Dungeon Annihilation 2 - 1

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Regan 

I was happy. That was because I was able to add all the undead that weren’t completely destroyed during the battle to the dungeon. I didn’t much care for them as a workforce or even monsters to fight the adventurers. Rather, they made an excellent source of mana for my dungeon.

“What should we do today, master?”

“Same thing we do every day, Set. Try and take over the world,” I replied then broke into hysterical laughter. So maybe the unholy mana was starting to affect my mind. I could see the corruption coloring my core with the increased undead in my halls. I would need to take care of that soon or who knows what it might do to me.

“I’m not sure that is something a dungeon can accomplish,” Set said not getting the joke. To be fair, I wasn’t entirely sure where it came from. I think it was an old cartoon on Earth or something along those lines.

“Don’t worry. I wasn’t being serious. At least for now. We have some cleaning up to do. All the undead in the dungeon should move me a few levels in tier two. I need to put that to go use.”

“What do you purpose?”

“For starters, I want to get another core going. The question is where it should be located. I wish we could have captured all the necromancers. It is a pity that one of them escaped.”

“About that. I believe the mortals managed to capture her earlier this morning.”

“Really?” I mentally rubbed my chin. I would like to add her to my collection, but more to the point. She was another source of information that could prove valuable. It would be tricky, but I needed to get her to the dungeon. I called Raven then looked at the two of them. “We’re sneaking into the town later tonight to capture the necromancer.”

“Is that wise?”

“Maybe not. I’m sure they’ll have her under constant watch, but if they move her out of the valley or even kill her it would be a complete waste.”

“Understood.” Raven left to get more training in, while Set took care of some of her dungeon fairy tasks. There was actually more to it then just flying around when I asked her about it. For insistens, by studying how everything worked, she could take control of the dungeon in the case of emergency. I was a bit skeptical when I heard that, but she assured me it was only in dire circumstances. I could give her authority to control the dungeon separately, but I held off on that for the moment. 

The battle gave me a good amount of mana to work with, but there was something I wanted to work on before expanding my dungeon and further. Moving to the top floor where I was housing my labs and workshop, I pulled out one of the control collars that I took from the necromancers. I was impressed that they each had two or three on them as it wasn’t easy magic from the glance I took earlier.

“Let’s see what we got.”

Diving in to the magic with my senses, I found it was an offshoot of the magic I recorded during the mental connection a few weeks ago. It was weaker, but still very encompassing. The main difference was the collar didn’t quite have a grasp on the target’s soul. The metal was almost more interesting to me though.

It was similar to mithril, only in that it could hold nearly as much magic enchanting. Its durability was about the same as steel, maybe a little better. It just goes to show that people would always find a way if resources were short. To make it they had to pour virgin blood over what looked like a steel and electrum alloy apparently. Quite fitting for necromancers.

I created a bar of the alloy from mana then summoned a goblin. With a quick thought, my avatar’s arm materialized and sliced the wrist of the goblin. Its blood poured over the bar, but nothing happened. That was a pity, it appeared to have to be natural borne creatures was what I was getting from my dungeon senses.

Foregoing the material that the original collar was made from for now, I created an alternative using electrum with mithril engraving. I altered the spells to bind the person to me while adding in some of the runes that I had broken into a script from the bindings I was studying. Mainly obedience since some of the slaves could still act up against their masters didn’t word their orders correctly.

Looking over the finished product, I was pleased with my work. It was expensive mana wise, but once I had a victim, it would siphon off roughly half of their mana unless I otherwise specified. That was almost worth the cost in itself and made me consider introducing some products into the world that would draw in mana as part of an activation sequence but send most of it to me.

“Master. When you are ready, night has fallen,” Set said bringing me from my work.

“Time sure does fly when you’re having fun.” I quickly copied the collar I had working then pocketed them. I formed my avatar but didn’t want to draw attention to either of the forms I had at the moment. I shifted the face so that the ebony skin changed to a black fur and I grew wolf features. Set altered her form as well without me saying anything.

Raven couldn’t alter her features, but I helped her out by casting a simple illusion over her face. It probably wouldn’t survive any confrontation, but we didn’t plan to come to blows tonight. She was more of a backup in case something happened in the first place. 

Stepping out of the dungeon’s aura into the forest, I glanced towards the light haze of the town. It had steadily been growing brighter as the town grew. “We need to figure out a way to get to the town faster. It might be less than an hour, but that is time wasted.”

“The big cities have teleport matrixes. Since you can make them, why not install one somewhere in the town?” Raven suggested.

“Not a bad idea. I’ll need to have Earle buy a house in the town soon,” I replied with a grin. We kicked off and flew through the forest reaching the edge outside of town in minutes. 

“Set, do you know where the jail or where they’re keeping the necromancer?”

“Yes. This way.” She stuck to the forest, and we worked our way around the town until we were about halfway around the settlement. In the distance stood one of the district walls that was being constructed. She pointed to a grouping of buildings that certainly had a martial feel to them. Banners of the Thonaca Kingdom and a basic blue banner fluttered in the breeze from their mounts over the entrances.

“Which one?”

Set pointed to a building slightly separated from the others. There were no windows to speak of and barely any light leaked from the cracks in the walls. I almost felt sorry for anyone that they took prisoner. At least my prisoner got a nice town to live in. 

I nodded then we faded into the shadow realm. I pointed for Raven to wait, while Set and I moved forward. Once we were closer to the jailhouse, I noticed there were some pulsing mana waves from one of the cell. It was in tuned with the dark realm and with something further beyond. Interesting.

We moved up the wall and through one of the cracks in the hastily constructed building. I was falling in love with the shadow realm. Physics were basically ignored here. Looking around, I found our target. She basically had anger and hate rolling off her. Set and I moved toward her and she jerked her head to look at us with a sneer that quickly morphed to one of terror or amazement, I wasn’t sure. 

I was honestly not prepared for what happened next. She fell to her knees and several liquids pooled around her. Her eyes glazed over before she collapsed to the ground twitching slightly. I glanced to Set. “Did you do something?” She shook her head. 

The woman’s actions drew the attention of the guards. I motioned for Set to take the left one, while I took the right. Drawing my sword, I lined the tip up with the man’s heart, before I lunged. Blood sprayed on the physical realm from the man’s back and front as the blade wasn’t truly in the way.

Set had dispatched hers with equal ease. I grabbed the woman by the back of her collar and dragged her into the shadow realm. Cuffs on her hands were causing a bit of an issue as they were canceling out the mana, but I solved that by cutting her hands off. I tossed them to Set so I could reattach them later. 

We were about to leave, when I realized I might be blamed for this no matter what I said. Looking back at the guards we’d killed, I pointed my sword at them and channeled some mana. They started to jerk then both rose to their feet. I ordered them to charge at anything living as they attempted to get outside.

With a smirk, I turned from the chaos I created and moved through the shadows until we reached the forest. It was relatively easy for just myself, but dragging this dead weight was making it much more costly on my mana. Phasing out of the shadow realm, I grabbed the hands and stuck them back on the woman’s wrists. With some light mana, I healed them back on.

“Well. That was fun.”

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