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Story Codes: Gamelit, Fantasy, Magic

For a list of all the dungeon builder stories click here

Comments are very welcome. I would like all criticism, positive and negative, so long as it’s
constructive, and feedback is very appreciated.

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Click here for Part 5.

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Note: Thanks to Alex for beta reading this!

Chapter Twelve

“This is convenient,” said Fara as the table with two chairs appeared against the corner of the Vault. I had to expand the size of the room by about a foot to make it fit. On it was paper with ink and quill. “You truly can remodel your dungeon at your whim.”

“So long as there are no conscious minds in it that are not bound to my Crystal or who have not bee subjugated,” I answered.

“You can take prisoners?” Fara asked me, her ears twitching. She sat down on one of the chairs.

“I took Halia prisoner,” I said. “It’s how I recruited her. I showed her I wasn’t a monster and then let her go. She decided to keep serving me.”

“Ah.” She looked at the parchment. “Halia Vorbia. Her father is a legend. He killed several powerful dungeon builders, but failed to kill the greatest threat that has arisen.”

“Fuegin.” I sat down. “He’s, uh, an ally of sorts.”

“He’s an ally to know one,” Fara said. “If he seeks to befriend you, he merely uses you.”

“Maybe.” Fuegin did feel so sincere. “He wants to find out why we’re here. He’s tried to get to your library several times.”

“Yes. So far, our wardens have held against his incursions, but the longer a dungeon builder lives, the more power he can accumulate.” Her ears twitched. “You say he wishes to know your purpose and is working with you.”

“It’s why I wrote my letter. Why you’re here.”

Fara’s ears twitched. “Do not tell him what I suspect about the First Dungeon being in these mountains.”

“I won’t.” Her caution was wise. I hated it. I wanted to trust Fuegin. He could have wiped me out, but instead, he offered me the hand of friendship. No one else in this world had done that. They all assumed I was evil. “Not until we know what we have and can understand it.”

“It is your decision, Lord Leo.” She shifted. “Now, I have had a tour of your entire dungeon. It is rather slap-dash affair.”

“Yeah, I just add things as I get new glyphs,” I said. “I want to change that. I think we can safely divide the dungeon into three sections. The entrance with the first level of the labyrinth that funnels everyone through a single trap room. A second labyrinth that leads to another trap room.”

“No.” The elf said. “You need to layer your defenses. Let it lead to stairs that lead to another level. You can then build that layer beneath the first. A more compact design.”

“Yeah, I haven’t been so good at thinking three-dimensionally.” I smiled. “So we have a third labyrinth on the second level that funnels into the water trap room. From there, that can lead to the guard room, my throne room, and living quarters.”

“Which all should be on a third level. Even a fourth level, perhaps, putting your living quarters beneath your Throne Room. We should not be up high. It puts us closer to the surface.”

I winced. “Yeah, learned that one the hard way.”

“Your trap rooms are quite impressive. The water one with the bridge that both has to be raised out of the water and then turned a ninety degrees is a nice touch. They see the door that leads to the small labyrinth and never realize there is a concealed door out of reach that leads to your residence.”

“I stole part of that from this asshole named Jindag. The concealed door was my own addition.”

“Still, keep using it,” she said. She dipped the quill into the ink pot and started doing a rough sketch. She drew in the entrance. “We’ll want to keep the tunnel off to Astovin intersecting this same guard room.”

“And the part of the dungeon that leads up here,” I added. “There’s a Mana Vein flowing through here.”

The elf blinked. “There is?” She reached out her hand. “Through us right now?”

“Yep. I need to keep my intersection with it.”

Fara nodded and added some notes.

“I can also make new traps,” I said. “Metal lets me make weapon traps and Earth gives me crushing ceiling traps.”

“You have ice,” said Fara. “What can we do with that?”

I rose and went to the Void Crystal and sank into it. I had all the various components. “I can make the ground slick. Say over a narrow bridge over a pit full of spikes.”

“Useful, useful,” she said. “I like this idea. Bridges are good. You have will o’ wisps. They are ranged attackers, but you have them wondering your labyrinth. Maybe a room that could take advantage of their abilities.”

“Yes, yes!” A smile split my lips. “A darkness room with a bridge and a pit. Then they can shoot at the adventurers from the safety of fortified hallways that line the sides. The only way to reach them would be by crossing the pit or by being placed there by me. My will o’ wisps would be stuck, but they wouldn’t mind.”

“They don’t seem to mind at all spending their time in one place,” said Fara.

“Even the companions I claimed,” I said. “Usiku, Paanee, and Baaghi are content to stay in their guard room for days. They don’t get bored. They were humans once, but no longer. It’s changed them.”

“Having to hold a post for days at a time without it being a chore would be a valuable trait for monster girls to have,” Fara said. “I can see why they would have them.”

“Yeah.” I frowned. “What’s the origin of monster girls?”

Fara looked up. “They arrived with the first dungeon builder. Dragons, of course, predated the dungeon builders, but not the monster girls. They spawned with the dungeon builders. They spilled out of their keeps and attacked the world.”

“Interesting.” I let go of the Void Crystal. “As far as I can tell, they’re all from the mythologies of my world.”

“The world you come from has monster girls?”

“Not monster girls.” I smiled. “Monsters. They could be of either gender, or neither. Some of them were unique. Others were races. They have different legends about them. I don’t recognize all of them, but undines are stuff I’ve run into in video games. I know valkyries are Norse. Sprites sound like something from Celtic mythology like Feya being a fairy. Nagas are Indian, I think, and so are rakshasa. Not sure about wildhounds, but Usiku said fomorians were from Irish mythology. Succubus, of course, I’ve heard about. So are dryads and satyrs. Werebears, mermaids, and hippocampi, too. I think Quetzalcoatl was a South American god or something. Even elves and dwarves and halflings are from our stories and mythologies.”

“Interesting,” the elf said. “So the monster girls are, what, born out of the dungeon builder’s imagination.”

I furrowed my brow. “Maybe. They do feel… like I am creating them with my will. But their design doesn’t come from me. They come from the Void Crystal.” I glanced down at Souleen. “Any reason that all the wildhounds look basically the same. Or the satyrs. My satyrs and Jindag’s are similar. So are the oozes. They have different faces, but their body shapes are the same.”

“The Void Crystals have their… their…” Souleen frowned. “Blueprint. That is a word from your language. The same blueprint that you use.”

“And where did the blueprint come from?”

The little, busty Soul of the Void Crystal gave a helpless shrug. “Wherever the Void Crystals come from. Whoever summons you.”

“That woman that you’re a piece of,” I muttered.

“I don’t know.” Souleen gave me a helpless look. “I really, really don’t know.”

I sighed. “So, monster girls have been brought to this world by the imagination of people from my world. Maybe the first dungeon builders created the blueprints of their various mythological creatures and they were… shared. Like all the Void Crystals are on the same network and accessing the same database. The same library.”

“Library?” Fara asked. “I’m not sure what a library has to do with a Void Crystal.”

“It’s a programming term,” I said. “There are machines we have called computers that can store data and execute programs. They’re quite powerful in what they can do. They have resource libraries that multiple programs access and use for different purposes. It’s like that.”

“I sort of see what you mean,” Fara said. “I don’t understand this ‘program,’ but the idea of all dungeon builders using the same books as the basis for their dungeons makes sense.”

“So is there any record on when monster girls appeared? I mean, some of these mythologies come from parts of the world that were isolated from each other until a few hundred years ago.”

“I do not know.” Fara leaned back. “It has never been a question that I had thought about.”

“There’s a reason that so much fantastical and mythological stuff from my world really exists here,” I said. “A reason our worlds are connected.”

“And that is what we shall discover together, Lord Leo,” Fara said. “Now, let us continue to build your dungeon.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the next few hours, Fara and I worked on it.

We finally had something we both agreed would be useful. For Level 1, we started with the entrance. The same one that we currently had. It led to the natural cave that helped to hide the fact there was a dungeon here. A tunnel led off to Astovin, locked by a heavily reinforced metal door that only my monster girls and I could open. Another door led to the elevator to the Observatory Tower that I decided to build. That was a column of stone brick that rose from my current Vault Room to let us look down at the valley and to keep access to the mana vein.

The last door was also a reinforced, metal door. All the doors in the dungeon, in fact, were replaced with these sturdier ones. Last, I put three werebears (Bhaaloo, Panja, and Daant) and three basilisks (Skamianiela, Vielmi, and Piaro) to guard it.

The plan was to have the basilisks unleash their petrifying breath and kill any intruders then have the werebears smash the statues.

Beyond the door was the Initial Labyrinth. It would be patrolled by the wildhounds (Hela, Ci, Du, Nos, Gwyllt, Marwo, and Cysgo), the satyrs (Bakara, Seeng, Havas, Khur, Doodh, and Ullo), and the oozes (Cikhala, Cikata, and Philtara). This was a sprawling labyrinth that dominated much of the first floor. I filled it with all manner of traps, dead ends, and decoy treasures. There was only one correct way through it that would lead to the Lightning Pillar Room that had to be navigated to get to the next half of the dungeon.

In the first labyrinth, I created Guard Post One. Here, Feya and Smerta would be stationed. They would live in there and have their own map of the dungeon to help coordinate the monster girls in the first labyrinth. The goal was to let them command the battle and crush the enemy in the trap-filled hallways. I put their room in the middle of it accessed only by doors concealed with Darkness.

The Lighting Pillar Room remained unchanged from my first dungeon. It was more powerful, of course, but it would zap any intruders who entered it. The door led into the Second Labyrinth.

Here, I put the arachnes (Damhanalla, Sreaga, Nimhe, Gaiste, and Greasai), the remaining werebears (Garjan and Maan) and basilisks (Mastab and Dychannie). There were more trap rooms on this level. More obstacles to be overcome.

I supposed I was treating this like a video game with escalating levels of difficulty.

The fastest way through the Second Labyrinth was to pass through the Overgrown Room. It was a room thick with vegetation that would grab intruders, holding them with thorny vines. Before, I had the room empty of monster girls, but I wanted to take advantage of the adventurers’ confusion by hiding my forces inside. I put three quetzalcoatls (Iaidas, Vaivory, and Skale) and all the unicorns (Rih, Sriblo, Nezaymana, Chystota, and Kin).

Another trap room I created was The Stalactite Room. Here, sharp spikes of rocks would fall from the ceiling and impale intruders who crossed it. It had four doors, so it could be encountered from several directions. One led to a decoy treasure room.

To get to level 2, the intruders had to navigate the Darkness Room. I liked this idea of Fara’s. I combined it with the slippery ice bridge and spiked pits. There was no light. It would take powerful magics to illuminate the room. Crossing on a slippery bridge in pitch black would be difficult enough, but all my will o’ wisps (Sviesos, Zaibas, Svyte, Kibir, Gintaras, and Dvasia) would be firing their lightning at the intruders. If they managed to reach the far end, they would find a trapped door that would retract the bridge.

If they made it, they would descend the stairs to Level 2 and the third and final labyrinth.

This level would be patrolled by my orcs (Zobens, Briesmoni, Slepkavi, Orka, and Dzelzs) who were my most skilled fighters. They would be coordinated by me from the throne room to ambush and kill the enemy. The level was littered with traps.

It was brutal. I hated it, but I needed to keep us safe.

I put a different Ice trap room on this level. The Frozen Room was a glittering grotto with temperatures so cold, they would quickly sap the body heat of any adventurers not prepared for temperatures found on Antarctica. Further, they would be attacked by my yuki-onna (Snezhinka, Moroz, Belyy, Prekrasnyy, and Sukkub).

If they survived all that, they would reach the Flooded Bridge Room. To raise the bridge, they would have to plunge into water swimming with my mermaids (Mase, Skela, and Pani) and my two hippocampi (Ghoda and Kelpa). Flying over the water, ready to zap with lightning were my last two quetzalcoatls (Gyvate and Sparnas). Of course, raising the bridge would just lead to the Decoy Labyrinth, a small maze with more traps and decoy treasure. Another switch, accessed from beneath the water on the column that held the bridge, would turn it ninety degrees to the concealed door.

That door led to Guard Post Two manned by Usiku, Paanee, and Baaghi. The stairs down to Level 3 were found beyond them. If I thought the threat was excessive, I would recall those three to stand with me and my companions in the throne room.

Level 3 was very familiar. My Throne room remained unchanged. That led to the living quarters and then to the Vault. When I made the changes, you couldn’t even have told me that I had moved entire rooms around. The Vault dropped in elevation by two hundred feet, safely buried beneath my dungeon and all the mountain itself.

No dwarves would tunnel through the mountainside to ambush us beyond all the defenses.

“That is… disorienting,” said Fara. “I can feel that we’re deeper underground now.”

“Yeah, air pressure’s different.” I yawned to pop my ears. “Like flying a plane. Yawn. That works for humans.”

She opened her mouth wide, her ears twitching. “Oh, yes, I see. That is useful.” She looked around the Vault. “Now that you have created your new dungeon, shall you look for the First?”

“I know you’re eager, but there are still some things I have to do.” I stretched my back. “Like dinner. My mother and Mrs. Lucina have been cooking all day. They are making something for us to enjoy. I hope you like it.” I paused. “Wait, do elves eat like raw vegetables?”

“Of course. Do not humans.” She smiled. “We also cook them. And mushrooms, and I have a fondness for eggs.”

“Meat?”

“Rarely. I have had pheasant, but not much else. It is mostly fruits, vegetables, milk, and eggs. We do not raise livestock to kill them like humans do. We try not to kill if we can avoid it.”

“So, you’re a vegetarian out of principal not out of diet.”

She inclined her head.

Dinner was a glorious affair. My mother had made chicken pot pies for myself, Halia, and Fara to eat. They were delicious. Halia and I both enjoyed them while Fara smiled and complimented my mother and Mrs. Lucina.

“This medieval cooking is different,” Mrs. Lucina said, “but your mother has figured out a lot, Leo. It takes more time, but it is delicious.”

“Yes,” I groaned, needing it after a long day spent planning.

Chapter Thirteen

As much as Fara wanted me to immediately start searching for the First Dungeon, I had more work. I liked the observation tower. It would let us look down the mountain at the valley that led to the dungeon entrance. However, it needed to be hidden.

“Wow, this view,” Hagane said, showing a surprising amount of excitement when she joined me up here. She leaned on the parapet. I gave it teeth-like crenellations like a medieval castle. The tower’s smooth sides rose from the rock. There was no way in or out save by flying.

Or by the rope ladder that I had made and could be thrown over.

“You can see so far,” Hagane said. She adjusted her glasses. It was strange she kept those since they had no lenses, but she did look cute in them.

“Kweh, heh, heh, I can see all your domain, big bro!” Garnet cried. She jumped off the tower and spread her wings wide. She caught the air currents and soared out.

Lana Fulmine joined her, the lightning sprite had similar wing bones to Garnet, albeit made of cracking lightning, but she had no membranes stretched between them. She should have no way to generate lift, and yet she flew anyways.

I smiled as I watched them soaring over the mountains. Our peak rose behind us to a glacial-capped point. A dome of clouds had formed around it. Mount Rainier, back in my world, had that same effect. The shoulders of the mountains went to the ridges of the range that stretched out in both directions. Another snow-capped peak rose higher up.

I peered in Astovin’s direction. The valley led down to the farmland. The village was a dark smudge I could just make out. The river that flowed south towards the lands of Lord Shorvin, and where Jindag had made his dungeon. It was breathtaking up here.

“We are in a stratovolcano,” said Hagane. “Is it seismically active? Have you encountered its vent? Or has it cooled.”

“Cooled?” I asked.

“Yes. The magma cools in the chamber and gets compressed into granite. Then the rest of the mountain is worn away by erosion, leaving behind the harder batholith.” She pointed to the south. “See that sort of dome-shaped mountain of gray. That’s the remnant of a stratovolcano. The magma chamber. It’s been lifted higher due to plate tectonics and because it is not as heavy as it once was so the underlying ground is not deformed as much. Mountains are like objects on a mattress. The bigger they are, the more they sink into the mattress. Or the continental plate. As they erode, the land rises so the hardened magma chamber is raised.”

“Huh,” I said. “No, no, haven’t run into any magma. It might be dead. That’s interesting. I guess I didn’t think there would be that sort of thing here.”

Hagane shrugged. “The world tells you a story wherever you look. The history of it.”

I nodded and kicked the rope ladder over.

I climbed down it, which was not as easy as I thought it would be. But I managed to reach the bottom. I had work to do. I had a ritual to cast. I had never used one of the ritual magics. I had a few of them now.

Today, I was using Strengthen Stone. It would make the tower’s stones far, far stronger than they should be. Impervious to being sapped. I didn’t want to take any chances with someone mining into it.

The words filled my mind.

“I call upon Lord Abzu and Lady Ki to strengthen the stones of this tower,” I chanted, throwing my arms wide. “Let the power of the earth flow through the bones of this structure and strengthen them. Deep in the earth, are stones strengthened. Crushed by the weight above, they are hardened. Let those forces be unleashed.”

Power surged out of me. Magic.

The words kept coming on and on. My mouth ran dry, and I still had to keep talking. The words could not be stopped once I started. I was creating a permanent effect. That was the difference between a ritual and a spell. This was no flashy release of power that would be over in a heartbeat.

“…meld and harden, unite and strengthen…”

There was so much tower, that I had to repeat the formulas, focusing the mana flowing from the Void Crystal into the stone. I worked up and up. Garnet and Lana flew above. The other monster girls came to take their peek.

I hardly noticed them. The sun climbed the eastern horizon and reached its zenith then started its descent as the words kept spilling from my lips. They enchanted the stone with the strength to outlast the mountain I was building it upon.

Would it one day tumble down the face of the mountain when its foundation eroded from it, an intact column of stone that would smash into the trees growing on the slope below, caving through them on its way to the valley?

That would be thousands and tens of thousands of years in the future. I wouldn’t be alive to see it.

Finally, the top of the tower was finished.

“Here,” Maya said.

I blinked to find my undine beside me. She grabbed my face and kissed me with her wet lips, my own dry and cracking. She thrust her tongue into my mouth and… her water flooded me. She gave me her water. I gulped it down. The water splashed into my stomach. I felt rehydrated in moments. Refreshed by her kiss.

I broke it and gasped, “I didn’t know you could do that.”

“Me, either,” she said. “But you looked thirsty. You were hoarse. I could hardly understand what you were saying.”

I swallowed, my throat burning. “Yeah. A lot of words. And I’m not done.”

“Not done?” she asked, glancing up at it. “It’s impregnable.

“But people can see it. I know it will only take them into the guard room, but why make it easy for them.” I drew in a deep breath and began casting the ritual of Illusory, a Light spell that would make a permanent illusion over the tower. It would become an outcropping. You could pass through it and it would be transparent from within, but from without, especially at a distance, it would just be part of the mountain. “I call upon Lord Shamash and Lady Sherida to bend the light and conceal this tower in trickery. Let it fool the eyes…”

It didn’t take as many hours to cast, but the sun was setting by the time that I had finished creating an outcropping of rocks that covered it. By then, Maya and Hagane were watching over me. Guarding me, I realized, since I was vulnerable while I chanted. Before the sun set and I lost the light, I examined it. The rocks accepted the changing of lighting as twilight crept on the world like it was the real deal.

Though I had no idea what rain would do.

Probably fall through it and spoil the illusion.

It was better than nothing.

I had spent the day talking, and I was starving and exhausted. Maya gave me another refreshing kiss and then we climbed up the ladder and pulled it up. You couldn’t even tell there was an illusion around it. The sun set behind us, the world falling into darkness.

I headed down the tower for another wonderful supper cooked by my mother and Mrs. Lucina. This time, they had prepared a roast with a savory gravy and mashed peas. That was different, like green mashed potatoes but not quite as good. Still, I wolfed it down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, I walked with Usiku, Halia, Mom, Mrs. Lucina, and Terra to the end of the tunnel that opened up on the outskirts of Astovin, wishing I could teleport myself around the dungeon. We stepped into the daylight and marched onto the road. Word quickly spread before us that we were coming.

The people of Astovin appeared. Some of the young men did not hide their disdain while plenty of the young women, and a few of the older, were staring at me with interest in their eyes. A flirtiness in the way they shifted.

Halia marched at my side with Usiku leading the way, a shadowy sword on her belt. Terra and Mom were behind me. We needed supplies as well as I had business here. A promise that I had made, and now I was here to keep.

“Lord Leo,” Mayor Bevlin said. He smiled as he rushed up and extended his hand. “It is a pleasure to see you. A group of dwarves passed through a few days ago. They said you had defeated the Twins.”

“I have,” I said. “The dwarves of Vorianil Mountains no longer have to live in fear. Even better, I have the Earth Glyph.”

The mayor’s eyes flicked to Halia. “Yes, yes, I can see that. So you are here to…” He swallowed like he couldn’t believe a dungeon builder really would care. “To fix them?”

“Of course,” Leo said. “Where are they.”

“We have them in one of the storehouses.” The mayor shifted his shoulders. “It was the only building that was large enough to hold them.”

“Of course, of course.”

A crowd grew behind us as the mayor led us away. My mother broke off to do her shopping, but the rest of us continued to the warehouse. If any adventurers attacked, they would have to deal with Usiku, Halia, and Terra. And I had all my orcs stationed in the tunnel, ready to burst out and come to my aid, Smerta at their lead. But I didn’t want to terrorize Astovin.

I wanted this village to be free. I wasn’t their ruler. I was their neighbor.

We walked into the storeroom and the sight of the frightened, petrified villagers reminded me of that horrible day when Astovin was attacked. They were lucky I had been in the village, or it would have been much, much worse.

I paused at the statues of the woman and her child. I remembered seeing them being taken. I drew in a deep breath. I had the power to fix them. A simple spell, not even a ritual, to break the curse that had turned them all to stone.

“Flesh cursed to stone, let the petrification of Lord Abzu end!”

The stone melted away from the child. In moments, he screamed, flinching back. It shocked me until I realized the last thing he remembered was the monster attack. The boy quivered then glanced up at his mother, a statue. He cried again. I knelt and took his mother’s hand.

“It’s okay,” I told him. “Look, I’m going to fix her.” I smiled at the child. “It’s going to be okay. Flesh cursed to stone, let the petrification of Lord Abzu end!”

The stone bled away, replaced by the sobbing mother’s living skin. Tears that had been captured in stone now flowed down her face again. She gasped and then saw her child. She scooped him up into her arms, holding him tight, weeping fiercely.

Then she glanced at me. She recognized me. She held her son close to her and then looked around at the warehouse. A man rushed over and hugged her to him while she kept staring at me in shock. Then a smile spread on her lips.

“T-thank you, Lord Leo,” she whispered.

I smiled at her and nodded.

I moved through the room and touched the petrified people. One by one, I cured the victims of the Twins. I restored their flesh. The reunions happened over and over again, the families embracing their petrified members. They were cheering and crying and laughing.

No one stared at me with fear any longer. With suspicion. They didn’t see me as their conqueror. I might be a dungeon builder, but I was expanding my resources to cure them. What sort of uncaring tyrant does that?

I had long since known it would be my deeds that would set me apart from the other dungeon builders. I wouldn’t conquer. I wouldn’t send my monster girls to attack and use my magics to destroy. I would protect and defend. I would be a good knight who made the world around me a better place than before I had arrived.

I had done that. Astovin had been the victims of Jindag before I had arrived. I had saved their daughters. Today, I had done even more. I had shown them who I was. And I wasn’t done yet. I had more work to do.

But it was hard when every man was shaking my hand and every woman was hugging me, planting a kiss on my cheek. Or, some of the bolder maidens, on my lips. I grinned at them, so happy that I could be here to protect them.

And I wasn’t the only one no longer feared.

Usiku, Mrs. Lucina, and Terra were also being greeted. They might be naked monster girls, which might explain the young men flocking around them, but they were not feared. No one was nervously interacting with them. They were relaxed.

I smiled, so glad I could help these people. They were attacked because of me.

“I want to set up some guardians for your town,” I said to the mayor. “Some golems to give you some protection and to provide warning if you’re attacked. They won’t hurt your people. They’ll just patrol the edges of town.”

“Golems?” the mayor asked.

“If you don’t want me to,” I said, raising placating hands. “I won’t do it without your permission, Mayor Bevlin. But I can do it. I want to help.”

“No, no, that’s fine,” he said. “I would appreciate it. You never know when a dungeon builder will appear and threaten us.”

I nodded. “And I can get reinforces here pretty fast.”

I needed to come up with a way to get me here fast. I had to dig into my dungeon options. I had quite a number of powers. Maybe there was some sort of minecart I could set up. Or even just a horse that I could ride down the tunnel to get here fast. But even if I couldn’t get there as fast, I could teleport my monster girls to the end of the tunnel.

I set about making the metal golems. I had their shapes premade in my dungeon. My monster girls carried out the three iron statues I had made. They were of busty women. They were modeled after Souleen. That made me feel good about it.

“I call upon Lord Nabu and Lady Nisaba to awaken these statues and give them purpose,” I chanted drawing on the power of my Metal Glyph. “Let them arise as guardians, always leal and strong, never faltering in their duty of protecting and defending my territory.”

The words tumbled out of me. It took about ten minutes per statue, but they awoke one by one. Each of them had a sword that she held in her right hand. She rose, her metallic body moving like Hagane’s, but they lacked that plasticity she had that gave her metallic flesh. These were animated statues. Soulless things. They didn’t take up any slots of monster girls. They were expenditures of my magic, true, but that would return as my Void Crystal drank in more of the Mana Veins that flowed through my base.

“Patrol the outskirts of Astovin and protect the inhabitants,” I commanded to the three golems. Each of them had “LEO” carved into their foreheads like Terra had. That was like the golem myth back on earth, right?

Only it was supposed to be truth on their forehead.

The three golems marched out and started their ceaseless patrol of the town. The villagers all smiled at me. They seemed comforted by that. I felt a little weary from working all these spells, but I wouldn’t show it.

“Thank you, Lord Leo,” Mayor Bevlin said. He thrust out his hand. I shook it. “You are so different from the others.”

“I’m not sure I’m much different,” I said. “I just decided that I wouldn’t be what everyone says I should be. I wouldn’t let the power go to my head. It would be easy, you know.”

“I can only imagine,” he said, staring over at my monster girls. “You could take this entire village with those four golems. We would be powerless to stop it.”

“I’m not here to conquer.”

The mayor smiled. “And yet you’ve claimed Astovin as your own. You protect us. We provide you with food. It’s not much of a tax, but it is something.”

“We pay, don’t we?” I asked. I admit, I left that up to my mother.

“Not since you stopped the Twins’ attack,” he said. “I guess you didn’t know.”

“I had been distracted,” I admitted. “I didn’t mean to conquer you. Lord Shorvin won’t be happy.”

The Mayor leaned in. “Something is gathering at Lord Shorvin’s. I don’t know what, but he isn’t happy the adventurers have failed to destroy your dungeon. He’s growing desperate. He has upped the reward. Stronger adventurers will be gathering, but I fear there is something else.”

“What?” I asked.

“I really do not know, Lord Leo.”

To be continued…

Click here for Part 7.

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I have released a part 43 of the revamped Devil’s Pact on Smashwords. Read this post for more information if you’re interested!