Chances of Death: Seven Decks Book I

by S Bailey

  Chapter 38:

  Timber

  Jen finished slipping on the mana gathering bracelets and necklace that Sam made for them and yelled to him in the other room, “Are you ready yet?”

  “Almost!” Sam said, as he pulled the trigger and fired another crossbow bolt into one of his space rings.

  “Gimme!!!” Jen demanded from Sam as she came into his room and pointed at some of the storage rings. Sam gathered up five of the rings on his worktable and handed them over to her and said, “These three each have 50 crossbow bolts. The bolts in this one have armor piercing enchantments. This one has bolts with fire enchantments, and this one has bolts with poison enchantments, but FYI, the poison is kind of weak.”

  Jen felt it looked a little gaudy, but she equipped all three rings and asked, “What about these other two rings?”

  Sam gave Jen a Dr. Evil grin and said, “That my dear is going to be a surprise!”

  Jen knew better than to try and dig it out of Sam, because he would just gloat about his secret the more she asked.

  A week earlier when Jen had returned from Robert’s farm and said she wanted to explore the abandoned dungeon, Sam had been excited about trying out some of his new enchantments and weapons. While working on storage rings, he learned through some testing that if you threw something into a storage ring, when it came out, it lost almost all its kinetic force, and it would come out facing the same direction as when it went in.

  Understanding of the complete code behind the storage rings was still beyond Sam’s skill, but he had figured out quite a few modifications he could make to the storage enchantments. Through a lot of trial and error he discovered a way to modify the enchantment so that items placed in the ring would come out of the ring facing the opposite direction. He also learned how to switch off the part of the enchantment that killed the kinetic force. This actually cut down the mana consumption of the storage rings dramatically.

  Additionally, he modified the ring’s enchantments with a passcode that could lock and unlock the rings. Even if you died or someone stole the ring, if it was locked, without the passcode, it could not be opened.

  Finally, while it wasn’t an enchantment modification that Sam made, Jen had shown Sam how to extend his mana out to the rings to allow items to be placed into and removed from the rings without having to be in physical contact.

  “This is the place!” Sam said as he was looking up at some very tall trees a few miles into the forest outside of Casino City.

  Jen looked perturbed at Sam as she said, “So, are you finally going to tell me what you plan to do with the rings?”

  Sam walked around the trees looking at the terrain as he said, “I have eight rings, three with crossbow bolts like yours, two with different types of enchantment grenades, and three empties.”

  Jen looked at Sam as though he had cheated her, but she knew he must have a reason for not giving her the enchantment grenades, “What’s wrong with the enchantment grenades?”

  Sam looked a little guilty and said, “I’m not planning on using them because I haven’t had a chance to test them yet. I just wanted to make sure you knew what I had on me. As for the empty rings, well in just a second, you’re going to see what will be going inside them.”

  Sam walked over to the tallest tree at the edge of the clearing, pulled out some climbing equipment he’d purchased in the market when he came up with his plan, and said, “Hold my beer,” as he gave Jen his empty rings.

  Jen choked back a laugh as she looked up and rolled her eyes “hold my beer!” she just wasn’t expecting to hear that.

  As he started to climb the tree, Sam hollered down to her, “Stand back and throw the ring where the log looks like it is going to fall, and then open the ring and catch the log.”

  “TIMBERRRRRR!!!!!” Sam hollered as he cut about a six-foot length log off the very top of the tree about 150 feet up. With Jen’s speed and agility, she was not worried about getting hit by the log, but the weight and force of that log as she caught it inside the ring was impressive. “Holy Shit, Sam is an evil genius.”

  Chapter 39:

  Slim

  Robert gave them a map to the dungeon that had been passed down from his father. Jen tried to pay him for it, but he wouldn’t accept even a copper.

  It took Jen and Sam two more days to travel from Robert’s farm to the dungeon entrance. Jen could have followed the unusual mana trail straight to the dungeon even without a map. Robert was also correct about the beasts, their levels were so low, none of them even tried to attack Sam and Jen.

  Jen was kind of disappointed as she looked at the dingy cave entrance, and she said, “I know this was my idea, and it looks like we might have wasted our time, but like I said, I can feel an unusual mana coming from the cave that I hope will make it worth the trip.”

  They watched the dungeon entrance from cover and concealment for several hours and didn’t notice any signs of anything going in or out of the cave.

  “That’s the problem; we should have seen some animals or at least signs of animals using that cave. Don’t get relaxed; something is not right here.” Sam said to Jen.

  A few moments later he asked her, “What’s the plan, Boss?”

  “Stay alert, stay alive!” Jen said as she left her overwatch position and headed towards the dungeon.

  Sam kept his rifle trained on anything that might jump out at Jen as she approached the entrance. “All clear!” Jen said to Sam, as she then kept her rifle trained on the surrounding area, to cover Sam as he approached her location.

  She continued to keep watch as Sam placed several enchanted mana blocks around the entrance that would sound an alarm if anything came in the dungeon behind them.

  They both cast their night vision skill as they entered the cave. Almost six intense hours later, after they cautiously and tediously explored every tunnel of the dungeon, and placed enchanted mana warning block alarms at every junction behind them, they arrived at what they believed to be a cavern at the very bottom of the dungeon.

  “This is where the mana is originating from. According to the stories I’ve heard about dungeons on this world, if there were a boss monster in this dungeon, it would be up ahead in that cavern,” Jen texted to Sam’s onboard.

  “Cover me.” Jen said as she slowly inspected the open chamber while staying on the inside edge of the tunnel. “Clear! I don’t see anything or sense any mana traps. The only mana I feel at all is the same mana stream that’s been flowing from the cave.”

  Sam slowly walked backwards to meet up with Jen at the cavern entrance while keeping their rear covered. Sam suddenly scream-whispered “What the fuck!” as he jumped about four feet to the other side of the tunnel. The fattest black and white tuxedo cat, out of nowhere, had just purred and rubbed up against his leg scaring the shit out of him.

  Sam almost shot the fat pudgy cat on instinct. “Should I shoot it?” he asked Jen, as it waddled towards her.

  “No, give me a second,” she replied. While focusing her psych skill on the cat, Jen was thinking to herself, “Why did my psych scanning skill not pick up any emotions, sounds, or mana signals from the presence of this knee-high adorable cuddly cat? He looks so cuddly!!!!”

  The cat then looked at Jen with intelligent eyes and used its own psych skill and said in Jen’s mind, “Of course you can’t sense me unless I want you to; I’m a mana cat!” The cat then walked a little closer to Jen, looked utterly exhausted from waddling around, collapsed to the ground, rolled over on his back and said, “Tummy rub pleeeeeease!”

  Jen’s jaw dropped open, but she was speechless after hearing the cat ask for a tummy rub! She then looked at Sam before approaching the cat, and said, “Keep me covered. You won’t believe this, but this cat just talked to me through my onboard, using a psych skill.”

  “What the hell?” replied Sam.

  “He says he’s a mana cat, whatever that is. I can’t crack his stat sheet to see his level either.”

  Sam kept h
is weapon trained on the cat but also kept his other focus through his peripheral vision on their surroundings, “Are you sure about this Jen? This is fucking weird. We don’t need to take this risk.”

  Jen kept her eyes on the cat as she replied, “I’m not sure, but I have a feeling about this cat.”

  Sam’s gut was not warning him, but his stomach was still in knots as he watched Jen kneel down and start petting the cat’s massively fat and furry stomach. The cat simply purred, stretched, and rolled so that Jen could also scratch his side and back.

  A few minutes later, Jen said to Sam, “Long story short, he’s been in the dungeon for about 100 years. He’s a mana cat and came down here with a group of adventurers who were controlling him with a slave collar. The strange mana in this dungeon interfered with the collar, breaking the control of the slavers. He immediately killed all the slavers, but the strange mana keeps him trapped in the cavern, and he can only go out about 20 feet down this tunnel before collapsing from lack of mana. He says that over the last 100 years, we’re the first people or beasts that didn’t try to immediately kill him, and the dungeon hasn’t released any monsters since he’s been here.”

  Sam replied, “OK, what does ‘Slim’ want us to do about it. Everybody always wants us to fix something for them!”

  Jen looked up at Sam with “that” look and said, “He’s been a slave to either people or this dungeon for over 100 years. Are you saying you don’t want to do anything about it?”

  Sam grumbled, “No, you’re right. It’s just, why is it always us?...Wait, don’t answer that. I need to quit bitching. Let’s get this done. What does Slim say?”

  System Message:

  The Greater the Risk, the Greater the Reward!

  ==

  Gambling Quest: Enslave the cat and escape the dungeon!

  ==

  Requirements: Demand the slave collar from the cat in exchange for his freedom from the dungeon!

  You have 6 hours to meet the quest requirements – odds of failing 99% Reward of 20 ability points and euphoria for every ability point gambled, maximum bet of 3.

  ==

  Accept: Yes/No

  ==

  They immediately rejected the quest, and Sam said, “Ask him why the gambling quest has a 99% chance of failing.”

  Jen looked at Slim and a moment later replied, “Because he would kill us rather than give over the slave collar and continue to be enslaved, even if by people instead of the dungeon.”

  Sam shrugged and said, “No worries there. How do we go about getting him out of here?”

  After a moment, Jen replied, “He says that I need to use my mana to shield and block the dungeon’s mana from his mana system until we get out of the dungeon.”

  Sam was surprised and asked, “Is that something you can do?”

  Jen nodded her head and said, “Yes, I can do it. It won’t be “hard,” but it’s going to take ALL my focuses. His entire body is literally made up of mana channels. That’s not all. He says the dungeon has stored up a lot of energy, and once he is disconnected from it, the dungeon is likely to release a lot of monster mobs that will attack us.”

  Sam bit his tongue in an effort to keep from bitching about what they were going to do. He then said, “OK, wait here. Right now, there are no mobs in the dungeon. I’m going to go and use some of my enchanted grenades to cave in all the side tunnels to keep the mobs from coming at us from the sides.”

  Jen looked at Slim and then said to Sam, “You don’t need to do that. Slim says all the mobs will spawn in this cavern. We just need to get back out of the entrance before the mobs overrun us.”

  Sam walked over and knelt down next to Jen, and while absently scratching Slim behind the ears said, “Give me all your rings, except the one with your guns. We are going to go the very edge of Slim’s tether. When you get his mana system blocked off, I want you to run, and don’t stop running until Slim is out of the dungeon. Then come back for me. I don’t know how far I will be able to follow you before the mobs catch up, and then I’ll have to cover your escape.”

  Chapter 40:

  Run Sam Run

  “Run!” yelled Jen as she took off down the cave tunnel with Slim laying over her shoulder watching their backs. Their agility made them fast, but it wasn’t ten minutes before Slim let out a hiss to warn Sam of mobs approaching.

  “Keep going!” Sam hollered as he turned to face the mobs. His first thought was, “Damn they’re fast!” and his second thought was “LOG!!!!” as he pointed his ring finger at them.

  The log was almost as wide as the tunnel and smashed through the ghouls pushing them about 20 feet back before coming to a stop in a jumble of broken and crushed bodies. Sam didn’t stay around to take a long look but RAN for all he was worth.

  Within a few minutes he heard one of his enchanted alarms go off behind him, and he knew they were close. He turned around and logged them again, before taking off in a sprint.

  “Kelly, I may actually make it out of here”. That was when Sam heard another enchanted alarm go off, and he turned and logged more ghouls that were chasing him. These ghouls looked like bodybuilders with huge muscles, and braced themselves for catching the log. It knocked them off balance and crushed the one up front but didn’t smash through and confuse them like before.

  “LOG, LOG, LOG.” Sam shot three logs at the ghouls and that did the trick. “Shit, at this rate, I will run out of logs before I can get out of here,” Sam thought.

  Sam ran; he guessed he was about halfway out of the dungeon. A crossbow bolt flew past him. He dove on the ground and spun around and rapid-fired about 10 armor piercing crossbow bolts into what appeared to be leather-armored, crossbow wielding ghouls, and then he logged them for good measure.

  He jumped up and ran, and as he reached a turn in the tunnel, he pulled out one of his enchanted fire grenades, threw it back around the corner and ran. Sam had made the fire enchantment grenade with a timer, and it was set to explode about 3 seconds after it was thrown, at least that’s what he hoped would happen.

  The timer worked perfectly, but the explosion was not what he expected. Sam was around the corner and with his agility he was easily more than 100 yards away when the grenade went off. The explosion propelled him forward about 25 yards and it felt like it melted off the back half of his body.

  If he hadn’t been around a corner, he definitely would have died. Sam curled up on his side just trying to breathe. Thankfully the explosion must have done even more damage to all the mobs behind him.

  He dropped almost all his healing charms out of a ring and set them to healing his burned backside, but the power in the healing charms ran out before he was completely healed.

  Sam was in severe pain, but he ran and hobbled along anyways. He knew he was going the right direction, but he no longer had any idea how far he had left to go. He cursed at himself, as he threw on a bunch of his forgetme charms around his neck just before he heard his alarm enchantments go off, but as he turned, he could tell that the ghouls knew he was in front of them somewhere as they slowed and started pointing their crossbows in different directions. Luckily the forgetme charms prevented them from knowing exactly how far or exactly where to fire their crossbows.

  “Stealth Log,” he thought as he silently launched the log, before continuing to limp and run. Sam passed a narrow bend in the cave, turned around and “logged!” all his remaining logs in the small space. The logs were jammed between the walls and ceiling, completely blocking off the passage, but for how long, he had no idea.

  He continued to run as best he could. That’s when Jen showed up. She took one look at Sam and threw him over her shoulder and turned and ran. He was looking backwards as he hung over her shoulder, and he thought that the log barricade must have stopped them for good, but just before they made it out of the cave entrance, he saw some more ghouls chasing them and he fired a deluge of crossbow bolts of every kind at them.

  When he noticed his fire-enchanted bolts explode
upon impact, and destroying the ghouls, instead of just catching them on fire as they were designed, he guessed it was the strange mana in the dungeon that caused them to become super-charged. “Thank goodness those bolts were not as powerful as my enchanted fire grenade,” was all Sam thought before he passed out.

  Jen exited the dungeon with Sam on her shoulder. She had no idea what he did to cause all those explosions as they were leaving the dungeon, but she could tell he passed out when he fell limp on her shoulder. Thankfully, she could also tell that he was breathing OK.

  She took Sam to the rally point they had set up in the forest a short way from the dungeon. She started the slow process of using her bandage and healing spells on his burnt body. Slim was passed out next to Sam. He hadn’t done well with having his mana system blocked off while escaping the dungeon, but with her connection and new levels, she felt like Slim just needed to rest and absorb mana, and he would be OK.

  Chapter 41:

  To Loot or Not To Loot? Is that ever a question?

  “What do you mean go back in there!” Sam exclaimed.

  Jen looked at Slim, and then back to Sam, and replied, “Slim says that the dungeon threw everything it had at us to keep him from escaping, and the dungeon is going to need time to recover more mana before it can create more mobs. If we go in now, he’s confident that the two of us can take on the few ghouls or other mobs that might be remaining and recover a ton of loot.”

  Sam’s system messages made it clear that his fire enchantment grenade had killed a metric shit-ton of ghouls, and his inner greed demon really wanted to get the loot, but he said, “The loot won’t do us any good if we’re dead. Now that he has escaped the dungeon, how do we know Slim over there isn’t simply trying to get us killed off?”

  “We can discuss how I know later, but you were out for almost three hours, and Slim says if we don’t get the loot soon, the dungeon will absorb the loot in the next hour or two.”