Starting the Empire

  Destiny was browsing the exchange and working on her dungeon plan when the boys came in. They had spent the last month nearly constantly training. She had expanded her catalog for beasts and loot. Neither of the two cared about the loot and just threw everything that Gumdrop didn’t eat into the unused rooms. They did love getting levels and raising their skills. Destiny had nothing to really compare it to, but she found the two of them frightening.

  Gumdrop was totally unpredictable and incredibly creative. John was an utterly fearless, methodical beast that charged into anything set in front of him and had added significantly to his spell repertoire through class spells and creating new variations. She would hate to have to try to defend her dungeon against a party with those two and good support. Even after reading hundreds of the low level guides, she struggled to challenge them.

  “Hey, Destiny. We’ve both reached level 15. We think it’s time to explore this world a little. Can you open a portal to that cave you found?” John asked. Destiny didn’t want to have her only two friends leave, but they spent all their time training, so she had to admit, it wouldn’t make that much of a difference.

  “Sure John. Do you know when you will be back?” she asked as she opened the portal.

  “We’ll come back in a week. Maybe sooner if there is nothing interesting nearby. Wouldn’t want to waste a lot of training time walking around. You can start looking for a town or village while we’re gone. That way we can sell some of the loot that is too low quality to put on the exchange.” John said as Gumdrop formed four tentacles and strapped himself to John’s back like a pack.

  Destiny started up her search pattern expansion plan that she had worked on when she remembered something important. “Watch out for the …” But John had already stepped through the portal. “MASTER!!!!”

  *****

  John stepped through the portal into the dimly lit cave. He gave his eyes a second to adjust when he noticed a wet animal smell and turned his head to the right just in time to see an enormous paw smash into his chest and face and send him flying into the wall with a sharp crack. He saw a tentacle reach into the bear's mouth and everything turned to blackness as a scream from Destiny echoed in his mind.

  John opened his eyes and saw the bear’s head fall off in an explosion of gore and the beast turn into dust that Gumdrop kept smashing in anger. “It’s okay buddy. I’m all right.” Gumdrop rushed over and poked him with a tentacle. The slime then started bouncing around and stopped in front of John forming a small slime shape and a small human shape. A spear appeared in the head of the human and it fell down. Another human appeared. He then formed a small army and the human and slime charged them.

  “Oh. Yeah. We’re going to have some fun.” John said with a smile as he figured out what Gumdrop was saying. Gumdrop immediately began spinning his way around the cave.

  “Master. How?” Destiny asked in his mind.

  “Well, you know how I told Gumdrop about the Gods messing up my integration? This isn’t the first time the gods have meddled in my life…or lives if you will.”

  “John. Being immortal is something you should share with your friends.” Destiny scolded.

  “I wasn’t sure if it still worked. The gods screwed everything else up with my integration. I figured they might have taken that away too. And friends warn their friends when they are about to step into a bear's den.” John pointed out.

  “Sorry. I forgot. Well, have fun.” Destiny said using John’s tactic of ending a conversation by just ending it as she closed the portal. A group of John clones appeared in the training room and lined up to start training. She had secretly been making armies of him since she completed her template. She wanted to get them trained up and surprise him one day.

  Her John clones were different from the real thing. They leveled faster than him, but none showed his diversity in fighting styles. Some became good casters and others were good with weapons, but none were good at both.

  Gumdrop was already at the mouth of the cave waving a tentacle for John to hurry up. “You too, Destiny. We’ll see you in a few days.” John joined Gumdrop and paused to look around. They were in a wooded area that gave John the impression that he was pretty high up. The ground dropped away fairly steeply in front of them, but it was still wooded and animal tracks wove between the thin underbrush of the pine forest. Gumdrop pointed along the hill to the right and John nodded before they both took off, one running and one spinning on spiked tentacles.

  A few hours and several uninteresting battles with level 20-30 creatures, John picked up a pinecone and threw it at the slime to get him to stop. John smelled something familiar. Smoke. It seemed to be coming from around the mountain they were on. He put his finger to his lips and pointed in that direction, Then motioned with his hands to go slowly.

  As they rounded the mountain, John knew they were going in the right direction. The smell was getting stronger. The trails also appeared well used with the occasional small humanoid clawed foot print. John pointed up the hill and motioned behind him for Gummy to follow him. Carefully placing each foot step, he moved forward and crouched down before he crested the side of the ridge they were on.

  As soon as he could see over the hill he backed down and moved to the right and crawled back up behind a tree. John couldn’t believe what he saw. A very well built stone tower surrounded by a high crenelated wall. Moving in and out of the tower and roughly built huts in the courtyard were goblins.

  Gummy moved up beside him and pointed at John’s eyes. The slime had excellent vision, but a limited range. John quietly said, “A keep full of goblins.” Gummy formed a stone point and jabbed it a few times. “Probably. I’ve met some fairly civilized goblin traders, but they’re usually pretty tribal and not friendly at all to strangers. Let’s go find out. Just watch where you step if we go in. Goblins can be pretty nasty.”

  John stood and started walking toward the gate. Gummy disappeared, but John caught a glimpse of his essence as he passed John. When he got within a few hundred feet of the clearing, he saw a pit trap Gummy had uncovered and a line Gummy had made on the ground, probably by dragging a tentacle. John followed the path Gummy had left him weaving between more traps. At one point the line took a sharp turn and John saw the deadfall trap Gummy was leading him around.

  When he got to the clearing, John stepped out and made no attempt to hide his approach. He stopped about 100 feet from the closed gate. “Hello. My name is John. I would like to speak with you.” He heard some movement and saw a few goblin heads peak at him. The gate started to open and John felt a tentacle wrap around his waist. Looks like we’re fighting. He thought as he tightened his grip on his staff.

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  Suddenly the gate swung all the way open and crude arrows and javelins rained down from the walls as about twenty muscular goblins rushed out. John was lifted from his feet as Gummy carried him to the wall underneath the projectiles to the right side of the gate too fast for the charging goblins to react to.

  John cast a shield around himself as Gummy drug him up the wall and threw him on top of it. He released a blast of lightning all around him as he landed then started shooting bolts in both directions on the walkway. Goblins were stunned and thrown off the wall. Gummy had knocked the goblins off the wall on the other side of the gatehouse towers. John moved to put his back against the tower next to its door and shouted, “I’m not here to fight. I just wanted to talk.” John shouted, deciding to try diplomacy again.

  The gate dropped as Gummy apparently cleared the gatehouse leaving the twenty warriors trapped outside. A very large and very fat Goblin stepped out of the keep with an oversized studded club and a female who looked like a shaman with bones and feathers weaved into the roughspun tunic she wore as a dress. They stopped and the shaman whispered something to the chieftain.

  “What do you want, human?” the chieftain asked.

  What do I want? Destiny will grow faster with more people living in her. “Nothing really. I came to offer you weapons, armor, and a safe place to train and get strong.” He replied. A goblin that had been sneaking up on John in stealth, got thrown off the wall by an invisible tentacle.

  “The keep is safe. We stay here.” the chieftain replied.

  “Yes. You can stay here, but I can offer you help to protect it. I am a dungeon master. My dungeon can expand to here in a day or so.”

  “Where is your dungeon now?”

  “Around the mountain and a little higher. Just a few hours walk for me.” John replied.

  “Take us. Binxie come.” He pushed the shaman towards John and a young goblin wearing wooden armor and carrying a small wooden club followed them. John felt Gummy wrap around his back. The chieftain ordered the gate open and goblins ran into the gatehouse.

  When they exited the gate, the chieftain ordered the warriors to come with them. Yep. He’s going to try and steal my dungeon. Good luck with that. I don’t think Gummy and I could defeat Destiny and you clowns sure as heck won’t.

  John took them back to the cave with the help of the map in his interface by the same route they took to get to the keep. Well…mostly the same route. John was enjoying watching the fat goblin huff and puff as they walked, so he took a more scenic route heading back. The shaman seemed to be enjoying the show too as she met John’s eyes several times while the chieftain was struggling up the hill. Binxie growled whenever John met his eyes.

  When they reached the cave, John reached up and tapped one of the tentacles wrapped over his shoulder three times. A signal Gummy often used to signal a trap when training in one of Destiny’s combat zones. He felt Gummy slowly move off his back. Once he was in the cave, he turned to the chieftain and said, “Here we are.”

  “Who is that John? Is it trouble?” Destiny asked in his mind. “Not really.” John replied.

  “The chieftain looked up from where he was bent over trying to catch his breath. He looked around, probably searching for the core. “Who are you talking to human?” he asked when John replied to Destiny.

  “Sorry. My dungeon core asked if you were going to be any trouble.”

  “Where is the core?”

  John started to answer, but stopped when vines rose from the ground to wrap around the Chieftain and began stabbing him in the neck and chest. Binxie’s armor grew vines, half of which sunk into the ground and the other half wrapped around the club and arm of the chieftain. John stepped back and cast a shield on himself. Tentacles ripped weapons out of the hands of the goblin troops and then pointed menacingly at them.

  The chieftain struggled for a few seconds before falling face first and crumpling into dust. The shaman and the troops dropped to their knees. Binxie stood staring menacingly at John. “Do not kill us. The chieftain was mean and stupid. He was going to try and take your core. He didn’t believe you could stop him.”

  “Never serve someone who demands you kneel. Never trust someone who kneels before you. Stand up.” John said as he held out his hand to help the shaman up. She looked at the hand for a second before taking it and looking at John confused after he helped her up. Binxie looked like he wanted to stab John when he put his hand out, but the shaman motioned towards him.

  “You guys get up to.” He said to the goblins that were still kneeling. “So are you in charge now?” John asked.

  “Yes. I am Sharilla. Binxie is my son. May we go? We can be out of the Keep by tomorrow.”

  “No need for that. Destiny. I am giving you a map update. How long will it take for you to reach the Keep?”

  “About an hour, I have reached the surface about halfway there.” Destiny replied in his mind.

  “Sharilla. My Dungeon will be able to include your keep inside it in about an hour. Would you like to live inside the keep within the Dungeon.”

  “If you demand so, we will.”

  “I’m not demanding anything. I’m asking if you would like help with security and have a safe place to train and forage.” John explained.

  “What are the rules? Would we be slaves?” Sharilla asked as she wrapped Binxie in vines as he obviously did not like the idea of being a slave.

  “No. Slaves never reach their potential. It’s a waste to keep slaves.”

  “What will be asked of us? Why would you do this?” Sharilla asked.

  “It will help the dungeon…Hey, Destiny. I assume you’ve been reading all those books you keep dropping on my head, Is there any way you can work the details out with Sharilla? I’d like to get back to training.” John said starting to get annoyed at the time he was wasting.

  “Yes. Give me a second. I have a skill slot available.” After a few seconds, a glowing ball appeared and a portal started to open, but closed when John stepped towards it. “Hello, Sharilla. I am Destiny. John would like us to work out the details of you joining the empire.”

  “Before you disappear for a month John, I would like to clarify some things.” Destiny said.

  John rolled his eyes and said, “Like what?”

  “I take it slaves are out. Any other rules? Like can they leave the empire. What do we do if outsiders enter the empire? Can they use the training room? What support can I give Sharilla?” Will you demand they fight for the empire?”

  Frustrated John said, “Yes they can leave if they choose. Sharilla can decide if she wants visitors in her keep and I don’t care if people wander into the empire. Yes, they can use the training room. Give her anything you think is reasonable. They can fight if they want, but they don’t have to form an army if they don’t want to. And anybody can train on anything they want to. Too many will not reach their potential if somebody is restricting what they can try. Oh. I promised them weapons and armor. That’s about it.”

  “Thank you John.” Destiny said as she opened a portal. John started to step through, but a tentacle grabbed him and pointed towards the mouth of the cave. John shrugged and followed Gummy out.

  Stone chairs rose out of the ground for Sharilla and Binxie and benches formed near the mouth of the cave for the rest of the goblins. Sharilla sat. Binxie glared at the glowing orb. Slimes came through the portal carrying stone cups filled with essence water from the fountains for the goblins.

  The side of the cave was opened up and tables rose as more slimes came out carrying armor and weapons. Sharilla asked, “Why is your master doing this?”

  “If I didn’t know better, I would say it was because as an emperor he gets additional leveling essence as the people of his empire level, but I’m sure John hasn’t really looked through his Emperor skills. He’s a little fixated on training and growing stronger. So, my best guess is because having you live in the dungeon will help me level faster.”

  “Why is he fixated on strength?” Sharilla asked.

  “He hasn’t out right said it, but I think he wants to be able to protect his home. He has told me and Gummy about going through many integrations and they all end up the same with one of the great sects mining all the essence and nearly killing the planet.”

  “He plans on challenging the great sects?” Sharilla asked.

  “I don’t know. He may leave them alone if they leave us alone, but we haven’t talked about it.”

  “Well. At least he doesn’t seem mean.” Sharilla said.

  “What’s that?”

  “Our last chieftain was mean and stupid.” Sharilla clarified.

  “Oh. Yeah. At least John isn’t mean.” Destiny chuckled while some of the goblins walked over to look at the weapons and armor. They began to wave excitedly to the others and they all rushed over.

  Binxie went over and grabbed a sword and brought it to Sharilla. “This equipment is essence imbued. He’s just giving it to us?”

  “That’s what he said. Just don’t get too greedy. Only take what you need. You can get more in my combat zones.” Destiny said while thinking, ooops. Better figure out how that happened. Must be from the high concentration we keep the essence at down there. That’s quite a fortune we’re sitting on.