Ray didn’t reply with words. Instead, he replied with bullets. Raising his pistol he unloaded at the Lich, forcing his abilities to upgrade each bullet as they left the barrel. A bright flurry of fire, electric, ice, earth, and explosive rounds struck a bubble that popped into existence around the undead savant. After a full minute of putting half his total Power into his attack, and getting nowhere, he lowered the gun.
Duces was standing there, a grin back and present on his skull. Somehow the bone contorted to mirror the facial expression slightly. Either that or it was some kind of empathic projection ability, Ray wasn’t sure.
Either way, it was creepy as fuck.
“Again, rude,” the Lich replied simply. “You know, I was just going to grin and bear your aggressiveness. But really, this is pale beyond the grave. I can’t toss you a bone if you won’t even stop to listen to me.”
Ray was about to growl a reply when Nyx bumped him. Looking down at his Soul Companion she said, “Ray, that thing is obviously beyond us, or at the very least we don’t have a way to counter it. Perhaps we should hear it out.”
“That’s right. Listen to your little pet and open your ears, I won’t be long,” the Lich cackled. “Besides, this isn't really me and I wasn’t here for you. I felt an unbelievable surge of Miasma and Necromantic energies and came to investigate. Imagine my amazement when I found out that it was you this whole little event was centered on! I didn’t know you had it in you.”
Ray frowned and cleared his throat. “Didn’t have what in me exactly? I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“Why, breaking the rules of the System my boy,” Duces responded with a wave of his hand. “I thought about it long and hard when we last met, there was something odd about you. Very odd. Then I ran into our mutual friends Nell and Vell and oh boy, did they have stories to tell me. So many interesting tales of a world they found in ruins, most of its populace dead, and amazingly enough, disconnected entirely from the System.”
Ray was going to ask questions about the bird-like aliens, but Duces slashed a hand down through the air and cut him off. “But wait! There's more! I had a chat with a God of the Dead recently, one Anubis. Perhaps you know him? He had lots to say as well, and even though he was being punished at the time by the System for his audacity in interfering in its event with you, he still imparted some nuggets of wisdom. One of which he bartered with me to bring to you. Hence my presence. As I was already heading this way with a skeletal drone to investigate I agreed to pass it on if I saw you.”
“Anubis sent you? I find that hard to believe, he's a God. He basically does what he wants,” Ray scoffed.
Surprisingly it was Josephine who shook her head, causing Ray to stare at her. “No, my Lord. Gods do not have free reign. I believe they have more options and the ability to affect the world around us, but Anubis seemed rather limited based on your stories of him. Or else he would have simply taken what he had desired rather than bartering with you for it.
“Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!” Duces said, clapping his bony hands together in a congratulatory rattle. “She’s a smart one, Ray, make sure you keep you around. She may pull your ass out of the fire yet. There is no consolation prize for losing followers unless you can bring them back!” it cackled.
Ray ground his teeth together in frustration. “What the hell is your message? Just spit it out already, we don’t have time to waste here with you.”
“Bleeding hearts of the Gods you’re an asshole. I don’t know what our local God of death sees in you. Really,” Duces said, frowning. “Regardless, an agreement is an agreement. Anubis asked me to tell you not to trust your class. Something about it makes you a target for the System. That damn Admin-“
A crack of lightning interrupted Duces, causing it to look up just in time to catch an immense bolt of lightning to the face. It pierced through the Lich’s shield and struck it head-on with nearly the full force of the attack.
As the skeleton disintegrated it called out loudly, seemingly annoyed and barely audible over the immensely powerful attack, “…give him the shard!” And then it was dust. The undead had nothing but a black scorch mark on the landing above them.
The group of survivors took a defensive stance, waiting for some unseen enemy to come out and begin attacking. But nothing happened. After several minutes of cautiously examining the area, Josephine took up an at-ease position. “I believe that the danger has passed my Lord, whatever it was.”
Ray wasn’t quite sure what was going on, and he didn’t know what was worse. That the Lich showed up just to shit on his parade and issue some incredibly cryptic warning about his class… or that he knew what his class was to begin with. And how much of a threat it was. The entire situation was unnerving, and he wanted nothing more than to put it behind him and focus on getting the supplies to the dungeon.
The Lich had been a Mythic level existence. That wasn’t something you just… snuffed out with lightning. There was more at play here, far more than he knew. Out of everything it was the Lich’s mention of the Shard that made up the core of his territory that was more than a little alarming. Maybe Argyle would be interested in advising him further, but for now he and his group were on their own. They could only go forward, there was no other choice.
Stepping toward the entrance of the dungeon, and cautiously skirting the vaporized black mark where the undead had once stood, Ray lead everyone into the depths of the creature he had made a deal with. One that he fully intended to fulfill. The dungeon was a cornerstone of their current strategy, there was no way he was going to stiff such a powerful entity when it could become such an amazing resource.
Stalking inside, his head bustling with thoughts on just what was going on, he bounced right off the barrier that was stretched across the exit.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Stumbling backward holding his nose, he glared at the dungeon, “What the fuck?” he growled. “Nadia! Open up! It's us!”
For a long moment, nothing happened, then a shimmer descended over the entrance and Nadia floated outside. “Ray? Ah! It is you! My apologies, it took a lot to keep that Lich out. It was determined something fierce to get inside but we held him off. Are you back with what was promised?”
“Kind of. We have the items and whatever else Derrick managed to get from the Shop, but we won't be able to set up an outpost here quite yet. We are facing a nasty event for the foreseeable future. That doesn’t mean that we are going to abandon you though,” Ray promised. “It just may be difficult to travel back and forth during the waves.”
Nadia cleared her throat, annoyed. Sighing, she threw her hands in the air as she floated in front of them. Ray would almost call the little pity party cute if the situation wasn't so dire. “Well, we expected hurdles. At least you came through with this much, it's good for a first step. Come on, let's get inside. We have a lot to talk about, the least of which is not that Lich.”
The exit flared from the deep black abyss it had been into a light blue, settling into a circle. Ray always marveled at the ability that Nadia and her dungeon displayed. Within their territory, they were capable of feats such as teleportation, matter generation, and all sorts of other insane things that the Fairy had disclosed that they were capable of.
Stepping through the blue portal, Ray and the group found themselves in a comfortable room. Several couches, a table and chairs, and what looked to be some kind of bar filled the room. But the biggest feature by far was a large mirror that covered one entire wall. With a simple gesture the wall filled with pictures of empty rooms, the occasional skeleton wandering around, and the core that was the dungeon itself. Looking closer Ray quickly realized that they weren’t pictures, they were live video feeds from various parts of the dungeon.
“This is amazing…” he said, trailing off as he watched a skeleton patrol a hallway. Outside of the singular creature he didn’t see anything else, however. “What’s up with the single creature though?”
Nadia sighed, “When we spawn a creature it locks that floor for only that creature or its variants. My good friend here is mostly empty because we were waiting on better creatures to be made available,” she explained. The little fairy rubbed her hands together in anticipation, “Speaking of which, let's look at the goods!”
Opening his inventory, Ray unloaded the crates into the room. With each successive crate, Nadia's eyes became wider, until he pulled out the sixth and final container.
“Holy Dungeon Gods and Pantheons above!” she said with an excited twirl. “You really came through! There are… dozens of samples of creatures here. Metals, ores, woods, plants, pieces of weapons and armor… Gods above you brought more than we can use right now!”
Ray blinked, he didn’t think that Derrick could have packed that much stuff into a few crates. Looking around, the others seemed just as perplexed as he was.
“Perhaps, Nadia, you could give us a bit more of an explanation?” asked Nyx, getting a supporting nod from Josephine.
The Fairy giggled, “Right! Right. Based on your reactions I am betting you didn’t pack the crates. Whoever did put these together did their homework on dungeons. Instead of sending full-sized samples of creatures, they packed in the equivalent of a full genetic profile. That allows us to create them without having to have a full sample. On top of that, they provided exactly enough material for each metal and ore to make them available to us to spawn. Gods above Ray, who put these together?”
“Ah, that would be Derrick. He can be a bit of a genius sometimes,” Ray said, thoroughly impressed with Nadia's description of the goods. “Can I make the assumption that you are happy with us so far?”
The Fairy performed a flip and stopped in front of Ray with a happy grin plastered on her face, “More than happy. In a couple days, we will be able to build out the dungeon and open the main entrance. Once that happens anything that stumbles in is in for a world of hurt, and with how many undead are around us that means we are going to grow extremely fast.”
“Well, that was NEX well spent then I guess,” Ray said, still annoyed at the fact they were basically broke. He really hoped that Derrick got a good deal from Argyle on those Power Cubes. “Regardless, we probably won’t be able to actually get some divers through you and the outpost set up for a good while. Possibly a year or so. These waves, they take everything we have and more just to hold them back. Defenses are going to be front and center on our development plans for some time.”
Nadia shrugged, “Eh that’s fine. Those Bandits have been sniffing around recently. I bet if I give them one lucrative floor they would come back in droves. I can whittle them down slowly and feed them to Greg until you set up that outpost. No big deal.”
“This idea of feeding Bandits to the dungeon gives me… immense pleasure,” Josephine said in a deadpan voice before cracking a small smile. The fairy smiled back at the cold-eyed woman. Those two got along far too well to make him comfortable.
Ray wasn’t sure what was worse, a powerful fighter that could tear his head off at the drop of a hat or a homicidal fairy that would keep him alive for as long as possible just to wring every ounce of food out of him she could.
“Right, moving this conversation forward,” he said, interrupting their best friend forever moment. “Nadia, we need to head into the HEX and gather as much stuff as we can. Raw materials, rare items, food, weapons, anything and everything I can lay my hands on. Do you know where we can find anything like that?”
The Fairy thought for a moment before nodding hear head, “Yeah, actually. One of those Bandit guys was saying that there were buildings that were actually creatures. Only when they killed them they turned into something else. Not sure what, but they seemed excited, and it sounded like they were everywhere.”
Ray groaned. “Building Mimics. Obvious and infuriating,” he moaned. “It took us two days to stop smelling like the bowls of a rotting cow after we killed the last one. But if that’s what it takes…”
“We could also look for construction sites, abandoned vehicles, or literally anything else that we can tear up from the ground,” Nyx said, chuffing in amusement. “You may also be able to deconstruct buildings entirely once you claim them. Between your new System ability and our reserves of Power that shouldn’t be too hard.”
Yeah, that sounded too easy.
“Nyx has a good point. Let’s clear a small building nearby and see if I can’t convert it directly to raw materials,” Ray agreed quickly. “If that doesn’t work we can send Rivea Mimic hunting.”
The Drake quirked an eyebrow so hard Ray thought for a brief moment that it would fly right off her face. “I will do what now? I heard stories of that thing, it sounded gross. I don’t want to smell like a, how did you put it? The bowls of a rotting cow.”
“You just have to find it and burn it from a distance, no mess to be had,” Ray assured her nervously, getting a skeptical look of acceptance in return. “Regardless, that’s only if the whole building conversion thing doesn’t work. Not to mention I haven’t even tried claiming random junk yet. That would work as well.”
Rivea got right up to him and poked him in the chest with a single finger, “You make me hunt and haul those mimics and I will deposit them in your room when we get back.” She sauntered off and sat on the nearby chair, a please look plastered all over her face.
“Sounds fair,” Ray began, then paused. A System message began flashing in front of him telling him he had an incoming call. “Oh yeah, I forgot all about that,” he muttered.
“Forgot about what?” Rivea asked, confused.
Ignoring her for the moment, Ray turned to Nadia. “Do you have a place I could take a call?”