Amazon Apocalypse 2: Chapter 17 (Patreon)

The dungeon dive was nothing like what I expected. I’d thought we’d be clearing room after room of monsters, and apparently, that was what some dungeons were. But those that developed around great historical events were more akin to storylines, where adventurers could join in on a quest of days gone by, feeling like they were part of a grand conquest or tragic defeat.

In a way, it felt much like a game. However, I couldn’t forget that this one didn’t give extra lives. The dungeon’s warning had made that clear enough.

We armed and equipped ourselves in the enemy’s colors, though Myrina and Cyra both kept their normal swords. By the time we emerged, we saw several other groups of dungeon divers talking to the same commander the two of us had just spoken with as they selected their own quests.

Most seemed to go for either the monsters or the easy siege engine reload quest. Based on their equipment, most of them were around my own level, so I wasn’t surprised to find them picking weaker-ranked quests.

But one particularly bold group selected the mission to open the gates on the inside. Based on their equipment, they would have a tough time. Cyra shook her head when she overheard their quest.

“More food for the dungeon,” she said.

Our opportunity to enter the city came a few minutes later when everyone withdrew. Flags of peace were raised, and the siege engines stopped firing. The gates opened, and warriors of the besieged city filed through, eying the attacking camp warily.

The city’s defenders looked downright puny compared to the strong and Amazonian-sized attacking forces. They were merely human-sized, and few among them looked like warriors.

What they lacked in demeanor or stature, however, they more than made up for in the quality of their equipment. Each of them had enchantments on every piece of their armor, especially their weapons. Crossbows were also more common than swords on them.

I considered them a wealthy but not particularly well-armed or trained bunch. I examined one of them, hoping it would go unnoticed. I felt the same tingle of an examination running up my spine, so I figured there were enough of them going around for me to take the risk.

Shadefall Militia (Armed Technician - Level 26)

Level twenty six seemed low, especially from how well the militia was equipped. It took me a while to realize what was going on. These people weren’t fighters. They were crafting specialists. They were probably focused on their jobs, gaining levels only through their race and leaving their class far behind.

Examining for jobs, I saw what I was looking for.

Shadefall Militia (Enchanter - Level 62)

That was more what I was looking for. These weren’t fighters at all.

I noticed once more the name of the city and its defenders. Shadefall. It was the same clan the spy who’d nearly killed me had been from. Apparently, the Samhain clan had been at odds with these crafters all the way back whenever this siege had taken place in the real world.

While the Shadefall’s forces definitely had their attackers beat in terms of wealth and the quality of their gear, they lacked the same desire to do battle I sensed from the attacking forces. I could see it in their both their eyes and their levels. These were civilians in armor, trying their best to fight real warriors. Without their walls to protect them, they would have long since lost. No wonder it had come to a siege.

I led the way to the gates, sneaking in through the trenches and the chaos of battle. We met up with the city’s forces. I worried for Cyra. I would fit in with the city’s forces, and Myrina could pass as a particularly tall woman, but Cyra clearly belonged to the forces of the Amazonian women outside. How could anyone not spot her, armor or not?

But if it came down to a fight, Cyra was prepared. She’d said to herself that she was over-leveled for this dungeon, so I trusted her to handle herself.

But apparently, the dungeon wanted to keep its quests accessible to all because when we were confronted by the enemy, all eyes were on me, and no one paid her a second glance.

“You there, are you! I didn’t see your group at muster,” the enemy militiaman said. He was a man, which was a surprise to me. The Amazonian forces outside were all female, whereas the defenders seemed mixed.

“We weren’t at muster because we came straight here. We were told you needed the extra hands,” I explained.

He stared at me with narrowed eyes behind his helmet. “What’s your name?”

“Carter,” I replied. “I’m in command of this unit.”

“Pardon the rudeness if you’re who you say, but you didn’t follow protocol. You were supposed to check in with me before leaving the city. We’ve caught spies trying to sneak into the city during these excursions before, you see.”

I grimaced. Those spies were probably the scouts we were being sent into the rescue.

“Could a member of the forces outside do this?” I asked, pointing my finger in the air and casting a Mana Bolt directly overhead. It was a display of magical power, which was something the Amazonians were lacking in.

The man raised his eyebrows. “A spell caster? I suppose that does make it more likely you’re one of ours. Alright. Lend a hand with the dead. But I want you to stick close to me. I’m going to report you to the commander for disciplinary action when we’re done.”

Cyra scooped up a few of the city’s dead defenders, heaving them over either shoulder and then stacking another two on top of each.

Myrina tried to do the same, though she looked ungainly attempting it with her smaller size. Carrying just one dead body was enough for me. After getting tossed into a dumpster with a bunch of corpses, I’d gained a certain healthy aversion to handling the deceased.

“We should slip away as soon as we’re inside,” I whispered to my companions. “I’m betting that meeting their commander won’t go well for us if we don’t.”

Cyra and Myrina nodded as we slinked past the gates.

“Alright, you three! You’re to stick close to--“ the militiaman never finished what he was saying. The moment we were through the gates, Cyra lopped his head off with one clean blow.

Then, as swiftly as scooping up her sword in the arena, Myrina picked the new corpse up and added it to the pile she was carrying. We dumped him and all the rest onto the cart meant to collect the dead, and we were on our way.

“That...” I hesitated. When I’d said we were going to slip away, I hadn’t expected the two of them to murder the guy. Knowing how fast and ruthless my companions could be was a bit scary. Neither of them had shown a moment of hesitation.

But the important thing was that it had worked. And it’s not like he’d been real, even though he’d felt real. He was just a manifestation of the dungeon, likely left over from some dungeon diver dead who knew how many years ago.

“...was quick thinking, both of you. Good job.”

Myrina flashed me a thumbs-up and sent me a beaming smile. “It was your orders, Carter! It’s all thanks to your decisive leadership!”

As soon as the corpses were in the cart, we made our hasty escape. The city streets were packed with homeless, though our arms and equipment gave us away.

“We need to take this armor off and hide it,” I said. “Any suggestions?”

“There are quite a few shops in the city. Many of them sell bags of holding. We could break in, steal a few, and then stuff our things into it,” Cyra suggested.

Myrina nodded. “Yes! We should do that. Loot doesn’t just spawn from nowhere, after all. If we want to leave with a bag of holding, we’ll have to find it somewhere during the quest.”

“Okay, magic shop and disguises it is,” I eyed our surroundings. “If we’re going to rob a place, it should be somewhere good. Looks like the northern end of the city is a lot richer than this one. We’ll find a target, grab what we need, then start looking for the missing scouts as civilians.”

***

We found our target at the edge of the city’s wealthier district. It looked like a high-end fashion store, with items on display behind permanent force fields that covered the front half of the building in a sheer wall of magic.

It struck me as an extravagant display of power, but the lack of good clear class in this world probably meant this was their only option. Perhaps they’d see stores with wide glass storefronts like back on Earth as extravagant displays of wealth.

I realized if Earth was ever to get its industries up and running again, we had a lot to offer the multiverse. I wasn’t sure how many societies had industrialized following their integration, but that was an advantage we had that others might not.

“Either of you know how to pick a lock?” I asked, turning to Myrina and Cyra hopefully.

They both shrugged. I figured I might improvise something with an Arcane Blast directed right at the pins inside the lock. It would take—

Before I even finished the thought, Cyra snapped the lock in half between her fingers. Just like that, it was broken and crumbled into two pieces on the ground.

“That works.” I shrugged.

Cyra entered first, being the highest level and having the most vitality. If there were any traps, she would weather them the best.

Thankfully, the shop was empty, and inwardly, I breathed a sigh of relief.

This mission would have been much easier if it only involved attacking monsters and taking their stuff. Something about robbing a store made this mission a lot harder than killing monsters would have been.

I’d killed plenty of people since the integration, both human and non-human. And it seemed clear that I’d have to kill a lot more by the time the integration was over. But for all my foul deeds, my parents taught me never to steal, and that was something I planned on sticking by.

I reminded myself this was only a dungeon, and this store had been placed here for dungeon delvers like me to rob. I should be thankful we didn’t have to threaten a cashier while looting the place. If we had, I probably would have needed to deal with a wrenching in my guts the entire time. I had killed people and salvaged the belongings of the dead, but I was no thief.

As it was, I flipped through a rack of clothes until I found something that would likely fit me. It was hard to tell since it looked like this world garbed themselves with less standardized sizes and more custom tailoring.

All the items of clothing on display looked like they were made to be adjustable with a bit of knitting or knot-tying. I found robes of the latter, and I was dressed like a local for the first time since my arrival on this world.

“You’re looking quite dashing in that, Carter!” Myrina grinned at me. She’d let down her hair and was wearing it loose now. She had a stiff jacket slung over her shoulders, though the arms flapped emptily behind her. Beneath it, she wore a tight-fitting shirt, pants, and travel boots. It was something suitable for battle, but not overtly designed for that purpose.

Cyra had selected a bigger version of the same outfit and hovered behind her younger sister.

“A blend of daring flair and wizardly elegance,” Cyra commented.

“It’s just what I found on the racks.” I shrugged. I’d mostly picked it for comfort and maneuverability, the same as Myrina. It was just a midnight-blue tunic, though looking at it closer, it seemed to have a slight pattern woven into it using mana that created a pattern of shifting colors resembling a nebula. “You think it’s too much?”

“It just makes you look like a rich bastard, that’s all,” Myrina laughed. “But this whole city is full of rich bastards. You’ll fit right in. Also, catch!”

She tossed me a little brown leather pouch. It resembled a wallet, but it unfolded into a bag with a mouth wide enough to fit a breastplate of armor into it.

“Bag of holding?” I asked curiously.

“Exactly right!” Myrina said. “It’s middle grade too. That means we’ll need to earn quite a few contribution points if we want to take it out of the dungeon with us. But it’ll be worth it!”

The moment I brushed my fingers against the bag, I received a system notification.

You have received a dimensional storage item!

Hidden Quest revealed: Inventory System!

Explore an extra-dimensional space to unlock the Inventory System!

Quest Completed! As you are currently located in a dungeon, you have already satisfied the requirement of exploring an extra-dimensional space. The Inventory system is now unlocked. The capabilities of your inventory will depend on the quality of the dimensional storage item you carry.

Currently, you possess a basic mid-grade bag of holding.

A window appeared, revealing an array of slots. I picked up my discarded sword and old clothes and shoved it through the mouth of the bag of holding, and soon everything appeared in the inventory window.

“Neat,” I replied.

Myrina was beaming at me all the while. “The dungeon is the best place to pick up a Dimensional Storage item for the first time. This is the same place I completed that quest when I was little!”

Myrina helped me fiddle with my System settings a bit to segregate weapons and anything useful for combat toward the top of my inventory for easy retrieval while leaving most of the miscellaneous junk to sit several tabs down.

“Remember, there’s a reason people like me still wear scabbards to hold our swords. Pulling a weapon out of your dimensional storage item takes a few seconds. It only takes a moment to draw a sword from your hip.”

“I understand,” I reply. “I’ll stay armed.” Though, thanks to my magic, I was always armed.

Once I was situated, we regrouped in the empty store to plan our next move.

“I haven’t done this particular quest line in a long time, but you meet several informants in the city during some of the other quests. They might have something to tell us about the locations of the imprisoned scouts,” Cyra said.

I stood and looked up from my inventory menu. “Sounds like a plan for me. Which one will be safest to get to?”

Cyra pointed toward a wall. The spy we were looking for presumably lay beyond it.

The three of us snuck out the back door of the shop. I poked my head out first and waited until the coast was clear. We left, leaving as discretely as we could in our new garb.

Once we were out in the clear, the worst was over. We soon vanished into the crowd. Like the store we’d just visited, most of the shops were closed. This was a city under siege, after all, so people weren’t exactly spending their coin for a night on the town. The market square, where people likely sold fresh fruits, vegetables, and other foodstuffs, was empty.

“She was around here somewhere... Ah, there! See the young woman by the fountain? She’s right over there,” Cyra pointed.

I looked and saw a woman dressed in a black cloak. Her eyes darted back and forth as she lurked in the shadows. Dressed as she was, she could hardly be anything but a spy. Apparently, the dungeon saw fit to make some things easier than they would have been in real life.

“Excuse me, I think you have information we’re sorely in need of,” I said as we approached the woman.

She glanced at me from the shadows of her dark hood. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You need a passcode from one of the other quests. Drat,” Cyra cursed. “I forgot about that part.”

Cyra and Myrina seemed ready to turn away, but I had other ideas. The dungeon had been pretty flexible in accommodating our decisions. Why not this one?

“I know you’re a spy for the army outside,” I said.

“I told you, I don’t know what you’re talking about. If you don’t want a knife in your belly, you’ll leave,” the spy hissed.

She was so lifelike. It was hard to believe she was just a simulation of the dungeon. Surely, if the dungeon could create something as intelligent as the spy before us, she would be flexible enough for this. I pressed my case. “You won’t risk drawing that kind of attention to yourself. Just tell me what I need to know, and we’ll be on our way. The army sent a group of scouts like you into the city. They’ve been taken prisoner, and we’re to rescue them. Tell me where they are, and we’ll be on our way.”

A moment passed, as though the dungeon was making a few calculations in the background. Then the cloaked woman spoke. She leaned closer to me. “You promise you’ll rescue them?”

“You have my word.”

“They’re being kept in the dungeon beneath the western barracks. You’ll have to sneak through heavy city militia forces to get to them. Now get out of here before you blow my cover!” the spy said.

I smiled and swiftly departed. Myrina and Cyra both seemed impressed.

“We’ve had this dungeon for hundreds of years, and I think anybody’s ever thought to twist the spies like that. Most people just follow the quest guides written ages ago.” Cyra said.

“Carter’s smart,” Myrina said with pride.

“You heard the lady, let’s go!”