Isabell Jordan
Isabell entered town, finding the Guards on high alert, with double at the gate. She walks up to one of the Guards and speaks, still in her armor, “I need to speak with the Captain immediately.” She begins taking off her helmet, as the Guard was about to ask who she was. On seeing her face, he runs off, maybe a little startled that the Priestess was wearing full platemail armor. She looks at the three other guards, who begin to face forward again, watching the direction of the Slavers, whom she doubts are still in that camp in the distance. Isabell takes a few steps past, and turns around, watching quietly as well. Soon she hears armored footsteps approaching quickly.
Turning, she sees the Guard and the Captain. She approaches the Captain, meeting him halfway, as he asks, “What’s going on. What happened out there.” Isabell simply smiles, “Well, firstly, I am no longer the only Hero within Humanity, excluding my Teacher. Secondly, Fort Pontifex has been usurped by a new Dungeon, Grandia. It already has two Denizens, both Human. Along with that, the Slavers are on the move, and attacked Codex. This caused a desperate action by Luné and Codex, bringing forth something from the Pantheon. Luckily, it seems to not want anything except to smith. Thirdly, Luné and Codex wish to demolish the Slavers now, before they become a problem for Lake of Codex and Grandia, the other two Dungeons within their small confederation.” The Captain takes this in, and starts to think. After a few seconds, he speaks, calm and collected, “We do not have the manpower to assist. Not at the moment at least. Slavers have been spotted on all sides. The west and east gate guards have been doubled, and the civilians are scared. Perhaps if we could rally them we would have a better chance, but-” A Guard was running over from the east, “Captain!” The Captain turns immediately, hand on the hilt of his sword, “What!? Are those Slavers attacking!?” The guard shakes his head, “No sir. Royal Knights have arrived at the east gate. The Prince sent aid.” The Captain nods, “Tell them to go to the Barracks. I will brief them there.” Isabell speaks, “I will go with you. They will need to know about the forces of the Dungeons.” Captain Sullivan looks at her, then nods, as he begins walking.
Almost twenty minutes later, Captain Sullivan and Isabell are standing in the meeting room of the Guard Barracks, watching as four Royal Knights begin entering the room. She is surprised to see the Elite Knight Alicia, and speaks, “Elite Knight Alicia? I did not expect you to come.” Alicia looks at Isabell, seemingly scanning her with her eyes, she then speaks to the Priestess, “I did not expect you to be wearing armor, Hero.” She then looks at Captain Sullivan, “But what matters now is the situation. Captain, if you would.” He nods to her, then begins explaining the situation. Isabell stands quietly, until he is done, at which point she hears Alicia speak, “That is all I need to hear then. We will remove the Slavers, and then those Dungeons.” Isabell speaks before anything can be set in stone, “Before that, the Dungeons are not hostile. In fact, they have Confederated but seem to defer to Codex. Along with that, Codex follows the will of Luné Alpenglow, the formerly missing Hero. No one can tell the outside world about her whereabouts. Her former party attempted to kill her, and we must ensure she and those dungeons have enough time to prepare. If we do that, we can change the tide of the world, and bring Humanity off of its knees, and break its shackles.” Alicia squints at her, then speaks after a small pause, her tone deadly and cold, “Dungeons are dungeons. I expected you of all people to know that. We cannot trust them, even with a Hero at their helm.”
Isabell frowns heavily, “Then do not expect me to aid you and yours. I will not let my fellow Hero be endangered again. She was already dragged away to be executed once.” Isabell’s convictions are to hold strong. That is her will, as she would be no Priestess if she did not hold fast to her convictions, even with just simple willpower. Alicia’s face drew a snarl, and though silent, Isabell could tell Alicia wanted to yell at her. To explain the simple fact she already knew; a Dungeon is dangerous, and cannot be suffered to exist. As, while one exists, the world could be plunged into a hell of such a degree that has been unseen since the time of the Dungeon Lord, when all races banded together for the first and last time. Isabell speaks, “I am willing to vouch for Luné. So much so that I am even willing to go against the King himself, if necessary.” Alicia sighs, and punches the table. She then turns and says, “Fine. Tell me what forces to expect on our side.” She is looking at the door, ready to leave. Isabell smiles, and begins explaining the creatures on Luné’s side.
???
“Boss! Boss!” The Boss looks at the pitiful slaver coming towards him, and he waits for the panicked worthless Beastkin to speak, “Boss! The force that was sent out to find the Dungeon was wiped out! Some creepy monste-” He grabs the Beastkin by the throat, and lifts, then snaps the man’s neck. The nearby Beastkin whimper in fear, and the Boss speaks, “You worthless fucks! Gather all of your gear, chain up the slaves, and put them in their cages! We’re destroying that worthless fucking town in three hours, then we are leaving! Let the Humans deal with the fallout of a powerful Dungeon!” The Beastkin start running off, and the Boss sees something he did not expect to see. A bear at the edge of his camp, turning and walking away. He picks up an axe, and throws it as hard as he can.
The axe soars, and flips around a few times, before slamming into the bear with a yellow “90”. The bear hits the ground, then starts getting up quickly, already starting to run as the second axe slams into it with a black “30”. The Boss approaches the Bear, and pulls out the axes. Flicking blood off, he says, “Damn Dungeon. Try scouting me again.”
Luné Alpenglow
As Luné finishes with preparing her defenses, she sees a menu she has yet to see:
Expedition Failed
Bear x1
Deathblow by: Hero Beastkin Murderer Level 102
Luné shivers at that. Only Sebastia can properly fight this person. It makes it even worse that this person is a Hero. If this starts going wrong, there is no stopping the Hero from destroying the Town and Dungeons. She begins thinking of a way to counter someone so high level. Sebastia enters the Dungeon again, followed by a group of Animated Armors on Horses. The Grandian Banner flies from a pole in one Armor’s hand. She smiles, knowing that they might be able to do something, even more so as she sees a set of Armor she recognizes, with a crossbow on her back. Her fears dissipate, knowing it should be fine with a Swordmaster and Archer Lady who knows how to fight with swords. She returns her attention to defense, now that offense is clearly settled.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Cloud is sitting quietly in the Wolves’ room, waiting for her Wolves to finish upgrading. The Siblings are helping move logs and planks. Hammerer is moving far faster than when he was a sprite, and is getting supplies to the building site in a flash. Imai and Zeuz are helping to the best of their abilities, Imai by hammering nails into place, and Zeuz by giving inspirational slogans and quotes, almost all having to do with profit. Luné looks into the Voidic Oracle’s Room again, starting to check what she can get from it. She finds a new menu, with plenty of different kinds of creatures. One that looks like a Boar, but is ink black with holes through it, is named a “Charger”. There is a monstrous Mantaray called a “Reaper”. There is also the nearly humanoid “Siegebeast”, with its three red eyes, and crawling. Each requires a specific amount of Mana and Void Sprites. The Charger is only 100 Mana with 10 Sprites, the Reaper is 200 Mana with 5 Sprites, and the Siegebeast is 400 Mana with 25 Sprites. She decides against taking any, but looks back at the top, seeing the line that reads, “Voidic Intelligence Level: 4”. She doesn’t know what that means, but she doesn’t really like it. It feels worrying. She decides to level her current Monsters first, and see what she has remaining.
She manages to maximize the levels of all of her Monsters. She smiles, having a powerful force is beneficial. She glances over at Sebastia and Irae, who are planning by themselves. She then decides to look over at herself. She sees herself laying still on the floor, she then looks at the bronze armor that was prepared for her. She and Codex split. She begins to sit up, and then stand. It was time to put on her armor. It would not be comfortable, but having everything ready and prepared is better than nothing. After getting her armor on, she heads up, and out. Looking at the wall that was getting built. She stands silently, until she hears Sebastia and Irae approaching. She looks over, and hears Irae speak, “You already sent out scouts, correct?” Luné nods, then sees Irae smirk, “Alright then.” She cracks her neck, and puts her helmet back on, before continuing to speak, “I’ll go to the town to get in contact with the Priestess.” Luné is a tad confused by this, and Sebastia speaks, “With your permission, we would like to assault the Slavers right away, not wait for them.” Luné begins to think on it, but is interrupted by Irae speaking, “If the town is free to assist that is. If not, we will change our tactics.” Luné nods, not really knowing anything about large strategies for combat. Irae begins walking away, going to her horse. Sebastia steps beside Luné and stands quietly. They were almost ready it seems.
Isabell Jordan
As the meeting comes to a close with the last of their possible strategies, a Guard enters, “I apologize for interrupting, Captain and Royal Knights, but there is someone at the west gate. She came out of the woods on a horse. We don’t know how she managed to not run into a tree at the speed she was going.” Alicia looks at the Guard, and the Captain nods to him. The Guard turns, and leaves. Isabell speaks, “I will go see what is going on.” The Captain nods at her, then looks at the Royal Knights, “We only have those possible strategies. Can you think of any more?” Isabell exits, and closes the door behind herself, then she begins jogging to the west gate.
As she arrives, she sees a Knight on a horse, a tapestry with a roaring lion on a silver and blue background, hangs from the saddle. She approaches, and sees the Knight look at her. She speaks, “What can we do for you?” The Knight speaks, taking off her helmet, “Grandia requests permission to attend any strategy meetings. We stand ready to engage at any moment from our staging point.” Isabell realizes that this is no Animated Armor, it is Irae, with surprise in her voice, she says, “Oh, Mrs. Irae. A pleasure. Please, enter and follow me. The stables are to the right, you may leave the horse.” Irae dismounts, and says, “It will not wander.” It begins walking towards the town, and then turns while under the gate, watching silently. Irae then speaks, “It has standing orders to defend the area it is left in.” The Guards are clearly confused and baffled, while Isabell is just concerned She turns and begins leading Irae to the meeting.
Once there, she opens the door, and speaks to the Royal Knights and Captain, “Presenting Queen Irae Rein of Grandia.” Irae frowns at her, and speaks while entering the room, “I’m not the Queen. I’m just married to her. You won’t ever see Marie leading a force. Just me.” She steps to side of the table, and looks at the two other parties. Isabell enters as she closes the door, hearing Alicia speak clearly pissed off, “Queen? You dare insult the Kingdom?” Irae looks at her, and says, “Sit down, little Knight. From what my pupil told me, your people are not warriors. You should be more reverent to your superiors.” Alicia slams her fists on the table, “You-” She is cut off by the Captain, “Quiet!” He looks at Irae as Alicia stands startled that a Captain would dare yell at a Royal Knight, “I thank you for reaching out, Queen of Grandia.” Irae frowns at him, “Again, not a Queen. If you have to go by titles, Grand Duchess works. If you do not want to recognize my claims, then Irae or the ‘Silent Hero’ works. Use one of those three, or I leave and withdraw my forces.” The Captain is startled by her seriousness, and nods, “I apologize, Grand Duchess.” Irae then speaks, calm and collected, “Okay, what is the situation here? We are poised to begin moving, and await your decision. If you decide to not attack today, we will remain in Codex, fortifying. If you decide to attack, I will begin moving my force.”
Luné Alpenglow
As the Monsters prepare to fight, Luné returns to look at Codex’s Mana again. She enters the Core Room, and merges with Codex. She then looks at the Mana, and decides to take the chance. She opens the Voidic Oracle’s Room, and selects the Reaper, having regained up to past 200 Mana again. She begins her wait, and looks at the Wolves Spawner. The first Wolf steps out, and she can already tell the difference. The Wolf looks stronger, faster, and eager to taste blood. She checks its stats.
Monster Menu
Eurasian/Siberian Wolf Level 15
Dodge: 1
Health: 60/60
Strength: 12
Dexterity: 6
Constitution: 6
Spirit: 1
Current Orders: None
Currently Feeling: Eager
Speak to set new orders.
She sees it approach Cloud, who stands and begins inspecting the Wolf. The Wolf looks eager and ready to fight, seeming a little proud as Cloud looks it over. Cloud, once done, sits, and the Wolf begins running around. It seems Cloud has passed the new Wolves on whatever test she just conducted. Luné smiles, and gets back to working on more things around the Dungeon.
After about half an hour, she feels thundering hooves on her soil. She looks to find Irae speeding to the Animated Armor. She yells out, “Form up!” She pulls the reins and her horse rears, then turns around. The Animated Armors and Horses move to a formation behind Irae. Then they were off, as an armored set of feet ran onto the dungeon. She sees the Priestess running to the house. Quickly leaving Codex, Luné runs upstairs and out, to meet with the Priestess, “What’s going on?” The Priestess stops, nearly out of breath, “The town is under attack.” Luné feels Codex summon all available forces, and she speaks, “We’ll go right now.”