At this point, she just ran into the darkness and kept running as she heard the shouting of the goblins behind her. Shunneth did not know how long she ran for, as her mind was just full of the horrors of all the stories her maid had told her of what goblins did to lone humans, but it must have been a while as by the time she fell over the goblins were no longer behind her.
Lying on the ground, she gasped for breath trying to fill up her lung, and wishing that she had a higher level and had not relied upon her stupid weapon so much. The words of her father came to into her head as he had many times told her she needs to improve herself as life was only; they're for the taking and was not given to her. At the time, it seemed her noble birthright to have everything she wanted. Getting up, she put one step in front of the other trying to get out of this nightmare.
--
By the time the magical light was starting to light, mimicking dawn in the world above, Shunneth was stumbling across the entrance to this level of the dungeon with a large stick in her hand. Through this nightmare, she had time and time again wished she had listened to her father, whose love has not been apparent at the time compared with the easy words from her mother of how great she was because of her birth.
Shunneth now knew, only that if she wanted to be stronger to face life's challenges, as this night had proven to her noble birth alone gave her nothing.
Exiting the level, she stumbled to the dungeon portal and stood before the dark watery surface.
"Use of the portal will mean you lose the challenge against the dungeon," said a cold voice from the portal, "where do you want to go?"
Not caring about the challenge anymore Shunneth said softly, "The beginning of level one."
"Enter," said the cold voice.
Shunneth appeared on the other side of the portal into the long corridor leading into level one, instead of exiting the dungeon she walked towards the door she had entered level one. When the doors opened the rats in the room, all hissed as if in welcoming. Shunneth stepped forward with her heavy stick and started to battle the low-level monster determined that his time around she would do it all by herself.
Chapter 6 Delegation from the Town Council
Ceras was sitting in the large meeting at the head of the large wooden table in uncomfortable formal clothing that Symania had forced him to wear, saying "They won't take you seriously if you don't at less look the part."
Ceras thought but didn't dare reply to the beautiful healer, who was being more and more outspoken as he got to know her, that they probably wouldn't take him seriously anyway as he was so young.
One of the orc warriors that provided security for the castle knock and the door and poked his head in with a look of menaces on his face. Ceras was glad to see his normal expression as trying to get them to smile had been a nightmare which he would not soon forget.
"Boss, ya people are here to meet ya," said the orc in grunts, "shall I let them in?"
Ceras gave him a frown, which in orc culture was an acknowledgment as if he was displeased, it was the tradition to either throw something or attack. The orc warrior moved to the side and then let about seven well dress ombudsmen for the town below into the room, Ceras noted that they tried to move a far away from the orcas possible as they slipped through the large doorway.
Except for one of the councilors of the town they were all dressed in similar clothes to Ceras, velvet jacket with a shirt with ruffles down the center. He also had leather trouser and a sword at his side as part of the costume he was told to wear by that instance woman, and he had thought that Rhef was bad. The colors he was dressed in were all very dark browns and blacks.
The one exception seemed to be the commander of the watch, and his outfit was a lot more practical, with a solid metal helmet and plate armor around his torso that had scratches and dents as it had seen a lot of use. On the opposite side of his sword, he had a large truncheon hanging from a leather belt.
Ceras indicated for all the delegation from the city to sit down beside the table that had small plates with at each place setting and a platter of food down the center of the table. Most of the food was meat and bread that was hunted or harvested in the dungeon. All of the delegations started to move food from the platter to their plate quickly as if it would disappear in seconds if they didn't eat it quickly.
"So, you wanted to see me?" said Ceras above the noise of people eating.
"Yep."
A noble looking man looked up from his plate full of food and seemed to look around to the rest of the delegation, that seemed to want him to answer the questions. Clearing his mouth of food, he said with a weak smile at Ceras.
"We had some demands," the noble said in a condescending tone of voices, "we the town council demands that you turn over of the management of the dungeon within our jurisdiction to us. We of cause are generous enough to leave you in the role as a dungeon master, but any of the decision will be made by us, for the good of the town."
"So just out of interest," said Ceras in a curious tone of voice, "why do you not want to be dungeon master?"
The watch office snorted and cleared his mouth of some of the meat that he had been eating.
"None of them want to be it, when in a few months on of the higher up noble come to challenge the dungeon!" he said in a mocking tone to the other members of the council and them looked at Ceras with a serious tone, "you're a dead warrior walking, which is actually quite a hard thing to achieve, with the goddess blessing so I must congratulate you."
"Well don't" Ceras heard somebody mutter.
Half of the councils chuckled and smiled as they ate quickly as if they were on a race to finish enough food before they were kicked out of the meeting hall.
"I'm not a..." Ceras tried to say, but Hidden-Caverns shouted in his mind, "Shut-up, keep that fact you a wizard quiet."
"See this is an opportunity for us," said a councilman that had a signet of the merchant guild on a chain around his neck, "and maybe an opportunity for you to survive the situation you found yourself embroiled in. If the dungeon is running well for the good of the kingdom, then when the high-level noble may leave all of us in charge, and you possibly get to live."
The watch officer snorted and placed his cutlery down on the table, laughing.
"You seem to think that's funny?" said Ceras as he turned and looked at the tough scared face man.
"No, you mistake me," he said with a grin, "it a great plan and in my option the only one that gives you any hope, but the term may leave you in charge is a slight exaggeration. As I think the possibility of you being left in alive is closer to zero. But don't get me wrong this is your only chances as you'll get, as you can't run or hiding."
"You'll have no confidence that I could beat one of the high-up nobles?" said Ceras in an annoyed tone at their presumption that he and the dungeon would be defeated.
That brought a round of laughed that echoed around the room as Ceras face went red with embarrassment.
"I guess that we have nothing to discuss then," said Ceras standing up and about ready to order the council out of the room.
"Wait, wait," said one of the head guild members of the adventures, "can we just finished our meal first."
Ceras was shocked that out of all the thing he expected to be said that had been to the reason for them to stay a while longer.
"What is it with you guys and the food, it seemed like you've never eaten before today with all the food you've been packing back," said Ceras in a questioning tone of voices.
The man who had asked to stay and eat went red with embarrassment as his cheeks flushed and looked down at the large plate of food, but still was eating it quickly.
"It has to do with a rumor that has been going around for several hundreds of years," said Hidden-Caverns in Ceras mind in an amused tone of voice, "food from a dungeons is rumored to give you more, how do I say it, vigor, for need of a better term, as the population around the dungeons is known to be more healthy than other cities."
"It probably more to do with the nearly guaranteed food supply than anything else and also the smaller population of a monster on the surface not disrupting food production," said Hidden-Caverns silently.
As Ceras watched the council members tucking into the food quickly as they all thought that he was about to throw them out, he smiled with an idea.
"Even though I will not give you any control over the dungeon or the city we are building up around," said Ceras in a moderate tone of voices," I would like to build a road for the townspeople to gain easy access to the dungeon. This would allow your hunters and adventures to gain more access to the material in the dungeon and make the town prosper."
"What a great idea," said Hidden-Cavern in his head, "the more experience that we can get the better we will be."
All of the council seemed to be nodding with the idea as in acceptance.
"Will if you're throwing away your only opportunity by not accepting our offer then, "the noble councilman said in an even tone of voice, "at least we'll get something out of the time you are in charge. Does that mean will have free access to the dungeon to gather as much material as possible."
"Of course, but the danger of the monster will still be present for everybody who enters the dungeon," said Ceras in an even tone.
"We'll let hope that we can make some significant money before the army arrives," whispered a merchant sitting next to the noble, "in about two months."
"I have the stuff to do," said Ceras as he excused himself from the room with the council in it.
--
Ceras was rushing to find, Cleosre, the previous guild assessor that was now building the city above the dungeon. Walking out into the bright sunlight in the courtyard of the castle, he listened to Hidden-Caverns direction to where she was working. As he exited the castle's gate, he spied a group of kobold and orcs in the distance with the large warrior women in the distance. As Ceras approached them, he could see them measuring out distances with strange wheel contraception, and them knocking pegs into the ground with a rope tied between them.
Walking across the ground that had been leveled with gravel from the dungeon to give a large platform of land for the center of the city to be built upon, the small stone crushed underfoot as he approached Cleosre. She turned around with her hand moving toward one of the ever-present axes on her bad, but relax and smiled to see Ceras.
"It's not the greatest idea to sneak up on a warrior!" she said in a serious voice, "especially when she's surrounded by so many orcs."
One of the orcs that she was working with grunted in an acknowledgment of her watchfulness and tried to smile, something that Ceras need to try and put a stop to as it was scaring the public when it exposed its mouth with missing teeth.
Ceras had heard the orcs loved working with the warrior as she spoke their language or did it, or I'll beat the crap out of you. This was shown by Cleosre issuing an order for the orc supervisor to carry on with the work, as she smacked him across the head. He turned around and started to shout orders, followed by some more hitting and kicking to his underlings with the ropes and stakes.
"You seem to be enjoying yourself," said Ceras with a slight grin as he watched the work progress, "and getting a lot don't with the orcs."
"They're very simple creatures," said Cleosre in a matter of fact voice, "once they know who's boss it all even plain sailing, except for when one of them wants to challenge, and you just have to show them again. It helps the time pass. Anyway, I'm sure that you didn't just want to talk about my social interaction with the orc. What do you want?"
Ceras moved to look at the large warrior directly in the face as he looked up slight shading his eyes from the sunlight that was behind her head.
"Just finished with a meeting with the city council," said Ceras a serious tone of voice.
"I thought I saw those reprobates entering the castle a while ago," said Cleosre with no smile on her face as if she was serious, "what did they want?"
"Control over the dungeon but to leave me dungeon master and they seem to think that the high-level noble will easily kill me when the army arrive," said Ceras with a frown.
"That seems about right," said Cleosre in a matter of fact voice that did not hold any expression," that what I think is going to happen."
"So why are you working for me if you think that it's all going to end?" said Ceras in a slightly surprised voice.
"Don't get me wrong but I'm hoping that you will survive," the warrior said with the same matter of fact tone, "but the odds are not in your favor. If the high-level noble does take over then at least, I might be left to construct the city if not, then at less I've accomplished something. The worst that can happen to me is that I die and get resurrected again."
"I see," said Ceras kicking up some of the gravel with the tip of his shoe, "while let's hope the doom and gloom that everybody is predicting is wrong.
"What I did come to talk to you about was what's the best method to gain as many levels as I can in the next two months."
The warrior now stood with her hand apart on her hips, in a stance as if she was going to lecture one of the orc underlings, Ceras wondered if he would get a hit around his head to emphasize her teaching point, but she kept her hand on her hips.
"You need several things to move fast up the level," Cleosre said in a direct tone of voices with no expression," the first and most important is raw determination to succeed, as it a very painful process that grinds the soul to powder if you allow it."
"OK, what next."
"You've got the next in good measure, as you control the dungeon, which gives you access to monsters that are several levels above you in a small area. You will need them the grind away. The higher level you can handle the faster you will gain your level. There will be a lot of dying at first if you don't get the balance right so it's good to have a healer with a mental heal spell else you may just go mad from all the deaths."
"Sound really fun."
"The dungeon will have to give you a load of the quest for the experience, which I guess he had enough experience point to give out as I've seen enough idiots enter the dungeon and not leave. Oh, and the last thing not to sleep at all as you only have limited time. Remember don't try and cheat with high-level weapons and armor as it won't work."
"That is," said Ceras in a questioning voice.
"Yep," as she turned back to instruct some of the orcs that getting carried away with using the wooden hammers to hit each other head as if it was a game.
Ceras left her as he sorted out the problem with a few well place kicks and made his way back to the dungeon.
Walking across the leveled land in the cold wind, he, did some rough calculation in his hand as he made his way to change into his armor and get his staff.
"To get from level eleven to the first level of the master level I need about six hundred points," he said to Hidden-Caverns, "that would require me earning on an average ten experience point a day."
"It not impossible," said Hidden-Caverns, "but you will also have to compete for two tasks for the journeymen and standard class. This for you will probably be more spell development, but I'm sure we can do it together. Cleosre is right; the main difficulty is the constant fighting you will have to do with monsters at ten level and above. I've got the experience point that I can dole out for quests, but you will have to earn them the hard way."
"Well, I better start," said Ceras with a determined voice as he entered the dungeon.
Chapter 7 The Grind
The fireball ripped into the monster's body, as it fell to the ground the delayed explosion of the fire blast blew the contents of its chest across the field leading to stinging of its guts hanging on the tree. Ceras didn't stop to collect the money from the monsters drop but ran into the wood in search of the one that had eluded him in the battle.
Running past a tree suddenly hairy arms came shooting
out of the darkness, trying to grab Ceras. At the last moment, he managed to avoid them and roll, bringing up his staff and placing a metal end into the stomach of the Alpha Werewolves.
Name of Monster
Level
Agility
HP
MP
Skills
Alpha Werewolves
25
10
300
-
Speed attack
In a fraction of a second, he had increased the feedback loop, that gave him the feeling of pressure within his body that was all too familiar to him, as he released the frost spell twice in quick succession into the body of the grasping monster. Watching he saw the skin turn while as the ice started to form on the body as the monster dropped to the ground now blue with cold icicle all over his body. Standing up the white light of the dungeon absorbing the monster glowed as it disappeared.
Ceras sighted and cast the sleep spell over his bodies as he had to do more and more often as he had been awake for the last three days. Laughing to himself with the thought that the only sleep he did get was when he died, which had happened a few times in the last week.
He stretched his legs to get some blood back into them from crouching down; he ran off in the direction for the next quest, shown by the magical glowing path. This help from Hidden-Caverns had been one of the most useful time-saving devices as he no longer had to hunt the monster in an area but was led straight to them with the dungeons help.
Running through the forest, he brought some food out of his bag and started to eat on the run, as he usually did. Every now and then he would get a new bag of supplies brought to him by Symania who would also check up on his health and provide some deep healing of both his physical body and mental state.
As the days had gone on Ceras pushed himself endlessly, her frowns had become a fixture on her face when every she healed his him. He was healing himself on, but it was always good to see the healer as not only did her healing magic help, but it was nice to see a friendly face. Battling angry monsters all day every day, he thought often left him feeling a bit unloved and almost hate by the vile creature for some reason.
Dungeon Battle Page 5