– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 218, Season of the Setting Moon, Day 31 –
Early in the morning, Terry had already finished most of his daily routine jobs and was on his way to a more lucrative mission: His goal for the day was to dive the local dungeon two floors deeper than before. His initial dive into this dungeon had given him a rough estimate of the time he needed and today, he would move slightly faster.
A part of Terry told him that he would be able to clear the dungeon if he wanted to, but he refused to yield to that side of himself and to risk being late for his regular job as a Flower Protector. Even if dungeon work was more lucrative hourly, the other job simply had more hours and even allowed him to train while getting paid.
Terry had chosen his target as a compromise. The cautious approach would be to only dive one floor deeper with each dive, but there was something on that particular floor that he wanted to test himself against.
While walking through one of the city gates, Terry glowered at the display of paper posters glued to the gate’s wall. The poster showed a picture of the dead man from the group of street robbers. For some reason, the locals had a custom of plastering obituaries for every deceased on some of the walls inside the city.
Terry was taken aback by the very idea of shoving people’s deaths into the face of passersby, but he had also seen many locals seeking out the walls to learn about who had died. He just chalked it up to a difference in culture. Nevertheless, he could not help but think back to all the rants about chaos after the coup. He wondered if the frequent reminders of all recent deaths was detrimental or helpful to deal with the perception of the situation.
Terry refused to stop and he honestly did not care to read about who was missing the particular individual that had caught his attention. Even if he was to learn that the man had a different side to himself besides roaming the streets at night as a thug, nothing would change. Dead was dead. Nothing anyone could do about it.
The poster still managed to sour Terry’s mood and he was looking forward to venting in the dungeon.
***
Terry smiled at the roped rings in his hands. It had been a while since he had used them, but he would never forget the usefulness of some good old-fashioned rope attached to immovable objects. He secured them in the tunnel in case he needed to retreat, but of course that was not his actual plan.
There was a reason Terry had chosen this floor as his goal. There was a reason why he refused to utilize the roped ring unless he really had to.
Today, Terry wanted to see how far he had come since the first time he had to truly put his life on the line.
Perhaps it was silly. He knew perfectly well that he had faced worse since then. However, he also knew that a part of him needed this. If only to persuade himself that the nightmares that currently haunted him would also fade away eventually.
Today, Terry planned to conquer his past and to prove to himself that nightmares were nothing more than future stepping stones. As soon as he stepped over the room’s threshold, the first inscribed earth giant rushed at him only to slap his four palms at nothing but air.
Terry cycled his burst technique calmly and observed the dungeon construct as well as the two identical constructs further back. There were a few other mana cores in the room but aside from the three inscribed earth giant constructs, there was nothing he really had to worry about.
A spike creeper was only a threat if you did not see it coming and these weaker constructs would not survive long when trapped with a disruption field around their core.
Terry made sure to keep track of two earth giants with his mana detection field while fixing his gaze on the one that had dashed to greet him.
Seems so much slower now than it appeared back then…
Terry allowed himself a smile. He knew that it was not the dungeon construct being slower than the one he had faced with his whaka in Alrik’s secret dungeon. The dungeon construct template was the same.
It had not changed.
Terry had.
He casually flung an octavum throwing needle from his leg strap behind himself without moving his eyes. He had reduced the activation delay by relying on an impromptu imbalanced aspecting before casting his spell. The throwing needle transfixed perfectly where he wanted it.
The charge of the second earth giant came to an abrupt stop when the hidden plate that protected its core collided with the immovable needle. The giant tumbled and fell from the violent impact.
First time I saw one of those trip and fall…
Thanks to his mana touch, Terry knew exactly where the protective plates were located for each of the three inscribed earth giants. He would not have his immovable obstacles simply pass through the earth layers unless he wanted to.
Terry retrieved a throwing needle from his storage to replace the one still hanging in the air. He did not get a chance to sheath it at his leg strap because the last of the inscribed giants chose this moment to dash forward.
Before the inscribed construct could make it far, Terry had already hurled another perfectly timed throwing needle right in front of a protective plate. That was when he received his first surprise.
Without stopping its violent charge, the giant suddenly unleashed a spherical disruption discharge.
For a brief moment, Terry believed he had to adjust but his doubts in his needle’s mana shielding were blown away by the sound of an impact and the sight of another fallen earth giant.
With the assurance that he could hold off two inscribed giants if he wanted, Terry returned his attention to the first construct that had greeted him in this room. During the construct’s next charge, Terry decided against dodging.
When the first of the powerful punches was about to arrive, Terry lifted his bracer and let the fist collide with immovable metal.
When the second fist arrived from the other side, another immovable bracer blocked it.
The two remaining fists of the four-armed construct rained down from above and Terry looked up to see the translucent golden layers of divine mana manifest and block for him.
He nodded to himself with satisfaction when his divine barriers remained unbroken.
Terry pulled the king spear from his back and thrust it perfectly through a gap in the construct’s protective plating. With the slightest flicker of lightning, the construct’s core was pierced and the earthen giant collapsed to turn into powder.
Terry returned the king spear to his back. He opened his hand and retrieved the damaged mana core. Behind him, two barriers of divine mana had appeared to trap the two earth giants.
He waited for the inscribed constructs to use their disruption discharges in order to learn how his divine barriers would hold up against them. Satisfied at seeing his barriers unbroken once again, he chose to release one of the two earth giants to face it personally.
Judging by the mana density in the cores of the inscribed earth giants, Terry did not believe his compressed disruption fields would be enough to cut through the core’s connection with the host. By now, he had a good grasp of when the small disruption vortices were sufficient and when they weren’t.
He had already damaged one of the cores and with the assurance that he could quickly finish the inscribed giants off if he had to, he was reluctant to damage another of the valuable resources.
Terry dashed towards the giant. He nimbly dodged the flurry of fists while darting upwards in the air. He arrived in front of the giant’s chest while divine mana appeared to trap the construct’s arms. His keen daggers danced with glowing mana blades to carve a hole into the neck of hardened earth. Before the construct had a chance to close the gap with the help of its inscriptions, Terry thrust his hand into the hole, braced his feet against immovable metal in his boots and ripped the core out with an accentuated burst of mana.
Terry beheld the unblemished mana core in its hand while the earth fell down. When he heard the impact of metal on the floor, he jolted from his thoughts. He collected the inscription base metal that had constituted the construct’s protective plating.
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Once again, he nodded at himself. Now he had confirmed that he could quickly take out an inscribed earth giant without damaging the core.
Now there was only one thing left.
Terry punched a fist into his palm while eying the last of the inscribed earth giant constructs. It was hard to tell if this was really a worthwhile test or if it was just him using a pretense to vent his pent up frustrations.
He wouldn’t know.
He didn’t care.
Terry greeted the furious charge with a dash of his own towards the construct’s chest. With a burst-accentuated double stomp, he kicked the giant back successfully. He himself landed near the room’s entrance, having flown further than the heavy construct.
After a tentative nod to himself, Terry dashed forward once more. This time, he burst his mana during the run-up in addition to the accentuated stomp.
When he landed, he noted that his own position was not as disproportionately pushed away as before. He had already known that speed could make up for the difference in weight, but naturally the available space limited his maximum velocity before impact.
The true purpose of this experiment was to see if his body managed to hold up. He had subjected himself to a number of unpleasant and risky experiments in order to improve his physique.
Subsequently, he had fought mostly to preserve his life which meant avoiding unnecessary risks.
He had fought against opponents like Vicious whose fluid body meant that physique mattered little.
He had fought while being forced to preserve an active spatial lock, which meant refraining from unrestricted bursts.
Not today.
Today he would push himself.
Terry met the construct’s charge with another stomp. This time, he transfixed his back plate at the peak of his double stomp that allowed him to follow through further than before and for the first time, he saw the inscribed earth giant being pushed all the way to the back of the room.
Terry glared at the dungeon construct.
Scenes of the past were flashing in front of his mind.
Gellath being dragged over the ledge of their barricade. His inability to prevent the dwarf from being captured as a hostage.
The despair in everyone’s eyes.
The screams when Gellath was being tormented by the visions induced by grievance toads.
The morning he woke up in another dungeon without any idea about the fate of his friends.
Terry fiercely charged and met the flurry of inscribed fists with his own burst-accentuated punches. He could feel the hardened earth give way to his punches and it felt… cathartic.
He knew it was pointless. The construct could recover its shape for as long as mana remained in its core to activate its inscriptions.
He didn’t care.
He continued pummeling the dungeon construct with increasing ferocity.
At some point during his self-prescribed physical therapy session, Terry involuntarily thought that those inscribed constructs were great sparring partners.
They were powerful but not too powerful. He could face them head on but he still could not afford to be reckless. Their advantage in limbs meant he had to push his speed and stay attentive. Most importantly, Terry could let loose like never before.
Not even his all-out spars against his aunt Sigille had felt as unrestrained. Of course, causing an injury to the Divine Hammer had been a needless worry for his past self, but it still felt different.
The construct was not a person to worry about. The construct did not need a healer. The construct was just an indefatigable training dummy that recovered on its own. With the slight difference that this training dummy would not hold back either.
I should come back here and use the next chance against more than one.
Terry was not too worried about accidentally injuring himself. He had a quick way to deal with the constructs if the need arose. However, limiting himself to not touch the cores could represent a good training exercise.
Then I should better use one of my free days. This takes—
Terry was jolted from his thoughts when the remaining earth giant suddenly stopped. He warily observed a previously inactive inscription flare up on the construct and it connected with a barely perceptible inscription in the dungeon floor.
Terry could sense something resembling the shape of four weapons being moved through the earth below while the light in the room dimmed.
When a deep bell sound resonated, Terry dashed and thrust his king spear forward to pierce the construct’s core before whatever it was trying to do finished. He successfully interrupted the set up and collected the damaged core with a sigh.
And here I planned to get two undamaged cores… But I’m not going to deal with a dungeon challenge today. Next time with more time to spare maybe.
Terry wondered about the exact trigger for the challenge. He hoped that it was a repeatable trigger and that the reward was worth it.
Otherwise, too bad.
Perhaps it was a loss of resources, but Terry could not deny it felt good to be in control. He felt a degree of satisfaction from defying the dungeon in such a manner. He had been forced into his first dungeon challenge. Now, he had the option to refuse. He had the power to face a challenge at that level on his own terms.
***
Terry exited the dungeon and immediately turned to the people waiting outside. It was the first time he actually saw someone here. Even though the dungeon work was popular, it was strictly regulated based on a quota with no worries of someone else attempting to take your spot once it had been allocated for you.
Terry always chose the first available spot. The early hours appeared unpopular and he couldn’t tell why. Having access to the first delve of the day meant an increased likelihood to discover additional resources. At the very least a dungeon might not have completely refilled a room that had recently been passed by someone else. There was no risk of something like that eating into your income when being first.
Naturally, most delvers saw it differently. Less creatures to deal with also meant less risks as well as less time getting down to the lower floors where more valuable resources were waiting.
Most of Terry’s competition also felt less nonchalant about skipping sleep and facing the dungeon at hours when even the sun still refused to come out.
Additionally, the night was a lawless time when the guards were not patrolling and not every dungeon delver was unfazed by potential fights before even reaching the dungeon.
Terry always kept track of his own time in the dungeon and was never late to leave. He had never met the subsequent dungeon divers. Therefore, he was slightly surprised to feel people waiting outside the dungeon’s reservoir chamber.
“Oh hey, you must be Terry.” A pair of elven women with short haircuts – one blonde, one brunette – greeted him cheerfully.
Must I be?
Terry narrowed his eyes. He did not think the exact dungeon delving schedule was accessible to people outside of Guild management. The two looked harmless though. Their outfits looked as if they belonged in an office rather than in a dungeon. They were unarmored and unarmed, but Terry could feel that they were cloaking a sizable mana pool.
Mages most likely.
Mages were never truly unarmed.
While Terry was still seizing them up, the brunette elf asked politely: “Do you have a minute to talk?”
If it’s really just a minute… Terry still had some wiggle room before his next job started. “What about?”
“You’re a dungeon delver, so we want to inform you how we from the Dungeon Cooperative might help you.” The blonde elf beamed at him.
“...if you join us,” added the brunette elf. “We are representing nearly all workers taking dungeon work missions around here.”
Terry raised an eyebrow but waited for them to elaborate.
“With us as representatives, you will get access to our contacts and we will take care of sales and negotiate a fair price for everything you loot from the dungeon,” said the blonde elf.
Terry did not even bother trying to hide the skepticism from his face. He did not care to hide it, and he knew his honest face would show it anyway. “I’m doing quite well on my own so far.”
“Of course, we’ve heard.” The brunette elf raised a finger. “But can you really count on remaining that lucky? In the cooperative, we take care of people who have run out their luck until they can get back on their feet. We support each other and parts of the profits will be set aside to support you in retirement.”
Terry’s eye twitched. “‘Retirement’? Look, I think there might be a misunderstanding here. I’m just passing through. I’m not looking to retire in this city and—”
“You still get sick, don’t you?”
Not really… Terry was startled by the question. He could not remember the last time he had been sick – as in physically sick. The appetizers during the Preacher’s reception in Tiv had upset his stomach somewhat but beyond that? Had he ever gotten sick? He could not recall.
“And everyone has a bad run sometimes,” continued the elf. “We can take care of making sure that everything averages out to a stable income and…”
Terry was pretty sure a minute had already passed and he interrupted. “Okay, what’s the catch? Assuming I was interested in all those supposed benefits, what would I have to provide in return?”
“Nothing much,” assured the blonde elf. “We have to manage everyone’s assignment, which might influence your schedule and, of course, forty percent of all sale profits go to the communal chest to be managed by the cooperative.”
Excuse me? Terry’s eye twitched. That would nearly double the time he would need to earn the funds required to procure a ticket through the dimensional portal.
“And naturally, we’ll have to inspect your storage items after every delve to take inventory,” added the brunette elf. “We can also lend storage items if you need some. One benefit of the communal chest is that we can make sure no cooperative delver has to suffer from a lack of equipment. We make sure that everyone is as productive as they can be…”
The renewed rattling about all benefits of the cooperative buzzed in Terry’s ears while his brain was refusing to process any of it. His brain was still caught on the communal fee and the idea of submitting his storage items for inspection.
Piss off. No way in the Wastes.
Something on his face must have betrayed his thoughts because the elves suddenly switched speakers again. “There is also the option to avoid the inspections and even the cooperative-issued assignments. You can purchase a permit. You can then show the permit during all your sales and afterwards, the cooperative will issue you a bill equivalent to sixty percent of the—”
“I think I’m good,” grunted Terry and decided to avoid the elves and their sales pitch. “I’m fine on my own and like I’ve said, I’m just passing through.” He noted that the eyes of the elves had turned much colder. He was prepared in case he had to fight, but nothing happened.
***