Chapter 31: Book 1: Chapter 12 (Part 3 of 3)

When we were far enough away, Carl and the two brothers retreated up to where Jackson cowered. Once together they talked with one another feverishly in low whispers.

“I can’t hear what they are saying,” Shana said. “Do you think they will let us through?”

They were too far away, even for my Acheronian enhanced hearing, but we had an ace up the sleeve. I had made sure we stayed within Quixbix’s twenty-five metre range.

“Quixbix, can you eavesdrop on what they are saying?” I asked the imp with an evil smile.

Shana chuckled along at my deviousness.

<Of course, Torin. Give me a moment to listen in and I’ll summarise for you> the imp offered.

We waited as Quixbix listened in to what they were saying. I observed their body language while we basked in the sun, it was another gloriously sunny day.

Carl was obviously the leader and he was not a happy-chappy. Peter and Lucas deferred to him, but interestingly there were times, especially when Jackson was talking that they seemed to defer to the smaller boy. Carl might be the head honcho, but Jackson was the brains of the operation and the two brothers recognised this and valued his words, to Carl’s obvious chagrin. My review of their group dynamics was interrupted as Quixbix reported his own findings.

<Okay, they weren’t lying about there being more of them. Don’t ask questions as I’m paraphrasing a bit of the background and filling in logical gaps as I go along. Six of them were out ‘grinding mobs’ last night when they found the dungeon. However, their Hit Points and Mana were sorely depleted, so they went back to Ionia to replenish, with the plan to come back this morning> he started to relate their conversation.

<Lacking your dungeon sense, Torin, they were unaware that the dungeon was freshly forming and would get stronger overnight. When they returned an hour ago, they discovered their party of six, which had previously met the recommended strength requirement, now barely met the minimum. Apparently, Carl wanted to go in anyway, but Jackson convinced the others it was too dangerous. They sent two of their number back to town to rope in a few other people they know to raise their party back up to the recommended strength. They are reasonably confident their friends will be back inside the thirty minutes and they can avoid a fight. Incidentally, Jackson is pushing to invite us to join them regardless, Carl is less than enthused by that idea> he finished.

“You got all that from what they said?” I questioned. “That’s very detailed.”

<I did say I was paraphrasing, and I may have made a few judicious assumptions, but I’ve been around for a long time and ‘intelligent’ lifeforms aren’t that hard to figure out> he snarked.

I could ‘hear’ the air quotes he made when he said intelligent, the cheeky bugger.

“Fine,” I sighed. “If you know us so well, why has Carl got such a hard-on for being first? So much so he is willing to go in short-handed?”

<You mean apart from him being a Celestial Crusader dickhole> he chuckled.

“Yes, apart from that,” I huffed impatiently.

<The major reason is that despite his pious class, he is a greedy little shit. The first party of delvers to complete a dungeon at each level get double the rewards, both in terms of XP and the quality of the loot item you get for completing a dungeon. This dungeon’s reward of twenty-four thousand XP is doubled to forty-eight thousand for the first team that clears it at level one. Also, that is a static reward distributed between the survivors at the end, so fewer party members mean more XP> he explained.

“Really,” I said, surprised. “Wouldn’t that encourage parties to turn on one another?”

<You’re in the Darkwyrlds now, Torin. The ruthless are rewarded, and the just are left to struggle over the scraps that remain. With that being said, when forming a dungeon party, you can include a ‘no friendly fire’ clause in the group terms. It will cost you fifteen percent of the rewards, though. Not worth it in my opinion> he informed us.

Further conversation was cut off as two figures ran in from the North via the car park behind the dungeon. We saw them first and our reaction tipped off Carl and his crew of the new arrivals. Carl’s face split wide in a shit-eating grin, that swiftly shifted to a frown of concern. They’d sent two to get reinforcements and only two had returned.

 

Kelly Stevens (Silverblood Elf)
Paladin (Valiant) (U) 1
Potential: Medium	Value: Low
Threat: Low	840 XP

 

Tommy Collins (Human)
Cleric (W) 2
Potential: Low	Value: Low
Threat: Very Low	280 XP

 

Kelly was a tall and thin young man with long flowing blonde hair, whose armour was a collection of leathers despite his Paladin class. Tommy was short and a little girthy around the middle. He was wearing a brown robe that he’d been holding up with both hands to avoid tripping. Except for having a full head of jet-black hair, he looked like a mediaeval monk.

The chunky lad collapsed to the ground when they got to the entrance in a sweaty mess and gasped for breath. Like the other four, these were all high school kids. I’d be surprised if any of them, except maybe Carl, was eighteen.

We stayed silent for the time being and let this play out. I wanted to observe the group dynamics a bit longer. Tommy was an odd choice to send back to town which was at least two miles away, given his less than stellar fitness.

Carl ignored the panting boy and strode up to Kelly, the Paladin. Close enough that their chests were almost touching.

We were still too far away to hear clearly, but Quixbix filled in the gaps.

“Where the fuck are the others,” Carl growled.

Kelly put his hand up and pushed the angry man, gently but firmly, back a step.

“Don’t bark at me like that, Carl,” Kelly hissed before he continued in a more mollifying tone. “I told you that you should have come with me to convince them. They’re usually afraid to disappoint you. Anyway, none of them would come.”

“None of them,” Carl squawked in an unexpectedly high pitch. “That’s not fucking possible, all eight of them refused. I don’t believe it, you must have fucked up somehow or not even bothered,” he accused.

“No, I didn’t,” Kelly enunciated calmly. “You had to know Carlos was a longshot at best, you did post that video of his sister naked on that website.”

“Rosa is a fat, lying, fucking whore,” Carl screamed. We didn’t need Quixbix to relay that bit. “She posted that video herself and blamed me when it blew up in her face,” he argued, unconvincingly.

With every minute that passed, Carl further revealed himself to be a grade-A piece of shit.

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“Regardless,” Kelly went on. “Carlos believes his sister and ardently hopes you die in there. And because Carlos isn’t coming, D-Ball isn’t coming.”

“Fine,” Carl sighed. “You’re right I didn’t really expect those two to come. What about the others?”

“The three John’s were all no for different reasons,” Kelly started and counted off on his fingers. “Johnny is pissing his pants that monsters are real and won’t leave his house. Big John is with his girlfriend and she believes Rosa too and therefore hates you, and him being a whipped little bitch means he’s out as well. Small John’s dad pulled a fucking gun on us and threatened to shoot us if we didn’t leave. Morris was willing, but he’s a Civilian, he’d just be in the way. Frank and Zeph, well they were AWOL.”

“We think they might be dead,” Tommy rasped from his sitting position.

“Maybe,” Kelly said gravely. “There was a shit-load of blood in their backyard. Either something got them, or they got a piece of it and are out hunting the thing down, either way, with time being a factor we ran back here.”

That was when Kelly spotted us standing down by the small lake.

“Who are they?” he asked.

“Them,” Carl sneered. “Just a pair of out-of-towner assholes. Ignore them.”

“She looks pretty hot for an asshole,” Tommy piped up brightly, having recovered his breath.

“Stop thinking with your tiny little pecker,” Carl snarled at the husky boy.

Tommy cringed away from the invectives thrown in his direction. I’d learned enough. Carl was a bully, and his control of the group was based on fear. It was impossible to believe that any of them actually liked him.

Kelly came across as unafraid, but equally unperturbed by Carl’s treatment of the others. Jackson and Thomas got the brunt of it, while Peter and Lucas aligned with Carl either because they were natural followers, or they preferred to join in the bullying rather than be one of the bullied.

“Fuck it and fuck them, we’re going in,” Carl announced, and he stomped over to the fanged entrance of the dungeon. “Everyone, accept my party invite,” he ordered.

 Peter, Lucas, and Kelly ambled over and joined Carl. Tommy hauled himself off the ground and waddled over with the rest. The only person who hadn’t jumped to obey Carl was Jackson. The weedy bespectacled kid looked very conflicted, but then he seemed to gird his loins.

“No,” he proclaimed firmly and pushed his glasses up his nose.

Carl glared at him. “What the fuck do you mean, no,” he snarled ominously.

“Exactly what I said, Carl. No, I’m not accepting the invite and going in there. We sent Kelly and Thomas back to town because it was too dangerous to run a dungeon none of us know anything about underpowered. That hasn’t changed,” he explained, not addressing Carl, but the others.

“Are you a fucking coward, Jackson? Is that it?” Carl sneered at the smaller boy.

“It’s not cowardice Carl. It’s being fucking sensible. This isn’t a video game where we get to try repeatedly until we get the tactics right. We screw this up and we’re dead and we don’t have enough people,” Jackson retorted with more spine than I’d expected, based on what I’d seen previously.

I was beginning to like this kid. He had a good head on his shoulders.

“I won’t go in as we are, and Tommy you shouldn’t either, if you do, you’ll die in there,” he told the slightly chubby cleric.

Tommy paled at his words and took a few steps back from the dungeon’s entrance. Peter and Lucas looked less sure of themselves and edged away too. Only Kelly and Carl remained resolute.

“Stop being a little pussy, Jackson. We have to go in now before it gets stronger and before they,” he spat and pointed at Shana and me, “go in before us.”

“It doesn’t have to be a race between us and them, Carl. Just invite them to join the group. They are strong and we need them,” Jackson implored of him.

I really like the kid now. Although my opinion of Carl had progressed to the ‘I wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire’ stage, I had grown concerned about attempting this dungeon with just the two of us. A few extra bodies to soak up the mobs would be welcome.

I was sorely tempted to make an offer that would break up their group but held my tongue. I shouldn’t know what they were talking about after all. Best to let this play out and then pick up the pieces later.

“No fucking way, we’re not taking that fucker and his slut in with us. We aren’t splitting the first run bounty with them,” Carl snarled.

Carl just kept digging that shit pit deeper. There would be a reckoning when the dungeon was done, one way or another. Nobody talked about Shana that way, even out of apparent earshot.

Then Kelly put his hand on Carl’s shoulder and pulled him aside. “Carl, please be reasonable. We were going to share the bounty with four or five others, weren’t we,” he said meaningfully.

“What? No we wer…” Carl started and was stopped halfway by Kelly.

“I’m sure we can make them the same offer you planned for Carlos.”

Carl’s brows narrowed and then he smirked cruelly. “You’re right, Kelly. I’m being unreasonable. Safety first and all that.”

He suddenly turned back to Jackson. “You win Jacky-boy. I’ll invite them to join us,” he grinned and slapped Jackson on the shoulder.

He walked half the distance to the beach and shouted at us. “I’ve decided to be generous and let you tag along.”

“How magnanimous of you,” I hollered back at him.

Shana and I crunched up the beach towards him. At halfway Quixbix piped up.

<Oh, the cheeky bastard> he exclaimed.

What is it, Quixbix? I thought.

<Rather than invite you to the main dungeon party, he has sent a subsidiary party invite. That by itself isn’t unusual. However, their group has the ‘no friendly fire’ clause active, but the subsidiary invite does not, and that can’t be accidental. Which means they can attack you if they choose. You see what I mean about these Valiant types, they are Darkwyrlds damned hypocrites> he told me.

I was expecting something like this. He changed his tune far too quickly and he’s not much of an actor. He and Kelly must have planned to kill Carlos or at least get him killed in the dungeon. I’m not worried, forewarned is forearmed, I extolled.

“We accept,” I declared aloud for Carl’s benefit and we joined him and the rest of the party.

Shana and I summoned our weapons and I smiled brightly. “Shall we,” I beckoned with my scimitar to the maw of the dungeon.

Just beyond the row of black stalactites and stalagmites, the air shimmered. This was the portal into the dungeon’s depths itself. Carl grunted and then he walked forward confidently followed by Peter and Lucas. Kelly grabbed hold of Tommy’s shoulder and hauled him along. Jackson smiled at us wanly and followed suit, when they had passed the threshold I smiled at Shana.

“Watch Carl and the elf Paladin, they will turn on us at some point, probably when they think the dungeon is close to being done,” I warned Shana.

“Yes, Torin,” she answered.

With that, we stepped into the swirl ourselves. After what felt like a giddy step, we regained our balance and got our first look at an honest to God real-life dungeon.

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