Monster Mansion 2 by Dante King (most interesting books to read TXT) 📕

“Todd has been watching too much YouTube again, that’s all,” said Josh, still not sounding entirely convinced.

“There’s this channel I follow,” said Todd. “Hidden underground, it’s called. They go looking for abandoned tunnels and shit, old train stations, abandoned hospitals, that kind of thing. A couple weeks back they stumbled on a kind of lab facility in a bit of the sewer network that had been sealed off. They found a bunch of medical gear there, surgical tables, IV drips, that kind of thing. In the middle of it all there was a magitech generator, a massive power source, and there was all this circuitry and wires lying around. It was all old, it looked like it had been abandoned for months, but people said it was where the Technomancer had been working.”

Sarah nodded. The Technomancer thing was fucked up, and she didn’t particularly want to think about it just now. She wanted to concentrate on finding the dungeon.

She had drawn a breath to say so when Josh suddenly crouched, holding up a hand to stop his companions. “What’s that there?” he hissed pointing.

In front of them there was a high white wall that rose up at the end of the road. But that wasn’t what had caught Josh’s attention. Leaning up against the wall was a figure, a big, ungainly figure that loomed strangely in the dimness of the night. It was unnaturally tall, at least eight feet, and it moved wrongly, with a jerking, mechanical motion.

“What the fuck is it?” breathed Todd, coming up beside Sarah.

The giant turned his head swiftly, and they heard a whirring sound like gears. A red light flashed out from where an eye should have been, and the figure turned and hurried away, moving surprisingly quickly, the head hunched over between the shoulders.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like the look of it,” said Sarah.

“Perhaps it’s nothing to do with us, or with the dungeon?” said Todd hopefully.

“Or perhaps someone… or something is also interested in Kyrine. We can’t be the only ones to have got the data, and if we can work out the dungeon’s location then so can someone else.”

“That’s the location, isn’t it? Behind that wall?” said Josh.

Todd consulted a readout on a portable hologram map that he was carrying on his belt. They had put the coordinates into the map reader, and now the pin was right on top of their location.

“That’s it,” said Todd quietly, “no doubt about it.”

Sarah looked around to see if there was any sign of the creepy lumbering giant they’d seen, but there was not.

“There’s the gate over there,” she said, pointing to their right.

“You think we’ll have to climb over?” asked Josh doubtfully.

Sarah shook her head. “No way. This is a real dungeon. If anything I’ve read about dungeons is true, she’ll know we’re here as soon as we touch the gate. A dungeon needs adventurers. She’ll be desperate for us. As soon as she realizes what we are, I think she’ll let us straight in.”

Todd let out a long, slow breath. “A real dungeon. Shit, man, I hope we’re up to this.”

For once, Josh didn’t have any jibes for his little brother.

Sarah smacked the half-ogre on the back. “This is what we were born for, come on!”

Together, the three of them hurried over to the tall, wrought-iron gates that seemed to be the only gap in the high wall. As they reached the gate, there was a mechanical whirring noise and Sarah turned fast to see what it was. Something flew past, but it was gone before they could get a good look at it. It had looked the size of a soccer ball, a white sphere flying twelve feet up in the air.

Sarah got the impression of a mess of wiring hanging out the back of the thing, then it was gone.

When she turned back, her companions were standing with their hands against the bars of the gate, peering in. Sarah, casting a suspicious glance after the flying thing that had vanished off into the shadows, walked up to the gate and joined her companions.

“This is it,” said Todd quietly as Sarah reached up and placed her hands against the bars.

There was a keycard reader on the wall by the gate, glowing electric blue in the darkness, but as soon as Sarah joined her friends and put her hands on the gate, there was a clunking noise, and the gate began to swing slowly inward.

“Holy crap,” said Josh excitedly, “you were right, Sarah. The dungeon knows we’re here, and she must know what we are too! This is amazing!”

“That’s right,” said Sarah. “And don’t forget that so long as we're in the confines of the mansion’s walls, she no doubt can hear every word we speak. So have a bit of respect. Kyrine is an ancient, powerful entity, and it’s a huge honor for us to have the opportunity to practice our art here.”

“You got that right,” said Todd. “We’re the luckiest Dungeon Runner team this side of Gateway day.”

Sarah grinned. “Come on, then. Let’s get some loot!”

“Hoo-rah!” shouted Josh and Todd together, and Sarah laughed as she led her companions through the gates. As they walked up the white gravel drive, the huge gates swung closed behind them and clicked closed with the finality of a coffin lid shutting.

Caught up in the excitement of the moment, none of them saw the shambling figure of the giant, as he crept up to the shut gate and peered through after them. His glowing mechanical cyborg eye whirred as he gazed up the drive, watching the figures of the adventurers disappear into the darkness.

“This is creepy as hell,” whispered Todd as he looked around. They were making progress up the driveway, winding their way through ranks of overgrown trees whose