The Dungeon Lord Ch. 01

The only sound for miles was the rhythmic clink of metal on stone from my work. I was just thankful I was hidden from the suns blazing heat by a few meters of earth. I had maintained a pretty steady pace with this pickaxe, but in spite of the relative smoothness of my work, my mood was still pretty bleak.

Occasionally I would accidentally catch a glimpse of myself in the water bucket next to me and really wish I hadn't. It was a reflection of a man's face that had been weathered by age, his hands wrinkled, and his back crooked. It was not the look of a man who had aged gracefully. My grey robes were in tatters and covered with dust and dirt. The lantern hanging from my waist completed the look; old, worn, and barely functioning well enough to illuminate a few meters in front of me.

My whole body was uncomfortably drenched with sweat, and my arms were burning with the strain of just keeping my pick moving. My blistered fingers were also making their complaints known. My breathing sounded so wheezy I was genuinely surprised this old body hadn't given out yet. I couldn't stop though, at this point my body wouldn't recover even if I did, it was too tired, too hungry and too thirsty. I was just too damn old, and I was dying one breath at a time. If I stopped to rest for even a second, I wouldn't be getting back up again. If I stopped I died. If I kept going I had a chance, so I swung my pick.

Then again.

Over and over, I ignored the sensations in my limbs, until finally with a loud noise, a small part of the dirt wall crumbled in front of me. I involuntarily gasped in disbelief before scrambling to peep through the small hole, lifting my lantern in a desperate attempt to view into the gloom on the other side. Inside I could barely make out the silhouette of a small structure in the center of the room. I recognized it though. I had seen it a thousand times in my research notes.

"Hu......hahah, ahahahahah", even in my exhausted state I couldn't help but laugh with ecstatic glee.

I picked up my pace as I brought the pick down again on the cracked wall, ignoring the renewed screaming of my tired limbs as I hacked away at the final barrier, seeking to widen it enough for me to comfortably fit through. It didn't take me long to make a hole big enough for me, but each swing of the pick had been a new agony. I still practically danced a little jig as I passed through the breach into the open cavern.

"Hahahahahah! I knew I could do it. A lifetime of work, doubt and monotonous searching but I fucking did it! Fuck you Glassmont academy of magic!" I bellowed as well as I could with my tired lungs.

After being wracked by a bout of coughs I regained my composure and quickly got to work. My fingers shook as I grasped the necklace that was concealed around my neck, calming myself with its familiar touch just before I lifted the chain over my head and observed the attached tiny statue of an angel, hands reaching out in supplication. I took a deep wheezy breath and disconnected the statuette from its chain and placed it into the cavity of the small structure in the center of the cavern. The base of the figure was a bit too small for a snug fit in the indent within the cavity and I briefly feared that it was incompatible.

My fears proved unfounded however, as instantly the gloomy air of the cavern lit up in technicolor as streams of light swirled through the air before diving into the stone skin of the statue, the steady streams of light condensing within the statue, dying it in multicolored splotches before finally mixing together into a clear white light that slowly covered it's surface until it glowed with a blinding radiance. It was almost anti-climactic how efficient it was, I couldn't even sense a shred of mana in the air, yet there it was, glowing in front of me.

"Such a small thing..." I chuckled, amazed at the sheer power condensed within the tiny enchanted statue; in just a few seconds it had managed to produce, refine and store more raw mana than the entire continents mageholds could produce in a year. Hell, I could still remember a time when mana storage was just a theory. The magical mastery of mages prior to the 'World Sundering' surely were on a whole different level to what could be produced now.

Now for the hardest part of this whole exercise, I took a deep breath as I prepared myself mentally for an ordeal that would take hours of focused concentration, where a single misstep would obliterate me utterly. With shaking hands I slowly moved forward and cautiously grasped the statuette.

The feeling was instantaneous as my entire body was filled with the statue's power, my magical circuits practically sparkling within my soul as they attempted to process so much raw mana. It was only a lifetime's worth of practice and preparation that stopped me from being immolated on the spot. Even with that my magical circuits were still beginning to fail under the strain, each one cultivated by years of practice and completely irreplaceable via conventional healing were beginning to short out one by one, taking a bit of my magical ability with them each time.

I couldn't rush though. I began my work slowly as I slowly started to redirect the mana's flow, a little bit at a time over the course of hours. If I could put it into mundane terms, it was akin to redirecting the flow of a roaring river with a large sheet of delicate glass. Still I persevered as I turned the flow of mana so that instead of it flowing into me and trying to dissipate through me into the air, I redirected it so that it entered my body, flowed through my mana circuits, and then moved invisibly through the air and back into the statuette, creating a circuit between me and the statuette.

Linking us permanently.

The relief as I finally created the circuit between us was also instantaneous, magical circuits that had died of mana overload moments or hours before restoring themselves just as quickly, thicker and stronger than before.

I supposed in some ways I had just made myself some kind of pseudo living lich, complete with a life sustaining mana phylactery. I was now a being of living magic as much as I was a man. A living magic core.

The feeling of the power flowing through me was intoxicating, all my previous tiredness had dissipated, and in fact my whole body was tingling with untapped energy. As I looked at my hands I saw that the wrinkles of a lifetime had completely disappeared, leaving behind only smooth pale skin that was far smoother and healthier than anything I had laid claim to even in my youth. Curious, with a wave of my hand, I conjured a mirror into the air in front of me; the obscene mana requirements of converting energy into matter requiring not even a incurring a shred of fatigue in me.

I looked into the mirror in shock. Still loosely wrapped in my tattered rags, the body before me was that of a golden haired youth, perhaps just on the cusp of adulthood. The figure was petite with slim delicate limbs and blemish-less snow white skin. It was a body that that could have been called both handsome and beautiful in equal measure. I supposed some comparison could have been made to a child of the Aelfir, on account of the delicate features, emotive blue eyes and very slight sharpening of the ears, but such a comparison would be like comparing a candle to a bonfire.

I recognized it surely as the face of my youth, but changed as if someone had inclined to shape it such that my features would be loved universally. I knew surely it was a face and body that would heat the blood of many a maiden, married woman, and even convince a few men to perhaps once make an exception to their gender preference. It was beauty and handsomeness that could only be engineered supernaturally for a human hand could never craft such delicate balance. Only my eyes hadn't truly changed, now beautiful I supposed, but still carrying the weight of my years as I remembered them, resulting in an aura of agelessness.

After a lifetime of being painfully average in the looks department, and the last few years as a nearly decrepit old man, I was tempted to jump up and down in glee, but I reined the impulse in. Although I was genuinely happy, the urge to jump up and down wasn't one I would have felt as a man in his sixties, causing me to wonder if the youthful urge to jump up and down was a result of me now inhabiting a younger body. I would need to keep an eye on my urges in order to check for abnormalities in future.

Right now though I had work to do and all the power in the world to do it with.

"Now then, let's see what we can do."

I dismissed the mirror in a puff of multicolored smoke. Next I chanted a short spell in the ancient tongue to create some floating orbs of light and had them float out to spread evenly across the cavern. As I properly took in my surroundings I shook my head in dismay before chanting to cast a longer spell. When I finished it, the cave, that had been more or less been an uneven looking natural cavity, began to change as it smoothed itself out until the walls and floor were a smooth grey brick that reminded me of my home in magehold. With that done I chanted again and the room spread outwards and upwards as I simultaneously sunk us lower into the earth, until it was a spacious hall with a high ceiling. The small statue was still sitting in its alcove in the center.

I surveyed my handiwork for a second before deciding that it looked kind of underwhelming, and with a flick of my hand had a chunk of floor rise up so the statuette was sitting on a large stone alter. I added in a few decorative arches and pillars and it was all suddenly looking a lot more impressive.

Happy with that for now I moved onto the next task. I bit into the flesh of my finger, wincing slightly as I drew blood, before using the bleeding digit to draw a magic circle on the cobblestone floor. Standing back I began my chant once more. It was longer and more complex than the one to change the room but it was still not even close to the difficulty of linking with the statuette and took only take a few minutes. As I chanted the light orbs around the room flickered slightly and inched slightly closer to the circle until I said the last syllable at which point they snapped back into place.

Indeed, it would seem as if nothing had changed at all.

"I know you are here. This trick may work on the foolish and naïve, but I know the spell worked and I have no intention of lowering my wards to check anything."

I projected my voice across the room as commandingly as I could; sadly I think a lot of the intent was lost because my new body was younger and noticeably more high pitched than my older one. I would probably have to add a sinister echo or something later.

After a few moments of stillness the air within the circle shimmered and where before there had been nothing but empty space, now stood a beautiful raven haired woman. She was beyond a shadow of a doubt the single hottest specimen of feminine beauty I had ever seen, and I wasn't deliberately looking for the features I may not even have noticed the horns or tail.

"Sorry, it's been a while since anyone has had the mojo to summon me. Like at least a few hundred years, you can't blame a girl for hoping a few of the tricks of the trade had been forgotten, especially with a cutie like you on offer. I assume you were the one who called me?"

The woman's voice sounded like the tinkling of a bell. Involuntarily I wondered what she would sound like screaming in ecstasy. I firmly shut that thought process down as I had to focus on the summoning, and not on my recently revived teenage sex drive. It didn't help that her words were supplemented by the musky scent of female arousal that I could smell even from where I was standing. A succubus was dangerous in more ways than just physical, and all the power in the world couldn't stop their appeal.

She truly was as beautiful as only a creature designed for seduction could be; her vibrant green eyes and pouty red lips were framed by her silky black hair. She was wearing something that would be seen as clothing by name alone. It seemed the series of crisscrossing leather straps and belts only feature was to emphasize exactly delicate pale skin underneath. The look was completed by her long and glossy black hair that trailed in a long mane across the delicate white skin of her neck and down to her thighs. The way it writhed and twisted around her body when no wind was blowing suggested it moved according to her will. What was really drawing my attention above all else though were the pleasant swells of her massive breasts as they strained against their bindings.

"That's right." I said as calmly as I could, drawing my eyes away from her tits through sheer force of will.

"Well thanks for that. How about you just erase this little circle and I can show you just how thankful I am." The succubus said as she leaned forward and coquettishly moved a strap slightly to the side, exposing a slight hint of pink before moving it back.

I resisted the urge to groan at how unsubtle that was... and nearly effective.

"That won't be happening. If I erase that summoning circle, you would be able to act freely. At which point you would probably rape me, suck up all my mana reserves in the process, then use that to sustain yourself long enough to find someone else and repeat the process until someone managed to banish you or you ran out of mana. No, I think erasing the magic circle comes after a contract is formed." I explain as calmly as possible.

As soon I said that she dropped the coquettish act and collapsed bonelessly into a sitting position on the stone floor. It was a rather lewd look, but I was pretty sure at this point it was more of a subconscious thing. When she spoke again it no longer sounds like the tingling of bells, and was more akin to what I imagined to be the husky voice of a veteran, but still young and enthusiastic whore.

"Oh come on, live a little. I'm pretty sure that if you have even a hint of the mana capacity I'm sensing then I could probably fuck you for the next five years straight and not have a problem."

I gave her an unamused look. I supposed she was right in that she really didn't pose a danger to me. If she burst forth from the circle right then, I could turn her into charcoal with a wave of my hand. Still, there was no point in taking unnecessary risks.

"So what do you want me for then? To destroy your enemies? Sleep with you? Sleep with your enemies? Sleep with you and your enemies? Personally I'm really hoping for the last one."

She gave me a wink at the last bit, and I had to use my magic to discreetly suppress a blush. Damn teenage hormones and relative lack of experience with the fairer sex for a number of important reasons! I had done well thus far, but it was only now occurring to me that I was actually talking to a sex demon. A female sex demon. Who I could get to do whatever I wanted. For a man whose entire life had been spent looking at women from afar, the difficulty level of this encounter was suddenly ramping up.

Focus.

"Umm. I actually want you to help me build a dungeon." I said, accidentally letting a bit of my nervousness slip in the process.

The succubus sat up now, seemingly interested in more than just eye fucking me for the first time since the conversation started.

"You want 'me' to help you build a dungeon? Me? The succubus?" She pointed at herself incredulously.

I nodded eagerly, as I opened both arms wide to gesture at the whole hall. Now I was back in my zone, talking about a subject I had great interest in and very few opportunities to discuss.

"Yep, I want a labyrinth so deep, wide and dangerous that it would be unassailable; a fortress that could rival even those of before the Great Sundering. I want to make a ridiculously big dungeon in order to rule it as king of the underground with all the women, power, money and women I could ever desire."

The succubus instinctively began to massage her temples.

"Ok, I get it. You said women twice by the way, and by all means build an underground dungeon... and then summon me to be a floor boss, or even the big boss. It isn't like I was never used in those roles when dungeons were still around. But to make the dungeon? Just what do you think I am!? If you want something to do that kind of work go hire some dwarves or make some golems, hell you could even enslave some goblins! But why summon a succubus!?"

Ah, I saw we had a slight miscommunication, so I jumped to correct it. It occurred to me later that I might have been letting youthful exuberance get the better of me at this point.

"No no no, I'm still going to use those guys for all the digging and stuff. No, what I need you for is to show me how it's done. It's like you said, you've been used as a guardian for dungeons before. That's what I need. I need someone to show me how to place the passages and rooms, set up traps and recruit monsters, tell me what they eat and how to get it, that kind of thing." I elaborate.

She still seems dubious, "...Ok, I get that, but why a succubus? There are plenty of other demons, golems and angels with lower mana costs who were around back then. Hell I'm pretty sure there are some pretty sad humans who spend their whole lives studying dungeon remains."

Alright she raised a fair point, and I didn't bother mentioning that I was one of those aforementioned sad humans. Hell, I was probably THE sad human dungeon expert.

"There are three reasons I chose a succubus, and not say... a Valkyrie." Though I wanted a dozen of those too eventually!

I raised a hand with three fingers, "Firstly, I don't trust anyone... ever. I got this far by lying, cheating and stealing for most of my life. I have spent a good portion of my life as the librarian for the Glassmont magehold, and spent that entirety of that time scouring that library for how to find this place and then actually use it. I'm pretty sure that even as we speak, my adorable student aids in the library still think I'm on my two week holiday to the countryside. No, I don't trust people because I'm a liar and a cheat through and through, and I expect the same of just about anyone else. That's why I chose a demon over a human. A demon has to absolutely obey the words of his or her contract. I can trust that. I need one person I can absolutely trust.

Secondly, while I could have chosen a different kind of demon, what I really need is an advisor and not a warrior. Demons for the most part are hulking masses of muscle that really just want to kill everything. You succubae on the other hand tread that fine line between excessively dangerous extra-planar monsters, and good conversationalists.

And the third reason is that... I really, really want to have sex with something. Like a lot. I'm pretty something like a Valkyrie or a Fire Goddess would object quite vigorously to that course of action on the first day. Also, after sixty years of celibacy I really want to start my new existence off with a bang if you get what I mean."

I was definitely not stammering in red faced embarrassment at the end of that explanation. The sex thing is important, because... I'm a virgin, as is just about any mage that can do more than fling one fireball before falling over. The mana science is complicated, but essentially the giving and receiving of intimate pleasure essentially corrupts our mana pools. If a mage loses his or her virginity, then about half their mana pool goes with it, and a small bit goes each time they are intimate thereafter. It's not so much about the sex as it is about the exchange of pleasure between two beings. This means 'sex' does include blowjobs, handjobs, anal, and for a few poor particularly sensitive souls, kissing. This was discovered each year by a few new students at the magehold just prior to their expulsion on account of their now dismal mana pools.