Dungeon 42

Chevaliers Wish

Chapter 38

With the hounds safety secured, I decided it was time to say hello to Skeleton 1. I placed him in the room a few paces away from me. He moved around in an awkward shambling way until he turned and noticed me and the hounds. Standing to attention with a speed that would have seemed improbable a moment before, he gave a salute.

“No need to be formal,” I said gently, amused by the reaction.

“I’m your dungeon master, 42,” I offered. I should make a point of letting the hounds know that too. I’d forgotten about it since it had taken me a while to pick a name. Not that they’d been particularly formal or even polite with me so far.

The skeleton bobbed his head in something between a nod and a shallow bow. I bit back a laugh, feeling like he’d started the bow only to abort because of what I said.

“Uhm… How should I call you?” I asked. I’d looked through his information and found some interesting things, but nothing that told me explicitly if he remembered his mortal life.

“A-as you wi-wish,” he replied, managing to stand straighter somehow. My orbs fluttered. A telepathic stammer, I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but felt sorry for the poor thing.

I was also surprised by the sense of nervousness I picked up. He was physically mute, but communicating telepathically. I hadn’t expected that to have an equivalent of emotional inflection.

“Do you remember your name? You can choose a new one even if you do, or I can give you one,” I offered. A truly dangerous proposition, given my naming sense, but I could change it again if he thought of something better.

“N-no, anything you wish w-would be fine,” He replied. I nodded absentmindedly, already trying to come up with something. He was human so I only did a brief look up of naming conventions. There were some exotic options but it seemed like the locals used some I was familiar with.

“Henry James Clavicle?” I offered, wanting to give him a proper full name. Yelling at people always felt best when they had a middle name to screech like an eldritch incantation. Working in a bone also satisfied my deep need for juvenile humor.

“That’s… I-I’m h-honored,” Henry said, bowing to me and causing my orbs to flicker. It was a jokey name, but he seemed genuinely touched. Thinking about it, I realized Elim didn’t have a last name. In certain time periods, those were reserved for people of the aristocracy or military, so giving him one might very well be an honor.

“It’s yours as long as you like it. Though feel free to let me know if you change your mind,” I said simply. I slightly regretted making the name funny, but not enough to change it. That would involve explaining the joke and I wasn’t prepared for that just now.

“As you wish,” Henry said, trying to be attentive even as his gaze kept drifting toward the hounds. Stalin was behaving himself but Blackmoor was looking at him with jaws in a wide grin, salivating. I had to remind myself they lived on mana and didn’t eat because she looked positively ravenous.

Henry flinched back from her when she took a step forward. He held his arms over his chest like he expected her to jump for a rib. Yeah, this wasn’t going to be productive if I let it continue.

“Blackmore, Stalin, I put some treats in the dining room, help yourselves,” I said, not wanting to make the newest addition to the dungeon feel unwelcomed.

“Yes, mistress!” They barked together before running off. I quickly set up a bone buffet to keep them busy for a while.

“Better?” I asked once we were alone. Henry nodded, but looked away and I sensed a kind of embarrassment. Like inflection in his speech, I knew I was sensing something that went beyond his posture and gestures. It was almost like I could see the nuance lost with the flesh, though I had no idea what he would have looked like when he was alive.

“Alright, let's get back to it,” I said after an awkward pause. I didn’t have a problem talking but I didn’t want to just bulldoze him. Something I felt would be easy, given how shyly he was behaving.

“As you-you wi-wish,” Henry replied. I felt my orbs flutter. That was the fourth or possibly third and a half he’d said that particular phrase.

“I wanted to test some of the enchantment features on you, is that alright?” I asked, wanting at least a minimum of consent if possible.

“As you wish,” Henry added tentatively after a beat. I tried, I seriously tried not to laugh and failed miserably. Henry stared at me in what I felt was dumbfounded mortification.

“I’m sorry,” I managed after a few moments.

“Where I’m from “as you wish” is a famous quote… Or at least its overuse is,” I explained.

“I-I… I’ll try to re-refrain Mistress,” Henry managed after a false start. This time there was some annoyance mixed in. That left me with a squirming sheepish feeling. It wasn’t fun to be laughed at and he had no way to know I wasn’t doing that.

“You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just that it’s from a comedy, so I laughed,” I explained lamely.

“I’ll ke-keep clear of f-farce,” Henry insisted.

“Look, I wasn’t kidding about not needing formality. Speak however makes you comfortable,” I continued. Ha, my social skills really were garbage.

“If I wanted to be surrounded by compliant drones I’d have picked sentient non-sapient monsters,” I added finally. My shop had plenty of options that had the sentient tag without the sapient one. It took me a moment to realize Henry was confused by what I’d said.

“Sentient means intelligent, sapient means… Well, similar to a human for want of a better term. Someone I can carry on personal conversations with. An ant is sentient, but it hasn’t got a rich internal life. No dreams, or poetry for them,” I explained, then shut up when I realized I was babbling.

“H-how would yo-you kn-know of the d-dreams of-” Henry started, only to cut himself off.

“H-how might I be of service?” he asked, after a beat. I sensed a rebuke of sorts in the sudden change, but bit back on my reply. We had just met, and I'd made a mess of things. Before I could gather my thoughts for a response, a notice alarm drew my attention.

“Mistress 42?” Someone asked but I wasn’t paying attention to that. Elim had finally written.

[Mistress 42,

I apologize for the late reply. I ran into a few inconvenient obstacles, but am fine. I should reach the post town you mentioned in a day. I thought it unwise to use your voice magic so close to it so I ask you to forgive me for replying with texts as you called them.

Your faithful servant,

Elim]

How utterly charming, he’d finally written but hadn’t explained a damned thing.

“Oh thank god,” I said, feeling like I’d sigh in relief for a year if I could sigh at all. I was truly annoyed, but that didn’t matter since he was alright.

“Wh-which one-one?” someone asked. I was startled to find Henry close to me, peering into my orbs as if they were eyes. I hadn’t heard him approach at all, though I didn’t imagine he needed to be stealthy for me to have missed it. I was far too distracted.

“I just got news a friend I was worried about is safe,” I explained. Henry stepped back as soon as my head raised and was in his original position by the time I was done speaking. Shy, but curious it seemed.

“Th-thats...” Henry started only to stop, as if he didn’t know what to say.

“I apologize, we’ve gotten off to a rough start, I think,” I said, as I tried to think of how to right the situation.

“The reason I placed you, is because I’d like to make some adjustments to your settings. Would you be comfortable with that?” I asked.

“As… Y-yes, I wo-wouldn’t mind that,” Henry corrected himself, looking away from me. I still couldn’t quite tell if he was embarrassed or intimidated by the situation. I leaned toward him being embarrassed, but I was the dungeon master, he probably had unfortunate expectations.

“Let's start with some cosmetic changes then. Let me know if anything feels uncomfortable, I’ll stop if it does,” I explained. Henry only nodded this time, but that was fine. I chose a full length mirror out of my item shops' mundane goods and placed it. There was no sense in making the poor man play dress up and keeping him in suspense about it.

The available cosmetic changes were considerable and inexpensive. I also found that my art interface would work on him, though I closed it for the moment. I wasn’t going to randomly start carving the poor man's bones without discussing it first.

Parts of inert skeletons would likely become art projects later though. I didn’t enjoy the idea of blood or anything of the body's meat and wet, but dry bone had an appeal. It had been a popular art medium for humans from antiquity forward in my old world.

One of the first changes I made was to add something to Henry’s eye sockets. There were plenty of options, most that would look a bit silly, so I settled on a pair of jewels. They looked black but were enveloped in a colored flame not unlike how my own looked.

“Let me know if you like a particular color,” I said as I started moving through the various options.

“This,” Henry said sharply to a particular shade of blue. It was a saturated jewel tone I found rather pleasing too. The change already added a healthy dose of eeriness to his appearance, but I wasn’t satisfied.

On examination of the options, I found that he had a magic seal written on a scroll tucked inside his skull. It contained the spell that animated Henry, but I found that a little distasteful. It was resilient, but still paper, making for a rather weak design.

“Would you mind having your seal carved into your skull?” I asked, remembering my earlier decision. Skeletons could be defeated through destruction of the scroll, ruin of the skull, or sufficient overall damage. Putting the design on the skull itself wouldn’t make him significantly more vulnerable.

“Th-that sh-should be fi-fine,” Henry agreed as he peered distractedly at his reflection. I selected the option to turn it into a seal carved into his forehead instead.

“If you don’t mind I’d like to paint in the carving to make it pop- erh, stand out I mean,” I explained. Henry nodded and I opened my art interface. My general height was enough I only had to rear up a bit to get into a good position to start. I accentuated the design with black enamel, so it stood out in the blue light of his eyes.

“What do you think?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“I-its an imp-improvement… I w-was bland before,” Henry said, emphasising bland like a swear word. I managed to only make a little snrk, but he still heard it. Despite the slip, I didn’t sense embarrassment when he looked at me this time. He seemed amused now, and had even relaxed a little.

It was an interesting tabula, looking at him as he stood in front of the mirror. I wanted to make a painting of it and took a picture. It would make a fine bit of macabre art if I knew what he’d looked like when he was alive. The living man looking impishly back, unaware of his skeletal reflection.

I felt like I’d been struck by lightning, now there was an idea.

“You are an inspiration,” I said cheerfully. Searching through my store, I found a magic mirror and placed it in front of the employee lounge. The mirror had a two-way function that let those who met certain criteria pass through it. I set it to monsters.

Henry gave a start when the mirror appeared, but no comment. I went and tested the two-way function, and after a feeling like passing through water, I found myself in the next chamber. I felt elated, and popped half out to signal Henry to come over. He stepped through a few moments later.

Digging around in the mirror’s options, I found some upgrades I could buy and giggled excitedly.

“Mi-mistress?” Henry inquired.

“Ah, right, narration. I just had an idea for this boss fight, finally. So back here will be where everyone can hang out and do… stuff. Loads of skeletons, waiting for adventures to arrive,” I said and casually passed through the mirror while I was talking.

“Then-” I meant to continue, but realized that Henry hadn’t followed me. I leaned back through the mirror, gesturing for him excitedly. He did, if a beat late, though the fact that I was pulling him by the arm might have had something to do with it.

“So all of that is hidden, then heroes arrive and they see their reflections. Read some ominous text about appreciating life or something above the mirror. Nice normal stuff until they find their reflections withering and a matching party of skeletons steps out!” I spun around in a circle, encompassing the room with my gesture. Henry turned on his heel to keep facing me as I moved.

“What do you think?” I asked.

“Y-you care for my op-opinion?” Henry asked in open disbelief.

“Yes? You're going to be part of the forces stationed here. Its essentially your space, you should get a say… Also, I’ve been doing this for like a week. Its entirely possible you have more dungeon experience than I do,” I said simply. I still didn’t know how to feel about monsters being recycled through the system or like with Blackmoor, captured and added to it. The best I could do was try to make the experience not suck.

“Th-this is my th-third time serving but… I can’t say I have ex-experience, per s-say. I was stationed to guard passages and a crypt. An average chess piece,” Henry said, his tone bitter toward the end.

“That's a waste, you're literally skillful. Its a trait you have,” I said without bothering to hide my annoyance. Blackmore had indicated her prior dungeon master hadn’t had much to do with her either. A fact which annoyed me, but wasn’t worth getting into.

“Anyway, feel free to speak up if you have ideas or questions. The worst I’ll do is disagree,” I said with a shrug.

“Y-You said that we'll m-match the he-hero’s. Did you mean in ap-appearance or class?” Henry asked. I nodded, happy he was participating.

“Both, I’m going to buy you a special ability so you’ll mimic them automatically,” I explained, purchasing the ability as I spoke. Skeletons with this enabled would copy the general appearance of their opponents.

Remnants of desiccated, straggly tatters of hair, flashy bits of gear, those things would match up to enhance the psychological effect. It was an effect only triggered in the presence of an opponent though, so Henry’s appearance didn’t change for the moment.

“Next will be a reset and class change. You can be a base class or a specialization,” I added.

“Y-you mean to let me ch-choose my class?” Henry asked, again sounding shocked.

“You know your own abilities and inclinations better than I do. Anyway, let's start with your base class, what would you like?” I asked.

“Fighter,” Henry replied quietly but without hesitation.

“Done… I’m going to set your level to sixth so we can see what your possible specialization options are,” I explained.

“Ch-Chevalier,” Henry said, still quietly but more urgently, a hand of bone reaching out to grip my arm. I was surprised but didn’t pull back. Chevalier was on the list but it seemed like an odd choice for him. Between the stutter and a level of thief I’d almost expected him to ask me to spec as a rogue or one of the lighter stealthier fighter options.

Chevalier was a vanguard role. It had a few spells and some party buff abilities, all woven into a very solid combat build. One that was oriented around drawing aggro and speed. It gave a very strong “face of the party” vibe to me.

“Okay, done,” I said, once I finished buying the level and setting the class. I could spin my wheels trying to figure out the various advantages and disadvantages, but it honestly didn’t matter. It was clearly important to the man for whatever reason and I could afford to be accommodating.

“Feel free to try the abilities out,” I added. That was all the encouragement Henry needed. Holding one hand aloft as if holding a sword he started dancing through a series of fluid steps. I felt my orbs flicker as I watched. He was graceful, and when he used certain class abilities stupefyingly fast.

Henry left a trail of blue energy behind as he seemed to shimmer and disappear only to reappear a distance away. I could just barely track the movement because it was a straight line and understood it wasnt teleporting intellectually. That didn’t change what it looked like.

I started clapping when Henry stopped, thoroughly impressed. He turned quickly, as if surprised by my presence and I laughed. It seemed like he’d been so focused that he’d forgotten I was in the room.

“I take it you don’t want to try a different class,” I said jokingly.

“N-No!” Henry squeaked.