Dungeon of Chance: Even Odds: A Dungeon Core Novel (Serious Probabilities Book 1) by Jonathan Brooks (interesting books to read TXT) 📕

a sobering thought.  And quite astute, even for her brother.  Maybe dying has finally matured him and perhaps even cured him of his recklessness.

“Anyway, enough talk of death…who’s up for another run?”  Nope, never mind.

Needless to say, there weren’t any takers.  Jeska herself was still trying to get adjusted to being alive again, and had no desire to get into another fight at that moment, even if she knew she wouldn’t die permanently.  Well, as long as they got through the first room again and received new Health Bands.  She felt this was definitely the kind of information that should be shared with the rest of the new Heroes.

Walking out of the dungeon entrance, Jeska somehow expected the sun to be already setting for the day, as it felt like they had been in the dungeon for most of the day – or floating around as a disembodied consciousness in some sort of colorless void.  Rather than nearing the end of the day, however, the position of the sun in the sky indicated that only an hour had passed.  Actually, it’s probably a bit less than that.  Maybe 40 minutes or so.

The sun was overwhelmingly bright after the darkness of the cave even so early in the morning, and it took her eyes a while to adjust.  It’s as if they are brand new and haven’t seen the sun before.  Fancy that. 

“My daughter!  You’re alive!  And—what are you wearing?!”  Jeska heard the Mayor shouting clearly as he rushed up to the entrance, seeing his offspring safe and whole; she was still adjusting to the light, but she could squint and see him practically sprinting from the crowd nearly 100 feet away. If he only knew….

“Rosara,” Jeska whispered to the other woman, “I would keep quiet about our…uh…deaths?  At least to your father and any non-Heroes; I think it might be taken badly, and they wouldn’t understand.”

“What?  Why not?” she thankfully whispered back.

“I don’t know, it’s just a feeling I have…but you can do what you want.”

Jeska wasn’t sure why she even said that, but she realized it was true.  Maybe this is why it’s such a secret.  I can’t even imagine if someone had told me (when I was a non-Hero) that they had been “resurrected” after dying inside of a dungeon.  I think I would consider them to be, I don’t know, not the same anymore?  As if they weren’t Human, but some sort of copy of who I was before – not the real thing.

Her eyes had cleared enough to see Rosara looking thoughtfully at her, and the others were as well.  They were close enough to hear the whispered conversation she had with the Mayor’s daughter, and seemed to be contemplating what she had said.

“Oh, Father – I have the best news!”  Rosara went from contemplative to excited and boisterous in less than a second.  “I have a Class already!  Do you like my outfit?  It came with becoming a Support Class.”

The Mayor had quickly arrived near them, as they had started walking down to meet him.  Jeska saw her father leisurely walking towards them with a big grin on his face, and there was an older woman behind him that she recognized as Kelty’s mother.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t anyone in the crowd arriving specifically to see Pascale, but Kelty dragged him along with her as she ran towards her father.

“What?  You look…different, Rosa.  And you even sound a little different; what happened to you in there?” the Mayor said, stopping in front of his daughter as if afraid to touch her.

Jeska waited for Rosara to blurt out that she had died…but nothing of the sort happened.  “Oh, you know, this is just what comes from being a Hero!  And all we did was kill some monsters—and I’m fine,” she said, putting her hand on her father’s arm in reassurance.  He pulled it away with a jerk, appearing confused about why he even did that.

“Sorry, honey, I’m not sure why…come here,” he said, pulling her into a hug.  Jeska could see his face, though, and he looked terrified.

Before she could see what happened next, they were approached by their father.  “You two made it!  I knew you would, of course,” he reassured them, before he got close enough to whisper so that only she and her brother could hear.  “You two died, didn’t you?”

Shock ran through her body as she stiffened up.  How did he know?  “I…I have no idea what you’re talking about—”

“Oh, don’t worry, it’s probably best that you don’t tell anyone.  In fact, it will be better for everyone, that you don’t,” he chuckled, though he looked sad.  “I bet you’re wondering how I knew?”

Arcen answered, “Yes…is it something obvious?”

Her father shook his head slowly.  “No…and yes, it is to me.  I told you that I’ve talked to more Heroes than you have, and that was the truth.  What I didn’t tell you is that I got one of them to reveal a little secret when he had a little too much to drink.  I know that it is possible to die inside of a dungeon and be brought back to life afterwards – which you obviously found out.”

Jeska looked at her brother, only to see that he was looking back at her.

“What you and very, very few non-Heroes don’t know, however, is that something…changes in a Hero when they are brought back.  This change isn’t visible, but is instead felt in other people as a sense of wrongness or revulsion.  But not all people, unless they are specifically told about it happening; anyone who is related to them by blood, though, will automatically feel this.”

Oh, no….

“So, you’re saying…?” Arcen asked, sadly.

“Yes, I could feel it as soon as I got close enough.  I’m sure you saw how the Mayor reacted—”

“But if you knew, why didn’t