Chapter 2 Part 2 of 2 (Patreon)

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“We need to talk to Elder Fred and his people,” Erik said to Rugrat as they left the command center.

“Yeah.”

The two walked in silence, passing soldiers at different posts.

Elder Fred and his family were in their own private room. They halted their conversation as Erik and Rugrat entered.

Fred stood to greet them.

“Thank you for your aid,” Erik said.

“You freed us and were in need,” Fred became quiet. “I wish we had arrived sooner. Then, Gilly ...”

“She was a great companion. She developed into a fine dragon.”

“I remember when she was just a little thing, just swimming in her pool everyday.” Fred grew quiet as William rubbed Elizabeth’s arm. She turned her head into his arm, her hair covering her face.

Reaper looked at his fingers and sat down.

Dromm shifted on his feet with a shaky sigh.

Racquel hugged Rugrat, who seemed to tense before hugging her back.

“She will be sorely missed,” Erik pushed out the words.

Fred nodded and took a breath. “Is your offer to join Alva still open?”

“It is.” Erik’s head cleared as he frowned.

“Would you think of allowing us entry?”

“Sure, but why?”

“Why not? Travelling and adventuring for so long teaches one that without roots you cannot grow and blossom.”

Erik nodded. “Welcome to Alva, there are contracts and other things that must be done.” Erik looked up. “Egbert, did you hear that?”

“Yes, I will prepare the contracts!” The voice came through the dungeon.

“An odd one, that skeleton,” Fred opined.

“We have a few strange ones.” Erik smiled and looked over at Rugrat who was talking with Elizabeth, William, Dromm, and Racquel, who had stopped hugging him but was standing nearby.

“I will not keep you. I am sure that there is much you have to do, Lord,” Fred smiled.

“I’ll have many questions about the higher realms,” Erik said.

“And I’ll have your answers.”

Erik turned to leave.

“Wait up,” Rugrat called out.

Erik halted his steps.

Rugrat said some parting words and jogged over to him.

“I’m going to check on the wounded and the troops.”

“I’ll tag along,” Rugrat said.

“Sure you don’t want to talk to Racquel?”

“We do it together man,” Rugrat said.

Erik nodded as they headed into the tunnels again. They had just reached the hospital when Egbert waved them down and ran over. “What’s up Egbert?”

“Well, I have a dungeon core for you.” Egbert opened his robe, showing the core floating in his ribcage.

Erik could feel the invisible pull of elements and mana into the dungeon core.

==========

Dungeon Core

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Grade: Lesser Sky

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Range:

3250m

Controlled by:

Erik West

Jimmy Rodriguez

==========

Erik saw a list of other notifications. I’ll deal with that later.

“I totally forgot,” Erik said as Egbert closed his robe.

“Also, I looted everything I could from Vuzgal, took everything that was underground,” Egbert waved his rune-covered finger bones, “including core components of the totem as it was linked to the dungeon.”

“Can we use it?” Erik asked.

“The power draw is massive. This dungeon, as it is, wouldn’t be able to support it.”

“Always good to have a backup just in case,” Rugrat said. “We can use the resources in Alva. Instead of splitting our development between three cities we’ll focus on one realm and two cities.”

“When we got Vuzgal, we put so much into it.” Erik shook his head.

“I also have a request,” Egbert played with the hem of his robe.

“Go on,” Erik frowned, crossing his arms.

“While holding the dungeon core, I uhh, realized something.” Egbert paused opening and closing his jaw.

Erik and Rugrat waited on him.

“I can work independently of the dungeon if I have my own dungeon core,” Egbert said in a rush.

“So if you have a dungeon core in your body you can leave a dungeon and not collapse? You can do that with enough mana stones, right?”

“Yes, but I am consuming the mana stones. With a dungeon core, because it is drawing in and purifying mana, it acts as a mana system for me. If I were to carve more runes into my bones, I could store the mana in my bones and give myself a mana pool, and I could add in formations to increase the range that I can draw mana in from.”

“That’s a lot of power, if you’re only restricted by the formations you carve into your bones,” Rugrat said.

“Well, I would need to improve the, uhh, materials.” Egbert waved at himself. “Though my skeleton gets stronger the more mana that runs through it. I can test out body tempering like the undead as well.”

“What grade of dungeon core would you need?”

“A lesser mortal grade would be enough to keep me mobile and test with.”

“Okay, hold onto Vuzgal’s dungeon core for now and test out using it in your body. Do you have an idea of what to use the core for?”

“Yes, we should use it for the Alva defense grid and drill power bleed-off.”

Erik and Rugrat turned their heads as Egbert stood there.

“And that would be?” Rugrat prompted.

“Oh, well we have one main dungeon core that acts as the command center. We break off a lot of smaller dungeon cores, create a network between them, add in those attack and defensive formations we talked about, and link them to the drill and mana gathering formations. That way we can control a massive area of land. When the drill cracks into the ley line, the power will be diverted through the floors of the dungeon, their mana gathering formations and then spread out to the defensive network and their mana cornerstones. I recovered all of the mana cornerstones that we had in Vuzgal as well.”

“Dungeon, just add mana,” Rugrat murmured.