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

“I’ll try. I’m going to go catch a nap before lunch, I think.”

Hans scoffed, “Smelling like a sweaty rabbit turd? How about you go bathe instead?! Nap he says! Nap indeed!”

“I need to go give my report to the Guild, and get some guards and a scribe over to this new exit.” Craig announced, already walking away from them. “The Guild needs its taxes.”

Roughly a month passed, with the team settling into their routines. Dale had just returned from bathing after dinner when a shout rang out, “They are going to open the portal!” Anyone not engaged in serious tasks started excitedly moving toward the stone obelisks standing proudly on the small hill. Dale decided this may be fun to join, as he had never even seen a portal before, the anger James had for him kept him away from the site they were building on.

A sonorous chant was swelling, energy like static was flashing along the paired standing stone obelisks. Dale moved into his Essence enhanced sight, trying to understand what was happening. Mana was thick in the air, though it was normally invisible to the naked eye. With the activation of his analysis ability it was readily apparent. He had thought that all Mana would look alike, like Essence did, and with a group working together like this he had expected a harmonious linking of energy as they meshed their sympathetic energy toward a single purpose. In his mind, Mana was going to be beautiful.

The reality was almost… disgusting. It was a clash of primary colors and a visionary cacophony. As one man directed his words, his chant, Dale saw it as a polka-dotted scroll that unraveled and wrapped around the stone. One woman, singing, seemed to have inky bubbles roiling from her mouth which burst in a sequence of light, filling precious gems with power. Amber had the most terrifying Mana moving away from her, the oily coloration roiling in light and impressions, unrefined chaos that the mind interposed its own images on.

Dale shuddered, looking past the Mana, instead trying to look at what they were putting Mana into . The twin obelisks stood, one exactly the same as the other, though in reverse, as they were mirror images of the other. Slowly, brightening Runescript flowed up and around each, in so many varied and opulent ways that it was nigh impossible to find where each began and the surrounding Runes stopped. Each Inscription was filled with gold that had been poured in a single sitting, leaving not a single break, weld, or splatter along the glowing lines.

Exactly the same amount of power went into each stone and they began to hum to their own song, dulling each time the Mana reached a new gem set into the patterns. At precisely the same time on each standing stone, the gem would grow nearly too bright to look at, then darken as the Mana continued up the flowing, golden pattern. The crowd was silent, completely awestruck as enough energy was accumulated into this one spot to begin to punch through the dimensional boundaries. The power became audible, snapping and hissing, the sound of a star detonating and being reborn as a furious and colossal terror of the void.

The opening expanded, a hole of pure darkness was pulled torturously to the artificial terminus represented by pure, glowing energy. The edge of the hole in the universe extended, straining to this glowing end, finally hooking like a fish taking bait. That is, furiously and with dark intent of escape. The chanting increased, the ventablack interior shuddered before finally relinquishing to the Mages control, shimmering into a vision of another locale in the world.

Silence reigned for but a moment as the crowd tried to comprehend what they had just witnessed, some hardened men shaking in terror, before a roar of approval tore from the throat of an astonished onlooker. Then, cheering, shouting, the men praised the makers of this wondrous relic. The exhausted Mages beamed as a festival air took hold, people rushed to enlist the services of these esteemed experts.

“I want to get to the capital of-”

“I have important-”

“Please! I haven’t seen my-”

“Get out of the way! I’m-”

The rush of noise, and soon violence, was shocking to Dale. This entire event reminded him that there was more to life than training and fighting, but also the spectacular end goal you could achieve when you had been training. It was a paradox that made him freeze up, torn between rushing back to the dungeon, or just joining the melee that was rapidly spiraling out of control, just to feel alive.

“ Enough !” A familiar voice sounded, laced with absolute authority. The sound reverberated through his entire being, insisting upon instant obedience. Sixty percent of the fighting men and women stopped, their bodies no longer their own to control, while the others looked like they were moving through thick tar, their motion slowly coming to an absolute halt. Some of the weaker people passed out, their lungs unable to pull in air. All then collapsed to the ground, breathing restored to the gasping group.

“Are you animals? Are you no better than the creatures you come here to fight?!” Frank was walking toward the new portal. “I am ashamed ! Ashamed of my own people! Any Guild members who started a fight, go to the clerks and pay the fee for fighting with your brothers-in-arms. Any who protected another, go collect a bonus from them.”

“Any non-Guild members, if you ever want a chance at joining the Guild, go and make amends, now . It is standard that if you have attacked a Guild member outside of self-defense, you may not join the Guild! We will pardon you this one time as the majority were from my Guild !” Frank roared furiously, face an unhealthy maroon color. “I will not tolerate this ! If any do something so foolish again, their Guild fee will be raised to fifty percent of all valuables gained for a year! A third time, and they are out of the Guild, and blacklisted !”

He stared around at the quaking people, and snorted in disgust, “Why are you still here?! You have your orders! Get moving!”

People scrambled in all directions, some would have been trampled if the threat of Guild expulsion were not hanging in the air. Hans walked over to Dale, standing by as they watched the ocean of motion.

“Well that was fun.” Hans chuckled glibly.

“What did he do to them, Hans? This has been so… Messed up.” Dale shuddered. “I just want to go to bed.”

“Never seen ol’ Frankie in action, eh? Not too surprising. Not too much around here calls for the workings of an A-ranked Mage.” Hans stretched a bit as he began walking to the portal.

“He’s a Magous?” Dale’s eyes widened in shock. He had been rude to Frank on several occasions...

“Ohhh yes. You don’t get to be in charge of things if you are weak, my boy! Those Mages can get pretty scary. How their power manifests is… mind numbing.” Hans expressed in a low, dark tone.

Dale agreed with him, “I saw. What was all of that? Essence seems to look pretty much the same doesn’t it? Why is Mana so different?”

“Mana is… Unique to the person who uses it. It is the true name and power of something that influences reality in the way they want it to. From what I understand, when you first say a word in that… ‘Language’ for lack of a better word, your Essence becomes a concept of reality that you have uttered.”

Dale was more confused than he had been at the start of the conversation. “How then do they do different things? Don’t they have control of just one thing?”