The crunch of the lettuce and the savory satisfaction of the turkey nearly brought a tear to Jordan’s eye, along with the wind that began to pick up in the room they were in. As the sand began to fly into his face, he pulled his mask over his mouth and he noticed sand begin to leak from the stone walls around them. Bryn seemed to take notice as well and began organizing his pack and standing up.
“We should finish soon, I think the chaos from below is destabilizing the environment. I heard rumors from May about the reports from the purple and blue parties that went down today. There’s some sort of wind-based Djinn mini boss they’re having trouble with.” He said as Jordan dusted himself off and lugged his gear on his back.
“They already sent blue parties out? How much longer is this place going to be open for?” Jordan asked as the pair made their way to the first hallway. He could still feel where the Nature’s Credit Skill had guided him, and he led the way as Bryn continued to speak.
“They want it cleaned up quickly. It’s good work for us, but the dungeon is too dangerous for civilians. Even if they put plenty of guards around the entrance, people hate the idea of monsters being at their doorstep. Some hate it so much that they move out into the country, where no dungeons have ever appeared. Getting rid of the dungeon quickly is good for business, and giving adventurers good incentives makes them work efficiently, which in turn is good for everyone’s reputation.” Bryn said. Jordan hated the politics of the workplace, but Bryn loved the gossipy aspect of it, so Jordan smiled and nodded as he rambled.
As the two continued down the path, they quickly stamped out the small threats on Jordan’s radar. A couple of scorpions the size of small dogs and a floating eye were swiftly shot down by Jordan’s arrows as Bryn studied the Convergence Circle they would be using for this floor's final boss.
The dungeon itself has a final boss that the highest-level adventures take care of, but each section has a mini-boss, even the ones assigned to low-level adventurers. It was considerably stronger than the thorny dogs they had just killed, but it was still manageable at their rank. Based on the desert environment, Bryn had narrowed down the specific circles he would need and continued to study the pattern until Jordan spoke up.
“There’s a big one in there,” Jordan said pointing to his left. Bryn looked over and saw a passageway that appeared to lead into a room similar in size where they had fought the Cactus Dogs. “I have a hunch, let me lead,” Jordan said as he readied his bow. The path to the entrance was cramped, with the sand pouring from the stone walls making the tight space feel even more claustrophobic. The hot air was suffocating to Bryn, as he panted and poured water over his head. The tengrathi’s inability to sweat was something Bryn was quite ashamed of, as he found the panting he was forced to do was not exactly dignified.
The pair emerged out the other side of the passageway, and the room they entered was similar to the other rooms in this dungeon, with basic stone walls and sand covering the floor. There were 2 main differences between this room and the others, however.
There was a large treasure chest on the opposite side of the room, and a large…hippo/crocodile/lion? The body of a hippo, the back of a crocodile, and the legs of a lion were the anatomy, and Jordan was not sure which feature was the most dominant. However, he was personally disturbed by the hippopotamus aspect the most.
“Ewwwww” Jordan whispered as he retreated into the passageway. Dungeons were known for creating new monsters that didn't exist in the world before. Many creatures that adventurers are contracted by Everwatch to dispose of were brought into the area by escaping from a dungeon. There were no concrete theories as to how the creatures were created in the dungeons or why, with this unique creature being another confusing example for future researchers. “I thought it was going to be a big snake, I was getting big snake vibes,” Jordan said, sadly slumping against the wall.
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Bryn squinted at the creature through the passageway, tapping his talon on his beak repeatedly as he thought about the situation. “When you used Credit you said this one didn't feel particularly strong right?” he asked as Jordan sat on the ground, sorting through the arrow additives he had left.
“It's stronger than the dogs but we should be able to handle it. Did you do any homework on what the weaknesses of a hippo atrocity are? That's a work in progress on the name by the way” Jordan said. He had a paralyze and flash additive left, along with the big boy but that shouldn't be necessary.
“The easiest way would be for you to smell it out,” Bryn said smiling.
“I hate you,” Jordan said, as he gathered his gear and walked toward the creature again. He felt the den in his body uncomfortably travel through his body and into his nose. He took 3 deep inhales, aiming his Smell Weakness Skill at his target. The stink of this strange monster filled his nose, and he shuddered at the unpleasant aroma. As much as he hated the process, the glowing outline around the hippo atrocity made his objective clear. He readied his now and turned to Bryn.
“Have a doom cube ready in case something goes wrong, my close combat skills are…quite bad” Jordan said, firing an arrow through the passageway at the hippo atrocity. As it soared through the air, Jordan took a moment to take pride in how far his skill had come. His aim had always been exceptional compared to his peers even as a child, and his arrow struck its target yet again. It cried in pain, its scream that of a goat, which made the situation even more disturbing. Jordan's moment of pride was ruined by the noise, and he continued slightly sadder than before.
The bleating hippo stumbled and then fell on its side. Jordan sprinted through the room to his grotesque target. Keeping count of the time the paralyze additive gave him, he pulled his sword out as he approached the creature's neck.
“Dinner is served!” Jordan shouted as he cut into the fatty neck flesh of the hippo behemoth. His sword cut through it like butter, the beast's purple blood shooting out like a geyser above it. The scales on its back scraped on the stone floor, and its furry legs went limp.
Bryn walked briskly over to Jordan as he checked his clothing. “No stains this time, when I cleaned up slick rats I was covered in viscera every night. How do you like viscera I'm thinking of adding it to my vocabulary” Jordan said.
“No on that, no on dinner is served, you're not some legendary hero. You work on commission and part of that commission is documenting new creatures, how many tongues does it have?” Bryn said, examining the corpse.
“Enough to bleat, I want to go open the chest though. I haven't been to the casino in 5 weeks I'm itching for any form of gambling” Jordan said walking to the wooden box at the end of the room.
Dungeons spawn with treasure chests inside, containing some amount of gold and occasionally other items. The chests contained random contents but were profitable enough that the incentive of chests alone drew parties to dungeon quests. Bryn looked down briefly at the corpse before following Jordan to the chest.
The box was so simple, but a rush of adrenaline was guaranteed to flow through whoever opened it. Jordan began to reach toward the latch with his left hand but paused before pulling it back. He spit into his right hand, reaching back to the box again.
“Why-” Bryn asked.
“For luck, you spit on your right hand, you'll never lose in the sand. That's the motto that I made up in the moment. I'm hoping there's a god out there that likes improv.” Jordan said. Opening the box, the pair looked in and saw a hefty amount of gold inside. It was nothing record-breaking, but Bryn estimates there was at least 300 gold inside.
“That's a solid bonus, more than makes up for the gear and time. We should wrap this up soon, I want to spend some of this money.” Bryn said, writing their acquisition in his report. Adventurers kept all of the treasure from the chests they found but were encouraged to report the results to the guild so they could gather accurate data.
As Jordan went to close the chest, a resounding bang echoed through the room. The pair covered their ears in pain, and as they lowered their hands, Bryn noticed a smoking hole in the chest. They looked toward the origin of the sound toward the passageway entrance and saw 2 figures.
One was a small elven man with a shaved head wearing a simple white cleric robe. The man he was with looked much stranger though. He seemed mostly human, but his right arm appeared to be made of some sort of metal. He was tall and lean wearing a black vest with no shirt underneath. He wore brown leather pants with holsters on both legs, and the black boots on his feet crackled with den.
“We’ll be taking that gentleman,” the human said, his milky white eyes wide and unblinking as he raised a smoking rifle with his metal arm.