Darkburrow: Gnoblins Dungeon

Levels 5-15

Recommended group size 3-4

Your group is not the recommended size for this dungeon. Do you wish to enter anyway? (Y/N)

“You ready?” I asked Dom.

“Yep,” he said, but I knew he didn’t mean it. He wanted to mean it, but he didn’t.

Dom – Level 5 (Health 2660/2660) (Mana 2128/2128)

Karma – Level 12 (Health 6174/6174) (Mana 6615/6615)

He was more ready than I’d been my first time through, but he was probably comparing himself to the current me, not past me. All those professions had given him thirty-three extra levels, but they had given me a total of fifty-one. It wasn’t as high as I’d been after my grinding in Eroomtsim, but it was more than enough for the gnoblins. His professional levels were higher than mine had been, but his stats were lower. Then again, he had me.

“There are three gnoblins just inside, so we’ll be fighting right away,” I told him even though he knew the plan. “They hit for less than twenty at their worst, so you’ve got plenty of room.”

“You sure I can’t do this alone the first time?” he asked, and I realized what the problem was. Dom didn’t want to fall on his face in front of me. We hadn’t fought anything but that two-headed squirrel on the way back to the cottage that first night.

“It’s just me,” I told him. “You can be anything in front of me and I’m not going to think less of you.”

He gave me a look that said he didn’t believe me. After more than ten years of marriage, this man still worried about what I thought of him. He didn’t worry about that with anyone else in his life. Just me. My heart melted a little.

“She might laugh at you,” Terra told us both unhelpfully, breaking our sweet little romantic moment. “But she’ll still love you.”

“Just hit yes,” Dom said with a sigh that could have rivalled his Breeze spell, as I pressed my lips together under dancing eyes.

Gnoblin Pup – Level 5 (Health 110/110)

I cast my double Blast, glad to have my spell back up over sixty. Terra tripped the poor thing and Dom slipped behind it for a backstab.

Gnoblin Pup – Level 5 (Health 30/110) – bleeding (-10 health/5 seconds)

Blast +1

Exp +10 (17,784/30,755)

It didn’t get a chance to swing at me because of Terra tripping it, so I let Dom finish it off with a throat slice.

You have killed a Gnoblin Pup – Exp +55 (17,839/30,755)

I could see the joy in his eyes as the gnoblin fell and felt an answering wave of pleasure, as if we were made for this. In a place where it paid to be able to kill quickly and efficiently, we were able to be the predators we both wanted to be, somewhere deep inside ourselves. It was a person I couldn’t be in front of Kat. In front of my daughter, I’d had to be an example of a good person, someone kind and loving at all times.

Our eyes met over a falling corpse, and I realized what I’d done wrong. Even alone, I’d been too far into my own head, wondering if I was doing it right or even if I was still a good person. With Dom, I reached into something more primitive, visceral. It responded to the same thing in him. We didn’t have to say anything. I loosened up and let myself be this.

We managed to sneak up on the next two. Poison didn’t stack, so I let him cast it first. I cast mine after him because while his only did around eight points of damage, mine did double that. It helped to get both our spells up while still doing the maximum damage. Before the two pups noticed us or the poison, we stepped up behind them. Our eyes met over the top of the gnoblins, Dom trying out his garrot for the first time.

Turns out that beheading a gnoblin is a fatal stroke.

You have killed a Gnoblin Pup – Exp +55 (17,894/30,755)

You have killed a Gnoblin Pup – Exp +55 (17,949/30,755)

“See?” I smiled at Dom to let him know that we were okay. “Easy peasy.”

“That was easier than I expected,” Dom spoke softly.

Dom hit his stride. I followed. We used everything in our arsenal at one point or another. This was one of the things I truly loved about Dom. He wasn’t opposed to repetitive work. Once he focused on a task, nothing else mattered. We didn’t just run that dungeon; we ran it out. When the King came after me, Dom stabbed it in the back and Terra ran under its feet. When the King turned on Dom, I double-blasted the Blast spell.

Stats for Dom skyrocketed under his intense barrage of the dungeon. When we faced a force too big to safely handle, I tempered that barrage with barricades, poison, and spells that allowed our bodies to rest. It was a slaughter the first time through the dungeon, easy the second time, and child’s play of comedic barbarism on our last run through.

“If you want to go in there again, you can do it alone this time,” I panted on the other side of the zone line. Dom didn’t even seem winded.

“You sure?” he asked me, and I could see that he wanted to do it.

“I’m maxed out,” I shook my head at him. I couldn’t go back into the dungeon at this point. I’d leveled out over the top of the dungeon’s max. We’d been doing the math just to get our Intelligence scores up and we’d done the grind on this dungeon to the tune of a little over two hundred thousand experience. I’d hit level sixteen and Dom was right behind me at level fifteen. There had only been sixty-thousand experience between us, and there was more than that between levels right now.

“It’s about twenty thousand experience per run,” Dom calculated out loud and I ran the numbers with him. “We’ve gone through ten runs and it’s midafternoon.”

“About that,” I agreed. “You’d need another three solo runs, and you’d catch up with me on experience.” Now that we were watching the levels fly by, we’d figured out the pattern. The distance from one level to another was one and a half the experience of the previous level. I was a little disappointed with myself that Dom had figured it out before me.

“I can do that by dusk,” he nodded. “What are you going to do?”

“I grabbed a bunch of crafting equipment on that last run,” I shrugged. “I could work on that, or I could go back to town and sell stuff. Depends on how fast you can get through.”

“Sell stuff?” Dom started dumping stuff out of his inventory, twenty trunks hitting the ground. “I’ll pick up another set of trunks on my next run while you sell.”

“Sure,” I agreed with only a small bit of reluctance. I automatically handed him a few gold for the trunks. An added benefit to our increasing Merchant profession was that we were starting to get a feel for what merchandise cost and the closer we got to the market price, the more experience we got for the profession. “I could run into some rabbits for more of that fur. I really like it for a bedroll idea I have.”

“Maybe we can do a run on that Eroomtsim Dungeon before we crash for the night,” Dom leaned over to give me a kiss as he ungrouped us. “Unless you want to crash at home tonight.”

“I could use a good meal and an ale,” I told him, a part of me looking forward to my version of pork and beans. How quickly the cottage had become home to him.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“I’ll meet you at the cottage then,” he suggested.

“Okay,” I agreed, looking up at the sun.

“You’re not worried about me out here alone, are you?” he checked with me. He was good about stuff like that. He’d have come with me if his absence would have worried me.

“No,” I laughed a little. I wasn’t worried about him in the slightest.

Dom – Level 15 (Health 7440/7440) (Mana 5394/5394)

Karma – Level 16 (Health 11,988/11,988) (Mana 11,016/11,016)

He gave me another kiss and disappeared into the dungeon. I had a moment of panic that belied my words. I’d thought I was okay with it. He was far higher than he needed to clear the dungeon and get home without my help. I let my mind ponder that as I picked up whole trunks and tucked them into trunks inside my inventory. You could put containers inside containers, but you couldn’t access the things that were nested inside the inside containers. I was just going to sell the whole lot of stuff to Chester.

I headed back to our little pitstop of a town, Terra at my heels.

“You are worried about him.” Terra leapt into a tree as soon as one was near enough to the path.

“I don’t think so,” I said, thoughtfully. “I think it was just a kneejerk reaction to him disappearing. For just a moment, I thought I was losing him like I had Kat and it triggered me.”

“Maybe.” But when I looked to where she’d been traipsing across branches, she was gone.

“Sorry,” Dom’s voice came into my mind and my natural moment of concern faded. “I just wanted to see if it worked between zones.”

I heard Terra give a sigh worthy of Dom, who chuckled at her.

“It does work,” I responded, keeping my tone relaxed, even though I didn’t feel it.

“You can summon her back.” Dom’s voice stayed longer in my mind now that we’d increased the Summon Familiar spell.

“You’re lucky that you know just where to scratch behind that ear,” Terra’s purr belied her rebuke.

“If you need her,” I started.

“It’s not that,” he replied, already distracted by his next thought. “It’s that I wanted to be able to summon her if we need to talk.”

“Why?” I asked.

“I am not a cell phone!” Terra protested.

“I was going to let you know when I finished the dungeon and was headed home.” He felt impatient at Terra’s dislike of being used.

“Terra,” I tried to mediate, “where would you rather be, for now?”

“I’m fine with Karma,” Terra sniffed. “Thank you for asking.”

“I can’t give you a warning if I’m nowhere near you,” Dom said by way of apology. “And we should be testing the spell’s range and limitations.”

“I suppose,” Terra didn’t sound convinced. “Are you two done using me?”

“We could let you walk back,” Dom suggested.

“Would you mind staying with Dom for a bit?” I asked her. “I’m not trying to use you, but it would be nice to know if anything goes wrong with him and you can tell me right away if you’re with him.”

Terra considered my worries more seriously than Dom’s excuses.

“I’ll stay with the oaf,” Terra capitulated with overdone reluctance. “That way he can warn me.”

“It’ll probably get your skills up faster to fight in there with him anyway,” I admitted, continuing down the path and farther from the dungeon.

“Are you sure?” Terra whispered in my mind a bit later, probably to be sure that Dom wouldn’t hear us.

“I’m good,” I shrugged even though she couldn’t see it.

“Summon me if you need me,” Terra worried at me.

“I will,” I told her, practicing my Sneak combined with the Shhh spell, which had upgraded to Hush and then Quiet. I wanted to find a few rabbits. I did find some tracks, but they could have been big rabbit or tiger paw prints for all I could tell them apart.

Skill Learned: Tracking

Exp +10 (17,959/30,755)

Wasn’t that nice. I could learn new things. I followed the tracks, almost positive that I wouldn’t run into anything I couldn’t handle at this level. The forests here were mostly the beginner zone for the area. If there was anything over level six, I’d never seen it.

I admitted to myself that a small part of me didn’t want Dom to catch up in levels if only to still feel useful to him. It seemed that after ten years of marriage, I could also be insecure about us. Then again, this was the first time I’d been alone in a while. We’d gotten into a rhythm. In any case, he might catch up to me in the experience, but my professions were always going to be higher. I was just more interested in the crafting dynamic than he was. If Dom got a few crafting levels, he was only doing it to make sure his health and mana always outdistanced any mob we’d come up against.

The leaves barely gave a sigh as I moved through them, less than what the wind would have done to them. The bunnies never saw me coming. I got four of them before I made my way back to the cottage.

I set up a few batches of potions and meals, puttering around the house like Dom was off at work, feeling rather more domestic than a person who had just been slaughtering hundreds of gnoblins for most of the day. I butchered the rabbits and used the meat for stew. Thanks to the gnoblins, I had ten new cauldrons. I could only have three at a time going in my hearth, so I moved another three to the hearth in the tavern’s kitchen.

Once the various pots were stewing up lovely dishes, I made a few new tanning frames and set the rabbit pelts to dry in what was left of the sun. I’d cleaned the inn, stable, and outhouses for another level in a few more professions before Dom was finished with the dungeons.

“You can bring me home,” Terra mused as she relayed Dom’s condition to me. “He says to tell you, Ding.”

I summoned her obediently. “Now who’s being used?” I chided her.

“What do you mean?” she jumped up onto the tavern’s kitchen counter, ignoring the mice completely.

“Summon me so that I don’t have to walk home,” I teased her, using her normal cat-superior tone.

“Oh,” she paused in her paw licking to think.

I was just pulling some loaves of fresh bread from the coals of the hearth and replacing them with pans of brownies. I considered the recipe section of my book as a place where I could collect everything I knew how to make. It had grown to a point that it felt a bit useless to keep putting it under my character sheet. That was where I came up with the idea that maybe I could put together a cookbook from my experience. It wouldn’t make much money, but it might be fun to do like the cozy detective books did and add some recipes to the end of the book.

I considered it a silly thought at the time, but there will be a poll at the end of this chapter to see if you want a few of my recipes. They’re rather primitive, but someone might like them. I switched over to a batter for cupcakes that I could bake in my cottage kitchen. I mixed the batter on the way to the cottage; casting Moisten on the ground so that it wouldn’t kick dust up into my bowl as I walked. Terra cast a quick glare at one of the ever-present kitchen mice as she padded after me.

I plucked the pans out of my inventory and laid them on the counter, pouring in the batter. While the cupcakes baked, I whipped up a frosting, though I wouldn’t be able to frost them until they cooled. The Breeze spell had turned into something that was heading toward a tornado type spell. The Moisten was ramping up to be able to control another weather pattern with rain or fog. What I was missing, at least for my kitchen craft, was something that made ice! Lightning would be nice for fighting, but I missed ice and all that it could do.

“Something smells really good,” Dom broke into my musings. It was obvious that he hadn’t cast the Clean spell since I’d left, blood and what looked like brain matter crusted into his hair.

“Cast a few Cleans on yourself and you might be able to help me cap off the last of this batch of potions,” I waved him over to the counter where there were still lines of vials waiting for corks.

“You’ve been busy,” he commented, and I was reassured by the disappearance of the nastiness that had even managed to stick to his eyebrows. I cast one more clean on him. It was called Cleanest, which made me roll my eyes again at Fizzbarren’s lazy naming conventions. I was using a previous version of it even though it had upgraded to Bleach. I didn’t trust the bleach version. I hadn’t cast it on myself or our clothes because I really liked having black leather. It was enough that the Cleanest version was area of effect and cleaned four square feet of space.

“I haven’t sold everything yet,” I nodded to the stacks of trunks near the pantry. “I just got into a crafting mood.”

“No worries.” Dom gave me a kiss and moved to cap the potions. “You know I love your cooking.”

“I made one batch of your mom’s chili,” I nodded at one of the three cauldrons.

“Really?” he perked up even more, and I smiled. That’s why I did it.

“No crackers yet,” I tossed a scrap of fried rabbit meat for Terra, who ignored it in favor of a nap.

“I saw the rabbit skins out back,” Dom spooned up a bite of chili and blew on it.

“Three new racks,” I nodded. “I pulled the pigskin off the rack and cast a Repair at it a few times before it was anything I knew what to do with. I figure we’ll just sell it to Chester.”

“That kind of leather probably has to be soaked in something disgusting to make it into something workable.” Dom took a bite of the chili and gave a little groan. “Tanners are outcasts for a reason.”

“Yeah,” I stopped to give it some thought. “I was just thinking of seeing those drying racks in Native American museums. I guess I didn’t think of it beyond that.” My dreams of making my own leather going up in smoke signals.

“I’m happy to leave that profession at level one.” He wrapped his arms around me from behind. “I’m thinking maybe we could eat in the cottage tonight?”

“Okay,” I laughed at his breath on my neck, but moved out of his embrace, “but we have to clean up all the stuff I started if you want to call it a night.”

Dom eagerly helped me set up and preserve several pots of tavern meals and then he helped himself to a dozen cupcakes behind my back as I was frosting the ones in front of me. I didn’t get mad. We’d come from having aging bodies that were starting to limit our lives to having teen bodies with a lot of extra energy. Then we’d taken those teen bodies and honed them into fighting machines. Had it only been three days?

“I miss her,” I told Dom as we cuddled up to sleep under the skylight where Kat and I had spent our last night together only four days earlier. It might have been a different loop for me and for her, but it was still raw for me.

“I know,” he held me tight enough that Terra decided to sleep elsewhere for the night. “Me too.”

“I keep telling myself that she’s not dead,” I admitted, letting myself say it.

“That’s what I did too,” he whispered. “When you were gone.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. My mind was exhausted enough to sleep even as it kept trying to think.

“She’s next,” I promised the night’s sky. “Tomorrow, we clear out Eroomtsim, but then we’re off to the capital.”

“Is that where the next Nemesis is?” he asked, and I realized that he didn’t know. I wasn’t supposed to know.

“Probably,” I hedged. “It’ll take a while to get there.”

“Coaches?”

“Not if I can help it,” I groaned out, relaxing even though my heart ached. That was another spell that I missed. Teleport.