Chapter 2
Good Luck
I steeled my resolve and entered the third room. Horcs ran at me in a computer carrot formation formation. Horcs were giant three feet tall and five feet long hogs with tusks longer and deadlier than swords. Horcs were usually only breeded by orcs and used as war hogs, but anything can appear in the dungeon.
I ran to my right and fired my staff, half of the horcs were disintegrated in an instant. I laughed, drunk on power as I repositioned and wiped the other half of horcs from the face of Eaterial. The usual soothing ding sounded followed by a clatter as something fell on the hard blue floor, lined with white. I walked over and picked up the small trinket in confusion. It was a monocle made from a yellow tinted silver metal and with a green glass. I wondered for a brief moment as I put in on what it might do, my limited imagination passing over a few possibilities of interest. When I willed for it to activate, nothing happened. No lasers shot out, no x-ray vision granted, nothing. It couldn’t have been a regular monocle because the glass was green but it didn’t obscure my vision. Well, anything from a living child to a dragon can appear in the Dungeon of Chance. It was possible that the only magical enchantment was to let the wearer see past the green.
I shrugged, more than a little disappointed and walked to the fourth room. The ground changed to dirt, a thick mist pervaded the air, and hundreds of tomb stones littered the capacious room. From each grave rose a skeleton, some equipped with weapons, most only had the ripped shreds of clothing hanging from their bones. I smirked, a room like this would be insanely difficult and hopelessly unlucky for anyone else. I raised my staff and sweeped it across the room, erasing the droves of skeletons with a thought. The usual ding graced my ears, but no item dropped. I looked around, slightly worried my stroke of good luck had reached its end. I face palmed when I saw a cloak draped on one of the tomb stones. Not every item has to be loud, idiot. I made a show of flinging it around and putting it on. The cloak was solid white with three red lines running down the center of my back and both my arms, converging at the neck.
I walked in the next room with an aloof and dismissive attitude, on a power high I’ve never come close to matching in my humble life. I was put in my place too soon: there were six lightning elementals casually buzzing in the air. Elementals were intelligent but not sentient creatures with no physical bodies. The only way to kill them is to destroy the core usually at the center of the elemental’s element. Lightning Elementals aren’t very strong but particularly hard to deal with because of their insane speed.
Suddenly, red holographic images phased from the elementals’ bodies and flew at me. I thought it was an attack and put up my arms in an X. The holograms reached me, but I wasn’t hit. They harmlessly licked my arms. Wha- My baffled thoughts were cut off by the attack of the six elementals. They followed the holograms to a tee and slammed into my raised arms. My world was shaken and I was slammed against the far wall, breathless as I dragged against the wall. I realized after that I wasn’t burnt to a crisp because of my amazing cloak, too bad it didn’t do anything for brute strength. When the red holograms appeared again, I rolled and positioned myself perfectly. I fired my staff a split second before the electric elementals lined up like dominoes, and the laser destroyed their cores.
I sighed in relief when I heard the ding. Power really corrupts. The item for this room was a pair of yellow and white boots with a gold broach in the shape of a lightning bolt pinned on the shaft of the left boot. They were too big for me, but adjusted as I slipped them on. I activated their ability and my feet exploded in a shower of electrical sparks. I jumped in panic, but soon realized that I was immune to my own lightning. With a few minutes of playing around, I found that I could control the lightning. Crackling wings of lightning sprouted from my boots and lifted me off the ground with a strong flap. This is awesome!
Only after another strained ding sounded did I step through the next door. Five rooms down, five to go! My skin crawled and I cringed against the door. The room was filled with giant red centipedes. I hate bugs, they’re so gross and creepy, I wish they didn’t exist! I spammed my staff for a solid minute before moving my hand from in front of my eyes. I took a deep sigh, they were all gone. Among their ashes was a glinting golden ring with a giant ruby on top. Once I put it on my finger, I felt connected to another space. This is a Spacial Ring! Spacial Rings were rings connected to a pocket dimension where the owner can store anything as long as it fits, no matter the dimensions.
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With a flourish I stored my staff and walked into the next room. Waiting for me were three cyclops, one holding a struggling girl in its giant hand. The cyclops looked exactly like giant bald babies with animal skins for clothing and one eye. I smiled, the girl was the same one from before, looks like I get to return the favor.
“Hello again! Want some help?” I shouted to the girl. The girl looks at me with disgruntled eyes and the cyclops crushing the girl to death roared at the other two. The two cyclops ran at me like feral animals, racing to see who could eat me first. I produced my staff and shot two precise lasers through the cyclops’ eyes. They tumbled to the floor in a flail of giant limbs. My eyes shown at the opportunity to look cool. I walked forward, turned ninety degrees to my left, and leaned to my right, the cyclops head of the closest cyclops slid into position for my wall just in time. No one ogled in the face of my awesome pose but it was fun. My eyes narrowed seriously as my monocle showed me the cyclops’ next action. My boots grew lightning wings popping with pure energy and I flew to intersect the thrown girl’s flight path. The cyclops threw her hard enough to knock me back a few meters and her mithril chestplate didn’t do her any favors. Ouch, I’ll probably bruise tomorrow. The cyclops ran at me with fury in its eyes. When will they ever learn not to take a linear path of attack? I dropped the girl on the bouncy stomach of one of the dead cyclops and finished the remaining cyclone with an accurate shot through its screaming mouth and out the back of its neck.
"Thanks for the save," said the girl as she slid down the side of the dead cyclops.
“I saved you twice, now you owe me,” I told the girl as I walked through the newly open door, out of ear shot before she could argue.
The floor of the next room was replaced with deep water, save for the small cube of land extending from the door I was currently standing on. A giant red hologram of a shark splashed out of the water and swallowed me whole. I ran to me left, using the lightning boots to make solid ground, narrowly avoiding the shark that slammed against the door with a loud crash. I took the opportunity to fill it with holes while it was above water. The ding sounded, muffled compared to the loud noise I just heard, followed by the splash of water. As I walked to pick up my item, I eyed the deeply dented door in relief.
The item was in a wooden bucket that raised in fell along with the waves created by the shark. The item was a black gloves with blue lines tracing my palm and up my fingers. Only one? I tried it on and willed it to activate. My will separated from my mind and physically affected the water, pushing it aside as if a giant leaver blower was aimed at it. It was a Telekinetic Glove! I threw my staff and whirled it around the room, the red crystal on its top glinting in the light as it spun. The same higher toned ding with a slight threatening feeling told me to hurry up and I continued to my ninth room.
In the room were ten demon knights, three riding atop dark stallions in heavy black armor. They all wore the same pitch black heavy plate mail and carried meter long blood red swords, along with intricately carved and glowing shields. I knew the awesome skills of the demon knights first hand. Their horses would be on me in a split second, their reach would make it impossible for me to contend in close combat, and their shields could probably deflect my laser. If I had to fight them, I might have died in this room.
I put my arms up in surrender and shouted, “Concordia!” The demon knights stopped in their tracks and exchanged glances. After a moment of hesitation, who I assumed was the captain trotted their horse up to me and removed their horned helmet. Underneath was a perfectly human face with small horns jutting from their blue hair. Like the majority of demons, this demon had dark skin with the smallest touch of red that complemented their pinkish red eyes.
“I never thought I would live to see the day a human said that to me,” he said in perfect english. The rest of the demons put down their weapons and took off their helmets.
“I accidently found myself in a demon city when I was younger. The chief told me to say that if I ever came across other demons,” I explained.
“What was the name of the chief?” asked a demon with purple hair, walking up to us.
“Her name was City Chief Raima,” I told him.
The demon laughed a surprisingly high pitched laugh and said, “That Raima always did have a soft spot for humans.”
“Any ideas how I get past this room without killing you?” I asked them.
“There’s no need for that, we are resurrected by the dungeon whenever we die,” shrugged the captain.
“Resurrected by the dungeon?” I repeated incredulously. The demon captain looked as if they just remembered something they forgot.
“You’ll soon understand, just trust me when I say we will all be back home after our shift is over,” said the captain. I would have liked to understand now, but I knew that no sentient being would give up their life that easily.
“I don’t think my staff will hurt, but sorry in advance if it does,”I warned them as I took out my staff.
“Wow, you must be really lucky to get a Staff of Disintegration,” one of the demons said as they all lined up. I fired the laser after a moment of hesitation, reducing them all to dust.