Dungeon Annihilation 9

Hey Guys! As promised Saturday and Sunday will be an Annihilation chapter for a while. 

Louella

A lightning bolt arced through the air striking a target set up in the backyard of the manor. I quickly channeled my mana to deliver another attack but a sandbag struck me before I could reach lethal levels. I glared at Ezal, the culprit that had thrown the bag of sand.

“Don’t glare at me, your ladyship. I told you that it was dangerous to skip practice since coming to this valley and look what happened in the dungeon. We nearly lost our lives. With all the changes going on, I can’t allow you to slack off,” Ezal said with a grin. I knew she was enjoying tormenting me. 

“I know! You can excuse a few glares!” I shouted at her. 

Ezal checked the slightly charred wooden target. “Still… it really does take a long time for lightning mages to get their attacks to lethal levels before tier two,” Ezal commented.

“Sadly. That is why most parties refuse lightning mages before tier two,” I replied with a nod.

“Let’s keep up the hard work. I want you to be able to defend yourself better. Iveta and I might not always be there for you,” Ezal said walking back to her pile of sandbags.

“Yes ma’am!” 

We worked on it for a few more hours when one of the Golden Dawn members showed up. Ezal and I finished up then went over to him.

“Ma’am! Cassie of the adventurer Guild requested that you meet her as soon as possible. The first party has dived and returned from the dungeon.”

“Very well. Thank you. We will be there shortly.” The soldier nodded then took off, likely he was requested to gather more than just me as the guildmasters would want to know this information as well.

Ezal grabbed my shoulder in a tight grip. “Hey. At least they returned.”

I gave her a chuckle. “I suppose that is true. Let’s hurry and make ourselves presentable. We have a meeting to get to,” I said turning back to the manor. 

An hour later we found ourselves in front of the construction for the adventurer’s guild building. Cassie didn’t hold back and the building was be second only to the mage’s tower at this rate. All the major masters were present when I arrived. We waited a bit longer as some more masters arrived. 

“Thank you all for coming so quickly. As this affects everyone present, I felt everyone should be present for this initial briefing on the dungeon. Let me introduce, Raedwulf, the leader of the first party to dive the dungeon.”

I looked to the man she gestured to and found a wolf beastkin walking up to the center stage. He was covered in bandages and seemed to have a limp. I almost cringed when I saw how injured he was. If the dungeon was too difficult, that would mean less people attracted to the dungeon.

“Thank you, Guildmaster. My party managed to make it to the third floor. If any of you have knowledge of dungeons, then this one was straight forward. Monsters and traps, the usual for the first floors.”

Everyone present whispered to their associates about how he could have been so injured if it was the usual fare. I remembered the goblins that we’d faced. I couldn’t help but question him as well.

“It’s the usual methodically, but the issue is the content. The traps were much more… clever in their design. The monster had a growing level of difficulty that made them hard to predict.” He gestured to his injuries. “This was caused by trap that went off directly in the center of our party. Even though our scout had checked the area and declared it safe, once all our party members where on the spot, the trap activated causing the ground to burst into spikes of stone.”

“Did you have many casualties?” I turned and saw it was the mage’s guildmaster that asked.

“Of the party of thirty-seven that went in. Five did not leave,” Raedwulf said with a bowed head.

“Is it worth it?” I asked. That was the big question. Would it be worth sending people to their deaths? If not, we might all just pack up and leave. 

Raedwulf looked at me for a second then pulled a bag off his belt. He tossed it to the wooden platform and its contents spilled out for all to see. I counted at least thirty silver coins. Not a bad payday for the lower levels of the dungeon. Especially if only five people died on its first dive. With more information then we could head further up and acquire better rewards.

“Does that answer your question?” Raedwulf asked with what I thought was a feral grin. 

“Yes, thank you.”

Cassie moved up to the centerstage. “As you can see the dungeon knows that gold is desirable to us. That means it is fairly intelligent. I want to warn everyone that I think goblins will only be the monsters for the first few sections. If it can make goblins this powerful, I fear for what it can do with other creatures.”

“What do you recommend, guildmaster?” 

“I will be raising the dungeon rank to D for the moment. Just so people know to be extra careful. Watch what you take into the dungeon and for the love of Lelune, do not throw your lives away.”

After that, the assembled masters discussed with Raedwulf any of the potential gains from the dungeon his party might have saw. For me the biggest thing was that the dungeon had added waterfalls to its outside with large wheels that were turning. They reminded me of watermills that were used to grind grain, but I couldn’t think of a reason the dungeon would need to do such a thing. 

“More training, my lady?” Ezal asked as we left the conference.

“God please no,” I said not hiding my groan.

As we walked through the village that had construction taking place just about everywhere you looked, I couldn’t help but be impressed as the speed with the Builder’s Guild worked. We passed Nastok’s partially completed blacksmith. He was hammering away at various parts needed for the construction throughout the village. 

Talinda’s inn was also coming along nicely. I think the fact that many of the adventurer’s had already paid her for several weeks in advance spurred the construction. I knew she was already serving meals out of the tavern section of the building. She was cleaning the outside as we passed but since she looked quite busy, we only waved.

The sound of hoofbeats came from the distance. Soon I noticed several of the Golden Dawn members dragging what looked like sacks behind their horses as they rode into the center part of town. They pulled to a stop right in front of us.

“Ah! Lady Louella. Just the person I was looking for,” Commander Yin said with a board grin as she dismounted.

“What can I do for you commander?”

“We caught some rats sneaking into the valley. I know the builder’s are already working overtime, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get a rudimentary wall to block the passes,” Commander Yin said as she walked behind her horse and cut the sack free. That’s when I realized that the rope had been tied to a foot.

“Rats, you say?” I asked moving next to her.

She gave the sack a swift kick and it emitted a groan of pain. “Yes. Some bandits paid for by a noble of Thonaca. I bet someone isn’t too happy about a bought noble getting a brand-new dungeon in their territory.”

“Do you think it will escalate?” I asked worried about my continued future among the living. 

“Maybe. They weren’t well informed on who hired them, but the man they named is quite high up the noble ladder. However, something like this doesn’t suit the man. If he wanted the valley, he would just come take it with an army.”

“Someone using his name?” I asked. I knew that I would receive some opposition to a lot of this. I was a bought noble and more to that, I was from Lecazar. Even if I was basically banished by my family, it was never decreed by the Emperor. If my value went up they could welcome me back with open arms. Any half smart Thonacan would be worried about an event like that.

She nodded. “Most likely. I would try to make some ties with Thonacan nobility before they come to take your head.”

“Thank you, Commander Yin. For this and the advice. I will take it under advisement.”

“What do you want done with these sacks?”

I looked the ten bags over. We didn’t have the facilities to keep them locked up and I certainly wasn’t going to have them set free. While they might flee, they might also go back to the noble that hired them. I didn’t want to have to deal with a larger force, bandit or otherwise. There was really only one decision to make.

“Give them to the dungeon. We can already see that it likes to kill things,” I said finally.

“As you command,” Commander Yin said then retied the man to her horse. She whipped its rear and her group made their way to the dungeon.

“I am glad you hired her. I feel like the valley security is in good hands with her.”

“I agree.” I rubbed my neck as I watched the dust from the horse slowly fade. This could have ended badly for me. Death would have been a release if stories about what happens to women captured by bandits were true. “Remind me to give her a raise when we sign the new contract in a month.”

Ezal gave me a smirk. “Sure thing.”