A Soldier's Life - 341 - One Konstantin Is More Than Enough (edit 2-8-25 +200 words)

Chapter 341: One Konstantin Is More Than Enough

The dungeon didn’t feel any different when we entered. I did feel a slight brush against my mind fortress, but I assumed it was just the dungeon’s awareness coming to focus on us. The entry room floor was free of the little trash we had left, and the hallway was clear of our bodily functions. It looked like the dungeon had "reset." I was exhausted because I hadn’t rested with the others. Instead, I constantly worked to clear the chamber on the other side of the dungeon exit.

I wanted to figure out what the helm’s function was. It was a bit too gaudy for my taste, and it might fit Maveith’s head if he wanted it. “I’m going to rest in the dreamscape before we continue. Konstantin, would you like to join me?” The entire room froze; even Konstantin had a shocked expression that quickly faded. Sharing my amulet was not something I took lightly. Raelia had pestered me about it during the sea voyage until I finally relented. However, I did receive a fair amount of compensation for giving in to her demands. Maveith never asked to use the dreamscape amulet again since he had gotten his sister back.

Konstantin sensed a trap, but in reality, there was none. I just wanted to discuss the dungeon with him in a secure environment. Well, maybe there was a trap. I still needed to demonstrate how the dreamscape amulet worked since it would be his first time. I was thinking of a dozen different ways to educate him. Finally, he nodded to Maveith, “Maveith, stay on watch.” The entry should be a safe room, but this dungeon was abnormal, and we had decided to keep someone on watch.

I felt a bit uneasy as we lay on the floor next to each other—inviting the veteran into my most sacred space. We both touched the amulet, and I said, “Just channel any amount of aether into it after I do.”

I was soon standing in the entry chamber and didn’t have to wait long before Konstantin appeared. He spun around alertly, and upon seeing no threats, he relaxed. I couldn’t help but smirk, knowing he understood that I could do any number of things to surprise him. “I wanted to talk in private,” I said seriously.

He was still looking around, and familiarity struck him. “This is that orc dungeon near Formica? It is a strange choice.”

“This is where I got the dreamscape amulet, and I can’t change the location. The boundaries are fixed, but I can alter everything within the walls,” I explained. He furrowed his brow in confusion. I smirked, and we suddenly appeared together in the scorpion room. Konstantin twirled on the sand, taking in the abrupt change in surroundings. Large snails left trails of glistening, glowing mucus that illuminated the chamber. The alcove with my dungeon constructs had many eyes studying us, intrigued by the new arrival. I mentally created a wall to seal them off for now.

I explained to Konstantin, “I defeated the creature in this room and obtained the amulet from the reward chest. Would you be interested in giving the room a try?” I was acting casually, but I thought there was no way he could handle the scorpion alone.

Konstantin’s eyes revealed that he was still processing everything. I think the constructs surprised him, and the vast domed room had disoriented him. He turned a few times, seeing only the one exit. “The final room? Was it after the island room? What was the beast you defeated here? I thought I told you NOT to enter the next room.”

Well, he got me there as he had told me not to enter the room. “You also didn’t tell me the final room of the dungeon seals you in with no escape,” I retorted defensively. “I was just leaning in to take a better look, and the exit sealed behind me. I was forced to fight the creature in here,” I gestured grandly at the impressive chamber.

“So, you entered the room when I told you not to. Huh, I am surprised you lived this long,” he said pompously in victory.

That statement irked me. I released the giant scorpion hiding under the sand. Konstantin detected the shifting sand and moved to put his back to the wall, drawing both blades. He could have willed them into his hands, but he didn’t have enough experience in the dreamscape yet. His face was impassive as he focused on the black arachnid. The massive stinger swung hypnotically over its body while sand cascaded off its carapace. Its pincers were held wide, ready to react to either direction Konstantin moved.

As the creature closed, I felt a little guilty, so I gave him some advice: “Watch out. It likes to attack with its left claw, forcing you right, and the stinger comes down to where you are dodging.”

Konstantin merely grunted in response. When the scorpion inevitably struck with its left claw, Konstantin reacted and moved into the path of the descending stinger. Just before it reached him, he pushed off the sand and charged at the massive creature, both tips of his blades piercing its two largest eyes. His new sword sparked violently, but the scorpion appeared unaffected by the paralysis effect.

As the creature reared in pain, Konstantin ducked and rolled away, weaponless. He probably thought he had blinded the arachnid, but he was wrong. One thing I had learned in fighting this creature on multiple occasions was that this monstrosity had six eyes, not two—two large eyes ad two more pairs of smaller eyes.

The onyx scorpion writhed in pain but turned to locate its tormentor. Konstantin moved to get behind me, but I teleported to the room's other side. “No cheating! You are doing great!” I yelled in support, thinking he would have done that to me. I felt him trying to manipulate the dreamscape but locked him out of making changes with my superior control from entering first. He just grunted and circled the onyx arachnid.

The scorpion chased him for a while before he took a chance to retrieve his blades. He rolled under a claw swipe, grabbed the hilt of Shockwave with both hands, and used his body weight to wrench the blade, which sparked again. This time, the scorpion seemed to freeze and remained still. He turned to the Death Hunter blade, twisting and torquing the blade, ensuring the creature's brain was destroyed before withdrawing both blades in victory.

I could have cheated and healed the black scorpion after he withdrew the blades, but I just nodded in deference to the man. Breathing hard, he asked, “How did you kill it?”

“You don’t need to breathe in here or clean your blades,” I said, walking over to him. I dropped a rock on it,” I admitted, producing a rock of similar size to sit on and patting it.

Konstantin nodded, sat beside me, and asked, “What did you want to discuss?”

“The dungeon,” I replied.

“I know as much as you,” he said, pointing at the wall. “What was all that?”

I made the scorpion corpse and the wall disappear, revealing the poker table, my library, my reading chair, and the collection of humanoid constructs. Oscar barked and came running out with a tennis ball in his mouth. I tossed the ball for him. Konstantin approached the group and immediately went to Adrian. “It’s good to see you again, old friend,” Adrian said, extending his hand. Konstantin shook wrists with him, but I couldn’t see the reaction on his face.

“Likewise,” Konstantin said sincerely. He moved toward the manifestation of himself after offering a courteous greeting to the deceased Lucien as well. He couldn’t help but circle his twin, who was wearing our old red legionnaire armor, examining him closely.

The dreamscape Konstantin muttered snidely, “You see something you like?” Both Konstantin’s grunted in unison at the terrible joke. My dreamscape version laid in the real one, “You look like you’re getting fat old man; do you want to work off some of the pudge?”

“I don’t act like this,” Konstantin muttered more to me than to his clone. He drew his blades anyway, and the two men moved to the center of the sand in mutual agreement. I could tell Konstantin wanted to prove that he was the better Konstantin. Both wielded the same blades as they engaged in a whirlwind of attacks. I watched intently, my eyes following their footwork and movements. My dreamscape Konstantin had been repeatedly updated and infused with the skill of other sword masters, so he should be superior.

Still, the real Konstantin was holding his own until the dreamscape Konstantin clamped one of Konstantin’s blades in his armpit. Konstantin tried to pull the blade up and out, to cut deep into the armpit, but it was too late. My dreamscape Konstantin slid one his blade along the real one’s neck. The runic weapon cut extremely deep, and the body collapsed and disappeared.

I teleported back to the entry room, where Konstantin rubbed his neck. “You can turn off feeling pain,” I told him in sympathy.

“Why would I want to do that? It’s a good reminder I lost. He didn’t fight like I did,” he said somewhat accusingly.

“He fights mostly like you. I improved him some,” I replied. “The dungeon?” I said, returning to the reason I invited him here.

“We still haven’t found the core or collected enough essences for Castile,” he stated simply.

“I think the dungeon core might be in the ceiling of the final chamber behind the bright glowstone,” I said.

“Too obvious,” Konstantin said dismissively. “We should focus on collecting the channeling essences for Castile and let the goliaths handle the dungeon’s fate. Maybe they will see its value or invite the Adventurer’s Guild to manage it.”

I doubted the latter from talking with Maveith. “What should we do with Navek, then?”

Konstantin paused. The two had formed a friendship, and he probably knew the goliath better than I did. “Release him when we leave,” he said decisively. “You have a habit of carrying around people. Even if we find the core, I am not certain the dungeon exit would still remain if we destroyed the core. At least we would know how to get back to the surface if that is the case. When you bring him back, tell him we need to research the method and procedure for terminating a dungeon core.” Konstantin asked distractedly, “Is that all? I would like to try cross blades a few more times. Was that Xavier Ursus among the men?”

“What? You know Xavier, the sword master?” I questioned.

Konstantin barked a laugh, “Sword Master? Is that what he told you? I will say he is good in a duel, but not someone I would choose to stand next to me in a real fight. Good honest legionnaire, though.”

“Yes, he was.” I sighed. “Fine, just don’t change anything in here. I cannot recreate it easily,” I said reluctantly. I guess I had invited him in, so it would be rude not to let him play. I trusted the old cantankerous man. He didn’t wait and was already walking away. I smirked as I willed all the dungeon creatures to be on alert. He would have to get past the ankhegs, spiders, and centipede eels on his own.

I still had to decipher the runes on the goat helm. I manifested the black helm and enlarged it to make the runes easy to read, then pulled the runic index to my hand. As I worked, there might be a problem because maybe not all the runes had been visible when I studied them.

Most of the runes centered on protection, from what I could tell. It appeared to be very similar to an aether shield amulet—a lot more complex, but similar. I didn’t encounter anything that I considered dangerous within the runes so I thought it was safe to try funneling aether into it. I checked on Konstantin before I exited the dreamscape. He was crossing blades with Adrian while the others formed a circle around the fight. He had a grin on his face, and I decided to let him be. He couldn’t do too much damage to my dreamscape, and he already knew most of my secrets.

I left and stood from the floor, careful to keep the amulet in contact with Konstantin while doing so. Maveith looked up expectantly. “Konstantin was having too good of a time. He will be out when he is done. Maveith, you can try this on.” The black runic helm appeared in my hand. “It gives added protection like an aether shield amulet.”

Raelia and I watched as the goliath came and turned the black helm in his hand before placing it over his head. It fit snuggly, like it had been made for the large head of a goliath. Maveith looked uncharacteristically malevolent wearing the black helm. Since it only had too narrow slits, I asked, “How is your vision?”

“Terrible,” his voice echoed ominously in the helm. Making a Vadar joke at this moment would be wasted on the present company.

“Channel aether into it!” Raelia said, excitedly.

Maveith’s hand reached up and touched the helm, instantly encasing his body in a complete set of perfectly fitted matte-black armor. Raelia and I gaped at the impressive sight. “I can see much better now!” Maveith exclaimed enthusiastically. “But it keeps draining my aether. I don’t think I can sustain it for long.” Maveith lifted the helm off, making the aetheric black armor vanish as he did so. “It fits well enough,” he remarked. “But I don’t think it’s worth the aether cost.”

Raelia was practically bouncing with excitement. “It’s a sentinel helm! Maveith, we need to find you a mirror!”

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