Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Divided & Together

“Nnn… status report…?”

“Chkchk… chk?”

“Um… a-alive?”

“Alive and nursing a rapidly growing migraine.”

“Oh, uh, I’m fine here…”

The disoriented party groaned as they righted themselves, having fallen into a pitch-black chamber after they’d handled the scales, with no idea where they’d been sent.

As they finally managed to sit upright again, Prim and Monica both pulled out some emergency lanterns they’d made for everyone before the event, fidgeting with them for a bit before light finally began to fill the area around them.

It was a wide, clammy chamber, built entirely of cold, black stone, moisture dripping down the walls from patches of mold, presumably leaking from the swamp above.

“W-Where’d that thing take us…? This place stinks, I t-think I’m gonna be sick…”

“Seems like some kinda… sewer system, maybe? Probably a hidden one of the dungeons they added for the event.”

“Oh wonderful, we get to stomp through ancient piss and feces, just what I was looking forward too!”

“…I don’t think people actually use virtual sewers, Moni.”

They all stood, dusting some loose muck off of their clothes as they looked around the room they’d been dumped unceremoniously into.

It was a curved tunnel path, a slow trickle of water running underfoot below the metal and stone grating they stood on. An iron fence matching the grates stretched through the room’s center from top to bottom, cutting the chamber in half, with Monica, Glass, and Silk on one side, and Elise and Prim on the other.

“Mm… looks like we gotta do this one separated…?”

“I’m not sticking with just you this whole time, oh no, we’re tearing right through this- hrgh!”

The mage stepped over to the barrier between them all, pulling her staff free as she prepared to trying blasting it open… only to be yanked backwards, slammed down onto her back hard against the damp tunnel floor.

Pushing herself off the ground yet again, she glared back at the two sharing her half of the tunnel, prepared to yell at whomever had pulled her backwards, and instead finding the actual culprit: a semi-invisible length of chain, leading from her right back to the Brawler in front of her.

“The hell…? When did we get this chain?”

“Oh, huh, I didn’t see it until you moved away…”

“Chain? What are you both on about- Wait, huh, me and Elise have one too here.”

Their Vanguard gave this clear chain a curious tug, having not noticed it until now either, trying and failing to separate the stiff material.

Dutifully, the crafter’s all-knowing monocle popped out on command, whirring to life as it studied the transparent metal links connecting the pairs.

[Unyielding Bonds] (Accessory)

- Cannot be removed.

- Equipped players are forced to remain within a certain range.

- Damage and effects taken by one player affect all other connected players.

“…I think I understand the gimmick here now…”

“You’re telling me I have to be stuck with them?!”

“I don’t think I’ll really slow you down or anything…”

“Yeah, you’re both the f-fast ones so it works out pretty nice, a-actually!”

“That’s not the point-”

“Mmhmm, you’ll both be perfectly fine without us. Just try and play nice, okay?”

“Hey! Hey don’t you walk away from me you little… get back here!!”

She uselessly banged against the wall between the two pairs, the more levelheaded pair already headed away in the opposite direction as they exited down their own path out of sight, leaving the drastically overpowered duo to sort out their own problems.

Grumbling to herself as she was left behind, she turned to glare at her temporary partner, the Brawler meekly managing to smile awkwardly.

“Mm… I did really wanna see you fight again, so… hopefully this goes well…!”

He was returned an expression like she’d just had someone vomit on her shoes, the fox finally pulling away from the iron fence as she headed towards their own exit, dragging the eager melee behind her as she made no effort to slow down for him.

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“Do… D-Do you really think they’ll be okay back there?”

“I think if anyone is capable of doing a whole dungeon despite an overwhelming restriction forced on them, it’s either of those two. So yeah, I think they’ll manage.”

“I guess…”

“Just try and focus on our own problems for the time being, okay? We’re the ones here that haven’t soloed a dungeon before.”

“Right, right, keeping my eyes p-peeled.”

The slightly more levelheaded pair continued on ahead, Elise taking point as they trudged down the tunnel, the water rushing along under them the only thing breaking the tense silence.

“So… w-what do you think it is this time? More puzzles, or…?”

“Hmm… honestly even just normal combat encounters with us all split up like this would be bad enough, some puzzles would be a mercy.”

Winding further and further down the sewers, they idly guessed at what lay ahead, the two of them only having a single dungeon behind them to inform their musings.

Eventually, the tunnel opened into another chamber just as expansive as the entrance room had been, curving walls opening up to additional waterways pouring their contents in to the main stream here, another separating wall dividing both halves of the room. Though this time the wall was totally closed off, denying them any insight on how the others were faring on the opposite side of it.

A compact walkway extended to the side of the dividing wall, leading to a tablet embedded into the surface with the rest of the room entirely empty, devoid of even an exit.

“Huh, nothing here… I kinda expected at least a few enemies.”

“Nothing down here e-either, unless you wanna start swimming in… a-actually, nevermind that idea…”

Elise crouched low at the edge of the walkway, peering underneath at the water flowing on past them before swiftly coming up again, tightly pinching their nose shut.

“Panel it is, then.”

The tank nodded eagerly, already trying to wipe her hands off from where she’d crouched down, Prim scooting past to read the softly-glowing tablet set snugly into the mossy stone wall.

ADVENTURERS THAT BRAVE THESE HALLS, WHICH DO YOU BRING? MIND OR MIGHT?

As they stared at it together, a smaller square of stone rose on either side, one showing a pair of crossed swords while the other brandished an open book.

“Huh… i-is it some kind of puzzle?”

“Seems more like an option select? Like it’s asking if we want a fight or a puzzle.”

“Oh…! How neat… w-which do you feel more like, then?”

“Hmm… well, we’re missing both of our combat specialists, and we have a pretty glaring debuff that’s gonna fighting even worse, so… eh, why not take it easy while we can?”

“Sounds g-good to me, puzzle it is!”

Happily nodding in agreement, they both placed a hand on the open book, pressing it back into the wall as a refreshing chime noise sounded as confirmation.

Immediately, their selection set the chamber into motion. The floor below them began to rise and fall in separate patches, the ground gaining high curbed edges around the perimeter. At the same time, the ceiling opened up above as well, dropping down several huge stone cubes, each of them almost the size of Elise and landing hard enough to feel like small earthquakes.

When the spontaneous redecoration was done, the room had been drastically redesigned, the water flow under them now exposed, pushed upwards and forcing them to tread through it as it pushed against the heavy blocks stopping it from flowing past.

“Oh, ick, ew, i-it just messed the drainage up, yuck.”

“But it’s supposed to be some kind of puzzle, I thought… hmm…”

Wading through the murky liquid, Prim inspected the chamber’s new furnishings, pushing a shoulder up against one of the stone cubes blocking the water flow.

“Hrgh… Elise, come help me push this, it’s a lot heavier than it looks.”

“O-On it!”

Both of them braced their back up against the block, slowly pushing it to the side until it stopped at the raised edge of the platform, the accumulating water finally rushing past as it was given a path to advance past.

“Ooh, I get it… i-it’s a block pushing puzzle.”

“Yeah, and we have to get the water flowing again before it lets us move on.”

“Blegh, I’ve always been b-bad at these…”

“Don’t worry, I’ll have this whole thing solved before you know it~”

The pair got to work, grunting with effort as they struggled with relocating each of the massive obstacles, mucky water underfoot making it harder to get a solid footing as they slowly rearranged them, taking short breaks to catch their breath and check where the next movement would be.

Finally, after a long while of pushing and pulling, they heaved as hard as they could, forcing the last of the blocks neatly into a corner pocket, the drain uncovered once more as the muddy water was finally allowed to escape back into the waterways.

As the water pooling around them quickly drained out, it ran over a tucked-aside water wheel, slowly turning it over and over, the old mechanisms grinding as they lowered a segment of the wall ahead, finally offering up an exit to the chamber.

“Oh, t-that did it! We did it Prim, g-good job!!”

“Heh, you did more than me, all I did was help push.”

“No no, I-I really couldn’t have done it myself, and um… t-the time alone together was… really really n-nice, too…”

“Hm? You gotta speak up, I can’t hardly hear anything over all this running water.”

“O-O-Oh, nothing important! Let’s just k-keep going!”

She sprinted ahead, a confused crafter shrugging and jogging along after her into the next room of the strange new dungeon.

It was almost identical to the last room, a large empty half-chamber featuring a bridge to a wall-mounted tablet, both of them moving straight over to it without bothering to inspect anything else beforehand.

HUNTERS THAT DELVE THESE DEPTHS, WHICH IS GREATER? PATIENCE OR POWER?

The selection this time featured two humanoid figures, one standing with their weapon drawn and readied, the other sitting cross-legged in meditation.

“Another choice… what do you think we should do?”

“Mm… well, patience is a v-virtue, after all, and I don’t r-really feel that strong…”

“Good enough for me. Patience it is then!”

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Once more in complete agreement, they pressed the switch together, again receiving a light ding of confirmation. And just as before, the room behind them immediately began undergoing rapid alterations as old mechanisms spun back to life.

This time, the exit path leading onto the next chunk of the dungeon simply began to open right away… albeit, almost unnoticeably slowly, only the dull grinding of bricks against rusty metal signaling it was even moving at all.

“So what, we just have to wait…? That doesn’t really feel like a challenge.”

“Um… I-I think it might be a bit worse than that…”

Quickly getting the other girl’s attention, Elise gestured up at the roof, finding the actual problem the room was going to face them with.

An additional waterway had opened up next to others above them, this one now pouring (mercifully less foul) water onto the platform with them as the chamber slowly began to flood around them.

“…oh, that’s not good.”

They took a moment to gather their thoughts, turning to one another silently as the water level began to rise higher and higher, both of them rushing towards the door as they frantically began trying to pry it open faster.

Both of the towering shields were wedged into the tiny crack between the door and the wall, a heavy hammer slamming down into them again and again, trying to force the opening up far enough for them to crawl through, the water already pooling up over their feet as they raced the flooding itself.

Prim was able to wriggle through the forcibly widened doorway first, scuttling through and trying to push it open faster from the other side, Elise crawling in right after as their shared chain was pulled taut. The significantly larger and significantly more armored woman nearly got herself stuck in the cracked entrance as they both strained to force her all the way through the passage, finally pulling hard enough to launch her out the other side, skidding along the tunnel floor, slightly flattened but completely alive.

The exit tunnel had a large crank attached to multiple chains, slowly being turned by the dungeon’s mechanisms as it opened the door behind them further and further, chest high water leaking in after them. Both of them dove for the crank, hastily winding it in reverse to reseal the flooded room behind them and finding some rubble to wedge up against it to keep it sealed.

As the exit was sealed tightly shut behind them, the duo collapsed backwards, leaning up against the sides of the hallway, gasping and panting as they rested in the foot or so of water that had made it in with them.

“Haaa… how the hell was that supposed to be a test of patience? Did they want us to just give up and drown…?!”

“M-Maybe it was more like… ‘patience isn’t always correct’ or something…? I think I’d have j-just preferred a fight, honestly.”

“Whatever it was supposed to be about, it’s done and no longer my problem. Just… gonna catch my breath and hope for something drier in the next room…”

“S-Seconded…”

Quietly waiting to regain their strength, they eventually clambered back to their feet, moving on to the next room, chain dragging through the water below.

The chamber they found ahead was the first to not feel like a repeat of the previous ones, instead being utterly massive, giving the feeling of a full-sized underground arena, the sewer path running below them ending at a sheer drop, too deep to see the bottom.

Standing once again in the center, pressed into the central wall, stood the most ornate of the tablets they’d seen yet, twice as large and set with glittering gems, sparkling like something out of a museum display.

HEROES THAT CONQUER THIS PLACE, WHAT DO YOU SEEK? PRIZE OR PERIL?

Their options offered either a flame-spitting dragon or a pile of riches, a slight bit of a disparity between the choices this time.

“This is the e-easiest one yet, why wouldn’t you just pick the p-prize?”

“Hmph, maybe it doesn’t give you one if you just ask for it outright like that.”

“But intentionally p-picking peril seems…”

“I guess, yeah… we can take the safe option then and deal with whatever happens after, okay?”

“Mmhmm!”

“Well, easy way out it is.”

Nodding to one another, they slammed the “prize” button together, the loudest confirmation noise yet sounding off, the crashing of a great gong echoing from all sides. Without a moment’s delay, light filled the chamber around them, blinding them both, forcing them to cover their eyes.

When the light cleared, the entire room sparkled at them, gold lining every surface around them both. Mountains of gold coins piled around the center of the room, a few equally overly-decorated chests sitting atop the stacked riches.

“O-Oh, wow, it wasn’t kidding about the prize…”

“Nothing’s trying to kill us or anything…? No more flooding? No block pushing? Nothing? Not a single enemy? That’s… a little surprising actually. Not really much of a dungeon, huh?”

“Hey, a c-clear is a clear! I guess they c-can’t all be scary, they did have to make a lot of them for the event.”

“Fair enough, guess it’s just a dud. Let’s grab all this here and try and find them.”

“Oh right! I wonder how M-Moni and Glass are doing on their end?”

“With how little trouble we had? I bet they’re both just bored and arguing.”

“E-Ehehe, that sounds right, yeah…”

They both shoved gold into the packs, watching their wallets balloon as they scooped up the piles of cash dispensed just for them, the chests clattering to the ground below as they picked the room clean, finally cracking them both open.

- 55,000g

- Accessory: Emblem of Wealth x2

- Dungeon Clear token

- First Dungeon Clear token

[Emblem of Wealth] (Accessory)

- Gold/Item drop rates increased by 50%

[Primonilise: +500 (+250 for first guild to clear). Current score: 882.]

Satisfied with their haul and with nothing to do but wait, they both found a cozy spot to lean up against the wall, Elise and Prim both took their time to unwind and wait for the other pair to return from their equally relaxed dungeon adventure.

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Meanwhile in a drastically less tranquil sewer tunnel, a pair of fox tails swung back and forth quickly as their owner sprinted for dear life, a spider scooped up in their arms as a green-hued boy struggled to keep up as they were half-dragged along by their shared chain.

“Slow down, I can’t fight if you just keep running away…!”

“And I can’t fight with someone glued to me like this! And I’m not gonna stop and wait for all of that to catch up!!”

“They aren’t gonna just stop chasing us either!!!”

“C-Chhhk…!”

Behind them was a wild stampede of monsters, hellbent on beating the trio into paste as they pushed past and climbed over each other in the crowded hallway, a small army of strangely mighty block golems and particularly powerful watery slimes still pouring from above to bolster their ranks.

Glass tugged useless at the chain linking them together, unable to meaningfully compete with the sheer momentum a 300 AGI kitsune could put out, wanting nothing more than to dive headfirst into the enemy horde, a bloodthirsty hound held back by their leash as they were kept just out of range of swinging into them all.

“If you’re not gonna deal with them, then… Phoenix Crash!”

“Guh-”

The duo shifted directions, now launching straight backwards towards the swarm on their heels, both massive gauntlets reequipped as they rocketed right into them, Monica and Silk being dragged along against their will as well.

“Hey, you stubborn little- H-Hazard Fumes!”

She barely managed to bring up her defensive cloud before being thrown into the melee, Glass’s eyes burning bright as they mowed through the mounting pile of bodies.

Fists and fumes slowly carved through their ranks, both of them forcibly yanking the other one way or another constantly as they could barely move or dodge around anything, panting from exhaustion by the time the last monster finally fell, both of them covered head-to-toe in scrapes and bruises.

“I thought you were supposed- haaa… -to be good at this dungeoneering thing…?”

“I am, thank you very much! But being strapped to a someone as dense as Elise’s armor doesn’t really work for dodging!”

“You got through it fine, you’re over-exaggerating…”

“Because I was spending the whole time healing us both! We’re here for a week, resource management is something casters have to care about!”

“Ugh, fine fine, I get it… let’s just focus on finding the others…”

“Hmph…!”

“…chkchk chk…”

Bickering the whole way, they left the piled bodies behind them, experience and gold trailing along after them, Silk sighing at being stuck with the danger-prone duo.

Leaving the last two monster-filled chambers behind them, the pair made their way to the third and final challenge the dungeon had to offer, just in time to see a flashing tablet beckoning them over, buttons for a glittering chest and towering dragon slowly blinking at them.

“Oh, that thing is actually still active this time. Not really sure why they were off when we saw them before-”

Right on time for their other half to make their selection, the tablet gave a deep, menacing sound like thunder crashing, the button for the enticingly full treasure chest disappearing as the lights flickered red, the dragon selected for their side of the room.

“-…ah.”

The stone around them cracked and groaned fetid water pouring down the huge tunnel at the back of the room splashing, something utterly massive crawling up the sewers towards them.

“Um… that seems a bit worse than the last couple…”

Peeking overtop the platform’s edge came a ripped and torn snout, the rest of a long, bared skull following after, rotted flesh clinging to it in patches as cloudy eyes stared at them, a fetid undead dragon too large to fit within the sprawling chamber trying to claw towards them.

“Alright, the boss is finally here, great. Just lemme handle-”

The advancing melee was stopped short, the fox behind yanking the chain back.

“Ooooh no. No no no you will not, if you’re just gonna accuse me of being bad at fighting, I am going to give you a reason to keep that yap of yours shut.”

She was already pushing her sleeves up, stomping towards the dragon snapping at them, making no attempt to keep distance from it.

“Hazard Fumes, Hazard Fumes, Hazard Fumes…”

Her cloud thickened and thickened, Glass covering their mouth and coughing as an extremely aware-of-what-was-occuring Silk ran for the hills.

“Hey, I think it’s gonna be immune to poison-”

“-zardfumeshazardfumeshazardfumeshazardfumeshazardfumeshazardfumes-”

Barely managing to get its head into the room by now, the dragon limply tried to fit an arm in to swing at her, clearly unfazed by the poison itself but slowly being locked up by the building stacks of stun.

Face to face with it now, one glassy eye fixed on her as she braced a boot right up against bare bone, pushing against the softly rotting biological matter.

“Crawl back down into whatever hole you died in the first time and get out of my way already! Rising Sun…!”

She kicked down as hard as she could against the immobilized dragon, her foot igniting into flame as her piled Hazard Fumes, the boss’s own dried and flammable meaty scraps of flesh, and the massively abundant methane filling the sewers around them all ignited together.

Players would later report a sudden earthquake erupting at the tail end of the event’s first day, forceful enough to disrupt the small war being waged in the central plain as all sides retreated in fear of what was happening, not even a single one of those guilds involved aware of the entire ancient sewer system being collapsed in on itself below them.

And in that long-lost system of tunnels, a trio of mage, melee, and monster would just be able to make out a tinny victory jingle playing from above the rubble burying them, as they were whisked up and out of the fully completed dungeon.

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