The Human From a Dungeon

Nick Smith

Adventurer Level: 11

Human – American

Yulk, Larie, and I watched the four adventurers leave the chamber and make their way back down the corridor. That was one difficult conversation dealt with, but there was still another to be had. With a small sigh, I turned to Yulk.

"So..." I rubbed the back of my neck nervously. "The higher one said that once we clear the dungeon there will be a revelation, and following that revelation there will be a confrontation..."

I trailed off, trying to find the most convincing way to voice my concern.

"Right..." Yulk replied and raised an eyebrow.

"Well, the higher one said that our response to said confrontation should be to... Well... Run."

"Yes, I recall..."

His raised eyebrow lowered and a smarmy smile spread over his face. It occurred to me that it was entirely possible that he was aware of what I was getting at and just wanted to see me twist myself into knots. This put me in a pretty shitty position, because if I went off that assumption and was wrong, I'd end up hurting his feelings for no reason.

Still, I kind of wanted to smack the smile off his face.

"It's just that... In your own words, your back makes it difficult for you to run, right?" I asked, a little more confidence seeping into my tone.

"Sometimes, yes. Why do you ask?" the smile turned into a grin, giving away the game.

"Because I feel that Nash and your mother would be pretty mad at me if I let you get killed in here," I scowled and crossed my arms.

"Ah, but what if you require my assistance?"

"Then I will retrieve whatever lies beyond that door and hightail it back to you. In all seriousness, Yulk, I feel terrible about this, but if we're not fast enough in running away, we'll probably die."

"Oh? Not just me?"

"No, because I wouldn't let you face death alone. I want to go home, but not at all costs. I would try to fight alongside you, and we'd both die right after discovering whatever it is we're supposed to discover."

"Assuming the higher one is to be believed."

"Yeah, yeah," I sighed. "They've been jerking us around, for sure, but so far as I'm aware, they haven't outright lied to me. It's one hell of a gamble to assume that they've started now. Especially when our lives are on the line."

Yulk's grin faded and he crossed his arms. Larie continued watching us silently. His skull didn't show it, but he was probably feeling pretty awkward.

"Convince me," Yulk said. "Tell me your plan."

"Well, we go through those doors and explore until we find what we're looking for. If I can grab it and go, I'll do that. If not, I'll learn what I can until the enemy shows up. Then we'll run for it, collapsing a portion of the dungeon behind us as we go."

"That's where I come in, I assume?" Larie asked.

"Yeah. The higher one mentioned you specifically. Will you be able to do it?"

"Yes."

"Good," I turned back to Yulk. "Don't worry. We'll catch up to you, and we'll all get out of here together."

Yulk thought about this for a moment, then sighed.

"Okay. Be careful, Nick," he said.

I nodded, and offered my hand to shake. Instead, he took my hand and pulled me in for a hug, then began to walk back down the corridor after Garin's party. I turned to Larie and we stared at each other in silence for a moment. Then we walked over to the doors.

The set of double doors were made of green-painted metal, and had push handles that I hadn't seen since coming to this world. Unlike the doors in my school, they didn't have any windows to peek through. With a deep breath to calm my nerves, I pushed one of the doors open.

A gust of air whooshed into my face, and my deep breath forced it into my nose and lungs. It smelled disgusting, like rotten mushrooms and decades of dust. I coughed, but that only made it worse. I held a sleeve up to my nose and mouth and tried to calm my breathing. I used my other sleeve to wipe the tears that had formed in my eyes.

Larie looked concerned, but I waved him off. Once my breathing calmed down a bit, we quietly walked through the doors and entered a hallway. The construction was eerily familiar, so much so that the hairs on the back of my neck rose.

There were three doors to choose from. One on the left, one on the right, and one at the end of the hall. All three of them were identical, and each had a thumb-press handle.

I chose the door on our left and opened it. I was prepared for the nasty air that rushed out of the room, but I still caught a whiff. It smelled absolutely foul, worse than with the double doors. As we entered the room, the reason for the disgusting odor became apparent.

It had probably been a barracks or something at some point in time. There were lockers and bunk beds, and some were still lined up all nice and neat. Others had been knocked over, or maybe even thrown.

It took a moment for me to register everything that I was seeing, though, because I hadn't quite expected to see skeletons everywhere. Some looked as if they were resting peacefully on the beds. Others looked like they had died fighting each other.

Three of the skeletons were in the midst of the disturbed lockers and bunks. One of their skulls was facing the wrong direction. Another was still holding the handle of a military-style knife that was jabbed into the third's skull.

I knew it was a Ka-Bar because my uncle, who served in the Marines during Vietnam, had one that looked very similar. His had a brown handle, though, and this one had a black one. Larie leaned over one of the skeletons that was laying on the bunks.

"Hmm," he said. "These are too large to be dwarves or gnomes, but they don't appear to be elves or orcs either."

"They're humans," I whispered. "The teeth."

"Oh, yes that's a fairly obvious giveaway, I suppose. My attention was grabbed by the ribcage. As it turns out, your sternums are smaller than that of an orc, and your ribs are thicker than that of an elf."

"I see."

The lich turned toward me and studied me for a moment. His emotionless skull didn't convey concern very well, but I knew that was what would be on his face if he had one. I turned away from him and returned my attention to the room.

"My apologies, Nick. I forget that others aren't as used to being around the dead as I am," Larie said. "Are you well?"

"I'll be fine. Just a shock, is all. Not sure what I expected, though."

"I see. Well, these have been here for quite some time. Thoughts?"

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

I shook my head at Larie's question and walked over to the corpses.

"Some of these remains appear to have been placed here respectfully," Larie continued. "Others seem to have succumb to violence. I wonder about the motive."

"Me too. Let's check the other rooms."

We exited the grim scene and moved across the hall. Inside were rows and rows of machines that looked somewhat like refrigerators at first glance. Then I heard a barely audible hum and realized that they were still running.

"Should run and catch them," I said under my breath.

"Pardon?" Larie asked.

"Just a stupid joke. I think these machines are what we call servers. They let other machines talk to each other and stuff."

"I see..."

'These servers are in low-power mode,' Ten added. 'This... Hold on.'

Ten's reaction wasn't exactly surprising, but I still hadn't expected it. I glanced at Larie, unable to recall if I'd made him aware of the AI in my head. Would he take it as a betrayal of trust if I were to suddenly clue him in?

Deciding it would be better to let it be, I walked the length of the room. There were no clues as to what the servers were for, but they were a lot less dusty than the previous room had been. I then realized that the air hadn't smelled terrible when we opened the door, either.

I looked around and spotted several ventilation ducts spread around the room. They were too small for a person to fit in, but if I were a betting man I'd say that half of them were to put filtered air into the room and the other half took air out of the room. I wondered how filthy those filters must be, and held a hand up toward one of the vents.

It was one that was putting air into the room, but I could barely feel any air coming in.

'I believe this is a database,' Ten said. 'Furthermore, I believe that it is the database I tried to connect to when I first became cognizant of my activation.'

'How do we connect?' I asked.

'Well, your body lacks the means with which to connect to them directly. If we're going to be able to access this database, we'll have to restore communications. I'll then be able to attempt accessing them wirelessly.'

'And how do we do that?'

'First, we must find the control center and deduce the reason that communications have been disabled. If we're lucky, the room at the end of the corridor will be the control center.'

'And if it isn't?'

'If we are unable to find the control center, we will not be able to connect to this database. From the information I have, I estimate that the odds of this database being what the higher ones wanted us to find are extremely high.'

Ten was probably right, but I had been hoping for something that I could take with me. I sighed, and Larie titled his head at me. As quickly as I could, I came up with something to tell him.

"These machines let other machines talk to each other, but they're also able to store information," I explained. "Like a library. Except, a lot more information than a library can."

"Truly?" Larie asked, a bit of wonder seeping into his voice.

"Yes. This many servers can probably hold more information that every library you've ever been to or heard of. Combined."

"What will we do with that much information?"

"Well, just because it has the capability doesn't mean that's what it's being used for," I rubbed the back of my neck. "Also, we don't know how much of its potential storage is being used. Could be a lot of empty shelves in the library, as it were. We don't have a way to find out from here, either, which means there has to be a control center somewhere. Hopefully it's behind that last door."

"From this control center we will be able to view the information?"

"Maybe."

"How?"

"I don't know yet," I answered truthfully. "But let's go find out."

We left the server room, walked down the corridor, and entered the final undisturbed door. It led to a bleak-looking break room. There wasn't a whole lot under the thick layer of dust, just a table pushed up against the wall with three chairs tucked under it, some open cupboards that were completely empty, a likewise empty water cooler, and an open refrigerator that we definitely wouldn't have to catch.

On the opposite side of the break room from us was yet another door. Larie and I shared a glance, walked across the break room, and entered the door into another corridor. This one stretched out to our left and right, with three more doors to explore, all situated across from us.

"I'll take the left one, you take the right one," I whispered. "We're looking for more machines. Don't touch anything, just let me know if you find them."

"Okay," Larie replied, also whispering.

The sound of his whisper sent a chill down my spine. I wondered if it was an innate ability for the undead to intimidate the living, or if it was just an undiscovered phobia of mine. We nodded at each other, and walked toward our respective doors.

I walked into a room that had cabinets lining either side. On the far side were some shelves with small, dust-covered boxes littered upon them. I took a good look at one of the open cabinets and realized that it was a weapons locker.

"Oh, shit," I whispered.

Three of the lockers were still closed. I tried each of their handles, but true to their name, they were locked. I looked around for something to pry them open with, but couldn't find anything. Thankfully, an idea occurred to me.

"Huh, never thought I'd use this spell for this," I chuckled quietly. "Reggad nehtrae tsac."

A two-edged knife made of stone formed in my hand. It felt thick enough for the job, so I shoved it between the small gap in the locker doors. After a little bit of prying, I was able to see that the lock was just a small chunk of metal covering a lip in the opposing door. I bent the door to let the latch slip over it, and the locker popped open.

"Oh my," I grinned.

The locker held four weapons. The first I recognized from various video games. It was an M4 carbine with a couple of attachments, probably a laser and flashlight. The second weapon was a SPAS-12 shotgun, the third was large, blackened handgun, and the fourth was a sheathed Ka-Bar with the same type of black handle that I'd seen earlier.

After staring at the knife for a moment, I picked up the handgun. It barely fit in my hand, and even without the magazine it felt pretty heavy. I gave it a good once-over, and noticed that on the side it said "MAGNUM RESEARCH INC. PILLAGER, MN USA" and had a serial number. On the other side, it said "50AE Desert Eagle Pistol Made in USA".

"Holy shit, this is a Deagle," I whispered excitedly.

'Indeed. Not much use without ammo, though.'

"Well, let's see what's in those boxes."

I took the handgun with me over to the shelves. I nudged each of the small boxes, but all of them were empty. Refusing to admit defeat, I put the handgun back and picked up my Earthen Dagger, determined to check the other lockers. As I started to pry, Larie walked in.

"It was just a storage room with many empty shelves," he said, then held up a brown pouch made of plastic. "I found a few of these piled into one of the corners, along with some other detritus. I recognize the letters."

"Let me see," I took it from him and checked it out. "This is an MRE, a type of survival ration. Were... Were all of them empty?"

"Yes," Larie said, quickly catching the meaning behind my question. "There were various packages that may have once held food, but all of them seemed to be empty."

"I see..."

We stood in silence for a moment, then I got back to prying open the locker. Larie watched as the door popped open. His head tilted as he beheld the contents.

"What's this?" he asked.

"Weapons," I replied.

"How do they work?"

The innocent curiosity in his voice when he asked the question made me realize how stupid I was being. I had decided to try my best to keep this kind of weaponry from this world, and here I was trying to find a way to use one. Were the advantages of having a trump card like this worth the risk that someone else figures out how they work?

"Sorry, Larie, but I'm not going to tell you that," I replied quietly. "The designs for these weapons were bought with countless amounts of blood, and their invention caused far more blood to flow."

"In what way?" his voice became quiet.

"This is a weapon that can kill a target from so far away that the target can't even see its user," I said, pointing at the M4. "With the right ammunition, it can penetrate even the thickest of plate-mail. And even children can use them with minimal training."

"I see..."

I turned back to the locker with a sigh, and noticed that it didn't have a Ka-Bar. My throat tightened as I realized that I knew exactly where it was. Was it starvation that drove them to doing that? Or was it something else? Did it matter?

I walked over to the first locker, grabbed the Ka-Bar, and attached its sheath to my belt. My uncle had claimed that it had been the most useful tool he'd ever used. He might have been joking, but even so, it served as a memento from home. As well as a grim reminder of this adventure.

"Let's go," I whispered.

Larie quietly nodded in agreement, and we left the room. After a brief stroll down the hallway, we paused outside of the only door left unexplored. I found myself hesitant to open it, fearing the potentially grisly scene within.

I wasn't an idiot. I could tell that these people had probably been trapped in here by whatever caused the dungeon. Most of them probably died slow and painful deaths from starvation.

But, a lot of those weapon lockers had been completely empty. And something had to have happened to the comms. It was possible that whatever lay beyond the final door would be the most disturbing part of our entire journey thus far.

Or, maybe I was just worrying too much. I quickly convinced myself that hesitating wasn't helping anything, because we still had to go through the damned door. With another deep breath to brace myself, I opened the door and we stepped through.

What lay beyond the door was shocking, though not for the reasons I had feared. It was an office, like straight out of a movie or television show. There were a few cubicles that lined up to make a path to the far side of the room, where a large console-like machine sat.

We began to approach the console, and quick glances into each cubicle showed nothing one wouldn't expect to find in an office setting. Each desk, though caked in dust, had a chair, monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Most of the desks didn't have anything else, but some of them contained little statues, dead plants, squeeze toys, and other personal items.

Sitting in front of the giant console was a lone chair, and in that chair sat a skeleton whose clothes had all but rotted away. Next to the skeleton was a mug, which it had obviously dropped during its final moments. Larie gently pulled the chair back to give us room at the console.

'This is it, Nick," Ten said. 'I'll guide you through reactivating the communications network, and then we should be able to access the database.'

"Okay," I sighed, the dust in the air slightly burning my lungs. "Let's get to work."