He was utterly stupefied. It was the largest vehicle he'd ever seen. The doors on its side swung open and a stream of adventurer's got out, most of them with battered apparel.
"ALL ABOARD!" the driver shouted.
Get on, man!
The surrounding horde of people was already streaming aboard, tugging Goldie along like a tidal wave.
How will we all even fit inside?
By severely limiting leg space, and having a low ceiling.
Goldie managed to snag himself a window seat on the second level. He counted himself fairly lucky, until another adventurer sat down next to him.
Before he could even think about changing seats, the train was already on its way.
The ride to the dungeon blew Goldie's mind. Having lived at the edge of the empire he was not used to seeing such advanced forms of transportation. The speed was only a bit faster than some of the mauku-drawn carriages Goldie had seen, however it was far larger and moved completely on its own! Xander explained that the wheels drove on thin metal tracks that were linked to a power grid and reduced friction. Through this method one could feed energy straight into the vehicle.
"How many people do you reckon are on this thing?" he asked his neighbor.
"Don't know, don't care," came the raspy reply.
Goldie spent the rest of the ride in silence.
----------------------------------------
He stepped off the train and gazed into the distance. There was a gigantic cave entrance on the side of a mountain and to Goldie's surprise there was a complete lack of guards or support structures placed outside. The constant stream of fighters entering the ruin probably stopped any monsters from escaping. Goldie snapped out of his train of thought when he noticed all the other adventurers were sprinting towards the cave. He took another few seconds to register what was going on before he realized the bastards were trying to enter first, so they could slay any creatures before the others got a chance. Not only that, the closer one got to the dungeon, the more crowded it became. They even began butchering eachother at the entrance.
Xander... what in the world is going on?
Technically a dungeon is no longer counted as Suménean soil. Therefore, nobody enforces any laws. Attacking your competitors and stealing their anima is normal game here.
Goldie could sense Xander's amusement, which he did not share in the least.
Don't worry. It should mellow out once you actually get inside. The gatekeepers can be a real pain though.
That was not very comforting, but at least he would hopefully not need to fight other adventurers while fighting the more dangerous beasts below. While marching towards the entrance he let out a sigh.
A very long day was ahead of him.
I'd say it's time for some serious ass whoopin'. I'm sure you'll be able to put my assassination expertise to good use.
I'd rather not sink to the level of murdering others for their anima.
Oh really? But you would sink to the level of murdering me in some back alley while I was already bleeding out? Seems awfully hypocritical if you ask me my friend.
Oh shut it, these two situations are incomparable. Not to mention that I don't know any of these folks. They haven't done anything to me that would deserve getting killed over.
OH AND I HAVE?
...
On second thought, don't answer that.
I'm glad you saw the flaws in your reasoning.
Yeah yeah whatever. Let's do it your way then.
Once again relying on his cloak's special attributes he began pushing through to the entrance. Getting past his fellow delvers nevertheless proved more difficult than he expected. Even if they couldn't see him, he still had to force his way through a giant wall of people.
Not to mention the fact that they constantly shot curious glances in his direction when getting shoved by an invisible force. Thankfully no one spared the occurrence a second thought since everybody was constantly getting pushed from all angles within the large crowd.
After struggling for more than a few minutes he finally reached the dungeon's entrance. Yet there was no smile of triumph on his face.
It seems like people are really trying their best to monopolize the dungeon...
'Trying their best' may have even been an underestimation. This was a battlefield.
The gatekeeping adventurers had gone through the trouble of standing in a tactical combat formation with a bulwark of shieldmen holding the front line and spearmen attacking through their gaps. They had even stationed archers further behind that shot at any stragglers that got past the wall of soldiers.
This is bloody chaos. No... chaos was to be expected after your explanation. This is surprisingly orderly on the defenders' side.
Color me impressed for sure. You certain you don't want to snag a few freebie kills from behind with your invisibility?
That would only draw attention to myself and as I mentioned before, I won't steep to that level.
Ah I see, you want to keep feeling morally superior after having committed the closest thing to a true murder possible. I catch your drift.
Xander's sarcasm really just made Goldie feel like truly murdering the guy, but he held his figurative mouth. He may not have much of a choice about killing somebody to get past the wall of armor he was facing.
Why don't I see anyone casting magic?
Considering they put in this much effort to keep everybody else out, they're probably using some sort of antimagic as well.
Very clever - And it isn't technically legal to injure somebody from outside the dungeon, so nobody can cast any long-range spells either. But gods, it must be extremely potent if not even they can activate anything.
Goldie, however, was not going to complain about not getting blown away by magic.
This revelation also explained the stalemate the defenders found themselves in, since whenever somebody got injured they'd simply walk back out of the cave to heal themselves and couldn't be legally attacked.
It was almost comical.
Goldie shuffled sideways along the front, trying his best to not get accidentally stabbed by an overzealous fighter while he searched for an opening. Sadly, there was no gap to be found, as whenever a defender fell back, another swiftly took his place.
The problem was, even if Goldie didn't mind killing his way through, without magic, he'd probably die trying. He'd have to quickly strike down his foe and instantly rush through while avoiding any stray arrows. His cloak's stealth would only help so much once people started actively searching for him.
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As he continued this train of thought, an idea stuck him. If he got to the very edge of battle Goldie might not have to fight after all. He could try to simply climb over the line of defense via the cave wall.
Less risk of discovery and no need to kill fellow adventurers. Count me in.
Wuss.
Goldie tuned out Xander's comment - he was getting better and better at that - and resumed wandering to the cave wall. Upon closer inspection, it did not look very climbable. He could see a few handholds, but they were too far apart to horizontally climb across.
Though there is a fissure in the stone about 15 feet up, that could work.
Yeah, only 15 feet. Piece of cake.
I'm sure it'll be fine. How hard can climbing be?
Quite hard as it turned out. The first two handholds were easy enough to reach. It started becoming problematic shortly after, because the grip he was aiming for was slightly higher up than Goldie could comfortably reach.
He was going to have to pull himself up with his feet dangling uselessly below, which was not an easy feat with so few points invested in strength. After a grunt of effort, and a few whispered swears, he reached high enough to place his right foot where his hand used to be.
Climbing has risen to Lvl 2!
The latter point wasn't just idle musing. Goldie had received a nasty gash on his palm and seriously regretted not having bought hand protection. He decided to hold off on climbing any further until his wound healed.
Yo Xander, while I wait here I need to ask you something. How long can this cloak stay active? It's been at least a third of an hour at this point.
Well from what I can tell your Energy is at around one fifth capacity, so it'll probably hold out another five minutes or so.
WHAT!? NO WAY IS THAT ENOUGH TIME!
It was time to throw caution to the wind and climb like his life depended on it, which was a lot more literal than Goldie was comfortable with. If nothing else, the panic induced adrenaline rush at least gave him enough strength to lift himself all the way to the crevice. From there on he rapidly moved sideways praying to Yan’gekâl that his bloody hand wouldn't slip off.
Surprisingly enough his prayers were answered, and the bloody hand didn't slip off the ledge. What happened instead was that a part of the wall crumbled off. The gods could be cruel like that.
Climbing has risen to Lvl 3!
"Oh shit!", was all he got out before falling straight atop two spearmen.
Chaos ensued.
The man Goldie landed on fell forward and stuck his spear into the ground. This made the defendant in front of him trip over its length after being pushed from behind, also knocking into his neighbor. The attackers used this opportunity to rush in and widen the gap to the best of their ability. The backlines of attackers then swiftly converged on the opening to flank their opponents, forcing them to defend from both sides. The gatekeepers could have maybe still salvaged the situation until the Archers started firing into the crowd and hitting more friendlies than enemies.
Meanwhile Goldie picked the closest tunnel he could see and rushed towards it as fast as he could.
[Standard skill acquired: Sprint]
♫ Sir Pyrite ran away. ♫
Did not!
♫ Sir Pyrite ran away away. ♫
I call it a 'tactical retreat'.
And true to his words Goldie disappeared into the dungeon's depths
...
for a few hundred feet until he remembered his energy is about to run out and he was still in danger of being discovered by a fellow delver.
How can this darn cave have lights all over the place!? I've been searching for a dark corner to safely regenerate my Energy for ages!
What did you expect? This dungeon is extremely popular. Of course, people would set up some lights. Also, I would hardly call '20 seconds' ages.
Before Goldie could retort his cloak's light-warping effect finally ended and he instantly dove behind the closest boulder in view. One might think he was acting paranoid, and by that I mean Xander definitely thought so, but considering how willingly his 'fellow human beings' were stabbing each other in the gut in the last room, Goldie wasn't going to take any chances.
"HEY, YOU!", someone shouted from down the path.
Goldie tried his best to remain still, hoping the person was just trying to bait him out.
"Get out from behind that rock you doofus! You realise I can see your cloak peeking out from behind it, yeah?", the now closer and clearly male voice spoke.
Hearing this, Goldie quickly pulled out his dagger and faced his prospective opponent.
*Sigh* "Look man, I don't want to fight anyone right now. I've been down here for the past two days and have already done everything I set out to do, yeah?", the man explained. "If you want to fight then I have no choice, but I really wanna just get out of here in time for my date, so..."
"But how will you manage to get past the blockade?", Goldie retorted.
"Blockade?", the man questioned. "Good Gát'machá are those bastards back at it again? How did you get here then?"
"Uhh, well their front kind of collapsed a few minutes ago I think?", Goldie replied with a hesitant undertone.
"Oh, that's good. I shouldn't have any problem getting out as long as I'm careful then," the stranger responded in a relaxed tone. "Thanks for the info. You got some sick looking eyes by the way."
And with that comment he disappeared down the corridor.
What a strange guy.
I liked him though.
Of course you would. He didn't try to kill you after all. You should be ashamed of your failure to hide by the way. Don't you have a sneak skill?
It's only level 3. Plus, I was totally out of breath and stressed out from my near-death experience back there so cut me some slack!
In any case, now that he was out of range of the antimagic Goldie utilised his Rapid Replenishment to recharge some Energy before walking further down the path. It was the first time he could calmly take in his surroundings. Not that there was especially much to be seen. Anything of interest had long been stripped from this tunnel. The gray rock walls were coarse from past mining operations. They likely took place before it was known to be a dungeon. Even though they emitted no heat, the orange lights gave off a comforting atmosphere.
It was very different to what Goldie had imagined a typical dungeon to be. He had expected breathtaking ruins of long lost civilisations. To his knowledge these ancient settlers had built cities around the plentiful anima wells and utilised these to power magnificent inventions. Sadly, it looked like he would not get to witness anything of the sort in this dungeon. At least he could take comfort in the fact, that it wasn't as dank and dark as he expected either.
At some point the narrow passage he was walking down flowed into a slightly more spacious room, which Goldie appreciatively noted had quite a few good opportunities to hide.
Yo Xander any idea where all the people are? There were so many at the entrance you'd think we should have come across more than one at this point.
Considering the atmospheric anima has not really increased very much as of yet, it's not unsurprising. You haven't come across any monsters either right? So why would anybody linger around here instead of searching for enemies further in?
I guess that makes sense. They might as well have stayed at the entrance instead of waiting in ambush.
This knowledge eased Goldie's tension somewhat. As far as he could tell nobody had followed him from behind either. Likely because they were still busy mopping up the remaining defenders and possibly turning on their fellow attackers if nobody else was left. Perhaps a lot of people truly came here to take part in such battles and not for the dungeon itself.
Just when he was about finished convincing himself not to worry as much, he saw something that made his stress shoot straight back up.
Indeed, it was. Somebody's headless body was lying right in front of him. After getting over his initial moment of shock, Goldie realised the sight was not as gruesome as it should have been.
He then remembered about what Xander told him shortly after getting stabbed in the skull. A Sahíl's body will start dissolving when they die. Therefore, what he was truly seeing here is a set of armor filled with dust. The only thing that left Goldie baffled was why all this person's items were still here. From what he could tell with his experience as a merchant, the gear was of decently high quality and probably worth a handful of gold. The longsword especially could probably be sold for around 80 pieces.
Before getting any closer he needed to consider the implications.
Either the person responsible just didn't want to carry the extra gear, or it wasn't worth their time. Maybe they were running from something.
It could be a trap you know.
Good point. Perhaps it's meant to lure some unsuspecting sap toward it, only to be stabbed in the back. But I'm sure they would have at least taken the sword away in that case.
Maybe that's just what they'd want you to think.
It would be a good spot to set up and ambush, since there are multiple opportunities to hide in this room. Then again... returning to my earlier conclusion there would be no reason to wait here for someone to show up. It'd be a lot more effective to have simply stayed at the entrance.
Thus, he reached his final verdict. The man responsible was likely the same person he had met earlier on. Because he was in a hurry to catch the train on time for his date, he couldn't afford wasting time to grab any of the gear off this corpse while it was still whole. Taking the sword might have been worthwhile, but an average adventurer probably couldn't accurately measure the blade's worth.
He picked it off the ground for a more thorough inspection. While the material used was merely steel, the sword hade a fine grip and was well balanced. It was also in pristine condition and therefore either freshly purchased, or whoever owned it had put in a great deal of effort maintaining it. Thinking about how bad it would be to lose all the gear he had, made Goldie tense up a bit.
Looking over the rest of the gear revealed it to be nothing special. Most of it was of far lower quality than what Goldie already wore and not worth the effort of carrying. He did, however, take a pair of leather gloves. Even though the gloves were slightly too large for his hands, they were better than nothing.
Keeping his eyes peeled, Goldie then continued on his - not so - merry way.