Chapter 16: A New Normal

Days passed, and Astrid spent as much time as she possibly could in the Dungeon. No party had decided to fully abandon the post and their futures as delvers, so it wasn’t hard for her to find someone to delve with. Even so, it wasn’t long before she could see the difference. The parties she hadn’t ever seen in the Dungeon, like Lariche’s, were getting pushed into higher and higher floors, until the first floor was absolutely packed with delvers. Most of the time, there would be maybe as many as seven parties in this section of the Dungeon at a time. That would be basically two parties per floor, and they purposefully stayed out of each others’ paths, not wanting to mess with anyone else’s hunts.

When the fourth floor was overrun, the third started having at least three parties there at a time, but that didn’t result in the parties having to consciously avoid each other. With the fourth floor abandoned and the wargs unnaturally driven to ascend, the monsters more than doubled in density, until, even with Grom’s intervention and frequent helping, the third floor was left without delvers.

The cascade of overflowing wargs continued to grow, and the second floor followed in quick succession, though the delvers could have put more of a fight up for it. Grom had instructed them to leave the floor and consolidate on the first floor. There, they could support each other, even if they didn’t all enter a raid party.

And that brought it to now, a week after Grom officially announced they were experiencing a localized surge.

“Strong on the flank!” Astrid shouted.

“There’s another pack coming in!” Willem shouted. “Shields up!”

Three shields raised at the same time as four wargs rushed free of the thick brush. Somehow, even with every delver and monster here, the bushes never seemed to lose their leaves and the paths never seemed to be more heavily trod. There wasn’t any time to think about that, though, and Astrid grunted as two wargs smashed into her shield at the same time.

“At least level 3 here!” She warned.

“A 5 here!” Matthias shouted.

“No worries!” shouted Petr.

Their most pressing threats identified, Willem and Svana leapt in, Willem on the 5 and Svana on Petr’s. Astrid had earned the respect she was being given over the past week, but she didn’t enjoy having to hold off two of the mana-crazed beasts. They were slightly stronger from the heightened mana in the Dungeon, and what little rationality they ordinarily possessed had long since disappeared.

One seized the side of her shield in its jaws, wrenching its neck back and forth. Astrid grunted as she then needed to turn her hammer towards the other warg as it darted in to hamstring her. It didn’t care, and took the thick metal to the side of its head. That wasn’t quite enough to kill the beast, but it was sent sprawling to the ground, where, though still maddened and ravenous, it couldn’t easily rise.

Astrid roared as she beat back the one on her shield, just long enough to smash her hammer down into the stunned warg with finality.

Warg slain. 6 Experience gained, split among party.

Only 2 experience came her way from that. Her other attacker threw itself forward and tried to catch her foot, but she slammed her shield down, hoping to break its neck. The thud of the shield hitting the earth sent a throb of pain up Astrid’s arm, but she ignored it. Every part of her was sore and aching, no time to listen to the weakness.

The wargs were just too quick. It dodged, looking to catch her somewhere it could deal a heavy blow, but Willem was there, his spear piercing deep into the monster. As it died, there was no death notification for Astrid’s party, but as the Soldier nodded a confirmation of the kill, the rest turned their attention outward, making sure there wasn’t anything that had escaped their attention.

Astrid, seeing no monsters in the immediate vicinity, pulled her canteen out and poured it into her mouth. There was too much going on, and she needed to take every opportunity she could to keep herself hydrated.

Most of Lariche’s and Tobias’s parties had joined together, though the two Healers were on constant patrol with Grom to ensure that the delvers were all being kept as fighting fit as possible. Without Tobias in the back whispering poison in everyone’s ears, Astrid actually found that being partied with Svana and Petr wasn’t so bad. They were professional, without any of the snide comments she’d been expecting. Instead, they focused on listening to the commands of Matthias and Willem, who were the primary forces in this mixed party.

“I don’t sense anything.” Svana said, looking at Calliope for confirmation.

“We’re clear for now.” The Ranger agreed. “Eat what you can. We’re here for how much longer, Willem?”

“I’m fine.” The Soldier turned to Matthias. “You?”

“You’re forgetting I’ve hit level 6.” The Shieldsman disagreed. “I’ll be fine for a good while yet. How about you two?”

Petr merely grunted as Astrid controlled her breathing from panting to a regular breath.

“I can go a while longer. No injuries, just sweaty and tired. Not exhausted.” She added the last bit to make sure that nobody tried to get her to go back to town and rest. With Quick Recovery, so long as she took short times to rest, she could keep going for longer than these people who were higher level than her. Just so long as she didn’t fully exhaust herself, she could recover surprisingly quickly, even without using the Skill’s active ability. With a thought, she looked at her total experience.

Total Level: 2 (861/2,000)

In this past week, she, with her own hands, had killed at least 400 wargs, more than twice as many of the wargs than she had in her first week while she was in her pseudo-solitary days of delving. Even so, she’d gained a mere four fifths of the experience she’d gained initially. So much of her experience was given to Svana and Petr, and Astrid wished she could survive delving alone in these circumstances. She absolutely had no prayer of doing that, but even so, she wanted to. With that experience, she would be level 3 already…

And dead, She reminded herself. No, she was grateful to be gaining so much experience so quickly.

Though she wanted to loosen her shield and sit down, Astrid kept herself on her feet. If she got cold, then her reactions would be slow, and the stiffness and aches that filled her body would continue piling up until she sustained a real injury and was sent back to town. In that vein, she’d been immensely lucky these past days, as the most serious wound she’d sustained was a fractured wrist. With Lariche’s help, that was quickly healed, and that night, several uses of Quick Recovery combined to allow her to continue swinging her hammer the next day without incident.

“Getting close to night out there.” Calliope said. “We’ve got maybe 30 minutes left?”

Astrid sighed, ready for the opportunity for rest that was coming her way. She groaned as she rolled her shoulders and asked, “How does Grom do it?”

The Guild’s representative took the shift in the stairway every night. Once the surge was well and truly under way, the wargs would simply appear outside of the Dungeon, and there was nothing that they could do to stop that. Until then, though, the wargs needed to follow the rules that had been established for as long as the Great One existed—come out through the stairs, and you have to wait before you can get out. Grom spent a shift at least nine hours long every night killing every warg that pressed upward, seeking escape from the Dungeon. Astrid wondered how many monsters he’d killed, and if he’d gotten close to gaining a level from them.

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“It’s not hard, I’d imagine.” Willem answered as he looked around. The wargs had given them a long break this time, almost five minutes, and he seemed a bit antsy. “He’s so much higher level than the monsters, so it’s just staying awake. At Iron, I bet it’s just like a slightly rough night for him.”

Astrid couldn’t do anything but agree, given what she’d seen from the Shieldmaster. He wouldn’t need Skills to slaughter the monsters as they pushed through the stairs. If only it wasn’t so easy to be overwhelmed in there, she’d want to volunteer herself for the job. The idea of three wargs at a time trying to pull her from her stair in unceasing waves was terrifying. She’d long since lost the optimistic hope that the surge wouldn’t be too hard.

“Four on the right!” Svana called, breaking the restful quiet.

“Two more on the left!” Calliope added.

The three shield-wielding delvers readied themselves as Thomas, the Mage-Errant, prepared some sparks of electricity in his hands. Astrid tamped down her jealousy as she smashed her shield into the two charging in from the left. She’d get as much experience as she could in this next half hour.

***

The mixed party almost stumbled up the stairs, and halfway up, they came across Grom, who nodded.

“Good and difficult news back at the inn. Not bad news, mind you.” He was quick to address that, and Astrid felt her stomach unclench at his explanation. “Ask Stark when you get your dinners.”

Astrid couldn’t manage a salute, but activated Quick Recovery and sighed as her legs stopped burning and her shield stopped threatening to force her to the ground.

“Thanks, Grom.”

“Sure thing.” The heavily armored man said as he turned sideways to let the delvers go up. They ascended, unable to continue delving, but as the dusk of the late spring day settled over them, Astrid knew they may very well be the last parties out of the Dungeon. That thought was confirmed as Lariche and Tobias joined with them on their path. Tobias pointedly ignored Astrid, and she supposed she could count that as a win. After all, if she didn’t need to deal with the moron, that was good enough.

“What news do you think Stark has for us?” Astrid asked the rest as they made their way back.

“It’ll be how many parties are coming to assist.” Willem said. “I’d guess there won’t be too many, but there’ll be one party above level 15 and two parties around level 10-12.”

“I’m saying three parties 10-13.” Matthias countered. “None who’ve gotten the fourth selection of Bronze.”

“I’m sure my father has ensured that at least one of his caliber has come.” Tobias sneered. “After all, once I have gained these first levels, I’ll be welcomed back into high society.”

A couple of curious looks spread from one delver to the next. Was he from Ginnastadt? Then why was he here, nearly a thousand kilometers away? Were there no Dungeon entrances near the capital? That just didn’t make sense.

“Where are you from?” Astrid couldn’t help but ask.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” He sniped back, nose high in the air.

“Yeah. That’s why I asked. Wasn’t that obvious?” Astrid shrugged.

“If you must know, I’m from Wheldonshire.”

Though the name was a little familiar, Astrid couldn’t place where she had heard it. Instead, she looked at Lariche’s party. Lariche herself shrugged, unconcerned, while Willem cocked his head and Matthias looked at Willem. Calliope sighed, while Thomas perked up.

“That’s not far from my hometown! It’s that part north of Wheldon where the moderately wealthy gather and have their parties and so on.”

Hearing Thomas know what he was talking about, Tobias seemed a little put out, but when Thomas continued, Tobias’s face lit up in a fiery crimson. Astrid immediately understood why the ugly Healer was angry, but Thomas didn’t seem to have realized that he’d managed to enrage the man. In fact, he continued speaking.

“I had an uncle go up there once. Said that a lot of the families pretended an inflated sense of self importance due to their frustration at being pushed out of the midst of the truly elite found within Ginnastadt and the other population centers of the country.”

Tobias’s eyes swelled and he seemed ready to throw himself at the higher leveled Mage-Errant. Thomas, looking at the smaller, weaker man, asked, “What’s wrong?”

After spluttering for a moment, Tobias wordlessly turned and huffed away. Svana immediately followed him, and, after a sigh, Petr nodded to the rest and jogged after his party.

“Don’t you need to follow them?” Thomas asked. At first, Astrid thought he was trying to get rid of her, but once she met his eyes, it seemed like he was genuinely curious.

“No.” She shook her head. “We’re only a party while we’re delving together, and I’ll only ever party with them while at least some of you five are present. Going off with them right now seems like it would be a disaster waiting to happen.”

“Fair enough.” Thomas smiled. “I’m glad we have your company. How about you four?”

Calliope cocked her head, curious about something, but she as well as the rest nodded in agreement to Thomas’s question.

“Since we’re walking together,” Willem asked, “what’s it like having a Bronze weapon Skill? Mine’s Untiered, but with yours being Bronze, I just want to know what the difference is!”

Astrid shrugged. “I never had an Untiered version. I’d imagine it’s much the same as your Spearmanship Skill is. I feel how to use the weapons better, it helps me know where to put my shield, how to strike.”

Willem didn’t immediately answer. Instead, he stood a little straighter.

“You don’t have Hammer Wielding.” It wasn’t a question but a statement. “We just assumed that’s what it was, but…”

“Of course it wasn’t!” Lariche jumped in. “She wanted to be a Spellblade, so why would you have had a lot of experience with a hammer! You have a general weapon Skill. What, Blunt Weapons Mastery?”

With the secret already effectively spilled, Astrid nodded.

“Duchess’s Blood!” Matthias swore, taking Astrid by surprise. The Shieldsman was generally mild-mannered, so hearing the oath was strange.

“What?” Astrid didn’t know how to react.

“You’ve got a Copper Mastery Skill, and you’re surprised why people are jealous?” Thomas asked, his eyebrows rising in disbelief.

“I know that they’re better, but there’s something I’m obviously missing here.” Astrid looked around at the delvers near her. That they all knew something she didn’t rankled. She’d spent her whole life getting whatever information she could glean from whatever source possible, so why did these delvers all know something she didn’t?

“A Mastery Skill is a half step above their counterparts, most of the time. It’s almost like an Iron tier Skill for you.” Thomas answered. “They also usually grant a wider spread of abilities. Like Blunt Weapon Mastery influencing your ability to use your shield or fists.”

Astrid nodded slowly as they made their way back to the town. Matthias was still grumbling something about how life was unfair, and Astrid was inclined to agree. She got such a great Skill when she still wished she could have gotten Spellblade. That regret faded bit by bit every day, but even so, she wanted to be like her mother. Grom’s face when he’d said “Burning Brighid” was something she wanted to be able to instill in other people she impacted. Maybe… Armored Astrid?

The other delvers left her to her musings, each enjoying the slow walk that would allow them to cool down enough to, hopefully, not be as stiff come the morning. When they approached the inn, the changes were obvious—packs of supplies were piled outside the doors, and several horses rested in the previously empty stables. Someone was here. There was no carriage or wagon, and six horses. Enough for a whole party, but no more. Maybe others would arrive, but going off the state of the horses, the newest arrivals were in a hurry.

As soon as they pushed open the doors, the surprising silence that had settled over the room was the first thing to stand out to Astrid. The inn was always making some sort of noise, whether it was Stark making food, the quiet crackle of the fire, or the happy chatter of tired delvers. Now, though, the silence was deafening. Just as soon as Astrid slowly strode into the room, though, she found that it wasn’t that everyone was silent, but that, somehow, the space’s sounds were muted.

While they walked in, the spell was broken, and the Skill that kept the amateur delvers silenced fell away. When Astrid heard what was happening, she wondered what made these new, powerful delvers lose their cool this way.

“You think you can tell a Dungeoneer how looking into the Dungeon works? You presume, a pissant like you, to tell someone truly touched by and in and contact with the Great One to give a goblin’s arse about you?”

Ah. That could be a good reason.