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

The Cat quickly wound its way through the second floor, wearily returning to my room. As it crossed the threshold it stopped, nostrils flaring as its eyes - all three of them - widened. It cautiously stepped further into the room, then rushed to where the most concentrated Essence was condensing. It stared at the liquid Essence like someone that had just been handed a baby; a bit uncomfortable and unsure of what to do - would moving it break it?

One of its three remaining tentacles gently moved down to hover over the few drops that hadn’t gone into the drain and flicked a tongue out, sucking in the concentrated Essence. The tentacle spasmed, flailing back and forth in pseudo-pain - like a human taking a bite from a lemon. The drop of Essence sped down its throat, moving into the stomach of the Cat’s main body. The Cat dropped to the floor, gasping through its nose as it struggled to absorb the potent energy. Successful after a few minutes, it got to its feet and reached for another drop. This continued, lick, swallow, spasm, repeat, for nearly half an hour.

Finally seeming to have enough, it lay down, contented. As if finally noticing my attention, its eyes flicked to where we were. * Hiss * Well, I guess it still wasn’t friendly. It fell asleep facing the door, tentacles moving and keeping watch of their own volition.

I mentioned to Dani.

Exasperated, she looked at me, “Ya think? You just had to feed a wild animal.”

Dale awoke to a ruckus in the camp. Having slept behind the stone walls of the chapel on a soft bed, he could hardly make himself become concerned. He yawned, walking over to where Hans was sleeping.

“You know wha- * Yawn * what’s going on out there? Festival?” Dale tried to rub the grit from his eyes.

“Nah.” Hans grunted uncaringly. “Might as well get up now though, we still need to find some more party members.”

They started getting ready for the day, putting on armor and sharpening weapons. That reminded Dale to ask about the enchantments on this armor and weapon. Hans told him it was a standard protection and feather enchantment on his armor, meaning that it weighed next to nothing when it was equipped. For the Morningstar, there was a stability enchantment on it that would push the ball and spike away from the shaft, increasing the range on the weapon by about a foot and making it very hard to block the attack.

Dale activated the enchantment on his weapon for the first time. “So it just… Floats there?” He doubted the effectiveness in a nonplussed tone.

Hans waved his hand over the area between the ball and the hilt showing that there was no resistance. “Try and stop that with a sword and see what happens. The sword hits nothing, you hit their head. You can adjust the distance too, and make it a surprise attack. Suddenly you have range! In battle, surprise kills, yeah?”

Dale nodded, it actually seemed a much more interesting weapon now. They moved out of the chapel to see a roaring mob of people. Guild Master Frank was shouting them down, trying to restore order. A few people were crying, as healers moved among them. Hans and Dale looked at each other, nervous only for a few seconds before they moved in to see what was happening.

“Listen!” Frank was bellowing, “We have no information right now! We believe it was a breakout, monsters escaping the dungeon. We don’t have any knowledge beyond the fact that a few F-ranked people were slain and several people were injured before a Mage blasted an area it was believed to be in. No, we don’t know what it was, it was too dark! Please, we have not seen anything in the dungeon that a proper group cannot handle! Go about your business, we will give you any information we can find.”

Hans tapped Dale on the arm, “We better hurry and find a group if we want to get in there. They might close it off while they look into this.” Dale was pulled over to the mess tent, where they found Rose waiting for them. She was in leather armor that was obviously heavily enchanted from the glow coming off of her. Inscribed armor and weapons rarely glowed, and only then if they were breaking down, allowing Essence to escape. Enchantments on armor were made of layered Essence and would therefore shine as it was consumed in order to power the Rune. In short, glowing enchantment? Necessary! Glowing inscribed Rune? Really bad.

“You made it through the night. Good.” Rose deadpanned. “Where are the others?”

Hans leered at her, “Well, my Rose, we have been unable to find anyone else worthy to travel in your company. Sadly, we must now scavenge the bottom of the barrel in our search.”

“I am not your Rose. What positions do we have filled? What are your specialties?” Rose looked back and forth between them.

Hans gave an elaborate bow, “Oh, how my heart aches to hear you say such words! I, ma’am, am a humble knife wielder. I specialize in ending threats before they become aware of me or my comrades’ presence.”

“An assassin. Just great.” Rose grunted in a very unladylike noise. “Swell company you keep, Dale. What do you do?” Hans looked a bit affronted.

Dale was unsure. “I’m, uh. I fight with a mace and buckler?”

Rose nodded. “A fighter. Good, hopefully you’ll specialize soon. What are your talents in the earth domain?”

Hans intercepted the question smoothly, “He has not found the path he will walk yet. He has been focused too hard on getting to this level I am afraid.”

“Fine, so we have an assassin, a fighter, and a ranger.” She drew her bow to explain her term. “That’s a good mix to start, but we need to fill our party out with some other people.”

Hans nodded, “Good thinking! Smart and beautiful!” He graced her with a wink as she rolled her eyes.

“I’m not into old men.” Rose denied him coolly. Hans pantomimed clutching his heart as a massive form walked up to the conversing group.

“Did I hear thou art looking for someone to enter into the dungeon with thou and thine?” A gravelly voice boomed, the words giving off a feeling of near archaic pronunciation.

Hans looked over, eyes flaring at the interruption. “Mmhmm, we are. I’m sorry though lad, F-ranked aren’t allowed to the second level anymore.” Hans dismissed offhandedly, returning to his determined flirtation.

The voice corrected him, “Not if they are members of the Guild. I am not. Also, I have already proven my worth in combat, finishing the second floor with my previous compatriots.” The dawn broke at that moment, allowing light to begin flooding over the horizon. The young man came into view, an odd type of armor on him. Metal plates were interspersed with furs, leaving a large amount of flesh showing. That flesh was rippling with dense muscle, drawing their eyes up to an arm casually holding an oversized Warhammer single-handedly. The man’s eyes were green, his long hair a deep red.

“Barbarian.” Rose breathed, eyes shining. Was her breath coming a little faster?

Hans smile genially, “Now the problem is that you can’t join a Guild group, can you?”

The man’s eyes darkened, his face stony as he set his jaw, nodded, and turned silently away. He paused as Dale called after him.

“Hold!” Dale commanded. “What is your name?”

The Warhammer came to rest on the ground. “My name? I bear the name of my father, and my father’s father, for generations uncountable. We are the mighty hunters of the frozen north, giants among the men of humanity. I am what you call a ‘barbarian’,” He lifted his chin disdainfully, “I am the warrior known as: Tom.”