by Dakota Krout
Dale looked at the ceiling and exhaled noisily, “So... Everyone.”
“Lad, most people don’t know you are the landowner, but are still jealous that you make it into the dungeon every day, when they get in maybe once a week. Others see your fine armor, not the man inside it, and covet that. People are always unhappy with those that have better fortune than them. You’ll be fine, just give it time. The portal being open will let everyone get around much easier, that should relieve tensions quite a bit. After all, people can show up on their scheduled day to train, not just sit around on their thumbs feeling sorry for themselves.” Hans lectured, trying to force Dale out of his funk.
“Now, pay this tab. All that advice isn’t free after all.”
Dale nearly choked as he noticed the amount on the bill. “You’re outta your mind! Hell no!”
~Cal~
“Ok Cal, that was amazing. I didn’t think the inverse of the Rune would be that effective.” Dani was looking at the bubbling, hissing crater that was all that remained to show a group had been standing there recently.
I was still basking in the glorious flood of Essence that had filled me.
“Well, I wouldn’t have thought of it, that was a really ingenious trap.” Dani praised me, playing to my ego.
The trap was a bridge in the tunnel system that had to be crossed. On the bridge was a series of Runes across it that pushed the acid away, and held the acid suspended to the sides of the bridge. If someone stepped directly on one specific pressure sensitive pattern at the midpoint between the acid ‘walls’, the stone the runes were on would flip and the corrupted core would then pass its energy to the inverted Rune. I was rather happy to have found a use for my water corruption cores.
When the inverted Rune was powered, the suspended acid sloshed across the entire structure, flooding it instantly. The Runes were nearly indestructible when filled with corruption, as far as I could tell, and so I was able to easily regrow the bridge around those Runes when it was destroyed, as I did now. Sadly, the fallen group of adventurers had only standard gear compared to what I had been seeing, nothing magical, and nothing fancy. Just plain, boring metal and leather. Woe is me, that those I slay cannot be more financially stable.
These ones had health potions though, which was surprising given that most of the people who take serious injuries here die. Someone was making a fortune on people who would never get a chance to drink the potions. Hmm. Really that is a good point... Was I getting too dangerous? Almost everyone who got hurt died nowadays... I felt that this was a good way to get overpowered people in here fast. I needed to start throwing the lower level guys a handout, or they would stop coming. How best to do this? I turned to my best source of ideas: Dani.
“What about the iron mining? That seems to calm them down a bit.” She querulously put forward. It was a literal sore spot, the chipping away of iron constantly gave me the equivalent of a headache.
She considered for a moment, “Not a bad idea, but then the apothecary up there will go out of business, leave, and there will be at least one less person you get a chance to eat. Oh, how about adding some gemstones to the iron every once in a while?”
I ventured a solution,
“That sounds good.” She pondered thoughtfully. “Might even get a few people to willingly drink poison.”
“Diabolic! That is a spectacular idea!” She was so excited that she was merrily glowing, and neither of us saw the look of greed cross the face of the man stealthily watching from above. No one in the area had seen her before now.
“You know it, Cal!” Dani joyously bubbled. She returned to invisibility, getting ready for the show. A five-man group hesitantly walked in, surprising me with their low levels. Only one was out of the F-ranking, and he was a low D-rank. For the first group to get here, outside of Dale's, to be so low ranked astonished me. Well, free food and all that I supposed. Beggars and choosers and whatnot. I took direct control of Raile, wasting no time charging at them as quietly as possible.
“There it is!” A panicking voice shrieked.
“Why is it so big?” yelled another. “It didn’t look nearly this big from above!”
“Just get ready!”
Another yell from above alerted me that people had noticed a fight starting and were scrambling to make bets. Cheering filtering down gave the group determination as they dived to get out of the way of my charging Boss. One dived a second too late and Raile’s armored paw, as large as a small bear’s, crushed the bones between himself and the floor, grinding the now shattered leg into the granite floor. The man’s scream resounded in the enclosed space, and the cheering abruptly cut off. They must have realized they were about to see someone die, a first for the Boss room. The show became a whole new event, as people prepared themselves to witness death firsthand.
The other group members sprang to their fallen friends’ aid, valiantly and pointlessly charging. I ignored the downed man, he had no ranged weapons that I could see. His screams would do more damage to the group than his death would. Making directly for the rest of the group, Raile sprang upward, and came to the earth with a thunderous clap of stone striking flesh. One of the men had shoved the other out of the way, taking the entire weight of Raile’s body himself and dying silently. Raile nearly slipped as he regained his footing, blood and gore oozing from the underside of his armor, as he turned to attack again.
The furious men now got as close as they could, beating on Raile with flanged maces and armor-shattering Warhammers. They had certainly brought the correct tools for fighting Raile; even so, the damage they did was surprising, especially for such a small, weak group. I thought for a moment, realizing they were attacking in fury, their pulped friend driving them to become enraged. As Raile moved to jump again, a lucky swing from a Warhammer hit the joint of his knee just before he pounced. The jump interrupted, Raile flopped down, knee cap broken. Still dangerous, but far less limber, he squealed and ran at another man, clipping him with his charge.
*Oof!* was all I heard over the crash of armor and the wet tearing of skin as bone became visible from the inside of my victim's chest. He spun mostly out of the way of the attack, falling to his knees as he wheezed for breath with broken ribs.
Another mace crashed down taking out the mobility of my/Raile’s back legs this time. Raile pulled himself along as the teammates, those able to do so, cheered. Cockily, one walked around to th
e front of a very slow moving Raile, and raised his mace to start trying to break through his armor. After a few hard hits, Raile flopped down, stunned, as the granite chipped and cracked. The attack broke off for a moment as the man caught his breath. He wiped his brow, smiling and laughing, obscuring his vision just long enough for a golden streak to reach Raile and *boop* him on the nose.
A scream too high pitched for the humans to hear went through Raile as his legs twisted, mending his bones. His head stopped ringing, his torn muscles healed, and he leapt at the man in front of him, bearing him to the ground. There was not much power to the attack, as he had not had time to build momentum, but that mattered little as the man’s body caved in under Raile. The man weakly tried to strike him, failing as a rush of Essence flowing to me signaled the man had been killed. Triumphant, I turned Raile’s head to look for more adversaries as the pointed end of a Warhammer smashed down onto the cracked armor on Raile’s head, crushing through it and into his brain.
Dani silently comforted me as the men rolled Raile away from their fallen comrade. Very respectfully, the ambulatory members lay him against the wall and moved to collect their other fallen comrade. They walked to where he had been obliterated, but I had finished absorbing him by then. They looked confused, then horrified as they turned to rush back to the man they had placed by the wall.
The men were entirely destroyed as a group. The ones not openly weeping were staring stony faced at the somber spectators above them. Their audience had a few intermixed who were swapping silver, and the adventurers below quickly grew furious.
“They made this fight look so easy! Not once were they seriously hurt!” One was raging. “I’m gonna make sure everyone knows this fight is ridiculous! No one will ever bother coming down here again!”
A rain of items fell around Raile, catching the men off guard and making them startle badly. Heh. Gotta have fun somehow, right? I dropped a massive Warhammer with an Inscription at each end, both powered by Essence they would have to provide at the hilt. The Rune near the hilt allowed the hammer to be near weightless, while the one at the top made the force of the swing be multiplied many times over. If they could use that in a fight correctly, it could shatter Raile’s armor like glass. In a sneaky move, I had also placed the ‘binding’ site directly under the activation, whoever used it would be the only one who could, until that owner died at least.
I dropped one boot, which had a perfect liquid repulsion Rune, which I bet would become very popular when people found out about the acid trap. The Rune was large enough to have an area of effect that surrounded the person wearing it, they could jump in a lake without getting damp. On a whim, I also gave them a Sword with the sharpening augmentation. Inside of it I placed a low powered Beast Core that would be able to hold a charge from the activator, allowing them to use it freely in combat if they charged it beforehand.
That oughtta do it. They looked at the loot uncomprehendingly, so I dropped three extra large pieces of gold. That shook em out of their reverie, and looks of joy replaced the bitter anger on their faces. They were still grieving, but could sell these items for enough to live in comfort for the rest of their lives if they stopped being cultivators. The man who had killed Raile picked up the War Hammer, and in a decidedly stupid act, activated the Rune. The oversized hammer suddenly light in his hands, he nearly stumbled.
He took a few swings, one-handed, to the amazement of all onlookers. Then, grinning darkly, he swung as hard as he could at the corpse of Raile, which shattered into hundreds of shards. One of those shards flew into the head of his teammate on the ground with the broken leg, killing him near instantly.
“Oh, no! No! NO!!” The Warhammer wielding man cried as he dropped to his knees next to his impaled friend, openly weeping. The last remaining man gathered the loot, and slowly the two ascended the stairs together, taking strength in their friendship and survival, despite the horrible cost. They opened the door at the top, to condolences and cheers. I turned in contemplation toward Dani.
~Dale~
A lazy day in the Capitol was just what Dale had needed. A vacation from the dungeon, no matter how short, had greatly relaxed him. He and Hans had gone to a bath house and soaked in the steaming water for hours, relaxing their muscles as professional cleaners washed their armor and clothes. Then, as twilight threatened, they returned to the portal area and paid an exorbitant ten silver for a return trip, a sobering reminder that they only got to leave their home for free.
“Ow. My wallet.” Hans whined as they made their way through the portal.
Dale dropped to the ground, dry heaving again, but not as violently as the first time. “Ow. My body.” He whined, making Hans laugh as Dale made fun of him.
“You forgot to close your eyes again, I see.” Hans pulled Dale to his feet, and looked up at the camp swarming with unfamiliar faces and sounds. One area seemed far more energetic than the rest, so they moved to take a look at what was going on. Hans got closer, then they saw a duo of men being escorted to the portal by none other than Guild Master Frank. One of the men, maybe in his mid-twenties, was holding a gigantic Warhammer, both were being followed by two men carrying small but heavy chests.
“What’s going on do you think?” Dale murmured to Hans.
Hans shrugged and they followed the men to the portal, where they vanished after a brief talk with the portal attendant. He waved down Frank as he walked back, and wondered aloud about what was going on.
“Oh. You haven’t heard then?” Frank raised his eyebrow in surprise. “You must have just gotten back.”
“Heard what? We took the evening off and went to the pleasure house for dinner.” Hans prodded him.
Frank looked shocked, “Without me? Fine, see if you get a bonus this year. What you just saw was the first group to complete the dungeon, beside yours of course.”
Dale was perplexed, “Just the two of them?”
“Well. Those were the survivors, they were non-Guild, and ignored the recommendation that it was a D-ranked minimum.” Frank told him a bit sadly.
Hans winced, “Five-man team to start?” Frank nodded, and Hans shook his head empathetically.
“Why are they leaving? Did they just give up after their friends died?” Dale inferred.
“Well, one of them did. The hammer man is coming back, if he can find anyone to team up with anyway. Activated that Warhammer when it was dropped by the Boss, and took a swing in petty revenge. That rock covered rabbit shattered, and a shard killed one of his wounded teammates. Most people don’t see it as an accident, but as an idiot with a stupidly powerful weapon.” Frank shook his head at the foolishness.
“Oh wow.” Dale commiserated with the poor man.
Hans mind went on a different route, “Is he thinking of selling that hammer off?” Greed was lighting his eyes.
Frank grimaced at the typical behavior, “No, it bound to him when he activated it. The Spotters say the binding and the activation are in the same spot, that hammer is his till he dies. They did get two other inscribed items and some loose gold, which will make you very happy, Dale.”
“Why? What?” Dale looked at him confusedly. “Three people died, I’m not happy! I’m not a bad guy, why does everyone
seem to think I am an asshole?”
“Um. I’m thinking there is something going on that I don’t know about…” Frank seemed a bit confused himself. “Not what I was talking about though. Remember how you make a portion of everything that is made? Even the three percent you made off just those two items paid off more than half the debt for your armor. Combine that with the open portal, and your personal dungeon dives, I’m betting you will be paid off in a month, less if more people complete the dungeon.” Frank stated cheerfully.
“What! They must have been worth thousands of gold then!” Dale was flabbergasted.
“They certainly were! One of them was a boot that repelled all liquids, and with the new acid traps, it sold at auction for nearly fifteen hundred gold.” Frank cheerfully told him.
“Was it…? Was it Josh’s boot that Raile, the Boss Mob, took off?” Hans’s eyes bulged as he tried to hold back a deep laugh.
“Hah! It was! The size is different, though!” Frank crowed, slapping his knee as he laughed. “He’s gonna be so pissed!”
Dale wanted to know what the other item was, so Frank told him about the unique sword that had been found, while Hans’ jaw dropped lower and lower.
“It holds a charge?!” Hans finally exploded. “Why would you not wait for me to get back here before you sold it?!”
“You know how these things go, sell it for the best price or put it up for extended auction. They heard a good price and chose to sell.” Frank’s grin told Dale he was happy to have had less competition.
“You bought it! I knew it!” Hans was furious, “You have to give me a chance to buy it!”
“Nah.” Frank allowed, very blasé about the situation. He spun on his heel and ran.
“Whaddaya mean, ‘nah’?” Hans roared, running off after him.
Dale looked at the portal, thinking of the loss that group must be feeling. He hoped the gold they had earned would help them through. Now, it was time to get some rest, he had a long day of monster hunting tomorrow. Maybe he could get some new items?