Holiday Dungeon Core: Novella 1-5, page 21
“Oh, I’ll show you how much they suck—”
The Healer, whose name was Charley if Elmer remembered correctly, interrupted the exchange. “Ladies, that’s enough. We’re heading in, so be prepared.”
As much as it appeared the two were going to continue arguing, they quickly shut up and put their game faces on. Even entering the first room, which they had already fought through before a month ago, they seemed prepared for anything.
It took them only as long, if not faster, than the last time to defeat the Inflatable Polar Bear, North Pole Elf Defenders, and the Toy Soldier Troop inside of the room. The Gingerbread House and the Ice Castle rooms were equally as simple for them to defeat, as they already knew the dangers and dealt with them with competency and ease. In fact, it almost appeared that they were bored, which he could well understand; nothing they faced was challenging in the least bit.
Mall Santa also gave them no problem, considering that they had deftly defeated the “Boss” version before. They did seem surprised, though, at the smaller Minion.
“The dungeon’s Boss has changed, obviously, and this is certainly not the last room. See?” The armored Berserker pointed toward the exit leading to Elmer’s new Valentine section. “I bet there’s a whole new section down there.”
“You’d better be right,” the red-haired spellcaster responded irritably. The Dungeon Core began to suspect that, as scary as the man with the battleaxe was, the main Adventurer he was going to have to convince he had done well was the powerful Mage.
* Let’s just see if they like it. I’ve got my figurative fingers crossed. *
The moment they stood at the threshold of the Valentine’s Day section, the first room of which was his School Room, he could tell that they were at least nominally pleased.
“Ooh, look at the colors!” the black-garbed ninja woman gushed as she took it all in. The others weren’t quite as excited, but Elmer saw a smile tugging at the red-haired spellcaster’s lips. There was a lot of red present in the room, so the Dungeon Core thought that might be something she’d like.
“There’s also a very large, very complicated trap in here,” the smaller woman continued, looking over everything. Elmer wasn’t sure what she was looking at, but Keebles had mentioned at one point that some Classes could detect his Defensive Obstacles, which Adventurers called “traps”, and thereby avoid them entirely. “I’m not entirely sure, but it wouldn’t surprise me if this is a puzzle-based trap. If I had my guess, it has to do with those boxes and the paper scraps on the floor.”
The Dungeon Core thought it was very astute of the ninja to deduce that so quickly, because it was obvious that none of them had acquired information about his dungeon from the Guild outside of his cave. That could lead to some interesting developments later.
Maron went first into the room, and when nothing happened, the rest of them entered cautiously afterward. When Elmer’s Dangerous Crush Defensive Obstacle activated, they took the collapsing ceiling and the pit by the exit in stride, ignoring the death from above as everyone but the Berserker quickly got to work looking at what they needed to do with the Valentine exchange cards in the central pile. The battleaxe-wielding man, as a reaction to the movement of the Heartbreakers, closed with them immediately.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of these,” the Berserker said as he stepped forward, swinging his battleaxe in a powerful downward strike. Despite striking the thick steel of the metal Minion, his weapon went straight through it with just the barest of resistance, splitting it in half. As the battleaxe hit the floor, knocking a chip out of the stone (which was impressive by itself), the Heartbreaker stopped waddling forward and froze as its two sides started to separate. Before they got more than an inch away from each other, however, his Minion exploded.
“Aaargh! That hurt!” the Berserker shouted in anger, picking out shards of metal that had embedded themselves into his exposed skin a short way, including one that penetrated his eye an inch or so.
Elmer was shocked. The man, whom he had already seen was quite powerful, had basically taken a blast that would’ve entirely shredded any of the other Adventurers that normally delved through his dungeon – and he was just barely hurt! Since he had come to this world, the Dungeon Core had learned what constituted serious damage to an Adventurer, and what he saw definitely didn’t qualify. Even his armor was only a little scratched, though it was certainly chalky, with the obliterated candy hearts that had hit him.
“Casting Greater Heal on you, Maron – and try not to do that again,” the Healer, Charley, said quickly before a white light fell over the Berserker. The shards that the armored man hadn’t pulled out yet popped out with the healing spell, falling to the floor with a barrage of *tinks*.
In his opinion, Elmer thought that the Berserker had done a great job, especially since his bulk had essentially blocked any product of the explosion from reaching the others. But their ears probably hurt, as well as being startled by the sudden explosion, so the Dungeon Core thought that was probably behind the admonishment.
The battleaxe-wielding man, despite being fully healed, hadn’t taken the attack with aplomb. Instead, Elmer got to see why his Class was called a Berserker.
A visible red aura surrounded Maron, and with a yell, he charged the other Heartbreaker and swung his weapon like a baseball bat, though he turned it sideways so that the flat of the blade was facing the Minion. With a tremendous impact which caved in the front of the metal heart, a feat that Elmer thought would take a hydraulic press to achieve back on Earth, the Heartbreaker went flying backwards through the air, landing about 15 feet away on its legs with enough force to bend them into uselessness, before rolling with its momentum right into the exit pit.
Out of sight, damaged into immobility, Elmer’s minion sat at the bottom of the pit and started to tick. The Berserker, still quite angry and lacking another target, took to the chalkboard and started destroying it with furious strikes of his weapon, before the Healer cast another spell on him.
“Calm down, it’s alright, everything will be fine,” the Healer said soothingly, as another white light seemed to suffuse the Berserker. In a few seconds, the red aura faded, and the armored man seemed to deflate a little.
“Thanks. Have you got it yet?” he finally said, regaining his composure and easy smile. It was a little disturbing for Elmer to see how fast the man had changed. He had known some people back on Earth like that, who could resort to violence at the drop of a hat; but then again, they didn’t have anywhere near the strength of this individual.
Just then, the Heartbreaker finally exploded after its ticking stopped, but any damage it would normally do was kept inside of the pit.
“Uh, yeah. Last of them are going in now.” As the group finished up the sorting, shoving the last of the cards in the boxes’ slots, the ceiling stopped coming down and shot back up to its original spot. The pit also filled in, bringing the metal scraps and candy hearts with it, neatly contained in that particular spot.
“Excellent! Let’s go!”
After picking up the heart-shaped chocolate boxes (following an inspection by the ninja), they moved on to the next room. The smaller woman looked inside of the room through the curtain of razor-sharp hearts and identified the streamers up near the ceiling as a “trap”, as well as the other Minions that they had to defeat. Again, it was a very precise interpretation of the dangers, and with a few seconds of planning, Maron barged into the room after essentially slicing through the entire curtain with one slice.
The Berserker grinned maniacally as he blocked the explosive balloon hearts sent his way, appearing as if he was enjoying himself thoroughly. However, he wasn’t able to move forward because he was stuck blocking the projectiles, but he didn’t have to – he had other group mates that could take care of the situation all by themselves.
The red-haired Mage cast two spells simultaneously, which was amazing to watch. The first was one that covered the entire ceiling with flames, burning through the falling streamers almost immediately, eliminating their threat. The second spell was focused on the Balloon Tank, but this one was a bit different. A very large sphere of heated air coalesced around the Minion, before contracting at a steady rate; as it got smaller, the heat began to increase exponentially until the entire sphere was aflame, burning anything inside. Even Elmer wasn’t able to see inside until the contraction of the sphere finally stopped and dissipated; when it was gone, he saw that all of the balloon “armor” surrounding the tank was gone, and the gas tank itself was drooping somewhat as it had melted slightly.
Wow, those were some intense flames!
A second after the sphere disappeared, the ninja appeared as if from nowhere, slicing through the tank with her two swords, and the softened metal fell apart like wet clay. The explosive barrage stopped, and the Berserker was able to turn his attention to the 4 Heartbreakers still in the room. He didn’t have much to do, however, as they were already being taken care of by the archer, who had shot some sort of magical arrow at all of them. When it hit, there was a transparent green energy surrounding Elmer’s Minions, keeping them from moving. Stuck in place but technically not incapacitated, they didn’t explode – but they would a few moments later.
Shot in rapid succession, explosive arrows from the archer slammed into the legs of the frozen Heartbreakers, destroying one of the legs of each and toppling them over. As soon as they were all on their sides and ticking away, all of the Adventurers gathered together by the Healer, who began to wave his hand in a complicated spellcasting. As soon as he was done, a large dome appeared over the group, extending to the floor, and they all stood in place while the Healer closed his eyes and held his hands out. Elmer intuitively figured he was keeping the dome active, and that it took all of his concentration.
One after another, the explosions blasted through the room, causing the dome to waver slightly after each hit, but it managed to hold through all of the damage inflicted on it. As the last of the Heartbreakers exploded, the Healer let the dome drop and he drooped in place before pulling some sort of flask from his belt and drinking from it. The Dungeon Core supposed it was some sort of drink that restored his Mana, because such a casting probably consumed quite a bit of it.
“Wow. I didn’t think I’d have to use that in this dungeon,” Charley said after he had recovered. “I’d say that this has been a surprise so far. Not exactly difficult, but it’s taking a little more thought than that first section.”
The others nodded, including the red-haired Mage. Elmer could see that she was coming around to the differences in his dungeon, and while she still didn’t look pleased, she didn’t appear dismissive of her experience so far.
Just wait until you see what’s coming up.
Chapter 12
The Maze of Emotions was immediately put to the test as both the Berserker and the red-haired Mage attempted to bust through or burn through it, but fortunately his bushes resisted their attacks. Barely. Looking closer at his construction, he realized that if they had put just a little more effort into it, his walls wouldn’t have survived; for instance, if the Berserker lost control with his red aura again, the extra strength that had allowed him to toss aside his Heartbreakers and destroy the chalkboard would’ve torn them to pieces.
Unfortunately, while the rose bush walls were able to withstand their attacks, his Kiss From A Rose Defensive Obstacles were identified by the ninja before they could reach out and affect the group. It didn’t take more than a few moments for them to figure out how to burn the “traps” to disable them; Elmer really wanted to see how they would react, but that didn’t seem to be in the cards for him.
At least, not until the very last one to be found in the Maze.
“Alright, I really want to see what these do, Miranda. Hold off for a moment, and Charley – get ready,” Maron said after they had navigated their way through the rest of the Maze of Emotions.
They had very little issue killing the stuffed animals that attacked them, with the archer killing the Owls that descended from the tops of the walls with ease, while the ninja woman took out the Foxes, the Berserker the Ape, and the Mage the Wolf. They spread the destruction around equally, because they all seemed to be able to contribute, using their specialties.
“Are you sure this is a good idea? What if it’s an instant-kill trap?” the Healer asked.
“In a dungeon this new? I doubt it. Besides, what’s fun without a little danger?”
Charley appeared exasperated, but he didn’t argue anymore. Instead, it appeared as if he was used to humoring the Berserker, which indicated to Elmer that this was a common occurrence.
The battleaxe-wielder walked forward and allowed a rose and its thorns to dart out and touch the bare skin of his arms, the sharp projections just barely able to pierce his tough exterior. As the rose retracted back into the wall afterwards, Maron turned around and looked at the others, his head cocked to the side.
“I’m not sure what it’s supposed to do, but maybe I’m immune—aaahhhh!”
The big man suddenly screamed and collapsed to his knees, his wide-open eyes a very common reaction to the extreme fright he was experiencing. The others leaned away from him in shock, unsure what was happening, but the Healer was immediately casting something on the Berserker. The spell finished and a bright light appeared over the screaming man, but nothing happened.
“Not a toxin, obviously. Must be affecting his mental capabilities,” Elmer heard the Healer saying to himself, before casting something else. A few seconds later, another light covered the Berserker, and the screaming stopped.
The battleaxe-wielding Adventurer immediately jumped to his feet, murder in his eyes. “What took you so long?! You cannot even imagine—” he started to say, taking a step toward the Healer even as a red aura started to form around him.
Another quick spell from the Healer calmed the Berserker down before he could hurt anyone, but Elmer thought it was close. Another second or two could’ve resulted in the Healer’s death.
“Snap out of it, Maron. Your mental resistance is trash because of your Class, so you took it a lot harder than you should’ve. And I got you out of that as quickly as I could, so don’t blame me for your own poor decision.”
Despite the harsh tone of the Healer, as well as the reaction of the armored Adventurer, Elmer could sense that they weren’t really mad at each other. They were friends, obviously, and friends didn’t allow things like what happened to make them turn away from each other. Besides, it probably wasn’t the most clueless thing the Berserker had done in his life.
“Apology accepted,” Maron said abruptly, before turning away. The Healer sighed dramatically, but he smiled in spite of the recently tense situation. As for the others in the group, they barely seemed to react, as if they were used to it all.
It didn’t take them long to finish the Maze of Emotions, and they finally arrived at the fourth Valentine room. Elmer was interested to see what would happen here when they were confronted by the Warrior Cupids.
A few minutes later, he needed to turn his focus away, as it wasn’t exactly what he was expecting. Suffice it to say, as soon as they arrived in the room, they were quickly hit by the Cupids’ special arrows in an ambush, and even though they attempted to block them with magical protection shields or a flare of flames that would’ve burnt just about any other arrow, they were all affected. Really affected.
When he had been designing the effect on the special arrows for his Minion, he had figured that it might turn the love he was trying to impart into lust. There was only a small chance of that happening, however, which was brought even lower because it would really only happen with people that had already experienced that type of love before. In addition, it would also affect those who had been around others for a long time and hadn’t acted on any buried feelings before.
It was that latter reason that hit the group all at once.
The problem was that those affected by this aspect of the special arrows would experience the effect for much longer, at least until the intense emotions they felt were… satiated. As soon as clothes started coming off, Elmer turned his focus away and talked to Keebles to keep his attention from wandering, relieved that his wife wasn’t able to see what he had inadvertently done.
* Uh… well… whoops? *
“Ha! Yeah, I’d say so. Hopefully this qualifies as a unique and entertaining experience, right?”
* Hopefully so. Either way, I’m sure they won’t forget it. *
It took so much longer than he expected for the group to be done with what they were doing, but eventually they finished. That was when the Warrior Cupids attacked the confused Adventurers, but the group wasn’t one to be caught with their pants down. Rather, they were, but that didn’t mean they were unprepared.
The shock of what they had just done lent itself to their response to being unexpectedly bombarded with normal arrows, and the literal firestorm of spells, magical arrows, and even a thrown battleaxe absolutely annihilated his Minions out of the air. As much trouble as they had been to the other Adventurers that had attempted to fight them, the Cupids didn’t stand a chance with this group, even half-hidden by the cloudy fog of the room.
“We don’t speak of this to anyone, ever,” the Healer said immediately after the danger had passed. Hastily putting on their clothes and armor, the rest simply nodded and said not a word.
* I wonder if they’ve learned anything from all of… that. *
“Who knows, but it looks like they’re heading for your Core Room, so now it’s up to your Boss to defend you. I highly doubt it’ll have a chance, but it’ll certainly give them a good showing.”
Elmer just hoped that the Elf was right.
The reward for defeating the Cupid room hadn’t been seen as of yet, and the Adventurers looked skeptically at it as soon as they opened up the red-colored, heart-shaped box. In their hands, they held red headbands that each had two thin metal hearts attached to it on top via springs, which would wobble back and forth while wearing it. They weren’t just for show, however, as each of them would make the wearer immune to emotional influence – so everything in the Maze of Emotions and the Cupid’s special arrows – as well as giving a small passive Mana regeneration.
