The Tower in the Shadows

Ranus was dealing with diplomacy today.

And threats via diplomatic messages.

And espionage to make his day more interesting.

When he first came to power, everything revolved around access to the Dungeon. Local powers and nations were seeking preferential treatment or exclusive access. Yet, he managed to negotiate and balance their needs, keeping himself and his city free from their influence.

Now it was void stones.

Void corruption was openly acknowledged, and now everyone was seeking a means to cure it. Once again, the Dungeon had become the focal point of a diplomatic storm. It was the only place known to create void stones, and with a removal technique pioneered in his community by observing how the Dungeon removed the corruption he stole, it was in high demand.

He had heard the prices being offered on the market for just one and still could not believe it. It was a limited resource in high demand, and so he should not be surprised by the price. There were even limited reports of fighting between different factions trying to get one.

The Dungeon can only produce so many at a time, and that was only after gaining access to corrupted void essence. Thankfully, the stones that were filled were returned, and the Dungeon was able to produce more stones in their place.

Requests for access to a single stone from nations and powers across the world, human and nonhuman alike, were bombarding Rauns. He was being offered magic and incredible riches to supply one.

Was he tempted? Of course, no man would be. But he was wise enough to understand what would happen if he accepted just one.

That is when the threats started—threats of open conflict or invasion. He knew that this was primarily a bluff at the moment, as the other powers and nations in the area would stop anyone else from coming to dominate access to the Dungeon. Or they would allow the violent parties to wear themselves out and then step in and take it themselves.

He knew this. Those threatening him mostly knew this. Mostly. He was always worried about one rogue agent taking action.

And then came the espionage. Or more correctly, the attempted theft of any stone that could be located. The Pantheon had come down heavily against this, but still, people are desperate enough to risk the wrath of the gods.

Forty-three attempts have been made to steal a stone. He knew the sad fact was that sooner or later, one of them would be stolen, no matter how good his security was, or the warnings of the gods.

He had been reviewing more improvements to their security. The stones that were not in use were stored within the temple of Ilinia, here within the city. The temple security was further enhanced by the militant orders of all those gods and goddesses aligned with her. A few of the neutral and what could be considered her opponents within the Pantheon were also supplying additional security measures, but much more quietly.

He had ensured that she was not aware of all the security measures and that they were not documented anywhere to prevent them from being stolen and used to breach the vault holding the stones. This was an extreme measure, indicating that he was considering even more stringent ones to be implemented soon.

A single stone entering the market could be the trigger that ignited wars. They couldn't tolerate this right now with the threat of Folly's End building every day.

Then he remembered he had to find books on enchantments for the Dungeon. He had been contacted, and the books were requested. To what end, he had no idea, but he knew that the Dungeon was up to something.

Ranus massaged his temple and got back to reading the messages.

## ## ## ## ##

"Is this enough?"

I had changed the location of the void stones in the stairwell. I moved them then to the floor level, where the fighting would take place. This would allow the enchantments attached to them to absorb more void corruption. That would weaken the attacking corrupted monster.

I had created more void stones as filled ones returned to me. I then sent out most of the new ones I made. I was constantly dealing with corruption, and it put me in a bad mood. I had managed to retain four more for my use.

I spent several days thinking about how to use these new stones. In the end, I placed them under the stone floor of the bottom of the stairwell on the other side of the 10th floor. I created a large enchantment that encircled most of the stairwell, removing the stone from the pillar and adding it to the floor, thereby creating five stones in that location.

The enchantment was complicated and had a slight alteration to its design. It drew in void essence far faster when active than any of the other floors. It took several attempts for me to get the enchantment just right, with many failing or collapsing as I tinkered with the design.

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For it to be used successfully, I would have to have Maximus fight the corrupted monster, not on the floor like he wanted, but at the stairwell itself. I informed them of the change and what was required of him, which he grumbled about, but I eventually reminded him who was in charge. He went into a huff and didn't speak to me for three days after that.

The only problem with these enchantments was that I could not have them reset after use. I could not recreate the void stones as part of my regular Dungeon resetting, as they were unique items that had to be created by me individually. This meant I would only trigger these enchantments when I was being attacked by the twisted.

With these in place, I wondered what else I could do for my defence?

I had learned that rubies can be made into mana stones and are very effective at storing fire mana. I knew this from overheard conversations between adventurers and from seeing such stones embedded into weapons or gear that produce the fire-based effect.

Well, I had plenty of fire mana and rubies. The question was. What can I do with them?

Because of my experimentation and creation of the enchantments around the void stones, my skill in enchantments had increased dramatically. I have also obtained a few more books on the subject from the debt Ranus owed me. This further added to my knowledge and was one of the main reasons why I was able to create the enchantments around the void stones.

Reflecting on what I had learned, I realised that I could create a new type of trap. It would be quick and dirty and use up what mana stone was placed into the enchantment to power it. I could set it to the side of the enchantment and use it as a power source, which would make the enchantment a reusable trap, but the damage yield was far greater if the stone directly fuelled the enchantment to its own destruction.

I learned this from the books, as they described this as a very wasteful and dangerous means of empowering enchantment. No sane enchanter or magic user would ever create an enchantment this way, as it was incredibly cost-inefficient. Thankfully, their concerns and worries do not apply to me.

So, the question still stood: What would I do with it?

I kept returning to the only answer I could think of. I was going to make something go boom. Or better yet, several somethings.

I had 40 CP to play with. I had to leave some for experimentation and resetting the void stone traps. They were not that costly to do, but they were time-consuming, even with my ability to remember every detail.

I created several small ones on the 10th floor, triggering them to see what sort of explosive power they possessed.

The blast was impressive. It increased exponentially with the amount of mana located within each stone—a fully charged stone produced a truly destructive amount of force. It wasn't just the fire that caused the damage, but the sudden release of the fire's thermal energy, creating a pressure wave.

It will cost me 5 CP per trap.

With this knowledge, I began thinking. Where?

The most obvious choice was the stairwell. The problem was that these traps were not very subtle and would destroy everything within their blast radius unless it was tough. Unfortunately, a lot of the void monsters I was fighting were tough, and I knew the ones coming from Folly's End were going to be even tougher.

Detonating them on the stairs could cause the energy to be transferred both up and down, potentially damaging my minions on the floors below and weakening my defences in the long run. That would be bad.

I travelled from the 10th floor at the stairwell, thinking about each floor as I passed it and possible locations. I didn't find any obvious places to put them that wouldn't backfire on me. This brought me up to the surface building.

"It's going to have to be here."

Larry was up in his rafters, appearing not to be paying attention, but I could see that his ears were twitching.

Looking about the room, I thought about all the possible locations. Next to the main doors was my personal preference. But I make sure to check every other area to see if it would work better. The issue was that I couldn't place two in this room, as the detonation of the first would trigger the second.

Or could I?

Suppose I place the second in the centre of the room and have it as the trigger enchantment, that might work. Anything attacking the Dungeon would smash through the doors and pass over the first enchantment as it moved into the room. Once it reached the second enchantment, it would then detonate, triggering the first. The odds were that I would be facing a horde of monsters, so the odds of more than one being caught in the blast were high.

I could place a third next to the doorway that led to the tower base. As part of the trap, I could have had the door slam shut before it detonated. Daisy chained back through the room. Such a chain of blasts would most likely destroy most of the surface buildings. I knew that once the Dungeon reset, the building would be repaired, but it could also block the entrance to the stairwell, slowing down the monsters even more, as it would have to dig down to reach the stairwell.

"That could work."

As I thought about the possible destruction of the surface buildings in a chain of explosions, a group of adventurers walked past me, heading down into the Dungeon proper. They were a young group that had only just begun their adventures. They had recently graduated from having an older adventurer holding their hand. If they continued at the current pace, they would slowly progress along their Paths.

I knew that the traps would be no threat to them if I added a trigger that detected void essence, which would arm the enchantment. It was a risk, but the adventurers rightly checked themselves for void corruption, so it was a risk I was willing to take.

But then that also meant that anyone walking past with the void stone would trigger the trap, I suddenly realised.

Curses!

No, this would have to be a detonation I would have to trigger.

Could I tie it to Larry? If he fled the area, could it arm the trap?

I considered that as a possible solution, but ultimately, there were problems with that idea. If someone eventually decided to go for a potshot at him and he fled either into another part of the building or downstairs, that would arm the trap, and that would be the end of the surface building and the adventurers.

The more I thought about it, the more certain I became. I was going to have to be the one to trigger the trap's detonation. It was something I hoped to automate, but if I had to do it, so be it.

Thinking about the trap, had spent most of the daylight hours.

I can see the sun setting through the shutters.

I would set up the trap tonight. Three linked, explosive, fire-based enchantments that would act as traps. I suspect that such a change would quickly be spotted by most of the adventurers with any ability to sense mana. That would cause them to dig up the traps I had established just under a thin layer of stone. The stone would be thick enough to carry weight but not strong enough to withstand the blasts.

I was going to have to reach out to Ranus and have him inform the adventurers' guilds of the changes so that they wouldn't mess around with them.

The problem was that there was always someone stupid enough to try.