Outside Dungeon.

It is a hive of activity in front of the tunnel.

It took most of yesterday to remove the debris from the landslide and what was once the tunnel entrance building from the bridge, luckily most of the debris mysteriously disappeared after the quake the day before yesterday.

One of the soldiers came into the tent and snapped to attention.

"What's the news Soldier?"

"The Sergeant sends me, Captain. Something strange at the tunnel. The road is cleared of debris but the tunnel is blocked with a massive gate. Captain"

The Captain got up from where he kneeled next to the stretcher of an injured civilian.

He nodded at the nurse before turning and leaving the tent indicating that the soldier should follow.

"A gate you say?"

"Yes, Captain, something that would not look strange in Jurassic Park, just not so big."

"Shit. What's next?" They crossed the bridge that was now clearly visible.

"How did this bridge survived being buried by the landslide?" He mumbled. There was a slight cough next to him. The Captain stopped and looked at the soldier's nametag.

"Kotche, you know something?"

"Captain, I heard the geek squad say something about it being infused with mana." He didn't look left or right.

"Geek squad?"

"Yes, Captain. The bunch of gamers that figured out what was happening after the pulse. There are seven of them now, six military personnel and one civilian, Captain."

Pete was glad that at least somebody had an idea what the hell was going on.

Shit, I hate being in the dark. The geek squad say that everything works on games rules now. Bloody hell the most I know about games is candy crush and Tetris from when I was a kid.

"Where are they now?"

"They are at the gate, Captain, together with the Sergeant, they are happy but also scared at the same time."

He shook his head. "They have been like pigs in shit since the pulse, what can have them scared?"

"I don't know Captain, but it's something that might be behind the gate. They were ordered not to touch it."

As they neared the gate the Captain saw that it was two halves that looked like it was made from metal, what he first thought was scratches turned out to images engraved in the gates.

What the hell, are those transformers?

Somebody snapped to attention next to him. He turned to the Sergeant without taking his eyes off the gate. "At ease."

He looked at the Sergeant. "Paul, morning. I hope nothing serious during the night?"

"Nope, nothing that we couldn't handle, Captain."

The captain sighed. "You can call me Pete."

"True, but it will undermine your authority with the troops." He saw that Pete wanted to say something so he coughed.

"I know that you are a retired police captain and not military. I'm military. Has been my whole life. Sad to say, I have no combat experience except that we got the last week, I have been training troops for ceremonial parades my whole military career. I have studied up on battles and manoeuvres as long as I could remember but have never been good enough to lead in battle. I have been training most of these troops for the last year, they trust me and will follow my orders. Well, till I fuck up majorly, then I guess they will choose a new Sergeant. That's how I see things in the new South Africa if South Africa exists in anything but name now. But I have no experience in leading civilians. That's why I chose to follow you when I saw that the civvies went to you with their problems. So as far as I'm concerned you are running this procession, convoy or march, whatever we want to call it, and I and my troops will act as guards. You are doing a good job, so don't worry."

"Ok, what do you think?" He nodded his head in the direction of the gate.

"The Corporal has some thoughts, he was about to inform me."

Captain turned towards the Corporal and indicated that he should join them. "Corporal, What can you and your men tell us about this?"

The tension was thick in the air. "We believe it might be a Dungeon Captain."

"What? Like a cell under a castle, a prison or a Dungeon like a whip and a chain, with spanking?" The sergeant asked.

"No Sergeant." The Corporal stuttered.

"In a game-like reality, it would be a closed-off area that spawns enemies. And you can send teams in to kill the monsters and grow stronger or mine for resources, in games it is usually found in underground spaces such as below castles and in caves, in this case, it might be the tunnel."

The Captain looked at the Sergeant. "Enemies?"

"Yes Captain, but they are only inside a Dungeon. Hmm, how can I explain it? Think of it as that mall in Worchester that was turned into a rats nest, except that the rats can get out of the mall, so you send people in to kill the rats and after killing the king the nest are destroyed and it's gone."

"Something else might move in and take over, but the nest are gone. If that mall was a Rat Dungeon then the rats can not exit the Dungeon, and after you killed all the rats and the king, the Dungeon will reset and all the rats will respawn so that you can kill them again and again. People that go into Dungeons are called Dungeon divers or just divers or Delvers, if you do this again and again at the same Dungeon to harvest the loot then it's called farming."

"Shit."

All the Sergeant and Captain heard was that enemies might spawn behind the gate.

"Sergeant I want barricades erected across the bridge blocking of the gates, nothing comes out of here without us knowing about it. Get a couple of guards over here and talk to the relatives of that girl with the scream skill to act as an alarm. Work out a code or something."

They walked closer to the gates. "Ok Corporal, what makes you say that this is a Dungeon?"

"These gates Captain. This is obviously something that Gaea created through the system" they stopped near, but not too close to the gates.

"Yea, look at the engraving, it would take weeks to do one door, and I don't think anybody can do this in the time since the pulse."

The captain reached out to the gate when the Sergeant grabbed his hand. "We have troops to do the heavy lifting Sir. Corporal."

"Yes, Sergeant." The Corporal saluted the Captain and turned to his squad.

"We're up."

The squad jogged to the gate and formed a loose formation. In front was two of the biggest members that were dressed in castoff riot squad gear with a riot shield each, one was armed with a sledge that he held in one hand and the other had a bastard blade that looks as if it belonged on a metal cutting guillotine and they wielded their weapons as if it weighed nothing.

Behind them were a girl dressed in what appeared to be homemade rawhide armour carrying a spear and reinforced metal trashcan lid as a small shield.

The Corporal and another woman spread out to the sides and equipped bows, the woman had an old wooden longbow while the Corporal had a compound bow.

Behind them, all stood the last two members one had with him a medic bag while the other had, what appeared, lightning running up and down his arms.

The Captain looked at the squad and turned towards the Sergeant. "Sergeant I think that the G Squad should make time each day to give a couple of classes to instruct the rest of us in what we can expect in this new reality that we live in. They seem to have some stuff figured out."

The squad moved slowly towards the gates and the spear-wielding woman reached out to tap the gate lightly with her right hand before jumping back. She moved back behind the guy with the guillotine blade.

"Everything looks, fine Corporal, no blue boxes. It looks like it's made from plain steel and I felt the gate move slightly when I touched it. I think it will move easily, permission to try something Corporal?"

The Corporal looked at the Captain for confirmation. "It's your show Corporal. Proceed."

The Corporal looked at his squad member. "Proceed."

She took a step back and removed her ruck from her inventory and took a length of rope with a round piece of metal attached from it. She then placed her ruck back in her inventory and walked up to the back of the tank.

She placed her hand on the small of the tanks back and they all moved to the Gate, keeping their formation. When she removed her hand they stopped and the tension ramped up as she dashed forward and pressed the magnet to the door.

With a thump, it attached to the door and she moved back to her squad feeding out the rope as she went.

Everybody moved back till they reached the end of the rope.

"Ready, now." She started pulling on the rope and the gate swung open easily, without making a sound.

Behind the gate was a blue shimmering field.

The squad visibly relaxed and stood down. The Captain looked at the Sergeant. Who addressed the Corporal. "Everything ok Corporal?"

"Yes Sergeant, we are now 99% sure it's a Dungeon. So we are pretty sure that nothing dangerous will jump out at us, at this moment. Baker, you are up."

The Wizard, Witch, Sorcerer or whatever he is, stepped forwards and approached the shimmering light, after a brief hesitation he reached out and touched the field.

"Damn, you are right Corporal, it's a Dungeon." He stood back and appears to be reading something. The Corporal gave the all-clear and everybody approached him.

"There is already somebody in there, and it's a high-level Dungeon. You need level five to go in."

Requirement for entry; Party not exceeding five members, Level 5 -10.

Dungeon level 5 instanced. Blue. Mechanized. Challenge.

The dungeon must be cleared before the party can exit.

299 Days till Dungeon break if not cleared.

Party must exit the Dungeon for the break timer to reset.

Dungeon limited to three instances. (1/3)

"Really, somebody is already in there, when did they go in? Who do we have that are level five."

They all looked at the Sergeant.

The captain reached out and before anybody could stop him he touched the field.

"What the hell.” He exclaimed.

"What is it, Captain?"

"It's a quest, a Dungeon quest." He started reading the blue box aloud.

Clear the Huguenot Tunnel of Dungeon spawn to reset the Break timer

000B

Reward:

1000Gold Rounds, 3000 Exp, Personal weapon per member of the party, Access to the Vendor

Failure:

Death = Trapped in the Dungeon

The Corporal came to attention as he addressed the Captain. "Sir, this Dungeon is only about two days old, I believe that if we can level a couple of people up then the Sergeant who is the highest level person here can lead them into this Dungeon. I volunteer my squad to be the first team to go with the Sergeant if he so wishes."

In front of the gate the excitement was rampant, and words like "Hell yea." Was repeated by G Squad.

The Sergeant shouted. "Attention!" And as everybody snapped to the attention he turned to the Captain.

"Sir I believe that we should discuss this issue in a better location. Corporal, get your men to help place barricades on the bridge and then have them stand down, and not a word to anybody. Then come to the meeting with the Captain and me. Dismissed."

The officers turned around and started back over the bridge as the Corporal closed the gate.

"Shit Paul. I know you really hoped to go through the tunnel, but with the Dungeon here, it looks like we will have to go around the mountain. Take the old road."

"Yea. This is bad, there are a couple of troops of baboons up there, they were vicious before the pulse, now they have literally turned into monsters. We are too low level to take all these people along the old road, it took 9 of my troops to take down one of them last night, luckily none were killed, but it was close. Bloody TerrorApes I don't know what happened to Sher, but we are going to need her skills if we try to go around the mountain."

They reached the pop-up tent that was used as the command centre. It was barely big enough to seat two, it will be a tight fit to sit the three of them.

"TerrorApes? and you haven't figured out what happened with Sher and that soldier?"

"No, the last anybody saw of them are when they walked up the side of the landslide looking for somebody. Then there was that quake and nobody saw them again. If they were killed in the quake then we would have found the bodies or there would have been some sign of their remains." He shrugged.

"TerrorApes are what the troops call them. One of the guys got the skill and it shows the system name for them is and that they were known as "terrible ape". It's an extinct species that the system devolved the common baboon into. Damn system. Standing five feet in the shoulder when walking on their knuckles, nine feet tall when walking upright with claws and teeth that can cut through kevlar like a hot knife through butter. And they are fast and strong, bloody strong."

They saw the Corporal walking up to the tent and as he came to attention, the Captain called him into the tent. He tried to stand at attention but the roof of the tent was too low.

“Damn Corporal, take a seat. Isn't there some rule about not saluting an officer in combat areas? Well, I consider us in a combat area, so from now on no salutes or snapping to attention, but that does not mean that disrespect will be shown. Sergeant if anyone is found showing disrespect to an officer or NCO I want them to regret the day they were born."

"Understood Sir."

"Ok, now the old road, it looks like we will have to go around the mountain. Corporal, I assume that you know a lot about Dungeons, well more than me and the Sergeant, so tell us about it, can we destroy it and still use the old tunnel?"

The Corporal took a couple of minutes to think before he replied.

"There is a way to destroy a Dungeon, but I would advise against it. . . If you kill all the monsters in the Dungeon, for which you say there is a quest Captain?" The captain nodded.

"Then you have some time to find the Dungeon core and destroy it, but like I said I would advise against doing that, because first, Gaea specifically said that the Dungeons are there to train people to get stronger and cull the weak. And usually Destroying the core also destroyed the Dungeon, so that brings us right back to where we are now."

The officers were not happy to hear that the Corporal took a deep breath.

"I know this isn't what you want to hear sirs but I think we should stay here for a couple of days. Maybe a week at the least"

When he saw that they were going to say something he rushed ahead.

"Please hear me out. Yes, I and my Squad are itching to delve into that Dungeon, but it's only one reason, first, we are not strong enough to face the terrorapes, not with over five thousand civilians. Secondly, we need more people with healing spells. The healers we have are all mundanes and I know Sher has been working with them and she said that she thought two were close to unlocking the spells, but her disappearance has thrown a spanner in the works. It would give them time to try and get the spell."

He continued.

"We have all, the troops, I mean, have all taken five teens between 13 and 20years old to Shepard, train in marching, running, and discipline. As you know there are only a hundred troops left, these teens won't be military troops but they will have a bit of training and if they can get weapons then they might be able to defend themselves or their neighbour. Third, I know feeding five thousand people is a problem but with the forest sprouting everywhere due to the mana; hunting has been good and I think if we send people out with the hunters then we should get more meat and hopefully; more people would get the archery skill. And it will give us time to grow stronger to face the Apes."

He sat back and waited for their response. It was the captain that spoke first.

"Ok, lets consider it, first. I saw you speaking with the civilians, and you mentioned the disappearance of Sher. What do you know about that?"

"Not much Sir. We found out that she and a soldier, Joseph Wilemse were last seen climbing up the landslide after asking around for an injured stranger that joined the work crew. They went up, there was the quake the landslide shifted, half of it disappeared together with Sher, Wilemse and this Poren guy."

The Captain sat back in deep thought, after a couple of minutes, he spoke up.

"What do we know of this Poren? And might he be responsible for the quake?"

The Sergeant leaned forward.

"This Poren, I don't see how he could have caused the quake, he might have caused a movement in the slide, but not a quake, he said that he was a Bombardier in the 4th in Potch, but that was a lie because he was too young to have been in the 4th, he was only in his early 30s if I had to guess, The Artillery Brigade and 14 Artillery Regiment disbanded on January 1993, so I cant see how he could have been there, but he was definitely ex-military. And if I would guess, dangerous."

"Bombardier? What makes you say that he is dangerous, Sergeant?"

"Bombardier is a Corporal in the artillery and he looked like somebody that has been dragged behind a bakkie for killows and still got up and walked away. I had Roberts, the hunter with the tracking skill, look over the spot where Wilemse found him and backtracked him down the ridge to the river. Roberts said that he must have been down on that bank for at least two days and then he climbed the escarpment to the road, blind."

"Blind?"

"Yes Sir, blind. When I found him with Wilemse one of his eyes was closed with a bit of dried blood running from it and the other was swollen shut, they were on their way to the medics . . . but I was having a bad day and I acted a bit harsh, Sher had just passed out healing the squad that ran into that river monster, so I made a little cut below the eye to relieve the swelling and send him to the work crew till Sher woke up."

The captain shook his head.

"That was harsh Sergeant."

"I know Sir, I have no excuse. Nine days with nearly no sleep can make anybody snap, but I told Wilemse to get Sher when she is awake and find him to do a bit of healing."

Silence filled the tent for a couple of minutes. "You think that they might be the ones in the Dungeon?"

They looked at the Corporal.

"Yes sir I do, but I don't see how it could be. I had Swanie go over that cliff looking for a spot where somebody might have fallen into the Dungeon, but she found nothing, and her perception is the highest in the camp."

"Ok. Let's wait and see wats going on with the Dungeon, I think we should wait a week, train the guys, see if those brothers that modified the trailers can't do something about weapons for the troops, they are our priority when it comes to weapons." He looked to the Sergeant.

"Got any ideas on the camp Sergeant?"

"Yes Sir, we might be in luck there. I found a civil engineer and heard of someone who can shape stone and there are a couple of builders that I think will be able to use all those rocks from the slide to try and build a wall around the camp, the housing will be a problem though. I would like to take the people with axes and clear the forest around the proposed camp a bit, this will also give us some wood to construct shelters and give us a bit of a warning if monsters come close to the camp."