Dungeon Noble - Squire

The second floor of the Dungeon was much the same as the first. A long mist-filled city street with wandering zombies stretched out ahead of them. This time, though, several piles of ash surrounded burnt wooden poles scattered here and there along the street.

Nepthys had prewarned Jake about the ash, so he wasn’t surprised when Alan put an arrow into the first one they saw, causing a zombie to stand up and come staggering towards them.

Jake gave the undead the finishing blow this time, his blade carving into dead flesh with ease. Unnervingly, the zombie continued toward him even as his blade was cutting through its neck.

The moment Jake’s sword finished cutting through its neck, the zombie dropped like a puppet with its string cut.

“Unpleasant, aren’t they,” Nepthys said, coming over to Jake as he drew the Wyrdgeld from the fallen zombie. “It’s the lack of reaction to being hit that gets me.”

“Yeah, I didn’t quite understand what you meant earlier, but I do now,” Jake said, some of her earlier explanations suddenly making more sense. “Stronger versions of creatures like this will be dangerous.”

“Too true,” Nepthys said, glancing back to check where the others were before lowering her voice and continuing. “Any idea what Boon you might get from a place like this?”

Jake grimaced in distaste before shaking his head slightly. “No idea. Nothing good would be my guess. Still, beggars can’t be choosers, and I need more Dungeons bound to me.”

“Then let’s get to it, shall we?” Nepthys’s eyes glinted as she raised a brow his way and spun the short of her swords. “Show me what you learned yesterday with Felix.”

A smile tugged at Jake’s lips as he flourished his sword in a gesture for her to lead the way. “After you, you’ll need the head start.”

Nepthys laughed throatily as she walked into the mist, a grinning Jake following along in her wake.

With Alan and Rhew working to draw out any hidden enemies, they quickly made their way through the second floor and were soon at the entrance to the third.

Stepping through, Jake eyed his new surroundings with surprise. The others had explained that the third floor took them indoors, but it felt like he’d just walked into a building of some sort.

Their entry point was the foyer of a mansion, with destroyed stairs leading up and a single door ahead of them.

Unlike the streets, there was no lighting here, so Jake and Rhew took out and lit their torches, giving them enough visibility to work with.

Jake contemplated trying to get up to the next floor, but he remembered Ari’s explanation about not pushing the boundaries of the Dungeon and left it alone.

“There is an Empty One deep within the mansion, with one or two rooms before that,” Alan said, nocking an arrow in preparation as Nepthys moved forward and opened the door to the next room.

An eerie groan rang out as Nepthys moved into the room, with Jake and the others quickly following through as they set upon the three zombies within.

The new room was a reception area that had been partially burnt out and wrecked, leaving behind small piles of destroyed furnishings to impede them.

A thin layer of ash coated everything, and more was kicked up as the four of them swiftly took down the zombies.

“For all that this is creepy and uncomfortable, fighting zombies has been the easiest thing so far,” Alan said with a cheerful smile as he reclaimed an arrow from the side of a zombie’s head.

Jake rolled his eyes and shared a long-suffering look with Nepthys but otherwise didn’t comment. Instead, he led the way over to the next door.

It felt somewhat strange to have these extra doors within the Dungeon, but it did add to the ambience of the floor, and that felt meaningful somehow.

Once everyone was ready, Jake opened the door and moved swiftly into a heavily ransacked kitchen with his torch held high.

Four zombies were present, though rather than the generic clothing of the others, they were wearing white jackets and were dressed for kitchen work.

It was the first time that Jake had seen any variation in monsters like this, and once the zombies were dealt with, he took a moment to look them over.

Each of the four was dressed almost identically and yet completely differently from the rest of the zombies they’d seen. Surely there was no gain to the Dungeon for giving them different clothing?

A frown settled on Jake’s face as he considered how little he still knew about the purpose of Dungeons. He was starting to understand more about their function and how they worked, but this small detail was undercutting everything he knew.

“Is it the clothes?” Nepthys asked, coming over to see what Jake was looking at.

“Yeah, I just don’t understand why?”

“At this point, you likely know just as much about the nature of Dungeons as I do. The only thing I have is more experience dealing with them.” Nepthys shrugged slightly before nudging Jake. “Leave it alone for now. I think it’s the Empty One next.”

“Alright.” Jake took a moment to drag his focus back to the present before heading back over to the other two with Nepthys. “What’s the plan?”

“We block it, Rhew slows it, and Alan shoots it in the head,” Nepthys said, shrugging her shoulders when Jake gave her a look. “It’s simple and to the point. Rhew’s ice will still slow it, even if it doesn’t cause any pain, and that will help Alan get a hit.”

Jake didn’t really have any better ideas, so he followed Nepthys’s lead, and they burst through the door into the last room of the floor.

The final area was a long dining room with a smashed table set in the centre and a thick layer of ash in the air. A hunched figure was perched on part of the ruined table at the far end, its grey skin almost blending into the ash.

Alan and Rhew wasted no time in opening fire, causing the figure to leap to its feet and dodge with surprising nimbleness.

The Empty One was a grey humanoid with an emaciated frame that hung tight over sharply angular bones. It had long, swept-back ears pointing out from its head, while large white eyes filled the deep hollow of its eye sockets.

The Empty One sprang forward, racing towards them with blistering speed that even the murk hounds couldn’t match.

One of Nepthys’s shields popped into existence in front of the creature, and for the first time, Jake watched in shock as something avoided the dependable trick.

Thankfully, despite keeping its feet, the Empty One had to slow down, and a blast of cold magic caught its shoulder, slowing it further as Rhew’s magic got to work.

Nepthys stepped up to meet the monster in direct combat, her higher rank giving her the edge in speed she needed to keep up with the creature.

Jake did what he could to cover Nepthys’s flank, using both his torch and sword to menace the undead creature.

Despite its speed and strength, the Empty One seemed unthinking in its savagery, and as soon as it settled into a fight with Nepthys, Alan put an arrow in its leg.

Nepthys put the shorter of her two blades through the creature’s heart a few moments after Alan wounded it, making Jake realise that the Empty One had reacted to the pain of the shot.

It seemed that whatever it was, it was still living enough to feel pain.

“Look, that must be the Challenge room,” Rhew called out as Nepthys drew the Wyrdgeld from the fallen creature.

“Let’s go for it,” Jake quickly declared before anyone could consider skipping over it. If he was going to bind this Dungeon, he needed to complete all of it.

“Sounds good to me. Let’s take five minutes first, though,” Alan said, pulling out the waterskin from his bag and taking a drink. “The damn ash irritates my throat going through here.”

Jake propped his torch up in some wreckage before following suit. They’d made good time so far, but a few minutes would be good.

-**-

Jake examined the door to the Challenge room once they finished resting, deciding that it was a survival Challenge, much like the first they’d done.

With no wager needed, the four of them readied their weapons and stepped inside, finding themselves in a warmly lit room with only one other exit.

“For a survival Challenge, I was expecting this to be less homely,” Jake said, eyeing their new surroundings with surprise.

“I doubt it will last once we open that door,” Rhew said with a sigh. “Let’s just get on with it.”

They’d already pre-lit new torches before coming through to the Challenge, so after a brief moment to organise themselves, they opened the door and started the Challenge.

The door led them through to a large foyer, much like the one they’d seen earlier. This time, however, the doors at the entrance were gone, and there were two breaches in the walls, one on either side of the room.

Jake couldn’t see any monsters initially, but he did notice that both breaches opened out onto a city street and were large enough for him to walk through.

“Movement!” Alan called out, pointing out the front door.

“Same over here,” Jake called out as he saw a number of dark figures coming down the street.

“Over here as well,” Nepthys called out from the opposite side to Jake.

“Alan, Rhew, get firing at the doorway. Nepthys and I will hold the breaches for as long as we can.” Jake shouted as he counted the figures coming his way. “I’ve got ten of them here.”

The others reported similar numbers at their sides, making Jake curse under his breath before advancing out through his breach.

Infusing his sword with Wyrd, Jake harried the front zombies, taking advantage of their slow speed to engage them one at a time.

There wasn’t much space and even less time, but by using up his Wyrd, Jake could make sure that his sword carved through the zombie no matter where he struck.

Things got tense as the last few forced their way through the breach, and Jake abruptly understood the true problem with zombies.

They weren’t that dangerous on their own, but as a group, they were difficult to deal with in close quarters.

Fortunately, Jake only had to stall the zombies while his companions dealt with their own groups. Once Nepthys had dealt with her group, she judiciously used her shields to block and separate out the zombies, letting the two of them swiftly cut down the remaining few.

“Damn, that was intense,” Alan said once the last zombie had fallen. “I’m down to half my arrows now. I lost a couple here.”

“I used a lot of Wyrd as well,” Nepthys said tiredly. “Doing this with only four of us was tough.”

“On the upside, this is a nice chunk of Wyrdgeld,” Jake pointed out, making them all perk up slightly. “Plus, we’ve got the reward for finishing as well.”

“I’ll get it!” Rhew called out as she hurried back to the room they’d entered through, emerging a few moments later with a bulging pouch. “Just coins. It looks like twenty total, which makes this whole thing worth fifty.”

“I say we head back, take fifteen minutes to rest and then keep going,” Jake said, finishing drawing the Wyrdgeld from the last of his zombies.

“Sounds good to me,” Nepthys said as she cleaned off her swords before sheathing them. “Let me go over what you need to expect from the next two floors.”