Chapter 3: Beta Testing a Dungeon
Although Kat’s party was surprisingly strong in combat, they didn’t actually have much experience dungeon diving. Kat delegated the responsibility for navigation and mapping to Vera. The poor Church girl was surprised at having all the responsibility dumped in her lap so quickly, but she decided to try her best. After all, she’d been really lucky so far. Not only had she been paired up with adventurers that didn’t terrify her, but Vera was being sent into the very dungeon she was told by the Church to investigate.
Her mission actually had two parts. The first was to find out, from the inside, what the Guild was up to. She had been told not to go out of her way to learn anything in this regard. Whatever she could pick up through casual conversation was fine. The second objective was to investigate the new dungeon in the Lower Gordu Forest. She wasn’t told much, but apparently the Dungeon Master was suspicious, and the Church had concerns about him or her.
Although Vera was far from knowledgeable about dungeons, she at least knew of their existence. Among other common knowledge, dungeons were filled entirely with monsters. You could possibly encounter other explorers, but you wouldn’t find any suspicious creatures or dungeon masters. Just why would the Church tell her something different?
Vera also knew of legends about dungeons, but they were more akin to mythology or rumors than facts. Her Church, and its teachings, were entirely silent on dungeons, after all. Throughout her life, she’d been trained to look up at the sky, rather than down below the surface, for inspiration, guidance, and fulfilment. She prayed when the sun reached its zenith and again when the moon topped out for the day or night. Such was expected in the Church.
Her group explored Floor 2 of the dungeon, making quick work of any monsters they encountered. As they went, she learned through experience how to map an entire floor. Due to the mismatch in strength, none of the girls were taking any damage, so no healing was needed.
When the girls found the stairs down to Floor 3, they decided to backtrack and finish exploring the floor first. According to Kat, they had not done this when exploring the dungeon in the Upper Gordu Forest with another party recently. Since their mission was to try out this dungeon, they decided to clear it fully, at least for now.
The other benefit of completing the floor was that it allowed Vera to gain more experience mapping. By traversing the entire perimeter of the floor, Vera was able to complete her map design, seeing where her scale had been off. Fairly confident that she had an accurate picture of the floor now, she gave Kat a head nod as the group of six finally proceeded down to the next level.
On Floor 3, the monster attacks became slightly more intense with ranged assaults by goblin archers and zombie mages. Still, the girls could handle the battles without issue. The floor design was no more complicated than Floor 2, so Vera actually felt comfortable now that she had a bit of experience carrying out her role mapping the route. After they had explored what Vera estimated to be about two-thirds of the floor, they encountered a monster that was stronger than the others.
Lupy assaulted the LVL 4 chickbear from the left while Vulp approached from the right and distracted it as best she could. She blocked a swipe with her new shield, but it only forced her back a single step. She immediately countered with a downward slash from her sword.
As usual, Shiba hung back to launch a fireball while Nina circled around to bombard the target with poisoned bolts. Shortly before the chickbear went down, its claws made contact with Lupy and Vulp, dealing minor damage to each.
Kat stepped forward to heal each of them, not wanting to reveal their regenerative capabilities to Vera. Feeling left out, Vera asked to try healing her new comrades herself.
“Oh? Let me see,” Kat agreed.
Vera raised the crosier with her right hand while placing her left over her chest. In lieu of a chant, she began praying aloud. The crosier glowed in response, intensity reaching its peak as her prayer completed. She turned her eyes to Lupy, and then to Vulp. Vera twisted her right wrist slightly to activate the healing spell. Both injured girls were bathed in a gentle light, small wounds fading from sight.
“I feel better.”
“Me too,” Vulp agreed.
“Wow, you healed both of them at once?” Kat asked.
“Yes… Through prayer, I can heal several at the same time.”
“That’s so cool!” Kat replied. “Can you teach me how to do that?”
“N—No, I uh, I am not qualified to teach the prayers all on my own. You would have to go to the Church…”
“Aww, okay.” Kat seemed to give up, at least for now.
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The party proceeded down to Floor 4. In addition to chickbears, now bats were common, and they encountered the occasional goblin shaman as well. At one point, a bat descended on the group from a hole in the ceiling and randomly struck Vera with a basic attack. Due to her low level, the damage she received was considerable.
Shiba had been the closest at the time and struck the bat with her staff, dealing some damage and distracting it. Nina appeared behind the bat with fancy footwork and stabbed it straight through with a dagger, eliminating the bat. “Are you okay?” she asked Vera, other hand now extended.
“Y—Yes…” Vera was pulled to her feet while Kat prepared a healing spell. Returned to full health, Vera thanked Shiba and Nina for saving her. Honestly, she was somewhat awed by how strong and capable they were. Despite being so young, they worked together and displayed such skill in their specialties. Were all members of the Guild like this?
Vera avoided further injury while they finished exploring Floor 4. As they turned the final corner, a LVL 5 lizardman armed with a spear guarded the stairs down to Floor 5. At Vulp’s request, Lupy hung back for this battle. Vulp wanted to practice deflecting spear attacks with her shield. While she held the lizardman at bay, Shiba and Nina bombarded the floor boss with ranged attacks, whittling away its HP. Just as they expected it to go down, the lizardman screeched and pushed past Vulp, charging the backline with the last of its strength.
The monster made eye contact with Vera. As the lizardman lunged at her, Lupy intervened, chopping at its legs with both axes. The monster’s forward motion was not arrested, and the lizardman reached Vera before landing with a thud on its chest.
The priestess screamed in surprise and brought her crosier down on the lizardman’s head, frantically dealing the last bit of damage to defeat it. Although she had been receiving a tiny share of the experience points from battles in the dungeon, this was the first time she leveled up.
“I gained a level…” Vera said between panting breaths.
“Congrats!” Shiba shouted.
“Us healers need to level when we can,” Kat explained as well.
The group looked down at the stairs to Floor 5, but Vera wasn’t quite ready to descend.
“How far should we go? The monsters are getting stronger.” In truth, the other girls didn’t seem like they’d struggle much, even if they continued. Vera was worried because she was the weakest link. If that bat which struck her had been higher level, she would have taken even more damage. Supposedly the monsters wouldn’t finish them off in here, but she wasn’t ready to entirely trust that promise… especially not from that ditzy Guild clerk.
“Maybe one more level?” Kat proposed.
“Okay,” the girls other than Vera agreed readily.
“I see…” for now, Vera wasn’t planning to object, even though she was both tired and nervous.
“…So you are the first to challenge my new dungeon layout.” The six girls returned their gaze to the stairs where another girl, identical to Kat, ascended.
Vera’s eyes went wide at the surprising encounter, although her allies didn’t seem as disturbed.
“It’s a morphling,” Vulp explained.
“A morphling?” Vera wasn’t familiar with that term.
“Yeah,” Vulp continued. “They can take the form of people or other monsters.”
That made sense to Vera. They had even encountered a mimic a little while earlier, getting suddenly attacked by a treasure chest. A monster that could copy people wasn’t much different. But still, something was horribly off. “Why is it able to talk?”
Vulp swallowed and the other girls went silent at Vera’s question.
“…You haven’t heard about me?”
Vera was hesitant to reply to the query. After all, she was deferring to the other girls for all decisions, so it didn’t make much sense for her to suddenly start speaking for the group. She was the oldest, but she was the lowest level, and also the weakest of the bunch. Looking around, she noticed none of the other girls seemed eager to answer the morphling’s question, so she responded, albeit with a question of her own.
“Are you the dungeon master?”
“…Yes. Technically, I reside at the bottom of the dungeon. …I use morphlings to speak with guests.”
“Guests?” Vera was not expecting the dungeon master to use such a term.
“…Yes. I invited the Guild to send people in, didn’t I?”
Vera couldn’t argue with that. The Guild clerk had said as much. The dungeon was now an inviting and relatively safe place for young adventurers to explore. Vera nodded back at the morphling’s question but didn’t say anything.
“…How are you finding the dungeon design so far?”
“It’s good!” Kat jumped in as though she suddenly received permission to speak. “Vera is learning how to map the dungeon, and the rest of us are practicing how to fight.”
“…How is the difficulty? Wait, why don’t you come down to my floor and tell me more about it.”
“Okay!”
Vera was shocked that Kat agreed to that so suddenly. This felt like some type of trap. Further, that Olivia woman had only permitted them to visit Floor 6 at the most. She felt obligated to speak up. “W—Wait, weren’t we only allowed to descend to Floor 6!?”
After an awkward silence, Lupy, the least cautious of the bunch, spoke up. “She worries too much!”
“If we’re invited, we should accept,” Nina agreed.
“Let’s make this our little secret,” said Shiba.
“O—Okay…” Vera reluctantly accepted their decision.
“If you don’t want to go, you can wait here,” Vulp offered, knowing full well there was no way Vera would accept.
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The morphling led the group down the stairs and through some more hallways. Unlike before, they weren’t encountering any other monsters.
“Why aren’t any monsters attacking us?” Vera asked innocently.
“That’s because the dungeon master controls all the monsters,” Kat explained. “Since we’re invited, he must have told the monsters to stay away.”
The morphling spoke over its shoulder. “…The cat girl is correct. There’s no point in having my monsters attack you after I invited you to come meet with me.”
Vera leaned over and whispered into Vulp’s ear, “Are we really going to be okay?”
“Probably.”
“…I won’t harm any of you.”
Vera might have been reassured had she not just learned that the dungeon master overheard her whispered question.
“…I’d actually like to speak to you one at a time. I want to know what each of you individually think about the dungeon. …Is that okay?”
Vera aside, the girls readily agreed.
The priestess prayed for her safety, silently, so it hopefully wouldn’t be overheard somehow.
“…Please wait here. One of you continue to the next room.”
The girls settled in to some decorative chairs arranged around a low table while Lupy volunteered to go first.