15. Dungeon Crawling (I)

When the F-rank dungeon 'Snaring Thickets' spawned, it caught twenty-three people.

Now there were only six left. They huddled in one of the few clearings they could find in the endless sea of twisting, shifting, poison-spiked vines.

This Dungeon had just one boss, the Gnarled Horror. Over the past five days, it and its minions had hunted them down one by one.

All that remained were a hiker, three high schoolers, a wildlife researcher, a forest ranger.

They huddled together, wondering how many days they had left. Ever since poor Dale had sacrificed himself to fend off the beast, they'd been running. They'd ran for three days straight. They had maybe a day's worth of rations left. Then…

Jim shook his head. He was the forest ranger. He was nearly fifty, balding and paunchy, and gruff-voiced, the oldest of the bunch by a margin. He'd become the de facto leader. It was on him to be strong for them. God, they were so young… some of them, especially the high schoolers—Sam, Taylor, Liana… they could've been his son, his daughter.

"This has to end," he rasped. "One way or another."

Lucy—the frizzy-haired wildlife researcher—stared at him. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying," he said, breathing heavy. "It's time I stopped running."

It took a second for the others to get his meaning. Then—

"Nahh," said Taylor, scrambling back. "Nah man, we're not doing this. You're not making me fight that thing!"

The three of them had driven out here to get high and do God knows what else teenagers did—have fun, make the most of their youth. Now they were stuck here… they had so much life to live. It broke Jim's heart.

"You don't understand," he said. "I don't mean you. I mean me. We're running out of food, out of time… that thing has got to go." He sighed heavily. "There's no other way."

"No, no, no, listen to yourself!" said Lucy, faster and faster. She clutched at his arm. "There has to be another way, there just has to be!"

"Believe me," croaked Jim. "I'm not slap-happy about this either. But what'll we do? Crawl around, and starve, and wait for those little green shits to shank us?"

He shook his head. He could see how scared they all were; they were so scared he doubted they could move, much less fight.

"Look," he said, trying to soften his voice. "Y'all will be better off without me. I'm old. I'll just slow you down. And you can stretch the rations some more."

"You don't have to do this," whispered Lucy.

Jim shook his head. Then he set his jaw and breathed out harshly. "Who's coming with me?"

None of them met his eyes.

None of them but Sam. Tall, lanky, seventeen, with braces and twice-broken glasses he'd lost days ago. Now he was squinting at everything. He was some kind of nerd before all this, Jim gathered—some kind of computer wiz. When they met, he looked like he hadn't spent a day outdoor in his life.

But he was the only one to stand, and Jim respected the hell out of him for it. Some folk shrank when duty called. But some folk found they had heart they never knew they had. He was just level 8. Jim was barely Level 14. That thing was well past Level 20. They knew exactly what they were getting into, but they stood anyways. That had to mean something.

Sam swallowed, gazing out at them all. "I know I'm not very strong," he said. "But… Mama always said I should give it my all. I'm not going out running." He dabbed at his eyes. "If, uh, I don't make it back… please tell my sis that big brother's sorry he couldn't make it to her piano recital… he tried his best." The boy was nearly in tears. He was getting choked up.

Jim nodded, a lump in his throat. "No matter what happens, kid, you ought to be proud of yourself. Let's give this bastard hell."

"Yes, sir!"

"No," said the Ranger with a grim smile. "Call me Jim."

Sam nodded, blinking. "... Okay. Jim."

Jim felt a sudden kinship with the boy. It was the kind of bond you could only make in times like these, when your life was on the line, when you had to trust each other utterly, totally.

"Let's do this," he gritted out.

They stood as one, and put on brave faces, though their hearts thumped so loud Jim was sure the rest of them could hear it. It was time to face fate. Jim's dad had fought in Korea—he earned a Purple Heart charging a regiment to save his division, and it was him Jim had in his heart. It was these moments, these little moments, that made a man. It was time to see who he truly was—

"Uh," said Taylor.

"What?!" growled Jim. He was so strung up and tense it came out harsher than he meant.

"Uh—who's that?"

A man was sauntering through the forest. A massive, shirtless man streaked in grime and soot. He didn't seem real at first. He looked like the villain in an 80's action movie—like Terminator's nastier younger brother. His face was a chiseled, impassive mask. He walked like he owned the place.

Jim had to double-check his mini-map to make sure that guy wasn't a Monster. White dot, but with an S on it… "What the hell?" he muttered.

The man turned to them and Jim flinched. They all did. They didn't mean to—just an instinct.

ℤ𝕒𝕟𝕖 𝕎𝕒𝕝𝕜𝕖𝕣

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟛𝟝

𝕋𝕪𝕡𝕖: ℂ𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕖

For a moment, Jim just stood there, gaping at him. He blinked. That couldn't be right. That—thirty-five?!

"Morning," said the man, waving. He sounded bored. "Where's the boss?"

None of them spoke.

He frowned. "Hello?"

"Over there," said Sam faintly. He pointed a trembling hand. "Through those brushes, follow the tree line. Can't miss it."

"Thanks." The man wandered off as casually as he came. He vanished through the bushes; the rustling was soon gone. There was no evidence he'd ever been there.

They were all staring at the spot where he left.

Jim turned to the rest of them, shaking. "Did you see that?"

They nodded. "It said—said thirty-five," whispered Lucy, looking pale.

Taylor choked. "How's that even possible? Where'd he come from?!"

Just then, there was a massive shriek, the ground rattled; Jim had to grab hold of the nearest tree to stop from going over. There was a roaring, a crackling, a hissing; it felt like they were stuck in the middle of an invisible storm. Lucy started to scream.

Then she stopped. Everything stopped.

There was a strange, sudden breathless quiet.

𝔾𝕟𝕒𝕣𝕝𝕖𝕕 ℍ𝕠𝕣𝕣𝕠𝕣 𝕙𝕒𝕤 𝕓𝕖𝕖𝕟 𝕤𝕝𝕒𝕚𝕟!

𝕆𝕓𝕛𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕤 𝕞𝕖𝕥: 𝟙/𝟙

𝔽-ℝ𝕒𝕟𝕜 𝔻𝕦𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕠𝕟 𝕊𝕟𝕒𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕋𝕙𝕚𝕔𝕜𝕖𝕥𝕤 𝕔𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕖𝕕!

ℂ𝕠𝕟𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕠 𝕊𝕒𝕗𝕖 ℤ𝕠𝕟𝕖…

"What?!" Jim croaked. He couldn't seem to stop trembling. "What the fuck?!"

***

Well, that was easy.

The dungeon was long but not very wide, and it only had one boss this time. Zane wondered if this was the norm.

He'd come across it in a clearing, kind of like the Hobgoblin Chief's, except the ground here was made of seething poisoned vines—like a snake's nest. And the monster held court at the center of it, this horror made of hundreds of thousands of spiked vines coiling into each other.

It was a very silly monster, in that it tried to strangle him. You don't strangle a strangler—doesn't work like that. Especially a strangler who could set his coils on fire.

This time, he didn't even use his fire. Too easy. He felt it'd be more fun to go strangle for strangle with it. He coiled his chains around its body. It coiled its vines around him. It did a decent job trying to tug him apart. But he wrapped it tight, making sure he wrapped every angle of it like he was wrapping a Christmas present, and then squeezed, and squeezed, and squeezed. A stupid brute force method, but hell if it wasn't fun! Just when he was starting to burn out his strength, when he was thinking he might need to try something else, it burst. Turns out vines were a lot like water balloons if you squeeze them hard enough.

All the plant gore dissolved to white, flowed into him.

𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟛𝟝 -> 𝟛𝟞

𝕊𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕦𝕡!

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕚𝕟 𝕄𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕪 𝕀 -> 𝕀𝕀

Hey, neat.

He took a look at his mini-map. The beacon was way behind—he'd have to backtrack. On the way back, he met the folk who'd given him directions—they were still there, still having their little picnic. He wondered if they were shy. They didn't seem to talk much.

"Hey", he said. "…Do you understand me? Hello?"

They all nodded, slowly.

"Okay, good. I'm going to claim this for my Faction. It should be safe to live in now. Y'all have a problem with that?"

They shook their heads dumbly.

"You look like shit," he informed them. "There're survivors up north. They're building a settlement, training, growing… maybe go join them. Could help." He shrugged. "Oh, and I'll leave a chest by the beacon. Take that with you. Give it to a guy named Cale—he'll know what to do with it."

He wandered off.

***

Next up was the E-rank dungeon, but before then, he tried out that Law thing again. He found a clearing and started setting trees on fire.

He must have done it for an hour, melting tree after tree, staring deeply into the flames. Trying to see if he could force open whatever crack he had found before. No. It was like he suspected—the door was closed. He couldn't make it open. Maybe there was a way he didn't know about, but again, no Tutorial. Which was a shame, because this Law stuff might be his favorite trick so far.

He needed to do was look at something, reach out with his mind, and pull a string on the other side. And it would burst into flame. It didn't feel like a Skill—it didn't use essence, but it could magnify and modify essence. Odd.

Hopefully he'd stumble across another one of these sooner or later. It said Minor Law, didn't it? Minor Law of Ignition. It was part of a 'Elemental Law of Fire.' And if there was a Minor, shouldn't there be a Major? How deep did this rabbit hole go?

And Ignition was a tiny part of Fire. What else was there? ... Burning, maybe? Combustion? Would they stack?

He supposed he'd see.

***

The farther south he moved, the more he got a sense of déjà vu. When integration happened, the landscape had been totally reshuffled. But sometimes, he swore he saw parts of the old peeking out under the surface of the new. Even if the trees looked different and the grass did too… something about this chunk of forest felt familiar. But he couldn't place it.

He was nearing the edge of the border between this F-ranked dungeon and his target—the E-ranked dungeon he'd seen below it. It loomed up before him, blue walls bounding it from the Safe Zone. These blue boundary walls—like the walls of a boss's lair lock—seemed to be one way. You could go through them, but once you were all the way through, there was no going back.

The demarcation was clear. Unlike the slinking wavy trees of the Snaring Thicket Dungeon, the trees on that side were ramrod straight and scruffed with fluffy purple boughs. They kind of looked like the firs near his old workplace. The purple grass here was cut low to the ground. On one side of the border, the grass went up to the shins; it fell suddenly, uncannily.

He stepped across.

𝕐𝕠𝕦 𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕖𝕕: 𝔻𝕦𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕠𝕟: 𝕀𝕣𝕠𝕟 𝕃𝕒𝕓𝕪𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕙 (𝔼)

ℂ𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕆𝕓𝕛𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕧𝕖:

𝕊𝕝𝕒𝕪 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕄𝕖𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕚𝕔𝕒𝕝 𝕊𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕖𝕝

𝕊𝕝𝕒𝕪 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕃𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕂𝕣𝕒𝕜𝕖𝕟

𝕆𝕓𝕛𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕤 𝕞𝕖𝕥: 𝟘/𝟚

He strode in feeling giddy.

Iron Labyrinth? Odd. He didn't see any iron around. As far as he could tell, the dungeons seemed to modify what was already there; if there were trees, it made a forest dungeon. He picked his way through the forest, looking around. What iron? In his past life there was only one source of iron round these parts. And that was…

He saw a red dot pop up in his mini-map. As he neared it he heard it—a deep thumping drawing closer, saw it rattling the trees, trembling the ground. Something immensely heavy. Each step jittered the ground—

He pushed through a block of bushes and saw it.

"…What the fuck."

He'd seen this thing before. In his nightmares. Its head was one huge dented steel box, crushed in. Its arms were rusted steel plate, pipe, ending at steel box-clubs for hands. Its whole body went down block after block welded haphazardly together; its torso was a shipping container. He must've moved a thousand of the fucking things with a ratty old forklift back when he worked in the warehouse.

𝔹𝕠𝕩 𝔾𝕠𝕝𝕖𝕞 (𝕄𝕠𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣)

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟚𝟡

Now he knew why this place looked so familiar…

The thing opened its crushed-in mouth—he wasn't sure how it had one—and let out a metallic screech. It lumbered towards him.