Chapter 33

Jack and Sarah both approached the area outside the dungeon entrance, the dungeon was actually surrounded by a strong chain fence topped with razor wire. Multiple men in what looked like a form of black riot gear stood guard in various places armed with rifles and swords. It was strange, all the razor wire and imposing dark armoured faceless men with rifles should have made the area look like a scene from a fictional dystopia. However the addition of winding crowd control barriers, cartoon monster cutouts and a ticket kiosk also selling pictures of tourists laughing or jumping out of their skin in shock kind of gave the whole area another vibe altogether.

Sarah led Jack through the gate in the fence and to the side, they entered a small building behind the ticket kiosk. This is where Jack met with the security team.

“Hey guys! This is Jack, he’s the new hunter the guild sent over, treat him well. Anyway, Allan, I’ll leave him with you. I’ve got to get back to work. Bye Jack.” With that she swiftly left having just dumped Jack where he needed to be.

Jack turned to the rest of the room, there were ten other people, all lounging in chairs in what appeared to be a breakroom, they turned their heads towards him briefly before disregarding him, going back to what they were doing. They all wore the same dark riot gear that the people outside standing guard were wearing. One of the older men stood up, he appeared to be in his forties, with the beginnings of a beard, he had red hair that was showing hints of grey and gave Jack an unimpressed stare.

“The new hunter hm? Rank and element?” he asked crisply.

Taken aback by his tone Jack didn’t answer for a moment before he gathered himself. “F and lightning,” he answered with a shrug, not really caring about telling anyone his dirty little secret anymore.

At this the people in the room re-focussed their attention on him, the older man glared at him, Jack calmly looked him back in the eye without blinking. They both stayed like that for a few mississippis before the older guy grunted.

“Fine, at least you don’t look like a clown like the last guy. All that fancy multi coloured bone armour trimmed in fur, pfff! This is how it's gonna go down, for your first tour group you’ll be with another member of our security team, and you’ll do whatever they say. After that you’ll be on your own for the rest of the week, the gist of it is that you follow the tour group, you don’t say or do anything, you’re only there to look good, smile for the cameras and in case things actually do go to shit, then you can step in. Am I clear?” he asked, still glaring at Jack. Jack nodded his understanding. “Good, tours last two hours and there's two every day at nine thirty in the morning and three thirty in the afternoon.” With that he brusquely left the break room past Jack, the other security members got up and followed him. One person stayed behind and approached Jack.

“Hi, it's Jack right? You’re with me for the first tour I believe. I’m Dave.” He took off his black riot helmet and held out his hand with a smile. He was relatively young, a few years older than Jack himself, Jack shook his hand with a smile.

“Hi, nice to meet you. So the guy who just spoke at me, I’m thinking that was Allan right? The head of security here?” Jack asked.

“Ha! Yeah, don’t mind him. He comes off a little harsh, but that's only because he takes our safety seriously. You’ll like him when you…actually you won’t like him but you’ll respect him. Anyway we best get to it, Sarah the manager likes it when we’re here before the tour group arrives.” He led Jack back outside and they walked around to stand next to the ticket kiosk. They arrived just in time to see the rest of the security team led by Allan disappear into the dungeon entrance.

They waited there a few minutes before people began arriving. Tourists, just normal people having paid a relatively large amount of money to actually see the inside of a dungeon, something they never would have been able to contemplate before now. It was a wide mixture of different people, men and women, old, middle aged, teenagers and different ethnicities. They all congregated into small groups, chattering excitedly about what they were about to see, after another few minutes the last few tourists showed up and it was finally time.

Another woman wearing a blue blazer and skirt appeared from the kiosk and called for everyone's attention.

“Hello everyone! Welcome to Clifford Hill Dungeon, hosted by Yorkshire Dungeon Tours. Today, you’re all about to embark on an exciting adventure! Filled with wonder and amazement! The things you’re all about to see here have only ever been witnessed by the privileged few, but now thanks to Yorkshire Dungeon Tours anyone can come and be part of the story! Now above all else we take your safety very seriously here at Yorkshire Dungeon Tours, so we hope you can help us out by staying with the tour group at all times and if one of our friendly security team members give you instruction, please do whatever they say to the best of your ability,” she explained all this in an American accent with a friendly smile and the tour group members listened to her attentively, their excitement and anticipation growing. Jack frowned, that's it? They’re about to go into an extremely dangerous environment where people have actually fought for their lives and she only briefly mentions safety once. He turned to look at Dave, Dave simply looked at him with a small knowing smile and a shrug.

After wrapping up her introductory speech, the tour guide led them all into the dungeon. Jack and Dave followed closely behind.

As Jack stepped through the threshold and into the inky blackness his vision was momentarily reduced to nothing for an instant before he was able to see what lay before him.

Funnily enough it looked like an actual dungeon, there was nothing strange and twisted or magical about it. After all of Jack's anticipation of finally entering an authentic magical anomaly known as a dungeon, it did in fact fully resemble a mediaeval dungeon. He looked over to the tour guide and listened to her speak.

“Welcome everyone, this is the first level of Clifford's Hill dungeon, the first of twelve levels. I’ll be leading you through the first five levels and telling you all about the fascinating wonders you’ll find here,” she explained to the crowd, all looking around with interest, snapping photos and pointing and staring.

“Our security team will be positioned throughout the dungeon to ensure your safety and we’ll be accompanied by a powerful hunter from the hunters guild throughout the entirety of the tour. So please relax and enjoy,” she said with a calm smile pointing at Jack, the group turned around to stare at Jack and he waved at them self consciously as a few of them snapped some photos of him, he put his helmet visor down. They then began a slow walk through the first level as the guide spoke.

“Now then, although we entered the dungeon beneath Cliffords Hill, it is fascinating to note that the dungeon occupies an entirely separate dimensional space, this seems to be the case for all dungeons. Many dungeon interiors can spread out, up, down or to the side and not come into contact with any other manmade or natural structures. There is a tower dungeon in Puerto Rico that only looks ten stories high from the outside, but on the inside you can ascend for many miles and when you look outside through a window you would find you’re above the cloud line and are in fact in heavily travelled airspace. In this particular dungeon there are levels that when mapped it was found that they should be intersecting with underground sewer lines and other underground structures, even the river! But instead the dungeon seems to ignore all this and arranges itself however it pleases.” She smiled with a shrug and the crowd chuckled. They continued walking along.

“I’m sure all of you will note that this dungeon does in fact look like an actual dungeon, a mediaeval one. It is believed that even though they occupy entirely separate spaces, dungeons are still heavily influenced by the site of where their entrance is located. In this case the entrance is located near Clifford’s Tower, a motte and bailey castle built in the 13th century by the Normans during their occupation of England. Throughout history the castle was frequently used as both a garrison for mediaeval English soldiers and as a prison. And so the dungeon appears to have modelled itself thus.” The guide pointed to various features, bare stone prison cells, chains hanging from the walls, burning torches held in metal sconces providing dull flicking light. It looked very grim and dungeony.

They continued walking further with the guide pointing out and explaining various interesting features as well explaining the history of the first hunter teams to explore the dungeon. Eventually they came to a set of narrow stone stairs in a wall, they led downward, the guide pointed them out as the entrance to the next level and led everyone down them.

When they emerged at the bottom of the stairs after about ten metres or so the area seemed to be a little different, although instead of resembling a mediaeval prison it seemed to be slightly more open.

The guide led them through and continued to lecture them about dungeons in general.

“One of the current theories about dungeons is that they are a form of monster or semi-sentient, this theory is backed up by their seemingly predatory nature. They lure in humans with various forms of incentives such as treasure and dropped loot from slain monsters and then do their best to kill said humans or at the very least drain as much magic as possible before their prey escapes. As you were warned before in the orientation yesterday this is why some of you might be feeling a little hungry and tired by now, but don’t worry, snacks and energy drinks will be provided to you upon our exit from the dungeon.”

“The main form of sustenance for dungeons however is the living creatures that die inside them, as soon someone or something dies, it is rapidly absorbed by the dungeon, whether it's a slain monster or a hunter, as soon as they die they are claimed by the dungeon.”

They explored the rest of the dungeon level with Jack and Dave tagging along behind. So far, despite learning a lot, Jack found this a little boring. This wasn’t much different from a regular tour through some old castle found literally anywhere in Europe. He turned to give Dave a bored look to which Dave smirked.

“Don’t worry, it gets a little bit more exciting when we get further in, up next is the exhibition fight,” he told Jack.

Once again the group descended some narrow dark stairs to the next level. This level was a little different, it looked less like a mediaeval castle area or prison but more like a large cave. The tour group had emerged onto the third level on a raised rocky platform which had two ramps descending on opposite sides down to a wide flat open area, it almost looked like an arena due to multiple levels of curving stone platforms rising on either side, they sort of looked like bleachers from a school gym. Some of the stone platforms had small dark holes in them at the bases. Light was provided by burning torches scattered around the area and by large pale green crystal formations high up on the ceiling, thirty metres up.

Everyone in the group took stock of the area before people noticed several members of the security team were down in the arena. Likewise some security personnel stood at the bottom of the two ramps, the guide had them wait there for a few minutes before something began to happen.

Something began emerging from the holes in the platforms, Jack had to squint before he realised with surprise what he was looking at. Goblins!? But these goblins looked strange, as several of them emerged from the holes and got to their feet, Jack noticed a difference between regular wild goblins and these dungeon goblins. For one thing they looked to be bigger, where normal goblins struggled to reach four feet in height, these ones looked around four and a half feet, with the accompanying bulk. Also instead of ragged scavenged clothing, the dungeon goblins had on what appeared to be armour. They still looked a little ragged, but Jack definitely saw leather and chain mail armour, some were even wearing Norman style helmets with the nose guards. As for weapons, there were definitely no spatulas and screwdrivers down there, most were wielding small swords, knives and short spears and most of the goblins had kite shields, the type of shield the Normans were known to bear into battle.

While everyone watched, the fifteen or so dungeon goblins emerged from their holes and gathered together on the opposite side of the arena to the tour group. They faced the ten security team members who stood in the middle of the arena.

The tour group shifted in anxiety and anticipation. They seemed to realise that they were about to witness genuine violence down in the arena, not just something on their tv or computer screens. They weren’t sure if they were going to like it or not.

Back with the goblins, they gave a shrill war cry and charged in one mass directly at the security team. Some of the humans levelled their assault rifles and opened fire, the expected loud bang of gunfire never occurred as it seemed all the rifles were equipped with silencers. The mass of goblins was quickly whittled down to half their number and again until there were only five remaining, at this the security team spread out and let individual goblins choose their targets. The humans that were targeted by the goblins stowed their rifles and drew swords and axes, the humans that weren’t targeted didn’t fire their rifles but instead simply aimed at the closest goblin, ready to fire when needed. Before long the combat had spread all over the arena and five different melee duels had commenced between the dungeon goblins and the security team.

At this the crowd of tourists pressed towards the edge of the stone platform, they watched the different fights with great excitement, wonder and awe written on their faces. Many even cheered the humans along and let out yells of triumph when a security team member skillfully defeated their goblin opponent and finished them off. It was just like a colosseum with gladiators and spectators.

As for the fighting, though he knew he was no master, Jack still observed the humans with a critical eye. Though it looked impressive, the moves the security made were too flashy, there was no economy of movement, no quick kills before moving onto the next opponent. Instead the humans appeared to be playing with the goblins, although the goblins seemed much stronger than their wild counterparts, the humans could still have overpowered them easily, instead, attacks were made to wound rather than kill and draw out the fights for as long as possible, all to entertain the crowd.

Jack doubted the crowd could tell this, judging from their excitement at the violence down below, although he did notice a few quiet people had very pale faces and did not seem to be enjoying the spectacle. The tour guide also noticed them and began speaking gently to the small group of people, they seemed to come to an agreement on something before the guide went back to the main group.

Finally the fighting drew to a close after a few minutes. Jack was fascinated to note that the goblin corpses did not lie grotesquely in pools of their own blood but instead they dissolved into multicoloured vapour and light rapidly upon their death leaving nothing behind. Even when a goblin was wounded it didn’t bleed but instead seemed to leak multicoloured light from its wounds. A couple of the defeated goblins dropped a piece of equipment each upon their death, one dropped a rusty knife and another dropped a damaged helmet. Now Jack began to see why this was a low value dungeon.

Once the violence was wrapped up Dave nudged Jack in the side before he called for the tour group to follow him down to the arena floor. Meanwhile the tour guide spoke to the quiet group again and called for the two security team members who’d been guarding the ramps. The quiet group who’d found the violence hadn’t been to their liking went back up the stairs to the second level of the dungeon. The tour guide rejoined them and let everyone know they were free to explore the rest of the arena level themselves and approach the security team if they had questions.

Jack didn’t really feel like exploring and instead opted to lean against a nearby wall, looking back up to the stone platform. Dave joined him, motioning back up to the second level stairwell where the small group of people had disappeared with a security escort.

“There's a few with every tour group, can’t stomach the violence. No shame in it. We always have a spare couple of security members available to escort them safely out of the dungeon when needed,” he explained, Jack nodded.

After ten minutes the tour guide called everyone back together, the security members all disappeared down into the fourth level and the tour group followed them.

The fourth level was a little larger than the others before it, it was comprised of a large wall with ramparts that circled a small lake, the lake was about a hundred metres across at the middle. The wall was lined in burning torches every few feet making the wall and rampart very well lit, however the centre of the lake was dark, nearly pitch black. There was no sound, even the tour group was silent as they took it all in, this floor was by far the most eerie. The entrance to the next level was clearly visible at the other side of the lake as a well lit gate. When she spoke the tour guide didn’t raise her voice, as if she was afraid of making too much noise.

“Welcome to the fourth level everyone,” she said in a quiet voice.

The crowd slowly, almost apprehensively creeped towards the edge of the rampart and looked down into the dark waters several feet below them. No sound was heard except the slight ripple of water against the stone wall.

“Although this is considered a low level dungeon, this particular floor is considered one of the most profitable and dangerous floors out of all of the dungeons in the north of England. The reason for that is fairly simple, you have to get in the water, and about fifty metres down right in the centre a hunter would find a small number of glowing aquatic plants known these days as Cerulean Vitae. The petals of these plants can be used in all manner of different ways, they primarily have pharmaceutical uses however and are highly valued. A single petal is valued at around thirteen thousand pounds in today's market, so a single flower in good condition would be priced at about four hundred thousand pounds,” she explained to which the tour group gasped in surprise.

“Yes, the addition of such a highly prized treasure was a surprise when it was first discovered, especially for such an otherwise low powered dungeon. It's believed that this might be the reason why the dungeon is so small in comparison to other dungeons, it used up so much power on this floor with the Cerulean Vitae that it only had enough power to spawn twelve levels overall, most other dungeons tend to have at least twenty. Anyway, if you all look closely you’ll be able to see a faint soft blue glow, deep underneath the water's surface,” she said, motioning towards the water. Jack strained his eyes and could just about see it.

“Unfortunately this dungeon level is essentially an aquatic level, meaning any fighting or exploring performed will primarily be in or under the water. This has proven to be a major issue, for a start many hunters tend to be fire elements so their elemental affinities are useless. And even for water element hunters, actually fighting under the water is something very few are familiar with, and there is a lot of fighting to be done under there, the dungeon spawns many vicious fish type monsters that swarm their prey and most hunters no matter how well equipped they are tend to be helpless in a fight underwater. The success rate on this particular floor has been very low and unfortunately the casualty rate has been extremely high, the lure of the prize at the bottom of the lake is deadly, as well as being an aquatic level it is also known as a graveyard level,” she told them all solemnly.

“These days hunters avoid the water entirely and opt to simply go straight to the next floor, which is what we’ll be doing now! Watch your step!” she told them all cheerfully.

With that she led the group at a brisk pace along the wall ramparts and up to the entrance to the fifth floor. The group all walked downstairs murmuring quietly amongst themselves. Jack lagged behind until he was alone on the fourth floor, he looked down at that alluring blue glow in the centre of the silent black lake before finally turning away and following the rest of the tour group.

When he caught up to the rest of the group he found them all standing still, staring up in wonder. He joined the group and looked up, high above them were hundreds of stalactites hanging from the ceiling and covering them appeared to be countless pinpricks of yellow light. When he looked closely he realised the lights appeared to be moving, many were even zipping around between the stalactites. Jack looked down at the rest of the level and saw that it was mostly dark except for light coming from the yellow lights above, he could see however thin pillars of what looked like natural rock flowing up from the floor all the way up to the ceiling spread throughout the level. The yellow pinpricks of light also seemed to be zipping around here and there through the air all over the place, one buzzed closely in front of his face and he saw that it wasn’t just light.

The light was actually some sort of glowing insect flying around. Everyone was immersed in the sights, the entire level was some sort of large cavern lit up by glowing insects. It was quite beautiful, but somehow Jack doubted the dungeon set up this floor simply for aesthetics sake, or maybe it did. Who knows, maybe it was just a nice floor to relax and rest in before continuing onward, just the dungeon showing some hospitality.

“This is what we call an ambush floor,” the guide spoke up after a minute, and then again maybe not. “In essence what this dungeon has done is to create a visually distracting scene thereby allowing its monster spawns to more easily catch any dungeon delvers by surprise. Some particularly sneaky goblin spawns are known to frequent this area and have even caught a few hunters unawares before, despite the relative weakness of goblins in general,” she explained.

“However, this floor has already been cleared out by our trusty security team so there's no need to worry. Anyway I’m sure you can all see the lovely light show put on by our dungeon friend here, the lights are bioluminescence produced by an insect known simply as a dungeon firefly. They are not harmful or predatory in any way, in fact we’ve found their diet consists entirely of sugar water outside of dungeon environments and they maintain their bioluminescence indefinitely. So if any of you want, you can catch a few down here and bring them out of the dungeon. We have specially designed terrariums for sale that you can keep them in!” she said with a smile.

At that and with a burst of enthusiasm much of the tour group surged forward into the cave to catch some of the innocent unsuspecting insects. Dave nudged Jack again.

“We should move forward too, this is the most dangerous bit, there's never a guarantee all the goblin spawns are accounted for, and if you do see one-try to take it out discreetly, don’t want to alarm the customers,” he said as he walked after the crowd.

“Uh huh,” Jack replied, attempting to lace his response with as much scepticism and disapproval as possible. “Have you had an incident yet?” Jack asked suspiciously, despite everything he’d seen and how well controlled this whole operation looked, he still felt that escorting civilians into a dungeon was just asking for trouble no matter how much money there was to be made. There's just no way this isn’t going to end with someone getting hurt and then someone else getting sued, absolutely no way.

“Not yet,” he responded simply with a shrug. Jack followed him further into the cavern, keeping a sharp eye out as well as trying to keep track of the tourists, an impossible goal as many of them disappeared behind various stone columns as they frolicked about trying to catch the damn insects.

Jack wandered around for a few minutes until he spotted movement by one of the columns, at first he thought it was one of the tourists. Regardless he approached it further from behind an adjacent column, he peeked around it and saw two goblins crouched down. They were stalking a young couple who were busy exploring the level. The goblins both had vicious looking knives in their hands and looked ready to use them.

Jack unsheathed his spear and quietly approached the goblins from behind, they hadn’t noticed him yet. He got within a few feet of them before their pointed ears twitched and they turned around to face him in surprise, they noticed him too late as he thumbed the switch on his spear. The spear extended instantly and pierced one goblin through its left eye, Jack then immediately grabbed the other goblin by the throat one handed, pinned it against the wall and channelled lightning energy into his hand and the goblin. It gurgled and twitched feebly for a couple of seconds before falling still, he let go and watched the corpse slide to the floor at his feet. The young couple hadn’t noticed a thing and wandered off somewhere else, hopefully not where there were more goblins lying in wait.

The dungeon goblin corpses almost immediately began to fade away into multicoloured vapour and light which Jack watched swirl and dissipate around him. He heard a little clink and looked down to see one of the goblins daggers had dropped onto the floor. He picked it up, it was just under a foot in length and slightly curved, whatever material it was made from appeared to be some kind of dark stone substance, other than that it was rather plain, without a hilt but still very sharp. He’d keep it for now, could be useful in the future, he stowed it in his belt with plans to get a sheath for it later. Dave appeared and walked up to him.

“Nice work Jack, that spear is pretty cool. Where did you get it? The um…the hunters plaza is it called?” he asked, eyeing Jack's spear as Jack retracted it with the flick of a button.

“No, from Gary’s Monstrous Alloys over on the high street, he does quality work,” Jack answered with a small smile, hoping to drum up more business for Gary. Dave simply nodded and looked at the spear in speculation before a firefly flew up his nose.

While Dave coughed, sneezed and spluttered the tour group was called together, after a quick headcount and having made absolutely sure no one had been knifed to death in the dark, the group went back the way they came from.

While they walked the tour guide answered questions from the group. Most were about various features of dungeons and different monsters but one person asked a question that had Jack sort of interested in.

“Will there be tours of the old hospital in the future?” a young man asked.

At this the guide looked uncomfortable before answering. “Ah, um, not any time soon I’m afraid. The Old York hospital dungeon is at a significantly higher level than this one. In fact it is considered one of the most dangerous in the United Kingdom, in all of Europe actually. Definitely in the top twenty anyway. Tours through there are quite unlikely I’m afraid, only B and A rank hunters are currently permitted entry,” she explained regretfully.

The tour group walked on, back through the different floors all the way to the main dungeon entrance. Eventually they emerged into daylight and everyone let out a breath of relief. It was only now that Jack realised how oppressive and stifling the dungeon atmosphere was, now he was out he felt like a weight had been lifted from him. He’d only been walking around for a couple of hours but he felt more tired than he should, he saw now in the daylight that many of the tour group felt the same. Most were covered in sweat, breathing a little heavily and looked rather drained. It was then that the tour guide directed everyone to a nearby set of tables.

“Guys! Before you all go, please help yourselves to the snacks and drinks provided, remember what we covered in the orientation yesterday, the dungeon passively drains your energy for its own sustenance even when you're not doing anything.” The group all converged on the tables of food and drink.

“And remember to visit the gift shop across the street! We have a great selection of souvenirs there! And thank you for visiting Clifford Hill dungeon!” she said cheerfully before disappearing behind the ticket kiosk.

As the tour group all disappeared across the street, Jack and Dave took that as their cue to go on break. They walked behind the ticket kiosk too and passed the tour guide leaning against a wall with a lit cigarette, she winked at them as they walked into the breakroom.

They both found some seats and relaxed into them. Dave turned to Jack.

“So, that's that, pretty simple really, just follow the tour group and step in if needed. You er, got any questions?” Dave asked.

Jack shrugged. “Not really, you’re right. It's pretty simple, I think I’ll be ok.” Overall the whole experience had been underwhelming for Jack. It was a little boring following along the tour group for two hours, there was barely any fighting and even if he could find some conflict he wouldn’t be able to cultivate from his kills because the dungeon just reclaimed the monster corpses straightaway, so stingy. The various pieces of dungeon trivia were interesting but he imagined he’d get bored of hearing it over and over again. For him the only good bit was right at the end when he got to kill those two dungeon goblins, though he realised that probably wasn’t a healthy attitude to have. Still, he was glad this job only lasted a week.

After a little while the rest of the security team filtered into the breakroom, they found seats around various tables scattered around the room and relaxed. Everyone chatted cheerfully with one another, some bragged about their showing in the exhibition fights, others made fun of certain tourists, the security chief appeared to be scolding one of his subordinates in the corner and Dave was rummaging in his pockets for any loose change he could use in the vending machines lining the walls.

Jack got up and headed to the vending machines himself, intent on something chocolatey. However he was interrupted by a shrill panicked scream from outside. A moment of silence ensued before everyone rushed for the doors. Jack ran outside with everyone, he saw blood stains splattered across the back wall of the ticket kiosk where the tour guide had been having a cigarette. He and the security team ran around the ticket kiosk and found the source of the scream.

It was hard to miss, on a normal day it could be mistaken for a harmless house spider. However this particular house spider was bigger than a car! It was a mixture of brown and black chitin with hair in places on its legs. It made a strange whispering chittering sound as it loomed over the tour guide.

The tour guide was lying there, panicked and wounded but still alive, though perhaps not for much longer.

End of Book 1