by Brent Tyman
We both stared at each other for a long moment, simply smiling, before Daiver gave a cough.
“He’s doing it again,” he complained, rolling his eyes.
“Indeed,” Karl said. “I believe you owe me some coin.”
“Huh?” I said, turning to them. “What are you two going on about?”
“Nothing!” they both blurted as one. Those two were clearly hiding something. I wondered what the heck their wager had been about.
“What now, handsome?” Clarissa asked. “We can’t stand here forever.”
“Putting aside who created these openings, we should be able to use one of them to get to the surface quicker,” I said.
“Which way is up, though?” Kesara asked, looking at each opening in turn. “They both look cramped and dark, not to mention gloomy.”
“You are forgetting the invaluable skill of my retainer,” Clarissa said, beaming.
“Yes. I initially saw an unexpected aura in between this tunnel and another that didn’t look right,” Anny explained. She pointed to the opening to our right. “That one seems to go upwards, eventually.”
“We can just travel along this line, and it will lead us to the surface?” Kesara asked before turning to me. “What are we waiting for?”
“Indeed, it appears we are unlikely to find more answers here,” Juliana said, nodding to Anny. “Please, lead the way.”
We all took our time to squeeze through the opening Anny had pointed out. This time, the horse definitely wasn’t going to fit through fully loaded. We all pitched in to unload most of what the beast was transporting and carried the goods through the opening, before leading the unburdened horse through. Once through, we loaded it up again on the other side.
Since this tunnel had been manmade, or at least, was not natural, it was incredibly dark and uncomfortably tight. The light from Clarissa’s and Kesara’s magic spheres were barely any help. I couldn’t see beyond Daiver’s hulking frame in front of me.
Progress was so slow, that I started to question if using this passage was a faster route to the surface than the one we had been on before. Clearly, we had to be near Tringall, since this tunnel would likely lead somewhere near there.
Worse than the darkness and that we had to essentially follow single file in the narrow tunnel, was that this passage had a gradient that gradually increased the further we went. I was fairly certain that if one of us at the front lost their step, the entire party would end up tumbling all the way back down to where we had started.
And that wouldn’t be pleasant.
One thing was for certain though. We were quickly climbing up from the deeper floors. I hoped that meant that the next monsters we faced wouldn’t be quite as deadly as a Glower Serpent.
At this point, taking on monsters such as Ravens and Rats would be a blessing, even if they didn’t give me much in terms of stat increases.
I still had my Growth stat increasing my Strength, but perhaps it was time to drop it into something else.
Maybe it was finally time I increased my rather pitiful magical stats. It would be cool to fling fireballs and lightning around, in addition to me swinging my sword.
Karl had confirmed that earth magic was a thing in this world, too, which was something to consider. Other than digging tunnels, I wondered what else they could do?
I’d need to talk to the others more about what spells I could get if I wanted to train my magic stats. I only had the one incredibly powerful and ridiculously draining Dynamic Healing spell. I’d need something basic and easy to use if I wanted to improve my magic power or capacity.
The last thing I wanted to do was to switch my Growth skill, find I was unable to make any progress in increasing my magical stats, and be stuck in its five day cool down.
Efficiency was key, and it was clear from the fight with the Glower Serpent that my Strength stat had served me very well indeed.
Although, I couldn’t help but wonder what the heck my Luck stat actually did.
We followed the blue line as it travelled upwards towards the surface. We found ourselves briefly entering natural floors of the Dungeon for brief stretches before coming upon another dug out entry into a blue-lined passageway.
Some floors varied greatly in terms of aesthetics. I briefly glimpsed smooth wooden corridors on one floor, and bare metal walls on the next. We didn’t encounter any monsters on these floors, but it could easily be the case that the earth mages had elected to dig through those parts of the Dungeon that normally didn’t see much activity.
It seemed the tunnels gradually got wider as we neared the surface. I could only surmise that these earth mages had tried to make plenty of space when they’d initially started but got lazy the deeper they went.
It couldn’t have been easy to dig this deep into the Dungeon, and we hadn’t seen how deep they had gone.
Extremely brisk, cold air struck my face as we exited the tunnel. As the blue line veered around the next corner, I looked up to see something really strange.
It was snowing.
“Look! It’s the seventh floor!” Clarissa shouted, reaching down to grab some snow. It sifted through her fingers as she examined it. “The monsters here should be nothing.”
“What monster would that be?” I asked.
“Hmm, Raging Wolves, I think?” Karl mused, absently stroking his chin.
“Raging Wolves? Like Wolves that are mad at everything?” I queried, a tad confused at this name.
“More like extremely aggressive wolves,” Kesara answered. “Don’t worry though, Alex, that slim frame of yours should enable you to evade their attacks, unlike Daiver over there.”
“Pah! If this truly is the seventh floor, then my Defense will be more than sufficient,” Daiver remarked.
I suppose that would probably be true, since Academy students were definitely capable of taking care of themselves in the eighth to tenth floor range, if I remembered correctly.
Juliana’s retinue were each powerful in their own right and had no doubt grown more experienced during their time in Valdura. If they could take on Ogres and Glower Serpents, whatever was here should be relatively straightforward, in comparison.
Since I intended to grind in the Dungeon once we were all safely back to Tringall, this gave me a sneak peek at some other monsters in floors I’d yet to explore.
Ones that weren’t crazy powerful, at least.
Unless these Raging Wolves really were raging.
“It seems the line travels along this floor of the Dungeon, instead of further up,” Juliana said. “I wonder why…”
“It is strange, I agree my Lady,” Vencia said. “Choosing to travel in this snow seems counter-intuitive, when they could have easily chosen a floor with more ideal conditions.”
“If I am correct,” Karl said. “The monsters on this floor are rather sporadically spaced, which should make navigating this floor much safer than some others.”
I had also noticed that the blue line was covered up by snow at times, with significant buildup only happening along the edges of the tunnel.
“I think they also banked on the snow hiding their work,” I said. “If you aren’t looking for it, it would be almost impossible to spot the blue line in this place. Heck, assuming they know the route by heart, they most likely leave the line entirely covered and only uncover it if they inadvertently get lost.”
“Hmm,” Clarissa said. “That does make a certain amount of sense. Whatever the reason, we are getting close to the surface, handsome. I’m sure you can work your magic on these Wolves and show everyone why our Clan is the best.”
The beautiful blonde winked at me.
I knew she was referring to my method of analyzing monster behavior and picking up on any patterns to give us an advantage. I had already let the rest of the party know about it, but they hadn’t actually seen it in action.
I supposed the Glower Serpent could have counted, but I didn’t have time to do much analyzing other than hypothesizing abou
t it being weaker around the head. That usually held true for plenty of other monsters though.
“Ah yes,” Karl said excitedly, presumptively grabbing another piece of parchment and whipping out a quill. “This floor will be much safer for all of us, especially with the soldiers here. I look forward to learning from your methods, Alex.”
“Hmm? My apologies for interrupting, but I am unsure what you are referring to,” Aurielle said, her gorgeous face scrunched up in confusion.
“Our lovely Alex has a rather interesting method to master just about any monster he sees,” Kesara explained, albeit with a bit of flair. “No creature is safe from those calculating eyes of his. So dreamy, right?”
“I mean, it might not work on every monster,” I reasoned, trying to be more realistic. “But there are patterns to monster behavior that we can work out to our advantage. If I manage to figure something out on these Wolves, then it should make any future fights with them much easier and much safer.”
“Truly?” Aurielle asked, eyes wide. “Then I can’t wait to see this magic of yours.”
It wasn’t magic, but Clarissa grinned all the same as she ushered us all forward. “Come on handsome,” she encouraged me, “show everyone what you can do.”
Most of the party hadn’t been around to witness the Ogres acting strangely when their weapons had been knocked out of their hands, so I guessed they were eager to see my theorizing in action.
As we walked through the seventh floor, occasionally uncovering the snow-covered blue line when we needed its guidance on which turns to take, I had to admit the Dungeon made little sense at times.
The walls here were made of rock with a hint of blue dye to them. This blue dye was far more prevalent nearer the ceiling, but to my eyes it didn’t look that out of place.
What confused me was that there was snow here, and it was falling, but I couldn’t figure out where it came from.
There were very clearly ceilings above us that weren’t much higher than those on any other floor. The snow just seemed to phase into existence above my head and slowly floated down until it dusted my armor.
It was definitely real snow, and I watched as the women periodically shook it out of their hair as they walked.
Karl was far too engrossed in his parchments to care, and Daiver seemed content to let the snow build up on his helmet.
Still, it was strange to see this snow seemingly coming from nowhere and showed how little I knew about how the Dungeon itself functioned, beyond housing monsters.
In any case, it seemed we were closer than ever to getting back home. There were only a few hurdles left to overcome.
I’d just have to grind it out if we encountered any monsters.
And that was something I had gotten pretty good at, after all.
7
It was only a short while later, following the path laid out by the blue line, that we finally encountered a tunnel that had more than snow in it.
A pack of these Raging Wolves idled about in the middle of the wide tunnel, where they sniffed the snow and growled at each other. There were seven, in total, and from what I could tell, they were the same size as any other wolf I had seen before coming to this fantasy world.
At first glance, I couldn’t really see anything that might have given them the moniker of ‘Raging’. Their fur was as white as the snow surrounding them, which helped them blend in quite easily. One of them had a large scar along its mid-section that looked to be the work of a sword slashing across its torso, though not deep enough to cause fatal damage.
As far as I could see, these were just Wolves, and there was little more I could glean about their behavior at this stage.
It was probably time for a fight.
“My Lady,” a Hogannan soldier said as he walked up to Clarissa. “We can take care of these Wolves, if you wish.”
“I bet we could do it faster than you lot,” another voice said. A group of Sovereignty soldiers stepped forward.
“Lady Tasberg, allow us to dispatch these Wolves for you,” one requested of Juliana.
Both women looked puzzled at the soldiers’ surprise requests, but I think I knew the reason. Compared to Ogres, Glower Serpents, or Titans, fighting monsters on the seventh floor was much safer than anything they had faced over these past few weeks.
Even with our dwindling numbers, the number of soldiers here could easily clear out the entire floor, if they worked together.
They were probably looking to score some points with either of the heir’s fathers, if nothing else.
“Ohhh, everyone is fired up all of a sudden,” Kesara commented.
“The danger is still very much real here. We can’t afford to be reckless, despite all that we have achieved,” Vencia said. “It feels like I have healed every soldier we brought with us at some point or another.”
“This is nonsense,” Karl said. “I wish to see Alex analyze and then take these monsters on first, for my research.”
“You can watch me show you how it’s done,” Daiver grinned as he drew his sword. “I’ll take care of them.”
“Don’t you dare rush off on your own again, Daiver!” Juliana snapped. “We need to work as a team.”
At that point, the party more or less dissolved into a collection of shouting matches between various groups. Even Clarissa joined in, insisting that I face the Wolves alone. The only ones not participating were Aurielle and Anny, who both stood quietly off to the side.
Jeez…
“Sorry about this, Aurielle,” I said, approaching her. “It can get a bit hectic at times.”
She smiled at me and nodded thoughtfully.
“I understand. The other Chosen and I used to argue about silly things all the time—before they perished doing their duty. Strangely,” she gave me a sad look, “those are my fondest memories of them.”
Right, there used to be more of these ‘Chosen’, like Aurielle, before everything went south in the… well, the Southern Desert. She was already crazy powerful by herself, so it was a bit hard to imagine there had been another six of her.
“The rest of Clarissa’s retinue isn’t as noisy as this, but I like it here more,” Anny commented. “And I’m sorry about what happened to the rest of your party.”
“Please do not be,” Aurielle said, holding a hand up. “They perished honorably, and if the Gods will it, I will finish what we all started.”
I think she was referring to helping her homeland overcome their succession crisis, and defeating the monsters trying to escape from their Dungeon. There was also the matter of dealing with any more of those Malophas’ too.
I could tell, despite Aurielle’s brave face, that she was a little melancholy when speaking about the other Chosen.
It reminded me about my own family…
“Look, Aurielle,” I said, reaching forward to lay a hand on her shoulder. “This might be a bit too much, too soon, but know that if you need any help, with anything, you only need let me know. You helped us all out with that Malophas; its only right we return the favor.”
Aurielle looked really surprised at my words and her eyes widened in shock.
“I cannot! Your aid in lifting my curse is already something I cannot hope to repay in my lifetime,” she replied.
I waved that away with a quick shake of my hand.
“Nah. It’s not about give and take, favors don’t have to be one for one,” I said. “If you need help, let me know. I realized, a while back, that I didn’t have to go it alone. Maybe one day soon, you will realize that too.”
I hoped I wasn’t being a bit too forward with Aurielle. We barely knew each other.
Then again, I had gone from barely knowing Clarissa, to kissing her in a matter of days. Things had progressed at a rapid pace with Juliana, as well. And now… now I had a connection with the two of them that I couldn’t begin to describe.
I could tell that Aurielle had a nigh impossible task ahead of her, despite her great power.
She intrigued
me and, while I didn’t know much about this ‘duty’ of hers, I knew whatever it involved, she meant well.
And that was enough for me.
“Alex… I… but…”
My bold declaration seemed to have left Aurielle speechless. To be honest, I was at a bit of a loss what to say myself.
Had my Charisma stat gone up again?
I looked back over my shoulder, only to see that everyone was still arguing, all but shouting over each other to be heard.
I rolled my eyes. Jeez…
We were still quite a distance from the Raging Wolves, but I saw that they had finally noticed us and were making their way towards us.
Since everyone seemed a bit preoccupied, perhaps this might be an opportune time to have a normal fight with my Clan and show Aurielle my monster behavior theory in action.
“Aurielle, wanna fight the Wolves while the others are still doing… whatever it is they are doing?” I asked.
“Oh? I…” She shook her head briefly before taking a deep breath. “Yes, I wish to see this. Know that I will protect you, if there are complications.”
I smiled at that and motioned for her to follow me.
“Alex, Alex, take me too,” Anny begged.
I nodded. “Of course, Anny, you’re in my Clan after all. We’ve gotta be quick about it, else the others might decide to have everyone attack at once,” I said. “I doubt we will get a swing in, if that happens.”
Normally, I wouldn’t be this reckless—since we had the entire party on hand—but I was confident we far over leveled these monsters, and with my stats alone, there wasn’t much risk.
Plus, it would be easier to coordinate with just my Clan and Aurielle, than it would be to include the entire party. Clarissa would follow us, once I let her know.
I tapped Clarissa on the shoulder, watching her beautiful face turn to give me a blank stare before I set off sprinting.
“What? Alex!” Clarissa shouted after us and before I knew it, she had caught up to us in no time at all. “When I said for you to go alone, I meant with me as backup, handsome.”
