Hattie touched the marble twin doors. They stood sentinel, uncaring monoliths with a squished human face. She pushed harder, circulating her mana into the dwarven nose. As if recognizing her mana, Tantalus Dungeon swung open for her. The marble doors grinding open, welcoming, or maybe daring her to enter.
This has to be a trap, no dungeon has ever cooperated with humanity before. It has always been kill, loot, and recover the mana cores… Ah, but if Tantalus can kill the Leviathan I…
How far would I go to kill it?
Hattie bit her tongue, hoping pain would temper her fury.
Nara pulled the young redhead back, everyone agreed this was some sort of trap, and had taken suitable precautions. Konrad stepped up, his belt heavy with loadstones, cursed rocks that drained a person’s mana, stealing buffs and debuffs alike. If someone tried to teleport a loadstone they would quickly find their mana drained.
Four militiamen rolled a pair of logs into the dungeon mouth, like a window jam these logs would keep the door open. Commander Dorian stepped in front of Nara, an ill fitted yellow tabard draped over his gambeson, a strange breach of militia etiquette. Hattie glanced at the gambeson divining the enchantments on it.
No wonder they let him wear it. Though… wouldn’t that work better if he were mounted?
The doors finished opening, signaling the next stage of entry. Hattie ignored the low ranked militia, these timid farmers moved too slowly, too fearfully for them to offer any real security. Kendra, the weakest fighter in the group, had higher stats than all of them combined if there was a fight the militia would quickly become tripping hazards.
She couldn’t blame them, in the weeks after Nara’s return, news of Fallbrook’s destruction had wound its way across the continent. Reaching the capitol of High King Agamemnon. Understanding the danger he commissioned a half dozen legions to retake Fallbrook, as well as ordering scouts and supplies to the area. Igniting the Achaean war machine with the fires of Hades.
Misplaced as it was, many Leviathan refugees enlisted, practically climbing over each other to fight an enemy that could be slain. Adventurers from every coast and corner flooded into Tuxford, turning the guild into a nexus of coordination and activity. Konrad managed it expertly, his guild officers forming parties and issuing bounties as they always had.
During Nara’s soft imprisonment, she had watched them arrive. Dirty refugees swelling the ranks of Lord Crowell’s and Lord Tuxford’s militias to several times their original populations. They were little more than fodder for the undead, men and women who had lost everything they had, every reason to fight taken by the Leviathan. Nara knew these would be the first to die. Wrath alone could not win wars, you needed someone to fight for.
“Steady men, overlap shields and keep your spears up. No telling what is in this hole.” Called Dorian, almost chanting the words.
His militia had heard similar phrases a dozen times over. His voice was even, almost bored. A tone that turned his words into a calming litany for them.
“Light.” Said Kendra, warning the men a moment before she rolled a glowstone the size of a basketball into the dungeon.
In the early morning hours the light from the glowstone made the men wince and blink.
“Overlap shields and spears forward.” Said Dorian, repeating his litany.
His repetition concerned Hattie, why did he need to repeat the same orders? A dark intrusion answered her. Because he knows the orders did not stick, that the men won’t obey. So he is training them via conditioning, inside the dungeon. We are going to lose against the undead... She shivered, touching Third Chances with one hand and Nara with the other.
Inside the dungeon lay the atrium, exactly how it had been when Hattie last entered. Arrowslits on either side with a welcoming marble room, square with two passages on the far end of the room.
As the glowstone rolled deeper it cast sparkles onto the party, light reflecting off a pile of gold and silver coins stacked neatly.
“No way.” Whispered Nara.
“Steady on! I would stake my life on a nearby mimic.” Warned Konrad, speaking to the militia. When none of them seemed to understand he added, “A mimic will take your arm off if you try for those coins.”
That caught their attention, reminding them that they were in a dungeon, even the walls wanted to kill them. Nara stepped forward, whispering into Konrad’s ear.
“Sorry, the dungeon offered them to me, left them in those exact stacks. In exchange for bringing Hattie back.” Warned Nara.
“Leave them for now.” He whispered back.
“Advance, clear the room.” Ordered Konrad.
Dorian gave an unseen signal that sent the militia forward, advancing in a line across the room. Nara activated her vanish talent, keeping a hand on Hattie’s waist as she circled behind her, shielding their rear with her invisible body. Konrad activated his defensive talents, increasing the party’s armor and durability. No matter what the dungeon hit them with, he would be ready. terrified of what a level ninety dungeon could do to him and the party.
A dozen green glow stones sprouted from the walls, protruding like floating balls of light super-glued to a ball of wet yarn. The sudden transmutation of their environment alarmed the militia, illuminating their fearful faces. Light filled the space and the same dark skinned figure from Nara’s nightmare appeared once more. This time evading the guards by appearing in front of Hattie.
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“Hello! I was about to give up any hope of seeing you again. Let me just-” Began Tantalus.
Hattie was assaulted by the sensation of water pouring through her body, as if she were a teapot being poured into an overly aromatic batch of leaves. Then she was the tea leaves, her vigor drained from her by the very water she had once been.
Curse detected.
Talent successfully stolen.
“Thank you!” Said the dark faced illusion.
His warm smile did nothing to assuage her discomfort. Hattie shivered as the wave of sensation faded. She had a purpose in coming here, a deal of her own to strike with the dungeon.
“Didn’t your father ever teach you to pay before taking something?” Questioned Hattie.
Tantalus’ illusion continued smiling. His unfocused eyes turning to face her direction.
“I have no father.”
“Don’t change the topic! Give me his body.” Yelled a flustered Hattie.
Her face blushed crimson, hating the dungeon for commodifying her grandfather's corpse. Tantalus' smile never waivered. Remaining plastered on his face like the mask it was.
"I can't."
"We had a deal dungeon! She visits you and you compensate us. Give us the old man's body, he carried two swords and was the one I… The one I spoke to." Demanded Nara, voice faltering as she picked her words carefully.
The figure in front of them wiggled. The image squirming like a worm for an instant before it vanished. Another figure appeared next to where it had been standing. Seemingly identical to the first while also somehow different. None of the adventurers could explain what gave them that feeling but they all knew how it felt.
"Ahem, sorry about that. I was testing a new illusion. A voice-mail if you will. So when people come calling they can leave a message. Haha!" Said Tantalus, chuckling at his own string of puns.
No one else laughed.
Cmon! I spent all week cooking that one up! At least give me a smile! You all look confused and lost… Oh…
"Right... No phones here. ah... That probably sounds like gibberish to you… My mistake. So, about the body-" Continued Tantalus.
"I would love to let you have his body, but I can't seem to move it. When I try to teleport it, nothing happens and when a goblin went to-" Said Tantalus.
"Nestor is Hattie's grandfather." Interrupted Konrad.
Tantalus' mouth formed an O, eyebrows jumping an inch as he suddenly comprehended how rude he had been.
"Hattie, you have my condolences for his passing. I never wished for anyone to die." Said Tantalus.
His shift in decorum gave Hattie emotional whiplash. "Just... Just- show me where he is." Said Hattie, her lip quivering as she spoke.
"I sealed his body inside solid stone, his own private grave. One of the goblins touched his body and died right there on the spot. No respawn. Those swords are… terrifying, sent the whole dungeon into a panic, even the slimes ran… or maybe squiggled? I don’t know, it was quite the mess. Panicked the goblins so badly they came to me begging for the-”
Tantalus almost used the same phrasing the goblins had, a colorful string of obscenities that accurately described their terror of permadeath.
“-ahem, for his body to be removed. I ended up relocating the whole goblin village to get away from his resting place." Answered Tantalus.
Nara stepped toward the illusion, casually thrusting Quade’s dagger through the cross on his chest. It passed through the priestly robes.
“Take us to him. You did it once, you can do it again.” She demanded.
Tantalus shrugged, “Can’t do it. Took me a week to move Goblinville. The MP cost to carve my way back into his grave would take a few days to build up. Way too expensive for a humble priest like me to afford. Especially with the second level under construction. Give me some time and I’ll tunnel back to him. Excavating the second floor will create a wall only five feet away from his grave, then you can retrieve him. Should only take a month or so, maybe longer if the spiders are dumber than goblins, less if they are smarter.” Said Tantalus.
Konrad put a hand on Nara’s shoulder and whispered, “Stop negotiating like it’s a person. He is a dungeon, he isn’t going to leave town for a holiday.”
Nara tried not to laugh at the quip. Her face cracking a thin smile, a sight that was becoming more familiar since Nestor’s death. Whatever he had said to the half elf had changed her for the better.
“Ahem, Lord Tantalus, why is it that you want to copy Hattie’s talent without compensating her? Surely as a child of Hephestus you revere his tenets, chief among them fair compensation for the application of one’s craft and talents.” Said Konrad.
“Don’t be a dick.” Snapped Tantalus. “I’m new to this whole dungeon-” he waved his hands in the air, “thing. I told Nara why I’m here, kill the Leviathan and then go home.”
This knocked all the humans off guard, Konrad bit his tongue to avoid revealing his hand. Hephestus was revered by every dungeon on the continent, this fact was as certain as the sun rising each morning. For Tantalus to speak so lightly of his creator baffled them, especially Konrad, Nara, and Kendra, who had communed with demigods in the past. Demigod or dungeon, one did not refuse a mandate from their pantheon.
“If you need time, then I have a proposal, as a gesture of goodwill you’ll give us a few mana cores and thirty gold coins, and we will give you a month. Next month you can return Nestor to us.” Offered Konrad.
“Is that all? Why didn’t you lead with that! Here take three hundred, the goblins keep trying to eat the stupid things and it’s not like I can walk down to the local arches and buy a mcflurry with gold coins!” Gasped an exasperated Tantalus.
His illusion poofed, bursting like a bubble in a cascade of golden coins. Konrad’s eyes nearly popped out of his head at the golden rain and Dorian caught two of his men by their scruff. Growling warnings to keep them in line. Hattie looked around her, the amount of wealth in front of her was greater than anything she had ever seen before, even when she peaked into her mother’s chests.
“How do you have this much gold?” She blurted.
Tantalus reappeared with a smug smile.
“I always wanted to make it rain. Priest don’t really get to- Ah, nevermind. Oh, where do they come from? Well, past level forty five the goblins drop a gold coin when they lose a training match, with a hundred goblins training non stop these things pile up faster than I know what to do with them. ” He said.
“Level forty five…” Whispered Hattie, understanding his euphemism for ‘training’. “I don’t care about gold! Let me watch the goblins train!” She shouted, surprising everyone in the room.
Konrad looked at the gold, then to Hattie, shaken to the core by her rejection of the most profitable gold mine in the world, so efficient that it tickled his greed like nothing ever had. Kendra leaned on him for support, feeling light headed from the rejection.
“Are you sure? I call it training, but Uh…” Began Tantalus, clearly uncomfortable with the question. “The goblins just murder each other repeatedly. That’s half the reason I moved them, so I could focus on the orchard and not see what they do to each other.” Finished Tantalus.
Hattie’s hand wandered towards her amulet.
“I’ve named my price. You will never see me again unless I can level up.” Said Hattie.
Tantalus wrinkled his nose at the prospect of protecting Hattie, displeased by how she had backed him into a corner and locked the doors. Hattie was a human, something the disobedient green turds would attack on sight. They ignored any request he gave them and only responded if he killed one and paused their respawn timer. But…
Without Hattie, none of his plans mattered. She had him by the balls and was squeezing.
“Fine. Even if I have to smite every one of the demons myself.”
Hattie’s heart skipped a beat as he finally agreed to her terms.
“On one condition,” He said.
Hattie’s heart nearly stopped.
“Satharis escorts you the entire way, there and back. You do not leave his side.”
“Uhm, alright… Who is Satharis?” Asked Hattie.
“Stand back, I’ll teleport him to you now.” Said Tantalus.
A mischievous grin crossed his face. Dark enough for her escort to raise their shields at him. Leveling spears against a threat they knew nothing about.
With a soft pop, the atrium fell into darkness. The glow stones along the walls vanishing behind blue wings. In front of Dorian’s men stood a dragon, not the hatchling Hattie had seen before. No, this was a dragon that towered over them, its body was taller than a warmblood’s, with a neck that stretched above and around them, terminating in a mouth filled with ivory fangs as long as Hattie’s fingers. It’s azure scales reflected Kendra’s glow stone, scattering pinpricks of light across the party.