A Soldier's Life - 335 - Back Door Problems (edited 1-28-25 +300 words)

Chapter 335: Back Door Problems

“Dark Descent,” Maveith offered. It wasn’t bad, as the trek down here was long. The problem was we would hopefully be able to find the dungeon exit, and no one else would have to make enter the way we had.

“Manticore’s End,” Navek said loudly and bitterly, and I shot him a dangerous look. That was too close to revealing to the dungeon why we were here.

“Why don’t we check a few other rooms before naming it? It will be a name that will stick with it for its entire life,” Konstantin offered slyly.

“Agreed,” I replied immediately. “Are these leaves edible?” Konstantin walked over to the bush I had been inspecting, picked one of the leaves, and chewed on it. Konstantin had a spell form that told him if flora were dangerous to consume.

Konstantin spat a wad of chewed leaves onto the rocky soil. “Yes, after the leaves are dried, they should make a decent  tart tea.” I nodded, thinking the leaves looked familiar from one of my books.

“Can you catch a few fish for me?” I asked Konstantin. He looked at the pool and shrugged with a nod. Maveith was harvesting the manticore. It was a healthy bull, and I left him to it while I produced a bag and started to snap branches off the bushes. If the leaves couldn’t be used in alchemy, I was guessing the tea would increase aether recovery slightly. I stripped twenty bushes of their leafiest branches, wrapped them tightly in a tarp, and sent them to my dimensional space.

Konstantin had caught one of the large fish. The yellow-bellied fish with long whiskers looked like a giant bullhead from Earth, maybe twenty pounds. It was probably just a snack for the manticore, as the blood-soaked, torn-up ground suggested that the large moles were its primary diet. Konstantin had to sever its spine so it wouldn’t flop around while I used the collector. The weak smoke coalesced into a minor endurance essence.

“It is true what they say about that collector then,” Konstantin said, his face impassive.

I knew what he meant. “Mostly true. It doesn’t give an essence from everything in a dungeon, but almost everything. Especially in a dungeon untouched like this one. I am surprised he didn’t delve dungeons all the time.”

“He probably didn’t like the idea of putting his life in danger. Durandus relied heavily on his company to shield himself in battle. Since dungeons limit the number who can enter, he probably thought the risk too great,” Konstantin said thoughtfully.

“Huh, what a waste.” I tossed the essence to Konstantin, “You can have half of what you catch.” He frowned at my generous work incentive but nodded. “Where’s Navek?” I asked, not seeing the other goliath.

Maveith gestured with his bloody hands, “He went to explore the next room.” I thought the hunter was smart enough not to try the room alone. Then again, it was his first dungeon, and he was anxious to end it.

“I am going to check on him,” I said, walking toward the brightly lit passage.

The walls and floor were smooth, continuous stone, but the ceiling was a luminescent white. Maybe a glowstone, but not as bright as the bright one dominating the large chamber I was coming from. I turned back to look at that glowstone, it was the brightest non-artificed glowstone I had ever seen. Getting up that high up safely would be difficult, but it would be a nice addition to my collection.

I walked down the corridor, my boots clicking on the floor. My earth pulses showed everything as being solid stone and earth around me. I might have been tickling the dungeon senses because I felt some pressure on my mind fortress. Was the dungeon trying to tell me to stop? I didn’t want to anger it at the moment, so I switched to sending out infrequent pulses.

The corridor turned slightly, and I saw Navek standing at the entrance to the next room. I didn’t hide my approach, walking louder to let him know I was coming. As I did this, I topped off my aether shield amulet. I stood beside Navek and looked into a dense jungle room beyond. It was so thick that I could hardly see the walls, so judging how big the room was difficult.

Heavy droplets fell from the ceiling, creating a light mist in the room and the illusion of rain. From a distance, I recognized many of the flowering plants from my local books. This vegetation was similar to that on the island, just more concentrated. “What have you observed?” I asked.

Navek turned to me slowly, “Two black jungle cats, but maybe more.” I stared into the thick vegetation and slowly moved my line of sight upward among the taller trees. Crouched on one of the branches was a large black panther with yellow eyes, studying us—waiting for us.

I gave up. “Where’s the other one?” I asked, and Navek pointed to a barely noticeable tail swaying slowly deep within the vegetation. We stared into the room together for half an hour, the cats patiently waiting, unmoving. I decided it was best to enter the room as a group.

“Join us back in the manticore room. We can tackle this together after resting,” I informed the goliath hunter. Reluctantly, he returned with me. I knew he wanted to find the dungeon core as quickly as possible, but we had no idea where it might be.

On returning, I walked the perimeter of the manticore room, pulsing my earth speak as I went. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but this room seemed to be a dead end, or perhaps the final room, so maybe the dungeon core was somewhere in this chamber. The walls were solid, and the only disconcerting thing I found was we were being sealed in. The wall we had come through was now five feet and still getting thicker. At least I did not get the feeling that the dungeon was upset with my earth speak pulses any longer.

I didn’t tell my companions because it wasn’t important at the time, and perhaps the dungeon wasn’t aware that I was mapping the outer walls. Voicing it aloud would alert the dungeon to what I was doing. I could always use my dimensional space to create a tunnel rapidly if we needed to escape.

Maveith called me over to store his manticore parts. I stopped by Konstantin, who had two more large fish suffocating on land. I severed the spines and used the collector on both, getting the same lesser endurance essence. “I think there are four more left,” Konstantin said as he prepared his line for another cast. I walked up to the pool and looked in. The fish swam with the glowing backdrop.

I looked up, and the bright glowstone was directly over the pool. I looked back into the pool and then up again. Could the dungeon core be hiding behind that bright, massive glowstone? Was this like a koi pond for it? Maybe the dungeon core was that glowstone.

I directed a question at Maveith across the pool, “How long have we been in here?”

“Eight hours or so,” he said while cleaning the blood off his arms in the pond. The fish did not react to the blood, instead remaining feeding near the bottom.

I surveyed my companions. “We are leaving for the next room. I want to find a safe room so we can sleep there.” All attention turned to me as I explained what was in the next room. Konstantin got a fourth fish, bringing the essence total to four. He kept two, and I gave Raelia and Maveith one. I gave one last glance at the glowstone in the ceiling. We would be back, but I wouldn’t explore my theory until we had enough channeling essences for Castile. First, we needed to find a safe room to rest.

The jungle room wasn’t particularly challenging. There were only two panthers inside, both large and strong males. The only challenge was the room dimmed to almost darkness when I entered. I quickly channeled aether to my eyes, and the black spear, Heartseeker, dealt with the one that lunged at me from the underbrush. Konstantin tossed his glowstone from his pocket quickly, and Maveith’s hammer crushed the skull of the other, jumping down from the trees. These were not magical creatures, just formidable predators and much larger than the ones we had encountered on the island.

The chamber returned to prior illumination, and when we found another ornate reward chest, we relaxed and explored the room more thoroughly. The cats were apparently eating large rats that nested underground. They were too difficult to catch, but I told everyone to kill them if the opportunity arose to utilize the collector. The chest had a bed of silver and two potions inside. My mastery of runic script was sufficient to identify both of them—a major healing potion and a potion of invisibility.

The group looked at me expectantly. “A major healing potion,” I started, and they all looked appreciatively at the vial I held. “This other is an invisibility potion.”

“A dungeon invisibility potion—perfect invisibility. That is a kiss from Fortuna,” Konstantin said approvingly, showing some rare excitement.

“The invisibility should last an hour as long as you do not come into contact with another person,” Raelia informed the group helpfully. “You still need to be able to move quietly, leave no trace, and be aware of your smell, but they are treasured potions by the Rangers.”

“Maveith can hold the healing potion, and I will hold this,” I said, placing the invisibility potion in one of my belt pouches. I was apparently in charge of dividing up the loot as we progressed, and it made me more inclined to take less of a share, but if we found something that could help me, I would claim it. I was hoping we could stock up on the healing potions if we had to clear this room multiple times. I was not as enamored with the invisibility potion as I was with the healing potion. A major healing potion could bring a person near death back to the living.

Besides the pelts of the cats, there was nothing else of value to harvest from the creatures, so I made to explore the room. While I was exploring the flora, Raelia used the collector on the cats. I was slightly surprised when they only yielded major essences of power. Based on my experience in the Shimmering Labyrinth, I would have guessed they would be apex essences for the first kill. Then I remembered that the dungeon reduced the rewards if you attempted rooms with a large party. I awarded one of the essences to Maveith and the other to Navek. Then, I stored the collector in my dimensional space.

It was Navek’s first time consuming an essence. He knew what they were, but they were extremely rare in the islands. Maveith took him aside to explain what to expect and the long-term benefits of consuming the full array of physical essences.

While I was inspecting a large yellow flower filled with sweet-smelling water, Konstantin reported. “The chamber is about fifty paces across. There is only one exit, and the corridor turns to the left. Do I have permission to scout it?”

I did a double-take. Konstantin was asking for permission. It had me on guard. Was this a test? Was he deferring to my stellar leadership? “Take one of the others with you. I shouldn’t have to tell you, not to enter the room.” He nodded and was soon heading off with Raelia.

I spent hours combing the dense foliage for flowers I could use in alchemy. I even pulsed my earth speak in an attempt to capture one of the rats. However, their burrows were deep, and our presence seemed to frighten them, so they never got close to the surface.

Konstantin and Raelia returned to report, “There is a safe room, but it does not have an exit from the dungeon.”

That made me very nervous. I re-examined my dungeon experiences, thinking. Raelia tried to clarify for me, “Some dungeons can only be accessed from the entry room. We just need to locate the first room of the dungeon to leave. It seems this is a linear dungeon, and we're just moving backward on the path of rooms.”

That made sense, and the next question was how many rooms we would need to clear. After we finished in the jungle room, we all headed to the safe room. It was a circular space with a single exit. A stream of water flowed from the ceiling into a hole in the floor, and there were four stone benches that I assumed could serve as sleeping places.

As we settled into the room, Konstantin sat down with me. “Did you notice?” He asked in his teaching voice.

“Yes,” I replied.

“What are you going to do about it?” he asked.

“We’ll figure it out when we find the exit.” There were only four places to sleep in this restroom, and there were five of us. Dungeons limited the number of people who could challenge them. I shared Konstantin's same worry; if one of us left, maybe the dungeon wouldn't let them return. Maybe it was a mistake to enter through the dungeon’s back door.

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