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

by Dakota Krout

The Amazonian tensed as she looked closely at Chandra. “Ah, the betrayer of womankind, the herald of necromantic war, Madame Chandra the Dark Valkyrie.

“You aren’t making many friends today, lad.” The Dwarf sat back and steepled his sausage-like fingers. Dale sighed and wryly smiled. “Truly, I am trying to make friends, but none of you are giving me good incentive to help you out. They threatened us,” he waved in the general direction of the Elves, “they have been needlessly rude,” he waved at the Amazons, “and you hit against a city regulation. To your credit, at least you’ve been polite about it and haven’t threatened me. Is that about to change?” The Dwarves gained a considering look, and the spokesdwarf slowly nodded. “Alright, you make a good point.

“On a more important note, how many has he had tonight?” Beor looked at his swaying brother, “I think that’s his second.” “Second? Second pint?” Thaddius seemed very interested. “Is it good or just powerful?” “Oh, yes. Very good. The ‘dungeon special’ is brewed exclusively with materials from the dungeon below us. From the hops to the water. Even the barrels are made from a tree that grows down there. The stuff is packed with Essence, and even the high rankers can get pretty loopy. They have normal beer too, if you… aren’t up to it.” Beor chuckled at the excited faces of the Dwarven delegation. “Not your brightest moment Dale, offering to buy the drinks tonight.”

He stopped six wolves this time before the sound of cloth tearing announced his failure. Then an unstoppable force smacked him to the ground. “Again! Save her! She is going to die, and it will be your fault!” Dale’s mind was buzzing; there had to be more to the lesson! This time, instead of fighting the wolves, he grabbed the scarecrow and ran. The chuckles of his master made him grin until he felt a sharp object tear into his side. He screamed and dropped the ‘princess’ who was subsequently torn apart. “Better, smarter.” The Elf nodded at him as Dale looked for what had stabbed him. He finally noticed that the scarecrow had a knife. “Sadly for you, looks like the princess didn’t want to be saved. Today’s lesson, Dale. I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but let me reiterate. Trust no one and nothing. An attack can come from anywhere, at any time.

Dani watched in horror as the newly born infernal dungeon Core began to glow with a dark maroon light.

eight thousand six hundred forty possibilities. Plus, of course, the six on this level. For some reason, I was not able to stand at the highest tier from the start. I had to climb. Somehow. This proposition was troublesome for many reasons, but the most compelling was that the nodes made offers that were hard to ignore. ‘Come to me! I am healing and light. Your pain is over; ascend to the heavens, and you will know righteousness.’ This promise came from the pathway leading to the node made purely of celestial energies. I scoffed and immediately ignored all the murmurs coming from the singular paths, and they went silent. They were the weakest laws of the universe, if the most individually pure. I wasn’t ascending to only reach for the basics!

I turned slowly to this voice, a voice I knew well but somehow had forgotten. <Hello, Madness.> ‘I am so much more. Madness is only the least of my names. I am the end of all things, the final destination of the long-lived. I am Kings and Queens. I am all things forbidden. Release me into the world once again, young one.’

The barrier pressed down, the pressure building to unbearable levels. <I know you are there! This ceiling is a lie!>

<Why won’t you let me…> ‘You are flawed. You are imperfect. You are broken. Joining with you would be a waste, as my power would likely only shatter what is left of your wasted soul.’ The voice was still as potent as before and still without anger or malice. I didn’t get blasted into the distance at least. That was a plus. At least we were on speaking terms now. <Everyone and everything is imperfect!> I shouted at the haughty globe. ‘Untrue. For I am not.’ <I would argue that you are!> I screamed in frustration. <You are an arrogant mass of energy!>

Acme. The definition of the word was hard enough: ‘The highest level or degree attainable, the peak of perfection.’ How amazing. How wonderful. How… the crap was I supposed to progress in that?

I looked outside myself and saw a raging torrent of Essence bubbling around me. Odd. Normally, that Essence would be trying to force itself into me, why is it…? I looked at the shell of what I assumed to be Core material around me and finally noticed the truth. <My outer shell is Mana?> I was pretty happy about that, as Mana is basically indestructible but also worried as it seemed that Essence also couldn't permeate it. There were no openings, no imperfections, no ways for the Essence to flow into me. The shell was too… perfect. Oh. Oh feces. I sat in the cistern of burbling food, quickly starving to death.

“These restrictions are stifling! There is no point in participating in any event from this place! No weapons, treasure, or access to the Silverwood tree? Why would we bother?!” the High Elf ambassador was shouting, cheeks tinged red, hair askew. Princess Brianna of the Dark Elves calmly explained herself, for what must have been the sixth time, “The point is to build up goodwill so that you eventually might have access. You think these restrictions are stifling? Try to get access to Silverwood pollen from the High Elves as a Dark Elf! We’ve been reduced to begging in order to barely sustain our population!” “You brought it on yourselves,” the High Elf retorted coldly. Brianna smirked, a dangerous glint in her eye. “As. Have. You.”

“I think the town is going by ‘Mountaindale’, actually. Not Barondale,” Dale responded jokingly, not bothering to keep the smirk from his face. “Subtle. Humility suits you.”

“As you approach the C-ranks, your aura will become dense enough to slow down many normal attacks. It isn’t a shield, but a few tenths of a second can mean victory or death.”

Interestingly, there were several creatures that had been born while outside of my influence. While their parents were indeed made by me, it seemed that the standard rules were lifted for the few births over

She died screaming as her body was ravaged by Mana! That is the honorless people you are making a deal with!” “When was this?” Dale was shocked by the fury in Tom’s voice. Wouldn’t he have heard about this somehow? “Four hundred years ago!” Tom spat to the side. “It has not even passed from living memory yet. It will not, so long as I, my brothers, or my father continue to survive.” “Four hundred years…?” Dale shook his head at the vast time scale. “Why is it so meaningful to you? You are not even close to being that old.” Tom tried to calm down, his hands shaking. “It was my mother. My father’s first wife. No, not the woman who bore me, but all of my Father’s wives are my mother. We are given the memories of all the male children my father has, to tie us together as siblings. You know the power of memory stones. The memories become your own.” “How many childhoods do you have in your head?” Dale was astonished by this revelation. “Fifty,” Tom stated bluntly. “It is needed. To help us train faster, to see the folly of weakness and lethargy. You want to know why we train so hard? One of us… the happiest of us… was allowed a pampered childhood, filled with love and lavished with toys and gifts. That is the first stone we are always given. We are then given memories of how that one died, how weak he was. Then we are trained as true Northmen. Failure is allowed, but weakness is not.”

Tonight, we test your ability to shape Essence under pressure as well as how devoted you are to surviving!” Dale nodded, bracing himself for combat. “What do you want me to do?” The Elf’s eyes twinkled as he walked towards Dale. “Isn’t it obvious? I just said it! Survive, brat.” He grabbed Dale and threw him, hard. Dale twisted himself, preparing for the impact of landing. He was terrified as he turned and saw that he had passed the edge of the cliff face a dozen feet ago. “What the abyss!” Dale screamed as he entered free-fall.

<What would you say is the most difficult portion of cultivating, Bob?> I murmured to my Goblin as I played with a ritual that would almost certainly do a massive amount of damage if I got the components wrong. “For my people, it has always been surviving long enough to get any substantial amount of it done,” Bob answered calmly. “Now though, I would say the tedium of refining through meditation is what drives our people from taking advantage of it.” <Hmm. Good point. Why bother to cultivate when killing my enemies gives you a portion of their Essence?> I mused sardonically. “Just so.” He nodded, flinching as my Essence shattered a rock that was in the way. “Your power has grown substantially, Great Spirit. You must have bound yourself to a powerful law.” I chuckled. <I did, but it is a real jerk to talk to.> Bob just looked confused.

This was certainly, by far, the best find!” she told me excitedly. <A healing Rune?> I scoffed a bit. <Minya, I was kind of looking for dangerous Runes.> “Oh, this is dangerous.” She nodded as if in deep thought. “Improperly used or used overmuch, it causes the target of the Rune to be in a state of extreme metabolism. Their body is trying to divert all resources to healing, but without a wound, it just stays in ‘high alert’ if you will. The stress damages the body, which is then healed, which causes more damage. They can’t sleep, they make mistakes, they fall apart. This draws heavily upon all the resources of the body.” She looked at the Rune with a creepy grin. “Outside of actually healing, this Rune has a different name. It’s called a ‘starvation’ Rune.”

Cue the fire traps! A blast of flame spurted from the wall in front of them, splashing across the wall parallel to its point of egress. “Wha!” Tom jumped back, swinging his hammer at the sudden light. Sorry, big boy. That won’t hurt fire.

“We need to get moving. The fire in the room is producing corruption, and wind Essence is rapidly depleting. We need to go, or the flames won’t be what kills us. We will just stop being able to breathe.”

Elves use some kind of glass that they refuse to share the recipe of, which does something they won’t share.” <Useful,> I scoffed with great annoyance. “Right? Hmm, Dwarves use Mithril when they can get it but have something they use in their furnaces that makes them hotter than any other kind of furnace. Maybe that is worth looking into? Orcs have a weapon they revere that is green, like really shiny, old copper, and–” <Wait, green? Shiny?> That sounded familiar. “Yes, it is called ‘Orichalcum’. We call it ‘mountain copper’ usually because we can only get it off their corpses, and they come from mountainous areas. It is pretty rare.” <I see. Go on!> I had made orichalcum, it seemed. “The church leaders all seem to wear some kind of golden artifact. I don’t know if it is actually gold or not. I think it is just for show, but somehow, they are always stronger than others around them. I think there must be more, but I can’t seem to think of any others right now,”

The extra light could be helpful, in theory, but it would hamper the people using it more than they would realize. The room was filled with fog, not steam, and the light would make it very difficult to see through. I still expected the lever to be pulled, simply as a natural response to, well, a lever existing. Most people will pull an unknown lever or push a random button, just to see what happens. Even if they knew what it did, there was a good chance of it being used. Humans prefer light, even if they had been in a dark dungeon all day and it would destroy their night vision.

A flash of fire ignited the walking corpses, burning them terribly. All this did was throw ash in the air and create charred, walking skeletons. The flames were not intense enough to incinerate the group of bodies completely,

The cultivators were losing and losing badly. The reason for this was abundantly clear; the entire battle was absolutely silent. Someone had obviously used a powerful technique or incantation to block sound from traveling. Because of this, there were far too few defenders showing up.

“Yup, there it goes. The roof is dropping. Why does this trap show up in practically every dungeon?” The Mage interjected, “I’ll hold it up. Smash the wall where the exit should be.”

“Hmm. Am I innocent because I had to do it or because I feel no remorse?” Egil laughed

<The Runes will create a circle like the one below, off of the main line. Each line will then begin heading out along its own path. I got the idea from the tower of ascension, actually. You will see it for yourself eventually, but that is the gist of it.> Bob nodded along sagely. “This could have interesting effects on the world at large if they last a long enough time. Essence will naturally be drawn to these lines, and where they cross and expand, there will be more Essence than is readily absorbable by the lines. I wonder if that will lead to people settling in locations that contain them? Will that help cities spring up? Make centers of learning? Currently, power in the world is chaotic, unevenly spread. I look forward to seeing what will happen…” <Not our problem,> I cut him off happily. <Though I do have an idea of what I want the next floor of the dungeon to look like.>

Leylines...

“Manny the Manticore? I thought you were trying to make better names for your creations, more… intelligent.” Bob coughed to cover a grin as he finished his statement. <Ouch. Well, his full name is ‘Manny the man-eating Manticore’,> I told him while trying to keep my tone serious. <It is all about puns. Intelligent naming comes secondary to that.> “I… see,”

a half dozen Elves! Do you even understand the loss that signifies? That is the birth rate for three entire years for my people!

“Chests filled with Mithril? Ughh.” The Dwarves at the table shivered slightly and flushed a bit. The ones that were standing moved objects they were holding—not-very-subtly—so they could cover the front of their pants.

“Oh? My training is ridiculous? It must be ridiculously easy then, as you have barely been paying attention to my attacks. Good to know.” A column of fire exploded upward, fully immolating Dale. He screamed, diving out of the fire, only to be met by a blast of wind. Dale slammed to the ground, bounced once, and screamed again as a stone spike slammed through his leg, pinning him against the road. “You graduated from basic attacks to novice attacks. Feel pleased. Hopefully, you won’t get too bored with this.” The Dark Elf went silent and vanished, leaving only a shocked group of onlookers and a moaning Dale. “You did kind of ask for that,” Tom admonished as he pulled the stone from Dale, needing to put in a bit of force to allow it to come free of the ground under him. “You are acting arrogant again.” Dale glared at his friend as he was pulled to his feet. Tom started dragging him towards the clerics. “I know you think that you have it rough, but my training as a Noble was similar. This is what all Nobles go through. A variation of it at least. The difference is that this version of my training started when I was eight years of age. You are at least an adult, but you are far behind another Noble of your own age group. This is good for you. Your chances of survival are increasing. Slowly.”

“Can’t regenerate carbonized cells. Gonna need to heal a new layer of skin to the surface,” the cleric apathetically stated. “Hope you haven’t been trying to get a tan.” Dale painfully shook his head. “Nah, I don’t bother. All I do is burn.” His comment was met with total silence. “…Is he in shock, or was that his actual sense of humor?” the cleric asked Tom. The barbarian shook his head in sad acknowledgment. “I am in a lot of pain right now.” “Right! Sorry…”

“All I know about him is that he is a cultivator of insanity. Madness. Psychosis.” Dale started to shiver as he recounted what little he knew. “He is the only cultivator for that particular concept, though others have tried going down that path. No one knows why.” <I know why. He kills anyone who tries. Now it makes sense. He told me to stop stealing ‘his whispers’. When I agreed, he seemed surprised and left.> My words were filled with dread, perhaps a tiny bit of admiration as well. “Don’t think that he took your madness out of kindness, Cal. His name, Xenocide, was earned when he killed off an entire race. He liked the name so much that he has done it twice since then.”

The massive cultivation technique filled with Essence-gathering Runes was pulling in enough Essence per hour to raise an F-rank human to the C-rank in one giant leap. There were a few… caveats to this process. We needed to move continuously as the ambient Essence I was taking in depleted the area too fast for it to naturally refill and keep us afloat. Moving to new territory allowed us to gather at the highest rate possible. Keeping us moving while flying took ninety-seven percent of the Essence gathered, which allowed me to keep a bit for myself. Most of the excess went to large Cores for emergencies, but by my estimations, it would take a week of travel to store enough power for fifteen minutes of hovering. Moving was key. Moving was surviving. Using small portals, I remained connected to my original area so that I had access to the massive pool of oil under where my mountain had stood. I had been nervous that my plan wouldn’t work and my island would crash. So, I guess it may have been an escape route as well if the worst came to pass. I think I’ll keep that tidbit from Dale.

“Not me, I swear!” Dale waved his hand in a dismissive motion. “We have guests, Mages, who are wanting to challenge the dungeon.” <You have really bad timing, Dale. I’m unholy busy right now, and if I get too distracted, we could fall out of the sky.> “Please, please, feel free to focus on anything but us.” Dale hacked up a small ball of mucus and dust before rejoining the Mages. “A bit of overkill, wasn’t that?” “Overkill is the best kind of kill. No chance of retaliation,” the Mage replied in a chilly tone. “How about you go bother Jasper? I think he sees you as a mascot.” “Don't mind him, boy!” Jasper slapped Dale on the back hard enough to bruise. “He is always shockingly rude.” Dale winced and not from the slap. “Got a lot of, ah, lightning jokes you are planning to use?” “You should be amped to hear how many I currently have.” Jasper had a strange gleam in his eyes. Dale shrugged at him; he didn’t understand the joke. He had no knowledge of how electricity worked. “You don’t understand any of these, do you? Re-volt-ing.”

Jasper walked over to one of the streams coming from the ceiling and put his hand in it. Dale’s eye twitched as the Mage put his hand into a stream of water that was cutting into the rock it touched. “Huh, a bit of water pressure. You should probably not touch these, Dale.” “I wouldn’t have,” Dale ground out through his tightly clenched jaw.

The Silverwood tree grew in the center of the room, now as massive as a hundred-year-old oak. Under the tree sat a figure petting a Basher, but the details of the figure were hidden by the haze of energy collected in this room. “It’s beautiful,” Huggin whispered in awe. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” “More than that,” Muninn stated, already mapping out the paths. “Look at the platforms. The floor plan is a guide to ascending!” There was shocked silence, but Dale had no idea what was going on. “What in the world are you talking about?” “The paths!” Muninn turned blazing eyes on Dale. “There! The earth, water, and celestial intersection! What do you see?” “Trees?” Dale smiled nervously as Muninn started to get worked up. “No! Yes, but, look!” Muninn seemed enrapt over the paths. “The path to get to that platform—the path of wood—is exactly equal for earth and water, but only half as long for celestial!” Dale was silent for a moment. “Again, I’m sorry, but I don’t understand.” Making a frustrated noise, Jasper turned and looked at Dale. “This room is showing what affinities are needed to cultivate in order to acquire a certain type of Mana. Having equal parts earth and water and half that of celestial when you break into the B-ranks will give you the best chance of becoming a wood Mage.

“I can’t believe we are fighting an honest-to-God golem!” Muninn squealed like a teenage girl talking about her first crush. “I’ve only fought puppeted versions or Gnomish constructs!” “Be happy after you kill it!” Huggin roared

Unbeknownst to the horrified Mages, a flaw had appeared in a ritual created under their fair city. The ritual was now trying to compensate for the damaged Rune in its pattern by drawing in and adding extra ambient Essence and Mana from the environment. Draining the sky of energy resulted in a massive pressure as the thick power trapped everything in range like flies in a web. The human who had been mining with a powerful pickaxe he bought from the Adventurers’ Guild was the first to die as his body became a conductor for elemental lightning. Unfortunately for the people above, his death was only the first of far, far too many.

Muninn turned in confusion. How had a crow survived that hurricane of force? Everything in the area should be dead! He tried to ask if they had seen what had happened, but all that was heard was a resounding… “Caw?” Jasper opened his eye painfully, looking at his siblings in horror. “Brothers,” his voice trembled with raw emotion, “is that you?” “Caw!” “Caw!” Somehow, their words translated perfectly into Jasper’s mind, and he nodded. “I don’t know exactly, but I agree that we should save those we can before hunting whoever did this. From this point forward, we seek knowledge, we hunt the destroyer of our people, and we give ourselves to rage. Until such a time as this debt is repaid, I cast aside my name and assume the mantle of responsibility for this hunt. From now until eternity if needs must, until this quest has been completed, I shall bear the name of Odin.”

The Dwarves got closer, looking for seams in her armor, but it wasn’t designed in a way they recognized. This armor didn’t come off without my direct help. Good thing Mages didn’t need to use the bathroom…

Battle cries and bloodlust-filled shouts rose into the toxic air. The Goblins cheered as Bob directed the placement of a totem. This was a mobile version of my obelisks and used earth Essence to activate. When the totem was inserted into the ground, a Core in it lit up and connected to obelisks in the city.

Someone needs to make a game of this.

they need to get one into the evil dungeon under the city so that I can directly counter its influence, or you will all be screwed. All of the totems need to be in range of each other, so make sure they stay undamaged, or you’ll need to go back!> Dale heard in his mind. For once, he had no qualms about listening to advice given by the voice in his head.

Now, one Mage against an army sounds like a swift death for the Mage, right? This would be true in most cases, but an A-rank Mage is the equal of at least ten B-rank Mages. In the confining sewer, this Mage could easily block the entire force indefinitely. At the A-ranks, there was no need for food or sleep. The only way to stop him was to match him,

This… this was a portal through time! I was connecting to… myself? A part of my soul, a part I hadn’t even realized was missing, integrated into my aura. I was suddenly in Dale’s mind as he was dying. I watched as Dale was tortured for me and would have cried if it were possible when he told Dani that he kept his promise. As Dale’s mind and soul was sucked into his Core—the same Core I had originally resided within—I realized that this was my origin. Dale was turning into me. As I watched Dale… myself… die, I realized that I had a monumental choice to make. I could keep the portion of my soul I had lost so long ago, or I could leave it with Dale and allow him to grow with all of his memories intact. I could allow my youngest self to be a complete being. But… I hesitated. How different would I be today if I had kept my memories, my human morals, or my sense of self as a person? I likely wouldn’t have survived

My insight into time and space jumped by leaps and bounds as I existed on both sides of time simultaneously. It was such an interesting portal and had only come into being through the power of chaos. The intermixing of infernal and celestial

“You… you brought the entire mountain?” she admonished, half awed and half horrified. <You really shouldn’t leave me alone for long periods of time,> I sheepishly rebutted.

“I love you!” she bawled, flying down to the portal system. I approved. Going through the tunnels would be far too slow. She burst into my Core room, barely sparing a glance for the golems and paths. She reached the Silverwood tree as I registered her words. <I love you too!> Unknowingly, she had entered my area of greatest influence. The Essence in her body glowed even brighter, and as I proclaimed my love for her, the Essence was replaced with Mana. A beam of light linked us like it did the day we met, and our souls were reintegrated and healed. The light connecting us passed through pollen that was falling from the Silverwood tree, subtly changing it into something greater. At that moment, we experienced the effect that Elves the world over were looking for, the greatest ability of Silverwood pollen. The Essence that had been in her body was mingled with mine and condensed. A tiny, purple Wisp coalesced next to Dani, slowly floating around. It seemed confused. I was more confused. Dani seemed shaken. <Um. Dani? What just happened?> “I… I think we just had a child!” We watched the tiny Wisp explore her new home.

she was a parent now… “Cal.” Uh-oh, she was now e-nun-ci-a-ting, and I knew for sure that she was serious. Time to get to work. <I’m on it.>