Chapter 8: Dungeon Crawling

Berry’s voice is oddly serious as we enter the entrance of the cave that holds the dungeon. “Alright, keep your wits about you when we enter. Look out for your fellow partymates and if you see something, give the rest of us a heads up.”

I look at the rest of the people in my party, watching their expressions. Bridget and Fox look nervous, but Risk looks primarily excited. Miko looks the same as he always does, but when I look at him I can see him scanning me over in return. Berry looks serious, but collected. Confident, but not in a cocky way, but in a calculated way. Collectively, we take a few steps forward as a group and a pop up appears in front of me. I look around and notice that everyone seems to be looking at their own pop ups.

The pop up seems to display the basic information for the dungeon, as well as a giant ‘Ready’ button. I tap the button which causes it to disappear and be replaced with a loading circle. The number at the top quickly climbs from 0/6, to 6/6. The menu disappears and we’re able to progress once more. Miko is in the front with me and Risk just behind him, swords at the ready and keeping our eyes peeled. Just behind us is Berry wielding his staff, and behind him is Bridget and Fox.

Fox has his spellbook out, but I can see him nervously rereading the spell page over as I glance over at him. The other thing I notice as I glance over at him puts a chill through my spine. I act before I can speak, turning and dashing forward immediately towards Fox. I swing my sword upwards, metal meeting metal as my sword stops the strike of a skeleton just before it can connect with Fox. “Skeletons!” I call uselessly, everyone in the party already having noticed my reaction and spinning around.

I can see Bridget nocking an arrow into her bow, taking aim at a skeleton behind the one I’m fending off. Risk and Miko rush towards me, backing me up and protecting the others from being targeted. The skeleton whose attack I blocked pulls their sword back slowly, leaving me to readjust my stance. I watch the skeleton, my sword again at the ready position as it winds up another attack.

“These things really are slow,” I mutter to myself, quickly raising my sword and letting out a cross slash. The attack hits hard and I can see it take a sizeable chunk out of the skeletons health, but the skeleton doesn’t stagger at all and follows through with the attack. I stumble back a bit, barely dodging the blade as it comes down where I was and hits the ground with a loud clank of metal on stone.

“Careful Astraea, they’re slow, but they hit hard. Remember, you’re under level for this.” Berry calls out from behind me. I don’t reply verbally, but I do nod. Miko steps between me and the skeleton, drawing the skeletons' attention to him, along with every other skeletons in the area.

“Their attention is on me for now, get your hits in while you can safely.” Miko announces. He winds up a fist, punching the skeleton viciously in the ribcage. The skeleton staggers at the punch, nearly dropping to one knee at the strength of the strike.

Risk doesn’t waste any time, going for one of the four other skeletons at a run. The skeleton is so focused on Miko though, that it doesn’t even attempt to block or dodge. The hit knocks the Skeleton out of it’s focused trance though, giving it enough presence of mind to realize that it’s being attacked. The moment that it raises its arm to strike Risk though, it’s struck by an arrow from Bridget’s direction. Risk dodges it’s sword strike easily, retaliating with a strike of his own that hits true.

Pulling my attention away from their own battle, I look at the other skeletons with their attention still on Miko. I dash forward, targeting one still on the far end of the battlefield. I take a swipe at the skeletons midsection, gaining it’s attention and ire. While it’s winding up another attack, I make another strike towards the skeletons upper torso before dashing backwards to dodge. Once the sword hits the ground, I dash forward again, this time aiming for the head.

“Astraea, heads up!” I spin around to find one of the other skeletons has noticed me pummeling their friend. The skeleton is holding their sword above them and swinging it down at me. I don’t have as much time to react, dodging to the side without enough time. The strike hits me in the shoulder, cutting deep. The pain is dulled, but it still hurts like hell. Nothing I can’t work through though. I steady my sword, taking a deep breath to center myself from the pain. I use a cross slash as the skeleton is recovering before pulling away a bit.

I look around and see Miko turning to look at me. “Pull back, you’re pulling too much aggro!” he warns. I nod, dashing back towards the group. Once I’m there, Berry steps forward and lays his hand on my wound. I wince at the action, but after a moment the pain starts to fade and I see my health returning to me.

Berry pats me on the back once all of my health is back. “If you do too much damage, the enemies will take notice of you even through Miko’s intimidation. Nice job though.” I nod, looking back towards Miko and Risk as they handle the skeletons. I dash back out, eyeing my stamina bar carefully when I use my dash. I don’t want to be caught out without my dash, it’s the easiest way to create distance.

I manage to finish off the skeleton I had been fighting before with only a couple more hits, turning to help the others finish off the last of the other skeletons. Once the fight winds down, Berry looks over the others, supplying the last bit of healing he needs to give Miko and making sure that everyone else is fine.

“That was a good first battle team, the rest should be similar to that. Or a couple trash mobs we hopefully won’t have problems with. The real problem is the final boss of this dungeon.” Berry explains.

“How long until we run into the boss?” Risk asks, keeping an eye out with Miko while Berry talks.

“Well, we’re not sure. It seems random when the boss will show up, but not for another half hour or so at least.” Berry explains. “That was some good work team. Fox, you’re lucky Astraea was looking out for you, try to keep a closer eye on your surroundings.” Fox’s ears dip back as he nods, looking suitably shamed. I slink over, patting Fox on the back and offering him a quick thumbs up. He perks up slightly, returning the smile.

“Alright, let’s continue.” Miko says, only glancing back at the rest of the party. We all follow his lead and I slip into line where I was next to risk.

The next couple of caverns and tunnels contain similar skeletons, even a couple of spiders that I’ve fought several times in the forest. The battles all go similarly or better. I manage to keep out of trouble in these ones, managing to pull back quickly when I notice the other skeletons starting to target me. There’s thankfully no big casualties, though it got close when a spider managed to sneak up on Bridget from above and caught her briefly in its web.

There were even a couple of rooms that didn’t have any skeletons in them, but treasure chests inside instead. The loot is automatically gathered in a pool to be reviewed after the dungeon though, so we don’t know what any of it is yet. The later it gets into the dungeon, the more on guard I can see Berry getting. His nerves seem to be setting some of the others on edge too which doesn’t help things.

We’re just patching up after another fight when I hear it, the slight rattling of bones. It’s a familiar sound after all of the skeletons we’ve fought and it sets me on guard. Looking around though, I don’t see any skeletons approaching. I can tell that the others are looking for the sound too, Berry especially is looking around quickly for the source of the rattling. I look up, the only direction I haven’t looked and I see it.

It’s a skeleton much like all of the others, but instead of one sword, this skeleton is holding two sabers. The skeleton leaps from the stone landing above us and towards Berry. I scream a warning, leaping to push Berry out of the way while raising my sword up to block the attack. I catch both swords with my own, the weight of the blow making me crumple to one knee and almost making me drop my sword. The skeleton lands, pulling it’s swords away from me and retreating with a dash.

“It knows Dash?” I exclaim, picking myself up with my sword.

“Yes, and cross slash. Be careful, one good Cross Slash could take you out of the fight Astraea.” Berry warns. I exhale, picking my sword back up and readying it. Miko has already placed himself between us and the skeleton, likely activating his Intimidation ability to draw it’s ire. The skeleton draws its first sword back, leaping forward to attack Miko quickly.

While the other skeletons were slow, this skeleton is faster. Not by a lot, but about the same speed as a normal human. Despite this Miko ducks to the side, easily dodging the first sword swipe. The second comes up from the other side though and Miko has to raise his forearm to block the blow from doing any meaningful damage. Bridget has an arrow knocked, clearly waiting for an opening to take the shot without potentially hitting Miko. Risk doesn’t wait for any such opening, attacking the skeleton openly from behind. He lands a decent hit, but the skeleton doesn’t even look at him.

The skeleton goes for another attack on Miko, Miko tanking both hits this time while Berry focuses to cast a healing spell on him. I rush forward, dashing towards the skeleton to attack from the side opposite Risk. As I land my first hit on the skeleton, it actually turns around to face both me and Risk.

Now fully facing us, the skeleton easily parries Risk’s swing, causing Risk to stumble backwards slightly. Before it can act on the opening, I make my own swing at the Skeleton. After the first slash hits, I send another through the first, activating Cross slash. The skeleton ignores Risk entirely, turning to me with it’s empty eyes. I back up slightly as I see it ready it’s swords.

I prepare a swing upwards, deflecting the skeletons' right swing upwards and away from me. The skeletons’ second swing hits home though because I’m unable to bring my sword down in time. My health dips to below half health and I dash backwards in an attempt to get away from the monster. The Skeleton reads my movements though and matches me, dashing after me. In a panic, I raise my sword and manage to block another swing before dashing again, and then again immediately after. The skeleton tries to keep up, unable to telegraph an attack while it’s chasing me.

I run out of stamina quickly trying to reposition, the skeleton still looming over me. A fireball and an arrow simultaneously hit the Skeleton, pulling it’s attention away from me just in time. I back up quickly, trying to retreat back to the rest of my group. Miko manages to regain aggro on the Skeleton, Risk taking quick jabs when he can, occasionally earning him a swipe that he easily parries. As I make it back to Berry, I sigh. There’s still a lot I have to learn about sword fighting.

Berry looks me over, laying his hands over my wound once more. “That was good, Astraea. You took a bit too much aggro and almost paid for it though.” I nod, watching the other four fight. Glancing at Berry, I can tell he’s keeping a close eye on our teammates and their health levels.

“I’m still not good enough with my sword yet. I gotta practice more.” I mention, looking down at the sword in my hands. Berry looks too, nodding thoughtfully as he finishes up healing me.

“Maybe…” he says, looking distractedly towards the others as he notices Risk’s health bar dip after a hit. He nods me forward and I return to the fight, refreshed and ready for round two. While Miko dodges sword swipes and blocks some others, I channel some mana into my sword. The other swordfighter ability I started with that I had only used sparingly until now, Fighter’s spirit. It takes mana, and my mana isn’t very high.

With my sword empowered, I prepare my sword for a strike before dashing towards the skeleton. I swing my sword forward as I come out of the dash, cleaving into the skeletons spine with my empowered sword. I follow through on the slice, pulling my sword back into the ready position and watching the skeleton carefully. The skeleton looks really affected by that attack, staggered enough that Miko can get in a good couple of hits. The skeleton offers a swipe in my direction, weak enough with my empowered sword that I can deflect the attack and still give another good swipe to the Skeletons arm.

This monster is on its last legs, it’s health bar dipping into the red. Miko presses forward, leaning into the attacks and I follow suit, dealing some weaker and safer hits to the skeleton. After a final hit from Miko, the skeleton crumbles to the floor, its remains fading away and leaving several coins and a pair of pants behind. Panting, I sheathe my sword and catch my breath. I can hear some victory cheers from behind me. I turn to see Fox, Risk, and Bridget cheering victoriously. I smile, sauntering over to the rest of the group.

Berry is healing the last of Miko’s wounds, but he looks at the rest of us with a smile. “Good job team! We finished a dungeon. All that’s left is to divvy up loot and head back to town.” he smiles at the rest of us and I can’t help but smile back.

Miko is looking over at me again, his eyes impassive. I don’t meet his eyes, just looking away. Before I can turn back to the others though, I hear him speak up. “You did good, kid.” I turn to find him looking at me, a tiny almost imperceptible smile on his face. I return the smile, not knowing what to say. I just offer a thumbs up.

Once Berry has looked us all over, he pulls out four pieces of loot and lays them on the ground. We all sit around the items, glad to be resting. “Alright team. This is what we got for loot today. As well as a ton of coin, but that will be divided evenly.”

I look at the items curiously, inspecting them with my scan. The scan shows a description of each item, including statistics that remind me briefly that this is actually a game. The item that catches my eye first, is a sword. It doesn’t look fancy, but it’s a substantial amount better than the sword I have. I’m still using the sword given out when you start the game.

The other items include a robe, and two pairs of leg wear, both are some form of pants. Looking over them, they have good stats compared to what I’ve got. The robe has something else to it that I can’t identify with my scan.

Fox speaks up before I can though, pointing out the robe as he does so. “What’s this on the robe? It’s got some additional stat that I can’t read.”

“Ah, it’s an uncommon drop. It’s got an additional randomized stat. You can’t identify it until it’s in your inventory.” Berry explains, looking the robe over. “Well, since we’re on the topic, let's start with the robe. Anyone can equip any equipment, but I think this robe would only benefit someone invested in learning magic. I’m fine personally, are there any objections to giving it to Fox?” Berry looks at the rest of the group, no one speaks up. “Well then, Fox, congrats on the upgrade.” Berry swipes a couple of buttons in a menu and the robe disappears from the pile of loot, presumably directly into Fox’s inventory.

“As for the rest of it, the pants are a little harder. Everyone could probably use these.” Berry’s response is met by almost unanimous nodding, though Fox is too busy looking at his inventory.

“I’ve got dibs on this one.” Miko picks up a pair of pants, looking over the group carefully to see if anyone disagrees. My eye is more on the sword than either of the pants, they could fight over the pants if they want.

“Well, I want the other pair.” Risk looks over us and I hold my hands up to signal my backing out of the fight for the pants.

Bridget pipes up from behind me, her voice full of a cocky and friendly competitiveness. “Well, so do I.” She puts her hands on her hips, meeting Risk’s eyes evenly.

Berry cuts between them, his tone mirthful and clearly enjoying the show. “How about Rock, Paper, Scissors. Best two out of three take the pants.”

“Fair nuff,” Risk says, rolling his shoulders before balling his fist and resting it in his opposite palm. “I’ll have you know that I’m really good at Rock, Paper, Scissors,” he informs her cockily. She rolls her eyes and readies her hands. The matches are tense, but Risk loses handily, two to one.

“Congrats on your new pants, Bridget.” Berry chuckles, tapping the pants over to Bridget and out of the loot pool.

“They were ugly anyways,” Risk says, he sticks his tongue out playfully at Bridget for good measure.

“And the last item left is this sword.” Berry picks up the sword, holding it up between me and Risk. “You’re both free to decide amongst yourselves who gets it, but if I can offer my suggestion,” we both look at Berry hesitantly. “I think Astraea should take it.” My eyes go wide at that, meeting his eyes as he looks at me.

“Why her?” Risk asks, not really looking all that broken up by the suggestion. “I mean, she can have it if she wants, I just wanna know why you think so.”

“It’s stats aren’t amazing, and it’s only barely an upgrade to the sword you’re currently using Risk. However, it would be a big boost for her. Mostly though, the benefit of this sword is that it’s lighter than it looks. For a dexterity based swordfighter like her, I think she’d get a lot more use out of it than you Risk.” Berry explains to Risk, though I imagine that the explanation is for my benefit too.

Risk shrugs, looking over to me with a smile. “You’re lucky I’m so nice.”

I nod at him, smiling gently. Not knowing what to say, I put my hand up for a high five. Risk looks surprised for a second before his smile widens and he slaps my hand excitedly. I hear a little ping as the new sword enters my inventory. I immediately navigate through my menus to equip it, storing my old sword in my backpack for now. My scabbard around my hip immediately changes and I grip my new swords handle.

Pulling the sword out, I’m immediately surprised by the weight difference between this sword and my other sword. I grip the handle with both hands, holding it like I held my old sword. I give a few practice swings, adjusting to the feel of this sword will be weird. It will definitely be an improvement to my combat capability once I’ve got it down though, I can feel it.

SylkWeaver

And... the last chapter I have saved up. More chapters will be incoming. Work on writing has been slow as I just got a new job the other day! I'm also planning on going to a con (EFNW in case any of you happen to be planning for that too c;) in the next two weeks. I am getting writing done though, rest assured.