The third room had a combination of shrub bushes and trees reaching up to the ceiling, their branches lost in the darkness above. The ambient light was even darker than the previous room, though not too dark that the Raiders couldn’t see; Shale couldn’t help but think that if the light was brought down to its minimum, the two Hill Dwarves wouldn’t be able to see at all. They didn’t have an Amulet of Illumination – let alone a torch – with them, so they’d be practically helpless by not being able to see.
However, Tamara being who she was, didn’t want to make a source of illumination a requirement to invade her dungeon. Instead, she wanted to rely on her creatures and traps to injure or kill Raiders, which was just another thing that was different about her. From what he knew, every Dungeon Core had at least one room in their dungeon that had its ambient light turned down all the way, so it was almost expected nowadays that Raiders would have to bring a torch or Amulet. Though, with how much flammable vegetation is in here, asking to bring a torch might not be such a great idea. He knew it would just grow back if it was burnt, but the flames from an entire room of ferns on fire, for example, would probably kill every Coyote in there without much effort.
The two Hill Dwarves walked cautiously into the third room, which Shale thought was only prudent when invading a dungeon; he was glad to see that even though the Raiders were obviously just starting out, they were conscious enough of the danger a place like this would pose that they were taking precautions. Not that it would likely do them much good, but it was nice to see.
One thing that he had learned about the Enchantment traps that Tamara liked to use that he hadn’t known about before was the Trigger Proximity. It wasn’t that he didn’t know what the Trigger Proximity was (it was obvious how it worked by the name alone), he just hadn’t known that it could go negative.
Normally, the Trigger was just outside of the trap – especially with physical ones like pit traps, wall spikes, and other various traps like those – because it was impossible for the trigger to be inside the trap itself; with Enchantments, however, there was no physical aspect of it, so the trigger really could be inside its Activation Range. So, instead of having a 10ft X 10ft area that would activate as soon as someone got close to the edge of it (like most traps), the Trigger could be sent towards the center with a negative Proximity. The concept was a little difficult for Shale to wrap his head around, but he understood it in principle…and now it was his chance to see it in action.
The shortsword-wielding Raider worked his way through the shrub bushes a few feet ahead of the spell-casting Hill Dwarf, who was peering around the room and looking for any threats. When the shabby leather-armored Raider reached the middle of the room, Shale heard him call out, “I feel a little tingly—”, but it was too late.
The Fear Enchantment Trap was triggered by a small 2ft square section of the dirt near the middle of the room, positioned in between two bushes. It was quite possible to avoid triggering the Enchantment altogether if the two Hill Dwarves had taken another route through the room, but by taking the most obvious pathway, it was almost unavoidable. The 12ft cube Activation Range of the trap hit both Raiders simultaneously, causing them to freeze and shake in uncontrollable fright.
It was that moment when six Branch Jackals jumped down from the surrounding trees and slammed into both figures, knocking them to the ground. Shale heard them both scream hysterically and flail ineffectually at their attackers with their weapons, but they were being savaged by three Jackals each. Tamara had been right about the Pack Hunter bonus being particularly deadly, as the bites from the creatures were even puncturing through the male Raider’s leather armor in places, drawing bits of blood in the process.
Luckily for them, the two Raiders were fiercely protecting their faces and necks in the fright-induced panic, swinging either their staff or sword well enough to knock the Jackals away from their particularly vulnerable areas. One of Tamara’s creatures managed to get impaled by a random sword swipe and was launched into a second as it slid off the swinging blade, sending both tumbling away. The third one attacking the leather-wearing Hill Dwarf was accidentally smashed hard in the face with a shield as the Raider continued to scream and flail around uncontrollably, getting lucky shots in while still on his back.
The female Hill Dwarf wasn’t as lucky, as one of the Jackals managed to grab one of her frantically kicking legs and held on, and Shale could hear a crack as her leg bone was snapped with a powerful jerk from the creature. A second Jackal grabbed her left wrist in its jaws and crunched down hard, cracking bones and eliciting an even louder scream as she experienced herself being almost ripped apart.
“Maybe I should do something—” Tamara said to Shale’s mind, but she stopped herself as the spell-casting Raider fought back.
Apparently, the pain was impactful enough to at least partially cut through the Enchantment-induced fear, and the Hill Dwarf started casting what she called her “Magistrike” spell, sending streaks of powerful concentrations of force towards the three Jackals surrounding her. Each of Tamara’s creatures got hit by two of the blasts in quick succession, sending them flying and smacking against either a nearby tree or the stone wall of the room, where they hit with painful-sounding impacts. It was obviously really painful, because as soon as each one hit the ground they disappeared, leaving a reward behind.
The rapid expenditure of her magical power, however, was obviously great enough that it completely exhausted the female Hill Dwarf, and Shale watched as she passed out – completely unconscious within seconds of casting her last spell. Even the pain and fear wasn’t enough to keep her awake, as her body and mind shut down from the overuse of her magic.
Fortunately for the other Raider, the Enchantment’s effects came to an end, and he looked like he was waking up from a dream – or a nightmare. Shale saw that his first reaction was to look over to where the other Raider was even as he kicked a Jackal away from him and…the Hill Dwarf appeared to lose his mind. If the Dungeon Assistant didn’t know better, he would’ve thought another Rage Enchantment had been triggered, but it turned out that the Raider was just angry and protective of the other Hill Dwarf; he took one look at her injuries and current state of consciousness and picked himself up off the ground, before absolutely destroying the three Jackals still trying to attack him.
There was still absolutely no skill involved in his attacks, but his lack of expertise didn’t really matter as he swung his sword and essentially beat all of the creatures to death; it was almost as if he forgot that his weapon had an edge to it. He didn’t come through without injury, though, as one of the Branch Jackals managed to bite his left knee and wrench it severely as it tried to tear the joint apart, but it wasn’t enough to stop the destructive force of the enraged Hill Dwarf.
In less than a minute, all of the attacking creatures were dead, leaving behind a Rusty Iron Mace and 24 copper pieces, though the male Raider completely ignored it all. Instead, his anger sated with the destruction of the remaining Jackals, he collapsed on his knees – which elicited a wince of pain when he landed on his wrenched knee – next to the other Hill Dwarf in her torn and blood-stained robe. His face looked full of sorrow at first, before he noticed that she was still breathing.
“Gwenda! You’re alive!” he practically shouted, before shaking her gently. “Wake up, those beasts are dead. Gwenda? What’s wrong?”
Nothing he could do would wake her up, though Shale knew she would eventually; he’d been taught that when spell-casting or healer-type Raiders exhausted themselves of their magic power, they could be knocked out for minutes or even hours. From what he’d been told, there were no real long-term effects from exhausting themselves like that, though being unconscious in a dungeon usually didn’t work long if one wanted to survive.
“I’m getting you out of here, hold on,” the Hill Dwarf said, before picking up the unconscious Raider in his arms. He almost fell forward as her weight added to what was evidently already pressing down on his hurt
knee, but he persisted. Each step looked painful and the Raider in leather armor appeared to be almost as exhausted as the woman in his arms, but nothing was stopping him now. He kept on walking even through a rictus of pain on his face, obviously determined to leave the dungeon and get help for himself and the other Hill Dwarf.
That would certainly be the right thing to do in that situation, except that during the whole “fear” induced state and subsequent fight, the Raider obviously got turned around. The entrance and exit of the third room looked essentially identical, so Shale didn’t think it was that hard to see how it happened; regardless of the reason, though, instead of leaving, the Hill Dwarf brought his friend deeper into the dungeon.
Chapter 24
Sterge was practically blind with the pain shooting through his knee and leg as he walked, but he knew that no matter what he did, he needed to get Gwenda to a healer. He wasn’t sure why she wasn’t waking up, because the pain in her crushed and bloody wrist and leg should’ve been enough to keep her awake and screaming in agony, but for some reason she was staying asleep no matter how much he tried to wake her up. Maybe it’s for the best until I can get her some help.
The strangest thing about her unconsciousness, though, was the fact that she hadn’t let go of her stick—staff. Her hand was clutched around it in a crushing grip for some reason, and he could see the strain of her hand around the wooden weapon, even though the rest of her body was essentially limp and dead weight. No, not dead weight – she’s not dead yet. The bleeding from her injuries had stopped, fortunately, though he could tell it wasn’t because she was running out; he’d been hurt or seen others hurt more than enough over the years to see that the blood was already clotting – which meant that her body was fighting to keep her alive. Hill Dwarves were a hearty bunch, after all.
He walked down the tunnel towards the second room of the dungeon, knowing that it would be difficult – and probably painful – to maneuver around the ferns, but he knew it was only a short way until the exit. He was more worried about the trip down the mountain, because he wasn’t looking forward to the steep inclines, especially with his own injury. Well, injuries. He could feel a few places where he had been bitten on his arm and even his side, though nothing was as bad as his leg and busted-up knee.
It wasn’t long until he saw the light from the room up above, though it looked a little different than he expected; he remembered it as being a little dim compared the first room of the dungeon, but he was also in serious pain as he walked – so he thought he might be either imagining things or misremembering them. It wasn’t until he walked into the room a couple of paces and looked around that he realized he had made a mistake – he had gone the wrong way. Of all the stupid— he thought, as he turned around.
Twisting wasn’t a good idea, as his injured leg gave out from underneath him; with a cry, he fell forward into the daylight-bright room, sending Gwenda flying forward out of his arms. He watched as her fall was fortunately broken by the masses of wildflowers filling the entire floor of the small room, crushing dozens in the process. As Sterge crashed forward with his leg unable to support him, he felt the tell-tale tingle of a trap pass over his face. Noooo!
He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but a healing numbness passed through his body, dulling the pain in his knee and other wounds to the point where he couldn’t even feel his extremities anymore. What is this trap doing?! Is it designed to paralyze us while we get eaten by the beasts inside this room? He kept waiting for something to jump on him and start chewing on his head, which he couldn’t prevent in the least; every part of his body that had the slightest injury – including his face that he had earlier smashed with his own shield – was frozen into immobility. In short, he was helpless…and he didn’t like the feeling.
Turning or lifting his head enough to see if Gwenda was alright was also impossible, so all the Hill Dwarf could do was wait. Wait for what, he wasn’t sure, but he was rewarded an eternity later when the paralyzing numbness all over his body disappeared abruptly. One moment he couldn’t move, and the next he had full control over his limbs. Without hesitation, he pushed himself up with his arms and looked to see where his best friend had fallen when he dropped her earlier. He saw her ahead on her back, her limbs sprawled awkwardly; he sighed in relief as he saw her chest rising up and down as she breathed, so at least she was still alive.
Sterge began to drag himself forward because he didn’t dare to put any more weight on his knee; as soon as he pulled himself with his arms and his good knee, he realized he didn’t feel any pain anywhere. Not in his arms, not on his side, not on his face, and especially not in his knee; with a quick check, he turned on his good side and lifted his knee up carefully, bending it ever so slightly, but it felt…great. Practically brand-new. A few seconds of checking all of his other minor wounds showed that they were all healed up, with the few bite marks on his skin from those dog-wolf thingies in the previous room all sealed up; his armor still had punctures marring it, but as far as his skin went it was smooth and unbroken.
He saw all that in the time it took him to stand up and was amazed that his leg would support him again, before stumbling in shock to Gwenda’s side. A quick rearrangement of her limbs and clothes showed that his best friend had been healed as well, though her robe was still spattered with her blood. Her left wrist, which had been mangled horribly, as well as her leg, was perfectly put back together and unblemished – other than the dried blood caking the outer skin. The only thing that was still wrong with her was her unconsciousness.
What is this place? Sterge could hardly even believe that he and Gwenda had been healed; he wasn’t an expert on dungeons by any means, but he’d never heard of one actually helping Raiders before. Again, it wasn’t as if he’d spent a lot of time learning about dungeons over the years, but he thought something like that would’ve been mentioned at some point. Despite it being strange, he wasn’t going to complain.
He sat next to Gwenda for a few minutes, while he tried to decide what to do. Should I carry her out now, or wait until she wakes up? Will moving her even more right now hurt her? His head was a little clearer now that he wasn’t overcome with pain, and he began to remember a little of what happened in the previous room; when his memories showed his Caster friend sending out what he thought was a half-dozen of those blue lights, he began to suspect what had happened. Gwenda had told Sterge that it made her exhausted when she used the “magical force” inside of her body, so what he was likely seeing was a result of being extremely exhausted.
When he considered that was all it was, he almost picked her up and left right then…but he worried about what might meet him on the way out. He wasn’t knowledgeable enough about dungeons to know if there might be more beasts that might attack on the way back, or if the traps might be reset; he hadn’t even thought about it before, but now that he had time to think, his previous thought to carry Gwenda out without knowing the dangers ahead of him was foolish. Therefore, he decided to wait to see if she would wake up soon, then they could both go out together; and if she didn’t wake up in an hour or so, then he’d take the chance to bring her out himself.
With that decided, he prowled around the bright room full of wildflowers cautiously, looking for any types of threats he may have missed before. He more than realized that he wasn’t sure what he could do even if he found a trap to prevent activating it, but he knew he could at least kill things with his sword if he saw them. A quick loop around the small 20ft X 20ft room showed nothing but flowers, however, so he went back to waiting near Gwenda. After 20 minutes of staring at her while she slept, his thoughts drifted towards the previous room and the uncontrollable fear that accompanied it; he didn’t really want to think about it, though, but thoughts of the room made him remember that there was probably some rewards still there.
It took him another few minutes of arguing with himself to decide to cautiously go back and see if it was still there; he didn’t want to leave Gwenda along for long, but h
e wasn’t planning on taking too long. Besides, I need to see if anything has changed in there since we left the room; if everything is reset for some reason, then I’d rather know now than try to leave while carrying her. It was a flimsy justification, but he was getting a little bored just sitting around waiting for his best friend to wake up.
Therefore, with his sword held out in front of him and almost shuffling forward as he tried to detect any traps, he left Gwenda and explored the third room. He quickly found the six piles of rewards left from the horrible dog-wolf thingies and picked them up before rushing back to where he had left the unconscious form of his best friend. His eyes went right to her as soon as he entered and found that she was unchanged, so he dumped what he had acquired next to her and counted how many coins they had earned – and they had earned them, alright.
Four of the beasts they had slain had dropped six copper coins each, giving them 24 more to add to their previous 23 – which was almost equal to five silver; five silver was enough to purchase that new – well, used, but new to him – wheeled plow for his fields. Two other beasts hadn’t dropped coins, though; instead, they dropped what appeared to be some sort of weapon and a pair of leather vambraces for his upper arms. The leather armor pieces, despite looking really worn and used, were actually in better shape than his own – especially with the puncture marks in them – so he replaced his old ones, feeling better protected already.
The weapon, which was made of rusted iron, appeared to be some sort of stick with a ridged ball on the end, topped with a slightly blunted spear-tip. The ridges on the slightly larger than fist-sized ball looked to have been sharp at one time in the past, but now they were all deformed and smashed – which pretty much told the tale of what the weapon was used for. He noticed that the ball was a lot heavier than the rest of the weapon, which meant it wasn’t hollow – and being hit by it would hurt…a lot. Fortunately, years of farm work had built his strength up enough that he was able to wield it well enough, though it was a little long for his tastes. Nevertheless, he practiced with it by smashing a bunch of flowers into the ground – which grew back minutes later – and found that he was much happier with it in his hand than the shortsword for some reason.
The Dungeon Fairy: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 1) Page 24
