Chapter 19

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[Dungeon]

Watching the adventurers wake up and set off to explore the first of the ice level was a lot of fun and they pulled off the fight with the yeti with a coordination and skill that was extremely impressive to behold. From the teamwork of Sigurd and Jackson to the timing of the others for their ranged attacks, the yeti stood no chance. Nor it seemed did any of the others. The group didn’t encounter any of the ice phantasms, curtesy of the fire aura that the fire mage provided. Surprisingly, the spell released a constant stream of mana that was easy to absorb, a very nice surprise. It was probably a good thing truth be told. I doubted this group would make a mistake and the less information the next group that entered had the more likely I would be able to get a couple of them. The huge bonus that the mystery man had provided had gone a long way to my current strength and I was looking forwards to getting the next influx. But it most likely wouldn’t be this lot, nor was I desperately hoping for it, they were a likeable bunch and their impressions of me would be crucial for getting more adventurers coming here.

I was glad to note how appreciative they were of my dragon though it didn’t arouse their suspicions overly much, just a natural wary-ness of the mana heart. I had thought for a minute they would try and get to it, but it was as I suspected, they had far too much sense for that.

They moved off quickly and the rest of the floor troubled them little. Despite that I was happy with the yeti’s and the rest of the floor.

As they descended the stairs, I focused all my attention on them, I was excited for the first trial of the ice run level. Well, the first trial with not helpless animals being pushed down.

“What in the hells is this then?” the big man asked in confusion.

“I’m confused” said the healer, Jenna.

It was as expected, now I just had to wait to see what they would do.

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[Jenna]

Staring down the icy slope I couldn’t decide what to make of it, it didn’t seem like it could be here -in a dungeon. But here I was, and here it was, in front of me. Confusion was my main emotion. Why?

Just, why?

What?

I just couldn’t make heads or tails of it; it had put me off guard and that wasn’t good.

“Seb?” I asked, hoping he had more of a clue than I did.

Unfortunately, it seemed they were all just as dumbfounded by it as me.

In front of me was a long slope, perhaps a good couple hundred metres long, it was covered in slippery ice and it had several long channels that twisted and wove down the slope before entering tunnels or slamming you into walls of spikes.

The ice gleamed with a slick white light and a faint mist rose off the super cold floor, flowing over the ridges and valleys like liquid smoke, hiding the dangers and obscuring my vision.

It was an intimidating floor and I was worried. There was very little good teamwork could do here and as support I didn’t have the most versatile skill set to get me through this.

But we’d figure it out. Seb was a genius and if there was anyone that could ensure we’d all be safe it would be him.

At the other end of the room, above the course was a small room carved into the far wall, from the entrance we could see several large chests that shimmered with gold, practically taunting us that there was a wealth of treasure there.

But, for the life of me I couldn’t see how you could get there, short of flying. And there was no-way we were flying anytime soon.

So distracted by the looming treasure were we that all but one of us forgot to check our surroundings. Over to the left on the starting platform was a large wooden chest. It had iron wrought caps on the corners for strength and a brass handle inset into the lid. A relatively plain lid, except for the carved patterns adorning the surface. There was very little that stood out about the chest, except for its straightforward position and seeing lack of challenge to get to it.

Plodding over to the chest, shield raised in defence of whatever might pop out to surprise him, Jackson paused before opening it.

“Guys…” he called to get our attention

“A small hand-held pick for hacking ice.” He read off

“It has a useful fire enchant that helps it dig into supernaturally cooled ice. One feels it could be useful in the future, take one. How odd, it’s like the dungeon is speaking to us.”

We crept over, careful not to slip or knock each other down the slope, that wouldn’t be good. I glanced back down at the sharp ice spikes, gulping with nerves. No, that wouldn’t be good at all.

“I think that this is the most unusual dungeon that I’ve ever been to. Its just weird.” Sebastien muttered as he read the words to himself.

“You’re right on, about that, I’ve never seen anything like it” Sigurd responded, flashing me a smile. I smiled awkwardly back. They were both right, whatever this was, it wasn’t a regular old dungeon, something was different, and it made me nervous.

“So…I guess we use these to slow us down and control our direction?”

“Um…” Seb said before pausing to slam the pick into the ice wall, it sunk in with ease, kicking out a small plume of powdered ice and water. He gave it a sharp tug and watched it cut through the ice slowly. “Yep, that ought to do it. But we should be careful, I don’t like the look of that mist. It could be obscuring some danger. Unseen until it kills you. And those ice spikes look deadly, I’m not sure Jenna could heal you guys if you crash into them”

“No, I don’t think I could heal you lot from that” I replied looking back at the spikes again.

“Bah, you’re a lot of worrywarts. Nothing is gonna go wrong, it’ll be easy” Kael replied breathing some brevity to the mood.

“Yeah, easy” Jackson replied full of sarcasm, not at all convinced.

“We’re not all lacking common sense like you seem to be Kael” Lore replied harshly, though I could tell it was meant in jest.

“You’re just jealous of my magnificence” he retorted picking up one of the picks and flipping it in his hand.

“Not all of us can be as roguishly handsome, quick witted and skilled as I.”

“Pfffff, we all laughed at him.

“Fine, fine, if you guys can’t handle it, I’ll just leave.” Fake dismay roughing his voice.

“Bye-bye amigos” he said before taking a step and rolling back down the slope.

“Kael!!!” We all shouted out in alarm as he waved at us as he descended down the slope with an agility that rivalled a cat.

“Woohoo, I’m alive” we heard a few moments later as sharp sprays of ice chips flew into the air as he banked hard changing course and entering one of the tunnels.

“For fucks sake, does that man-child think about anything for longer than a single second.” Lore complained.

“Nope, I think a second’s being generous though” Jackson commented with a chuckle.

A few moments of appreciative silence followed before a squeal split the air. “oohhh, yes!!!” and “Goddamn I love this dungeon”

I sighed, “Well I guess we’d better follow then.”

We all sighed again, this was classic Kael, and as aggravating, silly and rash as he was, we all loved him for it. Loved and hated. Of course we hated him a bit. Who wouldn’t?

We all turned to look at the slope, how would we get down this? I wondered, gripping my pick with white knuckled hands.

“Right, so… since we haven’t heard a scream of pain yet I’m gonna assume the Kaels path is at least doable. He might have changed direction several times though so let’s keep our eyes out for that.

“KAEL! WHAT WAS IT LIKE, DID YOU HAVE TO CHANGE PATH AT ALL?” he yelled out.

Kaels faint reply echoed up. “IT WAS OK, BUT THERES A PLATFORM WHERE YOU HAVE TO DODGE SOME WALLS AND SPIKES AND I CHANGED OVER TO THE LEFT THREE GROOVES AS I LEFT IT. I RECOMMEND STOPPING ON THE PLATFORM AND THEN PLANNING A DIFFERENT ROUTE FROM THERE”

“OK, THANKS YOU CRAZY FOOL” Seb shouted back.

“Welp, you heard him. Guess that’s our plan.

“Jackson, Jenna is gonna follow you down, I’m sure you can bash all the ice out of the way with that massive tower shield of yours and if you can stop on the platform then we’ll follow down one at a time to join you.”

“Sure, thing, Jen, the scutum’s a beast, ice don’t stand no chance, you ready?”

“I guess so” I said with confidence I didn’t know I had.

“3”

“2”

“1”

“Off we go…” I shouted as Jackson and I ran forwards, me clinging to the edges of his armour as we slid forwards on our knees, his shield braced before us.

Closing my eyes seemed like a good decision and it was only a few big jolts and swinging turns, followed by the crash of ice, and the spray of water that soaked me through before we stopped moving on the platform.

Step one done.

“Ok, send the next one down” I called back up as I squealed in delight. We’d made it!

I jumped to my feet to dance a jig; however, unfortunately for me, I had forgotten one important fact. Ice is slippery, oh and that I can’t dance, that was important too.

My tangled limbs ended up back right where I was, flat n the ice. Just with an extra heaping of embarrassment on top.

Good job Jenna I thought to myself. Way to encourage them that I can handle myself. At least it was only Jackson that had seen my clumsy fail. And the big man was the least intimidating. Odd given his monstrous size and strength, but he was just like the bigger brother I wished I’d had.

With whatever dignity I could scrape together I clambered to my feet just in time to hear they ominous sound of Sigurd sliding down.

“Look out!!” he called, but it was too late.

I had just enough time to see my impending doom come sliding towards me.

“eeep” I squealed. Oh no.