Azure: Gunner

Rumors of ‘trap’ dungeons, containing hallways full of insidious deathtraps, have persisted since the dawn of the System. Never been proven. Do dungeons have the occasional trap? Sure. Potentially fatal ones? Definitely.

The superstitious note that on occasion an entire team of Delvers goes missing, and assert that ‘they found a trap dungeon’, often while shaking their heads in sadness. Fuck ‘em. I ass-ert they are full of shit. How do I know?

Simple. The Guild has been training new Delvers for centuries. We write shit down and try to improve. The more training we give new Delvers in dealing with traps, the more casualties go down – to a point. After that, more time spent training on yet more complex traps increases casualties, as other skills are neglected.

Trap dungeons are as mythical as dragons. If either exists, no one has ever survived, and after over four centuries, that pretty much means no one ever fucking will.

- Delver’s Guild Handbook, Section 10.7 – “Traps”

My barrier flared and I gasped in pain, curled up in a ball with a massive weight – huh, actually I’m not dead. Fuck, that water is cold though!

I was not dead, but I was trapped. Above me, the stone block pressed down, pinning me to the floor with the weight of at least ten RaeRaes or five Yunas. I had no leverage to push it away, and to make things worse I was soaking in freezing water. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that the trigger stone had sunk several inches into the floor.

The water had flowed in and pooled around me, almost deep enough to reach my mouth. Breathing hard through my nose, heart pounding, I futilely pushed up with all my strength. Nothing happened. Growling in frustration, I let my arms fall limp into the water.

click

The huge rock slowly rose off of me, retracting into the ceiling where it had been hiding. I definitely didn’t scream at it as I scrambled to my feet, dripping water, and headed for the exit door. Just outside, a sign hung on the wall, illuminated by a mana lamp above.

It read ‘You made it! Now dry off here.’

Thanks, assholes.

Looking down, I realized I was standing on a drain like the one in the shower. Channeling some mana into my armor, most of the water ran off and vanished into the drain. My hair was still soaked, though. I stalked back down the hallway to the waiting area with a scowl, muttering curses under my breath.

My heartbeat was still slowing down as I reached the room. Zaire, Jayce, and Arlo hadn’t even entered the first room yet.

Fuck, that was intense, it felt like I was in there for an hour!

Most of the group seemed mildly traumatized by the trap hallways when we stumbled back into the blindingly bright midday sun. Trick Step waved us off with a cheery grin.

“See you all again Tuesday! Guess what we’ll be doing?”

I shuddered at the thought of going back through that place, especially if they were going to make it even harder. After our Sprint, Arlo and Tara stuck with the group for lunch in the dining hall as we’d agreed. Arlo ate his food mechanically, without complaint, while Tara kept making unhappy faces but thankfully didn’t comment.

Our Tactics class continued the material we’d been learning the day before, this time with more in-depth explanations. Wolf walked us through the proper way to respond to an ambush triggered by the bait formation. Our ranged attackers should start with the enemies in the back, furthest away from the bait. Meanwhile our melee fighters would charge straight down the middle to clear out the enemies directly engaging our teammate.

To maximize the effectiveness, we were supposed to know in advance who was shooting where, who was charging, and who was going to keep their eyes towards the rear to make sure no one was coming at us from behind during the fight. It all sounded a lot more complicated than I’d thought the day before, so I was glad when we left the lecture hall and headed out for more practice.

When we reached the area where we’d been working the day before, Tara confronted Wolf.

“Wait a minute, how about you finally tell us what happened with Yuri first? Is he getting punished?” she demanded.

Wolf gave her a stern look, but she didn’t back down. “The Head Instructor will talk with him tonight after dinner and make a determination,” he answered unsatisfyingly.

There was nothing we could do about it right then, so we started working on the drills. We’d get in formation and start marching along, waiting for Wolf to yell “attack!” into the Comms. Once he did, our scout – Raylan – would come rushing back to the formation while Jayce, Arlo, Zaire, and I fired off shots and Spells into the ground around the bait, two of us handling each side.

We had to avoid hitting our teammates, as when Tara was bait H’ruk would go charging in to relieve her, and vice versa. G’hala – unhappily – was delegated to watching our rear and also keeping an eye on the fight to be ready to heal us with her Balance Skill. I felt kind of stupid emptying my shotgun into innocent dirt, but it was a bit exhilarating.

Between my shotgun, Arlo’s pistols, and Jayce’s Sonic Bolts, we had to be the loudest group of students in the school. Zaire’s Earth Spikes, by contrast, were nearly silent, though I was well aware of how deadly they were. Our melee fighters didn’t get to let loose quite the same way, though Raylan got in plenty of Quick Steps running around. The trick for him was to always be aware of where the bait was, so he could sprint straight to them and not have to look around to find us.

We had all burned through quite a few resources by the time we were finished, so there was no need for a Sprint before our System History class. It was taught by Westin, and it was boring. The class seemed to be based on A Brief History of the System, which if I remembered right was actually three thick volumes taking up quite a bit of space on the small bookshelf in my room.

Unlawfully taken from NovelFire, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Fuck, this just goes on and on and on… there is nothing brief about this! Thank the angels we only have this one once a week!

At dinner I discovered that not even Tara was cute enough to not be annoying when she complained about the food. I finally snapped at her after her tenth snarky comment.

“We get it, you don’t like the food. Move on. No one else cares. You’re looking at someone who ate Created Bread for breakfast every day since I can remember. This may not be the luxury you’re used to, but it’s fucking delicious compared to that!”

My guilt-trip powers worked and she shut up about the food, at least for now. I wondered if this was the first time she’d ever been around poor people. Could she even cast Create Bread? I returned my attention to the food. We were all a little on edge, wanting to know what was happening with Yuri. I’m sure that contributed to everyone else’s bad mood. Definitely not mine though.

I was still stuck with my promise to Wolf so it was back to my room and more Fire practice for me. I would have preferred to do some more shooting at the range first. My goal was to be able to cast Fire faster. It would never reach the same level of ease that I’d gotten instantly with Force from the Spell gem, but I still wanted to be able to infuse my gun as fast and reliably as possible.

The next day was Saturday, the final day of our first week at the Academy. As our morning run neared the gates, we found a large, unruly group streaming in. JJ kept us all moving, so we had to dodge around the newcomers. I Identified a couple of them, seeing that they were also Tier 0s.

<Must be the second semester students.>

<Looks like it,> Raylan agreed. <They seem to be having fun.>

<They don’t look that tough,> asserted Tara.

<We have enough trouble without picking any fights with people who are definitely higher Levels than we are,> I reminded her.

It was weird being able to communicate over the Comms with perfect clarity while running fast enough to be short of breath. I wondered sometimes why the System gave us amazing powers like Class Weapons, Skills, Spells, Comms, and so on, all at Tier 0. Then I reminded myself that the world was full of monsters that wanted to eat us, so it all evened out.

We didn’t hear anything from Wolf until after the Sprint, when he suddenly requested us to join his Squad.

<All right everyone, here’s the deal. Unfortunately, the Head Instructor wasn’t able to find sufficient grounds to punish either Yuri or Blur – they both got off with warnings.>

<WHAT?!> Tara yelled into the Comms from wherever the melee fighters were doing their Sprint. <HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!>

<I said it’s unfortunate because I’m on your side, so calm down!> Wolf retorted. <There’s nothing that you can do about it. Blur managed to convince the Head Instructor that she had no idea what was going on and just trusted the Barmaid when she said she was being threatened. I honestly have no clue if she’s telling the truth or not.>

<What about Yuri?> I asked, fuming myself. <He just gets away with threatening another student? I thought the Head Instructor had a lie-detection Skill!>

Wolf managed to sigh over the Comms. <Kid, there’s something you need to understand about those kinds of Skills. They’re not perfect and they can be beaten if you’re the right kind of clever and crazy. Considering who Yuri’s family is, I’m sure he’s been trained in how to wiggle around them.>

<What do you mean, Instructor Wolf? Surely a Tier 0 couldn’t outwit the Head Instructor!> Zaire interjected.

Wolf laughed into the Comms, another thing I didn’t realize was possible. He was standing not ten feet away from me and didn’t even have a smile on his face.

<She asked him if he threatened Tara, Zaire. Do you know what he said? I shit you not, he claimed that he was ‘merely excited to explain their future marital situation to her’, and the little fucker believed it.>

<Dead gods,> Raylan chimed in over an inarticulate growl from Tara. <Is he actually insane?>

<I told you, clever and crazy beats most lie-detection Skills. There’s a reason we call them that, you know, not truth-detection Skills. In a courtroom a Judge could demand a yes or no answer to the question, come at it a dozen different ways, and probably trip him up eventually. The Head Instructor doesn’t have the same Skills, or the same authority. Without him admitting to anything, there was nothing she could do, especially after he explained the contents of the letters you both received.>

<What the fuck does that have to do with anything?> Tara demanded indignantly.

<You should know better than to be surprised by that, Miss Gleason,> Wolf retorted. <The Head Instructor has no love for the Kalmár family, but they are the richest and one of the most influential in Lost Angels. You, on the other hand, have been hung out to dry by your own parents. What do you expect to happen?>

<She threatened his bodyguards with death! Surely she can stand up to a mere child!> H’ruk complained.

<The bodyguards were a clear violation of Guild rules, agreed to by every family that sends a trainee here. It was a blatant provocation, and she was fully within her rights to deal with them however she wanted. I’m wondering now if it was intentionally set up.>

I tried to figure out what exactly he was getting at. It was Arlo, much more familiar with politics than me, who figured it out first.

<You mean that, after she stomped on the guards, she would have to tread more lightly around Yuri, lest his family argue that he was being treated unfairly?>

<Exactly,> Wolf replied grimly. <After that little public pissing contest, which she could have chosen to handle in private, anything she does against Yuri would get extra scrutiny from his family, and others.>

<Who would lend their aid to scum like that?> G’hala asked coldly.

<The Kalmárs are not popular, even with the other wealthy families,> Tara pointed out. <Why would they support them?>

<Because the Guild isn’t popular with them either, specifically the Guildmaster. He’s the only known Tier 6 in the area, and he likes to throw his weight around from time to time. He scares most of the families shitless. They know he could waltz into their heavily guarded homes and kill any of them in their sleep – and then waltz right back out.>

Wolf’s impassive face didn’t budge as he continued his explanation.

<People that measure themselves by the size of their bank accounts don’t like to be reminded of the power that comes at the end of a blade. At least, not when they can’t bribe the person holding it. The Guild has more influence right now than it has in decades, thanks largely to the Guildmaster’s personal power.

<The Families see that as a threat, so the Head Instructor has to be careful not to push them too far. If they ever put aside their differences and unite against the Guild, we would suffer politically. The Head Instructor won’t stick her neck out that far for someone who’s not even a member of the Guild.>

We were a quiet, angry group at lunch. I was glad that Wolf was on our side, but… he didn’t seem to have an actual plan for dealing with Yuri. And my only idea so far was to challenge that asshole to a duel and beat the shit out of him. I enjoyed the fantasy as I ate, pretending that I didn’t know that option could make things even worse.