by Matthew Peed
“Ah.” Everyone laughed and proceeded into the room.
Even in my trance, I found this group displeasing. I knew the world had changed, but had human decency fallen so far? The tune of the music changed with my displeasure, and the tiles in the first room started to flicker. The party was already well inside.
“What’s going on?” the leader shouted at the scout.
“How the hell should I know?” he shouted back.
One of the tiles turned pink just as what looked like an archer stepped on it. A spike of rebar that I’d pulled from the train shot up and through the man’s leg. With his scream the room settled down and went back to normal.
A man dressed in white was about to rush to him when the scout held up his hand. He tested the path over to the injured man, and the man in white hurried behind him. It only took five or so seconds for them to get to the injured man, but the entire time he was screaming bloody murder.
“Hold still!” The scout swung his dagger, and the rebar was cleanly sliced. That had to be one nice knife for it to cut through steel so easily. He handed the impaled man a piece of cloth to bite down on and pulled the rusted iron the rest of the way out. The man in white placed his hand over the wound and healed it.
“This place is just getting more interesting by the second,” said the armored man.
“Hold on,” said a woman with the most modern outfit I’d seen so far. She did use a staff though, and waved it while saying something that sounded like gibberish. All around the party, stones started to rain down. Traps started firing left and right: rebar spikes, the needle pressure plates, a few axes from the ceiling, and arrows that fired from one wall to the other. The arrow trap actually managed to score a hit on the man who had already been impaled once. To make it even worse, it was his other leg this time.
After the man was fixed up, the leader turned to the party. “Left, right, or up?”
“Let’s head left. That’s technically farther down. Maybe the boss will be in that direction?” said the armored man. Everyone else just nodded. I was starting to wonder if anyone else could talk.
The scout led the way, but there weren’t any more traps until they got to an actual room. There were paintings and decorations on the walls. One party member tried to take one, only for it to fade to Aether. Apparently, that was just how the magic worked.
They opened the door to one of the rooms. “Now that’s cute!” the woman who’d used the stone spell squealed when she saw a group of penguin soldiers. The other women, even the leader, appeared to swoon over the penguins—that was, until the birds pulled out their swords.
It was seven humans versus the ten penguin soldiers. Almost by a will of its own, the music changed again. It took a high tempo as if it were tailored to a fight.
The penguin soldiers rushed at the party as the door slammed shut behind them. Starburst made me make that a standard thing for most rooms. This battle didn’t go like the first one. They were much more organized and in control. They backed up against the wall with the armored guy taking the front and another man with a large shield standing next to him.
The four people in the back readied themselves, and three of them started chanting as the man who had been impaled twice readied arrows. He looked quite ready to launch them from his expression. Though, I guessed being wounded twice usually would cause someone to have a bad day.
There also appeared to be a level difference. The three mages sent their spells flying and turned my poor penguins into a skewers or kebobs. The defense of the party was also solid, and my penguins weren’t able to do anything against them. I had to watch as the poor penguins were reduced to stuffing.
After it was over, I thought the second defense guy was the only one to get hurt, and even then, it was only a scratch. While I was happy no one died, I was still upset that my penguins were torn apart. It was ironic that I couldn’t decide how I should feel about the situation. Maybe Starburst was right, and I would meet my end sooner rather than later.
That was how all of Stella’s rooms went. The last room of the left wing was hers. She sat in a chair with a fan covering her face as the party entered the room. She had a band of penguins in front of her. Twenty total in fact. While the assembly tried to give off an aura of deadliness, the word “cute” was the real winner in the description.
“Peasants, bow before me and I’ll let you live,” Stella said, closing the fan in her hand with a loud snap.
“These kinds of dolls always freak me out,” said the second shield wielder. The armored man next to him nodded.
Stella clearly heard him and frowned in annoyance. “Go, my soldiers. Kill them!” She waved her fan, and the penguins glowed for a moment before they all appeared to grow stronger and slightly taller. Their swords started to glimmer as if in the light from the chandelier in the room.
To increase the tension, whether on purpose or not, I still wasn’t sure, the melody coming from my own hands took a dark turn. I played a haunting tune that would have sent shivers down my spine when I was a human. It sounded so beautiful to me now.
“Damn thing is throwing something new at us,” the leader shouted.
The mages in the back chanted their magics as the archer launched arrows into the charging penguins. The arrows struck the penguins but actually did no damage with them being made out of plush. The projectiles would generally just go right through the penguin. The hit penguins did look annoyed to have a hole torn through them.
The two defenders rushed forward and made to block the coming penguins. The first five slammed into the two shields and managed to push them back several inches. The penguins’ swords cut into the metal shields. Given long enough, they might be able to break them.
The mages finished their chanting, and three spells flew into the group of penguins. One froze in place, while two caught fire. Stella ordered her penguins to disperse before more could ignite. She then pointed her fan toward the party. The fan glowed purple, then it appeared as if nothing happened.
“Fight for me, little puppet,” Stella called with a warm voice.
The party was waist deep in penguins when the scout started to laugh maniacally and sank his daggers into the backs of both defenders. He immediately snapped out of it, the spell lasting less than five seconds. He was just too skilled for his own good and was soon mobbed by penguins as the defenders lost their ground. Three swords sank into his chest and stomach.
The party didn’t even have time to react to the sudden change of events. It basically turned into a bloodbath. Two powerful feelings waged war inside me. The desire for them to all die, and the desire for it to stop. If my hands weren’t glued to the violin, I was sure I’d be gripping my head in distress.
“My mistress wants me to stop, so I will stop,” Stella said suddenly.
Her penguins backed away from the party. Only two of them survived: the leader, who managed to create some sort of barrier around her; and the man in armor, though he was probably going to bleed out if he wasn’t helped soon.
The door opened behind the party, and the leader fled without even helping the armored man. I watched her go and couldn’t decide how I felt about her abandoning her party member. Was that normal for divers? I had to ask myself again if humanity had truly fallen so far?
I watched the man bleed for a few moments before I turned my attention to the fleeing woman. She had already reached the entry hall. I don’t know if she forgot or was too panicked, but she stepped fully on a trap tile, causing an ax to fall from the ceiling. It sliced her in half and launched her across the room to splatter against the wall. Her barrier must have expired.
I thought it was going to be a full wipe for the party when I saw the armored man manage to pull something from his belt. He drank a yellowish-green concoction and remained lying in the middle of the hall, breathing heavily for several minutes.
A good hour later, he limped out of the dungeon. After that no one else came in for the night. My ethereal body throbbed with en
ergy from the deaths. I took several deep breaths to try to calm the feeling down.
Hoping there wouldn’t be any more people for the night, I threw my hand into the air in a mock cheer. Thankfully, my dungeon absorbed the people after a few minutes passed.
“Time to talk to Lance!”
Chapter 16: Interview with a Dungeon
Lance Teron
The first thing I did after I was shown to the room was pass out. I found that nearly ten hours had passed when I checked my phone after I woke up. I had to give the little thing some credit. It had lasted over a week. Though, I’d had it turned off while in the goblin dungeon.
I stretched and cracked my neck as I sat up. I hadn’t made it to the bed last night, so I’d ended up passed out on the floor. Looking down at myself, I decided that was for the best. I was covered in enough filth to qualify to be sent to a dump. My clothes had turned black from all the blood that had been sprayed on them.
I held my hand out and pulled a bottle of water from my Storage. I only had a few left, but I should be able to resupply soon. It’d been a ghost town when I was making my way here yesterday. I’d barely managed to sneak in as the government vehicles pulled in after a wave of energy erupted from Azaria’s dungeon.
At least I hadn’t seen any of Kyle’s goons around looking for me. Not that I would have known they worked for him. I needed to figure out what to do next. I would have to decide that based on my talks with the dungeon here. She seemed . . . interesting, unlike any other core I’d ever heard about.
Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t checked my status since before I’d killed the dungeon boss. I tilted my head. Why had that slipped my mind? I brought it up with a thought.
Lance Teron
Age: 20
Level: 16
Race: Human
Type: Harvester
Aether: 1160/1160
Skills: Harvest
Harvests: Scale of the Corrupted Lizard – 50% Poison Resistance
Goblin’s Soul: Malice, Dark Vision, Concentrated Breathing, Dominate, Black, Heart’s Armor, Poison Breath, Natural Weapon, Eat Anything, Durable, Keen Hearing, Gluttony
Human’s Heart – Chaos
Human’s Lung – Fortitude
Human’s Brain (x2)
Fire
Water
Tunnel Rat Tendon – Scurry (+2)
Lower Mimic Storage Sac – Storage
Achievements: Trading With Chaos – You achieved something few could claim. While it might appear to be dumb luck, even luck has a place in the universe. Aether gain +1 per hour.
Solo Hunter – You defeated a dungeon on your own. Very few can claim the same. Great achievements deserve great rewards. Aether +1000
I had to study my status for a while to make sure I didn’t miss anything. So much had changed. The fact that I’d gained two levels from just the boss surprised me. Then I remembered all the goblin females I’d put to rest. Assuming those counted as monsters, that was where the extra experience was coming from.
Then there was the thing that I knew I’d find there but was still dreading seeing. The human parts in my status would also be a black mark, showing what I’d done. I could logically understand that it was self-defense, but I could have done something to convince them that I wasn’t a monster.
I decided to come back to that, probably with a counselor, later. Looking at it pragmatically, I hoped that the benefits would be worth the cost. I studied Human’s Brain for a few moments but couldn’t really figure out what it was supposed to give me.
I held my hand out and pointed at the wall. “Fire?” A fireball . . . did not appear. In fact, nothing happened. “A chant then,” I said with a sigh. That would be annoying, but there were times in the goblin dungeon that a long-distance attack to open the fight would have been helpful.
I filed this away for later. There were a few mage sites on the internet. I would have to check the free sites later. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a signal this far into the dungeon.
Next was the fact that all my goblin harvests had been condensed down into a single heading of Goblin’s Soul. I could certainly feel my connection and control over them was a bit more solid than back in the goblin dungeon. I looked at my hand that was still held out in front of me. The claws were still there.
“Do I have to collect another soul to increase the stats?” I muttered, dropping my hand to the ground.
Plus, how did this work for the dungeons that had multiple types of monsters. It could be that the boss was originally powerful enough to warrant a soul gem, and I might find others in large dungeons. Something to study later when I challenged another dungeon.
My thoughts were interrupted when my Keen Hearing picked something up through the wall.
“Girl! You can’t let humans leave your dungeon! If they learn all your secrets, then they’ll easily conquer you! Do you want to turn into a slave for the humans!?”
The voice sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it at first.
The same voice reached my ears. “Yes. Yes. I know you don’t want to kill anyone, but . . .”
I snapped my fingers as it came back to me. It was the strange unicorn that had talked to me when I first came here. He seemed to be talking to himself, as I didn’t hear anyone reply.
“Do what you want! Don’t blame me when all your Aether is pulled from you, and you’re left a husk!” the voice shouted as it got farther away.
I listened for a moment but didn’t hear anything else. A head suddenly appeared halfway up the wall just like a ghost would in the movies. A ghostly version of Azaria fully emerged from the wall and floated in the air above me.
“Oh, I can see you,” I said as she looked at me.
“Really? I wonder why?” Azaria said with her arms crossed and a hand on her cheek.
“I can hear you as well.”
“Well that makes this a lot easier. I was wondering how I was going to talk to you without Starburst. The grumpy unicorn just stormed off.”
I chuckled at the pout she wore while looking in what appeared to be a random direction. “I did hear a one-sided conversation that followed those lines.”
“Forget the old god. I want to hear about the outside!”
I had to suck in a breath to stop myself from asking about the first comment. I could tell she was slightly naïve, but if I brought that to her attention, I might not leave this dungeon as easily as I hoped to.
“What exactly do you want to know?”
She was asking about the outside, but that covered quite a lot of information. While I wasn’t exactly on good terms with my own race, I didn’t want to bring about a genocide if I let something slip that allowed monsters to pour out of this dungeon.
“What happened a year ago?” Azaria asked, getting right in my face.
“The Aether Shift?” I asked and got a nod. I looked her over, then explained the current state of the world, or at least that which I knew.
Satellites still allowed the transmission of information across the world, but certain areas had become black zones that humans had little or no access to. We were putting up a good fight in the larger population areas, but it was a fact that Earth would never be the same.
“Sounds like a lot has changed,” Azaria said. She was currently sitting upside down on the ceiling.
“Changed? Were you here before the Shift?”
Azaria looked like she was about to say something, then shook her head. “It’s complicated.”
“Fair enough,” I said, deciding not to pry any further.
“I had two parties get defeated in my dungeon. Is that common?” she asked.
“During the beginning days of the Shift, that would have been a good day. We have procedures in place now so the death toll doesn’t get too high in one day.”
“So, I shouldn’t expect anyone during the night?”
“Likely not for a while. Some of the less popular dungeons don’t have a government agent who is completely legit
, so people might sneak or bribe their way in.”
“Why not go during the day?”
“There is a maximum party count for the dungeon, maximum dungeon dive amount for the individual, and standing death count for the dungeon. These factors will determine how long a dungeon entrance is allowed.”
“Sounds annoying,” Azaria said with a pout.
“I admit, it is,” I replied and laughed.
We discussed a few more things before we got to the topic of how I ended up in my predicament. It actually helped to talk about it with her. Not that anything would be solved.
Azaria suddenly flew down and was only an inch or two from my face. “I have a proposal for you,” she said with a mischievous grin.
“What?”
“I want you to lure bad people in here. The grumpy old man wants me to kill people. I don’t want to kill without reason, self-defense excluded. This feels like a good comprise, given the state of the world.”
“That’s easier said than done. Who would want to go with a guy whose party always ends up dead?”
“That’s why we don’t always kill them. Lead a party of decent people, and if they pass the regular challenges, then they are left alone.”
I thought about her proposal for a long minute. I wasn’t sure how I felt about being a hired hitman. I could see a lot of things that could go wrong. For one, I would need to create a new identity for myself. That was easier said than done nowadays.
“Am I protected during this setup?” I asked.
Azaria suddenly gained a large grin. I wasn’t sure she was even aware she was making it. “Of course not. You fail, you fail. I can’t be unfair.”
“I don’t think that’s how deals work,” I said, shaking my head.
She shook her head. “I literally can’t be unfair,” she said with a sigh.
Chapter 17: You’re a What!?
Azaria
“Then no. I don’t particularly want to die anytime soon,” Lance said, shaking his head at me.
I wanted to give him a good deal, something along the lines of at least protecting his life, but I physically couldn’t utter the words. I found it more frustrating than anything I’d dealt with so far. Plus, I was losing out on making Starburst leave me alone by having Lance lure only evil or nasty people down in the dungeon.