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

I growled. I needed to know anything she did.

“Well, Necromantic cultivation isn’t actually… illegal. It just has a really bad reputation. The main way they get more powerful is by absorbing the burst of Necromantic energy that results from something dying, similar to what you do...” She trailed off.

“Ahem, well, Necromancers get killed because they obtain more energy when strong emotions are passing through the person at the time of death. So, most quickly delve into torture and murder and other illegal things.” She whispered. “If they didn’t get caught doing that though, they wouldn’t even be in trouble… Though demon summoning, a branch of Necromancy, is illegal everywhere.” She finished in a rush, as if that tidbit would appease me.

I sighed, a neat trick without lungs.

“That's the spirit!” She enthused, “Ah… hah.”

I admonished her, though I was smiling on the inside.

“The most common thing is to raise the dead. That isn’t, well, the act itself isn’t illegal, but some places will really dislike it, for obvious reasons.”

I quipped.

“Pretty much. People really don’t like desecration of their loved ones. Now, while the reanimated creature has to do what the summoner wants, the summoned creature is always, always insane.” She shuddered and cuddled up to me.

I was really curious now.

“The only souls that are able to be summoned are those that have run from the Creators judgement. They fear the void, the nothingness that awaits them, or the abyss, which is terrible for other reasons. They wander the earth and can never stop moving. They can never sleep, never taste, never feel. By the time they feel a summoning, they are jealous of the living and will do anything to kill them, to absorb the energy of their death.” She sounded close to weeping.

I was morbidly curious.

“No, the average undead isn’t that smart. They will take the most direct route for anything, they have no forethought anymore. They aren’t used to having a corporeal form. The really dangerous ones are actually the demons.” She fearfully let me know, “They are confused for undead because they need to inhabit a corpse in order to have a corporeal form, but they are actually incredibly intelligent and horrifically cunning. There is a rumor that they hate the one who summons them, and if given a chance would kill their master. Wrong . They cheerfully obey their summoner, doing everything they can to keep them alive and happy. You see if their master dies, the demons are yanked back into the abyss.”

“If a Necromancer were a good person, they would be nearly the best at almost any profession. Working with dead things is the domain of those with the infernal affinity. Since humans and other sentient things are made of all the different essences, as they get stronger they discover that they can use their lesser affinities to augment themselves.” She told me in a puzzling manner. Seeing my confusion, she continued.

“Take Dale, for instance,” She made me look at the cultivating group, “He has a major earth affinity. In the C-rankings, he may find that he has a minor affinity with Fire Essence as well, making him a magma cultivator. Fire and water? Steam cultivator. Each distinct affinity he is able to use and cultivate from will give him better options, and make him more likely to ascend into the B-rankings.”

I had been wondering why most of them only pulled from one source at a time.

“The best affinity they have will allow them to get the purest Essence as fast as possible. The older ones who know the truth - that they could pull from all sources if they found a way to unblock themselves - hide this fact because it can lead to really corrupted Essence in a hurry.” She informed me with a small smile.

I had realized she had glossed over that.

“Oh, well, think of it like this: A blacksmith who imbues Essence into his work to make it better is a Magma Cultivator, usually the case anyway. If he had infernal and earth as his affinities, he or she would not even need a flame to shape the dead earth into the form they wanted. Also, they would instinctively know the best way to make a weapon to produce the deadliest version that it could become.” I got a chill as I thought of the implications and possible uses.

I wondered aloud.

“Not always, it will rely on personal skill, but typically Necromantic cultivators can reverse the knowledge of how to destroy things into a foundation to making things better. If they are smart, they could be some of the best in the world, but killing is so much easier than the slow route they would need to take. They can’t cultivate like other humans, with meditation and pulling from elements, neither can celestial Mages, so their growth is very slow usually.” She ended her tale as Dale's group began to move again.

This was my chance to get them, so I decided to take time to ponder Dani’s words as the day continued. Dale now led the way, calling out stress points and possible traps with far more accuracy than he had started with a few weeks ago. With a start, I realized that those stress points were like irritants to me. When the group was further along the tunnel I would smooth those points, which felt really good, like a muscle relaxant must to a human. I should listen to their conversations more often, I chided myself.

I tried so hard to trick them into dying, but they avoided all of my ambushes so skillfully I felt they were playing with me. I had a bit of luck when they were crossing the bridge, some acid getting onto the cloth surrounding Craig’s hand, He lost a little skin, but had the cloth off himself very quickly. It splashed into the acid pool with a hiss, and the information it contained came to me. I realized that it was very interesting stuff, but I would need to work through it slowly. I had never seen such a small item so intricately Inscribed with Runes.

They kept coming, falling for the light fountain room, going well out of their way. They walked in and looked confused until Steve recognized what the shimmering liquid was, convincing everyone to use any open flask to contain some of the potion. Having filled most of their flasks earlier with the healing potion, only a few were available for this shining fluid. Somehow, the light in the room must have distracted them from the Runescript on the ground around the shining cistern. To their dismay, as they walked away all of their shoes, boots, and foot wraps degenerated into piles of scraps. Heh. Barefoot adventurers.

They corrected their mistaken route, making it into the Boss room. I was looking for the best route of attack when I heard the big one, Josh, mention something rather concerning.

“Did you hear about the new quest? Apparently there is a Mob in here we haven't seen before, a gold colored one that healed the Boss yesterday. Huge reward for the first one caught, double if it is alive. Also something about a Wisp, but I haven’t seen anything like that here.”

“Oh? Well, let’s find it, daddy needs a new pair of shoes.” Hans earned himself some booing from the group of barefoot individuals.

They were in for a surprise today! The crowd above was cheering again, placing bets and preparing for the battle. Well, let’s see if I can’t make them lose some money. I had made a tunnel around the room that opened up several feet above head level, and only the thundering of stone and the cries of surprise from above made the small group look up as Raile dropped toward them from on high.