Chapter 12

Chapter 12

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Outside the Dungeon, Medea Island, Kalenic Sea

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Layla was informed the moment her relatives and their party had returned and she quickly set her paperwork aside to go out and meet them.

On the way down the short path, she noted that the waterfall pouring off the cliff had ceased. Most likely, Medean's men had diverted the river down towards the valley where they could make better use of it. When she caught sight of the party she almost burst into laughter. Thankfully, she was able to hold her composure, despite her relatively prim and proper aunt looking like a drowned rat and her uncle practically naked from the waist down. Though it certainly wasn't ideal, they had just returned from a potentially deadly situation with what seemed like no injuries.

Setting her expression, she approached.

"Aunt Isid, Uncle Jerrad. Lieza, Lione, Ferai. Perhaps it would be best to return to your rooms and compose yourselves before we have the debriefing." She suggested, wary of the furious expression on her Aunt's face. Isid gave a jerky nod, still breathing heavily, and they all bundled into the guild hall.

It took another hour until they had all gathered in what Layla was calling the 'Dungeon Room'. In this room she had collated every scrap of data they had on the dungeon and it's monsters. She was particularly interested in the strange rune-like script and iconography. Little hints at a fallen civilization. A table in the center of the room was covered in notes and reports, her own and from the other delvers. Off to the side, she had started collating the data into a book. It would only cover the first floor, but she had a feeling each floor would need it's own tome in the end.

The members of her aunt's party all collapsed into chairs around the table. The scribe she'd organized was prepared to transcribe the meeting, though she'd ask them all to submit their own reports later. They might remember an important detail after a good night's rest.

"I feel like the first floor wouldn't have been a problem for you, but did you have anything to say about it before we get to the second?" She prompted. Jerrad cleared his throat and sat forwards.

"The dungeon sent wave attacks at us, obviously worried and trying everything it could. We didn't take the cores, since that would have taken too long, but we did take the core from the big one. Has anyone taken a corpse out of the dungeon to test if they're edible? Good quality monster meat is hard to find. Some nobles really enjoy crustacean, you know." She shook her head.

"It's not been practical to try, yet. If the delvers are focused on hauling out monster corpses, they'll be vulnerable to ambush. Teleporting the corpses out would be more efficient and safer, but you're the only group with teleport crystals on the island." She said. "We'll try to get at least one corpse out to test it. Could end up being a valuable export." Jerrad nodded.

"The second floor was a maze, half-flooded by salt water." He explained. "Following common methods of navigating mazes leads you back to the center, where the stairs to the first floor are." Isid leaned forward.

"The monsters were fish. The first thing we knew about them was Jerrad's little wardrobe mishap." She commented, her humor obviously returned after time to de-stress.

"He lacked any other wounds, though that could be attributed to the full coverage of his armor rather than any mercy on the dungeon's part." She continued, more seriously. "Teeth sharp enough to tear the leather straps, fast enough for several passes in the five seconds it took for him to get back out of the water. Lieza shocked the water, and with my mage light under the water I got a good look at them.

"Three different monsters, based on the cores in three of the fish. There were dozens of fish in the water, most of which were possibly food for the monsters. One with the size and teeth to cut Jerrad's armor off, one that looked normal and a more numerous one that looked like an arrowhead."

"At least half the maze is submerged, partially or fully." Lieza piped up. "It made it real easy to shock the water and deal with the fish." Layla winced a bit at that.

"I have mentioned that the dungeon learns magic, or at least re-learns it, from watching us? Herna, the fire mage who died on my initial delve, cast a fireball at the crab guardian and it gained the ability to use fire magic." She informed them, to a barrage of curses.

"That sounds right, though I wasn't exactly counting." She replied. After that, they fought the crab knight. This time wasn't like the last, when they murdered him easily. This time he used fire magic extensively, sending out waves of flames with every slash of his pincer. They still took him down and collected his extra-large core, but it was a hard fight.

When they moved down into the second floor, they were once again confronted by the four exits leading from the room. with a twist.

I'd increased the water level, rising it enough that It sat an inch above the floor they stood on. Multiple layers of defense in action, here!

"This makes things more complicated." Lieza said, frowning. "I can't use my spells here, unless you want to get shocked."

They explored carefully, and when they found themselves going deeper they pulled out their first bit of prepared equipment. Each party member pulled out a metallic mask they placed over their mouths. They'd used them before, but it wasn't as important. mostly because they'd already killed the monsters.

This metal mask let them breath under the water, while some mage lights illuminated the dark water. Their first look at the flooded tunnel was of ten Bloodfish, a large school of Arrowfish and a smaller school of Sharpscales. In seconds, the battle had begun

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Jerrad pulled himself out of the water, covered in cuts and burns. His armor was warped and dented, rips and tears littered the tarnished metal. Isid followed seconds later, her leather armor and porcelain white skin likewise ruined. They scurried away from the water, desperate to escape. A glance back at the black, roiling waters revealed nothing. Seconds later Lione burst from the water, screaming in pain and struggling to keep his head above the water. In the next instant Jerrad was there, pulling the injured rouge to the shore.

Isid collapsed in his arms, having exhausted all her mana. Lione was lacking his left leg below the knee, ending in a bloody and torn stump. He wasn't screaming anymore, but a quick check proved he was just unconscious, not dead.

Lieza never surfaced. Ferai's blond locks never poked above the water.

After waiting a minute, just in case, Jerrad activated their teleport crystals and squinted his eyes at the suddenly blinding light of the surface. They were out. Out of that deathtrap.

Dazed, he recalled the fight. At least, as much of it as he could. The fish had rushed them, not letting them get their bearings. The fish shaped like arrowheads sliced into their skin, the large red ones slamming them with their bulk and tearing armor to pieces. The silver fish, who burst into a sharp, silvery cloud. Then they released lightning into the cloud, contained but still dangerous. Just as they had feared, the dungeon had learned, or remembered, how to use lightning mana.

They'd fought, because that is what they do. That's their job. But there were too many fish, and...

Lieza was overwhelmed by the arrow-like fish. Ferai had been shocked into paralysis. Lione had lost a leg to the red and black fish. He and Isid had been the only ones to make it out of the water without major injury.

This dungeon was incredibly dangerous, quick to adapt to change and vicious in it's defense. Yet... oddly restrained. It could have thrown many more monsters at them than it had. Jerrad recalled that while they were engaged by at least a dozen of the monsters, dozens more held back. Almost like they were waiting their turn.

The healers closed their wounds, smoothed over their burn scars. Lione recovered his leg, but had a distant look that heralded wounds the healers couldn't fix.

Jerrad sighed, running a hand across his now unblemished cheek. He had a report to write.

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