NOVEL NEXT That Girl You Hate – Chapter 24
‘Huh’, Doyle pauses, ‘well that was an interesting group. Give me just a moment.’ He replaces the goats and vine assassin that got killed. ‘And there we go. Everything back in order and ready for another round I guess? Since they left by the entrance and didn’t kill much do we still have to wait?’ Ally is sprawled back over his core. She lifts one hand and waves it around. ‘Only a short amount of time. Just like when the previous party sent their rogue in first to check on things.’
‘While we wait though I do have something for us to do. It would be nice if you could make me a room. Not a room room but rather more like the rabbit burrows. Just a space off of the core room with a bit of furniture and a bed. With two dead, even if they aren’t actually dead you should have some surplus energy to throw around. Might as well use it before you lose it.’
Doyle takes a look around the core room. ‘Sure, plus I should do more with this place anyway. Just bare stone is a little bland for my taste. I was never one for decorating but even I have my limits. First though, let’s get you a place to rest or you know, go to when someone actually gets to our core room.’ He had enough room to work with so Doyle settled down to decide where to put Ally’s room. In the walls would be fine as around the core there was more than a meter of rock but that didn’t feel quite right. Instead, he went up. Down was an option but regular humans are more likely to check the floor than the ceiling.
That in mind he decides on the entrance being above the doorway into the core. ‘Anyone who gets this far will focus on me in the first place so that was relatively safe. Out of sight is out of mind after all. From above the door we can put a short staircase up to the space above the floor’s layout and you get as much space as you want. To start with just a simple room will do and we can expand it later as you want.’
Doyle molds the stone out and up. Soon there is a nice cubby for Ally to stay in and he turns his attention to decorating his core room instead. Not much has happened to him yet so there isn’t any reason to get too fancy. Instead, he decides on a repeating pattern that he felt looks nice and stamped it all around the core. Then below him he formed the rock into spiral pedestal that came a hand short of where his core floated. The pattern he had laid down stretching and twisting its way up the pillar of stone.
He moves his core around to test the clearance and lowers it just a smidge before he is happy. ‘There we go. I haven’t made you bed or anything yet but you have a room and my core isn’t the most boring place in the dungeon.’
Ally thanks him as she flies over to the hole near the ceiling and up into her room. ‘Well, you weren’t lying when you said you had made nothing yet. Not that I expected you to and honestly this is more than enough space. Mostly we companions hang out in the core room anyway. Though maybe a light or two?’
Doyle’s core dims, ‘oops. Sorry about that. I am not doing a good job in remembering to place lights around.’ Ally smiles, ‘it isn’t your fault. How can you expect to know about lighting when you see everything perfectly well with or without light. Anyway, that was about enough time wasted. We should have more adventurers soon.’
And boy she wasn’t lying. They had gotten off to a slow start but the very next group came from another tutorial instance and the one after as well. Of course, all the new groups kicked his dungeons rear. In fact, over the next twelve groups none of them ever lost more than a single member.
After a couple more changes though, Doyle made headway. First, he made it so the goats in the vine room stayed slightly behind the assassin vines. While well hidden the vine monsters were big enough to be spotted well before the goats and let them take any group not in the know by surprise. This allowed an extra kill or two every few groups.
What most consistently got him kills though was the kobolds. Now armed and armored they could generally manage to down at least one invader. However this still put him short. All the groups still only had six people in them and with just a third kill the dungeon tutorial would be complete. Even his tricky planning for how the goats would attack amounted to nothing. Sure having one goat hide at the side of the door would occasionally knock someone for a loop but there weren’t any surprises he could keep a secret. Ally comforted him that once he had another floor to work with and especially after the fifth floor, things would be different. After all, there is only so much you can do without proper traps.
Now another group enters his dungeon as he watches to see what happens. So far the results were split. Either they made it to the kobolds and completed the dungeon or they lost someone before then and retreated. This time though he had given new orders to the single goat in the second medium room after the vines. Doyle had high hopes for the change but he had thought that about the last tweak as well. This new group in his dungeon was once again made of six people. An oddity as there was a single girl. Most parties tended towards either an equal split or all of one gender. However he soon got a feel for what was up.
The lady exclaims in a loud voice, “OH MY GAWD, why do I even have to come in here? There’s dirt everywhere and that vine room will simply Murder my hair. Why wouldn’t that cow of a guide just let me pass?” A guy wielding the classic sword and board combo turns to her and smiles, “Don’t worry Daisy! I can carry you on through here no problem.”
A guy in a white frock sneers at the fighter, “And don’t you worry about when Jerry there lets some monster through. The other can block it while I put up a protection barrier around so nothing can ruin your clothes.” Jerry scoffs at him and turns to a small guy at the back of the party, “Hey shrimp, go check on the next room while we let Daisy rest here. Don’t know why they forced her to walk down that long hallway. It’s a god-damned portal, just open it up next to her”
With everyone turned away from her Daisy sneers at their fighting but then smooths her face and puts on a smile. With a few steps she is next to the small guy and pats him on the head, “Now, now, Jay is an important part of the party. I have no clue why none of the actual rogues wanted to join our group” (Being an overall observant group of people the rogues had all noticed what she was trying to pull and wouldn’t touch her with a ten-foot pole) “but Jay was willing to sacrifice two of his skill slots for things that would help with scouting. Now if you’d please, go and see what is ahead of us Jay? Make sure to check if they are aggressive now!”
Jay smiles and Doyle could practically see hearts in his eyes as he trounced off down the hallway. Once he was around the corner everyone else in the party broke into a bout of nasty laughter, though they did try and keep it quiet. Then the groups other magic user stepped forward and iced the floor in front of the hallway. This brought another round of laughter as everyone made fun of Jay for being a chump.
Out of earshot Jay bumbles through the hallway without a single shred of stealth. Without notice he is around the corner and into the goat room. Only to be knocked back into the hallway. Having made no efforts to hide the goats heard him coming all alone and were ready for him. He lies against the wall for a moment groaning before standing back up. “Well, I guess they are aggressive!” Happy with having done as requested he heads back to the group.
Then as he enters the room, his foot slips right out from under him. He crashes to the ground again and almost knocks himself silly. He sighs and thinks to himself that, ‘ever since I joined Daisy’s group I’ve become a klutz. What is wrong with me?’ Of course nothing was wrong with him except maybe his ability to judge social situations. Anyone would slip and ice when it wasn’t expected but the mage would always remove the evidence before he could notice.
Now informed that nothing had changed the group goes forward with Daisy at the center and Jay in the lead. Once they reach the goats Jay gets pushed into the room first while the other guys come in behind. Daisy on the other hand stays in the hallway and shouts encouragement.
Five men against three goats isn’t really a challenge. Especially when three of them are melee fighters. Besides Jerry and his sword and board there was his minion with two short swords. Though he wasn’t ambidextrous or all that well trained with it so most of his attacks were either flailing with both or just using his dominant hand. The last guy had a big axe. Not like the nasty captain's giant sword. This axe while big was properly sized for its wielder. It just happened that that guy was a giant. A head taller than anyone else in the party and built like a brick house.
Goats finished they head on towards the vine room. Before they enter though Daisy cozies up to the axe guy and pouts. “You won’t mind chopping the way through for us would you John? Those nasty vines would ruin me!” John smirks and puffs his chest out while the other guys all seethe at him getting Daisy’s attention.
Of course there is nothing they can do about it. His axe is perfect for the task and soon he is chopping his way through until they come across the first assassin vine. His axe strikes one of the outer tentacles and sets it flailing around. Daisy pouts again, “well look what you did. I don’t really want to mess with this beast but it's much too near the center of the room.”
Then with a sly look she glances at Jerry and nods at Jay. A really nasty smile spreads across Jerry’s face when he realizes what she wants. With a quick grab he picks up Jay and chucks him at the assassin vine. All the tentacles coil around him and the group takes this chance to hurry past the monsters. Its attendant goat unable to even slow down John as his axe slices it just as easily as the vines. Behind them Jay lets out a final whimper as he dies and his body fades away. The saddest part for Doyle was that Jay looked happy that he was of use for Daisy.
The next assassin vine is way off to the side so they don’t even have to slow down. The goat doing less than a speed bump might have and the same goes for the next rooms two goats. In fact, they progress so quickly it appears to square the goat all alone in the next room which hides in the corner. The group has a good laugh at it as they go into the next room.
