We made camp, and it was a strange kind of camp with defenses both towards the outside and towards the inside, the majority of our soldiers were going to stay at the top we were only going to go down with around 100 soldiers, I asked to bring the 9 people that had not completed their class, I suspected they could complete it while we go down and explore.

 

Our exploration started the next day and we had to kill some more goblins, we started to go down and the first floor was simplistic with a main corridor and several rooms at both sides, I could see some stairs at the end, I looked with my mana sense and each room had like a center where something was being made, I suspected that those things just produced goblins, this floor was empty and eerie except for the magic, we went to the end of the corridor and found some stairs, the stairs were nice approximately 20 steps a landing and another 20 steps to get down to the second floor, something like 4 meters or so going down.

 

The second floor had a door and we could hear some noises from behind the door, we tried to open it but it would not budge at all, I looked with my mana sense it was covered in magic and I told this to my dad, my dad cursed and said that we would have to round out our troops with mages once we went back, I asked him why we did not have them already, and he said that it was a mistake by him and the king, since very few advisors (more like none) were being used on any subject related to me, they build this troop and forgot to bring the mages, this completely broke the tension of the troop because several soldiers started laughing, I saw the funny side of it too and also started to laugh.

 

After the laugh, I asked what we should do, and we decided to try and destroy the door, several soldiers knew enough of magic to use some simple spells, and I also knew some of them, so we decided to try, the magic on the door got broken when several fireballs hit it and then the door started to burn, at this point the goblins on the other side of the door attracted by the noise attacked the door, for us it was unexpected, the door was burning when suddenly it explodes outwards and several goblins appear, my dad called the troops to form ranks, we could only get into lines of 10, so we started to use rotation, the 10 at the front would deal with the attack and after one of them got tired or wounded they would be replaced by another soldier.

 

We were having troubles there were numerous goblins and visibility was poor, I ended up casting a spell to illuminate the area, but the drain on my magic was quite a bit especially with how long I had to keep it going, we battle for almost 4 hours, every single soldier in the troop fought at the frontlines, the only one that was not allowed was me, I did not mind because as they said my job was to keeps the lights on, some of those goblins had tried to sneak around in the darkness, I lost my concentration early in the battle and the spell turned off, the goblins used the cover of darkness and in less than 30 seconds had wounded 5 of our soldiers, I was able to center myself again and recast the illumination spell but that only made me more determined to not let my concentration falters, those 5 soldiers were lucky and while the wound was serious, it was not fatal.

 

I saw my father keeping his calm and giving orders, ensuring that our troop would be in good shape at all times, once the battle was done my father asked a group of soldiers to go and scout behind the arch where the destroyed door previously was, they saw a big room, that ended up with 3 hallways one on each wall, so this was a room with 4 entrances one in each wall, the hallways at the sides of the rooms looked the same as the one in the first floor with the only difference being that instead of ending in stairs they ended up in a wall at the back, the hallway that was opposite to our entrance, was clear of any room and it only went forward a certain amount of space before it ended in another set of stairs.

 

At this point my father gave orders to rest and for some soldiers to count the amount of goblins and burn them, there was almost 500 goblins, and really for the amount of time we were fighting you would think that the amount would be higher but the goblins were tricky, we had limited troop and the limited space caused us to take quite a bit of time killing each goblin, this took a toll on the troops, a lot of them were fine physically, except the wounded, but the toll mentally of being in the battlefield and ready to be called forward took a toll mentally, I could see the exhaustion.

 

My father after 2 hours of rest decided to go down one more floor, we only had 90 healthy soldiers out of the hundred we had, we arrived at the third floor, and this did not have anything on it but a gem, I saw it and I speculated that this gem was probably the dungeon core, and I told that to my dad, I checked with mana sense, and the amount of mana was simply outrageous, I could see how the core was absorbing mana from the air and pushing it into the stone below him, I tried to sense where was that mana going and I started to notice some very faint lines in the floors and the walls going upwards towards the second floor, I imagine that those function like electrical cables and this is how they feed the rooms upstairs.

 

I also noticed some faint lines in the core, one of those lines was black, We were able to get into the room and check a lot of things, we could not attack the core, we tried physically and with every magic available to the soldiers there but the gem just shrugged all damage, after like an hour I saw that the black line got brighter and gave away a black firefly of magic at least to my mana sense, I was highly disturbed and I told this to my father, we did not know what to do with the orb.

 

We finally decided after standing there for another hour that we were not doing anything productive so it was better to just go back to the surface, my dad wanted to investigate this dungeon more and we had seen a weakness on our troop, we forgot the dedicated mages, I also asked my dad to have at least 1 dedicated priest since they did have some skills that were pure divine energy, on our way back I also asked another question.

 

- Dad, don’t you think we also need archers for our troop? – I asked him.

 

- Yeah son for sure, but right now is your uncle Richard the one in charge of finding out how to activate the skills at the next level, since he does not remember everything he is working with a couple of other archers who are still at the red level, they are looking to make the same training materials you did, we have hired a couple of artist to help them but your third mom want to supervise them. – says my dad.

 

- I imagine those artists were confused about why the army wanted them there. – I say

 

- Oh yeah they were, they know how to keep quiet and they are former soldiers, they love to paint and have done several portraits for people, one of them works as a cobbler and another works as a cook, they were surprised to be asked to work as painters for the soldiers. – I see a smile on my dad’s face.

 

- Dad what do you think about what we found out? – I ask interested on what we saw at the dungeon.

 

- Well son for one side I am happy, we found out something that we did not know, maybe our ancestors knew and the knowledge was deleted by infiltrators, or maybe they never knew of it, maybe it’s something new, what I know is that if you are right and this is how they are producing goblins we have to investigate a way to shut it down, also what you saw with your mana sense, well I might have to ask your second mom to come with us, and you will have to train with her on her mana sense, I want a second opinion on what you saw, and really that skill at the yellow level is really useful, I’m training my own.

 

- Can I ask?

 

- I’m already at orange level 30, sadly at this low levels you can only use it while meditating, your second mom is higher, once she breaks through yellow level we will have more tools at our disposition, also she had been obsessing about magic a lot, since you showed her and say that maybe what was written in the books could be seen if your level was higher, well she has been meditating around 6 hours every day. – says my dad with a smile on his face.

 

- Dad I also suspect that these dungeons are producing demonic mana to change our world.

 

- I suspect the same and since our gods are in opposition to this, I think your idea of having a priest would be great, do you think we should use an enchanter? – He ask.

 

- Dad the only way we could use an enchanter is if he was trained to design new enchantments, no wait – suddenly I stop myself from putting my foot on my mouth – you are right maybe we should bring an enchanter, but I think it would be best if we call one from the capital and the king.

 

- You know you are going to have to teach that skill of yours in the future, right? – says my dad.

 

- What do you mean? – I ask a bit confused.

 

- Son there are some great enchanters in the capital, people that has studied all the tomes of enchanting that we have at the royal library, maybe there are some old enchantments that could work here, but what happen if this is new? Maybe the priest can shut it down, or maybe we need an enchantment just like when we deal with doppelgangers, sadly what you said a while ago is true, almost all our enchanters only do copies of old enchantments, we need some enchanters that can make new ones, you on your own learned how to do it, I think if you teach how to do that we may have more people in the future in case we need to create something. – says my dad.

 

I sit and think and it is true.

 

- Then what do we do?

 

- Well some families who have been enchanting for generations has asked to see our sewer system, so I intend to use this situation to invite one of those families and ask them to bring their most experienced enchanter and maybe a novice a person who is barely starting that you can teach and pass the skills, well but that only if you want, only one of the kids in your generation will become the next lord, the others can help or they can start their own businesses, if you want to keep it private so you can become an enchanter and start your own business tell me.

 

- Dad who will be the next lord? Should not it be Gunnar?

 

- Son they will teach you that at the Academy in the Royal Capital, if you cannot go for whatever reason, then I will tell you myself ok?

 

- Yes dad.

 

After that we continue marching backs towards the fort in silence, I keep thinking about our conversation, some things were not said but implied, why do we not have archers because the archers has not been trained or ready for our troop, I imagine the same is going to happen with the mages and others, but everybody is working hard on becoming better, maybe the situation with the mages is different, I know my second mom has been training them for years, I have to talk with her.