Dungeon Creation

We’d stopped in the middle of a wide, empty, rocky plain. Evening was approaching when both Dragon and Justice started growing restless. Justice's flames kept spiking and dying down again, and Dragon kept getting to her feet and pacing. None of us had any idea what was going on. When we asked, Dragon glanced at her Master, then shook her head, while Justice said, ‘Something’s different.' It seemed like she didn't know exactly what it was that she'd sensed, either. We sent out Storm to scout out if something was coming, but he returned without any further information, save to say that the monsters in the surrounding area seemed similarly agitated.

Because of this, we decided to have three stand watch overnight, even though we usually only had one or two people at a time. When Richie woke us up, Nero and I exited our tent to see Michael and Fay sitting at the fire already. "You sense anything, kitty?" Fay asked as she picked me up.

As always, I ignored her. Nero had already asked me, and I'd raised my left paw. Nothing had changed as far as I could tell.

Except then, suddenly, something did change. I stiffened and leaped out of Fay's grasp. The area just outside our campfire was pitch black. Human eyes wouldn't be able to detect anything at all, but my night vision was nearly as good as my day vision. I darted toward the wall, and Nero and Fay followed me. I stopped just short of the stone wall, letting Nero and Fay discover what I'd seen.

In the past couple of seconds, walls had sprouted from the ground. "What is this?" Nero asked, sounding completely lost. "Where'd it come from?"

I looked up. The wall was already high enough that we couldn't scale it, but it was beginning to curve in on itself, forming a stone ceiling. Fay's gaze followed mine. Say what you would about her, she was an experienced adventurer. "Storm! Go!"

The Wind Elemental rushed through the air, and he made it out just before the ceiling closed. Nero and I both looked to Fay, who closed her eyes, brows furrowing in concentration. "Okay, his skill's still working. He can share his sight with..." Her voice quavered and broke off. She started shaking her head slowly. "No, not again."

"Fay?" Michael asked, approaching.

She opened her eyes, and I was startled at the amount of anger and fear in them. "I told you! This group is cursed!" It was the first time I’d heard her raise her voice outside of battle

Michael paled. "It's not -"

"It is. It's a dungeon."

Nero and I looked at each other, confused. "Dungeon?" Nero asked. "How could we be in a dungeon?"

Fay spat her response. "Because God decided to grow one around us, that's how. This group is cursed. I told them we should have split up, but we didn't, and now look at us."

This wouldn't have happened if you'd killed them when I told you to, Fyth offered suddenly, smugly. Not that I had anything to do with this.

How dangerous is a dungeon? I asked without much hope that he'd answer. Sure enough, even after several moments, he hadn't said anything in reply.

Around me, the rest of the party had woken up, and they were examining our surroundings with dismay. We were surrounded by stone walls on three sides. There was one opening, but it only led to a corridor made of yet more stone. Fay alone just stood there, muttering complaints and despairing predictions under her breath until Richie snapped at her to shut up. Lainie snapped back at him, telling him to leave her alone, and the two of them bickered until finally Michael had had enough. "QUIET!" he shouted.

Everyone froze. One by one, we returned to the fire and sat. Michael watched until everyone was seated, then he joined us with a sigh. "You two. What do you know about dungeons?"

Alicia and Nero glanced at each other. Hesitantly, Alicia offered, "They're mazes that can only be entered or exited at specific, separate points. The entrance is typically at ground level, while the exit generally lies deep within the dungeon. The exit may use stairs, teleportation, or other strange technology to transport adventurers outside of the dungeon. Often, there's some sort of guardian protecting the exit, and if the exit uses a teleporter or other technology, the guardian’s death activates it. No one knows where they come from, but there are nineteen dungeons in the Kingdom of Asteria."

Nero shook his head. "Twenty. A new one was discovered this year," he said. "I heard some people talking about it when we were in town."

The line of Michael's lips thinned. Lainie winced, and Richie looked away. Only Fay didn't react - she didn't appear to be paying any attention to our conversation. She just stared straight ahead. I couldn't tell if she was in shock or if she was connected to Storm's mind, allowing her to scout out the dungeon.

"Well, about that," Lainie said eventually. "We didn't find the dungeon. It appeared around us."

"What?" Alicia and Nero yelped. I admit, I was pretty surprised, too, even though the same thing had just happened to us. How on earth could a group of people be so unlucky as to encounter such a seemingly rare phenomenon twice in a year?

Wouldn't it be weirder if God didn't take the opportunity to try to get rid of his least favorites? Fyth hinted, still sounding in good humor.

It only took me a moment to realize what he meant. Hated by God. There were five members of our party with that title. I still didn't know how they'd gotten theirs, but I assumed mine came from the fact that a demon owned my soul. I stared intently at the party, wondering if they even knew they had that title and wishing, more than ever, that I could talk to Nero properly.

Richie stared at the ground, hands twisting in each other anxiously. "It was only a C-rank dungeon, and a weak one at that. We still lost our party members escaping from it, though.”

Michael added, “It's a secret that dungeons can form like this, so the official story became that we discovered it and were stupid enough to try taking it on, even though we were all D-ranked at the time and only had one evolved summon."

A long howl echoed through the stone corridors suddenly. We all looked around anxiously. "What level do you think the monsters in here are?" Nero asked.

Lainie and Michael glanced at each other grimly.

“Depends on what kind of dungeon we’re in,” Lainie said. “If it’s a low C-ranked dungeon, the monsters might only be between levels 30 and 45… but if it’s S-ranked?” She shuddered. “The hardest S-rank on record has a level 200 guardian.”

"It’s mid-C-rank, I think," Fay said suddenly. She blinked several times and straightened. "Storm's found the entrance. He's scouting out the dungeon right now. He'll go as far as he can."

"Fay -" Lainie said urgently.

Fay ignored her. "So far, the monsters he's found are at the bottom range. Mid-thirties, mostly."

Michael took over again. "We need to decide whether we want to wait here until Storm gets back or - or we get as much information from him as we're going to get - or if we're going to start making our way down."

Richie looked at Dragon. "We have a tank here, and even if the cat's not the best healer, between her and Dragon, we can probably manage here for a while. I vote we hole up as long as we can, map out what Fay finds out, and plan everything before leaving." Normally, Richie and Nero were the ones who charged ahead without thinking. I didn’t think Richie had suddenly developed an appreciation for planning. His whole body was trembling. I thought he just wanted to avoid facing this dungeon for as long as possible.

Lainie scowled at him. "No way! We need to get to Storm as soon as we can! We're gonna have to make our way down either way, right? So why not head out now?"

"Do you even know the point of scouting?" Richie countered.

"Do you even care about Fay?" Lainie demanded.

Michael raised his voice over their bickering. "Fay, Alicia, Nero? What do you think?"

Fay shrugged listlessly. "I'm going to be pretty useless while Storm scouts, so it'd be easier for me to stay here... but the ceilings are high enough that I can ride the horse if necessary. I don’t care. It’s going to happen again. I’ll…" She shook her head. “I trust you,” she told Michael quietly. “I know you’ll take care of me.”

Alicia stroked Heather's mane. Her summon's wings were folded in, and she kept dancing about, making snorting sounds. Her eyes were wide and unblinking, and her ears were flicking back and forth. She didn't seem like a happy Winged Horse. "I think the sooner we get out of here, the better. It's great that Storm's scouting things out, but the longer we stay here, the more anxious we're going to get. It'll end up wearing us down even before we start fighting for real."

Nero nodded. "I think we should try to find the exit right away." He glanced at Fay. "And meet up with Storm. If something happened to him, and we could have prevented it… I wouldn’t be able to live with myself."

Fay hunched in on herself for a moment before giving a resigned sigh and moving to pack up her supplies. Michael watched her go, then nodded. "It seems the rest of us are in favor of moving forward, so everyone get packed. We're leaving in five minutes." He looked at his summon. "Dragon, you're taking the lead. Richie, tell Justice to keep our rear guarded. Nero, you and your cat will be up front with Dragon. Alicia, help Justice take down anything that comes up behind us. Fay and Wing will ride the Winged Horse in the center of the formation. Lainie and I will respond to the situation as needed. Got it?"

We all hurried to obey. In our tent, Nero whispered to me, "I know we should probably tell them now… but I’m hoping we can get through this without revealing your secrets. I know I haven’t told you anything, but I just… It’s a gut feeling, I guess. But you’re smart. Everyone says how good your skills are. They're definitely way better than I'd have done. So I'll trust your judgment, okay, Luna? You evolve when and if you think the time is right."

I raised my right paw solemnly.