Chapter 63: Chapter 57 – Return to the Dungeon (Day 30)

[Dungeon Party]

Serenity - (No Current Path) - Melee Tank, Self Healing

~~~~Moira (Follower) - Mage - Ranged Damage (Magic)

Echo - The Sound of Silence - Ranged Damage (Magic), Scout

Lancaster - Shielding Sword - Melee Damage, Agility Tank

Rissa - Time Heals All - Healing, Melee Damage

[Recommended party size is 4]

[Current party size: 4]

[All party members meet entry requirements for early Dungeon entry]

[A dungeon instance exists with these party members. Reset dungeon?]

The first level of the dungeon wasn’t an open area, a forest, goblins, and boars.

It was a cave, and the first monster was a giant ant - an ant about the size of a chihuahua, but that was still big enough to be a giant as ants go.

The ant was green, roughly the color of a leaf, and Serenity stabbed it before it could bite.

The second monster looked like a giant junebug. It was twice as tall as the ant and significantly wider. Serenity’s attack skidded off its casing and it headbutted him, knocking him backwards.

Lancaster got his sword under it and flipped it over, then Moira threw a levin bolt at its belly and it stopped moving.

With the first two enemies dead, the group could take a look at the cave. The entrance was a wooden door, set into what looked like a natural sandstone cave wall. The walls were clearly wind- or water-scoured at some point in the past, but the floor was soft and brown. Serenity decided to consider it dirt and not think about it too much more. There was a glowing fungus on the ceiling, making the cave dimly lit.

“Rissa? Did you ever get a light to work?” Serenity could see fine, but he didn’t think the light level was good enough for anyone else - well, Echo was probably also fine, but not because of the light.

Rissa concentrated and the blade of her spear lit up. “Will this do? It’s the best I can manage to hold for any length of time.”

Moira and Lancaster said it would, so the group set off into the cave.

---

An hour - and at least a dozen ants, beetles, and crickets - later, they found running water. It was a slow-moving stream, with cattails in the bend. Serenity’s back was caked in the gunk that made up the floor of the cave, but he’d managed to keep the attention of all of the beetles so that Lancaster or Rissa could flip them to expose the vulnerable belly.

The beetle carapaces were resistant to magic as well as weapons, so they’d tried to collect one to take out of the dungeon. It hadn’t worked well - they really didn’t have the right tools to clean the guts out, so they’d scraped out what they could and were dragging a pair of beetle carapaces behind them.

“Do you think the water’s safe?”

“Not a chance. It’s a dungeon, there’ll be giant water bugs or something.”

Serenity ignored the chatter behind him. Lancaster was right; there would be something in the water. There always was. He stayed on his guard as he edged around the water, trying to get past it without disturbing the cattails and sneak past, but right as he got to the narrowest part, he saw the cattails moving on their own. “Contact!”

Serenity took a step backwards. He didn’t want to end up separated from the group.

Three bugs surged out of the water. One was directly next to Serenity, one was at the narrowest point, and one seemed to be headed for Rissa, at the back of the group.

“Alligator ticks the size of alligators! I did not need this shit!” Lancaster stepped between Rissa and the giant water bug bearing down on her.

Serenity slashed at the giant bug’s front - legs? Claws? - as it attempted to grab him. He cut one off, but the other knocked him sideways.

Really, really wish I had some actual skills. This would be so much easier -

Serenity stabbed the side of the bug. With his knife in it, as long as he kept control of the knife, it couldn’t reach him. He shoved backwards, and the bug skidded into the one behind it.

And here I am, wishing for any bigger weapon. Such a pain.

Serenity moved the knife around in the bug’s guts before pulling it out and stabbing the bug slightly farther down. It was going to take a lot of damage to kill the bugs, if they were like the beetles.

He saw a levin bolt fly past him and hit the far bug, then a second. They left scorch marks on the carapace that dripped fluid. “It’s working, keep it up!”

The bug tried to pull back, off Serenity’s knife. He let it, then jumped on top of the bug, stabbing it as he fell. This time, the bug stopped moving.

The one right behind it was angry, and managed to grab his leg with its front limbs. As soon as it had the leg secure, it stabbed. The proboscis slid on his boot, but still scraped his shin as it slipped between the boot and his leg armor. The injury started to burn.

[Chemical resistance unlocked]

“They can inject something -” Serenity shouted as he stabbed the head of the water bug. After a couple strikes, it released his leg.

The third one was already dead.

Serenity tried to stand, but his leg screamed at him. It didn’t seem to be healing quite right, and he could feel that it was pulling a lot of energy. It needed to be drained, or - “Rissa? Do you have anything for acid?”

“No - well, maybe, if your body could normally fight it off, I could speed that up?” Rissa knelt to look at the injury. “Let’s get the boot off.”

Serenity had a red mark extending from the injection site much of the way around his leg. The muscle in the area was oddly soft, and painful to touch, though the injection site itself had gone numb.

Serenity wiped his knife on his armor, then cut a line through the red area, bisecting the mark of the injection site.

You are reading story After the End: Serenity at novel35.com

[Pain resistance increased]

Well, that was especially not fun.

A reddish liquid flowed out of his leg at the cut. “Now would be a good time for that healing.”

Rissa touched his knee. Serenity wished she were doing that under better circumstances.

With the liquid draining and Rissa’s help, Serenity’s healing quickly restored his leg.

They’d had lunch shortly before finding the water, but Serenity took the time to eat again anyway. Healing always made him hungry.

---

The group continued on. The monsters started all coming in groups of three to five, but there weren’t any more of the giant water bugs. The only real threat was the crickets, since they could jump over Serenity and Lancaster to get at the others.

Eventually, the cave changed. The temperature rose and the tunnel descended. The group was rushed by a group of red ants. They were larger - closer to the size of a collie than a chihuahua - and their mandibles were coated in flame.

Serenity did not want to be bitten, but there wasn’t any way around that if he wanted to stop the ants. He and Lancaster held the front while Echo and Moira killed ants. Rissa stabbed from behind Serenity whenever there was an opening.

[Heat resistance unlocked]

I need a shield. Maybe shield and spear? No, that wouldn’t work in tight areas. Shield and hammer or mace would work pretty well against these bugs.

More ants followed the first group, in waves. Lancaster was able to knock groups of ants backwards, but by the time the last wave was defeated, his armor was scorched nearly as badly as Serenity’s. Serenity had been able to heal as they fought, but the group had to wait for Rissa to heal Lancaster.

There were no more ants as they walked through the fiery halls. It wasn’t long before the air cooled and they were back in a cave that looked like the cave near the entrance.

“Fire and water. Do you think we’ll see other elements?” Moira asked.

“Who knows?” Lancaster replied. “We've been down here for hours. This place is a maze. We’d planned to do two levels today, but I don’t think that’s possible.”

“Yeah. We’ve been down here, what, six hours? We probably could get a second level if we find the exit soon, but it’s not worth it. We have time.” Serenity didn’t see any need to rush.

“Doyle and the others will be ahead of us.” Lancaster sounded annoyed.

“We knew they would be. We’re on a shorter schedule because we’re with Serenity. Let them run ahead of us. Maybe they’ll be able to tell us something that will help.” Rissa sounded calm.

Serenity missed Rissa. She was here, but it wasn't the way it had been, and that made it worse. Every time she spoke, he remembered the way she had once spoken to him.

“Lets- “ Serenity stopped just as he went around a bend. The cave in front of him opened up into a large chamber, and he could see a lot of different colors moving ahead of him. “Ants. Lots and lots of ants. I also see some beetles and a few grasshoppers. There are ... ” Serenity had to stop to count. “Six different colors of ant, I think. Probably multiple elements since the red ones were fire. There’s no water, at least, so I think the giant water bugs won’t be here.”

Lancaster stepped up beside Serenity. “How are we supposed to handle that? We don’t have Nightwitch anymore.”

“Divide and conquer. Here’s hoping it works, but they haven’t charged us yet. Everyone ready?” When everyone nodded, Serenity continued. “Echo - no, yours aren’t visible. Moira, can you throw a bolt at that closest set? Then step back into the corridor, Lancaster and I will hold them off.”

It was surprisingly simple. The groups were smaller than the waves of fire ants, and even though they did all have a beetle, everything had to get up close to attack. Echo and Moira made sure the grasshoppers never got close, and thinned the ants.

They were able to clear three quarters of the room in relative safety before Moira’s attack hit an ant too close to a rock outcrop.

The rock outcrop launched itself into the air and made a loud “CH-WEEP” noise.

It looked like a giant moth. Serenity wasn’t sure if that was the same noise a normal moth would make or not … but that wasn’t important. What was important was that it was headed their way and so were all of the rest of the insects.

The area around the moth seemed to become colorless. Serenity wasn’t sure what it was doing.

“Darkness! I can’t see the moth!” Moira called out.

Serenity hadn’t realized his second sight wasn’t in color - but then, he’d really only used it in dark places, and he didn't expect to see color well in bad light. “I can. Echo, can you?”

“Yeah, I can hear it.”

The first wave was no more difficult than the previous waves had been. The second was cloaked in darkness until it was nearly to them. It was harder, since Moira couldn’t attack them until they were out of the darkness.

[Cold resistance unlocked]

Echo wasn’t making much progress on the moth, so she switched back to killing grasshoppers and ants. She could attack them before they came out of the darkness, and they began to get ahead again.

Then the moth started launching bolts that looked like a dark version of Moira’s levin bolts at the group. They didn’t do much damage, but they stung and - more importantly - left a small cloud of darkness behind when they hit that took a moment to evaporate. Whenever they hit Lancaster, Moira, or Rissa, they had to take a moment to wave the darkness away before they could return to attacking.

[Darkness resistance unlocked]

The fourth wave of ants arrived while Serenity and Lancaster were still busy with the third. The ants climbed over the bodies of the previous waves and slipped past. “Knock them back! I'll take care of these if you can hold the others back!”

Serenity saw Lancaster start using his area knockback skill. It was “just” a slash that moved everything nearby, but it was perfect for this situation.

The only problem was that it burned stamina, and Lancaster had to be getting low. “Rissa! Help Lancaster with stamina!”

“I have been!”

That was good.