Dungeon Noble - Squire

Fortunately, though the ducks did turn out to have metallic feathers, they were little more than baseline Beasts, allowing Jake and the others to dispatch them in short order.

Pushing on, they found the rest of the Dungeon to be of a similar theme, with the first two floors being entirely made up of a hedge maze with ponds. The doors between floors were wooden and covered with ivy, fitting the theme of what they’d seen so far.

The third floor introduced a change in terrain and a new monster, the first being patches of thick reeds within the ponds and the latter being geese.

To Jake’s mounting horror, the Geese had a pronounced bill, with a thickened section where it met the head, that allowed them to produce a honk far louder than anything a mundane goose could manage.

To make matters worse, the honks had some sort of magical effect to them, causing anyone within a few feet of them to lose their balance and become disorientated.

By the time they cleared the fourth floor, each of them had ended up falling in a pond at least once, and their waterlogged clothes did nothing to improve their mood.

Jake wanted to ignore the Challenge, but he knew better and spent a few minutes cajoling the others into going along with him. It wasn’t that this Dungeon was difficult; it was just annoying and bizarre.

The Challenge was simple. All they had to do was kill all five ducks before the timer ran out. The problem was that the ducks were actively avoiding them by diving down into the pond and then hiding among patches of reeds.

In the end, Jake and Karl had to jump bodily into the pond to get the final duck, earning themselves several nasty cuts from its metal wings.

“I hate this place,” Karl said as he drank one of his potions. They hadn’t needed any others getting this far, so even if the cuts didn’t quite warrant the potion, they had enough to warrant it.

“Yep,” Jake said, drinking a potion of his own as his gaze fell on the reward chest for the Challenge. “But it’ll be worth it when we get the Wyrdgeld.”

Rhew had already hurried over to the chest and quickly opened it before staring at the interior with a look of disbelief.

“Rhew?” Jake quickly moved to join her, looking into the chest with growing concern. “Fuck.”

“What is it?” Alan called over from where he was harvesting the Wyrdgeld from the dead ducks.

“Well, the reward isn’t quite what we were hoping for,” Jake said, his mind searching for a way to break the news.

“It’s fish. We did all that, and the reward is four packets of fucking fish,” Rhew said bluntly before storming away angrily, muttering under her breath.

“At least they’re a good size,” Jake said with a sigh, reaching into the chest and pulling out the top pack. As far as he could tell, it was some sort of large plant leaf that had been wrapped around a pair of fish fillets. The tail ends of the fillets poked out, revealing what they were but not what sort of fish they were.

Remembering Felix’s promise to buy the rewards, Jake stowed the fillets away for later. It did raise the question of whether they should be butchering the ducks and geese they killed; Wyrdmeat from Dungeon monsters wasn’t cheap, after all.

Jake considered it for a moment before shaking his head. Right now, it was quicker and easier to finish the Dungeon and run it again. Perhaps with larger and higher tier Dungeons, it would be worth their while to spend the time.

“Come on, let’s just get this Dungeon done,” Rhew said, walking past Jake to the exit.

Sharing a look with the other two, Jake shrugged and followed after her. They were in good shape overall, so there was no reason to wait before challenging the Guardian floor.

With the practice of repeat delves, they gathered outside the ivy-covered door and moved through to the final floor of the Dungeon.

As before, the final floor was a single large room, which in this case was a wide open area bounded by tall hedges and dominated by a huge pond. The only dry spots were the edges, the entrance and the exit.

An assorted group of ducks and geese were swimming around the pond while a new monster stood in the centre atop a small rock that jutted out from the water.

Jake wasn’t sure what sort of bird it was, but it was clearly another type of waterfowl. The creature stood almost four feet tall, with short legs, a stocky body and a long neck that was covered in brightly coloured ruff.

A black feathered plume stood out from the top of the creature’s head as well, contrasting heavily to the bright orange and red of the ruff.

“Is that some sort of grebe?” Alan asked, eyeing the large bird with interest.

“Never heard of them, sorry,” Jake said with a shrug. It wasn’t like he got to see much wildlife living in the city. The only reason he knew what ducks and geese looked like was from one of his trips outside the city.

“I don’t care what it is,” Rhew said flatly, still seething from the lack of Wyrdgeld in their reward. “It must be the Enhanced monster, so let’s target it first.”

Jake hesitated before shrugging and nodding; she did have a point. If they could bring it down quickly, the rest would be easy enough.

Drawing his wand, Jake waited for Rhew’s count before the three of them attacked as one, sending a small barrage of arrows, ice and thorns at the creature.

The aggressive action caused a chorus of quacks and honks from the other monsters, and Karl moved to the edge of the water to intercept the oncoming attackers.

Jake waited long enough to make sure the grebe, or whatever it was, had been hit by their attacks before moving to join Karl, holstering his wand as he went. He wouldn’t need any more Wyrd for this fight.

Arrows and icicles flew past them as Rhew and Alan kept up the attacks, picking off several of the birds that were heading for them.

The first duck to reach them was knocked out of the air by Karl’s hammer, but it was swiftly followed by a goose that let out a disorientating honk right into their faces.

The world tilted as Jake staggered to one side, narrowly avoiding an attempt to peck out his eye before another honk sent him reeling even further.

Nausea built as Jake fought to clear his head and catch his balance once more. Thankfully, the geese couldn’t use whatever magic that was too often, so while he and Karl were suffering, Rhew and Alan were putting in the work.

“Jake, look out!” Alan shouted out as Jake realised that he had ended up knee-deep in the water. Not a problem in itself, but the grebe had erupted out of the pond and was right in front of him.

The Enhanced monster was bleeding from several places and looked badly injured, but it was healthy enough to start swaying side to side, its neck undulating back and forth as its ruff splayed out in a bright display of vibrant colour.

Jake began to reel back, but there was something about the pattern within the ruff. The intricate weaving of orange into red as they traced around the grebe’s neck, drawing the eye and holding it fast.

Jake dimly felt himself imitating the swaying motion of the grebe as it slowly moved toward him, his gaze locked into the infinite swirling patterns held within its feathers.

Someone was shouting Jake’s name, but it felt distant and removed from everything. All that he could think of was following those colours, which was much easier now that the grebe was so close to him.

Something heavy slammed into Jake, knocking him over right as the grebe’s head darted forward, its long bill ripping into his arm rather than his chest.

Pain stabbed into Jake’s mind as he hit the ground, his head smacking into something hard while the rest of him went into the water.

“Jake!” Alan was above him, but he was wavy and indistinct. “Shit, he’s got blood in his hair. I’m going to give him a potion.”

A cool liquid was poured into Jake’s mouth, banishing much of the pain he’d been feeling, leaving just the lingering effects of whatever the grebe had done.

Jake could feel his mind clearing, but he still felt jumbled up, and it hurt to focus too much on anything.

“Damn this Dungeon!” Rhew shouted from the far side of the pond, kicking the reward chest angrily. “More fish!”

Karl and Alan exchanged a look before Alan turned back to Jake, leaving the big fighter to go try and calm Rhew down.

“How’re you feeling, Jake?” Alan asked, peering into Jake’s eyes with concern.

“Better,” Jake said roughly, taking Alan’s hand and getting unsteadily to his feet. “Whatever that was, it really knocked me.”

“Yeah, it was pretty scary, to be honest,” Alan said as the two of them made their way around the pond at a slow walk, giving Jake time to get his balance back. “It was just swaying side to side, and you were standing there as it came closer. Karl only just got to you in time.”

“Yeah, it was the colours in its ruff. I just couldn’t look away,” Jake said with a shiver. He hadn’t liked that experience at all. He especially didn’t like how it was lingering on him.

Rubbing his face, Jake took a few deep breaths before grabbing the packets of fish that Rhew had stormed away from and tucking them in his pouch. It seemed he had his balance back, but everything felt a bit foggy.

Rhew was already waiting by the exit with Karl, so Jake hurried over, sharing an exasperated look with Alan as Rhew led the way out of the Dungeon and Jake moved to claim his own rewards.