Chapter 94

Minion Master

Brewer’s Reputation: 470.

I floated through the atmosphere on Beyond the Cabin with heavy, heavy thoughts. For at least an hour, I mulled things over. Even when I put myself to brewing, I still felt gloomy.

Yet there was much to be done. After cloning a number of ethereal beers, one of my skills finally broke into silver rank.

[Congratulations!]

[Ethereal Dungeon Master has reached level 1001!]

[You are now able to work with Greater Dungeon Cores.]

[New skill acquired: Minion Master.]

[Greater Dungeon Cores require 1 Minion Master.]

Bringing that skill to silver rank had been a long time in coming. Hiccup was going to be thrilled about receiving a new Ethereal Dungeon beer. It would be #4, and a Greater core could only mean a harsher dungeon.

I whipped out the fourth core from my inventory, gazed into the rough sides and polished facets, and used Alchemical Control to imbue it into double crisp ale. The ingredients were all ethereal, and the implosion cast pearlescent light upon all the other master beers in my log house. The brew was a success!

…So it was a Greater Dungeon core after all.

I bottled the master beer into an acorn squash gourd, using my Gourd Blower skill, and labeled it Dungeon Beer #4: Enter to Die. I hoped that Abigail would be pleased to find I’ve put more thought into naming my beers. And if she only laughed and smiled, that would still be worth it.

As soon as I placed the lid upon the gourd, a system prompt came up.

[Enter to Die requires a Minion Master.]

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

[Enter Dungeon plane and create 1 Minion Master.]

I brought the cumbersome container to my lips and sipped. The foam was Crumble Cloud. The malt was thick and reminded me of buttered biscuit tops. The hops were creamy with a hint of orange marmalade.

I blinked and found myself floating in another plane with a shredded atmosphere. The light of the plane was almost a ghostly glow. Before me floated a massive boulder, the size of a goblin freebooter sloop.

The information I had from my level 1 Minion Master skill was that it required the Dream Cutter stone to use. So if the stone could build things made of dreams, and help create minions, what else could it do?

Dream Cutter Stone in hand, I activated Minion Master. I used nearly 90% of my mana for the low level skill and it knocked the breath out of me. My eyes closed of their own volition, and I imagined a minion in my mind. From childhood stories, I imagined a red imp with a long tail. I imagined parts of Thrush too: his eyes, and when he had returned with a turkey wattle beneath his chin one day.

When I opened my eyes, a small thing, the size of a mouse, was born from a flash of light before me. It was almost made of light, and almost made of flesh. Various hues of orange flagged in its form, like it was a mirage. One of its eyes was too big for its head and clearly influenced by my thoughts of Thrush. It had a ponytail instead of a tail on its butt. Its mouth ran from chin to ear instead of across its face. A turkey’s wattle hung from its chin.

It scrambled in midair. Then it slowly drifted toward the floating rock. When it landed upon the surface, it blew a hole in the stone. A wave of rippling air blasted past me. Suddenly the boulder was a dungeon entrance. The minion stopped at the threshold, waved its hands, and a more corporeal and much larger version of itself was born from a flash of light. The Minion Master knelt over and panted to catch its breath. After a moment, it righted itself, walked deeper into the tunnel, and another explosion boomed within. The back of the rock stretched into the distance some dozen feet.

The larger imp, once it got its bearings, snarled and lunged after me.

I quickly returned to Beyond the Cabin where my mana slowly replenished, and I cloned Enter to Die over and over until I had several hundred barrels for Hiccup. The barrels floated among the rivers of ethereal ingredients and rows of barrels of goblin spit beer…

But my time on the plane wasn’t yet over for the day. I flew through the sand and sumac leaves, over the fourrure blancs and black cohosh, and past the woven ball of moss clad oak.

The oak had grown out so much that it took me a few minutes to fly through the tangle of branches. Outside, I brought out my Dream Cutter Stone, cupped it in both hands, and closed my eyes.

I imagined a tree: the old oak that I felled a couple of years ago. I found myself wondering how it looked when it was full of leaves and out-competing its neighbors. I imagined how many acorns rained down from its boughs. I thought of apples too.

When I opened my eyes, there was a young tree in front of me. A haze of sky hung around the top of it. Its leaves were long like the handle of my axe. Acorns the size of apples hung from its branches. Colors of a pastel rainbow moved through the tree like wind through grass. To my astonishment, the dream-like tree was growing before my very eyes. In just a few moments, two new leaves had sprouted out from a new bud at its top. What’s more, the apple sized acorns were heavy! I plucked one off and turned the strange, almost transparent nut in my hands.

I just had to show Abigail, but for the moment, I couldn’t tear myself away from the strange tree.