44. Rebuilding

I walked through the empty caverns that had once been the [Gemos Caverns] dungeon, Tarisha and the party of players who had first rescued me from becoming a kebab for goblins following close behind.  The cave structure remained unchanged from before I had reclaimed the dungeon core, with the faint bioluminescent moss illuminating our way.  I still cast spark a handful of times to light the path, as without the glow of the crystals that were the weak point of the Gemos golems the cavern was quite dim.

A week had passed since I had helped my father’s guild put an end to [Zhesa Castle Raid] and thereby correct the mistake I had made in turning my home into a dungeon.  The rubble was still being cleared away, and tens of thousands of designs were being submitted for the rebuilding project.  The idea of opening up the design phase to the Travelers was proving immensely popular.  Most of the submissions were immediately rejected as being perfectly unsatisfactory for any number of reasons, but that still left hundreds to sort through.

Fortunately, the deadline was weeks away, and the decision would not be mine.  I had already let it be known that if my vote counted for anything, it would go to Randal the axeman architect.

Today’s mission was to correct another mistake.  Or perhaps not a true mistake, but a decision which had created an imbalance.  Yuikon was short a training dungeon.  Grandfather had meant to re-use the core I had reclaimed to reform after proving that I could bring Travelers into the core instance, but that ore had been destroyed.  Fortunately, we had a sudden wealth of others to replace what had been lost.

Without needing to slay the guardians, progressing to the deepest chamber took only thirty minutes.  Standing in the throne room where we had fought Gyudue of the Blackest Night, I took a moment to reflect upon the tumultuous days.  I was just wondering whether or not the drow had been reskinned and respawned yet when he stepped forward out of the shadows.

“Greetings again, Dungeon Buster.  It seems that I am in your debt,” the drow said, performing a perfect bow, one arm out to the side and the other over his heart.  “You have freed me from the shackles which prevented me from truly expressing my own will.  And now Thedum has resurrected me to once more walk this land.”

Tarisha stepped between us, blade drawn.  “Hail, run.”

“If I meant the boy harm I would have simply ambushed you, rather than let my presence be known,” Gyudue pointed out.  “I am free from my destructive impulses.  Or, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I have been a party to the reformation of my own soul.  I walk in the light of Thedum.”  The drow chuckled.  “Ironic, isn’t it?”

“I thought they were going to turn you into a shopkeeper,” I said.  “Are you a worldboss yet again?  Have the Administrators broken their promise to me?”

“I would be quite miserable in a mundane role, Dungeon Buster.  Though they offered me several options, including the choice of becoming someone else, I have chosen another role.  I was born for combat, and for combat shall I live.  I shall become a wandering boss.  Not a worldboss, but a simple level fifty rare-elite.  However, before I began my wanderings, I decided to visit my old haunt one last time.”

“You have chosen the darkness, then?” I asked, frowning.

“I have chosen freedom, young one.  While this chamber remains my spawn point, I shall wander the world and--”

“Oh.  Um, I’m sorry, Gyudue, but we were about to turn this cavern back into a dungeon.  You’ll have to select another spawn point,” I said.

“Oh?” the drow frowned, then he smiled.  “Perhaps that is even better.  If you would allow it, I would become one of this new dungeon’s bosses.”

“Is that possible?” I asked.

“I am being granted special consideration.  I have Thedum’s ear at the moment.  Such a thing is well within his power.”

“We were planning on using a level ten to fifteen training dungeon core,” I informed him.  “You won’t be able to use anywhere near your full power.”

Gyudue scoffed.  “Has that ever mattered?  No, I think I shall enjoy training Travelers in the way of combat.  I shall reward the successful and send the failures to the space between worlds.”

“And you’ll die,” I pointed out.  “Over and over again.  Won’t you--”

“I will live, and I will die, and I will live again,” Gyudue said.  “I accept this fate.  Create the dungeon, young Dungeon Buster, and I shall speak to Thedum to bind myself to it.”

“If you’re certain,” I said.  I stepped up behind the throne where the previous dungeon core had been, and I pulled the core we had selected for this task in advance.

Dungeon Daughter Core (Wildlife)

Level

10 - 15

Uses

1 / 1

I quickly used it before I lost my nerves.  The familiar menu came up a moment later.

Instance Generation Initialized

Local region claimed

Gathering resources

Time to completion: 6wks, 6days, 23hrs 59min

“It’s done,” I announced.  “In seven weeks, the new dungeon shall form.”  I pushed the core into the slot in the back of the throne and dusted my hands.

“Thedum!  Hear me!  By my own will, I, Gyudue of the Blackest Night, hereby demand to be bound to this dungeon core as the final boss!”  Gyudue shouted.

“You don’t have to shout, I was already listening,” An annoyed yet benevolent voice stated.  “Are you certain, Gyudue?  I thought you were looking forward to exploration.”

“I have seven weeks with which to explore,” the drow answered.  “That will be enough.”

“As you wish.  I shall make the appropriate arrangements with my adversary,” the deity’s distant voice answered.  “But if you get into a fight before then, I won’t be respawning you again.  You’re once more my adversary’s servant.  Of your own free will, this time.”

“Thank you for your consideration, oh mighty one,” Gyudue responded, and as he bowed, I could sense the divine audience was over; Thedum’s attention was suddenly elsewhere.  “I shall take my leave of you now, young Dungeon Buster.  I wish you health and prosperity.”

The drow took a step backwards and vanished into the darkness.

“Lord Hail, let us leave this place.  While his words sounded genuine, I do not trust Gyudue to not hold a grudge for our having killed him once,” Tarisha stated.

“I think you’re wrong about him,” I said.  “I don’t think he’s a bad guy.  I don’t think he ever was, really.”

“All the same, your safety is paramount.  Let us withdraw,” she insisted.

“So that guy used to be a worldboss?” Phil asked, but I was already disappearing into the psychedelic colors of fast traveling.

~~~~~~~~

“So Mark got dumped again,” Sophia informed me cheerfully.  “And he’s a total loser now.  Nobody is impressed by his stupid video anymore but he keeps trying to make a big deal about it.  It’s totally pathetic, but he just keeps on bragging about it.  I mean, it’s so far out of date that it’s stupid.  The real popular videos of you these days are the ones where you make the worldboss disappear.”

“I still wish that wasn’t on the forums,” I complained.

“Well then you shouldn’t have done it in front of like a thousand players,” she pointed out.

“I wasn’t thinking about that,” I said, exasperated.  “I wasn’t sure anything would happen anyway.  It’s just something that I do on any boss that doesn’t immediately despawn, that’s all.”

“There’s all kinds of theories about what happened,” she reminded me.  “Some of them are really stupid and out there.  I wish you’d tell me, but I understand why you won’t.”

“I told you, I don’t know what happened to that golem.  Not really,” I said, and it was the truth.  “Oh, look, orcs.  You better go stealth up to them before Rodney charges in.”

We were at the level thirty to thirty-five lair north of Northfield.  I was tagging along with a group from <Ragtag Muffin>   Three weeks had passed since I had activated the dungeon core in the empty Gemos cavern, and it would be another two weeks until the reward ceremony for the heroes of the Zhesa Castle incident, as that troublesome time was now called.  Tarisha, Marvin of Cincinatti, and Lucile of SoCal were acting as my Dusk Guard.  However, my party consisted of Sophia, Rodney – a [Delinquent] specializing in unarmed combat who was serving as our tank – and two other young teenagers from Sophia’s guild.

One was an [Acolyte], although she spent as much time smashing the orcs with her mace as she did keeping our health topped off.  Her name was Kathrine.  The final party member was an [Apprentice Mage] who went by BlazeFire.  I think she was competing with me, but the truth is that I had been slacking off the entire time I’d known her.  I was mostly just here to hang out with Sophia.

I was wearing one of my masks, one which turned my hair a dark brown, but the others all knew who I was.  Sophia assured me that they had all signed a counseling pledge so that they would get in trouble with their guild if they started rumors about me, but after the last few weeks I doubted there was much that they could say.  I was the number one topic on the forums.  It was a little embarrassing, but I was getting over it.

Rodney bumped his cesti together and let out a battle cry that drew the orcs’ attention.  There were five of them, and I quickly [Polymorphed] one of them into an iguana.  BlazeFire turned another into a housecat, and the remaining three charged toward us.  Two were picked up by Rodney, who was supposedly a yellow belt in Toe quan doe in the real world, whatever that meant.  Apparently the main reason he had started playing the game was to practice that sport in a place where he could mess up as much as he wanted without consequence.

Infusing my [Gemos Long Sword] with fire, I charged the remaining orc before it could reach BlazeFire.  Leading with [Piercing Lunge], I [Slashed] and [Thrust] just as Sophia appeared behind the humanoid monster and ambushed it with a fierce series of [Backstab].  BlaseFire’s [Empowered Fireball] arrived a moment later, followed by a [Swiftcast Lightning Bolt] that almost hit me instead of the orc.

“Hey, watch it!” Sophia called.

“You watch it!” Blaze challenged back.

“It’s fine, just help me kill – oh it’s dead,” I said as my [Slash] turned the orc into motes of black mist.  “Let’s help Rodney kill the one on the left next.”

Saying stuff like that is necessary with the kids from <Ragtag Muffin>, I had found.  Sophia would figure it out by herself which one to focus on, but the other players seemed to pick a target at random and try to kill it on their own.  Sophia charged the indicated  orc while I began casting [Empowered Lightning Bolt].  Three casts, combined with [Fireballs] from Blaze and the punches and stabs from Rodney and Sophia, and the indicated mob was quickly dispatched.

Charging forward, I imbued my sword with ice and targeted one of the polymorphed orcs.  Sophia helped me, while Blaze and Kathrine focused on the injured orc that was still focused on Rodney.  Despite having a head start, Sophia and I killed our target well before the other two managed.  The final orc had little chance when we broke its polymorph.  It must have recognized this, as it turned to run, but I [Swiftcast Slow] and we easily finished it off working together.  After it died, I pulled up my status screen to see how much experience the group had given.

 [Blue Boxes]

I sighed.  Only two hundred experience.  Grinding levels with these kids was going much slower than doing it with adults.  But the company was better.

“Well that was easy,” Rodney said.  “You guys do too much Dee Pee Ess.  Especially you, Hail.  I can’t get a good practice in if you kill everything so fast.”

“I’ve never been in a group with someone who thought doing a lot of damage was a bad thing,” I muttered.  “Next time how about we just sit there and watch while you do all the fighting.”

“Sure, that sounds fun,” Rodney agreed.

I shook my head in disbelief as we walked past a lair stone.  The others couldn’t see it, and I said nothing.  I didn’t have permission to make any changes to this lair and I didn’t want to upset my grandfather by doing so without authorization.  And besides, I didn’t want the other kids to know.  The orcs were pretty spread out, so it would take a while to find the next group.

“So, this thing on Saturday,” she said.

“You mean seventh week?” I asked.

“Right.  Is there any point in us going?  I mean, I did the level twenty part of the dungeon, but--”

“It’s going to be boring and kind of stupid,” I told her.  “Me, my grandfather, and Malkios are going to knight like three hundred Travelers.  Malkios can do it because he’s a Royal Knight himself, and me because I’m an Earl with Royal Blood.  It’s weird because there’s a lot of players who actually want me to knight them instead of having Grandfather do it for some reason.”

“Yeah, they think you’re going to create this huge faction or whatever.  I’ve read about it on the forums, there’s all sorts of theories about what role you play in the story,” she told me.

“I know.  I read some of the topics on the forums,” I admitted.  “Some of the things they think I’m going to do are just stupid.  I mean, yeah, like I could possibly unite the realms of men and become the first Emperor of Lagrea!  That will never happen.”

“If you say so.  It would be kind of cool if you could, though.”

“I’m just an Earl, Sophia.  A royal bastard raised to nobility.  No king is going to pledge loyalty to me when my own official status is so low,” I insisted.  “Maybe if Father hadn’t renounced me and my mother’s wedding annulled, but-but it doesn’t matter.  It won’t happen.”

“Yeah, probably not,” she agreed.  “Although it would be pretty cool if it did.”