The Dungeon Without a System

Chapter 120

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The Creator, Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea

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The Geothermic Valley was one of three more unique paths on the Eighth's Second Peak. One would take you to the mountain's peak to be harassed by the Air Court and Pyry. The second was the Fungal Caves, which was more of a dead-end side-quest than an actual path.

In this verdant, fern-filled valley, I had placed some of the chickens I purchased from an animal trader on the surface. Now, on their own, Chickens aren't particularly terrifying. Something I'm sure many would disagree with. But while I could make giant chickens and call it a day, something like that was uninspired. No, I had far greater plans. Chickens are the descendants of dinosaurs. Or at least, they are on Earth. I don't know what's going on with this world. There's a Creation Myth, but Is that myth true? Did the gods weave a tall tale and convince everyone their story was true? I'd probably never know. But that's not the point. The point is that chickens have the potential to return to that previous state within their genes.

I'd started small. There was no point jumping straight to the bigger ticket items before working out an ecosystem to support them.

Now, I wasn't as into dinosaurs on Earth as I was mythology and fiction. Still, I was familiar enough with popular depictions to... mimic them. I remembered a tiny, two-legged, two-armed dinosaur about the size of a cat. It was an omnivore and filled a scavenger role, taking what was left after bigger dinos took their fill. I had no idea what it was called, but I named it the Tinysaurus. Being roughly the same size as a chicken, it was an easy change. Mostly a matter of morphing what was already there. It could remain feathered, though the patterning darkened to match the dark green of the surrounding plant life. Apart from a crest of brilliant red on its head, of course.

This is the creature the guilders on the Eighth Floor encountered. After ten seconds of rustling bushes, The only thing the on-edge group of guilders saw was the cute little snout of my tiny dino. The female dino tilted her head at the humans and trilled a series of clicks at them.

Then the bushes rustled, and a dozen more heads appeared. The tinisaurs burst from the bushes, and rushed at the group. They were faster and more nimble than the humans and could easily dodge every sword and weapon swung at them. To the human's surprise, they didn't attack, not even nipping at feet or heels as they rushed past the group. Soon, they'd disappeared into the bushes on the other side of the clearing.

"What were those things!" Paetor exclaimed when said things had all disappeared.

"No idea, though given the dungeon's been very clearly inspired by existing animals, I'm terrified as to what those are based on," Harald responded, uncharacteristically pale. When asked why, he continued. "Because as far as I know, nothing like them exists. The shape of the skull, the arrangement of the legs and arms, and practically everything else about them isn't something you see in any lizard. Which means the dungeon either made them up, or they no longer exist on the surface. I'm not sure which option terrifies me more."

A faint thud prevented the humans from talking further, followed quickly by the caws and screeches of various flying dinos as they took to the skies. Another thud. Then another. And another, each one coming closer than the last. Tree branches began shaking, leaves falling all around them.

The dinosaur that emerged from the trees was much more dangerous than the last.

It wasn't a Tyrannosaur, nor anything of that size. This little valley would be far too small for something like that. No, It was about the size of an Allosaur. Large enough to be dangerous but not so large that it would have trouble fighting a group like this. It had a large skull, a long snout, and the ability to open its jaw incredibly wide. Large muscular legs pushed it over the bushes at the clearing's edge. A long whip-like tail soon followed. Powerful arms and sharp claws reached down from its shoulders, briefly touching the ground as it circled and assessed the guilders.

It chuffed and sniffed. Rustling a mane and frill of red and green feathers framed the iconic large-snouted carnivorous dinosaur skull. Intelligent but ultimately animalistic eyes scanned the humans, taking them in and quickly assessing which were the weakest. Said guilders had grouped together, weapons ready. The dinosaur I'd been unable to name yet stepped forward and unleashed an intimidating roar. It sounded roughly like what I remembered seeing on Earth. Still, even they'd been guessing, who knew if it was accurate.

With that, the fight was on.

The dinosaur bulldozed forward, each step pulsing with magic. The ground shook and cracked ever more violently, the unfocused Earthquake spell unbalancing the guilders. To their credit, they adapted quickly. They rolled, dodged, and sprinted sideways, making sure not to turn their backs on the giant lizard. It slowed down quickly and turned almost on a dime, its eyes focusing on the closest of the group.

To its detriment. It roared, less in pain and more in surprise, as arrows sprouted from its hide, though a flex of muscle had them falling like needles. The tips of the arrowheads had only barely penetrated. This was the dino's first taste of combat, and though the instincts I'd instilled within it were driving it to act in specific ways, it still had yet to feel actual pain. After a second, though, the dino judged the pain negligible and easily ignored. It roared in challenge, and the fight continued.

It chased the group around the clearing, at several points being unable to stop fast enough and using whole trees as impromptu brakes. Arrows continued to ping off the dino, but its hide and scales were too tough to penetrate. Swords and other weapons also proved mildly ineffective. The scales on its arms and legs, where the Guilders initially decided to attack, were designed to prevent slashing attacks. Isid's manablades did even worse; their humming forms were warped and disrupted with each strike, doing no damage at all.

I was surprised when Isid unleased a new spell, one I immediately called Magic Missile. The type-less mana she and her niece used was stark white, and the three arrow-like bolts she threw splashed almost harmlessly against the dino's hide. The force the strikes imparted was enough to bruise through the scales and potentially damage joints, but all the guilder hit was muscle.

None of the guilders had blunt weapons, which was a mistake since that was the dino's weakness. Can't get through it's scales? Well, then, circumvent them entirely. It made sense to me, and by their shouts and calls, it also did to them.

Lillette's lightning magic was next on the list of things to try. A lightning bolt lashed out from her position, striking the dinosaur's broad flank and filling the air with the smell of Ozone. Man, why did I have to make the dino's sense of smell so potent! That smell of ionized air was drowning everything else out. It roared in indignation, though the only visible damage was a scorch mark and a patch of warped scales. With the mage having caused the most pain through the fight, she was the biggest threat in the dino's mind. It immediately charged the mage, channeling mana through its stomps to make that Earthquake-like pseudo spell.

Lilliette, already reeling and panicked, tried to run. Other attacks from the rest of the group were either ineffective or the dino actively ignored them as it pursued its target. The dino's head reached out to snap at a shrieking Lilliette, and I noticed the smell of Ozone growing as it did. The dagger-like teeth it bore came down on the lightning mage's wrist as she thrust her clenched hand out as if to ward the monster away. She screamed as the jaws clamped shut, but not only in pain. There was a desperate triumph in her cries.

"Take this, you MotherFu-!"

Then the dino's head exploded.

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The Geothermic Valley, The Eighth Floor, The Dungeon

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Lilliette could do little more than breathe heavily, the energy running through her veins and body amping her senses to greater heights. She felt every drop of blood that covered her exposed skin and was grateful that she'd closed her eyes the second before she'd finished casting the spell. Brand new cuts on the exposed skin of her face stung. There was a slam, and the ground shook briefly. No doubt that was the giant lizard's body falling to the ground.

She tried to open her eyes but screwed them shut almost immediately. Nope. She was too caked in gore to do that without something getting to her eyes. She raised an arm to wipe her face clean and found, if anything, the arm of her robes was even more covered in flesh and viscera than her face.

Gross.

"A little he-Urgh! It's in my Mouth!" Lilliette cried, some foul blood dripping into her mouth the moment she opened it. She spat a dozen times, desperate to get the taste out of her mouth. Footsteps and the clank of armor drew near, as well as various sounds of disgust.

"Yeah, you need a dip in a river, Lilli," Paetor commented, his voice coming from her front left. "I can hear one off to the east a bit; it's probably our best bet." Lilliette didn't attempt to speak, only nodding and allowing herself to be guided to the river. While Paetor took her arm in a gentle grip, Lilliette heard two other sets of footsteps follow. The rest had seemingly gathered around the monster's corpse, and she heard the arguing between Harald and Duncan starting up already.

It took ten minutes to reach the sound of babbling water, and Lilliette was relieved when Paetor asked her to kneel at the water's edge so he could wash her off. He gently washed the viscera from her face first with surprisingly warm water. Once she was assured she was clean, Lilliette opened her eyes.

The river was small, more a brook than a stream, and certainly not deep enough to swim in. Steam wisped off the water's surface in spots while the forest's deep green of ferns and moss shifted in the wind around them. Lilliette looked down at her robes and sighed in disappointment and disgust. She'd need new robes after this. She was covered in blood, bits of bone, and what she was pretty sure was this lizard's brain.

Inevitably, her eyes were drawn to the stump. Her hand and wrist were gone. Of course, she'd been injured before, but as the party's mage, she didn't get injured as much as Paetor. Nor as severely. Lilliette took a deep, shuddering breath. Aaaand the adrenaline was wearing off. "Okay. It's starting to hurt now. Potion, please?" Paetor quickly passed her a red potion filled with little floating with red flakes. Limb loss needed something more potent than average; this greater healing potion undoubtedly qualified.

Lilliette sipped the potion slowly, stopping when it was about one-third gone. She watched, oddly detached, as skin crept over the stump. Once it was healed, she ran a few fingers over the fresh skin, shivering slightly.

"We'll get it healed properly when we get to the surface, Lilli. Don't worry," Paetor reassured. Lilliette gave him a thankful smile.

"Well, bright side, at least the monster's mostly intact, right?" Lilliette commented, reaching down with her hands-hand to keep washing herself off. "Could do with some new robes. Lizard-skin sounds good."

There were some good-natured chuckles, and the light bantering that ensued helped take her mind off the lost hand. It'd get healed soon enough. Like Paetor said, there was no need to worry about it.

As Lilliette and her party returned to the rest of the raid group, as clean as she could be, she heard their arguments clear up.

"-I'm just saying that she must have used more than Lightning in that spell because lightning doesn't do this," Bertram argued, waving a hand at the monster's neck stump. "Lightning scorches, burns, and shocks things. It doesn't make things... Pop... like that thing's head did."

"Affinities don't just change. Besides, I'd know if hers was, and she's still pure lightning." Isid responded, arms crossed. "It's some advanced form of lightning. I've heard of it but never seen it done before. When enough lightning is gathered, it does something: it trips over an invisible line and changes. She'd know more about what she did than I do."

As eyes turned her way, Lilliette looked down at her hands... hand and stump. She had felt something different about it right before the spell had gone off. The spell had been less a directed bolt and more a quickly thrown-together feedback loop that grew and grew and grew... Not something she'd ever done before, because why would she? Lightning mages were best located at the back of the party, throwing bolts to damage and distract. She'd never needed a close-range attack before, though since it'd happened once, she might have to start looking into it.

Isid was right... Something about the lightning had changed just before she'd unleashed the spell. It felt less like a directed stream of energy and more... fluid.

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Port Laviet, Medean Duchy, Theona

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"...I don't know what you're talking about," Elize answered, suddenly rigid and blank-faced. Tamesou Akio sat back on the couch, eyes focused on the noble girl. Still pale from their earlier discussion

"Come now, you know our secret. It's only right we know one of yours," Sophie pushed, arms crossed. Akio recalled how the two girls had been giggling and chatting throughout the journey and couldn't help but notice that there was none of that comradery now. Girls were scary, man.

"We can say what gave you away if you like?" Bruce added, "Just as you did to us."

Elize was quiet for a moment, and it seemed Sophie took that as agreement. "While we are ignorant to many of the ins and outs of this world, you seem overly familiar with them. Your own accusation of us was just the cincher. I doubt the average noble knows, or could even guess at, what would give a Summoned Hero away. You also admitted to knowing practically every language on the continent. I'd give you a second, maybe a third language for a dedicated noble, but every language on the continent is beyond the pale. Most would learn the languages spoken in their domain, and why bother learning those outside it? That's what translators, or translation magic, are for."

"You're not one of the official princesses, though," Akio continued. "We heard it in the capital; they'd finally managed to locate the body of the last of the royal family. All the known members, at least. The King, Queen, all the Princess and Princesses. So, you're either the daughter of a previously unknown mistress or a bastard the king brought into his castle secretly. If you were known about, surely the whole of Theona would be awash with rumors of your disappearance."

"So what is it, Princess? Bastard or daughter of a consort?" Bruce challenged, leaning forward and resting an elbow on one knee.

"..." Elize's eyes flicked rapidly between the three teens before settling on Akio. She sighed. "Fine. Yes, I'm the daughter of King Kenias Phenoc, the Twentieth of his name. I was born to the king and a proustite he lay with only once, after six months of campaigning in the south. He regretted what he'd done the next morning, but what was done was done. I was born nine months later and kept a secret from all. The only ones who knew were the king's closest confidants."

"So, who was keeping you hostage?" Sophie prompted after a moment of silence.

"My father's steward. I lived in the noble district; my mother was elevated to landless nobility and raised me. I was provided all the tutors a royal heir would need. Father once told me that he had many enemies, and after his death, his steward felt I would be better under his care. He had my mother killed and stole me in the night to his estate in the city. They were waiting for my eighteenth birthday and would marry me to his firstborn, introducing royal blood into his line."

"And ho-" Akio cut himself off as the door to the room swung open. All the teens leaned back and relaxed as much as possible. Nothing tense happening in here, no siree.

"Well, that was a fruitful discussion," Heliat stated, holding the door open for Jinasa. "New information has come to light; with this, our new path is clear to me."

"Despite the rumors of their benevolence, seemingly true as far as the guildmaster knew, the monsters have shown their true colors. An eagle arrived during the meeting with terrible news. In the north, the port of Blackwater has been consumed by the flames of revolution. The monster's proselytizing emboldened the peasantry, who've risen against their nobles. The peasants have declared their faith in the monster's god, The Creator, and claim their intent is to 'free all from the noble scourge.'

The room was silent.

"We leave at dawn."