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Party Leader
Name: Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor Level: 83 Job: Aggravator
Health: 5143/5143 Mana: 17511/17511 Stamina: 3043/3043
Effects: [Humanized (Moderate)][Damaged Mana Path [Left Wing] (Minor)]
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Name: Saori Segawa Level: 80 Job: Dark Mage
Health: 5162/5162 Mana: 3947/3947 Stamina: 3710/3710
Effects: [Humanized (Moderate)]
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Name: Tasianna Marina Silverpond Level: 58 Job: Storm Sorcerer
Health: 2208/2208 Mana: 5971/5971 Stamina: 1521/1521
Effects: [Elvenized (Major)]
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Name: Ellaine Fiero Helvas Level: 23 Job: Fighter
Health: 539/539 Mana: 781/781 Stamina: 691/691
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“I’ve set the experience share to 20% for Saori, Tasianna, and me while you will receive the remaining 40%. That should be fair,” I stated after closing the party screen displayed on my party bracelet, looking at Ellaine afterwards.
“Fair would be 25% each.” Ellaine shrugged in exasperation. She knew she got the higher share due to her significantly lower level.
After showing our IDs and the dungeon permission from the guild to the gatekeepers, we were allowed to enter Cedaraille’s dungeon “Emerald-Flare Forest.” Currently, we were descending a set of stone stairs into the depths of the dungeon’s cave entrance. Numerous adventurers were walking past us, either accompanying us down or returning to the surface for a well-earned break. Just like the city itself, the dungeon was equally crowded and lively.
Slightly confused, I turned back to Ellaine. “I’ll be honest, when you mentioned that the two adventurer guilds were responsible for the dungeon, I didn’t think they would own everything. The gatekeepers were hired adventurers instead of soldiers and the entrance hall was built by the guild. Since the dungeon is in the land of Cedaraille, shouldn’t it belong to Duke Greenveil?”
Ellaine nodded. “The dungeon does belong to his Lordship.”
“Then why arrange it like this?”
“The right of ownership belongs to House Greenveil since the dungeon is in their fief. The reason why the adventurer guilds are operating it is simply because House Greenveil leases the operational rights,” Ellaine explained. “The main users of a dungeon are obviously adventurers, right? While maintaining full control over the dungeon would be the more financially lucrative method, it would mean that House Greenveil would have to dispatch their soldiers and knights to protect the dungeon and handle the rowdy adventurers as well as appoint administrators and tax collectors to oversee everything. Adventurers can handle each other best. With this deal, Lord Duke Greenveil will have his dungeon maintained without spending resources on it, while on the other hand, the adventurer guilds can benefit from the influx of money from a dungeon. A win-win.”
Saori “ooh”-ed in interest, eyes slightly sparkling with greed. “I see. With benefits, do you mean all the Quests concerning material gathering for the hunter’s guild while the mercenary guild can hire mercenaries to guard the dungeon and use them to calm down any problematic ruffians?”
Ahh, so that’s why there were so many combined subjugation and delivery Quest types at the questboard.
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Quest List
[Kobold Meat Delivery]
[I require 15 venom stingers from Gaspar Wasps]
[The Alchemy Guild requests the Hearts of Seven Dire Wolves]
[15 Skorr tusk pairs Delivery to Hevarson’s Workshop]
[…]
____________________________________________________________
The four Quests I was currently looking at were from a set of 20 rank F Quests we accepted from the hunters guild. Each of them involved hunting a certain type of monster, however, the real objective was to dismantle the monster corpses, harvest the requested parts, and then deliver them to the guild. It was recommended that we hand the corpses to the guild if we weren’t confident enough in our [Dismantle] level for them to do it without destroying the materials, although that would come at a cost. Luckily, we didn’t need it.
While we did only accept this type of Quest—it involved monster-hunting, so it didn’t matter what the objective of the Quest was in the end—there were a few ordinary Quests at the guild involving fieldwork. A monster problem around farms, a nest that needed to be exterminated, an issue in the Cedaraille’s sewer concerning giant rats and slimes; there were plenty to choose from. We chose our current Quests simply ‘cause we intereded to enter the dungeon anyways.
After some time walking, a bright light appeared at the end of this tunnel. Going through it, my vision was filled with green trees, brown soil, and a blue sky.
A forest?
“So a dungeon can create a forest, too?” Tasianna asked in bafflement, inspecting a nearby tree. “Yes, this is real. Although, I cannot sense any fae like spriggans or gnomes around—No, I can see some spirits, but that is about it. I guess the dungeon can only spawn monsters or environments, but the fae are visitors just like all of us.”
I see absolutely nothing … I thought, as it was impossible for me to see lesser faefolk without [Mana Eyes], and I didn’t want to bust my eyes before the grind.
For all of us, this was our first outing inside a dungeon.
From what I understood, this whole complex was managed by a dungeon core and manned by a dungeon master, the one who would control the core to do their bidding. It was like a contract, where only the dungeon master had control over the core, and only once they perished would the ownership of the core become available to take.
Wild dungeons did exist and may appear randomly in the world or, in very rare cases like the one in the Ruins of the Fenrir’s Eclipse, be created through extreme mana concentrations. The master of this dungeon was probably hired by Duke Greenveil, if he wasn’t the one himself.
“Dungeon cores can simulate monster spawnings using the mana inside them. While random in the wild, a dungeon master can instantly have a wolf or giant bird appear from certain areas with a flick of a finger,” Ellaine explained. “Mana is essential for a dungeon, as everything it does requires it. Unfortunately, the only way for a dungeon to acquire mana is through spellcasters inside it, the death of a monster, or—”
“The death of a visitor, specifically, adventurers,” I finished her sentence.
Ellaine nodded and continued while we were walking through this dungeon forest, “The dungeon consumes any lifeless—or soulless for Goddess Ilsaphone followers—remains or items left behind in the dungeon at a certain point. This is how it acquires mana. I heard the adventurer guild would donate high amounts of mana filled materials to the dungeon if its mana were to drop to a certain point.”
“In other words, by going crazy with our mana usage, we can help maintain the dungeon,” Saori reasoned.
“Yes, that is why a high visitor count is important for the guild. Dungeons with lesser difficulties are the most popular since the risk of dying is lower, which gives the Cedaraille dungeon more traffic than the Griffonpeak one,” Ellaine finished.
Then an idea came into my mind as she finished her sentence. “What happens to a dungeon that is too hard? Would it be financially worthwhile to maintain it if only a small group can handle it?”
“It depends,” Ellaine started, pondering on the question herself. “The dungeon in Griffonpeak actually functions as the home to His Majesty’s monster ancestor—our rank A griffon king, while also serving as the training ground for our royal knights.”
“Wait, what? The kingdom actually has a giant griffon ruling it?” My eyes widened.
“Remember the founding history I told you?” Saori answered for Ellaine. “The first ruler of the Artorias Kingdom is the grandson of one of the princesses of the Leosfalt Kingdom—Artorias’s predecessor. She got together with a griffon and this is why the royal family are arvisians, instead of humans.”
“Correct.” Ellaine smiled. “The Griffon King, however, does not meddle in our state’s affairs. He acts as a deterrent against the Atadoro Kingdom, and wars in general, but otherwise he is more like a slumbering dragon, if that makes it understandable. I guess you should meet him once we arrive in the capital.”
I didn’t want to, but what could I do if they invited me? They probably wouldn’t force me but I technically was a foreign royalty, so rejecting it without a good reason would be quite rude … Haa, why couldn’t I have been born as some random dragon?
In any case, we dropped the topic quickly and Ellaine went back to dungeons. She then snapped her fingers, seemingly remembering something. “Father mentioned this one time when he himself entered a wild dungeon with mother and their party. After defeating the dungeon master, there was a decision to either turn this dungeon over to the adventurer guild or destroy the dungeon core.”
“Destroy? Why?”
“The simplest answer is to remove a dungeon, but that’s only partially true, since the shards left behind from a core could be used for the creation of manatech. For example, the ‘Crystals of the Divine System’ used inside guildhalls are made using these shards, which is one of the reasons why they are so expensive to buy and hard to acquire. Uhm, those dueling bracelets that my brother and I used during our duel were also made using these shards. Any manatech that interacts with the System requires them.”
So the reason why the orb was able to do all those System-related stuff was due to the material they were made from?
“However!” Ellaine raise her hand in a dramatic fashion, looking at all of us seriously like a scolding teacher. “Please, remember this, as what I have to say next is extremely important. You should never, ever break a dungeon core while it is still blue. When it still has mana!”
Tasianna moved to Ellaine’s side and nodded, carrying the same aura Ellaine was exuding. “This is not a joke, Lady Hestia, Miss Saori. A dungeon core filled with mana is similar to a … what did you call it, ‘atomic bomb?’ Yes, that’s correct! If a dungeon core were to crack while it still had mana inside it, it could completely destroy the area, leaving a mana fallout so devastating that monsters would spawn uncontrollably around it.”
The fact Tasianna had to use the word “atomic bomb” reinforced how important this information was, prompting Saori and me to reply immediately. And the next sentence really sealed the deal for us how dangerous the core could be.
“A divine mandate was presented to us by the Origin Gods, demanding from us to never destroy a dungeon core unless it was completely dry of mana.”
Considering we just wanted to get some fresh air and do some hunting inside a dungeon, the discussion got pretty serious. Nevertheless, knowing this sorta information was the norm for people since an ignorant adventurer could cause massive devastation.
Tasianna also explained that dungeons didn’t exist before the Origin Gods came to Peolynca, meaning this whole place was somehow created by them coming to this world and setting up the System. Was it created by their System to keep an infinite source of experience for the inhabitants, I wondered. Although, why didn’t they put a safety net on the core in case people accidentally cracked it?
Well, thinking too much about this subject would be pointless. We heard the info. Got warned to not do something. So, it was time to rock ‘n roll.
Music on!
“Wha—!” Ellaine exclaimed out of surprise from the sudden music.
While my parallel minds began buffing me up with anything I had, I began explaining to Ellaine why I was blasting music with [Aerokinesis], “The main reason is to make this grinding session less dull. To me, music is life and a means to keep your spirits up. Oh, and it grants you [Music Resonation], which shares all my positive spell effects with you.”
“Oh! I understand. I can see my buffs, yes.”
With that cleared up, we were off.
“Yahoo, little ones! Taunt!” I shouted at a nearby swarm of [Gasper Wasps], agitating them and luring a few drones towards me.
Back during the grimgarian fight against all those elite units, the ability [Taunt] was the lynchpin of their whole battle strategy, where the black orc knights would taunt me to reduce the overall damage towards everybody but the taunter. In fact, it was actually quite easy for me to take a knight down after he taunted me, but before I could land the final blow, I would just be taunted again and my damage towards the downed knight would drop to the point it would have been better to just incapacitate him by breaking a limb or so.
Concerning how the [Taunt] ability from my main Job [Aggravator] worked, the description was pretty much spot on. It traveled through sound, meaning I could technically AOE taunt using [Aerokinesis]. Multiple taunted targets were possible, but I would then be attacked by all of them at once, so using this Ability on strong opponents would be suicide. In addition, I had to have [Aggravator] active to use it, which meant I couldn’t level any other Job.
It’s good to try out the aggro tank now, although, I kinda wish one of us was an actual tank, and not a pseudo-tank like me.
Luckily, rank F monsters like these drones weren’t worth batting an eye at.
“Oh jeez, they look even scarier from up close! Sanctuary!” Raising my arm up, I materialized a barrier of light around me. It was smaller than usual—unfit to fight inside—but the barrier’s strength was enough to defend me from the giant wasps’ stingers.
I can’t detect a soldier among them. No nest, no queen.
“Okay, let’s do this everybody! Tasianna! Ellaine! Your turn!” And my call was reciprocated by a rain of ice daggers. Hiding on the branches of a nearby tree, Tasianna was hawking the area, cleaning up countless wasps with every dagger.
“Wind Slash!” On the other side, also hiding behind a tree, was Ellaine, shooting one wind spell at a time. It couldn’t compare to Tasianna’s killing power; at best, it killed two wasps with one spell cast, but that wasn’t what we were aiming for.
[“Ellaine, don’t forget to delay your spell cast and maintain a magic circle after the spell is cast. We need you to earn [Delay Cast] and [Continuous Cast] as soon as possible,”] I instructed her. She would level up anyways with us around, so the best training would be to help her train her skills, saving up on skill points later on for the important buys.
As the two were cutting down wasps, I noticed some of them stopped trying to stab me with their stingers and began flying around erratically. This seemed to cause a chain reaction as the swarm of wasps began to flee.
[“Saori, you’re up.”]
[“Got it. Uno, Song, Sarasa, Quatre! You four are up! Chase them down!”]
Four giant garms appeared from the shadows, running the wasps down like rabbits. The swarm of flying experience bundles were successfully taken down and the dismantling phase began.
“Urgh … ew,” Ellaine expressed, frowning as she carefully removed the stinger from the wasp. “This is even more disgusting than dismantling the loopabits we hunted.”
“I’m not a fan of this either …” Tasianna agreed.
On the other hand, Saori and I were accustomed to dismantling any type of monster in the Belzac forest … except for frogs and toads. Yuck them.
“Can Uno see through his scarred eye?” I asked Saori, who had Uno sit next to her for me. [“How is your eye, Uno?”]
[“My eye was not compromised. Thank you for your concern, Alpha’s Master,”] the scarred black garm answered with a stoic-sounding voice. Getting called “Alpha’s Master” was really weird, but it was good to see that our wounds from that grimgarian army encounter healed up, even giving Uno here a good-looking scar and Saori an evolution.
The Quest requested 15 stingers, so once we got the necessary number, I snapped my finger and made a “ding” sound as if this was an RPG. The serotonin spike sounds could create once you were done with a task was one of the wonders of music in the modern age.
Once the dismantling was done, all four of us hopped onto Saori’s garms. With Quatre done with his transformation into a shadow garm, we had enough garms to carry each Aurora member. The dungeon was quite huge and we had a long list of monsters to hunt down, so it beat maneuvering through this forest on foot.
“Ahhhhh, help! A GARM!”
“Monster break! Monster break! Call for help!”
Unfortunately, these giant garms were pretty conspicuous outside of Saori’s shadow. Despite the fact all four had collars on to inform people they were tamed, everybody’s first reaction was to shout and cry for help. Considering the equipment they were wearing and that they were fighting on the first floor of the dungeon, they must be rank G or F.
I found the garms pretty fluffy and cute, but to anybody who didn’t know them, they were pretty frightening with their pitch-black fur and giant fangs. Objectively, if you saw them while it was pitch-black then, oooh, nightmare fuel.
“Wait, wait! Stop! Hey, look up here,” Saori called the adventurer party out before they could disappear completely. Unfortunately, they couldn’t hear her voice over their cries of panic, forcing Saori to jump into their path to resolve the misunderstanding.
Once she told Uno to sit, the situation mostly fizzled out as everybody was too flabbergasted at the obedient wolves. Once she revealed she was a high rank tamer, we thankfully laughed it off, especially since Sarasa—our third garm—was a goofball. Unlike the other three, she acted more like a labrador with the excitement of a husky, so as they saw Saori play and scratch her head, they knew they wouldn’t hurt them.
Well, Uno’s stoic glare, Song’s cautious curiosity, and Quatre’s slight hostility didn’t help much. Well, it wasn’t like I knew them too well, right now. I still had to get used to the four garms’ personalities.
Once the adventurers left us, we decided to continue the rest of the hunt on foot. Still, our day in the dungeon was quite fruitful.
The monsters in the forest were nothing to us and Ellaine leveled up to 25 as we finished the last Quest we could do on this floor. Also, while we were exploring the interior of the first dungeon floor, we noticed a few interesting signals. One seemed to belong to the nest of gaspar wasps while another was in the depth of a dire wolf den.
The forest wasn’t as massive as the Belzac Forest, but it was still as large as the Fleur Mushroom Forest we tracked Cernust and Severa into. There were a couple of feral monsters walking around, but it seems like some monsters had begun turning this floor of the dungeon into their own home. With a wasp queen building a nest and dire wolf packs wandering around, it felt lively.
Even the adventurers hunting inside this floor seemed like they fit into the environment, just like when our party was in Firwood. Beginners learning how to build traps, fighting against skorrs in a group, and some even ran away from a swarm of wasps. If we could help, we did, otherwise, we left them alone.
And once we finally found the set of stairs to the next floor, we left the first floor behind.
“We should have bought the map they offered,” I complained.
“Agreed.” It was unanimous.
Using the notes function on her party bracelet, Ellaine volunteered to map out the next floor.
At the end of the stairs, the sight of the second floor came into view. Trees hid the dungeon’s walls as they led us to the entrance of a cave. Looking inside, it looked pretty similar to any other caverns our party has entered already, imitating the dusty cave smell and the moist air flowing inside.
“Great, the first floor had an artificial sky that somehow lit up everything without the sun and the second one is just a stinky cave. Awesome …”
No sun meant no solar energy. Although there was a light in the “sky,” I hadn’t felt any solar energy enter my body. As I expected, being inside a dungeon nullified the biggest advantage I had as a sunfang dragon. Without the sun, I had to be extra careful without my infinite regeneration source.
Although Saori and I could see perfectly in the dark, Tasianna still had some troubles and Ellaine was just blind. Snapping my fingers together, a spark appeared before I let it grow into a hand-sized fire. Using [Pyrokinesis], I had it fly up to light up our path.
With Saori and Tasianna leading the charge, and Ellaine and me in the back, we ventured inside.
“Ellaine, have you gotten it to work yet?” I asked while keeping my eyes glued in front of me.
[“Uhm, hello. Ahhhh, hello, Hestia! Can you hear me!”] She sounded pretty excited.
[“Yes, I can. So, how does it feel? 750 SP for such an overpowered skill?”]
[“It’s… AMAZING!”] she shouted, already having learned how to muddle somebody’s thought with [Telepathy].
[“I mean, it is not fair at all to those who cannot access it, but being able to buy [Telepathy], a skill even Mother or my grandparents do not have, is unbelievable. I mean, I can send my thoughts to you, Saori, and Tasianna without anybody intercepting it. It is perfect to safely talk about sensitive information.”] Ellaine jumped up like an overly excited fangirl when she said her “AMAZING,” speaking so fast that I could feel her enthusiasm first-hand. She then looked down at her hands and asked me what I could see through the information she’s sending me.
[“…You have wasp meat residue under your fingernails,”] Saori said.
Her eyes widened and she looked at her with amazement, completely ignoring the fact she should clean her nails before they start to stink. [“… Incredible. I didn’t even say a single word, but you knew exactly what I thought. The information went to everybody, not just Hestia. Wow. I-I have to inspect my skill shop! There must be so many wondrous skills inside it!”]
I didn’t expect a Peolyncian inhabitant to be this excited about the skill shop. Even Tasianna wasn’t this hyped.
“Quatre,” Saori called.
“Grrouuhhhh!” With a single command, Quatre, the fourth garm of the pack, sprang out of Ellaine’s shadow like a bolt and opened his gaping jaw, crunching into a giant bat-like monster that was about to attack Ellaine.
“Kyaahkkk!” The sudden roar of Quatre caused Ellaine to quickly unsheathe her sword with a girlish scream, but she fell onto her butt as she lost her balance while turning around. As she looked at Quatre with frightened eyes, holding her sword up, the giant garm gave the bat monster another crunch, causing numerous cracking bone sounds, before letting it fall onto the ground as a corpse.
That’s one of the Quest targets.
“Nice detection, you two,” I told Saori as I petted Quatre for a good job, before ripping the stalactites on its back off. Supposedly, it was useful for blacksmithing, or so I read.
After putting the bat and the harvested material into my storage, Saori pulled Ellaine up and gave her a lecture, “You are becoming too comfortable around us..”
“Pardon?” She looked baffled.
“You let your guard down because you believe you are safe with us. That is a mistake. You are inside enemy territory, why are you looking in your skill shop?” she scolded. “Although we will defend you, as a member of Aurora, you have a responsibility to protect yourself. Why were you not using [Enemy Detection Sensor]? Why did you not keep your presence hidden with [Stealth] and [Presence Killer]? This is not a lesson; a mistake can kill you! Ellaine, we might seem carefree, but your training began the moment we entered this dungeon.”
“I … I apologize. I was careless.” She looked down to the floor.
It’s harsh, but Saori’s right. She can’t learn if we coddle her.
Saori continued, “Mistakes happen, do not dwell on it, all right? This whole cave is a perfect opportunity for you to train up your sensory skills. There is something Hestia told me when we first began our lives in this world and that is to not rely on the Divine System, but on your own abilities. Your own trained skills.”
“My own skills and abilities?”
“Yup,” I nodded vigorously to chime in, smiling widely to signify the lecture was over. “Sometimes the enemy’s skills will beat yours, that’s when you need to become creative and use your other abilities to beat them. Their [Stealth] is too high? Track their scent, footprints, breathing. Look for irregularities in the environment. That is also how you level up your skills faster—by using them in a way that the System will reward you even more for your effort. Do you understand?”
“Uhm, I think so?”
“Good! Now, tell me, will you wallow in this small setback, or will you learn from your mistake and take up your sword to improve? You rebelled against your mother, went against her wishes to join us earlier than planned. Are you brave enough to stand back up, look forward, and charge forward with clenched teeth?”
Ellaine’s eyes widened for a second before jolting her head up and down. “Yes!” was her war cry.
With our formation resumed and Ellaine’s motivation at its peak, we continued forward. Felwings and weird, fat mole-like creatures appeared in our way, all targets of our Quest, so we took some time to hunt them down and push Ellaine up to level 27 while my Job leveled up.
Saori’s [Dark Mage] should be maxed too, while I wasn’t sure about Tasianna’s [Storm Sorcerer]. Regardless, our trip inside this dungeon was going well. We even found a loot box, a treasure chest the dungeon created to reward adventurers. Similar to everything else in this place, it was made using mana, meaning that equipment could just appear out of thin air. I honestly questioned how the weapon and armor shops work with these circulating.
Then again, I guess the answer was pretty clear:
For a beginner, this weapon was probably worth more than what they could buy from some random blacksmith in the city, but for us four, the item was trash. Well, it would fit Ellaine, but she already had a dagger as a backup weapon in case she ever lost her sword, and that one was given to her by her father.
Trash to sell later. It’s standard for spelunking.
As we moved forward a bit more, Saori suddenly raised her hand, stopping us. She and Tasianna groaned for a moment before turning around with a conflicted expression, telling Ellaine to be prepared. They made it sound pretty dramatic, but I guess what was placed in the way would creep out quite a lot of people, even making them puke if they weren’t already used to the sight.
“B-by the G-Goddess!” Ellaine flinched backward, covering her mouth up as her eyes shook at what she saw.
Three corpses. Humans. Two males, one female. All three had blood oozing down their necks and numerous gashes all over their bodies, as if a wild beast had mauled them. The culprits were obviously the creatures feeding on these adventurer’s corpses right now.
Mana Eyes.
Around the size of a doberman, these monsters were easily the height of an echikobold, another eank E monster, with a face not even a mother could love. They had large, glassy eyes like a fish with a leech-like mouth that just screamed nightmare-fuel. Their muscular front legs also served as wings, reminding me a little bit of wyverns.
I didn’t know who those adventures were, but looking at the three land-bats, they probably got overwhelmed. It was too bad, but that was the adventurer business. I had my fair share of close calls and I’ve seen people die often enough now that my monster nature got used to it. Whether bandits, farmers, or soldiers, I’ve seen enough to not be overwhelmed.
Ellaine, on the other hand …
“Grmpphh!” Ellaine jolted her body forward, covering her mouth up with her hand, narrowly stopping herself from puking. I couldn’t blame Ellaine for feeling disgusted. “I’m all right. I’m all right. I-I think…”
Ellaine had killed monsters and also dissected them, but seeing a human corpse in that state for the first time was too much for her. As I patted her shoulder for enduring it, the land-bats seemed to have noticed us. The four of us didn’t move, as Saori, Tasianna, and I were more worried about Ellaine. After all, we had bodyguards.
“Groooowwwwhh!” Uno howled a war cry, signaling the other three to appear with hims, exuding their murderous auras. The land-bats cowered and attempted to flee, but shadowy tendrils erupted from their shadows and snatched at them, wrapping them up for the looming garms. What happened afterwards didn’t need any explanations.
Only rank G and F monsters have appeared around here. I didn’t expect rank E, but I guess that’s the randomness of a dungeon at work.
Rest in peace, you three. We’ll make sure that at least your IDs make it back to the surface.
Having fulfilled over half of the Quests we’d accepted from the hunter’s guild, we continued deeper into the second floor and eventually found the cave. With Ellaine’s map, we knew the path back to the first floor for later.
As we descended down the set of stairs, the scenery wasn’t any different, as we were still in a cave. The third floor was where we finished most of the remaining Quests, as we ended up with just two left after a lot of work. We weren’t sure how long we’d been inside the dungeon, as time flew by for us without any warning or clock, but the moment Ellaine began to inform us that she couldn’t move anymore, we decided to take a break.
As we were searching for a place to rest, we luckily found the exit to the next floor. There, we saw a wide area with numerous adventurers making camp and preparing meals. We could see the stairs behind them. Our party shrugged and made camp, deciding to sleep inside the dungeon.
As usual, camping for us was to make it as comfortable as possible. I pulled out chairs and tables from our restaurant and placed them on the ground and then brought out Saori’s kitchen. Ingredients and utensils were also included and Saori and Tasianna began cooking. Unfortunately, mostly for Ellaine, we did not have any beds or bedrolls prepared, so we had to sleep on the cold stone floor. Well, it was cold until I heated it.
Naturally, this caught the other adventurers’ attention. They had to sit on the floor and were cooking with a small pot, while Saori had a whole kitchen fueled with my flames to work with. Despite knowing that void-touched like Saori and I were rare magicians, there wasn’t a reason to really hide it. Master Kush explained Peolyncians could become space-time magicians, too.
“Uno, Song, Sarasa, Quatre. Dinner time!” I called out to Saori’s four garms. They were part of the party now, too.
As I was handing them a skorr each to dine on, an idea suddenly came to me. “Hey, Saori, do you remember Rajah, my former virigress cub? He was able to become my fan after he left me to return to his mother. Do you think your garms could become my ‘retainers’ so they can reap the benefits, too?”
“Hmm? Well, it is worth a try. Uno, Song, Sarasa, Quatre. Would your four want to become Hestia’s retainer? It will give you access to everything we have to become stronger,” Saori asked her garms, however, they declined.
[“We are the Alpha’s pack! Nobody else’s. We shall not bow to anybody but the Alpha and descendant of Belzac,”] Uno answered as the leader of the four. Saori kept asking them, presenting them the benefits, but it seemed they were too stubbornly loyal to her.
“Just saying but you aren’t exactly my retainers. It’s just a title which I don’t really care about,” I urged them to reconsider but it did not affect them.
[“We will not, Alpha’s Master. The Alpha can serve anybody she wishes, but we will only serve the Alpha.”] Uno’s deep voice really sealed the delivery of that sentence.
[Hestia’s Retainer]’s and [The Light]’s only worked if they willingly accepted me but, seeing as they didn’t, we couldn’t force them into a situation they didn’t want. It was a shame but these garms were frustratingly stuborn
Forgetting about this topic for now, even though it seemed that Saori wanted to return to it another day, we focused on our dinner. Ellaine had never cooked anything before, not even a roast, so she was having some trouble helping out, even with cutting ingredients. Well, a noble didn’t need to learn how to cook when their servants could do it, but as a member of Aurora she’d better learn, otherwise no food!
As the smell of the stew and curry began to fill the area, a few of the adventurers eyed us with curiosity and greed. Some began standing up and moved towards us. Were they trying to rob us? Numbers wouldn’t help and the four garms devouring their skorrs should be enough of a deterrent.
As I raised an eyebrow at the approaching adventurers, they showed their empty wooden bowls and said, “Uhm, could we have some?”
“Welcome!” Saori exclaimed excitedly, almost as if she planned this.
Restaurant Aurora was in business?
AbyssRaven Saori with the golden nose.
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Party Leader
Name: Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor Level: 83 Job: Aggravator
Health: 5143/5143 Mana: 17511/17511 Stamina: 3043/3043
Effects: [Humanized (Moderate)][Damaged Mana Path [Left Wing] (Minor)]
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Name: Saori Segawa Level: 80 Job: Dark Mage
Health: 5162/5162 Mana: 3947/3947 Stamina: 3710/3710
Effects: [Humanized (Moderate)]
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Name: Tasianna Marina Silverpond Level: 58 Job: Storm Sorcerer
Health: 2208/2208 Mana: 5971/5971 Stamina: 1521/1521
Effects: [Elvenized (Major)]
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Name: Ellaine Fiero Helvas Level: 23 Job: Fighter
Health: 539/539 Mana: 781/781 Stamina: 691/691
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“I’ve set the experience share to 20% for Saori, Tasianna, and me while you will receive the remaining 40%. That should be fair,” I stated after closing the party screen displayed on my party bracelet, looking at Ellaine afterwards.
“Fair would be 25% each.” Ellaine shrugged in exasperation. She knew she got the higher share due to her significantly lower level.
After showing our IDs and the dungeon permission from the guild to the gatekeepers, we were allowed to enter Cedaraille’s dungeon “Emerald-Flare Forest.” Currently, we were descending a set of stone stairs into the depths of the dungeon’s cave entrance. Numerous adventurers were walking past us, either accompanying us down or returning to the surface for a well-earned break. Just like the city itself, the dungeon was equally crowded and lively.
Slightly confused, I turned back to Ellaine. “I’ll be honest, when you mentioned that the two adventurer guilds were responsible for the dungeon, I didn’t think they would own everything. The gatekeepers were hired adventurers instead of soldiers and the entrance hall was built by the guild. Since the dungeon is in the land of Cedaraille, shouldn’t it belong to Duke Greenveil?”
Ellaine nodded. “The dungeon does belong to his Lordship.”
“Then why arrange it like this?”
“The right of ownership belongs to House Greenveil since the dungeon is in their fief. The reason why the adventurer guilds are operating it is simply because House Greenveil leases the operational rights,” Ellaine explained. “The main users of a dungeon are obviously adventurers, right? While maintaining full control over the dungeon would be the more financially lucrative method, it would mean that House Greenveil would have to dispatch their soldiers and knights to protect the dungeon and handle the rowdy adventurers as well as appoint administrators and tax collectors to oversee everything. Adventurers can handle each other best. With this deal, Lord Duke Greenveil will have his dungeon maintained without spending resources on it, while on the other hand, the adventurer guilds can benefit from the influx of money from a dungeon. A win-win.”
Saori “ooh”-ed in interest, eyes slightly sparkling with greed. “I see. With benefits, do you mean all the Quests concerning material gathering for the hunter’s guild while the mercenary guild can hire mercenaries to guard the dungeon and use them to calm down any problematic ruffians?”
Ahh, so that’s why there were so many combined subjugation and delivery Quest types at the questboard.
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Quest List
[Kobold Meat Delivery]
[I require 15 venom stingers from Gaspar Wasps]
[The Alchemy Guild requests the Hearts of Seven Dire Wolves]
[15 Skorr tusk pairs Delivery to Hevarson’s Workshop]
[…]
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The four Quests I was currently looking at were from a set of 20 rank F Quests we accepted from the hunters guild. Each of them involved hunting a certain type of monster, however, the real objective was to dismantle the monster corpses, harvest the requested parts, and then deliver them to the guild. It was recommended that we hand the corpses to the guild if we weren’t confident enough in our [Dismantle] level for them to do it without destroying the materials, although that would come at a cost. Luckily, we didn’t need it.
While we did only accept this type of Quest—it involved monster-hunting, so it didn’t matter what the objective of the Quest was in the end—there were a few ordinary Quests at the guild involving fieldwork. A monster problem around farms, a nest that needed to be exterminated, an issue in the Cedaraille’s sewer concerning giant rats and slimes; there were plenty to choose from. We chose our current Quests simply ‘cause we intereded to enter the dungeon anyways.
After some time walking, a bright light appeared at the end of this tunnel. Going through it, my vision was filled with green trees, brown soil, and a blue sky.
A forest?
“So a dungeon can create a forest, too?” Tasianna asked in bafflement, inspecting a nearby tree. “Yes, this is real. Although, I cannot sense any fae like spriggans or gnomes around—No, I can see some spirits, but that is about it. I guess the dungeon can only spawn monsters or environments, but the fae are visitors just like all of us.”
I see absolutely nothing … I thought, as it was impossible for me to see lesser faefolk without [Mana Eyes], and I didn’t want to bust my eyes before the grind.
For all of us, this was our first outing inside a dungeon.
From what I understood, this whole complex was managed by a dungeon core and manned by a dungeon master, the one who would control the core to do their bidding. It was like a contract, where only the dungeon master had control over the core, and only once they perished would the ownership of the core become available to take.
Wild dungeons did exist and may appear randomly in the world or, in very rare cases like the one in the Ruins of the Fenrir’s Eclipse, be created through extreme mana concentrations. The master of this dungeon was probably hired by Duke Greenveil, if he wasn’t the one himself.
“Dungeon cores can simulate monster spawnings using the mana inside them. While random in the wild, a dungeon master can instantly have a wolf or giant bird appear from certain areas with a flick of a finger,” Ellaine explained. “Mana is essential for a dungeon, as everything it does requires it. Unfortunately, the only way for a dungeon to acquire mana is through spellcasters inside it, the death of a monster, or—”
“The death of a visitor, specifically, adventurers,” I finished her sentence.
Ellaine nodded and continued while we were walking through this dungeon forest, “The dungeon consumes any lifeless—or soulless for Goddess Ilsaphone followers—remains or items left behind in the dungeon at a certain point. This is how it acquires mana. I heard the adventurer guild would donate high amounts of mana filled materials to the dungeon if its mana were to drop to a certain point.”
“In other words, by going crazy with our mana usage, we can help maintain the dungeon,” Saori reasoned.
“Yes, that is why a high visitor count is important for the guild. Dungeons with lesser difficulties are the most popular since the risk of dying is lower, which gives the Cedaraille dungeon more traffic than the Griffonpeak one,” Ellaine finished.
Then an idea came into my mind as she finished her sentence. “What happens to a dungeon that is too hard? Would it be financially worthwhile to maintain it if only a small group can handle it?”
“It depends,” Ellaine started, pondering on the question herself. “The dungeon in Griffonpeak actually functions as the home to His Majesty’s monster ancestor—our rank A griffon king, while also serving as the training ground for our royal knights.”
“Wait, what? The kingdom actually has a giant griffon ruling it?” My eyes widened.
“Remember the founding history I told you?” Saori answered for Ellaine. “The first ruler of the Artorias Kingdom is the grandson of one of the princesses of the Leosfalt Kingdom—Artorias’s predecessor. She got together with a griffon and this is why the royal family are arvisians, instead of humans.”
“Correct.” Ellaine smiled. “The Griffon King, however, does not meddle in our state’s affairs. He acts as a deterrent against the Atadoro Kingdom, and wars in general, but otherwise he is more like a slumbering dragon, if that makes it understandable. I guess you should meet him once we arrive in the capital.”
I didn’t want to, but what could I do if they invited me? They probably wouldn’t force me but I technically was a foreign royalty, so rejecting it without a good reason would be quite rude … Haa, why couldn’t I have been born as some random dragon?
In any case, we dropped the topic quickly and Ellaine went back to dungeons. She then snapped her fingers, seemingly remembering something. “Father mentioned this one time when he himself entered a wild dungeon with mother and their party. After defeating the dungeon master, there was a decision to either turn this dungeon over to the adventurer guild or destroy the dungeon core.”
“Destroy? Why?”
“The simplest answer is to remove a dungeon, but that’s only partially true, since the shards left behind from a core could be used for the creation of manatech. For example, the ‘Crystals of the Divine System’ used inside guildhalls are made using these shards, which is one of the reasons why they are so expensive to buy and hard to acquire. Uhm, those dueling bracelets that my brother and I used during our duel were also made using these shards. Any manatech that interacts with the System requires them.”
So the reason why the orb was able to do all those System-related stuff was due to the material they were made from?
“However!” Ellaine raise her hand in a dramatic fashion, looking at all of us seriously like a scolding teacher. “Please, remember this, as what I have to say next is extremely important. You should never, ever break a dungeon core while it is still blue. When it still has mana!”
Tasianna moved to Ellaine’s side and nodded, carrying the same aura Ellaine was exuding. “This is not a joke, Lady Hestia, Miss Saori. A dungeon core filled with mana is similar to a … what did you call it, ‘atomic bomb?’ Yes, that’s correct! If a dungeon core were to crack while it still had mana inside it, it could completely destroy the area, leaving a mana fallout so devastating that monsters would spawn uncontrollably around it.”
The fact Tasianna had to use the word “atomic bomb” reinforced how important this information was, prompting Saori and me to reply immediately. And the next sentence really sealed the deal for us how dangerous the core could be.
“A divine mandate was presented to us by the Origin Gods, demanding from us to never destroy a dungeon core unless it was completely dry of mana.”
Considering we just wanted to get some fresh air and do some hunting inside a dungeon, the discussion got pretty serious. Nevertheless, knowing this sorta information was the norm for people since an ignorant adventurer could cause massive devastation.
Tasianna also explained that dungeons didn’t exist before the Origin Gods came to Peolynca, meaning this whole place was somehow created by them coming to this world and setting up the System. Was it created by their System to keep an infinite source of experience for the inhabitants, I wondered. Although, why didn’t they put a safety net on the core in case people accidentally cracked it?
Well, thinking too much about this subject would be pointless. We heard the info. Got warned to not do something. So, it was time to rock ‘n roll.
Music on!
“Wha—!” Ellaine exclaimed out of surprise from the sudden music.
While my parallel minds began buffing me up with anything I had, I began explaining to Ellaine why I was blasting music with [Aerokinesis], “The main reason is to make this grinding session less dull. To me, music is life and a means to keep your spirits up. Oh, and it grants you [Music Resonation], which shares all my positive spell effects with you.”
“Oh! I understand. I can see my buffs, yes.”
With that cleared up, we were off.
“Yahoo, little ones! Taunt!” I shouted at a nearby swarm of [Gasper Wasps], agitating them and luring a few drones towards me.
Back during the grimgarian fight against all those elite units, the ability [Taunt] was the lynchpin of their whole battle strategy, where the black orc knights would taunt me to reduce the overall damage towards everybody but the taunter. In fact, it was actually quite easy for me to take a knight down after he taunted me, but before I could land the final blow, I would just be taunted again and my damage towards the downed knight would drop to the point it would have been better to just incapacitate him by breaking a limb or so.
Concerning how the [Taunt] ability from my main Job [Aggravator] worked, the description was pretty much spot on. It traveled through sound, meaning I could technically AOE taunt using [Aerokinesis]. Multiple taunted targets were possible, but I would then be attacked by all of them at once, so using this Ability on strong opponents would be suicide. In addition, I had to have [Aggravator] active to use it, which meant I couldn’t level any other Job.
It’s good to try out the aggro tank now, although, I kinda wish one of us was an actual tank, and not a pseudo-tank like me.
Luckily, rank F monsters like these drones weren’t worth batting an eye at.
“Oh jeez, they look even scarier from up close! Sanctuary!” Raising my arm up, I materialized a barrier of light around me. It was smaller than usual—unfit to fight inside—but the barrier’s strength was enough to defend me from the giant wasps’ stingers.
I can’t detect a soldier among them. No nest, no queen.
“Okay, let’s do this everybody! Tasianna! Ellaine! Your turn!” And my call was reciprocated by a rain of ice daggers. Hiding on the branches of a nearby tree, Tasianna was hawking the area, cleaning up countless wasps with every dagger.
“Wind Slash!” On the other side, also hiding behind a tree, was Ellaine, shooting one wind spell at a time. It couldn’t compare to Tasianna’s killing power; at best, it killed two wasps with one spell cast, but that wasn’t what we were aiming for.
[“Ellaine, don’t forget to delay your spell cast and maintain a magic circle after the spell is cast. We need you to earn [Delay Cast] and [Continuous Cast] as soon as possible,”] I instructed her. She would level up anyways with us around, so the best training would be to help her train her skills, saving up on skill points later on for the important buys.
As the two were cutting down wasps, I noticed some of them stopped trying to stab me with their stingers and began flying around erratically. This seemed to cause a chain reaction as the swarm of wasps began to flee.
[“Saori, you’re up.”]
[“Got it. Uno, Song, Sarasa, Quatre! You four are up! Chase them down!”]
Four giant garms appeared from the shadows, running the wasps down like rabbits. The swarm of flying experience bundles were successfully taken down and the dismantling phase began.
“Urgh … ew,” Ellaine expressed, frowning as she carefully removed the stinger from the wasp. “This is even more disgusting than dismantling the loopabits we hunted.”
“I’m not a fan of this either …” Tasianna agreed.
On the other hand, Saori and I were accustomed to dismantling any type of monster in the Belzac forest … except for frogs and toads. Yuck them.
“Can Uno see through his scarred eye?” I asked Saori, who had Uno sit next to her for me. [“How is your eye, Uno?”]
[“My eye was not compromised. Thank you for your concern, Alpha’s Master,”] the scarred black garm answered with a stoic-sounding voice. Getting called “Alpha’s Master” was really weird, but it was good to see that our wounds from that grimgarian army encounter healed up, even giving Uno here a good-looking scar and Saori an evolution.
The Quest requested 15 stingers, so once we got the necessary number, I snapped my finger and made a “ding” sound as if this was an RPG. The serotonin spike sounds could create once you were done with a task was one of the wonders of music in the modern age.
Once the dismantling was done, all four of us hopped onto Saori’s garms. With Quatre done with his transformation into a shadow garm, we had enough garms to carry each Aurora member. The dungeon was quite huge and we had a long list of monsters to hunt down, so it beat maneuvering through this forest on foot.
“Ahhhhh, help! A GARM!”
“Monster break! Monster break! Call for help!”
Unfortunately, these giant garms were pretty conspicuous outside of Saori’s shadow. Despite the fact all four had collars on to inform people they were tamed, everybody’s first reaction was to shout and cry for help. Considering the equipment they were wearing and that they were fighting on the first floor of the dungeon, they must be rank G or F.
I found the garms pretty fluffy and cute, but to anybody who didn’t know them, they were pretty frightening with their pitch-black fur and giant fangs. Objectively, if you saw them while it was pitch-black then, oooh, nightmare fuel.
“Wait, wait! Stop! Hey, look up here,” Saori called the adventurer party out before they could disappear completely. Unfortunately, they couldn’t hear her voice over their cries of panic, forcing Saori to jump into their path to resolve the misunderstanding.
Once she told Uno to sit, the situation mostly fizzled out as everybody was too flabbergasted at the obedient wolves. Once she revealed she was a high rank tamer, we thankfully laughed it off, especially since Sarasa—our third garm—was a goofball. Unlike the other three, she acted more like a labrador with the excitement of a husky, so as they saw Saori play and scratch her head, they knew they wouldn’t hurt them.
Well, Uno’s stoic glare, Song’s cautious curiosity, and Quatre’s slight hostility didn’t help much. Well, it wasn’t like I knew them too well, right now. I still had to get used to the four garms’ personalities.
Once the adventurers left us, we decided to continue the rest of the hunt on foot. Still, our day in the dungeon was quite fruitful.
The monsters in the forest were nothing to us and Ellaine leveled up to 25 as we finished the last Quest we could do on this floor. Also, while we were exploring the interior of the first dungeon floor, we noticed a few interesting signals. One seemed to belong to the nest of gaspar wasps while another was in the depth of a dire wolf den.
The forest wasn’t as massive as the Belzac Forest, but it was still as large as the Fleur Mushroom Forest we tracked Cernust and Severa into. There were a couple of feral monsters walking around, but it seems like some monsters had begun turning this floor of the dungeon into their own home. With a wasp queen building a nest and dire wolf packs wandering around, it felt lively.
Even the adventurers hunting inside this floor seemed like they fit into the environment, just like when our party was in Firwood. Beginners learning how to build traps, fighting against skorrs in a group, and some even ran away from a swarm of wasps. If we could help, we did, otherwise, we left them alone.
And once we finally found the set of stairs to the next floor, we left the first floor behind.
“We should have bought the map they offered,” I complained.
“Agreed.” It was unanimous.
Using the notes function on her party bracelet, Ellaine volunteered to map out the next floor.
At the end of the stairs, the sight of the second floor came into view. Trees hid the dungeon’s walls as they led us to the entrance of a cave. Looking inside, it looked pretty similar to any other caverns our party has entered already, imitating the dusty cave smell and the moist air flowing inside.
“Great, the first floor had an artificial sky that somehow lit up everything without the sun and the second one is just a stinky cave. Awesome …”
No sun meant no solar energy. Although there was a light in the “sky,” I hadn’t felt any solar energy enter my body. As I expected, being inside a dungeon nullified the biggest advantage I had as a sunfang dragon. Without the sun, I had to be extra careful without my infinite regeneration source.
Although Saori and I could see perfectly in the dark, Tasianna still had some troubles and Ellaine was just blind. Snapping my fingers together, a spark appeared before I let it grow into a hand-sized fire. Using [Pyrokinesis], I had it fly up to light up our path.
With Saori and Tasianna leading the charge, and Ellaine and me in the back, we ventured inside.
“Ellaine, have you gotten it to work yet?” I asked while keeping my eyes glued in front of me.
[“Uhm, hello. Ahhhh, hello, Hestia! Can you hear me!”] She sounded pretty excited.
[“Yes, I can. So, how does it feel? 750 SP for such an overpowered skill?”]
[“It’s… AMAZING!”] she shouted, already having learned how to muddle somebody’s thought with [Telepathy].
[“I mean, it is not fair at all to those who cannot access it, but being able to buy [Telepathy], a skill even Mother or my grandparents do not have, is unbelievable. I mean, I can send my thoughts to you, Saori, and Tasianna without anybody intercepting it. It is perfect to safely talk about sensitive information.”] Ellaine jumped up like an overly excited fangirl when she said her “AMAZING,” speaking so fast that I could feel her enthusiasm first-hand. She then looked down at her hands and asked me what I could see through the information she’s sending me.
[“…You have wasp meat residue under your fingernails,”] Saori said.
Her eyes widened and she looked at her with amazement, completely ignoring the fact she should clean her nails before they start to stink. [“… Incredible. I didn’t even say a single word, but you knew exactly what I thought. The information went to everybody, not just Hestia. Wow. I-I have to inspect my skill shop! There must be so many wondrous skills inside it!”]
I didn’t expect a Peolyncian inhabitant to be this excited about the skill shop. Even Tasianna wasn’t this hyped.
“Quatre,” Saori called.
“Grrouuhhhh!” With a single command, Quatre, the fourth garm of the pack, sprang out of Ellaine’s shadow like a bolt and opened his gaping jaw, crunching into a giant bat-like monster that was about to attack Ellaine.
“Kyaahkkk!” The sudden roar of Quatre caused Ellaine to quickly unsheathe her sword with a girlish scream, but she fell onto her butt as she lost her balance while turning around. As she looked at Quatre with frightened eyes, holding her sword up, the giant garm gave the bat monster another crunch, causing numerous cracking bone sounds, before letting it fall onto the ground as a corpse.
That’s one of the Quest targets.
“Nice detection, you two,” I told Saori as I petted Quatre for a good job, before ripping the stalactites on its back off. Supposedly, it was useful for blacksmithing, or so I read.
After putting the bat and the harvested material into my storage, Saori pulled Ellaine up and gave her a lecture, “You are becoming too comfortable around us..”
“Pardon?” She looked baffled.
“You let your guard down because you believe you are safe with us. That is a mistake. You are inside enemy territory, why are you looking in your skill shop?” she scolded. “Although we will defend you, as a member of Aurora, you have a responsibility to protect yourself. Why were you not using [Enemy Detection Sensor]? Why did you not keep your presence hidden with [Stealth] and [Presence Killer]? This is not a lesson; a mistake can kill you! Ellaine, we might seem carefree, but your training began the moment we entered this dungeon.”
“I … I apologize. I was careless.” She looked down to the floor.
It’s harsh, but Saori’s right. She can’t learn if we coddle her.
Saori continued, “Mistakes happen, do not dwell on it, all right? This whole cave is a perfect opportunity for you to train up your sensory skills. There is something Hestia told me when we first began our lives in this world and that is to not rely on the Divine System, but on your own abilities. Your own trained skills.”
“My own skills and abilities?”
“Yup,” I nodded vigorously to chime in, smiling widely to signify the lecture was over. “Sometimes the enemy’s skills will beat yours, that’s when you need to become creative and use your other abilities to beat them. Their [Stealth] is too high? Track their scent, footprints, breathing. Look for irregularities in the environment. That is also how you level up your skills faster—by using them in a way that the System will reward you even more for your effort. Do you understand?”
“Uhm, I think so?”
“Good! Now, tell me, will you wallow in this small setback, or will you learn from your mistake and take up your sword to improve? You rebelled against your mother, went against her wishes to join us earlier than planned. Are you brave enough to stand back up, look forward, and charge forward with clenched teeth?”
Ellaine’s eyes widened for a second before jolting her head up and down. “Yes!” was her war cry.
With our formation resumed and Ellaine’s motivation at its peak, we continued forward. Felwings and weird, fat mole-like creatures appeared in our way, all targets of our Quest, so we took some time to hunt them down and push Ellaine up to level 27 while my Job leveled up.
Saori’s [Dark Mage] should be maxed too, while I wasn’t sure about Tasianna’s [Storm Sorcerer]. Regardless, our trip inside this dungeon was going well. We even found a loot box, a treasure chest the dungeon created to reward adventurers. Similar to everything else in this place, it was made using mana, meaning that equipment could just appear out of thin air. I honestly questioned how the weapon and armor shops work with these circulating.
Then again, I guess the answer was pretty clear:
For a beginner, this weapon was probably worth more than what they could buy from some random blacksmith in the city, but for us four, the item was trash. Well, it would fit Ellaine, but she already had a dagger as a backup weapon in case she ever lost her sword, and that one was given to her by her father.
Trash to sell later. It’s standard for spelunking.
As we moved forward a bit more, Saori suddenly raised her hand, stopping us. She and Tasianna groaned for a moment before turning around with a conflicted expression, telling Ellaine to be prepared. They made it sound pretty dramatic, but I guess what was placed in the way would creep out quite a lot of people, even making them puke if they weren’t already used to the sight.
“B-by the G-Goddess!” Ellaine flinched backward, covering her mouth up as her eyes shook at what she saw.
Three corpses. Humans. Two males, one female. All three had blood oozing down their necks and numerous gashes all over their bodies, as if a wild beast had mauled them. The culprits were obviously the creatures feeding on these adventurer’s corpses right now.
Mana Eyes.
Around the size of a doberman, these monsters were easily the height of an echikobold, another eank E monster, with a face not even a mother could love. They had large, glassy eyes like a fish with a leech-like mouth that just screamed nightmare-fuel. Their muscular front legs also served as wings, reminding me a little bit of wyverns.
I didn’t know who those adventures were, but looking at the three land-bats, they probably got overwhelmed. It was too bad, but that was the adventurer business. I had my fair share of close calls and I’ve seen people die often enough now that my monster nature got used to it. Whether bandits, farmers, or soldiers, I’ve seen enough to not be overwhelmed.
Ellaine, on the other hand …
“Grmpphh!” Ellaine jolted her body forward, covering her mouth up with her hand, narrowly stopping herself from puking. I couldn’t blame Ellaine for feeling disgusted. “I’m all right. I’m all right. I-I think…”
Ellaine had killed monsters and also dissected them, but seeing a human corpse in that state for the first time was too much for her. As I patted her shoulder for enduring it, the land-bats seemed to have noticed us. The four of us didn’t move, as Saori, Tasianna, and I were more worried about Ellaine. After all, we had bodyguards.
“Groooowwwwhh!” Uno howled a war cry, signaling the other three to appear with hims, exuding their murderous auras. The land-bats cowered and attempted to flee, but shadowy tendrils erupted from their shadows and snatched at them, wrapping them up for the looming garms. What happened afterwards didn’t need any explanations.
Only rank G and F monsters have appeared around here. I didn’t expect rank E, but I guess that’s the randomness of a dungeon at work.
Rest in peace, you three. We’ll make sure that at least your IDs make it back to the surface.
Having fulfilled over half of the Quests we’d accepted from the hunter’s guild, we continued deeper into the second floor and eventually found the cave. With Ellaine’s map, we knew the path back to the first floor for later.
As we descended down the set of stairs, the scenery wasn’t any different, as we were still in a cave. The third floor was where we finished most of the remaining Quests, as we ended up with just two left after a lot of work. We weren’t sure how long we’d been inside the dungeon, as time flew by for us without any warning or clock, but the moment Ellaine began to inform us that she couldn’t move anymore, we decided to take a break.
As we were searching for a place to rest, we luckily found the exit to the next floor. There, we saw a wide area with numerous adventurers making camp and preparing meals. We could see the stairs behind them. Our party shrugged and made camp, deciding to sleep inside the dungeon.
As usual, camping for us was to make it as comfortable as possible. I pulled out chairs and tables from our restaurant and placed them on the ground and then brought out Saori’s kitchen. Ingredients and utensils were also included and Saori and Tasianna began cooking. Unfortunately, mostly for Ellaine, we did not have any beds or bedrolls prepared, so we had to sleep on the cold stone floor. Well, it was cold until I heated it.
Naturally, this caught the other adventurers’ attention. They had to sit on the floor and were cooking with a small pot, while Saori had a whole kitchen fueled with my flames to work with. Despite knowing that void-touched like Saori and I were rare magicians, there wasn’t a reason to really hide it. Master Kush explained Peolyncians could become space-time magicians, too.
“Uno, Song, Sarasa, Quatre. Dinner time!” I called out to Saori’s four garms. They were part of the party now, too.
As I was handing them a skorr each to dine on, an idea suddenly came to me. “Hey, Saori, do you remember Rajah, my former virigress cub? He was able to become my fan after he left me to return to his mother. Do you think your garms could become my ‘retainers’ so they can reap the benefits, too?”
“Hmm? Well, it is worth a try. Uno, Song, Sarasa, Quatre. Would your four want to become Hestia’s retainer? It will give you access to everything we have to become stronger,” Saori asked her garms, however, they declined.
[“We are the Alpha’s pack! Nobody else’s. We shall not bow to anybody but the Alpha and descendant of Belzac,”] Uno answered as the leader of the four. Saori kept asking them, presenting them the benefits, but it seemed they were too stubbornly loyal to her.
“Just saying but you aren’t exactly my retainers. It’s just a title which I don’t really care about,” I urged them to reconsider but it did not affect them.
[“We will not, Alpha’s Master. The Alpha can serve anybody she wishes, but we will only serve the Alpha.”] Uno’s deep voice really sealed the delivery of that sentence.
[Hestia’s Retainer]’s and [The Light]’s only worked if they willingly accepted me but, seeing as they didn’t, we couldn’t force them into a situation they didn’t want. It was a shame but these garms were frustratingly stuborn
Forgetting about this topic for now, even though it seemed that Saori wanted to return to it another day, we focused on our dinner. Ellaine had never cooked anything before, not even a roast, so she was having some trouble helping out, even with cutting ingredients. Well, a noble didn’t need to learn how to cook when their servants could do it, but as a member of Aurora she’d better learn, otherwise no food!
As the smell of the stew and curry began to fill the area, a few of the adventurers eyed us with curiosity and greed. Some began standing up and moved towards us. Were they trying to rob us? Numbers wouldn’t help and the four garms devouring their skorrs should be enough of a deterrent.
As I raised an eyebrow at the approaching adventurers, they showed their empty wooden bowls and said, “Uhm, could we have some?”
“Welcome!” Saori exclaimed excitedly, almost as if she planned this.
Restaurant Aurora was in business?
AbyssRaven Saori with the golden nose.
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