Buttopia
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Chapter 40: Forests & Oceans
🕑 Added 2024-12-10 00:00:04 +0000 UTCI was woken up the next morning by my new roommate, who was purring loudly on my chest. The fact that I had even managed to sleep through him climbing up there was a good sign for my body. I wasn’t completely healed yet, but most of my back was holding in its proper place. There was no more horrible feeling of bones shifting as I moved. I gently lifted the pumakey and laid it on the bed next to me. Its little tail reached out and wrapped around my arm, pulling it back down. I gave it some more gentle scratches behind the ear, and I was released.
Thinking back over the events of the previous day, I was more concerned than ever about what had happened. There was plenty more unsaid in that conversation than I had initially realized. What would they have done with Earth once Sanquar was dealt with? Would Earth even survive that? Somehow, I doubted sponsoring me meant I got to live so much as it meant I got to be monitored until they decided what to do with me, too. Then there was their whole problem with Elody, just how widespread was the dislike of the archive?
None of this sat well with me, and that meant more dungeon raids sooner. The brothers were mostly fine from yesterday despite having been eaten, and while I wasn’t operating on all cylinders just yet, there was plenty of time to heal on the way.
“Hey, little guy, I’m probably going to be gone again all day, but I’ll make sure water and food are sent here for you. Hopefully, I’ll even have a name for you when I get back,” I said, leaning back over the bed to pat the fluffy little guy one more time before heading for breakfast.
After several servings of eggs and a special order sent back to my room, I made my way to the adventurer’s hall to discuss the future dungeons with Mel. As always, I found the man floating behind his counter, moving things around.
“Hey Mel, what’s next on our agenda?” I asked.
“That depends a lot on you, Dave. How’s yer body holding up anyway?” Mel asked. I checked my inner vitality just to be sure before I answered. My mana had held up surprisingly well throughout the night, and at this rate, I’d be fully healed in another few hours.
“All things considered, pretty good. I think I’m ready for another dungeon already if Cecile and Elicec are,” I said. I stretched out my arms, giving everything a test. Nothing screamed in pain. Yeah, I was ready for another dungeon.
“They were down here earlier trading in all the crap they picked up at the last two, seemed fine. If you’re serious, I’ll send go find em,” Mel said. I nodded my approval and watched as a mini-Mel floated off, disappearing into the elevator.
“So what’s next on our list?” I asked, curious as ever.
“The trip out to these dungeons is gonna take awhile, so it’s actually best you do them all at once without a break between. Technically, I’m pretty sure the first one ain’t gonna be any issue for the three of you, but the fact you have to rush three at once that’s the real challenge. They aren’t linked far as I know, but for whatever reason, they formed on paths to each other,” Mel said.
“Nice, I haven’t been camping in so long,” Cecile’s voice came from behind, signaling their arrival.
“Yeah, you say that now, but the first dungeon ya gotta go through today is called the Waspy Treetops. I’ll let you figure out why. After that, you should be close enough to find yer way into The Dreaming Deer and then finally head to the nearby beach for Seaside Crustaceans. I recommend only camping after the second dungeon. You don’t wanna risk any of those diredeer after dark,” Mel explained. I had to agree; the idea of monsters attacking us while we tried camping sounded pretty awful.
“What does that leave after these three?” I asked. Hopefully, the Waspy Treetops had a ton of wasps. That would make for a good simulation run to boost me up before the desert.
“There’s one more potential one before the persistent desert, but I ain’t got a lot of info about it. You’ll have to head out to Smithtown and see what they tell you. Supposedly a dungeon has formed nearby, but they aren’t sure on a lot about it, likely just don’t have the right folks to scout it,” Mel answered.
“At this rate, we might have these dungeons cleared out before the end of the week. That’s pretty far ahead of schedule,” I said, smiling. The more time I had to prepare for the return trip, the better.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t count on that just yet. That desert ain’t going to be a walk in the park, but we can talk about that later. Yer transport’s here, get yer asses outta here, and good luck,” Mel said ushering us from the building.
We were dropped off in front of a ladder attached to a very tall tree. “I take it we climb?” I asked, not seeing any other way.
“He did say treetops,” Elicec answered. I grabbed the ladder and hoisted myself up the first rung, slowly making my way to the top. The ladder ended in a platform far above the ground with a single direction to go in front of us. Who had built this? Was it the monsters, or had they just taken it over?
“Looks like a bunch of wasps ahead of us, and I think that’s their hive over there,” Cecile said, pointing far into the distance, well beyond anything I could make out. I did see several of the wasps though, along our only path. Each was about the size of a mouse, so while not a ton bigger than the wasps I was used to, I had a feeling their stingers were going to be a lot more painful.
“Alright, I’m in front. Elicec, shoot down every wasp you can before it gets to us. Cecile, handle anything that gets too close from your side, and I’ll clear anything from the front of us, ready?” They both nodded.
I had considered my own fire magic, but with the pathways being made of wood and all the trees below us, I didn’t want to cause a forest fire. I figured Elicec would have some better alternatives, and as it was, it just occurred to me I hadn’t even checked the elemental orbs for their new rank. How had that slipped my mind? Something to do once we were done with this dungeon, I supposed, and started forward.
The wasps waited until we were halfway across the first bridge before massing on either side of us. Elicec made short work of a few dozen on one side while Cecile swept across the other. I put my mallet to work on the few still in our way. Mel had been right about this being easy enough. So far, not a single one had managed to land a sting. Fighting our way to the other side, I could now spot where Cecile had said the hive was. We only had another bridge to cross on the way.
“Guys I’m going to run ahead and see if I can’t just take out the queen or whatever the boss is, you okay with that?” I yelled over the buzzing.
“Yes, we can keep as many of them distracted back here in the meantime!” Elicec yelled back as guided bursts of hail down onto our attackers.
I crushed another twenty of the wasps as I charged across the last bridge towards the hive, slamming my mallet into the papery walls the moment I was near enough. The buzzing sound increased as the queen ripped free from the damaged hive. She was nearly my size, and her stinger was dropping venom. I threw my mallet at her face, not wanting to give her a chance to get any closer. The impact was brutal, and she dropped out of the air, still flailing desperately. Two quick kick quicks, while I retrieved my mallet and gave her another hard strike to her head, brought the hard part of the fight to an end. The few wasps that continued to fight were quickly dealt with. The first dungeon was already done and I already knew this was the perfect choice for the simulator once we returned.
“Hey, I didn’t get any completed quests for this. Did either of you?” I asked. I was worried the dungeons were linked now somehow.
“Nope, any idea why?” Elicec asked back.
“Yeah, I’m worried these are linked despite what Mel thought, but that was easy enough. Could you guys grab the cores while I take a look at my mana orbs real quick?” I asked. I wanted to get this done and over with before we headed down the ladder on this other side.
“No problem,” Cecile answered. I pulled up my elemental orbs and took a look at them.
Recall was a no-brainer and I maxed that on both of my elemental orbs. I decided to skip out on components for now. I needed to look over what the average requirement looked like before I wanted to pursue that very far. I already had the spells taking control of my vocal cords without permission.
“We managed to get some royal jelly from the hive, too. I bet that’s useful,” Cecile said sounding happy with the discovery.
“Yeah, can’t hurt. Ready to head down?” I asked. Neither of them disagreed, so I grabbed the top rung and started my descent, happy to soon have my feet back on the ground. About twenty feet from the ground, my hands slipped on the side of the ladder; something had greased it, and I proceeded to slide the rest of the way. “Careful guys, someone greased the ladder!” I yelled back up the descending brothers.
“Yes, that would be us. How dare you step on our sacred grounds!” An angry voice yelled from the nearby thick brush.
Why some dungeon cores seem more intelligent then others is something that has been long studied, with no answer found. Many theories have been proposed, the most prominent being just what the first host is, but that has never been conclusively proven.
An excerpt from A Study of Dungeon Cores by Brij Flun Kerg Pil-Flin V
