I sidled closer, lifted a hand, and gently brushed a stray curl of hair from her right eye. She shivered at my touch and blushed fiercely at the sensation of my fingertip.
“I swear, with Lilith as my witness, you will come to no harm under my protection. Zagorath may not be the Temple of Ciryli, but if you honestly thought I’m a threat—that I’d turn on you, hurt you, imprison you—you would’ve demanded to leave already My dungeon is only in its genesis, but I will become the strongest dungeon the Infernal Realms have ever seen.”
“I’m not sure I can remain here forever. It would be a great offense against the storm goddess.”
I needed another angle, and a familiar motivation crossed my mind. “You were wronged by this sorcerer, Karlyle. Why not let me help you take revenge?”
“He is a powerful sorcerer, I’m not sure you could—”
I lifted a hand and she stopped speaking. Then I gestured to the dungeon’s walls. “Let me be the judge of what I can do, Abby. And if I can do this in a week, imagine what I could do in a month, or a year? Karlyle’s time for recompense might not be right now, but it will come. Then, when you’ve torn his heart from his chest, you could be standing here, right by my side. I will defeat Entropy. We could destroy them both together.”
She looked at me, stunned. “You honestly believe you can beat them?”
“Better,” I smirked. “I know I can.”
“You certainly have quite the spoils from the battle.”
“Yeah, I should really start collecting everything. I figure I’ll let you have a few items for yourself.”
Abby laughed for the first time, and my heart melted in my chest. “I appreciate the sentiment, but I’m unable to absorb them,” she said. “Not one contains Storm Essence; they are all tainted by Infernal Essence; they were crafted from the physical material contained within your realm, not my own. Adventurers can use any essence that corresponds with their tattoos while most dungeons can only absorb essences and materials from their own Realms.”
“You can’t absorb equipment that’s not originally from the Storm Realm?” I asked.
“No. I cannot. I’m afraid there are many things I cannot do. Without Garili, I fear I’m lost.”
“I won’t let anything happen to you,” I promised, cupping her cheek in my hand.
“I’m starting to believe you,” Abigail whispered, her voice so low that it seemed she barely uttered the words.
She’d said that most dungeons could only absorb their own essence types, and I wondered whether my Vampiric Expertise perk might help me bypass that restriction. I was eager to test it, but I doubted that having sex with Abby would happen any time soon. While her avatar was stunning, she didn’t seem like the type who would be eager to jump into bed with me. She was no Bertha, that much was certain. Sure, she was equally sexy, but she had a reticence that was like armor against my flirting. I’d already managed to slip through a few of the cracks and had even earned a laugh.
Even the best of armor could be broken down, and my avatar was practically a machine whose primary purpose was eating metaphorical armor like the suit Abby wore. But I wouldn’t enthrall her. She would have to choose to sleep with me. There would be no coercion, and I’d use nothing more than my very best flirting efforts.
“Then why don’t you watch while I absorb what the raiders left behind?” I asked Abby.
“I would like that.” The beautiful avatar offered a smile.
I reached back with my mind, found my core, and dissolved my avatar. I caught a single glimpse of Abby’s face as a conflicted expression of disappointment touched upon her fine features, but then she joined me, swirling back into her own glittering sapphire.
Instinctively, my consciousness scoured my floors for items I could feast upon. The huge amount of Soul and Infernal Essence was flooding my core, but I had plenty of space for more. I almost felt a little nervousness as Abby watched me expand my consciousness over the rest of my lair. She’d been a dungeon far longer than I had, but she didn’t seem quite as experienced, so I simply shrugged off the feeling.
Filled to the brim with essence, I needed to break down the spoils of war for blueprints and new crafting materials.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I turned my attention to the new variety of weapons abandoned on the floors of my dungeon. They were created with a new kind of forged steel. Their shapes and dimensions were also different from my cleaver, mace, and poleaxe designs.
Best of all was Ralph’s sword. I centered my consciousness over the weapon and felt it thrum with power.
Acquired Item!
The Dark Reaper
Rarity: Epic
Damage Type: Infernal
Seals: Swiftness +1
Swiftness channels the essence inside a wielder and increases their speed.
Might
Might channels the essence inside a wielder and increases their strength.
I took my time consuming the sigils and noticed the way this more powerful Swiftness sigil varied from the one I’d consumed on Gavin’s weapon. The little runic characters were more detailed, crafted by an artisan with greater skill and more Infernal Essence at their disposal.
The Might sigil was a variation using the same technique as Swiftness, but instead of increasing speed, it increased strength by channeling the Infernal Essence inside a creature’s tattoo or body through a weapon and back into their body.
Zagorath Acquired Enchanted Sigils
Swiftness +1 (1,000 Infernal Essence)
Might (1,000 Infernal Essence)
A quick run over with my consciousness broke the rust away from the sword and left the blade shining like a mirror.
It was formed of a kind of obsidian and steel alloy, which seemed strange since I’d always assumed volcanic rock was too brittle and inflexible to make weapons. But this had been crafted magically, created from Physical Essence rather than forged and hammered into shape. Detailed metalworking ran down an inlet in the middle of the
