Pocket Dungeon, page 40
She had gone pale with the realization as she stared at the floor. I didn’t blame her. If I was being forced to come to terms with the fact that I’d been living in some sort of weird fugue state for the last fifty years, I would be a little distraught, too.
“It’s alright,” Yasha said in an attempt to soothe Iris. “We are going to take you out of here with us.”
Iris looked up with wide eyes. “The world… it’s different now, right?”
“Since you came in here, absolutely,” I said. “But you don’t have to worry about that, I’m willing to help you figure out everything you need to. I promise things aren’t scary. Or they won’t be, because we’ll be with you.”
Despite my attempts to soothe and placate her, Iris looked more skittish than ever. I figured she couldn’t have been more than twenty-two or twenty-three when she’d come into the crystal, and it appeared that she’d been in some strange sort of stasis ever since then.
I had about a thousand questions, but before I could even ask one of them, I heard someone loudly and impatiently clear their throat at my feet.
I looked down and saw that Mimic was standing right in front of me with his stumpy little arms braced against his sides. I assumed this was his version of putting his hands on his hips.
“You found someone else.” He didn’t seem thrilled by that fact, and I wondered if he got paid or something for each individual equipment room he ran, and was mad that I was combining them. It sounded insane, but then again, I was talking to someone who had been locked inside a portal dimension since the fucking seventies, so I was grasping at straws.
“I did,” I said in lieu of a standard greeting to Mimic. “Her name is Iris.”
“That is a talking chest,” Iris breathed.
It seemed like the sight of Mimic had been enough to shake her from her freak-out, at least. I would definitely take what I could get in terms of progress. I realized then that she must have never finished a single dungeon before she got trapped if this was the first time she was meeting Mimic.
“His name is Mimic,” I told her. “He helps keep the dungeon equipment rooms clean, and he also eats some of the inventory that we don’t need.”
“I do if someone actually gives me inventory,” he grumbled under his breath.
Iris’ eyes were wide.
“You get used to him,” Yasha assured her with a pat on the shoulder. “He is very grumpy.”
“I promise I’ll give you something to eat,” I told Mimic. “Come on, let’s get these chests open.”
That comment was directed at Yasha, who then pulled her two chests from her inventory, while I grabbed the two I had managed to pick up. We put all four on the island behind Iris.
The other woman still seemed to be reeling from what I’d told her, but she turned to watch us empty out the chests anyway. I began to dump all four of the chests out on the island, and I didn’t think the satisfying clink of gold coins would ever get less gratifying as they spilled out onto the tabletop.
It looked like the haul this time had been mostly gold, but there were three items mixed in amongst the coins that caught my eye.
I reached out to grab the first of the items as both of the women stared on in curiosity. It was a small disk that was about the size of a watch face. It reminded me of Golen’s Shield shrunk down to its portable size on my wrist.
The text above the item was in blue and marked it as Aegis.
“Aegis,” I repeated the name aloud. “I’m pretty sure that was one of the famous shields in Greek mythology…”
As I said the words, I tabbed over to look at the stats for the item.
Aegis
Strength: +3
Cast fear into the hearts of those around you. Bear the terrifying Aegis to stop monsters in their tracks.
The disk didn’t look like much, but as I flipped it over in my hands, the little golden disk expanded until it was a shield almost twice the size of Golen’s Shield at its largest. But the most impressive, or rather, terrifying, part of the shield was the large, monstrous face embossed in the metal.
“Medusa,” I whispered under my breath.
As I continued to stare at the shield, the sense of unease it unearthed in me continued to grow. I quickly tapped the disk again to shrink it back down to the smaller size. I could tell how something like that would easily stun a monster.
“That is impressive,” Yasha remarked. “It seems to be a much better shield than the one you have now.”
I looked down at Golen’s Shield on my wrist and expanded the item out. Sure enough, the shield had taken some serious damage in this dungeon and was far more dented and bent out of shape than I had expected.
I flashed Yasha a sheepish grin and shrugged. “I guess you’re right.”
And that only meant one thing.
I pulled the shield off of my wrist and looked down at Mimic. The creature was practically standing on my feet as he stared up at the shield in my hands with an obvious, longing hunger.
I bit back a laugh as I passed the item down to Mimic like I was bestowing him with some great gift.
“I told you I’d give you something to eat this time,” I told him. “And I’m a man who keeps my promises.”
Mimic didn’t even say a word as he greedily snatched the shield from my hands. I watched in rapt focus as he unhinged his jaw like he was opening his own lid and shoved the shield inside.
It disappeared in seconds inside of his gullet. The equipment room was filled with the sound of grinding metal and wood for a moment, and then the sound of clinking coins followed.
Mimic opened his mouth back up again and spat out a handful of gold coins that he unceremoniously deposited in my hand without a word. He patted what I thought was supposed to be his stomach, belched, and then passive-aggressively sauntered off.
It really was like dealing with a child.
“I didn’t like that,” Iris spoke up.
“To be fair,” I said. “I didn’t really like it, either.”
I reached out to grab the next of the actual items from the chests. This time, it was a sword. For a split second, as my hand curled around the sword’s hilt, I thought it was Doomslayer.
But that was impossible, considering the sword was currently crushed under a massive pile of stones in the hallway with the creepy Beasts.
The text over the sword was blue and marked it as Phantom Doomslayer. I raised my brow in surprise. This was the sword I’d seen Bizarro Wes waving around as he tried to kill me. It looked just like Doomslayer, but instead of being decked out in black, it was emblazoned with white accents.
Phantom Doomslayer
Damage- High
Attack Speed- Average
Like its twin blade, Doomslayer, its shadow, the Phantom Doomslayer is a blade cast from the pits of Tartarus. It is its twins equal but opposite in combat. While Doomslayer only can command the wiles and will of fire, Phantom holds thrall over magic as well.
A grin spread across my face as I gave the blade a slow swish through the air.
“Is that your sword?” Iris asked.
“It cannot be,” Yasha said firmly. “I could not find it anywhere in the rubble. I looked.”
“It’s sort of my sword,” I explained as I set the Phantom Doomslayer down. “It’s the version of my sword that the creepy duplicate of me used. It’s a slightly better weapon, too. I’m just glad to get a good sword back. I was pretty bummed that I lost the other one.”
“Ah,” Yasha said as she leaned in closer to the weapon. “I can see the differences in the blade now. It has an aura of magic that the other weapon did not.”
I raised my eyebrow and looked over at Yasha. Even with the Pauldrons of Wisdom still on my shoulders, I couldn’t really see what she was talking about. Despite that, I knew she was right. Even holding the Phantom Doomslayer felt different than brandishing the other sword. It hummed and tingled with a different sort of energy, but it felt just right in my grasp, like I was meant to have it.
“How do you know that?” I asked her.
Yasha seemed surprised by the question. “Can you not tell?”
I gave the sword another slow swish through the air as I mulled over a way to answer her question, because I sort of could tell, but then again, I was actually holding the blade, and she wasn’t.
“I mean, a little,” I said. “It’s hard to explain, but it feels almost electric. There’s just something about it that’s different.”
“It will take you time,” Yasha said. “It is a skill you have to practice. It is one that I have honed only after years of training, but it is very helpful in combat to be able to detect the magical aura of an item. It is easiest by touch, but eventually with enough practice, you will be able to do it by sight as well, I’m sure.”
“This is interesting,” Iris said. She seemed to have returned to whatever her base level of normal was. I think somewhere inside, she’d known she’d been hiding in the dungeon for that long, but it was the sort of thing that undoubtedly wasn’t pleasant to have to come face to face with either way.
“Have you never explored weaponry and things like that in here before?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, never. I’ve… I’ve never really helped anyone in here before. I stuck to my tunnels mostly. It’s safer in there. I managed to steal my dagger from someone who died in one of the challenges, but that was all. I didn’t tend to wander much at all. I think that’s part of the reason time moved so strangely. It was impossible to keep track. I never felt hungry or tired. I just… I don’t know, I just existed and felt lost and hopeless.”
“God,” I murmured. “I can’t even imagine. You’re stronger than I am to survive in here for so long.”
Iris looked away, but I could have sworn I saw her cheeks flush a pale shade of pink at the complement.
I mulled over what Iris had said and realized just how awful that sort of existence seemed. Either you died a gruesome and horrible death, or you lived in some sort of permanent stasis in fear for the rest of your seemingly endless life. What a nightmare.
“How did you come to be in the dungeon in the first place?” Yasha asked as she stroked her fingers absently over one of the large stacks of gold that sat on the island in the center of the equipment room.
Iris shifted her weight, and her posture became a little more guarded. I could see the tension as it traveled up her spine and made her go just a little too rigid.
“It’s… complicated.” She said the word carefully, and like she wanted to say something else, but I wasn’t sure what. Her tone had taken on an edge to it that it hadn’t previously had.
“We’ve got time,” I joked. “If you want to talk, I mean. You’ve just met us, and I don’t want to pry.”
A small smile spread across her stunning face as she looked at me through her thick fringe of dark lashes.
“I’m glad that I helped the two of you,” she said.
“I am glad as well,” Yasha added. “It is rare to find female warriors in the dungeons.”
“I’m not a warrior,” Iris quickly corrected her, but Yasha’s fierce face was set in a look that didn’t leave room for questions.
“Did you survive the dungeon?” the fox-girl asked the other woman as her tail twitched.
Iris opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. “Yes?”
“Yes,” Yasha repeated more firmly. “You survived the dungeon, which is more than many can say, and you did it for much longer than many people could have ever imagined, all while avoiding the monsters and finding a way to survive. That is the way of a warrior. I would know.”
I felt my chest fill with warmth as Yasha complimented Iris. There was something so endearing about seeing the fox-woman attempting to bond while reassuring Iris that she was a warrior.
“Well,” Iris managed. “When you put it that way…”
For the first time since I had stumbled across her, she flashed us both a truly genuine smile. It was the sort of smile that was bright enough to light up the entire room, and I knew at that moment that I wanted to see that smile again and again.
“She’s right,” I told Iris. “You’re a warrior. And you’re more than welcome to leave with us, to get out of here.”
As I let her mull over my words, I grabbed the last item from the pile on the table in front of us. At first, it didn’t look like anything special. It was simply a small ball. It was white and about the size of a golf ball, but when I picked it up, it seemed to vibrate and hum in my hands. It also seemed to weigh nothing at all. The longer I stared at it, the more certain I became that it wasn’t actually white at all, but a ton of ever-shifting colors that only looked white at first glance.
The text over the item was blue and marked it as an Effervescent Orb.
I thumbed over to the stats.
Effervescent Orb
Harness the magic of the orb to create a weightlessness all around you. The effect will last as long as the magic remains in the orb. But be warned, if the magic burns too low, there is danger to be had. Once drained, the orb requires a full 72 hours to recharge itself.
My brow furrowed as I read the description over again another time to try and figure out exactly what any of that meant. It seemed like it was implying I could somehow use the orb to make things weightless, but that it was also a weapon? I was intrigued to see how it worked, and how it interacted with Phantom Doomslayer.
As I looked at the two items side by side, I realized just how similar they looked with their strange, shifting, pearlescent-white colors. They also both radiated a sense of magic that nothing else I’d found in the dungeons had.
I was eager to see just what the two items could do together in the next dungeon.
“That hit the spot!” For the first time since I had fed Mimic Golen’s Shield, he spoke up.
He toddled on over toward me and stared up at me, as if he was waiting on something else to be dropped into his open mouth.
“I’m glad,” I said. “I’m a man of my word.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Mimic waved me off. “Do you have anything else for me to eat?”
I couldn’t help but snort and roll my eyes. “Nothing more today, sorry. But would you mind arranging all of this after we go?”
Mimic huffed. “I guess, since you fed me this time, but I’m gonna start charging for my services.”
“I’m sure,” I laughed as I started to pull off my armor.
Yasha began to do the same thing until we had all of our armor stacked in a pile on the island next to the gold. I grabbed the magical rucksack that Mimic had given me the last time we were in a dungeon and quickly began to transfer all the gold to the pouch.
I couldn’t even imagine how much we had gotten this time, but it was definitely the biggest gold haul yet. I was going to be so fucking loaded once I managed to cash all of this in.
“Well?” I asked Iris. We didn’t have any time left for her to wait around and make a decision.
The woman hesitated, but only for a moment. “I want to come with you two.”
I couldn’t help but grin as Iris looked between me and Yasha with a look of hope on her face. It was like she was finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel after a long, long time of darkness.
“I am very glad!” Yasha exclaimed. “You can come with us to Wes’ home. It is very lavish. We have pizza, Star Wars, and running water.”
Iris looked at me like Yasha wasn’t making any sense, but I just laughed.
“You’ll get used to it,” I said with a shrug. “She’s not from Earth.”
“The tail sort of gave it away,” Iris joked. It was good to see her making jokes and laughing. She looked prettier when she was happy. It made her entire face light up, and that in turn made the entire room light up.
“I’m glad you want to come with us,” I told her. “I promise, even though things are different on the outside, they’re not bad. You’re going to love it.”
Iris chewed at her lower lip and nodded her head. “I’m nervous, but… I trust you. You helped me when you didn’t have to, and right now, that’s more than anyone else has done for me in a long time.”
There was something in her words that made me think she was talking about a specific circumstance, but I wasn’t about to push right now.
“I promise, things are going to be good.” I met her eyes and gave her another reassuring nod before I turned toward the ladder that led the way out of the equipment room and back into the real world.
“Get out of here!” Mimic exclaimed. “I want to clean.”
I laughed. “I guess that’s our cue.”
I glanced over my shoulder to make sure that both Yasha and Iris were following behind me as I walked over to the ladder. It was definitely far nicer than the scary rope ladder in the single crystal dungeons, that was for sure.
Slowly, I climbed my way up to the trapdoor. I pushed against the wood, and when I breached the entrance, I felt like I was getting sucked through a portal. The sensation was just as dizzying and disorienting as it had been every other time before, but I opened my eyes to see the night sky above me as I landed on my ass in the defunct gas station parking lot.
I heard a few grunts and muffled huffs as both Yasha and Iris appeared next to me. Yasha seemed unfazed by the less than pleasant exit from the dungeon, but meanwhile, Iris was in clear shock. Her eyes were wide, and her plush lips were parted ever so slightly as she looked around.
She pushed herself up to her feet and spun in slow circles in the barely-lit gas station parking lot. There was hardly anything to see, but even the nothing of the twenty-twenties was certainly something to someone who had just done the fucking time warp.
“Iris Tucker,” I said. “Welcome to the twenty-first century.”
Chapter 28
The ride back to my apartment from the gas station lot wasn’t exactly pleasant. My motorcycle wasn’t small by any means, but it wasn’t meant to hold three people. Despite that, however, I managed to get us back to the apartment in one piece.
