Chapter 27: Dead Tentacle Monster
The group of ten, including Kat, Rufus, and the rest, said their goodbyes to the mostly unconscious (but no longer seriously wounded) adventurers from the Nar Union. As they walked away, Bandit glanced over her shoulder. A tentacle quietly wrapped around a sleeping adventurer’s ankle, likely applying infect. Knowing DM, he would probably put them all to sleep and then absorb MP or whatever else he needed.
“But really, why did you encourage those Union idiots to attack the girls?” the fighter asked the thief.
“I guess it doesn’t mean much coming from me, but I don’t like how they were talking about them.”
“You’re right, it doesn’t mean much.”
“Why didn’t you encourage us to fight them instead?” asked Rufus.
“Oh, come on. How much better was it watching them get their asses handed to them by cute little beast girls they just finished belittling?”
“It was a memory they won’t soon forget, I’m sure!”
The black mage turned his head towards Kat. “I should have warned you all before, but I didn’t think we’d run into Union adventurers during such a short trip. They’re very discriminatory against beast-kin.”
“Why?”
“You’ll have to ask them. I recommend you do it with a sword to their throat, though.”
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The frequency of harassment increased, as though the dungeon suddenly decided it didn’t need to pace itself anymore. While navigating floor 2, layout similar to floor one except with more turns, another invisible chameleon fell onto the same mage. Of course, the knights surrounding her were becoming especially proficient at eliminating the monster immediately.
As the chameleon was stabbed, two tentacles rose up from the floor below the mages, gripping their legs. One was poisoned, although the other mage seemed to resist the attempt as the tentacles were struck down.
“Quick, she’s poisoned!”
The other mage cast antidote and removed the poison.
Further down the hallway, an invisible monster fell from the ceiling and landed on one of the knights adjacent to the mages. Flustered by the change from previous attacks, the knights hesitated a moment before eliminating the chameleon. During this new confusion, two more tentacles gripped the mages, this time applying paralysis to one and sleep to the other.
“Gods, one’s asleep and the other is paralyzed!”
“Wake her up!”
“Sir Barney! We can’t continue like this!”
“Have her heal the other one. The damage is minimal.”
The basic cycle repeated multiple times. One mage was temporarily afflicted with berserk. Another time, the other mage was turned partly to stone. On two occasions, the mages had both resisted whatever low-tier status effects were thrown at them. On another, one mage succumbed to the confusion status while the other was screaming due to magical pain applied to her via the tentacle’s touch.
They reached the stairway down to floor 3.
“Uh, our mages are kind of dead weight at this point,” one of the less tactful knights announced.
“Bring them,” Barney instructed the group. “We can’t afford to split up.”
Of the two mages, the one who was more beaten up by this point collapsed to her knees.
“Carry her if you have to.”
“But—“
“Or leave her here to die. Your choice.”
Barney willfully ignored the horrible gazes he was receiving from all around. The mage was scooped up and the party proceeded to floor 3.
“Smart choice.”
On floor 3, the harassment was almost entirely focused on the only mage still standing. By the end of floor 3, she was being similarly carried.
The fourth floor’s layout was less linear than floors 1 through 3.
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Dogs harassed the party, approaching from random directions. Instead of attacking, they would lunge at the knights and then back off at the last moment, circling around to attack from another direction. The dogs themselves weren’t much of a threat, but their constant aggressiveness was still draining.
The dogs backed off when the party migrated into the more maze-like portion of the floor. However, they encountered a dead end and had to backtrack. Once they returned to the nonlinear portion of the floor, dogs resumed the harassment. Even Barney was showing signs of weariness on his face.
On the third attempt, they selected the correct hallway and reached the stairway to floor 5.
Floor 5 was wide open. It was just as large as the other floors, but there were no walls or enemies. Vision was limited only due to the lack of any real lighting. This floor was especially eerie. None of them, perhaps no dungeon diver ever, had encountered a dungeon floor so large and so open that you could lose sight of everything in all directions. Some of the knights wore their nervousness on their face. They felt like they had departed the world and entered some unknown and inhospitable domain.
The group made sure to stay together and eventually spotted the stairs to floor 6.
“I can’t believe we’re not at the boss chamber yet,” one knight admitted.
“Just how deep is this place?”
“Barney, didn’t you say this place was only LVL 2 recently?” The knight didn’t even realize he had dropped the respectful “Sir” title he often used with distinguished individuals, even when they weren’t knights.
“Yes… The depth and complexity of this dungeon is further proof that the Lord was justified in sending us here.”
The group bunched up at the bottom of the stairs where a single door blocked their path. They could barely fit in the small chamber.
“You’re up.” Barney pointed at one of the more educated knights and then gestured to the door.
“Let me see…” The knight spent a few moments reading the riddle on the door. “Yes, it’s about what I expected. I didn’t know the numbers ahead of time, but let me try solving it now. He pulled out a piece of chalk and started doing math on the wall.
“Can you solve it?” Barney asked, interrupting the knight.
“Hold on.” The knight completed his work. “The method seems to be valid.” He manipulated the display on the door with his hands, figuring out how to input an answer. As he completed entering the number, the door opened.
“Look at that…”
At the far end of the boss chamber, a purple tentacle monster rested atop a throne. It was flanked by two more tentacle monsters, smaller and gray in color. Further to the side were a dozen monsters including ogres, lizardmen, and lesser demons.
“You two, protect the mages. Everyone else, attack!” Barney ordered.
A melee ensued, monster versus knight. Barney went straight for the dungeon master as the rest of his party attacked the other monsters. The two small tentacle monsters reached out to him with their appendages to grab and obstruct him. He consecutively swung his sword with fluid motions, cutting off the appendages before they could touch him.
Barney spun, swinging his sword and cleaving the first tentacle monster in two. He backflipped out of the way of an approaching appendage, spun around, and cut down the second tentacle monster the same way. He glanced to the side and saw his knights were making quick work of the monsters. He turned back to the ringleader, the overgrown mass of tentacles.
The dungeon master hopped down from the throne and slithered away from Barney towards the unoccupied corner of the room. Two tentacles rose up behind Barney but he ignored them. He laughed and closed on the creature, targeting its unguarded back and cutting it down with ease. When it died, its body shrank down to a smaller form as though deflating.
Over the next few moments, the knights, working together, eliminated the remaining monsters.
“Report.”
The knights assessed each other’s condition. “Only a few very minor injuries. Nothing to worry about.”
“Thank goodness it’s over…”
“It’s not over until we escape the dungeon!” This advice came from the former adventurer, but even she knew this group had little worry about on their return to the surface.
“All right, return to the Twin Cities,” Barney instructed the party.
“What about you?”
“I need to stay behind.” Barney walked over the dungeon console and studied it.
“Why?”
“The dungeon master will just respawn if we let it. The Lord instructed me to eliminate the source of the threat.”
“You can do that?”
“Not a word of this to anyone. These are the Lord’s orders. You can take this up with him in private if you wish.”
Nobody felt like arguing with Barney after he said that. The group didn’t know how dangerous Barney’s mission was, but after everything that had happened on the journey down, they didn’t really care. They filed out of the room one at a time until only the former adventurer was left. She stared at the corpse of the dungeon master and brought her hand to her chin.
“You’re going to reset the dungeon, right?”
“You know about that?” Barney sounded legitimately surprised.
“It was a rumor from my early days as an adventurer. Won’t you get dragged along, though?”
“Yes. I’ve taken the necessary… precautions.”
“The Lord really wants to terminate this dungeon master that badly?”
“There’s no sign of any sorcerer, so this is the best we can do. This foolish tentacle monster won’t terrorize anyone anymore. Go catch up with the rest and get out of here if you don’t want to get brought somewhere random as well. Make it quick.”
The knight looked back at the corpses of the three tentacle monsters again. “Godspeed, Sir Barney.”
She turned on her heel and left the boss chamber.
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Five minutes after the knights had retreated from the boss chamber, Barney heard footsteps. He turned around and saw a man walking towards him. The man had Barney’s exact appearance.
“What the!?”
“…So that’s what your game is. Now I understand that warning…”
“Who or what are you?”
“…I’m a morphling. I speak on behalf of the dungeon master.”
“You can speak to my blade.” Barney assumed a stance he’d used many times before. As he was going to close the distance and cut down this new enemy, he felt a presence behind him. Turning, he saw a new 3-meter tall purple tentacle monster.
“Another one!?”
The monster adjusted its body, increasing its total number of appendages to six. Each appendage reached into a pocket of magical space to remove items from its inventory. After retrieving the items, the tentacle monster held a sword with each appendage: six swords in all.
“…Let’s begin.”