An arrow embedded itself into the bicep of the muscular humanoid in front of them. The cave troll was only five feet tall and two wide, but its form held surprising strength. The duo fighting it were coated in grime, sweat, and blood, to the degree that they looked far more monstrous than the troll. Garath had long since used up his stored magic and had resorted to fighting solely with a short sword. As the troll lunged forward towards him, he jumped back by thrusting his weapon forward and impaled the monster on it. Leah came up and used her dagger to cut the fiends head off to prevent it from regenerating and together they proceeded to cauterize the corpse.

“God I hate trolls. Forget to burn one piece and the whole dungeon gets infested,” Leah grumled to her equally annoyed partner. “It is ridiculous, but at least they are rare in our dungeon for now, so we shouldn’t have to fight anymore now that this nest is destroyed.” Together it took about five minutes to burn the body enough that the dungeon acknowledged their work.

Dungeon Point Increase: +10 for killing one plague troll patriarch

“Ooh! A patriarch, no wonder it took so much time to burn this one. Still weirds me out that these freaks breed by cutting off pieces of the patriarch, but they aren’t going to be doing that any longer. Ten points is well worth the effort.” Leah looked at Garath for confirmation of the value of their prey, yet he seemed completely unimpressed and simply proceeded to pick up a rope tied to a large skin. Upon that suspiciously fresh looking skin was Rhea. She had not gained consciousness over the last two days, and both of them were starting to get concerned. She had a massive bruised lump on her forehead and had done nothing more than breath since he found her. “We need to keep going. If we can make it to the outpost, I can use our new points to buy some equipment or maybe something for the girl.”

Normally points are split between people or only granted to the person to land the killing shot, depending on the dungeon you were in, but Leah had long since given up her rights to any points earned with Garath. She sighed at the thought of wasting all that effort Rhea. Garath refused to answer about how she played into their plans, but she wondered whether Rhea was better off in her coma or awake. Even her own life was just a valuable pawn to Garath.

***

Another few hours went by before they saw the trademark torches of an outpost ahead. As the worked their way towards it, they could see small grooves in the sides of the passage with even smaller gaunt faces peering out. Leah reached into her pack and tossed a chunk of bread into one of the crevices and could hear the child it reached start fighting those around him to keep hold of his prize. Garath rebuked her, “don’t encourage their attention. We have better things to do than be swarmed by starved adolescents looking for an easy meal.” She shrugged and when his back was turned, threw another chunk at a little girl who grinned at her before vanishing. Garath saw the world in black and white; to Leah, it was more technicolored. You do what you can and provided no one catches on, you can keep doing it. He might not think so, but her relationship with Garath was such a mix of colors it gave even her a headache, but no one had caught them yet and she planned to stay alive awhile longer.

***

A slight tension in Garath’s shoulders released at the site of a pillar in the center of the small shanty town. Technically considered an outpost, this location in the dungeon was only rarely staffed by the city and had little supervision. This made it perfect for them since just as many people living in the town as those going through it, wished to remain anonymous. He couldn’t care less what nefarious dealings occurred so long as he could get to that pillar and it actually contained a legit piece of the dungeon crystal. Occasionally places like this would advertise one to lure in travelers, but he had been denied access to one for so long, that he was willing to take the risk.

Two big men stood observing the pillar, watching him as they approached. In places like this Leah was both a vulnerability and an asset since the patriarchal gangs would naturally dismiss her as a threat. If needed while he fought, she could use the crystal unnoticed. Thankfully the men did not harass them and with only an assessing glance at Leah, they told him the toll for using their crystal. “One stoneskin potion and minor wound cleanser per use for the two of you.” It was undeniably a terrible deal, but everyone there knew he wouldn’t be here if he had other options. He is lucky they didn't realize how many points he actually had or they would be charging him ten times that amount. “Understood,” he intoned softly before walking up to the pillar and placing his hand onto the faintly glowing stone. After a moment he felt it soften and slowly let his pointer finger be engulfed inside. It was never a pleasant sensation, yet from experience he knew to just relax and let the dungeon access him.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Welcome Garath: You have a total of 1247 dungeon points to spend congratulations on your successful hunt.

What Tier of reward would you like to evaluate?

Tier 1: 5 Dp

Tier 2: 15 Dp

Tier 3: 50 Dp

Tier 4: 100 Dp

Tier 5: 300 Dp

….

Garath was pleasantly impressed with his point score. He had not been to a dungeon crystal for over three years, and with the amount of killing he did on a daily basis, the number added up quickly. He started by picking the two payment items out from the tier 1 and 2 sections along with some new clothes for him and Leah. Flexing his mind, he was able to cause his things to go directly into his bag while the guards’ items would drop rise near them after he had finished. The real rewards he was looking for were located in the fifth Tier.

Tier 5:

Stat increase

Dungeon blessing

Luck’s Test

Vampiric Bite

There was a randomized number of options for each Tier and he hadn’t been sure what he would get, but for the mandatory price of 300 Dp he knew at least something would be useful. Weighing his options and the impression each name gave him, he bought Luck’s Test and Vampiric Bite. The stat increase sounded good, but knew from other Slayers that it was not a set amount. It would never be a whole point and right now they needed options, not just slightly improving one stat.

Current Dungeon Points: 634

Tossing Luck’s Test at Leah, a glowing brown sludge in a crudely blown jar, he proceeded to gather up Rhea before attempting a smooth exit. Leah gulped down the “liquid” without hesitation and prepared herself for an attack, but they were able to leave unhindered. Fifteen minutes after leaving the town’s vicinity, he stopped to pull out Vampiric Bite. It was a small box with carvings around it. The foremost was of a large spider, and he made sure it was directly above and facing Rhea before opening it. The box had not even fully opened when a small translucent white arachnid attached itself to her face. In hindsight, he probably should have let it bite her somewhere else, but he hadn’t wanted to risk her clothes interfering. Staring down at her, he missed what caused Leah to scream behind him. Her voice was filled with such raw terror that he began drawing his weapon before his eyes saw the threat. Luck’s Test had arrived and it did not look like one he could pass.