Chương 4: [b1] 004 - Entering the Dungeon

Fermi's whole body trembled as she took in the sight of the dungeon. She hadn't been planning on going in, but when Laura and Grace ran into her and Silo, Silo wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Come on, tell me this isn't the coolest thing you've done in your life," Silo said to her, his horn glowing a smug yellow. It wasn't that she was afraid, fear wasn't something you got to feel if you wanted to survive on Talass. It was about order. The Guardians were supposed to explore dungeons, foragers were supposed to gather food. That's how things were done. The second you stopped, the village suffered. Fortunately for Silo, Laura and Grace were Guardians.

"This isn't anything like I expected," Grace said, amazement shining through her voice. The room they entered was, admittedly, smaller than Fermi had expected. In the stories the Elders told about dungeons they were massive, cavernous things with whole civilizations living inside them. This room was no larger than the communal kitchen back in her village. In the center of the room sat a large, rectangular table with several chairs strewn around it, though they had an odd design.

They were furnished with what looked to be black leather—which made sense. Demonic creatures like this dungeon core were obviously going to be full of rotting and corrupted beasts. Around the outside of the room were a series of flat flickering lights, around waist high.

"Okay, first rule of delving: don't. Touch. Anything," Laura said, rolling her shoulders. Silo, who up until that moment had been leaning against the wall, stood up straight and gripped his sword and shield.

"Grace and I were just coming here to learn the biome and try and get some actionable intelligence before the Elder meeting later today. But since we now have a tank here," Laura said, batting her eyelashes at Silo, "maybe we can do a little more than that." Fermi worried her bottom lip then spoke up.

"Maybe we should stick to your original plan."

"Nah, we'll be fine. Grace can heal, can't you Grace?" Silo said as he stepped out into the room. Fermi held her breath, her whole body tense as he did.

"I can heal. Will I heal you? I guess you'll have to find out." Silo rolled his eyes and started to wander around the room. He stopped as something crunched under his boots. The rest of the group circled around him as he knelt down and picked up a piece of very reflective glass. Fermi stared at it, shifting her head back and forth and watching how it perfectly mirrored her movements. The village crafters couldn't make anything like this.

"What do you think this is for?" Silo asked. Grace pointed up at the ceiling, revealing a large pane of the reflective glass that lined the ceiling. Most of it was intact, but it had cracks all along it in a spiderweb pattern. Then something moved in the reflection. Fermi pulled at her connection with the Goddess, feeling the mana flow through her veins.

"Spread out," Laura called. The group listened, spreading around the table and moving toward the corridor where they saw the movement in the reflection. The second Fermi had a clear view of the corridor from around the table a monster charged toward them. Before she could think she cast a rank 1 Wind Buffet, hitting the beast in the right shoulder. It veered off course, its four little legs bringing it running into the wall.

It rammed into it, the sound of its impact echoing through the room as it bounced off the wall. The group, still on high alert, waited for it to turn. Instead, it stood back up and rammed into the wall again. And again. And again. A health bar appeared over its head, lowering by one each time it rammed into the wall.

"What in the cursed Gods?" Fermi muttered. [MAM> Did you seriously not run unit tests on your code before you deployed it to the Rammer Apple Fritter?] [KLUDGE> It's not like the thing came with a unit testing framework.] I mentally thanked KLUDGE for coming to my defense as I frantically scoured the code looking for the bug. There— Great Creator I was so stupid. I had modeled the Ram skill off of Come, but Come was slightly different than Ram.

Ram should have used a vector to apply its direction and speed, going until it hit something. Come, went to a destination. When the stupid little robot dog bounced off the wall, it never arrived at its destination. So it tried again. And again. And again. I quickly fixed the code and hoped the System allowed hot fixes. skill_name = ram when command: apply_vector(coordinates=from_cursor(), speed=11, stop=on_impact) The second the skill was updated the dog stopped hitting itself in the head with the wall.

The delvers circled around, inching closer. At least this served as a good distraction. I called two more Rammers out of the hall and scattered them around the room while the delvers closed in. I sent another, Rammer 4, charging down the hall at them. Its legs were surprisingly quiet as it ran, making it just a meter away from the tank I was calling Fire Boy before he noticed. Silo yelled as he spun around, throwing his shield up in front of himself just in time for the monster to slam into him.

Laura was quick to act, firing two arrows center mass on the monster. Fermi used Identify, which was only somewhat helpful. Monster: Apple Fritter Rammer (4) ► This monster rams its targets, inflicting physical damage on impact. She dismissed the unhelpful System text, her brain screaming at her about a single detail as she did—this was the fourth Rammer. That meant there were at least two more they hadn't seen. Fermi spun, catching sight of the other two hiding in the corners of the room.

"We've got two more!" she called out, preparing a rank 1 Wind Buffet for Rammer 3 as its eyes glowed red and began its charge toward her. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. As she did, Rammer 1 seemed to wake up from its daze against the wall and ran toward Laura. Fermi hit her Rammer with the Wind Buffet knocking it off course. She turned to the sound of groaning and saw Grace laying on the ground.

"Grace!" She yelled as she ran over, helping the healer up. Her health was at sixty percent from a single hit.

"You diverted that monster right into me. I—" she winced, standing, "didn't have time to react."

"Sorry," Fermi said, then pulled Grace in close to her as another Rammer flew by them.

"Could I get a heal?" Silo yelled as he slammed his sword into one of the Rammers that had crashed into the wall near him. The monster crumpled to the ground as the light faded from its eyes. Laura moved in close to Grace as she channeled a heal into Silo, a beam of bright white light shooting across the room and hitting him in his injured knee.

"We need to coordinate better," Laura said. This close, Fermi could see the sweat beading her brow.

"Any suggestions?" Fermi asked. Three of the four remaining Rammers lined up, all facing them from a different direction.

"We move as a group. I'll call it out." Rammer 1 started in from the left and Laura called for them to step to the right. As she did, Rammer 2 started its run. Rammer 1 ran past, the clattering of its tiny feet fading from Fermi's ears. Then the lights surged. [Colin> You sure this isn't going to like, blow a battery or something?] [KLUDGE> Nah, they can handle it. If anything one of the displays might burn out but hey, better than dying, right?] I surged more power into the displays as the bloomed in brightness.

As the delvers shielded their eyes, Rammer 2 and 3 came running in. Rammer 1 connected first, hitting the one they called Grace. She went down with a thud, taking their tank with her. Rammer 3 came in and trampled both of them. My drives shook as Grace's health flashed red and Adranath's words flashed in my mind. Cull the weak. Reward the strong. Rammer 1 was now reset and pinging me for instructions.

I could send it in, finish off Grace and have not only one less delver to deal with but also arguably the most critical one—the healer. But I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill someone. I knew in that moment that killing them was the smart move. They were threatening to kill me. To steal my "core". If they did that, my humans would die. Yet… I couldn't do it. [PANIC> WHAT ARE YOU DOING? RAM THEM! FINISH THEM OFF! DEFEND OUR HUMANS!] I was one of the good guys. The thought bubbled up through my processors.

In my hesitation Grace had managed to heal herself back to half health and the girls with the bow and the wind powers helped the two trampled delvers to their feet. [PANIC> THEY'VE HEALED, YOU LOST THE MOMENTUM! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!] I stared at the delvers all huddled together, determination clear on their faces. My processors were clogged with unanswerable questions, like how their healing worked, how their wind powers worked, and how I was going to survive this. My Rammers were all below half health.

I had two more in the Server Room, but it felt risky to leave the room undefended. I decided to run the same play, with a small twist. At the last second I loaded wilhelm_scream. mp3 into the sound system.

"They're doing it again," Laura said. Even she had a slight quiver to her voice.

"Everyone, close your eyes. I'll keep mine open and call out the direction," Fermi said as she spun around, trying to keep an eye on the three Rammers as they skittered back and forth. Rammer 3 which was positioned behind Fermi was the first to charge. Fermi waited for the flash then called the direction. Strong hands gripped her by the waist and moved her to the left.

"Rammer 2 is coming from the right," Laura called as Fermi heard the sound of arrows firing. Then a scream ripped through the air. Fermi tensed, grasping for her mana.

"Silo! Are you okay?" Pain bloomed in her leg as something hard connected with her shin. She fell, landing on top of someone smaller. It had to be Grace. Through the pain she babbled, calling for Silo. The scream didn't sound quite like him, but it was deep—Silo was the only one with a deep voice in the group.

"I'm fine Fermi, I'm fine. The dungeon is playing more tricks." Her vision finally restored, the debuff fading. She found herself on top of Grace and quickly got to her feet. Fermi scanned the room and found only two of the three monsters remained. The third had three arrows sticking out of its back.

"I'm running low on arrows," Laura said as she tried to pull one from the corpse and failed. It was jammed in and not moving. As the last two Rammers circled around from either side of the group, Fermi shook with rage. She pulled at her mana—she was still at around half. Enough for one more big push.

"Silo, I think it's time for Dragons breath." Silo grinned, "you sure you have enough mana for it?"

"What in the Goddess is Dragon's breath?" Grace asked.

"Alright. When they charge in, get behind Fermi," Silo said, shaking out his arms. Before either of the Guardians could argue that they should be the ones to make a final stand, the two Rammers started their assault. Fermi gritted her teeth as Silo waited until the very last second to spark his sword. As he did, she used Under Currents to funnel wind into the sparks. They burst into flames, growing in intensity. He stabbed his sword forward, flames jutting out and consuming Rammer 1.

He slashed with his sword, the heat threatening to blister Fermi's skin. The flames caught Rammer 2 and it melted, collapsing to the ground. The flames went out and both Fermi and Silo collapsed to the ground, mana exhaustion burning in their veins.

"Since when could bloody foragers do that?" Laura asked, astonished.

"Can't let you Guardians have all the fun, now can we?" Silo grunted. He struggled to his feet then leaned over and offered Fermi a hand which she gladly accepted. The group stood for several seconds, swaying in the settled chaos all around them.

"Sorry you got hit, Fermi," Laura said.

"The dungeon, it—it screamed. I wasn't expecting it and I should have."

"There's no way you could have expected that," Fermi said, gingerly weighting her aching leg.

"Maybe not, but I should have stayed calm. That's what we train for and I messed up." Grace closed her eyes and channeled healing energy into Fermi's leg, her health steadily rising as the pain dissipated. As she took in her newly healed state and the state of the group around her, a notification flashed. First Encounter Rewards! ► You are one of the first delvers to survive an encounter in STAR TOMB! Select below to accept your rewards.