Right around when he estimated the hour mark had passed since he had been healed, Sterge decided that he had waited long enough; he slid the stick and ball into his belt – even though it felt awkward, he didn’t have any other way to carry it – and bent down next to Gwenda to gently pick her up. It was time to go, and he couldn’t wait all day for her to wake up; she’d probably be the same back in their village as she was in the dungeon, and he had to take a risk that the beginning of the dungeon was still free of traps and beasts.
He picked her up and held her body against him…and then she woke up screaming and thrashing her arms and legs around so much that he couldn’t keep hold of her. She hit the ground for just a moment before she leapt to her feet and stared around her with wild eyes. “Where are they? What happened?” she screeched out hysterically.
It took him a couple of minutes to calm her down as he explained what happened in the third room – though he didn’t mention his rage at seeing her hurt (he felt a little embarrassed about it) – and about what happened inside this flower-covered fourth room. She looked astonished as he recounted how their injuries healed magically because of the strange trap and then he showed off what he had found from killing those dog-wolf thingies.
“But I think that it’s time to go; you almost died, and I was so hurt I honestly thought I wouldn’t be able to carry you out. It’s only luck that I managed to stumble into this room by accident, but I think we’ll be pressing that same luck if we keep going. Now that you’re awake, we—”
“Are you really committed to leaving now?” Gwenda asked as she cut him off.
Sterge felt his mouth drop open in shock. “Y-you can’t be serious! What part of you almost died did you not understand? That’s not even mentioning your hour of forced sleep that overtook you; if that happens in the middle of a fight again, I don’t know if I can protect you.”
“Yes, I understand all of that…but have you taken a look at how much Power we received from those beasts? As well as all of the Skill percentage increases? I think if we keep going, we can get to Raider Level 2, which will make us even stronger!”
He hadn’t in fact looked at his Raider Status yet, because it didn’t really seem important. At her suggestion, though, he pulled it up.
Raider Status
Name:
Sterge Stonewell
Class:
Melee
Raider Level:
1
Power:
47/100
Physical Attack:
1 (4)
Physical Defense:
1 (5)
Ranged Attack:
0
Ranged Defense:
1
Magical Attack:
0
Magical Defense:
1
Resistances:
Physical 1
Mental 1
Earth 1
Fire 0
Water 0
Air 0
Nature 0
Life 0
Death 0
Skills:
Blade 1 (24%)
Blunt 1 (1%)
Two-handed 1 (0%)
Block 1 (10%)
Light Armor 1 (27%)
Heavy Armor 1 (0%)
Abilities:
None
There were some definite changes upon it that made him a little excited; for one, he was almost halfway to the 100 Power he needed to…increase his Raider Level? He still wasn’t sure how that was supposed to work, but it was something they could definitely build upon in the future. Sterge’s Physical Attack and Defense had also increased slightly, which he assumed was due to his new weapon, leather vambraces, and probably even his shield.
His Skills had also improved significantly, with his Light Armor having the largest boost; he assumed it was because he got chewed on quite a bit from the last fight, and these percentages reflected that. Strangely, he also had a single percentage point in his Blunt skill, despite not having anything that was blunt—wait. His new stick and ball could probably be classified as a blunt weapon, but all he had done with it was swing it at some flowers.
I wonder if just practicing with it can increase those percentages? Obviously, it wouldn’t be nearly as fast or effective as using it to kill beasts that are trying to kill me, but it might work.
“Ok, I can definitely see the benefit of doing this…I think…but are you sure we should go on?”
She was already nodding before he finished. “Yes – at least to check out the next room. What I might do is hang back towards the tunnel instead of following so close behind this time; I think we were caught in that last trap because we were both within range of it. I can attack from a longer distance away anyways, so that sounds like a good strategy.”
He couldn’t help but nod himself at the plan, but then he stopped when he realized she had somehow convinced him to keep going into further danger. “Wait…so you want me to be…what? The bait? Or the one that should take all of the attacks for you.”
Gwenda was smiling prettily now, which she always did when she wanted something. “Of course, you’re my protector after all. With your new shield, armor, and that neat new weapon, I think you can handle it.”
Sterge was silent for almost a minute as he tried to think of a better excuse other than we could die, but that obviously wasn’t something that would sway her. Finally, he sighed loudly and then grunted – he had no words he wanted to say. Instead, he led the way towards the tunnel leading to the next room (he had already identified which one it was earlier, so he wouldn’t make another mistake) as he shook his head.
This is not a good idea…
Chapter 25
Tacca was honestly surprised that the two Raiders continued on despite the danger, though she had to admit that she was glad; in fact, she was sort of rooting for them by that point. It had to be frightening when tackling a brand-new dungeon – and even more so when it was apparently their first day as Raiders. They were so ignorant about practically everything that it shocked her; what are they teaching them these days?
Some of the things they had no clue about had to do with Raider-specific things like the Skills and Power they were talking about, which could be put down to negligent teachers from…wherever they became Raiders. She had heard they had a Clan of some sort, but wider knowledge about them was either a secret or relatively unknown; Tacca herself had actually learned a little more about the intricacies of how Raiders got stronger from the curious conversations the two Hill Dwarves were having between themselves than her entire learning experience at DAPS.
On the other hand, there were other things like the leather-armored Raider not even knowing what a mace was – or “stick and ball”, as he called it when showing it off to the spell-casting Raider – or not knowing that using too much of their magical power too quickly could result in knocking them unconscious; both of those things should’ve been common knowledge in her opinion, so she was surprised that they had lived that long. She figured that their lack of knowledge was because she’d heard that they were farmers, so they might not be expected to know about some things, but…there was something else she had heard that caught her attention even more.
Luck.
She hadn’t deliberately made the entrance and exit tunnels to the third room look identical – it just made the most sense and she appreciated the aesthetic symmetry of the tree arrangements. Nevertheless, it was that symmetry that led the sword-wielding Raider to accidentally go farther into the dungeon when it was obvious that he was trying to leave. Tacca had originally been counting on them moving on, and healing some of their wounds with her Healing Paralysis Enchantment Trap as a surprise, but she hadn’t been expecting them to get so injured from her Branch Jackals. She had underestimated how much damage her creatures could do, as well as overestimating what the two Raiders could handle; she could only blame her past experiences with other Cores that had faced much tougher Raiders and wouldn’t have been fazed by them in the
least.
Was it just a happy accident…or was it my “bad luck” working in their favor as “good luck”?
“I have to admit, I thought you were crazy when you wanted to put a trap that would heal the Raiders inside one of your rooms…but I was wrong,” Shale communicated mentally to her. “Not only did it save them from dying inside your dungeon, which is normally a good thing, but I can understand why you want these to survive to spread the word, it also had such an impact on them that they want to keep going.
“I can see this working in the future to keep groups of Raiders inside your dungeon longer when they would normally turn back, which would give you more Core Improvement Points…and maybe even convince them to push on past where they should probably stop. This could lead them to overconfidence as they tackle harder rooms, resulting in more deaths that are perfectly legit and fair.
“I learned of other dungeons using a slight variation of this by increasing the prevalence of Healing Potions of various degrees as part of their Rewards, but this…this is genius!”
Tacca couldn’t help but be warmed with a bit of pride, because it really was a novel idea. The Healing Paralysis was a little known and universally overlooked Enchantment Trap, mainly because it was something that would help Raiders, rather than hurt them; that was only one of the reasons she wanted to see how she could include it in her dungeon, with everything else he said being the majority of the rest. She was glad that it had worked out, but she was starting to worry a little that they would continue being “lucky”…and somehow make it all the way to her Core Room to destroy her.
It was highly unlikely that they would get through her Boss Room, but she had to acknowledge that stranger things had happened when she was Bonded to those other Cores. She started adding some small-but-deadly traps to her Core Room just in case her “bad luck” came back to haunt her, though she desperately hoped she wasn’t going to need them. They would take about a half hour to fully form, but the two Raiders were going slow enough that they would be built before they arrived.
“That was just the first of many different ideas I have for my dungeon; all it needs is for these two to share the news of my location, get a lot more Raiders here and provide me with Points, and then I can start to implement them.”
“Tacca must’ve taught you really well before she died, then; I’m really interested in seeing what you’ve got planned in the future…though I’ll likely be gone before you can take advantage of what you’ll accumulate over the next year or so,” Shale said a little sadly.
Tacca was forced to admit to herself that she would actually miss her Dungeon Assistant when he left, if only for the benefit of having someone to talk to. At first, the entire experience of being a Dungeon Core was so new that she was consumed with learning her boundaries and expanding her dungeon, but even a month into it she had been missing something; it was only after Shale had arrived that she realized she was missing contact and communication with…well…anyone. She was beginning to think that Assistants weren’t just there to provide information and instruction in how to be a Dungeon Core, but to also be there as emotional support and a source of conversation.
If that was indeed the case, then it made certain parts of her schooling take on a whole new meaning; all of those classes about working with different personalities weren’t just for the initial meeting and learning how to work with difficult Cores – they were meant to instruct Assistants in establishing a longer-term relationship with their Bonded. That was always a given, of course, but there were certainly different aspects of that relationship that she hadn’t even considered before.
All of which came back to Shale leaving; she had wanted that to happen at first because of the risk of exposure of her unique circumstances, but now she wasn’t so sure. The risk was still there, granted, though she thought it might be worth it to have someone she could talk to – even if that person was essentially a sort of spy for the Council. As long as she knew Shale was a spy, then she thought she could work around that for the benefit of companionship.
That was all in the future, though – the two Hill Dwarf Raiders were in her dungeon now. Accordingly, she turned her attention back to them as they entered the fifth room; more accurately, the male Raider entered the fifth room while the Caster stayed near the entrance, just barely inside the tunnel. Smart move, though it doesn’t really matter as much in this room. She had eliminated the Spiked Pit Traps that were in there, after all; if she had kept them there, as well as not having removed more than half of the Forest Wolves in there, then they’d likely be dead.
The entire room was full of scrub bushes that were taller than the two Raiders by approximately a foot, with very little room in between to squeeze by. In the middle of the room was a large circular space that was free of Environmental Objects, and instead used to contain the two Pits that she removed; at the moment, though, all that was there was essentially a ring of packed dirt.
As the mace-wielding Hill Dwarf stepped into the circular “arena”, two Forest Wolves emerged from their frozen state next to two bushes to join him with deep growls. Normally, she had five Wolves in the room, which would attack from all sides and corral the Raiders with their pack tactics so that one or two might end up falling in either of the two pits; even with those gone, her two creatures could still be quite deadly.
“Gwenda! Need your help!” the Raider in the middle of the room shouted to the female spell-caster. There wasn’t really any need, though, because she was already on the move after hearing the growls.
“Sapping Fog!” the caster-type yelled as she ran quickly through two bushes, which threw out a pale, translucent orange blanket over half of the dirt circle. Her Forest Wolves had been crouched and stalking their prey, looking for the perfect opening to attack – which the leather-armored Hill Dwarf was doing a good job of protecting by presenting a stable defense with his shield and mace; they ended up splitting up so that they could come at him from opposite sides, which meant that only one of them got hit by the robe-wearing Raider’s spell.
The spell drew the attention of both Wolves, who immediately shot forward to attack the now weary and less-protected Hill Dwarf; well, one of them “shot forward”, while the other advanced at a slow walk because of the slowing spell. As the faster one closed on the woman leaning on her wooden staff, it was smashed by a heavy mace right in the middle of its back, dropping it to the ground as its spine broke with a hollow *crack*. It wasn’t out of the fight, though, as it immediately turned its still-mobile upper half and quickly wiggled enough to snap its jaws around the leather-protected leg of the one that hurt it.
Before it could bite down with the tremendous strength in its jaws, the edge of a wooden shield slammed down on its head right between its eyes, causing it to let go with its teeth and reel back in pain and surprise. That was enough for the Hill Dwarf to retreat out of range, where he immediately went for the slowed Forest Wolf.
Even slowed, her creature was still agile; the attack on its brethren had caused all attention to swing back on the mace-wielding Hill Dwarf, so it wasn’t taken by surprise. It managed to anticipate a downward smash that would’ve easily crushed its skull and moved its head to the side just in time. However, it didn’t anticipate how unbalanced this made the Raider attacking it, who toppled forward with his shield leading his fall. His defensive piece of equipment turned into a weapon as he fell into the Wolf’s front legs, snapping the right foreleg accidentally when he tumbled into it, shield-first.
Jaws snapped at the Hill Dwarf and narrowly missed as he rolled under Tacca’s creature, tripping up its other legs in the process. As it tumbled forward, the slowing spell ended, causing it to roll farther towards the spent caster than it probably expected. Its good fortune – of there being a nearby target – as it scrambled to its three working legs was short-lived, though, as a stout wooden staff smashed into its head with just enough force to make the Wolf stagger to the side, putting its weight on its broken leg. As it collaps
ed in pain, the mace-wielding Raider managed to pick himself up and scurry back to protect the woman, though instead of trying to smash it with his weapon, he led with the spike on the top and shoved it right into her creature’s neck.
The Forest Wolf spasmed in more pain, ripping the weapon out of the Raider’s hand with its struggles – but the Hill Dwarf had other weapons. His shortsword was quickly unsheathed from his belt and stabbed forward, directly into the chest of her creature and killing it instantly. Without hesitation, the Raider pulled it out of the disappearing Wolf and walked calmly over to the other broken-backed one that was trying to crawl towards him. Tacca’s creature tried to bite the sword as it was stabbed into its face – which she had to admit was slightly amusing – but a quick rearrangement of the Hill Dwarf’s stance gave him the opportunity to slash down at its neck with force, slicing halfway through and nearly decapitating her Wolf.
This guy certainly likes to break backs, doesn’t he? Maybe it was a mistake to have the mace be a drop, though it wasn’t like I specifically placed it there as a reward for him. All of the rewards had been allocated before the two Raiders had even arrived, so it wasn’t as if she knew beforehand that he preferred to just bash things instead of cutting them up. I guess that can be attributed to “luck” again, sort of how he tripped and ended up breaking one of my Wolf’s legs.
The Dungeon Fairy: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 1) Page 25
