It took two hours of outside time before Renfry and my skeletal guard got back with my equipment. The guard had taken the note that Dave wrote, getting me the things that I needed. While I was waiting, however, I learned a few things that I didn’t know before.

First, the safe rooms could adjust their speed. One to twenty-four was just the standard setting. I could ramp that up as far as one to one hundred or as slow as half speed, which would mean that if I needed to, I could leave Kasidy in a safe room, and she would gain more time. Well, more time from my perspective, which meant that I would have longer to fix her if the Sister fell through.

The bad thing with that idea was that I had to be in the dungeon to change the settings, which meant that I would need to move to another dungeon to do the work that I wanted to do if I made this one move at half rate.

As soon as Renfry stepped inside the room, I waved over at him. “Drop the equipment here and get out fast. I’ve adjusted the rate of speed in this room to a hundred times faster than the outside world. So I don’t want you to age too much.”

Renfry nodded. “That explains how you got an eye back.”

I nodded to him. “Yeah, it’s just my first attempt. I need what you have there to make what I want. The highest quality replacements that I have in here just don’t do as well.”

He nodded to me. “Blink wants to come in to see you, but she is still too large.”

I nodded slowly. “So that’s a transformation then and not just an ability?”

Renfry shrugged. “I think so. She can’t really talk with us at all in that form. I just know that she wants in because she spent some time banging her head against the door frame trying to get in.”

I laughed. I needed the laugh. For the past eight days, I hadn’t found much of anything funny. I was too focused on what I needed to do. So the thought of her trying to force her way into the safe room was great. I knew that she wanted to be near me and talk with me but couldn’t right now.

With a grin, I said. “Try to give her a hug for me. I’m going to try to get my legs up and running as fast as I can, and then I’m going to head out. My goal is to be out of here in a day, your time, give or take a few hours. Then I am going to go to the Sisters with Kasidy and ask them for help. Once that happens, we’ll be on our way.”

Renfry nodded. “Should I toss Irwin in here? He’ll recover faster and might help you some.”

I shook my head. “No… Well, sure, why not. Once he recovers in here, I can send him out. Then he can help others out there sooner. Okay yeah, send him in. Once you do that, go and watch the lich. We need to find his phylactery as well. Even though he is under my control, I worry that he’ll just try to die to get out of it.”

Renfry smiled. “Already found it. Well, not me. One of the prisoners that you freed showed me where it was.”

I nodded. “Good, still keep an eye out on him.”

Renfry bowed. “I will, my lord. Speaking of the former prisoners, what is your desire for them?”

I sighed. While I didn’t truly want to do anything with them, we still needed to make some sort of provision for them. Either to take them on as members of my fife or to, at the very least, get them out of Leb’on’e.

I set the engraver and ruby I had been working on down. “We need to make sure that they are the only ones. This transport hub is huge, so there could be more hidden around. We also need to find out where the portals are going. Once I have Kasidy taken care of and can move again, we need to push through the gates and secure the other side. I don’t like how weak we are here.”

Renfry nodded and asked. “So until then, where do you want everyone? Also, where should we get food for them?”

I sighed. “Okay, so bring them through here in shifts. That way, they can eat and clean up. Once they pass through, we can figure out what to do. If any of them want to become members of the fife, figure it out. Lilac might be of some help to you, but then again, she is in as much of a mess as everyone else out there. Once Blink can change back, I’ll have her talk with everyone. Then again, it might be best to start all of this once Irwin gets back up.”

Renfry smiled and nodded. “That works; I have seen many of them acting very scared when they see me. I am trying not to let it get to me but hearing their fearful voices calling me undead has been hard.”

I nodded and sighed. “Yeah, well, until you, they had a reason for that feeling. As it is only you and the lich have talked to me. Even the skeletal guards don’t seem as smart as you two.”

Renfry nodded. “It’s not that I didn’t expect it, but rather I should have expected it because that was how I felt when one of them. Now that I am what I am, I have to figure out how to react. More than that, I can no longer just yell and kill everyone that doesn’t do as I say.”

I laughed, and he smiled. “True, If you need me, I will be here for a while. Just remember how fast time is moving in here.”

Renfry nodded and gave me a quick bow. “I will, my lord.” Then he turned and headed out of the room.

I smiled at the bag that the skeletal guard had. My life had changed so much in the past couple of weeks. Even more so once, I lost my feet and became the new Death Walker. I shook my head slightly; I was sure that I would end up paying for stealing that title; I just didn’t know how.

Over the next couple of days, I worked on the next iteration of my eye. The one that I had in my face functioned, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I had bought a human eye from the dungeon and reanimated it, and slid it into my eye socket. Then when sitting on my throne, I could use the eye’s sense. I found that I could split my focus and see what the eye saw and what I saw. Then, my brain did what it always would do and stitched the two images together.

The problem with this, of course, was the eye only worked while on the throne and would get damaged by Lay-To-Rest. However, it did let me do more detailed work on my next eye. Using my cored etching tool and the jeweler’s tools, I was able to put basic sight onto the eye. Still, that wasn’t going to be good enough. If I was going to make an eye, I needed it to be better than what I had lost.

I wasn’t going to core my replacement eye until I knew that I had what I wanted. However, what I did was sell it back to the dungeon so that I would have it in stock. Then I got to charging it up to use.

I had just slid the eye into my head when Renfry came back in. It had been two days since I saw him last. This time he came carrying Irwin’s passed-out body. He nodded to me and carried the guy up to one of the rooms. As he came back down, I waved, and he headed out.

With my new eye, I got about two hours of work before the runes burned out on it, and the thing broke. That, of course, caused a slight problem as I got a splinter into the soft tissue. Once I got that out, I slid another eye in and kept working. My goal was to make it more adjustable. Right now, the fake eye could see mostly like normal at close range. However, once something was around ten feet away, it was too blurry to matter.

I was on my fifth replacement eye when Irwin came downstairs. He looked like crap, just barely able to walk. When he plopped down at the table, he laid his head down once more. I smiled and shook my head; the skill of All or Nothing took its toll.

Slowly he raised his head and looked at me with bloodshot eyes. “Did I save her?”

I sighed. “You kept her from dying immediately; however, she’s cursed.”

He nodded. “I can see if taking the curse on myself weakens it. It’s one of my abilities as the healer of your house.”

I shook my head. “No, you would die if you took this curse onto yourself.” Then I gave him a slight smile. “And while she is prettier than you, I wouldn’t ask you to trade your life for hers. I just can’t accept that.”

He nodded slightly. “Do you know what the curse is?”

I shrugged slightly. “I know what caused it, but breaking the sword should have ended it. Or at least that’s what Dave thinks. The problem is that it didn’t, and with the sword broken, Dave can’t just figure out what’s going on with it. I do have a plan.”

He nodded slightly and put his head back on the table. I waved to Dave and pointed down at Irwin. He nodded and, a few minutes later, was feeding my healer. Then Irwin headed back to bed. I would likely kick him out when he woke back up this time, as he should be fully recovered by then.

I was right, and a few hours later was kicking Irwin out. I explained to him about the time dilation and that he had work out there to do. So once he left, I got to work seriously. I needed to get the eye to function at least as well as my old eye, but I wanted things better. So my goal was to add in a few other layers of detection.

Not long after I kicked Irwin out, people started to come in to eat. The first dozen or so all came and bowed to me and thanked me repeatedly. I explained what was happening here and how much time they had. After that, Renfry returned and started to intercept everyone that came in. He would lead them away from where I was working and handle getting them moved around.

On my eightieth day and about the fortieth eye, I got an unexpected visitor. Lilac came through the safe room door. She was still dressed in the same simple clothing she had been wearing before, with Triston’s blood all over her. When she came into the room, she curtsied and gave a slight stagger.

Before I said anything, she spoke. “Dungeon Master, you said that I could come and rest here. Does the offer still stand?”

I nodded. “I am working now, but yes, you can head up and wash and rest. The speed in here is faster than out there.”

Lilac nodded. “Twenty-four times the normal speed.”

I shook my head. “This one is one hundred times normal. So keep that in mind.”

She nodded, and as she started to move, Dave asked, “Would you like any food, princess?”

She gave Dave a smile and nodded. Once she was out of sight, I placed her out of mind. I had work to do and was almost to the spot I wanted to be with my eye. Then once I had the eye finished, I was going to be able to focus on getting my leg and feet fixed.

When she came back down several hours later, she no longer looked like the wreck that she had been. While the dungeon wasn’t set to give high-quality things out for free, it would clean items and even mend non-weapons or armor. So the simple dress she had was now clean as she was as well.

When she approached my table, instead of curtsying, she lowered herself to the floor and pressed her head to the ground. “Dungeon Master, I thank you for the hospitality of the night. May I stay in here longer than one day?”

I sighed; I honestly didn’t need someone else in here right now. That said, it might do her some good to have a few days between her finding out that her lover was dead and returning to Cloudia. Besides, if I still headed that way which I was thinking would be good, having good relations with the ruling family would be helpful.

I nodded. “I am working, but I don’t mind if you stay in here for as long as I am here. Once I leave, I will need to change things back to standard as I don’t want someone to die of old age in here.”

Still with her head on the ground, she spoke. “Thank you, great master. I will stay with you as long as you are in here or until I feel that I can face the world again.”

“You can get up whenever you want as well. I don’t much care for the bowing and everything that you are doing. It would be better if you just treated me as a normal person.”

From the ground, she said. “I would be remiss to treat one such as you as you ask.”

I shook my head. “At least get off the ground, princess, and call me Arn.”

She slowly got up and, looking at the ground, said. “Great master Arn, thank you for letting me stay. I will try not to bother you while I am here.”

I sighed. “Princess, do you read?”

She nodded. “I do.”

“Dave, the princess, has access to all non-magical books. Just let her see the interface to know what she wants. Also, let her get other supplies that she might need other than weapons. If anything is too expensive, let me know before you make it for her.”

Dave asked. “At your cost?”

I nodded. “Yeah, at my cost. Just try not to bug me. I have too much work to do.”

* * *