Book 4: Chapter 18

Book 4: Chapter 18

The rest of their first run of the dungeon wasn’t anything to write home about. There were some puzzles, there were some monsters, and there were questionable aesthetic choices everywhere. Kay continued to get more loot of debatable usefulness, ignoring the fact that he could use it to practice one of his Skills, and Darten got a couple of pieces that he said were useful, so overall, it was a decent run. Kay didn’t badger Kyriel and Edgar, the two sentinels sent in to fill out Kay’s party, too much. They seemed focused on being professional and competent whenever Kay ended up sharing one of the dungeon’s rooms with them, and he felt they were doing a great job. Personally, he was more of a “get to know your people” type of leader, but not everyone flourished in that kind of environment or even wanted to be in one.

The final boss of the run was sadly underwhelming. Kay remembered a desperate scramble to survive against an immortal monster while completing the puzzle that would let his team escape from the last time he’d done a run of this dungeon, and this boss was... not that. The boss was a massive octopus or squid-like monster with tentacles that regenerated when they were sliced off, kind of like a hydra's heads. The objective was to defeat the monster before an endless tide of individually weak limbs crushed you as they multiplied since the boss was smart enough to start tearing off its own tentacles if the people fighting it didn’t. There was a puzzle incorporated into the fight, with the monster’s body, which didn’t regenerate, was invulnerable except in certain locations that moved across its body as its skin flashed and shifted through various patterns and tones. For roughly a minute, the creature would be one color, say white, with some kind of pattern on it, like green polka dots. Somewhere on its body would be one dot that was a different color. You had to find it and hit it hard enough to hurt it in that one spot that could actually be harmed. Once you hit it hard enough or a minute passed, the colors and pattern would change, and off you went again, looking for a new weak spot somewhere on the monster.

Kay just covered it in a seemingly infinite wave of blood that changed into massive spikes after coating the boss. They only pierced into its hide in the spot that was vulnerable, but since that spot changed every time enough damage was done to the boss, it was ripped to pieces as spike after spike slammed home inside of it within the span of a few seconds.

Glancing over at the small pile of tentacle ends that were sitting in the corner, then back to the gruesome sight of the dead cephalopodic boss monster that was slowly dissolving against the floor of the dungeon, Kay let out a small sigh. “I guess The Many Trial Rooms isn’t up to dealing with someone with a tier-five Class yet.” He shrugged and moved closer to where the body was disappearing. “Worth a shot to see if I could get some decent experience, and it never hurts to learn about how a group of your people are living.”

“Sorry this was a disappointment,” Darten said as he stepped up next to Kay.

“Disappointment isn’t the word I’d use,” Kay replied with a grin, “Especially not while inside the dungeon we’re talking about. I didn’t get everything I wanted out of this trip, but I did achieve multiple goals. I can’t use this dungeon to quickly train myself into getting multiple tier-five Classes, but that was a long shot anyway. I’ve already got a huge advantage over almost anyone else in the world on getting tier-fives, and just so happening to have a dungeon within our borders that I could use to grind them out quickly was asking a bit too much.” He smiled and shrugged, “And that’s only for now anyway. Who knows how much stronger The Many Trial Rooms will get, or maybe one of the other dungeons we could potentially wake up is stronger? Who knows?” He bent down and started picking up the loot that spawned where the boss’ body had been. “Let’s step outside before I identify these. I’d rather not hang around, just in case the dungeon is sapient and wants to get me.”

The single door that was the entrance popped them out into the same underground room that Kay’s party had found while running from the pterosaurs on that first expedition. Teams of adventurers stood in a neat line while Sentinels stood watch, both making sure that the adventurers didn’t cause trouble while they waited and ensuring that the workers expanding the place had the space they needed to do their work. The entrance hall at the other end of The Many Trial Rooms had a lot more space, due to it being for more than one dungeon probably, but they only had access to one of those dungeons right then, so the expansion had been ordered.

“I’m glad that we’re such a draw to all these workers and various building-based Classes,” Kay mentioned to Darten as they carefully walked past the line in the opposite direction. “They’re damn useful.”

Darten had to hold his body sideways and scoot along past the adventurers. Thankfully, there were only five teams waiting, so after a series of large crab steps, he was free to walk normally. “It’s because new places mean opportunities to build new things and try different techniques or styles you haven’t had an opportunity for, which is a huge leveling opportunity. One of the teachers I had when I was young told me that a lot of cities mandate that they keep their new buildings or repairs within a certain architectural style. That can look nice, but the uniformity and repetition eventually makes it a poor way to level Skills.”

“And the regular workers? The ones who just lift, carry, and so on?”

“More opportunities. There are a lot of things that need to be done, so there’s little competition for the less, uh, intricate jobs. The ones you don’t need specific Classes or Skills for.”

[————————————————————]

If he could modify that, he could make a broken piece of equipment. If he could modify and duplicate it? A lot of information coming in was indicating that trouble was on the horizon for Avalon, which was one of the reasons he’d come out here to see if the dungeon would be a useful place for him to try and level grind. But the bracelet had made the entire trip more than worth it.

Kay briefly imagined a squad of his Blood Guard ambushing a faceless group of enemies from stealth, their armor shifting from the color of the walls around them into a deep crimson. That segued into ideas for a flexible skin suit for spies. Or even...

“Are you going to help at all?” Darten demanded.

“No! If I start helping, I’m just going to kill it, and you’re not going to get anything out of it. If you don’t get enough levels in to satisfy your uncle, he’s just going to make you do more runs, and then you won’t get to see your girlfriend for even longer.”

“She got recruited into one of your secret projects, so I don’t get to see her for ages anyway!”

They continued to bicker while Darten slowly wore down the boss of their run to get back to Vibrant, the rarely encountered two-person boss room a good place to let Darten grind with a tier five watching his back. Kay switched from staring at his two valuable acquisitions to using some of the less useful items as sacrifices to his Meld Blood levels.

After Darten finally killed the bright-green, floating, four-faced head with a third eye on each forehead, they stepped out of the dungeon to find Kyriel and Edgar already out waiting for them, along with Meten and a tense group of Blood Guard.

“Sorry,” Meten murmured as the Blood Guard formed up around Kay, “But it looks like we’re going to have to cut your little training vacation short. There’s been some trouble in Avalon that they need you to come deal with.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“At least two assassination attempts, and maybe an attempted coup?”