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

“What happened?” Steve whirled around as a joyful * Whoop* sounded from Josh.

“It’s beautiful !” Josh stated, voice somewhere between a whisper and a scream. “Look at this pattern! These Runes are immaculate ! I can’t wait to use it!” He was holding the inscribed, massive shield with his non-mangled arm, the other bent at odd angles which he ignored. “So pretty! ”

“Something took the dagger!” Hans tried to warn the group.

“Can I keep it?” Josh was asking, looking around at the others wildly. “Please?”

“None of us could use it, Josh.” Craig moved toward him, speaking softly. “It is all yours, ok? How about we head back now?”

“So I can keep it?” Josh again begged.

“Of course you can.” Craig promised soothingly, looking into Josh’s eyes. “I think you have a concussion, my friend.”

“No, it’s a shield.” Josh assured him, holding it a little higher.

“I know it is, how about you look at it for a while?” Craig turned toward the group, “We need to go, an injury to the brain is one I do not feel... ready... to heal.”

“A moment please.” Steve gathered the fallen coin, looking for any other dropped things. What a greedy adventurer! I had no intention of giving them anything else. After all, I had not regained any of Raile’s lost Essence thanks to my new knife. “Let’s be off.” Hans nodded as he finished his search.

They turned to go, so I dropped a rock near the hidden stairwell. They turned, weapons drawn, to look at the disturbance. Hans flew forward, hoping to catch whatever it was off guard, and so was the one to find the stairs.

“Over here! A stairwell!” He waved them over to this unknown obstacle.

They looked at the stairs and almost ignored them, nearly leaving for the known route when the lolling head of Josh convinced them to move upward. After the first few steps, the door behind them swung closed, the only light in the area being the Essence in the stone around them.

They reached the top after a few minutes of huffing and puffing, three hundred eighty steps wears anyone down I’m told. I wouldn’t know. No legs. As they touched the wall, it swung outward, revealing a cheering crowd who were describing the battle they had just witnessed. The cheering got louder as the raucous crowd noticed the famous fighters had suddenly joined them.

A cleric ran over, healing light flowing from his hands as he reached for Josh. A few less interested people tried to force their way into the stone gazebo I was closing. I didn’t try to stop them. A few made it in, cheering at their good luck. Those few ran down toward the Boss room while the door closed behind them. Little did they know it wouldn’t reopen. I guess this battle wasn’t an entire waste for me today! I’m sure their constant crying will be annoying for a few hours, but I’m also sure it won’t last too long. Not much air in the stairwell after all.

I turned my mind to the knowledge I had gained that day, thinking over the concepts and ideas that were flowing through me. The Inscriptions were very interesting, but I was very curious as to what I could do with inverted runes. It reversed the effect of the Rune Craig says, hmm? I drew an inverted Rune on the ground in a small room and powered it with a tiny burst of Essence. This was the Rune that would increase the strength of armor when applied normally, so I was unsure of what would happen when it was inverted.

I dropped a boot on it and watched it glow, though seemingly nothing was happening. After a few seconds, the boot sagged and fell apart, the leather falling into scraps! Already joyfully thinking of the applications, I tried again, this time with a metal helmet. I carefully watched it, as apparent stress fractures made their way along the metal. Anywhere it connected to another piece of the metal, it quickly corroded, until it finally clattered apart. What remained on the Rune for a while longer fell apart further until only oxidized, rusty metal scraps remained.

“Holy cow!” Dani breathed. “It looks like what you do to anything that doesn’t have an aura when you absorb it! This could be a way for you to get patterns for armor even when you don’t take down the person wearing it!”

“Yeah?”

Dale walked out of the gazebo, and was so stunned by the sudden noise and crowd that he couldn’t stop the people who pushed past him into the waiting tunnel.

“That’s a terrible idea!” He shouted as they rushed downward, the door seamlessly grinding closed behind them.

Craig just shook his head and waited for the cleric to be finished with Josh, who had focus returning to his eyes as the celestial energy flowed around his brain, clearing the built up blood and reducing swelling. Josh blinked a few times as the cleric moved back a step, then thanked him.

“Ow!” Josh suddenly shouted, “Ahh! My arm!” The very bent arm by his side was apparent to all, a few weak stomached people were noisily sick as they noticed the ruined flesh. More were sick as they watched the arm get pulled on by the others to straighten it as Josh screamed in pain.

“Pull it straight you heartless bastards!” Josh was shrieking, “Do it! Ahhh!” The flow of celestial energy appeared again, quickly soothing and strengthening the proffered arm.

“You missed a kink there.” The nameless cleric noticed, pointing to a knot on Josh’s ankle. Hans looked at the spot and before Josh could tense up he quickly twisted the foot, the grinding of bone audible only until the retching sounds drowned it out. A burst of Essence set him right, the ankle healed again, if tender.

“Well that was unpleasant.” Josh panted in an attempt to seem nonchalant. His face pale with tears streaming showed that he was not immune to the pain. “Luckily it won’t happen again.” He held up the new shield, flaunting it for the onlookers, then reached out and bound it to himself with a burst of Essence. “Just in case.” He winked at Dale.

Turning to the cleric, Josh motioned him close, “Thank you for your timely assistance, brother. Please, accept this, a token of my thanks.” He handed the man several silver coins, his portion of the day's dungeon dive.

The dumbfounded cleric stammered his thanks as his team pulled him away to begin their day in the dungeon.

“Why would you give him so much money?” Dale scoffed quietly at Josh, who was looking fondly after the retreating cleric. “That is enough to live comfortably for a month!”

“A good healer is a man you curry favor with! You see lad, there is a very important lesson to be learned here. When you are able to be generous, do so! There will always come a time when you cannot afford what you need. People will be far more likely to help you when you fall on hard times, if you are free with money in the good times.” Josh smiled a bit painfully at Dale.

“Go out of your way to be respectful to the one who brings you your food, holds your money, and most importantly, those who work to heal you. That cleric expected nothing for his service, now goes into danger with less power because of me. How could I do less for him?”

Dale hung his head a bit, “I had not considered things that way, sorry Josh. I wasn’t trying to sound like he didn’t deserve it, I think I’ve just had a bad day and my manners have gone to trash.”

“I know, lad.” Josh had never looked so uncomfortable, including his recent bone-shattering. “You’re a good man, just… Remember that you have had some very lucky breaks, and life is still pretty hard for other people. Try to give back, people will appreciate it if they know the person they depend upon is good-hearted.”