I wake after finally mocking my level up from me to my realm, as it turns out that is actually how it is supposed to be done. It’s actually pretty frustrating to have increasing the realm’s level be the objective as there is a limited pool of realm improvement points and the entire situation is a feedback loop. Fortunately for me the other groups expand beyond the equilibrium, and eventually correct below the equilibrium again. It’s these cycles that adventurers capitalize on to be where they are needed and paid. There was always chatter about upgrading your realm but not the why of upgrading your realm. Well it’s something to consider when I sit down to write down how I want my realm to be governed.
With that out of the way I simply start tagging the monster realm sealed below the surface of the planet I’m on, so that when someone above is looking for a realm to conquer they can grab one of these and have the area down here be cleansed. I feel a lot of chatter from the other lords above asking who is finding the monsters, and how they are cheating the systems of protection that the virtuous use to make sure that the members do not get the points for taking monsters as a drawback while ejecting the monsters to terrorize others. I watch the auditors sweep the areas that I am marking and realize that I’m merely tagging what is already present.
I pass the time by trying to make my storage temporarily lock the item inside, of which I eventually succeed, but it weighs heavily on my time affinity for each item so sealed. This was good training for that affinity however, which has improved it considerably for the position in my journey that I am in. This then compounded the current predicament by letting me slow down my realms experience of time, which in turn made my costs even cheaper. This caused the debts thrust upon me to start being automatically paid off, which worsened the situation for the other groups on this planet when they realized that when the debt is gone that I have no reason to get more loans. This in turn makes some of the groups threaten to go to war with me, until they realize that they have no idea where I am and they have other problems.
While that is all cute celestial season chicanery, they will all settle down for the waning season, for the upcoming abyssal season. In the meantime I’m trying to implement the notes on angel formation which culminates in me getting a bonus for angels in my realm. Apparently there is a dragon terrorizing up above, meaning that the other Lords are trying to take out loans to give out upgrades to their troops, which revealed that my excess was also being siphoned off. One fix for that later, and the entire situation up above began degrading slowly. Then the monsters up there start grabbing the monsters that are down here with me and the distance to the surface shrinks for me by the day. By this point it’s late celestial and they are already pulling back, for a dreadful abyssal season. Then my realm breaches the surface of the planet.
The good news is that there are no monsters nearby, while the bad news is that I’m in the middle of a dessert. My position was announced to everyone else too but while there is some ‘that is where you are’ most are restrained by what is to come. A tracer for my appearance occurs a few days later, sees the multiple perforations where the tags once were at the entrance to my dungeon. Eventually a man bedecked in shiny armor, a man wearing a robe and a pointy hat, and a man wearing a normal seeming outfit arrive. The unusual man is revealed to be a Delver, as I feel him inspect my entrance. “I’m overkill for this, each of the two of you could probably beat this place solo.”
“Then the pathway marker?” asks the mage.
“My current hope is that it is madness.” The other two look at the delver before he continues, “Activating the eye.”
He goes down the set of stairs to the first floor landing them in a room bisected by a yellow forcefield, beyond that is a control system for the upper area and after that is another staircase down. “Forcefield is pretty wild, as damage immune as the walls and floor.”
“Its strength is overkill, like why would you not include a manual override. Also got a reading on what previously felt like a normal dungeon; it is a rarer variation where delvers get an apparent level reduction, with a more regular monster distribution per floor. Also got a reading on the boss monster and it was troublesome; Its name was hidden instead of its skills, which means we know its only skill is a summoning skill, but the only consolation prize is that it is a slime.” The other two look at each other which prompts the delver to say, “Slime bosses are rare; never fought one where its unusual defenses wasn’t the reason it was used.”
“There is no way there isn’t a manual override, what would happen if the master touched it?” The paladin asks, sensing that I would suffer if I got trapped outside my own door.
“I’d bet that the master has set it up in such a way that they automatically pass the check the door was looking for.” No-one takes the mages bet.
The delver sighs, says “Accounted for that too, huh,” before walking through the field.
“Affinity suppression? With a cleanse blocker?” The paladin watches the delver cross back over before continuing, “Cleanse on exit which is fair enough.”
“I’d assume that the control systems you sensed on the far side were locked because you snuck through, so there is a benefit for playing along at least. Does the dungeon have any of the affinities it sealed on you?”
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“The control system access affinity was locked but that was the only one that matched. And even then it was only blocking access to the control systems.” Yeah I’ve heard too many horror stories where realm control was made available when it should have been stopped. I put that seal as the highest suppression required by the room. It does mean that the suppression can be overloaded, but at that point knowing that I am facing someone out of my league and that it is time to bail.
The paladin walks up to the barrier and triggers it, causing an alcove to be generated in the wall with a chunk of material I’m not registering. Then the floor lights up with a yellow glow pointing to it. “Still cannot believe that is what it is triggered to do, by the way the objective is to retrieve the object and escape the dungeon.”
“Fine, give me a second.” The paladin grabs the chunk and leaves for a couple minutes. When he returns he says, “Well removing that repaired the circle, and that chunk was bought by the angels as it was anchorite.”
The mage does the exact same steps and returns with his anchorite, “Yeah, it’s just leave, and the circle mended further. The catch is that the broken circle out front is blocking the access codes from being updated.”
The delver pauses for a moment, “Let me put the bypass effect on all of us, so we go give our greetings to the boss.”
They pass the gate and go down the stairs and are greeted with Blobby’s slime in a trail that says greetings. “The boss is friendly for once, maybe this time we can try diplomacy.”
The delver throws a knife at Blobby, which I suppose is one way to indicate your opinion. Blobby responds by using their summoning skill behind him and to the side. The original summarily dies to the thrown knife, but the second one remains alive and summons a third a moment later. The mage, realizing that things are going to get out of hand, tries fire, which only prompts Blobby to summon behind him. “How did that not work?” asks the mage before Blobby sticks some slime down the back of his robe.
The delver looks at the paladin for a divine intervention, to which the paladin just shrugs and says, “This was the time for diplomacy and you broke it, am I going to be allowed to fix this Jerome.”
“Depends on whether I’m getting knifed,” I say while I dodge Jerome throwing another knife at the position that I was just standing in.
I get inspected, “Cloaked figure with a Lord designation. You must be the man in charge.”
“That’s enough, to me,” and at my command Blobby stops molesting the Mage and moves to my side. Then he compresses the multitude of summons into a pack by tapping my knife.
“Arthur, remind me about this the next time there is a chance for diplomacy,” the Mage chides himself.
“I’d like to apologize, I wanted to test the structure of my dungeon and my boss for how protected I am down here.” The trio look at each other.
The paladin gets back to me first. “Well beyond Timothy’s discomfort, we have not been harmed by this turn of events. We will treat this as an introduction to each other’s capabilities for our cooperation.”
I tag them as not delvers anymore and then create a table and chairs out of geolith, a set of cups and saucers out of my ceramic, and some water to go in the cups. “I’m sorry I cannot be a better host, as I only have water and chocolate to spare like this.”
“Wait, how do you have chocolate?” Jerome’s greed is inflamed by this opportunity.
“Random draw off of a common card pack,” I comment in tandem with a shrug.
Jerome pauses and I feel him looking at the control system behind the yellow door, “Still restraint from accessing the controls? But why.”
“My group would like to set up an alliance with you,” brokers the paladin.
“After how poorly my last attempt at an alliance went, I think I will go conservative with my response and say that I am open to being one of the city’s dungeons.” The paladin frowns, like his toy isn’t as cool as he thought it was going to be.
The paladin’s eyes widened, “Lord Walker.”
I bow and say, “In the flesh.”
“Wait, why do you think God let his angels do this to you?” asks the Paladin.
“In general, our souls were not designed for complacency, they were designed to be challenged. And to facilitate that, He permits bad things to happen to good people. In this specific case, we have minds for a reason and to thwart any attempt to lead us astray, he has permitted his angels to act in this manner. Partly as a challenge to overcome, partly as a reminder that truth shall always be held in your heart and mind, and that His goodness will always prevail in the end if we each do our part.” There is a pause after I finish speaking.
The paladin was crying, “the angels said you defected to evil.”
“And your blind trust in them was misplaced, not that their mission as His agents isn’t righteous. Trust, yet verify.” Using dad’s quotes is really useful for winning arguments.
“Then the alliance with the undead lord…,” The paladin probes.
“So that Lord Picked a fight with a dragon and I went in looking for a lower level realm to stomp around in, not understanding why He was not creating tutorial realms. Now I understand a fragment of His insight, knowing that He permits you to pray for things you cannot get, or which the prayer does not help. But that wasn’t the last attempt at an alliance, that one died to a demon.”
“How would you like to receive your letters?” asks Arthur.
“After the debacle of the last letter, I’m not in the mood to receive any. I am working on something to make the letters behave but it is not ready for the amount of abuse an angel can put it through.”
“Want to join me in the chorus.” blobby squelches at Arthur’s comment.
“You can join me for the chorus if you want.” and with that all of us retire for the night.