Welcome to the Corydon Dungeon

This dungeon is rated for groups level fifteen and higher

Do you wish to enter the Corydon Dungeon? Yes/No

Got to hope that Helen, being level twenty-seven, will balance out my eleven and Silver’s nine. If the folks of Louisville come in groups of ten, and consider that overpowering the dungeon, I’m hopeful.

Yes.

The entrance is a cave. It doesn’t have any indication others have been here before, unlike the outside. “As we planned,” I tell them. “We move slowly. We’re not going to gain anything by taking risks. I’m in front. We focus on distance attacks. The moment we see something, we step back. Silver attacks first with her heat burst song. I shoot anything that then moves in our direction as she keeps playing. If they cross half the distance. Helen, you blast them with whatever you have that’s going to end them. This isn’t about gaining skills or levels. It’s about reaching the end so we can rescue Brandon. Are we good?”

Helen smiles. “You need to lead more of these things. Brandon sucks at the planning part.”

I nod. I have noticed that too. Must come with surviving to be his level by just throwing himself at his problems.

“I’m ready.” Silver sounds nervous, but she doesn’t look it.

I step carefully and slowly. Remembering those worm things that crawled out of the wall in the previous dungeon keeps me from taking for granted this close to the exit is safe.

I also try to be quiet, but every step sounds loud

Then there are sounds further in the tunnel, and I realize a problem with my plan. Probably the first of many. Trying to plan doesn’t mean I’m great at it. While we hear something…skittering in the distance, I can’t see them. The light from my ring only lets us see two meters or so around us, and it’s a faint light to start with. More a reading light than anything to illuminate the area.

Dennis: Helen, do you have a light spell? And will that alert them to our presence?

Helen: I have something that might be better.

She mumbles something my mind can’t make sense of, then my vision changes. Instead of a dimly lit area around me, the walls are outlines, like in those movies Base said used computer graphics to simulate things like radar, sonar and other ways to see.

In the distance, I make out forms. Maybe six of them.

We step back until we just barely make them out. Which is probably further than I’d be able to see them with full light.

Silver: why didn’t you use this in the other dungeon?

Helen is slow to reply. When I look at her, she’d a bunch of lines that make out her overall form. This isn’t good for details, or seeing expressions.

Helen: I didn’t think about it.

I won’t be surprised if she eventually admits Brandon wouldn’t let her. He had been adamant we use that to raise our skills, and we had to be scared. This would have gone a long way to making that exploration more comfortable.

I nod to Silver, and she plays.

Unlike what I thought I knew about magic, which, admittedly, isn’t all that much. She doesn’t have any effective range limits. If her violin’s music reaches them, she can affect them. And in an enclosed environment like this, the walls will bounce it quite far. She’ll eventually gain an ability that will let her music carry even further. The only actual way to keep her from affecting her target is with something that stops sound. Outside of magic, there isn’t much that does that anymore.

The music builds and builds again. It doesn’t carry the freneticness of when she used that song the first time; it builds in a more controlled way.

I have my bow at the ready.

The explosion registers to my sight as a cloud of lines to go along with the sounds. Four of the creatures run in our direction and I shoot. I take my time. I have a safety net in Helen. It’s better to hit them than waste arrows. There’s two left when the ball of fire detonates. I feel the heat from where I stand. There’s nothing left of creatures when it dies out.

I check the combat log for what they are.

You have killed a Devouring Crawler, Level 12

You earn 2028 experience

Level twelve at the start of the dungeon. Either they scale slower than the other one, or this is going to become extremely difficult quickly. Still, we can only go forward.

“Do you need a second?” I ask Silver. She has enough control she doesn’t drain herself, but each attack still takes a lot out of her mana.

“We can move. I’m good for one more if it comes to it, and in a minute or two, I should have regained what it cost me.”

“If we encounter something before it’s maxed out, we wait. We want to be able to throw everything we have at them if it comes to it.”

I regain two of the six arrows I shot. A downside of having Helen incinerate them is that the arrows I hit them with go up, too.

The tunnel bends twice, once to the left, then to the right, but not as much, I think. The moment we hit a split, I’m going to end up so lost. Then, we have our second encounter. I try to get information on the creatures, but Helen’s enhanced vision spell won’t let the query form. As if, because what I see are lines, I’m not actually focused on the creature.

It’s a minor downside, at worse.

Silver plays her exploding song. I shoot those that run in our direction. And this time, those that reach the middle point just go puff into dust. Once I’m sure there are no others, I look at Helen.

“Dehydration spell. I figured it’s best if you save as many arrows as possible.”

“Thanks.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“I didn’t know dehydration could do that,” Silver said.

“I’ve tinkered with most of my spells.”

I gather all my arrows, even the broken ones. “That’s a thing?” hopefully I’ll be able to scavenge parts to make more.

“It is for me,” she replies with pride.

“Helen, you do get that playing mysterious is going to get us killed, right? We can’t make the right kind of plans if we don’t know what we have to work with. I thought you were a magic-user.”

“My class is a subclass of the Sorcerer. The Tinkerer.”

“I thought those worked with magical machines,” Silver says.

“That the Tinkerer class,” she replies. “I’m still within the sorcerer class, but I also have abilities that let me make alterations to my spells. A bit like you can make changes to your songs. One ability lets me make changes on the go, like this, although there is a chance it’ll fail. I’ve never really used it before, other than to get a sense of how it works.”

I don’t like the idea our strongest blaster might miss her attack because she’s testing something. To be honest, that feels more like a Brandon thing than an Helen one. “Now that you’ve used it, is it reliable?”

“I’m going to have to practice it for a while before it’s certain to always go off.”

“I’m not sure this is the best place to practice it, then.”

“Isn’t it, though?” Silver says. “Isn’t learning increased in a dungeon?”

She has a point, but… “if it doesn’t go off, the result could kill one of us. I appreciate the thought for my arrows, but I’d rather we all live.”

The dreaded split arrives, and it’s a three way one. I make the right, and I really hope the trick works. ‘Pick a wall and always follow it,’ Grandpa Louis had said, recounting one of her adventures. ‘It’s not fast, but if you want to leave, you just turn around and follow it back to the entrance.’

Two bends and we get our first surprise. At least I’m surprised at seeing the dead guy on the floor. I know he’s dead because the lines from Helen’s spell easily show motion. He’s not breathing. There’s nothing else around, so I approach, then crouch.

“Helen, how do I see normally? I want to examine him.”

“I have to cancel the spell.”

“Is it draining?”

She chuckles. “I don’t think you understand how much mana I have, and how quickly it regenerates.”

“Then do it.”

He is surprisingly well preserved. Suspiciously so.

“Do dungeons keep bodies from decomposing?” Silver asks.

“Not that I’m aware.” Not that I’m an expert on dungeons. That’s Brandon. But the last time I know a group came in was three weeks ago. And while they might have left the body behind, they would have stripped it of things of use, like that quiver filled with arrows, the sword. The pouch’s content is probably accessible on the dead. As far as I know the only inventory that isn’t accessible without specialized abilities is the personal one.

This could be some random guy who came across the dungeon days before us. I look at the body again. Hours. And died.

But does my luck run that way?

I focus on the body and get nothing.

Yeah, that’s not suspicious at all.

I step back. “Helen, do you have anything to tell us what it is?”

“My magic isn’t in the ‘identify creature’ way. I can incinerate it.”

“I’d like to preserve what’s on it if possible. Can you dehydrate it?”

She says words, and nothing.

“Let me try again.”

“Let me at it first.” I equip my sword and shield. “If it wakes up, and it looks like it’s going to kill me, you’re welcome to turn it to dust then. But just so it’s out there. That’s why I’m not comfortable relying on the spell.”

I step within reach and poke it.

The reaction is instant. There’s a sword in its hand. It slashes blindly where someone touching it would be, then it’s standing. I swing twice, and it parries both times. It goes on the offensive and I’m blocking, backing. Movie undead have nothing on dungeon made ones, I’m discovering. This might as well be a person, for how well it fights.

And it makes mistakes too. It overreaches, and I slash at its side, stepping back before it takes advantage of my proximity. It doesn’t bleed, but damage is damage.

I miss the feint, and it’s my side that’s cut. Not as deep, fortunately, but it’s still a tenth of my health. I bash it away, then lunge. My sword goes in, but that earns me a pommel in the shoulder and I nearly drop it, along with another drop in my health. I parry, trying, but failing, to make him drop his sword, and end up with a shallow cut across my stomach from a knife that just appears in his other hand. I should have thought of that when it equipped the sword, instead of drawing it.

I block and shove it back. Bash its arm when it swings again, then I cut its head off. It nearly skewers me in return, as I mistakenly assume that ended the fight. Undead don’t need heads to live.

But it seems they need it to fight properly.

It swings its sword around blindly until I move, trying to get behind it. It turns and I’m not fast enough. More health gone. Is it smart enough to pull off that kind of subterfuge?

“You stepped in the head’s line of sight,” Helen says, and I glance. It landed with one eye in my direction.

I hurry to move so it can’t see me, and the body follows until it walks into a wall. I cut it until it doesn’t move anymore, then lean against the wall, the exhaustion hitting.

Silver’s next to me. “Are you okay?”

I look at the combat log.

You have killed an Animated Fighter, Level 13

You earn 2197 experience

You have gained a Level. You are now level 12

“Gained a level, and a skill level in Sword fighting, parrying, blocking, and dodging. I’m great.” I wince at the pain of her touching an injury. “Except for that.”

She smiles at me, and I basically forget about the pain.

“Here.” Helen offers me a potion.

“You shouldn’t use them just for this. There’s no—”

“It was in the fighter’s belt pouch, along with three others.”

I drink it and my health doesn’t quite go back to maximum.

“I didn’t take anything from its loot otherwise,” she says.

I’m surprised at that, so I check.

The quiver’s full, so another two treens for me. Two hundred and fifty dollars. And a full set of leather armor.

“Does this seem like a lot to you?”

She shrugs. “Dungeons are Brandon’s thing, not mine. But for a level thirteen fight, the loot has to be correspondingly good, right?”

I put the set in my inventory. Fortunately, as it is, it only takes a slot. I now have something to replace the one I’m wearing once it, inevitably, gets ruined.

I put a point in Grit Strike, and one in my dexterity. The skill points have to wait until I’m back in the city, since I am not wasting them on skills I already have. I want some sort of stealth. I don’t want to announce my approach anymore than I have to.

I push away from the wall, my stamina fully regenerated. “Let’s keep going.”