Even though the dungeon pulsed with a red glow, Lacey knew that it wasn’t really that color to anyone else. The red was a dungeon creator overlay. Lacey toggled it off to see better but kept the notification blinking in a small corner of what she now knew of as a display over her regular vision.
“Lucky me,” Lacey quipped to George 13. “At least I have you for company. Let’s go get your Aztec brothers before the incursion gets here.”
“Lacey, you okay?” Colt’s words flitted across the bottom of her screen rather than out loud. They could have upgraded to voice instead of captions, but Lacey and Colt had agreed to be stingy on perks that didn’t make them more lethal until the guildies were taken care of.
“I’m okay,” Lacey replied, her voice sucked away to become text right below his in the text box. That was another reason they kept the captioning. Any communication between them was perfectly silent to anyone else. It just took intent to keep their conversation private. “I’m just going to grab all the Georges real quick before the bad guys get here. What are we facing?”
“It’s the big baddies,” Colt answered. “Not the same guys this time, but more of them. It’s weird that they aren’t the same guys. Why wouldn’t they want to retry it with their previous experience.”
“Are they higher level?” Lacey asked, nimbly tiptoeing around a couple more traps to get to the next place where the maintenance tunnel had an exit.
“A little, but not enough for that to be the reason,” Colt answered. “Wait, I got a help response to that. Oh, the NPCs don’t have the same liberties that PCs do. The NPCs are banned from a dungeon for one year if they wipe in it. Woah!”
“What?” Lacey plucked another George off the wall and named it George 14. When compacted, Georges were about the size of a marble that she could fit in her pocket. Unfolded, the Georges could cover a wall big enough for Lacey to walk through or Colt to squeeze through.
“NPCs don’t remember dungeons if they wipe in it,” Colt’s words came back, and she could almost hear the crowing. “In fact, they don’t remember it even if they back out. They only remember the dungeon if they get a full wipe.”
“Huh, that’s cool,” Lacey thought to him. That was great news for them since it meant that their traps and puzzles could work over and over again even if this group came back every day.
“It’s a perk of PCs that they can remember the dungeon when they exit,” Colt told her.
“So we still have to change it up for them,” Lacey replied. They were already set up for that as they could juggle rooms around, but also juggle the components and placements of their traps and puzzles. It was only the puzzle components that the PCs could learn.
Lacey and Colt had worked hard to use only puzzles that could be changed up. The maze walls could be shuffled for a different solution each time. The puzzle answers were rotatable. The puzzle types were tweakable. Lacey was relieved that the high levels could be run through the same dungeon over and over, knowing that as long as it killed or repelled them once, it would likely kill or repel them a second time.
(Lacey) Intelligence +1
“This changes our chances of survival heavily in the positive side,” Colt said.
“30 rooms already had our chances pretty high to begin with,” Lacey muttered, more comfortable counting on herself more than the luck of these rules that could be nerfed any time. “I’m at the second maintenance tunnel. I’m going to duck in here and wait them out with the 4 Georges in my pocket. Give me a blow by blow.”
“They are in the first level,” Colt answered her. “Fighter, level 29. Cleric, level 27. Thief, level 29. Mage, level 28. Bard, level 24. They are kicking beetle ass and getting cocky just like the last group. We did well resetting those levels up there even if they didn’t have a heads up about the dungeon makeup. It really does make these big guys underestimate us.”
(Colt) Perception +1
“They’re cheap to reset and make them use time and energy,” Lacey took down another George after slipping into the tunnel.
“They don’t like the puzzle doors, haha,” Colt’s chuckle came through in an almost emoji way. “The fighter is trying to bulldoze the door rather than let the mage try to figure it out. The mage is crossing his arms and tapping his foot. Lol.”
“I’ve got plenty of time then,” Lacey laughed to herself. She cranked the handle for another trap and tested several poisoned darts. That had been a tech tree they hadn’t used anything in, so they used some credits to open that up. Back engineering the poison had been a bit of a chore, but Colt was pretty good at it. The doors were a foot thick stones on slider systems that only activated when the puzzle was solved manually.
“Why’d you name it the Aztec Tomb, anyway?” Colt asked, obviously bored with watching the party stomp little beetles on level one. They now had ten rooms per level with every three rooms increasing the level of difficulty by a few levels and the final room of a floor being a puzzle trap. They’d added all that in after the 12th floor since the old 13th floor had been the still bomb.
“First, for the human sacrifice aspect that allowed me to theme in pools of blood around the altars in the center room,” Lacey pulled the final George into her pocket, naming it George 16. “But mostly because these old civilizations like this have all sorts of stories that end in mass extinction or disappearance events that made me think they go in but they don’t go out.”
“Do you think they’ll reach you?” came across her vision and she knew that he was worried about her being outside in the dungeon while the group was there.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“We finished the first 3 levels that are after the floors we had before the still explosion and the maze is now on level 17,” Lacey tried to reassure him. “Let’s do the math, Mr. Mental. 12 annoyance levels that Hughe’s folks couldn’t get through alone, followed by the 3 new levels with rising difficulty every 3 rooms. Besides, this maze is on the last level we’ve completed, so if they get through here, they had us cornered anyway. I’m as safe as you are.”
(Lacey) Intelligence +1
“Some part of me knows all that, but I’d feel better if you were here instead of there.”
“You want me to try to get back there?” Lacey offered because she didn’t want him to feel alone. “I might not be able to go in, but I could be nearer if you need it. I might even be able to hear you.”
Colt had tried to get out of the control room during an incursion back in the beginning, but there had been an invisible wall that had kept him in the room. Lacey knew that he’d already tried to get to her and failed. It was just the Colt thing to do. The least she could do was try it the other way. At least it was a possibility. Even if Colt wasn’t nervous, it was worth testing.
“I’m on my way,” Lacey said into the silence of the texts. He didn’t have to ask. She knew.
Lacey pulled out George 13, but she put him right back in her pocket once she was outside of the maintenance tunnels. She was back at the control room before the NPC adventurers had gotten down to level 3. They weren’t challenged except by the endless puzzles that they’d stuck on every door of the previous levels. The fighter really didn’t like those puzzles at all.
It said something that Colt was at the door instead of the pedestal when she came into view. The door was open, but Lacey didn’t expect to get through, so she practically fell into him as she did. “That was unexpected,” she grinned at him as he grinned back at her.
(Colt) Dexterity +1
“Guess it only worked one way,” Colt punched the invisible one-way wall.
“That’s good to know,” Lacey deflected from the touchy-feely moment with humor. “It’s always good to know the limits of everything.”
(Lacey) Comedy +1
“I guess it makes sense since the adventurers have to be able to get through it too, right?” Colt reasoned, his hand lingering on her shoulder.
“You think using a George would let us bypass it?” Lacey mused, patting his hand as they walked to the pedestal to watch the adventurers.
“Even if it did work today, the system would nerf it tomorrow,” Colt gave a chuckle at the idea, but he was probably right.
“Then we’ll save that trick for a try on a day we really need it,” Lacey winked at him. “Oo! They’ve made it to the cat rooms.”
“It’s hard to watch them kill our Chickers though,” Colt winced as the first room with only a single cat in it was cleared easily. They’d replaced a few beetle levels with Chicker levels, with a new battle arena system that allowed for leveled up mobs. The Chickers were level 11 because they’d made them when the dungeon was level 11. A single Chicker wasn’t much of a threat to a level 29 adventurer, but Chickers turned out to be pack animals, more like wolves than tigers. When you put 2 together, they played off of each other in a way that made them more than twice as dangerous. In the first of the Chicker rooms, the puzzle at the door was more challenging than the single animal and Lacey almost felt sorry for it. They’d change that up for the next time. Then again, the section of the dungeon was only meant to be challenging to a level 11-15 character. “They kind of grow on you.”
“Me too, buddy,” Lacey nodded, a little shocked to watch the two Chickers in the next room viciously pounce on the mage from behind and peck with that nasty beak for some head trauma. Those same Chickers had been almost affectionate to Lacey and Colt, especially after they’d saved one of them from the goblin civil war.
Watching the NPCs crow over the skins just didn’t sit well with Lacey and made her want to do better in creating an environment that the Chickers could shine. Next time, she thought, wondering if they could level up the Chickers by letting them battle some level 11 beetles. Now that they could create higher level beetles, they were getting up to levels 15 and above. Even Lacey and Colt had trouble wrangling the battle-crazed beetles. Lacey wanted to kick herself for not thinking of all this in time for the incursion.
“We’ll do better next time,” Lacey told Colt with a pat on his arm.
“I thought they’d have a bit more of a challenge than what they’ve done so far,” Colt crossed his arms and stared at the screen of the room they were on. They’d made it to the puzzle room of the fourth floor of the dungeon. “The dungeon might be slowing them down, but they are still mowing through some of our best mobs.”
“There aren’t any traps on the first 3 levels,” Lacey tried to reassure him. “And remember we named all those mobs, so we’ll get them back.”
“You’re talking like you believe there will be a next time,” Colt shook his head at her in mock disbelief. “I’m rubbing off on you. You’re normally more pessimistic than this.”
She opened her mouth to answer and then shut it again. He was right. She was optimistic for her. She had faith in their traps. They’d known that they’d punch through at least the first 12 levels, but they’d really upped the deadliness of their traps and scattered them throughout in preparation for the higher levels. If nothing else, they should back out of the dungeon on the sheer need to get some sleep at the rate they were getting past things.
“What can I say?” she punched him lightly. “I’m invested.”
“Maybe they’ll just get tired of the endless puzzles,” Colt pointed to the screen where the pattern to the code wasn’t very obvious to the adventurers.
“That one’s easy,” Lacey scoffed, knowing that it was 1-5-11. It was the number of beasts they’d fought on the level. That code opened a box that had the number 44 painted on the bottom of the inside of the box. The box also had some coins scattered in it, so that if they didn’t empty it out, they’d miss the number. There were four other chests. The five chests were different colors. The colors were represented on the door which had 5 panels with the numbers 1-9 on them. “If they can’t get this, they’ll never make it to the maze.”
“Pity,” Colt twisted his mouth to hide a smile. “I really wanted to see Chuck and Muck in action.”
“How long have they been in here?” Lacey asked, missing and not missing having access to time pieces.
“Dungeon incursion current duration 3 hours, 5 minutes. 2 hours and 55 minutes remain to clear dungeon before automatic reset,” the system answered her question. They’d set the system to verbose with help boxes on. That was not a mistake at all because they learned a lot. Too bad that would go away when they finished the tutorial.
“No way!” Colt laughed.
“None,” Lacey joined him with her own giggles. “They’ll never clear it in time.”
“Okay, okay, but what will happen if the dungeon resets and they’re still in it?” Colt asked the system.
“Puzzles, monsters, traps, and rewards will respawn and must be fought and solved in reverse to exit the dungeon,” the system explained.
“They didn’t have trouble getting through them going this way,” Lacey snarked at the system. “Do they have a time limit to exit the dungeon or complete it?”
“Respawn occurs at 6 hours. Automatic dungeon expulsion at 10 hours,” the system answered.
“But what rewards do we get if they time out at 10 hours?” Colt shifted from foot to foot.
“Dungeon expulsion and withdrawal of adventurers are similar for the dungeon and the adventuring party,” came the explanation that had Lacey finally feeling like she could make this work if only by boring them to death with puzzles. “Upon expulsion, dungeon gets full complimentary reset and a treasure chest at a level equal with challenge level of final challenge completed by adventuring party.”