Fred moved closer and cautiously touched the outside of the tree, feeling the rough skin of the giant plant in wonder. They had a few water-based plants inside the dungeon that floated on top of the ponds scattered around the rooms, but they were nothing like this. He craned his neck to look up, making out the branches and leaves that blocked most of the view of the sky. He just couldn’t believe how…large…everything seemed to be out in the world.
He started to rethink his plans to explore; the more he learned and experienced outside the dungeon, the more he was starting to worry that he wasn’t ready for it. While he was ready and eager less than half a day ago, the sheer foreignness of everything was a bit overwhelming. He almost turned around right then and headed back home, abandoning his adventure before it had barely begun.
“Firbey, Frozzles – what do you think? Should I turn back?”
They of course didn’t answer (or even acknowledge in any way that he had spoken to them), but he never expected them to. He frequently talked to them, even though they never responded; however, they were the closest he had to “friends” as there was in his little world. While he loved the Fire and Water dungeon cores back home more than anything in the world, they weren’t necessarily his “friends” – they were his parents. He only knew about the term when he overheard his mother arguing about some that she apparently used to have.
“But they’re my friends – surely they wouldn’t give up our location to my father.”
“They might be your friends, or at least they were, but that doesn’t mean they might not let something slip. And who knows what the situation is like since we left; for all we know, they might have turned against you by now.”
“I doubt that – we’ve been friends for so long that there’s very little that could break that bond between us.”
“Be that as it may, it’s not our safety that I’m worried about…”
“…fine. I know you’re right, but I don’t have to like it.”
He knew that they had been talking about him, but there was nothing he could do about it. They had sacrificed so much for him that he didn’t know what he could say or do to make up for it. Maybe going away is the best thing that I can do. Then they can go back to their previous lives without worrying about my safety all the time. However, he just couldn’t imagine living without them in his life; he pushed the thought to the back of his mind, content to think about it at a much later time.
No matter what he eventually chose to do, he knew he couldn’t squander this opportunity to experience something other than the confines of his dungeon home. He had a feeling that if he went back now, he would be hard-pressed to convince himself to venture back outside. I have to do this.
Making the difficult decision for his bodyguards since they didn’t seem to have an opinion, he let go of the tree (which he didn’t realize he had started hugging at some point) and moved further into the forest, his companions in tow. While the fire elemental and giant frog were essentially extensions of the mana inside his home and normally couldn’t venture more than a couple of feet beyond the dungeon’s influence – otherwise they would fall apart and disperse – his father had told him that they were infused with an extra helping of power that allowed them to travel up to a week before they had to return. If they expended some of their inherent mana in a battle or used it to heal themselves, then that time limit could be shortened considerably, however.
Fortunately, he was only planning to be gone for two days; that gave them plenty of time to explore and get back. If they were attacked at some point, he promised his parents that they would immediately return once it was safe – he just hoped that he didn’t get attacked right at the start.
Not that he hadn’t learned how to defend himself, but he didn’t want his largely untested skills to get in the way of his adventure.
The further he ventured into the forest, the darker it became as the treetops overhead blocked out what little light there was streaming through their leaves. That didn’t bother him too much, however, as his low-light vision was superb; dark dungeon caves with only intermittent torches made it a necessity. He wasn’t born with it, but he had adapted well to his environment – and had the skills to show for it.
Fred traveled for another four hours before he called it a day, looking for a suitable place to stop for the night. He was apprehensive at first, thinking that (similar to back home) there were beasts around every tree, just waiting for him to appear before striking. After an hour of cautiously venturing from tree to tree, looking for traps that might be set along the ground or somewhere in his path – and finding nothing – he relaxed just the slightest bit. It was enough of a relaxation that he was finally able to enjoy his exploration, and he noticed a multitude of interesting plants growing along the bases of trees he passed. He had left a little room in his bag for anything he might come across, so he took samples of everything he found.
But he didn’t see a single wild animal. Which he was grateful for…and a little disappointed. Based upon the number of attacks to the dungeon over the years (which, when he really thought back to them, only amounted to just shy of 30), he had for some reason expected the forest to be teeming with life, even if it wasn’t full of some of the dangerous monsters he’d seen before. Which – don’t get him wrong – he appreciated not having to run for his life, but the absence of any type of life was strange to him. He was used to being surrounded by his bodyguards, dungeon defenders, and even his parents; the silence put him on edge.
He had brought some supplies with him, but now that he was out in the middle of a forest that showed no signs of an end, nothing that he brought with him – other than the mana-formed food – was beneficial. Eventually, he found a relatively open space in between four trees, giving him ample space to lay the only thing he had brought that was useful: a thin blanket. He pulled the blanket out of his bag, dislodging some of the plant samples he had collected (which he immediately shoved back in), and laid the thin fabric along a clear stretch of ground that was free of roots.
Sitting cross-legged and eating a few of his food orbs, he held a “conversation” with his bodyguards:
“So, Firbey, what did you think of our first day out in the wide world?”
He responded to himself with a higher-pitched voice. “Well, I’d have to say that it was exciting and boring at the same time.
“Fair enough, fair enough. I can’t say I disagree – I just hope that we come across something interesting by midday tomorrow, because we’ll have to turn back after that.”
Now with a lower tone. “But I don’t want to go back yet, we just got here!
“Now, now, Frozzles, we told Mom and Dad that we would only be out for two nights. We can’t go back on our word – otherwise they might not let us leave again for years!
“Ok, ok, I hear you – but let’s stay out as long as we possibly can.” Frozzles was almost always the one that convinced Fred to do things that got him into trouble.
Satisfied that neither of them was going to try to convince him to stay out longer than he had promised to, he finished his tasteless-yet-nutritional meal and lay down on his blanket. “Firbey, can you make it a little warmer, please?” It never hurts to be polite.
Firbey got a little closer to him, which was a bit too hot, but she eventually expanded until she was twice her usual size, dispersing the heat in a larger area. He closed his eyes, confident that his two bodyguards would watch over him in his sleep. Although it wasn’t as comfortable as his hand-made bed back in the dungeon, the warmth suffusing him from the fire elemental was enough to make him feel right at home. Even the cold ground underneath his blanket was starting to warm up by the time he drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 4
Waking up out of the close confines of his dungeon home was slightly disorienting, though Fred quickly adjusted to it with the resilience of youth. Firbey and Frozzles were still there, keeping watch over him while he slept; they never had to sleep – being dungeon-cr
eated constructs – so they were the near-perfect guards. If only they could hold a conversation or two, then they would be perfect.
He quickly packed up his blanket and prepared to leave, the eagerness spurring him on to hurry. He just knew that there had to be something out there – he just had to find it. The forest was barely brightening up from the sun that seemed to want to appear that day, though he doubted he would be able to see it for the trees. The darkness still didn’t bother him, as he was used to finding his way through darkness, and the mana flows he could still see all around him inside the trees were more than enough to avoid running into them.
Two hours into his journey, he was getting more and more concerned that he wouldn’t find anything of note; that was, until he found a small pond surrounded on all sides by more trees. If he hadn’t been paying attention to the mana flows, he would’ve fallen straight into the water. Fortunately, he recognized the tell-tale blue-tinged power ahead and stopped before he took an unintended dip.
His father’s ponds inside the dungeon were filled with deadly defenders, ranging from flesh-stripping fish with razor-sharp teeth, to water snakes that injected their victims with a paralyzing poison. Despite the fact that they were relatively simple constructions (at least, that’s what his dad told him) created from pure mana, they – along with the fire-based creatures filling the dungeon – made his home feel…alive.
This pond, however, did not.
He could see that the pond was fed by a trickling stream coming from the west, the mana flows into the small reservoir constant yet weak. The blue Water Mana was much, much less concentrated inside the water here than what he normally saw in the dungeon; he wasn’t sure what the difference was, though it could be because it was purer as it was filtered and refined through his father’s dungeon core.
While the mana in the pond in front of him was present and visible, it was weak; in fact, it was mixed in with brown-tinged mana splotches he had learned belonged to the Earth element, along with the green shade similar to the trees around him that denoted a Nature element. There were a few other elements he had been taught about, though he didn’t see any of them here – other than the very faint traces of Air flowing everywhere through the forest.
From seeing a few of them invade his home, he knew that wild beasts/creatures were also infused with mana; though, since they weren’t formed entirely from mana like dungeon defenders, the amount was much less. Still, it was enough to strengthen his parents’ dungeon cores when the beasts were slain – which they immediately absorbed once the mana was released upon their deaths.
So, knowing that he would see even faint traces of mana inside of any nearby creatures, he was disappointed when he didn’t see anything inside the pond. No fish, no snakes, no crabs – nothing. There weren’t even any insects that he had been told existed, though he had never seen any; he was told it was because they were located so far north that very few lived nearby.
Ignoring the empty and now-uninteresting pond (he had seen plenty of those in his life), he looked around for anything else; but there were just trees, and then more trees. He took off south and a little west, knowing that he only had another four or five hours that he could travel before he had to turn back. Fortunately, he didn’t have to worry about getting lost; his sense of direction was so finely tuned that he could accurately point out which direction he needed to go to get back to his home. Those years of navigating dark corridors and rooms were more beneficial than I thought.
Even with the direction change, there was nothing to see. By the time he reasoned that it was time to head back, he hadn’t seen anything more than a couple of interesting plants and…more trees. The massive monoliths of the Nature element seemed to go on forever, as he didn’t see any end in sight. It feels like I could spend years walking and not get anywhere.
“How ‘bout it, guys – time to head back?”
They, of course, still didn’t answer – nor did he answer for them. With a big sigh at his unproductive first outing, he turned around and headed straight for his prior night’s resting place. Since he was cutting straight to it instead of retracing his steps, he was hoping that he might’ve just missed something by going a different way initially.
And, lo and behold, he did find something! It wasn’t a wild beast or anything as interesting as that, though; it was a small plant hidden behind a non-descript tree. He probably would’ve walked by without even seeing it if he hadn’t been paying close attention to the various mana signatures all around him.
When he worked his way around the tree, he found a small bush with tiny red flowers growing all over it; the color reminded him of his mother’s dungeon core, and so did the mana element. A small amount of the Fire element was circulating through the entire bush, just barely visible over the Nature – and the petals were warm to the touch. He ripped off a bundle of the tiny flowers and shoved them in his bag, thinking that his mom might like to see them. At least I found something interesting.
The rest of the trek back to his campsite from the night before went by quickly without interruption. Unfortunately. Fred wasn’t exactly hoping to be attacked every step of the way, but he was hoping to utilize some of the skills he had acquired over the last couple of years mock-fighting against his parents’ dungeon defenders.
They were the perfect training partners; they were instructed not to hurt him severely (though there were a few close-calls a couple of times), and when he inevitably killed them – they were absorbed into the dungeon and remade almost instantly. And, fortunately, the limitation that dungeon cores usually had to abide by that kept them from changing anything inside the dungeon while a “foreign” entity was present didn’t apply to him; apparently, he was considered part of the dungeon. Otherwise, his parents wouldn’t be able to respawn the defenders unrestrictedly.
Of course, without the real threat of death, there was only so much he could train for. That, and most of the defenders he trained against had been low level, meaning that there wasn’t too much danger from them. If they ganged up on him, he would’ve been in trouble, but his parents didn’t want to risk having too many away from their posts at one time. They, instead, only wanted him to do one thing when presented with an actual threat: run.
While he could understand the sentiment behind this, running away had never been in his plans. He wanted to prove himself to his parents, show them that he could help defend the dungeon just as well – or even better – than their own defenders. Fred loved them with all his heart, but sometimes their precautions felt just a little too much sometimes. He just wanted a chance to prove himself to them.
Well, maybe next time I’ll stay out longer and finally show them that I can take care of myself. By the time he arrived at his campsite and rolled out his blanket, he was already thinking about the next time he could get out of the dungeon and explore the world again. He fell asleep – after having Firbey warm the air up again – with visions of him leading a defensive force, bravely beating back a tide of wild beasts hoping to invade his home.
* * *
The biting cold wind coming out of the north woke Fred up, the previously warm-enough clothes no longer helping against the frigid air. At first, he didn’t know why his teeth were chattering, but as he sleepily opened his eyes…he saw the reason.
Firbey wasn’t there. Neither was Frozzles.
Fred’s guardians had been such an integral part of his existence that his mind couldn’t process what he was seeing. It was as if at some point in the night, his left and right arms had been cut off without him knowing it. He was literally paralyzed with confusion and uncertainty; this had never happened before.
He lay there, unmoving, for almost 10 minutes; the forest was quiet all around him, so he listened to see if maybe they were just out of sight for a few moments and would be back soon. It’s not like I know what they do while I’m sleeping – maybe they do this every night and it’s just today that I woke up before they got back. Maybe they have a secret relati
onship like my parents and are sneaking away to be alone. The thought made him smile a little, before realizing that they probably didn’t have the intelligence to do anything like that. He was about to get up and start looking for them when they came back.
However, two things shouted out to him that everything…wasn’t quite right.
For one, they didn’t approach him and take up their places as his bodyguards, stationing themselves behind and to the sides. Fred was so used to them being in their places that to see them anywhere else was highly abnormal.
For the second, they were involved in a full-scale battle between themselves, doing their best to kill each other.
Firbey condensed for a moment before a fireball launched from her center towards Frozzles, who narrowly avoided the projectile by hopping to the side. The giant frog retaliated with a quick spurt of water from his mouth (he didn’t even know his bodyguard could do that), which impacted the fire elemental full on, dimming the flames a miniscule amount.
As a counterattack, Firbey shot forward, moving faster than Fred had ever seen her move before; nearly teleporting to Frozzles’ side, the fire elemental extended a tongue of flame out from her essence, touching the giant frog’s back – which ignited the acid pustules. With his entire backside on fire, Frozzles let out a horrendous croak and turned to the elemental, lashing out with his own tongue.
This one was much stickier, however, when compared to the flames of Firbey; it somehow latched onto something at the fire elemental’s core, scorching itself in the process, but it didn’t let go. A tug of war commenced between the long, sticky tongue of the giant frog and the flaming ball of fire – which, despite shrinking down and becoming uncomfortably hot, couldn’t get free.
Dungeon World: A Dungeon Core Experience Page 3
