The Dungeon Lord Ch. 01

A quick mental tweak from Radella informed me that she was also rushing towards me and would be present, but hidden, and would show herself if it seemed necessary. I sent back an acknowledgement and barely managed to rush into the throne room, which was deliberately positioned for people to stumble into when attempting to explore, sit down and adopt a suitable pose, when the adventurers stormed in.

Both were female, which was nice. The first was quite pretty. Her blonde hair was kept in a no nonsense ponytail, which matched the stern expression she was wearing. She was short and seemed to be in her late teens or early twenties. She had pale skin and matching blue eyes; that combined with the massive warhammer slung over her shoulder made me think she was probably from Bespil, which wasn't too far away and was filled with fanatics from the 'God's of Light' who generally loved adventuring because it allowed them to travel to distant places and tell everyone else about how they were worshipping the wrong gods.

Her plate armor looked very new, though it was more than just a little scuffed in places, likely from trekking all the way here. I could only guess at her breast size, but by the way in which she kept shifting, I got the feeling the plate armor was constricting her chest, which only meant good things for me. All in all she painted the perfect picture of low ranking female paladin.

The other thing that interested me about her was that she didn't blush or stare at all when she first saw me. Considering she was fairly young and still in the throes of hormones, it was odd because I am not being vain when I say I am literally supernaturally attractive, and she hadn't even given me a once over.

The other was a brunette who was average to below average in the looks department, and it looked like she had broken her nose at least once. Her hair was shoulder length and looked kind of tangled. She was very tall and towered over her smaller compatriot. Based on the tanned skin, leather armor, and the two hand axes, it would be a fair bet that she was from one of the mountain clans in the east, which meant she was a long way from home. She was covered in lithe muscles, scars and was clearly almost entirely flat chested, so compared to her partner she was more than just a little disappointing. Still of the two, she seemed to be the more experienced and dangerous.

She however did gave me a once over though, and apparently liked what she saw if the faint blush hidden under her tan cheeks was anything to go by. Considering she was a veteran warrior who was at least in her thirties and might have to kill me, I was even more inclined to think something was off about the blonde paladin.

Now that we had all weighed each other up it was time to get this show on the road.

"Welcome to my domain adventurers. I am the great dungeon lord Lasmes!" I projected in my best commanding voice.

The adventurers visibly tensed at that in spite of the fact that their hadn't been a dungeon lord in anything outside of old stories in generations. I suppose I was better at this intimidation thing than I thought.

Blondie rallied though, and seemed to take exception to my introduction,

"I need not need know your name evil doer, but I shall grant you mine so that you may inform our Great Mistress who sent you to meet her in the next life! I am Alfhild Lovelace, remember it!"

The brunette seemed more amused than offended, but the tightness around her eyes gave away her misgivings,

"Hi Lasmes, I would say it was nice to meet you, but I have a hunch I know how this is going to end." She emphasized what exactly she meant by raising her axes a bit,

"Here's the deal, I just got paid to investigate this place along with the mini-crusader here to see if anything strange was around the place. I didn't really expect much, but easy money is still money, so you can imagine our surprise when we arrived here to find the surrounding country side crawling with goblins."

That explained the scuff marks, though I honestly didn't know there were goblins in the area. I wondered if they were being drawn here by the statue already? I would need to set up some wards further afield.

The brunette continued, "We had to sneak past them, only to find two massive statues, and what looked like a big gateway to an underground base. The whole thing stunk of chaos magic so bad, even us mundanes could smell it. We figured we'd scout it out a bit and then high tail it to report back. Then we stumble on you and your little throne in the very first room we come across."

She shrugged as if she was entirely unconcerned, "So based on past experiences with this sort of thing, renegade mages, chaos magic and all that, I'm guessing this is the bit where you attempt to kill us for discovering your secret base, and then I have to kill you."

They had spunk I would give them that. I was pretty sure that as least the brunette knew they didn't really stand a chance against me. A mage powerful enough to carve out this fortress was clearly out of their league and she would know it. As far as she was concerned it was just bad luck they ran into me and not some minions first. Though I knew they would have fared about as well against the stone golems as they would against me.

I had no great issue with killing them if they tried to fight me, I had long since grown accustomed to death in my early service to Glassmont. It seemed wasteful though. I had no intention of letting them report back, which left imprisonment or death.

Seemed boring though. It was all well and good having all this power, but I had no one to share it with. Radella was fun and all, but she had actually lived before the sundering, so anything I did wasn't really new or noteworthy to her. No, here was a chance for a bit of fun.

"Do you want a job?" I asked calmly.

The blonde, Alfhild, sputtered in surprise, before her face twisted in outrage, "What!? What manner of mockery is this? We would never work for a fiend such as you!"

The brunette however took a moment to ponder it, before answering, "I'm listening..."

The blonde stopped her diatribe about my liaisons of a questionable nature with goats long enough whip round toward her partner with incredulous surprise,

"What!? You can't be serious Marcelle, he is a vile fiend who utilizes the magic of chaos!"

I felt that wasn't fair so I calmly interjected, "To be fair, Bespil's mages do much the same thing with the magic of order. The only real difference is that the spells are on different ends of the same spectrum. Neither is inherently evil, they just have different rules and properties."

Blondie didn't like that, "Blasphemy! Seek not to corrupt me with your lies."

Marcelle wasn't interested though, "Sorry pumpkin, theological debate aside, like he said, I've met a few 'chaos mages' in my time, they ain't all good and they ain't all bad."

She shrugged resignedly, "So I figure I'll take my chances on our host's good graces. I'm not really being paid enough to die here, in fact by not reporting in, I've essentially finished my job by exposing that there is something up here. Although it does leave a bit of a foul taste in my mouth to leave you here in a pickle, so whatever he's offering better be good, or I may end up having to fight him anyway."

"Oh I'm sure you won't have any complaints with what 'm offering. I have no doubt of that." I added smugly.

She snickered in a distinctly unladylike fashion, "Someone's confident... Usually people who say stuff like that are full of shit, but I've got a feeling you actually believe what you're saying. Go on lay it on me."

I shrugged as if it was a matter of no import, "What I'm offering long term is bed and board for the duration of your employment. All you have to do is lead around a few golems while they do their tasks, and maybe later help me organize the other races that are going to arrive. Help them acclimatize, and generally be living evidence I'm not an insane psychopath who's going to kill them all in their sleep, that sort of thing. For right this second though, I'll give you anything you can think of, within reason."

She was even more dubious now, "Ignoring all that other stuff, you just said you'll give us anything? Anything at all?"

I could tell she was interested though, "Sure so long as it's within my power, and short of ascending to immortality right this second, most things are within my power. It'll be fun; a chance to stretch the old magical legs and have some fun with it."

I shrugged, "It can get kind of boring having all this power and no one to show it off to. All this room building gets boring after a while. Give me a challenge."

Marcelle twirled her axes as she spoke, "Sound mighty generous just to recruit two entirely mundane soldiers. Usually you mage types are awful miserly when it comes to spending your mana"

I grinned, and was perfectly frank with them, "This is more about me getting a chance to show off then it is about recruiting you. I can assure you that mana is not an issue. Come on, live a little, I'll make it worth your while."

She seemed a bit put out by that for some reason, but she seemed more at ease with the idea I was using this as a chance to show off than it being some attempt at altruism. "Fine then... Enchant my axes?"

Simple enough, "With what?"

"I don't know, you're the mage, make them shoot lightning or something."

I shrugged, said a few words in the ancient tongue and Marcelle's axes suddenly lit up as sparks of electricity zipped across the blades. Marcelle almost dropped them as she jumped in fright, letting loose a curse in what I assumed was her native tongue. After a second she seemed to calm herself and inspected the blades. Even Alfhild stopped reciting the litany of purity to take a peek at the enchanted axes.

"Go on, give them a swing." I nudged her, eager to show off my handiwork.

Marcelle looked at me in open mouth astonishment, but dutifully swung one of the axes in a wide arc. As the axe met the apex of its swing it let loose a thunderbolt of lightning that leapt across the room and demolished a large chunk of a pillar. Marcelle and Alfhild both stared at me in disbelief, glancing back and forth between the axes and the destruction they had wrought.

Marcelle gave the axes another few swings, as if testing it wasn't a fluke, and in doing so left massive gouges in the stone of my throne room. Finally satisfied that I had actually done as I said she stopped swinging the swords, and looked at me.

"Thankyou."

Then she swung at me.

My view of the pair was obscured for a moment as my mana shield leapt up to defend me. The lightning bolt dissipated against the blue orb in a harmless flash of sparks, allowing me to once more look upon the pair of adventurers, who had turned to run during the brief distraction only to discover that both of the throne rooms exits were filled with golems.

Alfhild stared in shock, "So many... How didn't we hear them, they must each weigh a ton!?"

Now that their impromptu escape attempt had been aborted, I figured there was no harm in gloating a bit more, "The golems all have silencing seals carved into their feet, it's a bit more mana intensive than most mages can afford, but I think you are beginning to realize that I'm not most mages."

"Yeah, I think we're beginning to catch onto that." Marcelle looked at me sheepishly, axes no longer sparkling with energy as I had removed the enchantment the second the mana shield went up, "Any chance that job offer is still available?"

I took a moment to give her a deadpan look, "Are you willing to swear an oath of allegiance and sign a magically binding contract?"

The fact that she would betray me the first chance she got had never been in question, I just hadn't expected her to do so straight out the gate. They were both always going to be signing contracts, it just so happened that now it looked like it was a result of their own actions and not me choosing to be a paranoid bastard, or an entirely reasonable bastard considering I was recruiting people who had come here with the hopes of killing me, if I was weak enough.

She didn't look happy about it, but after a minute of deliberation she reluctantly nodded. I was happy with that, so I turned my attention to blondie, "What about you buttercup? Ready to give up on the doctrine you've been indoctrinated with your entire life and throw in with your religion's ancient enemy on the basis that I'll probably squish you if you don't? Oh, and sign a magical contract of my making in the process?"

Naturally Alfhild said no, in a great many words including a few that called my mother's good standing into question. For a girl that had been raised in the god fearing country of Bespin, she certainly was creative with her cursing. I was really tempted to order a golem to squish her, but I still wanted to know why she obviously didn't find me attractive... It totally wasn't just a result of hurt pride either. I swear.

Eventually though I got frustrated waiting for her to run out of steam, "Look Alfhild, what do you want? Honestly, I'm offering you anything here, wealth, power, men? Take your pick."

Marcelle who had been standing there watching started to chuckle at that. When I sent her a questioning look she only chuckled louder,

"I'm afraid your barking up the wrong tree with one of those offers Lasmes, I think you'll find that old Alfhild would much prefer the fairer sex for company, if you get what I mean?"

"What!? I do not, such a thing would be an affront to the natural order of things. Take that back you traitor." Alfhild protested with growing indignation even as her cheeks began to take on a rosy red.

"Oh, so I just imagined you staring at my ass most of our trip over here. I imagine you might have spent a bit more time on my front too if the girls were a tad bit more impressive." Marcelle gestured toward her evident lack of cleavage.

Alfhild turned an even rosier shade of red and continued stammering denials. She was so distracted by her turmoil she didn't even notice when a portal of flames opened behind her, inside I could see Radella in all her naked glory.

"Hmmm, if the girl has a preference for more feminine partnership, then I will be more than happy to educate her... thoroughly."

The succubus's words startled the embarrassed blonde causing her to jump backwards in fright, straight into Radella's waiting arms. The portal closed with a slurping sound as well as Radella's lusty giggles. The blonde's sudden disappearance left me behind with a visibly confused Marcelle.

I on the other hand was now actively resisting the urge to magically eavesdrop on the Sapphic debauchery that was no doubt going to be taking place within the Succubus's quarters.

I supposed I would first need to explain what just happened to Marcelle.

"I have a succubus."

Alright with my duty done I was free to teleport away to... investigate.