“Oh! We’re just putting up the rules for the dungeon. So that everyone knows what they are before going inside.” The elf looked far more relieved, smiling slightly as she handed over another board to the dryad, who continued working calmly as she carefully made certain that each board was flush with the previous one. At least the edges of the panels weren’t fusing together, which was a relief.
“But… no one can make rules for a dungeon,” Daniel protested, surprise causing his brain to hiccup slightly.
“Wrong. The dungeon can make rules. She just doesn’t like penalizing people without giving them fair warning. Thus, the rules,” the elf countered, then smiled. “I should know. I live in there, after all!”
Daniel’s eyes went wide with shock, and he stood there for a moment, just as he heard muttered curses from Darak. After a brief pause, he managed to ask, “Y-you live in there? How? I’ve gone inside twice, and it’s incredibly deadly inside! How can you even survive?”
“Complicated,” the dryad spoke at last, taking a final board and putting it into place before straightening and looking at him with leaf-green eyes.
“Mmmhmm. Simplest way to put it is that I belong to the dungeon,” the elf told him, relaxing slightly as she looked at the dryad. “Done, Sistina?”
“Yes,” the dryad replied, glancing around the clearing for a moment, her eyes lingering on the adventurers before she pointed at the board. “Rules. Important.”
“But who—” one of the guards spoke up, only to have the dryad ignore him, walking toward the dungeon.
“Sorry, she’s really difficult. Good luck, and follow the rules!” the elf replied, and then scampered after the dryad and into the mouth of the cave, her footsteps echoing behind her.
“What the hell? Darak, can people really live in dungeons like that?” Daniel asked, as not just the adventurers but at least another dozen onlookers started forward.
“Sort of. Joe? You’re better at this sort of thing,” Darak asked, looking at the cleric.
“Well, most people who ‘live’ in a dungeon are just surviving in a safe zone. Not all dungeons have them, and safe zones are usually not terribly pleasant places. They’re usually empty stone rooms with nothing useful to them,” Joseph began, shrugging. “Usually it’s some merchant or smith who’s set up shop there and survives on supplies brought in by adventurers. It isn’t the safest, since getting in or out can be difficult, but a few make a lot of money off of such. There’s another type, but it’s extraordinarily rare. That elven girl is probably the second type.”
“Which is?” Daniel asked, glancing at the sign.
“Essentially, they’re the representative of the dungeon, we call them Voices. Dungeons generally can’t speak, but a few learn to infuse a mortal with their power, who communicates their desires. You never touch someone like that. Not if you want to live when you go into the dungeon,” the cleric explained, frowning slightly. “That’s part of why I wanted Darak out here. When those two came out, the guards tried to accost the elf, only to have the dryad brain one of them with a signpost before she got to work. I’m betting she’s a boss monster inside, and if so, we’re in trouble.”
“Actually, I think this could be even weirder, Joe. Read the damn sign,” Penelope interjected, nodding at the sign.
“Hmm?” Joseph blinked, then actually looked at the sign more closely. Considering the situation, Daniel followed his example.
Dungeon of Everium
Each floor of the dungeon will always be composed of between 10 and 15 chambers connected by tunnels. Only the first and last chambers of each floor can connect to other floors.
Every 10th floor possesses an exit marked with a star that connects to a tunnel leading to the surface. All tunnels link together, and possess heavily trapped doors to prevent floors from being bypassed. Should these doors be deliberately breached, these exit tunnels will be removed.
The first time an individual reaches the end of a floor, there will be a reward of 10 silver marks per floor cleared. To receive this reward the individual must meaningfully contribute to clearing the floor. This reward changes to 10 gold crowns per floor at the 51st floor, and will be replaced by further rewards at the 101st floor.
Tunnels that have a shield sigil with three parallel claw marks across it are beast lairs. Entry is forbidden.
Caves with a sigil of a tent are a safe zone, where monsters will not enter.
Do not foul water sources. Do not deliberately destroy plants that are harmless. Do not uproot rare ingredients; take the useful parts and leave the rest of the plant to regrow the herbs. Violating any of these specific rules may cost the violator their rewards, or turn monsters of the dungeon against the individual. This depends on the severity of the violation.
Do not attempt to take machinery or forging equipment from the foundry. Basic gear, such as weapons, armor, and similar items are free to be taken.
Do not attempt to tunnel through the dungeon, and do not attempt to open additional entrances into the dungeon.
Dungeon servants will sometimes be available to assist adventurers. These individuals are not to be harmed, and will not be attacked by dungeon creatures. Services are negotiable depending on the individual.
Rarely, the dungeon may choose to spare an individual and offer to allow them to serve the dungeon for a period not less than 1 year in exchange for their lives.
There was a strange sound from nearby, and Daniel glanced over, only to freeze in shock at the sight of Darak’s eyes almost bugging out.
“A… a hundred floors? What in the bowels of hell? That’s over a thousand chambers! A thousand!” Darak gasped, managing to get past his choking, staring over at Joseph. “How the hell are we supposed to clear something like that?”
“I have no idea. But this tells me that this dungeon hasn’t been increasing the difficulty as we go down by accident, that’s for certain,” Penelope replied, her voice grim.
“It’s also giving us easy ways out after we’ve gone fairly far inside, though,” Joseph countered, seeming much more sanguine about the text. “This is… interesting.”
“Alright, what’s the big deal?” Eric finally spoke up before Daniel, his voice impatient. “This seems really weird, yeah, but it doesn’t seem bad to me.”
“Let’s step away from the crowd and discuss things there, why don’t we? This is a bit complicated,” Penelope suggested, and at their nods they drew away, heading back for the tavern.
“So where to start? That’s a mess of a signboard, and changes everything we thought we knew about this dungeon,” Darak asked, sitting down and running a hand over his beard.
“The rewards,” Nirath said simply, finally beginning to go back to normal as she shook her head. “Those were most unusual.”
“How so? I mean, it’s a lot of money, but we only managed the first room, not even the first floor,” Eileen asked. “Ten silver is about a hundred days stay in a common room if you lived frugally, but that isn’t exactly incredible.”
“What’s surprising is that it’s explicitly stated, Eileen,” Joseph answered, frowning slightly. “Some dungeons give fairly consistent rewards in particular places, but I’ve never heard of one that gave a set reward for certain tasks.”
“Untrue. The Great Labyrinth,” Nirath corrected gently.
“A fair point,” Joseph acknowledged with a nod, but looked at the others seriously. “The Great Labyrinth is an incredible place, and it does occasionally give consistent rewards, but we don’t know much about them. We don’t qualify to go there yet.”
“If that wasn’t weird, there was the bit about dungeon servants, though. I’ve heard of dungeons that had a spokesperson of sorts, but never one with servants. Especially if they don’t get attacked,” Penelope chimed in, the warrior seeming almost back to normal. “And that it might actually occasionally let someone live if they serve it for a time? Never happened before. Ever.”
“That’s… odd, I’ll admit, but it doesn’t s
eem that bad. I mean, those are only a few items on the list,” Daniel spoke after a few moments, musing and frowning. Did that mean that Sina’s death was intentional? That somewhat roused his anger toward the dungeon, though he wasn’t entirely certain what he could do.
“No, no. You don’t understand, Danny,” Darak countered, shaking his head. “The entire sign is beyond unusual. I’ve never heard of one being put up by the dungeon itself before! And the size of the dungeon is incredible. When we first got here we thought it would have twenty rooms, and maybe as many as forty if it was particularly big. Now we’re seeing indications that it has hundreds, Daniel. That changes everything.”
“Wait, what? What about the dungeon you came from?” Daniel protested, looking between the older adventurers. “You said that you’d gone through another before, right?”
“Yes, the Cerulean Dungeon,” Joseph agreed, nodding slightly. “It’s a water-themed dungeon that was discovered approximately ninety years ago.”
“How many chambers or rooms does it have?” Eric asked, tapping the table slowly.
“Sixty-three known, last we were there,” Nirath spoke with precision. “And the layout rarely changes significantly. That this dungeon wasn’t discovered until it reached its current size is disconcerting.”
“I need a drink,” Darak muttered, and raised his hand to flag down the waitress. “An ale, please.”
“A pitcher for the table, actually? I think we all need a drink,” Joseph interjected.
“Of course, right away,” the woman promised, then left them to their conversation.
Daniel took a deep breath, his eyes meeting Sayla’s. She looked concerned, and after a moment he steadied himself and leaned forward. His voice was firm as he looked at Penelope and the others. “Okay, if we’re going to join the Adventuring Guild, I think that this means we need to know more about dungeons.”
“Fair point,” Penelope replied with a chuckle, sitting back in her chair before she asked, “What do you want to know?”
“So a dryad and elf came out of the dungeon, and the guards tried to question the elf to see if she was a slave,” Lord Evansly spoke patiently, looking out the window of his office.
“Yes, sir,” Lieutenant Tarys replied, still standing at attention.
“What were they going to do to check, disrobe her?” he asked, turning to look at Tarys, and she winced at the scowl on Evansly’s face.
“They didn’t say what they were going to do, sir,” Tarys told him, feeling somewhat nervous. This hadn’t been a good month for her.
“And then the dryad hit one of them over the head with a signpost, and they backed off?” her lord continued, his tone growing weary.
“That’s what I was told, My Lord,” Tarys replied helplessly.
Letting out a deep sigh, Evansly turned around and sat, rubbing his eyes. After a moment, he spoke again, “Well, shit. Lieutenant, we have very specific orders involving the dungeon. These came down from the Adjudicator, and from the Archon above him. Let the soldiers know that those who enter or leave the dungeon are to be left alone. Screwing around with the dungeon is completely off-limits. I know what orders you gave, so I trust you, Tarys. Just make sure they don’t bring down the Justicars on our heads, please?”
“As you say, My Lord.” Relief flooded Tarys and she saluted, bowing deeply. “I’ll make certain that they are well aware.”
“Good. Thank you Tarys.” Evansly smiled slightly, though it didn’t dispel the lines of worry on his face. “This has been one hell of a month.”
Chapter 4
Phynis froze in place, staring at the mug of water in her hands. Or, if she was being more accurate, she was staring at the broken mug that was now filled with ice. The slight pain where several splinters had pierced into her hands woke her from her daze, and Phynis hissed as she set down the mug, trying to piece together what had just happened.
“Ow.” Phynis gasped as she began to extract the thin wooden fragments from her palm. Each was painful, but she couldn’t help replaying what she’d been doing a minute earlier.
Lily and Sistina had left to go up to the town above, and in their absence Phynis had found herself feeling awfully lonely. It was so safe in the dungeon that her guards had found themselves occupied with other tasks, and the handful of them practically rattled around the cave system like pebbles in an empty warehouse. So she’d gone to sit under Sistina’s tree and thought about what it was she wanted to do with her life. As she’d been thinking, she considered what would happen if anyone hurt Sistina, and icy anger had rushed through her. Through her, and out her hands, she realized, looking down at them in bemusement.
“What just happened?” Phynis asked softly, and almost at the same moment, she heard the sound of rapid footsteps, as if someone was running.
Sistina burst through the swaying fronds of her tree’s canopy, then paused a moment as she looked at Phynis and slowly relaxed, letting out an obvious breath of relief.
“Sistina? Why did you…?” Phynis began, then paused, somewhat uncertain.
“You hurt. I sensed,” Sistina replied simply, pointing down toward Phynis’ midriff. “Worried.”
“Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that you could sense that.” Sistina blushed, then looked down at her hand. “I’m not sure what happened. I got really angry at the thought of people hurting you two up there, and then the water turned to ice.”
The dryad stepped closer and knelt next to Phynis, gently taking her hands. The dryad carefully touched each open wound, causing a green light to flare for a moment as cool energy flowed through Phynis’ hands and the wounds closed. She continued to remove the splinters gently, and far more easily than Phynis, healing each wound as she went. As she did so, the sound of more footsteps reached Phynis’ ears, and Lily came into sight, looking slightly winded.
“What happened, Sistina? I’ve never seen you move that fast before,” Lily asked, wiping her brow with one hand.
“I’m afraid I managed to hurt myself, and Sistina worried it was something major,” Phynis explained, looking down at the mug. “Somehow the water turned to ice, and I ended up with a bunch of splinters.”
“Oh, that’s good. That it wasn’t major, not that you got hurt. How’d it happen?” Lily asked, stepping closer again. Phynis grinned slightly internally at the evidence that Lily was getting used to treating her like a normal person.
“Magic,” Sistina interjected calmly.
“Well, I’d guessed it was magic. I just don’t know where it was from,” Phynis replied, trying to repress a bit of impatience at Sistina’s response. How else would water turn into ice suddenly, anyway?
“No.” Sistina looked up to meet Phynis’ eyes, then reached out to gently touch the middle of Phynis’ chest. “Magic. Yours.”
“What?” Lily yelped, her eyes going wide. “I didn’t know you could use magic, Phynis!”
“That’s because I can’t. I was so busy training to rule Sifaren I never had time to learn,” Phynis replied slowly, blinking in surprise. “How could I possibly use magic?”
“You died,” Sistina said simply, shrugging as she looked at Phynis with sorrow. “Healing difficult. Mana infused Phynis. Magic awoke.”
“Wait, what do you mean I died?” Phynis asked, suddenly going pale. “Was this when I was shot?”
Lily’s face turned slightly green at the explanation, but Sistina nodded slightly, her voice gentle. “Momentary. Healed, restored. Was close.”
“I didn’t realize it was that close,” Lily murmured, her eyes wide with shock.
“Neither did I,” Phynis replied, feeling slightly numb. It took her a moment before she slowly asked. “And it awakened my magic?”
“Yes. Strong magic.” Sistina nodded firmly, then frowned. “Training needed.”
“If I could freeze water by accident, I think you’re right,” Phynis replied, letting out a faint giggle. “Could you teach me?”
Sistina shook her head firmly. “Bad teacher
. Desa.”
“Just because you can’t talk easily. You need practice, Sistina,” Phynis admonished, smiling as the last injury was healed. “But I can talk to Desa about it.”
“Words hard,” Sistina spoke firmly, shaking her head.
“You keep saying that, but you’re getting better,” Lily interjected, grinning slightly.
Sistina sniffed almost dismissively, closing her eyes as she refrained from comment. Her reaction prompted both women to giggle.
Sistina watched the two women leave, then closed her eyes and allowed herself to rest as she checked to see just how much damage she’d dealt to her body in her run. The pain from Phynis had been so unexpected that she’d ignored all restraint in her attempts to rush to the other woman, uncertain what had happened. In her instinctive flight, she’d even forgotten that she could have pulled out of her body to check on the princess, and her body had not been up to the strain.
The dryad’s body looked fine on the surface, but internally it was a different story. Muscles in her legs had torn, ligaments had nearly snapped, and some of the wooden ‘bones’ had impacted one another badly, splintering slightly. It wouldn’t be too hard to heal, but if Sistina did so it would take more mana than she wanted to use just now. What she had planned would take immense amounts of mana, and she didn’t dare expend it on minor luxuries. So instead, she used just enough to ensure the injuries would heal, then closed her eyes to let herself deal with the pain as it healed naturally.
At least she didn’t have to stay in her body, unlike anyone else who was recovering from their injuries.
“Are you alright, Adjudicator?” Private Derek asked, handing over a mug of water.
“Please, just call me Jared,” Jared replied with a wince, taking the mug and sipping at the water. “We’re all prisoners, so there’s no need to stand on ceremony.”
“Maybe so, sir, but you’re the only one who fought to the bitter end. I’m a bit ashamed that I ran,” Derek replied guiltily, looking down at the ground. “Not that I got far.”
Spells of Old (Ancient Dreams Book 2) Page 4
