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

by Dakota Krout

Should we call this flying mountain an island? We do have a lake…> the voice trailed off, so Dale hurried to keep the dungeons attention. “Cal, hey! Don’t go running off. This is Mountaindale.” Dale waited a moment, but there was no instant response, so he decided to play along. “How about a ‘skyland’? Combine ‘sky’ and ‘island’, and I think you are the only one.” <Ooh, I like that. What about a ‘Neverland’? Because I’m never going to land.> The voice was back, so Dale quickly jumped into conversation. “I don’t think people would call us a ‘Neverland’; they don’t have any context for understanding the name.

Look at the treatise by the Scholar D. Coda;

It’s been nothing but blue for days. Blue sky, blue water, blue feelings…”

Da ba dee da ba die

Dale looked at the gauntlets that he was just about to empower. “They better not be cursed.” Sending Essence through the Inscriptions, his heart fell as the gauntlets tightened and latched onto his wrists. “Oh, come on!” “Really, Dale? Really?” Hans slipped to his feet in a whirl of flesh and loose clothes. “What did I just say?” <Sorry, Dale, but you have a track record of failure, to the point where if I ever die, I want you to be the one to lower my body into the ground, just so that you can let me down one last time.> Dale’s face went red as he listened to the dungeon. <On the plus side, I built these so that they will slide up under your sleeves when you aren’t in combat.

“Cal. What if I need to use the latrine?” Dale growled softly, already getting shifty looks from his team. He didn’t need to be shouting into the air for the dungeon to hear him. <I did say they were self-cleaning, didn’t I?> “No.” <Fine. Just tell them ‘toilet mode’, and the necessary areas will become exposed. Also, that only works if you tell it; some random person can’t do it to you.> “What about if you instruct it?” Dale’s eyes were narrowed so tightly that he may as well have his eyes closed. <Well… oh look, time for you all to go after the dungeon down there!>

“That was beyond foolish. You, more than anyone living, should understand that using Cores like that is wasteful and dangerous.” “I know that, but I only had an issue when I used a Core filled with Mana. I can handle this,” Dale brushed off Adam’s concerns. “Spoken like a true power addict,” Adam replied softly. “Let me guess, ‘you can stop whenever you want’. You don’t need the Cores.” “Well, obviously.”

When the fish died, a small item drop appeared seven feet away. Hans rushed over and looked at it, rolling his eyes before tossing the item into the water behind them. “Fish food.” Hans sighed and trudged toward the ramp. “Unsurprisingly, the rewards are things that are useless to us. Most attackers here are fish. So the rewards are tasty fish food. I hate it here already.”

“How’s your aura going, by the way?” “Ugh, it’s a gigantic frustration.” Dale pulled a face and continued walking. “I know to break into the C-ranks we need to force the excess Essence we collect into our bodies and aura, but for some reason, mine is expanding so slowly compared to anyone else I’ve ever heard of. It’s actually hard to maintain expanding it when I see such poor results.” “Hmm.” Hans tapped the tip of his dagger against his teeth, producing a sound that made Rose wince. “Well… I’m no Craig, but I am in the C-ranks. Hey, Dale, you know what makes your aura expand really fast? Impure Essence. Yup. Instead of weaving a tapestry inside your body, you just add corruption and slap stones together to make a wall.” There was confused silence for a moment, and right as Dale was about to ask what Hans meant, the man continued, “Guess what makes people bad at cultivation and actually attaining higher ranks? You may have guessed it: corruption. You see, your Essence is so pure

Gigantic fish that Dale had never heard of were breaching the water, blowing geysers from holes on their heads. Their walkway was cut off, but Dale had another, possibly foolish, idea. “Follow me!” He jumped off the ledge, landing lightly on the huge fish and running across it like a bridge. “Dale, you are an abyssal crazy person!” Tom roared with laughter as he followed his leader in a headfirst dive off the ledge. “I love it! I get to use a fish as a bridge!!”

As they returned to the first floor, Tom stopped them from moving forward and plunging into the waist-high water. “This level may not be as simple this time.” There were no more walkways. The water had also reached a point where all the creatures were able to move about freely, and dangerous creatures were already striking out toward them

<Are you in there?> I prodded the captured dungeon Core with a tendril of Essence. It attacked the Essence savagely, doing all it could do to absorb the pure power. This wasn’t unusual, I had been given several Dungeon Cores as gifts from Minya. Apparently they were a hot item on the black market. <Hello? I’d hate to destroy you if you can think. No? Do you have a Wisp? Alright… let’s see. If you want to survive, if you can hear me or understand the impressions I’m sending you, don’t try to eat this.> I extended a small thread of Acme mana, which the Core instantly tried to absorb. Instead, it cracked in half and exploded into a massive storm of Essence. I sighed sadly; so far, nothing I did had reached these Cores.

The creature fell limp, and Dale slid to the ground as well, completely exhausted. “Let’s see here… ‘the dungeon wanted me to do it’. ‘I needed to get the dungeon Core and give it to the dungeon’. ‘It was something I was supposed to do myself’.” The Moon Elf was ticking things off on his fingers as he recited parts of earlier conversations. “We are going to try again, and if the answer doesn’t satisfy me, I am going to let something nastier in. Now, tell me again why you went into an unknown dungeon, with a team in the C or D ranks, with no backup, and without explaining it to the people relying on you.” “I just…” Dale sighed and dragged himself to his feet, “I have no excuse. It was a bad idea, and it won’t happen again.” The Moon Elf stared at him, nodding after a few long seconds. “That was the correct answer, finally! I thought we were going to be here all night.”

“Why?” “I told you that if your answer didn’t satisfy me, I would let a monster in. Just because your answer was correct…” he trailed off, pulling another lever and making Dale blanch. Thank goodness, this time it revealed an exit from the training arena the academy had built. “This is a handy invention. Great for letting people test their limits. How do you feel, Dale? Do you feel that your limits have been… tested?” Dale frowned, feeling at his Core. It was almost completely drained, leaving only a depressingly small trickle of Essence running through his body. “I certainly feel like I am completely exhausted if that’s what you are getting at. I have almost no Essence remaining, and I haven’t slept in thirty-nine hours. My limits feel tested, yes.” The Moon Elf sneered at him. “Good.

"Lesson two: opposites cancel." Indeed, as the water hit Dale's shield, there was a small gout of steam that rose away from the impact site, and Dale felt a bit weaker. The Elf continued to speak the entire time Dale was pondering. "It is easier and less Essence intensive to reflect than to cancel. When canceling out another affinity, you are betting that you have put at least as much Essence into your shield as your opponent is throwing at you. Lesson three." His instructor now had a whirling tornado in his palm. He threw it at Dale, and as the wind Essence brushed against the fire Essence, a roaring flame scorched Dale's exposed hands. As Dale cursed and shook his hand, the Moon Elf snickered. "Hee… I love this lesson. Adjacents interact. When in combat, knowing the protections that a person has in place is the key to not only winning, but surviving. Since I knew that you had only placed fire in your defense, it was easy for me to know what would happen."

Allow me to explain. That type of shielding is a simple interaction of fire, celestial, and water Essence. The fire and water interact to make a film of steam around the body, and the celestial works to enhance this while bending light. This type of auric invisibility is fairly weak in terms of actually hiding, as it creates a 'shimmer' in the air whenever the person using it moves. And guess what? Breathing counts as moving. The Moon elves have a different 'recipe' that they use for their invisibility, and it is - as you have learned - far more difficult to see through. I was actually quite impressed when you were able to point one out earlier. So, as you can see, though it offers little defense you gain excellent utility." "That's… that's amazing!" A whole new world of possibilities was opening up for Dale, and he was excited to see where this would take him. "How do I know which combinations are going to be useful for helping to survive battles?" Craig tapped his chin, then steepled his fingers. "It is possible that I was not being as clear as I should have been. Even the invisibility that I was just using is beneficial in some combat but realistically only against those who need to see you to attack or those that weaponize light in one way or another. As this particular technique bends light around you, so long as you are able to output enough power, you would be able to survive a lance of light that can melt a hole in a mountain.” “Each situation calls for a different...

"I'd be happy to assist you, elder." Dale grinned softly as the man rolled his eyes and muttered something too softly to be heard. "Yes, well, perhaps we go with 'Headmaster' for now. Elder seems very… almost condescending with the number of Mages in the area. I'm only in my eighties after all! I'm a spry young bird compared to those old fogies!"

"Sometimes the hardest thing to cultivate is not Essence but patience. Perhaps even harder than bringing yourself to the Mage ranks! In all my years, patience is either the saving grace or the folly that leads to downfall.”

“In short, change from within society also requires that they have a place within society. Most infernal Essence cultivators lack this, due to how they are viewed socially. I believe your settlement is the only one in the current age where their acceptance is something that has been planned for.” The old-looking man’s face seemed to darken. “Even then, I did notice where their particular building is positioned. Rogue comments of the clergy have also not escaped my notice as I passed earlier. I hear there’s a Father present with a keen interest in keeping an eye on them. This merely adds to what I mean about how closed off they must feel. Even here, no infernal student will be without scrutiny, and I expect strong words

He looked back to see Artorian undo a latch on his bag, releasing what appeared to be hundreds of pillows. They flowed from the bag like a river, somehow all making it through the doorway. Artorian looked over his shoulder, seeing that Dale was once again giving him an odd look. The older man shrugged. "I like pillows. I like them everywhere. All I have left to unpack now is a few dishes and clothes, so I'm going to get to it. Have a good day!"

Minya smiled and thanked me, unhooking a keygem from Manny's claws before exiting the room. The Manticore jolted and hopped to his feet, looking around and growling menacingly. <Oh, so big and scary now, huh? I'm pretty sure that I heard you purring not two minutes ago you big faker.> A raspy, growling voice came from the massive Beast, "Petting. Tricked out of treasure by petting." <Eh. I've seen worse.

pulls in ships. Then… the most bizarre thing happened. She got… weaker? No… her cultivation rank dropped. She was pale and shaking, but when her eyes opened again and she smiled, I was in awe of her. She… she had upgraded her law! I hadn't even known that was possible! Was it because plant was a subset of nature? Could anyone enhance their powers with the knowledge I was offering? I needed to make the traps here deadlier. This… now it made sense why people kept freaking out about the paths I had made.

She was now a tier-three nature High Mageous instead of a plant High Mageous. As she sat there, she seemed to be concentrating. She…! She just went up a rank! Two! She jumped to rank A-five over the course of a few hours! How? Her knowledge of and affinity for nature must be incredible! She seemed to have progressed enough and got to her feet wearily. I could hear her speaking to herself, and I listened in closely. "All those years… and that was the key. Fire! I still can't believe it, but now it makes perfect sense! He even told me that fire had a place in the forest, and I laughed at him! I could have been here for a hundred years! I'm a stubborn old fool, needing to see it drawn out for me

“Aura is very difficult to master at the beginning, though progress increases rapidly as you use it properly.” "I just don't understand why such a minor difference should make such a drastic change in the outcome." Dale's voice was full of defeat, making Craig want to roll his eyes in annoyance. He held himself back thanks to his long years of training as a Monk, but it was a close call. "Dale. The difference between blood and water is a few extra minerals and tiny meaty chunks,

“You are bribing me? Or is this blackmail of some kind?” Artorian shook his head… then grinned. “I like it. A cultivator needs to know when brute force will not work and when they will need to turn to other methods.”

My cultivation is focused on the outward instead of the inward. If you look at me with Essence empowering your eyes, you should be able to see that there are no spirals in my cycle, only circles. My entire cultivation base is circling outward and blazing with starlight. I am a beacon to those looking at me, and the light purifies my Core and body daily. This leads to faster breakthroughs, weaker bottlenecks, and longevity that cannot be measured.

a sharp word issued from the S-ranker - somehow not from his body but from the miasma directly - and they no longer worried about anything. I was confused. I had just lost all connection to everything on that level. There was an enormous hole in my influence that perfectly fit the bounds of that floor. I quickly shunted my influence through a makeshift portal between floors to recapture my control and worked to re-establish a tiny bit of connection on that floor. When I could see into the room, I still couldn’t quite understand what I was seeing. The entire floor was empty. No fortifications, no Goblins, no people at all. The strange part was: I didn’t get any Essence from the loss, which was even more confusing and disturbing. Did he not kill everything? Just then, the green light finished returning to the man, condensing in front of him. When it was all there, it shrank down to a small ball of energy. He opened his mouth again, and the energy flew in, vanishing as he swallowed. Did he just eat my floor?

are going to be looking for a weakness. We won’t be shackled for long, Navigation Bob. We’re going to be hunting an S-ranker.> “That’s… ambitious.” <It’s also necessary. We’ll be free one way or another.> “I prefer the version of freedom where we remain alive.” <Yeah, well, we’ll take what we can get.>

Do you know why he can just kill anyone or anything he wants? Because that was part of his contract to get into the Guild. He was so strong that they were forced to recruit him instead of sending an army of fellow S-rankers after him. For this guy to be here… something must have gone really wrong. The war must be going worse than we expected or were told.” “Are you telling me that sending proof that he killed a dozen people out of hand to the Guild will be ignored?” Dale froze up at Hans’ nod, entirely uncertain how to deal with this situation. “So, if we do nothing, we go to war. If we do something, he might eat us?”

<That S-ranker tore the entire level, everything, and everyone on it out of my depths. It was completely desolated; there wasn’t even Essence left in the area, and I’m needing to reclaim that space with influence! Unless I shut the dungeon down for a few days, it may be weeks before that level is back to its previous functionality. He also threatened to kill everyone here and knock me out of the sky if I don’t meet his demands. I messed up, Dale. I messed up bad. Even the hot springs bath is gone!> Dale was now placed in the uncomfortable position of needing to comfort a dungeon, which was also somehow himself, while others looked on curiously. “Um. There, there, big guy.” <Did I give you all my idiocy when I put your soul back in your body or something?> Dale flushed even further. <‘There, there’? Really?>

“The density of Essence increases as we go further down. We can increase our cultivation in a shorter time if we dance on the edge of oblivion.” “How poetic.

“Ugh, so serious all the time.” Hans pushed Dale on the chest, causing him to stumble. “You have the option for a near-unlimited lifespan; have fun every once in a while!” “Where?” Dale blandly asked Hans instead of rising to his bait. “I’ll take you into the city and we can… hmm.” Hans’ brow furrowed, then a devious grin jumped into place. “We can go to the Golden Sands Broth… nope. Huh. To the Abyss with it! Necromancers should be renamed ‘Joy Assassins’. They literally killed all the fun in the world.

Dale was anxious about how cheerful the Elf seemed to be. “Today, we are going to be working on your perception. I love perception training; it gives me free rein to say ‘you should have seen that coming’.

<He buried the Murder Honker under the snowmen. Clever.> Hearing the dungeon giving out compliments about trap-making made Dale nervous; it was going to be getting ideas from this. Dale ran at the goose,

Murder Honker!

Dale shook his head, remembering how when he had been walking over here he had thought he was ready for anything. Who was prepared for snake-stuffed snowmen? Is anyone ever really ready for an angry goose?

This is important training for Dungeon Wisps! Are you a Dungeon Wisp? Do you want us to send Grace off unprepared when she finds a good dungeon to bond to?” I recoiled from those words. <That shouldn’t ever be a problem! She doesn’t need to find anyone else for a few hundred years. Right, sweety?> Grace zipped around, not quite understanding what was going on. I whispered the next part, <I’ll shatter any dungeon who tries talking to you.> “You will not, and you will get out!” She did… something, and my vision of the room disappeared. <Hey! That’s my Mana!> I shouted down the hallway. A muffled reply drifted back to me, “Our Mana! What’s yours is mine!”

A gentle warmth filled Dale as Artorian started to glow. “Sunlight helps everything, a least a little. Except for the undead. Melts them like butter.” He chuckled

She is smart and had made over one hundred levels through an active volcano. That’s… I mean, it’s gone now, but she did it.” Xan’s voice dropped to a whisper. <Is that what took you so long, Minya?> I looked over at the Mage, who was staring at the sloshing liquid Essence still. “Huh?” She seemed to wake up. “Oh. Yeah. It was hard to get down, even harder to get back up through all the rising lava.” <Magma,> I heard a voice call out weakly. <It’s only lava when it is out of the ground.> <Ah, the guest of honor speaks!> I cheered with zero sarcasm. <I’m Cal, and I’d like to offer you a job.> <What? I’m dying, Cal.> <That’s nice,> I responded brightly. <I need someone to take over a few of my floors so that I can do other things. I’m in the process of taking over and regulating the world’s Essence right now. You

The volcano that had been inhabited by Dregs had turned out to be a natural Essence accumulation point, a shaft from deeper in the earth where fire and earth Essences constantly spewed forth. My ley lines were now acting to regulate the energy, but it made me wonder if naturally formed dungeons served a purpose for the world. Did they fix what would otherwise be an imbalance in the Essence of the planet? At this point, so close to finishing the first layer of ley lines… did I care? Nope!

In a few minutes, the power flowing into him returned to a trickle as the loose Essence in the air was depleted. It would replenish soon, but for now, this area was going to be useless to cultivate in. A few Bashers appeared nearby, drawn by the noise and shaking, but they seemed to get sick as they came closer. Dale watched them as they closed in, but a few hops later, they turned and ran away. “What was that all about?” he muttered aloud, not expecting to get an answer. “Well, Dale, they survive on Essence.” Minya was seated off to the side, and he shrieked too shrilly when her voice reached his ears. “Wow. That was extra manly.

Minya’s smile shifted to an annoyed frown. “The academy clerk that you’ve been giving your ‘required items’ to? You never got a receipt or a token of some sort to prove that you were making your quotas. If you go up there without fifty percent more than two weeks’ worth of items, you will be dropped from the academy as soon as you appear.” Dale’s jaw slackened, and he sighed deeply. “You know, I’m not a big fan of murder…” “This is your own fault, Dale. You keep thinking that everyone else is going to be operating in good faith.”

Dale turned and trotted away without a word. He was done being polite; he had done everything he could to be helpful, courteous, and charming in the past, and look where that had got him! Perhaps it was time to be ruthless. His foot hovered in the air, and he set it down slowly. Was this a realization that all cultivators eventually had? Was this why they all seemed to care so little for others, why they only respected power? He wanted to be different, but… his eyes hardened… but being different wasn’t working out. Maybe he had merely stumbled upon the truth.

“With your cultivation technique, you could be in the C-ranks today, if you wanted to ignore our advice. I wonder, though, how much more powerful would you be if you had the body of a C-ranker before ever even entering the new rank? How much more powerful could you become if you devoted your time in the C-ranks to only empowering your body and aura instead of needing to build it like everyone else in that rank?”

“Your brain has been enhanced past what is possible for non-cultivators. You are likely going to find that things that were difficult to understand before now are… undemanding.” Craig smiled as he saw that the Dale he knew was back in control. “How do you feel, by the way?” “I would have to say… embarrassed?” Dale admitted shamefacedly. “Did I really attack you? It feels like a dream or like the memories are from a memory stone.” Craig nodded sagely. “You were out of balance. Your spirit was full of power, and your body was strained to the breaking point attempting to keep up. This caused your mind to begin fracturing, and you looked to increase your fighting spirit above all else. While it is not common these days, it used to be. Back before we knew what these issues were caused by, people would begin to lose themselves to the draw of ever-increasing power,

guess-timate.” “A what, now?” Tom interjected. “I am unfamiliar with this word.” “Guess-timate.” Rose cocked her head to the side. “A guess, an estimate. A guess-timate.” “Why do people have to keep changing the language with weird mash-ups?” Tom grumbled. “I have a hard enough time with it as it is normally;

Hans panted as he lashed out with his daggers yet again. Dale didn’t know what he was attacking at first, then saw a few zombies drop a half dozen feet from them. He must be using his wind affinity to increase the range of his attacks. Probably because… Dale looked at Hans. Yup. Perfectly clean still. “Your reluctance to get filthy in combat is song worthy, Hans!” Dale called over, breaking the tension and putting smiles back on the faces of his friends. “Don’t you dare!

Dale’s hands shook, and then he actually fell asleep in the middle of a battle. He was shaken awake fifteen minutes later to the unpleasant sight of Tom urinating a few feet from his head. He was upright in a second as the others laughed. Rose shrugged at him while chuckling. “Well, we couldn’t use the outer edge as the latrine. A zombie would have bit that off of him.”

“Ahh, that’s the good stuff. I try to stay hydrated, and this is the price. Fear not, Dale. Most men would be having insecurities right now.” Tom grinned as Rose’s cheeks went pink and Hans rolled his eyes. “Just wait until the C-ranks, Tom,” Hans told him. “You can get up to an inch extra each rank. Just ask Dale.” Dale nodded with a straight face. “If anything, Tom, I was feeling a little bad for you.” Tom’s hands twitched, as though he were hoping to take their necks and squeeze. “The two of you are not funny. If these were true facts, there would not be a man alive who didn’t do his utmost to enter the C-ranks.” “Well, you got me there.”

“Talk to me, please! How worried should we be? Please explain what that is!” Dale barked at the two, who simply changed the scope of their conversation to include him. Hans explained the nomenclature as quickly as he could, “Bone Lord, fairly obvious. Bigass undead Golem made mostly of bone. Dreadnought, heavily armored and really hard to stop, does a lot of damage. Not as hard to stop as a Juggernaut-classed one, but it is reinforced with Spiritual energy so that point is basically moot. Legion type: this means that there is a demon bound to each limb that can control it independently and one more powerful demon controlling and coordinating the entire body as a whole. If that thing comes at us without us having S-ranked support, we die. I’d just go ahead and be very nervous, Dale.”

I almost feel like I’m cheating. This type of power delivery system is slowly but surely increasing my power, and I’m not having to do much for it. Actually… you know what? No! I deserve this. Did anyone else set up a world-spanning power collection array? This is the result of hard work, and I should just reap the benefits of all the effort I had to put in to get to this point

the S-rankers and above were keeping their combat even higher in the sky. He was uncertain why they were even fighting, as soon as one side’s S-rankers won, they would crush everyone else. Were they literally there as a distraction for the top-ranked fighters?