DungeonFall – [A Dungeon Creation / Cultivation Story]

It took the distracted teens longer than they would have liked to admit to catch on to what the beast was doing. However, as soon as they figured out what it was doing, they acted. There was no need for them to spend any time talking over a plan at this point.

The loud clapping of the butt-like cheeks played dual parts for the beast. They tended to fascinate their prey and were also a signal to the rest of its monkey troop. While their target was busy staring at the smooth cheeks spanking together, they were busy being quietly surrounded.

A swing from Nate’s kukri took the head off the first monkey that dared to approach while he made a mad dash for the butt monkey.

It pulled its head back at the last possible second. A move that allowed it to keep its head, but also scored a deep cut through both cheeks. A warbling scream of pain burbled out of the hole he was guessing was its mouth.

Behind him, Angie and Lindsay were easily dispatching the monkeys that hadn’t immediately fled when their trap failed. These beasts weren’t particularly strong on their own and were easily taken care of. If you walked unknowingly into one of their traps, however, it was a different matter entirely.

That only ever happened to any cultivator once. Not being warned about the beasts was practically a rite of passage. No one would believe that such a ridiculous monster actually existed.

Nate wordlessly cut into the butt monkey’s chest and removed its core, while the girls did the same for all the other monkeys.

“Not bad,” His father commended them. The squirrel was still on his shoulder, though the streams of blood had stopped and started to dry. “In the future, if you run into this particular beast again, be more careful not to ruin the skin on its face.”

With one hand, he cut off the butt monkey’s head and tossed it on top of the squirrel he was carrying. “The skin of their cheeks is incredibly valuable for various transplants. Scars, burns, the skin from the cheeks on this beast here can be used on anybody with no chance of rejection or issues.”

The cores in Lindsay’s and Angie’s hands vanished ten seconds short of the minute mark, while Nate’s stuck around. They officially had another core to add to their growing collection.

“What do we do with the rest of these bodies?” Angie asked, looking down at the dead monkeys.

“Leave them. Something will come along and eat them. Nothing goes to waste out here,” Niall told them indifferently.

Nate nodded and began moving again. He could tell his father was growing impatient. Each fight slowed them down that much more than before, and while they had performed well. The goal was to get back to the rig, and his mother and the other guard, Fitch, before anything happened.

He stuck a little closer to the group this time than he had the other times. Without a weapon he could use at a distance, there were limited options available to him if they came under attack. As a scout or a ranger, normally he would have directed the group around potential issue areas, or if possible, taken out weaker threats.

However, at the moment, they were following a path, and he was currently the weakest thing around. The best he could do was alert the group to incoming threats and attacks from the back, as he had already been doing. Neither required him to be as far out as he had been.

The time spent away from the group hadn’t been wasted, as he had finally been able to confirm a few things. Namely, that there were certain limitations to the storage function. Anything that he brought into the real world would no longer appear in the ‘Equip’ tab for his ‘Avatar’. It could still be stored; it simply wasn’t able to be used by the avatar anymore.

Which meant that if he had actually brought out the kukris against Jace that fateful night, his avatar would have gone back inside the dungeon without a weapon. There would be no switching back-and-forth load-outs between the two of them. He was going to need to get everything twice.

Luckily, thanks to an incredibly fruitful hunting session the night before, he had already managed to do that. Not that he could use any of it at the moment. He had no believable way of explaining the appearance of the armor to anyone. It was the same for the crossbow that he desperately wanted to use.

All of it would need to sit in his storage space, gathering some proverbial dust for the moment. Either he needed to come up with a decent method to reveal the items to his parents. Or he needed to grow a pair and just tell them everything. Which, frankly, he never wanted to do. No matter what, he believed that was a secret that could never be told to anyone.

Parents or not, some things just shouldn’t be uttered to anyone, and what he was doing with the dungeons was one of them.

They checked the site where the leopard with the single tail would have been strung up and found it empty. Considering each of the remaining adults was already dragging or carrying a body, no one was overly annoyed at the moment. That would come later, after they had gotten back to the rig.

Attacks on the group started growing more frequent as they got closer to the truck and trailer. The beast corpses had started to release a powerful smell and were drawing everything around them in.

According to Niall, the smell came from all dimensional beasts upon their death. It had something to do with their cultivation because the stronger they were, the stronger the smell tended to be. You generally had between six and twelve hours before the smell started coming out from a body though. They had gotten unlucky and been on the shorter end of that time frame.

That smell was exactly what the fans in their trailer were meant to blow out and use to attract monsters to them. Whether it was some sort of pheromone or smell attached to the qi-enhanced meat didn’t really matter. All they needed to know was that it worked, not how.

Nate and the girls worked together to drive off each of the beasts that attacked them. Finding it faster to simply injure and force them to retreat than kill them each time. As they got closer to the rig, the beasts got progressively weaker.

Niall had parked the truck and trailer where he did for this very reason. The expedition area for newbie cultivators was wedged between other, stronger areas. Not ridiculously strong, but stronger. Each area was large, but crossovers from one area to the next had been known to happen. It was why the large corporations and rich scions with plenty of strong guards all monopolized those regions.

It was where the real money could be made. Not to mention those beasts came with far better bragging rights than most of the ones Nate’s group had taken down that day. Of course, it went without saying that the groups in those areas depended heavily on their guards to remain safe. Few of them ever did anything more than drink the day away.

As the group got closer to the rig, they were able to make better time, despite the increased frequency of attacks. By the time the truck and trailer were in sight, Nate, Lindsay, and Angie were working together like a well-oiled machine. Against these weaker beasts, they were no longer having any issues dealing with them.

Nina was standing on top of the trailer with her bow drawn when they entered the clearing. Fitch was crouched on the ground below her with his crossbow at the ready. Several trails of blood led away into the trees, and there were already several beasts lying dead on the ground.

“I take it you beat them back here, then?” Nate’s father asked dryly as his wife leaped down to meet them.

“It wasn’t even close. We almost had enough time for a short nap before they finally arrived.” Nina gingerly kissed her husband’s cheek, avoiding the streaks of dried blood from the squirrel he was carrying. “How did they do?”

“Really well. They started off a tad shaky with this beast here.” He lifted his shoulders, so she knew which one he was talking about. “They did much better with the butt monkey, and then everything that came afterward. I wouldn’t say they are ready to go off on their own or anything stupid like that, but they know how to work together now.”

Now that they were all back, Fitch opened the doors of the large trailer. The guards brought in the bodies they had hauled through the forest and carefully deposited them at the back.

Nate and the girls went to each of the beasts in the clearing and removed their cores. From the eight bodies, they managed to retrieve another five cores. The other three had already dissipated into the air. Once they were done with that, they started helping the guards drag the bodies into the trailer.

Despite the growing number of large beast corpses they had already shoved inside the rig, it wasn’t half full yet. Each beast wasn’t exactly what anyone could describe as small, either.

Nate’s father slammed the doors shut and made sure the fans were off for the moment. He slowly sank to the ground with a groan, his back sliding against the hot metal of the trailer doors.

“Well, kids, what do you think of your first expedition so far?” He asked while scraping dried blood from his cheek.

Nina tossed him a comb and a water bottle so he could clean the blood that had gotten into his hair.

The guards set up a perimeter around the clearing. At the same time, they also remained close enough so they could listen in on the conversation. The four had worked for both families in the past before. However, this was the first time they had been so impressed with one of their young charges.

The girls, and even Nate, had really managed to shock them. All three of the teens were hardworking and actually doing what they were supposed to do. None of them were out here simply to get drunk and flirt or take pictures of the big bad beasty they had supposedly taken down single-handedly.

Nate watched as Angie cleaned some flecks of blood from her blade, and Lindsay wiped down the haft of her halberd. He took out his own blades and began inspecting them for damage and cleanliness before answering his father.

“It’s different from what I was expecting, that’s for sure. My core has been keeping me from falling over in exhaustion, but I can still feel it creeping in. Then there are the constant attacks from the beasts.” He shook his head. “That is vastly different from what I was expecting. I was imagining more of a raid where we would cull the beasts in each area. Reclaim the land.” He chuckled. “I guess it’s too late for that.”

His parents shook their heads. “No, there are groups that are trying to do exactly that. Most of us are simply trying to survive and help whichever city we belong to thrive.”

“Remember the teams that were going deep into the dimensional zone where the building appeared?” His mother asked him. Nate nodded once. They had made several appearances on the news, so it would have been hard for him to forget them even if he hadn’t seen them inside his dungeon. “Most of those were teams working to reclaim lost areas. None of them were particularly strong, but they had a goal.”

“If that was their goal, then they shouldn’t have gone inside that strange building,” Angie said from the side. “From what I understand, nearly everyone who has gone inside has died. There are warnings outside the place, and they have all been ignoring them. Frankly, I can’t help but think they are getting what they deserve.”

Lindsay nudged her and shook her head. “Don’t go too far, Angie. Those are still people and their lives that you are talking about.”

“I know that.” She snapped. The girl took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Sorry, but they are responsible for their actions. They are the ones who chose to disregard the posted warnings that were put there. We still don’t know who even built the place.

“However, it is obvious that the number of beasts coming out of the portal has slowed dramatically since its appearance. What if the building’s creator decides to take it back because of their interference? Instead of helping, they’re simply making things worse!” Angie finished with a shout.

The clearing was silent for several long moments as everyone turned to stare at her.