Honour Rae
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B3 Ch: 30 - Enter The Dungeon
🕑 Added 2023-06-20 03:40:21 +0000 UTC"A dungeon," Arthur repeated, with a nod. "That means the prison we saw at the top of the mesa was more of... a holding facility?" He turned to look out over the top of the mesa, silvered in the setting moonlight. "Then the 'dungeon' must be the true place meant to hold criminals with longer sentences..." He trailed off when he caught the odd expression on Cressida's face. Why did she look like she was trying not to laugh at him?
"Yes," Brixaby agreed, not noticing Cressida’s look. "After all, they cannot very well send people to that horribly boring borderland village like they did with your father."
"That's... not what a dungeon is," Cressida said, sounding slightly strangled. "Dungeons are... well, they're a bit difficult to explain if you've never seen one before."
Joy sat up straight, her scaly lips peeled back to show her two green-tinged canine teeth. "Who locked you up in a dungeon?"
"No one, dear," she said with a laugh. "Dungeons are the names for specialized places nobles use to train proficiencies with their cards. They're made by special card users called dungeoneers -- usually Rare or Legendary ranks. Though the dungeon I visited was made by an Uncommon and was somewhat lacking." She shook her head, remembering. "It's an extra-dimensional space -- I suspect it's like your Personal Space, Arthur. But a dungeoneer has the ability to design and adapt the area to personal needs."
"Why would they train noble kids in a dungeon?" Arthur asked. "Why not out in the real world with tutors?"
Though even as he asked, he had an inkling. It was one thing to put a card in your heart deck, but quite another to become truly proficient with that card. Case in point, he was still discovering new aspects of his Master of Skills cards, which he'd had for the longest time.
"Oh, there are many reasons. Foremost is privacy. To keep word of your card from leaking out. Secondly… Again, the dungeon space inside can be adjusted according to the dungeoneer's power and control. The one I visited was quite humid and warm, which was good because my family's land is in a far northerly climate, which means going outside to train wasn't always possible without risking frostbite. And the humid air helped me learn to control my bear summons without setting everything on fire."
Brixaby stroked his chin with two of his claws. "So, this may be a crafting training area?"
She shook her head. "It can be anything. A dungeoneer can create a dungeon in multiple ways. If I were hiding something, I would request a vault where only one person has a key, or a room full of deadly traps. It can even be an endless drop where someone needs to go in with a dragon, or else fall to their deaths. Really," she added, "it's a wonderful place to hide a stash of combat cards. I just hadn't thought of it as a possibility because hiring dungeoneers is quite expensive."
Arthur turned to Joy. "What exactly did your quest tell you?"
"Just that I’m supposed to complete a dungeon and that the reward is variable."
"The correct terminology is 'run the dungeon,'" Cressida said.
Joy blinked and then nodded. "My quest just updated. Now I have to ‘run’ the dungeon. The rewards are still variable, though."
That was one of the issues with meta dragon powers. They could be easily influenced by perception, but Arthur had hoped her quest description would offer some clues.
It also didn't escape him that the dungeon system was just another opportunity nobles had that regular people didn’t. Not only did they have access to higher level cards from the moment their heart deck developed, but they also had enhanced opportunities to train those cards.
Arthur had been lucky in so many ways in his life. Yes, he never had access to a dungeon, or the library of cards that should have come from being a Rowantree. But he had been taken in and sheltered by the Wolf Moon Hive. If he hadn't… There was no way he would have gained the power and opportunity that he had. It was hard enough standing shoulder to shoulder with nobles now. If it hadn’t been for the hive…
And despite his annoyance at the Wolf Moon Hive, he felt a twinge of homesickness.
Shaking his head, he dismissed it. "Alright, time isn’t on our side. We need to get in and complete— uh, run — this dungeon. Anything else you can tell us about them?" he asked Cressida.
"Other than the entrances being hard to find?" She smiled sardonically. "I just want to emphasize that we can encounter anythingin there, so we must be on our toes. There are so many different types of dungeons: some you can leave if you feel it’s too dangerous to forge ahead. Others… Others don't give you that chance. It all depends on the settings the dungeoneer decided upon."
And Arthur suspected a dungeon created to hide a stash of combat cards wouldn’t be the gentle type.
He hesitated for a long moment—not because he was thinking twice about going. He wasn’t. But because he wasn’t sure if he should take anyone with him.
He looked at them all, one by one. "Only Brixaby and I really need to enter this dungeon.” Because he knew there was absolutely zero chance that Brixaby would ever pass up the opportunity to find a stash of combat cards. "But Cressida… you and Joy already have some good combat abilities. You don’t need to go."
"Of course we’re going," Joy said, "I want to complete this quest."
"We’re going, Arthur," Cressida said, her tone leaving no room for argument. "I’m your retinue rider, which means that we fly with you."
He knew he should probably try to talk her out of it, but… He found that he couldn’t. He wanted Cressida to come along. He wanted her and Joy's company, their abilities, and Cressida’s friendship. And, he wanted them both to share in the bounty of cards.
"All right," he said decisively, "let’s go."
***
Before, they’d had Joy fly them up one by one to the top of the mesa. But now, with dawn only a few hours away, time was not on their side.
Arthur sat behind Cressida on the pink dragon’s back. He was larger and heavier, but when it came to riding a dragon, the linked rider always sat in front.
The moon was starting to set, diminishing the last of the light. This was a good thing for them, because it made it easier not to be seen. But just in case, Cressida, Arthur, and Brixaby all used their stealth capabilities. They also kept an eye to the stars to watch for any dragon shapes obscuring the starlight. They still hadn’t spotted the return of that scouting group from before.
Nobody spotted a thing, but it was perfectly possible that the other scouts were using some sort of stealth skills or abilities, too.
They weren’t stopped, and soon the salt sea loomed ahead of them. Joy followed its edge to a narrow, finger-like peninsula that extended into the water.
Arthur searched for any buildings, doors, footprints, or any sign at all that people visited this place.
There was nothing. If anything, the landscape was more desolate than it had been on top of the mesa. The gently lapping water was so briny with salt that it collected in crystals right by the river’s edge. Nothing could live out there except for thick flocks of flies that fed on the salt. But even then, they were quiet at night, represented by black swoops settled across the landscape.
"The dungeon is supposed to be at the very tip of the peninsula," Arthur called, just loud enough to let his voice carry over the wind.
Joy nodded and continued doggedly forward. However, her head hung low out of exertion. Carrying two people at once for a length of time was difficult for her.
Arthur tried not to think about the fact that if they found a stash of combat cards, and if Brixaby ate enough of them… he might grow large enough to carry Arthur on the return journey.
He didn’t want to get his hopes up.
The peninsula curled like a clawed finger back towards the east. Joy came in to land, and Brixaby buzzed in a wide circle to scout the area. There was absolutely no life on this final strip of land. The flies were nowhere to be seen. Even the bare rocks were not larger than an apple.
Dismounting, Arthur stood and looked around. "Where is it?"
"They are hard to spot." Cressida didn’t seem concerned at all. She simply summoned three different flame teddy bears that galloped out in different directions. Their light was no stronger than a candle, but would be terribly visible at night from afar.
But they had already decided to take this risk. They were committed.
Arthur looked at Cressida. "Let me guess. The entrances of dungeons all look different, too?"
She smiled at him in agreement. "You’ll feel it when you get close. The only thing to do is to search around."
They spread out. The area at the very edge of the peninsula was no more than fifty feet across. As Arthur walked, he concentrated on the earth manipulation skill. Though, it told him nothing, and the twelve-hour timer for that skill was quickly counting down.
"Here it is," Cressida called out. She stood at the water's edge so close that the tips of her boots crunched on salt crystals.
At first, Arthur couldn’t tell what she was looking at, but as he got closer… the air felt off. Thicker, somehow, as if there was an invisible force pressing directly on his skin, yet not rustling the fabric of his clothing.
Confused, he looked around and studied the ground, but saw nothing.
Cressida helpfully pointed. "Stand right here and look out towards the water."
He did and finally saw a thin, hairline crack hanging in the air about chest height. It would have been impossible to spot at night if not for the fact that one of her flame bears stood directly behind it.
It was a crack in the world.
"How are we supposed to get into that thing?" Brixaby demanded, buzzing around it.
"You just step forward," Cressida said.
Then she looked at Arthur. Everybody did. They were waiting for him to give the go-ahead.
Do I want to do this? Arthur thought.
But of course he did.
"Let’s go." He took a last step to the line.
As he did, the air thickened and though the hairline crack didn’t move, it seemed to expand. Not from side to side, but it became deeper.
And though Arthur was much too wide, he still easily fit his shoulders in. It didn’t make any sense at all, and yet, it did.
His next step took him to a completely new world.
He stood on bright green grass on top of a rolling hill. The briny salt sea was gone, and a hot sun blazed overhead on a bright spring day.
Stunned, Arthur stood for a second and was bumped from behind as Joy made her way next. Brixaby soon followed and flew right over his head, turning abruptly around in shock as he found himself in the daylight. Arthur quickly moved aside before Cressida ran into him.
"Well," Cressida said, blinking and shielding her eyes from the bright sun. "At least this isn’t an impossible drop."
“I would have caught you,” Joy said.
Arthur turned in place. At the bottom of the hill stood a deep forest. The trees were so thick that he couldn’t see past the first few trunks. And though he could not pinpoint why, it radiated menace.
He pointed. “I’m guessing that’s where we search for the cards.”
“Yes,” Cressida agreed. "This hill is likely the safe zone. I’m guessing that forest is where the actual challenge is.”
“But what kind of challenge?” Joy asked.
“It could be anything, dear. Traps, elemental guardians… real people who were sent to guard this place. Anything.”
As if her words were an omen, a shrill whistle cut the air. Every hair on Arthur’s neck stood up on end. He knew that whistle. That was the call of a Scourgeling.
Instantly, the dragons were alert, lips peeled back in instinctive snarls.
“It is to be a challenge!” Brixaby said, and a moment later, he was covered in gleaming chain mail he clearly taken from his personal space. The effect was impressive as the new metal caught the gleaming sun.
The foliage below rustled, and the first of the Scourgelings stepped out of the dark forest.
The body shape was sort of like a horse… Only covered in gleaming black chitin. It had four powerful legs and a thick neck. The head, however, was more like ant than a horse, complete with pincers each as long as Arthur’s arm. Four of them stepped out in total.
One for each of us, Arthur thought then reached into his own personal space for something to defend himself with: a butcher knife that was enhanced thanks to his Knife Work skills and Butchering Skill, and… a decent-sized shovel which was enhanced thanks to his Shovel Proficiency skill.
Cressida called her largest flame bear summon, Wicker, who stood eight feet tall.
And Joy just smiled at the scourgelings with gleaming green canines. The covering over her venomous arm was gone, and she flexed green claws.
The scourgelings charged.
Comments
Vash119
I’m liking how dungeons are folded into the world with this story. It’s great that this concept that stretch’s across the genre feels so organic.
Honour Rae
Yes I can do that.
Reaper
Healing card, phase card, mana card…
independent Thoughts
With the dungeoneering card, he would be able to train his combat skill just like his skills with the storage.
Zachary Blevins
Yes, that would be helpful He’s got nine cards in his heart deck That I can remember 2 MasterCard set 3 the utility set 1 trap card 1 negation card 1 charisma card 1 metal Manipulation combat card I think you can hold between 10 to 15 in his deck but sets of cards only count as one card I think he can hold five cards in a secondary card deck ? But his skill list should be 50+ by now and his body mastery should be at 30+ something like that A break now would be great the secondary deck I don’t think enough‘s been done with
Hammy
Would it be possible to get a skill sheet or card sheet? At this point in time I am unsure what cards he has, there effects or what his stats/skills are. Let alone what classes he has unlocked etc.
Reaper
Thematically I think that would fit a storage type set so it’s very possible.
Maddi Lion
Yeah I wish the writer would devote more time to this series too.
James Donnelly
I like MOS better anyways. I would rather the writer devote his time to this series.
Joseph Barratt
Ok I’m stopping my totem subscription. I love the series but this is what I was worried about with the new structure.
independent Thoughts
Who wants to bet that the next card in his rare set is a dungeoneering card?
James Donnelly
He is only like 18. I wasn't the most forward looking person at that age. I think it's a pretty realistic take on a character that is still wildly young for the pressure he's constantly under.
Jett Hardin
I don't particularly mind his actions it's the seeming lack of forethought or acknowledgement of dangers that makes it seem he's an undeveloped character
Garrett
They’re limited by the Dungeneer’s ability and talents and possibly resources.
Thaldor
For a moment I was wondering if this was a secret space where they reared livestock away from the prying eyes of actual scourge. I think a small training montage is in order instead 🤭
Reaper
They and the author forgot / didn’t consider it. Probably.
Reaper
It doesn’t say items enter and leave only from hands. Technically Arthur can change clothes in a split second by not actually removing or putting any on manually. It’s a function related to how items retrieved can be held how you want for example a knife by the handle rather than the blade.
Rubeno
That's surprisingly foolish considering that without card sharing both Cressida and Joy are half a rogue. Shame that there wasn't a reason mentioned why they don't share cards.
Rubeno
By writing here I'm doing exactly that. .
James Donnelly
I love this book, but I hate waiting for the next chapter...
James Donnelly
They also stole the cards and are not using them. What's to stop him from taking those combat cards and distributing them to lower level hive members that don't have combat cards of thier own? I will reserve judgment until I see what he does with them.
Tom Richards
Note - you need to add a space between "anything" and "in"
Jett Hardin
Is Arthur ever going to think about what he's doing. Like I get cluelessness but he's not incompetent or stupid. He already got his own combat card and instead of doing his usual thing and practicing it he's immediately going to raid the stores of his captors. I'm not saying the free hive have been the best but they haven't been openly disrespectful or hostile to him and he's stealing their stuff because he want more power. I get it seems obvious that he did it to me since he's the protagonist and I know that so I inherently would assume he was the culprit but after this someone in the free hive will surely think to keep a close eye on his movements. At the same time some sort of acknowledgement of being willing to steal from others for relatively selfish purposes while knowing the possible consequences of his actions would provide some amount of character development even it's it's somewhat away from a moral good. Currently it feels like he's acting childish and doing whatever he wants because nothing ever really goes wrong for him. He hasn't had any major losses only close misses or he's gotten away with his actions in the past. He's trying to grow into a leader doing bad things to gain the power to do what's right may be the right move but cluelessly doing whatever you want and not seeing the issues with it doesn't seem like the quality of a good leader.
Jett Hardin
Maybe you should ask the author
James Donnelly
Infinite ammo glitch. Lol
J. L. Mullins
Yeah, I had this question. There has been quite a few times when they could have all just been in storage.
J. L. Mullins
It didn't say that he put on the chainmail, and he wouldn't have had it on durring the "stealth" portion.
wiedźma_florentyna
that was actually mentioned - that while Arthur&Brix share all the cards (which was a choice for Arthur when they joined) it's not the case with everybody and Cress&Joy are example
Rubeno
Also, why can't Pinkie share Cressidas stealth card and Cressida's poisonous-edged blades?
Rubeno
Because he can do both. He has metal links on his mail cuffs and free hand is wasted hand.
Rubeno
It just came to my mind but why isn't Arthur traveling by Brix Space Bag if it's so tiring for Pinkie to carry both Arthur and Cressida? Considering how good Brix is as a flier he can load the rest of the team inside the bag if there is a need to stealth around or run away.
Aguy768
Surprise. He can pull a rivet out of storage and fling it from odd angles. Let your enemies get too close to dodge before showing your skills.
Rubeno
Isekai is overdone. I'm so bored of yet another dude or dudette having a wish fulfillment in another world. Local protagonists allow for better immersion.
Hammy
My guess, force of habit. And never hurts to have a melee weapon in hand.
Adam McGuire
Why does Arthur pull out a knife and shovel instead of using his combat card?
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter! I like the dungeons and that they're not the "same old same old" thing, BUT it's gonna be hard to write "realistically" because now you said "a dungeon has no restrictions on what is inside" well if that's true they are simply dead... So it obviously can't be true "just like that" some restrictions have to apply and to write them "realistically" is really a daunting task (this is my impression after just reading the chapter)!
Salvo
I have like 50 questions about the dungeons, it may be the largest factor in the political alliances and to not hear about them til now is .. daunting! Looking forward to this!
Decide
Here's a what-if: how do we know their world isn't a massive dungeon?
Yashakami
Dungeoneering sounds like a skill to me. But I've finally found the profession that I'd want to have in this world.
Voror
What I'm getting from this is that Arthur needs to recruit a Dungeoneer into his retinue
darkmuch
I’ve read so many isekai type stories lately that I keep forgetting that Arthur is a total normal dude who shouldn’t know what a Dungeon means in the modern sense.
