Chapter 368 - Gargoyles (Patreon)

Zeke looked out across the grounds, searching for something to indicate the nature of the dungeon’s denizens. But he saw nothing but shadows, overgrown topiary, and, above it all, the looming presence of the manor. To him, it looked like nothing so much as a haunted house one might find in a movie.

“I find the memories of your old world fascinating,” Eveline said. “It was so safe that you had to invent ways to scare yourselves.”

“It wasn’t that safe,” Zeke muttered inwardly.

“A few isolated wars, a little mass killing – that’s nothing compared to what I left behind when I died,” she said. “Or what we see every day.”

Zeke couldn’t really argue with that. Earth had had plenty of issues, but he’d never really had to worry about an untimely and violent death. Sure, that sort of thing happened, but it was rare enough that when it did, it had shocked the entire country. By comparison, he’d had to fight tooth and nail to survive the Radiant Isles, and the dangers had only increased since his ascension.

“What was your old world like?” he asked.

Eveline gave a mental shrug. “I don’t remember it all,” she admitted. “And what I do recall, I don’t want to discuss. At all.”

“Eveline…”

“I don’t go delving into your trauma, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t start digging into mine,” she said with finality. Zeke took the not-so-subtle hint and left any additional questions unasked.  Instead, he continued to focus on his surroundings.

Behind him, the rest of the group rested next to the fire Sasha had built with her skills. Pointedly, she’d planted herself on the opposite side of the makeshift camp from Pudge. Neither seemed particularly happy about it, but Zeke wasn’t going to plant himself between them. That was their hill to climb, and he knew well enough that any input he might give would only make things more difficult.

“Mature,” said Eveline. Zeke couldn’t tell if she was joking or not.

It had already been a couple of hours since the party had entered the dungeon, but Zeke wasn’t in any hurry to move on. After all, the whole point of passing through that arch was to disappear for a while, so conquering the dungeon too quickly could prove disastrous.

“You need to take this seriously,” Eveline chided. “This will not be the walk in the park you think it’ll be.”

“I’m aware of the dangers,” Zeke said. He’d heard what Pudge and Sasha had been through with the Ixilak Hive, so, he thought he was prepared for whatever this new dungeon could throw at him.

“You really aren’t,” she said. “That dungeon was maybe category one, if it was ranked at all.”

“What do you mean?” Zeke asked.

“We have dungeons in Hell, too. Technically, the Spear of Desolation you climbed was one. Sort of. It was a proto-dungeon, I think. In any case, dungeons are split up according to their difficulty.  Aside from the ones that are too pitiful to even rank, category one is the easiest. This is not a category one.”

“I have so many questions,” Zeke said. He really didn’t know how dungeons even worked, much less how they were differentiated.

Eveline gave a mental sigh. “You really are clueless,” was her exasperated reply. Then, before Zeke could defend himself, she said, “Not your fault, I suppose. Dungeons are part of two worlds. Mostly, they sit slightly out of tune with our reality. Like an iceberg. The bits that jut into our reality give us access. But there are exceptions that we call proto-dungeons that are artificially created and straddle the line more evenly. The Spear of Desolation was like that. Or didn’t you notice that it was much bigger on the inside?”

“I…uh…”

“You didn’t, did you?”

“I just didn’t think about it,” Zeke admitted.

He got the impression that Eveline was running her hand down her face. “You are hopeless,” she said. “Anyway. Dungeons. The most dangerous one I’ve ever heard of was category twenty. There’s worse out there, I’m sure. But…my point – and this is what you really need to hear – is that your little pet’s experience is not indicative of what you can expect here. In fact, you should go into this expecting it to be something like what you found in the Spear of Desolation. Maybe there won’t be some tortured dwarven prince at the top of a tower, but you get the picture.”

“Then you’re saying that I might’ve jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire,” he reasoned.

“No doubt about it. You should’ve just fought the giants. At least then you’d have known what you were getting into,” she said. “But whatever. It’s not like you weren’t told, right? Wait – did someone tell you that? I seem to remember…”

Zeke tuned her out. If what Eveline said was true, then there was an argument to be made. However, the fact remained that he’d rather fight something powerful when he and his companions were at full strength than engage with a weaker foe when he and the others were exhausted.

“That’s because you’re stupid,” Eveline pointed out. “Or contrary, maybe. Ignorant, definitely.”

“You’ve made your point. Now can you please just shut up?” Zeke said. “I really don’t want to take steps to do it myself.”

“You know, just because you disagree with what I say doesn’t give you the right to torture me. Just saying.”

Zeke shook his head. If he forced Eveline to be quiet, it certainly wouldn’t be pleasant experience for her. But was it torture?

“Yes.”

He groaned. “Fine. Sorry,” he said. “I just…you know what? Never mind. I’m sorry. I won’t do anything to hurt you.”

“Unless I step too far out of line,” she suggested.

“The only way I’ll do anything like that is if you actually hurt me first,” he stated. He knew Eveline had never set out to put herself under his authority. On top of that, she had been a great help, providing information and support. More, without the companionships she provided, he probably would have gone a little crazy back in the demon realm.

“That’ll have to do,” she said. Then, she gave the impression that she was looking around before asking, “You think they’re ready? We may as well get started with this thing, right?”

“You seem eager.”

“I’m always enthusiastic and supportive. Go team!”

“That is demonstrably false,” Zeke stated.

“Well, okay. Maybe not always. But I might’ve had an ulterior motive here. Like that gargoyle that’s about to swoop down on us.”

It took Zeke a moment to process what she’d said, and by the time he had, a giant slab of rock slammed into him. But it didn’t end there. Instead, he felt claws dig into his chest before something lifted him into the air. The beat of the monster’s wings buffeted him as it rose higher and higher.

A giant ball of [Hellfire] sailed past Zeke’s struggling form. It collided with the creature with a sizzle of corruption and heat. It roared before letting Zeke go. He fell the twenty or thirty feet to the ground, digging a shallow crater when he landed.

By that point, Zeke’s mind had finally caught up, and he embraced [Triune Colossus], fueling it with earthen mana. He grew, and in only a moment, he’d transformed into a hulking mass of rock, metal, and crystal. So, when the monster swooped back in, it found that he was a much more difficult target to assault.

With a backhanded blow, Zeke slammed his recently summoned hammer into the gargoyle’s side, sending it to crash into a nearby tree. Immediately, Silik sent a beam of light to where it landed, and Pudge followed that attack up by summoning a giant, black-and-red claw that swept forward to slash through the thing’s hastily raised wing.

The ground shook as Zeke bounded forward, and harnessing a combination of his momentum as well as his massive strength, he aimed another blow at the prone gargoyle. But he found nothing but the ground with his overhand swing. Then, before he could recover, he felt sharp claws rip across his back. Thankfully, his rocky skin was more than durable enough to take the attack without giving in to too much damage, but even so, the blow took quite a bit of rock and crystal with it.

Zeke whipped around, aiming a backhanded blow at the thing, but once again, he completely missed.

“What the hell is going on?!” he growled inwardly as, once again, the creature attacked him from behind.

“Teleport,” said Eveline. “Nasty little creature. Hard to pin down.”

“You think so?” he muttered as he spun around. By the time his hammer followed, the monster had again disappeared. However, it seemed to understand the futility of its previous attacks, because it had chosen a new target.

Jasper leaped backward, humming something upbeat as his body quickened to match the pace. He narrowly dodged the monster before thrusting his rapier into the gargoyle’s hideous face. It reeled back in obvious pain, which allowed Pudge to hit it with another ball of [Hellfire].

More importantly, that brief delay gave Zeke the opening he needed to tackle the thing to the ground. He dismissed his hammer before grabbing hold of its wings, and with a show of immense strength, ripped them free.

He’d expected a shower of blood to follow, but instead, all he got was a screaming gargoyle and a cloud of dust as the monster furiously raked its claws across his chest. The frantic attack only lasted a brief moment before Silik hit it with a beam of light. At the same time, Sasha finished casting a spell, and a bolt of lightning extended from the tip of her staff to hit the creature square in the chest. Finally, a thousand vines erupted from the ground and wrapped themselves around the gargoyle, pinning it in place.

Zeke wasted no time before resummoning his hammer and bringing the entirety of his strength to bear as he repeatedly pummeled the helpless monster into pebbles and dust. Finally, he received the influx of experience that told him the thing was dead.

“What the hell was that?” he muttered, looking down at the pile of rocks.

“Gargoyle. Level forty-four,” said Sasha.

“Only forty-four?”

He’d killed dozens, if not hundreds, of creatures that level or higher. “If I’d been alone, that fight wouldn’t have gone down like that,” he said inwardly.

“Some things are going to be bad match-ups. If it’s any consolation, it would’ve had a hard time hurting you enough to actually kill you,” Eveline stated. “At least until its friends arrived.”

“Friends?”

“Gargoyles don’t usually hunt alone,” she stated.

At that, Zeke wheeled around and searched the skies. But he didn’t see anymore of the hideous creatures in the air.

“Oh, I wish I could see the look on your face…”

“I hate you so much sometimes,” Zeke said.

“Gargoyles are generally solitary hunters,” she said. “Ambush predators, really. Or at least the demonic versions were. But this just supports my point about the difficulty of going through this dungeon.”

“What’s the alternative? We can’t just go back the way we came in, can we?”

“I suggest clearing the first level. That’s the –”

“I understand the concept of levels,” Zeke interrupted.

“Fine. Then get past that point, then leave the first chance you can. Because I get the feeling that this isn’t your average dungeon.”

“Why?”

“Aside from the mana? If I can feel it, you can too. I’m using your senses.”

“It does feel a lot thicker. Almost like when we were underground,” he said. “But different.”

“That’s because it’s a dungeon.”

Zeke just shook his head, but he didn’t respond. Eveline had a good point about them biting off more than they could chew. However, he had to ask, “So, what are the rewards for this kind of thing?”

Pudge had gotten five free stat points when he’d completed the Ixilak Hive dungeon. If that was the lowest difficulty, then surely completing something like this current dungeon would offer much better rewards.

“You’re hopeless. You know that, don’t you? What did I just say? You don’t need to know about rewards because you’re going to leave as soon as –”

“Just answer the question, Eveline.”

She sighed. “Fine. You can get stat points like your pet. Or –”

“Don’t call him that.”

“But –”

“But nothing, Eveline. You want to piss me off? Keep going down that road. You won’t like where it goes, I can tell you that.”

“Whatever. You can get stat points like your very special and furry friend. You get more the higher the difficulty. Or you can get items. Natural treasures. Really, it can be just about anything. I even heard about one demoness who got a racial evolution. She went from an lowly imp to full-on fiend in like a month.  Of course, she was killed soon after. But it definitely happened.”

Zeke nodded to himself, then turned to his companions. They were all looking at him like he’d gone crazy. Not really surprising, considering that he’d been holding a purely mental conversation with the demoness in his head for the past minute or so.

“Uh…are you okay?” asked Sasha.

“I’m fine. Is everyone rested up? If so, it’s probably time to get this thing going.”

Everyone said that they were ready, and so, the group set out down the lane leading across the grounds. However, they’d only gone a few steps when Zeke heard howling in the distance.

“That does not sound good,” said Jasper, still tapping his fingers against his thick leather belt.

“I don’t know if I want to meet the sort of dogs that live in a place like this,” Zeke agreed.

“It might be werewolves,” supplied Eveline.

“Or it could be werewolves,” said Sasha at the same time.

“Oh, I do like her,” Eveline stated.

“Werewolves?” Zeke said aloud.  “Really?”

“They’re beastkin. Sort of. But when their ancestors evolved, they valued fitting in more than anything else. So, most of the time, they look human. But then, when the moon’s full, they take bestial form. My dad always told me it was kind of a punishment. The Framework doesn’t like it when people try to be something they’re not.”

“Rubbish,” said Eveline. “It’s a curse passed down from parent to progeny.”

“But it could’ve come from the Framework, right?”

“Sure. Whatever. It could’ve come from the Framework, but it didn’t.”

“It’s probably not werewolves, though,” said Eta. “Place like this? I’d put my gems on them being some sort of undead.”

“Well, that’s just great,” Zeke mumbled.

Eta asked, “You have experience with undead?”

“More than I’d like,” Zeke answered. “Well, let’s get to it, then. This dungeon’s not going to complete itself.”