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The Human From a Dungeon 115
🕑 Added 2025-08-04 10:30:30 +0000 UTCChapter 115
Nick Smith
Adventurer Level: 11
Human – American
The dungeon started out far less hectic than I had initially thought it would be. I had imagined that we would be fighting a ton of monsters, but we spent the entire first day just walking, occasionally passing a group of adventurers on their way out. All three groups that we passed did an alarmed double take when they saw Larie, but quickly calmed down when Yulk explained things. We set up a camp with a barrier and I was so exhausted that I slept like a rock.
After a quick breakfast for Yulk and I, we continued our trek. The dungeon's interior changed from dingy stone to a type of polished metal that reflected our lights. This made it much brighter, but also meant that every now and then it would be blinding.
"Never thought that I'd wish for sunglasses in a cave," I muttered, shielding my eyes.
"What are sunglasses?" Larie asked.
"Uh... They're like... Lenses that are held in a frame that fit over your eyes. The lenses are darkened with a film that helps block some light, but not all light, so you can still see."
"We have those," Yulk chuckled. "But only waste-wanderers use them because the face-mask is quite uncomfortable."
"Oh, our sunglasses aren't a mask. Not really. They're this little frame that holds the lenses and fits over your ears and nose... Or the bridge of your nose, rather."
"Well, that also sounds uncomfortable," Larie said. "And quite useless to those of us without noses, ears, or eyes. But it would appear that we have other concerns."
The lich pointed ahead of us, and I turned to see small chunks of the wall come free. Six glimmering shards silently floated toward us and blocked our path. They were shaped like crystals and had a teal light where one might expect their eyes to be.
"Drones," Yulk explained. "It appears that the machines have appeared pretty early in this configuration. That's quite unfortunate."
"Are they tough?" I asked, drawing my sword.
"Yes. If there are parties ahead of us, we may need to rescue them. If they're still alive, of course."
The idea of stumbling across corpses sent a small shiver down my spine. The memory of the feral human we'd encountered was far from fresh, but it had left a lasting impression. We stared at the drones, who shifted their formation slightly.
"Why aren't they attacking?" I whispered.
"Most of the machines won't attack unless you try to bypass or attack them. Perhaps they believe it to be discourteous to strike first," Yulk chuckled and shrugged. "There are some orcanoid ones that will attack on sight, though."
"Orcanoid?"
"Yes, shaped like an orc."
"Ah."
Our staring contest with the drones continued for a moment while I thought about the best way to deal with them. I looked at Yulk and Larie, who seemed to be waiting for me to come to a decision. I didn't know if it was because they had decided that I was the party leader, or if they had already decided what they were going to do and were waiting on my slow ass.
"Do you know how they attack?" I asked.
"They use a beam of light, from exactly where you would imagine," Yulk answered. "They can also move pretty quick, which allows for significant impacts in melee."
"Can we attack one without the others becoming aggravated?"
"Nope."
"Do they know when we're about to attack, or do they wait for the attack to hit?"
"That's a good question," Yulk rubbed his chin. "I usually use Electrical Pulse to halt their movements, then Nash finishes them off with his axe. Doesn't work on the bigger ones, though, so we usually run when we see them."
"Will my sword even cut those things?"
"They're made of glass. I'd use the dull side, if you can."
The basket-guard prevented me from holding the sword in any other position, meaning I would have to swing backward. Not exactly a comfortable attack, but doable. I nodded and readied myself as Yulk raised his hand.
"Eslup lacirtcele tsac!" he shouted.
I expected a crackling of energy or something, but the only way that I could tell that the spell worked was that the drones fell to the ground. Leaping forward, I backhanded my sword into the first drone. It cracked into several pieces, and I lifted a finger at another drone as I continued to move.
"Tellub tsac!"
The bullet landed a direct hit and shattered the drone. Then I used the basket-guard to punch two more. Two arcs of electricity shot past me, making my hair stand on end and destroying the last two drones. I looked back at Yulk and Larie just as they were lowering their hands.
"Did you two cast the same spell at the same time?" I asked.
"I believe so," Larie said.
"Standard lightning spell," Yulk shrugged and chuckled. "Quick and painless... For me, at least."
"I just thought it was cool that you did it in unison," I said, nudging one of the drones with my boot. "Is there anything useful in these?"
"No, just glass. Or crystal, maybe."
"Alright, let's keep going."
The glass from the drones crunched beneath my feet as I pressed on, followed closely by Yulk and Larie. The mirror-like corridor began to feel oppressive as it continued to stretch indefinitely before us. I was beginning to think that the primary danger of this dungeon was boredom and mirages, when we began to hear the sound of running.
We spread out a little and took up defensive stances, but relaxed a bit as a group of orcs emerged from the mirage caused by the multitude of mirrors. Once they became a bit clearer, though, we tensed up again. They were running as fast as they could manage, and the closer they got the more obvious it was that they had been roughed up pretty badly. The largest of the group was carrying someone bridal-style.
"RUN!" the big orc shouted toward us.
"Fuck! That's a lich!" an orc carrying a pole slid to a stop. "We're dead! We're so dead!"
"We're friendly," Yulk raised a hand. "What pursues you?"
"B-bots," big guy panted. "Lots of bots."
"Shit. Well, we can't run, so we'll cover your retreat," I said.
"You'll fucking die, el- Wait, what the fuck are you?"
"That's that human thingie. Uh... Nick, I think," a beaten up archer helpfully added.
"O-oh... Oh yeah!"
"Like the human said, we cannot run," Larie said. "We will not begrudge you your retreat, though. Go."
"There's no way the three of you can hold them off long enough for help to arrive," the big guy said.
"I dunno, Garlin, liches are pretty damn powerful," pole orc replied. "Maybe we should listen to them."
"Arua gnilaeh tsac," Larie held out his hand.
The other party flinched as a barely perceptible blue light enveloped us all. However, a moment later their wounds began to heal. The large gash on big guy's forehead, a cut across pole orc's nose, and a bruise on the archer's jaw disappeared. But before they could react, the sound of rapid, metal footsteps began to fill the corridor.
"Fight or flee, choose now," Larie said sternly.
"Fuck it, I'm fighting," Garlin said, setting down his unconscious friend. "You guys can keep running."
"Fuck!" pole orc shouted, then sighed. "If you fight we have to fight too. "
"No you-"
"Yeah, we do. We aren't Alurn, we don't leave comrades behind."
"How many are there?" I asked as the footsteps grew louder.
"It was an ambush. We didn't get a chance to count. The only reason we got away is because I threw up a pretty thick ice wall. That took a lot out of me, so I don't have much left in the tank as far as magic goes."
"And I dropped my hammer to pick up Ithema," Garlin explained. "But, my fists are nearly as good and I've got some defensive skills."
"Arrows won't normally do much to the bots, but I have a skill that will let me fire a penetrating arrow every fifteen seconds or so," the archer added.
"Okay, everyone with ranged attacks get ready for an initial volley," I said. "Electrical attacks will probably work best, penetrative attacks are your fallback. Leave our center open so Garlin can get through to block for us."
Everyone nodded and moved to make a sort of firing line just as the robots came into view. They weren't running so much as they were marching really quickly. It almost looked like powerwalking.
I had been expecting clunky hunks of metal, but the bots were much more human-looking, or orc-looking, than that. As they drew closer I realized that they even had faces carved into their metallic heads. Their left hand was a blade, about eight inches long, and their right hand looked like the head of a sledge hammer. Not something someone would want to get into a hand-to-hand fight with.
Feeling nervous for Garlin, I stepped forward and raised a finger.
"Tellub tsac."
The bullet formed and fired, striking the nearest robot directly in the chest. It left a dent, but the robot continued marching toward us, completely unperturbed. I swore under my breath as I tried to figure out my next move.
An arrow whistled past me and struck the same robot in the head. It fell to the ground, and the one behind it stepped on it as it continued its march. Then three lightning spells launched forward, dropping three more robots.
I tried to count the remaining ones, but lost count at twelve. Larie launched another lightning spell, but Yulk and the other mage needed a moment to gather their strength. The pole orc's wounds had healed, but his magic obviously hadn't rejuvenated.
"Nilevaj eci!" I shouted, casting Ice Javelin at one of the robots.
Predictably, it shattered against the robot's metal head without doing any damage. Thankfully, an arrow appeared where the ice javelin had struck. I tried to think of what other attack I could do that had penetrating power, but all that came to mind was adding metal to the bullet. Or...
I imagined that instead of a bullet, a small cannonball formed. Then I imagined it firing as fast as the bullet did. With that mental picture in mind, I raised my finger.
"Tellub leets tsac!" I shouted.
A hole appeared between the carved eyes of one of the robots, and I almost jumped for joy. But I also felt that spell take a lot of my magic. I would have to wait for my magic to regenerate between shots. Or faint...
"I'm jumping in!" Garlin shouted.
"Wait!" I said, remembering another spell.
Yulk cast another lightning bolt as I stepped forward and put my hand to the ground.
"Sraeps kcor tsac!"
Eight stone spears suddenly appeared to stab their way through the ground and into some of the bots. Seven of them were taken out of the fight, but one of them only lost their hammer-hand. I did another quick count, nine bots left.
"Okay, keep them back," I said.
The nine remaining bots navigated their way around the spears as Garin sped past me. His fist slammed into the one-armed robot's head hard enough to force it to stumble back. He dodged its counter-attack and hit it again, leaving a noticeable dent.
I was tempted to join him and test out the training that I'd received from the punishing hands of Thunra. Two bolts of lightning, from Larie and the pole orc, sailing past my head made me realize how stupid that would be. Instead, I fired another steel bullet at the bot that was trying to flank Garin.
An arrow and Yulk's lightning shot past me, and we were down to four bots left. I fired another bullet, but missed because I took a step back as I was doing it. The reason I stepped back was because three of the robots were ignoring Garin and gaining ground fast.
I heard a gasp and watched pole orc fall to his knees. He'd used too much magic, and I nearly had as well. Yulk looked pretty tired, too, but thankfully Larie still had some in the tank. His lighting caught another one of the bots. Realizing that if I backed up too far the bots would attack everyone else, I made a decision. I hoped that I would have the benefit of hindsight to determine if it was a dumb one.
I drew my sword and activated Spear Punch, using the basket-guard to protect my hand. I flew forward and smashed the guard against the face of one of the bots. Fortunately, the blow was enough to crush the bot's head. Unfortunately, it crushed around the guard and dragged my sword with it as it fell.
Two bots remained, and one of them focused on me. Preternatural Evasion activated as the bot's blade slashed at my throat. I ducked under its follow-up strike with the hammer and used Breathtaker Strike.
Its chest caved in with a crunch, but the bot took another swing at me. I leapt back to avoid the blows, and three things happened at once. The other bot dropped with an arrow through its head, lightning struck the bot I was fighting, and a searing pain shot through my hand as I tried to open my fist.
I took a moment to check on it and immediately wished that I hadn't. My fingers weren't pointing in the directions that I had believed them to be, and blood was pouring from a split in my knuckles. I clenched my jaw as I felt the scream begin to bubble up in my throat.
'Oh, come ON,' Ten complained.
I wanted to tell it to suck a plug, fuck itself, or something like that. But the pain was too intense. Even if I tried to think at Ten, I'd just end up screaming.
'I'll kill the pain as best as I can. In the meantime, fight with your left hand. Stick to magic.'
The pain began to ebb just as Garin managed to get behind the bot he was fighting and tear its head off.
'Never mind. Okay, moving on, I can't heal your hand in the state that it's in. You'll need to... Put it back together as best as you can.'
'Fuck you,' I managed to think.
'I know it's grotesque, but we can fix it-'
'No, not that,' I examined my mangled hand. 'For earlier.'
'Oh. You're mad at me for getting frustrated that you punched a chunk of metal?'
'Don't try to diminish it and make it out to be my fault. I was in a life or death situation and did the best that I could. Your reaction was over the top and unsupportive.'
I pulled and twisted my fingers to realign them, wincing at the sight and sound rather than the pain. Once they were all pointing in the same direction again, I squeezed my hand back together. A moment later it began to itch, and I watched as the flesh began to mend.
'After thinking it through, you have a point,' Ten said. 'I apologize.'
'Thank you,' I replied. 'And I apologize for acting rashly and making you fix my hand.'
"Is that going to be okay?" the archer orc asked.
I then realized that everyone that was still conscious had watched me put my hand back together. The strangers looked horrified, but Yulk looked slightly bemused. Larie's posture suggested concern, though his face looked the same as it always did.
"Oh, uh, yeah, i-it'll be fine," I stammered. "I heal fast."
"How fast?" Garin asked.
"This fast," I opened and closed my hand.
I had tried to wiggle my fingers, but they weren't cooperating. I hoped it wasn't permanent and that Ten was still healing it. Pole orc stood up, leaning heavily on his nick-namesake.
"We actually did it," he panted. "I-I can't believe it."
"Believe it," I replied, and gave him a thumbs up with my freshly healed hand.
"Believe wha-"
We turned toward the new voice and saw that the unconscious orc had woken up, and she was absolutely terrified. I didn't even have to follow her stare to know what she was looking at.
Poor Larie.
Comments
Ben Bass
TYFTC! Very nice use of magic and melee by Nick, althoughI think he should get some gauntlets or something that can take a bit more of a beating when he punches something he probably shouldn't in a life or death scenario.
David Ellis
"Believe it," I replied, and gave him a thumbs up with my freshly healed hand. - Did you see a ninja in an orange jumpsuit just now?
