Windere celebrated the coronation of their new King, one with an expiry date two centuries ahead. They also laid praise upon Lorna's feet, for steering the country so deftly in the past hundred years. The dwarf thane was promoted to Marquis and granted a march between the eleon forest and the Dragonfall Valley. Windere was expanding toward the savage frontier.
During the celebrations, I tried to approach the dwarves. Thane Alfondric Ashshield looked young and I knew there was a story regarding the exodus of his entire clan. We were at the palace courtyard, several food islands, and tables for all the Windre nobility. Magical lights dotted the air around us. King Eric Windere was busy with the longest et-and-greet line I've ever seen. Lorna got tired an hour ago and withdrew to her chambers, to "take care of Cedric" as the cover story went. Nenandil was with her so I wasn't worried.
As I approached the dwarven group, Ashshield smiled and waved.
"Ah, Your Highness!" Alfondric said. "Please, co and join us."
I slithered next to him, subtly adjusting the amount of tail propping up to put my eyes at the sa level as his. The third of my tail next to the tip was lifted and tied in a knot, to avoid anyone committing the faux pas of stepping on it.
"Marquis Ashshield! How are you doing?" He looked still uncomfortable with the title. "I an, Thane. You have to excuse . I'm are not used to the titles."
"No offense taken, Princess Lakerta," the dwarf smiled. "If you allow one question, you're from Pekothas, aren't you?"
"Yes. My people claid a small section on the other side of the volcano in Tijen's Cove. Unfortunately, humans raided us and killed most lamia there. I was the only one to survive."
"Argh! Damned Bundeus and his cronies!" Alfondric cursed. "That's also why we had to get out of the mountain! The damned humans on the north side were raiding our ancestral mines. When I tried to convince the council to defend our land, they decided to retreat deeper into the bowels of the mountain and leave the depleted tunnels and veins to the humans."
"That's terrible. I wish I could do sothing to help. But why that made you leave the mountain?"
"The bastards tasked my clan with the defense of the upper tunnels and sealed the passage down. We were left stranded and pinned between a landslide and the humans. I had to surrender and negotiate safe-conduct to leave the tunnels. And now that I've failed my duty, my clan cannot go back."
The situation seed to be more complex than what he was letting on but the gist of it was true. I wasn't entirely honest with him either, so I let it slip. He was conflicted. On one hand, he was betrayed by his own people. On the other hand, he surrendered to let his people live instead of fighting an impossible battle to the last dwarf standing.
"Here in Windere, your clan will have a fresh start," I told him. "And you should never be ashad of choosing life. It's too precious."
"I know that, Princess. I know that. And that's why we need to go train in the Dragonfall Valley. Get the young'uns so levels, expertise. Get them blooded."
"I'm sure King Locksley will help you with that."
In Windere, a retired King or Queen retained their titles. Should everything else go wrong with the current line of succession they could take back their position.
"We shall see. We're departing in a week."
Soone called for Ashshield's attention and he excused himself.
The dwarven warriors prepared to go with the Queen to Dragonfall Valley. I delved to make made myself scarce, then traveled out of the Dungeon tunnels through the stone and rushed to Dragonfall Valley ahead of them. Since King Locksley was supposed to be there farming monsters, I needed to prepare the terrain.
The entourage would take five days to reach the valley because there was no direct route. During the century since my duel with Bundeus, the walls of Windere grew and enclosed the whole country. It was just a mild deterrent for invaders but it was an obstacle. Since Dragonfall began to be a problem a decade after my death, the walls between Windere and that place - the valley was technically our territory - were extra thick and tall.
They needed to take the Iceking Road - guess why it has that na - that connected Windere's Eleon territories to Lonid. Halfway through the forest, there was a side road that led to the gate that protected Windere against the monsters that mutated with the Black Dragon King's blood. Getting a position at the gates was an honor. Not only you could kill and harvest the monsters from a safe and defended spot, but the Kingdom also paid those guards very well. They doubled up as a backup garrison for the Iceking Road and the eleon lands, responding to bandit activity whenever a report reached them.
After this raid, I wanted to enchant the walls. All three hundred plus kiloters of walls. Windere deserved it.
I was flying so I ignored the andering road and went straight for the crater. When I entered the area near the site of my fight with the Black Dragon King, I felt strange. It was thick with spiritual and Death energy. Spiritual motes floated freely in the air, fragnts of souls that gathered energy and would eventually create a body for themselves, spawning a new monster.
I've seen it before. In the Dungeon tunnels. Which ant the whole valley beca an open-air Dungeon. My {Detect Monster} ability flared. I could sense dozens of them, a hundred once I went a bit further. I was kiloters from the crater where the massive aircraft carrier-sized body of the Black Dragon King fell and bled to death. Which reminded , I still had all those stone barrels filled with dragon blood in my {Infinite Item Box}. Maybe I could use that in the enchantnt of the walls.
I changed into my real form as I landed, lashing out at the monsters with a rain of Force javelins. I turned on my Manastorm but restrained the range to only sixty-five ters, a bit more than what my automatic collection could reach. The monsters entered the Manastorm regardless of the damage they were taking. And more were converging on my position, eager to score a kill.
As they approached, I appraised one of them.
Dark-Death Wolf
Level 57 female
Strength 50
Dexterity 60
Endurance 60
HP 114,900
MP 1,094
They had a high HP total but I think it was the level and Endurance. My perception of what was a high HP pool was totally skewed. They took around five HP and MP of damage from the Manastorm per second after their mitigation. That's why the monsters were ignoring it. I kept it going for its other properties. The MP would drain in minutes, leaving them without the ability to use most of their special abilities.
Between the two of us, we moved toward the center of the crater, firing a barrage of Force and Ice javelins at the incoming critters. Each was worth between two and three billion Exp. Even killing them by the hundreds, it would take a long ti to level up again.
When one of them died, The "soul" of the monster shattered in tiny motes. So of them rged and a few vanished. While most of the energy of the monster imploded into its core a significant amount empowered those motes. Another thing was that my presence pushed these motes away from . They were unaffected by the Manastorm, which ant these motes were not undead.
We spent hours going around the crater and killing monsters and didn't make a full circle.
I returned to the valley's entrance near the path leading to the Iceking Road and cleared an area near where the caravan with Lorna and the dwarves would arrive. There, I started to erect walls with spikes jutting outward, surrounding an area roughly the size of two football fields side-by-side. Once the walls were in place, I spent so ti designing an enchantnt and wove it on the walls.
I sat at my enchanting workbench and started to prepare my materials.
"The dragon's powdered depleted magic core with the blood, they have good compatibility. However, the mix won't stay inside the etchings. I need to add a thickening and adhesive agent..."
Stolen from , this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
I added several herbal extracts but the mix was losing potency. I needed sothing with the concept of death to tune the resonance to these dual-attributed monsters the valley spawned. The answer ca from one old friend. Deathberry sap. The milky white and thick syrup had that property and it would react with the dragon's blood to congeal nicely once applied. I also added fibers of my living silk to thicken the mix.
I etched the glyphs for the enchantnt on the inside of the walls, slathering the glittering gray goo to fill these engravings and scraping the excess. Once it was all done, I imbued the inside of the complex with a permanent {Undeath Ward}, using the remainder of the points to add so extra benefits. I didn't even look at the billions of Exp it cost though I balked at the need to use ten magic cores embedded in the walls at regular intervals to permanently power the ward. The ward extended for fifty ters around the walls, covering the inside of the complex entirely.
Anti-Death-Shadow Fortress Ward
Repel Dark and Death Creatures: Creatures with one or both of these magical attributes will take 150 HP of damage and lose 2 points of every Physical and ntal Attribute every 5 seconds.Exp Tithing: Half of all base Exp gained inside the ward is absorbed to empower the ward.Heal Living Creatures: Damaged living creatures that are not either dark or death-aligned lose up to (10 MP or SP) and heal 5 HP every 5 seconds if they are not engaged in combat.Empower Living Creatures: Living creatures that are not either dark or death-aligned gain 5 Endurance, Willpower, and Soul while inside the ward if they are not engaged in combat. When resting, they benefit as if they'd rested for 50% more.Halt Decay: Kills fungus and molds inside the ward. The process of decay for all materials inside the ward is slowed by a factor of 5. Reduce the base chance of infection by 20%.Increase the hardness and resilience of the walls and stone spikes by a factor of 10.Repairs 10 points of durability for each wall section, including the stone spikes every minute.
Once the enchantnts were in place, I rose another sheet of stone a hand thick to cover the glyphs and cores inside the wall. No need to let them stay exposed to tampering. I also added a stone block texture to the wall so causal observers would think it was built with normal masonry. Finally, I added crenelations, machicolations on the outer side, and railing on the inner side so people could patrol the wall.
Creating that sheltered complex took Nenandil and a week. We dug a well on the corner further from the Dungeon and tested the water. Using ssenger birds to communicate with Lorna, I knew they would arrive at noon the next day. I cleared space and placed three of the smaller mansions I had for our guests. A quarter of the complex I let barren but set an open-air butchering station. The gate was made of {Spell-Song} hardened wood.
This would do for the dwarves while they expanded toward and around the open-air Dungeon. I used the rest of the ti to make a show for the dwarves. King Robin was supposedly busy and I had to put on the effort to look the part. I took a hundred of the monsters I killed and piled them up at a corner of the wall to butcher. Then I resigned to using legs again and shifted into King Locksley's form, with his signature gothic plate armor.
The monsters were avoiding the warded walls so I let the gate open. I was butchering so monsters when I heard the wagons entering. An act, obviously. I sensed the caravan approaching from far away.
"My Queen!" I went to get Lorna from her carriage.
"Oh, Robin! I'm no Queen anymore. Just an old lady. And you, husband, you're finally free to do what you like the most!" Her face becos disgusted, "Which I see it is still bathing in gore."
The dwarves guffawed heartily at our antics. I sent a wave of House magic over which cleaned and polished the armor. "Better this way?"
She rolled her eyes, "You should've cleaned up before I arrived. Anyway, we have guests. Robin, this is Thane Alfondric Ashshield."
The dwarven chieftain slamd his fist on his armor, sounding like a muffled gong. "Your Majesty, I'm pleased to et you."
"Nothing of that, Alfondric! I'm no longer a King," I shook his hand. "Here, we are all adventurers. But you must be tired from the trip. The north-west is for Lorna and , you can have the other two houses as you see fit."
The dwarf spent so ti looking at the mansions and walls. "Since when are these here?"
"A week ago. I was bored and built the walls and brought the houses here," I said from behind my helt as an afterthought. "There's no furniture, though. But make yourselves at ho."
"Aye. Well, Robin. Don't mind if I do."
While the dwarves settled down, I took Lorna to our bedroom. Her maids were taking care of the Queen dowager's luggage. Once alone, I shifted and kissed her. While I did that, I sent my spiritual energy into her body to heal her. She moaned and lted in my arms.
"Wait," She gasped. "If you don't stop, we'll end up in bed. We don't have the ti."
"Oh, ho, ho!" I giggled and pulled her waist toward .
"You're horrible, making a centenarian woman blush!" She protested.
I continued to laugh and she started to hit . I leaned and whispered in her ear, "I'm amazed that soone with your baggage still blushes."
Her irritation reached the "let's stop here or she'll burn a fuse" level and I backed off. But I could sll her arousal.
Avoiding my eyes, Lorna said, "King Eric will have his first challenge now. So adventurers found the Black Dragon King's hoard, and they want to give most of it to you. Well, to King Locksley."
That was too strange. Why the fuck would adventurers want to give away treasure? "What's the catch?"
Lorna frowned, "They want a ducal title. And to et King Locksley in person."
My mind raced. It had to be a trap. Or so hardcore fanboys. Yeah, not with my hundred-fifty Luck score. Bundeus ca to mind imdiately.
"How did you find that out? You departed before ."
"Kazuyran bought the {Summon ssenger Bird} perk. I received a lot of them. From what I see, a lot of people converted to Yznera's faith to buy the perk. Funny thing, you lose the perk if you don't worship her, so she's gaining ground. You were the perfect poster girl for that."
At least my Perk had no such limitations. But really, no good deed shall go unpunished. No gift from a God is really a gift. But the age of "fast" communication is coming. And once people find out a way to send a thin strip of paper with no more than two hundred and eighty letters to several recipients, the birds will beco blue. Damn.
"Where are they? Are they already in Windere?"
"No. They sent a courier with a sealed ssage, an enchantnt that only the rightful ruler of Windere could open. Eric opened it and read the letter, then Kazuyran sent the bird. They will take a month to arrive."
The next week was spent clearing the monsters around the complex and getting the lower-leveled dwarves so levels with my {Equal Exp Split}. The 36% bonus to party size ant that the whole group gained more Exp than the monster was worth even though the individual share was worse. In a group of thirty-one, the Exp has split twenty-one ways only. Rounding up brought that to a solid 0.05 multiplier in our Exp notifications, an overall boost of two-thirds in the Exp.
I was doing a shitty job of masking my disguise. Maybe I should develop a fighting style only for Robin but that should've happened a century ago. Just pierced every monster that ca our way with Force spears while the dwarves watched. I turned off auto-looting for most of my kills that happened in sight of the dwarves. We still needed sixty thousand kills to make the young dwarves reach their first rank-up.
"Thane Ashshield," I called the dwarf leader over.
"Yes, Your Majesty?" He asked.
I chortled. "Alfondric! I hope we can treat each other on a first-na basis. I'm sorry if I'm being too rude, I don't know dwarven etiquette."
"Nah. Don't worry... Robin. We are good. What do you need?"
"We need to step up the work. My Exp share range is four hundred ters. I'll go ahead and start killing, you follow. We are going to the edge of the crater and then going around it. You keep the dwarves together and safe with your guards. I will know if any group of monsters try to attack you. I had an idea. I'm going to leave an illusionary marker to show where you should be."
I created the illusion of a ring twenty ters across. "Stay inside this ring. If it moves, you move with it."
"Understood. Good hunting. your... Robin."
I smiled. "Good leveling, Alfondric."
The thane was not in the group I was power leveling. I dashed forward, keeping a small amount of concentration on the ring and on the detection Perks. Once I was out of sight, I started to fire high-speed low-damage piercing needles of Force, to literally aggro and pull the monsters. The crater where the dragon crashed had a kiloter in diater while the proto-dungeon extended for roughly five kiloters in each direction, more or less. it was irregular due to the mana flows of the world. I'd need roughly thirty kiloters of walls to close the valley.
But if I pulled it off, Windere would have a second Dungeon to grind at. The monsters here had high health but they also granted Rank bonuses. For the military, it was a dream ca true, especially if I could replicate the enchantnt on the walls. Maybe a stronger version so the edges would be safe zones.
Or I could erect walls bisecting the area, making separate regions. Circular segnts with gaps between the crater and the outside. I'd need to see how the monsters would react to it.
My pull was very effective. The monsters just didn't know where the attack ca from so I kept firing needles at them, drawing more and more toward . Once the nearest ones detected , they roared and it worked as a cue to bring hundreds of mutated death-and-darkness-aligned animals toward . Once they entered the reduced-size Manastorm, I cranked up the dial and skewered them to oblivion, auto-looting the corpses.
As I moved to draw more monsters in, I also moved the ring to bring the dwarves along. That felt like cheating but I wasn't the one to create the Perks. Going alone increased our killing speed tenfold. The dwarves weren't gaining any combat experience, just raw System power but that would be Alfondric's problem later. I managed to get two thousand kills in one day.
While the people rested, I used the spare ti to travel to the mountains nearby and stockpile stone. I would fly over the place pulling any loose boulders to storage. Once I couldn't find no more low-hanging rock-fruits I went further away and broke off pieces of the mountain. My goal was to surround the whole Dragonfall Valley open-air Dungeon, centing Windere's claim on this wealthy but dangerous resource.
Not that there were any other Kingdoms to challenge our claim. Further out from the valley, everything for hundreds of kiloters was an untad wilderness, the domains of strong monsters and the tribal "monstrous" races like orcs, trolls, and goblins. Unlike on Earth, the Yznarian people and their civilizations had strong contenders for territory.
Two weeks we ground Exp like that but I cranked up the grinding speed. I had to switch between MP and SP and even borrow MP from Nenandil to keep up the insane pace. During their rest hours, I started to erect the walls enclosing the Dungeon. The enchantnts were the sa as the compound walls but I removed Exp tithing and added another.
Soul Channeling: Spiritual energy is drawn from the outside and channeled toward the middle of the Dungeon.
That would improve our respawn rate.
Once all the dwarves were on the first rank-up, we let them fight on their own to raise their combat Skills and train coordination. Having the System aid only helped if you knew what to do with it.
Work on the valley wall was advancing well. The Exp I got from helping the dwarves hunt was all funneled into enchanting the wards that would keep the monsters from spilling out toward Windere. But our ti ran out when Kazuyran's bird ca with a ssage for Lorna.
"They are here."
ssage? I an, tweet.
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