by Dante King
I would just have to wait until I found a place worthy of my dungeon. This cavern wasn’t an ideal location, so I needed to move on. Another weapon would serve me well, so I hurriedly snapped another leg from the table.
Before leaving, my attention was drawn to the blood leaking from the gnome’s busted skull. I felt a strong urge to lap up the delicious-looking liquid but as much as I wanted to quench my thirst, I couldn’t stay. That crazy little bastard had made enough noise to wake up a cemetery, and my timer was still ticking down. Another battle might earn me more loot and Infernal Essence, but I couldn’t risk getting overwhelmed. If table legs and one fat little screeching gnome were giving me trouble, what could four of the bastards to do to me?
Armed with a fresh club, I took a minute to catch my breath before racing out of the chamber. My avatar was on a time limit, so I wanted to cover as much ground as possible. I reached the caverns’ exit in ten minutes without encountering any creatures. Brightness assaulted my eyes, and I filled my lungs with the stench of sulfur.
It smelled wonderful.
It smelled like home.
Yeah, this was hell alright.
I intended on making it my own.
Chapter Five
Fissures expanded from the mountain’s foot twenty miles in all directions like networks of blood veins. Smoke belched from the cracks in the earth while steam drifted from lava pools. Decrepit woodlands lay a few miles south, and a patchwork of fortified cities flanked skeletal trees, thin leafless branches jutting out like bleached bones. To the east was a massive crystalline sea, broken only by a smattering of mist-shrouded islands. Gray mountains with frosted peaks rose up from the west, and a desert of black sand spanned for miles in the north.
My elvish eyes could make out everything with the precision of binoculars. I felt a tug deep within my stomach that drew me to the edge of a cliff. I stood halfway up the mountain, its peak lost in the clouds above me and its foot a dizzying plunge below.
While I could have gone anywhere, Lilith had brought me to this mountain, and she’d implied the peak would be the best location for my jewel. It was only a few miles upward, and the roads encircling the landmass didn’t look too steep.
I started my ascent, heading left along the narrow road that spiraled around the mountain. My boots crunched on loose stones and jagged slate riddled with cracks. I focused my eyes on my surroundings and kept my hypersensitive ears peeled for trouble. Something caught my eye—a network of cables reaching from one ridge to another and climbing ever upward. They were the remnants of a primitive cable car system. While they were old, they weren’t fraying. The rope’s threads glistened and sparkled. When I touched them, my skin tingled as though the ropes harbored a magical energy. Possibly it was Infernal Essence, the same substance hovering in my jewel?
I approached an upturned cart on the ground and inspected the magical symbols on its sides. The cable cars must have worked by magic, but the substance that had infused it was no longer active.
I traced over the symbol, and a dark point appeared where my finger had been. My Infernal Essence total appeared, slowly ticking down to thirty-nine. I continued tracing the symbols until they were completely covered in the black substance. When I was finished, my Infernal Essence totaled thirty-seven.
I stepped back as the symbol burst with an eerie blood-red light. The magical seal now active, I shifted the cart onto its wheels and pushed it toward the cables. It took me a few minutes to secure the cart to the ropes. As much as I enjoyed the senses, the speed, and the look of the elf, he couldn’t lift things or fight like I needed him to—at least, not yet. As soon as I was completely inside the cart, it started to move of its own accord, ascending toward the mountain’s peak.
After a few minutes, the cart suddenly jolted to a stop, and I glanced over the edge and looked at the dull symbols on its sides. The magic had eroded, and the cart was hanging a few feet away from the mountain. I was stretching over the side to trace the symbol again when I heard a deafening roar.
A monstrous troll sprinted out from a cave and surged toward me. Tracing the magical symbol earlier had taken more minutes than I currently possessed, so I climbed onto the edge of the cart and launched myself over the distance and onto the mountain. Only as my gut lurched and I slammed into the rock face did it occur to me the elf could definitely jump. My fingers struggled to find purchase on the cliff, but I managed to scramble up and onto my feet.
I sprinted up the mountain path with the troll scrambling up behind me, creating mini-avalanches of stones that plummeted off the cliffside. He was an ugly fucker, a giant green brute rippling with muscle. He was gaining, and I couldn’t keep this up all day—my timer was ticking down. I rounded a corner in the path, saw a crack in the mountain face to my left, and lunged for it.
When the troll turned the corner, I leaped from my hiding place and cracked him in the stomach with the sharp end of the club. The wood fractured into splinters, but his hardened abdomen remained unharmed.
The troll straightened, his massive form now drowning me in its shadow. He grinned and chuckled at me while I wrinkled my nose at the pungent smell. Worse than the gnome, this thing smelled like fossilized, just-microwaved dinosaur shit.
“You be a little weakling, elf. You cannot harm me.”
“How about I give you a bath? That do the trick?”
What was it about this world that made me want to run my mouth?
The troll drove his fist toward me, but I twisted aside at the last second. The monster’s hand was almost as big as my torso, and a single hit would cave in my chest and kill me in one blow. Little remained of my club, so I tossed it aside. The troll lunged and swiped, but I barely managed to duck before he took my head off. I couldn’t keep this up, not unless I could convince him to jump off the cliff.
I dodged a second too late, the troll snatching my tunic in his hand. I had to repress the urge to gag when he pulled me into his face. Fuck, this creature smelled bad, almost making me wish for the gnome again.
Looming in my vision was a huge, square-jawed face with chipped and yellowed tusks curling out of his jaw. He twisted his grip, and my tunic tore down the middle to reveal the sling I’d fashioned out of my tunic’s sleeves. His eyes locked onto my sling, and my jewel sparkled beneath the fabric in the reflection of his black pupils.
“Aye?” the troll paused. “Something shiny be in your sling.”
I recalled my avatar’s ability to enthrall an enemy from his creation screen, but didn’t know how to activate it. Lilith had been under my sway when I’d stared into her eyes, so I guessed I had to do the same to this troll if I wanted to charm it.
“Shiny? The only thing that’s shiny is your bald-ass head.”
“What did you say?” The troll tightened his grip around my tunic, and the tightness cut off my air supply. But he had just locked eyes with me.
My mind connected with his, and I felt my power smother him as my vision bathed in scarlet.
Charm test . . . Success!
Charlie the Hell Troll successfully Enthralled!
“Master,” Charlie croaked. His arms hung from his sides, his knuckles dragging across the ground as he swayed, entranced by my power.
What the hell kind of name was Charlie for a troll? I wasn’t sure how the naming conventions had started in this world, but I figured trolls would have had more harsh-sounding names.
“Charlie?” a voice called out from further down the road.
Just my luck. More of these things.
“Who’s that?” I asked Charlie.
“That be my buddy, Jeff.”
“Deal with him,” I commanded.
“Yes, Master,” Charlie replied.
Jeff rounded the corner. “Charlie, where you been? I been looking all over for you. Hey, who’s the elf? You make a new friend? How about—”
Charlie plowed into Jeff, wrapped his hands around the other troll, and drove him into the ground. Dust exploded as Jeff hit the
ground with a thump. Charlie hewed into the other troll with an onslaught of punches. Blood and teeth exploded from Jeff’s mouth as he scrambled to rid himself of his attacker. Jeff wrapped his thighs around Charlie’s torso, flipped him over, and gained the advantage.
My Enthrall ability might not be able to control two trolls at once, and I couldn’t guarantee another second of Charlie being under my power either. If he sustained enough damage, it might break my hold over him.
I needed to make a tactical retreat while the two trolls were locked in battle.
Before I could take my leave, I heard a sickening crunch. I glanced at the two trolls and saw only one, standing above the other. Jeff gloated over his victory, Charlie lying beneath him, his head twisted entirely the wrong way.
“You did something to him, Elf. Made me kill me best friend,” Jeff said as he descended upon me. “He told me not to look in your eyes, a second before I snapped his neck.”
“Well, just get an eyeful of my ass, then.”
I turned and ran.
As the steady pounding of the troll’s feet echoed behind me, I glanced at my timer. I only had twenty-two seconds until the avatar returned to my dungeon heart. I needed somewhere to hide my jewel while the troll passed me by.
The mountain was to my left, and the precipice to my right, a fall thousands of feet to the bottom. Ahead was a bend in the road. As soon as I turned the corner, I’d be hidden from my pursuer’s sight for a few seconds. I sprinted as fast as I could, forcing my elvish legs to pump harder. Fire burned in my lungs, demanding more oxygen. Jeff’s angry grunts were drawing closer, but he was still out of sight when I rounded the corner and saw a pile of rocks.
With no time to waste I wrapped my jewel in its sling and stuffed it into the middle of the rock pile. It was mostly hidden, but he’d see it if he spared more than a second glance at the spot.
I left my jewel stashed in the pile of rocks and turned to face the troll. He curved around the corner, his lips peeling back into a smile when he saw me.
“Found you,” he said.
Well, this was all or nothing. I checked my timer. Four seconds. Gathering the last of my elf’s strength, I smirked at Jeff with an expression of challenge. The drop to my left was huge, and the angle just about right; it was time to show this god-awful smelling bastard just who he was dealing with. I poured the last of my energy into one final effort and sprinted straight at him. Jeff’s eyes widened at first, but then he grinned and surged forward just as I launched myself upward.
My foot found the perfect notch on the mountain’s side, and I hurled myself off it and twisted in the air. My elvish boots hit him in the face like some kind of Infernal, blood-powered meteoritic dropkick. I felt his whole head snap back as I collided with him. He stumbled, and my momentum carried me past him and into the screaming, brimstone-heavy abyss behind.
I detached my consciousness from the elf, once again feeling the hard, unforgiving edges of my dungeon core. Isolating Von Dominus, I used every ounce of willpower to haul the elf back into my jewel. After a moment, I felt him return, a swirling mass of unique, slightly drained essence.
All that, for one last-ditch effort.
Chances were, the troll had probably still seen the black cloud, but maybe that kick had slowed him down, concussed him. It was something to buy me a little time to plan and get a handle on the situation.
I felt a rustling as the rocks surrounding me shifted. Suddenly, the strangely comforting darkness vanished as Jeff tore me free from the improvised sling. Two massive eyes peered into my surface and a thick finger prodded my center.
The troll had found me. He must have seen the black mist flying through the air as it returned to my jewel. Shit. Couldn’t be helped. Still, a damned shame.
Jeff pulled the jewel entirely free of Von Dominus’ old sleeves and closed his hand over me. As a dungeon core, I didn’t have nostrils to smell, but I could still sense the vile aroma inside my captor’s palm.
“Silly elf went and killed himself. I just wanted a friendly chat with him. Lucky I found you, though. I don’t know what that mist was, but it led me to you.” The troll opened his fist and caressed me with his grubby hand. “You be very pretty, little stone. Ma will love you.”
If I’d had the slightest desire to talk with this enormous creature, I’d have told him that talking to pretty things needed a little more subtlety, maybe an offer of a drink or dinner. Not that he’d have understood me.
Jeff started moving, but I couldn’t see anything while his hand was balled tight. My sides were slick with the troll’s sweat, and a meaty hand constricted against my surfaces. I could sense something inside the troll, but it was different from my avatar’s thirsting for blood. Something called out to me deep within my captor’s being, swirling through his veins, almost as though the essence of the creature could be consumed, used, and stored. I recalled the Infernal Essence I had gained from slaying the Sulfur Gnome and figured this same substance existed within the troll.
Killing him would probably earn me more Infernal Essence.
It was more of an incentive to break free from captivity and murder the troll.
Lilith and I had communicated directly with each other’s minds, but it wasn’t an option to do the same with my captor. Even if I could somehow manage to correspond with the troll’s mind, he would learn I was worth far more than a regular jewel. That was the kind of privileged information that could make him far more wary of me. Thankfully, Jeff seemed so dense that he hadn’t drawn the connection between the essence of my elf and the importance of the stone.
Yet.
I had to bide my time until I could summon Von Dominus again. While controlling my avatar, I probably wouldn’t be able to fight the troll and his mother. Even the most legendary dropkick this mountain had ever seen hadn’t done a thing to Jeff’s rock of a skull. The elf was too suited to slyer, more charismatic action, not suicidal bum rushes.
But I could always wait until they fell asleep and skewer their eye sockets with a kitchen knife. As an Infernal Dungeon core, I planned on taking out my enemies with ruthless efficiency and no end of style. If I was to become the strongest in the realms, then I needed a show of power.
Hell, this predicament could even be a blessing in disguise.
The only problem with that plan was that the troll might not give me a chance to enact it. I needed more immediate action, and loath as I was to admit it, that meant enlisting help. The only other creature I’d sighted had been the Sulfur Gnome, and I’d killed him. Lilith was my only remaining option, so I reached out with my senses, bypassing the essence of the troll, careful not to brush against his consciousness. I became aware of the stones, the mountain, and—at the edges of my mind—heard a muffled roar like a multitude of people talking underwater.
I paid close attention to the troll to ensure he wouldn’t notice what I was doing, but he seemed more focused on transporting me than on what I was doing inside his balled fist. I continued my search for intelligent life for a few minutes until finally a grating voice entered my mind and grew distinct.
“I hear you,” a voice said. “Speak, being who whispers inside my mind.”
It wasn’t Lilith. I had no idea how to contact the goddess, but I fixed on the garbled, fractured voice and isolated it from the others. I focused on making it clearer. Listening in, I paid close attention to the creature’s thoughts.
“Your assistance is required,” I communicated telepathically. “I’ve been captured by a troll. My freedom shall lead to your reward.”
I didn’t know what kind of being I’d just contacted, but it didn’t matter. If Jeff was any kind of indication, Lilith’s creatures weren’t exactly the brightest in this world.
I didn’t have anything to barter with, but it didn’t know that. Make a connection first, and the terms of payment could be negotiated later—once I was rescued from this troll.
“What reward will you offer?” the being asked.
So, thi
s creature was a little more intelligent than I had given it credit for. It wanted to know exactly what was on offer before assisting me. I needed to keep it in the dark but tantalize it enough to gain its help.
“I’m a dungeon core,” I answered. “My powers give me the potential for limitless wealth. Seek me out, destroy my captors.”
I didn’t even have any treasures, nor did I really have a dungeon, but this creature didn’t need to know that. Enough information to hook him—I assumed it was a him—and I could be scanty with the details.
“Then I shall find you and save you from the clutches of this fiendish troll!” the voice replied. “I can sense your location. You are nearby.”
I silently thanked Lilith. Maybe not all her creatures were hulking mongoloids.
“Move with haste. The sooner you arrive, the more bountiful your prize.”
“I will not tarry.”
“Ensure you don’t. I am not one to be displeased,” I said.
“Understood. I shall gather the tribe and come to help you.”
Hours upon hours of VR roleplay and sales pitches were serving me well in this world. I might not have been the most dangerous warrior yet, but I could still hustle like a professional.
When the telepathic link went dead, I considered what kind of creature had just promised to help me. It’d promised a tribe; numbers would be crucial if I was going to outplay Jeff and his supposed family. The creature’s voice had sounded menacing, but voices could be deceiving. My mind grasped at the kinds of monsters I could have contacted. What creatures would inhabit an Infernal realm? Undead skeletons? Demonic werewolves? A raging colony of hellish ants?
Was it wishful thinking to hope I’d contacted an Infernal Dragon?
Either this thing and its friends were going to be powerful enough to overwhelm and mince my captor and his kin, or I was going to have to cook up another exit plan, preferably something not involving plummeting off a cliff, getting used as a troll heirloom, or staying immobile for the next week.
