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

Arrows - missing teammates by fractions of an inch - thudded into weak points in the Bashers. A Warhammer moving faster than it had any right to transformed bounding bodies into jelly, splattering the barbarian with gore. Dale’s Morningstar cracked bones and rock armor, and a well-placed dagger from Hans severed the thread keeping their enemies tenuously attached to life. Adam watched the laughing, blood crazed team he was a now part of and began nervously praying.

Soon they were standing in the first room breathing deeply as they attempted to calm themselves and replenish their stamina. The gore from the groups of Bashers in the room still dripped gently from the ceiling, intermittently splattering them with viscera. They dropped to their meditative poses and began cultivating, Dale working as hard as he could without sacrificing purity or density. Easily outstripping even Adam, Rose cultivated with the force of a tornado, drinking in Essence through two open channels of affinity.

They relaxed a bit as the room drained of Essence, flowing unnaturally fast out of the room and deeper into the dungeon. They stood, preparing their cooling muscles for more fighting, and entered the tunnel. Only one other time had the path to the final room been so clear, though this time the Essence was rushing toward the Boss room, not away. Rage abated, they moved with more caution, skirting around traps carefully instead of recklessly. The enemies Dale’s group fought against had tactics used against them, instead of just force and anger. Soon, they stood in the third main room, looking at the odd loot they had just found.

“Is this arrow type even usable?” Dale handed the items in question to Rose. The metal shaft was weighted at the tip, round and heavy.

Rose inspected it, held it to her ear and shook it. “It has some kind of liquid in it?” She whispered wonderingly. “I… Could use it, but I have no idea what would happen. What about those daggers, Hans?””

Hans had an odd look on his face, a nearly sickly grimace. “Yeah, these are usable. They are the weapon of a killer, not a fighter. I’m… not sure I want them. Look at this.” He held up the daggers, pointing at the tiny Inscription on the hilt directly opposite the point.

“If I am not mistaken, that is the inverted liquid Rune we’ve seen previously. If I do this,” here he twisted the dagger hilt, opening a small hollow compartment, “and fill it with poison,” which he did, a vial of poison having recently dropped as it had in every room thus far, “when I activate the Rune, the poison will be injected into whoever gets stabbed, depositing it deeply inside their body. That will make it spread very quickly.” Hans actually shuddered. “I think something is going on here.”

Dale looked at him sharply, he had learned to trust Hans’s instincts, “What do you mean?”

“It is almost like the dungeon now wants us to succeed, which makes me nervous. Earlier it threw everything it had at us in an attempt to stop or kill us, now it is outfitting us with poison and odd weaponry. I think… I think we should make sure to use this stuff.” Hans fiddled with the new assassin's blades.

Even Adam had found a weapon he could use, an oaken staff banded in tungsten. It had the Inscription to become light as a feather on it, as well as a spiked end at the base that could be used for walking or stabbing. The top held a fist sized topaz stone, which would allow him to focus his celestial Essence away from his body better than even a Diamond would. With the staff being so light, he could weave it through the air like a baton, and the heavy weapon would still hit as hard as normal.

Dale looked at a glass vial he had found at his feet, trying to determine what it could possibly be used for. The shape of it was fanciful, an odd rounded shape on one end, while flat with a small convex part at the base. The vial would never stand on a shelf, the cylindrical shape and odd ends would make it roll around. Plus, there was no discernible way to open it, making him assume it was intended to be thrown or smashed. The conundrum made him scratch his head, the blood drying there was making him itch. He glanced at his weapon, and a thought occurred to him.

He activated the enchantment to allow the head of the weapon to move away from the hilt, and placed the vial there. The odd flat-then-grooved pattern of the bottom fit onto the hilt, and the head came back to rest on the curved top. It was now obvious that if he hit something, the vial would shatter, coating whatever he struck with the liquid contained within. He pointed this out to his group, and they decided to try and use it after he promised he would dodge the liquid.

Tom got nothing else that was obviously for him, they supposed the Warhammer was enough as it was. Feeling left out, he coated his hammer in poison, grumbling about not having a new toy. Feeling as prepared as possible, they made their way through the oddly empty tunnel, entering the Boss room to a strange, frightening sight.

“Cal.” The whispered voice of Dani pulled my attention away from Dale's group. I had just dropped them the gear I felt would help them kill the Distortion Cat prowling in my Boss room.

I refocused my attention on her, then upward, to where the Distortion Cat was staring directly at us. I shrieked in surprise! When had that thing gotten so close? I had thought I knew its every motion. It narrowed all three of its eyes, and began threading a tentacle down the shaft, carefully weaving it among the hundreds of roots between us. The tentacle seemed to stretch, growing thinner and allowing it to skirt around the spikes I had placed around the perimeter.

“Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap.” Dani whispered as the tentacle drew ever nearer.

The end was drawing close, so I tried to comfort her as best as possible.

The tentacle drew nearer, the maw opening and a tongue flicking hungrily around, forked like a snake. The gaping maw reached for Dani, wanting no more than her death.

“Well, that is new. Looks like it’s stuck, hit it quick!” A voice directed softly, but in the silence of our impending death they may as well have been shouting. The tentacle quickly began retreating, trying to escape while not touching the roots. It sliced poorly along a spike, opening a shallow wound as the Cat hissed. I turned my attention out of my immediate surroundings, watching the unfolding battle. Dani softly cried in relief.

The heavy hitters of their group were charging, and an arrow was already in the air. The Cat hissed again and shadows began billowing out of it, darkening the room as the front line slid to a stop, unsure of this new ability. The arrow missed the Cat as it dodged, but the modified tip shattered at its feet; making a puddle of brilliantly shining light that the Cat accidently dropped a back paw in. Now free of the shaft under the Silverwood tree, the Cat started to move - unknowing of the light shining with each step it took.

The room was now fully darkened, the light from above stopping against a wall of umbra only a foot below the celestial quartz. The furious Cat sprinted silently to the edge of the room, then charged at the group from their left, trying to catch them off guard. The shining paw was the only reason Tom noticed the pouncing animal. With a great shout of intermingled fear and adrenaline, he swung his mighty Warhammer to intercept the Cat’s path. The Cat spun in midair, a tentacle snapping out and impacting the ground, throwing it out of the way but interrupting its own assault.