Dungeons and Dalliances

Since the dungeon provided no obvious path to them, they made the intuitive decision to head for the tallest of the nearby crumbling architecture. They needed a vantage point to take in their surroundings to make an informed decision on which direction to head. Climbing forty feet in the air and peering out at the sprawling ruins might provide an obvious landmark to work toward.

And Natalie did assume there would be some such landmark. It was already uncharacteristic for the dungeon to drop them into such an open space, but there was always some goal. How else would they find a boss or escape? Or find their teammates? As strange as the dungeon could be at times, it was usually fair and straightforward.

Except when they stole one of its prized monsters, Natalie mentally corrected with amusement. But even then they hadn't been truly overwhelmed. The dungeon hadn't thrown level twenties at them, it had just moved the difficulty from 'normal' to 'hellish' in retaliation.

Gripping [Valentine], Natalie forged forward. She was tense with anticipation as she made slow progress, Vanetta trailing behind with daggers drawn. This was the third floor, so the challenges would be the hardest yet. Maybe comparable to the goblin fights. Plus they were missing their mage and support, so their versatility was significantly limited.

There was also the nature of the environment that put her on edge. At least in the typical dungeon cave tunnel, there were limited places a monster could pop out from. Not only were these decaying ruins open in all directions, there was also endless cover to take; danger could surge out from anywhere. Her eyes lingered on the most obvious hiding places, but there were simply too many to keep track of.

As fitting of any other floor, said danger found them without delay. Less than a quarter of the way to the nearby crumbling tower, ghostly wisps of white-blue light seeped from the ground. In a matter of seconds, an armored humanoid assembled itself. It wielded a two-handed sword, face covered by a helm.

[Fallen Wraith - Lv. 3]

A level three, though unlike the goblins of a similar level she'd fought, a full-fledged solo encounter, which meant it wouldn't be nearly as easy to dispatch as any single goblin. Especially with only Vanetta as backup rather than a full team. The dungeon may or may not have made the creature weaker in compensation for their enforced disadvantage, but Natalie wouldn't assume so outright; that would be foolish. For all she knew, the dungeon was still mad about Malice.

She was never one to waste time gawking at an appeared monster, so she was charging before it finished manifesting. With concern, she noted more wisps of blue light floating up onto a crumbling wall where a second humanoid appeared wielding a short-bow. A glance revealed it was seemingly human: male, with blunt features, though its ghostly appearance prevented her from thinking of it as a real human.

Likely, these creatures were the remnants of whoever lived in this civilization before cataclysm had struck. Not that this city was real, nor the disaster that had brought it to ruin. All of it was fabricated by the dungeon. Though was it, really? Some scholars thought the dungeon pulled echoes of other existences.

Either way, it wasn't truly real, though theoretically speaking, it might be a reflection of a place that once was.

Her musings cut off as her hammer slammed down toward her opponent. Unsurprisingly, the Wraith stepped deftly out of the way, and skillfully transferred the momentum from his dodge into a retaliatory strike. Though he wielded a two-handed greatsword, he was still faster than Natalie, but then again, it was rare she fought an opponent slower than her; she had learned how to deal with that handicap.

In the corner of her eye, she saw Vanetta throw one of her daggers at the bow-wielding Wraith that had manifested on top of the crumbling wall. It struck the monster in the shoulder, but Natalie forced her attention onto her own engagement. It seemed this first fight would be two one-on-ones. Natalie was just glad she wouldn't have to worry about arrows raining down on her while she fought the swordsman.

The two fighters traded blows. Natalie realized the dungeon hadn't softened the engagement for the lack of their teammates: it was certainly as strong as an average level three. Rationing out mana was important, so she didn't jump outright to summoning illusions, but she kept the possibility in mind.

Instead, she worried about simply occupying the swordsman's attention. She positioned herself so that she could both fight the monster and keep an eye on Vanetta at the same time. Her plan was to see how the rogue fared against the bowman, and if she handled it easily, then Natalie simply needed to wait it out until they could turn against the swordsman two against one. She could definitely take down the Wraith herself if she called on her abilities, but working efficiently was important, especially when they would be fighting for days straight during this weekend delve.

And indeed, putting faith in Vanetta turned out to be a smart decision, because the girl scampered up the wall with surprising adeptness, first leaping two-thirds of the way up before vaulting the rest of the distance using a grip on an outcropping. She converted that momentum into an attack, slamming her dagger into the Wraith's knee. It toppled forward, loosing a sloppy arrow that it had been trying to aim at Vanetta, but which it had been too slow to fire. Vanetta pursued as it fell down the wall.

Natalie refocused on her own fight. The Wraith's bladework was skilled, but not on the level of top performers at Tenet. If admittedly the monster was much stronger than the students there. Still, this wasn't a fight like against the Chieftain: it was not overwhelming and near impossible to go head-to-head against. A feint with her weapon let Natalie slam a kick into its chest and have it stumbling backward, which she followed up on with a vicious connecting blow to its side. Battered, the ghostly being went staggering sideways. A two-handed blow probably would've finished the fight outright, but the Wraith pulled out a trick: it went incorporeal, and her hammer sailed through its body. It drifted sideways a step and came back into existence, and Natalie was forced to dart backward, abandoning her hammer to prevent herself from being cleaved in two.

Disarmed, Natalie was at a sudden disadvantage, but it also gave her the maneuverability she'd thus far been lacking. She hesitated not for a second to rush forward into close range to tackle the Wraith and slam both of them into the ground. While she'd been training with her hammer a lot recently, one of Natalie's specialties had always been in outright brawls: she delivered a vicious punch into the Wraith's nose that it either couldn't or didn't dodge with incorporeality, the metal of her gauntlets giving the attack extra weight. Reinforced with [Juggernaut] and her armor's Furor bonuses too, a punch was no small attack in its own right, especially when followed up by two more.

The Wraith threw her off, and Natalie hurried over to her hammer, reclaiming her weapon.

Right as she was squaring up for the next exchange, which would probably be the last, with the Wraith already looking woozy from the punches to the face, Vanetta slammed a dagger into the side of its neck. She withdrew the blade just as quickly, and the ghostly being crumpled to the floor.

Dead, just like that. Vanetta's [Assassination] skill was even stronger than she'd made it sound; Natalie had put a few decent attacks in, but dungeon monsters were usually pretty durable.

"I had that, you know," Natalie said, half jokingly. "But thanks for the assist."

Vanetta quirked an eyebrow, looked around, and lowered her daggers, seeing no more enemies.

"No illusions?"

"Saving mana," Natalie replied.

Vanetta nodded approvingly. "Good. Don't waste it on trash."

Natalie wasn't sure she'd have called it trash, though the Wraith certainly hadn't been a life-threatening engagement. She gestured at the wall. "You're quite the little acrobat," she said. It had been impressive how easily she'd scaled the wall to deliver a crippling blow onto the bowman Wraith. All one fluid motion.

Vanetta narrowed her eyes. "Little?" she repeated, with an edge to her voice.

Apparently she didn't like being called that.

Natalie coughed. "Just saying well done," she said.

Thankfully, they had a distraction to move past the misstep: the Wraith had finished disintegrating in classic dungeon style, and something happened that made the two girls blink. It didn't drop a monster core, as would be expected, but something else entirely.

Resting on the floor was a coin made of dark, faded pink metal.

[Token of Eros]