When she got two more, she could evolve into her next evolution stage.
Of course, I accepted the party request, doing so for the entire Barros Guild, which consisted of Tanvi and Starr so far.
Just as I accepted the request, the sound of stone grating against stone groaned in my ears as the door to the crypt slowly opened. It should have been dark inside, but instead a pale bluish light filled the crypt’s entrance, casting strange shadows on the uneven floor.
Online, dungeons were unique aspects of Chaos Divide. They often contained powerful bosses and vast riches, but only to those who dared to conquer them. Often, death was waiting at every corner, and one wrong step would spell disaster. Though of course, you could always respawn and start all over. In Etheryn though? Not so much. Game over meant game over, so I had to be careful… very careful, every step of the way. This was real life now.
“Always remember,” Tanvi warned as she led us, “these dungeons are full of traps. And not just the visible ones.”
I nodded at the thought. I had run thousands of dungeons online, but this felt distinctly different.
As we carefully stepped into the crypt, I was hit with a smell my brain had a hard time identifying. Tanvi coughed lightly, indicating she sensed it too. “Musty, right?”
I nodded, my throat suddenly too tight to speak.
But honestly, musty was an exaggerated light term for it. I would have used toxic as shit.
It wasn’t just one particular smell, but a barrage of many. If I could simplify it in one sentence, it was probably a mixture of decay and centuries-old dormant magic with an extreme overtone of death and rotten eggs.
I tried to distract myself as the nausea kicked in, by keeping my eyes busy. Farther in, I realized that bluish light was coming from crystals lining our path along the floor. Tanvi told me that they were worthless if I tried to loot them. In fact, their luminous effect would die out once they left the underground crypt. That was good to know because I had been definitely looking to unlodge a few of them from the ground for cash, while Starr was just trying to bite into them for food. Once I reeled her back in, my attention went back to looking out for traps. Sharp-angled stalactites hung high over our heads while we carefully paced down the path. The walls were made out of dirt, stone, and webbed bones of all types. The skulls caught my attention more than anything else, staring blankly at us with their hollow sockets. Some seemed human, while others had the features of various Etheryn creatures. Whispers echoed throughout the crypt, probably just wind passing through its depths. From where, I wasn’t entirely sure, but the feeling along my skin did leave me a bit anxious if I could be honest with myself.
“Traps are notorious for being hidden between floors and above our heads,” Tanvi murmured. “So keep those eyes and ears attuned to everything around you.”
As she spoke, a sudden creaking sound rang out from beneath us. I locked my eyes onto the floor under our feet. Sure enough, there was a slightly uneven stone tile that she’d just stepped on. As soon as I saw the tile begin to give way, I grabbed Tanvi’s arm and pulled her back.
She yelped, the poor girl not paying attention as she warned me. The irony in stepping on one of those things made me even more alarmed now after having seen it up close, revealing a deep pit filled with long spikes. We stumbled back, Tanvi breathing heavily as our eyes met.
She gave me a skittish grin and said, “Oops!”
“You all right?”
“Yeah. Thanks! You really saved my skin!”
I snorted. “You’re telling me to be careful, but you need to keep a sharp eye out as well, Tanvi.”
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“My dungeon muse might be a bit rusty! Truth be told. Some of these traps you can’t see a… MILE AWAY!” she screeched at the tail end of her sentence as her eyes ballooned up, my attention turning to what she was staring at over our heads. A bunch of loose stalactites began to quake above us. I had just enough time to register what was happening before they came crashing down.
I pushed Tanvi to the side and leaped in the opposite direction. A clatter filled the crypt as the stalactites shattered on the stone floor, their shards skittering all around us.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the worst of it.
The clutter of hanging spears spread faster, down the hallway we were in.
In an instant, I understood that we only had two options, so I picked the less risky one and shouted, “RUN!”
I pushed myself ahead, Tanvi running right after me. We sprinted down the path as clusters of stalactites continued to crash behind us. Beneath us, the crypt floor trembled as it echoed the fury unfolding over our heads. They were crashing down like rain. When they shattered against the ground, they sent splinters of sharp rocks flying in all directions. I was sprayed by some but spared with minor pain along the back of my legs.
The sound alone was enough encouragement to put my agility to the test. I was fast, but naturally, Tanvi was faster, reaching the end where there was a break in the main path. The two paths looked like giant nostrils. She slid into one and I followed her, where the first thing I did was look up to see a solid ceiling. Great, the chase escape was over.
Panting heavily, we turned to survey the narrow tunnel, then exchanged hollow glances before we both burst out laughing.
“That was fun!” Tanvi giggled.
“Yeah, that’s a word for it.”
She dusted the debris off her spotted furry tail and Starr gave herself a nice shake. After our close call with the spike trap and the loose stalactites, I dusted myself off and then we continued down the cavernous tunnel at a much slower pace than before. I made it my business to keep reminding Starr not to touch anything and to stay on my shoulder. Down this tunnel, we met our first dungeon monster, and to be honest, I preferred the dire spider over this giant ass dire rat. Things got a little messy when I realized that we’d actually stepped into their lair as more of them showed up. What benefited us in the fight was that the hallway got narrow, so they couldn’t all ambush us at once. They were forced to fight in a close to single-file formation, making slicing them one by one a whole lot easier. Even Starr got her licks in after I caved into her itch to help out.
I quickly came to terms with the fact that I couldn’t cradle her forever after that first dire rat. If I wanted her to grow up learning how to defend herself, then letting her engage in these minor skirmishes was important. Starr, with her tiny stature, was able to deliver flame attacks, while not getting too close to the dire rats themselves.
“Watch how I do it, follow my movements,” I reminded her as I cleaved through another dire rat with precision. A second rat squealed, trying to lunge at me. I sidestepped and sliced across its body. Its red eyes went dull as it collapsed to the floor.
Starr followed suit, flying forward to burn the rat she’d been working up with her fire breath, causing the creature to screech in pain before succumbing to its injuries. The smell of burnt fur sat in the air, but I was more focused on how well we worked as a team.
Tanvi chuckled, brushing off a small chunk of rock from her shoulder guard. “Well, I’ll be damned! The fierce one has already figured out combat.”
Starr panted proudly. Despite my earlier misgivings, I felt pride well up inside of me. Starr was proving herself a worthy ally, not letting her small size get in the way of her win.
“Like father, like daughter,” Tanvi added with a wink.
I watched Starr, who was excitedly hopping circles around me, her tiny claws clicking on the stone floor in joy. She gave me a cute trill before she stopped, her head perking upward on the alert. I looked over my shoulder along the blackened corridor and saw nothing. Tanvi insisted that a soft gurgling noise was coming from up ahead, so that was where we needed to go.
It was too soon to celebrate small victories with threats around the next corner. Sure enough, we walked ourselves right into a trap as we stepped into a large circular chamber, the seemingly empty space covered with bones for walls not so empty the longer I looked. Some of those eye sockets on those skulls began to glow red, and we knew we were in deeper trouble than ever before. The skull-lined walls suddenly came alive as the skeletal bodies started to stir and began assembling themselves into standing figures.
“Retreat!” I cried out as I tried slashing the ones that were beginning to form. Tanvi and Starr ran for the exit, but it was too late. The double wooden door we’d walked through slammed shut, with branches of dull bones vining around it.
I looked over my shoulder for another route out when there wasn’t one. Desperate, Tanvi dashed all over the place, the sudden sound of haunting wails making her sprint and search even faster.
“For the love of all things good!” she cursed, lurching back toward me as the horde of animated skeletons began to pull free of the walls. Hellish cries continued to resonate through the eerie clearing, and within moments, what were once harmless piles of discarded bones inside the walls now have knit themselves into the reanimated dead.
These bastards were classified dungeon core monsters, because my [Undead Sense] didn’t help us with this one.