Chapter 5 Visitors

(Curator POV)

It has been two days since that shabby looking guy came into our dungeon and left without even going farther in, since than I’ve been in cycle of digging and resting, “Curator there is a party of people you just entered our dungeon.”, Alice reminds me breakings me out of my stupor, “huh?! What? Finally!” I start to exclaim at the top of my lungs.

I quickly focus on the book store entrance and it seems that the man in shabby armor came back with his friends, with a large intimidating man with an equally large war hammer being the most noticeable of the people he brought back with him, they enter only to look around for a bit before sitting at one of the reading tables and talking to each other.

“Well this is the place and it looks like it hasn’t changed either.” Starting the discussion off was shabby before his companions also start to chip in their thoughts, Lyra the only woman in their party was the first to raise her opinion, “Sid what the hells up with this place, it so depressing and empty it’s nothing like the other mana dungeons, their usually stocked up on high quality and rare items, his place just seems sad in comparison.”

Hey! I shout but keep it down internally, this place is warm and cozy not depressing and … Well it was empty, but not for long, when I figure out how to spawn books this place Is going to be filled to the brim. Other than that more surprising facts popped up like the shabby looking man being named Sid and even more importantly. “There’s other like me!?” I can wait for Alice to answer me but there was nothing, after a few seconds l I can only hear Alice squeeze out an “I don’t know” this was Alice, the Alice who always had an answer for everything now speechless, “Alice you okay?”, I try to comfort her since it has been deadly silent since she squeezed out those words, “it’s okay” she says but, the way it’s said I can only imagine a sad puppy.

I was almost at a lost at what to do, the atmosphere was getting colder at a rapid pace, quickly I try the first thing that comes to my head, “Hey Alice how about I tell the fairytale Beauty and the Beast.” It was a fairytale that I haven’t told Alice before, instantly Alice lets out an “okay.”, but in a different tone which seems like she was feeling better, geez she starting to act more like a child lately sad one moment happy the next and always curious about everything, not that it was a bad thing in a way it made her kind of cute.

I should not bring up this subject in front of Alice again lest we go through this again, is what I decided to commit to myself internally.

While this whole problem was going it seemed like Sid, or it seems as the lady called him that, and his party had finished up their discussion and was getting ready to head downstairs to the second floor, all I could do now at the moment is sit back and watch.

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(Sid and Co)

Finally finish their discussion, which went along the line of what this Dungeon may hold and ending in banter, Sid and his companions finally decided to start their mission officially.

“Whaaa?” upon entering the second floor Sid’s party let out a cry of astonishment, upon entering the second floor, they were met with the bright rays from the sun blinding them which seemed out of place as they should’ve been underground in a cave at the moment.

Three of the members including Sid Zygore and the lady who has been to a mana dungeon before stayed quiet and composed, while their other members which have never been in a mana dungeon lost their composure, before being brought back by Zygore’s shout, “GUYS!” Once they calmed down Sid immediately followed up giving an explanation about this supposed sun and tranquil woodland underground, “listen up! This is something made from the mana of the dungeon heart, from now on think of this like were in foreign lands with no intel, expect anything from now on.”, Sid said stressing the expect anything from now on.

But after that initial bump the group started to work their way into the forest, even though the woodland was beautiful beyond belief their instincts warned them that this wasn’t natural at the slightest, even though everything was perfect like a painted landscape, the grass was pure green and no matter how much they trampled on the grass they would pop back up as if nothing happened, and the flowers and shrubbery was pristine with no flaws or signs of age.

“Hey you guys notice that it seems they’ve been stalking us since we entered?” Sid asks everyone once they reach a clearing, while pulling out his twin swords, without any words his companions also draw put their weapons and get into formation. In the bushes and in shadows were a countless amount of eyes staring at them, after getting in a turtle formation leaving their backs to their allies, the enemies in the shadows final attack dashing out of their hiding places.

It was a swift strike which was blocked by the groups weapons and shield, they finally get to see the true appearance of their shadowy foes, “wolves, it wolves!” scream out one of their comrades as he holds back one their enemies back with a shield, to this fact being revealed the whole group almost let out a collective sigh of relief, they had expected monsters beyond their wildest dreams but to undershoot their expectations what they were so tense about was just wolves.

That didn’t mean they could let their guard down, because these wolves similar to the landscape was also off putting, they were faster, more perceptive being able to dodge some of their blades and most notably of all more cunning, which even caused this group some troubles as the wolves were using their superior numbers to tire Sid and his group out, though the strategy was simple but effective, attack retreat and have another wolf follow up and attack, like well-oiled gears in a machine perfectly working with each other.

“What the hell are up with these little buggers we haven’t even managed to hit one yet” yelled one of the bandits swinging his blade, Sid could only sigh as he had to admit that he somewhat underestimated the wolves a little bit before calling out to Zygore, “let’s get a bit serious” Zygore hearing nodded back before knocking one of the wolves over to Sid, though because of his immense strength the wolf knocked by Zygore went flying over to Sid, which he promptly perfectly cut it in half only you be met with a surprise.

Counter to his expectation that he was going to be covered in blood, there was nothing what was there instead was some paper instead and looking at the wolf that he sliced in half there was no gore but instead there was paper where the wolf was cut, “WHAT!?”

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(Curator POV)

“WHAT!?” I look at the wolf that’s just been cut by Sid, there was nothing but paper, it seemed like the wolf itself was only made up of paper, I instantly look at the wolves’ status page.

Name: ???

Type: fairytale

Race: wolf

Skills: wolve's instinct; rank2

Looking at it I see nothing out of place, it’s skill only offers it increased senses but that’s about it, Alice sense that I was at a lost immediately hops on the chance to dish out more information, “Curator the fairy tale type of creature is not made of flesh and blood, if you remember the description for lore mastery it dictates that it gives you mastery of creatures that only exist in text and tongue, as such creatures are made of text.”, this ends Alice’s lecture on creature types, still curious I look at the description for fairytale type monsters.

Type: fairytale

Fairytale creatures are creatures that never truly existed in the first place, the only place they existed is within the pages of story books, and so instead of being made of flesh instead they are made of pages and given life. Fairytale creatures being made of pages given life have some upsides, they never tire and they may regenerate within reason, if a majority of its pages still remain it will slowly regenerate, the biggest down side to this is that fairytale creatures are more susceptible to fire and being burned.

Everything seems to be in order with what Alice said with the additional information that fairytale creatures are susceptible to fire.

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(Sid and Co)

“The hell?” before his eyes the wolf he just cut down starts to reform itself, paper starts to appear from nowhere as it starts to converge onto the wolf slowly rebuilding it’s body where it had been cut in half quickly he starts to cut madly into the slowly reforming wolf until it dissipates and what’s left is a few pieces of paper where it once was, “just chop these bastards up till they stop moving.” Sid shouts out seeing as his companions were at a lost at what to do with the slowly reforming wolves.

This marked the true start of the group’s long battle against the origami wolves, Zygore expertly dealing heavy blows to each wolf that entered his view, to the extent that after one blow from his hammer the wolf would be squashed to the point that its exposed paper wounds would peel off its body and scatter into the wind. As for Sid instead of being his usually lackadaisical and flimsy self that most people would peg him for, his eye’s sharpened as he started massacring the wolves before him, while his blows were not as strong as Zygore’s was the wolves still had no time to regenerate as blow after blow rained upon them from Sid who seemed to be dancing. The others while not as flashy as the other two still managed to hold their ground and kill the origami wolves.

After a long tedious battle with the wolves’ Sid and company came out on top as the last wolf ran back into the cover of the shadows. “Holy shit!” one of the bandits exclaims clearly exhausted from the encounter, “what the hell are up with these monster” another one of the bandit screams while throwing his hands in the air, the tense atmosphere that was present during battle has disappeared, Sid looking at Zygore who gives him a nod back raised his voice, “okay anyone one tired can rest, me and Zygs are going to be on lookout duty”, a majority of the group looking at him sat down and dropped their guard.

It was a relatively peaceful rest as none of the wolves seemed to come back for another round, while the group was resting thy once again got to take in the serene woodlands that surrounded them, birds were singing as if they were part of a choir serenading them. While they were resting them while they were listen to the birds melody that seem to heal tired bodies they picked up the sheets of paper that appeared every so often once a wolf was defeated and dissipates, none of them were especially experts when it came to appraising items so they decided to pack the paper in their bags before moving on.

Moving on from their position cautiously before coming upon an unusual sight, a person dressed in a red cloak that covered their face and figure, one person from their group was about to walk up and talk to the person before being pulled back by Zygore, who just gave a disapproving look, “what are you doing, whatever that is it’s definitely not human” Sid aggressively whispers to person who seemed to still want to approach the being.

Sid sneaking up on the cloaked being before cutting them down, what came from their body was the paper they seen before that the wolves were made out off, before the being disappeared, “See it was a monster” Sid calls out as the rest of the brigade emerge from the nearby bushes, “okay Sid you win this one you were right this time” the bandit who wanted to talk to the cloaked figure said dismissively throwing his hands up, before him and everyone else in the group moved on from the area.

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(Curator POV)

“NOOOOOOOOO RED!” I had to shout out as I watched her get sliced into ribbons by Sid, after they left I was left in despair by the loss of Red, that was until I saw her quickly reform again with paper that seem to come out of know where, which was strange as this type of instantaneous regeneration never happened to the wolves’, after a few seconds Red was back to her old self and went back to standing at her position “h..” I was instantly cut off by Alice before I could ask, “Curator Event creatures and characters act differently since they are vital.” Alice says instantly explaining it to me, she really has gotten more aggressive when it comes to giving information, it must be from the earlier shock she had.

Oh well never the less if they want to go any lower their going to have to talk to Red so they’ll be back, my eyes wonder over to group while saying that, what I saw baffled me , “HEY AM THE DUNGEON HEART HERE!”, the ferries seem to have incorporated their own designs into the dungeon.

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(Sid and Co)

Sid and company has been walking around the dungeon for what seems like hours ever since they killed the creature in the red hood, everyone was starting to get rowdy “I swear we’ve passed this tree 10 times already” one of the bandits raise up only to get giggle back in response, “okay which one of you fuckers keep laughing at me” he was at his wits end, “laughing I thought you guys were laughing at me” each one thought the other were laughing at their groaning and whining.

That was when it hit Zygore “it’s illusion magic”, suddenly he pulled out his hammer and swung out the tree that they seemed to pass every, resounding out in a large *Thwack* while the tree seemed to have not sustained any damage, the trees surrounding trees surrounding dissipated like mist revealing where they truly were, it seem that they had not moved an inch after leaving the area with the creature in the red cloak.

As they continued further into the woods they sometimes encounter trees which were enchanted, which always took them awhile to figure out that they were walking around in an illusion, other times they would just hear giggling, the giggle was haunting and condescending at the same time and seem to last forever and resound throughout the whole forest, it started to get so bad and grating the group even started think that the birds were laughing at them while singing, sometimes they could swear that they saw someone in the distance in the behind some trees, but when they checked no one was there and they had moved into the proximity of another illusion tree, lastly and what seemed to be the most disturbing thing was that they would sometimes see dancing lights that seemed to call to them only to lead them away from the group, thankfully they had Sid and Zygore who seemed to be the least effective out of the whole group and caught anyone one before they wondered of too far.

At this point it had been hours of wondering with everyone mental exhausted from the trials they faced which to be honest was ten times more brutal than the wolves, “AHAahaHaHAH I can tell where you fuckers are”, one of their companions started laughing and swinging their weapon in air and at particularly no one, while the disembodied voice seemed to egg them on by giggling ever more frequently, it also didn’t help that it seemed they have reached a dead end, where it looked like they could continue walking, but was met with the reality that it was actually a wall.

Making the call was Sid who decided that they should leave and report their finds to their boss, it was relatively easy to retrace their steps leading back to the figure cloaked in red, at this point they were too exhausted to care about the danger that the figure can present. While attempting to walk pass it they were met with a surprise as the figure came up to them and asked them for help, “Can you please escort me to my grandma’s house, I can’t offer you much in the way of money but I can lead you outside the woodlands”, he wasn’t even hesitant to take her up on the offer if they could skip that torture and at this point accepting the offer seemed like the right thing to do, it was like a slap to the face for Sid, all they had to do was talk to this little girl and they could’ve saved themselves the headache of having to traverse the woods themselves.

Leaving the dungeon with their egos bruised and their heads hurting they left the dungeon with the only consolation that they would not have to return immediately being their only recourse, if only it was that simple, once they were at the entrance of the dungeon they found their boss Keith sitting at one of the desks before saying, “eh what took you guys so long it’s been two days since you guys left oh well come on, were going to go get that dungeon heart before meeting up with the others who are headed up north.”, if only it was that simple.