“A little more to the left, please,” I asked of the most wonderful and attentive mountain of muscle and restrained violence before me. Delightfully, the big, scaly lizard that is my Inamorato complied without complaint as he shuffled things around for me for the umpteenth time. “”Perfect! Now, smash it so it falls over there to block the courtyard!”
My Inamorato is far too large to be playing around in a castle sized for normal humans. As such, this one is far more grand in scope and scale, almost as if some unknown race of ambitious and wealthy giants had commissioned this fortification at the edge of nowhere. However, we both know the truth well enough, even if it would be unwise to ever say it out loud.
“And how exactly does this destruction contribute?”
Erethel Starweaver stood next to me from our safe perch upon our observation platform. She had apparently been invited along by Ribette, who was also on the platform and enjoying a plate of grubs with Hopper. While the Giant Frogs munched down and were disgustingly sweet with one another, Erethel was actually engaged in the story I was trying to tell here.
“Mechancially, it forces any Adventurers to have to loop through the barracks before they can enter the courtyard proper. The second floor is where Eternal Guard Caption Saxithrax can be found, and he should be the first major encounter.” I pointed to my trusty hand drawn map that I had drawn with my own trusty hand, all of which had different colors for everything and childish doodles for where different things would be.
“Surely some will have the aptitude to climb over the debris of the tower that should be scattered about any second now.”
With a thunderous crack that announced a catastrophic failure in structural integrity, the tower on the edge of the courtyard fell precisely where I wanted it to land, such that it did indeed block entry to the courtyard from the main gate. With a wave of Erethel’s hand, the dust settled almost instantly, which allowed me to appreciate the view before answering.
“True, but that is where invisible walls of force come into play. We don’t want anyone to cheat.” I intoned as I wagged my raised right index finger while otherwise maintaining my fist.
“How utterly villainous!" Erethel shrieked with faux alarm. “We are all victims of invisible walls that should not exist,” she continued as her eyes unfocused and she gazed emotionlessly at something miles away.
“I must admit, I have not been in many dungeons, so I will have to take your word for it.”
“They are everywhere,” she continued hysterically as she grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me. “They lurk around every corner, waiting to stop you as you try to jump over a low fence or when you try to open a rickety and locked door that could easily be bashed down.”
I could tell that she was mostly joking, although she did a good job in maintaining her composure. Perhaps it was not so difficult of an undertaking to act with such an aversion to invisible walls.
“But,” she continued more seriously as she twirled me around and pointed towards the base of the tower. “How will they get up onto the ramparts over there now that the tower is destroyed?”
“For that, there will be a statue placed nearby that needs to topple in just the right way such that future Adventurers can climb up it to the ramparts. We didn’t put it in yet because it might accidentally get knocked over by a bumbling dragon.”
“Kaisadoro isn’t here to defend himself. It is rather rude and childish to remind everyone of the time he knocked over the statue of Duke Revio III with his tail.”
Erethel had used a stern voice, but the hint of a smile on her face betrayed her true intentions.
“The dwarves really did outdo themselves with the funeral service for the statue, and they even sent Kaisadoro an invoice for it.”
“Oh, I hadn’t heard about that part of it. How did that unfold?”
While those two gossiped away like women at the river on laundry day, I attended to my duties within the Shadow Path. I have been captivated by its beauty, mystery, and perils ever since I first stepped onto it. It is so very delightful that it seems to be vitalized wherever Master goes, as if his very presence nourishes this often unseen realm.
Well, actually, he probably does.
Master’s actions have a lot of weight upon the world and are noted by the World Heart. As I am now Diamond, I am no lightweight, either. When I was Platinum, I could influence the Shadow Path, help direct it here and there. Now, I demand it to heed my bidding, and it obeys.
Even though this mockery of a fortification with a storied history is being built and demolished in turn, the presence and mystique of it still permeates through this place. From my conversations with my riccen associates who are knowledgeable about the Shadow Path, their ancient [Shadow Seers] used this knowledge of what would happen in a location to help predict that same event, as changes in a place within the Shadow Path often precipitate the events in the real world that make the place noteworthy.
And since we are working to build a pseudo-dungeon as a trap and prison for some upstart fae, all so Adventurers will routinely challenge it for fame, fortune, and the thrill of the blade’s edge, this place is growing by the second.
Fortuitous, then, that I am here to shape it to my whim as the aspects of it coalesce. Only yesterday had this location been just another grassy hill like all the others in this area of the hinterlands. Master had the practical experience, the power and means provided by a whole host of Abilities, and the raw reserves of mana needed to terraform and construct as he pleases. He even built a quaint cobblestone road that connects it to a main road some few miles away.
Naturally, he left one of his shrines just outside the castle so that other trusted individuals could teleport here without him needing to hold their hand. Everyone was immensely appreciative of that little development, but it meant little to me, considering we never go anywhere without the other being nearby. Gulthar had all but glued us together at the hip, but I have become so accustomed to Master’s constant presence both in person and at the edge of my mind that I would be loath to return to my life before I met him.
Were it not for him, I would not be here now, twisting this particular hallway within the Shadow Path, such that down is now to the right when viewed by the side that Adventurers should enter. The right wall of the throne room will be their new floor, and they will navigate to the pit that would normally be a hallway for the kitchens. It-Has-Pockets wants me to create a lever down there that will further twist the kitchen to be upside down, which is a requirement for Adventurers to progress.
I only vaguely followed her story and vision for this place, as I will need to see it in action to truly appreciate the story and atmosphere. Bonpricha would be handling how regular Adventurers should enter and leave the Shadow Path at the correct times. Technically, anyone can enter the Shadow Path at any time, but doing so is typically a strange accident and highly dangerous. It is for those good reasons that such knowledge is kept hidden from most. Well, it is uncommon that people actually die here, but the unlucky do come back drained of all ambition and potential.
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It has been a while since any of the faux or veritable monsters known for such predations have risked showing their faces to me, but I do need to wrangle a few of the weaker ones over here so that the Adventurers have a proper challenge. They are just needed for an initial seeding of the place, as, after a few Adventurers die or experience severe trauma and tragedy here, the Shadow Path will be repopulated with more “thematic” apparitions and boogeymen.
It would be morally questionable to bring a small child into the Shadow Path to lure the monsters in, seeing as how beings of untapped potential are the favorite snacks of those that dwell here. As such, I may need to capture them elsewhere and reintroduce them into the wild that is this place.
“With the return of the [Shadow Wolves] to their supernatural environment, nature is festering.”
Master gave a gruff chuckle at my joke that I broadcasted to him through our telepathic bond. All of his companions share such a bond with him, but they have yet to be consistently capable of transmitting more than emotions and rough ideas through it, or so he says. Certainly, anything that gets transmitted through him to me looks and feels like it has been drained of its color, but I get enough to know when I need to go sort something out for them.
As a [Dragon Knight], it is my duty to attend to my Master’s needs and to help protect his interests. As a [Divine Champion] of Gulthar, it is my duty to help test the courage of mortals. This pseudo-dungeon fulfills both commitments rather nicely, for a fae trapped here is one that isn’t running about causing mayhem. Or inflicting, as we have come to call them, "aggravated wounds”. Before my most recent transformation, I had little concern to defend against weapons that inhibited forms of supernatural regeneration. The fae seem to have made them standard issue, and I spent some time contemplating payback while I nursed my wounds from our first few encounters.
We may not be capturing Iron-Crowned Prince of the Penultimate Favor, but maybe some day. A girl can dream.
“Skull, dear, when you get a chance, please come assist me in the nexus. I require your presence.”
Bonpricha asks, and I adhere to her desires. Master and I both know how generous Bonpricha can be in displaying her gratitude for her slot as a Princess within the flight, and I dare say that I do greatly appreciate her company. It is the height of fortune for one’s work to align with one’s desires, and so I finish up here before making my way towards her.
“What do we have going on in here?” asked my lovely assistant of pale skin and black everything else.
“Skull, my favorite new half-dragon,” I greeted warmly and honestly from where I stood at the central crystal. “I am prepping this room to serve as the anchor to keep this place running.”
Skull looked all around at the various crystals and the metal lattices holding and connecting them to the walls. While she surely had her own Abilities by now to see all around her at the same time, seeing things with one’s own eyes is a difficult habit to break.
“Okay, sure. Can you give me a breakdown of what all this does?”
Her genuine curiosity provides me with ample opportunity to showcase my knowledge and the application of my craft. Truly, she has learned how to flatter dragons.
“As you are aware, the Emperor provides the flight with his Focuses. The most important one in this room is [Enchanting], with these ordinary and proprietarily modified S.M.A.R.T. crystals serving as not only the batteries and accumulators of the mana needed to run this place, but they also maintain the mechanisms that enforce it.
“I brought over my own Focuses when I became a Princess, and so my progeny will have access to those as well. Namely, they will be able to utilize [Illusions], [Planar], and [Spirit], assuming they can budget getting everything. These enchanted crystals are great, as they create a solid foundation for ‘how’ things happen. I am working on ‘what’ should happen. Think of it as if the enchantments are the lines in a coloring book, and I am going through to color everything in and add extra details.”
“Okay,” Skull answered uncertainly as she moved closer to look at the primary crystal. “How do I fit into all of that?”
“It-Has-Pockets has been constructing the story behind this place. You have been reinforcing that within the Shadow Path. I am building the bubble of reality that will house this structure and allow it to reset in such a way that those fae bound here will feel as if it were reality itself. A demiplane, if you will. However, I need your work on the Shadow Path to anchor itself to some of these crystals so that these enchantments and my illusions have a way to interface with it. Additionally, it will strongly bind your influence upon the Shadow Path to this place, such that it will not drift overly much due to the influence of Adventurers in this place.”
“I think I am picking up what you are putting down,” Skull replied as she idly picked up a few spare crystals to examine. “But how do I do my part?”
“That’s the neat part. One interesting aspect of [Spirit] is that it can allow two individuals to connect and share some intuition. I cannot provide you with step-by-step instructions, but I can lend you the instincts you need to intuit how to progress. And since you and I already have a decently strong bond with one another, it will be easy to establish that connection.”
“I don’t know,” Skull answered with no small degree of exaggerated doubt, at least as far as my experience with such subtle expressions is concerned. “We don’t want to risk something going wrong. Perhaps we should ‘strengthen’ our bond before we continue.”
The suggestiveness of her use of the word “strengthen” did not escape my notice. However, decorum dictates that I respond a certain way.
“We are here in service of our Emperor to conduct serious work to help safeguard our world. Do you honestly think that now is the time for us to indulge in gratuitous and thorough experience in passion and pleasure to enhance what bond exists between us in the off-chance that it is not strong enough already?”
I did my best to level my sternest gaze at her, but she remained completely unfazed. Stupid fearless woman and her stupid and unfair inability to experience fear. It is so unfair.
“Yes I do,” she declared with utmost confidence as she looked me straight in the eye.
Whatever, I can still deliver my line either way, even if some of the fun has been taken out of it and I need to modify it a little bit.
“Well then, you are right on the money on that one,” I responded with a joyful and positive disposition. “Perhaps I should share some secret techniques I have learned. Sharing secrets always helps bonds to grow.”
“Then we should share many of them, just to be certain.”
As Skull moved closer, we both folded our respective wings around one another to pull one another in. I would soon find out if her improved form as a half-dragon had the increased stamina to keep pace with my own.
Sanagba Imuru, He-Who-Saw-The-Abyss, in his almost-abyss that he had made for himself within The Void, gazed upon the newest creation of the little Emperor that he had been forced to oversee. He found himself intrigued by witnessing the process of a dungeon being created. In many worlds, it had always seemed that the grand wizards of old had made them, and all of that seemed to be handwaved as true and easily acceptable. Up until now, he had given little thought into exactly how one went about making one.
Creating a self-sustaining little world that can reset and repopulate both loot and the denizens within it is no small feat, for creating something from nothing is a most ambitious undertaking. Typically, it would take divine energy to do so in such a way that any creations would not fade away over time, so clearly dungeons must have a way around that restriction unless some god is willing to be a patron. All universes operate under different rules, so maybe this one has a loophole that could offer insight to that particular problem.
With keen interest, Sanagba Imuru, He-Who-Saw-The-Abyss, continued to observe every last detail. His own attempts at creating pockets of reality under his control had been met with mixed results, his own divine realm being excluded. Perhaps this nascent demigod would prove to be more than a chore after all.
He had thought that there would be some final battle between the mortals and the fae. This approach of separating and imprisoning them would be a labor of love and an unusual take, one that he found himself intrigued by.
And after the audiences he had granted to a handful of powerful fae lords as of late, he found himself rooting more and more for his charge to succeed in his ambition. Some small part of his attention was dedicated to researching how the fae even came into being, if only to help find a key to rid the universe of these pests once and for all.
