Path of the Pioneers

Adeline had been sprinting down the halls of the dungeon for the last twenty minutes. Despite covering quite a bit of ground, she couldn’t help but feel as if she had made very little actual progress. After all, the walls and floor of the dungeon were still the exact same stonework and wood as they were before. There were no different rooms or alcoves to be seen. Even for a labyrinth-type, this was sparse beyond belief.

The only thing that had changed were the dungeon lights. The orbs were growing increasingly distant from one another, leaving the halls dimmer and dimmer as it went on. Strangely enough, Adeline didn’t encounter anymore hobgoblins past her initial confrontation, or any other monsters, at that. She assumed that, in all likelihood, she had wiped out all of the nearby ones in the fight she had at the start.

With her luck in finding Sybil, she began to think that her efforts wouldn’t have even particularly helped the mage in avoiding monsters.

Adeline slowed her running, stopping at the middle of an intersection of the dungeon hallway. She had come across a few places where the path branched off within this dungeon, and refused to make a turn at any of them when she did. This one caught her attention, though. To her right, she saw the hall get brighter and brighter as it went on. 

A guiding clue from the dungeon, or just a coincidence? She had no way of knowing, but it looked more promising than the path she had been on. Adeline changed her course, resuming her sprinting down into the right path.

This labyrinthine, repetitive structure was frustrating to Adeline, to say the least. Usually dungeons were much more engaging, or at least contained more monsters to deal with. Labyrinth-type dungeons weren’t very common. The name of this place was ‘The Dreadspire’. She scoffed, “Very fancy name for a series of tunnels.” Even if it was only the first floor, Adeline very much doubted that the dungeon was anything special as it went deeper.

The only true difficulty of this place was that surprise challenge. It annoyed her to no end that on her first dungeon attempt with that girl, the pair had such a rare event trigger. The rewards would be increased, certainly. But the risk of Sybil getting mauled by a hobgoblin, or something worse, was far too high for her liking.

“If I could just find the boss..” She muttered to herself. Defeating the boss was a surefire way to deal with something like this. Upon the defeat of a boss, loot would be generated. Participants of the dungeon would be guided in some way to the location of it afterwards. The exit and descent gates would also appear near it…

Adeline stopped for a moment after her status window suddenly popped up.

[The boss of Floor I of ‘The Dreadspire’ has been defeated!]

Boss Contribution:

Sybil Sagecrest: 100%

Adeline Cirix: 0%

“What?”

[The path to the exit will now be illuminated…]

Adeline stared, watching as all the lights above her flickered off. Had the girl actually been a secret monster? Some kind of hidden talent? Some of the lights switched back on, leading down the hallway in the direction Adeline was going. These lights were showing the path to the boss.

In spite of the way being clear, Adeline just stood there, blinking. Hobgoblins could fall victim to Sybil’s skill, certainly. She was willing to accept that. But she saw it herself: it was only capable of drilling a bit into a tree. Impressive for a beginner, sure. But Adeline was positive that such a skill wasn’t good enough to take down a Rank-D dungeon boss. 

She took a deep breath, and began running once more, making a break for the boss’s location. Perhaps she’d misjudged the girl. No-- ‘girl’ was wrong. Someone capable of defeating a dungeon boss alone wasn’t a mere ‘girl.’

Adeline grinned widely. When was the last time she had been this excited?

It took Adeline ten minutes of running with the help of the dungeon guiding her. She saw another intersection in the distance. The walls and floor of it looked absolutely scorched. It took her by surprise; it almost resembled her own work near the start of the dungeon.

She stopped in the center, looking to the right. There, she saw Sybil’s handiwork.

A minotaur was laying on the ground, its skin and fur slightly singed. More impressive, however, was the sheer amount of viscera strewn around its corpse. To her eyes, it looked as if its innards suddenly burst out of its chest in a mess of fleshy-chunks and blood.

Her eyes widened, and she was given a strong start. Beyond the beast was Sybil, crumpled on the floor.

Ignoring the boss, Adeline hopped over its body, rushing to Sybil’s aid. The mage was curled up on her side, gasping weakly. Though she was only unconscious right now, it was clear to see that she was dying. And not particularly slowly.

“Shit..”

There were many ways to deal with injuries. The awakened had spent nearly all of the fifty years of their existence searching for ways to deal with the problem of getting wounded. Having a cleric or any other healer wasn’t something everybody could rely upon, so many of them used potions. Adeline had used all of her potions when fleeing from home. Even if she hadn’t, she could only assume that Sybil would have used them on her when Adeline had been the one dying.

Dungeon loot was a finicky thing. Most loot was obtained through boss contribution, but you could still obtain some based on how many monsters you defeated, and by..

“The surprise challenge..!”

Adeline kicked the corpse of the minotaur, causing a wet thump. “Come on! Give me the clear rewards!”

As if in response, a large wooden chest blinked into existence, falling on the other side of the minotaur. Adeline hopped over it once again, leaning over the chest. She tapped it, and her status window opened up once more.

[Congratulations! You have cleared Floor I of ‘The Dreadspire’!]

[Congratulations! You have cleared a dungeon with the surprise challenge: ‘randomized entry’]

[Tallying rewards…]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up! 28 -> 29]

“Seriously, a level up? N-no.. It doesn’t matter.” The experience reward was impressive, but she had no time to get caught up in it. She was far more interested in the item rewards.

The chest clicked open, and she was met with a few different items of varying value.

Reward Overview:

1. Fire Opal (3)
2. Return Tablet (4)
3. Lesser Potion of Healing (1)
4. Lesser Amulet of Brawn (1)

It was an incredible haul, to say the least., especially considering that she hadn't even touched the boss. But she had little time to admire her rewards, there was something far more pressing to do. Adeline gingerly grabbed a vial filled with red liquid out of the chest. It was a lesser potion, but it would at least do something for the dying mage.

She ran back to Sybil’s side, wiping the blood from her lips and uncorking the vial. Carefully, and slowly, she tipped the bottle to pour the liquid down into her throat. If the two of them were lucky, the potion may just stop it from being a mortal injury.

There wasn’t much more that Adeline could do past the potion. She wasn’t a master of first aid or anything. So, she sat there at Sybil’s side, patiently waiting for her to wake up.