Dungeon Noble - Squire

They encountered several more sections of younger trees with Oaken hidden among them before the end of the floor, but with the vulnerability of the creatures to fire, they were easy enough to deal with.

Jake found himself wondering if there were classers out there who specialised in specific Dungeons or types of creatures. A team of classers with fire-based Abilities could rip through this Dungeon repeatedly, no doubt earning a lot of Wyrdgeld.

Of course, in this particular case, there was some danger there as well. Any use of fire upon one of the tree-like monsters enraged them, and any others nearby, and caused them to charge.

The fourth floor brought a slight complication as it featured a mix of the two encounters of the previous floors. There were now clearings with dead trees, but also copses of young saplings.

Unsurprisingly, that meant that both Rootlings and Oaken were present, but the complication came from the Oaken becoming enraged even when the fire wasn’t used on them.

The positive to that was that Gargan could trigger any and all Oaken to come their way with a single hit on any creature that Alan pointed out to him. If the Oaken were faster, or more durable, that might not have been a viable tactic, but as it was, it let them cut them down rapidly.

“You know, this is really a convenient benefit of having you in the group,” Aspen said as they came to the end of the floor and found a Challenge door waiting for them. “Some of these can give really nice rewards.”

“I suppose I’m just used to it now,” Jake said with a slight shrug. To him, Challenge doors were just part of the Dungeon, it would feel weird to not have one.

“Looks like a kill Challenge, maybe to do with the Oaken. What do you think?” Nepthys asked, glancing at the rest of them as she tapped at some of the carvings on the door.

“Agreed, but this means it will be individual,” Gargan said, motioning to a specific symbol that was carved at the top, alongside the hourglass carving that Jake recognised as a warning of it being timed.

“Well, shall we?” Aspen asked cheerfully as he pushed the door open and strolled through.

It was a testament to how much they’d all advanced, Jake thought to himself, that Alan wasn’t phased by such a cavalier attitude and was second through the door. They knew that they could deal with Oaken, they’d just been proving it.

Following suit, Jake blinked away the short moment of darkness before looking around and finding himself in a copy of one of those sapling areas. He was stood on paved stone, but it turned to dirt a few paces ahead, and there was a plinth with an hourglass to his right.

A wall of stone sat behind him, covering the way back out as well, but that was to be expected.

“That’s not a lot of sand,” Jake murmured, looking at the capacity of the hourglass with concern.

Taking a breath, Jake slipped his shield off and instead drew his wand before calmly walking off the stones and onto the dirt.

As soon as he did, the hourglass rotated and the grains of sand began to swiftly tumble away, but there was no sign of an Oaken.

“Damn it.” Jake hurried forwards, scanning his gaze over the clusters of saplings, looking for anything out of place. He should have realised that he’d have to locate the damn thing as well.

Precious seconds ticked past until Jake caught sight of something that could have been an arm and immediately lifted his wand. Channelling his Wyrd into it, a trio of long thorns shot forth from the tip with almost invisible sparks of grey light.

A creaking growl came back as the shape shifted and circled around the saplings to get at Jake.

Jake landed a second volley of thorns right into its chest, puncturing the tough outer shell, even as he raced to meet it.

A thick limb swung down at him, but Jake dodged aside before thrusting forward while using his infusion Skill. Grey energy sheathed the blade a bare moment before the tip struck the Oaken’s chest, breaking through the bark exterior.

Jake ripped his sword to the right and out, breaking away the weakened piece of bark and revealing the core of the creature. It was already swinging again, but he had already pulled back and raised his wand.

A trio of long thorns plunged into the pulsating organic mass in the core of the Oaken, and the monster toppled over with a resounding thud.

A grinding sound came from behind Jake as a reward chest was revealed and the stone covering the exit lowered, but he made sure to gather the Wyrdgeld from the fallen monster first before heading over.

The chest held six Wyrdgled, as well as a pouch of ten Wyrdfruit blackberries. Well, Jake hoped they were Wyrdfruit, otherwise this fight was hardly worth the time.

Gathering the rewards, Jake made his way back out to reunite with the others.

Aspen and Gargan were already there, with Nepthys and Alan emerging a moment later, each holding their own pouch of Wyrdfruit.

“Any idea what these are worth?” Jake asked, hefting the pouch questioningly as he looked to Aspen and Gargan.

“Hmm, probably a Wyrdgeld per five, or something equivalent,” Aspen said with a slight shrug. “Hard to tell sometimes with these things though.”

“Well, it’s something I suppose,” Jake said, tucking away the Wyrdfruit and hoping that they wouldn’t get crushed in what came next. A handful of Wyrdgeld for the Challenge wasn’t much, but then again, it had just been a single monster to fight, and they’d gotten the same amount each.

“Do we need a rest before the Guardian?” Nepthys asked, looking around questioningly. “We’ve made good time so far, but we don’t need to push it.”

“I’m good to continue,” Gargan said, Aspen and Alan echoing the sentiment a moment later.

Gargan had done the most of all of them to this point, so Jake shrugged and motioned for Nepthys to lead the way. “Looks like we’re good to go.”

-**-

The Guardian floor of the first tier was a huge clearing, framed on all sides by towering trees that were packed in tight. The canopy arched in slightly, creating an overhand that shrouded the exterior of the clearing as well.

The centre of the clearing held what had once been a single tree but was now broken into two. Half of the tree lay across the ground, shattered into pieces, but the other half still stood tall, reaching far up and above the canopy of the other trees.

The gigantic tree was long dead, and large ragged wounds in its trunk stood testament to whatever end it had experienced. The scale of the damage was enough to send a chill down Jake’s spine.

The old question of whether this was all created by the Dungeon or not whispered through Jake’s mind again. If this was all created by the Dungeon, which was his preferred answer, then why show all this?

Such questions could wait, however, as Jake could see a Tendrae sitting in a hollow nook within the upright portion of the tree.

Tendrae were the Enhanced versions of Rootlings, standing five feet tall but made of tightly interwound stems, which in turn had interlinked leaves that formed something akin to skin for the creature.

From what Jake remembered, the leaves of the Tendrae were resistant to Wyrd, but were no tougher than any other Enhanced creature when cut physically. They could also extrude roots from their hands, which would drain the blood of anyone they fought.

All the more incentive to make sure it never got close to them.

“Think you can hit it from here?” Jake asked, turning to Alan.

“Yeah, not a problem,” Alan said, though he didn’t quite sound as convinced as his phrasing implied.

“I say we just go for it then, and deal with whatever else is there as it comes,” Jake said, looking around for any objections before giving Alan a nod. “Take the shot when you’re ready.”

The Scholar nodded and took a deep breath before drawing out an arrow and nocking it, his eyes not leaving the Tendrae. Grey Wyrd coated the arrow as Alan lined up the shot, held for a moment, and released.

The infused arrow cut through the air to strike the Tendrae dead centre, knocking it backwards into its nook and partially out of sight.

“Good shot,” Nepthys said, giving Alan an approving look. “You’re definitely going to earn an archery Skill at this rate!”

Alan went to answer, but Jake nudged him as the Tendrae pulled itself out of the nook and dropped to the ground, tossing aside the arrow as it did.

The leafy armour of the Enhanced creature had been penetrated by the shot, but its core was seemingly intact. Still, that boded well for Alan being able to kill it in one hit in the future.

Summoned by the Tendrae’s movements, a small group of Rootlings, along with a pair of Oaken, came boiling out of the fallen portion of the tree, and the whole lot came charging their way.

Immediately, Gargan started sending blasts of flames at the two Oaken, While Alan started taking more shots at the Tendrae.

The intense fire from their caster burnt both Oaken down before they could get close, and Alan’s third arrow found the Tendrae, leaving just the eight Rootlings to try and swarm Jake, Aspen and Nepthys.

Jake took down the first with a hail of thorns, before infusing his sword and cutting down the second with a heavy chop of the blade and sending more thorns at the next.

Not using many active Abilities meant that Jake could let loose a little in these situations, and he accounted for four of the eight in the very brief melee that followed.

“Alan’s not the only one who’s been putting in the work I see,” Nepthys said, sliding her shorter sword out of the Rootling she’d killed. “Using a wand and sword together looks difficult.”

Jake fought down the flush in his cheeks and nodded. “Yeah, it can be, but I’ve been working on it. I want to be able to swap between that and using a shield when the situation calls for it.”

“It might be quite close to my family’s technique for using two swords,” Nepthys said, drawing the Wyrdgeld out of her kills. “If you want, I could try and teach you some of it, see if that helps?”

“Yeah, that would be great actually,” Jake said enthusiastically. Nepthys was graceful and deadly with her blades, so anything he could do to get to that same level of skill would be worth it.

Besides, the idea of some private training, just the two of them, didn’t sound bad at all.