Chapter: Egbert

The village vanished in a flash of light. They were in a dimly lit cavern, there were dim runes above them that was the cavern’s source of light, some thirty meters above them.

The floor near them was also glowing, it’s light dying down, it looked like it was the fixed location for the teleport scroll.

The ground was smooth with one section showing a dimly light line that led into the center of the cavern. Erik traced them back to three different buildings that were around a twenty meter tall Cylindrical looking device that was covered in bands of magical runes that were slowly moving around.

The entire place gave off an old feeling, like a once great power had once controlled this area but they had disappeared.

This sense made Erik eager to explore and discover more.

“Have the archers hold here, one to three section of the heavy infantry and quick reaction force will move with us to explore those buildings,” Erik ordered Blaze and Glosil.

Quickly they got themselves organized and move along the dim path toward the cylinder building and the three that surrounded it on one side.

As they moved closer the buildings came into focus, the largest looked to be a sort of manor. Rugrat said that the other looked like it was a smithy.

Rugrat went to the cylinder, Erik went to the unknown building with Blaze heading to the manor, each of them commanded a heavy infantry section while the quick reaction were tasked with looking over the smithy.

Erik had his shotgun out as he nodded at the heavy infantry soldier, they pulled open the door and Erik moved in, his shotgun up and looking around. The rest of the heavy infantry section followed in, their swords at the ready.

Erik was hit with the smells of old plants. Erik and the heavy infantry continued to push through the building, trying to discover its secrets.

“All clear,” Erik said as they went through the last room.

Erik lowered his shotgun and looked at the cauldron that was on top of a cold hearth.

“What do you think this place is? Some kind of kitchen?” Sergeant Choi asked.

“No, I think this is an alchemy workshop,” Erik said.

The rest of the heavy heavy infantry looked at one another.

“Let’s see what the others have found,” Erik said.

The people in the manor were still looking through the large building, the smithy was mostly open with only the storage area and furnace being enclosed.

Storbon walked up to Erik to give his report.

“Sir, we found some tools and ores in the smithy, we also found a large and complicated item that has magical circles on it. We don’t know if it’s a tool or not,” Storbon said, sounding confused.

“Good work,” Erik said, he was about to say more when someone jogged over from the large cylinder looking building with the rotating bands of runes.

“Rugrat said to tell you that the building is the dungeon’s core,” the man looked to be disturbed about something, taking a moment before continuing. “He uhh, well, he found something and, I’m not sure what it is really.”

Erik’s brows knit together before he walked towards the dungeon core.

“Sergeant Choi, go and help out Blaze, Storbon, patrol the area.”

They moved to carry out his orders as he walked to the door leading into the dungeon core, he went up a set of stairs that spiralled upwards, he could see into the center.

On the ground floor there was a complex magical formation, it seemed to be drawing power inwards to its center were it collected it together, forming a thin beam of blue light that shot up and into a series of floating inscribed metal bands, they went from small to big, the largest was fixed in position as the others slowly rotated in different directions.

From the main floating metal band, brighter blue mana was channeled out hitting magical circles, the power disappearing.

If I was to guess, then it looks like some kind of reactor.

As he rose to the second part of the building, there was a crystal tube that extended from the magical reactor to the ceiling. Around it there were six shimmering and flickering images.

Rugrat was studying these different circles.

“This the Dungeon core?” Erik asked, looking around the room.

“Yeah, look at this,” Rugrat reached for the circle at the top and drew it out, the other circles became smaller as Erik was looking at a representation of the floor they were on, including the villagers who were moving around. It was like the village interface but this gave realtime updates on what was happening on the floor.

Erik could see Blaze exiting the manor and talking to the sergeants, sending them to patrol the area and sending a group to pass word to the villagers.

“So, only we can make building decisions in the Dungeon and we can only make them in this room,” Rugrat said.

“How did you find that out?” Erik asked, he hadn’t received a notification.

“I told him!” A somewhat familiar voice yelled out with indignation.

A bony head appeared out of Rugrat’s storage.

“Not now, Egbert!” Rugrat yelled, smacking the skeleton on the top of the head as it disappeared back into his storage ring.

“You were saying?” Rugrat coughed as if nothing happened.

Erik pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Is there a skeleton in your storage ring?”

“Maybe,”

“Is there a talking skeleton in your storage ring?”

“Maybe.”

“Why is there a TALKING SKELETON IN YOUR STORAGE RING?”

“I wanted a souvenir?”

“I’m not a souvenir!” An angry voice came from Rugrat’s ring.

“Don’t make me come down there Egbert!”

“You named it Egbert?” Erik asked.

“Not an it! I’m a He.” ‘Egbert’s’ head appeared all skull and glowing blue flames in his eyes.

“Egbert, not the time!” Rugrat said, stuffing Egbert back into his storage ring.

Erik looked at the ceiling as if seeking strength from it.

“Let the damn talking skeleton out of the storage bag,” Erik said.

“Come on, I thought he’d be a cool party guest, you know, let people think he’s a mannequin and then he moves,” Rugrat started laughing as he imagined it.

“We’d get so many people!” Rugrat had to clear a tear out of his eye from the laughter.

“I am not a mannequin!” An indignant voice came from the storage ring.

Erik looked at Rugrat before the latter gave in.

He let out a sigh as ‘Egbert’ was revealed.

“You’re pretty skinny huh?” Erik asked.

“I’m a damn skeleton, what do you expect me to be overweight?” The Skeleton yelled back.

Rugrat made eye contact and tapped his on his storage ring, sharing a look with Erik.

“No you’re not going to stuff him back in your storage ring,” Erik reprimanded.

“But,” Rugrat started.

“Go and play with your rifle in the corner,” Erik said.

“You go and play with your rifle in the corner,” Rugrat muttered, kicking a rock that went flying into Egbert’s ribcage knocking out a rib and rattling around.

“I just fixed that one!” Egbert complained as Rugrat put his hands behind his back, whistled and walked away as he looked up at the ceiling.

“You’re the voice that gave us tasks!” Erik snapped his finger, remembering the grandiose voice that kept on messing up and even exasperated when Erik and Rugrat had rested for a few days instead of directly challenging the Beast Mountain Trial.

“Yes, that was me. Oh, I guess you both became Dungeon Masters of the Beast Mountain Dungeon.”

A screen appeared in front of Erik.

==========

‘Egbert’ the skeleton and caretaker of the Beast Mountain Dungeon swears his undying loyalty to you and to carry out your orders with the best of his abilities.

==========

Just reading this Erik could tell that this oath wasn’t like those that the other department heads had made, this basically made Egbert do everything that they said, without consequences.

If they ordered the department heads to do something they didn’t like, then it might go against their conscious and they would break their contract based on their unwillingness to carry out these tasks.

“Alright, Egbert, why are you here, what is the beast Mountain Trial really and what happened to this place?”

Rugrat stopped trying to look away and focused on Egbert as well.

“These things are directly connected. First, this Beast Mountain Dungeon was created in large part by a group of Gnomes. They were a very advanced group of gnomes and looked to creating their own world away from the burning sunlight. They created the different levels of the dungeon, my master led them, wanting to create a utopia. That was until a human entered the dungeon, he was but a child and my master took mercy on him.

He raised the boy as his own, taught him what he knew.

The gnomes accepted him as well, but their trust was misplaced.

The boy grew up and created his own plans. He broke the power formations in the dungeon, opening it up to beast mountain, letting in the powerful beasts around us. He even looked to steal the mana seed that rested in the heart of the dungeon core.

When my master, who considered himself the boy’s father, confronted him, the boy, drunk with power, used the mana seed on his body and attacked my master.

My master was close to death, but not willing to let his mistake hurt others, he killed the boy he considered his son.

The gnomes had taken too many losses, many were killed, others had escaped.

My master sealed off this level from the others and ordered me to start the Beast Mountain Trials.

He stored a piece of his soul before he passed away to assess those that might become the master of this dungeon.

The Beast Master Trial was not made for people to just kill beasts, it was made to find the new dungeon master, or masters. The ability to react to threats without thought was the trial with the snakes in the grass, to take one’s time and plan was sneaking around the second beast. To know not only how to fight but also have other skills and desires. To look out for others and have a good characters,” Egbert didn’t need to say anything more, these directly related to the trials and parts of the quest that they had gone through.

“The current state of the Beast Mountain is due in large part to that boy’s actions. Most of the Dungeon was in chaos. Multiple buildings were destroyed here. I cleared them away and even destroyed others to use their resources to fuel the dungeon core and keep it active. I kept my master’s home in honor of him, the smithy to fix the few Vzztpssht’s that were left and the alchemy workshop to create powders to assist my own body and allow me to keep living. There are six levels in total,” Egbert pushed the expanded floor they were on back into place. “We are on the neutral floor at the top, below us there is the Metal floor. This floor was made with massive metal attribute gathering formations and arrays. Rare metal seeds were added to this area as well as different metal affinity beasts, creating an entire ecosystem.

In the same style the next floor is the Earth floor, this is covered in growing pastures with a natural light that gives one the warmth of the sun, without the damaging effects that effect gnomes. Then there is the fire floor, this is a world of magma and volcanoes, below that is the wood floor, a vast forest with all kinds of natural druids, nymphs, will ‘o wisp and other woodland creatures.

The sixth floor is the water domain and one of the deepest. This floor has a radius of one kilometer and is thirty meters tall. The lower domains or levels have the diameter of ten kilometers and are three hundred meters tall, except for the water domain that is three kilometers from surface to its depths.

When the boy opened the teleportation arrays and allowed other creatures into the different domains, they turned from a peaceful eco-system into a warzone, there are many unbonded creatures that are no longer connected to this dungeon that roam around wildly.

Their actions have inflicted massive damage on the different formations and arrays, I have been unable to repair or care for them as I neither have the knowledge or the ability as my combat functions were locked by my previous master as he wanted me to focus on finding a new dungeon master. There are massive mana gathering relays that connect the different floors, these were meant to draw power in, to grow the mana seed that is downstairs. The power flow is just not enough to do so. The relays have been broken off and disconnected and there isn’t much ambient mana in this domain. I have needed to supply it with mana stones. I have enough to run the dungeon for another five centuries, well I did until some people decided to bring nearly two hundred people and their crap with them,” Egbert grumbled.

“How much power do we have left?” Erik asked.

“Enough for five months on standby,” Egbert said.

“If we wanted to teleport everyone out of here, with our power usage, how much power would it take?

“About thirty mana stones, After four months there would not be enough power left to teleport everyone out.”

“Is there a way to repair the relays and increase the amount of power we gain?” Rugrat asked.

“Look at the brains on this one right? Like I’m only made of bones and I can figure that one out” Egbert’s blue flame orbs rolled in his eyes.

“No need to be a dick about it,” Rugrat complained.

Egbert looked at his femurs, while raising his hands.

“Low blow dude,” Egbert said.

Just what I needed, another friggin comedian. Erik somehow felt that the old dungeon master was laughing at his pitiful expression.