Dungeon Calamity

by Dakota Krout

  “Looks like we are going in whether we like it or not. Everyone feel up to officially starting the day early?” Dale looked around at his friends, doing his best to clean the drying blood off his face.

  “For sure, but let’s pop down to the second floor to begin with. The first level is going to be packed. Bleh.” Hans shuddered at the thought of a constricting press of people. “Sweaty.”

  They walked into the dungeon, using their keygems to activate the portal system. With a single step, they were on the second floor. Dale went first, ready for combat. His preparedness was directly beneficial to the group. A Smasher–a stone covered Basher–was jumping toward the open portal in an attempted ambush. Dale lightly dodged the assault, using his battle gauntlets to ‘soft block’. This meant that he didn’t directly block the entire attack, but instead angled himself–and pushed–so that the attack passed him while his actions deflected the soaring bunny into the wall. Trying to block a charge from these overgrown creatures had been the cause of many shattered shields over the last few months, and Dale didn’t care for yet another broken bone.

  He swiftly moved after the downed Mob, crushing its skull with a heavy stomp. “What a nice way to wake up in the morning.” He stretched, chuckling as an Impaler appeared out of a hidden hole in the wall. The infernally-enhanced Basher had flesh-peeling flames covering its jutting horn, so Dale made sure to avoid the sharp bone as he counterattacked. His fist impacted the side of the altered rabbit, and he activated his gauntlet as the blow struck home.

  *Splat*. The entrails and viscera of the animal were blasted out of its body as the fluid repulsion Rune on Dale’s knuckles activated. He picked up the corpse as the remainder of his team walked through the portal. “Basher jerky, anyone?” Dale offered the exsanguinated rabbit around with a smile.

  Only Tom actually considered it. “Hmm. Perhaps after the fur has been removed...?”

  “Don’t listen to him, Tom. He is just showing off.” Rose grumbled, pulling back the string of her force-enhanced bow. “Must be nice to have permanently activated magical weapons on you all the time. Isn’t that right, Dale?”

  “Hey, now! Must be nice to use the bathroom without worrying that you are going to blast something back into you, isn’t that right, Rose?” Dale rebutted too loudly. He froze in place. “Not at all based off of actual life experiences, of course.” He grimaced sourly, realizing he had shared way too much.

  “Sinking your ship to put out a fire! While I would love to hear the origin of this story…” Hans released an uncharacteristically high-pitched giggle, “it does appear that we are going to have to fight. Looks like we walked into a territory war.” He gestured ahead of them, where a Coiled Cat was springing back and forth among a group of Bashers that were larger than usual, even for advanced Bashers like the ones Dale had just defeated.

  They watched for a moment, as the infighting raged on. Rose was the first to notice the oddity. “Shouldn’t… shouldn’t this be over by now?”

  “The Essence patterns in those Bashers are flowing in a different pattern than usual. More highly concentrated Essence is swirling around their skulls, so I would have to assume that they are more intelligent than usual.” Adam spoke in a melodious baritone. His body had been subtly undergoing changes since the battle of the infected, dubbed ‘The Wailing War’ due to the constant crying and howling of the afflicted. His voice was becoming smoother and other small characteristics were becoming noticeable. His skin was perfectly clear, all signs of scarring vanished, and his hair was slowly turning a silvery-blond. With his pure-white cloak and staff, he looked like a Bishop.

  “More intelligent?” Hans pondered this revelation for a bare moment. “Gah! They must have started developing Beast Cores! Let’s go kill ‘em all and find those Cores!”

  “Or we could just enjoy the show?” Rose quirked an eyebrow at Hans’ exuberance.

  “No, cause if we win, we can claim this territory as ours!” Hans started moving toward the Mobs. Actually, if they had Cores now, they would all be considered Beasts. Weak Beasts, but Beasts nonetheless. Hans smiled, now seeing the creatures as walking gold coins.

  “I do not think that Mobs would honor an agreement of that nature,” Tom responded with confusion evident in his voice.

  “He’s trying to distract us so he can force us to start fighting,” Adam clarified for his large friend, readying his staff.

  Hans charged into the fray, laughing as he dodged droplets of blood spraying from his instantly impaled target. The Bashers squeaked indignantly, and a few turned to charge him. The Coiled Cat took advantage of the distraction and pounced onto a Basher, crushing it under his weight. The Cat’s claws lashed out, tearing a chunk of flesh–and the Bashers horn–out of its skull. With a *crunch* the Cat bit into the horn, and a flash of Essence entered its body. It shuddered as the muscles along its back rippled with fresh power.

  “Argh!” Hans shouted in horror, “He just ate a Core! He ate it! Dale! Tom! Get in here! It’s eating our profit!”

  Dale complied, charging the Cat while it was distracted. He was able to land a solid blow, but the knuckles of his battle gauntlet glanced off of the metal-reinforced skull of the Beast. There was a bit of an effect from the liquid repulsion Rune, but Dale was used to being able to do serious damage with each attack and failed to use the provided opportunity to follow up with more punches. The Cat shook itself and sprang forward, ramming into Dale with its massive head. Luckily for Dale, there was little momentum to the blow as there were only a few inches between them. His luck was wearing out quickly though as the Cat opened his jaws to take a chunk out of the human it was standing over.

  As the metallic jaws came down, teeth punching through Dale’s skin with barely any resistance, a golden cube-shaped barrier appeared in the Cat's mouth. As the metal teeth tried to clamp down, the barrier forced the jaws apart. Adam shouted in a strained tone, “Hurry up, Dale! Do something! Dale!”

  The Cat leaned back, disengaging and rearing to swing its paws at the man scrambling to stand up. An arrow punched into the meaty paw, slicing flesh but failing to penetrate the bone, though the force was enough that the Cat was twirled around one hundred eighty degrees. Tom swung his ingot hammer at the Cat and forced the vertebrae apart, severing the spinal cord as if its metal coating didn’t exist. The paralyzed Cat fell and hissed impotently at the group, scrabbling around with its legs dragging behind it, but it was quickly put out of its misery with an accurate arrow to the eye.

  “A hand with these Bashers?” Hans called in an oddly desperate tone. Turning to look at him, the group watched incredulously as the Bashers performed complicated maneuvers to dodge the blades Hans was swinging.

  “Are you being serious?” Dale stared at the former assassin. “Just kill it!”

  “I don’t want to go all out against glorified food!” Hans huffed as a Basher casually hopped over a low swing.

  Tom and Dale looked at each other, shrugged, and waded into the combat. Rose stood next to Adam, carefully aiming at the agile creatures. Tom frowned as his swinging ingot hammer consistently missed every target. “Hold thyself immobile so that I may bring about thine end!” the redhead roared at the whirling balls of fur.

  “Tom!” Hans shouted at the lumbering barbarian.

  The redhead jumped back, looking for the inclement danger that must be nearby. Seeing nothing, “What?”

  “They aren’t listening to you.” Hans chuckled as he finally slashed one of the Bashers. In a falsetto he mocked his student, “Hold still so I can kill you! Grahh! You. That’s you.”

  “My voice does not even slightly resemble that.” Tom grumbled as he abandoned his hammer, opting instead to slap at the Bashers with his bare hand. He glared at the Bashers as they attempted counterattacks, dodging every swing he attempted. “Dale, you make striking these Beasts look so easy!”

  “Helps to have both fists.” Dale muttered offhandedly, fully focused on using the nimble Bashers to train his pugilisti
c accuracy. He threw a few combination punches that stunned the Beast he was focused on, not bothering to use the Runes on his weapons to finish it off. Rose snorted loudly, attempting not to laugh at the unintentional insult. Tom’s arm was mostly regrown at this point, but he hadn’t had any work done yet to restore anything past his wrist.

  Tom lifted his handless arm in what was a poor attempt at a rude gesture. Adam laughed, “You’ve been spending too much time around Hans, Tom. Why don’t you have your shield?”

  “You say that like it is a bad thing!” Hans called in mock outrage. The others took a moment to see where his voice was coming from. He was hanging off the ceiling.

  Catching a Basher by the scruff of its neck as it jumped at him, Tom sighed and smashed its head onto the floor, splattering blood across his shins. “With my arm mostly regrown, my shield does not fit anymore. Also, I cannot hold it normally since it was forged to be worn as a piece of armor, not be used as a held item. Even if it was, I have no hand in which to carry it.”

  Dale finished off the last Basher attacking him. “Don’t worry about it too much, you should have full use of your hand by the end of the week. At least, that’s what the Mage told us.”

  “Verily, I look forward to it.” Tom nodded gravely, swinging the limp Basher into a jumping Smasher, throwing the stone-clad attacker into the wall. He threw his improvised weapon, which released a piteous squeak, hurrying to follow the attack with his ingot hammer. With all his might behind the blow, cracking the heavy stone armor and finishing off the stunned Beast was child’s play.

  Hans looked around at the carnage. “These all had to be Beasts, right? Even if they are low quality, there is a standing order for Cores! The lowest quality Core we can find will still sell for a solid gold, so let’s make sure we don’t leave any here!”

  They got to the grisly task of cutting out the Cores, which were in the horns of the Bashers and seated between the three eyes of the Coiled Cat. The entirety of the Cat then was inserted into a bag since the Guild had found that the bones were interwoven with a type of high-grade steel. The Cat would be skinned, the usable meat removed, then the remainder boiled to leave behind only the gleaming bones. Those were given to the smelters, who reduced them to steel ingots. This was all part of a very efficient operation that used every part of the Beast.

  ~ Chapter Four ~

  When my voice broke his attention, Dale nearly sliced his thumb open with the knife he was using to skin a Cat.

  “It speaks!” Dale quipped dryly, “I am not worthy! So feel free to go away.”

  I kept up a running commentary as he continued working on the carcass.

  “What do you want, Cal? You’ve never bothered me unless you wanted something,” Dale mind-groaned in reply. I was instantly angry, a side effect of whatever had kept my thoughts fuzzy for the last month.

  Dale shivered as he felt my mood fluctuating. Dust rose into the air as the dungeon trembled a bit. I tried to calm down, and after a moment, the room returned to a more blue-ish hue as my mood stabilized.

  “I don’t know where she is, Cal,” Dale hurried to think at me–the angry entity–while inspecting the integrity of the walls along with the others.

  “That Mana storm must be getting nasty. Let’s get further down,” Rose muttered to the group, readying herself to continue into my depths.

  I finally got control of myself.

  “I’ll do what I can, Cal, but I am just a D-ranked cultivator. There really isn’t much I can do to help bring her back. Even my political power only extends to this mountain,” Dale tried to soothe the agitated dungeon.

  I growled in a fury, wishing I could strangle him.

  “Dale, are you talking to the dungeon right now?” Adam looked at his leader with faintly glowing eyes.

  “...Yeah.”

  I glanced closer at Adam, and his head turned to look directly at me. My perspective. Whatever.

  “He’s looking at me right now,” Adam calmly stated. Yup, freaky. Hang on though…

  I queried Dale, who seemed to be trying to hold back a laugh.

  “What? No!” Dale loudly stated, making the others look at him.

  “Does it want something?” Hans put a hand on Dale’s. “Can you see the dungeon right now, Dale? Is it in the room with us?”

  Dale shook off the hand of his patronizing friend. “Knock it off, he isn’t an imaginary friend. He wants to ‘fix’ you, Adam, but I think that usually means he wants to eat you or try out ideas for corrupted growth on you.”

  Adam stopped and looked downward, considering Dale’s words.

  “Avoid that spike, Adam,” Dale stated instantly.

  I grunted in dissatisfaction.

  Dale continued talking to the group, “Yes, the dungeon is talking again.”

  “Speak out loud, would you?” Rose instructed him crossly.

  “What? Why?” Dale was a bit caught off guard by this request. “You will only hear half of the conversation!”

  “No, I agree.” Surprisingly it was Hans who interjected. “At least then we will have some idea what is going through your mind.”

  Dale reluctantly agreed. “Whatever you want, I guess. What is going on, Cal?”

 

  “Yes, very mysterious and vaguely threatening of you. I assumed as much. How do I fit into these scary plans?” Dale actually had a good question for once. Oh, wait! Questions!

  I chuckled in a slightly sinister manner.

  Dale slowly shook his head. “I’d really rather not. I’d rather be open and honest and have you do so in return.”

  His words caught me off guard.

  The human paused, lips quirking as he tried to find a nice way to phrase his next words. “Cal… the difference is that you’re different now that I know you care. Maybe you don’t care about me, my team, or maybe even life in general, but you do care about something beside yourself. I now know you have feelings, and that loss affects you. Talking to you now… it feels less like talking to a psychopathic individual and more like talking to… I don’t know, a living force of nature?”

  My mood soured again with the reminder that Dani had been taken from me.

  “Of course, Cal. If there is something I can do, I will. As long as I don’t die first.” Dale chuckled half-heartedly, fishing for some words of affirmation.

  I returned bluntly.

  Dale stopped laughing. “Right, you are still a dungeon.” He grunted uncomfortably. Hans raised an eyebrow at him in consternation. “How are you planning to find her?”

 

  Dale waited a moment. When no more information was forthcoming, he tried to force it a bit, “Care to elaborate?”

  I had to hold back a laugh as
his face turned red. Apparently, I was upsetting him.

  He wavered, deciding between anger and curiosity. He broke down after a moment of deliberation. “All right, what is it?”

  I grinned internally, I knew he couldn’t resist the swift way to the top.

  ~ Chapter Five ~

  Dale was unsure of how to respond to my new information. “So, what… eat the Core? Like that Cat just did?”

  I snickered a bit as the pieces started coming together in his mind.

  “You planned this?” He looked incredulously at his armored hand.

  I rebuked him whilst laughing.

  Dale flushed and avoided answering. “Won’t crushing a Core make it explode?” He was overly paranoid, in my opinion.

  Or he was just a realist.

  He sighed and rubbed his forehead. “At least there is a flesh Mage here if something goes wrong,” he muttered darkly. Seriously, where is the trust?

  Dale pulled a Core from a Basher out of his bag, holding it tenuously in his hand. His team was looking at him like he was a crazy person, so he quickly explained what he was about to do.

  “Dale? Buddy? Maybe you don’t cause an explosion in an enclosed area? Do it outside if absolutely necessary?” Hans wheedled him. “Maybe you don’t want to throw away profit, either? You are basically planning to throw gold-”