Nick Smith

Adventurer Level: 11

Human – American

"How long do you think we've been in here?" I asked Yulk.

"Relative to us or the outside?" he replied.

"There ain't no real way of knowin' either way," Garin said. "Even if we had a timekeeper, it would be useless."

"The dungeon's temporal anomaly can result in a few extra days on the outside, depending on how long your dive was," Dosten added. "I've also heard of the opposite occurring, but that could just be rumors."

"They say that time flies when you're having fun," Nifth chuckled as he retrieved an arrow.

I sighed and finished cleaning my blade. We'd cleared the bugs, the bots, the goblins, the harpies, the sauroids, and the hollows thus far. Garin had been on edge the entire time we were fighting the hollows, even though they were actually pretty easy thanks to my Steel Bullet spell. Guess anyone can have a phobia.

We'd come a long way. This part of the dungeon had been a surprise to Dosten and Yulk, though, which had been a surprise to the rest of us. The monsters here were weirdly mutated sacks of flesh, like straight out of a Cronenberg-themed survival game. A hard one, too, because they didn't go down easy.

The monsters bled, though, and that seemed to be the only way to actually take them down. Most of them didn't even have heads, and on the rare occasion that they did, destroying it didn't seem to slow them down at all. So, we'd taken to cutting into them and hoping that they bleed out before injuring us too badly.

Yulk, Larie, and Dosten had been experimenting with various spells to see which ones took them down the fastest. I found that the ones that summoned pointy things had the best effect, so I'd been using Ice Javelins and Rock Spears because they used less magic than the bullet spells.

Garin had been giving Kirea plenty to do, because he'd been getting his ass kicked. His hammer wasn't nearly as impactful, pun intended, as my sword was. But it kept the creatures away from our rear, so it wasn't like he could pull back.

"These things are gross," Kirea said, staring at one of the beasts. "Way worse than the bugs."

I couldn't help but agree. It was like someone had turned a bunch of people into putty and haphazardly smushed them together. But the identifiable body parts were... Wrong.

Hands were too long and feet were too short. Their skin was too thin in some areas and too thick in others. And the faces, thankfully a rarity, were contorted beyond recognition. One could hardly tell the difference between nostrils and eye sockets.

And I couldn't help but notice that their ears weren't pointed.

"Yeah, but at least there aren't as many as the bugs," Garin shrugged. "And they're not all that strong."

"They're kicking your ass, though," Kirea grumbled.

"Well... I guess I'm not all that strong, either."

Garin winked at her as the rest of us chuckled. He wasn't wrong in that the flesh wasn't any stronger than we were. But they made up for that by having weapons in unexpected places.

Some of, but not all of, their hands had claws instead of fingernails. Their long, prehensile tongues sometimes had spear-tips on their ends or blades along their lengths. Then there were their randomly-placed mouths, which weren't always attached to a head, but always had teeth in them. It felt like every fight was a little different than the one before it.

Then there was the area we were fighting in. To say it was unsettling would be an understatement. The walls of the dungeon were covered in various forms of flesh. Parts of it looked like skin, other parts looked like muscle, and there were even bits that I couldn't identify at all. The colors ranged from bright pink to unnervingly deep blues and purples, with bits of green and brown mixed in.

The flesh on the walls was so mottled and mashed together that it had taken a second to realize what it was. If it weren't for its constant pulsing and the context clues that the monsters provided, I would have thought that it was an over-painted mural of sorts. Actually, it did remind me of a few abstract oil paintings I had seen back home.

Except that the flesh forcefully drew your attention, and if you stared at it for too long...

"There, fuck-wit," Kirea finished healing Garin and smacked him on the back of the head.

I shook my head and wondered how long I had zoned out.

"What did I do?" Garin asked in a hurt voice that I wasn't sure was sincere.

"You've been getting hurt since the moment we broke camp!"

"It's not like they've been serious injuries, though. Scratches, bruises, sprains, I've managed to keep all the sharp bits away from anything vital."

"Even minor wounds add up," Kirea put her hands on her hips.

"Death by a thousand cuts," I muttered.

"Exactly! And my magic core can't keep up. We're going to have to rely on Lord VysImiro until we get another good rest in."

"Oh," Garin deflated a bit.

"Bad news, then. I'm not sure we should rest in this area," Yulk said, staring at the ground.

"Why not?" Larie asked.

"The walls and ceiling appear to be alive and also seem to have a hypnotic effect. Who knows what could happen if we tried sleeping?"

"Ah, I hadn't noticed, likely because I'm resistant to such things," the lich rubbed his chin. "If we can figure out the hypnotic trigger, we should be able to arrange a countermeasure. Failing that, I could guard you whilst you rest."

I glanced around and noticed that Dosten, Nifth, and Garin had all started staring at the walls. Kirea was staring at the floor, though, and hadn't noticed the rest of her party's stupidity.

"Unfortunately, we don't know the full impact of the hypnosis," Yulk continued. "There's a possibility that it has a point-of-no-return. And one must wonder about the purpose of the hypnosis. Is it simply to render intruders immobile whilst the monsters take care of them, or does it have a more nefarious purpose. In the worst case scena-"

I interrupted Yulk with a whistle to snap the three orcs out of their trance. All three of them jumped and turned to look at me.

"Try not to look at the walls," I said.

They mumbled agreement and began to stare at the floor.

"Right," Yulk cleared his throat. "As I was saying, in the worst case scenario, the hypnosis may force us to attempt to harm each other. If that is the case and there's a point-of-no-return, we may end up being forced to kill one another."

"Yet if we do not rest, we will be fatigued when we fight the boss," Larie argued. "And from my understanding, none of you know what the boss of this area is."

"I don't think anyone has run into this place before," Dosten added. "I haven't read about anything like this in any of the records. Which doesn't bode well, actually..."

An area that no one else has found...

That means a boss that no one else has found. Could we really have surpassed the end of the dungeon already? Without even noticing? The hollows had been the last thing we fought, and there hadn't been any secret doors, collapsed walls, or anything else that would have indicated that we'd completed the dungeon. It just continued on like it had for every other area.

If there had been a secret door or something, that would have at least told us why nobody else had gotten this far. The method with which to open such a door may have also provided some context that might have answered some of my other questions. Instead, I was left frustrated by the lack of answers.

Was it the higher ones that opened the way? Is the dungeon somehow able to figure out that I want to clear it? Was it on some sort of timer, and that was the reason that the higher one told us to enter the dungeon before nightfall?

"If we're not going to rest, we should keep moving," I said, trying not to let my mood enter my tone.

With nothing left to say, we continued on our way while keeping our eyes off of the walls and ceiling. It wasn't long before we heard the squishing and slithering sounds that announced more enemies were heading our way. We readied our weapons and met the monstrosities with a tired ferocity.

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I started with an Ice Javelin volley and moved immediately into using Rock Spears. My spells poked holes that allowed monster blood to gush forth and splatter upon the floor. Some of them fell quickly, others continued toward us, seemingly unfazed.

Garin and I greeted the survivors with our weapons whilst Nifth, Dosten, Yulk, and Larie launched their projectiles. I'd found a good rhythm against the monsters. They would attack, I would dodge or parry, then slash at them. Since they were made almost entirely of flesh, they didn't have a way to block my strikes.

In this manner, I disabled one and moved on to another as the first waited to bleed to death. Garin wasn't quite as fortunate, as his hammer struggled to open the flesh that it struck. He had shifted to defensive maneuvers, though, which meant he wasn't going to get as many wounds as he had previously. Hopefully.

The fight was over in a couple of minutes, and the lumps of flesh lay on the dungeon's floor in pools of blood and viscera. I cleaned my blade and quietly wished for a spell that could clean a cloth. Then a thought occurred to me.

"Oh, duh," I grumbled. "I'm a dumbass."

'Your words, not mine,' Ten interjected.

Ignoring the AI's sarcasm, I concentrated on the cloth and imagined the grime separating itself from the fibers. The mental image of several laundry detergent commercials flooded my mind. Then I took a breath in and let it out slowly, channeling my magic as I did so.

"Sehtolc naelc tsac," I whispered.

The nastiness on the cloth flaked off and fell to the floor. I checked my spell list and chuckled a little at how on-the-nose the name of the new spell was. Then I sighed as I read the description.

--

Clean Clothes - Removes undesirable material from cloth. Does not work on anything else.

--

"A new spell?" Yulk asked.

"Yep. It cleans clothes," I replied.

"How?"

"All I had to do was imagine the grime on the cloth separating itself from the fibers, and that unlocked the spell."

Yulk raised an eyebrow, then looked at his trademark brown robe. He frowned, shrugged, and grabbed one of his sleeves. Then he closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment.

"Sehtolc naelc tsac," he said.

What happened next was a shock to everyone present. In fact, it kind of felt like being stabbed in the gut from multiple directions. The spell worked, and what could only be described as a fog of grime fell from Yulk's robe and settled on the dungeon's floor.

His brown robe, which he had been wearing since I first laid eyes on him, was actually white. This revelation left me aghast and everyone else completely speechless. I struggled to find the words to voice the many questions that came to mind.

"It worked!" Yulk said happily.

"Y-yeah, it sure did," Garin managed to say.

"How long have you gone without washing that robe?" I asked in shock.

"The last time I bathed in a river, I think," Yulk replied, rubbing his chin. "This is my only robe, and laundry services always take longer than my hygiene regimen. So I'm left with the choice of going naked for several minutes after bathing while having my robe cleaned, or waiting for the next time I'm roughing it in the wilderness."

"W-well you won't have to make such a difficult decision now that you know that spell," Kirea said, looking as if she was trying not to gag.

"Indeed!"

"L-let's move on," I said.

Leaving both the sickening mess and the monster corpses behind, we continued through the dungeon. After a couple more quick and easy fights the corridor started to widen. We were all tired, but with the threat of hypnosis surrounding us, we had no choice but to proceed.

The corridor continued its expansion until we were in a chamber, much like the others. Some bioluminescent flesh was mingled with the rest of the mass, demonstrating that the walls and ceiling of the chamber were overgrown just like the corridor had been. It suddenly occurred to me that the some of the flesh in the corridor had to have been bioluminescent, too, but I hadn't noticed because of how bright it had been.

In the center of the chamber was a pit, from which squelching sounds, grunts, and squeals were emanating. There was no doubt that the pit was where the boss resided. I silently prayed to whatever god that would listen that we didn't have to go in after it.

"Fuck, this is gross," Garin complained.

"Could be worse," I said, suddenly recalling a certain video game starring a squirrel that I had played as a child.

"How?"

"It could be shit instead of flesh."

"Oh..."

"I wonder if the smell would be as bad," Kirea said, holding her nose.

"Probably worse," Dosten laughed. "I'm ready to fight."

"Same," Nifth said, nocking an arrow.

I nodded, cracked my neck, and stepped toward the pit. Garin followed me tentatively, and with each step that we took the sounds became more frantic. When we got a stone's throw away, air whooshed from the pit, smothering us with the stomach-churning smell of corpses with terrible body-odor.

A split-second later, a string of flesh with a needle-like attachment rushed toward my face. I side-stepped and slashed, slicing the appendage like a hot dog. A gigantic bubble of flesh rose from the pit and began to pulsate erratically.

I had used my Steel Bullet spell on the first flesh-bag we encountered, and it hadn't done much damage at all. Neither did the normal bullet spell. But I held out hope that the ballon-like flesh ball would pop if I shot it.

"Tellub leets tsac!"

The air around the bullet cracked as it launched toward the boss. I held my breath as it hit, then had to dodge several more tentacle-things. Once I dealt with them, I looked back toward the boss and saw the tiny hole I'd left. Blood gushed from it, but the boss remained active.

"Fuck," I grumbled as a much larger tentacle shot toward me.

The thick, fleshy appendage was tipped with a mace made of bone, and it swung at me with whip-like speed. I tried to dodge, but it connected with my flailing left arm. Bones crunched and I fell to the ground.

'On it,' Ten said sarcastically. 'Never mind, your elbow is dislocated. I can treat the pain, but you need to try not to wave it around.

The shooting pain in my arm dulled a bit, and I managed to roll out of the way of the second strike. I got back to my feet as the mace swung at me again, and leapt to the side. I slashed at the appendage and left a deep gash, but didn't quite sever it.

Nevertheless, it retreated toward the blob-boss. I took a moment to catch my breath and watched as spells and arrows struck the thing, leaving holes that gushed blood. Suddenly, Garin hit the floor in front of me.

I stepped toward him and slashed at the tentacle that had sent him flying. My strike connected, leaving one more hole for blood to gush from. Garin, however, was also gushing blood from a slash across his chest.

"LARIE!" I shouted.

The lich came closer to us and muttered something. A moment later, I watched the slash in Garin's chest close and felt my elbow reconnect with a nauseating pop. Garin scrambled to his feet and I nodded a thank you at Larie.

Another couple of pointy tentacles flew at us, but I cut them down.

"Nilevaj eci tsac!" I shouted.

The spears of ice slammed into the blob of flesh, which shuddered and shook them loose. I stepped forward to prepare for its counter attack and nearly slid. The floor was slick with blood.

More spells flew past me, and an eerie screech filled the air. I stood ready for more tentacles, but the boss retreated into its pit. After one final squelch, all was quiet.

We stood still, waiting to see if something else would happen. After a few moments and tense glances at one another, I approached the pit. A glance over the edge showed nothing but darkness.

"Did we win?" Garin asked.

"I don't know," I replied. "But nothing's attacking me, so... Maybe."

Nifth joined me at the pit's edge and sighed.

"How are we supposed to loot that thing?" he asked.

"What would we even WANT to loot from that thing?" Dosten replied as he joined us.

"Everything has a use. We'd just have to find it."

"Yes, but nobody has heard of this boss before. The entire section of the dungeon is completely unknown. Frankly, if we were to loot something from here and take it back to the guild, we would probably have difficulty convincing them of its legitimacy. Let alone the merchants..."

They continued arguing about loot while I stepped away from the pit. I looked across from where we had entered and saw a sight that sent an unexpected chill down my spine. A simple set of double doors.

They were barely visible thanks to the bioluminescent flesh overhead, but even in the dim lighting it was obvious that they weren't of this world. They were too smooth, and the handles were too elegant. But if it weren't for my time in this world I'd never have called them elegant.

They were pretty standard door handles, back home...

"What's confusing is why this section of the dungeon suddenly exists in the first place," Dosten said, interrupting my thoughts. "No records mention any such monstrosities. Obviously, those that died wouldn't be able to make records, but even those that cleared this dungeon didn't come across these."

Dosten's words confirmed what I had thought earlier. We had cleared the dungeon, and had fought a boss that no one else had found. Just as the higher one had foretold. Then I remembered what else it had said.

What came next would be a revelation, then another confrontation. The revelation would come first, and was likely right behind the out-of-place doors. And after that...

We were supposed to run, collapsing the dungeon behind us.

"This is the end of the fighting," I said. "You guys should head back."

"Huh?" Garin asked.

"The dungeon's clear. There's a room back there," I pointed at the doors. "That's what we came here for."

"But what if there's more monsters?"

"There aren't."

"How do you know?"

"Garin," Dosten put a hand on his shoulder.

"Get off me," Garin growled.

The two orcs glared at each other angrily.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. I get it," I sighed. "We've been through a long journey together, and I'm asking you to leave at what seems to be the last stretch of that journey. It probably also feels like I'm keeping something from you, and I am."

"At least you're honest about it," Garin spat on the floor. "So what is it th-"

"No. The fact that I'm keeping something from you isn't the point. You came with us because you felt like you owed us for saving your lives and you'd have been in a really rough financial situation if you didn't retrieve your stuff. Remember, I let you come with us because your help made our journey easier. But from here on we don't need help, and you have stuff you need to sell."

"Oh yeah?" Garin asked, crossing his arms. "And what if what's behind those doors isn't what you think it is? What if you're walking right into some sort of death-trap?"

"We'll run," I replied with a cold, practical tone which took the orc aback. "I have no intention of dying here, and I'm not as stupid as I seem to look. But if running doesn't work and there's death behind those doors, I'd rather die knowing I didn't drag four people into its maws that had no business being there. I know you'd feel the same if you were in my position."

Garin looked like he still wanted to argue with me, but made the mistake of glancing at the rest of his party. Kirea was nervously chewing her bottom lip, obviously unsure of which decision would be best. Nifth and Dosten were both giving Garin the same type of cold stare one would give an insufferable child. This gave the big orc pause, and I took advantage of that.

"Listen, this isn't the last time we'll see each other," I said, reaching up to put a hand on his shoulder. "We might even catch up to you on our way out."

"Okay, fine," he sighed. "Here's what we'll do. We'll go back to the hollow boss room and set up camp. Then we'll wait for you."

"You don't have to-"

"This is the deal, Nick, and it's the only way I'm gonna agree to not coming with you. Now, we'll rest at the camp, then wait until we're tired enough to rest again. When we wake up from that second rest, we're coming back for you whether you like it or not," he said, then turned to his party. "If you'd rather keep heading toward the dungeon entrance, you're more than welcome to. But I feel like we've been fighting alongside these folk long enough to call them friends, and we don't leave friends behind, right?"

"Fuck," Nifth grumbled under his breath.

"Fine," Dosten rolled his eyes.

"Alright, so that's the deal. Take it or leave it," Garin held out his massive hand.

I thought about it for a moment, then realized that this was actually perfect. They'd be out of the way of whatever is coming next, and far enough away that it would give us time to convince them to keep running if we needed to. I grabbed Garin's hand and shook it.

"Deal," I said with a smile.

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