Dungeon Trouble

Several months passed in the Academy. We had created quite a commotion at the school for our rather startling power, and rapid rise in rank in both the Academy's magikal power and classwork. However, we were mostly welcomed by the rank and file of the students.

When the Mid-term grades came out I wound up at the top of the Freshman class, and Kanae came in second. There were many truly gifted students enrolled, yet Aoi, and Kiera, came in as fourth and seventh respectively. Darby was more a physical powerhouse than one of the learned, but still he placed fourteenth overall. Among the knights Darby was ranked on top in power, without any peers. There were several very skilled sword knights with skill surpassing Darby, but he was a very fast learner. Still his power and speed were untouchable.

As a result we were allowed to start hitting the dungeons in the capital. The first semester concluded, and we had a break in classes for a whole month. Many students went home for Winterfest, but we had no reason to leave. They still wouldn't allow us to take on any guild work, which was frustrating to no end. But since we had free room and board over the break, we really didn't need to do any adventuring.

“So are we ready to hit the Dungeon?” I said.

“Finally! I've been dying to do some Dungeon diving,” Darby said.

“Let's go,” Kanae and Aoi said together.

“I'm not really sure what all the excitement is about,” Kiera said.

As we entered the dungeon, I said,

“Alright, Darby up front as our tank. Kiera also in the front to detect traps and such. Kanae in the front also as a power hitter and shield. Aoi in the middle where you can safely cast distance attacks and avoid close fighting, and I'll take the rear to defend and send out long range attacks. Kanae you are also doubling as the main healer.”

“Got it,” everyone said together.

“This will be our first time, outside the academy, working as a team. But It was definitely nice getting experience during classes. It allowed us to develop as a team and get used to working as a unit, with professional guidance,” Darby said.

“Yes, I have to admit, having trained knights teach us how to work together as a unit was very enlightening. While one can get that training from a guild, we'd have had to pay for that, and that would not have come cheap, either,” I said.

We breezed our way through the first, second and third floors of the dungeon. Kiera began detecting traps and pitfalls on the fourth floor of the dungeon. We were all mildly surprised, as those usually begin after the fifth floor. We then got to the end of the fifth floor of the dungeon, and came at last to the first floor boss.

“Are we going to try for the floor boss?” I asked.

“I'm not ready to stop, I definitely want to see what a floor boss is like. This being the first, it shouldn't be too bad,” Darby said.

“I agree, I want to see what floor bosses are like,” Aoi said.

“Me too,” said Kiera.

“I'm ready,” Kanae said.

When we entered the door closed behind us. A magik circle appeared and rising from the ground was a Red Ogre. Kanae, Aoi, Darby and I laughed.

“What's so funny?” Kiera asked.

“Aoi and Darby were being attacked by a Red Ogre when we first met,” Kanae said.

Darby leapt forward and thrust his halberd at the Ogre's chest and killed him. A few moments later a chest appeared and in the chest were six high healing potions. We could sell them on campus for a decent price. We already had some we'd made during classes in the first semester, and some I had stockpiled, but we rarely used potions with so many capable of healing magik.

“Quite a difference from four months ago,” I said.

“Indeed! I now feel vindicated,” Darby said.

“I'll still pass on attacking one,” Aoi said.

We then proceeded to the sixth floor. There were a lot of traps and pitfalls on that floor. The monsters were coming in packs now, and it was definitely a notch up in difficulty. Then we proceeded to clear one floor after another. The floors getting progressively harder.

“Here we are on the tenth floor. Are we going for the floor boss?” Darby asked.

“I'm ok with it,” I said.

“I want to try it,” Kanae said.

“Me too. This dungeon stuff is more fun than I thought,” Kiera said.

“Fine with me,” Aoi said.

We ran through the tenth floor and took out the floor boss which turned out to be a giant Fenrir. Darby and I kept it busy while Kanae and Aoi used attack magik on it. We decided to keep going. Then on the thirteenth flor we ran into a party struggling against a pack of Red Wyrms. Kanae and I each killed a Wyrm that was about to kill a member of that party. Then the struggling party successfully took out the remaining three Wyrms.

And that's how the fight started. Instead of thanking us for the assist, they attacked us without warning. No reason or explanation, just straight up attacked us. We hadn't even asked for a reward from the two Wyrms we defeated. Attacking, or killing, an adventurer is a serious offense. Being Academy Students is even worse. We could be expelled from the Academy for even just getting into a fight.

“We should retreat from this if we can,” I said.

So we tried to retreat, but the other party just started pursuing us. So we really had no choice but to stand our ground.

“They aren't letting up! I'm getting a little tired here, Deirdre,” Darby said.

“Ice Wall! Ice Wall! Ice Wall!” I cast.

“The Hell with it. I'm going to cast a teleportation circle for when they break through,” I said.

“Mists of Time! Mists of space! Accept my plea, and bend this place. With a hidden circle leave no trace. Send my rivals, to the starting place!” I cast.

The last ice wall failed, and the party charged forth. When the last one entered the hidden spell,

“Teleport!”

The spell flashed, and the party teleported away, but their Tank jumped out of the circle before the spell grabbed him.

“Sleep! Teleport!”

“Well that handles that, but I think we may have made a new enemy. What shall we do now?” Darby asked.

“Let's grab all the rewards, and go report to the Dungeon master's office. They may be headed back down to try and start again or are going to wait for us to come out,” I said.

We headed back up and stopped on the first floor.

“Alright, they are probably waiting for us at the entrance. I have a plan. Darby, swap out your gear. I'm going to take a more draconic form. Kanae revert to your elf form,” I said.

“Glamoury!”

“There, we should look very different now. Let's try walking out,” I said.

We walked out of the dungeon and sure enough the party that attacked us was waiting there. They didn't recognize us. I head straight for the dungeon master's office, and we entered.

“Hello, I'm dungeon assistant Granuaile, how may I help?” Granuaile said.

I dropped the battle rewards out on the counter. “We are the Ragdoll Raiders party. We came upon a guild party on the 13th floor fighting a party of Red Wyrms. Two of the party were facing an imminent death by two of the Wyrms. We killed those Wyrms out of concern for them. Their party then finished off the remaining three. Then they attacked us, and refuse to stop. We tried retreating, but they continued to chase us. So I set a teleportation trap sending them back here to the start. They are outside, waiting for us to reappear. They didn't notice us leaving, as I used a glamoury to confound them. This is the reward they left unclaimed. Rightfully two of the Wyrms mana stones should be ours, but we didn't help them to claim any of the reward. We are filing a complaint, but not pressing charges. We leave the rest to you, to handle however you wish,” I said.

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We turned around and left, but as we were leaving, Granuaile said,

“Wait!”

“Jump,” I cast.

“Jump.”

“Jump.”

“There that should settle that. Maybe they'll eventually figure out it was us. Have no clue what that party is going to claim happened. I think it's time to try a different Dungeon for a while,” I said.

“I wonder what the assistant wanted when she told us to wait?” Kiera said.

“Whatever it was, I'm sure it was going to be more trouble than I wanted to handle right then,” I said.

“True,” Kanae chimed in.

“I just don't get it? Why did they do that?” Aoi asked.

“Might have been part of some scheme that guild party pulls on other teams. Or any of a thousand other explanations. I'm fairly sure there were no good choices for us to stay there and try to work it out. I've had dealings with guild parties like them before, and nothing good ever comes out of it. It's probably best we move on. It will probably all settle down in a few weeks,” I said.

That was me being my optimistic, naive self. It didn't settle down.

We cashed in our loot from the dive at the Guild Hall and returned to our dorm.

“We might get asked about that event. Let me do all the talking if that happens. We can claim innocence, since we are now the Dragon Knights Party containing only humans and using the new names the Queen gave us, but we recorded the attack as the Ragdoll Raiders which is known to have an elf and a half-dragon. We'll be able to paint the other guild as liars, with a little research. We can maintain we left after completing level twelve. So tomorrow let's check out the Eastern Dungeon. Then hit the library the day after. Then hit the Northern Dungeon next. I think hitting the dungeons three times a week will be good. We can do more if we want,” I said.

“That sounds good,” Kanae said.

“I think we could do more days of dungeon diving,” Darby said.

“It's important to take rests and take time to recover. We can make it four trips a week once we get more experience. Dungeon crawling puts a lot of stress on a person, and it's not all that obvious, until it's too late. I've been doing this for many years, and have seen how it can affect adults who over do it. For now, we can review all that happened today, and discuss ways to improve on what we did,” I said.

“Why should we do that?” Aoi asked.

“By looking at what we did, and what the results were we can often help point out to each other things we could have done better. Reviewing our battles is one way to improve our skills. Someone else might see flaws, weaknesses, or opportunities we don't see ourselves. Even just talking about it, we may discover something we could have done better. This is no different than the training we get by studying historical battles,” I said.

“Oh, I get it. By studying our own battles we can change how we fight, and prevent growing into a set pattern that may become a bad habit,” Darby said.

“Exactly, but there is more to it, than that. By opening ourselves up to feedback from others and ourselves we can grow better and faster. It can also help us build good habits and more resilient strategies. Learning from ourselves and associates. This is the real power of teamwork,” I said.

“Says the one up until recently was a lone dragon adventurer! He he he,” Kanae said.

“That's true, but it was only because there was no one else I could rely on before. You all don't understand how truly wonderful you are, and how you have helped me grow,” I said.

“Daw,” Kanae said.

After spending six hours in the Eastern Dungeon, we finished off the floor boss on the 15th level. We cashed out our haul at the dungeon master's office, to avoid risking running into the other party at the guild hall. At the end of the week we headed to the Northern Dungeon, and went down to the 20th level, but chose not to take on the Floor Boss. We continued this pattern for the next two weeks. We had gone down to level thirty-three in the Eastern Dungeon, and level thirty-seven in the Northern Dungeon by the time Spring semester classes started. We had not had any other run-ins with guilds. There had been a few times when we retreated upon seeing another guild party in front of us. Better to avoid other parties than risk trouble.

Then we got an assignment in class to take on a dungeon and conquer the level ten floor boss. Results to be reported to the Adventurers Guild. The Adventurers Guild were providing a single monitor. Since the Guild only had limited people to act as a monitor, the class had to schedule the dives. Our party did our dive third. Upon entering the guildhall after completing the dive in the main Dungeon, where we'd had the run in, the party that had attacked us was there. It didn't happen right away, but before we could finish our report to the clerk they noticed us, and ran up to complain.

“These lousy creeps attacked us in the Dungeon a month ago and stole our loot!” yelled the dark-haired tank of their party. He must be the party leader.

“These guys have been eating Orc Mushrooms! We've never attacked anyone in a dungeon. All you have to do to confirm that is read our Dive history. We've never had a single complaint filed against us. Go ahead look it up, We've been diving as the Dragon Knights party. What's their party dive history look like?” I said.

“This is a serious charge. Academy students caught fighting are compulsorily expelled. Not to mention that Adventurer Guild rules ban parties from fighting, except in self-defense on a mission. You could all lose Adventurer cards as well,” said Nóra, our guild appointed monitor.

We were all taken to a private meeting room where the guildmaster entered a few minutes later.

“Alright, so we have a claim from the Divine Lightning party stating they were attacked and robbed of their spoils by the Dragon Knights party about a month ago from which dungeon?” said guildmaster Aileen Ní Treasaigh.

“The main Dungeon. They tried to trick everyone. They took all our loot and our bags. We found our bags on another level, but they were empty. We lost a lot of valuable stuff!” said the Divine Lightning leader.

“Mister Felzebob, It says here in your dive history, that a complaint was filed against your guild party last month by the Ragdoll Raiders party that you attacked them when they stepped in to assist you in a battle your were losing against a party of Red Wyrms on the 13th level. That party turned in the mana stones of five Red Wyrms, and refused to press charges. It also says you claimed those mana stones several days later, and filed a counter-claim against them, along with a long list of other alleged spoils from the previous floors, as well as some rather expensive gear,” guildmaster Aileen said.

“That's right! These are the culprits right here,” the Divine Lightning leader, Felzebob, said.

“We are the Dragon Knights Party. Aren't you looking for the Ragdoll Raiders party?” I said.

“Looking at your dive record it shows you dived in the main Dungeon one time, but then dived several times in the other two dungeons over the past month. No claims have been levied against your party. The record also shows you are a party of humans, and the Ragdoll Raiders have a draconic member and an elf,” Aileen said.

“There weren't no dragon or elf in the party that attacked us,” the Divine Lightning leader.

“Yes, the record clearly shows that the leader of the Ragdoll Raiders is a known half-dragon, and her ID is recorded as the claimant against your party. The spoils you accepted against your claim were turned in by her. We have absolute confirmation of this. Are you now admitting to fraudulently claiming spoils that were not due you? Or were those your mana stones? Are you trying to pull some kind of scheme here, or is there some reasonable explanation?” guildmaster Aileen asked.

“Those were definitely our mana stones. These thieves are probably working with that other party. Yeah, that must be it. It's some kind of set up!” the Divine Lightning leader said.

“Mr Felzebob, looking at your dive history, it shows you've made many such similar complaints of having your dungeon spoils taken and being attacked. It almost seems you are a serial victim of attacks by other guild parties. It also seems many of those claims were against new adventurer parties with little to no dive history. Nearly all of those parties gave up adventuring, and no case was ever completed. It seems very suspicious. However, the evidence here seems clear enough. I see no reason to hold an inquiry into the Dragon Knights. They have a clean record, if only very recently formed, nor were they the party that turned in your spoils. We have no record of the Ragdoll Raiders, and they have not been active here since that time. What they were doing here last month, we don't know. There has also not been any party turn in the list of other items you claimed to have had stolen. We will investigate this further. As well as your party which seems to attract ruffians,” guildmaster Aileen said.

“Well. I don't think you need to do all that investigating. Maybe we just got confused by these new adventurers, but if those Ragdolls show up, you should definitely investigate them!” Felzebob said.

“Well then, you can all go now,” guildmaster Aileen said.

“Thank you guildmaster,” I said as we got up and left. Felzebob glowered at us leaving. I was sure we'd have more trouble with him and his guild.

Three days later we were summoned to the Dean's office.

“I wonder why we've all been summoned to the Dean's office? Maybe they have a mission for us?” Aoi said.

“I don't know, but it won't be about a mission. Fionna would have called us in her capacity as Captain of the Guard, or just told us about it in the dorm. It makes no sense for the Dean to be involved,” I said.

“That's true,” Kanae said.

We knocked and entered, only to see Fionna sitting in a chair off to the side, in her uniform.

“So, um, what's all this about?” I asked, looking at the Dean, and then to Fionna.

“We've heard some disturbing rumors, about a certain party of adventurers attacking other adventurers, and we're hoping you can help us solve the mystery of those rumors,” Fionna said.

“Well, I shouldn't be surprised. I'm sure you've read all the related details. So, it's as I said, we tried to help a guild party that was clearly in over their head. Or so it seemed. We came to their aid, and when it was all over they attacked us. We tried to retreat, but they chased us. Not wanting to make a spectacle of ourselves. We stopped, defended ourselves with shielding and I teleported them to the entrance. We then collected the mana stones. We disguised ourselves and left the dungeon, where they were still waiting for us. The disguises, of course worked. We turned in the spoils, keeping none of it. We then left and turned in our own spoils for the day, and started exploring the other dungeons. I figured it would die down, eventually. Then we were handed that assignment for class to do a dungeon dive. Unfortunate timing had us and the attacking party in the guildhall at the same time, and it all went to hell. But it seems fairly obvious now that Divine Lightnings make a living playing on rookie guild parties, and we were one of their latest would be victims,” I said.

“So it would seem. You should have come to me when it happened. We could have avoided this whole fiasco. You truly are too naive, rustic, and inexperienced! So there you have Dean Maebh, nothing to worry about, but unfortunately it's too late to stop the rumors from spreading. You ladies are going to probably have some troubles now, since the whole school has heard about you all be accused of attacking adventurers in Dungeon,” Fionna said.

“The next time you find yourselves in a sticky situation come to me, or Miss Fionna, and don't try to solve it on your own. You simply don't have the experience and necessary skills and contacts. Any more such fiascoes and your privileges will be taken away. No more Dungeon diving outside of classwork for the time being. We will let you know when you may go again. You may also be assigned an escort. You are dismissed get to class,” Dean Maebh Ní Moregana said.