Dungeons of the Crooked Mountains

by Alexey Osadchuk

  “You’re prudent, youngster. I like that!” Sly couldn’t hold back a mocking comment. “You’ll need more tokens, too.”

  The edge of my vision slid over the dust heap that was once a chest. There was clearly more than one vial there.

  Following my gaze, the foxman said reassuringly:

  “Don’t you worry, Eric. Everything left in the arsenal can be yours. You simply have to do a few things first. Well, more like just two.”

  “Earn a high reputation with the order and get enough tokens?” I asked.

  “You’re catching on fast!” Sly flitted his yellow eyes and quickly added:

  “Unfortunately, only a pittance remains of what the order once possessed... But even it can significantly lighten a Hunter’s heavy load!”

  After finishing his melodramatic speech, as if remembering something important, Sly turned toward the short stone weapon rack.

  “There they are!” he shouted and, in a second, was next to a section of stone. “Over here, Eric!”

  Emboldened by the first discovery, I was there in the blink of an eye.

  “Take a look at that,” said the ghost, pointing a clawed finger at a thick bundle of cloth.

  This time without fear, I touched the unknown material. As absolutely expected, it instantly fell to dust, revealing a small hollow containing around thirty semitransparent spheres of a murky brown shade. Each was the size of a large apple.

  - Blot.

  - Type: Trap.

  - Rarity: Rare.

  - Effect:

  - A creature caught in a Blot will lose 20% total energy.

  - Note:

  - Must be inducted into the Monster Hunters to purchase.

  - Price: 4 tokens.

  - Disappears after triggered.

  - Weight: None. Takes no space.

  “Here’s everything I can offer right now,” Sly said with a shrug of his shoulders. “You’ve gotta agree, it’s pretty good, eh?”

  “True,” I agreed. “But I’d like something that can do a bit more damage.”

  “Increase your reputation! Earn tokens! Then I’ll try to find you something else...” the foxman answered evasively.

  What a jerk! Can’t give me everything right away...? But more things could increase my chances of survival. Thankfully, none of this claptrap had any level restrictions... That was nice...

  As if reading my thoughts, the ghost said in an apologetic tone:

  “Unfortunately, the magic of this location will not allow me to take more than allowed... And alas, I have no authority in the matter...”

  Uh huh... Keep talking... You want me to do what you ask for treats like a trained dog...

  Trying not to show my true feelings, I pretended to understand everything and that I was ready to work together. I took two of the spheres and threw eight tokens into the air while saying the magic word.

  - Congratulations!

  - You have acquired:

  - Blot (2).

  - Removed:

  - Monster Hunter token (8).

  After that purchase, I had just one token left in my knapsack. I wanted to get another potion, but I reconsidered it and decided it was better not to waste the token. What if the clever foxman has something even nicer in his bins?

  I suddenly felt a strange feeling... It was as if the air suddenly became heavier. I lost my breath for a moment. My eyes went dark. The hair all over my body stood on end...

  A moment later the delusion subsided...

  “What’s wrong with me?” I rasped out with my suddenly parched throat.

  “The portal!” the ghost exclaimed. “It’s opening soon! Let’s go, I’ll show you where best to activate the Blots!”

  Chapter 21

  THE PORTAL to the world of the monsters was outside the city and was nothing more than a giant crack in the cliffside. The inside of the fault oozed with greasy-looking liquid, somewhat like an infected wound in the body of a stone giant.

  The dark ooze flowed down off the walls to the ground in big sticky drops, congealing into a smoking puddle with an uneven surface. Weird that the liquid didn’t flow out any further... Clearly, the magic the foxman mentioned earlier was doing its job.

  “Nasty thing, isn’t it?” Sly commented, his face scrunched up.

  “Not much to like about it...” I agreed, squirming. “When does it all start?”

  “Any minute now,” the fox answered. “Let’s go!”

  “But where?” I asked in surprise. “Isn’t it better to meet the creatures here, while they’re still disoriented after going between worlds?”

  “I like the way you think, but no,” the fox man threw out as he walked back toward the city. “The monsters gain their power from the portal. The closer they are to it, the stronger they become.”

  “Then why did you bring me here?!” I shouted, baffled.

  “So they can catch your scent, obviously!” Redtail answered with no compunction.

  “Got it!” I shouted after him. “You want to get me killed!”

  “Not in the least!” Sly answered, shaking his head. “I’m trying to help you survive!”

  We walked through the rest of the city without another word. I was wheezing in anger, while the foxman in front of me was whistling a happy tune. When we were past the wall, my guide stopped, turned and said:

  “We’re here. See those somewhat rickety floorboards on the ground?”

  “Yes,” I mumbled.

  “Beneath them is a pit trap, with long sharp stone stakes on the bottom. There are stairs next to it. You must go down them to the bottom of the pit. There you will see a narrow opening that leads away from the pit. You can take it outside. But before you do, break two Blot spheres in the center of the pit.”

  “Ahem...”

  “Is something bothering you?” the foxman raised his right eyebrow.

  “You want me to be bait?”

  “And hunter at the same time! Any creature from the portal is much stupider than its true incarnation. The portal sort of forces them to move fast, and often they are just too rapacious. We took advantage of that and made a few different traps, often fairly primitive ones like this pit for example. Heh, we learned in practice that this kind of trap is the most effective and reliable. But there are exceptions...”

  “Like what?”

  “Higher creatures. They’re stronger and more cautious. When you hunt them, you’ve gotta really think on your feet. And use magic...”

  “Are there many traps down here?” I asked with hope in my voice. I was already so scared I was hiccupping, and then he tells me about these “higher creatures...”

  “Oh, this whole city is one big trap!” the foxman smiled ravenously and quickly added regretfully:

  “But alas, most of them are too degraded to use. And it would be a problem for you to activate the rest of them with your reputation and small mana supply. The only option for now is the classic... This trap pit here...”

  A wave of unpleasant fatigue came over me again. When my vision brightened back up, wincing, I turned to the foxman who was looking at me with compassion:

  “Why didn’t I feel these creepy sensations before the wolfman appeared?”

  “Because you hadn’t been inducted into the monster hunters yet. From now on you’ll be able to sense manifestations of otherworldly magic. Whether its portals, monsters that acquired a body or their offspring... And otherworldly objects as well... For now the feelings will be fairly chaotic but, the higher your reputation, the stronger that sense will become...”

  Despite my nausea and spinning head, I understood that I had received a very useful ability.

  Arsenal items, a special sense — those would be two significant pushes toward improving that pesky reputation. Ah! And the traps... Three altogether...

  Unbeknownst to me, I realized the foxman was right. This could be mutually beneficial for us. I just had to take care of one little thing — try not to end up in some otherworldly creature’s stom
ach.

  I suddenly got a bad taste in my mouth as if I had bit down on something bitter, and at the same time rotten... I winced...

  “Can you taste bitterness and rot?” the foxman asked.

  “Did the portal open?” I answered with a question of my own.

  “Yes,” answered Sly, disappearing into thin air. “Alas, during battle I will merely be an observer and cannot speak with you... Good luck, Eric!”

  When the foxman disappeared, I glanced over at Gorgie.

  “Well, buddy, looks like we’re alone again. Let’s do it...”

  I ran over to the barely visible hole in the ground, saw the stone stairs and, after a moment’s thought, started down. When I was in the middle of the stairs, I heard a distant powerful roar from above. A brigade of ants marched down my spine. The harn jumped forward, his scales standing on end...

  “Big, evil, strange,” came Gorgie’s laconic description of the large monster on our trail.

  After reaching the bottom of the pit trap, I froze, stunned.

  “Woah!” I couldn’t hold back an exclamation. “This is easily big enough even for a gulper!”

  As Redtail warned, the whole bottom of the pit was filled with sharp stone spikes of various heights and diameters. This trap was clearly made for creatures of all shapes and sizes.

  Carefully maneuvering between the spikes and stakes, I broke first one sphere then, two steps later, a second.

  - Attention! You have activated a Blot!

  - Attention! You have activated a Blot!

  Done... In theory, the creature would fall on a stake and end up in at least one of the Blots I had thrown.

  I looked around... Ah, there’s the little hole the ghost was talking about...

  Once I was inside the fairly wide tunnel, I started to feel the earth shaking, first weakly but gradually growing stronger.

  “Great, just what I needed... An earthquake,” I grumbled but then caught myself.

  It actually wasn’t an earthquake! There was just something big and heavy bounding this way! A powerful roar up above chilled the blood in my veins, confirming my guess. And a moment later, the pit trap behind me was filled with terrible shaking and a thundering sound, which was quickly eclipsed by a soul-shattering squeal of pain...

  As soon as it happened, a waterfall of damage messages cascaded down on me! Alright, the Great System considers the pit trap a way of me dealing damage...

  The exit from the hole was twenty steps away from the trap. Incidentally, something truly astonishing happened inside the trap! The millennia of dust stirred up by the still unseen giant, which the Great System identified as an Icy Rover, flew in all directions like a wild hurricane! The aggrieved roar, shriek and rasping were intermixed with the crunching and scraping of stone!

  The more the dust settled, the less sound the level-sixteen creature made. First to get up the nerve to go over to the pit was the harn. Very cautiously, crawling, he walked over to the edge and peeked inside. Based on the lack of victory messages, the monster was still alive. So I did my best to tell the cat to be careful.

  After I got the go-ahead from Gorgie, I also walked up to the pit. My first impression was of a living block of ice stuck on a fork like a baked apple... Hm... Or rather maybe a few forks.

  Its hefty white body was giving off a thick steam. Clearly the world this monstrosity jumped here from could not boast of especially sunny climes.

  The rover was living out its last moments. Honestly, it tried to get free to the bitter end, but that only made things worse. Every time it got up on its stumpy legs, it fell back down impotently, again sliding down the stone stakes and doing additional damage to itself. What’s more, my Blots did their modest part, snatching forty percent of the monster’s energy, which noticeably weakened its position. Hmm... I must admit the foxman knew what he was talking about... I was impressed at how effective the pit trap turned out to be.

  After it so joyously raced here for my soul, and so stupidly fell into the primitive trap, we did not spend much time watching the otherworldly monster agonizing. After a bit more moving around, the rover drew its last breath, and its ghostly body crumbled to bits like a smashed ice cube, then immediately dissolved into thin air.

  - You have killed Icy Rover (16).

  - Congratulations! You receive:

  - Monster Hunter token (20).

  - Large ghostly crystal (2).

  Despite the message that the battle was over, my body was still trembling savagely. Either it was the cold emanated by the otherworldly monster, or the fear which would not let me go. I think it must have been the latter... There couldn’t be the slightest doubt — if not for the pit, that chunk of ice would have ended both Gorgie and I.

  Our specialty is fast, powerful attacks that deal lots of damage. That tactic would not have worked against the rover. Based on the system messages about the damage from the stone stakes, the creature’s supplies were simply too high. We’d have lost our breath before draining them. By the way, I took another glance at the Blots... They took forty percent of the monster’s energy instantly... I have to quickly scoop up the rest of the arsenal’s stock!

  Weird. What’s taking so long for Sly to come back? I was expecting him to have come already to blurt out one of his stock phrases... I wanted to summon him, but suddenly my ear caught a sound I was not expecting to hear in this gloomy place... From the direction of the city, I heard the echoing frightened scream of a little girl!

  Forgetting everything, I dashed off toward the sound. As I ran, I cursed myself for being so slow... The thoughts that entered my head were one more unbelievable than the next... How can this be?! Had the portal accidentally brought someone else here with the monster? A person from the other world? And just where was that foxlike bastard?!

  Passing through the city gates, I jumped onto the main street and froze like a statue. A girl of unusual beauty was standing in the middle of the causeway. She had a short slim little body. Her hair was pure white and wavy, falling delicately over her fragile shoulders. Her slightly sloping eyes were the color of a cornflower. Her light yellow dress, like a bright sunbeam accidentally shot into the kingdom of darkness, gave me feelings of hope and serenity.

  “Where am I?!” she screamed sonorously. I could hear notes of fear and panic in her voice. “What is this place?!”

  She was hugging herself at the shoulders with arms thin as twigs and, shivering in fear, looking around hauntingly.

  Still not believing my eyes, out of inertia, I took a few steps forward. She immediately noticed me...

  “Where am I?!” she shouted, her voice quavering. “What is this place?!”

  “Good day,” I rasped, my throat parched. And I quickly started telling myself off mentally... What do I mean “good day?!” What am I talking about?!

  “Where am I?!” Not paying attention to my words, she repeated her question, stunned. “What is this place?!”

  “Calm down,” I said, raising both hands and taking another few steps forward. “You’re in Stonetown... Don’t be afraid... I’m not gonna hurt you... What is your name? My name is Eric...”

  She just kept standing there embracing herself and repeating the same fearful phrases as if she was very spooked:

  “Where am I?! What is this place?!”

  The closer I got to the girl, the more clearly I perceived one strange aspect. Her face... It seemed to be replaying the exact same emotions over and over. And the precision is astounding. The corners of her mouth, the dimples on her cheeks, the frightened gaze of her cornflower-blue eyes, the movements of her brows... It was all the same as a minute earlier... Add to that the repeating vocal intonations...

  When I was no more than fifteen feet from the girl, my mouth suddenly filled with bitter and rotten saliva... What happened after that seemed like a strange dream...

  The harn appeared behind the stranger like a supple armored shadow and, to my immense horror, his big teeth crunched down on her fragile feminine neck.


  Stunned, I opened my mouth in a muted scream! No! Gorgie, what have you done?! The harn’s armored head jerked a few times, trying to tear off her lily white head... Well, that’s all... This is the end...

  Once I thought the harn and I had just murdered a defenseless girl, the “defenseless girl” started undergoing a strange metamorphosis that made my insides go cold.