[center][h1][color=bf7300][u]L a n d o n[/u][/color][/h1][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][hr][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]  • Tʜᴇ Dᴜɴɢᴇᴏɴ • [/center][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][hr][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]

"...Well then!" said Landon after a moment - quite a bit louder than necessary - into the shocked and stunned silence that followed the announcement, and he turned on his heel and shoved his way through to the gate that had shut behind them.  "You heard the announcement, we need to blow this joint ASAP, and I've got just the stuff right here!"

With practiced ease, Landon shrugged out of his pack and began attaching a variety of explosive devices to the gate.  The announcement was still working its way into his brain, but he was keeping himself busy to avoid thinking about it too much.  For someone who wanted to live forever, the idea that he could [i]die[/i] in this game was the last idea he wanted to contemplate.  If it was true, and if he could get back to the real world, he was going to sue this company for [i]so[/i] much money...

Before he knew it, he had rigged up a series of detonation charges connected by a dangling fuse that ran through them each one in sequence.  The attachable mines would have been useful in traps to set up for the others to kite monsters right into them, but judging by the way the monsters were acting now, he was willing to bet such an obvious trap wasn't going to work this time.

The blonde-haired technician got to his feet and brushed off his hands, then walked swiftly away from the charges.  "Everyone back away, fifty paces, hands over your ears and mouths open - helps keep you from going deaf," he barked as he reached the minimum safe distance himself and then took several more steps just to be safe.  He cracked his knuckles and adjusted his goggles.  "Hey, Red, do me a favor and light the fuse up for me, wouldja?  And my cig, too."  Landon had just pulled out a cigarette and put it into his mouth, feeling somewhat self-satisfied.

The fire mage complied - perhaps a little too eagerly, but Landon could appreciate a woman enjoying her work - and the explosion seemed to rattle the whole dungeon as smoke blew past Landon, who was just enjoying a pull off of the cigarette as he turned around to see-

The burning white stick fell from his suddenly limp lips and hit the dungeon's stone floor with an unimpressive tap.  The smoke cleared, only to reveal that the gate hadn't received a single scratch from any of the explosives.  Only scorch marks remained where the explosives had been carefully attached, and the discoloration already seemed to be fading.

"I-Impossible!" stammered Landon as he fell backwards onto his butt, stunned.  Of course, this outcome wasn't unforeseen; dungeons had always been notably resistant to damage, most likely to prevent adventurers from merely blasting their way through the traps and monsters by bringing down the walls.  But he had [i]desperately[/i] wanted this plan to work, and he had guessed that if the monsters were acting more realistically, maybe the dungeon's physics would cooperate better too.  No such luck, as it turned out.

And if they couldn't go back...then the only way out would be to beat the dungeon.  Or...die trying.