Dakota Krout - Dungeon Born (The Divine Dungeon Book 1)

Dale’s face clouded. “I hadn’t really thought about it. I’ve never been off these mountains and I… You know what? Yeah, let’s go kill something.”

“That’s the spirit!” Hans shouted, “To battle!” Taking off at a run for the dungeon, the others had to hurry to catch up. They couldn’t let him have all the kills after all.

I conversed with Dani optimistically.

“More likely they were looking at the new building and the giant window you made into here.” Dani muttered reproachfully, making me look up at the growing crowd of people above us. They sure did seem excited to see my room. Hard to blame them for looking at my beautiful work after all. I was preening under all of the attention I was getting.

“Voyeurs.” Dani muttered, hostility coming off her in waves. “I gotta stay invisible all the time now.”

I teased her, projecting the image of a lazy person stretching.

She huffed at me. “Fine. You’ll miss my pretty colors soon enough. How is Dale’s group doing? I assume… I mean, it is them again, right?”

I was watching the energetic lad bouncing around with his stick.

Indeed, they were even now moving toward a dead end. On the first floor though, so they quickly were able to bypass the trap and move back to the correct path. I decided to listen in on their conversation.

“Did I just pick the wrong path?” Dale was asking, “I thought I could just watch the Essence. Were you guys just testing me?” He looked around at the stony faces, “I swear I am using the technique!” He finished desperately when no one talked.

“It’s not that, kid, chill.” Hans waved him down, speaking in a perplexed tone. “I thought that was the right way as well. What do you think Craig?”

“No idea.” Craig’s tense voice muttered. “It’s all different today.”

Steve chimed in softly, “This may be dangerous, boys. If we can’t tell where to go, we may walk directly into traps. Be extra careful today.”

“Vigilance!” Roared Josh, badly startling everyone. A couple of them even had to force themselves to stop attacking on reflex.

With a withering glance Steve rounded on Josh, “Yes, thank you for your input. Very helpful.”

I chuckled at that.

“Losing your way can be scary!” Dani shuddered.

“You can’t get lost! You don’t go anywhere!” Dani gasped at my nonchalant dismissal.

I quickly directed her attention away,

They had made their way through the admittedly easy first floor maze, quickly ending the useless Boss, which made me explode with frustration again.

I judgmentally thought of the weak plant- based monster.

“Why not put more Mobs in there? Or a squad, and call ‘em the Boss.” Dani seemed perplexed at my dislike of the current Boss.

“I think they already know. The squad system is too strong already for most of the groups, even though they are common Mobs on the second floor. I do agree that the first floor is too easy, a squad will be a good challenge at least.”

She was ruthless, probably sick of me complaining about it all the time. “It’s weaker than your common Mobs, how about put it near acid traps and pitfalls? Pull people into them instead of hoping they fall on their own, or use it as a sacrifice to set traps off. That worked really well with that injured basher, right? Plus, the first floor is so weak now that Dale’s group is just waltzing on through. Dale could clear it by himself now! Heck, when is the last time someone even got badly injured there?” Dani stopped my interjection with a harsh truth, “You need to devote some of your Essence to upkeep and upgrades, not just constant expansion.”

I grumbled, unhappily acknowledging that she had good points.

Ooh, taking them down today may come to pass! They were moving into a tunnel on the second floor that would drop a stone door behind them, flooding a small space with acid. I could hardly wait to taste that C-ranked Essence from the main group. I caught my ‘breath’ as they walked in, and with a joyful yell I slammed the door down behind them. Their shouts of fear made my excitement rise to a fever pitch as I made preparations for large inputs of Essence.

“Calm Down! There has to be a way out if we aren’t dead yet!” The ever calm Craig took control, looking around. His eyes widened as he saw the acid beginning to pour in, his mouth forming a grim line.

“Look around for a lever, an opening, a button; anything out of place!” Hans directed, the sound of pouring liquid and hissing acid nearly drowning him out. The air was starting to become toxic as the stone melted, releasing fumes. Craig was moving his hands in complex patterns, light remaining where his nimble fingers moved.

As Dale looked around wildly, his Essence infused eyes caught upon a lighter patch on the wall a foot above his head on the other side of the tunnel. “There!” He shouted, pointing at the spot. Acid had pooled between them and the button, so Steve pulled out an arrow and notched it to his bow.

“No! You may break it!” Hans shouted, pushing the bow aside.

“Josh!” Craig snapped, hands still fluttering, “Boot!”

The benefit of working as a team for a long period of time was that complete sentences were rarely needed in dire circumstances. Josh moved over and held his armored leg up, the boot next to the glowing pattern in the air. Craig moved his hand again, what was obviously an enchantment flowed into being on the bottom of the proffered boot.

“Go!” Josh ran at the acid flowing across the ground, not stopping as he flung himself at the bubbling fluid. I watched and waited for his foot to start melting when it became submerged in the hissing acid. Sadly, the Rune on his boot flared to life, making the acid recede just enough to leave a dry spot on the floor where he landed. I was horrified as the area around him cleared of all liquid, though it was nearly a half inch deep just outside that zone. The others were on higher ground, but he should have been ooze by now! He sprinted, nearly flying across the now clear ground, and leapt to meet the button on the wall.

With only a minor complaint, I saw the acid stop flowing and quickly drain away, leaving only scarred stone to show it had ever been there. Boo. These guys were resourceful. The door slowly raised behind them as the last dregs of fluid vanished; I was nothing if not fair.

“That was amazing!” Dale shouted, pumping his fist into the air and giving Hans a wild hug. “I never knew enchanting was so fast!”

“It normally isn’t.” Steve glanced at Craig with admiration. “Fast enchantments are dangerous; I highly doubt Craig would have done that if we weren’t in deep shit there.”

Craig gravely nodded. “Agreed. Let’s avoid that in the future.”

“What? That was cool! When will you teach me to enchant?” Dale excitedly bubbled.

“I may not. It depends on what you want to do when you learn all the other options. Enchanting isn’t popular because you permanently lose a bit of your cultivation base for each enchantment, and have to re-refine the Chi. Rebuilding your cultivation base is hard, as you know. When you use your Essence for other, normal things, it will flow back into your center over time.” Craig tiredly lectured. “With enchanting it is just… gone.”

“Oh.” Dale was less eager now. “You said what you did was dangerous?”