The Witch Tamer, Book 1

by Naosu N R

  We continued to drive through the city for a bit, going to wherever the dungeon was. Our area outside Los Angeles where the house was, actually had a bit of a drive before we got to the dungeon itself, which is kind of a pain. But, with his fast driving it didn't take too long.

  Ryan did give me a small but sturdy newbie buckler shield to use. But its nothing great and a cheap knock off that won't even be good for guns. A smaller buckler he argues won't interfere with spell work, which you have to watch out for in lower levels. But a larger one will interrupt casting a lot, he argues.

  So there's a reason for these small bucklers huh?

  But a shield is also indispensable for defense also. So you can't not have one. Of course that makes sense.

  We pulled up in his fancy car and people were quite enamored by it, staring at my brother. But its kind of a waste to park a fancy rich car like that in this isolated waste area with no real parking lot. (We're parked next to dozens of other adventurers cars on dirt and gravel.)

  Finally we arrived at the 'The Tower' entrance.

  But I was surprised at what it was and where we ended up. It wasn't what I expected. The name, 'The Tower' gives you this image of a skyscraper or a castle, but its not. This is pretty isolated and not in the main area of town; undeveloped a bit also.

  Instead its like we're in a small wilderness, while outside the front of the entrance. It looks like a strange concrete riverbed drainage connection. And this is LA. So its like sort of urbanized in the concrete look.

  We're in the dry riverbed of the Los Angeles river, or one of its tributaries. And since this is a desert its very dried up most of the year.

  Wow.

  People have seen this type of scene a lot without realizing that's what 'The Tower' looks like outside, at least at this particular entrance. This is because 'The Tower' is really there at the Los Angeles river entrance, but goes from up down towards underground instead of straight up, despite being called 'The Tower' that everyone climbs. This is one of the signals that its also supernatural because it goes so far down also that no normal building should be able to do that for so long without collapsing in its own weight.

  Legends and myths talked about the Tower of Babel. And of course the entrance would be in Los Angeles of all places!

  But what people don't realize is that the Tower of Babel is a tower style dungeon of endless floors that stretch on forever. Nobody even knows how deep it goes into the earth.

  The front drainage ditch entrance looks like the big wide Los Angeles concrete framed river bed, because it is. But its too hot and dry for anything to be in the riverbed except dust and thirsty tired adventurers and people with tent stand style tienda shops trying to sell to them. For perhaps over a hundred feet on either side of the river, the concrete banks almost make it look man made, but the whole area was once completely natural. They'd done this to prevent flooding they say, or monsters.

  The river itself, has most of the entire year looking quite dry and empty, with a really wide concrete base foundation framing the bed, and high banks also with concrete.

  Its quite an interesting concept.

  A riverbed dungeon entrance near a riverbed that most of the year stays pretty low in water levels. Few would think of looking for it here. And it helps hide the entrance from those that shouldn't be here.

  But one thing that attracts people to these sites is that its where you can go with not a lot of people going to these areas. (Unfortunately some homeless and vagrants also go to these areas, so its probably not very safe for women here.) Yet they stay away from the parts by the dungeon entrance it looks like.

  But this is also why there were bike trails put up along sides these rivers; people also instinctively want to get outside of the cities also. In their nature people like to see the wilds and places of water. And they can get away from the city...well except for the concrete spillway features.

  When you see the opening, which looks like a drainage tunnel, except there's something similar to security guards in front of it, that look like cops wearing helmets and full battle armor, paid for by I'm guessing the government? Or maybe someone else?

  I wonder who their employer is?

  At any rate their job is to keep this site secure but still let adventurers in and people trying to become mages.

  Then there's also the people standing in line to go into this thing. And a lot of them are dressed all kinds of ways. Some don't look dressed for combat, but full of bling. And some have homemade combat gear, while others like the style of the top of the line dungeon gears made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, GM, and others.

  And a bit further away from them all kinds of people are both buying and selling in little temporary small shop stands or selling gear on blankets. These look interesting but I don't have a lot of cash.

  I can see a guy selling red health potions. Those look very appealing and pretty, but probably more expensive than I'm ready for.

  Then others with gear like torches, flashlights, and others.

  One guy is selling only swords, while near him another is selling little shields like mine. They seem to have an agreement to not sell what each other is selling. But they still eye each other up like vultures.

  (I glanced at Ryan; who laughed.)

  The other shops we passed by.

  But then I realized there's two entrances to 'The Tower'.

  "Why is there two entrances right next to each other?" I asked him after we'd trudged to a stop, standing near them.

  "Right...OK, let me explain it," he chuckled. "The one on the right is a team entrance. The monsters in there are a bit stronger for some 'unknown' reason. They also can come in higher numbers. The one on the left is the solo entrance."

  "So...we're doing the team entrance?" I asked.

  But surprisingly he shook his head. Then laughed. "Sorry bro. You misunderstood. You are supposed to get put in the deep end of the pool fast. That's how our family makes it. I'm not abandoning you, you understand? Its just the way things are. The survival of the fittest. If you want to get strong you have to be able to swim. You are going in alone. Without me. Get it?"

  What...

  I was told he was going to level me up.

  So it was a lie.

  But his previous comments made more sense now. Its just that I thought he would at least monitor me from close by even if he wasn't going to help.

  I must have looked shocked. But he took it well and even smiled wickedly. "All right, all right. I won't be a jerk. I'll pay your first entrance fee to hook you up," he said acting like he was saving my ass.

  Then he added, "also, I can already see you have a fairly good newbie gear setup. Just don't get killed and don't take on more than you can chew. Then you go in on your own. Anything you loot you can keep, which you can sell here also to the merchant stand guys. Also, when its time for your ride home, just call your new girl Melanie and she'll come get you. She knows to expect the call."

  ...

  It didn't take long for us to go in.

  And like he said he would, Ryan only went with me right up until the entrance. And instead went to solo by himself, looking hungry for money and XP.

  Is the hunting that good, to make him look that (readable) worked up, I wondered.

  The way it works, the guards time it so each person or party going in has to allow for five minutes between them and the previous party to go through in order to reduce the chance of 'PVP' style events (player versus player).

  But one thing that bothers me is that these guys keep thinking that this is all fun and games when it does have a lot of death involved.

  I entered the tunnel after Ryan paid for both of us. Then he went off on his own. But as soon as I enter, I find the tunnel system is exceedingly complex and branches out.

  If I turn around I see right away that I can exit this same way. I also used my enchanted flashlight right away also, equipping it in my buckler hand, since I can hold both with that arm while using the crow
bar +2 with the other hand.

  I'm so lucky I have my enchant system to enhance my gear. A lot of other people have to start with way less than this! With this I’m really unstoppable!

  I nervously adjusted my grip on my weapon as I went in determined.

  Ahead of me the tunnel branches into 3 different routes with an automatic traffic diverter not letting me go the same way as previous team parties. (Each diverter alternates by one, like a switch board.)

  There's a screech less than five minutes in! Wow, so fast!

  Monster encounter!

  The slime attacks charging towards me!

  I hit it with the stun. (-3 mana)

  Then I smashed it hard with the crowbar, for +12 damage!

  I hit it with the stun ability again!

  Then I keep hitting it once more.

  Within five hits the slime is dead, while I'm breathing hard. I think I'm wheezing even because I'm still getting used to this.

  (Hm...so I used 12 mana per slime?)

  I frowned. Its not efficient on energy, though it is a good way to avoid dying or taking damage.

  I need a lot of work if I'm going to do this. At that rate I won't be able to stay in long. But it is better than a lot of people. I also have to keep myself from getting too injured and wrecking my body.

  I have to work harder.

  There's not a 'loot drop' on every slime kill it seems. Also the monsters dissolve; proof that magic exists!

  Part of me is curious how much my armor enchants are deflecting damage off me.

  I kept going.

  I find that the monsters in the tunnel aren't the same type and change often.

  The next slime is a dirty multi-color sludge. I hit it hard on the first blow.

  I was shocked that when I tried to deflect with the shield only, it costs me -7 health. (What would it have been without all my defense?) I let it hit me twice, but managed to get in two extra hits. (OUCH! That really hurt too!) I used the same combo that I'd been doing with stuns and hits from the enchanted crow bar.

  I stopped to bandage my wounds after the fight was over (+2 health). Then I used a pain cream (+1 health).

  I kept going.

  Starting with over 175/339 mana let me stay out more than others.

  I passed a guy in the tunnel that looked like he was really struggling. He looked like me using normal stuff to equip like you'd find in a Walmart except he was all bloody, and probably just two or three fights. It looked like he wasn't able to do much. The slime almost overwhelmed him.

  But when I yelled to ask if he needed help he glared at me and looked at me like a thief.

  Quickly I found out over 50% of the monsters here are slimes. I also found out that a lot of the mobs do re-spawn after 30 minutes. This means people are going further in if they want quick XP.

  But deeper in, do the monster changes?

  I guess slimes are interesting too in a lot of ways.

  My mana bar was a bit dropped a short time later, at 138/339.

  At least I'm grateful I'm one of those guys with a decent mana pool. Those guys starting as mage class jobs with only about 100 top max mana sure have it rough.

  In one tunnel, it was kind of tight, so I had to get on my hands and knees and crawl through. This is kind of scary when its dark. I could get trapped in this crawl space!

  Wait, I could use crawl spaces like that when I'm trying to flee large predators, I thought after getting out the other side.

  But the worry is if you go deeper in the dungeon, who knows what you'll run into. Maybe you'll get too far in, and get trapped with not enough health to get back.

  I spotted other adventurers often in this solo area, but this isn't a problem because the myriad of tunnels down here have tons of branches going all over the place. You don't have to actually worry about bumping into people because of so many side branches. But this also makes it hard to easy to get lost.

  I passed another adventurer, this time a girl. She had good armor and a good shield.

  But like the other one, the reaction she gives me while she's fighting the slime is 'stay away or else'.

  (People really don't like help in the solo tunnel...weird. I guess they fear backstabbers. I should probably avoid others also.)

  I keep hunting, avoiding others myself. This place is big enough you can avoid others easily. And to watch for them all I have to do is watch for light spell effects in the area.

  Its so dark in here! I have to be careful I don't trip over stuff.

  I'm careful with my health and use the weak stun more and more while practicing my combat.

  Very quickly I'd reached 8 kills. Then 9, then 10. (4 of which were something called, 'kobolds', I read when identifying them using my status screen magic skills).

  3 of the 10 kills gave loot, which I put in my backpack. (slime cores, cheap...)

  So is that the drop rate? 3 out of 10? And is the drop rate different for everyone or the same?

  At the eleventh kill, after that I passed another adventurer fighting another adventurer. After that I got the hell out of there.

  !

  My brother hadn't told me that could happen. I want to avoid that.

  That was a bit scary. And it was probably illegal also, but in a dungeon there would be no way to enforce anything since its already a deadly combat zone.

  I hadn't expected to see humans hurting each other down here! It took me a few minutes hiding for my heart beat to calm down.

  Several more minutes passed.

  Wait, where am I?

  I'd been careful with mapping but then lost track of where I was. So I doubled back.

  My mana bar is now at 104/339. (Two hours have passed. And losing an average of 12 mana per kill. A monster encounter about every 5 to 10 minutes.)

  OK, maybe I need to work my way back now.

  The flashlight tool I'm using turns out well. Using it to not need batteries was a good move.

  I went back search the spot I'd used.

  Finally! I found where I'd been before.

  I'd been quite nervous until getting to this point of areas that I recognized of being near the entrance. The mind game of remembering what rooms I'd been in before look like and where they are is crucial to survival!

  I'd recognized this filthy dead water pool! There were two others like it in big rooms that I'd seen already. But the other two were different water levels; empty, and half full. This one big huge cavern here is almost as big as a half a football field! Its amazing how big this 'Tower' is that everyone is climbing!

  Monster encounter!

  A kobold jumps out. I smacked him in the face with the crowbar. Then I hit him with the stun. Then I managed two more hits.

  He's dead on the next round.

  Yes! I only used two stuns this time! This means -6 mana! If I can keep this up then maybe I'll do some good.

  Uh oh...he's got something. I bent down to pick it up and inspect it.

  On the kobold, I found a driver's license. From a human.

  Damn.

  That means it'd killed the 'driver', who was in here trying to level up!

  This doesn't happen to often, but sometimes does.

  The kobold body had something else on it too; a shiny bladed but small knife made in our world, probably also taken from the 'driver', belonging to that license.

  So there really are deaths in here, I thought.

  Ping!

  My status screen shows an alert. So I clicked on it after opening it up.

  [Blunt weapon skill acquired!]

  Oh, nice! A skill! Its exciting to see skills go up in my status screen!

  But to do better I really need to get a lot more mana skills.

  I worked my way back to the other fountain. By then I started to see a pattern!

  Monster encounters near these weird underground fountains really are higher than on the rooms of the dungeon farther away!

  So the monsters must come to them to drink?

  Can I use
that to my advantage?