by Tao Wong
“Thanks Max. It feels great, just great. I barely even feel the weight anymore,” Daniel gushes, grateful for the free fitting that Max offered to do last night. He even cleaned some of the blood off the used armor, bringing it back at least partly to its glory days before Daniel’s abuse.
“The fourth floor is bad enough without adding ill-fitting armour. You just come back for some proper steel armour before you reach the seventh, yes? Those Ogres will smash right through this,” Max says.
Nodding enthusiastically, Daniel makes his final payment and heads out, not even bothering to get undressed. The newly refitted armor is so comfortable and Daniel secretly thought he looked rather dashing in it. He couldn’t wait to try the fourth floor tomorrow.
“I hate the fourth floor,” grouses Daniel as he slumps in his seat next to his usual drinking partners the next evening. Draining his mug, he waves to Elise for a refill.
“Har!” A huge hand claps his back, sending Daniel sprawling forward in his seat as Ken and his friends laugh at the new Adventurer. “Now you’re a real Adventurer.”
“Real Adventurer?” Daniel says.
“Oh yeah, you ain’t one till you’ve done the fourth floor.” Laughing, Ken raises his glass and voice “To the Crawlers.”
The cheers and resounding toasts makes Daniel look around suspiciously. Ken smiles and explains, “There are two groups of adventurers who go into the fourth floor. We call them the farmers and the Adventurers. Farmers love it - it’s good, consistent money killing the Crawlers for their stones and sacs. Combine it with being paid by the Guild to open up the passageways and you can earn a decent living. That’s them…” Ken nods to those who joined his toast.
“Then there’s the real Adventurers. You guys hate the middle floors because all you want to do is get strong and get down. Not easy to do when you spend half the day checking for traps, backtracking from dead-ends that weren’t there the day or even hour before and only occasionally fighting.
“You kid, you’re an Adventurer. Knew it the first time we talked.”
Daniel sighs and nods his head in acceptance. The fourth floor, with proper preparation wasn’t hard. It was just slow and frustrating.
“Just remember kid, it’s all good training. Don’t rush it - the Ogres in the next sector would squash you flat,” says Ken.
Ken’s cautious advice still ringing in his mind, Daniel is up and early again the next morning. If it was not for the fact that Crawlers had significantly better mana crystals the Kobolds, he would have seen a drastic drop in his income, even with the addition of the sale of the chemical sacs which were an additional part of the loot. As it stood, he still had lost a third of his regular income yesterday.
Journeying to the fourth floor via portal stone, Daniel readies himself before touching the portal stone. He gasps as the mana from the stone flows out and enters his body, the cold so intense that he is unable to breathe for a moment before pins and needles shoot through his body. The pain is exquisite and lasts for a moment before he finds himself on the fourth floor next to the portal stone. Daniel raises his shield automatically, crouching down and finds no enemy waiting for him, only then relaxing and stopping his shivers.
Mentally surveying the map he created yesterday, Daniel picks the path to the right, climbing over fallen rocks to peer into the cramped passageway. He moves forward cautiously, pushing against the stone with his mace at each step, ensuring that it is solid and able to take his weight before he moves forward.
The passageway is short, breaking out into a small cavern. He pulls a trap ball from his pocket, dropping it beneath him to test the ground before eyeing the corners of the cavern. Seeing no additional problems, he clambers down from the passageway slowly and picks up the ball to send it rolling across the floor ahead of him.
In this way, Daniel journeys through another two passageways before he encounters his first Crawler of the day. The Crawler is squatted at the end of the passageway that Daniel is walking through, patting newly laid waste into shape as it secretes the chemical from its mouth. Daniel spots the creature first and takes off at a run, hoping to catch it unaware quickly. That hope is dashed as the Crawler looks up at the last second, swinging its carapace clad body to the side and shedding part of Daniel’s blow. Skittering legs on one side start moving as it backs away, intent on giving itself space to attack Daniel but is hampered by the Adventurer smashing some of those legs into paste.
In pain, the Crawler swings its body back to Daniel and attempts to use its greater weight to crush the smaller Adventurer. Daniel jumps back, barely able to dodge the monster in the cramped confines of the cavern they fight in. He swings again, crushing a mandible as the monster rears back to bite him and then as it reacts to the pain, smashes his mace upwards before triggering a Shield Bash. The Crawler staggers backwards, injured and Daniel pushes his advantage. Too fast, for he forgets that the creature can swing its back too. The blow catches Daniel high up on his body and smashes him into a nearby wall, making him lose his balance.
Daniel struggles back to his feet, shoulder and chest in pain but the Crawler is hurt too. Shouting in anger, Daniel stands and jumps forward, bringing his hammer down onto the creature’s head, braining it and ending the fight. Panting, Daniel waits for the smoke to dissipate before collecting both sac and mana.
A good start, though painful. Now to find more monsters, he thinks as he walks off into the passageway. Slow and patient, that was the way to go.
Chapter 16
“No.”
Daniel jerks to a stop, pulling his foot back from the step he was about to take. He turns to survey the area, only then spotting the figure seated on an out-cropping a few feet to his right. He frowns, the cloaked figure in an extremely dirty cloak is tiny, but looks utterly relaxed.
It is his first day on the fifth floor, and so far, it has every bit as frustrating as the fourth if not more so. Traps, delays, surprise attacks and more. He hunches down, trying to spot the problem while he speaks, “Why?”
“Trap.”
“I figured,” Daniel huffs and then takes hold of his irritation. “Thank you. But what kind of trap is it?”
“Deadfall,” Seeing Daniel’s puzzled face, she points up.
He looks up and eyes the stalactite before slowly taking a deep step back. A single ball has already rolled over the ground, part of the precautions he uses so he pulls two now and rolls both at the same time down the corridor. This time, the pressure is sufficient to cause the trap to trigger and one other trap further down the corridor.
“Noisy,” hands raised to its head, the other Adventurer hops down lightly next to Daniel. The figure before him surprises Daniel for a brief moment, the Beastkin an uncommon sight though he knew that they made up a higher proportion of the Adventuring population than their minority numbers would lead one to believe. Standing just slightly shorter than his own 5’ 8”, he notes it is a feline Beastkin with black fur and wide, jade eyes. She leans forwards, her whiskers tickling his face from her slightly elongated muzzle as she sniffs him before dropping down from her tiptoes, her close proximity giving him a quick whiff of her fragrant musk. A part of him notes that she looks more animalistic than many others, more like a grown Jaguar forced to walk upright than a human with Cat features. From his time in the city, he knew that the Beastkin varied greatly in their appearance, though many leaned towards the more human in appearance. The female Adventurer points down the way, indicating the leftmost branch as she continues to speak. “Hive. Help?”
He puzzles over her words for a few moments before he realises she’s asking him to join up to deal with the hive. Daniel has only run across a small hive once before and the fight had left him drained and injured. A half-dozen Crawlers, even with his new armor had nearly been his undoing. “Maybe. How many?”
“One. Two. Many?” She pauses, watching him wince before grinning at her own joke. “Nine.”
He snorts, brown eyes tightening in thought as he runs the o
dds in his head. “Yeah, okay.”
She grins widely at him, stepping forward and leading the way. When he gets to the balls, Daniel picks the both up, noting one is badly chipped. He sighs, realising he might need to go shopping again soon as his stock is nearly depleted.
It takes a short 10 minutes for them to make their way to the hive. Peering in, Daniel grimaces and looks at his new companion to speak about strategies. Daniel is too late though and he just catches the quick movements of the Catkin as she ducks pass him, already throwing knives at the Crawlers.
Daniel groans, rushing forwards to attack the nearest monster, noting its been blinded already by the uncannily accurate throws. He smashes his club down, crushing the carapace before booting the monster up and then smashing it aside with his shield onto another incoming monster.
The first monster slain, Daniel steps back, resetting his stance as he readies himself to fight the swarm of crawlers that have targeted him. In the corner of his eyes, he notes the Catkin has swarmed up the side of the cavern and is throwing her knives to distract and injure the foes that rush him now, ignoring the pair that begin crawling up the wall to her. The blades are well aimed, most finding gaps in the carapace but after even a few moments of fighting, Daniel judges that the throwing knives are no more than painful annoyances for these creatures. It will be up to him to finish their opponents off.
Sliding to the right, he dodges a lunge by a Crawler and activates Double Strike, smashing its legs on one side before he boots the creature away again. Another attack is caught on his shield and he takes the time to Shield Bash this assailant, using its temporary disorientation to land a few more blows. Even as he finishes dealing with that monster, another one takes his first opponents place, mandibles skittering off his armour as it fails to gain purchase.
The battle is hard pressed, the Crawlers swarming Daniel at every turn. Forced to focus on damaging and hampering them, Daniel is unable to finish a kill as he continually moves and attacks. A bad step though has him lose balance for a precious moment, one that a Crawler uses to attach itself to his leg and yank him off his feet. Its mandibles close on his shin attempting to shatter the bone, delayed only for a brief period by his greaves.
The Catkin’s jump onto the creature from her perch smashes it down and she reaches forward, daggers plunging into the Crawler’s eyes. It releases Daniel who scrambles back and onto his feet as the Catkin jumps away, neatly avoiding an attack from behind.
The remainder of the fight passes without further life-threatening incidents and in the end, Daniel slumps amongst the bodies, sweat covering him and sticking his brown hair to his face. He pulls his helmet off to let it cool, noting that the Catkin does not seem to be sweating at all. Then again, did cats sweat? After a brief rest, they work to collect the mana stones and the additional sac drops. Thankfully, they didn’t need to haul the faeces upstairs - the hired Adventurer’s who worked for the Guild did that with the broken-down exits where alchemists dissolved them again into their component parts to await the chemical sacs.
Housekeeping done, Daniel turns to the Catkin who is busy cleaning her daggers with a cloth and water. “Thank you.”
“More?” She points down the way while putting away her cloth amongst an impressive array of knives.
“Why not?”
“Why haven’t I partied up before?” Daniel muses to himself as they exit the Dungeon after a very successful day into a brisk winter weather. The Catkin’s ability to sense traps and sniff out the Crawlers meant that he travelled faster and backtracked less today. On the other hand, more than once, he was able to help guide her around a faster entrance or exit due to his own mapping skill. And it was obvious, at least to Daniel, that the Catkin had been having trouble fighting the Crawlers. She could kill one or two on her own without issue, but on the fifth floor, the Crawlers often came in larger numbers. Without the raw strength to shatter their carapace, the Catkin must have been forced to fight a battle of slow attrition in great danger to herself.
There was one thing that bothered Daniel about their partnership though and as the Catkin heads off, he rushes forward to touch her on the shoulder. She snarls, hunching down and popping a pair of claws before realising it’s him and relaxing slightly though she still backs away from the Adventurer.
“Sorry! I just don’t know your name.” Daniel apologises, pulling his hand back.
“Asin,” she purrs resting a hand on her chest. She points to him and mutters, “Daniel.”
“Yeah,” he wonders how she knows his name but dismisses it. “You know, we did pretty good last night. Do you want to do this again tomorrow?”
Asin pauses, looking the young man up and down. Daniel was not unknown to her, the Clinic was one of the few locations that took in Beastkin for treatment and as such, all the workers in the Clinic had a level of notoriety among the Beastkin minority in Karlak. In addition, she has secretly watched the young man’s progress for the last few days as he worked through the level. In truth, Daniel’s judgements about her progress were spot on and she had been considering travelling back up a floor to gain strength before attempting the fifth floor. All these thoughts pass through her head quickly before she nods affirmatively, waving goodbye to the young man as Asin heads in to the Guild to sell their collected loot.
“I tell you, my cousin says there’s been a lot of activity in the Borderlands this winter. Last time that happened, we saw raids all through the winter,” Ken expounds from his usual table. The guards around him nod in understanding, recalling that his cousin’s a Griffin Scout for the Kingdom. While the guard was a loudmouth, he did not lie about the important things and orc raiders were definitely important.
Daniel waves to the group, catching the tail of the end of the conversation as he joins them at their table, a mug of beer in his hand. He plops down in his seat with a contented sigh, drawing deep of the beer.
“Good day?” Unusually, it’s Curtzman who speaks first after the initial round of greetings as he spots the more relaxed mood the young man is in.
“Yeah, it was. Did very well today. I met a Catkin today and we worked on clearing the fifth floor together. Finished off quite a few nests,” Daniel answers quite proudly. Working with Asin, Daniel had made more than today by a significant margin than any previous day and they hadn’t even spent the whole day working together. He cannot wait for tomorrow. As such, Daniel isn’t ready for their reactions.
“Beastkin,” one guard spits to the side, the rest grimacing at his choice of companions. More than a few shake their head, their estimation of the young adventurer falling a little.
“What! Why?” Daniel frowns, wondering what is up with his friends.
“Look, we’re not prejudiced or anything Daniel, but, we’re guards you know,” at Daniel’s nod, Ken continues, “Beastkin, well, they make up half our work for being such a small number. Seems like every time we turn around, we’re catching another one of them kind and locking them up. They just, well, they’re just criminals, most of them. Petty thieves, swindlers, con artists and more. They’re either thieves or Adventurers and the Adventurers aren’t much better.”
“Just trouble. We should just kick them out,” grumbles another red-headed guard.
Daniel frowns, staring at his friends and considers their words. He wasn’t a guard, so he couldn’t talk about their experiences but… “She was real helpful to me. Knew where all the traps were and backed me up when I needed it. We mad really good time.”
Ken holds his hands up placatingly, “I’m sure she’s good. There’s always a few good one’s. Just, you know, the rest of them.”
Somewhat mollified, Daniel turns his attention back to his meal though a part of him is disturbed by the conversation though the young adventurer is unsure what it is exactly that concerns him.
Chapter 17
The next morning, Asin is surprised to see Daniel waiting for her at the dungeon entrance, chewing on a loaf of bread and cheese. Since neither of them had
thought to arrange a meeting time, Daniel had decided to just get up early and wait for the Catkin. The Catkin slows down for a moment, pulling her cloak tight around her body as she struggles with her feelings. Daniel has been the first human Adventurer who has agreed to and kept his promise of partying up with her again, a fact that stung Asin’s pride. Now faced with a human that keeps his word, the Catkin finds herself confused at her own reactions.
The storm of emotion is pushed aside as Daniel finally catches sight of Asin and waves to her, gulping down the mouthful of bread. Asin will test him today, see how he reacts. Even if Daniel worked with Khy’ra, humans were still not to be trusted.
“Morning Asin,” Daniel smiles and stretches. “Are you ready?”
Asin nods in confirmation, hands quickly doing a quick pat down to check that all her weapons and supplies are on-hand. Next to them, the pair of guards who are on night duty watch the Catkin with ill-disguised suspicion. Daniel’s eyes narrow slightly, for the first time noticing the guards reactions. Yet it is not the time to say anything about it for the Catkin strides right pass them all, walking into the entrance and heading for the portal stone.
At the stone, she waits for Daniel to catch up before she raises her hand with all her fingers spread to confirm the floor they will work. Daniel nods agreeably and after she has been transported down, places his own hand on the portal stone.
“Cold!” Daniel mutters after checking his surroundings for dangers. Asin can’t help but agree at his comment. It always took her a while to get the bone chilling cold out from her bones. Bent slightly forward, her ears swivel as she listens to the noises coming from the passageways that surround them. There was slight noise coming from two, a third there is none and in the fourth passageway she can hear the regular ring of pickaxes on set excrement. That ruled out the third and fourth passageways. Prowling to the other two where she hears faint sounds, she sniffs at the air, sorting through scents before making her final decision.
