WilburWoods
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Chapter 20 - Dungeon Crawlers
🕑 Added 2023-09-10 19:32:20 +0000 UTC“I like it when you give your stick to me,” Kat said as she took the ‘flashlight’ Logan had made from an [Enchanted] piece of wood.
“Really?” Logan asked. Balmer was snickering at that, so Logan shoved him his flash-stick extra forcefully.
The three of them were moving at the helm of their formation. The gatherers had been left outside with two of the agents to find the rest of them a snack. Logan wasn’t sure if he wanted to return outside anytime soon, but at least the agents behind him would hopefully leave soon.
Not only because they were dumb goons, but because the faster they found some Numa, the better.
Logan had been exceedingly lucky with that room he had been trapped in. They quickly found similar rooms, but the floating crystal constructs were spent.
They checked room after room in the corridors roped with blue light. Logan tried using [Funnel] on them immediately upon arrival, but it didn’t work. Tumor figured they were insulated by some spell.
The agents stormed into room after room with experienced precision, as Logan stood by the doorways, ready to throw the scythe-rang at anything hostile. They found nothing that was living or moving, except for something strange.
In the fifth room they entered, they all noticed a score of tiny blue beetles scuttling around the ground. They glowed with the distinct hue of Numa. When their group entered the room, the insects scattered and vanished into who knows what crack in the wall.
Nobody made a comment on the bugs, but they certainly piqued Logan’s interest. To the chagrin of the agents, Logan wanted to scuffle around in the room, crawling and crouching on the smooth stone floors for a long while, while the agents and Kat made whispered allusions to the possibility that Logan had finally lost it.
These bugs could hold an insane amount of potential, if they could be harvested. Why were they here and not in the other rooms?
Logan found his answer eventually. On the floor were the faintest shards of glowing blue. Logan picked one of the three up.
[F-grade Numa Crystal, 17%]
All three of the crystals had a menial charge left. But they were a promising start. At least the ruins or the dungeon, however you’d want to call it, wasn’t completely cleaned.
Were the bugs eating these?
“I found some Numa,” Logan told them. His voice echoed far into the distance of the dark corridors.
“Enough?” The dark haired goon asked.
“Not even close,” Logan muttered.
Not that it’s a waste, but boy is it going to take a decent chunk of Numa to even make one proper spear for these goons. I need to [Transmute] to shape a stick, [Enchant] it with sharpness and durability at the least. Using [Empower] would be a waste, since they couldn’t charge the sticks later. At least a couple of full-charge [F-grade Numa Crystals] are needed.
There were no further bugs to be seen, but the seventh room they stormed had three of those floating Numa-constructs. Two of them empty, one of them left with the faintest charge. Logan rushed to inspect it.
[D-grade Numa Crystal, 15%]
“Yes!” Logan hissed. “This is enough.”
“That doesn’t look like much,” Kat said as she came to stand next to Logan.
“It’s a high grade crystal,” Logan said. “Look.”
“That’s enough?” Balmer asked as he brushed past Logan to take a look at the crystal.
Logan scoffed. “For a few sharp sticks?”
Then he turned to the agents who were standing by the doorway. “I need you big boys to go gather some nice looking sticks and stones, so I can make your toys.”
The dark haired agent made a face. “Why didn’t you just have us bring the stuff here in the first place?”
Logan brought a hand over his mouth in mock shock. “Oh no! I must have forgotten.”
*
With the disgruntled agents gone, Logan was left with Balmer and Kat in the room. Not exactly his ideal company, but Kat seemed chill enough.
“You guys gonna just sit around and wait?” She asked as she peeked out of the room.
“That is what we agreed on,” Balmer said.
Kat stuck out her tongue. “Boring! Come on. Let’s go find some of those bugs Logan liked. You know you’re hot, but being interested in bugs is gross, you know?”
“Hey, if it stops you from sexually harassing me, let’s go and find some bugs.”
“It probably won’t,” Kat said. “But you can try.”
“Hey!” Balmer said, miff lacing his voice. “We agreed to wait here.”
“It will take them at least half an hour to get back if they don’t get lost.”
“Every one of us highly trained with memorization techniques that—”
“Bored,” Kat said as he walked out of the door, Logan at her heels. “You coming, Straight-lace?”
After a few paces, Logan and Kat were joined by a muttering agent Balmer. Logan smirked to himself. Kat was doing a good job of doing the heavy lifting of annoying the young goon. It was important that someone did it, so that he could focus on paying attention.
Kat and Balmer bickered in clipped tones as they checked two more rooms. They came up empty. They were just about to turn a corner, before they heard a strange sound.
A low, rumbling gurgle echoed through the dark corridors. A faint bubbling sound followed it. It seemed to be coming closer, followed by echoes of clickity scuttling. Logan immediately became more alert and directed his light-stick in the direction of the sound. He made a hand gesture to stop his two companions.
The clicking didn’t sound like the scythe-fiends, but there was something ominous about it. While the screeching horrors had been very straightforward and violent, this was something else.
The feeling he got was dangerous. His companions had grown silent. They sensed it too. Something had noticed them and it saw them as prey. The scuttling was heard from a different direction this time. Closer now.
“Back up,” Logan hissed.
Kat and Balmer didn’t hesitate or try to play brave. Logan heard they started to take sharp backsteps.
The scuttling and gurgling was fast and urgent. Whatever was coming, was almost upon them.
“Run!” Logan yelled “Inside a room!”
They all went into a full sprint and dashed inside the room. Whatever hunted them was done playing coy. The gurgling and scuttle was right behind Logan.
He made it into the room and tried to slam the stone door shut. He didn’t make it in time. A monstrous head adorned with a sharp, bulky horn squeezed in. the gurgling and bubbling was angry. The chitinous creature looked around wildly with its black beady eyes. It had a gross hole of a mouth from which it spat something green that hissed on the stone as it landed.
Logan struck it down with a two-handed swing of his scythe-rang. The chitin cracked and the creature went limp, but it soon started to scramble and gurgle again. By then another one of these dog-sized insects squeezed itself into the room over its wounded friend.
Kat screamed fiercely as she smashed a kick into the creature’s side. The creature, resembling a cockroach. A third bug-monster clambered over its comrades and rushed towards Balmer, with its horn ready to impale.
Balmer rolled to his side and plucked his sidearm in one swift, smooth motion. The gunshots made the whole room echo. Logan and Kat gasped in pain and shock, but the bugs hated it too.
Logan yanked his scythe-rang from the crack in one of the bugs’s chitin and took distance. Ignoring pain and hurt, the bug with a cracked chitin gurgled and charged towards Logan with horn extended. Logan threw the scythe-rang, but it bounced off the carapace. Logan dodged the charge and tumbled into a corner. The insect-creature charged again.
This time it pinned Logan against the wall. The scythe-rang returned towards Logan, but it bounced off the chitin and clattered two feet away from his reach. Logan tried pushing the creature away with his hands as it tried to bite him. The green acidic saliva fell on Logan’s feet. In panic, Logan tried to scramble away. Fortunately his enchanted socks didn’t get burnt through.
“Shield!”
A blue translucent umbrella of energy flowered around Logan’s arm. It blasted the creature a few feet away. It landed on its back. Logan immediately surged to pick up his weapon. The monster’s legs were flailing around trying to find purchase as it was lolling back and forth on its back, gurgling urgently.
Logan gave it no quarter. He struck down with another two-handed swing of his weapon. The tissue was soft on the bug’s underbelly and black blood sprayed everywhere, coating Logan in an oily smell.
Logan paid no heed. He charged towards his comrades to finish off the threat.
