Dungeon Master

by Eric Vall

  “Are you kidding me?” Luke growled upon hearing the conclusion of the tale, and he began to walk forward. “You let one of them get away? You two can’t do anything right.”

  “Sorry, brother,” my clone replied.

  “It never stops, does it?” Luke continued. “One of you brats always messes up, and every single time, I’m the one who has to fix it, and you’re never going to learn.” Luke was nearly out of the black cloud, it was time for me to move to my next position. I would be ready to greet him when he emerged from the thick haze.

  I stood to my feet and moved to the side my well-crafted illusion.

  “We’ll find her, Luke,” the copy of the shorter man said hurriedly. “She can’t have gotten far.”

  “For your sake, she better not ha--” Luke’s words stuck in his throat as soon as he walked out of the fog and saw me standing before him, next to who he thought was his brother. Luke’s eyes quickly darted between myself and the dark-haired copy. The lead Barden moved to reach for his sword, but before he could grasp the weapon, I gestured with my hand, and his body immediately rose into the air. The man scowled at me but was unable to move his limbs, and he grunted in frustration.

  I wanted to end his life right then and there, but I knew that I couldn’t yet. Not until I knew that we had retrieved the other tokens without killing the other Bardens. I didn’t want to make the mistake of ending Luke’s life when it was quite possible that my minions had either been forced to kill or, more likely in Rana’s case, given in to temptation. I didn’t want to waste time battling the deity who resided here. I was certain that I would we be able to hold my own against the loud-voiced god, but the others would most likely be no match for him. It would be difficult for me to fight him while simultaneously protecting all of my minions, and my energy would surely be depleted in the process.

  So for now, I would toy with my prey. It brought a smile to my face to know that I would have some time to make Luke suffer. My mind swirled with the possibilities of how to torture him and then eventually snuff out his worthless life.

  “What are you smiling for?” Luke snorted as he hung in the air before me. Even when he had no way out, the man with the scar still had the audacity to say such things. It was laughable.

  “I was simply thinking about the thousands of ways that I can kill you,” I said with a wicked grin. “So many to choose from.” I tapped my chin with my free hand. Luke glowered at me and opened his mouth to speak. “Ah, let me stop you there.” I raised my hand to silence him. “I’m not going to hear any more of your insolence.” I took a step toward him. “The only sounds I want to hear from you are your screams of anguish and your pleas for mercy.”

  “Not gonna happen.” Luke glared at me.

  “Master!” I suddenly heard Carmedy yell, and I turned my head to see the cat waving at me. She and the rest of my minions walked toward me as the black fog began to dissipate. “We got the tokens,” Carmedy called out and she and Rana each held up a gold piece for me to see.

  “Did you have to kill to get them?” I asked.

  “Nope,” Carmedy said proudly. “Well, Rana kinda wanted to, but Annalíse talked her out of it. They’re unconscious and pretty banged up, but they’re still alive.” Carmedy pointed behind her, and I looked around her to see the twins in crumpled heaps on the ground several yards away.

  “Just one wouldn’t have hurt.” Rana crossed her arms.

  “Well done!” the dungeon’s deity’s voiced suddenly boomed. “You have passed my survival challenge.”

  “So that means we get the loot from this dungeon, right?” Rana said happily as she wrung her paws.

  “Yes, you shall receive my dungeon’s treasures,” the old god proclaimed, “and I shall grant one of you my power. Which of you would like to claim it?”

  “I will take it,” I spoke up, but then a thought struck me. “You are ready to give up your abilities so easily?”

  “I have been here for close to one thousand years.” The deity sighed heavily. “I am old and weary, and I want peace. As soon as I bestow upon you my power, I will finally be able to leave this place.”

  “I understand.” I nodded. I knew better than anyone the desire for freedom. Suddenly, a green orb appeared in front of my chest, and as with all the other times before, the sphere pressed into me and disappeared. For the third time now, the surge of power caused my skin to tingle and my mouth to water. My blood began to race as I felt the god’s power join with mine.

  The illusion goddess’ power had been delicate and enticing, and the lava deity’s power had felt unashamedly sinister. The forest god’s however was fresh and pure as it pulsated within me. Unlike the other deities we had faced, I had been unaware of this one’s abilities because I hadn’t seen him in action, but I understood now. I could feel it. The nature of the god’s power had been right in front of us all along, in more ways than one. He had been the one who had made the massive trees that surrounded us. The old deity had been able to create, shape, and manipulate plant life, and now so could I. A smile crossed my lips, I now held the power of three other deities as well as my own.

  “Thank you,” the loud-voiced god said drowsily. “Thank you for giving me peace.”

  As he spoke, I gradually felt his presence begin to fade away before it vanished altogether. It brought me happiness to know that we had released the ancient deity from his forest-like prison. Had he too been bound to his dungeon by the mages? The very thought sent a wave of fury through my body. I could think of no other reason as to why the old god had been trapped here for so long, it had to have been them, those insolent witches. I would ensure that Morrigan kept her vow to punish them. They would pay for their sins against us and the others they had wronged.

  “Wow,” Carmedy breathed. “I feel bad for him. To be stuck here for almost a thousand years? It must have been lonely.” The cat shook her head sadly.

  “It can be very lonely,” I said solemnly.

  “Oh, I’m sorry.” Carmedy winced. “I forgot that you--”

  “It’s alright,” I interrupted her and gave her a small smile. “I’m not lonely anymore.”

  “That’s right,” Carmedy said gleefully. “You’ve got us now, your faithful minions!”

  “What are you going to do with him?” Annalíse nodded to Luke whose paralyzed body still hung in the air in front of me.

  “Don’t worry about him,” I said with a quick hate-filled glance at Luke and the man glowered at me in response. “The rest of you start heading outside and prepare to leave.”

  “Alright then.” Annalíse nodded, and the group of women turned to go. Before Rana could walk away, I placed a hand on her shoulder, and she turned to look at me curiously.

  “I’ll have my shadow slaves search the dungeon for the loot,” I said to the fox woman. “And you can look through it for the sacred objects.”

  “Thanks,” Rana said with a twisted grin. “Not that I needed your permission, but thanks just the same.”

  “I think you should tell the others of your predicament.” I gestured toward the group of women who had already walked away. “They’re your friends, and I know they’ll want to help you as much as I do. They need to know. Besides, if all of us know to keep an eye out for the objects and listen for any information about them, chances are we’ll find them faster.”

  “Okay,” Rana said after a few moments of thought. “I’ll tell them.” She jogged away to join the others, and as she did so, looked back at me one more time. “Don’t go easy on him!” Rana called out.

  “Don’t worry,” I shouted back, and I turned to Luke angrily. “I won’t.” Luke glared at me with rage in his eyes as I stared at up him.

  “You’re going to pay for this, you--” Luke’s words caught in his throat as his right arm began to disintegrate.

  Then he began to howl in pain.

  “Didn’t I tell you I didn’t want to hear you speak?” I snarled at the man. Luke grunted and breathed heavily as he battle
d against the pain. “Be grateful that I’ve allowed you to live this long.”

  My dark magic ate its way up his left leg. The scar-faced man gritted his teeth and let out a shriek. He still had that same hateful arrogance in his eyes, but it would soon be gone. Before long he would beg for mercy, and unfortunately for him, his pleas would fall on deaf ears.

  “There is no place in this world for bullies and dishonorable fools like you,” I said as I began to curl the fingers of my right hand to summon lava.

  A blanket of the liquid fire suddenly appeared over the man's head and floated above him ominously. A drop of liquid fell from the fiery bubbling mass and dripped onto Luke’s face. The dark-haired man yelped when the drop of lava touched his skin. He slowly looked up to see where the drop had come from, and when his eyes met with the blanket of lava, his face grew pale.

  There was the expression I craved, that look that there was no escaping the impending doom, the blaggard’s just desserts for their cruel and vile nature. It was a sight that was sweeter than sunshine. Luke’s lip began to quiver, and a tear escaped from one of his eyes.

  “P-p-please d-don’t,” the man began to stammer.

  “I told you not to speak,” I said darkly, and with a quick gesture I brought the sheet of lava down on his body.

  “From the moment we first met you and your brothers, you’ve all done nothing but treat my minions with hate, malice, and disrespect,” I seethed. “I could have wiped you and your entire family from the face of this earth, but I refrained from doing so because I am a generous god.” Luke’s eyes grew even wider at the mention of the word god.

  “You’re a g-g-” he sputtered in terror, but I continued my enraged speech before he could complete the word.

  “You had more than one opportunity to repent, and yet you and your brothers continued along your path of insolence,” I said furiously. “Well, now, my patience has run out. You will pay the price for your impudence and will no longer disgrace this world with your presence.” Without another word, I curled my fingers into a fist.

  The mass of liquid fire dropped down without hesitation and blanketed over his face, then his shoulders and then it oozed down the rest of his body, what was left of it, anyway. Luke wailed like a tortured animal as the steaming lava overcame him. I could no longer see his skin or his clothes. Before me was only his lava-covered silhouette. Luke Barden struggled against the pain, but it was no use. He couldn’t move. As some of the lava began to drip away from his left shoulder, I saw that the scorching liquid had eaten through his skin as well as the bone. His left arm was gone altogether.

  “Goodbye, Luke,” I said as I walked away from the screaming man. He would probably go in and out of consciousness, and the pain would be even more relentless every time he woke. Luke would die a slow and painful death, and the sheer thought of that brought me joy. I was sure that the people from the town that he and his brothers called home would not only be relieved but thrilled when they realized that Luke wasn’t coming back. And I doubted that his remaining brothers would cause any trouble without their leader.

  I had meant what I had said too. There was no place in the world for people like him and his brothers, and it made me even angrier when I remembered how he and his siblings had spoken to Rana and Carmedy. I still had much to learn about this new world that I now found myself in, but there had always been prejudice of some sort, and there probably always would be. In all my years of life, there had always been some sort of racial or social strife. The only thing that had changed was that now, new species were being persecuted.

  I had witnessed firsthand the cruelty that people showed to beings such as Rana and Carmedy, and I had only seen a fraction of what Rana had experienced her entire life.

  But now the beautiful fox-girl had me as her master. I would allow no harm to come to her or my other minions, and I wouldn’t stop until Rana’s family was safe and sound.

  Chapter 26

  “To the minions and their master of darkness!” Carmedy said gleefully as the five of us raised our ale mugs together in a toast.

  “Here, here,” Rana said with a chuckle as she took a swig from her cup. It had been a few days since we had left the forest dungeon, and we had spent two days so far in the town that we had next happened upon. We had all decided that we needed a bit of break after all we had been through.

  “I’m going to order another piece of cake,” Carmedy said as she used her fingers to grab at the few remaining crumbs that were left on her empty dessert plate.

  “You’ve had more than enough,” Annalíse said with a chuckle.

  “But we’re celebrating,” the cat whined, “and celebrations call for cake, and pie, and then maybe more cake.”

  “It is true that cake is customary during times of merriment.” Morrigan raised a white eyebrow. “However, you have consumed five pieces. This is pure gluttony.”

  “I don’t care what you call it.” Carmedy hiccupped. “I’m having another.” The cat raised her hand to summon the server.

  While I did think that Carmedy had overindulged a bit, there was indeed cause for celebration. I was proud of the progress my minions had made so far. Together we had conquered all the dungeons on this small continent and had claimed their treasures. The four women would only grow stronger as we continued our travels, they would have to. The challenges that faced us ahead would be far greater, and the deities would be much more powerful. Even so, I had no doubts that we would be victorious, and I eagerly awaited our next adventure.

  “Come on, Morrigan, let’s get another drink.” Annalíse chuckled and rose to her feet. She shook her head at Carmedy who had begun to lick her plate clean. “If we stay here much longer Carmedy might end up eating us too.”

  The corners of Morrigan’s mouth began to turn upward ever so slightly, and she made a sound that sounded like laughter in response to Annalíse’s joke. As the white-haired elf stood from the table, she gave my hand a gentle squeeze and smiled softly. I returned her smile and squeezed her hand back. Then she moved to join Annalíse, and the two women walked away from the table in search of more ale. Rana glanced back and forth between the elf and me with a raised eyebrow but said nothing.

  “I’m sorry you weren’t able to find another one of the sacred objects,” I whispered to Rana.

  “Yeah, me too.” The fox woman looked down at the table solemnly.

  “Don’t worry.” I placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “We’ll find all of the objects, and we’ll get your family back. I promise.”

  “That’s right!” Carmedy said as she bit into the new slice of cake that had just been placed in front of her. “And that mean old sorcerer doesn’t know that the mighty minions and their master are coming for him.”

  After Rana had told the others about her situation, we had all had a discussion and come to a decision. We would collect the sacred objects, but instead of handing them over to the sorcerer, we would kill him and claim the power that would be brought about from combining the artifacts.

  “Thanks.” Rana favored me with a small smile. “So, we’ve conquered all the dungeons on this continent,” she said as she stretched her legs out on the bench that she sat on. “Where to next?”

  “Valasara,” Annalíse said as she returned with Morrigan and more ale. “The desert continent.”

  “Valasara, huh?” Rana rubbed at her chin. “I know of it, but I’ve never been. It’s pretty far from here if I remember correctly.”

  “It is.” The warrior woman nodded. “A few weeks travel by ship.”

  “I guess we better start making plans to book passage then,” Rana said after she took another gulp of ale. “We’re also going to need to stock up on supplies, it’s going to be pretty rough going out there. I’ve heard Valasara is pretty big, and it’s supposed to be mostly desert wasteland.”

  “Better drink up while you can then,” I said as I held my mug to the air. “We’ve got a long journey ahead of us.”

  “Should w
e toast?” Annalíse said as she raised her mug.

  “Yeah,” Rana said as she raised her own drink. “What should we toa--”

  “To our master!” Carmedy giggled as she raised her glass.

  “Yes,” Morrigan said softly as she mirrored everyone else’s movement. “To our master.”

  “Ugh, fine,” Rana said, but then her mouth curled up into a smirk.

  “To our master,” the four women said at once as we all tapped our glasses together.

  End of book 1

  End Notes

  Thank you for reading Dungeon Master. If you enjoyed the book, the best way to ensure another one gets written is to leave a review here. Thank you!

  Have you read my other novel Planet Broker? It’s about a guy who buys planets, colonizes/upgrades them, and then sells them. He’s got a crew of beautiful women, including a catgirl and super sexy mechanic. Click on the links to get it:

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2018 by Eric Vall