Dungeon Builder's Harem Book 03 Ch. 12

Chapter Twelve

"This is convenient," said Fara as the table with two chairs appeared against the corner of the Vault. I had to expand the size of the room by about a foot to make it fit. On it was paper with ink and quill. "You truly can remodel your dungeon at your whim."

"So long as there are no conscious minds in it that are not bound to my Crystal or who have not been subjugated," I answered.

"You can take prisoners?" Fara asked me, her ears twitching. She sat down on one of the chairs.

"I took Halia prisoner," I said. "It's how I recruited her. I showed her I wasn't a monster and then let her go. She decided to keep serving me."

"Ah." She looked at the parchment. "Halia Vorbia. Her father is a legend. He killed several powerful dungeon builders, but failed to kill the greatest threat that has arisen."

"Fuegin." I sat down. "He's, uh, an ally of sorts."

"He's an ally to no one," Fara said. "If he seeks to befriend you, he merely uses you."

"Maybe." Fuegin did feel so sincere. "He wants to find out why we're here. He's tried to get to your library several times."

"Yes. So far, our wardens have held against his incursions, but the longer a dungeon builder lives, the more power he can accumulate." Her ears twitched. "You say he wishes to know your purpose and is working with you."

"It's why I wrote my letter. Why you're here."

Fara's ears twitched. "Do not tell him what I suspect about the First Dungeon being in these mountains."

"I won't." Her caution was wise. I hated it. I wanted to trust Fuegin. He could have wiped me out, but instead, he offered me the hand of friendship. No one else in this world had done that. They all assumed I was evil. "Not until we know what we have and can understand it."

"It is your decision, Lord Leo." She shifted. "Now, I have had a tour of your entire dungeon. It is rather slap-dash affair."

"Yeah, I just add things as I get new glyphs," I said. "I want to change that. I think we can safely divide the dungeon into three sections. The entrance with the first level of the labyrinth that funnels everyone through a single trap room. A second labyrinth that leads to another trap room."

"No." The elf said. "You need to layer your defenses. Let it lead to stairs that lead to another level. You can then build that layer beneath the first. A more compact design."

"Yeah, I haven't been so good at thinking three-dimensionally." I smiled. "So we have a third labyrinth on the second level that funnels into the water trap room. From there, that can lead to the guard room, my throne room, and living quarters."

"Which all should be on a third level. Even a fourth level, perhaps, putting your living quarters beneath your Throne Room. We should not be up high. It puts us closer to the surface."

I winced. "Yeah, learned that one the hard way."

"Your trap rooms are quite impressive. The water one with the bridge that both has to be raised out of the water and then turned ninety degrees is a nice touch. They see the door that leads to the small labyrinth and never realize there is a concealed door out of reach that leads to your residence."

"I stole part of that from this asshole named Jindag. The concealed door was my own addition."

"Still, keep using it," she said. She dipped the quill into the ink pot and started doing a rough sketch. She drew in the entrance. "We'll want to keep the tunnel off to Astovin intersecting this same guard room."

"And the part of the dungeon that leads up here," I added. "There's a Mana Vein flowing through here."

The elf blinked. "There is?" She reached out her hand. "Through us right now?"

"Yep. I need to keep my intersection with it."

Fara nodded and added some notes.

"I can also make new traps," I said. "Metal lets me make weapon traps and Earth gives me crushing ceiling traps."

"You have ice," said Fara. "What can we do with that?"

I rose and went to the Void Crystal and sank into it. I had all the various components. "I can make the ground slick. Say over a narrow bridge over a pit full of spikes."

"Useful, useful," she said. "I like this idea. Bridges are good. You have will o' wisps. They are ranged attackers, but you have them wandering your labyrinth. Maybe a room that could take advantage of their abilities."

"Yes, yes!" A smile split my lips. "A darkness room with a bridge and a pit. Then they can shoot at the adventurers from the safety of fortified hallways that line the sides. The only way to reach them would be by crossing the pit or by being placed there by me. My will o' wisps would be stuck, but they wouldn't mind."

"They don't seem to mind at all spending their time in one place," said Fara.

"Even the companions I claimed," I said. "Usiku, Paanee, and Baaghi are content to stay in their guard room for days. They don't get bored. They were humans once, but no longer. It's changed them."

"Having to hold a post for days at a time without it being a chore would be a valuable trait for monster girls to have," Fara said. "I can see why they would have them."

"Yeah." I frowned. "What's the origin of monster girls?"

Fara looked up. "They arrived with the first dungeon builder. Dragons, of course, predated the dungeon builders, but not the monster girls. They spawned with the dungeon builders. They spilled out of their keeps and attacked the world."

"Interesting." I let go of the Void Crystal. "As far as I can tell, they're all from the mythologies of my world."

"The world you come from has monster girls?"

"Not monster girls." I smiled. "Monsters. They could be of either gender, or neither. Some of them were unique. Others were races. They have different legends about them. I don't recognize all of them, but undines are stuff I've run into in video games. I know valkyries are Norse. Sprites sound like something from Celtic mythology, like Feya being a fairy. Nagas are Indian, I think, and so are rakshasa. Not sure about wildhounds, but Usiku said fomorians were from Irish mythology. Succubus, of course, I've heard about. So are dryads and satyrs. Werebears, mermaids, and hippocampi, too. I think Quetzalcoatl was a South American god or something. Even elves and dwarves and halflings are from our stories and mythologies."

"Interesting," the elf said. "So the monster girls are, what, born out of the dungeon builder's imagination."

I furrowed my brow. "Maybe. They do feel... like I am creating them with my will. But their design doesn't come from me. They come from the Void Crystal." I glanced down at Souleen. "The reason that all the wildhounds look basically the same? Or the satyrs. My satyrs and Jindag's are similar. So are the oozes. They have different faces, but their body shapes are the same."

"The Void Crystals have their... their..." Souleen frowned. "Blueprint. That is a word from your language. The same blueprint that you use."

"And where did the blueprint come from?"

The little, busty Soul of the Void Crystal gave a helpless shrug. "Wherever the Void Crystals come from. Whoever summons you."

"That woman that you're a piece of," I muttered.

"I don't know." Souleen gave me a helpless look. "I really, really don't know."

I sighed. "So, monster girls have been brought to this world by the imagination of people from my world. Maybe the first dungeon builders created the blueprints of their various mythological creatures and they were... shared. Like all the Void Crystals are on the same network and accessing the same database. The same library."

"Library?" Fara asked. "I'm not sure what a library has to do with a Void Crystal."

"It's a programming term," I said. "There are machines we have called computers that can store data and execute programs. They're quite powerful in what they can do. They have resource libraries that multiple programs access and use for different purposes. It's like that."

"I sort of see what you mean," Fara said. "I don't understand this 'program,' but the idea of all dungeon builders using the same books as the basis for their dungeons makes sense."

"So is there any record on when monster girls appeared? I mean, some of these mythologies come from parts of the world that were isolated from each other until a few hundred years ago."

"I do not know." Fara leaned back. "It has never been a question that I had thought about."

"There's a reason that so much fantastical and mythological stuff from my world really exists here," I said. "A reason our worlds are connected."

"And that is what we shall discover together, Lord Leo," Fara said. "Now, let us continue to build your dungeon."

* * / *

For the next few hours, Fara and I worked on it.

We finally had something we both agreed would be useful. For Level 1, we started with the entrance. The same one that we currently had. It led to the natural cave that helped to hide the fact there was a dungeon here. A tunnel led off to Astovin, locked by a heavily reinforced metal door that only my monster girls and I could open. Another door led to the elevator to the Observatory Tower that I decided to build. That was a column of stone brick that rose from my current Vault Room to let us look down at the valley and to keep access to the mana vein.

The last door was also a reinforced, metal door. All the doors in the dungeon, in fact, were replaced with these sturdier ones. Last, I put three werebears (Bhaaloo, Panja, and Daant) and three basilisks (Skamianiela, Vielmi, and Piaro) to guard it.

The plan was to have the basilisks unleash their petrifying breath and kill any intruders then have the werebears smash the statues.

Beyond the door was the Initial Labyrinth. It would be patrolled by the wildhounds (Hela, Ci, Du, Nos, Gwyllt, Marwo, and Cysgo), the satyrs (Bakara, Seeng, Havas, Khur, Doodh, and Ullo), and the oozes (Cikhala, Cikata, and Philtara). This was a sprawling labyrinth that dominated much of the first floor. I filled it with all manner of traps, dead ends, and decoy treasures. There was only one correct way through it that would lead to the Lightning Pillar Room that had to be navigated to get to the next half of the dungeon.

In the first labyrinth, I created Guard Post One. Here, Feya and Smerta would be stationed. They would live in there and have their own map of the dungeon to help coordinate the monster girls in the first labyrinth. The goal was to let them command the battle and crush the enemy in the trap-filled hallways. I put their room in the middle of it accessed only by doors concealed with Darkness.

The Lighting Pillar Room remained unchanged from my first dungeon. It was more powerful, of course, but it would zap any intruders who entered it. The door led into the Second Labyrinth.

Here, I put the arachnes (Damhanalla, Sreaga, Nimhe, Gaiste, and Greasai), the remaining werebears (Garjan and Maan) and basilisks (Mastab and Dychannie). There were more trap rooms on this level. More obstacles to be overcome.

I supposed I was treating this like a video game with escalating levels of difficulty.

The fastest way through the Second Labyrinth was to pass through the Overgrown Room. It was a room thick with vegetation that would grab intruders, holding them with thorny vines. Before, I had the room empty of monster girls, but I wanted to take advantage of the adventurers' confusion by hiding my forces inside. I put three quetzalcoatls (Iaidas, Vaivory, and Skale) and all the unicorns (Rih, Sriblo, Nezaymana, Chystota, and Kin).

Another trap room I created was The Stalactite Room. Here, sharp spikes of rocks would fall from the ceiling and impale intruders who crossed it. It had four doors, so it could be encountered from several directions. One led to a decoy treasure room.

To get to level 2, the intruders had to navigate the Darkness Room. I liked this idea of Fara's. I combined it with the slippery ice bridge and spiked pits. There was no light. It would take powerful magics to illuminate the room. Crossing on a slippery bridge in pitch black would be difficult enough, but all my will o' wisps (Sviesos, Zaibas, Svyte, Kibir, Gintaras, and Dvasia) would be firing their lightning at the intruders. If they managed to reach the far end, they would find a trapped door that would retract the bridge.

If they made it, they would descend the stairs to Level 2 and the third and final labyrinth.

This level would be patrolled by my orcs (Zobens, Briesmoni, Slepkavi, Orka, and Dzelzs) who were my most skilled fighters. They would be coordinated by me from the throne room to ambush and kill the enemy. The level was littered with traps.

It was brutal. I hated it, but I needed to keep us safe.

I put a different Ice trap room on this level. The Frozen Room was a glittering grotto with temperatures so cold, they would quickly sap the body heat of any adventurers not prepared for temperatures found on Antarctica. Further, they would be attacked by my yuki-onna (Snezhinka, Moroz, Belyy, Prekrasnyy, and Sukkub).

If they survived all that, they would reach the Flooded Bridge Room. To raise the bridge, they would have to plunge into water swimming with my mermaids (Mase, Skela, and Pani) and my two hippocampi (Ghoda and Kelpa). Flying over the water, ready to zap with lightning were my last two quetzalcoatls (Gyvate and Sparnas). Of course, raising the bridge would just lead to the Decoy Labyrinth, a small maze with more traps and decoy treasure. Another switch, accessed from beneath the water on the column that held the bridge, would turn it ninety degrees to the concealed door.

That door led to Guard Post Two manned by Usiku, Paanee, and Baaghi. The stairs down to Level 3 were found beyond them. If I thought the threat was excessive, I would recall those three to stand with me and my companions in the throne room.

Level 3 was very familiar. My Throne room remained unchanged. That led to the living quarters and then to the Vault. When I made the changes, you couldn't even have told me that I had moved entire rooms around. The Vault dropped in elevation by two hundred feet, safely buried beneath my dungeon and all the mountain itself.

No dwarves would tunnel through the mountainside to ambush us beyond all the defenses.

"That is... disorienting," said Fara. "I can feel that we're deeper underground now."

"Yeah, air pressure's different." I yawned to pop my ears. "Like flying a plane. Yawn. That works for humans."

She opened her mouth wide, her ears twitching. "Oh, yes, I see. That is useful." She looked around the Vault. "Now that you have created your new dungeon, shall you look for the First?"

"I know you're eager, but there are still some things I have to do." I stretched my back. "Like dinner. My mother and Mrs. Lucina have been cooking all day. They are making something for us to enjoy. I hope you like it." I paused. "Wait, do elves eat, like, raw vegetables?"

"Of course. Do not humans?" She smiled. "We also cook them. And mushrooms, and I have a fondness for eggs."

"Meat?"

"Rarely. I have had pheasant, but not much else. It is mostly fruits, vegetables, milk, and eggs. We do not raise livestock to kill them like humans do. We try not to kill if we can avoid it."

"So, you're a vegetarian out of principal not out of diet."

She inclined her head.

Dinner was a glorious affair. My mother had made chicken pot pies for myself, Halia, and Fara to eat. They were delicious. Halia and I both enjoyed them while Fara smiled and complimented my mother and Mrs. Lucina.

"This medieval cooking is different," Mrs. Lucina said, "but your mother has figured out a lot, Leo. It takes more time, but it is delicious."

"Yes," I groaned, needing it after a long day spent planning.