Duke had barely knocked on Aurelia’s door when it slammed open, and she rushed into his arms. “Oh gods, Duke. I’ve missed you!” She smothered him in a deep kiss as he effortlessly picked her up walked and the pair of them into her room, her legs tightly wrapped around him. A flick of his foot was enough to close the door behind them.
Some time later, they sat up in bed, Aurelia curled up on Duke. He decided to tell her his coming plans. “Love, I am going to be moving out into the middle of the wilderness, as far away from population centers as possible. The first set of assassins arrived, and I dealt with them, but more and more are going to arrive. I don’t want to put innocent lives in jeopardy unnecessarily.”
“Are you going into hiding?” She asked, confused.
“Hiding, no. I expect whatever assassins are coming to be able to find me wherever I set up, but I want to be able to fight and kill them without worrying about collateral damage.”
“Oh, that makes sense. When are we leaving?”
“I’m going alone.”
“The hells you are!”
“I don’t want to put you in the path of what’s coming for me.”
“Don’t worry about that. They are coming for you, not me. I’ll be fine.”
“The first group fired an orbital weapon at me. They didn’t care what else they hit in the process.”
“Set us up an Inn dungeon. Nothing’s going to hurt one of those.”
Duke paused in his argument as he realized that she was right. Setting up an Inn dungeon in the middle of nowhere would solve numerous problems. “OK, I’ll get that set up. That’s a good idea but you will stay in the Inn when they come for me. If I have to cut loose with something like UMBRAL REAPER, I don’t want you in the area of effect.”
“Can’t you see them coming for a long distance?”
“Possibly. But it’s not a sure thing. I haven’t seen anything that gets past my Abilities, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t. The price on my head is high – I have to expect at least one but probably most to have some sort of stealth abilities that are at least on par with my ability to see them coming. So, I’m counting on them catching me by surprise. But anyone I see coming for me is in for a bad day.”
“OK, so when do we leave?”
“You stay here until I get things set up. I’m heading to go do just that. In the meantime, make sure that you have set things in place for the Legion to keep training and expanding. We are going to need at least ten times as many Legionnaires over the next few years.”
“Why so many? Is there another kingdom threatening us?”
“There will be. I have set in motion some things that are going to make Stormstride extremely prosperous and that’s going to make others jealous. Having such a large and strong Legion will make sure that nobody tries anything.”
“That’s good to know but I’m not going to expand the Thrice-Blessed Legion significantly. I will keep them training and growing as they are our truly elite troops that are approaching an average level in mid-to-late Tier Two. Instead of diluting that power-level, I will establish another Legion and get them training. I’m sure Sam can set up a separate training area for them. I’ll need you to set up a Portal for them to get back and forth from their barracks to the training dungeon. If they grow enough, I’ll start a third Legion, and maybe a fourth. It all depends on how many I can recruit.”
“Don’t do it all yourself. Keep the overall leadership but put people in place to lead the various Legions. Unless you want your entire life to be managing the minutiae. I don’t think you want to do that. I sure as hell don’t.”
She nodded in agreement. “I already have strong commanders within the Legion. I can tap one of them to lead each new Legion.”
“Good. I’m heading out. There could already be assassins in the area, and I want to get things set up fast.” It took significantly longer for him to leave as she rolled over on top of him and made sure he left with a smile.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
***
Arriving within the Lake Front Dungeon Inn, Duke found that there were quite a few Legionnaires seated at tables. They all rose and offered him a salute which he returned before heading for Sam’s core chamber.
“Good to see you again, Duke. You’ve been cheating on me with other dungeons, haven’t you?”
Duke laughed, feeling genuine mirth for the first time in quite a while. “Oh yes, you got me. I’ve been busy with other dungeons. We’ve been creating all sorts of things, and I even ran one to completion.”
“That you did. I heard all about it. It was quite the story.”
“So, how have you been doing, Sam? I see that the Legion is still here training.”
“Yes, the Legion has been keeping my dungeon humming along. I’ve had to get really creative to keep them challenged. They are going to siege a castle in two days. I have some real fun surprises in store for them on that one. This is so far outside the normal dungeon world that the Overmind is here observing me almost daily.”
“That is true. I am always watching you, Sam. Your separate dungeon approach with residents is unique. If not for Duke here, I would be concerned that things would go sideways quickly.” The Overmind’s avatar was back to its original form and while Duke still felt that it was just strange to look directly at it, he was not forced to turn away as he had in the past.
“I can see that your Psyche has grown and you can gaze upon this form without being warped. That is a good sign of things to come. You need to continue to grow stronger, the assassins and bounty hunters that are coming for you will help in that. Nice job with the first batch, by the way. They were the trash of the bunch, but bodies are cheap for them. Losing the ship hurt them so they will think twice about coming for you again.”
“I don’t suppose that you could tell me who else is coming for me?”
“That would be considered interference and would allow them to interfere as well. So, no. You are on your own in that regard. On another topic. I see that you are going to set yourself up away from your people. That’s a good idea. If you weren’t taking your woman with you, I would suggest setting up on another moon.”
“The thought had occurred to me. I do have to plant more dungeons to see if I can level up that title again. If 1,000 was the first level up, maybe 10,000 or 100,000 would be the next.”
“That would sound logical, wouldn’t it.”
“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”
“Nope.” Even though the avatar had no real face, Duke’s XENOGLOSSIA read the smile just the same.
“In that case, Sam do you have a new core that needs planting?”
“I have seven, actually. Even though he’s not pumping energy into me anymore.” Sam gestured at the Overmind’s avatar with obvious irritation. “The Legion and Havenreach are still accelerating their Mana output.”
The Overmind chuckled. “Tier Seven already, little one, yes? You are growing quickly and we will have to discuss what will happen when you breach past Tier Ten, won’t we?”
Sam looked annoyed. “Back to Tier Seven, yes.” A plinth rose out of the chamber’s floor and seven perfect cores rested upon it. “Here are the cores, Duke. I know you are going to be busy but I can’t keep cores like these waiting or they will start to lose their viability.”
Duke started to speak but Sam continued over him. “So, I am going to start sending them out into the world myself.”
“What does that look like?” Duke asked concerned.
“I am going to create specialized creatures to carry them out into the world and plant them.”
“And what happens to those creatures after the dungeons get planted?” Duke recalled the tales Sam had told him of dungeons being hunted down and didn’t want to see them repeated here.
“They will either enter the dungeons or expire depending on how long it takes to find a suitable spot for the dungeon. If it takes too long, they will plant the dungeon and expire immediately. If they quickly find a suitable spot, then they will enter the dungeon and help it establish itself. Maybe even take over a boss monster spot.”
Duke pondered the possibilities and decided that he wouldn’t be able to be there to collect and plant all the cores anyway. “I don’t want this world to become completely covered in dungeons though. That is only going to lead to conflict.”
“It might lead to conflict, but if the cores and dungeons are the Inn structures the two of you have created, the possibility of conflict is significantly smaller. It really is a spectacularly symbiotic design and I am going to use it for new worlds I am seeding.”
Duke turned to the Overmind. “Just how many worlds have dungeons on them?”
“At this point, trillions. But a great many of them are not inhabited as of yet. Most worlds don’t understand their dungeons but that works out just fine for me. They delve and delve and delve. But they never find the cores. All the while the dungeons grow in power.”
“And they somehow feed their power back to you.” Duke surmised.
“Indeed. That trickle of power from quadrillions of dungeons throughout the cosmos adds up quickly. But that is all I will say about that. I really just wanted to stop in and say that I am pleased at your growth, Duke. Hunt your assassins mercilessly. No matter what story they whine to you about, show them no mercy. They came here to kill you and yours. See that they don’t live to regret that decision.”
Duke’s eyes hardened. “I am looking forward to scattering their atoms across the cosmos.” With that, he took a single core with him in his “core bag” and TELEPORTED to the wilderness spot he had selected.