Jasss22 & schadof – thanks guyz. Honestly. Thanks.
Edited by: KenChi死
The deeper we went the hotter it got. As a result the pond nearby the stairs between the 7th and 8th floor had the best possible temperature. It was true bliss. But I was wondering. Wht was there a pond or even a small lake at the entrance of almost every floor. Coincidence? I don’t think so… But why the hell would a dungeon take good care of the adventurers it tries to kill? I shouldn’t think too much about this now. What I should be thinking now is about…
The blissssss. In the end it took us a bit more than 2 hours to get to the deeper floor. We will take yet another break so we could finish the dungeon tomorrow. To be honest I am a bit disappointed. About the dungeon, it is… I hoped that I could level at least twice here. And here I am, in about half of my level, atop of that I have spent quite some time in the Heira dimension. Tsh, I will have to somehow convince ol’ Jericho to allow me to take harder quests.
I heard a small splash near me. Loki jumped in the pond. Even as he was mostly naked he still was wearing the bandana covering his face.
* “Sure, go on. I don’t need privacy at all.”
I just needed to relieve my fatigue and irritation. On someone. And here he came, almost volunteering.
* “You are taking a longer baths than ladies of upper social ranks. I needed to check if you weren’t putting make up on your face.”
* “It would surly took me less time if I wouldn’t have to scrub pieces of flesh off my face. Ya maybe know, who is responsible for that?”
* “You and only you! You should be grateful, for thanks to me you could experience new things!”
I will punch him in the face…
* “But honestly… I don’t want to be an ass, but they require your help in the camp. So if you could…”
He made a gesture with his hand as if sending a servant away. I felt offended. And I would surely punch him and hold his head under the water for quite some time if not for the smiling sparkles in his eyes, which show clearly that he was joking.
I am growing too soft.
Indeed, there were quite a few tasks to do inside the camp – preparing food (we decided that we have had enough of our “packed lunch” and decided to cook some lizards), setting the very camp, once again putting up repelling hex bags…
Yet all the time I spent with them in the camp had something magical in it. It was so… peaceful. Listening to the quarrels of Mrogul and Marika while meat spread its smell and the view of a campfire happily lightening up the surroundings… and all of it while holding a warm cup of weak herbal alcohol…
My heart became warmer. Just a little.
The night was quiet, the blanket warm and quite comfy. Imagine my reaction as I was awakened by a bucket of cold water.
Well, my instincts kicked in – I got up quickly, my nails morphed into claws which were clothed with fire magic in the very same time against my will from my mouth escaped a weird hybrid of a roar and hiss
* “On your legs? Good. Morning sleepyhead. Ready for the daily dose of blood and guts? Here, have a carcass of your enemies as nutriment.”
It was Loki handing me a piece of roasted meat from yesterday. Why didn’t I hit him? Maybe because part of my mind was still sleeping, part of me was looking for enemies, and my body, as a whole couldn’t comprehend what for fucks sake had just happened.
I stood there with a piece of meat in hand for a few more seconds. As soon as my brain started actually working…
* “What the… Loki… I will FUCKING KILL YOU! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?! THROWING A BUCKET OF WATER AT A FIRE MAGE? BECEAUSE OF SHOCK I COULD BLOW THIS CAMP UP!”
* “But you didn’t! Now, keep moving, while you were sleeping we finished most of the tasks around here. We are moving so if you could…”
I stopped listening to him in that moment. I focused completely on his neck, imaging how wonderfully would he look with his throat sliced.
* “… and as only you would be ready we will march out.”
And he walked away.
This Loki is a very… interesting person. He may be a great companion as soon as you get used to his “jokes”… or as soon as you learn to prevent his attacks… Yet for now I am NOT used to it.
* “What are you thinking about?” Marika asked me as she was walking past me.
* “Mostly if it would be hard to kill Loki here and fake it as an accident.” She chuckled “Why are you laughing? I am deadly serious about it.”
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
* “Just wait a little. Loki is a great adventurer, you just have to stop leaving openings or wait for him to pick someone else to bully.”
* “Why the hell is he such a jerk?! I understand that one can make a joke or two, but this dork is crossing the line.”
* “He lost quite a few friends. He believes, that thanks to mocking new guys he is teaching them to always be on their guard and thus reducing the death rate among amateurs. Just ignore him.”
… Should I feel bad about this? Cuz’ I didn’t. I have survived a forest, I have survived witch hunters, I will survive a newbie dungeon and I will survive Loki.
But for now, we were ready to head deeper into the dungeon.
I could easily tell why this dungeon is used as a training ground. Pretty much nothing changed since the first floor. I mean, yes – the monsters were stronger and so on, quite a few traps and the very fact that the air was poisonous could make it sound like some hellish place.
But the tactic of the monsters was repeatable and easy to predict and the traps were not exactly… sophisticated. Pitfalls were usually under plates of different a color, flying spikes were triggered by mobbing a strings places on foot-level, and if a treasure chest was left in the middle of main room – it was a monster. The actual treasure chests were places deeper in the dungeon in “side rooms”, and even then those were never placed in the very center of the chambers.
A hammer was once again brought down in a powerful smash. Mrogul became enthusiastic, he swung his weapon from the side to side. He was unstoppable. The rest of us were standing at the end of the room looking at the hell he brought upon his foes.
* “Should we… should we help him… maybe?” I asked shyly.
* “No. It’s okay the way it is.” Marika said with a bored expression
* “But… Shouldn’t we act like a team… or um… I don’t know. Maybe it would be faster if we would help him?”
* “Look at him. Does he look like he is in need of a helping hand?”
One of the lizard terrified by the sight of said possessed by bloodlust orc tried to get away. As only Mrogul noticed one of his preys running away, he threw aside his hammer and grabbed the beast by its tail.
And he swung the creature by its tail over his head
* “Does he…. Does he often fight like that?”
* “Just ignore him. He will be done soon.”
The lizard flew in our direction. We moved to the sides to make a space for the corpse to fly through.
* “I am seriously worried.”
* “He just needs a worthy opponent. Killing weakling like those bring no… wait, what was that word? Ah, yes. Honor. So he jumps into swarms on enemies just to make the fight a little bit more equal…”
The last beast fell dead. The Mrogul was panting but I am pretty much sure that it was caused by excitement and not exhaustion.
* “Feel better?” Marika asked in a tone, which said that she was not interested in answer.
* “How could I feel better?!” Someone was angry “Orcs live via honor and war. What kind of honor did I receive by slaughtering a bunch of such weaklings?”
* “Be a good boy and we will take you for Behemoths hunting.”
* “Don’t you dare treat me like a pet of yours!”
* “Now, now, now, now, now! Calm down! Marika stop mocking Mrogul, Mrogul we are here to help Zari with ranking up. In no time he will catch up with us and then we will be able to do harder task. You know, you can’t simply ignore the fire power he possess… not sayin’ that some dungeons are dark… having a fire mage that would cast flying torches could allow us to save a few coins on supplies and we would have one more hand free while dueling…”
* “… wait. Don’t tell me that that is the reason why you are interested in helping me rank up… you see me as nothing more than a walking torch….”
Loki turned his head back to me
* “Don’t be ridiculous! Of course you are much, much more than a torch… campfire, bath warmer, bug repeler …”
* “I am not going to kill you… in the end someone in this party has to be used as a scapegoat and trap detector” I hissed angrily
I can guess that soon relations between me and Loki will be the same as between Mrogul and Marika.
* “Now, now, now, now, now!” This time it was Marika who intervened. What a time to be alive. “We are all nervous. Let’s finish this job and get back to the guild.”
Both me and Loki turned our backs to each other with a “Hmpf!” on our lips.
We moved forward.
The 9th floor.
Usually Mrogul as a heavy armored fighter should lead the way, but it all changed as in one room Loki mentioned something like “Heh, apparently I killed over 11 foes as for our walking fireplace about 5…”
It was supposed to be said as a joke. I didn’t treat it as one. In the outcome, I rushed into next chamber and unleashed the fiery inferno by the cost of 1/3 of my mana pool.
I scorched everything to the ground.
So in the next yet room our little competition started for good. Loki was mocking me a little that if I would keep using such spells one after another I will lose my consciousness in no time. That is why in YET another room I didn’t wait for him as he was collecting his throwing dagger back.
Oh sweet revenge.
* “ 8th, 9th and 10th! You are hanging ba…”
* “From 6 to 14… ah explosions surly are comfortable… I could not imagine how non-magicians must have been tiring themselves for a single kill, when we – the higher class – can do the shit done by snapping our fingers…”
* “Tsh…”
This time it was Mrogul and Marika who walked behind while shaking their heads with disapproval.
* “This one is 14th… woah! THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!”
As Loki was trying to stab another lizard, SOMEONES spear was thrust in front of his face, missin… I mean being skillfully performed and then hitting the monster instead.
* “Pardon me, apparently this one is mine. 16th!”
* “You little!...”
I chuckled. I was having fun. Actual fun!... Crap. I just noticed how it sounded. Having fun while slaughtering some animals… well I am lost case anyway….
The blades were dancing. The spear was mimicking the movement of a snake, the knives were thrown followed by the flameballs.
The 9th floor was perfectly straight and soon we reached the last chamber.
Me and Loki – both of us were breathing heavily.
* “So.. ho… how much did you kill?”
* “Over 9000? And you?”
* “Pfth. Ha..haha, same. But no, honestly. How much?”
* “Not sure… wait, 5 and 22 and 14 and 11 and 9… ah fuck this. can’t remember.”
* “Draw?”
* “Ca… can agree.”
* “Now. You mentioned about 10th Did ya? Can’t see any doors, stairs and so on… but this returning glyph…”
He pointed on the ground where small marks were shinning.
* “… those will take us back on the surface… and such glyphs are usually placed on the last floors or after Boss battles. Plus there is a treasure chest. Not sayin’ that you are wrong and there is no 10th floor… but you are wrong and there is no 10th”
I start looking around. The very last room was filled with few monuments of dragons. Three rows of two. And every single one of them was looking in different direction. I start playing with them.
* “What are ya lokin’ for?”
* “Everything… and nothing in particular. Maybe those are some kind of puzzle… maybe there is something to be moved… Maybe there is some kind of lever or… switch…”
* “Waste of ti…”
* “BINGO!”
I pushed a dusty jewel. As soon as I did the head moved the direction it was looking at, and the jewel was pushed back.
* “Guyz help me with those…Maybe they need to look in the same direction or something…”
Aaaand we started playing around. We tried pointing em’ into every possible wall, pointing em’ back, pointing em forth…
Fortunately no trap was triggered… ya know, from time to time there are penalties when you are putting puzzles in the wrong order and so on…
And then we made them look into to the center directly between all of them. And something rumbled. And something crumbled. Something moved and something trembled.
The plate in the middle of the room moved to the side showing spiral stairs down. Well, definitely wouldn’t have found it if I hadn’t t been looking for it.
On one of the plates, right before the stairs inscription appeared.
May the goddess have mercy upon your souls,
Whatever are your desire, whatever are your goals,
You opened the doors, that was told to be shut,
And you awakened Nightmare, prepare for the blight.
* “One suggestion… maybe rest here for a moment or two… just in case?”
The rest of the team agreed without hesitation.
… Okay, where is my SAVE button?