The Dungeon's Worst Little Mistake

Susan, like most sane adventurers, has always hated being in this layer of Silest's Dungeon. It's a literal sewer, much the same as the very ones that run under the city itself. Thankfully, this one isn't full of flowing shit water, but that is largely the only real difference between this one and the one on the surface.

Hell, even the sewers of Silest, or any major city for that matter, have monsters living in them. You can't even say that you won't find treasure up there occasionally, because sometimes, Goblins and Giant Rats will steal jewelry and other shiny trinkets to line their nests down there. Really, sewers are basically like miny Dungeons in a way… they just also happen to be full of shit and smell fucking horrible.

Regardless, this place is a sewer. Plain and simple. And much like a sewer, being here for any period of time just plain sucks. Although… it's weird.

Usually, the pipes that run along the ceiling and walls would be leaking water to drip on people passing below or blowing hot steam as you pass by. Normally, it would be like the Dungeon is doing everything it can to try and piss you off down here, or to get your nerves on edge. But there is none of that. The pipes are silent and not even rattling, the water and steam flowing through copper and iron pipes perfectly without even so much as a drip of leaking water.

I'm not even hearing distant noises bouncing off the walls, trying to make us hear things that aren't there. The Dungeon is silent… Why?

The vast majority of people who have had any real interaction with Dungeons are generally of the opinion that they are living things with some level of awareness. Dungeons eat after all and even use treasure to lure humans inside. The fact that people are more than willing to risk their lives for this obvious trap is not what's up for discussion though. The Dungeon is alive, and that is what matters. But yet, even after wandering around on this floor for the past couple of hours, they haven't been harassed once by it. No traps. No enemies, except the occasional wandering Undead. No annoyances. Nothing. The Dungeon is silent.

For the first time since Susan has ever stepped foot inside of a Dungeon, she doesn't feel like it wants to eat her.

"Hey…" Susan speaks out to no one in particular. "Do you think that the Dungeon is… that it wants us to be here?"

Elaine just gives her a curious look. "What do you mean? Of course, the Dungeon wants us here, how else is it supposed to eat if we don't go inside?"

"That's not what she meant." Dale corrects her. He can feel it too. For experienced fighters, they can feel it when someone wants you dead. And right now, the Dungeon doesn't. It wants them alive.

"Are you trying to say that the Dungeon wants us to kill the Necromancer?" Ben asks Susan, not taking his eyes off the passage ahead.

"Yeah. It's weird, but I think it does. Why else do you think that whirlpool suddenly appeared and sucked us all the way down here?"

"Or how that branch broke." Dale adds, because those trees are almost as impossible to break as are the walls of the Dungeon itself.

Elaine looks up and thinks for a bit. "The ants didn't attack me either. They just went straight for that giant spider. It's almost like they were trying to help us get away…"

"Yeah…"

Everyone stops talking for a bit, going silent as they consider the possibility of the Dungeon actually helping them. For Susan, her thoughts go back to a couple of different occasions on the second layer, times where a convenient, still living, monster would end up showing up to draw the attention of the Undead away, giving them a perfect chance to break from cover and gain more ground. Like with that giant beetle a couple of days ago. It couldn't be that it had sent the monsters as distractions to help the sneaking humans get past, right? Just how intelligent would the Dungeon have to be in order do things like that?

Dale eventually breaks the silence.

"Well, we do know that the Necromancer is trying to kill the Dungeon. We've seen as much with how much she has already destroyed and twisted the upper layers. If the Dungeon knows that we are here to kill the thing killing it, I guess it makes sense that it would try to help us."

"Not much help that has been…" Ben says, clearly drawing attention to their current lack of numbers.

"Without it, all of us, or at least most of us the rest of might be dead. Just fighting that thing took everything we had, and we couldn't even keep it down. Susan might have been able to get away with her speed, but the rest of would have probably died in the end."

Elaine raises her hand a bit. "If I used the rest of my mana, I might have been able to finish it off, but I'm not certain."

Ben picks up after her. "And then your core would be completely drained, and you would lose all protection to the ambient Death mana. Even if you did finish it off, without being able to protect yourself anymore with your internal mana, you would have quickly gotten sick and died within a day or so. And, considering how long it was taking us to travel through that layer, it's doubtful that we would have been able to escape to the next before then."

"Oh… yeah, that would have sucked…"

Susan gives her a reassuring pat on the back. "At least we didn't have to fight the boss of the second layer. Or, at least another one. Imagine if it ended up being like the first boss room again."

"Yeah, I definitely don't want to see a giant flesh rose made out of spiders… I'm glad we skipped that. Would have been horrifying!"

Everyone just nods, fully in agreement.

"It's just too bad that everyone else didn't make it…"

"They knew what they were risking when they volunteered, just the same as us. We'll just have to finish this for them, so their sacrifice won't be in vain." Dale says with a serious look on his face, his knuckles going white as he tightens his grip on his hammer.

"When we get out of here, we'll drink enough for all of them." Susan declares in agreement.

"Yes!"

"No, not you Elaine. You're an absolute mess when you're drunk."

"Wha- That was one time!"

Dale just gets this look on his face like he is remembering something terrible. Like he has seen things.

"Please, no. We don't need another Lutweg incident. We are still banned from that city because of what you did…"

"I don't even remember what I did! Seriously, when is someone going to tell me what happened!?"

Susan just places a gentle, loving hand on her head and gives her a pat. "Sweety, it's for the best that you never, ever know. We can only pray that one day, it will be forgotten and never spoken of again."

"I'm sure that the people of Lutweg agree…" Adds Ben. He can't even look at Elaine right now. The memories… He wishes he could just forget.

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"Seriously! What did I do!?"

"Moving on!" Susan interrupts, forcibly changing the subject.

"Wait, ser-"

"It is safe to assume that the Dungeon is helping us. The implications are worrying, especially if it means that Dungeons are much smarter than we originally thought they were. But we can't let this chance past us by. Dale, you know what this means, right?"

"So, we're just completely ignoring me now…"

"Mhm." Dale nods his head, completely ignoring Elaine's protests. "It's safe to assume that the Dungeon dropped us off on the same floor as the Necromancer. She is here, somewhere."

"I mean seriously. What could I have even done? I'm a five-foot nothing girl, weighing practically nothing. I'm a healer! So, it's not like I hurt anyone, right!"

"Exactly. We just need to find her before she heads to the next floor."

"Oh Goddess! What if I did hurt somebody? No one died, right?!"

"Mhm, rather than searching aimlessly through this entire floor and potentially missing her. We should instead head for the Safe Room. Chances are that we can cut her off there, at the stairs, or even catch her while she is sleeping."

"Please tell me I didn't kill someone!"

"You didn't kill anyone, Elaine. And if she has already moved on to the next floor, we can follow after confirming that she isn't here anymore. Wait for maybe a day, to see if she shows up."

"Oh, thank the Goddess…"

Ben cuts in. "We could also use that time to rest and recover. My core is still drained and the hearth in the Safe Room will seriously help me out."

Elaine finally figures out that she is talking to the wind here and stops asking about that which should not be mentioned. "I could use some time to recharge too. The light levels down here are pretty low, so it is taking me a while to get back up to full again"

"Sounds good, so that's our plan then. Now, any idea on where the stairs are?" Susan asks.

Dale just gives a shrug. "I don't even know which floor we are on. If I did, we could at least know which map to reference and try to see if any of these halls match what is drawn, and then find our way from there."

Ben is the next to shrug and just points to a turn at the next intersection. "When lost in a Dungeon, follow the left wall." He say's referencing a rule that most Adventurers will end up hearing a dozen times or more in their career.

After all, it works. If you continue to follow the left wall, you will eventually map out most of your surroundings on your own, while reducing the risk of getting lost or turned around. It typically works much better than just randomly wandering around after all, even if it might take a bit longer to get where you're going.

Not having any better ideas, they all wordlessly agree and turn left.

Time to go exploring then. Who knows, maybe they'll get lucky. Especially if the Dungeon is actually giving them a hand.

Pulling her head to the side, Susan dodges a blast of water from an Undead Kappa, not stopping for even a moment as she moves forward and slices in half the last of the Undead Lizard Men. Behind her, Elaine finishes her incantation and fires out a simple Light Arrow spell, nailing the Kappa in the chest before it can dive back underwater again.

Having a low mana cost, and moving incredibly fast, being made of light and all, the spell is perfect for Elaine to use in these little skirmishes against enemies hiding in the water.

Normally, such a low-level Light spell would be largely useless, as offensive Light spells do almost no damage to most targets. It's not until the higher levels were Light becomes a truly deadly element, being capable of sniping and burning holes through almost anything with pinpoint accuracy, on top of being almost impossible to dodge. On the battlefield, a powerful Light Mage could put a hole through the head of an enemy general before anyone even knows what had happened.

But for the Undead. Even just a low-level arrow spell is more than enough to put them down for good. Light is their bane. Where it makes contact with their skin, it burns them away with golden cleansing fire, leaving nothing but dust and ash behind. If Elaine had the mana for it, she could happily skip and dance through this place, shooting off arrows of light from her fingers and cleansing these halls one zombie at a time. It's just too bad that her mana is limited, and she can only regenerate it so quickly.

The Undead Kappa, struck by the arrow, screams as its body starts to fall apart in the water, its skin being reduced to grey ash on its bones as it flails and splashes about. When its ability to sustain its own existence fails, its skinless skull falls off its neck and plops into the water, the rest of its body quickly following after.

The fight finished, and the corridor now full of redeaded Undead, everyone lets out a breath to relax.

They've been wandering for a few hours now, and don't seem to be getting any closer to reaching the Safe Room. Still no idea what floor this is, and no signs of the Necromancer yet. Although, these zombies have to be coming from her, so she must be somewhere.

"Wish we still had one of our scouts with us. They would be able to follow these things tracks, and maybe lead us straight to our target." Susan comments as she pokes the side of a Lizard Man's rotting skull with her boot. Thing has probably been dead for about a day at best, but it looks like it has been for weeks. Ben has informed them that Death mana has a tendency to make bodies decay much faster than they normally would, and that is why they already look so nasty.

This unfortunately also means that they smell horrible. Especially if they had anything in their bowls when they died…

"I would rather we get some rest before we run into her." Comments a sleep deprived looking Ben, and Susan can't help but to agree with him.

They have all been traveling and fighting nonstop for quite a while now, and even when they could catch some sleep, it had always been in short, two-hour power naps. Certainly not something that is sustainable. They need rest. Proper rest, if they are going to fight the Necromancer. And if she is anywhere near as powerful as those twisted monstrosities on the above layer, then they are in for a fight.

I really hope it will be a great fight.

After all, this is what Susan is really here for. Yes, she wants the money. Yes, she wants to save the Dungeon and Silest from being destroyed. Yes, she wants to avenge her dead comrades and rid this world of one more vile evil.

But the reason she is here, risking her life in the first place, is the fame, the glory, and one BIG last fight that will carve her name into the history books of heroes!

Susan the Swordswoman vs. the Necromance of Silest! Their fight will be legendary!

Children will grow up listening to it as a bedtime story before going to sleep and dreaming of growing up to just like her. Girls everywhere will know the name Susan and beg their parents to let them learn to use the sword. Parents will name their daughters after her, hoping that it will help them grow up big and strong.

Susan will be, as a mortal living in a world where immortals and gods are a common thing, immortalized in her own way! To be remembered long after her death as a Hero!

That is her dream. That is why she first became an Adventurer as a dumb teenager. That is why she threw aside the comfy and easy future that her parents made for her, and instead picked up the sword.

Yes, she could have just taken the easy route. She could have just settled down and married Brad like her parents wanted for her, raised a gaggle of kids and eventually became a withering old, grumpy grandmother that complains about things changing and spoils her one favorite grandchild rotten while neglecting the rest, but where would the fun be in that? Well, except for being able to piss people off and get away with it because she is old, that probably would be pretty fun. But that isn't what she wants!

No, because while her family would remember her, that would only last for a couple of generations at best. Then Susan would just be some nameless old bones in the ground.

But a Hero?

Forget one or two generations. So long as humanity doesn't get wiped out, they will be remembered forever.

And besides, Susan can still do the grumpy old grandma thing afterwards. She'll just get to be filthy fucking rich while doing it and get to have fun watching her grandkids fight for her love so they might get their name in the will. But jokes on them, only her absolutely favorite grandbaby will be getting everything. It will be hilarious, and she can't wait to see the chaos unfold from the afterlife.

That sounds so much better than what her parents had planned for her.

Although… Brad was pretty cute. Maybe I should look him up after I'm retired, see if he is still single…

Getting lost in her thoughts, Susan almost doesn't notice as a light is flickering in a hallway they are passing. It catches her attention, and she stops, turning to look up at that flickering glow stone.

Everyone else stops and gives her a curious look, obviously wondering why she stopped walking.

"Hey… has anyone ever seen the light stones flicker like that before?"

"Huh. No, not really…"

"Maybe it just needs replaced?"

"Dungeon lights never need replaced."

"You think it's intentional?"

"Well, if the Dungeon has really been helping us, then maybe."

"Check it out?"

"It's worth a try. If it doesn't work out, we just go back to what we've been doing."

"Hey, Dungeon! Please lead us to the Safe Room, I need to sleep!" Ben calls out to the ceiling.

It keeps flickering.

"Guess we're checking it out then."

They proceed down the hall passing under the light and continuing on. When they do, the flickering stops. At the next intersection, they check all three options, left, straight, and right. Another light is flickering.

"Right it is then… Thank you, Dungeon?" Susan tries.

"Thank you, Dungeon!" Elaine happily chirps up at the ceiling.

This is so weird, actually having a Dungeon not trying to kill me for once. Wait, would having this be in the story make it better, or worse? I guess it depend on if the Guild would even let me keep it in. They might want to keep this a secret… Although, I seriously doubt that most people would honestly believe it… Things to think about later, I guess.