Monster Mansion 2 by Dante King (best way to read ebooks .txt) 📗

Dungeons (Overview)

Dungeons Created:

1 of 3

Dungeons Unlocked:

3 of 5

Level up to unlock more dungeon slots

 “So I can have several portal dungeons at once, but I can’t have indefinite amounts,” I said. “That’s interesting. That means we could have three different adventure experiences for dungeon adventurer teams to run at any one time. I wonder if the dungeon can be destroyed?”

A troubled look flickered across Kyrine’s face. “For a portal dungeon to be destroyed, I would have to consume the contents, but I would not want to do that. Beyond that, I don’t know of any way to destroy it utterly. You can reset it, of course, but you cannot destroy it.”

We were discussing the possibilities around this when Astrid came up from the training area. She was looking radiant. She was always gorgeous, but she was now suffused with a healthy glow from her workout. Dressed in a sports bra and leggings, and with bare feet, I could not keep from staring. She didn’t seem to mind.

Astrid was drying sweat from her neck and face with a white towel when she came into the room. “Any luck?” she asked, not sounding particularly hopeful.

Selena bounced up from her seat and began to tell Astrid the whole story, beginning with my revelation about using the ghost crystal as a stable vector to house a dungeon. As she proceeded through the ritual we had done, and onto the actual dungeon creation process, I saw Astrid’s face become more and more amazed.

When Selena was finally done with her story, Astrid turned to me, wide-eyed. “Jeremy, that’s great! I’m so pleased. This opens up a whole new set of opportunities for the mansion!”

“It’s essential,” I declared. “If the mansion is to progress down the appropriate pathway, we simply must have a variety of dungeons for adventurers to experience. This way, we could potentially have three teams of adventurers in running dungeons at one time. Five, if I can level up and unlock the other two slots.”

“I’d love to have the opportunity to try out your new dungeon,” said Astrid, with the light of a challenge in her eyes.

“I’m sure you’ll get that chance before too long,” I assured her, “but right now we need to think about our next steps. Kyrine, is this ghost jade the only thing that we can use to create mobile portal dungeons?”

Kyrine screwed up her face as she thought about it. “I’m not a hundred percent sure,” she said. “I have a feeling that there may be something else, some other way of doing it, but I think this is the main way to do it. I can create other bits of the mansion to act as dungeons, the way the core chamber does, or the snow garden, but you can’t create those. As far as I can tell for now, ghost jade is the technique we’ll need to use for dungeons that you as the Keeper can create and control.”

“Ok, there may be something in future, then, but for now, ghost jade is number one. So we need to get more.”

“Couldn’t Kyrine just absorb some and create more?” Selena asked.

Kyrine shook her head. “I’m afraid not. Even at the height of their legendary power, dungeons could never absorb and recreate crystal structures. That’s why I need creature cores to be brought in and can’t create them myself.”

“What about those?” Selena asked, pointing to the row of cut-crystal glasses lined up next to the bottles of spirits in the corner. “They’re crystal, didn’t you create them?”

Kyrine chuckled. “They’re the original article. Three hundred years old. If they’re broken, they won’t be coming back.”

My eyes widened as I thought of how casually I’d used one of the tumblers in the hot tub just the other night. I’d have to be more careful in future!

“Ghost jade isn’t particularly easy to lay your hands on these days,” Astrid pointed out, bringing us back to the topic in hand, “and the stuff you do get is often contaminated with random bits of ghost material.”

“Contamination is not an issue,” I said. “We know that Kyrine can absorb the contents of ghost jade to clear it. As for a source, well, I think I know a guy.”

“You do?” said Astrid in surprise. “If there’s a source of ghost jade in the city, the EDI will want to know about it!”

“I bet they would,” I said smiling, “but I don’t want to get anyone into trouble. I’ll keep this to myself for now.”

Astrid drew a breath, but I held up a finger to stop her asking anything more. Trevor, my old boss, ran an enchantment shop and was known to have some shady contacts who could get him some interesting stuff if the price was right. Ghost jade as one of those magical items that was restricted but not actually that rare. I would have to put in a call to Trevor the first chance I got.

My phone had been destroyed, and I’d been borrowing Astrid’s. If I borrowed her phone to call Trevor, would she follow up the call and pass the information to the EDI? I trusted her, but I knew she had responsibilities to her agency, and I didn’t want to put her into a difficult situation.

I turned to Kyrine.

“Kyrine, any chance you could create a telephone for me in the mansion? A private line so I can make calls from this office? One that works inside the mansion?” Because the mansion was a magical hotspot, regular phones didn’t work inside the building.

“I think so. You’d have to bring a set in though, I don’t have one in my database.”

I nodded, walked over to the desk and made a note. I’d been keeping a list of all the items I wanted brought in from the outside, and it was getting long.

Suddenly,