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“It’s fine,” Falin said. Not for the first time.
Marcille would’ve liked to believe it. But it was a dungeon after all. There would be monsters down there.
“You said you wanted to understand dungeons,” Falin said. “This is a dungeon. I think you have to go into it to understand it.”
“I know,” Marcille muttered. “But, I mean…”
The smell coming up the stairs was stale – though not quite as stale as Marcille had expected. It smelled of earth, and fungi.
Of course that was how it smelled like. She knew about it in theory. She had always known that theory. But she also knew the theory of other things. Of how the magic of dungeons would make the things inside change. And how there would be giant bugs, and slimes, and all sorts of other beasts. Some of those beasts would even eat humans.
“Laios and I have been down there a couple of times now,” Falin said, her voice gentle as it would always be. “Right, Laios?”
“Yeah. We just go down to the second floor. See what kinda treasure we can find. And then go back up.”
Marcille held onto her staff.
She was a great mage. She knew she was pretty good. She knew her spells. She would manage to fight off some stupid slimes, right?
And so, she swallowed.
Falin. She was with Falin. And Falin, while at times a bit callous, seemed to know what she was doing. Falin was not afraid. Falin said she had been down here before.
Besides, Marcille had read about the dungeon. This one specifically. Someone had cast a curse upon it, meaning that once you died, your soul would not separate from your body. She guessed that could be somewhat frightening, but it meant that usually you would be immortal. You could just be brought back from the dead. After all, a dead body was just a body injured more than normally. And there were a lot of people going into this dungeon, to look for treasure. So as long as they kept to the top floors, they would fine.
She took a deep breath, breathing in that air smelling of earth and depth and fungi and things she could not quite name. And then she followed Falin and her weird brother.
Really, Marcille was happy to have met Falin again. When Falin had left the magic school, Marcille had already made her peace with her having disappeared from her life forever. It was not rare for people to disappear. At least when you were someone like Marcille, and your life had a different rhythm than that of many other people.
So finding her again felt like a miracle. Meeting Falin once more and being met with a gentle smile and even gentler words had felt soothing. And Falin was right after all, Marcille wanted to learn about dungeons. She wanted to learn how to stabilize them, how to make them save. And this dungeon should be the perfect one to learn – given the curse and all.
She knew about the history of dungeons. About how many of them would eventually collapse, and take whole cities with them. It was likely due to the magic becoming unbalanced.
But if it could balanced, maybe the magic could become something for people to share in. And then, once she understood that, maybe she could also weave magic into ways that would allow her too…
“The first floor is usually quite safe,” Falin’s brother said. “They say some people even live here. There is at least people having stalls here and all.”
Marcille had noticed the same. The hall they were crossing right now was filled with people. There were several fires burning, and people talking. “I guess it really is not that dangerous then…”
“It is not,” Falin said. “Laios and I have dealt with most monsters here. And on the second floor as well. We have tried the third floor once as well. But I think with just the two of us it is too dangerous.”
“I was there two times,” her brother added. “I got killed both times.” He sighed.
Marcille had to swallowed once more. “How… How does it feel? Getting killed, I mean.”
“It hurts.” The tallman looked at her, as if she had asked a dumb question.
Maybe it was a dumb question. But then again, it was not as if Marcille had a lot of experience with it. Dying that was.
“It does not always,” Falin said. “Some people are killed in their sleep. And if people are taken by the ghosts, they usually just fade.”
“Right,” her brother noted and stopped in his stride. “I guess some forms of poisoning also will not hurt that much. And if you get killed really fast, it is likely also not that painful. I heard if they cut off your head you do not really feel anything.”
Marcille shivered at the thought of that. “I am sorry I asked. I… Uhm…”
“It is alright,” Falin said. “I drowned once, you know?”
Marcille stared at her, unsure what to even say. “Drowned?”
“Yes. And not even in a lake. It was in a puddle.” Falin chuckled in that soft manner Marcille had heard from her before.
And maybe that was just how death worked in this dungeon. People just died. And then came back. It felt just… uncanny.
She wondered how this dungeon had been created. It was part of the reason she had come here to understand after all. Of course she knew the stories. Like the story of that king who had supposedly crawled out of the dungeon when it was found. And the legend of the Mad Magician. It had all been fairly recent – that this dungeon had been discovered. Though she was not sure if she believed it all.
The walls of the hall they were in were made with proper masonry. So this might have once been a human-made structure that had been tangled up in magic? Or was it magic imitating human-made structures?
Some moss had grown on the walls as well, making her wonder if it was infused with magic too. But as she reached out her hand to touch it, it was Falin’s brother who caught her hand.
“Careful.”
“It is just moss,” she said.
“No. This is young bogmoss,” he said. “It is a type of monster.”
Marcille already wanted to lecture him, as she saw a shiver go through the moss surface.
So it really was alive?
No, that was a dumb thought. Of course moss was alive. Plants were alive as well. As were fungi. And, well, other non-animal, non-human, and non-monster things. But it was alive with a bit more sense of self than you’d expect from a piece of moss.
“You will get used to it,” Falin said. “Just stick to us. We have been down here a couple of times now.”
“The plant monsters are actually quite interesting,” her brother noted. “Outside of the dungeon, plants tend to be very passive, right? But down here, there is all sorts of plant-like creatures that can move around, and even will go out of their way to hunt or to trick people. Or other monsters. I have heard there are dryads on the lower floors as well. They say they use some sort of spores to trick people. I really do wonder what that would look like.”
“Dryads are said to be very dangerous,” Marcille said. “I am not sure… I mean…”
“I think they could be interesting to meet.” Falin smiled at Marcille. “Even though I know we should be dangerous around them.”
“R-Right.” Marcille’s gaze glided from one sibling to the other.
Somehow Falin’s brother was a bit weird. Marcille was not quite sure what to make off him. Though he did not seem mean. Just weird. But he seemed to mean a lot to Falin, so she guessed he could not be that bad of a guy.
“If we go down this corridor, we will get to the stairs that lead down to the second floor fairly quickly,” he now explained. “And then… We will see how far we can get.”
“But the other floors are not that… small, right?” Marcille asked.
“No. The second floor is, uhm… fairly big. Fairly high, too. It is hard to explain.”
“You will see as soon as you are there.” Falin took Marcille’s hand, smiling at her. “It is pretty there, too.”
“Right.” Admittedly, for just a tiny moment, Marcille’s heart almost stumbled. She was not quite sure why. It was probably the nervousness.
She was a good mage, she told herself. She was a great mage in fact. She had been a prodigy ever since she had started to learn magic. So whatever monsters there would be on the top floors, she would be able to deal with it.
As she once more collected herself, she could see Falin smile.
Falin was not a conventional mage. Marcille knew that as well. But she had seen her work her magic – literally – and it was special. In a way that Marcille had rarely ever seen.
Right. For once Marcille was with friends. Or rather one friend and her weird brother. But that was more than Marcille had had for most of her life.
“So, Falin,” she started. “With all the people here… Are there no monsters on the first floor?”
“Oh, there is a lot of monsters still,” the brother said. “Like that bogmoss. But other things too. There is Giant Scorpions, Walking Mushrooms, sometimes some tentacles, and some of the smaller bug types. And then there is of course slime. Slime you can usually find everywhere in the corners. And of course some mimics. They usually do not survive very long up here, because people will find and kill them. But there is still a lot of small stuff.
“I mean, a lot of the people have also gotten used to that kind of monster, right? So they do not care that much about them.”
“That does sound dangerous though,” Marcille muttered.
“Humans are dangerous,” he replied. “There is more humans who get killed by other humans than humans that get killed by monsters.”
Marcille was not even sure what to make of that. She assumed there was some truth to it – but that was just because monsters lived rarely outside of dungeons because they needed magic to live. And humans rarely lived inside of dungeons, so…
Her eyes once more followed the path of the stonework on the wall. The stones were worn down no doubt. Some of it was crumbling. She thought there might have been a pattern in there once. Though it was hard to see.
There were also plants growing through the masonry. “Are those tentacles?” she asked.
“Oh, no. Those are actually roots from the graveyard above,” Falin replied, making Marcille shiver again.
“Of course.”
This really was the treshold, wasn’t it? Where the normal world and the dungeon slowly merged into one another. She should at some point probably take some samples from the plants. Maybe even the bogmoss. And then she could analyze how the spirits interacted with it.
Right. That should be her plan. She would hunt some treasure to pay for it all. But then she would do her research, and then…
She was careful not to touch any of the plants that were growing here. At least until she learned to recognize the monsters from the normal plants with her own eyes. “Things look different in reality than in the books, don’t they?”
“Sometimes. But that is why it is good for you to be here now. I can show you everything.” Again Falin shot her one of those soft smiles. She really was a gentle soul.
“Yeah.” Marcille tried her best to smile back. “I really cannot wait to understand the magic of this place. I have read so much, but it is never the same with the real thing. And…” She looked at the other mage. “I thought of you before I came here, you know? I just did not think you would be…”
“Careful!”
Admittedly, Marcille was not quite sure what happened then. She knew that something hard hit her in the side, and shoved her to the ground. And that her ass hurt, when she landed square on it. And then, as she looked up to complain, something wet dripped onto her head. Something wet, and cold, and…
She screamed. Because whatever it was, it felt horrible. She wanted to pull it off her face – only to realize after a moment of disgust that it was not happening. Whatever it was, it had draped itself right over her entire head.
She tried gripping it, but it was like gripping water. Only that the water was slimy, and disgusting, and very much attached to her head.
She screamed, and tried to just pry it off. But it would just not let go.
It filled her nostriles and her mouth. The feeling of it made her feel sick.
Her heart was beating faster and faster as she realized she could not breathe. Whatever magic she had learned it did not come to mind – not that she could cast it without her voice.
She flayed. And tried to free herself. And then… She just was floating.
She was floating in a dark abyss. It was surprisingly cold here. Like winter. But there was no snow. No wind. No up or down. Only cold. And darkness. A frightening and comforting darkness.
And then she was pulled out of it.
Sickness filled her a moment later, and before she even knew what was happening, she threw up on the floor.
“There, there.” The voice next to her was gentle, as someone patted her shoulder.
“You have to be careful. The monsters up here are not that dangerous, but if they get you, they still can kill you.” That voice was a bit more monotone and kinda grading.
Marcille just stared at the floor as her vision slowly normalized.
She felt shame and did not know why. It took her mind to even make sense of the world again.
And then she saw the dead monster. A slime. A stupid, disgusting green slime.
What followed was another thought. “Wait, what did…”
“Don’t worry,” Falin said, still patting her shoulder. “You were dead only for two minutes.”
Marcille turned to her. “I was… dead?”
“It happens a lot when you go down here the first time,” Falin’s brother said. “You are not careful enough and then some monster gets you.” He shrugged.
“D-dead…” Marcille starred from one to the other. And then the sickness started again.
Falin sighed softly, though her hand stayed on Marcille’s shoulder. “You were just unlucky. But you do not need to worry, alright?”
Marcille did not reply. She just was kneeling there, panting.
Dead. She had just died? Just for a moment? Just like that?
Falin was holding her. “Maybe… Maybe we go back up and try again tomorrow.”
“We could just stay here and camp,” her brother said.
“I… I think Marcille might need some fresh air,” Falin said. “Right, Marcille?”
Marcille did not say anything – she was actually not sure if she could open her mouth before losing more of the contents of her stomach. But she nodded.
Dead.
Right.
“It does not matter, right, Laios?” Falin said. “We are just an hour or so from the exist.”
Her brother sighed, but then he nodded. “I guess. Yes. Maybe we can go over the monsters of the first two floors and how to avoid them.”
Again Marcille just nodded.
“Don’t worry,” Falin said. “It happens all the time. But it is not that bad.”
And maybe it wasn’t. Marcille was not fully sure of it. She was here again. Even though she was quite sick. Maybe dying wasn’t…
No, that was silly.
“Can you stand?” Falin asked.
Marcille forced herself to breathe. And then she whispered: “Give me just a moment.”
“Of course,” Falin said. And she smiled, still so very softly.
She really was a nice girl. Falin. And a good healer, apparently.
It would be fine. Right. Dying was not permanent here. So dying was fine. And if Marcille understood why, then maybe, just maybe… Well...
