by Konrad Ryan
Tad closed his eyes, trying to sense any differences. At first, he noticed no change, but then, instinctively, he thought outward. He extended his thought in a certain direction, and obediently a tendril of perception quested out, exploring. Even with his eyes closed, he explored the dungeon with his perception tendril. And while he couldn’t see the dungeon, he could feel it better than he ever had. Feel the cobblestone, the inky black tendrils, and even the symbol etched on the door. His tendril explored the two slayers, searching their weapons and armor at first, then questing into pockets, looking for hidden items.
The tendril then raced far away, to test its limits, it stretched thinner and thinner, sending back less information, except for at the very tip where he continued to the river wildlife and animals going about their day.
This could be useful.
Tad snapped the tendril back, and his perception came back, all in a rush. The dungeon leader had shown up and was walking up and down, inspecting the three slayers carefully. She was an elderly woman, her silver armor shone in the light. Somehow, he had missed everything around him while questing far away. Interesting.
His stats were still up in front of him. With sixteen points left, he was tempted to keep it, keep his 20 point buffer. But raising courage and charisma had left a lingering sense of regret. He had used so many points and didn’t feel any stronger. Just this once. Just this once he would spend his buffer stats. It had to be dexterity. Ironfang had still been faster than him in his transformed state, without ‘brilliant burst’ boosting his speed. If a regular soldier could be faster than him, then there was no guarantee he would be faster than bosses. Tad put his last sixteen points into dexterity, then admired his handiwork.
*Tad Harrington
Rank: Soldier
Class: Fighter
Level: 39
Health: 700/700
Mana: 42/42
Str: 70
Dex: 59
Con: 60
Mag: 21
Cou: 30
Cha: 10*
The dungeon leader finally spoke aloud. If she had before, Tad had missed it.
“My name is Elsie Preach, I’m your dungeon leader today. I don’t recognize two of you, so let’s get one thing straight, only your lives are in danger in there.” Elsie pointed a gauntleted finger toward the dungeon. “I’m the best shield our guild has, and I have ways to survive. I don’t enjoy seeing death, but I will not risk my neck for you. If we have a reasonable chance of clearing the dungeon, I’m happy to take part. But I don’t take weaklings. Too many of them die.”
“So you.” Elsie pointed at the slayer that had the weakest red aura, “Go home. This dungeon will eat you alive.”
The large man spoke. “I gotta feed my family, same as all. I’m going in. This might be my first dungeon with the guild, but I’ve made it through ten dungeons so far, this one won’t be different.” The man was covered in scars and scabbed over wounds, his health bar only about eighty percent full. Did he not have enough money to pay for healing?
“You’re weak. And besides macho man over here, you’re weaker than the rest.”
“Dungeon leaders have pointed that out before miss, but you’ll be glad you took me. What I lack in strength, boss, I make up for in effort.”
Elsie hesitated. “What skills or spells do you have?”
The man grinned. “The name is Brian, I’m a buffer. Make the rest of you faster, stronger, more potent. That kind of thing.”
He was the first buffer Tad had met.
“Do your spells work on yourself too? Or would you be a sitting duck?”
“Like I said, boss, I make up for it in effort.”
“Alright, alright, if you want to die that badly, you’re in.”
Tad examined the elderly woman with fresh eyes. She had to be over sixty, but the red aura that surrounded her shone like a bonfire. Her strength was real, and to be old in this line of work spoke volumes.
The other man was a calm man, fiddling with his mage’s staff. His hair was black and carefully slicked. His aura glowed almost as much as Elsie’s.
“Syphon, you know I won’t raid with you. I don’t have a death wish.”
The man smiled. “Just thought I might get a warmup before my dungeon later today.”
“There aren’t any pretty girls here, just two burly men and an old woman.”
Without protest, the man walked away, his hair, black and greasy, gleamed in the sun. The man examined Tad twice before he got into his car and left.
Tad furrowed his brow. “Why did you send him away? He’s almost as strong as you.”
Elsie put a metal-shod hand on Tad’s shoulder with a small chuckle. “Surprising someone as weak as you can tell that. Sorry lad, but I don’t sense a shred of power from you. Not to mention, that man, Syphon, is a psychopath. I don’t know why the guild tolerates his behavior. They won’t even let any actual guild members raid with the man. At least not the women.”
Tad frowned. “Why not?”
“He is what we call a serial culler. He culls people, women, just for fun. Sure, his eighty percent survival is better than mine or Ironfang’s, but we don’t kill our slayers. Not intentionally at least.”
“He is a dungeon leader?” Tad asked, unable to believe his ears. Who on earth would follow such a man?
“He’s skilled in what he does. Could give Blaze a run for his money, even. You should see his raids, people flock to follow him. They see the eighty percent survival rate almost like a promise.”
“What’s your survival rate?”
“Forty-two percent.”
Well, that explained the lack of slayers willing to raid with her. Her survival rate was worse than the average.
“Should we go home then?” Elsie’s strained laughter had disappeared. “I’m not really in the mood to see you two die today. Unless you want to hunt essence, get in some practice. We could just pass up the boss, send it on to Ironfang. A lot fewer people die that way.”
What kind of dungeon leader was this? She seemed to look to the people who followed her to decide. Her style differed completely from Ironfang’s, whose approach had been perfect military-like discipline. Ironfang acted like he knew the right way, the best way for the party. Elsie just seemed lost.
Brian stepped forward. “I’d like to go in. With just the three of us, we could make some serious cash, even with the guild tax.”
Tad liked Brian more and more and he nodded, agreeing with the man. Tad was going to fight the boss no matter what. He was stronger and faster than he’d ever been, and with two charges of his cloak’s abilities, what could go wrong? He might not be up to Bunta’s standard, but he wasn’t sure there was another soldier who could match him.
Elsie gave a weary sigh. “Let’s get started then.”
Chapter 10
Tad placed his hands on the dungeon exterior. The entrance had only one symbol, the muscular arm. Strong monsters, and no requirement on how many slayers were needed to open the boss room. Theoretically, the dungeon should be clearable with just the three of them. With how strong he had become, the dungeon and its monsters weren’t deadly, only the boss fight was potentially fatal. And they didn’t even have to fight the boss, according to Elsie.
He felt nothing irregular from the dungeon. It pulsed brighter, then dimmed like the sun behind clouds. The inky black tendrils exploratorily touched Tad’s skin, then recoiled as if in pain, before repeating the process once more. Tad couldn’t help but wonder if he was a douser, like Dolly had been. He had sensed irregularities before, but it seemed like a fluke. It was a complete waste to lose someone with such a valuable talent. He still hadn’t asked Blaze why she had been allowed to enter the dungeon. The guild should have paid for her talent and then safely tucked her away, she was a treasure capable of saving endless soldier lives.
At least, she had been a treasure. Now she was dead.
Tad scanned the surrounding landscape. This dungeon was out near the Plath river,
he could hear the sounds of river life even now. What kind of dungeon would meet him within? Each had been bizarre and yet unique. Surely there would have to be some overlap, eventually.
“Well, if you’re in such a hurry to die, let’s get going. Like I said, I’ll be just fine.” Elsie hid her mouth behind a yawn. Brian put on a brave face, but looked slightly nervous. No matter what he said, raiding a dungeon with just three people was not normal, and after how persistent he’d been, Tad doubted the man would say anything.
Tad entered first. The blackness of the mist swallowed him as he entered the jaws of the dungeon. He floated through the darkness. Once again Zero wasn’t there. Each time he entered a dungeon, he half expected the enormous power to greet him, and each time it wasn’t there, a great weight sank off of Tad’s back. He cleared his mind, away from thoughts of Zero, away from death and doom. He opened his senses and let the void flow through him. It was oddly relaxing, like being coddled in the arms of a giant, swaddled in a blanket. His cloak slowly wrapped upward, hugging his body tight at his mental image. Surprise and bewilderment shot through him. Had he just controlled his cloak? In a similar manner, he reached out and tried to move his cloak with his mind. It wriggled in response.
What!
He could control his cloak! Exploratorily, he changed the shape of the fabric on his back. Almost like an extension of himself, it obeyed. Tad formed an image in his mind, his cloak twisted until two extra arms sprouted atop his shoulders. Tad summoned Raekast’s Fang into their inky claws, and it appeared where he chose. The shadow arms struck out at imaginary opponents, true to Tad’s will. Exhilaration flowed through Tad at his discovery. If he could wield his cloak like this, it could double, no, quadruple his offensive potential. He shaped the cloak into two more arms; the fabric pulled taut, seemingly to the limit, but it worked. Four shadowy arms grew from his back, two perched on his shoulders, two more just under his shoulder blades, wrapped around his torso. This could change everything.
The void ended. Tad dropped into an endless ocean below. His cloak went slack and lifeless, back to its original form. Raekast’s Fang dropped from the cloak-hands and plunged into the sea below. Tad dove to retrieve it. He kicked wildly and sped through the water, a dolphin chasing agile prey. He gripped the naked hilt of the weapon, it instantly froze to his fist and he kicked for the surface. He needed to hurry. He didn’t know if Elsie could swim in her heavy armor. She could drown. Or maybe she had already, since it was so hard to tell how long he had been in the void. Time was ephemeral and hard to estimate. Most times he was in there far longer than it felt like.
Tad burst from the water, his strength enhanced kicks propelled him upward several feet. He pointed a finger below, allowing the mana to flow into his arm in a constant stream.
“Icebolt!”
One after another, icebolts disappeared into the water below, the first formed a thin plane of ice, each following icebolt thickened the ice float, on which he landed.
Why hadn’t his cloak held its form? Tad tried to form the image of hands on his shoulders, like he had before but, like a dream where he realized he could fly, nothing happened. He tried again, this time, the cloak barely wriggled, but it moved! He could still feel it, feel the potential, but, like a muscle decrepit from disuse, it would most likely be useless until he trained with it. Why had it been so easy before? Because he was traveling through the void? Did he have more control there?
He tucked the information away for later as Elsie and Brian popped through the floating exit and fell three feet onto the ice float. The two blinked rapidly to adjust to the bright blue sun directly above. Tad had never felt a sun beat down upon him with such intensity. Endless ocean met every direction they looked.
“Raekast’s whore mother…”
Tad looked at the elderly woman in surprise, He hadn’t expected the matronly woman to have such a filthy mouth.
Elsie seemed unphased by Tad’s judgement. “An aquatic dungeon. I don’t think we can clear this.”
“Is the entire dungeon underwater?”
Elsie nodded. “Dungeon’s like these need dedicated teams of slayers designed for aquatic battle. You know, the kind that can transform into fish and what not. We shouldn’t mess with this dungeon.”
Tad wasn’t about to let the reluctant dungeon leader off that easily.
“Can you swim in that?”
She nodded. “With difficulty, but I’ve done it before.”
Tad looked Brian up and down. He was a buffer, right?
“Can you do anything to help here?”
The man laughed, his voice deep. “Like make people breathe water? What do you think I am, some magician?”
Tad’s stomach sank. Well, maybe Elsie had been right. Maybe they shouldn’t bother with this dungeon, report it to the government and let them build a team for it.
The man had a wry smile on his face “You think I could just place my hands on your backs,” He rested his hands on each of their lower backs, “and cast a spell that could change your basic physiology? Say some magic words like ‘Rain lung’ and turn you into fish people?”
A cool wetness settled on Tad’s mind and then deep into his lungs and bones.
“Impossible.” Brian laughed once more.
Tad pulled up his buffs.
*Buffs: Rain lung: Breathe water as if air. Duration 1 hour.*
Tad looked the man up and down with fresh eyes. This was indeed a useful man.
“Let’s add a few more, shall we? Razor blade! Wind dash! Meat shield! Essence boost!”
*Buffs:
Rain lung: Breathe water as if air. Duration 1 hour.
Razor blade: Increases damage dealt by attacks by 50%. Duration 1 hour.
Wind dash: Increases speed by 25%. Duration 1 hour.
Meat shield: Increases damage resistance by 50%. Duration 1 hour.
Essence boost: Increases mana regeneration by 100%. Duration 1 hour.*
Tad had been wrong. Brian wasn’t just useful, he was invaluable, even if the guild didn’t recognize it. More so than Dolly had been, more so than any other slayer Tad had ever met. “Brian, get out.”
The man looked at Tad, confusion spread across his face. “I thought we were past this-”.
“You’re too valuable to die in this dungeon. Even with these buffs, you’ll have a hard time in the water.” Tad wasn’t thinking about this dungeon, but every dungeon after it. Maybe he didn’t need to be a dungeon leader to build his own team. “Brian, if you leave, I’ll make sure we clear the boss. You’ll get a third of the money, no, I’ll even give you twenty percent of my profits on top of your own.”
Brian mulled the offer over. “You’ll be okay by yourselves?”
Elsie sighed. Tad nodded.
You’re the boss, Boss.”
The man turned to leave, but Tad grabbed his shoulder to stop him. “Can you cast these buffs again?”
The man shook his head. “Once a day. I have other buffs, but they’re situational, not helpful here.”
“After this dungeon, I’ll want to see them.”
Brian smiled, it was mixed with relief and bolstered confidence that someone had thought his skills valuable. The large man turned and leapt off the ice platform, up and through the shimmering misty exit.
Tad turned to Elsie “You okay with just the two of us?”
She nodded nonchalantly. “If you want to go ahead, suicidal like, just the two of us, then lets do that. Like I said, I won’t die, it’s your neck I’m worried about. I’ve been at this job a long time and I’ve found that you can’t convince a slayer with a death wish that they’d rather live.” Elsie’s lip curled into a grin. “But if we pull it off with just the three of us, Raekast’s tit, we’ll have one hell of a payday.”
Tad blushed at her curses. “Let’s not waste time then, Buffs are ticking.” Tad turned and dove into the water below, it was cool against the heat of his cheeks. Elsie’s splash followed.
Elsie was the meekest dung
eon leader Tad had ever seen. She seemed perfectly comfortable with Tad just taking over the reins, almost like she didn’t even want to lead. The contrast between her and Ironfang was just incredible. How could two dungeon leaders in the same guild be so different from each other?
Tad turned his attention to the vast ocean in front of him. Where were they supposed to go? The water was clear, and the blue light from the intense sun above seemed to pierce the ocean waters far better than natural sunlight, but eventually, the surrounding waters darkened. Before he could summon his light sphere, light appeared behind him, Elsie’s breastplate was generating its own light. Handy that. Tad sent his perception tendrils searching down. He kept his eyes open this time, and he could do both. It was like being able to watch two different movies at the same time, but he had no problem sorting out the two different video feeds. His perception tendril stretched far past the light that Elsie’s armor generated, and after a moment, he felt a blip. A presence incredibly far away, downward. His tendril explored the monster. It was a man on the top half, with squid’s tentacles on the bottom, its face was completely blank and featureless, but it eyelessly stared in his direction. It sped through the water toward the two of them, Tad’s perception tendril snapped back in an instant.
Tad’s lungs burned, and he realized he was still holding his breath. Maybe he should have tested this closer to the surface. Every instinct demanded he turn and kick for the surface as hard as he could, but in his mind, he knew it was too late. They had come too far down to make it back in time.
He had to trust his buffs. He calmed his wild heart and opened his mouth. Salty water rushed across his tongue and down his throat. He coughed to spit it out, but more rushed forward. Panic surged wildly, but he forced himself to inhale the water further. Bubbles poured from his mouth as water displaced the air in his lungs. His chest felt thick, full of syrup, but he pressed on. The burning in his chest subsided as oxygen filled his blood once more, and the panic retreated.
Breathing felt strange, his chest working double time. Pushing water in and out was much harder than air. It dragged and flowed, rolled and tumbled. The flow was harder to stop and harder to begin, but it began to feel natural as he dove ever deeper, toward the rushing creature.
