A Lich's Guide to Dungeon Mastery

Kyle hadn’t been very impressed with my nickname for him. He was, on the other hand, impressed with my ability to copy and paste runes.

“I’m not sure you understand how revolutionary this is,” He rambled for the dozenth time, “With this, we can form completely new chains of runes for actually intelligent inscriptions, without needing to spend ages on getting them to work and testing them!”

“How did you think the Enchanted Orbs worked?” I scoffed, “I am fully aware of how useful this ability is, I use it constantly.” Seriously, this guy needed to take a chill pill.

Kyle’s excitement was understandable when I considered that this was a completely new discovery for his field, one that was far older than both Kerenth and Yalten.

Still, if he didn’t calm down, I wouldn’t be able to show him anything else, and that would just be a waste of our time.

The rune expert took some long, calming breaths, and his excitement faded a bit. It was still there, but his professional demeanor overtook it. “Alright,” he said, “What else was there? These runes are completely unique– how did you come across them?”

I lifted a hand and used my Abstractive Intent, Conceptual Control, and Energetic Intent in unison to create and condense a stream of liquid Conceptium.

The unique material wasn’t exactly visible, but Kyle gasped nonetheless– either he was extremely in-tune with the intents around him, or he had some Boon that let him sense it. Either would make sense, considering his profession.

“What is that?” The scientist leaned in and stuck a finger into the Conceptium, causing the invisible liquid to shudder in a manner reminiscent of something living.

His finger was completely fine, since the intent I’d used was simply one of Pacifism and it had next to no power to use for the purpose of hurting him– after all, intent was simply what commanded other energy types. It had little to no power of its own, merely manipulating what was around it to carry out its tasks.

In other words, it was like a lazy manager.

“This is Energized Intent,” I explained, “I create it by using a few of my Skills in unison. You asked how I find such unique runes? Watch.”

I grabbed one of Kyle’s templates off the table and pressed the concentrated Conceptium to its surface, splitting off a piece of my Repository with Multithreading to continue the process without taking from my mental processing.

We waited for a few moments, but there weren’t any immediate changes to the blank, so I waved Kyle off. “This takes some time, so let’s move on for now.”

The researcher reluctantly agreed, and we moved into dissecting my Runic Ferries.

“This is amazing,” he said with wide eyes, “The sort of things we could do with this precise control.”

I puffed up a bit out of pride. I knew my inscriptions were good, but it felt nice to have that confirmed by someone who was considered an expert in the field.

“You mentioned that you used this rune here, the one you call Mental Transfer, to communicate with a sort of ‘brain?’” He asked, pointing to the rune in question. “Would you mind showing me what that looks like?”

Instead of responding, I took another blank template off the stack and started scrawling out each rune used to code the brain of my runes, each of the different statements and the intents used to form them.

“Interesting, do you mind if I ask where you learned all of this? It’s a very unique methodology, and some might consider it overly complex but I think that there’s quite a bit of potential here.”

I smirked, though my lack of skin made it difficult to convey my amusement. At this point, I’d need to start cackling at everything I thought was even slightly funny.

At least that would help sell the evil undead necromancer vibes.

“I learned runes from the Aethenium. My specialization gives me a connection to the place.” Seeing Kyle’s nod of understanding, I continued, “As for the programming, I learned that somewhere very far away, and that’s all I’ll say about it.”

“I understand,” Kyle accepted my elusive answer, and we moved on.

Fenrir displayed some of his own, unique methods, such as forming runes out of pure energy. While I hadn’t actually done so before, I thought I understood the theory, and both Kyle and I tried it out and got a lesson on using inscriptions in that way.

We used a relatively simple Infliction rune, and he had us imbue an intent into it to just shoot a bolt of energy forwards, then release it.

At first, I was confused by the method, since it seemed to lack the fine details that normal runes would have, but on closer inspection I found that the energy of the runes dug tiny protuberances into the mental barriers Fenrir used, allowing them to be programmed like normal.

My second boss was truly a master of his craft, and both Kyle and I got a good look at his “runic tattoos,” and he explained both how he was doing it, and how difficult it truly was.

“The rune is formed with my own energies,” he explained through his intense concentration, “And that means that I have an amount of control over it. As my body is formed with that same power, it turns my body into a talisman. By carefully applying Mentum directly around the inscription, I am able to control the rate at which it consumes energy. If left unchecked, it would simply devour my entire body, but when I do it like this, I am given a potent tool which can utilize not only my magical power, but also the potency that resides within my body. It is better to lose an arm than to be killed outright, after all.”

I applauded Fenrir’s abilities, and Kyle marveled at them, carefully trying the method for himself. Unfortunately, as Kyle wasn’t completely made of energy, the method was a bit less effective on him, but if he focused enough and continually fed the runic tattoos, he could still create enchantments on his own body.

I didn’t try the method myself, since I had some ideas of my own that I intended to try out later.

Soon after, I let the others know that the rune I was working on had finished baking. I was pretty certain it had happened much faster this time than it had the others, but whether the material was better or if I’d simply checked up on it more often I didn’t know.

“As the liquid intent gathers energy, it gives them a bit of its own direction. Since it doesn’t really have anything else to do, said energies stick around the intent, and I believe that this causes them to interface with the object the Conceptium rests on. Erosion normally takes a long time to occur, but magical energy decays objects at a much faster rate. Therefore, if you supply an extremely concentrated supply of intent that will constantly interact with the target object, certain patterns begin to form,” I said, deepening certain spots in the seemingly chaotic mess that was the top of the metal sheet.

Kyle watched on with interest as I grabbed yet another sheet and precisely pasted out the rune that had been revealed to us, utilizing a copy of the intent used for the rune’s creation that was stored in the shape of a rat within my Repository.

A slight aura emanated out of the new rune, and I poured a significant amount of Forbodum into the rune, turning and throwing a slow punch at Kyle.

As expected, the rune interfered and the air itself seemed to resist my attack.

Intrigued, Kyle threw a punch as well, which was also slowed, then stopped.

“Just like that?” He asked.

“Yup, just like that. Feel free to study that rune, by the way. I figure you might want to install it around this building.”

Kyle nodded, thanking us for our guidance and promising to experiment with what we’d taught him. “By the way, the queen should have your reward prepared by now. Convincing someone to donate advanced energy wasn’t easy for her to do without throwing her rank around and upsetting the nobility, but I can certainly see why she felt it was worth the investment.”

Fenrir and I made our way back to the grand hall, where an awkward queen and irritated man stood.

The black-haired, mustached man tapped his foot impatiently, and the queen’s guards glared at him, seemingly ready for him to make a move. I wasn’t sure what the situation was, so I just walked forward and waited.

The man stopped tapping his foot and stared at me with horror evident in his eyes, taking a step back like he was about to run away.

“Charles, stop it,” An irritated queen commanded, “If you want that tax break you’ll stay right where you are.”

“You didn’t tell me he was a monster!” The man, presumably Charles, hissed at her under his breath.

“Well that’s just rude,” I called out from across the room.

“Sorry, Lord Ambrose,” Nadiya apologized on Charles’ behalf, but I waved it off.

“Don’t worry, I was just kidding. I understand completely. Is this the man who’s going to donate some energy for me?”

The queen nodded in response, but clarified, “We’re not certain how to make those energy crystals you mentioned. We know what they are, and we have some, but none are made from advanced affinities.”

“Don’t worry about that, I can condense them myself and leave behind some creatures that can perform the task for you in the future.”

Charles gave me a nervous look, then eyed the queen for confirmation before expelling some unfamiliar energy which I pulled away with some careful manipulation of Mentum and intent. I motioned for him to continue, and after a moment of hesitation and silent communication with Queen Sharjiil, he did. He continued for a few minutes before eventually shaking his head and saying, “That’s all I can do for now.”

As soon as he was finished, Charles turned and walked out the door as quickly as he could without outright running. I imagined a tail between his legs and chuckled at the mental image.

“Sorry about that, Ambrose, Charles has always been a bit of a coward. He’s only managed to reach the heights of power that he has due to the efforts of his family. He inherited the entire estate after his parents died, but has made some poor investments and lost a decent chunk of influence and wealth because of it,” the young queen explained, “He’s not stupid, but he lacks his father’s firm and brutal management style.”

“Seriously, don’t worry about it,” I attempted to assuage her concerns while compressing the loose power into a more solid state. Eventually, the power became visible as a faint cloud in the air, and then I crunched it down one last time and using a Multithread to keep up the pressure. The energy crystal slowly coalesced into a physical form, but I knew that it look longer for it to stabilize.

“Interesting,” the queen examined the gem, “And I assume that it functions in the same way as the natural ones?”

I gave her a thumbs-up. “You need to keep up the pressure for a while, but all it really requires is a strong willpower and a few days of effort. Now, would you mind explaining what this energy does?” I had an impression based on its innate intent and composition, but I felt it would be better to hear from someone who actually knew what they were talking about before making assumptions.

“Ah, yes,” she replied, “That’s a mixture of Wind, Karma, and Light energy. I’m sorry, I know that Lux doesn’t interact well with the undead, but Charles was the only person I knew I could get here quickly enough to donate his energy.”

“Yeah, I felt that it was trying to fight me.” I inspected the forming gem. “What’s it called?”

“Its name is Empyrix. Charles describes it as “the energy of heaven”– again, I’m sorry that it’s probably going to be detrimental to you.”

I shook my head. “Don’t worry too much, I was actually wanting to get my hands on something like this. I’ve been researching ways to increase my creations’ resistance to Lux, but I didn’t have any steady sources of it. This is good. Thank you.”

The queen gave me a relieved smile. “I suppose you’ll be wanting more of these crystals in exchange for your devices? You explained how it works, but I’m afraid I’m still not clear on how to do it.”

I waved off her concerns and concentrated on a space just in front of me, creating a trio of Wisps and granting them the knowledge of how to compress energy into crystals.

“Just put some magical energy in front of these guys and they’ll do the work. Give them a few days, though, and don’t just take the gems from them. Let them set whatever they’re working on down, or you might end up destabilizing the construct before it’s ready,” I instructed.

The queen nodded along, saying, “We’ll send over some of these with our first caravan. How many of your orbs were you planning to make?”

I considered for a second, but it was obvious. “I’ll make as many as I need to get my hands on every advanced energy type in your kingdom.” I chuckled at the surprise on the queen’s face, then continued, “And if you get to the point where you don’t need any more, I’ll just make something else. My abilities lean heavily into crafting, and I’ve made some equipment that I’d consider Legendary.”

We exchanged a few more pleasantries and I retracted the small amount of influence that I’d left around the palace before Fenrir and I teleported back to our homes.

I quickly teleported Fenrir back to his floor and then inspected my new energy crystal, and knowing that it would take a bit longer to fully solidify, I quickly got to work on making more Runic Ferry arrays.

For the most part, I could just create exact replicas, but there were a few of the runes that needed to be made individually, otherwise they’d get crosswired and mess things up.

A few dozen Ferries later, my Empyreal gem was finished, and I quickly dragged a pedestal up from the floor beneath my feet and set the energy crystal down on it, then tore open a portal to Kelemnion.

I knew for a fact that I could access dimensions other than my own from the book that Esheth figure had given me– heck, I’d even seen someone open up a portal with an energy crystal in an Inspiration once– but I wasn’t exactly clear on the process. Nonetheless, I was sure that the knowledge would be contained somewhere within the literal realm of Forbidden Knowledge.

I was not disappointed.

My Library Pass and Omnipotent Reader Boons helped me quickly find my way to the information I sought, and I supped on the knowledge whispered from the dusty tomes. Eventually, I felt that I’d found something that met my desires better than the other books, and took it off the shelf, absorbing the knowledge rapidly as I flipped through the pages and allowed my mind to be battered by the magic of that which was Forbidden.

I picked a few other books off the shelves as well, then set them back where they belonged and moved onto my next topic of inquiry.

I’d already looked into how to artificially give creatures resistances and affinities to different elements– the best method was to simply submerge them in high concentrations of the element. This time, though, I looked for ways to keep my undead alive during the process

The results didn’t look very good.

A lot of the books that covered the topic centered around people giving themselves different affinities, and most were human, meaning that they were focused on the opposite side of the problem. You’d think that necromancers would want to figure out how to give their minions Lux resistance like I did, but no, apparently they were only interested in their own safety and well-being, and considered it a waste of energy to perform the process on their “trash mobs.”

The only journals I found from creatures who didn’t exactly fall into the “living” category were either second-hand, night-incomprehensible, or described how their innate constitution was all they needed to survive the process.

In other words, I’d only be able to perform this process on my boss mobs, unless I wanted to invest lakes of energy into temporarily reinforcing trash mobs.

I also tried to find some way to perform the process on myself. I could, of course, do it to my individual bodies, but while they were the physical expression of my consciousness, they weren’t really me.

When it came down to it, I was my Repository and my Repository was me. Exposing the physical manifestation of my soul directly to something antithetical to it seemed like a bad idea.

With some more study, I found a method that seemed much more obvious, but understandably more difficult to do. If you could control the stream of energy, one which you almost definitely didn’t have an affinity or manipulation Skill for, then you could take it like a dose, allowing your body and soul to slowly become accustomed to it.

This method took much longer and consumed more energy overall, but allowed for a much safer and gentler shift towards the element.

In other words, if I wanted to give myself an artificial affinity for this Empyreal element, I’d need to slowly torture myself with it. It would be easier for elements that didn’t have any Lux in them, and once the first was out of the way I’d be more resistant to Light overall.

Before I did any of that, though, I needed a steady source of Empyrix.

And I had just the way to find one.

It was time to take a jaunt through the multiverse.