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

Option: End Sentient Dungeon Experience?

Yes?

No?

When I selected Yes, the awareness of my body clicked into place around me. I grinned as I found myself standing in the mansion entrance hall again, with Kyrine at my side. Belinda, Astrid, and Amanda Fallon all stood in front of me, looking battle-weary but satisfied.

Amanda immediately stepped forward, her hand extended. She shook my hand with a firm grip and met my eye.

“You must be Jeremy,” she said, her dark eyes sparkling. “I must say, I’ve been looking forward to meeting you. I’ve heard a lot about you, and all of it is good.”

Chapter 10

Selena had made coffee. After Kyrine had introduced herself to Amanda, we all walked through to the kitchen and sat around the big wooden table. Kyrine had created a few extra chairs, and Selena, smiling, put down cups of steaming coffee in front of everyone.

Amanda lifted her cup and breathed in the smell. Her eyes lifted and met mine. “This smells great, but I don’t suppose you have anything a little stronger?”

I saw the eyes of the agents widen as they looked at each other. I figured they hadn’t ever thought of their boss as a drinker, but after the fight she’d just had, I couldn’t blame her.

I shrugged. “Sure,” I said, getting up from the table. “Just a minute.”

In the cool pantry, a little door at the back opened into a walk-in cupboard whose walls were lined with bottles. All the bottles were labeled in old Eosorean, but I grabbed one that looked like gin and carried it in through the kitchen, twisting the cap off with my teeth before handing it to Amanda.

The drow elf bowed her head to me briefly in gratitude, then sloshed a generous measure into her coffee cup and took a big gulp. Then she settled back into her seat.

“So,” she said in her New York drawl, “that was pretty impressive stuff. I must say that was not the welcome I was expecting.”

“It’s new,” I admitted. “A new discovery. We think it will be an essential component for allowing adventurers to run the mansion and level themselves up. That’s got to be done if we’re going to defeat the Fateweaver when he comes.”

Amanda raised her eyebrows in surprise at the mention of the Fateweaver. Surprise, concern, fear, and amusement chased each other across her features, then she settled on a smile.

“It seems you know all there is to know, Jeremy. I thought the coming of the Fateweaver was only known to a few. How do you know of it?”

Kyrine cut in. “Jeremy is the Keeper, Agent Fallon. Now that we are magically joined, there is nothing that can be hidden from him. The Fateweaver is coming, and we all know about it.”

Amanda glared at her agents, who all stared defiantly back her. After a moment, she relented. “Well, I guess it is only fair. The Dungeons and the Keepers, man, it’s bigger than the EDI.”

She took a slug of her coffee before continuing. When she spoke again, she sounded more relaxed. “Honestly, this mission has been an absolute pain in the ass. We had no idea what we were doing from start to finish. The other dungeons have turned out to be pretty easy, but this one… no offense, Kyrine, but you, honey, have been an absolute bitch to find a boyfriend for.”

There was a moment of tension at the table, then Kyrine threw her head back and laughed so loud and long that the rest of us had to join in.

“Oh, Amanda, I have no doubt that the others were easier to find Keepers for,” Kyrine said when she had finished laughing. “They have much lower standards, you see.” She reached out a hand to squeeze mine. “But I have particular needs, as you found out to your cost. You must know little of dungeon lore if you thought it would be otherwise.”

Amanda threw up her hands. “You got me there, Kyrine,” she admitted. “Lots of people make a big deal about knowing all there is to know about the dungeons, but the more I get into it, the more I think that they don’t know shit. I gotta be honest here, I’m sick of it. Everyone has an agenda these days, you know?”

She reached out for the coffee pot, refilled her mug, then topped it up with spirits again. As she did so, she waved the bottle in my direction. “This is really good, thanks,” she said.

“Anyway,” she continued, “the truth is, we know next to nothing about the dungeons. They all seemed to wake up at the same time. About a year ago, we started getting reports of magical spikes in locations all across the US. We tracked them down, even as we started to hear reports from the criminal underground of housebreakers who worked the suburbs going missing. People said there was a haunted house around here, and one of the other dungeons kept scaring children who went to play in its grounds. Another appeared as a theme park, if you can believe it, and one as an abandoned sewer network… but we tracked them down, and when we did so, we found them all pretty amenable to reason. Except you, of course, Kyrine.”

“Hold on a minute,” I interrupted her, leaning forward. “Just how many dungeons are there in the country?”

“That we’re aware of? There are six, not including Kyrine. I don’t know the locations, but Kyrine is the only one here on the east coast, I’m pretty sure. It’s definitely the only one in the state.”

“Six others,” I breathed, leaning back in my chair. I hadn’t thought of the idea that there might be others out there.

“My sisters,” said Kyrine wistfully. “On old Eosor, there were many of my kind, scattered throughout the lands. They were everything from