Chapter Four Hundred and Forty-Five — Find One to Find Another
Chapter Four Hundred and Forty-Five — Find One to Find Another One moment I was in the Mage's Guild, the next, I was elsewhere.Which is about how teleportation was supposed to work, but I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be so gut-wrenchingly unpleasant. I landed and felt as if the world had turned about ten degrees to one side and a little bit back. So not only did I have to deal with this super strong sense of magic magic magic all around me, I had to deal with a sudden wave of vertigo.I stumbled to the side for a couple of steps before catching myself and standing still while the world spun around me."Huh," someone said, but I really didn't feel like losing my lunch on their shoes-which would have been impolite-so I kept my eyes closed while my inner-ears settled."Okay," I said after a while. Blinking, I took in the space around me. It was... a rather mundane building, with walls made of hewn logs stacked up atop each other with a bit of mortar between each. A little painting of some nice hilly mountains hung on one wall, and a spartan wrought-iron chandelier was hanging from the ceiling.Even the magical rune-covered circle on the ground wasn't anything too special. It was made of iron bands, carefully welded together and inlaid with sturdy wood. This was a far-cry from the fanciness of the Mage's Guild.There was a grenoil standing to one side. The other side of the room had a little office space with a few desks and assorted books on shelves. A very cozy little workspace for this grenoil dressed in a button-up shirt and slacks, but who had his shirt untucked and his topmost buttons undone."Hi," I said."Hello," he replied. "The Guild wasn't supposed to transfer anyone else until this evening," he said as he checked on a loose pile of papers."Oh. I came here after spending a favour with Mage Procko," I said. "I'm from the Exploration Guild." I tugged the pin stuck through my bandoleer so that he could see it better. "I'm actually here to find the previous team that passed through?"He nodded along. "That makes sense, I suppose. In any case, they came through a few hours ago?""Right... we are in Rockstack, right?""Yes?""The little outpost in the Dark Forest? Not too far from Port Royal?"He nodded slowly."Huh," I said. "Well, alright then. Did you see a bun go by, by any chance?""A bun? Like you?" He pointed up and down at me. I nodded along. It was interesting how grenoil pointed at all of someone while more human-ish people mostly just pointed at the ears. I supposed that it did make some sense. "Nope. Haven't seen anyone like that.""Alright. Thank you! Do you know which direction the other Exploration team was going in?""Shouldn't you know that?" he asked.I puffed my cheeks out, but he wasn't wrong. "Well, guess I'll have to find them. Thank you! We might be teleporting back a little early, if everything goes well and I find everyone.""I'll keep that in mind, ma'am."With a last friendly nod to the nice grenoil. I slipped out of the office and right out of the building. As it turned out, this... branch of the Mage's Guild? I turned to stare at the building. It did have a Mage's Guild icon on the front, but almost looked like a medium-sized wooden home from the outside. Something built quickly.It fit in with the rest, at least.I spun around, taking in Rockstack outpost with a sweep. There were a few dozen similar buildings, all placed in neat rows, with a few more going up slowly at the end of the row. To me, the grenoil workers seemed to be taking their time, but maybe they just weren't in any rush.The rest of Rockstack was eerily familiar, and yet not. There was still a large stack of stones in the centralsquare just past the gate into the outpost. The inn was off to one side, looking like it had grown a little, and there was a general store and a government office plopped down on the far end of the square.The walls of the outpost looked like they had been pushed back, and recently, clearing out a larger space for Rockstack to maybe go from just a pitstop and outpost to a proper frontier town.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.I bounced my way over to the gate. I wanted to stop by the inn, because I could remember the innkeep here being nice to me, but my mission was pretty urgent, and chances were the gate guards would have seen the group leaving first."Hello!" I said as I came up behind a pair of grenoil guards.They turned, looking at me casually. "Yeah?" one of them asked."Have you seen a group from the Exploration Guild leaving recently?" I asked."Exploration Guild?" The guard tilted his head, eyes narrowing in thought."Yeah, a handful of zem came zrough earlier. Looked like zey were headed towards ze Freud-Slip Dungeon," the first guard answered while scratching his cheek."Did you see which direction they went?" I asked.The guard pointed down the road. "Zat way, down za road. Zen right. You can't really miss it. Zere's not really a road to ze dungeon, but after a few dozen delvers went zere every day, ze path is hard to miss."I looked down the road. There was a carriage way off in the distance, kicking up a trail of dust behind it, but that was all. "Are there delvers there now?""Nope. Dungeon's closed," the guard said. "You haven't heard?""I just arrived," I said. "Why did it close?" something leaden settled in my tummy."Something big went down. We had a bunch more delvers for a while, and zey were real excited about whatever it was. Zen ze dungeon got hard. Delvers don't do changes so good, and a few of zem died down zere.""I zink zat's why the Exploration Guild was called in," the second guard said.My heart sank. A sudden change in dungeon behavior, leading to erratic violence. That ... sounded a lot like Evil Roots. I do not have time for this! "Yeah, I guess so," I said, trying to maintain my cool. "Well, I'll be back. Thanks for the help!"I gave them a wave before I started down the road at a quick jog. I didn't want to arrive tired, so sprinting was out of the question, but I was sure I was moving faster than a whole gaggle of Explorers would have. If the dungeon was far enough, then I'd catch up to them eventually.The team had a few hour's head start, but I was sure they'd have wasted some time in Rockstack before heading out.I kind of wished I had time to waste in town too. I had a lot of questions to ask and things I wanted to know. Maybe I could have found a chatty delver who could confirm things for me? But I didn't have time for that.The road was currently unpaved, but it was still flat and even. Earth had been mounded up into an embankment, with a layer of logs laid over the top, then those had been covered in a layer of gravel that seemed resistant to the usual ruts and bumps of a road. I wondered if it would be paved all the way to Port Royal, or at least the smaller towns at the base of the mountain the city was on.In any case, the road made it easy to hurry along, and with so many trees needing to be cut down, the space around the road was clear of brush, so the Dark Forest didn't encroach upon the road at all.It took me a good half hour or so of constant jogging to find the side-path the guard had mentioned. Fortunately, it was hard to miss.There was a small temporary bridge over the ditch alongside the road with a path stomped into the ground beyond that. It led right up into the forest, with some planks laid out on the ground where it became too swampy and muddy.I slowed down as I started across that path. There were some bootprints on the ground here, easy to make out in the mud. They were all heading in the same direction, away from the road, and they looked pretty recent. I didn't have much experience tracking or whatever, but that much was easy enough to tell.The path went on for a while. There was a hill not too far in, and atop it were some small temporary buildings made of local wood and a few abandoned pavilion tents that were falling apart with no one to care for them.The rest of the path continued on into the swamps where hungry clouds of mosquitoes were waiting to nibble at me.I wondered if Cleaning magic would keep me unbit...
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Chapter Four Hundred and Forty-Six — Psychoanalysis
Chapter Four Hundred and Forty-Six — Psychoanalysis My Cleaning magic did not help with mosquitoes.It might have helped with the bites, because if I remembered from school correctly, mosquito bites were itchy because they spat something into you when they poked through your skin, and I was pretty sure my Cleaning magic could clean that away, but that still only worked if I was bit.I whipped up some little fireballs, keeping a grip on them with tethers of mana, and set them to orbit around me. They provided a bit of light, and did seem to ward away some of the bugs, but I was pretty sure I'd be finding bites here and there anyway.It was one of the only disadvantages to wearing skirts instead of pants, really. I'd be finding bites on the back of my legs, I was sure of it.The area around here was swampy. Full on swampy too, with the only path towards the dungeon being made of wooden planks bridged from pylon to pylon a few centimetres over the muddy ground. Droopy branches hung from the trees and gnarled roots poked out of the stagnant water all over the place.Without the plank-path, navigating around here would have been a nightmare. As it was, the path looked like it was well-worn and maybe in need of a bit of maintenance. Some parts had sunk into the mud a little, so I hopped over those to keep my shoes mud-free as long as possible.Sure, I had Cleaning magic for that, but it wouldn't stop me from getting wet socks, and wet socks was one of the worst feelings.Fortunately, it didn't take all that long to hurry from the abandoned delver camp to the dungeon itself.The entrance sat on a grassy hill that crested out of the swamp and which was surrounded by trees and bushes. If it wasn't for someone having cleared out the space before the dungeon's entrance and the path leading to it, I don't think I would have noticed it at all.Half-buried into the hillside was the edifice of a strong building — the dungeon's front door, so to speak. It was made of pure white stone, completely spotless even where the foundation rose from the muck. Atop the foundation, carved pillars held up an arched lintel, framing a lightless tunnel.The tunnel was clearly unnatural, extending deeper and deeper into the distance, far beyond the physical dimensions of the hill.I paused before it and checked the ground. There were more prints in the mud. Boots and webbed feet and it looked like maybe something had been dragged across the ground too. It was hard to tell, though it didn't look old.I kept my fireballs spinning as I ducked into the dungeon. They gave me a bit of much-needed light because it was uncomfortably dark in there. Dark and damp.A prompt appeared before me, provided by Mister Menu about the dungeon.You are Entering the Freud-Slip DungeonLevels 6-8Your entire party has entered the DungeonSeal Dungeon until exit?Current Instances: OneJoin Existing Instance?"I'd like that, yes please," I said to Mister Menu before he disappeared with a soap-bubble pop.Dungeon left UnsealedInstance JoinedI stepped fully into the dungeon, then with a small magical tug, pulled the fireballs up a little to provide a bit more light.The corridor went on for a while, then stopped at a set of steps leading down. There was a weird, fishy smell down there. I raised my little spinning fireballs higher, then started down the steps, going much slower and being more careful than I had been moving before.There could be traps down here. In fact, it would be a little weird if there weren't traps down here. That was kind of what dungeons were known for.I bit my lower lip.I missed my friends. Normally, we all watched each other's backs, so traps weren't so scary. If one of us missed one, the others wouldn't.Now, there was only me.I hadn't been completely alone in a dungeon since... well, since the beginning.My hands shook for a second. Around me, my firelights wobbled, almost guttering out.We... we were all stretched out now. All spread out. Amaryllis trying to wrangle a mob into shape, Caprica mobilising the sylph response, Clive and the rest of the crew back on the Beaver, Awen and Calamity somewhere in this dungeon with Sir Tissue, Cholondee trying to talk down her brother, and Booksie-She was probably alone too. Maybe not literally, but I bet her captors were just as hostile as a root-infested dungeon.I took a deep breath. My little fireballs burned brighter.Even if I'm alone, my friends aren't gone. They're still out there, doing the best they can.So, for their sake, I would do my best too.I could do this. This wasn't my first dungeon.Quickly, but without rushing, I advanced down the tunnel.The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.The steps went on for a little while, then stopped on a platform. It was a stone square within a large room. Or... I had assumed it was a room while walking down the steps because I was in a dungeon, but now that I was there, I wasn't so sure. There was no visible ceiling above, just a bank of thick fog that I couldn't penetrate.The space stretched out to the sides, old, bent trees and thick, scraggly bushes. It was another swamp down here.A path pushed through the swamp ahead, marked out by large flat-topped stones that stuck out of the muddy waters and led into the fog.I tensed as I looked around. There was something wrong about this area, though I couldn't quite pin what.Then it struck me. It wasn't that something was wrong, it was that something was missing. There wasn't the croak of frogs, the buzz of bugs, or anything alive. The swamp down here was almost entirely quiet if it wasn't for the sighing wind and the gurgle of water.Since it's a dungeon, maybe it made sense that the place was empty of real wildlife.There were probably monsters, though, and I needed to be careful. "It can't be that bad, if the others have already cleared this part of the dungeon," I said.Then I was hit by a faint, distant echo of my own voice. "Others gone through me.."I paused two steps in, ears swivelling. Was that an echo? "Hello?" I called."Hello..."Again, my voice from deeper in the dungeon, with a delay just short enough that it could have been a natural echo. I was thinking it wasn't, though.I was already creeped out, but that only added to the feeling.There wasn't really a choice but to go further in, though. I kept one fireball over my shoulder, and the other a little lower, giving me as much light as possible."Are you a nice, friendly monster?" I asked."Friendly monster...""I, uh, don't know if that was a reply, an answer, or just you repeating yourself.""Repeating yourself..."Yup, that was definitely something weird.I kept walking, hopping from stone to stone, my hands held ready and a spell half-formed. I really missed having something to serve as a weapon. My scythe would have been nice, or my old spade. I'd settle for a thick branch, or a folding chair.But, no. All I had was magic.That wasn't to say I was helpless. I'd just need to get creative with my spells and avoid any close-up fighting. Which is why I jumped up with a squeak as something ripped itself out of the water while screaming."Friendly monster!"It was a monster, about half my height, and shaped like a person, but with a frog-like head. Its skin was green, and its body was covered in muck and algae. Its eyes glinted an eerie blue in the light of my floating fireballs.It opened its mouth, showing off a maw filled with rows of sharklike teeth and screamed again.Then it jumped.I shrieked, leaping backwards, my feet slipping a little on the wet stone. My fireballs flew forward and smashed into the creature. It hissed, reeling back, then dove back into the murky water. I lost sight of it right away, probably because I'd just used up my only source of light.I created more fireballs in a hurry.The water gurgled, then went still.There was no sign of... whatever that had been. "Wow, you scared me," I said, a hand pressed over my heart as I created a fresh brace of fireballs."Scared you, scared you," echoed across the swamp.That had not been exactly what I said. This thing could understand, at least a little.I was about to say something else, but the water next to me exploded as another creature erupted up. I yelped and jumped to the side.I formed two more fireballs and sent them flying, this time at the monster's face. It crashed to the ground next to me, and I launched a hard kick right into its face. The monster reeled back, screeching loud and piercing. So while it wasn't attacking, I created a few more fireballs and launched them right at its exposed belly.The monster shook under the impacts, then slipped off the rock and into the water, a small trail of smoke following it.Ding! Congratulations, you have eliminated Mimicry Murlock, level 4!"Okay, this is going to be a pain," I said."Going to be a pain... going to be a pain..."I twisted, trying to spot where the voices had come from, but even with my ears fully extended, I couldn't spot the source of them. "Can you be nice?" I asked."Be nice, be nice.""Alright, you know what?" I asked the swamp. "I'm just going to ignore you.""Ignore you, ignore you.""Yeah, that," I agreed. The others clearly hadn't cleared out the room of these things, so I didn't see a reason why I should stand around and fight a whole room's worth of annoying monsters. So with a hop and a skip, I pushed ahead towards the far end of the room.
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