> Dungeon Status:
>
> Tier 2
> Level 24/100
>
> Heart 2,073,600/2,073,600
> Experience 392,511/518,400
> Workers 30/151
> Monsters 10/153
> Traps 118/369
> Food 6,349
> Timber 7,322
> Iron 2,292
> Steel 905
> Mithril 870
> Mithril Ore 0
> Adamantine 916
> Adamantine Ore 0
> Charcoal 3,658
> Mana 4,960
> Rock 1,330
> Gold 105
> Leather 216
> Leather Sludge 215
> Lava 501
> Ice 10
> Glass 483
> Explosive Runes 30
> Triggered Explosive Runes 0
> Triggered Explosive Runes (repeating) 0
> Long Guns 30
> Bullets 400
> Black Powder 400
> Poison, Greater 500
> Deadly Scorpion Venom 76
> Sulfur 708
>
> Quest: Kill 100 city dwellers.
> Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 30/66 | Monsters 10/67 | Traps 118/162
> Quest: Delve to the bottom of a dungeon with at least 20 floors.
"Okay, but will I get to ride them?" Fife asked.
"They might be wolves like Astrid, Fife. Look, if they are normal wolves, and you don't crush them with your weight, and they like you, and you get the gold for both, I won't object to you trying." Travis felt more than a little trepidation over the deal, no matter how many clauses he packed into the offer.
"Okay! You'll have so much gold, you won't know what to do with it all! Uh, how much gold do you need?" Fife walked out of the building area and looked left and then right down the tunnels. "And where is the gold?"
"On your right. End of the hall, take another right. And, Fife?" Travis asked.
"What's up, Trav?"
"Thank you."
Laughing, Fife reached out her hand to the wall and brushed along it with her claws. "Trav, you're one of those people who becomes an instant best friend. You work your butt off to keep everyone in here happy, you aren't a miser, and—the most important bit—you built me a tavern! I mean, I know it's not just for me, but you built an extra tavern so I could be queen of the first one! No one has ever built me a tavern before.
"And then there's all this cool armor. It was a dream to one day afford some adamantine plate. Maybe get the sword and shield first, then work my way up to each piece. You are amazing, and don't let anyone ever tell you you aren't." Turning right before the end of the hall, Fife saw a door she remembered. "Right, this is a mana shrine and then gold and… sulfur?"
"Coal, but the rest is right."
"How's Steph doing?" Fife stopped at the door and leaned down to pick up a lizard that was trying to get through. With her charge on her shoulder, she went through the door and the next.
Having tried his best to listen in, Travis groaned. "I can't hear them. This is annoying. They're right there."
"You trusted Steph to do all the work up there so far. Trust him a little further." Spitting into one hand then the other, Fife reached behind her back and pulled out her pickaxe. "Besides, what's the big deal?"
"The big deal, Fife, is that he's lying for us. When Hilda returns, and the way Pen was talking, she will be back, that's going to be noticed. Hell, when Astrid walks out there as a wolf, they're going to notice, but we can at least cover that up by telling them I made her a minion." Travis felt like he slumped, even if he absolutely, physically couldn't.
"No one saw her face, right? She had that fancy armor and helmet on. Also"—Fife started to swing her pickaxe, building a rhythm and digging huge chunks of gold-bearing ore from the seam—"I want to fight her again myself."
"That will help some, but she's kinda big and unmistakable. I guess you'll want to try riding the scorpions, too?"
"If I can, I will."
The meeting stole Travis' attention for a moment. "Oh, they're leaving the room now. Doesn't look like things got angry or anything. Now the new guy is leaving, he's a lizardkin, I think you call them?"
"Yup. Lizardkin are good fighters. They also make good hunters, but you don't see so many this far north. Too cold for 'em, I think."
"Brolly is writing something on some paper. Oh." Travis could read well enough, thanks to the lizard Brolly kept on the shelf behind his desk. "'Travis, keep your minions close. Nice work on Stephan, he didn't let on for a second.'" Brolly then balled up the paper and tossed it into the burning fireplace. "He knows we did something, but he probably doesn't know what. He also doesn't seem inclined to volunteer any information, so I think we're in the clear."
"That's good. Do we have enough here already?" Fife didn't slow, her war-trained muscles able to keep swinging the pickaxe easily despite the repeated harsh impacts.
"Uh… Yeah. I think I might put a request on the board to get us gold. We're going to need more soon. We can provide a lot of iron and steel for a railway, but gold is needed for everything. Also, we need to build an outpost around the forest entrance."
"We're going to be something pretty serious, aren't we?" Tossing the pickaxe aside, where it vanished, Fife turned away from the huge seam of gold and toward the exit. "Will there still be room for a meathead tank?"
"Fife, remember the plans? We have a goblin dungeon to manage and we'll be offering to pay adventurers to delve us. I may need two of you!"
Passing the big mana crystal, Fife's face was illuminated with the blue glow of mana. "You say the coolest things, Trav. So, I'll always have something to bash my head against. Good to know."
----------------------------------------
Astrid had never spent so long in her wolf shape. She thought she'd feel imposing and overwhelming, but short as kobolds were, it wasn't a lot shorter in comparison to her larger self. "Travis, are you sure I'm okay to be like this?"
"You are welcome to be however you wish. A warning, though. We have a relief army here now. If you go outside, make sure you have either Fife or Pen with you, okay?" Changing commands into questions had become Travis' latest favorite trick to take the edge off them. When she nodded, he said, "Okay, Fife got some gold."
That pulled Astrid from her contemplation of herself with a new thing to think about. "Just like that? She mined how much?" As she listened to him, she started to wonder about what language Travis spoke. In her head, it sounded like her homeland's language, complete with accent. But, at the same time, he could speak to her and Fife and each would understand the words. Astrid knew for a fact Fife didn't speak her language.
"Thirteen thousand gold. She's a boss, remember, and this is her floor. That matters a lot. Though, if you want to see crazy, go and watch Tannyr mining out an area or Katelyn gathering gold. Here's Fife now." Travis tried to keep conversations local to one area constrained to that area, so that he could advise those present when something was approaching, even if he could see both points of view. "Okay, Pack Den first?"
Fife felt more than a little camaraderie for Astrid now. Having faced off, and found Fife a capable fighter, it was easier to interact with her. "Your choice. Want your new home first or will we make scorpion babies?"
That was another thing that surprised Astrid about language. When Fife spoke, it definitely wasn't Astrid's native tongue, but she understood it all the same. And, so did Fife. "Wolves. I need somewhere to fight my brethren, when Brayden brings them back. I won't revive them without a home."
"Alright," Travis said. "A Pack Den, ten thousand gold, two thousand food, a thousand timber, and two hundred adamantine. I don't know where this system pulls the numbers from, but your room needs adamantine. With discounts that will be twelve thousand gold, eighteen hundred food, nine hundred timber, and a hundred and eighty adamantine. I am not exactly sure how much gold is in the buffer still, but even if it's empty, we can afford that."
His attention focused on that first room now, Travis paid the amount. His store of adamantine was reduced, of course, but he was relieved to see his gold still didn't go down. In fact, no other resource went down. "I have no idea how much timber I have left in there, but there was enough."
"Where is the room?" Astrid walked in and looked around.
"We gotta build it!" Fife could feel the tug of a room build in progress, and let herself start doing the work. When Astrid didn't follow suit, she paused and looked at her. "You okay? You don't feel you know where things need to go?"
"No." Astrid watched Fife nailing boards together and then moving on to build a weapon rack. "Am I supposed to?"
"Astrid counts as a monster, Fife, not a worker. I guess she doesn't get that same building/digging stuff," Travis said.
Groaning, Fife kept working. "You and Squishy have it so easy. He doesn't have to build or dig either."
"I am not sure if being compared to your slime is a compliment, coming from you, or a curse." Smirking, Astrid leaned her back against the wall and watched as Fife worked.
"I'm only doing this in the hope of getting to ride a cool wolf monster. Floor bosses shouldn't have to do this kind of thing. I should be a monster too!"
"Nope. Just a kobold," Travis said. "Besides, last I heard, you liked being a kobold. Weren't you the one who literally came-to after the change and was giving others advice on it, like you were practically born to be a kobold?"
"Lies! Slander and lies," Fife said. The moment she finished building the room, there was that usual odd sensation as whatever magic powered the dungeon filled in the missing bits. "Woo! It's built! Aww, no boss door. I guess tall and fluffy doesn't get to be a boss."
"Boss? I could become a boss?" Astrid asked, trying to figure out the odd feeling of comfort she had. It was as if she were back home in a pile of warm bodies on a cold night, waiting out the storm in a longhouse, and it had started the moment Fife had finished.
"Once I get another floor, I probably could do that. If you want to be a boss, and I am fine with that, then you're going to need to earn it, though. Pen, Wild, and Fife all proved themselves fit for their roles. Wild is the guardian to the serious parts of the dungeon. There are no automated traps before him. Then Fife is a rock, a place where invaders can't get past. Pen is insurance. She can easily shift to Fife's room, and from there she can back up Fife and Squishy."
"Between Wild and Fife?" Astrid asked.
"Explosives, a maze, and enough horrible acidic gunk that will glue you in place to make even an army stop and reevaluate their life choices." Travis turned his attention to the room and found two sets of options. "Okay, so I can buy wolves and—I don't think you've used this term, but where I'm from, people who can turn from human to wolf are called werewolves."
"You could create others like me?" Astrid stared at Fife, but it was Travis she was asking.
"I wouldn't—for a few reasons. First, there would be no way for them to leave if they didn't want to be here. Signing up to be a kobold or monster might be a forever thing, but you're making that choice. I"—Travis choked a little, but forced himself to continue—"things were tough when me and Pen first started. We did something we're not proud of. Stephan didn't join the dungeon by choice. I regret that decision, even if he tries to say it is okay. He never had a choice because we felt we didn't have a choice. We have a choice now, and that isn't a mistake I'll make again."
Astrid felt she should have been surprised by Travis' deeper thinking on the matter, or that he had regrets on how he'd acted in the past, but she'd stopped thinking of him as just a dungeon and was instead seeing him as a living, breathing creature. So much so, she sometimes felt surprised that he wasn't some magic user hiding somewhere in the dungeon. "Then why build it?"
Eyeing his gold, and looking at the upgrades on the new room, Travis made a choice. The first was to buy the room's Bloodied Wolves upgrade for ten thousand gold and five thousand food. Finally, his gold stored depleted by a noticeable number. Of the twelve thousand Fife had added, he'd lost about two thirds of it. His food, however, still didn't budge. "Two reasons. I figured it would be a neat place for you, if you want it, and for this." He paid for one Bloodied Wolf.
Movement in the corner of her vision made Astrid turn toward it. A wolf that seemed about half the size of her—which made it five feet at the shoulders—looked between Fife and her. It appeared, in her unique opinion, majestic. Shrewd eyes peered at her from a head covered in a shaggy coat. Its mouth opened and she saw the gleaming white fangs that had a tint of red to them. Standing up, she walked toward the wolf with one big hand out to it.
"Aww, we have a puppy!" Fife couldn't keep the big grin off her face, and walked over to where Astrid was now ruffling the shoulders of the wolf while it leaned against her. As she got closer, it became apparent that the wolf was taller than Fife. "Big puppy!"
The wolf, already cognizant of the home it was created by, of the other wolf-monster it was in the presence of, and the boss of the floor it was now on. Walking to its little boss, it licked them from tummy to nose.
Falling backwards, Fife flailed for a moment while the wolf focused their attacks on her face. "Ack! Call them off! Astrid! Travis! Help!"
Astrid couldn't hold back a bellow of laughter. The wolf probably wasn't heavier than Fife, but she could see the height advantage gave it the needed leverage to keep her pinned. "Now that the siege is over, I'd like to deal with my pack-mates."
"What do you need me to do to help?" Travis asked.
"A pair of adamantine swords. One each. No armor will be needed, but if we are going to fight, I want it to be done fast."
Travis contacted Axel directly, the young man had been sitting in the gunsmithy discussing metals with the newest member of the dungeon. "Axel, would you be able to make a pair of adamantine swords?"
Lifting his head, Axel nodded. "Right now?" he asked, already standing up. "Actually, I'll do them now anyway. I need practice. You want to come and help, Cera?"
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With that sorted, and Travis feeling a minor bit of guilt about not paying closer attention to his newer recruits, he looked for Brayden.
Holding the big hammer in his hands, Brayden started to step through a series of motions to build its momentum. He danced around, swinging the hammer again and again at invisible opponents. The floor of the martial training hall was as good a place as any to train, and with his temple nearby he could still feel a strong connection to Brogdar.
He could feel Travis' attention on him, and he valued his friend's patience as he completed the movements that strengthened his body and mind. Walking to the weapon rack, he set the oversize (to a kobold) hammer down. "What's up, Trav?"
Travis couldn't see another way to say it, so got right to the point. "Astrid wants to talk to her friends—the dead ones."
"The wolves? It will be an interesting endeavor. They died in war, serving a cause that, to them, was just. I will not be able to revive them all at once, but let's make it four a day and work from there." Brayden had been meditating on the issue himself, trying to seek his god's guidance. All he'd felt was an urging to find his own path. "She still plans to let them fight her to the death?"
"She and Fife are discussing a way to ensure it. Fife will stand in judgment. If they want death, and kill Astrid, Fife will give them what they want." Travis gave them time to digest the order of events before asking, "Is this right, Brayden?"
"Is anything right, Travis? I asked Brogdar to guide my steps, and he didn't reply with anything beyond following my own heart. Life is a test, but I don't know if there is a way to fail beyond stepping outside of what you want to be. I am a warrior, a bringer of life to those who push back darknesses both mundane and meta. If this is what she and her kind consider appropriate, I will comply with their desires." Walking from the room, Brayden started to make his way down through the dungeon. "How is Katelyn doing with the teleporters?"
"She ran into a hiccup there. The core of it will require gold to function. I'd rather it didn't, and she's of the same opinion. She's gone back to the drawing board." Travis looked at his gold and realized that he was going to need a lot more. Resource nodes only cost mana, and with the new reserves and faster regen from the Wizard Tower, he felt confident spending four thousand five hundred on nine new nodes. "You know, I just realized that if I keep adding more and more resource nodes, and the lizards find them all, we'll be able to see where there are pockets of no nodes which will be monster caves."
"What about if the nodes appear in caves? Remember Squishy's original shrine?" Brayden could remember it quite well—he'd died shortly after. He didn't regret that death, or the fights that led up to it—it had been an inevitable and required step along what he had realized was his journey to protect an important soul from straying from the path of goodness. He reached out and ran his claws along the wall, then took the stairs down.
From far in the distance, Brayden could hear the sound of hammer on metal. He knew the young man, Axel, had accepted a place in the dungeon to gain access to rare metals, and hoped that the deal wouldn't sour—he still wanted some divinium armor.
"That's a good point, but I think I'd be able to sense if a room was in a cave like that. Especially mana shrines. If you head to Fife's boss room, then go north from there, you'll reach the new wolf area."
"Thank you, Trav." Brayden pushed his way through the rock, gliding into Fife's room, bowing his head to Squishy, then heading north and negotiating two more walls. The new room, he had to admit, was looking good. "Is that a wolf eating Fife?"
"Yeah," Astrid said, grinning at the wolf that was wagging its tail and play-wrestling with Fife. "My gold's on the wolf."
"If the fight goes long enough that she gets thirsty, Fife will win. I don't think Pen could stop her when her throat gets dry." Walking up to Astrid, Brayden put his hand on her arm. "I'm ready to bring them back, and you back, when you need me to."
"They won't like this, and they won't like you. When we do it, you'll stand with Fife and I'll put myself between them and you both." Astrid knew they'd be furious enough to bring out their beast. When that happened, she doubted there would be anything else to do but put them down.
"Axel is making a pair of swords now," Travis said. "The bodies of your pack are in the back of the cells next door. It was the best, and safest, place to store them."
It was news to Astrid. She had been avoiding the jail cells for entirely selfish reasons. Standing upright, she turned and walked for the door. "I'll bring the first. They are preserved?"
"Yeah. Jack made a pile of ice in there that doesn't melt. I don't know how he does it, but it means they have been frozen all this time." Travis kept following Astrid as she walked out and down to the jails. "Their cells are locked, but you should be able to figure out how to open them. I didn't want anything coming in here and eating them like this."
"You took better care of them than I did. Leading them at the gates was—" Astrid squeezed her eyes closed and stood still for a moment. "I'd been ordered, without being ordered. Because I hadn't knocked down the fortress surrounding the dungeon to the south-east, or the walls of the city, Hilda gave me the option to redeem myself and lead a blind charge at the city gates."
"You would have if Fife hadn't been there. She held the gate versus three of your wolves, and when Jack supported her, she killed them."
"She is an unbelievable warrior. She also killed many outside the gate with that gas." Hating Fife for being a better warrior was pointless. Astrid would far rather train with her and surpass her. "We were warriors set against one another. I am glad that's no longer true."
When she stopped at one body, Astrid closed her eyes and breathed a little heavier. "His parents gave him one of the old gods' names. Hreti. A cursed name, some would say. He was like a little brother to me." Digging her claws into the ice around him, she dragged the block containing her pack-mate's frozen form out and picked it up. "It's hard to think that he can be brought back. We burn our dead when we can, to stop such prof—such magic being done."
"You're amazing in a way," Travis said. "You adapted to all this so fast. It's been, what?"
"Not even a month. When I realized I don't want to die, and that it was only because of you that I didn't and don't… I had to change myself. I had to discard what I knew and what I believed. I didn't know if it was right or wrong, but it would get me killed. All I have is my training and my strength—and even that is borrowed from you for letting me live.
"This is hard to say, because I like a lot of the people who taught me how to fight, but you are the most amazing man I have ever met, Travis The Dungeon. You admit when you've made mistakes, work hard to back up every word you say with deeds, and you support so many lives—protected so many—that you would have the bearing of a king in my homelands."
Travis didn't know what to say to that. When she'd carried the frozen body all the way back to the Pack Den, he still didn't know. "Axel, how are the swords coming?"
Pausing in his hammering, Axel carried the new blade back to the forge. "First is done. It's much faster if I let the dungeon system do the work, like Tannyr said, but I don't get to customize anything. The way you spoke, these don't need to be customized?"
"Yeah, nice work. They might be simple blades, but adamantine is still adamantine. There are people who would kill for your weapons." Travis couldn’t help but give Axel a little ego padding. He'd quickly become an essential part of the dungeon. He was aware of Fife, Brayden, and Astrid talking about the mechanics of any fights, and figured they'd be best to handle that side of things.
Able to feel when he had Travis' full attention, Axel felt only slightly nervous. Thankfully, following his instinct and letting the dungeon system do all the work, all he had to do was hammer the edges of the cast weapon a few times and it came out of his forge sharp and ready to use. "I hate that they are so plain. Can you lie to Fife and tell her I didn't make these?"
"No promises. Thank you, Axel." When Axel set both blades on the completed bench, they both vanished and appeared in Travis' inventory. "Okay, Fife, please fetch the two blades."
While Fife was doing that, Brayden started his resurrection ritual. It was longer than normal, because the body was so long-dead and encased in ice. He would have had Katelyn deal with the ice, but a cooked wolf was probably going to be harder to resurrect than a frozen one.
Looking at the sword Fife gave her, Astrid tested the edge and found it deadly enough, and given its adamantine construction, that edge would hold a long time. "I still don't know what to say."
Fife checked over the second blade, testing its edge. "Yeah, me either. I think the most important thing is not to lie. Explain what happened, how you feel, and their choices. Emphasize that if they want to leave and head back north themselves, we will not stop them."
"Three choices. Life here. Life in the north. Death." While Astrid hoped against hope that it would be the former, she would be happy if they all chose the second too. "I don't want to kill my pack."
"He wasn't exactly pack, but I had someone who was close on the battlefield and in the bedroom, who turned out to be someone I didn't want to be around. If you want, I'll fight them if all they want is a death at arms."
"No. It's my responsibility as their pack leader. If I can't kill them myself, there's something wrong." Standing up straighter now, and trying not to reflect on why she always crouched down to speak to kobolds, Astrid could hear Brayden's voice reach a fever pitch as he beseeched his god for the power to undo death.
Brayden felt the moment Brogdar connected with him and, through his power, brought life back to the body. First, the ice cracked and fell away. Then the wolf's body warmed and the myriad processes that were required for life started anew. Deep inside, where the poison had done its deadly work, damage was undone and nerve tissue repaired. Finally, once Hreti's body was warm enough all over, his heart began to pump.
The final thing before the wolf was able to fully awaken was his energy. Enough fuel added to his body to sustain it for a time.
When Hreti's eyes snapped open, and the darkness of his death fell away, he screamed. Muscles that had gone without movement for weeks bunched and tightened, pulling him up and allowing him to stand. He was still in his wolf shape, which seemed wrong to him, but then a familiar smell hit his olfactory like a hammer. "Astrid?"
Neither Fife nor Brayden could understand the northerner language, but they didn't need that to hear him ask for Astrid. Backing away to give Hreti room, Brayden did his best to circle around behind Astrid to Fife.
"Hreti!" Astrid forgot everything as she rushed forward. Wrapping her arms around him, they embraced and each sank their muzzles into the neck of the other. Breathing deep, she closed her eyes and experienced a pure, selfish moment of joy.
Indulging in a similar joy, Hreti squeezed Astrid, but eventually he opened his eyes and saw the two kobolds in the room. "What is going on here?" He felt on-edge, even if Astrid didn't seem to be. "Did we take the gate?"
"No. When we got in, you were right behind me. That kobold over there covered in more adamantine than we ever wore was guarding the portcullis. She's a better fighter than I am, and dealing with Agnes, Yvette, and Bjorn wasn't too much for her to handle." It was hard to describe, and harder to keep talking, but Astrid had only ever feared one thing—and this wasn't it. "They beat us, Hreti."
Confusion reigned. Leaning back from Astrid, Hreti asked, "Why are we alive?"
"Because of them and because of the best ruler I've ever met. We're in a dungeon—a hole—Hreti." Astrid let Hreti go as he backed up from her. "They aren't heretics and they aren't monsters. They're just people like us."
"How? How could they be people?" Pointing at Fife, Hreti fixed his mouth into a snarl. "Look at them, Astrid! They are nothing like us!"
"Neither is Hilda. Neither was Donna. Being different didn't make us monsters." Astrid left it unsaid that the same applied to Fife, Brayden, and Travis. She decided to move on. "I—I was terrified. I lied so much. Unafraid of death? No, I only thought it wouldn't happen to me. Well, I came to a point where my life was in the hands of another and—and I begged for it."
"What did you do, Astrid? You made a deal with them?!" Panic, anger, and confusion dominated Hreti's mind. He kept pointing at the kobolds. "You sided with the heretics?!"
"Yes!" Astrid snarled the word out. "Yes, I surrendered to them. I offered them a year of servitude. They granted me that. They—" She realized she had no more words to explain herself. All the anger left Astrid and she held out her huge, taloned hand. "Do you trust me, Hreti?"
Yes, he realized. He still trusted her, but he needed to know it was actually his pack-leader, Astrid, that was before him. "I followed you into fight after fight, Astrid. Certain death was always what we faced, but you stood at the front and led every charge. Behind you, I could never falter." He looked at the hand offered and knew he'd reach for it—then he saw the naked blade in her other hand. It felt right. "But only if you still are Astrid. Prove to me, wolf with no name, that you are who you say."
Hearing Travis' translation, Fife laughed, distracting both wolves from their moment. "It's not always the fight you want, is it Astrid? No plan survives the first clash of blades. If he wants you to prove yourself to him, then do it." Walking toward the two behemoths, Fife smirked at them and held out the second adamantine blade to Hreti. "You can't understand me, wolf-man, but I hope one day you will remember these words. I understand you perfectly. Fight well."
Looking at the blade in his hand, what would have been a longsword to a normal sized person, Hreti judged it both horrible and beautiful. It was simple, but it was a killing tool. He'd seen many blades, but he'd never seen an adamantine one so unadorned. "What did it say?"
"Fife? She said she understands you perfectly, and wished you luck." Astrid found herself stepping back as the room felt far more hostile. "What are we fighting to?"
"Three marks. The leader of our pack wouldn't balk at losing a little blood." Hreti rolled his shoulders and started to unpack himself, feeling out his extremities and looking around the ground they would be fighting on.
The room was dominated by a rocky cave in one corner and what seemed like a safe path through from one exit to the other. The ground was uneven; a challenge to footing. Gathered in one corner was Fife, Brayden, and the newly created wolf, all watching the two huge wolves circle one another.
Three marks meant Astrid could afford to lower her defenses a little. The biggest danger was, without armor and with the swords they had, that could mean far more than a scratch. "Keep your offside arm up. Better to take a mark than lose your fingers trying to grab my blade from reflex."
"Every fight is a lesson?" It was reassuring and normal. This was exactly how Astrid treated every combat encounter. "My pack leader was like that, but she wouldn't hesitate to—" Dodging back, Hreti realized he'd let his focus slip. To regain that loss, he tossed his sword to his off-hand, led with it, but swung his claws as his main attack.
"One to you." Astrid hadn't expected the attack and caught the claw to her arm. She bled only a few moments before scars claimed the wound. Stepping back, she realized that she was thinking back to her recent sparring with Fife again and again. Fife fought far more defensively, wearing an opponent down and then punishing their lack of stamina. That was the wrong kind of fight here, even if it was a superior tactic.
Once he'd backed away to give Astrid time to recover, Hreti ran at her. Just before he reached attack range, he threw the sword at her face and brought both claws up to rake at her ribs. He expected her to react to the blade more, expected her to make a grab for the weapon or turn from it. Instead, as he fully committed to the attack, she headbutted the blade's flat and grabbed both his wrists.
Following through after the headbutt, Astrid opened her jaws and clamped down on Hreti's shoulder, sinking her teeth in while keeping his hands away from her.
Rolling his eyes sideways to look at Astrid, Hreti recognized his pack leader again. This wasn't a defensive attack, this was how the beast inside them wanted to fight. "Let go."
Astrid snarled, held a moment longer, and then released Hreti's neck. Stepping back, she was waiting for Hreti to do the same when he rushed at her. Her eyes widened, and if not for her remembering he had no sword, she would have acted defensively.
Wrapping his arms around Astrid, Hreti buried his face into the mane of fur at her neck and he cried. "It's really you." He felt her arms encircle him and pin him close. Without a hint of aggression or reluctance, he wagged his tail and wept into her. "I died. I really died?"
"Yeah. You died, but that isn't always an end when you have friends." It filled in a part of Astrid's soul to have Hreti, one of her pack, back. "I've learned so much since they took me in. They protect us from the city, too."
"The city? Where are we?" His tail wagging slowed and stopped as Hreti remembered the kobolds. "The city had a dungeon inside it, didn't it?"
"Two. One is this dungeon, his name is Travis. The other is full of animals and grasslands. They don't fear their dungeons, here, they have accepted them as allies."
"You"—the question was turning over in Hreti's head—"you're part of this dungeon, aren't you? You let it bind you."
"He, not it, and yes. I am part of the dungeon now, but I asked to be. Travis doesn't ask more of me than I want to give. He is— He has plenty. He has so much food and resources that he supplies the city. Gold, food, weapons— Remember how many we thought were dying in here, daily? He pays to bring them back. The gods of this realm ask only a donation to bring life back to those who lost it—and he paid for every soldier we killed."
Slumping back, Hreti looked up at Astrid with shock permeating his emotions. "We had no chance. They were endless."
"We had a chance. When we charged the door, we had a chance of taking the city. We should have all pressured Fife and beaten her down, or distracted her while others raised the portcullis. Arrogance cost us, but mostly Penelope. She's the dragon here." It was hard for Astrid to think of her as anything else now, but she felt she should correct herself. "She was a half dragon before. The biggest among them."
"This is a lot to take in."
"You're the first, you know. I will try this with the whole pack. If they want, they can stay, leave, or gut me where I stand. I'll even give them a fight to the death if they want it." Astrid grinned, showing off her teeth. "I don't fear death anymore."
[https://excessive.space/images/dungeon/Chapter%200109-floor1.jpg]
[https://excessive.space/images/dungeon/Chapter%200109-floor2.jpg]
[https://excessive.space/images/dungeon/Chapter%200109-floor3.jpg]
[https://excessive.space/images/dungeon/Legend2.jpg]
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