When I lived on the mountain, my mornings normally consisted of either a sunbeam wakeup, or misty spritzing me, or splashing me given her mood for the morning. My wakeup without any of that was honestly a bit lonely all things considered.
My wakeup call this morning consisted of Jax who seemingly not looking where he was going, stumbled over me, elbowing me in the stomach as he fell back. While normally this would hurt but be ok, Jax was a pulgist, and his entire class was designed to artificially increase his striking power.
Party Leader Jax had landed a strike against You
You take 16 damage
I felt like my ribs had cracked, as I rolled and writhed on the ground, trying to both gulp down air and cough at the same time.
"Oh crap, I think I killed him."
Jax yelled looking around in a panic as I started coughing, each time my vision dimmed for a second as a searing pain went through my chest. Kaelen quickly rushed over and yelled.
"Damn it Jax, Hear me mother of love and family, let your embrace wash over your people and mend their tired bodys before your loving hearth!"
Party member Kaelen has used Prayer of Healing(E)
You recover 16 HP
As the golden light touched me, I felt a weird sensation of both warmth, and pressure, almost like a tight hug as I could finally breathe normally again. I took a moment to lay there and just breath before I grabbed Jax and shook him.
"What in the hells was that for!?"
"It was an accident, my bad."
Jax said apologetically, his tail between his legs in a way that reminded me of a regular dog. By this point everyone else at camp was awake, Selene sympathized with me, agreeing that Jax needs to learn to control his strength, while Liora was laughing at the situation despite the dirty look I sent her way.
Breakfast was more rations as we all ate quietly. I told the others about the extra potions I had made. Before the sun had fully risen we were all making our way through the woods, as we did Liora walked next to me and purposefully pulled me back.
"How was she during your shift?"
I thought back to Thalia's potion attempt and shrugged my shoulders.
"Honestly she seemed more awkward than malicious, did she do anything during your shift?"
"No, but then again, she may be on to the fact that we don't trust her."
I nodded at this, a part of me still didn't understand Lioras paranoia about it, but I was determined to be as good a teammate as I could, besides if she was right, we saved the group, if she was wrong, then nothing bad happened, it was a win-win.
As we approached the trapdoor at the base of the tree roots, Selene reached down, taking a moment to wrench it open. As she did, the passage seemed to show the first 3 rungs of a ladder before pitch dark despite the sun peeking through the trees. Walking over to peer inside I got a system notification.
You have arrived at the entrance of the dungeon
Crypt of the 23rd brigade
Dungeon Stats:
Item Rank: E
Item quantity: 3
Dungeon danger: Medium
Total Previous Attempts: 2
Attempt Log:
Attempt 1: Sirius Oxhouse - Status: Deceased
Attempt 2: William Oxhouse - Status: Deceased
Would you like to enter?
YES/NO
Starting at the floating text for a minute I turned to the others confused on what this info meant. However, Kaelen and Thalia seemed to be talking between each other about what it could be.
"Since its 3 E rank items, it's a 12-room dungeon, and from the sound of it the Oxhouse's were probably a kid dreaming of adventure and his father only discovering where he went days later."
Kaelen said, shaking his head slowly. Looking back to the attempt log I looked down at the names. I had no experience with dungeons, much less monsters aside from the Ash spirits and the Blood Trent, but I could imagine what kind of a death would follow a dungeon with the word crypt in the name. The Pitch-black tunnel populated by the undead who were soldiers in life, now cursed to be locked in rotting bodies, driven insane by the feeling of flesh rotting away then the lack of feeling.
"We should make an attempt to locate the body's of the two as we explore the dungeon. If they were close enough to stumble upon the dungeon, I believe that their home should be nearby."
Thalia suggested as she adjusted her backpack on her back. We all nodded in agreement as we lined up. Jax and Selene in the front, Kaelen and Thalia in the middle, and Liora and I in the back. It was a formation we had discussed on the way to the dungeon in case we ran into tight corridors.
As We all pressed yes on the dungeon screen there was a strange feeling of weightlessness as our body's started to glow blue. It took only a second or so for the blue light to glow and puff away into small sparks that went into the open trapdoor.
Arriving into the dungeon a chill ran trough me, both because of nervousness, and because the air was frigid. There was almost no light to see anything around us but up ahead I could see what looked to be the faint dancing light of a campfire, no more than 50ft away. Reaching out to steady myself in the dark, my hand brushed, dust covered brickwork, the corners slightly crumbling under my fingertips.
"I was told these things have light."
Jax said seemingly bumping into Selene who stumbled into Thalia who bumped into me.
"Well this one does not, I have 3 night vision potions for emergencies, but for now, lets try to head towards that fire up ahead to see where we are."
I said steadying myself. We all shuffled into the next room, everyone was barely an arms with away from each other as we walked. The room itself was a simple square room, however as we stepped in, bits of light could be seen out of two hallways to the left and right of us. While it wasn't much, it was enough to get a rough look around the room. Liora turned to the wall behind us, and using the metal cap on the end of her staff grinded out an arrow in the direction of the door at the hallway we just left. While she did, Jax and I started towards the room on the right. While normally we would stick together, we could see the back wall of this room even from here, and I figured I should grab the torches.
Walking over Jax and I saw a simple room that seemed to be for training. On the corners around the doorway two torches flickered and danced with flames. On a table to the left sat a dust covered shortbow, a bundle of arrows sat beside it. More into the room was a cabinet that seemed to house a set of javelins on top of it, the drawers opened as whatever had been in them was gone. Beyond the cabinet a rack of spears sat, their tips pointed at the ceiling. A set of 3 targets sat against the back wall, arrows poking out of points on it here and there. A rack of 4 longswords sat against the back wall on the right side, and on the right wall a set of 3 target dummies sat, one of which had seemingly lost its head in a bit of overzealousness.
"We got two torches and a room full of weapons here."
Jax called to the others as we stepped inside. Looking over the weapons a weird thought occurred to me, should I use a weapon?
When I dreamed of adventuring, I always imagined throwing potions to destroy my enemies or learning a magic combat skill that could destroy anyone in front of me, but I never really thought about what a weapon could do for me. As I looked them over, Selene took one of the torches as Kaelen took the other one. I looked to the bow, but thoughts of shooting one of my teammates in the back with an arrow dissuaded me from the bow, the same reason for the javelin, not even mentioning the lack of strength I had for throwing them. I turned to the sword, said to be the king of melee weapons because it could do a bit of everything, but they required competence, and skill, something I wouldn't just magically learn by grabbing it. So, I turned to the last weapon, the spear. Said to be a beginner's weapon, the first weapon soldiers are trained with, the spear allowed me to keep my distance and be helpful despite my lack of skill.
Grabbing the spear, It seemed to shake off decades of dust, and yet It was almost exciting to wield a weapon in my hand, it was almost subconscious, like how women like to dress up and try different combinations and find joy from it, guys just want to hold a weapon.
I turned to the others, but they didn't seem to go for weapons. So as we turned to try the room on the left this time I thought about it, Selene's way of fighting was using her arm that could sharpen itself, so no need for weapons, Jax used his paws, Liora had her staff to channel magic, same for Kaelen, and… well I had no Idea about Thalia, but I could only assume that she had some extenuating circumstance.
Stepping over to the other room I was surprised to find what looked to be a kitchen area. From the doorway a small corridor led to a shelf covered with decrepit and expired spices, the sides of the hallway were laced with sacks of various foods that, judging from the stains on the ground below them, had long since rotted away. To the left of the doorway sat a fireplace, the fire dancing under a cauldron, the wall across from the fireplace had what looked to be a line of cabinets with a cutting board, and spots that had once housed food, now laying empty.
Beyond the fireplace and the cutting board area sat a large set of double doors, a metal nameplate sat on the doors, the details covered in dust. Stepping forward, Selene wiped the name clean to reveal the name Captain Lisa Simonas. Trying the door the handle jiggled slightly, but would not open.
"T-the doors locked, I can try to break in, b-but that would make noise."
Selene said, turning to the rest of us. I turned to the others, unsure of what to do when Thalia stepped forward silently, pulling off her backpack and turned to us.
"Do we have any reason that we would need this door later?"
A bit surprised we looked between each other for a minute before shaking our heads. Thalia nodded, pulling out what looked to be some kind of leather roll that she rolled out to reveal a set of carving tools.
She took a moment to grab what looked to be a small blade that looked like a mini chef's knife with the blading only on one side on a handle that was several times larger than the blade itself. She placed the tool against the door above the mechanism and starting to spin the tool, little wood shavings falling away with each turn until a small hole in the door was opened. Switching her tool, she grabbed a small saw and started to cut away at the wood around the mechanism, a job that would probably take a while on a regular door, but age had weakened the wood. As the saw finished Selene and Jax pushed on the doors, the bottoms grinding on the floor slightly before they opened up to reveal a simple office.
Behind the door a small green rug sat, beyond it a simple wooden desk with a letter opener, and several now dried vials of ink. In the far left an open chest sat with what looked to be a good amount of gold coins. In the far right a dusty bed sat made up. As Jax and the others made their way to various points in the room, but most gravitating towards the chest, I walked over to the desk where a small brown notebook sat. Picking it up I blew the dust off the cover before I saw the name Journal of Captain Pices.