by Dakota Krout
They moved on, clearing room after room, cultivating in each. After a bit I noticed something odd about their behavior, they never took a wrong turn! I was confused as to how they found their way until I heard Dale ask the same question.
“Well, here is a fork in the tunnel. Which way do you think we should go?” Craig looked at Dale, though it was obvious that Craig somehow knew the answer.
“I’m not sure, I’ve never been here.” Dale responded, a bit frustrated.
“Neither have I, but I know we need to go to the right! Look at the quantity of Essence swirling in the air. The more Essence a path has, the more likely that it is the correct way to the Boss room.” Hans glibly informed him, throwing around precious information.
“Oh, that makes sense.” Dale accepted this answer easily, and they started down the right-hand path.
“We’ll have to think about it, maybe we could open small tunnels like air vents to more evenly distribute it around the cave?” Dani responded evenly.
I decided slowly, thinking about it.
The group was in the last room before the Boss battle, I planned on making it a spectacular fight. A few more groups of adventurers were at different stages of the dungeon by this point, one was even approaching the stairs down to the second level. Worst case scenario, even if this didn’t go as I wanted I had another few chances to gain some Essence.
Dale’s group entered the room, noting the Silverwood tree and looking for the Boss. It was rather dark in here, and the Boss with all of his granite armor was well camouflaged with earth Essence, making him look like part of the wall unless moving.
Instead of relaxing as I had hoped, the human snacks grouped closer together for defense. Dang. One of them tossed out a flask that broke on the floor, which started putting off a lot of light. Well, I’d be absorbing that pattern when we were done, thank you very much!
Now illuminated, it was obvious that that giant mobile boulder was actually a Mob, so he wasted no more time, charging directly at them. I was nearly screaming with excitement as battle was joined! I had direct control of my Boss, my mind merged with Raile’s simplistic thoughts, so I was able to better control how this battle would progress. Josh boldly moved to block the charge at first, but a yell from Craig forced him to dodge at the last second.
Now, I had a lot of momentum. Raile was a big ol’ boy, so when I missed I couldn’t exactly turn him on a copper. Crashing into the wall with the grinding of stone, I quickly redirected my Boss to spring back to the attack. For a several hundred-pound stone covered rabbit, I still moved pretty quickly. Instead of sprinting this time, I ran at them and leapt; gaining momentum and covering distance as only a rabbit could do. Plunging down like a meteorite intent on the extermination of all life, a shockwave shook the ground, knocking the armored members of the team off balance. The lightly armored men sprang into action to distract me whilst their comrades regained their footing.
Hans ran at my Boss, trying to wedge his daggers into the joints of my armor, but with a satisfying shattering of metal the wedged daggers broke off as Raile moved, shaking off the weak attack easily. Ignoring the lone fighter, I began racing toward the off balanced team members; Josh had no choice but to attempt blocking with his massive shield. He plunged the arrowhead-shaped base into the ground, leaned into it, and braced himself with a roar of challenge!
Raile pounded the shield with a mighty blow, and it almost held. Sparking with released Essence, the obviously enchanted shield was able to redirect some of the force back at Raile, slowing his charge and doing a bit of damage, before the previously dented area gave way. A flash of lightning-like Essence joined into the cacophony of sound when the metal plate shattered, Josh being thrown backward as his defenses were annihilated.
Raile was effectively stopped for a heartbeat, with his momentary halt the others took the chance to rain blows on him. The blunt staff and spiked Morningstar were whooshing through the air and dealing some damage, cracking the granite armor and transmitting force to the flesh beneath. The single dagger Hans retained simply glanced off the armor, as was intended, a useless tool in a fight like this. I laughed when Craig punched bare-knuckled at Raile, sure he would break his fist. My laughter was rudely cut off as the punch shattered the armor in a fist-sized area and he struck Raile’s shoulder, breaking that too.
Raile started moving again, limping a bit but still very dangerous. Charging Dale, I was able to land a glancing blow to his oversized armor as he danced out of the way. Even this light hit made him fly to the ground; I heard a crunch from his ribs. The others ran at Raile, attempting to keep his attention as Dale recovered, but I. Sensed. Blood! I turned and got Dale in my sights and started charging. A few feet away, Raile slowed drastically, I could no longer see out of his left eye.
Raile crashed to the ground twitching, I was confused, still trying to order him to attack. Though he tried as hard as he could, he could not follow my command. Raile soon stopped moving entirely. I changed my view to get a better picture of things, no longer looking from his eyes, noticing feathers where Raile’s eye had been. Ah. An arrow had somehow made an impossible shot, piercing Raile’s eye and brain. With a furious mutter I dropped some loot. It had been a good, enlightening fight. I’d get them eventually.
I rained quite a bit of silver, the steel dagger I had been working on with the Honing Inscription, and a steel helmet with an Inscription that boosted the protection granted against physical attacks. Also, as I absorbed Raile’s pattern for the first time I learned that the ability he had was called ‘Avenger’. I was a bit disappointed that I could not understand what it did, but it apparently held some requirement in order to be used.
“Dibs.” Hans called, pointing at the dagger. Steve collected the silver, while Josh tried on the new helmet. Dale was sitting against the wall, wheezing a bit, but breathing easier than I felt he should be with broken ribs. Grr. He wasn’t even coughing up blood or anything!
“Let’s take a look at you, shall we?” Craig pulled off Dale’s armor, I really wished I had a Mob in here for a sneak attack. No, no. I had to be a good sport about these sorts of things, they beat me fair and square; I didn’t want to be a sore loser. Craig pushed on the bones that were broken, aligning them with his Essence while Dale gasped in pain at the movement.
“Drink this.” Craig put a recently acquired healing potion to Dale’s lips and within a few moments after drinking Dale was breathing easier. “That is higher quality than I thought it would be.” Craig muttered. Of course it was! I had pride in what I produced, after all. I’m not some snake-oil peddling herbologist! The original potion had indeed been barely potent, but I was able to make a much purer version when I had the pattern. While they were otherwise distracted, I ate the broken tower shield, then the remnants of the light potion. I had a chuckle at the strangled cry Josh made when he realized the halves of his old shield were gone.
“Damn it! I was still paying that off!” Josh raged, pounding the rock where his shield had been laying the last time he saw it.
They cultivated for a while, a cloud of swearing constantly flowing from Josh, then decided to head back. Another group was in the second tunnel of this floor, and my attention was now mostly on them. Surprising me, they had managed to take out a few squads without sustaining too much injury. They broke the leg of a Smasher, so instead of letting them finish him off I had it jump into an acid trap on the wall, killing it, but also releasing a flood of acid that drenched all but one of the small gro
up.
Screaming as their flesh boiled, melting in their armor, the remaining squad quickly ended them. Since he was distracted by the horror he was witnessing, a horn found the soft flesh of the one who had managed to avoid the spray. By the time Dale’s group reached that point in the tunnel, all that remained was a series of acid scarring on the rock below, which I would soon fix. Dale’s group never even noticed the recent demise, too focused on warning the other groups they found along their way, which I growled at.
I pouted, angry that they were always one step ahead of me.
Dani suggested an easy solution, “How about we make an exit to the surface from the Boss room? Easier for them to leave, and better for us to get them out of here so they can’t tell people about new obstacles.”
“If we make it below ground and just push it upward... Somewhere there isn’t really a strong concentration of people, it should be doable? I’ll go look for a suitable place tonight, ok?” Dani promised me as I calmed down and thought about it.
I slowly agreed, not really wanting her to go anywhere dangerous.
Returning my attention to the people moving in my dungeon, I started picking off groups with my well placed traps. None of the groups that came down into the second level were above F-rank, so were easy pickings for my squads of mid F-ranked Bashers. Beyond Dale’s group, only one other returned without casualties, even then only because they left after the first fight they had with a squad. The other, cocky F-ranked groups provided me with enough Essence in one day for me to move into the second rank of the D-series.
~Seventeen~
Dale and his group retraced their steps out of the dungeon, whooping in relief when the sun was again shining on them. The battles today had been hard, even when most of them were in the C-ranks! They stopped at the accounting tent near the top of the stairs to log the money and treasure they had found. After paying the twenty-five percent Guild tax they were given a large bonus for handing over the bodies of the newly slain Mobs.
“These are interesting!” The clerk cooed. “The Spotters will be happy to have something new to look at. We’ll have a list of their extra vulnerable points ready for you tomorrow. Anything else to report?”
“Yes.” Craig cleared his throat, knowing he was about to become very unpopular. He reached into his belt pouch, retrieving his Guild badge which marked him as having quite a bit of authority under Frank. “I’m declaring the second floor a D-ranked minimum. While these are mid F-ranked Mobs, the squads they move in easily push them into the danger level of the D series.”
The clerk nodded and quickly set out a document for him to sign. As a magically bound document, this would forcibly ensure that members of the Guild below D-rank could not enter the second floor, forcing them to have a C or higher ranked person with them who would have to give them special permission to enter. Since all members had sworn to follow the Guild's rules, this may cause grumblings, but would be followed until a higher ranked member revoked his decision.
Unfortunately for a lot of the people trying to enter the dungeon, they were not Guild members. This meant that they didn’t need to follow Guild rules, and they would push themselves to attempt the second level; especially since the rain of silver Dale’s group had declared had made their eyes bulge with greed while drool formed on their chins.
“And the new Boss? Any information on it?” The clerk continued inquiring, writing everything down as a report bound for the Guild leader.
“A several hundred pound, stone armor covered bunny.” Craig announced in a harsh tone.
The serious way he said ‘bunny’ made a few people snort and chuckle, even the stoic Josh had a smile playing about his lips. Craig blushed a bit, but grimaced and said nothing to stop them.
“Heh...Ahem... Ok, danger level?” The clerk tried to hide a chuckle.
“Mid D-ranking. Actual cultivation at F nine, but its’ speed, armor, and weight make it very hard to damage, blunt weapons are suggested. Few easy weak points, the eyes have armor surrounding them, and though the mouth is unarmored, stone hangs over from its nose - another possible weak point - to cover the mouth unless it opens. Which it did only once, when it was in pain from a broken shoulder.” Craig succinctly stated.
Dale was very impressed at the detail Craig provided. He hadn’t seen the mouth open at all, really he hadn’t thought about the possible points he should have been hitting. Mainly he had swung for the head, trying to concuss it with the heavy spiked end of his weapon. His ribs still twanged a bit, and he felt that may have been avoided if he had been paying better attention. Lesson learned.
“Loot dropped?”
Craig continued his report, “After the first floor Boss, roaming squads of improved Bashers,” He pointed at the bodies on the table, “dropped mid-quality of low level healing potions, rarely a holy pendant which we will most likely bring to Father Richard for his inspection, and a mixture of several copper and a few silver.”
“And the Boss?”
Craig spoke in a low tone to try and prevent others from overhearing, “Dropped a small amount of silver coinage, and two possibly Inscribed items, including a helmet and a dagger. We will be getting them both checked for quality and safety before activating them.” Craig didn’t speak quietly enough, and caused an explosion of noise, especially from the groups that were now forbidden to enter the second level. Rune inscribed items were worth up to several hundred gold, even a poor quality one might be worth fifty.
“Make sure we get a copy of the Spotter determination and value, and remember that if you sell them, twenty-five percent goes to the Guild. You are allowed to use anything you earn, or give it as a gift, but if it is sold you will be compelled to pay the fee, so be sure you know that the person you give it to won’t screw you over. If stolen, your debt is absolved unless it is recovered. Anything else?” The dry, bored tone continued as the now uninterested clerk looked at his notes.
Craig nodded and spoke loudly, obviously for the benefit of the people listening in. “Just one thing, the traps in the lower level are far more advanced than the upper level. We did not set any off, but we came upon one that had been set off by another group. The floor and walls were scarred by some force, there was no sign that the unknown group survived. Stay safe, friends.”
The crowd which was on the verge of fury calmed a bit. They all knew this most likely meant that group was dead, as there wasn’t ever a body to recover if a team fell in a dungeon. Maybe it was for the best that they stayed out of the lower level, and Craig was not just trying to hoard all of the good loot.
“Ah, by the way,” Hans turned toward the attentive crowd, “in the first room right there,” he pointed at the entrance below them, “there is a massive iron vein along the wall. Good way to earn some cash while you cultivate!” An explosion of motion followed as those too weak to reach the second floor raced to buy picks from an overjoyed entrepreneur who had set up a small kiosk nearby. His inflated prices suddenly not an issue, he quickly made enough to later find Dale and ask for some land to set up shop. Dale agreed, and assigned him a plot of land, for a percentage and a discount of course.
~Dale~
While the masses were distracted, Dale’s group went to have lunch. After a meal that was barely better than the dirt it was grown in, they cultivated in consideration of Dale’s sore ribs, promising him they would spar after dinner. Dale readily agreed, today showed just how poor his combat readiness was. In comfortable silence, each settled in to cultivate again. Pretending that it was not because he was bored of cultiva
ting, having spent nearly five hours passively and actively cultivating in the Essence rich area underground, Craig determined that Dale had enough Essence built up to open another meridian.
“Now, the only reason you are ready right now is that you opened the first of the paired set. You opened the yin heart meridian, so the yang lower intestine meridian will be much easier to open. You don’t have the Essence to open one in a new set, so make sure to listen to my direction.” Craig directed in a serious manner.
Dale nodded, preparing himself. As before, he sank into his center, and pulled a thin stream of Essence from the spinning Chi. Moving it along the ‘wall’ he searched for the small holes he now knew existed. Craig stopped him a few times, until he apparently approached the correct one. It was nowhere near the first, and didn’t seem to go to the lower intestine. His brow furrowed in confusion, Dale still did as he was told. Craig hadn’t been wrong yet, after all.
Dale fed the Essence into the whole, and it was again sucked from his control. The Essence left his center, somehow splitting and moving directly into his little finger on each arm. On both, it crossed the wrist and ran upwards along the opposite side of the forearm as the heart meridian did, until it reached the back of Dale’s shoulder where it ended at the uppermost part of the back, or the bottom of his neck.
At this position, after creating weavings along its route, it traveled along the skin across his neck and cheek until it reached the outer corner of his eye, finally ending in his ear before somehow reconnecting into his center and joining the spiral from another small hole. Everything sounded a bit fuzzy, so he opened his eyes and blinked away tears. Wiping them from his check, he saw that it was actually blood dripping from his eyes.