Chapter Seventy-Nine - Happy Dance

We all just... stood there and panted as the glass golem’s body cracked and snapped apart under its own weight.

“Awa, we did it,” Awen said.

I felt my lips twitching up. “We sure did,” I said.

Congratulations! You have shattered Glass Golem, level 10. Bonus Exp is granted for breaking a construct above your level! Due to combating as a team your reward is reduced!

“It’s dead for real then,” I said.

Bing Bong! Congratulations, your Cinnamon Bun class has reached level 8

Health + 5

Resilience +5

You have gained: One Class Point

You have unlocked: One Class Skill Slot

“I levelled up!” I cheered.

“Awa, s-so did I,” Awen said. She blinked a few times and her eyes refocused until they fell on me. “Th-thank you, Broccoli.”

“Pfft, don’t be silly, you did your part.” I gave her a big thumb’s up, then, because I still had a whole lot of adrenaline, I skipped over to her and glomped her. “Ohh, I’m so happy.” I said as I let go.

“M-me too,” Awen said.

I started to dance a little, shaking my hips from side to side while pumping my arms up and down to a happy beat that only I could hear.

“What in the world are you doing?” Amaryllis asked as she walked down the hill.

“I’m happy dancing!” I said. “It’s what you do when you’re happy. You should join in.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Awen! Let’s use peer pressure on her!” I cheered with a laugh. “C’mon, dance, dance!”

I started walking the Egyptian around an increasingly flustered Amaryllis. It only got worse when Moon Moon joined in with a happy bark. His own dancing looked more like a bouncy ball caught in a drier but it was definitely dancing.

“Awa, I don't know h-how to dance like that,” Awen said.

I rushed over to her side. “It’s easy. See, you stand up like this, then you shake your booty.” I demonstrated.

Awen, the poor soul, went very red in the face.

Ding! For repeating a Special Action a sufficient number of times you have unlocked the class skill: Dancing!

I paused mid swing. “Oh, hey.”

“What? Did the world do us all a favour and dislocated your hips to stop you from swinging them in such a debauched way?” Amaryllis asked.

“Nope. I got the Dancing skill. As a class skill. That might be handy, right?”

Amaryllis sighed. “If it means you look like less of a fool, then certainly. I’m certain Awen here would love to teach you how to dance.”

“Awa!” Awen said. “I-I wouldn’t mind, really. Um. I’m not that good though.”

I snorted and waved it off. “It’s fine. We can look into that some other time. Did the glass golem drop anything neat?”

Amaryllis shook her head. “Dungeon made monsters outside of a dungeon act like normal creatures. I’m certain someone could find a use for all this glass, but otherwise, this is all a bit of a waste.”

“You can’t eat it,” Moon Moon said. “It hurts going in, and it hurts more coming out.”

“Yeah, I can imagine,” I said. I decided not to think of the poor drolls that were sacrificed to discover that. “Well, we’ve proven that we can take them down when working together.” I walked over to the golem and yanked my shovel out of its side with only a bit of wiggling to get it loose.

The edge of the blade didn’t have any chips on it, but it was still a little hot to the touch and there was a slight warp to it. Obviously it wasn’t made to have Amaryllis levels of lightning running through it.

“We should get moving,” I said. “We might encounter more of them before reaching the dungeon.”

Moon Moon nodded. “They used to always be three, and all near the dungeon, but now they’re moving out of their territory.”

I nodded. “Cool. We worked really well together, by the way! I’m proud of all of you.”

“Stop being such an idiot, we’re burning daylight,” Amaryllis said as she stomped by. I think she was only miffed because my pride in her made her back straighten even though it was a very silly thing.

Orange strutted by my feet, tail tall and noble as if I had included her in the people that I was proud of.

“Hmpf,” I said as I jogged after them. Awen caught up soon enough and Moon Moon ran off ahead of us to act as something of a scout. “So, how was your first fight? Was that your first fight?”

“Awa, I guess? My uncle once brought me to the plains to fight these giant ant monsters with an arbalest. They were very weak, and it wasn’t much of a fight. Um. He just wanted to let me play with the Shady Lady’s new weapons, I think.”

“I didn’t notice anything like that on the Lady when I was on her,” I said.

“They were given to a caravan in the north when they were about to be attacked by some roving raptors. It’s one of my uncle’s favourite stories, I think.”

“Awesome,” I said. “You’re lucky you have such a nice uncle,” I said.

“Th-thank you? I guess I am. He’s the reason I got to meet you.”

I pulled Awen into a sideways hug, but let go when we had to step over a few rocks. The terrain grew increasingly rocky as we moved North. Then the rocks were replaced by large craters, the smallest of them a few meters across. The centres were black marks on the landscape and the edges had sharp demarcations and jutting spikes, as if someone had hit a plate with a hammer.

“What made these?” I asked as I gestured to the dozens of craters dotting the landscape.

“Dragons,” Moon Moon said. “A long time ago.” The droll pointed ahead. “That hill, then we’re near the dungeon.”

The hill wasn’t a hill at all. It was the outside wall of a crater, one wide enough that an entire village could have filled it.

The ground was bright, sparkling with glassy reflections that showed where the sand and dirt had been worn off by wind and rain. The bottom of the crater had turned into a desolate valley of sorts, one where nothing grew. And all along the edges were pillars of stone, their interior sides turned to molten glass.

“Whoa,” I said. I couldn’t begin to imagine the power of whatever had created the crater. It had to be something like a bomb, but immensely powerful.

“This is where the dragons fought,” Moon Moon said. He pointed to a spot along the edge of the crater where there were quite a few more glassy pillars. “That’s the place with the dungeon.”

“Are all dragons this strong?” I asked.

Amaryllis hummed. “Just about. This looks like it’s decades old. Maybe even more than that. Were it closer to civilization I’m certain the area would have been stripped already. Moon Moon, do you know which dragons fought here?”

Moon Moon nodded. “Yes. Lesdenthree, She Who Rules Over Sandy Lands With Her Claws of Iron and Her Breath of Electric Flames, the Lady of the Brightest Plasma. And Knight Dragon, Shmug, Eater of Caerbannog Bunnies.”

“Those are some titles,” I said.

“Dragons are like that,” Amaryllis said. “I think both of them are still alive, so this fight wasn’t enough to kill either one.”

I swallowed and looked over the landscape that looked like it had endured a low-yield nuke. “That’s kind of scary.”

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“The first bit of common sense to pass between your ears. Let’s check out that dungeon.”

Amaryllis hopped off the side of the hill and flapped her way down. The rest of us were a lot slower in making our way down. I could have jumped, but I wanted to make sure that Awen and Moon Moon made it down safely.

Goosebumps crawled up my arms as we crossed the valley at a slow walk. Everytime the wind blew it made the pillars around the crater humm and sparkling dust would twist and twirl around in the air.

Amaryllis stopped next to a sort of tunnel in the forest of glassy pillars. It was a dark passageway that seemed to go deep into the side of the crater. “We’ll check on our things now,” she said.

I nodded and brought up Mister Menu.

Name Broccoli Bunch Race Human (Riftwalker) First Class Cinnamon Bun First Class Level

8

Age

16

Health

125

Stamina

130

Mana

115

Resilience

35

Flexibility

35

Magic

20

Skills Rank Cinnamon Bun Skills Cleaning B - 86% Jumping C - 100% Gardening D - 23% Cute D - 100% Dancing F - 05% General Skills ` Insight C - 47% Makeshift Weapon Proficiency E - 89% Archeology F - 57% Friendmaking D - 100% Physical Manakinesis F - 43% Skill points

4

General Skill Points

1

I had plenty of skill points, but I wanted to save three of them for Cleaning’s Rank A. As soon as that was done I would put the rest into Jumping. I could probably spare a point or two later for Gardening and Dancing, just to see what they did.

My next General Skill point might go into Friendmaking, but that wasn’t immediately useful, not in a dungeon, I didn’t think. So that wouldn’t change either.

Putting points into Cute was right out.

I checked my gear in a hurry, then nodded. “I’m as ready as I can be,” I said.

“Awa, m-me too,” Awen said.

Amaryllis shook her head and poofed pen and paper into existence before she crouched down. “Broccoli, Awen, Moon Moon, how are your potion stocks?”

“Ah, I’m fresh out,” I said.

“I don’t have any,” Awen said.

Moon Moon was chasing his tail.

“Right.” Amaryllis scratched a few things on her paper and then sent it off with a poof. Moments later a book and eight trifecta potions appeared. “Two each,” She said as she gestured to the potions.

I placed one in my bandoleer, the other in my backpack surrounded by some cloth to keep it from breaking. “Does your ring work in a dungeon?” I asked.

“No, it won’t,” Amaryllis said. “Which is why I got this out now.”

“Oh,” I said as I recognized the title of the book. Midhve’s compendium of Dungeons and Associated Classes. “Do you think this dungeon will be in there?”

Amaryllis shrugged and started leafing through the book. Soon enough she went ‘aha’ and poked a page with the tip of a talon. “Here it is.”

Awen and I both crowded around her shoulder to read. Even Orange jumped onto Amaryllis’ lap, though I think it was more to be in the way than to see what the fuss was.

“Awa,” Awen said. She rooted around in her little hip sack and pulled out a pair of big round spectacles. “S-sorry,” she said as she slid them on. They made her eyes look huge.

“Those look cute on you,” I said before returning to the book.

The Path of Broken Reflections

Approx Dungeon levels 5-7

Suggested levels 10+

Party composition: 3+

Special warnings: Illusions. Mind Games

Located North-West of Greenshade and along the Eastern fringes of the Ostri desert.

At ToW this dungeon has three floors.The delve room is built in a large ravine with bridges spanning the gaps from floor to floor. Beware of wires between bridges preventing clever delvers from skipping ahead. Otherwise safe.

First Floor: Puzzle room. Move pillars to move beams of light to the crystal above the exit. Each moved pillar summons a guardian Glass Golem (common).

Second Floor: Narrow bridge over pitfall trap. Mirrors on sides will attract attention towards sides. Mental resistance suggested.

Third Floor: Boss room. Large open arena where a Lesser Glass Wyrm (uncommon) awaits the delvers. Flying boss. Will strafe and use minor illusions.

Loot rewards:

Mirrors, small glass weapons

Class reward:

Glass Cannon class

Specializes in ranged attacks and creating items out of glass.

“Looks easy enough,” I said.

Amaryllis shook her head. “No. Look at the date.” She poked the numbers at the end.

“Um. And what’s the date today?”

She sighed. “This is over a year out of date, nearly two. When I stood by the entrance it said the dungeon was levels seven to ten. We can expect one, maybe two more floors.”

I nodded and looked into the dark pit of the dungeon. Part of me wanted to back off, tell the world to find someone else for its lame quests.

A bigger part of me was excited to run in there and have an adventure.

“Well then, let’s go fight a wyrm!”