Book 5: Chapter 25

Book 5: Chapter 25

Massive hunks of rough raw iron held up the roof, more slabs or blocks than pillars or wedges. The roof itself was one solid piece of dark stone, roughly cut at the edges. The columns, for they were columns by function if not by appearance, were pitted with burns, melted sections, dents, and slices from edged weapons. Kay didn’t know if they people who’d left such scars in the supports holding up the chunk of stone as long as a city block were insane or just trusted that they would never be able to break through the metal supports, because if that slab fell anything underneath would become a fine mist buried under tons of rock.

The solid stone roof sat on top of its pillars dozens of feet in the air, creating a spacious shaded portico in front of the entrance to the dungeon. Underneath it the normal flow of adventuring and commerce took place in the shade. There were a multitude of stands with the proprietors hawking their goods to passing adventurers or haggling over what price they would but loot for. Some of the stands were obviously temporary structures, with easily dissembled pieces and in a few cases that Kay saw hinges, letting the owner fold up their entire stall for easy transport. Others were permanent fixtures, including one he was sure belonged to the Adventurer’s Guild thanks to the large symbol of their organization on the sign above.

“Wow.” Kay breathed as he took it all in.

“Right?” Eleniah stood next to him, watching his face with a proud grin. “This is one of my favorite dungeons, just from this sight alone. Sorry we didn’t get to come yesterday.”

Kay shrugged one shoulder, only half paying attention to her. “Eh.’

The day before they’d gone to the restaurant Eleniah had wanted to visit, Machone’s, which had been a weird combination of bar food and upscale dining. Burgers were a thing on Torotia, they were probably invented locally to the world even before Outworlders came thanks to the many cows and cow-equivalents there were, but they were apparently a rare delicacy in the Seramist Isles. Those cow and cow-equivalent beasts didn’t live anywhere in the Isles, so beef was a rare commodity in high demand, which made burgers a food for the middle class, if not the rich. Machone’s took the basic idea of a hamburger and upscaled it, thankfully in a delicious way. Instead of just dumping “fancy” stuff on it and calling it expensive, they’d deliberately made the best burger they could then complimented it with delicious and nuanced condiments, vegetables, and cheese, which was also rare, to make one of the best burgers Kay had ever had.

He was constantly making mental notes of things he learned about the Isles as they went, not only because he wanted to know all about where Eleniah had come from but also because the nation was both a potential ally and a potential enemy. Focusing on the ally side, if Avalon could develop a robust dairy and beef industry the Seramist Isles would be a great trading partner, with the added benefit of addressing some of Kay’s personal wants as well. He missed regular access to cheese dammit! Without refrigeration the only way to transport perishables long distance was using expensive mages or magical items, making cheese, along with several other foods, a rarity if they weren’t produced locally. As a rich man, compared to the average person he wasn’t even on the top one thousand list yet, and a king he had better access to expensive foods than most people, but he was used to popping into the kitchen and grabbing a few slices of cheese as a snack, or making garlic toast with melted cheese, or just eating pizza when he wanted it. Kay knew he was spoiled thanks to lobbyists, government corruption, and propaganda but at this point he didn’t really care. If he could use his power to simultaneously increase Avalon’s food production and diversity, gain new industries that could stimulate trade and the economy, and fulfill his own desires for specific foods he would. He never imagined he would look at the Wisconsin cheese caves as a potential idea to copy though.

Ignoring the derailment of Kay’s thought process by cheese, they’d had a wonderful meal and visited several other shops that were close by the the restaurant buying clothing that suited the climate better, souvenirs for the people that couldn’t come with, and a few magical items Kay wanted to experiment with. At more than one of their stops Miri shared fun stories about Eleniah to Kay’s delight and Eleniah’s annoyance. They’d planned to head to the entrance of the dungeon, where they were now, to show it off to Kay even if they wouldn’t have been able to enter, but they’d been interrupted by a friendly ambush. A group of Clan Selthoran members had spotted Eleniah and Miri and half begged half dragged them off to an impromptu reunion of several of Eleniah’s students from the clan. The impromptu reunion quickly became a spontaneous dinner party and Kay got to both share and receive several more stories about Eleniah as a teacher and mentor.

It was a wonderful evening and Kay looked forward to seeing even more of Eleniah’s life and family. Her parents weren’t on the island yet although they were apparently headed that way and the rest of her blood relatives that were present were helping Alahna with the current problems, either directly helping or shoring up other areas that weren’t being directly addressed thanks to the worry of shapeshifters. Kay would be patient though, a loving family like Eleniah described hers would be more than willing to share stories his friend wouldn’t want him to hear. Miri had offered several more, but Kay had turned her down. The loving betrayal of one’s on parents would make the vengeance against Eleniah for her constant snark that much sweeter.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

“You have a dungeon that can do something like that?” Miri asked, “That’s fascinating.”

“Yes it is, but now isn’t the time I’m explaining this dungeon to Kay right now. Wait,” She seemed to fully notice that Miri was with them for the first time. “Are you coming with us?”

“Of course, I’m not going to abandon my duties that easily. I’m not a dedicated combatant, but I’ve got a couple of Combat Classes and I’ll be able to survive as long as you don’t go taking any insane risks and dragging me into situations beyond my capabilities.”

“We’re going to be pushing a little so we can really get some gains, but nothing that crazy.” Her excitement overrode her curiosity and suspicion of Miri and she happily continued explaining to Kay. “There are some sections that we’re going to avoid, mostly because they scale based on how many people you have and there’s no way the the Blood Guard is leaving you alone.” She shot Lauren a grin. “As long as you guys don’t jump in outside of life and death circumstances the sections we’re going to hit will stay within the standard ranges, but the spots we’re going to avoid will just see you as another body. Not worth it.”

“We’ll stay out of his majesty’s way unless he direly needs protection.” Lauren replied. “How do you know that about the sections we’re going to stay away from, though?”

“Alahna and her guards found it out.”

“Ah.”

Eleniah wanted to keep a lot of the details about what they would be facing a surprise so she didn’t “ruin the experience” for Kay, but she did give him general warnings like what kind of traps to be on the lookout for and the general types of dangers monsters in the dungeon could provide. Poisons and venoms were possible but uncommon, burns were seen regularly, and other kinds of injuries or status effects were unheard of, outside of normal every day getting ones ass beat by monsters.

Finally, based on some unknown timer or signal, the guards allowed them descend. At the bottom of the stairs was a hallway made out of thick stone blocks with the occasional torch giving off dime light that let them see a mere two or three feet in front of them.

“Finally!” Eleniah cheered quietly, “I haven’t had a chance to run a dungeon in ages. This is going to be fun!”RêAd lateSt chapters at novelhall.com Only