Chapter 56: fifty four

The wind tugged at my hair, while sand created dust clouds behind us as we streaked across the desert at a pace that would only be matched by a galloping horse. 

Our flight across the desert attracted more than a few double takes, and even glares from those who were making the trek on foot. As we reached the dungeons location, I was surprised to see half a dozen sandstone buildings and a larger dome shaped building behind a few scattered tents.

Lines of people stood in front of different tents, and were queued up for at least a mile leading to the dome shaped building. We didn’t get off at the end of the line as I’d expected, but flew slowly past it to a second shorter queue, the entrance to which was guarded by a stern-faced man. 

Jumping down from the shield, Victoria walked up to the man, showing him her guild token. Noticing Pia, Kip and Rainy hopping down from their shield, I also got down, brushing sand off my clothing as we headed to join the line. 

“Is this like a V.I.P queue or something?” I asked jokingly, and was a little surprised when Kip nodded. 

“Our guild has priority entry for our teams.” The Dwarf explained, as we shuffled forwards towards the sandstone buildings. 

“I heard in the other line it can take hours to reach the dungeon entrance.” Pia exclaimed, looking horrified at the thought of having to wait that long. 

“Why does it take so long?” 

“Only seven groups can go in at a time,” Rainy chimed in. 

“Stops things from being too crowded,” Kip added. 

“There’s other people in there with us?” I asked in confusion. 

The few dungeons I’d been in with my brother in the past had been ones where only our group would be inside the dungeon. 

“There’s no instanced dungeons in Kaledon, well, none that anyone has found.” Kip informed me. 

Furrowing my brow, I tried to wrap my head around the idea of being inside a dungeon with other people. Wouldn’t that mean if others went in first, there’d be nothing left to kill depending on mob respawn rates? And what about the Mana crystals? They gathered mana over time, so if they were all mined by other groups in the dungeon, there would be none left for us. 

“Everything respawns pretty quickly. You hit a dead end in one hall, and by the time you’ve doubled back to the intersection, the pack of mummified dogs you just killed are already back on their feet. This faster respawn of dungeon creatures is explained as an effect of dungeons forming in mana dense locations called mana wells. Dungeons like this one, which form in Kemet tombs are because of the ancient rituals performed which cause an artificial mana well, or so the lore says.” Rainy explained in response to my questions about the viability of an open dungeon.

“The Whisper’s guild has people in the first section of the dungeon to push everyone into the different maze entrances and prevent fights. Once a group has entered, the dungeon shuts the path behind them and doesn’t reopen until the group has passed a certain point. Though, entering the maze from different paths doesn’t mean we won’t cross paths with other teams, or catch up to those who entered hours earlier.” The Dwarf said, continuing where the Dryad left off. 

“That's why our guild doesn’t let hunting teams enter dungeons together, we all kept killing each other.” Pia commented with a smirk. 

“Last week we found Devon’s team who’d entered two hours ahead of us. You should have heard him whining to Commander Corvus about how we’d killed them.” She continued, exchanging a grin with the others. 

“Why’d you kill them? If the guild doesn’t approve of you doing it, wouldn’t you be punished.” 

“They attacked us first.” Kip said with a shrug. “It was their word against ours, and there was no evidence to say who started it. That's why the Commander put us on separate days.” 

“Why not just stay inside the dungeon? I mean, it’s meant to be the best place to absorb mana, so what’s stopping someone from just hunkering down inside and meditating for days on end?” I asked as we drew closer to the entrance of the domed building. 

“Devon’s team tried that once,” Pia snickered. “The dungeon opened up a hole in the ground and they fell into a spike trap, which killed them all. Dungeons are sentient, they feed off the mana produced by our deaths within them so will actively work to kill you. We kill things inside to absorb their mana, and it kills us to absorb ours, so it’s a two-way street.” 

“Staying in one place for too long in a dungeon is a bad idea.” Rainy agreed. 

“That little prick is always looking for the easy way to crawl his scrawny ass up the rankings.” Victoria snorted, arms crossed over her chest. 

“So, I’m guessing we don’t like Devon's group?” 

“Got it in one Foxy.” Kip chuckled. “You’ll learn why pretty quickly. Devon is a grade A prick, who's good at kissing ass, which is why no one has given him the boot yet. When the higher-ups are around, he’s a completely different person.” 

Is that so? I’m kind of interested to meet this ‘Devon’ everyone keeps mentioning. Especially considering Darius was initially going to put me on his team before Corvus suggested this team instead. 

After half an hour of waiting, we were the next in line to enter the domed building, and I glanced curiously over at the line next to ours. Three people standing in the line near the front caught my eye, and I stared in shock at the girls standing with two men. 

“Looks like the honey traps found new victims.” I mumbled, eyes narrowed as I took in the armor and weapons the girls had. 

“What was that?” Rainy asked, leaning her face closer to mine as she tried to follow my gaze. 

“See that Orc, Dark Elf and Human in the second group? I met them in Hathus,” I said to Rainy, keeping my voice low as I told the girl about my encounter with the trio. 

“Ooh, let's see if we can catch up to them in the dungeon. If they take the far left entrance and we get center, then we can catch them at the intersection.” Pia suggested, rubbing her hands together and glancing at Victoria who was looking at the girls with a narrowed eyed glare. 

“Kip, slip ahead and speak with the guards at the entrance.” The captain ordered. 

“Wait,” I called out to Kip who was about to duck out of line. 

“Take this.” I said, handing the Dwarf a silver coin. “I was given this by Noctus, it’s from Van, the Whispers guild leader.” 

“Foxy, do you know what this is?” Kip asked, eyes wide. 

“Yeah, it’s a request token. I did the Whisper’s guild a favor, and got this to redeem one in return.” 

“You don’t go wasting a favor from the Whispers guild on a couple of thieves.” Victoria growled, and I let out a yelp of pain as the Kijo twisted my ear. 

“Kip, give her back the coin and just pay off the guards.” The captain ordered. 

Sulkily putting away my coin, I shifted so I was standing on the other side of Rainy, and was thus out of the captain's reach as I rubbed at my aching ear. The thought of retaliating briefly crossed my mind, but I quickly dismissed it after seeing the look on Victoria’s face, a look that said I’d deeply regret any form of rebellion. 

Kip wasn’t gone for long, and on his return he gave Victoria a nod, which I guessed indicated he’d bribed the guards to arrange for my old friends to end up on a path that would cross with our own. 

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As the guards waved for us to enter the domed building, one of them inclined his head in Kip’s direction. Just before we entered, I glanced over at the other line to see that all three of the girls were glaring in my direction, having finally noticed my presence. 

Inside, the dome was empty aside from an ominous-looking tunnel that descended into the ground. Three cloaked people stood around the entrance, all bearing the crest of the Whispers guild on their cloaks. Burning torches lit up the tunnel, and our group didn’t speak as we descended. As we neared the bottom, I could hear more footsteps on the stairs behind us and guessed it was another group coming down. 

The tunnel opened up into a large cavernous room, and another seven cloaked figures stood in front of seven carved archways leading from the room. Without faltering, Victoria led our group to the center most archway, stopping in front of the cloaked guard. 

“This is our entry point.” She declared firmly, getting a nod in response. 

Turning so I faced the tunnel leading into the room, I watched as a group of four people entered.  After glancing around the room, they moved to an opening on the right. Next was the girls and the two men who were probably their new victims. 

Viv came first, barreling into the room at a run, her staff held out in front of her. The other two were right on her heels, each looking ready to fight. 

Seeing me, the trio charged across the room. 

“Thunderous retribution.” Viv screamed, slamming her staff onto the ground. In response, a spiked tower shield flew out to intercept the streak of lightning that shot out of the Dark Elf’s staff. 

 “Cease!” A loud voice called out, and half a dozen armored guards  materialized from the shadows. 

 Within seconds, Viv and her friends had been restrained. The girls were shouting as the Whisper guild guards held them, telling the guards how I was a thief who stole their possessions.

“And what does that have to do with the Whispers guild?” One guard asked with a sneer. “You want to fight, then do it in the dungeon.” 

With those parting words, the guards shoved the girls through a door to the left of us, and the two men they were with rushed to follow them. I could see Viv hovering just inside the archway, glaring back at me, and in response I blew the elven girl a kiss. Much to the amusement of Pia, who let out a snorting laugh. 

During the commotion, the remaining groups that would be entering the dungeon descended the stairs, and seeing the large grouping of guards quickly picked their entrances with no squabbling or fussing over who entered where. 

The guard in front of our entrance stepped aside and addressed us in a low voice as we passed. 

“Have fun.” 

“Oh, we will.” Rainy crooned, a smile curling over her lips as she glanced over her shoulder at the guard, giving him a wink.

Once we’d walked a few meters into the tunnel, the sound of grinding stone reached our ears. The dim light filling the hallway disappeared as a heavy stone door dropped from the ceiling to block off the entrance. 

In response to the darkness, I conjured up a ball of fire to hover over my head and saw Kip lighting a lamp. 

“Well, I guess we don’t need this.” The Dwarf said, glancing up at my fire. 

“You can use it if you want,” I said with a shrug. 

“Kip put the lamp away. Foxy, can you send a second light ahead of us?” Victoria asked, and I was about to conjure a second ball of fire when I remembered my wisp. 

Calling for the wisp to appear, I twisted around to see it clinging to my tail and tried to mentally order it to hover in the air like Yuki’s wisps did. Sluggishly, the wisp rose in the air, bobbing around clumsily as it came to float over my head alongside the ball of fire.  

“What’s that?” Pia asked, seeing the wisp appear. 

“A wisp.” 

“Are you sure? It doesn’t look like a wisp.” The Faun commented, as the others all peered up at the softball sized blob of fire hovering over my head. 

“I’m sure,” I told her, cheeks flushing at the skeptical looks they were giving my wisp. 

“Enough chatter, we need to move.” The captain said suddenly and pointed down the hallway. 

After sending my conjured ball of fire to float in the air a meter ahead of us, we began walking cautiously down the tunnel. 

Kip led the group, checking for any signs of the traps that the first stages of the maze contained. Victoria followed behind the dwarf, one of her shields floating on her left side and the second shield was positioned behind Rainy, who brought up the rear of the group. This left Pia and I to walk directly behind Victoria, the Faun holding her spear aloft, while I held my wagasa over one shoulder with its canopy closed. 

As she walked beside me, Pia made little jabbing motions with her spear, demonstrating ways to better handle my weapon. She’d tried to convince me that my wagasa would be better exchanged for a real spear, but I’d grown fond of my umbrella styled weapon. Though, it was mostly because of the protection it offered from the hot desert sun, rather then it’s use as a weapon. 

Clink.

“Ah, shit. Down.” Kip shouted. 

I dove to the ground alongside Pia and then let out a pained gasp when Rainy landed on top of us. I wasn't sure why the Dryad chose to pile on us at first, but glancing ahead, I saw that Victoria and Kips forms were covered by one of the Oni’s shields, so I guessed one must be over us as well. Only Victoria’s boots could be seen, and I was a little shocked she’d fit under the shield, which only reached just below her shoulders. 

Chink, chink, chink. 

Arrows littered the surrounding floor, and I burrowed a little closer to the others, phantom pains shooting through my shoulder at the sight of the arrows. I really didn’t want to get shot again, especially not when our team didn’t have a healer, and would need to rely on basic first aid training to deal with any injuries. 

When the sound of arrows hitting the shields faded, Kip scrambled out from under the shield he hid beneath. After a check of the surrounding area, he gave the all clear for the rest of us to get up. As we continued heading down the hall, I could feel the group's growing excitement as we rounded a bend and the hallway opened up into a large room. 

The walls of the room were covered in hieroglyphic carvings, and seeing the layout of the room, I knew we’d arrived in a burial vault. This was confirmed, as slabs of stone fell down with a loud crash, revealing the mummified remains which stood in vertical tombs. The sight of the mummified corpses caused my skin to prickle, and break out into a cold sweat. 

“Burn them to the ground, Foxy.” Victoria ordered as the mummies jerkily walked towards us. 

She needn’t have bothered, as I’d already sent three fireballs flying towards the nearest mummies, and was already conjuring another. 

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