Blood Shaper

Massive hunks of rough raw iron held up the roof, more slabs or blocks than pillars or wedges. The roof itself was one solid piece of dark stone, roughly cut at the edges. The columns, for they were columns by function if not by appearance, were pitted with burns, melted sections, dents, and slices from edged weapons. Kay didn’t know if they people who’d left such scars in the supports holding up the chunk of stone as long as a city block were insane or just trusted that they would never be able to break through the metal supports, because if that slab fell anything underneath would become a fine mist buried under tons of rock.

The solid stone roof sat on top of its pillars dozens of feet in the air, creating a spacious shaded portico in front of the entrance to the dungeon. Underneath it the normal flow of adventuring and commerce took place in the shade. There were a multitude of stands with the proprietors hawking their goods to passing adventurers or haggling over what price they would but loot for. Some of the stands were obviously temporary structures, with easily dissembled pieces and in a few cases that Kay saw hinges, letting the owner fold up their entire stall for easy transport. Others were permanent fixtures, including one he was sure belonged to the Adventurer’s Guild thanks to the large symbol of their organization on the sign above.

“Wow.” Kay breathed as he took it all in.

“Right?” Eleniah stood next to him, watching his face with a proud grin. “This is one of my favorite dungeons, just from this sight alone. Sorry we didn’t get to come yesterday.”

Kay shrugged one shoulder, only half paying attention to her. “Eh.’

The day before they’d gone to the restaurant Eleniah had wanted to visit, Machone’s, which had been a weird combination of bar food and upscale dining. Burgers were a thing on Torotia, they were probably invented locally to the world even before Outworlders came thanks to the many cows and cow-equivalents there were, but they were apparently a rare delicacy in the Seramist Isles. Those cow and cow-equivalent beasts didn’t live anywhere in the Isles, so beef was a rare commodity in high demand, which made burgers a food for the middle class, if not the rich. Machone’s took the basic idea of a hamburger and upscaled it, thankfully in a delicious way. Instead of just dumping “fancy” stuff on it and calling it expensive, they’d deliberately made the best burger they could then complimented it with delicious and nuanced condiments, vegetables, and cheese, which was also rare, to make one of the best burgers Kay had ever had.

He was constantly making mental notes of things he learned about the Isles as they went, not only because he wanted to know all about where Eleniah had come from but also because the nation was both a potential ally and a potential enemy. Focusing on the ally side, if Avalon could develop a robust dairy and beef industry the Seramist Isles would be a great trading partner, with the added benefit of addressing some of Kay’s personal wants as well. He missed regular access to cheese dammit! Without refrigeration the only way to transport perishables long distance was using expensive mages or magical items, making cheese, along with several other foods, a rarity if they weren’t produced locally. As a rich man, compared to the average person he wasn’t even on the top one thousand list yet, and a king he had better access to expensive foods than most people, but he was used to popping into the kitchen and grabbing a few slices of cheese as a snack, or making garlic toast with melted cheese, or just eating pizza when he wanted it. Kay knew he was spoiled thanks to lobbyists, government corruption, and propaganda but at this point he didn’t really care. If he could use his power to simultaneously increase Avalon’s food production and diversity, gain new industries that could stimulate trade and the economy, and fulfill his own desires for specific foods he would. He never imagined he would look at the Wisconsin cheese caves as a potential idea to copy though.

Ignoring the derailment of Kay’s thought process by cheese, they’d had a wonderful meal and visited several other shops that were close by the the restaurant buying clothing that suited the climate better, souvenirs for the people that couldn’t come with, and a few magical items Kay wanted to experiment with. At more than one of their stops Miri shared fun stories about Eleniah to Kay’s delight and Eleniah’s annoyance. They’d planned to head to the entrance of the dungeon, where they were now, to show it off to Kay even if they wouldn’t have been able to enter, but they’d been interrupted by a friendly ambush. A group of Clan Selthoran members had spotted Eleniah and Miri and half begged half dragged them off to an impromptu reunion of several of Eleniah’s students from the clan. The impromptu reunion quickly became a spontaneous dinner party and Kay got to both share and receive several more stories about Eleniah as a teacher and mentor.

It was a wonderful evening and Kay looked forward to seeing even more of Eleniah’s life and family. Her parents weren’t on the island yet although they were apparently headed that way and the rest of her blood relatives that were present were helping Alahna with the current problems, either directly helping or shoring up other areas that weren’t being directly addressed thanks to the worry of shapeshifters. Kay would be patient though, a loving family like Eleniah described hers would be more than willing to share stories his friend wouldn’t want him to hear. Miri had offered several more, but Kay had turned her down. The loving betrayal of one’s on parents would make the vengeance against Eleniah for her constant snark that much sweeter.

Kay didn’t know if Alahna had let the Adventurer’s Guild know about the shapeshifter problem, he doubted it, but it wasn’t a problem for her to contact them and get Kay and Eleniah a spot in the dungeon that day. The dungeon, like many if not most, was managed by the Adventurer’s Guild as part of a contract with the local authorities but it was still the guild who was in control. Unless Alahna wanted then to pack up and leave, dumping the problems of dealing with rowdy adventurers wanting into a dungeon on the Isles’ government, she had to play nice. Thankfully the local guild had easily shuffled some people around and gotten an open slot ready. The dungeon was significantly larger than the baby dungeon close to Avalon City thanks to many decades of growth and the Isles feeding it resources and materials to help with expansions. While the sections for lower tier adventurers were large enough to hold hundreds and didn’t need careful monitoring of capacity, the portion that tier fives could delve into and expect to see any progression were still limited, which is why they’d needed to reserve a spot.

Still staring in wonder at the rough-hewn edifice that towered over them Kay let himself be slowly nudged along as the line they were standing in moved forward. “Did the dungeon make this?”

“Yeah, awesome, isn’t it?”

“Doesn’t that mean we’re in the dungeon right now?”

“I think that’s right, technically? There’s something about dungeon physiology and being out in the open air that makes things wonky, but that’s a level of research into the subject I never dove into.”

“This used to be an arena for a boss fight, your majesty.” Miri volunteered from just behind Kay. “There pillars used to be solid walls, but when the most recent expansion occurred the main entrance shifted to where it is now and portions of the walls crumbled, leaving the pillars and the roof. The old entrance is still open as a secondary opening that leads to a specific section of the dungeon, but its much less popular. The Adventurer’s Guild and many of the prominent shop owners that had locations near the old entrance were quite put out, since the remnants of the dungeons energies seem to prevent anything larger than a stall from staying intact longer than a day or two.”

“Thanks, Miri.” Kay slowly glanced over his shoulder at her then turned his head to face forward again. “That’s good to know.”

The friendly maid, and possibly trained spy or assassin according to Eleniah’s summary, had just kind of been there when Kay woke up that morning, with breakfast prepared for him, a fully planned itinerary for the day, and the papers from Queen Alahna needed to get them their slot in the dungeon. She’s completely ignored his mildly probing questions about what she was doing and proceeded to choreograph his meal, his preparations for the day, and their departure for the dungeon despite his mild protests and several attempts to resist. It was… disconcerting, to say the least. She wasn’t a shapeshifter, he’d checked at Miri’s own insistence before he’d started eating breakfast, but it was still weird. Eleniah hadn’t noticed what was going on with Miri since she was too excited about the dungeon and Kay didn’t want to ruin it for her, so he decided to bring it up with her later.

Once they got through the line leading to the Adventurer’s Guild stand and handed over their documents they were given a small metal plaque they had to hand over to the guards at the entrance to the section for tier fours and fives and quickly moved in that direction, sped up by Eleniah’s excitement. The guards standing outside a rough stone staircase leading into the ground asked them to wait a bit, and Eleniah took the time to explain the dungeon to Kay.

“It’s more of a regular dungeon than the Many Trial Halls, on more than one level. There’s less weird loot, the rooms are more straightforward, and there’s no dimensional corridor walk in here step outside somewhere else crap happening. You either have to leave through the same door you came in through or navigate through the dungeon to one of the other ways in or out.”

“You have a dungeon that can do something like that?” Miri asked, “That’s fascinating.”

“Yes it is, but now isn’t the time I’m explaining this dungeon to Kay right now. Wait,” She seemed to fully notice that Miri was with them for the first time. “Are you coming with us?”

“Of course, I’m not going to abandon my duties that easily. I’m not a dedicated combatant, but I’ve got a couple of Combat Classes and I’ll be able to survive as long as you don’t go taking any insane risks and dragging me into situations beyond my capabilities.”

“We’re going to be pushing a little so we can really get some gains, but nothing that crazy.” Her excitement overrode her curiosity and suspicion of Miri and she happily continued explaining to Kay. “There are some sections that we’re going to avoid, mostly because they scale based on how many people you have and there’s no way the the Blood Guard is leaving you alone.” She shot Lauren a grin. “As long as you guys don’t jump in outside of life and death circumstances the sections we’re going to hit will stay within the standard ranges, but the spots we’re going to avoid will just see you as another body. Not worth it.”

“We’ll stay out of his majesty’s way unless he direly needs protection.” Lauren replied. “How do you know that about the sections we’re going to stay away from, though?”

“Alahna and her guards found it out.”

“Ah.”

Eleniah wanted to keep a lot of the details about what they would be facing a surprise so she didn’t “ruin the experience” for Kay, but she did give him general warnings like what kind of traps to be on the lookout for and the general types of dangers monsters in the dungeon could provide. Poisons and venoms were possible but uncommon, burns were seen regularly, and other kinds of injuries or status effects were unheard of, outside of normal every day getting ones ass beat by monsters.

Finally, based on some unknown timer or signal, the guards allowed them descend. At the bottom of the stairs was a hallway made out of thick stone blocks with the occasional torch giving off dime light that let them see a mere two or three feet in front of them.

“Finally!” Eleniah cheered quietly, “I haven’t had a chance to run a dungeon in ages. This is going to be fun!”