Chapter 14

People in Places They Shouldn’t Be.

In Murdell, dungeons belonged to the local academy, and there wasn’t a dungeon in the nation that didn’t house an academy for higher magical learning. Darksmith, like many of the better academies, didn’t allow outsiders into its dungeon. But unlike most of these academies, the school preferred to use the students to guard the fortress, regularly putting them in a small amount of danger to keep them sharp.

Getting the Undead Fight Club in control of the academies fortress and tunnel for two separate shifts, three days apart, took me two weeks to organise and required numerous bribes, blackmail, and everyone to forgo the spring festival. Other than this brief window, I had no easy way to sneak Gregory and my men into the Abyss.

Helen, Gregory’s wife, glanced at the necromancers on the walls distrustfully as we entered the fortress and made our way through the courtyard to the gate. “What did you have to promise these instruments of darkness for their aid?”

“The worthy among them will be allowed to die for my amusement,” I said, dryly.

Helen stumbled, shocked by my reply.

Gregory’s hand snapped out and he caught his wife before she fell. “He’s joking, dear.”

I sniffed the air, smelling Amelia. Her scent shouldn’t have been anywhere near here. She was supposed to be with the princess or in town. Amelia’s scent wasn’t fresh, which meant she wasn’t here, so I put it out of my head and turned to Helen. “Your husband and his men are going to instruct my students on how to fight with weapons.”

She scowled at me. “You could have said you intimidated them into helping.”

“If I’d intimidated them, I would tell you. They’re helping us in return for training.”

“Why would they do that?”

“There aren’t many people in Murdell who know how to fight without magic and those that do won’t teach their skills to necromancers. Without a greater understanding of how to fight, they can’t program their undead warriors to do anything more than a basic hack and slash.”

“Why are they trembling then?”

“They’re from Necropolis. The city uses death lords to hunt down wayward necromancers and execute them. We look like an army of executioners to them.”

We passed through the fortress’s gate and my students began to relax. Gregory called for a quick march, and they broke into a run, crossing the cavern quickly, before entering the tunnels. I threw a necrotic bolt at anything that crossed our path, until we reached the tunnel, and then used my aura to keep everything at bay, so nothing would bother us while we travelled.

Gregory had gained a perfect core and mana network thanks to me eating the royal family. His magical skills were growing quickly now that he wasn’t restricted by his mana network or core, and he was learning how to wield death and necrotic magic as quickly as he’d learned how to use a Kilij.

The death lords Gregory brought with him were predominately made up of those who had a weak magical talent. Most of those with a regular magical talent had split their time between practicing their martial skills and magic and hadn’t unlocked the death lord class before they left to come here. That meant almost all of those here struggled with magic the way Gregory had.

Helping them one at a time would take almost half a year, so I’d decided to take them into the Abyss where the ambient mana was thicker. I would use them to raise the level of my Sorcerer Sovereign skill while I helped them form their mana network and core.

Davina, Angelica, and Delilah Morgan Frostwing the Third were waiting for us at the entrance to the Abyss. Getting the Dracolich down here was a simple matter. Headmaster Wink had no problem with Angelica bringing her dracolich into the dungeon so long as she didn’t bring it into his school.

I stopped before my familiars and turned to my right where I could hear a heartbeat without a visible source. “What are you doing here, Amelia?”

“Can I please come, Vincent?” she replied, invisible to my sight.

Angelica and Davina both jumped with surprise.

I continued to stare at the spot where she stood. “Do your guards know where you are?”

“I left a note.”

“Does the princess know you’re borrowing her invisibility cloak?”

“It’s in the note.”

“Are you going to try to follow us if I say no?”

Silence.

“I can’t see you nodding your head, Amelia.”

She appeared as she pulled back the hood of her cloak. She nodded once and then lifted the hood and vanished.

“Fine, you can come.”

Gregory gave me an uncomfortable glance after his wife elbowed his side. “Is that wise, Boss?”

“We can’t stop her. The medallion around her neck is a phase medallion. If we try to grab her, our hands will pass through her. Nobility use those medallions to protect their children from being kidnapped.”

“Vincent can remove it with Slaughter,” Amelia said. “But he has to be able to see it.”

Helen elbowed her husband a second time.

“I would still rather she not come, Boss.”

“Everything on the first floor of the Abyss is scared of Vincent,” Amelia grumbled. “I’ll be fine.”

She was correct which was why I didn’t care if she came. “You can ride on the dracolich with Angelica.”

She lowered her hood and ran over to the dracolich scrambling up her body, to reach the designer saddle. Once she was in place, she kicked her heels against the dracolich’s ribs. “Onward noble steed.”

The dracolich turn her head to glare at Amelia. “My name is Delilah Morgana Frostwing the Third. Make her use my name, Angie.”

Angelica walked over and leapt on the dracolich’s back, before sitting on the saddle behind Amelia. “Don’t be rude, Amelia.”

Amelia sighed. “Fine. Onward, Delilah Morgana Frostwing the Third.”

The dracolich leapt into the air and beat its wings. “Try to keep up.”

***

I led my people through Gorgath’s chamber to the entrance to the second floor of the Abyss. The mana concentration here was fifty times higher than what it was on the surface which meant I could help everyone form perfect cores a lot faster.

The walls of the tunnel were coated in glowing orange crystals, providing enough light to see. Once I called for everyone to stop, they all pulled out mats and cushions and took a seat on the stone floor. Gregory had already explained the process to everyone, so I didn’t need to say anything.

I walked from person to person, bonding with their cores while they got used to drawing in mana from their new environment. I scanned each one, so I could get a good idea of where they were at. Angelica had the most complete mana network with Amelia being a close second.

When I was done with examining all two hundred of them, I returned to the front of the group. “The sorcerer sovereign skill allows me to draw mana from you and give mana to you. It’s going to take a horrendous amount of mana for all of you to complete your mana networks and form proper cores, so I’ll be focusing on those of you that are closest to completion first. Once your mana network and perfect core are complete, you will help provide mana for everyone else. We can safely stay on the first floor of the Abyss for up to three days. If everyone manages to complete their core early enough, we will work on strengthening your cores. If we manage to do this successfully, we’ll go hunting. Any questions?”

Gregory raised his hand. “We’re all level 80. Why would we go hunting?”

“The dungeon limit raises by 80 levels each time you descend a floor. If there are no other questions, we’ll begin.”

I nodded to Davina, indicating she should take over guarding everyone, as I took a seat on the ground. Mana began to pour into my core as I focused on the cords linking me with my people. Sending mana to this many people at once was beyond me.

I needed to level the skill, before I tried.

Luke had been asking Carolyn all sorts of questions about the sorcerer sovereign skill and how to level it. Getting to level 3 while only working with one person was only possible, because of my prodigy skill. To get to level 4, you were required to either draw or send a 4th rank spell’s mana to four people without any mana leakage. Each additional level required an additional person and a higher spell rank worth of mana. However, my mastered prodigy skill halved the requirement for me to gain a new skill level, so I only needed to send it to two.

I sent enough mana for a 4th rank spell to Angelica and Amelia and then closed off the connection. A notification appeared.

Your Sorcerer Sovereign skill has increased to level 4.

I did it again but with three people and at the 5th rank. Another notification appeared.

Your Sorcerer Sovereign skill has increased to level 5.

I went level by level, until I couldn’t go any further with this method.

Your Sorcerer Sovereign skill has increased to level 15.

The eight people who had received a 15th rank spell’s worth of mana were all shaking, as they tried move to the massive amount of mana through their mana networks. Davina was running from person to person, checking to make sure they were okay. She healed anyone who wasn’t.

Long ago, Carolyn’s ancestors had thought the peak of their skill was level 15, because that was the peak of master spells. About a decade after reaching this peak, they discovered another way to level their skill. Instead of using higher ranked spells they used more people. This method required fifteen extra people per skill level. However, my prodigy skill halved the requirements, so instead of needing thirty people to reach level 16, I only needed fifteen people.

If I used everything in my core, I had just enough mana to reach level 18. Each time I’d gained a layer to my core, each of my previous layers had been able to hold an additional spells worth of mana. I had a truly absurd amount of mana at my disposal. Far more than any sorcerer would usually contain.

Carolyn’s family had hundreds of people with master rank cores, so they were easily able to help her master her family skill. I’d have to settle for level 18, until my people had sufficiently strengthened their cores.

I pulled the mana from everyone’s core to refill my own while I meditated. When my core was full, I reached level 16, and began refilling my core. Eventually, I saw the final notification.

Your Sorcerer Sovereign skill has increased to level 18.

I motioned for Davina to come over. “How many people have completed their mana networks?” I’d been spreading the mana around as much as I could.

“Three quarters, your Dark Eminence.”

“Move those that need the least refinement to the front row, so I can begin helping everyone with their cores.”

I closed my eyes again and began refilling my core.

Once it was full, I tested how much mana I could comfortably send to everyone. Channelling enough mana for 3rd rank spells was simple, because of my skill level, but my core became empty far too quickly. I stopped channelling mana to everyone, except the twenty people in the front row. While I gave them mana, I drew from everyone behind them.

Davina eventually walked over and tapped me on the shoulder. “Angelica is ready.”

I opened my eyes and climbed to my feet. I walked over to Angelica, placed my hand on her head, and scanned her. “Cycle mana around your body.”

She did as I said.

Her mana network was flawless. I wasn’t surprised. She had absurdly high attributes and her mana network had been basically complete even before she started.

“You can break your core and reform it when you’re ready.”

She closed her eyes and muttered an incantation. She didn’t wait for the magic inside her to dissipate naturally, the way Gregory had. She took hold of it and expelled it from her body. Then she muttered another incantation.

I threaded a new mana cord into her forming core and took over the channelling from her, feeding it the way I had fed Gregory’s. When it had been strengthened everywhere, I cut the connection. Davina healed her.

Angelica moved to the back of the group and began to supply mana and the process continued.

***

A day later, the last member of our expedition formed their core. Everyone stopped for a short break, pulling food from their storage pouches, or taking a quick nap. An hour later, I gathered them all together.

I looked at all the smiling faces. “I’m not exactly sure how effective this next step will be, but we will give it a go. Remember if you reach a bottleneck, I want you to stop trying to strengthen your core.” I opened one of the storage chests and levitated one of the sharn beast cores out.

Gorgath’s people didn’t use them, so they were worth far less than the other cores. The going rate was four to one. I told him I’d allow him to pay for half of his tuition with them at a three to one ratio. He’d been very grateful for the discount. And I was very grateful for his loot.

The moment it was out, the stupid dracolich leapt over everyone’s head, spread her wings, and snatched the minivan size core from the air, before beating her wings furiously to try to fly off with it. The core weighed more than she did, so she barely stayed in the air.

I leapt, landing on her saddle, and drawing Slaughter. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Her tail whipped around and knocked me from the saddle. I slammed into the tunnel wall, surprised that she’d gone through with it. I’d wrongfully assumed she was too afraid of me to attack. She crashed into the ground a moment later and clambered on top of the core and began roaring at everyone.

I held onto the tunnel wall watching her roar and beat her wing to push everyone back. She’d turned primal. I’d never seen her like this.

She even roared at Angelica when she began to approach and commanded her, “Give it back.”

I kicked off the wall and landed in front of dracolich, throwing up a deathlock barrier in front of me. A torrent of death fire engulfed the shield, spreading around the sides of the barrier. I threw up two more spells to stop her from killing my people as I closed the distance and punch her jaw closed, cutting off the fire.

“Be nice or I will take it back.”

The punch seemed to knock her out of whatever state she had been in. She ducked her head and folded her wing over the core protectively.

“But it’s mine.” She gently brushed her claw across the surface. “My precious.”

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She was fixated on it, the way dragons fixated or gold and other shiny objects.

Nothing in my vast collection of knowledge told me why she would fixate on the core. “Why is it precious to you?”

“I need it.”

“For what?”

“It will make me stronger.”

“How?”

Her entire body trembled for a moment, and she finally looked away from it. “I don’t have veins or a digestive system like you meat bags. I need special materials to strengthen my mana network. This is the most wonderous material I’ve ever seen for that purpose. Every bone in my body tells me this is precious.”

Angelica approached slowly and stopped beside me. “I’ll buy it from you.”

I turned to her. “Why?”

“I can sense her feelings. You’ll have to kill her to get it back. And I like her more than I like gold.”

I felt her assessment was true. “Fine.”

The dracolich squealed with delight. “This is almost as good as a princess. Thank you, Angie.” She scrapped her claw along the surface again. “My precious.”

The core vaporized in a flash flowing up and over the dracolich’s body as a black cloud, pouring into her bones, creating thin black lines through their ivory finish. Black death flames sprang from her claws and her aura grew more intense.

“Fear me mortals, for I am The Dracolich Delilah Frost Wing the Third.”

“I’m not mortal.”

“Of course, you’re not included your Dark Eminence. That’s why I said mortals. Now stop ruining my moment. I am darkness. I am the long silence. I am the moonless night that make you tremble in your beds.”

She continued on like that until I went back to the storage chest and pulled out another sharn core. This one also got plucked from the air.

Angelica chased after her dracolich. “I’ll pay for that too.” She came back a few minutes later. “She says she needs more.”

“How many more?”

“How many do you have?”

“Sixty three.”

Angelica ran off and came back with the dracolich.

Delilah towered over me as she stared at the chest. “My precious.”

I levitated the cores out of the storage chest one by one allowing her to absorb them. It took twenty of the cores to satisfy her and by then magic radiated from her in waves. She wasn’t physically stronger than she used to be, but she was firmly on the road to becoming a greater dracolich. There was a magical weight to her that everyone could feel.

I pulled out a piece of paper and wrote out an invoice, before handing it to Angelica. “Your bill.”

Angelica read the amount and dropped the invoice. “That can’t be what they’re worth.”

“The smallest of those core is worth more than the annual tuition for the entire student body of Darksmith, which is sixty million gold. The total value of what she absorbed was a little over two billion.”

She looked ill. “Can I have a bulk discount?”

“Sure, I’ll drop the bill down to a billion.”

“Thank you.” She walked off in a daze.

I levitated another core out of the chest and placed it on the ground. I turned to Gregory’s men. “Now, where were we?”

***

Strengthening your core required three components. Skill. Patience. And materials. Any of these components could be traded for the others, which was good because Gregory’s people lacked skill and I lacked patience. Most of them stopped strengthen their core once it could hold enough mana from an advanced spell, but a third ended up being able to store enough mana to cast an expert tier spell.

I watched as the last seven reached the master stage. Angelica and Amelia were among the seven including Commander Erin, Commander Taylor, and three male lieutenants I rarely spoke with.

The sharn beast core they were using to strengthen their cores had barely lost a tenth of its size. Normal cores might have been smaller than mine, but they were significantly more efficient. Davina had groaned when I told her how many cores it had taken to strengthen my core.

The others dropped out between the 13th and 14th rank, leaving Amelia and Angelica to battle it out. Everyone was making bets on who would win, laughing and joking or catching up on sleep.

Having a core that held enough mana to cast a master spell wasn’t common, but it wasn’t rare either. Most of the students at the academy had cores that big. Being able to cast a master tier spell was much rarer, so most sorcerers settled for casting multiple expert tier spells, or dozens of advanced spells. Growing your core beyond being able to cast a single master tier spell was much harder, but both Angelica and Amelia pushed through the 15th rank and continued on.

Davina eventually walked over. “Angelica armour is helping her strengthen her core and Amelia’s technique is flawless. They could keep going like this for another day or longer.”

“I’ll give them a few more hours then. The others have enough mana for me to master the sorcerer sovereign skill.”

I got Gregory’s people together and finished leveling the skill.

You have mastered your Sorcerer Sovereign skill.

At level 18, moving mana back and forth had been relatively simple. Mastering the skill made moving mana back and forth effortless. I could transfer mana to and from everyone without leakage when we were this close. On a battlefield, a mile would be my limit and I’d lose half of the mana in transit, but this was still a massive boost.

This skill didn’t have many practical applications, beyond being a training aid and battle enhancer. It would help with enchanting and crafting undead, but it would never be a source of unlimited mana, unless I was close to my people. That might change if I worked out how to use it with undead, but that would require skills I didn’t have yet.

I walked over to Angelica and Amelia. They were sitting on the core in the lotus position. “You two can strengthen your cores on your own time. We’re going hunting.”

Amelia opened her eyes and grinned. “Finally!” She shuffled to the side and jumped down, pulling out a wand.

It was like seeing a child with a gun. “Do you know how to use that?”

She pointed her wand at the wall and unleashed a necrotic bolt without needing an incantation. It was just a 1st rank spell, but her use of mana was extremely efficient.

“Impressive. How do you learn how to cast spells without words?”

“I remember everything you read.”

I turned to Gregory. “I need you for a moment.”

He blurred to my side. “What’s the emergency. You’re never this calm unless something horrible is about to happen.”

“Amelia remembers everything I read. Sir Trent needs to increase her security.”

He frowned. “I’m not sure I understand.”

“Amelia knows more about magic than any archsorcerer could learn in a dozen lifetimes.” I turned to Amelia. “Do you remember what I read in the vault under the Northern Royal Library?”

“Only the first secret vault. Everything in the secret secret vault is weird. I remember you opening the books and closing the books, but I don’t remember anything that was inside them.”

“Do you remember how Davina got her class?”

Her bottom lip trembled.

Our bond didn’t allow her to see divine knowledge, but she could see divine events. Either the knowledge was too powerful to transfer to her, or it had damaged me in a way that didn’t allow it to transfer. I’d have to work out which one it was, before I went digging for more divine magic. Otherwise, her brain would melt.

Amelia stumbled over to me as she burst into tears. She hugged my side as she bawled her eyes out, remembering how the angel died. It was easily a hundred times more traumatic that watching Mufasa die, which was even traumatic for adults, but I’d needed to know for her own safety.

I picked her up and put her head on my shoulder, cradled her in my arms the way I had my children when they were younger. I rubbed her back and rocked her from side to side and I told her what I thought she needed to hear.

“Sometimes good people will sacrifice themselves to save bad people. They don’t do this because the bad person deserves it. They do it because that’s what good people do.”

“It’s not fair.”

“It’s not about being fair. It’s about being good. If everyone got what they deserved, it would be very hard to make the world a better place. We should treat people better they deserve, and hope they become someone deserving of the way we treat them.”

“Is that why it did it?”

“I think so.”

She continued to cry until Davina came over and soothed her soul. Amelia had been awake for almost two days, only stopping for a short nap. She was more resilient than any kid her age should be, because of our bond, but she was still a kid. She quickly fell asleep in my arms, and I surrounded her in a silence spell.

Gregory sighed. “Are we cancelling the hunt?”

“No. I retracted my aura a while ago. We’re at the entrance to the second floor of the Abyss. The monsters are on their way.”

Gregory swore and began shouting orders.

I levitated the core back into the master storage chest and closed the lid. I levitated the chest to the tunnel wall and then took a seat on top. Letting Amelia rest was more important than killing a few dungeon monsters.

The defensive lines were formed as everyone checked their equipment. Fighting a floor boss was unlikely here, but they would fight numerous monsters as strong as dungeon bosses.

Amelia continued to sleep peacefully as the first monsters arrived. We were on the main tunnel between floors, so there would be a lot of activity. The dracolich circled above, weary of getting to far from support, remembering what had happened last time. Angelica provided support where it was needed, and Davina, Helen, and the other clerics provided healing.

With each passing hour the number of monsters steadily grew as more and more monster tried to return to their territory now that they thought I wasn’t here.

Casting spells without gestures was significantly harder than with, so I limited myself to basic necrotic bolt spells. But when you could fire six of those a second, it hardly mattered. I dissolved the wings of flying monster and anything climbing along the tunnel wall.

We weren’t supposed to be down here, so carrying the monster corpses out of the dungeon wasn’t an option. They would rot long before we got somewhere we could sell them. As each monster fell, I used my vampiric aura to draw the lifeforce from their body, turning them to dust. Monster cores littered the ground, occasionally gathered by a member of the guard.

The lifeforce reserve inside me never increased. Each time, I went over my limit my soul immediately absorbed the excess lifeforce and grew a little stronger and more efficient. The time I lost down here would hopefully be offset by my increased efficiency. If it wasn’t then coming down here to hunt wasn’t going to help speed up Kathrine recovery.

Ten hours after falling asleep, Amelia woke up. She smiled as she snuggled into my chest.

“Do you feel better?”

She nodded as she raised her hand. A necrotic bolt exploded from her fingertips, disintegrating a giant moth flying overhead. She giggled sleepily.

“When you’re awake, we’ll go kill a floor boss.”

Amelia didn’t seem to hear me as she opened her storage pouch and pulled out some dried peaches. She nibbled on them, while I held her, slowly waking up. It was almost half an hour before she was awake enough to want to stand up and an hour before she really got going. She reminded me of Luke when he was her age. He’d always had to be dragged through the first hour of the day, but when he finally got going, he was a little ball of boundless energy.

Monsters fell from the sky as she threw intermediate tier necrotic bolts as quickly as she could. I kept topping up her mana, so she didn’t run out. Most sorcerers would have collapsed from mana exhaustion, but she healed to quickly for it to affect her.

Her face lit up as she killed an oversize dragonfly with a well-placed spell. “Did you see that?”

I chuckled. “It was a good shot. You ready to go hunt something bigger?”

She grinned.

***

I stood on the back of the gargantuan spider. After cutting all fourteen of its legs off, I’d stabbed Slaughter into its skull and begun sucking the life out of it. Gorgath knew all the local floor bosses and was happy to show us where the ones that were stronger than him lived if he could feed their corpses to his mana crabs.

The cavern was filled with the sounds of battle, as he stood nearby cracking the spider’s legs and throwing the flesh to the thousands of fist-sized glowing crabs inside his sack. The mana crabs were the eighteenth generation of the original crabs that he’d found. The food would muddy their bloodline but make them grow incredibly fast, which would make them more territorial and violent. They’d soon begin killing and feeding on each other, which would correct their bloodline, until only one male and female were left. At this point, they would breed and create a new generation.

Gorgath would then kill them, feed them to their young and repeat the process. Each generation would refine their bloodline further until Gorgath had a pure bloodline that could do what he wanted.

Gorgath finished feeding the crabs the spider meat and closed the top of the sack. He gave it a violent shake to stir them up, and then left the sack on the ground, so they could fight to the death. Monsters could grow incredibly quickly under the right conditions, so Gorgath immediately began cracking more legs for the next generation.

I stopped draining the life from the floor boss beneath me right before it died so it didn’t turn to dust. I yanked Slaughter from its head as it breathed its last breath and jumped off. Gorgath walked over and began tearing the corpse apart, throwing chunks of meat he didn’t need to his troop, who hooted happily.

“How much more do you need?” I asked.

He placed several organs on the ground and shrugged. “Breeding bloodline beasts is not simple. It could be one more generation or one hundred.”

“Couldn’t you just pick the two with the purest bloodlines and breed those?”

Gorgath nodded. “This is one possibility, but this eliminates the chances of them developing a unique bloodline.” He pointed to his troop. “My unique bloodline is what makes me sapient. Without it, I would be little more than a beast, like my brothers.”

“How many bloodlines can you incorporate into your evolution?”

“As many as I wish if I do not care about becoming an abomination.”

I didn’t understand what he meant. “Do you mind explaining how this works?”

Gorgath sat down, crushing several spiders. “When I eat a beast with a pure bloodline, I know what effects each of its bloodline traits will have on my body when I incorporate them. The less pure the bloodline, the less certainty I have about the effects. If I take the wrong trait, I could lose my sapience, which is why my people do not take risks and incorporate any creature without a pure bloodline.”

“Is this why some monsters can suddenly become sapient?”

He nodded. “Much can be gained and lost from bloodlines. And the traits I gather will not be passed along to my spawn. Only one in ten is born sapient, and the traits I gather to grow stronger will lower this chance. If I take too many bloodlines before the ninth, I might be unable to sire the next generation, and have to continue my descent.”

“What if you gain a trait that increases this chance?”

“Such a trait is extremely rare and is the reason my people hunt deeper. We have exhausted our options on the higher floors, unless something unique evolves our only chance lies below us.”

“What are you hoping to achieve?”

“We wish to be like humans.”

“Why?”

Gorgath turned at glanced at his troop and then he looked at his sack. “The ninth floor is the deepest my people can survive without sapience. When I reach the ninth floor, my brothers only purpose will be to hunt and feed our people. It is a limited existence, and it pains my people to watch our family hunt and die without every understanding that there is more to existence than base instinct.”

Gregory ran over. “Sir, the remaining spiders are pulling back. We’ll be ready to move on to the next chamber shortly.”

Gorgath opened his sack and looked inside. He nodded to himself and reached in. I heard two loud cracks as he killed the breeding pair. He shredded their bodies to make it easier for the hatchlings to eat them and then closed the top and licked his hand clean, checking their bloodline.

He turned to me. “I would be ready to move on shortly.”

***

At the edge of the dungeon, outside the entrance to the Abyss, Davina walked from person-to-person casting healing spells, forcefully removing the mana crystals from their bloodstream. Her healing spell couldn’t remove the ultrafine crystals, only time on the surface away from the dungeon would do that. Right now, none of my people could safely to enter the Abyss for another month. They had to wait for the crystals to leave their system.

Gregory sat beside me, going over the report. “Everyone has leveled twenty-two to twenty-five times. Our lowest level is now 102. We’ve seen minor improvement in skills. But the equipment situation is messy. Everyone out-leveled what they were using and needs their equipment replaced.”

“Can I afford the refit?”

“Yes, but it will wipe out our budget.”

“Do it.”

“Can you get more money? We don’t work for free.”

“I think so.”

When everyone was taken care of, we headed for the fortress. I scouted ahead to ensure only the necromancers were on guard and then ushered everyone through the fortress to the surface.

Amelia was sitting on my shoulders when I walked into the hotel lobby where they were staying. The timing of our return was well known, so her parents were waiting for her. The look her mother was giving her said she was going to be grounded until she was thirty.

I lifted her off my shoulders and placed her on the ground. Then I caught her collar as she tried to run. She looked at me like I’d betrayed her as her mother grabbed her ear and began dragging her to the staircase. Her stepfather remained behind with me, trying not to laugh.

The moment she was out of sight, he chuckled. “Did she have fun?”

“I had to drag her away.”

He smiled. “She’s a good kid. Takes after her father a little too much for my wife’s liking. She’s afraid of losing her, the ways she lost Denton. She wants her to be safe and happy, but for Amelia to be happy she can’t be safe.”

“She’s a natural adventurer.”

He nodded. “I see it. Her guards see it. The princess sees it. My wife refuses to.”

“She needs training.”

“Why do you say that?”

“She’s got too much energy. She needs a way to burn it off, or she’ll go stir crazy again. And stir-crazy Amelia thinks it’s a good idea to join an expedition to the Abyss.”

“I’ll talk to my wife about it. Thank you for keeping her safe.”

He walked off in the direction they’d left.

Amelia’s stepfather was much more comfortable with me than his wife. Down in the Abyss, Amelia had told me that he’d asked her all sorts of questions about me, after we met. She’d told him all her best stories and he’d listened. His lack of concern told me he didn’t consider me a danger to his kid, which surprised me because I could smell how much he feared me.

I turned to the guard holding my master storage chest and opened it.

Among Gorgath’s people, the value of cores was based upon how useful they were to their people. Sharn beast cores were exceptionally large, but his people didn’t practice necromancy, so they were almost worthless. A single elemental core of the same size was worth four. A twin elemental core was worth nine times what a single elemental core was worth, and the prices got more ridiculous the more elements a core had.

I collected a core the size of my head, that had the same value as a minivan sized sharn beast core and placed it on my storage pouch. Then I left the hotel and made my way back to Darksmith. The spring festival would continue for another two days, so there weren’t many students around.

Carolyn was living in separate dorm to the other students. It was the only building with its own enchanted defences, and it was filled with Old Monsters who acted as guards. The entire student body was made from Murdell’s elite families, but some families were more elite than others.

A barrier shielded the entrance as I approached. Sir Trent stood behind the barrier, having sense me walking towards him. He opened the barrier for me and let me inside. We didn’t talk until we reached the fifth floor and were inside the front entrance of Carolyn’s opulent suite.

Sir Trent closed the door behind me. “Why are you here?”

“I’ve got something to sell to the royal family.”

That made him curious. “What are you trying to sell?”

“A core from the ninth floor of the Abyss that matches the royal family’s magic.”

He immediately lost interest. “When will you be free for another training session?”

“Give me a week.”

Sir Trent nodded and left the entrance.

Rupert came to find me a few minutes later and led me to a sitting room. We both sat down, and I pulled the core from my storage pouch and placed it on the table.

He pulled out several instruments and examined the core. He muttered to himself while he worked. When he was done with his examination, he folded his arms and leaned back.

“I’ll give you half a million gold and deed Angelica Count Bodo’s land for it.”

Count Bodo’s land was next to Angelica’s.

I folded my arms and waited.

He eventually sighed. “The princess doesn’t have access to her family’s wealth here in Murdell. A million gold is all she has until we return to Arcadia. It’s the best I can do, and I wouldn’t be making this offer if this core was something she could turn down.”

His offer was far less than the core's worth, but I understood their predicament. “Give me a one-time tax waiver for the goods my people and I bring back to Arcadia, and you have a deal.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to bother with sneaking my loot across the border and then pretend like I don’t have it.”

“Fine. Do we have a deal?”

I offered him my hand. “We do.”