Jenny carefully rechecked the straps on her circular shield as the sounds of construction rang out around her. A few droplets of sweat ran down her back under the chainmail in the warmth of the morning and she gave a sympathetic glance at those constructing the wooden palisade. Guilt tore at her conscience seeing her comrades working so hard while she rested, but a good soldier takes rest when she can get it. Soon she would be venturing into the dungeon that had managed to injure even the Master Sergeant.
A sharp thunk nearby had her leaping to her feet. Turning sharply to the noise she saw a spider that had almost made it to the dungeon entrance pinned through to the stone by a throwing knife. An incredible feat of piercing power, the origin of which became immediately apparent as Ranger Trafin began to berate those supposed to be keeping watch.
“…Any creature that gets through strengthens the dungeon which could lead to the death of your comrades. Is that what you want!...”
The Master Sergeant started venturing towards the commotion and Jenny saw some hope begin to stir on the guards faces and winced. Trafin might give them a tirade that pointed out their failings, but Sarge would have them on extra shifts until they learned to take it seriously.
“Wouldn’t want to be them right now…” Balrem muttered softly in his usual deep tones.
Turning towards her green skinned half-orc friend Jenny asked, “What about you, how are you feeling? If you want to pull out, I’m sure they’d understand.”
Balrem chuckled, “Others might forget but any orcish family will tell ya it was only ever the first generation that had an issue going into dungeons. Given I’m a half-orc and definitely wasn’t born in a dungeon, I’m not worried.”
“Glad you’re so confident, but let us know if you start feeling strange at all…”
“Yeah, Yeah, I got it.” He waved her off, “I’m more concerned about what we might find inside, it seemed to change quite a bit between the first and second reports and now it’s level 3 apparently.”
“There were a lot of close calls,” Jeremy, one of the new recruits, mentioned almost involuntarily.
“Oh yeah, Jeremy you were part of the last delve weren’t you? Any ideas what all the changes in equipment is about? Usually, they keep everyone sword and board until they’ve got a solid grounding before breaking out the axes and maces. No offense kid”
“Balrem you know that adding no offense at the end doesn’t actually make your comment inoffensive…” Jenny said as she pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation at her friend’s tactlessness.
“It’s fine I know I have a lot to learn,” Jeremy responded. “I used a bow before, but I think others found the swords a little awkward against the skeletons.”
“Makes sense, you’d want to go for the joints, while something with a bit more heft could shatter the bones more easily.” Gesturing to the packs in the middle Jenny added, “Definitely seems like we’re better prepared this time. Given how many people were bragging about new skills, command is probably hoping we’ll pick up skills for the new equipment as well.”
“Aye, that sounds about right. Speaking of, I see you’ve gone for an axe this time Jenny. Wonder why that could be?” Balrem said with an emphasis Jenny didn’t quite understand as he hefted his mace.
“I’m hoping to upgrade my [Slice] skill to [Slash]. [Cut] would also be fine too I suppose.”
“Ahh that’s it, I’m sure. Nothing to do with what equipment someone else uses [Shield Guard],” Balrem teased with a nod towards where Sarge was finishing explaining to the sentries just how miserable their next week was about to be.
Jenny felt heat rise to her cheeks. Balrem was a good friend, but some days she wished he was a little less comfortable around her.
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“…and forward.”
Jenny obediently stepped through the distortion that marked the boundary of the dungeon a shiver running down her spine at the odd sensation almost like walking through a hanging curtain.
“Sir, Ma'am, have something here. Seems like some kind of shrine. Not sure which god though, not to The Three that’s for sure.” Jeremy called out from her side.
Glancing towards him Jenny quickly identified it though she marvelled at the fine silverwork, “It’s to Semyaza, and there’s an offering bowl.”
Trafin, the leader of this expedition sighed. “Their domain includes training and preparedness; I’d strongly suggest you familiarise yourself recruit. Everyone head on a swivel; we’ve only just entered and there are already changes. Give some sort of offering, I don’t care if it’s coin, rations or mana, the last thing we need is to earn the god’s ire.” With a clink he tossed a few coins in the top.
Jenny could almost feel the heat of Jeremy’s blush as they shuffled through their pockets for an appropriate offering. She was once again grateful that she’d learned long ago the benefit of always carrying at least a little coin. Sometimes all it cost to keep the peace was a round of drinks, not exactly a traditional solution but Jenny was a big believer in using whatever worked. More often than not people were just having a bad day and needed a win, if that win was a beer to drown their sorrows all the better. She barely even considered spending mana instead, this dungeon was dangerous, she needed to be able to use her skills.
“Balrem?”
“I’m fine, no strange feelings apart from the entrance.”
With the offerings made and a quick report of the change to outside, the party continued on with Jenny taking point. Forewarned of the dangers of the first room, Jenny cautiously checked the entrance, a shield held above her head by the soldier behind her. A few steps inside she twisted and looked up, sure enough there was a skeleton standing above the doorway. It jumped towards her having been detected but a swift blow from her axe sent it clattering away in pieces. Quickly blinking away the bone dust she kept her guard up just as she was taught.
“Impressive,” Lydia, the mage of this expedition offered from behind. Jenny wasn’t sure what her level was, but she was in the equivalent position for the mages gathered outside that Trafin had for the rangers, and refused to send others in until she’d investigated for herself, so she had Jenny’s respect.
The pitfalls in the first room were relatively quickly found as the party moved forward cautiously. The second room was a little more difficult but they had purposefully brought a second bow user to help Jeremy, who had opted for a longbow on this occasion for extra penetrative power. One of the ranger recruits began crossing at Trafin’s direction and when there was movement in the shadows ahead one of the torchbearers used their [flare] skill, releasing a pulse of heat and light, illuminating the room for a moment. Just long enough for the archers to use their skills, which judging from the cracking sounds, did crippling damage to the skeleton but not before it had thrown one of its stones at the young ranger. Lydia uttered a word of power which gave Jenny the beginning of a headache as she tried to process what was said. A large bubble of water appeared in the stone’s path, it entered with a splash, but the water seemed to greatly slow it and it bounced off the near side of the bubble. With the opposition crippled and archers suppressing it, the ranger recruit quickly made it to the far side and finished the loathsome creature.
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As Jenny landed with a muted thud on the far side, arms burning slightly, she had a new respect for the ranger recruit who moved across so smoothly while scouting the dangerous rungs. Perhaps she should work more on agility? But that was a thought for later. The next room was where she would really get the chance to show her worth. As the squad grouped up on either side of the opening to the short corridor, Trafin pulled her aside for a quick word to make sure she was still ready and willing, which of course she was. It was only as the veteran ranger moved away, taking the scent of the woods with him, that she placed what was so unsettling about the dungeon was its lack of scent. Sure, it had a cave with stalagmites and stalactites, but it lacked that perpetual damp smell that an ordinary cave would have.
Moving to the opening and drawing her handaxe she readied herself and looked to Trafin. At his nod she charged forwards. While expected, the rumbling of a boulder as tall as she was rolling towards her when she neared the end of the corridor stirred a jolt of primal fear. Her heart and feet pounded harder and faster and as the boulder was about to slam into her, she rolled out of the way. Not losing her head, she kept to the plan and rolled on her weapon side shoulder keeping her shield up to protect her and as she sprung to her feet she felt the shudder of a glancing blow off of it.
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The next 30 seconds were a frantic blur of dodging and blocking the bricks being thrown by the skeletons, confident in the knowledge that once the boulder cleared the short corridor her backup would pile in after her. A particularly good shot forced her to use her shield head on rather than deflecting the brick away. She used her [Block] skill to deaden some of the momentum but she still felt a shudder in her bones as the brick connected. That skill would take a minute to come off cooldown, an eternity in a fight but surely her companions would be here soon. Another brick flew in from her weapon side, too late to dodge or get her shield to intercept. Gritting her teeth, she swung her handaxe at it, activating her [Slice] skill it smoothly cut a small notch then the skill failed and she struggled to keep hold of the axe, leather bindings burning her hand as it began slipping from her grip before the middle of the brick crumbled with a loud crack. Halves flying past on either side.
“For The Warrior and Timberhollow!”
Balrem’s warcry ringing in her ears and peripherally aware of her allies pounding into the room, she charged uphill to the nearest skeleton. It backpedalled and threw the brick as she closed but with her focus now narrowed to one opponent, she confidently avoided it. She brought down her axe in a thunderous overhand blow, blunted axehead cleaving through the arm raised in defence to crack the skull, an injury that would down any human. The skeleton wasn’t quite finished however, and while its remaining flailing arm was blocked by her shield, pain radiated from her kidneys as its knee slammed into her side. Moreover, she realised it had gripped her shield and was falling backwards, in a move she’d used more than once herself in brawls, it seemed to want to catapult her over itself into the back wall. Realising this she shifted her weight to the shoulder behind her shield and with a sharp tug pulled her handaxe free. A sharp twinge of pain down her arm told her she’d regret that later but for now, as they hit the ground, she contented herself with the sound of cracking ribcage under her shield as she rolled to one side and onto her feet. She swiftly brought her axe down on the prone skeleton, severing its spine which thankfully seemed to stop its twitching.
She glanced around sharply and felt her pulse start to calm as she took in the scene of her allies finishing off the others. Jeremy was on the ground at the bottom of the slope grasping his heel but there were others with him who didn’t seem overly concerned.
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A quick rest later and honestly, Jenny was feeling worse now that the adrenaline had faded. The prospect of how the quartermaster would react to the blunted edge of her axe didn’t help matters. Somehow, she thought that needing to [slice] a brick wouldn’t go down well as an explanation.
Jeremy was definitely worse off. Apparently, he’d steadied himself to take a shot at one of the throwers shortly after entering the room but had forgotten about the rat skeleton. It seemed to have gone for his Achilles tendon, and judging by how deep the bite was it had probably got it. The healer outside should fix it right up no problem but he’d be less steady on that foot for a few days and was probably getting out of here tied to someone’s back based on how discussions were going.
Unfortunately, first of all they had to finish what they came for and see how long it took for the creatures to respawn so that harvesting methods could be optimised. The stone doorway had been raised but with shields ready to protect the lifters and both Trafin and Lydia ready to take down the spearmen beyond it, it felt dangerously… safe. Years of experience screaming at Jenny that something was about to go wrong and to keep her guard up chased that thought from her mind but turned out to be unnecessary. Lydia with her blue/white hair starting to look more and more like a waterfall, had sent a tide of water in at their feet which surged back suddenly gripping them and knocking them flat on their backs, then Trafin must have used some sort of skill with his throwing knives since the bones practically exploded out from where the knives struck. They weren’t taking any chances and forbade anyone from entering the room, though Lydia did use her water magic to pull the mana stones out which were noticeably larger than those obtained so far.
Trafin also mentioned that the floor in there wasn’t metallic before and no one could miss the altar near the centre of the room. It seemed to be entirely made of brass? That was people’s best guess at least and there seemed to be droplet iconography and scrollwork that had people curious. However, without entering it was hard to make out the details and Jenny doubted anyone was that curious.
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Jenny inhaled the savoury scent of the stew as she sat down beside Balrem, enjoying the feel of the sun on her skin after being inside for most of the day.
“I still can’t believe everyone got offered the [training] skill, I worked damn hard to get that skill and these newbies just got handed it.” Balrem grumbled good-naturedly but Jenny could see there was some real frustration behind it.
“Well, I wouldn’t exactly call clearing the first floor of the dungeon to be nothing…” Jenny hedged.
“Bah, don’t talk to me about what’s fair. You made out better than anyone, I’ve never heard of someone getting [training] while still having [combat training]. For anyone else the skill would just upgrade.” Jenny was pleased to see despite his words his smile now reached his eyes.
“I just got lucky I guess,” and she really thought that. [slice] upgrading to [slash] was already cause for celebration but getting a second experience boosting skill was just absurd. So much so she’d felt the need to report it to Sarge immediately.
“Lucky my ass! Ahh well I guess I’ll just have to build up to 7 combat skills sooner rather than later.”
Jenny almost spat out her spoonful of stew. “You can’t just have 7 combat skills and [training] even if you are a guard. What about [cooking], or [haggling]? You need some quality of life or social skills, you can’t just muscle your way through everything.”
“But,” he leaned in close and whispered, “Have you seen THESE MUSCLES!” Dramatically flexing his admittedly impressive biceps. “Sure, you couldn’t muscle your way through everything, but me? That’s the half-orc way!”
Before she could think of a humorous response to his ridiculous bravado a panicked shout from the dungeon entrance drew their attention. Delves had been going in every hour since they left after they’d determined that while things may respawn sooner, everything respawned on the hour. The assembled soldiers, rangers, casters and occasionally even priests had slowly been becoming less nervous and more excited for an easy opportunity to earn the [training] skill. Even from where she was sitting, she heard Sarge’s direct questioning as he approached the soldier monitoring the dungeon information displayed on the veil.
“Did the level increase again?”
“No sir, it’s the capacity sir. Floor 1 is now reading 6 out of 10.”
A series of faint mutters ran through the previously silent camp.
“Who was in…”
“…wouldn’t be that crazy…”
“…was Lydia with them?”
“Balrem, Jenny, with me.” She jerked her head around as Trafin seemed to appear from nowhere beside her. Speaking more softly he continued, “Something in the dungeon may have changed, they might have had to go to the second floor for some reason. Either way there’s a decent chance they need a rescue party and you’re among the more capable, so grab your shit and let’s go. I need to grab one of the holy types who won’t slow us down.”
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It was shocking how quickly they ran through the dungeon. Jenny knew that apart from the spear wielders, earlier Trafin had largely been holding back to let others get the experience, but when they’d been unlucky and the skeleton in the second room had respawned, he’d killed it with a throwing knife from across the room before the healer carrying the torch had even fully entered. The combination of his throwing skills and lowlight vision was no joke, then he ran across the top of the rungs. It had been a while since Jenny felt she was slowing anyone down, but today she felt it.
When they got to the final room, they saw a panicked group, not helped by the fact one of them was rapidly bleeding through the bandages the others were wrapping around his hands. It was Davis and he was missing the fingers of both hands. Jenny didn’t know the guy well, but of the new batch of recruits he was a little older than most and he struck her as solid and reliable from what she’d seen. The healer ran to him and started work while Trafin asked them what happened and where were the other four.
Sure enough, with Jenny’s focus drawn to Davis she’d missed it, there were only six of them and Lydia was among the missing. She wasn’t sure if the last part was reassuring since the missing four had a much greater chance of living if she was among them, or worrying since something had managed to separate even her from the rest of the group. Glancing at the trail of blood from Davis to the stone doorway that needed to be lifted, it was easy to tell where they’d been separated at least.
The report Trafin got from the panicked recruits was less than entirely coherent but the gist seemed to be that the ranger recruit they had with them got cocky after the spearmen died and wanted to scout out the next room. The [crusader] who tagged along to get [training] and provide healing, decided to go with him to check the altar. Lydia told them not to and one of the guard recruits went in with the ill-advised idea to try to drag them back, at which point the floor started to rapidly shift up at this end and down at the far end. Lydia had thrown herself in after the idiots and poor Davis tried to stop this end of the floor from reaching the roof, but the force was too much and his fingers got crushed and separated when it hit the roof instead.
Trafin had the recruits lift the stone doorway, but sure enough behind it was a solid block of curved steel, the top stained with blood and gristle from Davis’ efforts. The coppery scent felt strong for the amount of blood Jenny saw but she assumed it was just her reaction to that kind of injury that notoriously tended not to heal quite right. Sure, Davis would have fingers again, but they’d probably never be as responsive. His grip never quite as strong. The kind of injury every guard feared.
Try as she and Balrem might, the two strongest there, without leverage the steel barrier seemed impossible to move. There just wasn’t a way to get a grip now that it had closed, maybe if they’d both been here instead of Davis they could have stopped it raising, or maybe they’d have just been maimed instead. Trafin managed to embed a knife a few millimetres in the steel, though judging from the sweat on his brow it took a lot out of him, but it wasn’t deep enough to use as a handle or pierce through to glimpse the other side.
Trafin tried listening by the entrance and claimed he could hear faint sounds of splashing. After a short while his face grew grim, and he gave the order to get the others out of there and see if Sarge had a solution.
He didn’t.