“This tunnel looks similar to last time, but there are no bats up above.” Alerio said as the party walked through the doorway. They were moving in my opinion incredibly slowly, with each of them keeping an eye out for both traps and enemies. Though since there weren’t either of those in this first tunnel anymore, all it did was make the initial section take longer.
Noracin from the front of the party looked around the tunnel with a frown.
“I can definitely recognize parts of it, yeah.” He said in response to Alerio. “Though some things near the ceiling or by the entrance are different I think..?”
He turned towards the Fighter. “Ceria, what do you think? Do you recognize anything?”
“Hmm”, Ceria said. “I can’t say I put the exact details of what the tunnel looked like to memory, but I guess it feels familiar? Admittedly most of my attention last time was on the bats up above, and that area is definitely different.”
“Yeah, there are no holes or small tunnels for the bats there anymore.” Alerio said. “Which means the Dungeon removed the bats from this tunnel on purpose.”
Noracin nodded and pulled out his piece of paper and started writing once again. Was an inspection something the people from outside did whenever I changed a Floor maybe? They seemed very focused on what stuff was different from last time anyway.
…Did that mean that I was the reason nobody tried to Challenge for so long?! Were they just waiting until they were sure I was done with my changes before they entered?!
…Uhrgh. Well whatever, the changes were worth it. And the wait was over now anyway, even if the people here now didn’t seem interested in Challenging the Floor this time, rather being interested in understanding and documenting it.
Which I supposed was understandable.
“Alright,” Noracin said as he put his paper away. “Any reason you can think of as for why the Dungeon decided to make this change?”
The question was directed at Alerio, who shrugged. “Not sure. Maybe he saw how useless the pack was against us during the first Challenge. Maybe he wants to coordinate the bats together with whatever can shoot [Water Bolts] from the pools, to let them strengthen each other's weaknesses, like what happened during the Guardian fight.”
“That’s a reasonable conclusion.” Noracin said. “Though I’m not sure how we could confirm it.”
“We could just ask.” Alerio added, to which Noracin paused, then shook his head.
“Right, how could I forget that you can actually talk with this Dungeon.” he said.
“What do you mean ‘talk with’?” One of the unfamiliar ones, the Mage Athilana, asked.
“Ah, so it’s like this”, Alerio said eagerly. “The Guardian of this Floor is a batlike creature…”
“A [Leatherwing] according to the Hallmaster.” Noracin said.
“Right, a [Leatherwing]. That’s what it was.” Alerio said with a nod. “Regardless though, it can speak, and because of that the Dungeon can speak through it if we want to ask it questions.” Alerio paused.
“Now I wasn’t conscious for the actual speaking the last time we were here, but I’ve heard what happened from the others, as well as what happened with the Hallmaster. So I’m pretty eager to actually be able to listen to it myself this time.”
“A talking Dungeon… I’ve never heard of one doing that before. That’s cool.” Athilana said.
I felt a swell of pride. I liked that one.
“It isn’t the only one to do so, but yeah it definitely sets it apart from the crowd. Most Dungeon’s don’t seem interested in it, if they even have the capability to try.” Alerio said, a hint of pride in his voice too for some reason.
“Stay focused.” Noracin said. “We don’t have Emmalia with us so if the traps have been changed we will have to pay extra close attention to be able to spot them.”
A somber air descended over the party at the mention of the Rogue’s name, and was followed by a series of nods as one by one every member of the party got a determined look on their face. Especially the Ranger, who gripped her bow so tight her knuckles turned white. Something must have happened outside for them to have that reaction…
I made a note to ask what it was if they made it to Stalker and decided to ask questions rather than fight, which seemed likely given their investigatory attitude.
While I was pontificating the party had reorganized themselves and started slowly making their way through the tunnel once more. This part of an investigation seemed similar to a Challenge, if slightly slower, as they were interested in documenting even the very minute changes, and even potential changes if they weren’t sure of their memory. For that reason it took them well over a minute to cross the first tunnel, which was only twenty meters long. This was the first split in the path, and just around the corner to the left from their perspective would be the first trap. There was one to the right as well, but that one wasn’t active at the moment.
After discovering different and new ways to make mana powered traps with my new Skills and Perks I might have gone a little overboard. Thirteen traps where ten of them had the potential to be lethal, or at least near lethal, seemed a bit overkill for a first Floor in retrospect. But I didn’t just want to remove them. Or rather I couldn’t decide which of them I liked least and therefore should go. So instead I came up with a system where I separated the traps into early traps, middle traps, and later traps, and then limited how many of each category could be active at any one time. That also worked well with my desire to want a Floor you couldn’t just write down and prepare for very easily, but rather would always be at least somewhat of a Challenge, as which traps were active would change each day. And today the left path was trapped. Of course back then this area hadn’t been a split path, but rather a simple curve. So I wasn’t surprised to find them stopping and falling into a discussion when they arrived, as they too seemed to have realized the change.
“Last time we were here this was a bend, right?” Noracin said.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Yeah I think so too.” Ceria said. “I remember us going around this corner to the left to get out of the first group of water creature’s lines of fire.”
“Let’s go right this time then, since that area’s bound to be new.” Alerio suggested.
“We’ll have to investigate both directions.” Noracin said. “But I have no issue with taking the right path first.” He turned to Athilana and the Ranger. “I know you two haven’t been in here before, but do you have any preference about what way to go first?”
The Ranger shook her head, while the Mage spoke aloud. “I’m fine with whatever you guys want to do.”
Noracin nodded. “Right it is. Keep your eyes peeled everyone.”
The alternate path was a narrower tunnel than the main one, mostly because I didn’t have enough Floorspace to make it larger, and also didn’t have any large caverns like the main one. It did have two smaller ones though, each with a connection to the Story within it. Before that though they had to pass through the tunnel itself. While it was too narrow for a proper fight I had filled it with traps. Seven of my thirteen traps were on this alternate path. Of those seven, traps two, six, and seven were currently active. The sixth and seventh trap were all the way at the end of the path, but the second was just ahead of them as they walked. I perked up, focusing as the Cleric inched closer and closer to the triggering area…
“Wait! I sense…!” Alerio’s warning came too late, as Noracin’s foot touched what seemed to be normal stone, which shimmered and turned to nothing more than a paper-thin sheet when his boot touched it. The shimmer spread backwards, making Noracin and the fighter suddenly stand atop something that could not hold their weight at all. It cracked and shattered into dozens of tiny shards, revealing the pit below. Ceria swore and Noracin flailed as they fell and landed with a pair of heavy thuds, followed by a series of pained groans.
Now since this was an early trap, I had removed the sharp stone spikes at the bottom of the pit, but a three meter drop was still nothing to sneeze at. Not likely to be instantly lethal though I hoped.
“Are you okay?” Alerio shouted down from above the pit. At the bottom Ceria was the first to stir, though Noracin was able to move not long after.
“No, I'm not okay.” Ceria said. “My everything hurts. Falling in iron armor isn’t fun.”
“Try falling in no armor.” Noracin groaned. He slowly rose to a half seated position, then pulled a sharp piece of stone from what had been the trap cover out of his arm with a wince. “At least you didn’t have to worry about the stone knives.”
“Health left?” Alerio called down.
“138. Took over half of it in one go.” Noracin said, then swore silently as he pulled out a second shard of sharp stone.
“212 here.” Ceria said.
Alerio and the Ranger winced, while Athilana whistled.
“Three hells that had to hurt.” She said.
“No shit.” Ceria said. “Help us get out of here.”
“Hang on a second.” Alerio said, taking off his backpack and taking out a length of rope.
Was it that painful to lose health? I hadn’t ever done so myself. In fact I didn’t even have Health in the System sense. But my creatures had, and I had a connection to them, and none of them had ever had this kind of reaction. Though I suppose the outsiders had had a similar reaction during the other Challenges as well, especially during the Guardian fight.
I frowned. I understood the concept of pain from my early Naming attempts, and didn’t relish the concept of inflicting it upon others. But how else was I supposed to Challenge them? No matter how I thought about it, pain and death seemed integral to the Dungeon experience. The risk of death especially. It was what made it a Challenge and not just a stroll through an interactive Story. No, the danger had to stay, but maybe I could come up with something to reduce just the pain part while keeping the dying part…
I shook myself free of those thoughts for now. I would ruminate more on that later, once the party had left. I returned my focus to the investigating party as Alerio and the other two slowly managed to pull Noracin and Ceria out of the trap and find the path around to the other side. Once there the party paused to gather themselves and heal up. They even stayed to perform a few stretches for some reason while discussing the trap and making notes on how the Floor had changed.
They were clearly intent on taking their time, but for once I didn’t mind; the trap had worked exactly as I’d hoped. It had drained some of their resources, mostly the Cleric’s mana though even after being healed they both looked a bit sluggish. In addition it had made them aware of my traps, and taught them a bit of what to look out for.
Though if Alerio thought as he was saying that he could sense the traps now that he’d found one, he would be in for a nasty surprise later on.
After a fifteen minute break to recover the party once more started moving. On a Challenge that long of a break would have been upsetting to me, though exactly why I felt that way I wasn’t sure, especially since I felt fine with it now that it was an investigation.
This time Alerio was at the front together with Ceria, and there was a regular pulsing of mana coming from the Mage as he was using [Detect Magic] repeatedly to try and spot my traps. It was a big drain on his mana pool though, which further slowed down the advance as the party had to stop to recover after a minute or so.
They were really being thorough here, with this investigation. Slow and steady. Make notes of every little thing, and even potential things, they found. They seemed like proper inspectors instead of Challengers.
…Maybe that was why I was fine with this being slow and methodical, regardless of the fact that it was a bit boring? Since this was an inspection, and they were acting as inspectors, they were behaving as they should. …Huh. That was actually nice to realize.
.
.
It was still boring though.
The inspection continued with the party slowly clearing through the trap-free tunnel until they eventually came across the first side chamber, causing me to perk up. This was where the medallion from Morrígan’s clan would be found atop a small altar, and the first new connection to the overall Story. It was also the first time the party would encounter any enemies, and I was eager to see how my Bats and Mantas did now that I’d increased their level and put them together. The party slowly inched their way into the cavern.
“Bats above!” Ceria shouted.
“There is something in the water as well!” Alerio called.
“Ceria! Pull the Bats back into the tunnel. Let’s fight the packs one at a time.” Noracin said.
…Or you could do that of course.
I wasn’t even that mad. This was totally my fault. I shouldn’t have placed the water around the corner from the tunnel. Something to fix after they left.
The fight itself wasn’t that interesting, though it was informative. The Bats did more damage and were sturdier than they had been in the past, but there were also fewer of them, since I now had five packs instead of three with the same number of total Bats. The fight still seemed tougher than the first one due to the vastly increased levels of my creatures, but it didn’t seem to be that much of a challenge for the party in the end. Which was fair, since they had outsmarted my intended encounter by using the ingenious tactic of moving backwards three steps. Once that was fixed and the Mantas could join the fight, I imagined the difficulty was actually rather balanced.
As the last Bat dissipated into motes of energy I felt Mana surge towards the Ranger, then her level went up from 6 to 7.
“Yes!” she exclaimed with a smile, exuberant for the first time since she’d entered the Dungeon. There was a brief moment of celebration from the rest of the party, then they moved on to discussing how to handle the Mantas, or as they called them ‘The things in the water’. In the end since they didn’t have any reliable way of containing or hurting the Mantas apart from Alerio’s costly dancing flames thing from the Guardian fight they had the fighter stand above the pool with her shield to cover while Noracin and Alerio hastily searched through the chamber.
They found the talisman of course. I leaned in, metaphysically speaking. How were they going to react?