Chapter 16

"It seems like we are separating from the elven world." I opened my eyes to the entire dungeon shaking.

"Finally." I jumped up excitedly. This entire experience had been interesting, but the furthest thing from fun. "Let's go. Back into the void."

"There seems to be some movement outside the dungeon."

"Oh what the hell." I closed my eyes and saw the elven world shaking like the dungeon was. They were running around in a panic, some praying, others just fleeing. I ordered the surveillance spider to return. And watched as the elder and a few of the elves I vaguely remember bowing behind him the first time we met walked up toward the vortex. They were leading another elf in the middle of them. Leading was an understatement, it was more like they were dragging her up to the vortex. I lost sight of them as the surveillance spider made it's way back into the dungeon.

"I have a bad feeling about this," I said and raced through the dungeon to the gate.

"Disconnecting from the elven world in 15 seconds," Daisy said and a countdown appeared in my mind. I reached the gate as the countdown hit 3 seconds. The vortex flexed as the countdown hit zero and an elven girl was thrust through sprawling on the ground. There was a final groan from the dungeon and the gate vanished. She hit the ground sprawling in the dirt rolling across the floor coming to a stop at my legs. She coughed a few times and shakily pushed herself off to a seated position. It took her a minute because of the ropes that bound her ankles and wrists together. Did I just get an elven sacrifice thrown into my dungeon?

"I believe that is correct."

"Well, this is just perfect," I said, throwing my hands up in the air. "What the hell am I supposed to do with an elf?"

"Feeding her to the soldiers is an option." Daisy's voice was as monotone as ever. I looked down at the elf who was grabbing her ears in pain and shaking from fear. She was painfully skinny with little to no muscles.

"Would we gain anything from eating her?"

"No." perfect. I leaned down and snapped the ropes that bound her with my claws before turning around and heading back into the cave. She was useless to me, and it's not like she could go anywhere anyways since we were no longer connected to anything.

"What else can I do to improve the dungeon?" I asked Daisy as I settled down into my throne again.

"With no mana stones, it is impossible to grow your army or increase the dungeon's resources. The only option left would be to further expand the current dungeons' tunnel systems." At her words, the map of the dungeon popped up in my head. Currently, there were 9 rooms in the dungeon that created a wavy path from the bottom right corner of the map to the top left. There was a decent amount of unused blank space that he had not tapped into. The problem is that I only want one path from the vortex to the throne room. It's much easier to defend one single path instead of many.

"I guess I could make paths leading from the throne room out into the blank space. Hey Daisy, will the vortex always appear in the forest room?"

"No, the vortex can appear in any of the rooms. However, the closer the room is to the throne room, the less likely for a vortex to appear."

"And why is that?"

"The throne room is the heart of the dungeon. The power that radiated from the throne room makes it difficult for the vortex to stabilize."

"So, if I build more paths out of the throne room a vortex can appear in them?"

"Correct."

"Well, that would be a bit annoying. I can't guard everywhere with the little number of soldiers that I have. You can always tell when a vortex is appearing?"

"I can tell when it is stabilizing."

So far there hasn't been a time when we weren't able to get into position once the vortex appeared. Meaning that as long as we can get to any of the points in a decent amount of time then we should be able to defend it at short notice.

"Alright well, let's build another path from the throne room up to the top right. Same thing as before, smaller rooms with thin tunnels leading from one to the other with bends so you can not see from one room to the next." At my words, I saw the miner spiders move on the map and scuttle into the throne room. I opened my eyes to see the three miner spiders move to the wall to the right and begin chiseling at the walls. They were moving quickly with decent progress. Two very irritated cleaners came in behind them swallowing up their mess as they worked.

Now that construction had started I again had nothing to do. I looked at the fruit next to me and thought of the skinny elf. I looked through the surveillance spider and saw her in the forest room. She was moving around inspecting the area gathering sticks and leaves off the floor. She brought them to a far wall and set them down making a sort of floor mat. As she continued to build her bed I felt a little sorry for her.

"I guess there is a heart in me still." I closed my eyes and ordered the soldiers to bring all the baskets of food into the first room for the elf. "No reason to let her starve." I switched off the screens and let myself fall asleep.