CHAPTER 18: HEY LOOK, CONSEQUENCES

Author’s note/trigger warning

character death

The second floor went almost identically to the first. Jenna led her group into a hallway, where Cora dispatched the single goblin that was standing there.

It was clearly a step up from the last floor’s monsters, but it was still easy to put down. At the end of the hallway, there was again a T.

This time, rather than be surprised, they rushed into the left door and closed it behind them. The three of them made quick work of the goblins, noted what appeared to be the door, and went to go finish clearing the floor.

“Not that I mind doing this, but is there a reason that we’re hunting down the rest of the goblins?” Jenna asked.

“It’s more or less the reason that we look for hidden secrets,” Rita said, “the Pyramid rewards full completion of floors.”

“And at these lower levels, it’s certainly worth it,” Cora added, “at lower levels, it becomes a numbers game of whether it’s better to fully delve two floors or partially delve three. If you’re certain that you can make it to the ending of the third floor, that’s usually the better choice, but if not, you’ve just wasted so much potential reward.”

When they had dispatched the next set of goblins, Jenna noticed her delving partners breathing somewhat heavily. “Are you two ok?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” Rita replied, “just a little winded. We have killed something like twenty goblins.”

“Right,” Jenna said, not quite getting the point. Both of them left the conversation uncontinued, instead searching the rooms and hallways for any secrets. Once more, there did not appear to be any secret passages in the rooms.

They did loot the goblins again, wiping the blood off of the golden coins that they found. One of them even had a ring.

“Any idea what this ring does?” Cora asked, tossing the ring to Jenna.

“How would I know?”

“You’re an Enchanter,” she said, looking at her oddly, “do you see any Enchantments on it?”

Jenna just stared at her blankly. After a minute of awkward eye contact, Jenna broke first and looked at the ring. She tried sending a small thread of Magic into the ring, where she felt it run into an Enchantment.

“Huh,” she said, “well there is at least an Enchantment on it, but I’m not sure how to tell what it does.”

“I guess you can try asking the Pyramid when we get back to the safe room,” Cora said, “it could be a good exercise to work on while we recover.”

The three retraced their steps, this time walking through the door that should lead them to the safe room. To Jenna’s slight surprise, the door led to another hallway. Looking at her partners, neither of them seemed surprised.

“Floors normally get larger as we go deeper,” Rita explained without prompting.

There were no goblins in the long hallway, which was a little strange to Jenna. As they walked through it, the torches came less and less frequently. The walk grew darker, and Jenna started to worry about her ability to see what was happening in front of her.

At the end of the hallway, Jenna could barely see in front of herself. She ran into what felt like a wall. “I think I found the door,” she said, feeling around for a handle.

When she had gripped it, she asked, “are you two ready to open the door?”

“Ready when you are!” they responded.

After a count of three, Jenna opened the door.

When she had opened the door, a flash temporarily blinded her. By the time that her eyes had adjusted to the light, she saw the final torches in the room start to light.

She looked around the room. It was a large circular space. Inside was a single large monster.

It looked like someone had taken a goblin and made it twice as tall and three times as thick. It was wearing a loincloth, something that Jenna hadn’t seen on any of the goblins up to that point, and it carried a club that was at least as large as the goblins they had just killed. For the first time since she’d entered the dungeon, a monster spoke to her.

“Abandon hope, all you who enter,” it said. “These words are the only warning that I will give. Turn back now and you may leave with your lives.”

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As Jenna considered the words, an arrow flew forward. Faster than she could see, the goblin swung its club and knocked the arrow out of the air.

“You have made your decision,” it said and rushed forward.

Jenna leapt towards it, hoping that she would be able to draw its attention long enough for Cora to get a few arrows into it. The briefest of glances showed that Rita was already moving towards the monster, though she hadn’t activated her Magic yet. Jenna hoped that she would know the right time to use it.

After all, Rita saving her Magic for a lower floor was only useful if the three of them were able to make it to a lower floor.

The monster swung down at Jenna and she no longer had the space to think about what her teammates were doing. The world instantly sharpened as she saw the club descend.

Faster than she had thought possible, Jenna swung her mace, deflecting the blow just far enough that it didn’t hit her. That hadn’t been her goal, but this goblin was far stronger than even the strongest goblins that she had faced before.

As she moved to strike back, the goblin let out a chuckle, “I’m glad that you’ve lasted this long,” it said, deftly avoiding her swing. “It’s been too long since I was able to have any fun.”

Jenna ignored its taunts, focusing all of her energy not on getting hits but maintaining the monster’s attention. Over the next minute, she dodged and deflected every blow that it sent to her, but it did the same in return. More than that, even, it also found the space to block or avoid every arrow that Cora sent towards it.

As she fell into a pattern with the boss, she found space in her mind for thinking again. Where had Rita gone? She didn’t appear to be doing anything to the boss.

Jenna feinted with her mace and the monster overextended. It wasn’t by much, but it was the first mistake that it had made all fight. She was able to capitalize on the mistake, drawing the first blood of the fight.

It was only a slight cut across the monster’s arm, as she had barely grazed it with her mace, but it was a good sign. Jenna was hopeful that she would be able to take down the monster, given enough time.

As it turned out, though, the monster hadn’t made a mistake in letting her strike it. He had taken the risk to smash his club onto Rita from where she was hiding.

“Well, now, what do we have here?” he asked, looking at the broken legs of Jenna’s teammate. “It looks like someone was trying to be sneaky.”

Jenna knew that she should have taken advantage of the monster’s taunting. It had even set its club down for a second.

She screamed at her body to move, but it was frozen in shock at the sight of Rita’s broken form. Surely she would be ok, right?

As she watched, the monster picked its club up from where he had set it down and brought it down onto Rita’s head. She faded into essence as the monster turned back towards Jenna. “Now, then, where were we?” he asked.

Jenna rushed forward. All of her earlier movements seemed slow compared to how fast she was moving now. There was no hesitation in her steps or swings.

Rita’s death had shown her that, without a doubt, this was no longer training. She couldn’t afford the hesitation of deliberation. As Jenna kept moving faster, she started fighting less defensively.

At first, it worked wonders. More and more cuts and bruises marked the goblin’s body as she landed more and more strikes. It adapted to her new fighting style, though, and each stroke of its club seemed to come closer and closer to breaking her bones.

On the bright side, the boss’ newfound focus on Jenna meant that Cora was free to pepper it with arrows. Individually, none of them seemed to do much of anything to the large beast. But, as more and more arrows found their way into it and more and more strikes took their toll, the goblin began to slow.

When they finished the fight, Jenna was covered in the monster’s blood.

“Why did Rita disappear like that?” she asked Cora, hoping that the answer was something other than her death.

“The Pyramid doesn’t allow for deaths inside of its walls, so if you take a blow that should kill you, it will instead just eject you from the Pyramid.”

That was somehow a worse option. If Jenna somehow lost in the rift, she not only wouldn’t be able to climb to the top of the Pyramid, but she would even be denied a fighter’s death. She would be forced into servitude for the rest of her days, especially if she was removed as a First Tier Enchanter with a single Spell.

“I think I’ve had enough,” Cora said, “especially since it’s just going to be the two of us. At the next safe room I’m going to take the reward and exit. I hope that you’ll do the same.”

Jenna nodded numbly.

The two walked through the doorway and found themselves back in the safe room.

Congratulations! You have completed the second floor of the rift! Rewards: Available if you would like to leave now. Would you like to leave?

Jenna watched Cora immediately accept the table and leave.

You are the last remaining party member in the rift. Rita’s equipment is no longer bound to her and has been added to your inventory. Would you like to leave?

Jenna’s Status:

Jenna Fredrickson First Year Spells Known: First Tier: Hardened Glass Expected Years Completed: 7 Prediction Confidence: 40% Points: 5 Qualified to Ascend to Next Year? Yes