“Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.”

–Mark Twain

“‘Stuff your eyes with wonder,’ he said, ‘live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.’”

-Ray Bradbury

==POV: Zidaun==

Together we approached the door to the dungeon, which slowly began to open at our presence. The door split down the middle as each side retracted quietly into the walls.

We quietly entered a hallway leading to the next room.

The hallway was composed of grey stone. The light of the hallway gradually increased as we made our way toward the brightly lit room visible in the distance.

You have entered the:

Dungeon Antechamber

I calmly stopped and felt the mana around us as we entered.

“Still a safe room.”

That taken care of I looked around the room we had just entered. The stone floor was circular and made of tiles in a polished black and white alternating pattern. The pattern and the tiles grew smaller and closer together until they met in the exact middle of the room.

The ceiling arch high overhead, the same grey as the stone of the hallway. From the middle of the ceiling dangled a bronze chain. A large hollow crystal ball, encased by three bands of bronze, attached the chain. Inside a spectral fire provided bright but relatively gentle illumination. The flickering nature of the light made the intricate alternating pattern of the tiles seem to dance.

Two doors were in the back half of the room, though neither was directly in front of the hall way. The one of the left had a symbol that I recognized, a golden number one from the script the dungeon used, inlaid into dark polished wood, with a crystal circle beneath. The other door was of the same wood, but blank except for the circle of crystal.

“I recognize the symbol,” I said, “it is the same one that showed up on the crystal token. It means one.”

“Probably where we are supposed to go,” Firi murmured.

“Yes, probably,” I said, “still need to check out the other door though.”

We walked slowly across the floor, with me in the lead. I didn’t detect any traps.

The door had no handle, so I simply pushed my hand against it gently, ready to jump back. The crystal in the door flashed red. I jumped back and after a moment the light went away. Nothing else happened.

“Guess that means no,” Gurek said.

“Maybe,” I said.

Inda rolled her eyes at both of us.

“We’ll know when you try the other door,” she said, “so get to it.”

I gave her a mock salute, my hand in a fist against my chest.

“At once your majesty.”

She scowled at me, but there was a hint of a smile.

“Okay, okay, back to serious mode everyone.” I said. “Let’s try the other door.”

I approached it and gently touched my hand against it. The crystal circle lit up green and then the door vanished into thin air.

I jumped back but nothing happened, again…

A tunnel with an arched roof lay in front of us. It was made of the same grey stone. At the end of the tunnel, about forty feet away, mist obscured the world.

We cautiously made our way toward the mist. It was back-lit with bright light, turning it almost completely opaque. We took out time just before we entered it. I could see a platform of cut stone starting past the mist with my aura sight, with walls that would prevent us from falling off it.

Firi tested the mist, but it was merely water as far as we could tell.

Gurek stretched out his hand into the mist.

“Yep, that is damp.”

He removed his hand from the mist and waited, a faint sheen of moisture visible on it.

“Nothing on my status.”

We nodded and I took the lead again.

The mist was only a few feet thick, so two steps took me through it, and out into the open air. Or so it seemed. Above us an enormous sky blue dome rose up until it was indistinguishable from a true sky. It was at least a mile tall, and several miles across. It was the single largest dungeon room I had ever been in, at least in terms of open space.

I walked forward to the edge of the circular platform we had emerged on, the crenelated wall at the edge allowing for an easy view. Stairs led down off to my right. I kept my aura sight up, even as I absorbed the view.

We stood at the top of a tower, a ruined keep and town spread out beneath us, and a wall encircled them both. Beyond the wall was a rolling green meadow. Another structure jutted out from the town wall and reached out in a curve into the meadow. At first I thought it was another wall, but there was no walkway, only a curved top. The structure broke halfway to the far side and water flowed from there into streams that lead off to the right side of the dome. An aqueduct?

Hills broke up visibility in various places. The left side of the dome had hills that grew larger as they approached its edge. Other areas has solitary trees, or small groups bunched together.

You have entered the:

Final Refuge

A quick feel of the mana confirmed my intuition.

“Not a safe zone.”

Regardless of the eventual danger, we were safe enough for the moment, so we each made our necessary notes, while Inda sketched out a basic map.

“Interesting that everything here is a vale.” Gurek said, “Where is the closest one like this?”

“At least a few thousand miles away,” Inda responded, her eyes flickered back and forth between her map and the terrain as she made subtle changes, “if you want to get something that could hold this type of growth relatively stable. There would be seasonal variations, of course, but those trees wouldn’t survive most places.”

I nodded, glad for the information. I had only traveled for my duties as a Seeker, and that had been confined to a single kingdom. I had never left Froa, except to go home.

Gurek looked out over all the greenery laying below before he spoke.

“Looks like we will be calling in all the specialists. Getting a perfect map of just this room would take forever with just us. As would getting samples of all the plants.”

“I am sure the dirt and stone is just as varied,” I said. “We will send a message off when we get back tonight. We already needed to tell them that the Tsary showed up today. Looks like we are changing to our primary mission then.”

Our primary mission was simple enough in concept: Delve as deeply as we could. We would record the route we took, the loot we obtained, the monsters we dealt with, and anything else worthy of note. Other people would be responsible for the more detailed mapping now.

“Well, guess we should get started so we can tell them a bit more. Gurek, your up.”

Gurek moved to the front, a faint shimmer appearing around his body as he pulled out a short sword and a dagger. I came next, my body lowered into a martial stance, my hands empty. I was followed by Inda, knives in hand, and Firi whose hands were as empty as my own.

Slightly nervous, and with a thrum of energy running through my veins I followed Gurek down the stairs. What would we encounter in this ancient dungeon?

In the center of the room below was a black chitinous monster. I identified it reflexively.

Monstrous Plate-Mouse

Level 1

Huh.

“It’s just level one.”

It looked similar to any number of plate-mice I had killed in various dungeons. It was a foot long, not including the tail, and covered with dull black chitin.

Before we even got close a knife streaked through the air from Inda. The knife went through the head of the mouse and struck the floor with a clang.

The mouse faded away, and a copper piece clinked to the ground where it had been.

“If we run into any more of these,” I said, “I will try to secure one with stone, just to see if there is anything special about them.”

“Sure,” said Inda, “might as well. I was expecting something a little more impressive, given what I have seen from the dungeon so far.”

I smiled, “Me too, honestly. This dungeon had been surprising every step of the way though. Let’s see what else we run into.”

“Besides,” Gurek muttered, “with our luck this was just meant to make us drop our guard and we will run into a level fifty behemoth at some point. A living copy of that Jorgmanderous, or whatever, emerging from the depths and chasing us across the meadow.”

“Lets hope not,” I said. “I am not sure we would survive that. Let’s continue.”

We proceeded through the now empty room, collecting the copper and knife along the way. The next room was identical, except there were two plate-mice.

One quickly died to another knife strike, while I grabbed the other with tendrils of stone wrapping around its limbs. It shrieked at us, thrashing against its bonds as we got closer. It used no magic or other abilities that I could tell.

“Looks normal enough to me,” Firi said.

I agreed, “Yeah, I don’t feel anything. Gurek, you want to give it a test?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m just here to absorb damage.”

Gurek carefully extended his arm near the mouse. Its claws raked against the barrier, and he moved his arm closer until it could bite at the barrier as well.

“It’s not even getting past the initial base protection. I am not feeling anything at all.”

“Well,” I said, “guess it is just a completely ordinary level one after all. No need for it then.”

Gurek stabbed it with his short sword and it faded away. We collected the two copper pieces that had been left behind by the monsters and proceeded down again.

The next room had a level two monstrous cockroach. It was the same size as the mice, but had thicker armor. Predictably, it proved no more immune to flying knives than the mice, though it dropped three coppers when it died.

The room after that had three mice. I captured one with stone, Inda killed the other, and Gurek killed the last with a stab through the head as it ran towards him.

Inda stopped us before we got to the next room.

“This… is very convenient,” she said. “If it scales like this the whole way down it is perfect training. Newbies could come and gradually get a harder and harder challenge.”

Firi frowned, “I think it might be meant for exactly that. Or to weed out those unsuitable for the dungeon. To make sure a certain level of ability is present.”

“Well,” I said, “this dungeon has been unusually well organized. Usually that is much less obvious in the actually dangerous parts of a dungeon.”

I gestured toward a window, where the meadow was still easily visible.

“Obviously it would be difficult to maintain this type of structured experience out there. So I expect things will get more difficult, or at least chaotic, when we head out there.”

The rest of the tower followed our new expectations. Level three plate-rats were the only new addition, and the number of enemies and their difficulty gradually increased until we got to the bottom of the tower another dozen or so levels down. None of it proved to be the slightest bit difficult for us.

At the bottom of the tower, after descending from a room with four plate-rats, a wooden door was set into stone. It was large, dark, and heavily weathered. Cracks in its structure let light through in thin lines.

“Ready everyone?” I asked, to positive affirmations.

“Okay, Gurek, open it up.”