by Phoenix Grey
Uden picked up his pace, drawing his daggers. “It appears that the powers that be are trying to tell you to shut up about it.”
He disappeared into the darkness, and Azure could hear a skirmish taking place up ahead. Each time the half-imp emerged, he looked more and more exhausted, his Stamina at less than 25%.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to take over?” Azure raised a brow.
“Just one more.” Uden held up a finger.
“Just one more,” he parroted with a nod. It could be dangerous to let Uden’s Stamina get too low.
Knowing it was pointless, Azure didn’t bother bringing up Janine again. Nature would take its course however it did.
Another enemy came, and Uden quickly dispatched of it. Then it was Azure’s turn to take over. Bored out of his mind, he was happy to see some action.
Now was as good a time as any to test out his new Gnollish Club. Of course, as soon as he passed the torch over to Uden and pulled it from his Bag of Holding, the half-imp had something snarky to say.
“Are you really going to use that thing? You look like a caveman.”
“If you saw the stats of this thing, you wouldn’t be making fun of it.” Azure’s eyes raked up the side of the club. It looked like nothing more than a large conical piece of wood, crudely carved.
“I’m not sure it would be worth it.” He snorted at the club in distaste.
“It would buff you up quite a bit. But you don’t meet the level requirement.” Azure gave Uden a mock look of sympathy, at which the half-imp playfully threatened him with the torch, holding it like a club of his own.
By the time their banter was at an end, another kobold warrior had appeared.
Level 6 Kobold Warrior.
The two charged at each other, Azure with his club held overhead, and the kobold rushing in like an idiot. He slammed the weapon down on its thick skull, caving it in with a sickening thud, the weight of the club aiding its descent.
Critical Hit! Defeated Level 6 Kobold Warrior. 36XP rewarded.
“You made that look easy,” Uden said with a slight frown.
“That’s because it was easy.” Azure stared at the sunken body before him. There was an indentation from the club in the creature’s skull. “Want to see something else cool? Check this out.”
“I never said you looked cool,” the half-imp grumbled as he watched Azure lift his Loot Automizer Pendant toward the kobold.
The body of the kobold began to glitter bright maroon, then it fell away, leaving an oblong orb behind.
Uden’s eyes widened in wonder as Azure picked the orb up. “What is it?”
“You’ll see.” He held the orb, and it began to change, leaving behind a long bone.
You have received the following item:
Kobold Leg Bone
Item Class: Common
Quality: Average
Weight: 0.1 kg
Uses: Loot. Sell for coin.
“Oh, I am so jealous right now,” Uden confessed. “I have got to get one of those. Where did you get it?”
Azure shook his head, a smug grin across his face. “I don’t think you can buy it. I looted it from a chest in the last dungeon we were in.”
Greed filled the half-imp’s eyes. “Hopefully, we can find another one in here.”
“I doubt it. There doesn’t seem to be much in this cave.” He gazed ahead into the darkness.
“You never know. Dungeons always have good shit. Maybe I’ll even find something better.” The half-imp winked at him. “I do have Luck on my side, after all.”
“I bet mine beats yours right now,” Azure said as they continued down the tunnel. “Care to compare?”
“16,” Uden declared proudly.
“19. Eat a dick!” He couldn’t keep the grin from taking over his face as the half-imp scowled. Though he had to admit that a 16 in luck was still impressive considering all that Uden had lost.
“I thought you weren’t into boys.” The half-imp quickly recovered from his disappointment, sliding a hand onto Azure’s shoulder.
He shrugged it off. “Eat someone else’s dick.”
All humor faded from Uden’s voice as he paused. “Heads up. One ahead.”
Azure defeated the next kobold just as swiftly as the one before it. They were no challenge to him. Merely a nuisance in his way.
Defeated Level 5 Kobold Warrior. 30XP rewarded.
Up to that point, Uden had been taking the kobolds' fingers. Only their fingers. Janine had never bothered to look in her bestiary to see what was lootable, perhaps suspecting that Uden already knew since he went straight for the fingers every time. Now Azure wondered what else they were missing.
He knelt next to his kill, doing the grisly deed of butchering the body while Uden watched. It was a lot of work, and it made him wish his Loot Automizer Pendant had more charges, or at least that he would have repaired the Durability on it before coming on this quest.
You have received the following items:
Kobold Leg Bone
Item Class: Common
Quality: Average
Weight: 0.1 kg
Uses: Loot. Sell for coin.
Kobold Phalanges
Item Class: Common
Quality: Average
Weight: 0.1 kg
Uses: Crafting.
His hands were covered in blood when he was done. Taking a scrap of cloth that he'd designated for such jobs, Azure wiped his fingers off before continuing down the tunnel.
The next foe was found only a few yards down the burrow. Rinse and repeat, then TRING!
Congratulations! You are now Level 14! Your base stats have been boosted. You have earned 3 points to assign to your characteristics. Please note that adding points to some characteristics(Vitality, Intelligence, and Strength) will further boost your base stats. You may also advance any 1 skill of your choosing by 1 level.
“Oh, look. Now I’m even stronger than you,” Azure teased.
“Shut it.” Uden narrowed his eyes. “It isn’t a competition. When did you get so cocky?”
“Someone had to be cocky after you died. I guess it just stuck.” He smirked as he knelt to loot the corpse.
You have received the following items:
Kobold Leg Bone
Item Class: Common
Quality: Average
Weight: 0.1 kg
Uses: Loot. Sell for coin.
Kobold Phalanges
Item Class: Common
Quality: Average
Weight: 0.1 kg
Uses: Crafting.
“You need some time to allocate your points?” Uden asked before they continued.
“Nah. I’m good. I can do it tonight. We should finish up this level and get back to the group.” He gazed into the darkness, wondering when and where the tunnel would end. They’d been walking for hours.
“So much confidence you have now. No longer the scared boy I remember.”
“Boy? I’m older than you, you know.” Azure snorted.
It wasn’t much longer before they encountered yet another kobold warrior. He couldn’t help but feel that it was a waste of their time having him kill everything, but Uden was pretty much spent.
“This is getting boring,” Azure confessed once he finished looting the body.
“Oh, is it?” Uden responded dryly. A few yards later, he paused. “Perhaps I can make it a bit more interesting for you.”
He didn’t like the sound of that. “What are you going to do?” Azure asked, but the half-imp was already walking away from him.
Uden turned with a shit-eating grin and dropped the torch mic drop style.
“No. No. No.” Azure rushed forward to stop him, but the half-imp was too fast, stomping out the torch and disappearing into the darkness. “Oh, you asshole,” he grumbled, refusing to play into the Uden's desire for him to panic. Instead, he focused on diggi
ng into his Bag of Holding to retrieve the materials needed to relight the torch. Apparently, the half-imp had forgotten about that.
“Here kobold, kobold, kobold,” Uden said as if calling a cat except that his voice was dark and menacing. “That’s a good kobold.”
The scraping of claws against dirt that Azure typically associated with kobolds filled his ears as one came down the tunnel. Quickly, he reached for where Uden had dropped the torch, but the bastard must have predicted what he would do and taken it.
“Oh, I hate you so much right now.” Azure straightened himself, grabbing his club and listening for the approaching kobold.
“What? You said you were bored. I’m making things more...interesting.” The half-imp forced innocence into his tone.
The next thing Azure heard was a grunt followed by pain tearing across his right arm.
Level 5 Kobold Warrior delivers 25 damage.
Knowing that the creature was too dumb to back up, Azure swung his club like a baseball bat, aiming in the direction the attack had come from. It connected with a loud thud, knocking the wind from the kobold. Surprisingly, the direct hit hadn’t been enough to kill it.
“Aw, you wounded him.” Uden pouted from somewhere behind Azure. “Such a bully.”
“I’m going to wound you as soon as I can see again,” he threatened.
“Then maybe I’ll just leave you here. If I remember correctly, which I do, you grabbed a stick from outside. That means you don’t have anything to make a new torch with.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Oh, really? Clearly, you don’t know me as well as you thought. Have fun on your own.” Already, the half-imp’s voice was fading into the distance. “Hope you don’t die.”
“Uden, get back here!”
There was no sound of footsteps.
He must have activated Stealth. Fucker.
“Uden, I’m not fucking playing,” Azure seethed.
No response.
The only noise in the tunnel came from something shuffling in the dirt a few feet away. Taking cautious steps, Azure swung blindly with his club. Eventually, his foot made contact with something. Apparently, the kobold he had hit was injured enough that it was struggling to stand. A heavy downward swing ended it.
Defeated Level 5 Kobold Warrior. 30XP rewarded.
Looting the body in the dark wasn't going to happen. For the briefest of moments, Azure thought about using his Loot Automizer Pendant again, but he wasn't sure if the glittering would show in the darkness, and he didn't want to waste another Durability. Instead, he walked with hands outstretched until he felt the wall of the tunnel.
More than likely, Uden had made good on his word and left. Azure was on his own now.
Continuing toward the unknown was out of the question. Even if he was stronger than any of the foes they had encountered so far, Azure was at a disadvantage blind. Anything could sneak up on him and slit his throat, and it would all be over—regardless of level difference. The smarter thing to do was to head back, even though it killed him to know he had wasted so much time.
Using the wall as his guide, Azure slowly maneuvered back down the tunnel, praying that no more kobolds appeared. Hopefully, Uden was nearby, watching to make sure that he was all right, but Azure wasn't going to count on it. The half-imp had already left him for dead once.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
THE REALM – Day 85
It took a little over an hour of feeling his way along before Azure finally saw light approaching him. He readied his club in case it was a foe, but thankfully, Janine, Lonnell, and Uden appeared around the corner seconds later. Azure breathed a sigh of relief, though his body quickly wound up with anger from seeing the half-imp.
“You son of a bitch.” He took long strides in Uden’s direction, ready to beat him to a bloody pulp. Back on Crescent Island, the half-imp would have had the upper hand. Now, he should be easy to defeat.
“Calm down.” Lonnell stepped between them, blocking Azure’s path.
“I will not calm down. That asshole left me to die. Again!” he punctuated the last.
“Oh, stop being so dramatic.” Uden waved his anger away. “We both know you totally had that.”
“What if more kobolds had come?” Azure’s anger flared. “You, of all people, should know how easy it is to kill something of a higher level when you can sneak up on it.”
“I do.” Uden nodded. “But kobolds are stupid. They’d never plan anything other than a frontal assault.”
“How do you know that?” His voice raised several octaves.
All humor faded from the half-imp’s tone. “I read it. Do you really think I would leave you like that if I thought you were in danger? I thought you trusted me more than that.”
“How can I fucking trust you when you left me in the fucking dark!”
Now Lonnell was really having to hold him back.
Janine was standing on the sidelines several feet away looking uncomfortable. Thankfully, she wasn’t trying to step in to stop the fight.
“Oh, get over it. It was just a prank.” Uden rolled his eyes.
“It wasn’t funny,” Lonnell shot back at his brother. “You will not do it again.”
“Oh my. Listen to that voice of authority.” The half-imp smirked at him, slinking back toward Janine.
“I’m not going to protect you from this.” She held her hands up as if he had some disease.
“I don’t really need protecting.” Uden sneered, his gaze falling to the floor when he realized that none of them were quickly getting over what he had done.
“Not funny. Don’t do it again,” Lonnell repeated more firmly.
“Fine, fine.” The half-imp flicked his wrist. “I won’t do it again.”
“Promise.” Lonnell burned into him with his gaze.
Uden quickly placed a hand behind his back, crossing his fingers. “I promise.”
“He’s lying,” Janine pointed out.
“Oh, I know he is. My brother is full of those.” Lonnell glared at him.
“Fine!” The half-imp sighed, bringing both hands in front of him. “I promise that I will not leave Azure in the dark again.”
“Or any of the rest of us.” Azure moved his head to encompass all of them.
Uden rolled his eyes. “Or anyone else. I swear, you’re all just a big bunch of babies that don’t know how to have fun.”
“No.” Lonnell finally let Azure go, figuring that he had cooled down enough. “We’re all just a party of people in a dungeon that want to be able to trust each other.”
“Sure. Whatever, whatever.” The half-imp gestured absentmindedly.
Once they had all calmed down, they regrouped to discuss their findings.
“The next set of stairs is down the other tunnel,” Lonnell informed Uden and Azure.
“I have no idea what—” Azure began to say, his eyes narrowed at Uden, but the half-imp cut him off.
“Dead end.”
“Dead end? How do you know?” He quirked his head back.
“Because I checked it out while you were flailing around in the darkness.” A wide grin took over his face.
“But you went this way.” Azure pointed in the direction that Lonnell and Janine had come from. “I heard that much.”
“Stealth. I’m good at it, remember.” He winked condescendingly.
Azure’s expression drooped. “I don’t know if we should believe him.”
“We could keep going down that way,” Janine suggested, also suspecting that Uden was lying.
“No.” Lonnell shook his head. “If my brother says it’s just a dead end, then I’ll believe him.”
“If there’s nothing this way, then we should start heading back.” Azure nodded in the direction of the stairs leading to the first level, then started walking, forcing everyone else to follow. “How far is it from the first set of stairs to the next?”
“About three
and a half hours.”
“It’s already starting to get late.” He gazed up at the sky as if he could see through the roof to the fading sun.
“We can still make it to the next set of stairs before midnight,” Lonnell urged them on.
“What would really be the point, though?” Azure glanced over at his friend. “There are no challenges for us here, minus the ones we create for each other.” He cast a cutting glance in Uden’s direction. “I feel like the best thing we can do with this dungeon is use it to level him up.”
“Don’t forget about me,” Janine piped in from the side. “That’s why I came.”
“You as well,” Azure added, now regretting bringing her along. It made no sense for Janine to be in competition with Uden when he was clearly weaker. Hell, she had already leveled up past Lonnell. Janine was now the second strongest member in their party next to Azure. While he understood that she wanted to gain experience for her quest, she wasn’t the one who needed it the most right now.
“So you’re suggesting that we go back to the fork and wait out the night so that the kobolds will respawn, then head for the next level tomorrow.” Lonnell flanked his side as they walked.
“That is exactly what I’m suggesting. We have seven days to complete this, and I doubt this dungeon is ten levels deep. I think we have time.”
Lonnell twisted to look at his brother. “What about you? What do you want to do?”
“Sounds good to me. I’m pretty useless right now. Burned through my Stamina quickly.” Uden dropped his gaze to the ground.
“And you?” Lonnell turned his attention to Janine.
“You guys know I’m just along for the ride.”
“Then it’s settled. We’ll make camp early, then head out as soon as we’ve all slept enough.”
They reached the stairs, and Azure pulled his bedroll from his bag, handing it over to Uden. “Here.”