Chapter Four Hundred and Forty-Seven - Id

It wasn't easy to keep track of time in the dungeon, especially because the room I was in never seemed to end.

And the monsters didn't either.

Every now and then, one would leap at me. Sometimes it would come from the left, sometimes it would try to surprise me from the right, and every now and then one would jump at me from behind, but no matter where they came from, I had a way of dealing with them.

Fireball to the face and kick to the butt.

It worked for me, I think. Way of the Mystic Bun meant that my kicks were pretty powerful, after all. And I was racking up a fair bit of experience too. Of course, it wasn't all fun and games. The Mimicry Murlocks were starting to grow more annoying the deeper I went. They stopped copying what I said and started making noises that were a little strange.

Lots of wet plapping noises, and weird moans that made my hair stand on end. One moment I would hear someone rushing at me from one side, only to find no one there--while another was sneaking up in my blindspot.

Fortunately, there weren't that many of them down here. Or at least, there were way fewer than there should have been.

I knew, because I soon found the trail of the Exploration Guild team that had come down before me. A bunch of footsteps, all more or less grouped up in single file. Lots of scuffs and steps to the side printed into the mud, along with a number of smaller, murlock-ian footprints.

The group had cut through the swamp and through the murlocks inhabiting it. I was glad, and not only because the path was easier to follow, but also because it showed that the others were at least able to take care of themselves.

And I had a better idea of what they were doing, too. The Exploration Guild wasn't going through the dungeon the way most delvers did, with a group of a dozen or so people working together and pushing through each area and fighting the monsters.

No, the Guild had a small group going through first, and then sending word back to a larger party that was following after.

At least, that's what I assumed from the footprints they'd left behind. Was the leader of the group testing its members? Awen and Calamity were with them, so they'd be able to fight from range. What about the others?

In the end, the Exploration Guild group was meant to be testing their potential new members, so it made sense to throw them into a situation where they were a little disadvantaged, if only to see how well they could deal with it.

They were probably fine.

The strange bushes and trees began to open up into something like a clearing.Through the now-thinning fog, a wall appeared up ahead, and the ground became less swampy and more muddy.

I hopped off the last stone, landing with a squelch on a patch of semisolid mud. I was at the very back end of the room, or at least, what had to be the back end. There was a tunnel up ahead, cut into the wall.

Was this it for the first floor?

"That was pretty easy," I said.

"Easy, easy," the swamp repeated.

I snorted and waved the swamp off. The murlocks hadn't really been hard to deal with, just a little annoying, and the swamp itself had been a little spooky, but nothing too bad.

"Right, on I go!" I said. I was just a pinch concerned about how easy it was to start talking to myself again. I had only been without friends around me for... what, a few hours?

I couldn't possibly be suffering from withdrawal already, could I?

The tunnel led away from the swamp, and soon enough, the smell of the water and the sounds of the swamp were gone, replaced with the musty smell of earth and pine. The walls here were rough, like they'd been carved out by hand, and the tunnel was tight, barely wide enough for me to fit into without bumping my shoulders on the walls.

It went on and on, winding down and down and down, until it opened up onto a large chamber. A chamber filled with more trees. An indoor forest, even.

"Oh, that's pretty neat," I said as I walked out onto a ledge that overlooked a massive cavern. The ceiling was hundreds of metres above, and the ground stretched out a long ways, filled with a miniature forest.

I perked my ears up, twisting them this way and that, the same way Booksie did when she was listening, and I tried really hard to pick up on anything from the forest.

There was something, way out in the trees somewhere. A clink of metal on metal, maybe some talking? It was hard to tell. A steady wind carried through the cavern from one side, warm and damp. It made the trees rustle which did a lot to muffle and confuse any sounds I could pick up.

"This is a lot nicer than the swamp," I said. It was true too. The cavern had a pleasant temperature and the air was clean and crisp, and not too moist. There was a faint smell of soil and fresh-cut wood, too.

The path leading into the cavern was a wide stairway that had been hewn from the stone and led right down into the woods. There were some footprints, mostly made by boots, but there were a few sets that seemed like they came from big webbed feet.

So, the Exploration Guild was definitely there.

I skipped down the steps and paused before a wooden sign at the bottom.

Please respect the wildlife and don't damage the trees. If you would like to hunt the creatures in the Dungeon, please contact the local Ranger's office for a licence. If you have any concerns or problems, please address them to the Freud-Slip Dungeon Administration, located on the third floor. Feel free to peacefully navigate through the forest.

I stared at the sign for a good long moment. That... wasn't something I'd ever seen in a dungeon before. The sign was old and well-worn, and the edges were rounded with age. It looked like it had been put in place a long time ago.

It was a little weird.

"Uh, is this dungeon self-aware?" I asked.

No one replied, not even the dungeon.

"Okay," I said. "I don't want to accidentally hurt the trees or anything, though, so... yeah, I'll be careful." I cleared my throat, then spoke up a little. "I'm sorry, mister or miss dungeon, for, uh, the murder."

Then I stepped onto the forest floor, my boots sinking a little into the soft soil. There was no response, but I figured that was okay. I could ask Awen or Amaryllis about it later.

For now, I had a dungeon to clear, and the others to catch up to.

The forest wasn't particularly dense, and the trees weren't terribly tall. There was a good bit of space between the trunks, and a lot of bushes and shrubs that grew around their bases. I could walk just fine, though every now and then I'd need to duck under a low-hanging branch or hop over a fallen log.

I could still hear snatches of fighting, way off ahead, which was more than a little concerning. Were they having a harder time down here?

I hadn't noticed anything to fight yet. Had they cleared this part of the forest?

I decided not to bother running and instead stuck to walking. I didn't want to trip over anything.

That was, until I heard some panicked shouting ahead. "Don't let zem touch you, dammit!" someone shouted. There was a small boom right after, like a spell going off. The leaves rustled, and I felt like maybe the team out ahead weren't following the instructions laid out by the dungeon.

I had no idea what they were facing, but it didn't sound good, so I started running towards the fight.

The trees and shrubs grew thinner, and soon the forest opened up onto a large field of green grass. A group of people were standing around, most of them hiding behind a large rock, with their weapons drawn and their eyes focused on the other end of the clearing.

I immediately recognized Calamity, because he was standing on the big rock, bow pulled taut and ready to fire.

"Hey!"

Calamity spun, clearly startled, and I ducked just in time to feel an arrow whistle between my ears.

"Oh," he said. "Uh. Oops. Unless that's you're an evil illusion, in which case..." He nocked another arrow. "Don't move."

***