Watcher's Question: A LitRPG Saga (Life in Exile Book 2)

by Sean Oswald

  “What do you mean a different type of dungeon?” Dave asked with a tinge of disappointment.

  The monk explained, “The dungeon you described before is a named dungeon, so it must have been created magically and has a dungeon boss. It likely is a regenerating dungeon which can be farmed time and time again. No one knows exactly how, but it is believed that something about the magicyte in the dungeons like that keeps them going.”

  Jaselm jumped in when Daichi paused, “There are two other types of dungeons. The single clear type which are usually just some sort of ancient ruin which has been inhabited by a force of monsters, and Eloria then takes notice of it and classifies it as a dungeon. Then there is one like this. It is a naturally occurring dungeon but one which won’t respawn and won’t necessarily have a specific dungeon boss.”

  Mira’s eagerness shown through in her question, “Is there any benefit to raiding a dungeon versus just hunting for XP outside or does it matter depending on the type of dungeon?”

  “Young one, all dungeons have an increased amount of loot dropped. In the case of a magical dungeon that will likely be in the form of coins, treasures, and gear - even magical gear. In a single clear dungeon, typically it will be in the form of increased coin and treasures. With a natural dungeon it can vary dramatically, but as an example, the reason that this mine seems to have such thick veins of gold is because that is Eloria’s way of rewarding whoever can conquer the dungeon. Likewise, the nuggets of precious metals found on the ground in front of the dungeon might either be Eloria’s way of drawing people into the dungeon or be a lure set by some monster living inside the dungeon.” Daichi seemed to actually be getting into the lecturing mood. “As for why dungeons behave as they do, you would be better served speaking to a philosopher or a druid.” Then with a nod to Emily he said, “Even perhaps one who has the ear of the gods.”

  “Nothing you have said is discouraging me from wanting to clear this dungeon. Certainly not from exploring it. If it’s cleared or even just safe enough, we could send word back to Eris’ Rise and have a team come start working here.” Dave said.

  “Well there is one other thing I haven’t mentioned about dungeons.”

  All eyes turned towards Daichi as he continued ominously, “Some dungeons do not allow you to exit them once you enter unless you clear the dungeon or meet some other specified goal that you won’t discover until you have entered the dungeon.”

  Everyone looked at one another or at the ground, deep in thought. They all knew that the value of the mine would be great, and those present had not agreed to come to the Murkwood because they were afraid of danger. This was the frontier, and these were people who sought adventure. None of them besides perhaps Jaselm had been ordered to come here. All of the looking at one another to see what people were thinking, all the waiting and hand wringing was negated by a basic element of human nature. A fifteen year old no matter how much her Intelligence has increased is still an impulsive creature.

  Without more than a smile at her mother, Mira stepped into the mine and hit yes on the zone notification before she heard more than, “Don’t you dare ...” from her Emily.

  Dave kept it to himself, but was already too happy to have an excuse to step through. Moreover, after comparing notes with Mira from their prior experience, he was aware that there was a risk of there being a time dilation effect. That meant he couldn’t stand outside here for long. That was fine though, because after days of directing other people, taking definitive action himself felt good. “Protect Emily and Sara,” was all he said before stepping into the dungeon.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Now that I’ve scared you, I will let you in on a little secret. I have never felt more alive than while diving my way through a dungeon. Do it enough and the rest of life will take on a muted gray appearance.” — Memoir of Jayfen Tarzen, former Chapter Head of the Theriot Adventurers' Guild

  “What took you so long?”

  Those were the first words which greeted Dave as he zoned into Unnamed Mine 714. In the back of his mind he thought, “714?” He took in the image of Mira standing there hands on her hips, a domineering look on her face. She looked more and more like her mother every day. Confident, dynamic, and yes a bit overbearing at times. “I came after you within ten seconds of you stepping through. How long did it seem like to you?”

  “It was like ten minutes. I was starting to worry that mom was making you wait for me to come back out.”

  “Well it turns out that this would have been a bad thing, considering the notification that I got once I crossed into this zone.”

  Welcome to Unnamed Mine 714. In order to leave this dungeon you must complete the clearance quest.

  New Quest Discovered!

  Clear Unnamed Mine 714.

  Achieve the following tasks:

  1.Map 80% of the mine.

  2.Collect 10 lbs. of gold, silver, and iron ore.

  3.Collect 2 lbs. of mithril ore.

  Reward: Gain control of the mine along with the obedience of all surviving creatures within the mine.

  After double checking the notification, Dave took a step over to his daughter and was hit by a moment of dizziness before he caught himself with a hand against the wall.

  “Are you okay, dad?” Mira’s voice filled with concern.

  Feeling himself all over he said, “Um, yes … I think so.” Turning his mind inward towards his character sheet he saw what the issue was. “Ah…”

  “What is it?”

  “Even though this dungeon is within the Murkwood, it is a separate zone, and I lost the twenty-five percent bonus to each stat that I get while in my barony. It just takes a little getting used to.”

  “That makes sense. Anyway, are we going to wait for more of them to come in or do we do this on our own, daddy?”

  “Don’t think batting your eyes at me and saying ‘daddy’ is going to get you out of this. This was a very dangerous thing to do. I thought that you were proud of your Intelligence and focused on making rational decisions.” Dave did his best dad voice.

  Mira surprisingly looked contrite instead of her normal blasé reaction to being corrected. “You are right dad, I don’t actually know what came over me. I knew it was a silly decision to make, but lately I have been so fixated on gaining XP. I don’t know why ...”

  She was cut off by Dave laughing. “What are you laughing at?” And still he was laughing. “Stop it!” Mira stamped her foot like a petulant child. This of course only caused Dave to laugh harder.

  “Arrgghh no wonder mom gets so mad at you sometimes.” Mira shouted.

  That comment mellowed Dave a bit, “Okay okay, I’m sorry. You have to understand how funny this is.”

  “What? I don’t see what’s so funny.” Mira’s exasperation was starting to show.

  Inevitably, Dave’s laughter sputtered out as Mira glared at him. “Don’t you see, I spent years trying to get you interested in gaming with me, and all it took was for us to be transported to a different world.”

  Mira let out a screeching “Aaaaghh,” but soon enough her mind processed his humor and couldn’t help but agree with him. “Fine, I’m a gamer girl now. Does that mean we can start exploring the mine?”

  Dave gave Emily a small shake of his head as if to say, “We will talk about this later.”

  “So what now?” Emily asked, reluctantly taking the cue from Dave.

  “We are all stuck here until we clear the dungeon if I understand correctly. Or is there a way around that Daichi?” Dave asked.

  A low growl escaped the monk’s lips, “Children. Baron Murkwood, I had thought better of you than this. There is no way out without finishing the zone quest.”

  Dave started to argue that he had only gone in because Mira had gone in first, but the stare he got from Emily convinced him to just drop it. “Very well you are right, and I apologize for trapping all of you in here. We can discuss that later, but for now, we need to deal with what is before us. Are the rest comi
ng in?”

  “Most likely only one party will be allowed in at a time, so this is it.” Jaselm said.

  Dave looked around and saw Kraden standing behind the big paladin. Realizing that everyone was there, they began a conversation about how to proceed. They figured that the time dilation would work in their favor and was as close as they could estimate about sixty to one. Still they hadn’t packed any rations and only four water bottles between the six of them. So depending on if they could find water and or food in here, they were on a rather tight schedule. Daichi had instructed the party outside to guard the entrance while a messenger went back to inform the rest of the party about their situation. Instructions had been given to cover the possibility that this would be the type of dungeon that one could not zone out of once entering.

  The thing that none of them said was that it was certain Eisuke would only wait for a limited amount of time. Eventually, he would insist that at least those willing to listen to him continued on the hunt for the swarm. He would probably be right for doing so since the swarm had already been allowed over three weeks to start nesting and breeding again. That meant that a few hours after sunrise at least some of the others would start up that quest again. So assuming ten hours outside that would give them around twenty-five days inside. Of course that would depend upon them having enough food and water to last that long.

  In the end, it was determined that Daichi would serve as the scout, followed by Jaselm as the party’s tank, Kraden as a melee damager since he had left his crossbow back at the camp, then Mira and Emily would follow with Dave bringing up the rear. Organizing a dungeon dive was surprisingly exciting for him and even more so because he didn’t have to play the role of tank. The paladin was much better equipped for that role.

  “Should I begin collecting metal?” Kraden asked as he loosened the small hand pick he carried attached to his sword belt.

  “No ...” began both Daichi and Dave at the same time. The two men looked at each other before the monk lowered his head in a short bow. “My apologies Baron Murkwood.”

  “Look, right now we are just people in a dungeon working together. I am the leader yes, for a variety of reasons we could discuss if we had time. That doesn’t mean that we won’t be relying upon your experience. And all over you, even you Kraden, we will refer to each other by our names here. We are all depending upon one another.” Dave smiled inwardly. He really felt he was getting the knack of this motivational speech thing down. Maybe his diplomacy skill was going to come in value in more situations than he had anticipated.

  “As you wish, Baron err Dave. Truth be told, I have not been in more than a handful of dungeons, but as I’ve lived longer than most, I will from time to time perhaps have some insights to share.” The old monk managed to be both humble and condescending at the same time before continuing on, “Emiri and I can see pretty well in the dark, but once we get too deep, we will only be able to pick out heat signatures. I don’t know how much of her mother’s vision Mira has, but the three humans will be pretty much blind down below unless we can get a light source. Do any of you have a light spell?”

  Mira, Dave, and Emily all shook their heads in the negative while Kraden just shrugged his shoulders as if to say, “Who me?” Jaselm said, “I have a spell, Holy Light, but it manifests itself as either a beam projected from my holy symbol or as a very brief burst of light. It is meant to deal with evil creatures and undead. So not really a light source. Can’t we just use torches?”

  Emily spoke up, “I tried praying to Shanelle for a light spell, but got no response.”

  Jaselm’s face lit up even at that bad news, “It is not the Holy Mother’s way to do for us what we can do for ourselves. I guess that rule applies even to the Chosen.”

  “That or you have learned why we call them the forgotten gods,” Daichi’s voice was strangely impassioned.

  Mira’s curiosity got the better of her and while her Intelligence had grown, she lacked the wisdom to see that questioning such a statement was not a good idea in a group of this composition. “What do you mean by that Master Daichi?”

  The elf grinned at her attempt to use his title in a way to butter him up, but answered her question all the same, with the same impassioned bitterness from his earlier statement. “They are not the forgotten gods because we have forgotten them. Well do we remember their capricious nature. No, they are forgotten because they have forgotten us.”

  Jaselm started to speak up, but Emily placed her hand on his arm, and he had the self-control to bite his tongue for once.

  “None of that is helpful to our current situation, and apparently it isn’t only we children who can say unhelpful things.” Dave spoke slowly and firmly as he stared at the monk. Daring him to say more. The two men’s eyes met, but Daichi was ever the dutiful servant of his people and right now that meant the servant of Emiri and her husband.

  “As you wish,” the monk spoke solemnly and Dave only barely restrained himself from saying, “Thank you, Wesley.” Instead he said, “So let’s look for anything that we can use as torches.”

  It turned out to be easy to find torches, which were stacked near the entrance. There were a few sconces placed in the walls but they only went down thirty or so feet into the mine. The veins of metal from the entrance ran down the walls in varying thickness, but it was clear that at least the first part of the mine was rich in metals. By the time the rest of them had looked on, Kraden had three torches lit to be carried by himself, Jaselm, and Dave. Mira had a scroll of paper in hand and a charcoal pencil upon which she was beginning the process of mapping the mine.

  The tunnel continued at least three hundred yards forward with an obvious decline as it went deeper into the earth before it forked for the first time. Daichi scouted down both paths before coming back and informing the party that the left tunnel ended in a strange circular room cavern which went down quite a ways and was filled with a strange chittering sound. Meanwhile, the right tunnel continued down another five hundred yards before forking again. Oddly, the further down the right tunnel he went, the more ambient light there was. It was as if the very walls glowed.

  With no real good reason to go down the tunnel that hit a dead end, everyone wanted to see the glowing walls. Sure enough as they walked down the walls gave off a fluorescent glow in different shades. There were streaks of red, green, blue, and further down there seemed to be black patches amidst the colors which were darker than the stone and ore which comprised most of the walls.

  “What are all the colors from?” Mira asked first Daichi and then Kraden. When neither of them knew, she walked towards the nearest patch of glowing green wall.

  Dave jumped up next to her with torch in hand, “Stop right there. No more going places or touching things without permission.”

  “I’m not a kid anymore and if they don’t know what it is, who is more likely to figure it out than the person with the forty-eight Intelligence.” Mira didn’t speak with the same disrespect that she would have back on earth, just in a very matter of fact way.

  The effect was the same on her parents though. “You will still wait until we say it’s safe.” They said it in almost perfect unison before looking at each other and smiling.

  Turning back towards the wall, Dave held the torch out and the green light dimmed. The closer he brought the torch to the wall the more it dimmed. As he got up right next to the wall, it looked like the wall had small, fine hairs placed very closely together and covering the entire swath of the wall that had been colored green.

  He handed the torch back to Jaselm so that he could get a closer look at the wall with Mira while they both described it to the rest of the party. It seemed the further back the torches got the brighter the luminescence got from whatever was glowing on the wall.

  “So can we at least collect some samples of it?” Mira asked. The discussion ensued about how they didn’t have any test tubes for proper samples but could try to make an improvised bag with some cloth. Once they were rea
dy, Dave pulled out his belt knife to scrape away a section of the growth into the cloth in his other hand. When the knife made contact with the tiny hairs, each of the follicles seemed to swell in size and then spit forth a fine cloud of green particles.

  Daichi reacted instantly swirling his arm into his Dragon Wing technique which produced a small gust of wind and pushed the particles back against the wall protecting the rest of the party. Unfortunately, both Dave and Mira were right within that cloud of particles and couldn’t help but breathe it in. Both were coughing violently and fell to their ground.

  A notice flashed before Dave’s eyes.

  You have been poisoned with Violent Fungus Spores. Constitution save successful, spores have not taken root. Damage reduced to 10 health per tick for 30 ticks. Debuff: Dyspnea you will have great difficulty breathing for 30 ticks.

  Dave remained on his hands and knees gasping for his breath. Unable to fill his lungs, his mind told him he would survive the poison damage, if only just. He still couldn’t act rationally as he struggled to draw in more air. Even scarier was Mira who was laying on her back with her fingers clutching at her own throat as if she could somehow pull out the offending spores. Through his oxygen deprived blurred vision, Dave could see her face turning a deep red as she gasped for breath. A single thought pierced through his panicked mind. The only sort of thought that could pull a man from such a primeval fear. He struggled to lift up a hand towards Emily as he tried to croak out, “Save her.” His words though were unintelligible strangled sounds.

  Emily didn’t need his signal though. She felt her own panic as she saw her husband and daughter fall in front of her. Worse, she was being held back by Jaselm, who wouldn’t let her get close to them while the mist of green particles was still settling onto the ground. She and Dave had discussed what to do in a situation like this. It was almost a joke. They had been out jogging one morning and the subject of what to do if their house ever caught on fire came up. Both had insisted with the other one that before helping one another that they should always save the children first. She knew what she had to do and knew what Dave would want her to do, but it didn’t make it any easier.