Dungeons and Dalliances Ch. 060-069

Still, those rational disclaimers made, Natalie was anxious.

And, of course, excited. She'd always been a girl who itched for a fight. And for the first time in a while, she'd found a conflict that mattered in an immediate sense. Beyond just fighting for her life, and her allies, she was fighting for direct progression, and less relevantly, but still important, resources. Her success or failure mattered in a way it rarely did. Not spars, but real fights, with real rewards.

They trekked along, staying silent and alert. Even Liz had found an uncharacteristic seriousness. It was strange on her, though, Natalie figured, not unexpected. For all Liz's exuberant attitude, she'd grown up as a Beaumon. She knew the risks of dungeoneering. Half her family were career delvers, and not smalltime ones.

Turning a corner, their first encounter came into sight.

Natalie held a hand up, stilling her group. As the vanguard, she'd seen the monster first. She peered down the cave, dimming the glowing device fixed to her shoulders so that it didn't draw the monster's attention.

[Lesser Kobold - Lv. 1]

It was a squat, rather unpleasant looking creature, humanoid, with red skin. Scales decorated its elbows and lower limbs, with thick, clawed, animalistic feet. A reptilian, sinister face peered down at something on the cave floor, the creature hunched over and scratching the ground with interest.

Natalie fed the information back to her team. The backline had paused around the corner, so they hadn't seen it. "Level one kobold with a spear. No armor."

"Just one?" Jordan asked.

"Just one."

"Easy start," Sofia said.

Natalie didn't disagree, though their instructors might have chided them for being dismissive. Natalie didn't intend to treat the encounter with an undue lack of respect, but a single kobold wasn't much of a genuine threat, not for a talented, well-prepared team of five.

Still, their instructors had drilled in the importance of treating each fight as if it were life or death. And it was, technically, for all it would take something going catastrophically wrong to even be seriously injured, much less a team wipe. With Liz, and healing potions on standby, even a serious hit could be, if not brushed off, at least easily handled.

Natalie appraised the creature in closer detail. A spear. She appreciated her recent practice against Elliot. Though she doubted the kobold would have similar training to a Tenet student, familiarity in general against a weapon was useful. She'd have to play around its reach. And, Natalie knew, contrary to its diminutive stature, the monster would be viciously fast, powerful, and above all else, blood-thirsty.

Not to mention the ever-present wildcard: skills. As a level one, it had one or two at most, possibly none, and certainly nothing overwhelming. But the problem was that she couldn't know what. She could make guesses, drawing on knowledge from various monster encyclopedias, but that could be as dangerous as going in blind. Expectations were fine, but not assumptions. Assumptions got people killed.

"Ready, then?" Natalie asked. She itched to get started. Her first dungeon encounter.

When she received no disagreements, Natalie nodded to herself, then rolled her hammer around in her grip.

"Start us off?" Natalie asked Ana.

From this distance—far enough the kobold hadn't noticed them—landing a spell with any sort of accuracy would be difficult. But what kind of delvers would they be if they didn't take a free shot, however minimal the benefit?

Likewise, Jordan drew her bow and nocked an arrow. Her class seemed poised to be melee focused, but she'd trained in archery, and, again, free shots were free shots.

Jordan took aim, and Ana held her crystal ball up, placing a hand on the glass and drawing on her mana. Shadowy tendrils swirled around the orb, and the kobold stiffened, sensing the vibrating energy that came with magic. Liz leveled her staff toward Natalie, and that invigorating suffusion of her buffing spell washed through her.

The kobold spun, facing them. Its eyes widened as it took in the group, then shrieked, the grating noise bouncing off the walls of the cave tunnel. It sprinted forward, scrambling across slippery moss-covered floor in its eagerness.

Even knowing what the monster's reaction would be, the ferocity of it caught Natalie off guard. There was unadulterated hatred in the scream. Why did it want them dead so badly? As simple as being territorial? Puzzling over why fabrications of the dungeon behaved as they did was probably pointless.

Plus, she had bigger things to worry about.

Halfway to them, a black-feathered arrow sprouted from the creature's neck. It didn't falter. The kobold ripped the projectile out then tossed it aside, flesh reknitting in an instant. Jordan's beautiful aim had cost the creature HP, but killing even a level one monster wasn't as simple as a well-placed shot.

Nor a well placed spell. A shadow tendril whipped out, conjured from Ana's crystal ball, slashing across the creature. It grunted, the weight behind the blow slowing it much more than Jordan's arrow had, but still only briefly.

Then, finally, it arrived, and Natalie could participate.

With Natalie leading the pack, the farthest forward, the kobold was happy to focus on her. A spear jabbed out, lightning fast, which Natalie narrowly blocked with her shield. Even with Liz's empowering buff reinforcing her, the movement jarred her shoulder, the spear's metal tip slamming against her shield hard enough to make her grunt and nearly lose her footing—even well-braced as she'd been.

The dungeon wasn't intended to be tackled alone, as that first exchange demonstrated. Well trained, reinforced with a healer's empowering buff, and braced for the hit, and still the level one kobold had nearly toppled her over with the strength of its first attack.

The kobold yanked its spear back, dragging her shield with it, having embedded into the wood. Natalie grunted, again, with exertion as she yanked back, freeing herself. Again, she struggled to keep her footing.

It was strong. More than she'd expected, for all she'd been warned. Even simple level one monsters were meant to be handled by entire teams.

As the tank, it was her job to keep the kobold's attention, and preferably not to get cut to pieces while doing so. Since the monster was faster and stronger than her, and had supernaturally enhanced weaponry, it wasn't the easiest task. Natalie's focus wouldn't be on the offensive. That was Jordan, Sofia, and Ana's task. Natalie just needed to survive a bloodthirsty, enraged assault.

She found herself grinning, heart pounding hard enough she felt it in her ears. The kobold traded another blow with her, which glanced off her shield, and a window opened, which Natalie seized, swiping her hammer forward. The kobold sidestepped it easily. Natalie's defensive posturing making it difficult to score meaningful hits against someone so much faster than her. But the maneuver opened an opportunity for the rest of the team.

Sofia edged in from the kobold's flank, scoring a slash against its thigh. The kobold growled and spun on her, jabbing a spear forward, but Sofia had already danced away. Natalie knew first hand how impossible she was to hit.

Jordan and Ana snuck their own attacks in, but Natalie focused on herself; tracking everyone was impossible, and she had a role to fill. With the kobold's attention briefly diverted, she went on the offensive—if only for a quick shield bash, then a second swipe of her hammer. It succeeded in drawing the kobold's attention back, but not in doing much damage.

The following minute was a blur of the sort Natalie had plenty of experience with. She took several hits. That was close to inevitable as the team's tank, and the reason healers were a standard fixture for any team.

Natalie didn't feel the injuries, doused in adrenaline as she was. Most were glancing scrapes from the kobold's spear, Natalie not managing to escape in time. The wounds knitted over in an instant, infused with a warm glow—Liz's contributions.

If the kobold landed a thrust into a more important place—say, her chest—Natalie's HP would rear up and block the blow entirely, unlike the minimal protection it offered her arms and legs. That would demolish her reserves, though, and, as a level one, she probably only had one 'lethal save' of HP, even as a defense oriented class. Unexpected deaths did happen down in the dungeon, even to Tenet students.

The reminder, oddly, excited her.

Natalie found opportunities, here and there, to surge forward and get her own blows in, but for the most part, she played defensively. Moment by moment, each of her team's attacks scraping down the kobold's impressive health reserves, the monster started to flag. That indicator shown, the three damage dealers watched with razor focus for the chance to land the lethal blow. Natalie halfway wished she could, too, but as fast as the kobold was tiring, so was she. Hard to match something so powerful, vicious, and swift without exhausting herself.

Jordan found the opportunity. Her dagger sank into the throat of the kobold, and as fast as the blade had darted in, it withdrew, spraying green blood across Natalie's face and against the cave wall. That was gross, but in the middle of a fight, it barely registered.

For a few moments, the kobold choked, hand grasping at its throat. Unlike with Jordan's arrow, at the start of the fight, it didn't have the HP to shrug the blow off.

Unceremoniously, it stumbled a step, choking, then collapsed.

Sofia stepped in and stabbed it through the skull. Natalie doubted the creature was faking, and its death was imminent without the stab, but playing it safe was always a good policy.

Its brain punctured, the thrashing stilled, then, spear, clothing, body and all, it evaporated in black smoke.

When the last strands had spiraled away and dissipated, five panting girls surrounded the defeated creature. In the center of where the kobold had been laying, a shining white orb coalesced, elevated a few inches off the ground, where its chest had been.

Then, fully manifested, the monster core clinked to the floor, rolling across mossy stone.

3.03 - Puzzle

"That wasn't so bad," Liz said.

Natalie didn't disagree, though she'd taken more hits—even if just glancing—than she'd have preferred. And, intense as it'd been, she'd forgone her use of [Illusion]. She'd made strides with the past week's training, but in the moment, she'd been focused on performing her role in the traditional manner, using methods she was most comfortable with.

A smart choice, clearly, because even without pushing out of her comfort zone and trying to weave some illusions in, Natalie had taken blows. Her armor was still knitting itself together from where the kobold's spear had punctured. One of the benefits to dungeon-linked loot; the gear shared life force with her. It would be rather inconvenient if each exchange left her armor more and more degraded. At least, as quickly as mundane armor; gear did degrade, eventually.

"Not so bad," Natalie said. "Yeah."

Sofia leaned forward and plucked the monster core from the ground. She inspected it between two fingers.

Natalie did so, too.

***

Monster Core - Tier 1

***

Not much of interest. Just a monster core. Beyond their ranking, the orbs didn't vary much, not unless they had something stored inside them.

"Got lucky," Jordan said. "One in three odds. Good start."

Monster core drop rates varied, but one in three was the simplified average. It depended on the strength of the monster, location, and some other factors. Obviously a swarm of tiny monsters wouldn't drop one-in-three cores.

Tenet had loaned them each ten first-tiers to pay for starter equipment, and it hadn't gone far. From that perspective, it would be a while before Natalie was geared out, much less geared out well.

Then again, brutal as the fight had been, it'd lasted all of a minute, if not less. Not a bad pace for earning cores, even split five ways, if they kept the pace up. Speaking logistically, at an encounter every few minutes—say three—and a monster core every third monster, that would make six to seven cores an hour. And that was sticking to floor one, near the entrance, where payouts were lowest.

Natalie rested her hammer on her shoulder, still breathing heavily, as most of her teammates were. Even Ana and Liz. While the backline casters weren't as physically involved, spells were tiring in a different, but equally intense, way. Natalie would know, for all she hadn't used her own spells in the brutal exchange.

There was a lull as everyone glanced at each other, appraising conditions. Then, as one, eyes fell to Natalie. Though not a leader in a literal sense, she was the vanguard. The one who set the pace.

Though tired, and still coming down from her adrenaline rush, she nodded. "Let's keep going." Momentum was important. If she needed to rest, she would of course ask, not risking her team's wellbeing for the sake of her ego. But as things stood, she was fine. Ready for another fight.

And, though she wouldn't sabotage herself, and thus her team, she did itch for more. She'd always found the thrill of the fight intoxicating. There'd been a reason Natalie had pursued a career in delving with so much enthusiasm.

Setting forward, she continued down the stretching cavern tunnel.

***

Several encounters later, fighting their way through a variety of snarling monsters, Natalie and her team found themselves entering a larger room, no longer constricted by the tight tunnel hallways they'd spawned in. They kept track of each turn they made. Liz, specifically, had been tasked to do so. The easiest way out of the dungeon was to backtrack and exit through their original portal. It was unlikely they'd be finding a second natural one, or encountering a boss.

The larger room, on a brief scan, presented no visible threats. It seemed empty. Not that Natalie let herself take that at face value. Just because something in the dungeon seemed safe, didn't mean it was.

"Any traps?" Jordan asked, eying the room in the same way as Natalie, and the rest of the team as they trailed in behind her.

"Puzzle, I'm guessing," Sofia said. "Look at the mural."

Natalie had noticed the sprawling diagram on the far wall of the room, but had put it out of mind while looking for more imminent threats. Not finding any, she allowed herself to take it in.

A mural stretched across the stone, etched in bright white scratches, outlining in the gray stone a depiction of a beautifully rendered scene. The pictures were dense, difficult to make out from this distance, but in front of the diagram, seven squat pillars sprouted from the ground, each with—what seemed to be—a button sitting on top.

A puzzle room.

"What is it?" Liz asked. "It's so detailed."

"Clear the room first," Natalie said. She was interested as the rest of them, but making certain they were safe came in higher priority.

A quick inspection later, the team in agreement that the puzzle room wasn't trapped, at least in any obvious manner, they regrouped and studied the mural, finally letting their guards down.

The diagram took a second to decipher, dense as the imagery was. Though expertly drawn—or manifested from thin air by the dungeon, not actually drawn—the artwork was cramped and overly-detailed, adorned with flourishes that made identifying the relevant pieces difficult. Shortly, though, she cobbled together an understanding of the composition.

Seven figures laid, elevated above the rest of the figures in the drawing, in various poses, each of their eyes closed. One held her hands to her chest, slumbering peacefully. Another seemed distraught, seemingly stirring, distressed, from a nightmare. A third figure frowned, brow furrowed. Each of the people were distinct, with unique clothing, accessories, and builds.

Beneath the seven, a slew of others laid or stood in various poses, but also with closed eyes. None were stirring in the way the elevated seven were. Their designs were clumsier, paid less attention. Less important, comparatively?

Natalie studied the figures, interested. Even the ones without emphasis, beneath the seven, were powerful. Crafted with evocative imagery. Intimidating in a way hard to describe. And familiar, almost? She could swear she ought to be able to name some of them. Were they ...?

"The Reverie?" Ana said. "I see. Yes, I believe it is."

Natalie looked to the girl, as the rest of the team did. "The what?" She shared a glance with Jordan and Sofia, but two respective shrugs indicated they didn't understand, either.

Liz, though, seemed to. She tittered nervously, eyes having widened. "The Harvest, Ana?"

"Do you disagree?"

Liz looked at the mural, then back to Ana. "The Harvest isn't real." Then, more nervously, "And it's pretty blasphemous, even just to talk about."

Which, obviously, caught Natalie's attention. Blasphemous?

Ana inspected Liz. "I'm simply stating what the mural depicts. And it is the Reverie, no?"

"It would fit," Liz said reluctantly.

"The what?" Natalie asked, louder. Though she doubted she'd be much help in solving the puzzle, Liz's nervousness had caught her interest.

"The Reverie-Siphon Hypothesis," Ana said. "Or more colloquially, as Elizabeth put it, the Harvest." She turned back to the mural, tilting her head. "I suspect this puzzle was presented for me in particular. I have an interest in religions."

She did?

And, Natalie supposed, a suspicion of hers had been confirmed. The figures depicted on the wall were recognizable, even if she hadn't been able to place how. The gods. Though not presented in standard Valhaurian fashion, adorned with the iconography Natalie was used to seeing.

"You still haven't answered," Natalie pointed out. "What is it?" She spared another look for Liz, whose anxiousness had been steadily growing. Her eyes flicked between Natalie and Ana, and she fidgeted in place.

Ana appraised Natalie. "Well," she said, "in short, it's a religious theory."

"I don't know if that's the right word ..." Liz said.

"A grouping of religious theories," Ana corrected.

"Not what I meant."

"But what is it?" Natalie asked, exasperated.

"That the gods were killed," Ana said, as impassively as ever. "Specifically, by the Architect, and that He used their bodies to create the system. A Harvest, so to say." She wrinkled her nose. "Not precisely the right terminology, in my opinion. It's unlikely gods can truly be killed, and it's an ongoing siphoning, not a one-time harvest. Hence, a Reverie-Siphon, as we refer to it in modern terminology."

Natalie considered that.

"Ah," she said.

Yeah, she could see how that was blasphemous.

3.04 - Reverie

It was an impressively outlandish explanation, and delivered in Ana's monotone, somehow more impactful, not less. The room stewed in silence for a few moments, digesting the claim.

Liz tittered, high pitched and nervous. "And, like I said, it's seriously blasphemous to present as if it's real."

"I did no such thing." Ana seemed confused by Liz's reaction. "Natalie asked, and I explained. Though, I would argue there's insufficient evidence to support any religion. So from a logical perspective, the Reverie-Siphon Hypothesis has as much credibility as anything else."

Liz shot a panicked look at Natalie, then Sofia and Jordan, as if seeking support.

Natalie sympathized with her concern, even if she didn't share it. She didn't much care about what was considered blasphemy or not. Her parents had forced her to church growing up, but she'd never been religious. She accepted the gods in a nominal way; mostly, she didn't think much about it. Not an unusual practice, these days. The years of Valhaur's monolithic religious practices had come to an end, or, if not that, at least to their twilight years. Maybe the gods had existed at some point, but if so, they'd been dormant for a long time.