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

That oughtta do it. They looked at the loot uncomprehendingly, so I dropped three extra large pieces of gold. That shook em out of their reverie, and looks of joy replaced the bitter anger on their faces. They were still grieving, but could sell these items for enough to live in comfort for the rest of their lives if they stopped being cultivators. The man who had killed Raile picked up the War Hammer, and in a decidedly stupid act, activated the Rune. The oversized hammer suddenly light in his hands, he nearly stumbled.

He took a few swings, one-handed, to the amazement of all onlookers. Then, grinning darkly, he swung as hard as he could at the corpse of Raile, which shattered into hundreds of shards. One of those shards flew into the head of his teammate on the ground with the broken leg, killing him near instantly.

eah !> That had worked out so well! The energy joined my spiral, pushing me over the edge into the third rank of the D series, I had not been paying attention to how close I was, so the sudden expansion of my power surprised me.

“Oh, no ! No ! NO !!” The Warhammer wielding man cried as he dropped to his knees next to his impaled friend, openly weeping. The last remaining man gathered the loot, and slowly the two ascended the stairs together, taking strength in their friendship and survival, despite the horrible cost. They opened the door at the top, to condolences and cheers. I turned in contemplation toward Dani.

A lazy day in the Capitol was just what Dale had needed. A vacation from the dungeon, no matter how short, had greatly relaxed him. He and Hans had gone to a bath house and soaked in the steaming water for hours, relaxing their muscles as professional cleaners washed their armor and clothes. Then, as twilight threatened, they returned to the portal area and paid an exorbitant ten silver for a return trip, a sobering reminder that they only got to leave their home for free.

“Ow. My wallet.” Hans whined as they made their way through the portal.

Dale dropped to the ground, dry heaving again, but not as violently as the first time. “Ow. My body.” He whined, making Hans laugh as Dale made fun of him.

“You forgot to close your eyes again, I see.” Hans pulled Dale to his feet, and looked up at the camp swarming with unfamiliar faces and sounds. One area seemed far more energetic than the rest, so they moved to take a look at what was going on. Hans got closer, then they saw a duo of men being escorted to the portal by none other than Guild Master Frank. One of the men, maybe in his mid-twenties, was holding a gigantic Warhammer, both were being followed by two men carrying small but heavy chests.

“What’s going on do you think?” Dale murmured to Hans.

Hans shrugged and they followed the men to the portal, where they vanished after a brief talk with the portal attendant. He waved down Frank as he walked back, and wondered aloud about what was going on.

“Oh. You haven’t heard then?” Frank raised his eyebrow in surprise. “You must have just gotten back.”

“Heard what? We took the evening off and went to the pleasure house for dinner.” Hans prodded him.

Frank looked shocked, “Without me? Fine, see if you get a bonus this year. What you just saw was the first group to complete the dungeon, beside yours of course.”

Dale was perplexed, “Just the two of them?”

“Well. Those were the survivors, they were non-Guild, and ignored the recommendation that it was a D-ranked minimum.” Frank told him a bit sadly.

Hans winced, “Five-man team to start?” Frank nodded, and Hans shook his head empathetically.

“Why are they leaving? Did they just give up after their friends died?” Dale inferred.

“Well, one of them did. The hammer man is coming back, if he can find anyone to team up with anyway. Activated that Warhammer when it was dropped by the Boss, and took a swing in petty revenge. That rock covered rabbit shattered, and a shard killed one of his wounded teammates. Most people don’t see it as an accident, but as an idiot with a stupidly powerful weapon.” Frank shook his head at the foolishness.

“Oh wow.” Dale commiserated with the poor man.

Hans mind went on a different route, “Is he thinking of selling that hammer off?” Greed was lighting his eyes.

Frank grimaced at the typical behavior, “No, it bound to him when he activated it. The Spotters say the binding and the activation are in the same spot, that hammer is his till he dies. They did get two other inscribed items and some loose gold, which will make you very happy, Dale.”

“Why? What?” Dale looked at him confusedly. “Three people died, I’m not happy! I’m not a bad guy, why does everyone seem to think I am an asshole?”

“Um. I’m thinking there is something going on that I don’t know about…” Frank seemed a bit confused himself. “Not what I was talking about though. Remember how you make a portion of everything that is made? Even the three percent you made off just those two items paid off more than half the debt for your armor. Combine that with the open portal, and your personal dungeon dives, I’m betting you will be paid off in a month, less if more people complete the dungeon.” Frank stated cheerfully.

“What! They must have been worth thousands of gold then!” Dale was flabbergasted.

“They certainly were! One of them was a boot that repelled all liquids, and with the new acid traps, it sold at auction for nearly fifteen hundred gold.” Frank cheerfully told him.

“Was it…? Was it Josh’s boot that Raile, the Boss Mob, took off?” Hans’s eyes bulged as he tried to hold back a deep laugh.

“Hah! It was! The size is different, though!” Frank crowed, slapping his knee as he laughed. “He’s gonna be so pissed!”

Dale wanted to know what the other item was, so Frank told him about the unique sword that had been found, while Hans’ jaw dropped lower and lower.

“It holds a charge?!” Hans finally exploded. “Why would you not wait for me to get back here before you sold it?!”

“You know how these things go, sell it for the best price or put it up for extended auction. They heard a good price and chose to sell.” Frank’s grin told Dale he was happy to have had less competition.

“ You bought it! I knew it!” Hans was furious, “You have to give me a chance to buy it!”

“Nah.” Frank allowed, very blasé about the situation. He spun on his heel and ran.

“Whaddaya mean, ‘nah’?” Hans roared, running off after him.

Dale looked at the portal, thinking of the loss that group must be feeling. He hoped the gold they had earned would help them through. Now, it was time to get some rest, he had a long day of monster hunting tomorrow. Maybe he could get some new items?

Dale's group was just walking into the dungeon, the first thing they did each day was clear the first room completely, to make sure there was no issue for the miners who came in to collect iron each day. Dale was still in constant wonder that no matter how much iron they tore out each day, the walls were unblemished in the morning, promising a good, easy mining operation.

“How was the city?” Steve casually questioned, kicking a shroomish as it tried to chomp his foot. It disintegrated in a puff of spores from the casual blow.

“It was amazing! Did you know they have Mages building a sewer system there? I wonder if we could do something like that here.” Dale wonderingly put forward. The others stopped and looked at him strangely, he wasn’t sure why Hans was laughing at him so hard he couldn’t breathe. “Are they not building it? Hans, what the hell?”