Despite their general strangeness dungeons are often very regimented in their layout. Different areas of the dungeon are segmented into levels. This comes from the first dungeons being discovered to have this sort of segmentation. Each sub-area was above the previous one. Rarely was it the other way around, with the succeeding areas were above.
#Demitri’s Perspective
The book took several hours to go through, but he did learn a lot about the dungeon. He closed the book to meditate on it, but after a few moments he looked towards Warnik and woke him up.
“I think it’s time we moved on. I have a good idea on these first few levels. And where to go down to the next level. There is the possibility that a world stone is down below. The book doesn’t say anything about it though, the fifth level was only half explored, and the author of the book probably died down there.”
“That doesn’t sound too good,” Warnik said as he stood up and started to break down what little camp they had.
“Does it say anything about finding food?”
“Well yes, there’s something called a pantry two levels down. Monsters seem to gather there when they’re hungry. I’m not sure if that is a good thing or not. But we might also find some more food down there.”
“That’s good, it means we won’t have to go through our stock of food. Though for now, I think we should eat something so that hunger isn’t on our minds.”
The meal was simple. A hard bread that hadn’t gone moldy, some cheese that had just started to, and some dried fruits. It was not a gourmet meal, but beggars can’t be choosers especially in a dungeon.
“I have no idea how many calories we’re consuming, nor how many we will go through.”
“You’re right, at least it isn’t too cold in here, Warnik.”
“Aye to that. If it did start to get cold we’d have to eat more, and that could be a problem. I’ve some experience with camping, years ago as a boy scout. But never in butchering an animal, or hunting or anything like that. I wouldn’t know where to begin.”
“All I know is that you have to remove the stomach and other internal organs and drain out the blood before you want to butcher it. You do not want the stomach juices to get into the meat, and draining out the blood is supposed to help with the taste.”
Warnik snorted, and nodded, “Yes. And then we’ll have to cook it over an open fire. We don’t have any cookware, so it might be tricky for that. Let's hope what we find in that pantry to be eatable without having to cook it. We might want to find an adventurer’s guild or something and sign up as apprentices or novices.”
“Think they’d believe us? Being a pair of clueless newbs?”
“Apart from fighting and your magic, we are a bunch of clueless newbs. So where to first?”
“Though that locked door, and then we have a few rooms to go through. By the monsters we find and the treasure we should be able to tell how long it has been since someone has been down here.”
“Well, you did say that the level of the dungeon was lower than it should be.”
“That could mean two things of course. The dungeon has started to decay because there haven’t been any adventurers for a while. Or that the dungeon has been conquered a fair amount and recently. We should be able to tell by the treasure we find. If the treasure is fairly rich, then we know it is because of decay.”
“Well, that makes sense. Since the treasure was probably made after the last time the dungeon was conquered at a higher level, and hasn’t been claimed.”
They did have a locked door to go through first. Fortunately, Warnik had his foot-key, only a couple of applications of it were needed before the door burst open and they were into the dungeon level. The map and the book helped them navigate, and they were at the first treasure room they knew about.
It was guarded by a humanoid looking monster. This one looking like a minotaur covered in flames. It wasn’t long before the two were ready and advanced into the room. Warnik was calm as they advanced.
“
You are paralyzed for 15 seconds from a sonic attack (fear).
He stopped moving, but Warnik kept moving forward. It took him a few moments to realize that Dimitri was trailing behind. At that moment the tall warrior lept into action and swung his ax at the minotaur who had just reignited his flames.
The minotaur’s ax intercepted Warnik’s and the fight was on. Instead of a single move or counter move, the two beings started a real fight. Dimitri couldn’t do much but to watch for the first few seconds of the fight before the paralysis was released.
It appeared that Warnik was playing with the bull when he swung his ax and it bit deeply into the haft of the opposing weapon.
Dimitri used his identify skill on the minotaur, hoping to get some insight into what they were facing. The returned text was just as underwhelming as it had been previously.
- [Minotaur (flaming)]
“That much was obvious.” He readied another spell, waiting for an opening to shoot another cold-based spell. He wasn’t worried about Warnik, but he didn’t want the Forsaker to block his spell either. He moved to the side to get a better angle. The two were moving around quickly, with the weapons effectively locked together it became a contest of strength.
In a match between a seven-foot minotaur and a human, there would be no contest in who would win, the minotaur would be just that much bigger, and stronger. Warnik wasn’t human, at least not exactly. He was taller than the minotaur, as much taller than the minotaur as the bull-headed creature was over Dimitri.
Warnik won the contest of strength, at least over the weapons, and tossed his poleax and the minotaur’s ax to the side. The bull went to his backup weapon, the strong horns on his head. The monster bent over and got ready to charge, Warnik did not wait he stepped into the bull’s personal space and grabbed the horns, and then kicked up with one of his feet. He still wore the spiked shin guards he word in Third Shift Delvers.
Stolen novel; please report.
Blood started to flow but the minotaur was not out. Prevented from charging, it reached forward with its hands and tried to pull Warnik in close. Dimitri had no idea how Warnik was able to pull it off but suddenly the bull’s arm was locked with one hand and his other hand rolled over the inner elbow. This froze the minotaur for the moment.
Dimitri didn’t wait for another opportunity, he pointed his staff at the flaming minotaur and cast a spell from the staff, “
-You have defeated a Flaming Minotaur, level 35. For defeating a foe more than 20 levels higher than you, you have gained bonus experience. Since you are working in a party, your experience points have been reduced.w
- You have gained two levels in Warlock
- For determining to use a cold-based attack on a fire-based foe you have gained Knowledge (Arcana) 1 / First Tier
#Leyvna’s Perspective
The architecture was slightly different than the first area of the dungeon. The walls were completely different. The walls were smooth, and not made of bricks or blocks. It was almost like the area was plastered over, and smoothed down. The walls were made of some sort of rock that had veins of crystal or metal through them. The floors themselves were clean, with none of the dust or dirt in the outer dungeon.
“This looks to be a more used area of the dungeon. Or better kept. The energy in the air, feels more… um… smooth?”
“You can feel the mana, Leyvna?”
“I guess you can say that I didn’t really notice is since the dungeon outside feels like the city and the countryside. Here… There’s a kind of hum? I’m not sure how to explain it, almost like you are floating. I really don’t know how to describe it, and I can’t put it into words.”
“Is it going to be a problem?”
“Cultivated! That’s the word I’m looking for. It’s like a farmland that has been growing the same crop over and over, with neat rows, and irrigation channels always going the same way. Or a garden with specific flowers always in the same spot. Part of nature, but not. Outside the energy is wild. Oh, I don’t think it will be a problem, at least for us, unless someone can attack us. But…”
“But what?”
“There is a wild pressure coming from that direction.” She pointed with her dagger, “Almost a wrongness, compared to all of this.”
- For following the senses of mana you have earned the skill Mana Sense 1 / First Tier
“Getting skills seems to be a bit arbitrary around here. I just got the mana sense skill.”
“What does it do?”
“Let me check… You can sense the flow of mana, and with enough practice, you can guide the mana to a more desirable result. Unlike a normal mage who is a boulder cast into a stream, you can act like a pebble to subtly guide the stream…. The last part of the description is a bit rude and personal.”
“What is it?”
“You are still a boulder, but maybe with this skill you won’t cause a title wave.”
She almost pouted, at the words from the system. They seemed to be inconsistent, sometimes they were supportive, and sometimes they were just downright mean.
“Let’s check out what’s over there, maybe we’ll find something you can blow up?” Mariya was getting used to the wilder emotions of the human Elementalist, and she seemed to like blowing things up.
“You know that does sound therapeutic right now.”
Levyna’s new mana sense did help them move towards the source of the wild mana.
“It’s almost like a thousand voices cried out….” Levyna commented after a moment.
“What? What do you mean, are we in danger?”
“We’re in a dungeon Mariya. But no we’re not in immediate danger. I’m just quoting something.” They came to a door, “Time to open up and see what we find. Just be ready for anything.”
The door led to another corridor, this one of rough-hewn stone. The globes of magic light were still embedded into walls, instead of the cool blue light, they gave before it was now more of an angry red. The lights turn both brighter and more crimson the farther they traveled.
As they walked they found bodies of monsters, more giant rats, and spiders. Each had been cruelly killed and mangled. With limbs ripped off, and eyes gouged. Whoever had defeated the monsters played with them first.
“This is not making me comfortable Levyna.”
“I don’t blame you. I think something bad is going on here, and the fight outside may just be a distraction.”
“And who might you two be?”
“And just in time too…” Levyna looked up as something, or someone walked into the corridor before them. Humanoid for the most part.
“Classic.” She said, “Winged humanoid, spiked tail and goat legs.”
The demon held a sword in his hand and had a strange expression on his face. “A human and an elf. A low level human at that only level 19. And an Elf slave, level 25.”
“You pervert! Looking at our levels like that, have you no shame!” Levyna shouted suddenly. The words shocked the demon, and she charged forward with, “
“Hey! Violent aren’t you?” The demon asked as he blocked the move, or tried to and was left with a singed arm for his troubles. “What the hell! You shouldn’t be able to burn a demon like that.”
“Well take this then. Waters of Sapphire,
A gush of water was shot out of the crossed daggers that Levyna carried and impacted directly on the chest of the demon. His wings unfurled and he flapped them to keep his balance, his arms flung wide and his claws dug into the rough walk of the walls.
Levyna pressed her advantage, “Earth!
“Gah! You’re no ordinary human Novice of the Elements!”
“You peeked at that too? Your immoral even for a demon.”
“I am not. Stop saying that.” He swiped at the human with his sword, but Levyna wasn’t where he was expecting. She had tumbled back with a backward flip towards Mariya and had her daggers ready for the next exchange.
“I’m not the abnormal one, have you looked at what you two are wearing? You’re just trying to distract me.”
“Like we had a choice! What are you doing here demon?”
“What does it look like, I’m guarding the corridor, you dumb human. Until we’ve finished the sacrifice of the hero I’ll keep everyone way.”
“Who’s the dumb one? You just told me where the hero is.”
“It won’t do you any good.”
She looked over at the demon and tried to identify him. Again the words were less than useful, providing what she already knew. She quickly ran over what she knew about demons from the various games she played, both video and tabletop. ‘General Fire Based, generally chaotic, and normally requiring silver or holy weapons to fight them.’
She shook her head a little. The demons up till now did not have any of the classical resistance, but this one was different. She was also going to have to try something different. She had gotten used to blowing away the foes till now, the only ones giving her problems were those that surprised her.
“You don’t have ketchup do you?”
“No, why would I have ketchup?”
“I thought you might be a dragon.”
“I’m not Dragon.”
“Oooh OH ooh Oooh ooh oh Oooh I’m going to miss you…” She leaped forward towards the demon, “
She turned her head towards the ceiling and fired a shard towards it. The crystalized arrow disappeared before hitting the ceiling, but less than a second later hundreds of shards of ice came down on the demon from above.
“Gah! You’re a tricky human. More powerful than you should and crafty.”
“Air!
“Ha, got you now!” He grabbed the lightning as if it was solid and dragged Leyvna close to him enough for him to wrap his arms around her, trapping her body up against his.
“Hey, how did you do that?” She struggled against him, her foot landing on his digitigrade knee. Strength was not her primary stat, but agility helped her squirm away from him. She quickly rolled away and turned to face the demon breathing heavily.
“I am Baraq Rai, High Elemental of Lightning. And who are you?”
“Oh shit! Ummm…. I am Levyna. You look like a demon not an elemental.”
“Ha, I am a demon in this incarnation and this summoning. You won’t get past me.”
“Well, you could just let us by. I’m sure you didn’t want to be summoned, just like I didn’t want to be summoned.”
-Charisma Check (Situational) Successful
“Ooooh ho so you’re a summon too. I can’t let you go, that would break the contract no matter how amusing it would be. If you run now, I won’t chase you two doors down on the left and then right, left and straight ahead. By the way, I’m keeping this.” He held up the garter that was part of her outfit.