Warbreaker's Risk: A LitRPG Apocalypse Adventure (The Connected System Book 2), page 37
Something slammed into the bear, knocking it to the side.
Brian slammed the rough-looking club into the bear, his great strength knocking it back.
Loch pushed himself up, quickly scanning for Onyx. He couldn’t see the weapon. He’d learned that he could summon it back if he had a line of sight on it. He didn’t.
Activating Bulwark, growing the spikes from the shield, Loch rushed at the bear. The spikes stabbed into the monster, causing it to roar. Loch’s momentum pushed them in deep, the flat of the shield hitting the bear’s underside. Setting his feet, Loch pulled the shield out, slamming it in again, spikes making new holes.
The bear fell to the side, knocked over by Brian’s swing.
Harper skipped out of the shadows, tonfas stabbing into its head.
The body gave one last spasm before even the breathing stopped.
Loch and Brian stepped back as a cloud of multi-colored sparks floated out of the bear, swirling around the room. He could see other clouds coming from the three other corpses. Streams of color zoomed around the room, different amounts from the bears floating into each of the party members.
He felt the rush of Spirit entering his body, filling his Core and his advancement.
The monster bears had been tagged as ‘sickly.’ Loch had seen nothing sickly about them. They had been tough. Which meant the ones going forward would be tougher.
“The bodies are disappearing,” Julia said, surprised.
Loch looked around, seeing all the bodies fading, small piles of Resources left behind. He could see thick bear hides and claws.
“It’s a Dungeon,” Loch explained. “Everything is made of pure Spirit. It gets returned to the Dungeoncore when they’re killed.”
“Wish it did that outside,” Brian grumbled, bending down to examine the bear hide. The elder’s hide had streaks of gray through it. “Pain in the ass to get rid of the bodies.”
“I don’t understand any of this,” Julia said, walking closer to the group.
Piper was going from pile to pile, collecting the Resources and putting them in her spatial bag.
“Just go with it,” Loch said. “It’s easier.”
Julia laughed.
He walked around the cave until he found Onyx. It had slid almost to the far wall. He could see piles of bones thrown loosely around the cavern floor, some in small piles, but most wherever the bears had chewed on the animal. Dungeons were great at adding the small touches that made it all seem so real.
The part of the cavern that had been hidden from them wasn’t much, just a growth off the side hiding the opening to the next tunnel. Onyx in hand, Loch walked over to the tunnel. It was more of the same, the moss lining the walls providing light, rough stone for the walls and ceiling. A naturally made tunnel.
Loch wondered if there were dwarves in the Connection. Elves were real, why not dwarves? Were the real dwarves anything like the ones in pop culture? Did they mine and live in the mountains? He hadn’t seen enough of the elves to know if they matched their pop culture versions either.
They should, if those races had been the basis for the ones in all manner of pop culture.
“Everyone good?” he asked, not taking his eyes off the tunnel.
He got a chorus of assents, a very reluctant one from Julia.
“Harper, take the point.”
Chapter Forty
The troglodyte fell backward, a great gash across its light-brown chest. Its club fell from its hand as it hit the hard ground. The monstrous humanoid didn’t get up. Loch turned, looking for others.
His party was spread out across the cavern, facing off against the troglodytes. Brian was keeping two at bay with his club, wood thwacking against wood or flesh. The two were stuck between stalagmites, limiting their mobility and allowing Brian to control the fight. Piper and Julia had their backs to the wall, throwing their ranged Abilities at another two troglodytes. Piper’s ink summon, a giant bear, was tanking the two monsters.
Another was working its way around the side of the inkbear, looking to flank Piper.
Loch threw Onyx, activating Windstep.
The axe slammed into the troglodyte, knocking it to the side, then Loch appeared in front of it. Onyx reappeared, and Loch swung the axe down but the monster blocked the swing.
Surprisingly, it was much stronger than Loch.
The monsters were hunched with short bent legs and long thin arms that hung almost to the ground. Their hunched bodies were tall, the short necks supporting a wide head with a long face and thick bone-like brow. Stringy black hair hung past their shoulders, the thick skin a light brown. They wore bear-hide loin clothes, carrying thick wooden clubs. Loch thought the smaller ones were the females, but he really didn’t know. They were all taller than him, and even Brian, the shortest standing at seven feet.
Their arms and bodies looked thin, but they were very strong, swinging their clubs with force.
Loch had been surprised to find humanoids in the cave system.
The Dungeon, so far, had been a series of caverns separated by tunnels without any traps. Each cavern was bigger, holding one or two more bears. Evaluate didn’t show any of them as Corrupted, just sickly. Even the troglodytes had the sickly tag. The troglodytes had been making noise as they approached the fourth cavern. More hoots and grunts than actual language. Loch had the party watch the humanoids, eight of them, for a while before coming up with a plan of attack. Though larger, the troglodytes didn’t seem to behave any differently from the hobs, making it easier to plan.
And like any plan, it only lasted until the first club was swung.
The troglodytes weren’t as smart as the hobs, but they were stronger and faster.
Loch struggled against the troglodyte, the monster pushing up against Loch’s downward swing. It was stronger than he was, slowly forcing Onyx up. So Loch let it.
He pulled the weapon up, jumping back a couple of feet. Before the troglodyte could stand up, Loch swung Onyx in a wide swing in front of him and activated Thunderclap. The air in front of Onyx’s swing became a wave of pressure, slamming into the troglodyte. It fell back to the ground, not moving. The Ability’s stun effect had hit.
Running forward, Loch swung Onyx’s hammerhead down. It slammed into the troglodyte’s chest, bone cracking and organs pulping. He lifted the weapon, rotating it and swung the axe head down, cutting through spine, severing the troglodyte’s head.
Loch quickly turned around, looking for who needed help. Piper’s inkbear had finished off the troglodyte it was facing, with Piper and Julia’s help. Healers were typically low on offensive spells, at least in the games that Loch had played with all evidence pointing to the same in the Connected System. Being only Level Five, Julia wouldn’t have many Abilities. Aside from her healing Ability, she did have an offensive one called Painful Rip. It was the opposite of her Battle Mender healing, causing damage by tearing wounds in the target with a damage over time effect.
Loch had seen the effect on a bear, it was not pretty.
With the two safe, Loch turned his attention to Brian.
Who was finishing up his fight. Harper was with him. She had appeared behind the two troglodytes, stabbing through one with her tonfas. The other had been distracted, opening it up for Brian. Now one on one, Harper and Brian made short work of the monsters.
YOU HAVE SLAIN A LEVEL 10 SICKLY TROGLODYTE CAVE SMASHER.
Sparks of multi-colored lights danced and flowed around the large cavern, seeking out and entering the Connected that had done damage to each of the troglodytes. Loch felt the surge of Spirit enter his body, growing his Core.
Why the multi-colors, he wondered, watching the sparks. Each was only the size of a golf ball, perfectly round, surrounded by a halo of energy. What did the colors represent? It wasn’t random, he was sure of that. Nothing in the Connected System was random. Cerie would know, but he had more important questions for her.
His list was getting very long.
There just wasn’t time.
He was getting tired of constantly being on the go. A day off was needed, but he doubted he’d get one anytime soon. He needed a day with just the girls, where they didn’t need to worry about monsters or other survivors. A chance for them to really talk about everything that had happened.
Talk about Kelly.
There just hadn’t been time to process everything, to talk about what could have happened to Kelly. Loch didn’t want to think about it or acknowledge the possibility because that would make it almost real, but they had to talk about what it meant if Kelly was dead.
And what it meant if she was missing.
The world was a large place, and it was physically getting larger every day. Without any clues about where Kelly could have disappeared to, where would they begin looking for her? Loch wanted to find her, but he knew searching was hopeless.
It was easier for Kelly to come to them.
Which was the main reason he wanted to establish a base of operations in Northwood and grow the survivors’ community. It would give a place for Kelly to return to.
The sparks faded, the last of them absorbed into the party’s Adapted bodies. Loch felt the rush of energy fade. He took a deep breath, letting the euphoric feeling go. He didn’t want to hold onto it, didn’t want to chase that feeling. He knew that was a dangerous path to go down.
Loch looked around the cavern. It was long and not that wide, the floor dotted with stalagmites. They had fought the troglodytes in the front half, the back half with less of the rocky formations. It was where the creatures had made their homes. If it could be called that.
He walked that way, letting the others sift through the Resources that had been left behind. He wasn’t expecting much. It didn’t look like the troglodytes believed in physical possessions.
There were a half dozen mats made of bear fur lying on the ground. More piles of bear fur piled next to them. Small animal bones littered the ground. Thick tree branches lay near a flat stone, with sharp-edged shaped stones to be used for future clubs. The smell of rotting flesh drifted through the cavern.
With the fighting, Loch hadn’t noticed it, but now it assaulted his senses.
It was putrid. He stopped walking toward the mounds of bear furs, not able to figure out where the smell was coming from. The furs had been of interest, but not anymore. The group had been harvesting some of the glowing moss everywhere they went, but not here. It could stay. The smell was that bad.
And it wasn’t just rotting food. Feces.
He quickly looked for the next tunnel, finding it just before the first of the fur mats. It was thinner than the others, more of a crack in the wall.
“There’s something here,” Julia said, coming to stand next to him.
“Don’t smell,” Loch warned her. “You don’t want to know what is here.”
“Too late for that,” she said, face scrunching at the smell. “But I mean something beyond the smell. I don’t know how I know, but…” She trailed off, taking a step beyond Loch, turning to look around the rear of the cavern.
She continued forward, Loch started to reach out to stop her but held back. She was focused on something, stepping around the piles of fur. One hand had reached up, pinching her nose. Julia was looking down at her feet, making sure she wasn’t stepping in any of the unusual piles of unknown substances. She stopped at the back wall, crouching down.
“Lochlan.”
He sighed, not wanting to follow her but knowing he had to.
He reached up, pinching his nose.
He knew it really wouldn’t make a difference, but at that point, with that smell, he’d be happy with even a placebo.
There was a small pool of water at the back of the cavern. Maybe three feet wide, four or five feet long, the surface a couple of inches below the floor. The water was very still with a slimy film covering the surface.
It reminded Loch of pictures he’d seen of oil spills in the ocean.
It also smelled overpowering, pushing all the other horrid odors away.
“There’s a strange feel to this,” Julia said, holding a hand over the surface, a few inches away, being careful not to touch.
She had her other hand hard against the ground, bracing herself so there was no chance of falling in. Loch didn’t blame her. He had no desire to ever touch that water.
“Did the troglodytes fill it and just let the water stagnate?” he asked.
“I think it’s fed from further in the caves.” Julia pointed to a small ripple near the cavern wall. It was a very small trickle, not enough to move the rest of the water.
“If they and the bears had been drinking from this, no wonder they’re sickly.”
“Yeah. This could be part of the reason this place is corrupted.”
The two stood, quickly walking away from the pool of water. They moved carefully around the piles of fur, mats, and disgusting refuse. If it wasn’t the pool, just the way the troglodytes lived would cause anything to be sickly.
Loch paused at a pile of furs.
The bear hide was ripped and torn, looking more like strips barely held together. Mold grew around the edges.
Even if it hadn’t smelled or been rotting, the hide wasn’t worth taking.
He rejoined the others by the crack in the wall.
It wasn’t wide. Brian would have a hard time fitting through. He’d have to turn sideways. What Loch could see, which wasn’t deep into the tunnel, there might be a spot where Brian would have a hard time. The crack twisted at a sharp angle.
“Harp, ready to go?”
“Yeah.”
She didn’t hesitate, stepping into the crack. It was plenty wide for her.
“Brian, you’re next.”
It was a change in their normal order, but the large man understood. If he got wedged, Loch could push from this side.
Brian made it through with minimal damage.
His shirt was ripped, blood staining the fabric. The sharp stones had cut into his skin, Julia casting heal on him. He hadn’t said a word, ready to keep going, but Piper had spotted the blood.
If he’d been wearing armor, he wouldn’t have been cut, but then he wouldn’t have made it through. It had been tight, with a couple of spots only having an inch or two of clearance.
The shirt wasn’t in bad shape. There were only three rips, which with the state of all their clothing, that made it still good. It had been a new shirt from his personal supplies back at the camp. After getting back from the trek to the hardware store, Brian burned his old shirt and put on the new one. Loch hoped he had plenty of extras, there wasn’t anyone of Brian’s size in the camp.
The new cavern was the largest yet, with floors and walls made of square stone blocks. The ceiling was still naturally formed, rough with stalactites hanging five or more feet down. Columns stood in the four corners, set off from the walls.
“I wasn’t expecting this,” Julia said.
Harper was a few feet ahead, eyes looking down at the ground, occasionally looking up or to the side. When her head was raised, Loch saw that her eyes had turned gray. The indication that she was using Shadow Sense to search for hidden traps.
To the right was an arched opening with square blocks lining the edge and a large keystone at the top. Steel brackets, that might have once held torches, lined the walls. The moss had grown into the room, spreading out along the block walls, casting their glow into the space. More moss around the columns provided enough light for the center of the room to be lit.
The room was empty.
Loch didn’t trust it.
The room appearing to be empty was a better assessment.
“Pipes. Let’s update the map.”
She nodded, reaching into the pouch hanging off her shoulder. She pulled out a notebook and some pencils, not her magical sketchbook and pencils but normal ones that Loch had found in the office of the church. She flipped through the pages, found the latest room, and started sketching in the last bit of the tunnel and the new room.
Loch had decided to map out the Dungeon. Cerie had said that the monsters inside could vary a little, in Levels and quantities mostly, but the layout rarely ever changed. If that was true, Loch wanted to map out the Dungeon, making it easier for future parties.
He’d have those parties keep track of the monsters they faced and a rough idea of Levels and what Resources were dropped. All that would be compiled in a log. The hope was that they’d get a good idea of what to expect and what Levels produced the best results.
Loch couldn’t take credit for the idea of the log, but that was Ed Turner’s brainstorm.
The map wasn’t fancy, just a sketch, with Loch adding notes and adjusting what Piper drew.
They took a couple of minutes to make sure they got the layout right before putting the notebook away.
“Let’s take this slow,” Loch said, motioning for Harper to move forward.
Chapter Forty-One
Loch watched his oldest daughter step away from the rest of the party. Julia was next to him, healing spell ready if needed. Loch hoped and prayed it wouldn’t be.
He hated this part of it.
He put on a brave face and gave Harper the responsibility of checking for traps and being the first one to possibly face danger. With Windstep, he could be at her side quickly if need be, but it was still painful to let her go.
She was fifteen.
She should have been talking with her friends about boys, working, playing sports. Anything but scouting out a dangerous Dungeon.
But her Abilities made her the best qualified for it.
Most of Loch’s entire being wanted to scream at her to get back, to hide behind him, to let him protect her. The practical side of him, and he was hating that side, knew that he couldn’t do that.
Harper had to grow, survive, and thrive as a Connected. The same as he did.
The same as Piper had to.
Knowing that she had to be the one didn’t make it any easier.
It made it harder.
The rest of Loch’s being was screaming at his practical side.
