She handed the key to the Syndicate’s representative, noting the confused – and then sly – look on his face. “What are you doing with a key to Fred’s room, huh? Did he loan it to you for some reason?” She wanted to wipe the smirk off of his face, but she didn’t have time.
“Haha, very funny. Look, I don’t have a lot of time, so I’ll make this quick. Jaymes, can you hold this key until either Fred, or I, come back tonight or even tomorrow. If you don’t see us in…five days, I would like you to give the key to Metch here. Can you do that for me?”
“Well, sure, but what is this about—” Jaymes started to ask.
“No time for lengthy explanations – I need to go. Metch – and Jaymes, if you can witness this for me – if you don’t see or hear from us by that time, I would like you to take over Core Power for us. Inside Fred’s room is a bag of…supplies…that you can use however you see fit; I trust you enough to do whatever you think is best, even if it is parceling out the…supplies, and dissolving the guild. I think that’s it, I’ve got to go catch up with Fred.”
Eisa left them standing there with their mouths hanging open, desperately trying to get some sort of question out. She ignored the stares of the other members hanging around and rushed outside, desperately looking around for Fred.
Where is he, where is he? She was expecting him to take the road south, as there was a slightly larger town about a half-day’s run away in that direction; with his increased Stamina, he could run all day and barely get tired. However, looking in that direction, she didn’t see him there; in fact, she couldn’t see him anywhere.
She caught the barest hint of movement in the forest to the north, which she almost ignored because she thought it was implausible that he would be going there. Why would he be going there? I thought he needed to investigate something so that he could get answers; I assumed he meant investigating or even interrogating someone. There’s nothing up there except forest and dungeons.
She dismissed the movement as a trick of her eye, but then she saw it again a little deeper into the trees. Sure enough – it was Fred, with the same bag over his shoulder that he brought Deecy around everywhere in. She hadn’t seen the Dire Wolf except on random occasions, and never again in her giant form; it wasn’t a surprise now, though, when she saw him stop and bring her out. Moments later, she was in full-size giant mode – and then they started running. Faster than she could reasonably keep up, but they left a surprisingly easy trail to follow – which she could see all the way back in town.
Well, I better get moving.
Eisa trotted to the trees and followed the trail that was blazed through the forest – by a strange-yet-wonderful man and a giant 20-foot-tall Dire Wolf behemoth.
Chapter 35
“You do realize that human is following us, don’t you?”
“Yes, but there isn’t anything we can do about it right now, Deecy. I have a feeling if I tell her to go back, she’ll just keep following us. And her name is Eisa,” Fred replied.
“Eisa, Elsa, Elmo – whatever. Regardless of what she’s called, you can’t afford to let her know your intentions.”
“Then we better keep ahead of her, right?” He thought it was amazing how fast he could move – and without breathing hard. His body had not only gotten stronger and more durable, but he found he could do a lot more without worrying about getting tired. He was sure that if he ran all day that he might feel it, but even the quick pace he had to maintain to keep up with Deecy was easy enough for a couple of hours.
Fortunately, he only had to run for about an hour before they arrived at the entrance to the dungeon. It looked familiar – as it should, because he was just there a week ago; however, he looked it over to make sure it was the correct one before he – actually, they – entered. It was the first time Deecy was going to join him, but not for the reason some might think from looking at her giant, deadly exterior.
“Are you sure you can do it? We’ll probably only get one shot at this before he figures out what you’re doing.”
“I told you before, I’ll handle scrambling the outgoing Mana Communication. It won’t stop the incoming, but that won’t matter, and it will hopefully defer suspicion for a little bit of time. Of course, as soon as he sees me, he’ll instantly know something’s up.”
He knew she was right – seeing a foreign dungeon defender-like construct like Deecy inside of the dungeon was sure to set off a lot of alerts in the mind of the dungeon core. Fred was just glad that he checked earlier with her to confirm there was nothing the core could do to change the dungeon once he was inside. He was slightly worried that he would be considered a “part” of the dungeon like he was in his parents’; she explained that since he was “created” there, their cores considered him belonging to it – which wouldn’t be so in any other dungeon.
Fred checked his status to see if he was ready; a quick look indicated that he was full on both Mana and Power – and as good to go as possible. His Pocket Interface Bag was full of low-grade Health potions, which were there for an emergency only; he wasn’t planning on getting hurt, but it was better being safe than sorry.
Deecy had shrunk down to a normal-sized Dire Wolf – which was still larger than him – so that she could fit through the entrance and tunnels much easier; staying on his heels, she followed him inside after he looked around to make sure no one else was watching. Not that it would stop him since he was committed, but he wanted to make sure Eisa hadn’t arrived yet (though he was sure she would eventually).
The first room looked exactly the same as it did last time, which wasn’t surprising; from what he had seen and heard from the other Adventurers, dungeons typically kept the same layout, traps, and defenders for years at a time. They didn’t know why they eventually changed, but Fred did: when they finally gained enough Mana from invaders, they would change it up to make it harder, therefore getting even more Mana from higher-Rated humans. It’s amazing how the two species rely on each other so much for their growth but don’t really understand why.
A strange *pop* echoed throughout his mind; he looked at Deecy behind him walking the last few feet into the entrance. She gave him a wolf-y nod of the head to indicate that her interference was working – which was a good thing.
“Hey Merthenbrizzlelathe, I’ve got a dungeon defender in the shape of a dire wolf entering my dungeon with…a human? This is really strange – is someone messing with me? Merth? Is this your doing?”
Fred ignored the voice of the dungeon core in his head just as Deecy was, though hers was for a different reason. While she was busy disrupting the core’s outgoing communications, she had to keep all her focus on maintaining the disruption and couldn’t fight or even talk to him. Knowing that she was safe enough toward the back of the room, he instead concentrated on defeating the room’s defenders.
He knew that this was only the first of seven rooms in the dungeon – and the easiest. From his previous visit, and with a quick look with his Mana Sight, he knew there wasn’t any traps nearby; starting with room two, however, he was going to have to watch out. That didn’t mean there wasn’t any danger, of course.
In addition to this dungeon being able to understand human speech, he had also picked this particular one because many (but not all) of its defenders were plant-based. And the one thing that plants really don’t like? Fire.
Three castings of his Vampiric Stunning Fireblast was enough to wipe out the eight deadly poisonous walking mushrooms that started slowly walking toward him as soon as he entered the room.
Poisonous Mobile Mushroom (Level 6)
Vitality: 60
Attack: 8, Poison Spores
Defense: 8
Respawn: 9 Nature Mana
Loot: 1 silver
Essence: 22 units
They were clumped together enough that his castings were able to hit more than one at a time; added to that, the blast caught some of the surrounding vegetation on fire, although it didn’t burn as much as he was expecting. Pro
bably because it’s not dead and dry. Regardless, the first room was clear and complete within 20 seconds of him walking in – and only 450 Power spent!
He saw and felt the additional Essence he earned from killing the mushrooms enter his hand and the SDIA embedded inside it. Hmm…soloing is a good way to acquire it quickly, since it isn’t split up between a whole group. Though, of course, it’s much more dangerous. He put the thought behind him because he wasn’t there for Essence – he had another, loftier goal.
“Why aren’t you answering me? Oh, now he’s just leaving the loot on the ground – completely ignoring it! Who is this guy and why’s he all alone?”
Fred tried to hide his smile as he walked through the tunnel to the next room, checking it first for any potential traps; it wasn’t common, but there were a couple of times when a group that had been leading him through a dungeon had found one here or there. He didn’t remember there being any in this particular one, but it didn’t hurt to check.
He entered the second room without trouble and stood on the threshold. Similar to the first dungeon he had gone into with just Eisa, the room was dark – and full of spiders. Different from the previous ones, however, these ones didn’t have any acidic venom; instead, they utilized their webs to both incapacitate and damage their victims.
Giant Webspinners (Level 7)
Vitality: 65
Attack: 9, Poisoned Venom, Flaying Webs
Defense: 10
Respawn: 10 Nature Mana
Loot: 1 silver, 10 copper
Essence: 25 units
Dried fallen leaves lined the dirt floor of the room, which was boxed in on all sides by trees lining the edges. Toward the middle of the room, Fred could see what appeared to be a pit trap lined with giant thorns (which he assumed were poisonous, as many things in Nature dungeons tended to be); it wasn’t visible to his visible sight, so he knew it was something that was triggered somehow.
In between the trees, large webs were strung, which held another eight defenders: the Giant Webspinners. Unlike their cousins from the first dungeon, these were twice the size and three times as deadly. From his vantage point, there wasn’t a way through the room without spending some time cutting through the webs and defeating the spiders one-by-one – all the while avoiding the trap in the middle. At least, that was how most groups of human Adventurers would do it.
He had found that every group that he had been a part of had some sort of “fairness” to them that they employed throughout the dungeons. They usually sent their “tank” forward while their Scout or Thief or other type of Perception-boosted member looked for traps, and then waited until the “monsters” were engaged before attacking with their long-range damage attacks. It worked, but it also gave the enemy (in this case the dungeon defenders) a chance to attack and deal some damage before they were taken out – i.e. giving them a fair chance. He hadn’t ever seen them really alter this method, which was fine for them…
But he thought it was ridiculous.
Four shots – and 600 Power spent – of his combined Fireblast spell was enough to light every single web on fire, burning the spiders in the process. He had to wait a few minutes for the fire to finish burning everything, which also allowed his Power to regenerate enough for another full Fireblast.
“What?! He didn’t even give my defenders a chance! Just boom, boom, boom, and they all died! Ok, guys – this isn’t funny anymore. Merth? Nisda? Why aren’t you responding?”
Once everything was clear and safe (at least according to his Mana Sight), he walked unhurriedly to the next room, Deecy following right on his heels. This is going even better than I thought.
The next room was a strange one; it was a fairly open room with a dozen large bushes set apart equidistant from each other, but close enough together that it would be hard to walk by without brushing up against them. Along the perimeter, there was a clear pathway on either side that led around the bushes, which eventually led to the exit to the next room.
Unfortunately, those “clear pathways” were right next to the wall, which were heavily trapped with what appeared to be some sort of thorn spikes that would emerge from the wall, impaling whoever decided to walk by. Although it was possible to disarm the traps and take that path, it would take a while and would cost more Power than he was planning to spend.
Instead, he was taking the more direct route.
Am-bushes (Level 7)
Vitality: 70
Attack: 11, Constricting Razor Branches
Defense: 12
Respawn: 11 Nature Mana
Loot: 1 silver, 25 copper
Essence: 27 units
The drawback of using these dungeon defenders (at least for the dungeon core) was that they weren’t mobile. If they were, it would’ve been much harder to make his way through because the Am-bushes were actually quite resilient; as it was, standing safely near the entrance, it still took six special Fireblasts to damage and ignite the bushes, burning them down to the ground within a couple of minutes. It took a little while for them to fully perish, but it was worth it to Fred to avoid any type of dangerous combat.
“Ok, this isn’t fair – he’s just standing there and casting some super-powerful fire spell and watching my poor defenders burn! He’s gotta be running out of that soon, though…is there even anyone there? Guys?”
The dungeon core was sounding more and more desperate, frightened, and…juvenile. Although he knew from his parents’ lessons that it was probably at least a century old – but most likely twice or three times that age – its “voice” sounded very young. And scared. Good – maybe it will be more willing to talk, then. While his intention wasn’t to necessarily scare the core – just to get to it with a minimum of fuss – if what he was doing would help with his investigation, he’d take it.
Power: 4350/6000
He looked at his available Power as he was finally able to walk safely across the room, watching it slowly tick up as his regen kicked in. Three rooms down and looking good; hopefully the rest of the rooms work out the way I want, too.
Leaving the loot on the ground behind just like the two previous rooms, Deecy followed behind Fred on silent padded feet as he walked through the tunnel and emerged into a room full of knee-high green grass.
Chapter 36
With his Mana Sight, Fred could see five long, sinuous forms hiding inside the grass, completely invisible to his physical eyes. They were approximately 15 feet long and at least ten inches wide at its widest; deadly killers waiting to strike from the relative safety of camouflage.
Large Venomous Grass Snakes (Level 8)
Vitality: 80
Attack: 15, Constriction, Venomous Bite
Defense: 14
Respawn: 16 Nature Mana
Loot: 2 silver
Essence: 35 units
In addition to the snakes hiding around the room, there were also five separate areas of the grass which were infused with high concentrations of Mana. He wasn’t sure exactly what they did – because they were never triggered on his previous trip, only deactivated – so he was going to take care to avoid them.
Also on his previous trip through the room, the snakes only attacked one at a time, waiting until someone came near before striking unexpectedly. With that in mind, he used his Fireblast on the nearest snake and killed it in one hit.
“I’m not sure why he’s here, but I’ve got to stop him – let’s see how he likes this!”
The communication he overheard confused him for a second; he knew for a fact that dungeon cores couldn’t change anything inside their dungeons while there were invaders inside, so what the core said didn’t make any sense. What he apparently didn’t know, however, was that it didn’t apply to dungeon defender behavior.
Because the rest of the snakes all attacked at once.
He hadn’t realized they were so fast; by the time he figured out what was going on, he was only able to blast one more before the rest got too close. Because they didn’t move much
when he saw them before, he hadn’t seen them effortlessly glide through the grass at high-speed – and without even disturbing it!
He couldn’t use his Fireblast again when they were so close because it would hurt him too; instead, he activated his Dark Rebounding Spike Shield and a translucent shadow surrounded him a half-second before the first snake impacted it – and the spikes thrusting out along the outside. It flew backwards 15 feet, landing awkwardly and bleeding in the grass before getting its bearings. A quick use of his special Fireblast spell, however, finished off the already damaged defender.
A second snake arrived as soon as he fired off his spell, hitting the shield still active and rebounding away. Fred braced himself as the third attacker hit his shield, readying his Fireblast to take out the second snake – but it wasn’t needed.
Fortuitously, the second attacker had been repelled right into one of the patches of Mana-infused grass, where it was immediately impaled by hundreds of needle-sharp blades of grass, practically cutting it up into pieces. Knowing that the threat was eliminated from that quarter, he turned his attention back to the one who had attacked last.
It had only rebounded a few feet away into the wall nearest the entrance. Fortunately, he still had his shield up for another couple of seconds; he tossed his final Fireblast at it and braced for the impact from his spell – and collapsed on the ground as the secondary effects of his Vampiric Stunning Fireblast weren’t stopped by his shield in the least.
Not only was he stunned for a couple of seconds, but he had lost a small amount of Vitality due to the vampiric effect of the spell. Fortunately, there were no other defenders nearby, otherwise he probably wouldn’t have fared well. That was closer than I would’ve liked – I better not take anything for granted during the rest of this place.
Dungeon World: A Dungeon Core Experience Page 24