Dungeon Builder's Harem Book 04 Ch. 12

What if Fuegin decided to end our friendship? Or if he thought that recruiting Siwang was a threat? Fuegin seemed to be keeping an eye on the area. He sure found out about me pretty fast. Would he think it was a good idea?

It was all because he extended me a hand of friendship that I had done this.

Finally, I reached the room at the end and found the wildhounds waiting for me. They all yipped in greetings. The moment I dismounted, Hela and Ci pounced on me and licked my face, their lips brushing mine. Then the three of us were kissing.

"Puppies!" squealed Garnet.

"Little sis!" Cysgo yipped, my sister pulling her in for a tight kiss.

"Maya! Maya!" barked Marwo.

"Fara!" Nos gasped.

Kisses were exchanged. Then Hela and her girls led us through the dungeon. It didn't take too long, we were about in the middle of the dungeon.

"This feels even deader than Meskalamdug's dungeon," Maya said, looking around. "There's no life here at all. It's all gone."

I nodded. Memories of the fight with Led in my bedroom, his dwarves trying to break through the Vault's door and smash my Void Crystal, filled my mind. I had barely beaten him. But I had prevailed. I had no choice.

I had too many beautiful women to protect.

"How tacky," Garnet said as we passed through the throne room. "Ice? Doesn't his butt freeze? And where are his thrones for his ladies? Smerta and Feya didn't get seats?"

"Yeah, I think I know why they gladly signed on with our big perv here," Maya said.

"This is so fascinating," Fara cooed. "He had a floor screen like you do. Fascinating. Does that come with the throne room?"

"I think so," I said. "It's been a while since I made it."

We soon came to Led's living area. His bed was rumbled and drenched in pussy cream. Lana, Morana, and Smerta were all lying sprawled on it, clearly savoring hours of lesbian passion on it. I was sad I missed it.

"Oh, Dark One," Morana cooed. "We have ruined your enemy's bed with our passion."

"I can see that," I said, smiling.

"Let me join!" Garnet squealed and threw herself on the bed.

"That's the office door," said Smerta, pointing at it as Garnet squirmed between her and Morana. "Dwarves didn't touch it. He never let me in there."

"I can't wait to see what lies beyond," Fara said, her ears twitching.

I considered the door and selected a spell I thought would work. "Waves slam into the shore, let the strength of Lord Enki hammer!"

The mace of water slammed into the door. The metal dented from the impact. The hinges creaked. I cast the spell a second time. The iron groaned as the door bowed inward even more. I rolled my shoulders and thrust out my hand as I cast Water Mace a third time.

The door burst inward. Stone broke from the side of the wall. The hinges creaked as it opened inward onto a small room. An office. There was a desk in the middle, a chair with a padded seat. Papers covered the desk. There was a shelf with several scrolls on it.

I moved into the room, Fara and Maya following me. The elf darted for the desk. "Maps, Lord Leo."

She held one map. It was a map of the continent. I could see the familiar sights like the mountains where my own dungeon was. Fuegin's lands to the west across a gulf. More. My eyes fell on Fara's lands and the Great Library of Lyrialiasa to the south, halflings to the southeast. There were notations that were in Russian written on it.

"What strange language is this?" asked Fara.

"Smerta can translate that when she's done," I said.

"He's marked things on here," said Fara. "Including one near your dungeon. Not quite where yours is, but it could just be a mistake on his part. And here. And here."

"He's formed a circle," I said, seeing the pattern of the places he had marked. "Twelve points that form a circle across most of the world."

"You're right." Fara's ears twitched as she stared at them. "Oh, my, what do you think this means, Lord Leo? Twelve is a very powerful number."

"Yeah," I said, staring down at the map. "Very powerful number. Sumerian number, right?"

Fara nodded. "Something Nina told me during our research. Why your Sumerians use Base 60 for their counting system and not Base 10. She said it's why there are sixty minutes in an hour even in your world after thousands of years."

"Oh?" I asked, thinking about what these markings were. They couldn't just be other dungeon builder locations. "What is it."

Fara held out both her hands. "It's a way of counting with your hand. You take your right thumb and you count by tapping each of the segments of your finger. There are three of them." She tapped her thumb on the three segments of her finger separated by her knuckles. "One, two, three." Then her middle finger. "Four, five, six." She did that until she got to her pinky finger. "Ten, eleven, twelve."

She folded the first of her fingers on her left hand and started again. When she got to twelve, she folded a second finger. Then a third, counting to twelve three times. Then four. Finally, on the fifth time, she folded in her thumb.

"You can count to twelve five times with this method just using your fingers as a tally," said Fara. "And that gets you sixty. That is why they used it for all their math. Very efficient, these Sumerians of yours. And sixty has its own advantages. It's a very divisible number. Easy for—"

"That's great and all," Maya said, "but there's a secret door here. Led made a second door in his office. Why would he do that?"

"He was paranoid and didn't trust his monster girls?" I asked. "He didn't let Smerta or Feya in here."

"Maybe it was Ziamili he didn't fully trust," said Maya. "Maybe he found something he wanted to keep secret from his brother, and so he kept it secret from everyone."

"Well, he's dead," I said. "No way to find out. Can you open it?"

"Yeah, it's like the secret doors you can create," Maya said. "Only he doesn't have the Darkness glyph to hide it in the dungeon so he used this shelf here to hide part of the seam." She pushed on a section of wall in the corner. It pivoted there, using the meeting of the two walls to hide it. Maya's body rippled as she shoved it open farther.

And found a set of stairs.

"This is interesting," Maya said and headed down it.

"We should have the wildhounds search it for traps," I called as Maya headed down it, her rump swaying.

"If a trap kills me, you'll know it's not safe," said Maya as she kept descending. "But I'm stepping on every step. I'll set it off."

"And if you get killed, you'll miss out on what's down there," I said. "They're great at finding traps."

"And yet I'm great at finding secret doors." Maya waved. "Just enjoy watching my liquid ass sloshing back and forth, big perv. It's no biggie if I die."

That made my stomach clench. "It's a big deal to me."

"You're sweet," she said. "Oh, my, it's a crystal room down here. And a light. You have to see this. She walked out of sight at a corridor at the base of the hallway.

I glanced at Fara then hurried down after. My elf followed. I thought about casting Granite Flesh or Static Aura to protect myself, but then I was at the bottom. Maya stood ten feet away at a widening room. It was made of crystal, the walls reflecting light.

"What the.." I muttered as I rushed to her. I stepped up beside her and stared at a sphere made of crystal, the walls a blue-purple gemstone, the facets reflecting the light. "God, is this a geode?"

Then I noticed the light itself. It came from a glyph in the middle of the room. It was seven arrows pointing towards the middle to form a circle. Like a sun shining bright. It was the Light Glyph. I swallowed as I felt that same mark burned into my chest.

On the wall beyond was a message written in cuneiform. It was carved into the wall. Not as much as we found in Meskalamdug's dungeon. Beneath the words was a small slot. It was hard to focus on the words, though, when I could feel the power coming from the glyph. The hairs on my arms stood up on end.

"You know what this is, Lord Leo?" Fara asked, grabbing my other arm. She pressed against me, trembling. "This is a glyph. I think if you didn't have Light already, you could get it from this. By touching it."

"Maybe," I said. "How are you certain, though? This could be something else."

"Logical deduction, my Lord. We know that Led gained his Light glyph in some way other than killing a Dungeon Builder. He must have found this expanding his dungeon. He stumbled across a secret, then he wanted to find more. Twelve points marked on a map that formed a circle across our world. Lord Leo, you said that's a significant number."

"Twelve elements," I groaned. "He figured out where these other points were?"

"Or was guessing," said Fara. She held out papers. "He has all twelve glyphs written on here. The script is so frustrating close to your script. Hagane and Nina have taught me some of it. I can see that it's similar and yet different."

"Yeah, that's the Cyrillic alphabet," I said. "I feel the same way sometimes."

"He was searching for these," Fara said. "There were other maps on the desk I noticed. Ones where he had crossed off markings. And I saw some math equations. They are like some of the stuff Hagane showed me. Your algebra and trigonometry."

"And one is by my dungeon?" I asked. "Damn, we have to find it. See what it is."

"We should have Siwang touch this," Maya suggested. "See if it truly gives him the Light glyph or not. Just to make sure. We can't make assumptions. Not about something this powerful."

"You would be giving him more power, Lord Leo," Fara said, her voice doubtful.

"You don't trust him," I said, glancing at Fara. "You think he'll become a threat if I give him too much power."

"Yes." The elf stared at me without flinching. "It has always been the nature of the world. Ambition and the drive for power has destroyed more friendships and alliances than anything. Right now, he knows he is in a position of weakness and thus curries favor with you. But if you give him access to more glyphs. If you let him find more mana veins..."

"I have thought about all that, and you know what I think?" I asked her. "That I need to trust someone that isn't bound to me. I need to work with those I can work with. I want to show Siwang that he is getting something out of this. And this way, he doesn't have to fight for it. Risk his life for one."

"You're right," said Maya. "Absolutely right. We have to trust him."

"I agree, Leo," a new voice said. I turned to find Lana Fulmine behind us.

"Did you get bored of Garnet?" I asked.

"She was busy playing with Morana and Smerta while I was curious what was down here." Her lightning wings quivered. "I think we should help him become an ally that can fight at your side, Lord Leo. I don't like it when you risk your life. If there was someone else even close to your power... Imagine if we had Siwang with us when Halia's father attacked us."

"Du," I thought, "I need you to deliver a message to Siwang."

"Ready when you are, Lord Leo," the wildhound yipped. She sounded so excited. "What's the message?"