The Impeccable Adventure of the Reluctant Dungeon

“Why can’t I see what you’re doing?” Theo asked. “If I’m in the necklace, I should be there, just like with my avatar.”

“There’s a difference, sir.” Spok was making her way to another side of the castle.

While being as close to the castle as possible was an indication of status, the influential families made it a point to be as far from each other as possible. Having finished with the baroness and the marquis, there was one person left—the one that Spok appreciated least of all. From everything seen so far, Count Alvare was petty, thieving, and a stickler for bureaucracy. His connection with the town’s tax collectors ensured that he was informed of pretty much everything and always had a bit of funds diverted his way. Why Earl Rosewind allowed him to get away with it remained a mystery.

“Suffice it to say that I have acquired another cursed letter,” the spirit guardian explained.

“Damn it! And you’re sure that no one has been affected by them?”

“At this point, that’s impossible to determine, sir. What was the reason you needed me?” Spok subtly changed the topic.

“Well… can an abomination have two natures at once?”

The question held the typical blend of stupidity and concern the spirit guide had gotten to know well. She would be lying, though, if she didn’t find it at least marginally intriguing.

“Given that you exist, sir, everything is possible,” she replied. “I still find it highly unlikely. Are you certain that you’re dealing with an abomination? There are a number of—”

“It’s called Agonia, Abomination of Fulfillment,” the dungeon interrupted. “We’ve been through this.”

“Ah. Yes,” Spok lied. If the name had ever been mentioned, she had no memory of it. “Of course, sir.”

“She’s able to manipulate bone and blood.”

“Are you sure it’s manipulation, sir? There are a number of spells that allow one to summon skeletal minions. As a matter of fact, it’s the cheapest summon there is. Anyone with a few coins could easily find an unscrupulous necromancer and purchase a few bags of dragon teeth. Add a few coins more and they might even get a scroll or two.”

“And how would an abomination do that, exactly?” Theo asked, the questions soaked with sarcasm. “Is it before it corrupts everything in sight or after?”

Spok stopped midstep. The dungeon had a point. What was worse, she should have seen it before him.

“The point is well taken, sir. However, the possibility remains. You can create skeletal minions, for example, but you’ve also created a griffin’s nest. The same could be said about the curses. Dungeons have been known to do that as well.”

“So, you’re saying that I’ve come across a multi-talented abomination?”

“Not necessarily. I could have easily corrupted a dungeon, sir. As I believe I’ve mentioned.”

“Yeah. Right. I would have noticed if—” The dungeon paused.

Back beneath the cursed estate, Theo’s avatar turned to Liandra. He knew for certain that he wasn’t dealing with another dungeon. That meant he had to figure out exactly what was involved.

“Lia,” he said. “Take out the ring for a moment.”

“You think she’s close?” The heroine reached for her pouch. Just as she was about to untie it, a chill swept through the tunnel—the cold embrace of magic and necromancy.

This wasn’t the first time Liandra had come across the sensation. It wasn’t nearly as strong as during her previous experience, though that didn’t mean she could relax. Her hand quickly moved away from the pouch, as she drew the legendary sword Baron d’Argent had loaned her.

“Lia?” the avatar asked. “What’s—”

Hundreds of arrows filled the corridor, indiscriminately flying in his direction. Several of them hit the aether bubble, causing the fireball to explode before evening was plunged into darkness. Ironically, that was a good thing—it hid the sight of dozens of arrows piercing the avatar’s body. Each of them was made of bone and contained a poison of some kind. The effects were nonthreatening, although they did cause a modest drain in the dungeon’s energy.

“You alright?” Liandra asked. The sound of metal hitting bone suggested that she had successfully parried all projectiles heading her way.

“Just fine.” The avatar cast swiftness on himself, then speedily pulled out all arrows within him. “I’ll cast some light.”

An aether sphere emerged in front of Liandra and the avatar. Arrows bounced off of it by the dozens, making an annoying crackling sound as they did. They weren’t meant to be sturdy, just lethal enough to inject the poison within them.

Two fireballs emerged, lighting up the section of the corridor once more.

Aware that skeletal minions were cheap, Theo was expecting a few dozen archers to be blocking his way. What he saw was nothing but arrows. The skeletons were smart enough to stay beyond the lighted area, relying on their magic vision to spot their targets. Still, for every counter, there was a counter.

“There’s a lot of them,” Liandra said, lowering her sword. “Possibly a hundred, maybe more.”

A hundred? That sounded a bit overkill, even for an abomination.

“You must have hurt it more than you thought.” The heroine took a step forward. “They’re just here to slow us down, possibly tiring us a bit.”

“No chance of that.” Theo cast a flight spell on the aether bubble, then propelled it forward with as much strength as he had.

The indestructible bubble flew forward, like a champagne cork. After a few seconds, the clicking of arrows bouncing off was replaced by the sound of bones crunching.

“Go.” The avatar cast a slight spell on his avatar, then flew after the sphere of destruction. His goal was to pick up as many cores as the minions would release.

“To think you didn’t want to leave your house.” Liandra rushed after. “How long till the bubble pops?”

“Five seconds, maybe four.”

Up close, the enemies were fully visible now: small, skeletal, goblin-like creatures that filled the entire corridor. Some of them leaped to the walls in an attempt to evade their destruction. In the few cases that one managed to squeeze through, the avatar tossed a fireball, melting them on the spot.

CORE CONSUMPTION

1 Skeletal Husk core fragment converted into 10 Avatar Core Points.

The reward was insultingly low. Apparently, the abomination was on the cheap side, relying on quantity rather than quality. Or was that really the case? It was a smart move to be conservative when it came to poisonous entities: they didn’t have to be strong or durable, just capable of stretching their enemy. And still, there was something that felt off.

“Lia, take the ring out!” Theo turned around as he kept on flying.

“Now?” The heroine did her best to ignore the fact that her companion was flying with his back forward. Not without effort, she succeeded.

“I don’t think the abomination is doing this,” he said, as he threw his second fireball at another minion, then cast two new ones. “She could have done that while we were trapped in the spell, but didn’t.”

“Good thinking.” The heroine loosened the pouch with her left hand and took out the chain with the ruby ring. To everyone’s surprise, it remained silently hanging there.

“You.” The avatar pointed to the ring. “How are you summoning the skeletons?”

“Excuse me?” Indignation instantly brought the ring back to life. “It wasn’t enough that you ruined my collection and humiliated me in front of Mother, but you dare address me like a common… a common…”

Physically, it was impossible for a ring to become huffy, but somehow, though her voice alone, the ruby ring managed to create that impression. Once an ice shard with a blessed tip appeared, though, the indignation and spit vanished just as quickly as it had appeared.

“No, I didn’t summon the skeletons,” she said, maintaining a few notes of disapproval. “Never took a liking to it.”

“You’re a necromancer?” Liandra’s eyes narrowed.

“Sort of. It’s a family tradition. My husband dabbles. It was a lot more economical than having actual servants,” the ring said unapologetically. “As Mother used to say: never mix work with pleasure. My dear took care of the staff while I kept my collection separate. That way, I didn’t run the risk of damaging them.”

Theo was about to continue the conversation. Since the ruby ring was in a talkative state once more, it was a good time to learn more about her necromancer family, the marquis’ abilities, and—most of all—anything related to the abomination. Unfortunately, before he had a chance to do any of that, the invulnerability of the aether sphere ended, leaving arrows and skeletons to pass through. While vastly diminished, they still represented a significant annoyance.

On instinct, the avatar cast several new fireballs and threw them forward.

CORE CONSUMPTION

32 Skeletal Husk core fragments converted into 320 Avatar Core Points.

“Ice shield,” the avatar grunted, ready for a follow-up attack. And right on time, a bone ball as large as a boulder smashed into the shield, pushing the baron back. This was no longer the act of puny skeletal husks. Whatever stood behind them was a lot stronger, not to mention larger.

There were an infinite number of possible responses. If Theo had been good at chess or any other type of strategy, he’d have a hard time determining what would bring the best outcome. Since he wasn’t, he acted on instinct, doing the first thing that came to mind; in this particular case, that was to create a room to the side of the tunnel.

“This way!” he shouted, rushing through the billiards room he had created.

No sooner had he done so, when another bone ball flew past, continuing through the corridor. That was a close one. The shot was instantly followed by another. This time, Liandra blocked its path, performing a decisive vertical chop with her sword. For a moment, it almost seemed that the ball would slam into her, when suddenly, in shattered midair. Two streams of bone fragments flew by on either side of the woman, losing momentum several hundred feet later as they rattled on the tunnel floor.

“No time to be flashy!”

The avatar used a combination of flight and telekinesis to pull the heroine out of the tunnel. It was a good thing, too. Three more bone balls shot by, then silence.

“There was no need for that!” Liandra snapped, breaking the effects of both flight and telekinesis. “I’d have handled it.” She dropped to the floor, darting an angry glare in the avatar’s direction. Even in the darkness, it was clear she was displeased.

“I didn’t see the point of leaving you there,” Theo said, coming up with a quick excuse. “We don’t need to destroy the ammunition, but the cannon itself.”

It was an improvised defense that, spoken out loud, sounded a lot more reasonable than he had thought.

“We’re not even sure what we’re facing exactly,” he added.

“Nothing that I can’t handle, I’ll tell you that! It’s not like it’s a bone dragon.”

The possibility of facing a bone dragon filled Theo with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it sounded a bit more powerful than he felt comfortable facing. On the other hand, large monsters came with even larger monster cores and a chance to satiate the devastating hunger for one more day.

“Ring, what can—” The avatar suddenly stopped. There was no telling where the ring was, but it was certain where it wasn’t. The chain wasn’t in Liandra’s hand, nor did the pouch seem to have it.

Noticing it as well, the woman quickly checked, yet to no avail. Like the monocle before it, the ring had managed to escape.

“When I get her again, I’ll…” Liandra left the sentence unfinished.

The dungeon had similar thoughts, though that wasn’t his major concern right now. They still had a wave of skeletons to face; and while the mystery of the curses and skeletal minions had been resolved, it wasn’t to the group’s benefit.

A necromancer family corrupted by an abomination. If Theo wasn’t intent on keeping the entire matter secret, he’d have said it was one for the history books. On the other hand, it did provide him with a glimmer of hope. Since escaping from the tomb, he had only been facing skeletons, not blood spiders. That suggested that the abomination was still recovering from the memory prison. If that were the case, he still had a shot of winning, provided he got to it on time.

“Do you still have your special strike?” he asked the heroine.

“Yes. I’m saving it for the abomination.”

“Good. Then I’ll get you there.”

The avatar cast scrying on Liandra and himself, increasing their effective sight to ten miles. He then proceeded to cast ten spherical fireballs.

“For this to work, I’ll need you to be my shield,” he said.

“That’s new. Usually, you’re the one charging in front,” the woman smiled.

“I’ll be controlling all this.” Several of the fireballs moved about. “And making more.”

“I should have known it would be crazy. When do we go?”

The avatar went up to the invisible line that divided the corridor from the room he had created.

“Now.” He jumped out and cast a multitude of ice shards that he sent flying straight ahead.

On cue, Liandra rushed to join him, immediately taking the lead. The speed at which she was running rivaled Theo’s flight magic. The heroic gloves were off.

Ice and bone shattered in the distance as the bone balls came into contact with Theo’s icicles. Size and inertia had its say, clearly determining the outcome. Yet, Theo’s plan never was to succeed in this contest. All he needed was a distraction so he could direct his fireballs forward along the edges of the corridor.

A cluster of bones shattered in the wall as Liandra slammed a bone ball with a side strike.

The dungeon paid no notice, focusing on his fireballs. As the heroine had said, they were ideal for providing light and also exploding where needed. Add flame spying and one had a hundred percent seek and destroy magic weapon.

For over ten seconds, there was nothing new to be seen, just the same old corridor going on and on. Then, finally, it appeared.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Theo grumbled.

A cannon! The monocle had actually created a real, large caliber, triple-bone cannon, which used skeletons as munitions. The amount of magic involved had to be monstrous! Apparently, with the abomination loose, the monocle had magic to spare. Three ivory white barrels, each the size of a twenty-foot column, were stacked together in pyramid-like fashion. Behind them, rows of skeletal minions formed a long queue. The ones in front changed shape, combining into a massive ball which was put into one of the available chambers by the ones behind, at which point they’d be propelled forward in the form of a lethal projectile. Then, the process repeated.

“A cannon!” the avatar said. “They have a damned cannon!”

“A classic!” Liandra sliced up another ball, causing bone fragments to pour onto her and the baron like a light summer drizzle. “Those were very popular during the necro wars.”

“The necro wars? How do you know all that?”

“Obligatory reading in the hero guild. A hero must be ready for any form of enemy, even necromancers.”

Theo could definitely see why. Banking on a calm, eventless existence, he had deliberately refused to learn anything about himself or the world, relying on Spok for that. It had worked out quite well before Spok had received her own avatar. Once this abomination matter was over, maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to spend some time reading a bit of history. Then again, once this was over, there would be no reason for him to do so.

“I’ll deal with the cannons,” he said. “You continue forward in case there are other surprises.” Also, Theo had no intention of giving away monster cores just for the sake of it.

“How exactly will you do that?” The heroine slammed another bone ball in the floor, causing it to shatter.

“Simple. First, I take care of the ammunition.”

As he said that, the spherical fireballs changed trajectory, exploding in the queue of skeletal minions. Within a second, the projectiles abruptly stopped. It would have been nice to earn a few more core points in the process, but this was good enough.

All the remaining skeletons in the back of the queue rushed forward in an attempt to resolve the ammo shortage, but they too were melted on the spot by a new batch of fireballs that arrived on the scene.

“I see it!” Liandra said. “Damn it’s huge.”

“Ignore it.” The avatar continued casting more fireballs, which he sent flying forward in their own aether bubbles.

With a nod, the heroine leaped over the large device, sliding along the barrel before continuing further down the tunnel. That was all the dungeon needed.

Casting a blessing spell on each of his fists, he punched into the cannon the moment he neared it. A loud shattering sound followed as an entire section of it cracked up as if it were made of cheap plaster.

CORE CONSUMPTION

1 Triple Bone Cannon core fragments converted into 1500 Avatar Core Points.

“Five hundred each?” the avatar complained beneath his breath. He’d killed warrior minions that gave out more. Still, it was better than nothing, even if the heroine had gathered all the cores from the skeletal queue.

In the distance, the fireballs had just illuminated the next opponent the monocle had created. It was a lot larger, looking suspiciously familiar to the “butler-skeleton” that Theo had dispatched shortly after entering the estate.

So there were two of you, the dungeon thought.

“Lia, hold back!” he shouted while concentrating all the fireballs on the skeletal figure covered in red. “There might be—” He stopped.

Originally, he was going to use the standard excuse of there being a trap so that he could kill the entity and claim its core. However, the universe had caught on to his scheme and had decided to intervene. The red substance covering the skeleton lit up, just like the blood spider had. Clearly, Theo wasn’t the only one who could learn and improve.

The giant flaming skeleton just stood there, refusing to move. It could see Liandra stop thirty feet away, yet didn’t seem to care. One would almost consider it an exotic statue, though that only lasted until Baron d’Argent arrived at the scene.

“Barbarian,” the skeletal minion said in a deep, disapproving voice.

“Huh?!” The avatar’s face twisted in anger. There were a lot of things he could accept, but being insulted by a skeletal minion was a step too far.

“So much damage,” the minion continued. “You now owe the mistress two noble souls.”

“Two?” Theo was confused. Normally, when a person incurred more damages, the cost went up. Since he had started with a hero soul, plus a tip of three adventurer souls, one would think that he’d owe at least five now. “Is that a conversion rate thing?” he asked.

The butler didn’t reply.

“No,” a new male voice said.

It was rather familiar, though not one Theo expected to hear in a place like this.

“We’ve already collected a few souls as a repayment.” Count Alvare stepped out from behind the enormous crimson skeleton. He was wearing a rather familiar monocle. “I’ll have to add a few more for the destruction of my cannon. It was a collector’s item, you see. Took me quite some effort to produce.”

“Spok,” Theo said from the spirit guide’s locket. “Did you happen to get the letter from Count Alvare’s place?”

“About that, sir…” the spirit guide said in a manner suggesting the worst. “I was just about to tell you. Indeed, I found a cursed letter in his estate. Actually, I found a large number of cursed letters…”

While the avatar was speaking to the count, Spok was standing in the main hall of the noble’s entrance. Around her, scores of cursed letters had piled up on the floor, table, and chairs. In contrast, there wasn’t a single person to be seen—no count, no guards, not even a servant.

“I fear I might have arrived too late,” Spok continued. “The count is nowhere to be found.”

“I think I found him. Get rid of the letters and then see if there’s more of them around town.”

“I’ll do my best, sir.”

In the underground corridor, the dungeon’s avatar cast a few more swiftness spells.

“I see you’ve taken on a new puppet.” He took a step closer.

“Indeed. And a count at that. Not my first choice, but it’ll have to do for the moment. I’m not into collecting puppets, you see. That’s my wife’s passion.”

“You’re just a necromancer,” Liandra noted.

“Oh, I dabble. I’m more of a bone weapon connoisseur. A rather expensive and time-consuming hobby, but very fulfilling. Maybe after you join my wife’s collection, I could show you some of my pieces.”

“Is that how you stumbled upon the abomination? Or is that what she tempted you with?”

“Mother? Tempt me?” The count, or rather the monocle, laughed. “I don’t know where you got that from, but it’s all wrong. It was no accident that the estate was built over Memoria’s Tomb. In fact, that was the entire point! That’s considered one of the great three necromancer treasures.”

“The great heroes were necromancers?” The avatar turned to Liandra.

“Of course not!” the heroine replied.

“Actually, you’re both right.” Count Alvare rubbed his hands in glee. “The creator of the tomb was a mage, but the spell had its side effects. The prison required a never-ending supply of guards to keep Mother from escaping, so it integrated a few spells that… shall we say, weren’t officially documented for legal reasons. It did the job, but anyone with an inclination and enough talent could use them to enhance their own capabilities.”

Liandra’s hand trembled.

“It’ll probably create quite a scandal if it gets out. You don’t have to worry, though.” The count turned towards the heroine. “I’ve no interest in letting anyone know. Any necromancer family lucky enough to find a Memoria’s Tomb would be foolish to let anyone know. Just imagine having the power to summon skeletal minions from nothing. No more need to live near smelly graveyards, not to mention how much we save from bone merchants.”

“Pity that we destroyed it, then.”

Count Alvare’s smile faded.

“That’s true to some extent. But then again, you freed Mother, and that comes with its own rewards. And best of all, she has allowed me to test whether you’re worthy to be in her presence.”

Behind the noble, a crimson ax formed in the hands of the skeletal amalgamation.

“And, trust me, after what you did to me and my wife, I intend to make sure you fulfill all the criteria needed to pass the test. I can be quite the stickler for protocol, you might say.”