One month had passed since the day Viktor was invited into Rennald’s home along with his “sister.” Three days after that exchange, the Overseer sent a formal message to the Guild, informing Isadora that he had agreed to meet her. And then, one week later, a preliminary agreement for the cooperation had been hammered out.

  Of course, not everyone in the Guild welcomed the arrangement. Calyssa liked it the least of all. But, as always, Isadora had a talent for making people shut up, and the matter was quickly settled.

  Rennald, for his part, had proposed a countermeasure to Clovis’s scheme. The town would pop up an outpost on the east bank of the Voskryn, exactly at the place where the Guildmaster of Iskora was expected to plant his flag. If Clovis wanted that land, he would not be allowed to take it uncontested.

  The trouble was that hardly anyone in Daelin wanted to cross to the other side of the river. So Rennald did what he did best: he threw money at the problem. He offered generous payments to volunteers, he mobilized his own caravan guards, he hired adventurers drifting in from elsewhere, who had the advantage of not having grown up hearing quite so many local ghost stories.

  Even so, Viktor doubted such a rudimentary ploy would be enough to thwart Clovis’s ambitions. A man that cunning would have anticipated resistance long before making his move. With his vast financial resources, he could simply grind through opposition, flattening obstacles rather than going around them. At best, the outpost would only slow him down.

  Still, that was good enough. After all, every day gained was another day for him and Celeste to sharpen themselves, another day to prepare for whatever Clovis might unleash when the real conflict began.

  And Celeste did sharpen.

  “So,” Viktor asked, “you’ve finally reached Level 15, huh?”

  [Yes, Master.]

  “Show me your stats.”

  

As he had expected, after she crossed this threshold, she was now able to add another floor to the dungeon, summon an additional Guardian, and of course, unlock the choice of a new domain.

  “Which types of domains are available to us now?” Viktor asked.

  [Master, we can choose to unlock either the Domain of Light, the Domain of Dark, the Domain of Air, or the Domain of Fire.]

  The Domain of Light and the Domain of Dark, huh? Viktor tapped his chin thoughtfully.

  Come to think of it, he would have the option to unlock Mastery of Light and Mastery of Dark at Level 5 and Level 10, in whichever order he preferred, in addition to the Masteries of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air he had already possessed.

  It looked like the Domains of the Path of the Dungeon mirrored the Masteries of the Path of the Thaumaturgist. There were twelve Masteries in total—well, at least, that was as far as he knew—so maybe there were twelve Domains as well.

  And the number twelve itself... Lloyd once said there used to be twelve Forgotten Gods. Coincidence? Or was there a correlation?

  Anyway, if the unlocking of the Domains followed the same trajectory as the Masteries, he could hazard a guess at which Domains would appear next.

  Domain of Life and Domain of Death.

  Let’s see how right, or how wrong, I am, he mused.

  But, of course, that was a problem for the future. Right now, the only thing that mattered was the choice in front of him.

  “Let’s do it the same way we’ve done before,” Viktor said. “We summon our next Guardian first, before we decide on the domain. We do it tomorrow. I want Sebekton and Khenemhotep both present. Just like the last time, I want the Guardians’ input on which candidate should be picked.”

  [Understood.]

  Now... what to do with the rest of the day? Viktor wondered. Well, reviewing the dungeon’s current status seemed like a productive way to spend his time.

  “Celeste,” he said, “how are our forces doing at the moment?”

  [You are asking about the numbers, Master?]

  “Yes.”

  [In the dungeon at present, there are 68 Goblins, 39 Dread Spiders, 35 Venom Spiders, 45 Froglings, 39 Gremlins, 54 Gnolls, 39 Troglogytes, 28 Merfolk, 15 Acolytes of the Deep, 12 Jorogumo, 5 Tengu, 6 Cyclopes, and 6 Ettins.]

  “Most of them are on the first floor,” Viktor noted.

  [Yes, Master. All goblins and spiders are stationed on the first floor. The majority of the gnolls are here as well, though some are assigned to stay guard in various areas throughout the dungeon.]

  The first floor was still the meat grinder, after all, where most of the action happened.

  The second floor, on the other hand, housed only the troglodytes, Jorogamo, and Tengu. But that hardly mattered, since the bulk of the fighting force was Khenemhotep’s undead soldiers. Also, technically, the gremlins were on the second floor too, but their workshop was isolated from the rest of the dungeon, so they didn’t really count.

  And then there was the third floor. Home to Froglings, Merfolk, and Acolytes of the Deep. He hadn’t summoned additional minions for this floor in quite some time, as no intruders had made it that far down ever since the invasion of the Dungeon Reavers.

  As for the Cyclopes, two remained on standby at Sebekton’s house, while the other four took turns guarding the room under the staircase that connected the first and second floors. That particular Cyclops acted as a sort of gatekeeper, an impromptu boss. The adventurers had to get past it to reach the next level.

  If the brute was slain or badly injured, the room would be kept empty for three days, allowing the challengers free access to the second floor until the boss was “respawned.” Of course, it was just a new, fresh Cyclops being rotated from his reserve. It was traffic control, pure and simple. He used it to manipulate the flow of adventurers: extend the “respawn” interval when he wanted to encourage deeper exploration, shorten it if he wanted to slow things down.

  And finally, the Ettins, the newest toys in his collection. He had run a few tests with them—all internal, of course; no adventurer had seen them yet—he pitted them against the Cyclopes in one-on-one combat.

  They were slightly inferior in terms of raw strength, but they more than compensated with their craftiness. Most of the time, the six-eyed managed to outmaneuver the one-eyed and emerged victorious. Though if a Cyclops got properly enraged, things could turn nasty fast. Still, overall, the Ettins were a fine addition to his forces. He would use them both, and decide which to deploy depending on whether the situation demanded more brain or more brawn.

  Oh, and there was one more thing about these three-headed creatures. Something he had only just discovered.

  “We can use the ‘Bestow Hex’ skill on each Ettin three times, right?”

  [Yes, Master. As a result, each Ettin will be able to cast its Hexes three times per day.]

  So, because it had three heads, it counted as three minions for that purpose? Interesting. Interesting, indeed.

  Anyway, that was enough about the dungeon. Time to think about his own personal strength.

  He had delayed his own growth to let Celeste reach Level 15 first. Now that she was there, it was his turn. He was going to push for Level 5, or even beyond.

  Of course, Thaumaturgy wasn’t his only weapon. It was his strongest asset, yes, but it was far from the only one he could rely on.

  “Has that guy—Pimm, was it—come back yet?”

  [Yes, Master. Exactly one month after the previous meeting, he returned to the dungeon with the gems he had collected. Thirty-five in total. Nineteen fire gems, sixteen wind gems.]

  “That’s a lot,” Viktor said with a chuckle. “I’m going to make good use of them, then.”

  Those gems could only be used to cast basic fire and wind magic, but sometimes, overwhelming an opponent with an endless stream of simple attacks was a perfectly valid strategy. There was strength in numbers, after all. Especially now, when his Thaumaturgy was still weak, having some extra firepower never hurt.

  Is there anything else? Viktor thought. Well... yes, his physical strength.

  He had decided to train his body. That was back when his Thaumaturgy was unavailable. Now, even though it had returned, it didn’t mean he was allowed to grow complacent. He couldn’t count on his power all the time. He had to always assume the worst. Assume that there would be a situation where he was forced to fight in suboptimal conditions.

  “I’m thinking of getting a sparring partner for hand-to-hand combat,” Viktor said.

  Just because he preferred picking off enemies from a distance didn’t mean he shouldn’t prepare for when they managed to get close.

  [A sparring partner, Master?]

  “I’ve been doing nothing but running for a while. Time to move to the next stage. Time to reawaken my muscle memory.”

  Though, technically, this was someone else’s body. Could he even call it his muscle memory? Would he need to start from scratch? Well, all the more reason to start as soon as possible.

  [If it is someone who can fight in melee, how about Sebekton?]

  Viktor laughed. “He’s too big. This is going to be pure physical training. I won’t use anything else. So I prefer someone my size. A gnoll, maybe?”

  [Or a Tengu. They are known as excellent martial artists.]

  “Is that so? Then have one assigned as my partner.”

  [Do you have anyone in mind, or any Tengu will do?]

  Viktor rubbed his chin. “How about that Haku-something-no-something-something? I’ve talked with him once before.”

  The fellow had been a bit insolent, but that wasn’t really a big problem. He also seemed to know quite a bit about the gods, so Viktor could use the opportunity to get some information from him while training. After all, there was an undeniable beauty in killing two birds with one stone.

  [Understood, Master. I will have it arranged at once.]