Dungeon Builder's Harem Book 03 Ch. 13

Chapter Thirteen

As much as Fara wanted me to immediately start searching for the First Dungeon, I had more work. I liked the observation tower. It would let us look down the mountain at the valley that led to the dungeon entrance. However, it needed to be hidden.

"Wow, this view," Hagane said, showing a surprising amount of excitement when she joined me up here. She leaned on the parapet. I gave it teeth-like crenellations like a medieval castle. The tower's smooth sides rose from the rock. There was no way in or out save by flying.

Or by the rope ladder that I had made that could be thrown over.

"You can see so far," Hagane said. She adjusted her glasses. It was strange she kept those since they had no lenses, but she did look cute in them.

"Kweh, heh, heh, I can see all your domain, big bro!" Garnet cried. She jumped off the tower and spread her wings wide. She caught the air currents and soared out.

Lana Fulmine joined her; the lightning sprite had similar wing bones to Garnet, albeit made of cracking lightning, but she had no membranes stretched between them. She should have no way to generate lift, and yet she flew anyways.

I smiled as I watched them soaring over the mountains. Our peak rose behind us to a glacial-capped point. A dome of clouds had formed around it. Mount Rainier, back in my world, had that same effect. The shoulders of the mountains went to the ridges of the range that stretched out in both directions. Another snow-capped peak rose higher up.

I peered in Astovin's direction. The valley led down to the farmland. The village was a dark smudge I could just make out. The river that flowed south towards the lands of Lord Shorvin, and where Jindag had made his dungeon. It was breathtaking up here.

"We are in a stratovolcano," said Hagane. "Is it seismically active? Have you encountered its vent? Or has it cooled?"

"Cooled?" I asked.

"Yes. The magma cools in the chamber and gets compressed into granite. Then the rest of the mountain is worn away by erosion, leaving behind the harder batholith." She pointed to the south. "See that sort of dome-shaped mountain of gray. That's the remnant of a stratovolcano. The magma chamber. It's been lifted higher due to plate tectonics and because it is not as heavy as it once was so the underlying ground is not deformed as much. Mountains are like objects on a mattress. The bigger they are, the more they sink into the mattress. Or the continental plate. As they erode, the land rises so the hardened magma chamber is raised."

"Huh," I said. "No, no, haven't run into any magma. It might be dead. That's interesting. I guess I didn't think there would be that sort of thing here."

Hagane shrugged. "The world tells you a story wherever you look. The history of it."

I nodded and kicked the rope ladder over.

I climbed down it, which was not as easy as I thought it would be. But I managed to reach the bottom. I had work to do. I had a ritual to cast. I had never used one of the ritual magics. I had a few of them now.

Today, I was using Strengthen Stone. It would make the tower's stones far, far stronger than they should be. Impervious to being sapped. I didn't want to take any chances with someone mining into it.

The words filled my mind.

"I call upon Lord Abzu and Lady Ki to strengthen the stones of this tower," I chanted, throwing my arms wide. "Let the power of the earth flow through the bones of this structure and strengthen them. Deep in the earth, are stones strengthened. Crushed by the weight above, they are hardened. Let those forces be unleashed."

Power surged out of me. Magic.

The words kept coming on and on. My mouth ran dry, and I still had to keep talking. The words could not be stopped once I started. I was creating a permanent effect. That was the difference between a ritual and a spell. This was no flashy release of power that would be over in a heartbeat.

"...meld and harden, unite and strengthen..."

There was so much tower, that I had to repeat the formulas, focusing the mana flowing from the Void Crystal into the stone. I worked up and up. Garnet and Lana flew above. The other monster girls came to take their peek.

I hardly noticed them. The sun climbed the eastern horizon and reached its zenith then started its descent as the words kept spilling from my lips. They enchanted the stone with the strength to outlast the mountain I was building it upon.

Would it one day tumble down the face of the mountain when its foundation eroded from it, an intact column of stone that would smash into the trees growing on the slope below, carving through them on its way to the valley?

That would be thousands and tens of thousands of years in the future. I wouldn't be alive to see it.

Finally, the top of the tower was finished.

"Here," Maya said.

I blinked to find my undine beside me. She grabbed my face and kissed me with her wet lips, my own dry and cracking. She thrust her tongue into my mouth and... her water flooded me. She gave me her water. I gulped it down. The water splashed into my stomach. I felt rehydrated in moments. Refreshed by her kiss.

I broke it and gasped, "I didn't know you could do that."

"Me, either," she said. "But you looked thirsty. You were hoarse. I could hardly understand what you were saying."

I swallowed, my throat burning. "Yeah. A lot of words. And I'm not done."

"Not done?" she asked, glancing up at it. "It's impregnable."

"But people can see it. I know it will only take them into the guard room, but why make it easy for them."

I drew in a deep breath and began casting the ritual of Illusory, a Light spell that would make a permanent illusion over the tower. It would become an outcropping. You could pass through it and it would be transparent from within, but from without, especially at a distance, it would just be part of the mountain.

"I call upon Lord Shamash and Lady Sherida to bend the light and conceal this tower in trickery. Let it fool the eyes..."

It didn't take as many hours to cast, but the sun was setting by the time that I had finished creating an outcropping of rocks that covered it. By then, Maya and Hagane were watching over me. Guarding me, I realized, since I was vulnerable while I chanted. Before the sun set and I lost the light, I examined it. The rocks accepted the changing of lighting as twilight crept on the world like it was the real deal.

Though I had no idea what rain would do.

Probably fall through it and spoil the illusion.

It was better than nothing.

I had spent the day talking, and I was starving and exhausted. Maya gave me another refreshing kiss and then we climbed up the ladder and pulled it up. You couldn't even tell there was an illusion around it. The sun set behind us, the world falling into darkness.

I headed down the tower for another wonderful supper cooked by my mother and Mrs. Lucina. This time, they had prepared a roast with a savory gravy and mashed peas. That was different, like green mashed potatoes but not quite as good. Still, I wolfed it down.

* * / *

The next day, I walked with Usiku, Halia, Mom, Mrs. Lucina, and Terra to the end of the tunnel that opened up on the outskirts of Astovin, wishing I could teleport myself around the dungeon. We stepped into the daylight and marched onto the road. Word quickly spread before us that we were coming.

The people of Astovin appeared. Some of the young men did not hide their disdain while plenty of the young women, and a few of the older, were staring at me with interest in their eyes. A flirtiness in the way they shifted.

Halia marched at my side with Usiku leading the way, a shadowy sword on her belt. Terra and Mom were behind me. We needed supplies as well as I had business here. A promise that I had made, and now I was here to keep.

"Lord Leo," Mayor Bevlin said. He smiled as he rushed up and extended his hand. "It is a pleasure to see you. A group of dwarves passed through a few days ago. They said you had defeated the Twins."

"I have," I said. "The dwarves of Vorianil Mountains no longer have to live in fear. Even better, I have the Earth Glyph."

The mayor's eyes flicked to Halia. "Yes, yes, I can see that. So you are here to..." He swallowed like he couldn't believe a dungeon builder really would care. "To fix them?"

"Of course," Leo said. "Where are they?"

"We have them in one of the storehouses." The mayor shifted his shoulders. "It was the only building that was large enough to hold them."

"Of course, of course."

A crowd grew behind us as the mayor led us away. My mother broke off to do her shopping, but the rest of us continued to the warehouse. If any adventurers attacked, they would have to deal with Usiku, Halia, and Terra. And I had all my orcs stationed in the tunnel, ready to burst out and come to my aid, Smerta at their lead. But I didn't want to terrorize Astovin.

I wanted this village to be free. I wasn't their ruler. I was their neighbor.

We walked into the storeroom and the sight of the frightened, petrified villagers reminded me of that horrible day when Astovin was attacked. They were lucky I had been in the village, or it would have been much, much worse.

I paused at the statues of the woman and her child. I remembered seeing them being taken. I drew in a deep breath. I had the power to fix them. A simple spell, not even a ritual, to break the curse that had turned them all to stone.

"Flesh cursed to stone, let the petrification of Lord Abzu end!"

The stone melted away from the child. In moments, he screamed, flinching back. It shocked me until I realized the last thing he remembered was the monster attack. The boy quivered then glanced up at his mother, a statue. He cried again. I knelt and took his mother's hand.

"It's okay," I told him. "Look, I'm going to fix her." I smiled at the child. "It's going to be okay. Flesh cursed to stone, let the petrification of Lord Abzu end!"

The stone bled away, replaced by the sobbing mother's living skin. Tears that had been captured in stone now flowed down her face again. She gasped and then saw her child. She scooped him up into her arms, holding him tight, weeping fiercely.

Then she glanced at me. She recognized me. She held her son close to her and then looked around at the warehouse. A man rushed over and hugged her to him while she kept staring at me in shock. Then a smile spread on her lips.

"T-thank you, Lord Leo," she whispered.

I smiled at her and nodded.

I moved through the room and touched the petrified people. One by one, I cured the victims of the Twins. I restored their flesh. The reunions happened over and over again, the families embracing their petrified members. They were cheering and crying and laughing.

No one stared at me with fear any longer. With suspicion. They didn't see me as their conqueror. I might be a dungeon builder, but I was expending my resources to cure them. What sort of uncaring tyrant does that?

I had long since known it would be my deeds that would set me apart from the other dungeon builders. I wouldn't conquer. I wouldn't send my monster girls to attack and use my magics to destroy. I would protect and defend. I would be a good knight who made the world around me a better place than before I had arrived.

I had done that. Astovin had been the victims of Jindag before I had arrived. I had saved their daughters. Today, I had done even more. I had shown them who I was. And I wasn't done yet. I had more work to do.

But it was hard when every man was shaking my hand and every woman was hugging me, planting a kiss on my cheek. Or, some of the bolder maidens, on my lips. I grinned at them, so happy that I could be here to protect them.

And I wasn't the only one no longer feared.

Usiku, Mrs. Lucina, and Terra were also being greeted. They might be naked monster girls, which might explain the young men flocking around them, but they were not feared. No one was nervously interacting with them. They were relaxed.

I smiled, so glad I could help these people. They were attacked because of me.

"I want to set up some guardians for your town," I said to the mayor. "Some golems to give you some protection and to provide warning if you're attacked. They won't hurt your people. They'll just patrol the edges of town."

"Golems?" the mayor asked.

"If you don't want me to," I said, raising placating hands. "I won't do it without your permission, Mayor Bevlin. But I can do it. I want to help."

"No, no, that's fine," he said. "I would appreciate it. You never know when a dungeon builder will appear and threaten us."

I nodded. "And I can get reinforcements here pretty fast."

I needed to come up with a way to get me here fast. I had to dig into my dungeon options. I had quite a number of powers. Maybe there was some sort of minecart I could set up. Or even just a horse that I could ride down the tunnel to get here fast. But even if I couldn't get there as fast, I could teleport my monster girls to the end of the tunnel.

I set about making the metal golems. I had their shapes premade in my dungeon. My monster girls carried out the three iron statues I had made. They were of busty women. They were modeled after Souleen. That made me feel good about it.

"I call upon Lord Nabu and Lady Nisaba to awaken these statues and give them purpose," I chanted drawing on the power of my Metal Glyph. "Let them arise as guardians, always leal and strong, never faltering in their duty of protecting and defending my territory."

The words tumbled out of me. It took about ten minutes per statue, but they awoke one by one. Each of them had a sword that she held in her right hand. She rose, her metallic body moving like Hagane's, but they lacked that plasticity she had that gave her metallic flesh. These were animated statues. Soulless things. They didn't take up any slots of monster girls. They were expenditures of my magic, true, but that would return as my Void Crystal drank in more of the Mana Veins that flowed through my base.

"Patrol the outskirts of Astovin and protect the inhabitants," I commanded to the three golems. Each of them had "LEO" carved into their foreheads like Terra had. That was like the golem myth back on earth, right?

Only it was supposed to be truth on their forehead.

The three golems marched out and started their ceaseless patrol of the town. The villagers all smiled at me. They seemed comforted by that. I felt a little weary from working all these spells, but I wouldn't show it.

"Thank you, Lord Leo," Mayor Bevlin said. He thrust out his hand. I shook it. "You are so different from the others."

"I'm not sure I'm much different," I said. "I just decided that I wouldn't be what everyone says I should be. I wouldn't let the power go to my head. It would be easy, you know."

"I can only imagine," he said, staring over at my monster girls. "You could take this entire village with those three golems. We would be powerless to stop it."

"I'm not here to conquer."

The mayor smiled. "And yet you've claimed Astovin as your own. You protect us. We provide you with food. It's not much of a tax, but it is something."

"We pay, don't we?" I asked. I admit, I left that up to my mother.

"Not since you stopped the Twins' attack," he said. "I guess you didn't know."

"I had been distracted," I admitted. "I didn't mean to conquer you. Lord Shorvin won't be happy."

The Mayor leaned in. "Something is gathering at Lord Shorvin's. I don't know what, but he isn't happy the adventurers have failed to destroy your dungeon. He's growing desperate. He has upped the reward. Stronger adventurers will be gathering, but I fear there is something else."

"What?" I asked.

"I really do not know, Lord Leo."