“So, I have two things on our to-do list while we wait for my interview,” Levi told Gordon as they stepped out of the empty Ice dungeon. “I got a new treasure map and it’s local, so we should do that dungeon right away in case anyone else is going for it. I also want to visit a local Destruction dungeon to check out the rust scarab stats, though that can wait a bit. It might be better to grab something from this new dungeon first, since there'll always be more Destruction dungeons.”
“Anything big like the centipedes, or just more little things?” Gordon eyed his car dubiously as they approached with their small horde of minions. “It's getting tricky to fit everyone.”
Levi paused to think. “I’m not entirely certain. I’ve never been in a Dark dungeon, they’re one of those types whose frustrations outweigh their usefulness. Control dungeons are infuriating, but their rewards are incredibly powerful and valuable. Dark dungeons... from what I’ve heard, they’re just plain annoying without offering much in return.”
Dark power stones and tokens could be used in crafting, but Dark effects were more often described as curses than benefits. Armor that emitted darkness may sound cool in theory, but in practice, it made it hard to see anything and made you look out of place wherever you went. Dark-aspect attacks didn't add much value either. A Dark Slash left behind a lingering line of damage, but you could end up trapped by your own attacks, creating obstacles to your own progress or that of your allies.
Unless you were fighting on your own and entirely surrounded, Dark tended to be more trouble than it was worth. No power was entirely pointless, though. There had to be ways to make Dark useful, but Levi didn't know what they were. The few people he’d known who specialized in Dark used very different tactics.
“Dark dungeons are some of the few to break the universal lighting standards across dungeons, with areas of deep shadow that make it all but impossible to see. Fortunately, I have a way to deal with that problem. Just stick close to me when we get there and you’ll be fine.”
The Beast lens magnifying glass he’d put together would show any creature regardless of how it was obscured. And since they were between dungeons at the moment, he could probably fix up some kind of rig to hold it in place and free up his hands. He needed a way to keep the input part of the wand in contact with his skin. Challenging, but with creative application of force…
“What are you doing?” Gordon asked as Levi struggled to bend the handle of his beast glass.
“I need to be able to see things, and don't want to go around holding this in front of my face the whole time.” He retrieved one of his ruined pairs of jeans from the backpack.
“Why did you save that?” Gordon asked.
“Never throw out anything that could be useful.” Levi sliced a strip from the leg long enough for his purpose, tied the handle of the lens to it, then bent back the handle sharply so it wouldn't slip out. He tied it around his head, but it was a bit loose and didn't stay in place. He tied another knot at the back, snugging it down.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“You look ridiculous.”
“I'll take staying alive over looks any day.” The lens was too heavy for the fabric to hold firmly in place, and it kept slipping down Levi's cheek. He continued to make small adjustments until it mostly stayed put, though any running or jumping would jostle it out of position.
Not good enough. He added a second strip of fabric, which helped. It remained an unwieldy construction he wouldn’t trust to hold up to damage, but at least now he could run and jump and swing his sword without losing his ability to see enemies.
“Good enough.”
“Please tell me you'll take it off before we go back into the city.”
“Sometimes it's better to go all in on looking ridiculous. If you pretend to be normal, people will look at you strange. If you look insane, they'll look the other way and avoid you.” But Levi did remove the makeshift helmet for now. Gordon definitely knew better how to blend in.
“Does the location of the dungeon have anything to do with what sort it is?” Gordon asked. “Or is it completely random?”
“We've never found a correlation. There’s nothing particularly destructive about the usual places, or anything particularly cold about this spot.”
Gordon glanced back at the drifting wisp of barely visible frost in the air denoting the Ice dungeon’s entrance. “Where do dungeons come from in the first place?”
“No one knows.”
“How long have they been around?”
“A few months, by our best guess. There may have been a few around before, but...”
“The Bermuda triangle? Is that a dungeon?”
Levi shrugged. “It might be. I'm not the person to ask.”
“Why now?”
“No one knows. But the distribution of leveled dungeons suggests they appeared around the start of this year at the earliest.”
“Couldn't they have been hiding for centuries without being noticed?”
“No. For some—those out in the middle of nowhere—you could make that argument. But the ones appearing in the middle of a street or inside of a building? No one could possibly have overlooked those. If people regularly disappeared from a place, it would gain a reputation and we'd have heard about it. Something changed in the past year to make these dungeon entrances show up. And the demon portals after.”
“Like what?”
Levi shrugged. “No one knows. Perhaps one of our space probes or transmissions reached an alien civilization with portal abilities, and they decided to come pick up a new territory. Perhaps there've always been hundreds of dungeon rifts hanging out in space and a swarm got caught in earth’s gravity. Perhaps deific interference—or a cult—managed to summon something they didn't know how to put back. There are as many theories as there are people making things up, and I don't know that any of them are close to the mark.”
“So the world may be ending due to any number of factors, but we don’t know what they are?”
“We can figure out how and why after we survive it.”
“Don't you think the how and why may be important for figuring out how to survive?”
“Could be. Not my department. I slice demons and shield civilians. I'm not one to sift through theories to find answers to big metaphysical questions. Give me a powerset to play with, and I'll find the best way to make it work for me. But questions of aliens or gods? Above my pay grade.”
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