Dungeon Delver - 3

You know, sometimes my writing just flies... this was not one of those times, I had this chapter ready and just did some last minute adjustements, probably gonna do some more later, but I feel it's good enough for the moment.


Anyways... did you guys know the Vatican now has anime girls? Yeah, that's a thing I found out today.

I also found out this month that there is a period of 60 years of the Vatican that's historically caled the Pornocracy so... nothing surpirses me anymore.

Well, as I said before, I have a few chapters ready for this story, but they're not exactly perfect, I didn't think too much when writing them and, while it was fast, it was also messy.

Still, I hope anyone who gives this a look enjoys it.
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Eric pulled the string to its fullest, the compound bow’s pulleys rolling noiselessly until his hand touched his anchor point at the back of his jaw, the arrow shaft not making contact with his face. Aiming, he let out a long, soft breath and gradually put pressure on the mechanical trigger.

The release was almost a surprise, without making any noise, the bowstring snapped back into place and the arrow shot out, smashing into the target almost instantly and piercing all the way through, leaving a fist-sized hole through the 2 centimeters thick metal before exploding against the wall, showering the room with debris. 

“So, what do you think?” Caleb Davis eagerly asked, jumping up from the empty box he had been sitting on.

“I think I’m not paying for that wall,” Eric said, throwing the bow back to his friend. He liked working for the G19 shooting range and had no desire to get in trouble for damaging property. 

“Cheapskate!”

Stepping back, he made sure to keep a hold of the wall to his side, then sat down and let Davis take his place. The little exercise had left his back muscles aching and his leg was killing him, but it had been nice to shoot an enhanced weapon.

“Hey, I still work for a living,” Eric protested, uncovering his aching leg and starting to massage it. “You’re the one with ‘fuck you’ money now, you pay for it.”

“Fine! But, seriously, what do you think?” Taking a stance, Davis pulled the bowstring back and released an arrow, the entire motion taking only a second to perform. When the arrow only obliterated the edge of the target, he clicked his tongue.

“Should have bought a railgun,” Eric said, then shrugged when Davis glared at him, his opinion hadn’t really changed. “Hell, with the money you spent on this, you could have bought two.”

“Three, actually. But it’s best to start training since Tier 1. People who make the switch at a high Tier tend to die shortly after and I plan to survive for a long time.”

You could clear Tier 1 and 2 dungeons with modern firearms and make a killing of it but, at Tier 3, that became much harder and, when you reached Tier 4, it was nearly impossible.

Making a monster explode with a railgun shot may be extremely satisfying, but it also wasted the meat and was likely to destroy the monster core, wasting almost everything valuable about the beast. 

High-tier monsters, particularly the elite or bosses, also required heavy or enhanced weapons to take down, as a result, if you were using firearms, the ammunition spent was often more expensive than the monster you killed, that was why Awakened tended to use polearms, swords or even axes to fight.

With empowered bodies, the right set of skills, a good team, and an enhanced weapon, an Awakened could clean an entire dungeon without expending a single bullet, maximizing his gains.

Bows and crossbows, however, were not really the ideal weapons to choose. More expensive than melee weapons, they were also far weaker than firearms, mixing the worst of both worlds.

“What did you enhance it with anyway, something to block sound and a kinetic enhancer?” Eric asked.

“The bow itself absorbs sound, then the bowstring absorbs and stores kinetic energy to use when shooting, finally, there’s the arrows which have an enhancement that decreases wind resistance while increasing damage and penetration. Shoot a hole right through the head of a Boss last time I used it.”

“Alright, I guess it is a nice weapon,” Eric finally admitted, giving the bow an appreciative look.

“Yep, and it fits right in with my new skill,” lifting his hand, Davis focused, making it change colors until it perfectly matched the world behind it.

“Still can’t believe you wasted your first body skill on that praying mantis camouflage.”

“It’s really useful,” Davis said, pulling the bow taunt and releasing another arrow, one of the unenchanted ones this time. “Scent is still a problem, but there are cheap alternatives for that and surprisingly few monsters rely on it.”

“So, when are you coming over for lunch? Mom keeps bothering me and I know my sister would love to hear you bragging.”

“Hey, I’ll have you know there’s no bragging involved, I’m just that good!” Davis snorted when he saw Eric’s flat look, then shrugged. “Maybe next week. I’m the new guy, getting them to give me leave is like pulling teeth.”

Shooting one last arrow, Davis hit the target exactly through the middle of its head, the shaft piercing all the way to the fletching despite not being enhanced. Resting the bow on the wall, he went to gather his arrows back.

Stretching, Eric covered his leg again, then grabbed his walking cane and stood up, moving with a small limp.

When those moths assaulted his team during the dungeon break, they used a form of skill-enhanced ultrasonic wave, the attack as powerful as any modern sonic weapon, leaving everyone involved in terrible conditions.

Eric himself had suffered a lot of burns on his muscles and fat as they absorbed sound energy and heated up, some of his internal organs had been damaged and his tissues were filled with cavitation, causing damage at a cellular level all over his body.

However, his armor had still blocked the worst of the damage, except for his leg, where the acid from one of the locusts had forced him to remove it.

Modern medicine saved his leg, but it wasn’t enough for a complete recovery. There were options except, they weren’t exactly affordable so, while the rest of the trainees earned enough to Awaken, Eric couldn’t.

A crippled Awakened was almost useless, and a useless Awakened was just bait for monsters, their increased levels of mana attracting even those born outside a dungeon. 

“You know, I’ve been talking to some people,” Davis said as he grabbed his bow and stored it in a briefcase.

“You do like to talk…” Eric said as he waited by the exit.

“Shut up, I mean, I talked with a guy who knows a guy,” Davis commented, walking out of the shooting range with him. “It’s not certain, but there may be a way to…”

“Caleb, you do remember what happened the last time you found a guy, right?” Eric asked with a tired voice. He certainly wouldn’t be forgetting it anytime soon.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to have his leg fixed; but it had been over a year and a half now, he had tried just about everything. The kind of money needed for full healing was beyond what even a Tier 2 could easily afford.

“Hey, I learned my lesson, this guy is on the level,” Davis said as he paid for the time at the cash register. “Look, if it doesn’t work, there’s always options. Now that I’ve got a team, I should be able to hit Tier 2 in a month or so, I can probably get the money for a treatment then.”

Eric gave his friend a complicated look but eventually released a long breath. “Fine, talk with your guy, but if he tries to kidnap me or something, I want you to know I blame you.” 

Watching his friend leaving, Eric took a moment to look at the city, it was no longer just a signal city, existing simply to protect a communication tower from wild monsters. He could barely believe how much it had grown in so little time. 

Only a year and a half ago, the city center had been reduced to rubble by the dungeon break, so much so they had to demolish everything in several blocks to start over. Now, the location of the Tier 2 dungeon had been turned into a park, with a government guard controlling the underground entrance 24/7, but everything besides that became premium real estate.

From where he stood, Eric could see 4 new high-rise buildings under construction, as well as another 12 that were already finished. Even the shooting range he worked for was new, recently built to cater to the large wave of delver hopefuls and support personnel.

He liked the changes, it made him feel like he wasn’t in the back end of nowhere anymore. It also made finding a new job much easier even for someone in his state, one that could still be useful later, after he got rid of his damn leg.

Once it was clear just how expensive healing his leg was going to be, the Red Legion had chosen to pay him a ‘generous’ compensation and release him from the contract. He could have fought for something better, but Eric’s own house had been damaged by the Dungeon break and his family was left in a bad situation, so he took the money.

It had been enough to secure them a temporary new house, awaken his sister, and even enroll her in an Awakened academy for a year or two, until she came of age and could start delving herself.

The rest he had been saving, putting every spare coin he made aside to, one day, afford the surgery to amputate his leg and substitute it with a fitting prosthetic. 

From research, an enhanced prosthetic was the cheapest alternative to his problem, but it was still ridiculously expensive and would leave him at a disadvantage when delving no matter how good the enhancement.

Still, it was a disadvantage he could work with. From there he could earn far more money, make connections, and maybe, if he was lucky, even get a regeneration skill from a core.

Turning around, he limped back inside and logged in for work, giving Sarah at the cash register a wave as he walked into the back rooms.

“You’re late,” Ethan complained, looking up from his own work.

“Nope,” Eric denied the grumpy old man. “5 minutes early, actually.”

Turning towards the clock on the wall, Ethan huffed, then cracked his neck. “Fine, I guess you’re not bad for a kid.”

Nodding, Eric reached his desk, groaning as he saw his work for the day. He didn’t have any classes and needed to oversee the production of 1,000 rounds of .650 Tier 1 ammo for one of the newer delver teams, he also had to hand load 50 Tier 2 subsonic rounds.

Subsonic ammo was a pain to reload and, with Tier 2, the shop couldn’t afford even a minor mistake, he’d have to use the single-stage press for that, taking far too much time to finish every cartridge.

He didn’t hate hand-loading ammo, but spending an entire workday doing it would be fucking annoying.

“Do we still have Tier 1 bullets in stock?” Eric asked, standing over his desk with a frown. “I thought we had used all of them yesterday.”

“Let me see that,” Ethan asked, pointing at his orders. “Huh, Harry’s having you handle Tier 2 already?” he said, impressed, then continued. “Nevermind. No, we don’t have anything left, I’ll have to cast some later.”

“Guess I’ll start with the Tier 2’s then,” Eric just shrugged, grabbing the materials to start working.

“Kid, you were support for the Red Legion, right? How was your mana sensitivity?”

“Trainee, actually,” Eric corrected, then tried to remember that particular lesson. “I was second place in my class, but I don’t know how well that compares to the rest of the support troops.”

To ever get into the training program, Eric had to show some ability with sensing mana, but he wasn’t exactly a genius, at least not enough to Awaken without external help.

“Tell you what, I’m swamped today and can’t seem to hire an enhancer worth a damn in this city. So here’s the deal: I’ll send you a mana control exercise and you’re free to go once you finish those Tier 2 rounds. Tomorrow, we’ll see if I can teach you how to make those Tier 1 bullets. They’re cheap enough to replace if you fuck up a batch anyway.”

Shit, the old man must be in a really good mood, Eric had been bothering him about enhancing ever since getting the job 7 months ago and the man had always refused. “Thanks, boss, I won’t waste this.”

In a hurry, Eric pulled the precision scales closer to his desk, then grabbed the box of empty brass cases, all of them already cleaned and properly prepared. He still inspected them, then checked the exact data of the client’s gun before getting to work.

Subsonic rounds needed a lot of calculations, using heavier bullets and less powder to keep the projectile just under the speed of sound while still retaining its power, they were the kind of thing Davis would appreciate, making far less noise than an average bullet to help with stealth.

At some point, Ethan left for his lunch break, but Eric decided to skip it and finish his round earlier, he was already halfway done by that point anyway.

Between depriming, resizing, cleaning the burr, repriming, measuring the powder and finally pressing the bullet, every single cartridge took him between 3 to 5 minutes, but he still finished in under 4 hours, only half of his working hours.

Checking his phone before leaving, Eric saw his Boss had already sent him a document with the mana exercise. Davis had also sent him an invitation to a chat group with his own delver team.

He accepted the invitation, still marveling at how useful the little device had become since Astrolabs had managed to re-establish an internet connection with their satellites three years ago.

Logging off from work, Eric walked to his old, used car, cane tapping against the floor in a steady rhythm, then stepped inside and drove off, moving towards the edge of the city where their new house was.

Technically, Eric did earn enough money to get a place of his own but, until he managed to get that prosthetic, he was staying with his mother and sister, only helping with the bills and sharing the housework.

On the way back, his stomach started to loudly complain, growling at him as if angry, so he stopped at a coffee shop and bought a sandwich, taking the chance to read the mana exercise.

It was a little more complicated than the ones he learned in school, focusing entirely on moving ambiental mana without losing energy, not trying to absorb it to Awaken, but it didn’t seem too hard.

Taking a sip of coffee, he closed his eyes and felt for the mana around him, it was kinda like trying to sense the very air, ever-present but almost impossible to sense unless it was already moving.

He was a little rusty but, after a few minutes, he felt the warm sensation that he always associated with ambient mana during the day. 

Taking in a breath, he pictured drawing in that energy, having it move through his body and into his center of gravity as he was taught. As always, the vast majority escaped as he released a breath, and the rest would flow away shortly after.

Were he more talented, he may have been able to gather enough mana to reach critical mass, awakening his body without the need for monster meat, much less cores, but only one in every 30 thousand had that kind of gift for mana.

Then he shifted exercises, having the mana move through his body unimpeded and flow out through his hands, doing the exercise for almost 35 minutes before he thought he got the gist of it. 

When he lifted his coffee to take another sip, he noticed the liquid was actually hotter than before he started but, unfortunately, the taste had been utterly ruined. With a sigh, Eric paid for his meal and finally made his way home.

Parking in the small driveway, he took a second to grab his cane since it had fallen between the seats, then stepped out into the street. Surprisingly, his leg wasn’t bothering him, maybe because he didn’t spend the full 8 hours working this time.

Turning the key, Eric was almost touching the doorknob when he noticed it. There was something different in the house.

Yesterday, he wouldn’t have noticed anything but, having just spent half an hour reviewing mana exercises, his sensibility was heightened, letting him feel an increase in mana density at his house, one big enough to generate a flow of mana like a gentle breeze.

His heart started pounding on his chest and he took a step back, drawing the heavy caliber revolver from his waist and immediately releasing the safety. Thankfully, it would be hours before his family came back, but he couldn’t exactly call the police.

What would he say, that he just ‘felt’ something was wrong? No, the increase in mana density could be any number of things, from a coincidence to something from his sister’s Awakened school she hadn’t warned him about.

Heck, it could have been in the house for days and he only noticed now because of the exercise.

Resting his cane against the outside wall, he ignored the pain in his leg and crept towards the window, keeping out of view and as quiet as possible. Slowly, he peeked through the curtains but didn’t see anything inside.

Shit, was he being too paranoid? His family didn’t really have any enemies and, while they didn’t live in the best neighborhood, he’d never heard of break-ins either, not since the dungeon break.

Going back to the door, he pushed it open, then readied his weapon and slowly walked inside, finger never leaving the trigger.

Something large moved in the living room, attracted by the movements despite him doing his best to remain quiet. 

The creature was humanoid, its head looked like a deer skull with backward-facing antlers with pulsating red eyes that had no pupils. Two sets of arms hang loosely from its skeletal thin body that barely fit into the house, forcing it to walk with its back bent, all four clawed hands almost touching the ground.

The first heavy caliber, armor-piercing round hit it straight on the forehead but just bounced off, opening a hole through the second floor, and, before Eric could shoot again, the creature moved, far, far faster than even the Tier 2 insects he had faced.

Throwing himself to the side, Eric somehow dodged one grasping hand and pulled the trigger again, but the creature was simply too fast, adjusting before he hit the ground and pushing his weapon to the side, the bullet going wide.

Grabbing him by the throat with a second hand, the monster lifted him in the air and used a third hand to immobilize his remaining free arm, then pulled him closer to its skeletal mouth, releasing a huff of air that blew his hair back.

Eric fully expected to be hit with the fetid smell of the creature’s former victims, but its breath was oddly scentless, then he noticed something moving under its skull as if a dozen blood-red snakes were slithering inside its very skin.

Trying to get a grip on the creature’s arms, Eric used his good leg to kick its crotch with as much strength as he could manage, but it did less than nothing against the creature’s tough hide.

“Well, this is unfortunate,” said a deep male voice from the second floor. “Bring him into the living room. Gently.”

Hearing that, the creature released his throat, letting him fall back into the ground, his entire weight landing on his crippled leg and making him release a grunt of pain. Then it dragged him forward.

Knowing it was useless, Eric didn’t even try to resist, he just did his best to move along with the creature without damaging himself further, keeping the gun ready but out of view.

Unlike a monster, even high-tier humans were vulnerable to high-caliber firearms, or at least most of them. The catch was, if he somehow managed to kill whoever was controlling this beast… Well, there would be nobody controlling the beast.

Again, he sighed, realizing that even if whoever was inside his house had bad intentions, he’d probably not use the gun. 

Taking his killer down with him sounded quite good, but there was no guarantee that the monster would leave the house after that, and Eric would rather just die than risk it staying until his family was back.

Stepping into the living room, he saw an Awakened wearing a black bodysuit looking at his bookshelf, he wore a simple sword at his side and a metallic heater shield on his back, but only briefly glanced up when he entered, unnerving dead eyes meeting his own and turning away without any interest, he seemed more lost than bored.

Coming down from the second floor, the owner of the voice gave him a polite smile. “I apologize for the inconvenience, I’d have waited outside, but I do believe we’d have bothered the neighbors.”

Tall, the man wore a black turtleneck and gray blazer, his blonde hair was combed to the side and he would have looked perfectly normal were it not for his blood-red, pupil-less eyes that stared at Eric with interest.

“You have a beautiful family, Mr. Larsen, I wouldn’t want to bring them trouble by drawing too much attention,” the man said and Eric understood he wasn’t making a threat, but an honest compliment. Then he extended one hand. “I’m Declan O’Brien, it’s a pleasure to meet you, your friend says very good things about you.”

At that, Eric felt the corner of his eye twitch. “Goddamnit Davis! What have you gotten me into now?”

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1giJEDpbzug58u22T98g7IaaXcA-P944sTCmJa9SptLE/edit?usp=sharing