Empire Builder 1: Breed, Populate, Conquer by Dante King (free e books to read online txt) 📕

broken by another loud grating sound, coming from the far end of the hallway. The hair on the back of Ben’s neck stood up at the possibility of more monsters to fight.

“Not more of them,” Melody groaned.

Ben looked up at the giant statue at the end of the passage. The grating sound did not herald more gravel ghouls. The statue was twisting around, so that its back faced the adventurers.

It came to a stop with a loud clang, and darkness opened where it had stood. The gleam of torchlight revealed steps where the statue had stood, leading downward.

“Looks like we beat this level,” Ben laughed with relief. It was hard not to take an analogy from his dungeon diving experience on earth. This first dungeon level at least did seem to behave like the dungeons he knew from video games. “Only thing to do is to go on to the next.”

Chapter Ten

After the fight with the gravel ghouls, Imogen and Ben took torches from the walls. Melody and Lulu needed their hands free to cast spells, but Ben didn’t want to risk being left in darkness in the dungeon. Knowing himself, he guessed he was likely to have designed levels totally shrouded in darkness. Any adventurer not smart enough to grab a torch was simply out of luck. Ben held his scimitar in one hand and a torch in the other.

Nipper gnawed on the flesh remains of the ghouls as they were leaving. Ben felt a bit queasy looking at it, but he assumed the kitten wouldn’t eat something that would be bad for him. He couldn’t help feeling a paternal impulse seeing the creature’s tiny jaws stretching to fit around the large chunks of meat. He had to admit, it was kind of cute.

Ben wondered if the flesh of the ghouls would be absorbed by the dungeon or if these corpses would just lie there rotting for months. There was no time to hang around and find out of course, since they needed to find Vinata as quickly as possible.

“Alright. Let’s see what the dungeon has in store for us on the next level,” Ben said, taking the lead.

The women and Nipper followed him as he began descending the winding staircase revealed by the stone statue at the end of the hall. As they moved, Melody refined mana crystals she had taken from the ghouls.

Lulu was concentrating hard as she walked, holding a large rippling globe of water suspended in the air above her. She kept it there, ready for any monsters that might attack.

It turned out to have been a smart idea to grab torches, since there were none on the staircase itself. The crazy flickering shadows of the torch’s flame made the narrow, steep steps appear to spring up and down in the air. Ben simply had to trust his feet rather than his eyes.

Fortunately, the women seemed to be quite capable of handling themselves. They followed behind him without complaint. Nipper’s claws clicked on the stone surface alongside them, as he hopped from one step to the next.

Ben turned occasionally and looked back up the stairway to check that everyone was still alright.

Melody smiled down at him. “You are leading us bravely. But be careful, I have no idea what lies beyond the end of this stairway. I was never briefed on diving a dungeon here.”

Ben nodded and stayed on his guard. After winding down at least three full revolutions of stairs, they came to a solid wooden door, with a dirty brown iron latch. The door itself was quite plain and practical, bound in solid bands of equally brown iron. The iron appeared strong however, covered in nothing but surface rust.

There were no keyholes, no gaps. No sound came from the other side of the door.

Ben gave his torch to Imogen, who held both torches steady. He held his scimitar before him, facing the door.

He put his hand cautiously on the latch, while Lulu and Melody stood behind him, spells at the ready. Nothing happened.

He pushed the latch downward, releasing the mechanism, and the door creaked slightly open. Ben slowly pushed the door half a foot open and peered through. A dull green light shone through the crack.

Suddenly, a loud roar shattered the silence. A weight thudded against the edge of the door, and a pair of jaws snapped shut, attempting to snap at Ben through the doorway.

Ben yanked the door closed again. “There’s something savage waiting on the other side for us. I can feel it.”

Melody nodded gravely. “That could be dangerous. See if you can open it again, just enough for us to see what’s in there.”

Ben turned to Imogen. “Give those torches to Melody for a moment. I need you to open the door. You’re the strongest here—you can slam the door shut if that thing on the other side is too strong for me.”

Imogen nodded and handed the torches to Melody. Melody stowed her wand in her belt and held both the torches. Imogen put her body next to the door, holding the latch tightly. She left enough room for Ben to attack.

Ben held his scimitar right up to the door edge, waiting to stick it through and stab whatever was waiting for them. He nodded to Imogen, and she eased the door open, ready to yank it shut again if need be.

The green light came through the opening. The same roar bellowed out, and Ben heard the swift rush of air as something flew toward the door.

He stuck his scimitar through and jabbed fiercely. The blade was almost twisted out of his grip, but he held on and thrust.

Snapping jaws impaled themselves on the blade, and after a moment, they stopped thrashing. Ben pulled the blade back through the door, a giant, green head skewered on its point, green blood dripping down the steel.

“It’s a vine monster!” Melody exclaimed. “I read about these in the bestiary of the Arcanarium.”

The huge, green head was attached to a long vine which