Chapter 35 (Patreon)

Remember: see anything weird? Something that you don't like? Comment down below. I do edits before going to RR.

EDITED 9/30: Clarified the punishment for Anderson. 

With the death of the boss came the opening of the reward room. I had ended up deciding against making anything flashy to introduce it with, so all it really amounted to was a new tunnel entrance popping out of a wall in the far side of the room. It was going to take us a bit to get there—a group was only as fast as its slowest member, and Ryan was still absolutely wiped from the fight.

As we walked towards it, Anderson paused for a second to poke at one of the severed heads of the [Fake Hydra]. Upon realizing that he couldn’t actually separate its scales from its body without extensive time and equipment, he jogged back to join with the group.

“Good stuff out there, you three,” I said.

“That was way harder than it was last time,” Rose said. “The new puzzle room really drained us hard. And was the final boss harder?”

“Was that puzzle room designed specifically to counter us?” Troy asked, his arcane focus glowing once more with the meager mana he’d regenerated since I’d healed him. “There wasn’t enough space for Ryan to get a wind-up, there were runes that I had to figure out, which took me out of the fight, and that meant Rose’s capabilities were stretched to their limits as well.”

I shook my head. “There were a number of other ways you could’ve solved that—for instance, did you think about what the runes actually did?”

“Of course. They activated a [Create Water] inside the goblet and then they—oh. Oh.”

“Right? And that’s just one alternative way to do it. I’m sure that some well-placed spells—a strong [Song of Displacement], perhaps—could’ve lifted the water out of the goblet, clearing it that way. But you analyzed it and solved it the intended way, which nearly cost you your lives.”

“You’re saying we did it wrong?” Rose asked. “Even though we did it the right way?”

“Let me get this clear,” I said. “There is no wrong way to solve a puzzle. The right way is whatever way you have that gets you moving forward. Sometimes, though, the methods that you’re used to using aren’t as effective in a certain situation. Sometimes, you need to think outside of the box.”

“We did approach that with the same mindset that we’ve been using,” Troy said. “I mean, it didn’t help that certain people were being remarkably uncooperative, but you’re right. We need to adapt better.”

“The final boss was no harder than it was before,” I said. “But because you didn’t manage your resources well enough, you had fewer ways to deal with it and you were more tired, which kept you from doing riskier plays that might’ve worked. Plays like the one you pulled the first time to kill it from the inside.”

“That’s true,” Rose said. “Uh, is this it?”

We’d arrived at the tunnel. “It is indeed. Follow me.”

Torches ignited as we entered, lighting the way to the final room.

I heard four distinct intakes of breath as we made our way in, the intricate snake designs that defined this room causing them pause whether it was through their quality or their resemblance to the monsters that had caused M-1 and their straggler [Sharpshooter] so much trouble.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “This room presents no threat to you. No air vents, no earth constructs, no snakes, nothing. It’s just rewards.”

They were scattered throughout—bits and pieces or armor, a few small chests here and there, and loose coins were hidden amongst the cluster of sculptures.

“All the loot in one place? Fuckin’ weird,” Anderson said. “Nothing like the last one.”

“Like the last one?” Troy asked. “Rose, you know anything about this? Lucas?”

“I vaguely know about partial dungeon clears,” Rose said. “But you know just as well as me that this is the only dungeon I’ve ever cleared. Lucas, do you know more?”

“I do,” I said. I was a little surprised that she hadn’t read up on the subject, but maybe she’d been busy with other pursuits. “The way most dungeons work is that there’s loot scattered along the way. As such, not all dungeons are actually fully delved, since sometimes parties will realize the rest is too hard and then just cut their losses, take the loot they’ve found, and leave.”

“Huh,” Ryan said. “That… feels weird.”

“I mean, it kind of makes sense,” Troy said. “Imagine if the [Fake Hydra] was something stronger like a lesser dragon or a [Displacer] or a similar beast. We definitely would’ve had to run. Is there even a way out?”

“There is,” I said. “If you had expressed the desire to leave, I would’ve showed you the way.”

“Good to know,” Rose said. “We made it, though.”

“That you did,” I said. “Feel free to grab whatever.”

Now that I thought about it, that tactic of dispersing loot through the rooms might be viable for me too. Lower-level adventuring parties weren’t always going to be able to clear me, and I didn’t want them to be discouraged because of a complete lack of loot.

Maybe I could place loot in certain rooms to increase the challenge in exchange for loot? Putting a handful of coins in a chest and placing that chest on the hardest route in the parkour room might encourage more people to actually use the course instead of forming workarounds. Adding loot to the list of things that the air vents could spit up could lead to adventurers utilizing those more, increasing the complexity and challenge of combat for the possibility of reward.

Hmm. There was a lot to think about.

Troy’s atypically frosty voice brought me back to the adventurers before me. “Just where do you think you’re going?”

He’d cast a [Paralyzing Wave], I saw, expending most of the small amount of mana that he’d regained. Anderson had never seen him coming, and now the man was frozen in place, sparks of magical electricity keeping his body locked up.

Huh. The amount of precision that the [Apprentice Mage] could accomplish with those spells of his was pretty damn high for someone of his level. That was kind of unsurprising at this point, but it was neat to see how he’d managed to paralyze Anderson’s body while allowing his face to remain moving.

The [Sharpshooter]’s features contorted with rage, his eyes glinting even through the thick goggles he wore. “Asshole! The fuck is this for? Delvers don’t attack each other!”

“Adventurers don’t backstab each other, that’s right,” Troy said, barely reigning in his anger. “But when someone else does it first, they’re fair game, aren’t they?”

“I didn’t do shit to you!” Anderson shouted, his face turning red. He was practically foaming at the mouth now, proving the term ‘spitting mad’ didn’t have to just be a figure of speech. “I never attacked you! Fuckin’ tour guide! If you deal with shit, then let me go!”

I crossed my arms. “I’ll think about it.”

“You promised!” the [Sharpshooter] continued, each word progressively louder than the last. “We had a deal!”

“You withheld aid in a life-or-death situation,” Rose said, walking over to him so that he could see her face. She stuck out her tongue. “That’s not okay.”

“You attacked me! You’ll go to jail!” His protestations were getting weaker now. Repeating the same points over and over when faced with the truth would do that to you.

“By the second subpoint of the twelfth provision of the Guild’s Adventurer’s Code, willingly withholding aid to a party in imminent danger of death is hostility and grounds for losing your adventuring license,” Rose said. “By the first subpoint of the sixth provision of the kingdom’s constitution, a contract made through duress is null and void.”

“Uh,” I said. “You just… know that?”

“Mom made me study up on a lot of things recently,” Rose said. “She said it was important. Wasn’t like I could say no.”

“Fuck you!” Anderson shouted, ferocity returning to his voice. “Fuck all of you! We had a deal!”

“You had a ransom,” I said, stepping in front of him to meet his eyes. “As a member of an adventuring party, you failed. As a member of society, you failed.”

“I—“

“I would think very carefully about what you say next,” Rose said.

“You, Anderson,” Ryan said, huffing out a deep exhale, “have no honor to your name. Drop it.”

“You should be glad we didn’t just merc you,” Rose said.

“I did hold back,” Troy offered.

Anderson snarled, forming mana in his fists despite the fact that he couldn’t actually move them. I took note of it, but it probably wouldn’t be too much of a problem. He had spent most of his mana on [Void Bullet], and I doubted he had that much left.

At least, he didn’t have much left until a mass of the building block of magic exploded into existence around him, severing half the connections that the [Paralyzing Wave] had created.

Fuck me, was that a level up? I hadn’t noticed it when Minus One had gotten their level-ups on previous runs, but part of that could be attributed to the fact that we’d been in consistent life-threatening situations when those had happened. Now that I had all my attention focused in on Anderson, I was pretty sure I was witnessing a level-up occur. The benefits they granted were different from person to person—for me, [Divine Healer] granted me more skills and restored my mana—but no matter what, they were always a powerup.

The [Sharpshooter] reached towards his guns, still partially slowed by the remnants of the [Paralyzing Wave], and he formed mana inside them. Not [Void Bullet], but something new. I wasn’t sure if it was something he’d already had or something new entirely, but whatever it was, it might mean trouble.

I thought fast, sinking into the depths of my own mind as he moved. Was it worth taking an all-out fight here, M-1 and all?

Probably not. With a fight like this, against someone this low level, it was going to be all too easy to kill him. Even though he’d been a massive asshole, I didn’t want the death of someone like that weighing on my conscience, and the power differential between three unbalanced level 4s and one fresh level 3 was far more than enough for an accidental spell combination to kill him beyond my ability to repair.

That meant one of two things—either one, try to resolve this non-violently or two, disarm or disable him before he could make an actual move.

I’d settled on trying to encase him in rock when Rose made the decision for us.

“You sure you want to do that?” Rose asked, calm as I’d ever seen her.

Anderson froze, his hand already on his revolver. “What?”

“You want to fight Minus One. You, a level 2, want to fight three level 4s. You’re against us.”

“I did kill that monster,” Ryan offered, pointing his magical sword at the [Sharpshooter]. “I’m faster than you.”

“You’re not getting past one of my [Shield]s,” Troy said, though I was pretty sure he was at least half bluffing. Going from how inactive his arcane focus seemed to my dungeon senses, I guessed he was basically out of mana. “And I can take you down with a single shot in return.”

“We outnumber you, and each of us is stronger than you,” Rose said. “Beyond that, you’re in breach of both kingdom and Guild laws. Do you really want to add another violation to that list?”

Anderson kept his hand on his revolver, but he didn’t draw it. “I won’t let you throw me in prison. I’ll take you down with me. I—I need this dungeon.”

“Should’ve thought about that before you fucked with us,” Rose said.

“How about this,” I said, stepping forward. “I can’t let what I’ve seen here go completely unpunished, but I have no interest in ruining people’s lives. In that case, I propose a deal.”

“I’m listening,” Rose said.

“Your shithouse of a deal was half of M-1’s share in exchange for basic human decency,” I said. “Let’s turn that around. M-1 is taking half your share, which means they take, uh, seven-eighths of the loot here.”

“That’s pretty generous,” Rose said. “But I’m okay with that. Anderson, look at me. You know I would’ve given you more of your share if you just fucking asked like a normal person?”

“Same here,” Troy said. “But I don’t deal with backstabbers.”

Anderson glared at me, but maybe he’d realized that he’d long since overstepped, because he didn’t say anything.

“You need a party,” I decided. “Get to the Guild. Do some community service, maybe. You’re not weak, but you need to learn how to work with a damn team.”

“Mom has a program that might help with that,” Rose said. “Boot camp, basically. I’ve heard it’s hell to get through.”

“Do that, toss him into jail for a few days, whatever,” I said. “I doubt he’d be much of a benefit to society as he is right now, so make sure someone keeps a close eye on him. I don’t want this piece of trash to backstab another party, but it’d be a waste of talent to lock him up forever.”

“And a miscarriage of justice,” Rose said. “There’s things we can do.”

“I can vote for him to be temporarily added to the order as an initiate,” Ryan said. “Teach him some lessons of character, get some gruelling exercise in.”

“He means community service,” Rose said. “Ryan’s ‘exercise’ involves, like, digging trenches for eight hours a day, six days a week.”

“Fuck that,” Anderson said. “Stop talking about me like I’m not here. I’m not doing shit! Fuck your deal, fuck your service, I’m not doing anything.”

“Shut up, man-child,” I said with a sigh. I really didn’t want to deal with this guy.

“Feel free to not do shit,” Rose said, not even bothering to look at him. “You’ll be able to do that from within your lifetime stay in prison. And don’t even think about silencing the witnesses or whatever. With a [Healer] here, nothing you do will keep us from ending your life as you know it if we want you to. You get life in prison or you get a few months to reconsider what you’ve done, do something productive for society.”

“Would you prefer the alternative?” I asked. “You keep half your share, you fix up your fucking life, and I never have to see you again.”

“Fucking fine,” Anderson said, spitting in my general direction.

I sighed, then walked towards him. He didn’t seem to clock what I was doing until I was basically in his personal space, and by then it was too late.

I punched him in the face, full force. I didn’t add any magic to it—my [Healer] class wouldn’t help, and my dungeon half would add too much power—but it was a hard one anyway, landing square on his nose with a satisfying crunch.

“This is the good ending for you,” I said.

I let him scream and whine at me for a moment or two before tossing him enough healing to stop the bleeding. He could heal the rest on his own.

“Now get your rewards and get the fuck out of here,” I said.

It didn’t take too long to actually get the rewards, after that. For the most part, it was just armor that Ryan said he was going to bring back to the order and coins that the three members of M-1 agreed on donating the majority of.

Anderson left first, storming through the proffered exit as soon as I showed it to everyone. Ryan was a moment behind him, probably to hold him to whatever plan Ryan had.

A few minutes passed, and then my interface lit up.

[ARI: new review received!]

★☆☆☆☆ Terrible From Anderson Cor [Sharpshooter / Independent]

Reviewed at: END OF DUNGEON

Recommended party level: N/A

Horrid dungeon. Every aspect of it was bad. Bad design, shit tour guide, terrible loot, bad adventurers in the area. Dungeon Core clearly has no idea what it’s doing.

What an asshole.

I should’ve punched him again.

I tore my mind off the review. Something was bothering me. I wasn’t using my dungeon skills anymore, but there was still more that… wanted to be used?

Right. I still had unused spell slots from the level-up.

It was about time I addressed that.