedly less than dragon size. There, Mixie was cackling with laughter while dozens of undead tried to force their way through the doorway. Bitey seemed to revel in his new role and unleashed his fire through said doorway.


    By the time her friends got close, Mixie was already confident there were no undead on the other side of the doorway. "Now, Mr. Bitey, you need to wait here for us when we come back. Okay?"


    "Why would I¡ª?" was all the dragon got out before Mixie frowned at him. Memories, recent ones, of her kindness weighed heavily in his thoughts. Sighing and sitting down, he said, "Okay¡­"


    "Good boy!" Mixie reached into her bag and pulled out a large green hand. "You want a treat?" When Bitey nodded, eyes wide, Mixing tossed it to him and gave his snout a good pat.


    "Was that an orc hand?" Astrid asked.


    "It <em style="font-weight: 600">was an orc hand. Not mine!" Turning to the doorway, and ignoring the flames still licking at the reinforced timber, Mixie drew her longswords and headed in; followed by her party.


    Inside, what used to be a library filled with priceless and rare books was now doing its best impression of a burning house. The books were burning. The shelves were burning. If the dragon had breathed a little more, even the floor would be burning.


    "I hope none of these would have been useful." Elian looked over the conflagration and, to deal with the smoke, cast a spell to blow it all out into the tunnels.


    "I recognized a few treatises on flame magic," Bitey said. "So no, nothing useful."


    "Yeah," Mixie said, walking past the burning shelves and running one of her swords along it, trying to knock out any unburned books. Her self-appointed task seemed to be fruitless. "Nothing useful at all." Unlike Bitey, she had no hint of sarcasm in her voice.


    Elian stared longingly at the books. "How can you tell?"


    "Because they''re books, Elian. We don''t need books. We got each other!" The big orc smiled down at the wizard. "Come on. I bet there are better books where we''re going, anyway."


    <hr>


    "And I think that''s a good place to call it for tonight," Travis said. "I hope you all had fun!"


    Slumping in her chair, Elanor looked down at her character sheets and sighed. "Do we have to? What''s left to do in here?"


    "There are a few encounters and the boss. But we have to stop because it is waaaaaaaay past a little goblin''s bedtime."


    Mixie groaned and tossed her head back. "Trav! Can you whine to my mom and ask her for another hour?" She looked at the lizard, who had tried to escape during the last bit of the session, and pulled him back onto the table for more attention. The lizard suffered the petting with aplomb.


    Travis had no way of actually enforcing any kind of end, of course. The best he could do was the dungeon equivalent of <em style="font-weight: 600">rocks fall, everyone dies where he summons hundreds of lizards. "Sorry, Mixie, but that''s <em style="font-weight: 600">your job. Anyway. You''ll all be back next week?"


    Slipping his books and sheets into a convenient leather folder, Axel replied, "Of course, Trav. I can''t spend every hour of the day at the forge. Besides, Potia wants to play, and I need to know the rules backwards and forwards before I can run a game for her."


    "You should invite her to ours," Elanor said, mimicking Axel''s actions with her own things.


    "C-Could I?"


    Travis laughed and said, "Sure you can. There''s not a lot more work going from four to five. Six starts to get a bit harder."


    Grabbing Mixie around the waist once he had her pouch of paperwork secured, Axel flipped her upside down. "I''ll ask her. Thanks again, Trav."


    Ignoring the mock-angry goblin, everyone said their goodbyes¡ªexcept for Astrid. Sitting alone in the second-floor tavern, she leaned back in her chair and let it ride up onto two legs. "Thank you, Travis."


    "How is the reading going?"


    Holding up her character sheet, Astrid read the statistics from it, not stumbling at all. "This is easy, now. The rule books are still hard to understand the implied meanings, but Elanor is helping. I have learned, from all the people here willing to treat me as kin, that my pack is not so small as I thought. In these southern lands, a pack can be as big as a city."


    "Yeah. I''m glad you decided to hang around." Travis caught Astrid smiling from the lizard on the table''s vision. When she stood up, he asked, "Same time next week?"


    Growing her form into her far more comfortable huge wolf, Astrid smiled, showing off a huge row of fangs. "Definitely!"


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