Chapter 13- Dungeon
Author's note: Hello everyone, hope everyone is having a good day and or night. I made it pass the first week of classes, hooray! There isn't much to talk about except that this chapter was longer than most. So O do hope you all enjoy it.
If you enjoyed the chapter then be sure to leave your opinions in the comment section below, I'll be sure to read and answer them whenever I can. With that all taken care of, please enjoy the chapter.
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Over the span of week, Alviss stayed at the town and trained with Juno and the trainees. Wake up early in the morning and then going to the Barracks to train. Within that time Alviss had made fast friends with Juno and the rest. He was learning more and more to be a better fighter and person.
It was noon time that Alviss was on break. He immediately headed in the barracks and took a really quick shower to get rid of the sweat. After that was done Alviss raced over to the hospital. He casually walked in and through the halls as always but this time it was different. Closing in on Ayus’s room he saw doctors running about frantically. Eventually Bria, the doctor that treated Ayus was ordering the doctors.
“Hello. What’s going on?” Bria suddenly jumped at Alviss appearing behind her. She looked at him with a frantic and scared expression. “Is there something wrong?” Alviss could feel the tension in the air.
“It...It’s Ayus.”
“What?!” Alviss immediately grabbed her in response her Ayu’s name being spoken. He quickly regained his sense and backed off. “”What’s wrong with her?! I thought she was stable!”
“Alviss please calm down. You’re scaring the other patients.”
He looked behind him to see nervous looking patients and doctor looking at them. Alviss took several deep breaths before finally calming down. “What’s wrong with her?” Bria walked over to a chair and they both sat down as she explained Ayus’s condition.
“At first there wasn’t any anomaly. But starting this morning her condition started to worsen tremendously. Our doctors concluded that it some sort of poison.”
“Poison from what?” asked Alviss shakenly. “We don’t really know but we can safely say it’s from the Kuplios that you encountered.”
“Ok, so why haven’t you tried to cure it?”
“We have but our best doctors could only stall the spread. We don’t have the right powerful medicine to fully stop it. The next shipment won’t come for a long time.” Alviss confidence was plummeting but he refused to give up. “There has to be something!”
Bria looked reluctant but eventually spoke of another plan. “Well we could make a potion to help cure the poison but the ingredients will be a challenge, namely one in particular.”
“What ever it is, I’ll get it! What is it?”
“It’s special flower called a Tuaq flower. They are often used in medicine to cure powerful poison. Luckily for us it’s close by but here’s the tricky part, it’s located inside a Dungeon.”
“A dungeon? What’s that?” asked Alviss who a mix of puzzlement and curiosity. “A dungeon is how it sound, a dungeon. They are left behind relics from a bygone time. They usually house monsters and treasures. Tuaq flowers usually grow in dungeons the only problem again is that you’ll have search the entire dungeon.”
“Sound simple enough.” Alviss quickly stood up and was about to run out until Bria forced him down. “Please let me finish. The flower is usually found at the end of the dungeon.”
“Fine by me, I’ll just run through it and ….”
“Stop being so hotheaded and listen to me!!” Bria stood up and let out an outburst that attracted everyone’s attention. “It’s because of this reckless behavior that she’s in this situation in the first place!” Alviss was started at Bria outburst but contemplated on her words. It took her a moment to calm down and realized what she said to Alviss.
“Ohh my...I...I didn’t mean that. I…” Alviss held up his arm as to stop her. “What you said do rang true. But I can’t just sit here and do nothing.” She looked into his eye seeing his resolve to saving Ayus.
“Just be careful.” said Bria after staying silent. Alviss nodded and ran out the hospital. As he was walking out, Bria accompanied him while telling him where the dungeon is. After making his way out, Alviss headed towards the shopping districts. Using almost all of his coins he bought everything and anything that would be useful.
“Alviss?” while shopping for some potions some of the trainees spotted Alviss. “What are you doing here?” they were on their way back and noticed Alviss buying potions. “I’m buying some potions, also that reminds me. Tell Juno that I won’t be finishing the training.”
“Huh? Why?” Alviss was trying to hurry up and get everything taken care of so he told them the story. “Anyway I need to hurry up to the adventuring guild.”
“Actually, you might not have to.” Alviss gave them a confused look as they grabbed him and dragged him back to the barracks. There Juno along with some of the trainees with backpacks and their equipment on stood idly. “There you are Alviss, what’s with all those equipment?” Juno chastised Alviss was they made their way over.
“I can say the same to you guys. What are you guys packed for?”
“We’ve packed for our excursion. You ran away before I could explain it to everyone. Basically we’re heading out to get some real practice against monsters and such.” replied Juno
“Ma’am if I might make a suggestion. why not try a dungeon?” replied the trainee that dragged Alviss over. “Huh? Well I did consider it but it’s probably too dangerous. Why?” The girls began to share the story that Alviss told them and why he need it.
“I see. Why not an adventuring guild first? They take requests.”
“I was about to go there after buying everything I needed but they dragged me here.” replied Alviss who was getting a bit antsy. Juno scratched her head and let out a small sigh. Before she could actually got an answer out, one of the trainee chimed in. “Well if we do go to the dungeon then not only will we be helping Alviss but we’ll also get some great first hand experience.” her argument was pretty sound that Juno took a moment to reconsider. She slowly turned towards Alviss.
“Tell me Alviss, just how far are you willingly to go for just one person.” Alviss didn’t expect the sudden question but he answered it immediately. “As much as it takes. Will you help me or not?” spoke Alviss with confident.
She looked at Alviss and back at the trainees. “Grab some of the horses. I’m guessing the dungeon is the one just on the outskirts?”
“Yes.” Juno nodded as she assumed correctly. “We’ll be there in no time with the horse. Everyone saddle up!” The horses were brought over and they raced out. They took the road, continuing onto the countryside and later the forest. Within half an hour time they finally reached the dungeon. It was located in a mountain side with vines and loose rectangular cement like block. They quickly dismounted and ran through the plan.
“The dungeon is quite small, at most it will be a group of eight. The rest of you will wait out here with the horses.” Originally there would be a group of sixteen but now they would split up. The expedition team was putting on their armor and weapon while the others were making camp. Alviss slowly walked up to the entrance to peek inside. “Wonder what’s in there?”
“Monsters of course.” Juno walked up from behind while answering his question. “At the end is a kind of boss monster.” Juno walked back to the group while Alviss continued to stare. ‘Huh, it’s kind of just like a dungeon of games in MMO’s and RPG. This will be interesting to say the least.’ Alviss kept the rather excited thoughts to himself and waited for the others.
Alviss walked back with Juno and a wild thought occurred to him. “Say, how do you know all of this?”
“That’s because I was one of the first one to explore it back when it was first discovered. Leave the navigation to me.” Within a few minutes they finished up and began their adventure.
the group walked through a rather narrow corridor. The air felt lukewarm while the decrepit walls had a sense of foreboding. Soon they entered in a large room with geometric flooring and tiles. The room was illuminated with light blue lighting from the ceiling, wall and floor. Several doorways filled the walls. “Whoa.” whispered Alviss who hadn't bothered to hide his awe. The other trainees looked around with amazement as well.
“What are these?” Alviss picked up one of the glowing rock that brighten up the room. “It’s a mana stone.” replied Juno who stood beside him. “They are able to store mana inside them. They have multiple uses such a light source, they are even used my some mages as a backup source should their mana run out.”
Alviss inspected the stone with wonder and stored it in the infinity bag. Most could fit in Alviss’s hand while some were much larger. He was started to pick some more up until he heard one of the girls scream. Alviss looked towards the direction of it to see some monster coming out but it didn’t end there. Soon more monster were coming out of the wood works. “Everyone form up!”
Everyone regained their senses and followed Juno’s order. They armed themselves, standing next to one another with the exit at their back. The monster soon came into the light, letting Alviss get a better look. Large grey salamanders with spikes on their back and tail were climbing down the wall. Along with them were bat like creatures with four wings and strangest of all were odd venus fly trap plants that were walking on their roots.
“Spicmanders, fobats and vineguas, there certainly are a lot of them.” Juno calmly assessed the situation as they slowly got out. The group consisted of two archers, one with a halberd, one with a spear while the rest had swords and shields.
“Archer stay back and provide support fire. Split up in teams of two’s and watch each other back.” Juno gave the command and everyone followed it. Alviss paired up with one who had a halberd. The monsters numbered twenty seven, most of them stuck to their own side. Alviss along with the other girls fought the vineguas while Juno and the others fought the spicmanders. The bats were flying about, seemingly helping one another.
“|Downward Blow|” Using his skill he charged in and attacked one of the plant monster. Alviss cut through the monster with ease and continued on. “|Piercing slash.| |Backslash|” Using his skills again he charged using his skill and killed two of them. One tried to grab him but was cut down as well. Alviss took a glance back at the others to see how they were doing.
The one with the halberd was doing doing great. So far she took down three as well. The other two were covering one another's backs. Juno and the rest were also doing well but the biggest problem were the bats. The archers had a hard time killing them not to mention their screams.
Some of the bats flew down and began releasing sonic screams at a high frequency. The noise resemble that of a person scratching their nails against a chalk board. “Ahh!” screamed Alviss along with the others girls who tried to block out the sound. “You’re annoying! |Electric wave|”
He pointed his palm towards the air where the bats floated. Electricity soon fired off and hit one of the bats. It let out a death scream before finally dropping, but it didn’t end there. The spell that Alviss cast was a rank three spell, an additional effect was that it was able to travel from target to target. Traveling from one to another, the bats slowly dropped. Those that survived fled.
“Eat that you bastard.” Alviss had on a triumph grin but the moment was cut short. “Alviss, look out!” Turning around in response to the call, one of the vineguas got in close and ensnared him. It wrapped itself around his body and reared its head in for a bite. “Damn it.” cursed Alviss who raised up one of his arm to block the bite. He was able to block it but soon a burning sensation could be felt. “Sh*t! acid?! You’re just pissing me off! |Flame burst.|” When it went for another bite, Alviss positioned his hand inside it’s mouth. Fire bursted out of his hand and burned the plant from the inside.
“Alviss are you alright?” one of the girls ran over as Alviss was getting back on his feet. Within seconds Alviss joined back in the fight. The battle soon became one sided as they killed all the monsters. Finally the group was able to rest as everyone sat down and tended to their wounds. “The acid seems to burn through the armor but barely touched the skin. But we’ll treat it nonetheless.” one of the trainee was inspecting Alviss wounds and provided medical advice.
Alviss thanked her as she treated his wound. “I must say Alviss, you’re amazing. Not only are you good at fighting but you can also use magic!” The girl that was helping him complimented him, soon the others joined in. Alviss felt a little embarrassed that they were in awe of him. “I must say that I’m quite surprise. Sometime I would catch a glimpse of you reading some odd book, guess it turns out to be a grimoire.”
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“And why might you be surprise?” questioned Alviss at Juno’s odd response. “Because you never seem like one to read. Seeing how hot headed you are.” she let out a small light hearted laugh which the others joined and eventually Alviss joined as well. They finished up and were on their way.
While packing up, something out of the corner of his eye moved. Alviss quickly looked over just as some rocks were falling from the wall. “Alviss is something wrong?” Alviss looked back to see them waiting for them at one of the doorways. He quickly shook his head and ignored it. They continued on through one of the doorways. Like the other hallways the one they choosed look exactly like the rest of the ruin.
“Hey, so there is suppose to be some kind of boss monster right? What is it?” asked Alviss out of curiosity and to pass the time. “Truth be told, I don't know. I've been in here only twice and everytime the boss are different every time. But it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.” Alviss simply nodded and they continued on.
For the next half hour or so they continued on with minimal resistance. Each path would lead to more branching paths and even more. It was a maze like interior that gave Alviss a claustrophobic feeling. Eventually however they reached the end.
Light filled the hallway until they were finally out. It was a gigantic circular space that was littered with with mana stones. A small water fall flowed from one of the walls into a small pool. Overall the area was very serene. Even the air around them was a cool and calm feeling as well. “What is this place?”
“This the end of the dungeon or the boss room. But this time it’s much different.”
“What do you mean?” questioned Alviss who was trying to hide his nervousness. “Well for one thing the room was suppose to have a monster here. Secondly all these mana stones, they weren’t here before. Including those tunnels as well.” Juno pointed toward the back wall where tunnel like entrances littered around.
“I have a bad feeling about this. Let’s hurry up and look for that flower.” Alviss nodded and started to look around the area. The trainees scattered, searching the entire area. While searching Alviss saw some rocks fall down from the walls. Just like before he felt something was wrong with the room. He shook his head to focus and continued searching.
Within a minute he finally found the flower. The flower was similar to a dandelion, the petals were an odd green and purple color. “Found one.” said Alviss with an excited tone. He quickly stored it and within another few seconds he found some more. The other girls also found some as well. Within five minutes they collected a bunch of the flower which he stored in infinity bag.
“Alviss, I think we need to leave.” Alviss was still searching for more when he heard Juno. “Why?”
“Something isn’t right. We should leave as soon as we can.” Alviss frowned a bit and considered her warning. But he decided to continue looking out of fear that what they have might not be enough. The other trainee were waiting near the exit while Juno was making her way over to drag Alviss out. Alviss was near one of the tunnels collecting as much of the flower as she can. Soon she peared a flower on the floor in the middle of the ground.
Alviss ran over to grab it. “Gotcha.” Finally putting the last flower in the bag Alviss turned around to see Juno running towards him. “Above you!” Alviss looked up curiously at Juno’s warning to see a mass of rocks coming down on him. The thought of it so absurd that he didn’t have time to dodge. Juno barely made it and pulled him over as they fell down. Dust and debris flew everywhere as Alviss tried to regain his sense but was stunned at the next sigh.
Seemingly coming out of the wall itself, the rocks detached itself. It twist and turn until a giant mana stone was in the center of the body. It took the shape of a large humanoid body of rock. Alviss shook the surprise off and tried to get pull Juno back up to her feet.
“Ahh.” she fell down once more, the cause of which was a twisted leg from when she got hit by the surprise attack. The thing charged in for another attack. Using as much strength as he could muster, he threw Juno away. “|Heavy Blockade|” It went in for another strike but this time Alviss was ready. Using a defense skill he braced for the attack. Nonetheless he felt the force behind it and was pushed way back.
“Alviss, don't fight that thing!” he looked back to the Juno being supported by the trainees. He quickly ran over as they observed the thing. “What is that thing?” question Alviss in a frantic voice.
“It’s a golem. A being made up of rocks and stone infused with mana. Worse of all that thing is a mana stone golem.”
“What exactly is the difference?”
“Regular golems rely on a summoner or a specific area to supply mana. Mana stone golem have a mana stone to power them. The only way to kill it is to destroy the stone or make sure it doesn’t have any mana to absorb. And seeing as how this place is littered with mana stones, that thing is practically invincible.”
Alviss looked at that being with fright as fighting it would net the same result as the Kuplios. “Then we need to go, now!” Alviss helped one of the girls with juno and they ran towards the exit. While they were doing so the golem hurled large rocks at them. Most missed but one was about to hit them. “|Reinforce| |Heavy Pierce|” using his skills he destroyed the rock before it hit the group.
“Damn it! That thing is quite intelligent. It partially blocked the exit.” Some of the rocks were in the way, they could easily be destroyed but the golem would just attack while doing so. Alviss quickly looked around for another way to escape. The golem closed in and they had no choice. “Everyone into the tunnels! Follow me.” giving the order, Alviss ran into the tunnel with Juno and the trainees after him.
The tunnel was dark and barely illuminated, save for the scattered small mana stones. Soon the tunnel came to an opening with even more tunnels. Choosing one at random they fled. But it soon became apparent that they were getting lost. One tunnel would lead to more and even more. Soon he forgot which one they even went through. To make matters worse most of the time the tunnels would lead to dead ends.
Soon they came upon another cross road.
“Which way to do we go?!”
“That one, to the left.”
“No, no. We went through that one already. We need to go to the right.”
“No. That one leads to a dead end, we need to go through that crooked one.”
The trainees were arguing with one another as they couldn’t tell which one to really go through. Even Alviss had partially given up as they were running in circle. ‘Damn it, damn it! Where do I go.’ Alviss screamed in his head. “I… I can’t….I can’t let them die because of me!’
‘Go to the left tunnel.’ Alviss heard a sudden voice. He looked to back at the girls but it wasn’t them. ‘Who said that...Was that..’ Alviss didn’t had time to think as they could hear the golem catching up. With no other opinion Alviss took them to the left. Soon more direction came through as he navigated the tunnels. After a couple of minutes they came upon an area that was similar to the one where they meet the golem. ‘Up that wall.’
Receiving the final direction he looked around to see a small indent cave hole on the wall that seem to be able to fit all of them. Alviss quickly order them over and they waited in the hole. The sound of the golem got closer and closer until it made it’s way in the area. It stood there, apparently surveying the area before leaving.
The rest of the group let out heavy sighs of relief but it wasn’t time to rest. “Juno, how is your leg?”
“Could be better. I don’t suppose you know some good healing magic?”
“No. No matter how hard I try I can’t even learn the basic heal spell. All I can learn is attack magic.”
“Hmph, well that makes a whole lot of sense.” Juno replied with a sarcastic tone as to lighten up the mood but it didn’t last for long. “Ma’am, how are we going to escape?”
Her hardened look returned and she stayed silent for a minute before answering. “We have no choice but to fight it. But it won’t be easy. Best case scenario, we win but most of us will die. Worst case scenario we all die.” Juno blunt response was meet with grim faces from all of them. Some of them were even tearing up.
Just the sight of them einraged Alviss at himself. It was the same situation that she put herself and Ayus in before. ‘Why...Why must those around me suffer for my actions?!’ Alviss whimpered to himself to the point that he was about to cry as well.
‘Then do you admit that you’re weak?’ a voice called out in his mind. It took a moment but the answer came to him. ‘Yes. I am weak, I’ve always been weak. Is that what you want to hear God? Go ahead and laugh, in the end you were right all along.’
God remained silence before answering. ‘It’s true that I want you to realize that, not because I’m right but for you to learn from them.’
‘Well, it doesn’t matter now.’
‘That’s where you’re wrong. Remember what I said before? Nothing is absolute. You have the means to escape, you simply need to think. Here’s a hint, imagine the mana as a sort of energy. While the golem is a toy that used the energy, now what else uses energy?’
With that the presence of God was gone, leaving Alviss with his words. ‘Toy, energy? What else uses energy...what else uses mana…. wait!’ After pondering on God’s help he finally came to a conclusion. “Juno...I think I found a way to escape.”
The trainees looked at him with a slimmer of hope. “What is it?”
“The golem is powered by the mana stones and the mana around. We just need to use up the mana.”
“But we have no way to waste that much mana.” questioned Juno immediately. “That’s where you’re wrong.” Alviss held out his hand and formed a small lingering fire. The trainees started to believe but Juno was still skeptical. “That maybe true but I know that a person waste more mana than they do regaining it. You’ll just drop from fatigue.”
“Not if I used this as well.” opening his bag, he pulled out the mana stone from before. But Juno still argued with him. “That may be true but should you try and recover a lot of mana at once then…”
“Then I’ll experience mana backlash from the sudden influx. I know, but what other choice do we have?” Juno was about to argue again but Alviss didn’t give her the chance. “I got you all into the mess and I’ll be the one to get you all out of this.” Without saying anymore, he unfashioned the infinity bag and tossed it to one of the girls. After explaining the property of the bag and where to deliver the flower Alviss jumped down. “Once I distract it and pull it over to a safe distance, you all just run. I’ll hold it off for as long as I can until reinforcement arrives.”
Everyone looked like they wanted to argue and stop him but none did. They cheered him on and gave encouragements. “Alviss….try not to die.” the last of which came from Juno. Alviss simply nodded and ran towards one of the tunnels. Soon he heard the golem, making as much noise as he could, the noise followed him. Within a few minutes the golem made its way in and slowly walked over.
When it was far in, the group dropped down and ran to the tunnels. Hearing the noise the golem turned his attention away. “|Great Fireball|” hurling one of his best spell at it, it managed to stagger it. “Your opponent is me you rocky bastard!” The golem took a second to recover before ignoring the group as they disappeared into the tunnel.
Alviss formed a small smile as he had one less thing to worry about. He began to focus his attention back to the golem. Picking up one of the mana stones lying about he charged at the golem, ready for an all out fight.
……………
The entire surrounding was an empty space, filled with nothing but darkness. Only one figure could be made out amongst the darkness, Alviss. From one point of view it looked like Alviss was lying on his back. To another it would seem that he was standing up. Whatever the case, he was there with one hand over his head, covering his eyes.
Soon another figure appeared out of nowhere, looking at him. Even without peeking Alviss already knew who it was. The only other person that would meet him in a space of darkness.
“Hey God. I messed up big time didn’t I?”
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