The wind blew across the salty, barren landscape with great fierceness. Zoe held her hands over her ears to cut down on the painful howling while she watched her dad work on the strange old door in the hillside. She couldn’t hear him, but she just knew he was using what her mother had called his “words of power” on the recalcitrant hunk of metal, plastic, and ceramic. She smiled at the pleasant memory of her mom, then turned her attention back to the dusky land.
Jose Harris convinced the salvage team, and Zoe’s dad, that the strange door in a hillside Jose’s daughter Maria found might be the entrance to ruin with an unawakened dungeon core still inside. So, Zoe was on Lookout. It was her job to watch for anything; man, beast, undead, mecha, or magical entity that might try to sneak up on their small salvage group.
Eyes sweeping back and forth, Zoe saw nothing on the horizon, nor anything in the valley that fell away from the hill they were on. Glancing over, she saw three of the other four lookouts set up around the hillcrest. The last was over the rise and out of her direct sight. Seeing Maria glance her way, Zoe held up her hand to show all was clear and Maria did the same. When Jack Sorrel repeated the action a few moments later, Zoe responded in kind. The five youngest members of the team determined they would spot any trouble before it got to the hill.
After several hours and the setting of the sun, a commotion of wavering lights by the hillside door showed there had finally been progress. The gale-force wind had died down a little with the setting of the sun, and the howling had become merely a moaning that no longer drowned out her rune comm.
“Lookouts. We have opened the outer door. If this place has any way to summon guardians, they will probably show up in the next few minutes. Let us know the moment any of you see something. The rest of us will continue into the ruin and find that core crystal Jose can detect. If nothing shows up, we will do regular comm checks at fifteen-minute intervals. Everyone stay alert and safe.” John Nix told the lookouts before leading the rest of the salvage team into the hillside. Zoe and the other four lookouts gave brief acknowledgments.
Zoe and her four companions continued to watch into the night with both magical and technological aids, making the dark as bright as day. Over the comm, she could hear Maria softly chanting another night vision spell to refresh her sight before the last spell wore off. Their vigil lasted throughout that night and into the next morning.
The time had almost come for her to call for the second group of lookouts to relieve them, and Zoe felt tired. But, when an excited “I found them!” came over the comm, a spike of adrenaline shot through her body and Zoe was once again alert and searching for danger in her area of the morning lighted wasteland. She relaxed after a few seconds of silence that followed the exclamation from an over excited searcher. Jabbering by several people broke out and Jose Harris had to shout the others down. “Quiet on the comm!”
Zoe’s heart had stopped racing after she realized the exclamation she’d heard hadn’t been one of alarm. Jose spoke over the now silent comm. “Please repeat that first message.”
“I found them.” Justin Dover announced. “I found a partially collapsed room with crystal shards everywhere. There are what look to be crystal pillars, but many are shattered, and all are dark, but I think I see a very faint glimmer near the back of the room. I’ll need help to dig through the rubble and shards.”
“OK, Justin. Please mark your location on your sub-map and share it with your group leader. Jose, please sync the explored area of your Prime map with Janet and me so we’ll all be able to update our Prime maps with the location of this crystal room and send it to our sub-maps. We have been searching this facility for the last eleven hours and we all need to take a break. If there is anyone who feels they can continue excavating in this new room without making mistakes, let Jose know and he’ll organize the first shift.” John said over the comm. “Otherwise, stand down and carefully make your way to our base camp for food and rest as needed. Janet, please take over the second shift when you and your crew have rested. I’ll take over the third shift. We are all tired right now, so be careful everyone. Keep to the marked safe routes on your sub-maps and keep your perception skills active. We have disabled all the traps and defense systems we have found, but let’s not get lazy and let our guard down.”
After Zoe’s dad signed off the raid comm channel, he contacted the lookout channel. “Lookout group two, please make your way to your overwatch positions, and lookout group one, you stand-down when group two is in position. Good job, everyone.” After her dad left the comm channel, Zoe got a System message pop-up.
Congratulations! You have completed an optional quest assigned by your Raid Leader: Ruin’s Hill Lookout, part 1. You are awarded 55 XP (5 XP/hr. x 11 hours).
Zoe was happy. 55 XP wasn’t much when she still needed 445 more to purchase level five for her Scout Class, but every bit helps, and exchanging time for XP was a simple way to grow. Every aspect of a person’s development, such as class levels, skill progression, and attribute points, all followed the same leveling pattern. For Rank one, levels 1 through 10, the XP requirement was just 100 times the level. For Rank 2, levels 11 through 20, the cost jumps to 200 times the level. This continues to level 100, which is the highest level Zoe had ever heard of someone attaining. As it is a Rank 10 level, the cost is 1000 times the level, or 100,000 XP for level 100 in just that one aspect. With thousands of different things a person could spend XP to raise, Zoe’s mind boggled at how much XP one would have to spend to become a Level 100 Ranker in every aspect of their personal growth.
But leveling up anything was a long, hard slog. After she spent 500 XP on level 5 for her Scout class, her XP Pool would be empty and she would have to build up 600 more for level 6. So, because of this, the next pop-up message was even more welcome than the quest’s completion message.
Attention: Ruin’s Hill Lookout part 1 was a unique quest and has not been seen in the System before. Would you like to upload your unique quest User Experience to the System? If you choose to do so, you will increase the systems knowledge base and you will be rewarded with a commensurate amount of System resources as compensation. Yes/No.
Zoe mentally pressed yes, but was unsurprised by the next message.
Attention: The SYSTEM has detected you are in combat, on duty, or otherwise cannot commit to the short period of rest needed for User Experience uploading. Your upload has been suspended and you may manually resume the upload during your next rest period.
Her attention was away for only a few seconds because of the System messages, but Zoe lightly chastised herself for allowing it to wander at all. As she waited and watched, a quick flicker of movement at the edge of the valley caught her notice. Muscles tensing across her upper back, Zoe tried to slowly, casually, lower her head until her rifle detected her eye and began showing an enhanced sight picture. Her rifle didn’t have an optical sight, but rune inscriptions, magical coding, and a small aperture camera under the mussel allowed it to show her a clear, if narrowly focused, picture from the weapon’s point of view.
She felt as if she were standing on the ridge more than a mile away from her body. She didn’t like to use the sight mode because, while crystal clear right near her, it seemed she was standing in a ten-foot-wide tunnel which had sides made of blurry, indistinct light. On the ridge, she saw animal tracks. The bottoms of the tracks were flat, with a gray surface because the depression was lower than the sight of her rifle could see. But the dirt-colored ridges between the toes and pads stood out clearly.
Zoe looked all around her location to see if she could pick out any more details, but other than the sand and tiny salt crystals blowing by in the freshening morning winds, nothing else was out of the ordinary. A few partial tracks from a single animal were all she had. She hadn’t been able to see the shape of the claw marks, but the track looked canid to her. Zoe released her sight picture and the valley ridge returned into the distance.
“Coming up on your left.” she heard as she was releasing her sight picture. Zoe’s counterpart on lookout team two, Sean Martin, spoke before lying next to her at their overwatch point. “I saw you looking through your rifle. Anything interesting out there?”
“I’m not sure. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye when I was sweeping our area, but just missed whatever it was. My site picture showed partial animal tracks, some kind of dog, or canid, I think. But it looks like it was by itself.” She replied. “I’ll let dad know just to be safe.”
Sean nodded. “Good idea. It’s probably nothing, but animals of any type are rare out this far into the wastes this time of year, especially since the drought started.”
Gathering her equipment and placing them in her inventory, Zoe made her way across the windswept terrain to their campsite. There, she found her father and told him about the tracks she found.
“Hmm, sounds like a medium-sized animal. Maybe a wolf or large coyote, but hopefully not a hyena.” Her father said. “I’ll have a hunter check out the tracks, so we’ll have a better idea of what is out there.”
John thought a moment, then said. “I want you to get some rest and when you wake up, help the crew explore the complex we’ve discovered for an hour or two before you go back on shift. Stay in the marked areas and pay attention to the disarmed traps. That should get you some delving experience.”
“Okay, I’ll do that.” Zoe replied and then stood, exited the command tent and went to find her family’s tent. After entering, she walked over to her corner of the divided tent and took off her cloak and inventory pack. Next, she took off her reinforced cloth armor, put it in her inventory, and then stretched. Groaning in pleasure at her now unrestricted movement, Zoe pulled out her cot from the tent’s inventory slot in her compartment and after setting it up, she went back out to the communal section of the tent for some food.
The tent she and her father shared when out in the wastes had a main communal living area in the front half and two equally sized sleeping compartments that took up the back half. Her father had already brought out the small meal prep area that was stored in the tent’s inventory when he’d set up the tent. Zoe pulled out a small carrot and stock of celery from the cold box and poured a cup of water for herself. She and her father had provisions for two weeks stored in their tents inventory, but other than a light snack, they would be mostly eating at the camp’s cook tent. It was the only structure in their camp that had the inventory size to store the ton of food and supplies the 20-person salvage team would need for the three weeks they expected to be away from their home, Styx Village.
After eating her crunchy breakfast, Zoe went back into her portion of the tent and, after removing all her outer clothing, laid down on her cot. Zoe prepared to rest and brought back up the systems user experience prompt.
Attention: Ruin’s Hill Lookout part 1 was a unique quest and has not been seen in the System before. Would you like to upload your unique quest User Experience to the System? If you choose to do so, you will increase the systems knowledge base and you will be rewarded with a commensurate amount of System resources as compensation. Yes/No.
Zoe concentrated and mentally selected “yes”. A moment later, a deep sleep took her, and she began dreaming about the events of the last several hours. As she relived her memories, she answered unheard questions about why she took specific actions and what she was thinking as she did them. When prompted, she explained her Rune Comm and gave a detailed recitation of how her rifle worked and how she used her magic to interface with its sight picture.
Satisfied, the system began collating, consolidating, and reconciling this new data with its existing knowledge base. It estimated the new data improved the efficiency of carrying out its directive, that of forcing all life on earth to grow stronger, by one billionth of a percent.
The System added the insight of using a magical sight picture to examine tracks more than a mile away to the level one knowledge repositories for all ranged skills used in hunting and combat.
The system ended her upload session and Zoe fell into a true restful sleep.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Zoe woke seven hours later. This had been her first upload session, and Zoe was excited to find out her reward. She opened the waiting System message.
Congratulations! You have successfully shared your user experience for the optional quest: Ruin’s Hill Lookout part 1. You are awarded 120 XP, your perception attribute has increased by 1 point, your MP has increased by 10 points, and your small firearms skill has increased one level.
It surprised her the System had been so generous. An increase in her MP was beyond fantastic, but the level up of her Perception attribute and Small Firearms skill was the equivalent of giving her an additional 1500 XP over and above the 120 XP award. Zoe squealed and pumped her arms and legs in happiness.
She relaxed boneless back onto her bead and basked in happiness for a few moments. But the memory of the job her dad gave her came to mind and blowing out a puff of air, she got up and began dressing for her first dungeon delve.
After dressing in tough fabric clothing, calf high leather boots and a light scavenger’s harness with lots of pockets, Zoe put on a small day pack and cloak to finish out her ensemble. With her dagger and pistol in their places, she stepped out of the tent and headed up to the ruin’s entrance.
She stopped and looked at the hill before going into the round door hidden behind a large bolder. The hill’s crown was oddly rounded and mostly tubular. Flattened in some areas and with sudden angle changes in others, it looked like whatever had formed it had been dropped on the hill, broken and smashed.
She ducked as she stepped through the small round door into a metal tube that, as she had guessed outside, was buckled and bent with rents torn thorough that were filled with cut stone blocks. The tube was 30 feet across and had a stone walkway leading from the entrance to a double door made of stone about a hundred feet further down the tube. In sconces along the wall, the scavengers had placed torches to light the passage and reveal the runic script the cultists had etched onto the metal structure, giving it the strength to withstand the weight of the earth and rocks above.
‘No wonder it had been so hard for dad to open the door. Rune scribed metal.’ She thought to herself.
Continuing down the stone path to the open doors, she found a set of stairs leading down into the heart of the hill. At the bottom landing was a brightly lit floor with shadows moving over it and voices she recognized coming from people just out of sight. Zoe stepped down the stairs but paused when she saw that Brad Derrickson and his people had set up a small rest area in the ten-foot by ten-foot stone hallway. An organized grouping of supply boxes, tables, and chairs flanked a large eight-foot-tall doorway on the right wall.
She walked over to Brad, who was talking with one of his people and looking at an inventory list. Zoe glanced through the doorway and saw a room that was cleaned out and set up as an aid station with medical supplies on a table and several cots along the walls, with a person lying on one.
Brad turned at her approach and smiled. “Zoe! Your dad said he had assigned you to help us with a shift.”
Zoe nodded.
“Well, I was just finishing up with Jill here and she will lead you to our current work site. Just give me a minute.”
“Ok.” Zoe smiled and watched as they finished up.
Brad turned and walked into the room, and Jill came over, smiling. “Hey girl. Ready to get your hands dirty?”
“Yep!”
Nodding, Jill walked over to some crates and Zoe followed. Jill pulled out several potion bottles and put them in her inventory.
“Let’s go. I’ll drop you and these stamina potions off at our work site. They're having a tough time clearing the rubble in what we think was the temple room.” Jill nodded her head to point down the corridor, and they began walking.
The dungeon was in much better shape than Zoe thought it should be in after being abandoned for hundreds of years. There were very few cracks or chips in the smooth stone blocks of the walls and floors, despite being in a seismically active area.
As they left the staging area and came to the first intersection, she noticed the ruin was still well lit, showing some of the ruin’s enchantments were still active. Ahead, the corridor continued a few feet past the intersection and then a rockfall blocked the way. There, black soot and partially melted stone marred the formerly well-preserved hall before the actual collapse. It looked like intense fighting had occurred there.
Jill led the way forward down the left-hand corridor. This corridor had had a smaller rockfall that the team could dig through. The walls here still showed signs of fighting, but there was less overall damage than in the main corridor.
“What do you think caused all the damage?” Zoe asked.
“Well, based on what we found in the temple area, we think there was a death cult of sorts running this place. So, it seems likely some other group attacked to stop the death rituals and save their people. It’s just a guess, but I think it’s true.” Jill answered.
“That’s horrible!” Zoe exclaimed and shuddered for a moment. Death cults were things of nightmares. From what she heard from their village elders, who had been world travelers in their youths, death cults used mass deaths to attract the attention of eldritch beings that are attuned to the voids in the world’s life energy caused by mass casualty events. The diminution of life energy allowed other harmful energies to increase in concentration and provide potent, if temporary, feeding grounds for the eldritch horrors.
“Is that why dad and Jose think we might find a dungeon core in this place? Did all the death allow them to create the gems needed for the cores?” Zoe asked.
“Jose says there is at least one unawakened dungeon core somewhere in this place. And we found the temple room where the sacrifices were made, so yeah, I think the cult was using the effect of the Eldritch creatures to allow them to create the gems needed for dungeon cores.
“Our village really needs a dungeon core right now. With the drought and loss of trade, we are hurting. A tamed dungeon's ability to manifest beneficial items and creatures would be a great boon for us. Jill finished in a brighter tone after realizing she was being morose, thinking of all the death that took place in this ruin and their village’s need.
They continued following the corridor south past four more rooms, two on each side, filled with stone debris and burned detritus. A little farther beyond those, the straight hallway turned into one that angled to the west about 45 degrees.
“Be careful here. Bert found a pressure plate trap here.” Jill said, pointing at a white chalk square surrounding a large flagstone situated to cover most of the hall’s floor where people would normally walk. The chalk glowed slightly because of the addition of mana salt.
“Is it still active?” Zoe asked.
“Bert disarmed it, but we don’t know if this ruin can still reset the traps. So, safety first!” Jill said with a smile. And they walked to the side of the stone.
The angled hall changed into a small, oddly shaped area that became another hallway heading west, but had a door on the south-east wall. This door had a big red chalk x on the door.
“The western hall curves around the middle part of the dungeon and flows into an octagonal room with a large fountain that is situated just beyond this door. But the traps are much more dangerous and so far, he hasn’t been able to disarm them. So don’t explore past our work site.”
Jill led the way west, and Zoe followed. “The traps become more numerous from here on, but we can safely make it as far as the temple entrance. Beyond that, we’ve stopped exploring because the level of danger from the traps jumps dramatically. Hopefully, we can find the core before we must move into the areas beyond there, but if not, we have the aid station near the entrance for any injuries. So, if you get hurt and can move on your own, have one of the other guys go with you to the station. And if you go anywhere down here, remember to always go in pairs. Ok?” Jill asked.
Zoe nodded, and they started walking down the curving hall marked with an ever-increasing number of chalk outlines. After their ten-minute walk, they came to the temple’s entrance. The large ornate gilded doors that once stood here were lying in a splintered, blackened heap just inside the temple room. They looked as if an explosion blew them off their hinges.
Inside the temple, Zoe could make out among the huge piles of stone debris and rock falls, a black and white tiled floor reminiscence of a chess board six rows wide, running down the middle of the room. Throughout the entire room, deeply carved channels about two inches wide and six inches deep were cut around and between every flagstone and floor tile. Midway between the remains of the checkered floor and the walls were once grand crystal pillars that had shattered into piles of razer edged shards, but enough of their forms remained to know what they had been.
Stepping into the temple room, with the smaller crystal shards that covered the entire floor crunching under foot, Zoe could just make out two alcoves on the north and south walls. Theses alcoves looked like they took the worst of the structural damage in the room and were mostly huge collapsed rockfall piles that spread out into the room.
Curious, Zoe picked her way towards the northern alcove. Between the jagged boulders and slabs of rock piled there, she made out the end of an ornately carved waist-high white marble block with red painted grooves running down it. The grooves continued across the alcoves floor and down the two steps to end at some channels on the main floor.
Puzzled, Zoe turned to Jill, who had followed her over to the alcove. “What is that block of marble, and why does it have those painted lines?”
“It’s a sacrificial altar, and those lines are blood groves. From what we can make out, the victims’ blood would flow down the groves and out into the channels on the main floor. Little rune etchings on the floor tiles may have prevented the blood from coagulating and kept it flowing like water. We think the temple is like a measuring device. Once all the channels across the entire floor filled to their full height, then they had killed enough people to attract an eldritch creature.” Jill said as she looked from the altar and out into the huge temple room with haunted eyes. “It probably took hundreds of people. Maybe closer to a thousand than any sane person wants to think about.”
Jill sadly shook her head and started walking towards the large dais at the back of the temple room, and Zoe followed her. Knowing that so many people had died here, all the workers in the room were subdued and rarely spoke loudly. It was under this pall that Jill brought Zoe over to meet Justin Dover, the salvage team’s head engineer.
Their crunching footsteps warned the workers on the dais of their approach, and Justin looked up and saw Jill and Zoe. “Jill,” Justin said with a smile. “Gabe’s going to be glad to see you.”
“Oh?” Jill asked
“Yeah, since we’re operating with an odd number of people today, he’s been waiting for some of us to go off shift so we can go back upstairs together. But since you're here, he won’t have to put in another two hours of work.” Justin chuckled.
“Glad to hear it. I was going to ask if one of your people wanted to leave early to go back with me, but this works out better.” Jill replied.
Justin looked at Zoe next. “Hello, you must be Zoe. Sorry we haven’t met before this job.” Justin gestured to the surrounding room, then continued. “The team usually has me running all over our little piece of the wastes helping our salvage teams, so I have had little time to meet our new people.”
He extended his hand to Zoe, who took it, and they shook in greeting.
“This is my first salvage opportunity. I’ve been training to be a scout and lookout. But I’m looking forward to helping down here. What do you need me to do?” Zoe asked.
“We’ll get you started by helping us sort and classifying the shard debris. It’s not much fun, but it is an important job. Most of the shards will be from the pilers that once stretched floor to ceiling in here. They were made of Quartz mostly, but they have taken on some unique properties because of their exposure to high concentrations of differing energy types. These shards can be sold as low-grade mana gems, or as magical and alchemical regents.” Said Justin.
Jill looked over at Zoe and said, “In fact, Margaret was experimenting with a couple of them since she only has Jimmy in her infirmary and made some Rank two stamina potions with them. Speaking of which.” She turned and handed Justin the stamina potions she had brought.
“Thanks.” Justin said and placed the potions in his inventory and continued speaking to Zoe. “But the most important shards will be from the Animus Gems. If they’re too damaged, then we’ll sell or use them just like the enchanted quartz. But if we can find one that is intact enough to still contain anima, then we’ll have what we need for the village.”
With her task of delivering both Zoe and the stamina potions, Jill said her goodbyes and left the two.
Justin showed Zoe over to their main work area and introduced her work mate for this shift.
“Zoe, this is Jason. He’ll show you what to do today.”
A blond-headed man, only a little older than Zoe, stepped away from a pyramid shaped thing he had been shaking and introduced himself.
“Hey there Zoe, I’m Jason Staison and I’ll be showing you the ropes.”
Jason led her to their work area, where they had set up a series of stacked metal meshes hanging below a wooden frame, each one a little larger than the one above, forming a pyramid shape. Each mesh layer canted at a slight angle so that anything too large to fit through would roll off the mesh into a collection trough with only a little shaking of the contraption.
“Most of our work is picking through the debris and collecting the largest shards. But we also have buyers that want smaller crystals and even crystal powders.” Jason explained and then picked up a bucket of shards and continued. “So we take a bucket and pour it into the top screen. This screen catches the crystals that are larger than the mesh, while those that are smaller fall through to a finer mesh below. This continues down to the lowest and finest mesh, which only lets powder fall through onto the tarp we’ve placed on the floor to collect it. At the end of the shift, we will gather up our separated crystals and the powder and take them to Brad.”
For the next five days, Zoe spent her workdays split between lookout duties and crystal collecting. She found out the first day that the shards were often so sharp they could cut through her gloves and by the end of the fifth day, her fingers were covered in minor cuts and tiny pin pricks.
She was helping Jason and Gabe Dietrich collect their shifts crystal haul and had just pulled up the dust tarp when Gabe turned and bumped a bin of crystals. He caught the bin before it spilled over, but the large crystal on top fell out. Zoe was fast enough to catch the crystal before it hit the floor, but she had taken off her gloves to better handle the tarp, and the crystal fell into her bare hand. And cut it to the bone.
With her heart racing in her panic to catch the crystal, blood immediately welled up in her palm and began dripping from her hand. For a moment, she didn’t feel anything, but then she gritted her teeth and gasped between clenched teeth when the pain hit a moment later. Zoe forced herself not to throw the crystal away from herself, but walked a few steps and dropped the crystal back into its bin. Gripping her wrist with her other hand and breathing through clenched teeth, she watched blood pool in her injured palm.
Gabe was saying sorry repeatedly, but doing nothing to help her. Jason moved over to help. He grabbed the sides of her hand but couldn’t see the wound under the blood and, without thinking, turned her hand to pour out the blood so he could see it better. The revealed wound was deep and gaped open enough to see a little bone at the bottom.
Both Zoe and Jason were fixated on her hand, so the panicking Gabe was the first to notice the floor begin to glow.
“Ah, Jason! The floor is glowing!” Gabe yelled and ran down the dais’s steps, away from the light.
Zoe and Jason both looked at the fleeing Gabe and then down at the floor. Jason released Zoe’s hand and spun to see the extent of the glowing. He saw the red light move across the floor, forming two shining blood red circles, one inside the other, on the previously featureless white tiled dais.
Zoe didn’t follow Jason’s gaze as he spun away from her, instead she watched as the blood that had been spilled on the floor got sucked into the white tiles and flowed in a crimson stain, forming runes on the floor between the two shinning circles.
When both the circles and the runes completed their formation, the light pulsed, and a force pushed out from the center of the circle, throwing Jason and the team's equipment off the dais, sweeping it clean, but leaving Zoe untouched. Another pulse of light and Zoe heard a voice say, “Access granted”.
And then a third pulse of light blinded her vision.