Dungeon of love
by symetrics
Sun burning bright in the sky, sounds of the busy city around me, I stood in front of the dungeon; "It's finally time to explore the dungeon."
Suddenly the voice of a guard snapped me out of my daydream; "Sir I need to see some identification before I can let you inside the dungeon."
I handed him my identification card; "Ah yes I'm sorry here you go."
He inspected me and the card thoroughly; "Arthur, age 17, 6ft tall, slim and muscular, short brown hair, dark brown eyes. Dual short swords and standard leather armour, you can go right in."
I took the card back from the guard; "Thank you sir." Then I walked through the big entranceway of the dungeon; "Why am I nervous? I have been training for this since I was 10 years old, I am ready." I wandered through the long winding paths of the dungeon's first floor, illuminated by oil lanterns; "the dungeon is more well lit than I expected. I guess it makes sense as this is the most explored part. I'm sure when I get to the lower levels it won't be nearly so inviting."
Out of nowhere a goblin appeared from behind a turn in the path. Drawing my dual swords ready to fight it; "A goblin, a small weak monster from the upper levels of the dungeon, but can be very dangerous in packs. At least that's what my master told me, I better take it out quickly."
The goblin turned its head and looked straight at me, its eyes blood red, veins in its head bulging, holding in its hand a rusty old axe, caked with blood that had turned black with age.
A blood curdling scream echoed throughout the dungeon, making it feel like my ears were about to burst; "Human… must kill humans, must die, die die, humans must die." It then suddenly charged at me, swinging its blood caked axe wildly, narrowly missing my arm as I dodged to the side. Using the momentum from dodging to swing at full force, my clean perfectly sharpened blades sliced through its flesh leaving it dead on the ground in three pieces.
I wiped the crimson blood from my blades; "I.. I actually did it, I killed the goblin." I pulled the goblin's canine teeth out, and placed them in my small item bag; "Canines are the only part of a goblin that is worth harvesting."
"Okay now to the lower levels." After exploring for what felt like hours, I finally made it to the 30th floor of the dungeon, and the first level that isn't maintained by the adventurers guild. I noticed a sign that said; "if you go beyond floor 30 the guild will not send someone to rescue you."
As I made the descent to floor 31; "I can do this." I explored the 31st floor of the dungeon, I noticed the walls becoming a lot smaller, and were only lit by some glowing moss on the walls; "it's a lot darker now." As I walked around a tight corner, I suddenly heard the voice of a young man yelling; "Alice, run get out of here, now!!" then silence.
I sneaked quickly around the dimly lit cave; "I should go see if they are okay, but what if I'm not strong enough… no I can do this, wait I can do this… right?"
Then an ear piercing scream, that sounded like it came from a terrified young girl, echoed throughout the cave; "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh." My body began to move on its own, I ran into the opening where an ogre stood over this tiny girl. She was trembling and sat against the wall of the cave. Behind the ogre was the body of a young man torn in two.
As the ogre reached its giant hand down to grab her, I pulled out my dual swords and ran towards it. Jumping over the ogre from behind, spinning in mid air, I sliced down its arm as I fell. One of the ogre's arms fell to the ground, sending it stumbling back. Not giving it a second to gain its footing, I charged towards the ogre, sliding between the monster's legs, cutting its achilles tendons, sending it falling to the ground with a crash. I then jumped, sinking my blades into the ogres heart as I fell; "rawwwwwwww."
Removing my swords from the ogre's corpse; "That was a tough fight, I can't believe I did it, wait, that doesn't matter, the girl, I need to check how she is doing." Stepping over to where the girl was sitting, still trembling against the wall; "Excuse me, are you okay?"
Tears rolling down her cheeks; "I… I… he's.. dead… my brother's dead."
I reached out my hand to help her up; "She is tiny, and are those cat ears and a tail? I must not have noticed in all the commotion that she is a cat person." She took my hand hesitantly; "it's not like I needed your help to get up or anything," she shot her head off to the side; 'humph."
I stepped back giving her space; "she really is tiny, she can't be any more than 4.5ft tall. She looks quite cute with her long straight light pink hair, pink eyes, and petite figure."
"Are you okay? My name is Arthur. What is yours?" She was standing there in a white and pink female knights armour, she slowly turned her head back towards me, cheeks still rosy and a slight pout lingering on her lips; "I suppose I should thank you as you saved me, oh and my name is Alice."
"I'm sorry about your brother."
"It's not like you could have done anything about it anyway."
"What are you doing down the dungeon?"
She struggled to hold back her tears; "…Alf and I were trying to reach the boss room on level 50."
"That's quite fast for just the two of you."
Her words began to come out faster and faster; "I know, but he said we could do it, he said we would be fine, but now…."
I hugged her and then she snuggled her head into my chest, bursting into tears; "w.. why…? He… he said…"
"Calm down, we need to keep our guard up, your brother wouldn't want you to die while crying about him."
She stepped back from the hug, and wiped the tears away with the backs of her hands; "Sniff.. yes, sniff, you are right."
I wiped the blood from my blades; "What now?"
She picked her giant great sword from the ground, and slung it over her shoulder "I'm going to make it to floor 50, in honour of Alf."
"You can't, it's too dangerous."
"I don't care if it's dangerous, it was our dream, and I… I can't just leave it unfinished," she then began to storm off.
I ran after her grabbing her arm; "stop!"
She pulled her arm away from me; "What do you want, don't touch me!"
"If you are going any further down the dungeon, at least let me help you, it would be a lot safer to go together."
"It's not like I need your help, I'm more than capable of surviving on my own, humph."
"You almost died."
"I guess you did save me, but it's not like I asked you to or anything, humph," she said in a stroppy tone.
"It's dangerous, you've already lost your brother, you don't want to lose your own life as well right," I said in an annoyed tone.
No longer sounding confident in her own words; "Alf… fine I guess you are right but, I don't actually need your help I'm just doing it to thank you for helping me."
After that we walked in silence for a while, looking for the entrance to floor 31. As we crouched through the most narrow part of the cave so far; "I need to ask her about herself, so we can get to know each other better." I noticed a light at the end of the tunnel; "Looks like we should be getting near the descent to floor 32 soon."
"Obviously, are you an idiot or something?"
We came to the lit up opening; "her feisty attitude is kind of cute with how she looks."
"Keep you guard up, we don't know what's past this opening."
"If you're scared don't bother coming," she said in her usual cute and feisty tone.
"I'm not scared exactly… I'm just cautious."
"Well I'm going out there anyway."
I followed after her; "Wait for me at least."
As we stepped out into the opening, we suddenly heard a giant crash, the opening we had just come through had crumbled shut. "Well no turning back now."
As I took in our surroundings, we were standing in a massive open space of the dungeon, a small bridge in front of us leading to a giant circular platform, surrounded by a lava moat that illuminated the area with hues of deadly red light. "This looks like how my master described a boss room, but that's not possible. There are no boss rooms except the final one on floor 50," I said, my tone a mix of concern and confusion.
A giant then suddenly fell from above us; "Crush! Thud!Rawwwwwwww!" the giant roared deafeningly.
As we stared at the massive humanoid figure in front of us, Alice's ears twitched as she clutched her sword with shaky hands; "That thing has to be 30 feet tall."
"This is definitely a boss, we will need to work together if we want to kill that thing."
"Y… yes you are right."
I removed my dual swords from their sheaths; "I will get close and cut it down, then you come in and take off its head."
She readied her giant great sword; "Don't tell me what to do, but fine I guess your plan isn't completely stupid."
We ran across the bridge "It's going to be hard to make this thing fall but I have to do this. There is no time to be nervous now."
"Slam!," the giant slammed its foot into the ground, sending rock flying at a speed that would have killed us on impact.
I yelled at Alice who was on the opposite end of the platform; "Careful, don't get hit."
"Shut up and knock it down already."
I held my swords to my mouth, "Sword skill, blade of diamond," my blades then began to glow with a light blue hue making them as hard as diamonds. I ran towards the giant and swung both my swords at the back of its giant calf. It slammed its feet wildly like it was trying to swat a fly "Rawwwwww."
"You need to hit it harder than that."
I ran towards its leg again, as Alice distracted it; "I got it this time," I jumped, spinning in mid air, giving my blades the momentum they needed to cut through the giant's leg. The giant fell to the ground "Rawwwwwwww! crash! thud!"
"Alice, now!"
"Sword skill Hades blade." Her blade began to glow black, as she activated a one time use special skill that kills its target even if it doesn't hit a vital point. She then ran over, jumping in the air "Ahhhhhhhhh!" using the falling momentum to sever its head leaving it dead on the ground.
"Alice, are you okay?"
She emerged from the body of the giant; "I'm fine, how are you, not that I care or anything but you did help so I kind of have to ask."
I wiped the crimson blood from my dual swords, then placed them back in their sheaths; "I am fine, you are really strong."
She slung her giant great sword over her shoulder; "of course, I am a proud knight of the Cat people."
Stepping up next to me; "I hate giants, they are so stupid, and they don't even give us anything valuable when we kill them."
I reached my hand out and wiped a spot of blood from her cheeks; "we should look for a way to continue down the dungeon and figure out where we even are in it."
Alice shoved my hand away from her face, cheeks rosy red; "don't just touch me like that!"
"Creeek!" a very large hole appeared in the centre of the room, opening up like a trap door, knocking the giant into the lava moat.
We walked towards the hole. "Let's go check and see what that is."
As we stood where the hole had opened "there's a very long and steep staircase down."
Alice looked down the stairs, "obviously, do you think I'm blind or something."
We walked down the stairs for quite a while. Once we reached the bottom, I took in our surroundings; "it's just a small empty room, it looks like it may have been inhabited at some point, but not for at least a thousand years." The room was dimly lit by glowing moss on the walls.
Alice placed her sword against the wall and sat down, "it looks safe enough to rest for a while at least."
I took some dried and salted beef from my bag, "want some?"
"Well I guess as you're offering."
I sat down next to her and handed her some of the meat, "we should have a proper introduction now."
"We know each other's names and what else is there to say."
"I just thought it would be nice to get to know each other."
"Fine but only because I don't want to hear you whining about it."
"My name is Alfred, I'm 17 years old, and I have been training as a dual swordsman since I was 10."
"I'm Alice, as you can see I'm a cat person, I'm 15 years old, and I was born the daughter of a knight, so I've been training with my…"
"If it's too much, take a break."
"No… it's fine, I have been training with my brother since before I can remember, he was 5 years older than me so I always looked up to him."
"I'm sure it must be horrible losing him like that, if you need to talk or to just cry do it and I'll be here for you."
"Cry in front of you, huh like I'd do something so pathetic."
"You should get some sleep; I'll keep watch."
"Fine, but just know I still don't trust you fully."
She then laid down on the hard ground facing away from me. I watched her as she slept; "She really is cute, wait am I falling for her?" She turned over in her sleep, placing her head on my lap. I stroked the hair around her cat ears; "her face is so peaceful when she is asleep." After a couple of hours she began to stir, "did you sleep well?"
She sat up fast; "I… I only slept on your lap like that because it was more soft than the ground, not because you make me feel safe or anything, don't get the wrong idea, stupid."
I stood up; "should we look for some way out of here now."
"But what about you, don't you need to sleep for a while?"
"I'm fine."
"No, you need to sleep for a little while."
She sat down and tapped her lap; "I'm only letting you sleep on my lap to thank you for letting me sleep on yours."
I laid down placing my head on her lap, "thanks."
As I drifted off to sleep; I heard her mumble, "I guess you aren't too bad."
A couple of hours later, I began to wake, I felt her hand on my cheek; "what's that?"
She quickly moved her hand away from my face; "n… nothing, how did you sleep?
I sat up against the wall; "very well, your lap was so soft."
Her cheeks turned crimson red; "s-soft, don't make it weird."
I stood up; "we should look for a way out of this room."
She picked up her sword and slung it over her shoulder; "okay."
A light appeared in the corner, like a room on the other side of a door was fully lit up; "we should go check that out, but be careful we don't know what's behind there."
We walked up to the wall, and she hit it with her hand; "it feels hollow."
"We should be careful."
Alice grabbed her giant great sword; "crash!" she smashed the wall down, revealing another room, this one lit by candles that looked as if they had just been lit; "let's go look then."
We slowly walked into the room; "try not being so reckless next time."
"It's fine, nothing went wrong, right?"
"For now."
We looked around the room, there was a magic circle on the ground, it was small but very intricate; "this looks like a magic circle, like the ones in the legends about the elves."
"You mean like the ones who made the stamps that are used to enchant our swords?"
"Yes, them."
"But didn't they die out over a thousand years ago?"
A deep and noble sounding voice came from behind us; "Most of us did yes, I am one of only a handful left of my kind."
We turned around quickly readying our weapons, standing there was a 7 foot tall humanoid figure, with pointed ears, long straight blonde hair, and forest green eyes, wearing a long white robe; "you should put those weapons away, I mean you no harm."
Still holding our weapons at the ready; "who are you?"
"Young girl of the proud cat people; I am Edwin, what is your name?"
She slung her sword over her shoulder; "I'm Alice."
He then turned to look at me; "And who might you be, young human?"
I kept my dual swords ready; "I'm Arthur."
"Arthur, Alice, what are you in this dungeon for?"
"I'm here because me and my brother always dreamed of being the first to kill the boss on floor 50, and now that he is dead, I will not stop until it's done."
I placed my weapons into their sheaths; "And my name is Arthur, and it's been my dream for my whole life to beat the dungeon."
"In all this time still no one has beaten the dungeon, what makes you two think you can?"
"Because I have to… in honour of him."
"I don't know if I'm strong enough but I need to make my master proud, and well now I want to help Alice."
"You two are the first to ever find and kill the giant that guards the entrance to my room, that proves you are strong with no ill intent, but only together as one will you be able to defeat the dungeon boss."
"As one what's that mean?"
"It means that only if the two of you truly trust each other, will you be able to beat the boss and leave alive!"
"I have seen her fight, I know we can do this."
"I guess he can keep up with me."
"That alone isn't enough."
"Why?"
"Young man, pass me your swords." I passed him my dual swords, he then removed the hilts and inspected the magic circles on them; "yes it is as I thought, these enchantments are weak."
"What do you mean? I have some of the most powerful enchantments in the world."
"Then it is as I suspected, the knowledge of how to produce magic died with us elves."
"Are you saying you have stronger enchantments?"
"Yes, would you like me to add some to your blades, without them you will die down there."
"Yes, I would appreciate that."
He then took a stamp out of his pocket, and whispered something in a language I didn't recognise. Then he pressed it against the hilt of my sword, a white light filled the room, when the light had finally faded there was a new glowing magic circle on my sword. He then did the same for my other sword and Alice's sword. He handed us our weapons back; "there is nothing more I can do for you except wish you luck on your journey."
I inspected my swords; "they feel powerful. Somehow I can just feel the knowledge of how to use them."
"Same, it feels like knowledge is pouring into my mind."
"Ah yes, I can help you with one last thing, that magic circle will transport you to the entrance of floor 50. You will need to beat the guardians of the boss floor, then you will be able to access the last floor and your target."
I stepped onto the magic circle, placing my swords back in their sheaths; "thank you for your help."
Alice slung her giant great sword over her shoulder and followed me; "yes thank you."
"That is all right young travelers," as he said that, the magic circle enveloped us in a golden light.
The next thing we saw were two humanoid figures, right in front of a massive door, in what was an otherwise empty space; "Alice, am I going crazy or do they look like us."
She readied her sword; "yes, they do."
I readied my dual swords; "they look like us but made of stone."
"Let's kill them so we can get to the boss."
The two figures ran straight towards us, the one that looked like Alice went after her and the one that looked like me came after me. It swung for me but I blocked its first hit, sending me stumbling back; "you are weak, you will never live up to your master's expectations."
I regained my footing, then ran to the side trying to catch it off guard, but when I swung my swords it blocked them perfectly; "I know I'm weak, I know I will never be as good as my master."
"Exactly, give up, just die, there is no point in living if you can't even beat me."
"I will never give up, even if I'm not as good as my master. If I gave up now, that would go against everything he taught me."
"Weak, weak, weak, you are a weak foolish human."
It swung for me again. I dodged to the side, and swung my swords, skimming its arm; "not enough to kill it but I think it's moving slower now."
"Failure, you will die, and then she will join you."
I fell back slightly to catch my breath; "I need to use the new sword skill Edwin gave me."
I looked at Alice; "good it looks like she is holding her own."
The golem's dual swords grazed my cheek; "Don't forget about me."
I jumped back, holding my swords up to my mouth; "sword skill, sword of light," my two swords began to glow a golden hue. The skill enhanced the user's ability by 10 times. I charged towards the golem so fast it couldn't react. I swung for its head, cutting it clean off; "that skill is extremely powerful." I kicked its body; "it's definitely dead."
"Wait, how is Alice doing," I quickly turned back to check on Alice again. She was falling from the sky, her sword glowing with the same golden hue that mine had; "die," her sword split the golem in half.
I put my swords back in their sheaths while I ran over to her; "Alice are you okay!?"
She slung her sword over her shoulder; "I'm fine."
She wiped the blood from my cheek; "but what about you, what happened?"
"I just got scratched by the golem's sword, I'm fine, thanks for worrying about me."
Her hand shot back; "I'm not worried about you, I just don't want you dying on me, before we beat the last boss." She went red in the face; "well I guess I was a little worried about you."
"Are you ready to beat the final boss?"
"Yes, let's do this."
We then proceeded to the giant door the golem had been guarding; "creek," as we got closer the door opened, revealing a small circular room. As we looked inside, I kept my hand on the hilts of my swords ready; "It's just a small room, where is the entrance to floor 50."
"Maybe it will teleport us like that magic circle in Edwin's room."
I step forward into the room; "only one way to find out."
She followed after; "wait for me."
As soon as we were both in the small circular room, the floor began to lower us down; "wait what's happening?"
Alice's ears twitched; "why is the floor moving?"
Holding my swords at the ready; "let's be ready."
She readied her giant great sword, "we can do this."
After a while of descending we see a massive underground dome, surrounded by burning buildings that lit the area with a crimson hue, and we were in the centre of it; "what is this place?"
"How would I know, just keep your guard up."
As the platform finally reached the bottom, we heard a terrifying voice; "ha ha ha ha, finally, something to play with."
As if appearing out of nowhere, what looked like a human was standing right in front of us. My hands gripped my swords tensely; "who are you..?"
It stood there staring at us "Me… who I am is not relevant, as you are about to die."
The human figure had glowing red eyes, sharp fang-like teeth, jet black hair, and two horns on its head; "Alice I don't think that thing is human."
"What gave it away, the horns? obviously it isn't human."
I lifted my sword to my mouth; "sword skill, blade of light," my sword began to glow a golden hue.
She held the hilt of her sword to her mouth, "Sword skill, blade of light!"
The terrifying monster slowly walked towards us; "foolish human, you think some fancy light will help you."
"Let's attack it together."
"Okay I'll trust you, but don't think too much of it."
We then ran towards the monster together. I ran up from one side swinging for its head, but missed as it ducked under my swords; "slow, you humans are too slow, maybe the cat is faster." Alice came running from behind the monster, swinging for its head but once again it dodged out of the way; "or not ha ha ha."
We fell back to regroup; "Alice I don't know what to do this thing is too strong."
"I… I don't know, but we have to do something."
The monster grabbed a rock from the ground, and threw it at Alice, sending her flying backward.
I ran after her; "Alice."
Crouching down beside her; "are you okay?"
"I… I'm okay, but that hurt." She stood back up; "now I'm angry."
Out of nowhere, I felt a strange feeling come from my swords; "Alice was it just me or did you also feel that?"
"Yes, I felt that as well, our swords skill has changed."
Our swords all began to glow a perfect white. We charged towards the monster again, but this time with our swords skill boosting us by 100x; "Alice I'll make him dodge my attack, and when he does you swing and take his head."
"Okay."
I ran towards the monster swinging so fast that it got caught off guard; "humans are not this fast what is happening."
Alice then came running from behind swinging for its head but narrowly missing. The monster's arm fell off; "ahhhhhhhh! what did you do, I thought I dodged that, stupid cat, time to die!" The monster then charged at her in a blind rage swinging wildly, luckily she used her giant great sword to block all the hits. I then ran towards the monster's back; "I have to kill this thing now." I used one sword to pierce its heart through its back, the other to cut its head off; "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" The monster then dropped to the ground, dead!!
Alice fell to the floor; "ahh."
I ran over to her; "Alice, are you okay?"
"I… I'm… Ahh, I'm fine."
I helped her sit up; "no Alice you are not fine."
She attempted to push me off her; "let go."
"No you are hurt."
"I'm just a bit out of breath."
I held her in my arms, gazing into her eyes; "she is so cute, I know what I have to do."
"Arthur, is something wrong, you are looking at me weird?"
I leant forward and kissed her; "I love you."
Her entire face turned bright red; "Y-y-you l-l-love me."
"Yes, I love you."
"I-I-I guess that I kinda love you as well. Now look what you have done, making me say all this weird stuff."
I lent in and kissed her again. This time she kissed me back.
The end.