Strike Two

  “Master, something is preventing me from expanding my territory into the ruins.” Bessie reported.

  Jim looked at his dungeon master controls and flipped around until he found what he was looking for. “Keep expanding around the areas you can’t enter. It looks like resistance is made up of gently interlocking circles. With enough information, we should be able to pinpoint the sources.”

  After a few more minutes of expansion, Jim looked at his map overlay including the information that his dungeon master control tabs showed as the circles being defended. He hadn’t seen enough to determine from his map what the sources were. He could rule out the pyramids and the dog headed statues that attacked the dungeon core, but had not seen enough to know what the sources were.

  “We’re going in, Lorem. Let me know of any changes in essence density or anything that might possibly be an attack.” Jim told the book.

  “That might be difficult, the statues' spears were already charged when we went in before and just released their energy when the dungeon attempted to enter.” Lorem explained.

  Jim thought for a second then shrugged. “Let me know of any build ups and keep me shielded then. I suspect they won’t attack us.”

  Lorem led Jim back down the hallway raising a shield as they approached the entrance to the cavern. The two looked around from the entrance before heading down the steps into the cavern. As they walked down, Jim pointed towards two of the smaller pyramids closer to them. “Should be a source about twenty meters beyond them if we walk between them.”

  “The weapons are recharged. Essence seems to be released from the top of the pyramids. In case you haven’t noticed, the essence is much denser in here than outside.” Lorem informed Jim who grunted as if he expected that and confirmed that when he said, “I think this might have been a massive cultivation chamber. We know there is an essence vein in here. They probably tapped into it and used it to increase the essence and power their defenses.”

  The book continued his narration of his analysis. “Under the tile, there are channels directing essence from the pyramids into the statues and the other buildings.” As they passed between the two pyramids, Jim admired the pink and grey granite that covered them. Both were capped with gold at the apex.

  “Looks like an improvement over the ones created in Egypt. They were covered in polished limestone. They must have had a source of the granite nearby here.” Jim explained as they stopped at the edge of a plaza ringed by small buildings that could have been homes or businesses.

  In the center of the plaza was the statue of what looked like a dwarf with the mane of a lion and the face that looked oddly similar to Budha in a slightly monkeyish way. “I think it’s Bes that we take a closer look at that statue.” Jim said. Lorem could tell that Jim had made some sort of a joke, but didn’t bother trying to decipher the odd human’s sense of humor.

  The two stepped into the plaza, but when they were only a few steps closer to the statue, Lorem called out, “Stop. Back up.”

  “What did you sense?” Jim asked.

  “The statues sent a string of essence towards us. I think it was tracking or targetting.” Lorem explained.

  “That’s annoying. Can you destroy a small section of the essence channels so we don’t have to deal with the defenses?” Jim asked.

  Lorem took his time analysing their surroundings. “Yeah. The three largest pyramids in the back seem to power the defenses. There is some redundancy built in, but if you don’t mind cutting off the power to everything, I would only need to break six channels.”

  “Can you invert the weave so that it won’t be detected before you act?” Jim asked.

  Lorem stared at him for a few seconds before answering, “Of course, but a better question would be how do you know about inverting weaves?”

  “Wheel of Time.” Jim said. Lorem stared at him. “It’s a series of books. The more powerful characters could invert their weaves to hide their actions from other channelers.” Lorem didn’t believe him, but didn’t care enough to push any deeper into the topic. As he began creating tubes of essence that perfectly mimicked the ambient essence to send his strings of essence through and created the hidden areas for each of the spells he was going to use to break the channels, Lorem thought of something.

  “Hey, Jim. In those stories did they ever use inversion to hide their minds. For example, hide their true mind inside what would appear to be the chaotic insanity of a complete lunatic?” Lorem asked.

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  “Not that I remember.” Jim said with a shrug before he smirked. “Ahhh…the evil book is wondering how I thwarted his attempt to turn me into his puppet. Nope. Not at all. That was all me.”

  “You know that isn’t really something to be proud of and ” Lorem said dryly.

  “I wouldn’t expect a mere book to be able to comprehend the mind of a genius.” Jim countered as Lorem finished his spells and small explosions could be heard coming from the back of the cavern. All the statues turned and fired their essence lasers at Jim who used his companion’s spells to throw up a series of shields to protect himself. Unfortunately, he was not nearly as skilled as the book and failed to erect a strong enough defense in time as several of the beams broke through to strike him.

  *****

  An image of the Dark Lord rose above the city. “This training evolution has ended. You will find crystal kiosks placed throughout the city in which you can sell your unwanted loot and purchase more suitable loot. Those that failed to gain three levels will be removed from the dungeon and the next evolution will begin in forty eight hours. Levels have been created to further train fighting or crafting skills and can be accessed from portals placed around the city.”

  Yohan looked around as the dungeon creatures that were left disappeared. He recalled his shadow souls and started to step towards the crystal that had appeared on the pedestal near the wall of the section they were fighting in.

  “Yohan!” a voice called out and he turned to see one of the guild members that he had been protecting with his shadows as they fought their way through the waves of dungeon creatures. “The guild leaders would like you to seek clarification on what will happen to the people who didn’t gain the required levels. Specifically, will they get another opportunity if they wish to seek shelter in the dungeon.”

  The messenger offered a contract to the scout. He quickly reviewed it and signed it before speeding off towards the nearest entrance to the dungeon levels. Once in there, he took the portal to visit the Dark Lord.

  As he entered the area, the Dark Lord and a glowing ball of translucent light seemed to be going over several diagrams that appeared to possibly be complex maps of dungeon levels. Yohan patiently waited for the two to finish their discussion.

  After the two made a few adjustments, the Dark Lord spoke. “That should be fine for now. Go with the plans we discussed earlier for the high level standouts like Yohan.” The dark lord turned and looked at Yohan as he spoke. Yohan felt like his soul was being sifted through and being evaluated in the short pause before the mysterious dungeon master continued. “Excellent work out their Yohan. Your group did exceptionally well considering the guilds sent most of their highest level warriors into the dungeon. What can I help you with?”

  Yohan shuddered as he felt the power that was evaluating him withdraw. As he regained his composure he simply stated, “The guild masters’ tasked me with speaking with you to determine if the people removed from the dungeon will be allowed reentry.”

  “No. The task was simple and they failed to make even a minimal attempt at reaching their assigned goal.” The Dark Lord answered.

  “So that’s it for them. They will die when the invasion begins?” Yohan asked as his shoulders slumped slightly. He knew most people gained at least ten levels without taking any risks. He and his shadows had exceeded that despite it becoming obvious that he had outleveled the challenge of the first evolution. However, he also knew that not everybody was a warrior. Many did not possess the spirit to fight and despite the encouragement given by the guilds, they had been afraid to leave their homes and attempt to level.

  The Dark Lord sat down and projections of the city popped up to display lines of people queuing up at the kiosks to trade gear and purchase better. Yohan started to leave, but the Dark Lord spoke again. “Don’t look so glum, little scout. I’m not going to bother tracking who we kick out. If they are in an area we expand to, they will be given an opportunity the same as everyone else at their new location.”

  “Thank you, sir.” Yohan bowed and waited for the dungeon master to dismiss him. After a few seconds he looked up to see the dungeon master rapidly moving through the projections, highlighting people and appearing to review notes or create additional ones. Remaining bowed, he backed through the portal and quickly filled out the report he was required to complete the contract.

  When he finished, he sent the report and received his payment. He suspected that word would be sent to the individuals he had noticed in one of the projections standing outside of the walls that now surrounded the dungeon territory.

  After a second's thought, he pulled out some paper and quickly scribbled some notes and sent a few of his shadows to the walls to pass the information down to the individuals he suspected were still huddling in fear and confusion.

  *****

  “Dammit Lorem. You violated the bond that requires you to protect me.” Jim shouted as he stood there almost naked with smoke rising from what little remained of his clothes that had mostly burned off.

  Lorem smiled and said, “No I didn’t. I assessed that you were in no danger and the system agreed with me. Care to explain why a low level miner wouldn’t take any damage from those beams?”

  Jim pointed a finger at the book and said, “i may not have taken damage, but it hurt like hell.”

  Not backing down, Lorem calmly stated, “You didn’t answer the question, Jim. Why didn’t you take any damage?”

  Jim marched over to the statue of the fugly dwarf and examined the crystal it was holding. After a few seconds, he pulled up some information from Lorem’s library. “Huh. Look at this Lorem. Does that look familiar?”

  Lorem started to object to Jim’s change of subject, but a projection Jim made caught his eye. “That’s a partially formed dungeon core. I suspect those are the sections that allow it to expand and claim territory.”

  Jim nodded and said, “And why do you think an ancient civilization would build a system to protect themselves from dungeons on a planet with almost all of its essence locked?”

  “Were they enemies of the Drake Empire?” Lorem asked.

  Jim shook his head. “No, this civilization existed thousands of years before the Empire was founded. Can you replicate the orbs?’ He asked as the glow slowly left the orb as it ran out of power. Jim looked at his dungeon control tabs and saw that the ever reliable Bessie was quickly expanding to take control of the entire cavern as the resistance faded.

  “What are you planning?” Lorem asked, but he and Jim both noticed that the three pyramids on the far side of the tavern were starting to glow as the essence built up and the temperature began to rise. Lorem quickly began syphoning excess essence and Jim sent information to Bessie to repair the essence channels and after breaking the connection to the orbs.

  A series of small explosions rang out and Lorem explained, “There appears to have been a fail safe mechanism in case the main channels were destroyed.”

  “That’s two strikes, Book. You’re walking on thin ice.” Jim said as he disappeared and reappeared placing another orb into his inventory.

  Bessie’s voice asked, “Do you still wish for me to disconnect the channels powering the orbs now that you have gathered them, master?’

  “Yes. And first priority will be checking for other fail safes that the book missed.” Jim replied as he turned to walk back to the stairs that would take him to the exit. Lorem stuck his tongue out at Jim’s back before following him while grumbling that it was an entirely foreign system to anything he had seen before.”

  When Jim returned to the portal Bessie opened for him, he quickly fed the dungeon one of the incomplete cores he had gathered. Lorem smiled as images of conquering the mighty Drake Empire flitted through his mind. He practically drooled at the thought of absorbing one of their mighty dungeon ships. Always the pragmatic evil book of complete destruction, he made the decision to not get a third strike. Just in case Jim was planning what he suspected.