Author's note:

A quick few things to get through here before the chapter.

First, this one involved a lot of back-and-forth between the beta readers and me. But! They made some great points, and I think it turned out extra good with their help.

Second, I'm looking for a few more beta readers. If you're interested, here's the same spiel I put on RR:

Sometimes, I've been a little late on chapters because I'm waiting on beta readers. It's not their fault, as they have lives and my biggest open days to write are the weekend. I can't hold them to my time schedule without considering theirs. As such, I'm looking for some more Betareaders.

I recently took on a 4th for QuestWright, which has already paid for itself, but I'd still like 4 more. 8 Betareaders may sound like a lot to the uninitiated, but most of my author buddies rest at anywhere between 15 and 39. Three was my previous record, but I'd like to take some of the burden off my guys, and as such, I'm looking for more. Here's the benefits.

Access to chapters WAY before they hit RR.

Free access to Patreon.

Access to a bunch of hidden Discord stuff.

Get to influence the story.

I can help with your own story, if you want, while keeping in mind that I'm an absolutely brutal critic.

Now, I'm not just looking for beta readers for QuestWright. Once book 3 finishes, which'll probably be sometime in August or September, the series goes on a brief hold for a few months, and I work on another series. So, really, I'm looking for people who like my writing and want to be a part of it. I can't promise to always take your advice and suggestions, and I can't promise that the story will go in the direction you exactly want it to head in. In the end, this is my story, and I'm looking for a few people who want to be extra-involved.

So, if you have any interest in that and would like to be a part of something special, click on this link

Back to me here. For you guys, I'm thinking QuestWright finishes end of June for book 3. With summer here, I'm planning on plowing through chapters at an expedited rate; thus, the need for more beta readers. I have a hard time writing the next chapter when it's dependent on the previous, so I have to have things set up before I can work on it. Therefore, waiting on my last chapter to be approved can't really be a long time coming.

Thirdly, weather in my city (San Antonio), is extremely rough today. I'm worried I'm going to lose power soon, so I'm putting this out while I can. I had planned on writing and putting out the second chapter at the same time as the first, but I don't think that's going to happen, and I may have a 1-day delay. Worst storms I've seen here in years. The nice part is, I'm about to get way ahead in chapters, so this is only a temporary delay.

Fourthly, and last, I told you before I planned on this book being 65 chapters. However, upon review, I'm extending that to 70-75. There are a few things we HAVE to get to that I don't want to skip, and with only 17 to go, that would've been forced upon me. This way, you get a more complete story, but it does delay me in SYLWM (Support Your Local War Mage), which is sad because I'm excited to write it. (A demon-possessed Swan? Why not!)

Now, onto the ReaderQuest! This is a Patreon/Discord only ReaderQuest as we're on a week break on RR.

Quest ID: JDM-0001-SUP-EA

[Tier 1 Support Quest]

Assignment: Accept Assistance

Support is not only something you give. Sometimes, it’s something you receive, even if you have to ask for it.

Your Task

Allow another person to assist you with something you would normally insist on handling alone.

The assistance must be real.

Examples

Accept help carrying something
Let someone teach you
Allow someone to assist with a project
Accept a ride
Ask for help completing a difficult task
Let someone check in on you, honestly

You are not required to need rescuing.

You are required to stop resisting support automatically.

Rules

The interaction must be genuine.
You cannot immediately retake control.
You cannot dismiss the help once it is offered.

Completion Condition

One act of support is accepted without resistance or deflection.

Timeframe: One Week

Reward: 8 XP

Support structures work both ways.

—
J D Mullenary Sr
The Original QuestWright

And on to the show!

Chapter 48: Pop!

With the group ready to move again and on a strict time limit, Cass pushed the notification away. He’d just come out of a waking coma, one that he’d partly put himself into. So as Dain lifted him, he made a pledge.

Never again will I throw myself into something without first understanding the cost. Purging the corruption was required by the System, but I need to be more careful. 

Physically, he could barely move, let alone fight. Instead of being a leader, or even helpful, he was now a burden for the group. They were far enough into the Dungeon that it was better to carry him to the end than to run him back.

After two hours on the expedition, the environment was increasingly damaging. Every person around him moved with a limp, a cough, or a grimace as the Dungeon’s oppressive weight was worse than ever before. They all traveled with determination in their stride, understanding that it was either they close the Dungeon, or they perish. 

Nobody spoke of it. It was increasingly clear to each of them that without ending this place, the return trip would be fatal; there was no retreat.

It was all or nothing.

The group proceeded in silence; they instead chose to conserve their energy. It was unnerving to travel in a large group of people without a word said, only the occasional grumble, sigh, and stuttering cough. 

While Cass still had the map out to guide their path, the monsters never moved. The humans pushed forward, and the Guardian waited. 

They got a little closer, and he noticed something on the map that hadn’t appeared before. There was a magenta dot behind the largest monster. He whispered what he saw to Dain, who called it out to the group.

When they at last turned a corner that he’d forewarned them was coming, there was nothing blocking their vision anymore, and he could finally see the red dots for what they really were.

The Guardian was enormous. 

It wasn’t just a matter of height, but weight, and something extra. As if it had a density to it that couldn’t be put into words. Its body resembled a monstrous mixture of insect and crustacean, with thick plates of chitin and dark hide wrapped around swollen muscle. Four massive forelimbs were dug rooted into the stone, while vents along its spine continuously released a vapor into the chamber around it. 

Behind it stood a large, almost magenta tear in the world. While everyone paused, it pulsed, growing and shrinking in size as if breathing.

The monsters on display were a mix of larger Slipfangs, chomping Greybeards, and collections of Veilrunners. Each was among the biggest Cass had seen since they’d first entered the dungeon, making him think that most had to be Alphas or close to. 

The Guardian lifted two large, crab-like claws extending from the front of its body, and it brought them high into the air the moment their eyes met across the distance.

The humans roared, and the monsters matched them as both sides sprinted to meet in the middle. As for Cass and the Guardian, after Dain roughly put him on the ground and muttered a rough, “good luck”, both stayed rooted in place as a battle was met in the cavern between them.

Steel and claw clashed as the frontlines collided first. Shirley met a charging Alpha Slipfang, carving a jagged line across its body after it teleported mid-attack in front of her. Joran slammed into the creature only a second later, bringing it down with his heavy weight and crushing it beneath him before Cass saw his armor start to light up. 

While they fought, Jason and Alan carved up the sides, with a few more members of the group taking up protective positions behind them. Gary screamed himself hoarse as he battled a tricky Veilrunner. He was in serious trouble until Pellin shot it in the side, breaking its ability to conceal its movements.

Wallace, Seb, and Orla fired carefully into the group, with archers beside them pot-shotting monsters at key moments to help their allies. Adya, meanwhile, stood guard halfway between Cass and the ranged fighters, ready to intercept anything that broke through.

And Cass sat there, unable to use his muscles from pure exhaustion. It was the most frustrating moment in his life.

I will not be useless.

Instead of just watching the battle, he watched the Guardian. It still hadn’t moved or advanced, which was strange. The vents spewing misty vapor into the air increased in tempo from when they’d first arrived, and the portal continued to expand and contract in an uneven rhythm, but all it did was watch the battle.

He tried to scan it, looking over every inch of the monster, but there was no uneven spacing between its plates. No weak points to find. When a Greybeard went down, Cass thought he saw the Guardian twitch, and an Alpha Slipfang appeared as if from nowhere to attack the fighting man’s back with ferocity.

Son of a bitch is coordinating them.

Only a second passed in his study of the fight before two monsters stepped out of the tear in the world. Both were Greybeards who went still as they exited, then began lumbering toward Cass’s group and the fight of their lives.

They quickly joined as Cass considered everything, even as the cavern began to spin and he had to shake his head to stay awake.

The Guardian’s more a general, not a fighter, despite those claws. No telling how often it can call in reinforcements from whatever’s connected to it. The portal breathed even as that thought came. The longer this fight goes on, the greater the odds that something worse than a few Greybeards steps out of there. Or the Guardian itself joins the fight, and we have to deal with it as well as its monsters.

Everyone was putting on a good showing. Adya had stepped away once to deal with a Veilrunner that got too close to the ranged fighters, but she’d come right back to her post immediately after. 

When another set of monsters fell, the Guardian began moving walls through the battleground, the warriors now having to watch their backs and flanks so they wouldn’t get hemmed in or crushed. At the same time, another Veilrunner and three small Slipfangs stepped out of the portal, further ramping up the tempo of the battle.

When the expedition group pushed the monsters back and another Veilrunner was slain, he tried to get Adya’s attention. Waving a trembling hand in the air got her to focus on him for a heartbeat during one moment where she scanned the room. She quickly made it to his side.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

“No,” He said weakly. “It needs to die.” 

“They all need to die, Cass?”

“The Guardian,” he clarified.

He tersely explained what he’d seen.

Adya gripped her spear tighter, “What are you thinking?”

Cass took a breath, forcing his tired body into a seated position, then waited for the spots in his vision to fade away. “Remember when we harvested the Greybeards? How many of those acid organs do you think we have?”

She turned her head and found Damian. The Trapsmith wasn’t much use during assaults, but he was helping Johan and being useful at the moment.

Must be nice.

She looked back at him, “I think I get it, and it’s a good idea, but we have a lot of monsters to deal with at the moment. The Guardian’s going to have to wait.”

“Can’t.” Cass nodded his head at the Portal. It breathed, and a larger Veilrunner exited. It quickly activated its perception-dampening abilities and disappeared. “The longer this fight goes, the more monsters it’s going to call in.” He took a breath and shifted after feeling a pinch in his side. “If I’m not mistaken, that’s probably an Alpha. You’re caught up with the adrenaline of the fight, you need to consider everything and think for a moment.”

Adya paused, but then nodded, “You’re right. So, what’s the solution?”

“I think if I put out a Hybrid Quest right now, I’d probably pass out before it finished forming. You’re going to have to do this.”

“What about Alan?”

“He’s busy,” Cass said, noticing the old Scout fighting against several monsters at once while dodging walls. Shirley was about to take a hit from one of the two Veilrunners she was fighting when Joran put his body in her place after blurring forward. He immediately moved more slowly as his long sword clipped one of the monsters in a return strike.

“It’s gotta be you.”

“I don’t want to leave you here.”

“Pssch,” Cass weakly waved away her worries, “I’ll be fine. No threat at all.”

She looked back and forth between the ranged fighters, the melee scrum around them, and the large Guardian in the back, vents spewing a light mist into the air. The portal breathed again before she finally looked back at him.

“Don’t die.”

“Wasn’t planning on it. You don’t die, either.”

She leaned forward and planted a kiss on him, managed a small smile, then bolted away, calling out, “I need all the glands you got from the Greybeards.”

“What for?!”

“Shut up and give them to me! Also, someone grab Cass before a wall squishes him. He can’t move.”

Cass fell back down. He’d been forcefully pushing himself up to speak with her, and the action had taken the last of his energy. Right now, if a monster slipped past, he’d die a rather inglorious death.

Screams, roars, and callouts hit his ears, but he was too tired to turn his head and see what was happening.

“Another Veilrunner!”

“A big one!”

“Orla, look out!”

Cass heard a scream and closed his eyes, hoping one of his closest friends didn’t just die. Johan called out that he had her, but that wasn’t very helpful information. Someone picked him up, and he felt hard, cold metal digging into the side of his ribs. 

More fighting and roars reached him, but then a different sound.

Pop.

“What’s she doing?”

Pop. Pop. Pop.

A smell fell over the cavern. It was like vomit had a party with horse manure and made babies that nobody would call pretty. Even with his weakness, his sense of smell hadn’t faded.

With the small amount of energy he had left, Cass looked.

Behind the frontlines, three bodies were on the ground as Johan tended to them. Cass couldn’t tell which of them was Orla or even how she was doing, but he could imagine what was going through Alan’s mind. 

Is he thinking 21, 20, or 19? Cass darkly thought. Joran moved them around in a circle, keeping the fight from reaching them even as he labored to breathe in the toxic atmosphere. 

Past the bodies were several dead monsters and several bloody fighters. Everybody had taken a hit, and he couldn’t help but note that Gary was bleeding from several places as he fought against what looked like an Alpha Slipfang.

As for Adya, she was beautiful.

The Scout leaped and jumped, dodging large yet slow claws the size of a horse. Each time she reached the apex of her movement, a small gray circle would fly out and strike a part of the Guardian’s body, hitting joints in the chitin or thinner patches of hide.

Pop.

Cass remained completely helpless, but he got a front-row seat to watching Adya systematically attack a gargantuan creature with grace and extreme control. It would swipe down, but she was already gone. It adjusted when she moved to the side, then she’d cut the other way, leaping and throwing again. The Guardian struggled to track her as she created weaknesses across its body.

Eventually, those same acid-coated spots wore down the plating covering the monster's body. That’s when she’d strike, driving her spear deep before pulling out and leaping away quickly.

After the fifth such attack, the Guardian groaned, and as it did, several monsters screeched at once. Leaving the fighters, they sprinted at full speed back to the leader of the monsters.

“Whatever you’re doing, girl, be ready for incoming!” Alan yelled, falling to a knee as he caught his breath, then rolled away from an incoming wall. 

The vents at the top of the huge monster doubled in strength as the transparent air took on a slightly opaque form. Cass felt the pressure in the chamber nearly double. So much so that, even if he had the energy to stand, it would’ve been difficult. Joran’s armor lit up the fog, painting the room in its light-blue coloring. 

Sight became a thing of the past, so he was forced to rely solely on hearing. His vision began to darken as he lost track of time, only to claw his way back when a series of sounds reached him.

Pop. Pop. PopPopPopPop.

Another groan came from the blinding mist, but this one’s timbre held a different note. Like a slowly revealing veil, the mist began to dissipate. In its place, Adya stood on top of the Guardian’s head. Holding another gland, she thrust her hand inside one of the Guardian’s vents and withdrew it only a moment later.

Pop.

The Guardian collapsed, and all hell broke loose.

The massive monster’s body fell with enough weight to crack the stone beneath it. Adya rode the creature down, and leapt off before she could be thrown as it crashed to the cavern floor. 

Every remaining monster screamed, with some fleeing towards the portal, while the remaining became frenzied and went on the attack. Their movements became haphazard and uncontrolled as the expedition members slew them with abandon. This was the final gasp of the Dungeon, and everyone knew it.

When only a few monsters remained, the tear in the world expanded violently, growing to twice its size, then shrinking immediately as a magenta wave of energy pulsed away from it. Two monsters were hit, growing slightly in size, but there was no pause as it continued to fire outward, rolling across all of the people in its vicinity.

But just as it reached Cass’s carried form, it stopped as if it could go no further.

The wave pressed against the air in front of him like an invisible barrier had formed from his body. There was a cracking sound, as if it were pushing and trying to move forward, but couldn’t make any progress. Then Cass saw why.

The Quill had appeared on its own, its point held directly against the malevolent bubble of energy. Glowing Cyantic, it almost seemed to call to him as the world paused and waited for this moment.

With great effort, Cass lifted two shaking fingers and touched the shaft. The reaction was immediate. 

The Quill surged forward, and the bubble burst. Magenta shards fell and disappeared to nothing as the portal ripped further open with the sound of a sharp explosion. The Dungeon shook, knocking everyone down, then the Guardian’s heavy body was lifted up slowly as a ferocious gust of wind began pulling everyone toward the hole in the world.

“Take cover!” Joran yelled out, taking heavy steps towards the side of the wall. Anything said after that was lost to the sound of a heavy gale as everything throughout the Dungeon was sucked in toward the end of the cavern. The Guardian’s body was torn to pieces as its own walls sliced through it before falling into the imploding portal.

Pieces of glinting, flashing gold came next, two unlucky members being struck as they hadn’t moved fast enough to the sides. Even monstrous bodies came by, Greybeards with open necks, Veilrunners, diced to pieces. Every single thing of otherworldly origin they’d seen in the Dungeon was vacuumed in as the portal collected all its additions to the world.

Then, all at once, the magenta light was gone, and darkness prevailed. 

The silence was immediately broken by Alan’s tired yet incredulous voice, “What the fuck was that!”