Chapter 39: Free at Last

It took a month but the kingdom is finally starting to run itself without my personal interference or need to oversee minor things. In this last month we have had several refugees come in from the surrounding areas. This has actually helped stabilize the kingdom. After I granted them citizenship after a waiting period the stories they told of how hard it was to survive on their own really got rid of any dissension among the populace. There are still several of what I would call “entitled” people who demand that I should be doing more. However, the number is not large.

It seems like the Great Game tutorial weeded out most of what I would consider useless people. The children in the orphanages are starting to adjust. My family and friends are more accepting of the new reality and discovering and working in new areas to help out the kingdom. The Guard forces have even started recruiting. My military leadership group tells me that we should be able to expand the kingdom to help more people after about 6 more months. Each guard recruiting group needs about 3 months of training and with two classes of new guards we should have enough guards to add 2 new satellite cities to each of the Hub areas for a total of 12 new cities that could help people. The guards are training in dungeons and are also looting and delivering as much of the local areas money for conversion as possible before the winter solstice when that revenue stream will end.

The Explorer’s guild has discovered several mines that can be exploited in the kingdom. The kingdom either buys the location from the explorer or lets the person discovering the mine develop it. The Minister of Trade and Transportation intends to give those that develop the mines a tax cut for the first year to encourage development. If they discover and develop a mine on their own, then the developers retain ownership and only have to pay the tax. I hope this will develop into a solid revenue stream until we can start developing trade with either the Great Game or with other developed areas.

We have heard reports of other enclaves outside of our kingdom. However, they sound more like bandit kingdom’s where might makes right and there are no guaranteed freedoms. There were a few independent operators that tried to move in to the kingdom and establish a camp but they were either absorbed into the kingdom if they had good intentions or were dealt with severely if they were bandits. I am going to have to deal with these other “kingdoms” soon and either install a leader that is at least half way decent or just absorb them into the kingdom. My forces are practically unbeatable at the moment. Their levels are higher than the average person of Earth and are very organized. So if we need to deal with places that are going to cause problems it needs to be before they are able to build up their own forces.

However, the most important thing to happen after this month is that I have been “given permission” by the council to take a week to explore and dungeon dive. There are no looming problems and I can work on my skills and level. I have been told to my relief that dungeons will never be more than twice the level cap of a planet except for bloodline dungeons. Speaking of which, many of my guards have gone through the local bloodline dungeon and picked up some useful but lower level bloodlines to help them out. Not many try for more exotic bloodlines like I did because of the high death rate. It seems that it is rare to have a bloodline dungeon and even rarer for people to be given access to it without an exorbitant fee.

I have decided that as long as a person is employed by the kingdom there will be no fee to use dungeons, but there will be a tax on the goods they bring out. The bloodline dungeon itself will be reserved for the guards of the kingdom and those that have earned a special reward from me or the council. My own daughter is going to try for a bloodline once she hits level 25. Why does she get to try? It is good to be king, a little nepotism as long as it does no harm does not seem so bad.

I have also decided to hold off on the royalty program until at least 6 months have passed. I want people to have contributed and know that they have earned a position of responsibility. I am keeping track with the help of the Ministers people of potential that I can slot into leadership roles in the future. Enough of this, I need to get out of here and try a few dungeons that have been discovered.

My 1 week trip needs to be packed as full as I can make it to make full use of the time. Who knows when I will be able to have another break. The first day will be two level 25 dungeons to get back into the groove of things and also to help level up my baby dragons. Day two and three will be a Level 50 Goblin/Orc dungeon discovered near Atlanta, day four and five will be a level 50 dungeon discovered down in Cuba. The only thing known about that one is that it is water themed. And finally if enough time is available and I feel confident, I just received a report about a level 100 dungeon discovered down south near the Hub City of Jacksonville FL. I have not told anyone about my idea to do that one. My guards and Ministers tend to get a little nervous if I put myself in danger.

Fun and adventure here I come. I use the new city teleport system to access the satellite city of Chattanooga TN and check in with the guard force. After the pleasantries are taken care of I get directions to the local Level 25 dungeon. I chose this dungeon because it is based on everyone’s favorite monster the slime. Slimes are actually quite difficult to harm without magical damage. Luckily as a quadelementalist I have magic to spare. This is also to train and help level my lovely little dragons. They should easily be able to overwhelm slimes with their breath attacks even if the slimes are higher level.

A quick 20 minute jog later I see the entrance right where the directions said I would. Let’s be honest I am still thrilled that I can jog for 20 minutes after my body changes. Plus, my jog today is probably 2-3 times faster than an Olympic athletes pace, I love having these stats. The entrance to the dungeon looks like a natural cave and the dungeon should only have three levels in it. I wonder how fast I can clear this one. This is the first dungeon for my dragons so I should take it slow at first. If they do well we can try and clear it several times for more experience.

The explorers report stated that there are some basic traps, mostly consisting of pit falls filled with slimes, and just a variety of slimes to deal with. I pull out a nice size 8 foot spear to use and have my 4 companions prepare. I will have little Elvira the Air Dragon on my left and Sir Bruce the Fire Dragon on my right, with Esmerelda the Earth dragon and Azure the Water dragon following behind us. We will rotate this formation as we run into different types of slimes and as my little guys and gals get tired. I decided to go with the spear because it will allow me tap ahead for traps and also allow me penetration into a slimes body without risk of getting close to their dissolving acids. The spear is made of high quality steel and has been reinforced with magic runes for durability and acid resistance.

As my little party enters into the slime dungeon I use my elemental magic to create a small fireball above my head. Just enough to create a low level light. My eyesight and those of my dragons is powerful enough in low light conditions to see normally in this low light situation. I do not want a bright light that would attract more attention just in case something else has moved into the dungeon or in case something has changed. With as many strange things that have happened to me I am trying to be prepared in the best way possible.

In the low light I can see the first target. It looks like a standard green slime. From the information I got green slimes are only acidic and have no special abilities of weaknesses. They are resistant to physical damage like most slimes and are weak to the element of fire. If you do not have magic than the “approved” method of dealing with a green slime is to pierce it enough that it can no longer maintain its shape and then destroy the core or just destroy or damage the core directly. Hopefully, this should be an easy first kill.

I signal to Bruce and try to demonstrate by pantomime what I want him to do. He peers at me with a look that resembled the exasperated look my daughter used to give me during her early teenage years. The one that somehow conveys exasperation and disbelief that you are related or with this person. Bruce walks up to the slime and exhales a wonderfully pinpoint flame right at the slime. In fact, it almost looks like a stream of fire from a military flamethrower more than the fantasy cone of fire I expected.

The slime recoils and a very unpleasant smell starts to permeate the air. Wow cooked slime smells worse than burning hair, who knew? I tell Bruce to finish the job and rather than shoot it with another stream of fire Bruce jumps on the quivering slime and claws it open until he cracks a darker spot which must be the core. Once the core is cracked there is no more movement from the slime. I quickly check Bruce to make sure that the parts of the slime that did get on him when he clawed it were not going to eat through his scales. He appears to be fine. It looks like this level of slimes acid is not strong enough to eat through baby dragon scales. That is good news and provides a little more safety for my little crew of slime killers.

I rotate Bruce to the back and move Azure up to the front. Next up will be Elvira for a single slime kill. I will kill anything greater than 1 until I have rotated the whole crew a couple of times just to be safe and make sure they will not get overwhelmed. This idea works out well and in the next 15-20 minutes we have killed a total of 9 more slimes. Everyone has had at least 2 personal kills. Esmerelda is up for her turn of single slime kill time when Bruce seems to lose his patience.

There are three different slimes in front. I am about to attack two and separate them so Esmerelda can get her third individual kill when Bruce inhales deeply and breathes out what can only be described as a flame wall that bisects all three slimes. He and Esmerelda than jump at the three slimes and begin to tear them to shreds. Alright I can take a hint. Maybe I am being a little too cautious with this. I just wanted my new babies to be safe.

I make the announcements that each dragon needs to pair up with a partner to be safe and as long as they stay in sound range they can explore on their own. However, I try and make it very clear that if they run into something unusual or different they are to come back and get me first. They can still try and kill what they find, but I want to be present on new monsters both for safety and so I can learn what everything does and looks like.

For the next two hours all I did was follow the youngsters around and clean up after them. I picked up the coins and other loot that dropped and threw it in my inventory. I would distribute it to my little dragons when we got home and I arranged a better place to make into their lair. Currently they are still small enough that they have just been staying in large cushioned dog beds in my room at the castle. However, with possessions of their own and what I hope will be a large growth spurt during this trip that will no longer be a very good idea.

After my little dragons two hour rampage we were outside what was supposed to be the final cavern in this dungeon. Inside was supposed to be a giant slime as the end boss of the dungeon. Dungeons and Dragons enthusiasts would probably classify it as a Gelatinous Cube. Thinking about this for a second, I wondered how did role playing games get so many of the creatures and monsters correct. They may be called by a different name or look slightly different, but there is an amazing correlation between what has happened with the change over and D & D. I wonder if it was some subtle Great Game thing to help prepare us as a planet. Although I have rarely if ever seen the Great Game do subtle. Oh well, enough wool gathering time to end this dungeon.

I tell my dragons what to expect. I realize that they might not understand the exact words I am saying, but they seem to recognize my general thoughts and interpret my hand gestures just fine. If what I have learned about them is correct eventually they will level up enough that they will gain true sentience. Thus if I practice and teach them early then I should see better results with my little ones later. I decide that all of us should enter this last cave together and try and finish off the boss quickly. We can then decide to either leave and repeat the dungeon or to move on to the next.

As we enter the cavern I can see a very large mass of shiny orange slime against the far wall. In between my group and the giant slime are a variety of smaller slimes that my dragons have already dealt with throughout the dungeon exploration. I signal to the dragon group that they should take care of the small slimes while I watch and hold off the large one until they are ready to deal with it together. With great abandon 4 different breath weapons start to shoot out. Azure’s water jet is the most precise of the group, after which is Baron’s flamethrower strike. Now I was not really impressed with Azure’s water jet until I realized it was just like those videos I used to watch about how a strong jet of water can cut through steel. This jet of water is just like that. It rips through slimes and even leaves gouges in the rock when he is this small. I can hardly wait until he grows up to see how powerful it gets.

The ladies of the group have equally powerful breath weapons, but they are more designed as area of effect weapons and are not as precise as my boys. Esmerelda the Earth dragon releases what looks like a sandstorm. In reality after I checked it carefully it is very small but sharp crystals that shred anything it touches. I imagine when she grows up either this breath weapon will get larger crystals or the crystals themselves will get stronger and faster. Either way it should be physically devastating to anything that might be in the path of it. Elvira my little air queen actually shoots out lightning bolts. Well actually it is a mass of what looks like static electricity at this point, but I assume it will become a full fledged lightning bolt eventually. All I do know is that it stuns and partially cooks whatever is inside of its range.

As per their normal method of fighting each little dragon releases a single breath and then follows it up with physical attacks from their claws. I assume that if it was something that tasted or smelled better they would also bite, but with slimes I have not seen them bite once. As this is going on I am keeping an eye on the big slime, but for some reason it is staying put against the far wall. This is not the behavior I expected or that was reported. Something is definitely different, my weird luck seems to be kicking in. Whether it is good or bad luck I guess we will soon find out.