Buttopia
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Chapter 35: A Dungeon With the Boys
🕑 Added 2024-12-05 00:00:07 +0000 UTC“Alright, boys, there are currently eight dungeons on this world, that don’t have active claims. Seven of which I think are doable in the time left to you. The eighth is the persistent desert that y’all already know about, and we can discuss the possibility of that if and when you clear the first seven,” Mel said. We were in a small private room connected to the adventurer’s hall. Mel had said it was used for more advanced private briefings and that this certainly qualified.
After last night’s reading-induced anxiety attack, I had decided to turn in early and distract myself instead with another dungeon. There was no way I was going to continue to climb at my current rate unless I added more options to the simulator. Time spent with what few friends I had here was an added benefit as well. It was easier to clamp down on the intruding thoughts when others were around to distract me. Even better if they were others I happened to like.
“So what’s first?” Cecile asked.
“I’m getting there, don’t rush me! I got more to say first on this whole plan. If it weren’t for the time constraints, I’d be incredible against any of this, but I’m the one that told Dave to push as hard as he could, y’all know why now. There ain’t no backing down at this point, so we need to catch you two up with Dave as quickly as possible, which means I’m giving you the Undead Wood dungeon as your first choice. It’s still pretty far out of yer leagues, but I think it’s within Dave’s. Now remember there is still a shitton that he don’t know about how any of this works, so even if he’s the one in the front, you two are going to have to give him as much coaching as you can. Treat this as a reverse of what happened in the first dungeon you guys did together, got it?” Mel asked after his unusual style of pep talks. We all nodded in return.
“Assuming I can get these new dungeons into my simulator and do a power-leveling session each night after we finish one, do you really still think we won’t be able to take on the desert?” I asked. I knew it was dangerous, and considering my abject failure with the Basement of Shadows, I could see how it might just be impossible for us, but I wanted to at least know why.
“You hit level two-fifty, and we can talk about the desert, and even then, I don’t like the idea of you trying it without any class levels,” Mel said. I had seen the class listing before for myself back when I was first sent to the Spiral when we were at the Spire; I hadn’t thought much of it since, but just what were class levels?
“Uh, maybe this is something I could know already, but what are class levels?” I asked.
“Actually, yeah, when do we get to pick a class anyway? No one at home knew anything about that,” Elicec said. I was glad for once not to be the only ignorant one on the topic at hand.
“How do you not know what classes are? What did you think paladin of knowledge meant?” Mel was glaring at me with his return questions.
“I just thought they were like an organization Elody belonged to, I guess,” I said. I hadn’t even really considered it beyond her words. I figured it was just her job, like the master librarian job she had had here.
“That’s exactly what a class is Dave, a specialized area of learning with access to very different abilities, as for when you can get a class, technically anytime after level one. Realistically, though, none of you will have access unless you decide to go off to the Arena, which is a terrible idea considering Dave’s other problems. It’s possible you could find an organization to mentor you or someone to apprentice to, but we don’t have any time or funds for either, so for now, we do this all classless. Any other questions, or are you done yapping and ready to go raid a dungeon?” Mel’s glare moved back and forth across all three of us. He was certainly in a bad mood today, and I wasn’t sure why. Was it just the idea of sending us off the a possible death? Not wanting to make anything worse, I nodded in agreement.
“We’re as ready as we can be at the moment,” I said, hoping to lessen some of the glare.
“Good, transport is ready to go outside, and ya damn well better come back alive! Ya hear me?!” Mel yelled. So it was worry after all. We said a quick goodbye and boarded the transport,t ready to tackle the new dungeon.
“So, what level are you guys anyway? I hit one twenty-two last night myself,” I said, watching their eyes once again go wide.
“I’m forty-two, and Cecile is forty-four. He got ahead of me with some of his gardening breakthroughs,” Elicec answered. So my simulation wasn’t the only skill we had to increase our leveling, though Cecile’s did seem to fall far behind it.
“Okay, only eighty levels or so to catch up, and the closer we get, the easier the next few dungeons should be, right, guys?” I said, smiling. Despite Mel’s warning, I wasn’t overly worried. The fear of our destination paled in comparison to my nightmares of the last night. With the deadline looming ever closer, those had returned in force. How much sleep did I really need any more? Could my healing abilities resolve sleep deprivation? Probably something better left unexplored at the moment.
Neither of them had a chance to answer my voiced question as the door flung open. We had already arrived at our destination, much faster than I’d have expected. It seemed this dungeon was even closer than the first we had visited. As I stepped from the vehicle, I saw a giant dead tree in front of us. Carved into the center of its trunk was what looked like a mouth.
“That’s not creepy at all,” Cecile said. I agreed. It was not the most inviting sight.
“Nope, but the sooner we are through it, the sooner we can get out of here,” I replied as I walked toward it. The moment I passed through the opening, I felt the same thing I had felt in the other two dungeons wash over me, and for the first time, I realized that wasn’t something the simulator had duplicated. Did that matter at all? I wasn’t sure, but it was something to ask Mel about later.
The path sloped downward, with the walls on either side of us covered in dead yet somehow still wriggling tree branches. Movements that, even if alive, would look unnatural. Based on the name Mel had given us, I started to suspect we were heading into some kind of cross between nature and zombies. The deeper we walked, the less the light was able to reach and while my new senses were compensating somewhat, I wasn’t sure the same could be said for the brothers.
“Hey, you two doing okay? I know I can barely see, so if you’ve got anything to light up the path, now wouldn’t be the worst time,” I said, remembering that I needed to ask Elicec about how the elemental orb worked exactly. I’d do that at the next moment of calm.
“I’m working on it. It feels like something is fighting against me, so give me a moment,” Elicec said. His needed moment didn’t take long as what looked like small dancing balls of light flew from his hand down the path. They followed us as we walked, constantly repelling the darkness.
“How do you do that anyway, Elicec? I unlocked some skills on both my elemental orbs and specialized one to fire and the other to aether, and I seem just stuck with the same fundamental forces tier one skill they started with,” I asked. The light of his spell had relaxed me enough for the curiosity to bubble up to the forefront of my brain.
“When you rank up your elemental orbs you should get some new tier two skills branching off of fundamental forces. I'm a little surprised you haven’t yet, considering how far ahead you are in levels,” Elicec said.
“I haven’t ranked up a single mana orb itself, just applied skill points to increase the mana skill ranks within them. Wait, there is a difference between my simulator runs and these real dungeons, I realized when I came in. There’s none of that feeling of being in a dungeon. Do you think that is hurting my ability to level up the orbs?” I asked. It was the only thing I could really think of that was different between the two that I experienced so far.
“I don’t know. I was under the impression mana orbs only grew more powerful as they absorbed some of the ambient energy your core released, and that shouldn’t be any different during the simulation runs, especially considering the backlashes you’ve been experiencing,” Elicec answered. So it was back to Mel still for an answer there.
“Remind me to ask Mel when we get back; I don’t want to forget about this topic; it seems like something I really need to figure out,” I said. The lights moved past us out of the corridor we had been walking in into a large open chamber. There were three branching paths, two to our right and a single to our left. This place was much larger than the last two dungeons we had been in.
“What’s that in front of us?” Cecile asked. I hadn’t seen anything, so I glanced that way again. Was he referring to the weird dead tree? I was about to ask exactly what he meant when the thing’s trunk opened wide and roared as its elongated branches whipped at us. We had found the first enemy, or it was probably better to say, it had found us.
