A Dungeon’s Survival

Connie

My mind came to a sudden, screeching halt as death notification after death notification suddenly began flooding my field of vision. It was early in the morning, before the time I normally started getting delvers, and I was not ready for whatever this was.

[A Beastkin Thief (Level 11) has died in your Dungeon! 220 experience gained.]

[A Human Smuggler (Level 14) has died in your Dungeon! 280 experience gained.]

[A Gnome Rogue (Level 17) has died in your Dungeon! 340 experience gained.]

Uh, I attempted and failed to put together a coherent thought.

[A Giant Mugger (Level 9) has died in your Dungeon! 180 experience gained.]

No sooner did I finish skimming through the messages than a feeling a dread washed over me. Aside from the rogue, everyone who was dying was a criminal, not that that was to say the rogue wasn't. I just didn't have enough information to know for sure in regards to them, not that it mattered too much. The fact still stood that at least most of them were criminals.

How relevant the fact was aside, it was more than enough to influence my initial thoughts on the matter. Instantly, I began drawing parallels to the army of bandits who had invaded with vast numbers a while back. Undeniably, there were similarities between what had happened then and what was happening now, but even so, this was different. Something was off about this.

Back during that invasion, it had been my monsters that were responsible for doing away with the attackers. That was how it normally was; they were my main method of defense after all. The notifications I was getting now, however, implied something fundamentally different was going on. They weren't attributing the kills to anything of mine.

[An Orc Bandit (Level 12) has died in your Dungeon! 240 experience gained.]

The situation, though still unknown, was obviously unusual, something I had yet to encounter. Because of that, it took me a moment to compose myself, my lack of understanding pairing with the stress of everything I'd gone through over the past week catching up with me. I could only remain in a shocked stupor for so long, though. I'd been through more than enough to know that I couldn't afford to waste time in unknown situations, so as soon as I could, I forced what I'd been working on before this out of mind and brought my focus to the situation at hand.

A thousand thoughts seemed to cross my mind at once. If it was a large-scale invasion, I needed to ready my forces. I was certain I could handle people at the levels the notifications altered me to, but if someone else was killing them with such ease, it might have been another situation on the same level as the bear. That would have been a disaster. Then, there was the possibility that it was the bear killing people, something I wouldn't put past it.

There were just too many possibilities. I needed intel, but before anything else, checking on what was going on included, I willed for my active title to change. If I was randomly going to be getting a bunch of unexpected experience, I was going to make the most of it. My choice was proven to be the right one in the next moment as the notifications showed no signs of stopping. The extra experience I was getting from my Summoned Hero title might not have been much, but it was something, and any experience was a valuable resource.

[A Human Swindler (Level 14) has died in your Dungeon! 336 experience gained.]

[An Orc Swordsman (Level 18) has died in your Dungeon! 396 experience gained.]

With my title taken care of, I wasted no more time in getting to the bottom of things. I directed my attention to my entrance, and as my point of view materialized there, I was left at a loss. The sight that met me somehow left my reeling mind grasping at even more questions.

[A Beastkin Bandit (Level 7) has died in your Dungeon! 154 experience gained.]

What?

All I could do was stare as a group of armored individuals methodically ended the lives of a sizable group of restrained criminals. In that moment, I desperately wished Fabian was still around to help me make sense of what was going on.

Did they chase a group of criminals in here? No, that wouldn't make sense; they're restrained. Are they cultists, and this is some sort of weird ritual sacrifice? Well, they aren't wearing dark robes and using creepy knives, so probably not. Maybe? Hopefully not.

To be fair, the gloomy interior of my Dungeon was not helping with their image, but they did have an air of purpose and authority to them, not that that meant much. Also, while them only killing criminals didn't entirely discount the possibility of them doing so for malevolent or cultish reasons–I had seen far too many strange things from the inhabitants of this world for me to dismiss that possibility out of hand–it did lend credence to other scenarios being the case. As for what those other scenarios could've been, I wasn't sure.

What even is this!? I yelled internally, my frustrations bubbling over, Nothing the people around here do ever makes any sense! None! Ugh, I wish I could understand even a sliver of what goes through their minds! Wouldn't that be nice? But, no, instead I get, uh, whatever this is.

Wish as I might, however, it seemed my curiosity was doomed to be left unsated. As soon as the fifteenth body hit the ground, the armored individuals collected them and took their leave. They didn't even have the decency to monologue to themselves about what they'd just done. At least, if they had, I wouldn't have been left wanting to pull my nonexistent hair out as I racked my mind for any answer that made even the slightest hint of sense to me.

Minutes past as I did nothing but stare at my entrance where they left through and reached for hypotheticals. Some possibilities made more sense than others, but in the end, I didn't have anywhere near enough information to begin making assumptions as to who those people had been or what their motives were. Instead, I had gained just over four thousand experience, slightly more than I tended to get from a full day of delvers, and I couldn't even be happy about it. As nice as the unexpected payoff would have been under normal circumstances, I couldn't consider it worthwhile this time around, not when the price I'd ended up paying for it was my peace of mind. There was no way I could just move on from that.

I'm going to have to deal with that possible cult at some point, aren't I?

I deflated. It was another thing to add to my mounting pile of problems. Were it tangible, Adraugon would've been jealous at the size of my hoard. All I wanted to do, however, was scream.

* * *.

–and then, they just up and left! What am I even supposed to make of that? A murder cult is the best guess I've got, I ranted to Archie.

“A strange occurrence, to be sure,” he agreed as he nodded, “but is it a pressing concern?”

What?

“From the sound of it, they didn't do anything harmful. Is that correct?”

I mean, they killed a bunch of people.

“Yes, but is that a problem for us in particular?”

I froze at his words as I thought about it. The honest answer was, I didn't know. I'd been too baffled by the sight I'd witnessed to give that line of thinking much thought until he brought it up.

I don't know, I eventually answered.

“If that is the case, mistress, might I suggest putting your efforts elsewhere instead of dwelling on this? You were looking for ways to cut down on costs, were you not?”

Uh, maybe you're right. I think I'm just overwhelmed and on edge. On top of everything else going on, we lost our source of information, and it's been hurting. The last things I want to deal with now are more unknowns.

“Hmm,” he paused as he gave my words some thought; then, after a short while, he suggested, “If that is a priority, perhaps we should be looking into acquiring new sources of intel.”

Like what? I don't think we're getting another Dungeon Fairy, and unless Fabian suddenly has an extreme change of heart, I don't think we're getting him back either. We're on our own.

“What about books?”

Huh? Books?

“Books,” the Trenti repeated as he pointed his staff toward the three books we'd stolen from the apprentice alchemist, “they contain a wealth of information. If we could somehow gather more, would it not be possible to treat them as a substitute?”

I mean, maybe? I don't see many adventurers bringing books in here, though, and even Lawrence stopped bringing any after we snatched those.

“Could we obtain them through other means?” he asked, “Your perks, for instance, can they not award items?”

Technically, they can, I conceded, but that would mean passing up on something more impactful, and I need more monsters, especially if I want to keep my full capabilities secret from the Adventurers Guild.

“That is unfortunate but a good point. What of that orb, the Custodian you mentioned? You seemed to think it was quite knowledgeable.”

It was, but it wasn't being voluntarily helpful. Part of that was probably due to the argument Fabian insisted on having in front of it, but even then, I don't get the feeling trying to get in contact with it just to ask a bunch of questions is a good idea. It said not to contact it unless its because of errors, and risking whatever it could do to me for some simple answers seems like a bad idea. Maybe I'll consider trying to get some answers to bigger questions out of it down the line, but for now, I'm not going to tempt fate with that one.

“I see.”

But, hold on. Let's double back around to what you said before, about books, I projected my thoughts to him as I worked through the problem myself, You might be onto something there. What if we could get books some other way? I don't want to send them out there alone, but Prism can technically leave the Dungeon.

“Are you suggesting that we raid the town instead of waiting for them to raid us?”

Possibly, but once again, I don't want to send Prism out for that. I know they went hunting with Fabian before, but this would be far more dangerous, and the risk of capture would exist. I don't want to lose them, and I'm not sure they're up to the task. They don't even have eyes; they just see mana. How are they supposed to know what they're grabbing?

“Could you send reinforcements with them?”

No, they're the only one that can– I cut myself off as I realized the folly of that train of thought–Wait, hold on a second.

Could I send reinforcements? Technically speaking, it wasn't anything special about Prism that let them leave my Dungeon. It was because they were a familiar, my only familiar, and not a Dungeon monster that they could leave, but that didn't have to be the case. I'd reached level seventeen as a Heroic Summoner after Vie killed the Berserker, and the number of familiars I could have scaled off of my level and SOUL.

Quickly, I pulled up a variety of details and ran the numbers. As it stood Prism was level eleven and couldn't exceed level twelve. I had forty-seven points of SOUL after modifiers, and for every ten, the level cap increased by one. Adding a new familiar to my ranks cost five levels of a shared level cap, and I had fifty-two unallocated stat points. If I put most of that into my SOUL, I could convert another monster into a familiar without detrimentally affecting Prism's level. It was only a matter of if an extra level one familiar would be enough to help Prism to pull off a heist, and if so, which monster I should fill that slot with.

It took me a moment to realize I'd gotten lost in my thoughts, falling into the comforting process of theorycrafting. All the while, Archie had been left staring into the air where my perspective was, waiting for me to continue.

Uh, thanks Archie! I acknowledged him, I think that could work. I've got some stuff I need to test out now, but good luck with things here!

Even as I said that, I was already moving, and my mind was racing to the point that I barely caught the words, “It is my pleasure to have been of assistance,” as I left the lab.