My Dungeon Life: Rise of the Slave Harem

Chapter 1349

The imager had only contained that single scene. Garnet had some kind of secret? Of course, I could guess what it was. She had some kind of connection with this the Deep. Rather, she had been here at some point. Was the reason she had come down to the Deep purely to get acquire resources as she had claimed, or was there something else to it.

The deep dwarves had fled the deep over a hundred years ago. This was before Aberis conquered Osteria, and even before humans started to migrate into Osteria. At that point, it wasn’t even really a country so much as just the lands of a people. The Osterians lived in the Osterian plains. Then, the deep dwarves seemed to be fleeing something, so they made the month-long trek to the surface looking to relocate. The dwarves rejected them, the Dioshin attacked and enslaved them, and the Osteria ejected them.

I had always figured that Garnet had been the daughter of a slave, or that there was some tribe of Deep Dwarves that had managed to remain in Esmore. Esmore was mostly made up of the esmere in the valley, who I had learned talking with Pait recently were called halflings, and the dwarves of the mountains. However, some deep dwarves might have been holding out in some mountain village that was ignored by the rest. Just who did survive and where did they end up? More importantly, how did Garnet remember the deep, when she reported to only be in her twenties.

I hadn’t thought much about it, but there had been something odd about Garnet from the beginning. Since passing through Esmore and having a chance to see more dwarves, I found that they didn’t have that permanent youthful look. First, she had claimed that changing names was something that dwarves did, but I had asked Pait and he said he didn’t know that to be a custom of dwarves. Second, dwarves aged slower than humans overall. It wasn’t like they stayed permanently child-like. So, while I had presumed Garnet was only in her twenties or thirties, I recalled her slave auction had suggested she was older with many skills above her expected age.

At the time, that hadn’t been surprising to me, because all of my girls had similar levels, but Garnet hadn’t been fighting with a multiplier in dungeons with her life on the line. Then, there was her strange connection to the church. She had a flat chest, but she seemed to be a close connection with Mary the Archbishop of Aberis’s church, who had sent me to save her. I had achieved that goal, but various things came up and I hadn’t spoken with her in some time.

I had originally believed that her oddities were just a part of her rare species. Like Miki’s nine-tail fox or Faeyna’s status as an elf, the deep dwarves were all but extinct in this world. These were just customs from her. I had to imagine the lack of sun made it so deep dwarves typically looked younger than surface dwarves. At least, I had heard such sentiment. Yet, I had run into King Diorite as well. He was a middle-aged man, although who knew how old he was.

In short, Garnet was a woman with no name and no past. She carried the knowledge of the deep dwarves and seemed to remember things she shouldn’t remember. She had no age. She was tied to the church and the Deep. She had the body of a thirteen-year-old girl, but the flirtatious tendencies and curiosities on sex of a middle-aged virgin. I started to realize that I didn’t know anything about Garnet. She was a complete mystery to me.

I put the stone away and looked at Sapphire, who gave me a wondering look back. I knew what she was asking. What do we do next? That was a good question.

Chapter 1350

“We have to enter the palace.” I decided.

The strange illusion I had experienced before had tried to make me enter the palace, which made me not want to enter the palace. However, there was nowhere else to go. We had already come this way, and I wasn’t leaving without Terra and Garnet. They were the reason I was here. If someone was trying to lure me in, they had chosen the perfect bait. Hopefully, knowing it was bait would mean I could avoid the hook.

Unfortunately, we’d have to move forward blindly. My Map didn’t seem to penetrate a single spec beyond those doors to give me an idea of what was to come. Glancing around the city one more time, I took a step past Sapphire toward the door. Sapphire made a noise of protest, reaching out and grabbing my arm. I turned to her, and she shook her head, a look of fear and worry on her face.

“Is this the direction of Terra and Garnet?” I asked.

Her eyes broke away, and then she gave a weak nod.

“Then, this is the way I’m going.” I declared, looking at the door and frowning. “As soon as I figure out how to open it.

Looking at the large double doors, I realized there was no doorknob or handle. I couldn’t see a clear way to get the door to open. I might have spoken too soon. With Alysia, I might have been able to cut the doors down, but without her in the blade, I wasn’t confident it wouldn’t just break in my hand. It did feel weaker. I was still holding onto it, but it didn’t give me the comfort it once had.

As I was examining the door and trying to figure out what to do, Sapphire walked up to it. She reached out and touched several gems. Each one she touched suddenly started to glow. After pressing ten stones in a specific order, there was a grinding sound, and then the door opened in much the way it had in my previous vision. This time, though, there did appear to be some kind of light coming from inside. I didn’t know if seeing the light in a place where there shouldn’t have been light made it better or worse.

When Sapphire was done, she nodded and took several steps back. She reached out and grabbed my arm, holding onto me innocently once again. I looked at the crack that had opened. I wondered if that was as far as the doors opened. Maybe, different combinations would cause the door to open certain amounts. I knew I was just procrastinating though, so I grabbed Sapphire’s hand, making sure that she didn’t suddenly disappear again, and then I moved forward toward the door.

As soon as we entered, I could see the light was coming from a single orb that was sitting on the ground. It didn’t look to be particularly old. I walked toward the orb, leaning down to pick it up. As I picked it up, I realized that it wasn’t a light orb, but another imager! At that moment, groaning came from behind me and the palace door slammed shut.

Chapter 1351

Of course, when the door shut, we weren’t plunged into darkness. However, my light spells suppression was amplified. In front of the palace, the darkness had been pushed back a bit, but now on the inside, it was even worse. Sapphire moved closer to me, looking mildly frightened. However, my interest was in the stone. It was identical to the one that had struck me in the head earlier. It couldn’t be more of Terra and Garnet’s recordings, could it?

I immediately placed my mana into it, causing a new image to appear. It was once again Terra and Garnet. I could tell they were walking in this very corridor.

“We’re almost there,” Garnet whispered.

“Do you really think so?”

“I don’t think so… I know.”

“You mean, like the code at the doorway?”

“Shhh! What was that?” she stopped.

“What?”

“Do you hear that?”

Terra cocked her head and listened carefully. “Something in the darkness… it sounds like footsteps.”

“Are we being followed?”

“I don’t think so. How could we? We just came through the door and it closed behind us.” Terra clanked back. “We would have heard it opening. Don’t you-”

Terra turned back, and then she stopped speaking.

“Yeah?” Garnet asked.

“Garnet?”

Garnet frowned. “Yeah?”

“Where did you go? Garnet! Seriously? Don’t play games.”

“Terra… I’m right in front of you. What are you saying?”

“Garnet! Garnet!” Terra called out, looking right past the other girl.

“Hey!” Garnet walked up and then slammed her heel on Terra’s foot!”

“Ow!” Garnet cried out, blinking tearfully until her eyes landed on Garnet. “Oh, there you are. Where did you go?”

“I didn’t go anywhere! Dummy, I was here the whole time!”

“Huh? You were totally gone.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Okay, we’re hearing things and now we’re seeing things… this is getting worse.”

“Let’s just keep going.”

“Ah… Garnet?”

“Yeah, what is it?”

“Where did your shadow go?”

“Huh?”

“Your shadow… your shadow is missing.”

Garnet looked down and then behind herself, when she turned back, there was a slight smirk on her face. “Oops.”

“Wh-why don’t you have a shadow?”

“A better question, why do you still have one?” Her voice sounded off.

Terra took a step back. “Garnet, are you doing okay?”

“I’m doing fine.” Garnet took a step toward Terra, causing her to take a step back.

“You’re overreacting, it’s just a trick of the light.”

“Stay away from me!”

“Terra… Teeeeeraaaa…” She started giggling as the imager ended right there.

They had been experiencing the same phenomenon that I had experienced. I hadn’t heard any footsteps yet. Was that coming? Sapphire grabbed my arm and pulled on me. I looked up to see her smiling eagerly. A thought suddenly came to me. I was using the Light spell. It had no light source, so in general, it didn’t cast a shadow.

I slowly lifted my hand and created a light orb and then turned off the light spell. The light came out across Sapphire’s face, but it wasn’t as bright as the previous light, caused her face to take on a darker appearance. Her smile started to grow. Looking down at her feet, I could see there was no shadow being cast behind her.

Her smile broke into a toothy grin. “Bye-bye…”

The light orb went out.