While he had gotten slightly distracted by the necessary upkeep of the dungeon he had suddenly recalled what Jansea had said about the other horsemen not intruding in each others domains, only rather than suggest it was kingdom, territory or even domain, she had claimed worlds. This could mean nothing, but his inability to recognize Tress was not a gap in his learning. As merchants, his parents had charts and maps that stretched beyond the Empire, when he said he had no knowledge of the kingdom he meant any of the currently known kingdoms.
Glancing to the demoness for confirmation she nodded, "The multiverse is a big place Master, there's simply no reason to fight over small realms when the greater part of existence is there to be used. Take your starter gate, right now your... Empire was it? Is sending constant attacks hoping to overwhelm you. Yet your numerous Tier Two minions ensures it does little but inconvenience you. This world Tier is simply too low, hence why Lord chose it as a starter territory. As a dungeon grows, new entrances to stronger, more valuable realms open."
Jansea smirked looking at Alexander, "Surely you didn't think until the end of time you'd gain these pittance of rewards?"
Honestly he had. While his reincarnation had assured him that Earth was not alone in existence, it had slipped his attention that there might be ways to travel between these places. While returning to Earth was improbable, there had to be all sorts of fascinating worlds out there that had access to dungeons. As his mind spun he shook his head, wait! Getting caught up in the concept of world hopping through the dungeon was best saved for another time, the world Tress occupied was obviously more powerful than his own if they would nuke his portal with such an overpowered means.
Settling down, Alexander sighed and scrolled through his menus, there had to be something he could do to reopen that door, exploring the Kingdom of Tress could well mean a more standardized levelling up for himself, plus there was the thrill of seeing how their kingdom and environment differed from his own or even his old life. Tapping the face of the old head butler making the visage twitch he looked to Jansea. "The gates are not physical things right?"
The demoness nodded, "In a sense they exist but don't exist, they are a portal between two places. The dungeon is not 'inside' the mountain despite appearances."
Alexander nodded, "Then is it possible to exchange the gates? Put the broken one outside the mountain and the working one next to Tress?"
Jansea blinked, walking to the core she touched the crystalline surface focusing her will on the dungeon. "It should be possible." The demoness focused on the core as Alexander waited, the one drawback to his plan was the loss of easy merits. The Empire attack grounds were rather easy pickings at the moment, but for their ease of wrapping up the rather mediocre returns was becoming noticable even to himself. Contending with Tress, while highly more dangerous, would likely see his income increase respectively.
After a few minutes Jansea nodded, "Doors have been realigned, I've taken the liberty of adjusting our minions to guard the working gate."
Alexander nodded, "Arrange or troops as needed, I'll be going to have a look at Tress."
Jansea tipped forward her usual flash of full breasts briefly on display, "Of course Mast-.... -er, did you say YOU were scouting Tress?!"
Alexander grinned leaning on the arm rests of his throne looking as the succubus nearly toppled over, "Yes, you heard me right, I indeed shall be going. Rather than risking the second door to a similar end as the first, they will be less likely to nuke a wandering fledgling mage right? Thus I'm the only one who can go."
"Master! You can't go! If you die the dungeon will go wild! I won't have such a cute Master to tease anymore! Please Master rethink this choice..." Jansea whined grabbing his arm and hugging it to her ample leather clad chest, crocodile tears at the edge of her dark eyes.
Alexander was sure she was trying to be cute. It was frankly creeping him out. Sighing and extracting his arm he shook his head, "I'll be fine Jansea. I'm human..." he trailed off clenching his skeletal fingers slowly, "...er mostly. I should be fine. It's not like I'm going there with intent to wreck and destroy the place... yet." Frowning to himself he started to second guess his choice. As Dungeon Lord, integrating into Tress would be rather shameful.
Though again, a kingdom with rituals and artifacts to outright annihilate a dungeon entrance should be looked into and he really had no minions that could 'blend in'. Slap the undead in armor might be the closest but the creepy vibe and lack of rational thought sort of excluded them. Looking to Thersea in the crystal core he sighed sadly. Taking her with him would have been best but recovering body and soul would take years, dungeon time, and it had barely been a week.
Rubbing his forehead he stood up and walked to the door, "Hold down the fort, see if the dark dwarves can construct a graveyard on their own, chances are if we get another entrance that third wing will stop being the body dump site."
Jansea sighed and bowed, "Yes Master, it will be as you say."
Alexander first changed his outfit, while Tress was not connected to his homeland in any troubling way, the flamboyant Dungeon Lord robes would make him stand out far too much in any location. Instead he purchased a finely made but still much more mundane outfit, one a typical warrior trying life out for the first time might wear, while he had no intention of pretending to be a fighter, trying to pass himself off as a fledgling spell caster with no Master or academy to account for his mindset would be far too unbelievable.
As he passed his forces he nodded to the Goblin Commander before slipping through the gate, unlike his prior exit, the corridor was gone. In fact the keep itself was gone. The translucent bone door sat in a scorched basin, vegetation was slowly trying to reclaim the area but there was enough of the blast site remaining to let him know just how big the explosion had been. From his original life, a good comparison might have been Hiroshima, while there was no lasting radiation the sheer destructive force must have been very comparable at the impact point.
Little wonder no guard towers or spies still lingered in the area, destroying the area must have been quite the final blow, it was not unreasonable to believe the strike had solved the issue. The only trouble now was finding the city again. Unlike his prior visit, there was no tower now to take in the lay of the land and spot the distant city, Alexander would have to guess from memory and hope it was the right way. Frowning to himself he looked at the bone gate on thought, he needed some way to protect the gate from the curious and the lost.
Glancing around he extended a hand and called upon his magic, pushing the dark energy into the ground. Alexander once again felt his mana rapidly draining away as a series of new notifications popped up before his gaze...
Death magic [Create Skeletal Horror] learned.
A Sketetal Horror has been created outside your dungeon!
Looking around Alexander scratched his head, he had tried imagining raising the goblin skeletons that had died out here but instead he created a skeletal horror? Yet... where was it? Looking around the blasted basin he saw no sign of his latest creation, a deep frown forming on his face. The spell was made, his mana felt very drained... but the creation wasn't visible? Suddenly the ground shook and he stepped to the side watching a skeletal hand tear itself out of the ground he had just been standing on. Frowning, it looked like a goblin skeletons hand, yet what disturbed the ground slowly loomed higher.
Alexander frowned at his creation, looking like a skeletal millipede, the some dozen goblin spines had fused together their arms and legs all serving as spines down either side of the lengthy fused spine. The head was in fact a cluster of five goblin skulls, dark energy burned in the various eye sockets as the skeletal monster loomed over Alexander. As impressive as it looked from the notification the creation was a Tier zero summon. Unlike the skeletons he originally summoned this was a blank canvas.
Still it was better than nothing. "Guard the door my minion. Any not of the dungeon you are to attack, should you successfully kill an intruder, leave the body by the entrance."
If the horror understood him it made no indication, rather it turned and slowly skittered off patrolling the basin with it's weird gait. Shaking his head Alexander thought for a moment then headed off, this was probably the right way but he could not be sure. Climbing out of the blasted basin he turned back looking at the gate, he was really going to do this wasn't he? Breathing slowly he dismissed the nagging voice in the back of his mind warning this was folly, this plan was really all he could do, to send his minions to gather information would not result in any gains, just a high chance of whom ever blasted his gate in the first place making a return visit.
Walking onward would eventually see him find a road, the well travelled route saw people heading into the distance and away from it, studying the travellers it wasn't hard to spot a merchant with goods heading in one direction, while others carrying empty packs traversed the opposite route. Nodding he stepped out when traffic was slowest, heading off down the road at a brisk pace, if the flow of traffic was to be understood this should take him to the city. As he walked he played over his cover story in his head, best to keep it concise especially if the gate was guarded and checked, no sense telling different tales and getting caught in mixed up elements.
Traversing the road way was rather uneventful, friendly as most passer bys were he was still distinctly different from the locals, he was entirely too pale, a symptom of his path he had thought as he had enjoyed a healthy tan in his youth. That tan however would still be very pale compared to most of the travellers here whose flesh was very dark. If he was to associate it with his old life he'd have to say Tress was probably in the locale of Africa, the average skintone were just that dark and made his own pale countenance stand out all the more.
Shaking his head as he watched the most recent group head on down the road he refreshed his story in his mind, claiming to be from a local village would go hilariously wrong real fast, the sheer fact the local populace was dark skinned and he was almost an albino in comparison made talking about his local birth an obvious lie. He'd have to try an isekai route, a lost traveler who knew not how he got here, at least part of that story would be completely true...
Oddly enough as the line before the city dwindled the guards didn't seem to care that he was practically a ghost compared to them, all they wanted was the toll. There came the true hassle, he had been sure to keep some of his family's wealth on him for this trip, leaving the gold rulers back in the dungeon along with the majority of the silver knights. It made more sense for a traveler to hold more copper than silver. The trouble was, to enter Colter required thirty copper marks not thirty copper squires.
Copper squires were round copper coins adorned with an wreath, the guards held up a triangular copper piece that was decorated with stars. While they still allowed him entry they charged him an additional fifteen of his squires... just to be sure the exchange was 'fair'. Grumbling under his breath Alexander walked into town his coin purse lighter than it should have been but at least he was inside. First he needed to find an exchange and get the coin of the land before anyone else ripped him off...