Dungeon? This Tree? Why Don't You Join Me for Lunch? (Dungeon Core)
Chapter 92: End of an Era

Chapter 92: Chapter 92: End of an Era

I had no idea what had happened to Edda. Or even what was happening to my sons, who were kilometers away!

The connection to Wrath and Drusilla was gone! They were in the most dangerous dungeon in the world! I needed to keep them supplied!

I had only one teleport rune. Those, as useful as they were, had their limitations.

For one, you could change the destination person, but only once every 24 hours.

I was sure that Pan could feed himself. He was my son. Besides, Nate was there.

He could cook better than me. He had that front covered.

But...

Brandon and Doran were alone in the World Dungeon! Wrath and Drusilla were alone in the Dungeon of Still Waters, which was in the Scorching Ice Valley!

My home. A place I only found homey because I had a tree to come back to.

The choice was clear, and yet, I couldn’t help but think that Doran was never going to forgive me. After all, Brandon was a T-Rex, as I liked to call the dragon whose bones I used to plant shrubs in once he passed.

And a T-Rex ate a lot.

But that wasn’t something they couldn’t figure out by themselves! They were in a dungeon, the dungeon had mobs, most mobs were made from meat.

If they really couldn’t survive something like that, then maybe I didn’t want them to be with my son.

My son, who was my firstborn!

I made sure that my one remaining rune was connected to Wrath and Drusilla. Now, that meant that I could finally speak with them! Which was better than staying in a tree with cold, empty, root corridors.

"Wrath?" He wasn’t fighting at the moment, so I figured that it was safe to speak with him. "Why did you give me the ring?"

It was a strange question to ask him. I should have asked that question as he slipped the ring around my finger, binding me to him, without even asking if I was in the mood for it.

But, hey, I didn’t ask. For the same reason why I married Amdis then and there, when the man signed Aron’s marriage contract.

Which... gave me some of Amdis fairy dust!

Fairy dust collected from a fairy who wasn’t a zombie was to a cook the same as someone finding a pearl in an oyster!

Pure gold! Made every meal better!

"Well, you’re nice," he sounded unsure. It was strange to think about the mountain of muscle so, as if he were unsure, but he was. "And because you decided to be with me first!"

I blinked. I decided that?

"When?" I blurted out. He chuckled, only for me to hear the sound of a two-handed axe being taken out of a sheath. "Wrath? Are you guys going to fight now?"

Strange... why was Drusilla not saying anything?

"Wrath, may I please look through your eyes?" I asked him. I wanted to help them, but I had no idea how. I couldn’t even hear the still waters which had given the dungeon its name.

Funny thing about still waters: they are not completely still. Even as they decay more and more, they still move slowly. The wind pushing them around.

The parasites which call them home make sure that there are small, foul-smelling, waves, which give one the illusion that the exit is somewhere in the vicinity.

But the exit is never there, where one hopes it to be.

Never.

"Ok, suit yourself," Wrath let me look through his eyes. There was a hand over his shoulder!

"The hell! Are you collecting the mobs now?" I yelled at him. What was he thinking? That was a big no-no! One didn’t steal schemas like that!

"That is Drusilla... was, Drusilla," I heard as he wavered. Saw through his eyes as his fists clenched and unclenched.

Oh.

Dru was dead.

There was no way for me to bring her back now.

Because Dru, as much as I loved the girl, was dead. Gone. Her arm limp over Wrath’s shoulder.

"She got bit by a big worm. Didn’t want to drink from the same flask as me, that silly girl. I told her, there are runes. We will get out of here with them. You just need to drink clean water," his laughter was long and desperate.

I could see how his eyes were darting around. Could see that he was searching for something.

The exit, I realized.

There I had been, snug and doing things that one shouldn’t do during a war, and Drusilla had died.

Wrath... Wrath had lost his courage after that. Or so I thought.

"The current, Wrath! You just need to find the current, and then you can get out of there," I was not so cruel as to make the poor man fight Lamia the way he was.

She was a Naga; he was just a bigger than most dungeon core.

I already knew who was going to win.

"Get out?" The growl was so low, that had I not been a part of him, so to speak, I would have missed it. "Get out and let that bitch, who knew we were coming in peace, get away?"

No, I told myself, as I took some of the golden mushroom dust and began to mix it in with Amdis’ fairy dust. There was no way Wrath, the Dungeon Core of the Dungeon of Horror, was going to let Lamia get away.

"May I please stay with you?" I needed some time to make him the best I could. Something even he would eat. Even from the Tree of Memories, my connection to Wrath let me sense where Lamia was hiding.

Together, we could kill her.

"And," what I was going to say next was going to break his heart. I just knew it. "Please send Drusilla to me. I will send her over to her Dungeon Master."

Who was now the dungeon core if the cave hadn’t collapsed.

So ended an era.

Wrath gave out a roar. I watched on, as his axe came down again and again. He was hacking at the walls.

Lamia ran away from her hiding spot.

He fell to the ground.

The next second, Drusilla was there, in a sack, pale as a ghost.

Limp, lifeless.

Wrath didn’t chase me away.