Ferrisdae and I looked at each other. A talking rat, huh. "Hello, your majesty," she said. She was hunched over in her chair so she was on his level. "It's an honor to meet you. My name is Ferrisdae, but you can call me Ferry. My associate is Badger. We're from the Department of Dungeons."
The rat gasped, eyes flying open. It looked back and forth between the two of us rapidly before attempting to roll onto his feet. After a short struggle, Frescan helped him up. "You have answered my summons!" Krad exclaimed. "This was much faster than I had been told!"
"Well, your majesty, your case is a very special one," Ferrisdae explained. "There hasn’t been a dungeon in Thatcher for over a century and a half. We were very curious."
"Thatcher?" Krad repeated. "Ah, yes! The land outside of my kingdom. I cannot wait to conquer it!"
"He gets really excited sometimes," Frescan said. "He hasn't even tried to leave because I keep feeding him when he comes up."
"Frescan! You cannot just say that about your liege!" Krad looked back at Ferrisdae. "I annexed this kingdom, Tavern, not long ago during my first expansion, but the transfer of power has not gone as smoothly as I hoped. Frescan does still pay me tribute, so I allow him his life."
"You're very well spoken," Ferrisdae started. "I haven't met any of your kind that can speak, how did it happen?"
"Ah, you are right to be amazed by me. Let me regale you with the tale," Krad said as he stood up straighter and cleared his throat. "Once upon a time, roughly a month and a half ago, a wizard came to this kingdom of Tavern for its food and drink. Then, I ate that wizard and became the powerful Rat King Krad!"
"Oh my, a whole wizard?" Ferrisdae asked. I could tell from her tone that she was enjoying herself.
"Er, almost right, Krad," Frescan said before looking at Ferrisdae. "A wizard did come through, but he was in a hurry. A quick meal and dashed right out, leaving his spellbook. He was already gone by the time I noticed, so I threw it in the kitchen. A week later he was back, and when I retrieved it for him, it was all chewed through. The wizard was pissed. Raving mad, really, but after he left Krad came up from the cellar and started yelling about taking over my kingdom."
"You should have seen his face, Ferry, it was hilarious," Krad claimed.
"I'm sure it was," Ferrisdae said with a smile. She looked at me, a question in her gaze. I shrugged.
Rarely a familiar retains sentience after its wizard dies. If the wizard had a dungeon then it wasn't unheard of that the familiar takes over depending on a number of factors. To gain sentience and power by eating a spellbook, though? This was new territory for everyone. It was a strange feeling, being surprised by something new like this. It felt good.
"So, tell me about this Department of Dungeons and how it can help me in my conquests," the Rat King demanded.
"Of course, let me start off with what we do," Ferrisdae said as she sat up straight. Her demeanor shifted slightly. “The Department of Dungeons is in charge of, as you can guess, dungeons. It’s not wrong to say that our economy relies heavily on them. People like yourself create the dungeons, adventurers dive into those dungeons, and the spoils they come out with are introduced to the market.”
“Hmm, that seems like that’s no way to run a kingdom's finances,” Krad said. He looked up at Frescan. “Perhaps I should move up the hostile takeover of Thatcher.”
“Why don’t we just let the pretty lady talk, Krad,” Frescan said. He reached out and stroked the rat’s back. Krad allowed it.
Ferrisdae beamed and continued. “You’re right, of course. It is a fine line that’s walked every day, but the magical crystals that they can gather in dungeons power a lot of magical items from magical weapons and armors all the way to some of the vehicles used for long distance travel. They’re paid very well for each, and that money often goes back into the economy for food, smithing services,” she gestured to the second floor. “Lodging. Then it’s all spent again. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not a perfect system, but the merchants and nobles who have prospered off of it are unwilling to see it pass.”
“I see, I see,” Krad said. “I’m not sure what constitutes a dungeon. I’m afraid I’m not as knowledgeable about my kingdom as I would like to appear, though if you tell anyone, I will deny it vehemently and find you for revenge.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, your majesty,” she responded. “How a dungeon is made naturally like yours is still hotly debated amongst scholars worldwide. Most are made on purpose with ritual magic or magical items, but some are made spontaneously based on a deep desire, others slowly form around a powerful center over the course of time. Though that’s usually been seen most with dragons, there are other powerful beasts that have done the same.”
“That must be what happened!” Krad exclaimed. “My dungeon formed around me, the powerful beast at its center.”
“If I may be able to speculate, and this is just an educated guess as I don’t remember a case like this before, but the creation of your dungeon is likely tied to the spellbook,” Ferrisdae explained. “There might have been a ritual for a dungeon inside, and during your transformation into the Rat King the spell may have been triggered.”
I nodded, but didn’t say anything. That sounded like the most likely theory, but also an alarming one. Dungeon rituals were a heavily guarded secret due to how lucrative they were. If some wizard was walking around with it in a spellbook and left it lying around, things could end up dangerous. Krad seemed harmless in the long run, but it could have ended up in worse hands.
“So I open my kingdom to the outside world, they come and try to plunder my treasure, and what do I get out of it?”
Ferrisdae nodded. “Basically: power, fame, and wealth. One of the most powerful effects of a dungeon is that the owner of the said dungeon is functionally immortal while inside of it. That would be the best way to put it. Outside of the dungeon you are powerful, yes, but inside you’ll revive if you’re killed. You would take the position of being a boss monster."
“I like the immortality part of it, but I can’t say I care much for assassins coming for my throne,” Krad said.
“That’s understandable, but having your own dungeon makes you stronger by the virtue of, well, having one.” As Ferrisdae continued explaining, I found myself nodding along more and more. I had to admit, she knew her stuff. “As you go through the process and accumulate experience, you can make your dungeon larger, gain more minions, and make yourself more powerful. Once you pass a certain threshold of power you'll even be able to shape your dungeon according to your whims. Eventually, you may even become too strong for this area and get to upgrade to a larger dungeon."
Krad tilted his head. “What does that mean, too strong for this area?”
“Thatcher and the surrounding villages are what we consider low level areas. You head outside into the woods, you’re likely to come across boars, snakes, bears. A moose like that,” she gestured to the mounted head, "could be the most powerful thing out there. Thatcher is almost perfect as a starter zone, if it had a dungeon. In higher level forested areas you may run into fairies both benevolent and malevolent, treants, dryads, and the like. You would select a minion to inherit this dungeon if you wanted to go and create a larger one. We would be able to help facilitate that for you.”
The rat seemed to be contemplating. It seemed as though he was understanding everything that was being thrown at him. By the way he spoke and acted, I didn’t think it odd for him to retain some of the knowledge left in the spellbook he had consumed. That knowledge seemed spotty at best, however.
“But what makes the Department of Dungeons relevant?” Krad asked. “What do you do?”
“We help dungeon owners like you by facilitating contracts between yourself and minion unions, schools, and dungeon builders if needed. Our main job is to make sure that dungeons live up to the levels relevant for the zones they’re in so that adventurers don't get killed due to circumstances that prove too unfair," Ferrisdae explained. "Let’s say that you were a mid-level wizard, and you set up your dungeon under this very tavern. That would be vastly overpowered, right? At most here you’d find a third level ranger, and most who will be delving are going to be fresh faced first levels. We would have to have you relocate or destroy your dungeon.”
“You can destroy dungeons?” Krad asked, eyes wide. His tail began to twitch nervously.
“We can,” Ferrisdae said with a nod. “But we try not to. If you are that powerful then you’d have to appoint a proxy boss to fight for you in your place so that the tiers match up. Generally, that will come with compensation from us in one form or another to make up for the lower tier adventurers coming through until we relocate you."
“Then is the opposite true?”
“Absolutely,” Ferrisdae confirmed. “Let’s say you’re still that mid-level wizard, but your dungeon is in a dense jungle far from civilization. The general level of the area is higher than you, but you want to make it work. If we can’t convince you to head to a safer area, then we try to help raise the general level of your dungeon by providing expertise and materials, sometimes monsters. This is generally inadvisable, though. Adventurers tend to continue hitting dungeons like those over and over again in a process we call farming. The area ensures that there’s plenty of magic for the dungeon to feast on, creating more magic crystals than there would be elsewhere. They’re easy to grab because the overall power level is low. Does that make sense?”
Krad nodded. “It’s a lot to take in, but I think I’ve got enough of it for now.”
“Excellent!” Ferrisdae said, clapping her hands together. She had to move her hair out of her face again. “If there’s no more questions, shall we go look at your dungeon and see if it’s up to code?”
“Yes! I, the Rat King Krad, formally invite Inspector Ferry and her servant boy Budger to my dungeon kingdom, Ratopolis.” Krad swept into a low bow.
Ferrisdae stifled a laugh and glanced in my direction. Budger, she mouthed. I tried to ignore her glee at the rat’s slight. Certainly, I didn’t expect it to remember something like my name after I hadn’t said anything this whole conversation. Especially after being hit by that wall of exposition.
“Yes,” Ferrisdae giggled. “Come, Budger. We have a kingdom to peruse.” I swallowed again. She wasn’t going to get the satisfaction of an exasperated reaction. It didn’t seem to matter either way, she was giggling like a madwoman regardless of how much disdain I conveyed.
Damned kids.
