Chapter 11: Chapter 11 – The Pauper Princess, Part 6

The path down to floor two, the lomaw, wasn’t covered in an unnatural darkness like the Kimaw. It was an easy walk down, given that stairs had been carved into the floor of the steep corridor. The walls seemed to shift starkly from limestone to shale, grey to brown. These separations happened suddenly, and Luci imagined that some great monster had sliced up parts of the world and placed them side by side.

Rolling hills and blue skies greeted them once they reached the bottom of the stairs. At first, Luci was confused, thinking they’d somehow taken a wrong turn and ended up outside despite the stairs going down. However, upon looking up, she realised there was no sun, and the sky was more cyan than azure. Also, the grass was too green. It was like someone had taken a brush and painted every blade in a glossy emerald.

Ethlan lay groaning at the bottom of the stairs, scratched up and bloody. His coat was flashing on and off, damaged from the fall. Somehow, he’d kept his helmet on. Luci stepped over him and continued ranting to Wip.

“Seriously. The Aspar Guild has been nothing but trouble for my family.”

“Did they try to fight you?” Wip asked.

“No, nothing like that. But they did stab us in the back a few years ago when they broke off our alliance. They told my mother—via a public news report—that they have no faith in the future of our family.”

“You should stab them back.”

“Urgh! I wish. But if we did, it would have caused more conflict.”

They walked across rolling hills, sticking to the stone path. As they trudged on, shouts and the clanging of metal against stone rang out around them. Luci edged closer to Wip, fearing what would come next. They crossed the peak of a hill and saw dungeoneers fighting in the distance.

Three monsters that look like boars harried the group, trying to bash down a projected barrier. The monsters were squat, round, and their fur was thick, but that was where their similarity to boars ended. Their tusks were made of stone rather than bone and protruded a full metre from their bodies. They swung them around like batons by twirling their squat bodies all the way round, or backed up and charged at their enemies with frightening speed.

Luci had read about these monsters. They were called hortigrouses. They were some of the most aggressive monsters on the first ten floors and the careers of many a dungeoneer had ended early at the tusks of these things.

Three more of the monsters had already been disposed of. Their corpses were carved open and bright red blood—or whatever the monster equivalent of that was—had pooled around the dungeoneers’ feet.

Luci had seen pigs get slaughtered during one of her trainer’s odd and harsh lessons. Her trainer, Praetor Gallus, had decided that Luci and her sister needed to see death to be better fighters, so had them watch a farmer slaughter his livestock. She’d never forgotten the squealing. These boar-like monsters, however, didn’t make any noise and the three dead ones had spewed enough blood for a hundred animals. The dungeoneering party were standing in a sticky puddle of the stuff that went right up to their ankles.

Luci watched safely from a distance. She found the dungeoneers’ tactics so fascinating. The tank was holding his ground and his shield afto projected a dark, barely-transparent barrier that spanned five metres to either side of him. The striker poked with a spear from around the side to keep the hortigrouses at bay while the lambaster lobbed dark, crackling balls over the barrier which exploded with a crack-BOOM on top of the hortigrouses. The explosion was small and couldn’t penetrate the hortigrouses’ thick hides, but it did stun them for a second.

Then the scout appeared from thin air behind one of the hortigrouses and, taking advantage of the monster’s stunned state, rent the monster’s flank with a blade. Blood sprayed out like a hose, drenching the scout in thick goop. The hortigrouses turned to attack her. Then an older man standing in the middle of their group shouted an order. Luci assumed from his demeanour that he was training them, which made these dungeoneers new recruits for a guild.

The tank’s barrier vanished. The support flashed a rod at the scout. A line whizzed out from the rod and tangled around the scout. With a yank, the scout flew back through the air and landed on their feet in the blood-goop pool right beside the support. The barrier went back up and the support went to cleaning the scout’s clothes. Luci couldn’t help but admire their teamwork.

Luci shifted closer to Wip, hoping to soak up his protection. However, the warmth that usually radiated off him was no longer there. She turned, and Wip was gone. Panicking, she spun to seek him out, only to realise that he was at least fifty metres off the path. Heading in the direction of the battling dungeoneering party. She’d been too fixated on the fight to notice!

“No, please wait,” she called before dashing after him.

By the time Luci caught up, panting and heaving, Wip was in an argument with the trainer, a grey-haired man wearing a bright green coat.

“Just stay back, will you?” the trainer growled, shoving him back with his bare hands. “We don’t need your help. I’m trying to teach the sprouts.”

Wip had one of his aftos out and held it up eagerly. “But I want to fight.”

Luci stopped just short of the blood-red goop. She was getting too close to the monsters for her liking. That goop seemed to act like a ward, signalling danger to her. She bowed as low as she could manage. “Please excuse him for his discourtesy, Dominus,” she shouted at the trainer. Then, turning to Wip, she said, “What are you doing?”

Wip raised his afto, a staff with a gnarled head. “Fighting.”

“I thought we were going to floor four!”

Just then, one of the two remaining hortigrouses paused before bashing the projected shield again. It’s large, black eyes settled onto Luci. Finally gaining some intelligence, the monster spun and charged around the barrier, then made a beeline for her.

Luci froze on the spot. This was the first time she’d actually seen a dungeon-bound monster—the overland monsters like grupps were nothing like these creatures, who were dangerous yet could be dealt with easily. Dungeon-bound monsters were made for murder.

The hortigrouse drew closer. Luci tried to think of which meld to use but kept drawing a blank. The trainer shouted orders at his students which sounded like a buzz to her ears. Then, as the hortigrouse was just a few metres from her, blistering across the red goop as though it was a racetrack, she finally settled on smacking it with as much blame as she could. She raised a hand…

The monster splattered into paste. Luci remained glued to the spot as blood-red goop rose skyward like a fountain, then came down atop her in a thick heap.

Luci stared down at her goop-covered hand in bafflement. “But I didn’t do anything.”

She looked up and emerging from the centre of the fountain was Wip, covered in even more goop than Luci. His staff was now shaped like a lollipop.

Wip stared down at his staff in bafflement. “I don’t think it was meant to do that.”

Luci, the trainer, and the entire dungeoneering party were gaping at him. Whatever that afto was, it definitely was not meant to do that.

The trainer was the first to get his wits about him. He screamed, “Tank, barrier!”

The last hortigrouse was charging towards the tank, fast. He tried to step back and bring up his barrier again, but it flicked on just behind the hortigrouse. The striker and scout got locked out of the new barrier. The support was too far away and the trainer was charging in with a sword. He wasn’t going to make it.

There was a flash of red, then the last hortigrouse also turned into a goop geyser. Wip emerged from the geyser covered head to toe in thick, red goop, like he’d been dipped in a bowl of gelatine. His staff had broken in half—Luci realised that the cause of the splats was him just smacking the hortigrouses way too hard.

He grinned at the trainer. His teeth were the only thing that weren’t red between all that goop. “Can I have the cores?” he said.

The trainer stared at him a moment with his eyes almost popping out of his head. “S-sure,” he stuttered.

By the time they reached the third floor, all the goop had sloughed off them and, to Luci’s surprise, sunk completely into the ground.

They passed over sand dunes on the third floor. A hot wind, coming from who-knew-where, buffeted at Luci’s dress. She kept a hand on her cowl the entire walk, fearing the wind would send it flying. With one hand on her cowl and another on her staff, she struggled to keep sand out of her eyes.

It was unnecessarily hot. There were three suns overhead that remained exactly there at all times. They didn’t beat heat down on them, however. The heat was around them, persistent and stifling. Luci unwound the frayed lace around her neckline, letting the top of her dress breathe. All that did, however, was expose her neck to the biting sands, so she tightened her neckline as much as she could, choosing instead to deal with the heat.

In the distance, she could see sand dunes drifting with the breeze. Occasionally, it drifted against the breeze, rising and falling in snaking lines. Luci’s eyes remained plastered to the dunes. She prayed those lines wouldn’t turn towards her and Wip.

The stone path was elevated on the third floor to keep the sand from burying it, though the winds still carried some sand onto the path. Dungeoneers walked up and down the path, sweeping the sand away to keep it from being buried. They travelled in pairs and had long guns strapped over their shoulders. Each sweep with their aftocore-infused brooms created a gust of wind that knocked not only the sand on the path away, but the sand around the path too.

At one point, the path cut through a valley formed by dunes. Wip sped up as they got closer, his eyes wide with eagerness. Luci shouted after him to wait. When they reached the edge of valley, Wip stopped and pulled an afto from his backpack.

Two sweepers stood in the lowest point of the valley, their brooms tossed to the side. One had their gun butted to her shoulder. The other had a pair of binoculars pressed to his eyes and stared directly at the dunes. The binoculars had an aftocore housed within its bridge.

“Thrulg cresting in ten seconds,” the man called. He pointed at the crest of the dune directly in front of him.

His partner steadied her weapon on the spot he pointed to. As this happened, Luci saw Wip prepare to dive in. Lightning raced along his body. Not knowing what else to do, she stepped in front of Wip and raised her arms wide.

“Please, just leave them be!” Luci cried.

Wip only hesitated a second. Everything happened within that moment.

The sand began to bulge where the sweeper pointed with his binoculars. His partner fired at shifting sand. Each shot from her gun made little noise but sent a flash of light into the sand. Where it hit, the sand exploded.

A great, segmented worm burst out of the sand. It was five times as long as a human and almost as wide. Its face was disturbing. Rather than its body leading into a toothy hole for its mouth, it had a separate segment for its head that retracted from its body as it burst out the ground. Its eyelids slitted open vertically to reveal compound eyes and its mouth sported mandibles that looked long and sharp enough to carve a person in two.

Its body was already shredded from the first few shots and it struggled to advance. After a few more shots from the dungeon sweeper, the monster collapsed onto the dune and became immobile. Then its body slowly dissolved into sand.

Wip’s face went from excited to extreme disappointment. Head sagged, he tucked the afto back into his backpack then slung the hulking pack over his shoulders. He plodded into the valley, and Luci stared after him wracked with guilt. She followed behind.

“Please accept my apologies,” she said once she’d caught up.

“It’s okay,” Wip replied. His tone suggested that it was absolutely not okay.

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Luci lowered her head. “It’s just that, last time, um…” she didn’t want to say that he’d nearly got her and the dungeoneer sprouts killed. “I think you just need to let others fight as well.”

Wip nodded slowly.

Luci’s mouth twisted into a frown. Then an idea struck her. “I know. How about we do some extra fighting to make up for missing out on this one?”

Wip’s chin scrunched up as he tried to hold back a smile. He didn’t need to say anything for Luci to know he’d hold her to it, and that was when she began to regret opening her mouth.

They passed the pair of sweepers in odd spirits: Luci was nervous while Wip was gradually getting more excited. One of the sweepers plunged through the disintegrating thrulg’s flesh to remove its core. Luci couldn’t help but stare. The coordination, the tactics, and not just from them but the sprouts on floor two as well. These dungeoneers were prepared. Meanwhile…

She stared down at her staff, clutched tightly within her hands. Could she even use it? Would she not just screw up again like she always did? Would she become a problem for Wip?

By the time they arrived at the fourth floor, Luci’s mind was reeling.

“Doesn’t this dungeon just seem so strange to you, Mr. Wip?” she asked as they emerged into an impossibly thick jungle.

Wip scratched at a scar on his cheek. “I guess so. Would it kill them to put some signs up showing where the strong monsters are? Unbelievable.” He’d picked up that turn of phrase from the patrons at the Unfortunate Maid.

“Um,” Luci began, “that’s not the sort of phrase I’d expected to hear, well, ever.”

“I overheard it at the Unfortunate Maid. But the man who said it was talking about the beer being bad.” He pointed directly at the trees. “Anyway, that’s where we’re going. There are lots of monsters there. Ready?”

Luci’s whole body turned to ice. “Ah, there. Through the jungle. That’s teeming with monsters. So we can find more monsters. Ah…”

“Don’t worry. I learned a trick that can hide us from the monsters. It’s called a fog.” He leaned in, towering over Luci like a stalk about to pick a worm. “See, I learned this from Stella. What happens is the monsters find people by sensing their enma. The stronger you are, the easier it is for them to find you. And since I have really strong enma, I can’t go more than a hundred steps from the path without dozens of monsters charging me.”

“D-dozens?” Luci stammered.

“Sometimes truzens.”

Luci blinked, caught off guard. “What’s a truzen?”

“Anyway,” Wip said, ignoring her question, “that’s what the fog is for. It makes it seem that I’m not here by making the enma around me all samey.”

“Oh, that’s very convenient,” Luci said. She didn’t have the heart to explain to Wip that his explanation was all wrong. A fog doesn’t make the enma “samey”. It’s a meld that projects enma around the caster in a uniform manner. When monsters attempt to sense enma, they’ll sense the fog first and miss the source of it lying beneath. However, it’s meaningless if the monster can detect you with other senses, such as sight or sound.

“Alright. Let’s go!” Wip dived into the forest.

Luci gaped after him as he disappeared from sight. “Wait, did you put up the fog?” she said. “Mr. Wip? Mr. Wip!” She bolted after him, but not after tripping over a root and falling flat on her face.

Wip’s fog seemed to be working as they never got attacked. However, a fog couldn’t to anything about the thick undergrowth. Luci, being unfortunately short, was buried up to her head in ferns whose fat leaves curled upwards. She stuck close to Wip, whispering for him to slow down for fear she’d be out of range of his fog and get attacked by creepershoots.

There was no way to tell which tree was dangerous and which wasn’t. Vines hung off everything and Luci avoided them like they were grupps and she was fine porcelain. The bases of the dark trees she gave a wide berth. Many of them had creepy faces with mouths shaped like O’s poking out, as though some creatures had been caught by surprise and stuffed in inside their trunks.

After an hour of struggle, the jungle came to a sudden halt. Bare earth sloped down to reveal an enormous clearing. Luci estimated that it had to be at least one hundred and fifty metres in diameter, but it was hard to tell given the outline was jagged. It was as though hundreds of giants had taken bites out of the dungeon. The clearing, however, was not what caught her eye.

“Um, Mr. Wip, what is that?” Luci said.

She pointed to the floor of the clearing: a dark, purplish stone that was too smooth to have not been constructed. Here and there were spots of dirt and sprouting trees. Luci got the distinct impression that they were growing, which made no sense because trees couldn’t grow from stone and dirt didn’t grow at all!

Wip looked at her and shrugged. “All I know is that if you use enough aftos, you can see it.”

“Use enough… okay.” Luci’s mind was completely fried by this point. She decided to stop asking questions.

Wip leaped out of the jungle and down onto the exposed stone, skipping the slope entirely. He headed directly for the middle of the clearing. Luci scrambled after him, taking care not to trip. Without roots to hold it together, the soil sloping into the clearing kept sliding out under her feet.

Once in the middle of the clearing, Wip stopped and turned to her. His expression was serious now.

“Are you ready?” he asked Luci, who’d stopped in her tracks at Wip’s sudden tonal shift.

“For…?”

“This is where we’re going to fight.” Wip swung a hand wide. “See, there are no obstacles here. You have a clear view of everything around us, which will make it easy for you to show off your skills.”

“Wait, is this a test?” Luci said, now panicked.

Wip nodded. “Prepare yourself!” he said harshly. Then he nodded to himself. “I always wanted to say that. The guild trainers say that to their sprouts all the time. Also, you need to stand back.”

Luci hesitated a moment. She looked around nervously, as though expecting a monster to show up. However, she listened, and took a few steps back.

“More.”

She took another ten steps away, keeping her eyes fixed on the surroundings. Her breath was rising rapidly. Her heart was racing. It was happening. It was finally happening. She was going to be in her first fight.

“Even more!” Wip shouted.

“Just tell it to me in metres!” Luci snapped back. When she realised she’d been rude, she bowed and apologised.

“You’ll die if you stay too close.”

“I’ll die if I go too far back!”

“Just run back when I tell you.”

“Okay.”

She kept walking, closer and closer to the edge of the clearing, towards the shadowy jungle. Finally, Wip called out for her to stop.

“Okay, deep breaths,” Luci muttered to herself, not quite following her own instructions. She clutched her staff tightly. “Mr. Wip is here, and I’m sure he knows what he’s doing. I mean, it’s a big area. What’s the worst that would happen, he invites a few monsters at best? According to blogs I’ve read, monsters will usually only detect enma from between ten to fifty metres away, depending on their overall strength. So, it’ll most likely be—”

All at once, Luci’s stomach heaved. She doubled over and covered her mouth, trying not to puke. If she’d eaten a full meal before coming down, it would have been paved all over the stone right then. Luci heard a sharp crack echo through the dungeon. She slowly raised her head and saw something terrifying.

Electricity had engulfed Wip’s body. Tendrils ran up and down his limbs. Every now and then, the electricity sparked in the air several metres away from him with a crack. Crack. CRAAACK! The lights on his collar were pulsing, as though competing with Wip’s electricity in brightness.

Luci recognised the technique immediately. It was a whistle spike.

This technique was as simple as it got: pick your favourite form, spike it as high as you can go, and push it out your body however you felt like it. As it was such a simple meld, it was one of the first techniques an enma user was taught. However, as with all enma techniques, if it was simple, it had limited functionality. Whistle spikes served exactly one purpose: to attract monsters.

Luci had grown up around some of Sylexa’s strongest enma practitioners. They could perform miraculous feats by sheer power alone. She had seen such practitioners perform whistle spikes and, in fact, she could do it herself. This, however, was beyond reason. She realised then what had caused her stomach to turn: a rush of enma so dense that it had slammed her core.

Wip let up the whistle spike and Luci’s stomach stopped roiling. She took deep breaths to steady her nerves. That was when she noticed Wip had cupped his hands over his mouth.

Luci pushed herself to sit upright and shouted back in a shaky voice, “What?”

“You should start running now!”