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

“Brilliant!” Frank whispered. He hadn’t realized the forethought Dale had put into his good fortune. When land was purchased, any deeds were signed with Mana-infused ink that was impossible to fake or forge. The contracts had to be honored by both Kingdoms, when before the contested nature of the mountain would allow one of the Kingdoms to attempt a hostile takeover if he had only bought from the other. In fact, the contract for the land would also be enforced magically, Frank wondered if Dale knew about this aspect of his purchase.

“Listen,” Dale tried to placate the priest, “I think you should move further away from here. What if beasts are drawn to this place and attack your church? What if something breaks out of the dungeon? Will you stand in the way and fight when creatures are attacking your followers? Will- “

“Yes.” Richard told him seriously.

“See-” Dale sputtered to a stop, train of thought derailed. “Wait, what?”

“Yes, I will.” Richard calmly promised. “I will protect them.”

Dale tried again, rubbing at his temples as a headache threatened, “Look, Father, praying at a problem won’t make it go away, it-”

“Yes, it will.” Father Richard chuckled darkly.

Dale tried again with a sheepish chuckle, seeing why Frank had gotten so angry, “Father, you aren’t understanding me.”

“No, you aren’t understanding me .” Father Richard grinned, and bowed his head. Murmuring a short prayer, he gestured at the empty lot that he had been after. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen as the sun rose higher in the sky. A word came out of Father Richard’s mouth that shook the air and made no sense to Dale, followed by a beam of light that tore from the heavens and settled into a perfect square on the entire lot for several glorious seconds. The sound created was amazing, a cross between a choir singing… and rock exploding. When the light faded several moments later, the ground had been fused into perfectly clear glass, three feet straight down. The heat coming off of the molten land was enough to singe Dale's eyebrows, even from this distance.

The Father turned back towards Dale, “You see, young man, I am a rank-A priest. If someone were threatening my flock, I would be more than willing, nay, I would cheerfully send them to the creator.”

Dale watched the clear liquid of the ground steam, all impurities apparently burned away. “Well. The spot, ah, is yours it... seems. Let’s make a lease shall we? What are you willing to offer as payment?” Dale tried not to be stunned by the casual display of apocalyptic destructive capabilities.

Father Richard snorted at Dale's attempt to seem nonchalant. “Many things. Firstly, I will build my own building. I will provide healing to people as needed, for a small offering. With this many people, families are bound to arrive, it won’t always be the simple military camp it is now. A church in the area will alleviate many concerns families may have. I will teach and train youngsters for no charge, and accept any into my order who are gifted with an affinity for celestial Essence.”

“I will be able to provide them a means to gain this Essence, in the proper ways. Often, children with celestial affinity are small or weak because they cannot gain any Essence, I will teach them how to properly cultivate through their prayers.”

“Finally, I will provide a bank to the community that will not be corrupt as a non-morally guided bank would be. We will only take a small amount in fees that will provide the bulk of our income, and our rent to you, which will be determined by a percentage of the gross amount we earn.”

Dale was impressed by this man’s knowledge of the world, but realized that as an A-ranked person, he could be several hundred years old. “Father, you seem very knowledgeable and wise. I do agree to these terms, though I must ask, why did it take so long for you to be given a church? You obviously have the power and wisdom to stand alone.”

“We, my sect of the church that is, are in disfavor with the Bishop due to our favored practice of worship.” Father Richard disclosed brightly, happy that the land was his.

“Why? What do you do?” Dale was genuinely curious.

“We do the lord's work as our penance, our service to the world. We hunt demons and the undead. Pardon me, I have work to do!” Father Richard jauntily stated, moving toward the small market area to find craftsmen.

Dani had been correct, wiping out a party every week or so caused no undue attention, as the amount of dungeon divers increased. Apparently, the promise of long life and vast riches caused people to ignore the danger inherent in this occupational choice. Go figure. Only a month and some change since they arrived, now a sea of adventurers waited on a line for the Guild to grant them permission to enter, only the first group of the day showed up on a regular basis. They seemed to have some kind of precedence, maybe? That didn’t really bother me though. Thanks to the constant Essence gains I was making, I had gained enough power fast enough that six of the Beast Cores around me held their own Chi spiral. They weren't sentient stones of course, I spiraled their Essence manually. Thanks to keeping these Cores charged, I was able to fill the rooms with Mobs nearly as soon as the humans vacated them, allowing multiple groups to enter in staggered time frames. I would eventually use or absorb the Essence accumulated in the Beast Cores, but I would have choked on the amount of energy I was gaining, I could not just take it all in. Similarly, the corruption stones were also becoming full, but try as I might, I could not make them spiral, they just sat there, glowing with their corruptions respective color.

Thanks to the massive group of people moving through me, and the large amounts of deaths that occurred seemingly by their own stupidity, just a few short weeks after entering the ninth rank of the F series, Dani was coaching me on how to move into the D rankings.

“Let me explain to you what needs to happen, Cal. The reason it is called ‘breaking’ into a new rank is that you need enough knowledge and power to further ‘break’ your Essence, and the mental barriers to advancement. I need to warn you - it hurts. A lot.” She started seriously, “To get into the D-ranks, your Chi and Essence spiral needs to shatter into a ‘fractal’. This means that each part of the pattern has the same statistical character as the whole.” She took a breath as I attempted to understand her meaning.

“In other words,” she clarified,” your Chi spiral needs to become a spiral, made of spirals, which are further made of spirals. The Essence swirl that it draws from needs to become a swirl, made of swirling Essence. This will, when you manage it, allow you to astronomically increase the Essence you can hold and absorb at any given time, at least a hundred times more at any given point.”

I kept pace with her lecture, making affirmative noises as she spoke.

“It is, and it will take a lot of your Essence to break down the other Essence, the payoff is absolutely worth it though. I’ve been making you practice splitting your focus, which is why we waited until you had those Beast Cores swirling with energy. Spinning multiple spirals is really good practice for this, also it is a benefit that humans will never get to use.” She made sure I was paying attention and told me something rather unexpected. “Now, achieving a breakthrough may take a few days to do, and will require all of your focus, so I suggest that tonight when everyone is out and going to bed, you grow a wall of stone to block them, and keep them out while you do this.”