08 a capitals peril, p.1
08. A Capital's Peril, page 1
part #8 of Adventures On Brad Series
A Capital’s Perils
Adventures on Brad Book 8
by
Tao Wong
Copyright
License Notes This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
A Capital’s Perils
Copyright © 2022 Tao Wong. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2022 Felipe deBarros Cover Artist
Copyright © 2022 Sarah Anderson Cover Designer
A Starlit Publishing Book
Published by Starlit Publishing
PO Box 30035
High Park PO
Toronto, ON
M6P 3K0
Canada
www.starlitpublishing.com
E-book ISBN: 9781990491382
Paperback ISBN: 9781990491399
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
The End
Epilogue
Author’s Note:
About the Author
About the Publisher
Books in the Adventures on Brad series
Chapter 1
The creator of this level of the Dungeon was sick. Very, very sick in the head. So much so that if Daniel had a chance, he would certainly make use of his Gift to heal them. That was the only way that Daniel could imagine they would have come up with the rotating, pink-and-white-colored swirling walls that made up this level.
Every step of the way through the Dungeon, they had to fight a sense of vertigo and nausea. The sickly-sweet aroma crept through the tightest silk weave, burrowing into the senses such that all you could smell or taste was the perfumed odor, the licorice candy taste on their tongue. The floor sucked at their feet, refusing to let them go, even as the walls turned in a circular fashion. Until the floor finally released, and forced the Adventurers to tumble to the new “floor,” their skin and flesh and armor enmeshed in the cloying environment once more.
And the monsters.
The monsters were just as nightmarish.
First were the Candy Hoppers—tiny, toadlike creatures whose natural camouflage made them almost impossible to see against the candy-colored pink and white swirl of the walls and ceilings. They sank their needle-like feet into the ground, allowing them to hold on even when the entire room rotated. When their prey came close enough, they would jump. Upon contact, they would swell, multiplying in size and drowning the poor target in toffee if they managed to surround the head. Of course, they only tripled their size, so if an Adventurer managed to get a hand or shield or sword in the way, they would only have a large, urn-sized ball of toffee impeding them. Even then, blocking was the preferred tactic, other than dodging the attacks entirely.
Except, of course, the Candy Hoppers were smart. Smart enough to only launch themselves in small numbers, such that once an Adventurer was trapped by the first, the second and third waves could impact the head or chest. Suffocating the victim to death.
There was nothing that Daniel’s Gift could do if an individual suffocated to death. In the short term, he could stop the body from dying. But without air, the decline was guaranteed, and no magic, no matter how powerful, could fix that.
Even so, the Candy Hoppers were not that horrible to deal with. They were fast, numerous, and only damageable via magical equipment. But anyone who managed to make it to the lower level of an Advanced Dungeon had magic equipment galore.
No, the second major monster type that inhabited the Dungeon was the real danger. Unlike the ambush predators of the Candy Hoppers, the Colossal Headcrunchers were sweet golems. The base form easily shattered under any sharp-edged strike, but they reformed from the ground. To destroy them, you had to locate their golem core, which was tricky since it was in a different location for each Headcruncher.
Other variants had sticky, toffee-like Headcrunchers that did not shatter but instead sucked up blunt and sharp strikes with equal ease. Only carefully placed attacks could lop off pieces, allowing blade wielders like Omrak to slowly whittle the monster down.
And then were the true Headcrunchers, the aged, base variants that refused to shatter and moved like rolling boulders. Those spun down turning rooms, often picking up speed with their Skills and caroming down long corridors in unpredictable trajectories. Spearwalls were useless; only towering shields with Momentum Nullification enchantments could protect the group. That or a Sonic Wall, cast by Lady Nyssa.
Lastly, of course, were the long-range dangers—in this case, mushroom candy variants. There were two kinds—the first, an exploding spore variant that choked those that were caught in the explosion and left them with a poisoned status as well as attracting more monsters to the group. And a second, more painful variant that fired needles of hardened candy canes at anything that neared.
All in all, fighting through the final level of Porthos in Silverstone was a pain and a half. The repair and washing bills were expensive, the mental and physical fatigue of crossing multiple levels building up and driving the team to distraction.
But the rewards . . . the rewards were well worth it.
For at the present moment, for Daniel Chai, the final goal stood waiting before him. The door to the Final Boss chamber, the monster that would mark themselves as full Advanced Adventurers, worthy of a Blue-colored badge.
Nearly a year of alternating Dungeons, of fighting and grinding to increase their resources, buying new equipment and delving nearly every day had resulted in this. Finally, finally, they were here.
***
The Adventurer-cum-healer turned to his friends, his gaze flicking over the group to begin his final assessment. The necessity of this procedure had been long engrained into him as de facto leader and main source of healing. His Healing Aura had been working overtime for the last twenty minutes on everyone since their last battle, helping to increase their base regeneration, but he knew that at the first level, the changes were minor.
First were the front-line fighters. Omrak, son of Losin, stood fully kitted out. Gone—so long gone that Daniel could barely remember him—was the shirtless Northerner. Shirtless because his clothing kept getting destroyed, not due to any particular preference to be naked. Now, Omrak wore a fully enchanted, soft leather armor piece that had self-regeneration and impact-resistant enchantments on them. Metal gauntlets covered his hands, generating a subtle but powerful lightning aura that channeled itself through his two-handed greatsword. The weapon itself was new, a drop from the floor below, and had a Bleed effect on it that was, amusingly, useless on these floors. Under his open-faced metal helm, Omrak grinned back at Daniel, still excited at the prospect of the delve.
Beside the large Adventurer stood their other front-line fighter. Carrying a newly purchased Momentum-Nullification-enchanted tower shield, Zef the Lizardkin stood at the ready, his trusty spear over his shoulder, the light green patina of his scales glistening through the cracks of drying candy. Like Omrak, he wore light leather armor, his racial skill Scales of the Dragon offering him more than sufficient protection against most attacks. Behind, his tail lay on the floor, offering the big Drake a third balance point. While he had complained initially of being forced to use the shield, he had taken to the new mode of defense with an alacrity that made Daniel doubt he would ever give it up, even after this Dungeon.
Behind the pair of front-line fighters were the ranged party members. Anne, their archer and secondary healer stood, a simple metal breastplate covering her chest while hardened leather pieces were placed across the rest of her body. The mixed leather and metal suit was in actuality a full set, enchanted to offer both protection and, most importantly to the smaller Adventurer, speed. Strapped across one side of her body was her war quiver, arrows at the ready, while the tiny skullcap that protected her head was set at a jaunty angle.
Charles, Lady Nyssa’s bodyguard, was their team’s secondary archer. He wore a full set of plate mail, much like Daniel, though his showed the battering of ages. Still, the magic that the suit of armor had been inscribed with decades ago still powered the armor without issue, both negating the noise of his movement as well as allowing the bodyguard a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree sense of the surroundings. It made him an exemplary bodyguard, a fact that was all too necessary as they journeyed deeper into the Dungeon and ambushes became more commonplace.
Especially since the Lady Nyssa, their only Mage, had yet to learn to pay attention to the surroundings. At least, not as much as she should have. It was only the careful tending of her body
guard and the numerous enchanted accessories that she carried and her magical robes that kept her safe. She had everything, from a Major Necklace of Deflection to a Ring of Misdirection and a Bracelet of Emergency Healing on-hand. Never mind the pair of wands that she used for attack and her own spells. She was, to Daniels’s chagrin, not readying herself but chewing on a portion of their latest kill, the broken toffee orb a part of their loot that she had claimed.
The toffee golem orbs, once the Headcrunchers were slain, were the major loot of these levels. These orbs only lasted anywhere from a week to a month, but during that time produced a small but regular amount of the sweet substance. Since sugar, in any form, was rare and expensive and required a shipment from outside the borders of Brad, the Porthos sugar orbs were highly prized. There were, of course, two other Dungeons in Brad that produced such spoils, but one only via the Floor Chest in a Beginner Dungeon and the other, a consumable drink in an Advanced Dungeon.
Beside the oblivious Lady Nyssa was Asin, the Catkin crouched on the tips of her toes, a wand in hand which she waved down her furred body. Of them all, the Catkin was the one to suffer the most on these levels. The sugary substance stuck to her fur, matted it and, when she fell, had a tendency to pull hair out. The wand that the light leather–wearing Catkin was using on her body helped to allay some of those effects, layering an oily substance across her fur and helping it regrow.
It still meant that she had the occasional bare patch of skin showing through, a factor that made the Catkin more than a little upset and embarrassed. Still, the money they earned from running the level kept the complaints from the greedy Catkin to a minimum.
Having made his assessment on the team’s readiness, Daniel nodded to himself. Still, he raised his voice to call out and confirm. “Everyone ready?”
“Yes.”
“Yup.”
“Aye, Friend Daniel!”
Confirmations rolled in from the group, and Daniel smiled. He pulled the visor of his helmet down, feeling the weighty clunk, and checked that it was locked in place before he hefted his hammer. The summoning enchantment of the hammer was all too useful to leave behind, especially since he had paid for a boost to it. But, like his friends, he too had enchanted his armor. His, unlike many others, gave him an additional spell to wield and a Mana store, giving rise to the name of his plate mail—Armor of the Healer. It still seemed pretentious since the Mana in the armor was good for only a single cast of the Heal: Major Wounds spell, but since Daniel could cast through the armor, he was not about to complain.
“Then let’s finish this.”
Omrak put his hand on the door and pushed. The door to the Dungeon Boss chamber rolled open, leaving the group to step in and face the challenge they had been building towards for months.
Chapter 2
The inside of the boss chamber was somewhat less insanely designed, lacking the kaleidoscope coloring and swirls of the current walls and chambers before it. The basic structure, exemplified in the ceiling and floor of the chamber, mimicked the look of a confectioner’s kitchen. Or at least, what to Daniel seemed to be a typical confectioner’s kitchen, with multiple tables, the series of ovens, cooling racks, and storage bins. In truth, Daniel had never been to a confectioner’s shop, and so he assumed it was similar. In either case, floor and ceiling were all made in what he assumed to be normal wood.
The confectioner himself, the Confectioner King, was a rural town individual whose hands were filled with sticky toffee that he massaged. He barely even looked up when the team streamed in. It was well known that he did not start fights, though those attempting to attack him from outside the boss room often generated even more problems for themselves. Among other things, monsters would swarm the corridor while its rotations would increase. The longer the Adventurer stayed outside, the faster the corridor would rotate, eventually throwing Adventurers around and then drowning them in the increasingly liquid and sticky walls.
It was for this reason the team made sure to step within the room as a group before spreading out, readying themselves to begin to fight. Daniel eyed the other walls, which, unlike the wooden ceilings and floors, were made out of the strange, candy-like substance of the exterior walls. Those were a trap for the Adventurer teams that took too long to take down the Confectioner King.
Daniel held up his hand, counting down from three as they readied themselves to begin the fight. Asin raised and clenched her hand, signaling the archers to release the first volley of the battle.
The team did not bother to imbue their attacks with any special skills, for immediately, the Confectioner King’s special defenses sprang into place. Pans rose up; little moving slimes of sweetness jumped out, intercepting the arrows. Even the thrown Fan of Knives by Asin, who’d snuck around an angle, was blocked, this time more actively by the king himself. The goopy wave of toffee absorbed her attacks, even as small electric sparks ran along the substance, hardening and making portions of it flake off.
Of course, the archers were only the first wave of attacks. Lady Nyssa was weaving a powerful, sonic attack at the moment, hands moving in arcane motions, even as Omrak strode forwards, his big greatsword swinging and ready to shatter the tables, stools, and other furnishings in the room. Next to him, Daniel was doing the same at an angle that would not take him close to the Confectioner King.
Only Zef was staying behind, his job to protect the Mage. At the last battle of the Dungeon, she would not be holding back, and as such would be the primary damage dealer. The rest of the team would continue to attack the king and the various furnishings within, for the entire room was a trap.
This was proven to both Asin and Daniel a moment later, as the furniture moved and launched their attacks. Asin had to throw herself into a flip, dodging over the suddenly moving metal trolley that had previously been used to move trays of sweets around. Daniel contended with a swarm of tiny, splayed hand-sized sugar slimes. The toffee-like, sticky creatures swarmed the plate mail-wearing Adventurer, attempting to pull him to the ground. He, in turn, swung his weapon, batting them aside with ease, his skill in blunt weapons having grown. Those few slimes that he missed striking were blocked by his shield, though that was less than ideal as the creatures stuck to it, weighing down his defense, while slowly creeping upwards.
In the meantime, Omrak finally arrived near the Confectioner King. He swung his greatsword, his reach so great that he bypassed the table that sat between the pair of them. The king did not even try to dodge Omrak however, instead thrusting his hands outwards as he sent a wave of toffee at the large northerner. Just before Omrak’s blade would hit the Confectioner King, he was pushed backwards as the table between them lurched forwards and knocked him away. A moment later, the toffee struck his upper body, enveloping him and quickly hardening. Small tendrils of smoke began to appear across his armor, floating upwards as the acid within the toffee ate away at his defenses.
The Confectioner King’s defenses were not entirely perfect, as Anne’s trick arrow, fired up high and then dropping almost directly downwards, bypassed the swarming furniture. It plunged deep into the Boss's arm, drawing a howl from the florid monster. Meanwhile, every single arrow by the bodyguard continued to be blocked, though the slimes that intercepted the arrows grew slower, the poison within the arrows overwhelming their defenses.
Daniel, noticing his friend’s predicament, quickly scurried over to Omrak and then struck his toffee-covering. His first attack sent cracks running through the hardened sugar net and also elicited a grunt from Omrak. Ignoring the pain he was causing, Daniel swung away, attempting to free his friend, even as Asin bounced around the room, dodging living furniture.
“Jobs!” the captain growled out, upset.
Daniel understood; his job was to destroy the furniture. But Omrak was stuck. With a heave, the Northerner shattered the cracked toffee, growling out, “Go.”
Daniel scrambled away, idly noting that Zef was casting his spear to destroy moving fridges and warming racks, before beckoning it back with his Return skill. It just added another layer of chaos to the fight.
