Chapter Four Hundred and Forty-Six - Psychoanalysis

My Cleaning magic did not help with mosquitoes.

It might have helped with the bites, because if I remembered from school correctly, mosquito bites were itchy because they spat something into you when they poked through your skin, and I was pretty sure my Cleaning magic could clean that away, but that still only worked if I was bit.

I whipped up some little fireballs, keeping a grip on them with tethers of mana, and set them to orbit around me. They provided a bit of light, and did seem to ward away some of the bugs, but I was pretty sure I'd be finding bites here and there anyway.

It was one of the only disadvantages to wearing skirts instead of pants, really. I'd be finding bites on the back of my legs, I was sure of it.

The area around here was swampy. Full on swampy too, with the only path towards the dungeon being made of wooden planks bridged from pylon to pylon a few centimetres over the muddy ground. Droopy branches hung from the trees and gnarled roots poked out of the stagnant water all over the place.

Without the plank-path, navigating around here would have been a nightmare. As it was, the path looked like it was well-worn and maybe in need of a bit of maintenance. Some parts had sunk into the mud a little, so I hopped over those to keep my shoes mud-free as long as possible.

Sure, I had Cleaning magic for that, but it wouldn't stop me from getting wet socks, and wet socks was one of the worst feelings.

Fortunately, it didn't take all that long to hurry from the abandoned delver camp to the dungeon itself.

The entrance sat on a grassy hill that crested out of the swamp and which was surrounded by trees and bushes. If it wasn't for someone having cleared out the space before the dungeon's entrance and the path leading to it, I don't think I would have noticed it at all.

Half-buried into the hillside was the edifice of a strong building - the dungeon's front door, so to speak. It was made of pure white stone, completely spotless even where the foundation rose from the muck. Atop the foundation, carved pillars held up an arched lintel, framing a lightless tunnel.

The tunnel was clearly unnatural, extending deeper and deeper into the distance, far beyond the physical dimensions of the hill.

I paused before it and checked the ground. There were more prints in the mud. Boots and webbed feet and it looked like maybe something had been dragged across the ground too. It was hard to tell, though it didn't look old.

I kept my fireballs spinning as I ducked into the dungeon. They gave me a bit of much-needed light because it was uncomfortably dark in there. Dark and damp.

A prompt appeared before me, provided by Mister Menu about the dungeon.

You are Entering the Freud-Slip Dungeon

Levels 6-8

Your entire party has entered the Dungeon

Seal Dungeon until exit?

Current Instances: One

Join Existing Instance?

"I'd like that, yes please," I said to Mister Menu before he disappeared with a soap-bubble pop.

Dungeon left Unsealed

Instance Joined

I stepped fully into the dungeon, then with a small magical tug, pulled the fireballs up a little to provide a bit more light.

The corridor went on for a while, then stopped at a set of steps leading down. There was a weird, fishy smell down there. I raised my little spinning fireballs higher, then started down the steps, going much slower and being more careful than I had been moving before.

There could be traps down here. In fact, it would be a little weird if there weren't traps down here. That was kind of what dungeons were known for.

I bit my lower lip.

I missed my friends. Normally, we all watched each other's backs, so traps weren't so scary. If one of us missed one, the others wouldn't.

Now, there was only me.

I hadn't been completely alone in a dungeon since... well, since the beginning.

My hands shook for a second. Around me, my firelights wobbled, almost guttering out.

We... we were all stretched out now. All spread out. Amaryllis trying to wrangle a mob into shape, Caprica mobilising the sylph response, Clive and the rest of the crew back on the Beaver, Awen and Calamity somewhere in this dungeon with Sir Tissue, Cholondee trying to talk down her brother, and Booksie--

She was probably alone too. Maybe not literally, but I bet her captors were just as hostile as a root-infested dungeon.

I took a deep breath. My little fireballs burned brighter.

Even if I'm alone, my friends aren't gone. They're still out there, doing the best they can.

So, for their sake, I would do my best too.

I could do this. This wasn't my first dungeon.

Quickly, but without rushing, I advanced down the tunnel.

The steps went on for a little while, then stopped on a platform. It was a stone square within a large room. Or... I had assumed it was a room while walking down the steps because I was in a dungeon, but now that I was there, I wasn't so sure. There was no visible ceiling above, just a bank of thick fog that I couldn't penetrate.

The space stretched out to the sides, old, bent trees and thick, scraggly bushes. It was another swamp down here.

A path pushed through the swamp ahead, marked out by large flat-topped stones that stuck out of the muddy waters and led into the fog.

I tensed as I looked around. There was something wrong about this area, though I couldn't quite pin what.

Then it struck me. It wasn't that something was wrong, it was that something was missing. There wasn't the croak of frogs, the buzz of bugs, or anything alive. The swamp down here was almost entirely quiet if it wasn't for the sighing wind and the gurgle of water.

Since it's a dungeon, maybe it made sense that the place was empty of real wildlife.

There were probably monsters, though, and I needed to be careful. "It can't be that bad, if the others have already cleared this part of the dungeon," I said.

Then I was hit by a faint, distant echo of my own voice. "Others gone through me.."

I paused two steps in, ears swivelling. Was that an echo? "Hello?" I called.

"Hello..."

Again, my voice from deeper in the dungeon, with a delay just short enough that it could have been a natural echo. I was thinking it wasn't, though.

I was already creeped out, but that only added to the feeling.

There wasn't really a choice but to go further in, though. I kept one fireball over my shoulder, and the other a little lower, giving me as much light as possible.

"Are you a nice, friendly monster?" I asked.

"Friendly monster..."

"I, uh, don't know if that was a reply, an answer, or just you repeating yourself."

"Repeating yourself..."

Yup, that was definitely something weird.

I kept walking, hopping from stone to stone, my hands held ready and a spell half-formed. I really missed having something to serve as a weapon. My scythe would have been nice, or my old spade. I'd settle for a thick branch, or a folding chair.

But, no. All I had was magic.

That wasn't to say I was helpless. I'd just need to get creative with my spells and avoid any close-up fighting. Which is why I jumped up with a squeak as something ripped itself out of the water while screaming.

"Friendly monster!"

It was a monster, about half my height, and shaped like a person, but with a frog-like head. Its skin was green, and its body was covered in muck and algae. Its eyes glinted an eerie blue in the light of my floating fireballs.

It opened its mouth, showing off a maw filled with rows of sharklike teeth and screamed again.

Then it jumped.

I shrieked, leaping backwards, my feet slipping a little on the wet stone. My fireballs flew forward and smashed into the creature. It hissed, reeling back, then dove back into the murky water. I lost sight of it right away, probably because I'd just used up my only source of light.

I created more fireballs in a hurry.

The water gurgled, then went still.

There was no sign of... whatever that had been. "Wow, you scared me," I said, a hand pressed over my heart as I created a fresh brace of fireballs.

"Scared you, scared you," echoed across the swamp.

That had not been exactly what I said. This thing could understand, at least a little.

I was about to say something else, but the water next to me exploded as another creature erupted up. I yelped and jumped to the side.

I formed two more fireballs and sent them flying, this time at the monster's face. It crashed to the ground next to me, and I launched a hard kick right into its face. The monster reeled back, screeching loud and piercing. So while it wasn't attacking, I created a few more fireballs and launched them right at its exposed belly.

The monster shook under the impacts, then slipped off the rock and into the water, a small trail of smoke following it.

Ding! Congratulations, you have eliminated Mimicry Murlock, level 4!

"Okay, this is going to be a pain," I said.

"Going to be a pain... going to be a pain..."

I twisted, trying to spot where the voices had come from, but even with my ears fully extended, I couldn't spot the source of them. "Can you be nice?" I asked.

"Be nice, be nice."

"Alright, you know what?" I asked the swamp. "I'm just going to ignore you."

"Ignore you, ignore you."

"Yeah, that," I agreed. The others clearly hadn't cleared out the room of these things, so I didn't see a reason why I should stand around and fight a whole room's worth of annoying monsters. So with a hop and a skip, I pushed ahead towards the far end of the room.

***