A Jaded Life

My eyes widened just a little when, as we entered the dungeon, an unexpected notification popped up. A part of me had wondered whether I’d get the Dungeon Explorer message for being part of the first group entering this particular dungeon and considered it an interesting test whether the rabbits we had chased into it were counted as intelligent creatures trying to complete it or something else. After all, Silva was considered a challenger, or at least so I had hoped, not some sort of monster, making me wonder where the system drew the lines in that regard. Curiously, the notification I received muddled things up a little more, as it wasn’t the Dungeon Explorer one but one I hadn’t seen before, prompting me to choose whether we were seeking shelter or hunting prey.

After a moment’s consideration, I selected the hunting option and received yet another notification, this one telling me that we were the first to enter this dungeon, apparently having the fairly simple name the Burrow, and would receive additional EXP thanks to the first explorer buff.

A noise I hadn’t really heard from Silva caught my attention and wrenched my thoughts away from the curious combination of notifications, a growl that I could only describe as fury mixed with a bit of disdain and disappointment. A quick glance told me that she wasn’t directing those emotions in my direction, something I was fairly grateful for, but that she stared deeper into the dungeon, her nose flaring and her tail sticking out as the fur all along her spine was raised. I didn’t even need to look at Luna, who was somehow better at understanding Silva, maybe thanks to their shared connection to Hecate, to understand that our companion did not like this dungeon. Sadly, I didn’t know the reasons but as I thought about it for a moment, I realised what it might be.

The dungeon might very well be like the one in the windswept steppes, where the wolves had essentially sacrificed their entire pack to become part of the dungeon in order to survive the centaurs’ incursion. There had been some additional implications, both magical and mental, that I only understood superficially but if something similar had happened here, things could be strange.

“The rabbits are monsters in this dungeon, aren’t they?” I quietly asked Silva, trying to get a better idea of what we would have to expect in this place. If anything, the growl she let out became even more furious and menacing, making me wonder if she knew something we did not. Realising that there was a possibility she was considered a beast for the dungeon’s logic and might be affected by being inside, I glanced over to Alex, trying to see if they were affected, too. But no, Alex looked just like they always did, if a little concerned at Silva’s display of anger, certainly not like the dungeon was trying to control them.

My next step was to briefly glance at the two with Soul Sight and magical sight and upon observation with Soul Sight, I noticed something odd. The environment was interacting strangely with Silva, and only Silva. It wasn’t as if she was being pushed or controlled but there was an interaction I hadn’t seen before. Sadly, I doubted I’d be able to figure out what was going on, as I heard a strange sound coming towards us from deeper within the Dungeon.

After warning the others, I readied myself for combat, even conjuring a few barriers of Ice to act as cover if the enemies currently moving towards us had some sort of ranged attacks or were a large swarm. In either case, having barriers that also served as obstacles was a good thing to have and it didn’t take all that much Astral Power either way. Granted, I had spent quite a bit on the way in and while I had recovered most of it, the mental and physical exhaustion would linger and eventually, I’d become unable to continue.

The appearance of the first wave of enemies came as a fairly unpleasant surprise, despite my earlier warning. I had heard them, sure, but it turned out that the dungeon tunnels didn’t reflect sound quite like they should and, to make matters worse, I couldn’t rely on my magical senses, neither my Shadow Sense nor my Earth Sense worked within the dungeon’s boundaries as they normally would. So, when a swarm of giant rats came out of a well-concealed hole just in front of us, we had been staring down the tunnel, waiting for the enemies to come from there.

Luckily, Silva had been in need of a target to release her anger on for the last few minutes and the rats made the perfect target for that. She leapt forward, barely bothering with her usual combat tactics and started to make a mess of the rats, biting them, using her paws to swat them into the wall with bone-crushing force and even jumping on them with her full weight, breaking spines and legs as she did. It was a ferocious display of brutal savagery, far removed from her usually calm and controlled style.

When I realised that there were even more rats coming out of the hole, to the point that Lia had to help Silva so the two could keep the rats from getting past them, unless they were crippled, I decided to add my own bit to the fight.

Given that the rats were coming out of a hole the size of a soccer ball, just big enough to fit two of them if they were squeezing, I conjured a few Ice Spikes, intent on setting them into the hole to make things… interesting. Only for the spikes to leave my control, despite multiple traits that should allow me to keep controlling them, or at least retain control over the Astral Power but no, the magic was wrenched from my control the moment they entered the hole. My next step, trying to block the hole outright, failed in a similar fashion, the plug I had conjured was somehow sucked into it and immediately dispelled, making me incredibly annoyed.

Luckily, between Silva, Lia and a conjured plant from Luna, I wasn’t really needed, though I did send my frozen shuttles into the fray, mostly finishing off crippled rats while I considered my next actions. More information was needed to formulate a good plan.

A quick Observe on the rats was my first step and also the first step that came back with a weird result. Normally, I’d expect to learn some sort of descriptive name, maybe Giant Rat in this case, and their level. Instead, I got a brief, stinging pain between my brows but nothing else, as if the Observe had been rejected in some way. I knew it was possible, had even done so myself, but I hadn’t experienced it like this and certainly not from the first monsters in a dungeon. This might turn out more interesting than expected. Just figuring out how the walls worked might be worth the annoyance but it might just be part of the package I currently labelled ‘Dungeon Weirdness’ and couldn’t do anything about.

There was a small moment of vindication when Alex decided to do more than watch from their perch on Luna’s shoulder and lob one of their alchemical orbs into the hole, only for the small orb to break apart mid-air after it entered the hole, without any of its contents reaching the ground or inconveniencing any of the rats in any way, shape or form. It looked like the dungeon forced us to deal with them outside of their hole, though the choke point made bottling them up fairly easy. Fighting such a swarm without that choke point would be a lot more difficult, though the rats didn’t stand a chance between my three companions.

Realising that the three of them had things well in hand, I decided that covering their backs was a lot more important than finishing off the few crippled rats I had been killing and fully focused on that, carefully studying the walls to spot any other holes that might suddenly disgorge a tide of rats.

No other holes were visible, nor did any spontaneously open and just as suddenly as they had originally appeared, the rats stopped coming out of the hole, leaving a strangely small amount of blood, bodies and viscera behind and even that small amount turned into that strange black sludge I had seen on Mundus and seeped into the wall and floor, disappearing from sight.

The moment it was completely gone, a blue box appeared, telling me that we had overcome the Giant Rat Swarm and killed two-hundred forty-six members in the process getting a chunk of EXP for the achievement. Given that the fight had only taken a few minutes, the number felt utterly ludicrous.

“So, five minutes to kill as many rats as possible?” Lia asked, getting an angry but acknowledging growl from Silva and a nod from Luna while I picked up a few bones and teeth that hadn’t disappeared back into the ground, hoping that they’d be useful in some fashion. If not, we could always discard them but for now, I had to hurry after Silva who seemed to have more anger to take out on the local critters.