Author Update:

Well, I wrote 20 pages, and I deleted most of them. Trying to figure out this chapter was real, real trouble. I just finished it up to make sure it fits within the story. Big ramifications, blah blah. But we're diving back in. The next chapter is a doozy. If I can get it out to you early, I will. It'll cut away from your weekend, but you won't have to wait as long.

For those at Tier 2+, you can find some of the cut chapter and a future system ability I'm putting in. It's labeled Bk3(it really is) chapter 45.

Chapter 45: Just Another Day in the Dungeon

Ana did not react well when she saw him. One evening, she’d said goodnight to a healthy young man. The next morning, someone half-starved stumbled out of his room wearing the same robe, as if it no longer fit him properly. Therefore, if you think about it, her reaction was completely natural.

First, a scream, “Ahh!”

Then, cursing, “Almighty god of fucks! What happened to you, Cass?”

“I may have made a mistake,” Cass replied, his voice holding a new, slight slurring sound to it.

“I’ll say. My god, oh, I said that already.”

“Sort of,” Cass slurred with a lean against the wall.

She looked him over while intentionally keeping her distance, “Is it contagious?”

He inched over to the table with unbearable slowness as his stiff muscles protested any sort of movement. Wincing the moment his bottom settled on the seat, Cass leaned back with a sour expression, “No. It’s on me.”

“Something to do with the System?”

Cass stretched his tired jaw while giving a slight nod, “Poor choices.”

Ana looked relieved, “Good. That’s good. Not for you, of course, but- You know what, let me make your double portion, no, triple! I’ll make a triple portion of porridge for you.”

And Cass ate it all while Ana stared at him as if wondering if he was going to keel over and die right there. She offered to help him get to the Scriptorium, but Cass was adamant that he’d make it on his own.

The walk was filled with him leaning, light stumbling, and the occasional sigh as his body and its enhancements worked against the punishment he’d brought to bear. He wasn’t quite breathless, but the pain in his muscles was far beyond the normal level. So it was with some relief that he passed the curious Clerks at the front desk and made his way inside.

The Annex was the same as usual, and Cass spent most of his waiting stretching in the hope that it would help. It was painful, but Dev had once told him it was the best way to solve sore muscles. When the time of the meeting came up, the desk across from him that was normally occupied by his former kidnappers stayed empty. 

Mirelle and the other QuestWrights threw him a few odd looks, but nobody said anything. For the most part, he was a pariah in the QuestWright community, and for once, that was a positive thing. 

Senior QuestWright Mirelle ended the meeting by saying, “I wanted to inform you that we recently lost contact with one of our long expeditions. Not enough time has passed for us to be worried yet, but it is something on the Guild’s radar, and I felt you needed to know. That will be all.”

She gave Cass one last curious look, then swept out of the room as everyone went to work.

Quirrel was kind enough to ask after his health, but Cass weakly replied that he’d be just fine after some time. He didn’t know that was entirely true, but he had hope in his heart that it was.

Quests came in and left, and even though his body was weary and worn, his mind was as sharp as ever. When the day concluded, Pellin sent a message asking if he wanted to meet up with Adya, but he begged off.

Seeing him in this state would probably get him kidnapped again, only this time, by his friends. They wouldn’t understand that he’d done it to himself.

Cass had trouble sleeping, as no matter the position he put his body in, it hurt all the same. So he woke up with tired eyes and continued his work. And the next day, and the next. He busied himself with all of his extra time by studying both Combat and Dungeon Quest-types. He’d never given out a Dungeon Quest, and aside from the Defend Liora Quest, had never issued another Combat Quest.

Physically, that was a different story. Between constitution and the sporadic activation of regeneration whenever he tweaked something, the soreness continued but at a decreasing rate. Experience came and went, but he didn’t get any of it. The System continuously repeated the same message.

Experience is held in reserve until the second gate has been passed.

It was frustrating, but also a clear reminder that he had yet to complete the Quill’s next tutorial. Since he couldn’t perform any of his dailies, he spent the extra time in his morning studying Quests, and his evenings with the same words staring at him as he experimented with the tutorial.

On the fifth day, and with only two more to go until the next Dungeon run, he decided to try something different. He’d been running the process of creating a Quest for the hundredth time through his mind, trying to figure out where conditions existed. 

He’d already tried writing them in directly, defining them with the utmost descriptive language he could, and even tried sneaking a few if/then situations to satisfy Pellin’s earlier ideas.

None of them fit.

Since nothing else had worked, he was going to try something strange tonight.

“Let’s see if this works…”

2 Days Later…

A group of twenty-five walked through the dark paths of the speed dungeon. Alan had given a speech about a world without dungeons, assigned roles and positions, and then they’d entered at a light jog. Orla didn’t like it, but for once, she kept her discretion up and her mouth closed.

In the lead were the armed and armored, stalking forward with heavy steps and heavier gazes. On the flanks were those like Adya, quick fighters with long-reaching weapons, making sure nobody was attacked from the side. Holding the back alone was Joran, recently returned from a contract in the west and gazing everywhere at once. 

As for the center, it held every ranged fighter, including one, single, QuestWright. One QuestWright, who still hadn’t completed the tutorial and knew there was a single piece of the puzzle he wasn’t getting.

Talking with the others didn’t help. Pellin tried the hardest, but engineering wasn’t the same as being a QuestWright. He was, truly, stuck.

The pain in his muscles hadn’t gone away, but it had gotten to a bearable point a week after his testing with the Trials. Enough to not hamper him while jogging, but he still felt every step upon the dungeon’s floor.

Studying the map showed walls shifting and moving around them at a much faster pace than usual. Further ahead, in the places Cass had already discovered with Teams Deadweight and Razorwire, red dots appeared, moved, and disappeared in a flurry of activity.

Alan held up an open hand as a sign, and everyone stopped, facing pre-designed angles as the old Scout moved over to Cass’s position.

“What’re you seeing, Vale?” He whispered.

Cass caught his breath before saying, “It’s constantly adjusting things, so we need to be ready soon.”

“Suggestions?”

“We keep moving as we have been. At this speed and in about five minutes, we’ll hit undiscovered areas for my map. Then, we’ll see.”

“Undiscovered for you, maybe. Up ahead is some old-world technology. Once we get past that, we’ll have gone as far as any groups I’ve come with. Tighten up your sphincter, Vale, cause we’re going all the way.”

Without needing a response, he turned and moved to the front again. Orla lightly groaned, and Pellin grimly stood up as the group began to move again. Cass wasn’t in any better shape than either of them. Since the Trial, his body was certainly weaker, but there was something odd about it.

For some reason, he felt just a little faster than before.

As they pushed the edges of the map, the walls suddenly closed in on them in a hurry. Knowing what was expected as hundreds of red dots appeared, Cass lit the small torch strung at his hip, and everyone spread out in a tight group on his signal.

Earlier, and to bring up morale, Cass had assigned out all of the necessary Quests before they’d entered the Underdark. There was a reason he’d been saving all of his extra vellums for the last month. Sure, the Quill made things easier, but that came with a pretty steep stamina drain that he’d be foolish to dive into.

It was also his first time handing out a new Quest-type. Dungeon Quests were all about one thing…closing the Portal. Sure, there was some business in there about just eliminating the Guardian, but the Portal was the big one. 

Next up were Combat Quests. Since they knew the kind of monsters they were going to see, Cass wrote up a few after spending the last week studying them. Templates were, as ever, a lifesaver.

And then, pulled out of his musing, there were Veilrunners. One moment, the ever-present darkness, softly lit by torchlight, was empty. Then it wasn’t.

The attack came on the right flank, just near where Adya was standing. The Scout called out a warning, and everyone in the group moved except for the few on the other side, as they had their roles. Naturally, Cass saw nothing on the map.

One member was off on the flank, just a little too far from the group. Joran, Alan, and most of the group were sprinting to the other side, right when a single Veilrunner slipped up behind him.

The Veilrunners' sharp fingers stabbed through the man’s thin leather protection. He had enough time to gasp, catching Cass’s attention, before it quickly started to drag him away to the dark. 

“Hey!” Cass yelled out, but nobody could hear him over the melee and shouting. “Hey!”

Nobody’s listening. I can’t chase him myself, I’m still recovering, and besides, I’m the only one with the map. I need to do something else. 

An idea popped into Cass’s mind, and he quickly pulled out the Quill. The group shied back from the bright light, but he didn’t care about that at this moment. This was about saving someone’s life.

Rescue is a combat Quest, but it doesn’t give a return Waypoint. Escort does give a return Waypoint, but you can’t assign it in a combat scenario. For this man to be saved, it needs to be both.

I need to assign them both and just deal with the System being mad at me for using a non-combat Quest in this situation.

Pulling up his templates, he grabbed the single Rescue type he’d ever made, thanking Mr. Moore from miles away for forcing him to do so.

Choice made and without a lot of time, Cass sprinted over as fast as his wobbly legs could take him. Alan pulled back his rapier from a Veilrunner’s chest and took a breath just as Cass got there. 

“What’s his name?”

“What?”

“Someone’s been taken? I need their name for this!”

Alan turned and did a quick headcount, “Anyone seen Matt?”

No response came, and Cass noted several group members began to look panicked. That settled it for him.

Cass slotted it into the Outliner, then started to rattle off the Quest to the air. Just as he was about to send it through, he put a fifteen-second delay on it at the very end, then sent it Alan’s way. He could’ve made it longer, but Mat didn’t have that kind of time. 

The golden, floating words traveled slowly through the air as Cass flipped the Outliner over to an Escort template.

Without his recent mental enhancement, Cass’s speed would not have been possible. Considering Waypoints, selecting the correct Quest-type, and putting it all together would’ve taken him at least a few minutes before. But though alacrity didn’t make him smarter, he was certainly faster than he used to be.

Escort flew through his mind with haste. Quick enough that he was mumbling the words to the air. He finished, pushed the light drain away, then held his breath as both Quests flew to a staring Alan tapping his foot.

Then they touched each other before reaching him. Cass blinked as the two Quests merged into one, and his notifications started blinking.

Alan…

Vale mumbled to the air as the weird floating symbols drifted in the air toward him. He liked Vale, thought he was a good kid who was just trying his best in a shitty place. But that didn’t mean he liked strange things flying at his chest.

Vale stopped talking, and suddenly, a second stream of symbols flew at him as well. It looked almost like a golden spear before it briefly touched the other stream beside it. Both became one as they touched his chest, and an update hit his vision.

Rescue Matt and slay the Veilrunner!

He annoyingly flicked it off as a giant beam of gold lit the air hundreds of feet away, and getting further. Lone Charge kicked him away from the group, and Alan felt all his years straining his old body. Another Charge was spent as he closed the gap between Matt and himself. The Veilrunner holding him got a quick Rapier to the eye, then he threw two more pointed attacks out at the closing monsters beside them.

Lifting Matt’s heavy frame onto his shoulders, another update came in, and he read it without meaning to.

Matt rescued, Veilrunner slain. Return him to the group.

Turning around, Alan noticed a new golden beam appear. He was about to use Charge again when a wall cut off his view…and more were coming.

“Bullshit ass smart Guardians.”

Leap turned into a Territorial Scan as Alan began bouncing off the enclosing walls. His rescuee groaned, but Alan didn’t listen. All that mattered was getting back.

A third use of Charge had him gritting his teeth as his stamina quickly drained and all his years caught up to him. They were flying through the air, just as a Greybeard dropped from the ceiling. A well-timed kick sent it off into the darkness with a snort, then they landed, and his boots skittered and slipped as he sprinted the rest of the way.  

Cass…

Cass stopped holding his breath as soon as Alan and Matt reappeared. The old man dropped Matt’s body gently down beside Johan, who immediately began treating him.

“Those beams are fancy, Vale.”

“Is he going to be alright?” Cass immediately asked.

Johan grimaced, “Maybe, but not in here. The environment is not conducive to proper healing. He could get a bad infection if he stays in here too long. I’ll need someone to get him out of here.”

One of Matt’s teammates stepped forward, and the rest of the group watched as they bounded through the darkness, the unconscious man dangling on their shoulders.

Alan patted his back, “Well, we’re down two now, but twenty-three is plenty to get us through this. Come on, no time like the present.”

Cass looked back one more time and saw no sign of Matt and his rescuer. He started making Quests while jogging, choosing not to look at the blinking notification on his screen.