We spent the afternoon discussing what was known of the dungeon they were trying to raid. I was not too surprised to find out that they knew very little about the dungeon. The best information seems to be rumors and local legend. Through the discussion, it came up that the party was in debt and needed to get some cash and quick or they would be in trouble. While they did not go into much detail, the pointed looked at Daivan was enough for me to understand that he did something stupid.
It did not take long to realize that though Daivan was the party leader, he was a bit of a ditz and tended to make impulsive decisions sometimes. ‘Don’t say it, don’t say it.’ I reminded myself that it was none of my business and I should not butt in where I don’t belong, but I would certainly think it. ‘Why don’t they have Arvin be the party leader? He is calm and seems to be levelheaded. Not to mention that they all listen to him. Am I missing something or are they just oblivious to the obvious?’
Other than my slight frustration about the party leader situation, the discussion went well. It was decided that we would leave for the dungeon location first thing in the morning. With everything wrapped up for the night, I excused myself for the evening, promising to meet up with them in the morning.
I had just enough money in my pouch for a night at the inn and two meals. ‘It’s like the dungeon wants to make this easier for me or something. Oh heavens, what is coming that I get an easy start.’ Leary of what the dungeon had in store, I booked the smallest room possible for the night, then joined the party downstairs for dinner. The food was simple but hardy and I enjoyed having food that I did not have to cook. The bed, on the other hand was really uncomfortable. ‘That is a hard nope.’ Shoving the bed to the side, I pulled out a feather soft futon from my inventory, happy that the inventory’s use was not restricted.
No matter how many dungeons I enter with sub-par sleeping accommodations, there was always an adjustment period for me while I got used to not having a decent bed again. Unfortunately, most dungeons seem to have something against a good night’s sleep and, more often than not, that inventory item was prohibited from being used. Happy that I would not have those issues this time, I got ready to go to sleep.
I quickly fell asleep and spent the night comfortably sleeping without interruption. I was woken in the morning by a soft knock on my door. I raised my head and looked at the door, wondering if I had imagined it.
“Jen, are you awake?” I was instantly alert and scrambled to my feet.
“Yes, give me a minute to refresh myself and I’ll be out there.” I called while scrambling to put on my shoes and socks.
Wrinkling my nose at the dirty socks, I wished that hygiene products were included in the gear I was given by the dungeon. A quick glance at the room window showed that it was still dark out. Opening the door, I found Rehna on the other side, leaning against the wall.
“Sorry about the wait. I must have been more tired than I realized.”
“No problem, we’re meeting up to grab some food we can eat while out, then we will be heading out.” Rehna graciously accepted my apology.
I followed her downstairs, suppressing a yawn. The rest of the party was waiting at the entrance with several small bundles of food. I returned my room key to the older lady who was behind the counter now and paid for three bundles of food when I found out I could get them for what I had budgeted for breakfast.
Wishing for a large mug of coffee, I followed the party outside, and we started walking towards the road I came in from. A quick pit stop at the well to fill our waterskins, then we headed out of town. We followed the road for about two hours until the sun began to rise, shedding more light on our surroundings. Arvin was appointed the navigator when we left the road and started making our way through the forest. From what the others told me, he knows these woods better than anyone else in the area. Before he joined his niece and nephew in the party to watch out for them, he was a part time hunter and thus spent a lot of time stalking prey through the trees.
It was a nice walk with nothing out of the ordinary occurring. Not even a rabbit crossed our path, probably due to how loud the party was being. We arrived at the dungeon around mid-morning. The entrance was a rough stone doorway set into the side of a hill that looked like it descended into the depths of the earth. As we stood before the dungeon entrance, I received a notification.
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Quest: enter the dungeon.
Time limit to complete: ten minutes.
‘Darn it, now I need to get the party moving without making them suspicious of me.’ Mia examined the entrance before she declared that there were no traps. Bren grabbed a few torches from his bag, along with flint and steel, to light them.
“Shit, they’re too wet to light.” He looked apologetically at Daivan. “I thought they would have dried out by now. Besides, it’s not like we could afford more.”
“I have a light spell that should help.” I interjected before they could waste too much time. “I can cast it on the torches if you want, and it would last for an hour. I can cast multiple times, so there should be no issue with using the spell.”
“Agreed,” Daivan agreed without hesitation. “Alright we’ll enter the dungeon as soon as you cast the spell.”
I maneuvered around the party to stand by Bren. Casting light on each of the torches took less than a minute. With only a few minutes to spare, the party started entering the dungeon. I was the last one to enter the dungeon, and received a notification as soon as I stepped over the doorway’s threshold.
Quest completed within the time limit, no penalties enacted.
With a sigh of relief, I sagged back against the doorway, not liking the threat of penalties from the dungeon. ‘Am I being too paranoid? It is only a level one dungeon after all. Nah, better safe than sorry after all. Now let’s get to killing things. I want to see what a swing of this staff can do.’ Waiting for the rest of the part to get themselves sorted out made me want to give them the look. You know that patented mom look that says hurry up and stop wasting my time. Not wanting to play babysitter, I suppressed the urge to tell them to stop fighting, and stayed out of it.
Since there were no new quests forcing me to act, I closed my eyes and rested against the wall while waiting for the party to figure out what they were going to do. Someone settled against the wall next to me. I opened my eyes and saw Arvin in a similar position.
“We should power through.”
“No, we need to be careful and look for traps.”
“That will take too long, if we run really fast, any traps we do trigger won’t have time to take effect.”
“No, that’s taking stupid risk.”
“Who are you calling stupid?”
“Not you, your plan, you dummy.”
“I’m not a dummy, you are.”
Listening to them argue like children made me cringe and share a commiserating look with Arvin.
“Are they always like this?” I quietly asked him.
“Unfortunately, yes.” He sighed, “they are still learning and I will not always be with them to keep them in line. I had hoped that Daivan would have gotten better at asserting himself as the leader, but it seems like that is still a long way off.”
“I understand the feeling.” I wryly grinned, “Well, if they want to act like children, you could always threaten to punish them like children.”
Arvin chuckled at that and just shook his head. We continued to observe the rest of the group. Soon the discussion devolved into a full-blown screaming match, each person trying to make their point by overriding the others in sheer volume.
“QUIET!” Daivan yelled. “Now, as the party leader, I have the final say in this decision and we are going to go at a normal pace, checking for traps as we go, but not taking forever and doing a snail crawl. Got it.”
The rest of the party gave a chorus of affirmative responses. Daivan had finally taken charge and got the group to stop bickering about what to do. He instructed Mai and Arvin to take point. They were to check for traps and defend against any surprise attacks. They were followed by Daivan and Sol, then Bren and Rehna. I brought up the rear, conveniently avoiding any future bickering. ‘How do they manage to get anything done with all the fighting they do? Maybe this is why they need a healer. They’re too busy fighting with each other to fight their opponents effectively.’
Using being in the back to my advantage, I observed the rest of the party. For a while, we did not encounter anything. The longer this went on, the more relaxed those I could see got. ‘What a rookie mistake. Come on, Daivan, here is where you remind them of the dangers. Or not, what are you doing? This is not a game.’ With a pointed look from Arvin, Daivan seemed to realize that he needed to do something.
“Guys, pay attention. Just because we have not come across anything yet, doesn’t mean there isn’t something dangerous ahead. We need to stay vigilant.”
His warning had come too late as Mai turned to watch him while still walking forward. An ominous snap sound heralded the triggering of a trap. Suddenly a cloud of bright pink smoke surrounded the party. I reflexively jumped backwards and covered my face to avoid breathing any in. ‘Really, bright pink. That is so tacky.’ As the smoke cleared, I could not see any of the party members. A sound had me looking down to see a bunch of cats where the party should have been.