It would be a lie to say I wasn’t excited at the prospect. I’d learned so much in so little time, but was still on the edge of what the interface offered. More importantly, I was on the edge of a second insight level and one step closer to figuring out what my whole purpose was supposed to be.
The closer we got, the more the forest changed. Silver left the leaves and they became a mottled ashen colour, drooping lifelessly on the branches. Tree trunks blackened and twisted, bark cracked, and roots dug their way out of the ground. If anything, it was a tableau worthy of a horror film. And the smell was baked corpse in a restaurant dumpster, and that’s as charitable as I’m willing to describe it.
A tall fence surrounded the village, wooden spikes driven into the ground. It should’ve been about three or four metres in height, but now, like the forest, the fence drooped as if the earth itself was dissolving. Definitely a desolate sight.
Before we left the relative safety of the forest, we spied several guard towers dotting both the wall and some areas of corrupt forest, with figures standing stock still atop them.
“Are they even alive?” I kept my voice as low as I could, almost whispering in Crystal’s ear.
“Yes, yes. Alive. Move when see you. Do not be seen.”
We rounded the village, creeping forward as the night advanced, the sky getting darker. I expected torches to light up, but nothing happened. Had it been a cemetery it would’ve been just as cheery.
To my relief, the map I’d drawn with Crystal looked to have been pretty much on point. I could see the concentric lines of homes arrayed around the centre of the village, along with the narrow alleys between them. No dirt roads here. Instead I could still make up cubic stone making up the main thoroughfares, the homes were also made of stone, walls whitewashed.
All in all, it looked like a sturdy, working village. On the opposite side of where we were, a quarry dominated scenery. Brick baking ovens dotted the place. Or… at least something resembling those. Maybe they were big on pottery?
Crystal buffed Tusk just as darkness completely enveloped us. The gate to the city lay ahead, down the slope of the hill, separated from the forest wall by a strip of empty land. There had been some fields there that now lay deserted. Rot had set in. We could hear the fat flies devouring the black crops from way on up in the forest.
“You go, Tusk. Be safe.” Crystal gave the molerat’s big head a tight hug. “Remember plan. We meet after human go in dungeon. Go. Go.”
I swear that creature was three times more intelligent than it had any right to be. I could see it in his eyes as he gave me a final look. His gaze met mine, then slid over to Crystal’s, and I could swear I got the impression of him demanding I keep the gnark safe. We parted with nods of understanding.
Tusk bellowed and exploded out of the forest, running full tilt down the road, feet clopping on the smooth stones. Little lights came alive in the towers guarding the gate, torches burning with purple flames. Something whizzed through the air and hit the road with a sound like hail and snapping wood. They were firing arrows at him but Tusk was more nimble than he looked. He wove and dove aside, easily crossing the distance to the gate—opened, for some reason—and then through into the city proper. A commotion erupted inside and we took that as our cue.
We snuck quickly down the incline, across the rotten fields, to the wall. Nobody paid us any mind, though we could still see the torches burning atop the towers. Tusk was roaring inside the wall. By the sound of it, he was taking apart a house. Shouts rose into the night, but there was no panic to them. If anything, the voices build into a droning noise, each voice no louder than the rest, all just calling instructions.
Crystal led me forward past the edge of the gate and into the village. The smell was somehow even worse in there than out in the fields. I gagged and pulled up the hem of my shirt to cover my face. Crystal just bore with it.
Immediately past the gates we slipped behind a building that looked like a stable. The corpses of some large animals littered the enclosure, skin drawn taut over desiccated frames. I only got a glance as Crystal hurried me along.
From the stable to a blacksmith’s shop, revealed only by the tools of the trade beneath a shed-like covering. The forge lay cool and the whole place looked to be in disarray. I saw a torch light inside the main workshop, and a figure casually walked out the front door, moving mechanically away.
They were ants. Ant-people, I mean. Heads like ants, complete with antennae. Lithe bodies. Four, thin arms. They had those weird insect-like eyes, like multi-faceted glass reflecting the purple torchlight.
I gaped only for a moment, hidden behind the outdoor anvil, before Crystal yanked on my sleeve and drew me along. We walked in a crouch, keeping near to the wall. More figures emerged out of homes, carrying the same strange torches, all headed towards the commotion.
If the glitch artefacts had the telltale mechanical components to signal they were weird, these people had no outward sign. Granted, I had no idea what would be considered weird on an ant person, but there were no borg-like mechanical modifications that I could notice without undressing one of them. They were all moving like in a daze, their steps sure, but their heads completely slack and devoid of any… movement. That’s what felt oddest.
Their antennae didn’t move. Neither did their eyes or their mandibles. Like watching little automatons going about their work, one foot firmly rooted in the uncanny valley.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“What the fuck?” I whispered.
We reached the first row of houses. These formed the village’s outer ringed, the buildings clustered tightly together with barely enough of a gap between them for a line of barrels that looked ready to collect rain water.
We made for one of the gaps. Crystal scrambled over the barrels, dipping her feet into the overflowing water as she nimbly got on the other side. We didn’t dare head for the main road that crossed from one gate to the other. That’s where Tusk was, so that’s also where everyone would be headed for.
I took off my pack and clambered over the barrels. I stepped into one, got wet up to my jollies, but essentially made it to the other side unscathed.
Crystal was entirely transformed in these moments. Her eyes shone in the dim light, and her jaw was firmly set, like a woman on a grave mission. I didn’t expect her to be so reliable, but here she was, treating this infiltration with the utmost seriousness. I made a note to check on her after all was gone and done. It might’ve been my imagination, but tears shone in the corner of her eyes.
For some reason, this meant more to her than I believed.
A noise had both of us frozen on the spot. We were between the rows of houses, in what looked like the remains of some park. There had been trees and shrubs there, maybe even flowers. It was all a grey mush now, the lone few benches remaining desolate along a gravel road.
Steps headed our way. Figures emerged from one of the homes, the second towards the centre. Crystal and I were completely out in the open with nowhere to hide.
I activated [ADRENALINE SURGE], aware I’d be wasting my MP for this, but unable to figure a better solution. Crystal didn’t follow suit, so I picked her up and rushed us to the other side of the park, leaping as quietly as I could over the patches of gravel, feet sinking into fetid mud on landing. I kept going, headed for the second row of homes, aware that my running would make noise. Crystal went limp under my arm, letting me move unimpeded.
The well was two rows on, halfway towards the centre of Harriet’s Heap. Anything could be waiting there, given the state of the place, so I only got us past the next narrow squeeze and stopped just before the last, compressed under the eaves of one of the homes, in the narrow gap between the barrels and the wall, waiting for my MP to run out.
It did and my heart thundered in my chest while I set Crystal down. She let out a weary sniff of annoyance, but said nothing.
“Wait a moment while my MP recovers,” I whispered at her.
“Yes, yes,” she hissed back. Her attention was drown by the calls from farther into the village.
Tusk let out a long roar of defiance, just as he’d been instructed. It meant he was still being chased and wasn’t in trouble yet. The moment it looked like he’d be cornered, his instructions were to run like hell out of the place. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.
“I go first,” Crystal demanded. She was already up on the barrel and crawling forward beneath the low eaves. “You wait. Come on signal.”
That was the plan so I nodded. Crystal would open the portal and then make herself scarce while I got there. There would be a flash when a portal opened, so I’d have to move before we drew a crowd.
Twenty heartbeats later, I also made the trip over the barrels and emerged on the other side as quietly as I could.
“Keep an eye on them,” I said to Eternity when I oriented myself in Crystal’s direction. “Once I’m out, you’ll know, right?”
“I will, yes,” the dragon answered.
“Good. So keep an eye on them while I’m in. When I get out, come immediately and tell me where they are.” I didn’t expect a denial and wouldn’t take one even if Eternity had insisted it couldn’t do that or some other bullshit.
“I will,” it answered, voice firm. “Do what needs doing. Crystal and Tusk will be safe.”
I snuck forward, my shoulder to the wall of the nearest house, trying to stay beneath window level. “Can you promise that?”
“I cannot.”
It would have to do. Whatever was in the dungeon, I’d solve it and then purge the corruption. Tusk and Crystal were old hands at this sneaking business, it occurred to me, but I wasn’t going to let them stay in danger more than I needed to.
How long could it possibly take to kill another bear? Or whatever else would be down there.
Assumption is the mother of all fuck ups, I reminded myself. Just then I heard Crystal screaming something obscene, and a flash of light turned the night to day. In the brief instant between light and closing my eyes, I saw the mob of people gathered around the well.
“Fuck!”
The time for stealth was gone. I got to my feet and rushed forward, running as hard as I could on the smooth rock, trying not to slip. Spots swam in front of my eyes. But I was reasonably certain I was headed the right way.
Right until I ran into one of the ant people clustered around the well. I slammed them into the well’s edge and we both went over the lip. It was the same kind of well as in Carmill Hill, with the same wide mouth to plunge into.
We both went in. The portal swirled about a metre down the mouth. The ant was in front of me, arms entangled with mine as we toppled. It hit the portal as if ramming into a steel wall, with me landing atop it heavily. Something cracked where my elbow hit the ant’s chest. My right leg dipped into the portal, while the ant remained floating firmly atop the swirling energy.
Its hands grabbed my shirt and my pack as I struggled to break free. I stared into blank insect eyes. It, instead, lunged with open mandibles for my face. I had to punch him back.
Then more hands reached down from above, grabbing hold of me. One grabbed my ear. Another dug into my hair. Two tried to pry my backpack off me. I bit down on fingers that somehow tried to get in my mouth.
It was all going wrong at the final moment. I writhed and punched and swung my shield at the grasping things. But I was being lifted into the air, most of the hands pulling me up by the pack. So I did the only stupidly sensible thing.
I drew the knife from my belt and cut the straps of my pack. And then I tumbled halfway in, losing maybe some hair and gaining some scratches on my face and neck. The ant with me in the well tried to hold on to me but, in the desperation of the moment, I stabbed its arm with the knife. It let out a clicking shriek and I dropped into the dungeon, once again landing painfully on my side.
Air went out of me. Stars bloomed in my sight. And one star was very big and coming for my head.
I turned sideways and scrambled away. A boulder smashed into the floor where my head would’ve been, cracked to pieces. More debris rained down from above, the ant people pelting the portal with whatever they could grab.
I dared a look. The ant in the well pummelled at the portal, trying to break in, but it didn’t seem like they’d manage much.
“Could one of you throw me my pack?” I asked. Then ducked back as another ant person threw in a boulder.
Well, that answered my question.
Without waiting for more surprises, I scrabbled father inside and away from the portal, in case they found some creative way of flooding the place or sealing me in entirely.
The first room was exactly the same as the one from Carmill Hill’s dungeon. Round. Featureless. One door at the end. In the next there would be the bear—I kept expecting a bear but my rational side was certain it wouldn’t be as easy or as simple as that. Call it a gut feeling.
[INTERFACE TO ETERNITY UNAVAILABLE WHILE WITHIN DUNGEON]
[FUNCTIONALITY RUNNING ON LOCAL INSTANCE]
[YOU RETAIN FULL ACCESS TO STATS AND SKILLS]
“Right then.” I drew my sword, made sure the straps of my shield were secure on my arm, and waited out the last sliver of blue on my MP bar to fill up.
Then I opened the door and… fuck me, I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.