Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 2
Page 83
The problem with that was two-fold. One, this cart was a different gauge than the employee line. The wheels were too close together, so we wouldn’t be able to drive it on the tracks. And two, in order to get it there, we had to physically pick up the cart and carry it across dozens of other tracks, all through an area crawling with both ghouls and minions of the mimic.
We eased out of the tunnel and paused, taking in the massive cavern. The main, fenced-in area of trainyard E was still a good half of a mile away. I could see the wrecked remnants of the giant fence. The massive gate still stood, and so did the real administrative building. I could smell the acrid stench of burnt wood and bodies.
The walls here were dotted with dozens of cave entrances, and the ground was filled with just as many train tracks. Corpses lay everywhere, mostly ghouls, but there was a good number of crawlers sprawled throughout.
There had to be five hundred or more monsters between here and the trainyard. Most of them were south of us, near the old building and fence.
The mimic itself was too far away to attack us directly, though I knew from dozens of frantic messages that the monster’s minions and ridiculously-long tongue were causing havoc upon anyone in the area. It loomed huge in the distance, as tall as the chamber, only half-pretending to be a building now. A pair of blimp-sized red eyes glowed. One of the towers in the trainyard collapsed as we watched, though I couldn’t see what had knocked it over.
A group of several dozen crawlers were holed up in that burnt-out administrative building fighting off the waves of ghouls and the mimic’s minions, which were apparently nothing more than giant, car-sized mouths with centipede-like legs. If you chopped them in half, it just made two of them. I could see a few of them from our position in the tunnel. The strange mobs reminded me of those wind-up toys that were nothing but a chattering mouth.
There was another group of crawlers trapped inside of a lone train car in the yard itself, unable to leave because they were within reach of the massive city boss. I only heard about them second-hand, and I had no idea if they were still there or if they had survived.
There was a lot of that, in these last, desperate hours of the fourth floor. Cries for help. Rumors of groups in need.
You will not break me. Fuck you all. You will not break me.
We really needed to deal with this thing. The mimic. It was my goddamn fault it was here in the first place. But other than sneaking past the area, our mission for the moment didn’t involve the monster. I could possibly use the portal cart to teleport it away like we did before. But we were no longer in a tunnel, with the protection that a tunnel provided, and the monster could easily get at us from the side or above or any other angle before we maneuvered the track-based cart at it. It was just too risky.
The plan was to sneak along the wall until we got to the employee line and to carry the large cart in. Hopefully we’d remain undiscovered. We’d need to protect the cart while Elle brought the Nightmare up to meet us. Elle was already in the train, waiting for my signal to come down the track and meet us. She complained that Fire Brandy was being less than helpful and wouldn’t do anything without talking to me first. At least she allowed Elle to move the train.
But then I spied the pair of mantaur creatures guarding the entrance to the employee line, and I knew that plan was out the window. With all the chaos spreading in front of them, they hadn’t noticed us yet. I eased the silent cart backward, slipping it back into the tunnel and out of sight.
“Why did we stop?” Li Na asked.
“Hang on,” I said, thinking. I formed a fist and stared down at my glove. Mantaurs.
Carl: Hey Mordecai. Quick question. If I, uh, accidentally summon the war god Grull, how long do I have before he’s un-summoned?
Mordecai: Run. Don’t fight him. He’s goddamned invulnerable. You can’t kill him. Take my special brew potion. Run. Don’t look back.
Carl: Chill. I haven’t actually summoned him. It’s just a question.
Mordecai: By the gods, Carl. Don’t scare me like that.
Carl: So…?
I actually knew the answer to this already, as it was discussed in my cookbook, but I wanted to confirm it, and I wanted to make sure there was a record of me actually asking the question.
There wasn’t a whole lot about deities in the book. What was there didn’t even warrant its own chapter. I’d found the information stuffed in the middle of the miscellaneous chapter:
Anyway, the three types of summonings. All three require a physical vessel. Usually a mob. There are celestial boons, which is when a worshipper prays to a god, and he comes to fight for his worshipper. There are indentured summonings, where a powerful mage summons the deity to fight for him for a short time. This is against the god’s will, and they are usually pissed when it happens. And finally there are involuntary summonings. That’s when some poor fool accidentally summons the god because of some trap or spell or just bad luck. The gods are usually pissed about this one, too, and what’s worse, they arrive untethered, which allows them to smash everything in sight.
In my short experience, all three scenarios lead to the summoner’s death. Even the first scenario. Don’t trust deities under any circumstance. Just stay the fuck away. That’s my advice.
Following this was a second note by Coolie, which focused mostly on involuntary summonings, which is what happened when I used my gauntlet. Apparently this was a pretty common thing, a way to collect more sponsorship money. God-summoning equipment was sprinkled throughout the dungeon, allowing for special guest appearances. Oftentimes the deity spots were purchased by celebrities. It was a safe way to get in on the game if one wasn’t part of one of the dynastic families who controlled the armies of the 9th floor.
At the end of all that, there was one additional note. It wasn’t something I’d be able to utilize any time soon, but it was interesting, and I filed the information away.
It took Mordecai an unusually long time to answer my question. I suspected he was consulting with Donut to make sure I wasn’t planning anything stupid.
Mordecai: A deity involuntarily summoned lasts as many seconds as the level of the vessel plus as many seconds as the god’s level. Grull i
s a sanctum-tier deity, which means he is level 250. Mantaurs are level 40, so it would be for a total of 290 seconds.
That was slightly different than what it said in my book, but the end result was similar. Actually, better. It said they’d last for about five minutes. They probably didn’t know the exact formula. I quickly added it to the book.
Carl: How big will he be?
Mordecai: Why are you asking this?
Carl: Running low on time, Mordecai.
Mordecai: The answer is kind of complicated. The short answer is once summoned, he will grow until he fills the chamber he is in. Like that rage elemental you faced earlier. The real version can change sizes, but if he’s summoned the rules are different. Summoning is a very complicated process that we don’t have time to explain.
Carl: Wait, so if I summon him into a potion vial, he’ll be tiny?
Mordecai: Yes. But he’ll be strong enough to get out unless you build the proper sigil, and none of you are level-20 summoners, so that’s not going to happen.
Carl: Gotcha. One more question. After he’s summoned, how long before I can summon again. Can I summon him again right away?
Mordecai didn’t answer for a long moment.
Mordecai: Once he’s summoned and then unsummoned, you can bring him back right away. There’s no cooldown. You can also steal him from one summoning to a second summoning. So if he’s captured in a sigil, and a worshipper summons him again via a different means, the god will break his containment and move to the new vessel. This… this is very important to know. I learned it the hard way. The hardest way possible.
Carl: Thanks, Mordecai.
Mordecai: Now don’t you even dare think about…
I closed out the chat. I turned to the others. “The plan has changed.”
“To what?” Li Na asked the same time Katia said, “Uh oh.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll figure it out as we go.”
* * *
I stepped out from the tunnel, loaded the banger sphere in my xistera, and I spun, hurling it at the pair of mantaurs. They were pretty far away, and I honestly didn’t think I could possibly throw the damn thing that distance, but sure enough, the round ball sailed directly at them. My aim was off, but the metal ball hit the ground just in front of them with a plink. One of them reached down to pick it up. My second ball was already in the air, and this one hit home, crashing into the creature’s head. He cried out in pain. A distant health bar appeared over him.
Their dots had been the white of NPCs, but the ghouls weren’t attacking them, and I had multiple reports of them attacking all crawlers on sight. Their dots both turned red the moment they saw me there. I waved and waited. They fell forward and started galloping toward us. They moved quickly, but in an odd, halting fashion, straight out of a horror movie.
“They really are disturbing,” Donut said from my shoulder. “They should have two pairs of legs and one set of arms, not one pair of legs and two pairs of arms.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty weird,” I agreed.
“Li Na is really mad at you about this,” Donut said. “She called you an idiot.”
“That's because I am an idiot,” I said. “I've never denied it.”
We stepped back into the tunnel to wait for them.
All of us stood in front of the cart. All except Zhang, who now stood in the cart’s cockpit, ready to turn it off if he had to. The portal swirled ominously behind our backs. From the business side of the portal, it looked like a pool of mercury. I had an inexplicable desire to reach out and stick my hand into the pool of magic. And then it would be over. All of this would be over.
The two creatures came galloping up, screaming at the tops of their lungs. They both had their Wolverine-style claws out and ready to engage.
“Hail! The battle is met!” one of them cried just as Katia, who’d been cosplaying as an oddly-placed wall pillar, swung down with all of her might onto the creature’s back, pinning him to the ground like he’d been caught in a mousetrap. She held the powerful creature still the best she could. The mob cried out and scrabbled at the ground with his claws, showering rock.
Li Na bounced off the wall as a glowing chained ratcheted out of her arm on her dress. She flipped in the air, lassoing the chain around the creature’s neck. He glowed blue, called Li-Na a wench, and closed his eyes.
The neighborhood boss fell into unconsciousness. He’d remain that way for a full minute, though she could do it again another four times she said until she had to rest.
Holy shit, she’s something else I thought. How did Li Jun hit the top ten and not her?
And then I saw how Li Jun had earned his spot on the list.
I dropped a smoke curtain as Donut pumped a magic missile into the second mantaur. Katia remained atop the first, but her crossbow appeared and started pumping bolts into him. The creature howled as he stood to his full height. “Kill with power! Die! Die!” he shouted. His clawed hands glinted in the tunnel’s light.
He charged directly in my general location despite the smoke curtain.
Li Jun, standing to my right, had cast a buff onto his hands that caused them to glow red. He slid forward, sliding along the track, and he slammed a fist into the creature’s leg, ducking under a savage swipe that surely would’ve decapitated him. The leg shattered, causing the monster to cry out and tumble forward. Li Jun backflipped as the monster fell, again narrowly dodging a swipe of the claw.
Before I could react, Li Jun bounced off my shoulders and leaped forward. He sailed over the still-falling monster, landing behind him. The creature swiped forward. Mongo, who’d been to my left, dodged and savagely tore at his upper left while a mounted Donut pumped magic missiles point-blank into its head.
“Don’t kill him!” I said, stepping forward. “Get ready!”
“A warrior’s death is a good death,” he croaked just as Mongo tore through his arm, completely severing off the metallic claw. The dinosaur roared, louder than I’d ever heard. Donut was also screaming. She shot one more missile into the creature’s face. Despite all this, that large creature’s health was only about 3/4’s gone.
“Jesus, stop,” I yelled. “Remember what we’re doing here.”
I punched the dazed and dying mantaur in the arm. The one not mangled by Mongo. I felt it break, like a heavy branch snapping.
1.5
I jabbed down with my foot, landing atop the back of the metal blades coming from the top of the creature’s hand. More bone splintered under my heel, bursting suddenly from the skin. The thing groaned in pain. I leaned forward and punched again. And again. I punched until the notification over the creature’s head finally started to blink.
“I feel the power,” he croaked. “He comes. Oh god, my purpose is fulfilled. He is risen!”
A ten-second timer appeared over his head.
“Come on!” I yelled, jumping forward. Me, Li Jun, and Li Na reached down to pick him up. He was heavy as shit, even with our combined strength.
“Grull comes,” he cried. He reached down with his two lower arms and clamped onto the track, making it so we couldn’t push him closer to the portal.
Eight seconds.
“Zhang,” I yelled. We’d anticipated this.
Zhang eased the cart forward as Mongo and Donut scrambled past us, getting out of the way. If we couldn’t bring him to the portal, we’d bring the portal to him. This was dangerous, though, as we had to let go before he got sucked in.
Five seconds.
“Countdown!” I cried. “Three, two, one, drop him!”
We all jumped back just as the creature’s head hit the portal. The timer was at one second.
He got sucked away.
And at that moment as he disappeared, I realized with horror he’d let go of the track with his lower hand, and he had that same hand wrapped tightly around my foot.
My invulnerability, I thought, as I was also pulled into the portal. I couldn’t feel his hand because my foot is numb. How fucking ironic.<
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A note from DoctorHepa
Happy Halloween everybody!
Next two chapters will finish off the floor! Have a great weekend everybody. I don't know if you do the whole daylight savings thing in other countries. Somehow I doubt it. But to my American friends who don't live in Arizona, don't forget to turn those clocks back so you have an extra hour to sleep and digest all that candy you didn't get to hand out this year.
Schedule:
Chapter 106/107 - Double Chapter Grand Finale Monday, November 2nd 6 PM PST/6:30 PM PST
(If the world hasn't burned to the ground thanks to the US election)
Chapter 108 (Epilogue) - Thursday, November 5th 6PM PST
Chapter 106
Entering Trainyard E.
The idea, had it worked properly, would’ve played out something like this:
We summon Grull, and using the portal to the trainyard, we throw him at the mimic.
Zhang immediately switches the train portal back to the abyss. It takes ten seconds for this to happen.
During this time, the war god Grull hopefully kills the mimic.
Before trainyard Grull does too much additional damage or figures out where we are relative to his position, I pound the second, unconscious mantaur silly in order to initiate the summoning sequence once again. Another ten seconds.
We throw the second mantaur into the portal, but this time we send him to the abyss. We do it when he has about one or two seconds left on his summoning. That way when he transforms, he’s already on the other side, but it’s before he splats against the pile of the crap at the bottom of the pit.
The god is now way on the other side of the floor, and he can’t get to us. Not in four minutes and 50 seconds. Possibly—hopefully—he takes his rage out on the multitudes of Krakaren monsters and ghouls and the province boss all piled atop one another.