Epilogue
Flur
I stepped out of the Dungeon and into the daylight. The warmth of the sun's rays did nothing to warm my soul. A cold emptiness was all that I felt there.
“Is it safe to assume the bandits are dealt with?”
My head jerked in the direction of the spoken words, and my eyes landed on an old man. It was the alchemist that lead the village, old man Gyle as the locals called him. He was standing, bracing himself with his staff. Traces of dried blood were visible around his cheek and on his clothes. He wore a tired expression.
“Uh-huh,” I forced myself to reply, “it came at a cost, though.”
“I can see that.”
Silence fell upon us for moments that seemed to stretch out far longer than they had any right to. Eventually, I took the initiative to ask a question, “How long have I been in there?”
“You went in when the group of bandits showed up, yes? It's been a couple hours, I'd say.”
“Then, where are my friends? They should have only been a few minutes behind us.”
The man averted his eyes as he began to stare off at nothing. My stomach dropped. Somehow, I felt both the numbness intensify and my adrenaline came back to me in full. I affixed my eyes on him and swallowed. Then, I repeated, “Where are they?”
“Your swordsman, Lance I believe is his name, is currently resting at my house. He was seriously injured, but he'll recover in time.”
“And, the rest?”
“Dead.”
My body began to tremble. It suddenly became much harder to keep carrying Chris's body and the sack of coins I had collected. I didn't drop either, but I did fall to my knees at the news.
Why does this always happen?
* * *
“Hold on,” I told old man Gyle, “I need a moment.”
He looked toward me out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't say anything. Meanwhile, I took a few long, deep breaths as I tried to calm myself. It wasn't the first time I had been so consumed by despair, and with my luck, I doubted it would be the last. That didn't make it any easier on me, but it did mean I had plenty of practice with this sort of thing. I knew what to do. The trouble was in forcing myself to do it.
I soaked in the silence for a few long seconds, just existing and feeling my body. Then, I clenched my lower hands into fists and used my upper ones to slap my cheeks. With another deep breath, I forced the corners of my mouth into a wide smile.
“Now, I'm ready.”
The alchemist nodded and opened the door to his house. A moment later, I was following him inside. His house, though large, was cramped and cluttered. Books, alchemy equipment, and bits and bobs I couldn't immediately identify lined his walls. The man led me to a door and gestured for me to open it before starting to walk away. I stopped him.
“Hey, wait. Here, can you give this to the branch head for me? Tell him it's for the families of those we lost, my group and Chris's.”
Gyle nodded and took the sack of blood money from me. I had initially collected it with the intent to give to Chris's family alone, but with my friends dead as well, selfish as it may have been, I was no longer willing to give it all to them. Split five ways, I doubted the pittance would do much for any of them, but at the very least, it was something.
Gyle left for real after that, leaving me alone in front of the door. I hesitated for only a moment. Then, I threw it open with more force than was necessary. I strode my way into the room even as I watched the man in the bed jump from the sudden intrusion.
“Huh? Flur? Ack! You're alive?”
Lance grimaced in pain from the way he moved.
“Oh, come on! You know how stubborn I am. You're not getting rid of me that easily.”
The sound that escaped his lips was something between a laugh and a cough. Even as his response seemed to cause him pain, he put on a wry smile and shook his head.
“You never change, do you?”
I put a finger to my chin as though I was deep in thought for a moment before answering with a cheery, “Nope!”
He sighed.
“You did hear, right?”
There was only one thing he could be referring to in such a somber tone, and the subject was the one thing I was intentionally forcing from my mind in order to keep it together. As it was brought up, my mask cracked slightly.
I inhaled before answering with a more subdued, “Yep.”
“What about Chris? They said you two weren't with the others. Did he … ?”
I shook my head in answer.
“Oh, that's unfortunate.”
Silence filled the room, but not for long. I didn't let it.
“So, I heard you held off the big bad bandit leader until the branch head arrived. That's impressive,” I paused for dramatic effect before continuing, “How did it feel to get tossed around like a ragdoll?”
He choked at my question and shot me a glare. I smiled in return. Tease him and keep him on his toes, that was my plan. So long as he was distracted by me, he was distracted from the harshness of reality and given a small slice of normalcy. Some people didn't respond well to that approach, but it was all I could do for him.
“Really, Flur?”
“Are you telling me you weren't tossed around like a ragdoll?”
“Do you have to put it like that?”
“Nope!”
He sighed again.
“Hey, chin up. You held off a man in the next tier of power, level thirty-two from what I was told. That's a serious accomplishment right there.”
“It's more like I was toyed around with by him. The only reason he didn't outright kill me was because he was trying to weaken me enough for his underlings to finish me off, and even then, I didn't last long.”
“You lasted long enough. Besides, you took blows from him and kept standing. The level twenty-seven I fought would have killed me had he landed a single hit, so I'd say that's doing pretty good.”
“The what!?”
“Ah,” I said as I raised a finger, “I forgot to mention it, silly me.”
“Flur.”
He fixed me with stern look.
“Alright, alright.”
I threw my hands up in a placating gesture before displaying a notification for him to see.
[Title: Limitless
Description: You have killed an individual 1 rank and at least 5 levels higher than you without help from anyone not fitting that criteria.
Effects: While this title is equipped, the holder benefits from +10% to all stats. Upon receiving this title, the quality of the holder's class upgrade options will be improved.]
Lance's mouth hung open as he stared. I, on the other hand, shrugged and spoke in a more serious tone, “I don't like the way that title says, 'without help'. I had help. In fact, I'd be dead if Chris hadn't bought me the opening I needed to finish off the second in command with his life. He really saved me, and even then, I'd probably have still bled out afterward if I didn't also get this.”
[Achievement: Dungeon Defender
Description: You have cooperated with a Dungeon to take down a shared enemy.
Reward: You have gained the ability Dungeon Draw!]
[Ability: Dungeon Draw
Description: While within a Dungeon, you can draw in ambient power in order to refill your resources more quickly.
Effect: While within a Dungeon, you regain 1% of your health, stamina, and mana per minute.]
“Isn't that a notoriously rare achievement?” he choked out, “I honestly don't know which of those two is more impressive.”
I shrugged as I said, “The title is better. Outside of delving Dungeons, the ability isn't all that great.”
“We have been delving a Dungeon, though. In fact, we are the senior adventurers here in charge of said Dungeon. I'd say that's pretty good.”
I paused for a moment. I felt like it was obvious that we wouldn't qualify for the role anymore. Half our party was dead after all, but saying that wouldn't help. Instead, I pointed out a different issue.
“That would be assuming the Dungeon doesn't get condemned, and with what I saw in there today, I think the Adventurers Guild would be crazy not to. There had to be nearly a hundred mangled corpses strewn about before I even got there. The Dungeon's out of control. There's no way around it.”
* * *
Loid
“Damn it!” I yelled.
That had ended in disaster, just short of the worst way possible. When the bandits had attacked, it had seemed like the perfect opportunity to swoop in and deal with the Dungeon. We had left for it as soon as we could, but we just had to run into a group of adventurers on the way. They weren't all that strong, but they also weren't weak. We were able to deal with them well enough, but that was when that accursed old man showed up.
“What kind of alchemist is that strong!?”
It made no sense. Our levels were all in the twenties. We were nearing the second tier of power, yet he mopped the floor with us. We struggled to even lightly injure him, and by the time he was done with us, we were only just barely in good enough shape to get away.
“Sir,” Arina, my lieutenant, spoke up, “what's the plan?”
I took a deep breath to calm myself. Getting worked up like that wasn't like me. I needed to calm down and think straight.
After a brief pause, I answered, “We'll regroup, keep an eye on them. We'll wait for a good time to strike; then, we'll deal with whatever is left of the Troll Tusk Bandits. We'll take the core from them then.”
“And, if they fail?”
“If they fail, we have bigger problems. If the Adventurers Guild or that alchemist end up with it, it's a lost cause, and as unthinkable as the possibility may be, if the Dungeon survives a full on assault from that group, it means we're already out of our depth. In that unlikely situation, we'll take extra risks that we normally wouldn't. We'll reach the next tier of power. Then, we'll harvest that Dungeon. Any objections?”
My group was silent. They were battered, beaten, singed, and looked like death, but they were silent.
“Good. Now, we move out. I'm not willing to rest for more than a minute until we put far more distance between ourselves and that freak.”
* * *
Cameron
As nice as my break was, eventually, I knew I had to get back to work. When that time came, the first thing I did was review my gains. First off, the Raid, Great Raid, and Grand Raid achievements were awarded to me for fending off a group of twenty, fifty, and one hundred people respectively. The first two granted a plus one to all of my monsters' stats, and the last gave plus one percent to the same.
The Bane of Raids, Bane of Sieges, and Bane of Armies titles were awarded for not only fending off groups of those sizes but also for killing everyone in them. The first two were lesser versions of Bane of Armies, and as such, they gave lesser versions of what the last one gave, meaning they were useless. The third iteration of the title, on the other hand, was impressive.
[Title: Bane of Armies
Description: A raid composed of 100 individuals has died within your Dungeon.
Effects: While this title is equipped, the holder's mana regeneration rate is increased by +100%.]
It would be going into my active rotation of titles that I used depending on the situation. With it, I had the opportunity to expedite the physical growth of my Dungeon and reset it faster after each raid. It was a powerful boon.
Next were the achievements I had gained as a result of the first three. There were two that getting the other achievements awarded me: Transcendent Species and Generalist. Transcendent Species had more potential out of the two despite only being applicable for my Horned Dracos, but Generalist was more immediately useful. I couldn't complain about either.
[Achievement: Transcendent Species
Description: An entire species of monster under your control has achieved double their normal base total of stat points.
Reward: The quality of all evolution choices stemming from this species will be improved!]
[Achievement: Generalist
Description: You have earned 10 upgrades that affect all of your monsters.
Reward: All monsters gain +1% to all stats!]
That left Deadly and Delayed Bonus. Deadly was awarded for killing a total of one hundred people, an active symbol of how far I'd fallen that rewarded me for my affront to life. It gave a whopping one hundred twenty thousand experience. Delayed Bonus was something I had known about for a while and had made sure to act accordingly to ensure Vie and Pee were the ones that benefited from it.
[Achievement: Delayed Bonus
Description: One of your monsters had gained 5 levels without claiming a bonus.
Reward: The monster has gained one basic spell or ability that suits it!]
[Ability: Anti-Immune Venom
Description: You can inject your enemies with a venom that reduces their body's ability to fight off various poisons, diseases, and other effects.
Effect: Applies a poison that increases the potency of other poisons, diseases, and certain effects by +5% x [(VIT) / Target's (FORT) and (VIT)]. This effect lasts for 5 minutes and can be refreshed with another bite.]
It had perfect synergy with their other venoms. With it, their lethality increased drastically. That was certainly something they needed with how dejected they were once they found out that they had been absent for such an important raid. No matter how much I insisted it wasn't their fault, it didn't seem to comfort them much. I looked to where they were training with Sir Archibald II. They were putting in more effort than ever.
I really wish they'd take a break.
“Now you know how I feel about you,” Fabian ribbed me.
Well, they can afford to. I can't.
“We haven't gotten any delvers since then. It probably wouldn't kill you.”
The key word there is, “Probably.” We could get more invaders at any time, and you said that when we do, it'll be worse.
“No, I said that it could be bad depending on how the Adventurers Guild reacts.”
With my luck, that's all but a promise of imminent danger.
“Things can't always go wrong, can they?”
And, now, you've jinxed it.
“What do you mean? I didn't use any magic. I don't even have curses.”
I heaved a mental sigh. Though I had knowledge of the local language, not everything I knew and wanted to say had perfect translations with the proper context. It would take a while to get used to that.
“So, are you ready to make the choice yet?”
I think so.
With the change in conversation, I turned my attention toward the perk choice I had been offered for reaching level ten.
[Please select a perk.]
[Environment: Beach
Description: You can incorporate aspects of a beach into your Dungeon.
Effect: Allows you to summon and modify sand, shells, salt water, and some types of vegetation. Any vegetation you summon subsists off of mana alone.]
[Trap: Explosion Tile
Level: 1
Cost: 20 DP
Description: A tile that, when stepped on, triggers an explosion from underneath it.
Effect: When this tile is press down on by at least 5 lbs of weight, it triggers an explosion. At point blank, the explosion will deal a base damage of 100 x level.]
[Environment: Alchemical Garden
Description: You can incorporate aspects of an alchemical garden into your Dungeon.
Effect: Allows you to summon and modify certain plants with common uses in alchemy. Any vegetation you summon subsists off of mana alone.]