by Simon Archer
“It is acid, yes.” Crabface nodded to us. “If I remember correctly, it is quite strong.”
“So, you do know something,” I grumbled. “You lied to me.” I wasn’t sure why but the idea of that upset me greatly.
“I would never lie to you. It’s more that I forgot, and now I remember.” He tapped his temple with one claw. “It’s like the memory just reappeared if that makes sense.” He coughed once. “If I remember correctly, we need to swim through the acid—”
“How the fuck are we supposed to swim through acid?” Jodie said as she knelt down and shoved some kind of apparatus into the vat. “This stuff has a PH of one.” She sighed. “It will dissolve us into goop instantly.”
“Well, some of the acid is fake. If we swim through the fake acid, it won’t kill us.” Crabface crossed his arms over his chest.
“Oh, because that makes perfect sense,” Jodie replied with a glare. “So, mister crab person, how the fuck do we swim through the not-kill-you-instantly parts of this lake?” She gestured at the vat which all looked pretty indistinguishable. “Please enlighten me.”
“I am not sure.” He skittered closer to the edge and looked down. “It all looks the same to me. Maybe we should just jump in and hope for the best?”
“You can’t seriously expect us to just jump in a vat of acid and hope we find the hidden path through it.” Jodie shook her head. “Look, maybe I can figure out a way to neutralize it so we can progress to the platform in the middle—”
“Well, the thing is…” Crabface looked at us sheepishly. “I think the platform might be a trap, and if we go on it, well…” He drew his thumb across his throat.
“Okay, let’s take a step back,” I said as I stepped between him and Jodie so the catgirl wouldn’t throttle him. “Where do we need to go?”
“Oh, that’s easy.” He pointed at a dark spot in the acid. “There’s a puzzle there in the ancient Amorphie tongue. We merely need to go see what it says then we can figure out the riddle.”
“Got it!” Hudson said and before anyone could do anything, the High Priest dove into the acid. Thankfully, he didn’t splash very much acid onto the platform because what did hit the ground began to hiss and sizzle.
“Wow, this really hurts!” Hudson said as he bobbed to the surface and quickly raised one slowly dissolving hand into the air while the rest of his body started to smoke.
“What the fuck are you doing!” I cried as his health hit zero, and my Aura began to drain.
“Well, I can’t die, so I figured I’d just look.” Then he dove under the acid and swam over to the puzzle. He made it over just before my Aura ran out and he evaporated completely from existence.
“Wow, what a rush,” Hudson said when I resummoned him a few minutes later. “I could actually feel it eat me cell by cell.” He shook himself like a dog. “Hope I never have to do that again, but if I do, I’ll make sure I sing my Awesome song.” He grinned. “A is for the acid that burns so good. W is for the win I’ll have when this is done. E is for the Epic loot we’ll find—”
“I think I might actually hate him,” Jodie grumbled as Hudson continued.
“And M and E, well, they go together because that’s for me spending time with my liege!”
“Anyway,” I said as I watched my Aura slowly regenerate, “what did you learn?”
“Well, the platform in the middle is more like an elevator that will take us down into the boss room.” Hudson smiled brightly. “And the path is easy to find.” Then instead of telling us why it was easy, he walked over to the far left corner of the vat and jumped in. Only this time when he surfaced, he appeared to be fine. “Come on in, I’ll lead the way.” He took another step, and though he didn’t exactly melt, a giant rock appeared from the sky that crushed him flat.
“Okay, so that was a minor misstep,” Hudson said when I brought him back once more. “I should have zigged when I zagged.” He nodded. “Let me try again.”
“Or, and hear me out,” Jodie said as Hudson made his way back over to the corner, “Queenie can just fly a rope over to the other side, and we can rig up a bridge to just walk over?”
As Hudson disappeared under a swarm of acid-bees that spawned just long enough to turn him into a swelling, melting pile of flesh, I was inclined to agree because clearly the safe route had traps strewn across it.
“Yeah… let’s go with the bridge plan,” I agreed as I turned to Queenie. “Can you help Jodie, please?”
“It would be my pleasure, master,” she hedged, “but there are not many of us. Perhaps I could just carry everyone across one at a time?” The Ant Queen looked at all of us. “There are only four of you.”
“Even better, no work!” Jodie pumped a fist. “Let’s do it, la cucaracha.”
“I am not a roach.” Queenie glared at the catgirl. “Apologize.”
“Right, sorry.” Jodie had the decency to look properly chastised. “It was a very good idea, Queenie. I’m sorry for calling you a roach.”
“Mmmhmm.” Queenie held out her hand, and as Jodie stared at it in confusion, Jane elbowed her in the side.
“She wants a piece of candy,” the slime girl whispered.
“Well, I don’t have any candy.” Jodie gestured at herself. “Where would I keep it?”
“Apology not accepted,” Queenie pouted. “You will be the last to cross.”
True to her word, Queenie did transport the catgirl last, which was really fine. What was less fine was when the Ant Queen pretended to get tired due to lack of candy and acted like she was losing her grip on Jodie halfway across which resulted in me finding out catgirls had retractable claws.
“I’m so sorry for scratching you, Queenie,” Jodie implored as Queenie looked at her gouged-up arms in dismay. “I just got super scared.”
“It’s fine,” Queenie growled as she rubbed at her arms. “You now owe me two candies.”
“I’ll get you a whole bushel when we’re done,” Jodie said with a smile.
“Chocolate cremes?” Queenie asked hopefully.
“Whatever you like.” Jodie smiled brightly.
“You are forgiven.” Queenie smiled back.
“So, what do we do now?” I asked Hudson once I’d resummoned him and everyone else to my location. “Can you read that?” I pointed at the Amorphie text written on the platform beneath our feet.
“Yes.” He nodded. “It’s another set of magic words to open a door. Want me to do it?”
“Yeah,” I said after confirming everyone was ready.
“Very well,” Hudson said then began to chant once more, and this time something magical did happen because I felt myself get sucked through the fucking floor.
39
I smashed into the water below with bone-breaking force. Stars flashed across my eyes as I sank into the murky cold, and I tried to remember how to breathe.
That’s when I vaguely heard laughter rise from the room. I say vaguely because it was mostly muffled by the churning water in the room and the sounds of my party splashing into the surrounding water.
And I’d have probably been more concerned about that if it wasn’t for two things, and the less concerning one was that I was surrounded by baby Sharktopi.
The more concerning thing?
Oh, it was that I was in some kind of massive enclosure with a creature so large, it looked like it might be Cthulhu's older sibling. And let me be clear here, the fact that it was ginormous and had tons of tentacles wasn’t why I was concerned. Well, okay, that was partially why.
But the main reason was simple.
It was looking right at me.
“Fuck,” I mumbled, and at the sound of my voice, the thing had the decency to look shocked. Then it moved, its entire undulating body shifting in the massive enclosure so that its baseball field-sized yellow eye could get a better look at me. It was strange because I was miniscule in comparison, and yet, I got the feeling that it was really seeing me.
“You can speak,” it said, and
the vibrations of its voice in the water were enough to make my entire body hurt. “How is this possible?” It swiped a lazy tentacle in my direction, and while the huge appendage swooshed through the water with enough force to jostle me some, I got the impression it hadn’t intended to actually swat me like the fly I was.
“Why wouldn’t I be able to speak?” I asked as it recalled its tentacle, which was also when I caught sight of its mouth, a yawning void of swirling darkness.
“Why would you be able to?” It stuck its tentacle into its mouth and sucked on it like a toddler with his thumb. Then it gestured around the enclosure with its other tentacles. “No one else can even be in my presence.”
My gaze flicked around the room, and I realized what he meant an instant before abject terror swelled up in my gut. Everyone who had come with me, be it ally or summon, was frozen in place. And not just them. As my eyes swam around the room, I saw that the Sharktopi and other creatures were all frozen in a weird state of suspended animation. It was almost like they’d been cognizant enough to hit the water and recover before becoming statue still.
The thing was, a quick look at my status let me know that Queenie and the others were more or less fine. They were just afflicted with something called Intense Awe.
Intense Awe. Debuff. User’s capacity for rational thought has been overcome by the presence of greatness. User will remain stunned until the effect is removed. No harm can come to the user while under the effects of Intense Awe. The glory of Awe is sustaining.
“I see understanding dawning within you, which is also curious.” A chortle rang through the water that reminded me of a choking bark. “Like a flea that can suddenly speak to its host.” Its tentacles moved again as it shifted. “Tell me why you have come, Intelligent Flea. It has been so long since I have spoken to another intelligent being.”
It was somewhere in the middle of this that I realized it no longer hurt to hear the creature’s voice, and I figured out it was because it was now communicating with me telepathically.
“I came to defeat the dungeon,” I said even though it felt like a silly answer. “I came to this world to find the source of unrest on this planet, to help the Amorphie.” I gestured toward Barnabas’s suspended form. “This planet is ruled by predators, and I think the answer might be here.” I spread my arms. “Within this dungeon.”
“A curious notion indeed.” It clapped a pair of tentacles together. “And if your idea was true, how would you hope to proceed?” The creature looked at me curiously. “This is but a giant room with no windows and no doors. There is no way out, and yet you are here now.”
“That’s actually an interesting puzzle in and of itself.” I laughed. “Normally, I’d search the room for clues--”
“There are no clues here. I know because I have built this place.” It shifted then, and a montage of images filled my brain.
I watched as the nameless creature came to this planet from the stars and landed in the surf. The planet was young then and filled with life, but soon, it became inhospitable. The creature’s very presence was enough to change the planet. Slowly at first, to be sure, but change happened nonetheless as the prey animals soon evolved into predators themselves and the predators became alpha predators. An entire ecosystem that new only of the other fauna as prey.
And so the great one sealed himself away, trying to mitigate what it had become, what it had caused the planet to become.
There was both more and less of it, but it felt like as I started to understand, the whole of the images would change and new emotions and thoughts would fill my brain at breakneck speed so that by the end of the whole thing, I barely had a sense of who I was.
“You’re a Tartaran,” I said when the images blessedly stopped flashing through my brain. “But not just any old one, are you?”
“So you know of us?” Its voice was curious as it leaned back again while its tentacles fluttered around it. “I do not see how that can be, for our planet was destroyed aeons before your species existed.” There was a brief pause as it eyed me curiously, then I felt a pulse against my brain.
Great Dungeon Tartaran Ogenus wishes to access your memories. Will you allow this? Yes or No?
I’ll be honest, I was hesitant to accept, but I was also sure of one thing. Tartarans were godly, and though I was a god, I wasn’t one here. At least, not in the same way as the time-bending water monster in front of me.
“Okay,” I said, and though I expected to feel something, I didn’t.
“Oh.” Ogenus’s voice rattled around in my brain, and that simple word was enough to let me know that he had taken stock of me in my entirety, cataloged me, and had rendered his decision. “I see.”
“What do you see, because if we’re sharing enlightenment, I’m a little short.” I tried to smile at the being in front of me, but before I could, the entire world melted away until we were back in my star system, drifting through space.
Ogenus stood beside me, only now he was about my height with tanned skin, a thick white beard, and sea-green eyes that crashed like the ocean waves themselves. His white tunic flowed around him in an ever-moving river of fabric.
“So, this is where you hail from, godling.” He took in my system with a single, barely interested glance. “It is as young as you.” He nodded toward Ares. “Barely even habitable for fish.” The next instant, we were on the beaches of Ares, and he was kneeling to put his hand in the water. Then he cupped the liquid and drew it to his mouth. “Almost ready, I’d wager.” He stood and looked at me. “It is nice.”
“Thanks?” I offered. “That doesn’t answer my question about what you saw… and why are we here?”
“Why are any of us here?” He laughed, and the sound was like waves crashing over distant rocks. “But to answer your questions, we are still back in my dungeon.” He gestured around us. “This I have crafted from your memories.” He grinned. “With some extrapolation based on accumulated data of course.”
“You know, I sort of wondered if that was the case.” I shrugged. “But, I still have no idea why this is happening at all, nor why you are at the end of the dungeon in the boss room.” I waved a hand and brought the minimap of the dungeon we’d explored on Amorphie into existence. “See? The skull means boss.”
“I am a boss,” he chortled, “and you cannot hope to defeat me.” His eyes twinkled mischievously. “But thankfully, you do not have to fight me.”
“I could probably take you,” I said with a lot more confidence then I felt.
“Perhaps,” he acquiesced, “but I understand why you are here even if you do not.”
“Then enlighten me.” I sat down on one of the rocks. “Because as fun as this is, I prefer the real thing to an illusion.”
“If you wish for the Amorphie’s planet to go back to normal, I must leave.” He nodded. “And I am more than willing to leave, but there are requirements for that.”
“Why am I not surprised?” I said with a laugh. “What are they?”
“You must remove the core from this dungeon. When you do, I will be trapped within it.” There was a long pause. “My core must be placed within a new planet where I can grow.”
He sighed. “As much as I like this place, it is not suitable for me to grow. There is too much life here, and while I have tried to keep my life force from affecting it too much, it is only a matter of time before the planet is consumed by it.” He snapped his fingers, and several Amorphie similar to Hudson snapped into existence beside me. “Know that what I ask of you is difficult. Many have tried to remove my core and failed, so if you refuse, I understand.”
Quest Update. ‘Discover the source of unrest with the indigenous life’ has been completed. You gain sixteen stat points and six skill points to distribute.
Organus has offered you the second step in a chain quest. Remove his core and place it within a suitable planet. Would you like to accept? Yes or no?
“Whoa,” was all I could say as I absorbed everything that had just happ
ened. Sure, chain quests in Terra Forma were always incredibly valuable and offered incredible rewards when completed, but that wasn’t what intrigued me the most.
No. It was the possibility of gaining possession of a dungeon core. I’d gotten them a few times in Terra Forma, and all the times I had, it had been super worth it. For one, creating a dungeon was incredibly fun. For two, well, by having a dungeon planet in your system, at least in the game, it made all hostile invaders have to go through your dungeon to get to the tasty bits inside your system.
And that’s when it all really clicked. The presence of the core here was slowly turning the Amorphie’s planet into a dungeon planet. That was why there were so many predators and why everything was so damned hostile. If I removed it… well, things should return to normal, or at least, that would begin the process. I at least owed it to the Amorphie to try to do that because if I didn’t, they wouldn’t be able to stay here.
“Well, what will you do, Garrett Andrews?” Organus asked, and from the amused twinkle in his eye, I was pretty sure he knew my answer.
“I accept, of course.” I held out my hand. “I will move your core elsewhere.”
40
As Organus shook my hand, we reappeared back inside his room in the Amorphie dungeon. My friends, as well as the Sharktopi, were still frozen in place, which had its pluses and minuses, of course. Mostly in that I hadn’t been eaten.
“So, where’s this core?” I asked Organus, and the big squid thing blinked at me before opening his mouth wide.
“It is within me, Garrett.” It patted its belly, and I saw a dull golden glow emanate from within its flesh.
“I feel like that is information you may have mentioned before you asked me to remove it,” I said as I stared into the swirling void of its mouth and tried not to think about how the void was looking back at me. “Because right now this is just seeming like an elaborate plan to eat me.” I held up my hand before he could say anything. “And yes, I recognize you could have probably eaten me at any point before now, but still, think about the optics.”
