[Shrubley, the Monster Adventurer] Chapter 139 – An Old Friend

“This is the Dungeon Dimension?” Cal asked, looking around at the white walls and flooring. Pearlescent crystals embedded within the smooth, unknown material emitted a steady pale light. Whatever the structure was made from appeared to be a fusion between stone and bone.

There were no corners or edges anywhere except where the crystals were embedded. Instead, the flooring curved into the wall, pillars, even the ceiling. Multicolored crystalline grooves were sculpted into the floor in a contrasting angular design, though Cal could find no seams between the crystals and the bone-like material.

Shrubley studied the grooves of crystal which led off into various areas as if intended to be followed.

He could just imagine hundreds of thousands of feet shuffling through this grand palace on their way to various meetings and personal business.

Sourceless light permeated every curve of the surrounding architecture, banishing all shadows. They were inside, fully contained in whatever this expansive and grand structure was, and yet the illumination was as bright and clear as midday.

Shrubley turned to Miranda, wondering how she was doing. Fortunately, his teacher did not seem to be weakened by whatever this light was.

Even with his Light essence, Shrubley could not entirely discern its nature. It nagged at his senses, like a mystery begging to be solved. And yet it continuously eluded his inspection.

Shrubley directed his attention to his own body. His health, stamina and health, while already mostly full from that short rest, were being boosted from [Solar Synthesis] as if he was basking in full sunlight.

Quest Updated: Poisoning the Well

You have managed to not only befriend a Dungeon—an incredibly rare feat—but you have also claimed all cards necessary to access the Dungeon Dimension. All that remains is for you to gain access to the Central Layer.

Objectives complete:

Obtain an [Emerald Card]: 1/1

Obtain a [Scarlet Card]: 1/1

Obtain an [Ivory Card]: 1/1

Objectives remaining:

Access Central Layer: 0/1

Rewards:

[Mist Proficiency (Variable Grade)]

Monster Accolades (Epic)

“We aren’t through yet,” Miranda said, looking around at the room.

Shrubley nodded. They had yet to access the Central Layer, whatever that was. Despite the warmth of the air, he felt cold. As if somebody was watching him intently.

It made him uncomfortable.

“You feel it too?” Cal asked.

“Mhm,” Shrubley said, making sure his sword and shield were at the ready. Something was wrong here.

It was beginning to bother Shrubley just how easy the last Dungeon was. All the others put up a struggle, but leaving a kobold in charge? That seemed like rank incompetence, and until that point, their adversary seemed to be learning.

So why the sudden change?

Shrubley didn’t have any answer beyond: it was simply luck. They were not meant to find the Dungeon so soon. Without Secundus, finding Clocktown, and Remal’s lucky coin, it would have been impossible.

That seemed like a lot of random events that needed to line up just to make it possible.

Sose stuck his muzzle into the air, sniffing. The oppa shook his head, then raised his paw, casting a Fantasy essence protection upon the party. The paint-like mana puddled around Shrubley’s feet and speckled the edges of his leaves with blues, purples, and reds.

He could feel his magical defense sharply raise. Looking around, he saw a similar effect upon the others.

There were many doors, all made from a latticework of crystal and that bone-like substance. No matter how hard any of them tried, none of the doors would open.

Even Miranda, with her High Steel strength, was at a loss.

Behind them, the main doors were firmly barred and shut.

Something wondrous was out there, Shrubley was sure of it, but they were not going to find out without going deeper first.

From the glittering crystalline lines set into the floor, it became obvious that they were meant to march down the long hallway toward another large door at the opposite end.

They passed doors evenly spaced to either side, broken up by smooth white pillars. Shrubley counted at least 30 doors, and he had the sneaking suspicion that this was only the smallest fraction of the palace’s size.

Unlike the other doors that refused to budge, the large door at the other end faded away as soon as they approached.

Everybody stopped just before the entrance. Shrubley turned around and looked down the wide corridor. The colorful painted footsteps they left behind gradually faded away as he watched.

“I do not like this,” Miranda said, a faint gray haze rolling off her shoulders.

Shrubley joined her with his Bronze aura, and even Slyrox added her Copper aura to the group’s strength before they marched into the next room.

The room they found themselves in contained that same sourceless light where the light of such small crystals should never have been able to reach. The same smooth bone-white walls and angular crystals adorned this room.

The difference was in the width of the room, and its massive height.

Its ceiling was at least 200 feet up in the air, easily visible, but with no traps, balconies, or anything that would trigger anybody’s alarm as they walked inside fully. And it was at least half as wide.

Unlike the hallway beyond, this room had dozens of pillars that resembled organic flying buttresses. Normally, Miranda would have expected assassins or monsters to be hiding within their shadows, but there were none. The omnipresent light made that impossible.

A curious design painted onto the white flooring lit up as the last person entered the room. The doors faded back behind and ahead of them, locking them into the room.

“Spread out,” Miranda told them, she took a low crouch and ratcheted up her Steel aura another degree. The hair on the back of her neck was standing on end.

And for good reason.

The middle of the floor split in half around that circular design and something rose up through the magical lift. Carried on a flat white disc, a creature of bizarre proportions appeared within the room.

Shaped like a vase with intricate designs all over it, the creature was clearly a golem of some design. Made of pale white stone like the room, its designs lit up with a blue pulse of mana.

Sensing imminent danger, Shrubley was glad for the potions Konko and Smudge crafted for them. There were still a few left over from the kobold’s Dungeon.

Sose’s Fantasy essence barrier was a comforting presence. It pulsed with incredible power, beyond anything Shrubley had experienced so far.

So this is the power of a Steel!

No sooner had the light blossomed on the creature than Shrubley felt a fearsome power. Thankfully, there seemed to be no actual aura. But he could sense the golem’s strength to be so far beyond his that it made his mind blank with terror.

Even Miranda’s normally imperturbable features slacked with horror as she realized the truth of what they were facing.

“Yes, my dear old friend,” said a smooth and silky voice. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.

Miranda’s fear was replaced in an instant by rage. “Alaster!”

“Miranda, so good of you to come, but I’m afraid your usefulness is finally at an end,” drawled Alaster’s voice. “You have done us a great service in bringing about the one we seek, so I’ll let you run away now like you did all those years ago. You never could stand to fight a losing battle, so just run along now with my thanks and be grateful I don’t want to bother destroying you.”

Miranda’s mind worked feverishly to understand what was going on. Finally, she figured it out. “You want Shrubley.”

“Very good!” Alaster laughed. “That saves me a lot of explanation. You know I always did hate to monologue.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

Shrubley looked at the strange pot-like creature as it hung suspended a few feet above the white floor as if frozen in space. “I do not get it,” he admitted.

“Me neither,” Smudge added.

“You do not need to,” Alaster told him. “Now, you have all of 5 seconds until I seal you in again. Once those doors close, if your name isn’t Shrubley, you’ll be dead. Ta!”

Miranda drew a weapon that she had not used in a very long time. A long, thin rapier of pale shadow coalesced in her waiting hand. The thrusting sword glittered maliciously in the sourceless light, radiating the tremendous power of a Steel weapon.

Sose began to use his Fantasy mana, but Miranda put a free hand on his head. “No, Sose. You need to protect Shrubley. This is not a fight we can win. It was a trap all along. I did not see it. The only thing that matters is you get Shrubley out of here, okay?”

Torn, Sose looked between his mistress and the monster adventurers. Nodding, he leapt from her shoulders to Shrubley’s leaves. With dexterous paws, he found cover within his auxiliary branches.

He dooked with surprise, seeing the elder glowbug familiar asleep within a small nest of molded twigs.

Shrubley looked over at her. “I am not going to leave you behind, Countess!”

Miranda didn’t bother to answer. She moved so fast that Shrubley hardly saw it coming. With a casual backhand, she knocked Shrubley into the open doorway and out into the hallway beyond.

Shrubley’s friends soon arrived in various forms, rolling and tumbling out of the doorway. Shrubley did not understand what that would do. The golem might not be able to get at them–it was larger than the doorway–but they were just as trapped.

Just like that voice wanted.

Cal was on his feet first, he triggered [Hide], and using the enhanced movement speed barreled toward the door.

It flashed shut a moment before he reached it, cutting off the Countess from the rest of them.

From their side of the door, they could hear the groaning of stone on stone and the bright clanging sound of steel on steel. The sounds came much too fast to track. It sounded as if one long ringing note came from the other side of the doors.

Shrubley pounded on the opaque crystalline door, trying to get in. “Countess, don’t do this!”

Sose let out a mournful howl. It broke Shrubley’s heart. It was too much like when they lost Cluckley.

***

“Just me and you now,” Miranda said, drawing Blood essence into the tip of her [Shadowsteel Rapier]. “I don’t know what you want with Shrubley, but I’m not going to let you have him.”

The golem shifted, stretching out until two long pillars of the same white material appeared to either side like massive arms. They were etched with glowing intricate blue patterns identical to the body piece.

Miranda had rarely felt this power in her life. This thing, though it did not seem capable of using auras, was at least Low Silver. She didn’t stand a chance, even with her High Steel aura maxed out and all the tricks she had… she knew this was not a fight she could win.

But I can hurt it, she thought, enough that maybe Shrubley can escape. She looked back at the crystalline door. Shrubley’s voice was easily heard above the noise of the golem rushing toward her.

She met it with her rapier, the powerfully ensorcelled metal bent with the first blow, but it did not break. She dodged to the side to bleed off some of the momentum it imparted to her.

The weapon’s Bronze imprint rendered it effectively unbreakable, even against a higher ranked opponent. With that imprint coupled with its Iron imprint that greatly enhanced its piercing power, her [Shadowsteel Rapier] could damage even heavily armored foes with powerful defensive imprints.

Boots skidding on the white stone, leaving long black marks, the Countess summoned a red bar of concentrated bloody light from the tip of her rapier and struck out at one of the golem’s arms.

She put everything she had behind that [Sanguine Strike], her High Steel aura flaring for all it was worth, shimmering so close and yet so far from Silver.

The golem turned around and hovered toward her soundlessly. For all the damage her attack did, she might as well be a Copper.

Snarling, Miranda pumped more of her mana into her Steel aura and launched herself at the creature. Despite its significant advantage in rank, it was an automaton.

It was not a living thing. She tested its speed, found it to be lacking compared to the few Silvers she knew, and used that to her advantage.

Miranda ducked and weaved, rolled under sweeping pillars that would have crushed her flat, and attacked for all she was worth. Minutes went by in the blink of an eye, but she knew deep down that there was no hope.

While her Steel aura directly amplified the effect of her stats, it still wasn’t nearly enough. The divide of power between Steel and Silver was too vast, even between a trained vampyr and a simple automaton.

The golem, however, was far from stupid. It feinted and anticipated her attacks with a growing awareness that made her question whether it was truly alive.

Her only chance to cause real harm was to pile her Steel aura into every attack. An ordinarily foolish tactic due to the exhaustion and the time it took. Most opponents would be able to stop such a blatantly telegraphed attack before it went off.

The golem was too slow. Her various essence abilities from both Blood and Shadow were beginning to create small hairline fractures in its otherwise perfect white facade.

I’m burning through my mana, she thought tiredly, dodging to the side as another pillar-sized arm swiped at her. Despite her size, she was far too fast for the golem.

Or so she thought.

Fatigued from expending so much mana and overusing her Steel aura, Miranda could not see the golem’s second arm in the shadow of the first. As she dodged and rolled beneath the first one, the second shifted position and came down hard.

Only her instincts saved her from becoming a dark stain on the white, pristine floor, but it wasn’t enough to stop her leg from breaking.

The Countess bit back a scream and rolled out of the way, but the golem did not chase her.

It was over.

Silver was too far a gap to bridge with skill and power alone. It felt like a cruel joke. She had chased Silver for so long, only to be defeated by a Low Silver herself.

“The Fates certainly like their irony,” she said, getting up slowly, favoring her good leg.