** ** ** Dungeon Core ** ** **

One… Two.. Three

He could see some of the Kits once they entered his cave entrance. One of them had been dragged in by the other two. Kitsune hadn’t returned yet, but neither had any of the S ranked adventurers. He wasn’t sure where he stood. How much time did he have left? Would they be coming back in a few minutes, a week, a month? He pushed the thoughts aside. The Kits wellbeing were more important.

Some of them had scorched fur from the looks of them. They weren’t looking good. He needed to help, but he had no knowledge on healing. Deciding to risk it he turned his attention the Kit who appeared to be on its last leg. If he did nothing it would die, but there was also a chance that trying to heal it would kill it. He pushed his hesitance aside. He manipulated his mana into the wound in attempt to heal it. The poor things left side was heavily burned. He let the mana enter the wound, which began to glow.

New Ability Learned!

Mana Heal- By using your mana you are now capable of speeding up the healing process of creatures in your dungeon.

The Blood fox appeared to be looking better slightly, but it could have just been Bastill’s own hopes swaying his opinion. The wound continued to glow. He hoped it would be enough. He kept up his vigilance waiting to use his new-found ability on any others that were hurt. He didn’t know what was going on, but he had no doubt that it had something with his nemisi Claire.

Apparently she has more friends with her. I’ve been preparing myself to handle a single S ranked women when I should have realized she would have others with her. Possibly even stronger then here, but does it matter? She could come back at anytime… Four… Five... Six… Seven… And the four Dracula Hares.

The Dracula Hares were fine, but two of the four foxes that just entered were injured. He went to work using Mana Heal on both of them. He treated the more urgent one first. Its face had been heavily burned and was missing an ear. He then turned to the second injured one who had his tail burned right off.

The son of a bitch who did this. If they return without me ready I will let my creatures escape and let them take me. Maybe trap them in my core room with me for eternity. Ha that would show them…

He felt Kitsune slowly walk into the room. He was dragging the last Kit in his mouth. It was badly burnt. He didn’t stop dragging until he had arrived next to the Goddess of the Dungeon Statue. The other Kits were with him. Some standing others unconscious and healing. He laid his child in front of the statue as he spoke, “I bare the sin for my mistake, children. I lay my little gem to rest.”

Jade… That was the name of the dead kit. He remembered that this Blood Fox in particular was always in sync with another one. Looking around he found it’s pair. It was the one looking more broken and damaged then the wounded foxes. Jade and Emerald had always been closer than seemingly possible. He knew the death would be hard on her. He didn’t know what he should say. He tried his best, “Kitsune I’m really sorry, just know that if you need anything I’m here for you my friend.”

He didn’t respond for several minutes, “Can you bring him back?”

He wished more than anything that he could, but he knew he couldn’t. He tried though. He used mana heal, but there was no life left in the young Blood Fox. The mana dissipated after entering the wound. He tried harder and ran mana through the body, but nothing happened or changed. The dead remained dead. With resignation he responded, “I’m sorry Kitsune, I can’t.”

I failed you…

He activated the Elite Assign ability and selected the Hares and the seven remaining blood foxes. The four Dracula Hares became The Four Winds. The Northern Wind, Boreas; The Western Wind, Zephyr; The Southern Wind, Notus; The Eastern Wind, Eurus. They began to change after they received their titles. Boreas became darker in color, it’s feet gained feathers, and its tongue became forked. Zephyr gained six more colors to his fur. His fur now had streaks of Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Notus fur became mottled with parts growing darker and brighter in a varied fashion. Eurous grew antlers from his head. Bastill spoke, “Wenet you have your elites. Treat them well. Kitsune, I can’t save your Kit, but I can help save the other Kits in the future. What would you have them be called?”

Well if I manage to survive in the future… I need to be strong and represent hope, though. If the leader falls, none will stand.

Kitsune took some time to think about this until he answered, “It is their honor, let them decide.” with that he curled up next to his dead son and went to sleep.

Bastill turned his attention to Ruby who he knew led the Kit’s, “Ruby what shall you be known as?”

He noticed that she had been the one that had taken severe damage to the face. He wounds still glowed. At first, he started to believe she was unconscious, but then she finally projected her answer to him, “Father is not the only one at fault. This mistake is not his to bare alone. We shall be the Seven Sins. Thank you Bastill.”

He finished their Elite Assigning and they became the Seven Sins. The were each given a title as well. Ruby of Vainglory, Topaz of Ardor, Opal the Invidious, Diamond of Voracity, Amehtyst of Hebetude, Emerald of Choler, Sapphire of Rapacity. There weren’t any immediate external changes, but he knew their souls had already been carved out to bear the new weight of what had happened.

The Kit’s began to disperse. He decided to wait to bury Jade until after Kitsune woke up after coming to peace with the events. Bastill wasn’t sure whether making a statue of Jade would be the right or wrong move. He wanted to cheer up Kitsune and honor the fallen but seeing the life like image of his deceased child may not be what Kitsune wanted.

Bastill decided that he would wait and ask Kitsune after more time had passed. Right now, Bastill needed to prepare for the worst outcome. Claire may come back any day. She seemed to be uninterested, but who knew for sure. Just as he was about to turn his attention to improving the dungeon in the short time he had left he felt something new enter his dungeon. He was completely shocked.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

It wasn’t really anything new, the fact that it was familiar was what had really shocked him. It was his old Headless Winged Angel of Victory Statue walking into his Dungeon that had startled him. Since when could his statues could come to life on their own? The Statue was moving about with its own sentience.

The only problem was that despite his attempts he couldn’t give it mental orders like he could his other statues. The fact that it had no head didn’t help either. He wasn’t sure statues could even talk if they had a head to begin with. He tested his theory by making one of his Ivory Spear Angel’s attempt to talk. He was amazed at the fact that it could.

With a plan in mind he began to sculpt a new head for his Headless Winged Angel of Victory. He reached a problem though. Despite all attempts he couldn’t attach the darn thing to the statue. In the end he used the ability Statue Animation on the newly created head sculpture. He was surprised once again as the Headless Statue proceeded to pick up the head by its granite hair as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

He watched in interest as he saw the head be overwhelmed by the power within the Statue. The head’s mouth began to speak, “Well thank the goddesses for this miracle! I am amazed that there is a close by dungeon that is able to sculpt. Walking around headless was driving me out of my mind!!! Now what is your name Dungeon?”

Bastill was suspicious, but he was more curious and decided to speak to this strange entity inside of his old sculpture. What he found out was beyond what he had imagined. First it seemed he had a fractured piece of himself in the world. The being going by the name Gaius the Second had apparently been bound to this other part of him before hand, before the dungeon decided to let him go. At first the being said that it was fine to call him the mysterious Journal, but that made zero since whatsoever and Bastille had insisted on using his original name.

He planned to get this shard of himself to fuse back to him. After investigating the old shut off part of the Dungeon he found out that he could now push his influence into the place now, which meant that the other dungeon was gone and most likely dead or taken. It was a loss, but he had expected after hearing the story. He decided not to keep that part of the dungeon and once again shut it off from his dungeon.

The second part was even more crucial. The statue had managed to overhear the S ranked adventures plans, while he was outside. Bastill wanted to argue the fact that the information was obtained from a headless guy. He wasn’t sure how his ears worked but decided not to question it. Gaius had overheard the plans were moved up two years from the original estimate, which still gave him three years minus the time he had spent. Around a thousand days stood between him and the battle day. He would be ready.

The third interesting part was that they planned to develop a town around him to speed up his progress. He would need to appear weaker than he was, which of course he had never planned on mercilessly killing humans in the first place. This would work perfect. He would appear to be an easy dungeon for adventures and when the day asked for it he would call hell down on his foes. He could hide away his biggest beasts until the time came.

Gaius had a lot of stories and Bastille joyed listening to him drone on about his early life and about the research books he had read. This old king had actually researched dungeons in depth and Bastill’s favorite parts were listening to the puzzles and traps. Millions of ideas flew around his head as he began to scheme up beautiful ideas for his dungeon.

** ** ** Alice Everglade ** ** **

“Hey Janet! Janet! Are you listening?” The girl beside her said.

Alice enjoyed peaceful rides when she was heading into a spider infestation. The girl beside her seemed to have other preferences. This hadn’t been here first attempt to start a conversation. Their beginning conversation had been rather short. The girl had wanted to talk about the guys that they were traveling with along with other men at the guild. Alice had quickly dispelled any fantasy of having such talks by kicking her horse out of its trot and into a canter lengthening the distance between the two.

What was the girls name again? Bechdel something… Isadora Bechdel that’s what it was.

Alice looked over at Isadora, while trying her best to keep the exasperated look off her face. They were headed over to the dungeon town that had recently sprung up. The spider debacle had barely ended two weeks ago and things had become normal again, or as normal as they could be. Every aspiring adventure, warrior, and mage was making it’s was to the dungeon for glory and leveling. Meanwhile, every artisan and merchant were making their way to the town for the hopes of fortune and fame. Isadora interrupted her thoughts, “Do you believe what everyone is saying about the old Town of Ercassam? No one’s allowed to investigate it anymore. It’s completely off limits. They say it’s now controlled by a Beign Lich that wants to live out it’s days in peace.”

Well at least the topic was intriguing to her. She decided to finally give in and spend the trip talking to her new companion, “That would explain the lack of undead or spider outbreaks. I heard that during the attacks there was several undead, which raises the question if the Lich instigated the attack in the first place.”

They continued to talk about the newly captured town. It was the hottest topic at the moment. Only a few citizens had reported to the city officials with this issue. It was then designated a non-reclaimable land. The men that had seen the Lich swore that every word was true. Their story posted on the boards the next day, but there was still lots of differing opinions. However, there story was that the Liches territory in the forest was also invaded and after the unknown entity released control of its monsters it swept in and claimed the town and took control of the monsters.

One large question left unanswered was, if the powerful Lich wasn’t the one controlling the creatures in the first place, then what entity had? There debates of rivalry between Liches, other powerful entities, a spider royalty or other alpha predator. Whatever it had been would have to have been quite powerful. It was concerning and intriguing. There were a lot of unknown beings in the world, which let others imagination run rampant on the mystery.

Whatever it was Alice hoped it was gone for good. For now, the town was being left alone. They were making sure to put enough distance between the mysterious Lich owned town as they made their way on their journey.

** ** ** House of the Fox ** ** **

Two common younger male Blood foxes stalked their prey as they whispered to each other. They were waiting for the best moment to ambush the beast. They didn’t need to really be too stealthy after all their prey was the dumbest of the dumb, “It’s a shame that all the really attractive females are the daughters of the Floor boss.”

His friend just grimaced as he replied, “Well it’s not like that’s the real reason you aren’t trying to become their mates. I heard that Emerald hasn’t ever been the same since Jade died. She will be sad one moment and then just blow up with wrath. I swear that their titles dictate all their behavior now.”

Nodding his head his friend agreed with him, “That’s true. I’m not scared of their father at all. I just don’t want to deal with their Sins. I doubt you could even get Amythest to do anything you know. She just lies around until Sapphire finally gets her to hunt. Then her death grip becomes savage because she is too lazy to let go.”

His friend let out a sigh, “Yeah Sapphire is always helping the others, but she is twice as bad. She is kind and caring and helpful towards her family no matter what they do but if it’s anyone else nothing they do is enough. I heard someone tried being her suitor and no matter how many kills he brought her, she still wouldn’t accept saying it wasn’t enough. Luckily the poor guy finally gave up. He hunted for a week straight without resting. Then of course there is Ruby…”

He looked around to make sure no one was around before he spoke, “You know she is the cleverest of them all and she had been the most beautiful, but after the burn to her face…”

“What about my face boys? Please share,” Ruby seemed to appear from thin air.

Her wound had healed, but her face was still heavily scarred and missing an ear on her left side. There would forever be a marred face in the reflection of the stream when she looked.

“No-nothing Ruby,” One said, while he began looking for an escape.

The other began trying to charm his way out of it, “Your face is the most beautiful even despite the burn is what I was going to say. In fact, it helped us realize your true inner beauty! No one can compare to your…”

She spoke strong and pridefully, “Silence! Of course, I know that. I truly am the most gorgeous being ever… but the problem is I don’t feel that you really understand that. Well I’d hate to ruin your hunt. I’d never want to be rude.”

She let out a loud howl and then began to disappear back into the brush as she spoke, “Happy hunting boys.”

The sounds of adventures filled their ears and they realized that they were surrounded. The had been so busy talking and stalking that had forgot to check the room for adventures. She had given away their position. They looked around in panic. A large man with an axe came bursting through a large fern axe in full swing. The two foxes decided to take him down together, however an arrow through the throat stopped one.

The last fox chose to try to leap to the side. The axe descended and followed his movement. However, it didn’t kill the fox, because a spear thrust beat him to it. As he died he heard a man say, “Damn it Janet, that was my kill!”

“Hmm, well I’d say it doesn’t look like it.”