The geyser room greeted us with a thick wall of mist that easily hid all of the room's features behind a greyish white. I had been in this room before, but I still couldn’t get used to the fact that my sight was this limited. As an adventurer, being blinded was about the worst thing that could happen to you, and this entire room had this as its main feature. Well, that, the floating stones and the steam foxes that called it their home.
Said foxes were already running or rather floating about, spreading even more white as their tails waved through the air. Only their pale blue eyes seemed to always be visible, that was when they didn’t decide to simply close them in order to play tricks and pranks. I couldn’t help but call out to the foxes, asking them to stay away from us, which they luckily did. While I would have been fine on the receiving end of their attention, the same couldn’t be said about the strangers accompanying me.
“They are the same as the monster in the blocked-off room,” Aspen couldn’t help comment on the sight.
“That would be the nursery,” I explained. “It is protected by a very strong fox.”
“How strong is it,” he asked, looking slightly uncomfortable now.
“About as strong as the obsidian fox,” I suggested. “It has three tails, after all.”
Aspen couldn’t help but glance at my tails once again, before forcing himself to take a look at his surroundings instead. To our right side, we could make out two dark silhouettes barely hidden by the fog, statues, as I explained to the group, before pointing out they were guarding Kiomi’s private paths and were thus off-limits to them.
He was just about to ask me about it when one of the geysers nearby went off, shooting a fountain of boiling hot water high into the air, towards the dozens of floating stones that were almost perfectly hidden by the thick white blanket of fog, steam, and mist.
“What are those,” the alchemist couldn’t help but ask.
“Floating rocks,” I explained. “You have to traverse them to reach the next room.”
The man looked up to the rocks, before nodding in satisfaction. It seemed this challenge was a nice workout at best for him. Aspen, however, was visibly uncomfortable about the idea, as he wore his fancy plate armor, which would likely hinder his movements at least a bit.
I shrugged, deciding it was his problem to deal with. Instead I led the group toward the center of the room, where, barely visible now, a wooden structure awaited us in the middle of one of the larger ponds. A narrow, makeshift bridge of stone led over to it, allowing you to reach the place on dry feet. Sure, there were still the geysers you had to avoid, but given that they needed many minutes to regain their strength after exploding, the chances were looking rather good.
Within minutes, we had reached the place, allowing the members of the group to take a breather. Only Sarah and Deluc were immediately going to work, with the ink mage spreading out a large, empty sheet of paper on the pavilion’s floor to begin painting a map with the help of her magic. The hunter readily helped her with this task by casting a magic veil over her eyes that seemingly allowed her to look far into the distance. Before long, the woman was already measuring the room’s dimensions out aloud, allowing Sarah to work with even more precision. Within mere moments the ink mage had already finished painting the outer perimeter of the room and was now working on the shapes of the ponds we had passed by, as well as adding some of the floating stones. After a minute or so, she suddenly stopped, before asking me to lead her through the room so she could get every detail right.
Naturally, I did just that. So over the next half an hour, we systematically walked through the room, only to return to her map every few minutes for her to add a few more details to it. And the more she worked on the thing, the more surprised she grew, as she soon discovered the floating stones were creating a very distinct shape, one of a fox’s head. I hadn’t even noticed this myself, but couldn’t help but laugh about her little prank.
All in all, this room had little to improve upon, even in the eyes of the various group members. Only Deluc seemed to have some questions, as he had been in charge of researching what exactly the steam foxes were all about with the help of his artifacts. The old man told me he had found holy magic in each of the monsters, despite their main element being steam, a somewhat rare combination of fire and water magic. I happily revealed that the holy magic in their bodies was due to the dungeon's monsters being blessed by Cilia. Deluc, upon hearing this, only nodded, likely already having known or guessed as much, before adding the information he had found out about to Sarah’s ever-growing map.
I decided to give them a little more help by having the foxes show off their spells and explain their effects, much to their surprise. It was obvious the magic was more than they had bargained for, as it could be used both to heal other monsters as well as attack their foes while allowing them to avoid most physical attacks by simply turning their bodies into clouds of unbearably hot air.
Defeating these foxes was certainly possible for more experienced or stronger delvers, especially those who had access to magic. Only, you certainly had to try your best to bring down each of the foxes one by one in order to prevent them from healing each other until you run out of mana and strength yourself. The other option was leaving them be and instead trying your luck with the jumping stones, but that left you open for the steam foxes’ attacks that could prove to be very lethal if you didn’t have the chance to dodge them.
With Sarah having finished her map and Deluc having uncovered the Steam Foxes’ secrets, I soon led the group toward the very first of the jumping stones. This one was still touching the ground, making it easy to climb on top of it with a little jump, but the very next stone wasn’t offering this kind of luxury. It was about one-and-a-half meters away and slightly higher than the first one, which, together with the stones that followed after it, would quickly bring the delvers to uncomfortable heights. Just making a wrong step here could very easily lead to injury and even death, should you make an especially unfortunate landing.
With a shrug, I jumped up higher, knowing that I wasn’t in any real danger whatsoever. The group following me hesitated a bit, but they, too, were soon making their first jumps, with even Aspen managing to do it despite his visibly heavy armor. He seemed to be used to wearing it, and maybe he had even trained to run and jump in that thing, which allowed him to now follow me without much hassle.
Out of all of the group, only Sarah seemed to struggle with her heavy baggage. She and the old mage who seemed to carry way too many artifacts with him. So after seeing them doing their best to jump and barely managing to make their landing, I made my way back to them and made Sarah give me her singed backpack, before making Deluc stuff all of his heavier artifacts in it so they would have a slightly easier time with the room’s challenge.
The two of them readily accepted my help with a smile, before handing me her backpack. It was heavier than I had expected, thanks to there being more than just paper and ink stored in it now, but it still was fine, thanks to my much-stronger-than-before body.
Speaking of strength, I still had to test out my magic other than by lighting up the way with its help. For all I knew, my magic was based on the one used by a three-tailed fire fox she still had to summon. But she had told me that she had given it assassin- or trickster-like abilities during my creation, which had surprised me to say the least, since it meant she could actively create monsters the way she wanted them to be, which went against everything I knew about dungeons.
Sure, I had never talked to a chosen dungeon’s avatar before, so I couldn’t say exactly how they worked and if their way of doing it was any different compared to normal dungeons, but I knew not a single one of them had elemental foxes at least, making this dungeon a one-of-a-kind sort of deal.
I shook the thought out of my head, instead catching Sarah who was about to overstep the stone we currently were on thanks to her rough landing, after having slipped on one of the wetter stones. By now we had managed to traverse about twenty of the stones, some of them completely dry and others drenched by hot water, and had by now reached the upper limits of the jumping challenge, meaning things wouldn’t get much more dangerous from here one out.
A sudden explosion of water proved me wrong. It hit the stone we were standing on, splashing boiling hot liquid everywhere. While we were still somewhat safe from being hit, Aspen, Deluc, Neka, and the alchemist Rathal were not so lucky. Screams of pain soon rang into my ears, as several of them were hit by the attack. Still, they could only cover themselves and endure it, as they had no way to run.
When the force of nature finally receded, the four of them certainly looked like they had seen better days. There were burn marks to be seen on the parts of their skin that had been unprotected, and those parts that had only a layer of fabric covering them surely looked the same, as their robes were now drenched in hot water.
With a groan of pain, Rathal produced a small, red vial he had hidden somewhere under his cloak, before unplugging its cork with his teeth. Soon after, he drank the potion and a relieved smile could be seen on his face. The marks on his skin disappeared at a visible pace, but he didn’t stop to watch them go. Instead, he pulled forth three more of the potions, opened them each, and handed them out to Deluc, Aspen, and the huntress Neka, who were visibly relieved to see the bottles.
“Is there any warning for these,” he asked after making sure the two of us were also fine.
“Not that I am aware of,” I answered with a shrug. “This spot should be safe for a while, now. But we should probably rest on the stones that look dry. That way we can wait for the geysers to go off without hitting us.”
Rathal nodded, accepting my plan without a fuss. It likely wasn’t perfect, as we soon found out it involved a lot of waiting, but it was at least a safe way of making our way through the room.
Still, it took us way too long to finish the jumping puzzle, with easily two hours at minimum passing by before we could finally see the end of it in the distance. There were several more instances of us nearly being hit by boiling hot water, but luckily, nobody got hurt these times, allowing us to finish the challenge in relative safety. Still, I would need to talk to Kiomi about giving delvers a shortcut, as being trapped in a single room for hours surely wouldn’t help her become popular. Maybe making a shortcut at one of the ears would be a solution, with those who manage to finish the full puzzle instead being rewarded with a small treasure? That would surely entice people to at least try it out!
The tunnel to the next room was the shortest the dungeon had, being barely over a hundred meters long, thus not offering nearly enough time for the group to calm down again. While I was feeling perfectly fine, the others seemed winded, all but Rathal and Neka at least, who seemed to be more adapted to the challenges the geyser room had awaited them with. It probably fits their way of fighting and working, making it quite easy for them in comparison to both Deluc and Sarah, who were hindered by all the stuff they had to carry with them.
Sadly, there was no way to fix this other than to work as a team like we had. Every group of adventurers would need to share the load of their equipment before approaching this challenge, or they would surely fail to make all the jumps.
That said, it would still be lovely to have some kind of resting area after the jumping part, as the tunnels themselves were not exactly homely. Maybe a tiny room with a meadow to rest on, a pond to cool off, and a campfire just waiting to be used? People would love Kiomi for having this! Heck, as a sentient dungeon, she could make those men and women wish to never leave again!
Of course, having them camp at the dungeon would come with its own share of issues. It would hinder Kiomi from changing the rooms they are in, as well as slow down her mana gain when compared to shorter, more intense delves. So in order to please both adventurers and make them wish to return and stay effective, she had to find a way to toss them out every evening, while still allowing them to make their way to the deeper floors she would have in the future without them struggling with lack of time.
An obvious idea would be handing keys to bosses that would allow them to open the doors to the next floors, and have those doors be easily reachable once upon entering the dungeon. But how would she prevent these very items from being stolen or abused? Maybe enchanting them somehow would work? I couldn’t say, having no experience in that matter. Hopefully, Kiomi would find a solution, maybe with the help of our heavenly mother, who seemed to cherish her a lot.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The bright light of the next room now greeted us, cutting short my thoughts and forcing me to explain what it was all about. I explained it to be a steep slope that featured ponds of lava for lava foxes to live in, which made most of the group rather uncomfortable, given their past with this type of monster. When I then told them attacking delvers with avalanches was the exact idea behind this room, they grew visibly paler and increasingly restless, but I could somehow soothe their worries by explaining to them that there would be large rocks to hide behind, offering some safety at least.
The first two of these protective features greeted us at the very entrance of the room, thus allowing us to take a safe look at what awaited us. To our right side, the terrain fell off into a steep slope, with the first pond of lava already waiting for us to make a mistake, with the sole safe route being somewhere in the middle of the room instead.
I told the group to wait for a moment, before walking out of the protection of the rocks. Two lava foxes were already waiting nearby to greet me, with several others staring at me from inside of the small lava lake they called their home. Their tails soon began moving upon noticing who I was, and while most of them immediately went back to lazing around, others at least stayed around to hear me out.
It only took me a few moments to explain to them that I was here to show a group around and that they were to stay away and - most importantly - not attack. Only two of the lava foxes got a different task. They accompanied me back to the group, much to their horror. While the foxkin among them knew exactly what these monsters were capable of, the other two needed some demonstration, so I ordered the two foxes to launch an attack down the slope, which they did with wagging tails and excited barks.
Soon, their deep-red mana shaped two balls of molten rock right in front of them, only for these to be set free soon thereafter. The ground under our feet was shaking as they forced their way down the slope, gaining more and more speed and even splitting up from the sheer force they were subjected to. The balls soon got replaced by an avalanche of molten rock, that easily washed over every hurdle that found itself in its path. The foxes’ lava ponds didn’t even slow the attack down, in fact, it only grew faster and faster, as the slope went all the way down to the end of the room. Only the big, blackened rocks offered some safety, as they easily split up the avalanches into halves, allowing delvers to find some safety in their shadows.
I couldn’t help but let out a whistle as I watched it all go down. The two foxes alone had managed to transform at least a third of the room’s total width into a death zone, with only a few spots being left untouched by the raw strength of their attack. Was this maybe over the top?
I shook my head. With the rocks in place to offer some safety, this room should be fair to adventurers, at least those who aren’t stupid and knew what they had to look out for. And once they had some equipment and potions to help them fend off the heat, it would likely be a walk in the park. Sure, they would still need to face the foxes in a melee battle once they were out of mana after a few attacks each, but in that state, they were much easier to deal with anyway.
Aspen and the group seemed to have a different standard. They were still looking at the slope in horror, despite it now being mostly free of flames and debris. I didn’t know how exactly the dungeon managed to do it, but it somehow cleaned up after itself, which was good to know, as otherwise, Kiomi would need to recreate this room every few weeks due to the sheer amount of molten rock piling up.
Shrugging my shoulders, I invited the group to follow and begin their work, which they hesitatingly did. Sarah soon produced yet another scroll of paper, which she then used to mark all of the lava ponds and even the exact positions of the safety features on, giving them all the right colors and a few explanations each. She even painted the foxes in the corner of the map, describing their sizes, features, and mode of attack, before asking me just how many of them were hiding in this room.
“I counted about ten of them,” I openly revealed, wanting to assist her in doing her work even a tiny bit. “Half of them live here,” I said while pointing to the nearby lava lake. “The others are spread out all over the room.”
Sarah nodded, before noting the information down. Like any written word I had seen ever since being brought to this place, I couldn’t make sense of anything I found on her map other than the paintings themselves, but the ink mage didn’t seem like she was hiding anything. If anything, she proudly finished her work right in front of my eyes, having painted almost one-third of the room just by eyesight and experience alone.
The ink mage soon got to finish her work, leaving only Diluc to still examine the two lava foxes, who, luckily, were curious enough about his artifacts to stay a little longer despite being visibly uncomfortable about being out in the relative cold for minutes. A single glance at the members of the group was enough to know they had a very different idea of a well-tempered room, as pearls of sweat were rolling down their skin, almost making me wish I could toss them into a cold pond.
Luckily, the old man soon finished his work with the foxes, allowing Sarah to add a few more discoveries he had made. Once he began packing his things, the foxes made their escape and were soon back to lazing around in their little lake.
The rest of the room was quickly mapped out. We only stopped four times for Sarah to be able to complete her work before we reached the lower end of the slope, where another pair of fox statues were guarding a door leading towards Kiomi’s hidden network of tunnels.
I led the group to the tunnel opposite the closed-off one, which led us to the first one of the empty rooms Kiomi had created after fending off the exploration raid. It was nothing more than a vast emptiness of rock and dirt right now, with a blue, sunny sky guarding over it, but I readily explained the plans Kiomi had with this room. In the future, it would be covered with crystals and volcanic glass and be the home of the obsidian fox Aspen had dueled. Hearing this, the paladin nodded, visibly determined to fight his way all the way to this room in the future in order to win back his honor. Seeing him like this, I couldn’t bring myself to tell him that the whole thing couldn’t have been more than a funny game for the fox in question, as she had been visibly happy to see her playmate again. Instead, I told him that I wished him the best, which he answered with an honest thanks.
Soon, Sarah motioned me to continue leading them through the dungeon, as she had quickly finished painting the room thanks to its severely lacking features. With only two mithril foxes guarding yet another door, there was certainly little to paint here, but at least the ink mage had made sure to note down what Kiomi had planned for the future, for better or for worse.
The next room was pretty sizeable but about as easy to map out. Once again, there were statues greeting us to the right side of the room, but other than that, it was only a roughly rectangular, empty hall of rock and dirt. Once again, Kiomi had set the room to feature a sunny day, which allowed us to easily make our way through the emptiness.
In the middle of the room, Sarah once again motioned us to stop, so she could map it out. While she was doing so, I told her about the plans Kiomi had for this part of her dungeon. It would serve as a new home for most of the lava foxes currently living in the volcano area, so as to not wipe out entire raids within the reaches of her very first room. Five of them would remain where they were, enough to guard the mountain and hopefully fend off more nefarious attackers, but other than that, she was once again going for a rather friendly approach.
Once Sarah had finished her map and all the notes I was allowing her to add thanks to my explanations, she packed her things and stood up again, ready to delve deeper into the dungeon.
Sadly, there wasn’t much more to see. I didn’t plan on taking them to the nursery, as I didn’t want them to disturb the mother-to-be and honestly didn’t want them to know about her existence, to begin with, so there were only two rooms left to show them. The very first one, the one Kiomi had the most plans for, awaited us behind a curved tunnel at the end of the rectangular room we currently were in, just a minute or two away from us.
I quickly led them there, knowing it was Kiomi’s most prized possession despite being entirely empty. And indeed, when we reached there, the girl in question was even standing in the middle of the empty landscape, much lower when compared to our elevated position. Her red hair was easily noticeable as there were only rocks and dirt surrounding her, that and a familiar patch of white, with a tiny dot of blue resting on top of it.
With a shrug, I led the group towards her, all the while explaining that Kiomi planned to build a genuine town at this place for her more peaceful foxes and all of her bosses to live in and adventurers to rest and meet before they made their way back to the exit.
Sarah sucked up all of this information like a sponge, more than eager to write it all down once she got the chance. And it didn’t take long, as Kiomi was already awaiting us, next to the core she had placed down on a bed of white fur. Seeing the blue crystal ball at this place was rather surprising to me, as it meant she had moved it here while I was leading the group to this place. This was likely her way to protect her private hallways, nursery, and now former core room, where she had told me she was usually sleeping at, from being mapped out as well.
Luckily, doing that much wasn’t needed, as the group would have finished their duty after mapping out the room and touching the core, as it was by no means needed to map out every single room a dungeon had, only those that were accessible and required to reach the core in the first place.
The ink mage, after politely greeting Kiomi, quickly went to work, more than eager to finally note down everything that was likely to happen to this room in the future. As of now, it was only a big, circular emptiness, with the terrain falling off towards the middle of the room, creating a large valley of some sort, but that would hopefully change soon with beautiful buildings and lush greenery filling the scene. I could barely wait for this to happen.
As for myself, she still needed to build me a boss room of some sort, and hopefully a smithy, so I could do my duties and help her out at the same time. But that was for the future as well, as the men and women outside were likely still too weak and inexperienced to face me in their current states. And as of now, the empty, rectangular room you had to traverse before reaching the town would do fine for me to let off some steam and test my abilities.
One by one, the members of the group greeted Kiomi with their weird handshakes, before talking to her about what they thought about what they had seen. All in all, it could be summed up with them being both impressed and terrified, as Kiomi hadn’t cut any corner. Although they, too, pointed out some flaws they had seen, such as the volcano room’s meadow feeling too empty or the jumping challenge being too long, they were all in all satisfied with her work. This place was just way above their pay grade, meaning they did not have the strength yet to benefit from it being here.
Kiomi would need to fix this as well, not by making her existing dungeon easier, but by dedicating her next floor to beginners instead, thus leading to more potential visitors and, more importantly, more potential growth. Maybe this town of hers could serve as some sort of hub for adventurers to use before they entered the real dungeon, with doors leading to the different floors all being gathered in one place. She would need some help to get this working, but once it was, people would surely flock to this place.
Sadly, there was no way but to wait for Kiomi to gain her second floor, which was, as far as she had told me, gated behind a heavenly quest given to her by Cilia herself. I didn’t know the exact details of her tasks, but she had at least told me that she was asked to build more rooms–which she had successfully done with the empty ones–and fill them with foxes while using her remaining mana to summon new two-tailed ones using the magic ritual she had set up next to the volcano.
I shook this issue out of my head, as I had no idea how to really help her complete these tasks as I couldn’t change the dungeon like she could. If anything, I could craft items for her and advise her on how to properly construct bridges, homes, and other items, but other than that she was pretty much on her own, which bugged me.
Meanwhile, Kiomi herself didn’t show a single worry on her face. She openly discussed her plans and dreams with the group, before, after being asked by Aspen to do so, allowing them to touch her core as a formal conclusion to their exploration.
Seeing them gather around the core, I hurried over to Kiomi’s side, as I had no idea how having their core touched would feel to a dungeon’s avatar. And indeed, once all members were ready and reached out for the blue crystal ball, a visible shiver went through her body, indicating it wasn’t an enjoyable experience, to say the least. Luckily, I was there to catch her and the group themselves soon noticed her discomfort as well, letting go of the core almost immediately.
Their job was done anyway, as they openly showed with smiles on their faces, before explaining they had felt a warmth spreading through their bodies, a sign that a deity, Diona in this case, was watching them. With just this tiny gesture, the Goddess of the Hunt had confirmed the group had indeed explored the dungeon and were thus eligible to name it. But instead of accepting this rare honor and the chance to become famous, Aspen walked up to us and asked Kiomi for a name instead, as it was she who had allowed them to get to this place unharmed.
“Cilia always called it Dungeon of Foxes,” Kiomi readily revealed, before adding that the rooms indeed had no names yet.
She told them that she referred to the Volcano, Geyser, and Slope Rooms as such, but said she was open to any names they may have. As for the empty rooms and the name of the future town, she had no idea, which baffled the man quite a bit. While it was tradition for the first explorers to name everything, that same tradition did not account for avatars already existing, as these were usually limited to much older dungeons. So asking the dungeon herself was obvious in her special case as well as to be expected.
“I am sure you will find good names,” she argued, before putting the matter to rest.
Aspen accepted this task with a nod, before promising they would make sure to think about it before making their decision. He then walked over to the ink mage to inform her of the dungeon’s name, which she happily added to all of her maps one by one. After doing so, the group gathered once again, before asking me to lead them back. I was just about to follow them when Kiomi held me back.
“I have a surprise for you,” she told me. “Once you come back.”
A smile grew on my face hearing this. There were so many things she could give me, so many things I desperately wanted, all of them tools or materials she could easily pop into existence using her powers and maybe a little bit of instruction. What had she decided on? I couldn’t wait to find out!
I was just about to run off and finish my duty, when she called after me, telling me that she would open the door leading to the volcano room once I had brought the group out. So with my four tails wagging behind my back, I did just that.