“This is a bad idea,” Ali, my two foot Spirt Companion floats next to me as he stares at the cave entrance cut into the river canyon’s side. I crouch beside, glacial water flowing past my armoured legs.
“Of course. What exactly in the last 3 months has been a good idea? Taunting a Salamander? Hunting a drake? Clearing a monster lair? Ever since the damn System came into place, it’s all been one bad idea after the next, it’s just been a question of how bad we want to make it,” I point out as I check the readings from Sabre, my Personal Assault Vehicle. Normal humans would just call it powered armor, or maybe mecha. After all, a short half-hour ago it was a bike.
What we’re arguing about though is the floating System window that we haven’t closed yet.
Dungeon Located!
Warning! The current Dungeon has not been categorised at this time due to System limitations. All XP rewards are doubled. Successful completion of the dungeon by a System registered individual will generate additional rewards.
“You said it, these kinds of rewards can be quite profitable,” I point out, staring into the darkness and heft the newly integrated gun in Sabre. While I love my beam rifle, there are certain advantages to using good old solid weaponry including multiple ammo types.
“Still a bad idea boy-o. Could be a bunch of really high-level monsters in there,” points out Ali as he spins around in agitation.
“Yeah, yeah. Then we run. We still have a full charge on the QSM,” I reply. The Quantum State Manipulator is one of the first toys I acquired when the System kicked into play, Ali being another. It phases me partially into another dimension when activated which makes it incredibly useful for running away in most situations. It has its drawbacks including a long recharge time and a short use period, but it’s saved my life more times than I care to count.
“Fine, fine. Light her up,” Ali mutters and I grin, pointing the barrel down the cave entrance. I cycle the ammunition and then open fire, embedding three glowing light sources into the cave walls in quick succession. I learnt my lesson about going into a dark cave a month ago.
The cave entrance shows me nothing new, nothing special so I walk in full of confidence. Yeah, right. Instead, I launch one of my drones to check things out, sending it to the top of the ceiling before I step in fully, shrinking the feed enough that I can watch it and my surroundings at the same time. I keep an eye on the mini-map that Ali updates along with my own skill Greater Detection even as I do my best to keep hidden. I’m a pretty good sneak if I do say so myself, though announcing myself with a bunch of lights probably takes away from the surprise factor. Still prefer it to running in blind.
The first cave highlights nothing more than some deadly fungus. It shoots out spores that are probably poisonous but I’m in a fully sealed suit so John 1, Dungeon 0. I can feel sweat running down my back though as I walk further in, cold sweat that even the environmental control can’t fix. Fear courses through me, but along with it excitement.
Yeah, I’m screwed up in the head. I was before this started and now, I’m probably even twisted. I actually like this. Risking my life, dancing along the knife’s edge of danger. It wakes me up, thrills me in a way that nothing else I’ve ever done in my life ever has and I’ll admit it, I take risks that no one else will because that moment when everything tilts, when I could live or die, is when I finally feel truly alive. No more walls, no more contained feelings, perfectly in-control amidst the chaos.
Crazy. Told you.
“Picking up two, nope. Three,” Ali mutters and I feel them a moment later myself. Damn, even now, he’s better than I am. Then again, if the Spirit wasn’t, I’d feel like I wasn’t getting my money’s worth. Not that I pay him - not exactly at least. He was a Perk I gained for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and now, the System pays for his upkeep. If it didn’t, I’d have slowed my mana regeneration down even further and I’ve got enough Skills that do that already.
I send the drone ahead of me, high above in the ceilings while I get ready to lay down more light orbs. I wonder what I’ll find this time? The answer is ugly, ugly monsters. Quadrupedal creatures with a face like a mutated rat with spiked bodies and a long stinger like a scorpion, the creatures are dark green with blotches of black across their bodies.
Kongorad (Level 28)
HP: 480/480
Status Effects: None
I watch them for a few minutes, the creatures not noticing the drone. They don’t do much beyond strolling around in curious circles, occasionally bumping into each other and play fighting. After I’ve watched them long enough, I open fire and light up the rest of the cave as best I can including placing a single light orb in theirs.
I watch as they startle, twisting to stare at the orb and I use the distraction to get moving, launching two more orbs to fully light up the cave while switching over to new ammo. I stagger the rounds in the loading chamber with a thought, high explosive, armor piercing and normal in order and then I send a single round into each of my opponents.
Surprise is a wonderful thing. Even as the Kongorad are watching and trying to ascertain what the light orbs are doing, my rounds are impacting in their bodies. High explosive tears spines out, armor piercing drills all the way through and my normal round smashes into but doesn’t pierce the spines. Armor piercing it is.
Even as I mentally command the changes to Sabre, the Kongorad are reacting and returning fire with their spines. I duck behind a nearby outcropping but the spines move so fast and cover such a wide area, I get caught by a few. They drill through the nearby walls, the outcropping and my armor with ease, their mana imbued barbed bodies carrying poison into my body. I grunt at the notification though there is no pain, instead a comforting numbness.
A light chime lets me know the gun is ready and I twist around the corner and open fire, concentrating on one monster and slamming three bullets into it. Each bullet smashes through its body, sending blood splattering around it before I duck back behind the measly cover provided by the rock. Thankfully, after drilling through all the rock, the spines can’t penetrate my armor all the way.
“Incoming boy-o,” Ali calls out, happily floating in the middle of the room as one of the Kongorad attempts to kill him. He might be visible but he’s not corporeal which means he’s a very good distraction, leaving me only one more to deal with. I can see it creeping up to me around the corner, still firing its spines. Let it come.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Grinning in my helmet, I wait till it nearly turns the corner before slicing down with the sword I conjure into my hand. My personal weapon might not look like much but with my Advanced Class skills, I cut through the monster’s head with ease, killing it. Not bothering to put the sword away, I spin out and send out a Blade Strike, a violet wave of energy rolling out from the sword and tearing into the last Kongorad. As it staggers back, I take a few quick steps and boot the creature over onto its back before impaling it.
Monsters dead, I scan for any further surprises before slowly sinking down. My body is beginning to shudder slightly as it fights off the poison effects while I taste salt in my mouth from the sweat. I draw a deep breath and then force myself to my feet, looting the bodies and putting the System generated loot into my inventory before dropping the rest into my Altered Space, a dimensional pocket created from my class skills. I could store a bunch of things in there, but mostly, I use it for dead bodies.
Shuddering one last time, I see the notification for the poison disappear and I stand straighter. Right, that wasn’t so bad. They were tough but not out-leveled for me and with Sabre, I’m at least another 10 levels higher than I should be. If that’s all I’m facing, this should be simple.
“Ali, this cave seems huge,” I mutter, kicking the latest victim off my blade and looting it. I’ve switched to using my beam rifle for now, figuring if I’m going to be walking around here for much longer, I better get the recharging started. I’ve been down here for at least a good hour, walking through caves and killing Kongorad’s and there is no way there’s such an extensive cave system like this. It makes no physical sense.
“Dungeon,” Ali answers.
“That isn’t an answer.”
“Yes, it is. The System designated this a Dungeon so it altered the physical space. It’s now bigger on the inside,” Ali pauses at the last pronouncement, awaiting a reaction. Seeing he gets none, he mutters, “God-damn muggle.”
“I think I liked it better when you were watching Reality TV,” I grumble while continuing to walk the cave. I should be able to sense further but the additional mana in the Dungeon is screwing with my Skill, reducing my ability to scan for threats to a bare 10 meters. Ali’s got it better, but it still means we have to move carefully.
I twist, spinning around and conjuring my sword into hand as I cut the Noxious Bat into two. Not it’s real name but I had Ali change it for me since even through the environmental filtering I can smell it. Which of course makes no sense either since I’m drawing from a secondary air source. Then again, it doesn’t have to make sense if the System decides to break the rules. Again.
I loot the corpse but don’t bother sticking the body in my Altered Space, not wanting to contaminate my other goods. I have a theory that the System breaks many of the rules of physics because it is trying to balance both technology, magic and skills. So, if it gives a monster an environmental advantage, it wants it to be able to affect everything within a certain level. Thus, the System breaks other rules to make it work. On the other hand, I can punch through walls but not break the ground while doing so, so I’ll take occasional weirdness. Not that I have a choice.
It takes another half-hour of walking before I finally come to the end of the first floor. And I say floor since I find a straight chute going down, leading to what I can only assume is another floor. Fuck.
“How many floors do Dungeons have Ali?” I frown. I’m confident but if I’m looking at a dozen…
“How long’s the Ether serpent’s tail?”
I point the gun down, firing another light orb and then call back my first drone so that it can recharge while I send my second drone down. Hopefully, it’s only these two floors - I only have two drones and their batteries take forever to recharge.
Down, down, down we go. Wherever we go, that’s where we kill. That doesn’t work, does it? Fine, you put together a rhyme while fighting off spine monsters in packs. Here, I’ll wait. Actually, no I won’t because I’m fighting Konograds.
Ducking low, I grab a Konograd and pick it up, power armor assisting the lift as I use the creature to block the series of spines from its friends. I poke my rifle barrel around the twitching body, using the camera mounted on the barrel to target and fire. As I hear a distressed beep, I drop the rifle and throw the monster, taking a few further steps to reach the last of the still living monsters to stab it in the head. Monsters dead, I squat down as my head swims, my body shuddering as it continues to fight off the poison. Casting a Minor Heal helps a little so I do it again.
The second level is taking forever. The Konograd move in larger packs down here and they have a friend, a tripedal creature skitters along the ground and releases beams of light that I have to dodge. Luckily, they aren’t that common down here but between having to deal with increasing amounts of poison and greater swarms, I’ve been having to take longer and longer breaks between each encounter.
“John, you sure you can do this?” Ali asks again and I nod firmly, slowly standing up and rotating my shoulders and knees as I check how far I’ve recovered. I slowly walk back to pick up my rifle, sliding it back into its holster on my back. I check my ammunition, noting I’m down to less than a dozen armor piercing bullets. I queue up high explosives next but I never bought that many of them - they are actually more expensive after all.
Tackling these monsters head-on is not going to work. I’m going to need to think of a new idea or pull back. I frown, feeling another shudder cross through me. I can’t snipe the monsters, I don’t have the line of sights. The monsters work in packs so trying to drag them out to kill one by one doesn’t seem to work. So…
“This is degrading!” Ali grouses and I chuckle, looking over the cavern that I’ve altered. If I can’t kill them one-by-one, I’ll just pull them into a kill zone and force them to fight me in smaller numbers. I’ve torn down some stalagmites and stalactites, piling them up to create a bottleneck while adding to it using some of the insta-cement I have left over. I’ve got a small perch that has a little extra padding to slow down spines which will let me shoot at them in relative safety. I’ve also added light orbs as far as I can to give me as much visibility as I can. After that, well, it’s all up to Ali to play bait.
“Yeah, yeah, suck it up buttercup,” I grin, leaning back and checking the map again.
“Asshole,” mutters Ali as he heads out to the nearest group on the map, fully visible and glowing ever so slightly.
The killzone works almost too well - pulling monsters to a fixed position and firing on them as they near me ensures I take out one or two before the pile arrives. After that, most initially try a long-range duel and when that fails, they charge the opening I’ve left. It’s so tight the monsters have to scramble and push to get through it, giving me more than enough time to line up a strike and kill them once they pop through. The monsters are so blindly aggressive and stupid, they keep coming because they’ve got just that little chance to end me.
After each group, Ali gives me a few minutes to rest and loot before we start the process again. Each break takes longer as he searches, drawing more and more monsters to us. The T’kichik are the most difficult since they want to snipe and play at long-range. Unfortunately for them, I can use magic and I’m more than happy to spam my Improved Mana Dart (II) at them, sending the trio of darts to bleed them.
I almost feel bad for bullying the Konograd Alpha when Ali finally finds it. It comes rushing forwards, flanked by its guards and I greet them with a pair of plasma grenades, one after the other. The explosions rips apart most of my improvised walls but it is worth it, wiping out its guards. Facing the Alpha directly after that is way too simple as I duck, cut and shoot the monster to death. When I’m done, I finally get what I’m looking for.
Congratulations! Dungeon Cleared
+5,000 XP
First Clear Bonus
Having cleared the bonus for the first time, you have been rewarded an additional +5,000XP, +1,000 Credits
Ingles Canyon Dungeon classified as Level 20+ and above
Damn. That was a good haul. That’s a huge experience increase, especially at my level. Between the two bonuses it gets me a third of the way to a new level. I bend down, looting the last body and dropping it into my Altered Space.
Okay, time for me to head back. I’m nearly out of ammo, I’m tired and the after-effects of having so much poison pushed into my body can’t be good. It might be psychosomatic, but I’m still not feeling that hot. Home. Home is good.