My Dungeon Life: Rise of the Slave Harem

Chapter 1542

“Another dungeon, huh?”

I couldn’t bring myself to be that excited. I had encountered so many dungeons already, why not an island? No, not just an island, and archipelago. We had relocated to her chambers where we both sat down comfortably and drank tea. Neither the loli guard nor the maid were willing to sit, even though I offered.

“If this is a dungeon, isn’t it dangerous?” I asked.

That’s the special thing about the Tearfall Isles.” Mary explained. “They do not inhibit people from being resurrected.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “There are ten islands in all. The first island is free of monsters. There is an entire village built on this island, which is where visitors are free to challenge the other islands. Each subsequent island is more difficult than the last. The 9th island has never been beaten.”

“Beaten? What does that mean?”

“Well, every island is a thick tropical forest filled with monsters for leveling. If you’re able to fight to the center, you’ll reach a shrine. Each shrine contains a safe room and teleportation array and passed that is a boss room. If you defeat the boss, you gain a mark.”

“A mark?”

“I think you’re familiar with the marks. It’s 1/9th of a complete blessing. Once you collect all 9 marks, you complete the blessing. Of course, no one had defeated the dungeon master, so no one has claimed the blessing.”

“Blessings are usually more complicated…”

“Yeah, well this dungeon formed allegedly from the death of an undefeated hero. He was very clear that he desired to pass on his strength to another, so the dungeon only exists to test a person and make sure they are powerful enough. Each mark will grant someone a power boost, but if it isn’t complete, they fad after a month. Some people will go challenge the Blessings, but then leave and use the temporary status boosts to help them out in other combat situations. This dungeon is at least part of the reason the Osterians had such a fighting spirit. They claim the undefeated hero was an Osterian, although no one knows if that is true.”

“Couldn’t they tell by seeing the dungeon master?”

“The Dungeon Master resides in the final dungeon, but unlike with every other challenge, you can only battle him once. Death is permanent.”

“It still seems surprising that a group couldn’t defeat him.”

“That’s just it, the way the dungeon is built, only one person can challenge him at a time. You can use normal boss tactics to wear him down and defeat him. The only way is for someone confident in their abilities to go challenge him. Many Osterians were lost challenging him, and it was eventually declared unwinnable.”

“And you sent Carmine there?”

“Well, the final battle is a bit much, but it’s a great location for earning experience. There are a lot of monsters, and you can start at any difficulty. Of course, you need all 8 marks to challenge the final boss, but otherwise, you can earn them in any order.

In other words, the Tearfall Isles were a massive whetting stone where you had to defeat eight bosses within a month to earn the right to face the final boss. Only by defeating him would you gain the blessing. The temptation to get a True hero must have been great. Few dungeons had a clear pass toward completing them. Traditionally, a dungeon diver would destroy the dungeon rather than complete it. I had been strangely lucky with my ability to complete the lore, but I knew my case was a rarity. To have such a clear directive felt nice, but I had no intention of risking my life fighting another boss. I’d leave this blessing for someone else.

Chapter 1543

“How is Rubee? Or is it Garnet now…” Mary asked.

“She goes by Sapphire now,” I responded.

“Oh? So, she’s found another piece of her soul then?”

“You could say that-” I began and then looked up. “You know about… her condition? I thought the church was against anything to do with dungeons?”

Sapphire was a deep dwarf. At some point, she had fled to the surface with the rest of the deep dwarves and died. Part of her soul was captured by a dungeon and birthed into a miasmic being. She had a strong desire to put herself back together, and eventually escaped the bonds of her dungeon and went searching for other pieces of her soul. Whenever she found one, she’d change her name to reflect her new self. Mary had been the one who had encouraged me to rescue her back in Alerith. At the time, she had secretly been searching for a missing part of her soul. She had thought it was in Widow’s Dungeon, but it turned out it was in the Twilight Dungeon.

“Officially, yes.” She gave a sad smile. “She was captured and was going to be put to death. By all accounts, whether it’s her chest or her miasmic nature, she’s truly a blasphemy for the church.”

“Really? Then why did you save her?”

She took a sip of her tea, sitting back as if she was considering my question carefully. “It was just a selfish desire of mine. The founder of our church had once had her soul broken. That ultimately created the schism in the church that has existed for hundreds of years. To see someone so frantically trying to put their lives back together, it gave me hope that one day I might be able to reunite our church as well.”

“Is that so…”

I straightened a bit under her words. That was right. I was supposed to have talks with the Church does in the Ost Republic. I had run into them a couple of times and my opinion of them was that they were a bit prickly. Technically, all Mary had asked me to do with continuing to have a harem filled with girls of various sizes, but part of me felt like I could have done more to reconcile the situation. Other things just always took precedence.

“Of course, the main reason I did it was that she reminded me of my sister.”

“You have a sister?”

“Yes, I believe you’ve likely met her.”

“I have?”

“She’s the leader of the church of the daughter.”

“You’re related?”

I had met the woman I believed to be the leader. She was the one who had put the bond between Eliana and me. She was the person who presided over the weddings too. I didn’t mean for it to sound so disbelieving, but the sisters were so different. Mary was warm and inviting, while the other girl was a bit cold and angry. Also, Mary had some large assets, and her sister was quite flat.

“Yes. I was the first daughter. My parents used to dote on me because of that, and as a result, she held a lot of jealousy for me.”

“Are you sure being the first daughter was why she was jealous?”

“Hmm? Why else would she be?” Mary cocked her head.

“N-nevermind.”

It probably wasn’t a good idea to get in between sisters.

Chapter 1544

Mary and I were still chatting when a she suddenly made a noise and reached over for a stone that was sitting on her desk. Like most of her movements, it seemed almost scandalous. She touched what appeared to be a stone used for communication, but I didn’t seem to be able to hear what the other side said. It appeared this one was designed in a way that only the person touching it could hear. For me, I used Slave Communication most of the time, so I had never really looked into communication devices from this world. The range wasn’t very good, so the person sending the message was likely in this city.

“Oh? Is that so? I understand.” She spoke with another side before letting go and turning back to me with a smile. “It appears you’re wanted in the palace.”

“The prince?” I asked.

She nodded. “He has gotten word that you were in town and had visited me, so he asked if you would come to him as soon as possible.”

“That works for me. I planned to go there after speaking with you.” I responded. “I didn’t expect word to spread so quickly.”

“Leaders like us must have an extensive and thorough information network,” Mary responded.

Her answer was light-hearted, but it hit me harder than it should. I had often found myself clueless to the going-ons in Chalm. I seemed to learn about everything after the fact, such as the mass exodus of the foxkin tribe. Elaya seemed to have some kind of network, and I was certain Astria did as well, although it was clear Astria’s came from the fairies, whose information was less focused on people and more focused on spiritual things like monsters and mana disturbances.

Although I could ask either of them whenever I felt like it, maybe I should build my information network as well. I’d never had even considered something like that when I Chalm first started, but I really should have someone reporting from the capital, someone reporting from Chalm, Dioshin, and even the Ost Republic. I’d need to create an entire spy network. Perhaps, I should start to look for a spymaster? I could make one of the girls my spymaster, but that would fill up her time. Maybe Celeste would work? She was strangely observant at times.

I shook my head, that was something I needed to consider for later. At the moment, it seemed like I should make my way to the castle. If the prince called for me, then he probably needed something in a hurry.

“I’ll be on my way then.” I declared.

“Thank you for coming.” She stood up and bowed, her chest swaying as she did. “Please come back more often.”

“S-sure…”

She escorted me back out of the palace, and then I prepared to head for the palace to see Prince Edward. It was as we were walking down the street that a thought came to me.

“Head maid… um…”

“Master may call me Cici.”

“Um, Head maid Cici… you lived in the capital for some time at the orphanage, right? Do you know the capital well?”

“Yes, this is why Mistress Faeyna thought I would do well in maintaining the property.” She agreed.

“Do you still have connections to other orphans?”

She cocked her head as she thought about it. “Yes, I know quite a few, what does master have in mind?”

“You said the children often clean in the manors of merchants and lords of the capital. People ignore children, but children speak…” I responded thoughtfully. “Perhaps, you could be the one to listen.”

A spy network might not be so hard after all.