The Mother of Monsters

Shadows crept across the passageway, faint flickers of movement that set the party on edge. There was little they could do about it, though, they needed light and magical light sources seemed to sputter and die when they were used in this god-forsaken place. The muted light-gray stone beneath their feet would have sent echoes with each of their steps if it hadn’t been for the thick moss and lichen that grew on the walls and ceiling. Vines got in their faces now and then and occasionally a vine thick enough to be mistaken for a snake sent a few of their members into a full-on defensive scramble.

But it hadn’t been a snake, just as there hadn’t been before, and the time before that. Nothing but an endless silence and the tedium of walking for what felt like hours. Occasionally they’d found themselves a room to stop and poke around in but the rewards they’d discovered were less than enough to make any of this worth it. Even so, they kept moving, there had to be an end to all this and maybe then they’d find some way to explain the quest in their journals. None of them wanted to miss out, none of them wanted to turn back.

A scenario quest, just for them.

Grant scratched his thick brown hair and frowned as they finished rifling through what had looked like an abandoned wine cellar for nearly an hour, sitting down on the ground in front of the campfire he’d helped build so they could all take a break. He reached up and adjusted the straps on his armor; it didn’t fit as well as it used to after he’d gained a few levels. He looked down into the flames before willing his interface to pull up the quest that they’d all received after stumbling upon the entrance to this horrible place.

 

Journal Update! [The Halseid Dungeon] You have discovered a fragment of the ancient labyrinth that snakes beneath the surface of Orum, a broken piece of the Great Demon Lord’s coveted domain. Somewhere inside, treasure awaits. Explore the dungeon and find the riches within. Reward: Experience, Treasure Accept the Quest?: Yes / No

 

He sniffed and dismissed the notification, glancing across the fire as Flint sat down. The younger looking man had a head of golden hair and narrow blue eyes, his ears were flared to sharp points in the way that marked him as an elf. In reality he was a college student from Virginia. He let out a sharp breath and glowered into the flames as well for a moment before glancing up and meeting Grant’s gaze. “This place sucks, if it weren’t for the experience reward I would have said we go back already,” The man-turned-elf said.

“There’s gotta be an end,” Vraska said, walking over from one of the shelves with an oddly rotund looking bottle of wine in her hand. She tilted it left and right and he heard the faint slosh of something fluid inside. Vraska was an orc, broad shouldered with green skin and tusks jutting out from her lower lip. A pair of machetes hung from her hips that glinted a bit in the firelight. She sat down next to the two men and handed the bottle off to Flint who frowned at it for a moment before she gave him a meaningful look.

He sighed, “Fine…”

He closed his eyes and muttered something under his breath before opening his eyes again, “Surprisingly it’s safe to drink, though why you’d want to drink something that’s been down here this long is beyond me,” He said bitterly and rest his arms on his knees.

“Let her have some fun, maybe she’ll stop complaining,” Ellie said as she swept into the circle around the fire, her white robes contrasting starkly against their surroundings. She held a mace in one hand and was going through the motions of attaching it to her belt before finding herself a spot across the fire from Vraska. 

Vraska scowled at her and popped the cork, chugging down the wine and letting out a hard breath, “Khaaah! That’s good stuff!” She laughed and burped, “Nice and warm.”

Grant held out his hand, “Gimme some of that.”

She snorted and handed him the bottle, he took a few chugs of the wine. It was nutty and sweet in a way that he hadn’t expected, the flavors blending together on his tongue before strangely splitting and stimulating different parts of his mouth. He glanced at the bottle but found that there was no label on it. He shook his head, “At least we found something worth our time down here, we could probably sell this stuff. Any left?”

“Bout twenty bottles,” Vraska said and jerked her thumb over her shoulder.

Flint frowned at the bottle before shrugging, “We can probably get some decent money if we emphasize the rarity,” He said, “Better than wasting it by drinking it all.”

Vraska scowled at him, “I’m keepin’ some of it, the booze back in the city is shit except for what the nobles drink.”

“Then find yourself an other essence and get some better jobs,” Ellie chastised her, “Don’t cut into the party’s profits.”

Vraska rounded on Ellie only for Grant to hold up a hand, “Shut up a minute,” He growled and titled his head. The others fell silent immediately. Grant possessed the Aspect of the Sentry and was both a skilled fighter and lookout, his senses were far better than most people and they’d come to rely on him while in places like this. So far nothing had pinged his attention, until now. He concentrated, his ear twitching as the sounds hit it. It was faint, very faint, but it sounded like something was moving in the passage outside the room.

He glanced past them towards the opening and the plant-ridden passage and nodded meaningfully. The others turned and reached for their weapons, slowly getting to their feet. Even Grant in his armor barely made more than the faintest jingle of metal on metal as they pivoted to face whatever it was outside. He glanced at the others and stepped around the fire, slipping past Flint and moving out into the passage, he pulled the sword from his belt and turned his head in a slow arc. 

There!

A small grey… thing stood in the passage. It had a bulbous head and eye that were the pure-white of blindness or some kind of darkvision, more likely the latter. The creature had a hempen sack over its shoulder and a knife in one hand. It froze, its almost spherical eyes going wide as Grant lay eyes on it. He called up his journal immediately to analyze it, just to make sure he wasn’t going crazy.

 

[Grellik Nabber]  - Hostile - Level 4 < Elite > HP: 100% MP: 100% SP: 100%

 

“It’s a nabber!” He shouted and immediately charged at it, the others let out shouts of surprise and raced into the passage after him. He didn’t bother looking back, they knew what it meant to have a nabber in a dungeon. The little wretches were creatures that, according to their journals, explored dungeons in the name of the Great Demon Lord, Teyva Akura, and stole treasure for her. They were the bane of every self-respecting hero’s existence, but they were also the one thing that most heroes wanted to see because of that ugly little sack.

“How much do you think it’s got in there?” Ellie shouted as they ran after the scampering creature, the tiny thing shrieking in terror as a bolt of fire whizzed past its head.

“Don’t destroy the bag!” Vraska barked.

“Damn it! Thought I had a bead on it!” Flint shouted, “Sorry!”

Grant scowled but kept his eyes on the slippery little beast, it wasn’t especially strong, the entire party was level five, but it was shockingly quick and if it managed to get out of eyeshot it was all over, it would vanish from the dungeon, likely forever, and take everything that’s in its dimensional sack along with it. There were plenty of stories of Dungeons left worthless by a particularly talented nabber that got ahead of an adventuring party. Despite its reputation, though, everyone knew it was best to catch it alive.

That bag not only held treasure, it was a treasure. Integrating it into a player's inventory expanded its space by ten slots! It was a huge deal to find one.

Grant pumped his legs as the creature wove left and right, trying for a serpentine path to throw off its pursuers. Grant simply charged forward, his eyes following the creature through the overgrowth rather than bothering to try to keep close to it. Occasionally it would glance back and shriek again, its body trembling in a mixture of fear and confusion as it realized it still hadn’t evaded its pursuers. He titled his head forward, eyes fixed on that sack. “It’s mine…” He muttered just as the plantlife around them abruptly stopped.

He blinked and slid to a stop, the others nearly crashing into him.

“What the hell, Grant? Where is it?” Vraska barked.

He pointed and she followed his gesture, behind him, Flint and Ellie let out sharp breaths. Ahead of them, the path ended. There was nothing but a stone wall fixed with a large circular doorway made of black marble flecked with gold. It stood so sharply in contrast with the rest of the dungeon so far that it took them all a little off guard. The tiny creature was scrambling against the door, its tiny fingers looking for something that none of them could see. Vraska reached for her weapon but Grant held out his hand.

“Wait,” He whispered.

Vraska frowned at him but turned to keep her eye on the nabber, it was desperately poking and grasping at every inch of the circular frame of the door, glancing back now and then to shriek at them in terror before going back to what it was doing. None of them dared move. 

“Let it open it for us,” Grant said quietly and shifted back a step, ready to pounce at a moment’s notice. 

“Might be a boss back there,” Flint warned.

“Probably,” Grant agreed, “Ellie?”

“On it!” She said and held out her warmace, a faint glow blooming off of it and washing over the four of them. He felt strength surge in his muscles and vitality wash through him. He took a deep breath, it was great having a solid buff user in the party. Ahead of them, the nabber finally found whatever it was looking for. It slipped its fingers into a hidden slot and after a second the enormous disk of marble began to move, rolling slowly to the left as the party watched. They glanced at one another just as it scrambled to run through the door.

They watched the door open further, almost enough space, just a few more seconds. He kept his eye on the tiny creature as it made its way further into the room beyond. Something glinting inside. “Go!” He shouted and they charged forward, hopping through the narrow opening and quickly getting into formation. Grant at the head with Vraska at his left. Flint in the middle and Ellie at the back. Every muscle in Grant’s body had tightened, ready for a fight, only to go completely slack when he saw what was in the room.

“Gold…” Ellie breathed.

His jaw fell, his sword nearly slipping out of his hands as he stepped inside. The room was about twenty feet long and seven feet, on the narrow side but not unusual for a dungeon. All but the first few feet at the entrance was completely buried in piles upon piles of gold coins. There had to be thousands of them, The luster of the coins glinted with the faint light of a single flickering light-emitting stone set into the ceiling of the room. He swallowed and took a step forward, following the pile of coins with his eyes to the rear of the room.

A treasure chest sat atop the pile, the nabber scrambling to hide behind it. He could still see the tiny creature’s foot twitching as it couldn’t completely conceal itself behind the large wood and metal box. Grant licked his lips. “Holy shit…” He murmured, “We’re rich!”

Ellie barked out a laugh and Flint whistled loudly, “I wonder what’s in the chest,” He said.

“Round robin as always unless its something useful for one of us in particular,” Vraska said aloud and the others nodded, it was only fair.

“I’ll go grab us a nabber real quick to top it all off,” Grant grunted with a smile and marched across the piles of coins, humming a little to himself. With this much coin he could not only replace his gear with his share but probably buy out a small estate and get out of adventuring for good. Sure he’d only been doing it for a few months, but that didn’t mean he wanted to go around fighting monsters and ‘protecting the realm’. That was just the expectation of the locals. Those same locals who claimed to have summoned him and the hundreds of others from Earth.

Kidnappers, that was the general consensus of most adventurers about the locals, though none of them said it out loud. Dissenting talk got your ass kicked in the capital, or worse.

He readied his weapon, hearing the crunch and clatter of coins shifting beneath his feet and the feet of the others as they moved into position to prevent the sneaky little creature from getting away. He snuck towards the chest, slowly, slowly, he brought the sword up and over his head and lunged, stabbing down hard at the wretched creature on the other side. There was a squawk and a whimper of pain and then he withdrew his weapon, peeking over the side of the chest. “That’s one dead nabber,” He said loud enough for the others to hear.

“Yes!” Vraska shouted, “What’s in its bag?”

Grant reached down and snatched the bag off the creature, he didn’t bother looting the ugly thing. Nabbers never dropped anything worthwhile besides a couple of coppers. He pulled the bag open and reached inside, feeling the strange distortion as his hand moved into a dimensional space. He frowned for a half second before his fingers wrapped around something heavy. He pulled his hand out and examined his prize. 

It was a golden statue, the creature depicted was hauntingly beautiful. It looked vaguely like a woman with long flowing hair and an exotic figure but that’s where the similarities ended. It had two sets of gleaming eyes, two arms outstretched as if beckoning the viewer to join it in an embrace. A third arm wrapped around its abdomen, eerily coiled like a snake. Its hands were long and clawed and it had a crown of horns growing out of its head. It was the most terrifyingly regal looking creature he’d ever seen. He blinked at it and turned to look at Flint who approached, his boots crunching against the coins strewn across the ground. He took it and murmured to himself for a moment before his eyes opened wide, he seemed to be reading a prompt window. He looked down at the object again.

“[Visage of the Great Demon Lord],” He said in a quiet voice.

Grant froze, “That, that is the Great Demon Lord?” He asked, looking down at the nightmarishly beautiful creature.

“Seems so…” Flint breathed, “We gotta get this back to the guild.”

The other two approached, equally excited, “Could you imagine the reward for this kind of information? Nobody knows what she looks like!” Ellie enthused.

“That on top of all this?” Vraska laughed, “We’ll be the wealthiest adventurers in the guild!”

“Still haven’t checked the chest,” Grant said, his expression falling into a frown. He looked down at it uneasily.

Flint frowned, “I know that look, what’s wrong?”

“This is… too easy,” Grant said hesitantly, poking the chest with his sword.

“Chest is probably trapped, yeah, the coins are to get us excited,” Flint said with a nod, “I’ve got this,” He said and knelt next to the chest, holding his hands over the container and closing his eyes. He murmured something to himself, his words coming faster and faster as the faint sensation of mana building in the air accompanied his spell. His expression hardened a little before finally the spell released to the rather anticlimactic sound of a lock clicking open. “Okay we’re good,” He breathed, “That was a tough lock. No trap that I can sense.”

Grant nodded appreciatively at his party member and knelt next to the chest, grabbing the sides of the lid. He took a deep breath and with a single push, he threw the lid open. The party of four peered inside and their mouths opened even wider than when they had found the coins.

“Are those…” Ellie whispered.

“...aspect stones?” Vraska finished for her.

Grant reached in and picked one up.

You meet the requirements to consume this [Aspect Stone of Strength] This Aspect Stone contains incredible strength. Requirements: [None] as per [Spark of the Outsider] Would you like to consume this Aspect Stone and gain access to the Strength Aspect Tree?  Yes / No

 

He blinked, “It’s… it’s really an aspect stone. Aspect of Strength,” He breathed, a tremble going through him, “If I use this, I could be a two-star adventurer!”

The others crowded around him, reaching in to take up the other stones, there was a little arguing about who would take each but it seemed like at least one was a half-decent fit for each of them. None of them dared entertain the idea of not using them as soon as they were in a safe place, the only aspect stones on the market back in the capital were of a common rating, the rest were carefully controlled by the Guild.

Grant was getting ready to put his stone in his inventory when his ears picked up on something. A faint scritching sound. He blinked and turned his head, glancing over his shoulder in the direction of the noise. The others were too busy talking excitedly that he couldn’t pick up on it again. He narrowed his eyes, “What was that?” He murmured, but they ignored him. He stood up straight and strode towards the edge of the pile of coins, tilting his head. 

SKRITCH SKRITCH SKRITCH

There it was again, what was that? He stopped right above the source, it was noisy now. He looked up at the ceiling but saw nothing. He looked down at his feet. A single gold coin sat there between his feet. 

SKRITCH SKRITCH SKRITCH

The coin moved.

He felt his blood run cold.

SKRITCHSKRITCHSKRITCHSKRITCHSKRITCH

He whipped his head towards his party, smiles on their faces, and looked down at the coins starting to move at their feet. Terror nearly staunched the words in his throat before he managed to croak out a sound. They turned to him, “Run.” He managed before willing the desperation into his voice, “Fucking run!” He shouted.

It was too late.

The sound of thousands of tiny wings erupted into the room. Tens of thousands of tiny eyes opened, razor sharp teeth bared, as a cloud of gold exploded around the party. Ellie screamed, Vraska cursed, he heard Flint try to cast a spell only to choke. He spotted the mage grasping at his throat as golden creatures crawled into his mouth. Grant felt something bite his neck as he swung his sword in a wide arc, “Get offa me!” He shouted, reaching up to pull the horrible thing off of his neck and spotted acid dribbling from its mandibles.

“God damn it…” Was all he could whimper as he looked up at the cloud of golden death that bore down on him.

You have died! Activating Psychological Protections… Success! You have expended a respawn! All attribute progress trackers have been reset to 0%! All equipment and stored items will be restored to you. Returning to your respawn point in… 5… 4…