DTK 35

Sandy cursed, fumbling to remove the gaunlets covering her arms. She was steaming — literally. Steam wafted off her under the armor. Her skin was red as if it had been burned.

“You alright?” I asked, grabbing her arms and turning them over.

“Yeah. Damn. Not a good match up for a butcher.” Sandy said.

The damage to her was only skin deep, probably entirely thanks to Health points acting as a shield between us and the monsters.

The cold of this floor of the dungeon was setting in quickly.

“We have to move.” I said, kicking the corpse of the monster. It was made of ice. There was absolutely nothing I could make out of it.

“Hold on.” Sandy said, stepping up and around me. She looked around, her expression unknowable beneath her helmet, before she suddenly shoved a hand into the snow beneath the monster.

She pulled out a glowing blue crystal the size of a marble.

“What is that?” I asked with a frown.

“Not sure.” Sandy said. I could hear her consideration in her voice. “Butchering skill led me to it.”

She rolled the marble between her fingers before pressing it over to me. I took it and inspected it. It was cold to the touch like a piece of ice but more solid, not melting despite me holding it.

“Wonder if its usable? Some kind of… elemental core. Alright. Maybe we can gain something here. Let’s hurry.” I shoved the core into a pocket and started trekking towards the next light.

There were trees fighting back the cold here, practically husks stripped of leaves and life, dead and black in the dark. They were thin enough that the occasional copse of them didn’t block our view to the next monster. Snow piled at their roots, creating tripping hazards for us to navigate.

I turned to Sandy as we came into view of the next monster.

“Hold on.” She said. “Let me try something.”

“You have enough Health left?” I asked, staring her down.

“Yeah.” She said, nonchalant as she stepped up to the monster. This monster sat among a pile of bones. It was another elemental of ice, but this one was sharp and curved, its body a miss-mash of circular shapes like a bundle of grapes with legs like sharp ribs hanging from the side of them.

Sandy kicked it.

I stepped back, waiting for its attack.

It stumbled over on its side, catching itself on its half dozen malformed legs. Then it pulsed blue.

Sandy parried.

The wave of blue disappeared instantly, reappearing on the edge of Sandy’s blade and shooting out around her. It passed over me harmlessly. In the other direction, it slammed into the monster, which listed to its side before recovering. There was a harsh crunching noise coming from the monster, but it seemed undamaged.

Sandy leapt forward and hacked at it, snapping her blade down at the segments of its body. They crunched and cracked before falling apart, the light of the monster slowly dying. Once again, she reached down and plucked free a core from the icy body.

“[Parry] told me the name of the skill when I used it.” Sandy said, pushing the core over to me.

“Didn’t look like it damaged it?” I asked, shoving the core in my pocket. “What was the skill?”

“[Frost Nova.]” Sandy replied.

“Go figure a frost skill doesn’t damage a… an ice elemental?” I asked.

Sandy shrugged. Things had changed from mundane so magical so quickly. She pulled her helmet off and started drinking from the flask of soup around her neck.

“I wish I hadn’t ate so much today.” She said, re-stoppering the soup as we headed to the next monster.

“Too bad we can’t just get mana potions. Oh, yeah, that spider blood you gave me?” I said.

“For the paint, or whatever?” Sandy asked.

“Yeah. Terry made a potion out of it. Leveled up. Acid resistance. Speaking of leveling up…” I said. “Let me hit it before you kill the monster this time. I didn’t get any experience from the last one.”

“Sure thing.” Sandy said.

We were already rapidly coming up on the next monster.

This one sat atop another crystal, its body jagged squarish shapes. I popped it once with [Running Stitch] and Sandy swung onto the damaged portion I created, breaking the monster to pieces.

The forth monster died just as easily. I felt the small thrum of mana as the dungeon built towards opening its next door, but I didn’t wait around to see it where it would be. I headed right for the exit to the dungeon. I was freezing.

“Need a damn fire to warm up.” Sandy said, exitting the dungeon after me.

I was rubbing my arms and stretching my legs, trying desperately to warm up. At least it was still sunny right now; the last light of the day was slowly falling below the treeline.

I plucked open the flask from my neck, drinking the still hot soup. Was it hot because of one of Henri’s skills? Or was the metal insulated? I looked down at the flask in my hands. Who insulated a flask?

“At least we did it though.” I said, leaning down with my back to a tree and rubbing my hands together.

Sandy grunted, sitting next to me on the dirty forest floor.

We sat there drinking soup until we were warm, basking in the last rays of sunlight as it fell below the horizon.

I played with the tiny marbles that had dropped from the monsters. They were completely useless to me.

“Maybe the boss monster could make us warmer clothes.” I said.

“You in a rush to fight it again?” Sandy asked.

“Not particularly.” I replied.

Sandy threw her head back, looking up through the leaves.

“I hope the next dungeon has something we could use.” Sandy said after a minute.”

“Where to after this? East?” I asked.

The dungeon’s entrances were in the cardinal directions of the town. Killing the first floor of the center dungoen had maintained the town’s domain; it was likely killing these four was enough for that as well. Or at least maintaining the domain where it had been; it had been slowly growing as we consistently cleared the second floor.

It might take more to maintain it there, now. We had moved forward Sandy’s observation area to watch the size of the town’s domain.

“East.” Sandy shoved herself to her feet.

We were starting with the two closest to the mining node at the south end of town. If we thought they had what we were looking for, we could focus on these two.

The path between the dungeons was simple and easy; the shadow of where the town’s wall would have been connected the four dungeon entrances, another magical construct created through the magic of the town dungeon and domains. For now, it was buried beneath the ground.

It was easy to see where it would rise.

Like a cobblestone path, a circular route free of trees connected the four tertiary dungeon entrances. It was overgrown with moss, clumps of dirt sporting grass from the months and years of the town’s dungeon slowly decaying or being unmaintained.

The forest was calm and quiet, the area so close to the town free of any kind of monster. Or animal, for that matter. Almost everything larger than a squirrel or small bird avoided the area around the town.

Come to think of it, animals rarely entered the town at all. It was a detail I had overlooked, slowly filtering out of my mind from years of living here. We didn’t have problems with rats. Nor did anyone have bird feeders.

So there were practically no distractions as we came upon the next dungeon entrance.

“Hopefully this one will be warmer.” I said, standing outside. I used [Quick Change] to return to the spider-scale dress.

The buffer of HP reassured me more than stealth could.

“Ready?” I asked Sandy.

“As ever.” She said, hefting the broken cleaver.

“How’s your mana?” I asked, looking over. Mine had slowly refilled as I drank down the stew. I estimated that there was probably enough to refill my mana twice over.

“Full. Ready to go. I don’t think I can eat any more, though.” Sandy said.

“Just one more clear, then. We can check out the North and West dungeons tomorrow.”

“Hope this one isn’t cold as balls.”

We stepped through the portal.

“I think you jinxed us.” I said, staring around.

The sun was slowly rising over an acrid hellscape. The terrain was obsidian glass and porous lava stone; streams criss crossed the distance, glowing red. Shrubbery was sparingly dotted across the landscape; strange, alien plants that seemed to glow and bloomed with red and orange fruits and flowers.

The flat landscape hid nothing, allowing me to see the monsters we were up against. Gigantic lizards chewed at the shrubbery where they could find it or rolled on their back across the landscape. They were almost alligators, but their bodies were thicker. Like komodo dragons, maybe.

“Those look much better.” Sandy said. I heard excitement in her voice.

“For butchering?” I asked. Sandy took a step forward. “For butchering, right? You’re not planning on eating lizards?”

She didn’t reply.