Book of the Dungeon Maker

by Nathan Valerio

  With the thought of it going away the ball vanished.

  “This is costly but convenient magic, the ball is clearly brighter than those in the hallway. This is getting interesting.” I smiled as I saw it.

  Still looking at the mana in my stats, I had lost 15 extra mana for executing successful the spell.

  “So 25 for each rune, plus the energy needed for the spell. It seems inconvenient, but if the runes could be left on paper to activate I can make charms and talismans. Might even make a profit off selling them,” I muttered while chuckling.

  It would require experimentation because I doubted talismans were so simple to make. I would probably need to learn to delay the activation and all that.

  Putting all that at the back of my mind, I grabbed the sword and examine it.

  I noticed an interesting feature as there were runes on the hilt.

  I didn't know to activate them since, up until then, the pen had forcefully pulled my mana out so I couldn’t test if these runes have any real effect.

  After looking it over, I suddenly began to feel sleepy.

  I frowned at this and looked around, not once had I trusted those in this place.

  “Let's see, unsummon... put away... store. Oh?” I muttered as the three artifacts turned to light and returned to my body.

  I stood up and walked to the door and tried to open but found it was locked.

  I shook my head and looked around spotting several vents that actually looked like air conditioning vents, but I knew otherwise.

  I went to the one closest to the door, and bent over to hear.

  “Are you sure we should do this? The king might get angry?” a man said.

  “Shut up, the king doesn't need to know anything, also he disrespected everyone so if we don't show him the error of his ways, it will tarnish our reputation,” another said.

  From the sound of the footsteps, there weren't any more than three and one seemed to be a higher ranking knight.

  “I think the sleeping gas should have taken effect by now, come on,” the leader said.

  Seeing as they were going to enter, I got behind the right door, the door being a double one but since my dominant side is right, I hid on the left side since the punch would be stronger.

  As they opened the door, they covered me from view.

  “Where is he?” one of the men asked as the three slowly walked in.

  As the final one passed the door, I closed it and ran to the last one giving him the strongest chop to the unprotected neck. The space wasn't more than an inch, but my hand hit full on making him drop like a sack of potatoes.

  The door closing and the man collapsing alerted the other two, but I was already mid punch to the other guy, and the punch was a hook. The helmets weren't complex, it covered the top of the head down near the bottom on the sides, but didn't cover the chin or neck, though the neck had chainmail protecting it.

  My fist connected with his chin, sending him reeling back before I gave him a punch on the waist in another space left open by the armor. All in all, he fell down dazed and immobile.

  Finally, the leader reacted and rushed me throwing a right punch. He seemed to be at least in some control since he didn't pull his sword.

  Still I faced him and with my right hand I caught his wrist while I kept turning and pulling him along. When I had done a 180 degree turn, I leveraged him on my back while grabbing him on the shoulder before flipping him and jumping, letting my weight crush him for additional damage.

  Boxing and judo were rather useful combat styles especially in a medieval world like this.

  As the three were sprawling on the ground I stretched my arms and legs causing the sound of cracks to sound out from my body.

  “Damn, much stronger than normal, at least by a third,” I said nonchalantly and looked at the worms at my feet.

  At that time, a group of guards entered my room.

  “What is the meaning of this?!” he shouted and glared at me.

  “What are you staring at me for? Don't you know this is my room and these worthless piles of shit invaded it. I was defending myself, these idiots even used sleeping gas to try and make me weaker so they could teach me a lesson. You better keep your mutts on a leash, or next time it won't end with just a few broken bones or a single hit to knock them out,” I said bluntly and began to summon my artifacts.

  The leading guard was bright red, but he ordered his men to remove the others and left.

  I went over and found the key next to the door, it was hanging on a hook, so I locked the door and walked to my bed as my three artifacts appeared in front of me.

  I took the book and pen and just kept playing with the least dangerous combos to figure them out.

  As night fell, a maid called us for dinner and I went to eat while ignoring everyone.

  It failed unfortunately, as a girl that looked around 10 walked up to me. She was a Lolita with green hair tied in two drill ponytails. She looked rather arrogant, but as she walked up it turned into innocent curiosity.

  “Hey, hero guy? Why are you so quiet unlike the blondie?” she asked bluntly.

  “Marian? Don't speak so disrespectful about the hero!” the king said from the end of the table where the queen, elder princess, crowned prince, and two other princes were sitting. The queen was a beautiful middle-aged woman though she didn’t look a day over thirty. Yet, she had a mature aura around her, offset by her dark purple hair. As for the elder princess, she was beautiful with fiery red hair and ruby eyes. She had similar drill twirled hair going down to her waist, sadly she showed an innocent smile, but had the aura of a viper and was doing far too well with the narcissist hero.

  The two looked like a lovely couple, but any man with common modern day sense would feel like vomiting to this love act which is how all the summoned males felt while the women were mostly indifferent.

  Now the princes, first the youngest prince, he was the twin of the current girl next to me, and had similar green hair, but timid unlike his sisters. The second eldest had sharp features and wore glasses in front of his purple eyes, inherited from his mother. He had the same hair too.. Finally, the crowned prince was a decent fellow.

  It was a surprise to see a crowned prince that wasn't conceited due to his position. He had pure black hair and eyes, and a pale skin tone with a small golden crown on his head about a third of the size of his father’s. Unlike the king though, he didn’t shown any negative qualities and had been rather impartial about everything.

  “Hmpf, why should I respect a no good lady killer like him,” Marian, the youngest princess, said.

  I almost spat out what I was eating when I heard that. Forcing my food down I started laughing readily and turned to her before patting her head.

  “You’re really smart for someone so young,” I said with a smile.

  She gave me a toothy grin as she pulled up a chair next to me.

  “Marian! Get back to your seat here this instant!” the king said.

  “Hmpf! What’s so fun being over there, all I hear is sis trying to brainwash that blondie. So, hero guy, what’s your name and class? What can you do? How strong are you? Did you know you look hotter than blondie?” she asked rapid-fire questions.

  “I'm called Ace Cross, I'm a dungeon maker, I can beat up the guards in this castle like I did to the three idiots that came to my room a few hours ago, and yes I know I am hotter than him,” I said in one go.

  I took a glass of grape juice and poured a bit for her then grabbed a part of a huge boar near my seat.

  “Marian sweetie, please come back to your seat, you’re making your father look like a joke and disrupting the heroes dinner.” The queen spoke in a crystal clear voice that felt nice to hear.

  Marian, unlike with the king, just pouted and nodded before returning to her seat.

  I looked over with a curious look at the two royals at the end of the table.

  “From her actions, the one with the pants in the pair is the queen, I wonder if thi
s nation is a queendom instead?” I thought, but then my eyes turned to the crowned prince with his dashing almost frail good looks.

  Looking at the clothing, I noticed how he was wearing more than a normal amount of clothes for the time of year. Looking even closer, it was possible to see a bit of sweat on his head.

  “It’s totally a princess, good disguise, but with enough brains people can see through it,” I thought.

  I smiled at all the political bullshit going on at the table and finished my current plate. Feeling no more desire to remain there, I simply got up.

  Marian reacted as she saw me stand as did the others.

  “Ace! Where are you going?” Marian asked.

  “Sleep what else?” I replied.

  “Mr. Ace, please remain until after everyone eats, because of the number of people summoned this time we need to decide how you will split up,” the queen said making a suggestion. but the feeling it gave me said that I sit, or I would regret it.

  “If Your Highness requests me, then I shall remain a while longer,” I said, but looked out the corner of my eye at the shadows that had gained eyes but now returned to normal.

  This world wasn’t as simple as it seemed.

  Sitting down, my senses sharpened after what had happened, the king didn’t look happy about it, but I couldn’t care less.

  After a while everyone finished up and soon looked toward the royals.

  “It seems everyone is finished, we shall proceed to the main topic today. You heroes need to decide if you will go alone, pair up between yourselves or go in one large group. If you go alone, we can provide a few recruits to join your party,” the queen said.

  All the heroes looked at each other, and as expected, pretty boy stood up and in a most glorious fashion he began his speech.

  “I believe we, as heroes, must work together and accomplish our objective to return home and see ou—”

  “I'll pass!” I cut him off.

  Cutting his flow left him frozen for a long moment before he looked at me.

  “Why?” he asked but his expression was dark.

  “I said it when we first arrived, I died and was caught by the hero summoning spell. I was pretty much reborn into this world, got nothing left in that world anyway. Parents are dead, my little sister is married and happily living in a different country, no cousins within reach to even care about me, so I don’t give a rats ass about returning,” I replied.

  Some of the people, including the princes were a bit surprised by my words.

  “I kind of agree with him,” a young girl with dark silky straight hair and a petite figure said. She looked around 16, but I knew better than to judge sizes especially toward a Japanese girl. On her lap was a katana in the plain white sheath it came with. Its guard was basic and round, while the hilt had just simple white leather straps. She wore a shrine maiden’s clothing and had part of her hair tied in the front hanging in front and not behind her.

  “What exactly do you agree with?” the queen asked.

  “I died after being attacked by a tiger and my soul was picked up as well, I see no reason to return,” she said stone faced.

  The pretty boy’s eye twitched, most likely he had his eyes on her because she was a grade A beauty.

  “It seems this incident isn’t isolated, please raise your hand if you died before being summoned?” the queen asked.

  Several people including the two of us raised our hands. In total, besides me and the girl, a swordsman, a male mage, a male and female archer pair, and a woman with a halberd raised their hands.

  “Any of you feel like traveling with the hero?” the queen asked and everyone shook their heads.

  Of the 15 summoned, 7 had already broken away from Mr. Hero.

  “Do any of you plan to partner up?” the queen asked.

  “I am still 17 and wish to be with a responsible adult. I wish to follow Mr. Ace if you will allow me?” the Japanese asked, and I shrugged.

  The others formed a single party.

  As for the remaining people they all looked at each other before finally looking at the pretty boy and then turning to look at a man at the furthest end of the table. He was tall and was someone that got a longsword. It looked like a katana with the curve but it was almost two meters long and needed to be swung in large arcs. It was two-handed sword like a greatsword, but it was lighter and allowed fast combos.

  I remembered seeing similar things inside a game back on Earth.

  “I don’t plan to follow such a hypocrite like that guy, I'll go my own way,” the swordsman said.

  Within the group of heroes, it goes without saying that some had fierce personalities, and others with weaker ones; but the ones with the biggest egos were myself, pretty boy, and this extremely dangerous swordsman. Even I felt cautious around him. He clearly did some kind of field work or was a war veteran.

  At that point, a girl with fake cat ears stood up and walked over and asked to join his party, followed by a really skittish girl holding a staff. This was the only healer that appeared and had a rather weak personality, but it fit her.

  I almost laughed when only one guy, a mage, wanted to join pretty boy while the others formed a separate group.

  Mr. Hero’s face was bright red at the shame of being so ignored.

  “Are we done?” I asked.

  “We just need to write down who is with whom, and then we will arrange the rooms so teammates are near each other. Starting tomorrow, the training for each of you will begin, Mr. Cross, you will join weapon training in the morning, magic in the afternoon and gain basic understandings of crafts in the evening. Our librarian has already found the book on the runic language. It has been transported to your room. Please refrain from using the pen and runes to do magic unless you are in the training rooms,” the queen said.

  “So I was seen, as expected,” I thought and nodded.

  “Now, you are all free to enjoy your evenings and good night,” the queen said and got up.

  At her orders we all left. The queen was by far the scariest person in that room but at least she was more impartial than the king who only wanted to favor the one with the class designation hero, instead of different classes.

  Returning to my room I found several dozen maids who measured me before leaving, and returned with some sleeping clothes I could change into. I stepped out of my jeans, black shirt and shoes.

  I knew they would be gone by morning and sighed before falling into bed. I fell asleep after storing my book, pen and sword beside my bed, and the book on runic language next to my own artifact.

  Chapter 2

  “So… why did you want to join my group?” I asked the girl in front of me.

  Clack!

  A short sword and a katana collided in front of me and the Japanese shrine maiden.

  “I may be young, but I am well studied and since modern day has few people visiting the shrines besides during festivals, I had time to enjoy modern entertainment and know craft classes are weak at the start but provide the best long term benefits,” she said bluntly.

  Peng.

  I side stepped to the left after pushing the short sword to deflect the katana.

  “That is true, I will need to learn to build my own dungeons or parts of the layouts, but there is more to this right?” I asked and stepped forward swinging horizontally.

  She ducked, and with her left hand she swung the katana sheath at my leg, but I jumped trying to catch it under my feet. I missed and had to jump again as the katana followed.

  Swoosh.

  “You spoke of runic language, whenever there was something similar, it meant magic writing. As a shrine maiden I have heard of mystic writing which allows the talismans to gather spirit energy in the air and cause mystical phenomenon around them. I personally want the talismans as a weapon and for the purpose of furthering my training as a shrine maiden,” she said.

  I took several steps back after the swing and distanced myself from her by taking extra steps back.
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  “You have quite good reflexes,” she said.

  “Thank you and as for the talismans, I had thought the same, I did discover a bit about the class but haven’t experimented with magic so much,” I told her.

  “It's the pen right?” she asked and I nodded.

  “Alright you two, stop talking and get serious!” the instructor knight said. He was an elder man in his fifties and wore light plate armor over riveted leather armor.

  “Sir, my skill with this weapon already surpasses most of your soldiers, I am simply aiding my companion so I do not want to injure him without letting him grow accustomed to danger,” the girl said.

  Her name Shinigumi Misaki—a shrine maiden, and a true blue spirit medium. She could see Earth's spirits and aided them in passing on, but she also had extensive knowledge of anime and manga. She was a prodigy with the katana as shown by her holding back. A normal person would take 20 years to learn the proper forms of the katana, but she took 10 years starting her training when she was 6.

  I was quite fond of her blunt personality which was similar to my own. She was quite honest in her responses, and if she didn’t want to answer something she would bluntly reject answering it instead of making up a lie, because, in her own words, ‘Lying taints the soul allow the Akuma (demons) to invade your soul and corrupt you.’

  It seems the translation spell still allowed slip ups and revealed the true language of one's origins.

  “Yeah yeah, just keep fighting and less chatting,” the instructor said rather bored.

  We both rolled our eyes at this display of caring for our group.

  My eye moved to the pretty boy’s group across the field. He was surrounded by knights cheering as he fought a weakling knight and danced around him. The fake cheers made me nauseous. The king clearly favored him, but at that moment an interesting pair walked out of the castle. It was Marian and the crowned prince.

  Looking at him, the knights turned and bowed.

  He didn’t react as Marian looked around and a smile crossed her face as she ran over to us followed by the crowned prince… or should I say princess.