Wandering Dungeon

"Damn it. Why do we have to go out into the middle of nowhere to check out a new dungeon. This should be a job for the juniors." Growled a large man covered in leather armor with metal plates attached to the larger areas to add protection without sacrificing flexibility.

"It could be that our skills are best suited for it, or maybe there were no juniors to send," said a slightly shorter, skinnier man in a dark blue robe with silver accents. "Or it could be that you pissed off the guild master by sleeping with his three daughters, Frank." He spat.

"I can't help it if the ladies love me, John." Frank replied, brushing his shoulder length brown hair out of his face. "Besides, the guild master has to realize that they are grown women and can make their own decisions."

"I don't think that was the problem. I think it was more that you slept with all three at the same time, in the guild hall store room." John replied annoyed.

"Details, details, but I'm curious how did you hear about it? I thought the only people who knew about that were me, the girls,and the guild master." Frank looked curiously at his companion.

"You weren't exactly quiet nor were they." He replied.

Frank shrugged. "What's done is done. It's already been a week since the guild detected the dungeon and we left the next day. Let's just go get this over with and by the time we get back the guild master will have forgiven me."

John sighed. Why do I always get stuck with this guy. He looked around at their surroundings trying to find ways to make the trip easier for others through the forest they had been walking through for days. Unlike his companion who had been complaining to much on this trip.

Soon enough the trees became sparse as they found a clearing with a cave in a small cliff face. A worn out and broken wooden sign sat on a post outside it. From what they could see of the sign it would have depicted a pine tree with a snake underneath and a pair of crossed blades over top.

"What group do you think that symbol belongs to?" Frank asked as he looked over to John.

"The green blades." John replied instantly. "Always wondered where their hideout was."

"Who are the green blades? I've never heard of them."

"Sometimes I forget how short of a memory you humans have. They were a fairly famous band of brigands, assassins, and mages gone bad. But they disappeared about a hundred and fifty years ago I think. "

"Sorry we humans can't live as long as you elves but I think we have more fun and enjoy our time a lot more."

Ugh. John thought. "Do you think of anything besides booze, food, or women?"

"I think about fights sometimes." Frank replied laughing not realizing John was trying to insult him.

"Well at least that is something different." He mumbled. "If it has been over a hundred years since they abandoned this cave, there is probably nothing of note in there that the dungeon could have absorbed but that doesn't mean it couldn't have absorbed a few forest animals to add to its repertoire of monsters."

"I just hope it has something to make this trip worth it." Frank growled and remembered that they still had about a week long trek back to the guild.

They approached the cave opening cautiously. Frank pulled a large shield off his back, it was about half his size with the symbol of the guild, a bird triumphantly flying out of a fire, emblazoned on it, and his sword from its scabbard on his hip. John made a gesture with his hand and a tall white staff with a large blue gem on top appeared in his hands with a poof and a small flurry of snowflakes. John fed a small amount of his mana to the gem to get it to glow so they would have light while in the dungeon.

They entered the cave and immediately noticed that the floor, walls, and ceiling were perfectly smooth. "Definitely a dungeon here." Frank said. When they looked around the room they noticed that nothing was there. No monsters. No obvious traps. Just a door across from the entrance about ten feet from them. "That's weird." John said. "Not much of a dungeon so far. No monsters, smooth floor and walls."

"Just means it's going to be easy." Frank said with confidence.

"Let's hope." They investigated the door and found it to be a simple door made of stone that had no handle.

"How are we suppose to open it without a handle, smash it?" Frank said lifting his sword.

"Is that your answer to everything?" John shook his head and went back to studying the door. "Ah, I see." John found writing along the edge of the door. "It is just a simple puzzle. You really need to learn to look carefully before you just smash things." He told Frank.

"Smashing things usually works for me though." Frank replied happily. "Less complicated that way."

"Ugh. Let's see what it says. 'Heavy is the heart that kills without reason. Heavier is the heart that survives where others have died.'"

"I hate riddles." Frank groaned. "They are so pointless."

John looked around the door and soon found two small handles that were almost flush with the floor. "This is a low level dungeon indeed." He ruminated. "I am impressed that the dungeon can do words and written riddles already but it is a very simple one. We just have to lift the door." John pointed out the handles to frank.

"Alright. Easy enough." Frank put his sword and shield away, grabbed the handles and strained to lift the door. "It's heavier than I thought it would be." Slowly the door lifted into the ceiling as Frank huffed. He managed to lift the door up above his head before the strain started to get to him. "Hurry and get through before I drop this thing."

John strode through the open doorway with a confidence fueled by having worked with Frank for a few years and many decades of diving dungeons before that. He knew nothing the dungeon could throw at them would even be much of a danger much less kill them until they had reached at least the twenty fifth floor or so. That confidence was shaken as soon as he took his first couple steps past the door and he heard a crack from the floor beneath him.

In the split second it took for the floor beneath him to crumble and fall away, the light of the crystal atop his staff flared and a sheet of ice raced from the base of it to the walls and about ten feet in front and behind him. "A trap right after the door. Interesting. This dungeon might be interesting yet Frank."

"Hurry up and move so I can come through. I think the door just got heavier." Sweat started beading on Frank's forehead. John continued walking down the hallway, across the ice sheet he created to save himself from falling. Frank pushed up on the door and quickly stepped through as the door slammed onto the ice sheet behind him.

Both Frank and John turned their heads as the sound of cracking was heard. They looked down as cracks in the ice spread from where the door had come down. "Damn it." Frank cursed as they ran down the hall and off of the ice sheet. They looked back and saw the ice crumble into a hole in the floor that was as wide as the hall but was only about eight feet or so long. "That would have been annoying to crawl out of if we had fallen in, and the spikes on the bottom would have hurt a little I think."

"It would be quite dangerous for some of the initiates in the guild but that's all. You said the door became heavier after I almost fell into the pit?" Frank nodded. "The riddle makes more sense though." John remarked."I'm more curious that there are no monsters attacking us yet." They looked around and found they were in a room quite a bit larger than the last one. It was about thirty feet across with the same smooth walls and floor with a door across from them and a door on their right.

"Let's see if there are any other traps shall we?" John stepped behind Frank.

"Gladly." Frank took a step forward, lifted his foot and focused his small pool of mana into it. "Quake." He growled as he slammed his foot onto the ground. A shockwave rolled across the room shaking it slightly as it went. A second passed, then another before a couple of sections of floor fell away revealing more pitfalls scattered across the room.

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Garrett floated near the ceiling following the adventurers as they passed through his weighted door riddle and past his first pitfall trap. I thought they would have more trouble with that. He thought. He would have to ask Blixie for her opinion on it when he got back to his core room where she was watching what he saw through his crystal.

I hope they don't just do that ice sheet through the whole thing. That would just be lazy and unfair. He watched as the smaller one stepped back as the big guy stepped forward. Maybe that move uses a lot of mana so he doesn't want to use it to much. The big guy mumbled something and slammed his foot down. Garrett's curious expression turned into one of disbelief as the covers on all his pitfall traps shattered and fell away revealing the maze like pattern across the room.

Oh come on. He yelled in his mind. He continued to follow the first set of adventures to come explore his dungeon. He hadn't had anything come in past the first room since killing that first rat. He was excited to see how they would handle his traps but his excitement dwindled quickly as the two went from room to room and either the small one froze the entire floor or the other one slammed his foot down shaking the whole room and causing the covers of his pits to fall. He got some amusement when they triggered a couple of traps that caused rocks to fall from the ceiling as they passed along a path between two pits. Garrett was surprised when the big one just lifted his shield and deflected them since some of the rocks were about half the size of the guy.

The adventures explored everywhere they could. They found a couple of rooms that had been, by Garrett's guess, some storage rooms. He had absorbed the old crates, barrels, and bags of old food stuffs just because he wanted a nice clean dungeon. A couple of long empty rooms where Garrett had found some old, what could barely have been considered, beds that he had absorbed, met the two at a few of the dead ends.

By the time the adventures had reached the door to Garrett's core room, he was impressed that none of his traps could surprise them. There were a couple that had come close like the spikes that had shot out of a tunnel wall, but the big guy was really good at moving his shield quickly and intercepted them before they could skewer the smaller one.

The big one seemed to get angrier as they worked their way through the dungeon but Garrett couldn't understand why. Did I not provide them with enough traps? Should I have increased the difficulty of them? When the adventures saw the door to Garrett's core room the big one was practically shaking the tunnel with each of his steps.

Garrett wasn't sure what they would do if they were able to get into his core room but he was confident in the strength of that final door. The stone was about a foot thick and he had put a greater amount of pressurized air above this door than that first one. He was still confused why he could put a door between his core room and the outside but not a wall. The way that Blixie had explained it was because the mana needed a concept of continuity and flow through the dungeon and a wall would have blocked that and since it was the only way out of this room a door was the only logical way for added protection.

The adventures walked over to the door and inspected it thinking it was like the first one but this one didn't have any way to grab on to it. It also didn't have a riddle. When the big adventure walked up to it and placed his hand on the door a sudden chill went through Garrett.

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Frank was pissed when they saw the plain door in front of them. They had been in this dungeon for only about half an hour but they had gone through quite a few rooms and there had not been any monsters for him to fight, only traps . No monsters means no loot. No loot means no food or booze.

"I don't see any writing like the last door, or any handles." John said. "But the fact that this dungeon has only been open to the world for about a week I am kind of impressed with the amount of traps and the thought that has gone into them."

"I don't care how well thought out you think these traps are. We haven't run into any monsters or signs of treasure." Frank growled out softly. He sheathed his sword, walked up to the door, placed his hand on it, and focused his mana through his hand and into it. "Earth Sense." His mana rushed through the thick stone reverberating off the edges and back to him giving him a sense of the door.

"This should be the door to the core room at least so we are almost done. Then we can go back to the guild and put in our report." Frank growled loudly. "What's wrong?" John inquired.

Frank released his shield from his arm and grabbed it by the edge as he pulled his sword, still in its scabbard, from his hip and placed the tip on the side of his shield about half way down. He closed his eyes and spoke something so quietly that even John with his enhanced elven ears couldn't make it out. The sword and shield glowed lightly as he pushed the sword into the shield about six inches. The sides of the shield became razor sharp and the sword melded with the scabbard it was in. Frank opened his eyes as the glow from his newly formed axe faded.

John stepped back a few feet. He knew whenever Frank used the axe form of his weapon things were about to get messy. Frank pulled his axe back as far as he could and with a mighty yell swung it at the door as hard as he could. "Quake." He yelled. His axe slammed into the door causing it to physically ripple as the energy of his skill rampaged through the stone. He quickly pulled his axe back and repeated the blow sending another Quake rolling through the door. The vibrations ran amok and crashed into each other increasing the power and damage.

A few seconds later the door crumbled into rubble with a blast of compressed air releasing from above it. "Ingenious." John said amazed by the creativity of the dungeon. "The compressed air above the door keeps it closed and when you lift it the air just becomes more compressed causing the door to become heavier. This is really advanced for a dungeon so young. We will certainly have to report this to the guild leader."

Frank walked into the next room and saw the core pillar with a small glowing green gem near the top. The anger and frustration he had felt flared and tinted his vision red. He didn't care that they were there to scout the dungeon. He wasn't interested in how the traps worked or how a dungeon that had been open for only about a week could devise such traps. He just knew that the two weeks he was spending away from the guild had now become worthless.

Frank instinctively focused his mana on his legs and jumped the entire distance to the core pillar avoiding the unseen pitfall traps just behind the door and slammed his axe into the gem shattering it and shearing off the top of the pillar.

"Damn it Frank. What did I say about not smashing everything." John yelled. "Now this dungeon is useless."

"Not like we were going to get anything out of it." Frank replied waving his hand around the room. "There is nothing here unless you want a skeleton."

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Hidden in a corner of the room by the ceiling a pixie watched as the big adventurer shattered the dungeon core she was bonded with. "Well that was a short assignment." She huffed.