A Metarat.
I had the urge to vomit, but I controlled myself. "Stay back, these things are slow."
Slow was relative. It only crossed the distance between us in a few seconds, whereupon it breathed rats at us. I screamed, but Elise took over. "Everyone scatter! It can only shoot at one of us at a time."
Sampson spun in circles with his special Spinning Slash but Andy was less lucky, having only single-target melee moves. Still, her armor was sufficient to withstand another breath from the Metarat.
I, on the other hand, had terrible armor, and soon they were crawling on me. I cast a Sphere of Draining, and rats all over me died instead. Except for the zombie rats, which were now stronger. The pain as one bit me didn't stop—a Deep wound.
The Metarat turned to me and opened its mouth. Xavier fired minor spell after minor spell at it, trying different elements. When the Flame connected, he cast a Firestorm at it; it exploded into burnt rats everywhere.
"Get it before it reforms!" I shouted.
"How?" Elise called as she threw daggers so fast her hands were in a blur.
"Everyone! Kill the nearest rats to you." I cast Drains until I was out of spells, then took to crushing them under my staff. I wished I had still had the Staff of Light to zap the zombie rats.
But Andy had the right idea. She ran up to the writhing mass and struck a Mighty Blow into the knot of rats. It shrieked, and so did every rat simultaneously. Elise threw daggers dead-on, and then the burst of Experience told me the Metarat was no more.
We still had rats everywhere, if now trivial foes. It was unpleasant to clean up, let me tell you that.
* * *
"That was closer than I wanted," I told Seth Black as we reemerged. "Also, I want to go on the record as absolutely detesting rats."
"A Metarat," Elise explained. "Took Andy a moment to figure out we had to kill the Rat King in the middle." Andy beamed.
"Indeed, you would have done well to study every known possible Boss that might spawn, and its weakness," Seth Black said, and Andy stopped beaming. "No matter. You now will exercise more caution with the next Boss you shall fight."
"Sir," I said. "We didn't know that about a Metarat. There are few books on the Deep in our library."
"But that is not the only source of books. I would suggest contemplating every source of knowledge that you can access. For example, you could have asked Alice Black."
"Sorry, sir," I said.
"The apology is mine—I ought to have asked before consenting to bring you down. No matter. Shall we return?"
"Sir?" Elise said.
"Yes, Ms. Purple?"
"Was what you were talking about with the Deep House...?"
"It did not relate to either what you told me, or the fate of your House. In fact," he said turning to all of us, with the slightest twinkle in his eye, "you will all find out soon enough."
Chapter Twenty-Three:
The Announcement
Little angers active delvers more than barring them from the Dungeon. Anthony had banned everyone in the House from entering, allegedly to gather the entire House, and people weren't happy about it.
We sat at our table and played Prism Poker—red stakes. Then we got tired of that and just sat.
"Elise?" I asked. "How powerful do you believe the Dungeon is?"
"Why are you asking me?" Elise asked. "You've been in it as deep as I have."
"I'm asking you how powerful do the labydules believe it is?"
"The 'dules and the 'lats are just categories," Elise said. "I'm specifically what's called a Penitent. There are also the Redemptorists, the Reincarnists, the Redeoincarnists, and the Followers of the Sealed Messiah—and that's just the ones who believe in delving to the end. Go to the 'lats, and you'll find beliefs from the Dungeon being a minor god that's trying to climb into Heaven, to full-on Maze Manicheanism."
"Maze Manicheanism?" I asked.
"Maze Manicheanism is a religion that supposes there are two infinite beings: the Creator and the Corrupter," Elise spoke in an academic tone. "After its defeat in a great battle, the Corrupter was exiled to this world, where it either created the Dungeon, or is the Dungeon itself."
"But how powerful is the Dungeon?" I asked. "I mean, what does it know?"
"Nothing," Xavier said. "It's not alive."
"Does it matter?" Elise asked. "There's no use underestimating it."
"What do the Maze Manicheans think it is?"
"An equal to the Creator. Obviously, that makes it basically omnipotent. Seriously, why do you want to know? To a Penitent, it's just powerful. A Divine work, but not a god."
"I... I'm starting to believe that the Dungeon is alive," I said.
"WHAT?" Xavier shouted. "You can't be serious. Not you."
"I'm thinking it through, all right? I want to know what the people who believe it think, so I can decide for myself."
"It's true or not, whether you believe it or anyone else," Elise said.
"I know," I said. "And I'm starting to wonder if it is true."
"Why?" Xavier asked. "Why hasn't the Dungeon shown itself to be aware to anyone—let alone its own worshippers?"
"But everything has gone so right for us," I said. "Think of how many battles we survived—and shouldn't have. The Summonstorm. The 5th and 25th Bosses. The Ghost Fisher. Even that first Goblin being already injured. Or how good our loot turned out. By the depths, just that Rat Horde pushing us close enough so that the seekerstone found Alice Black, and we just managed to revive her. Each time everything could have gone wrong—and it didn't."
"Survivor bias," Xavier said. "Because we got lucky so often, we look back and imagine there's a pattern when there isn't. But in reality, there're just many, many unlucky delvers who aren't asking themselves this. And look, we got wiped in the Inferno."
"Not technically!" Sampson said brightly.
"No," Andy said to Xavier. "You know better. Think."
Xavier paused. "OK, the odds are improbable. But as I'm saying, there are millions of delvers. Someone's going to have crazy luck on average, and it happened to us. Sooner or later we'll be unlucky and someone else will be lucky. The fact we're often so lucky may have more to do with us having a High House behind us. Listen, it's—it's statistics. Sanity. The only rational explanation in a world that drags us naturally to irrationality."
"Xavier, shut up and let me think," Elise said. Xavier, to his credit, obeyed. "If you're asking about what I know, I know the Dungeon is aware, but it hates us. What it's doing is either to harm us worse in the future, or as a kind of... twisted reward? The Dungeon is far more intelligent than all of us combined. Even things outside of itself are potentially within its influence—one extra crystal here, one death there, moving things into place just right.
"Alternately, it's the will of the Creator." Elise paused again. "There are multiple schools even among us. One is that the Creator will not assist us in clearing the Dungeon. Another is that He will not return to the world at all until we clear the Dungeon. That's basically the Redemptorists. Ask me, the Creator will assist those whom He pleases, whatever people say He can or can't do."
"What about the Sealed Messiah people?" I asked.
"They claim that the Creator is more or less stuck in the Dungeon somehow. How a transcendent Being can get stuck somewhere is beyond me."
"If you disagree so much, how do you know you're right?" Xavier asked. "How is your religion different from the other twenty-one?"
"How do you 'know' you're right?" Elise asked. "Why do you get to exclude your beliefs from that list, when you believe as strongly about the Dungeon as I do? If division is proof that people on both sides are wrong, then both of us are wrong."
"Actually," I interrupted, "Xavier, I've always wondered what you really believe. Surely you don't think that the Dungeon is a natural phenomenon?"
"It isn't," Xavier said. "Or at least, I think it isn't. Maybe I'm wrong. I believe some entity really did create it—how or why, I
don't know. But this entity clearly did not stick around. Why? I still don't know. I'm not one to propound my beliefs as fact." Elise rolled her eyes at this. "But statistics magic has shown one thing to be certain—there is no pattern. No pattern to spawns, out-of-depths, chest drops, Bosses, or anything else, except pure, unaltered statistics. We—humanity—have calculated every action of the Dungeon with statistical certainty. There's no need for any 'brain' to control it, when it obviously runs on its own.
"And if the entity that created the Dungeon did remain—why worship something that created something so evil?"
"We believe the Creator has a plan for all that He decides, in unopposable wisdom, to create," Elise said.
"Then why do you honor it? Or the Dungeon?"
"The Creator is beyond us," Andy said. "Nothing we can say or think is greater than He Who Is. What else dare we do?"
"Wait, Andy, you're a labydule?" I asked.
"I have always been," Andy said.
This visibly threw Xavier. A moment passed before he replied. "But why worship the Dungeon?"
Elise sighed and said, "Again, we don't worship the Dungeon per se. But we do respect it."
Alice Black stopped by our table. "Having a religious argument?"
"We were talking about all the unlikely luck we've had," I said.
"And what about those with awful luck?" Alice Black said, and walked on as quickly as she arrived.
"Forgot about her dad," I said. "Whoops."
"Labyrinthodicy time?" Xavier asked Elise.
"There's no need for me to explain why the Dungeon hates us," Elise said. "It's those who worship the Dungeon who must apologize for its wrongs."
I saw the rest of the Black family, aside from Isaac, walk through the common room. Anthony followed, calling, "Everyone! We're having a meeting in the auditorium. Mandatory attendance."
"Finally!" I said, and more said the same.
"I take it that's the thing we've been stuck here about," Xavier said. He held out a hand to Elise. "No hard feelings?"
"No," she said, taking it. "Not one. And the greatest thing? The Truth doesn't care what we feel or think."
* * *
The auditorium was crowded although we had assigned seating. On the stage was all the Black family except for Isaac. Seth Black looked grave, but not angry. Adam Black was still, hand resting on his battleaxe. Adrianne was sitting on that padded chair. The only non-Black was Anthony with his usual scowl.
Alice Black looked excited.
"What could possibly be so important they would call everyone?" A Barbarian Lord next to me whispered. "I've got a Deep delve waiting for this!"
I think you'll want to hear this. Alice Black thought to both us. The Barbarian Lord blushed.
"Attention!" Anthony called, and every murmur stopped.
"Greetings, all," Seth Black said. "I am well aware you desire to go about your own business, and so I shall keep this short. Nonetheless, this will concern you and the entire House, and I demand your absolute attention."
Not one delver said a word.
"The Deep ends at the 50th Floor. Some of you already know that beneath is another section: the Core. We know little else, as several top-level parties have been lost inside. We have refrained from delving deeper into Core beyond the 51th, simply because it is so dangerous that even we might not return. We know full well that we are not invincible." Seth Black paused, his grief apparent. "Nonetheless, we cannot forsake the possibility of extending the deepest reaches of delving, to say nothing of retrieving those already lost beneath the 50th.
"Therefore, we, as a House, have decided to attempt the Core with a superparty."
There wasn't much reaction. Adam Black continued.
"It's not going to be us, exclusively. We'll have representatives from every High House and the RDU, as well as Hermes—yes, the Eidolon. We're going to need many more delvers to fill our ranks, and we'll take any volunteers. However, you MUST have 50th qualification by the end of the next two months. No exceptions. But that's it. We don't care about your build, your spectrum, your political opinions, your alignment, or where you put the butter on your toast—only that you can get beneath the 50th. If you've ever wanted to be in a top-level party, this is your chance."
Now we had a reaction. Not quite cheering, but enthusiastic noise.
Alice Black spoke next. "Donations are also appreciated. I will be in the superparty, with my infinite carrying capacity. There's no such thing as a useless item. Clean out your Bank storage of all those red trash consumables; we can use them."
"I know most of you aren't 30th qualified, let alone 50th," Anthony said. "However, we do still need volunteers. Therefore, I'm organizing a Boss Rush, starting in a month." The noise spiked long enough that no one could talk. "Yes, a Boss Rush in the Deep. Anyone who is willing to risk their lives for a shot at risking their lives again in the Core is welcome. Doesn't matter if you're already qualified part of the way, you can come along for the rest."
I couldn't listen any longer. My ears canceled out all other details, and the rest of the announcement was only details.
I knew. I knew I had to be on that superparty. And I could tell, by the faster breaths of my party, that all of us thought the same way. Elise to get to the bottom. Xavier—to know? To gain power? Sampson because it was fun. Andy because we all were—well, she probably wanted to get to the bottom, too.
And myself? I could tell myself it was many reasons, but there was only one true one: because maybe, just maybe I could become a top-level delver too.
And be with Alice Black.
Chapter Twenty-Four:
The Boss Rush
A Boss Rush, also called the Meat Drill or the Death Train, is a very simple strategy. Start at the top of the Dungeon with a horde, apply as many lasting buffs as possible, and dive straight through the Floors, killing everything, and every Boss, along the way.
Of course it's horribly dangerous, and in the Deep, borderline insane. The odds of survival are the poorest of any delving strategy, except, arguably, the Dig for Victory. Even the Meat Wall has a higher success rate, albeit that the statistics are skewed by the main party's survival. Here, anyone could die. But the survivors... There might be few, but they would be qualified.
On the other hand, we did have some high spectrums to help us.
Adrianne and Isaac Black were waiting in the 25th Lock where we had chosen to gather, on that cushioned chair and the floor respectively. Isaac Black was sharpening a knife; Adrianne Black, perhaps her wit.
"You're coming?" Anthony asked incredulously.
"If you're heading to the lower Deep, you'll hit some Blue and higher chests along the way," Isaac Black said. "No point letting them go to waste."
"I'm not," Adrianne Black said. "I have a few buffs to burn. Shall I?" She raised her staff, and there was a burst of lack of light atop. Blessing of the Unending Night. Mass Resist Time. Mass Resist Dimension. Mass Lengthy Haste. And Slow Aura on the frontline. "Enjoy. Try to come back alive, it would be quite a bother to find all of you."
"We'll be carrying the heartstones and shards—" Anthony began, but Adrianne Black had already Returned. "Whatever. Let's get going."
* * *
All thirty of us stood by the River as Anthony searched through his Bag of Holding.
"Here we go," Anthony said, pulled out a small model of a ship, and tossed it into the River. It immediately expanded, and expanded, until it was full-sized. "All of you who have Sailing know what to do. Everyone who doesn't, get aboard and prepare to fight. Because we will."
Rogues jumped aboard climbed up the ropes perfectly—high Dexterity.
"I didn't know you got Sailing," I called out to Sampson, who did the same.
"Figured it would be fun," he said. "Did none of you get Sailing?"
"I didn't think we would need it," Xavier said.
"I'll be in the crow's nest!" Isaac Black shouted. "I can probably spot everything with my Perception, but if I mi
ss something, shout."
Several minutes passed with delvers running from place to place and Anthony shouting at them. At a pause, I went to Anthony. "What's our Lorkesth policy?" I asked.
"Run. That's everyone's Lorkesth policy," he said, and cocked his head with the reception of telepathy. "Everyone!" Anthony shouted. "We're going to be leaking a little. Someone didn't patch this up the last time. Anyone who isn't frontline, missile, and I mean GOOD MISSILE, is going to go below decks to help bilge."
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