by Ivan Kal
Four more kobolds ran toward them from the center of the room, and the twins stood their ground to meet them.
Just before the four reached them, Vall swiped his sword and threw a wave of fire at them. Morgan started firing arrows as fast as he could at the same time. The fire blinded them momentarily, and a few of his arrows hit their marks, killing two. Lucius jumped forward and stabbed one and Ves slashed at the other. There were another six kobolds deeper in the room and, seeing their friends fall, they turned to run. Morgan immediately reached to his quiver and pulled out a special arrow.
He nocked the Binding Arrow and let it loose. He had been infusing power in it for almost two days, ever since he figured out how to do it.
The arrow stuck one of the kobolds in the lower leg and, a moment later, branches and roots exploded out of the arrow, tripping up and binding the other kobolds. Lucius and Vall ran forward and finished the now immobilized enemies.
As soon as they cleared the room, Ves turned to look at him, impressed. Morgan winked at her. “I’ve been practicing.” I did lose an arrow for that, though.
She gave him a cheeky smile and then moved to the side of the room and the fountain. She dipped the edge of her shield into the water and it flowed over her shield to cover all of it. She then pulled it out and her face adopted a mask of concentration. Then the water slowly turned to ice, and ice spikes grew to cover the entire surface of the shield.
It was now Morgan’s turn to be impressed. “That is amazing.”
“Thank you,” Ves said and looked at his eyes with a soft expression on her face.
“You two can find a room after we finish the dungeon,” Lucius said, earning a glare from Vall for it.
“Right.” Morgan coughed uncomfortably as Ves blushed and looked embarrassedly at the rest of the group.
“Let’s go,” Emily said. “I’m not planning on being here all day.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
They cleared the first level quickly; they found a few adjoining rooms and cleared them as well. Morgan just couldn’t wrap his head around how much better he was than he had been. With 20 points in agility, he felt like a superhero or something. His arrows and his aim were far better. As they cleared the rooms, they even found a few chests, but Emily told them to leave them for later, despite Morgan arguing that they might find better gear in them. The orc didn’t allow it, as said that they need to finish the test with their own gear. Morgan found this idiotic, but he didn’t argue after the rest of the group gave him the stink-eye. They really wanted to get into the Guild, so Morgan let it go.
They then moved down to the next level.
The first room on the second level was a bit different. There was still light from the ceiling, but the walls were now carved into various depictions of kobolds. The first room had only a few kobold warriors, which they dealt with easily enough. After the fight, Morgan noticed a large metal door to the side of the room. What caught his attention was that image of the woman from the entrance to the dungeon. He approached and looked a bit closer—it was incredibly detailed, so he doubted that it was made by the kobolds themselves, and he couldn’t see any way to open the doors.
“What is this?” Morgan asked.
Emily looked over to him. “Ah, that is a spawning point.”
“Huh?”
“Once we finish the dungeon and leave, those doors will open and new kobolds will enter the dungeon to repopulate it.”
“Really?” Morgan asked. He had thought that this World worked more like his own in that regard; that monsters reproduced and grew their numbers on their own. It looked like that wasn’t the case. “But where do they come from?”
Emily shrugged. “The Guiding Force sends them. No one knows from where.”
“I still don’t really understand what this Guiding Force is,” Morgan said, studying the door.
“That’s one of her depictions,” Emily said, gesturing at the woman engraved on the doors.
“Wait, the Guiding Force is like a real being?” Morgan asked, surprised.
“Of course. The Guiding Force is the Great Lord’s right hand,” Emily said.
“Huh, that’s interesting,” Morgan answered.
“Let’s move on,” Vall said.
Morgan nodded and cast one last look at the engraving of a woman with what looked like fire for hair. He jogged a bit to reach the others and they opened the doors leading into the next chamber.
They stepped out onto a large balcony which overlooked what looked like an large open area with several floors, workshops, smelters, and a ton of kobolds.
“Oh, fuck,” Morgan said. There were at least four dozen kobolds that he could see scattered down there, all over the massive chamber. The four closest to the doors on the same balcony noticed them immediately and Morgan could see that they were preparing to sound the alarm. Before they had the chance, however, Lucius swiped his sword at them and a blade of air lashed out, taking their heads.
“Holy shit,” Morgan whispered. “You couldn’t have done that before?”
Lucius then dropped to one knee, clearly exhausted. Fuck, that must’ve taken a lot out of him. Morgan had experimented enough with his alignment and magical power to know a few things. If he used an ability that depleted his energy, he would immediately feel weak, exhausted. If he used abilities that didn’t spend all of it he would could usually recover what he had spent quickly enough. The price came only if you tried to use something when you didn’t have enough energy. By now he had a sense of how much he had; it would’ve been far easier if he had a bar with numbers on it, but this world didn’t seem to have anything for health or energy—mana, or whatever you wanted to call it. A person needed to rely on feeling to judge how much one could do with it.
“You all right?” Morgan asked as he approached the man.
“I’ll…be fine…in a moment or two,” Lucius said.
Morgan moved over to the railing of the balcony and looked over, making sure to remain as hidden as possible. Ves and Vall joined him.
“A lot of open space,” Vall commented. “Once we get down we won’t be able to keep the others from noticing.” The kobolds were moving around, some working in workshops, others on the large smelters. Massive cauldrons hung in the air—filled with liquid metal, if Morgan’s guess was right. A few of the kobolds pulled on large chains and one of the cauldrons tilted, spilling the contents on what looked like molds.
Morgan shook his head. “There is no way for us to do this stealthily. The area is too open.” He glanced back at Emily, who was staying hidden near the entrance with Lucius, who seemed better.
“If we fight them all at the same time, we will get overwhelmed, and if I am not mistaken those two down there are magic users,” Ves said, pointing.
Morgan used his Inspect skill on the two kobolds in the distance.
Kobold Mage LVL 7
Morgan grimaced as Lucius joined them.
“We need a plan,” Lucius said.
No shit, Sherlock. “Are you good?” Morgan asked.
“Yes,” Lucius said tightly.
“Can you do that again?” Morgan asked.
“Sure, but I will be useless afterward,” Lucius told him.
Morgan was thinking furiously…and then a plan appeared in his mind. “Can you do a smaller one? Let’s say just enough to cut through the chains keeping those cauldrons up?”
Lucius turned his head, looking down. “Perhaps, maybe one of them. I doubt that I could do them all.”
One cauldron… It might be enough. If only I had more Binding Arrows. Morgan shook his head; it had taken him two days to make one. There was no time. “Okay, let’s try this…”
Several minutes later, they all knew the plan. Emily was standing back, just observing. She said that she wouldn’t help, but at least he had managed to convince her to guard the stairs leading down. Vall, Ves, and Lucius were in the process of walking down, as stealthily as possible. Morgan was watching from above. He had thirteen ar
rows, five which were Arrows of Decay, not that they would be of much use here. The kobolds died from regular arrows as well, and he didn’t want to waste them.
The two magic users stood deeper in the chamber, close to the smelters. They were too far away from the full cauldrons, and Morgan doubted that they would come close enough to be caught in them. Regardless, they were the priority. It would be on Ves and Vall to hold off the kobolds while Lucius attacked the targets of opportunity and Morgan fired arrows from the balcony. He would need to pick his targets very carefully; he didn’t have enough arrows for all of them.
Then, as he saw Ves and Vall get into position, Morgan pulled back his bowstring and let an arrow fly. The whooshing sound flew over most of the kobolds all the way to the other side of the room to find its target. It hit one of the kobold mages in the neck and the kobold fell to the ground. Suddenly it seemed like everything stopped, and Morgan took advantage, letting another arrow fly toward the second kobold mage.
Unfortunately the kobold mage noticed and moved out of the way. He raised his staff and fired off a ball of fire in Morgan’s direction, forcing him to duck behind cover. The fireball flew over his head and impacted the wall harmlessly. Meanwhile, every kobold down there dropped what they were doing and started running for the stairs leading up to the balcony.
Ves and Vall jumped out of the cover near the stairs and took their positions there. The closest kobolds had already reached them and had engaged. Morgan let another arrow fly, killing another kobold. He watched as a large group of them rushed through the middle of the room—at least two dozen of them. Morgan thought about it for a moment. He had hoped to get more of them, but he doubted that they would get a better chance. He took a deep breath and yelled out.
“Now, Lucius!”
On Morgan’s command, Lucius showed himself from the side of the room and swiped his sword toward one of the cauldrons. A blade of air slashed through two chains holding one side of the cauldron and it tilted, spilling its contents all over the rushing kobolds. Lucius immediately disappeared back into the shadows of the various workshops, and the kobolds burned and died. Ves and Vall finished dealing with the last of the kobolds close to them, and they stepped forward, watching the molten ore flowing over the floor. Another large group of kobolds was trapped on the other side, but the kobold mage stepped forward, raising its staff and pointing at the river of molten ore. He chanted something and what looked like a rune appeared above it, and a moment later it cooled off and hardened. The last group of kobolds immediately ran forward. Morgan picked off two of them before the kobold mage sent another fireball at him, forcing him to duck.
At least twenty kobolds were running for Ves and Vall. Morgan got up just in time to see Ves step forward and bash her shield forward at the empty air. A sound of ice cracking could be heard and the spikes on her shield exploded forward, raining on the first line of kobolds, impaling them. Next Vall swiped his sword and sent a wave of fire to the kobolds who were jumping over their fallen. Before they could recover, Morgan sent a Scatter Shot of three arrows into their group—and then Vall was there, cleaving them in half with his great sword. One kobold managed to get close to him, but Ves was there to take the attack on her shield. Morgan put an arrow in the kobold before it could attack again.
Seeing the kobold warriors losing, the kobold mage started chanting and he raised his staff up in the air. Before he managed to cast the spell, however, Lucius jumped out of the cover from one of the workshops, rolled over the ground and came out of his roll just in front of the kobold mage. He stabbed him in the chest with one of his gladiuses and took his head off with the other.
There were still kobolds alive and fighting with Ves and Vall, and Lucius ran toward their back line and started killing them before they even noticed the danger. Morgan shot another one, and the rest died on the blades of his teammates.
“Woo-hoo! That’s how it’s done! Never been easier!” Morgan cheered from the balcony.
His teammates turned to look at him, all covered in blood, soot, and breathing heavily. Morgan grinned at them from his safe spot, his clothes untouched.
Morgan made his way down, followed by Emily.
“Nice work,” Emily said as she looked around.
“We had a good plan,” Lucius admitted.
Morgan gave him a thumbs up. In the games he used to play, most of the work for a dungeon run was done beforehand. Knowing tactics, the enemies’ abilities, and their placements, a group only needed to execute the plan. They didn’t know much for this dungeon, and he realized that this was probably why Guilds were so important. Emily of course already knew the layout and the enemies inside. If they had been a part of the Guild, they would’ve gotten all of that information beforehand, and it would’ve been far easier to get through it all.
As Morgan came closer, he noticed blood on Ves’s face and he hurried to her side. “You’re hurt?” he asked, concerned.
“Just a scratch,” Ves said. “One of the kobolds was faster than I expected.”
She had a cut on her cheek—it didn’t look very deep, but Morgan knew that if she had been just a moment slower or the kobold faster, she could’ve lost her head. There was no coming back from that.
“Wait a moment,” Morgan said, pulling out a small cup that he had taken from the inn filled with a poultice he had made from the herbs he had gathered on their way to the town. It wasn’t much, but if his knowledge was right, it should help fight off an infection. He cleaned her wound and then slowly applied the paste to her cheek. Once he was finished, he noticed that everyone was staring at him. Even Ves had a strange look on her face.
“What?” Morgan asked.
They averted their eyes, and Morgan frowned. Ves leaned in and gave him a quick kiss. “Thank you.”
Strange fantasy folk, Morgan grumbled in his mind as they made their way across the room. The exit wasn’t a door; instead, it looked like a tunnel leading down to the third level. There were rails and a cart filled with ore.
“I guess that the last level is the mine?” Morgan asked.
“That’s right,” Emily answered.
They moved slowly through the tunnel going deeper into the ground. The strange cracks in the ceiling which gave off light were still present, for which Morgan was grateful. After a while they started hearing noise—or more precisely, the sounds of mining.
“All right, people, let’s try to get as many of them as we can before they notice us,” Morgan said.
“You and Lucius are the only ones that can do things quietly,” Vall added.
Morgan grimaced. He didn’t like being in front, but Vall was right. “Right, stay here. If you hear us yelling for you or the sounds of battle, rush in to save us.”
He moved to the front with Lucius and together they started heading deeper. They walked around a bend and saw five kobolds using pickaxes to mine the ore in the walls. The chamber was round, with a low ceiling and several tunnels leading from it. Morgan motioned for Lucius to move deeper into the room, and the Roman descendant nodded. As Lucius moved into position, Morgan used Inspect.
Kobold Miner LVL 5
Great, they shouldn’t be as big of a threat as the warriors.
Lucius moved from crate to crate silently, using as much of the shadows as possible to keep himself from being noticed. Morgan followed him with his eyes and then, when he saw that Lucius had reached the other side of the room, he raised his bow. After nodding at Lucius and receiving a nod in return, Morgan fired. He struck a kobold about halfway into the room. Before that one even fell to the ground, he had another ready and flying. At the same time Lucius moved from cover and skewered one of the kobolds from the behind, and then jumped through the air and slashed at another. After Morgan killed the second kobold, the last one noticed that something was wrong, but Lucius threw his gladius across the room and hit it in the chest.
Morgan walked out of the cover and looked around, not seeing anything amiss. He told Lucius to stay and wait whil
e he went back for the others.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
They cleared the mines slowly. Ves and Vall stayed with Emily in the main mining chamber while Lucius and Morgan moved through the tunnels and eliminated every kobold that they could find. The miners weren’t really equipped the same as the warriors, nor were they grouped as much. But they did get in trouble once—one of the miners had managed to scream before they killed it and suddenly every surrounding miner was rushing their position. Lucius and Morgan must’ve taken down almost twenty by themselves before Ves and Vall heard the fighting and came to their rescue. After that, it was almost easy. About two hours later they were sure that there were no more kobolds in the mines.
“So,” Morgan said once they were finished and back in the main chamber, “did we pass?”
“Almost,” Emily said. She started walking. “There is one more pack of kobolds guarding the boss chamber. Once you finish them off, we are done.”
Morgan groaned—he was feeling tired. “C’mon, isn’t this enough?”
“Rules are rules.” Emily shrugged.
Morgan grumbled some more, but they all followed after her. She led them through the tunnels until they reached a large lowered gate. Morgan looked at the iron bars; they looked incredibly thick and massive. Must weigh more than a ton for sure. Behind the bars was a wall and two passageways leading to the left and right.
“This is it,” Emily said, and she moved to the lever in the wall. She pulled it and the gate started rising. “There is another room behind that wall—both ways lead to the same one. There should be another group of kobold warriors and kobold mages there in a magic workshop. Behind it is the boss room, so don’t go past the first room.”