Pocket Dungeon, page 20
I realized at approximately that moment that Yasha probably had no fucking idea what cars were, but that was definitely a topic for later, when we weren’t hiding out at an abandoned construction site.
“The car,” I offered. “And yes, I think it was. I’ve seen it before, the day I met you actually. It followed me from the shop where I originally purchased the crystal.”
“Had you already used the crystal?” she asked. “Before the… car? Before the car followed you?”
“The night before,” I confirmed. “I’d gone looking for some sort of answer as to what the fuck was going on, and when I left the shop, I noticed someone was trying to tail me. I’d lost them, or at least I thought I’d lost them, before I went into my apartment. But if this was anything to show for it, apparently not.”
I stepped off my bike and rested my helmet on the vacated seat. I began to pace in small, tight circles as I thought through everything that had just happened. Clearly, whoever was after me for my crystal was more than aware as to where I lived. My only saving grace was probably the fact they had no idea who I was when I wasn’t on my bike.
Interesting. I started to piece together a theory.
Maybe it hadn’t been my original use of the crystal that had drawn them to my location at all. Maybe whoever was in the sedan had been staking out Clarissa le Fay’s shop, or maybe they’d tried to buy the crystal, and she’d said no.
After all, she’d told me that if she hadn’t sensed that I was worthy or whatever, she wouldn’t have let me buy the crystal in the first place. So maybe she’d already burnt someone on the crystal, and they now planned on stealing it? Or maybe they were just keeping an eye on the stone, but when I left with it, they saw my motorcycle.
And then I came back to the shop, on the same motorcycle, and they followed me home.
It wasn’t a perfect theory, but it was more likely than them somehow finding me after only two uses of the crystal. From what Yasha had told me, it wasn’t a direct homing beacon. It was just an alert that pointed in a general direction. And unfortunately, that meant I was going to have to be a lot more careful from here on out whenever I left my apartment.
“What are you thinking about?” Yasha asked. “You look… far away.”
I blinked and shook my head to clear my thoughts away.
“Sorry about that,” I said quickly. “I was just trying to figure out how they knew to follow me. You said that when I use the crystal, it’s not like it shows my exact location?”
“Yes, that is correct,” Yasha said. “It will not show your exact location, it is more of an arrow in the right direction. You will understand if anyone uses a crystal near you. It is a pulse in a specific direction more than much else.”
“That’s what I thought,” I said. “So I think whoever has been following me must have started after I bought the crystal from the shop. It’s the only thing that makes sense. They saw me leave with it, and then later when I used the crystal that night, they were able to sense the direction it came from, which led them back to me and my motorcycle.”
“That sounds like a likely scenario,” Yasha agreed. “Do you think the car will follow us here?”
The fox warrior woman glanced around us, as if she expected to see the sedan pull up out of nowhere.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “I managed to lose it on the road. I’ll have to start being more careful as to when we use my bike or not, and I’ll have to figure out some places I can go in advance when I need to use the crystal. That way we aren’t flying blind.”
“Flying blind?” Yasha repeated.
“Going into a situation without a plan,” I explained the phrase. “Because I can’t use this spot again, can I? Otherwise it will draw the people to this area?”
“Well, you can’t use it again immediately,” she said after a pause. “If you were to rotate your locations, it might be different, but someone is already looking for you. It may be best if you just find new locations each time.”
I sighed, but that had been what I was expecting.
“I’m glad I have you here to help me with all of this,” I told Yasha.
It was hard to tell in the dark, but it looked like the fox-woman smiled in my direction.
“Of course, Wes,” she said. “I am more than happy to help. You saved me, it is the very least I can do. Now go, enter the crystal. I will keep watch out here for any cars.”
I set my jaw in a grim, determined position and nodded. Then I pulled the crystal out of my pocket.
The stone was warm, like it was alive in my hand. The faint green light I’d seen before emanated from within the crystal, and I felt myself drawn into it.
Before I could let myself be sucked into the dungeon, I felt a quick brush of Yasha’s lips against my cheek. It was incredibly chaste, considering we’d had sex a few hours earlier, but I still felt myself flush with warmth.
“Be careful,” she advised.
“You, too,” I told her, and then I let myself get sucked into the stone.
The strange tugging sensation at my gut was still there when I opened my eyes again. It felt like I was floating and falling all at once, and then suddenly, I was on solid ground again.
I blinked as I adjusted my vision to the light of the equipment room. The torches on the wall burned bright, and compared to the darkness of the real world just outside the crystal, it was a welcome change.
“Hello, Mimic,” I greeted the chest, which was a totally cool and normal thing to do, because this was a totally cool and normal situation to be in.
The talking chest mimic made no moves to respond, and only solidified my theory that the chest mimic only activated or came to life after the dungeon was completed.
Either that or it was really great at giving me the cold shoulder. I had no idea why, but I was strangely offended that a chest might be acting passive-aggressively toward me.
What in the world had my life come to?
“You have entered a Level Three dungeon,” the strange voice coming out of the ether informed me.
“Thanks,” I replied, as if it would actually respond.
“Please equip yourself and proceed through the door to the dungeon. You have three hours to navigate the dungeon successfully,” the voice continued. “If you fail, you will be trapped inside of the dungeon for the rest of eternity. Good luck.”
You know, I was getting really tired of that reminder.
I made my way over to the large lockers that spanned the wall to investigate my gear. Sure enough, Mimic had organized all of my new equipment and supplies just like he had the last time.
Now I was left with a pressing question: What did I want to bring with me?
I didn’t want to bog myself down before I ventured into the dungeon, because even though my pockets seemed to act like some sort of inventory, I had yet to find out just how much they could hold. It made more sense to err on the side of caution than to assume everything would be fine.
I’d hate to have to leave either some loot or my equipment within the dungeon, so I needed to be discerning.
The first choice was obviously The Oculus. The dagger was a fantastic tool and had already come in handy on more than one separate occasion.
I pulled the beautifully crafted dagger from its spot in one of the lockers and fastened it to my belt. The crystalline handle glinted and cast strange rainbows onto the walls in the firelight.
I also grabbed Golen’s Shield. It had been helpful in the last dungeon, and it was small enough to carry on my wrist at its shrunken size. It was a safe choice to bring.
My armor selections were limited, so I put on all three pieces I owned: the Tanned Beginner’s Gloves, the Leather Boots of Swiftness, and the Fire Smith’s Leather Armor. After I attached each of the pieces of armor, I took a few small steps around the room just to test the fit on everything.
I was shocked to find just how much of a difference the leather boots made in the way I moved. I felt as if I had been sped up to two times speed, or like the world had simply been slowed down around me. Was this what Olympic runners felt like all the time?
I wouldn’t be beating Usain Bolt any time soon, but I moved with more speed and clarity than I would have otherwise felt possible. It was insane, but then again, most things about this dungeon were sort of insane. It was a fact I was rapidly being forced to come to terms with, but I supposed there were worse things to adjust to.
With my armor on, the last thing I needed to decide on was a weapon. I already had The Oculus, but the blade on the dagger was both a little too short and a little too dull for my liking.
That left me with three options. I could bring Spike, the first sword I’d gotten from the dungeon, Golen’s Sword, a weapon that had the same shrinking and growing properties as Golen’s Shield, or the Talon Blade of a Silver Dragon Wyrmling.
The final blade was one of the newest additions to my supplies, and I’d gotten it after I had helped Yasha kill the silver dragon wyrmling the last time we were in a dungeon.
According to its stats, the blade was supposed to be able to cut through any sort of creatures’ hide. The only downside to the blade was its length. Unlike Golen’s Sword that gave me a substantially longer reach, the Talon Blade was no longer than my forearm. It meant I would have to get up close and personal with whatever I wanted to attack.
I hesitated, and then because of that hesitation, I simply decided to take both weapons. They both served clearly different purposes, and I figured there were no rules against bringing more than two weapons. Besides, I didn’t intend to use them at the exact same time.
I sheathed the Talon Blade onto my belt on the opposite side of The Oculus and then slid Golen’s Sword into its scabbard on my belt. The weapon grew to just the right size to fit the compartment.
It really was a clever little tool.
I glanced around in my lockers to see if I might have forgotten anything else I might need, when I saw the Giantess’ Potion of Strength I’d earned the last time I was in the dungeon.
According to the potion’s stats, if I drank it, I would increase my strength to giant proportions for exactly a minute. I had no idea what I would use something like that for, but it wouldn’t hurt to bring it with me.
I had no way of knowing what I faced inside the dungeon, and I had always been of the mind that there was no such thing as being too prepared.
I gave my armor a cursory adjustment before I made my way over to the door that led from the equipment room and into the dungeon.
The small timer was already in the corner of my vision, and I saw the familiar three hours waiting to count down. I wondered if all of the dungeons would operate on a three hour timer, or if I had only been in ones that did so far. Until I went into a few more dungeons, I wouldn’t be able to form a solid theory as to how they operated.
Maybe I could ask Yasha when I got back out. She seemed like she would probably know about the time duration the dungeons allowed. After all, the role of crystal keeper was passed down in her family. She had to have some sort of insider knowledge I was missing.
I checked over the weapons and armor I had selected for this dungeon one last time just to make sure I was happy with my choices. Once I was satisfied with what I was going to bring with me, I made my way over to the only door out.
I took a deep breath and prepared myself for whatever I might see on the other side, and then I opened the door.
At first glance, the dungeon was no different in appearance than the other two I’d been through. The walls were the same dull gray stone covered in some sort of indistinct grime, and the floors matched to a tee. The walls were lined with burning torches every few feet, and there wasn’t a monster in sight.
The timer in the corner of my vision had already started to tick down as soon as the door had opened.
I sucked in a deep breath and stepped forward to plunge myself into the thick of it, but nothing could have prepared me for the floor falling right out from under my feet.
Chapter 14
A startled scream tore from my throat before I even had a chance to realize what was happening. The stone floor fell away and disappeared into an abyss of nothingness and took me straight with it.
It felt like one of those strange dreams where I imagined I was falling and then woke up nearly having a heart attack, only this was real.
My hands flailed in the air above me as I tried to grab hold of something to keep me from falling into God only knew what. Panic rose in my chest like bile, and I imagined what my obituary would look like, and the shitty eulogy Carrie would give.
What would they do without my body? What would even happen to my body? Would it also just stay in the crystal forever until some other poor sap got it?
As I was busy quite literally planning my death, my fingers grasped onto something. I had no idea what it was, but I curled my fist around it as tightly as I could and held on as I came to a jolting stop.
It felt like some sort of rope stretched across the chasm, but I couldn’t see anything above me at all. It was strange, because my hand was clearly curled around something, but even when I squinted, it still looked like nothing but air.
I hung from the invisible rope with one arm and felt it strain under the weight as I swung my other arm up and grabbed the rope with both hands. The muscles in my arms burned, but there was no way in hell I was going to let go.
I dangled there for a few long moments as I tried to figure out what exactly to do, when an idea came to me. I tightened my grip as much as I could before I swung my legs up. It took a few tries, but eventually, I was able to hook my legs up over the rope as well.
Once I felt secure enough, I slowly started to scoot my way along the rope as I dangled with my back facing the abyss. I felt like I was quite literally venturing into the unknown, because I had no idea how far the rope extended. I hadn’t been able to see just how much of the floor dropped out from underneath me before I was clambering like my life depended on it.
I wondered just how many people had fallen prey to that trap before. I decided I’d be sympathetic after I was securely on solid ground again. I felt like I was shuffling along the rope for hours before my head finally bumped up against what felt like a wall.
There was no easy way to tell what I’d hit, so I had to crane my neck and try to peer over my shoulder without letting go of the rope. I felt like some sort of oversized koala, but that was definitely better than being a dead oversized koala.
To my relief, I had in fact hit some sort of wall. It was made of the same stone tiles everything else in the dungeons seemed to be made out of. It stretched downward as far as the eye could see, but there was a lip about a foot above my head.
The invisible rope seemed to be tethered to the wall somehow, and I had gone as far as I could go. I would have to get up onto the ledge.
I dropped my legs down slowly from my koala hold and tightened the muscles in my core so I didn’t give myself some sort of whiplash and hit the ground at full speed. I was as careful as I could possibly be as I slowly turned myself around on the rope. My hands were slick with sweat and aching from the effort of gripping the rope for so long, but I still didn’t let go.
Once I was facing the opposite direction, it was easy enough to swing one of my legs up onto the ledge and inch my hips over until I had both legs securely on solid stone. Then I slowly shifted my vise grip on the rope closer and closer to the ledge until I was able to shove my torso safely onto the stone as well.
I had never expected to be so glad to see a grimy fucking floor.
Or another dungeon hallway stretching beyond the ledge.
“Oh, my god,” I wheezed out. The adrenaline that had been coursing through my body during my initial shuffle over seemed to fade away as soon as I was in the relative safety of another hallway, and a cold, bone-deep exhaustion started to kick in.
I supposed fear did that to you.
Once my heart rate finally slowed, I pushed myself up to a seated position, and then back up to my feet. I glanced around the hallway in front of me and saw nothing out of the ordinary, but instead of walking and maybe collapsing the floor again, I pulled The Oculus from my belt.
I raised the pommel of the blade up in front of my eye and peered through the crystalline structure. To my relief, I wasn’t able to pick up any obvious signs of a trick floor when I looked through the dagger, but I couldn’t be too careful.
As I stepped forward, I made sure to leave one of my feet planted back on what I knew was solid ground. Fool me once, and all that.
Thankfully, the floor didn’t drop out from under me. I took another hesitant step forward and was relieved to find that I didn’t seem like I was about to be dropped into an abyss any time soon.
I took a few more hesitant steps deeper into the dungeon, but then a putrid stink hit my nostrils. I recoiled in disgust and threw one of my arms up to cover my nose. The added block barely did anything, however, and the stench began to make my eyes water as well.
What the fuck was I smelling?
I peered around the dungeon as I came to a standstill. The hallway ahead of me seemed to stretch on forever, and there was nothing apparent that could be making that smell.
Against my better judgment, I let my mind wander back to my thoughts about dying in the dungeon. Could I potentially be smelling someone’s corpse? But if that was the case, where was the corpse?
The Oculus hadn’t shown me anything, and I certainly couldn’t see anything plainly in front of me.
I pushed those thoughts aside as best I could, but they had already wormed their way into my mind. I kept one arm up over my nose as I continued my slow trek down the seemingly never-ending hall. After my initial fall in the dungeon earlier, I felt as if I was on high alert. Every time one of the torches near me so much as crackled too loudly, I practically jumped out of my damn skin.
I kept my hand primed on the hilt of Golen’s Sword as I slowly crept down the hallway. After what felt like an eternity of nothingness, there was finally a turn at the end of the hall.
A wave of relief washed over me.
