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

The five-person group ran in, weapons ready, but stopped and looked around confusedly when there was no apparent enemy to fight. Oh. They must have been in the dungeon when I revealed the overhead ambush it could use now. Screams were coming down from the gathered crowd, but they ignored them thinking it was the cheering that usually happened. I took the opportunity to look at them all carefully, they were all in the low D-ranks, the highest being Mr. Deep voice at D-rank two, several ranks higher than my F-rank nine Raile.

The sounds above rising to a crescendo suddenly, the deep voiced man looked up, and with a startled yell dove to the side in time to miss dying, but not fast enough to get away from the wave of blood that washed over him and the remaining members. Most of them took some damage, even if it was just from human teeth pinging off exposed flesh.

“Where did it come from?”

“Bobby! No!”

Their party in disarray, I expected a quick finish to the fight, but the leader rallied them, and they fell into position with the speed of much practice. Shock turning to anger, they charged Raile as a unit, a first for me I am pretty sure. I tried to leap at them, but two shield bearers bashed Raile simultaneously, hard enough to make his movement falter as the remaining two attacked the weak points in his armor, the joints on his legs. A few repeated blows were enough to force the joint into facing the wrong direction, Raile keened as both legs on his right side were broken.

“Move back!” Came the order, followed by the group smoothly retreating from the prone body in front of them. I was shocked, I knew that teamwork was effective, which is why I had made the squads, but this was at a level I had not been expecting. Even Dale's group had more trouble than this, now I could see that it was because they were forcing Dale to fight and get experience, else they could have likely walked through here without issue.

“Get ready, it happens when he is hurt like this.”

I was confused for a second, until I saw a Glitterflit sprinting toward the downed Raile.

I gasped, though only Dani heard.

The speed of the Glitterflit allowed him to avoid the hastily swung weapons, but it had to slow down to heal Raile. The healing energy dissipated into Raile as a net collapsed around the squirming, golden bunny.

“Got it!” A voice laughed. “Piece of cake!” He poked the gold rabbit with a sword he was holding, which as it turns out was a very serious mistake.

The now-healed Raile had just gotten to his feet, when the soft cry of pain from the Glitterflit drew his attention. Raile’s pupils dilated as his long dormant ability awoke for the first time. The armor fell off of his body everywhere but his head, which shoved obsidian-sharp fragments of granite upward to create a deadly crown. The ability ‘Avenger’ flashed in my mind as I analyzed this unexpected change. I was finally going to see it in action!

The previously ponderous yet deadly Raile moved, faster than I had thought was possible. His armored head impacted the chest of the man holding the net with the force of a battering ram constructed by giants. The spikes tore the poor man’s armor apart like it did not exist, leaving a gaping hole in his abdomen. The force of the charge carried the man under Raile’s power into the wall, where he slowly slid down to the floor, quickly decomposing into goo, under my influence now.

The Glitterflit was still caught in the net, but it had been dropped on the ground. The D-rank two man barreled toward Raile, his sword easily piercing Raile’s unarmored flesh with a soft sound, like a tomato being chopped. Raile fell quickly, still savaging what little remained of the dead man, until he too succumbed to death's embrace. The completely shaken men gathered the net, Glitterflit, and the loot that I dropped, including a ring with a weak inverted Rune of liquid repulsion, then made their way to the surface.

Dale was excited as they waited outside the Spotters den. He would have called it their tent, but he had gotten a look inside at the filthy, cluttered area, and could only consider it an animal’s living space.

“What do you think it does?” He asked excitedly, shifting from one foot to the other. “Maybe it lets you stab things as far away as an arrow can fly!”

“Ehh…” Hans replied stepping harder than he needed to make the earth bounce around them. “Looked a lot like that demonologist dagger we lost in there.”

“That Rune looked completely different!” Dale proclaimed. “I get to keep this one.”

Hans scratched under his armpit, sniffing at the result, before answering, “Nah, looked like the same Rune, just backward. Prolly the inversed Rune.”

“Correct! You know your Runescript! Are you looking to become a Spotter when you grow up?” A cheerful voice assailed them. The Spotter had poked his head out and was offering the dagger back to Dale.

“ Hell no.” Hans blithely stated.

Exasperation on his face, the Spotter wisely started to ignore Hans, “Well, this is a surprise for us, just so you know,” His face brightened as he talked to Dale, “Normally we charge a few gold per service, but the fee is waived as we had never seen this Inscription before! So, since we get two Runes out of it for our books, we will also give you one more on credit!”

“Thanks! What does it do?” Dale happily wondered.

“ Well ,” The Spotter started excitedly, making Hans groan, “The original Rune was used to summon demons with the energy it would gain by killing people or creatures, which it would store in an attached Beast core until released. This one will allow you to banish infernal creatures by stabbing them!”

“Oh, that’s… good?” Dale uncertainly stammered.

“It’s wonderful !” The Spotter erupted, “Necromancers and their darker subset of demon summoners hoard their knowledge! We almost never get a chance to study them, every piece of the puzzle gets us closer to stopping them if another war breaks out!”

“Oh. I guess I just haven’t really seen any undead, in, um… Ever I guess.” Dale confessed, as Hans started giggling softly at the Spotters bulging eyes.

“Just think! Instead of blasting them with enough Mana to rip a hole back into their dimension to banish them, you can just poke a demon with this and its own energy will be used to send it away! With the added benefit of weakening it! This new Rune may be the key to every future war!”

“Hmm.” Hans jumped in, “Seems like that Rune should be worth more to you than just ‘one on credit’ to me.”

“Standard terms and conditions apply, thank you for choosing the Mages Guild.” The Spotter disappeared back into his tent.

“Hey!” Hans shouted in shock.

Dale laughed, “It’s fine, Hans. I’d rather this Rune be out there, if someone else needs it. It won’t do us much good though, shall we go see what we can sell it for?”

“I suppose that is the best we can do.” Hans glared darkly at the silent tent. He accompanied Dale to the Guild tent to list the item for auction. They were talking to the clerk when Father Richard and Guild Master Frank walked in, heatedly discussing the church's lot.

“I don’t care that people are using it for an arena! I am building the church there, and that is final! They want to see fighting, they can listen to a sermon at the same time!” Richard was saying hotly.