Chapter 29

A couple of days of rest, recovery and relaxation found Jack sat in one of the hunters HQ lounges, comfortably lounging. It was remarkable really, after the meeting with Welts he’d had to go back to the medbay for a checkup with one of the guilds medics. He’d been told that he’d actually had multiple fractures in his ribs, but now after another checkup just two days later his ribs were completely healed. For a normal person, fractured ribs would normally take a month or more to heal, his cultivation was definitely paying off.

Today was the day he, Meredith and Cheryl were to head over to Tan Hill coal mine, or Tan Hill dungeon as it was known by these days. He was in full armour and just waiting for the go ahead. As usual he was watching the news, it really had become much more interesting these past few years.

The news was covering the attack by the Cult of Four in North Yorkshire, interest and outrage was continuing to increase about the mysterious cult and their goals and what their motivations were. Although the authorities refused to comment on any ongoing investigations.

There was also a story about a new gym that had popped up in the city of Nottingham. It apparently specialised in cultivation and promised everyone who bought a membership a safe and effective method of cultivation. Needless to say many people immediately joined the gym and also needless to say the membership fees were exorbitant in the extreme. However, the promises of safe cultivation methods were entirely false. Many of the people who joined suffered terrible side effects from dangerous cultivation practices and wound up in the hospital after one or two sessions, one or two sessions was also all it took to deplete a lot of peoples bank balances too. After a couple of months the police took notice and shut the gym down.

This provoked an increasingly frequent discussion or argument about why successful cultivators, such as guild monster hunters, couldn’t or wouldn’t share their own methods amongst the general population. The guild simply released a statement saying that no individual hunter was obligated to share their intellectual property, they didn’t comment any further than that, effectively absolving the guild of responsibility and leaving it up to their hunters.

He watched the news anchors go back and forth about the debate and relaxed into plush the armchair he was sitting on with a contented sigh.

“Jack! Ready to go?” Cheryl burst into the lounge, her usual lazy smirk was replaced with something more energetic. She always seemed more animated when the prospect of violence was looming near. She was wearing a similar casual getup to what she’d worn during the orc attack, just skinny jeans, tee shirt and trainers along with the same police kevlar vest which she clearly hadn’t bothered giving back.

“Hm? Yeah, always ready.” He got up and followed Cheryl to the atrium where Meredith was waiting for them. She was standing, surrounded by a mix of different hunters and guild staff, all talking to her or asking her things. She stood amongst it all with a polite but strained smile before noticing Jack and Cheryl approaching, she smiled in relief and waved to them. The group of hunters and guild staff all noticed Cheryl approaching and scattered like frightened geese.

They walked to the car park building and from there they began the two hour drive to Tan Hill. Cheryl drove, Jack sat in the front passenger’s seat and Meredith sat in the back. Unlike with Nate, there were no detours, although they did pass through a lot of rough wilderness and forested areas. The only reason they were able to travel so easily was because the government spent so much time and effort making certain the motorways and particular main roads were kept pristine.

Their route took them north east, they passed along the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Even though they were still miles distant they could clearly see the impossibly gigantic trees that formed the magical anomaly zone known as the Dire Woods looming on the horizon to their left.

Cheryl noticed Jack looking as she drove.

“Soon Jack, very soon. Although you’ll probably wish you’d never set foot in there more than a few times,” she commented. “You can still back out if you want to, find a less dangerous posting, but still out of the way.”

“Is it really so bad?” he asked.

She thought for a moment. “Basically…everything in there wants to kill you. Not just the monsters and the animals, but the plants, the trees, the insects, even the ground and fucking air wants to kill you.”

“Huh, okay but I presume we’ve found ways to survive in there right? And we wouldn’t still be venturing in without it being worth it, right?” he asked, Meredith also pulled covetous eyes away from the Dire Woods to pay attention to their conversation.

“Oh it's worth it yeah, at least as far as the money goes, probably not for the people that get killed in there but no one forced them to go either. And we have since found ways to survive, it’ll still be unpleasant though,” she warned.

“Unpleasantness I can deal with, but I still need a team though, since I’ll only be a lowly D ranker,” Jack mused partly to himself. “Do you know about any openings on any teams going into the Dire Woods?” he asked her.

“Wellll, I might know about someone who’s looking……” Cheryl paused for a moment as if waiting for something. “I said I might know about someone who’s looking for teammates to go into the Dire Woods with her!” she then yelled out into the car, startling Jack.

“What the - I heard you the first time!” he said in irritation.

“No, not you. Munchkin! It's time. You’re up!” Cheryl called out to Meredith.

“Ah! Er…erm…Jack?” Meredith leaned forward nervously. Jack twisted around in his seat to look at her.

“Yeah?”

“Er, so I’m looking for a team to go into the Dire Woods with me….er…” she trailed off awkwardly, her face going red. He observed her for a moment, waiting for her to continue. “Would you…would you like to join my team!?” she blurted out, shocking Jack who wasn’t prepared for that.

“Join your team? Erm, who else have you got so far?” he asked in curiosity.

“If you join up? You and me, eh hehehe,” she giggled nervously.

He thought for a moment, he knew he would have to join a team eventually, if only to have access to particular hunts, jobs and dungeon delves. But this was not what he’d been expecting. Meredith Shriverston was as close to British monster hunting royalty as it got, he’d sort of automatically assumed he was beneath her notice. She was on the fast track to becoming the next big thing after the Oxford Titan slayers

“Why pick me? I mean, is it the fact that I have the lightning element? Besides that fact, I’m not exactly the strongest hunter in the guild, I’m not sure it really gives me a massive advantage in a fight,” he explained, however he heard Cheryl snort in amusement next to him.

“I think you’re pretty strong Jack, though it's not just because you have the lightning element. It..well…whenever I team up with other hunters in the guild they always…fawn over me, you know? They treat me like royalty, or ask me out on dates or if they’re not doing that then they’re asking about my mother or trying to get in my good graces. I hate it,” she said, sounding bitter. “I can’t seem to work with anyone, they all just want something from me.” She sighed, leaning back against her seat.

Jack listened sympathetically. “Mm, you need to be more like Cheryl, project a demeanour that just screams to the casual passerby; ‘I will break you’. Make everyone afraid of you, at least some of your problems should disappear then,” Jack cheerfully told her. Cheryl leaned over and flicked him in the head.

Meredith giggled. “You see, that's what I’m talking about. I need someone who’ll talk…shit, with me,” she leaned in as she guiltily whispered the word shit. “I saw you stand up to Barry a bunch of times, I even saw you look Eric Flamewrought straight in the eye that one time on tv, I could never do that. I want someone who doesn’t care about my perceived status and who can stand up to me. I also don’t want some perv getting into my personal space or someone who bends over backwards whenever I ask them to do something. I just want a teammate I can trust to watch my back and will tell me when I’m being an idiot, is that so much to ask?!” she began to rant, clearly this was a rather sore topic for her.

“I suppose not, it's really that bad huh?” he asked and she nodded mournfully. “Yeah, whenever I see you getting interviewed the interviewer always seems to be drooling a little. Anyway it's not just me though right? There probably needs to be more than two of us for a team up in the Dire Woods, do you have anyone else in mind?” he asked.

“I er…..erm, don’t really know about anyone else I’d want in the team. I was sort of hoping you would know a few people who might be interested,” she told him nervously but with a hopeful look in her eye.

“Well, I suppose we could….give it a go. I’ll talk to a few people, I know about at least one guy who’d probably kill for a chance to go into the Woods. But as for me, I do need a team so, yeah, I’m in. As long as you also promise to tell me when I’m being an idiot.” He smiled and at that she nodded happily, seeming relieved.

“Great! Thank you so much, you won’t regret this,” she thanked him with a big grin.

“You’ll be telling him he’s an idiot quite often munchkin, it's a full time job,” Cheryl piped up.

Meredith giggled as Jack indignantly protested.

Their journey continued and eventually they reached their destination.

Tan Hill Coal mine was located in the middle of a relatively flat windblown moorland. In the past there was nothing else located around the closed down mine for miles around, but these days it was relatively busy.

When the dungeon was first discovered two years ago, apart from the usual dungeon delvers heading in to find their fortune or doom, the standard attachment of British soldiers were also stationed there in a permanent garrison around the dungeon. It was just a small number of soldiers that rotated in and out every few weeks to keep watch over the dungeon, to make sure nothing nasty escaped and call for help if needed.

However, the area around the dungeon gradually grew more populated and lively. First more guild hunters and independent treasure seekers and dungeon delvers showed up and established camps in the area. Then people that catered to the hunters and delvers started showing up, armourers, weaponsmiths, ammunition vendors, food vendors, small cafes, rented accommodations, general stores and more. A small town based around the dungeon had sprouted up in less than two years. The UK hunters guild might’ve set up an official outpost given the time, but since people had essentially done it of their own accord, they hadn’t bothered, why go to all the expense? Dungeon towns were becoming increasingly common throughout the UK, some were run by the guild and some were not, such as this one.

As Cheryl, Jack and Meredith pulled up to the unofficial dungeon town, they drove slowly and parked in a large car park that looked like an earth cultivator had flattened the ground.

They got out of the car and Jack took his first at a dungeon town. It was certainly colourful. It seemed a team of earth cultivators had raised up a series of massive crude stone wall-like formations dozens of metres tall around the town to act as windbreaks for the settlement. Someone or some people had clearly appreciated this more than others judging by the graffiti, murals and miscellaneous wall art that covered the walls. The town itself was a varied mix of prefabricated buildings, shipping containers, tents and the varied improvised efforts of earth cultivators. There were no proper roads or pavements, just packed gravel and dirt, giving the town a very frontier-like, modernised wild west feeling.

The three hunters began heading into town with Cheryl in the lead. As they got closer Jack could detect the aroma of different kinds of food and the general chatter of crowds of people. They reached the town proper, their feet crunched as they stepped onto what appeared to be the main avenue which was made up of packed gravel. Many shops and stores offering various wares lined the avenue with alleyways and smaller paths leading off the avenue to other buildings. About a hundred metres along was a large three story squat, solid looking building made of plain concrete, looming over the rest of the town, that was apparently the barracks of the British soldiers assigned to watch over the dungeon.

They walked along, through crowds of people and past various vendors and stores. The sounds of people talking happily, cooking food sizzling on grills and pans, the clatter of industry from the various weapon stores filled the air, giving the area a market bazaar vibe. There were even one or two buskers playing musical instruments further into the town. Several soldiers could be seen either patrolling through the crowd or sitting at a stall, eating and talking with others.

Cheryl led them through it all the way to the army barracks where a bored soldier with a touchpad was standing at a checkpoint surrounded by a chain link fence topped with razor wire. He watched them approach with a bored look in his eyes.

“Name and appointment?” he drawled lazily.

“Cheryl Shriverston, we’ve got a two pm delve for a guild promotion hunt. Booked last friday,” she told him.

The soldier flicked through his touchscreen for a few moments. “Hmm, yep, got ya here. It's gonna be a bit of a late start I’m afraid, one group has run over so you’ll have to wait. Come back in an hour or so. Sorry for the inconvenience,” he said, not really sounding sorry or at all bothered in any way.

“That's fine, we’ll be back in an hour then.” She shrugged before turning away and leading them back to the main avenue. They wandered down it for a bit before Cheryl seemed to find something she liked and suddenly turned left to sit down at a table outside a small cafe.

“So we’ll just wait then?” Jack asked as he sat down across from Cheryl.

“Nope, we’ll also eat too,” she told him as she picked out a menu from the confectionary stand in the middle of their table, looking through it. Jack didn’t mind, being slightly hungry himself. A waitress in plain clothes and a small apron came to take their orders, after she’d left, Cheryl took out her pager and began looking through it intently.

After a moment Jack couldn’t help but ask what she was looking at with such interest.

“You remember that weird tool one of the orcs was using, the metal cage thing with the fire crystal inside?” she asked.

“Yeah?”

“Well, I’m just looking at the runes that covered it, as well as examples of runes we’ve found from a load of other hunts. We never really took them seriously before now, I think everyone just sort of assumed they were the demented scribblings of half sentient abominations, but now….” she trailed off, looking thoughtful.

“But now?” he prompted, curious.

“Now, well before now we had never discovered anything like what you guys recovered from the orc attack in Park Estate. And thanks to Dr Joolton we started investigating these runes from multiple monster hunts all over the UK, we’ve begun to see correlations, similarities and patterns, not quite like a written language but something else entirely. Until Park Estate it was only ever an academic exercise, but now we’ve discovered these runes actually seem to have a physical effect on what they’re inscribed on,” she explained.

“Whoa really? That doesn’t sound like elemental magic at all,” Meredith pointed out.

“Mm, we don’t really know what it is. That metal cage thing was made out of thin iron strips, it should’ve been melted to slag when the fire crystal was used, but instead it held up just fine, no signs of heat stress at all. Although there were some faint signs of rust and corrosion but only around the runes themselves, which is weird. And whenever the fire crystal was used, the fire comes out as a long thin rope like projection that coils around its target, it has incredible range, way beyond what normal fire elements are capable of. I’ve been asked to increase the recruitment of guild surveyors and use the ones I’ve got to focus more on finding sentient monster hunts, since that's where we seem to find examples of rune script. These runes are a mystery, but one the guild is determined to crack.”

“Hey, do you mind sending me those images you’ve got Cheryl?” Jack asked.

“Hm? Sure, you gonna do a little research on the side Jack?” she teased with a grin.

He shrugged. “Maybe I am.” He smirked. She sent several large files to his pager and he made a mental note to look through them later, he didn’t know why but the runes and their potential uses intrigued him

Their food eventually came and they ate a late lunch before deciding to head back over to the dungeon entrance. As they approached they noticed a few more people stood or sat down immediately outside the dungeon entrance, they weren’t in uniform so they weren’t soldiers.

Cheryl hailed the soldier with the touchpad again and he let them through. They passed the small group hanging around the dungeon entrance, a few of them looked like hunters but others looked different, rather than weapons, they were fiddling around with various pieces of strange machinery and equipment.

He asked Cheryl about them.

“Hm? Oh them, those guys look like researchers, physicists probably, trying to discover what makes the dungeon tick, studying the manifestations of magic in a relatively controlled environment. I’ve escorted a few of their like through a dungeon or two, it was a lot of standing around doing nothing while they fiddled around with their machines, extremely boring to be honest. They must’ve been the group we were waiting for.”

“Why did we need to wait for them anyway, couldn’t we have just gone in?” Jack asked.

“Uh uh, that would’ve put us above critical mass,” Cheryl informed him.

“Critical mass?”

“Yup, we’re not completely certain why, but whenever too many people are in a dungeon at one time, the dungeon just seems to lose all restraint, it stops playing by its own rules and starts sending absolutely everything it has at you. Every monster, every trap, everything it has in reserve, no holding back, no matter where you are in the dungeon. I heard a story once of a dungeon that literally turned the ground into lava beneath a delving team's feet, nearly killing several dozen hunters inside it, so yeah, you don’t want to get to critical mass.”

“Whoa! That sounds bad, and you don’t know why?” he asked.

“We’ve got theories, it could be that having too many people in it triggers a self defence reaction, or maybe having too many people in is just too tempting, like placing a starving beast in front of a banquet and it just goes crazy with hunger. Who knows? Anyway we’re here now so are you two ready?” She turned to them.

They stood in front of what looked like a rocky fissure leading down into a small grassy incline, an inky black unnatural blackness protruded out of the fissure.

“I’m ready,” Jack stated resolutely.

“Me too,” Meredith said firmly.

“Okay then, let's do it.” With that she plunged into the blackness of the dungeon entrance with Jack and Meredith following closely behind her.