Chapter 50

King Fenard shifted the levers back and forth for a moment, then tested the water streaming out of the shower head. Once it was comfortably hot, and no longer scalding, he discarded his robe and stepped under the cascading water, allowing it to soak through his hair and beard.

He allowed himself to relax.

He’d heard of field showers before, but that was effectively just dumping a bucket on a soldier and expecting them to clean themselves. This was something else. It was luxurious. Very different from a hot bath, but much easier than having his servants fill the copper tub that stood nearby. This was the first time he’d used the recently installed shower, but he could see why the Heroes from Earth recommended it.

Of course, not everyone could afford such a luxury. Not yet, not for some time yet. It took infrastructure, which was just now being developed with the expertise of Emil Stefanson. The servants had spent weeks ripping holes in the walls in order to install the pipes required to deliver this water from the massive cistern that was raised above the roof of the palace to generate water pressure. The cistern itself was filled by a pump powered by one of the prototype steam engines. The hot water the product of a boiler that was likewise a recent invention.

For that matter, the boiling hot water was being pumped into some of the colder rooms where a fireplace was impractical. These ‘radiators’ were making a vast improvement in the comfort of the cold months. Fenard, for the first time, was lamenting the thawing of spring and looking forward to next year’s freeze, simply for the curiosity of having a warm palace for a change.

After ten minutes under the hot shower, he shut off the water with a simple twist of the relevant levers and stepped out of the shower, where his servants handed him towel and a new robe.

“How was it, your majesty?” his valet asked.

“I strongly recommend it,” Fenard answered. “I’ll be installing them in the servants quarters. You’ll be able to try it out for yourself before very long.”

“I shall look forward to it.”

A few moments later, Fenard was dressed and comfortable. He stepped out of the bathing room and found Yecha waiting for him in his apartment. He sighed, as she never came for a social call.

“What is it now?” he asked.

“A report from Madame Silva,” Yecha answered. “It seems that Tom Weaver has tamed a colony of goblins. He requests that they be sent mining equipment, and that the local bounty for their ears be rescinded until and unless they revert to banditry. He believes that they can be peacefully integrated into the kingdom as a mining force.”

Fenard considered the idea. It was somewhat ingenious, he admitted. Goblins lived caverns and dungeons anyway, they seldom came to the surface. When they did it was often to raid human settlements, that was true, but if they could be trusted, they might make excellent miners.

“What do you think?” he asked Yecha.

“I think that they’re monsters and that allowing them to live will only be setting ourselves up for a knife in the back,” his spymistress said without hesitation. “But they’re dungeon spawned, so even if we send in the royal knights to cull them, they’ll just be replaced with another community of goblins in a few months. It’s better the serpent you know. If and when they do revert to savagery, we can give them an abject lesson on why such things are frowned upon.”

Fenard nodded, as his own thoughts reflected hers quite closely. “Send a negotiator with some mining equipment. See if they’ll be willing to trade coal for food. I take this news to mean that Tom has Claimed the forth dungeon to his growing network?”

“He is calling it Delta Dungeon. Aside from the goblins living in the surface, on paper it looks to be a very valuable addition to the kingdom, as the lower floors are Seeding gold, silver, and gemstones. Once the relevant laws are in place to allow us to profit from Seeded dungeons, it would be well worth the Crown’s investment to pay adventurers to guard mining parties into the depths of that place.”

“Why not send the goblins? It is their dungeon after all,” the king asked.

“Apparently the goblins are afraid of the depths. Tom is attempting to set the dungeon up such that the most dangerous monsters spawn far from the surface,” Yecha explained.

“Ah, yes. A common method for a Controller who doesn’t have Collaboration yet,” Fenard recalled. “Speaking of Seeded Dungeons, what is the report of the ore from Beta and Gamma dungeons?”

“The ore is surprisingly pure. Further, it has some mana content, making both the iron and the copper especially potent for enchanting materials,” Yecha reported. “We’re still exploring its properties using both traditional methods and the advice of the Outworlder Emil.”

“Ah yes. And how are the blast furnace designs coming along?”

“The smaller scale forges have proven very effective. If they work like Emil claims they will, we’ll soon have as much raw iron as we can mine. And with Seeded dungeons, the amount we can mine might become quite significant indeed,” Yecha said. “I’m uncertain what we’ll do with it all, to be honest.”

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“I’m certain that Emil will find some use for it,” Fenard said. “Is there anything else?”

“Yes,” she said. She hesitated. “The Weaver’s itinerary has leaked to the intelligence community. I’m uncertain how, but I expect every spy in the country knows where Tom’s parents are at the moment.”

“Are they under guard?” Fenard asked.

“Three level thirty-five Warriors,” Yecha confirmed.

Fenard frowned, considering. “Send them a pair of knights. I don’t expect anyone to go at Tom through his parents, but I would rather be able to say that they are under my protection than that I failed to foresee a threat to their safety.”

Yecha raised a few other minor issues of state before allowing the king to retire for the night.

~~~~~~

Once Delta dungeon was sorted out, the party moved on to claiming the dungeon that would be labeled Epsilon. The dungeon that they planned to visit was three days ride away, and they were in no rush. Unlike Delta dungeon, it had been scouted completely and the party knew more or less what to expect from it.

If it were not for Emil’s presence, Silva would have forbidden them from even trying to claim this dungeon, as the primary monster type was a flying poisonous wasp. When the dungeon had first formed there had been talk of destroying it in order to cleanse the area of this menace, but the wasps didn’t range far from the dungeon, and so the effort had never been expended.

They weren’t entirely certain that Emil’s spell, which had slaughtered the spiders of Alpha dungeon effortlessly, would work as effectively on the wasps, but it was worth the effort to give it a try, so once they completed the journey the Ritualist began casting the spell at the entrance of the dungeon. Once more a flash of bright light flew out from the magic circle that he crafted, passing harmlessly through the humans and Tom’s tame monsters.

Some of the sounds of the forest they had been passing through went silent, as the flies and other insects were slain by the overpowered spell. Having completed that task, the party set to exploring the dungeon properly, once more leaving the stableboys outside to establish a camp.

Lo and the korgoath ranged ahead, and periodically the party would see evidence of their movements as they passed the slugs which they had ripped apart. The slugs being the secondary monster type of this dungeon, and the prey of the giant wasps. They were the size of a man and mostly harmless, except for a set of sharp teeth in their mouths which allowed them to feed like lampreys on anything unfortunate enough to allow them to latch onto.

That said, the slugs were slow and easily dispatched. The ones that the Korgoath didn’t do in, Sevin and Grant took care of, dividing the experience between themselves equitably. They were falling behind Emil, who’s ritual had once again shot him up three levels to level nineteen.

Fortunately, while the slugs weren’t particularly dangerous, they were plentiful, and even with the Korgoath slaughtering some of the giant invertebrates, there were plenty left behind.

They were proceeding carefully when they heard the buzzing sound, and the others turned to Emil.

“I think your spell must not have reached this far,” Tom said. “Try casting it again.”

Emil quickly began sketching on the ground with his chalk, but before he’d had enough time to complete the spell, a giant wasp emerged and attacked the party. It was larger than the corpses they had been passing by, and Antoine announced “It’s the Queen!” as the others prepared for combat.

Brutus stepped up to the challenge, bellowing in rage and swinging a new tree trunk at the monster. Unfortunately the giant wasp was deceptively quick. It not only avoided the swing, but it swooped in and stung Brutus on the shoulder. The minotaur champion collapsed into convulsions as the venom began wracking his body. Tom saw his monster in agony and could only hope that Brutus’s imense vitality would be enough to overcome the venom.

Undeterred by the risk to himself, Sevin saw an opportunity to Charge forward and spear the creature with his Empowered Weapon. He got the wasp in the abdomen, piercing through the monster’s side and splashing himself with its ichor. He retreated back, but lost his grip on his primary weapon. Fortunately, he had taken to carrying an axe on his back as a backup weapon, so when the wasp zipped forward, he was able to defend himself with that, another Empowered swing cutting into the front of the monster.

He narrowly avoided the wasp’s stinger as it was thrust at him once, twice, three times before a bout of liquid flames engulfed it. The wasp queen screeched as its exoskeleton began to burn, but that wasn’t enough to take it out of combat. Which was great, as the party no longer simply faced a giant wasp, but a giant flaming wasp.

Caesar and Cicero both pelted it with a pair of boulders they had picked up, and once more the sound of crunching exoskeleton filled the cavern. But still the hive queen held on.

Grant, sensing that his legerdemain skills wouldn’t be of much use against this enemy, was standing near Tom, ready to defend the boy if needed, but Tom was already protected by the minotaur, who were standing at each of his flanks as they searched for another boulder to throw at the queen.

Another sphere of light flashed out. Emil had recast his spell, and once the light collided with the hive queen she abruptly fell to the ground. She was still, for a moment, then she began twitching. Still aflame, she began crawling, and her wing began flapping. She was just about to fly into the air when Sevin split her skull open with an Empowered chop of his axe.

She began to twitch, but not with any coordination. Sevin continued to savage her with his axe until he had decapitated her, then he stood back and caught his breath.

Antoine appeared beside him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Good job.”

Sevin tried very hard not to show how much the praise affected him, but he still beamed at the words.

Applying first aid to Brutus was a tricky endeavor. The minotaur champion was writhing around, and he was so strong that he required both Caesar and Cicero holding him down in order to lance the wound and try to drain some of the venom out of it. Tom insisted that they stay with him until he stopped thrashing. One hour after the wound had been inflicted, Brutus stood up.

“How are you feeling?” Tom asked his minion.

“Better,” Brutus said. “I will live.”

“You’d better,” Tom told him. “That’s an order.”