Dungeon Noble - Squire

Jake jerked back away from the sudden movement as fast as he could, hot breath washing over him as a fang sliced across the very edge of his neck.

Backpedalling from the water, Jake dropped his torch as a heavy weight fell onto him and immediately began to wrap around his leg.

Scalding hot water was liberally soaking Jake’s clothes as his mind caught up enough to see a snake that was as thick as his arm rearing back to strike at his neck once more.

An attempt at batting the snake back stopped it from striking at his neck, but instead, a pair of fangs sunk into the flesh of his hand as the snake tightened its grip on him.

Gritting his teeth against the pain, Jake twisted his hand to grab the snake’s head as best he could, feeling the fangs dig in as blood poured out of its mouth.

Dropping the unwieldy sword in his right hand, Jake conjured his dagger and stabbed it into the snake just behind its head.

The snake convulsed violently as the poison in Jake’s dagger went to work, swiftly killing it but doing further damage to his hand in the process.

Dismissing his dagger once more, Jake pried the snake’s jaw open, hissing in pain as some of its blood dripped onto him and burnt his hand.

The snake’s blood was even hotter than the water around them; he could already feel the skin on his right hand blistering.

“Fuck!” Jake all but threw the snake away as he shook his hand and hissed in pain. “Watch out for their blood!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got it,” Nepthys said, her long blade flicking out to stab the remaining snake before it could finish readying for a new strike. Thick blood oozed out of the snake and sizzled against Nepthys’s sword, but a flick away from the rest of them cleared it off.

“Damn, those are nasty,” Rhew said, moving closer to eye the dead snakes. “Knowing they were hiding in the water makes my skin crawl.”

“At least they’re not rats,” Karl muttered to himself before looking over to Alan and Jake. “You two okay?”

“It was close, but I’m fine, just some burns and a couple of holes,” Jake said, looking down at the reddened part of his hand and wincing a little as he saw where the fangs had dug into him.

“I’m fine as well. I caught them right as they moved, so the initial attack missed,” Alan said, looking over to Jake with a guilty expression. “I’m sorry I didn’t see them sooner.”

“That’s alright. We know where to look for them now,” Jake said, looking over at the remaining patches of water in the room. “Can you check those as well, make sure we got them all?”

“Yeah, give me a moment,” Alan moved a little closer to the other, smaller pools and used his Skill, staring into each of them in turn. “I think we’re clear.”

“You’re not certain?” Karl asked, his brows furrowing as he looked around them.

“I think I didn’t see those ones as I was focusing on the walls and any nooks something could hide in, like we’ve seen before. I don’t know for sure, though, as I didn’t see anything until they were attacking.” Alan seemed to hunch in on himself before he began to edge closer to the nearest body of water.

Nepthys held up a hand to stop Alan and waved for him to step back. “I’ll test them. My shield will give me some protection if there are more.”

Alan nodded thankfully, and they watched as Nepthys checked each section of water before eventually confirming that the room was clear.

“Let’s test the next area and see if that’s the case. If it is, we’ll deal with it,” Jake said, walking over to pat Alan on the shoulder with his good hand. “This is a learning experience; don’t let it get to you.”

“Thanks, Jake,” Alan said, letting out a sigh before looking over and noticing the puncture wound and burns on Jake’s hand. “Are you not going to drink a potion for that?”

Jake began to shake his head before pausing and considering if he should. He’d been planning to push through the pain and save the potions for something nastier, but his hand felt tight and swollen, which wasn’t great.

Grimacing to himself, Jake took one of his two potions and poured some over the burn before drinking the rest. At least this way, he’d be going into the rest of the floor in good condition.

Jake’s torch had guttered out on the damp stone, so he lit his second and reclaimed his sword, dismissing his dagger once more as he did.

“So, is that dagger some sort of Skill?” Karl asked as they moved out of the humid room and into a curved tunnel.

“Yeah, sort of,” Jake said, somewhat awkwardly. He wasn’t foolish enough to think that no one would question the dagger, but he still didn’t want to try and explain it.

“Looks powerful; what did you do to earn it?”

“Oh, it’s, erm, related to my Class. I don’t think you could earn it.” Jake abruptly found himself thankful for the humid air in the Dungeon; it gave a perfect excuse for the flush in his cheeks.

“Fair enough, not sure it’s really my style anyway,” Karl said with a shrug, being careful to keep his eyes on the tunnel ahead of them.

Jake nodded, letting out a subtle sigh of relief that Karl had dropped the subject so easily. “Looks like we’re coming to another open space. Alan, do you want to take a look first?”

“Yeah, let me get a bit closer,” Alan came forward to stand next to them as they reached the entrance of another cave. This particular one had far more of the smaller pools, as well as angular boulders concealing some parts of the room from them.

“Anything?” Jake looked over at the Scholar questioningly, relaxing a little as he saw the hint of a relieved smile on Alan’s face.

“There and there, I can just about see the snakes. They blend in really well, but now I know what I’m looking for. It’s not too bad.”

“Think you can take them out?”

“Yeah, I got this,” Alan said with surprising confidence as he drew an arrow and lined up the first shot. “Just need to correct for the water, which puts it about right there.” Alan loosed the arrow, and they watched intently as it plunged into the pool and disappeared from sight.

Alan didn’t wait to see the result of the first shot, instead turning and firing at the second snake, catching it right as it began to surge out of the water.

“Looks like hitting one brings them all out to play,” Jake said, reaching out to stop Alan from moving forward. “Give it a moment.”

Alan looked confused until two more snakes slithered around from behind one of the boulders and began to rapidly close with them.

As surprisingly quick as they were, the snakes were easily picked off before they got even halfway to the group, and they were able to pick over the rest of the room at their leisure.

With Alan’s perceptive Skill and growing experience with a bow, they were able to repeat the same approach twice more, bringing them to the end of the third floor, having suffered only the initial burns to Jake.

Finishing the final room, they were in the process of sweeping it for anything interesting when Rhew stopped in her tracks. “Wait, is that what I think that is?”

Looking over, Jake immediately saw what had caught Rhew’s eye. The door to the fourth floor was there, as expected, but there was a Challenge door as well.

Satisfied that there were no remaining snakes, Jake hurried over to join Rhew as she looked over the carvings on the door.

“I don’t really get it.” Rhew turned to Jake with a slightly perplexed expression. “What’s it meant to be?”

The carvings showed a few generic delvers scattered around an area, all seemingly looking for something. An hourglass and a hand were carved above it all, but the only monster that Jake could see in the carving was a snake that was next to one of the delvers but was beneath a rock and not attacking them.

“Is it a hunt?” Jake pointed to the rock and the hidden snake. “We have to find a snake or something?”

“That hourglass means we’re timed as well,” Nepthys said with a heavy sigh. “I’ve done one of these before. That hand at the top means that’s what we’re wagering.”

“Wait, what?” Jake stopped examining the carvings and turned to Nepthys with a shocked expression. “Did you say we’re wagering a hand?”

“Yes,” Nepthys gave them a grim nod. “If we fail the Challenge, someone has to give up one of their hands for us to be able to leave. You won’t bleed out or be injured beyond that, but losing it this way will damage your soul. You won’t lose it permanently, though.”

“I think we should do it,” Karl said with a determined expression. “I can lose a hand and still manage if needed, but it’s a chance for more rewards, and our tax is due soon.”

“I hate to agree, but I can’t argue with that,” Jake said tiredly, already dreading doing this Challenge again in the future.

“I’ve done one of these before, and the group I was with failed, but we lacked someone like you, Alan. Your Skill will be invaluable here.”

Jake could see the panic building in Alan’s eyes at the pressure that was abruptly dropped on him, and he quickly spoke up before Nepthys could continue. “We’re still all going to give it our all, though. It would be stupid to put this all on Alan.”

“Agreed, we need this,” Rhew said, eyeing the Challenge door hungrily.

“I’ll wait here for you. Good luck,” Felix said, moving over to lean against a nearby wall with an impassive look on his face.

“Alright, here we go,” Jake whispered to himself as he opened the door to the Challenge and stepped inside.