Conquest Read online

  “Plant-killer and life-stealer… release me now!” The Foul Spore Dryad shrieked directly into my mind. The foul spore was a walnut sized seed that I acquired after we had killed a creature called the Foul Spore Dryad during our journey to the town of Hayden’s Knoll. The dryad had corrupted animals and plant life, converting the living beings into fertilizer for her foul-smelling forest. I had no intentions of freeing the creature to begin her reign of terror once more…not to mention that keeping the foul spore gave me some much-needed stat buffs.

  “Not going to happen, Foul Spore Dryad. By the way, do you have a name, or should I keep calling you Foul Spore Dryad?” I asked while watching the timer for the portal counting down. She could only bother me for another forty seconds or so.

  “I had a name once long ago…you may call me…Tessel. Torment me no longer, dreamless one. I yearn to be free. I offer a lifepact to neither harm you, nor those you command, if only you will set me free,” Tessel pleaded. It seemed she remembered her original Dryad name from before she became corrupted. Her pleading was sad, but she was far too dangerous, even with a lifepact. The lifepact oath in Limitless Lands was the most powerful oath one could swear. To break it would instantly mark you as hostile to all sentient beings as you slowly and painfully died over the course of several days.

  “Sorry Tessel, I can’t take the chance of you running loose in the world again, even with a lifepact,” I said as the countdown finished.

  We transitioned to find ourselves in a tunnel that appeared to be a continuation of the goblin mine shafts, despite being on the other side of a portal. The tunnel was wide enough for two people to walk side by side and there were lit torches placed every twenty feet, casting a dim and flickering light. The tunnel curved slightly, preventing us from seeing more than a few yards in front of us at any one time. As we cautiously walked down the tunnel, a system prompt flashed in front of me.

  You have entered the Fangweb Mines Dungeon

  That explained the transition portal. The goblin mines were connected to a dungeon, the first one I’d seen since I started the game.

  “What’s a dungeon, Raytak? Are there some prisoners we need to free or something?” Sergeant Ty asked. The system prompt had flashed for him as well. Ty, in real life, was my roommate from the VA hospital. He had been selected as the second person to be treated in the Medpod program. He was a retired Marine and had never been a gamer.

  “I don’t think this will be a rescue mission, Ty. A dungeon is usually an area that is created for each group that enters…if some other players were to enter right now they would be playing in their own separate instance of the dungeon and we wouldn’t see them. These places usually have much tougher creatures and much better rewards than things out in the regular game world. Many players focus exclusively on clearing out dungeons repeatedly for the loot. We’ll need to stay on our toes and be prepared to retreat if we run into anything too powerful for our forces,” I replied.

  Ty helped to organize the troops by placing half of the standard soldiers in the front, the advanced scouts in the middle, and the other half of the standard troops in the rear. I placed myself up front with the first section, while Ty placed himself at the rear. With weapons and shields ready, we made our way down the tunnel. Several of the soldiers grabbed torches from the wall sconces as we passed, holding them in their shield hand.

  After about fifty yards, the tunnel opened into a large cavern. The cavern was nearly fifty yards wide and two hundred yards long. Mining equipment and still smoking forges were scattered about. Patches of webbing were draped here and there over the walls and ceiling. Nothing moved. The quiet cavern was eerie. Only the rattling of our gear and the sounds of our footsteps broke the silence. This was strange…usually you get some trash mobs at the start of a dungeon, giving the players a chance to work out any kinks in their group without too difficult of an encounter. As we moved forward, I had the scouts take position in the middle of the cavern, covering us with their crossbows. I had the remainder of our forces broken up into two groups. Sergeant Ty took one section of soldiers and I took the other, using hand signals to let him know we would sweep the walls for any foes. One of the soldiers with me burned away a patch of web with his torch, which revealed the desiccated corpse of a goblin miner.

  We made our way through the cavern, burning the webs as we went. Eventually, the cleared out webbing revealed two doorways. One doorway was at the back of the cavern and one was located on the side my group was on, positioned near a large forge. One of the soldiers kicked open the door to reveal what looked like a storage room with a high ceiling. Webs hung down and the room was stuffed with more oversized mining equipment. We moved into the chamber, alert to any dangers. As the first soldier moved into the room, his head brushed against some of the long web strands dangling from the ceiling. The soldier began to scream and swipe at the webbing as it hit his exposed face. More strands dropped over the soldier and he was pulled off his feet, slowly being reeled up toward the dark ceiling.

  “Burn off the webs! Watch the ceiling!” I ordered, while signaling to the closest soldier with a torch. The soldier began to burn off the webs. The dangling strands had a moist, sticky gel all over them that caught fire easily. Before he could make much headway, a large shape dropped from the ceiling onto one of the soldiers trying to free his injured comrade. Focusing on our foe, its description was revealed.

  Starving Fangweb Fisher, Level 3: The Fangweb Fisher is an ambush predator, waiting for unsuspecting prey to brush against its dangling webs. Their webbing is not only extremely sticky, but is also coated in a contact poison. The webbing is surprisingly strong, allowing most medium-sized opponents to be caught and slowly pulled toward the waiting fangs of the Fisher.

  The soldier landed face down on the ground with the spider on top of him. He had no way to defend himself as the spider drove its large fangs through his leather armor and immediately began to feed…oblivious to the danger the rest of us posed to it. The soldier snagged in the web was still screaming and slowly being reeled up toward the ceiling. I continued to try and help the slowly rising soldier while the other 3 soldiers with me attacked the Fangweb Fisher. The soldiers’ short swords thrust easily into the spider. Its outer chitin was much weaker than that of the spiders we had faced outside the instance. I reached for the dangling soldier’s leg and pulled down as hard as I dared, trying to keep him from whatever horrible fate awaited him in the dark mass of webs covering the ceiling.

  Your forces have killed Starving Fangweb Fisher. 0 experience awarded. *Note, your unique commander class does not allow you to gain experience from dungeons or instanced raids. No loot will drop while inside the dungeon.

  The notification popped as the spider feeding on the prone soldier was killed. Its grey-colored blood and entrails slowly poured out onto the soldier it had been attacking. The soldier was moving slightly and groaning, still alive, at least for now. One of the soldiers joined to help me pull on our dangling comrade, while the other two began to ignite the webs once more with their torches. Whatever coated the webs caught fire quickly. Flames shot up the strands and soon covered the ceiling. The strand pulling the soldier up parted as it burned away from the spider reeling him in. We quickly dragged the two wounded soldiers out of the room as the flames and heat intensified. The webbing was consumed quickly and two more singed bodies of Fangweb spiders dropped from the ceiling with a thump, steaming on the floor. I waited for the system notification, but remembered I had set it to notify me only if a new type or level of foe was defeated. No experience or loot was a pain, but we still needed to try and clear this place to protect the town.

  Sergeant Ty and his squad had cleared the rest of the main chamber while I had fought, finding nothing other than a few more of the dried-up goblin bodies. This was strange. The spiders we fought had the “starving” designation and they seemed to be way too easy to beat for dungeon creatures. Dungeon creatures are usually elite and much more challenging than their r
egular counterparts.

  We made it to the doorway at the back of the cavern without any further incident. The door there had been bashed in, the spiders must have burst down the door to get at the goblin miners. It must have been the work of the Fangweb Sire Boss we had fought outside of the dungeon, but creatures were not supposed to exit a dungeon. After sending our wounded back to the surface, we continued on. The tunnel we were in led to another cavern which was a mirror image of the one we had just cleared. The new cavern was also quickly searched, and no foes were found, not even a starving spider. We proceeded down the tunnel and moved further into the dungeon, entering what looked like the last room of this level as another prompt appeared.

  Goblin Mine Boss

  The notification of what I figured was a mini boss encounter flashed as we entered the room. The large chamber was set up like a combination throne room and bedroom for the goblin mine boss. The only occupants of the room proved to be the decaying and dried up remains of an ogre and several goblin miners. Surrounding the ogre were the corpses of nearly a dozen Fangweb spiders, which also appeared to be old and dried up. This was getting weirder and weirder.

  “Hey Raytak, what gives with this place? I thought you said there were dangerous creatures, but it looks like someone beat us to this place and cleaned out all the threats,” Ty said while gesturing toward the old corpses on the floor.

  “I couldn’t tell you. Something is off with this dungeon. Only one group is allowed in at a time and the dungeons usually reset after a certain amount of time for each group. Even if somehow there were other players in here with us, these guys,” I gestured toward the corpses, “should have respawned again long before their bodies had a chance to decay. The only thing we can do is keep moving on. We need to make sure whatever’s going on here isn’t a threat to the town,” I said, as we searched for an exit that led further into the dungeon. Water dripping from the ceiling led us to the exit. The water ran along the floor toward the corner of the chamber where we found a tunnel that led down to the next level of the dungeon.

  The next level proved to be a bust as well. The passage we followed emptied into a large cavern lit by stalactites covered in a glowing fungus. The glowing fungus’ sickly blue light revealed a gigantic circular cavern. Grey tinted grass covered the shore of a lake that had a small island in its center. Several chambers were cut into the cavern wall, which were empty except for the remains of several lizard or crocodile type creatures. A narrow stone bridge cut across the lake and led to the island. The center of the island was dominated by a huge tree. The tree had a sickly white trunk and black leaves, somehow drawing its sustenance from the light generated by the glowing fungus. Lying near the tree was the corpse of a creature the size of a city bus. The creature’s skeletal remains showed that it had five long necks. Tooth-filled reptilian skulls were found at the end of each neck. Around the creature were the corpses of over twenty of the Fangweb spiders. When I walked over to the huge corpse, it triggered a system prompt.

  Lair of the Darkscale Hydra

  It looked like this was meant to be a minor boss area as well. The only other exit from the island was a tunnel leading down that had been found behind the tree. There were stone stairs leading down into the dark and something looked to have dug its way up, widening the opening. “Did the hydra dig out from below, or was this also the Fangweb Sire?” I thought to myself as we descended.

  “Sir, this place is giving me the Durks! I don’t think any of us mind a fair fight, but this waiting around for something to happen is starting to get to me,” one of the soldiers said. The Durks was a reference to an old tale about a feeling of dread and foreboding.

  “Lock it up private! The only thing you should scare you is how many pushups I’m about to make you do! Find a friend, Private!” Sergeant Ty shouted, dressing down the scared private. I let him proceed, as this area seemed safe for now, and a little corrective physical training would keep them focused on the mission at hand. The soldiers’ dread of Sergeant Ty was worse than any fears of what may lurk ahead. The scared private tapped the soldier next to him, who in return gave his friend a dirty look. You never did anything alone in the Army, including receiving punishment.

  “Attention! Half-right…face! Front leaning rest position…move!” The privates went to attention and turned at a 45-degree angle. The privates then assumed the front leaning rest position, which to civilians is known as the pushup position.

  “The pushup, privates!” Sergeant Ty yelled…his voice bellowing out and echoing across the lake. I signaled the other privates to keep their eyes out for any threats, while the sergeant proceeded with the scared private and his friend. Poor Sergeant Ty had been a patient at the VA hospital for decades and hadn’t had a private to boss around for a very long time. I figured it was best to let him have his fun. Sergeant Ty’s character in-game was truly intimidating. He was a large half orc with only one arm, but that one arm was more heavily muscled than any three arms of a regular soldier.

  “The pushup, Sergeant!” the soldiers replied. To their credit, they sounded off loud.

  “Exercise. One, two, three…” Ty began counting off the exercise, the soldiers keeping in time for several minutes before reaching muscle failure. Ty didn’t know that my other NCO, an npc named Sergeant Brooks, had worked them hard on our trip to the town of Hayden’s Knoll. We had taken out of shape recruits and made them strong. As a benefit, we all received the physically fit buff which gave us a small health boost at each level.

  “Alright, fall in privates. We’re going down that hole and killing whatever threat might be in there,” I ordered after the sergeant had finished with the privates. We formed up again and began to descend the stairs.

  “Maybe if we find a living hydra, the sergeant will exercise it to death,” a private whispered to another soldier, thinking we couldn’t hear him. Several of the nearby soldiers suppressed laughs.

  “Oh, I heard that Private. Don’t you worry. I’ll make a special note to remember you when we get back to the barracks. I know that was you, Private Samuel! You and your squad will get to enjoy latrine detail for the whole week. I’m sure Mayor Delling could use some help with the town latrines as well. Who knows, if you do a good enough job, I can even check with Chief Bugtug to see about the latrines for the goblin miners,” Sergeant Ty replied, while trying to keep a grin off his face. The soldiers quieted down as they contemplated the unpleasant duty ahead of them. All fear and thoughts of what they were heading into were forgotten for the moment. The AI seemed to agree and as we descended to the next level of the dungeon a prompt flashed.

  Due to the discipline and “training” administered by Sergeant Ty, your forces have received the Disciplined buff for the next hour. +5 to all morale checks.

  The stairway led down into another long chamber. The ceiling of this chamber was also covered with stalactites sporting the glowing blue fungus. The cavern before us contained a small underground forest of the white trunk, black leaf trees we had seen in the hydra chamber. Spider webs hung from the branches and a few dried husks of various animals were seen at regular intervals. Our forces moved toward the back of the cavern while carefully watching for an ambush from above, or around the trees. At the back of the cavern there was a large pile of dried-out spider victims. In the middle of the pile stood a waist-high stone pillar with a fist-sized red gem at the top. The gem pulsed with a weak light, casting an eerie red glow onto a small area around it. The dungeon ended here, with no other obvious exits. I walked up to the pillar and was checking out the glowing gem when Sergeant Ty spoke, interrupting me as I reached my hand toward the light.

  “Don’t tell me you plan to touch the glowing red thing. I don’t even play video games and I know that’s usually a bad idea,” Ty said.

  “Unless you can think of anything else that’s left to do down here, I might as well check it out,” I said as I placed my hand on the stone.

  Chapter 3

  As I touched the red glowing
stone, a vision appeared before me. I found myself floating above the chamber while looking at a scene from long ago. Vhareax and his spider brood reigned over the underground forest, feeding on the small animals that periodically spawned in the chamber. A party of five adventurers appeared, coming down the stairwell we had just entered. The party appeared to be npc’s. It was unusual to see them form parties and attempt dungeons, but not unheard of in a game. The party attacked the spiders, clearing the swarms of smaller ones before making it to Vhareax. The adventurers were then viscously slain and eaten by the Fangweb Sire and its brood. Time moved more quickly and I could see various groups of adventurers enter the area and attack. Some parties killed the spiders…some parties were themselves killed. The creatures in the dungeon always respawned and there were always more adventurers to face the challenge.

  My vision zoomed out. I could see the hydra and the other creatures on the second level also fighting adventurers, the same occurring with the goblins on the first level. Then something new happened. A large quake shook the cavern, dislodging rocks and chunks of stone from the ceiling. My focus was drawn to the portal outside the dungeon and I saw a rockslide block off the dungeon entrance portal from the rest of the goblin mine. Much time passed and no more adventurers found their way to the now blocked off dungeon. Eventually the creatures in the dungeon began to fight amongst themselves to feed. The smaller animals that were their normal prey no longer respawned. The Fangweb spiders made their way up toward the first floor of the dungeon, defeating the weaker opponents and feeding well for a time. When the last of the other creatures in the dungeon were consumed, the larger spiders began to feed on their smaller kin, until only a few remained. More time passed before another quake occurred, spurring Vhareax to gather up the last few of his brood and make his way out of the dungeon into the chamber beyond. Soon after, the rubble blocking the dungeon entrance off from the rest of the mine collapsed. The goblin miners had reopened the passage. The spiders quickly took advantage of the new food source and began to send spiders to gather their prey. Shortly after, I could see my forces arrive and eventually defeat Vhareax and his brood in the difficult fight we had experienced earlier. The vision faded from view just as I saw our own entrance into the dungeon.