Dungeons regenerate, it’s what makes them dungeons. When a room has been defeated, the delvers might have a chance to rest before moving on, but they will be secure for a time to recover before encountering the next challenge.
#Dimitri’s Perspective
He watched as Warnik moved deeper into the room, the spikes on his feet keeping him steady. The farther he got into the room, the more worried he got. The Ice elemental didn’t show, and the room was still calm and quiet.
“Where are you?” His companion asked. And almost like a keyword the ice elemental shot out of the fountain and attacked the barbarian.
Warnik was ready and moved off to the side to keep from being in the line of fire for the warlock.
“Let’s see how this works.
“It’s not the elemental it’s the room that is the problem.” He quickly looked around the room to find out what could be causing the problem, the only feature was the ice fountain.
Warnik looked to be having fun at least, the Ice Elemental appeared to be attacking with it’s arms, and every punch was blocked by the poleax that Warnik carried.
“
“Hey Warnik, how do you beat a forsaker with magic.”
Warnik spun around and sliced at the ice elemental’s torso, scoring out a large chunk of ice that was quickly regenerated.
“Indirect energy!” The forsaker said, “Find an already existing rock and propel it at them. Creation Magic won’t work!” He was breathing heavily but still seemed to be holding his own. He looked through his spells and only found the one.
“
“That means…. Warnik! It’s a puppet. Ummmm, jump over the fountain!”
The Ice Elemental immediately moved to block Warnik.
“It knows Dimitri! This thing understands you.” He jumped back to dodge a furious swipe from the puppet. “Find a way…. To hit it on the left and tell me to go right.”
The warlock looked around quickly and tried to figure out what to use. Back in the hallway, there was there were some remains of the trap they had shattered. He grabbed a piece of wall and shot putted it towards the ice elemental. His strength stat allowed him to launch the piece of stone, but he would be nowhere near the world record, even back on Earth.
It was enough for a distraction, “Warnik go right.”
Instead of going right, Warnik dove between the legs of the elemental as he moved to attack the other side. With a roll, he was back on his feet. He planted the spiked end of his pole ax in the ice and vaulted over the fountain.
The ice puppet came crashing down to the ground, shattering into pieces. It slowly started to reform, but Warnik turned around and went rushing towards the fountain, and jumped on top of it. The pieces of ice came crashing down once again.
A graceful hand came up from the fountain followed by an arm and then the rest of a body.
[Ice Nymph]
The creature looked like a long-eared elf, but was made of the clearest ice, making her look almost transparent. She turned her gaze towards Warnik, and gasped out. She then brought her hand up and shot a stream of ice toward his chest.
The barbarian from another world simply reached down and grabbed her arm and dragged the form to him.
“[You should be stunned! You should be blind!]”
“You’ll find that my friend here is a bit of a cheat!” Dimitri stayed near the entrance, the nymph was using some sort of attack that he could probably resist but he didn’t want to risk it. He had heard legends of nymphs blinding people with their beauty, and he could see why. If he didn’t get too close he should be safe.
“She’s a feisty one, Dimitri. But she’s not that strong. What do we do with her?”
“[What is that barbarian saying? Unhand me!]”
“He’s saying that you’re not that strong but feisty.”
“[How dare he!]”
“We could destroy the fountain. I doubt she could stop us.” The barbarian looked down at the fountain meaningfully as he held the nymph in a bear hug, forcing her to press against him. She did try to bite at his chest, but the little armor that he wore got in the way.
“He said we could destroy the fountain. You wouldn’t want that would you, miss Nymph, would you?”
She stopped struggling as she heard the words.
“[No, don’t do that.]”
“Well let’s call a truce then. We won’t destroy the fountain and you stop attacking us.”
“[Truce then.]”
“Warnik you can let her go.”
“If you’re sure about this, Dimitri.” He let the ice nymph go, his belly pink where he held her torso against him. As he let her go she slipped down to the fountain. Warnik jumped off and grabbed his poleax from where he had dropped it.
#Levyna’s Perspective
The two captives were freed from the chains. The demon-steel, bands would take a bit more effort to deal with. It didn’t take too long to find some serviceable clothes for the two, and the party of four started to exit the area.
“If the demons were able to get into the palace dungeon, I don’t think it is safe to stay in Lauthunua any longer,” Lauqueuluana said as she walked with the other three.
Levyna wasn’t happy to have the elf princess with her, but for now, she accepted the presence of the royalty. She checked her status to see what she got if anything from the fights.
-You have seduced a level 200 elemental (demon) instead of defeating him. For blemishing the reputation of a foe over 130 levels higher than you, you’ve gained bonus experience
She sighed, she did not seduce anyone. The system was being mean to her again. She pulled her fingers through her long blond hair and continued walked, looking at notifications. Level 200 elemental, that is something she was not ready to fight. She was surprised that she was able to damage the elemental.
-You have beaten a demon ritualist level 25
….
-You have overwhelmed a demon ritualist level 35 – For trouncing a foe more than 15 levels higher than you, you have gained bonus experience
-You have completed your quest, a special feat can be selected.
-Novice of the Elements has gained 13 levels, 40 attributes are rewarded. Additional Class Perk has been unlocked.
She decided to hold off on picking a class perk until later, she also decided to hold on assigning her attributes till she could figure out what to do with them. She was half tempted to toss them all into durability. That wouldn’t help with her damage output but it would at least help her survivability. She would also have to look into the special feat, and what it could be.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
She looked over at her companions and decided to get closer to the hero. “So tell me about yourself Irina… I was summoned here by the world to rescue you.”
“There’s not much to tell, Levyna is your name right?” The Elementalist nodded. “The first thing I remember was a year ago, waking up in a cage, bound in this demon-steel.”
“So you started your adventure in a prison?” Levyna said idly, ‘That sounds so familiar.’
“Yes, you could say that. It just wasn’t supposed to be a prison I think. Lauq has a theory about it. You shouldn’t be too mad at her. She didn’t give me a choice a year ago. Not that she had much choice. I guess I should tell you from the beginning. It will help pass the time, while Lauq leads us out of here.”
“What do you know about the prophecy, Levyna?”
“Nothing at all. As I said I was summoned here, and given a quest to rescue you. No background information.”
{#Author’s note, this is info-dumpy, so will be sealed in a spoiler tag. If you want to know the lore, read on, if not skip.}
The hero sighed, “I guess I should start there. Just don’t be upset if this takes a while to go through. A lot of this will be second hand, so I’ll summarize it. There was a time, an era lasting for around seventy-thousand years, starting a hundred thousand years ago. The histories from that time are fragmental at best, but Lauq has pieced together some things from that time. She’s kind of a tom-boy for a princess. She’s a historian and an archeologist.
“They called this era the Demon Risings. During that time there were seventeen invasions by demons. One every four to five thousand years. Enough time that even the oldest elf had died, and so had their children’s children. Each time the demons would come they’d be faced by a hero. Most often it was an elf. Sometimes it was a fey, or a dwarf. But never a human, human were a slave race a race they called the Anunnaki.”
“Really?” Levyna did her best to keep a straight face and mostly succeeded.
“Why are you surprised at the name?”
“From where I come from, there’s a crack-pot theory that a powerful race named the same thing created humans there.”
“Think it could be true?”
“Absolutely not, it’s just a crackpot theory. Please go on.”
“The last demon rising was thirty thousand years ago, with the destruction of the demon portals when they were found. The land where the demon portals were as destroyed. All that remains there is a desert of glass, an expanse of three hundred miles. Of nothing but glass, and fragments of glass. Those that venture near get sick.”
“No need to go into more detail about that. I can only imagine.”
“With the destruction of the demon portals, everyone thought they were safe. And then the prophecy was told. Lauq only had fragments of it. What she knew was that the demons would rise again thirty thousand years after the destruction of the portals. That is this time.”
“So how does that lead to you arriving in a prison?”
“This is just theory remember? Just because the demon portals were destroyed didn’t mean that the demons were killed. Part of the prophecy said that the next hero would arise when humans became supreme and that the hero would be human. This didn’t sit well with the elves of the time. Much like now, they were arrogant and consumed with their own hubris.”
“Strange.”
“What is?”
“Some of the words you use, I didn’t expect.” She says after a moment.
“You’re a summon, so you’ve been given the ability to understand all intelligent beings, in your own language, and have your language translated into the native one. That’s probably what your experience.”
“Anyway, sorry for interrupting.”
“Lauq’s theory is that the elves had a meltdown and couldn’t stand that the next hero would be human. And since they’d be long dead they worked with the remnants of the demons to seal the hero away. The tome of the hero was in elven lands, actually that cavern we were in was part of it.
“The elves worked with the demons, or so it seems, and left a cage for me to wake up in. Made of demon steel, and the bands I wear to lock away the hero’s magic unless it was under certain conditions. What the demons got out of the deal I’m not sure, maybe they were allowed to live. There were lots of bones in that tome when I woke up.”
“So you woke up in a cage, and unable to use magic?”
“Yes.”
“How did you get out?”
“That’s where Lauq came in. She had been researching the prophecy and legends. No-one believed her that there was going to be a demon rising soon. They all thought it was done with thirty thousand years ago, the Glass Desert was the result.”
“A lot can happen in that time, even for long-lived elves I suppose.”
“Yes. From what I know everything fell apart ten thousand years ago. There was a genocidal war, one branch of the elven race is no more. And the elves retreated into their strongholds. This wasn’t one of them. This city isn’t that old. That’s not relevant though. Well, I guess it is. Lauq found the dungeon and the ruins of the old city that was here and has been piecing things together. She found the tome just after I woke up.”
“So why didn’t she free you?”
“She was with several other elven nobility, and they weren’t happy that there was a human in their playground, even one who was bound and caged. Some fast talking on her part and you could say I was saved, but I had to serve her.”
Levyna thought about the story for a moment. “I guess I can see why you aren’t too mad at the princess for doing what she did. You’re alive, but you’re free now Irina. And I intend to keep you that way.”
“Why’s that?”
“My quest was to rescue The hero of the eighteenth demon uprising. And one of my titles is: hero of the eighteenth demon uprising. So the way I see it, while you are the hero, I’m still part of it, and a hero. I won’t say I’m your minion, but I intend to ensure that any action that I’m part of will be successful. Besides, it might be fun.”
#Warnik’s perspective
The nymph was eyeing him warily. And he was returning the wary look. She often gazed in his direction, as if she was expecting something to happen, but nothing ever did. What he got of the conversation between Dimitri and the Nymph was confusing to him since he only understood one side of it.
He assumed that Dimitri would give him the details later, the conversation was a long-distance one, with Dimitri wisely standing by the door, and only Warnik in the room with the Nymph. At one point she turned to give him a hard look as if measuring him up. He never felt so much like a piece of meat except at the point. He didn’t want to say anything to disturb the negotiations. She suddenly jumped into the fountain and disappeared. The ice in the room also shattered.
His warlock companion came into the room at that point, and started to fill him in, “Hermosa was her name. She’s been here a long time to be counted as part of the dungeon fauna. If she gets killed she gets reborn, with the memory of the incident, anywhere from a day to a week later.”
“From the wording, I assume she wasn’t part of the dungeon at the start.”
“No, she wasn’t. Like us she was summoned, she didn’t know if it was from this world, or her world. She has not seen anything outside of this room for several thousand years. When she came here, she was in this room, and the only thing that has broken up the monotony for the past several years is when adventurers come in. She’s compelled to attack them.”
“Well she did attack us, why did she stop then?”
“I think she was scared of us damaging the fountain which holds her essence.” There was a snort-like bubbling from the fountain. “I’d imagine it’s a painful experience getting killed and reborn. And when you broke her magic over the elemental and stood on the fountain you interrupted the flow of magic that has been controlling her.”
“Is that why she gave me the once over?”
“Umm, no. That was when I mentioned you had a wife.”
“What a weird reason. So she’s letting us through? Seems like she is a slave of this dungeon. Is there a way we can free her?”
“What? I didn’t know you had a sentimental side to yourself.”
“I left the army because I didn’t like people telling me what to do. I’m still dealing with things, but I don’t like to see another’s will be taken away because someone more powerful can get away with it.”
“You hear that Hermosa? He wants to free you.” The Nymph reappeared, and the room started to freeze over.
“[Really?]”
“Yes really. Know of a way?”
“[Maybe]”
“How?”
“[When the dungeon is defeated, it’s magic is disrupted and becomes inactive. If you get back here in time you might be able to remove my essences from the fountain spawner. You would then need to plant it in some ice.]”
“Sounds risky,” Warnik commented after Dimitri translated.
“[You’re smarter than you look, Mister Barbarian. And you know nothing of magic, you seem to be set aside from it. Yes, it is risky. I don’t even know if I’m still alive, or just being held this way because of the dungeon. I think that if you held my essence the magic of the dungeon wouldn’t be able to reclaim me. Just don’t destroy the core when you defeat the dungeon. That would cause the dungeon to collapse, and all the magic to be destroyed. What do you two want in reward?]”
“Oh yes, we’re adventurers, and rewards are needed.” He turned to look at Dimitri, “How about we do a knowledge swap, she might know a bit more about this dungeon after living here so long, even if she’s been trapped in this room. Show her the journal?”
“[Yes, I remember the one man who would keep walking in and out of here. That was years ago. As far as I can tell it was maybe fifeteen… twenty…. Years ago?]”
“Being stuck in one room for millennia wouldn’t be very conducive to timekeeping.”
“[You’re right there.]” The Ice Nymph had a look through the book taking her time as the two waited. Dimitri retreated from the cold, and Warnik stayed close to the Fey. His presence seemed to keep the magical control at bay.
“[The book looks correct, up until the end. Here where the author says he found a safe room and would explore beyond in his next trek. That room may appear safe, but it is a room attuned to the element of air. If you rest there, you will die.]”
“Let me guess. There’s an air elemental in there sucking up all the air and we’ll die of oxygen deprivation or the bends?”
“[How did you know?]”
“It was a guess, but there was a fictional dungeon in a tabletop game that had a room you got teleported into that was full of vacuum. Pretty nasty for the beginner area of the game.”
Hermosa tilted her head to the side as she listened to the translation. “[I didn’t understand any of that. But you have to watch out for the Air Elemental.]”
“I have detect magic. That should detect the elemental, then we just need to eliminate it. Do you know what is beyond?”
“Either that or we just run past it, Dimitri. It probably isn’t going to suck out the air that fast or else other adventurers would have noticed.”
“[It might be harder to fight the Air Elemental than you think. It’s the level boss, and it will keep the door closed to the next floor if it looks like you aren’t stopping to rest. The next floor is the final level, and it is a level made of ice. Environmental and magic cold.]”
The grin on Warnik’s face could only be described as shit-eating. “Well, I might have to start that level on my own. The magic shouldn’t affect me. And I seem to be adapted to the cold. Are there any magic AC units down there?”
The girl tilted her head again and Dimitri tried to explain the term to her.
“[Oh yes. There are elemental sources down there. Since they’re tuned to my elemental I can feel them. There’s a total of eight of them. They all look like floating prisms, made of ice. Do you think you can destroy them?]”
“That’ll be my job.” They talked some more to come up with a plan of attack, with some input from the nymph. She could sense the layout of the dungeon floors filled with ice, and that included the final floor.
“[Oh one thing, since you are doing this for me.]” She turned to Warnik who was standing by her fountain. She jumped up to the top of it, wrapping her arms around his neck, and gave him a kiss, full on the lips. He felt the cold in from the kiss, before she broke it, “[Please save me, my hero!]” She giggled and disappeared into the fountain again.