Chapter 2: The Church Girl
After settling on a design for Floor 1 of the dungeon, Olivia went home for the evening. DM got to work on the deeper floors, starting with Floor 2.
[https://i.imgur.com/C66yQap.jpg]
This design was a bit different from the ones he used previously. It offered a variety of rooms for adventurers to explore, most of which contained treasure chests. The chests were set to hold randomly-selected items among minor potions, basic weapons and armor, rugged clothing, and other items of value which weren’t useful in the dungeon but could be sold.
DM selected about a dozen spots to be common spawn locations for LVL 1 and 2 monsters, including goblins, kobolds, slimes, gnolls, jackalopes, imps, spiders, zombies, dogs, cats, crabs, foxes, rats, scorpions, and gargoyles. The six alcoves off the outer hallway, as well as each room, were spawn locations. A couple of rooms offered battles but no other rewards, preparing adventurers for more normal dungeons where nothing was guaranteed.
Another objective of the Floor 2 design was to allow more experienced adventurers quick access to Floor 3. So long as you remembered which door to use, you could bypass all but one or two battles. For the newbies, this floor would give them a chance to try their hand at mapping the dungeon as they go. The design was not overly complicated, but still was challenging enough to map to be a good test before the adventurers delved deeper.
DM decided to review the unique aspects of each LVL 1 and LVL 2 monster. Goblins typically carried daggers enchanted with poison strike. They forced newbie adventurers to learn how to defend against or heal poison administered through magical means. Judging from Bandit’s training, non-magical poison was less understood and less worried about, at least by adventurers.
Kobolds could steal items from adventurers with their unique ability. Unlike the mug ability used by jackalopes, stealing would take items hidden in a person’s pockets or bags rather than equipped weapons and armor. DM hadn’t bothered to use this in his dungeon since most small items weren’t useful to him. They wouldn’t grant experience like dropped weapons and armor, and he didn’t have much use for them otherwise.
Gnolls were equipped with maces. After absorbing the first one, DM didn’t need them anymore. The remaining LVL 1 creatures had abilities. Slimes could attack with acid, slowly dissolving things. He could theoretically have some fun with that, but it would be pretty mean and it was probably smarter to absorb equipment rather than dissolve it pointlessly.
Imps launched fireballs, spiders launched movement-restricting webs, and zombies would sometimes respawn immediately after being killed. Dogs possessed the strange ability to disorient opponents by farting in their general direction.
None of the monsters unlocked at dungeon LVL 2 carried equipment. Cats could cause opponents to bleed alongside their claw attacks, dealing additional damage over time. Crabs had some type of water affinity that DM didn’t totally understand. Foxes could temporarily increase their evasion. Rats would occasionally impart a disease effect on to targets they attacked. DM hadn’t bothered to learn that one because it just grossed him out. He didn’t want to spread diseases, even if they didn’t risk a plague or anything like that. Scorpions could use poison strike, similar to the goblins’ daggers. Finally, Gargoyles could harden themselves, reducing the damage they received significantly, but only for a few moments at a time.
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Satisfied with what he had accomplished, DM decided to switch his focus for now. Barney had been camping out on the edge of the Lower Gordu Forest ever since DM used him to scout out the Lord’s manor. Of course, he did not assault the Guild’s caravan, despite what he had told Eddie Pool. From what DM had seen through Daphne’s eyes, the Guild suspected their messengers could come under attack and had upped the guard accordingly. It likely wasn’t necessary, seeing how DM was in control of the former Lord’s assassin, but there were other factions at work so DM didn’t fault the Guild Master.
Barney seemed to have a negative reputation in the Twin Cities, so DM couldn’t use him to do much of anything around here. Sending him west was equally troublesome. Whoever took out Eddie Pool’s family might also attack Barney. DM could send Barney east into the Empire, but Sasha’s party was already providing some intel from that direction. Therefore, DM made the decision to send Barney north.
The Nar Union, along the northern border with the Holy State, was where those rude adventurers who fought Kat’s party came from. Apparently, they had issues with beast-people. Barney was a human, so he’d likely slip in without making a fuss. DM wanted to learn more about the situation up there. Likely, there was a nation to the far south as well, but DM didn’t know anything about it and didn’t suspect they’d become a factor in his life any time soon. He disregarded it for now.
Barney was sitting alongside a campfire when a tentacle sprouted from the ground and grabbed his ankle. He smiled as he watched it apply the charm status effect to him, seizing control of his mind temporarily. When he came to a few minutes later, a written message sat in his lap:
Carefully proceed north into the Nar Union. Quietly investigate the nation, trying to learn about anything that could have an impact on my dungeon, the Twin Cities, the Twin Cities Guild, or the Holy State of Whites. When you have something important to report, invert the laces on your boots as a signal. You can depart in the morning.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
After reading the message, Barney tossed it into the fire.
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In the morning, Kat and her four allies entered the Guild, unsure of what they should do next. For the moment, Nina, formerly Bandit, was not needed by Thaw so they could complete whatever requests were available as a group of five.
Olivia greeted them with her usual cheery attitude, although they didn’t realize she was the Olivia, having not met her before. Before she could strike up a conversation, another Guild clerk approached and whispered into her ear. The girls couldn’t quite make it out, even with their sensitive hearing, but they suspected Olivia was being informed of their unusual strength for their age.
They decided to check out the request board. As they struggled to decipher the many words and symbols, a girl, likely slightly older than them, approached.
“Excuse me, are you already adventurers?”
Kat noticed the girl was underdressed for a member of the Guild looking to quest. Also, she wore religious jewelry of some kind, although the girls weren’t familiar with the Church and couldn’t even explain what it indicated. From what they had seen so far, plenty of people in the city were religious, at least to a degree, so they didn’t find it particularly odd that a girl was wanting to join the Guild while having a connection to the Church. After all, adventuring was really fun.
The girl had the air of a white mage, although she was equipped somewhat differently from Kat. While Kat carried a two-handed staff, this new girl wielded a one-handed crosier.
“Yeah, the five of us are a party.”
“How impressive, at your ages. I think I’m older but I’m quite nervous about joining.”
“It’s fun!” Lupy offered, perhaps unsolicited.
“We only started a little while ago…” Shiba added.
“Oh, my name’s Vera. How do I join the Guild?”
Kat turned and pointed to the desk. “You just tell them.”
“I see…” Vera turned to face the desk but hesitated to take the first step.
Vulp made eye contact with Kat and gestured with her chin.
“Oh!” Kat suddenly had a realization. “Here.” Kat grabbed Vera’s hand and pulled her to the desk.
“W—Wait, I…” Vera looked like a ragdoll tethered to a horse.
Olivia turned her attention to the approaching six girls. “Oh, girls, actually I could use your help with someth—hm?” She seemed to have noticed an extra girl in the group. “There were six of you?”
“She’s new. She wants to join.” Kat answered.
“Oh, I see! How wonderful!” Olivia glanced at the girl’s jewelry and squinted slightly. “I love registering new members. Step over here.” Olivia was excited, acting like she hadn’t registered anyone new in weeks. Well, maybe she hadn’t?
“Um.” Nina tried to get Olivia’s attention. “Did you need us for something?”
Olivia looked up from Vera’s paperwork. “Hm? Oh, yes. I was hoping the five of you were available to test out the dungeon in the Lower Gordu Forest. It’s recently re-opened after all. I heard you’re strong enough to complete the dungeon fairly easily, so I’d like to send you in before more junior adventurers follow you.”
The girls looked back and forth at one another. Kat spoke for the group. “Okay.” She didn’t want to give away her party’s connection to that dungeon, but it would also be kind of odd to refuse.
“Oh, but what should we do about Vera here?” Olivia must have been assuming that the girls were going to mentor her or possibly even bring her into the party. In reality, they were only focused on helping her get registered for the time being. “Vera, you already have some magical training, right?”
“Y—Yes. From the Church.”
“Good. In that case, we can skip over the usual introductory training we carry out behind the Guild building. How would you like to travel with these girls and let them show you the ropes? Oh, if that’s okay with you five?”
Again, Kat couldn’t think of any acceptable reason to refuse. She would have preferred to ‘explore’ DM’s dungeon with her friends only, but the circumstances didn’t permit that. “Okay.”
“Great! Let me finishing registering Vera and then off we go!”
A few nearby adventurers overheard the whole conversation, but didn’t seem at all interested in getting involved. To Kat, that seemed a bit unusual, and she wasn’t sure what was suddenly scaring them all away. Usually, other people, especially the younger all-male parties, were keeping an eye on Kat’s party whenever they were in the Guild.
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“Here it is!” Olivia announced to her escort of six young girls, most of whom were stronger than her. She continued speaking as they descended the stairs to Floor 1. “As I tried to explain while we walked, the Guild has made arrangements so that this dungeon is safe for leveling. Don’t forget the safety word.”
“Okay!”
“Oh, it’s so nice to have enthusiastic adventurers here with me. Last time… no, never mind.”
“How deep can we go?” Kat would at least pretend she wasn’t planning to visit DM.
“Ah, right. For now, stick to Floor 6 at the most. You have a beginner with you and I’m not so sure how safe the water level on Floor 7 is. Whatever you do, don’t enter Floor 8. Floor 8 is entirely off limits to all adventurers? Understand?”
“Yes!” five girls shouted in unison, surprising Olivia slightly. Meanwhile, Vera looked like she wasn’t sure what to say or do, so she stayed quiet.
“Pay close attention to everything around you. As soon as you get back to Floor 1, I want you to tell me about everything that happened.”
The girls nodded.
“You can keep any items or treasure you find. Good luck!” Olivia waved as the girls proceeded down the stairs to Floor 2 in formation, with Vera at the center.
Olivia walked behind the desk and sat down. “So… What do I do now?” Maybe she should have brought some work to do.
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DM was watching Kat’s party closely ever since they entered the Guild earlier that day. He had many unanswered questions.
“Why is Olivia having Kat’s party test out the dungeon? We didn’t discuss doing that.” He scratched his pseudo-head with an appendage. “I think I get why Olivia asked the girls to mentor that Vera girl, but why did she send basically a newbie into a dungeon? That seems way too reckless.”
DM had promised not to victimize the adventurers, so it probably was safe enough to send Vera in with Kat’s party. Still, if you’re sending in a party to test out a new dungeon for the first time, would you really send a newbie with them? Had Olivia thought this through and tried to make the data collection more meaningful by including some dead weight? DM just couldn’t bring himself to believe that.
“That girl’s from the Church, huh?” DM narrowed his mind’s eye since he didn’t have any others to work with.