by Matthew Peed
“Shit.”
With that one word, I collapsed completely. I hoped the females didn’t come around and try to eat me. Note to self, I thought. Harvest only when completely safe. If I died because I was too impatient, I could only laugh at myself.
Chapter 12: Monster and Murderer
Lance Teron
“Son of a bitch!” I shouted as I came to violently. My head throbbed like someone had taken a baseball bat to it. Pushing myself up, I took stock of the situation. Thankfully, I was alive. The female goblins seemed to have barely moved. I did notice that I had a coarse animal skin covering me.
I looked around but didn’t see anything to indicate which goblin might have been responsible. I rubbed my head and turned to the pile of materials, hoping it was still there. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that it was. The smell had definitely gotten worse, but when I used my Harvest skill, everything was still the same color as when I had first carved it out.
I didn’t want to risk it vanishing, so I quickly stored it in my Storage. I got a sense that it was almost full when I finished collecting everything. Looking around, I noticed that more than a few of the female goblins were staring at me.
“I don’t know what will happen when I leave, but if you want me to end your suffering, I will.”
Nearly all the goblins fell to the ground. I couldn’t take back my offer, so I only nodded and moved to the closest one. It was hard to tell, given her goblin features, but to me it looked like she had a thankful smile. I nodded again and brought my cleaver down quick and smooth. Her head went flying, the smile permanently etched into it.
That was how the next two minutes went. All the goblins wore a sad and thankful smile as I decapitated them. It was probably the most hollowing thing I’d ever done or, hopefully, will ever do. I didn’t use Harvest, as no matter what gains I might have gotten out of it, I felt these creatures deserved better.
There were only two goblins left when I finished the gruesome task. They looked at me with indifference. Why they didn’t want to end their suffering, I’d probably never know. That was just how life worked out times. Since my task was done, I moved over to the throne.
Most times, dungeons will reward those that defeat their last boss. I was hoping for something good, but considering this dungeon hadn’t been dived much, I didn’t get my hopes up too high. Looking around, I finally found a chest under the throne.
There was a lock that looked more like a wooden block attached to it, but I was easily able to break it with my cleaver. I almost laughed when a solid bar of gold was presented, perfectly centered in the chest. I carefully lifted it out worried that it might be rigged with a trap but nothing happened.
When the bar fully left the surface of the chest, I caught the bottom board rising just barely. My interest piqued, I reached inside and stuck my nail in the side between the floor board and the side board. With barely any effort, it popped out. Wrapped in a velvet sheet was a vial of green liquid.
“Son of a—!” I nearly shouted. This was a power vial. You could think of it like a skill scroll from a video game. If I were to drink it, I would get whatever power was stored inside. They literally sold for millions outside. I gulped nervously, then quickly stored it in my Storage, infinitely grateful that I had acquired that skill.
I was about to turn away when I spotted something glittering in the corner of the chest. Reaching in carefully, I grabbed it. Looking it over, I found it was an amulet of some type. I couldn’t see anything that told me what it did, and when I tried to view it like an item, much like with my cleaver, nothing came up.
I went ahead and pocketed it. It wouldn’t be the first time regular jewelry was found in a dungeon. They were usually made from good material and worth quite a bit. The interesting fact was that dungeons on different continents had shown jewelry of similar make. Theories abounded about the dungeons coming from another civilization. Not that anything had been proved yet.
In the back of the room, the teleport matrix glowed softly. I’d ended up spending almost an entire week in the dungeon. Surely that should have been enough time for the search for me to have spread a bit farther than the area of the incident. Stepping onto the matrix, I felt my body compress, then blinked to find myself in the entrance area before the cave.
I heard the sounds of weapons being drawn behind me and spun around. A party of seven looked to be in the process of gearing up to dive the dungeon. I was surprised for a moment but relaxed. At least, I did.
“A monster!”
“What’s it doing out of the dungeon!?”
“A rogue. We need to kill it before it becomes too powerful!”
The party whispered harshly among themselves, but my Keen Hearing allowed me to catch it all. I quickly threw my hands up in the, I don’t mean any harm pose. “Wait, wait! I’m human!”
“Don’t think you can fool us! We’re the first divers in here for over three months!”
I ground my teeth, which made a much more menacing sound than I meant it to. “I swear I’m a human. I snuck in due to some issues I had aboveground,” I pleaded, but I could see it was falling on deaf ears. Just my luck that there would be a party going in just as I was leaving.
I took a step forward, hoping the light from the flickering overhead lamp would show I was human. My intentions did not go as planned. I had momentarily forgotten I’d been in the dungeon for nearly a week, was covered in blood and other liquids several times, and my body had drastically changed due to my Harvest skill.
“SHIT! Do you think it’s a boss that escaped its floor?” one of the party members shouted.
“I don’t know and don’t care! We need to kill it!” shouted the person in the center of the party. I could only assume he was the leader.
I was going to take another step forward when an arrow sank into my shoulder, tossing me to the side. Black and red flared into my vision and I lost it. With a growl, I ripped out the arrow and charged across the room. Another arrow sailed at me, but I snapped my head to the side, caught it in my jaws, and bit it in half. I subconsciously used Harvest as I always did and grinned as they all lit up.
A man moved in front of the party to block my path. I whipped my cleaver off my belt and slammed bodily into his shield. Bringing my arm around, I twisted my hand, and the cleaver opened as it collided with the top of the shield. The blade shot up and over the shield, tearing a large gash into the man’s neck.
Using brute-force, I pushed the man back into the party. He’d lost his strength as he tried to stop the bleeding. A blade of wind or some other transparent force sliced into my arm. I turned in the direction it came from and bared my teeth. Kicking off the shield, I crossed the distance to the woman who had wielded it in less than a second.
Ordinarily, I would have thought what I did next couldn’t be possible, but I did it. I opened my mouth, my jaw popping strangely, and bit a massive chunk out of the woman’s throat. I jerked my head around with the body still clamped in my teeth and blocked a strike from a man who was swinging a massive bastard sword at me. The man finished the woman by completely slicing her body in half, the blade getting caught on a bone.
I thrust my hand around and impaled the man in the chest with my claws and most of my hand. He was only wearing leather, and I was able to penetrate it. Pulling my hand free, I looked to the rest of the party. I could feel steam leaving my mouth as I growled at them.
“This is your own fault,” I said, my voice menacing.
The four remaining party members backed away, but I’d gotten between them and the exit to the dungeon. Their only escape from me would be to flee deeper into the dungeon. Not that I’ll let them do that, I thought, a grin coming over me.
“Fuck! He took three of us out in seconds!”
“We don’t have any choice!”
“Dominate!” I shouted, and an almost visible aura slammed into them. I watched as one of the party members’ knees buckled and they soiled themselves. Not letting them regroup
, I shot at them. Another shield bearer was in my way. Without hesitation, I impacted the shield, bringing my cleaver down at an angle.
I was able to cleave through the shield with surprising ease. With the obstacle gone, I brought my claws down and removed the man’s face. He screamed as he fell to the ground. A short man behind him fired a dart from a small crossbow that pierced my thigh. Kicking the shield guy out of the way, I jumped at the man and ripped his throat out.
Two woman were left, one who had soiled herself and the other, who looked close to doing the same. They gripped each other tightly and had their eyes firmly shut. I finished the shield guy off by sinking my hand into his chest.
Even in my trancelike state, I was barely able to stop myself from charging the two women. They didn’t attack me, and there was still a part of me that didn’t want to kill them. I stalked forward and placed a hand on the shoulder of each.
“Tell anyone you saw me and I’ll hunt you and your families down,” I said right next to their ears while slowly letting my claws sink into their flesh. The one who had already soiled herself broke and fainted. The other one followed suit. Looking around, I found a bundle of rope and tied them. They would be able to break free after a few hours of struggling. After that, my last strands of self-control slipped.
I came out of my trance a few minutes later and looked around. I jerked back after I realized that I’d harvested the party members’ parts as I had the goblins. I quickly looked over and saw the two women looking at me as if I were a monster, which I guess I was to them. I needed to take some time to process this.
No matter how it had happened, I murdered these people. My knuckles turned white as I made a fist. I shook my head and turned from the murder scene. I would live with what I’d done, somehow.
Chapter 13: Debut
Azaria
I nervously watched as the guy strode forward toward the boundary of my dungeon. He stopped when he reached the old train car and seemed to take in the entrance to the mansion. I wanted to be smug and say that it was impressive, but I couldn’t be sure about that. I didn’t know what the outside world looked like after a year of what I could only call madness.
He stepped onto the marble porch and held his hand out. As if from nowhere things started to appear. A pile just about half his height eventually formed. If I weren’t a ghost right then, I’d likely have been gagging. My eyes widened as I realized what he was about to do.
Sure enough, he looked up and shouted, “I would like to trade with the core, Azaria!”
Like the first time, I felt like my body was being squeezed into a single point, then released back out. I quickly looked down at myself and breathed a breath of relief when I saw I was still wearing the clothes from last time. My body had formed at the top of the stairs, and I felt like walking, so I started making my way down.
I wobbled more than I thought I would. It appeared I was getting used to floating everywhere. Not that I minded floating, it was one of the few things I enjoyed about my new existence. I only made it down four steps before I got tired of it and floated into the air, laughing at how I thought it was easier to fly than walk.
As I reached the landing at the bottom of the stairs, the nutcrackers pushed open the doors. Lucy had managed to summon another dozen. Apparently, she’d leveled from sparring with Stella. They both were now at level three which was higher level than me. I landed a few feet in front of the guy as Starburst came up next to me.
“Welcome back to Doll Dungeon. What do you want to trade for? I don’t have much to offer,” I said, being brutally honest.
“Protection. I’d say two weeks should do. I want a place I where I can live for two weeks inside. Of course, I swear not to attempt to attack or conquer the dungeon.”
“You want protection? But it looks like you could easily kill anyone that might try anything,” Starburst said after giving the guy a once-over.
“And I have Ms. Azaria here to thank for that. That is why I want us to be friends. In fact, I plan to help you get much stronger.”
As he finished speaking, his grin almost caused my skin to crawl. I wanted to back away, but I remembered a lesson from class that showing weakness to an animal generally provoked an attack. He might look human, but the large canines and claws were telling me a different message.
“I’m glad I could help. Umm. I don’t see an issue of you living here for a week or two. However, I want all this and one other thing,” I said, gesturing at the pile of what I realized wasn’t just body parts but also organs.
“What is that?”
I did my best not to react to the fact that his hand had moved to the cleaver strapped to his waist. “Tell me about the world,” I replied simply. I wanted information on what exactly was happening above me. Maybe I’d even find out if my parents were still alive.
“Sure,” he said slowly. “What could a dungeon want to know about the surface?”
“Don’t worry about that,” I answered vaguely, as I could feel Starburst glaring daggers into my face.
“Fine. You should also know that the Association is already aware of your existence. I give it another day or so before they’ll send someone in to test the first new dungeon that’s formed since the Shift. To be blunt, you’re about to be very popular.”
“So much for wading in slowly . . .” I mumbled before reaching out with my hand. “Deal?”
He grabbed my hand and shook. “Deal.”
“Starburst will guide you to a sealed room. I should be able to make something like that easily enough. Don’t blame me if someone manages to get in,” I said, flipping my hair over my shoulder before floating away. Might as well get it done and over with. I couldn’t help but pout as my form faded back to the ghostly form. More hard labor.
On the second floor of the mansion section, I went into one of the rooms that had a private bathroom. I created a trap that only activated if the tub was filled just right or the man was the one standing in it. Through a tunnel I made a room that was about the size of a New York apartment. Should be plenty of room for a single person. Boring maybe.
I decided to be nice and copied one of the beds over into the room. It didn’t hurt to be nice to the man, who was probably the strongest person in my dungeon right now. As I floated in the middle of the room, I wondered what he was going to do about food. Well, it wasn’t part of the agreement, so I just ignored it.
A minute or two later Starburst led the guy to the bathroom and explained what he had to do as I told him. I was about to fly away when I realized that I didn’t remember his name. I asked Starburst to ask for me.
“Lance.”
I had Starburst thank him, then flew off. First day and already I had a guest.
~~~
Like Lance said, it took less than a day for people to start poking their heads into the dungeon. Just in the last hour alone, there had been ten people. Even some people wearing suits came all the way into the dungeon before they nodded and left. They never once said a word. Something about the two of them reminded me of Terleza, but I couldn’t detect anything, so I decided to ignore it.
I was lounging on the ceiling when I saw a party of four people dressed for battle enter the dungeon. They all wore leather and wielded a bunch of weapons. The best I could tell, there were two swords, a staff, and a bow. After that, I had no idea of what their gear was or how it was made. Starburst rushed over to the room I was in as I watched them approach the dungeon.
“Girl, I would suggest you brace yourself. When hostiles enter the dungeon, it will be quite rough on you.”
“What do you . . .” I started to say, when the party crossed the threshold. I felt my connection to the first floor of the dungeon was greatly reduced. The closer to the party, the less control to the floor that I felt.
“As you can see, when a party is in the dungeon it is nearly impossible for the host to interfere. Remember though, any of your monsters that have a soul will come back to life. Also, after a party enters, no oth
er party can enter until the first party reaches the next floor, dies, or exits.”
I knew he couldn’t see me, but I nodded along. I guess my only choice was to watch the action and take notes for next time. I was about to float over to them when something caught my eye. Floating in the air, and seemingly in the same state as we were, was a piano. I’d always loved playing the piano. Almost unable to control myself, I moved over to the instrument.
I reached forward and found I could actually touch it. I moved carefully and took a seat at the bench. Memories that seemed a lifetime ago, mainly because they really were, flashed before my eyes. As I placed my fingers on the keys, the dungeon seemed to drift away, but I was still focused on the party making its way in.
“I can’t believe a new dungeon formed! This is the first since, well, S-day!” said a guy with a shield and sword who stood at the front of the party.
“Focus, Conner. You don’t know what I had to do to get us this chance,” said a woman with long red hair. She carried a staff and wore robes that looked like they came from a movie set in medieval times.
“Slept with the Association agent,” said another woman, who used a bow.
“He wishes! Maybe if he was twenty years older!”
“There you go again with your elder fetish. I wonder where your parents went wrong while raising you, Carol.”
“I would much rather be with someone that’s seen the world.”
“Focus, Carol, Jen!” Conner parroted back to her.
They all grew quiet, then moved to the double doors. From the outside it looked like a mansion that had been well maintained. There was even a well-manicured hedge around the “drive” that led to the doors.
“I think this one is going to be really interesting,” Carol said, looking the entrance over.
“Have any of you seen a dungeon with something like this?” Conner asked.
“Nope. Well, I read on the web there is one that has a castle in it. That was over in Europe though,” Jen said, fingering the string on her bow.
