She wasn’t sure exactly if that was indeed what was going on, but she couldn’t see any other explanation. The two Raiders really should’ve turned back a while ago, but they managed to pull through every fight – or at least recover from them – by some extraordinary circumstances. Tacca couldn’t even be mad at them, because they were surviving, but it definitely was…interesting…on some levels to see her “luck” at work – even when it wasn’t necessarily in her favor. Then again, their survival and the amount of time they spent in her dungeon sort of worked in her favor, so it was hard to really judge if that was the case.
The reward that dropped for the two creatures that were slain weren’t really upgrades for either Raider, as it was only a total of 14 copper coins; the other Forest Wolves that she originally had in the room had some actual equipment tied to them as rewards, but when she took them out all that remained was coinage. Neither of the two Hill Dwarves seemed disappointed, though, as they picked them up and stored them in a small bag that the robed Raider had with her. That bag apparently held some food, because as soon as the coins were put away, she pulled out two tiny loaves of what appeared to be bread and shared it with the other Raider without saying a word.
“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” the caster asked when her mouth was clear of food.
The leather-armored fighter-type Raider only grunted, because his mouth was shoved full of bread. He eventually swallowed it, only to say, “Yes, but we also got lucky that there weren’t any traps in here…or none that I’ve triggered so far.”
The female Hill Dwarf seemed to think about that and nodded. “You’re absolutely right…so that means you go first as we leave this room,” she said as she smiled again.
Another grunt was the only response to that, and Tacca watched as they finished up their food and continued on – just as cautiously as they had been before, even though there weren’t any more threats inside the room. Of course, the two Raiders didn’t know that, so it only made sense to walk slowly to avoid walking blindly into dangerous situations.
Tacca couldn’t help but think that this was the last room of her dungeon they were heading into – the sixth – because the seventh was her Boss Room; there was no way – luck or not – that they would be able to defeat what she had arrayed inside there, mainly because it held more creatures than all of the other rooms combined. She was expecting them (if they got through the sixth room easily enough) to turn back as soon as they saw what they were up against…but she had been surprised by their “luck” enough that literally anything was possible.
I’m going to have to do something about that in the future; I may just need to go as deep as possible and thoroughly defend my Core more than what is recommended. She had already camouflaged the tunnel leading to her Core Room from her Boss Room by hiding it behind a tree, which was usually enough for Raiders to know that going farther was a bad idea; she thought she might even put in some signs in Common Tradespeak – if she could figure out how to do that without calling attention to her origins – with warnings on them.
Regardless of what she decided to do in the future, she knew it would be a challenge to do it with Shale watching over her shoulder the entire time. If only there was a way to get him on my side, let him know about who I really am, and not have him report it back to the Council; I don’t know what that would take, but I’d be willing to do it if it meant not having to worry about accidentally revealing what I don’t mean to.
That seemed impossible, but she held out hope that it would happen one day. In the meantime, she had more “lucky” Raiders to watch…
Chapter 26
Sterge collapsed to one knee, the pain and exhaustion from the fight finally getting to him. His ragged breathing only seemed to increase the pain in his chest where he got hit by…something…and the multiple bites from what felt like dozens of different beasts attacking him all at the same time were starting to sting all over his legs and arms. He had lost his new left leather vambrace at some point, so he could see puncture marks and the torn flesh from those bites, but they fortunately weren’t too deep and had stopped bleeding already. All in all, it felt really bad, but he’d had worse days on the farm – though not much worse, of course.
He looked around to see only eight piles of rewards scattered about the relatively small stone-covered dungeon room. I could’ve sworn there were at least two dozen of them. Sterge shook his head as he caught his breath after the frantic fight, trying to figure out exactly what had happened.
The room had appeared to be “normal” enough, with ferns, wildflowers, and trees lining the perimeter; it wasn’t very big in fact, so he didn’t expect there to be many creatures within – but he was wrong…oh, so wrong. As soon as he stepped two feet inside the room, he felt the tell-tale tingle of a trap and tried to retreat, but it seemed as though when he triggered it the trap couldn’t be evaded. The next minute was extremely confusing – which he assumed was the point, as confusion seemed to be the objective of the trap.
All he remembered was not being able to focus on one thing at a time, as more of the tree-based dog-wolf thingies jumped down from their branches, the brown foxes rushed out from the roots of the trees, and an army of the green-striped beasts emerged from out behind the ferns. At least, it felt like an army, but it was obviously only two or three of them, but at the time he couldn’t really tell.
Sterge did have a memory of pulling his shortsword from his belt with his left hand – after letting go of the shield handle – before he was quickly overwhelmed by beasts trying to bite and rend the flesh from his bones; after that, it was a bit of a blur. His upper arms and shoulders, despite being relatively free from actual wounds, were sore – as if he had been swinging around his weapons without stopping for hours. I must’ve just laid into whatever was around me; I’m glad Gwenda wasn’t near when I started to do that—
He abruptly looked around for her, as she had been completely forgotten when the massive confusion settled in on him. She was near the entrance with a slightly strained look on her face and a limp as she walked over to him. “Are you alright? You sort of…seemed lost there for a minute or so.”
“Uh…I think so, but I hurt so much that I don’t think it would be wise to go on. I’m not sure we can rely on finding something else to heal us…and I’m putting my foot down on that,” Sterge replied, before looking down at his best friend’s foot, which Gwenda was doing her best to keep weight off of. “Speaking of that, what exactly happened to your foot?”
She winced as she shifted her weight – likely in an effort to get more comfortable. “Well, after you went a little wild and just started swinging your weapons at everything randomly, I tried to stop one of those brown foxes from jumping on your back by shooting it with my Magistrike spell. I ended up killing it as it got flung against the wall, but its two friends didn’t like what I did; they broke off their attack on you and raced towards me. I managed to hit another one back towards you, which you accidentally stepped on and crushed its head, but the other made it to me and latched onto my foot. I ended up bashing it to death with my staff—” she said sadly as she held up her now-shortened wooden stick— “but as you can see, it didn’t work so well for my weapon. My foot and ankle are also a bit messed up, though I don’t think there is any permanent damage…at least, I hope not.”
“Well, that just seals it – we need to leave.”
“I…have to agree, unfortunately,” Gwenda said, which relieved Sterge to no end. And then… “Wait! Do you feel that?”
He wasn’t sure what she was talking about, because all he could feel was a bit of pain throughout his body, but then he felt something coming from his chest that he couldn’t explain. Without his volition, his Raider Status popped up in his mind and he immediately saw that he had just reached full Power; even as he looked at it, the 100/100 seemed to fade away, only to be quickly replaced by 0/200. At the same time, the 1 on his Raider Level changed to 2 – and then his body felt like it was goi
ng through changes as well.
The muscles all over his body gently spasmed and he immediately fell to the ground, joining Gwenda who was already there. Whereas Sterge felt like his skin was tightening up everywhere, she was holding her head in what appeared to be pain; his experience wasn’t exactly painful, but it was super uncomfortable, nonetheless. At the same time all that was happening, he felt the slight agony in his chest bleed away, and he looked down to see the wounds on his arms sealing up all by themselves. Looking over at his best friend, he could see that her wounded ankle and foot were also repairing themselves miraculously.
In less than a minute, he felt the strange sensation in his chest fade away…and he took stock of the situation, while also looking at his Status.
Raider Status
Name:
Sterge Stonewell
Class:
Melee
Raider Level:
2
Power:
0/200
Physical Attack:
2 (5)
Physical Defense:
2 (6)
Ranged Attack:
0
Ranged Defense:
1
Magical Attack:
0
Magical Defense:
2
Resistances:
Physical 2
Mental 2
Earth 1
Fire 0
Water 0
Air 0
Nature 0
Life 0
Death 0
Skills:
Blade 1 (32%)
Blunt 1 (54%)
Two-handed 1 (0%)
Block 1 (51%)
Light Armor 1 (27%)
Heavy Armor 1 (0%)
Abilities:
Forceful Smash (Blunt)
Slam (Shield)
Not only had his Physical Attack and Defense raised by 1, but his Physical and Mental Resistances had increased as well. None of it was significantly higher, but he could almost feel a difference in his body as he picked himself up off the ground; for one, it was easier to do so because he could feel his muscles responding a bit more powerfully than normal. In addition, his shirt underneath his leather chestpiece felt just a little tighter than he remembered, though it wasn’t like his body was trying to break free or anything – it was just a little tighter, after all.
“What…what happened,” Gwenda asked as she got up herself, shaking her head as if to clear away residual pain.
“Well, I think you got your wish – we leveled up.”
“Wha—?” she continued, before her eyes went unfocused. “Ooh, I got a new spell. I was wondering why my head felt like it was going to explode; it must’ve been the influx of knowledge that was being shoved into my brain.”
“What spell did you get?”
“Umm…it’s actually for me only, I think; ‘Magibarrier’ is a spell that creates a thin magical barrier which surrounds the caster just above the skin, preventing up to two physical attacks before collapsing.” She looked strange while she was talking. “Huh, weird; that knowledge just appeared in my mind when I thought of my new spell. It didn’t happen like that when I first became a Raider, though I guess that was a little different from now.”
Her mention of a new spell made Sterge look at his own Status, where he saw that he too had received something. Two Abilities were listed at the bottom: Forceful Smash (Blunt) and Slam (Shield). When he thought about them, he heard himself speaking involuntarily out loud.
“‘Forceful Smash’ is a Melee Ability that can be activated while wielding a blunt weapon; by using a measure of the Melee user’s stamina, the next blunt weapon attack will apply twice the amount of force compared to normal upon impact. ‘Slam’ is a Melee Ability that can be activated while holding a shield; by using a measure of the Melee user’s stamina, they can shove their shield upon activation and cause slight damage to a target, while also knocking it back up to 10 feet.”
Huh…that was strange. He wasn’t sure what a “measure of stamina” was exactly, but he assumed it was something like the magical force that Gwenda seemed to use to cast her spells. He’d have to experiment with it in the future…but for now they needed to get out of this dungeon. “Ok, time to go; we can look at all of this stuff later. Despite being healed again, I’m getting tired.”
“Absolutely…except…”
“What now? We got enough Power to raise our Raider Level, and judging by these piles of coins and – ooh, look, a new robe for you and a new chestpiece for me – we’ll be set for a while as far as money goes,” Sterge said gruffly, getting a little annoyed now. “And don’t forget the finder’s fee reward.”
“Yes, but I’m just really curious about what else is in here. I agree that we should leave, but I think if we leave with as much information about this place as possible, the better off we’ll be able to let the Raider Clan know what to expect,” she explained. “Let’s just look at the next room from the safety of the tunnel, and then we can leave.”
Sterge looked at his best friend for a minute like she was crazy, before finally giving in. “Fine – but stay behind me. We’re going up to the edge of the room, looking, and then turning back. Fair?”
“Fair enough, let’s go!” He couldn’t help but be amazed at her enthusiasm after all that had happened to the both of them, but he had to also admit that he was curious what was farther down the dungeon. Not that he was planning in any way, shape, or form of actually going any further that day, but looking and then leaving seemed innocent enough.
After gathering up all of the coins that were dropped, replacing his leather chestpiece with the new one that fit amazingly well and was in better condition than his original one, and equipping Gwenda with her new, dark-red colored robe that wasn’t torn or bloodstained (at least he didn’t think the red color was blood), Sterge led the way down the next – and last – tunnel in the dungeon they were going to see that day.
As he approached the next room, he made sure that Gwenda was staying far back from him just in case, while he also had his weighted stick and ball out and shield ready to go. He wasn’t planning on using them, but even the few hours they had been in the dungeon had taught him that he couldn’t be too careful.
The room was lit up fairly well from what he could see when he got close enough, but the size of it was also bigger than anything he had seen so far. There were really tall trees both lining the walls, as well as dotting the middle of the room – which was different from any other room with trees. He could still see towards the end of the room, if he looked a specific way, though he couldn’t see any tunnel leading farther down. Maybe the lack of an exit means this is the last room? Sterge really didn’t know the answer to that and doubted Gwenda knew either, as neither of them had much information about dungeons other than what they randomly overheard from Raiders – and now their personal experiences, of course.
There were also a few ferns and bushes scattered around, but not really enough to provide much in the way of cover; apparently they weren’t really meant to, as the creatures inside weren’t hiding like they were in the other room. Instead, they were more than obvious to anyone’s eye as they stared at him in the tunnel as if daring him to set foot inside the room. Uh, no – there’s no chance of that happening.
Sterge counted six of the brown foxes hanging out at the bottom of two different tree roots, four of the green-striped beasts that liked to hide behind ferns, six of the dog-wolf thingies that jumped down from the branches of the trees, and four of the wolves that he had faced in the fifth room. Those four would’ve been bad enough, as they were extremely deadly; with all of the others joining in on an attack, he had no chance – even with his increased Raider Level and new Abilities.
That wasn’t even all there was, in fact; behind all of the others was a massive beast three times larger than even the wolves, though for some reason it didn’t look as ferocious. The giant beast had shaggy grey fur, had paws bigger than his head, and had
to weigh at least twice as much as he did even with all of his armor and weapons weighing him down; for all of that, he looked at it and thought the beast just looked like some sort of gentle fluffy dog. Its bared teeth in a silent growl changed his opinion rather quickly, however, and he didn’t want to attempt to pet it.
Worst of all, there wasn’t just one of those behemoth – there were five.
He felt Gwenda slowly coming up behind him as he stared at what was arrayed against them. “Yep, this is the end right here. Time to go!”
“As much as I was hoping it would be easier, I have to agree that this is the end…for today,” she said behind him, a smile obvious in her voice even if he couldn’t see her.
Sterge let the tip of his stick and ball drop to the ground in exasperation; the weight of the weapon was too great to keep aloft for long unless he was actively using it – even with his new improved strength – and the prospect of finally leaving made his exhaustion come back full force. He might be healed, but he was still tired after the long day so far. “Seriously? You want to come back here?” he asked as he turned around towards his best friend.
Unfortunately, the spiked tip of his weapon had dug into the ground, so when he went to turn it stuck, which caused him to bump into it with his leg, drop it from his hand, and then get it caught between his legs. Sterge was still in the act of turning, and as such he became unbalanced and tripped…forward – right into the room with all of the scary beasts staring at him.
He was able to untangle his legs from his weapon fairly quickly, but then he heard a cacophony of roars coming from the room. He looked up to see that the foxes, green-striped dog-beasts, the tree colored dog-wolf thingies, the actual wolves, and the massive grey dogs were all starting to run in his direction or jump down from the trees. The green-striped fern-hiders even sprang into the air towards him, as if they wanted to have the opportunity to eat his face first.
The Dungeon Fairy: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 1) Page 26
