A Dungeon’s Survival

Noctis

“Gurgle?”

I stared at the dark blob as I was left to contemplate my circumstances. This was going to be difficult.

“Blurb?”

I have no idea what you're trying to say, I informed the creature.

“Glur!”

That clarification, if it was even meant as such, did not help. It was odd, really. I may have only existed for less than a day, but even I could instinctively convey my thoughts in a way that others could understand. This slime, however, despite existing for far longer than I had, could not.

“They're confused and excited. I think they just want to know what you saw,” the creator's voice echoed in my mind, providing much-needed clarification.

“Blur!” the one known as Prism seemingly agreed.

Ah, understood, I acknowledged before beginning my report, It is as you said it would be. Directly ahead is a fortification with walls. I found an entrance, but it was guarded.

“Do you think you'd be able to sneak through?”

The entrance? Almost certainly, though I am less confident your other servant could manage it.

“Glurg!” her other servant protested.

Instead of dignifying the–I wasn't actually sure if it was an indignant response or not since I couldn't understand it myself–with a response, I continued with my report, undeterred, The entrance aside, I did already scale the walls and get a look.

“Did you get images?” she asked, and I responded promptly.

Of course.

“Show me.”

Without delay, I acted to fulfill her request. While I'd been on-site at the target location, I'd used the ability she'd granted me, Record Memory, to take in as much of it in perfect detail as possible. Fortunately, even if it could only be used once per hour to record a mere minute of details, there were no limitations on my ability to recall them afterward. That fact made reporting my findings to her a simple task. Bringing the images to the forefront of my mind, I relayed what I'd seen to my creator, everything from the gate to what I could make out from atop it.

“Huh,” she thought in response to the perfectly recorded sights I offered her through our mental link, “it's both smaller and larger than I expected, also darker. That kind of feels wrong for civilization, but I guess there wouldn't be lamp posts or yard lights in this world. Either way, that's actually good for us, all things considered. Good job.”

It was a simple task.

“So, do you think you could get through there with Prism?”

I, I hesitated, believe I could manage it, but a hasty escape might be a problem for the slime. I don't actually have the experience to judge the feasibility of a mission, and depending on how much I end up having to use my abilities, I might not have enough mana left to Phase us back out through the wall. Honestly, it might be easier if I were to go alone.

“No!” she rejected outright, “I don't want you going alone. You're level one, and you've only existed for a matter of hours. Either you and Prism go together, or we'll have to figure something else out.”

Understood. Escaping with the slime, I think I could probably manage it so long as I am mindful of my mana, I asserted with less than full confidence.

“I don't like the uncertainty of this. If you can't, it's fine. It would be better to change course than for you to get caught. It's not too late for us to figure something else out.”

Her statement pained me in a way I had yet to experience in my recently acquired life. I hadn't known it was possible to feel such disgust with oneself until that moment. I had to wonder, if I was too lowly to fulfill the needs of my creator, what purpose was there in my existence? I wanted nothing more than to serve and deliver to her the results that she wanted. Still, she certainly knew best. If she didn't want us to risk it, then–

“Glurg!” the slime chimed in.

“Hmm, are you sure?”

“Gurgle.”

“Okay, but be careful. Remember, don't get caught. Remaining unseen would be ideal, but if you are spotted, focus on escaping, and if you can't manage that, make sure you die. I can bring you back if you do, but if you're captured, well, please, just don't let it come to that.”

“Glur!”

I looked at the shadowy slime with a conflicted mixture of confusion and respect bubbling up from within. I had no idea what it had said to convince the creator that we were up to the task or if it had said anything at all, but regardless, it seemed we'd be going ahead with the operation.

“Do you remember the details and what you're after? Remember, so long as you remain undetected, you can always try again. Prioritize stealth over results.”

Your orders are clear.

“Glurb.”

An uncertain mental exhale pressed up against my mind, a strange sensation that was followed by the words, “Good luck.”

Well, then, let us be off.

That was our cue. As soon as the creator gave us her blessing to take on this mission, I turned and began leading the slime out of our master's domain. Almost instantly, I felt the mental connection between us fade away. The distance at which we could communicate did not extend outside of the cave. From that point onward, we were on our own. I would not disappoint her.

* * *

Look, I rasped to the slime, there is the entrance.

As I groaned out the noises I used to communicate, I extended a shadowy finger in the direction of the gate. It was a grand structure, even larger than the one in the creator's domain that connected the floors. Prism gurgled in response.

See that light coming from their torches? I asked, I cannot hide in that. I can scale the walls, but I can not carry you while doing so. Also, I lack the mana to risk dragging you through the walls themselves. If I did, I might not have enough to get us back out when the time came.

Another gurgle.

Do you have any ideas?

Silence.

As the seconds passed by, I started to question myself. What was the point in asking? The slime could not speak. It fell on me to do our planning. Then, Prism hopped forward.

Where are you going?

The dark blob, predictably, did not answer.

Remember, we need to avoid being spotted.

When the creator had first given us the details of the mission, that was the point she had stressed most heavily, yet this blob was obliviously hopping toward the people we were meant to be avoiding. I hadn't thought much of its intelligence, but somehow, it seemed I had still overestimated it.

What are you doing? I asked in a panic as I sank into the shadows directly under it.

A faint gurgle was the only response I was offered. This was bad. We would almost certainly be spotted. I started considering picking the slime up and either just phasing us through the wall or, as much as I hated the idea, dragging it back to the creator to report our failure. I hesitated, though, and in the time it took me to make a decision, the partner I'd been stuck with had reached the wall just next to where the pair of guards stood.

I wanted to hiss out at it, to tell it that this was a horrible idea, but I feared doing so would alert the guards. I wanted to pick it up and leave, but I worried that that would draw attention. In the end, due to my own hesitation, my hands were tied. The fate of our mission was now up to the blob. I could only hope that it didn't get us caught.

I waited and watched as the slime pressed it's pitch-black body up against the stone structure. It stopped jumping, and instead, it began oozing to the side, straight into the lanternlight of the people standing there. That was the final decision it made that sealed away my autonomy. Stuck hiding in its shadow, I could no longer move without revealing myself.

Annoyance flared within me. Was my first mission about to end in failure because my partner couldn't assess a simple situation? Just how little MIND did it have?

Then, we were through. Neither of the men had noticed a thing. The slime had strolled past them, just like that. I was speechless.

“Gurgle?”

Ah, yes, er, well done, I eventually managed to commend the slime before composing myself.

We still had a job to do.

* * *

It was surprisingly easy to move around once inside the walls. There was still the occasional person that we needed to avoid, but under the cloak of night, our shadow-based bodies remained entirely undetected. Instead of having to worry about getting caught, we ended up spending most of our time picking out our targets. We only had so long, so we needed to make sure the places we were hitting were worth it. The problem was, choosing the houses we thought would be worth sneaking into was nothing short of guesswork.

“Gur,” the slime gurgled in a disheartened tone.

This next one could have what we're after. Don't lose hope, I reassured them.

This was actually the third house we were trying. The first two had been seriously lacking. Despite their larger sizes in comparison to most of the other buildings, they contained little. There were personal effects, sparse furnishings, and various tools lying around inside, but there wasn't, at least not that we could spot from a quick inspection, what we were looking for.

If nothing else, the practice had been good, though. I had earned the Stealth skill in the process and leveled it once. Also, even if we hadn't found what we were primarily after, we had still found something. The second house had a large bag that we could use to protect its contents from Prism's digestive fluids. That would be useful if we did find something, which led us to the present moment.

Are you ready? I asked the blob.

“Gull!” they assented.

Good. Just wait here, I told them.

This was one of the biggest buildings we'd come across, so I had high hopes. Like with the last one, the door was locked and our means of entry was going to have to be a window. Unlike with the last one, the open window we were going to use was much higher up. That meant I was going to have to enter alone and let the slime in through the door.

Resolved, I sank into the shadows cast on the side of the building and began moving through them. I quickly reached the window and slipped through. The sight that met me was a mess.

Clothes, miscellaneous objects, and empty containers were scattered everywhere. There was something in the center of the room that I'd seen people sleeping on top of in other houses, and there a sleeping person, but instead of on the bed, she seemed to be opting to sleep on the floor. There was a line of drool trailing out of her mouth and into a small wet spot next to her. She didn't look to be in good condition. I was about to ignore her and take my leave of the room, but before I could, something caught my eye.

Finally, I thought to myself.

I'd almost missed it as it was half-buried under an article of clothing, but sitting on the desk was the exact kind of thing we were looking for. It was a book. I wasted no time in shoving the dirty garment aside and grabbing the item from beneath.

Hmm, strange, I thought as I examined its cover.

I'd been instructed on the types of books I was supposed to be looking for, and I was supposed to be going off of what the words on the covers said. This book, however, had no words denoting its contents. The outside was simple, unadorned, and plain except for the stains of things long-since spilled on it. Since that was the case, I opened it.

The words inside read in an almost illegible scrawl, “This spellbook is the property of Octavia Loremaster. If lost, kindly return it to her.”

There were also some strange notes, each written with different handwriting. It was strange to me, but books on magic were supposed to be a top priority. I took it alongside another couple items of interest that I found on the desk.

With that done, I made my way to the door. Much like the entrances to the last two houses I was in, it had a sliding lock on it, something I found to be strange for an individual room to have, but unlike the others, it was left unused. I simply opened it and left.

* * *

After letting Prism in, we were able to find quite a few other books. Only a small number of them seemed relevant, however. We stashed those in the bag and left.

With so much inside of them, Prism was left sluggish and bloated. It slowed our progress, but since we still had time, we did hit more houses after that. They, unfortunately, were nearly as lacking as the first two. It was a massive waste of time that took hours.

Still, the sun hadn't risen, so we'd decided to try one more. It was another large structure, not as large as the one that had paid off so well, but still bigger than nearly any of the others we'd tried. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any open windows or unlocked doors.

I don't think we're getting in this one, I informed my partner.

“Blur,” they pouted.

Actually, I haven't used Phase much yet. If we're about to be leaving, I think I could afford to spare the mana to enter this one house.

The idea of us not being able to escape after completing our mission had been a major concern of the creator, so I'd been incredibly stringent with my usage of abilities. The only mana I'd actually spent so far had been to phase through some of the locked doors in the building where we'd found most of our haul.

That had nearly ended up with us getting caught once when I entered a room only to find a strangely pale girl with antennae and large, unblinking eyes lying in a bed. The way she motionlessly stared at nothing concerned me greatly, so I'd immediately phased back out and refused to use the ability again up until now, but leaving so much of my mana untouched seemed like a waste. Reluctantly, I decided the risk was worth it.

I'll be right back, I told my partner, and with that, I activated Phase.

In the next moment I was pressing myself through the door, but I wasn't moving.

What?

My ability was active. There no doubt about it. The mana drain was there, and I could feel the sensation of being immaterial, yet the door still felt solid. I couldn't pass through it. Something was wrong.

“Lawrence,” a voice loudly called out from inside, “there's an intruder at the door!”

That was our cue to go. I spun on the spot and lifted the slime. Then, I moved as fast as I could toward the wall.

We were doing so well, too! Why now?

Our primary objective had been to go undetected, and up until this point, we had, but in an instant, everything had gone wrong.

Ugh, Record Memory, I activated the ability.

If I was going to fail here, I was going to at least have some sort of record as to why that was that I could give my creator, and I could at least insure I wouldn't forget this failure going forward. I wasn't sure where I'd gone wrong yet, but I intended to learn from my mistakes. All of that was for later, though; for now, I needed to focus on escaping.

Fortunately, we were at the edge of town, so the wall wasn't as far off as it could've been. Unfortunately, it was still much farther away than I would've liked. Every inch I moved felt like a mile, and I made it no farther than halfway by the time the door burst open behind us. I caught sight of an angry, elderly man with a staff. He scanned his surrounding for only a moment before his eyes landed on us, picking us out of the dark with ease.

The moment we were spotted, an indescribable feeling of dread washed over me. I dove into the ground with Prism. I only had a handful of seconds worth of time left in Phase, but that man, that terrifying thing, whatever he was, every instinct I had screamed at me to get away from him as fast as I could. I didn't even know why, but something inside of me, something primal, it dared not disobey that feeling.

In my panic, I slipped into the ground itself, below the surface by a couple of feet, but even then, I didn't stop. Intangible, I moved at full speed. I only dared to exit when I had less than a second of time left on Phase, and when I did, I knew I'd made the right call.

The first thing I saw when I turned my back toward the man was field of fire. Had I not reached for my intangibility when I did, there was no doubt in my mind that Prism and I would have died. The instant I realized that, I turned back ahead and pushed myself to the limit.

The wall it was so close. I dove for it. Activating Phase, I entered it. Then, my mana ran out as the other side came into view. Pain filled me as I felt half of my body disperse, failing to re-enter the physical world. That was when it happened.

Boom!

I didn't know what that sound was. All I knew was it had come from behind us, and it had been enough to shake the wall. I took that as incentive to leave.

Thanks to the nature of my body, the portion of it that I'd lost wasn't a big deal. The remaining shadows that composed my being immediately started shifting to repair the damage. As for movement, Shadow Form handled that too. With it, I sank all but my arms into the shadows as I carried Prism as far away from that wall as I could get. Thankfully, our trip back to the Dungeon was unimpeded.

* * *

Gyle

“What happened, sir?” my heir's voice called out as he rushed out of the house after me.

“Someone with some rare abilities, an assassin with a rare class if I had to guess, tried and failed to slip through our front door. My wards stopped them, but they got away.”

It wasn't entirely unexpected. Once I'd learned that Felix was behind the presence of the Tarnished Blades here, I'd suspected he'd be making another play sooner or later. What I hadn't expected was for him to stoop to hiring an assassin. It wasn't that it was beneath him; it was just that he usually preferred using a bit more social finesse.

Oh well, I thought, there's nothing to be done about it.

In my prime, I would have immediately given chase, especially with how slow I sensed the individual moving, but I wasn't up to chasing someone with powerful and unique movement abilities through the forest in the middle of the night anymore. My body was already failing me, and I doubted I could handle the strain that would entail. Instead, I would increase the number of guards on payroll and the amount they patrolled. I would also need to talk to Sirius in the morning.

As for now, though, what I needed to do was clear. I raised up my staff, and with a simple spell, the field of fire in front of me was snuffed out. Then, I turned back to my house.

“The situation here has been resolved,” I called out to what onlookers had come out of their houses to see what the ruckus had been; then, more quietly, I added to Lawrence, “Go back to bed and try to get some sleep. If that was the best they could manage, we have nothing to fear.”