"Don't know," Graff answered while he slipped to the front of the group.
Another growl, deeper and closer than the first—froze Chuck's next question in his throat.
A thump. A cry of pain. Scampering claws on stone. It all happened in the blink of an eye—a heartbeat of silence followed, broken by the sound of something falling to the floor.
Rahmys' scream shattered the short-lived quiet. "Graff!"
Sliding around Marl so he could see, Chuck felt a cold chill running through him. Graff lay on the floor face up with a dark stain spreading over his robe. From the center of the stain, a dirty-white shaft pointed to the ceiling. Rahmys knelt next to his head, her hand pressing against the flow of blood. Whyth ran to join her. His hands matched hers, frantic movements and bright red with Graff's blood.
Marl shoved past Chuck, sprinting down the hall, a long dagger in each hand.
Chuck stood, frozen, his brain struggled to keep up with what he saw. He watched Rahmys throw her head back and howl. Whyth's blood-stained arm wrapped around her shoulder. Marl ranted from down the hall as he walked back to the group.
"Too early for a dungeon crawl. There shouldn't have been any monsters here." Rahmys' monotone voice matched her vacant stare at the corridor wall.
"Will it come back?" Chuck whispered.
Marl answered as he came to the group. "Sounded like it ran away. I didn't see anything up ahead." He drew closer to the shaft and examined it. "Yep, a dowan spike-spear. It takes them at least four hours to shoot another, and that is assuming it has one ready. Could be up to twenty hours. It all depends on how far along it was in growing the replacement."
Chuck looked over at the group. "This feels like the wrong time and maybe the wrong questions, but I need to ask. I don't understand anything about what grows a dowan spike-spear or much of anything else. What about a dungeon crawl? I know what those are, at least in my world. None of this makes sense to me."
Marl motioned for Chuck to follow him a few steps from the mourning Rahmys.
"Letting those two cry it out for a bit. They knew him. I met him at the same time as you. It’s still hytto, but you need to know a little more." Marl took a deep breath. "Remember our discussion about gaming and some similarities? The dungeon crawl is one of them. We may have different words for it, but it’s all the same thing, and the Structure uses them. The energy flow we talked about earlier, the path to get to the source, the spring, to use Rahmys’ analogy, it's a full-out dungeon crawl. There's a bit more to it. We'll talk about that later. Anyway, it's dungeon halls and rooms, based on what we've heard about it. Monster encounters and all the stuff that goes with a dungeon crawl all lead to a boss room. That bossroom also has the spring. Got it so far?" Marl looked up at Chuck.
"In general, at least enough for you to keep going."
"Not much more, for now. This hallway is part of an old underground network that the Bythy opposition currently uses. A monster shouldn't be down here. Either the Structure turned this into a dungeon crawl, or someone brought at least one monster down here. That monster being a dowan. As monsters go, not a major menace. They are typically solitary and not overly aggressive. If this one is normal, it has a den nearby and acted in defense. It grows those spike-spears along the top or front of its spine, mostly bone, and it shoots from a hole along the top of its head, positioned between its ears. To reload, it must move the next one up and into its, um, cannon, I guess would be the best word. Depending on when it shot its last one, it could take four to twenty hours before it is ready to shoot again."
Chuck rested his hand on Marl's shoulder. "Thank you for explaining. I know it's a pain to have me asking all these questions. I want to keep them to a minimum, but at the same time, I think I need to know."
"I'll try to do a better job of being a guide for you. It’s easy to get caught up in what is happening and forget that you haven't been here more than a few days." Marl looked back at Rahmys and Whyth. "Better go figure out what we do next."
Marl was several steps in front of Chuck when another growl filled the hallway. Chuck spun around in time to glimpse an ash-gray dog-like creature. The hole on top of its head sent a shiver of fear through him. Marl screamed to get out of the way, the dowan lunged to the empty spot Chuck headed towards. Engaging Spatial Leap sent Chuck shouting in pain. He misjudged the height of the hall, and the rough stones were sandpaper on his skin. He fell to the ground with a meaty plop. The dowan leaped, its jaws snapped down on Chuck's lumpy thigh. His scream echoed down the hall. Swinging his arm, he moved extra pounds of meat to his forearm, creating a club. The monster yelped and let go. Chuck groaned and smacked the dowan in the head with a backswing. The creature slammed into the wall and crumpled to the floor, vanishing in a cloud of smoke.
"Shadow beast!" Whyth shouted.
<
Yay for me. Chuck stood just in time to notice a tall humanoid figure striding down the hall towards him. The orange-glowing eyes drew his gaze.
"Out of the way, Chuck," Rahmys screamed.
He condensed himself to half his size and rolled to the wall. A burst of green light flew over his head, splashing along the chest of the new threat. It may have grunted on impact. Chuck wasn't sure. It lifted a hand, pointing at Chuck. An orange tongue of fire shot out towards him.
Control fire! Control fire! Panic set in, and Chuck visualized the flame turning against the caster. A jolt of pain pierced through his head, then the jet of flame expanded and flew back toward the sender. A wave of heat flowed over Chuck as the flame expanded into a sphere, engulfing the creature in the hall. Another sharp pain rocked Chuck, and the fireball disappeared—leaving nothing behind.
<
"Did you kill it?" Marl called out.
"I don't…" Chuck gagged and then vomited. Wiping his lips, he looked back at Marl. "I don't know what happened."
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Marl ran over to Chuck. "Are you okay?"
Nodding, Chuck allowed himself to go back to his normal size. "Best I can tell, yes. Casting control fire hurt and left me nauseous. Not sure what I threw up, I've not eaten a thing in this body. Do I even have a stomach?"
Rahmys and Whyth came back from where the caster had been.
"Nothing down there to tell us anything," Rahmys said.
"Is there a room around here where we can rest? I don't know if I can keep going without sleep or rest or whatever it is I do now." Weariness colored Chuck's tone.
"We passed one right before," Rahmys paused and swallowed. "Right before Graff got hit."
"Should we bring him with us?" Whyth asked.
Rahmys nodded. "I already cast a preserve spell on him, so yeah, let’s bring him with us. We can leave him in the room when we leave and come back for him later."
Once in the room, Chuck dropped to the ground and let his head fall against the wall. "I need a few minutes before we talk about what just happened. That okay?"
The rest of the group nodded.
Status check, everything, please.
<< STATUS
>>
Unspent points? Spend them on stats? I can activate Fire-Flight without deactivating anything else?
<
Structure, can I name this display something other than all the stats or everything?
<
If you can make it default only when I ask for a full status, yes, otherwise I’ll ask as I need. Last thing I want is a display popping up distracting me at the wrong time.
<
Chuck studied the listing, muttering and shaking his head when he lost track of his point disbursement.
Structure, is it correct to assume that my intelligence level impacts my magic pool?
<
How is it calculated?
<
That’s helpful. The lack of response didn’t surprise Chuck. A little more help, please. I don’t want to bother my friends just yet. I’ll tell you what I think it means, and you can correct me—that way, you’ll see that I’m not just pushing the work over to you. When it says variable, I’m guessing that is because my form dictates a lot of that. If I form into a stronger form, my strength will go up—the same is true for the other variable stats.
<
Do I just tell you how to spend? Also, do you have a name? Feels odd to call you Structure.
<
I think I’ll give you one, sometime, have to think of a good one. Endurance is primary for health?
<
Okay, add ten to intelligence and ten to endurance. Need to survive long enough to build up the other stats. Oh, and activate Fire-Flight .
<
Another quick question. I advanced two levels on Control Fire at once. Is that what caused me to throw up, or was that something else?
<
It's the word typically that worries me.
After a minute of silence, Chuck dismissed the display and closed his eyes, counted to three, then let the room know he used his minutes.