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Chapter 41: Wiggler

“I need to get strong enough to conceal my equipment,” Rodrick grumbled, glancing over his shoulder at the city walls as they followed Reya. “That was horrible. I felt like every single person we passed was staring me down.”

“Well, we’re already working on that, so all you have to do is keep at it,” Anna pointed out. “I felt the same way, though.”

Makes me even happier I have [Arsenal]. Even if my equipment doesn’t have the property that lets it appear mundane, I can still banish and summon it at will as long as I bind to it. Speaking of which, I only have two pieces of equipment bound right now since my sword got chomped. I wonder…

Arwin activated [Arsenal] and bound the hammer in his hands. It wasn’t magical, but it still counted as a piece of equipment as far as he was concerned. A moment later, the black weapon vanished.

“Whoa,” Reya said. “That’s so strange to watch.”

The hammer reformed in Arwin’s hands. “It’s quite convenient, though.”

“You can’t do that for my stuff, can you?” Rodrick asked hopefully.

“Unfortunately not. It’s a personal equipment thing only. You’ll just have to conceal things the old fashioned way,” Arwin said apologetically. “Reya, how far are we from the dungeon? I want to make sure we’re all ready when we get closer. Your old friends might be hanging around.”

“About an hour away, I think,” Reya said after a moment of thought. “I thought you said they wouldn’t put up much fight, though. Didn’t we come to an agreement?”

“That kind of thing can fall through sometimes,” Arwin said with a shrug. He scanned their surroundings, but there didn’t seem to be anything other than grass. “Never hurts to be prepared, just in case something goes awry.”

Their trek continued on in silence. Minutes slipped by and, soon enough, they’d been walking for nearly an hour. The slope of the hills intensified the deeper they went, making it harder to tell exactly where they were.

Reya seemed to have a pretty good grasp of their direction, though. She kept glancing up at the sky, then slightly rerouting and continuing on with almost no hesitation. Just when Arwin was about to ask how she knew where they were, Reya held a hand to her lips and pointed down the hill.

From what he could tell, the only thing there was the bottom of a small, grassy hill and a small pile of large stones. It took Arwin a moment to notice what she was pointing at. Nestled behind the rocks was a thin rectangular outline in the ground.

He would have missed it completely if Reya hadn’t pointed it out to him. Arwin glanced around to see if there was anyone else in the area, but as far as he could tell, it was completely empty.

“That… almost seems too easy,” Rodrick muttered. “I thought you said there was a guild guarding this?”

“Maybe they gave up since we took the key,” Reya said.

That did seem a bit optimistic, but Arwin couldn’t find any traces of other people in the area. It really did look like the thieves’ guild had given up on the dungeon. He’d definitely made a pretty strong impression on their guild leader, so it was possible that they’d decided it wasn’t worth the trouble.

“Well, sitting around here isn’t going to make things any better for us. We’ve come this far, so let’s keep pushing forward.” Arwin said.

They crept down the side of the hill and approached the outline. After glancing around one last time to make sure they weren’t being watched, Reya pulled the necklace over her head and set it down on the grass, pressing it down.

The back of Arwin’s neck tingled. The feeling passed over the rest of his body, crawling down his spine and along his limbs as the Mesh’s presence around them intensified. There was a sharp pop, followed by a wet squelch.

Shimmers of energy lit up along the outline of the rectangle at their feet. The tingling grew stronger, and lines of magical power stretched out through the grass, forming into intricate patterns.

With one final buzz, the Mesh faded away and the grass sank down, forming into a stairwell that wound deep into the earth. Faint flickers of light appeared within it as glowing motes of orange light appeared to guide their path.

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“Whoa,” Reya breathed, peering down the stairwell with undisguised awe. “That’s incredible.”

“Just remember the exit is only going to open back up for us as long as you’ve got that key,” Arwin said. He let his armor manifest on his body, not wanting to risk a surprise attack hitting something important, and stepped into the darkness.

The rest of the group followed behind him, Reya taking up their tail. As soon as she had passed several stairs and was out of the way of the entrance, it ground shut behind them, leaving only flat stone.

“That’s creepy,” Reya said, throwing glances back over her shoulder as they continued by the light of the faint glowing orbs. Arwin considered batting at one of them as he passed, but he pushed the intrusive thought away.

Most dungeons were pretty much inanimate – the only living things inside them were the actual monsters. There were a few that had did have a degree of sapience, though – and those took rather poorly to anyone fiddling with them.

No point finding out the hard way. Right now, all we want to do is figure out if we can handle this dungeon. I don’t want to mistakenly make anything harder for us.

They continued down the stairs for several minutes until they came to a stop at an archway that led into a large, square room made of old cobblestone. Vines crawled across the walls, half-dried out from lack of water.

The faint smell of moss and stale water drifted into Arwin’s nose as he squinted through the dim light, trying to see if there was anything in the room. There was no door that he could initially see, but there was a shallow pool of water in the center of the room.

“Emptier than I expected,” Reya said, peering over his shoulder. “I thought there would be monsters.”

“There will be,” Arwin said absently, scanning the corners where the shadows were the darkest. No two dungeons were exactly the same, but there were usually similarities – and monsters weren’t stupid.

They congregated to dungeons because of the condensed magical power within them, and the dungeons used the monsters to fuel themselves – either through the blood they spilled from inquisitive adventurers or through their own blood.

Something might be in the water, or it could be hiding on the ceiling where we can’t see it. I doubt the dungeon would just have an open room that does absolutely nothing this early on, especially since I don’t see a door anywhere.

The weakest monsters always hang around the upper levels of a dungeon because they aren’t strong enough to make it deeper and closer to the more intense magical energy. The ones far out from the ground usually aren’t the smartest of the lot, but ambush predators are common.

“Keep your guard up,” Arwin advised as he crept into the room, letting his hammer materialize in his hands and adjusting his grip on the rough metal handle. “Watch out for little buggers lurking in the shadows or underwater.”

“You think they’re small?” Lillia asked.

“Figure of speech,” Arwin replied. “I have no idea how big anything here is. Reya, Anna, both of you stay back. Let me and Rodrick draw their attention. Lillia – I’m not sure how your combat skills are now, but I imagine you can handle yourself without instruction.”

Lillia nodded. “I’ll hang back so I don’t draw anything’s attention too early. I’m not in the best spot to fight anything right now.”

Arwin crept further into the room. He could still remember countless other dungeons he’d plowed through, but the difference in strategy was so stark that it almost hurt. He could recall wading straight into dungeons, power rolling off his body as he sent waves of molten light into the dark, ripping through everything that stood in his way – often before they even realized they were under attack.

His party had been full of trained warriors that had done the dungeons dozens of times over already, and they knew every single thing about what they were facing. The dungeons almost never held surprises, and they’d certainly never held challenges.

Now, it was different. Arwin had no clue what was waiting for him in the darkness, and there was a very real chance that whatever it was had the strength to kill him and everyone behind him if they weren’t properly prepared to fight it.

I can’t believe I’m thinking this, but in a morbid sense, it’s actually more interesting. Sure, we might all end up dead, but it feels like we’re actually doing something, not just going through the motions that we have to go through to get stronger.

“Sneaky little cretins in this room, aren’t they?” Rodrick asked, spinning his sword in his hand and baring his teeth in a grin. “What do you think the chances are we’re up against some slimy creature that lives in the pool?”

“Considering we haven’t been jumped yet? Pretty damn high,” Arwin said. He tried to squint into the murky water, but it was too dark to make anything out. “Only one way to find out.”

His foot shifted across the ground until it found a loose stone. Arwin kicked it, sending the rock sailing through the air and into the very center of the puddle, where it struck the water with a sploosh, sending ripples running out and vanishing beneath the surface.

Almost instantly, the water erupted. A slippery grey form burst out, tentacles whipping through the air as a screech split the air. Arwin swung his hammer, batting one of the tentacles out of the air as it shot out for him.

The weapon hit the soft, fleshy appendage and ripped straight through it, spraying blue blood across the ground and drawing out another screech. The monster heaved itself fully out of the water, revealing a bulbous head and dozens of beady black eyes scattered across a blobby body.

[Landsquid – Apprentice 9]

“Gods, that thing is hideous,” Anna exclaimed from behind them. “Get it away from me, please!”

“That looks delicious,” Lillia said, running her tongue along her lips. “Arwin, don’t squish its body too much, please. I want it un-mushed.”

“I say we kill the damn thing and figure out what to do with it afterward,” Rordrick suggested, taking a step back as the monster whipped a tentacle at his head. “Any info on this ugly bastard, Arwin?”

“It’s a variant of a Landsquid,” Arwin replied. “They’re not very dangerous, but don’t let it grab you.”

“How do we kill it?” Rodrick asked.

“Stab it.”

“Lovely,” Rodrick said dryly, raising his sword and narrowing his eyes. The Landsquid let out another screech, its tentacles slamming into the ground around it like the beat of a dozen furious drummers. “One plate of chopped wiggler, coming right up.”