Zarian walked to the center of the Ride-or-Die Fort, where a market place had once existed for the local humans before the kobolds attacked. Now all the broken vendor stalls were gone.
The soldiers had carried away the dead remains and debris while acolytes helped with mopping up, so it was a more sanitary and neat place, just about perfect for placing down a dungeon core.
Para formed a scoop to dig up a deep enough hole before Zarian placed the core down. Then Para pushed the loose dirt and stone fragments over the core and covered it.
Looking up, Zarian saw nightfall had arrived.
Stony the giant was still busy digging up ditches further out around the fort. Hannah was zooming, working nonstop, as she built fortified walls based on plans she’d drafted and shared with Zarian. Watching her go was like watching a game of Minecraft from an outsider’s perspective.
Turning around, Zarian heard Naomi shouting for the soldiers and acolytes to set up lights. She called out to Loner and the skeletons to stay extra vigilant in case of dangerous beasts coming in to scavenge from the dead or the living.
The remains of the villagers weren’t much good for any uncontrolled necromancy, so it was safe for the soldiers to bury them deep into the ground further south.
As soldiers and acolytes put up torches to push away the encroaching dark under a cloudy night, Zarian felt a rumble under his boots. He backed away a few steps as stone and dirt sank down into a slope before forming a staircase.
The staircase widened and sank further into the earth before reaching a smooth stone floor. Reality shifted. A burst of aura blew out from the dungeon entrance. Two fluted columns formed, flanking the main doorway, before everything became still.
A few nearby soldiers and acolytes stopped what they were doing to gawk at the magical event. None of them had seen a dungeon before. None of them knew dungeons could move around and get planted wherever.
The soldiers and acolytes were further shocked when a public notification appeared in gold for Zarian and everyone else to see.
Without having to ask, the Star System listed what each option meant. Zarian appreciated the disclosure, since there were many spots in the Star System that went unexplained.
“Three. Two. One,” Zarian counted down before hearing another soft ‘ding’ inside his head. He couldn’t help but smile as the soldiers and acolytes gossiped and speculated behind him.
Zarian dumped all of his points into Mysticism. He was going to need every bit of Mysticism he could get for what he had planned, so this achievement was close to the most perfect thing as of now.
“I choose option three, please,” Zarian said.
There was a slight tremor that passed under everyone’s feet. Zarian noticed the local reality shift a little more. The surrounding aura near Zarian and possibly around the entire fort became denser, much denser. That would certainly increase aura recovery for everyone.
Another public notification appeared over everyone’s heads.
“A dungeon that’s made a part of a fort?” a soldier questioned from behind Zarian. “Can we truly rely on monsters from a dungeon? What if these so-called resources are traps?”
“Can we even rely on ourselves?” an acolyte asked. “I’m only a Level 12 Logistics Manager Assistant. I’m barely much of a fighter. I’m barely keeping up.”
“Lord Zarian says he’ll ensure all of us will survive from this and grow stronger,” another acolyte said. “We just have to put our faith into him, for he is chosen by Lovewar.”
“I’ll do all I can. But I think it’s foolish to think all of us will survive this. The Floridians will, but the rest of us better make peace with our gods,” a different soldier grumbled.
Zarian chuckled as he slowly turned toward the peanut gallery. He addressed the last soldier who had spoken.
“Are you calling me a liar?”
They all hushed up and stood straight like Naomi had taught when an authority figure addressed them. Then one soldier found his voice, even if it was a shaky and squeaky one.
“We aren’t as strong as you, milord!” the soldier squawked.
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe you’ll never be as strong as me. But that’s okay. I’m strong enough for all of us.” Zarian cackled. His Parasite Cloak fanned out into different horrifying forms that struck fear into everybody nearby. “We will have a grand siege, and nobody will die. And when you become old and gray with grandkids, you’ll tell them the story of Lord Zarian Darkrun and his impossible, Ride-or-Die promise.”
Silence had befallen the square. Zarian watched them. And the children watched him in return. He saw the quiver in their eyes, and that told him everything he needed to know.
They still doubted him.
He could tell.
But that didn’t matter much as he turned away and stepped down into the staircase. He entered the dungeon’s mouth, and he felt a deeper shift in reality through his aura, like stepping through heavy curtains on a stage to transition from one place to somewhere else far different.
He found lavish and fluffy carpeting under his boots. He looked up and saw soft illumination glowing from bluish-white sconces set high on the fluted columns. He saw a reception desk in front of rows and rows of giant bookcases holding an endless amount of books.
Spider-like creatures lurked and crawled around the bookcases, mostly out of direct vision, though they weren’t his primary interest. Zarian looked away from the empty reception desk and turned to a dining area that reminded Zarian of a proper cafe.
Then he heard a hiss followed by one of the most amazing smells Zarian could enjoy in life. He walked over to the cafe counter as a woman with six arms worked with a runic device that used ground-up beans and hot water to brew something dark and delicious.
The woman turned around and smiled with pretty lips before they parted and revealed a set of spider-like fangs. She held out a mug of the dark brew over the counter, and Zarian grasped it with both hands before taking a small sip.
Yup, this was the stuff.
“How?” Zarian asked.
Reiki waved her hands toward the library-like dungeon and its spider monster occupants. It didn’t take long for Zarian to figure out what her gesturing was saying.
The library had a book on coffee. The dungeon could replicate that as a common or uncommon item.
Before Zarian could say anything more, he noticed monstrous spiders drawing near with items in their hands.
They held crates filled with waterskins, all of them filled to capacity. They even held food items that were fresh to eat, such as meats, cheeses, and even fruits. They held a variety of supplies, ranging from blankets to quivers filled with uncommon arrows, all of which were usable for the guild.
The spiders were bigger than when Zarian had last seen them, now the size of minivans with long reaching legs. They also had insectoid arms extending from their fronts, right under their faces filled with pale eyes and monstrous spider mouths.
They held out the offered items for him to see, and with a nod, Zarian gave them his approval. The spiders went out to deliver the much needed resources to the fort.
“I should go explain what’s going on before the kiddos have a heart attack,” Zarian said.
Reiki graced him with a nod and close-mouthed smile.
He took his mug of coffee, turned to leave, stopped, and came back. “Can you make four more mugs of these? Please and thank you.”
Reiki turned away and went back to brewing.
Zarian shook his head, chuckling. He couldn’t believe that the Hemlock Family had the knowledge and capabilities of replicating coffee, and they didn’t take advantage of it.
Oh well, what was their loss was Zarian’s gain.
He would have to find the time to introduce the splendors of coffee to this world, sooner or later. Maybe he would start with a test group, such as the soldiers and acolytes.
“Maybe coffee’s a bit too strong as a start. How about hot chocolate?” Zarian asked, as he climbed out of the dungeon entrance to the sound of screaming and shouting.
He made it up the stairs. Para used her tentacles to slap aside a few arrows shot at the helpful dungeon spiders.
“Cease fire! Cease fire! These helpful spiders are bringing you some supplies. Look and see!” Zarian pointed at the storage crates.
These weren’t enough to feed over three hundred mouths, but Zarian imagined there would be plenty more coming out, so their food and water supply wouldn’t be a major problem.
“Milord, you are never without surprises, are you?” a familiar acolyte asked. She wasn’t visible to the eye until she ended her Invisibility skill.
“Well, Amabel, I wouldn’t be able to deliver upon you miracle after miracle if I weren’t filled with surprises,” Zarian explained. “Now don’t do my spider friends a disservice and just stand around. Have the logistic acolytes come over and deal with these. It’ll be good for their levels.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Yes, milord!”
As Amabel and some other acolytes ran off, Zarian turned to see the spider monsters shimmying and jiggering about. They hesitated when they noticed his gaze, but then they went back to dancing for a few seconds longer. When they were about to stop, over fifty spectral spiders appeared.
“Uh oh,” Zarian said.
“What’s the matter, milord?” a soldier asked. “Have the dungeon spiders disrespected the spectral ones in any way?”
“Disrespected? Not really. But they’re two gangs meeting for the first time. There’s only one way this could end.”
The spectral spiders broke out into impressive dance routines. While they were small, they were numerous, coordinated, and capable of pulling off agile tricks. Of course, the prowess of the much smaller dancers did not put off the dungeon spiders.
The much bigger spiders showed off moves of their own that nobody, not even Zarian, had seen. While the spectral spiders were talented, the dungeon spiders must’ve had secret books and manuals detailing impressive dance moves.
The spectral spiders didn’t back off and worked fiercely to compete against the dungeon spiders. Eventually, when the entire fort went into a standstill except for Hannah, all because everybody was coming over to watch the spider dance off, Zarian had to break it up so they could all get back to work.
Why do I feel like the dance war between the dungeon spiders and the spectral spiders is only beginning?
Zarian shook his head, amused, before he turned to a wide-eyed soldier and told him to make sure everyone knew not to attack the dungeon or her monsters.
After that, Zarian went off to tell his fellow Floridians about the dungeon-made cafe and the coffee it could brew. That lifted their spirits, Gilbert’s especially. The main wall and fortifications were looking good as Hannah worked expediently. Stony kept digging massive ditches around the Ride-or-Die Fort.
Naomi was taking time to herself to get into the zone and prepare for the incoming war. Zarian watched her move and stretch and meditate, and she didn’t seem to mind his presence one bit.
Then Zarian ended up on top of a completed section of the wall that was facing north. He finished the remaining coffee in his mug as a chilly autumn breeze blew past and made his Parasite Cloak flutter a little.
The clouds were still a heavy presence above his head, and more importantly, he could smell the oncoming rain. There would be lots and lots of rain, from what he could tell.
“I wonder what’s the end goal of this event,” Zarian said. “What are you trying to make happen, System? This is the stuff of legends and myths. Heroes are made from events like these.”
There was no response.
“I just want you to know I appreciate the opportunity, but I’m not entirely dumb. I can be overpowered and dumb sometimes, but I have my moments of being careful and shrewd, too.”
The System didn’t respond.
Chuckling, he said, “You know I can go out there and completely wipe out the competition. But that’s not what I want to do. So, I find it suspicious that you’ll give me something I want exactly in a context that’s bigger and more epic than it should’ve been.”
Zarian shook his head. “Here I am, rambling nonsense. Acting all paranoid. Or maybe I’m not paranoid. Because either you want me to leave it all behind and grow too fast for anyone to catch up. Or you’re going to make Bianca have her big hero moment and lose herself to the good alignment.”
After a moment longer of silence, he shrugged. “That’s not how things are going to play out. You should know by now that I won’t make the same mistakes. I won’t let another Wally die. I won’t let another Jack happen. I will have my cake and eat it, too, and nothing will stop me. I’ll have it all.”
***
The morning came, and so did the rain. Zarian was enjoying his third mug of coffee with a bit of alcohol mixed in while he sat on the north-facing wall and read from the Grimoire of Black Magic 102. He had nothing else to read since he’d maxed out the spells in the Grimoire of the Dread Mire Hell Gator and the Grimoire of the Mad Voidling Exile.
All that remained was the unwieldy, mind-boggling, and arbitrary study material that made up the gravity spell, which remained hard even with the help of his Tranquil Mind, Adrenaline Jolt, and Lore Eater traits.
Well, at least he was halfway through. He only had another fifty percent before he could call upon a spell that was most likely divine.
Zarian shut his grimoire, the spectral chains rattling between the covers and his soul. He rose from his throne as all of his grimoires hovered, orbited, or rattled along with his movements.
He looked up at the slow and heavy rainfall and smiled at the change of weather. The lack of sunlight deepened the depths of the shadows and darkened the darkest corners of the Ride-or-Die Fort.
Next to him, Roland shivered as he gripped a bow and arrow in his hands. He was already using a skill that entwined the arrow with grasping vines, having it prepared for the eventual conflict to come.
Zarian turned to watch him for a time, and slowly Roland turned to meet Zarian’s void-like eyes and the deep shroud covering his face under his wide-brimmed wizard hat.
“I never imagined this would be my life when I first drew my sword against you,” Roland admitted. “I came from a family that was just below nobility, scrambling to rise above the rabble, and I was already a bastard son with something to prove. But I was nothing more than a pawn, a fool, and here I am, being more of the same before I must face my doom at the hands of dragon-worshiping monstrosities.”
Zarian would’ve rolled his eyes at the melodrama if he had a little less respect for Roland. Despite everything, the man had stuck through with all of Zarian’s plans after saving the remaining young soldiers from being sacrificed to gnolls.
He couldn’t blame Roland for being scared. After all, Zarian had explained in detail what they were facing when the wolf kobolds and wolf dragons launched their attack.
Thousands and thousands of kobolds.
“It’s going to be alright,” Zarian said. “You’ll grow old and gray one day.”
Roland snorted. “If you say so, milord.”
“Believe in me, and I’ll find a way for us all.” Zarian turned north as the rain kept pounding down. “If not me, believe in the fact that we have a giant.”
Roland looked past the Madness Wizard and set his eyes on the massive giant who now had a mini-house away from home. Stony was the gatekeeper, and the gate had nothing in its way but Stony himself. Anything that wanted to get past Stony only had to run down a walled-in lane that was two hundred feet long and fifty feet wide.
The walls themselves, which were impressively tough because of cube physics, stood seventy-five feet tall and circled around the entire fort. There were even cubic towers Hannah had built to look over the walls from each of the four corners while soldiers and acolytes set up on the ramparts, most of them staging in the direction facing north.
At some point last night, Zarian had to feed Hannah extra aura to keep her going. She’d needed so much aura that the natural aura boost from the supportive dungeon wasn’t enough.
The cost was well worth the benefits, since Hannah was now Level 57, and her Cube Maker Magic skill had advanced to Cube Maker Magic +1, which reduced the cost of the skill by a drastic amount. Hannah was both a legendary Runic Engineer and a living fortress maker, which was becoming a big deal, honestly.
“I’m tired, Lord Zarian,” Stony said from his gate house. He even had a roof to keep him out of the rain, unlike everyone else. “Can I take a nap for a little while?”
“Yeah, sure, you’re not needed for now,” Zarian said.
Roland and the nearest soldiers and acolytes gawked at the Madness Wizard. None of them said a thing because there wasn’t any point in reasoning with a man they all deemed to be impossible to predict.
Instead, they listened to the rumbling snores of the Level 105 Wall Crusher Master, whose voice resounded for miles. If the kobolds hadn’t known they were here already, they would know for sure.
“Did you know we can become masters when we hit Level 100, depending on if you’re good enough?” Zarian asked Roland.
“Is that why Stony’s class has the ‘master’ included?”
“Yup. At the Level 100s is the master rank. At the Level 200s is the Champion rank. At the Level 300s is the Paragon Rank. At the Level 400s is the Heroes and Villains rank. And at the Level 500s and beyond is the god rank. From there, it’s a competition to either take the throne of the Adventurer King or become one of the fourteen major gods.”
Roland nodded along. “This is all information from Lovewar?”
“Lady Hannah told me a bunch about it. Corma is mainly for anything below Level 100 with a few who are a little above Level 100. The next world above after ascension is for Level 100 to 300. The next world after that is Level 300 and above. Can you believe that after we ascend twice, I’ll get to punch a god in the face directly?”
“Milord, that’s blasphemous!” Roland shook his head. “At this point, I’m sure the gods will know of you and have plans to obliterate you directly the moment you arrive.”
“Yeah, I’m sure they’ll have plans. But I’m going to eat some hearty meals and go on some fun quests. And I won’t be alone. So the gods can plan all they want, but I’ll be on my way up there when I’m good and ready. Hell, even if I hit Level 100, I might not ascend just yet. There’s a tournament in Carrowmore, and I’m not missing it.”
The more Zarian talked, the more Roland shook his head. The young twenty-year-old local man was a simple guy who had wanted nothing more than to rise up the ranks of nobility and have a harem of women to fawn over him.
Now Roland was here, suffering the mad ramblings of Zarian Darkrun, standing wet in the rain with hundreds of other young men and women, as they waited for the dark forces of wolf kobolds and their idolized wolf dragons to make an appearance and attempt to massacre them all. This was Roland’s current destiny.
For a moment, Roland looked like he might’ve preferred dying on the day the gnolls had attacked his unprepared company of sacrificial young men.
It was too late now. Zarian had saved their lives, and now they were a part of his latest game, which was preparing to start as Zarian, Roland, and everyone else watched the endless tide of kobolds appear on the northern horizon.
“Oh, my good gods, there are so many,” Roland said.
“We’re dead, we’re absolutely dead,” another soldier said.
“I think I’m going to cry,” an acolyte said.
“It’s too late now. I’ve committed. If I die, I’ll be secured under Lovewar’s grace,” a different acolyte said.
Zarian shook his head and looked back as dungeon spiders crawled up the walls with crates filled with fresh food, waterskins, and hot chocolate. The soldiers and acolytes have grown accustomed to the dungeon spiders quickly since they kept providing fresh and delicious food, with water always on hand.
The hot chocolate was a new sugary drink that none of the children had tasted before, so Zarian held his silence as he watched Roland and the others take a sip and perk up instantly.
“My goodness! What is this delicious delicacy?” Roland asked.
“That is hot chocolate, a lost knowledge that only the Dancing Librarian Dungeon knows, which is owned by me as the master.” Zarian leaned close against Roland, the Parasite Cloak wrapping around comfortably. “Do a good job, and you and all the boys and girls will get more hot chocolate, with maybe a little something extra that us Floridians enjoy drinking.”
“Yes, well, I do certainly feel a bit more invigorated now.” Roland pulled away and shouted aloud to the others. “Come now, my fellow lords and ladies! We are the bastard sons and daughters of our kingdom, and here we are, ready to make a stand and raise ourselves up to live a better tomorrow!”
“For the Floridians who’ve saved our lives!” cheered one soldier.
“For Lovewar, who has chosen the Floridians!” cheered an acolyte.
“For hot chocolate! My new love and pick! I’ll stay Ride-or-Die for that!” cheered another acolyte, and many of the soldiers and acolytes agreed with her.
“Cheers!” they all shouted.
“Screw the hot chocolate! When do I get my enchanted fishing rod and an actual day off?!” Gilbert roared from further down the wall. His steed neighed loudly along with him.
There was a pause. Then the soldiers and acolytes cheered again, just because.
The young men and women enjoyed their hot chocolate. They listened to the loud rumbling snores of their fellow giant and gatekeeper.
Then, half an hour later, they saw carrion birds flapping through the rain. They heard the screeches, roars, and caws from a menagerie of scaly creatures of the evil alignment.
They watched a dark tide sweep closer across the land north of them like an unstoppable wave that moved and shifted and broke at random spurts as parts of the loose enemy formation rushed ahead of the others.
Stretching from horizon to horizon, thousands of kobolds attacked with claws, chipped swords, warped spears with rusty spread heads, shields riddled with holes, and any other odd thing they had in hand. They looked like rabid dogs fused with carnivorous reptiles, their humanoid bodies falling a little short of five feet for the smallest of them, but the way they moved with primal confidence made their short height seem like a negligible factor.
The good mood of the soldiers and acolytes dropped away like they’d fallen into an endless abyss. Zarian laughed, of course, because he couldn’t help but find it a little funny.
The soldiers and acolytes were scared of a bunch of Level 15 kobolds, some over, some under, but a majority of them around Level 15.
Granted, there were thousands of those Level 15s.
The acolytes were a few levels above Level 10. The soldiers were mainly around Level 20, or maybe a few levels above that.
They could easily get mobbed, beaten down, and overwhelmed by tens or hundreds of kobolds. So facing off against five thousand kobolds around Level 15 for the first round seemed preposterous.
Zarian hopped into the air with the Strength of his physicality alone. He landed over two hundred feet away from where he jumped and settled on the rooftop of Stony’s gatehouse.
Arms folded across his chest, Zarian waited as his Parasite Cloak stretched out and grew to its largest size, becoming a massive and monstrous flag that snipped, snarled, slashed, clawed, and chomped at the air behind him.
The rain kept pounding.
And the earth rumbled with ten thousand feet, all rushing at them like a dark tsunami wave.
“Bianca, do your thing,” Zarian ordered.
The Light Princess shot into the sky like fireworks. She entered a hover three hundred feet in the air. Then she let free her anger with a searing flash aimed down at the charging kobold army, catching them unaware.
The hardest part was directing all of that light through the rainfall. But Bianca was just angry enough to make a solid first impression, especially with her good +3 power.
The timing was perfect. The searing flash blinded many of the kobolds. They didn’t see the simple but deadly trap waiting for them.
Hundreds of kobolds fell to their doom as they ran straight into the ditches Stony had dug up yesterday. At the bottom of the ditches, wooden spikes and arcane webbing waited, all of which the spectral spiders had set up overnight.
The Wolf Dragon Siege of North Crown Peak, a Mythical Regional Event that could decide the fate of an entire kingdom, began.