Scattered across the world, we find vestiges of the past, of a time before the Fall. A time when all one had to work with was their own two hands. Yet, as we gaze upon these relics, these testaments to human ambition and ingenuity, we cannot help but fall into silent contemplation of the lost glory of Man.

- UB02D7355; Golem Hegemon

The Shackled Titans knelt in the sea facing each other; the saltwater lapping against them barely coming up to their thighs. The two gigantic statues of solid bronze – one an emaciated beggar in rags holding his hands before his chest in supplication, the other a king in all his royal finery holding his crown out to him – had been tarnished by weather and the heartless tread of time. A patina of verdigris and moss dulled the once lustrous metal and as the Wavestrider passed between them, underneath the arch formed by the thick chains that connected their bound wrists, Sand’s gaze never left them, his eyes deep.

The message inherent in the piece was thought-provoking, as was the sheer logistic difficulty of creating an artwork of this scale without the aid of magic. Pride swelled in Sand’s chest, then determination. As they left the statues behind, he finally tore his gaze away from them and turned to what lay ahead.

Aevenport was the largest harbour city in the Enzeal Kingdom. Just a casual glance netted Sand a rough estimate of several hundred ships of all sizes and make moored in the waters. It was a constant bustle of vessels entering and leaving. He noticed that while the departing ships had no restrictions on their route, the ones entering all passed under the shackles of the Titans. No, not all, the smaller fishing boats didn’t seem to be limited that way.

As he was puzzling over the phenomenon, Ezekiel noticed his curiosity and explained, “The Titans mark the border of our territory. The Embryonic Dungeons fused with the city project their Domains out on the sea. If anything with a shard enters the Domain, it will immediately raise an alarm. Only the things passing between the statues are exempt.”

Sand nodded in understanding. It was an early warning system. The small fishing boats were, in all likelihood, manned by mortals so they wouldn't trip the alarm. But the large ships were sure to have a Mage or two onboard.

“The same for teleportation. Unless you want the army breathing down your neck within moments, you don’t try to jump right into the city. They won't be too gentle when they apprehend you. And the hefty fine they slap you with will leave little more than the clothes on your back.”

“Thank you for the guidance, my lord. This one is thankful.”

Ezekiel looked ahead again. “Your actions reflect upon your mistress. Read up on the law of the land as soon as you can.” He shook his head. “It should have been the first thing she taught you.”

Sand lowered his head in acknowledgement.

The people at the wharf seemed to recognize the Wavestrider and gave way for it. So it didn’t take them much time to successfully dock the ship. They debarked and Ezekiel summoned his Gate and withdrew the vessel into his Dungeon, drawing quite a bit of attention to them.

Sand was quite surprised to see that most of the dockworkers were human. What was more, none of them seemed like slaves. There was a conspicuous absence of shackles or whips. Before he could thoroughly take stock of the situation, Lirael tapped him on the shoulder.

“Enter my Dungeon. I don’t want you exposed before I deal with my family,” she said before summoning her Gate. Sand could only comply. Suppressing his curiosity, he walked through the illusory waterfall of blood and found himself in Bloodskull.

Taking a quick look around, he determined that he was within the Willow Woods quite close to Grim’s Gut. As he made his way towards it, the skeletal trees on all sides of him stirred slightly before returning to rest when they realized who he was.

He paused as he reached a clearing in the forest which hadn’t been there the last time he had been here. Forging ahead, he entered it to find one of the gigantic Mire Crabs he had subdued not so long ago occupying it.

Sensing him, the beast grew agitated and made to attack. Just as Sand was about to defend himself, hundreds of skeletal vines stretched out from the trees surrounding the clearing and tied it down. It thrashed and struggled causing the trees to creak ominously and even some of the vines to snap. But finally, it could only give up utterly exhausted.

“This iss the last one,” hissed Igor as he emerged from the forest on the other side of the crab.

Sand had helped subdue five of the beasts in total and if what the Thrall said was true then he had managed to settle four of them and integrate then into the Dungeon within the short span of a week in Dungeon time. He was quite efficient.

Now that he looked closer at the Crab, he saw that the ground around its feet had softened into a dense slurry – a result of its shards. Sand skirted around the clearing, hugging the treeline and giving the gigantic pincers of the beast a wide berth as he approached Igor.

Reaching his side, he saw the Naga making fluid gestures with his four arms reminiscent of undulating waves. This was actually a physical crutch he used to better utilize his Water Manipulation shard. The disadvantage of this method was that if someone was familiar with you, they would easily be able to predict what you were going to do next by looking at your movements. Also, reliance on body movements made the shard utilization a bit rigid as a specific movement could only be mapped to a single magical effect and one could only memorize so many movements before making the exercise quite pointless.

While Sand didn’t approve of limiting oneself in this manner, he could see why someone would choose to do so as this method allowed one to master the shard’s use much faster. For a Thrall, this method would get them up to speed sooner.

With the burble of gushing water, a stream of blood rushed down the trench he had already dug into the ground, connecting the main river to the growing swamp being created by the Mire Crab.

As soon as the blood poured into the mud, dyeing it a dark red, the exhausted crab perked up and began struggling with renewed vigour. Igor snapped his fingers and the vines retracted to the edge of the swamp, letting it go but poised to capture it again.

The crab clicked its claws in agitation but didn’t dare challenge them again. Instead, frothing at the mouth in frustration, it unleashed its rage upon the ground, glowing with an ochre yellow radiance that liquefied the soil further, causing the swamp to spread.

Sand and Igor stepped backwards until they were at the very edge of the clearing before the expansion finally stopped. With a final threatening click of its pincers at them, the beast sank into the mud ignominiously. A few occasional bubbles at the surface of the bloody swamp were all the evidence that remained of its continued existence.

“Now, we waitsss.” Igor turned around and began to walk away. “Come.”

The successful integration of the Mire Crabs was the penultimate step in preparation of turning Bloodskull into a spice factory. As the crustaceans settled into and adapted to the environment, the Oasis Leeches they carried would provide a constant supply of Phlebotomy shards.

All that remained was to take these shards and link them to the undead marrow shards of some of the Weeping Willows, then feed these modified trees with various kinds of undead then collect the spice imbued marrow from them.

Of course, it wasn’t as simple as that and several minor steps were required to achieve this. But a lot of trial and error during the two years (Dungeon time) they had spent waiting for the Undead Marrow shard to integrate into Bloodskull had paid off. They had a working procedure that guaranteed a success rate over fifty percent in a reasonable timeframe. This would obviously be improved as they grew more familiar with the process and modified it, but as a starting point, it was more than adequate.

Sand followed Igor out of the forest and in front of the patriarch of the Willows. The Spirit greeted them with its characteristic bellow before opening its mouth. They crossed the newly created stone bridge into Grim’s Gut, the massive tree Spirit, and subsequently its cavernous interior having grown even larger with the Dungeon’s expansion.

Igor indicated towards the glowing egg-shaped crystal embedded in the trunk of the tree. The Control shard.

Nodding in acknowledgement, Sand walked over to it and took a seat in front of it cross-legged. Placing his palms on top of the crystal, he closed his eyes, relaxed his mind and connected it to the shard. His consciousness sank into the shard and expanded through the tangled network of roots that covered the entire Dungeon, giving him an all-encompassing awareness of the entire realm.

The strain on his mind from this sensory influx should have ordinarily knocked him out at his level, but his prior experience as a Dungeon Mage meant that it wasn’t an issue for him. thus, apart from Lirael, he was the only one among her Thralls able to operate the shard. It was like a console from which he could remotely manage the Dungeon by ordering the Willows about.

The way the undead reproduced was by using their Undead Marrow shards to grow extra copies of their bones and having them split off as preliminary individuals. A version of binary fission. Thus, their population could easily get out of hand.

Using the Control shard, Sand could order the Willows to cull their numbers to acceptable levels. He could have them protect certain species that were under the threat of extermination from the other species of undead. He could even alter the speed of flow of time in the Dungeon in relation to the outside world, even assigning different rates to different sections of the forest at the cost of higher mana consumption.

In short, he was practically a God within Bloodskull, albeit one whose authority was built on stilts and could be stripped from him at any time Lirael desired. Breathing deeply, Sand began the task of supervising and optimizing the functioning of the Dungeon. It was extremely draining mentally, as all said and done, he wasn’t a true Dungeon Mage but merely a peak stage Green mage.

The reason he had volunteered for the arduous task was firstly, to make himself more valuable in Lirael’s eyes and secondly, to increase his understanding of the principles underlying Dungeon creation and management. He had been someone who learnt by doing. A single stint at the console taught him much more about the influence of the shards and how they linked together to produce the Dungeon phenomena they did than hours of reading about them in books.

The Dungeon was an attempt to approximate nature, thus, by definition, much simpler. It had way fewer components than a similar natural environment. For example, Bloodskull only had blood, fire, ice and death Auras. But in nature, wind, water, earth, life… countless other Aura types would dope the main Auras, making the situation much, much more complex.

Thus, for someone who wanted to gain insight about the fundamental laws of nature, studying the barebones framework of a Dungeon would be much more beneficial.

Sand immersed himself in the work of Dungeon management. It was a great opportunity for him to advance and he wouldn't let any of those pass him by.

YesorNo

Read ahead on Patreon.

Or support the fic by voting on TopWebfiction... if, that is, you don't mind clicking twice.