Rune Seeker

Hiral stepped out of the portal behind Seena, a pack over his shoulder, and into the room with the Quillback corpses to find Seeyela and her party already waiting for them.

“What took you so long?” Seeyela asked, looking up from similar packs arranged neatly on the floor. She was obviously relieved to see her sister in one piece. “And what happened to Yanily’s head?”

“Figured it’d be easier than dealing with wet hair in all that rain,” Yanily said, one hand running across the smooth skin of his scalp and his spear gesturing toward the exit.

“Troblin Duke burned him,” Seena said more seriously. “How’d you do? Any troubles?”

“The duke was a beast,” Seeyela said, “but we managed to take him down without anybody losing their hair. Did you manage to stop the summoning ritual or whatever it was called? We took a wrong turn, so we didn’t get there in time.”

“We got through it with a minute to spare. What did it summon?”

“Some kind of giant, winged purple smoke monster that took up the entire platform. It couldn’t move from there, but it harassed us the rest of the time by throwing these balls of smoke that made it feel like we were walking through mud. Burned like a weak acid too.”

“That sounds like a pain in the ass,” Seena said.

“Was… until I figured out my Gravity Wells could intercept them if I put one between us and the platform. Went a lot more smoothly after that,” Seeyela said.

“He nicked Picoli pretty badly with that cleaver of his, and Balyo got caught by the fire trap,” Seeyela started.

“Don’t stand in fire,” Vix said to Balyo, and she just rolled her eyes.

“But again, Gravity Well took care of the smoke,” Seeyela finished as if she hadn’t been interrupted. “Once we could see the Butcher, things didn’t go so well for him.”

“That ability is wildly unfair,” Yanily said.

“Can’t disagree,” Seeyela said with a chuckle. “And it’s even better with one of the achievements I got—and this staff.” She held up a staff somewhat similar to Yanily’s spear. Charred-wood haft, but instead of a purple blade on the end, it had a crystal with purple flames dancing within.

“We should compare notes before we go back in again,” Seena said. “There’s a trick to the summoning ritual.”

“Aw, you don’t have to tell her,” Yanily said. “They might beat our clear time.”

“I’d rather that than my sister getting killed,” Seena deadpanned.

“Fair,” Yanily admitted, walking over to Balyo and the spear she was holding beside her. “Hey, what you got there?”

“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” she said, holding out a spear with a sky-blue haft and a blade that looked like a lightning bolt. It even had arcs of electricity dancing across the metal, but somehow Yanily’s eyes were locked on the woman.

“I thought you’d never ask,” he said, then glanced around the room. “But, maybe we should find somewhere a bit more private? We’ve got these tents…”

Balyo cuffed Yanily across his shiny scalp with an echoing fwap. “I meant the spears!”

“Oh. Yeah,” Yanily said, rubbing at his head. “Totally what I was talking about too. Take a look at this…”

Hiral shook his head and focused back on the others. Fitch, despite the glare he was still throwing in Hiral’s direction, had a new sword, vines like a bramblebush in place of a crosspiece. Lonil had a primal-looking stone club beside him, while Cal was shining a simple metal rod. That just left Picoli leaning on a new staff, the head of it blurring like something was there, but out of focus.

Oh, that hurts to look at. Hiral turned away, hands rubbing at his eyes. Still, it looks like everybody left with a new piece of equipment. I wonder how strong it all is.

“…your thoughts?” Seena was asking her sister as Hiral tuned back in.

“Probably the same as you,” Seeyela said. “We clear this dungeon twice more for experience and practice, then move on to finding—what did they call those other two places?”

“The Mire and TheTroblin Throne,” Hiral filled in.

“Well, if this place had the Eloquent Duke, how much you wanna bet we’ll find the Kinky King at the throne?” Yanily asked.

“Keep your fetishes out of the dungeons,” Vix said.

“Isn’t that exactly where they’re supposed to be?” Yanily asked, his face far too neutral.

“Back on point, you two,” Seena said. “I agree with my sister, though. Let’s use this place as a chance to improve ourselves. If this was Mid-E-Rank, and this difficult, we need to be better prepared for the next two dungeons.”

“Do we really even need to clear them?” Cal asked, joining Seeyela and Seena. “I mean, why don’t we just stay here? We’ve got some food from the dungeon, we’re out of the rain. Why do we have to go to the other dungeons?”

“Cal has a point,” Lonil said. “Don’t get me wrong—I’ll go wherever you say we should, Seeyela, but we’re safe here. Why don’t we just at least consider staying here until the islands come around again?”

“Do you actually think we’re safe here?” Wule asked, looking around the room still full of bloody and broken Quillback bodies.

“C’mon, Wule, we know what happened to the Quillbacks, and those people are gone,” Lonil said. “They returned to Fallen Reach after making sure to strand us down here.”

“Bastards,” Fitch said, and the look he gave Hiral made sure who he included in that statement.

“I’m not talking about the Islanders,” Wule said. “You all know it as well as I do—nobody who stays on the surface survives. And you can’t possibly tell me we’re the first people ever to think about staying here, in this cave.”

“And there is the issue of the Enemy Dr. Benza mentioned,” Hiral added. “He seemed to make it pretty clear the only safe place from them… him… her… whoever or whatever they are, was the Asylum. If we continue on Wule’s train of thought, that Asylum could be the differentiating factor.”

“Differentiating? Look at you, using all those big words,” Yanily said. “But, jokes aside, I agree with Hiral.”

“You just want more dungeons and more experience,” Balyo said.

“Damn straight I do. Didn’t you all notice we got bonus experience for clearing the dungeon? And we can get that eight more times. I’ll be level twenty in no time! Do you know how long it would take to get to D-Rank without these dungeons? Years.”

“I think you’re the closest to twenty from our party,” Seena said. “You think you’ll get it after running this dungeon twice more? The interface had an evolution option to get to D-Rank. Could be useful to use it before we move on, if that’s what we decide to do.”

“I think I’ll be a bit short, unless we change up what we do next time we go in,” Yanily said. “We’d have to find a lot more Troblins to kill for me to hit twenty otherwise.”

“And we still haven’t decided if we’re moving on,” Cal said. “Sure, there’s the issue of this mysterious Enemy, but do we even know if it’s still around? Or, at least, if it’s still around here?”

“Waiting here would mean we’d need to survive for a full rotation,” Nivian said. “We came back to this dungeon partially because we thought we might be able to stay in there. We can’t. Sure, we can clear out this cave, and we got some food and other supplies from clearing the dungeon. Maybe we’ll even get more the next time we clear it, but it won’t be enough to last the whole time.

“One way or another, we’re going back out in the rain.”

“We know this area,” Balyo said. “We know where we can find food.”

“And those Horny Tree Lizards?” Yanily asked.

“Horned… not horny…” Vix said. “At least… I hope not. The surface is terrifying.”

“Horned… or horny… lizards, Yanily actually has a point,” Seena said. “We knew the area, before the rains arrived. Already we’ve dealt with lizards we’ve never seen and Troblins using buffs outside of the dungeon. Before yesterday, can any of you tell me even one time either of those things happened?”

The Growers all looked at each other, but none of them immediately spoke up.

“We don’t know if it’s connected,” Cal said, but even she didn’t have any certainty in her voice.

“I think we can safely assume it is, Caleon,” Seeyela said.

“Wouldn’t that just be another reason we shouldn’t go?” Cal asked. “You said it yourself—we don’t know what’s out there. Here… we know what’s here. And the islands pass close, so we can get home as soon as they come around again.”

“Assuming those lizards—or something worse—don’t find their way in here,” Wule said. “We know Troblins and some of the monsters we’ve seen around the other dungeons wouldn’t come into these entry areas, but that doesn’t mean the lizards won’t.”

“Or the Enemy,” Hiral reiterated.

“Enough with this Enemy shit,” Fitch said. “We don’t know if it’s real, or if we can even trust this Dr. Benza. For all we know, these… these images of him could be from so far in the past the Enemy is nothing more than dust now.”

“I’m sure it’s real,” Hiral said. “And I’m sure we should worry about it.”

“How can you be sure?” Fitch asked.

“Do you think Fallen Reach occurred naturally? Somebody built an entire floating island, more than thirty miles long, not counting your Grower islands. Why do you think they did that? To get a better suntan?” Hiral wasn’t quite able to keep his sarcasm in check. “No. They built it to escape something. This Enemy would be my guess as to what that something is.

“And if it’s powerful enough to scare a civilization capable of creating Fallen Reach, well, I think we should be scared too. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather assume it’s still around and be careful than assume it’s not and regret it.”

“And your suggestion is…?” Seena prompted.

“To clear all three dungeons and unlock this Asylum place. Maybe we’ll find safety there, like Dr. Benza was saying. And we might even get some answers.”

“Look, I get it, going out there isn’t safe,” Seena added, coming over to stand beside Hiral. “But neither is staying here. If we move and clear the other dungeons, not only do we open the Asylum, but we also get stronger along the way. More capable to protect ourselves. That, at least, is a guarantee.”

“You know we’re with you, boss,” Nivian said, turning his attention to Seeyela and her party.

“We’ll take a vote,” Seeyela said to her people. “Decide whether you think it would be better to try and stick it out here, or go with Seena’s party. But! We aren’t going to take the vote now. I want everybody to think about it good and hard before making the decision.”

“When will we vote?” Balyo asked.

“After we clear the dungeon twice more,” Seeyela said.

“And before that,” Seena spoke up, looking right at Yanily, “we’re going to talk about our new abilities and how we can improve on our last run. Don’t expect to go back in today, and maybe not even tomorrow.

“We’ve got some training to do.”

“But first,” Yanily interrupted, “we get buffs for eating now. So, what’s for dinner?”