We ended up moving back to the first room that had the pathways to serve as what Selene called an encampment point.
"W-when my dad was training us on battlefield formations and tactics, he always said that dungeon raiders' biggest cause of death was because they had no fallback point."
We all took a moment to blink at her before Kaelen said.
"Oh yea, your dad is a noble who fights in Tessegog."
While the majority of us were nodding along thinking back to the story time cleaning of my house only two or so days ago, Thalia looked at Selene in look of bewilderment, and then a new light, a hint of wariness of her as she glanced for a moment at Selene's arm before continuing what she was doing. As I finished dragging one of the tables I turned to the others with a question I had been thinking about for a hot minute.
"Hey, why didn't we get any XP from the skeletons? Or any of the other stuff we have done in the dungeon?"
Liora turned to me as she finished dragging over what looked to be one of the chairs from the office are we had been in to help with the semi barricade everyone had assembled in the direction of the unexplored path.
"Well dungeons are a bit weird. They apparently come in types, but the main two are instance and linger. Instance, like the one we are in has less than 5 items, and once you leave the dungeon closes and you get your XP. Linger dungeons often have dozens of items and while you get your XP when you leave, Linger dungeons are said to be always making new items, so they almost never run out, I even heard there is a linger dungeon that has covered a whole continent where you have to be level 40 to be allowed to enter the dungeon."
I nodded along, surprised and a bit intrigued on what exactly made dungeons… well dungeons. Turning to the others as they finished the barricade Jax jumped up on a nearby box as if he was about to give a formal speech.
"All right everyone, we have found one of the three items, before we make votes on what to do next let's have everyone give me an HP and Energy count."
We went around the room and came back with the following
Aiden: HP 20/20 Mana 65/65
Jax: HP 20/20 Ki 51/61
Liora: HP 22/22 Mana 43/63
Kaelen: HP 16/16 Faith 42/62
Selene: HP 35/35 Mutation 27/65
Thalia: HP 18/18 Mana 42/62
As we finished the others glanced over at me being the only person who was fully topped up energy wise.
"I have no combat active skills, much less passive ones. The best I can do is apply potions and poke."
I said holding my spear out as if to show I could in fact poke, even if my pokes came with practically a third of the power that Jax's accidental jab from this morning had, not that I wasn't the slightest bit jealous about.
"Then the question at hand is as follows, do we attempt to seek out another item, or do we leave now with what we have?"
Thalia asked crossing her arms as she sat on part of the barricade. Kaelen nodded and said.
"Don't forget we also came to retrieve the bodies of the two that entered before. We should be on the lookout for them as well."
We all nodded before Jax stepped into the middle.
"What if what we did was explore, keeping an eye out for any monsters, and when we find a room with them, then we can come up with a decision."
I looked around to the others, thinking it was a pretty solid plan before nodding my head. With a plan now set, we ventured fourth over the hastily made barricade and entered into the next room. It was practically identical to the previous one, even hosting 3 choices, one straight and the others to the right and left. The right most room seemed to lack a source of light, so we couldn't see much inside.
The room in front of us held two long tables, benches on either side. Plates of now gone food sat as if the poor soldiers of the 23rd battalion had been mid meal when they had died. The light that had been emanating from the room earlier seems to have originated from the fireplace that sat burning tucked in the corner with a part of it visible from where we stood.
The left hallway held what seemed to be a collection of bunk beds, a torch illuminating the room. Turning to the others we all shuffled back, not back to the area we had set up, but closer to it so we could leap across in case our voices drew attention. Mind you we wern't being quiet before so why something wouldn't have heard us then vs now was a bit of a leap in logic, but it made everyone feel safer.
"If you need, I can use my strings for a guarantee that there are no enemies, but doing so will drain me depending on how thorough we are."
We turned to each other as Kaelen said.
"How about we explore the dark room first. We can at least see in the other two and can split up to search for them, but I think everyone should stick together if we are venturing into the dark."
It was sound logic and made sense for our situation, but I wanted to check that wasn't just naivete talking on my end, so I looked around to the others. After a moment it was agreed and we all started to shuffle towards the dark room, everyone on guard to avoid what happened last time. Stepping into the room, the torches we carried illuminated the space and revealed what laid within.
Unlike the zombies from before, as we stepped towards this next room, the smell of rot and decay was thick in the air. Stepping trough the small hallway, the source of the smell turned out to be 2 half decomposed skeletons. To the left of the room was the smaller one, this one had half its face missing, its jaw lying beside it, the skin hard and gray. They had a small bag next to them with various miscellaneous items. They looked to be no younger than 12, their clothes-soaked trough and now caked in dried blood. Walking over to the bag I saw it was filled with what seemed to be household items as a picture formed in my mind.
A boy no older than 13 had a class, they had read the stories, and better yet, he found a low-level dungeon right near the farm. He was confident he could use his skills to defeat whatever was within and jump start their journey to become an adventurer. Their body now laid bleeding out within cold stone walls, the silent wish for their parents to save them being the last thought on their mind.
I turned to the other body. This one was larger, the man's face was intact, showing a slightly graying line of hair and a full beard. This man seems to have taken an injury to the stomach, slouching against the wall, their arm rested on top of what looked to be a small stack of boxes, on the very top sat what looked to be a very ornate jewelry box. I stared at the dust covered crates next to the pristine box and thought, there is no way anyone is falling for that, however Kaelen and Liora both approached the box. While neither had their hands out to touch it, they were both very curious about it. They peered over the box as if looking for imperfections when suddenly Kaelen went spinning to the side, bouncing with a painful crack against the brick wall as Thalia turned her head, she barely had a moment before she was also thrown back.
Captain Pices has used Poison Arrow(E) X 2
Party member Kaelen has taken 25 damage
Party member Kaelen has been poisoned
WARNING WARNING WARNING: Party member Kaelen is unconscious
WARNING WARNING WARNING: Party member Kaelen is bleeding out
WARNING WARNING WARNING: Party member Kaelen is fading faster due to poisoning
Party member Liora has taken 27 damage
Party member Liora has been poisoned
WARNING WARNING WARNING: Party member Liora is unconscious
WARNING WARNING WARNING: Party member Liora is bleeding out
WARNING WARNING WARNING: Party member Liora is fading faster due to poisoning