Dungeon of the Swarm
Damien led his party into the Dungeon.
It was rare for anyone to discover a Dungeon these days, and if his party destroyed this Dungeons master, they would be sure to earn promotion to a higher adventurer rank.
He glanced back, making sure they were following his lead.
Garret, the rogue, was the first behind him, as he had instructed, Garret being the biggest flight risk.
Next was Cynthia, the priestess. As healer her protection was important, even if she did refuse to sit on the sidelines.
Finally was Valerie, the mage.
Satisfied that they were indeed following him through the tunnel, he turned his attention to the way ahead.
Just in time for something to burst underfoot, sending him sliding into a pit that opened before him.
"Damien, are you alright," he heard Cynthia call out, once the ringing in his ears from his armour cleared up.
"Besides feeling like a drunk ogre hit me in the back," he called back, somewhat irritated. It had been his idea to go after the master of this Dungeon straight away rather than gather reinforcements after all.
"Like last week," the mage jeered at him.
Damien decided to act the bigger man. "Are you going to keep talking or are you going to help me out of here?"
"Don't tempt me," the mage grumbled.
Despite her words the group threw a rope down, helping him out.
Once he was back in the tunnel proper, he turned to the mage. "What was that thing?"
"A lesser slime," was her response once she muttered a few strange syllables, waving her hands over where he'd stepped on it. "Little more than a nuisance, often created as a byproduct of magic. One of the first things a mage has to learn to banish, before they mutate into a proper slime. This one was a lesser invisibility slime, which are hard to detect even without the high levels of magic within a Dungeon."
This was not something Damien wanted to hear.
"You mean to say you'll be unable to detect more?"
"Not without stepping on one."
"Fine, let's just keep moving," Damien directed, taking the lead once more, keeping to the edge of the tunnel next to the pit
It was only a few more steps before he triggered another trap, this time a tripwire launching him into a pit that was all but filled with foul slime.
It was with great relief that he managed to surface, coughing up a lungful of the slime.
He looked up at his party. "Get me out of this foul stuff!"
"That must be filled with at least fifty lesser pit slimes," the mage uttered in a distracted manner. "They are among the very foulest tasting slimes ever discovered."
"I am not getting my rope covered in that stuff," Garret declared.
"Get me out of here or I swear I'll bisect you," Damien roared, uncaring of how much the rogue had spent for the 'unbreakable' rope their most recent increase in rank had made available.
This was not how he'd planned on his first Dungeon delve going, and the worst thing was the feeling that someone, somewhere, was laughing at him.
It was with the greatest of reluctance that the rogue lowered his rope to pull Damien out of the gunk, leaving him retching on the floor to get rid of the rest of the slime.
"I can't believe you fell for a simple tripwire," Garret told him. "Sure, you're no rogue but we've been around the block enough for you to pick up a trick or two."
"Not so," Cynthia disagreed. "This tripwire is made from an almost transparent thread. I highly doubt any rogue would spot it without knowing where to look already."
Garret examined the thread she was holding more closely. "True enough I guess," he allowed. "In any case, now I know what to look for it won't deceive me. I'll take the lead."
"Fine," Damien agreed. "I don't want to go through that again."
"Let me help you* Cynthia requested, raising her staff with a quick prayer to her goddess. She frowned as the glow that appeared wasn't as strong as normal.
"It would appear that divine magic really is weakened in Dungeons," Valerie noted.
"I'll just need to put in more effect," Cynthia declared, focusing. The glow increased to its normal level, and the slime coating Damiens armour flowed to the floor.
"Can you do something about this," he grunted at the mage.
"Not unless you want the tunnel to be filled with noxious gas," she warned. "You really didn't pay any attention to magic beyond enchanted swords did you? Even a copper one-star adventurer should know this."
"... Shut up," he muttered. He had listened to his teachers, it was just too long ago that he had been learning how to be an adventurer. "Garret, get moving."
Well used to his leaders moods, the rogue did so, leading them carefully along the passage, needing to warn them of a tripwire only once before they reached a door, not spotting any branches to the tunnel along the way.
"This is strange," he muttered. "Didn't you say this had to be a new Dungeon?"
Cynthia nodded, but it was Damien who spoke.
"What's so strange about it? Just about everyone who talks about going Dungeon delving mentions some kind of door-based trap."
"Yes, but it takes time for 'extras' like doors to form. Each time someone mentions a trap like that the Dungeon had at least a year to grow. Listen to anyone whose explored a younger Dungeon and they say nothing about doors."
"The capability of a Dungeon depends upon the skill, intelligence and determination of its master," Cynthia pointed out. "While some may have their focus elsewhere, there will surely be some more interested in the semblance of privacy."
"So either an intelligent killing machine or one obsessed with privacy," the mage summarized. "Great."
"At least they won't have had time to develop traps for their doors," Damien declared. "Rogue, open it."
Garret turned his head slowly. "If there is really no chance of the door being trapped you should open it. It is a knights role to act as the parties shield."
"I agree with Garret," the mage asserted. "Claiming the doors are safe then ordering someone else to open them is hardly the act of a trustworthy man."
Sometimes Damien wondered why he let her stay in the party. Granted, the time in the party had let her gain an advanced class and any new recruit would need to start from the basics and work their way up, but her attitude…
"You as always talk about needing the space to flank our enemies," Cynthia reminded Garret. "By letting you go first we can make sure that we don't get in your way. Besides, what if the door is locked? And in any case, it is in the rogues oath to leave no door unopened, is it not?"
Garret grumbled, but finally bowed to the wishes of the party.
He stepped forward, and knelt before the door, examining it careful.
When he was certain that he hadn't missed the trigger for some kind of trap, and that this side of the door was clear of any kind of lock or keyhole, tested the handle, finding that the door opened freely.
"There, it's open," he declared.
"More 'ajar' than 'open'," Damien commented. "All the way."
Carefully, ready to jump aside at the least provocation, Garret edged the door open with his foot.
Sudden death failed to appear.
Damien reached the limits of his patience.
"Out of the way," he ordered, pushing Garret aside to step boldly into the, as it turned out, cobweb filled room. "You see, nothing to worry about."
It was then that he felt a tripwire give beneath his foot.
Before he could react a bolt shot at him, with the distinct 'thwack' of some kind of bow, striking him firmly in his breastplate.
"Damien, are you alright?"
"Fine, Cynthia, my armour caught it. But if I was still using my last set…"
It was one of the great advantages of increasing adventurer rank, unlocking better equipment in any guild shop. And with the number of times his party had increased their rank, they had pretty good equipment.
Except the mage of course, who didn't need any weapons or armour to fight monsters. Just another reason to distrust her, if you asked him...
"This damn webbing," Garret grumbled. "Why did it have to be spiders? Of all the sodding monsters this floor could have been infested with, I can hardly see the rest of you, let alone a tripwire!"
"Can you set this webbing alight?"
The mage shook her head. "I could but putting it out again would be a problem. And the amount of smoke it would produce…"
Sighing internally Damien took a step into the room, trying to look around.
The webbing was too thick for light to penetrate far.
"Lady of light, grant me a beacon to dispel the darkness," Cynthia intoned. "[Piercing Light]!"
Light shone from her mace, filling the space with light bright enough that Damien had to hurriedly cover his eyes. After a few moments it died down to a more reasonable level, still affixed to the head of the mace.
"A bit of warning next time," he snarled, blinking the spots from his eyes.
There was a scream of pain from behind him, and he spun to see a spider sinking its fangs into Garrets shoulder.
As suddenly as it had appeared the spider retreated into the shadows still filling the room.
"Let me help," Cynthia requested, having all but teleported next to the rogue, casting a spell to cure whatever poisons the monster might possess.
"What was that?"
Damien wasn't about to admit it, but the way the spider had attacked from nowhere and retreated there again was… unnerving.
"An… Over-trap spider," Garret gasped. "Tier two monster. Are you sure this is a new Dungeon?"
"Show yourself," Damien demanded, slashing his sword through the webs within his reach, at least until it was caught upon a much stronger and stickier orb of threads.
He caught a glimpse of motion, and redoubled his efforts to free his sword.
He wasn't the only one to spot the coming attack, the mage rushing through an incantation to hurl a pair of needles, formed of fire, at the pair of spiders that were making use of his helplessness to attack.
"First tier monsters, Weaver Spiders," Garret identified. "What did they drop?"
"Looks like a couple of coppers and some thread, nothing useful," Damien dismissed.
"It's not like you should expect anything more from a first tier monster," the mage pointed out.
"Let's just get out of here. Where's the exit?"
The mage sighed. "Are you sure you listened to your teachers? Dungeon rooms, those with doors at least, prevent you moving on if any monsters are still present."
"You mean we have to kill that trap spider? That should cheer you up at least, Garret, getting a shot at revenge for your shoulder."
"Sure, but one spider is just the beginning. Why did it have to be a sodding spider dungeon?"
He suddenly threw a knife past Damien, who instinctively readied his newly freed sword, only to lower it when he heard a small body fall to the floor.
"Just another weaver, wonder why it didn't attack with the others," he informed the others, glancing around the room.
"There, [Fire Needle]," the mage declared, shooting another needle at the movement she had identified.
Damien followed the spells path, only to see it fly past the spider and instead ignite the webbing upon the wall.
They blinked at what just happened.
"Val," Garret began in an unsteady voice, "did the dungeon just eat your fire?"
"Yes, it did," she responded in a similar tone.
"Just wanted to be sure."
"Watch out," Cynthia called, having followed the spider rather than freezing at the vanishing flames, as she shoved the mage out of the way of the spiders next attack, swinging on a loose thread to target the center of the group.
Garret made a wild throw, separating the spiders end of the thread from the ceiling, giving an opportunity that Damien used to cleave the spider in two.
The loot this time was a pair of trousers, spider silk of course.
They paused for a moment, looking around for any further movement.
"Now lets find that exist and move on," Damien announced once he was sure that the room was clear of monsters.
"Are you sure?"
"We haven't been badly injured, we're still fighting fit, why wouldn't we continue? Besides, you can't expect a young Dungeon to have more second tier monsters."
Garret and the mage shared a look, but deferred to his judgement, the four of them separating to better search for the other door.
The atmosphere, shaped somewhat by the ever-present webbing, wore on him as he followed the wall to the left of the door, on the basis that he had to get to the other door eventually.
"Over here," Garret called, "found the sodding thing."
Following the course of the prior tunnel could work sometimes, Damien supposed.
Garret waited until they had all gathered before testing the door.
It opened freely, revealing another length of tunnel.
Damien strode to the front, only for Garret to grab his shoulder.
"I lead the way remember? You haven't been on the ball about traps so far."
"Says the guy who let a spider sneak attack them," Damien grumbled.
"Only because you distracted me by springing that trap."
"Fine," Damien muttered, stepping back again.
How was he supposed to fulfill the leaders role if he wasn't allowed to lead?
They had barely started moving when Garret waved at them to stop.
"Tripwire," he warned them, guiding them around both the wire and the pit it was designed to drop them in.
"They seem to have a thing about pits," the mage muttered. "Normally you wouldn't face quite so many on the one floor… can you tell what type of pit it is?"
Garret shrugged. "Not without triggering the trap. Not something I want to do for obvious reasons."
"Just keep moving," Damien told them. "If we stop to ask questions about everything we'll never reach the Dungeon Master."
There was some grumbling, but they followed his direction, moving past the revealed trap.
This time they nearly reached the door to the next room before Garret held up a hand to warn them of another trap.
His eyes moved around the tunnel before shaking his head. "I can't see what this sodding thing is supposed to trigger."
"Better safe than sorry," Damien decided. "Cut the wire."
Garret produced a dagger with the flourish of his wrist, and knelt before the tripwire, severing it with a swift motion.
He had barely a moments warning from the sound of the trap triggering to pull his head back before an arrow pinned his hood to the ground.
There was a moments silence.
"These sodding tripwires are set to trigger the traps when cut!"
The rogues panicked exclamation reassured the party, as it meant at least he was still alive.
"Couldn't you have known before springing the trap," Damien demanded, even as the mage grabbed the arrow to free their rogue.
"If I had the time to examine the whole sodding setup, maybe, but you wanted us to keep moving. And it isn't something you sodding expect at the start of a sodding Dungeon! I'm not cutting any more sodding wires here, you hear me?"
"Never mind that, can you continue? We should kill the Dungeon Master as soon as we can."
Damien ignored the glares from the mage. What was her problem?
"It didn't even hit me, I was just sodding surprised," Garret answered, now free from the arrow. "Let me see the door."
Satisfied that the party was still able to fight Damien motioned for Garret to get the door open.
Once again the door opened without issue and the rogue paused before pushing it the whole way.
"No need to act so hesitant, if the first room didn't have a trap on the door this one isn't going to."
"You aren't the first adventurer to jump to such assumptions, Damien," the mage warned. "Not many are still active."
"The door seems safe," Garret declared, letting it swing fully open, "but don't go rushing in. If the trap had been slightly higher, or Cynthia was unable to deal with poison, we'd be down a member."
"You worry too much," Damien scolded, but followed the advice regardless, sticking to the vicinity of the door until the rest of the party were in.
"More sodding spiders," Garret groaned as he took in the sight of even more webs. "What sort of sodding Dungeon Master uses sodding spiders of all things?"
"Garret, must we have a word about your language again," Cynthia asked sweetly, making the rogue shudder.
"I'm sodding trying, alright. I didn't have the same 'no expense spared' upbringing, and how would you like it if we had to deal with flipping zombie bats?"
Cynthia shuddered. "Such abominations cannot exist."
"They do, just not anywhere we've been," the mage corrected.
"Enou-" Damiens order was cut off by a mess of threads shooting from the darkness to wrap itself around him, binding him in place.
"Projectile Spider," the mage warned, taking a better grasp of her staff in preparation for casting as soon as she caught sight of the same.
Garret rushed towards Damien, readying his daggers to cut him free, only to dodge back from another thread that shot towards his head from a different direction.
"A Spinneret Spider on top of the sodding Projectile Spider? Shadows take this place," he cursed.
"Less talking, more killing," the mage barked, before hurling a small fireball in the direction the second shot had come from.
Three smaller bursts of thread shot at the fireball, burning away ineffectually.
This didn't stop the spider escaping the spell, however, and before they knew it the four spiders lurking in the room were in motion, using their threads to dodge around the party even as they shot thread at them.
"Sod this," Garret muttered, grabbing more daggers from his clothing to throw a handful at a different spider each.
The spiders did their best to dodge, but it was for nothing as the daggers corrected their course mid-flight, sinking into the body and abdomen.
"[Trick Shot] always gets them," he chuckled, even as the remaining Spinneret Spider caught Cynthia with its webbing, only to get speared by another of the mages Flame Needles.
Damien tore his way free of the webbing that had him held. "At last," he cried out, only for the same attack that had caught him on the way in to restore him to a helpless state.
That was where the spiders luck ran out, with Garrets daggers blocking its escape as the mage unleashed another spell.
Once they were sure the spiders were finished Garret returned to cut Damien free, ignoring the way he was cursing under his breath.
"Calmly now, Damien," Cynthia advised firmly. "We need our wits about us to make it through this maze of traps and monsters. Giving in to anger will only doom us."
"I know that. But that was three borderline tier two monsters and a mid tier two monster. It feels as though the danger is increasing as we get further in."
"That isn't uncommon," the mage mused. "In fact the first couple of floors tend to be more a test for intruders than act as a proper threat."
"What I mean is that the next room is going to be even tougher. We can't afford anything but our best efforts."
"That's what we've been giving," the mage responded. "If anything it's you who's been underestimating the Dungeon."
Damien spared her a glare as he started the search for the door, having seen Garret collect the coppers that were all the spiders had dropped.
The next tunnel had another couple of traps, which Garret was able to lead them by safely, and soon enough they were in the next room, even with the rogues unnecessarily careful door-opening routine.
The room itself was much more normal, without the same layers of webbing as the previous rooms.
The lack of evidence of more spiders didn't seem to reassure Garret for some reason.
This was the only reason they had any warning before a group of spiders fell from the ceiling into their midst.
Their hurried response to his cry of 'dodge, now' led to the spiders that would have landed on them hitting the floor instead.
"An accursed Black Blade Spider," Damien cursed, seeing the spider separating him from his party.
"Sodding Black Fang Spiders too!"
Garrets call came as he backed away from the venomous spider stalking him, hurling a brace of daggers right at its joints, dropping it against the floor.
"I do believe that normal examples of such spiders have less chitin and no spikes," Cynthia pointed out, striking her spider with her still glowing mace to drive it back.
"Who cares that the Dungeon mutated them, we still have to kill them," the mage threw in, blocking the spider with her staff.
A quick incantation later and she had a burning sword to kill her spider with.
"Not Black Fang, Spray Fang," Garret corrected himself, dodging a poisonous spray from the head of the one he was dealing with.
Fortunately his position gave him the opening he needed to drive a dagger into the space between its head and body, putting the spider down.
"Not any more," Cynthia commented, slamming her mace into the head of her spider, killing it.
"Stay still, damnit," Damien complained, his spider the only one still alive, at least until the mage threw a fireball into it, turning the spider into a satisfying inferno.
He paused to get his breath back, bending over and getting a good sight of the state of his armour.
"You couldn't have done that before it did all this to my new armour?"
"I was busy with my own," she answered in a disbelieving tone of voice.
It was while they were distracted that the spider proved it was still alive, leaping into motion to scratch at his armour, before finally succumbing.
"I don't believe this, it survived that long?"
"What else do you expect from a tier three monster?"
Damien shook his head. "A tier three with tier two backup on the first floor, what sort of Dungeon are we dealing with?"
There was a muffled sound of amusement from the mage as he'd turned to face the party.
"Um, Damien, your armour…"
Glancing down revealed that the spider hadn't been scratching blindly. Instead its claws had produced a distinct word.
IDIOT
"This Dungeon Master really doesn't like you," the mage commented, struggling to hide her amusement, earning her a glare from the priestess as she hurried over to check on the knight.
"A few silvers, more coppers and some throwing darts," Garret analysed the loot the spiders had dropped. "I'll be taking the darts."
There was a distinct lack of disagreement, seeing as the rest of the party were either melee orientated or had magic for ranged combat.
"Let's just find the Dungeon Master," Damien grunted, walking straight to the door and throwing it open.
The webs filling the tunnel were thick enough to block their advance.
"I'll handle it," Garret told them, moving forwards with a dagger ready.
That was when the second slime trap of the dungeon was discovered, taking Garrets footing just as he was distracted by the webs.
With his loss of footing the rogue was unable to prevent himself being swept screaming into a pit.
The screams increased in their panicked intensity as he disappeared.
"Lady of light, it's full of bugs," Cynthia breathed as she saw what was inside.
"What sort of mind would come up with a thing like this," was Damiens contribution.
"Don't just leave me in here, do something!"
"You aren't fireproof enough for me to help," the mage warned.
Garrets screams appeared to increase in volume, but it was soon revealed that he was using his knives to climb out and escape by himself.
He was barely clear of the pit before he was tearing off his clothes to get free of the bugs.
Cynthia and the mage pointedly turned their backs.
It wasn't too long before the party was ready to move again.
The rest of the tunnel, despite Garrets much increased paranoia, was uneventful and soon led to another room, this one a mess of corridors, once more covered in webbing
Not that they entered the door immediately. The door was at least double the size of those previously, one of the common indicators of a floor boss.
Once they had rested briefly and opened the door, however, they found it was simply a much larger room, again with regular spiders.
This time the spiders, a mix of the types they had encountered before and stronger variants thereof, attacked individually from ambush, rather than en masse, leaving the party to consider every move they made.
There wasn't any way to know if there were more spiders this time, even when they had explored every corridor they could find.
This time the door wasn't so easy to find.
"A Grand Weaver Spider, a tier three and still a sodding spider," Garret was complaining.
"Don't forget the other eleven, they've torn my robes nearly to shreds," the mage responded. "Damien, I know you want to clear the Dungeon, but don't you think we should fall back and regroup? I mean, we've searched the entire maze with no sign of an exit!"
"No," Damien declared, stabbing his sword into the wall next to him. "I will not retreat!"
The sword, rather than striking against rock, sank into the 'wall', revealing it to be a construct of webs.
"This Dungeon Master is a tricky one indeed," the mage spoke in an almost admiring tone.
Damien was of a different opinion.
"Damn. These. Blasted. Tricks," he snarled, slashing through the barrier.
Cynthia approached him carefully. "Damien, are you okay?"
"I. Am. Fine," he snarled. "We just. Need to. Finish. The Dungeon."
Garret and Valerie shared a look, but followed their leader nonetheless.
The next room, rather than being a straightforward combat room, was a puzzle room instead.
"What do you make of it," Damien demanded of the mage as she read the provided instructions.
"It seems there are eight puzzles, each with a time limit. If we fail to solve a puzzle in time, or make a serious mistake, monsters will be released and any solved puzzles will be reset. The time limit will only start to countdown once we approach the next puzzle and read its instructions. On the other hand, if we all so choose, the Dungeon will return us to the entrance."
"We are not retreating," Damien once again affirmed, approaching the first puzzle, which appeared to be a stone cube balanced upon its point above its pedestal.
As it turned out, his skills at puzzle solving were not up to the task, and in fact half the time had run out before he listened to the mage that they had to rotate the parts of the cube to get each face to be a single block of a different colour each.
As such, there wasn't much hope of solving the puzzle in time, which was demonstrated when a group of spiders fell onto the party from the ceiling.
The next couple of efforts weren't too successful either, but with the warning from the rooms instructions they weren't taken sufficiently by surprise for the spiders to pose a genuine threat
Once Valerie had finally solved the cube the next puzzle came to life, waiting for their approach.
The second puzzle was much simpler, a picture split into squares and jumbled they had to restore.
Garrett solved it without issue, aside from the subject matter which, fitting the dungeon so far, featured spiders heavily.
The third puzzle saw a trickle of water emerge from the top, for them to guide through pipes to a destination at the bottom.
The apparent secondary time limit was enough to panic Damien, who nearly messed things up last minute with urgent directions that would have left them trapped in a dead end.
Next was a simple enough riddle, with the possible answers on stone tablets, that the mage solved without problem, aside from her comments on how… random the selection was.
Five gave two pictures with minor differences between them that the rogue had completed within seconds while the sixth saw them figuring out a pattern and predicting the next two entrees.
This was another that nearly saw them ambushed again, but the mage managed to complete it with seconds to spare.
Foe the seventh puzzle the mage guided a metal sphere through a wire maze without making contact while they again struggled with the final puzzle.
Here, one of them was blindfolded while another directed them through a shortish obstacle course, without tripping, falling or otherwise setting hand to floor.
The first problem was deciding who to send through the course.
At first Damien insisted on directing whoever it would be, causing mage and rogue to put forward the priestess to walk the course.
This led to one of the few disagreements between knight and priestess, as she pointed out that as a priestess guidance was one of her main duties.
At which point it was put forward that if she was doing the guiding Damien should walk the course.
In the end mage and rogue took charge of the puzzle between themselves, the mage blindfold and rogue guiding.
When Damien realized that the puzzle had been completed while he was arguing about who should be involved he grumbled at first, but gave up considering they succeeded.
"I know you said that anyone Gold rank or up should solve this Dungeon no problem," Valerie commented, referencing one of Damiens claims upon clearing a room of spiders, once sure he had calmed down, "but those puzzles, testing our logic, deduction and intelligence… I know of at least a few Platinum rank parties that wouldn't have been able to pass."
Damien just shrugged it off. "Well, here we are, beyond that room. Proves my point anyway, if we'd called in one of those parties they would have been stuck while we can clear the whole Dungeon."
And so they continued.
The next room they came to was a second with oversized wooden doors.
Given that they'd already cleared such a room previously Damien didn't hesitate to throw the doors open.
The room was far larger than any before, with a massive black pyramid in the center, barely visible through the myriad webs strewn throughout the room.
"Boss room," Garrett breathed unbelievingly. "The maze was just to make us relax our guards."
Damien tightened his grip on his sword. "How many trump cards does everyone have?"
As it turned out Garrett had one while the others had two each.
Damien nodded. "Garrett, save yours for the Dungeon Master. Everyone else keep at least one in reserve if possible. Does anyone see the boss?"
"Not with all these webs," Garrett muttered. "In any case, if you want me to save my trump for the Master I don't think I should be taking the lead."
"You just think it's going to be a giant spider," Valerie scoffed. "[Fire Needle]," she called, sending a sliver of fire through the nearby webbing in an attempt to illuminate the room
The spell barely had space to move before it was smothered.
"Don't waste your magic," the knight scoffed, marching forward.
"There's something off about these webs," Valerie warned. "I think it could be…" A look of realization crossed her face. "It's a trap," she called, moments too late as the floor beneath Damiens foot gave way, only the fast acting of Cynthia to grab hold preventing him falling into what appeared, from what little they could see, to be a pit mirroring the room above.
Strands of webbing floated in the gap where the tile had been, showing how it had been kept in place.
"A trapmaster boss?"
Garrett nodded grimly. "Just my luck. Trapped in a battle with a spider boss monster where I can't even trust the floor beneath my feet."
A thought crossed his mind and looked at his feet in a worried manner.
"How do we know it isn't going to climb out of a hole it makes in the floor?"
"Because it's right there," Valerie declared, before casting a much more focused spell, this one able to penetrate a hole much further into the webbing and illuminate a large arachnid form hanging from the ceiling for a moment before scuttling out of sight behind the pyramid.
"I'll get it," Damien growled out, stepping around the hole in the floor and charging towards the pyramid before anyone could stop him.
He only got a few paces beyond the hole before running straight into another trap, sticky threads attaching to his armour before pulling him into the air.
"We can't even trust the space we're walking in," grumbled the rogue as he approached to cut the knight down.
"Rhett, look out," Valerie called suddenly, interrupting her blasts of fire to open a safe space to move through.
As Garrett turned he saw what she was trying to warn him about.
Three Black Fang Spiders were crawling out of the hole Damien had opened in the floor.
Instinctively he jumped back, realizing too late that this left his arm in contact with the threads holding Damien in place and leaving him mostly at the mercy of the spider approaching him.
He acted quickly, using the knife in his other hand to slash at the sticky threads, managing to start fraying them, much slower than he'd been expecting.
"Sodding bosses thread is too strong," he called out, giving up on freeing himself to defend against the spider.
"[Cast Master]," Valerie called, before blasting at the spiders approaching her and the priestess with fireballs at the same time as hurling a few fire needles at the threads trapping the men.
With the threads trapping Garrett already starting to fray it didn't take long before he was free, which was fortunate considering how the sticky coating left the threads particularly flammable, Damien practically igniting in an instant.
"Damien," the priestess cried out, before turning to the mage. "How could you do that to him?"
"I-I wasn't expecting it to catch light like that," she responded, shocked, before pulling herself together. "That doesn't matter, he needs healing," she told the priestess, seeing the knight already starting to go out.
"No need to worry," the knight replied, "I can handle this myself. [Perfect Warrior]," he called out, light passing over his equipment to leave it looking freshly forged.
With a cry he cast himself forward, moving much faster than before yo cleave the spider Garrett had been holding back in two.
With the spells Valerie was casting, the other Black Fang Spiders didn't last much longer either.
It was then, with the direct threats dealt with, that a sense of dread fell upon them.
"[Chorus of Sanctuary]," the priestess called out, a light shining from nowhere upon them in response.
As they felt the light upon them the sense of dread fell away.
"The Dungeon Master strikes against us directly," she informed them. "With its minions gone the boss is vulnerable, and with them the Master himself."
"Provided we can find the sodding thing without stepping into one of its traps," the rogue answered, using his knife to clear away the last of the thread stuck to his arm.
The mage rolled her eyes, blasting the webs around them with fireballs, clearing a safe space.
"Have you forgotten my trump lets me cast multiple spells at once, freely and without cost," she asked them. "Keep that thing off me and I can clear this room no problem."
As it turned out, without the Black Fang Spiders the boss had no way to strike directly, and the mages fires were able to clear the traps before they triggered, even sending slabs of stone to the distant ground without anyone needing to set so much as a foot upon them.
Without any way to deal damage, the boss stood no chance, even with its great durability.
All that said, its greater armour and health meant was that both trumps ran out before the battle was won.
Even as the loot from the battle was collected, Damien was firm in his decision.
"We are going to continue, we will finish this," he declared, striding towards the ornate door on the far aide of the room to its entrance.
"We're already three trumps down," Valerie protested. "It's folly to face a Dungeon Master at less than full strength."
"If we leave now the Dungeon will only grow more dangerous, more entrenched in our world. It is our duty to see it destroyed as soon as possible," Cynthia affirmed, backing up their leader as ever.
Ignoring their protests the knight bashed the door open, revealing a large, nearly empty room.
The only furnishing was an ornate throne.
And before that, the figure of the master of the Dungeon.
"A girl," Valerie couldn't help commenting at the sight of her, trying to recall any mention of previous female Dungeon Masters, to no avail.
The Dungeon Master stood at least a couple of inches taller than Damien, wearing light armour of silk, with patches of an unfamiliar material, clearly for added protection given the key areas it covered. This included a half-face mask of the same materials, which let her brown hair fall down her back.
In her hands was a sword and buckler, furthering the impression of a fighter focused on speed.
But the strangest thing about her was her clearly relaxed stance.
"You know," she said in a mildly irked tone, "it is usually considered impolite to keep a lady waiting."
"A woman Dungeon Master," Damien said in a fully disbelieving tone.
"An unusual occurrence I take it," she responded. "In any case, a moments talk before you attack if you would."
Instincts set Valeries eyes darting around the room, on guard for some kind of trap.
"And why should we trust you? What trick are you pulling?"
"I was a human you know," came the response. "Fanatics," she muttered in a quieter tone Valerie couldn't help but agree with.
"What can it hurt to talk," Valerie put forward, feeling her magic reserves slowly refilling. As long as the master, mistress she supposed in this case, didn't launch a surprise attack delaying could only help them. She couldn't help wondering, however, what the 'was' meant. Were the rumours of Dungeons corrupting adventurers true after all...
"I advise against delaying," Cynthia responded, "for all we know she's using some subtle mind magics to brainwash us."
"I don't have any mind magics," she responded in an exasperated voice, before Valerie could point out that she would be able to feel the pressure no matter how subtle. "Not that I'd expect a fanatic to trust me," she added as an afterthought.
"What do you wish to say," Garrett queried, deciding to make the most of the truce.
"What is your perspective of the creations of Dungeons and their controllers?"
This… wasn't the sort of question they expected.
"They serve to keep the accursed Undersiders from the light of the sun," Cynthia responded without hesitation.
"Having been banished below by your church," was the questioning response.
"Since which time they have blighted our lands with monster filled dungeons," Damien asserted, in defence of the priestess.
The Dungeon Master sighed. "And I thought the Fallens justification for worshiping the Endbringers was insane," she muttered to herself.
Valerie frowned at the unfamiliar names. "What do you mean."
"I was reincarnated from another world," was the negligent response. "The Endbringers were high unstoppable monsters that would attack once every three months or so and the Fallen idiots who worshiped them."
"Without interference from your gods? Clearly a sign of your vileness."
"If my world had gods there was never any sign of them. In fact, the supposed 'greatest protector' of the world turned out to be its greatest threat."
"What happened," Valerie couldn't help asking.
"In the end I was the one responsible for ending him. At first my powers allowed me to control nearby arthropods, spider, crabs and insects that sort of creature, but with the help of… an ally… it was extended to humans as well."
Valerie shuddered. Maybe Cynthia wasn't so wrong…
"After we'd won," she continued, "I left, and even allowed myself to be killed to prevent my becoming worse than the threat I ended. Here and now, I only have what powers I started with, a fact I am grateful for."
"Hence the spiders," Valerie mused to herself, before Damien spoke in disbelief.
"You're glad you were depowered?"
"With this seemingly useless power me and my team became the acknowledged shadow rulers of our city. I won against seemingly vastly more powerful enemies. I wanted power, yes, but power that would drive me to insanity? No, I am satisfied with what I had before, and standing in protection of those who dolely wish to be left alone."
The reminder of their roles galvanized Damien into action.
"We cannot allow a single Dungeon to stand," he told her, readying his sword.
"Allow me to introduce myself first. I am the Demon Lord," Valerie froze in shock. A Demon Lord rather than a Dungeon Master? No wonder the Dungeon was so dangerous, "known as the Queen of Escalation. My name is Taylor Hebert. I grant you one last chance to retreat."
Valerie looked at the rest of the party.
It was clear that even now, with their foe identified as a Demon Lord, Damien and Cynthia weren't about to back down.
She readied herself, tightening her grip on her staff, hoping that somehow she'd get out alive.
AN: My first attempt using my phone to write a chapter and upload it. In future I think I'll be sending the chapters to my computer to upload, seeing as there seem to be a lot more formatting issues this way.
This story will not be in my normal story rotation, and instead written on my phone when I have little else to do.
Finally, thanks to SeerKing for allowing me to adopt this story. Hopefully the changes I'm making to the setup aren't too upsetting...
Edit Note: Run through the chapter to restore damaged formatting. Unfortunately it seems transferring a chapter from your phone sees everything lost, so there's probably a lot I missed.
As a further note, those of you who have read the relevant chapters of SeerKings Asylum for Plot Bunnies will notice that I combined the events of the first three chapters into one and shifted the perspective from Taylor to the adventurers, in order to create a sense of how the Dungeon feels to the adventurers, not to mention changed the nature of the Dungeons purpose.
Focus will be on Taylor, for the most part, later.