Dungeon Life-Chapter Four-Hundred Twenty-Five

Tula

“Thank you all again for letting me come,” says the young elven woman, genuinely appreciative that they let her come along. Others might have their pride wounded to be the oldest in the party, and yet also clearly the weakest, but Tula never had any great aspirations for being an adventurer.

But that was before Laermali, matriarch of the elven pantheon and Goddess of Magic appeared to her in a dream and told her to go to Fourdock and seek out the Ice Sage. At the time, she didn’t know if it was an artifact, a monster, or maybe some locus of leylines.

Turns out, it was a class. And the wielder of that class is the goblin lass happily strolling through the forest like they’re not in the middle of a rather strong dungeon… which also happens to be the god of Change. She’s still not sure how that works, but if any of the deities was going to be comprehensible to her, she wouldn’t expect the god of Change to be in their number.

At least he seems like a friendly enough one.

Her eyes widen as she forces herself to stop, as Rhonda has stopped and is giving her a mischievous smile, looking far enough up at her that she can see her eyes from underneath her wide hat.

“I said you’re welcome, Tula. Distracted thinking about Olander?” she teases, the orcish and elven lads with them keeping their composure, though Rhona’s small spider and Freddie’s larger one each chitter and make little hearts from a bit of silk.

Tula fights down the blush, even as Freddie comes to her rescue. “We’ll keep you safe, Tula, but you should try to stay focused while in a dungeon, even one like Thedeim.”

Well, for certain values of ‘rescue’. She fails to fight a different sort of blush. “I know! It’s just… this is why I’m glad you let me come. I’m not an experienced delver like you three are. Five are, sorry,” she corrects herself as the two spiders give indignant chitters. She reaches over and pats them both, and they each accept her apology with arachnid grace.

Freddie smiles and reaches over his shoulder to pat Fiona as well, his large spider riding on the shield on the armored orc’s back. “Not yet, anyway. Olander asked us to get you leveled enough that he can help you delve once he gets back.”

“A pretty tall order," comments Tupul, before he scrambles to clarify his statement. “I mean, we have a long way to go to get anywhere near his level! You’re closer to us than we are to him,” he finishes lamely, ruining his image as a suave and sneaky rogue.

Rhonda giggles at the elf’s expense. “Good save. Anyway, this’ll be a good delve for us, too. Master Staiven says it’s good to delve deep to test and train your strength, and it’s good to delve shallow to test and train your endurance! You can work on your strength, and we can work on our endurance here in spring, and maybe work our way around to winter on the ground.”

Tula can’t help but look up at the gigantic tree that dominates the sky above them, the trunk looking as thick as a mountain. She mentally chides herself for exaggerating. It’s only about as thick as the entire compound for the Slim Chance adventurer’s guild. “It’s still incredible to think you can actually fight up there…” she says, wonder and respect in her voice.

“Not for all that long,” says Tupul, earning a snort from both Freddie and Rhonda.

“A lot longer with you than without,” encourages Freddie, a shaft of light gleaming off his armor and making him look every inch the paladin he is. Fiona tilts her head and taps the back of his head, and Tula sees Lucas, Rhonda’s smaller spider, pointing off into the thick greenery around them. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

“Incoming,” he declares, the three subtly shifting from relaxed to ready. Freddie smoothly draws his hatchet from the loop on his belt, and takes his shield from his back as Fiona hops down to stand beside him. Lucas follows a few muttered instructions from Rhonda as she raises her staff, the small arachnid pulling a few reagents from the band around the center of the large hat. Tupul draws his odd dagger and pulls up his facemask, his outline seeming to blend into the shadows of the forest.

Tula tries not to let herself be crushed by her own inadequacy as she raises a hand to her holy symbol around her neck, preparing to do what she can to help the experienced trio- er quintet. She can’t forget that Fiona and Lucas, the spiders, are important parts of the team, even if they’re technically familiars.

They all tense as they hear something crashing its way through the underbrush, Freddie’s shield glowing and Fiona gaining a smaller imitation as the noise gets louder. Tula gets the first spell off once it appears, though it’s not one that does any damage.

“Analyze!” she shouts, even as Freddie and Fiona intercept the huge creature. They don’t need her spell to know it’s a direbear, but if she can find a weakness, it’ll make their job of killing it a whole lot easier!

“Ice slick! Impact!” declares Rhonda, her spells seeming to cast at the same time. Tula knows it’s not just a seeming, but a truth. She still doesn’t understand how, but that’s how Rhonda’s Ice Sage class works. She has some deeper understanding of magic than anyone else Tula has seen, and can somehow use her spells to power other spells! Rhonda’s been trying to teach her, but if Tula could understand it, she’d be closer to advancing her class. She’s still going to try to learn, no matter how nonsensical it seems.

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The ground beneath the direbear freezes over as Freddie’s hatchet glows with the spell, and Freddie stands firm with a few swipes of his weapon to keep the beast’s attention. Tupul stands beside Freddie and Fiona, lending his strength to Freddie’s own unique class: Legionnaire Paladin. Tula understands how his class works even less than she does Rhonda’s, but she knows he’s stronger the more allies he has at his side.

The direbear swipes at Freddie, giving Tupul a chance to lash out with his curved dagger, apparently a kerambit, according to Tupul. He also has a unique class, and even a unique affinity, thanks to his relationship with the dungeon Thedeim. “Weight!” he shouts as the monster’s arm slams into the ground, and takes visible effort for it to lift for another attack.

Gravity affinity is a strange one, letting Tupul mess with the weight of things, as well as a few other strange effects that Tula still isn’t sure how to explain, even with her own Knowledge affinity. The same affinity that will let her contribute to this fight.

“Get it to rear up, Freddie! Then Tupul can slip around and hamstring it!”

“On it!” shouts the entire party before springing into action. Lucas holds a small shard of enchanted ice aloft as Rhonda holds her staff, the sapphire gleaming with her spell.

“Fangs of Ice!” she declares, her magic grabbing the ice from the ground and shifting it into a barrier of sharp blades sticking up right before the direbear. It roars and heaves back, its balance off as Tupul cancels the increased weight of its arm, and giving Freddie ample time to step inside its reach. The ice keeps it from being able to slam down, and Freddie and Fiona’s shieldwork keeps its swipes from finding any purchase on the young orc paladin.

With the beast distracted, Tupul glides through the shadows of the forest, slipping behind the direbear and letting him see the weakness Tula’s magic highlights. She can feel his own knowledge synchronize with hers, each gaining perfect clarity for how to best make the monster fall.

“Insight!”

“Sever!”

“Shield Rush!”

They can all feel their efforts aligning together into a combination, Freddie’s ethereal shield forming above Tupul as he strikes, the shields ensuring the bear has no option but to fall forward.

Directly onto the blades of ice.

“Icy Demise!” they all shout as one, and the direbear’s roar is cut off in an instant as the blades of ice pierce it.

They all stand still for a heartbeat longer, ensuring the battle is over. Tula sags first as she gets the notification of experience, her relief and exhaustion overcoming the rush of gaining a level. The others cheer, breathing heavily from the exertion, yet looking like they could still do a lot more. Rhonda checks on Tula while the boys look at the corpse.

“How’re you holding up?” the goblin asks, looking at her with genuine concern. Tula smiles.

“Better than… the first delve…!” she gasps, remembering how much trouble she had with the simpler denizens around the manor. She nearly fled at the sight of a simple rat back then, and here she is, facing a direbear!

Rhonda smiles and glances to the guys. “How’s the loot?”

Freddie smirks at her. “The hide would be a lot better if someone went for one good icicle, instead of a bunch of smaller ones.”

“I didn’t have time to consolidate them because of that shield charge!” she shouts to defend herself, enjoying bickering with her friend. “How about you, Tupul? Did I ruin the meat?”

The elf shrugs as he carefully peels away the hide on the back. “Not really? Bear meat’s pretty greasy, so it makes good sausage. Ice stabs don’t really matter when we’d have to grind it anyway.”

“At least someone appreciates me around here,” laments Rhonda, Lucas making dramatic chitters from atop her wide hat. Freddie laughs at her antics as he works on the bear, looking for the bits that are useful for magical crafting, and Tupul looks for the bits that are good to eat.

After a few minutes, Freddie pauses before waving the girls over. “There’s something in its stomach.”

“Ew. Why’d you bring us over for that?” asks Rhonda, eying the guts without getting too close.

“I thought maybe Tula would know something?”

Tula gingerly steps forward and casts analyze again. “There’s… there’s definitely something in there. I don’t know what it is, but it feels important.”

Freddie nods and waves them and Tupul back. “Alright, this is going to be smelly then.” He takes a few moments to hype himself up, then takes a deep breath before slashing the stomach open. Tula and Rhonda both take a couple steps back as Freddie digs around, the young orc not looking too happy, but at least he doesn’t have to hold his breath for too long. He quickly steps away, and the party gives him a wide berth, even as they see what he has in his hand.

Freddie releases his breath, only to immediately cough and gag at the smell. He keeps his lunch down, but he looks a bit greener than usual as he examines his prize.

“A key?”

Everyone gathers around, despite the smell, and looks at the odd key.

“Spring key, apparently,” points out Rhonda, her finger tracing in the air over the words engraved on it.

“I don’t think there’s any spring doors, though,” says Freddie.

Tupul shrugs. “Maybe he added one? He’s always adding some new crazy thing, right?”

Everyone nods at that, and Rhonda speaks up. “Then let’s stay in spring and see if we can’t find that door? It might even be up in the branches…”

Tula doesn’t bother trying to suppress a shudder at that idea. “If it is, can you guys wait to check until after I’m done? I don’t think I could handle the things up there.”

“You did pretty well against the direbear,” points out Tupul.

“Because I could stay away. Things in the branches tend to swarm. I… don’t think I’d do as well there.” The others exchange a glance before reluctantly nodding, nobody wanting to call their friend weak. Tula smiles at them. “I know my limits, it’s fine. Maybe we’ll find it on the ground? You can never tell with Thedeim.”

Freddie laughs and nods, putting away the key. “You’ve got that right! Everyone ready to continue?” Everyone nods, and soon they’re on their way, their delve gaining a new objective that they’re all eager to see if they can fulfill.