Ch 200 – The Undergrave
With a squint from Deacon, dozens of candle-like flame tufts ignited around them, the sudden illumination revealing that they were standing in a massive underground cave system with rough stone walls stretching into darkness above and multiple tunnel openings branching off in different directions.
Briefly, annoyance and grief pricked at Deacon’s heart and Bonehead’s core as the cave system they had teleported into was reminiscent of Dunes Dunes Dunes’s subterranean sand tunnel system, where they'd lost their best friends.
Pushing down their emotions before they could rise, they turned their attention to the person who had called out their names, a dirty blonde-haired woman in well-worn light leather armor with a thin pale scar running just over her chin, a quiver of arrows on her back, and a longbow in hand.
"Val?" Deacon said in genuine surprise as he took in the sight of Valorie standing thirty or so meters away from them, because she was quite literally the last person he'd expected to run into on Floor Twelve given that the last time they'd crossed paths had been back on Floor Eight during the whole situation with the Holy Pontiff, and the last he'd heard from her through their sporadic message exchanges they had during their wait for the tournament to begin in Floor Five.
I haven’t heard from her since then, Deacon mused to himself as he scrutinized Valorie from head to toe, checking for any obvious injuries or signs of duress. His evaluation came to an abrupt halt as he felt a sudden sharp rise of barely restrained bloodlust emanating from the large figure clad in heavy stone colored plated armor standing beside her, the man holding a large hammer in his right hand and an equally impressive tower shield in his left.
"Leon?" Deacon asked, making an educated guess based on context clues and the fact that the armored man looked remarkably similar to Valorie despite being considerably larger. I thought Val said the Class Leon took was the Production Class: Builder, and not Warrior?
"It's okay, we can trust them, Leon," Valorie said as she turned her head slightly to the side and reached out to pat the large fair-skinned man with short dark blonde hair who looked like he was at least in his early twenties despite being the same age as everyone else in their Generation. “They’re friends of ours.”
Wordlessly, Leon gave a single nod in response to his sister’s reassurance, though from the stiffness of the gesture and the way his grip tightened slightly on his hammer, it was clear he was more than a little hesitant to simply accept Valorie’s word on the matter.
After several long seconds of internal deliberation, he visibly relaxed his stance and allowed the rising bloodlust that had been pouring off him to dissipate back to normal levels, choosing to trust his twin sister’s judgment as he unclenched his white-knuckled grip on his hammer’s handle and held it loosely.
Responding in kind to the de-escalation, Deacon returned his throwing dagger fully back into its sheath and dropped his guarded combat stance, his shoulders coming down from where they'd been tensed and ready to move.
Both Parties began walking toward each other to greet one another properly and discuss whatever the hell was going on with this Floor, but they'd barely taken three steps before all four of them were stopped in their tracks as the Floor Twelve Quest Panel materialized in front of their faces simultaneously.
Though upon looking at it, they all couldn’t help but feel as though with every passing Quest they’ve received, their descriptions kept growing larger and larger.
Floor Twelve – The Undergrave:
Forty-nine years ago, the bombs fell and transformed life as everyone knew it, reducing the once-booming population of humanity to less than a tenth of what it was before the fires stopped burning and the fallout settled.
The land above became uninhabitable; the air, once plentiful and clean, thinned into something that poisons your lungs if breathed for long enough, and the water turned into a tar-like substance that kills within minutes of consumption.
Along with the catastrophic changes to the environment above, the creatures that once roamed the surface mutated into terrifying monstrosities that toppled the power structure humanity had sat comfortably at the top of for millennia and sent them careening to the bottom, where they now barely cling to survival, banishing what remained of the human population underground.
You have spent your entire life underground within a coven of scavengers that barely manages to survive from one day to the next, scraping by on whatever can be found or taken from the depths. Food is scarce, water even more so, and every expedition into the deeper tunnels risks never returning.
Three nights ago, the two lead scavenger teams staggered back to the coven, battered and half-dead, having barely managed between them to gather enough food to keep everyone alive a little while longer, though according to the coven's witch doctor, their injuries are severe enough that none of them will be venturing out again anytime soon to collect water.
Without water, the coven will not survive the coming days.
With no other choice, the coven head has declared that you and a small group of others will take the place of the injured scavenger teams and venture into the tunnels in search of water, and you've been armed with the coven's most sacred relic to carry back whatever you find.
You have four days to descend into the depths, locate a new water source, fill the relic, and return.
Fail, and thirst will claim not only your life but the lives of everyone in your coven waiting for your return.
Floor Completion Criteria:
▸ Fill the Relic with enough water to sustain your coven.
▸ Return to your coven within four days with the Relic intact.
Time Remaining: 95:58:47
After dismissing the Quest Panel from their view, all four of them immediately began scanning their surroundings for the sacred relic they apparently needed in order to collect the water.
After a minute of searching that turned up nothing but stalactites hanging from the ceiling above and stalagmites rising from the cave floor, along with the various tunnel openings leading off into darkness, they turned their attention to their respective Spatial Storages to see if the Tower had simply placed the relic inside one of them.
After roughly a minute and a half of rummaging through his Spatial Sling Bag and moving aside various pieces of equipment and consumables, Deacon's fingers finally closed around something that definitely hadn't been in there before, and he pulled out a clear blue crystal shaped like a pocket flask that glowed faintly from the light of the candle flames he created to illuminate his surroundings.
Item Name: Azure Water Reservoir
Type: Tool – Container
Rarity: Unique
Effect: Can store a large quantity of water and heavily purifies any water placed within it, removing toxins, contaminants, and most impurities.
Description: A vessel crafted from clear blue crystal, its surface smooth and faintly luminous when filled. Despite its modest size, the relic of the Wyrmm Coven can hold a large volume of water within its magically expanded interior. Any water poured into it is steadily purified as the crystal draws out toxins, sediment, and other impurities, leaving the water clear and safe to drink.
"Guess this is where we officially join Parties then," Valorie suggested, though her twin's jaw clenched slightly, and he shot her a cautious glance that made his uncertainty about the idea pretty clear.
"Not sure if the big guy agrees with you on that one, though," Bonehead spoke up, having caught Leon's obvious hesitation about joining Parties with people he apparently didn't know or trust.
“No,” Valorie gave her brother a somewhat chastising look before turning back to address Deacon and Bonehead directly. "It's fine, he's just—"
"I want an oath that you didn't kill Esmerelda and the other members of your Party," Leon interrupted, his tone gruff and deep. “I won’t accept anything other than an oath.”
"Leon!" Valorie hissed, her eyes flaring wide in shock at her brother's blunt accusation being voiced so directly.
"I know Deacon," she continued, turning slightly toward her brother while keeping Deacon in her peripheral vision. "Those are just rumors, he wouldn't have— he’s not the type to—"
"Do you have an Oath Stone?" Deacon cut in over Valorie's attempt to defend him, his voice calm and level despite the accusation that had just been leveled at him.
Leon nodded in confirmation before reaching into his Spatial Pouch and producing a small, smooth stone that began glowing faintly the moment it left the confines of the storage, and both Deacon and Leon walked toward each other until they were standing close enough to perform the oath ritual properly.
Holding the Oath Stone out flat in his palm, Leon extended it between them, and Deacon placed his own palm down on top of the stone to complete the connection required for the artifact to function.
"Did you kill Esmerelda, or the others in your Party that are not with you now?" Leon asked, his eyes locked directly on Deacon's face to watch for any tell or sign of deception.
"I all but killed them," Deacon answered without any hesitation, the words coming out flat and matter-of-fact, which caused Valorie's eyes to widen slightly in shock while Leon's brows furrowed together as he clenched his teeth hard enough that Deacon could see the muscles in his jaw working.
“Then you–” Leon growled before, getting interrupted by Deacon.
"We were ambushed by a Level Twenty-Six mutant antlion that was Identified as a General Rank while we were inside a Hidden Quest Zone we ended up finding on Floor Ten," Deacon continued, his eyes never leaving Leon's as he spoke. "And because of how weak I was at the time, because I wasn't strong enough or fast enough or smart enough to protect them properly, Esmerelda and Jass and Sam all died. Hence why I claim, I all but killed them."
The Oath Stone flared bright green in his and Leon's joined palms, the color confirming that everything Deacon had just said was the absolute truth as he understood it, which left Leon standing there mulling over his next question for a long moment before he spoke again.
"Then how did you and the undead survive when the others didn't?" Leon pressed.
"I ended up killing the antlion by going completely berserk and tearing its throat out with my own teeth after it killed Sam right in front of me," Deacon answered, the memory of it playing through his mind as he spoke and making his voice take on a slightly harder edge. "I was on death's bed not seconds after that, with all the drugs I took to enhance my strength and using a bastardized Power Boost that pushed my body beyond its limits to contend with it."
"I fully expected to die, but not before killing the creature that killed my friends," Deacon stated as his brown illusionary eyes glowed a faint crimson for a brief moment in response to his elevated emotions.
The Oath Stone glowed green again, confirming the truth of his words.
"I have the entire thing recorded in a Memory Vial if you still don't believe me and want to see exactly what happened," Deacon added.
Valorie opened her mouth as though to say something, her expression conflicted as she glanced between Deacon and her brother, clearly hesitant about having Leon watch what was likely going to be an extremely brutal recording.
Leon, however, nodded once without hesitation. "I want to see it."
"It's fine, Val," Deacon said before Valorie could voice whatever objection she'd been forming, retracting his hand from atop the Oath Stone and reaching into his Spatial Sling Bag to take out the Memory Vial his uncle had returned to him. "You should trust Leon's instincts on this and not skirt around him trying to protect him from seeing something unpleasant. That's not like you to do."