by Alston Sleet
Anyways, I pulled myself down below by eating and then replacing the stone while severing my domain from the surface. Now my Dungeon Domain was entirely underground. I was inside my dungeon, and I wasn’t freaking out because there was a huge open pathway for my waste mana to escape, even though technically the gap was almost hair thin. If the space is large enough, then it doesn’t matter if the actual dimensions around the gap were tiny. This weird twisty ‘small on the outside but big on the inside’ thing was actually starting to make sense. With a quick check of my status, I could see why.
True Name: Dale Erickson Ender.
Race: Dungeon Core (Variant: Sapient)
Class: [High Priest][Spatial Hedge-Mage][Spatial Traveler].
Level: 37
Mind: 5
Body: 1
Soul: 8
Blessings:
[Blessing of Secrets] (hidden)
[Blessing of Cunning] (hidden)
[Blessing of Wealth]
[Blessing of Fame]
[Blessing of Magic]
[Blessing of Travel]
Traits:
[Focus of the Divine]
[Soul Seal - Divine]
Skills:
[Mana Sensing]: Level 26
[Spatial Manipulation]: Level 46
[Far Seeing]: Level 1
[Directed Prayer]: Level 1
My skill level in [Spatial Manipulation] was shooting up. I don't know if it was my blessings or what, but it was coming very easy to me.
Once I had my entrance finished, I started to make a large vestibule; a gathering point before the rest of the dungeon. Just to play around with it, I made the actual space stretch and twist so that it appeared to have twenty-foot ceilings even though the entire space was roughly ten feet underground. The stairs appeared to barely drop more than a few feet, so it was possible to see into the vestibule from the entrance while the ceiling appeared to be ‘above’ the ground. I couldn’t wait to see the reaction to that one.
It was here that I had a brainstorm and figured I could throw some attention away from myself and back at the gods, where they wanted it anyway. Clearing my mental throat, I selected [Directed Prayer] and tried to contact ‘my’ goddess.
“Um, Goddess Coldona, I have an idea and I think it will really help you out, but I want to get your feedback before I do it.”
There was a small delay then a voice echoed into my mind. It was a sweet voice, but there was a slight difference between Coldona's and Denda's voice. Coldona sounded like she was pronouncing everything carefully.
“Hello Dale, I was wondering how long it would take you to call for me. I thought it would be a while, but Denda bet that it would be sooner. Never bet against a Goddess of Fate. They tend to cheat.”
By the end, I could hear the humor in Coldona's voice and it made me want to smile. Any goddess who can joke, without me being the butt of the joke, probably isn't all bad. My fears of her being a slavering monster were quickly extinguished.
With a chuckle, I responded, "Well, I have an idea. What if I put a large mural in the vestibule of my Dungeon? It would have you and a plaque describing how you created this dungeon to strengthen the adventurers of the world, to provide a challenge, and so on? I plan to build my Dungeon as a series of solo challenges, that way, it is seen more as a training ground with scaling danger instead of just a murder hole. Then, they will see you as the provider of this training. Maybe get you more of a stern and demanding mother vibe, rather than a monstrous one.”
When the silence after I had explained my plan lasted longer then I was expecting, I was afraid that I had pissed off Coldona. Tentatively I asked, “Is, uh, that ok?”
“If you show what I look like on your walls, that will shift my form in the minds of the mortals. I’m already seen as a monster. Changing my domain is the most important thing here, but I still don’t want to look like a monster forever. It will just make it harder to grasp another Domain.”
Oh, yeah, that made sense. But that also brought up an interesting possibility.
“So, that means if we put an idolized form up on the wall and label it as you, people will think it is you, and you will start to look like it, right? So what do you want to look like?”
It seemed obvious to me. If a God is changed by their followers, then change the followers' minds to what you want it to be. Boom, instant-divine facelift!
"If it's too far from what they expect then no one will believe it and they will see it as a trick. That will just work against me, they change me in even more disturbing ways. If it became really bad, they might push me into Denda's or Beld's Domains. The whole point of this plan is to avoid that."
Things were tricky for the gods, something that small could result in a serious issue. I could see now why so many gods were testy, in myths. A few schmucks start joking around about the god of the sea, and suddenly he has a fishtail. I would be testy about it as well.
"Ok, how about I make you human-like, pretty, but obviously not human. Sort of a disturbing beauty type thing? Then, as people get used to it, after each time I move my dungeon entrance, I shift the appearance a bit giving a range of things? That way it’s subtle.”
The response this time was quick and excited. “You do know what this means though, right? This means you get to pick how I look. Ooooh! Surprise me!”
Where Denda had felt like a young girl eager to play (as well as a scary, world-weary woman in a small body), Coldona felt more like an easily excited college girl. I could almost imagine her with blond hair and a perky smile in the moment someone said something nice about her. Her voice just said ‘friendly' to me, which was very odd considering her domains. Then again, dungeons probably appear pretty to entice people to their death. More than one earth creature appeared cute and cuddly as well. I could only imagine that some monsters did the same cute trick. Either way, I wasn't going to piss her off and find out if she took after her monsters in other attitudes as well.
Still. Picking an appearance for a goddess, not exactly what I had expected from my afterlife.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Bitter Medicine
Josedus rested his hands and reins on the pommel of his saddle while he looked at his destination. With a practiced motion, he reached for a small glass vial on his belt. Most mages used these vials for mana potions, Josedus used it for a stomach-calming tonic. The sight of the damaged central tower brought a frown to his face before he chugged the bitter brew. The castle rose on a hill in an area cleared of the trees he currently rode through. The large façade of dark, grey, stone, loomed, though most of the structure rested below ground. The signature dark stone was mined where the castle now stood; it’s grey color sparkled in the sun from the small bits of quartz in the rock.
Castle Delmus had once been a major station in the defense of the realm, but when the Shift destroyed the only major pass through the Teeth of the World, its use had quickly waned. For forty years, under the reign of [Tyrant King] Kelt, it sat empty. The castle’s only inhabitant an aging castellan turned goat herder and his goats.
With another sip of his medicine, Josedus considered the turn of events which had led to this trip.
The overthrow of the [Tyrant King] began with the king’s nephew who secretly became a [Rebel] while under the eyes of the king’s [Inquisitors]. The power of a [Rebel] could not be overlooked. The ability to detect rebellious people, and weed out the majority of [Spies], while also finding the truly devoted to the cause was invaluable. Once he had won the throne and was made [King], the two classes had combined into [Rebel King], much as his predecessor had joined [Tyrant] and [King] before him.
“…that’s why I’m now a [Royal Diviner], and get to check every budding rebellion,” Josedus muttered as he slipped his now empty vial back in to his belt.
“What are you muttering now you blind ass?”
Turning in his saddle, Josedus smiled at his best friend Merick and longtime head of his bodyguard detail. The familiar insult lifting
his spirits. It had originally been a point of contention, his seeming inability to see the dangers his position entailed, but long years of working together had worn smooth their friction.
“I’m just thinking about how horrible this assignment is going to be,” Josedus remarked as he turned forward again.
Waving away the complaint, Merick spat some of the trail dust from his mouth before disagreeing, “Don’t see why. You go and do your hand waving muttering. Find out who killed the old goat, and that is your [Rebel] and his rebellion. We kill them and Boom! Problem solved. Just like the last three times.”
Leaning in and lowering his voice, Josedus started to explain his view, “This rebellion had no signs it was building as the others had. The actual starting incident was the death of the highest leveled human [Wizard] in the kingdom, one who strongly supported the King and…”
Looking around to be sure the rest of the guards were still far enough away not to hear the conversation he continued, “the [Rebel King] can’t sense the [Rebel] leader anymore.”
That bit of news had Merick sitting up straight in his saddle and eyeing the woods more carefully, something the rest of his troop noticed and duplicated. For Merick, anything out of the ordinary was dangerous, it might not be, but his training made it his first natural instinct.
For a while, the two men rode in silence, a not uncommon occurrence over the last three days of their journey. Stoic was Merick’s normal mein while Josedus would often use his plethora of divination spells while traveling, leaving conversation between the two sparse but no less friendly because of it.
Seeing the coast still clear, Merick turned back and asked in a low voice, “So they left the kingdom in a short period of time then? It’s an invasion?”
Seeing his friend’s silent head shake left Merick even more confused and on guard. Another hour of travel had them arriving at their destination and being greeted by the assistant mage guild leader.
After the fall of the [Tyrant King], the new King had the foresight to invite in magical support of all kinds for his recovering kingdom. Official sanction and support had been the price the mage guild had demanded. The aging castle on the edge of the kingdom had been the [Rebel King’s] solution to having to hold close a foreign power. The assignment of the pro-[Rebel King] Delgan, the most powerful known human [Wizard], as school head and guild leader had been one of many political steps to blunting the danger.
Unfortunately, another such step was the rotund [Wizard] who greeted Josedus.
“Welcome! Welcome, Josedus. I’m so glad you are here. You are just in time,” said Gasdon Firefist.
Trying not to sneer at the political rat, Josedus returned the warm welcome. The first question the [Royal Diviner] had was of course, ‘time for what?’ Apparently, Gasdon had just been about to announce his changes to the management of the school. Now, with Josedus here, it would be possible to announce the King’s appointment of Gasdon to head of the guild.
Once Josedus found out that Gasdon had barely let Delgan’s body cool before he announced his control, his restraint had blown away, “Yes, yes, the king has confirmed your position as guild leader as well as school head,” said Josedus.
Merick then showed why Josedus considered him to be invaluable to his job. Sending forward his team to check for traps and dangers as they moved beyond the castle courtyard, Merick turned towards Gasdon.
“You are going to have to wait here Gasdon.”
Blunt, direct, and with a lot of posturing; Merick had perfected the art of [Intimidation].
Gasdon sputtered for a moment as his hands fluttered around his tunic, but he quickly recovered. While he had never been a powerful wizard, his last name was inherited rather than earned, as a political animal he was not without some confidence.
“As head of the guild, I will need to be involved in all parts of the investigation. We need to get to the bottom of Delgan’s death!”
Merick just stared Gasdon down as he fingered the antler handle of a combat knife on his belt. Josedus then turned and smiled, the two friends had worked so often that the good guy and bad guy routine had been used wordlessly.
“I’m sorry Gasdon, while I would love to have your expertise, this is an official royal investigation and no one here at the school may be involved.”
The lie had rolled smoothly off of Josedus’ tongue since this had not been the first time he had been forced to sooth the feathers of some political pidgin that Merick had intentionally ruffled. The back and forth allowed Josedus to run investigations without interference and left Merick with all the hostility, something he was more than capable of handling. All of Josedus’ classes revolved around divination magic. While it made him an excellent investigator, and he had leveled far into his two classes, it left him with almost no physical or magical might. That was what Merick and his troop were for.
After a few more pleasantries from the thoroughly unpleasant Gasdon, Jusedus and Merick’s team were able to move up the tower and begin their investigation. To Merick’s eyes, the tower appeared to have had a perfect sphere bitten out of one side halfway up the tower. Whatever had caused this was obviously magical in nature, no mundane act could cut away a perfectly smooth sphere a hundred feet into the air. The top half of the tower had fallen down below but the spherical section was nowhere to be found.
After both men had looked around the site, Merick stepped back to the stairway to take up a careful watch while Josedus pulled out another vial of his stomach aid. After consuming his customary tonic, he settled down and prepared his usual spells.
After ten minutes of gently glowing lights and mutters, Josedus rocked back on his heels before clumsily dropping on his ass.
Merick stepped forward and helped his friend up but couldn’t restrain his chuckle, “switched out your stomach tonic for something a bit harder my friend? You might want to switch back!”
Josedus chuckled as he smacked his friend's shoulder before his smile slowly slipped away as he looked around. The somber mood told Merick that it was more than booze or magical backlash which had knocked the [Royal Diviner] on his ass.
“What is it. What did you see?”
Staring around as if he could clear up his vision he was silent for a long while before he explained his issue.
“I saw nothing. [Visions of the Past] is usually an easy spell. It shows me exactly what happened in any magically charged situation, but here I just see a flash of stone and nothing else.”
Merick looked around for a short period then twisted his lips around in distaste to the obvious conclusion which could be reached from those results.
“So Delgan was ambushed then? Well, it’s not that much of a surprise. Few ways you can kill a combat focused [Wizard] that powerful and not have a rip-roaring dust-up, unless you do it quickly.”
“Yes, but that’s just it,” Jusedus began as he moved closer in order to whisper even though one should have been able to breach the privacy wards he had placed. A [Royal Diviner] was, after all, about the control of information, not just it’s discovery.
“…that’s just it…I sensed no presence besides the [Wizard] and his apprentice, worse, the attack seemed to be instantaneous and not like anything I have ever seen before.”
Again, the [Guard Captains] face puckered upon hearing the souring news. An assassin sneaks into the kingdom, sneaks their way all the way to the admittedly out of the way mage guild school, instantly assassinates the most powerful [Wizard] in the kingdom, and then silently escapes? This was starting to sound worse and worse. This sounded like more than what someone would do in preparation for an invasion. This sounded like one of many possibly nasty things, an invasion was possible, but this type of skill could have been used to assassinate the king! Was this just a trial run?
The wards around this castle were no less impressive than the ones around the king’s castle. While Josedus had built the king’s wards and had focused on detection, Delgan’s wards were no less sensitive, but far more dead
ly. Delgan had been rumored to be close to becoming an [Arch-Mage], if the rumors were true, then he had multi-classed into many different magical classes and had perfected multiple areas of magic. Such a man was not to be trifled with.
A king was not an easier target, the power of a kingdom and all its defenders was a force multiplier one man could never have, no matter his magical might. All the same…such an assassination would make a useful test for a new assassination spell.
“Anything else your spell tell you that could give us a hint as to the [Rebel]?”
Josedus paused, then looked his friend in the eyes, “Swear you will tell no one, save the king, what I am about to tell you now.”
Merick held the look and answered, “I so swear.”
“The king’s skill, [Detect Rebellion], gifted from his merging of classes, has never before been wrong. It has always detected a rebellion and directed towards the [Rebel] unless they leave the kingdom. This rebellion lasted only a brief moment. Whoever this person is, they can hide from our kingdom’s greatest protection, the [Rebel King’s] skill.”
The pair stood silently as they looked over the perfectly cut smooth stones of the tower and considered the danger such a skill allowed. Never had someone avoided the king’s senses. From one edge of the kingdom to the other, the king had been able to direct his [Royal Diviner] when needed. The ability to know that a poorly yielding year was the fault of rains, and not a [Duke] skimming off the top, was a godsend. Knowing that the death of a [Count] in a hunting accident was actually an accident, protected nobles and peasants alike. The ability which had safeguarded the kingdom and the king’s sense of security for the last ten years was no longer foolproof.
The king had always been paranoid, his survival of the [Tyrant King] while his two brothers did not, had ensured that. But his reign as king had been a time of the kingdom’s flourishing, in part because he simply knew if someone had betrayed him. Even secret rebellions formed through no more than two [Barons] agreeing to work against the king had been enough to trigger the [Rebel Kings] skill.
