Once the wolf spirit faded into the mist I turned to Ascilla who was standing by my side.
“Shall we?” I asked, looking over to her and inviting her to a party. There were a million things going through my mind, but the one prevailing feeling that I just couldn’t shake was excitement.
I must be insane.
Here I am, trapped in a game that wouldn’t hesitate to kill me the second I let my guard down, a game that up to this point had fed me uncomfortable situation after uncomfortable situation, and yet… What would the dungeons in this game be like? What would a real boss be like? Was I good enough to beat it? Could I finally let loose and push myself to my limit? I wanted to try. I was tired of stealth missions and bullshit mobs that ignored the rules. I was ready to cut loose.
Ascilla nodded as she accepted my request and another HP bar appeared on my screen. For some reason I didn’t mind that she was here. Back on the other side… back before we got trapped in this hell, I’d avoided playing with others when I could. It wasn’t like I was antisocial, or that I felt too awkward… it was just more fun when the challenge was between you and the enemies you fought.
I let out a deep breath and approached the tree. The entrance to the trial led down beneath its roots but as I approached, a blue barrier appeared in front of me to block my path. Huh… that was… new. I reached out with a finger and tapped on the barrier. As I did, a menu popped up under where I had touched.
[The Wolfmother’s Challenge.
Minimum party size: 2
Maximum party size: 2
Recommended level: 5
Attempts Remaining: 1
Confirm Party Registration?]
I looked over to Ascilla who had been reading the information over my shoulder. She shrugged and then nodded, so I clicked accept and the world went white.
I instinctively closed my eyes and felt the floor fall out from beneath me. This was… a teleport spell?
I held my eyes closed and waited for the sensation of the ground to rise up from below and catch my feet. As soon as I was sure that the spell had finished I exhaled and opened my eyes.
Teleportation in DIVE was a really odd sensation. If you did just one thing wrong then the dizziness and nausea would be so immense you could need hours to fully recover. The simplest trick to avoiding it was making sure your eyes were closed from the second you disappeared to the second you reappeared, letting your brain get used to the fact that you were no longer in the same place you were a minute ago.
I finally let my eyes open once I was sure that I was back on solid ground. The air in… wherever we were… was incredibly musty, and stunk of wood rot.
“Charming place.” Ascilla said, she was holding her axe behind her neck and using it to twist her body from side to side. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure of the efficacy of stretching in this world, but I couldn’t deny that rolling my shoulders and neck did feel just as good as it did on the other side.
“You’re telling me.” I said, looking around. We’d appeared at the very back of a square room. It was only a few meters in each direction and at the far end opposing us was a rotting wooden door. Various purple and blue mosses lined the wall and hung from the ceiling, casting just the faintest hint of light into the space.
I stepped into the middle of the room and was looking around when a strange blip on my menu caught my attention.
“Seems like this is a safe zone.” I said, noting the text on my interface. That was surprising. I’d never heard of a safe zone appearing inside of a dungeon before…
Ascilla gave me a look. “So was the town, and your inn room.” She said. Good point… probably shouldn’t put much faith in this place, but maybe it had other uses that we hadn’t figured out yet.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
I pulled open my quest log to see if we’d gotten any updates, but everything was the same as it had been before we entered. I poked around in a few other places just to make sure before turning to Ascilla.
“Do you see a time limit anywhere or something like that?” I asked her. She spent a moment scanning her menus before shaking her head.
“Nah. Nothing like that, that’s odd…” She said. I nodded. Odd indeed.
Normally when it came to dungeons, you had a set amount of time to kill the final boss and “clear” the activity. If you ran out of time, normally you’d just get teleported out with a big “YOU FAIL!” message to greet you, but who knew what would happen in a game like this. There was a real chance of “you fail” being replaced with “you die”.
The dungeon not having a timer at all meant one of two things… either there was an invisible timer ticking down in the background and we wouldn’t know how long we had to clear the dungeon… or there was no timer and we’d be stuck in here until we either died or cleared all of the dungeon’s objectives. Another thing that was oddly absent from my quest journal.
The fact that there was no stairwell or exit behind me, and I didn’t see an “abandon dungeon” option in the menu, just confirmed my suspicion that the only way out of this mess was to make it all the way to the end.
“Looks like there’s only one way to go…” I said, eyeing the door on the far side of the room. Ascilla leaned her axe on her shoulder and took a step forward.
“Try not to hold me back!” She said, smirking over her shoulders. I shrugged at her, wearing a smile of my own.
She put her hand flat against the rotting wooden door and pushed it open.
A gust of stale air whipped past me as Ascilla forced the door open and stepped outside of the room we had started in.
Immediately upon crossing the threshold the icon for the safe area vanished. I covered my eyes with my arm and after another strong gust the wind died down and vanished.
Ascilla took off at a jog down what appeared to be a long and narrow corridor that wound into the side of the mountain. I was about to call out for Ascilla to slow down, but before I had the chance I noticed the distinct silhouette of two monsters skittering towards us. Except… they weren’t on the ground.
“Above!” I called.
“I see ‘em!” Ascilla said, planting her foot on the cave wall and leaping up into the air. As she soared forwards she brought her axe down and knocked one of the two monsters off balance, sending it crashing to the ground below.
A moment later, I fired off a Static, catching the other in the face. The paralysis effect made it fall like a rock. Now that they had fallen to the ground the dim ambient light coming from purple moss lining the walls caught the creatures and I was able to see enough of them to read their names and see their health bars.
[Forest Rat. Lv.3]
It seemed like these rats or whatever they were primarily speed type monsters that focussed on ambushing. Just my static as well as the damage from the fall had brought the second rat down from full to just about three quarters of its HP, and the one in the distance that Ascilla had batted away was already at half.
I lowered myself into the stance for Step Slash and Ascilla took one look over her shoulder before taking off after the rat that had gone further into the cave. Good instincts…
I roared off of my back foot and claimed my first kill with my new sword as it cut along the side of the rat, causing its HP to immediately drop to zero and vanish in a puff of gold. Not long later, the second rat vanished as well, succumbing to Ascilla’s vicious onslaught.
I stood for a moment and waited before the system confirmed that we had left combat by awarding loot, Gold, and SP.
[You have received one Rat Talon]
[You have received one Rat Pelt]
[You have received 38 Gold]
[Skill Points Awarded]
A menu listing my rewards appeared in front of me. I was tempted to check just how much experience something like this would give me, but now wasn’t the time for that.
“Don’t get lazy now!” Ascilla said, squaring up to face the widening tunnel. In the distance, the sounds of dozens of scurrying feet filled the cave. Before long, more small shadows were crawling along the ceiling and walls than I could count.
“You kidding me? This is where the fun really starts!” I said with a taunting grin. “Try not to hold me back.” I added on with a sarcastic tone, levelling my sword at the oncoming stampede.
“Hah! Not even in your dreams.” Ascilla said, resting her axe on her shoulder.
The sounds of a dozen rats leaping off of the walls and ceiling were drowned by our battle cries as we charged further into the labyrinth.
----------------------------------------
Rain walked up to a man clad in steel armor. On the front of his breastplate was the embossed pattern of deer antlers.
“Excuse me. You are one of these knights, yes?” He asked, holding up the quest flier that he had retrieved from the guild hall a few minutes prior.
The man turned and craned his neck, inspecting the poster. He had long green hair and sharp eyes. Rain didn’t miss the fact that his level was listed as twenty… or the fact that next to it was the small, terrifying icon of a laughing skull. No matter what his feelings on this situation were, he had to be careful.
“I am.” The knight said. His voice was stern but there was a sense of intrigue in his eyes as he looked over the colossal tank.
“Sorry to bother you, but could I ask for information on those you are hunting, and your reasoning for your search?” He asked. This made the green haired knight smile.
“But of course, I live to serve this town and her people. Any information that I may give in their defense is, of course, at your disposal. Though mayhaps we should find a place to discuss these matters in private?” The knight said.
Rain paused for a long moment before nodding. “Where?” He asked.
The knight’s smile widened. “Why right this way, good adventurer.” He said, turning and walking down the road away from the guild hall.
Rain steeled himself, but followed close behind.