It was only after lunch that the Harmony Guardians received a text telling them it was time to head to the dungeon. It didn’t mention the specifics, only where they should go. Vash was still vibrating with energy, flying around everyone like it was the best day of his life.
“Where do we need to go?” Roan asked.
“The house beside the burger joint. Apparently there is something there that leads to the dungeon,” Skyler was looking over the message, “There is an elf who is going to be in front of it waiting for his. His name is… Ziltan.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Hera turned to the researcher.
“What?”
“Ziltan? That’s the elf that talked about torturing Vulcan,” Hera replied.
“Oh… Fuck,” Skyler sighed, “Why do people insist on doing this kind of crap?”
“I don’t know,” Hera sighed, “Let’s just get this over with. That guy should just explain the dungeon, right? He won’t be going in with us.”
“Correct. They said they didn’t have the personnel babysitting people in the dungeon. Especially since it’s mostly safe. Also, you need to be considered on a certain level of strength to enter the program. Not actual strength, but you know what I mean,” Skyler continued.
“Mostly?” Neria turned to the elf.
“Yeah. They just said, ‘As long as you don’t attack anyone, no one will try to harm you,’ so, mostly safe,” Skyler stopped walking, noticing that Hera had done the same.
The Empress stood frozen, her gaze fixed on something. Following her eyes, the elf saw another elf. This one with brown hair and blue eyes who was happily eating a burger. Unlike Hera, the rest of the team didn’t have skills to gauge someone’s ability. Not unless they were using [Observe]. Yet, they could all sense that the man was dangerous. He wasn’t hostile, or anything of the sort, but there was something about his movements. They were too quick and too controlled. Even when he was just eating, it was hard to follow what he was actually doing with their eyes.
“Is that the guy?” Flint leaned to Hera.
“Yeah…”
“A torture specialist, huh? Doesn’t look like much,” Roan’s voice was shaking a bit despite his words.
Ziltan looked up, towards the group and spoke in a soft voice, “I can hear you. I’m not going to say anything back since you are half right, but like, at least don’t talk shit in front of me, you know.”
The Harmony Guardians looked at each other, realizing they all could hear him. Speaking to them wasn’t all that strange, after all, skills that allowed for short distance conversations existed. But the fact that he could hear them was what scared them. This meant his senses should be well beyond any of their own, even Roan, who got a specialized skill for it wouldn’t be able to hear a conversation this far away. Combining that with the speed he moved at, even when doing something minor as eating, confirmed that he was much stronger than them. No one said a thing as they continued to walk closer to the elf.
Once they gathered around his table, Ziltan gestured for them to seat, he had already set up chairs for the entire group, “Please, be comfortable. Do you want to eat anything? My treat.”
“No thanks,” Hera replied before he even finished his sentence. Roan, Flint and Skyler sat down, but Neria and Vash stood by the Empress.
Ziltan let out a sigh, his expression becoming more serious. The kind one would expect from an executive on an important meeting, “Ok. Before we start,” he put down his burger and wiped his mouth with a napkin, “Hera. It’s Hera, right?”
The Ophidianite didn’t say anything, she just nodded.
“Right, Hera. I’ve asked to be the one to explain to you about the dungeon because there was something I wanted to say to you. First, I apologize for our previous interaction. I had no idea Vulcan was your Spirit. Now, I understand that my enthusiasm was misplaced, and I realize this is not an excuse. And I generally say things like that since the prisoners that come to me are the worst of the worst. The idea of making them suffer usually makes people happy, or at least relieved. Even if I do enjoy my job, I understand how bad that looks. So, once more. I am sorry,” Ziltan looked Hera dead in the eye during the entire apology. His eyes were different now, more calm and focused. Whatever dangerous feeling the Empress felt before was no longer there.
“Ok. Thanks, but if you are expecting me to apologize, that’s not going to happen. I still defend everything I did. Maybe not with Baldun, but I know I didn’t even hurt you,” Hera replied.
Ziltan’s eyes shifted, that dangerous glint returned, sending a chill through the Empress’ spine. He opened a big smile before continuing, “And I wouldn’t want you to. Honestly, I’m impressed with how quickly you went to me. Even though I was distracted and didn't expect to be attacked, I was amazed by the whole thing with the creatures you summoned! Especially for someone half my level.”
“How do you know my level? Did you look at my file?” Hera frowned, she was still very weary of the man. But if he wanted to harm her, there was nothing she could do to stop him. Not that she wouldn’t fight back, but if what he was saying was right, he should be at least level 80. The Ophidianite wasn’t dumb enough to think that she actually had a chance to win that battle.
Ziltan didn’t break eye contact and just stared at her for a moment, “Well. I think it’s clear you can’t see what I’m doing. Observe is a basic version of the skill. A better version let’s you use it on people without being noticed. Especially if you are higher level.”
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“And are you really level 80?” Skyler picked one of his fries, but the potato vanished before reaching her mouth.
“83 actually. And I never said I would share food, only that I would pay for yours. Don’t mess with a man’s meal,” Ziltan huffed before eating the same fry the researcher tried to eat.
“Oh.. Sorry. I’ll have some fries then,” Skyler replied.
“Sure, I’ll order the party sized portion of the ‘atomic fries,’ it comes with cheese, bacon, and has some jalapeño poppers mixed in there,” Ziltan turned to the side and moved his mouth slightly, causing the waiter inside to jump before he nodded and walked to the kitchen. The high level elf turned back to the group, “Ok. Now that we are done with the serious part. Here is the fun one. The dungeon.”
“It’s about dancing, right?” Vash asked.
“It’s not just about dancing. It’s just dancing. But I’ll first give you a bit of a backstory on the dungeon itself. It’s honestly very interesting,” Ziltan leaned back and continued eating his burger. Because of his speed, Hera’s team didn’t have to wait for him to chew and swallow properly between phrases, “First, you need to know about Spy Alley. A few years ago, a group of people who worked here, and still do, decided they wanted to have a place to party. A club to let out some steam without having to move to a different room. They got permission from the boss and picked a place just by Chef’s Kiss. That restaurant on the other side of the street,” the elf gestured to the place, which had a mixed theme of Italian, Japanese, with some sprinkle of a steak house.
“Do you mean that door on the left?” Roan pointed to a small door with a picture of an eye painted in the front.
“Yeah. That is a joke on that ‘I spy with my little eye’ game. Stupid, but people liked it,” Ziltan sighed and chugged his drink in two seconds, “Anyway. They got permission, found the place, and started digging. They were very into the whole underground scene and took things a bit too literally. In the end, they found a door. A regular ass door. And inside it was the dungeon. But here is the thing. The first time people went there, it was a large gathering in a more wild scenario. It was like jungle or something with a lot of drums and shit. Anyway, they continued the construction and opened the club while people kept going to the dungeon to level up. A year and a half after the grand opening of Spy Alley, the dungeon itself changed. Instead of it being that wild tribal competition, it turned into an actual modern dance competition. The monsters even started wearing clothes, and the music we could pick became much more interesting. Why did that happen? No one knows for sure, but the prevailing theory suggests that the nearby area influenced the MAZE dungeon, resulting in a mix of a normal dungeon with a historic one.
“That… doesn’t really make sense,” Hera frowned.
“So? Half the shit we deal with the MAZE makes no sense. Some monsters don’t follow any rime or reason to their evolution, dungeons are weird as fuck. Rooms are weird as fuck. Do I even have to talk about the walls and the wendigos?” Ziltan crossed his arms, having finished his meal, “Can I continue the explanation?”
“Yeah, sure,” Hera huffed, not wanting to apologize just because he was being prickly.
“Anyway, now we come to what you actually can do in the dungeon. When you get there, you will be participating in the dance competition. There are 20 teams, 21 with you all, and you need to dance against each team once. On a 1 on 1 dance battle. You get to pick the music for each battle, but they don’t have a delay between them. Once one is over, the monster leaves the arena and the next one goes up. If you take more than 5 minutes to pick the next song, they will pick a random one and start dancing. You need to beat at least 4 teams to complete the quest. And of course, the more of them you beat, the better the rewards will be. The important thing is, don’t try to hit anyone, and don’t interrupt the monster’s dance. If you do, they will become hostile and attack you. Questions so far?” Ziltan glanced over at the group as the waiter brought the fries.
“We can’t dance together?” Neria asked.
“No, going for a team battle is part of what you need to do for the hard mode. You also need to match the right music to the right monster. There are some hints around the dungeon that you can search for. But if you decide to do that, you won’t complete the quest. By going in a group, or challenging the monsters in groups, you break the rules and fail the dungeon quest automatically. Even if doing that can trigger the hard mode,” Ziltan continued.
“What’s the hard mode?” Vash took a fry from Skyler’s hand before flying to the opposite side of Hera.
“Like I said, to unlock it, you need to challenge and win against the previous winners of the competition, and it has to be in the type of music they used to win. Also, it has to be a team challenge. The actual hard mode stops being harmless. You need to fight against the previous champions. Or you try to go for another dance off, but then the champions will play dirty. Trying to attack you while you can’t attack them. There is an item that makes that a bit less dangerous. It’s an upgraded version of something you can get in the regular dungeon, but you still need to take some hits. So don’t go there,” Ziltan grabbed a few of the fries he ordered for the Harmony Guardians and put them on his plate.
“That’s all?” Hera asked, not cementing on the fact hypocrisy of him taking their fries.
“Pretty much. I’m not giving any tips. You figure that out, it’s part of the program. Do you have questions that are not ‘teach us how to beat this?’” the elf gave the group a once over.
“I do,” Vash raised his wing, “Do we need to use their music, or can we use ours? Like, is it ok if we play the music?”
“You can use your tablets, but the dungeon has pretty much all songs ever created. Don’t ask me how they managed to copyright that, but then again. I don’t think anyone would know how to sue the MAZE for it.”
“Ok, but can I play an instrument, or mix the songs live? Would that count as two people participating instead of one?”
“Oh. No, you can do that. That even makes things easier if you can make a decent song, at least. If you just make noise, then they won’t accept it and you’ll forfeit the round,” Ziltan leaned back, balancing himself on the two back legs of the chair, “Now my job is done. You are all grownups and can deal with the rest yourselves, and I have better things to do. Unless,” his eyes shifted to Hera, “You want to go for a sparring match. We can go a few rounds in the arena, or back at my place.”
“Hard pass. To both. I have a strict rule of not getting involved with psychopaths,” the Empress replied without missing a beat.
Ziltan chuckled, “Preachy, preachy. Go on, stay on your high horse like that,” the elf moved, and he was suddenly behind the Empress, glancing back at the team. This time, it wasn’t a spell, only his raw speed assisted by his skills, “But don’t forget. We are all murderers here. Well, maybe not some geeks down there, but around this table, yeah, I can tell I’m right.”
He walked off, moving at a normal speed this time, leaving the Harmony Guardians to just stare at him. Hera waited for him to be far enough away before using a soundproof bubble around them, “Was I exaggerating?” she asked.
“Not at all. He is a dick,” Neria shook her head.
“Yeah… but at least we got free fries,” Skyler smiled.
“Did we?” Roan turned to her, “I didn’t see him paying his tab.”
As if he was waiting for his cue, the waiter came out of the building, holding the bill in his hand. All the Harmony Guardians let out a long sigh as Flint walked over to pay for their meal and Ziltan’s. It was better to do this than to have to deal with that elf again.