The City and the Dungeon Page 3

  Elise seemed to be expecting the comment. "That's why we asked everyone to bring their own gear."

  Mical gave me a look.

  "Um, this is embarrassing," I said. "But if any of you want to leave..."

  "Come on," Sampson said. "What better party are we going to find? If someone has more capital, they'll want someone other than ourselves." There were general nods of agreement, and I felt such relief. He took out a handful more crystals. Twelve red. "Why not?"

  Elise threw in a five and a one. "All Andy and I got. By the way, we'll need to go today. Can't afford tomorrow like this."

  "Same thing," Xavier said, and put out five red. "This is literally my entire wealth." I began to wonder if perhaps I had gotten a good deal from the money-changer.

  "I'll be honest," Luke said, and withdrew a red. "This is all I can contribute."

  "All right," Mical said, and set out two red. "I'll be honest, too. This is all I can contribute. Now, consumables. Non-negotiable, and we're going to need at least ten red's worth for each of us. I brought enough for five people."

  "That's twenty red on consumables alone," Xavier said.

  "That's an awful lot," I said.

  "It's non-negotiable," Mical said firmly. "When I was an apprentice, I saw wounds that were so awful it that it cost ten or even a hundred times more to heal than if they had been treated immediately with the proper herbs. Red now, or orange later, was our motto."

  "Can't we share, though?" Sampson asked, fidgeting with the clasp of his cloak. "We can't all be injured—"

  "Really? Will the Dungeon refuse to attack the rest of us if most of us are injured?" Mical asked, and laughed. It was more cute than irritated.

  "Yeah, let's not skimp on the consumables," I said. "Alternate question," I asked. "How much is retrieval insurance?"

  "We don't need it," Elise said. "Someone will stumble on our heartstones if we're wiped."

  "What about revival insurance?" I asked. "Or whatever it is that pays for a revival."

  "It's nothing we can afford," Mical said.

  "For a bunch of red delvers on their first trip?" Elise shook her head with an accustomed cynicism. "No insurance company in its right mind would insure us. Not for eight red. More like eight hundred. Or a few orange."

  "How cheap are weapons and the like?" I asked.

  "Black gear goes for several crystal," Elise said. "It's usually melted to make something, and the stuff that's left is overpriced by shopkeepers preying on delvers like us. Delver-made or outside gear? Depends on quality. Figure you're going to be spending fifty."

  "I'm sure you can find something," Mical said. "Just be careful what you spend."

  "I'll see if we can find a knife," Elise said. "I do have some good news." She took out a white magnifying glass, and Mical gave it a baffled look. "I have an Identifier already. Saves us... um, a lot. We'll stop by the Rogue's Guild for some free lock picks."

  "Are you sure you can open a chest?" Xavier said. "It could be deadly trapped, and you don't have the skill."

  "Pfft. You serious?" Elise stretched her arms. "I've practiced for hours on empty red chests that the Rogue's Guild brings out—one of the few things that's free in the City."

  "Huh. Sounds like fun," Xavier said.

  "It is, but I don't think you'll have time to learn it," Elise said. "Considering we're going down today." There was an amount of impatience and—eagerness?

  "Anyway, how much do we have left?" I asked.

  Xavier tapped his fingers. "If we're spending fifty on Alex's gear, we're in the negative."

  "I'll just have to be underequipped," I said.

  Mical said. "We'll need a map, but that's just a red."

  "But to where?" Sampson asked.

  "Find a well-traveled section of the Dungeon," Xavier said. "It's statistically safer: there'll be fewer wandering monsters we'd run into."

  "No, the Dungeon just spawns more," Elise said. "It doesn't work that way."

  "What do you mean?" Xavier asked. "It's standard math."

  "The standard math is wrong," Elise said flatly.

  "Excuse me," I said, hoping to stop the argument before it started. I walked to the cabinet with the latest first floor maps. "Let's look at the maps before we decide, OK?" I opened it to pull out a stack of folded paper. Then another stack. Then another stack.

  "Dude, there's ten thousand sections of every Floor," Xavier said. "You can't seriously look through them all."

  "Fine." I handed one stack to him. Then another to Elise. "Everyone, look through and find a section you like. Then we can vote."

  Both grumbled but turned to their stacks. When I had finished handing out stacks—and there were still many left inside the cabinet—I took my own and sat down to look through them.

  The Dungeon is made entirely of square tiles. Every feature of the Dungeon—walls, doorways, chests—fits perfectly into one of those square tiles. Thus the map consisted of many tiny squares with simple symbols to describe what was what. For example, a cross-hatch represented a wall, and a plus sign a door. Those were the two I remembered. I intuited that the one greater-than and the one less-than symbol were the downstairs and upstairs. The few corridors at the edges were the cross-section corridors. The clearing in the center was obviously the Elevator. Everything else was incomprehensible.

  Not, I decided, that the layout mattered. I flipped over the map and saw statistics collected by the RDU's statistics mages. Then I sorted through them by... well, I still didn't have an idea. Total deaths seemed to be a good one not to choose. I started sorting on that.

  "Let's just pick at random," Sampson said, shuffled his stack, and pulled one out. "Or just take the Public Entrance somewhere. No need to worry about this stuff yet."

  "I'd prefer to live," Luke said. His stack was untouched except for the first map, which he was still reading.

  "So do we all," I said. I realized that a floor with less total deaths was also less traveled, but I had already gone through a large part of my stack.

  "I'd go with the standard math in picking a traveled section," Mical said, and set down most of her stack unread. "We'll also have more other parties nearby."

  "Which won't help us," Elise said. "The Law doesn't require one party to aid another party in danger. It is illegal to kite monsters into another party—the equivalent of slaying. We can't even afford to be revived for a trial—which we would lose."

  "We can scavenge, though," Xavier said. "It's legal to take anything left behind by another party."

  "Sure, and they might legally attack us for being vultures," Elise retorted. "Better to avoid anyone else if at all possible."

  "Really, though," Xavier said. "Not everyone will be a jerk."

  Elise raised an eyebrow but said nothing else.

  "Supposing we did go to a little-traveled section," I said. "It'll just be us and the monsters. I don't think it's the best idea to just attack a monster in our state."

  "Correct," Mical said. "Scavenging and running would be our best bet."

  "We can also retrieve fallen parties' gear," Xavier said. "Or even their heartstones. The bounties could be a lot larger than even chests."

  "There's laws about it," I said. "I think?"

  "Correct," Mical said. "Many laws. But the Law is wise enough to protect those trying to help."

  Elise looked as if she choked down some objection. "Fine. Fine. I'll vote populated."

  "Andy?" I asked.

  She held up a map, hiding herself behind it. I could see the section was mostly unaltered from its natural state. "Little travel. Much to dig."

  "Actually," I said. "Could you mine crystals out of the walls, Andy?"

  "Yes." She hid her face in Elise's shoulder at our gaze.

  "That... sounds promising," Xavier said. "We just need to mine a few to make a profit. No need to fight anything until we're better equipped."

  "Crystal farming is a legitimate profession," Mical said. "I do warn you: it has a terribly thin pro
fit margin."

  "Thin is better than nothing," Xavier said.

  "Luke?" I asked. "Do you have anything you want to add?"

  "No," he said. After a pause, "I'll be fine with whatever you decide."

  "Right," I said. "Looks like we're agreed on a populated section. We've got a plan. Mical, you get the consumables since you'll know what to buy."

  "I'll come with her," Elise said quickly. "Alex, you too, so we can find you gear. Cheap gear."

  "Elise," Andy said.

  "I guess Andy will come with me," Elise said.

  Sampson said, "If you don't mind, I'll exercise. Nothing like getting limber beforehand."

  "We can spar," Luke said.

  "I'll... um, read or something," Xavier said.

  "Great," I said. "Let's meet at the Entrance when we're done, OK?"

  * * *

  I regretted being on the shopping adventure immediately. It wasn't that I was with girls. It was that I had no idea what to buy, let alone what I was looking at. I was more dragged around and used as a beast of burden for the various goods.

  I didn't even get to pick out my equipment as Elise knew far better than I what to get.

  "Do you even know how to use it?" Mical asked me, as I inspected my new bronze knife.

  "I assume you put the sharp end into the monster and try not to get said end into yourself," I said.

  Elise held her face. "Listen. How about you try to stay off the frontline, at least while you're learning? I can teach you."

  "That would probably be for the best," I said.

  * * *

  The Stairs at the center of the Public Entrance will lead a party to a random staircase on the 1st Floor. This is, to say the least, massively inconvenient if you seek a specific section. But for many, many years, there was no other option. Each time you use the stairs in the same day, they become longer and longer, as if the Dungeon refuses to allow choice in the matter. It was easier to enter then wander through the sections until you ran into the section you desired. Of course, you might be traveling anywhere from a handful to a hundred sections to do so, and you might run out of consumables and spells long before you reached your goal.

  The RDU, in conjunction with a number of other High Houses, decided to fix this. At enormous expense, they carved and continue to carve clearings in the center of every section of the first five floors—fifty thousand such clearings in total. Dimensional Archmages would teleport a small dimensional bubble containing parties into and out of these clearings, in whatever section they desired. It wasn't quite as popular as the creators had hoped. The average party doesn't care what section it ends up in, so long as there's plenty of loot and few dangerous monsters. But for anyone looking for a lost comrade's heartstone, gathering with other parties, or satisfying some superstition, it's amazing.

  Nonetheless, it didn't have enough funding, and eventually the DAs went to greener pastures. Only one remains and has been doing it for over a decade. You'd have to look in a book to find his real name. Everyone just calls him the Elevatarch.

  Age doesn't matter to delvers, but standing all day does. So it's understandable that the Elevatarch sat in his voluminous red robes like a wizened sage, dispensing advice and convenient teleports. His aura was indigo and mostly gold. His hood covered his face, but I could see a mouth with wrinkles and laugh lines. "Good morning, all of you," he said. "Are you sure you're equipped enough for your first day?"

  "How did you know?" I asked without thinking.

  "N-Type Identify Delver. And I've seen enough of you I can tell immediately."

  "We've got a plan," I said firmly and unfolded the map we had bought. "Section 37-C."

  "As you wish." A light flashed in the Elevatarch's long staff, and I felt the most bizarre sensation of moving. No part of my body was moving. Yet I felt as if I were being gently pulled.

  "What's this plan of yours?"

  "Avoid everything that can kill us, then loot anything that we can find. We're also going to try crystal mining."

  "Logical, but I'm afraid I won't be seeing you come back. Anything, in your state, can kill you."

  "We're aware of that," I said.

  "Oh, but you aren't, if you're doing this anyway. Do you realize what it is to die, even a death that may be temporary. Except it won't be, if you can't afford a revive."

  "I'm sure it's quite unpleasant," I said. "Sure, we might sound crazy—"

  "Not only sound."

  "—But it's really our only option."

  "You may have more options than you realize," the Elevatarch said. "But if you're insane, at least be well-informed. Don't trust anything that's blue. Nothing. Nothing whatsoever."

  "But I have a blue cloak," Sampson protested, twirling the edge of the article in question.

  "If you found it lying around on the ground, don't even touch it. And here you are!" The Elevator stopped. But it had never actually moved. "Outside those doors are your certain deaths. Enjoy, and try to come back!"

  We looked at each other, but Sampson went and opened the door. "Come on!"

  So we stepped into the dank, cool world I have so often entered since. Solid brown walls enclosed the black, square tiles below. Crystals glowing red on those walls and the ceiling gave light, but everywhere, darkness. That is the world of the Dungeon.

  Chapter Four:

  The Dungeon

  Before I came to the City, I had read that despite many delvers' insistence, there was no time differential inside the Dungeon as opposed to outside. Many, many experiments had proved that contrary position: time passed the same both inside and outside. But I could see why the rumor had started. Time passed weirdly as we wandered, as if we had been in the Dungeon for days, or even years. Or forever. Perhaps there had never been anything but long corridors, turns, forks and doors, the uneven red-tinted glow from crystals in the ceiling, and distant screams and shouts of combat. Yet I knew we only spent two hours inside.

  I should explain those screams. Even had we been obligated, we could do nothing for a party in trouble except provide a convenient distraction as they ran and we died. It was unnerving, nonetheless, especially the screams of pain, or those cut short. Most learn to ignore them.

  Elise warned us that running from a party would likely arouse their distrust. Therefore, we gave any we passed a friendly bow and moved on quickly. A wave or similar gesture might be misinterpreted as the beginning of a spell and lead shortly to the ending of our lives.

  Monsters, of course, were everywhere: strange, misshapen humanoids, or oozing shapes like flattened spheres, enormous caterpillars and spiders, and the rare bat. Only Luke's good Perception, spotting them a corridor away, prevented us from getting into aggression range. This required a bizarre and tedious form of travel throughout the rooms and twisted passages to avoid turns whenever possible. For if we took such a turn into a group of monsters, it would be too late to run. Well, we could run, but only if we could reach the Elevator without dragging them into another party—or running into another group of monsters.

  As for blue, we gave all that we saw in that area of the spectrum a wide berth. I had begun to wonder if the Elevatarch was playing some kind of bizarre prank, but then we came across a blue chest. It took all of us to restrain Sampson.

  "It's a BLUE CHEST!" Sampson argued.

  "Would an actual blue chest be found on a heavily traveled section of the 1st?" Elise asked with a roll of her eyes. "Or is it a Mimic?"

  "Mimics don't spawn this close to the surface," Sampson protested.

  "Could be an out-of-depth," Xavier said. "Has to be. It's a lot more likely than an out-of-depth blue chest—what, twenty five Floors too early?"

  "Can't we just try?" Sampson pleaded. "What if it is?"

  "I vote no," I said. "I don't think we can survive a Mimic, let alone an out-of-depth one. And the Elevatarch did warn us."

  "Mimics have a paralysis attack on contact," noted Xavier. "Whoever touches it probably isn't making it out alive."


  "Fine," Sampson sighed. "Let's move on."

  We had yet to find any abandoned loot. In retrospect, we would have had better success if we had known that there were organized parties on the shallowest floors carrying Bags of Holding, who collected everything, valuable or not. Had we followed closely on another party's heels, perhaps we would have had slightly more success. But we could be suspected of being either vultures or slayers in ambush.

  We didn't find any remains of fallen delvers, either. I can explain this even more easily: Whatever kills a delver will doubtlessly still be there, guarding his heartstone. By avoiding monsters, we never encountered such remains. Or, if the monster had been killed in turn by another party, that party would have taken anything it could.