CD Chapter Thirty-three (Patreon)

The tunnel was dark. In hindsight, this shouldn’t have been a surprise, since it wasn’t meant to be in use yet, but it was fortunate that vampires, dwarves, and whatever Myles was all had [DarkVision]. What did surprise Alpha was just how many monsters there were. The place was absolutely infested, though most of the mobs were such a low level that either Alpha or Tess could easily take them out alone. Myles, of course, just walked along with Toggle perched on his shoulder, being utterly unhelpful.

You have dealt 387 points of damage to Lesser Vole.

The Lesser Vole has died.

Alpha knelt and tapped the body of the three-foot rodent, collecting Vole Whiskers, Vole Meat, and a Vole Tail. The corpse instantly began decaying into Fertile Soil, and Alpha wondered absently if they were leaving a trail of small gardens behind them, or if the soil itself would soon change to match the stone of the passage floor.

“I wish they weren’t so cute,” Tess muttered, tapping two more voles she’d just finished off. “I preferred the White Worms. They were slimy, but at least I didn’t mind chopping them up.”

Alpha shuddered. The worms, which were almost as big as Toggle, were essentially harmless except for their slime, which was both corrosive and poisonous. Fortunately, Tess had Antidotes on hand, but Alpha hated anything that damaged her equipment. Replacing or fixing it was expensive, and besides, giant worms were disgusting.

“I liked the Cave Spiders. Their venom can’t hurt me, and they’re easy to crack open if you’re fast enough to hit them,” Alpha said.

“Which I’m not, half the time, and that first one was taller than me. The babies weren’t so bad except they were so fast. At least they’re weak to fire.” Tess tossed a fist-sized fireball in the air, and it poofed against the ceiling, leaving a char mark that faded even as they walked by. Tess’s fireballs weren’t terribly strong, since she’d only gotten the spell on the way to getting the [Flaming Axe] skill, and hadn’t done much with it since, but they were still effective against monsters that were weak against the fire element.

Myles cleared his throat and stopped so abruptly Alpha nearly bumped into him. He and Toggle were walking in the middle of the group, while Tessle led. With her short legs and lower Dexterity, she was the slowest, since the horses had absolutely refused to enter the pitch-black hole in the earth. Alpha brought up the rear, which meant that she was the one attacked most often. It seemed that the things that lurked in the dark tended to be ambush predators and liked to silently pick off the last member of a group.

Alpha and Tess turned to look at the moderator, who was carefully setting Toggle on the ground. Apparently gnomes, too, were a subterranean race, and had racial [Darkvision], so when Toggle scampered to the wall and reached up to touch something, he obviously knew exactly what he was doing.

“There’s a dungeon mark here, Mistress!” the gnome exclaimed. “I don’t recognize it, though, so it must be one of the new dungeons that have spawned since you Travelers came to our world.” He sounded disappointed, and Myles patted him on the shoulder comfortingly.

“There are a few of the old dungeons left. The Head Librarian is busy finding them, so don’t worry, Toggle. This one is new, though.” He turned to Alpha. “Would you care to do the honors?”

She looked at him suspiciously. “Why? Is there a trap?”

He looked appalled and pressed a hand to his chest. “Why would you think that? What have I ever done to make you believe I would send you headlong into unpredictable danger?”

When she opened her mouth to answer, he held up a hand. “That was a rhetorical question. No traps, at least not yet.” He grinned. “But as the party leader, I thought you might like to, oh, lead?” He tilted his head to one side, tapping his chin as he considered her.

She glowered at him as she brushed past. “Pride doesn’t put food in your belly, so stop trying to use it to tease me. I don’t care if I go first or not.” Nonetheless, she laid her hand in the center of the circle containing a raised stone symbol shaped vaguely like a four-leaf clover, if clover leaves had pointed tips. Instantly, she felt the sinking feeling she associated with in-game teleportation, and the darkness surrounding her swirled into a blurred mass of color.

Blinking, she shook her head. Most dungeons tended toward the grim-dark end of the color palette, which made sense given that their primary purpose was to kill you. The only one she’d seen that looked anything like this was-

“The Alchemy Dungeon?” Tess asked, also staring around at the masses of vegetation surrounding them. Towering trees formed the walls of the ‘room’ in which they found themselves, while dangling vines created a tangled ‘roof’ overhead.

“Nope,” Myles said, grinning. “Not even close, though you can find some rare reagents here. After you.” He motioned to the ‘door’ made of two thick bushes laden with flowers. An invitingly wide gap showed between the bushes, and the flowers rustled in a gentle breeze, blowing an earthy, herbaceous scent into Alpha’s nose. She sneezed.

“Hang on, Tess,” Alpha said, rubbing her itching nose. “This has to be at least a mid-tier dungeon, since it’s instanced. We need to be ready in case there are mobs out there.” She looked around, finding the exit glyph, an inverted triangle with a line through it, carved into a broken stump nearby. She looked at Toggle. “If anything happens to us, you need to use the glyph to run, all right? You’re close enough to Refuge that you may be able to make it on your own. Just avoid the tunnel monsters, and get out as fast as you can. The other side should be safe, since Refuge is barely above a newbie area.”

He shook his head, looking stubborn. “I won’t leave you, Mistress. You promised to take me home. I know you’ll do it.”

Alpha sighed, rubbing her eyes. “Fine. But Toggle, just,” she hesitated, “don’t die, all right?”

“You too, Mistress,” he said, happily, and Alpha shook her head, turning back to Tess.

“Tess, you’re on gnome protection detail, at least until we know what’s out there. Since someone won’t tell us,” she sent a scowl at Myles, who grinned unrepentantly. Hopefully, the capricious AI liked Toggle well enough that he would let them know if something truly dangerous lurked nearby.

A tall, rectangular shield popped into Tess’ hand. “Gotcha, oh great leader.” She looked at Toggle, lifting the shield invitingly, and the gnome crowded in next to her.

Alpha found her finger tracing the smooth warmth of Orah’s scales where the snake hugged her wrist. She wished she had been able to pray at a temple before heading out today. She certainly could have used a buff or boon before heading into battle. When she looked up, she saw that Myles was watching her, one brow lifted in amusement.

“Why don’t you just try?” he suggested.

She started to reject the idea, since everyone knew it was incredibly rare for a deity to respond outside of a place of worship, but then she shrugged. “Quezal,” Alpha muttered, feeling faintly ridiculous, “I, um, request your aid in our upcoming battle. I fight in your name. Amen?”

Quezal, Great God of the Union of Earth and Air, senses the depth of your devotion!

Your Relationship with your Deity, Quezal, has increased by 5.

Quezal grants you a buff. You are now Inspired. Your chance of landing a critical blow doubles for the next six hours!

Alpha’s eyes widened. Her crit chance wasn’t high, since it was mainly driven by the player’s proficiency with their weapon, and her [Longsword Mastery] was only level twenty-seven, but doubling it was still significant.

She lifted her wrist, eyeing the tiny serpent. Was it her imagination, or had Orah grown ever so slightly thicker? The snake opened her jewel-like blue eyes, and Alpha felt a flow of warmth and happiness touch her mind as Orah released her grip on her own tail and lifted her head, little tongue flickering as she seemed to smile. Alpha smiled back, and tenderly stroked the snake’s smooth head.

Tess snickered, and Alpha blinked, looking back at her friend, who had a smug smile on her face. “Totally smitten,” Tess said, and winked.

Alpha dropped her wrist, though she glanced down to make sure Orah was able to hang on, and saw that the snake had resumed her pretense of being a bracelet. “Whatever,” she muttered, and reached out to part the bushes.

Quest: “Find Your Way to the Center of the Labyrinth” available.

Make your way through the Labyrinth Dungeon to meet the boss. Don’t worry, there are no goblins.

Success: A World First. Experience. Loot. +10 Relationship with Quezal.

Failure: Somebody else gets all that stuff.

Accept: Yes/No?

There were no downsides, so she accepted and waved the notification aside as her foot sank into the springy loam. The area outside was strange, to say the least. The entry ‘room’ was in the jungle, but just five feet away, the trees stopped as if blocked by an invisible wall. Not a single root, branch, or vine extended into the grassy meadow that swept away into the distance. The sky overhead was clear and blue, but there were no clouds, no sun, and her skin didn’t react to the light.

A gentle push between her shoulder blades sent her the last step out of the room, and she automatically fell into a defensive stance with her blade in her hand as she looked around. Tess and Toggle followed her out, with Myles hot on their heels. They all stopped stock-still, though Myles watched the rest of the party, while the party examined their surroundings.

Alpha took a few steps to the boundary between the jungle and the grassy meadow and cautiously waved her sword through the air. When she met no resistance, she leaned forward until her hand also passed through. Nothing happened, and there was no indication that anything had changed. Still, nothing larger than a few small bushes and some particularly hefty mushrooms grew on one side, while the other boasted trees that easily stood a hundred feet tall or more.

Something fluttered through the air above the nearest mushroom, which was a deep purple color with virulent green spots, and Alpha narrowed her eyes as she tried to see what it was.

Meadow Fairy - Air/Grass. Level 46.

Blood Pack: 1 unit.

“Oh my gosh,” Tess whispered, and Alpha looked over her shoulder to see that her friend’s blue eyes were huge and practically glowed with excitement. “It’s a fairy! An almost-real-life fairy! Do you know how popular this dungeon is going to be? Oh my god, I want one!”

Faster than Alpha had thought she could move, the squat dwarven woman darted out into the verdant field, her heavy sabatons crushing the grass and flowers and releasing a scent reminiscent of freshly mown lawns and warm summer days. Alpha held out a hand to stop her, but she was too late, and one mid-level mob shouldn’t be enough to really hurt Tess, even if it turned out to be aggressive.

Tess’s gauntlets vanished from her hands as she clapped them around the miniature green figure of the fairy, careful not to crush the flickering translucent wings. For a brief, beautiful moment, the dwarf held the fairy, her face suffused with happiness as she peered into her hands. Then she yelped and dropped the fairy, which fell onto the spongy mushroom with a squeak.

“It bit me!” Tess said, sounding aggrieved.

“What did you expect fairies to do?” Myles asked, clearly amused.

“I thought they were nice! Like butterflies or something!” Tess muttered, cheeks turning red. She looked genuinely embarrassed, so Alpha jumped in before Myles could tease her any more.

“Tess, are you okay? No debuffs or anything?”

Tess shook her hand, sniffing sadly. “Nothing. Just lost a few health points.” She frowned, eyes going unfocused. “That’s weird. I should have gotten my health back already. It’s not like I’m in-” She broke off, eyes widening as a swarm of fairies seemed to appear from the grass all around her. They each held a single blade of grass, but the edges of the grass glittered like miniature serrated saws, and the teeny green faces were filled with fury. There had to be at least a hundred of them, and while one mid-level mob wasn’t a big deal, a hundred of them attacking at once could pose a real hazard even to the heavily armored dwarf.

“Tess!” Alpha yelled, starting to run to her friend’s defense. Myles grabbed the back of her leathers to stop her.

“Tess!” Myles called, sounding torn between amusement and concern. “Come back over here. You’re going to aggro half the region like that.”

Tess, now swiping ineffectually at the horde of fairies with her axe, stumbled backwards. The fairies increased their attack, even howling squealing little battle cries as they sawed at every exposed bit of skin, most of which were on Tess’ face. Alpha, who kept notifications on for teammates injuries, saw the damage rising in a cloud of red numbers. Most of them were single digits, but even enough ones added up, and there were plenty of eights and nines mixed in.

As soon as Tess stepped completely into the jungle, however, the fairies just… stopped. They hung there in the air, shaking their swords at the dwarf ineffectually, but seemed unable or unwilling to cross the invisible line.

Toggle, who had been hiding behind Alpha’s leg, rushed towards Tess, wiping blood off her armor with the edge of his tattered shirt. It grew redder and redder, until Tess’ regen caught up to the injuries, and stopped drenching the metal in fresh blood.

Alpha, to her own disgust, found her mouth watering at the scent coming from her friend, and growled, “Are you recovering now? Even though-” She waved to the fairies, who were no longer screaming and waving their grass swords, and seemed content to simply stare balefully at the dwarf.

Tess nodded. The worst of the blood faded from her skin, though it left a residue that would need to be washed away before it led to a debuff of some kind. “Yeah, apparently I’m out of combat, even though they’re right over there.” She took a step back toward the boundary, and the fairies raised their swords threateningly, though they didn’t move to meet her.

“That’s… creepy,” Alpha said slowly. She shuddered and looked away. “I was going to vote we explore the peaceful grassland first, but I guess that’s out. I mean, we could probably take this lot out, but who knows how many more of them there are?”

“Ooo, I do!” Myles said, raising his hand. “Lots. So, you want to go deeper into the dark, overgrown jungle instead of the nice, bright field full of pretty flowers and vicious fairies?”

Alpha met his eyes. “Yes, I do.”

“Oh, goodie!” he said. “That sounds like fun!”

Alpha exchanged glances with Tess. There was no way that was a good sign.