The path to the doors was paved smoothly making Duke’s walk to the doors effortless. It had an inviting aura and perfectly matched his intent. As he reached for the wicket door, it opened inwards for him allowing a cheery light to filter out onto the drive. With the Overmind still hovering over his shoulder and a great sense of anticipation, he entered the doorway. There was a transition message which struck Duke as interesting as most dungeons he had created lately did not carry one.

  *** You are entering the Celestial Foundry of Teldin. This place is a haven for all of Teldin’s crafters. Be welcome to ply your art here for the good of all in good faith and honor. Should you enter with anything but honor in your heart, turn around now lest you find yourself lost forever in the darker passages. ***

  Duke furrowed his brow at the message as he had not planned it at all in his designs. The Overmind floated next to him, having cloaked itself in its avatar form. It spoke before Duke could finish processing the message.

  “I added that message and am holding us in the space between the dungeon’s dimension and material space until we finish this discussion. This is first and foremost a place to prepare for war. Your mastercrafted Dungeon Core allows for some things you have not really touched-upon in the past such as more active self-defense. With a Master-ranked Core made with your own Mana and infused capabilities, this dungeon has a version of your XENOGLOSSIA in that it can read the intent of everyone who enters very well. If it senses that someone is coming in to do harm to it or its Core, it can shunt them to a different section that will trap the intruders in an extremely slow time dilation until you can deal with them. One day for them will be twenty four thousand years in normal time.”

  “What if it gets the intent wrong? My XENOGLOSSIA works with my Intuition but even then, it’s not 100 percent.”

  “Then you have plenty of time to correct the issue.”

  “I suppose that is true. And, given what I have seen of the Syndicate’s actions, I am sure that they will come for me here. Having extra measures of safety just makes sense. Thank you for setting that up.”

  “This is my war as much as it is yours. They have Entities of their own that I must deal with.”

  “You know, that leads me to another question, why don’t you act directly against them and their Entities?”

  “When Supreme Entities directly clash, the destruction is beyond your capability to comprehend. Galaxies become weapons, sacrificing everyone and everything within. Everyone loses and we really can’t kill each other. At least not permanently at this point. We just keep each other from interfering directly in each other’s affairs. That is why most everything is done through Agents.”

  “And I guess that makes me your Agent in all this?”

  “It does. The big difference is that they are forced into doing their Entities bidding. I hope that I’ve made it clear that you have choices.”

  “I know I have choices, but it’s their actions that have set me on this path. I’m not about to back down from them now. And even if I wanted to, they would still come after me. No, I have to tear their system and structures down around their ears for them to leave me alone.”

  “That is the truth of it, unfortunately.”

  “Then we carry on and take the fight to them.”

  “Indeed. Oh, yes, one more thing. You have over 20,000 dungeons planted right now, and your Title is at its second rank. I just wanted to remind you that there are at least two more ranks for that Title. Something to think about when you are out and about. Now, let’s fully enter the workshop.”

  The pair stepped through the doorway and into the Celestial Foundry of Teldin. The first thing that struck Duke was that the entryway resembled one of the Inn dungeons with tables and a bar set up. What was immediately different were the dozens of passageways leading out of the Tavern. They all carried a golden sign above them indicating what type of crafting was available down that way. But even with those significant differences, Duke recognized the ubiquitous stairway leading up to the living areas. Their visual explorations were interrupted by their minotaur host.

  “Greetings and welcome to-“ the minotaur stopped in mid-sentence as he realized who was standing before him. The bull-headed creature who stood so much taller than Duke that he only came up to his chest dropped prostrate on the floor before them.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  The Overmind gestured with its hand, “Please arise young one and proceed to do your duty.”

  Carefully and slowly, the minotaur stood back to its feet but kept its head bowed out of respect or perhaps fear from the way his shaggy hide shuddered, and his voice cracked.

  “Welcome to the Celestial Foundry of Teldin. Here, you may ply virtually any crafting trade you can imagine. Supplies can be purchased or traded for and there are multiple ways to earn more crafting materials if you desire. I am your host, Sar Borglyn. Whatever you may need is only a request away.”

  “Central Control Room, please.” Duke responded.

  “Right this way.” Sar Borglyn led the pair behind the bar to a blank wall that opened for them. “I shall go tend to my post.” The minotaur left them.

  Stepping through the opening, Duke found himself in what he figured the Mission Control Center for NASA looked like. There were dozens of stations set up with controls and monitors and a trio of exceptionally large screens dominated the far wall. With a satisfied nod, Duke sat down at one of the consoles and started running through the options.

  He quickly found that the controls were intuitive, and he could locate any crafting room, group of rooms, or even entire sections and modify their parameters easily. Among the basic parameters he could modify were environmental factors such as lighting, temperature, and humidity. But what he was more interested in were the esoteric parameters such as time dilation. The controls for time dilation worked on a sliding scale on the screen that could be zoomed in for finer control.

  “Wow, that’s even more than I expected. Can we really modify the dilation in such a wide range? Ten thousand to one seems an insane level.”

  “It is and I wouldn’t suggest you use it in reverse except in an emergency. Even using it normally, there are significant risks to the individuals involved. I would recommend keeping it at one hundred to one as the maximum limit for anyone not immortal. You gather a bunch of immortal workers, then go for it and see what wonders they create.”

  “I’m a few steps away from that right now. But I’m not going to discount the possibility. For now, I’m going to set the entire facility to one hundred to one and leave it there. I don’t think I need to check out the individual crafting rooms as there are thousands of them. I need to really get on two things.”

  “Oh, and what, my favorite Agent, are those?”

  “First off, I have to get the local crafters to come here and get started, including the crafters of the Clan. Secondly, I have to track down the Syndicate’s Core harvesting ships and take them off the board. Finding them might take some time but it is essential.”

  “I agree with both those items. Add a third that you will likely take care of accomplishing the second item.”

  “Oh, and what is that?”

  “Get to Tier Eleven. And soon.”

  “That fits into the plan. But I have to get to Ten first, right?”

  “Indeed. You have things well in hand here. I am going to go hire some temporary Agents to assist you in your search. Right now, our best way to track the harvesters is when they actually start harvesting. That works, but I would like a bit of a more proactive capability. So, I’m going to hire some information brokers to find them for us. I’ll send what they find to you so you have some good targets.” With that, the avatar vanished, and with it, the Overmind was gone.

  Duke set out, ensuring the wall closed behind him as he TELEPORTED to his Throne Room yet again. Once there, he used the communications crystal, “Mira this is Duke. Are you on the air?”

  The response was near immediate, “I heard that you were back in town. Do you need a pickup?”

  “Can you meet me outside Cloudspire?” Duke TELEPORTED back out in front of the crafting center. “If you can pick me up on your sensors, there should be plenty of space around here to set down and we have so many things to catch up on.”

  “I’ve got you in sight. Coming down now. Convenient that you are right outside of the city I was in orbit over.”

  “Works out that way sometimes. See you in a few.”

  “Roger, out.”

  Moments later, Lya’s dropship descended casually, landing in the clearing on the opposite side of the road. It did not take long for the loading ramp to descend, and Duke saw Mira, Lya, and a whole horde of orcs descending before racing across the road to greet him.

  Gro’nok was the first to arrive and swept Duke up in a bear-hug that would be crushing for any normal man. Duke simply smiled as his friend squeezed for all he was worth. Finally, he let Duke down as the others arrived, “You have gotten even tougher, my friend!”

  “I had little choice. The Contest called for it.”

  “Oh, yes. You must tell us all about the Contest. Did you win?”

  “Of course he won. He wouldn’t have come back if he lost!” Urgoth’s voice boomed across the area.

  Duke smiled at them all but paused to offer a bow to Elder Maw’huk who casually waved him off. Nodding his acknowledgement to the dismissal of formality, he spoke, “Welcome all of you. Can someone run back into the ship and ask the crafters to join us as well?”

  A young orc peeled off from the crowd and tore across the way, tripping as she transitioned to the ramp but never losing her feet. Duke’s exceptional senses picked up the grunt as she disappeared into the ship.

  Several minutes later, Duke’s greetings with everyone finally ended as the Clan crafters joined them. After several more conversations and one specific warning about the entry message, they all joined him inside the Foundry. Most took to the tables right away and servers came out to take care of them. Some stayed around Duke, his presence providing a reassuring solidity to everything.

  Duke explained the Foundry and all the crafting stations available and more than one left to explore. The rest settled down to hear Duke’s tales of the Contest. He spent several hours and more drinks than he could count to relate the tale. It was good to catch up with them all.