“Ah, good, you are all here,” our instructor cackled and I swallowed, staring. He was a very strange man with oddly sweaty skin and bulbous eyes. He rarely blinked, which was deeply unsettling. Worst of all, my growing sense of the mana around me said he was strong enough to kill us all with hardly a thought.
Fortunately, I was fairly certain of my safety. We were all seated behind desks in his lecture hall and he stood on a raised dais. Beside him, on an angled bench so we could see, was something covered in a cloth. With a great deal of fanfare he pulled away the blanket.
I remember being completely frozen as I beheld the gruesome scene. At the time, I had no idea how a human body could look like that and still be alive. Every single limb was twisted at unnatural angles. Points of the body were flayed, to display the anatomy beneath. A hand was spread out, the tendons separated and gleaming. One breast was completely intact, the other sliced neatly to display mammary glands and fat. There was very little blood and she should have been dead, but her eyes were bloodshot and I could hear a faint wheeze, see her chest shaking. She was alive.
My fellow students reacted in various ways. Some fainted, some screamed, and others like me were simply frozen. Two of them bolted out to vomit and I noticed that one of them was Tatulo, my friend from the orphanage. I felt a stab of fear for him but I could do nothing but stare in horrified fascination at this wreck of a human being. Had she done anything to deserve this or was she just some poor level one, swept up for the sake of our lesson?
“Tch, tch! I see there are going to be a lot of punishments given out today.” Oh no. “To those of you who froze up, congratulations! To those of you who screamed, report for extra work after class.” That meant push ups and other physical discipline. It would be brutal, but it happened all the time. “Those who fainted, ah, they will have something special. And our two friends - “ The doors opened and two hard faced soldiers were bringing in the boys who had thrown up. I swallowed hard, clenching my hands. There was nothing I could do for Tatulo. “Will be helping me with our demonstration on human anatomy! Bring them up here.” No one dared to make a sound now and the air was filled with our terror, but we paid close attention to the lesson.
Our lives might depend on it.
----------------------------------------
I pounded the target dummy with my fists. It moved with me, an unholy blend of [Matter] and [Soul] that stared at me with rage filled eyes. I was told the soul of some unlucky enemy soldier had been captured and then melted into the dummy, creating a form of undead. All to train us against an opponent that was intelligent and wanted to kill us.
It couldn’t of course. That was why it raged so mercilessly, against the constraints placed on it. The featureless dummy with the blazing red eyes was a fearsome sight, but it didn’t bother me in the least as I dashed in and landed a solid blow to its chest. White limbs swung at me but I ducked, only to fall prey to a foot sweep. I rolled back to my feet but danced back, unwilling to continue.
“Cut!” The dummy fell still, like a puppet with the strings cut. Only the eyes still burned. I wondered, sometimes, what it was like to be one of those. I might find out someday if I was captured by the enemy and judged unworthy of ransom.
Instead of dwelling on those thoughts, I grabbed a bottle of water and took a long drink. I paused to look into the mirrors that lined one of the walls. That was for trainers to watch us and also for the agility training. It could benefit us to see ourselves, know how our bodies were moving.
In the mirror, though, I saw a wavering figure of a man in blue.
“?” Looking around, I saw nothing. When I looked back at the mirror, the reflection was gone. Just me and the training dummy, who was looking at me with those malignant eyes. “You know, you’re the best dummy I’ve had.” He was definitely the most enthusiastic about trying to hurt me. I took another deep drink of my water. “Before I go to the front, I’ll try to break your containment crystal. You would like that, wouldn’t you?” I took a final drink of the water before putting it aside. “I know I would if I were you.” I took a ready stance in front of the dummy again. “Begin!”
As we fought, a strange thought intruded in my brain and I remembered… I had broken this dummy, before I went to join the war effort. And I’d tried to hide it but they’d found out and levied a fifty-thousand credit fine for destruction of property. I’d never regretted it.
I had no idea who this soul was, but he deserved to rest.
----------------------------------------
“This is bullshit! This is complete bullshit!”
“This is indeed bullshit,” I agreed quietly. Dahgon might be making a lot of noise, but he was only saying what we all were feeling. Circe gently rested a hand on Dahgon’s shoulder, trying to calm him as Felir just seethed. The expressionless mask hid everything but he radiated enough killing intent that at only level eight, I could still feel it.
We had gotten the terms to join one of the Deathless Guilds and they were absolutely horrendous. Twenty percent of all the profits and first pick of all the items. Penalties if any items were taken and soulbound before the Guild could inspect and distribute them. And apparently, these terms would be enforced by ‘moderators’ who could peer into the dungeons. In the Universe of Infinite Possibilities that would have indicated high levels, but here I wasn’t sure.
Either way, it was practically a slave contract. Because of the discount the Adventurer’s Guild was getting, and the lowered prices in general, the quest rewards were absolutely paltry. Losing twenty percent on top of that made them unprofitable. Worse yet, the Guilds seemed to offer no real support. That twenty percent didn’t entitle us to free meals or accommodations. No one could explain what it WAS for other than ‘bargaining with the Adventurer’s Guild’ and we’d never needed that before.
Yet without the Guild membership, we virtually couldn’t work. Our only option was to go delving or possibly even leave the country and travel somewhere that might not have Deathless. I was strongly disinclined to do that, though. I had to have been brought here for a reason and it had to involve the Deathless.
The auction wasn’t scheduled for another three days. I decided to make a suggestion.
“I think we should go into that elemental dungeon,” I said and they all turned to look at me. “If we don’t go into the challenge dungeon, it should be fine.”
“I agree. Even if Justice can keep us fed, we need to cultivate,” Felir said, his eyes still shining with rage. Dahgon and Circe exchanged a glance, but then they both nodded.
“That’s almost more important than the money,” Dahgon grunted before spitting on a cockroach with unerring accuracy. “And they know it, the fuckers! Bastards.” I nodded.
“But only almost. Where I come from, half of all dungeon runs earn no profit and can actually cost the party in terms of materials,” I stated and there was a grim silence. “So it’s the same here?”
“Yes,” Felir said in a clipped tone. He was truly furious. Circe looked at him sharply before abandoning Dahgon to go to his side. I’d noticed that Circe was the steady presence, the calm centre of the group. Dahgon was calming down now anyway.
“Yeah, it’s like, contracts from the Guild are how you earn your bread. Dungeon delving is how you get stronger so you can take better contracts and earn more bread. But if you earn bread in the dungeon, you’re just a lucky fucker, you know?” I smiled at Dahgon. Yes, I knew. “But you’re the boss.” Ummm.
“Well, we have to do something and I need to regain my level so I’ll be your sugar daddy,” I teased and Dahgon barked a laugh as Circe murmured quietly to Felir. “We have everything we need, so why wait?” We were all well rested and it was early in the day.
“We can grab a few meat pies on the way to the dungeon,” Felir said and I was relieved to feel his killing intent ebbing. As we began walking to the dungeon, he brought up another concern. “We never addressed this but what will the loot split be?”
“Even split,” I said instantly and to my surprise, Felir shook his head.
“That’s far too generous. You’re paying us, you would be well within your rights to claim all the loot for yourself. We need something fairer than that, just in case we make a profit.” Oh. Hmm. I frowned as I realized he definitely had a point. I’d never been in a party like this before, where I was bankrolling things. I had no idea how this kind of thing worked.
“How about this? If we actually get a good profit, 800 silver knuts goes directly to me so I can handle all our expenses for a week. Anything over that is even split. Also, my rule about items is in place, if anyone needs something they get it and I don’t care what it’s worth,” I said after a moment of thought. Felir sighed softly.
“That’s still too generous but better. We can revisit it later, if necessary.” Did they WANT to be my slaves? I tried to remember, had I ever been employed like this for dungeon delving? Damn, I hadn’t, not in my entire life. This kind of arrangement was generally exclusive to Noble families who wanted to nurture a young talent without exposing them with too much danger, and hired a good adventuring team to support them. That could also be important to avoid assassination attempts. But I had never been hired for such a thing.
It took several hours to reach the elemental dungeon. It was situated in an abandoned quarry just outside of town. The quarry itself was played out, all the good stone removed and nothing left but dredges. I admitted I knew very little of what made for good building stone, but what was left did not look very fine, broken up and dark. We took the path to the bottom and found the dungeon there.
As most urban and semi-urban dungeons were, it was being administered directly by the Adventurer’s Guild. That meant there was a healer on staff, although she was sitting on a chair and reading a book. Glancing around, I took in a rather mediocre setup. A canopy had been set up to give the Guild’s members some shade and there was a battered table with a couple chairs. An older man, only level six but wearing armor, was looking terminally bored as he sipped a hot cup of that red drink. He brightened a little as he saw us, rising to his feet.
“Ah, adventurers! Are you part of the new player Guilds?” he asked and I grimaced to myself. He thought we might be Deathless. Felir stepped forward to speak to him. I honestly preferred that, I might be in charge but Felir was a native to this world. Also, he’d always been the leader of the party so this felt natural for everyone.
“No, we’re not. What’s the current gate fee?” Felir asked and the man’s smile flattened as he looked us over. His gaze stopped on me.
“Are you aware of the difficulty of this dungeon?” he said after a moment, staring at me. I met his eyes evenly. “It’s technically a level five to ten, but the monsters inside are very tough and surprisingly intelligent. It’s on the upper end of that scale. Are you sure?” I appreciated the warning and gave him a small smile.
“He’s a prodigy. He can keep up with the rest of us despite his level, he won’t hold us back. What is the gate fee?” Felir asked in a clipped tone, not appreciating this as much as I did. The administrator hesitated a moment before sighing.
“I can’t stop you… the fee is twenty knuts.” That was virtually nothing and Felir just paid for it. These fees were meant to support the Adventurer’s Guild but also, to keep out the desperate and penniless. There were always those willing to risk their lives but if you couldn’t even afford twenty knuts, it was virtually a death sentence.
The dungeon entrance itself was a portal of dark purple light. I pursed my lips. That was a color associated with [Earth] but also [Void]. I hoped we wouldn’t encounter anything Void related here, such monsters were incredibly dangerous, largely because of the myriad of status ailments they could inflict.
We stepped into the portal and there was the strange moment where we felt stretched. I had never been able to really define it, even to myself, but it felt like the [Soul] was being tugged. Dungeonologists thought that sensation was caused by the currents of [Soul] the dungeons represented. I really had no idea, I was just a delver. Actually researching these things had never interested me.
The interior of the dungeon was a natural stone grotto. I could appreciate the beauty of it, as amethyst crystals gave off a soft light, illuminating the hard stone. Like most dungeons, there was plenty of information on it and with this one you never had to bring torches. We began moving through the dungeon, avoiding the puddles of water. They were mildly caustic and unsafe to drink. The only sound was our steps and the plinking of water, dripping from the stalactites and into the pools.
We stopped dead as two stones unfolded themselves, revealing themselves as earth elementals. Dahgon moved forward to tank, his shield at the ready. He invoked [Taunt] and the low level elementals obediently focused on him, lashing out with their fists. I hung back with Felir and cast [Mana Bolt] and [Lesser Heal] as Circe used [Shadow Step] to get behind them and attack from the back. I noticed that despite Dahgon’s taunt, the creatures would strike out at Circe as soon as they detected her. They did have a degree of intelligence, that would make them dangerous. Circe didn’t take any hits, she was good at her job, but there were only two of them.
Then an arrow snaked past us and impacted one of the elementals in the eye. It exploded a second later, doing real damage and I turned in shock. Behind us were three other adventurers and I swore inside.
A twisted moment! This was bad. Normally, when a party entered a dungeon it was locked to them and no one else could enter their ‘moment’. But sometimes a dungeon could be deeply unstable and jam together unrelated ‘moments’ into a larger moment. That was very bad because dungeons that did that regularly were prone to collapse. And even if it was just a fluke, having two parties in the same moment could easily end in bloodshed. A warrior in golden armor and tawny fur moved up beside Dahgon, engaging the enemies with a shield and longsword. I ignored him, just casting another mana bolt. There was nothing I could do about that right now, we needed to put down these enemies.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
The two elementals fractured into pieces, leaving behind their cores. Circe scooped them up instantly and no one objected, our attention on the strangers. I turned my attention to them, examining them thoroughly. They were more interesting than Rick and Heals4U.
The first of them was the man in golden armor. It wasn’t actually as good as it looked, normal armor that had been given a chemical wash to give it a gold appearance. A needless expense that most adventurer’s would not pay, but it looked nice. His sword and shield were simpler and more utilitarian, but also genuine gear with bonuses. He also had a cloak trimmed with fox fur and I could detect nothing from it, so it was purely mundane. Hmm, a fashion plate adventurer… there was nothing inherently wrong with that, though. We all spent our money in different ways. He had a very handsome face and tawny hair that matched the color of the fur quite well. Along with his heavy, muscular build, he cut quite a figure.
The other two were not nearly as imposing. One of them was a woman with very dark skin and very kinky hair, cropped tight to her skull. She was wearing something that made me stare dubiously… was this a new style of mage robes? I had never imagined they would be cut so short and reveal so much flesh. Yet, I thought that was what they were meant to evoke. It was almost a parody. The body revealed was quite fine, though, even if I could not appreciate the view.
The last member of the interloping party was an archer. He was a middle aged man with tired eyes and a friendly smile, wearing a rather odd hat with a feather in it. His outfit was all green and he was wearing rather odd tights. They did him absolutely no favors, I would characterize his legs as knobby at best. He did seem non-threatening and kindly, though.
“Ah, hello. I’m Robin Hood. This is Fancy Pants and this is my wife, the darling Maid Marion,” he introduced them all and I stared at him for a moment before looking at… Fancy Pants. His pants were indeed rather fancy but really?
“Why do you Deathless all have such idiotic names?” I asked, a touch stunned by the stupidity of it all. “You’re not even wearing a hood and if she’s your wife, she cannot be a maid.” Unless they had a very strange relationship, anyway. “I will admit his pants are fancy but why would you name yourself after that?” This was absurd. The mage and warrior stared at me, taken aback, while the archer coughed into his hand. Felir’s hand touched my shoulder, giving me a slight warning.
“Ah, well, it’s a cultural thing you see.” Um? “If you’re just level three and you have a name like Dervish Death Punch, you look a bit of a fool right? But if you use your real name and you’re just Matt, then you’re boring.” Hmm… “So we tend to take funny names instead. You see?” he said with a smile, the lines on his face and tired eyes making him look more friendly. Robin Hood reminded me of a kindly uncle. It actually put me a bit on guard, I was starting to wonder if he might be a bit of a con man. This kind of affability was their stock in trade.
“That makes a surprising amount of sense,” I said, although there was still a big problem with it. “Aren’t you worried those names will stick with you forever?” Adventurers sometimes got stuck with idiotic nicknames. I knew a fellow level forty-nine who was cursed to be known as Lichen Eater, probably for all eternity. It was kind of his fault for insisting on sampling every plant product in the dungeon. Robin Hood shrugged.
“We can just change it later.” Really? Lichen Eater would like to know the trick to that. “Ah, but nevermind all that! Instances are supposed to be separate, do you know how we happen to be together in here?” Hmm, he might not know.
“By instance, I think you mean a moment? Dungeons can sometimes have twisted moments. What that means is adventurers who entered at completely different times, as different as an entire week, can be tossed together into the same moment.” That could result in some odd things, if someone was killed in a dungeon and then prevented from entering it by the other team, resulting in what should have been a paradox. I was no [Time] or [Space] mage, though, so that was beyond me. “If a Dungeon does this regularly, it’s generally in danger of collapse. Sometimes dungeons become more prone to this because of manipulation.” That was very rare though, and usually indicated some kind of assassination attempt. “However, it can sometimes just happen accidentally.” Felir nodded behind me. He knew all this from his training as a mage.
“Jesus, this dude needs a skip button,” Fancy Pants said, rolling his eyes and I frowned at him.
“You’re acting like this is a [Virtual Reality] training. Don’t get overconfident,” I snapped and they all looked at me strangely. “The worst danger of twisted moments is that the other party in the Dungeon will kill you.” I looked Robin Hood right in the eye as I said it. Perhaps we should kill them. The atmosphere suddenly got very tense but Robin Hood coughed and smiled, trying to ease it.
“Ah, don’t be like that! What do you mean by virtual reality?” he asked and I saw no reason not to respond, although they likely wouldn’t understand most of it.
“Oh, it’s a very advanced cultivation aide, the kind of thing people of our standing in life could never get a sniff at,” I said with a dismissive wave. The problem with it was - “The energy requirements to maintain a stable [Virtual Reality] environment are simply obscene. It either requires the use of [Atomic] matter laws or oceans of raw mana. [Atomic] is the more practical solution but that technology is incredibly hard to use due to competing [Fire] laws…” I realized then that I’d gone off on a jaunt in my own mind. Everyone was staring at me and I didn’t think they understood a single word I was saying. “Nevermind. Think of it as a cultivation aide exclusive to Royalty, but not all Royalty. Only rich Royalty.” The only stable [Virtual Reality] setup I could think of was actually run by the Emperor himself. It was used for the great Centennial games, where the greatest talents of the Empire congregated to fight to the ‘death’ in a safe environment. The prizes were simply unbelievable and could include entire planets.
“Wait, so where you come from, there’s levels of Royalty? Like, poor Royals and rich Royals? You serious?” Dahgon said, cleaning out his ear with his pinky finger. I shrugged before nodding.
“Yes. You have no idea the gap in wealth between the lowest of Royals and the highest. It’s as astronomical as the gap between a beggar and a Duke. It would destroy your mind.” Honestly, they couldn’t even begin to comprehend the true luxury available in the Universe of Infinite Possibilities.
“I have seen some gnarly NPC’s in here but my dude, you are just wildin’.” I had no idea what any of that meant. Fancy Pants shrugged, resting his sword on his shoulder. “So are we killing each other or are we doing this together?” Ugh. Those were indeed the only two choices. Even if we exited the dungeon, it was incredibly likely we should just come back into the same twisted moment.
“Felir, what do you think?” I asked, remembering that while I was the employer, I was not really the party leader. Felir’s eyes flicked towards them and we retreated a bit for a conversation, Dahgon and Circe keeping an eye on the Deathless.
“I don’t trust them at all, but I think the cost of fighting them is too high,” Felir said quietly when we were out of earshot and I frowned, glancing back at them. “We should probably leave.” Auuagh!
“That’s essentially letting the Deathless bully us out of the dungeon. They’re shutting us out of everything else, can we allow that?” I murmured and Felir tensed, his eyes flashing at the thought. “And we need the cultivation more than the money. We can split the loot with them and still come out ahead, particularly if we can do the challenge dungeon.” Felir’s eyes widened a bit but I thought it had become possible. Three additional people would make a huge difference, presuming they could be trusted.
“...” Felir chewed his lip, thinking about it for a moment. “But can we trust them…” he muttered and I shrugged. That part, I wasn’t certain of. “Why don’t we take a chance but keep an eye on them. We can back out before the challenge dungeon if it doesn’t seem to be working out.” That sounded fine to me. I nodded and we turned back to the party of Deathless.
“We’ve decided we’ll work with you, if you agree to an even split of the loot,” I said and Robin Hood nodded with a relieved smile. Fancy Pants just grunted and strode away purposefully, further into the dungeon. Well fine, he could be the tank then.
Things went fairly smoothly after that. Fancy Pants and Dahgon had very little synergy, acting as two separate tanks. But it turned out that Maid Marion was a healer, so they had a full time healer and two backups in the combined party. Fancy Pants was a bit on the fragile side for a tank, but they could easily cover his deficiencies. Dahgon was better, taking less damage and holding the monster’s attention a touch better.
For myself, as the groups we were pulling became larger, I became the official crowd control. Robin Hood had nothing but praise for my [Tangled Thorns], particularly the way I could sense when it was going to break and renew it before that happened. To me, it was very easy but then, I had been in a million dungeons. Compared to me, they were all children.
The enemies were repetitive and seemed boring but then they gave us a sharp lesson on their intelligence.
“?” I felt a slight vibration under my feet and old instincts put me on guard. I glanced around quickly, then looked up. My eyes widened at what I saw. “ABOVE!” I shouted before quickly forming a [Fireball] and blasting the ceiling. It didn’t do too much, but it caught on the elementals that had crept up there and were about to land on our heads. I had to [Phase] as one of them would have landed right on me. Quickly diving aside, I pulled out my daggers and decided to get serious.
One of my daggers was not a growth item. The first dagger I’d been given after leaving the orphanage, it was a keepsake from my childhood. Still functional though and now it was going back to work, albeit in terrible form as it could hardly take a chunk off my enemies. The Void dagger did infinitely better, cutting through stone like a hot knife through butter. I’d planned to keep it to myself, particularly since it revealed my rogue abilities, but things were getting desperate.
The whole front line was thrown into chaos. Felir took control, shouting at Fancy Pants to keep tanking from the front as Dahgon switched to the new threats. A screamed [Taunt] and our ambushers concentrated on the tank. That let me begin cutting them up from behind. I had to pause several times to heal Dahgon. I was using my senses to keep an eye on his health and both he and Fancy Pants were taking a beating.
We finally overcame the threat and stopped, panting. I decided it was time for a break.
“We’re all exhausted, let’s set up camp and get some rest,” I said briskly. How long had we been in here? It felt like quite a while. Felir nodded and Robin Hood did not object, so as Circe and Maid Marion collected cores and miscellaneous items, I set up a campfire. It was quite easy with a tiny [Fireball] spell and dry tinder and wood. Then I set up the cooking station, putting the kettle on to boil. I desperately wanted some tea.
“Hey, ah, I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name,” Robin Hood said to me with a smile and I nodded, not volunteering. He waited a moment before his smile became a little forced and he continued anyway. “I noticed you seem to have rogue skills, mage skills and healing abilities. What is your class?” Class?
“I don’t have one,” I said after a moment, wondering what fool would take a CLASS. Felir just nodded as Dahgon looked at me with a frown. Circe and Maid Marion were out of earshot, or they might have reacted. Fancy Pants just looked bored with the conversation. “Classes are incompatible with high level cultivation.” That caught everyone’s attention and it was Felir who leaned towards me, his golden eyes gleaming behind his mask.
“What do you mean?” he asked and I could guess his thoughts… he was wondering if this was something the Noble’s were keeping from them. I hesitated a moment before deciding to tell them anyway… even if they were unable to reach higher levels, it was still valuable information.
“Classes use the [Soul] principle of [Inheritance]. That means if you do it exactly as someone else has, you can inherit their power. It’s a very powerful principle at lower levels, but falls off horrendously at higher tiers,” I explained, still waiting for the kettle to boil. Ugh, it took forever. “Because you can only [Inherit] to the level of those who came before you, you end up artificially limited. It is common wisdom that a Classed individual cannot go over level thirty in cultivation.” I shrugged slightly, noticing a bit of steam coming from the kettle. We were getting there! “If you have no intention of reaching the higher levels, though, it’s a viable path. However, where I come from it’s not well thought of and basically marks you as a loser who has to depend on [Inheritance] to get by in life.” Very few people had it in them to reach level thirty anyway so logically, we should use classes more. We didn’t though, because of the social stigma around them.
“Isn’t the level cap of this game level thirty?” Fancy Pants wondered aloud and I gave him the stink eye. Life wasn’t a GAME!
“Not sure what you mean by game, but I haven’t ever heard of a person past level thirty,” Felir said in a neutral tone and I grimaced to myself. I was being too loose lipped. The Universe of Infinite Possibilities had a ‘level cap’ of forty-nine, but lower layers would have lower caps. If this layer had a cap of thirty, that would certainly explain why they used Classes. Well, I’d already fucked up, might as well keep going.
“I come from a place where the highest level possible is forty-nine. So this is important to us,” I said before seeing the kettle was finally boiling. Taking it off the heat, I began preparing the tea. “Does anyone want some food?”
The consensus was that yes, we needed some food, so I took out the cooking utensils and began preparing my patented Dungeon Skillet Cakes. They were actually just omelets with some dungeon materials, greens or monster meat. This dungeon had little to work with and the lichen didn’t look appetizing, so my Dungeon Skillet Cakes were more regular omelets. Oh well, they were still tasty and I layered them with cheese.
The Deathless took only tasting portions while the rest of us had a small but filling meal. The tea was very refreshing, after the tepid water we had been sipping.
Why am I hiding where I’m from anyway? I wondered as I ate. Not from the Deathless, but from Felir and his party. Does it even matter? They already knew I was incredibly strange. Perhaps I should just sit them down and explain everything, including my suspicions that my arrival here was somehow connected to the Deathless. Although I had no idea what a high level God thought I was going to do about them.
When the food was done, I used the remaining hot water to clean off the dishes, then put them away for later. Then we continued our adventure. We fought many times, shed more blood and had to deal with more ambushes, but we were ready now. We handled everything and with our healing, there were no lasting injuries. Then we reached the boss room.
“What the fuck?” Dahgon said uncertainly as we all came out to investigate the strange thing in the room. It looked like a challenge dungeon portal, but I had never seen anything like it before. They were supposed to be naturally occurring, a cyst within a cyst. Just a part of our world.
This was not a natural formation. Instead, there was a dais with runes surrounding the dark violet portal. On examining the runes I could not decipher them and my eyes narrowed. I was very, very old and I loved runic based languages. Were these runes perhaps fake? It would not be the first time someone had pulled that trick.
“This isn’t right. Who made this?” Felir asked, joining me to look at the runes. I straightened, shaking my head and turning towards the others. I caught a slight smirk on Robin’s face, but thought nothing of it.
“I think they’re fake. Just decor. I have no idea how this was done though, the challenge dungeon itself does not seem to be a natural formation,” I said before frowning. “That could explain the twisted instance.” Modifying a dungeon like this would definitely screw up the currents of [Soul] within it and cause twisted instances. Hopefully it wouldn’t be moved to collapse, dungeons could actually be surprisingly delicate. Felir knelt by the runes for a moment before shaking his head and standing up. As he did, Robin joined us in the dais.
“Well, it might be - “ Robin interrupted himself by sharply punching Felir in the stomach. I was caught completely by surprise as Felir fell back, his golden eyes wide. And he was falling towards the portal!
“NO!” I leapt forward, trying to catch his hand. And I managed it, grasping him with a hard grip but then Robin’s foot snaked between mine. Any hope of keeping us out of the portal was gone as I fell forward and Felir’s back hit the glow. We were both sucked in, and I heard Dahgon scream something behind me. As I felt the familiar stretch of a portal, I internally raged.
If I survived, those Deathless would regret ever crossing Justice.