- ORIS DUNGEONS -
The first image that came into the minds of ordinary people when they heard the word 'Dungeon' was perhaps a horrible torture chamber where criminals, and sometimes monsters were kept locked up.
'That was a part of the truth,' Darrel pondered to himself as he trailed behind his recently formed party.
In short, a dungeon was a place where people did not want to end up.
'Ordinary folks perhaps,'
Gamers, on the other hand, craved dungeons, for them, it was a chance to level up, kill monsters that drop loot, and eventually uncover the special treasure that lay deep within the dungeon.
"Keep up Spell-less wizard!" Greyan bellowed. "We are in this mess because of you."
The loud and hoarse voice came from the self-proclaimed wyvern slayer Greyan, he walked ahead of the party, as Orimik followed close behind the large man with his arms folded carefree of their dreary surroundings, Luca was right in front of Darrel who trailed at the back of the group.
"Bloody oaf," Darrel muttered as he paced his stride to keep up with the party.
• • •
Earlier at dawn, the prison guards had abashed them with another noisy performance by banging the cell bars with their maces, and just as the guard from the other day had stated, they would now begin 'Dungeon Mining'.
Their group was led down a spiral of stairways that led to a deeper part of the prison, the guards called this place the 'Ingress' of Oris which led to the monster-infested chambers of the mountain.
The real Dungeon of Oris.
Outside the Ingress were piles of armors and weapons that were stashed after every dungeon mining.
Darrel and his party were allowed to pick a set of armor that was still in decent condition, and any weapon that worked for them. The gear was all in bad shape and it took the guard's persistence nagging to get them to choose quickly.
Greyan had grabbed an old steel longsword and a wooden shield to help the protection of his battered armor, which was a worn-out cuirass held together by the last threads.
Orimik took a short sword accompanied by a ranger's bow, most of the armor he found did not fit him so he settled for a leather jacket. Luca on the other hand chose two daggers from the pile and chose not to wear any armor stating that he did not need it.
In the end, it was Darrel who came last, everyone's eyes were fixated on him as he examined the piles.
'Everyone is watching me, and I wasn't expecting it to be this soon.' Darrel thought to himself. 'I don't know any spells, and my only combat experience is my mental simulations of hand-to-hand combat.'
Darrel eyed one particular staff with a shallow blue orb at its tip, it appeared like the only decent staff on the pile, this was mostly due to the lack of mages in Oris he assumed.
He picked the stave up, but before he could move on to the pile of armor a peculiar blade suddenly caught his eye.
"Is that…" Darrel noted the slick short blade. "A wakizashi."
A short version of the Katana, the Wakizashi had laid deep within the pile it was strange no one else had picked it up since it looked to be in such great condition.
Darrel holstered the short blade around his waist with the rope that was attached to its scabbard then proceeded to pick one of the darkest robes from the pile of armors it had shredded edges as though it had gone through a meat grinder.
"This will do just fine."
"A staff and a blade? At least you know how to equip yourself now will see how you fight." Orimik murmured as they walked through towards Ingress.
"You are as spell-less as you are choice-less," Greyan commented. "Slow me down and I will feed you to the Jackhoppers."
"Jack what?"
"Prisoners!"
A guard in heavy armor called out from the Ingress, the group was escorted to the entrance and stood in a queue. The guard waiting at the Ingress held a scroll in one of his hands, when the group settled he raised the scroll to his face and then read out it aloud.
"For crimes against Moriandia and the Empire, you Greyan, Orimik, Luca, and Dar-rel have been sentenced to redeem yourselves through Dungeon Mining in Oris." The guard bellowed. "If you are deemed worthy by the dungeon, you four will begin your expeditions for the next one hundred days until all minings have been accomplished."
The guard finished then rolled the scroll back, he walked towards the large threshold which was sealed by two large doors, and pulled out a crystal the size of his fist from his satchel.
"Open - Doorway!"
The crystal in his hand glowed brightly and immediately the enormous doors responded to his command and the ingress began to rumble until it was fully open.
Greyan took the first step as Luca and Orimik followed close behind, Darrel took a deep breath and then followed the group as they entered the first chamber of Oris.
Darrel opened his eyes to the sight of dusty silk webs covering the entire chamber of the first dungeon, husks of large insect exoskeletons, and empty eggshells littering the floor and walls of the chamber.
"Wow! What could have made all this? Spiders?"
"No, something a little bigger," Orimik responded.
"First chamber and we already dealing with Webcrawlers eh?" Greyan chuckled. "Oris is something else."
"Webcrawlers?" Darrel asked. "What are those?"
"A rare insect breed unique to Oris," Luca added. "It's very aggressive and known to frequently hunt mortals in these parts."
"So they are here?"
"No, we should encounter them in the midsection of the first chamber, most of them come here to shed their skin and dump some... remains."
After Luca stated this Darrel could now clearly see some mortal remains dangling on the webs, it seems that the lore behind the Webcrawlers was not exaggerated at all.
"Alright, let's go!"
Greyan beckoned to the group as he strolled ahead with an air of heavy authority on him.
Moments later, the group entered the second chamber of the first dungeon floor and in that place, they encountered the former owners of the husks they had found in the first chamber.
"So those are Webcrawlers? There are over a dozen of them and they are huge!"
"You quitting already quitting spell-less wizard?" Greyan chortled. "No wimps behind me Haaaa!"
Greyan lunged at the dog-sized critters swinging his longsword from left to right, sending chopped legs and green bile across the dungeon floor.
"Don't let them swarm you, their poison has a numbing effect but if too many get you…"
"Paralysis." Darrel finished Orimik's statement.
Orimik nodded then joined in the fray, Luca had already joined Greyan and was dashing around like a sugar-crazed toddler.
'This is it, Darrel. Don't be a coward!'
Darrel's thoughts reverberated in his mind, but before he could take a step forward, one of the webcrawlers that had been dashed by Greyan's shield jumped at him snapping at his feet.
"Gaaah!" Darrel waved his staff around in shock then smacked the webcrawler with the tip of his staff.
[Fizzt!]
A flash of Shock magic suddenly snapped at the attacking creature and immediately stunned it, Darrel had no idea what had occurred as he stared down at his staff in disbelief.
"So you can use a little magic," Luca stated gleefully.
"When did you get there? Never mind." Darrel raised the staff to his face and watched as the purple glow from the orb faded back to its shallow blue color. "I don't know what happened, all I did was wave the staff at the webcrawler, and when I hit it… that happened."
"Staves are known to hold powerful spells which you can not use without them," Luca explained. "I don't know if that is so with your staff, but it has something, and all that's left is its users will…"
"Will huh…"
Luca dashed back into the fray to kill off the remaining webcrawlers, Darrel stood on the spot for a moment before regaining his demeanor and joining the others.