Azure: Gunner Chapter 3-4

While the behavior of dungeons is now empirically well-understood, many questions remain unanswered. To date, no one has determined where a dungeon’s actual physical location lies. The act of passing through a portal disrupts all known tracking Skills and Spells, rendering them useless for attempting to locate the other end of the portal.

In pre-System tis, the word ‘dungeon’ referred to an underground prison. However, despite extensive subterranean exploration below multiple stable dungeons, no abnormalities have been located. There are even those who claim that the environs of a dungeon lie not on Earth but in so other parallel dinsion.

- Rufus Veres, Level 37 Verbose Historian, A Brief History of the System

When I’d entered the Tutorial, there was no sensation of movent – I was one place, and then the next, with no in between. Entering the dungeon was exactly the sa. The instant the tir hit zero, the portal in front of vanished, along with the empty moonlit landscape around us.

We appeared in the greenest, wettest area I’d ever seen. I blinked as my eyes watered from the bright light – it certainly wasn’t night in here. Once I could see again, I looked around in stunned amazent. In front of , past Elin, were towering brown columns rising high above us. Their surface was textured like – dead gods, those are trees! I looked up, seeing branches with thick, green leaves. They were so much bigger, so much more vibrant, than the desert plants surrounding Sunland.

This must be what it’s like when you climb the Angel’s Spine… it’s beautiful! I’ve only seen trees from miles away, I never imagined this!

On my right, about ten yards away, rose a sheer rock cliff. There was a strange sound coming from behind , like soft thunder, but going on and on. I turned around and water falling from the top of the cliff, arching down to splash on a pile of boulders. It ford an enormous pool, maybe fifty feet across. I’ve never seen this much water so close in my life… I can feel it in the air, like it just rained.

There was so much water it was even spilling out of the pool and flowing away in a broad stream easily ten feet wide. It took several monts to rember that we were in a dungeon, I was so amazed by the sights and slls and sounds around . I gathered myself slowly and looked around more carefully, not seeing any movent aside from us, the flowing water, and so of the branches lazily moving in the air above us. The dungeon was brightly lit, though I couldn’t see the sun anywhere, and the sky above us was grey as if covered in clouds.

I started talking into the Comms when I was interrupted.

New Quest: Complete the dungeonRequired Objectives: Eliminate hostile creatures within the dungeonOptional Objectives: ?Rewards: Essence, Exit Portal

Zaire comnted.

Raylan’s voice was far less calm than Zaire’s. I looked over, and he raised one hand, pointing up into the stream of falling water. I tried to follow his gaze as he continued.

I could see the area he was talking about, but even with my high Perception I couldn’t make out much, just that the water was streaming off and around sothing that looked to be… Fuck , is that… it’s the right shape, but I can’t see anything clearly through the water. I really fucking hope that’s just an egg-shaped rock up there!

Elin and Zaire both looked confused, and I realized their Perception Stats were probably a lot lower than mine. Maybe Raylan had a few extra points in there as well, to have noticed anything in the first place.

Elin asked worriedly.

I didn’t want to lie to my team, and they already knew sothing was up from Raylan’s reaction.

“Shit!” Elin hissed out loud.

At least she yelled that into the Comms and not out loud.

Raylan added,

I pointed to the cliff,

Zaire offered. No one else had any better ideas – we weren’t sure if monsters would be able to cross the water or not.

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I arranged us into the best formation I could. Moving close to the wall, I took the lead, followed by Zaire directly behind , and Elin behind him. The three of us were basically in a line, and I had Raylan take our flank next to Zaire on the side with the trees.