Physical 1
Mental 1
Earth 1
Fire 0
Water 0
Air 0
Nature 0
Life 0
Death 0
Skills:
Blade 1 (0%)
Blunt 1 (0%)
Two-handed 1 (0%)
Block 1 (0%)
Light Armor 1 (0%)
Heavy Armor 1 (0%)
Abilities:
None
The screen popped up in his mind at annoying times, but it was at least fairly easy to get it away. Sterge didn’t know what a lot of it meant, and the Clan representatives didn’t seem like they wanted to explain, so he just kind of went with it and decided he’d figure it out on his own. So far, the only thing he discovered was that his Physical Attack and Defense fluctuated when he had his armor on him and at least a single weapon attached to his side. That was about it, though he didn’t really mind; he wasn’t expecting to actually do any fighting or defending, so it could stay gibberish for all he cared.
Gwenda had insisted that they wear their gear while they went up to see if the dungeon entrance was open, which included her wooden stick—staff—she was given along with her dark-blue linen robe. She had added the rope to keep it cinched closed, but otherwise she was wearing it just the same as he was wearing his leather armor; Sterge had asked why, but she said that since they were going in an official capacity as Raiders, they needed to look the part.
Who in the world was going to see them climbing up a mountain to check to see if a dungeon was open, he didn’t know; nevertheless, he went along with it because she was always the smarter one. He knew that when they came down right after their climb that the heat would probably become unbearable in all of his extra padding, but if it allowed them to confirm the presence of the dungeon and then turn it in for the finder’s fee, he was all for it.
There was no reason not to take advantage of the situation, now that the original Elf Raider was dead – it wasn’t like he’d be missing the reward.
Here and there – especially in the shade of various rocks – the snow that had completely blanketed the mountain could still be seen despite the rising heat of the day, and in spots the dirt was a bit muddy where more snow had melted recently. For the most part, though, three weeks after the winter storm ended they had seen at least 95% of the snow melt away, otherwise they wouldn’t have attempted to climb so far up. They weren’t afraid of a little work – in which the climb certainly was – but trying to make their way through snow at the same time would’ve been crazy and unnecessary.
“According to that Elf’s really well-drawn maps, the dungeon should be right around…here,” Gwenda finally said after having looked at the papers they had “acquired” for the last few minutes. Sterge still felt a little guilty about taking them, but he realized they wouldn’t do much good if they just let the Clan have them; this way, they could get some sort of reward for “finding” the dungeon. They had agreed that whatever they did earn would be split between the entire village, because all of them would probably suffer when hordes of Raiders arrived.
Sterge looked around and didn’t see the entrance of any dungeon, though he wasn’t exactly sure what it would look like – having never seen one before. Regardless, it appeared as though nothing was there, so they might as well leave before it got too hot and check back later—
“There it is!” Gwenda shouted in excitement, rushing past him. Sterge couldn’t see what she was talking about, until he took a few more steps forward and noticed a tunnel cleverly cut into the side of the nearest hillside at the base of one of the mountains. From his previous position, it blended so perfectly with the rest of the stone-covered hillside that he had completely dismissed it.
“Yep – good eye! Ok, now that we’ve confirmed that it’s open, let’s head back and—”
“Wait! Um…we should probably go inside and check that it’s an actual dungeon, and not just a hole in the side of a hill leading to an empty cave or something,” Gwenda said hurriedly, with a serious expression on her face.
Sterge knew that he wasn’t the smartest Hill Dwarf around, but he wasn’t stupid. “You’ve been planning this ever since you heard about a dungeon here, haven’t you? That’s why you made me wear this ridiculous armor, isn’t it?”
She had the decency to look a little sheepish as she nodded. “Yes, I thought it might help if we earned a little bit of coinage before we reported this to the Clan for the finder’s fee.”
“Why? That Elf was talking like the reward would be super good, so we shouldn’t need to worry about that.”
She put her hands on her hips and looked sternly at him. “Yes, but how long do you think it’ll take to get that reward? Do you remember the year and a half it took for all of us at the village to get permission to lease the land we’re farming on right now? That was just for a simple land deal; I can’t imagine how long it would take for something this big to be resolved. Besides, maybe we’ll make enough to get you that wheeled plow in Heftington you’ve had your eye on.”
She had a point – at least as far as the wheeled plow in Heftington went. All that other stuff about the finder’s fee taking a long time to get to them could be correct as well, but he wasn’t really sure. All he knew was that Gwenda looked determined to go into the dungeon, and there wasn’t much that could dissuade her when she had her mind set on something; Sterge wasn’t about to let her go inside on her own, so that meant he had to go in to protect her.
Sighing, he gave in. “Ok, let’s go in a little ways, but if it looks too dangerous we’re turning back. We have no idea what’s in there, nor have either of us been in a dungeon before; there could be fire-breathing dragons that could roast us both in a second for all we know.”
“I doubt that, but you’re right; we can take it easy and then leave if it gets to be too much for us,” she agreed…a little too quickly. He didn’t bother to beleaguer the point, though, so he led the way up the slight rise towards the dungeon entrance. At least, he hoped it was the dungeon entrance; he’d feel silly if he walked into a normal cave and found a hibernating bear or something inside.
Well…not silly, actually – more like dead, but it was a risk he was willing to take to keep Gwenda safe.
Chapter 21
Finally! Shale flew above the entrance of Tamara’s dungeon, reveling in the early morning sunlight on his skin. He’d been taking to exploring a little of the surrounding land ever since the temperature warmed up enough that his wings didn’t fall off. It was quite strange how the weather went from full-on blizzard with frigid temperatures to “normal”, pleasant temperatures; he remembered hearing something about how the mountain ranges to the north and south of the main continent on Gairth had some funky weather, but it hadn’t really interested him at the time.
He never thought he’d say it, but he wished he had paid a little better attention at DAPS.
The amount of knowledge that Tamara seemed to have was insane, especially since it had originally come from Tacca. That the now-deceased Fairy had managed to convey so much information in such a short amount of time was nothing less than astonishing to Shale; he was beginning to wonder even more how the Deliverer had managed to get herself killed with how much she apparently knew. Was it really a manifestation of her “bad luck” striking her down? He was beginning to question that – along with the Dungeon Core he was Bonded to.
It wasn’t anything major that caused Shale to wonder about Tamara – it was just a lot of little things that were starting to add up. First was the knowledge she possessed that seemed very specific and detailed…but that could be explained by Tacca conveying that information, of course. Then there were the cracks that she caused on the surface of her Core whenever she used too much Dungeon Force – something that he’d never heard of except in extreme cases of undue stress; the fact that it was happening to her, with what should be the “normal” operations of a dungeon, was more than strange. Again,
that could be explained by the negative Characteristics she had chosen – he still couldn’t believe she had made those selections, which were unheard of for any Core to choose – but it seemed too convenient.
Next were the inconsistencies in her Core Improvement Points that she spent to raise her Dungeon Force maximum and regeneration, as well as her Control Limit. He might not be the brightest Dungeon Assistant, but he was fairly good at math; based on what she said she had acquired during her Level increase, it almost seemed like she was missing at least 100 Points somewhere. He couldn’t see anything about Tamara’s Core that she didn’t share, of course, but he had the feeling that something was different from the “normal” breakdown of how much Dungeon Force she had access to.
There were other little things – like how she refused to talk about her life before she became a Dungeon Core – but they could all be explained away quite easily. However, it was all starting to add up enough that he was beginning to question exactly what or who he was Bonded with. Ever since the outer world had opened up, though, he had been busy exploring and enjoying being outside of the stone walls of the dungeon enough that he put all of his misgivings aside and attributed it to the nervousness of his first real assignment – that hadn’t really gone to plan quite yet.
But now things were starting to look up. After just over three weeks, the snows had almost completely melted from the mountain range around them (he had earlier identified that they were indeed in the southern part of the continent) and Shale had been on a constant lookout for any Raiders. He had flown a little north and recognized a village full of Humans, Elves, Gnomes, and even some Hill Dwarves, but they didn’t really seem like they were the “Raider” type; instead it appeared that their entire purpose was to grow food for themselves and others, and it wasn’t likely that they would be invading Tamara’s dungeon anytime soon.
He went a little farther north and identified a larger town full of people, though he only saw a sparse amount of actual Raiders; he took a risk – even in his invisible state – to flutter a little closer and identified the Raider symbol on one of the buildings, but those he saw going in and out were mainly just lounging around or heading north. No one was even looking towards the south where his Bonded Core’s dungeon was, nor did it appear as though they even knew about its location.
Shale was confident that eventually someone would find them, because they weren’t completely inaccessible and were located approximately only five miles from the farming village. Still, Tamara had somehow known that historically no dungeons were in either the northern or southern mountain ranges – which he had, for a change, actually remembered from school – so it could take a while for them to be found.
He was worried that his time would be up before they even saw any Raiders, until what were obviously a pair of them arrived when the pass leading up to the dungeon entrance was almost entirely clear of snow and other obstacles. Shale had never seen two Raiders appear so new and…incompetent-looking before; he was used to seeing experienced – if not necessarily overly powerful – Raiders battling through his Mentor’s dungeon with sharp-looking armor and weapons, as well as an air of confidence in their own abilities. Contrary to that, the two Hill Dwarves that slowly climbed their way towards Tamara’s dungeon entrance – following what appeared to be some sort of hand-drawn map (where did they get that?) – were wearing armor that was threadbare and looking like it would fall apart if they were poked and prodded too hard.
In short, they looked like they were brand-new Raiders without a copper to their names and would likely die within the first five minutes inside Tamara’s domain. Despite one Hill Dwarf that was obviously some sort of melee class and the other a spellcaster of some sort, they really needed a full group to survive for long against what was arrayed against them. Shale had honestly thought that Tamara – and Tacca, by extension – had made a massive mistake in picking Canines as her initial creature family (which was still an insane risk that he couldn’t believe worked), but the Core had explained just how wrong he was. Of course, if there were any experienced and a little more powerful Raiders around, the inability to bring even a single Level 2 version of them around would severely hinder her effectiveness.
That didn’t really apply here, though – because he doubted these two Hill Dwarves would require anything more powerful than what was already in there to kill them.
Shale listened to them talk just outside of the entrance using Common Tradespeak, and when they were done and seemed to want to explore a little of the dungeon, he mentally contacted Tamara – which he’d only remembered he could do when he started to explore outside. “There are some really new Raiders out here that are just about to come inside; I don’t think anyone else knows about your dungeon based on what they said, though.”
“I already—I mean, thank you for letting me know. I’m prepared for them at least – and I’m really excited! My first Raider invasion!” she sent back to him as he rushed in ahead of the two Hill Dwarves. Her response was strange; it sort of sounded like she already knew what they had said before Shale told her – which he was told was impossible. The souls inhabiting Dungeon Cores weren’t from this world and couldn’t understand the languages that everyone spoke; it was only after years of hearing it spoken that they began to learn it themselves. The only reason Assistants and Cores could easily communicate was because they were Bonded, otherwise it would be extremely hard to teach the Dungeon Core what it needed to know to survive and succeed.
Just another strange thing to add to the list…
* * *
Sterge led the way into the dark tunnel in the side of the mountain, with Gwenda following close behind. He took a couple steps inside before he realized he should probably be armed – just in case – so he pulled the shortsword from his waist and held it with both hands in front of him. It was theoretically light enough that he could hold it in just one hand, but he still wasn’t very confident in his skill with the blade and it felt better and more stable to have both hands on it. I can’t even imagine how some Raiders wield a longsword with one hand; I have a feeling that I would be knocking it into everything but an enemy. Of course, his small stature as a Hill Dwarf meant that the sword he was wielding was practically a longsword to him, so that might be why it felt better with both hands.
The darkness fortunately didn’t last long, because the tunnel ended after about a dozen feet when it opened into a brightly lit room. At first, Sterge couldn’t understand what he was seeing, because it almost looked like he had stepped outside again; two trees flanked the entrance to the room, their roots in the soil that seemed to spread throughout the entire space. The length of the room was much longer than the width, which he immediately saw when he walked a few steps inside and looked off to his left; ferns and shrub bushes lined what appeared to be some sort of pathway leading to another tunnel at least a 100 feet down the room.
This soil looks really rich; I wonder…how well our crops would grow in this kind of stuff?
Two more trees similar to the ones flanking the entrance stood tall next to the tunnel leading farther inside, which seemed inviting more than the ominousness he expected of a dungeon. If it was indeed a dungeon, of course; the colorful wildflowers dotting the pathway onwards was making the whole thing seem surreal. “A-are you sure this is a dungeon? This isn’t at all what I was expecting,” he asked, and he could hear a bit of the awe and confusion he felt making him stutter.
“I…think so? I honestly don’t know, but where else could you find a forest inside a mountain? If it wasn’t for the stone walls that surround the room, I could almost picture this place being outside – it even smells fresh and full of nature,” Gwenda said, walking past him as she took it all in. The size of the ferns and bushes spaced throughout the room made it a little difficult to see far because of their height; it was only the flower-strewn pathway that gradually wound towards the end of the room that allowed him to see the trees in the distance.
Movement
out of the corner of Sterge’s eye made him stiffen up in surprise, and he quickly turned to see a small four-legged beast emerging from the roots of the entrance trees and practically launch itself at him in a single bound. He brought his sword up just barely in time to block the root-brown-colored animal, though instead of it being skewered on the point of his rusty weapon, all that happened was it got knocked aside to his left. The fur on what looked like some sort of strange fox was tough and he could see that he had thoroughly scratched it, but he hadn’t done any serious damage.
As he recovered from his surprise and turned toward the brown fox as it landed, Sterge heard Gwenda cry out from behind him. He whipped his head around to see his best friend on the ground, another one of the strange fox-like beasts on her chest and looking ready to bite or scratch her. His protective instincts kicked in and he whipped his sword around as he turned, smacking the four-legged creature in the side with the flat of the blade – as if he was holding a big stick instead of a relatively sharp deadly weapon.
The impact was powerful enough to launch the fox away, at least, where it collided with the stone wall and slid down to the dirt floor. Sterge wasn’t even sure he had hurt it, but the beast got up slowly from where it fell, wobbling a little in the process, so he knew he had at least done something to it. He readied his sword again as it ran towards him…and something unexpectedly hit him from behind hard enough that he stumbled forward and tripped over a wildflower.
Luckily, he instinctively held his sword out above his head as he fell so he didn’t impale himself; he had wielded plenty of sharp farming implements over the last few years to know how a simple accident like tripping could end up having serious complications unless you knew how to handle them when you fell. He partially broke his fall with his left hand and knee, and being a Hill Dwarf it wasn’t that far to fall anyway, so he didn’t really hurt himself, at least.
The Dungeon Fairy: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 1) Page 21
