Chapter 84: Delve 6

Sunday, April 30th, 8:10 PM

Yellowstone National Park

Bill slowed along with his herd as light became visible ahead. It was apparent none of them wanted to get close to such a large gathering of humans.

Siobhán coaxed him and his herd to go around the Visitor Center to the south, until the Dungeon’s entrance was just visible between trees in the distance.

When Siobhán hopped down off her impromptu mount, the other Bison in Bill’s herd backed away in alarm. They gave a chorus of growling and grunting variations on moo sounds—quite different from what she expected from a hooved relative of domestic cattle—while a few of the herd’s members lowered their heads and pawed at the ground, kicking up gouts of dust.

Bill rounded on them, knocking Siobhán aside with his flank as he did so. She kept her feet and watched Bill back the rest of his herd down.

“Thanks, big guy,” Siobhán reached up to scratch the Bison behind his ears. He rewarded her with a slimy tongue across her cheek.

“Gyah! For all your posturing, you’re just a big softie!” Siobhán wiped the saliva off her face, only to feel pine pitch from her fingers adhering in places where her face wasn’t already wet.

From the herd’s body language, it was clear the rest of them were only backing down because the alpha male had demanded it. They were uncomfortable near Siobhán.

“Okay, Bill. Lead your herd somewhere safe and do whatever Bison usually do. Thanks for helping me get here.”

Bill wasted no time, and ten seconds later the entire herd was headed away through the forest.

She shut her eyes and sighed. I need to stay focused. Everything will clean up, and I have work to do.

[Smelly cows.]

Siobhán jumped more than a meter into the air at the unexpected words, then recognized the voice and complained after she landed squarely on her backside. “Nino! You scared the shit out of me!”

[You do smell, but not currently of human waste.] Nino sauntered into view from the direction of the Dungeon, shadowed by Hanzo.

[You reek of sweat, anger, trees, and… spider-pet.] Nino paused mid-step and narrowed her eyes at Nita.

“Nita’s never going to attack you, Nino-kitty.” Siobhán kneeled down and offered her hand to the calico cat.

[No touching. Your paws are unclean,] said Nino, glaring at Siobhán’s hand.

“Yeah, I know.” Siobhán pulled her hand back. “I have to go into the Dungeon, Nino. Joe, Joy, and the dogs are down there.”

[Why are you out here, Spider-girl?] Nino’s piercing gaze met Siobhán’s eyes through the darkness.

…

[You’ve returned to die again?] Nino cocked her head at Siobhán.

“No, I’m here to help,” Siobhán stated flatly.

[You cannot sense the traps.] Nino’s stare hardened. [You will die.]

Siobhán sighed. “Then what am I supposed to do, Nino? This place is full of those bastards from the One World Order.”

Hanzo replied, [Not all are bad humans.]

“How do you know?” asked Siobhán.

[We talked with them,] said Hanzo.

[A few provided acceptable pets as an offering,] said Nino.

[One man tried to catch us.] Hanzo sounded amused.

[Foolish. Humans are slow,] Nino curled her lips up, showing off her teeth.

“Nino… did you just smile?” Siobhán stared at the cat.

[That human expression is amusing.] Nino bared her teeth further.

“Okay, it was cute, but now it’s scary,” said Siobhán.

[Useful.] Hanzo mirrored Nino, baring his teeth as well.

Then the cats locked eyes with one another and their “smiles” disappeared.

[Bug-girl was right,] said Nino.

“Bug-girl? I thought I was Spider-girl.” Siobhán frowned.

[You can be both,] Nino gave Siobhán a slow blink.

“Okay, Nino. But I still need to find a way to help everyone who went inside the Dungeon.”

[Follow.] Hanzo trotted away into the woods, and Nino fell into step beside him.

“Wait… where are we going?” Siobhán asked as she gave chase. But the cats remained silent.

----------------------------------------

“Quagmire.” A voice startled me in the midst of infusing an alloy for Mike, who had run low on mana.

[Sven! You arrived precisely while I was experimenting with a new material, you Witless Wyvern!]

“Fuckin’ Sky-lizard.” Mike shook his head with a chuckle as he returned his focus to working a length of his latest titanium spring-steel alloy.

Sven’s eyes held a glint of savage amusement. His scaly eyebrows climbed skyward and he feigned shock. “I’ve no idea what you’re on about, my little Muddy Buddy!”

[What do you want?]

“Oh, nothing important. Dungeons on Earth are affecting the planet’s core much faster than I’d anticipated. That means two things.”

Sven held up a single black-clawed finger.

“That there are many more enemy Dungeons than I’d anticipated.”

Another scaly finger joined the first as Sven locked his eyes on my perception.

“Second, the mana concentration of your world is nearing a threshold.”

[What does that mean for us?]

Sven scratched the scales below his chin. His eyes widened and stared at my vision’s focal point as their amusement disappeared. “Certain changes are imminent.”

“What sort of changes?” Mike asked before I could, mimicking Sven’s inflection.

“Nothing unusual, unless your planet is a backwater that previously held no mana whatsoever. Suffice to say, creatures on this world will mutate or evolve as their genetic structure becomes malleable in the presence of mana. The arms-race between predator and prey will elicit new survival strategies never seen on Earth.”

[That could be amazing to watch. And terrifying to cope with.]

Sven cocked his head and shrugged.

“Ambient mana on Earth will reach the same concentration as what you had inside the first of your snug little tunnels, while inside Dungeons—”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

[I don’t like the sound of that, Sven.]

“As Earth’s humans are fond of saying, it is what it is.”

Sven’s explanation left me speechless for a moment, but a surge of indignation helped me find the words to express what I felt.

[This will affect every species on our entire planet?]

Sven nodded gravely.

[What of humans?]

“This change will reveal the true value of Dungeons worldwide. When humans are able to use The System to monitor their progress and understand their abilities, their thirst for advancement will increase. Defeating a Dungeon’s minions and harvesting its raw materials will enable much faster growth than what is possible outside.”

[What System?]

Sven grinned, revealing his crystalline teeth. “You secretly enjoyed certain role-playing games, did you not?”

It turned out that The System was effectively a graphical user interface that was superimposed over any sapient being’s vision—though somehow it would never block the person’s view of the world around them.

The System provided relevant information about a person’s classes, skills, attributes, traits, and spells. Somehow, it also affected and assisted even non-sapient beings of a sentient nature—every living thing, down to single-celled organisms, bacteria, and viruses.

[Where does The System come from?]

“Use your dirty little mind, my Rusty Rock-stain. What could create a universal interface like The System?”

I only had a single answer.

[Dragons…]

“You’re close, but no. Even the oldest and strongest of Dragons holds no desire to expend so much of Their mind’s processing power across the entire Universe. While Dragons are capable, it would become tedious.”

[So?]

“The Universe itself, my dear Stench-Trench.”

[Wait. You’re saying The System is a natural phenomenon?]

“It is more accurate to say The Universe and its System created all things—including Dragons, who serve as caretakers. The System is part of all matter everywhere—even in mundane, nonliving materials and in the relative void of space. Places untouched by mana simply lack access.”

[So, it’s present here, even now? If so, how did we never notice it?]

“Ah, but you did notice signs of it. Your scientists struggled to explain how life began on this planet. Moreover, roughly half of The Universe and its mass cannot be sensed without mana.”

[So, The System is it… dark matter?]

“No. Dark matter is a blanket term used by your science to account for innumerable stellar objects that mundane, nonmagical creatures can only sense via their gravitational effect. The Universe is much bigger and more diverse than any of you know. That said, so long as they survive, Earth’s humans will learn.”

[So, what does all of this mean for me. What do I need to do?]

“Same as always, my lovely Crevice Queen—continue downward. Expand and grow to increase your strength. The more potent and plentiful your mana, the faster people will advance, and the more attractive your Dungeon becomes.”

[Crap. Greedy people are going to flock to Dungeons everywhere. Things will change even faster than before…]

“Correct. The tropical archipelago of your ninth floor looks good. Finalize that and keep up the good work.” Sven disappeared.

----------------------------------------

Joe found the large hallway ahead blocked by numerous insects, snakes, and huge badger-like mammals, along with Auronox-knows what else hiding among their ranks. None moved to attack, but every single enemy minion seemed to have its eyes trained on Joe, daring him to approach.

There was no fixing Joe’s ruined armor, nor any telling if the two residents he’d killed would revive in the same time frame as Ciara’s residents. Almost fifteen minutes had elapsed since their deaths, and Joe bared his teeth in frustration at the wall of enemy biomass ahead of him.

He could try his bow, and it would likely dispatch many of the larger creatures. But there seemed to be thousands of wasps. There was no way he could survive that.

Fuck.

Joe exited the tunnel to search the area where his enemies had been training. After passing through barren hallways that held nothing aside from the half-obliterated remains of his foes, Joe came to a rough cavern around fifty meters in diameter with a few lightstones set into its ceiling. A single crude door was set into the opposite wall—similar to the one that had blocked the Dungeon Master’s room.

A weapons rack was set into the left wall with rifles and ammunition, swords, spears, and shields. Joe put his bow away and emptied the entire rack into his storage—except for the longest spear.

No longer concerned with making noise, he approached the door and kicked it hard enough to slam it open so hard that it broke in half. A series of rough stairs configured like the fire escape of a high-rise building ascended—presumably to the surface.

Joe knew he couldn’t take down that hallway full of venomous creatures alone—not without something like a flamethrower.

They needed the marines from the surface. They carried enough firepower to deal with the minions. The only problem was time. He also had to go back and get Joy, Owen, and the dogs before exiting to seek out Mike and the others.

Fuck. If only Siobhán were here… Nita could spin a web and the bugs wouldn’t be such a problem.

With a sigh, Joe set off back the way he’d come at a sprint. The five men he’d met near the water’s edge by their subterranean campsite were standing in the hallway near the mutilated corpses of Kevin and Roy.

Damn.

Joe accelerated toward the men, but took a rifle round in the shoulder immediately after Ramesh and his friends saw him. The bullet didn’t penetrate deep but it still hurt like hell.

“Filthy traitor!” Sam bellowed as the five One World Order men shot at Joe with hunting rifles.

“Get fucked, asshole!” Ramesh screamed.

Joe remained silent as he healed himself and dodged side to side as bullets zipped past him. He kicked off the side walls of the tunnel in an erratic fashion like a gigantic, hyper-athletic ape. He hurled the spear ahead, then took out his bow and three arrows. The spear missed, but its speed made two of the men turn and flee.

Another bullet impacted Joe’s helmet but didn’t go through as he took aim, then obliterated Sam’s torso with a supersonic arrow. The remaining enemies flinched and fled after that, so Joe took the opportunity to send another arrow through a pair who were kind enough to line up for him.

“Ah! He’s a fucking monster!” Ramesh wailed in horror as he leaped past the still-tumbling legs of a dead man.

Joe fired again but missed Ramesh, who was his target. Still, the arrow passed close enough to make him flinch so hard that he fell. Joe was upon him in less than two seconds, and he kicked Ramesh’s head clean off his shoulders as he pursued the last living enemy who’d dropped his weapon in a panic.

Grenades hanging at that man’s hip were all the reason Joe needed to take out the threat before it could do any harm. Another arrow came out of Joe’s storage and he stopped to take careful aim. With its incredible speed, there was no chance for his enemy to dodge, and the man’s upper chest exploded into a red mist along with his neck.

Joe took a moment to run around and gather their weapons into his storage, then put his bow away and made his way back toward Joy, Owen, and the dogs.

Sunny and Sandy greeted Joe in the water and led him back. They collected the other two, and Joe helped Owen swim through fast enough that he didn’t run out of breath. Rather than explaining twice, Joe bid the others follow him as he made for the surface up the fire-escape-style stone stairs.

On reaching the surface after climbing more than three hundred flights of stairs, they exited through a large boulder that had crude wall torches mounted to it.

Joe, Joy, Owen, and Duke were shot by a pair of surprised guards before Joy and Joe crossed the distance with inhuman speed and broke the men’s necks—almost decapitating both bodies with the force of their strikes.

Joe felt more of his mana drain away as he healed everyone who’d been hit. Owen had it worse than the others—he’d been shot just above his heart.

“Shit. Thought I was dead,” Owen hissed.

“We need to move,” Joe whispered as he stowed the weapons. “Small-arms fire will attract enemies.”

Joe faced the pups. “Dogs—this is important, I need you all to remember where this place is and how to get back here.”

[Is important!] all four canines replied in unison, taking attentive stances with tails held high and serious eyes as Joe grabbed the dead bodies and hurled them away into the darkness beyond the torchlight.

Making his own path through the woods, Joe kept the glow of the Visitor Center to his left as he led everyone in an arc back toward where he thought Mike’s location might be. So far, there hadn’t been any yelling or cries of alarm.

Maybe nobody will bother to check that place out.

Sometimes, people could be careless.

Less than ten seconds after they set off away from the exit, the shouting began.

Shit. So much for luck being on our side.

There was nothing for it. They’d have to fight their way back in. Without Siobhán and Nita, Joe knew it was going to be a messy, deadly affair if they made it to that minion hallway.

Then Joe remembered something and he grinned evilly.

Ciara’s got her own tunnels nearby. If she can make and send some of her own minions…

----------------------------------------

Floors: 9

Minions: 897/1260

Residents: 15/28

Denizens: 8.65M

Traps: 25/45