Chapter 8

As Kiera was walking back to her inn, Dorn's voice appeared in her head, “Do not act any differently. You're being followed.”

Kiera, with a supreme act of will, managed to keep walking calmly towards the inn. If it was before her journey to Khal City, and the killing of six groups of bandits, she would not have been able to keep her calm. As it was, though, she didn't know what to do. What do I do, Dorn? she thought in her head. It was funny how quickly she had come to rely on the dungeon that she had barely trusted two weeks ago. But time and bandits had brought her to rely on Dorn more and more.

“Head towards the slums, then turn into an alley and hide behind some bins. When he comes, jump him and restrain him, but do not kill him. You want information.”

Do you know why he's following me?

“Could be any number of reasons. He could be a casual criminal after your beauty. It could be he discovered that you reported a dungeon or that you had a black gold dagger. Most likely, however, is that someone in the government building talked, and a criminal or criminal group found out about a lone woman spending large amounts of money.”

When Kiera finally reached the slums, she did as Dorn suggested and ducked into an alley. She hid behind some bins and waited for footsteps. Dorn's voice appeared in her head again, “He's flanking you; turn around.”

Turning around, Kiera got ready to pounce. As soon as the man came around the corner she leaped out and punched him in the head. As he fell towards the ground, his leg suddenly lashed out and struck her in the stomach. Next thing she knew, she was on the ground, and her hands were pinned above her.

The man's breath reeked. “Hello, little girl. My, quite a beauty you are. It would be a shame for me to kill you. But kill you I must, as my employer has demanded. But first, he wants to know why you purchased such a large parcel of land and why you then headed to the adventurer's guild. So nice of you to come to the slums, where guards won't care what noises are being made. And I assure you, I will make you talk. So why don't you make things easy and spill?”

Kiera frantically thought in her head, Dorn, what do I do?

Dorn responded, “See? This is why I told you not to purchase the land I'm on. It could only end badly.”

Kiera thought, Dorn, not FUCKING now!

Dorn calmly responded, “Don't worry, you were being followed by more than one person. Looks like the Guild Master of the adventurer's guild was worried about you. You should be able to disable your assailant while he's busy fighting with your savior. From what he said, he's definitely a professional assassin, so don't bother keeping him alive, he won't talk no matter what you do to him.”

“Well little girl, what's the reason?”

Kiera responded back, “Fine. I'll talk. The reason I purchased the land is because you're a fucking asshole.”

Just as the man was about to respond, he spun around like a serpent and blocked a dagger attack from the man who came to save her.

“Well, well, what do we have here? A hero come to rescue the damsel in distress?” The man than gave a sinister laugh that made Kiera's skin crawl.

The savior said nothing, and then they both started swinging their daggers at each other. As they were engrossed in their knife fight, Kiera quickly drew out one of her black gold daggers. In one smooth motion, she stood up and quickly jammed her dagger between her assailant's C2 and C3 vertebrae, slicing through the spinal cord and causing instant full body paralysis. As he fell to the ground, the jaw of the man who had come to save her dropped. The savior just looked at her, before saying, “Well, it looks like this has been taken care of. You should be more careful in the future.”

Kiera responded, “Thanks, and thanks for saving me.”

The man turned and looked at the paralyzed assassin on the ground and back at her, before saying, “I'm sure you would have gotten free on your own. Anyways, you should kill him quickly, as with his high chi cultivation, he'll heal in about an hour. Good luck.” He turned around and left.

Kiera looked down at the paralyzed assassin and flipped him on his back. “Hello little man. My, quite an ugly fuck your are. It would be a shame for me not to kill you, so kill you I must. But first, I would like to know who your employer is.”

The assassin just laughed and spit in her face. Dorn's voice appeared again, “Trust me, you do not yet have the stomach for torture, and even if you did, it wouldn't work on him. He's been trained since birth for it. Look at the tattoo in between his index and middle fingers. He's part of the Khal Ravens, the best assassination organization in Khal, and probably within all of East Lucenia. It's also the most powerful organization in Khal. Anyways, kill him, now.”

Kiera wiped the spittle off her face and grinned. Then she drove her dagger through his eyeball and into his brain. Blood and ocular fluid leaked out while he convulsed under her. She wiped the dagger on his clothes before checking his pockets. She found ten high steel daggers secreted about his person, all exquisitely made. He was also wearing two rings, one a black band with glyphs carved into it, and the other ring gold with a black rock set into it. The black rock was now split in two.

Dorn's voice appeared in her head once again, “Get rid of the black rock ring, it will have informed his organization that he is dead, and it will have a tracking function on it. Keep the black band ring, it will cover up your chi cultivation, a very useful tool.

Kiera did as Dorn said and quickly left the slums. When she returned to the inn, she plopped down on her bed and looked up at the ceiling. The assassin marked the 30th man she had killed in the last two weeks. She still had the occasional nightmares, but the killing was getting easier as she went on. And that felt terrible.

***

Bright and early the next morning, Kiera was up and in front of the adventurer's guild with Saturn. There, she met a group of people, including two she recognized. The first was the guild master, Warley. She bowed and said, “Guild Master.”

The second person she recognized from yesterday as her “savior.” When she looked at him, he grinned and said, “Howdy miss, I'm Jeromy Wither.”

She responded, “Hello, nice to properly meet you. I'm Kiera Stanton, thank you for yesterday.”

“Oh, just doing as guild master Warley said to do. Said an inexperienced girl he cared for deeply was out of her depth and needed some saving.”

Warley's face reddened before cuffing Jerome upside the head. He turned towards Kiera and said, “I said nothing of the sort.” Kiera just laughed.

Warley continued, “This is the B-ranked group, the Scarlet War-Mages, that will be traveling with you to confirm the location of the dungeon. If the dungeon is actually there, they will hand over the reward. They will then proceed to conquer the dungeon, before leaving to return here and report their findings. As there are only two other dungeons in Khal, there will be high popularity for a new dungeon. Assuming all is well, the adventurer's guild will quickly send a group of people to build a town outside the dungeon's entrance. And seeing as you saw fit to purchase all the land surrounding the dungeon before reporting it, I'm sure the guild will work out a favorable deal with you to lease the land,” he finished with a mock glare.

Kiera looked back, completely without shame, only saying, “Like you wouldn't have done the same thing?”

Warley said, “I probably would have, were I not the Guild Master. Alright, you guys should get going. Daylight's burning.”

***

Kiera had to admit, traveling with a B-ranked party certainly made life easier. She no longer had to worry about getting attacked by bandits while she was sleeping. In fact, they didn't get targeted by any bandits during the entire trip.

It was the last night before they would reach the dungeon. The group was sitting around their camp fire, slowly eating dinner. The leader of the Scarlet War-Mages was a quiet man who only gave his name as Roderick. At this point, Roderick uncharacteristically spoke. “What's the dungeon like, Kiera?” he asked.

She thought for a minute and responded, “Its unique.”

Jeromy barked a laugh and said, “That's descriptive. Anything you can add?”

She looked back and said, “Nothing that you would believe.”

“Like?”

“It's alive. The dungeon is alive.”

Jeromy shrugged and said, “All dungeons are living organisms; we've known that for hundreds of years.”

“Yeah, but this one is sentient. It's put up signs with writing on it. As for the rest, I'll just let you discover on your own.”

Roderick asked, “What do the signs say? Are you sure it wasn't someone else who set up the signs?”

Kiera responded, “Yeah, I'm sure. The dungeon named itself 'A Dragon's Dungeon.' Take from that what you will.”

The entire group of Scarlet War-Mages went silent at that, each lost in thought while sitting around the fire. A frown appeared on Roderick's face before quickly disappearing. Kiera felt herself being drawn into the fire, again. It always stimulated her thoughts. Hey Dorn, you sure you'll be safe when these guys get there?

Dorn responded, “Yeah, they're just here for analyzing the dungeon. They'll be a bit surprised, but I doubt they would try to destroy or capture me without the orders of the adventurer's guild. And even if they did have designs on me, it would take a lot more than low B-ranked chi cultivators to get through my shields.”

This reassured Kiera a bit. Then she asked something that had been bothering her for a while. Hey Dorn, what's with the space shields over the arch marked “The Colosseum” and in the forest?

Dorn responded, “Ah, glad you asked. Maybe you'll like my idea more than my annoying pixie. The Colosseum is closed off because I haven't built it yet. In the future, it will be a giant stage for battle, either between sentients and monsters or between just sentients. It will have a massive number of seats for participants to watch. Entrance fees will be paid out to winning fighters.”

Kiera thought back, that sounds pretty interesting. When are you building it?

Dorn responded, “As soon as I build the C-level housing floor. It will then move downwards, so that it's always in the highest-ranked housing floor. Eventually, it will reach its final resting location in S city.”

Kiera thought, amazing, that should be a good source of revenue.

Dorn said, “Eh, money has no meaning for me, so I'll just pay out to the victors what I take in in entry fees. And before you ask, no, I will not cut you in on the money.”

Kiera, annoyed at his opposition to her money-making schemes, instead just thought back, then what about those space barriers in the forest?

“Ah, I've divided the entire housing floor into four quadrants. Any human that teleports in from the entrance will go to one quadrant, while dwarves, elves, and beast-kin will all go to their own respective quadrants. I've placed three gateways in each quadrant, to connect them. But the individual races will be free to open the gateways for trade or shut them in the face of aggression.”

But what if a race goes to war within their own quadrant? Like if Ilsanians and Khals were living there and their parent countries go to war?

“Then all the better. Every death that occurs in my dungeon makes me stronger. And just because I've put no danger into the housing levels, doesn't mean that there is no danger. There will be fights and assassinations and wars. It'll be glorious.”

Maybe for you, but it'll suck for me. Plus, I'm assuming you're only giving me land in the human quadrant, which cuts my profits down by four.

“Your obsession with money will one day be the end of you.”

One can never have too much money. Just because you don't use gold, silver, and copper coins doesn't mean you don't use money. I've heard you mention something about earning DP's. I don't know what they are, but it certainly sounds like you're desperate for money as well.

Dorn just grumbled. He hated when lesser life forms won arguments against him.

***

The group stared up at the massive statues in awe. Jeromy gave a nervous laughter and asked, “Are you sure this is a dungeon and not a dragon's lair?”

Kiera flippantly responded, “Yeah, I already saw the dragon's dead body in there.”

Roderick immediately spoke up, “There's a dragon's body just sitting there in the dungeon?” He seemed like he was ready to rush into the dungeon to acquire the treasure. He was already picturing armors made of dragon scales, clubs made of its bones, and bows made with its tendons. The entire team's eyes were glowing, and the greed was palpable.

At this, Kiera panicked a little, and asked Dorn for some help, Dorn, what do I say now?

Dorn sighed and said, “Why can't you try thinking before you speak out truths that will be hard to explain. Are you going to tell them next that you have a beast core in your skull? Just tell them that you saw the dungeon absorb the dragon's body as if I was showing you that the dragon was dead.”

Kiera gave a fake sigh, before saying, “As soon as I saw its body, the dungeon absorbed it. It was almost as if it was trying to tell me that the dragon was dead, and the mountain was now owned by the dungeon.”

The Scarlet War-Mages looked genuinely upset at the loss of such a potential treasure. Roderick's face showed an unusual amount of anger, before he spoke up, saying, “Pack it in, guys. We're here for a mission and we're about to complete it. Now Kiera, before we hand over your reward, can you tell us the layout of the floor?”

Kiera responded, “Floor, as in singular?”

Roderick look surprised, “Do you mean it already has a second floor? Before anyone besides you has conquered it?”

Kiera said, “When I was there, there was four levels. But there were no monsters or traps. In fact, there was no danger at all. It was like the dungeon wanted to give me a tour.”

Roderick asked back, “So it was just empty floors?”

Kiera said, “Not exactly. The dungeon had built this entrance hall with some steles explaining its existence. The first floor down from the hall was, according to the dungeon's writings, a full floor safe zone, designed for people to build structures and live in.”

Roderick interrupted, “Who would ever willingly live inside a dungeon? Even if you could get past the fact that you'd be living in a dangerous life form that wants to kill you, you would have to live in the dark most of the day, with only stone surrounding you on all sides.”

Kiera responded, “I think you should just check out the dungeon, it'll surprise you.”

Roderick grumbled and handed over the 50 gold pieces. Kiera gave a big smile and said, “Thank you” before throwing the gold into her bag of holding. This action was not lost on the members of the Scarlet War-Mages, who looked at her with a little envy in their eyes. Roderick didn't bother with his greedy party members and simply led them towards the entrance hall. When they saw the beautiful, glowing relief carvings, they stopped for a moment just to admire the artistry. Jeromy's head was tilted completely upwards, just staring at the stars. The five member stopped and noticed the first stele that gave the dungeon its name. “Continue,” ordered Roderick.

When the group got to the second stele, which labeled the levels, Jerome spoke up and said, “Well this is helpful.”

Mina, one of the two pure fire mages of the War-Mages piped up, “Or incredibly devious. It could be trying to get us to lower our guard and make it easier to ambush us.”

Roderick said, “Mina's right. Be at full attention the entire time we are inside this dungeon, even if parts appear safe.”

When the party arrived before the third stele, a grim silence settled over the group. Roderick turned to Kiera and asked, “Kiera, why did you not mention this before? This needs to be reported to the Churches.”

At this, the group seemed to disagree with their dour leader. “This dungeon is only the third dungeon in all of Khal. If we want to survive the upcoming war with Ilsan, we'll need our soldiers to get as strong as possible, and the only way to do that is to have them train in actual combat. Besides, it says it will only have devils starting with the A levels, which the dungeon is clearly not.”

Roderick barked back, “How many times am I going to have to mention the fact that these signs can't be trusted, as they have been put up by the dungeon. The very fact that this dungeon is sentient is ample proof that this is an infernal dungeon. When we get back, I'll be making a report to the Churches.”

The team seemed angered, but as he was their leader, they had to let it go. Kiera followed the team onto the glyph and into the dungeon proper.

***

“Still think it's a good idea to have demons and devils? Or to announce it before you even have them? You could have kept it all a secret until you created your A levels before announcing it then,” scolded Emelia.

“I'm not scared of the churches. I'm aware that they destroy many dungeons, but I'm too safe to be scared. Elemental magic is and always will be superior to priestly magic. I'm even more confident in this now, knowing that it was the gods that set up the System. They won't be endowing their followers with the power to destroy their very own creations.”

Emelia replied, “You are right in one aspect, the gods are very loathe to interfere in the lower planes, one way or another. I still think announcing to the world your anti-Church intentions is not wise.”

“How am I anti-Church? If anything, I'm aligned with the churches. My goal is to destroy the devil and demon planes, and that should be the same goal that the Churches have. Doesn't anyone read the part of the stele that mentions how I'm a practice ground for people to hone their skills in hunting and killing demons?”

Emelia said, “People have been taught time and time again to associate devils and demons with evil. By the very fact that they exist in your dungeon, it proves you are evil. There is usually very little extra thought that goes into situations concerning demons.”

Dorn could only shake his non-existent head in dismay. He still wasn't going to change his mind. He would not cater his dungeon towards the wishes of the humans. His dungeon was for all races, after all. He had to remind himself that just because he had spent millenia disguised as a human, at the end of the day, he was not one of them. Speaking of other races, Jerry's mission to the elves should be bearing fruit relatively soon. Now he just needed to make overtures to the beast-kin and the dwarves. He wondered how they would respond to being invited to a dungeon, a structure usually monopolized by humans, with the occasional elf being allowed to tag along. Ecstatic is probably an understatement. And boy are the humans going to be pissed.