Shortly after that, the final few people staying inside of the Hall and its environs entered, and she was glad to see that Sterge, Gwenda, and their group were among their numbers.
Chapter 23
“Wow!”
Sterge couldn’t agree with Gwenda more. “I know, this sure is a lot of people, isn’t it?”
“For some reason, this many people didn’t seem as bad when they were camping out on the fields near The Village.”
Sterge led the others toward their room, which was thankfully on the bottom floor – though it was also nearest the bathing room. Fortunately, some enterprising young Raider had developed and taught others how to make a handy folding screen made from thick woven grass and a minimum of wood for support to use as a privacy barrier to the room. Not only did it block out people from seeing into their room, but it also helped to block out a good deal of noise; otherwise, they might have to listen to everyone who was using the bathing room to “eliminate their waste” while they were trying to sleep. The process of which had been improved by some more of those folding screens, so that anyone using the hole in the ground would have some privacy.
“Are you sure you wanted to stay in here? The Village is, like, yours; I would think you would’ve rather have stayed there,” William asked as they walked.
The truth was, he would’ve preferred that, especially after they managed to find shelter for everyone not inside the mountain there, and everyone had plenty of food to last until far past the thaw and spring rolled around – thanks to the plots of soil that had proven to be extremely potent. Not only did anything they planted in the “magic dirt” (as many people liked to call it) grow and be ready for harvest in 24 hours – which was amazing by itself – but the soil never seemed to lose any of its potency. Every once in a while in the fields nearest the village, they had to leave some fallow, leaving the remnants of previous harvests to decay into the ground and make it usable again. This dirt, however, seemed to always be ready to go, with no loss of performance, no matter how many crops were planted.
It was a farmer’s dream come true.
Working around the clock, they were able to plant, periodically water (which required a lot of water for each harvest cycle), and then harvest all of the crops in a rotation, so that there were always some growing or needing to be harvested. That had led to an almost endless line of wagons being brought into the cave system, which was brought back to The Village for the residents and Raiders staying there. In fact, transporting so many vehicles and the nearly constant foot traffic had ended up creating first a pathway, and then a road of sorts in between the grand Hall and The Village.
Therefore, not only did both areas have more than enough food to get through the winter, but they actually had to ship some few wagons north because they realized that it would spoil before they managed to consume it. As a result, things were going to be fine in all of the buildings, their home, which was why Sterge would’ve liked to spend the month there. It was familiar, after all, and he liked it there.
But, unfortunately, responsibility crept up and nipped that thought in the bud.
“You know why we have to be here, William,” Gwenda said, pointing to herself and Sterge. “But if you don’t want to stay here, there’s still room—”
“And miss out on staying inside of a dungeon for a month? Now that’s just crazy,” Evy said with a straight face, but Sterge could hear the humor in her voice.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t miss it for 50 gold coins…100, maybe, but certainly not 50,” Mordecai joked.
Sterge had to admit that they were glad their group had decided to join them, because otherwise it would’ve been extremely boring without them. Not only were they fun to be around, but they were also generally good people, and they had worked hard over the last month to help get their temporary home inside the mountain into shape. The same could be said of many of the other Raiders, though for the most part they had worked because they had no choice if they wanted somewhere warm to stay when the very air seemed to freeze come winter. Evy, Mordecai, and William, though, wanted to help, regardless of the benefit that might come from it.
As for why Sterge and Gwenda had to be there, staying in the mountain over the winter, it was more a matter of they couldn’t not stay there. It was them that had a connection with the dungeon, and Gwenda (logically so) wasn’t sure what would happen with all of these people trapped inside without someone being able to communicate with the dungeon. If something went wrong and they weren’t there to decipher what the dungeon’s presence wanted from them, then it could be a disaster for everyone involved.
Naturally, they weren’t going to let something like that happen if they could be there to prevent it.
As they were walking toward their room, to make sure everything was still prepared for them, something caught his attention at the end of the Hall. A small crowd had gathered near the back wall, though it wasn’t near the tunnel leading to the plots of soil there; instead, they were looking at something that he couldn’t see from his current location.
“We better check that out.”
A quick jog down the long Hall brought them to the crowd, which had slightly grown in number. When Sterge finally got to the front, Gwenda on his heels, he immediately saw what the commotion had been: there were a pair of small, Hill Dwarf-sized holes in the wall. Not just the general dimensions of a Hill Dwarf, but the exact dimensions of both Sterge and Gwenda. It literally appeared as if someone had taken the two Hill Dwarves and then smashed them through the wall.
He looked at Gwenda and nodded toward the holes, instinctively knowing what they needed to do. Of course, having an audience wasn’t ideal, but they couldn’t really hide it now. Fortunately, having the special designation as the ones who had found the dungeon in the first place, there were rumors abound concerning a special connection with it; normally that would be a little concerning, but ever since the “miracle in the mountains”, it helped to at least partially explain how it appeared, and why Sterge and Gwenda were there staying with them. It wasn’t quite celebrity status, yet – which he would prefer to avoid – but this certainly wouldn’t help with his preferred anonymity.
Loudly, he stated to the crowd, “I think we need to check this out. We’ll be right back.”
Without hesitation, he pulled Gwenda along and stepped up to the hole in the wall. Slowly, he shuffled forward, as the outline of his body wouldn’t allow for him to pick up his feet to walk, as he squeezed through the cut-out without more than a hair’s breadth to spare. It is uncanny how accurate this is. Luckily, the thickness of the wall wasn’t more than a few inches thick, so it didn’t take long to get through. Gwenda popped out just after him, and Sterge looked up to see a gigantic tunnel with an arched ceiling leading off in the distance, curving at some point so he couldn’t see the end.
On the wall nearest him, Sterge noticed something different from the uniform appearance of the impressive passageway. There was another plaque similar to the one they had first seen warning them about the blue-skinned, six-armed people that had attacked the dungeon. This one, though, wasn’t so much a warning as it was welcoming.
“Is this for real?” he couldn’t help but say out loud after he finished reading. The message that was conveyed to them was about some sort of room at the end of the tunnel designed for entertainment, though he was a little confused about what that entertainment was supposed to be. All the plaque said concerning the entertainment was that an appropriate opponent would be selected that would be the least challenging at first, but that a simple request could be put forth for something more difficult. In addition, there was no limit to the number of contestants, whatever that meant, but that the reward would be much less the more contestants there were.
He scratched his head, now thoroughly confused. At the end of the message, there was a note about how every 24 hours the room would shut down for 12 hours, so that different challenges could be arranged. Also, that there may be a possibility of Raider
-like opponents as a challenge, and not to be alarmed.
Despite the warning, he was alarmed.
“I think…I understand what this is, but I could be wrong.” Gwenda’s response was soft, as if she was afraid her voice would carry too far. “We’ll have to explore later, though, as this says that it will open up in approximately 12 hours. That should give us a good night of sleep; I don’t know about you, but all of this preparation over the last month has exhausted me. Let’s go.”
He wasn’t going to argue, because the exhaustion was deep in his bones. They had been going since dawn that morning, finishing up the little details needed to ensure everything was taken care of before they were locked down in the mountain, and Sterge was ready for some sleep. He followed Gwenda back to the wall and shuffled out of his cut-out to the waiting crowd outside. Looking back, he noticed that while the hole was technically still there, it was now covered up on the opposite side by stone.
“What is it?”
“What’s in there?”
“What did you find?”
“Did the dungeon speak to you?”
“Tell us!”
Sterge held his hands up for silence, which came slowly, but he waited until it was down to a murmur. Gwenda took over, thankfully, because Sterge really wasn’t a fan of public speaking.
“There is something that could be beneficial for us, but we’ll have to wait to find out until tomorrow; apparently, in 12 hours it will open up and we can find out more,” she started, which was met with disappointed growls and demands for more information. “We have a few details, but it really won’t make sense until we actually see it in person. So, for now, let’s all get a good night’s sleep and we’ll pick this up again tomorrow.”
Ignoring the calls for her to explain what those details were, Gwenda walked away and Sterge was quick to follow. Luckily, no one impeded their progress, and they were met on their way to their room by the rest of their group. No one said anything until they were inside and their privacy screen unfolded, but Sterge could see the questions in their eyes.
Sitting down on their cots, Gwenda softly regaled them with what little information they had, keeping her voice from carrying beyond the boundaries of their room. It wasn’t that they were worried about the information getting out, but more about people having unreasonable expectations that they could neither confirm nor deny without seeing it themselves.
“That would be incredible if that’s indeed what it is,” Evy said, a glint in her eyes. “If we’re to be stuck in here, having some sort of entertainment and a way to gain Power at the same time could be just the thing we need.”
Sterge hadn’t even thought of that. He had been more focused on what the “entertainment” was than anything else, but it made sense. Instead of them delving through a dungeon in order to find monsters to slay, the monsters would come to them. Or at least, come to those participating in the battles. If that was indeed what it was.
There were still too many unknowns.
Not for long, though, because Sterge fell asleep not too much later. When he woke up, the rest of his group was waiting for him, and appearing to be as hungry as he was. Fortunately, during their preparations over the last month, they had converted one of the rooms nearby into a “kitchen” of sorts where they could get some food.
There was a line out the door when they arrived, but they didn’t take advantage of their status to cut in line. Instead, they spent the next half-hour waiting their turn, and when they were finally able to get inside Sterge saw that the kitchen was working better than he had thought it would.
Three Elementalists, Level 15, 16, and 19 Casters who chose the Class when they hit Level 10, were the main power behind the whole operation. They were able to use their abilities to heat things up, including the multitude of ovens and stoves throughout the room, which was realistically the only way they could cook or bake anything. Using wood to fuel a cookfire was both impractical because they didn’t have nearly enough wood for more than a few days of keeping them going, and because the smoke inside of an enclosed space would likely kill people before long. It was quite possible that the dungeon presence would clean the air automatically like it did through its other dungeons, but they couldn’t guarantee that.
Therefore, magically created heat was the best alternative. The Elementalists as well as the rest of the staff, who were non-Raiders that had journeyed south to escape the problems up north, were being paid by Sterge and Gwenda for their work, though admittedly it was a small amount. However, it was one of the few jobs they had inside of the mountain, and it wasn’t like they had to worry about expenses right now in any other form.
When they had gotten their food and brought it out to the main Hall to eat on the floor – the 20-odd tables that they had managed to bring with them being full of people already – Sterge estimated that it had been just about 12 hours already. He wasn’t sure how he knew, because inside of the stone cave there was no way to safely tell time, and looking outside was a bit dangerous unless he was fully bundled up; the snow was likely already piling up out there. Regardless, it just felt like enough time had passed, as if some internal clock of his was keeping track of time even if he couldn’t visually mark time’s passing.
Sure enough, as soon as they started walking towards where his and Gwenda’s cut-outs were still relatively visible in the wall, large chunks of the stone blocking them from the massive tunnel began to be removed, prompting those nearby to scurry away in a mixture of caution and fear. While they knew that they were technically inside of a dungeon, it was quite a difference actually seeing physical evidence of that knowledge.
By the time Sterge and his group arrived, all of the stone blocking the passageway was gone, leaving it fully open for anyone to enter. He looked inside for some evidence of the plaque that had given them some information, but there was no sign of it ever being there.
Gwenda turned to the awaiting crowd, which was getting larger by the moment as Raiders saw the sudden opening of a brand-new tunnel and gathered their gear. Thankfully, there was but a hushed murmur throughout the audience as Gwenda began to speak.
“We don’t necessarily know what we will find, but we believe it is something that will be beneficial to us!” she shouted, to be heard over the entire crowd, a few hundred strong by that point and growing. “That doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous, so we need to keep our eyes open and be prepared for anything. From what little we do know, this tunnel will lead to the west, where the dungeon is located – so keep that in mind.” Without further word, she led the march into the tunnel, followed by a veritable army of Raiders armed to the teeth and ready for any type of threat that might occur.
The walk was long, probably because they had a few Scout Classes out front checking for traps, but overall it wasn’t a horrible walk. The temperature inside of the tunnel, like everywhere else in the cave, was steady – not too cold nor too hot – so to Sterge the walk felt more leisurely than anything. Finally, after about an hour of the tunnel curving and winding just enough that they couldn’t see too far ahead, they came to what appeared to be their destination.
Walking into the room, Sterge immediately felt smaller than normal, as if he had been shrunk down to insect size. Not through any magical means, naturally, but by the sheer size of the gigantic space they entered. The ceilings were hundreds of feet above their heads, taller than even the Hall where they were currently staying, and from what he could see the walls were hundreds of feet apart, nearly the length of the Hall or perhaps longer. It was a little hard to see, honestly, because there were large, angled stone walls blocking his view to the left (which was colored blue) and right (which was colored green), as well as an impressively huge column wrapped in what appeared to be cloudy glass blocking his sight of anything ahead. What was even more impressive was the ceiling, which had a light-blue color to it with streaks of white scattered throughout; it nearly looked like they were outside, with the room open to the sky.
Stairs were cut into the left and right walls, however, as well as there being a small pathway that led around the stone column. While Sterge and his group cautiously worked their way up the stairway leading up one of the walls, he looked back to see other Raider groups doing the same behind him and on the other wall. One of the stronger groups he recognized, led by Anton – an interesting Level 20 Melee Raider that had chosen to be a Bulwark Class, protected from head to toe in steel armor – decided to see what was around the column.
As soon as Sterge got to the top of the stairs, he joined the rest of his group in looking out into the room, seeing that there were two other sections of the room with colored stone in addition to the green one he was standing on and the blue one near the entrance, in red and yellow. In the center of the room, below the colored stone sections that had what appeared to be tiered stairs cut into them, was a dirt floor that encompassed at least 200 feet on each side of a huge square. Now that he could see further, he could see that there were multiple tunnels underneath each of the multi-colored sections, though their purpose was still a mystery.
Anton and his group were the only ones that had ventured around the column, and Sterge watched the 5 of them cautiously walk out into the center of the cleared dirt space. As soon as they passed through the center, the Hill Dwarf was startled when he suddenly felt a sudden thump underneath the large stone section he was standing on, accompanied by the sound of stone striking stone.
He wasn’t the only one that heard it, as Anton and the others with him turned towards the green section and brought their weapons to bear, looking at a spot underneath where Sterge and his group were standing. From below, 10 shapes shot out onto the dirt, heading straight for those waiting for them, and the Hill Dwarf immediately recognized them as foxes, very similar to the ones he’d first seen when entering the dungeon for the first time.
The Dungeon Fairy: Three Lives: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 3) Page 22