I stand with Logan in the dungeon. We are in the first room of what will soon be the training area for soldiers of the Gowen military. Taking Logan to the dungeon core room made him an ally, so I can now alter the room or add monsters in his presence. If anything is going to convince him we are trying to help it is going to be this.
“Alright, if we have to change things over and over it will get quite costly, and we won’t be able to make as many rooms, so you are sure you want to separate this room into 4 equal sizes? For the magic of the dungeon it will still count as one room, so if there are any troops in any of the rooms it means the monsters won’t be able to spawn in the others.”
Logan: “Yes, I think that will be alright.”
I then open [Menu] and divide the room in four with walls. The walls just appear causing the area we are standing in to shrink considerably causing Logan to jump and begin to get nervous.
“Alright, right behind us is where the door will be to go back into the dungeon, so how would you like to connect the other rooms? One door a piece or a door that connects them to each adjacent room?”
Logan: “I don’t think it would matter, guess what ever is easier.”
I then put in four doors, so the soldiers could go either direction.
“Alright then, now we got four smaller rooms, you want to leave them empty, or do you want any kind of décor, or such? We can put in some crates for the monsters and soldiers to hide behind for cover, or anything like that.”
Logan: “For now leaving these empty should be alright.”
“Ok, now for monsters. I am sure for starting out you will want something relatively weak to start the troops off, but just to make it to this room they have to go through the crimson kobold, so I think we should start at that strength.”
For now I summon in a hefty wolf, crimson kobold, a hobgoblin brute, a red slime, a tiny flame elemental, ill lizardman, tiny earth golem, weak fairy, and an old skeleton lining them all up for Logan to look over.
“Alright, what do you think?”
Logan looks quite nervous as he looks at the monsters as they just stand there. “This is as disturbing as that first time we entered your dungeon.”
“Yea I heard about that. I am told Lilah knew she couldn’t hurt you, so she did that in a bit of fun.”
Logan: “These ones aren’t suddenly going to attack are they?”
“No, with you being a dungeon ally the monsters won’t attack you unless directed.”
Logan: “So we can put any of these monsters in the rooms?”
“I have weaker, and stronger monsters, but all of these are about the same strength. We could even use a combination of any of them if you like.”
Logan: “Well the wolves might be alright, because that may be something a soldier will encounter, but the things like the slime, elemental, fairy, or golem would be pretty pointless. The skeleton, lizardman, kobold, and goblins are all humanoid so it should be the closest thing to what they will actually experience in the field.”
“How large of a group do you want them to encounter?”
Logan: “It will only make since to set up some kind of garrison here in Tobes once we get set up, but even to separate them into smaller groups we would have at least 10 people per group.”
“That would fill these rooms quite a bit. Summoning more monsters of any particular line allows me to summon stronger ones of the same type. Now Kobolds I have quite a lot of, and the elemental creatures I have in the elemental wings, so what do you say we start out with 2 wolves to keep it interesting and 8 hobgoblins per room?”
Logan: “That should work at least for the start.”
“Now each group will have to clear all four rooms and move on before more monsters will be able to fill these rooms, so more soldiers can come in, I don’t know how many of the large rooms we will be able to fill. It all depends on how many separate groups you plan to send in per day.”
Logan: “To start out even a single unit would be 40 soldiers, if we split them up in groups of 10 we would have to have at least 4 sets.”
“Alright, for now let’s return to the room with the bunnies, as I can set up the monsters cheaper from there.”
I then transfer us to the dungeon core room, and [Advanced Menu] is really helpful, instead of multiple rifts I can set up a single one for the wolves, hobgoblins, and even set different gear sets to each hobgoblin. We have a ton of low level gear now stored away in the dungeon’s inventory, so I the hobgoblins with several different types of gear and finalize the first rift.
Without using [Advanced Menu] like I did, I would have made a rift for each hobgoblin and then one for the two wolves, so this one large rift is almost 1/10th of the price it would have been before the making the advanced dungeon core room. Maybe it will be far more worth it in the end then we thought.
It still totals 138,000xp to fill each of the four small rooms in the first training room, but we still have quite a bit of xp remaining set aside. Before I close [Menu] I store the group I manually summoned into my crystal.
“Alright, I will take you back and we will do the final walkthrough of the first area.”
When Logan and I return to the first room he looks even more nervous than before with the two wolves snarling and the 8 armed goblins. I show him all four set up the same, and then add a door between this room and the next.
Logan: “Another huge room.”
“We have this room and one more on this floor, but if you want another room just like the last, that is all I will be able to do for now. That will leave enough monsters for your 4 groups to make 2 passes on each of the 8 rooms though.”
Logan: “That is a start. I think we will do another one just like the last, and when you can make the third room the same. You said there are more floors right?”
“Yes, limited space makes that a single smaller room, but the floor after that goes back to a single larger room, and the floor after that has 2 more large rooms. There are some more after that but that is going to take a while before we get that far.”
Logan: “This was actually quite fun setting this up with you.” –He says with a smile that is almost back to his old self.-
“Well if you hurry up and marry Queen maybe she will let you help her work on her dungeon as well.”
Logan drops his smile, but the comment doesn’t seem to upset him. He just seems to be thinking awfully hard. He then changes the subject. “So when can I start sending troops?”
“Well adventurers have been pushing the main branch of the dungeon quite a lot lately, so unless any stay overnight in an area deeper then we currently are. Then I can set the door between these rooms and the dungeon itself tonight. After that we just have to wait for it to be discovered, which shouldn’t take a day or two with the adventurers we have been having in here lately. After that Belinda will start the process at the adventurer’s guild of setting that section aside for the use of the Gowen military.”
Logan: “So three or four days, then at least a week for the soldiers to travel to Tobes.”
“Once Belinda starts setting it up we will have all the adventurers migrate to Denova’s inn, and reserve Belinda’s until other accommodations for the troops can be established.”
Logan: “That isn’t going to put Belinda in a bind is it?”
“No, the inn that Denova built is much larger and nicer than the one Belinda had constructed by new adventurers, but the rooms are cheaper than Denova’s inn so that is the only reason it has managed to keep people in them.”
Logan: “Well it looks like we have a plan at least.”
Logan and I then return to the dungeon core room, and I set up the second room exactly like the first. I then tell the bunnies to add a door connecting them to the dungeon when they are able to. I then transfer Logan and myself down to the house.
“Alright, I guess all that is left is summoning you a few extra soldiers, that is if you want them to join up that is.”
Logan: “These will be like real people right?”
“As real as you or me.”
Logan: “Does it work just like when you summoned the monsters.”
“Well sort of…” –I say while I summon a few robes setting them down.- “Any preferences on their appearance, race, or temperament? I may not be as good as the bunnies are, but I will try.”
Logan: “I don’t know. It may be mean to say, but it seems more believable to be able to summon a beastkin then humans, so let’s start with a human.”
We have quite a few human classes available now, but Logan didn’t have a preference so to try to possibly unlock more I set everything to random. That makes it easier so I can focus just on a personality that wishes to serve in the Gowen military.
“Alright, take this.” –I say while handing Logan one of the robes.-
Logan: “You mean they will be naked?”
“Were you born in clothes?”
Logan: “But the monsters…”
“That is a little different. This will be a sentient person.”
Logan takes the robe and then nods his head with a serious expression. “I think I am ready.”
I then hit finalize on the screen while focusing on making a loyal soldier.
When the light fades there stands a young woman in her early 20s by appearance, she has short charcoal colored hair, brown eyes, and a quite feminine but muscular body, with tanned skin. She quickly looks around then stands up straight, salutes, and says “Your orders Master?”
Logan is staring at her quite hard, is face is quite serious. He then seems to snap out of it shaking his head and holding the robe out.
Woman: “Thank you Prince Logan Sir!” –She says taking the robe, putting it on. She doesn’t salute again, but she does go back to standing straight.-
Logan: “Wait, how does she know who I am?”
Woman: “Master summoned me to serve as a soldier in the Gowen military. As such I was born with the knowledge relevant to that pursuit, although Master’s knowledge seems rather lacking in Gowen military procedure. I do have confidence however that with the general military knowledge I possess I will make a fine recruit and will learn quickly!”
Logan: “Just by wanting you to join the Gowen military you have information about it?”
Woman: “There is very limited information available to dungeons about the Gowen military, but the information known to them I was indeed born with, and since the information was rather limited there is still a vast amount that is known about other generalized military information, so I also possess that knowledge.”
“So what do you think?”
Logan: “She definitely has the soldier part down, but what about just the normal human part?”
“Well I may have been focusing too hard on the soldier part, what would you tell a soldier at a time like this?”
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Logan: “At ease soldier.”
The woman looks to me for permission and after I nod she finally relaxes.
Logan: “That is much better. This is all new to me, but what can you tell me about yourself?”
Woman: “There isn’t much to tell sir. I was just born after all.”
Logan: “Well then let’s start with the general recruitment for a soldier. Why is it you wish to be a soldier of the Gowen Military?”
Woman: “That was the purpose in which I was summoned for!” –She says while straightening back up.-
Logan: “Just relax, I don’t mean the reason you were summoned is becoming a soldier what you want to do?”
The woman relaxes again and says. “The answer is the same. The purpose in which I was summoned was to become a soldier of the Gowen Military, so of course that is what I wish to do.”
Logan: “Well maybe we can come back to that one then. The next question is, what you could offer the Gowen military, but if you are indeed born with a lot of military knowledge that is far more than most of the new recruits. The next question would be where do you see yourself in 10 years?”
Woman: “Serving the Gowen Kingdom in the Gowen Military Sir!”
Logan sighs. “What about other than the military? If you are a soldier all the time, you will quickly burn yourself out.”
Woman: “You wish to know what I would do with my free time?”
Logan: “Yes, exactly.”
Woman: “I would say I would return to serve my Master, but I understand that in his wish for me to join the Gowen Military will mean unbinding me from his dungeon. I know not what a soldier usually does in their down time.”
Logan: “What do you mean unbind you from his dungeon?”
The woman looks to me again and I nod.
Woman: “Master wishes me to train with the other soldiers here in his dungeon, and to do so I will be required to no longer be one of his monsters.”
Logan: “So you would no longer have to follow his orders?”
Woman: “That is correct. I will be free to act only on my own will.”
Logan: “And in the free will, what is it you would like to do.”
Woman: “To serve in the Gowen Military of course!”
Logan sighs. “I would hate to turn down a promising recruit like this, but she seems almost too eager to be a soldier.”
“I assure you she has a will of her own. It just may take time for her personality to become clear. For the next one I won’t focus so hard on making them want to be a soldier.”
Logan: “How many do you plan on summoning?”
“Well as you heard I will have to unbind them, but just having one in each of the groups that has the knowledge of the dungeon then maybe they can keep them out of trouble.”
Logan: “How do you know they won’t talk about the dungeon then?”
“Before I unbind a monster from my dungeon I issue an order that keeps them from telling the secrets of my dungeon, and it stays in effect even after I unbind them. Other than that they are free to make their own choices.”
Logan: “If they can act on their own, then how do you know they will even help you after they are unbound?”
“I could order them to as part of that final order, but I won’t do that to them. In truth I don’t know if they will help afterwards, but we can see everything that goes on in the dungeon. Having one of our own in each of the groups will allow us to tell them if we see something out of place, and they can report it to their commander. So far all of the monsters I have summoned would do at least that much for us, even after they have been unbound.”
Logan: “If you are going to summon three more what are you going to summon next?”
“Well I want to make sure you are willing to take them as soldiers first.”
Logan: “Well I am still a bit unsure, but I think we will take it one at a time.”
“Well I can summon lots of different kinds of beastkin feral and normal, human, dwarves, and elves. “
Logan: “Even dwarves and elves? I am sure the old man would like to see another elf join the Gowen Military, maybe we should make one of them an elf.”
“Elves are pretty rare in these parts though right? If we do summon an elf I think we should stick to humans or beastkin for the other two to be safe.”
Logan: “But if we could get a dwarf that could work on the soldier’s armor in their down time that would be really helpful as well.”
“They aren’t any less rare.”
Logan: “I know, it is quite the hard decision.”
“Well I will summon one more human and a beastkin while you make up your mind on the final one.” –I then summon a pair of clothes handing them to the woman.- “Here, if you go up the stairs there should be a door to your left, you can change in to these there.”
After the woman leaves I begin to summon the second human. This time the result is a male, with light blond hair, green eyes. I hand him one of the robes and he quickly puts it on.
Man: “I understand your wish for me Master, and I am fine with becoming a soldier for the Gowen Military, but is it really necessary to unbind me from the dungeon? I would very much rather stay bound.”
“I can’t say I was expecting a reaction like that.”
Man: “My existence as a human is quite fragile, at least being bound to the dungeon it at least makes it bearable.”
“Well I won’t force anything on the sentient monsters of my dungeon, so if you really feel that you do not wish to be unbound I won’t force it on you, but I don’t see how you will be able to join the Gowen military that way.”
Man: “I may not be able to serve the way you intended me to, but there are plenty of other uses I could have to the Gowen military. If that doesn’t work I could always join the local guard. They aren’t the military, but they serve some of the same needs.”
I summon the man some clothes. “Take these and get dressed, I will speak to Logan further about it.”
After telling the man where he could go to change I let out a sigh.
Logan: “I know being bound to a dungeon is different than a royal attendant, but he reminds me a lot of Kline.”
“I took it into consideration that I would not be successful in summoning all four to serve the task we wanted, but I can say this was still a surprise. A few of the girls wished to remain bound for different reasons, but I don’t think I have heard of a monster wishing to stay bound for reasons like that though.”
Logan: “If you can handle the fact of becoming a slave to the dungeon, I don’t find it a stretch at all. Especially from what you and Queen told me about the perks of it, and with you not forcing anyone to do anything.”
“Well I guess we can deal with him afterwards, I will try a beastkin now, any preferences for it?”
Logan: “I am assuming all of these people that are rumored to be escaped slaves that you have helped are in fact all ones you have summoned, so I am interested in one of those bird like people, like the one that works at the brothel here in town, or the two that attended your wedding, but I guess that isn’t any better than the dwarf or the elf.”
“Along with the third tier bird beastkin, I also have a third tier cat beastkin, but from my understanding they have at least been heard of before, but they are exclusive to the Dalian military as slaves.”
Logan: “I don’t know what a second tier beastkin is, but if those birds were a third tier bird beastkin now I want to see what the cat one looks like.”
“The one I have is currently training and gathering xp for the dungeon in Shima, but I will introduce you some time.”
Logan: “You have monsters as far as Shima?”
“Well Shima is kind of a new thing, but with my [Gate] spell I have access to almost anywhere. I currently have three groups in Shima because it is very beneficial, but I also have a group in Longolia checking out that dungeon they are so proud of, one in Calhoun, Dalian, Merretta, and one in Adra.”
“You are able to keep track of all of them?”
“Well in truth I don’t even know most of their names, but Lila, that is the second to youngest rabbit beastkin up in the dungeon, she has a good handle on it all.”
Logan: “Sounds like you are starting your own adventurer’s guild.”
“Well groups out gathering xp like that are what make us able to do things like making these training rooms for the Gowen soldiers, and speaking of soldiers, so you want me to just keep it random then?”
Logan: “That would probably be for the best.”
When I summon the beastkin, maybe it was the talks about the avians or just luck, but even after summoning all those beastkin for Tom this is still my first bird beastkin. Of course as a normal beastkin she actually just looks like a normal human with wings. She has long blond hair, light colored skin, and blue eyes.
When you pair that up with the white feathered wings she could almost pass as an angel rather than a beastkin. The robe would be quite difficult for her to put on due to the wings so I use [Menu] to equip it on her.
Beastkin: “Thank you Master. I am sorry I am not quite what you expected, but I promise I can still live up to your expectations as a soldier of the Gowen military.”
“Well I think the only problem is, that Logan was wishing for a dwarf or an elf, but with you I think the fourth we summon should be either another beastkin or human.”
Beastkin: “I am sorry Prince Logan.”
Logan: “Don’t be, it’s not your fault. Besides I wanted to see something special and unique and I believe I just have.”
The beastkin girl blushes and says. “You honor me Prince Logan.”
Logan: “No offense, but is she really a beastkin?”
Beastkin: “Yes sir, my subspecies is swan, if Master summoned me as a feral beastkin I might look more the part, but as a normal beastkin I just have the wings.”
Logan: “Then the avian beastkin I met must have been feral beastkin… You really look like an angel.”
The beastkin blushes. “I promise Prince Logan there isn’t anything angelic about me…” After realizing what she said she blushes even more.
I clear my throat and say. “In any case. I think it would be a good idea for you to put some clothes on now.” I then summon a pair of clothes. I thought it might be hard for her to put them on with her wings, but I guess since I summoned them with her in mind, they have the buttons in the back of the shirt leaving space for her wings.
I hand her the clothes, and instruct her to go upstairs and change. “Sorry about that, I guess we should stick to something normal for the last?”
Logan: “We could use more beastkin I guess, but maybe we should stick to something like a bear or ox,”
“By the sound of it you would like it to be male as well?”
Logan: “The two females you summoned seem like a sure thing, and the human guy we don’t know about, so I think it would be best don’t you think?”
“Fair enough.”
I then select a bear beastkin setting the gender to male. With one final summoning the result is a stout young man with brown eyes, short brown hair, and stubby little ears and tail. I hand him the robe to put on.
Bear: “I understand what you wish for me, so if you don’t mind I would prefer to call you Sir, rather than Master.”
“That is quite alright, I have actually never asked for anyone to call me master it just sort of happens I guess.”
Bear: “Prince Logan Sir, I formally wish to join the military forces of Gowen if you would have me.”
Logan: “That is the plan, but let’s see how things go for now. Once you get dressed, we will then speak with all of you.”
Bear: “Yes Prince Logan Sir!”
I then summon the bear some clothes so he can go get dressed. From all four of them the only ones that have granted me any new skills was the bird beastkin, but [Aerial Combat] skill won’t benefit the rest of us very much.
After everyone is dressed we have them return to the living room.
“Belinda is much better at this then I, but regardless if you join the Gowen military or not, you will all require names. Do any of you have any preferences for you own names?”
Human woman: “Sir! If it pleases Prince Logan, and Master I would like the name Tess.”
Logan: “How about Tessa, to gives it a bit more feminine charm?”
Tessa: “Yes Sir!”
Bear beastkin: “Sir I would like to be called Theodore.”
Logan: “A bear beastkin named Theodore…? You do know you realize you will forever be stuck with the nickname teddy bear right?”
Teddy Bear: “What woman doesn’t like to snuggle up with a teddy bear? Sir!”
Logan: “I like him. Sounds good to me.”
“Either of you two have a preference?”
Swan Beastkin: “Nothing specific, but I would like Prince Logan to choose my name if that is alright with Master.”
Logan: “Are you sure…?” –Logan seems to look her over thinking hard. It causes her to begin blushing again, but she stands up straight.- “How about Sigrun?”
Sigrun: “I would be honored Prince Logan.”
“What about you?” –I say to the male human.-
Male Human: “No preference Master.”
Logan: “How about Liam? You remind me of a friend of mine, and when he was born his parents debated between Liam and Kline, they went with the later.”
Liam: “That is fine with me, if it is alright with my Master.”
I accept all the names in [Menu], that is all except one. It seems [Menu] even accepted Theodore’s nickname as Teddy Bear more than the name he wanted, so I had to change it to Theodore.
“Alright the humans will already have their class chosen for them from the point they were summoned, but the beastkin we will have to select.”
Logan: “You get to choose their class? How does that work?”
“There is a list that is available to them and I select one. It usually adds to their strengths a bit more and gives them another skill. I will start with Theodore.”
I explain it to Logan while looking up Theodore’s available classes. Logan seems pretty confused, but I then take out the gem I made for the mage’s guild and show it to him.
Logan: “This is amazing! We should market this like the communication parchment.”
“I don’t mind you using it, but I think it gives a bit too much information for me to be comfortable with making more of them.”
Logan: “That is really a shame…”
Theodore’s available classes are all pretty basic, and after describing the bonuses and such with Theodore and Logan we all decide to give him the one class under the advanced category that was available to him, the Knight class.
Sigrun proves to be far more difficult to choose from, she has several of the basic classes, but some I haven’t seen before. We end up choosing the most fitting of the classes which gives her the Spear-Maiden class.
I then open Liam and Tessa’s status screens telling Logan what skills and abilities they have. After all that is figured out we decide to have a talk with Liam about joining the military while staying a dungeon monster, after a while it doesn’t seem like we make any progress though.
Liam: “I am sorry Master, I just would really rather stay bound to the dungeon.”
I let out a deep sigh.
Tessa: “Master may I make a suggestion?”
“By all means.”
Tessa: “It doesn’t help with Liam’s situation, but if you just wish to have eyes on the troops in the dungeon, of course having one of us on each team would be best, but what about Prince Doug?”
Logan: “What about Doug?”
Tessa: “He was trained in the basics of the military before going off to school, and he is in Tobes anyway. As a prince of Gowen you could put him in charge of the troops training in Tobes.”
Logan: “He has made no ambitions to serving the military though.”
Tessa: “He knows of the dungeon though, and even if you put a military commander in charge, he could act as the dungeon expert, and still use his pull as the prince to help.”
Logan: “That seems like a big step for Doug.”
“He has made a lot of progress in the dungeon, his level is quite high. It might not be a bad idea.”
Logan: “I don’t disagree… I guess all we can do is ask him.”
When Doug and Aria are not making trips to the dungeon they tend to hang around Sofia’s adventurers training building, so I message her to see if she has seen them. After Sofia tells me they are there I ask her to send them our way.
Doug: “Logan, what are you doing here? And what is with all these people? Is that an angel…?”
We explain the situation to Doug and he gets rather excited.
Doug: “You would let me do that? I mean Aria and I have been helping train the new adventurers with Sofia, but to work with training the Gowen Soldiers?!”
“The soldiers would probably listen to you far better than the adventurers, so it would probably be easier.”
Doug: “And you are really going to trust me with this Logan…?”
Logan: “Two-Twelve tells me you are up to it, so I am willing to give it a shot.”
Doug: “This is great.” –He quickly grabs Aria up twirling her around.-
Logan: “Don’t get too excited, for now it will be only one company of troops, but if you do good, and this works out, you may be able to earn some major points with father, you only have a year to go after all.”
Doug sets down Aria and then holds a serious face. He then salutes Logan which causes Tessa to quickly salute as well. “I promise I will do my best brother!”
Logan: “I guess that is all settled we can now all go have a drink to celebrate!”
“Are you sure you are fine celebrating with all of these monsters.”
Logan: “I don’t see any monsters here, just family!”
And just like that we are all dragged out of the house towards the tavern, Sigrun gets several odd glances but between Doug, Logan, and myself with her nobody says anything. We celebrate long into the night, and unfortunately now that Logan is a dungeon ally we don’t gain any xp from him at midnight, as he crashes there at the house that night.