Okay there Fel, lotta shit happened in the last few hours since I woke back up, and now I got these new people who... I’m not entirely sure why they’re here, but judging by their conversations, not people I want getting further in. I thought to myself as I observed the fighting within the furthest reaches of my domain, staring at the adventurers who were holed up at a wall and doing a pretty poor job of hiding behind it.
I had utilized the second usage of my Universal Summons skill an hour ago over in the other half of the dungeon, bringing in a lot of both resources and people, plus a few vehicles. The look on the adventurer’s faces as the Sunderer rolled into view and activated its stealth field was absolutely priceless. Bit of a shame that’s the only bit of its gear that works. We’ve got three of ‘em now, but the third is basically being used as spare parts. Plus side, I got the schematic unlocked for it now, and disassembling it in my ‘inventory’ is far, far easier than a normal chop-shop...
I was immensely pleased with the Khadorans that had joined our merry band of misfits. From what I had gathered in a quick interview before I had to shuffle them over due to the massive invasion in this section of the dungeon, they had all been lost fighting against Cryxian undead in some big stretch of forest back in their homeworld. Now, if only we can get the Conquest that came with them up and running... Hopefully those spare pallets of Warjack parts come in handy in that case. Wait... maybe I should take those apart and make resource nodes? Should have enough to at least get a small one, definitely need to check that out later.
And adding on to the list of beings that need a stern talking to, I really need to figure out just who the hell is in charge of this Legacy System I’ve been put into. I opened up the window for my upgraded Universal Summons skill.
Universal Summons II:
Reach deeper into the realm of souls and enhance your gateway to realms unknown to this universe. Untether yourself from the reliance upon this universe’s reincarnation cycle, and usher in a new era of endless possibilities, do you have what it takes to see it flourish?
Legacy System Administration has taken swift action to adjust this skill upon further review during your second activation.
This skill is now affected by the threat level you currently find your dungeon facing. Should you be considered an “underdog” in terms of the threat, your ability to summon is boosted, with no limits on size of item or vehicle you wish to bring here. If you are in parity with your foes, your ability to summon is significantly lessened, with item or vehicle size being limited to a footprint no larger than 1000 cubic feet. If your forces are stronger than your current foes, you are unable to summon more than just new souls and some equipment, without vehicles. Powered armor does not count as a vehicle, for the record.
In addition, the Administrators have given a small boon based upon your circumstances as a multi-plane dungeon, as well as being from the Primordial Universe. As long as you retain an intact core within the Æstral Plane, your dungeon will create 10 new souls per day, scaling with the size of the main Core. These new souls do count as your ‘Universal Summoned’. Dungeon categories previously locked are now unlocked due to this. The Administrators have also boosted your amount of summons per usage of this skill.
Due to being from the Primordial Universe, and being a summon yourself, you are allowed to summon up to ten groups of either items or individuals from different universes every six months. These groups may consist of up to one hundred items, vehicles, and/or individuals, depending on your current adversarial threat level.
One use of this skill is available per Plane that you have an intact Dungeon Core or Subcore within, but the skill will remain unusable until the latest usage’s timer has expired. Current Timer: 5M:30d:21h:03m:15s.
Summoned beings do so with their consent, and arrive here should they have died in their original universe. Items and vehicles are now limited to your current adversary level.
Items may be brought in intact from their home universe. Raw resources must be within any form of container.
Vehicles that are brought in will be either fully intact, or damaged to various degrees, with status depending upon the current threat level.
Current Universal Summons counter has been increased to 700. This amount will increase by 600 per use of the skill.
The Pantheons have been greatly angered. Most gods, but not all, will seek your demise for your trespass, and several are taking steps to ensure their followers have the means to try and take you out. Do you have what it takes to outlast or even supplant them?
I sighed, noting how large the skill’s description box had grown, even completely changing from what it used to be. Man, I really should have been more cool-headed when I did the summons. The first two groups were my anti-Warhammer 40k focused groups and some resources, but then the skill got adjusted mid-use, so that’s why I got the Khadorans in group three. Thankfully, due to already having some peeps, group two was from both the Halo and Planetside 2 universes. Groups five and six though... Man, I really got to make sure I don’t do another ‘fuck it’ moment. Some robots from Fallout, some dudes from the Alien universe who I swear came out of a certain Space Station 13 server just judging by their gear, a bunch of resources, a lot of more fantasy-esque warriors, a smattering of other peeps, and from group two...
What the hell am I going to do with the USS Nevada? I’ve already turned the Yamato into schematics and resources, and the third battleship I snagged I’m gonna figure out something with, but the Nevada? It’s an orange irradiated hulk right now, sitting on the new still-expanding coast lying near the other half’s entrance. It’s filled with holes, but absolutely refusing to sink. Can’t put it in the dungeon inventory for some reason, even though it’s sitting in my territory over there.
I sighed, vowing to figure out something later on that, and also a bit worried on how big my territory over in the other half was growing, seemingly at an accelerated pace now that Valdur’s core was also receiving the experience points from Shreddy’s tireless work mulching the undead in the main hallway, albeit at half the rate I had gained. The poor guy was currently knocked out for the next four hours, unable to help me figure out what to do with the new stuff, so I went back to an earlier thought to try and get myself back on track as I watched the undead get absolutely hammered by my people.
Hmm, wonder if making a chop-shop room in the future would net me any benefits? Judging by the fact that a small popup window immediately appeared giving me requirements for said room, mostly being tools, a location for it, and people to staff it, it was a possibility. I noted this for future perusal, and to check with Angela if she had any suggestions for other rooms for the dungeon.
This line of thinking led me into a small rabbit hole, and before I knew it, my attention was pulled towards the fleeing Cleric of Soprana, who had collapsed at the end of a rubble-strewn alleyway, with two of the Naturals closing in slowly. I was feeling far more warmly to this individual than her peers, and realized I’d lost sight of the other group that had wandered in in front of the Dungeon Guilders.
The undead seemingly knew their target was in a dead-end, and slowed their pace. Are they... are they seriously doing this? I thought they were just mindless, but this is definitely a mark in favor of hive-mind behavior. And that hive-mind is definitely a sadist. Seeing as the duo was still a ways from the cleric, I thought I’d do a good deed and teleport the cleric to a safer area.
Teleportation denied. Dungeons cannot cast spells upon those who have souls.
Well fuck me I guess. Hm, wonder what the anti-dungeon-spell range is? A few moments of using cheap spells later, I had made a small flame light up twenty feet away from the cleric, who was currently kneeling down and praying to her goddess. I did the same behind the undead, but was surprised to see that the range was significantly lessened. That’s weird.
I tried teleporting one of the two, but received a similar message;
Teleportation denied. Dungeons cannot cast spells upon Natural Undead under the control of a Dead Mind of either Greater or Elder status.
“An elder-what-now?” I said aloud to the air, surprised. I watched the two zombies turn in the direction that the attempted spell had been, but they quickly returned to slowly stalking towards the praying cleric. Right... if I can’t do it myself, maybe...
I looked around to see if there was anyone nearby, or who was currently unoccupied, that I could yoink. Hmm, definitely want someone with flames to just burn these damn undead. Either the MAXes with flamers, one of the Mr. Handies, or...
Rounding a corner in my field of view, I saw twin pinpricks of flame on an onyx face, framed in blonde hair. My phantasmal heart skipped a beat as I got my first really good look at the Death Guilder. Then the giant lady and attendant gentleman in patchwork armor rounded the corner.
The armored man noticed me immediately just as he had done in the safe room, his helmet exposing his bushy phantasmal mustache. I waved, and decided that if they were going to enter my dungeon, they’d at least help me clean up this mess with the undead.
I opened up a portal behind the two zombies, and the other side in front of the armored man the same distance away. The reaction from the trio as well as the undead was immediate and bloody.
The two zombies turned and sprinted through the portal, destabilizing it somehow as they emerged on the other side only to get one skewered with a flaming blue halberd. The other one was ripped to shreds as the blood coating the tall lady dashed forth and impaled the zombie, holding it in place long enough for the armored suit to blast a fireball from a ring on his finger, in the zombie’s face. Both it, and the blood spikes, were reduced to ash in moments. The trio looked through the portal and saw the still-praying cleric.
The possessed armor was the first to walk through the portal, and I noticed it destabilized just a little further. I was insanely curious as to what would happen if someone passed through it again, and my curiosity was sated as his companions both walked through, the portal closing behind them. Ah, okay. Normal portal equals infinite use, long as it’s powered. Destabilized portal equals limited use, in this case five pass-throughs. This is good info to know, now how can I take advantage of that in the future?
“Hello there, miss,” the armored one knelt down on one knee and held out a hand, palm up. “The Naturals are put to rest, you’re safe now.”
“Thank you,” the cleric replied after she finished her prayer and stood up. While the three ladies started making smalltalk and going over what they currently knew about the area they were in, the armor and I were engaged in a slight staring contest. Both of us being phantasmal in nature, neither of us needed to blink, but I was starting to feel like my attention was needed elsewhere. Fuck it, need to wrap this up, talk to the guy and see what the hell these guys want.
I went into dungeon-view, noting the armor’s eyes went wide in surprise, and I reappeared a few feet from him. Very handy, other ghosts can’t maneuver through the dungeon, but myself and my AI summons can.
“‘Lo there chap,” I started out, waving again. “How can I help ya?”
I did not expect all but the cleric to turn in my direction to stare at me. Uh... oh boy. Did Lewis lie, or-
“A fellow ghost who has portal making abilities? I’ve never seen such a thing,” the armored man said aloud. “Usually the souls pass on quickly, taken by the Gods for safekeeping.” Yeah, right. Probably to help their heavenly logistics train or something. Next question is probably do the spatial-mages or whatever they’re called here get reincarnated, or are they stuck in the War as permanent portal-slash-teleport people?
“You’re the one who sent those two Naturals at us?” The tall lady asked, looking disappointed. Woah, tall lady. If she’s a vampire, I will not be surprised. Lady D meets anime? Fancy hair, looks like she definitely needs to see a salon to fix her ‘do though.
“To be fair, said zombies were stalking that young lady there,” I gestured to the cleric who was looking confused. “Unlike her comrades who are currently holed up nearish the far side of the city, she doesn’t intend ill will towards me and mine. Thus, I would’ve felt bad if those zombies attacked her, and ya’ll were the first people I saw that could help.” Okay, that last bit’s not entirely the truth, but...
“On to a question for you fine folks,” I continued. “What are you doing here, and would you happen to be connected to the Death Guild? Ya’ll are spooky enough for it.”
“Are you looking to join us?” The tall woman asked, straightening her dress. The hellhound was doubled over trying to hold back her laughter, and the possessed armor just rolled his eyes. “If so, I would be able to give you an abbreviated induction, at least until we get back to a proper Guildhall. I am Guildmistress Ra-” Ah, shit, right, probably best to stop her before she says her full name.
“Hold up, one thing,” I interrupted, holding up a hand. “Well, two, really. First, sadly I don’t think I can join your guild,” this got me a few frowns. “Because of reason two, I am a dungeon. A Grand Dungeon, as a matter of fact. Judging by the reaction Lewis gave me, telling me your full name would probably not be for the best.”
This got stunned silence from the group, the cleric looking even more confused, her head whipping back and forth from the Guildmistress to the air nearish where I was currently, and back again.
“I don’t remember ever hearing of a dungeon anywhere near Urstem,” the Guildmistress stated. “You must be an old one, to have such a form.”
“And that’s a no, I’m like... about six months old in this universe,” I shrugged, getting incredulous stares from the trio. “Dungeon god summoned me, asked me to be a new Grand Dungeon since the previous one was dead, I said yes, he sent me in a big asteroid to the planet. Turns out, I’m kinda in the location of this Urstem place. Dungeon opened up properly within the last few days, ever since then I’ve been stuck fending off those mutating zombies.” My explanation was quick. “A few hours ago, a small boat crash-landed in my first rooms. On it were around a dozen people, one of them being one Lieutenant Lewis Clarke-” As I said the ghost’s name, he appeared at my side. His head whipped around in confusion but his expression of relief as he saw his Guildmistress was a sight to behold, then his gaze settled upon the ghostly person in the group.
“Brother!” The possessed armor and Lewis shouted in unison, then collided in a ghostly hug.
“Because beings like me, when we know a being’s true name, apparently can do weird things like summon said named person to one’s side? ” I finished. Okay, that’s weird as hell. Guess I should be glad I didn’t give that god my real name when we met. Then again, there’s a fifty-fifty chance I wouldn’t’ve been in this predicament if he had power ov- Scratch that. For all its faults, how I am now is far far better than being at a god’s beck and call just because they know my name. Though, that would probably explain the ‘if your mother states your full name when she yells at you from across the house you’re in deep trouble’ phenomenon. Works every time.
“Excuse me, but... who are you talking to?” The cleric finally piped up and asked.
“The dungeon,” the Guildmistress replied simply, giving the cleric a warm smile. The cleric paled and started shaking.
“What does it look like?” Oh right, can’t see me unless I allow it? Hmm, let’s see here... Judging by the squeak coming from beneath her hood, the cleric now could see me. “Such an advanced avatar! But... you’re a Fallen?”
“Yeah yeah, ‘fallen dungeon core’ is me,” I rolled my eyes and waved dismissively. “Honestly, not too big a problem from what I’ve seen. Aside from a few details I don’t know ya’ll well enough to say yet. So, what brings you all here? Aside from the other group’s ‘Destroy my core’ objective?”
“The boat that crashed into the deeper part of your dungeon, did it have children in it?” The hellhound asked this time.
“Yep, and to answer your next question, they’re fine,” the relieved sighs spoke volumes. “If I remember right, they’re currently on my second floor, far away from the zombies that are coming in from my main entrance. The others are also fine, and are with the kids. I am a little sad though, ‘cause I didn’t know you could tame a dungeon creature. I’m gonna miss Hammy.”
“Hammy?” The cleric asked.
“You’ll meet her later. So, if I’m reading between the lines right, ya’ll are here for my other guests?” This got nods. “And you aren’t here to harm me and mine?” More nods. “Splendid! I’ll have these three,” I nodded to either side and grinned at the dramatic reveal of a tall reptilian humanoid wearing a metal mask and absolutely covered in weapons on one side of the alleyway. Thank god it’s got actual armor and clothes, and not fishnets. Two humans wearing blue and yellow fatigues appeared out of thin air on the other side. One had a long rifle, the other had a futuristic crossbow. The look on the hellhound’s face was priceless. Guess their cloaks can mask scents here? Or they’ve got good stealth abilities, can’t forget that the Legacy System can do that stuff. Very good to know. “Escort ya’ll. Take the safest path, these four are friendly.”
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I received nods from my stealthy people --the large non-human immediately going back into stealth-- bade my farewell to the guilders, and popped back into the dungeon-view to see how things were progressing. I noticed that there was a new little toggle button letting me switch views between my planet-bound half, and my extra-planar half. I resisted the urge to press it fairly well, all things considered.
Okay, so, work on the second and third floors are going well, at some point I’ll have to theme them, but for now they’re just mined-out tunnels with a few useful rooms. Zombies aren’t progressing any further on either end, though it looks like my Mr. Handies are mopping up the last of the dead meat here at the arena. Man, I really gotta figure out what to do with this old under-city. It’s a ruin, but nothing says it has to stay that way. I thought to myself on exactly what I’d want to do, but came up with blanks. Got dwarven and oriental style buildings, with a smattering of medieval Europe mixed in... I think I’m going to leave this to my new Chief Architect, I’m sure he’ll like the change of pace from breaking planetary fortresses.
While I was thinking, I noticed that the other group of Guilders had moved back in the direction of the safe room on the other end of the city and had run into a large group of mutated undead, one of several that were still scattered and prowling through the city.
I watched with interest as the natives set up an ambush on either side of a boulevard, having noticed the zombies first. The two rogues of the group both tossed glass bottles of an oily substance into the street, attracting the undead’s attention.
They shambled into the ambush spot in ones and twos, eventually milling about in the street roughly three dozen strong. One of the zombies tripped, and was immediately set upon by its brethren, its body parts soon joining several of the zombies. One that had grained a second head noticed one of the rogues, and screeched loudly from both mismatched mouths.
One moment, the zombies were your standard--if mutation-and-friendly-fire-prone--lethargic undead, the next, they began sprinting towards the spotted native, who had frozen in place. Luckily, his compatriots were not so stunned, and the first zombie that got near got diagonally split in two thanks to the large ork’s axe swinging from the side. The pieces were thrown into the street, where several undead ravenously assimilated them.
The twanging of several bowstrings were next, each sparking arrow finding their mark and then detonating in a spectacularly gory fashion. The oily substance on the ground ignited weakly, claiming some of the smaller bits of the undead, and reducing the usefulness of the bigger chunks that were getting assimilated. Oooh, explosive arrows! Hmm, while neat and all, guns do kinda trump that. Might have to work on those later though, for my sneeki breeki people.
The cleric who was clearly in charge of this group stood up with his mace held high in both hands, uttering prayers that I was unfamiliar with. What I did notice, however, was a large divine-looking portal appearing at the roof of the cavern and a beam of raging sunlight striking down and carving a chunk out of both the rest of the massed undead, as well as a large chunk of my street, leaving a crater roughly ten feet deep that I did not approve of one bit. What I did approve of, however, was noticing that the cleric fell to the ground with a cry of anguish.
Oh yeah, Maelstrom of Mana must have kicked in there, with him technically reshaping my turf. HAH! Come into MY home, say you’re here to kill ME, and not think there would be consequences? As I cackled at the man’s misfortune, the group’s remaining magic users managed to incinerate the rest of the undead, from behind the safety of their fighter’s melee line. The two twin dwarves were both looking extremely ill, and I had noticed they had attempted to form an earthen wall between the group and the area they had come from. It was lumpy, and clearly not of good make. Ah, clearly trying to keep my people away, or from noticing... Too bad for them, this is a dungeon.
I moved my view closer to the group, idly noting that from a distance I could not hear what they had been saying.
“What the hell happened?” A tower shield bearing human asked, pointing at their leader.
“I don’t know, one moment he’s fine, the next he’s lost half his health! His Holy Smite doesn’t hurt him, that never hurts a cleric!” The man in black robes with a symbol that I felt deep revulsion towards for some reason piped up. “Donjon preserve, what is wrong with this dungeon?”
“I’m not regenerating any mana,” said a frost-laden woman from the center of the group. “And the brothers are in a similar state to Shimo. We need to retreat and get this information to the guild.”
This was met with a round of affirmations. Hmm, not sure I want that, then again, this does provide an opp- I know what we’ll do!
The group made a decision to heal their wounded upon entering the safe room, and began moving as fast as they could to leave the dungeon. I popped up near my now-idling troops with a plan in mind.
“Hey guys, great work!” I exclaimed as I appeared. Several of the new people jumped in surprise, which was fun to see in the various power armor bearers. “I’m going to need a few volunteers, turns out we have some more uninvited guests of the living variety, not undead this time.”
“I volunteer,” said one of the Man-O-War Shocktroopers. His crimson armor was slightly damaged, and his shield’s cannon had only two shots left, but he stood proud and determined. This was quickly followed by the rest of his squad who were in similar states of wear and tear, and five of my new New Conglomerate infiltrators popped up and waved. The two UNSC Marines also stepped up.
“Ya’ll got standard cloaking modules, or the Hunter variant?” I asked the sneaky folks.
“Hunter, of course,” one of them boasted. She seemed more outgoing than her four compatriots. “What do you need us to do?”
“Alright, in a moment, I’m going to open a portal so ya’ll can get to the other side of the city. Shocktroopers, I want you to do your best to see if you can’t get us some prisoners. Infiltrators, I want you to sneak through the gate, follow the group to wherever they’re going.” They nodded, following along with the plan so far.
“Now, I do admit, you will also be guinea pigs for that step,” I stated, holding up a hand to let them know I wasn’t finished. “I think ya’ll’re alright to leave the dungeon as-is, if what my menus are showing me is still correct. If that happens, then the next few things that are going to be tested can commence. I want you to keep in contact with us as best as you can, while still remaining stealthed. Hopefully, we can use the System to send messages back and forth like myself and Valdur can, else we’re going to have to start setting up repeaters and all those fancy gizmos like communications satellites and radio towers. If possible, stay out of any fights. While you can respawn, I’d rather you not go through that process if we can help it. As far as I am aware, it’s kinda painful to get forced into that whole rigmarole.”
That got a lot of dark chuckles from all the gathered Conglomerate people nearby, and confused looks from the rest of the folks around.
“Alright boss, we’ll do that. Do you have any timeframe for when you want us to come back?” The same Infiltrator asked.
“On your own discretion,” I replied. “From what I was told when I first got here, the world’s tech is roughly a step or two above medieval, though knowing that airships are a thing and apparently steam engines are too, that kinda tosses that whole thing out the window. Don’t expect modern weapons, like guns with magazines, tanks, long-ranged artillery, etcetera, but do expect a lot of swords, bows, magic whatchamacallits, and probably a few wheellock, matchlock, or even flintlock firearms. There’s also people who can use magic, and fling fireballs, probably manipulate shadows, make water out of thin air, adjust dirt and rock, etcetera. When your cover is blown, and while I expect it to last a long time, by no means do I expect it to last forever, try to keep casualties to a minimum please?”
“We’ll see what we can do boss,” the Infiltrator replied. “Anything else?”
I shook my head, and began setting up a portal nearby. Huh, no restriction on how close I can put it to my people, that’s weird, but useful. I hopped into the dungeon-view to select the end portal, and was slightly relieved that the guilders were still several blocks away from the safe room. I was also unsure how to feel, as the beam-from-the-sky earlier seemed to have drawn the attention of every single one of the remaining two dozen or so mutation-prone undead to their location. Damn, didn't really notice how many there were still. Note to self, delegate someone else to keep an eye on intruders. Plus side, now I don’t have to send my people through the streets to wipe the rest out one by one for the next few hours. Down side... the guys going through the portal may have a bit more than just the guilders to go through.
The Infiltrators were the first ones through the portal, immediately activating their cloaking tech to turn invisible. Then the two Marines followed, who took up a position on either side of the portal, weapons raised as they watched. The Shocktroopers were the last through, marching in a line two abreast.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Torruk was not having a good day. First the undead assault on the ship, then the Guildmaster’s orders and his fellows not exactly jumping in to help at first, to Shimo causing one of their own to run off due to a conflict of godly interests. Now it had gone from bad, discovering just what this dungeon had in store, to worse now that the undead were coming out of the woodwork to attack his group. As one of the strongest of the group, he currently had himself handicapped by the simple fact that he had an unconscious Shimo slung over his left shoulder. He grunted as he slammed another undead away into the distance to crash into a rare third-story wall, and sighed in relief as his partner tossed a potion down that erected a large temporary ice wall to block off the alleyway it had come from. This had been the third one in thrice as many minutes, and they heard more heading their way.
“If I’m right, it looks like if we alter the ground, we take damage,” Gobruna muttered from her seated position on his right shoulder. She was furiously scribbling in a notebook as she noted down all the information the group had gathered so far. “But if we do something like an ice wall, which doesn’t affect the ground, we’re fine. The twins are also like Shimo, at half-health from one use of their skills...”
He tuned her out as the group rushed to the dungeon entrance, focusing on his right flank, while also trying to not jostle Shimo too much. The fighters had formed a ring around the more squishy members of the group, nobody was outside of the protective ring.
“There! The door!” The wolfkin exclaimed as they all finally rounded one final corner. Relieved sounds came from the group, until they spotted red moving from a side alley.
Ten of the armored suits from earlier marched in unison, halberds raised in the air, to block the end of the street. They turned in near-perfect harmony to face the group, and slammed the ends of their weapons on the ground twice while raising their shields in front of themselves. The two groups faced each other in momentary silence as the Guilders formed into a mirror wall. Several people blurted aloud; “How did they get ahead of us?”
“Hey, big guy, look at this,” Gobruna hissed. Torruk’s eyebrow raised as he received a System-share request. “Center guy, slightly fancier armor.”
Analyze Level 8 Results:
Name:
Zak Igorovich
Race:
Human (Khadoran)
Level:
3
Class:
Shock Trooper (Sergeant)
Health:
800/800 (400/400)
Mana:
10/10
Stamina:
12.5/12.5 (25/25)
“Seriously?” Torruk blurted out. “Level three?”
This got him some incredulous stares from his comrades, and silence from their opponents. When he and Gobruna shared it to the rest of the group, the rogues doubled over in laughter, as did several other Guilders.
“We were worried about some low level trash in this dungeon?” The wolfkin belted out with a guffaw. He continued, pointing at the line of red armored soldiers while laughing between breaths. “The metal golems, sure, but these things?”
Torruk did not share in the group’s mirth, but did wonder to himself why something felt off about the whole ordeal. He looked to the nearby buildings, waiting for an ambush, and noticed two men in strange armor crouched on top of a building nearby the red soldiers, aiming what looked to be some sort of rifle in his direction. Even knowing the level discrepancy between high-ranked adventurers such as he and the others were compared to the dungeon’s defenders did not comfort him as he felt a chill roll down his spine.
“They surely must know they’re outmatched,” he whispered to his partner. “But why would the dungeon put them here? They’d only get themselves slaughtered... unless...”
“Gear does tend to level the playing field,” Gobruna finished his thought, also noticing the rooftop duo. “I guess the question is, do they know that? We don’t know how good their gear is, but it looks damaged on the red guys. Also, is it just me, big guy, or does this place seem more... dangerous all of a sudden?”
“It’s not just you,” he replied warily. Almost immediately after the laughing had started, he could feel the dungeon’s gaze upon their group. Normally in a dungeon this young that would not be an issue, even in older, normal dungeons, it would not be an issue. The only dungeons that could emanate an emotion like this would be sentient ones... but this one is new. From what I remember learning as a Dirt-rank, normal sentient dungeon cores don’t just start that way. So either this one was an unlucky bastard who got transmuted into a core, a dungeon that went unnoticed for centuries, or...
“‘Runa, what are the odds that this is a Grand Dungeon?” He asked. Gunfire could be heard erupting throughout the surrounding area, as well as shrieks from the undead. The occasional fwoosh of something fire-based was also clearly audible.
“Impossible! Remember the dungeon in the sky we were at before we headed here? The Guildmaster told us all that it was the new Grand Dungeon. There’s been one Grand Dungeon per continent for as long as anyone can remember,” she shrugged. Her hand nervously fidgeted with a cerulean blue potion at her belt as she talked. “But this feeling... this can’t be anything but a Grand Dungeon. It’s the same feeling we got when we delved Tak’ro all those years ago. But... Grand Dungeons can’t be Fallen. It’s never happened...”
The ork pinched the bridge of his nose, uttering a silent prayer to the God of Knowledge, Literus, to stop his partner from going into one of her thought-spirals. She’ll be near useless if that happens...
“‘Runa!” Torruk hissed as he shook his shoulders, eliciting a groan from Shimo. This unfortunately did not break the goblin from her mutterings as she had broken out her copy of the Dungeon Knowledge 103: Pocket Edition and was flipping through the pages rapidly. He looked at the rest of the group, and jolted in surprise as the two rogues, as well as the wolfkin fighter, had approached the red soldiers and were standing a foot away with smug grins on their faces.
“Do you really think you can stop us?” The wolfkin asked between lungfuls of breath, his laughter finally dying down. He poked a finger at the soldier, forcing him to catch his footing lest he fall over backwards. “You’re a measly weak level three, whereas the lowest of us is at sixty! I could tear you out of that armor before you even had a chance to strike back.”
The soldier did not reply as the noises around the city rapidly died down. There were several dozen massive crashes that broke the silence, as if several tons of stone had been dumped upon that many hapless individuals. The mysterious music had stopped minutes ago, but a new song was kicking in. Torruk was slightly surprised when they did not receive a notification when it started.
It started with a weird, fast-paced twanging sound. Followed immediately by vocals from all around them. It started with a sort of groan that quickly changed into repeating a single word, which is when he identified drums following along with more instruments.
The Guilders looked around, as the vocals were coming from all around them, some even from the Khadorans in front, who were tapping their halberd’s ends on the floor in time with the drums. It felt different from the previous songs, partly due to it having identifiable vocals, partly due to it originating from the direction he could feel the Dungeon’s Awareness coming from.
“I was caught in the middle of a rock and roll attaaaack!” The Guilders were startled. The voice continued.
“My mind raced, and I thought, what could I do?” The soldier’s shield shifted ever so slightly, the hollow depression on the top aimed at the wolfkin’s head. Said wolfkin was stunned from the song, likely due to how loud it was compared to how sensitive a wolfkin’s ears were known to be. Normally this was not an issue for the man, however his hearing-protection enchanted gear had been knocked aside in the aftermath of Shimo’s earlier blast.
“Sound of the drums! Beatin’ in my heart! The thunder of guns! Tore me apart!” Torruk could feel the tension reaching a tipping point.
“You’ve been... THUNDERSTRUCK!” On the last word, the soldier’s shield erupted in fire, and the next moment the wolfkin toppled backwards with a scream, missing half his face. The song continued as the line of soldiers erupted into fire and brimstone, hurling large projectiles at the Guilders. One of the rogues managed to use a skill to dash backwards, the other one met a similar fate to the wolfkin. Three projectiles hit the man in the head, obliterating it.
“What the hell?” The tower shield-bearing fighter exclaimed as several rounds hit his shield and bounced off harmlessly. The song continued, energizing their red armored opponents as they marched in lockstep, shields raised and halberds leveled at the Guilders. The sounds of many rapid heavy footsteps could be heard coming from behind the group.
“Make cover and break through!” Torruk yelled, aiming his axe at the red soldiers. “We need to get out of here!”
With that, the group of Guilders burst forth in a flurry of activity. The magic casters and ranged fighters in the group were the first to react, firing elemental orbs of fire and water at their opponents, with explosive arrows following closely behind. The orbs of fire and water met before the Khadorans, enveloping the entire area in steam and reducing visibility to little more than an arm’s-length. The explosions that followed kicked up dirt and dust, further obscuring the area.
It was times like this, where Torruk was glad for the System’s Party Interface. It allowed everyone within a Party to know exactly where each other was, as well as their current status. It also allowed a small Experience-Share Buff for all within. After Shimo had cast his Holy Smite earlier, several of the Guilders had reached the next level, including himself. He heard the shields fire once more, and felt an impact in his side that spun him around, tossing Gobruna who knew where, and Shimo directly aside with a groan.
Torruk looked down, noticing that he had a wound that was rapidly closing thanks to his Class’ level thirty Regenerate passive skill, something other classes got either earlier, or later, than he had. He checked his stats and noted he had only lost roughly five percent of his health. This worried him, because a level three of any class should not have been able to do more than single-digit damage to anyone more than four times their level, much less his level sixty-one self.
The songs buff the dungeon’s monsters, and some debuff their enemies... This must have been a pure buff for them, since any debuffs we suffer always give us a System-message about it, he thought to himself. As he picked up Shimo once more, he noted that Gobruna was not far away and moving, and that the rest of the party was at various distances around him, with several close by but hidden by the steam. Two had already made it to the safe room, with another two joining them as he took this information in.
Torruk started running in the direction of where the others had gone into the safe room, and just as he was about to clear the steam cloud, he got smacked in the face with an orb. He caught it in his left hand, looked at the strange orb, and was temporarily blinded as it detonated a second later. A bluish-white burst of energy was released, hitting himself as well as all of his comrades that had not left the steam in a ten-foot radius.
Debuff Applied!
New Conglomerate EMP Grenade: Disables all current buffs and skills, and applies Disorientation for three seconds.
Torruk definitely felt the disorientation as he threw the remains of the grenade away. He managed to not lose his way as he burst out of the steam, but felt a moment of horror as he noticed that aside from the unconscious Cleric on his shoulder, he was alone. There were no Party indicators, so he was unsure of who else made it out of the steam cloud with him, he could see his fellows behind the barrier of the Safe Room, but he was no longer in their Party.
“Come on! Hurry!” The Artificer urged Torruk on from the safety of the Safe Room, dragging an empty and highly damaged red torso armor with his wrench through the barrier. He himself looked worse for wear, several slashes in his gear, as well as a new facial scar running diagonally across his left eye.
Torruk raced across the distance and threw Shimo through the barrier to be caught by one of the fighters. “I’ve gotta get ‘Runa!” He exclaimed, turning back towards the now dissipating cloud of steam. The music was reaching a crescendo as he frantically looked around for his diminutive partner. He heard a rapid stomp-stomp-stomp-stomp heading in his direction, and he turned towards the source.
A blue-armored soldier charged at him, similar in size but bulkier and more angular than the red-armored soldiers. A blue shield sprang to life on its right arm, deflecting an arrow shot by one of the fighters who was just outside of the safe room. Torruk raised his axe to strike down as the blue man pulled back his left fist, a strange spinning conical attachment attached to his arm.
“You’ve been... THUNDERSTRUCK!” The song finished as the man’s drill and Torruk’s axe met in a thunderous blow. A massive shockwave split the air between them as both weapons shattered and flung the two fighters in opposite directions.
The orc sailed into the Safe Room, and midway through his flight he noticed Gobruna being held by a small twinkling black orb with arms and legs. She was struggling, kicking and slapping it in vain to get her freedom. There were several of his fellow Guilders lying unconscious or dead around the area he had been thrown from, soldiers similar to the man he had struck standing over them with strange weapons aimed at the few survivor’s heads.
The last thing he saw as the hour ticked over and he fell into the cold embrace of the Levelup Curse was two orbs of fire staring at him from the small golem holding Gobruna, then the door into the city slamming shut.