Kyrine held up a hand. “It’s difficult to conceal moving people. Give the women a moment to get up the towers.” She waited. Her whole body was shining in bright light. “Now,” she said. “They’re in place. I’m opening the gates.”
I leaned into my overview of the mansion, seeing the open dungeon slot behind the main door where I stood. I chose my new dungeon, the Castle Hall, and placed it in the slot. Then I activated my Sentient Dungeon Awareness and, with Kyrine at my side, I felt myself fade from the hallway.
The new dungeon arched out below me. I was disoriented for a moment, but then I grew used to it. My body was stone and glass, wood, and fire. The floor, the ceiling, the traps and the monsters, the loot, the potions, and the food, it was all me. I became the dungeon.
It was an amazing feeling.
I settled into it like a man settling into a warm bath. Every tool of the dungeon was at my fingertips. The fire in the hearth burned and crackled, the food on the tables steamed, and I grinned inside myself as the doors burst open and Sarah Windvane strode into the hall. She was flanked by her buddies, the two big half-ogre brothers Todd and Josh Hammerfist.
“Looks like they’ve been putting their gold to good use,” I said to Kyrine. Last time, I had lost focus and let my voice be heard within the dungeon, but this time I had more control over myself, and I knew to watch out for that and not let it slip.
Kyrine channeled her quiet, amused reply back to me. “I’d say so. Look at that armor!”
She drew my attention to the healer, Todd. He had been wearing an old suit of Kevlar body armor and some old-fashioned steel plate last time, but this time he was wearing gold-plated chainmail, brand new Kevlar, and gleaming steel plate inlaid with swirling golden patterns. The gold of his armor matched the polished brass of his warhammer, and he had two massive potion belts slung around his waist and a third over his chest.
Josh had also been spending his gold. His gear was less fancy than Todd’s, but it looked like the best that money could buy all the same. Black Kevlar underlay was covered by black polymer breastplate inlaid with glowing runes, and he wore black military combat boots under black tactical trousers.
But Sarah looked the best of them all. She had nothing new, but her gear had been mended, polished, and upgraded, and every facet of her steel gleamed like the morning sun. Her eyes shone, and her black hair swung down boldly behind her as she marched into the dungeon. Her longsword was in her hand, and she smiled, looking for a fight.
It was clear that all three of them had leveled up after their last fight. Their spells would be better, their reflexes quicker, their resistance to spells greater. We were really doing it. We were creating more powerful fighters already. These were our first.
“Let’s give them what we’ve got,” I said to Kyrine.
We began to fling mobs at them.
The castle mobs were based around ideas of medieval soldiers. They lunged up from summoning portals in the floor and walls, armor clad humanoids with blank faces and glowing eyes.
“They’re pretty scary looking!” I said to Kyrine as the first mob appeared, formed ranks, and then charged at the adventurers.
Sarah shouted to her companions. “Hold your positions and stick to your roles!”
Last time they had fought, they had been weakened and almost defeated by the Frostbreath Cougars when they had abandoned their team roles and fought their enemies piecemeal. This time, it was clear that they were not willing to make that mistake.
Todd and Josh stayed back, and a stream of pure white healing and support magic flowed from Todd’s hands to Sarah.
Josh had his crossbow, but I saw now that it had been upgraded from last time. Instead of manually having to reload it, he had a clip of bolts attached, and it seemed to be capable of semi-automatic reloading. Every time he let off a bolt, a little lever at the back clanked into place and a new bolt slipped into place. It still took a moment, but it was way quicker than it had been before.
Sarah was fast as lightning and swift as flowing water, her steel cutting a shining arc of death through her enemies. She seemed to have chosen to fight without her helmet today, and I wondered if that meant she had some new kind of magical protection to cover her head and face?
The medieval castle hall mobs were dressed in plate armor and chainmail, but they had a weak spot at the elbow and the neck, and Sarah soon spotted this and made use of it. Her sword swung, knocking back their attacks and severing heads and limbs from bodies.
“I feel a bit safer throwing more at them this time,” I said to Kyrine, and I felt her agreement coming along the psychic connection between us.
“They’ve leveled up, that’s for sure,” she said. “I wish we could view their stats, but that’s not a capability we have unless we create an alliance with them.”
“An alliance?” I asked. “What’s that?”
She sighed. “Back in the golden age of dungeons, on Eosor, certain teams of adventurers would become attached to a certain dungeon through an alliance. It was not as close a bond as you and I share, of course, but it was a bond all the same. The adventurers would commit themselves to the protection of the dungeon in exchange for increased benefits, and they became kind of gatekeepers, making sure that other adventurers were worthy of the legendary dungeon’s attention. Oh, the lesser dungeons sometimes had allies, too, but the
