After walking for thirty minutes, we started running towards our destination. We had been cleaning our tracks whilst walking to make it harder for the hunters to find where we were heading. Moving fast, we were interrupted a few times by monsters, but soon we moved from the rocky terrain and into an area with brown grass, with trees and shrubbery around, and at a glance I could tell some of those scrubs held fruits of various colours and shapes. Not stopping to look further, we quickly moved past through the fields. Slowing down at the signal of Elizabeth as she looks around, I can see in front of us a foggy area, a damp smell coming from it. I can make out patches of water, trees and from the looks of things mud throughout the area. We’ve made it to the border of the swamp, beyond it is the plain before the dungeon.
Seeing Elizabeth move again, Sally and I follow behind as she lightly walks towards a few trees, making our way through the wall of shrubbery at the base of those trees. We arrive just before a small cave opening. Nodding, Elizabeth moves in with Sally and I right behind her and I can tell by the smell there were no monsters, there was the faint smell of humans but it was very close to fading. Entering, I could see a small fireplace in the middle of the room, next to it is a pile of wood and tinder, with lanterns on the wall with some beds and chairs. Was this one of the human outposts? Glancing at Elizabeth, she smiles and puts Gray down on the bed carefully. Turning, she gestures to the chairs around the fireplace, sits down and explains “This is an old outpost I’ve used before while hunting some specific monsters.”
Nodding, I sit down as well. I decided before to trust in her a bit more so I would. Sally also sits in the chair next to me while we rest for a moment.
“Sally and I can go and hunt some monsters if you want to stay behind and guard Gray, Alisha.” Thinking about this, I believe it may be our best course of action. Sally would be the most suspicious of Elizabeth after all, and while I no longer believe this to be some complicated ploy, I couldn’t completely convince myself to let go of that thought. Looking at Gray, he was sitting up slightly, looking a bit uncomfortable while moving on the bed. Glancing at Sally, I see her nod while saying “It’s okay, I think we can rely on her a bit.” Seems like Sally also had similar thoughts to me regarding Elizabeth.
“Alright, be careful, we only have thirty minutes of daytime.” Seeing off Elizabeth and Sally, I get up and move over to Gray while I hear Sally and Elizabeth move out. Sitting down next to Gray, Alice jumps over to his head as I ask him how he’s going.
“I’m o-okay, it was a bit p-painful when we were m-moving but Elizabeth made s-sure I didn’t bounce too much…” Avoiding eye contact, Gray responds to me while fidgeting with the bandages on his leg. “T-these beds feel strange.”
Patting the bed, it felt soft. Getting up and laying down on one near Gray, I can tell what he meant. It felt weird laying on something so soft, it wasn’t comfortable. Getting up again, I sit on the floor and lay down, feeling more comfortable. Noticing what I was doing, Gray tried to get up to do the same. Hopping on my feet, I help him up and lay him down. Looking much more comfortable, I nod in approval and get to setting up the fire for when Sally and Elizabeth returned.
“S-say Alisha, are you scared?” Hearing Gray’s question, I think about what he meant. “Did you mean from last night?” “T-that too, b-but I mean about the future.”
The future huh. It was full of uncertainties, the unknown and most certainly would be difficult. Was I scared? Honestly, a little. We were heading into a dungeon, a place we only knew would be filled with beings that could kill us at any moment, then we would be facing a huge wall of recusing our kind from humans who had who knows how many high levelled fighters. Things were going in the right direction, but one misstep and we’d face our deaths.
“Honestly Gray, yes. I’m scared. I know it’d be easier just to crawl up into a ball and wait for death to come. However, I want to live, I want to see the world with my own eyes, free our brethren from their fates. I’ll die someday, but I don’t want to die without at least giving it my all.”
Hesitating, Gray looks down, a bit embarrassed. “I-I see…Sorry, I should h-have asked you that.”
Getting up, I sit next to him and pick up Alice with one hand and ruffle his hair with the other. “It’s okay if you’re scared Gray, don’t lie to yourself. Even Sally is scared, and I bet Elizabeth is too. Just keep taking it a step at a time and let's all overcome what’s ahead of us.”
With his head still down, he nods slightly. “T-thank you.” Smiling, I head back to the fire and continue stacking it and putting the tinder in. Hearing shuffling behind me, I see Gray slowly move over and sit in a chair. He has a better look to his eye, more determined. I light the fire and sit next to Gray and chat with him until Sally and Elizabeth return.
***
After fifty minutes, and a bit of concern growing, Sally and Elizabeth returned, with two sacks of monster meat. Leaving the cooking of meat to me, which was simple as usual, we ate. After finishing, Elizabeth turns to us and asks “So what do you guys know about dungeons?”
About to answer, I frown. Come to think of it, what did we know? Looking at Sally and Gray, they too shake their heads. “About as much as I expected. No matter, I’ll give you guys some advice if you want.” Accepting her offer, Elizabeth grabs her canteen of water and starts talking.
“Firstly, you guys have only ever experienced the very tip of dungeons, just the first area of a low level dungeon. I’ve cleared two dungeons, a level 5 and 8 before so I don’t know fully about the one we’re heading to. However, be careful. There are traps in dungeons, puzzles that require solving, trials that you need to face and lastly the Guardian of each dungeon. Since we only have the four of us, we would need to tread carefully.” Puzzles, traps and trials? By trials does she mean like the Cerberus one? Before I could ask, Elizabeth continues.
“Secondly, dungeons are long. We’re not going in there and heading back out after a few hours. We could be there for a few days or a few weeks. You must be prepared, resting will need two of us on lookout and rotate every few hours, we’d need plenty of food, water and medical kits. We can get two of those easily since we’re heading to an area with a river, but we can’t do much about the medical kits. Though with your strengthened healing, you guys will be good unless it’s a severe injury.”
Nodding, I understand the basics of what she was saying. But to get plenty of food would mean…
“Lastly, you generally need good equipment. While Sally and Gray have their sword, shield and hammer, Alisha and I have weapons on the verge of breaking. You can’t rely solely on your fists and magic in there Alisha, we may need to fight prolonged fights. There isn’t anything we can do about this, so we’d need to make do and hope there are weapons we can use inside. It’s called a Temple, so maybe it’ll have an armoury or something.” Shrugging, Elizabeth takes a drink after speaking. There was a lot to think about, but the biggest problem we had was food.
“We’d need to hunt and smoke as much food as we can, should we do that here or when we find a spot near the dungeon?” Asking this aloud, Sally speaks up first.
“Nearby the dungeon, so food won’t spoil.”
“I think that’s the best idea too.” Elizabeth says while Gray nods. I was planning on placing the Blessed Orb of Salus in a good location so we could make a base there. After thinking it over, I decided to explain my plan with Elizabeth.
“Lesser Blessed Orb of Salus?” Confused, Elizabeth frowns at me as I nod, grab my sack and bring the orb out. Looking at with curiosity, she mutters “Does Crater have one of these? No, Crater is much larger than 200 metres. Maybe they have a stronger one, this says Lesser after all.” Seemingly pondering to herself, Elizabeth looks at the orb with pure curiosity. Nodding, she smiles at me and says “This would be good to use, you’d even be able to build a town!”
Feeling excited at Elizabeth’s words, I nod and put the orb back in the sack. Setting it down, I grab Alice from the top of my head, holding her in my hands. Patting her while Alice got more comfortable, I looked back at Elizabeth and asked if she knew anything else about dungeons.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Shaking her head, I turned to Sally and Gray and they also shook their heads. With that, we started to talk about what we would do tomorrow, mainly getting through the swamp, before Sally, Gray and Elizabeth go to rest, while I kept watch for the night. Putting Alice on my knee, I got the Tome of Basic Knowledge out and thought about what to ask it to provide. I could ask for basic knowledge on dungeons, but Elizabeth was guiding us with dungeons so we should be okay. I could ask about the dangers of the swamp, but I feel like that would be a waste.
Glancing at Alice, I decide to go along with the idea of getting information on raising her. Raising the Tome up, I whisper “How do I look after Alice?” and as those words left my mouth, the Tome changes. Shaking a bit, the words on it slowly change and an image of Alice…no, an image of a Dark Raven appears on the cover, the title of the book was “How to Raise a Dark Raven.” Opening the book, I see a lot of words, pictures and what looked like drawings of the System.
Starting to read the book, there was a lot of information on what Dark Ravens liked to eat, what they didn’t like to eat, their sleeping habits and so much more. Checking on what they liked to eat, it was mostly what I expected, meat and certain fruits. It also mentioned something called berries, but I’ve not heard of those before. Reading what they didn’t like and memorising the list, I kept reading, there was a lot of information covering so many little details that it was a bit bothersome. After a few pages, I arrived on a page talking about Dark Ravens and the System. The Tome mentioned I couldn’t ask about the System, or was this because it was about looking after Alice? Reading on, I see what the System can do for Alice.
“Dark Ravens, like all other monsters, also have a System. When you are bonded with a monster, in this case a Dark Raven, you will be able to open their Status. This can be performed by requesting your bonded monster’s Status.”
It was that simple? Looking at Alice who was nibbling away on a piece of meat, I requested her Status through the System.
----------------------------------------
Alice
Dark Raven
Level 3
Experience: 6,000/10,000
Skills: None
Spells: Dark Magic
Bonded to Alisha through the use of Blood Oath
----------------------------------------
Looking back up from the Status screen of Alice, I noticed that she needed more experience than I did at that level, she also did not have health or mana, nor was there any parts about a class. Looking back at the information, I see that it lists what to expect when Dark Ravens, rather bonded monsters, level up.
“Upon reaching Level 5, Stat ranks and points will be accessible. At Level 10, Dark Ravens may undergo evolution, however each evolution is unique depending on the circumstances of the Dark Raven.”
There was no information about level 15 and onwards, maybe this was all Dark Ravens could get through the System, or this was what was covered under basic knowledge. Pondering about how it was best to level Alice since she needed more experience than most, I kept reading and found an answer on the next page.
“Bonded monsters gain experience from their bonded partner and by killing monsters. If the bonded partner earns 1,000xp the bonded monster gains half, in this case 500xp, if it did not participate in a fight. If both bonded partner and monster fought, the bonded monster would get the same experience as its bonded partner, regardless of the experience earned.”
Sounds simple, if she doesn’t fight she gets experience at half the rate I get, but gets the same as me if she does fight. Remembering back to the Labyrinth, she helped me fight the zombies by luring them in while I killed them, the only thing she had done was call them out, so was that all she needed to do for it to count as fighting? Looking at Alice again, I close the book and pet her head once again. “Do you want to fight monsters with me?” “Kraa!” “It’ll be dangerous, is that okay?” Flapping her wings, Alice gives another loud “Kraa!” with a confident look. Smiling and petting her head again, I looked out once again and as time passed, so did a peaceful night.
***
As the sun rose, we packed our belongings and set out once again. We would be crossing the swamp today and heading to a spot on the plain. After looking over the map Elizabeth gave us, we found a large spot with a river running around it, a sort of natural barrier. We’d have to check for water monsters, but from what the map says the water was drinkable. Gray was rested and able to walk now. His leg was fully healed, and according to him his arm was healed but “very stiff, difficult to move.” Taking into account he’d be slower in a fight, we move towards and into the swamp.
Our vision was reduced due to the fog, even when I used my wind magic it quickly restored itself. Deciding it wasn’t worth expending mana in exchange for a small amount of vision, we started moving through the swamp. The damp smell was strong and prevented me from being able to smell anything away from us, causing us to move carefully, it’d take us an hour to move through here. The ground under us was wet, muddy and caused our feet to sink in slightly when we stood on it. Sounds of insects, or monsters, could be heard all around us. After walking for a few minutes, we encountered our first pack of monsters here.
[Level 13 Toxic Blooded Crocodile]
Scaled monsters, green and black in colour, they moved slowly. With Elizabeth standing to the side, we fought one each, with Alice helping me by flying around and pecking at the scales of this monster. Behind us, I can hear Elizabeth giving us some advice. “These Crocodiles move slowly, however if they manage to bite onto you you’ll be in for a very very bad time. Its weak point is between their joints and their noses, be careful of its toxic spray and blood!”
Following her instructions, I glance at the area between its body and joint, and seeing there were no scales protecting it, extending out the remaining claw on my right fist, I slash at the joint while using my wind to increase the speed of my attack. Cutting through, I stumble in the mud away as the monster tries to bite down on me. Hearing a sizzling, I glanced at the source which is the claw that I just used, green blood was burning on it, thankfully it was not doing damage to the claw. Keeping a mental note to be careful of it, I see a dark aura coming from Alice, and distracting the monster for a few seconds, the dark aura leaves Alice and hits the crocodile.
[Alice used Blindness, Toxic Blooded Crocodile is affected!]
Taking advantage of this, I moved in and aimed my right claw at the snout. I slashed and cut deeply into the crocodile's head, putting a wall of wind before me to reflect any toxic blood coming out. Feeling movement from the monster, I slash down then move away. With the head of the crocodile split into a few pieces, it keeps stumbling a bit then finally collapses.
[You killed Toxic Blooded Crocodile, gained 1,000xp]
Nodding, I see Alice flying towards Sally to help her. Leaving it to her, since she’d gain experience for helping Sally, I move towards Gray and within a few minutes we’ve managed to finish off the crocodiles. Regrouping with Elizabeth, we keep going, encountering more of those crocodiles. We didn’t take any of their meat as according to Elizabeth it would poison us. Trudging in the mud, we move past the halfway point and arrive in a clearing, with boulders with moss growing on them, and oddly a campfire, extinguished but from my limited smell I could tell it was recently used. Within the last few hours. Taking a second for my mind to click as to what this means, I kick up my wind and get on guard, the others following with me almost straight away.
“Did you see something, Alisha?” Gray asks.
“No, the smell from the fire is recent. Someone was just here.” Replying, I glance around and think about blowing away the fog from around here, even if it were to reappear within seconds we’d be able to see what is around. Giving up the idea, not wanting to draw attention to our location just in case, we keep an eye out as we move forward to look at the fire. Letting my wind off, I can smell the fire better the closer we get, and the smell of meat and something else. Not human, not monster but not hybrid either. But I could tell this smell belonged to something, the smell headed away from here, but I can’t distinguish the direction. After looking around a bit, we found nothing. There was some footprints that had mostly faded because of the mud, and traces of something moving around here. All we can tell by the traces whatever was here was humanoid, but not human or hybrid, and was intelligent enough to build a campfire and cook.
“Not much we can do other than hope we don’t cross paths with whatever it is.” Saying this, Sally gets up and takes lead again, as we continue walking towards the way out of here. Stepping through the mud, I notice something is wrong. No, somethings been wrong since we left the campfire. Signalling to Sally by tapping on her shoulder to stop, I stand for a moment trying to figure out what's wrong. It was then when Gray spoke up.
“It’s too quiet, where did the sounds of the insects and monsters go?”
Realising that Gray hit it on the nose with what's wrong, I turn towards Elizabeth, who has gone pale. Looking at us, she whispers “We need to go, now!” As she turns, Elizabeth suddenly freezes up. “Fuck me, it’s too late.” Looking at what Elizabeth was looking at, I see what was wrong.
The fog around us was swirling, something was moving around us. Gulping, I watch as we’re surrounded by this swirling. “It’s here, a Guardian-class monster.” Questions in my mind, I see something sliver out of the fog and strike at us. Reacting quickly, I grab Gray by the shoulder and push him away as Sally moves forward and blocks the head of some monster. Elizabeth draws her sword as the monster raises its head revealing itself. A massive snake with a very light green horn on its horn, two long fangs extending from the top of its mouth, skin the same shade of white as the fog around us, red eyes glaring down at us. Gulping, I get into my relaxed posture, it seems we can’t have a peaceful time getting through this swamp after all.
[Level 17 Guardian Class Serpent of the Swamp, Noodles]