The Divine Dungeon Complete Series (The Divine Dungeon #1-5)

by Dakota Krout

The man turned and walked out of the room, somehow making even that motion into a study of pompousness. “Ugh,” Hans grunted. “Adam, how do you deal with that man? His face is just so punchable!” Adam shrugged. “He gives us a lot of money.” Hans thought silently for a moment. “That would do it.”

“What the crap kind of Mob hides behind fortifications?!” Adam spoke up, concern in his voice, “Smart ones?” His statement made everyone go quiet for a moment. “Shit.”

Taking a moment to survey the battle, he turned just in time to soak his front in a wave of blood and gore. “Oh, come on! This is exactly why I didn’t want you to be using that oversized killing machine in here!” Hans bellowed at Tom. Tom looked at the clean-freak with an excited grin. “I had been under the impression that you wanted me not to use this for fear of draining my Essence. Now I understand why you were so adamant!”

The movement pushed the shaman from areas of low concentrations of Essence to areas of slightly higher concentrations. The dancing had a similar effect to what I did, which was to collect the unrefined Essence in an area and use that for incantations instead of personal Essence. I didn’t know why humans, Elves, and the like didn’t use this form of incantation. Either they didn’t know about it, or they thought it was primitive. Either way, I was just glad they limited themselves.

“Too strong of armor, huh? Fine!” He stabbed his dagger down into her eye, and she spasmed. He stood straight, then reached down and retrieved his blade. The fight was over… <Nope. Made those modular this time.> As he pulled out his dagger, the eye came with it, trailing a severed bundle of nerves. “Look out, Hans!” Dale screamed, saving his friend’s life as a wave of heat blistered Hans’s back.

“Right. Go find the treasure. Take anything not nailed down. Anything that we can sell.” Hans had several odd looks sent his way. “What? Regrowing an arm is stupid expensive—it takes months to get the hand bones correct. He is going to need a lot of money as a down payment. We can do it though. He will be fine, I promise.” Hans patted Tom on his unmoving back. “Welcome to the in-debt group. You’re late to the party!”

“That’s not silver, you brain-damaged, monster-loving bunny punchers! That’s aluminum!” Evan was almost drooling as he saw the processed ingots. Then a sick look crossed his face. “For the love of god, don’t sell that here or tell anyone where you got it! This floor will be overrun by Dwarves! They’ll look for ingots like that one by smashing rocks with their pickaxe-density erections if they get wind of the dungeon releasing processed aluminum!” Rose shuddered. “…Thanks for that visual.”

“They always charge half up front, so somewhere between ten to fifteen platinum.” Hans was fixated on the smell of roasted meat coming from the Pleasure House. “What? A thousand to fifteen hundred gold is half of what they’ll charge?” Dale was aghast. Hans had an odd look on his face. “Dale, we made more than triple that on this single dungeon run. Before taxes of course. Stop thinking about money as a long-term… thing. You are going to be around long enough that you will eventually amass a huge amount of money.” “See, you say that,” Dale rounded on his friend, “but aren’t you in your sixties and in debt to a flesh Mage?” “As soon as we sell off the stuff from this run, I won’t be. Even after paying for Tom’s arm,” Hans countered easily.

“Is it going?” Dani impatiently flew in a circle. <Yes, but it’ll take a while to gather Essence.> I paused a moment. <Didn’t we talk about this earlier?> “You mumbled a few things under your breath when I asked you questions about it. Does that count?” she replied on just this side of civility. I felt a bit sheepish. <I get a bit… focused.> “A bit? Okay, and a two-mile-wide meteor tends to kill off a ‘bit’ of life upon impact,” she teased me.

“It’s beautiful, Cal. You create the coolest things. It is so quiet too! The one outside always hums and sounds vaguely threatening.” Dani was debating on getting close or not. “Is it safe?” <Let’s find out.> I created a rabbit in the room and directed it to walk through the light. Splatter.

I want to replace the stairwells with these wherever possible. Then people can teleport around the dungeon, and there is a small chance of them failing to use this correctly and exploding!> I liked portals! “Always thinking ahead.” Dani morphed into an eye and rolled herself.

“Dale,” Amber countered soothingly, “you can’t fly into a panic every time some random peasant thinks there are monsters after them. There are monsters all over the place in this world.” She chuckled at the look Dale gave her. “What? If there weren’t, don’t you think the Bashers would have garnered more attention? Mutated, horned rabbits that attack people?”

The archways on the floors had been noticed, but after an initial assessment, they had been ignored. After it was found that the Cores couldn’t be pried off, the arches were largely forgotten. It was days before Dale’s group came back, and I was surprised at how much I had missed a semi-intelligent group of people being here regularly.

If we learned anything last time, it is to not let him come down here without a night vision potion.” Tom made a noise and raised the shield a bit. “I think you and I learned different things during our last dungeon run.”

Hans suddenly laughed. “Look! Tom, you’re in the statues!” I had replaced the statue of the crazy Elf and bunnies with one of dozens of small Goblin arms holding up a single, larger arm. “That is not funny. Who takes the time to make these odd statues?” Tom grumbled, looking a bit sick as he wriggled his stump.

Hans was nearly dancing. “The Portal Guild is going to be having kittens over this! They’ve had a monopoly on human portal travel for a century! Listen to how quiet this portal is too! And so stable!” I felt like blushing from all the praise. “The Runes on here, they look like they shouldn’t work together at all—like they should just blow up and kill us all—but it is actually working! Miracle?” <He’d better go back to the compliments; that sounds dangerously close to an insult…>

“A disease? That’s what we are here for?” Amber interrupted, scoffing. “At the earliest stages of the B-ranks, we are immune to disease.” “Not. This. One,” Frank ground out. “Listen, when that man woke up, he was not right in the mind. He flew into a mad rage, attacking anyone who came near. He used any weapon he could get his hands on but was not shy about using tooth and nail. Father Richard captured him, obviously suffering no physical injury. This did not go… well.” Frank swallowed, voice hoarse. “When he no longer had a chance to escape, he… the sick man… he ruptured his Center.” “Oh god.” Chandra’s hands went to her throat. “Father Richard placed the building under Celestial quarantine instantly. You see, he survived the after-effect, but the man seemed to release some kind of dust or possibly seeds of some kind. They settled on every surface, and many of the people still trapped in there are showing symptoms that the man came in with.” “Could it be necromancers?” Brianna interjected. “Who has the means to do this?”

Death to the infected!” was the roar of bloodlust and greed following Dale’s offer. “For Mountaindale!”

“Wow! When did you make that? Why didn’t you tell me? I hadn’t noticed!” Dani went from elated to curious to slightly angry in the span of a single breath. <Well, you took a nap yesterday, then I was done and started testing Essence…> Dani made a small noise. “You actually forgot that you had made corruption collection devices?” I gave her a mental shrug. <Memory is an imperfect storage device.>

Chips flew at every strike, his punches enhanced with an earth-type Mana. “Kill that bastard!” Beor the Dwarf was screaming. “He’s breaking Cliff!” Dale glanced at the furious Dwarf. “You named the wall? You named it ‘Cliff’? Won’t that be confusing with all these cliffs around?” “No! We didn’t want the wall to feel out of place, so we’re letting it think that it is a natural rock formation!” “What are you…? I don’t…” Dale paused, Dwarven logic didn’t matter right now. Only one thing did. “Kill that bastard!”

“Damn Mages and their near-physical invulnerability,” Hans grumbled. Amber stepped forward, opening her mouth and releasing an eye-drawing stream of multi-hued light. It seemed to flow into the infected man, and he dropped, blood pouring from his ruined ears. “What did you do to him?” Amber shook her head, “I spoke to his brain and convinced it that it was dead. His physical state soon followed his mental one.” Dale shuddered,

Hundreds of deaths were slapping against my senses every minute, and I grew more powerful by the moment. “Are you doing okay, Cal?” Dani flew around me, staring at me as if she could tell with her vision if I were starting to go insane from the influx of power. <I am doing amazingly,> I reassured her with a wide mental grin. Which, now that I think about it, may not have confirmed my sanity in her mind. “I’m worried.” <What? Why?> Dani paused, looking at the enormous death toll in the dungeon. “I think it is only a matter of time before a Mage dies in here. I have no idea what might happen in that case… will you move directly into the Mage rank? Will you only get their Essence? Will you die from the sudden gain? What if…” <I have a plan, Dani.> This seemed to throw her off. “You do? What?” <I’m going to put the Mana into a bag and save it for later!> I told her cheerfully, and I suspected she began to question my sanity again.

“Today is a glorious day for battle! Perhaps I can fall in combat and join the ranks of the fallen warriors on the fields of heavenly war!” “Or maybe you could try really hard to survive and keep us alive too?”

“I! Have! Missed this!” Tom roared, swinging his hammer ever faster. Nick’s eyes were bulging from their sockets. “He’s insane,” Nick whispered. The leader of The Collective looked to the side to see Dale pounding on infected with his—apparently—only cloth covered hands, leaving behind craters in the flesh. An arrow from Rose ripped through everything from her to the wall in a straight line, tearing through bodies and armor like paper. Hans was jauntily strolling along, poking enemies with casual grace and disregard for his own safety. “They’re all insane!” affirmed Adam. Nick looked his way to see him ignoring several infected that appeared to be stabbing him with daggers. “If you don’t mind, could you start clearing the area?”

Minya. She seemed to be doing well. “Fear death not!” she intoned above the raging battle. “Our work empowers our dungeon, and with each death, we will increase our reward in the afterlife!” This was met with sideways glances and muttering, “With each enemy slain, we increase our rewards in this life!” That was the way to get the people motivated, it seemed. A constant flow of valuables. Well, if that was the case… When a group of infected was cleared enough for me to create things, I rained down an explosion of shining gold coins. The defenders were quiet for a moment, and then all abyss broke out. They redoubled their efforts, and with every explosion of the elements, I followed it with a hail of coin.

“He has a weird Mana base. Celestial and infernal users often find odd concepts to bind to.” He shook his head, rattling Tom a bit. “His magic is based on the bonds between people and how they all interact.” He jumped, avoiding a hurled stone slab. “I had no idea he could use it to physically bond people together.”

“This is why my lore is so important, but no one bothers to read it… Frank, when a dungeon loses its bonded Wisp—its Dungeon Wisp—it goes insane. Its influence spreads wildly, and corruption becomes rampant. That is usually when a crusade is called to kill a dungeon.” “The… like the Kantor incident?” Frank shook, gripping the wall for balance. “Is that what caused the disaster?”

The thing most missed is the feeling of wind. It can get a bit… stuffy down here,” Bob finally finished. “The animals are mainly for background noise; we have had a few days where my people can’t seem to take the silence. They tend to tear their ears open when it lasts too long.” <You… want insects and rodents? I didn’t bother because I never saw a use for them. Sure. I’ll make bugs and various non-threatening creatures on every floor and instruct the Mobs not to eat them. The breeze might take a while, but I know I can do it. Maybe an updraft generated by heat from my digging…>

I redoubled my digging efforts and poured more earthen Essence into my deepening depression. To clarify, not the mental state. I mean depression as a ‘hole’. Tunnel. No, wait. If it is vertical, it is a shaft. I pumped Essence in an attempt to enlarge my shaft. Um… that still sounds wrong for some reason.

aiming at the agile creatures. Tom frowned as his swinging ingot hammer consistently missed every target. “Hold thyself immobile so that I may bring about thine end!” the redhead roared at the whirling balls of fur.

Why did bugs do what they did? Why did they look for certain things or follow the same paths over and over? They were looking for something. In the case of ants, it was a small chemical trail. Others were looking for food, some for mates. I had no idea what wasps were looking for; as far as I could tell, they were just assholes. I liked wasps.

“Ahhhh! They have stingers!” Well. I may have made them a little too versatile… “That one is the size of a dog! How is it able to fly?!” “They aren’t attacking! Just get down, and they ignore you!” Finally, someone noticed! Hmm. Was the size difference really that important? I thought that a larger version of something they saw all the time wouldn’t be too noticeable. Humans are so strange! They scream like children over a few bugs but go running at the Cat Boss—Snowball, a steam variant Beast—looking for a fight? Bizarre, I tell you.

Of all inanimate objects I’d found, so far I’d only heard rocks scream. Screaming trees. That’s a good one. “The general consensus here is that they are rather terrifying.” He gave a weak smile. “Would you mind?” The cicadas stopped singing, to both of our surprise. “Thank you, that was fast.” <That wasn’t me. If a predator is nearby, they stop making noise,> I explained as a few humans popped stealthily out of the tree line. <It would seem you have visitors.> The Goblin paused momentarily, mind whirring. “I’ve decided we will live with the noisy bugs.”

“Ah, abyss take them! They saw me. Now I have to fight. I hate dying,” Bob muttered angrily as he started hopping from foot to foot, gathering ambient Essence for his impending fight. <So don’t die.> I chuckled at his sour glare. <I know what you are thinking, ‘easy for you to say’, right? Well, I work to not die as well. Unlike you, there’s no coming back for me if I were to be destroyed.> “Humph.

infernal Essence to smash the offending adventurer in the chest. The rapidly dying man fell to the ground, writhing in agony. His flesh seemed to melt away as a combination of deep rot, fluid, and pus drained on to the floor. Bob looked at his staff in wonder. “What an excellent weapon! Thank you, Great Spirit!” <…Might be too good. We’ll reevaluate later.> While muttering at Bob, I was looking at the actual effects that the bolt had had on the corpse. For every magical effect I had ever seen, there was a discernable reason for the following reaction. For instance, a sharpening Rune didn’t just ‘sharpen’ a blade. Instead, Essence flowed into the blade and increased the bonds along the edge of it. This had the effect of making the blade thinner and harder to chip, resulting in a ‘sharpened’ or ‘honed’ blade. <So that is what infernal Essence does…> I had suspicions before, but this new data would certainly help my research. <No need to reevaluate, you can keep it. We need to know more. Use it as much as possible.> It seemed that infernal Essence would enter the body and attach itself to impurities in the flesh. After latching on, it would force the Essence of the tissue to deteriorate quickly, generating more infernal Essence from the death of the cells around it. To the casual observer, it looked like the body rotted away at high speeds.

“This, as I said, is the most demanding and dangerous ritual that we—the Bobs—know.” I chuckled at that. They referred to themselves collectively as ‘The Bobs’? Excellent.

“To facilitate the effect, we drew the Runes in a tincture of Flesh Cat blood and crushed opal. The first Rune was the Rune to dissolve armor. By using the Flesh blood as a reagent, it dissolved bodily tissue instead!” I was stunned by this revelation. I knew reagents could alter the effects of Runes, but I had no idea it could be this drastic!

“Try to take it easy for a few hours, will you?” The cleric patted Tom on the washboard abdomen she had just finished fully healing. Tom nodded at her. “I will do my best, but if needs must, I shall always step into danger to protect my comrades.” Her fingers slipped over his now-smooth skin. “So brave…” she whispered, looking up at him with wide eyes. Ahem. Adam reminded her of his presence with a clearing of his throat. She flushed and turned away. Adam was the protégé of the most powerful cleric in the area, Father Richard. No one wanted to alienate him, and taking advantage of your patient was a sure way to earn the ire of clerics in general. Tom looked at his friend with a tinge of anger in his gaze. “Maybe you should get that cough looked at, Adam?” the barbarian growled, making ‘shoo’ motions at him. “If it gets much worse, you could die.”

“Will they even want a pigeon, though?” Rose was holding a weakly flapping bird in her hand, an arrow peeking through the blood-soaked plumage. “He did say one of ‘everything’.” Dale shrugged, tossing a chunk of broken rock into the bag. Hans looked affronted. “Dale! Are you just trying to increase the number of items we bring back so that he needs to pay us a higher fee?” Dale nodded with a wide grin, and Hans pretended to tear up. “I’m so proud.” Hans sniffled and wiped at his eyes, followed by grabbing a handful of dirt and stuffing it in the bag.

there is a small chance that each token will give out a ‘jackpot’ when used. I have no idea why the dungeon would offer more than we’ve earned though.” “The issue I see here,” Adam spoke louder as conversations started, “is that greedy people will try to reach beyond their means in order to turn in the token at the deepest level they can reach. Not just that, but unscrupulous parties may wait in a room like this to catch weakened groups off guard. There is nothing on the token that says only the group that earned it has to be the one to cash it in,” he finished ominously. The group went silent as they caught up with what he was saying. “Yup. A lot of people are going to start dying in here soon.” Rose sighed discontentedly.

they stopped at a raspberry bush, and Hans checked the conglomerate fruit for poison. “The fruit is fine,” Hans declared after a moment of inspection, “but the thorns have a nasty, subtle poison. It is a contact poison that seems to mimic a potent sleep potion. One touch and you will not be able to keep your eyes open. You don’t even need to get stabbed, just brushing past it will knock you out.”

Hans cleared his throat. “You know, I’ve met a lot of drug addicts…” “You can’t get addicted to cultivating!” Dale exclaimed indignantly, looking around for support as the others pointedly looked away. “I’m not so sure. Feels good, gives you a rush, costs a lot of money, and makes you want more?” Hans’ eyebrow bounced a few times. “Any of these sounding familiar?” “Maybe I don’t do this so often. Fine,” Dale grumbled with a blush.

<All he needs to do is be ju-u-st about dead and start to dissolve his aura or swear a binding oath to me!> Dale coughed. “Sorry, Hans, it isn’t possible. There were extenuating circumstances for me.” <Oh, you rat bastard.> “Ah, it was worth a shot.”

Bob was still looking stunned. “You are going to learn how to fly?” <No, no, I already know how to fly. It is just falling with style, after all. What I really need to figure out is how to make the dungeon float and move around while under my control,> I cautiously explained, not wanting to ruin the surprise. <I don’t want my movements to be dictated by whichever breeze is strongest that day.>

“You are kind of being a… whiny little toad,” Bob announced as soon as he got permission. I released a sharp gasp of bewilderment. “You hold the power of creation, life, and death! You can create stone from air and fire from water! You plan to make a mountain fly, for abyss sake! Now you are allowing yourself to be held up by ‘what ifs’? No! You enter the Mage ranks! You become powerful enough to shake the heavens! And, blast it, you go rescue your Wisp!”

“Everyone needs tough love sometimes.” He smirked as he leaned on his staff. “Even overpowered rocks, apparently.”

Hans collapsed to the floor and began greedily absorbing the abundant Essence in the air while writhing around. Unlike the others, he was an intentionally loud cultivator. “Uhhhhhgh. This feels so good. Oh, yeah, fill my affinity channels.” His antics always made Rose scowl and the others laugh.

Tom looked at the long weapon. “I think that would be an acceptable weapon in here. Why is it such a disagreeable armament?” “Pff! This dungeon is an outlier!” Hans jeered, twirling the shaft of the halberd in his palm. “Most dungeons really make you work to even stand up straight. None of you believe me, I can tell. There is definitely something different about this place though. Smart Mobs, fortifications,” he spat the word in disgust, “and now an ecosystem? You don’t normally see things like this in a dungeon below the A-rankings.”

“How do you know all of this?” Dale prodded his friend with a stiff finger. “I know you are on good terms with him, but it is surprising that he’d tell you all of this.” “Huh? He doesn’t tell me these things!” Hans looked affronted. “The walls of a tent are just really thin, and his voice tends to carry if the wind is ju-u-ust right.” Hans grinned and made a gesture and was lifted off his feet by a burst of swirling air.

“He’s still here. Don’t say anything you will regret.” Adam gestured at a corner they were approaching. The Elf reappeared, pointing a dagger-like finger at the cleric. “You will not give away my position in the future, or I will consider you a hindrance to my training methods.” The Elf glowered at Adam before vanishing. “This training is not for you, but I could include you.” “Sorry, Dale. You’re on your own.” Adam grimaced as a chill went down his spine. “It’s too bad. I really liked you.” “Don’t talk about me like I’m already dead. Just get me through the portal,” Dale whispered nervously,