Chapter 11

As I walked down the corridor, the hair on the back on my neck rose. I felt as if there were eyes watching me--an unnerving feeling. The temperature dropped considerably, and the draft chilled me to the bone.

“Is this normal?” I asked. “We’ve barely gone more than one hundred feet from the last room, and it’s freezing!”

Dungeons are unpredictable, though I’ll admit the temperature has changed quite rapidly. Oftentimes, a dungeon’s environment or characteristics are hints to the challenges you will face.

“What then, is it going to snow on me?”

That’s silly. This passageway is far too small for snow to fall. Perhaps if we were in a large cavern that might be possible. I would suggest that the creature you meet might have an affinity to cold or ice.

“Wait. You mean in the right dungeon, it really could snow on me?”

Hmmm...watch out ahead.

I slowed down, looking carefully at the floor in front of me. It seemed to shine a little. I reached down and touched it--cold and slick.

“It’s icy,” I murmured. “Is there anything you can do to help me with that?”

Flames flickered around the edge of Veritas’s blade.

“Wow, I didn’t know you could do that!”

It won’t add much damage. You’re not strong enough yet for me to be able to make the fire strong, but if you wave it over the ground it should melt ice and make the floor less slick. Also, I suspect that your next opponent will be ice-aspected. The flames, though small, will be efficacious against such a creature.

I could see my breath white in the light of Veritas's fire.

Sounds of scuttling came to my ears. Though Veritas glowed in the passage before me, there was darkness beyond the radius of her light. Dark. Cold. Expectations of monsters. I was starting to think this was a really bad idea.

Don’t worry. Weren’t those goblins easy enough to kill? You can do this, Paol. Just take a deep breath, let it out, and take one step at a time.

I took a deep breath. Let it out. Waved Veritas over the ground. Her flames seemed to grow for a moment, and I saw the ice become water. Took a step. Took another step. Waved my sword. Took another step.

After about ten minutes of this painstaking progress, a little blue beetle ran from the darkness into the circle of Veritas’s light. Well, it was little compared to me but huge compared to regular beetles. Roughly the size of my foot, it streaked towards me at surprising speed. The icy floor didn’t seem to bother it at all. I was so surprised that I didn’t even react until the thing had almost reached me, and then I swept Veritas down to kill it.

The bug easily dodged my clumsy swing. Two sharp mandibles protruded from its head. I found out just how sharp they were when they stabbed me through my shoe and in the foot. My foot felt numb.

Ice Beetle stabs you for 4 damage.

You take 2 points of ice damage.

Movement rate is slowed for 10 seconds.

Ice beetle? I did a quick Analyze.

Ice Beetle. Level 2.

It came at me again, and this time I dodged backwards while swinging my sword down, causing it to leap to the side to dodge before rushing forward to try to stab me again. I swung Veritas once more, and again it leapt to the side to dodge, though this time it was the opposite side.

When it ran forward, I swung and it leapt to the original side--it’s left. Then when I swung again it leapt to it’s right.

Hmmm…

The next time I swung it leapt again to its left, but this time I changed the path of my blade in midair and lunged to the beetle’s left. Veritas gleamed as she swept easily through the ice beetle, severing its head from its body. The two pieces of once-beetle dropped to the ground

You slice Ice Beetle for 21 damage.

Ice Beetle has died! You gain 100 EXP.

Not much experience for that thing, but at least it was easy. If all I had to do was cut down a bunch of those, this next part of the dungeon would be a piece of cake.

Pumping my fist, I crowed, “Did you see that? One cut kill!”

Paol.

“At first I was a little worried because it seemed pretty fast, but it was easy! Did you see that stupid pattern it uses? Dodge left. Dodge right. Dodge left. Dodge right. Who’s going to die to something that simple?”

Paol.

“And one hit! That’s all it took! Well, a lot of that is to your credit, Veritas. You do a lot more damage than my last weapon. But still--”

Paol!

“Yes? Going to congratulate me now?”

Paol, that was a minor ice beetle. Such creatures are very easy to kill. However, they hunt in packs.

“What? Packs?”

Skittering onto the ice came a wave of ice beetles.

Something in the back of my mind gibbered. Idon’twanttodieIdon’twanttodie! The first one to reach me thrust itself forward to spear me with its mandibles. With a terrified yelp, I jumped backwards and swung Veritax at it. It dodged.

It had dodged to its left. Okay, okay. This time it would go--

I swept my sword to the creature’s right, cutting it completely in half.

You slice Ice Beetle for 19 damage.

Ice Beetle has died! You gain 100 EXP.

Before I knew it, another ice beetle was lunging to numb me, and I slapped at it with Veritax. I was a little off balance so my aim was off, but the results were still satisfactory as I sliced off all of its legs on one side of its body.

You slice Ice Beetle for 10 damage.

Ice Beetle is permanently incapacitated.

However, I didn’t have time to finish it off because the rest of the pack had arrived and moved as a group to kill me.

Three of them charged me at once. I managed to kill one, and the sweep of my blade was close enough to another to cause its dodge pattern to engage. Unfortunately, my blade never came close to the third beetle which ran in fearlessly and slammed its needle-like mandible into my calf. Pain shot up my leg, and all of a sudden it was hard to stay standing.

Ice Beetle stabs you for 4 damage.

You take 2 points of ice damage.

Movement rate is slowed for 10 seconds.

Damn it! At this rate my entire body was going to freeze, and the disgusting bugs would drag away a nice frozen Paol-lollipop for the next several meals.

Ice Beetle stabs you for 4 damage.

You take 2 points of ice damage.

Movement rate is slowed for 10 seconds.

You slice Ice Beetle for 16 damage.

Ice Beetle has died! You gain 100 EXP.

Ice Beetle stabs you for 4 damage.

You take 2 points of ice damage.

Movement rate is slowed for 10 seconds.

Ice Beetle stabs you for 4 damage.

You take 2 points of ice damage.

Movement rate is slowed for 10 seconds.

This was NOT working. How was I going to get out of this? These beetles were stupid one-on-one, but as a pack? I couldn’t keep track of who had dodged where. Whenever I killed one of them it was because I had made a lucky guess as to where it was dodging. The rest seemed to be taking turns jumping forward for another stab and then retreating to wait for their next chance.

I had to do something. I wasn’t fast enough or good enough with the sword to kill them en masse. And I couldn’t kill them all at once--

In all the confusion, I hadn’t realized that we had exited the tunnels and arrived at a large empty room--apparently the ice beetles’ home.

Just as the remaining ice beetles prepared to attack together, I pulled back my sword and grabbed the hilt tightly with both hands to swing it around in a circle. As I begin to spin, I shouted to Veritas, “Greatsword!”

Veritas shimmered, and suddenly it was all I could do to keep the newly transformed weapon from dropping down to drag along the ground. As it swept through the air, the ice beetles leapt to the side--some one way and some the other--but it didn’t matter because the arc of my sword was large enough that the monsters couldn’t dodge my attack unless they had gone forwards or backwards, not to the side.

That did for the first line of the monsters, and I swung Veritas around again in a wide arc which required the second line of the creatures to retreat in order to dodge...except that these creatures would never pull back in the midst of a fight.

I felt multiple, consecutive splatters as Veritas swept cleanly through the air with almost no resistance and obliterated ice beetle after ice beetle. A final sweep of the blade, and all the creatures were dead.

Congratulations! Your Swords skill has increased to Level 4.

Congratulations! You are now Level 5! You have 3 attribute and 8 skill points to distribute. Choose wisely as your decisions are irreversible.

Panting, I leaned against the greatsword Veritas, gazing upon the destruction I had wrought. Bits and pieces of the disgusting creature were scattered all around me, and the only one moving was the one from which I had cut off half the legs. With only the legs on one half of its body, it was unable to move forwards or backwards. Instead, the mindless thing spun in a circle.

I raised Veritas over my head and brought her down, point first, to complete my triumph over the overgrown bugs.

You slice Ice Beetle for 16 damage.

Ice Beetle has died! You gain 100 EXP.

Perhaps I should be an exterminator.