I was in a sour mood as I stood outside the giant door that led to the dungeon. We had been given a surprise assignment to explore a small dungeon solo today. I say surprise, but I had been given prior knowledge about it. I was to complete this dungeon, prune the core, and pick up as much treasure as possible by the end of the class day.
I, of course, knew that I should be getting some decent equipment during this, the details of which I wasn't clear on, but knowing Headmaster Walther, it would be decent. After all, in a roundabout way, the school's reputation was resting on me in the duel this weekend.
Finding out that it was now a spectated event, with gambling also involved, I had a great deal more pressure on my shoulders. I planned on happily taking it out on some monsters.
Professor Andritch rattled off some information and rules for the dungeon, including a signal whistle we had been given for extraction if things got too much for us. She assured us we wouldn't be marked down for it, but I decided to myself that I wouldn't let it happen to me. I had to maintain some pride after this last week.
I wondered if those that would come after us were training to be dungeon extractors, those dungeoneers that specialized in finding and recovering the bodies of explorers that got in over their heads and returning what they could for burial. I did not envy them that task.
I looked down the hallway to see other students waiting outside their doorways. The place we were in was called The Corridor of Infinite Woes and was a strange construction that was a series of smaller dungeons set within a larger dungeon. Each door led to a different dungeon that was a single floor, always had the same layout, and was so predictable that they were considered perfect training dungeons.
From legends about it, it had just shown up in the basement of the small arena in Revenstahd a few centuries back, and the Dungeon School, after confirming its properties, laid claim to it for training purposes.
Other than the nature of the structure, I wasn't overly impressed with what I read, but I also had to be realistic and admit that I wasn't ready for anything much more challenging than this. At the very least, it wasn't likely to be quite as damp as my previous dungeoneering exploits. Nothing worse than being damp in armor.
I spotted my roommates and gave each of them a thumbs up, and they returned the gesture. I may not have been feeling the best, but I wanted us all to succeed. I was especially worried about Myth, but I had to be confident in them so they could one day be confident in themselves.
I smirked to myself. For as much as I hadn't wanted to be a leader, I seemed to be turning into one. In a way, I think I was trying to be the big sister I wished I had growing up.
The thought disappeared as a bell chimed in the distance, the reverberations soon replaced by the sound of gears and clockwork behind the massive doors turning and grinding before the large doors slowly swung open to reveal nothing but a deep and hungry darkness. A wave of the strange, stagnant, and sickening dungeon mana swept over me. It wasn't a new sensation, but I hated it all the same.
I watched as my fellow students entered their doorways, took a deep breath of the last fresh air I would have in my lungs for the next several hours, and stepped into that gaping maw of shadows.
The door slammed behind me with a resounding thud, and I was cast into a world of shadow and deep silence. There was a clicking sound, and small torches lit, one after another, down a long stone corridor before disappearing down different passages. At the very least, I likely wouldn't have to resort to light spells while in here.
I took a moment to analyze these torches. Instead of flames, they were glowing crystals that cast a blue light. I sat there in the azure gloom for a moment, letting my eyes adjust.
It was a personal ritual I did during simulations, and one I planned on continuing in my future career. I let myself absorb the sensations of the dungeon. I let the light become familiar to me. The ambient sounds of the dungeon filtered into my ears, learning what was normal to the space. I smelled the dusty scent of the corridors, happy at the lack of mildew smell that had pervaded the Tower of Ash and Blood. The temperature was cool, but not cold, and very dry. Let a bit of the dungeon's mana into my reservoir and blanched a bit at how sickening it felt. It was worse than the Tower. I had abstractly known that different dungeons had different levels of the strange mana, but this was worse than I expected.
It wasn't insurmountable, though, and that was the key thing. I just had to be careful about my magic usage not to take too much into me. I felt bad for Myth, as her entire combat style and repertoire in general was going in involve much more absorption than I would.
Enough of that. Time was against me. Sure, it would seem like I had hours to work with, but when one was doing a dungeon alone, no amount of time would feel like enough.
Dungeoneering solo was rarely done, but not unheard of. When one did it, you had a wide variety of extra concerns to deal with. You had to juggle checking for traps, mapping, and fighting monsters all by yourself, which meant you had no one to watch your back. If you were smart, this meant you took things slowly. If you weren't smart, then you'd better hope you were lucky.
I didn't believe in luck, so I was going to go about this methodically. I proceeded slowly down the hallway, tapping my sword on any suspicious floor tiles as I went, looking for the slightest sign of anything out of place. For whatever reason, dungeon trap triggers were inexplicably similar everywhere. Even the strangest dungeons still had the same tell-tale marks of a trap.
I spotted one quickly and was thankful for the instruction I had gotten from Cori, as the number of usable bits I was able to salvage would come in handy and would likely get me a few coins, which never hurt.
It proceeded like this for some time. Move forward, check for traps, and disable traps. Fortunately, weren't many, but I was quite pleased with the scraps I had managed to pull together. Springs, cogs, a few poison canisters, and a particularly nice set of darts. Then I came upon a chamber.
It was pretty basic, as chambers went. Treasure chest, obviously trapped, but nothing in particular interesting about the room, save for a pile of rocks in the corner. I approached the chest and examined it.
It was a simple trap, yet scarily effective. It had a mechanism in the lid that, if I opened it, it would shoot a poison dart at me. If I tried to pick the lock and got it wrong, it would shoot a dart at me. This dungeon had a thing for darts it seemed. Chests, however, always had a secret switch in their locks. It took me a moment of looking, assisted by the tiniest light mote I could conjure, but I found it, and with my toolkit I pushed it. I opened the lid to find what I had been hoping to find.
It was a simple treasure, a ring, but one etched with runes that glowed faintly. I brushed it with my mana, and could immediately sense it was magical, but I had to admit I wasn't trained enough in appraisal yet to get a good idea of what exactly it was I had found. I pocketed it, and moved on, wondering what it was the Headmaster had hidden in the chest.
It was tempting to just put it on to see what it would do, but it was generally considered a bad idea to use magic items found in a dungeon before having it properly appraised, even if I knew it was supposed to help. Besides, I wouldn't put it past the headmaster to give me something cursed as another one of his deeply irritating tests.
I continued down the hallway, but I heard a sound that didn't fit in with the ambience. Footsteps? Or something similar. I had thought the lack of monsters was odd. I couldn't tell where it was coming from. It would move only when I likewise moved.
It couldn't be. I turned around and squinted into the darkness behind me. There it was! A shape, almost humanoid, but ever so slightly wrong. It was then that I caught the glint of something shining.
The next thing I knew, it dashed forward with blinding speed, knocking me clear off my feet. It had hit me like a mobile brick wall. I quickly jumped back onto my feet, my sword at the ready, and got a good look at what had attacked me.
It was some kind of mass of stones, floating in the air around a crystalline core, holding the shape of a person. I swore, realizing it was likely the pile of stones from the first chamber. I realized then I hadn't bothered to even look at it. Rookie mistake. But then, I was a rookie. Never again, I promised myself.
It stood still for a moment, its components bobbing in place for a moment before it swung again. This time I was ready!
I ducked under the strike and bobbed and weaved around the subsequent blows. It was a construct of some kind, and constructs like this operated in one of two ways. It was either animated by a spell, which meant it had a runic sigil on whatever it called a head, which was easy to deal with. You just had to scratch the rune, causing the command spell to fail.
In this case, it was animated by a crypt-stone core, which meant I had to shatter it. This was a problem for a variety of reasons. The first being that crypt-stones were hard to break. Secondly, because the attack would have to shatter it, and that would render it unsellable, which would hurt my money-hungry little heart.
It had to be done, or I'd have this thing chasing me for the entire dungeon, and even on my best days, that was not an enticing prospect.
I needed to get into a better position, but the tight corridors of the dungeon made that nearly impossible. I swallowed nervously and steeled myself. I was going to have to do something very stupid.
I lunged forward, the point of my sword straight and true, aimed directly at the crystal in the center. I swore as my sword bounced off one of the stones, it called its body. No time to worry about accuracy then!
I thrust again and again. A technique I had learned from a mercenary on the trek to Revenstahd, who said it worked great for monsters with cores, or pinpoint strikes against an armored foe. If you couldn't get it in the first hit, just keep hitting till you can get it. It didn't always work, and I hadn't quite gotten the hang of it, but I had to try.
My sword was blocked several more times, but one lucky deflecting turned my blade directly into the crystal, and I felt the impact and heard the sound of cracking glass. What followed was a small detonation, and the crystal exploded, something I hadn't expected. I felt small bits of stone and the crystal strike me, but thankfully, it only grazed me. The creature, or rather, the aggressive pile of rocks, returned to being stationary rubble once again. I breathed a sigh of relief and took a sip of a healing potion; grateful it was only a small one.
I hated the taste of the health potion. I poked around the rock pile to see if there was anything of value, scowled at the lack of treasure or anything resembling a reward for my efforts, and moved on.
I continued on my path, continuing the process of checking traps, taking salvage from traps, finding a chest, retrieving treasure, and so on and so forth for what must have been hours.
All told I had found two gauntlets, another 3 magic rings, a dagger, and a circlet. I had to deal with more of those stone construct monsters, and had refined my thrust attack further, this time learning a trick to dodging out of the way before the crystal detonation. I was feeling rather pleased with myself until I came across a chamber much larger than any of the others. This must be the final room.
It seemed to be completely empty, which confounded me for a moment. What was the point of a dungeon with an empty room at the end? Usually, there would be some kind of treasure, monster, or something. In some cases, there was some kind of puzzle to solve to unlock the dungeon core, but I couldn't see anything obvious. I looked and looked, but to no avail. I was confused.
Maybe I had missed something earlier? A switch in one of the other chambers? It wasn't unheard of for that to happen. I turned to leave and give everything another going over, and I swore.
The entrance to the chamber was gone. I hadn't even heard it close. It had left a smooth stone wall in its place. I tried punching it, hoping it was some sort of illusory wall, and got a sore fist for my efforts.
I turned back around only to see that the chamber had changed yet again, and I still hadn't heard a thing. A space warping dungeon? For a solo adventure? No, it had to be some other kind of gimmick.
I examined what was before me. It was a statue of a monster, a being that looked like a centaur, but with a lion's legs and lower body, and the body of a woman with a crown. She had spread wings, and in her arms was a tablet of stone that was blank and smooth. On the floor in front of this statue was a group of symbols on tiles, likely switches. A sun, a moon, a skull, an hourglass, a feather, and a blank stone title.
I had a bad feeling that I knew where this was going.
I stepped forward, and the eyes of the statue lit up, and a voice spoke. "Travel, answer my three questions to pass. Answer incorrectly, and your bones will join the legions of those who came before you."
I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose. A riddle dungeon. I hated riddle dungeons, and I hated riddles. So, of course, that's what they threw me into. I didn't believe in luck, but if I did, I must have been cursed with the worst of it.
Might as well get this over with. I looked at the statue in its glowing eyes.
"Ask your riddles, statue. I am prepared for your challenge." It was more than likely not an intelligent statue, as truly intelligent monsters in dungeons were completely unheard of.
Why dungeons chose challenges like this to access their cores was a mystery. Why dungeons even let anyone access their cores was another mystery altogether. That was for those more inquisitive and brilliant than I to uncover. I had my task, and I was dedicated to it.
"The first question is now before you: Time existed before me, but history can only begin after my creation. Choose your answer wisely or perish." It spoke, its voice rumbling in my bones.
I thought about the riddle for a moment. And another moment. More time passed. I had no idea. Oh gods, I had no idea. And if I was right, if I didn't answer soon, or correctly, it would attack me, and I was definitely not ready for that kind of fight.
Did I mention I hated riddles?