Chapter 69 - Chapter 69 - Dungeon Core Spell

When night fell the next day, my group escaped through an escape tunnel. Unfortunately, we didn't have a wagon to carry supplies and only a few of the scouts even had mounts. Luckily, Dróttinn had been kind enough to send three pregnant dire weasels. Of course, this made them much less useful as mounts. Nevertheless, they would be very important once we established a city.We also had a spider rider, which was a subclass of rangers. What baffled me was the fact that the rider was female. Personally, there was no way I was ever going to ride a spider. Still, who was I to judge?In addition to those four rangers, we had a worm wrangler, a swarm mother, a wereweasel, a wererat, and a werebat. That was an eye opener for me. I really didn't expect any were-creatures. Then again, Dróttinn did send me many of the kobolds that didn't fit into the tribe. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that I was sent a few rare kobolds who might have some type of stigma associated with them.I also had twenty fighters and rogues, although I had difficulty telling which was which. All of them were dexterity based, with many of them being female. I even had five shamans, which was unexpected. I hadn't expected so many. Then again, not a single cleric had joined us. There also wasn't a sorcerer.Besides that, we had sixty-five kobolds with professional classes. While twenty of them were professional miners, the other forty were divided into groups of five. These groups included mushroom farmers, broodmothers, leather workers, blacksmiths, alchemists, builders, foragers, crafters, and domestics.The domestics were my maids, who were also specialized in taking care of kobold wyrmlings. That was one reason they had been sent to watch over me. Needless to say, most of the kobolds were low leveled.Fortunately, every single one of us had the dash and hide abilities. While I would have preferred to cast the Invisibility spell, the shamans and I would have run out of spell points too quickly if we tried to cast the spell on everyone. That left us sneaking through the forest in the middle of the night.We descended from the hills and passed through the dense underbrush of the forest. We moved cautiously, our eyes keenly scanning our surroundings for any signs of danger. I was actually impressed. For some reason, I had expected that I would have to wrangle the kobolds like a cowboy would wrangle cattle. Instead, we traveled in a tight-knit pack, each member acutely aware of the importance of sticking together in the face of potential threats lurking in the shadows.The journey was tense though. It drained our mental reserves quickly due to the stressful situation. Snapping twigs and rustling leaves could signify anything from a harmless woodland creature to a lurking enemy. Whenever danger seemed imminent, I would raise a clawed hand and signal our group to halt. Often, we would huddle together silently as we held our breath until finding out it was something as harmless as a rabbit.Soon, I started to become less stressed, but this didn't change how much I was paying attention to our surroundings. What I was the more concerned about was when we reached the grasslands. Hopefully, the grass would be high enough that we could hide in them if we encountered anyone. Of course, the closer we got to the border, the more likely we were to encounter large groups of soldiers.To minimize our chances of encountering any dangers, I had us take wide detours around areas that were inhabited. Despite that, we still made good time. It helped that I spent a good portion of my spell points to create dragonberries. This replaced our need for food. The shamans also conjured water springs that the kobolds could use to fill up their water pouches. One of the few things that slowed us down was the fact that every single kobold carried backpacks that were as big as themselves.One of the blacksmiths was rich enough to afford a Bag of Holding. She was able to carry her anvil and tools inside it. However, most of the others had to carry all the tools of their trades. During the journey, I discovered that the other blacksmiths worked under her leadership.Needless to say, we had to leave behind a lot of the items that weren't quite as important. As for myself, I was carrying more than anyone, although this was only due to my draconic strength. I was carrying a variety of items, although a large portion of them were alchemical supplies and additional mining tools. I even packed my spatial storage area with similar items.Once dawn approached, I set up multiple Alarm spells. I even used Shape Magic to learn the Underground Shelter spell, which created an underground chamber we could hide in during the day. It was sort of like the Rope Trick and the Tiny Hut spells. That actually made the time when we were sleeping to be the safest time during the trip.While I couldn't guarantee our safety, I was going to do everything I could to minimize the dangers. I even had Alsvartr fly ahead of us to check for unexpected surprises. In fact, if I noticed a group of humans we couldn't avoid, I would cast the Underground Shelter spell early and hide until the humans were out of the area. Alsvartr would fly around outside and let me know when they were gone. After two weeks of traveling, we had actually made good progress and had reached our destination.Usually, dragons would consider everything within a day's travel of their nest as their territory. Dragons could fly about three times as fast as kobolds could walk. However, since we frequently hid and made wide detours to avoid danger, it took us twice as long as it should have to get to our destination. We also had to take a detour around the Necropolis.The Penningr Republic and the Konungdómr Kingdom had been fighting each other for generations. Countless soldiers had been killed along their border. One of the reasons they fought was because of the Necropolis. It was an ancient city created out of bones of long extinct creatures and races. No one knew how long it had existed, but both nations wanted to occupy the Necropolis, despite the fact that the city was already occupied.However, the occupants of the city were necromantic wizards and clerics of death, who worshiped a dead god. They took no side, and allowed anyone to enter and study the ancient writings carved into the large bones throughout the city. Countless necromancers traveled to the Necropolis for millennia. While I wasn't worried about the inhabitants, we were trying to avoid everyone, just to be safe.Of course, one reason why they welcomed all visitors was because nothing was able to grow near the city. It was apparently under some type of curse. There were also apparently changelings and mongrels who lived within the city. Changelings were humans with a few traits of a different race. Half elves might be included in this group. As for mongrels, they were less fortunate. They generally had a motley assortment of physical features from different races. Unfortunately for them, this generally made them not very attractive.Since the Necropolis didn't care whether someone was living or dead, mongrels and changelings were actually welcome. That was uncommon outside of the Desolate Lands. Of course, the rulers of the city viewed the living as disposable resources. Sadly, that was still preferable to how they were treated in the other nations. Either way, I didn't want to risk getting too near the city.This meant that five days of travel was barely enough time for us to leave Einvaldskonungr's territory. It took twice that long to finish the journey. Not once did I relax until we reached the tunnels that led to the cave complex where we would be making our city. I had to wonder if that certain god had a hand in making our way there succeed without encountering any real dangers.Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of cautious travel, we arrived at the mouth of the tunnel that would lead us to the cave complex. The entrance loomed before us, a dark portal leading into the depths of the earth. I inspected the surroundings one last time, ensuring there were no immediate threats, before leading my group inside with a mixture of excitement and apprehension.As we trudged through the tunnel that led us under the seabed, I glanced through the Aegis Libram again. Then I would look at the diagrams and drawings I had made. I didn't want to screw up since I would only have one shot to get it right. If it was a normal ritual, I wouldn't worry. However, as soon as I conducted the ritual, the spell would disappear from the spellbook. I couldn't afford to mess up. Because of this, I looked for anything in the area that might mess up the spell.When we reached the central cave, I took a deep breath. I wasn't going to be any better prepared later than I would be at that moment, so I decided to go ahead and conduct the ritual. I asked the miners to use the Mold Rock spell to make the cave floor smooth. Once that was done, I ordered everyone to step back so that I had enough space to begin.Taking a deep breath, I started inscribing the magic circle into the cave floor. By the time I was done, I was starting to feel the pressure. I checked, and then rechecked, to make sure that I hadn't made any mistakes. After that, I carefully stepped into the middle of the magic circle and started reciting the Dungeon Core spell from the Aegis Libram. I could feel the magical energy swirling around me. The magic was so dense that it was starting to become overwhelming. By the time I finished chanting the spell, I was exhausted.Despite being tired, I concentrated on how I had envisioned the city would look like. I kept the designs I had drawn firmly in mind as the magic rippled out from the magic circle. A palpable surge of energy radiated outward, sinking into the earth beneath our feet. The ground trembled gently at first, as if awakening from a deep slumber, but then grew stronger, knocking us off our feet. Slowly, fissures formed along the edges of the circle, glowing with a soft, ethereal light.From these cracks, tendrils of magic seeped into the earth, weaving through the soil and stone like unseen threads. As the magic spread, it triggered a series of reactions deep underground. The cave walls began to resonate with the magic. They softened and shifted, reshaping themselves into sturdy foundations and walls. Crystals began to grow at the edges of the spell and were embedded in the rock faces which shimmered with a spectral glow, casting prismatic light across the emerging buildings.As the magic continued to weave its spell, tunnels and caverns gradually took shape, forming tunnels and passageways between the various rooms I had envisioned. The changes started on the edge of the spell's edge, about two hundred feet away from the magic circle. Then the changes slowly moved inward.The walls and tunnels somehow looked both natural and refined, blending the organic shapes of the underground world with that of ancient ruins. Water, drawn by the magic from the depths below, bubbled up to form warm gentle streams and shimmering hot pools, nourishing the city with life-giving essence while a lava flow could be seen in the distance. Mosses and fungi bloomed in response to the magic ritual, adding splashes of color to the subterranean landscape.The core of the underground city took shape with astonishing speed and precision, each element crafted with care by the intricate patterns of the Dungeon Core spell. When a wall was created, any kobold nearby would be magically pushed away. By the time the magic faded and the last echoes of the earth grinding against earth subsided, I was standing alone in a small room with a magic crystal ball hovering above the magic circle.It gleamed with an otherworldly beauty. Inside the crystal, I could see the entire underground city. I stared into the crystal, completely forgetting how exhausted I was, amazed by what had transpired. I had to admit, the god who gave me the Aegis Libram had outdone himself.I hadn't even used the other rituals in the spellbook yet. In fact, there were still a few spells that I still wasn't about to decipher yet. Every time I tried to read them, the words would squirm on the page and become indecipherable. Still, what the spellbook had already achieved was more than enough for me. I couldn't imagine what other spells could be more impressive.While the underground city was by no means finished, the core of the underground cave complex had been created. It was about an acre in size, but did have three levels. Additional tunnels and rooms would need to be added later. It would definitely be a huge job, but it was also something that I knew my industrious minions could complete.Admittedly, it would take a long time. Still, I did have to admit that I was a little disappointed. Despite the amazing changes created by the ritual, the dimensions of the spell were not as wide as I had hoped. Therefore, some of the rooms I had drawn were not created. Because of this, the builders and miners would have a lot of work to do. However, at least we had a starting point.As for the dungeon core, it apparently served as a way to monitor the city it had created. With a thought, I could focus on different rooms or on a particular kobold. While I still felt connected to my body, it was as if I was physically in the room. I could tell, even without trying, that I could cast a spell through the crystal core and affect any part of the city.Amazed, I concentrated on Geyma, one of the kobolds who had chosen to join me. She, with the others, was standing outside the dungeon core room. I watched her as she reached out to touch the wall that had grown between us. I sent her a telepathic message to have the other kobolds stay there since I was determined to push through my exhaustion and cast a few more rituals from the Aegis Libram.Over the next hour, I used the Aegis Libram to cast all the permanent defensive spells in the spellbook. Of course, that was only the spells that I could read. A few rituals were still indecipherable. I started with the Forbiddance spell, which blocked enemies from teleporting into the city. It also caused damage to devils and demons. I would have preferred to choose humans, but I wasn't given a choice. However, just being able to block high level spellcasters from teleporting into the city was worth the ten minutes it took me to cast the ritual.The next ritual I cast was the Guards and Wards spell. It filled the tunnels with a fog that would only affect invaders, making the tunnels heavily obscured. In addition, the unwelcome visitors would easily become confused. All of the doors in the warded area were magically locked, as if sealed by the Arcane Lock spell. In addition, I could hide the doors using the Minor Illusion spell. The ritual even created webs that only affected invaders. I could also add other spell effects as needed.While both of the rituals I had cast were useful, neither could compare to the third ritual I cast. It was called Stone Guardians and turned the earth itself against invaders. For example, tunnels would liquify and then harden again in order to trap unwelcome visitors. Any stone statues within the city could become temporarily possessed by earth elementals, who would animate the statues and attack invaders. Visions of giant stone dragon statues flashed through my mind.The next ritual I cast was the Antipathy spell. While it wasn't anything amazing, it would make it difficult for a large army of humans to invade the city. Whenever a human entered the city, they would be overwhelmed with fear and run away from the city. What I did find curious was the fact that this time the protection was against humans instead of demons and devils. Was the god who had been helping me trying to tell me something? I was worried that might be the case.