Divergent Paths
“Get behind him! He’s going to run!” Idris shouted at Eana. The cave imp slipped his attack nimbly and put a stalagmite between itself and Idris.
Between the two of them Idris wasn’t sure how many of the creatures they had killed. His quest told him there were still nine imps left in the cavern but he could have sworn it said that the last few times he had looked - and he hadn’t just been sitting around and resting.
Try as she might Eana couldn’t get to the rickety wooden bridge before the imp did and it vanished into the semi-dark of the cavern.
She groaned in frustration and collapsed in a sweaty heap onto the nearest boulder. Idris couldn’t blame her. It wasn’t that there were so many of the creatures, it was that they didn’t all come running at them in a suicidal rush like the forest imps had.
These versions of the creature preferred stealth and ambushes, and when confronted with a stand-up fight they ran off. Then Idris and Eana were left scrambling up and down the stone pathways trying to pin them down. With all the running around he felt like he could have gone back and forth from home to the dungeon four or five times over.
Idris looked down at his mostly intact clothing. Bloodstains and tears evidenced the fighting he had been through in the last couple of hours, but it was nothing to the complete wreck he had been after coming out of the Chaos Lands across the river. His outfit might even be salvageable after tonight.
Eana groaned aloud and suddenly sat straight up, her face a mask of disappointment and betrayal.
“What? What happened?” Idris asked.
“Check the dungeon quest,” she said.
Idris opened his quest log. Everything looked the same except… ten remaining.
“I knew it!” he shouted, “With everything going on I wasn’t paying close enough attention, but I thought we should have finished them off by now!”
Eana lay back against her rock, arms splayed.
“Stay alert, let’s not get sloppy,” Idris said, but there was no conviction in his voice. This had become such a grind.
“I’m exhausted, I want to go home, and we don’t have enough people to track them all down in this cave before-” she stopped and groaned again.
Eleven imps remaining.
They had gathered a good amount of XP. No loot, but they had learned a ton and the map was filled out for three out of the five rooms it showed in the dungeon. Maybe they could go home tonight. It was pretty crazy, come to think of it, to imagine they could clear an entire dungeon in a spare evening.
“One last thing, we try one last thing,” Idris said.
He cast Radiance and then Detect. They had been doing without the light since keeping it up offered little benefit in the ever present crystalline gloom of the dungeon.
The spacious cavern stretched around them but by now Idris had learned nearly every twist and turn of it. The rocks, bridges and pathways were designed to be confusing and to make the space seem bigger than it was, but he could easily loft the orb around the entire space if he concentrated.
“Come on,” he said, motioning for his sister to follow, “Let’s not get separated. And if this doesn’t work then we’ll head home and try again tomorrow.”
Eana got up to follow. Straightening her back took visible effort but she joined him as he followed the light and sped it around whatever spaces they could see in a rhythmic, back and forth motion.
They were about to call it quits when, finally, Idris saw what he was looking for. Blue mist floated up from one of the dilapidated tents the cave imps seemed to use for shelter - as if they needed it.
He looked at Eana and saw the same energy filling her eyes that filled him. As quietly as they could they rushed toward the glowing mass of energy.
Idris checked the quest progress and, sure enough, twelve imps remained for them to kill. This was it, the imp that was bringing the others back into the fight.
In the last few steps to the tent Idris accelerated into a sprint and smashed his hammer into the middle of the stretched animal hide, still unable to see exactly where the creature was.
It connected with crunchy resistance but Idris’ momentary triumph faded when his swing revealed he had struck the one that had just been revived.
The magic user was still there, staring in shock at the dead imp it had only just resurrected.
It was definitely an imp like the others, but it wore a complex headdress made of sticks and glowing crystals, rodent bone jewelry, and carried a staff of what looked like poorly shaped ironwood.
“Cave Imp Shaman! It’s stronger than the others and has some magic!” Eana shouted from behind. She was getting quick on her casts of Assess.
The thing let out a screech of challenge and brandished its staff, then the blue mist of detected magic billowed off it and a sphere of light blasted outward from its staff. Idris cringed back a moment before realizing he was unharmed, but from around them the shouts of the remaining cave imps grew to a frenzy.
The shaman looked at him, a monstrous triumph in its eyes as the shouts grew louder and Eana turned to brain the first of the things to enter their little clearing. She was getting better at that too, Idris noted with pride.
Rather than feel fear at the prospect of close to a dozen encroaching imps, all Idris felt was relief.
The shaman swung its staff at him but it was barely an inconvenience to take a step back, causing the creature to stumble.
Idris blew out a quick “pfft” of derision, imbued his hammer, and smashed the cave imp shaman right across its over confident face.
On cue the wave of remaining imps was finally upon them and Idris leapt into the fray alongside Eana.
For the next minute Idris was conscious of nothing but blurred motion, sprayed blood, cracking bone and the constant screams of the imps.
When it was over he had to pat himself down to check for injuries. So much for getting to keep these clothes, he thought, looking himself and his sister over.
“Are you hurt?” Eana asked, looking at him with the same uncertain concern that he felt his face must have.
“I could use a top off,” Idris said, “Take care of yourself first. Remember, focus on the healing and see if you can feel something different. Anything unusual.”
“Right!” she said as she put on a look of concentration.
But before she began Idris’s Dungeon Quest prompt popped into existence with the same sound as before:
Dungeon Quest Complete
Clear the Hall of the Imps
Progress: 31/31
Hidden Bonus Objective Complete: Slay more than 50 imps before finishing the shaman.
Bonus Reward Available!
“Fifity!?” Eana groaned.
That seemed closer to what Idris was thinking. Glad the dungeon noticed all the work, he looked around for their reward.
Motes of light rose from the dead imps around them and elsewhere around the cavern where corpses lay. They all shot toward the exit door and, coming together, lit the crystal above it.
There was a rumbling noise and Idris could make out a new shape - a rock that had not been there before - just in front of the exit.
“You think that’s…” he said, not daring to hope, “You think it’s our quest reward?”
“Healing first, you look terrible,” Eana said.
“Right, right. Concentrate. I’m ready,” he said.
When she cast it was the same as it had always been. Idris noticed the feeling, tried to feel around the edges, to understand it, but there was nothing. Even Detect showed the usual gush of blue mist that signaled magic being used.
Proficiency Level Up
Skill: Detect- 3/5
Progress: 0%
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Description: At level three, Detect can reveal Chaotic energy. Creatures of Chaos can be seen even where the light of the spell is obstructed and flows of Chaos can be followed to collection points.
Reward: 10XP
Before Idris had time to fully wonder what “collection points” of Chaotic energy were, he was struck with the uncomfortable headache and slight vertigo that accompanied mana exhaustion. For a brief second he thought he saw some sort of energy emanating from his sister, different from the type that showed up when a spell was cast. Then his mana was gone. Radiance extinguished but he could still see Eana looking at him, a question in her face.
He shook his head, “Same as before, I think.”
“Me too” Eana responded, face blank.
“We’ll keep trying,” Idris said, beginning to fast walk, “But first we’ve got rewards!”
The plan to work with Eana on her magic already forgotten, he stutter stepped as if he was going to sprint and his sister took the bait. Laughing and racing toward the treasure, they fell quickly into the excitement of finally getting something for all of their work.
Set before the exit doorway was a pedestal of shimmering rocky stone, a basin, Idris realized. Inside the shallow bowl were four perfectly shaped crystals. He identified them all, but each revealed the same information.
Treasure Crystal
Type: Personal Instance
Rarity: Unknown
Description: Treasure Crystals contain rewards given out by dungeons. Rarity of the crystal translates to rarity of the treasure contained within. Personal Instance type crystals vary their contents to suit the person opening them, and have no set rarity.
After explaining the prompt to Eana, she said, “Obviously they’re all mine since you never got me a birthday present.”
“Never got you a..!” Idris said, preparing to list out the training, upgraded staff, experience, new skills, sharing the dungeon, oh and lest he forget, saving her life about a hundred times by this point.
He noticed her grin and scowled at her, “50/50, treasure imp.”
She leaned over the basin and let her finger trail over each of the crystals but for all Idris could see they were identical. She picked two of them and stepped back. Idris grabbed the remaining two.
The crystals were Personal Instance and the quest had promised a new class, so Idris was pretty sure what one of them would hold and that reward was going to be amazing. But he couldn’t help but be more excited about the bonus reward.
“Same time?” he said to Eana.
“Ready, set…” she replied.
As they said “Go!” in unison, Idris selected “Open” on the prompt for the first crystal. It burst into a thousand motes of warm glowing light, almost too bright to look at. But as the light in the center of the swirling mass of sparks began to dim, an item coalesced into existence. He identified it immediately.
Ironwood Bracers of Thorns
Rarity: Uncommon
Description: These fitted bracers provide decent protection to the wearer while also offering some damage reflection. The grooves on the forearm and attached over-hand protection are specially formed to reflect damage during blocks.
Damage Potential: ☆
Defense Potential: ☆☆
The light of the cave crystals reflected gently from the polished surface of the bracers. Idris felt along them, checking the sharp ridges and testing the flexibility of the hand protection before strapping them on immediately. It wasn’t metal, but ironwood was remarkably strong and light. The potential for this kind of armor exploded in a thousand visions in his mind all at once.
He grinned up at Eana and saw her looking back at him, holding out a necklace of beautiful craftsmanship. It seemed the dungeon had taken practically every rare material Idris had ever fed to it and used it to create the interweaving design of ironwood, steel, and even what looked like some small traces of gold all interspersed with tiny dungeon crystals and pebbles of shimmering rock.
“What is it?” She said, seeming as if she were bracing herself for disappointment.
Idris cast identify:
Enchanted Necklace of Strength
Rarity: Rare
Description: Infused with both the uncommon strengths of ironwood and the shimmering rocks native to the dungeon in which this necklace was made, it is a decorative reminder that strength need not be expressed only through force of arms.
Effect: Strength +3
“Oh wow! Yahn!” Idris said excitedly, sharing the prompt with his sister, “This is a perfect item for you!”
She put on the necklace immediately. Idris couldn’t see any immediate effect, but when she rolled up her sleeves her arms weren’t just the arms of a girl who had known manual labor. She looked down right strong for a girl of her size.
“Check you out!” he said, holding out his own flexed arm for reference next to hers, “Another few points and you’ll be looking as beastly as me.”
“Eww, stop it!” Eana said, her giggle making it clear she was actually pleased with the prospect.
It was incredible how the dungeon was able to target specific weaknesses in each of them and provide items to help overcome those. For Eana, her strength held her back in close in fights and though she could mitigate it through skills and with her staff, she would now be a genuinely formidable close in fighter.
For Idris, he had been getting beaten up and cut to ribbons for far too long. The message was clear - he needed a full set of armor.
He thought back to the voice of the dungeon and wondered if the intelligence behind it was up to something. Obviously he had to go further to see if he could find more pieces to compliment his Ironwood Bracers.
That was the nature of dungeons though, wasn’t it? Entice you deeper and deeper, investing in you as you invested in yourself and then, finally, as you strive to reach that next more difficult challenge or get just one more piece of gear? It kills you and takes everything back.
It was beginning to become clear why adventurers traveled in groups and worked so hard to join the better bands. The dungeon seemed to know intuitively how to ratchet up the difficulty and entice you to do more and more, and an amateur would get himself killed trying to always measure up without a teammate.
At the conclusion of those thoughts Idris said, “Let’s open up these classes and head home for the night.”
He held up his remaining treasure crystal and when Eana did the same, he mentally tapped “Open”. As before it burst into light, but this time the object that faded into existence was a book. He glanced over and saw Eana reach out and grab a book of her own from the fading sparkles of the open treasure crystal, then took his.
The book was leatherbound and clasped shut with a small metal lock. The cover had the title, Dungeoneer, and turning it over, he saw that it came with its own description. He identified it anyway to see if there was more to it.
Tome of Class Advancement - Dungeoneer
Rarity: Uncommon
Description: Order provides new paths when its children are confronted with novel challenges. When dungeons emerged to threaten the peace of Order, the first Dungeoneers arose to fight back. This class offers unique advantages to fighting in dungeons as well as abilities for gathering information that can mean the difference between life and death for an adventurer and his party.
Effect: Gives full knowledge of the Dungeoneer class as well as a massive discount to investment, reducing the cost by 75%.
WARNING: The knowledge contained in this tome can only be attained by incurring the cost of investment.
Idris couldn’t help but feel some measure of disappointment. It was such an incredible class and no doubt offered great benefits, but he knew that Conrad had at least partially invested in the class already. A good party member wouldn’t senselessly invest in skills and abilities that were covered by his teammates, and, if he was really going to be a Seeker he had to act like it.
He wouldn’t be the first person to make this choice for the Seekers, he thought, remembering the chest of tomes the band had at their headquarters. He sent the book into his inventory and looked curiously over at his sister.
Unable to read the expression on her face, he asked, “What’s up? I’ve almost got enough mana to cast Identify again if the description isn’t enough. Mine came with a discount but it doesn’t show that on the back.”
She looked over at him and opened her mouth as if to speak, closed it again and made a face that very clearly said, “Sorry.”
She focused back on the cover of the book. It sprang open, the lock bursting into magical motes of light. Like when he had used the skill book, the pages began to turn on their own, slowly, then rapidly as the book glowed and after only a few moments vanished into light that absorbed into Eana.
“Chaos take it! Eana! I wanted to see that!” Idris said, annoyed, “That’s your third class! You could have held onto it and, you know, gotten some advice? You didn’t even let me identify it.”
She looked back and shrugged, face looking like she had gotten some kind of terrible news. Idris had to admit to himself he was more than a little envious. Here he was, acting the adult and the teammate and hanging onto his tome - once again holding himself back from what he really wanted to do - and she just went and learned it. Just like that. Honestly, dad should have been admonishing her not to spend her XP, not him. Zero self control.
“Well?” he said, consciously toning down his envy, “What was it? Are you now a Healer Warrior Dungeoneer? That’s what I got.”
“It’s private,” she said, looking away.
“What? How is it private?”
She crossed her arms, “Because I said it is. That’s how privacy works.”
“I’m just going to check it in the party interface then,” Idris said, opening up his screen
Party Notification
Eana has exited your party.
“Oh come ON!” Idris said, “You know that keeping it from me is what makes me want to know.”
“I’m tired, Idris,” Eana said, “I want to go home.”
She turned and headed back toward the main hall. There was nothing else he could do. Sometimes she got like this.
He sighed and jogged after her, “Yahn! Wait up. It’s dangerous to go alone.”
She slowed and let him catch up and, together, they headed for the exit.
Nothing bothered them on the journey home, which they took in relative silence. Not exactly the triumphant ending he had originally planned for but the XP and treasure were at least very consoling prizes. Which was a good thing, too, because judging by the hour a good night’s sleep wasn’t going to happen either.
At home, he peeled off his dirty clothes and crawled straight into bed, asleep before he could finish another thought. But it was only what felt like an eyeblink later that the first rays of dawn, which his stupid body was so used to waking up to, ended his slumber.
Groaning, body aching everywhere and brain so foggy he barely knew what he was doing, he pulled on some new clothes and headed out toward Irondale.
Time to see what day two of training had in store for him.