Chapter 1 – Breaking Down Walls

“Your mission location is up ahead.” My internal navigation from my AMHUD chirped in my ear as I walked through the Blight.

It was a lovely place, consumed by dark magic and flooded with decaying foliage of all kinds. In special cases, even the trees themselves would cast magic at you if you weren’t careful.

“Ugh, how much further?” Leese asked, still encased in the jar, but now in my rucksack.

“We’ll be there when we’re there.” I snapped back, watching the distance close to the marker that had been overlayed in my vision.

One of the benefits of being an enhanced Wizard for the Guild was that I had implants in many places. My vision was augmented with a Heads Up Display, my hearing was modified to be able to pick up various sources that were typically out of human hearing range, and my reflexes were enhanced through an adrenaline modulator that was attached directly to my spinal column.

All of these things were connected wirelessly to my AMHUD, and used my body’s cellular energy to maintain a charge. It was old-world tech, but we used it effectively to improve our lives.

The downside was, I was hopelessly indebted to the Guild for the modifications. But not for much longer. No, once I took this Dungeon, I would be a Dungeon Lord, no longer beholden to the rules and regulations of the Guild.

“You have arrived at your mission destination. Do you desire to start the mission now?” My AMHUD asked, its voice feminine and polite.

“Yeah, Nari, go ahead.” I said, nodding.

My overlay shifted, and a green grid appeared on the ground, followed by red walls that rose from the ground.

“Your arena is ready. Beginning mission, activating parametes. Good luck, Wizard.” Nari, my AMHUD assistant, said.

“This is a big-ass arena.” I looked around, not seeing the other end of the location. “I wonder how far down it goes?”

An explosion of fire pulled my attention away from my mental musings, followed by a rain of bone shards, which pelted me, taking a few points off of my HP and leaving small cuts on my exposed skin.

Cinza was already here, blowing shit up, as usual.

“Damnit, Leese, we’re going to have to hurry.” I took off at a run, looking for signs of the fighting that didn’t involve Cinza’s enormous fiery explosions.

As I traveled, the ground became increasingly covered with twice-slain skeletons, terrifying tentacled creatures with entirely too many eyes, and a few scorched Wizards. Cinza was clearly going for the secondary mission objective.

“She’s breaking Wizard Law.” I said, stopping at the corpse of a nearby Wizard.

His AMHUD device had been crushed, preventing him from resurrecting. Cinza had, in essence, killed a fellow wizard without reincarnation.

Guild and Wizard Law were very firm on the ideas of Wizard versus Wizard, or WvW, combat. You could kill the body, but you left the AMHUD alone. It uploaded the Wizard’s last moment of consciousness, including skills, at a cost of all gained EXP, to a cloning vat within the Guild Hall, where they were then reborn after a gestation period of forty-eight hours.

Destroying their AMHUD was akin to absolute slaughter. No rebith, no resurrection, no chance to come back.

I had my suspicions that perhaps it wasn’t Cinza doing the AMHUD killings, but the devices were scorched so horribly, there was little to lead me to believe otherwise.

“AMHUD analysis complete. Status: Dead. Life Force condition: Viable. Do you wish to Siphon, Grimm?” Nari asked, her voice in my head.

“How much Life Force is left?” I looked around, then knelt down, placing my hand on the dead Wizard’s forehead.

“Approximately two-hundred ninety EXP worth.” Nari answered.

“Siphon, I’m going to need all the power I can get.” I felt a burning sensation run down my forearm, into my fingers, and watched the color, or what was left of it, slowly drain out of the Wizard’s face.

His skin sunk onto his bones, then his skin dissolved entirely, leaving only a skeletal corpse.

“Siphon complete.” Nari chimed.

My EXP bar filled slightly, and I stood up, dusting my hands off.

I hated siphoning fellow Wizards, but if I wanted to rule the Dungeon, I would need to be more ruthless than I already was.

“Proximity alert.” Nari chirped.

I pulled a dagger from its place on my hip and turned about in time to see a writhing, tentacled monstrosity approaching quickly, its flailing appendages swinging down to strike.

I put my free hand up and twisted my fingers together, then rotated my wrist. A simple gesture which would produce a gout of flame.

Fire burst from the palm of my hand, pouring over the monster, but its arms crashed down anyway.

The impact knocked me back, causing me to stagger and taking forty HP from my relatively small pool. I would need to invest more in Endurance.

The flame sputtered and died as my concentration was broken, but I managed to recover from the stagger and slashed my dagger through the air, relieving the creature of one of its tentacles.

It flopped to the ground and twitched before I stomped on it, stepping forward and thrusting my dagger at the horror repeatedly, punching small holes into its main body.

The creature’s nametag popped up, denoting it as a [Chaos Writher – Level 6], but I didn’t care. I needed to stab it, set it on fire, and survive the encounter.

If I had time, I would even liquify it, but for now, it just needed to be dead.

I pulled a second dagger with my offhand after a quick backstep, then slid the blades of my daggers along one another, activating the enchantments I had ensorcelled them with.

The daggers dripped a dark purple, signifying that the enchantment had taken hold.

>>>

Buff Added: Venom of Deathfire

Effect: Adds 4-15 Death Damage to each successful strike with your enchanted weapon

Effect 2: Adds 4-15 Fire Damage to each successful strike with your enchanted weapon

Effect 3: Every attack you successfully land has 25% life leech, consuming 25% of the damage dealt and providing it to you as health.

Duration: 1 hour, or until dispelled by a more powerful buff.

>>>

The creature continued its assault, using its flaming tentacles to keep me at a distance. I didn’t like being on fire. One of the things that made me hate Cinza so much was that, the first time we met, she set me on fire. Not acceptable.

I threw one of my daggers at the horror, aiming for one of the many, many eyes it had in the middle of its body.

The dagger sunk to the hilt, the poison taking effect and healing me for six HP. It was always nice to get a little bit of life back, kind of like being a Vampyr.

The creature roared, its enormous, misshapen mouth expanding, showing rows and rows of razor-sharp teeth, and a lolling tongue that dripped with green ichor.

The creature reared back, and I used my now-empty hand to put up my palm, casting a prepared spell that didn’t require gestures or runes: Impotence.

>>>

Spell: Impotence

Through the incantation of Darkness upon the body of another, their ability to function in combat is reduced.

Spell Category: Dark Magic

Spell Class: Cantrip

Mana Cost: 25 MP

Casting Time: Instant

Range: 50 Feet

Effect: Reduces target’s attack power by 15%

Effect 2: Reduces target’s attack speed by 15%

Duration: 45 Seconds, or until Dispelled.

>>>

Darkness swam over the Writher’s body and its flailing slowed, but not considerably. I had a tendency to forget exactly how little fifteen percent often was.

I slashed wildly with my dagger, scoring deep cuts into the creature’s flesh, my HP slowly being restored by the Life Leech enchantment.

It wasn’t enough to kill it before it wrapped several tentacles around me and lifted me into the air.

>>>

Debuffs Added

Bound: You have been entangled by an outside force and cannot move freely. Duration: Until Dispelled

Burning: You have been set on fire and are taking continuous fire damage; Burning for 3 HP/sec. Duration: Until Dispelled.

>>>

Lovely, not only was I wrapped in this creature’s horrendous, sticky tentacles. I was also on fire.

The intense burning from being set ablaze put my mind into a panic. I hated, absolutely hated being on fire.

“Corpse Explosion!” I shouted, using the Verbal portion of the spell to trigger it at an increased MP cost instead of the gestures.

The nearby wizard’s corpse erupted in a blast of Dark magic, sending bone shrapnel and chunks of Wizard in every direction.

The blast consumed both me and the Chaos Writher, but since it was my spell, I only took half damage.

The eruption of body parts cost me a solid sixty HP, which brought me down below the halfway point.

My HP bar in the corner of my vision pulsed a gentle reminder that I would be dying soon if I did nothing.

The creature, on the other hand, was not so lucky, and took the full force of the explosion, as well as receiving the ex-Wizard’s head as a projectile, directly into the side of its body.

The bone shrapnel and flying sinew severed multiple tentacles, and the creature roared, dropping me and collapsing into a liquid heap on the ground.

Its flesh bubbled and boiled, smoking as it dissolved into a hideous, putrescent puddle.

“Fuck this place.” I said, snagging a small glass vial full of red, thick liquid from my belt and chugging its contents.

I felt flesh knitting itself back together where I had received injuries from the Corpse Explosion spell, and the fire that was previously smouldering on my robes was magically put out.

“I hate fire.” I said, chucking the glass vial behind me, letting it shatter on the cracked, stony ground that made up the ground of the Blight.

I reached down, retrieved my dagger, and looted what I could from the Chaos Writher, which just included a dozen GP and a Soul Shard. Hardly loot worthwhile when I could have died.

A notice sat in the corner of my vision, telling me I had gained one-hundred forty-five EXP.

“One step closer.” I looked across the horizon, checking for the entrance to the dungeon.

A marker bobbed in my vision off in the distance, beyond a small hill. That was where the entrance was.

“Leese, what do I need to do to take this place?” I asked as I walked, keeping my eyes open for any threats.

“Let me out, and I’ll tell you.” She said, her voice muffled through the glass and canvas of my rucksack.

“Nope, you tell me now, or you’re in the jar forever.” I rolled my eyes at her suggestion.

“Fine. You’re so mean. You need to kill the Dungeon Lord and commit your soul to their throne.” Leese’s voice carried the sound of her pouting, which I was well used to by now.

“Great, thanks.” The distance to the dungeon was relatively short, but I took precautions anyhow. There was no telling how many rival Wizards were laying in ambush to take out others.

That Secondary objective seemed like a nice bonus, but there was no way to know what it would provide if I accomplished it.

I made it to the entrance without further delay. Being attacked by only one monster seemed like a bit of an underwhelming defense, but Cinza and potentially dozens of other Wizards were here, so the small number of monsters wasn’t entirely unexpected.

“We’re here.” I muttered to Leese, though I didn’t expect her to respond. She would continue to pout in her jar until I appeased her with something.

The entrance was relatively plain, just a stairwell that had a square entrance, with a couple statues on either side.

The stairs were worn from age, and the stones were covered in blood spatters. They looked fresh, though there were no corpses nearby.

A sound dinged in my ear, denoting that my MP was full again. Excellent, I would need every bit of that.

I checked the entrance for traps, though I was no Rogue, but it seemed relatively safe.

I began my descent into the dungeon, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. I had never been dungeon diving before, but I was both excited and terrified at the same time. Especially since Cinza was likely in the dungeon, and if she was permanently killing Wizards, I doubted she would consider me any different.

The dungeon steps lead down, deep into the ground. Green, flickering torches lit the pathway, and as I reached a landing, I was given a new notification.

>>>

Now Entering: The Horrible Halls of the Edritch Temple

Dungeon Difficulty: Hard

Dungeon Level: 6-10

Dungeon Lord: Caiaphous the Undermining (Level 12)

Dungeon Type: Horror

Dungeon Floors: 4

>>>

What a terrible name. When I became Dungeon Lord, I’d need to fix that.

“Ugh, this place stinks.” Leese said.

“I don’t smell anything.” I looked around. The landing I was on at the base of the stairs had three paths. One to the right, the left, and straight.

I had heard that dungeons were more like labyrinths, filled with traps and monsters intended to kill those who would challenge the Dungeon Lord, so that they could harvest Soul EXP to grow and expand their dungeon.

Seeing it first-hand was something different entirely.

“Nari, get me a map.” I muttered, pulling a dagger from my hip.

It wasn’t a powerful weapon, but it would absolutely provide some defense.

“No map available, Grimm.” Nari chirped.

“Great. Guess I get to be an explorer.” I craned my neck down each pathway, hoping to see something that would suggest the right path, but there were no hints here. It was entirely up to me.

“Here we go.” I said, choosing to go down the path to the right.

The dungeon was oddly quiet, which I did not expect. I half expected there to be some kind of archaic whispering, or at least some strange, atmospheric music track playing in my ears through my implants, but everything seemed almost eerily quiet.

Until a scream shattered the silence, coming from somewhere up ahead.

My heart jumped in my chest, the shock of hearing the scream, compounded with the intense atmosphere of the dungeon, was really putting me on edge.

But the thought of there being something down here to destroy, now that made me excited.

“Finally, something to kill.” I said, running a finger down the side of my dagger, triggering the enchantement from earlier, refreshing its duration.

I pressed on into the depths of the first floor. As I progressed, I began seeing impact marks from spells, mana residue from miss-casts, and scorch marks. Along with body parts, chunks of monsters, and puddles of boiling Horror flesh.

“Okay, this place needs a massive renovation.” I said, shaking my head and stepping over an oozing pile of crumpled monster.

“No, Cinza, please!” A voice echoed from around a corner, before it was abruptly turned into horrific screaming.

“She is down here.” I said, clenching the hilt of my dagger harder than I wanted to.

“That’s five!” Cinza said, cackling, her hideous laughter bouncing around in the narrow hallways.

I stepped around the corner to a large room, where Cinza was standing over the corpse of a very fried Wizard. His robes had been burned clean off, leaving only his naked, blackened body on the ground.

His AMHUD was still intact, but Cinza had her hand over it, magical energy beginning to build there.

“Stop.” I said firmly, brandishing my dagger at her.

“No, I don’t think I will.” She threw me a wry smile before releasing the energy.

It swelled into a ball of flame, then scorched the AMHUD to oblivion, leaving nothing but a smoking hulk of metal and wires.

“Why!?” I shouted, holding up my hand, readying a spell of my own.

“Because I don’t need any interference. Besides, these fools knew the risks when they chose to try me in combat.” Cinza stood up and pulled a long, narrow sword from her hip. “Shall we dance, Grimm?”