CONQUEST: The Dungeon Core Gambit Book One

by Antony W. F. Chow

  "Several reasons. The presence of the office will help regulate the behavior of the dungeon explorers. In fact, my master is willing to set a condition that only members of the Adventurer's Guild will be permitted to enter his dungeon," Yozka answered.

  Fieyara raised her hand immediately. "How would your master enforce this?"

  The representative took out her card. "Before an adventurer passes through the entrance, she will need to show her guild membership card. If she fails to do so, then my master could simply shut the entrance and prevent the non-member from entering," Yozka explained.

  The Guildmaster scrunched her brows. "Markos has mastery over Earth magic?"

  Yozka gave her a blank expression.

  Fieyara waved her hand dismissively. "Never mind. Your master can keep his secrets. What other reasons?" she pressed.

  "Protection and prosperity. The guild office will draw guild members to come to the Town of Markos and help defend it if necessary. This increase in the flow of visitors to the town will, in turn, help the town prosper through increased economic activities," Yozka explained.

  "Protection?" the Guildmaster asked. "Where is the dungeon located? Is it a dangerous area?"

  "It's near the southern border of Vessar," Yozka revealed.

  "In other words, you want my guild members to defend against a possible beastkin invasion," Fieyara realized aloud. Everything just clicked in her mind.

  The emissary simply smiled.

  Chapter 38

  Dungeon Explorers

  In the end, the Guildmaster agreed to send one dungeon exploration party. Additionally, Fieyara had a simple reason explanation for her refusal to set up the guild office: their master had not received the official charter yet. IF the charter was granted by the Queen and AFTER the adventurers return and hand in their report to her, THEN the Guildmaster was prepared to make a decision. To decide NOW to open the branch office was, in the Guildmaster's view, premature.

  Yozka was not happy with the answer but there was nothing she could do about it. It wasn't as if there were competing Adventurer's Guilds for her to approach with this offer. While there were guilds in the other kingdoms, she could not seek their assistance. No, she MUST obtain the cooperation of the Adventurer's Guild in Vessar.

  But at the same time, she was confident that Fieyara will not risk angering Markos by revealing his offer to another faction, say a nobleman, which would then race ahead to claim the dungeon for his noble family.

  Of course, there was a chance that the adventuring party will be followed from the city of Bethmund all the way back to the dungeon entrance. But in that case, Markos will simply present obstacles to stop the spies from following them. After all, the area surrounding the dungeon entrance was already part of his domain.

  The Guildmaster asked for two days to gather her chosen party members and supplies. In the meantime, she allowed Yozka and Sin to remain in the guild office as VIP guests and placed them in guest rooms inside the building.

  During this waiting period, Yozka walked around the city of her youth and reminisced about her past. To her disappointment, the person who took over the burned down shop and rebuilt the apothecary, Quezoa, was not nearly as knowledgeable in the trade as Yozka. Nonetheless, Yiozka bought a few ingredients to make healing and mana potions even though the quality of her purchases were extremely low-grade.

  In addition, Markos, through Yozka, used this downtime to press Sin for more information about the underground city. To his frustration, the dark elf did not know much about it.

  While she did live underground, she was in the lower caste and therefore, not permitted to live in the city itself. Nor did she know why human males were kidnapped. But Sin did reveal that there were several thousands of residents in the city, which affirmed the wisdom of the dungeon core's decision to leave the city alone.

  Furthermore, the dark elf confirmed his suspicion that there were many more exit points similar to the one at the Village of Anopii. Thus, the dungeon core resolved to discover the other villages within Vessar housing these exit points.

  True to her word, on the third day, Guildmaster Fieyara summoned Yozka and Sin to the meeting room again. When the two entered, they saw several women seated at the table already to the left of the Guildmaster.

  "Thank you for coming, Yozka and Sin. These guild members were chosen by me personally for the mission," Fieyara said. "Let's do a quick introduction. To my immediate left is Ouwanda, who is the party leader and the tanker; next is Visrow the scout; Tita the trap master; Aabroa the healer; and finally, Zefina the fire elementalist. Each person has a specific role to play and they are an experienced team of dungeon explorers. You will serve as their guide but please leave the fighting to the professionals."

  Markos chuckled inwardly as he watched through Yozka's eyes. Ouwanda was middle-aged and wore elven chain mail armor and a shield on her back. She wore her brunette hair shortly cropped, in the style of a warrior, and her expression was stern. Through his Analyze ability, he could see that she carried a lot of magic items.

  Visrow was an elf and her beauty was simply breathtaking. Her long hair was silver-gold colored and the pointed tips of her ears pinned her luscious hair in place. She wore green leather armor and a quiver full of arrows rose over her left shoulder, meaning that Visrow was left-handed.

  Tita was a halfling. She had a youthful appearance reminiscent of Alethea. Her dark brown curly hair was pulled back and bound with a red ribbon. Her eyes met Yozka's and mischief danced in those dark brown eyes. She wore a dark brown tunic, black pants, and a dark green cape.

  Aabroa was another middle-aged human. Wrinkles lined her face but she had a serene facial expression like a Buddha statue. Her hazy blue eyes remained on Sin for some reason. She wore a white robe, a white cap, and a veil behind her head; her hair was completely hidden by her clothes.

  To Markos' eyes, Aabroa was dressed like a nun.

  Finally, Zefina was a relatively young looking human with light blonde hair that cascaded down her back; she was probably the baby girl in the group. And it was a fierce competition as to who looked younger--Zefina or Tita.

  But since Tita had the longevity of her race, Zefina was clearly the youngest party member. However, her pale green eyes stared straight into Yozka's with passion and curiosity. She raised her hand. "Pardon me for my rude question, but how can you have so much magic power?"

  The other people in the room wore expressions of alarm, surprise, or amusement upon hearing this question.

  "Yes, I'm curious as well," Aabroa said with a polite smile.

  "What do you mean?" Ouwanda asked.

  "As a spellcaster, I can detect the presence of another caster through her magic power," Zefina said. "And the mana that our guest here carries is several times greater than the combined power of Aabroa and me," the elementalist revealed calmly.

  "Let's say it was a gift from my master," Yozka answered mysteriously.

  The healer thought for a moment and then spoke up. "If your master is a dungeon core, then the only way for him to increase your mana pool is to place a piece of his core within your body."

  The other party members reached for their weapons but Aabroa raised her hand to stop them. "The dungeon core is present through Yozka. If he wishes to harm us, he would have done so already. In fact, I daresay that Bethmund itself is probably within the domain of the dungeon core. Correct?"

  "Correct," Yozka smiled.

  Markos began to appreciate the intelligence and wisdom that the two spellcasters had shown. Until now, no one had realized that his two representatives were each carrying a piece of his dungeon core within their respective body. He was truly impressed with Aabroa and Zefina. To the extent that he would consider turning them into assimilated beings--if they accepted his offer.

  Ouwanda shut her eyes for a moment as if she had a headache. She opened them and looked directly at Yozka. "So let me get this straight. You want us to visit your dungeon to do a test run and figure
out how to improve it?"

  "Yes," the emissary smiled.

  "Will you guarantee our lives?" the leader groused.

  "No."

  "Will you give us a reasonable chance of survival?" Tita interrupted. She was a gambler at heart and this was an attractive gamble in her eyes.

  "Of course. My representative, Yozka, is coming with you. She has the power to control my dungeon and everything in it. As you realized, I need you guys to do a test run in my dungeon. And I am willing to compensate you handsomely for it," Markos said through Yozka's lips.

  "How?" Tita pressed while keeping her greedy heart steady.

  "Can I borrow a copper piece?" Markos requested.

  Tita flipped one over to her.

  Yozka caught it. She closed her eyes and tapped into the Earth for mana. Using Earth Work, she turned the copper piece into gold. She flipped the coin back to the owner.

  The thief caught the gold coin and held it in the air for everyone to see.

  People started whistling as they realized the implications of what Yozka had just done.

  "Alchemy?" Zefina asked in a whisper.

  "No," Yozka shook her head. "Earth Work."

  The spellcaster's jaw dropped. "To use Earth Work to turn copper into gold requires a tremendous mana source and supreme mastery over the Earth Element." Zefina's eyes narrowed. "No wonder your master granted you such a monstrous mana pool. He probably has plenty to spare."

  Fieyara just remembered the other people who arrived with Yozka and Sin. "My clerk told me that you originally came to the guild with other people. Is anyone else joined with the dungeon core?" she asked.

  "Yes, a male named Sibalt," Yozka answered honestly.

  "How much mana did he receive from your master?" Aabroa asked.

  "5 times the amount I got," the witch answered nonchalantly.

  Zefina couldn't fathom anyone carrying that much magic power. She did the only thing she could to stop her overthinking. She facepalmed. Hard.

  Chapter 39

  Arrival in the Village of Markos

  The next morning, the adventurers left Bethmund on horseback.

  Markos was surprised to learn that Yozka knew how to ride a horse. Since Sin did not, the dark elf rode with his assimilated being.

  As a general rule of thumb, riding on horses could cover the same distance as walking but in half the amount of time. Thus, it would take maybe 3 or 4 days at most for the party to arrive at the Bulddinger Mountains.

  To the astonishment of the party members, they arrived at the new settlement without a single encounter, whether from wolves, ogresses, goblins, dark elves, wild animals, or other creatures. For these experienced travelers, this was unheard of and it made the adventurers very wary of the dungeon core. Yet, none of them tried to broach the subject with Yozka because they were mindful of tipping off the dungeon core and possibly offend him.

  During the past half week, Markos had kept watch over the growing settlement from the fortress atop the mountain. He roused the air elementals guarding the griffon nest and used them to fly over the settlement on a daily basis. Through the eyes of his minions, he was able to observe the Bulddinger dwarves build the settlement from logs.

  Since Markos was not a builder, he had no idea how the houses should be built. Thus, he was content to allow the professionals to work without his oversight.

  The only thing the dungeon core provided was security for the dwarves who were cutting down trees and building the houses. Sometimes, curious animals strayed too close to the workers and the dungeon core simply activated a nearby earth elemental to chase them away.

  However, Markos also noted the movement of beastkin and, in particular, lizardwomen. The women stood upright and scales of various colors covered their skins. Their heads were flat and were dominated by two big eyes. In fact, their appearances reminded Markos of the gecko mascot from the GEICO commercials.

  The number of visitors was small, perhaps in groups of five or six, and he realized that they were scouts sent to observe the dwarven activities. The scouts wandered about silently without taking any hostile action against the dwarven builders.

  Thus, Markos was content to allow the lizardwomen to observe from afar. Furthermore, he realized that they were his neighbors to the South and he really didn't want to turn them into his enemies unless they tried to attack the dwarves who were under his protection.

  Fortunately, the beastkin only observed the workers and stayed hidden from the dwarves. But they DID come to the outer edge of Markos' domain to observe on a daily basis.

  Markos pondered creating minions to make contact with them. The concept of taking the initiative was very appealing to him. However, the dungeon core realized that even if he did that, he had no way to communicate with them. Thus, he decided to leave them alone.

  By the time the adventuring group arrived, there were already a handful of houses built in an area separate from those of the villagers from Anopii. The first settlement was close to the lake located southeast of the mountains. The second settlement was located southwest of the mountains. And there were enough unchopped trees separating the two to hide the villagers from view.

  A group of dwarves approached the newcomers; the dwarves were equipped with heavy armor, battle axes, and hatchets.

  Ouwanda pulled the reins on her horse and stopped just a short distance away from the dwarves. She dismounted and waited for her party to do the same.

  Yozka walked past the adventurer and approached the dwarves.

  When they saw her, the tension quickly melted away. However, they still held onto their weapons when they noticed the dark elf lurking behind Yozka.

  The witch saw their apprehension and pointed at Sin's collar. "Our master has enslaved her. This is Sin. She is the property of Markos Turloch and she is not to be harmed," Yozka announced.

  Grudgingly, the dwarven warriors loosened their grips and returned their axes to the holders on their belts.

  "Are the houses ready for guests?" Yozka asked.

  "Most of them, yeah," the leader of the dwarves answered.

  "How many people can live in each house?"

  The dwarves chuckled and one of them replied. "A family."

  The witch nodded and turned around and looked at the adventurers. "Please choose one house to spend the night in and get some rest. We will enter the dungeon tomorrow morning," she announced.

  Ouwanda nodded in appreciation. She looked at the houses and pointed at the one furthest away from the rest. "Let's take that one." The veteran warrior led her horse over.

  Yozka turned toward her dwarven allies. "We need to build a stable."

  "Okay, boss."

  Visrow the elf had a frown on her face when she saw all the wooden houses. Her eyes turned toward the forest and the dwarves who were busy chopping down the trees. She stood in front of Yozka and asked, "When will you stop?"

  "Stop what?" the human witch asked.

  "Cutting the trees," the elf huffed.

  Markos couldn't help but wince mentally. Ah yes, I forgot that the elves are tree lovers!

  Yozka held up her hands to placate the elf. "We don't plan to cut more than we need for our housing."

  "See that you don't!" Visrow flicked her long, silvery hair over her shoulder dismissively, purposely striking the witch in the face.

  Tita pulled on the angry elf's shirt cuff. "You shouldn't do that to her. Or else her master will get angry at you."

  "Oh? If this dungeon core doesn't respect the Forest, then he will incur the wrath of its Guardians," Visrow retorted.

  Ouwanda stood behind the elf and forcefully pressed Visrow's head down. The leader also bowed her head. "We apologize for her misbehavior. Elves get a little touchy about chopping down trees," she explained.

  Yozka nodded slightly. "My master understands and he is willing to invite the Guardians of the Forest to advise him on proper forestry," she said.

  Visrow twisted her head from side to side and finally freed he
r head from Ouwanda's hand. "Accepted!" she barked and stomped toward the house that the leader had chosen.

  Markos heard someone laughing.

  It was Jessica, the dungeon helper. She stood next to the primary dungeon core and saw what her master saw through Yozka's eyes. "I hope you don't end up regretting that invitation, master!"

  Markos winced again at the foolish mistake he made. Me and my big mouth.

  As the adventurers fed and groomed their horses, the dwarves quickly built a wooden fence to keep the animals inside. Since the fence was only meant to be temporary, the fence was a simple one with long pieces of logs placed horizontally to the ground and held in place by a wooden, vertical post on each side. The dwarves made a half-dozen sets of these fences and added a swiveling door with a crude wooden lock.

  Visrow dropped her saddlebags at the house. She kept her bow and quiver of arrows and went into the forest to hunt for game. Everyone else either remained inside their house or in front of it. Ouwanda removed her armor and meticulously started cleaning and oiling the pieces. Tita sat next to the fence; she used a whetstone to sharpen her daggers. Aabroa was inside the house. She took up the lotus position and meditated. Zefina took out a book from her saddlebag and started reading; she sat in front of the house.

  When Yozka was satisfied that the adventurers had settled down for the rest of the day, she tapped into the earth for mana and used Earth Work to create two Supreme Earth Elementals. She charged one with protecting the horses and the other with protecting the adventurers.

  Zefina felt the surge in mana and looked up in surprise. She was stunned to learn that Yozka had such high-level mastery over the magic of the Earth Element. Zefina, despite her specialty in fire magic, could only summon one normal Fire Elemental due to the substantial mana cost of the summoning. To summon two Supreme Elementals simultaneously, the summoner had to hold a rank higher than the summoned creature. In other words, Yozka had a Godly rank in the Earth Element!