Three knocks rapped against their wooden door, startling Abby and Owyn out of their deep sleep.
“Abby? Owyn? Your four hours are done.” Mrs. Lark’s voice called from the other side. “Are you awake?”
Owyn grumbled something incoherently, so Abby spoke up in his place. “We’re up Mrs. Lark. Thank you.”
“I have your lunches all ready for you. Are you sure you’re feeling up to this today?”
Abby and Owyn both crawled out of their respective beds, already fully garbed in their armors. They shared a dead-eyed look that plainly meant neither of them really wanted to do this, but they were resigned to do it anyway.
“We’ll be fine Mrs. Lark.” Abby told her with a far cheerier voice than she rightfully ought to have.
“Are… Well, only if you’re certain.” Mrs Lark sounded so concerned it almost hurt. But she knew as well as they, that if the dungeons weren’t taken care of, Setterton would be in a lot more trouble.
“That priest fellow has asked to see you.” Mrs. Lark told them through the door. “I made him wait until you woke up, but if you could please see him before you go?”
“Thank you Mrs. Lark.” Abby said.
“What do you think he wants?” Owyn groaned, rubbing his eyes.
“Think he wants to see our trophy too?” Abby hadn’t shown it to him yet. After she showed it to Tabitha, the priestess, she just left it in its place on their desk.
“No,” Owyn sighed, finally taking to his feet. “But I doubt it’s unrelated.”
“Huh?”
“It’s probably dungeon related.” Owyn amended, collecting his things. He strung his bow quickly and then joined Abby at the door. Together, they walked out of their room and down the stairs of the inn into the bar below. As promised, Franz the high priest awaited them at one of the tables, together with Tabitha the priestess. They sat patiently, observing the comings and goings of the farmers and other inhabitants of Setterton going about their day, mostly eating lunches at this time.
Abby and Owyn stood next to their table.
“Greetings.” Owyn grumbled, still groggy.
“Good morning.” Franz smiled. “Have you slept well?”
Abby and Owyn shared a look, but said nothing. Abby smirked a bit.
“Well, no helping it I suppose.” The high priest said. “I would like to request a favor of you two, before you go delving today, if that would be alright?”
“Sure.” Abby agreed quickly.
Owyn scowled at her briefly before returning his attention to the priest. “What will we get in return?”
“Isn’t the idea of a favor-” Abby started, but another glare from Owyn shut her up quickly enough.
The two priests laughed. Tabitha raised her hand. “It might not be much, but I could accompany you on your delve as a bag carrier? I can’t fight, and I’m not allowed to use magic, but I could at least lighten your burden somewhat.”
Owyn nodded assent, and Franz took that as his que to ask his favor.
“We decided that before we sent our letter over to the capital, we should be as thorough in our investigation as possible. We would like to observe how you interact with the dungeon Lucid, if that would be alright.”
Owyn furrowed his brows. “How’d you mean?”
Franz shrugged a bit. “Well, as far as we know, you two have been the only individuals to peacefully interact with the dungeon so far. We would simply like to see that in action is all.”
“Shouldn’t be that hard.” Abby commented, mostly to Owyn. “I mean, it seems that as long as we don’t antagonize the dungeon, it mostly leaves us alone?”
“One more thing!” Tabitha leaned in with a grin. “Do you think you can find a way to get more of those trophies?”
Owyn nodded. “Maybe. Come on, I’ll explain how we got it the first time.”
Abby felt a tap at her shoulder and turned to see Mrs. Lark handing her their lunches. After a quick thank you, she left the inn with Owyn and the priests. “Actually Owyn, I think I should tell the story! You’re just going to say the boring details and nothing else.”
“They’re filing a report.” Owyn exasperated. “They don’t need a story, they just need the details!”
“Oh, but stories are so much more fun!” Franz grinned down at them. “Abby, I would very much like to hear your story.”
Abby visibly brightened. She began her tale, starting with how they first entered the dungeon. Almost immediately after she began though, Franz and Tabitha stopped her.
“Wait, hold on. What blue squares?”
Abby hesitated, unsure as to what they meant. “You went in the dungeon, right? Doesn’t that mean you saw the blue squares?”
“They’re kinda hard to miss.” Owyn added.
“We did not go in the dungeon.” Franz said. “We stood just outside and provided light. And the knights didn’t tell us anything of the sort.”
“Weird…” Owyn muttered. He fished into his bag and picked out his journal, jotting down a note.
Abby continued her story anyways, with both their first interaction, as well as their return two days later. Franz and Tabitha both apologized once more when Faux was brought back up. The group fell into silence after that, unsure of how to follow the conversation after that slightly darker note.
“So, tic tac toe?” Tabitha asked. “How do you play? What are the rules?”
Owyn flipped back a few pages in his journal. “It’s actually really simple. There’s a three by three grid, and each player takes turns adding a stone to a different space in the grid. When one player gets three in a row, they win. Actually, since the game is so easy, I wrote down all the possible board configurations in the event we ever play again.”
Abby scrunched up her nose in confusion. “But why?”
“So we can win easier?”
“Yeah, but like you said, it’s easy. Couldn’t you just memorize it without needing to write it down?”
Owyn stared at her for a second, then looked down at his book. With a sniff, he clapped it shut. “Doesn’t matter, we should be able to win easily now.”
The walk through the caves went uneventfully. The heavy traffic down this particular path meant that even if they did encounter a dungeon, it wasn’t likely to be a threat, even to an untrained child, much less trained adventurers.
When they got to Lucid’s dungeon, everyone paused just before the entrance. The interior had changed so much! Straight ahead, against the back wall, there was now a second alcove, although it didn’t have much detail yet. Standing between the entrance and this second alcove however were six large piles of stones, stacked thin and tall along the edge of a moat that now surrounded the outside of the room.
At the far end however, where if the pattern had continued, there would be two more piles of stones, there were instead two giant statues, towering over two smaller statues clad in the armor of the church's knights. One held a sword and shield, while the other held a mace, both in respectful stances. The larger statue of the swordsman lay in ruins behind it, with only the waist and below remaining intact.
“Well… This is certainly new.” Franz mentioned.
Owyn smirked nervously. “We told you it changes quick.”
“Are those-” Before Abby could fully ask the question, Tabitha answered it.
“Those armors are from the two knights we lost. Ar- er, the guy with the mace was the one that killed Faux before he was mauled by the smaller mimic crab variant. Our swordsman died fighting the larger one. Do you think it’s a coincidence that his big statue is broken?”
“Either that, or something big is going on.” Owyn peered into the room. “I don’t see the smaller one. Well, hopefully the smaller one. I don’t want to imagine a bigger one than that one.”
The large mimic crab with the lance and shield claws sat at the back of the room, watching the party in the doorway to the dungeons territory. It didn’t seem inclined to move any time soon, but Owyn wasn’t willing to test that.
“Shall we?” Abby asked, taking the first step into Lucid’s dungeon.
Owyn followed closely behind, leaving the two priests behind. Although Abby had her guard up, there wasn’t much of anything this close to the entrance. Even the moat of water didn’t fully encircle the whole room, ending a few feet shy of either exit in the corner.
“Huh, that’s weird.” Owyn said. He talked over his shoulder. “You’re right, the blue square isn’t here any more.”
Almost immediately after he said that, the blue square appeared in front of him, displaying that same nonsense as before.
“Oh, nevermind.”
The text changed soon after. ‘Quest: Beat Lucid in Tic Tac Toe.’
“And now it’s offered us the quest.” Abby reported, standing more upright.
The priests joined them just inside the entrance. Both of them looked off to the side at their own invisible blue squares. The instant they did, the giant mimic crab shifted, getting to his feet. Soon after, they retreated back outside the entrance.
“Very interesting.” Franz commented. “And now could you please demonstrate how to interact peacefully with the dungeon?”
Abby and Owyn agreed, both eyeing the large crab. Neither of them knew why it got to its feet. Previously, the dungeons monsters seemed to be content to just wait until something happened before reacting. What was different? Where was the other crab?
Then, Owyn noticed something. “Abby. The core’s gone.”
Abby glanced over at the alcove in the other wall. The decorated one, with the pedestal where the core normally sat behind its cage. The cage itself was gone, and seemingly the core along with it.
“Do you think it’s relocating the core somewhere else?”
“Makes sense to me.” Owyn said. “I have no idea why a core would be so close to its entrance anyways. That’s just stupid.”
The large crab raised its shield claw and thumped it against the ground in a display of aggression. It didn’t take too kindly to Owyn’s words, but it didn’t seem to be angry enough to start a fight with him either.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Are we supposed to insult it in order for it to be nice to us?” Tabitha asked.
“Don’t you fucking dare!” Abby and Owyn said almost in sync. The priests may not be in any sort of danger, but they certainly were. Going into a situation as unprecedented as this had so many risks, they had to take it carefully.
But Abby wasn’t one to shy away from a challenge.
She put her sword away, but kept her shield at the ready. Together with Owyn, she made her way to the center of the room, walking in a straight line towards the giant crab. Once she got close enough, it pointed with its lance to a spot on the ground. An indentation appeared in the form of the tic tac toe grid. Abby sat down.
“Abby!” Owyn whispered harshly. “Don’t sit! What if it attacks!”
“It’ll be fine.” Abby assured herself more than Owyn. “Where are our pieces?”
The giant crab didn’t move for a second. Then, probably at the instructions of the dungeon, it lumbered over to one of the piles of rocks and separated out a handful with its lance. It dragged the half dozen rocks over to the board. Then, it picked up one of the larger rocks with its giant shield claw and crushed it into many pieces. It tried to push the smaller pieces towards Abby, and failed. So it shifted position slightly, to stand sideways and brush the small rocks to her.
“So we’re small rocks, and you’re big rocks?” Abby asked.
The giant crab didn’t answer, but retook its position across from her. With its lance, it rolled a rock into the center position.
“Corner.” Owyn said.
“Which one?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
Abby did as she was told and placed her own small rock where he indicated. The giant crab rolled its next rock into an adjacent corner. Abby and Owyn blocked it, setting themselves up along the bottom row. The giant crab carefully rolled its rock around the board until it could mauver it to block their attempt and create its own. Abby didn’t need Owyn to tell her to block that space next. Three moves later, and the board was filled without a winner.
“... huh.” Owyn stated.
The giant crab tapped the ground with its lance twice before sweeping everything off the board. It gestured for Abby and Owyn to go first. They chose to start in a corner.
A few moves later, and the crab won.
It raised its lance over Abby’s head. Owyn was quick to shield her with his arms, but all it did was tap them before sweeping the board again. Owyn sighed.
“At least it didn’t try to pinch us again.”
“Do you think we’d survive if it did?” Abby asked.
Owyn called out to the entrance. “Do either of you have healing spells?”
“We’re not medically trained!” Tabitha answered. “So no!”
“Then yes,” Owyn nodded. “We almost certainly would die. Even if all it did was pinch my boot.”
The rib plates on the giant crab rippled, emitting a chittering sound. Abby smirked.
“I think it’s laughing at you.”
“Yeah well, whatever. Next game.”
They played for a few more rounds. Much to Owyn’s increasing annoyance, they never won a game. Occasionally, in the beginning, they would lose a game or two due to stupid mistakes he should have seen coming, but once they got into the groove of things, neither side ended up winning.
“Well this is stupid.” Owyn muttered. “There’s no way we can win.”
The blue square blinked, and suddenly the text changed. ‘Quest: Beat Rab at Tic Tac Toe.’
Owyn gave a skeptical eye to the giant mimic crab in front of him. “And I am to assume you’re Rab?”
The crab slammed its shield claw against its chest proudly.
“Pleased to meet you!” Abby held out her hand to shake before thinking better.
The game started again, with Rab going first. Owyn reached over Abby to their pile of rocks and placed his own move in a corner. They waited for the giant crab to make its move next. And waited. And waited.
Rab lowered itself to the ground, bringing its eye stocks really close to the board. It stared at Owyn’s move with a fierce intensity. Owyn suddenly realized what the quest actually implied. Abby and Owyn were no longer facing the dungeon’s intelligence. They were playing against an actual crab.
Eventually, Rab placed his next stone next to Owyn’s in one of the center edge places.. Owyn quickly blocked the forming two in a row. Rab stared at Owyn’s move again. It shifted its weight slightly, trying to get a better look at the board as a whole. Abby giggled at its antics. Rab decided to place his next move went into the corner next to his edge piece. Owyn blocked the diagonal, ensuring he now had two ways to win. Horizontally, and vertically.
Proudly, Rab blocked the vertical line. Owyn smirked and placed his stone in the center edge, forming three in a row.
Owyn bolted upright. “Ha HA! Take that! Finally!”
Rab slumped to the ground, staring incomprehensibly at the board.
Abby stood too, making pinching motions. “Great! Now we get to punish you, right?”
Sadly, Rab just pointed to the pedestal where the core used to be. Owyn took a closer look, and noticed a bunch of fragmented cores sitting near the top.
“Wait what?” He couldn’t understand. “You didn’t consume all the cores?”
“What’s going on?” Franz called from the doorway.
“We won!” Abby said, just as the blue square changed text. “It’s saying we get to keep a core fragment as a prize!”
“No statue?” Tabitha sounded disappointed.
“No,” Owyn shook his head, unable to take his eyes off the core fragments. “That’s not what’s weird. What’s weird is the fact that it has core fragments to give out at all! Why wouldn’t it consume them? Why wouldn’t it evolve its monsters? Why is it keeping core fragments?”
“To give to the winners, duh.” Abby said, strolling over to the water's edge. She looked down inside to see dozens of fish staring back at her. Trepidation took its hold, and she decided she didn’t want to go further. Courage could make someone only so stupid.
Rab rose from his spot by the game and made its way into the water. With a reach and a flick, it knocked one of the core fragments into the water with its lance. A fish picked it up in its mouth and swam through the water, crawling onto shore towards Abby on two front legs. With an awkward roll, it spit out the fragment and returned to the deeper waters.
Abby reached out for the core. “Uh, thanks?”
The blue square disappeared when she took the fragment.
Its business concluded, Rab returned to its original spot in front of the new alcove, taking a seat on the stone. Abby returned to Owyn in the center of the room, looking at the core fragment. Green, and judging by one edge, probably one previously in the shape of a sphere.
“Cool. Well, I think we’re done here?” Abby asked the priests outside.
“Yes, thank you very much!” Franz bowed slightly. “We can return to the exit, and you two can continue your delving.”
Suddenly, the blue square appeared again, startling Abby. A new quest appeared.
“Chain Quest, Part 1: Proceed deeper into Lucid’s Dungeon to discover something new?” Owyn read. “What the fuck is a chain quest?”
“Has something happened?” Franz called out.
“Lucid is giving us a new quest.” Abby answered. “It wants us to go deeper in?”
The two priests glanced at each other. A few words were passed that they couldn’t hear, so Owyn whispered to Abby to do the same.
“Do you think we should? What if it’s a trap?”
Abby held up the core fragment, as if it were proof. “I don’t think Lucid wants to hurt us. I just think it wants to show us something.”
“We would very much like to participate.” Franz asked of them. “Can we come along?”
“I don’t see why not?” Abby answered, looking to Owyn for assurance.
Rather than asking for compensation like he normally would, he just nodded absently. A sign that he really wasn’t comfortable with the situation they were in. They made their way back to the corner of the room to collect the priests. And for the first time, they delved deeper into Lucid’s dungeon.
The second room had nothing. A touch of moss growing on the walls and floor, but nothing interesting.
The third room also had nothing.
The fourth room, equally bland.
The fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth room all also had nothing in them other than random bits of wildlife. Just on principle, nobody trusted the animals they saw to not be enthralled, but they all acted like wild animals normally would, running away at the sign of humans, so it was probably a safe bet to assume they weren’t dungeon monsters.
The ninth room however, had something interesting.
Hidden in a corner of the room was a pink shine. A dungeon core, propped up behind a pyramid of rocks. A large rat, on its way to evolving into a ratkin, scampered around the corner, attacking all the small creatures it could find. And yet, they still remained within Lucid’s dungeon.
“Well, that is something new!” Franz grinned excitedly at the discovery. “What do you think it’s doing, allowing another dungeon in its territory? Surely, if it wanted to, it could use that big brute of a mimic crab to come and decimate this one.”
“Dungeons inherently hate each other.” Owyn muttered. “They simply can’t coexist. One must destroy the other, otherwise the other might grow too powerful and kill it in turn.”
“So why is this one still alive?” Abby asked.
Nobody had an answer.
The blue square changed its text slightly.
‘Chain Quest, Part 2: Delve into the deepest part of Lucid’s dungeon to discover something new!’
Silently, the group decided to leave this baby dungeon alone, and discover what lay at the bottom of Lucid’s dungeon.
They descended into room after room, apprehension growing with every doorway they stepped through once they discovered it wasn’t the last.
“They’re all empty.” Owyn muttered. “Normally dungeons at least keep guards in rooms where other dungeons can emerge.”
“Would you stop it with your useless fun facts?” Abby poked him with her elbow. “They’re not making me feel better.”
“Exactly how much mana did it waste expanding so large?” Tabitha pondered.
“Was it a waste? Or was this intentional?” Franz countered.
“In either case, I have to wonder how long it’s been expanding like this. And more to the point, why is it expanding in this direction alone? Never once has it tried expanding out to the surface. Why?”
“Screeeeeaaaaaaahhh!”
A distant, inhuman screech sounded from the depths below, bringing the party back to full alert. The screech echoed through many rooms to get to where they were, only indicating exactly how much further they had to go.
Abby and Owyn didn’t hesitate, and bolted for the next doorway. The rooms progressively grew larger and larger, and vaguely, Abby was aware that they were coming up on the ends of their usual route. Owyn seemed to notice it too, and set his expectations accordingly. Whatever Lucid wanted to show them waited for them at the end of their maps.
Which could only mean one thing.
At the end of each of their pathways into the deeper parts of the cave system was some sort of obstacle. In one, it was a giant underground lake, teeming with aquatic horrors. At another, it was a cave in, though it was obvious that small animals could navigate the blockade. The other two had giant cliffs, dropping off into nothingness as far as their lights would reach. This branch of the cave had one of those cliffs. And at the bottom, they could normally sense the presence of a dungeon.
It seemed that finally, decades after the dungeon that originally made this cave system was destroyed, another dungeon had risen up the cliff in order to threaten the outside world. And Lucid was in the way.
They rounded the corner to the third last room before they would be taken into the expansive cavern with the cliff, not quite fully expecting what they were about to witness.
Blood was strewn across every surface, along with the innards of bodies. Bits of flesh and fur clung to the still wet blood, slowly dripping down from the walls and ceiling to join the multitudes of bodies on the floor. Ratkin, urik’s, batkin, thausens, goblins, giant spiders, various crustations, all among dozens of other evolved species laid in pieces on the floor. Only half a dozen bodies remained standing and breathing. Two giant ratkin, on the verge of evolving into goblins, both with weapons in hand, one urik, a flat bodied snake with a cobra’s hood that went the length of its body, a hobgoblin, probably evolved from a bat, judging by the torn leather wings beneath its armpits, and a mimic crab with four long, spear like legs protruding from the top of its shell like spiders legs. A second mimic crab, one they were able to recognize due to the additional digits on its remaining arm, held Lucid’s core in bleeding human hands. The pure white, human half of the crab had pieces missing all around, revealing pink muscles laboring beneath.
The other five monsters breathed heavily, wiping blood off themselves and their weapons, if they held any. They watched Abby and Owyn with tired eyes, definitely marking them as Lucid’s creatures.
The abomination mimic crab with half a human body weakly lifted Lucid’s amber core, now the size of a small ball. It took a few ginger steps closer to Abby and Owyn on five legs. Neither of them could see where it lost the other three among the wreckage of the room. It didn’t get far, and collapsed just in front of the duo, desperately holding the core aloft.
The blue square changed.
‘Chain Quest, Final: Help Lucid grow strong enough to beat the enemy dungeon.’
Abby and Owyn stared at the blue square, each debating on how they should react.
The mimic crab before them opened its giant maw.
“Screee…” It whimpered.
Its body quivered, still holding the amber core high above its collapsed body. With a final sigh, it drooped, dropping the arm holding the core. As it fell, the arm changed course, falling to the side. When the core hit the ground, it rolled to the side, avoiding touching Abby and Owyn entirely.
Abby didn’t miss the gesture. The core told its creature to avoid touching its core to them. It… Lucid, knew they didn’t want to touch the core.
So Abby decided to have a little faith.
She knelt down and reached for the core.
“Abby!” Owyn shouted, diving for her. But he reacted too late. Abby picked up the core.
She heard a chuckle, echoing a hundred times over in her own mind. A malicious, evil chuckle. One full of destructive glee.
Hello Abby. So nice to finally talk to you again.