S3, The Boundary

As we walked towards the dungeon’s entrance the path began to descend, leading under a hill that lay beyond the dark stone pillars. This section of the road was properly paved and headed straight to the entry.

On a closer look, the square pillars were made of a single block of stone and had carvings that resembled entangled vines or plant roots. The dungeon’s opening between them was a round tunnel big enough for a wagon to enter without much difficulty.

I couldn’t see anything special in the spot between the pillars, but as my companions entered they seemed to feel something.

“Whoa, it’s like I crossed a layer of water!” Falnid exclaimed, entering behind the instructor.

“It feels like going through honey,” I heard Bolton murmur in front of me.

When my turn came I felt a slight resistance as I crossed the boundary, there was no change in the temperature nor a humid sensation.

“Hmm, it’s as if I’m being repelled, if I stand still it pushes me away,” Terence commented.

Once inside, the path kept going down in a straight line. The tunnel was entirely made of stone blocks and had a perfect slope. There were torches sparsely arranged on the walls and some green moss growing on the walls and the ceiling. The tunnel remembered me a bit of the gates of the capital with its arched ceiling.

“It’s cooler down here,” Falnid said.

“I wonder if it stays like this all year,” I commented.

“Yes, the inside of the dungeon barely changes with the seasons,” Instructor Remme replied.

“I heard that people who die in the dungeon can be resurrected,” Terence made a comment on a completely different topic.

“For real?” Falnid exclaimed.

“You mustn’t rely on that method, the resurrection in the dungeon has strict requirements. Your body needs to stay in relatively good condition, especially the head, and you don’t want to lose too much blood. If the damage is too severe you will have to use some expensive potions to recover,”

Instructor Remme explained. “You also need an archmage or someone with the ability to settle your soul inside your body after it’s healed. In the end, even if you are successfully resurrected your mind could have some issues.”

“Uh, do we have any archmage in Algus?” Falnid inquired.

“No, we don’t, if you die here you will stay dead, so take things seriously,” Remme warned him.

After a bit, we reached a flat section. The main path ended a little further on, but there were several lateral corridors that departed from it. The instructor led us into one of them.

“From now on you must stay vigilant, sometimes you can encounter monsters even close to the entrance.”

We walked through the damp corridor and arrived in a spacious room illuminated by four rusted chandeliers, the lights cast several shadows around us.

“Now turn off your lanterns, you need to turn the dial in the lower part,” ordered Remme.

Terence, Falnid, and I soon complied. With the lamps turned off the space looked rather gloomier.

Then suddenly everything went dark.

“What happened?” Falnid was slightly surprised.

“We need to turn on the lanterns,” Terence said with a serious tone.

“Oh,” I turned the dial on my lamp, but it remained dark.

“Uh, I don’t have a lamp, where is the instructor?” Bolton sounded worried.

“Whoa!” Something had touched my leg.

“My lantern doesn’t turn on! Agh! There is something here!” Falnid screamed.

“Keep calm! Don’t use your spears! You will hit someone.” Terence tried to calm us.

As suddenly as it went off the brightness returned. Terence had managed to light his lamp.

“Now you understand how important it is to have a source of light down here,” Instructor Remme gave us a stern look. “Even a second of blindness can doom your group, this is the reason we use lanterns instead of torches. Torches are unreliable, they can go off if they fall into the water, their light is more unstable, and worse of all, they will set things on fire at the slightest mistake.”

I thought about what would have happened if we were in the middle of a fight. Losing sight of the enemy without warning could be fatal, as a hunter I understood it very well.

“The darkness is a weapon for the monsters inside the dungeon, so you must use the light as a weapon against them, if you make good use of the lamps you can blind your enemies temporarily, getting an advantage at the beginning of a fight,” Instructor Remme kept talking. “You must also keep in mind that the monsters will always see you approaching because of the glow, so knowing how to set the brightness in different situations is a fundamental skill. Now let me teach you the best way to turn on the lanterns and how to refill them…”

…

After a lengthy lesson on how to handle the lamps, Instructor Remme had brought us to another corridor. I was eager to explore the dungeon, but the instructor still had more things to teach us.

“You, the big one, you will stay in the center, keep your sight on the front.”

“Vesturke, you stay a bit behind, on the left, hang your lamp on the other side and look for dangers from the lateral corridors.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“You, Black Hair, to the right, focus on dangers to your side. You should also take a peek back sometimes if there is nothing ahead.”

“And you, Blondie, stay behind them, make sure your lantern lights the way, and look for enemies coming from the rear.”

Terence frowned for an instant and I began to wonder if we would be able to explore the dungeon today with so many lessons.

“Good, now you only need to establish who will take the decisions and give the orders during combat.”

“Me! I will do it!” Falnid volunteered excitedly.

“No, I think it’s better if the blondie does it this time, it’s pretty standard for the light bearer to lead the group as he can asses the situation better from his position. You will all have the opportunity to do it some other time, now start advancing.”

Falnid had an annoyed look on his face, but he said nothing, I guessed he was just as eager as I was to begin exploring the dungeon.

We walked down the corridor and reached a bifurcation. There, written on the wall, were some symbols written in chalk.

“Now I will tell you about the different signs.”

“Ugh, again?” Falnid exclaimed in frustration.

“All of these are the basics, if you don’t want to learn them we can return to the surface.”

“Agh!” Falnid was about to snap, but he managed to keep quiet for the second time.

“Alright, if there are no more comments I will tell you the fundamentals. These marks show the way in these corridors, as well as the dangers. This symbol here is the more important one, it shows the way out.”

The instructor pointed to a simple drawing of a door between two lines that represented the entrance.

“Apart from that one you also have to remember these, they are the different monsters in this area, these are dungeon rats, these feral rats, this one means dungeon dogs, and the last are dungeon lizards. The dogs are especially dangerous. For now, you must avoid them at all costs.”

All the shapes were simple and easy to recognize.

“There are more things like the quantities and distances, but you will learn them little by little. I just want to point out that bright red marks mean that someone is in danger. I will teach you how to use them on another occasion.”

…

We were advancing in formation through the dark and humid corridors. The light of our lanterns didn’t reach far in the pitch-black tunnels. At times we mistook our deceitful shadows for monsters, making it more difficult to scout our path. We had been wandering for some time, Instructor Remme was letting us pick the way and only offered advice on a few occasions.

“There are a lot of dungeon rats in this place, you have to be careful. Although they are one of the weakest monsters here they can be dangerous when they come in a big pack.”

We had seen some rats fleeing in the distance, they looked exactly the same as the ones outside.

“Hmm, instructor Remme, why do adventurers call them monsters? Aren’t rats animals?” Falnid asked.

“We call them monsters because they aren’t like the creatures you know. They may look the same but in reality, they are just an imitation of the beasts and animals outside. The dungeon simply gives birth to them.”

I pondered a bit about what Instructor Remme had said. It was a well-known fact that monsters in the dungeon were different from common creatures.

“Do you mean the dungeon root?” I asked.

“Yes, it’s exactly that. The dungeon spreads its dark roots all around and monsters are born from their tips. You should never approach them, they are extremely dangerous.”

“I see, are there any other differences?”

“Of course, the monsters in the dungeon are born as adults, they can fend for themselves moments after their birth. They also grow extremely fast compared with the animals and beasts outside,” Instructor Remme explained. “Also, as you must know, the most significant difference is that monsters can promote into stronger creatures. They experience a sudden change and take a more powerful form. For example, the rats you have seen can change into feral rats, which are bigger and more muscular. All the process takes a very short time.”

It was all common knowledge, I was sure any trainee entering the dungeon had heard it before.

“If something, we are lucky they can’t reproduce naturally,” he continued. “Even in cases where the boundary ruptures, they can’t multiply outside.”

A dungeon rupture. Every time it happened hordes of monsters would escape from the dungeon. It wasn’t a common occurrence, but every town and village near dungeon territory had walls or palisades that could protect them.

“Do you have any more questions?”

“No, Instructor Remme.”

“Alright, then this may be a good place, I’m going to attract some rats for you to fight.”

The instructor took a reddish thing from his pouch and threw it about a dozen feet ahead of us. The ball-like object broke after touching the ground, scattering into multiple pieces.

“This is dungeon bait, you can use it to lure the monsters from the surroundings, it’s easy to break down, so you can use smaller pieces to slightly adjust its range.”

We could already hear the rats in the proximity getting excited from the smell.

“This bait will entice any nearby monsters, so you need to be careful when you use it. Also, you should have in mind that dumber monsters are easier to attract.”

Several noises of the approaching rats echoed in the hallway. I could see my companions nervously take defensive positions. Even I was anxiously holding my spear despite all my experience facing beasts in the mountains.

“Good, in this situation, with multiple enemies coming from all directions, it’s better if you don’t try to block the corridor. Fall to the side and let the rats near the bait.”

We followed the instructions and got our backs against the wall, I took Terence’s right side, leaving him in the middle of the group.

The monsters were already here and rushed to the scattered bait, completely ignoring us.

“Now! Get close and pierce them as you practiced.”

We moved slowly, the rats were frantically looking for the scattered pieces of the bait, competing with each other.

“Hah!” Bolton kicked a rat that had suddenly jumped at him.

“Well done, if they go higher use your shields, and don’t bend down under any circumstance.”

“Take this!” Falnid was the first to pierce a monster.

After that we began to take care of the rats, most of them didn’t even pay attention to our actions and just searched for the remains of the bait, only the nearest ones showed hostility towards us. The fight went incredibly smoothly. I only needed to send a couple of monsters flying with my boots, and the rest fell to my spear.

On the other flank, Falnid had to bash one with his shield, but he wasn’t in any trouble. We ended up killing most of the creatures that were attracted by the bait.

"Not bad, but you forgot to watch your backs in the middle of the fight," Instructor Remme commented. “If you can’t keep the wall behind you in this kind of situation, then one of you should protect the rear.”

“I think we did well, none of us were bitten, right?” Falnid replied.

“Even if you did well this time, having an enemy attack your back can lead to casualties in most cases, if those rats weren’t distracted by the bait they would have tried to surround you,” Remme admonished us.

“Now, the rest of you, tell me your impressions.”

“I think it was so easy because the rats were distracted, that bait is really useful,” Terence said.

“Hmm… It wasn’t as bad as I thought, with so many rats I was worried we would need to retreat,” Bolton told the instructor.

“They don’t seem as sharp as the ones in the mountains.”

“Yes, you all are right, the monsters in the dungeon usually have short lives, so they are duller than the beasts outside, but that doesn’t apply to all of them. Most of the creatures here are born as small monsters, but those that are able to promote into stronger forms are more cunning. The more they promote the longer they live and the smarter they become,” Instructor Remme explained.

“Also, the bait I used is very effective, most dungeon creatures can’t ignore it. You can use it to distract the monsters in a pinch, I will give you a few balls later. You can also buy it from the guild.”

I wondered if the bait would work with the beasts in the mountains, something like that could spare me days of work tracking down animals.

“Now let’s continue, since you had it so easy I will have to raise the difficulty.”