B3 C47: Playing for Keeps

Twin fangs lunged towards me, their owner leaping forth at such a frightening speed that I had no chance to dodge. I hastily jerked an arm upwards to shield myself, but my attacker had no qualms with switching its target to the proffered body part. It barreled into me, mouth wide to surround my entire forearm, and then it clamped down. Frighteningly sharp and reinforced with metal, the fangs pierced…

Well, nothing really.

“PPG! Do you require aid with your iron wolf?” Off to the side, Alara faced a trio of similar foes. Blocked off by an extra tall dose of Emin and Oachin’s signature barbed bushes, the remainder of the room’s wolves (not-so) patiently waited their turn.

In way of response, I hoisted my new friend to the side, showing it off as it dangled in the air. The iron wolf snarled and tugged on my arm, seeking either to bite into it or tear it off. Sadly for it, neither was going too well.

“Nope, all under control.” Between my knock-back resistance keeping it from forcing me to the ground and my reinforced armor preventing me from ending up a chew toy, what would have been a fatal foe was anything but. In fact, even with its thin metallic fur weighing it down, I had no issue lifting it up, a clearer sign of my Strength than I usually encountered.

“Um. Bad dog?” I held my other hand in a closed fist and raised it high as if I was holding a treat. “Down!”

Unfortunately, the wolf responded only by snarling further. Apparently my experience working in the dog shelter didn’t prepare me for angry, bloodthirsty wolves.

“Man, I know you’re not technically sentient or anything as a dungeon monster, but I felt a lot less bad about this when it seemed like a life or death situation. Sure you don’t want to just let us pass?”

The wolf, unfortunately, did not respond in the affirmative.

Ah well. I’d live.

Sadly for the wolf, that only made one of us.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

As to be expected, after five practice rounds, our first “real” dungeon run was uneventful thus far.

Normally, that would have been a plus! In this case, though, things were too uneventful.

“Why the hell haven’t I found anything yet?”

Sitting in the back of my head, taunting me, was my Detect Secret skill. Now that we were playing for keeps, so to speak, the dungeon should have been full of secrets and resources again. Even having scanned every inch of every shining, metallic wall so far, though, all I’d gotten was a big fat pile of nothing. Sure, we were only a few rooms in so far, but still.

“Anything Tess?” With the wolves all dealt with, Emin stepped up to my side. Glancing down, he pulled his lips into a thin line at the wolf that lay there. As a backline fighter, he still wasn’t used to the grislier parts of the adventuring life. Of course, more used to mud elementals and shades, I wasn’t sure if I was either, but if nothing else, all my spider hunting with Hartha had inured me to some of it.

“Not yet,” I grumbled. “Maybe this time around though?” I walked up to the closest metallic wall and started circling the perimeter, my own reflection keeping pace with me. Having chosen to keep me company, Emin followed close behind.

Tremor Sight. Water Sight. Heat Sight. Nothing. I kept on, cycling through all of my mana variants of Arcane Vision as I walked. Dark Vision. Light Sight. Vitality Sight. Zilch. Zero. Ghost Eye. Wind Sight. Frost Vision. Plain-old Mana Sight. Ultimately, still-

Wait. Wait!

“There.” I tugged on Emin’s arm, practically charging at the abnormal stretch of metal. He let out a squawk as he was yanked along, but when I at last crouched down to more closely examine my find, he simply furrowed his brows.

“Not to second guess, but is there something in particular I should be seeing?” He lowered himself down beside me, but his confusion failed to clear up.

“Holes.” I pointed.

“Holes?”

“Holes,” I confirmed. This time around, I activated Light Sight, channeling some extra mana into it to activate its flashlight function. I brought my finger right up to one of them, and when at last Emin saw what I did, he spluttered in disbelief.

“But… That’s just the tiniest of specks! Nothing could fit in that. Not to, uh, gainsay you, but are you certain?”

I could hardly blame him — I doubted even a needle would fit inside — but I was certain. “Look.” I traced out a few other similar holes, perfectly evenly spaced out to form a pentagon. The pattern was far too regular to be a random coincidence.

“That is rather compelling,” he admitted. “But what do we do now?”

Unfortunately, on that front, I had nothing. I quickly ran through a few options, trying to shine light into all five at once, forcing some water into them, covering them all with my fingers. No good.

They kind of remind me of those little factory-reset holes in older cellphones. But what the hell was I supposed to fit into-

“Oh!” Emin shouted. “I’ve got it!”

With more energy than I’d ever seen him with, Emin dashed away. By now, the rest of our party had grown curious and started to question what he was doing. The only answer they got was a gleeful “You’ll see!”

He bent down to collect something from the nearest wolf before sprinting back. When I saw what he had in his hands, I couldn’t help but join him in his giddiness.

“Iron wolf fur.” He held his hand out to me, offering the strands of incredibly thin, metallic hair he’d collected. With how excited he was, though, I let him do the honors.

“I, uh, always loved a good puzzle, you know? Here we go, then.” As he started fitting the strands of fur into the holes, the other three at last reached us, looking on wordlessly.

Two. Three. Four. And then click.

The space between the holes started to melt in real time, and Emin had to snatch his hand away as solid metal turned liquid and dripped to the floor. When it was all over, a perfect pentagonal hole greeted us. As for what was inside the hole-

“PPG! DPM! You have found us our first loot!” A large paw of a hand reached deep into the hole and swept all of its contents onto the floor before us in a din of clinking and clanking metal.

Somehow, a very pointed sniff cut through the sound. “That’s loot?” Nella questioned. “It’s just a bunch of metal! Not even the fancy kinds, either!”

Just as she’d said, a pile of regular metal ingots covered the ground. A few coins were scattered between them, but nothing major.

As the other continued to talk about our first find and distribute the loot, though, my focus was consumed by something much stranger.

With us having found one of the dungeon’s secrets, the dungeon augment of Detect Secret updated. It didn’t give exact percentages, but any way I swung it, the result was bizarre.

Rough guesstimation… It went up by less than one percent?

I tried and failed to picture us finding over 100 more secrets like this. It just wasn’t possible.

What kind of dungeon did we just walk into?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I continued to keep my eyes open for more secrets even as we cleared the next room. It was another group of metal slimes, the monsters by far the most common type of enemy. Not particularly needed, I flicked through my vision variants as the others herded them all into Emin and Oachin’s bush enclosure.

How the hell am I not finding anything when the last secret was only worth one percent? Was everything just really well-hidden?

Frustrated, I figured a distraction was in order. Our skills were supposed to level slower back when the dungeon was in student mode, right? I scanned my skill list to see if there was anything worth training up now that the leveling speed was back to normal. Quickly, I settled on just the thing.

“Nella!” I waved her down just as she was about to start torching all of the slimes.

A quick explanation of what I was hoping to do earned me a glare and a set of crossed arms, but she acquiesced without much of a fight. Evidently, she was trying hard to be a team player.

That didn’t stop her from mumbling under her breath, though. “... stealing my one thing from me. Bet she’s going to need my help to do it anyway.”

She probably wasn’t even wrong, but I had to stifle an eye-roll nonetheless.

And with that, I leapt into the slime enclosure, landing atop one of the steely blobs as it tried to roll about.

By now, however, Emin and Oachin had the size of their barrier down to a science, and the slimes were packed as tightly as a tin of sardines. The slime I stood on tried to buck me off or at least roll out from under me, but it immediately bumped up against the slimes surrounding it.

Well, here we go! At once, I flared fire mana into my armor and summoned up a flame bow. Even as the slimes below me started to heat up, I sent out a series of ten arrows in rapid succession, all of them aimed for different sections of the bush enclosure.

With a dramatic woosh, the bushes erupted into flame.

I kept to my bow, firing off another dozen shots to the slimes farthest away. For the closer enemies, I intermittently cast Heat. It didn’t do much, but combined with the passive fire damage from my armor, the slimes beneath me started to sizzle and hiss. The air grew hazy above them, and I rapidly unsummoned and resummoned my armor to vent the heat it was taking on.

Come on. Come on…

I didn’t have Nella’s skills with fire or the entire enclosure would have been one massive, roaring bonfire. Still, even with my armor trick, things were rapidly growing hot to an extent I couldn’t handle. I resigned myself to having to fly out soon if I didn’t get what I was after.

And then, at last, the slimes directly beneath me started to lose cohesion. I Jet Stepped off my unwilling step-stool right as it began to liquify, the burst of flames from my movement skill pushing it over the edge.

A few more beside it soon followed suit, and as I hopped from slime to slime as if dancing atop a bed of hot coals. Then, right before I called it quits, the melting of one more slime signaled the completion of my goal.

Fire Magic has reached level 20!

Hah! Having no desire to be in the middle of all that heat for even a second longer, I swapped to my frost armor and jet stepped high into the air, flying over and out of the slime pen. Even as I landed, I was already reading the next set of notifications.

Congratulations! You have reached the Apprentice rank in Fire Magic!

For reaching a new skill rank, you have been granted a skill augment.

Augment of Heat

All fire spells which directly create heat are empowered. Your flames now burn hotter.

Pretty basic, but I guess that’s what I got for using a Heat spell to gain most of my levels. Admittedly, that wasn’t the part I was excited about.

You have completed a class quest: Raise a basic spell school to the Apprentice rank.

+5000xp

+2 class points

I unashamedly pumped my fist into the air. At this rate, level 14 would come far faster than I’d expected.

Plus, I can grab a new spell from the archmage.

“Hey! Is that it? My turn?” Spotting my landing and subsequent celebration, Nella called out.

I gave her a nod with a cheery thumbs up. “All you!”

A somewhat concerning grin lit up her face as she approached the slime enclosure cackling louder than the flames before her.

“Now let me remind you what real fire looks like!”

Soon thereafter, the entire center of the room was awash in flames.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A series of coughs echoed off the steely dungeon walls as we ran from the smoky room behind us. I led the way through the tunnel to the next chamber as Oachin chided his sister between coughs.

“Okay, sorry. Sorry! I got a little competitive and overzealous, all right?”

I’d probably have been a bit more annoyed if I hadn’t been the partial cause. Who knew Nella was capable of creating that much smoke when she really got into it?

Regardless, I had more important things to worry about right then. I scanned the tunnel for any traps, spotting one in short order.

“Pause!” I held out a warding hand as I approached the trap ahead. Simple pit trap. Standard for a metal dungeon like this. In this case, it was better to just trigger the trap remotely so everyone could see exactly where it started.

While the tunnel walls were solid metal, the floor was standard dirt. A quick poke with my spear, and the pit trap collapsed, kicking up dust and debris as the fake floor crashed to the bottom of the pit below.

“All right, standard pit protocols.” Fancy as that sounded, it basically meant that Alara acted as a glorified ferry for the non-fighters. She first jumped over while carrying a green-faced Emin, returning to grab Oachin moments later. Nella followed with a flame assisted jump, and I did exactly the same.

I glanced down at the pit as I flew over it, spotting the multitude of metal spikes below.

Wait. Is that-

I landed and immediately went to the edge of the pit, craning my neck over.

“PPG! Is there something amiss? What do you see?”

It was small. Smaller than I would have preferred considering what it was, but still. At this angle, it was pretty unmistakable.

“I think there’s a tunnel down there.”

Nella rushed down beside me to see for herself, shoving me slightly to the side as she did so. Seeming to lack any sort of darkvision of her own, she frowned before sending a burst of fire down into the pit, lighting everything up.

“Oh! I see it! This time around, I will claim this prize in my name!” Without waiting for approval, she leapt into the pit, slowing her descent with jets of flame which shot out from her hands.

“Nella! Stop that!” Cursing, I jumped after here while using Featherfoot. For all I knew, there were even more traps down below.

“Hah! We will remain here while you bring us the loot below!” Alara squeezed Emin and Oachin into a side hug even as I drifted down to the bottom of the pit.

By the time I landed — taking special care to twist my body away from the spikes — Nella was already scowling in front of the tunnel.

“I have changed my mind! Magnanimous as I am, I will grant you the honor of forging ahead!”

I sighed as I confirmed what I’d noticed earlier. While not quite at “horrifying claustrophobia nightmare” levels of cramped, it would be more of a crawling situation than a walking one. I had no doubts as to why Nella wanted me to go first.

“Yeah, well, thanks for that.” Not wishing to draw things out, I laid down onto my stomach and began to crawl. It was uncomfortable in my plate armor, but I still had no idea what sorts of traps there might be. I’d had to do something remarkably similar in my Arcane Armory class trial, and it had taught me well not to shirk on defenses in a situation like this.

The dirt felt like it was pressing down on me from all sides as I wormed my way forward, tensely waiting any sign of trouble. If there was one small mercy, it was that my darkvision kept everything perfectly lit.

Or scratch that — it turned out there were two more mercies. The crawl turned out to be both blissfully short and entirely trap free. The tunnel widened into a space that was, while unpleasantly cramped, tall enough to stand in.

“All clear!” I yelled back. “I’m not dead or anything.”

The first thing to greet me was a rickety mining cart sitting unsteadily on some rails. It looked like there’d once been some sort of mine-shaft entrance in front of it, but it had long since caved in.

Of greater note, however, was the earth around me. For where there were minecarts and mine shafts, there was bound to be mining, after all. The entire place was packed with striated copper ore veins.

“Ugh! Is this really all there is?” A dirt-covered Nella pulled herself from the tunnel, and had I not heard her coming, I would have been surprised by her appearance. She didn’t strike me as the tunnel-crawling type, but apparently the desire to find treasure was a common unifier. “Great. More metal. Don’t know what I expected in a metal dungeon. Come on, let’s go back.”

Reluctantly, I agreed. I could mine it, but what was the point? It would probably take ages while everyone else just had to wait.

Still, that has to be worth another percent, right? As I turned back, I checked Detect Secret’s progress only to freeze.

That feels like a… I want to say a five percent jump? Just for finding this place? That couldn’t be right, could it? If the iron fur puzzle was less than a single percent and it gave already-smelted ingots, what would the big deal be with a bit of copper?

“There’s something here,” was all I could conclude.

“What? It’s just ore, Tess.”

I shook my head. “Nope, definitely something here. Can you tell the others? We can leave if you all want, but I think I should mine this for a while.”

“Are you- Ugh. Do you know how boring that sounds? And why do you even know how to mine? Actually, don’t answer that.” Nella promptly left, grumbling once she thought she was far enough down the tunnel that I couldn’t hear her. “... weird commoner skills.”

I caught the brief sound of roaring flames, and then, a shout.

“PPG! Mine to your heart’s content! If there is nothing else down there, I will use your ore to smelt a commemorative trinket for our first true dungeon run!”

Well, that settled that. I eyed the ore veins, trying to figure out my best line of attack. I summoned up my pickaxe and hardhat, turned on my Miner’s Mitts, and with a heavy swing, I got to it.

~~~~~~~~~

What felt like an eternity later, I had to admit I might have made a mistake.

There was no secret gemstone deep within the rocky walls. No hidden door waiting to be excavated. No treasure-laden cavern just a few strikes away.

None of it.

Just a set of sore muscles.

And a fuck ton of copper.

“Is copper more valuable than I thought, or what was with the big bump to Detect Secret?” I mean, there was still more ore to mine, but unless we all wanted to grow old waiting for me to finish, I somehow doubted that was the answer.

Wrong solution to the puzzle then? Considering how much he seemed to enjoy this sort of thing, I thought about pulling Emin down. Maybe as a last resort — getting him down safely and then back up again would be a hassle if nothing else.

“So not the ore. Then maybe the mine cart?” I’d already looked the thing over ten ways to Tuesday, but it really seemed like your run-of-the-mill minecart.

I poked it. Pushed it. With a spark of inspiration, I climbed into it. Nothing happened.

“Well, what do minecarts do when you’re not using them for dramatic minecart rides?”

I mean. I guess you fill them up with ore.

I looked around at the ground, liberally covered with chunks of unrefined copper, and then to my pouch where I’d stuffed even more of the stuff.

Can’t be that simple, can it be?

As if simply tidying up my workspace, I collected the stray copper, throwing it into the cart by the armful. When the floor was clear, I took from my pouch, the heap growing and growing until it was nearly filled to the brim.

The closer it got to being filled without anything happening, the sillier and sillier I felt. With how long I’d been mining, though, I had plenty of ore to spare.

One more piece, perched so precariously it was at risk of falling off.

Another.

And then, at last, something changed.

The earth rumbled and bucked beneath me, and for a tense moment, I feared I was about to be trapped underneath a cave-in.

The truth, however, was the exact opposite.

The mineshaft before the cart began to transform with the rocks blocking the way receding into the walls around them.

As if pushed forward by a ghost, the cart began to slowly advance down the long-abandoned shaft.

Briefly, I considered following it, or at least calling the others down so we could follow after it together. I was glad I didn’t, however, when the rocks returned to their previous positions as the mine cart passed by.

It was a surreal sight, massive boulders and loose rubble lifted away as if it were nothing, only to come crashing back down with a thud. I watched until the rocks completely obscured my vision, and even then, I watched for a while longer with Tremor Sight.

It was only a sudden realization that broke me from my zoning out.

“Wait, hey, that’s my copper!” Hell, an entire cart’s worth too!

Did I even- Did I even get anything from all that?

I scanned the room looking for any irregularities, my eyes eventually landing on a single gleam bit of copper at my feet, partially buried under the rail tracks.

One that I swore hadn’t been there before.

Detect Secret has reached level 12!

After digging it out, I examined it, only more flummoxed than I’d been before. It was a single, perfectly polished piece of copper in the shape of a quarter-circle. No writing or markings of any sort marred its form, and God’s Eye only returned the somewhat vexing description Metal Disk (1/4).

Somehow, it felt like a poor showing for all that work I’d done. I might have been bothered by that, too, if not for one important fact.

Once again, I checked the progress on Detect Secret, only to find that it had jumped an entire ten percent just from finding the partial disk. Combined with the bump I’d gotten from discovering this room in the first place, that made for an entire fifteen percent dedicated just to this chamber.

Whatever I’d found was incredibly valuable — or at least incredibly secretive.

And with any luck, there would be three more to find, too.