//------------------------------// // My First Dungeon (6) // Story: Embrace the Darkness, Carpe Noctem // by musicman722 //------------------------------// I looked around the clearing. It was a large depression set in deep in the stone hills. Small rock pillars littered the area, making it look like a tower balancing contest. Many had been shattered or toppled. “Targets at thirty, seventy, hundred forty, two hundred twenty and three hundred thirty degrees.“ I muttered calculatingly, “Wind speed is irrelevant. Marking possible vectors and trajectories....marked. Let's rock.” I whipped out my pistol and fired the first three shots at the targets in front of me as I jumped to the left. Two of the towers were obliterated while another was clipped by the bullet, causing it to shake and eventually fall. I turned and fired at the last two towers. They suffered a similar fate. Marksmanship level increased- gained silencer (Umbra) I stared at the carnage I had wreaked upon the defenseless stones and sighed, “It's not enough. I need something more than stones to hit.” It had been two days since the attack on Swift. I had been training my skills and practicing my magic and my abilities to extent. I had gotten as far as level four, now on the border of the next level up. It was a lot harder than I had thought to level up. I noticed some movement above me and saw a sparrow sitting on top of and out crop, pecking at the ground. Out of boredom, I brought my pistol up and aimed at the bird. I fired the shot and the body disappeared in a puff of feathers. At least I had gotten the experience from it. You are now at level five You may now pick your class Possible classes: Nightblade- +10 Magic, +10 Speed Battlemage- +10 Combat, +10 Magic Assassin- +10 Stealth, +10 Marksmanship I stared surprised at the sudden level up but didn't complain. I scrolled through each class description. The Nightblade was a cross between a mage and thief. Specialized in using spells and shadows for reconnaissance and dispatching targets. Battlemages was the cross between mages and warriors. It's specialties were for the players who like to get up close and personal. Assassin was just as it said. Stealthy and lethal at long range. “Hmm, I already know combat from sparring with my brother and the martial arts clubs I joined, so Battlemage is a bust. That just leaves Nightblade and Assassin.” I mused. I went back and forth between the two classes' descriptions, weighing each value, “Magic and Speed I can easily level grind on the island here. But Marksmanship is going to be a problem without any good targets.” I bit my lip in concentration, “Well my main weapon is a gun and I may need the accuracy more. So, Assassin it is.” I selected the Assassin class. Stealth level increased Marksmanship level increased New weapon mode unlocked – Activation word: Mars Pistol upgraded – Dual wield (Gemini) “OH FUCK YES!” I yelled in joy, “Gemini.” Shadows covered my pistol and it split into two identical copies. I held each aloft and emptied both clips into the rock wall. “Me Gusta.” I said as I reloaded them. “Now, Mars.” The pistols joined together and transformed into one of my favorite guns ever. The Halo Reach DMR. A problem has been encountered and your mind has been shut down to prevent damage to your sanity. rebooting... … Loading… Enter password: ********** Welcome 'Whoa, what happened? I kinda blacked out for a- Holy shit! Is that my gun?' -------------------------------------------------- Once I had gotten over my nerdgasm, I started heading toward the Sky Tree to meet up with Swift. I stopped once to eat a tree for breakfast. I kept eating plants to a minimum in case a developer was an environmentalist. God forbid I offend him for eating some rare virtual plant. I found Swift sitting next to the massive tree's roots, mixing some ingredients in a bowl. I called out to him and he quickly packed it up and trotted over to me. “So what will we do today? Nothing dangerous, I pray.” he asked hopefully. I gave him a blank look, “I promise nothing.” I said before moving into the jungle, “Follow me. We're going to explore.” Swift followed with a dejected look. We trekked through the forest for the good part of an hour, moving to the northern part of the island. It was around the border between the rocky hills and the jungle forest. We didn’t find much at first until we stumbled across an old harpy nesting area. It was a small hollow nestled between a few hills. There were several nests but they were derelict and some had fallen apart from the elements. It looked like it had been abandoned a long time ago. “Jackpot.” I said. If there’s one thing I learned about history from video game, it’s that ruins and really old places have some of the coolest loot. “Swift, you take that side and I’ll start here. Yell if you find anything.” I picked a nest at random and began to ransack it. Swift had done the same on his end. After going through about half the nests, we hadn’t found much. I had started to think that someone may have gotten here before us until Swift called out to me. I went over to his position, “What do you have for me?” “I found some items as you can see, but the rubble it’s buried under is too heavy for me.” He gestured to a pile of sticks and stones next to him. Under that, I could see a twisted piece of ragged leather. I almost mistook it for one of the sticks if it wasn’t bent so oddly. “I got this. Terra.” I raised my palm at the rocks and they shifted apart to reveal a torn leather satchel. I picked it up and dumped out the contents. There was just some broken twigs, pebbles , a torn up book that had been eaten away, and a small, battered metal case. I picked up the metal case and inspected it. It was two pieces clasped together with a hinge on the end, but it was rusted shut. “Reparo.” I said. The rust fell off, the dents popped out, and the case seemed to shine. I opened it and it turned out to be a butterfly knife. I spun it around and flipped it shut. “This is so mine.” I snatched up the satchel and put it on, “Beaten up, but still usable.” I started stuffing my inventory inside it. Swift was still next to me, “What did you get? Something useful, I bet.” “Just a bag and a better knife to use. Come on let’s keep looking.” I said, diving back to the other nests. It was about afternoon when we finished searching the nests. Our total loot was the bag, the knife and some potion ingredients that Swift took. “Well that was a fairly good haul for this place. Where else can we go?” I asked, mostly to myself. At that moment, my vision blurred and a screen appeared in my vision. It was a Quest notification. I quickly looked it over. New Quest: Explore the cave Reward-New form, 200 XP, Cave contents Accept/Decline … ‘Explore a cave. Okay, I’ve played enough of Fable to know that there’s more to a simple quest than that. Most likely it’s something bad that will end up with me injured or worse. Plus, caves have a nasty tendency to hold traps and dangerous creatures, but sometimes they did have treasure and that was only worth the trip half the time.’ … Accept ‘Hey, I got to do some cave exploring sooner or later so I might as well get some done now. Besides, I get a new form and maybe some cool treasure. I swear if it’s cursed or booby trapped in any way, shape or form, someone’s going to get bitch slapped. Hard.’ A nav point appeared in my vision and my map. I turned to Swift, “Hey, I know where we’re going next. Follow me. Trans Form Harpy.” I turned to my harpy form and half run, half flew to the nav point. Swift was behind me telling me to slow down while he caught up. After a minute, I reached the point and it disappeared, leaving me with a featureless rock wall and some overgrown bushes. Swift arrived a minute later, out of breath. “Dude, you need to work out more.” I said jokingly. Swift gave me a glare and kept panting. He went over to the bush to lie down against it, but as soon as he put his weight on it, he fell through with a surprised yell. I stared at the bush, “Well that’s one way to find a cave.” I went over to the bush and pushed it aside. It was a sizeable hole that two people could fit through with room to spare but was surrounded by some berry bushes that managed to breach the rough soil with their roots. There was a small overhang that covered the entrance from eyes in the sky and the ground was sloped and covered in gravel to a degree that you would need careful footing lest you slip and fall further into the cavern. This was a cave built for adventurers and monster dens. I took a step closer to the edge of the slope to get a better glance inside. I couldn’t see much despite my enhanced vision, though I could see plenty of spider webs. I wasn’t really afraid of spiders, except the poisonous ones…and the really big ones. I remembered that Spider silk is considered stronger than steel. ‘I could try to fashion some to suit my projects and it could come in handy. Plus, I want to sling webs like Spiderman.’ I thought. “You okay, Swift?” I asked, my voice echoing against the walls. I got a loud groan in return. I leaned forward some more to get a better look at Swift. As I was peering inside, the ground gave way beneath me and sent me down into the cavern. As I fell, I somehow managed to hit every rock like a pinball machine. At one point, I thought one of the rocks had flipped me back up the slope to hit another one. I landed in a bruised heap on my head at the bottom, my wings splayed out and ruffled. ‘I probably should have transformed before coming down. That would’ve been smart.’ I chuckled at the thought and winced in pain, ‘God, it hurts to laugh.’ “Medico” I felt myself heal and my mana bar dropped a notch. “And Trans Form Base.” I got up and turned back to my Night Shade form. ‘Why is it so dark in here? I give it points for realism but they could have at least put in some ambient lighting. Fuck it, I got magic.’ “Lumen” A small orb of light appears in my palms. It looked like a cluster of LEDs shining. I lifted it up to light the way only to jump back in fright. “OH JESUS, AN ANGEL!” I scurried to the farthest wall, making sure to keep my eyes open and on the statue in front me. Most people are scared of snakes or spiders, even roaches. Me, I’m scared of statues. Realistic statues of people, animals and creature. Why? Two words, Doctor Who. Ever since I watched that episode of the Weeping Angels, I’ve never been comfortable around statues. It’s a good show, but some of the monsters creep me the fuck out. The statue in front of me, in fact, wasn’t an angel but a zebra stallion. His face was wide-eyed in shock and fear like he just saw a monster. ‘I want to say it’s a huge boobed gorgon but since this game is based off a kid’s show, I doubt it is….but I can still hope. There’s always some perverted artist trying to sneak in some dirty image in a game.’ The petrified zebra must have been here a while because he was covered in cobwebs. A little more and he would’ve been in a cocoon. I got up and brushed the webs off the statue, wrapping them up and placing them in my bag. I shifted the light and I found Swift lying behind the statue, covered in several bruises and cuts. no one will ever find the body here I jerked back and looked around. 'The hell was that?' I thought, 'Is someone down here?' I shifted my light around but found no living soul aside from Swift nearby. “Must've been my imagination. Then again, I have been known for being very imaginative.” I turned back to Swift, “Medico.” Swift's skin healed up. “Come on we got a cave to explore. Stay frosty.” I pulled out my pistol and held it ready for whatever made the noise earlier. Swift stood up and jumped at the sight of the statue when he bumped into it. “Oh, no. We are in the cave of a cockatrice.” He said shakily. I stopped, “A what now?” “Cockatrice. We must leave or we’ll pay the price.” he explained. I shrugged, “If the nests from before are anything to go by, then it's probably dead by now. Besides, I'm scarier than anything in this cave.” I started moving forward, taking the light with me. Swift stuck especially close to the light, casting about a nervous look and jumping at shadows. Before long, the tunnel opened up into a massive room with a small depression on the far end. Here, I saw many other statue victims. If it wasn’t for the looks of fear on their faces, it would be a strange statue garden to a hermit sculptor. There were all sorts of victims in here. From small critters to zebras and a large harpy, they all suffered the same fate. The sight made me uncomfortable but as long as they aren’t angels, then I was good. I looked around the cave, still gathering webs, and found that there wasn’t any hidden treasure to my dismay. Luckily for me, neither the monster nor whatever made the noise was here. Unfortunately, that also meant it was only a matter of time until it came back. And according to Murphy’s Law, it would be soon. Very soon. “Can we leave now?” Swift asked nervously, “We spent more time here than I would allow.” I took one last look around, “Yeah, there’s nothing here besides these statues.” Swift gave a sigh of relief and started heading for the entrance. As the universe would have it, I heard some slithering noises echoing down from the entrance. It was home. “Swift, hide!” I hissed. I extinguished my light and then jumped into the shadows near the entrance. “Nocte Oculus” I whispered, my vision turned green and the entire room lit up. I saw Swift's tail poking out from behind the harpy statue. The slithering noises were getting closer and some hissing was coming out as well. It was hard to tell the size of the creature from the echoes but I assumed it was roughly my size, give or take. It was almost at the opening. I tensed myself, ready to strike as it came out. What I saw stopped me dead in my tracks. It was a chicken head. A chicken head attached to a snake body with little flippy, useless wings. It stopped just out of the opening as if it sensed something was off but it kept moving forward, though slower now. I stepped out of the shadows. “That is the stupidest monster I’ve ever seen.” I said with a frown, The chicken-lizard thing turned and looked at me, trying to give me the evil eye. “I’m sorry, but if you don’t look scary, then the evil eye doesn’t work.” I said out of pity. Its stare was getting annoying, so I decided to end this and began to reach towards him, only to find that my body wouldn’t move. I saw my arm was slowly turning to stone. Even slower since I was just a shadowy mist. With my appendages out of commission, I did the only thing I could do. I closed my eyes, “Lumen.” A bright flash of light appeared in front of me and I heard a squawk of pain. I opened my eyes to see that I was no longer stone and the cockatrice was rolling on the floor in pain. I grabbed the creature by the neck and hoisted it up in the air. kill it 'With gusto.' The creature started to thrash in my grip, using its tail and beak to injure me. “Sorry but that don’t work on me in this form.” I felt up its face, looking for a certain facial feature. Once I found the eyes, I gouged them out, taking out its main weapon. Then to add insult to injury, I snapped its wings in half. The cockatrice let out an ear piercing screech of pain. I almost dropped it to cover my ears, but I took the next step and punched the wind out of its lungs, breaking a rib in the process. It coughed and wheezed from the blow, but I didn’t give it a respite. I grabbed the tail and swung the cockatrice around in the air like a sling. I let go and let it crash into the far wall, leaving a chicken sized dent, looney toons style, before crashing to the ground. I followed after it and pressed it into the ground, keeping its face away from me. I whipped out my knife and stabbed its tail, nailing it to the cave floor. It gave out another screech but I wasn't in the mood to care. “Yo dawg, I heard you like stones.” I grabbed its head and slammed it into the stone several times, not hard enough to kill it. I yanked my knife out none too gently and lifted the limp but breathing body up to my face. It was now a blue and bloodied figure, the face disfigured beyond recognition. “Too easy.” I clamped my teeth around its throat and feasted. The body shriveled up and my health bar was restored, though I still wanted more. Scanning… New form acquired: Cockatrice Achievement Unlocked: More than one way to get stoned- 20 XP Achievement Unlocked: Junior Spelunkers- 20 XP Quest complete- earned 200 XP Combat multiplier – 10 Additional XP- 100 XP Total XP earned – 2140XP You are now at level seven Reward; New form Cave contents I felt myself get slightly stronger at the level up, but I was still a little miffed that the quest was so easy. Anyways I should probably read up on these creatures. I paused the game and clicked the data tab. Selecting ‘Monsters’ I browsed until I picked out ‘Cockatrices’ and read the data entry Cockatrice A creature with the head of a chicken and body of a reptile. This creature is infamous for turning its victims to stone by eye contact. They are usually found in dense jungles, the Everfree forest, or large caves. The cockatrice is a solitary creature until mating season comes around when they go off in search of a mate. When you encounter one, the best choice is to run. If you are unable to run, then stare the cockatrice down and don’t back off, but advance upon it. Cockatrices aren’t known for their bravery. 'They aren’t known for their bravery? Well that explains the chicken half. Whatever, I still have some leveling up to do. I turned to leave. Why do I feel like I’m forgetting something?' A groan and the sound of rock crumbling behind me caught my attention. I turned around to see the statues from before begin to crack, revealing the creatures underneath. They were waking up. 'Oh. Shit.'