Starlit Library

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” The teen asked, looking skeptically at his two companions.

“Do you have any better ideas?” Replied the leader of the three, resting one of her hands on her hips. “This is a brand new dungeon; it’ll never be weaker than it is now.”

“And we’ll be the first to explore it! Just think of the loot!” The final teen added, patting his work backpack.

The first teen sighed and took a practice swing with his baseball bat. “Fine, but if anything weird happens, we’re getting out of dodge.”

“Obviously. We *have* done dives before, you know. You were even there for some of them.” The leader adjusted her glasses and double checked the combat knife she had strapped to her thigh. “We going?”

“Hell yeah we are!” The third teen shouted, grasping his walking stick excitedly. “Last one in’s a rotten egg!”

+++++

“Is... this really still the steam tunnels?” The first teenager whispered, looking up at the pitch black sky overhead, a single star glimmering in the darkness. “I’ve heard that some dungeons are whole other worlds but...”

“I’ve never seen anything like it either...” The leader replied, taking in the surroundings. Ancient wooden shelves lined with books just as old formed a maze of sorts, dividing up the space beneath the impossible night sky.

> You have entered the [Starlit Library]
> You have gained the [Illuminated] condition
> [Illuminated] has increased to 1%

“Starlit Library, huh. Too bad I forgot my library card!” The third teen laughed before taking one of the books off the shelf.

“Hey, be careful! Let Jessica check for traps first!” The first teen worriedly cautioned, stepping away from the idiot in front of him.

“Come on, Steve, don’t be a worry wart. What dungeon traps it’s own entrance?” Blowing off the first teen, Steve’s warning, the third teen opened the book he’d taken and stared at the meaningless symbols found within. His eyes swam as he tried to take them, before pinching them shut and closing the book.

> [Illuminated] has increased to 3%

“Watch it, Jake, Steve’s right for once.” The leader, Jessica grumbled. “Let me check for traps before you take anything.”

“Yeah, sure.” Jake replied, scrunching up his nose. “Do either of you know what this Illuminated condition is? Mine just went up.”

“I’ve never heard of it before; it might be unique to this dungeon.” Steve answered. “Here’s hoping its a good thing, but I doubt we’re so lucky.”

“Yeah, dungeons aren’t known for being nice and helpful...” Jake muttered, opening the book and taking a quick glance at mysterious symbols.

> [Illuminated] has increased to 4%

Clearing his head with a shudder, Jack returned the book to its shelf. “Yeah, don’t read the books. Some library this is.”

+++++

The three teens ventured deeper into the dungeon, Jessica taking point as she checked her surroundings for traps. Five eerie minutes passed before they heard a faint shuffling sound coming from around a bend.

“Steve, take the front. Jack, get back.” Jessica whispered. “I don’t think fire’d be a good idea, so get an energy bolt ready.”

“Already on it.” Jake replied, all joviality gone from his voice. He carefully raised his walking stick up, a ball of shimmering energy taking form above it.

As Steve stepped in front of Jessica and got ready to swing, the source of the sound came into view. A humanoid monster, dressed in robes like a medieval monk shuffled out from behind a bookcase. It’s head, lacking any sort of face, dripped down its robes like molten wax.

> [Illuminated] has increased to 2%
> [Illuminated] has increased to 2%
> [Illuminated] has increased to 5%

Steve shuddered involuntarily before swinging his bat straight into the creatures melting head, spattering wax onto the shelves and knocking the creature to the floor. “Jessica, what the fuck is this!?”

“I don’t know! Give me a second! My Identify skill’s really shit!” Jessica shouted back, focusing on the monster as hard as she could.

> [Starlit Ghoul] identified
> [Illuminated] has increased to 3%

“Something called a Starlit Ghoul! It might be undead, so keep hitting it!” Jessica shouted. “And my Illuminated went up again!”

As Jessica advised, Steve hit the ghoul with his bat over and over again, doing his best to ignore the wet crunch of broken bone. It stopped moving after a few hits, though Steve didn’t stop until it was unrecognizable.

“You okay Steve?” Jake asked. “Shit. That was nothing like a goblin...”

“Yeah... Yeah I’m fine.” Steve panted. “I just wasn’t expecting... that. It wasn’t tough, just, ugh.”

“You’re telling me.” Jessica sighed. “If it’s undead, my knife won’t do much to it. Looks like it’ll be up to you and Jake.”

“You couldn’t identify it’s type?” Jake asked. “I know your Identify is bad, but it’s not *that* bad.”

“Only thing I got was its name. That and more Illuminated, whatever the fuck that is.” Jessica replied, displeasure evident from her voice. “Let’s go in a bit deeper; even if we don’t get any treasure, at least we can sell some information.”

+++++

Two Starlit Ghouls later, the teens came across a large room, empty save for a handful of desks and a pool of muddy water in one of the corners.

“Whew, do you think this is a rest area?” Jake asked the others. “Because I could use a break.”

“You mean *I* could use a break.” Steve chided. “You barely cast any spells.”

“Yeah, but my mana’s as bad as Jessica’s identify. There aren’t that many spells in me.” Jake replied with a shrug.

“Neither of you is getting a break. Look.” Jessica said as she pointed at the top of a shelf. “We’ve got company.”

Two ghouls pulled themselves over the shelf, slumping onto the ground before starting towards the teens. One of the two was of the familiar melting head variety. The other squelched across the floor like a slug, its lower body melted together and leaving a train on the ground.

“Oh god, what the fuck is that?” Jake said, voice filled with panic. “Okay, Steve was right, this was a bad idea and now I’m going to have nightmares.”

He had know idea how right he was.

+++++

Eyelit watched the three teens run out of her dungeon. She wasn’t sure what she had expected from her first adventurers, but it hadn’t been that. With a sigh and an exertion of will, she cleaned up the destroyed Starlit Ghouls and scattered a few more around the stacks.

Despite how easily a group of amateur adventures has taken them out, Eyelit was satisfied with her ghoul’s performance. They were cheap and easy to place, which was all she needed at the moment. With some cheer, she set to designing a third variety, one whose arms had melted together into a single waxen club. Thinking back on the adventurers, she had her new ghoul swing its arm club like a bat. Or at least tried too, the monster wasn’t actually dextrous enough to complete the motion.