A small smile grew on my face as we made our way into the second tunnel, three of us each side by side, with Deluc being in the lead, flanked by two paladins, who were tasked with protecting the truth-seeking mind mage from any source of danger. The man in question switched between his artifacts over and over again, searching for traps and illusions. It was unlikely a dungeon this new had access to the latter of the two, and even traps seemed to be out of the question for reasons I couldn’t quite grasp. Why didn’t that girl toss in at least a pitfall or two to at least somewhat slow down invaders?
I couldn’t help but look over my shoulder and to the group of three following the raid at a little distance. Much like the mind mage that was tasked with unveiling her secrets, the dungeon avatar herself was flanked by two guardians, namely Marisa and Alfred, who seemed to have very different ideas on how to protect the girl. The paladin was ready to fend off attacks using his sword and holy magic, the former priestess however seemed to be much more of a supervising parent in this scenario, one that would easily turn into a lioness should we overstep certain boundaries. Laying our hands on the girl was certainly one such thing.
Despite not a single trap lying in wait to hinder our progress, it still took us quite a few minutes to make our way through the unremarkable tunnels with how long they were. Both Deluc and the other members of the raid readily did their duties, some of the men even finding something to write about despite the passage being this dull. Luckily, we were soon greeted by sunlight again, meaning we would finally be able to see what the dungeon was all about. I could only hope it would impress us.
Once he and his guardians had reached the room, Deluc once again checked the surroundings for any source of danger before turning around to face the rest of the raid. “No traps nearby,” he explained, “But this room has monsters waiting for us.”
“Finally,” I couldn’t help but exclaim as I made my way over to the mind mage.
Once I had reached him, I thanked the man before letting my eyes wander through the dungeon room that was just waiting for us to explore its every nook and cranny. What I saw easily left me in awe.
The room itself was the biggest I had ever set foot in, easily being several hundred meters in both diameter and height. Strong winds dragged thick clouds through the sky above me. The center of the room was dominated by a mountain that almost seemed to touch the clouds above it, with several pillars of dark smoke rising from it.
“A volcano?”
Murmurs quickly made the round. There were instances of volcanoes finding their way into a dungeon, but it was very rare for this to happen. Volcanism was also always limited to the deeper, more dangerous floors, where the fire-spitting mountains were home to drakes and other kinds of almost mythical monsters. For a dungeon to greet adventurers with such a threatening sight rather than it being among its last lines of defense was unheard of!
I turned around to face the raid, “I think we are dealing with a volcano theme,” I explained to them before turning to the mages further in the back. “Major elements?”
One of the younger men hesitatingly stepped up. “Fire, Earth, Stone, Metal, Air, Lava, Steam, Smoke, Ash…” He listed both the basic and advanced elements. “I think Dust.”
I answered with a nod before addressing all of the mages. “We are likely dealing with a floor heavily focused on heat and physical attacks. Apply Water Veil and Iron Skin to everyone and pay attention to your surroundings. If you smell anything weird, immediately make use of Cleansing Rain, Gust, or similar spells to get rid of it. There could be poison and gas in the air!”
The men and women in question nodded, before going to work. Soon enough spouts of water were shooting from the two blue mage’s hands, hitting every single one of the men and women with a splash. Bubbles were now seemingly growing out of their bodies, forming a thin, translucent barrier around them. Even though the spell looked fragile at best, it would easily help fend off the intense heat that would surely be lying in wait for us. Sadly, a small number of fire attacks were already enough for the magic to become dispelled, with more advanced elements of red magic easily penetrating this thin layer of defense. We could only hope the monsters we would face had no access to those.
“What do you think we will be dealing with,” I couldn’t help but ask Deluc.
“We would see traps and huts if it was goblins. Too few trees for cover as well. So I don’t think it will be wolves, bears, or any other kind of beast.”
A single glance at the scenery in front of me was enough to know that the mind mage was right. While the volcano was surrounded by a few rather big trees that had colorful leaves, there was not nearly enough cover for most monsters I was aware of. Then there was a slow-flowing river or lake at the edges of the room, but even these waters didn’t seem to be a suitable home for common monsters, as there was no plant matter or rocks to hide between.
Then there was the wooden bridge that easily allowed us to keep formation with how wide it was. It was easy to see that it had been constructed by someone not in the field of architecture, with it being entirely made out of wood and not using the building material efficiently. It would hold our weight, that much I believed in as well, but a prolonged battle on top of it could very easily spell the end of the structure, especially with red mages tossing their spells around. The girl would need to work on that in the future; that was if she liked the idea of the adventurers she thought of as intruders and murderers using her bridge, to begin with.
I shove the matter aside to once again face Deluc. “Elementals?”
“That would be possible, though rather unlikely for an early floor.”
I nodded, already imagining an intense fight with an oversized elemental that would grow out of the water once we were in the middle of the bridge. It would certainly make for an interesting encounter, albeit one most of the men and women surrounding me wouldn’t be able to participate in due to their lack of ranged magic spells.
To my disappointment, such a fight never happened. When we made our way over the bridge, the wood was creaking under our combined weight, adding to the poor first impression I had of the structure, but it collapsing was the sole risk we had to take traversing it.
Soon enough we found ourselves on a graveled path that was leading through a meadow filled with flowers I couldn’t remember ever having seen before. The plants in question looked somewhat similar to some I knew, but they were different in color. Even the grass was that way, with the tip of each single leaf ending in a pure white, which was quite a rare pattern to see on such a plant.
Once again Deluc came to my rescue. Accompanied by the two paladins assigned as his guard, the mage walked onto the path for a few meters before making his way onto the meadow itself soon afterward. Before long, he let himself sink onto the grass, groaning in pain as he did so.
I could only sigh as I made my way after him, planning on helping the man to his feet once he had done his work. Deluc was a precious asset of the adventurer’s guild and had worked for it for almost all of his life, but even more so he was a good friend, so it really hurt seeing him be weakened by old age and slowly withering away.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
With a wave of my hand, I hollered over one of the water mages, before ordering the guy to give my old friend a little pain relief. Deluc was long past the point of blue magic helping, as spells of said magic school could only boost the body’s natural regeneration rather than generate new tissue out of nothing, but that didn’t mean I would watch him suffer.
Soon enough the water mage summoned several turquoise balls of water that slowly made their way over to Deluc, who was already picking flowers and leaves of grass. Once they splashed against the old man’s legs and hip, a relieved sigh could be heard coming from him, allowing him to gather the plants a little faster.
I thanked the mage before making the members of the raid spread out and explore the proximity. Soon enough small groups were gathering here and there, using various magic spells and tools to examine the dungeon. The water mage that had just helped my friend made his way over to the lake’s shore, before examining its water. Soon enough he was drinking it directly from the source with a smile on his face.
“Looks like there is no poison in it…”
When I turned my attention to the mind mage again, he was once again staring at one of his many artifacts, this time his most precious possession, a tiny board carved out of the branch of a world tree. The item in question was about the size of two palms, just big enough for Deluc to read the golden glowing letters that would soon appear on its surface.
One by one he placed the gathered plants on the artifact, read the appearing text, and continued with his work. And each time he did so, his eyes seemed to grow wider and his hands ever so slightly faster.
“They are blessed,” he exclaimed before he had even worked through half of the pile, “All of them are blessed!”
“Blessed? Are you sure?”
“I think the goddess has blessed this dungeon’s flowers. All of them!”
I immediately called over one of the groups that were tasked with guarding us, instead instructing them to gather samples to bring back with us. The three men nodded before beginning to fill small linen bags with the uprooted flowers and grass, making sure to bring all parts of the gathered plants, which I was more than satisfied with.
With that matter dealt with, I lifted a very thankful Deluc to his feet before accompanying him over to the biggest of the trees around. It was only now that I saw signs of life, as a big hole could be found at the tree’s root. Something was living inside of this room.
I immediately prepared for battle, not wanting to give the monsters the benefit of a surprise attack. Of course, this was immediately noticed by those nearby, quickly spreading the news of us having found something. Before I knew it, I was already surrounded by both men and women, all of them staring at the hole in the ground.
Without even having me ask him to do it, the water mage who had helped Deluc before already reached out his hands towards the hole before unleashing a torrent of water, trying to force out the monster that was likely hiding in the darkness of its burrow. For a few long moments, there was no reaction to the attack, and then, suddenly, the ground below us gave in.
I somehow managed to avoid the attack by jumping backward in time, others, however, were not so quick. Screams and pained groans could be heard coming from the sinkhole that had opened up, and we could only count ourselves lucky that it was barely five, maybe six meters deep. Still, I could easily see an open fracture on the leg of the water mage that had caused the collapse, with the other four men that had gone down with him being luckier - at least slightly so.
“Th- there are so many holes…” I heard one of the surrounding paladins stammer. “This whole place is undermined!”
He was right. In the walls of the newly opened hole were countless tunnels to be found, seemingly having been dug with no direction or purpose.
“What kind of monster would do something like this?!”
A series of high-pitched yelps seemed to answer my question. The monster’s voices came from far in the distance, seemingly from the other side of the volcano, but we were now sure there was trouble ahead.
And indeed, soon a group of creatures came running down the mountain slope, all of them shaped like dogs but entirely made out of flames. The monsters closed in rapidly, only to come to a sudden stop a few dozen meters from the paladins that had already become something of a living wall of steel, magic, and flesh, ready to defend us all.
The monsters stared at us with glowing red eyes, only waiting for some kind of sign, and they were soon given one, as a loud rumble could now be heard. I immediately looked up the steep mountainside, only to find a nightmare in the form of molten rock and fire forcing its way down towards us. The volcano had just erupted!
The avalanche of fiery death was quickly gaining momentum, easily surpassing the speed of a horse or even a falcon. Naturally, there was nothing we could throw against a force of nature like that, something even the paladins that had readied their shields to fend off the fire monsters were now realizing. When the fire monsters then made a jump to the side to avoid the molten rock racing towards us, the men immediately did the same, leaving the path open for the wave of destruction to reach the raid.
Panicked screams now rang in my ears as everyone surrounding me ran for their dear lives, and I couldn’t help but do the same, dragging the frozen Deluc with me. The tsunami of rock, fire, and death easily forced its way through our lines, before exploding into a giant ball of flames once it hit the sinkhole that lay in its path.
For a moment, there was silence, pure and utter silence. We were simply too shocked to speak, and it was only when we noticed the screams of agony that soon emerged from the hole that we sprang into action. Soon, all of us were making our way towards the path of flames that had been such a beautiful meadow just seconds ago, searching for any poor souls that had been in the avalanche’s path.
But instead of burning corpses and left-behind equipment, the sole thing that awaited us was a monster that easily was my own height. It was made purely out of molten rock ranging from deep reds over oranges to chunks of black. The monster took a look around, its bright yellow eyes examining the burning hole in front of it before it fanned out its two tails, as if showing off its power.
"This- this bastard," I heard myself stammer.
As for the men who had been trapped in the sinkhole, there was little movement coming from them other than screams, coughs, and weeps. The water mages immediately went to unload their magic onto the victims of the attack, not once minding to use efficient spells or conserve their mana, instead trying to overwhelm the aftermath of the fire with pure force alone. Even Marisa rushed to the hole to call forth snakes of water that rushed to those in need of help, despite having been asked to not interfere. The former priestess was a much weaker healer now that she had lost access to her holy magic, especially in hopeless cases like this, but she still tried by using her magic over and over again. And surely, a single soul soon rose from the rubble, their entire body covered with soot and ash, at least the parts not covered by blackened armor. The paladin coughed as he tried to stammer something, but not a single coherent word found its way to my ears.
I was just about to jump down the hole, trying to help the man in any way possible, when a monster's head suddenly appeared in one of the tunnels, seemingly having been woken up by the ear-numbing explosion.
“Ru- run,” I heard myself stammer.
The roughened-up paladin stared at me in disbelief, before slowly turning around. But it was too late, as the beast had already closed in on him, its earthen maw opened up wide for a single, brutal attack. A sickening crunch could be heard before the body of the paladin dropped to the ground, lifeless, only to explode into a bright flash of light a second later. The man was gone, leaving behind nothing but his charred armor and a single, white flower much like the one that had once decorated his forehead. It was perfectly pristine, as if freshly picked, and couldn't possibly look more out of place in the hellish landscape that had once been a monster's burrow.
Three more flashes of light followed as the remaining men shared this cruel fate, leaving us all frozen in place, unable to take a single breath. It was only after a few agonizingly long seconds, that a shaking voice made me come to my senses.
“A- attack!!”
Chaos ensued.