“I think you can still make them. I did notice that one of the puppets you sent me learned alchemy, but it didn’t evolve. I am not sure, but there may be something else beyond it. I am sure he learned the alchemy skill because he now works automatically which wasn’t the case before,” Hermes said.
“Maybe the puppets can learn skills without evolving,” Charlotte said.
“That is a possibility, but since we don’t have the time for it now, we can only wait for when we reach the elven nation. They shouldn’t be any shabbier in blacksmithing than the dwarves considering in our fantasy stories they are the only ones that know how to work with mithril,” I said.
“That is true in our world as well. That said, I have heard the elves have somewhat eccentric personalities as a whole. No matter what type of elf, they are eccentric in one way or another,” Charlotte said.
“I heard that too. Though I heard from Master that wood elves are some of the stranger ones. By that, I mean they seem to love hoarding flowers and plants of high magic content that can cause effects to the body when brewed into potions differently. It’s said they have even discovered how to make a true love potion which makes someone fall into a trance and makes them fall for the first person they see,” Hermes said.
“For me, I heard of high elves, they possess a supremely hearty personality and it's said that towards criminals, they take pleasure in whipping them in public to humiliate them,” Charlotte said.
My brow rose and Misaki's lips were parted from the surprise of hearing how elves acted. Still, what they said seemed strange.
“For us, elves should normally be modest but wear really skimpy clothes due to their free nature loving ways. They are also virtuous, even though they don’t fear showing off a lot of skin,” I said.
We talked a bit before deciding to go do our own things.
For me, I went to my room to finally finished organizing the new runes. As a result this is the full list I formed by category of runes.
Elements
Shapes
Unique
Directions
Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Light, Dark, Ice, Lightning, Sand, Metal, Mana, Wood, Lava, Space, Storm, Steam, Blood, Life
Ball, Spike, Shards, Pillar, Chain, Blade
Enchant, Curse, Harden, Accelerate, Shrink, Explode, Trapping, Lengthen, Shorten, Widen, Rise, Fall, Vein, Pocket, Seal, Void
Forward, Upwards, Curving Left, Curving Right, Backwards, North, Northeast, East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West and Northwest
Weak effects
Action
Trigger
Beast
Slow Healing, Heal, Slow Poison, Poison, Weak Antidote, Antidote, Weak Fear, Fear, Weak Paralysis, Paralysis
Lunge, Spin, Revolve, Guard, Slice, Slash
Delay Activation, Slow Charge
Spawn, Wolf, Tiger, Rabbit, Lizard, Snake, Cat, Dog, Bird, Fish, Bear
Locations
Objects
Measurement
Number
Hell, Heaven
Moon, Star, Rock
Centimeter, Meter, Kilometer, Inch, Feet, Mile
Zero, One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine
Colors
Stats
Weapons
Vegetation
Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet
Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Wisdom, Endurance, Vitality, Health, Mana
Sword, Spear, Lance, Wall, Bow, Axe, Dagger, Club, Mace, Staff, Bo-staff, Javelin
Vine, Tree, Flower
Minerals
Insects
Iron, Copper, Tin, Coal
Spider, Fly, Wasp, Bee, Worm, Ant
I seriously wish I could erase the insect section. It made my skin itch and feel uncomfortable for some reason.
That said, the rest were all interesting though not many were usable in combat, but in dungeons they would bring me lots of benefits. Like the minerals plus the vein rune could make a mineral vein of those types and maybe I could even make a mana vein with the element rune plus the mana and vein runes.
I wondered though what the beast runes were for. If summoning things wasn’t so mana costly, I would make a summoning magic formation with moon and rabbit runes to see if there was any success, but I would need to add the slow charge so that I wouldn’t suffer the backlash of having mana sucked out of me.
The rabbits I already had were spreading rapidly in the dungeon with already some 100 or so forming dens in the rooms, but the floors and walls were undamageable so they couldn’t make dens there. If I had exp crystals, I could probably upgrade a wooden room to a large room and have it filled with dirt which would allow the rabbits to make their den inside that dirt filled room.
Doing nothing else important for the rest of the day, I picked up Valery as it got late and brought her inside and close the dungeon. She got tired quickly and fell asleep.
Like that, we spent the next three days with very little to do besides talk. I did have two puppets each help the construction since I wanted blacksmithing and carpentry skilled puppets, but neither were of much help without someone commanding them constantly.
Eventually, everything was done, and a large stagecoach was built within the small town. The little wolf girl was running around it excitedly in a pure white dress that made her tan skin stand out even more.
We paid them for the stagecoach and as the other three entered, Misaki looked at me.
“So where are the horses?”
Behind me, a huge puppet with large metal armor skin rose from the magic circle and slowly walked to the front. It grabbed the wooden beam sticking out the front. I jumped into the driver’s box.
“Don’t need one, I just need to control the guardian properly, so he doesn’t go overboard in his speed,” I said.
We all waved the people goodbye and headed out the east gate heading toward the path that the goblins came through on the largest road where the stagecoach fit. Soon I had him going at a good pace similar to around 30 km/h. We maintained that with me at the front being careful about the speed we ran at and any possible obstacles.
Chapter 22
Within the Heavenlight royal family’s castle war room. A group of lights flashed and Richard, Marybell Heavenlight (the second princess), a young mage with white robes, and a tall man dressed like a knight with a spear on his back appeared.
“Finally home! I need to take a bath to get this filth off of me, MAIDS! Honey, please wait for me,” Marybell said and waved to Richard.
“I'll be in my room,” he said proudly.
The other two looked at each other and sighed. The party had been much larger, but those of the heroes that had followed him couldn’t stand him and split off. He found the young light mage and the mercenary knight and they formed a personal party.
They both sighed and shook their heads at the princess.
“Haha! Now that we are E rank we can take on D rank missions and slowly build a powerful party!” Richard spoke to no one out loud.
“Sir, where do we stay? I understand the royal family gave the heroes personal rooms, but we aren’t heroes,” the knight said.
“You are part of a hero’s party so don’t worry, also Mary can easily secure some rooms for you since lots of guest rooms exist in the castle. Let's go eat something better than that gruel we have been eating,” Richard said making the mage frown.
“Is my cooking that bad?” the mage asked whispering to the knight.
“No, he is just picky,” the knight replied in the same low voice.
They followed Richard to the dining hall where breakfast had been placed.
Arriving, they found Nickelous’s party, which consisted of him, the priestess girl, a wind mage, a beast tamer, a hero archer, and a hero knight.
“Good morning Richard!” the priestess said with a smile as they arrived.
Richard frowned as he saw her, he had wanted her to be in his party since she was a healer, but she had gone to Nicke
lous.
“Hmpf. You all seem… well,” Richard replied and walked to the other end.
“Don’t bother with the prick, Julie,” Nickelous said after eating a chicken.
Richard stopped in his tracks and looked back.
“Who is a prick! I'll have you know I got E rank adventurer guild rank after one run of missions!” he shouted.
Nickelous didn’t even look up but the beast tamer did. On his arm was a monkey who was holding a peeled banana.
“We gained D rank already, we got lucky that one of the missions we did was difficulty in the lower C rank so we got D,” he said.
“What! How did you start a C rank mission!” Richard shouted.
“We didn’t, the mission rank was wrong from the start. Hunting down a pack of devil spawn from a dungeon got worse when we reached their nest and found a boss class,” the knight said.
Richard clenched his fist and looked at the seat that Ace had sat in during the first day.
“If you're wondering about Ace Cross, I heard he got C rank and didn’t get B only because his strength wouldn’t allow it. His mission had an even more extreme boss monster who he tamed and made his minion along with the boss's own minions,” the archer hero in Nickelous’s party said.
Richard turned bright red and turned on his heel and went to the end of the table and viciously ate quickly.
The two men in his party just looked at each other and kept eating before following after him and asking where he went.
***
“What did you say!?”
In Marybell’s room she was taking a bath while her personal maid filled her in on her sister’s movement and her success. She couldn’t help but scream hearing she had gained C rank status, but hadn’t chosen to do more missions until their strength fit their rank. They had told her mother they were going to train in the Elven nation to strengthen their magic and skills.
“This is bad, my sister is advancing very quickly with that bastard since he can gather the monsters for her to hunt in peace,” Marybell said in the hot water tub.
“Crowned Princess is currently on the way to the elf nation by stagecoach. As the queen cannot send our shadows over without endangering relations since their shadows are better, so they must locate the teleportation stones on their own. It should be about a week before they reach the nearest town within the elf nation,” the maid said.
“That is if they are moving with regular horses which I doubt is the case. That massive puppet the bastard had can easily pull them along and deter monsters by his presence so it could easily be less time. Send someone to the elf nation to keep me informed. I need to get Richard to high fame while they are away and spread rumors about the dungeon maker and that samurai girl. The girl is easy but the dungeon maker not so much,” Marybell said.
“His Majesty does not see Sir Cross in a good light, maybe he may assist you in your endeavor,” the maid suggested.
“That's it! Daddy can help me out!” Marybell said and got up revealing her very large mounds and alluring curves.
She held her arms out and her maids began to dry her. Just like all spoiled nobles, she had never done things on her own. She took pleasure in commanding other people from a high place. She was far different to Charlotte which is the main reason Charlotte was the crowned princess. There was even a chance that if Charlotte died Marian would become crowned princess before Marybell.
The princess put on the now cleaned red silk robes and wizard clothes and quickly walked off in search of her father.
After some searching, she found him in her mother’s study reviewing several strange parchments.
“Daddy! I want you to suppress that stupid dungeon idiot and the samurai hussy! I heard they surpassed Richard’s achievements! How am I going to marry a hero with no influential power!” she shouted entering the room.
“Sweetie…” he said solemnly.
“What?” she replied.
“As much as I would love to help you this time. The boy has planned ahead and moved quicker than this old man,” he said.
“What did he do? Did he run away? Is he trying to do something that will take my chances to be queen?” Marybell asked.
“He got a large amount of support from your mother. He traded farming techniques from his world, both he and Misaki Shinigumi drew out the original diagram in front of me and while spending nearly three days to get their payment, they went through the geographical files of our nation. They even helped your mother decide which regions should experiment with which crops,” the king said and hung his head.
I walked over and started to read all the files and things that made up their plans.
“This is absurd! He wants to completely destroy how farmers work!” Marybell shouted.
“No, he is putting us in place, both your mother and I entered what he called his ‘farm dungeon.’ He showed us exactly what we are missing, the fields in this method make gathering easier. He showed us how to make the bull-drawn plows to prepare the fields. Fertilizer to help get rid of a tremendous amount of the waste produce we have in the capital and all the noble houses, make them use that on the fields as an offering to the earth goddess for her to bless the earth over the fields. It was simple, back breaking, but it was work that would produce maybe five or six times more food than we make in one harvest, and as the technique is perfected in our own ways it will only grow with time,” the king said.
“You saw his own field! Where did he get land?” Marybell asked.
“He transformed his dungeon, he is like a walking plantation and as he gets more materials to build this dungeon, he will only produce more and more. All extremely high quality crops, he even left a large amount with us since he did not need it and could obtain the same amount in about three days with his puppets using nature magic to rapidly increase the growth and quality,” the king replied.
“Father! We need to stop him! I want you to send someone after them, spread rumors about him being someone of the demon lord's side or a spy or maybe a demon in disguise!” Marybell was frantic.
“I can’t, your mother has ordered all shadows to ignore all your orders and any orders from me that you wish accomplished. If you haven’t noticed already, there are some in this room watching. Don’t think of doing anything to them,” the king stood and said sternly towards his daughter. “It will only end badly if we try anything…” He got in close and whispered in her ear, “For now.”
She nodded understanding and frowned.
“Where are they now?” she asked.
“I had heard they wished to go to the elven nation to polish their magic and skills. I believe you must have heard that from your maids. They will most likely attempt to gain access to the elves extensive rune archive,” he said and chuckled.
“What is so funny?” Marybell asked.
“It’s the elves, you have never met one before so you have no idea how eccentric one can be. Not only that, but to learn a rune in the elf nation it takes adventure guild contribution points. To make it worse, foreign races must pay at least five times the amount of contribution points as compared to the elves. They will truly face a predicament if they believe the elves are an easy race to deal with. It is a shame I am not there to watch but I can more or less guess how things will go,” he said grinning.
“I think we should follow them!” Marybell said.
“No, as much as I want to support Richard, he is a lustful fool who is easy to manipulate, but in the Elven nation he will be eaten by them as soon as he reaches the smallest of villages let alone the capital. If you want to go somewhere, I shall ask your mother to see for a dwarf sky ship to take you to the dwarf nation but not the Elven one. Not until Richard hardens up and forms a stronger will.” the king said.
“So, just sit on our asses letting them grow stronger?” Marybell said furious.
“No, there are things we can do like giving you missions through the adventurer’s guild that will benefit his growth. He needs to go through life
and death situations to make his foolish nature mature more and for him to realize this isn’t some playground. You also need to gain levels. Your sister has already reached level 18 in this short time. With the C rank they will need to be cautious but not overly as they grow. They can’t grow higher due to their levels and strength being too low, so just build up a strong force and slowly manipulate the hero as we like,” he said in a low voice.
Marybell nodded and walked out in silence. The king let out a sigh and looked at the parchments in front of him shaking his head.
“Good job, to think you could actually contain our daughter. You have always been a weakling to her advances,” the queen said coming out from a hidden door behind a rotating bookcase.
“Why must I keep her away from Ace Cross?” the king asked.
“First off, if she chooses to abandon the hero then she will be thrown aside by Ace. Ace isn’t a stupid man like Richard. Richard is a good man to have as a figurehead, the perfect prince-like figure but he is far from being a hero. Nickelous and Ace are the smartest of the heroes, Misaki possess immense skill, several others are very talented with magic. If I sent them to learn from Ace after he returns from the elf nation, they will not only cause our nation's magical prowess to boom, but will also allow our nation to start developing magical artifacts like never before. The ones we get from dungeons are too mysterious. Research is too slow and we have only been able to make the lowest trash level artifacts due to the engraving skill, and we still lack the runes to improve them. You know Ace found out his puppets could make low grade artifacts from equipment which he now equips his puppets with,” the queen said.
“I had witnessed that yes, I saw the mages and warrior puppets with the metal armor, yet it looked to have veins. He must have used some skill the puppets had, but we already know we can’t rely on that or else we will rely on him and the artifacts were low grade. That said, if he found out how to make true artifacts then we can only bow our heads and ask him to teach us,” the king said.
Book of the Dungeon Maker Page 24
