A Dungeon’s Survival

Cameron

Fabian was right. I couldn't keep evading the bond with him. The list of pros and cons proved that. I had struggled to even come up with a few flimsy excuses as to why we shouldn't do it, yet the other side of the argument hadn't been lacking in reasons. According to them, the choice was clear. The problem was that they didn't fully reflect the reality of the situation, and I couldn't bring that fact to light.

If we went through with the bonding, the upsides were clear. I would benefit from convenience, Fabian would have more freedom while being able to help me better and easier, and we theoretically wouldn't have to worry about the Fairy Council anymore. The downsides that I raised with Fabian were that he would suffer if I died, something that was true but not actually my decision to make, and that I would forever be giving up my personal space, something that was a bit of an exaggeration and already the case thanks to the bonds I had with my monsters.

From all of that alone, I would have jumped at forming the bond with my assistant. The upsides were substantial, and the downsides were negligible, but that was only according to the list itself. In reality, the situation was far more complicated than that.

The excuses I had given aside, the real problems were that Fabian would lose all trust in me if he found I had had been lying to him, and the Fairy Council would undoubtedly find out about my trickery through him. Taking those extra points into consideration, the actual answer was weighted heavily toward not doing it. That was something I went into my conversation with him already knowing and not expecting to change, yet somehow, it had. Fabian's last point changed things.

“Yes, I'm sure. It's more than a possibility. It's all but guaranteed.”

His words shook me to my core. It hadn't even been something I had considered, the possibility that the Fairy Council would take him away and assign me a different fairy, one I had no rapport with and would probably be less lenient and understanding of my quirks. The notion of that being possible was something that chilled me down to the mana that composed my very being as a Dungeon Core. It was something I couldn't allow to happen.

You're sure you're sure?

“Just because you say it more times doesn't change anything. It's a fact.”

With that revelation, my previous confidence in my decision had been turned on its head. I hadn't known Fabian for all that long of a time, and he was at least partially responsible for my current situation, but I cared about him. He was one of the only people in my life now. He was one of the only people to have actually make an actual attempt to help me get my life back on track in so long, even if that life was in a twisted and cruel reality as a sentient crystal now, and most importantly, he was my friend. I couldn't bare to lose him too. I had to avoid that at all costs.

That put me in a difficult position. It meant I had to accept the bond, but that would ruin everything too. It was a circular loop of disaster with no way out in sight. I was lost just thinking about it. I didn't know what to do, and I needed more time to think.

Can I make my decision in a bit? I'm not procrastinating; I promise. I just need some time to process all of this, and I want to watch Vie and Pee finish their game of tactics. I'll give you an answer after that, okay?

“Yeah, that works.”

He nodded and I recentered my focus on the girls. I watched them as they continued their challenge, but my mind was elsewhere.

What am I going to do? I thought to myself.

* * *

Vie

We still had nine flowers to go. It was a lot for how worn out our own monsters were. Something about our approach had to change. I just wasn't sure about what.

Our queen wouldn't have given us an impossible task … unless the point was for it to be impossible?

I wasn't sure anymore. That didn't seem right, but also, I didn't know what she was thinking. Maybe it was a test where we were supposed to figure out that it was impossible.

“Nope!” my sister happily refuted my doubts, “Mother said it would be a challenge. That means it's possible!”

You're right.

That meant I was missing something. She had told us to make use of their strengths and weaknesses, but we had been doing that, hadn't we? What more was there to take advantage of?

The Horned Draco's Hoard of Dragon's ability was useless if the monster didn't have a hoard to protect, and we didn't have any treasure to give it. Even if we did, the boost in power would have been insignificant. That was a dead end.

We Shadow Vipers naturally had Shadow Cloak and Viper Venom. We weren't supposed to kill the Crystal Puffers, so venom was out, not that it would have helped anyway. As for Shadow Cloak, we had already been using it. It could redirect the shadow attacks slightly, but that was it. It didn't make much of a difference beyond weakening those hits against it.

Then, there was the Trenti. It's only ability was Bark Skin, something we had been taking advantage of to reduce the damage it took from the more physical attacks. That was it for its abilities. It did have a spell as well, but it was an attacking spell. That wasn't helpful. We weren't trying to–

Pee, I interrupted my train of thought to ask my sister a question, do you remember how our queen said these things act?

“They attack anything that comes close!”

How? They detect them with Mana Sense, right?

“Yeah?”

Do you remember the details of that skill from when our queen explained it to us?

“Yep! They can feel the density of mana around them! Living things have different mana densities from the environment. They can feel that difference!”

Can they distinguish sources of mana or just the mana itself?

“Just the mana!”

There it was, our lifeline. I found it.

Overall, which combinations do you think would be the hardest for our troops to survive?

“Light and fire! The fire ones would kill our Trenti for sure, and light is too fast to dodge.”

I nodded at her reasoning. I had come to the same conclusion, but I wanted to hear her perspective as the more magically inclined of us. It wouldn't solve all of our problems, but it was a start.

Trenti, I ordered, stand back and cast Spore Wave in the direction of all of the glowing Crystal Puffers.

I held my breath as I watched. I couldn't be certain it would work, but it was the best plan I could come up with. The Trenti stepped forward and raised its hand toward a glowing puffer. The flower monster looked weightless where it was rooted; it was the air and light one. Then, the Trenti let loose a blast of magic.

I found myself blinded and squealing in the next moment. It burned. It wasn't the kind of pain that indicated damage to anything other than my eyes, but the feeling that washed over me was antithetical to my own existence. It was the first time I felt our Shadow Cloak ability fail us outright as all of the darkness in the vicinity was chased away. It felt horrid. It was like having our scales peeled off.

“Ah!” my sister screamed from beside me.

I used that to ground myself. I needed to focus.

What was that? I thought as I could feel but not see the shadows begin to blanket us once more.

“Are you okay?” our queen's voice reached me.

Y–yes, our queen. We are fine, but I can't see.

“Mother, what was that?”

“It was large burst of light, like a flash-bang. It shouldn't have hurt you, but you might have a hard time seeing for a bit. Maybe I missed something during my testing, though? Are you sure you two are okay?”

Yes. Just give us a moment, I responded with the intent of alleviating her worries.

“I think so?” my sister's uncertain response did not help on that front.

That had been the brightest light I had ever seen, and I hated it. Still, we had disarmed another flower without any losses or damage done beyond extreme discomfort. I'd take that as a win in this situation, but I knew, if the stakes were higher, that blindness and disorientation could have been pivotal in our defeat. I needed to be more mindful in the future.

Still, as bad as it had been, the time eventually came that my vision began to return to me. It wasn't perfect at first, but it was enough to continue. I surveyed our surroundings as best as I could, but our monsters seemed more or less fine aside from our Shadow Viper. It seemed that the attack was more effective against our kind.

Trenti, can you see?

A blur of motion that I took to be a nod was its response.

Good. Continue.

I made sure to avert my gaze momentarily as it set off each of the remaining light Crystal Puffers after that, but I turned my head back after each went off. That way, I could observe their effects. The one I couldn't identify was first up after the incident, and it responded with a salvo of glowing rocks. They missed, and our Trenti moved on.

Next was the one that, on top of glowing, sparkled. It was somehow worse than the so-called flash-bang in terms of brightness, but it left us mostly unaffected from where we sat back and watched. The Trenti was another matter, though. That was because the flash of light wasn't a burst like the other had been. Instead, it was a concentrated beam that shone far brighter but only in a single direction. It connected with the Trenti's eyes, and the effect it had on it might have been even worse than the agony we had just experienced as it fell to the floor and began flailing.

I hate these things.

“Agreed,” my sister said unsteadily.

The light attacks had apparently shaken her up too. I couldn't blame her, but we still had a mission to accomplish. Unfortunately, that had to wait until our mage could once again stand. That took a while, but once it could, I had it target the last of the glowing flowers.

The light show that followed wasn't as blinding. It was still bright, but it wasn't as bad as the other two flowers' attacks were. Instead of pure brightness, the attack was composed of golden, radiant flames. The way they illuminated everything around them was unsettling, but they soon extinguished, and we were able to continue.

Five monster weeds remained. One was gray in color, one was brown with an odd texture, two were plain but shadowed, and the last one looked more plain even than the base elemental ones. I could narrow down what most of them were through the process of elimination, but I could no longer be certain. They all appeared too unremarkable for me to tell them apart for certain.

We have two more spells left. Should we aim for the fire and shadow mix or the shadow with light? I can't guarantee I can pick both out.

“I can't predict what the shadow and light one will do, but I do know the fire and shadow one will be bad!” my sister offered.

I nodded and had the Trenti set off one of the two shadowed flowers. When the blast of magical spores neared it, it released dark flames that stuck to the ground and continued to burn without the need for fuel. They didn't show any signs of going out.

“That's probably the most dangerous type,” our queen's voice filled our heads with an explanation, “That fire clings to anything it touches and just keeps burning. It seems to be kind of like napalm, not that any of you'd actually know what that is.”

I continued to stare as it burned, seemingly with no end. I couldn't help but to admire the sight. It was nothing more than shifting shadows in an already dark room, but that was the beauty of it. It was so simple, yet I could tell it was dangerous just from looking at it. I was entranced.

“Vie? Vie? Vie!” my sister's voice snapped me back to my senses.

I was unsure how long I had been staring at it, but I shook myself out of my daze.

Right, the shadow and light one. I can narrow it down to the gray and plain ones, but I'm not sure which it is.

“I can't tell either.”

I stole another glance at the fire. It was just so beautiful. it was the opposite of everything that felt wrong about the light flames, and I felt like I could stare at it hours. I had a job to do, though, so I pushed those thoughts away and made a choice.

Set off the gray one.

The Trenti did as told, and the result was a cloud of dirt. It was a mostly harmless flower. I had chosen the wrong one.

Three remained, but we could no longer set them off consequence free. Technically, we could have waited them out until our Trenti regained its mana, but I thought that would have defeated the point of the exercise. We needed another plan.

The remaining combinations are stone with water, stone with shadow, and shadow with light. I commented.

I could pick them out now with complete certainty, but none of our troops could take another hit. I didn't know how we would get them to survive this.

* * *

Cameron

I watched as the pair went from floundering about, unsure of how to handle their situation, to swiftly disarming six of the puffers. It was an excellent use of the Trenti's spell that managed to dig them almost all of the way out of the trouble they had found themselves in. I wished I had something that could do that for me with my own problems. With that thought, I began skimming over my own status screen in the background without any real expectations.

Class? Nonexistent. Titles? No. Skills? Can't get any. Ability? Useless.

I kept my thoughts to myself, but the further I got down my stats page, the more futile it began to feel. Then, I skimmed past something that made me pause and reread it.

Huh, that might actually work.

* * *

Vie

I hadn't jumped to give any of our units orders. Instead, I was deep in thought. The Horned Draco was the only one that could potentially dodge a hit, but it was hurt and may be unable to. The Trenti could possibly survive the weakest of hits at the brink of death, but again, that wasn't guaranteed. Then, there was the Shadow Viper. It could potentially weaken the two shadow attacks, but it couldn't survive them. That was what we were working with.

“It's too bad we can't combine three broken monsters into a whole one,” my sister commented.

Wait, what?

“Oh, just thinking! We have three monsters at their limits. A single whole one would be better, but we don't have one, so it doesn't really matter!”

Pee, that's it!

“Huh?”

The realization dawned on me. We hadn't been using the monsters to their fullest. We could combine them, in a way.

The stone and shadow one, draco, viper, both of you run toward the dark flower. Stay a short distance apart, and viper, follow just behind the draco. When it attacks, split up.

“What?” came my sister's voice in confusion.

The monsters did as instructed. They neared it, and it let loose its attack: a shower of dark stones. Once that happened, the monsters split up. The Horned Draco had been closer when their foe used Mana Puff, so it was the target of the attack, but the Shadow Viper's Shadow Cloak tugged the magical attack toward it. It wasn't much, but it resulted in the attack being thrown off course slightly. It missed them both.

[Skill gained: Tactics!]

[Achievement gained: Leader!]

[Ability gained: Pack Leader!]

I read through the notifications. The rewards were useful, but not immediately relevant. Instead, it was the implication that my plan had worked that got me excited. It wasn't over yet, though. We still had two to go and no easy answers.

The more predictable of the pair was the stone and water one. Water attacks tended to go wide. I didn't trust the draco to dodge the remaining flower of that element. That meant it was up to the Trenti to block the attack, but I had no clue if it could survive. In the end, I had no more great ideas. I sent the Trenti in.

The puffer coalesced a wave of what at first glance appeared to be dark water. It sailed toward the Trenti and landed. I flinched at the sight as I watched with bated breath.

Did it work? Did it survive? the thoughts raced through my head.

Then, the reality of the situation set in as the Trenti began to rise from where it had been knocked over. As it did so, the substance covering it began to fall in clumps.

“Oh!” came my sister's voice, “Stone and water make mud! That makes sense.”

We had gotten lucky, but there was still one flower left. I recomposed myself and sent both the Trenti and Shadow Viper in. I hoped that, whatever the effect would be, the two of them, the Shadow Viper to absorb the shadows and the Trenti to take the hit, would be enough. Slowly, they approached.

Soon, the plain looking flower puffed. Spores flew everywhere. The magic element of the ability was …

It was nowhere to be seen. Nothing happened. The Shadow and Light one we had been so anxious about and unsure of had done nothing.

I tilted my head in confusion as my sister did the same.

What?

“Huh?”

“Great job you two!” came our queen's voice, “That last one was a complete bust. It does nothing, or at least, it doesn't do anything so far as I can tell, but that means you did it!”

“Yay!” came my sister's voice, but I only continued to stare at the plain flower.

I felt conflicted. On one hand we had done it, but hadn't that a bit too anticlimactic?