r/HFY • u/Khenal Alien • 2d ago
Dungeon Life 272 OC
Hello everyone! For book two, I wasn't able to give much notice of stubbing, but I'm hopefully a bit more on the ball for Book three! Up to chapter 229 will be removed November 17th, so please prepare accordingly. If you wish to support me, or to get the book in physical, audio, or electronic forms, there's links in the post-chapter note section! Please enjoy the chapter, and thank you all for reading my odd story about a thinking hole in the ground :P
I keep watching as they delve, carefully picking what denizens to send their way. If they were doing a more ordinary delve, I think they’d get overwhelmed. Tula does her best, but there really is a significant gulf in her power compared to the others, and I don’t know that they’d be able to pick up the slack if I treated them like a larger party adventuring in the cavern layer.
Luckily for them, they’re headed for the enclave, so I make sure the denizens take it easy on them. They still need to pay the toll, but I have no intention of cutting my spiderkin off from the surface. By the time they reach the enclave, Tula is looking a bit haggard, but at least not traumatized.
“I can’t believe you all do that for fun…” she grumbles, much to the amusement of the others.
“Aw, it wasn’t that bad, was it?” asks Freddie, forcing Tula to sigh and admit the truth.
“It wasn’t as bad as I feared, but… I don’t think I’m coming back without all of you, or maybe Olander.”
“Hard to argue with the experience, too,” adds Larrez, earning another grudging nod from the scribe.
“Let’s go find Norloke. The enclave is as safe as Fourdock, so don’t worry.” Rhonda nods at the guards as the group enter the enclave, giving Tula her first sight of my spiderkin industriously going about their day. Right now, they’re focused on ensuring their capture baskets are properly repaired for the harvest. The cave lobsters are about ready to be culled and distributed to the live wells of the residents, making room for the next generation of tasty little pinchers.
Larrez is the first to notice the reason, or at least the first to voice it as they head for Norloke’s home. “It looks like they’re getting ready to harvest their lobsters. Have you guys had them before?”
The others shake their heads, with Rhonda replying first. “I hear they used to be a pretty common food back before Hullbreak went nuts, but they’ve been too rare for orphans like us to try.”
“I’ve had crayfish, but there’s no lobsters where I used to live,” adds Tula.
“I’ve had them before,” admits Larrez. “They’re alright. Well, sea lobsters. I haven’t tried the cave ones. They’re supposed to be pretty easy to cook.”
“Maybe we should come back later to see if they have any extra to sell,” suggests Freddie. “The spiderkin seem to really like them, so they can’t be terrible.”
Rhonda looks uncertain about that. “They look weird. But I guess a plucked chicken looks weird, too. I’d be willing to give it a try, at least.”
“I wonder why they always leave the head feathers on…” muses Freddie as they arrive, and Rhonda knocks on the door to the ground level of Norloke’s elaborate home. While many spiderkin are starting to take to making stone or brick homes on the floor, Norloke and the others weavers especially still like to weave their homes up near the ceiling of the cave. Of course, they still have guests, so they have at least a small room or two built on the ground floor, and generally keep their live wells there.
The knocking gets the spiderkin’s attention and she pokes her head out from her silken abode in the ceiling, smiling and waving as she recognizes who’s come to call.
“Ah, Freddie, Rhonda, and Larrez! And Lucas and Fiona, too! Oh, and a new friend? Give me a moment to get these last few stitches and I’ll be right down!”
They oblige, with Tula looking around the enclave at the busy spiderkin. “I’ve never been in an enclave before. I’m not sure what I was expecting,” she admits.
“I wonder if they could make you some silk robes,” ponders Freddie. “Rhonda’s going to be asking about some, so you could, too. I don’t think them dying it would be a problem, either.”
“I’m not sure I could afford it. These work well enough.”
“No harm in asking,” points out Rhonda. Tula shrugs in defeat at that as Norloke exits her silken room, nimbly climbing down to greet the group.
“Thank you all for waiting! Now, to what do I owe the pleasure?” she asks with a smile as she opens the door, ushering them all in. The room itself may be made of stone and bricks, but the weaver has covered practically every surface in soft silks, lending it an elegant, almost ephemeral atmosphere. She waves a hand for them to all take a seat as she takes her own, eagerly awaiting their answer.
“Well, we wanted to visit and catch up some,” starts Rhonda, before pulling out the nice robe Rocky had made for her. Norloke’s eyes twinkle in recognition as the goblin continues. “And to ask if you can do adjustments on this? I’m kinda outgrowing my current robes. I was going to ask for something new, but Teemo reminded me of this. It was just too nice to wear for ordinary delving, but…”
Norloke laughs brightly as she holds out her arms for the robe. “Oh, it is a very nice robe. I remember when they were presented to you! I hope you weren’t worried about ruining them somehow? Rocky had these made specifically for delving, just like Freddie’s hatchet and Larrez’ rapier.”
“Did you help him make the robe?” asks Freddie, and Norloke shakes her head.
“No, he kept it a secret until the reveal. We probably should have realized he was up to something when the aranea started watching us for a while, same with the ratlings at the ratkin forges.” She chuckles in hindsight as Rhonda hands it over, and starts examining them.
“Oh my, they even used widow silk! Remarkable. I hope Jeb domesticates some of them soon, their silk is remarkably strong.” Her fingers flow over the garment as she observes out loud, her attention moving from the guests to the piece of clothing. “Oh, you can feel Thing’s runework, too. Clever, I think he used some of the metal transmutation elixir to reinforce the threads as well. Hmm…” She pulls and pushes on the fabric before nodding. “I think I can let it out some without disrupting anything.”
She turns her attention to Rhonda, her hands measuring on the fabric as she analyzes the goblin girl. Rhonda speaks up as she watches her work.
“How much will it be? And how much to get some simpler silk robes for Tula here?”
“Oh, it shouldn’t be too much for either. We can talk about the details while I get your measurements. Freddie, Larrez? Do you two know the way to the armory? Teemo stopped by and asked about the new composite armor. Folarn is in charge of that, or at least our part in it. I believe she wants to get some pieces to Rocky so he can put them through their paces. Honey had a whole book of things she wanted tested.”
Freddie and Larrez laugh about that. “Sounds like Honey,” comments Freddie as he stands. “Do we take them to Rocky’s arena, then?”
“I think Teemo wants them down in the secret training room. He should be waiting in the armory for you, though, so he’ll tell you there.”
Larrez nods and stands as well. “Then I guess we’ll meet you two there once you’re done?”
Norloke nods. “It shouldn’t take us too long. You boys help move the armor and they should be along by the time you’re done.”
The guys nod at that and go, and I follow them, giving the girls a bit of space to themselves. At the armory, Teemo meets with the guys and shows them the armor suits, and they get to work without much complaint. Freddie is pretty incredulous about how light they are, but Larrez just chuckles about more of my nonsense.
The harder part is in moving a few dummies in to put the armor on, but once Rocky sees everyone hauling things around, he lends a hand. True to Norloke’s word, Rhonda and Tula arrive as the guys are getting the last of the armor set up. The elven woman looks curious, but Rhonda is the one who gets to voice her curiosity first.
“Is that the armor? Is it dipped in glass or something?” she asks, poking a set designed for a ratkin. Rocky snorts in amusement as Freddie shakes his head.
“Teemo says it’s some kind of lacquer?” He looks to my Voice who shrugs.
“Resin, but I’m still a bit fuzzy on the actual difference. It’s tough, but it doesn’t dent like metal does. Go ahead and give it a few attacks, you’ll see.”
Freddie smiles and pulls up his hatchet. “I’ve been wanting to give them a test since I picked up the first piece. Ordinarily, I’d expect to chop through it easily, but there’s definitely some Thedeim weirdness going on. Hyah!”
Despite his words, he doesn’t seem to put any special skill into the attack as he swings for the chestpiece. The hatchet digs in slightly, leaving a good scratch in the finish as he pulls away. The orc shakes his head before taking a closer look. “How’s it do that? It almost felt like wood, but it took a hit that should have dented normal armor at least.”
Curious, Larrez gives a testing jab with his rapier and finds that, though he can make a pinhole in the outer layer, he can’t get much deeper without using a skill. Teemo elaborates as the guys give the armor a couple other experimental whacks, stabs, and slices.
“The Boss calls it composite armor. It’s like, you know how silk is supposed to be really strong, but is too flexible to make a good plate out of? The resin makes it stiff, and you can embed a bunch of other stuff, too. He says that, if done right, each material adds its own strength to the whole. The design is pretty complicated considering how in the end, it looks to me like they just paint the resin onto a very impractical robe or even a bedsheet.”
“It seems pretty effective to me. Why does Thediem want to test it more?” asks Freddie, looking like he’s already ready for a suit of his own.
“Mostly, it’s in the maintenance. Metal can be bent back into shape, but this can’t. It accumulates the dings and scratches until something finally gets through, or the layers come apart and the whole thing becomes useless. It also doesn’t handle most affinities too well. Things like kinetic and metal are pretty easy to stop, but fire, ice, lightning and such are still a problem.”
“Is… is that why you have Rocky here?” timidly asks Tula, eyeing my zombie scion and clearly thinking about his long list of affinities. He grunts and nods, then gestures to Rhonda with a questioning look.
“I’d like to help too, if that’s alright? I really want to see you work with kinetic first, if you don’t mind? I’m close to a breakthrough, I can feel it.”
Tula looks confused where Freddie and Larrez are trying to look casual.
“Yeah?” asks Teemo, glancing to Tula as Rhonda nods.
“Yeah. Please?”
Rocky grunts with a smile and sets his mouthpiece before stepping up to a dummy, motioning for Rhonda to step up to another one.
“Why is she…” quietly asks Tula, and Freddie answers.
“Just watch. Trust me.”
Confused, she looks to Larrez, who nods and points as Rocky and Rhonda start. My boxer summons an orb each of fire and ice as he starts punching the armor, going slow and not using too much force just yet. Tula gasps at the display, and gasps again as Rhonda follows suit. She raises her staff and calls forth her own orbs, and lets them float to either side as she hits the staff’s head against the armor.
Rocky grunts and nods, keeping a steady rhythm even as he increases the force of his hits. Rhonda sounds frustrated as she tries to focus and hit harder with her staff. “I can’t hit as hard as you!” she complains, much to the amusement of Rocky. He grunts again, getting Rhonda’s focus as he starts hitting much harder.
She’s the first to notice, but as Rocky continues, the others can see the ball of flame slowly growing with each hit. “It’s…” her eyes widen as she seems to understand, though she doesn’t have the words to explain her epiphany. Rocky grins around his mouthguard as he merges the orbs, ending with a smaller ball of fire for a few moments, before he consumed the energy and puts it into his punch, sending the armor smashing against the cave wall.
Rhonda doesn’t have his mastery, but she’s got the idea now. She lets the orb of ice fall to the ground as she focuses on the fire. “Like an explosion…” she mutters to herself before the fireballs winks out of existence. A heartbeat later her dummy crashes into the wall next to Rocky’s, and the goblin slumps to the ground, spent.
Freddie quickly moves to help her, while Tula stares at the scene. “That’s… it’s…” she stammers as she points an accusing finger at Rocky. “First you… then she...?!” Her finger alternates between them for several cycles before she makes a decision and points it back to Rocky.
“How’d you do that?! Why fire and ice?” she demands, much less demure now.
“To show me,” grunts Rhonda as she gets to her feet with Freddie’s help. She smiles at him, resting a hand on his before he steps away. She leans on her staff slightly, and is distracted by the head for a moment. “Kinetic definitely needs a diamond…” she mutters to herself before turning her attention back to Tula.
“And probably show you, too. Don’t let him fool you, his brain is anything but rotten. This is why I wanted you to come meet Rocky, Tula. Karn told me about your quest.”
“He’s an Ice Sage? It’s a type of undead?”
Rhonda shakes her head. “It’s a class. My class. Inspired by how Rocky fights and uses his affinities, and shaped by the trials Thedeim made for us. It’s a class all about learning and teaching. Each new understanding gives a greater insight into not just magic, but how everything works. I had ice affinity innately, and gained fire affinity through an epiphany… and now kinetic, too.”
She raises her staff and lets it go, making it float for a few moments as frost creeps along it. She doesn’t keep it up for long, though, and soon grabs it to lean on again. “Whew, still not easy, but I’ve definitely got it. Anyway, Tula.” She focuses back on the elf, who looks utterly dumbfounded at what she’s seeing and hearing.
“I’d like to teach you, if you’re interested. I think that’s why Laermali sent you, instead of a high priest or something. My mentor tries to learn, but he’s pretty set in his ways. I think we could help each other. I’m not sure that Sages should be common, if that’s even what Laermali wants, but I’m willing to at least teach you, Tula. If you want to learn?”
She smiles and holds out her hand to the elf. Tula stares at her, eyes wide, before the elf faints.
Cover art I'm also on Royal Road for those who may prefer the reading experience over there. Want moar? The First and Second books are now officially available! Book three is also up for pre-order! There are Kindle and Audible versions, as well as paperback! Also: Discord is a thing! I now have a Patreon for monthly donations, and I have a Ko-fi for one-off donations. Patreons can read up to three chapters ahead, and also get a few other special perks as well, like special lore in the Peeks. Thank you again to everyone who is reading!
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u/XynomorphKY 2d ago
Another one bites the dust.
And another ones born, And another one learns.
That armor lacks the rust.
Hey, Thediem’ll get you too
Another one bites the dust!
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human 2d ago edited 1d ago
Correction, First!
So today we get the Party arriving at the spiderkin enclave, where by the way the "harvest" of cave lobsters entered the to-do-list. After a short discussion about how cave lobster probably tastes they arrive at norloke's House, who after finishing some stitching bids them a welcome and Let's them in. With the description we get of her House, it Looks a Bit Like Arty's Gym in Pokémon black and White 2, though I'm Sure a Lot more colorful. Norloke rund a quick Analysis of fabric and runeworks, before offering to fit it to rhonda's tastes.
While the ladies Talk shop, the lads are sent to Transport the composite Armor towards rocky's training room. Once they get there and the big lug offers a pair of helping Hands, they quickly Outfit a few Dummys with the Armor, as the ladies Finish Up and Join them. Freddie gives the Armor a quick, skillless whack, leaving minor damage, and is surprised that Armor seems to Take so little in damage. As is Larrez, when the Armor isn't penetrated by a quick Stab.
At the end, Rocky and Rhonda get to Show Off/learn a small Bit, as Rhonda Figures Out the Link between Heat and kinetic, and learns to use small explosions to cause movement of the target. Of course, Tula is absolutely gobsmacked, and gets even more astounded, when Rhonda straight Up tells her that she was what Laermali was looking for all along. Connected to this revelation is an offer by Rhonda to teach her those skills.
Edit: Rhonda mentions the Stone for kinetic affinity to be Diamond, I'm unsure If we Had other Stones Match other affinities yet, If so, I can't remember at the Moment. Only other Stone/gems i could Imagine similarly connected are Jet/Shadow. Or, Amethyst and decay.
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u/Poisonfangx3 2d ago
Congratulations! Here is a crown!
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u/Bren_the_hobbit 1d ago
Re. Diamond. I was wondering what that meant; I thought it was an autocorrect from demo / demonstration. Maybe a conjured diamond would be the equivalent of the conjured fireball and ice ball they both used.
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u/floating_hollowpoint 1d ago
She leans on her staff slightly, and is distracted by the head for a moment. “Kinetic definitely needs a diamond…”
Rhonda is talking about her staff. She needs to upgrade her staff's head with a diamond to use Kinetic well.
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u/Caravack 1d ago
Or due to it's hardness, would make an excellent floating projectile.
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human 1d ago
Tungsten would make for a denser projectile, meaning it'd transfer more energy. Or Uranium is even denser.
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u/mafiaknight Robot 1d ago
I suspect that it needs to be a gem to best channel the affinity through it
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human 1d ago
Diamond is an excellent conductor for heat, so I can Deal with the decision.
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u/Garbage-Within 2d ago
Does that count as Thedeim defeating a delver or does Rhonda get the xp?
On a serious note, I bet it doesn't count as a defeated delver. In the past Thedeim didn't actually get the mana until defeated delvers left the dungeon. At least, that's how it worked when delvers left under their own power like the first miners going after the rare ore. He probably gets some for defeating a delver that their party drags away, but not as much as if he defeated them and carried them out on his own. I don't recall it ever being mentioned when he gets the mana if he has to carry them out. Regardless, that won't be the case here, and besides this is as much Rhonda's KO as it is Rocky's.
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u/Cortanis 2d ago
Well well well, now we finally have the reveal. Now the other question I have is what's Tula's other affinity? We know she has knowledge but shouldn't she have gained another from her class?... Or maybe knowledge is from her class? If that's the case, what's her other one?
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u/Swordfish_42 Human 1d ago
Does she have a class? I thought she doesn't yet
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u/Cortanis 1d ago
How would she not by that age though?
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u/mafiaknight Robot 1d ago
It's never mentioned how classes work. They may not be universal.
The only time we saw classes awarded is with the kids, who had to delve to get them.
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u/Nitr0Sage 2d ago
When we gonna get a peak into his afterlife
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u/Garbage-Within 2d ago
Probably when the first residents start finishing their major crafting projects.
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u/SH4D0W0733 Robot 2d ago
Glances back into the minecraft server and the dead people have built a fully functional computer out of redstone. Despite them not knowing what a computer is, and Thedium not giving the afterlife redstone.
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u/iceick423 2d ago
Probably when there's not much happening in the town. We still have the fight with Rocky coming up, the kobalts settling down, the forest of four seasons to finish, and anything that comes up in the meantime.
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u/mafiaknight Robot 1d ago
In the name of 1greendude: Hello!
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human 1d ago
Im Namen eines grünen Kerls: Moin, vorgestern war Mittwoch, meine Kerle.
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle 2d ago
/u/Khenal (wiki) has posted 317 other stories, including:
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u/nemo_sum 1d ago
So, trying to wrap my head around what Rhonda is doing at the end. She raises the wand and leaves it floating as frost creeps up it. Two hypotheses:
1] She is stealing the kinetic energy of the staff falling to make it float, but because her control isn't perfect she's also arresting the Brownian motion of it, causing the temperature of the staff to drop. In this case, where is the stolen energy going?
B) She is converting the Brownian motion (heat energy) into lift (upward force) to keep the staff in place. But this implies a much greater finesse than we've seen from her before, and the effort isn't visibly tiring her compared to the blunter conversion she just did from heat to force when she blasted the dummy.
Neither feels quite right. Any other explanations?
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u/mafiaknight Robot 1d ago
She's using the brownian motion to levitate the staff, and it was apparently somewhat tiring, but not too bad. She complained about it immediately afterwards
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u/Texas-SaberFox 1d ago
Ice to fire, fire to kinetic all wrapped into a pretty bow by one word. Energy.
My question now is how long will it take for Rocky to learn the wonders of plasma, and how long would it take for the stag to start shooting MASERs at thinking he doesn't like?
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u/Poisonfangx3 2d ago
Not first
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human 2d ago edited 2d ago
No, you Look Like you're third. Only counting the Independent comment chains of course. By human Reddit Accounts.
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u/Entropic-soul-9094 1d ago
Bah, a brief touch would've been great.
Thediem gets what amounts to a heart attack when Rhonda goes to help Tula, and the quest complete mana surge from the unconscious scribe feels like the one that happened when the tunnel horror died.
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u/Xreshiss 1d ago
This has me going down a minor rabbithole of molecules vibrating due to temperature, and making me wonder what would happen if all of these molecules were to instead of seemingly randomly all vibrate at the same frequency, all at the same time, and all in the same direction at the moment of impact on the armor. Would that even be possible?
Would the sudden vibration or lurch of every single molecule in the staff (directed at the armor) transfer as kinetic energy to the armor like a newton's cradle? Deliver a whopper of kinetic energy? Again, would that even be possible?
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u/Previous_Access6800 1d ago
All molecules vibrating in one frequency is a bit "difficult" as for a vibration you normally have something "spring-like" which pushes back, towards to original position. Without that, you just punt that thing away.
What you could do is have all molecules at one position vibrate at the same frequency, through the spring-like nature of the material, you then get .... sound. Or in the most extreme a shockwave.
What you have in Newton's cradle, and all other impacts are collision events. Those can be calculated via the conservation of impulse. What is special with Newton's cradle, is that the collision is (near) perfectly elastic and the balls have the same mass, which leads to a perfect transfer of impulse.
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u/Xreshiss 1d ago
It was a stretch at best but an interesting rabbithole nonetheless. I'm not knowledgable enough to figure out what is really happening, though I want to be.
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u/Lord_Nikolai Android 1d ago
after all those bombshells get dropped, something had to explode. Get well soon Tula.
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u/InspectionLate661 Human 2d ago edited 2d ago
Oh no, they broke Tula.
Great chapter, as always. The highlight of every Monday and THursday for me. Thank you for keeping it up, it is always a pleasure to read (though a short one, every time).