Pocket Dungeon 2, page 32
“Good job,” I managed to gasp out and give her a thumbs up.
I still felt like I was about to die, just a little, as I dropped to my knees and tried desperately to catch my breath. My body felt hot and cold all over, and despite the fact that there were no more flames dancing up the sides of the walls in the room, and that the Frost Orb had been turned off, I could still feel the hot and cold warring in my body.
“Are you alright?” Iris asked. She was at my side in an instant and dropped down onto her knees to help me rise back up to my feet.
I leaned on her more than I had intended, and Monty came up onto my other side and slipped an arm under my shoulders to help me steady myself on my feet. He was hardly in any condition to help me, but I appreciated the gesture all the same.
My head spun, but I was alright. We had all made it out of that hellish excursion alive, and that was all that mattered.
Yasha pocketed the oversized treasure chest that spawned next to the dragon’s dead body before she moved over to join the three of us in the center of the room.
The metal grated door swung open on its hinges like some sort of open invitation.
“Ready to go?” I asked, though it was a purely rhetorical question. I didn’t think any of us actually wanted to stay in the room any longer than we had to, especially not with the disgusting scent of the dragon’s dead body rapidly beginning to fill the space with a putrid odor.
My other three companions nodded in agreement, and together, all four of us moved like a single unit over toward the open, metal grated door.
I didn’t hesitate to step through first. Whatever might be waiting for us on the other side was going to have to answer to me first.
Despite my readiness, however, I was met with nothing but a long, peaceful hallway with a wooden door on the wall at the end.
We had made it to the final stage of the dungeon. Thank fucking god.
Nothing was illuminated in an alarming shade of red, which was a welcome relief.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
My three companions followed along behind me without complaint, and I was the first to enter the equipment room.
A sigh of relief rocked through my body as I finally processed that we had actually made it out alive. I hadn’t really been expecting the dungeon to be so difficult, but then again, it was most likely a quadruple crystal dungeon, so it only made sense.
I looked around the equipment room with a curious glance, and was surprised to see that there were still no signs of Mimic anywhere in the room.
Strange.
Maybe because this dungeon had involved a room mimic or something he wasn’t able to spawn in? I wasn’t sure how that aspect of the dungeons worked yet, and I made a mental note of it so I could bring it up to Trog the next time I saw the massive, rocky scholar.
The four of us made our way over to the giant table in the middle of the room and quickly began to empty our pockets of treasure while stripping off our armor and weapons at the same time.
We had a total of two treasure chests after everything we had been through, but one of them was the approximate size of a fucking refrigerator, so I didn’t really mind that we only had two to show for all of our efforts.
“Turn around,” I warned Monty.
He didn’t question me, even though he did look at me with a raised eyebrow for a second. After that, however, he turned to face the far wall in the room.
I nodded at Yasha and gestured that she should go ahead and change now that Monty wasn’t able to watch, and the sexy fox-woman wasted no time in stripping down to absolutely nothing at all. I watched her with a rapt hunger as she undressed and quickly pulled on the black ensemble she had entered the dungeon wearing.
Once she was fully dressed and busying herself with pulling her hair from the collar of her shirt, I nodded, which wasn’t a gesture Monty could even see. Right.
“You’re good now,” I said to Monty so he actually could fucking hear me that time.
“Thanks,” he said. His voice was a little strained and thin, and he turned and moved over to lean up against the table with all of his weight. I wasn’t sure exactly how much blood he had lost in the dungeon, but I just hoped it wasn’t going to hinder his progress in helping us kill Harper and escape his warehouse.
His face was overly pale, but he looked steady on his feet, and that was about the only thing I could ask for.
“How are we going to deal with the loot?” Monty asked as he leaned against the table and nodded his head toward the two treasure chests that waited for us to open them still sitting on the table to his left.
“You’re going to take the gold out with you,” I explained. “That way you can use it to cause a distraction with the guards like we talked about. The rest of the stuff, we’ll put into our lockers like usual.”
“Works for me,” he said. “Shall we get on with it, then?”
“By all means,” I agreed.
The four of us crowded around the table, and I pulled the first chest over toward me. It was the smaller of the two, and it was probably just a little larger than an average breadbox. It must have been the one Monty got before we joined him in the dungeon.
I pried open the lid and sucked in a sharp breath as my eyes scanned the contents that awaited us inside.
The chest looked as though it was filled entirely with gold. I didn’t hesitate to dump it out on the table and send the contents spilling out across the massive piece of furniture.
Sure enough, the only thing inside the chest was in fact piece after piece of gold. The coins clanked against the tabletop in a soft, rhythmic tune before they finally settled and laid still against the wooden tabletop.
“For as much as these dungeons suck,” Monty began, “I do think I will miss that sight.”
“What?” I asked with a grin on my face. “The sight of all this fucking gold?”
Monty laughed. “Exactly.”
“Well, you aren’t going to be missing it entirely,” I reminded him. “Don’t forget about our deal. You help me cash in, and get to keep gold of your own.”
“How could I forget?” he asked.
“You go ahead and start getting those gold pieces gathered up, however you usually take them out of here,” I said. “Let’s get the next chest.”
As Monty busied himself with gathering up all the gold I had just dumped out onto the tabletop in front of us, I reached over and started the tedious process of pulling the gigantic, refrigerator-sized chest over toward me from where Yasha had deposited it on the table.
I had to push with more force than I expected to actually get the lid of the chest to open, but once it did, I sucked in a low breath through my teeth to admire the contents within.
The first thing I saw was a gleaming, glittering mess of gold coins. It was a tantalizing sight, and Iris quickly began to pick out the coins with ease and deposit them on the table for Monty.
“Thanks,” I told her.
As she did that, it quickly cleared a view of the rest of the contents of the chest. I took another sharp breath as the first item aside from the gold finally came into view.
I reached in to pull it out of the chest and let out a low whistle through my teeth as I held it up to the light to examine it.
It was a set of gorgeous armor made out of metallic, ruby-red scales that had clearly come from the dragon we had defeated just minutes before. I had never seen a set of fully complete armor in one of the chests before, but I supposed there really was a first time for everything.
It was made up of a chestplate, a set of pauldrons, gauntlets, thigh and shin guards, boot covers, and dragonhide gloves. The piece de resistance of the armor set was a helmet that featured flames emblazoned along the sides of the scales and small detail work that fanned out from the side and made it look like the helmet had sprouted the wings of a dragon and could fly away at any moment.
The text over the item was blue and marked it as the Ruby Dragon Armor. Not the most creative of names, but then again, it also described what it was to a T.
I scrolled over from the name of the item to the stats as I ran my hand lovingly over the dragon scale mail armor that made up the chestplate.
Ruby Dragon Armor
Dexterity: -2
Constitution: +5
Strength: +5
The Ruby Dragon Armor provides a 50% resistance to fire damage, as well as an added 15% bonus to fire attacks.
Well, damn. I’d already been excited about pairing my Smelter’s Maile with Phantom Doomslayer for a fire-heavy build, but this was a slight improvement over that. It seemed like the dungeons really wanted me to spec into that sort of synergistic armor set, and who was I to complain?
The armor glinted beautifully in the light, and I sort of just wanted to keep staring at it because it was so damn pretty, but I had to gather up the rest of the items in the chest eventually.
I begrudgingly pushed the armor aside and pulled out the next item that waited for me in the chest.
“Oh, sick,” I said as I pulled out a weapon.
It was another Talon Blade from the looks of it, only it was about twice the size of the last Talon Blade we had gotten from our last dragon encounter. That made sense, I supposed, considering the last dragon Yasha and I had fought had only been a wyrmling.
It was the length of my entire fucking arm, and the tip gleamed with a threatening golden glint as I held it up to the torchlight of the equipment room to get a better look at it.
Well, wasn’t that just nifty.
As I moved it from side to side in the light, the color seemed to shift from red to gold.
Talon Blade of a Mature Ruby Dragon
Damage- High
Speed- Average
The Talon Blade will serve you well and sever whatever you wish. It provides an added 10% buff to all fire attacks.
I set the weapon aside, and Yasha quickly picked it up to examine it as I grabbed for the third and second to last item that remained in the oversized chest amongst all the gold and gemstones that waited at the bottom.
It was far smaller than the other two items I had pulled out so far, and it fit neatly in the palm of my hand. The vial was made out of an interesting, dark cast-iron looking material and was stopped up with a simple brown cork. It looked as though the sides had been scoured of rust, but only recently. There was a small knotted bit of twine around the mouth of the bottle.
The text over top of it was green, and it labeled the item as Potion #3.
Well, that seemed a little ominous, but I hoped the text alongside the item would explain what it was in more detail.
It didn’t.
The item’s description was painfully vague, and it only worked to pique my curiosity even further.
Potion #3
Drink me.
“What is that?” Monty asked as he peered over my shoulder at the bottle in my hand.
I passed it to him and shrugged my shoulders. “I honestly have no fucking idea. It’s a potion, but I have no idea what it does.”
“That seems a little ominous,” Iris murmured.
“I thought the same thing,” I agreed. “But I want to figure out what it does eventually. Just not right now.”
I leaned over and pulled out the last item from the chest. It was a coin that looked far different than the now familiar-looking gold coins that made up the rest of the loot we had garnered from slaying the dragon.
It was a burnished silver and was approximately the size of an American half-dollar coin. I rubbed my thumb over a bit of dirt that marred one side of the coin and saw that the image emblazoned on the side of the metal was that of a beautiful woman wielding a sword in one hand and a book in the other.
There was something strangely familiar about the image, though I wasn’t able to place quite why. It was another green text item, and the name floating over it said Luck Be A Lady. I scrolled over to see the coin’s stats with a raised eyebrow.
Luck Be A Lady
The carrier of the coin will be granted an extra 15% luck. Keep it close and stay alive, brave traveler.
Well, that was vague, but it was still more helpful than the ever so slightly ominous text paired with the potion vial that now sat on the table.
“Is that everything?” Yasha asked and rose up onto her heels to peer into the newly emptied chest.
“Aside from the gold and gemstones, yes,” I confirmed.
“And I have gathered all of those up in my own storage bag,” Monty added. “It seems like it’s its own pocket dimension or something and holds whatever I need.”
“Oh, hey,” I said. “We have one of those, too. Did you get yours from Mimic?”
Monty nodded and then looked around the room, as if he realized for the first time the chest mimic was actually nowhere to be found.
“Yeah,” he said slowly and dragged out the word so it took up far more syllables than it really needed. “Where is he anyway? Usually he’s biting my ankles by now. I don’t really think he likes me.”
“I do not think the strange little creature likes anyone,” Yasha added. “But maybe he maintains a particular dislike for you.”
She said this like it might be helpful information, as opposed to slightly hurtful. Monty didn’t seem bothered by her tone or her brusqueness, though. Instead, he just shrugged.
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” he said.
“I have no idea where he is,” I added. “I was wondering if his absence has something to do with the fact that we ran into another mimic in the dungeon, but I’m not sure. The next time I run into my academic friend, the one who studies dungeons, I plan on asking him.”
“The demon,” Monty said.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Though I don’t know if he’s actually a demon, or if he just looks like what I assumed demons look like.”
“Life is so fucking weird,” Monty said, and honestly, I felt like he summarized it pretty goddamn well.
“Come on,” I said. “We need to get ready to get out of the dungeon. We brought gloves with us, as well as a screwdriver to use in case we end up hotwiring a car. Did you bring the guns?”
Monty nodded and moved over toward one of the impressive-looking tall lockers. He pried open the door and reached inside to pull out a hefty black backpack.
I raised my eyebrows in surprise.
“They didn’t search you at all, and let you bring in your backpack?” I asked.
Monty flashed me a tired grin. “Bro, I think you’re severely underestimating just how pathetic I can make myself when I really try. I told them I was trying to bring in outside weapons to fight in the dungeon. They said they’d just have to confiscate the weapons when I came out.”
I caught on quickly. “But you can say you forgot the bag in here, and meanwhile, we’ll leave with the weapons.”
He nodded and tapped the side of his head, like the two of us had shared a thought. “Exactly.”
“Honestly, that’s pretty clever,” I said, and I meant it.
Monty might be much closer to death than any person reasonably should be on a semi-regular basis, but he wasn’t stupid. I could appreciate that in a person. I didn’t function well when I was confronted with stupidity.
I moved the empty chests aside on the table while Iris began to pick up all of our discarded weapons and armor, as well as the new loot we had just gotten from the dungeon, and started to ferry it over to the lockers so it could get put away.
“Thanks,” I told her.
“No problem,” she said. “I figure if Mimic isn’t here to do it, someone should.”
Meanwhile, Monty tugged open the drawstrings on his bag and pulled out three handguns. I couldn’t tell the brands, makes, or models simply by looking at them, but they were all sleek and looked deadly. They weren’t quite the same as the pistols we had used at the shooting range, but they looked similar enough that I didn’t foresee any sort of problem.
Next, he pulled out a box of ammo. “I don’t think we’ll need that much ammo, but I figured it was better to have it than to be without it. We never know what we might need, right?”
“Good thinking,” I said.
Lastly, Monty pulled out the hastily sketched maps he had made us of the warehouse so we would be able to actually navigate our way around. They looked about as rudimentary as something a child might have done, but I was grateful for them nonetheless.
I patted his shoulder lightly to show my gratitude.
“Here,” Iris said and passed me the bag we had brought into the dungeons with us.
I leaned over and gave her a peck on the cheek in thanks before I set it on the newly cleared table and began to unpack our own items. I pulled out the screwdriver first, but a frown quickly pulled across my face as I pulled out the three pairs of vinyl gloves I had grabbed to use once we were out of the dungeon to hide our fingerprints.
All three sets of gloves looked as if they had been… chewed on? They were still intact, but it looked like they had definitely been chewed on. What the fuck? The only person who could have done it wasn’t a person at all. It was Mimic, but he was nowhere to be found.
“Is something wrong?” Yasha asked in concern.
“No, no, everything is fine. The gloves are just… damp. It’s fine. But we should get moving sooner rather than later. Slide on some gloves and take a gun.”
I gestured for Iris and Yasha to do as I said after I grabbed the first and largest of the three weapons and tucked it into the back of my pants under my leather jacket. I would have to get a holster eventually, because I was less than comfortable with the idea of a loaded weapon aimed directly at my ass, but I didn’t exactly have another choice at the moment.
At least I fared better than Iris, who thanks to her lack of real pants and therefore pockets, was left holding her gun loosely in her hands. It sort of made her look like one of those hot action stars, though, so I wasn’t about to start complaining now.
Yasha grabbed the last weapon, and she seemed less than thrilled to be holding it, but she tucked it into her waistband like she had seen me do with my own weapon.
I also grabbed the screwdriver and slipped it into the pocket of my leather jacket so we could leave our backpack behind in the dungeon. The less shit we had to carry, the better. I didn’t want to run the risk of dropping something and potentially leaving it behind at the crime scene.
