Evren awoke and climbed out of the wagon as the sun was rising. He grabbed some jerky and stretched while chewing on it. He walked around to the front of the wagon looking at the debris blocking his way and planning out in his head how he needed to move it. As he walked through the rubble and got to the gate, he peered inside Aernide fortress, saddened by its destruction. A fortress designed to withstand a monster invasion was destroyed by humans with greed.
He had seen this sort of thing before in the military. An entire planet’s civilization was destroyed by a race whose belief centered around strength and combat. They deemed the civilization as being weak and systematically destroyed them. Evren was disgusted by it back then, and he was disgusted with it now. This was the fourth town he had been to only be occupied by corpses and memories. He was beginning to lose hope that he would ever find someone else. It had only been a year though, so he didn’t want to give up yet.
Evren went back to the wagon and grabbed a rope. He went inside the fortress and climbed the tower to the wall, tying off one end of the rope around a large rock that had broken away from the wall, letting the other end drop to the ground. He climbed back down the tower and tied the rope to the fallen gate blocking the way. He climbed back up the tower, tightened the slack on the rope and retied it, making sure it was set firmly in place.
After he climbed back down, he went to the gate, and lifted the end opposite the rope. The gate was suspended by the rope and naturally wanted to be moved to under where the rope was tied, letting Evren only having to lift part of the load. When Evren got the gate to the wall, he lifted it up on its side and propped it against the wall. He untied the rope and tossed it aside for the moment. He then began rolling the fallen rocks and rotten to the side, the gravel and smaller rocks he scooped up with his shovel. When he finished, he climbed the tower to grab his rope and pulled his wagon into Aernide.
The lower ring of Aernide was the newest section of the fortress. Originally it was built outside of the dungeon itself, but as more people began staying here, additional walls were built up. The entrances to the other walls were always offset with each other, except for the uppermost wall, which was placed in the middle. Most of the buildings in this area were houses, with some shops catering to the people arriving to the fortress; inns, taverns and restaurants. Each level upwards would have more shops catering to specific needs, with the oldest and most respected shops being located at the very top of the fortress where the commander’s residence was located.
Aernide dungeon came under the leadership of the Mercia Kingdom, but the fortress itself was never a territory, but a property of the kingdom. The leadership for the fortress came from within the military forces stationed at the fortress, or as assigned by the kingdom. Therefore, the leadership of the fortress has never been one of nobility, but instead of military, directly reporting to the throne.
Most of the buildings in the lower section had been destroyed by the siege. Several showed signs of fire, others were just destroyed and shoved out of the way to make room for the invader’s advancement. Arriving at the second level at noon, Evren found most of the debris from the breech had previously been moved away, making it clear for him to move through. As with the lower section, the second ring of the fortress appeared to have been thoroughly destroyed, yet there were signs of the defenders as siege equipment had been destroyed and abandoned at various places.
When Evren reached the third level the sun had begun to set. Evren didn’t stop though, wanting to get as high as possible before stopping, hoping that some of the buildings in the uppermost level were still intact. He only needed to go to the middle of the next wall to reach the upper level. Evren cast ‘light’ above his head, grabbed his sword and continued without the wagon.
When Evren reached the upper gate, he stopped. Debris, which had been cleared from the previous gates blocked his way. Evren blocked off the wheels of the wagon and climbed over the debris to get a look around the upper level. He had been concerned skeletons would rise up from the rubble as darkness settled, but there were no signs of that happening. As he walked around the upper level, he noticed the damages to the area consisted mostly of siege damages, and several of the buildings seemed intact.
When Evren checked a couple of the buildings, he would many times find skeletons of the former residents within, and signs of looting was prevalent. He only checked a few buildings before heading back to the wagon and resting for the night. In the morning, he spent time clearing away the debris from the gate area. When he got the area cleared, and got through the gate with his wagon, Evren had to occasionally stop from time to time to clear away the road. He had an idea of where the dungeon entrance would be, but only a general direction.
He passed by a large house that looked like an office building, which he assumed belonged to the commander. There was a tall stone fence surrounding the building, with a gate and a guardhouse. The front door had been left open and the area in front had been completely overgrown. There were no signs of the residents of the building being displayed post-mortem, so Evren wondered if that was something they had decided to do at Plinth only.
Evren continued heading north, to the sheer cliff that loomed above him. It was said the entrance to the dungeon lay at the base of that cliff. Evren made his way through the buildings, occasionally moving debris out of the way until he came to the entrance to the dungeon. Or what should have been the entrance. It appears the Holy State, in their divine wisdom, had decided to close the entrance to the dungeon by collapsing the entrance shut. Evren stared at the entrance for a while then sighed deeply. He blocked the wheels of the wagon and began walking around looking for yet another shop for him to stay in while he cleared away the rubble.
He knew it would take a while to clear it properly, and to make sure that it doesn’t collapse on him while he was working, he needed to clear the area around the entrance as well. When he found a blacksmith shop, he had found that it had been trashed. The anvil and tools were scattered about the floor on the inside. The forge had been pulled apart, needing to be completely rebuilt in order to use properly. The armor and weapons that hadn’t been plundered were rusted beyond repair.
Evren nodded and checked the living section near connected to the forge and found that while it was in disarray, as long as it was cleaned, it would be livable. Evren left the wagon where it was and began to clean the living area of the blacksmith’s shop. After he had cleaned up everything to an extent, and without exploring too much in the room, Evren then moved to the shop where the dismantled forge lay. Evren picked up the tools and anvil from the floor and shoveled the area free of dirt and debris. He would have swept it, but he still didn’t have a broom.
He ignored the armor in the shop area as he didn’t plan to stay long in the fortress. Only until he had cleared away the debris. Since Evren would be spending most of his time near the entrance to the dungeon, he left his wagon nearby so he could keep watch on it while he worked. When he went back to the apartment for the evening to rest, he let the wagon remain where it was.
Evren worked for two weeks before he could see an opening through the rocks into what he thought was the dungeon entrance. The air coming from the entrance smelled of dirt and moisture. He cast light on a small rock and tossed it inside the opening to see within. He saw a paved floor next to a stone brick wall. Evren moved the rock away from him with telekinesis until it was out of his range, but the tunnel continued on with a repetition of the same thing he saw initially, a paved floor and a stone brick wall beyond that was darkness.
He dispelled the light and continued clearing away the rubble until five days later, he finally had the entrance cleared enough he could pull the wagon within. The tunnel appeared to be man-made. Evren wasn’t sure because he read that dungeons could emulate memories and produce levels that look like whatever those who died within had experienced. It was also a way for dungeons to create new and more powerful monsters, by devouring the memories of those who had been absorbed.
The walkway was paved with stones. Many had been cracked by the cave-in, but they had been cleaned up by Evren. The walls were a paved stone that ran up the side, forming an arch at the top. The entrance was about four meters wide by five meters tall. It was plenty wide enough for Evren to pull his wagon in with. He had, in fact, only cleared a path wide enough for his wagon, not the entire four-meter width. Looking to the sky, it wasn’t quite midway between noon and evening yet, so Evren decided to clean himself up, eat a hot meal and get some rest. His plan to enter the dungeon was for the next morning.
