Dungeon Robotics (Book 7): Collapse Page 3

  “Yes, her reports often have large sections involving the library’s guardian.”

  “Then find out what you can from her. Tell me what you learn on your tablet. Next, I want you to take an airship over the ocean. There are a few items I want you to deposit for me.”

  “Deposit, Lord?”

  “The world is changing. The quakes grow worse by the day. They are only causing minor inconveniences at the moment, but sooner or later, real damage will result. I need to know everything I can about the situation. The items are devices that will allow me to get information about the area they are dropped in.”

  “I understand. Anything else?” Izora asked, her gaze never faltering from mine.

  “Just that all people are welcome to me. I don’t care if they’re a beastkin, elf, human, or whatever. If they follow me, then I shall welcome them with open arms.”

  “Some of the races might have an issue with that, but many will be quite thankful. Particularly the slaves,” Izora said, nodding.

  The slaves were a pitiful lot. They had zero control over their destinies. Part of that was the magic that bound their souls. Whoever created it was a nasty fellow. The best I could do was change the target of the master to me. If they were never issued an order, then it was close to being free. Still, for them it must have been like walking around with a hatchet to the neck. At least it wasn’t passed down the family line. Their children would be free.

  “I will make you one of the devices that I gave Louella and a few members of the Freedom Guild in Steel Spire. They can use it to overwrite the master in the slave brand to myself. That will pull you in a few followers.”

  “I agree, my lord.”

  I discussed a few more things with Izora before she left to gather her people. I mainly did not want a situation like with Morka to happen while I was busy dealing with the moon. I’d learned from that mishap and would not let it happen again. I had already upgraded the defenses around all of my cores. I wasn’t actually sure how powerful one would need to be in order to defeat them.

  “Take care. I will be back to check on you in a few days.”

  “Of course, my lord. May your trip be fruitful,” Izora said with a bow.

  Leaving the range, I concentrated on the next person on my list. Ignea was helping Ren around the beastkin village deeper in the dungeon. After nearly a month in the dungeon, they were finally showing improvement. There was a lot of aggression still, but Ren wasn’t taking it lying down. She’d already reached end-tier two while in the dungeon, which was considerable, given how she’d been just months ago.

  Moving over to the village, I found the two of them talking about some buildings that needed to be added to the village. Ignea saw me and zipped over to my side. “Father, do you need anything?”

  “Ignea, Ren, I’m glad to see the village is coming along. Hard to believe nearly five thousand of them managed to survive in those conditions,” I said, looking around at the people. I knew that mortals were able to adapt to the harshest of conditions. Even on Earth, us humans never knew when to give up. Still, for over five thousand of the mortals to survive in the undead-plagued north was nothing short of impressive.

  “We are a strong race, my lord,” Ren said with a bow. She had matured greatly since she was put in charge of the beastkin. She sort of had to, considering I’d basically dropped her into the position. Still, I was glad she was taking to the place. I don’t think I would have trusted anyone else at that point with the beastkin there. They likely wouldn’t have taken too kindly to being forced under new leadership either.

  “I have no doubts on that. Is everything proceeding well?”

  “Yes. We had a few . . . troublemakers that caused some issues a week or so ago, but they were dealt with. Sadly, I had to put them down. The unholy mana just had too strong a grip on their minds.”

  I shook my head at the news. Unfortunately, we’d had to put down close to three hundred of the beastkin that we rescued. As Ren said, the unholy mana possessed too strong an influence on them.

  “Casualties of war, which is exactly what we’re in the middle of trying to clean up. The necromancers will be getting desperate soon with so many of their plans failing. I want you to keep an even closer eye on them. I have no way of knowing what happened to the necromancer that caused . . . this,” I said, looking over the pitiful beastkin. I couldn’t feel any control links, which I had come to understand quite well thanks to Wrakras and Julie. But when you think you’re the cleverest one in the room, you usually find out you’re not.

  “I understand and will. I do have an issue,” Ren said, then pulled her massive two-handed sword off her back. I did a double take when I saw the poor thing. It was barely maintaining its shape. If someone had been struck by the thing, it would have amount to more of a blunt strike than a cut. “Is there anything you can do to fix it?”

  “Fix it . . .” I said, letting the words hang in the air. I took the weapon from her and observed it more closely with my dungeon sense. I could see why she wouldn’t want to just replace it. There was quite a bit of her mana in the weapon. To her, it would have felt like an extension of one of her limbs.

  I concentrated on the mana, making sure it kept its shape while I pulled out the metal. In Ren’s case, she preferred to have a decent amount of weight in her weapon. Pulling in some of the new material from my storage dimension, I infused it with some mithril. I mainly used the mithril to give the blade an edge, as mithril was quite light, but made the main structure out of orichalcum.

  I swung it a few times to test the balance, and the blade sang as it cut through the air. I handed it back to her, and she did the same thing. It was about the same size but now had a gray flat blade with a green edge. She gave me a smile before sheathing the blade.

  “Thank you, my lord.”

  “No problem. Keep up the good work,” I said, then turned to Ignea. “As you know I’m about to investigate what is happening on the moon. Our sensors did not pick any dungeon energy up, but I wanted to cover my bases. Should my consciousness be trapped in another battle, you are in command, officially this time.”

  “Yes, Father! I won’t let you down!”

  “You’ve made me proud since the day I summoned you. Try to help out little Lena. I know she’s technically older, but she seems more like a younger sibling for you,” I said, patting her on the head.

  “Don’t worry. Lena and I get along.”

  I smiled, then nodded. “Sounds good.”

  Next I teleported to the dockyard. The dock automata gave me a salute, then went back to work. I looked around at the fleet. It was time to get some answers. “Launch!”

  Chapter 4

  Oparens Wanderer

  “It should be around here . . . somewhere,” I mumbled as I tried to find the switch. It was basically a miracle last time I found it. Though, right now I was just glad to finally be away from the trolls and kobolds. I don’t know what they were looking for, but they didn’t stop for rest once even after two days.

  I lost sight of them at the beginning of the third day. I just couldn’t keep the invisibility, acceleration, and detection magic going any longer. Even I had my limits. Once I stopped to rest, they quickly outpaced me. I still found tracks of their passing while I made my way down the tunnel, but by my estimate, they were several kilometers ahead of me already.

  I was particularly happy when I found my turn off in the tunnel and found they hadn’t taken it. Nowhere in the Beneath was truly safe, but it was better moving away from the trolls and kobolds. Thankfully, the less deep you were, the safer it was.

  I stopped checking the wall for the switch when I felt a tremor. Bracing, I prepared terra magic and breathed quickly, my heart racing, until the tremor passed, then released the mana. Quakes were one of the scariest events that happened in the Beneath. I’d rather not have several tons of stone fall on my head and placed my hand on the wall to catch my breath from the small scare, then heard a click.

  On t
he other side of the space, a perfectly square door appeared as the stone receded into the corners of the square. It was an interesting setup that didn’t require magic. There were ruins that contained many things like this scattered throughout the Beneath. This was only a tunnel entrance that led to the surface. I’d explored this area at least a dozen times but couldn’t find a larger complex. Yet given how I found the lever, I could have just been missing something.

  “Caw. Caw. Caw.”

  “Yes. I find the Arcarins’ technology to be fascinating as well. How I wish we could have found something more,” I replied.

  The Arcarins were an ancient race that once ruled the planet. No one was sure what had happened to them. Be it their magic, technology, or culture, all evidence pointed to their being a higher level than current known civilizations. The question was how a civilization like that could just disappear.

  I quickly made my way across the cave and into the new tunnel. Only a few seconds later, the passage closed. The first time, I’d nearly gotten myself killed while examining the doors when they closed.

  “Caw.”

  “I’m sorry, ok. I didn’t mean to crush your wing that time. Will you just let it drop?” I said, rubbing the bridge of my nose. Qez the fire raven would constantly bring that up to get extra mana.

  “Caw.”

  “Well, thank you. Let’s get going. Once we get to the surface, we need to figure out what the hell is going on, and most of the people we knew from the first time will be dead.” That was one of the downfalls of outliving the surface mortals by nearly five hundred years. All the friends and contacts you made eventually died off.

  ~~~

  A day later, light that I hadn’t seen in almost a century met my gaze. Vines had grown over the entrance, so it was slatted but it was still sunlight. If the city of Fallen Rose hadn’t possessed a light source of similar brightness, I wouldn’t even have been able to see, just from the minor exposure. I sent Qez out first to find out what the situation was around the entrance while I adjusted to the light.

  An hour later, Qez reappeared and gave me a rundown of the surroundings. The ruins that were once here had been destroyed by a large sandpit. Skeletons that hadn’t been here the first time lay in a few of the remaining buildings on the edge of the pit. Whatever happened, happened months ago, and no one was around now.

  When the sun set, I walked out of the cave and onto the surface for the second time in my life, an achievement that many of my people never got to enjoy. I was in luck and the weather was clear, the stars shining like beacons in the darkness. I could remember even now the powerlessness I’d felt when I first saw the stars, which increased even more when I saw the sun for the first time.

  “A bit more snow than last time,” I commented, looking at the two-meter-deep snow. The only place remotely free of it was around the sandpit in the center of the ruins. I quickly cast a Warming spell, then looked around, trying to decide where to go. I really couldn’t get my bearings with the massive trees surrounding the decimated ruins, and it had been close to a century since I’d last been up here. Unlike the Beneath, the weather changed the landscape quickly on the surface.

  “Let’s take a look,” I said to Qez, who took off into the sky. I channeled my mana, then started to rise into the air. A few moments later, I cleared the canopy and got a full view of the night sky. I couldn’t help but take it all in for a minute.

  “CAW!” Qez cried, surprising me.

  Thinking a monster was attacking, I turned with a spell at the ready. “What is it?!” I shouted, then let the spell fade as I took in the sight in front of me.

  A tower made of what appeared to be glass and steel rose into the sky, taller than anything I’d ever seen before. I couldn’t even glimpse the top rising above the clouds. Light poured from it. I blinked and let my eyes go through different senses. While most of the light was just that, light, much of it was pure magical energy that was coming from it in waves.

  “Caw.”

  “Yeah. I don’t remember that last time we were here either. What has happened on the surface?”

  With the hope that whatever was capable of building such a structure wouldn’t try to kill me instantly, I moved toward the tower. Upon using a Long Sight spell, I felt some relief when I saw a town surrounding the structure and numerous people moving about. I was maybe a hundred kilometers out when I felt an aura wash over me.

  “A dungeon,” I said, coming to a stop. The consciousness would likely already know I was here, given the massive amount of mana in my pool. I would have to play it carefully. The cores usually didn’t take kindly to my staff containing a shard of a core.

  Nothing happened for several long moments, and I began to wonder if maybe I had it wrong. It’d been a while since I’d last been on the surface. There was no telling if someone had managed to come up with a new type of magic. I waited even longer, then started moving again.

  As if on cue, a panel on the side of the tower opened. Several constructions of metal flew out and started heading toward me. They reminded me of the golems that protected a few of the ruins found in the Beneath. I could sense they were not to be taken lightly, so I waited, hoping this didn’t lead to a fight. The three vessels, which looked like metal horses without legs, circled me with several tubes, which I instinctively knew were weapons.

  “Caw.”

  “Yes. Stay calm,” I replied.

  A man made of metal and wearing a suit of armor that looked more like cloth said, “Individual of unknown origin, this has been designated the airspace of the Machine Father, Lord Regan. Continuing on this vector of approach will result in us designating you an enemy and eliminating you. Please descend and proceed using the proper entrance channels.”

  If my senses did not lie, I put him in the upper-tier-two range.

  I held up my hands in what I hoped was a nonthreatening way. “Forgive me. I am new to the surface and do not know the customs.”

  “Individual, we will escort you to the ground. Any act of aggression will result in your elimination.” The metal man ignored me and turned his vessel toward what appeared to be a city gate.

  “Very well.”

  I decided it was in my interests to cooperate for now. I followed the vessel while the other two came in behind me. I smirked at the thought that I was in the perfect place to get blasted without even being able to fight back.

  “Caw. Caw.”

  “No. I don’t think it’s a trap.”

  There wasn’t anyone at the gate when I arrived, but they were open. A normal mortal along with one of the metal men stood on either side of the gate. When I landed, the three vessels rose into the air, then shot off toward the tower.

  “Welcome to Steel Spire, Elder. Or is it Master, considering you know flight magic?” the human asked as he approached me.

  “Elder is fine. Steel Spire you say. How long has such a . . . grand monument been here?”

  “A few months, I think? How long has it been, T7?”

  “Approximately five months, thirteen days, twenty-three hours, and fifty minutes,” the metal man replied.

  While the words flowed smoothly, something felt fake about how they were produced. I had also never heard such an accurate telling of time.

  “There you have it. Now, there are just a few procedures we have to go through to make sure we can let you enter,” the guard said, waving me toward an obelisk. I carefully shifted my eyes to magical sense to observe the device. I did not feel like being paralyzed or worse if it turned out to be a trap. I had to blink several times, as there was so much magic packed into the device that I could not look directly at it.

  A light emitted from the top of the obelisk and flowed over my body. I didn’t feel anything harmful, so I stayed calm. A minute later, the light left me. “Looks like you’re clean of unholy mana. Pretty lucky, given the situation that Lecazar is in,” the guard said.

  Unholy mana? The surface dwellers really had been busy to have unlocked a whole
new branch of mana. Though from the name, I could tell it wasn’t one they were happy to have found. I would need to investigate it some more. Just because something appeared evil didn’t mean it couldn’t be turned for a good cause.

  “Thank you. What’s next?” I asked, excited to learn more.

  “This way,” the guard said as he led me into a building. On a table next to a bored-looking woman sat another device. “I’ll leave you in Carmon’s very capable hands.” He gave the woman a wink before he walked away.

  “I swear I’m going to stab him one day,” the woman said as I sat down.

  “Um, do I pretend to have not heard that?” I asked, trying to break the tension.

  “No. Feel free to tell him. He’ll just take it in the wrong way. Please place your hands on the pads,” Carmon said, going into work mode it appeared.

  I did as I was told, and a plate lit up. Carmon nodded before she turned the plate toward her so I could see what it was showing. She waited for several seconds.

  “What now?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

  “I ask some questions. Do you know, or have you ever come in contact with, seen, or otherwise encountered a necromancer or someone possessing unholy mana?”

  “No.”

  “Do you mean harm to this queendom? Or its interests?”

  “No.”

  “How long will you be staying in Steel Spire?”

  “I’m not sure. Do I need a fixed answer?”

  “No.”

  That went on for several more minutes before she finally finished. I had a headache from some of the questions, as I had no idea what she was talking about. I wasn’t sure what that plate was showing her, but when she asked a question that I wasn’t sure the answer of, she would present me with another question.

  By the end of it, I was sure she knew I was from somewhere very removed from the current events. Not that she was wrong. I rubbed my neck nervously, wondering what was going to happen, then put my hands back on the pad in case she wasn’t finished. I was confident in my ability to escape, but this seemed like a good place to get some answers.