Dungeon Chapter 15 (Patreon)

The next morning, Harley showed up and dodged around Des to hide on the other side of my desk. “The date is on. There’s this Italian place just off the campus.”

“Fancy.” I joked.

She deadpanned. “Don’t screw this up and don’t lure my date into your harem.”

“Scout’s honor.” I put my hand to my chest. Really, I was interested in Charlotte enough that Harley’s date wasn’t even on my radar.

“Good. I knew you were an honorable man, even if you fight like an assassin.” She said.

“Hey, assassins actually have a strict cod—“

“Yeah, yeah. Okay, I’ll catch you later.” She darted around Desmonda and sat down at her desk as Crimson strolled into the classroom, watching all of us.

“Class today is canceled. Come up and get a good look at your matches today. You’ll fight through most of them today at the gym. Tomorrow we’ll do semifinals and finals. There will be real weapons, but the UG has rounded up a group of level thirty healers to make sure that even if you kill someone, it isn’t permanent.” Crimson started putting up pieces of paper on the board. Six in all formed the bracket.

When no one moved, she glared. “Move it.”

Students scrambled to get up and see who they would be fighting.

“What did she mean… uh… not permanent?” Harley hung close to me and put me between her and Desmonda.

“At that level, they can revive someone who’s only been dead for a few minutes. Any longer than that and they can do nothing.” I explained, remembering reading about it.

The idea of reviving someone like that was beyond interesting.

“Oh. Like anything? What if I get my head cut off?” Harley asked.

“You’ll be fine. Only a few types of cursed items can prevent revival.” Des answered from the other side of me patiently waiting for people to get their information and head off.

Eventually, I was able to step up to the board.

Thirty seven matches were spread across four different areas.

Each of them essentially leading to a single position at the top of each, that would then be tomorrow’s semi-finals.

At the top of each section, it listed where it would take place in the gym.

At number thirteen, I was in the second group, listed for the grassland region of the gym.

“Hey, I’m with Dessy.” Harley stiffly turned to the woman in question.

Des was grinning viciously at Harley. “If you last three rounds, we get to fight.”

Harley looked terrified at the prospect of fighting Des.

“Don’t be a bully.” Charlotte grabbed Desmonda’s face and made her look the druid in the eyes.

“Try your hardest, Harley.” Des shrugged.

“What about you, Charlotte?” I asked her, looking at her bracket.

My heart fell.

“It’ll be fine.” She smiled sweetly, even though her third round put her squarely against Penelope Saint-Clair. The level four was a tough opponent for anyone, but Charlotte didn’t get to use Bun-bun in the competition and if I was honest, solo combat was a particular point of weakness for her.

“Yeah. You got this. We’ll celebrate you kicking her ass tonight with the date.” I smiled.

“Date?” Des stopped glaring at Harley to ask.

I hesitated, Harley’s words of Des liking me too suddenly swirled in my mind and I had limited experience with a single girlfriend, not to mention the idea of two.

Suddenly, my tongue felt like it was surrounded by landmines and I couldn’t speak.

Thankfully, Charlotte saved me. “Harley asked if me and Ken would help her on a double date with her priestly beauty.” Charlotte said, stepping out of the crowd now that we each had our matches.

Des raised an eyebrow at the bard. “Yeah, you got a date?”

“Only if we went with some other people.” Harley smiled. “And I didn’t want you to hit me when I was hitting on Mere.”

Des at least seemed satisfied with that. “Then good luck, you guys.”

Yet at the same time, her back felt incredibly lonely to me. “Des, do you want to come too?” I blurted out.

“No. It’s fine. Enjoy your date with Charlotte. Harley, come on, we need to get ready.” She snapped at the bard.

Who, to my surprise, jumped forward to chatter and bother Des while they walked.

“Don’t worry. If there’s a problem, we girls will work it out.” Charlotte smiled brightly.

I wasn’t exactly sure what was happening, but it sounded fair enough to me. “If that’s what you girls want. Let’s go get to our matches. The rocky area is by the field. Maybe we can cheer each other on for our matches.”

“Yeah. That would be awesome. I want to see you take the prize. If you get a day in the dungeon with Crimson…” She bit her lip.

“I know. Maybe I could go deep enough to get a second class. That would be huge.”

Charlotte nodded excitedly and Bun-bun nearly lost his spot on her head. The rabbit was angry with me and chattered at both of us. “It’s okay, Bun-bun.” She walked away while trying to console the rabbit.

That left me oddly alone.

But what perfect timing for Crimson to swoop in. “You are going to win, right?” She spoke softly into my ear.

“Damn well going to try.” I tried to stop from jumping before I turned around.

She really moved too quietly. The red leather clad adventurer was smiling at me.

“Good. I put that prize out there so that no one would judge me for playing favorites. Marlow is watching you closely now that she knows you cannot upgrade your stats.”

I knew it.

“Is she going to expel me over not being able to use my stats?” I asked.

Crimson shook her head. “She’ll expel you if you cannot complete the end of semester test, which involves going into the dungeon. Or if she deems you unsuitable to diving to the point, you are a danger to your team.”

I knew that Crimson offered me some protection, yet she had proven time and time again that she wanted to push us and specifically me, as far as we would go.

She wouldn’t protect me from this.

“You said you had another idea?”

“I do.” She had a mysterious smile on her face. “But continue to try your hardest. Penelope is gunning for you because I rejected her.”

My face well. “You what?”

“Her father is a level fifty-five. He approached me asking if she could apprentice with me. I told both of them that I would never take an apprentice.” She only smiled wider as I became uncomfortable.

Great.

“So she hates that you made an exception for me and not her? But she can’t go after you.” I rubbed at my forehead, understanding that Crimson was already making enemies out there for me.

“She’ll try to defeat you, maybe even break your spirit. So, hold on, Ken. Better yet, kill her.” Crimson encouraged me.

“Kill her?” I frowned.

“Kill everyone in the tournament you can. They’ll be revived, anyway.” Crimson said it so casually. I had to wonder just how many people she’d killed.

There was no way that she’d climbed to the position she was at in the dungeons without killing. As much as we’d all like to pretend that fighting in the dungeon was just adventurers fighting against the dungeon, there were other adventurers more than willing to harm each other for loot.

At the lower floors, a CID full of items was worth enough to purchase a small island nation, and greed always brought out the worst in humanity.

“Fine. I’ll kill.” I made up my mind.

“Good. Now hurry up so you can watch some of the fights. You’ll not fight Penelope until the finals. Watch her fights and figure out how to overcome the difference in levels.” Crimson turned back to the classroom to collect her things.

I had no time to wait around and rushed to the gym. The campus was busy today with all the first years out of the dungeon, and the second years appeared to be gathering into large groups.

With the problem on the second floor, most of them were likely preparing to push past the problem and then camp for several nights in the dungeon, pushing their way further down.

Leveling got harder as you grew. Though the first level had come easily to all of us, most of the second years were in the high single digits.

Shifting my focus from them, I watched the gymnasium.

It was an absolutely dominating structure that took up more space than the classrooms.

Inside it was sectioned out into different terrains and I didn’t worry, hurrying straight to the grassy plains where my section of today’s tournament would be.

About twenty people were gathered, and heads turned when they saw me.

“Ah. Crimson’s boy.” An older woman in a suit and skirt noticed me. “I think we are all here, then. We’ll go in order from number ten to number nineteen in the first rounds. For those of you who don’t know, I’m Miss Sae, the teacher for the C class. This here is a healer on loan from the UG.”

A woman with a shaved head didn’t even acknowledge her introduction, as she kept her head bowed as if she was praying.

“Alright. First group.” She held out a piece of paper. “Use your real weapons and don’t hold back.”

Two girls stepped up into the area. The first was Taylor from my class in a skintight workout outfit. She had toned muscles indicating that she was some sort of melee class, while the other wore a loose fitting dress that looked like it was magical in nature.

The second held a wand in her hand and with the dress, I assumed she was a caster of some sort.

My bet was on Taylor winning.

The early levels were skewed too far in melee’s advantage, it wasn’t until later that casters really blossomed.

“Fight.”

Taylor rushed forward, only drawing her weapon, a large spiked mace, as she closed the distance.

The caster shouted. “Shield.” The air in front of the caster warped into a white lens that caught the blow as she whipped her wand at Taylor.

Taylor didn’t hold back. “Crush.” Her mace glowed with the activated skill and the shield shattered as her mace carried through.

My classmate was willing to take a hit with a wand in order to get close to the caster.

The wand went off and a magical bullet hit Taylor’s shoulder, weakening her blow, but it didn’t matter.

Her spiked mace slammed home into the caster’s side.

There was a sick crack of bones as Taylor whipped her mace back, flecks of blood dancing in the air as she brought it back around.

The caster coughed on a sob of pain and faltered. But crying wasn’t about to fix things.

Smacks of mace on flesh filled the air as Taylor mercilessly pushed her advantage.

Taylor caught her in the face and the caster went down in a heap as Taylor stood over her with a bloody mace.

“Oh, my god. I’m going to be sick.” Taylor rushed to the side and started puking.

The place was quiet, as we were all in shock at the sudden brutality of it. Only the sway of the grass and Taylor’s vomiting reached me before the healer started to move.

She took slow, methodical steps as she moved to stand over the downed girl. “Revive.” She said firmly, as if she was demanding heaven open its gates and give the girl back.

There was a bright flash that made spots in my vision.

When it cleared, the caster was sitting up, touching her head with a look of disbelief. “I died?”

“You weren’t gone more than a few seconds.” Miss Sae said quickly. “Next two.”

The caster was looking between the teacher and her puking opponent as if she wasn’t sure exactly what was happening or who had it worse.

I was busy playing the fight back through my mind. What could either of them have done better?

Really, Taylor had played it well. It was the textbook way to deal with casters. Rush them, break any defenses, and clobber them.

The caster, she may not really have done anything wrong. About the best she could have done was create space between her and Taylor after her shield was attacked.

I rubbed at my chin. Or maybe chosen a different weapon. Even if she was at a disadvantage, fighting with something like a sword or a club would have allowed her to protect herself better.

Desmonda and her fighting with a dagger came to mind. Though she knew how to fight with it. The caster here had been more like Charlotte in combat skills.

“Alright. Twelves step up.” Miss Sae called out and two more people stepped into the ring.

Though this one proved to be much less exciting as it was two casters who just stood across the space casting the same two spells at each other until one fainted.

“Thirteens.” Miss Sae said as both of the casters were being tended to by the healer.

I stepped into the center where everyone had been fighting. Taylor’s strategy of not drawing her weapon until the last moment spoke to me. Though, there was another thing I could do, not use my normal dual wielding.

That way, my next opponent might make a mistake.

As I squared up against my opponent, she had a staff loosely held in her hand with a large cross on top.

She looked terrified.

Crimson’s words entered my mind again.

How was I supposed to kill an opponent that was literally shaking before the match started though?

“Start.” Miss Sae shouted.

I rushed forward, drawing just my dagger.

The healer protected herself with the staff, but didn’t even swing to make some space.

I grabbed the staff and twisted it away from her, exposing her side before my knife plunged into her side.

When she cried out, my gut wrenched, and I stopped.

She stepped back. “Transfer wound.” She said as she pressed her hand to her side.

My chest suddenly ripped open as a stab wound transferred to me.

More than anything, the shock got me as I stumbled back.

The previously timid looking girl sneered. “Men, too easy.” She used the staff and slammed it down on her foot with a look of pure ecstasy. “Transfer wound.” She shout again and my foot twisted in on itself as I felt bones break in my foot.

Whatever previous concerns, I had vanished in a puff of smoke and I ignored the pain as I rushed her again, my knife cutting deep into her arm.

When she tried to shout her spell, my fist came up hard into her jaw, snapping her mouth shut.

“Earth Stomp.” The ground rippled under her, and she fell, catching herself with her staff.

“Dark Strike.” My knife found her throat, and in a splash of red, I dealt a critical blow to her.

She fell back, her eyes looking up at me in shock as she tried to clutch her slit throat, her mouth moving, but no words coming out.

I knew some people could still cast spells without words and I couldn’t take the chance. Falling down on her with the dagger, I dealt the finishing blow, before pushing off of her.

Bile welled up in my throat as I saw the bloodied woman laying below me.

“Oh god.” I turned and puked, only the pain of the two wounds keeping me grounded.

A hand pat my back. “I get it. Was just there myself.” Taylor’s voice was a little hoarse as she rubbed at my back. “Normally, I’d offer to hold your hair, but you keep it short.”

Laughing only made me bend over again and dry heave.

After that round finished, she handed me a towel and a water bottle. “But look, she’s back on her feet.”

True to Taylor’s words, the girl was standing again, and her clothes were free of blood.

“That was a nasty spell.” I said as the healer came over to me and pressed a hand to my shoulder, instantly fixing the cut in my side and my foot without a word.

“Some sort of cleric class with an affinity for pain.” Taylor agreed. “Glad you took that one for the class.”

I snorted, not quite sure what was happening. “Class 1-A will come out on top here. I need to win so I can get my prize from Crimson.”

“Ha. Well then, I hope to fight you in the third round. Doesn’t seem like too hard of competition.” Taylor turned to gesture at the next two fighting. Again, it was a melee versus a healer. But unlike me, they didn’t hesitate to crush the healer.

“At least I’m not a healer in this competition.” I said trying to make levity, but then realizing that Charlotte was fighting not far away.

“Let’s speed things up.” Miss Sae shouted. “Fifteens in the center. Winner of elevens and of the twelves. You are up over here.” She pointed to a different area so that the two matches fought at the same time.