Chapter 6

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[Sigurd]

I came to, dazed and confused. I groaned, pressing my hand to my head. I blinked twice before realising my hand was wet, in fact, more than just my hand was wet; I was soaking. What was going on? Where was I?

In a flash, it all came back and I tried to scramble to my feet. I was in a dungeon, and a dangerous one at that. Memories of the wolves surfaced and the cat that knocked me into the stream followed soon after.

I had been washed down stream and dumped off here, in this… swamp?

Predictably, as I tried to get to my feet in a hurry, the floor moved, and I fell over, face first, in a puddle, swallowing a load of the dirty water. Coughing and spluttering, I rose to my feet, wiped the water and dirt from my eyes and brow and drew my axe.

Taking a couple of seconds, I observed my surroundings. I was standing in a steamy, smelly, stagnant swamp. The ground shifted dramatically as I moved, and I sort of waddled as I took a few steps forward.

Damp was the prevailing smell. Though you wouldn’t normally describe damp as being a smell, it was the only description that fit. Everything was wet, and the over-ripe smell pervaded the air in clouds. The moisture in the air, - humidity I’d heard it called by the artificers – filled my lungs, cloying and with the heat of the swamp the whole atmosphere was oppressive.

It was much more like a dungeon usually felt. Though dungeons normally had that domineering effect because of the density of the mana they exuded, not the physical atmosphere. However, with the size of this dungeons caverns I supposed it was unlikely that the mana would have that effect.

Though the atmosphere was oppressive, what was really most unsettling was the sonorous humming buzz from the thousands of insects that called this place home. A vociferous outcry, protesting at my intrusion.

I swatted at a cloud of midges buzzing around my face as I looked further afield. Marshy trees grew off in the distance, their creeping vines and mangroves intertwining with each other, latticing boundaries on the water’s edge, a perfect hiding spot for all manner of creatures.

I marched over to the edge of my little wobbly island and peered into the water beyond. The water had a crystal-clear surface layer that faded very quickly as the algal bloom and silt increased dramatically.

I took a step off, yelping as my foot plunged far deeper than I had expected, the water which was up to mid-calf originally flooded up to mid-chest making me gasp as it engulfed me. As I stood, slowly sinking into the silt I felt something.

A fluttering brush against calf and then a big hit which I dodged narrowly by quickly jumping out, back onto my wobbly island.

Staring into the depths, I saw a flash of green scales and a powerful tail flick before it disappeared into the murky depths. The brown-green water obscuring all traces. From the glimpse I caught, I thought that the scales looked big and it gave me the sense that this was significantly more dangerous.

Off behind some of the thick vegetation, a cacophony of noise echoed out; birds rapidly taking flight and the loud snap and squawk followed by a large splash sounded as some unfortunate bird lost its life. The branches rustled as the birds all landed out of reach of whatever lurked bellow.

I slapped at a biting bug that had decided I was its next meal, killing it against my arm and smearing its blood, blood that burned, on my hands and arm. I quickly bent down to wash it off and the pleasure of the cooling water removing its acidic remnants took me by surprise, much like eating a hot chilly I thought.

I had an important decision to make right now. Press on and take some risks in the unknown or retreat and get a significantly reduced price for giving information on an unmapped dungeon.

The adventuring guilds payed out for info on new dungeons, but mapped ones even more so, though woe-betide anyone who sold incorrect information.

Don’t get me wrong, a new dungeon that was undiscovered was worth a lot of money, but if the dungeon was mapped out initially, by its discoverer, then the guild payed a lot more as it meant significantly less risk, they wouldn’t have to send in the confirmers.

The confirmers – terrible name by the way - were a group of strong adventurers for each guild that often-explored new dungeons, mapped them and rated them for the guild. This was done so that newbies didn’t go too far or try a challenge that was far beyond them only to die in unexceptional fashion. The guild wasn’t about protecting people from stupidity, but they didn’t want people to die based on incorrect knowledge.

Taking stock, I realised that I had a lot of cuts and bruises, few serious ones though which was good. I had an injury to my rib, cracked, fractured or just bruised I couldn’t say. Additionally, my shoulder had seized up and I could barely move it, I must have landed on it as I didn’t recall taking a knock there. My weapons and armour were damaged slightly, and I was very uncomfortable.

Overall, not great, but not too bad either.

But, I was in pretty shabby condition and despite wanting to continue I hadn’t gotten to mid aged by being reckless and stupid. Retreating was a sound decision and the one I went with. If I had known the dungeon and I wasn’t alone, it might have been another story, but I wasn’t.

Looking up, I realised that my 50m estimate was very wrong, it was 30m at most and I would bet it was less than that.

The stream that had carried me down tipped over the cliff in a beautiful cascade of crystal clear water that crashed down to the swamp. The waterfall that formed was a majestic but unnatural pale-blue and behind it was a dark shadow.

Investigating further revealed a cave. Within, a short path lead to a spiral staircase that wound its way up and up and then narrowed significantly. At the end, there was a lever. Pulling it opened up an exit and as soon as I left it, it slammed closed behind me.

I was back on the second floor, in the woodland and if I wanted to leave I had to climb back up, I sighed. I was hoping for a shortcut to the surface, but I guess that wasn’t to be.

Strangely, despite being aware of all the respawned animals they didn’t attack me as I worked my way back to the tree. Though it was often a feature of the dungeons, with this one I hadn’t imagined it to be the case. It didn’t feel right somehow.

Though my trip back was uneventful I felt watched I thought that if I tried to loot anything my temporary retreating protection would be rescinded quite violently.

I imagined the protection was on a cooldown so that I couldn’t loiter here as a new safe point before continuing.

I certainly wasted no time making my way back and I took the stairs back up to the canopy a few at a time. Up some branches to the stairs and onto the first floor. Exiting from here took no time as it was a simple small floor.

Walking back to the entrance, there was no black fog to blind me and I emerged into the fresh open air as dusk was beginning to descend. Breathing deeply, I collected all my stuff, took my armour off and then dried off and changed into fresher clothes.

I set off to bring news to the village, though it would have to wait till the morrow. Right about now a nice, relaxing bath was in order and a hearty dinner too.

The journey passed quickly and nearing sunset I could see the village in greater detail. The thin, drystone-wall, spotted wooden houses with slate or straw roofs and plentiful fields cast shadows over the land that obscured the village in a haze as I looked on. In a few windows there was the flickering of fire or the dull glow of a magelight illuminating the families as they began to settle down for the evening. Smoke rose from a couple of chimneys and silence reigned supreme. Perfect.

It took only a couple of minutes to reach home and a few more to settle down into a bath. For a long time, I contemplated going to sleep but for that I got out and slid into bed, my stuff could wait for tomorrow. With a sigh, I pulled the covers up and closed my eyes as darkness flooded in and my mind slid off into the land of dreams.

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[Dungeon]

The horrid pounding abated fairly quickly, as soon as he left in fact. He had made it to the swamp and upon gaining consciousness decided to jump in the water, a mistake he quickly rectified. I think that it spooked him enough that he decided to leave. A shame, I was looking forward to digesting him. On the other hand, I suspected that he would be coming back soon enough, and the horrible pounding headache had faded and that felt nice.

I polished off the changes I wanted to make fairly quickly, first, the stairs at the start. I smiled again imagining him tripping down them

A lot of minor smoothing issues that had become apparent whilst he was working his way through my dungeon took me a while to implement. Things like moving the trees slightly, adding a few branches here and there, adding scents and a few new creatures to liven up the levels. Just general polishing for the level.

To the first level I added a gecko that was completely harmless but unbelievably fast and impervious to magic. Its scales were worth a huge amount and so I placed it as a sort of game for adventurers to try and catch these things.

I also made a few cosmetic changes to the levels such as deepening the greens on the leaves in level two. Mostly however it was balancing work.

The next issue was my limited mana, it was really halting any work I wanted to do. The adventurers helped as they naturally exuded mana that I could leech and if they died I’d get all of it.

Perhaps I should have finished him off, but then I wouldn’t get an influx of adventurers. Hmm… what to do? What to do? Well it’s a bit late now, I suppose it doesn’t really matter anymore.

Just to get a look at the problem, I observed my surroundings and at how much ambient mana there was. There was clearly a problem here, the difference was staggering. The ambient mana far far outweighed what I had.

I had control over a huge area and I should have easily been able to up my mana absorption. Which would in turn up my development pace.

After a few hours of analysis and meditation it occurred to me just to try gathering it actively, I mean that was what I had done back when I first became aware. Soon after that I had just let it passively filter in as I planned out what to build.

To my surprise – and also my expectation - I was right, it worked, and I was gathering mana faster than ever. My mana quickly started filling. Though it would still take days to completely fill rather than a week and a bit, but it was faster than before. I was extremely pleased.

Having fixed my dungeon as best I could for now I began to work on the seventh floor.

It would be a continuation of the ice theme from the previous floor. Even though the room was smaller I would need more ice.

My plan for this room was one that was a physical challenge. It required a cuboid shape to be cut out of the mountain. 50m wide and tall but 200m long.

The walls had an undulating wave like shape to them. They ran the length of the room and certainly didn’t appear to be natural, though for this room they certainly didn’t have to appear natural.

I only had to carve out the top triangle of the room as it was going to be a downhill sloping floor. It made the task a lot easier.

What would happen is that the adventurers would emerge onto a two-meter-wide platform that spanned the width of the room.

From there the remaining 198m was a downhill slope that would have to be navigated, of course it would be coated in ice, I wasn’t mad, not yet.

There would be stop off platforms where there were treasure chests containing loot depending on how hard to get to they were. Some of the prizes had monsters suitable for defending them and others were just free. I couldn’t give them everything free after all.

And to this end I made sure there were places the ramp just ended and it would dump the adventurers into spikes, hopefully killing them.

Once the slope was done, and an even slope it wasn’t - it had ridges, banked curves, bobbles and waves in it that would make painful jumps to land – I started coating it in the ice.

On a whim I added tunnels that went down steeper and like a huge waterslide that went into the stone it emerged again flinging them through the air.

Some of them shot adventurers 20m high only to land in a snowbank. Of course, one such snowbank also contained a yeti, how could it not. Some shot them out onto other paths or into walls. Just the average ice slide you know.

After it was coated I had to even it out, cover the rest of the stone tunnels surfaces with ice and polish the whole floor so that it was impossible to stand on, we couldn’t have them just walking around.

The point was, that adventurers would have to slide on their backsides down and use whatever they could to change direction and whatnot, a puzzle of physicality and memory.

I filled the room with obstacles such as weak ice walls that could be barrelled through and sharp ice spikes that would kill people of any rank - I mean, unless you’re unbelievably powerful, there isn’t much that can stop an ice spike through the brain or chest from killing you.

On the opposite wall, I cut out a 25m by 25m by 10m room that could be seen from the start. There were 10 chests filled with good loot and one powerful yeti guarding it. This would be this level’s hidden secret, though it wouldn’t be secret exactly, how you got there would be. Additionally, I placed a sign that read

“Congratulations adventurer for making it to the ice run’s hidden secret. Here is your prize. Did you find the other level’s hidden secrets I wonder?” Just another clue, I wanted them to search for the secrets. Then I could change them around and make interesting traps.

Mentally I began laughing, evilly I assure you, there’s no other kind of laugh that’s appropriate.

Now, to make a way to get there. How would an adventurer get up there?

I instantly dismissed a staircase out the back, that just wouldn’t do.

Hmm… Yes, got it!

I altered some of the paths to make use of a huge section of the tunnels and paths, a very hard route that they would need to go down without slowing to get there. It ended up launching the adventurers into the air to land on the yeti.

After adding a few more traps, brutal slides and of course the treasure chests the room was almost complete. At the start by one wall from the starting platform I placed a chest. Plain and wooden, it contained the gear needed to change direction.

A small steel pick like tool that could dig into the ice by melting it briefly. It had a fire enchant on it to allow a sliding adventurer to change direction and slow down if they needed to. In the lid of the box I inscribed a brief explanation of the tool:

“A small hand-held pick for hacking ice. It has a useful fire enchant that helps it dig into supernaturally cooled ice. One feels it could be useful in the future, TAKE ONLY ONE!”

A pretty blatant clue, but some adventurers are as thick as the hairs on a dwarf’s backside after all, you couldn’t trust them to work anything out.

Level finished.

Menu

Name

???

Race

Dungeon

Titles

Renown

Just Discovered

Skills ^

13

Visitors

T=1, C=0, D=0

Rating

3A

Level

45

Health

3,451/3,451

Mana

7,804/22,960 (22,960 mana for Lvl up

Knowledge

21,019

Dungeon Points

400

Status

OK

Attunement

E4 + N2 + I1

Rooms

529

Floors

7 +(1)

Bosses

1 + (1)

Monsters

2,062

Creatures

43,709

Creature types ^

1414

Unique Items

1

Item Types ^

251