Dungeon Eternium (The Divine Dungeon Book 5), page 1
DUNGEON ETERNIUM
Book Five of THE DIVINE DUNGEON Series
Written by Dakota Krout
© 2019 Mountaindale Press. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by US copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Newsletter
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Chapter Thirty-seven
Chapter Thirty-eight
Chapter Thirty-nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-one
Chapter Forty-two
Chapter Forty-three
Chapter Forty-four
Chapter Forty-five
Chapter Forty-six
Chapter Forty-seven
Chapter Forty-eight
Chapter Forty-nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-one
Chapter Fifty-two
Epilogue
Afterword
The Divine Dungeon Universe
About Dakota Krout
About Mountaindale Press
Mountaindale Press Titles
GameLit and LitRPG
Fantasy
Appendix
Acknowledgments
There are many people who have made this book possible. As always, the first among them is my amazing wife, who always encourages me to do the best at any task I set my mind to. She keeps me motivated and makes every issue seem trivial.
A thank you to my daughter, who reminds me why I am working so hard. You are a great kid.
A special thank you to all of my patrons, who supply me with an endless stream of coffee, but especially to: Nicholas Schmidt, Justin Williams, Samuel Landrie, Blas Agosto, William Merrick, Brayden Wallach, John Grover, Zachary Meyers, Dominic Q Roddan, Noel Stoios, and Keifer Gibbs!
Last of all, thank you. You made it all the way to the end of the series! It is a bittersweet moment for me, but a part of the journey is the end. Once more, thank you for being the best fans and friends I could ask for.
Newsletter
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Prologue
“This is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The best feeling in the world. Abyss, everything even sounds different,” Dale marveled, looking around with shining eyes. “I am faster, stronger, and my senses…! The B-ranks… I never imagined I could feel this powerful.”
The Master stared at Dale with a troubled expression. “You… you are in the B-Ranks. You, a Mage! I… I don’t understand how.”
Dale moved his hand through the air, marveling at the incredible power he could feel. The Mana wasn’t moving through his body, his body was Mana! His flesh had been transformed into something more than human; no previous increase in rank had hinted that achieving the B-ranks would be so drastically different.
He spoke in a nearly dreamy tone, hardly able to believe that this powerful voice was coming out of his mouth, “It was the water. When I created a coating of disenchanting water on myself and maintained it for long enough, I cut off all external sources of Essence. Then with my body drained of power, a hint of Spiritual power got through and grazed me ever so slightly. Instead of destroying me as I had expected, the energy flowed along and empowered the bond between myself and the dungeon.”
The Master’s eyes widened as he comprehended the next steps that must have occurred. “You share a soul! Since Cal is already bonded to a Law, the Spiritual energy must have sparked a preemptive ascension! Tell me! Did you need to climb the tower?”
“I didn’t,” Dale admitted easily, his face shining with purest excitement. “All I did was interact with the Law, Acme.”
“Bypassing the restrictions of the soul? Maybe there is a chance,” The Master muttered softly. The eyes of the powerful cultivator went vacant as he pondered the implications, “Maybe I could–”
“Nothing so dramatic, you overrated chunk of quartz.” Dale’s lip curled at the interruption.
“No, we need to find a way to rescue everyone from three things: the impact of the falling moon, the age of darkness and ice that will follow, and the deprivation of Essence caused by Cal.” Dale closed his eyes and did something that he had been loath to do in the past. He focused on the bond between himself and the dungeon, sending the memory of his interaction with Acme.
I reeled from the massive revelation. My ritual, my ley lines… they were going to transform this world into a dead planet? I did that? The best outcome was the survival of a single race unless we somehow—what—saved people and locked them away in time?
Dale ignored the jab, snapping his fingers to get The Master’s attention. He was still unused to the power his body now contained, so his snapping fingers made a shockwave that ruffled The Master’s robe. “The Master? I need to know how much time you think we have before the moon arrives.”
“Time?” The Master blinked a few times, then seemed to remember where he was. “The moon. Yes. Without the Runescript that Xenocide created actively pulling the celestial body toward us, all we need to worry about is the momentum it built up, and the pull of the Earth as it approaches. I’d say… being as conservative as possible, that we have three weeks before the first fragments begin to impact. Maybe, maybe a month before the majority of the mass makes landfall.”
“We need a plan.” The Master nodded at Dale’s words, and they started jogging to the surface. Dale’s movement speed had increased to far above human levels, but The Master still had to move slowly to keep from leaving him behind. Perks of being one of the most powerful people on the planet.
Chapter One
Dale opened the door to the council chambers just in time for a spray of blood to splatter on his face, the first blood drawn in a rapidly escalating conflict. While he knew that the delegates of the various races hadn’t exactly been on good terms, walking in on a full-on brawl wasn’t what he had been expecting. Dale stood in shock for a long moment, but The Master stepped in authoritatively and bellowed, “Hold, you fools! What is happening here?”
“Master!” A black-robed necromancer limped over, grimacing from both pain and anger. “Our undead have been constantly under assault, being attacked or destroyed! These people are killing us!”
“So you found and confronted the person or group responsible for doing this?” The Master looked around the now-silent room menacingly. “Who was it?”
The necromancer seemed pained. “Not… quite. A few of us came in seeking information, but they are all denying that they–”
“None of us are attacking your disgusting meat puppets!” An Amazonian woman kicked over a table and stalked over. “We don’t care about them or you at all! We have our own issues to deal with, and you weaklings that hide behind the corpses of our friends–”
“The issue is not one of us attacking you. This issue is, in fact, far more dire than you are all thinking.” Another man strode forward, his quartz-lens spectacles gleaming. “There has been a shift in the world’s energies recently, and as far as I have been able to determine… all of this began with the fall of Valhalla. I think that Ragnarök is upon us.”
Dale grew concerned; this story sounded familiar. The unknown scholar continued speaking, denying him the chance to ask questions, “I'm uncertain what exactly happened there, but as soon as the Seat of Power was destroyed… the energies of the world began to change. This is what I have been trying to tell all of you.”
“Oh, stop it already! We have heard your insane conspiracy theories, we have discussed them, and we have dismissed them. A single city could not have been the key to the entire world's supply of Essence.” This time, it was an Elven man who spoke, his scathing tone forcing the unknown scholar to wilt and slink away. “When someone knows what is actually happening or has a theory that is not impossible, we will discuss again. Until then we have more pressing issues.”
This time it was a Dwarf who took the reins of the conversation, glaring at the necromancers and gripping a double-bladed axe, “Like the fact that these filthy dark Mages attacked us without provocation? I feel that we need to remind them of their place.”
“I said enough of this.” The Master’s empowered voice caused people to stumble backward. He looked at the person who had been struck as he and Dale were entering the room, noting that their wound was already healed. “No lasting harm has been done, and this will not happen again! Now, as for what we are going to do about the fragments falling to the earth–”
“Not our issue.” The Dwarven delegation stood as one and began moving toward the door. “My people have already begun our retreat to the deeps. So long as the planet itself is not cracked in half, we will have nothing to fear.”
He paused, hesitating at the door. “We are not uncaring of the plight the surface dwellers face; we will accept any who wish to flee the rain of destruction… We will take them in as… servants. Unfortunately, we cannot allow the secrets of our people to see the light of day, and this is a rule that we must enforce. The doors to Centrum in Domum Suam will be open for one week, after that… we hope your ancestors will accept your soul with honor.”
Dale looked over at The Master, confusion written large on his face. “Are you just going to let them go without saying anything?”
The Master wore a pained expression but simply nodded. “As powerful as I am, right now I cannot devote the power that would be required to press this issue. If I am correct, we have less than a month to save as many as possible. We do not have the time to save those who don’t want to be saved. In fact, as we do not know how we are going to save ourselves, their plan may turn out be the only viable one.”
“It won’t help,” Dale’s prophetic words rang into the suddenly silent room. “At best, it will only prolong their deaths as the world dies around them.”
“Bah.” The Dwarf looked back and shook his head before slamming the door with a ringing slam.
Silence reigned for a few stretched heartbeats, but then Queen Brianna of the Dark Elf nation added her voice, “Dale… what are you talking about?”
Put on the spot, Dale told the gathered people what he knew about the recent shift in the world’s Essence. To be on the safe side, he left out the parts about it being the dungeon’s fault. This worked against him; to the gathered group, not having information about the source of the issue only lent credence to his ideas as being a wild conspiracy theory. A majority of them ignored his words, but Brianna seemed troubled and approached him, asking for a private conversation.
“Dale, my people are far more sensitive to the fluctuations of Essence than even others within our own species. We have trained our bodies and our constitutions to feel the slightest difference, always in the mindset of finding a new home or finding a scrap of Energy-rich Silverwood pollen. Some time ago, we felt that dense zones of Essence were being directed to flow along new channels.” Brianna paused, watching Dale’s reaction carefully. “It was far too sudden to be a natural occurrence. What do you know of this?”
“More than I want to.” Dale weakly smiled and began to explain.
Cal
“Cal, can I make a request?” Dani’s tone, more than the words, worried me.
“So, you know that there are things that I keep from you—things like the training that Grace has to go through.” Dani trailed off uncertainly. “You know I don't like keeping things from you, right?”
“I just needed to mention… if there isn’t a way to divert this disaster, I might need to ask that we go to…”
“If the world is going to die from Essence reduction, I need to ask you to bring us to the Will-of-the-Wisp origin and save anyone that might be there,” Dani finished her thoughts in a rush. “I don't know why I’m having this feeling, but I can’t seem to get it out of my mind no matter what I do about it.
“I know, I know.” Dani let out a long sigh and bobbed in place for a few long seconds. I wisely gave her the space she needed. I didn’t mind waiting so long as I got to hear about what she was hiding. “So… Wisps are typically bound to a single location. We can’t generate our own Essence, and we can’t really grasp at what is around us. We need a partner that can devote power to empowering us. This means… it almost certainly means that my race is a created race. We are not natural creatures. Even symbiotes in nature have some self-sustainability.”
“This is information known to us, but over the centuries… other aspects became hazy. No history can be perfectly described and passed down thousands of times, but we think that there is more to it than the simple passage of time. Something made us forget, but one thing that we all know… is that if there ever comes a time where our species would be wiped out… we need to do everything within our power to return home.”
Dani would be hyperventilating if she had lungs. “Whatever the secret is, all I know for sure is that there is a powerful guardian protecting it, powerful enough that there has never been a Wisp that violated the taboo of making the journey, but even knowing it is forbidden, I know I need to go there. It pulls at me, and it is a sensation that comes from within.”
“I understand that it seems like a bad plan, but I think it is something I might have to do.” Dani stopped me from speaking, finishing her thought, “Not something we need to worry about right now, just something you need to be aware of. But… keep it in mind.”
