Rise of the Living Forge

Chapter 88: Deaf

Jin and the other unfortunate thieves were left in a pile in the first room of the dungeon for something to come along and snack on. The first few rooms of the dungeon were so inconsequential that Arwin’s group barely even stopped on their way through them. Several more goblins, a strange blob of jelly that got splattered to paste by Verdant Blaze before it could even try attacking, all fell before them.

Even the orc, which had once been a significant threat, barely even managed to put up a fight. Reya froze the monster in place as it noticed their arrival into its room and Rodrick dispatched it a second later, delivering an empowered blow to the monster’s throat.

None of the monsters had been carrying anything that Arwin could use to work with and Lillia wasn’t keen on cooking with humanoid flesh after finding out that nobody was willing to eat it.

Even though they’d yet to get anything worthwhile, the progress from their first few dungeon runs was stark. They’d barely spent any energy getting this deep. Rodrick had mentioned about trying to go all the way to the end when they’d entered. At the time, Arwin hadn’t thought it even worth worrying about.

But now, as they continued on, Arwin was starting to wonder if that was actually as far-reaching as he’d initially thought. He hadn’t so much as had to use a single ability or scrap of energy so far.

He pushed those thoughts to the back of his head and forced himself to follow his own advice. Worrying about what would happen in the future was just going to put the present at risk. The end of the dungeon would come if it came.

“Everyone ready?” Arwin asked, stopping at the end of the hallway that led out of the third room and at the entrance to the fourth. Two flickering orbs of purple torchlight guarded the door before him.

“Big bugger,” Rodrick said. He spun his sword at his side. “I’m ready to let you do all the work and then take the kill for myself.”

Arwin rolled his eyes. “You don’t have to sound so excited about it.”

Reya held her hands before her, ready to call on her powers at a moment’s notice. Lillia stood beside her. Shadows coiled at her feet in anticipation. Arwin didn’t bother asking if they were ready. He didn’t need to.

He pushed the door open. The dungeon had changed the room once again – but not as much as some others. Translucent green crystals jutted out of the walls and protruded from the ceiling, sharpened to jagged points.

A hunched creature sat in the corner of the room. The back of its spine pressed against taut grey skin. It was vaguely humanoid and its clawed hands were full of gems that had been ripped up from the ground around it. Cracks and grinding crunches came from the monster’s mouth as its jaws worked.

It turned as Arwin stepped into the room, revealing sunken grey eyes and large floppy ears. A flat nose flared on its face as it sniffed the air and rose to its feet, staggering, and let out a high-pitched growl. Gems fell from its mouth and tinkled against the floor.

[Chiropire Screecher – Journeyman 5]

Even though Arwin had never seen this particular monster, it only took one look at its large ears and its name to determine exactly what it was the monster did. The Chiropire drew in a deep breath and it stomach ballooned.

Arwin dashed forward, dismissing Verdant Blaze so he could close the distance sooner. He wasn’t fast enough. The Chiropire’s ears folded in on themselves and a deafening screech ripped through the room.

His eardrums burst. Arwin staggered and lost his balance mid-step. He managed to catch himself before he fell to the ground by planting his feet and skidding to a stop, but the world swirled and danced around him unsteadily.

The only thing he could hear was a deafening echo of silence. Warm blood dripped down the sides of his face. Twisting and dancing in his vision, the Chiropire turned toward Arwin and bared a mouth full of large, heavy molars. Two fangs snapped out of its top lip and it darted toward him.

Arwin tried to brace himself enough that he could bring Verdant Blaze to bear and meet the monster’s charge, but his body was too unstable. He wasn’t going to be able to swing the hammer and keep his balance.

Instead, he threw his weight forward. The Chiropire twisted and tried to avoid the unexpected attack, but it was moving too quickly. Arwin’s shoulder slammed into the monster and he drove it to the ground, pinning it beneath his weight.

Its claws scraped against his armor and searched for purchase. Arwin delivered a [Scourge] empowered headbutt to the monster’s chest. Bone cracked beneath his helm and the horns dug deep through grey flesh. The Chiropire’s claws finally found a gap near the bottom of Arwin’s plate and dug into his hips.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

[Indomitable Bulwark] kept his leg from being severed on the spot, but hot blood coursed out of his body in a deluge. The Chriopire desperately tried to deepen the wound, but Arwin slammed his fist into the monster’s shoulder.

He’d been aiming for its head, but with the world spinning as it was, he was lucky to have hit it at all. More bone shattered beneath him and the Chiropire screamed in pain. It tried to draw in a breath to screech again, but the cracked bones in its sternum ripped into its skin and proved to be too much to overcome.

A wave of blue energy slammed into the monster and it locked in place. Rodrick’s sword carved through the air and connected with the middle of the Chriopire’s head. The glowing energy surrounding the weapon carved straight through it and the monster went limp beneath Arwin. His helmet hummed with energy as its aura activated.

Someone shook Arwin’s shoulder. He turned to see Anna yelling something, her brow furrowed in intense concentration. He couldn’t make out any of the words she was saying. She gave the horns on his helm a frustrated tug and Arwin dismissed it.

Warm energy washed over Arwin’s body and, with two gentle pops, his hearing returned. The damage to his hip knitted itself shut before Anna lifted her hand.

“Thanks.” Arwin rose from the corpse at his feet. Rodrick leaned against Anna, two streaks of blood running down his own head as he swayed in place. Anna sent golden energy flowing into him.

“I could barely use my magic with that helmet’s aura screwing with me,” Anna, speaking much louder than normal. She shuddered. “If you ever have it active and need healing, make sure to turn it off.”

“Is it really that effective?” Arwin raised his voice so Anna could hear him, but it still took her a second to try and read the words from his lips before she nodded.

“It’s nasty,” Anna confirmed. “I could have brute forced it, but it would have been really difficult and taken a lot more energy than it normally should. It felt like my bones were getting vibrated and the ground was trying to swallow me. It’s hard to describe, but it isn’t a fun feeling to push through.”

“Noted,” Arwin said.

“That was a loud ass monster,” Rodrick said as he sheathed his sword. “Thank whatever god was watching over me. If I’d had my enhanced hearing active, I think my head would have popped. Is everyone else okay?”

“Just a little deaf for the moment,” Anna said. “I think I was far back enough that I avoided the worst of the attack.”

“Did you at least manage to get some good energy from healing us?” Arwin asked.

“Yeah. I might have gotten more if I ran in earlier, but I can’t heal my own wounds yet and I didn’t want to get ripped in half.”

“A wise decision. I prefer you alive,” Arwin said. “Reya, Lillia? You both okay?”

“We’re both fine,” Lillia said. “I would have tried to attack with my shadows, but I was worried I’d hit you in the process. I didn’t want to make things worse.”

“It’s fine. It turned out okay.” Arwin wiped the blood away from his face before summoning his helm back, inert. The aura seemed to disappear whenever he sent it back to wherever it was that [Arsenal] kept his equipment. “Anyone get anything good?”

“I went up a Tier and got an Achievement that got consumed at the same time to upgrade one of my skill choices,” Reya said absently as her eyes flitted through the air before her. “I’m Apprentice 2 now, and I got an upgraded skill called Shackle Break. It lets me shatter any magic that is negatively affecting myself or an ally, but it’s got the typical drawback of having more trouble breaking moves from people at higher Tiers.”

“An ability that removes oppression? Those are normally just for healers or self-buffs,” Anna said, blinking in surprise. “That’s quite the odd class you got there.”

“It falls in the realm of battlefield supports,” Rodrick said before Arwin could answer. “That’s my suspicion, at least. Probably an aggressive one. That’s why Reya got it from a combination of sparing the first lizard and trying to kill herself on the Wyrm. Mix of anti-combat and suppression techniques that aid your allies.”

That’s pretty close to what I was going to say. I thought Rodrick didn’t know that much about this kind of thing. He seemed like a bit of a goofy, well-meaning idiot when we first met. That doesn’t really match up with the intelligence he’s shown in recent days.

Something tells me Rodrick and Anna left the Adventurer’s Guild for more reasons than what they said.

“It sounds like a good choice,” Arwin said. He studied the body of the monster at his feet. There wasn’t much use he was going to get out of it, but the crystals were another story. He headed around the room, collecting them. Lillia procured a large tarp bag for him to store his findings in, then slung it over her shoulder.

“Do we go deeper?” Anna asked.

“I’d say so,” Arwin said, studying himself for a second. The Chiropire hadn’t damaged his armor and, while he’d lost some blood, he still had a lot of magical energy to work with. If it hadn’t been for the monster’s screech, it probably wouldn’t have landed a blow on him at all.

And besides – the crystals weren’t enough. They were a decent reward and he could work with them, but he wanted more if he could get away with it. Returning to the surface now felt too early.

“Just be careful. We’re definitely over halfway into the dungeon by now,” Lillia warned. “The things from here on out will be strong.”

“Good,” Rodrick said. “We need the experience fighting. I think I’m probably not too far from reaching the next level in my Tier as well. Maybe one or two more fights like that. Hopefully I can get another Achievement on the way.”

Nobody else voiced any concerns, so Arwin nodded and gestured to a thin hall leading into the dark sandwiched between large growths of jutting crystals. “Let’s go deeper, then. Keep your eyes and ears peeled. I don’t know what we’ve got ahead of us but considering that’s the second time we’ve seen crystals in this dungeon, it’s likely we’re going to see more rooms like this one.”

“Dungeons stop changing the deeper you get in them?” Reya asked.

“Generally, yes,” Arwin said. “It’s easy to modify the outer layers, but from what I understand, the deeper you get, the more set in stone dungeons become. They’re not exactly living creatures, but they’re not inanimate either. It’s easier to cut your fingernails than it is to swap out an organ.”

“Makes sense,” Reya said. “So that means the monsters down here are going to be ones that probably like crystals?”

“Most likely,” Arwin said as he squeezed through the gap between the crystals and started into the hallway, the others following behind him. “And, with any luck, they’ll also be made out of something that I can forge with.”

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