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Dungeon Maker
Book 2 Chapter 2

Book 2 Chapter 2

With the elves leading us to the town we let Zenos drive the stagecoach while I sat next to him and the guards escort us.

“So a puppet is that hard to make? I hadn’t expected it to be so difficult.” I say as I look at the two horse puppets.

“Unlike the puppet you just showed us that looks to be built with common wood but drenched in mana to make it easier to use, we have to use our elfwood because it has a strong ability to transmit mana. Not only that but puppet makers are hard to come by and those who can bind and transfer control of puppet are just as hard to come by. Puppet maker shops can only run if there are these two and both must be extremely well versed in runic language.” Zenos said.

“The book makes all the runes for my puppets to run properly, looking at your puppets there does seem to be a distinct lack of them.” I say.

“That is expected, your artifact was formed around the concept of using dungeon magic to make your puppets. It knows the runes but you don’t it can take a lot of the work off but if you look at it in another perspective, the runes on your puppets are all weaker than it should be if you comprehend them.” He said.

“About that, how do you go about comprehending them?” I asked.

“Not everyone has that opportunity, one way is what we called secluded training. During this time, you rent a room that contains an immense amount of mana which is gathered by runes written on the outside of the room to gather mana and using that you repeatedly write the rune while looking for its secrets slowly improving it. Another way is for you to come in contact with a natural essence rune. Essence rune appear extremely rarely usually during a special event or ritual of a sort. Spirits that need to absorb a specific type of natural essences can sometimes cause an essence rune to form if they are in the correct place.” He said.

My pupils shrink as I heard this. I had exclusive access to one of these essence runes through Valery and Veria.

“Are essence runes hard to come by?” I asked.

“Of course they are! Unless someone that comprehends them makes a statue or a location inlaid with their essence of the rune where you can study them you will need to search for them around the world. Our elf nation has its own method left behind by our great deceased Hero Daniel Rock who was like you, a dungeon maker at the time. He was a summoned hero at that time but he didn’t have ambition to attack the demon lord and thought it was fruitless so he focused on cultural development making us as we are today.” Zenos said.

I look at the elves and then at the captain. I had been wondering if the strange quirks of these elves are caused by this Daniel guy. I think this because when the high elf captain was fighting common monsters and killing and storing them in true blue magic storage rings, which I was totally going to search for, he would torture the monsters by cutting shallow wounds instead of outright killing it when he had the power to. Only the sandworms does he not pity them one bit and kills them in three slashes. The one that I had met Zenos with had caught them off guard and pulled Zenos underground before he could react but others now were cut down instantly.

Worms are left to rot and aren’t eaten even if they are huge. The reason was told to me that it was because their meat is toxic and gross.

For the most part Zenos was normal, he is part of the wood elf subspecies and excels in earth magic. He said he is a bit uncommon since he can’t use water magic which is what is needed to mix with earth magic to make plant magic which allows him to control plants. He is a frontliner whereas normal wood elves are more backliners and crowd control mages.

Soon enough we spot the large walls of the city Vine Grove and when you look behind the city from afar you can see the sea of huge green that made up the Dark Vine forest.

“So Ace, what do you plan on doing once you reach Vine Grove?” Zenos asked.

“Don’t know, I had plans to try and perfect and study runes from the elves to strengthen my own knowledge. I recently found out that I can comprehend runes after coming into contact with one of those essence runes you mentioned. Now I want to figure out how to comprehend some others.” I said.

“Which rune did you comprehend?” Zenos asked curiously.

“The ‘Moon’ rune. You know the little wolf girl is a spirit so when she was born the rune appeared.” I said.

He nods understanding a bit of what happened.

“Well, it will be a bit expensive, Heavenlight money has a 5:1 exchange rate with our elven coin but we follow the same system of coin as to not make things confusing. If you truly want to learn how to do this you would be best to either rent a room for it or make a dungeon room that can accomplish the same effect to allow yourself to have constant flow of mana. Most rooms have higher density and the effect of the room replenishes mana faster which is why it works but you should have lot of water since most people don’t eat during this time and so it's a method that is dangerous for the health. Most elves only do this once they have prepared mentally. Puppet makers and Puppet binders have to undergo 60 years of comprehension studies of runes to be able to make the puppets to this level.” He said gesturing to the horses.

“If only there was a way to slow down time.” I say dejected.

“Well there is the method left by our Ancient hero. He comprehended the 700+ runes our elf nation knows and left us with a method to access the Essence runes he comprehended but because they are so important, the royal family has a system of contribution through the adventurers guild but that way is even harder for you who aren’t elves because foreign races need to pay several times more contribution points to access the essence runes.” He said.

“Doesn’t seem too strange. I wouldn’t want other nations to have easy access to my nation’s biggest secrets either. Not like it matters. As long as I purchase one of these puppets I can have access to at least 50 to 100 elven runes with quite a bit of profound knowledge.” I said bluntly and Zenos chuckled.

“You truly are an interesting man with an open mind.” He said chuckling.

Soon enough we reached the town and at the gate we were allowed to enter but the horses were soon recalled.

When I looked at the Guardian he was mostly repaired so I summoned it.

“Thank you all for the escort here. We might not have been able to arrive if not for the help.” I said.

“It is nothing. It's one of our duties to aid those traveling these roads so it’s not much.” The elf captain said.

“Before we go, how much do those storage rings go for and where can I get them? Also where do I go to exchange our money to the elven coin?” I asked.

“The exchange center is in the town center. As for the storage rings, there are several types of storage items. The lowest grade are storage bags which hold ten times its size as long as something fits through the entrance but you still feel the weight. The highest grade bags can remove the weight and holds 50 times its size. Next is the storage ring that has its own dimension, low grade ones normally have about a 3x3x3 meter wide space while the highest quality ones have around 30x30x30 space. Finally is the space necklace and there is only one grade because there is only one in the nation and it belongs to the royal family and it’s unknown how large it is. None of these items can hold living beings.” he said.

My eyes shine as I hear their explanations. I don’t really care about the rings themselves but what I do care about is the runes used to make these things. A bag will clearly show me how to get the most basic stuff and if I practice making them manually it will only make my rune use better.

“I see, thanks for the advice. We shall be going then.” I say and wave them off. With an order the guardian begins to pull us in direction to the town hall.

***

Deep within the borders of the elven nation, in the capital city, is a beautiful woman with long blonde hair wearing a set of mithril armor. She looked up towards the massive and beautiful tree that towered over all the others. This was the royal palace made inside an elder Treant who has always protected the elven royal family and the nation.

Almost 300 meters up on the tree was a small floating magical target looking like a bullseye dart board or an arrow target, doesn’t matter which you use.

The young elf held her hand out and a long white bow materialized in her hand. The detail was beautiful and elegant and just above her hand on the bow was an open whole and in it were two lines crossing forming a kind of scope.

Slowly she grabbed the string and pulled back and from that circle it absorbed her mana and released a small floating circle forward. This was the same as a magic formation.

Slowly runes formed around it forming a phrase and in the middle the ‘Sun’ and ‘Light’ runes appeared. The phrase was as such.

‘Hell Spawn Fall, Burn in Holy flame, Sun Light Arrow’

She released the string and as it returned to its place the circle suddenly released a flash that flew too fast to see and impacted on the second circle in the middle and blew up.

“Young one, you must feel the wind, your growth is large and potentially even more so but your vision is blocked by the need to prove yourself.” An ancient and wise voice called to her.

“Grand elder, if I do not train, how can I do the same that human was capable of doing and make their side suffer no casualties.” She exclaimed.

“Child… the human that performed that task, do you know how much work it took? 1 week of construction projects to have the layouts for the death trap. Traps and he had to clear enough land of wood to make a structured town of wood and dirt. Then he had to block off over 30 different pathways that have left the elves and humans with some trouble to clear it and reopen the pathways. There is a cause and effect for such a success.” The voice said.

“I understand but if a bad tide is blocked then damage is easy to restore.” She said.

A long sigh filled the air before the tree side she was facing slowly began to reform as a large nose and chin began to form then a set of eyes opened on the tree.

“Yaniver… I understand your honorable side personality… it fills this old body of mine with warmth… but you should know already that forcing you to fight the demon lord is not what we want. We summon to get a strong supporter who can help our nation flourish for the next century as we do not possess delusions that it is possible to fight the demon lord who possess power that would take any of us millenia to acquire.” The elder treant said.

“But didn’t you say that the human that did that event was a dungeon maker. Someone who can rapidly learn about runes and even undo the protective shield of the demon lord?” The young elf hero Yaniver asked.

“And what would that result? The shields most major flaw is that it repels 70% of the mana around it from entering the demon lands. It is this flaw that has allowed us to survive the demon hoards that have not been able to grow so powerful for so long. Even then the slow progress has already reached a resounding peak. If the shield is opened, can you say that we will survive in one or two years time?” He asked

She looked down dejected as she understood what it meant. It meant heroes were summoned not to fight but to improve the overall conditions of this world. It isn’t a stupid idea, in truth it is a genius thought pattern that few races actually possess. The humans and beastmen think of the benefits military wise as well as consolidating the royal bloodline through them. Dwarfs look for craft knowledge but a protector, their current hero can only protect and isn’t smart in the least to aid them and can only be called an idiot made to fight.

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The elves summoned in hopes of once more improving their nations conditions and have been rewarded by the knowledge of the magic system that Yaniver brought but she is only a 200 year old elf, still too young to have known all there is to know and there isn’t a significant improvement but it is her artifact that has allowed her a good result in training as a protector because of its ability to form magic formations as its main capability and improving the speed she learns runes.

“I can only train, I have never trained or learned more.” She said.

“Child… you are a wood elf in our culture's standards. You can learn to live with nature. You don’t need to be so determined to fight. The last wave of demons was simply his test for you. The demons don’t randomly attack unless it’s for a true reason and they would send a force several times greater if he wanted to.” The elder said.

Yaniver’s face turned into a deep frown as she heard it and she sulked. She had previously stopped a pack of 500 harpy demons, Harpy demons are more monstrous than the beast man variety. Beast men harpy have human head and torso with feather making the hair. Human arms with wings formed from the pinky and ring finger covered in feathers and their legs are scaly like a birds with large talons on their feet.

She had lead a group of elite archers and with her magic bow she took down more than two fifths of their number but she had lost more than a quarter of the elves in her command.

She sighs and looks at the elder. He knew that look and he also sighed before his face vanished and more than 500 magical targets appeared in the air.

“Please time my speed.” She said and began another timed round.

***

“Wow I didn’t expect to only have 400 elven gold. I wonder if it's because the Heavenlight nation is so poor.” I said as I was sitting on a table outside of a restaurant in Vinegrove.

“It’s still quite a lot. If we make lots of money here we will be loaded once we return to Heavenlight.” Misaki said while her eyes shined.

I have to say that the elves are really surprising. In more occurrences than I could count I found Earth culture here. Even where we are now is another one. This is an english style restaurant with full blown maid dress waitresses and to my surprise there were even two elven waitresses. The head waitresses, I think, was a busty dark elves with sexy curves and wore square glasses and had a cold personality and the other another type of elf had a petite figure and snow white hair and had a baby face and on her head was a headband with cat ears and on her waist was a bent with a cat tail sticking out and had a cheery personality and in her left hand was an umbrella and for some reason it had a metallic shine, were the main waitresses and attracted a lot of attention.

The men would sneak glances with blushing faces at her.

“These elves are like a collection of otaku culture.” I say bluntly.

“Um… current elven culture is the result of the most famous elven hero from 400 years ago who was reported to have a unique class for the hero summoning and rose the elven nation from the brink of extinction. I believe Zenos spoke of him as a dungeon maker as well. He created the 5 great elven dungeons that is the main source of income for the nation. Dungeons that make a unique type of monster purely formed of mana and could make drops just like a regular dungeon.” Charlotte said.

“Your order please!” The smaller head waitress said as she came our way. She had opened her umbrella before coming towards us as to not be touched by sunlight.

“Papa! Papa! This girl smells nice! She smells like me a bit!” Valery shouted while jumping around on my lap.

“Smells like…?” the little girl looked confused as she looked at the little beast girl.

“Sorry, this is Valery, she is a silver spirit wolf that was recently born so she lacks a bit of common sense. Valery you can’t say strange things like that.” I scold her.

“But she does. She smells like that tasty thing you give me.” Valery said and I looked a bit shocked and looked towards the girl that had realized something.

“Ah now I understand. Excuse me for not introducing myself. I am Luna Lunor, my race is Moon Elf, it is most likely because of this that this little girl's thinks I smell similar to her since Moon elves specialize in using darkness and moonlight magic. It’s a unique type of magic unique to our race.” She said.

“Oh moon elves! I didn’t think I would see one during the day! I heard moon elves receive damage under sunlight?” Hermes said.

“That is what this umbrella is for. It is made of Steel that has been enchanted with runes to reflect all sunlight back and when open it forms a small magical barrier so I do not have to worry about sunlight sneaking under it even if I am facing it directly.” She said and through a bit of mana around her revealing a sort of film like shield around her coming from below the umbrella.

“Wow!” Valery exclaimed with shining eyes.

Then her stomach suddenly rumbled and she blushed.

“I’m hungry! Papa!” She looked at me and I looked at the Luna.

“Do you have anything that survives off moon essence or something similar. I have had her living off the Rune ‘Moon’ but she got sick of it and doesn’t like meat much… we aren’t the best cooks.” I said.

“We have a farm nearby that raises moon rabbits. It's run by my family since moon elves have a similar problem of needing moonlight essence.” She said.

“Great, bring me some of that for her and some Black Bear meat roast and citrus juice for me.” I say.

“I will take the Vine wood wolf flank and gentle flower tea.” Misaki said.

“I will have the Vine wood wolf flank as well but I want the Darkvine thorn bush fruit juice.” Charlotte said.

“I will have some Moon rabbit steaks and Maple Apple juice.” Hermes said after looking at the list

“Alright, I shall go prepare it!” she said and ran inside.

We kept talking for a bit before she returned with a big tray. I sat Valery in her own seat and Luna put the plate with seven steak’s of moon rabbit meat in front of her. Valery was drooling and took the first one in her hands but I slap her hand softly. Then I showed her how to properly hold the knife and fork but what do you expect from a newborn she just tossed them away and took the steak and began to eat it after sitting back down. Her face was drowned in bliss beyond what she got from the runes.

We each ate our own and Luna went about her work but as things slowed down she came over.

“So? How was it?’ she asked.

“Itsh amashing!” Valery said still eating her last steak with a small bulging belly.

“It is really good.” I say.

“Great! I had thought that my recipe was off but it’s great that you like my cooking!” She exclaimed.

“You cooked it?” Misaki asked.

“Yep, most maids have to cook the orders they get. Same for the butlers.” She said. Then her eyes changed and a glint appeared in her eye. “Hey can I ask something?” She said.

We looked at each other and shrugged.

“Sure what?” Misaki asked.

“Well, I noticed you were humans and so you have different culture so…” She said blushing a bit and then looking at us with a very strong gaze. “...Can you please tell me what kind of fetishes you guys have! Which are your favorites! How do you do it!” She asked blushing but a small bit of drool was on the side of her grin that looked to be in a bit of ecstasy.

“W-what…” I mutter.

“F-f-f-fet-fetish!” Charlotte stuttered turning as bright as a tomato.

“Hmm? Papa what is ‘Fedish’? Is it food? It sounds tasty?” Valery said while innocently confusing the word.

“Valery go back in the book.” I say serious but she frowns but when I glare at her she shrinks back since I have only glared at her like this once when she wasn’t acting properly and had spanked her to discipline her after she hurt me and Misaki in the dungeon while we were picking some crops directly from the farm.

Her body flashed and she entered my book causing some people to look our way.

“Um…” Luna looked confused.

“Luna… can I ask why you’re curious?” Misaki said in a dangerously sinister tone.

“Huh? Because I am always curious about human fetishes but most that come usually leave! I already asked and know which fetish every regular elf customer has!” She turned and began to twirl and speak as if its common.

“The greatest fetish are the kind where there is mutual love and no matter the feti...urg!” She shouted and froze.

The reason was that Misaki had just suddenly run around the table while she wasn’t watching and kicked the loli elf cleanly in between the leg… no wait right in the ass with her show facing up as well.

I knew this because the elf fell forward and the dress flew up showing the very clear imprint of Misaki’s foot on her ass over the soft pink panties.

“You horny elf! YOU DON’T ASK PEOPLE SOMETHING LIKE THAT!” Misaki shouted flourished and blushing violently.

Misaki kicks her in between the legs, this time more centered but what happened made me had a horrible premonition.

*Moan*

“Kyaa~! Mistress! No~~~! Not so rough!” Luna moaned.

Everyone in the restaurant looked at her.

Then I heard some whispers. “To think her fetish was actually that? She had asked everyone’s but kept hers a secret but to think she was that easy!” An old elf said with a lustful grin.

“I know what you mean, I have been wondering what her fetish was but to think she was so compatible!” Another said.

“Mommy big sis looks cute! Can I have her as my kitty!” A blonde elf girl looking no older than 5.

“No sweetie, wait until you're a big girl then we can see.” Her mother said.

We were totally stunned by what had just happened and the response to the elves.

Since Misaki had stopped Luna had also realized and looked around and back at Misaki with a pleading look.

“Why did you stop?” She asked.

“...”

We had no way to reply to that.

“Miss Luna? Do you mind explaining why you are so… open, about your *cough* fetish?” Hermes asked for all of us.

She looked at us and realized we didn’t know about their history.

“Oh *cough* shall we go inside and we can talk.” She said.

We glare at her but get up and walk inside and upstairs. Sitting in one of the private rooms she sits in front of us.

“So explain to us what the hell just happened?” I asked.

“Well as you guessed I am a Masochist. Also Mistress, you have such great aim and even hit just right!” Luna said with a Lustful grin.

“Not that! We want to know why elves are so open about it?” I asked.

“Oh that? 400 years ago the elven nation was on the brink of collapse when the Hero summoning brought us our greatest king Daniel Rock. He was a Dungeon Maker and remade the nation with his powers but he was said to be very eccentric with his fetishes. He was from a world called Earth and was originally a human but due to the summoning was made an elf, this is written in the history classes but I don’t know if it's true. Anyway he was extremely diverse in his fetishes and slowly spread them making others enjoy. He spent almost 80 years to spread them enthusiastically as the nation was rebuilt from the ashes. He was a king that could single handedly push back the demons and was a powerful puppet master using dungeon puppets he made to keep our numbers growing due to elves having slow reproductive speeds. By the time he was assassinated by one of the demon lords shades, he had already sealed his Grimoire of the Dungeon Maker and would only allow elves or someone guided by elves to access its power which was sealed greatly. When he died he had already caused all elven kind to be very open about their love life though some, like myself, have a code to keep ours secret so we do not fall into the hands of cruel people.” She explained.

“So now what?” I asked.

“Obviously I will not leave my mistress!” she said with a bright smile.

“Before you ask, I can only stay safe if I am with my ‘love’ that helps me control my urges. Although I am controlling myself I feel the needs already. We are very… open as you say and we develop really strong urges once someone besides our family has done our fetish to us. Although I do not show it, I just want to jump on mistress and fill her with my love. It's instinctual of us to love our partner and unless I stay confined for more than a year or more I won’t be able to forget that partner.” she says.

When I examined her I noticed her trembling hands and shaking legs. She was grinding her legs as well but kept a straight face. It was clear that she was holding back but I knew if she jumped Misaki she would get what she wanted. She also knew that as well. If it was an S she would probably beg while someone like Misaki she just needs to be clingy.

“Call your family for them to prepare the room. I will not permit you to travel with us and corrupt the little girl.” Misaki bluntly rejected her.

“Nope, my parents live deep in the Darkvine forest and I can’t reach it alone. It would take 2 weeks of travel to reach it and by then the time would need to be put into isolation is over several years. My parents would openly accept you as my partner and if I needed a male’s seeds I just need to use your boyfriend.” She said gesturing to me but that caused Misaki to freeze before her fist connected with Luna’s gut.

“Let’s go, if we stay here we will be contaminated by this.” Misaki said.

“Shinigumi-san… is it okay to just leave?” Hermes asked a bit scared.

“Let’s… go!” She said glaring at us.

I grin towards her and she notices. “This is gonna be fun!” I thought and she paled when she saw my grin. It was the same grin she had when Valery called me papa the first time.

“Let’s not forget to pay the bill ‘Mistress’.” I said grinning. Her eyes turn into dead fish eyes. It was even more effective than ‘oba-sama’.

“You call me that again and I will cut off your balls.” She said deadly serious.

I shrug and look down at the panting elf who had just grabbed Misaki’s leg.

“More mistress! More!” She said in glee but Misaki just shook her off and walked out.

“There is absolutely no escape anymore. At least now we have a good cook with us.” I thought and remembered that food she made and nod wholeheartedly accepting her into our party.