All The Skills

"A dungeon," Arthur repeated, with a nod. "That means the prison we saw at the top of the mesa was more of... a holding facility?" He turned to look out over the top of the mesa, silvered in the setting moonlight. "Then the 'dungeon' must be the true place meant to hold criminals with longer sentences..." He trailed off when he caught the odd expression on Cressida's face. Why did she look like she was trying not to laugh at him?

"Yes," Brixaby agreed, not noticing Cressida’s look. "After all, they cannot very well send people to that horribly boring borderland village like they did with your father."

"That's... not what a dungeon is," Cressida said, sounding slightly strangled. "Dungeons are... well, they're a bit difficult to explain if you've never seen one before."

Joy sat up straight, her scaly lips peeled back to show her two green-tinged canine teeth. "Who locked you up in a dungeon?"

"No one, dear," she said with a laugh. "Dungeons are the names for specialized places nobles use to train proficiencies with their cards. They're made by special card users called dungeoneers -- usually Rare or Legendary ranks. Though the dungeon I visited was made by an Uncommon and was somewhat lacking." She shook her head, remembering. "It's an extra-dimensional space -- I suspect it's like your Personal Space, Arthur. But a dungeoneer has the ability to design and adapt the area to personal needs."

"Why would they train noble kids in a dungeon?" Arthur asked. "Why not out in the real world with tutors?"

Though even as he asked, he had an inkling. It was one thing to put a card in your heart deck, but quite another to become truly proficient with that card. Case in point, he was still discovering new aspects of his Master of Skills cards, which he'd had for the longest time.

"Oh, there are many reasons. Foremost is privacy. To keep any word of your card from leaking out. Secondly… Again, the dungeon space inside can be adjusted according to the dungeoneer's power and control. The one I visited was quite humid and warm, which was good because my family's land is in a far northerly climate, which means going outside to train wasn't always possible without risking frostbite. And the humid air helped me learn to control my bear summons without setting everything on fire."

Brixaby stroked his chin with two of his claws. "So, this may be a crafting training area?"

She shook her head. "It can be anything. A dungeoneer can create a dungeon in multiple ways. If I were hiding something, I would request a vault where only one person has a key, or a room full of deadly traps. It can even be an endless drop where someone needs to go in with a dragon, or else fall to their deaths. Really," she added, "it's a wonderful way to hide a stash of combat cards. I just hadn't thought of it as a possibility because hiring dungeoneers is quite expensive."

Arthur turned to Joy. "What exactly did your quest tell you?"

"Just that I’m supposed to complete a dungeon and that the rewards are variable, but in the combat class."

"The correct terminology is 'run the dungeon,'" Cressida said.

Joy blinked and then nodded. "My quest just updated. Now I have to ‘run’ the dungeon. The rewards are still variable, though."

That was one of the issues with meta-dragon powers. They could be easily influenced by perception, but Arthur had hoped her quest description would offer some clues.

It also didn't escape him that the dungeon system was just another opportunity nobles had that regular people didn’t. Not only did they have access to higher-level cards from the moment their heart deck developed, but they also had enhanced opportunities to train those cards.

Arthur had been lucky in so many ways in his life. Yes, he never had access to a dungeon, or the library of cards that should have come from being a Rowantree. But he had been taken in and sheltered by the Wolf Moon Hive. If he hadn't… There was no way he would have gained the power and opportunity that he had. It was hard enough standing shoulder to shoulder with nobles now. If it hadn’t been for the hive…

And despite his mixed feelings over his training at Wolf Moon Hive, he felt a twinge of homesickness.

Shaking his head, he dismissed it. "Alright, time isn’t on our side. We need to get in and complete— uh, run — this dungeon. Anything else you can tell us about them?" he asked Cressida.

"Other than the entrances being notoriously difficult to find?" She smiled sardonically. "I just want to emphasize that we can encounter anything in there, so we must be on our toes. There are so many different types of dungeons: some you can leave if you feel it’s too dangerous to forge ahead. Others… Others don't give you that chance. It all depends on the settings the dungeoneer decided upon."

And Arthur suspected a dungeon created to hide a stash of combat cards wouldn’t be the gentle type.

He hesitated for a long moment—not because he was thinking twice about going. He wasn’t. But because he wasn’t sure if he should take anyone with him.

He looked at them all, one by one. "Only Brixaby and I really need to enter this dungeon.” Because he knew there was absolutely zero chance that Brixaby would ever pass up the opportunity to find a stash of combat cards. "But Cressida… you and Joy already have some good combat abilities. You don’t need to go."

"Of course we’re going," Joy said, "I want to complete this quest."

"We’re going, Arthur," Cressida said, her tone leaving no room for argument. "I’m your retinue rider, which means that we fly with you."contemporary romance

He knew he should probably try to talk her out of it, but… He found that he couldn’t. He wanted Cressida to come along. He wanted her and Joy's company, their abilities, and Cressida’s friendship. And, he wanted them both to share in the bounty of cards.

"All right," he said decisively, "let’s go."

Before, they’d had Joy fly them up one by one to the top of the mesa. But now, with dawn only a few hours away, time was not on their side.

Arthur sat behind Cressida on the pink dragon’s back. He was larger and heavier, but when it came to riding a dragon, the linked rider always sat in front.

The moon was starting to set, diminishing the last of the light. This was a good thing for them, because it made it easier not to be seen. But just in case, Cressida, Arthur, and Brixaby all used their stealth capabilities. They also kept an eye on the stars to watch for any dragon shapes obscuring the starlight. They still hadn’t spotted the return of that scouting group from before.

Nobody spotted a thing, but the other scouts might have been using some sort of stealth skills or abilities, too.

They weren’t stopped, and soon the salt sea loomed ahead of them. Joy followed its edge to a narrow, finger-like peninsula that extended into the water.

Arthur searched for any buildings, doors, footprints, or any sign at all that people visited this place.

There was nothing. The landscape was more desolate than it had been on top of the mesa. The gently lapping water was so briny with salt that it collected in crystals right by the edge. Nothing could live out there except for thick flocks of flies that fed on the salt. But even then, they were quiet at night, represented by black swoops of sleeping insects settled across the landscape.

"The dungeon is supposed to be at the very tip of the peninsula," Arthur called, just loud enough to let his voice carry over the wind.

Joy nodded and continued doggedly forward. However, her head hung low out of exertion. Carrying two people at once for a length of time had been difficult for her.

Arthur tried not to think about the fact that if they found a stash of combat cards, and if Brixaby ate enough of them… he might grow large enough to carry Arthur on the return journey.

He didn’t want to get his hopes up.

The peninsula curled like a clawed finger back towards the east. Joy came into land, and Brixaby buzzed in a wide circle to scout the area. There was absolutely no life on this final strip of land. The flies were nowhere to be seen. Even the bare rocks were not larger than an apple.

Dismounting, Arthur stood and looked around. "Where is it?"

"They are hard to spot." Cressida didn’t seem concerned at all. She simply summoned three different flame teddy bears that galloped out in different directions. Their light was no stronger than a candle, but would be terribly visible at night from afar.

But they had already decided to take this risk. They were committed.

Arthur looked at Cressida. "Let me guess. The entrances of dungeons all look different, too?"

She smiled at him in agreement. "You’ll feel it when you get close. The only thing to do is to search around."

They spread out. The area at the very edge of the peninsula was no more than fifty feet across. As Arthur walked, he concentrated on the earth manipulation spell. Though, it told him nothing, and the twelve-hour timer was quickly counting down.

"Here it is," Cressida called out. She stood at the water's edge so close that the tips of her boots crunched on salt crystals.

At first, Arthur couldn’t tell what she was looking at, but as he got closer… the air felt off. Thicker, somehow, as if there was an invisible force pressing directly on his skin, yet not rustling the fabric of his clothing.

Confused, he looked around and studied the ground, but saw nothing.

Cressida helpfully pointed. "Stand right here and look out towards the water."

He did and finally saw a thin, hairline crack hanging in the air about chest height. It would have been impossible to spot at night if not for the fact that one of her flame bears stood directly behind it.

It was a crack in the world.

"How are we supposed to get into that thing?" Brixaby demanded, buzzing around it.

"You just step forward," Cressida said.

Then she looked at Arthur. Everybody did. They were waiting for him to give the go-ahead.

Do I want to do this? Arthur thought.

But of course he did.

"Let’s go." He took a last step to the line.

As he did, the air thickened and though the hairline crack didn’t move, it seemed to expand. Not from side to side, but it became deeper.

And though Arthur was much too wide, he still easily fit his shoulders in. It didn’t make any sense at all, and yet, it did.

His next step took him to a completely new world.

He stood on bright green grass on top of a rolling hill. The briny salt sea was gone, and a hot sun blazed overhead on a bright spring day.

Stunned, Arthur stood for a second and was bumped from behind as Joy made her way through the entrance behind him. Brixaby soon followed and flew right over his head, turning abruptly around in shock as he found himself in the daylight. Arthur quickly moved aside before Cressida ran into him.

"Well," Cressida said, blinking and shielding her eyes from the bright sun. "At least this isn’t an impossible drop."

“I would have caught you,” Joy said.

Arthur turned in place. At the bottom of the hill stood a deep forest. The trees were so thick that he couldn’t see past the first few trunks. And though he could not pinpoint why, it radiated menace.

He pointed. “I’m guessing that’s where we search for the cards.”

“Yes,” Cressida agreed. "This hill is likely the safe zone. I’m guessing that forest is where the actual challenge is.”

“But what kind of challenge?” Joy asked.

“It could be anything, dear. Traps, elemental guardians… real people who were sent to guard this place. Anything.”

As if her words were an omen, a shrill whistle cut the air. Every hair on Arthur’s neck stood up on end. He knew that whistle. That was the call of a scourgeling.

Instantly, the dragons were alert, lips peeled back in instinctive snarls.

“It is to be a challenge!” Brixaby said, and a moment later, he was covered in gleaming chain mail he’d taken from his personal space. The effect was impressive as the new metal caught the gleaming sun.

The foliage below rustled, and the first of the scourgelings stepped out of the dark forest.

The body shape was sort of like a horse… Only covered in gleaming black chitin. It had four powerful legs and a thick neck. The head, however, was more like an ant than a horse, complete with pincers each as long as Arthur’s arm.

Four of them stepped out in total.

One for each of us, Arthur thought then reached into his own Personal Space for something to defend himself with: a butcher knife that was enhanced thanks to his Knife Work skills and Butchering Skill, and… a decent-sized shovel which was enhanced thanks to his Shovel Proficiency skill.

Cressida called her largest flame bear summon, Whicker, who stood eight feet tall.

And Joy just smiled at the scourgelings with gleaming green canines. The covering over her venomous arm was gone, and she flexed green claws.

The scourgelings charged.

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