Empire Builder 3: Breed, Populate, Conquer

by Dante King

  Empire Builder 3

  Breed, Populate, Conquer

  Dante King

  Copyright © 2022 by Dante King

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  Contents

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  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

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  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  Inside the dungeon in the forest outside his tower, Ben was greeted by the entire council, along with the monster children. Even a few aurochkin with packs full of supplies had been gathered to accompany them.

  “Alright,” Ben said as he approached the door. “We’ve got a huge party, which means we should have no trouble taking on whatever’s down in the dungeon. But stick together, and listen to my orders.”

  The group spoke their affirmatives as Ben approached the door. This same door had proven impossible to open, even before they’d met the aurochkin, but now, it had been open that morning. The strange, ominous feeling had since vanished from the dungeon, as though it had been there to suggest that the door would soon open for Ben. The fact that they could proceed further into the dungeon would be a great boon to his efforts of growing stronger and rebuilding his empire in this world.

  He stepped up to the massive, stone door and took a deep breath.

  It didn’t budge.

  Unlike a few hours earlier, the door was sealed shut, its secrets hidden.

  “What the hell?” Ben stood dumbfounded before it. He felt frustration mounting inside him. The door had only just opened, and now it was closed again?

  He tried once more, but the attempt was as futile as the first.

  “Are you sure it was opened?” Melody asked. “I mean, not to imply you were seeing things…”

  “It was open!” Sir Gallant the Younger said from where he was perched on the broad shoulder of one of the aurochs. “Ben and I saw it ourselves. The door opened without effort, and we saw all the way into the depths of the dungeon. There was a spiral staircase and everything!”

  Ben put his hands on his hips as he regarded the door with an expression of total incredulity.

  “You must have done something different,” Lulu said. “Otherwise it wouldn’t have opened before.”

  Ben shook his head. “I thought it was because my power had increased.”

  He continued staring at the door as if it might speak to him at any moment, revealing what it required. But the door was impassive, stone and still.

  He sighed in frustration. “Well, I suppose we’ll need to come up with another plan. Let’s return to the tower and meet in the council room. We can discuss it there.”

  The group broke and started to make their way back through the remainder of the dungeon to the surface. Ben let the aurochs and a few other members of the group go first. He, Melody, Lulu, and Imogen remained, along with Nipper and Lily.

  Ben turned back to the dungeon door, shaking his head as he took in the sight of it.

  A noise, like two great, shifting stones grinding against one another, filled the room. Then the door opened once again, revealing the blackness behind it.

  “Ben!” Melody shouted as she grabbed his arm and jumped up and down. “Did you see that? The door opened!”

  Ben hurried over to the door, grabbing hold of it and pulling it open even further.

  “Call the rest of the party,” he said, his eyes on the spiraling, stone stairs. “Tell them to return.”

  Ben stepped into the darkness, going down a few stairs. Then, over his shoulder, he watched as the rest of the party stepped into the antechamber.

  The dungeon door slid shut again, this time with Ben trapped on the other side. He was lost in total darkness, his heart pounding in his chest.

  Ben closed his eyes and, not knowing what else to do, used Energy Dart. He held his hands the way he remembered D’reth had, his palms facing each other a few inches apart. After a few moments of concentration, a small, red orb appeared, the energy intense enough to illuminate Ben and the immediate area in a deep, crimson glow.

  But he couldn’t hold it. He wasn’t trained with the spell, and when the concentration required to maintain it became too much, Ben launched the orb at the door. The dart flashed, and a black scorch mark appeared on the stone.

  Then the darkness returned.

  “Ben!” Melody’s voice was muffled through the stone. Relief washed over Ben as he realized he could hear through the door. “Are you there?”

  “I’m here!” he shouted. “What happened?”

  “I don’t know! As soon as everyone returned to the antechamber, this door shut again! What do you want me to do?”

  “Give… give me a second to think!”

  Ben sat down on the cool, stone stair and took several deep breaths to calm himself. After his pulse slowed a bit, he thought about what had happened.

  OK. When I came here with Sir Gallant the Younger earlier this morning, the door was open. But when I returned with everyone, the door shut. Then, when I sent part of the group back up, the door opened. It closed when they returned.

  It didn’t take Ben much pondering to realize that the door being open or closed depended on how many people were in the room.

  “Melody!” he shouted. “Tell the aurochs and a few others to leave!”

  “Will do! Give us a second!”

  Ben waited, his neck tingling as he imagined someone, or something, running up the stairs in the darkness to do unspeakable things to him.

  But he didn’t have to wait long. The door opened slowly, light pouring into the stairwell. He didn’t waste any time hurrying out and back into the antechamber.

  “Are you OK?” Melody asked, her eyes wide with shock as she placed her hands on Ben’s shoulders and looked him up and down.

  “I’m fine.” Ben gently took Melody’s hands off him before turning back to the door. “It’s the party size. For whatever reason, the door stays locked unless we have under a certain number of people here.”

  “That’s strange,” Vinata said. “Why would tha
t be?”

  “I bet I know why,” Melody said. “You set these dungeons up to test yourself, right? To have them serve as both places to protect your relics and to practice your skills? Then it stands to reason that you would enact safeguards that prevented you from bringing too many people in with you.”

  “Right,” Vinata said, nodding. “That makes sense. After all, it wouldn’t be much of a challenge if you could simply march down there with an army, right?”

  “True,” Ben said. “It likely opened when it detected my power was high enough, but from there it’s up to me to choose a party to go down with me.”

  “Then how do you want to do this?” Melody asked. “How do we decide who goes down?”

  “Call everyone down here,” Ben said. “From there, we can figure out how many party members we have to work with.”

  Melody nodded before leaving. She wasn’t gone for long, returning a few moments later with the rest of the council. The group whispered among themselves, Melody apparently having spread the word of the situation. As they approached Ben, the dungeon door clicked shut once more.

  “Alright,” Ben said as he leaned back against the stone door. “No doubt Melody has explained what’s going on.”

  “We should first see how big of a party the dungeon allows,” Imogen said.

  “Right,” Vinata said, “and it may count monster children differently than the rest of us.”

  Ben nodded, acknowledging that it was a good point.

  “Then let’s do it,” he said. “We’ll have us go up one at a time until the door opens up again.”

  Without wasting another moment, the group did as Ben asked. It took some trial and error, along with a few different combinations of people and monster children, but eventually they determined the number.

  “So,” Ben said. “The maximum is four humanoids, including myself, and three monster children.”

  “Seven in total,” Melody said. “It’s up to you to choose who you want to comprise your party.”

  Ben looked over the group. The aurochkin were the first to go—each counted as one humanoid, and he didn’t want to risk any of them without having a larger group to protect them. This left the council.

  “I’m going to want a combination of experience, along with those who need experience. Melody, you and Nipper are coming.”

  This brought a smile to Melody’s face. Nipper perked up at the mention of his name and bounded over to Ben. Melody joined them, giving Nipper’s head a rub once she was at his side.

  That left Vinata, Lulu, Imogen, Sybil, Lexi, and Sir Gallant the Younger for the humanoids. The monster children were Pearl, Sap, and Lily.

  Ben looked over his group, weighing the pros and cons of each potential member.

  “Lulu, you’re with us too. I want you to have a chance to practice your new spells. Sap, come along too. And Lily. Lexi, you as well.”

  The members of the group joined Ben, Melody, and Nipper. Ben asked one of the aurochkin to bring him a bag of supplies, a backpack-sized pouch containing mana crystals. He slung it over his shoulder, placing his hand on the hilt of his weapon.

  “Let’s do this,” he said, his tone confident. “When we return, we’ll go to the council room and report on what we’ve found.”

  “Good luck, Ben,” Imogen said.

  “Yes, Forgotten Ruler,” Sybil said. “Good luck, and be careful.”

  Ben nodded, then turned his attention to the door. He approached, wrapping his hand around the curved stone and pulling it open.

  “I take point,” Ben said. “The rest of you—follow closely behind.”

  The group formed, and they began their trek into the darkness. The spiral staircase went down and down, torches alongside the wall illuminating as Ben and the group passed. The air was stale, slightly musty. He couldn’t help feeling excited with the prospect of delving further into these dungeons than they’d done before.

  It took several minutes to reach the bottom of the stairs. The group passed under a tall, stone arch that led into a massive room with gray stone floors and torches along the walls. They lit up one by one until the entire room was illuminated with flickering light, revealing a large stone relief in the wall ahead. It was huge—Ben guessed it was ten feet tall and twenty feet wide. In between the torches were stone statues of stern-looking men with blades, fearsome knights clad in armor.

  He approached with the rest of the group behind him. The relief depicted a battle, armies of monsters and what appeared to be soldiers composed of reptile-like troops rushing against another army that defended a massive tower—a tower that looked much like his.

  The defending army was made up of ranks and ranks of orderly soldiers, all wielding longswords and kite shields. The faces of the army were stoic, fierce, as if they feared nothing as long as they wielded their blades. Behind the soldiers was a man on horseback, clad in armor, his blade raised into the sky. At his side was another man, this one dressed in what looked like a monk’s robe, his face hidden and a blade hanging from his hip.

  At the bottom were words written in a language Ben didn’t understand.

  “Melody,” Ben said. “What do these words mean?”

  Melody stepped to his side and bent over, her hands on her knees and her tail in the air.

  “’Benzhameen and His Elite Bladesmen Repel the Repthyian Invasion,” she said.

  “And who is this?” Ben asked, pointing at the hooded figure.

  Melody shook her head. “It doesn’t say. An advisor, perhaps?”

  Ben’s eyes tracked down to the blade hanging at the hip of the advisor—or whoever he was.

  He had a feeling that, whoever this was, he had something to do with the dungeon.

  “Look,” Melody said. “There’s a place for a hand.”

  She gestured to the bottom right of the fresco. Sure enough, there was an imprint in the stone, the shape of a hand. More words were written underneath it. Melody saw them and hurried over to read.

  “’The hand of the ruler wields the blade,’” she said. Then she turned back to Ben. “Well, ruler—I think that’s pretty clear.”

  Ben nodded as he stepped over. Without hesitating, he placed his hand on the imprint. He pressed, feeling something click deep within the fresco. The sound of grinding stone filled the room. Ben glanced over his shoulder to see a hole open in the floor, a triangle-shaped stone emerging, a blade stuck into it.

  “That looks like the blade,” Melody said. “I think it’s time for you to wield it.”

  “Could that be a trap?” Lexi asked. “I would be careful if I were you.”

  Ben knew she was right. The threat of any misstep leading to a painful death was a fact of these dungeons, and he knew to tread carefully. He stepped over to the stone the blade had been placed into, noticing something right away.

  “This isn’t a sword,” he said. “It’s part of the stone.”

  Sure enough, the blade was made of stone. Around it was a circular indentation. Dark stains coated the base of the blade.

  “Dried blood,” he said.

  Lulu gasped. “Ben, please be careful.”

  Ben nodded, turning his attention back to the stone and seeing that there were more words.

  “Melody.”

  She nodded and came over.

  “‘Only the hand of the ruler can wield the blade. But even he must know its sting. Be warned—pretenders will lay down their arms for the remainder of their lives.’”

  “How can I know the sting of a stone sculpture?” Ben asked.

  “I don’t like it,” Melody said. “But it looks like you’re going to have to take the sword and find out.”

  Ben knew she was right. He glanced down at the stone sword, focusing on the hilt. With a deep breath, he took hold of the hilt, slowly wrapping his fingers around it.

  Then he pulled.

  The stone gave, moving up a few inches then going no further. Once it reached its limit, a click sounded. Before Ben had a chance to react, a ci
rcular blade, its razor-sharp edge catching the flickering firelight, jumped out of the indentation. It closed around his wrist, the pain incredible, before pulling back and vanishing, leaving a circle of red around Ben’s wrist where it had cut him.

  Ben pulled his hand back once the blades had retracted.

  “Ben!” Lulu shouted as she and the rest of the women rushed over.

  “Are you alright?” Melody asked.

  Ben assessed the wound. Blood trickled from the circle where the razor had cut him, but to his relief, the wound only appeared to be on the surface.

  “It’s fine,” he said. “Just a flesh wound. Not even sure if it’s worth using the mana of Healing Touch.”

  “I think I understand,” Melody said. “The object of this switch was to see if you were the Forgotten Ruler.”

  “How could it know?” Lexi asked.

  “Because of the wound. It wanted Ben to feel what it was like to be hurt by a blade.”

  “Sure,” Ben said. “But how did it know it was me?”

  He glanced down at the dried blood on the dais, and it dawned on him.

  “If it were anyone else, the blade would’ve gone right into their wrist, severing the tendons and veins.”

  “They would lay down their arms for the rest of their lives,” Lexi said, repeating the words on the dais.

  “Right,” Lulu said. “Because good luck holding a sword if your hand’s been half-chopped off.”

  Ben glanced down one last time at the dias, realizing that the blood there was from those over the aeons who had managed to break into the dungeon, those who tried to steal what was rightfully his.

  “Now what?” Melody asked.

  Before anyone had a chance to answer her, the stone relief grumbled, splitting into two halves that moved apart slowly. The group watched as the reliefs separated to give them access to a long, arched hallway that led to a set of double doors at the far end.

  “Alright,” Ben said. “I’m going to take a wild stab and guess that’s where we’re supposed to go.”

  “A wild stab,” Melody repeated with a smile on her face. “That’s a very appropriate turn of phrase considering this dungeon seems to be blade-themed.”