Although the room was grand in proportion, someone had gone to great lengths to make it homely. A sofa made from wood and hay took up a portion of what I took to be a living room. Canvases covered the walls, though the artwork looked like it was done by someone who struggled to hold the brush. There was a fragrant smell to the air. It reminded me of visits to my grandmother’s house, where every available surface had a tray of potpourri.
At the far end of the room was a cauldron with space underneath it for a fire. Smoke rose from it, so I assumed it had recently been lit. In the centre there was a wooden table. It rose ten feet off the ground, far too high for a person to sit around it.
“Anyone else feel like we’ve stumbled into the BFG’s house?” said Jack.
“Who’s the BFG?” asked Rex.
Jack opened his mouth to explain, but I cut him off.
“Forget it,” I said.
From the size of the furniture it seemed that way. I wondered how on earth a giant would have gotten into the dungeon in the first place. Whatever lived here, it was bigger than us.
“Look for the gemstone,” I told my friends.
Just as we started our search, I heard someone whistle. The melodic tune seemed to come from the farthest corner of the room. A figure suddenly appeared, and when they stepped into the light, I saw that it was a werewolf. His body was a hulking mass of muscle covered by coarse fur. His claws scraped on the floor as he walked, though the nails were shorter than I’d expected. The wolf had an apron tied around him. In his hands, he carried a pan. Steam rose from the top of it.
The wolf walked in, whistling. He stopped when he noticed us. I clutched Death Bringer, painfully aware of what little good it would be in a fight with this creature. Gabriella clenched her fists, and her lips moved silently. I didn’t need to be a lip reader to know that the words she mouthed weren’t suitable for children. Rex looked at me, as if asking what to do. Clive shivered by his side.
The wolf’s eyes widened. He looked at us, and then his mouth opened and he let out a scream. He opened his hands and dropped his pan onto the floor, where it smashed. Steaming liquid spread out over the floor.
The wolf ran his claws through the fur on his head. “Look what you made me do.”
I held my hands up in a placating gesture. I had seen so much in Pana that a talking werewolf wasn’t so strange. “We didn’t come for trouble,” I said. “We’ll leave.”
A flood of messages appeared in front of me.
10 EXP Gained!
10EXP Gained!
10EXP Gained!
10EXP Gained!
Level up to level 5!
-HP increased to 170
-Stamina increased to 184
-2 Attribute points gained
The EXP must have been from my traps in the tunnel. I wondered if they would deter the rest of the insects, or if they would flood down the corridor. But if that was the case, surely we’d have seen them by now?
“What are you doing here in the first place?” said the wolf.
Jack was the one to answer. “We’re looking for a gemstone.”
The wolf sighed. “Let me guess. Someone directed you to this dungeon.”
I nodded.
Before I could say anything, the wolf interrupted. “I bet it was Joldemass. She’s always sending people here. This is number 1 Yorrel Dungeon. You need number 2.”
On hearing ‘number 2’, I turned to Jack. This was exactly the sort of immature thing he’d laugh about. Instead, he looked disinterested. Okay, I had to admit that this was becoming surreal. A talking werewolf was one thing, but one who kept a clean home was something else.
“Go back down the corridor until you reach the three pathways,” said the wolf. “Take the one in the middle. That’s #2.”
The five of us retreated from the werewolves living room, barely able to believe what had happened. We stepped back into the corridor, looking around us for signs of the cockroaches. Aside from the corpses stuck in my traps, the tunnel seemed insect free.
“Hold up a sec,” said Jack. “I’m going to use Coin Flip.”
Rex didn’t seem too pleased. “Hang on-”
Before the barbarian could finish his sentence, I felt something change inside me. I brought up my character sheet and saw that my endurance and strength stats had doubled. It gave me a temporary increase in my hitpoints and attack power.
Rex’s face turned red. “You need to stop doing that without asking,” he said.
We carried on until we were back near the entrance of the dungeon, where the magic barrier had been. This time we took the middle tunnel. This one was much less maintained that the first. Part of it was tiled, but the tiler had evidently grown bored halfway through. Soon, the roof and walls surrounding us were made of mud. The earthy smell was so thick that it clung to my nostrils, and drops of water fell on us as we walked.
In front of us, Rex stopped.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Rex nodded at Clive. The Burr next to him had stopped. His body had become rigid, and his tail stretched up into the air.
“He can sense something,” said Rex.
“We better think about this,” I said. I walked over to the Burr. Determined to make friends with it, I patted it on the head. “Thanks for the warning, Clive.”
The burr huffed and turned its head away.
“I’ve had it with you,” I said. “What’s your problem? You attacked me, remember? I just defended myself.”
Although it didn’t make a sound, the air of contempt from the animal was obvious. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was right. Although self-defense was a convenient excuse, none of this was the Burr’s fault. I’d trapped it so that I could start a fire. The poor thing must have been scared out of its mind. When it came down to it, I was no better than Ellis Taunton and his Star Horizon party.
I kneeled in front of Clive. “Listen,” I said. “I’m sorry, okay? You’re right; it was all my fault. You’ve given a good argument and, well, I’ve seen the light. It was my doing. But you’re with us now.”
Gabriella turned to Jack. She whispered to the gambler, but I heard her. “Is he alright?” she said.
Jack rolled his eyes.
I straightened up. I looked at my friends. “The gemstone isn’t far away. I’m going through on my own.”
Rex was going to protest, but I cut him off.
“I have to try sneaking,” I said. “They already know we’re here, but they’re expecting a group. If I go on my own, I’ve got more chance of sneaking by the insects.”
“What if something worse is there?” said Jack.
“Then you’ll see me come sprinting down this corridor,” I answered.
Chapter Forty
I found myself walking down the tunnel alone. It narrowed the further I went. I heard water run down the muddy walls, and a breeze blew from somewhere and made my face cold. I took slow steps, crouching down to make sure that I couldn’t be seen or heard.
When I finally came to the end of the tunnel, I saw that it opened up into a larger room. This one was smaller than the werewolf’s house, and much less aesthetically pleasing. There were no canvasses on the walls, nor had anyone made a sofa out of hay. Instead, I saw four giant cockroaches, each one occupying a corner of the room. In the centre, in their eye line, was a pale blue gemstone.
There was nothing for it. We couldn’t go back, and it wouldn’t have done much good to bring the rest of my party here with me. Even with Gabriella, we still weren’t the toughest of groups.
I took my first step onto the floor of the room. In my head, my footsteps sounded agonisingly loud. I stopped. My heart thudded in my chest. Looking around, I didn’t see any sign of movement from the cockroaches.
Sneak increased by 15% (85% until level 3)
Having Sneak level 2 muted my steps somewhat. I just needed to keep a cool head. I took one step after another, constantly looking around me to see if the insects stirred. Fo
r every foot further into the room I got, the sense of being trapped grew. I was reaching the point of no return, I knew. If I got to the centre of the room and the insects noticed me, I would be stuck.
I heard something fall from the ceiling. I looked to my left and saw mud crack away from the roof and fall onto the husk of one of the cockroaches. The insect stirred, and I heard its rake-thin limbs crack as it shifted position.
I froze in place. I was convinced that it would see me. Slowly, I lowered myself even closer to the ground. I focused on the gemstone and crept toward it.
When I almost reached it, a message appeared on my screen so suddenly that it gave me a shock.
Sneak increased by 15% (70% until level 3)
I was so tense that I almost gasped, but I stopped myself in time. I really needed to review my game settings when I got a chance. It was all well and good getting notices of skill improvements, but there were times when I didn’t need my anxiety heightened by flashing text.
Finally, I reached the gemstone. A blue light glowed from it, though the stone itself was so smeared with dirt that the effect was drowned. I almost started to clean some of the mud off it, but I stopped when I realized that the resulting stronger light would alert the insects.
With a thudding pulse, I put the gemstone in my inventory bag. Then I saw that something else was on the floor. I reached out and picked it up.
It was a sheet of paper. The paper was white, though it was stained in places. The corners were bent, and it looked as if it had been folded several times.
I wanted to know what the paper was and what was written on it, but now wasn’t the time. I was about to put it in my bag, when a voice started to speak.
‘Dear Father,
I write to you with great anguish…’
I looked around me. For a second I wondered if someone was in the room with me, but it was clear that I was alone save for the insects. The voice, then, was coming from the letter.
‘It has been two weeks since I extended my invitation to you, yet I have not had the satisfaction of a reply…’
The cockroaches started to stir. I heard a cracking sound as they straightened their limbs. All four of them focused on me now, and there could be no doubt that they’d seen me.
‘I have met a woman I intend to marry, father. And I am the mayor of a city. Surely that, if anything, will make you proud of me?’
The cockroaches took lumbering steps toward me now. Any pretence of sneaking was gone, and I knew that I just had to flee. I started to sprint toward the opening in the room, when one of the insects crawled over to it and placed itself in front. I was trapped.
‘No matter what your thoughts are, I have need of your counsel. Our city is blighted by a wizard, and I wish to know how to deal with him. If you cannot come to help your son, then come to help the people of my city.’
The insects scuttled closer to me. As the letter droned on, its rich voice speaking the words in an annoying volume, I knew what I had to do. I screwed the paper up into a ball, aimed at the farthest corner of the room, and then threw it.
As the ball left my hand and sailed through the air, I heard three last words come from it.
‘Lovingly yours, Helder.’
The insect at the door moved aside. It bounded across the room like a puppy playing fetch, its attention drawn by the letter. The voice that read from the paper had launched into a ‘PS’ section, but I couldn't hear it well enough to pick out the words.
With the curse gemstone in my bag, I sprinted to the opening of the room and the ran down the tunnel to join my friends.
Chapter Forty-One
We took the route back over the river after leaving the dungeon. Rex used his crafting skill to modify our raft so that it could take the added weight of Gabriella. Although none of us had said it, there seemed to be an agreement that she was part of our group now.
The sky was darkening when the village loomed into view. As we walked toward it, I turned to look at the witch.
“So, are you going to tell us?” I said.
“Tell you what?” she answered.
“Why your own people were chasing you.”
She looked at the horizon in thought, as if it would tell her what to say. I was struck with the thought that she wasn’t a real person, but just lines of code. I wondered if a dialogue script was loading.
She sighed. “They’re not really my family,” she said. “I’m an orphan, and I never knew my parents. The people chasing me buy children and then raise them as witches.”
When she said this, Jack looked at her strangely. I wondered if he felt a bond with her. After all, he didn’t really know his parents, either.
“What about the scar on your shoulder?” he asked. “What happened?”
A sad look took hold on the witch’s face. “I learned a forbidden spell. I hoped I would be able to hide it from them, but when I mastered it, the tattoo appeared on my shoulder. When the grand witch saw it, she ordered the other witches to burn it off my skin.”
None of us said anything now. The scar tissue on her shoulder was horrible to look at. I couldn’t even comprehend the barbarity in burning her skin to rid her of the spell.
As we walked, I checked my character screen. I had 2 attribute points to spend from levelling up to level 5, so I allocated them to intelligence and agility. Seeing how effective my traps had been on the dungeon insects had made me want to build better ones. I knew I needed to be cleverer to do that.
When I looked at my screen, I saw something else. My subscriber count had leapt up to 1267, more than double what it had been before.
I adjusted my inventory bag on my back. The gemstone had added more weight to it than I’d realized.
“I can’t believe Ellis and the others didn’t pick up on this,” I said. “I expected them to be looking for the gemstone.”
“They must be looking somewhere else,” answered Rex. “Do you think we’ve won?”
I nodded. “As soon as we take the stone to the village and have them destroy it, that must be the end.”
Rex fell back so that he walked next to Gabriella. The village was closer now. I could see the dim outline of children running in rings around the well in the centre.
The barbarian looked at Gabriela. “Think you could teach me some of your spells?” he said.
She shook her head. “You’re a barbarian. You wouldn’t be able to learn them.”
“We could try,” he said.
“I’m sorry. Sometimes you just have to accept who you are.”
Rex looked at the ground. “I wish father hadn’t chosen this class for me.”
I felt bad for him. All this time, I’d been disappointed with how bad a barbarian he was. Maybe I should have been more sympathetic. I knew too well how it felt to have your path set out before you by your parents. After all, I hadn’t been given a choice outside of the game. I’d always known that my life would be spent running the family business.
“If you want to learn the spells, then you can try,” I told him. “Spend your next attribute points on intelligence. That’ll help.”
Chapter Forty-Two
By the time we reached the village, a crowd of NPCs were there to meet us. I saw the women hunters who, days earlier, had been dragging a dead cow across the ground. The leather worker stood beside one of his outstretched pelts, ignoring his work to watch us enter the village. The entire population awaited us, and at the head of them all, was Joldemass. The old woman towered above the rest of the village folk.
“Do you have it?” she said.
In the corner of my eye, I saw the trader. I could tell he was trying to get my attention, but I didn’t look at him. He wanted the gemstone for himself, I knew. I wouldn’t give it to him. It didn’t matter that he’d pay us for it; I couldn’t let him exploit the rest of the villagers.
I set my inventory bag on the ground. All eyes were on me as I opened it up, reached inside and pulled out the gemstone. Some of the villagers staggere
d back, as if they couldn’t bear to be in the presence of the stone that bound their curse.
Joldemass stepped forward. She took strong strides that belied her age, and I saw that she held a gold hammer in her hand. She looked at the people around her.
“For generations, we have been cursed,” she said. “And now this curse will be broken.”
The Scout of Artemis (LitRPG Series): Press X to Loot Book 1 Page 15
