Backwoods Dungeon

Chapter Fifty-Three

All Roads Lead

Theo

We didn’t find Dane. Curiously enough, my sense of smell had been drastically improved. In retrospect, that might’ve been helpful when I’d come down here hunting for Rio after she’d been kidnapped, but I didn’t think about animals and their sense of smell.

In this case, Dane’s scent abruptly ended on the other side. He hadn’t fallen down the hole or anything. I’d have been able to tell, crazy as that was. It was a puzzle with an obvious solution. Dane had taken the opportunity to use the waypoint.

“Gwwoouff,” I said, forgetting I couldn’t speak like this.

“Right? He just left us?” Rio said. “Left Todd, too? Wasn’t that half of his goal coming down here?”

Hmm. Perhaps I didn’t need to speak. A test was in order!

“Gwourrr?”

“He’s got fuck-you lightning now. He should be fine, as long as he doesn’t run into something like that,” she said, pointing back down the tunnel.

“Grrr?”

“No, I don’t think we should go back! No offense, but until he gets some levels, Dane is kind of a liability. Annoyed as I am, getting the heck out of that fight was probably the best thing he could’ve done.”

“Grr.”

“Yes, I’m still pissed!” She shouted. “He could’ve at least tried!”

I looked pointedly at the gigantic hole the worm had left in the path. Even with my improved stats, I didn’t think I could get to the other side without tumbling in. Dane certainly couldn't have. Also, it would’ve been pitch black without my glowing circlet. In his shoes, I’d have taken the waypoint, too.

“Stop being reasonable!” she said, seemingly reading that entire thought process in my single expression. “We need to get moving, anyway. Can you use that new nose to lead us to the prison?”

My initial reaction was to shake my head, but as I took a large whiff of the mostly disgusting smells permeating the cave, I was surprised by just how much I could discern.

If I’d had an object from the prison, I probably could smell the best direction to take to reach it. I didn’t, but I also didn’t need one. There were a lot of smells, and I’d already taken them in as a human. My human nose couldn’t discern one type of gross from another but as a bear? I definitely could.

I turned and began walking back towards the chamber with the dead rock worm, intrigued.

“I’ll take that as a yes?” Rio asked dubiously.

I held up a claw and wiggled it side to side. A universal “Maybe.” At this point, I wasn’t even sure if that was necessary. My wife knew me so well that I could probably communicate with her via farts, and she’d still get what I was saying.

When we reached the cavern, my senses widened exponentially. The smells might as well have been quest markers on a map denoting where we should go. “This cave has more spiders!” “There’s another Rock Worm this way!” “There are a fuck-ton of imps down this tunnel!”

The last one was our obvious route. Curiously, I smelled an excessive amount of gunpowder from that direction, too.

“Growwfff. Grrr…” I said, trying to relay this.

Rio cocked her head. “Sorry. I’m new to bear-speak.”

‘Oh sure, now you can’t understand me,’ I thought with a huff. I lifted a claw and pointed down the proper tunnel.

“Good boy! Who's a good boy?! Yes, you! You is a good boy! Oh! Genji’s gonna love you, oh yes, she is!” Rio said as she began scratching behind my ears like I was a dog.

Infuriatingly, it felt delightful. I shrugged her off, and she fell before catching herself in a fucking back handspring.

“Grwww…” I said with a huff.

She smirked as I began walking down the tunnel. Walking on all fours in this form felt surprisingly natural, but I could stand upright and walk on two if I wanted. It just felt wrong, like walking on my knees.

“Good job with the worm, by the way,” Rio said. “That was… ballsy.”

I didn’t growl anything. There wasn’t much else I could do. I was just lucky I was strong enough in this form to hold the worm still. Even so, I really didn’t want to run into another one of those. Without the bear form, my only option would’ve been dropping wind traps and hoping they would eventually cut through the creature’s rocky exterior. And shooting it, of course.

“Grrrow?” I asked, nuzzling her gun.

“Yeah. I spent a lot. Almost empty,” she said.

Almost reflexively, I tossed her my looted spare ammo magazine. She caught it deftly but stared at me with wide eyes before she began to examine me curiously.

“Are there… pockets? How the fuck did you do that?” she asked.

I shrugged, which was impressive as a bear. I didn’t know how it worked, but I still had all of my stuff. Everything from the wooden circlet to the good-looking trousers. Everything in my bag was within easy reach as well, which made this form stupidly convenient. I was actually pretty sure that the stuff I was wearing was still quietly contributing to my armor despite the inhuman form.

Hell, I no longer had to worry about losing my wallet or keys or any of that shit! It was all there in a mental catalog that I could browse through. Shapeshifting was amazing. I was now hoping that the small creature shapeshifts would let me turn into a bird and fly. Getting to work would be a breeze!

Well… assuming this wasn’t going to become a full time job.

Neither of us needed a potion, which was a big plus in my book. We were becoming relatively good, even against surprises. I’d taken a multitude of small cuts when I’d gotten too close to the damn Sarlacc teeth or on the rocks that made up the outer layer of the worm’s skin, but my healing aura had already taken care of that. I’d since turned it off to restart my mana regeneration.

We continued walking down the tunnel, but I found it much more cramped than before. There weren’t any points where I had to turn back into a human, but I was sure we’d come through places I just wouldn’t be able to squeeze through if we ended up going back.

I… was fatter than ever. On the other hand, did that really count if I was a bear? I was hoping no.

The sharp smell of blood and gunpowder actually hit me before the sounds of gunfire did. We took a sharp turn into yet another cavern and came upon three bodies. All imps this time, and one of them was a Booyagh.

There were a few bullets and bullet casings but no evidence of whoever had started the battle. My nose and the noise from distant caverns was telling us that something was happening up ahead.

There were definitely people down here. A lot of them.

“Ugh… it's so gross. Looks like whoever killed them took most of the loot, too. No coins, equipment, or anything,” Rio said as she examined the bodies.

It turned out they were only the first in a long trail of corpses. The red carpet had been rolled out for us. Rather, the blue carpet.

Dead imps and their blue blood became more and more abundant the further we went. Occasionally, loot had been left behind. We’d picked up three more identifiers, which was fortunate because an absolutely wonderful item for Rio was hidden under an imp body that allowed her to have a glowing light source as well.

Thorn

Dagger

Unique

Light

Dexterity +5

Intelligence +3

Widsom -1

Charisma +3

Life Leech

Greed’s Reward +3

“Wow. Do you think this means I get three times as much mana every time I pick up some gold?” she asked. “And life leech. Does that mean what I think it means?”

I shrugged. I doubted Greed's Reward was that effective. Thus far, it appeared to have been more than good enough, and I wasn't exactly sad to see Rio get a more effective mana generator.

Life Leech, though... In retrospect, the item wasn’t all that great. It might encourage her to try to fight up close and personal, and that was the last thing I wanted. Still, if she was ever ambushed, it would be invaluable, so I didn’t complain.

We only walked for about twenty more minutes before we found what we were looking for. The sounds of pitched battle only grew louder the closer we came.

Increasingly worried about the fighters and the lessening of gunshots, we turned a corner into a torchlit chamber with a circular wall of rock at the far end. It looked almost exactly as Rio had described. Like a colosseum that had been plunged underground. Even now, we were on a slope, and it was uphill the entire way to the entrance.

Bodies were everywhere, mostly imps and a few of what must've been the gorilla dogs Rio had mentioned, but there were people, too. At the front, near the entrance, we could see a wall of men in combat gear.

And they were in trouble.