Azaria The Doll Dungeon 8

Morning Everyone! 

  Chapter 8: False News, Plans, Acting like a Thief

Lance Teron

-Right after Azaria healed him-

I spun my shoulder but didn’t feel any pain. She’d really healed me completely. As well as given me a gift, though I doubted it was on purpose. The core didn’t seem that experienced. With my head working better, I pulled out my phone. I quickly sent my mother a message with a rough report of what happened. Mainly I just told her to be careful.

Next, I flipped through several social media and news sites. I wanted to know if Kyle had already tried to alter the truth. Sure enough, I came to the largest news site for the area. I clicked play on the video that had his face.

“Is it true that you were attacked in the dungeon?” A reporter asked with a obviously fake look of concern. I wondered how much he was paying her.

“Yes. I don’t know what came over him! We were about to leave the dungeon and he threw a vial of Corrupted Lizard blood on me. If I was any lower level, I would have died!” Kyle said with grimaces of pain mixed in. His waist and parts of his legs showed hints of bandages. I smiled that I’d managed to inflict a bit of harm on the bastard.

The reporter turned to face the camera. “Lance Teron is a harvester that has recently been active over the last two months. His sister has already declined an interview as well as his mother. The police believe he planned this from the start to steal the materials gained from the dungeon. As the audience is aware, dungeon materials are a very lucrative source of income.”

She glanced to a point behind the camera for a moment then my picture appeared on the screen. “If you see this man, please proceed with caution. He is believed to be armed and dangerous.”

The interview continued for a few more minutes relating the point of how pitiful Kyle was, and how evil I was. I checked the time stamp and saw the video had been uploaded over six hours ago and had already received nearly six hundred thousand views.

“Fucking great,” I said then spit clearly my mouth of a bit of blood.

I switched apps on my phone and checked the area around me. My prospects weren’t too great. This was on the outskirts of town. There were mainly old shops and homes. I clicked off the phone to save my battery. It would last forty-eight hours, but I’d already used nearly twelve of that with my usage from yesterday. 

I laid there for nearly three hours trying to think of what to do. Nothing good really came to mind other than skipping town. Even that would be hard to do. With the Aether Shift, monster spawned out in the uninhabited parts of the map. This resulted in cities, towns, and anyone trying to settle somewhere to build walls. That meant there was only a few ways in and out of the city for me to attempt.

“FUCK!” I screamed only to get an echo back. I sighed while looking around. What was I going to do? I was staring for a few minutes at the darkness past the train when I had an idea. 

This dungeon was undiscovered. That likely meant it was new. I didn’t know what that meant for the dungeon itself, but it could be weak. Definitely weaker than many of the dungeons in the city right now. That could also mean it was naïve. If I could bring it more materials, she might flood me with Aether again and increase my power.

Speaking of, I need to investigate what this harvester skill was. It wasn’t on any of the public records. Sure, there were plenty of abilities that the user kept secret. You didn’t want to give away your biggest trump card after all. “Only one way to proceed.”

I quickly pulled out my phone and checked the dungeons around me, as well as the shops. I wasn’t above robbing a place to stay alive. That was annoying hard given magic was a thing now, but these out of the way shops shouldn’t have anything like that.

I found what I was looking for, a Level one dungeon three stations from here. It was a lowly goblin dungeon that people hated diving. There were theories about why it never grew further but they’re not exactly easy to prove. If I stayed on the first floor, I should be able to handle the low level fodder it uses.

I checked the time, it was just about two in the morning. Today would be the worst time to head out. I was only a little bit from station sixty-two. I wouldn’t be surprised if police and Kyle’s goons were combing the streets for me. Better to wait until tomorrow night.

I tried to find a more comfortable place to lay down and rest. It was going to be a boring twenty-four hours. I couldn’t even use my phone as I didn’t want to kill the battery too quickly.

“Fuck.”

~~~

I stretched after my third nap. The first actually came quickly and easily. Major blood lose would do that. It lasted a good eight hours. The other two took a bit of an effort to make happen. The biggest issue I was hungry.

I quickly checked my phone and found that I still had a few more hours. It was already dark, but I wanted to give it a bit longer. I did receive replies from my sister and mother. They believed me and were laying low. Not exactly a hard thing to do when they were stuck in their respective places. 

My stomach growled with a large amount of pain. It felt like my stomach was trying to eat itself. I checked my pockets even though I knew there wouldn’t be anything for me to eat. In the breast pocket of my coat, I found a scale. I grinned at the item. It was something I was going to smuggle out of the last dungeon for myself since my party was a group of assholes.

I pulled it out just to have something to do. I blinked in surprise when I found it glowing with a soft red light. I tilted my head as this had never happened before… before I got the harvester skill. I sat up and looked at the scale more closely. What do I do now? Was it an identification skill?

I thought about some of the parties I’d been in then swallowed. “Harvester.” I said lightly not sure if it would do anything.

The scale melted in my hand almost causing me to freak out. The liquid flowed along my arm until it reached my chest where it sank it. I waited to see if anything else would happen but there was nothing. I mentally pulled up my status.

Lance Teron

Age:20

Level:6

Race: Human

Type: Harvester

Aether: 30/100

Skills: Harvest

Harvests: Scale of the Corrupted Lizard – 50% Poison Resistance

Achievements:

Trading With Chaos – You achieved something few could claim. While it might appear to be dumb luck, even luck has a place in the universe. Aether gain +1 per hour.

Resist! That was something people paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire. I managed to get a freaking fifty percent resist just like that! Fuck yeah! I whipped out my phone and brought my guide for monster parts. I still wanted to do the goblin dungeon later tonight, but I’d never done it before. Thus, I wanted to double check what materials you could get from them.

~~~

“Damn. Why is the street so busy at two in the freaking morning!?” I said with a low growl.

I walked as calmly as I could without outright running. This must be a really fun area if its this busy during the night, but dead in the morning. Well… While I said it was busy there was only a couple dozen people spread out over several blocks. I’d just planned not to run into anyone. I guess plans never go as planned.

I snickered at the ridiculous thought. I saw a convince store that was still open ahead and groaned at the sight of food only a few dollars away. I gritted my teeth then quickly glanced inside to see if there were any cameras. I saw two that I felt I could avoid if enough work.

I grabbed a small basket and started filling it with enough junk food to kill a person. I was about to check out when I saw a backpack for sale. It was priced three times its value, but I needed something to carry stuff. I made it to the register and did my best to keep my face pointed away from the cameras. 

The bored cashier rang me out. “That’ll be seventy-five dollars and ten cents.”

I handed him four twenties and told him to keep the change while shoving everything into the bag. I left and quickly made my way to the dungeon entrance. I hated sneaking around like a thief. I needed to make Kyle pay for this!

Luck was on my side, as the guard in front of the entrance was passed out. Not that I could blame him. No one ever used this dungeon even during the day. Its like getting paid to just sit there. I carefully snuck past him and made my way down the stairs.

“This is either going to be my first step towards getting my freedom back, or I’m going to die. Either way, I’m ready!” I muttered as I went through the thin barrier that lets you know you’re in a dungeon.

The stench smacked me in the face harder than a smell had any right to. I covered my nose and mouth but the smell was already saturating my senses. I had to fight hard to resist emptying my already empty stomach. “Not sure if I can manage to eat in here,” I murmured.

The ruined subway station greeted my eyes as I took a moment to look around. Just past the old tracks sat an entrance to another tunnel. According to the information on the site, this dungeon was mainly a cave system, with a few swamp floors mixed in. The system was quite extensive but there were only a few basic traps. 

I saw a scraps of wood and decided to try and burn the smell away with smoke so I could at least stomach eating this junk food. The wood caught easily given how rotted and dry it was. My plan worked for the most part and the smell from the dungeon dropped to manageable level.

While I chowed down on some chips, I checked my dagger. I didn’t have a chance to maintenance it after the lizard dungeon.  It was made from dungeon materials, the only thing I actually owned that was. It held better than a weapon made from plain old steel.

Checking the edge, I was glad to see it wasn’t chipped. There were no cracks either along the surface. I spent the next twenty minutes going through the process of cleaning it as well as sharpening it. 

“First floor usually has single goblins,” I recited as I checked my blade.

With my stomach filled and a sports drink to top it off, I packed up everything and walked over to the entrance. My heart was beating a mile a minute. The last time I’d attempted to challenge a dungeon was in the beginning days. Without an ability, it was hard to get past the first floors. Usually just the first floor became almost impossible to finish.

I crept along the edge of the tunnel that was clearly made for a smaller sized creature. I couldn’t help but wonder how the hobgoblins and even larger Ogre goblins were supposed to fit through here. A light appeared around the next bend so I lend around the corner to take a look. 

A single goblin was sleeping while leaning against a spear. He was about the size of a seven or eight-year-old child. While I thought I could smell him from here, I was glad he wasn’t covered in boils and warts like some of the pictures depicted. 

I moved forward carefully trying to avoid anything that might make a sound. When I was about three meters from it, I used my harvest skill to see if anything would happen. Several colors appeared on the goblin. I felt an almost intuitive understanding from the colors.

Little gray meant it was common and didn’t offer much. Orange was more important but not by much. The only other color I saw on this one was red which was its heart. At least, I assumed it was its heart as its chest was glowing. I took a deep breath and moved forward until I was right in front of the creature.

I tightened my grip on my knife then using the dismembering technique I’d learned over the last year, I swung my blade across his neck severing its vocal strands instantly. I followed through by jumping back, both to avoid the spray of blood and its last moments of struggle.

The goblin jerked as it held a hand to its throat but soon fell forward as I’d cut through his arties and jugular. He kicked once but soon came to a stop as a puddle of blood formed under him. Just to be safe, I moved over and slammed my knife through his back into his heart. He jerked once more then stopped altogether.

“Even his blood smells rank,” I commented as I wiped my hand on the wall.

I attempted to use Harvest again, but nothing changed. I pulled my knife free and started harvesting the body parts like I normally would. After about a minute, I had all the parts laid out on the shopping bag from the store. 

“This is just morbid,” I mumbled glancing over the heart, claws, fangs, and a few bones that my skill pointed out. I touched the heart as it had glowed red. “Harvest.” The Heart melted into a puddle of blood and flowed up my arm like the scale did. Unlike the scale, I felt a searing pain when it entered my body. It lasted for several moments before it finally passed. 

I suddenly worried that might get curses or something that will actually make me weaker. I quickly pulled up my status and focused on the Harvest section.

Skills: Harvest

Harvests: 

Scale of the Corrupted Lizard – 50% Poison Resistance

Tunnel Goblin Heart – Savagery 

“That can’t be good…” 

Deciding to plunge headfirst down the rabbit hole, I absorbed the rest of the materials. Doing the claws and fangs, I found something interesting.

Tunnel Goblin Claw – Natural Weapons (+10)

Tunnel Goblin Fangs – Eat Anything (+4)

I shouldn’t absorb anymore hearts until I know what Savagery does. About thirty seconds passed while I was looking over the status screen when I felt my fingers start to throb. It quickly became painful as I watched my nails extend to sharp points. The rapid growth caused my fingertips to bleed turning them red. 

After about a minute, it finally faded to a dull ache. My nails were almost an inch long now. I guess I should call them claws now. I looked to the dead body and tested one of my claws on it. It easily opened a gash. “This could be useful,” I said. I knew I was likely giving a creepy smile.