My Dungeon Life: Rise of the Slave Harem

As we continued to move down the hallways of darkness, the environment began to change. The dark stony hallways started to take on a more crystalline structure. I also started to feel the heat. The underground was generally a chilly temperature. It wasn’t cold enough to bother me in armor, but if I had water splash on me, I could imagine it getting pretty chilly. That said, even tunneling down into the Deep didn’t seem to change the temperature.

After having walked through along these corridors for a week, I immediately noticed the temperature change. Using Temperature Gauge, I could see the heat increasing, but I couldn’t see any specific source. As I was investigating this, I noticed we came to a massive archway made out of stone. It seemed purely decorative, with various carvings on it. I looked at the carvings, but I wasn’t able to make out any of them. It was like they had been scoured away.

It was more than that. The rock had various pocks in it like it was being dissolved. Given an environment free of wind and rain, I couldn’t believe that this would take that much damage, even after a long time. There wasn’t exactly acid rain down here, so what exactly was eating away at it? Was it the same thing that was eating away at my light and mana?

“Home.” As I was examining the arch, Sapphire said that single word.

I only nodded silently. Although I couldn’t make out who was carved into that arch, I was certain that it would have been dwarves and dwarf-related images. This had to be the home of the Deep Dwarves. We had reached their city.

I wasn’t sure how extensive the deep dwarf settlements were. There could be mushroom farms, villages, and bases all over the Deep. The place where we had encountered the king might have been some fort they had escaped to. I regrettably didn’t know, and since my plan to digest the Deep had fallen through, it was hard to say if I’d ever find those answers that had been lost to time. Still, given that I had been dealing with the king, I had a feeling he had sent me to their largest city, the one that would contain his seat of power.

“He said you’d know where to go, but I don’t need to go to the city. I need to find Garnet and Terra. Do you know where they are?” I asked wryly, not expecting an answer.

To my surprise, Sapphire cocked her head for a moment and then nodded. She knew where they were? Was it because they were undead? That thought worried me, but something told me that wasn’t it. I wanted to ask her a lot of questions, but it didn’t feel like the best time to start overloading her with questions. We were heading toward the girls. That was all that was important. As for escape, I would worry about that later.

“Come on.” I gestured.

The pair of us passed under the archway and entered the abandoned city of the deep dwarves.