Dungeon Noble - Squire

It occurred to Jake a moment too late that his introduction to gods had been somewhat skewed. The issue for him had always been about having a Patron at all, and The Great Dungeon was as bizarre and foreign to him as any other god.

Since then, he’d met followers of both of the other gods within that Pantheon, so he hadn’t really considered how that would come across to someone with a Patron from a different Pantheon.

Both Aspen and Gargan looked shocked by his declaration, and Jake wondered how they’d react when meeting Nepthys and Varin. Best to get all that out of the way now.

“Yes, I’m serious, and another member of our party has The Watcher as a Patron. I work with a crafter who follows The Woven Artificer as well.” Jake took perverse pleasure in leaving the two classers too stunned to speak.

It was a nice change that he wasn’t the one dealing with all the surprises.

Aspen went to speak several times, but each time, he frowned and shook his head. Eventually, he took a breath and met Jake’s eyes with a serious expression. “I understand why you’ve been careful about this, and I was already on board just to fuck over the Triarchy, but this is so much more.”

“If you want to back out, none of us will think any less of you,” Jake said, his heart sinking a little as he remembered the same conversation with Karl and Rhew.

“Back out?” Aspen echoed with a laugh, the seriousness fading away to be replaced by an almost manic look of anticipation. “To follow Kalinkos is to seek refinement of yourself through battle, and the hotter the flames, the better the result. This kind of insanity is rare to find; you couldn’t keep me away if you tried.”

Jake was caught flat-footed by the abrupt intensity in Aspen’s manner and struggled to think of how to answer for a few moments. In the end, though, as concerning as that was, Jake had few options.

“Alright, you’re in. Gargan, what about you?” Jake turned to the other classer, almost breathing a sigh of relief as he saw Gargan was as stoic as normal.

“Little had changed for me. I’m surprised by your Patron, but that changes nothing,” Gargan said with a slight shrug of one shoulder. “I have few options for how to proceed right now, after all. Opposing the Triarchy is important, but I do not pointlessly seek confrontation like Aspen.”

“Good. I’m glad you’re willing to join us,” Jake said quickly before Aspen could retort. “The fifth member of our group is busy trying to fulfil her requirement for tier two currently, but once she’s done, she’ll join us.”

“In that case, I suggest we do the same for Alan,” Gargan said, nodding to the Scholar, who had been watching them with quiet consideration.

“Me?” Alan echoed with a look of surprise.

“Not a bad point, actually,” Jake said, rubbing his jaw thoughtfully. “What do you need to tier up, Alan?”

“I need to find more secret things,” Alan said, looking a little uncomfortable at being the centre of attention. “I’ve made good progress, especially with the ducks, but I’m short for about twenty.”

“Hidden creatures count for you, then?” Gargan asked, a small smile touching the corners of his mouth as Alan nodded. “Then it’s simple; we just need to run the Dungeon again. The raptors like to hide, so you can lead from the front and spot them.”

“Yeah, I like it,” Jake said with a firm nod. “Let’s take a break, then get back to it.”

Running a Dungeon multiple times was nothing new to any of them, and Gargan’s point about Alan was a good one. If they could get the Scholar to advance to the next tier, it would be just a matter of time and effort until they could manage the tier two Dungeons.

It was frustrating that attempting the second tier of the Dungeon was an all-or-nothing proposition right now. Jake would love to get a good idea of just how close they were to being able to succeed.

“Well, you all seem to be on the same page,” Felix said, getting to his feet. “I’m going to head back and send some messages. I’ll meet you all in the inn later.”

-**-

The second run through the Dungeon started off a lot slower, with Alan and Jake leading the way, followed by Aspen and Gargan.

Without Aspen’s ability to pick the raptors out of the air, Alan was taking things more slowly and using his Skill to pick them out at a distance.

“Shit!” Alan cursed as his arrow caught a raptor and knocked it clean off the platform it had been hiding on. “Sorry, everyone, I didn’t think it would go that far back.

“Don’t worry about it. The Wyrdgeld will be waiting at the end of the floor,” Aspen said, waving away Alan’s apology. “If we miss any, then that’s on us, but the ones we can’t get to are provided at the end.”

“Huh, interesting,” Jake said, more to himself than anything. He knew the Dungeons were at least somewhat aware and watching, but he hadn’t realised that they could manipulate things like that.

The more Jake learned about Dungeons, the more he was confused by them and how they functioned. For that matter, he was questioning why they even existed to begin with, and the same with Hollows, for that matter.

He assumed his Patron was involved somehow, but Jake was a long way from being able to get those kinds of answers.

Shaking the thoughts off and focusing back on the matter at hand, Jake followed Alan onto the next narrow section of rock and watched for any feathered serpents that might lurk nearby.

-**-

They finished the Dungeon without much issue, and after a moment of introspection, Alan announced he was close, very close, to meeting the requirements for his next tier.

While Alan had spotted far more raptors than he needed, they’d hit a slight snag; the raptors weren’t that good at hiding.

It was the Worthy aspect of the requirement coming back to bite them on this. Spotting a half-hidden raptor gave Alan nothing; they needed to be truly hidden in ambush for the System to give him credit for it.

Jake called for a break before they went back in to give them a chance to take a drink and unwind, if nothing else.

Realistically, they didn’t need the break, but there was no pressing need for them to push themselves right now. It was better that they took a steady pace and maintained it.

To Jake’s surprise, both Aspen and Gargan had forfeited their share of the Wyrdgeld from the last delve. Instead, Alan and Jake split the whole thing, giving Jake enough to rank up once they were done for the day.

“It’s better spent letting you two catch up,” Aspen said with a half-shrug when Jake asked why. “The big earner is the second tier, and we’re both at the top of the tier, anyway. More Wyrdgeld is only useful for gear at this point until we can fulfil our requirements to reach the third tier.”

“Which is why you both have Infused items. You’ve spent that extra on your armour, and Gargan spent his on his wand,” Jake said with a nod, understanding why Aspen was so easygoing about it.

“Oh no,” Aspen said with a short bark of laughter. “My armour, sure, but Gargan’s wand is Woven. I don’t know how much he paid for that, but it was probably hundreds of Wyrdgeld.”

“No wonder it’s so powerful,” Jake said, glancing over to where Gargan was talking with Alan.

“Yeah, and before you go getting ideas, you need materials as well as Wyrdgeld to make one. It’s a lot more involved than making a standard infused item, as well, so you can’t just rock up with any old thing and make it work.”

“We’ll link back up with Varin eventually. I’ll ask him about it then,” Jake said thoughtfully before glancing over to Ivaldi’s. “I’m going to get my gear topped up, and we’ll crack on when I’m back.”

“Works for me,” Aspen said, leaning back in his chair and getting comfy as Jake stood up.

Leaving the others to relax, Jake made his way over to the familiar glass and metal shape of Ivaldi’s store. He hadn’t spoken with the odd shopkeeper since he reached the second tier, and while he was looking forward to that and finding out more about Varin, he was nervous.

Ivaldi knew a lot, both about the world in general and about Jake specifically. By contrast, Jake knew almost nothing about Ivaldi. He wasn’t human; that much was obvious. Unfortunately, that brought Jake no closer to figuring out what he actually was.

Regardless, Ivaldi had promised he’d explain more once Jake was committed, and there was no more committed than where he was at right now.

Laughing at himself, Jake shook off his unease, pushed open the door and walked inside.