Level 1 Fallen

Chapter 207: Proceed With Caution

When it was finally our turn to enter the dungeon, I took the lead, shield in hand. It was incredibly unlikely that the dungeon’s monsters had respawned all the way to the entrance, but I wasn’t going to risk another incident like when we were raiding the dragon dungeon.

Beyond the cloth flap of the dungeon gate, I was presented with a long, narrow corridor of red and white striped cloth, held up as if by ropes from the outside. I immediately deployed my Wraith Zone to hide us from any potential ambushes, while the other two observed the area carefully.

“Before we get caught up in fighting monsters, can I test the dungeon’s mechanics first?” Bella asked, holding up one of her twin pistols. “I’ll need to know just how bad it is to try and plan around later.”

I grimaced slightly, ultimately nodding my head. She pulled the trigger, firing a silent bullet of black energy from her pistol. In an instant, the cloth wall was pierced, a thin hole appearing. At first, it seemed like nothing else would happen, and her bullet had evaded the dungeon’s mechanisms.

And then, all hell broke loose. That one bullet flew back into the hallway, piercing from side to side in rapid succession. Every second, it whizzed past our heads a dozen times, forcing me to hastily erect a barrier to intercept it. Once the bullet shattered on my barrier, the hallway went still again. The holes caused by the bullet’s rampage closed up at a visible speed, leaving the hall just as it was when we first arrived.

“Okay… duly noted. Don’t fire outside the tent,” Bella said with a faint gulp, her face drained of color. Had we not been hidden within the stealth field, it was very likely that that bullet could have been aimed directly at one of our heads. And given how small the hallway was, we would have had no time to defend against it.

The three of us continued forward, slowly and carefully. Soon, we arrived at a large, circular room with numerous seats set along its outer edge. “This is the first performance hall,” Bella explained, looking around. “If this area was fully populated, there would be dozens of puppets going through a performance. It’s the first major combat area of the dungeon, but it doesn’t look like the respawns have caught up to here yet.”

“Are there any chests nearby?” I asked, and she nodded in confirmation, heading towards the stands.

“There is, but it’s a bit hidden. In between the sixth and seventh rows, on the right hand side. Look for the chair that seems broken.” Following her guidance, I directed my True Sight in that direction.

Sure enough, I found a chair that seemed crooked, and a hidden compartment beneath it that had a treasure chest. I led the other two over, opening the compartment. However, the loot in this chest seemed… unusual.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get any skill books, but we did get a couple of potions, as well as some weapons. These weapons didn’t exactly look the most practical, with a great sword that looked like it was made of foam and an axe shaped like a lollipop. “The equipment here has a joke theme?” Diane asked, to which Bella gave a resigned nod.

“I wasn’t sure what the book meant when it said that the equipment here was a joke, so I didn’t mention it. I didn’t think that it meant it literally. Either way, the next chest is in-between this venue and the second.”

After Bella said that, we continued into the next hall, where we began to see the enemies of this dungeon. Within the hallway were five wooden puppets wearing colorful suits. One of them held small axes, another a large ring, and the others each held two swords by their blades.

Looking with my True Sight, I could see numerous strings stretching out from the puppets and towards the ceiling above.  Internally, I thought that I could just sever those strings to take out the puppets, but Bella quickly stopped me. “Don’t do it, Drake. Those strings are tied to the dungeon’s mechanism. If you sever it, the string will latch onto whatever cut it. Whether it’s your weapon or your skill, it will just turn out like the bullet I shot earlier.”

I pursed my lips, realizing that was likely part of the reason Bella had performed that test before. If her experiment had shown that her bullets could safely be fired, she likely planned to cut the strings herself. “In that case, we need to destroy the puppets. Want to give it a try, Diane?”

Diane looked over in surprise, before quickly nodding her head in agreement. She had just learned some new skills at the Archetype Dungeon, so it was time to put them to use.

Diane faded from view, becoming a blurred figure in my senses as she crept around the puppets. It was hard to tell if these puppets had a blind spot or not so she didn’t want to waste too much time. She studied her targets for only a few seconds before stepping forward, her short sword cutting through the air with a black flash.

Instantly, the ring-carrying puppet collapsed, its head hanging by the wires after its neck was severed. After a moment, the head clattered to the ground, as did the wrists that had been similarly suspended. This caused the other four puppets to look over, but Diane was still in stealth.

Another black flash, and the axe-wielding puppet collapsed. Diane slipped back into the field of my Wraith Zone, taking a deep breath. “Their necks are still vital spots,” she reported while the remaining three puppets began tossing their swords into the air, juggling them as they scanned their surroundings. “Also, those swords each have their own string attached to the hilt, but they’re all considered part of the same puppet as their wielder.”

“So we need to be careful of the swords, but they’ll stop as soon as the jugglers die,” Bella clarified. She aimed her pistols, pursing her lips as she saw where her shot would end up. If she missed, or if the bullet pierced through, it would inevitably hit the wall again. Thus, she lowered her aim, striking one of the puppet’s knees instead.

A black bullet flashed, burying itself into the ground after severing one of the joints in the leg. However, the puppet did not collapse, instead standing perfectly upright on one leg as if nothing had happened.

The three puppets turned towards us, their swords halting in midair. Immediately, six swords flew at us like arrows, and I erected another barrier to defend against them. “Only the head and chest are considered vital areas for these puppets,” Diane repeated, launching forward. She had to carefully weave through the swords, stabbing her blade into the chest of one puppet before kicking off and flipping back. “If you don’t break their chest or cut off their head, they won’t die.”

“Leave the defense to me,” I said, knowing that my own attacks were too likely to trigger the dungeon’s mechanics. However, if it were just providing barriers, that I was still confident in being able to do.

“Don’t let your barriers touch the walls!” Diane shouted as she cut off the head of another puppet. “The walls are made of the same threads controlling these puppets. That’s why the ceiling isn’t disturbed when they move. The border for the dungeon mechanic isn’t beyond the walls, it is the walls.”

Even Bella seemed surprised at that, giving another look to the walls. Sure enough, they didn’t seem to move at all, no matter how the puppets danced beneath them. If the puppets were being controlled by threads passing through the walls, there would either need to be a hole or the walls would be tugged based on their movements.

Still, Bella aimed a shot forward. “Back me up, Drake,” she said, before pulling the trigger. Understanding her intent, I created a barrier behind the body of her target. When her bullet pierced the puppet’s chest, it crashed into the barrier to halt itself.

Now, there was only a single puppet remaining, its swords stabbing towards Diane, who seemed to flicker erratically around it. I was curious what she was doing, and why she wasn’t going for the kill. She seemed to be leading the swords around.

My eyes widened as I understood, using my True Sight to investigate. It seemed like she was trying to get the wires tied in a knot around the puppet. However, it didn’t seem like that was going to work. Rather than the wires trailing behind the swords, they attached directly to the ceiling above, meaning that no amount of circling would get the result she wanted.

Seeming to realize this herself, Diane stopped wasting time, flickering forward to decapitate the final puppet. Afterwards, she turned to look at Bella. “You said that the next chest was around here?” she asked, and Bella nodded, scanning the walls.

Soon, she seemed to find what she was looking for, pointing at one section of wall. “Over there, the cut in the wall. That’s a flap leading to the secret chest.”

It was only when Bella pointed it out that I noticed. Everything beyond the tent’s walls felt like static, making me restrain my True Sight to what I could see. Knowing where to look, I extended my senses through that flap, finding a small side room.

Just to be safe, I created a sentry to send through, unwilling to touch the tent myself after what Diane had said. At the worst, if the sentry was possessed, it had no combat power to speak of.

Only when the sentry pushed through the small flap unharmed did the three of us take the same risk, moving to open the treasure chest. Once more, we received a collection of assorted joke items, like a baseball bat that was classified as a hammer, or a hat with a propeller on top.

Diane seemed to get quite lucky, receiving a pair of black gloves. Worried about what their ‘joke’ was, I appraised these gloves. They were identified as Black Wire Gloves. However, what surprised me the most was that they were classified as both gloves and a weapon. Specifically, while the user was not holding a weapon in a given hand, the gloves could be classified as both a whip and a sword.

When Diane heard this, her eyes lit up with glee. She didn’t hesitate to take off her previous gloves, replacing them with these new ones. With a flick of her wrist, thin wires shot out, which gradually began to retract back into her fingers. “These must be the weapons meant to pair with the wire techniques.”

Although Diane had wire gloves before produced by Hammerhead, their quality was below what we were finding here in this dungeon. I could see why she was so pleased to have the upgrade. Now we just needed the skill to make the most of them.

“How many more areas are there in the dungeon?” I asked, and Bella took a moment to recall.

“There are two more performance halls, and then the Ringleader’s Court. Not counting the boss chest, there are two chests left to collect, one in each hall. However, since the respawns have reached this point, we’ll have to start fighting seriously from here on.”

“How could the respawns have already reached nearly to the first hall?” Diane asked in confusion, but Bella bit her lip.

“Most likely, the last dungeon group wasn’t able to get beyond this point. If they didn’t have someone with area stealth like Drake, they would have to face all of their hijacked attacks directly. For an archer or a mage, that’s a nightmare. Even a warrior would have to be careful not to let their weapon touch the walls, lest it be turned against them.”