Chapter 71: Chapter 69: Dungeons

As Tess and Ellie were leaving, they passed by a tall angel woman. It wasn’t the first time they had passed other people in the hallways of the gods’ domain, but this woman was different; she blinked in surprise as the group passed, then turned to follow them. “Oh, hey, wait up!” She called. “I need to talk to you two!”

Tess stopped, giving her a puzzled look. “Sorry if this is rude, but…do we know you?”

The woman shook her head. She was…well, tall, with short black hair and bright yellow eyes. She was wearing a t-shirt and a set of shorts, and had an overall pleasant feel to her. “Sorry, you wouldn’t.” She said. “I’m Dungeons, and I kept meaning to get with you about the whole savage dungeon thing, but then I ended up working out some kinks with some of the higher level ones I placed and you guys were busy so I just forgot.”

“Breathe, Dungeons.” Fortune said, smiling faintly. “You don’t need to justify yourself, we get that you’ve been busy.”

“Right, right.” Dungeons replied, taking a deep breath. “Are you guys in a hurry, or do you have some time to hash out how we’re going to deal with the one you’re in charge of?”

“No, we were just heading back home, we cleared our schedules just in case things took longer than expected.” Ellie said. “So…yeah, we have time.”

“Perfect. Let’s go sit down, then, and we’ll hash this out.” Dungeons said, motioning for them to follow.

“You all go on ahead.” Death said. “I’ll catch up with you once I finish putting everything away.”

“I’ll help, you guys start without us.” Fortune added.

“We’ll just be in the side room here.” Dungeons said. “Take your time.”

The two gods left, and Dungeons brought Ellie and Tess to a side room as promised. “So, I’ve already put a couple of the high level savage dungeons in, and I’ve worked through most of the major kinks with the more experienced Appointed, so, fortunately you two are just going to have to deal with balancing and making sure this dungeon doesn’t run wild. Uh…it’s been a bit, do you two need a refresher on how savage dungeons are going to work?”

“Yeah, that’d be nice.” Tess said. “They’re like…dungeons where more than just your party can be in at the same time, right?”

“That’s the shape of it, yeah.” Dungeons confirmed. “And…well, where other dungeons are more…randomly generated, for lack of a better term, these dungeons are static and completely handcrafted. At the same time, they’re also going to be more difficult. Uh…if you’ve played MMOs, think of it like the difference between a raid dungeon and just your run of the mill normal dungeon.

“The idea is to try and force people to work in larger groups than just a party, at least if they want to beat it on-level. I’m also curious to see what sort of social situations come out of this, if people try and set up waystations in the dungeon, that kind of thing.”

She paused briefly, shifting in her chair. “The one you guys are going to be dealing with is the dungeon we’re going to be using as the intro to savage dungeons. Nothing hugely difficult, just something to get you used to the mechanics. It’s designed for large groups of about level twenty five, so it might give you two a bit of trouble, but you should be able to take care of it no sweat.”

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Ellie nodded. “So…what exactly is our job? Also, I’m assuming the Rewards Crystal is still a thing, how does that work? I’m assuming they don’t have the same floor setup as normal dungeons, so…is it still clearing from the beginning, or…?”

“Good question.” Dungeons replied. “There are still some teleporters, but there aren’t always going to be clearly delineated floors. You just have to beat the dungeon without using a teleporter to have a shot at it. The dungeons are going to be quite a bit longer than normal too, so expect to only have to go through a single dungeon ten or so times to get all the rewards.

“As for your job, you’re both beta tester and maintenance crew. You’re going to run through the dungeon and make sure there are no fatal flaws in the design, and until we are ready to have the public discover it, or someone just randomly stumbles upon it, you’re going to clear it once a month or so and make sure it doesn’t start overflowing.”

“We miss anything important?” Fortune asked, opening the door and walking in.

“No, just catching them up on their duties and what savage dungeons are.” Dungeons replied. “Go ahead and take a seat.”

“Can do.” Fortune and Death walked in and sat down near Tess and Ellie.

“So…what can you tell us about this dungeon? Do you have an info packet or something like the guild?” Tess asked.

“I do, but I’m not going to give it to you until you’ve seen all the surprises the dungeon has. While most people will go through the dungeon with that information, it’s also important to make sure there isn’t anything too unfair if someone doesn’t have it. Once you’ve been through everything major, though, I’ll drop you a packet with one of the boss kills.”

“And if there is something unfair?” Ellie prompted.

“If you die to it, then I give the Worship required to resurrect you to your god. Otherwise…well, then we just deal with the problem after you discover it.”

“How are we going to get there?” Tess asked. “It’s going to be kind of…out in the middle of nowhere, right?”

“Oh, right, I’m supposed to give you two a Blessing that’ll teleport you there and back. You’ll need to be on the same plane, in this case the main plane of the Outlands, and you can’t already be inside a dungeon, but other than that, you’ll just put in a bit of Mana and you’ll just blink on over. Then, just put Mana in again when you’re ready to leave, and you’ll teleport back to where you last used it from. Here…give me a second…”

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