Dakota Krout - Dungeon Born (The Divine Dungeon Book 1)

“Far as we could tell, it didn’t seem to have one, Frank.” The large man from the scouting party belched.

“Is that so? Hey! It is Guild Master Frank to you, bub.” A distant look passed through Frank's eyes, and he amended his message to the Mage Guild. No affinity and a Silverwood tree? That was a combination that promised fast advancement through the cultivation ranks. That could offer power and great influence to whomever established themselves in the area. Frank now intended to lead the first group of settlers, and to stake a claim. This sort of thing didn't come along every day after all.

The bunny dying provided me with intimate knowledge of its pattern, and I expected the energy to slam into me as usual so I braced myself for impact. Instead the Chi spiral showed its usefulness for the first time ever! Where the energy had before stuffed my core full of the newly-gained Essence instantly, it now surrounded me and was held in a slowly swirling pattern in the outer spiral, awaiting cultivation.

I was thrilled by this new development, and I really wanted Dani to be excited too.

“Yeah, that looks neat. I am glad you are holding that spiral so well, I kind of expected you to get lazy when you weren’t getting much Essence! Don’t be too surprised now, that is what is supposed to happen.” Dani was a master at making a compliment into an advertisement for a better work ethic.

I knew I should never doubt Dani, but until now the intricate pattern I had been forcing myself to hold seemed to have no purpose, while taking a lot of effort and concentration to maintain.

Waiting till I had fully processed all of the Essence, which took an hour or so even with all my attention being bent to the task, I made two young rabbits. Instead of feeding them Essence till full grown like I could have done, I tried to conserve the energy I had remaining. They would grow quickly in the Essence-rich air of my dungeon anyway, and should be able to mate soon; especially since the pattern I had focused on while creating them gave extra strength to their fecundity.

I offhandedly interrogated Dani, my attention focused on watching my new creatures bound around the room playfully.

“Well…” She snorted, a very unladylike sound, “Seeing as you have two male rabbits, it may be a long time.”

That shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

She released an explosion of air, a cross between a snort and a chuckle, remembering that I had only been aware of life for a few months. “More like never, Cal.”

“You need a female in order for them to... copulate, Cal.” She seemed frustrated, knowing I didn’t understand her laughter or odd embarrassment. She started floating toward the entrance, “I’ll go try and lure one down here.”

That could be handy in the future. Why hadn’t she done that before?

She laughed in a haughty tone, as if to highlight my ignorance. “I am a will-o-the wisp! I am the preeminent expert at luring all manner of creatures to their doom.”

Never know when someone is going to attack after all.

She stopped in midair, hovering malevolently. “Who said I’m going right now? Maybe I want a nap!”

I hadn’t thought of that! We had been rather busy after all.

“Cal, I’m being intentionally difficult. Ugh. I’ll be back shortly. We need to work on your understanding of sarcasm.”

She did indeed return shortly, apparently there was a rabbit warren nearby, but until the stairs were put in place there was no way for them to reach me. The rabbit that followed Dani down in a hypnotized state was larger than the first bunny had been. Dani later explained that this was because it was an animal, usually females tended to be larger than the male, an interesting concept as only male creatures besides Dani had entered my dungeon to this point. In the time it took for a spike from a shroom to find the skull of the female rabbit, I had a slightly altered pattern of the rabbit ready to be used. I made a few young versions, and waited impatiently for them to reach adulthood.

Guild Master Frank looked at the staircase leading to the depths below. A gust of wind blew a spicy mixture of scents upward, and he could feel a hint of raw Essence.

“This is the place, huh?” Frank turned toward the owner of the land, Dale.

“Indeed, milord.” A nervous Dale spoke. Although now the richest man in his village, he knew the Guild Master could likely crush him with the weight of his wallet; using his strength or influence to kill every person Dale knew without facing any repercussions.

“Not much to look at are ya?” Frank glanced at the now uncomfortable Dale.

“E-excuse me?”

Frank shook his head and started again, “Look Dave-”

“Dale. Common mistake sir.” Dale paled with the realization he had interrupted this powerful figure.

Frank grunted at the correction. “Whatever. Listen, you are about to become more wealthy than most small towns. The standard Guild agreement is five percent of all profit from the dungeon will go to you, the finder and owner of the land.”

Dale coughed as he interrupted again, “Sir, I plan on giving a portion of that to the families of the men who found it with me and died trying to escape.” Luckily for him, the jerk he had murdered had no family. “Will that, uhm, be an issue?”

“Huh. Good on you lad, might actually be worth me remembering your name. Your money, I don’t care what you do with it.” Frank disinterestedly offered, though Dale brightened significantly at the words. “I have a different idea for our agreement. The standard is all well and good, but think on this. For the first five years, you get three percent. That should still be an income of several gold per week as it matures, a bit less before then.”

“During those years, the other two percent comes to me, and I will use it to outfit you with a team, basic equipment, food, lodging, and teachers who will help you fix that... mess... of a cultivation base you have.” Frank gestured at Dale when he said this, making him flush with embarrassment, though he didn’t understand the insult.

Frank gave a short explanation of cultivation to Dale when he saw the obvious confusion on his face. He informed Dale that everything passively absorbed Essence as long as it lived. Even plants that lived long enough could even become somewhat powerful as their cultivation slowly and naturally allowed them to become stronger. There was a certain disadvantage to this though, because even when people did not actively cultivate their Essence they still absorbed some from their strongest affinities through passive accumulation.

Since they had no Chi spiral, and therefore didn’t reduce the amount of corruption they obtained, their cultivation base became full of tainted Essence, which spread through their bodies, eventually killing them as ‘old age’ set in. Dale was obviously suited to the earthen element, showing surprisingly strong affinity by pulling in large amounts of the stuff pas, the issue being that he reeked of corruption to the trained senses of the Guild Master. With low Essence and high corruption in his cultivation base, Dale would never be able to move into the higher ranks of cultivation. Heck, if he kept pulling earthen corruption at this rate, Dale would die of a heart attack in ten years, tops.

“Thank you for explaining a bit about cultivation, sir, but as to giving up all of that profit… Why would I do that? How would that help me? That is a lot of money, sir.” The confused young man worried that Frank was trying to swindle him. Just because he was from a poor village didn’t mean he was stupid!