Nightmare Realm Summoner

Wess waited by the portal as Glint vanished into its depths. The monster hadn’t said a single word. That was, unfortunately, how Glint tended to work. Prying conversation out of him was like squeezing water from a rock.

That wasn’t to say that Wess hadn’t tried. He’d spent the better half of the time on the trip over to the dungeon trying to convince the monster to speak with him. Alex had warned Wess that the monsters didn’t speak.

Wess had ignored that. It might have just been because they didn’t like him. One never knew why they were receiving the silent treatment. Unfortunately, he hadn’t had much more luck that Alex.

More fortunately, he didn’t need Glint to speak to get him the answer he needed. Alex had given the monster orders before they’d headed out. He’d warned Wess that there had apparently been a chance that Glint would just… stop doing anything.

But that hadn’t happened.

The portal rippled.

Wess’ finger tightened around the trigger of his gun as his eyes narrowed. He took aim — but the one that emerged from within the dungeon wasn’t a member of Crimson.

Glint stepped back out onto the grass.

Wess let his finger relax. He lowered his gun and grinned. Glint hadn’t been to return unless there was nobody waiting to attack him in the cave beyond. Unless Crimson were somehow smart enough to avoid attacking the monster that had stepped through the portal, the way was clear.

“Aren’t you useful?” Wess asked, slinging his Partial Soul Manifestation back over his shoulder.

Then he strode into the portal, Glint following at his heels.

The world shifted. Wess’ foot landed on moss-covered stone. The ruins of what seemed to be an ancient building rose up around him. Huge chunks of it were missing and the entire thing had been largely consumed by nature, leaving it as an odd mixture of masonry and greenery.

Vines hung from the walls and thick-leafed purple flowers bloomed to reveal huge stems covered with pollen at their centers. A false sun shimmered overhead, casting beams of light through the open portions of the ceiling.

The System shimmered before Wess as the Dungeon’s name made itself known.

Reclaimed Ruins (Adept)

Wow. Real creative. I wonder how these places get named, anyway. Does the System do it? Or is there some guy who has the dungeon-naming class sitting around and coming up with names for all of them?

Wess shook his head. There were far too many things that the System did that he didn’t know the answer to. Now wasn’t the time to worry about it. He had a job to handle.

There were two identical passageways in the room. One was off to his left, while the other was directly before him. And though the actual passages were identical, the matted moss on the ground of the passage to his left made it immediately clear which way Crimson had gone.

Lucky me. This is almost too easy.

The moss’ usefulness didn’t stop there. It muted his already silent footsteps as he started down the hall in pursuit of his target. Wess was almost completely silent as he moved into the darkness, leaving the rays of sunlight in the main room behind as he delved deeper into the ruins.

Glint didn’t make so much as a noise behind him. The monster may as well not even have been there. It was honestly a little more unsettling than Wess had any desire to admit. Something as menacing as Glint had no right to be so soundless.

Wess continued through the ruins, his gun at the ready and eyes tracking the traces of Crimson’s passing. The task didn’t get any harder. Gouges in the walls and magical scorchmarks littered the surfaces of the dungeon.

All Wess had to do was keep following the path of destruction. He moved at a brisk pace, not so fast that he could be surprised when he turned a corner, but more than enough to catch up with his targets.

He was a little bit behind schedule. It would be a tad embarrassing if Crimson had already finished the boss monster off by the time he got there. But Hazel’s message to Alex had claimed it would take Crimson a full day to clear the dungeon. If that were anywhere near true, he had time.

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I honestly almost wish one or two of the monsters here had been left alive. I’ve got no clue what kind of thing I’m going to be up against. Pushing so deep into a dungeon without any real knowledge of what’s in it… well, I suppose it adds some fun to the whole thing.

I guess my only real job is to steal the kill on the boss and pop Brandon in the back of the head. The priority is in the same order.

Wess continued though several more rooms. He checked on Glint a few times just to make sure the monster was still with him, but nothing had changed. The terrifying creature matched his pace like a shadow straight out of the depths of the underworld.

He kept his ears primed for any manner of noise. One could often hear a target long before they saw it — but neither of those two senses were being very helpful at the moment. For all intents and purposes, Wess seemed to be the only person in the dungeon.

And so he continued deeper still. There was no way that Crimson had somehow cleared out the entire dungeon already. He’d have run into them on the way back to the city at some point.

The dungeon was just huge.

Wess hadn’t actually done all that many of them yet, but he was starting to wonder if that was something worth changing. The Great Families wouldn’t have put so much priority on them if there wasn’t a good reason for it.

Something reached his ears.

Wess paused. His eyes narrowed as his head tilted slightly to the side. He didn’t move for several seconds. The sound was so distant that he wasn’t even sure if he’d heard it, but—

No. There it is again.

Wess wasn’t even sure what the sound was, but it was a sound. And a sound meant he was probably getting closer to his targets. That or he’d gotten hopelessly lost and had somehow been following a monster that Crimson hadn’t cleared out.

He was going to hope it was the former.

Wess slowed even further, keeping his gun positioned as drew up to a corner. Corners were always the worst. Guns were great when you had your enemy more than a few dozen feet away. They were a bit less fun when someone was an inch away from you.

The noise got closer with every step that Wess took. There was no doubt about it now. It was a fight. A large one, from the sounds of it. There were yells and cries as well. They were of the orderly sort. Not the panicked screams of a bunch of amateurs getting overwhelmed, but barked orders conveying concise information.

Wess turned the corner.

There was someone standing in the hall, staring straight at him. Crimson had set up a rear guard.

His finger nearly pulled the trigger before his brain had even finished registering their presence. But Wess caught himself at the last second. The person in the hall matched the description that Alex had given him.

Granted, that description had largely just been ‘woman’, but it was indeed a woman.

I’m going to throttle that kid when I get back to Mirrorwane. How did I not think to ask more about what our contact looks like? How did he not remember more than the fact her name was Hazel and she’s a woman? Does he even have eyes?

Wess kept his finger on the trigger of his gun, ready to fire at a moment’s notice. But even though the rear guard had definitely spotted him, she wasn’t calling out. Her sharp gaze was just boring into Wess, more confused than anything else.

Either she’s shit at her job or this is Hazel.

Wess lowered his gun. He kept his spot at the edge of the hall, keeping Glint just out of sight around the corner behind him. Then he tilted his head to the side.

The woman’s lips thinned. She cast one quick glance over her shoulder, then strode over toward Wess.

“You’re not Nobody,” the woman hissed as she drew close. “Where’s your boss?”

“Skinny-dipping with a vampire, probably,” Wess replied. “You’re Lilly, then?”

“What? No, you idiot. Who is Lilly?” the woman asked with narrowed eyes. “Are you with Mirrorwane?”

Ah. It is her, then.

“Just had to make sure,” Wess said. “And how many people did you broadcast this job to if you’re going around wondering who else could have found the dungeon?”

“I told Mirrorwane to send Nobody. Who are you?” Hazel asked. “Do you realize what’s at stake here?”

“A raise?” Wess guessed. “And a really funny scene?”

“Is this funny to you?” Hazel asked in a cut tone. “You do realize what will happen if we fail, right?”

“I don’t make a habit about worrying about failing. That’s manifesting. And if there’s anything I’ve learned from the ladies with all the crystals in their house, it’s that you don’t manifest failure. Wise folk, they are.” Wess pushed his hat back. “So. We’re killing your buddy, are we?”

“Brandon is not my buddy,” Hazel said stiffly. “And somehow, I’m unsurprised that you’re from Mirrorwane.”

“Thank you,” Wess said. “I’ll take that as a compliment. So… what are we working with?”

“There are 5 of my people, including myself,” Hazel said grimly. “Brandon has 8 that’ll back him. Where are the rest of Mirrorwane’s forces? One person is nowhere near enough for this.”

14 people total, then. Would you look at that? I was close.

“Hey. I take offense to that,” Wess said. “But I didn’t come alone.”

He glanced over his shoulder. Hazel’s brow furrowed and she stepped forward, peering past Wess.

Then her features went pale.

“Oh,” Hazel whispered.

“So,” Wess drawled with a grin, shouldering his gun and nodding past Hazel to the sounds of the fight unfolding behind her. “Let’s go murdering, shall we? I’ve always wanted to commit a hostile takeover.”