[DCI] Chapter 36 - First Encounter (Patreon)

We stood in front of the door to our apartment and looked around the dark stone hallway spanning to the sides. The torches bathed it in a slight cyan shade, turning somewhat sapphire between their placements, where the shadow was the thickest. We could spot plenty of stylish details carved into the arches, walls, and the entire corridor.

“We might want to be more careful than before. This feels like a manmade structure rather than something created by the Void, though I can be mistaken. There might be traps set in place if it is an old crypt or something. But, at least it shouldn’t be as sizable as our previous Dungeons so it will be easier to map out,” I said, stepping closer to my drakan partner.

“I’m afraid not,” Aisha replied, wrinkling her nose. “Some tombs and burial grounds can reach the size of entire cities. I’m not sure how common such things are in your realm but it’s nothing surprising in mine. We don’t know anything about this Dungeon yet. It might as well be an entire necropolis.”

I groaned, rolling my eyes. “Then it will be hell to explore and draft. There are so many passages even just here, and they all look almost identical. You can’t purchase a map of a Dungeon, right?”

She snorted. “That would be a real something.”

“Oh, well. I guess we will need to think about this. In the meanwhile, I have to put a lot of focus on my scribbles so that we don’t end up lost after the first few turns.”

Rose suddenly flew into my field of vision and danced around before my eyes. I raised a brow at the cheerful Pixie and extended my hand to pat the cute orb. She nestled herself under my palm and kept buzzing energetically.

“Really? You think you can do it?” The pink ball of happiness squirmed under my fingers in confirmation. “Alright. We will leave it to you for now. I will still draw my map as usual so we won’t be moving around without a backup plan. Not like I don’t trust you, of course, but you know that I don’t like not having additional safeguards in place.”

Wiggling a bit more, Rose zoomed away and started making circles under the ceiling. We stared at each other with Aisha for a brief moment and then nodded at the same time. I brought out my trusty notepad and pencil and did a quick outline of our starting point while pondering over the possible ways to automate this process without spending thousands of D-Dollars. I hadn’t forgotten about my IT genius friend. Perhaps I should hit him up after we were back.

But, nevertheless, I was getting better and better at communicating with our lively companion. If I had any trouble, getting in direct contact and looking straight at Rose helped me get the meaning of what she aimed to convey much clearer. She had assured me that she would have no issues memorizing the layout and said to leave it to her.

I was a little doubtful, honestly, but who wouldn’t be? She had shown how good of a navigator she could be, but that was in the earthen caverns from the previous Dungeon. That was literally her home. She must have spent tens if not hundreds of her long years there. But, I trusted Rose. In case something happened, I would still have my makeshift map.

“Alright.” I broke the silence after a few moments, raising my gaze from the page of my notebook. “I’m done. What do we do then?”

“I don’t know, you are the boss here.” Aisha rested her huge axe on her shoulder and winked at me. “You point at the target, I swing my weapon. The rest is on you.”

I chuckled while walking toward her. “Don’t act like you're not the one to enjoy being in control.”

She shot me a grin and turned around too. We began heading further left from the entrance to our apartment. Aisha took the front, as usual. I kept my mental hold on the bonded handaxe ready, with my hands hovering close to the two other weapons too, whenever I wasn't sketching. We had no idea what we could stumble onto but we could make a guess or two considering the theme of this area.

Before we ventured too far, I suggested we checked all the nearby archways and half-destroyed doors in the close vicinity of our home, just in case anything was hiding somewhere out there. My companion quickly agreed and we began taking a peek into the numerous chambers connected to the gloomy corridor.

Most of them were quite small. That explained why there were so many doorways close together. I could literally fit my bed inside those rooms and have barely any room to step off it to the sides in terms of width. As for length, I guess I could somehow squeeze my desk at the foot of the imagined mattress.

Inside, they were pretty much empty, most of the time. Now and then, there was a single sarcophagus placed in the very middle. I didn’t really want to fuck with anyone or anything locked inside but it would be unwise to leave such obvious ambush locations unexplored. Thus, with the help of Aisha’s impressive, draconic strength, we desecrated the most likely unholy coffins.

Luck was on our side as we found nothing more than some old, crumbling bones. After about fifteen minutes of securing our surroundings and me marking the checked chambers on the map, we finally moved ahead with our exploration.

Gods, I had so much more work to do in this Dungeon in terms of mapping. But, at least the general structure and layout were very linear. There were good and bad sides to our current predicament. Nothing really ever had only the good ones.

We walked through the stone corridor with our guards up. Our pace was slow. There were just so many angles an enemy could use to get a jump on us. We had to verify every single room we passed. Neither of us wanted to suddenly get stabbed in the back by some random, weak skelly man with an ancient, rusted dagger. Yet, so far, we hadn’t seen a living ghost in this dead place.

“Should I jinx us like that last time?” Aisha asked without turning her attention away from the front.

I chuckled. “If you want to find some trouble, you may. I don’t think we will get swarmed by enemies popping out of the walls. Unless some undead is able to phase through the stone.”

“Like all the ethereal monsters?” I could feel her smile.

“I guess.” I shrugged. “Do you have any experience with those? Is it the same as in the game, meaning that you can’t hurt them unless your weapon is magical, enchanted, or you use actual magic?”

“Close enough,” Aisha replied. “Unfortunately, I didn’t have the pleasure to visit many undead Dungeons in my life, besides the one I mentioned in the past. Of the ghost types, we met maybe like a Screamer, and Phantom Pain. And yes, they can’t be damaged by normal weaponry. My axe won’t be of much help against them.”

“This Dungeon sucks for us then. I hope my Bonded weapon is considered magical to some extent even if its base is a normal handaxe. Armsweaving does feel like magic,” I commented. “Anyway, we’ll see when and if we run into anything like that. The worst case scenario, Rose will save our pathetic asses.”

The adorable orb floated to the side of my face and I patted our own ethereal friend a few times. Then, she spun around and zoomed towards the wall. Without slowing down even a little bit, she plunged into the hard surface, disappearing inside the gray stone.

“Right. Forgot she could do that,” Aisha mused.

Rose reemerged from the wall and stopped in front of it, hovering in place. After we glanced at her again, she phased through the obstruction once more, returning to us a few seconds later.

“What is it?” I asked, having a feeling that she wasn’t just acting playful.

In reaction to my words, our little Pixie whirred in the air. Now sure that something was going on, I walked closer to the wall while Aisha kept looking around to cover the two of us. Rose was gone the second I was near her and I reached out to place a hand on the carved column.

“Whoa!”

But, I almost fell forward, stumbling over my own feet as my hand, arm, and entire body passed through what should have been a solid wall.

“Lucas?!” Aisha’s shout reached my ears and I glanced behind me. “Where are you?!”

I saw her figure, standing pretty much in front of me with her axe ready for action. She scanned her surroundings with her fierce, scarlet eyes wide from shock. Somehow, she could not see me even though I was just next to her.

“Here. I’m all fine. I just tripped,” I answered her calls.

Her head snapped towards the direction of my voice and she furrowed her brows, staring straight at me. But, her eyes still wandered all over the surface of nothing that separated us. Though, I had a pretty good idea of what was going on.

I leaned forward and Aisha jerked back with a quiet gasp.

“Gods hold me, I almost made you a head shorter,” she admitted with a soft sigh. “Don’t just pop out of the wall without a warning, would you?”

Chuckling, I glanced to the sides. “Don’t forget that we can sense each other. I think that ability will be quite important if we are going to run into more cases like this.”

Rose flew past me and joined Aisha next to her shoulder. From my side, I had been able to see the lovely drakan through a narrow gap without an issue, but looking from the corridor, my head was currently poking right out of the stone column decorating the wall.

“You look like a trophy.” Aisha smirked and then laughed softly as I twisted my face in an exaggerated dead expression with my tongue out. “So, an illusion, huh?”

“Seems like it,” I agreed. “I wouldn’t have thought of checking every single segment between the doorways to search for secret passages. But, it looks like our round friend has many talents.”

The Pixie in question buzzed proudly and we smiled at each other with Aisha. I withdrew my head and watched how she hesitantly prodded the stone surface seen only from her side with her finger. After confirming that it really was immaterial, she stepped through it and entered the hidden passage.

“We might have to consider recruiting a Thief or someone else with a similar skill set,” my drakan mate suggested. “I don’t think this is the only surprise awaiting us in this place.”

“Right now, something magical is still higher on the list. We will see how it changes throughout this scouting expedition. So far, we didn’t find any troublesome traps,” I replied.

We looked ahead into the narrow tunnel. It barely fit two people walking side by side. The same blue torches decorated it, but the walls had no details, decorations, or carved shapes and patterns. They were just smooth blocks of stone, ominous in their own way.

Exchanging nods, we got back into our usual formation and moved forward, curious about what secrets this passage led to. Rose chose to float ahead of Aisha, perhaps trying to sense more illusionary segments or to notice traps after we had mentioned them. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that she wanted to take that responsibility onto herself after hearing us talk.

Nothing notable happened for ten minutes. We just walked and walked through the narrow, regular tunnel. I started considering that the entire thing was an illusion meant to trap the curious Defenders such as ourselves, but we finally noticed a change in scenery. There clearly was a chamber ahead of us.

Rose bolted forward and flew into it. The two of us observed our beloved companion as we neared the entrance. No monster or trap attacked the pink Pixie and she bobbed up and down to signal that it was safe. We picked up our pace, still careful and attentive to our surroundings.

After finally reaching the empty doorway, we looked at each other at the same time.

“It’s a trap,” Aisha said.

“Definitely a trap,” I confirmed.

Inside the small, square room, was only a single thing.

A reinforced wooden chest.

“If that thing isn’t a Mimic, I’m going to be highly disappointed.” My badass partner smirked.

“Hmmm…” I rubbed my chin. “Should we even fuck with it? There’s no need to put ourselves at risk.”

Aisha shrugged. “Your call. I would love to get some revenge on the bastard. I lost my favorite boots to its sibling. That’s unforgivable.”

I chuckled and shook my head. “I’ll remain here while you can go and try to poke it. In case the chamber gets sealed, I will be able to teleport you out without an issue. That should be safe enough.”

“Great.” Aisha grinned sinisterly while cracking her neck. “I really liked those boots.”

Calling my handaxe to my hand, I gave her a nod. She roamed her gaze over the small chamber before setting her foot inside. No trap was triggered by her motion. Wary of every single step, Aisha walked closer to the suspicious chest.

Covering enough distance between them, she raised her weapon above her head and held it there for a moment. Taking a deep breath, she brought it down with a moderate shout. The sharp blade of her greataxe smashed into the reinforced wood. To my amusement and to her disappointment, it was nothing more than an actual, empty, wooden chest, which broke down from the force of her blow.

“Bummer. Maybe another da—”

The noise of stone scratching over stone interrupted her. Three more passages revealed themselves in the three other walls as their camouflaged entrances receded into the ceiling. Light rattling filled the room alongside the jingle and clank of metal. Spooky, scary skeletons stepped into the light.

“So, it was a trap,” I stated the obvious. “Good. They don’t look strong. Can you see how well you fare against them?”

“Here? Yeah. But I won’t be able to properly swing my weapon in the corridor,” Aisha replied.

“That’s fine. Have some fun while I keep watch.”

“With pleasure.”

Noticing Aisha curling into herself, I let go of my handaxe and covered my ears. As expected, she released a powerful roar into the air, stunning the few first skelly boys that managed to step into her range. She prepped her greataxe and swung to the side, entering a spinning motion.

I kept my hands on, watching how she used Whirlwind on the poor monsters. Some wore rusted pieces of armor and sparks flew when her weapon collided with them. I still could hear the whine and screech of the old metal getting in contact with Aisha’s blade.

She wasn’t set against anything notable. Most of the enemies looked like various configurations of Skeleton Warrior from the game, wearing sporadic pieces of armor and wielding various simple weapons. The enemies she had sliced through, fell to the ground in pieces, more or less. Some of them rattled and began rising again, their scattered parts reattaching themselves.

That was the main problem in fighting this type of monster. You could smash its skull, limbs, and even some segments of its body, but it could still function without them, reassembling itself to an operable state after a moment. Contrary to Woodmen, Skeleton Warriors and other skeletal variations had a nucleus. But, its place was random. It could be anywhere inside their bones as well as even outside, sticking out somewhere. Until destroyed, the monster would often be able to get up.

I watched how Aisha slashed and stabbed with her massive weapon. Not every swing cut through the reinforced bones with ease. Some of them ended up stuck in the middle, like when she had struck her opponent’s ribcage at a sharp angle. That was just too many bones to push through at once. Plus, they had weapons and armor, which additionally lowered the effectiveness of Aisha’s blows.

That was until she decided to use Sharpen to fix that issue, or other skills like Whirlwind or Ground Pound. But, our goal in this entire operation was to gain an understanding of how tough our enemies were. And it looked like we truly would have a hard time against them without the help of magic, which was supposedly their weakness to some extent. Bone monsters had too much Physical Resistance while having almost no magical one. And relying on luck to find or accidentally smash their nucleus was just too much.

I heard some noise and stopped leaning onto the wall at the entrance, taking a glance behind me.

“Ah, fuck!” I ducked under an arrow just in time. “Party’s over. We have company.”

More Skeleton Warriors were making their way towards us, accompanied by a bunch of Skeleton Archers. They didn’t move fast since the passage was narrow and they ended up bumping into each other, pushing their allies into the walls and down onto the ground. But, that also meant that our only path of escape was completely cluttered.

I heard a loud crack and the entire place rumbled a little. Aisha appeared right behind me less than a second later, calming down her breathing.

“This will be a pain. Best I can do is to charge ahead and use my greataxe as a lance or spear,” she said.

“I’ll take care of it. You make sure my back is safe,” I replied, peeking over my shoulder to see a small crater on the floor of the chamber, courtesy of the obvious person.

We didn’t waste any more time and I rushed ahead, flicking my wrist forward. My handaxe stopped floating by my side and shot through the air like a bullet, smashing itself into the first Skeleton Warrior on its path, obliterating its skull into bits. I kicked it down while tracing half a circle with my fingers. My weapon followed the motion, orbiting my waist, and bolted forward once more, snapping another monster’s thigh bone into two.

This continued for a while. I used Armsweaving to weave my handaxe around and smash the vulnerable parts of Skeleton Warriors into pieces, mostly aiming for legs to bring them down and reduce the chances of them getting up quickly. At the same time, I parried any incoming attacks that reached me with the mace.

My Telekinesis came in handy too. I could yank the monsters’ feet from under their bodies since their bones weren’t that heavy. Arrows weren’t an issue either as I just altered their paths mid-flight. Unfortunately, having them hit the skeletal boys didn’t achieve much in terms of damage.

Aisha valiantly fended off our pursuers. It wasn’t easy for her, considering her sizable weapon. Thus, I lent her my other handaxe, which helped her a lot. She could put it to much better use than me with her much higher Strength.

“Shit. We are almost there but the wall of bones is getting dense. I’m slowing down,” I shouted to my companions.

“Switch with me. I’ll clear the path,” Aisha answered and pressed her back into mine.

We spun around and I caught the handaxe she let go of, grabbing her greataxe in both hands. With a loud grunt, she sent a vertical Sunder into the crowd, following it with another one while bringing her weapon back down. Two arcs of crimson mana sliced through the monsters and crashed into the wall of the corridor ahead of us, past the illusory wall.

I sent Aisha a single thought and jumped onto her back. She caught my legs and wore me like a backpack after I wrapped my arms around her neck. Kicking strongly off the ground, she charged forward before the less-damaged monsters began picking themselves up. She flew out of the hidden passage with a slide, quickly letting me down.

Before we did anything else, a big shadow cast over us. We turned our faces towards its source and found a skeleton twice our size. Its bones were dark and it wore a much more complete set of armor in pure black color. With a tower shield in one hand, it raised its massive greatsword at us. There was no doubt that we ran into a Death Knight.

Aisha immediately covered me with her body and set her weapon horizontally to take the hit. But, there was a quiet shiiing, and the monster froze mid-swing. We noticed the tip of a yellow serpentine dagger poking out of its chestplate.

The dark bones evaporated into black smoke and the armor pieces fell to the ground with a loud clang, revealing a person behind the late Death Knight. A normal, white skull rolled out of the illusory wall to the accompaniment of a rattling and clattering noise. Our pursuers must be no more.

We watched as our mysterious savior spun his unique dagger around his glove-covered finger and sheathed it behind his back in one, swift motion. They wore a dark gray set of clothes and leather, reinforced armor; a short, black, tattered cape with a hood that stayed on; and a similarly black shawl wrapped around the bottom part of their face, hiding away anything below their eyes. Those were pure black too, while the person’s visible skin had a silvery shade.

Regardless of their gender, one thing was pretty obvious.

We met another Defender.