Chase and Carmine continued to walk through the dungeon, searching for an exit. To their dismay, they weren’t able to find one; the two of them kept wandering around, but all they found was Goblins.
“This sucks,” Chase lamented as he yanked his dagger’s blade out of a Goblin’s throat. Blood splashed against him, but he showed no reaction to it, instead simply wiping as much of it off as he could before sheathing his blade.
“It does,” Carmine confirmed with a nod. She was standing a ways away, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. Chase caught sight of her just standing there and frowned.
“Yeah, I’m just killing a bunch of Goblins,” he said. “Don’t help or anything.”
“Thanks, I won’t.”
“That was sarcasm, Carmine. Did they not have that in your volcano?”
Carmine glared at him. “Demons can be very sarcastic, I’ll have you know.”
“Oh, yeah? Give me one example.”
She paused. “...What, you mean off the top of my head?”
“Yes.”
Again, she paused. Chase leaned in. “I’m listening.”
“Shut up,” Carmine hissed. “This is a very specific thing to have to think about out of nowhere. Give me a moment, I’ll come up with something.”
“No need; I think I’ve made my point well enough.” Chase looked around the room they were in. They’d been wandering around for the better part of an hour, and yet they hadn’t even found a set of stairs leading anywhere. This floor seemed to stretch on for far longer than he would’ve initially thought, consisting of room after room filled with nothing but enemies. Mostly Goblins, which thankfully were easy to deal with, but there had been the occasional obvious Mimic here and there.
Naturally, they’d chosen to leave those alone.
“What are you looking for?” Carmine asked.
“Hells if I know,” Chase admitted. “At this point, I’m convinced we’ve been going in circles.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I mean, how else can you explain us walking around a single floor for an hour?”
“How do you know it’s been an hour?”
“What?”
“I mean… we can’t see the sun down here,” Carmine pointed out. “It’s entirely possible it’s only been like twenty minutes.”
“Or maybe it’s possible it’s been two hours.”
Carmine’s brow furrowed. “I was trying to be optimistic-”
“Try being the operative word there. You’re not very good at it.”
“Because I’m a Demon,” Carmine hissed. “Optimism isn’t exactly a racial trait of ours. That’s more your purview.”
“Yeah, well, watching my friends die one by one kinda snuffed that particular trait out.” Chase clapped his hands together. “So, let’s keep moving.”
“Which way?”
“Anywhere but here.”
Carmine rolled her eyes. “Remember when I said I wasn’t letting you make decisions anymore? This is one of those times. I’m taking the lead here.”
“Suit yourself, I guess,” Chase said with a shrug. “I have no real arguments against that. Not like you can make us more lost than we already are.” He paused. “Don’t go taking that as a challenge, either.”
“Oh, shut up,” Carmine replied. “Follow me, I’ll lead us out of here.”
“I thought you didn’t have optimism as a racial trait,” Chase said as she began walking.
Carmine’s only response was to flip him off, causing him to chuckle as he followed after her.
XXX
By some miracle, Carmine was actually able to lead them to a change of scenery after just fifteen minutes or so of walking, which Chase knew because he counted, and he was counting because he wanted to rub Carmine’s face in it when she got them more lost, but to his chagrin, that didn’t happen, so he was left incredibly disappointed when she turned to him with a smug look on her face.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” he said.
“Oh, I intend to later,” she said. “But for now, I’ll just lead us out of here.”
Carmine had led them to a staircase that went down. At the sight of it, Chase raised an eyebrow.
“Alright, not that I’m denying that this could be progress, but I just have to point out, the stairs here lead down,” Chase said.
“Yeah, so?”
“So when we first entered this Dungeon, that staircase led down as well,” he reminded her. “So the odds of this staircase actually leading us out of the Dungeon are slim to none.”
“Alright, so then go find your own staircase.”
Chase stared at her. “Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously,” Carmine insisted. “This is the first real bit of progress we’ve had in well over an hour. Maybe it gets us more lost, but at this point, I don’t care anymore. It’s not like it’ll make things worse than they are.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“You just said it might get us more lost.”
“That doesn’t necessarily mean things get worse.”
“This is a coping mechanism, isn’t it?”
Carmine hesitated. “...Alright, fine, it is. There, is that what you wanted to hear? I’m coping right now. But in my defense, I’m hungry and thirsty and just want out of this stupid Dungeon.”
“Well, if you’re hungry, I know where you can get some perfectly good Goblins-”
“Oh, fuck off,” she said. “You know what? Just for that, I’m getting more lost. Feel free to join me if you want, otherwise I don’t care.”
With that, she turned and began to descend the stairs. Chase let out a tired sigh, then followed after her, even though he figured this was just going to make things worse.
At first, against all odds, it seemed he was wrong – as they marched down the staircase, Chase caught sight of a bright light at the bottom. The two of them increased their pace, eventually ending up at the base of the stairs… where the wall suddenly closed behind them, sealing them off from the steps. The two of them jumped at the sound of it, and Chase let out a tired sigh as he saw they’d been cornered.
“Yup,” he said, “that’s about how I thought that was gonna go.”
“Shut up, you didn’t know that would happen,” Carmine retorted.
“How do you know? You can’t read minds.”
Carmine opened her mouth to respond, but wasn’t able to before evil-sounding laughter filled the room. Both of them tensed, drawing their daggers and holding them in front of themselves as they looked around the room. It was a large room, and very well-lit with a mixture of those yellow and red gems, but otherwise unassuming. The most striking part was the large golden orb at the back, hanging from the ceiling, as well as the big, ornate-looking golden throne in front of it, in which a figure clad in black armor was sitting. At first, Chase thought it was just a decoration or something, at least until the figure started to move.
“Well, well,” the figure said as he stood up, hefting a giant greatsword over his shoulder. “If it isn’t some more adventurers-”
He turned towards them and immediately paused. Chase and Carmine tensed even more, their grips on their weapons turning white-knuckled, yet the figure refused to move. Instead, he tilted his head, confused.
“Hey, uh… where are your parents?” he asked.
Chase blinked. “What?”
“Your parents,” the big man in black, intimidating-looking armor said. “A Dungeon is no place for two kids, you know.”
Again, Chase blinked. He turned towards Carmine, who shrugged, seemingly just as confused as he was. Chase’s brow furrowed, and he turned back to the figure.
“Okay, clearly this is a weird one for all of us,” Chase offered. “But to answer your question… we don’t have parents.”
“We’re orphans,” Carmine added.
The man in armor stared at them. “...Uh-huh. So, no parents, no guardians?”
“Nope,” Chase replied.
“No babysitters?”
“Nuh-uh.”
Again, the man paused. “...You mean you got through the Dungeon on your own?”
“That we did.”
He fell silent once more. After a moment, he sighed, then brought a hand up to rub at the top of his helmet.
“...I know this is supposed to just be a beginner Dungeon, but come the fuck on…” he muttered. “Seriously, two kids? What am I doing with my life?”
Chase and Carmine exchanged yet another look.
“Hey, buddy,” Chase called out, getting the man’s attention. “Are we supposed to fight you?”
“Generally speaking, yes,” he said to them. “I mean, I’m the Dungeon Keeper – fighting you is my job.”
“Really? Is that how it works?”
“Oh, yes. Either you fight me and win, in which case I get spat out by the Dungeon Core again after a day or two, or I win and I kill you both… or, given that this is a beginner’s Dungeon, I just let you go and tell you to come back after taking a level in badass or something.”
“Uh-huh,” Carmine deadpanned. “You don’t sound too enthused about it.”
“Because this job is boring!” the heavily-armored man lamented. “Seriously, all I do is sit on my throne and look intimidating all damn day! Occasionally, I fight someone and lose. Less occasionally, I win.” He let out a tired sigh. “I just want my contract to be up, man. I’m like ten defeated adventurers away from getting out of here and becoming an adventurer again.”
“Why would you agree to this in the first place?” Chase asked.
“Because the Goddess promised me three Levels upon signing of the contract and three more once I finished it. I’d have to be an idiot not to accept that deal. You know what my job was before this? I was a chef… but I always yearned for adventure, so when the Goddess came knocking, I said yes.” He let out another sigh. “I’ve been here for two years. I’m bored of it now. I just want to go home.”
“Then why aren’t you taking an easy win and defeating us?” Carmine questioned.
“Because you’re two kids?” he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I’m not gonna fight two kids just because it’d be an easy win. Seriously, that’s just wrong. I may technically be a villain, but that doesn’t mean I have to be a bad guy.”
Chase gave Carmine a sideways glance, which she returned with a glare of her own.
The armored man let out another sigh. “Look, I’ll cut you both a deal… I don’t particularly want to fight either of you, and I also don’t want word getting out that my Dungeon is easy and apparently getting easier. So, here it is – I’ll give you some better gear and get you back to the entrance if you promise to keep quiet about my Dungeon being easy as shit. Sound like a deal?”
Chase shrugged. “Sure. I mean, I don’t see why not.”
“Perfect. Wait here.”
With that, the man in black disappeared behind his throne. Chase heard him rummaging around for a few seconds before he came back holding a piece of gear for each of them.
“Here,” he said, laying them on the floor a short ways away. “A short sword for the warrior, and a catalyst staff for the mage. Not the best pieces of gear, I’ll admit, but certainly better than what you’ve both got now, and I’m not authorized to give out the really good stuff, anyway.”
Chase took a step forward, but hesitated. “You know, I was told not to accept gifts from strangers-”
“Oh, ha-ha,” the armored man deadpanned. “Just take it. And once you have, I’ll get you out of here.”
Carmine, for her part, immediately picked up the catalyst staff, then tossed Chase the sheathed sword, which he caught. No sooner had he caught the sword than did the armored man snap his fingers, and another swirling black vortex opened up underneath them, which swallowed them both up as they yelped.
Of course, it only lasted for a few seconds before the vortex dumped them right back at the start of the dungeon. Chase blinked as he picked himself up off the ground.
“Well, that was easy,” he said. “Carmine, you good?”
“As good as can be, I suppose,” she replied, rising to her feet. “We at the entrance?”
“It would seem that way.”
“Good. Let’s get the fuck out of here. I want to give Leon a piece of my mind, and my foot up his ass.”
“That might just be the most agreeable thing you’ve ever said,” Chase told her as the two of them headed for the entrance and stepped outside.
XXX
Name: Chase Ironheart
Level: 2
Race: Human
Class: Warrior
Subclass: Swordmaster
Strength: 19
Dexterity: 15
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 13
Constitution: 17
Charisma: 16
Skills: Master Swordsmanship (Level 10); Booby Trap Mastery (Level 8)
Spells: Rush (Level 1); Defying The Odds (Level 1)
Traits: Blessed
Name: Carmine Nolastname
Level: 2
Race: Greater Demon
Class: Arcane Witch
Subclass: Archmage
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 13
Intelligence: 18
Wisdom: 18
Constitution: 9
Charisma: 8
Skills: Master Spellcasting (Level 10); Summon Familiar (Level 10)
Spells: Magic Dart (Level 1); Magic Scattershot (Level 1)
Traits: Blessed
