ã€ŠChillin&#x27; in a dungeonã€‹


 Prologue: A Losers life and a Winners Exit

    In the beginning, the earth was formless and covered in darkness, then a young man said in a grave and deep voice: ¡°let there be light¡± and light was.

    ¡°You know you could have simply asked me to add a source of light, no? This whole god-like speech you make everytime is becoming repetitive.¡±

    Next to the young man, a woman scoffed at the latter¡¯s immaturity while working, her delicate hands moved in the air and suddenly the whole space got covered in bright light, a giant cavern that could have been mistaken for the center of the earth revealed itself to their eyes.

    ¡°You want to keep the sourceless light or you have other ideas?¡± asked the woman in a bored tone.

    ¡°Heh, behold my power, and God said let there be¡­. Rivers, I guess.¡± this time the young man directly molded the cavern. A hologram only visible to him appeared around his hands, the light icons gave him the power of a god with a friendly user interface. Deep gashes burrowed themselves in the rocky floor leaving behind kilometer long scars and in the center of all, a giant bowl-shaped depression.

    Then with another wave of the young man a heavy rain appeared and soon all the burrows and depressions filled up with water. ¡°Letithia, please turn off the light.¡±

    The woman did as asked and the sourceless light disappeared, however instead of returning the cavern to darkness this action revealed what the young man did, the rivers and lake that seemed filled with water were actually producing an incredibly bright light colouring the cavern in blue.

    ¡°Stephen.¡± calmly asked the woman watching the scene.

    ¡°Yes Letithia?¡± replied the man with a smile.

    ¡°How much budget did you throw on using the very expensive liquid mana as light system?¡± managing to hide her true emotions behind a perfect poker face and monotone voice.

    ¡°Around¡­ ten percent?¡± replied Stephen while scratching his head.

    ¡°OK, and for this whole concentric earth styled cavern?¡± she kept asking not breaking out of character.

    ¡°Erm¡­ I saw it discounted on the store for a few million credits¡­ I would say around 8 percent of the budget?¡± the moment ¡®8 percent¡¯ left his mouth a dark aura spread around the cavern with him as the target.

    ¡°So, we haven¡¯t even started and YOU ALREADY BLEW EIGHTEEN PERCENT OF THE BUDGET?!¡± finally her business like facade cracked and unbridled rage came pouring out.

    ¡°Well, I actually spent another seven percent for a hidden guardian, but don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m sure the remaining budget will be more than enou- wait! NO, DON¡¯T HIT ME! Kyaaaa.¡± what came after will be omitted due to this novel being made for all ages in mind.

    ----------------------

    True to his word, Stephen, managed to complete the dungeon with the remaining 75 percent, a majestic city made of lustrous black metal grew in reverse out of the ceiling right above the mana lake.

    The six-walled floors, each growing out of the previous cleanly separated the city in areas with a giant tower going all the way from the first to the sixth floor. The base, being the biggest, acted as the residential zone, Stephen had created enough houses inside to host a population of ten thousand with hoovering bridges creating a complex multi-leveled floor.

    The second floor would host a giant garden that would provide food to the complex, since it was very important to keep the population fed a whopping 10 percent of the budget went into making the garden able to grow plants of different biomes in short time and while only using ambient mana instead of water.

    The third floor hosted the forges and workshops, any city would need repairs and any guard would need weapons.

    The fourth floor held the barracks for the soldiers and their armories, currently empty due to insufficient budget.

    The fifth was a treasure room surrounding the elevator, thankfully unless one was able to take the key situated on the first floor the treasury would remain impossible to open, Stephen placed it there in the hope of firing up the invaders. Unfortunately, the treasury was also empty at the moment.

    And finally, the sixth floor was just the tip of the tower that actually acted as elevator, a small platform chained to the tower could either descent until the mana lake or ascend to the first floor.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    The last finishing touch was surrounding the city with big platforms where in the future the defendant would place siege machines or just snipe down the invaders with magic or projectiles.

    ¡°See what did I tell you, we managed to finish.¡± gloated Stephen with a proud expression.

    ¡°Finish what? There is no dungeon core, no guardians, no weapons for the guardians, no treasures and no traps.¡± Letithia being the responsible one immediately threw an ice bucket on Stephen''s pride.

    ¡°Okok, look, we will place a medium core in a hidden room above the first floor, then we will summon a few lizardmen tribes and a dwarf clan, if they don¡¯t kill each other''s the lizards will protect the city while the dwarves pop-out weapons and treasures.¡± And thus the dungeon was actually finished with not even a speck of resources left.

    ----------------------------------------

    After finishing the dungeon Stephen and Letithia teleported back to their home, the celestial city of Aincrad, to be specific in the branch office of Dungeon & Miscellaneous, a giant mega-corporation present in billions of worlds.

    M&D mainly busied themselves in designing and building dungeons for all kind of clients. A god wanted a dungeon to prepare a hero? No problem! An old dragon wanted to create a fortress to protect its treasure trove? As long as it could pay for the service why not? A pervert wanted a dungeon full of obeying monster-girls? No desire was too weird or big as long as you could pay.

    Suddenly inside a 4X4 room, two people appeared, one of them sporting black hair and a robe deemed by everyone but him to be ridiculous, and a girl with luscious blonde hair and fashionable t-shirt and pants. The two were Stephen, a novice dungeon designer and his intern, Letithia.

    ¡°Good job today as well Letithia, thank god I had your help in tweaking the laws of physics or I think the whole castle would have fallen straight into the mana lake,¡± said Stephen while trying to pat Letithia¡¯s shoulder, an action which was dodged by her without even watching.

    ¡°K, thanks.¡± she left the room in big strides with Stephen following after.

    ¡°So, what are you doing after? Up for a beer?¡± Stephen asked with a courteous smile.

    ¡°No sorry, unfortunately, I already promised my cat I would spend the night with her.¡± without actually sounding sorry she said the first thing that popped inside her head and left Stephen behind.

    ¡°Again? That¡¯s like the¡­ 98th time in a row that you spend the night with your cat.¡± said Stephen.

    She just shrugged her shoulders and with a natural tone replied ¡°she is a very possessive cat, what can I say.¡± and then quickened her steps, leaving Stephen behind.

    ¡°Guess I¡¯ll just spend another night with the best person on this world, myself,¡± he said, his tone low and lackadaisy. As he reached the entrance of the building, his ear suddenly buzzed. He touched it and connected the call, ¡°yes? Oh, okay, I¡¯m coming.¡± his face paled, for some reason his boss wanted to see him immediately.

    He walked to the office while wondering if he had done something, was asking Letithia out every single night sexual harassment? Had he finally decided that an old robe was in violation of grooming guidelines? Had another client called in and lamented about the sloppiness of his work?

    Whatever it was he was gonna find out in a few minutes. With a knock he entered Bossman¡¯s office, yeah, his boss name was Bossman, came to think of the irony if their roles had been reversed.

    ¡°Mr. Bossman, you wanted to see me?¡± he asked with a trembling voice.

    ¡°No I didn¡¯t, but unfortunately I have to, sit down.¡± replied the midget from his comfortable armchair, Stephen had always wondered how practical was a heavy armchair in conjunction with a desk. Nevertheless, he sat down in the small plastic chair in front of Bossman.

    ¡°Stephen, you know I¡¯ve always considered you as a son, especially since you act like a child half of the time and fuck up the other half,¡± Bossman started with some sweet words trying to lower Stephen¡¯s guard. ¡°But now I gotta ask you, have you been stealing company property?¡± he asked with a serious tone.

    ¡®So that¡¯s why I was called!¡¯ thought Stephen before replying, ¡°Well Mr. Bossman, maybe I did take a few paperclips, some pens, Randy¡¯s lunch twice a week and possibly a desk. However, I swear I was gonna give them back!¡± tried to plead Stephen.

    ¡°What? That¡¯s not what I was ask- wait a desk? How did you¡­ Nevermind, I don¡¯t care about a few paperclips, I wanna know if you stole any of the followings:¡± he then took out a sheet of paper and started reading ¡°High powered terrain manipulator, supreme level dungeon core, a complete high leveled dungeon creation kit, and then I have a big list of other materials that you apparently bought using the allocated budget for other works but never actually used in any work.¡±

    ¡°What can I say, you busted me, sir.¡± He didn¡¯t even try to defend himself. It all started 3 months ago when he saw Letithia use a dungeon¡¯s budget to buy a coffee for herself, if she could buy a coffee with company¡¯s money why couldn¡¯t he buy himself a dragon? Well maybe a dragon would be too obvious, so he bought himself a rabbit, xiao bai (little white) whom he loved immensely.

    From there on he kept stealing a few materials every now and then and hatching a master plan, too bad he had been discovered so fast, he had so many more items he wanted to embezzle.

    ¡°Thanks for your honesty.¡± said Bossman while pressing a button on his desk. Suddenly security officers busted through the door pointing their weapon modules towards Stephen. A weapon module consisted of a gauntlet with preregistered spells in it, all the security officer had to do was focus on a spell and blast him to the otherworld.

    ¡°Wow, that was fast!¡± said Stephen in admiration. ¡°Bossman, can I say one last thing before I get taken away?¡±

    ¡°Sure thing kid,¡± replied Bossman sporting a big grin on his face.

    ¡°Would you mind checking the 97th item I bought today?¡± asked Stephen with a grin bigger than Bossman¡¯s.

    Seeing that grin Bossman felt there was something wrong, he immediately checked the item, [hand-held teleport module 100% charged]. ¡°Oh shi-¡±

    ¡°You were one day too late.¡± suddenly Stephen pressed the button on the device in his pants and with a flash disappeared.

 Chapter 1: Starting a Dungeon

    Stephen appeared in a dimly lit room, the perpetual wooden torch lazily burning in a corner of the room casting shadows against the rocky walls and uneven ground.

    "well, that was scary," said Stephen while dusting off his actually clean robe. He had never been a fighter, or a mage, or someone brave in general. Since the moment Bossman had called him into his office, Stephen held the teleport device in his sweaty hands ready to use it at any moment. That was the only reason he was able to converse without stuttering.

    He looked around, his new house made of rocks, dirt, more rocks, and even more dirt. On one side of the room, a desk brimming with high tech equipment Stephen had happily embezzled. Since the moment he had summoned a pet rabbit for him he had steadily deposited his loot inside this rocky space.

    "Xiao? come out, little buddy!" He called with his hands around his mouth, suddenly from a dark corner of the room came out a white beast in all its 2-foot long glory. The little rabbit sniffed the air once before pouncing on its master and kissing its neck gently.

    "Aww, who''s the most adorable dungeon boss? you are!" he said kissing his rabbit on the head. Then he placed it on the ground and rummaged amongst the tools in the desk, picking up a little orb he nodded satisfied and threw it on the air.

    the orb suddenly lit up like a small sun and grew to the size of a basketball. Hoovering in the air it suddenly spoke up.

    [Supreme grade dungeon core booting up, please wait....]

    "that''s gonna take a while," he looked around and activated his terrain manipulator. the hologram around his arm appeared again displaying an 89% charge. "let''s start with some housework."

    With a wave of his hand, all the six surfaces of the room became smooth, then he pointed to one wall and a tunnel appeared, with some more work he built a second cylindrical room and a third huge cavern-like room.

    Satisfied by his first draft he created a fake wall to hide the room with all the tools and called it his personal office, then moved the still booting core to the cylindrical room and called it the dungeon''s heart and after placing a sturdy metal gate between it and the huge cavern he called it a day''s work he went to sleep in his office while hugging the rabbit.

    The day after he went to check on the core, during the ''night'' the core had finally booted up.

    [Supreme grade dungeon ready for use, please register user:______]

    "I can''t give my real name, they are looking for me... meh, I''ll use grandad''s name: Adriano Meis." With a nod, he vocally inputted the name.

    [user registered, would you like to register for our newsletter? We will keep you updated on new products and helpful tips for all your dungeon master activities.]

    "No, thanks." fucking spam had ruined even dungeon building these days.

    [Confirming. Welcome to Dungeon XP, would you like to receive an introduction on how to use your new dungeon core?]

    "Oh god, skip all, just give me access to the UI, please." already exasperated he kept refusing all helpful windows until the dungeon core finally started working as intended.

    [Hello Adriano, how can I be of assistance today?] spoke the dungeon core with a feminine voice. According to research, hearing a dungeon core speaking with a female voice helped reduce stress from dungeon master. No one really knew if it was because female voice is better or dungeon masters are simply a bunch of pervs enjoying ordering women around.

    "Give me an analysis of my dungeon," he spoke coldly to the IA governing the core.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    [I detect three rooms, one monster, zero invaders, zero traps. Are there any mistakes or elements you want me to add?] Spoke the core in a professional tone that for some reasons made Adriano mad.

    "No, it''s okay like this, give me an insight about my next step."

    [I suggest adding monsters, would you like to consult a guide about monsters?]

    "NO!" he then faked a cough to regain his composure, "Open the market and show me the cheapest options."

    [before that, with your purchase of a supreme grade dungeon core you received a starting monster pack, would you like to use it now?] In front o the core appeared a small translucent window with information.

    Apparently, he had received a team of high-quality rank E+ goblin warriors. One might be thinking they were worthless and not be too far away from the truth, goblins were amongst the physically and mentally weakest creatures and usually were classified as F and F- rank.

    However this was a team of E+ goblin warriors, examples of E rank monsters were dire wolves and even bandits were around the same degree of danger. Besides, being a team of humanoid creatures their actual battle strength would naturally be higher. Things like teamwork and equipment weren''t naturally counted in the rank.

    "Yes please!" suddenly in front of him three short burly men appeared. Adriano had seen countless goblins ranging from their base green/grey color to rarer blue and red varieties, however, he had never seen jet-black goblins.

    Usually, the more monochromatic a monster was, the stronger it was. He observed the little men in front of him, strong muscles bulging under their furry rags, sharp short-swords on their back, (which looked like claymores on their small bodies.) and sharp eyes.

    [Thanks for your purchase, your goblin team comes with a lifelong insurance and replacement program. In case of death, their bodies will get automatically replaced while maintaining their old memories. Care of Rou''s goblin farm.]

    Adriano looked at his new little servants, their loyalty assured thanks to the supreme grade core that boasted a 99% rate of safety for any monster. "My name is Adriano, from now on call me master or boss. Do you already have names?" he asked interestedly.

    The biggest of them, around 4''10 maybe 5 foot tall, took a step forward. "My name is Frank, the one missing an ear is Luigi and the one with a scar on his lip is Joe." Against most misconceptions, goblins could talk human normally, it''s just that jungle dweller populations had low literacy rates.

    "Good, your job is simple, stand guard in that room," Said Adriano pointing to the biggest room," and kill anyone who comes through." he completed his orders with a wicked smile.

    """Yes, boss.""" all three goblins spoke at the same time with a weird Italian accent before leaving the room. Once inside the big cavern which lacked any kind of illumination they took out a cigarette pack and started smoking giving away their hiding spots.

    Adriano could only facepalm before asking the core to add torches to the whole dungeon.

    [I''m sorry Adriano, unfortunately, your payment method has been declined, would you like to try again?] replied the core.

    "D-declined?" suddenly he remembered, he was a fugitive on the loose, the fact his bank account would be locked was naturally something he should have considered.

    Now he was locked in a dungeon without money and with only three goblins and some stolen loot that he could not sell. "what other methods of payment can I use?" he asked, maybe the core had a solution, by itself the thing had costed more than a few dungeons.

    [You can recharge your store credit by selling adventurer''s loot, would you like to know what can be considered adventurer''s loot?] she asked with a voice that for some reason sounded contemptuous to him.

    "yes, please." he said in his lowest voice.

    [sorry Adriano, I could not hear that, may I ask you to try again?] Now he was sure the dungeon core was pulling his leg, she had the tools to hear an atom splitting on the other side of a planet but could not hear a whisper?

    "YES PLEASE." yet, he still swallowed his pride and spoke louder.

    [adventurer''s loot can be defined as anything that comes from outside the dungeon, examples: weapons, armors, potions, corpses, alchemical ingredients, etc.]

    "that was... very clear, thank you."

    [You are welcome Adriano.] For some reason this time the IA''s voice didn''t make him mad, still, it contained a hint of superiority, had he really done the right choice in choosing such an advanced core? words on the street said that supreme grade cores were actually able of sentience. even if he never believed any of it he was starting to change idea.

    Thankfully for him, beside a small setback, his original plan could proceed. digging in the pile of tools he found what he was looking for a multi-access entrance generator.

    The little cube-like trinket was a must for any dungeon, it would randomly create entrances for the dungeon throughout the universe in the proximity of life signs. He set it for low ranked life signs; After all, his plan would go in smoke if a dragon or a hero were to come bursting through his door. And then observed the cube do his magic.

    On the hall of goblins, a giant light gate appeared, its blue light finally revealing the room''s interior.

    "Now we just wait for the money to come visit us. heheheh."

 chapter 2: First Guest

    Alzark had been an adventurer for 3 weeks now. His desire for adventure barely held back by his incompetence and lack of levels. He hadn''t even slain a goblin yet, and he was already dreaming of slaying dragons and saving kingdoms.

    Today''s mission was simple, gather some spore-puff mushrooms that grew next to his village and deliver them to the alchemist. As he walked down the improper path to the woods, daydreaming of meeting an elf in need of rescue, he noticed something weird.

    In one of the trees next to the path, something aking to a door had appeared. He approached to take a closer look and confirmed his suspicion. A small arch topped carving of a door adorned the tree''s bark.

    Wondering who in the village had the skill to carve a tree with such finesse he lightly pushed the door which suddenly opened on a dark tunnel leading down.

    Such a visage immediately lit his adventurous spirit and after lighting a torch he conveniently had in his backpack he began his descent into the earth''s bowels. With his eyes set on fame, fortune, and power he actually missed a step and ingloriously rolled down the tunnel.

    When he regained consciousness he found himself in almost jet black darkness. The only thing he could see was a line of light lazily trickling out from the gaps in a door. Trying to quiet down his breath as much as he could, he slowly approached the door and peeked through the gaps.

    On the other side of the door, he could see three black skinned men playing some kind of card game while smoking, suddenly a fourth person came in from another door.

    "Gosh, it''s been one day already! twenty-four hours stuck here without anything to do!" said the fourth person in an exasperated tone while throwing his hands in the air.

    "Boss, wanna play?" one of the three black men waved to the newcomer to sit down. At that point Alzark, who had been leaning against the door, lost the balance and fell forward, slamming the door open.

    When the young boy fell inside the room, everybody turned towards him. A look of elation appeared on the tall person who in a few steps was already in front of the young adventurer, and before Alzark could do anything he suddenly found himself in a hug.

    "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" said the person before separating himself. "Frank, Luigi, Joe. Your time to shine has come, don''t let our guest wait too much."

    Alzark looked up. The three men he had seen before were coming towards him, however, there was something weird about them. Flat nose, pointy ears, yellow eyes, and just a few hairs... ''they are goblins, not men!'' the sudden realization dawned on him together with a sense of fear he had never felt before.

    The closest goblin took a few steps in his direction, a polished and well-maintained sword in his hands. Alzark immediately stood up and backed away, however, the door he had come in from had disappeared. Finding himself trapped his survival instinct suddenly kicked in and he unsheathed his short sword.

    He couldn''t consider himself a master, his only lessons came in from a retired adventurer who had taken home in his village, however from what he knew goblins were the weakest among the weakest. Even a kid such as him was slightly stronger.

    Charging forward with his sword he remembered his teacher''s words, ''take the lead and hit first.''. He did as taught and swung his sword first, however, the goblin in front of him evidently had more experience than him and, with just a casual swing, Alzark found himself unarmed.

    Shocked, Alzark looked at the goblin''s sword that was going to descend on his head and closed his eyes. He waited for the hug of Alyssa, goddess of the otherworld, however, it never came. When he opened back his eyes he saw the tall man with his hand on the goblin''s shoulder.

    "Hello little one, I''m Adriano, may I know your name?" the man who had just saved his life had suddenly approached him and with a smile, introduced himself.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    "I-I''m Alzark." He introduced himself as well, least he made the man who had spared him mad.

    "Nice to meet you, since you look like a polite boy I''ll be short. Do you have any family Alzark?" the man''s smile remained bright like a half moon, yet the words that came out of it sounded icy and dangerous.

    "Y-yes, one sick mother and two sisters. I beg you to let me go, without me, they will have anyone else to take care of them." he decided to tell the truth, maybe if he could move the man in front of him he would let him go. However, unlike his expectations, the goblins behind the man started laughing and licking their lips. He now realized his mistake.

    "Then I''m sure you don''t want anything bad to happen to them." Alzark nodded in fear. "wonderful, then I''ll offer you a deal. Leave everything you have behind, then go back home, grab anything of value and deliver it to us. Do it and tonight I and my goblins will sleep in our beds. Refuse..." the man caressed Alzark''s cheek with the back of his hand. "and tonight my goblin will keep company to your family... three goblins for three sweet ladies."

    The door behind him reappeared, so Alzark immediately emptied his pockets, dropped his knife and even the old leather jacket he had on him, before running from where he had come from.

    ----------------------------------------------------

    Adriano looked at his goblins and smiled. "Well, that was a fine work, fine work I say!"

    the goblins smile as well looking at their master. "so, we wait for the kid to come back and then we follow him home, no?" Joe takes the word and asks Adriano while scratching his pants. "those ladies he spoke of must be feeling pretty alone at night hurhurhur."

    the other two goblins join Joe in his obscene laugh while fantasizing about their prize.

    "Hmm? and how exactly are you planning to follow him? did you forget monsters can''t leave the dungeon?" pouring a bucket of cold water on those perverse goblins Adriano thought at all the items he had wanted to embezzle.

    One of them, the wave stabilizer, would allow the dungeon to create a fixed portal that would allow the monster to leave the dungeon and have some fun in the outside world. Thankfully such device could still be bought from the core market with a few million credits.

    "But... what you said to the boy..." asked Luigi with a sliver of hope in his eyes.

    "I was just threatening him a little to make sure he came back. Unfortunately, a human corpse is not worth much in the market. However, I hope he''ll be back with something valuable to give us, otherwise, we will just sell him alive." his words extinguished all hope from the goblins who went back playing cards.

    "Core, would you mind selling everything the kid has dropped, and tell me how much we salvaged?" Adriano spoke to the air knowing the core could hear and see everything in the dungeon. He waited a minute, yet nothing happened. "Please?" he added and suddenly the items disappeared with a flash.

    [items: leather jacket(shoddy quality), leather pouch(shoddy quality), iron shortsword (mediocre quality) and other four items have been sold for two hundred and thirty credits.] her robotic female voice spoke directly to Adriano''s mind.

    "Thanks, would you mind purchasing the cheapest torch for the goblin-hall? make it self-replenishable while you are at it, sweety." Adriano would have gladly spent his new found money otherwise, unfortunately, he had to give up his own room''s torch. It was difficult to play cards in darkness, especially for him that didn''t have any kind of night vision.

    A brand new old looking candelabra suddenly appeared above the table with four already lit candles. Adriano looked at it and frowned.

    "Core, what is that," he asked in an annoyed tone.

    [that''s a candelabra.] she replied.

    "I can see that. Didn''t I ask you for a torch?" the annoyance in his voice only grew.

    [Yes you did, however, I analyzed the reason you were asking for lighting, the cost to effectiveness ratio and concluded a candelabra was a better choice.] her neutral voice, fitting of an IA, didn''t betray any emotion.

    While Adriano wanted to fight with her, and tell her who the master was, he also realized she was right so he just shut his mouth and played cards with the goblins while petting Xiao Bai in his bosom.

    Hours passed and finally, they could hear the sound of steps, the boy had come back. He timidly entered the room with a big rustling sack on his shoulders. Clearly afraid he dropped the sack on the ground and kneeled down, tears threatening to come out.

    "good boy, I knew you would have made the right choice." Adriano didn''t even got up as he had a very good hand of poker and didn''t want to lose. "Luigi, alive." he continued, stressing the word alive.

    Luigi looked at his hand and placed it down on the table before getting up. As he walked towards the boy he kept throwing glances at the table afraid of the others checking his hand and discovering he had a royal flush. The moment he was finally in front of the boy, Alzark cried out in surprise.

    "Adriano, sir! you said that..." interrupting him, a goblin punch knocked him out and on the ground. "I never said anything," replied Adriano.

    "Core, sell the boy and whatever is in that sack." he hesitated a moment before adding, "please." the boy and his sack disappeared in a shower of pretty sparkles and quietness once again returned to the room.

    Luigi came back to the table and with his best poker face said, "I raise by two potatoes." in reply all the others folded immediately. Tears almost fell down his eyes as he realized they had checked out his hand.

    "You cheaters!"

 Chapter 3: Raison detre

    "Master, we are hungry." One single sentence from one of his goblins had ruined Adriano''s day. While goblins and other summonable monsters couldn''t die forever, at least as long as he had them insured, they still were living beings. They needed to eat, sleep and breathe.

    "oh c''mon guys, next thing you are gonna tell me is that you want beds as well!" Naturally, Adriano didn''t care much about his monster''s needs, especially when those needs would cost him something.

    "Well, now that you mention..." Frank touched his back. For the past 2 days, he and his brothers had slept on the rocky ground, experience which wasn''t exactly pleasurable by any means.

    After 20 more minutes of haggling and discussing, (and losing a hand at poker.) Adriano finally decided to reward his loyal subject, as he called them. Using most of the credits he got from selling the kid and his rubbish, Adriano bought the three goblins straw beds, some meat, and a campfire, evolving the room to a goblin camp.

    The rest had naturally gone into buying a comfortable bed for himself, Xiao Bai and some fresh food.

    All in all his life was going pretty well, he would wake up, play poker with the goblins, bicker with Core about ways to improve the dungeon, cry about knowing he couldn''t afford anything and then hug Xiao Bai to sleep.

    -----------------------------------------

    "Do you have any seven?" he asked to the three goblins he was playing cards with. They all shook their heads in denial. as he picked another card he asked: "so, I never asked, but where are you guys from?"

    Frank, apparently always acting as the leader of the three answered for them. "we come from the black demon Rou''s army. Nice place really. The only downside being the constant training we had to go through."

    He then continued describing his home. "Imagine a mountain filled with tunnels and with an open-air onsen on the peak. dozens of different races all living together without fighting. that is home for us." a streak of melancholy flashed past the three goblin''s squint eyes as memories came resurfaced.

    "then how did you guys end up here?" asked Adriano perplexed.

    "the black demon trains us for two purposes: fighting for him until our last breath, and when we become useless or he finds something better, he sells us on the market." at this point a tinge of sadness appears on all of their faces.

    "In our case, goblins have become useless for his war purposes, however, we sell well on the market. That''s why he has a few thousands of us bred and trained every year to be sold into slavery basically."

    Adriano nodded at Frank''s words feeling a little bit sad for them. Being born just to become someone''s slave. Stripped of their freedom before they even knew what freedom was. Why did it all sound so familiar?

    "Core, four mugs of beer! please." trying to cheer the goblins up he decided to offer them a drink, however...

    [credits are insufficient for even a mug of the cheapest alcoholic, however, if you are thirsty you can afford two cups of water, would you like to purchase?] sighing at his penniless state Adriano shook his head and went back focusing on the game.

    "what about you, boss? we don''t see many humans managing a dungeon by themselves," asked Joe while checking his cards. The other two goblin''s eyes lit up for a moment, evidently curious about the same thing. "especially not as poor as you." he concluded with a smirk.

    "Well," he started. "For starters, I''m not human, I''m a celestial, we are very similar, one of the main difference is that we don''t get old. We also have way superior technology and some of us are born with ''gifts'' we could say, like moving things with their mind and etc." the shocking revelation made the goblins drop their cards on the table. one of the dropped card landed face up revealing something that turned Adriano mad.

    "Hey! that''s a seven, Luigi, you asshole!" Luigi''s mouth took an ''O'' shape as if he had no idea where that card had come from.

    "So that''s a seven?" Asked Joe from the side with a sudden realization. " I have two sevens then!" he said while showing part of his hand. Opposite to him Frank also silently placed a seven on the table.

    "Wait a minute, you guys don''t know how to read numbers?" Asked Adriano in shock. The three goblins shook their heads in shame. "can''t believe I''ve been losing to you guys at poker for the past few days." he finished deflating like a balloon on his chair.

    "Oh c''mon boss, don''t be like that! you were telling us about your home and why you came to this dungeon." Frank said while patting Adriano''s back.

    "Sigh, I guess I have nothing better to do. You see the Celestial society is far from perfect, the advanced technology came at the cost of personal liberty. Our ''leader'', Godking, as he likes to be addressed as, has full access to all of our technology. With a snap of his fingers, he can shut down lights, telephones, medical equipment... that''s why as he established his absolute reign, no one dared oppose him, everybody was more afraid of losing their comfort than losing their liberty."

    Adriano took a big sigh before continuing. "When I was born, things were already at the point where babies would get taken immediately after birth and raised by the government. in the place where we were educated the most important lesson was loyalty to the god-king."This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    "All the kids in my age group grew up dreaming of being useful to that mad dictator, however, I was different. Hearing stories passed down in whispers for fear of being discovered I grew up I yearning for the freedom I had never even experienced. To live in a world where not everything was set in stone, where you could express yourself without fearing retaliation. I found what I was looking in dungeons, or at least I thought I did." A sad expression flashed in his eyes for a moment.

    "After twenty years of studying, I applied to work at D&M. Working on my first dungeon was one of my happiest memories, I remember not being able to sleep for days after, such was the thrill. The feeling of omnipotence that I received from creating was exhilarating. However, with time, it started to fade. Every world I created wasn''t really mine. It felt like cooking the best dinner ever and then seeing someone else gorge himself on it. And then one day the idea struck me, why couldn''t I secretly build my own private dungeon? a place where I could be free. And here we are."

    Suddenly a glint of resoluteness appeared in his eyes. "I don''t care how many will suffer for my dream to come true, they were born free to choose and they choose to come here and die." the bloodlust from Adriano''s eyes spread to his goblins, that for the first time could feel who their boss really was.

    Suddenly Core interrupted their talk.

    [A level 34 adventurer has entered the dungeon. Estimated danger rank: D]

    Like a bucket of cold water on a fire, fear suddenly poured over Adriano''s ambition. His goblins were each at most E+ rank, that meant that whoever was coming was superior to them. Adriano hugged Xiao Bai and stepped back.

    The goblin trio seriously nodded to each other and grabbed their weapons, assuming their defending stances. Soon after the door was kicked open by a middle-aged man, his graying long hair reaching the shoulders, together with his well-built physique, gave him a valiant aura of an experienced monster slayer.

    His sharp eyes looked around the room as if looking for something, finally stopping on Adriano. "Where is Alzark?" he asked with a voice that sounded like thunder and rumbling rocks. The absolute fury hidden in his words could be felt by even the densest of people.

    To answer him Adriano gathered his courage by squeezing Xiao Bai. "If I tell you he is not here, will you leave?" Unbeknownst to him, Adriano had involuntarily confirmed inside the invader''s mind, that he knew Alzark.

    "If not here, then where is he, I''m not leaving until you speak." The mace in his hand gave him the right to stay as much as he wanted and invited anyone who had anything against it to come and try him.

    "well, that''s kinda complicated to explain. How familiar are you with the concept of Dungeon market?" While Adriano was serious in wanting to help this man, at the same time he appeared to his eyes as if he was mocking him.

    "Fine, don''t tell me. I''ll have you spit it out with your teeth after I deal with your watchdogs." He said before rushing forward and smashing his mace down on Frank''s head.

    Frank, on the other side, didn''t really wanna kiss the mace and managed to avoid it at the last moment. The fight went on for over ten minutes, every time he attacked two goblins would team up to block the heavy mace while the other would hit him from the sides.

    True to his valiant looks, his fighting was anything but mediocre. Even while being 3 vs 1, he still fought to an impasse with the goblins without showing any hint of fear in his eyes, as if all of this could be resolved in an instant.

    After striking down another blow, and observing a goblin going for his undefended flank, his lips moved wordlessly, Adriano knew what that meant and tried to warn Frank, however, the warrior was faster and suddenly the poor goblin was covered in flames.

    Turning his eyes away from his charred opponent, the warrior focused all his attention on the other two, however, this proved to be a fatal mistake. Coming from what he had deemed as a burning goblin corpse, a sword strike managed to sever his left Achille''s heel.

    Knowing his time was running thin, the injured warrior infused all his strength into a last blow carrying all his ferocity and desperation. The mace fell vertically on Joe''s sword, Adriano could swear the world had slowed down at that moment. As the blade broke in a million tiny pieces, so did Joe''s skull. In his last moments, his short yet bulky arms coiled themselves around the mace, stalling the warrior long enough for Frank and Luigi to enact revenge and behead him.

    As the mysterious man''s head rolled on the ground Adriano let out a sigh of relief. However the relief didn''t last long, the moment he saw Joe''s smashed head bleeding on the floor he immediately ran forward, picking up the mauled body. "Dammit Joe, you can''t die like this, you still haven''t raped anyone''s family!"

    Ignoring Adriano''s kind words, Joe''s body disappeared like wet sand, slipping between his fingers and returning to the earth. While he had not known him for a long time, Adriano had passed the last three days basically spending all his time with the goblins, thus actually gaining an affection for them.

    And now, as he was finally seeing past their ugly faces and horrible smell, one of them had died. Just when he felt tears starting to form he heard the other two snicker. ''what do they have to laugh about? one of their brothers just died!'' he thought and angrily turned around, ready to verbally abuse them a little.

    However the moment he turned around all his rage disappeared. Why? there were three goblins snickering at him. Suddenly he remembered, the trio was insured, whenever one died they would come back to life for free.

    Feeling his cheeks turn hot with shame he grabbed the mace from the ground. "as your master, I forbid you to move!" the goblins stopped laughing as they realized they had messed with the wrong person.

    "let me see you laugh now!"

    ------------------------------

    Finally done disciplining his little helpers, Adriano asked Core to sell everything as usual, however before Core did anything one of the goblins stopped him. "Boss, wait! can we keep the head? in the black demon''s army winners traditionally eat the strong opponents." Joe squirmed, evidently still a little afraid setting Adriano off again.

    Seeing their adorable eyes as they pleaded Adriano pondered and then asked Core. "how much is the head worth?"

    [By itself not much, however selling a headless corpse might hugely affect the final value.]

    After that Core went into a deep explanation about how adventurer''s bodies would get treated after being sold. Weak and useless ones would just be turned into fertilizers or black magic ingredients. However, strong bodies would probably get used to producing high ranking undead, and unfortunately, undead needed heads to act as weak point.

    "Sorry guys, next time." Adriano dismissed the goblins who grumpily went to sharpen their swords. "ok Core, sell everything and tell me how much we got this time." He said while rubbing his hands together.

    [processing... processing... processed. Current credit: 36.432 credits.]

    A smile widened on Adriano''s face. Finally, his plans could proceed.

 Chapter 4: Taking shape

    "Core, it''s finally time to work! show me the offers on plant type monsters ya''old rust bucket." Yelled Adriano in front of three befuddled goblins and a tired bunny.

    "Core?" after five minutes of nothing happening, Adriano realized that calling Core an old rust bucket might have been not an ideal choice. "Sorry Core, I was just excited, I''ll buy you a pedestal to add some flair to your room, ok? so just show me the offers on plant monsters, especially dryads."

    With a sincere tone and some bargaining, Adriano managed to convince Core to finally work. A blue window appeared listing the cheapest options on the market, on top, with a highlight, appeared exactly what he was looking for.

    [Senior Dryad (level 17) (status: critically injured): An old dryad from the Pantaleo world. Obtained after a proficuous raid on the world''s surface. Her conditions severely impair her fighting capabilities, however, her garden tending skills are still top notch. Base price: 5000 credits.

    Seller: Anonymus.]

    "Ok Core, buy this one, we will also need seeds, a lot of different seeds, buy a jungle type seed mix. remember to add rare and expensive kinds to the mix, like medical and alchemical ones." Giving his orders Adriano took a deep breath and then extended his right hand, a hologram appeared around it.

    Suddenly the world started shaking, the walls of the goblin camp cracked, and like an egg finally hatching, when they opened up they revealed a giant world just outside. A humongous still expanding world.

    With every wave of his hand, a wall would be pushed further away, or the ceiling would raise a few meters more. The goblins stared jaw-slacked at the scene, never would they have imagined that one day they would be serving a living god.

    Finally satisfied with an approximate extension of 40 square km and a height of 400 meters, Adriano started impressing deep gashes on the ground, creating a subtle web of valleys of varying depth and wideness.

    Done with that either he walked towards his room which had been uncovered due to the expansion of the dungeon, the only traces indicating there was once a room there were the smooth floor and pieces of furniture. Adriano approached the desk littered with high-quality equipment and strapped a few pieces to his body.

    "Core, have you finished with the task I gave you?" Adriano asked with a hint of excitement.

    [Your purchase has been successful, 17.345 credits have been removed from your account. Would you like to retrieve the items now?] an absolute astronomical figure of money was instantly expended, Adriano could feel his virtual wallet bleeding, however, he composed himself and muttered a low "yes, please.".

    First, what would look like an exquisite wicker representation of a woman appeared, however, it was no representation. The living being in front of Adriano was a dryad, a creature made up of woven rattan like plants with a pulsing heart placed in her chest.

    The dryad in front of him was completely naked, and one could ask himself, do plants even need clothes? however, seeing her figure anyone would answer, they look perfect even without. The only flaw in the dryad was her legs had been cut off and two charred like stump remained in place. Whoever did that, knew that plant forms of life weakness was fire, as any charred part would no longer grow back.

    Adriano put up his bravest front and greeted the dryad. "Hello there," the dryad finally realized there was someone behind her, turning around her liane-like hair whipped the air with a ''swish'' sound. "sorry, didn''t mean to spook you." In all response, he got an angry stare.

    "You might be wondering where we are," he continued, waving to the wasteland around them, Core''s light being the only source of light it managed to reveal less than a hundred feet of space, beyond that it was total darkness. "This here is my dungeon, I call it the sanctuary. After escaping a life of servitude and living under a tyranny, I decided to create a world where everybody would be able to live in freedom." the dryads eyes softened a little, but they still contained suspicion.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    "that''s why I''ve summoned you here, I need your help in creating this world." Adriano''s voice became softer, "I know it must have been hard on you," his eyes stopped for a moment on her legs which made something akin to sap drip down her eyes. "however, here you''ll be safe, I''ll personally protect you and assure you that what happened to you will never happen to anyone else in here." he extended his hand for the finishing blow, "so, will you help me?".

    His face emitted an air of radiance and trustworthiness. The dryad''s hand almost unconsciously moved towards him before suddenly jerking back. And for the first time, she opened her mouth, her voice mellow and smooth as water flowing in a creek. "How would I be able to help you, I can''t fight and I can''t even grow plants here, without seeds or water." Adriano merely smirked at her words and raised his left hand to the sky.

    Rain suddenly started pouring down in big droplets, all over the dungeon rain appeared, following Adriano''s gashed in the ground and creating rivers. then after whispering something to the air, a mountain of seeds appeared next to them. It wasn''t an overstatement or exaggeration calling it a mountain, its height easily exceeded the 80 meters, all of this made of seeds mostly smaller than peanuts.

    The dryad eyes popped open in shock, from what Adriano could see she didn''t really have eyes, mostly two eye sockets filled with some kind of vibrant green light. "but, what about sunlight..." her last defense crumbled when Adriano took a disc-shaped mirror and threw it in the air.

    The disk flew higher and higher by his own force while expanding, soon it covered the whole roof of the cavern and with a snap of Adriano''s finger, it activated. Suddenly the dungeon was covered in light. The sky had turned violet with white clouds, and beyond it, a sun had appeared.

    "that little disk is a window on a star, from now on until the end of days we will never lack sunlight. And if you ever get bored of the perpetual day..." With another snap of his finger, the sun disappeared and a starry field replaced the ceiling.

    At that moment he could imagine what was going through the dryad''s mind, absolute shock. After a life in a forest, away from everything else, she had suddenly been kidnapped and then her rescuer had shown her the power to turn the night into day and the day into night with a snap of his finger. "allow me..." she said opening her chest. Adriano could see her heart, a beautiful egg-like shape glowing in green light with hundreds of frail tendrils extending out of it. "to serve you." she finally muttered out.

    For a dryad, to show her heart it meant dedicating their life to someone else. Had Adriano been another dryad, he would have done the same, and then by making the two heart come in touch, they would have generated new life.

    "No, no one is here to serve, we are here to work together." With his last bullshit, he had finally thoroughly won the Dryad. After flashing a big smile, the dryad immediately went to work planting the seeds, each of the unique 3.450 varieties of seeds went into the ground one by one. according to the dryad whose name Adriano had forgotten to ask, it would take her a week to finish planting and growing all the seeds.

    Thus Adriano decided to temporarily close the dungeon. The portals all around the cosmos that led to him suddenly closed. He had only one non-insured dryad, he could not allow her to die.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------

    Three weeks later.

    A radiant jungle now covered the once desert dungeon. trees and plants of every size littered two-thirds of the dungeon and every moment new ones would pop out the ground. Under the Dryad''s watchful eye and powers, some of the plants had even started to hybridize.

    But not only plants occupied the dungeon, tired of waiting for the jungle to flourish just by the hands of a single dryad, Adriano had also started buying varieties of herbivores to help in spreading seeds around.

    Then when the herbivores started breeding at a faster pace, again, thanks to the dryad''s powers, just with their sheer numbers they were becoming a real threat to the vegetation, so Adriano had to bring in the carnivores as well.

    Right now wherever you watched life would occupy 99% of your view. Snakes would coil around the trees, waiting for birds of rainbow plumage to land. rabbits would hop happily, unaware of agile beasts following them from the shadows. Bunnies weren''t really a necessary choice, however, Adriano didn''t want Xiao Bai to feel alone anymore, so he bought one single normal female bunny. Now white rabbits littered the jungle. Which seeing how cute they were, he considered as a victory.

    "Core, it''s time, reopen the dungeon. Look for highly populated areas, it''s time to show the universe what we have been working on."

 Chapter 5: Arid winds of change (part 1)

    Over 20 moons had passed since Zeyn had become the new warchief. Since his birth, he had been slowly nurtured for the role, and yet no matter how much time passed or how many raids he successfully performed, the feeling of inadequacy wouldn''t leave him alone.

    Right now he sat all alone, the sandy wind of the dunes softly brushing past his face as he observed the red moon up in the sky. His father used to tell him stories about it, such as how its color was a result of all the blood spilled by Zeyn''s ancestors, or how it was said that the founder of the clan could easily hop to its surface.

    However, that was not what busied his mind right now. Since the death of the previous chief, his father, the clan had kept decreasing in strength. First, some loyal friends of his father suddenly revolted, leaving the clan and taking with them everything they could. Then some of their biggest oasis had succumbed to the desert, leaving hundreds famished.

    "Ohh father, I''m so sorry, I wasn''t capable of carrying out your dream. My people... your people, look up to me aching for answers, and I have nothing to tell them." A hint of sadness mixed with unwillingness flew by his azure eyes.

    As he quietly enjoyed the peace only a world of sands could give, muffled footstep came from behind him. Usually, he would have unsheathed his saber, suspecting it was an assassin looking to end his bloodline, however, not this time. He recognized the gait and relaxed, soon a pair of slender arms hugged him from behind.

    The person who hugged him said nothing as if she didn''t want to spoil the silence he had been enjoying while still conveying a single message: "I''m here for you."

    Zeyn softly rubbed the arms of his wife, Azela, quietly enjoying her smooth skin the color of red gold, and just like the precious metal, her skin could make many men go crazy with the desire to possess her. However, she was his and he was hers.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Her lips pressed on his neck, where a blade failed to cut deep enough to be the last one. Moist lips brought him away from the arid dune he was sitting on and then parted shortly after, looking for another scar to cancel with the power of love.

    "You know," he said ignoring her tender attention. "if we don''t find a new oasis soon we will lose many clansmen." Her kisses halted for a moment. "Abib, if that''s the will of God so be it, however, I trust you, we all do. We know you''ll find a way." She said before resting her forehead against his back.

    He audibly sighed and took a pebble from the ground. ''Oh great inshallab, if you still care about your people give me a sign, anything, please.'' he prayed in his mind, flashes of his starving people flooded his mind as he observed the area hoping for a miracle.

    However, nothing happened. The ground was still sandy and barren, the sky still clear, revealing a starry sky and the wind blew dry against his skin. He mocked himself mentally, if praying god could solve anything the desert would be full of life and he would be a farmer, not a warchief.

    Throwing the pebble away he got ready to get up, however, something caught his attention. Where the pebble landed it bounced back as if hitting a wall. Suddenly the sand covering the dune in front of him avalanched revealing a buried stone structure.

    Zeyn almost couldn''t believe his eyes as he recognized what that was, a giant 5 meters tall gate.

    Keeping Azela behind his back, Zeyn unsheathed his saber and slowly advanced towards the humongous gate. As he stood right next to it, Zeyn could notice patterns sculpted on the gate, images of battles and life, animals and plants. He cautiously poked the gate with his weapons and as if welcoming him, the gate opened up on its own revealing a long tunnel leading down into darkness.

    Suddenly his ears perked up. "Azela, can you feel it too?" he asked with a hint of excitement in his voice. "Hmm!" from behind him came the short but energetic answer of the woman he loved. Yes... they both felt it. The humidity that would only appear next to a luscious oasis.

    At that moment both of them felt that their god hadn''t abandoned them!

    "Run back to the camp, you have to warn the others, bring all the warriors. we don''t know what''s down there, however, it must be ours!"

 Chapter 6: Arid winds of change (part 2)

    Soon after Azela left the roars of animals reached Zeyn''s ears, a clear sign that his clansmen were coming. The first to arrive was a woman riding a giant ash colored bird, its beak emitting shrill cries as it recognized Zeyn.

    "Aluc!" Zeyn immediately called out the woman riding the ishintir, and answering the unconcealed joy in Zeyn voice, Aluc jumped down the bird and landed in Zeyn''s open arms while screaming "Warchief!". Unable to sustain her weight, the two fell down the sand while hugging with a chuckle.

    "I knew you would be the first to arrive!" he said letting go of her, then his gaze moved from her to the ishintir. " I see you have been feeding it well, maybe a little too well?" he said, giving her waist a friendly elbow jab. Aluc bronze cheeks flushed, "Your mom has been fed too well" she replied with an enraged tone.

    "Hey! leave my mom out of this!" Replied Zeyn outraged. Aluc smirked and then opened her mouth anyway. "No worries, she wouldn''t have fit anyway." with a victory smirk she went back to her ishintir rubbing her cheeks against his sot and well-groomed plumage. "Don''t listen to that dipshit Polly, you are perfect the way you are!"

    Zeyn simply sighed and waited for the other warriors. Aluc and he had been like this since childhood, unceasingly bantering trough training and war. This was also why she had always been his best friend, she had never treated him any different even if he was the chief''s son, and when he became the new warchief she became even more shameless.

    Finally, the rest of the clan arrived one after another. First, the bird riders, they usually acted as scouts, performing recon on the enemy positions or looking for oases. After them, came the fourlegged beasts such as the kraders, giant lizard-like meat eater beasts, usually used to pull carriages or as main attackers during battles. Second to last came the two-legged raptors, omnivores beast armed with deadly claws and renowned for their excellent sprint, in battle they performed the roles of harassers.

    Last in speed, the massive beasts made their entrance. 10 meter long worms carrying on their back long distance weapons and simple structures made mostly of clay. Their enormous mouths were as tall as raiders on top of their rides, easily exceeding 3 meters.

    The warriors all showed a great deal of interest toward the giant stone gate behind Zeyn, however, they kept their distances until their warchief said anything. Dismounting from their bonded companions they formed a semicircle around Zeyn waiting for him to speak.

    Zeyn looked at all his brothers and sisters, their numbers slightly over 400, 700 counting the beasts as well. He raised his left hand and waited until everybody quieted down before speaking. "Brothers! Sisters!" he addressed the crowd. "Tonight Inshallahb finally answered our prayers!" he waved his arms towards his back.

    "He opened up the gates to the promised land, if you don''t believe me just come closer and smell the air, you''ll immediately feel the moisture that can only come from an enormous oasis." He took a breath observing his men''s reactions, some of their unconsciously stepped forward others remained standing with an excited expression on their faces, while others simply stared at him with hostile expressions.

    "Now, I haven''t been down there yet, so I''m not sure what we will find, however, I''m sure of one thing, our God wouldn''t just give anything for free." His eyes hardened. "Expect resistance, he probably left some kind of trial or test we will have to overcome together to prove that we are worthy. Nevertheless," His eyes finally eased down and filled with affection. " I''m sure we will all pass it, we spent all our lives surviving in the Khandar, risking our lives for a mouthful of water and our families for a bite of food. That''s how I know that nothing will be able to stop us!"

    His voice echoed in the empty desert shaking the hearts of his men. Suddenly cheers and battle cries overwhelmed his echo, men and beast were all riled up and ready to follow him into battle as they had followed him before and his father before him. From the ranks of the beasts, a lonely sand colored wolf came forward and with a leap arrived right in front of him. Zeyn looked at him with love and rubbed his face against its maw. "Took you long enough Malik." The wold who had appeared was his own bonded companion, like all the other members of his clan, when he was only 12 he went on a journey in the desert.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    All alone he traveled for months, looking for a life-long companion, he alone captured dozens of different beasts, however, none of them was the right one for him, he couldn''t form the bond. However, as he was about to give up and return to the clan, he found Malik. Following his howls from miles away, Zeyn found the remains of a battle between two giant wolves and a king of the dunes, the santighir.

    One of the wolves had its head crushed in the giant pincers of the santighir while the other whimpered in pain due to a giant stinger embedded in its chest. The santighir, on the other hand, wasn''t much better well off, claw marks littered his body, some of them even deep enough to pierce through its carapace, 3 of its little eyes had been cleanly mauled by sharp fangs and four of its legs had been half chewed up, powerlessly laying on the ground.

    Zeyn carefully approached the santighir, even if it looked dead that was no reason to believe it to be so. Santighir standard hunting strategy was to burrow under the sand and locate its preys trough sand vibrations. When the prey approached his hiding spot he would use its stinger in a blitz like attack to paralyze it and then finish it off with its giant pincers.

    Nocking an arrow, Zeyn aimed at its last undefended eye on the right, the other two who hadn''t meet the fangs of the wolves had two horn-like protectors who could easily deflect the arrow. His breathing slowed down and when he was sure of the aim, he let go of the arrow between one heartbeat and the other.

    The arrow flew true and impaled the eye of the santighir. Since the beast didn''t react, he could finally breathe a sigh of relief. He moved from the dead santighir to the whimpering wolf, a real shame, he thought, had she not been poisoned by the sting he would have gladly made her his companion by rescuing her. However, all he could do now was end her sufferings.

    He gave a quick pray and then stabbed the heart of the wolf with his saber, the blade made of the best materials and by the best artisan of the clan met little resistance before piercing the injured animal''s heart. Before ti breathed its last, he could see some worry in the intelligent''s wolf eyes.

    Now he was alone surrounded by death, the silence had descended once again on the dunes. Or so it should have been, a muffled whimper still came from the dead wolf. At first Zeyn thought he had missed the heart, however, the whimper didn''t come from the wolf''s head, it came from below it. After unsuccessfully trying to move a 2-meter tall wolf, he dug a small hole beneath and finally found the origin of the whimpering.

    A small golden furred wolf pup cried while rubbing its head against his mother, Zeyn felt a little bit of sadness seeing such a scene and leaned in to rub the little one''s head, as his hand touched it he suddenly felt something, he could bond with it.

    The origin of the bond wasn''t really clear, however, for generations, the member of Zeyn''s clan, the Sila Clan, had been able to create a connection to certain desert beasts. The raider and the ride could share emotions and with time even part of each other''s strengths. Bonded animals usually showed far superior intellect than unbounded ones of the same species, while bounded Sila members had their physiques greatly strengthened.

    Legends say that the ancestor of the clan had been able to bond a desert dragon and gain its ability to breath fire.

    Thinking on how the two parents of the whelp had managed to kill the santighir, Zeyn decided that it would make a perfect partner for him. Without further ado, Zeyn picked it up in his arms and placed his forehead against the tiny pup and opened up his mind, if the pup could feel it and open its mind as well the bond would be successful.

    Thankfully the wolf instinctively reached out for Zeyn''s mind and finally completed the bond. Grief, cold, hunger, fear, thirst. A stream of emotions flooded Zeyn''s mind from the pup, and he could do nothing but hug him stronger and transmit the image of family and safety. "From now on your name will be Malik and you will live as my brother."

    8 years had passed since that fateful encounter, and since then Zeyn had never been separated from its companion, facing together anything Inshallab had thrown their way.

    With a hop, he mounted Malik and turned to its warriors. "Follow me!" he ordered before charging inside the gate with a torch in one hand and his saber in the other.

 chapter 7: Provoking the master of the house.

    Adriano had taken a real liking to take walks in his little jungle, the many different aromas mixed together in many unique fragrances depending on where you went. The zone in which he had been taking his morning walk emitted a fresh and somewhat smell scent of ripe fruits. Extending his hand overhead he picked up an elongated cherry-red fruit, after peeling it off he savored the sweet pulp.

    Bite after bite he managed to eat the palm-sized fruit with just a trickle of juice staining his chin. A great result if compared to weeks ago, when he had tasted a fresh fruit for the first time ever. At the time he somehow ended up with pieces of pulp in his hair and a nasty cut on his thumb caused by an unfortunate accident where he accidentally bit it during the sugar rush.

    Also thanks to Xiao Bai on his shoulder he was never alone, countless rabbits also liked to hop around the two of them probably trying to catch their father''s eye. Xiao Bai, on the other hand, was more or less apathetic to his kids, the only one he showed some love to was Adriano.

    Stopping by a creek Adriano cupped his hands to drink some of the fresh water flowing through, he wasn''t afraid of catching diseases thanks to his super immunity system. The chilly water recharged his spirit and motivated him to prolong his walk for a little bit more. As he decided where to go next an alert from Core shattered his quiet day.

    [Attention: a considerable amount of creatures have entered the dungeon, overall danger rank is A.] Adriano stared dumbstruck at nothing for a few seconds, his mind gone into a loop since he heard the danger rank.

    When he woke up from his stupor he immediately ran towards the entrance. He didn''t have a plan, nor he knew what he was gonna do once he got there, nevertheless, he ran as fast as his leg could carry him, then it hit him.

    "I don''t have to run!" as dungeon master, he enjoyed some privileges, such as long-distance teleportation. It did cost him some credits but it was more than worth it in case of emergencies such as this.

    He asked Core to be teleported in front of the invaders and less than a moment later he disappeared with a flash, and in an eyeblink, he appeared with another flash in front of the invaders.

    The rowdy bunch that presented itself to him was composed of hundreds of humans and beasts walking together; the human either wore light clothing or armors made of bones, while the beasts were, for the most part, naked except saddles or ornamental paint jobs. (pimp my lizard anyone?)

    As he got ready to speak, he noticed that on his left a man had not noticed his arrival and was currently swinging down his hammer on a small rabbit. Before Adriano could do anything he felt a strong force on his shoulder pushing him back. When he regained his balance he could see the hammer that was gonna smash the little rabbit had fragmented in a thousand pieces.

    In front of the little rabbit, now stood Xiao Bai currently valiantly looking up at the bulky man who had tried to kill one of his children. The man looked down in disbelief at the crushed handle of his hammer and before he could understand what had happened, his leg broke in two pieces and then his chin pulverized sending him K.O.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    Had anyone been able to slow down time they could have seen Xiao Bai suddenly leaping forward at incredible speed, smashing against the knee of the man before using it as a trampoline and then flying up rotating on its own axis and smashing against the man''s chin before landing back on the ground on its two feet.

    Adriano looked at his own little helper and remembered the day he bought it. Letithia had just used the company funds to buy herself a coffee and Adriano had felt jealousy at that, so he had browsed the store for high ranking beasts that he could take out without anyone noticing. His final choice, in the end, had been a small critter called the killer rabbit of caerbannog, it was cute, and had a rank b danger evaluation, truly the perfect pet you could take for a walk.

    A velociraptor wearing a hat made of feathers screamed in pain at the sight of his master getting defeated and charged at Xiao Bai. What followed could only be seen by truly sharp eyes. In a moment a tree behind Xiao Bai broke and the following moment the raptor fell to the ground, two pawns printed on his skull.

    The comrades of the men finally woke up when even the raptor got defeated and charged at the small harmless looking bunny. Its adorable red eyes released his bloodlust as it calculated the optimal angles to ricochet around like a crazy ball. However, after the twenty-first warrior had received Xiao Bai soft pawns something Adriano hadn''t expected happened. An arrow had somehow hit Xiao Bai mid-flight.

    Such a feat could not be achieved by luck. One had to accurately follow Xiao Bai''s movements, calculate its speed understand where it would be before even he knew it while perfectly predicting the arrow trajectory.

    Adriano looked in horror at the defeated Xiao Bai falling to the ground. Its soft white fur stained by red blood where an arrow mercilessly struck him down. "Xiao Bai!" he screamed, then he switched the terrain manipulator to the high-performance mode and using the earth below Xiao Bai as a platform, he catapulted the injured critters at his direction.

    Thankfully Xiao Bai was still alive and managed to perfectly land on Adriano''s shoulder. The onlookers stared in shock at the man who managed to control earth with a wave of the hand and recover the beast who had savagely assaulted them. Adriano gave them no attention as he checked Xiao Bai''s injury, the arrow had penetrated the supple fur but hadn''t hit any organ, he would be fine after two days of rest.

    Next, he looked at the people in front of him, his enraged gaze made them step back a little. From their ranks advanced a man on a golden wolf, his eyes held no fear, only resolve as he attentively studied Adriano from head to toes. "Who are you?" His voice came out clear and with a hint of arrogance.

    "I''m the master of the place you are standing on uninvited and of the creatures you attacked unmotivated. My name is ADRIANO MEIS!" Adriano''s voice had been augmented by one of the artifacts he had on himself, so when he spoke it was as loud as a giant, it boomed forward, even injuring the ears of most sensitive ones. Particularly the last few words made even the wolf raider take a step back.

    "I see inshallab didn''t give us an easy trial to overcome, however, that won''t scare us! men are you with me?" he yelled out, his loud voice while not on Adriano''s level, it had a greater effect riling up the fighting spirit of the warriors. With a roar the warriors charged forwards on their mounts, seeing hundreds charging at him would have normally scared Adriano, however, the rage over Xiao Bai''s injury had an abnormal effect on his mind.

    He calmly checked his terrain manipulator''s level, "one third charged?" he gave another look to the horde coming its way, "that will be enough."

 Schedule: please vote

    ok guys, as none of you should know, I''m a full-time worker. What does that mean, why am i bringing it up? not just to boast my useful role in society, but also to tell you that my free time is really limited and so is my writing time.

    This brings us to the question at hand: I can write around 2-3 chapters during my two free days and then post them throughout the week, thus giving a continuous output of chapters.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    Or

    I could just unload everything on you guys as soon as finish it, which means maybe a chapter during the week and then two when I''m free.

    Now, here is where you guys are needed, I wanna know what would you prefer.

 Chapter 8: Zeyn vs the Jungle

    "That will be enough." With a never before shown confidence, Adriano willed the ground before the charging horde to obey him. Suddenly the earth opened up like the maw of a beast, swallowing the first row of riders that couldn''t react on time.

    However, that wasn''t enough to stop the motivated desert warriors. The rows behind were already able to jump over, and those who couldn''t just circled around the giant fissure in the ground. Unfortunately for them, Adriano wasn''t a quitter either, giant spikes formed before his feet and with a wave of his hand flew forward, impaling those who tried jumping over.

    Crimson flowers of blood bloomed where the rock spears meet the raiders they screamed in pain together with their mounts. As confidence filled him, Adriano thought he was untouchable, like a god amongst men. Shaking his confidence, his terrain manipulator activated without him doing anything and formed a wall right in front of him. Before he could understand what was going on, numerous arrow tips poked through the wall. Had it not appeared in time, Adriano would have become a human porcupine.

    A bead of cold sweat trickled down his forehead and before he could do anything else, from the sides of his wall-obstructed view, two raptors had entered striking range with their spears. He forcefully calmed his mind and created two spikes below them, willing it to go upwards and make shish kebabs out of them. Unfortunately for him, one of the raiders had barely been able to avoid the spike and, as his raptor died below him, he leaped forward with his spear.

    The distance had been reduced so much that Adriano could see the red in the eyes of the rider and even count every single scratch on the spear point. "So this is how it ends...." he thought closing his eyes, however, the spear never arrived.

    Confused, he peeked a little and found himself in the core room. It had evolved a lot from its initial state, instead of its cylindrical shape with smooth walls, it had now become the insides of an ancient temple. Granite blocks supported each other as vines and other plants grew from the gaps and hanged from the ceiling, and, in the middle of it all, the core glowed like the sun from above a small golden altar.

    "Core? did you activate the teleport module without my permission?" Adriano asked with a thoughtful expression. ''was she also the one who activated my terrain manipulator at the last moment?'' such thoughts crossed his mind.

    [Yes.] the reply came immediately, it was short, too short for Adriano.

    "And you also activated the terrain manipulator? can you use all the devices in the dungeon?" he asked again, this time a hint of fear flashed by his face. If Core could use all the devices it also meant that with a thought she could deactivate the artificial atmosphere of the dungeon and fry all life forms with the unfiltered light of the sun.

    [Yes and Yes.] her short replies confirmed Adriano''s fears. However at the moment, he didn''t have the luxury of dealing with Core, an army was marching towards them.

    "Core, call the goblins, it''s time we perform the ''welcome party'' plan."

    [I already activated the plan, would you like to watch?] before Adriano could reply a screen hologram appeared in front of him showing an advancing army.

    ---

    Zeyn led his men through the jungle. From the moment Adriano had disappeared out of thin air, Malik and he had followed his scent, from its intensity, they would be able to catch up to him in less than twenty minutes. They had been slowed down by the sky suddenly turning dark.

    However, a rancid smell suddenly entered Zeyn strengthened sense of smell. It smelt like rotten meat, dirty water and dog sweat. "Goblin ambush!" he screamed and as if proving him right, dozens of arrows came from everywhere.

    In the weeks prior to Zeyn''s clan invasion, Adriano had wisely invested his remaining credits into buying some troops for his dungeon. While he could have bought a few decent monsters, he thought about how good his three goblins had been until now, so he decided to favor quantity over quality, ordering around 200 goblins for 25 credits each.

    Adriano hoped to have an army ready at a moment''s notice, instead, he received a clan of savages, if not for Core stopping them at the last moment, the goblins would have gladly assaulted and eaten Adriano long ago. Thankfully between Core''s limited control on any dungeon contracted life form, and the three black goblins who became idols among their weaker cousins, Adriano still managed to acquire the army he wanted.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    "Take cover!" someone said before getting an unlucky arrow to the knee, "oh no! my adventurer''s days are over!" suddenly the arrows stopped and many leather packages were thrown towards the raiders. Zeyn himself saw one of them coming towards him and he cut it in half right in front of his face.

    Suddenly it exploded releasing a toxic fog that blinded the eyes and the noses. Taking advantage of the smoke bombs, liana swinging goblins swooped in with an acute battle cry, joining the fray. Wielding short daggers the goblin first attack was surprisingly effective, over a dozen riders received fatal wounds and died instantly while another forty only got superficial wounds due to reacting in time.

    However a scratch was all it needed, amongst the many different plants living in Adriano''s jungle, many of them had poison properties. Goblins had always possessed a knack for living in jungles and concocting toxic substances, that''s why after a few weeks of peace the little army had all of their blades poisoned.

    Some people dropped right away, the venom in their bloodstream clotting and causing organ failures. Others with improved physiques managed to withstand the deadly effects and fight back. As the skirmish started reaping victims in both sides, especially the goblin side, an unexpected help came from the sky.

    The flying riders who had separated early on to scout the surroundings came back and started sniping the goblin archers hiding on trees, this caused the now crumbling goblin front to run amok in all directions.

    A short distance from the skirmish. three black goblins were ordering their smaller brethren trough Core''s communication tools. The current strategy they were employing was to harass the advancing army trough gorilla tactics throughout the jungle until they reached Core''s temple where they would make their final stand.

    Adriano saw all of this through Core''s screen and felt like applauding, however, he still knew that wasn''t enough to stop Zeyn.

    "Core, I need you to do something..." Adriano seriously addressed his second in command while staring straight at the blazing dungeon core and he could somehow feel the core staring back at him.

    ---------------

    Zeyn advanced through the jungle cutting lianes and goblins alike, dozens had died under his blade alone while his men got rid of the others. Almost two hundred goblins had met their eternal rest in less than one hour taking with them over a hundred of Zeyn''s warriors. He could only grind his teeth at the thought of rank F monsters killing his men who were at least rank D to C. He himself was a rank B+ with Aluc right below him at rank B.

    The Thunders in the distance told Zeyn that Inshallab was satisfied with them and that the final battle was getting closer.

    He cut through a particularly nasty net of vines using Malik''s claws and finally saw the last stand of the enemy. A small luscious hill stood in front of him with a forlorn temple standing on its peak. He could see enemy fortifications and goblins scattered all over the way to the top.

    With a laugh, he gestured to Aluc and her flying corps to swoop in and test their defenses. to which they obliged with pleasure, the giant ishintir leading the other flying beasts down to attack, Aluc had already readied her bow with an arrow ready to fire when tragedy struck.

    A lighting appeared out of blue, its shape like a tree and every branch heading out like snakes towards the flying beasts. In a moment Zeyn''s smile became a horrified expression as he saw Aluc''s ishintir getting hit and falling to the ground while smoking. Following her example, most of the flying corps got shocked right out of the sky.

    Zeyn could feel that wasn''t an incident, "that bastard did it!" he screamed in rage as the second lighting bolt fried the remaining flying beasts. Before a third could strike, Zeyn made Malik rush forward into the hill, in a few minutes he managed to run around the fortifications avoiding fighting and reaching the top.

    As Zeyn finally the temple entrance, the hairs on his arm suddenly got up, his sixth sense warning him of impending danger. He wanted to tell Malik to dodge, however, he never got the chance. A lightning bolt hit the wolf''s head felling Malik in an instant.

    Zeyn fell forward face first on the ground. His mind shook as it entered and exited unconsciousness. Suddenly he felt Malik pain in his mind, turning around he saw his beautiful wolf whimpering on the ground, the fur on his head had been scorched black, however, it was still alive!

    He gave it one last look before rushing inside the temple. Against what he thought, the layout of the place was pretty simple, just a single tunnel who led straight to the Core room where he finally found Adriano enjoying the show.

    As he stepped forward two jet black goblins came out of the shadows slashing towards his chest. An attack like this would have worked against normal opponents, however he was no normal opponet.

    A thick golden fur suddebly grew out of him and with an unmatchable speed, he beheaded the two goblins attacking him from the front, and with a second movement he grabbed the third goblin who was coming from his back.

    This move, friendly called "the shocker" by the goblins would have worked if not for his incredible nose able to detect all the goblins even before they decided to attack.

    Finally alone with Adriano, the blood boiled in his veins as he gripped his sword, the time had come to make him pay for the death of all his men.

 Chapter 9: Zeyns choice

    Adriano looked at Zeyn with a mixture of fear and mockery, at this moment he knew Zeyn had lost the battle. His men were dying and he would die soon too, no matter what happened now. However, at the same time, Adriano was now at his mercy.

    "You really managed to get here, impressive." Said Adriano while mockingly applauding. "too bad for the losses of your men, because you are their leader, are you not?" The rhetorical question made the mad expression on Zeyn turn worse.

    Suddenly holographical displays appeared in the air, each of them showing scenes of Zeyn''s men either fighting or already injured on the ground. "You see what you''ve done coming in somebody''s else house and acting like it was your own?" Adriano''s voice changed from mockery to a cold tone.

    "I don''t know whatever that inshallab guy promised you, however, there is nothing for you here that you can take against my will, if you raise your sword on me I''ll use the power of the sun to smite everything in here, me and you included, and then all your men will have died for nothing." Adriano couldn''t decipher Zeyn''s face as it had morphed in a wolf''s muzzle, however, he could see something had changed in his eyes.

    Zeyn had seen Adriano control the earth and the sky, would controlling the sun really be that far-fetched?

    "The second choice is to turn your tail and go back to whence you came, I won''t give chase and you''ll be able to save your remaining people and take everything you want on the way back. However, before you take this choice, over sixty percent of your men are poisoned and will die in less than twelve hours." The sudden revelation weighted heavily on Zeyn, no matter what happened, his men were goners, what his ancestors had built for hundreds of years would end under him.

    "The last option is to surrender. There are currently sixty-three of your men that you left for dead and that can still be saved, plus the almost two hundred still fighting outside. Surrender and they can all be saved. I''ll also allow you to live here and give my protection." Zeyn wanted to scream in rage, "surrender your mother!" however the display still held images of his men suffering and dying.

    The more he waited to make a choice the less would be able to go back home. "Oh father, what would you do?" the burden of responsibility weighted him down like a giant boulder and he fell to his knees. "to live in slavery with my brothers or to see all of them die?" images of their many fights in the desert flashed past his eyes. The same men who had fought for him and saved his life were now in his hands like never before. "Sixty two left, one just died because of injuries," said Adriano trying to put pressure on Zeyn, and seeing how he flinched, it had worked.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    "Inshallab, where are you now that we need you the most? you promised us a land of milk and honey, not a deathtrap!" tears streaked out wetting the golden fur as he prayed for help to his god.

    Zeyn finally opened his mouth since the first time he entered the room. "if we... surrender," every word was heavy to speak. "what will happen to my men?" Adriano looked satisfied and spoke with a softer tone.

    "Nothing, you don''t know this but, I created this land to live freely. I''m willing to offer the same freedom to you as well, build your houses, grow your food and do what you want. As long as you are not a threat to the dungeon I''ll let you be." he completed his speech with a smile.

    "Promise me..." spoke Zeyn with a desperate voice, "promise me what you are saying it''s the truth, that we will live free." at this point he was just begging to have someone''s else take away the weight of responsibility.

    "I promise."

    ---------------

    On the battlefield, the last goblins were fiercely struggling against the remainders of the invader''s army. They had been able to resist so long solely thanks to the lightning storm that would reap a few lives every now and then.

    suddenly in the sky appeared a holographic display. Both their new master Adriano and the leader of the invaders appeared standing side by side. The first to speak was Zeyn.

    "We lost, there is no reason to continue fighting, drop your weapons, it''s over." Spoke the leader of the Sila clan before the display disappeared.

    What came next happened very fast, as the soldiers unwillingly surrendered, a weird feeling spread through all of them, a feeling like the first time they bonded with their companions.

    However this time they felt a boundless cold air coming from the other side of the bond, struggling was useless and they soon all surrendered to the new bond. A new sense of interconnectivity was now shared between all of them, this spread to the goblins as well, when they watched them, they no longer felt the hostility, it was more like seeing a cousin you never met. It gave you a sense of familiarity you just couldn''t quite put your finger on.

    Then, when the goblin offered them never before seen herbs, they instinctively recognized them as antidotes. After taking the antidotes, the rest of the day was spent going around the jungle under the goblin''s supervision rescuing the other they had left for dead in the jungle. Some of them, they managed to save, others not.

    Of the army that entered the dungeon, a little bit more than 300 remained, many lost their bonded companions and even more lost their will to fight as they had listless empty eyes while being ordered around by the goblins.

    Thus, the Sila clan was defeated during the first war for Sanctuary.

 Sorry

    sorry boys, time to officially hiatus the shit out of this novel. I had actually written another chap, but meh, didn''t like it and that was the last drop that made me lose the will to continue, I still have ideas on how to continue, however, i don''t feel like continuing this story. next chapters would have included the core gaining sentiency and rebelling, i had ideas for communist red bears using warhammers and scythes and so on.

    What will i do now?

    Move to another story, I have three options in mind:

    Sancti: a hundred blokes get reincarnated as protectors spirits, their goal will be to gather followers and protect them, the more followers and faith the stronger they will become. After ten years they will fight each other and the winner will get the chance to continue as divinity overlooking a world or to go back to their old life with some benefits.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    space home: humanity faces extinction, as a last resort, they load a spaceship with colonization''s tools and egg bank to start on another planet, leading the ship a skeleton crew will have to face the many dangers of space as they travel through the galaxy looking for a new home.

    The Adventurer: a young adventure without any goal in mind stumbles upon a miracolous artifact that will change his destiny forever. Basically a travel log trough a gigantic world of my own making and an artifact that grants random abilities for a short time.