It only took the King and his chosen Knights a few hours to get used to using the dungeon, I was supplying it with extra Ether so they wouldn't have to wait for the normal time-frame for recovery. The King had decided that the ruling member of the royal family and a selection of 5 of his most loyal Knights would be in charge of the dungeon, even after his Knights protested the danger to himself. This decision was made partly because of my generous donation of an orichalcum cage that could be placed around the core to protect against physical damage.

In the last few hours they had more than doubled the size of the dungeon and laid many traps for the recruits to train their detection skills. They would be using the monster control functions of the dungeon at a later date as they had elected to expand the Knight train course to capturing animals that could be placed under the control of the dungeon. Placing animals into a dungeon and shackling them to it would start the slow process of converting them into a Beast, an animal that had been converted by the Ether or Spirit energies that their body had been unable to use. This method saved on Ether cost as you would not need to form a physical body using converted Ether and would just need to use it to shackle the animal to the dungeon core and prevent it from acting against your will.

Normally, staying within a natural well or leyline would increase a body's ability to absorb energy. This increased your Ether and Spirit regeneration while standing in the well or leyline, but came at a cost if you stood in it while unable to absorb any further energy. An intelligent creature like humans and the fey would feel sick in this environment until the accumulated energies surpassed our natural resistance. Enough time spent in such a place would outright kill us, but normal animals would be forcefully evolved into Beasts as a countermeasure that their body would undertake to protect themselves.

I finished up the creation for the second dungeon and was escorted back to town so I could reunite with my group and return to our inn. I would be leaving tomorrow afternoon after my men finished purchasing some of the more normal daily use items for Brimstone that I was too lazy to spawn using my dungeon.

—————

We left after saying our goodbyes to the King and his Knights, who were undercover at the gates, and proceeded for about 3 hours down the road before pulling off into a nice grove normally used as a rest stop. Here my men began to unload some of our hidden cargo, slowly assembling a tall stone gateway in the middle of the grove. I walked up and placed my hand against one of the keystones at the base and channeled my Ether into it. This caused the runes carved along the pillars of the gate to begin to glow as they sent arcs of purple lightning across the empty area of the gate and into the opposite pillar. After a few moments of this lightning crossing back and forth the gate formed a thin rippling film that looked like one of those images you would see published by NASA on earth, showing off numerous blinking stars and the blackness of space between them.

This was my dungeon's Create Gate ability, one of the gates from the pair could be safely deactivated and relocated in pieces to be reactivated and used elsewhere. A very handy feature when combined with my dungeon's ability to recall dungeon constructs into an inventory space from wherever they had been placed. I crossed through the gateway and found myself standing in my throne room at home, we had placed the other gate here and had carefully blended it with the rest of the arched sections of the room to hide it in plain sight. You wouldn't know that a section of the wall here could turn into a space gate at a moment's notice unless you saw it activate.

Once all of our group had safely arrived on this side with our carriage I dispersed the Ether inside the gate and recalled the gateway we left in the grove. My men would have to take it apart again later but for now I would leave it sitting in the third vault room that I had designated as the 'inventory' room in the dungeon interface. I waved goodbye to Elvinia as she walked unsteadily out of the room. Apparently teleportation magic was not common even among royal families in this world. It was difficult if not outright impossible for a human to master more than a basic storage spell when using Void attribute magic.

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I heard a knock at my door and gave permission for entry before glancing up from the work on my desk to find that Oswallt had entered with a tapped keg-cart and some steins.

"You have been busy as of late my lord, you should take some time to enjoy the same things that you make possible for your people to enjoy."

"Aye, perhaps I should. Pour me a mug while I finish this minor paperwork that Gowyr submitted for teaching more advanced smithing magic to some promising human smiths."

I finished reading the proposal and signed my name before imbuing my stamp with Ether and stamping it, which would prevent the document from being further modified or damaged. I rolled the parchment up and dropped it into the tube attached to the edge of my desk so it would arrive in the records room downstairs for the dwarves there to write up the relevant regulations and file it away. I stood and stretched before walking over to join Oswallt at my reading nook. I took the stein he offered me and took my seat, knocking my glass against his before enjoying the rich flavors this new human vintage provided.

"Oswallt, please prepare the necessities for our trip to the forest at the end of the month. I am sure many among my cabinet wish to visit the Mother Tree but we can not leave the kingdom completely unattended, those who have openings in their calendar may join me on this visit."

The man nodded lightly before smiling.

"I have already begun working on that Anwirn, the arguments have already reached my door regarding who should go or be left behind. The men are getting rowdier by the day."

He sighed and took another drink.

"I just hope that they do not offend our fellow fey, given what you have said about the possible personalities of our Elven brothers and sisters I suspect I will have a daunting task ahead of me in managing the more hotheaded of our group."

I guffawed and refilled my stein before responding.

"I do not know for sure what they will be like, but I suspect that more than a few of us will butt heads with them on even benign issues. So get your fill of relaxing paperwork now Oswallt, we have some fun times ahead."