The Crimson Warlock

by Paulo Meireles Junior

  Using 『Light』, a ball of light appeared and I positioned it a little high in front of me to illuminate the way inside the dark cave, next I used 『Arcane Shield』 and invoked 『Arcane Saber』, the effects of 『Improve』 were still active so I was basically well geared to venture the dungeon.

  The only monsters I encountered and killed on the first floor of the cave were Thunderwolves, which according to Mega were classified as a bronze to silver rank, the problem were the amount of monsters, I found three groups of five Thunderwolves together and while they were easy for me to kill, another adventurer would have a hard time doing it if he or she didn’t have a backup plan or didn’t came in a group.

  After more than forty minutes trying to find the exit to the next floor and failing miserably, I disarmed a few traps and Mega had the best idea ever. I felt like an idiot for not thinking about it though… It appears that my map could in fact keep up with the layout of the dungeon, displaying the directional guides and auto-adjusting when the layout changed meant that I easily found the exit to the second floor. This one had a variety of monsters stacked together in various locations, from giant rats to Kobolds and Goblins which were the most treacherous of them according to the information that we had, they were ugly, green and angry, I resulted to using 『Firestorm』 and blowing every monster to pieces before they could ever try to flank me. While I focused on the way and clearing monsters, Mega’s job was to find and trigger traps from a distance so they wouldn’t affect me and step by step we found our way to the third floor.

  My surprise came when we stepped on the third floor, not only the dungeon layout changed to one of a forest instead of a cave, the forest had a really high ceiling and trees whose leaves blocked the majority of my view of the ceiling, there was also indeed a safe room in the dungeon. Mega informed me that indeed that place had a protective barrier around it that made so monsters wouldn’t come near the safe area. High vine walls changed the paths around the dense forest, giant Killer-bees and Thornwolves were the most common monsters in the beginning of the floor; the Killer-bees were the most dangerous monsters that I encountered in this dungeon so far because of their paralyzing wave, if I hadn’t a 『Arcane Shield』 active I would be in big trouble trying to tip-toe around the bees, I couldn’t use fire magic because I was afraid to repeat the catastrophic forest fire cause by me recently, we had to stop the forest fire by invoking a 『Heavenly Rain』 in the forest, I had to cover the affected area with conjured dirt to make up for the crater that was created with an explosion, not a fond memory.

  After looking around the place I felt something strange. It was a kind of energy that seemed familiar to me but I couldn’t fully recognize so I followed it and after a few minutes of circumventing the forest dungeon, I found a dead ginger dwarf and a figure in white looking at the dwarf that had a bluish skin and a few cuts, the skin color probably indicated that he died due to some kind of poison. After a few moments the white figure looked at me and smiled, his blonde spiked hair flowing with the magical wind inside the cave.

  “Hello there James Hunter, I had a feeling I would see you here. It’s good to meet you too Omega, may I call you Mega?” he said, his voice was clear and powerful and that gave me an idea of what he was.

  “Hello there” I said approaching with caution.

  “You can be at ease. I mean you no harm, hero” he chuckled.

  “Are you?..” I started to ask when Mega interrupted me.

  “He is the god of promises” he said showing his light body “it’s good to meet you too, you can call me Mega”.

  “Good, now please, I’m hungry, let’s eat something, we can talk in the meantime” the god suggested, I merely nodded.

  After a few moments of looking around near the place we were, I found a good spot to start a fire so I collected materials and some moments later we had a small fire. I passed food to the god, making some coffee for us in the process.

  “That dwarf over there was accustomed to dungeons since their race really likes underground places. He promised his beloved to come back safe after striking this dungeon. Of course, being the god of promises I was interested in his promise and when I saw where he was going I knew that ultimately he would fail his promise. Some people don’t know the magnitude of a promise, the power and hope that it can carry, because of that I rarely bless them and yet here I am looking at mortals and hoping that they make significant promises that they can in fact keep” he sighed before eating the bread before continuing “When I learned that our mentor would summon a hero to hopefully correct the wrongs of one of our brethren I was skeptical at first, but I’ve been watching your journey and your loyalty to your past job has made you a very good hero candidate. ‘To serve and protect’, that speech to the King was very unselfish so let me give you a tip: don’t make promises that you can’t fulfill and we will be in good terms” he smiled and I nodded.

  “When you say you are the god of promises, can you tell me how that works? How far does your influence reach? I’m curious” I asked, I don’t get the godly title.

  “It all starts when you make a promise, light or not. The ones that come from the heart are always the best ones for me, I find mortals fascinating so I end up following their journey on occasion. I might be the god of promises but I can make people’s lives hell if they don’t take their promises seriously. Like a guy that once promised his wife not to cheat on her and with two weeks into that promise he slept with three other women, one of which, the husband ‘conveniently’ caught her in bed with said guy and because of his promise he died of a gunshot wound” Woah, that is a bit too much… I think my surprise was written on my face because he complemented “Yeah, sometimes gods can be jerks, I didn’t pull the trigger but I facilitated for the woman’s husband to find them in bed because he didn’t take his promise seriously”.

  “I’ll remind myself to not get on a god’s bad side then” I said and he visibly laughed.

  “You’re fine, truth be told, a god has probably already tested you somehow after your arrival in this world and the fact that you’re still alive and have people’s respect is proof that you are doing good. The road might be rocky and you might be powerful but that doesn’t mean that you are invincible, but I think you’re a worthy hero”.

  “Thanks, I guess” I said uncomfortably.

  “Now, tell me, what do you know of this dungeon so far?” I was kind of glad that he changed the subject.

  “According to the guild it has been mutated somehow but I can’t feel that. Nor can I make heads or tails of the monsters we encountered here. That safe room was actually a safe room, which the guild says shouldn’t exist in sentient dungeons. I can’t tell if this one was altered or if this is a natural progression”. Mega commented.

  “This dungeon is not the same dungeon that the guild has information on, that dungeon is somewhere in the desert of Alfhram right now. This one was created using magic thousands of years ago in an attempt to study and simulate sentient dungeons, the civilization that created it no longer exists. You will find proof of that on the last floor. This dungeon has been dormant for centuries or perhaps thousands of years, but it has been woken with the recent surge of mana released in the air around Heryan, partly because of that dark aura shifting mana around the kingdom”.

  “Okay, that answers the guild’s questions then. I suppose I’ll have to keep going down the floors and close this dungeon for now”.

  “That would be a good idea, a few adventurers have died here, their bodies were eaten and since your guild doesn’t have any information on this dungeon, you’re helping them prevent deaths by clearing this place out” said the god nodding to himself.

  We ate in silence, I packed some silver wolf meat which was kind of expensive, although its price was justified since it made for some great grilled steak. Judging by the god’s expression he also was enjoying his meal very much.

  “Do you mind if I accompany you until you clear this dungeon? I’m not in a hurry” s
aid the god.

  “Sure, the more, the merrier” I commented.

  And so I popped the map to show the location to the next exit and we made our way around the forest trying to avoid monsters, I still had to kill a few Killer-bees using an ice reflective barrier that sends an ice spike towards the target if a ranged attack connects with my barrier, in case of a physical attack though, the barrier straight up freezes the target provided that the enemy doesn’t have a high magic resistance.

  The fourth floor was the most difficult to navigate because it didn’t have an apparent exit, which frustrated me for a while until we stopped for a bit.

  “This floor looks like a maze and has no visible exit” I commented.

  “Since the map shows that there’s five floors we are obviously missing something” Mega responded.

  “Hmm, perhaps… Maybe we either need to clear this place or find some sort of key somewhere around this floor” the god suggested.

  “Okay, let’s see” I thought about how to approach the problem for a moment “alright”.

  I enlarged the map in front of us and tried to search for monsters present on this floor, the search returned thirty-two monsters. There were seventeen Killer-bees, nine Thornwolves and six Ogres. The Ogres were the biggest problem since they had high elemental resistance, which meant that I would need to melee them with an 『Arcane Saber』 since the saber functions like a non-elemental weapon.

  My barrier took care of the Killer-bees in a few seconds each time when we eventually found them, the Thornwolves were a little faster and I resorted to using the saber to take care of them. The Ogres were all isolated, according to Mega they often tried to kill other Ogres, so that worked for me since I wasn’t expecting help from a god, it was easier for me to kill the Ogres one at a time.

  When I found the first Ogre, I almost hesitated which would be bad if I didn’t have the upper hand and wasn’t far from the creature. The Ogre was thirteen feet tall, greenish and smelled like rotten meat, he had a club as big as himself, when I approach and he looked at me, I anticipated the swing as he roared. I used the club that he smashed on the ground to climb up his arm and instantly decapitate him. They were loud but I was faster, so cleaning up the rest of the Ogres only took me as long as I needed to find them.

  With the last Ogre dead the forest floor started to tremble before my map changed, now showing a new section with an exit, which confirmed the god’s suspicion that I only needed to clear this floor. That was nice and all but if someone like the dwarf from before came here alone without a return scroll or a transportation spell, they would likely die. I was expected to kill all of the monsters on the fourth floor to proceed, for me that wasn’t really a challenge but for a party of bronze or silver adventurers that would be impossible, even gold adventurers would have a hard time clearing out the place.

  The entrance of the fifth floor was just a corridor leading to a round arena which probably had a boss waiting for me inside, so I walked forward with purpose while recasting protection spells on myself.

  Eventually I arrived in the round area which still had a few massive trees, but I also sensed a powerful presence hiding somewhere and not wasting time I went forward to the middle of the arena and tried looking around for the creature I would inevitably have to kill.

  The search took me almost a minute that after not finding anything I turned around, it was then that I felt the presence rapidly approach me, my first reaction was to try to teleport a few feet in front of me and the spell didn’t work. That froze me for a few moments leaving me vulnerable, the shadowy figure took a chance and almost hit my 『Arcane Shield』 as I dodged with 『Improve』 at the last second.

  This floor probably had a barrier that prevented transportation spells from working, that was a valuable lesson for me, not always rely on my 『Teleport』. The creature turned around as I gained distance to look at it, it was a King Ape, a twenty feet tall white King Ape, its fur was as white as snow and that was very good because it contrasted nicely with the trees around me.

  So the fight started as the King Ape kicked and punched the air and ground as I ran laps around the creature looking for openings to attack, which was difficult due to the lack of space. The monster had a strong brute force as it punched tree trunks clean off of trees I jumped on. I still didn’t want to use fire spells, so I used the King Ape to clear a battlefield often aiding it, using 『Aerial Slash』 since I could use the space to fight.

  When I had enough space to dodge its attacks and look for openings, I examined the creature looking for its strongest points and weaknesses and after a few minutes, I found out that after a punch on the ground the King Ape’s back would be vulnerable for a few moments and all I had to do was create more openings so I did that, I waited for the next ground pound and dodged behind him using 『Earthquake』 to throw the creature off balance, I maintained the spell to prevent the monster from getting up and I jumped high to concentrate a big amount of mana in my 『Aerial Slash』 that mutilated the King Ape in seconds, cutting limbs clean off and re-cutting them just for safety.

  It only took the sentient dungeon a few moments to understand that its guardian was dead and as I safely stepped on the ground, all the trees and the King Ape disappeared leaving the room empty for only a moment as a circle of light appeared on the ground in front of me. I was about to mention something when a bag appeared at my feet, looking inside I found a few chunks of orichalcum which were a nice reward for such a troublesome adventure. There was also a big parchment with text written in a language that I couldn’t understand.

  “Well, that was a great performance, I suspect that the circle will take you to the entrance of the dungeon” the god commented while approaching me and after he was close, he took a peek at the bag “pure orichalcum, hmm, a good reward. I wasn’t expecting anything but that parchment, that should tell you the purpose of this dungeon, you should give that to your contact at the guild”.

  “To be honest I wasn’t expecting anything either, but these chunks should sell for a couple of platinum coins hopefully” Mega commented “unless you want to use them”.

  “Nah, I will eventually need some sort of blade but I don’t need it now” I responded “I’ll pass the parchment to Yuna and hopefully they can translate it”.

  “This was a good adventure, I look forward to seeing what you accomplish in the future James, for now, it was nice meeting you two” the god smiled.

  “Good to meet you too” I responded with a slight bow. Mega stayed silent.

  “And remember, don’t make light promises and we will be fine” he said before disappearing.

  “I think I reached the limit for adventures today” I commented.

  “Yeah, let’s go home” Mega responded.

  I then secured the bag and stepped in the circle of light that immediately blinded me for a few seconds as I only saw light until I could eventually make the shape of the scout camp in front of me. As my vision restored I looked at the entrance of the dungeon that now trembled and started to slowly sink in the ground, after a few moments it completely disappeared.

  The scouts recovered after a few moments of surprise and congratulated me on clearing the dungeon, they also suggested that I take a few moments to rest and since I could teleport, they wouldn’t mind if I reported my findings to Yuna, that way she could pass the information to the other guilds and I could drop by Bloom City to get my reward later.

  I woke up at nine in the morning and started writing my report for Yuna. Since I was used to writing reports for the cases I worked on Earth, it was very easy to detail events and separate the facts clearly in a way that would make the report actually useful for someone to read.

  First I detailed my experience on the first floor, I mentioned the types of monsters there, my encounters, the level of lighting, the amount of monsters, the size of the space I had to maneuver around, how long it took me to find the exit and if I found any treasures there.

  This type of writing w
ent on for a few more rolls of parchment detailing my experiences on every floor, excluding my encounter with a god, of course. In the end, I described my battle with the King Ape and noted a few things after the report. I wrote about the parchment that I found and how I didn’t think that this dungeon was one that was previously discovered, I couldn’t reasonably mention the fact that a god gave me that information so I compared the dungeon to others that had been discovered and pointed the differences. I had mostly Mega to thank for that since he told me right away what to differentiate. Turns out that having an Omega that can scan thousands of documents, store and search information at the speed of a computer is very useful.

  I opened the parchment in front of Mega so he could scan and mention if I let something important out of the report, after a few corrections and the okay from him we went downstairs so I could eat lunch and then directly to the guild we went.

  Arriving at the guild was basically the same nowadays, particularly given the fact that people usually knew my reputation by now, some nodded in my direction while others just stared, the clerks were always happy judging by their smiles when I arrived. Over the past few weeks I’ve been talking with Yuna and Lorelai for quite a bit and while Lorelai and I had a past together that we easily resumed, Yuna on the other hand offered refreshing conversations, she had a good sense of humor, a friendship with her was a safe choice, she was not only bright and intelligent but also, apart from the royals in Sunnara, she was the best person to help with networking, given the fact that she had all the info on the guild readily available.

  Luke nodded to me, giving me a compliment and told me to go ahead to Yuna’s office, so I thanked him and made my way there, as typical of Yuna, her office was a mess so the first thing I did was shake my head while she scowled at me.

  “So, how was it?” she asked after greeting me.

  “I wrote an extensive report about everything I found there and I don’t think that the dungeon I explored yesterday was one you guys cataloged before” I said giving her my report “particularly because of this” I showed her the parchment I found in the dungeon after defeating the King Ape.