https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B0BLG7PVM8

Hello! The sequel book, called "The Rising World Company", is now available on Amazon! You can find it at the link above.

Meanwhile, I'm still posting the draft to RR. That'll eventually be taken down for the sake of the Kindle Unlimited system but it's up for now, for the sake of the readers who made the first book a success!

You can also find "The Purpose Of Wings" both on Amazon and in complete form on RR. That's a side-story about character Selen; you don't need to have read it to understand the sequel.

I can post the first few sections of the final version here, this week. Here goes. Thanks for reading!

1. Shadowland

Vonn stood at the entrance to an unholy cavern with his tail bristling, his hands on an air rifle of his own design. Beside him a Kobold woman named Kura checked her knife collection. This evening's expedition was going to be short if at all possible. Followed by an enthusiastic jog past the airplane wreckage, through the magical alarm wards, and back to friendly territory.

Kura went first into the hillside tunnel. Her violet scales and black clothes and belts helped her be stealthy in the dark. She made no comment on how the entryway had changed from a simple mining passage with a holy symbol carved there, to a place of death. It wasn't just that they recognized the shapes of bones from at least three intelligent races, but that they were artfully arranged in some arcane pattern that gave off a scent of decay and a low thrumming like a heartbeat.

Vonn followed her, wishing he still had enchanted night-vision goggles. The good news was that they needed only one little crystal as evidence of a crime. Making arrests wasn't Vonn's job. Then again, neither was this scouting. He'd piloted his experimental airplane here with the intention of dropping Kura off to play ninja, and flying away again.

The lizard-girl peeked around a corner and drew back, whispering. "Two skeletons. How noisy is that 'wind gun'?"

"It's not," he said. His nose caught the scent of dried blood.

Vonn crept forward. His knowledge of this dungeon was from its early days, outdated. The Y-shaped intersection ahead had enough space for two shambling skeletons of the Aves race, lightweight and thin. He aimed and pulled the trigger. His gun loosed a burst of compressed air from a crystal-based gadget, in a faint whoosh that drove a lead ball into one target's shoulder.

The bone-beast rattled and staggered, alerting the other. Vonn couldn't sense the numbers for the exact damage he'd done. But the mystical System that governed reality here said his shots did 10 to 16 points of harm, versus 55 for his own total Health. The two monsters lurched toward him. Vonn backed off and pulled the lever that readied another bullet.

Kura took out a club for blunt work. When the first skeleton rounded the corner she crouched, leaned back on her muscled tail, and kicked. Her target crashed into the wall and its fellow beast. Bones clattered. Vonn found an opening and fired. Kura whipped her club around to shatter one bony leg. She used her compact mass to knock her foes down and keep them vulnerable. Seconds later the hall was silent again.

Vonn said, "Let me tap your weapon first, next time. Forgot to use my magic."

Kura nodded, and handed him an intact femur. "Improvised club."

Vonn felt queasy. "I don't know if this was dungeon-created, or --"

She grabbed an expendable throwing bone for herself. "We're professionals. Put your personal feelings aside; the righteous anger team is waiting for us to get back."

The pond ahead smelled of blood instead of water, now. This area's ruling Baron had defiled the place. Dungeons fed on the blood, sweat and probably tears of explorers trying to plunder them, in a symbiotic relationship. But this one's keeper had gone out of his way to glut its appetite. Vonn pulled a small cluster of glowing crystals up from his belt lanyard and shined it ahead, down each of the two unexplored passages. "I fought tiny bird-like things here, last year."

"You said so, yeah. I'm prepared."

They skirted the pond and watched for traps. Down one passage they found only another skeleton, easily dispatched, and a few empty rooms in nonsensical, jagged shapes. One of these held a handful of copper coins that Vonn grabbed, possibly to throw them. The other path ended in a trio of wooden altars with identical old stains. Copies of something that the people shaping the dungeon had left in here, like props. Teaching it what to be.

About where Vonn remembered a trapdoor, he found a grating. Dungeons needed an air passage between their entrance and their core. But he and Kura couldn't find any way to pry this metal plate open. He said, "Is there a second path?"

They searched in the dark. An oak door had been set behind a curtain matching the red-brown walls. Vonn backed off in fright at first, since a hanging tapestry had attacked him once, but this one didn't react to being jabbed. Vonn pulled the curtain down and wished for a magical inventory. He looked to Kura to check the door.

She examined the wood and then took out a forked tool he'd never seen before, to wave it slowly over the handle. She hand-signaled, "Not really locked. Ready?"

Vonn touched the club the Kobold held, and willed a mote of magic into it. His clawed fingers chilled as the iron-shod wood glowed with white frost, ready to smite something for an extra 3-5 damage. He did the same to his gun and the metal grew cold.

Kura opened the creaky door. A staircase led into the depths of what had been an iron mine. There'd been only two floors to this place last year but Vonn expected more had grown.

Descending was tedious. Vonn joined her in examining the stairs for traps but found none. Not a theme of the place, apparently. Instead, they spotted an abomination of mismatched bones patrolling a hall and scuttling out of sight.

"My show," Kura signed. She hurled one of her many knives to strike a wall, making noise, then used the distraction to creep ahead. She left Vonn hiding near the stairs, frozen as the bone monster crept by again on its many legs. The spell charge on his gun faded and he waited until the beast was gone before restoring it. He'd spent Mana to heal what he could from his plane crash injuries, too.

[Health: 38/55, Mana: 30/45, Stamina: 45/55]

The information glowed in the corners of his vision when he called for it by reflex, like remembering a song. He glanced nervously back up the crudely cut stairs, then peeked into the second-floor hall again. Just then, Kura appeared from an unexpected angle and beckoned him on. He crept closer. She gestured for silence, then mimed a scuttling shape. The tapping of bony feet came closer, then paused. Vonn's pelt of red fur prickled. Finally the creature's steps receded and Kura led him on again.

They came to a room where another skeleton lay broken. Kura whispered, "No luck at finding magicite yet."

"No prisoners, either?"

Kura shook her head. "Wait for the monster to pass again, and then I'll look for more stairs." She pulled out a glass vial of inky liquid.

Vonn kept watch, silently praying for the captive who was probably here. Rescue would need to wait. His ears flicked backwards and he heard a slurping noise.