A Dungeon’s Survival

Cameron

A blast of fire narrowly missed a Horned Draco, a Trenti was sent flying by a harsh gust of wind, and a wave of darkness crashed into a Shadow Viper, much of the impact being dispersed as the magic ineffectually wrapped around the snake. Those were the results of some of my base Crystal Puffers' attacks. Vie and Pee already knew of their capabilities, yet two of their three monsters still took some degree of damage from them. It was at this point that the difficulty of the task was beginning to dawn on them.

“This isn't working.”

“Maybe it would help if we gave them a pep talk?”

A short silence followed as they began to contemplate their situation. Seeing them at a loss, I decided to offer them some advice and encouragement.

You've got this. Just think about what your individual units bring to the table.

“I do not understand, our queen.”

“Archie brings bottles and potion ingredients to a table! He's a Trenti!”

I groaned internally. I knew not all of my expressions translated well to this other world's language, but I was pretty sure that one's meaning should have come across well enough. That meant, the confusion likely stemmed from their lack of experience, or maybe I was wrong, and the expression wasn't as straightforward as I though. Either way, it didn't matter in the moment. I decided to circle back around to that issue later and, instead, elaborate.

What I mean is to take their stats, abilities, and physical differences into account. There are more approaches to this than just having them run in and get hit. See what you can come up with.

“Our monster need to get in close to set them off, though.”

“But, we are taking abilities into account? Shadow Cloak dampened the blow on the viper!”

It was cute to see the different ways they handled problems. Vie was proving more prone to annoyance, and Pee just seemed confused. There were still the water, stone, and light flowers from the basic ones and all of the ones with combined elements. I was genuinely curious how they'd handle them.

“Trenti,” Vie ordered a short time later, “approach the glowing one.”

The weed reacted, and a blast of magical light burst forth from the Crystal Puffer. It collided with the goblinoid, and it was sent toppling over backward. Their approach would only work a few more times at the rate things were going.

“I don't see the alternatives,” Vie grumbled.

“Come on! You can do it!” Pee cheered, seemingly defaulting back to her idea to encourage them to do better.

Seemingly taking her words as an order, the Horned Draco approached the stony colored Crystal Puffer and had a barrage of rocks that formed midair hurled at it. Luckily, they all missed. That was good since, if even one had connected with the little creature, the lizard would have been crushed.

“Good job!” Pee cheered.

“No, that was bad,” Vie interjected, “That wasn't an order. You shouldn't have gone in.”

The monster, despite being nothing but instincts, deflated. It was an impressive effect Vie's scolding had produced, but that wasn't the kind of leadership skills this game was supposed to help them with, and of the initial six types, they still hadn't defused the water element.

“We need to think about this,” Vie stated.

“The Trenti can block it?” Pee responded uncertainly.

“If we had it block the attack, it would get hurt. We'd fail later.”

“Then, we could have the draco try to dodge the attack?”

“Maybe that would work, but we have no guarantee it would.”

“So, what now?”

“I don't know.”

I kept most of my concentration on them, but I had split my focus by this point. While this was going on, I had my second perspective go about doing maintenance on the Dungeon. It was a routine resummoning of monsters, but it was enough to occupy any additional attention I had. That was why I startled so bad when I suddenly heard a nasally voice in my head, “I'm back.”

Eep!

“Our queen?”

“What is it mother.”

“Uh, sorry for startling you.”

It took me a few long moments to regain my composure, but when I did, I told the girls, It's nothing. Fabian just got back, and it startled me. Carry on.

“Oh, are you talking to Vie and Pee, or is it Archibald?”

It's Vie and Pee, I have them trying to lead a group of monsters against the puffers. I finished the last of them while you were gone. How'd your meeting go?

“Well, it could have gone better. They didn't seem to be as concerned about your choices and the Adventurers Guild as I expected, but they weren't happy for other reasons. They –”

Just then, a tide of water erupted from the plant in my testing room. It collided with the Trenti, and sent it tumbling. Vie let out unintelligible squeals of frustration in response, and Pee let loose a pained sounding, “Ooh …” of sympathy.

Sorry, Fabe, could you repeat that?

“Uh, okay. I said they were kind of pissed about me not having formed an actual bond with you.”

I froze at that. That was the worst case scenario. After all, I absolutely could not form that bond. If I did, he would be able able to see that I had lied to him about my real name and evaded the magically binding contract with the Fairy Council. Even if I was okay with accepting the deal now, which I was not, that would have caused all kinds of problems.

First of all, I feared that would destroy any trust Fabian and I had built with each other. That was bad, but it wasn't the most serious potential problem. That was in the fact that I didn't know how the council would react to me having pulled that, and considering that they wanted me to agree to something as restrictive as that contract in the first place, I didn't feel good about the chances of them just letting it go. Then, there was the fact that they were immensely powerful beings that kidnapped people from other realities speaking to their character. I could not let them find out.

I'm sorry Fabe, it really isn't anything personal. It's just that the idea of binding my soul to another person deeply unsettles me. Something just feels indescribably wrong about it.

He heaved a sigh in response.

“I know I didn't force the matter before, and to be honest, that was because I was scared. I didn't want to risk going through the pain of losing another core I am bound to, but this is something we have to do. If we don't, I don't know what what will happen, but the council isn't likely to ignore it. Um, if it helps any, though, it isn't too dissimilar of a bond as what you have with your awakened monsters, so it shouldn't be too much of a change.”

His words were meant to be reassuring, but they had only the opposite effect on me. It felt like I was being backed into a corner with no way to escape. In that moment, I felt like the Horned Draco that currently had burning rocks being hurled toward it, but unlike the monster Vie and Pee were commanding, I didn't have the agility to dodge my problems.

Could we talk about this later? I asked, I want see how Vie and Pee do here.

“Cameron,” I winced internally at his use of my fake name, “you're stalling.”

Maybe, I couldn't even deny it.

“Look,” he gently rubbed my core in a soothing manner as he spoke, “I can't claim to understand your hesitation, not exactly, but I do get your concern. How's about this: instead of worrying, we'll look at this from a logical standpoint? I know you aren't exactly good about taking my advice, but I could help you set up a cost-benefit analysis, and if you really don't want to do it afterward, I'll drop it. Just know that there would be serious repercussions to that.”

His words stabbed at me because they were true. I had ignored a lot of his advice, and while I didn't think the decisions I had made were wrong, I did feel a bit bad about it. I was backed into a corner, and I couldn't see a way out. Talking could buy me time to think, though, and I had to figure out a solution to this issue that I had been procrastination on quickly. Any time extra time would help.

Okay, I reluctantly agreed.

“Thank you.”

* * *

Vie

“What even is that?”

I had identified the types of magic the Crystal Puffer we had just set off had correctly. It was pitch-black and glistening with dewdrops; it had shadow and water. I had expected some combination of the two elements to burst from it, so I had sent in the Shadow Viper. My prediction had also been correct, but it was not in the way I expected. An inky black goop was now covering the viper.

After the stone and fire one just shot out flaming rocks, I had taken that to be the standard, but it seemed I had gotten ahead of myself. Instead of just shadow and water, this Crystal Puffer had attacked with a strange combination of both. A murky black liquid had erupted from it, and the characteristics of the substance did not line up with either the elements that comprised it.

The substance hadn't actually harmed the Shadow Viper. Instead, it clung to it, and it wasn't in the same way that normal shadows cling to us. It provided no safe wrappings of darkness. What it did was cling and obstruct movements. That wasn't what shadows were supposed to do to us.

“Maybe the attacks combine the traits of both elements?” Pee offered.

I trusted her without question when it came to all things pertaining to magic. I knew she didn't know everything on the subject, but she intuitively grasped it far better than I did and in I way I could not, so I swiftly accepted her conclusion as fact.

“Then, what would be the best combination for a Horned Draco to avoid?” I asked.

“Anything except shadow, air, and light! They're too fast.”

That ruled it out for dealing with eleven of the remaining thirteen plants. That left just two combinations it could handle with relative safety: water paired with stone and fire with water. I could guess that the plant with steam rising from it was the fire with water one, but the water and stone one was surprisingly hard to narrow down. None of the remaining options felt quite right for that pairing.

“What do you think water and fire would do?” I asked.

“Hmm, fiery water?”

That made no sense. It was a contradiction, but my sister had said it, so I accepted it.

“Horned Draco,” I commanded, “run past that one.”

It did as it was told and ran toward it. In response, the plant monster released a wave of spores and magic. In the next moment, water was spraying everywhere. The release of it was wild, and it was undirected. That was both good and bad.

Since it was an uncontrolled burst, it was nearly impossible to dodge. Because of that, the draco ended up getting hit with a few droplets. Fortunately, that also meant that there was no concentrated blast to sweep it away. Unfortunately, that didn't stop the liquid from burning.

Wherever it landed, steam rose from the ground or, in the case of where it hit its target, the lizard. It was as my sister had guessed, but I had underestimated it. Our monster had survived, but it still got hurt in the process, all because I hadn't predicted the burning rain properly. It couldn't take another indirect hit like that. I needed to do better, but I still didn't understand how.

“We're changing tactics,” I said, “what would do the least amount of damage to a Trenti.”

“Air! Its mostly force, and they take less physical damage!”

I nodded.

“What else?”

“Water is similar!”

Air and water it was. I picked out one of the puffers whose leaves seemed to be floating and had a strange distorted effect around it. It was either that one or the one that was cloudy in color and also had floaty leaves. I could tell that they were both air flowers, but their second elements weren't as readily obvious to me. I knew the water one had to be one of them, though. That was because the other similar looking ones obviously weren't.

They all either glowed, blended into the darkness, or had a weird distorted effect around them. I figured the first one I picked out seemed the most likely to be what I was looking for since the cloudy color of the second could have come from another element, so I sent the Trenti in.

As soon as it approached, the air around it warped and twisted. It screamed and fell to a knee. I was left dumbfounded. I had no clue what had happened.

“Air and fire!” my sister exclaimed cheerfully.

“How does that make any sense?”

“I don't know, but the Trenti looks like it's wilting! They're weak to fire!”

This wasn't good. It could probably take another hit, but that would be it for the creature. After that, it would be up to our fellow Shadow Viper and the Horned Draco.

“Trenti, do that one next.”

It stumbled to its feet and did as I instructed. I braced myself to watch it take the following attack, but then, I froze. I wasn't sure what water and air would do when combined, but the cloud that seemingly harmlessly formed around the Trenti wasn't it.

“Come back! Are you hurt?”

The monster stumbled out of the cloud and shook its head. It was perfectly fine, save for its previous injuries. I didn't know what to make of it.

“That's so weird!” my sister commented.

“Well, our queen did say not all of them were useful.”

I didn't know what to make of the effect, but I wasn't going to fixate on it. I doubted figuring out why that had happened would help us with us the others, so I dismissed it. Instead, I turned my attention toward the others.

There were still ten Crystal Puffers left. I decided to focus on the ones that the Shadow Viper was suited to handle next. There were three combinations that fit that criteria, and they all had shadow as one of their elements. They were the fire, stone, and air ones.

In general, the shadow monster weeds were easy to pick out, but that only helped so much. The same darkness that they embodied also covered up much of the other elements' influence on them. That made them hard to distinguish between.

I could assume that the air one was the one with the floaty leaves, but the other two didn't seem to have any major discernible differences that would give their second elements away. They were just black flowers. With that being the case, I decided to start with the one I could identify, the air one.

My mind made up, I gave the command, and the Shadow Viper, still slowed by the goop coating it, rushed forward. A moment later, it was sent tumbling away. I was certain Shadow Cloak had dispersed some of the blast's power, but the attack's air magic had still done damage. Just like our other two monsters, it would not be able to take much more of this.