Jeez, level 30 … If leveling it up is going to be as hard as [Scale-Dust User] was, or even harder, then this will take a while. Luckily, we are gonna be gone for a while.
Before leaving for the dungeon, our party decided to stop by the hunter’s guild to change our Main Jobs since we’re about to embark for an extended time without access to a [Crystal of the Divine System]. However, as our dungeon trip wasn’t meant for training, taking a Main Job that provided Job skills or abilities would be more beneficial.
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Job: Crimson-Scaled Dreadgiver
Requirements: [Dreadflame Dragon Lv. 3], [Scale-Dust User] Job Lv. 15, 10000 Mana, 2000 Strength, 3000 Intelligence, 3000 Stamina
Acquirement Benefits: Mana Increase, Strength increase, Intelligence increase, Wisdom Increase, Agility Increase, Stamina increase, [Dreadflame Dragon] proficiency
Main Job Benefits: [Scale-Dust Size Increase], [Fire Abnormality Effect: Dread]
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Job: Shadow Warrior
Requirements: [Shadow Armament Lv. 5], [Shadow Rogue] Job Lv. 15, [Dark Magic Lv. 10], [Silence Lv. 1], [Odorless Lv. 1], 2000 Mana, 1500 Strength, 3500 Agility, 3500 Stamina
Acquirement Benefits: Mana Increase, Strength increase, Agility Increase, Stamina increase, [Shadow Armament] proficiency
Main Job Benefits: [Penumbral Armament]
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Job: Fae Whisperer
Requirements: Able to see/commune with lesser faefolk, 1500 Mana
Acquirement Benefits: Mana Increase, Intelligence Increase, Agility Increase, [Fae Talk] proficiency
_____________________________________________
In our one week of hardcore training, our party managed to gain quite a lot of levels for Ellaine and our Jobs. Unfortunately, due to the three Jobs per week rule set by the System, the four of us only changed to six Jobs, where I managed to finish the level 15 Job [Scale-Dust User] just yesterday. Seeing as it was one of the Jobs created from my racial skills, it just seemed natural for me to acquire and level [Scale-Dust User] once I had the chance. After all, it increased the proficiency of [Dreadflame Dragon], one of the four skills I had to bring to level 10 in order to be able to evolve to Rank A.
[Crimson-Scaled Dreadgiver] was apparently the next step in this Job line, seeing as it had “[Scale-Dust User] Job Lv. 15” in its requirements. Aside from having a maximum level of 30, it was pretty hard to level up, seeing as how slaying a single rank E wasn’t enough to bring [Scale-Dust User] up to level one.
Saori had the same idea as I did. [Shadow Warrior] was the 30 level version of [Shadow Rogue], created through the unique skill [Shadow Armament]. [Penumbral Armament] actually made her shadow armor tangible, as in, it could defend her from damage, instead of only raising her dark resistance and allowing her to use shadow spells from it.
Tasianna, on the other hand, took a Job which was less focused on combative abilities, but more on utility. [Fae Whisperer] was the first Job in the Faemancer line, something we’ve already seen Silva the wind elf have. It only had a maximum of ten levels but it allowed Tasianna to do something nobody else in our party could: speak with lesser faefolk.
As a fairy, Tasianna was able to see all kinds of fae, but she wasn’t able to communicate with lesser fae and elementals, similar to how a human couldn’t speak with apes and monkeys without teaching them sign language. My [Mana Eyes] allowed me to see the silhouettes of small mana balls, which Tasianna confirmed as spirits, but I couldn’t actually see them, making me ineligible for [Fae Whisperer].
After what happened with Kiiro and the onnikai, Tasianna came to the realization that fairies weren’t the only faefolk suffering in the world outside their havens. Sure, she knew this was the case due to her education, but before she met the onnikais, that realization wasn’t as vivid as it was now. Fae like Kiiro could be everywhere, needing help, but there wouldn’t always be a faemancer like Silva there to solve these problems. Tasianna, however, could do her part to help as Aurora traveled.
She wasn’t planning to become an elementalist like Silva, she just wanted to be able to speak with all the different kinds of faefolk. In addition, being a faemancer also helped our party as it allowed her to gather information through them.
“The average fairy rarely acts seriously, and I’m not sure if that’s the case for lesser fae, too. Hopefully not,” Tasianna mentioned after switching Jobs. She seemed to have mostly gotten over her prejudices against humans, but she was still a big critic of her own race.
Lastly, Ellaine was the one who gained the most levels from our dungeon trips, rising up a whole 14 levels from 30 to 44. That was 6350 SP earned! With her 800 spare SP, that amounted to quite a stockpile of points … until she used them all up on skill upgrades. Honestly, when I heard about the whole Job system, I thought using my SP to level up skills was a waste until I realized how hard it really was.
Higher tiers of Jobs required more experience to level up and common Jobs wouldn’t give something universally useful like [Poison Resistance] or [Battle Mind]. We could talk all about being patient and playing the long game all we like, but stuff like the onnikais or the grimgarian battalion appearing during our journeys make that plan less appealing. I was not saying we should spend all our SP, leaving nothing behind as a failsafe, but some skills were worth spending on.
We then left the hunter’s guild, poised for our trip into the dungeon. Since we had already made the party, Grimnir was already with us this whole time, brooding without saying anything to us. Of course, we hid the sensitive information from him using our specially-ordered IDs, which also included the information shown in the party screen. He couldn’t see my [Humanize (Moderate)] status, in other words.
As Grimnir was silently following us, we decided there wasn’t a need to talk until we entered the dungeon. Grimnir seemed prepared, after all.
His armor wasn’t decorated in any sparkling gold or silver like a noble knight, preferring to look intimidating with thick, scarred eoriant plates and pauldrons while a long plated chainmail hauberk flowed down to his ankles like a dress. Massive gauntlets hid his large hands and his metal boots made every step quake the earth like a behemoth. His orange hair and face were protected by a stoic-looking helmet, leaving only his beard “undefended.” Unlike his unkempt appearance from before, his current look made him feel like an ancient tank, which was far more impressive than how I appeared with my [Panzer] spell.
On his back was a large backpack and his weapon. When I asked him what was inside the former, he mentioned his blacksmith kit and a few valuables, since he couldn’t just leave them in his wagon while he was gone. The latter, on the other hand, was far more interesting.
At a first glance, it looked like a polearm-like warhammer—a long, moderately-thin metal handle with a large, thick hammerhead. Looking closer, however, you could see a compartment and other mechanical pieces attached to his weapon, all leading up to the top which had a crevasse dividing the hammer into two heads. In that space, an ornamented cylinder sat still. All in all, his hammer looked like a mechanical weapon, similar to what Farron used.
The first four floors of the dungeon were, as always, far too easy for our group, since they were made for beginners. Usually, Saori would lead the party since she was our best scout, but Grimnir insisted he should do it, as “armored frontliners are meant to stand in front of everybody.” From an adventurer’s perspective, he was the one with the most experience, and it was not like he was wrong. Our party was just that weird.
“This is the most normal formation this party has ever used,” Ellaine mumbled, which I acknowledged.
If you looked at Aurora more strictly under an RPG lens, weren’t we just one dedicated mage, two mages with close-combat options, and a rogue with magic abilities? If we hadn’t been so abnormal, our party would have been wiped in the first session.
Anyway, after passing through the labyrinth-like cavern from floor four, we entered floor five. A significant change in scenery, we went from a cavernous environment back to a forest setting; yet, it was incomparable to the forests we had been to before. The Belzac forest was a grouping of different wood biomes, which included a boreal forest, a temperate woodland, a swamp, and a tropical jungle just to name a few. I guess it wouldn’t be weird, seeing as how big the Belzac forest was, but there was nothing magical about the forest beyond its high rank. All the trees and plants looked just like you’d expect them to.
Floors five to floor nine, on the other hand, were exactly what you would expect from a fantastical forest. Bright shining dandelions grew around the small lakes and ponds of this place, shining bright colors from an assortment of colors as the wind dragged their pollen through the air, illuminating our surroundings. Despite not being classified as a monster or “treant,” the trees in this area could move independently without a floral magician like Cernust in the area, making me believe floors five to nine were all part of a single organism of sorts.
The monsters in this area fit the theme of the place, with giant colorful bugs flying around, raptor-type dinosaurs using the trees to prowl for prey, and sentient mushroom monsters. All of this happened as the “sky” of these floors was completely shrouded in darkness, never showing a hint of the sun while we were training on floor eight. Unfortunately.
“Fancily bright, sharp-ear forests give me a headache whenever I enter one. Feel at home, Tasianna?” Grimnir grumbled the moment we arrived here.
Tasianna shrugged as she replied, “Well, it beats brown rocks with some lava and gemstones here and there. This forest and Saelariel feel like they’re living and breathing, Sir Dwarf.”
“Hmph. It is precisely the lack of color underground that makes you appreciate the rare shining gems and ores you uncover. It is for this reason that we tazongs consider all our creations as art, worthy to dedicate all of our energy into.”
It was just idle banter; nobody actually got insulted by it. Tasianna was a fairy in the first place, and, unlike in some fantasy stories, the dwarves and elves in Peolynca had a friendly relationship that could be seen as an amicable rivalry.
“Hestia, if what those adventurers mentioned is correct, then I can probably take care of everything until we reach floor 15. Conserve your core’s energy until then.” Saori patted me on the shoulders as Grimnir moved forwards with the map we brought from the guild, leading our party through the shortest path towards the next floor’s staircase.
“Got it. This will be a long trip,” I nodded.
Since it was impossible to restore solar energy inside this place, I just had to let my party members actually support me this time. With Saori evolving into a rank B, Tasianna slowly becoming a force of nature with her catalyst, and Ellaine’s efforts showing fruit with [Storm Magic Lv. 1] and [Terra Magic Lv. 1], I could just chill in the back. Not to mention, Grimnir should be able to take my spot as the party’s “tank” temporarily.
While it isn’t necessary, I do not want to seem like dead weight.
Grimnir turned to me with a questionable look after I began producing music with [Aerokinesis] to share my buffs. After I explained to him how my unique skill [Idol] allowed me to share my buffs through music, he smiled.
“Gahaha, so that’s what it does. It’s got a weird name but if you can spread your buffs faster and more efficiently, then I have nothing to say but ‘impressive.’ So, as long as this [Music Resonation] buff is in my profile, I’ll reap the benefits of all your buffs? Good to know, thanks.”
Grimnir was about to turn around when Saori raised her arm up and stopped us before diving into her shadow. Moments later, the sound of rending flesh interrupted the peace before Saori walked out with the heads of three raptors.
“… Not bad, wolfkin. You’re supposedly hunter rank D too, like Hestia, right? By Crustacia, do some more Quests, that’s the biggest lie I’ve heard! Here.” And Grimnir returned Saori the map, conceding the front position to her. With Saori back at the helm, we began our way through the next couple of floors.
I guess we might as well get some wood to repair the ogre’s axe. Not like we need to use Cernust’s antler just yet.
Dungeons.
A monster-infested area born after the arrival of the Origin Gods to Peolynca, created by the Divine System to enclose a huge amount of mana into a separate area to prevent an excessive amount of monster spawning. This mana is then crystallized into a dungeon core, the “heart” of a dungeon, and the one responsible for the dungeon’s control and longevity.
Remove or destroy the core, and the dungeon would cease to exist, disposed of by the Divine System as its original purpose was now gone. Despite rumors spread by the uneducated, a dungeon wasn’t a physical place in the world of Peolynca, but rather a separate dimension created through space-time magic and maintained by the Divine System.
This was the reason why the ecosystems inside a dungeon, aptly called floors as each area was connected through stairs or holes, could be so diverse compared to its surface. Bountiful forests could flourish inside a dungeon located in the desert, or a perilous magma chamber inside the lands of green, fertile land.
Regardless of what was contained in these dungeons, one thing was for sure: there were monsters and treasures. While dungeon cores weren’t completely sentient, they were driven by an instinct to survive and grow like a beast, probably from the Divine System’s command. While it was possible for mana to enter its confines through its door like air, this method was nowhere enough to satisfy its drive to expand the number of floors inside it.
For this reason, monsters, and later treasures, were being born by expending the dungeon core’s stored mana. Like a piece of bait, surface beasts would be lured into these areas by the allure of prey. Some survived and learned from this new hunting ground, while others perished, becoming the fertilizer keeping a dungeon alive and strong.
A relatively endless supply of monster materials ready to be gained and harvested, it was to nobody’s surprise that even humanoids were attracted by this phenomenon. With dungeon delvers lured in, people interested in buying these materials off these hunters’ hands, whether it was a blacksmith or a simple chef, would undoubtedly follow them to the dungeon. This was how dungeon settlements were born.
That was how Cedaraille was initially formed during the first years of the Leosfalt Kingdom, the predecessor of Artorias. Despite possessing land perfect for agriculture, the wealth produced by a dungeon would always continue attracting new adventurers and merchants to visit the Greenveil Duchy.
While some adventurers would feast well from a successful day of work, fortune’s mercy cannot touch all.
“Quick! Throw the damn firebomb!” a young man shouted to his companions.
“Fuck! Why are there water slimes today, of all days?”
Today, the dungeon would dine.
“No! No! Noooooo!”
“Get a grip, you idiot! Do you want to fucking die?”
Multiple groups of adventurers, all around rank E and D in strength, were currently running away from a horde of mushroom monsters and water slimes, all led by a single treant-type creature.
Whether it was for greed or fame, adventurers were drawn to challenges with a sense of adventure. The existence of this barkwraith was a known fact by the hunter’s guild, seeing as they were a product of the dungeon’s ability to mimic the monster spawning process, which could recreate any creature the Divine System categorized as a monster.
Designated as a “boss monster” of floor nine, Quests were often issued to hunt these barkwraiths down for their bodies. To lower the risk of death, hunters who accept these Quests would cooperate with other parties. Thankfully, the reward was lucrative enough even for three parties of rank E or D adventurers.
Unfortunately, luck did not grace them.
“We need to run now!” Voices full of panic roused the survivors to flee.
Knopbries, which were attracted to the large grouping of adventurers, ambushed the three adventurer parties while these parties were preparing to fight the barkwraith. In this chaos, the barkwraith was naturally lured in by the noise of fighting and began using its extendable roots to support the knopbries, resulting in the adventurers relying on firebombs to escape with their lives.
It was just unfortunate that this knopbri group was relaxing at a nearby river, being cleaned by moss-loving river slimes. Without letting these slimes down, the knopbries rushed towards the adventurers with the slimes on their backs, who began shooting down firebombs out of their fear of fire.
It was a recipe for disaster and multiple young adventurers have lost their lives in this seemingly easy task. Either mauled to death by the knopbries or having their organs pierced by the treant.
“Arrghrhhh! Shit, my leg!”
“Naden!”
A young commoner by the name of Naden was caught in the vines of the barkwraith, shrieking like a banshee at the sight of blood streaming from his leg, drenching the grass red. The barkwraith pulled its arm back, dragging Nadan further away from his party and toward the fearsome jaws of the knopbries.
The young adventurer screamed with tears falling from his eyes, desperately hacking on the barkwraith’s wooden fingers with his sword. With little discipline, he shouted the Ability [Power Slash] over and over again, but any hacked back would quickly grow back without fire to suppress the monster’s regeneration.
Ashley! Hailey! Mother! Father! I will make it back! the young man’s mind shouted in denial as the gaping jaws of a knopbries inched closer and closer to his face. He could neither hear the shouts of his friends nor the maniacal laughter of the barkwraith. To him, the world became silent.
… Until the roar of thunder appeared.
“KNAKKkkkriiiiiii …”
Wha-What? entered Nadan’s mind, unable to understand why the dwarf-sized knopbri suddenly disappeared from his eyes. As he turned his head to the side, the moss-covered mushroom monster was twitching uncontrollably on the grassy ground while black lightning sizzled its body.
“Bladdarg! Come at me ya damn mushroom-lovers, think ya can’t handle somebody your own size? Huh?” The deep voice of a dwarven warrior echoed through the forest, sending a chill down the knopbries as they collectively turned their head towards their new adversaries. However, the one closest to him couldn’t react fast enough, being slugged by the dwarf’s warhammer like a baseball.
“Stop dreaming, watch out!” a young woman’s voice warned one of Naden’s party members, who was nearly pounced on by a hidden knopbrie.
Thanks to the warning, the adventurer was able to react and dodge the monster’s jaw. Before the monster could turn around and continue its attack, a teenage girl suddenly appeared from behind a tree, being flown into battle by a strong wind.
Holding a sword in one hand while an emerald ring glowed brightly on the other, the girl swooped into the battle and slashed the knopbrie’s arm. Jumping over the monster’s back, the girl landed on the ground before casting another [Wind Blast] to speed up her sword swing, helping her decapitate the monster with finesse.
Without giving the shocked adventurer another second of her time, the brown ring on her hand glowed and a wall appeared from the ground, sending her towards the next monster to slay. Mid-flight, a few river slimes suddenly shot out jets of water towards her. However, before they hit, daggers of ice descended down from the sky, blocking not only the water beam but also destroying the slimes’ cores before freezing them. The dagger rain did not stop, eliminating the remaining river slimes.
With a dwarven warrior and human girl slaughtering the horde of monsters, the adventurers regained their morale, charging back to support their lifesavers. Nadan’s party members, now free to help him, quickly burned the root holding him and dragged him away from the fighting.
As the knopbries were disoriented by the sounds of their fallen kind, the head of a wolfkin woman suddenly appeared from the shadow of one of them, her eyes glowing as a bright red mist covered them like a veil. Raising her shadow-covered arm, she slammed it on the ground before multiple black tendrils erupted, catching all knopbries and dragging them towards her.
“Hey! Bladdarg, that was mine!” the dwarf shouted as he missed his swing due to the wolfkin’s actions, grumbling at what he saw happened next.
After pulling herself out of the shadow, the wolfkin woman’s hand suddenly was covered in black lightning. She looked at the knopbries, wrapped together by her [Dark Tendrils], struggling to free themselves in futile wailing.
“Stygian Lightning.” With a wolf-like snarl, the thunder shot out of the woman’s arm and struck the gathered knopries. The collective cries of pain all ended in unison by the explosion of lightning, shaking the very air from dark energy.
The barkwraith watched all of this happening, dumbstruck by the sudden intervention of these new enemies. While it tried to support them, its wooden fingers and root weren’t able to extend any closer to the fighting, suppressed by red dust clouding around it.
While none of them were set on fire, sparks did happen wherever it tried to join the fight. It was confused, it knew fire could stop its regeneration and growth, but small sparks shouldn’t be able to. It was only when it noticed a new notification appear in its head did it understand what was happening.
“Once you have it, you can’t regenerate anymore. Doesn’t matter if you’re the best cleric in the world or the strongest troll. No health regeneration for you.”
Filled with dread, the usually emotionless barkwraith jolted its head towards the voice. Its instinct knew.
“Yo.”
The sound of cracking wood was the last thing the treant heard as its head tumbled on the ground.
Yikes, were it not for Tasianna, we probably would have missed what was happening here. Urgh, out of the 15 adventurers, five got killed.
I guess it was kinda ironic that I was reading a book about what dungeons were, written by some guy from the Folschrek Empire. I thought it would be a good read while we journeyed through this place, but I didn’t expect when I got to the “Quests would be issued for floor boss monsters” part that Tasianna told us a group of adventurers was about to be wiped out by some monsters.
Although capricious and usually useless, the surrounding spirits and spriggans finally gave Tasianna usable information. Most bamboozled us by sending us into traps, proving to us they were more trouble than necessary. When Tasianna mentioned that fae were tricksters, she couldn’t be more right, and Grimnir absolutely hated it.
This warning happened after we decided to camp on floor nine and go to sleep. Tasianna could be trusted, but the fae she spoke to were a different case. When we finally got Grimnir to move his heavy ass, Saori managed to hear the cries halfway through our sprint. The rest was history.
“Bladdarg. We tazongs ain’t built like sprinters! We got the stamina for marches and long runs, but don’t expect me to go from one spot to the other at the same speed like you lasses with your high agility. We’re dangerous in short distances,” Grimnir grumbled as he hacked the barkwraith’s body into pieces small enough to carry. It wasn’t the best wood, but the lumber from a treant was still better than from a normal tree.
After we wiped out the horde of monsters and managed to save who we could, our party went to claim the spoils. Saori, Tasianna, and Ellaine were dismantling the knopbries and Grimnir hacked the backwraith with a woodcutter’s axe while I tended to the injured. Some were bleeding excessively and others had broken bones, but nothing I couldn’t solve.
“Thank you very much, m’lady Priestess,” an adventurer in his twenties named Naden thanked me after I patched himself up, looking elated that his injuries wouldn’t cripple him for the remainder of his life.
“Barkwraith Quest, I guess?” I wondered, having seen a group of adventurers carry this monster’s body a week ago, which led to me wanting its timber after inspecting it. As Naden nodded with a frown, one of his party members patted him on the shoulder, thanking me and my party for helping out in the nick of time.
As they were about to offer me money, I rejected it, pointing their attention towards my other patients. “If I take your money, I have to take theirs, too. You only had one person I had to help out with [Major Heal], but not them. The normal price is 5000 Davi, but even my rate of 500 Davi per person still isn’t exactly cheap, especially after you handed us the body of the barkwraith.”
Inside a dungeon, rules couldn’t be enforced since guild officials weren’t able to wander around on all floors, so adventurers had to form unofficial ones to resolve issues. Even if the guild was to form rules, nobody could actually make sure they were followed if a guild official wasn’t around, so it wasn’t any different from not having rules at all. It was chaotic.
While collaborating parties would settle on a rule before entering the dungeon, it would be more chaotic in the case of a random party helping, or even “kill stealing,” another party’s prey. Some disputes get resolved amicably, but others … could get quite bloody.
“As if! That is our prey! We found it first!” I remembered one of the grieving adventurers shouting at Grimnir when he took out his axe to chop the barkwraith. “We found it, first! You think you can take it just for helping? YOU DIDN’T EVEN SAVE EVERYBODY! WE DIDN’T ASK FOR YOUR—URGH!”
“Shut your trap, you damn akong! Lad, are you sick of life or what? Should I have left you to turn into fertilizer for the damn dungeon?” Grimnir bellowed at one of the emotional adventurers, having just punched him in the gut for yelling at him. “Hmph! You want your prize, then raise your hand and fight for it.”
“Mister Grimnir, please, cal—” Saori tried to diffuse the situation but Grimnir quickly snapped at her.
“You four wanted the damn treant for your weapons and catalysts, and I’m chopping it for the dragonewt lass to carry it. You think what I’m doing is wrong?” Grimnir spat out, reminding us what we told him before. “We helped them and Hestia is healing their injuries. Fair game. Are we supposed to come out of this empty-handed after risking our lives?”
“No, I mean, these people just lost some of their party members. Aren’t you being a bit too harsh? We could share,” Saori suggested, but Grimnir argued back.
“You think they earned any spoils after doing nothing? You did most of the cleanup, and I’m not even thinking of taking some for myself, despite wanting a branch of two. You work hard, you get rewarded,” Grimnir scoffed. “I feel for the lads and lasses here, but I ain’t coddling milk drinkers. Death can get you emotional, but if it gets you to spit on your saviors, then I’ll hammer into their heads we tazongs do to ungrateful children!”
The glare Grimnir gave them afterward turned the adventurers meek. Haa … that was how we landed in this situation.
After I healed everybody’s wounds, some of the grieving adventurers began to bury their former companions, despite knowing what the dungeon would do to them. Our party decided to camp here and cooked a hot meal for the adventurers before we headed to bed with the monster materials securely in my storage. From the sounds of crying, I guess some of them couldn’t fall asleep.
Once our party woke up, we noticed the grieving adventurers had already left. Only Naden and his party, the only party that hadn’t lost anyone, stayed behind to thank us once again before departing themselves. We continued on a short time later.
Due to the size of this place, it took us a bit to cut our way through the forest, but we eventually found the stairs to floor ten. We had departed from Cedaraille at dawn, but it still took us a whole day, roughly, to reach floor nine.
Once we made it to the bottom of the staircase, there was no longer any sight of a forest.
“Wow, what a huge ravine!” I stated as I stared into the distance, trying to find the end of this huge place. The sky might have been shining blue, but sadly there was no sun in sight.
But my wonderment didn’t last long, for my attention was immediately taken by something flying in the sky.
“Shieeek!”
A bear-sized felwing was coming our way.
AbyssRaven Reminder to all kids, if you aren't an overpowered dragon idol with fire that can heal and complete-counter healing of others, then maybe work as a blacksmith or something …
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Jeez, level 30 … If leveling it up is going to be as hard as [Scale-Dust User] was, or even harder, then this will take a while. Luckily, we are gonna be gone for a while.
Before leaving for the dungeon, our party decided to stop by the hunter’s guild to change our Main Jobs since we’re about to embark for an extended time without access to a [Crystal of the Divine System]. However, as our dungeon trip wasn’t meant for training, taking a Main Job that provided Job skills or abilities would be more beneficial.
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Job: Crimson-Scaled Dreadgiver
Requirements: [Dreadflame Dragon Lv. 3], [Scale-Dust User] Job Lv. 15, 10000 Mana, 2000 Strength, 3000 Intelligence, 3000 Stamina
Acquirement Benefits: Mana Increase, Strength increase, Intelligence increase, Wisdom Increase, Agility Increase, Stamina increase, [Dreadflame Dragon] proficiency
Main Job Benefits: [Scale-Dust Size Increase], [Fire Abnormality Effect: Dread]
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Job: Shadow Warrior
Requirements: [Shadow Armament Lv. 5], [Shadow Rogue] Job Lv. 15, [Dark Magic Lv. 10], [Silence Lv. 1], [Odorless Lv. 1], 2000 Mana, 1500 Strength, 3500 Agility, 3500 Stamina
Acquirement Benefits: Mana Increase, Strength increase, Agility Increase, Stamina increase, [Shadow Armament] proficiency
Main Job Benefits: [Penumbral Armament]
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Job: Fae Whisperer
Requirements: Able to see/commune with lesser faefolk, 1500 Mana
Acquirement Benefits: Mana Increase, Intelligence Increase, Agility Increase, [Fae Talk] proficiency
_____________________________________________
In our one week of hardcore training, our party managed to gain quite a lot of levels for Ellaine and our Jobs. Unfortunately, due to the three Jobs per week rule set by the System, the four of us only changed to six Jobs, where I managed to finish the level 15 Job [Scale-Dust User] just yesterday. Seeing as it was one of the Jobs created from my racial skills, it just seemed natural for me to acquire and level [Scale-Dust User] once I had the chance. After all, it increased the proficiency of [Dreadflame Dragon], one of the four skills I had to bring to level 10 in order to be able to evolve to Rank A.
[Crimson-Scaled Dreadgiver] was apparently the next step in this Job line, seeing as it had “[Scale-Dust User] Job Lv. 15” in its requirements. Aside from having a maximum level of 30, it was pretty hard to level up, seeing as how slaying a single rank E wasn’t enough to bring [Scale-Dust User] up to level one.
Saori had the same idea as I did. [Shadow Warrior] was the 30 level version of [Shadow Rogue], created through the unique skill [Shadow Armament]. [Penumbral Armament] actually made her shadow armor tangible, as in, it could defend her from damage, instead of only raising her dark resistance and allowing her to use shadow spells from it.
Tasianna, on the other hand, took a Job which was less focused on combative abilities, but more on utility. [Fae Whisperer] was the first Job in the Faemancer line, something we’ve already seen Silva the wind elf have. It only had a maximum of ten levels but it allowed Tasianna to do something nobody else in our party could: speak with lesser faefolk.
As a fairy, Tasianna was able to see all kinds of fae, but she wasn’t able to communicate with lesser fae and elementals, similar to how a human couldn’t speak with apes and monkeys without teaching them sign language. My [Mana Eyes] allowed me to see the silhouettes of small mana balls, which Tasianna confirmed as spirits, but I couldn’t actually see them, making me ineligible for [Fae Whisperer].
After what happened with Kiiro and the onnikai, Tasianna came to the realization that fairies weren’t the only faefolk suffering in the world outside their havens. Sure, she knew this was the case due to her education, but before she met the onnikais, that realization wasn’t as vivid as it was now. Fae like Kiiro could be everywhere, needing help, but there wouldn’t always be a faemancer like Silva there to solve these problems. Tasianna, however, could do her part to help as Aurora traveled.
She wasn’t planning to become an elementalist like Silva, she just wanted to be able to speak with all the different kinds of faefolk. In addition, being a faemancer also helped our party as it allowed her to gather information through them.
“The average fairy rarely acts seriously, and I’m not sure if that’s the case for lesser fae, too. Hopefully not,” Tasianna mentioned after switching Jobs. She seemed to have mostly gotten over her prejudices against humans, but she was still a big critic of her own race.
Lastly, Ellaine was the one who gained the most levels from our dungeon trips, rising up a whole 14 levels from 30 to 44. That was 6350 SP earned! With her 800 spare SP, that amounted to quite a stockpile of points … until she used them all up on skill upgrades. Honestly, when I heard about the whole Job system, I thought using my SP to level up skills was a waste until I realized how hard it really was.
Higher tiers of Jobs required more experience to level up and common Jobs wouldn’t give something universally useful like [Poison Resistance] or [Battle Mind]. We could talk all about being patient and playing the long game all we like, but stuff like the onnikais or the grimgarian battalion appearing during our journeys make that plan less appealing. I was not saying we should spend all our SP, leaving nothing behind as a failsafe, but some skills were worth spending on.
We then left the hunter’s guild, poised for our trip into the dungeon. Since we had already made the party, Grimnir was already with us this whole time, brooding without saying anything to us. Of course, we hid the sensitive information from him using our specially-ordered IDs, which also included the information shown in the party screen. He couldn’t see my [Humanize (Moderate)] status, in other words.
As Grimnir was silently following us, we decided there wasn’t a need to talk until we entered the dungeon. Grimnir seemed prepared, after all.
His armor wasn’t decorated in any sparkling gold or silver like a noble knight, preferring to look intimidating with thick, scarred eoriant plates and pauldrons while a long plated chainmail hauberk flowed down to his ankles like a dress. Massive gauntlets hid his large hands and his metal boots made every step quake the earth like a behemoth. His orange hair and face were protected by a stoic-looking helmet, leaving only his beard “undefended.” Unlike his unkempt appearance from before, his current look made him feel like an ancient tank, which was far more impressive than how I appeared with my [Panzer] spell.
On his back was a large backpack and his weapon. When I asked him what was inside the former, he mentioned his blacksmith kit and a few valuables, since he couldn’t just leave them in his wagon while he was gone. The latter, on the other hand, was far more interesting.
At a first glance, it looked like a polearm-like warhammer—a long, moderately-thin metal handle with a large, thick hammerhead. Looking closer, however, you could see a compartment and other mechanical pieces attached to his weapon, all leading up to the top which had a crevasse dividing the hammer into two heads. In that space, an ornamented cylinder sat still. All in all, his hammer looked like a mechanical weapon, similar to what Farron used.
The first four floors of the dungeon were, as always, far too easy for our group, since they were made for beginners. Usually, Saori would lead the party since she was our best scout, but Grimnir insisted he should do it, as “armored frontliners are meant to stand in front of everybody.” From an adventurer’s perspective, he was the one with the most experience, and it was not like he was wrong. Our party was just that weird.
“This is the most normal formation this party has ever used,” Ellaine mumbled, which I acknowledged.
If you looked at Aurora more strictly under an RPG lens, weren’t we just one dedicated mage, two mages with close-combat options, and a rogue with magic abilities? If we hadn’t been so abnormal, our party would have been wiped in the first session.
Anyway, after passing through the labyrinth-like cavern from floor four, we entered floor five. A significant change in scenery, we went from a cavernous environment back to a forest setting; yet, it was incomparable to the forests we had been to before. The Belzac forest was a grouping of different wood biomes, which included a boreal forest, a temperate woodland, a swamp, and a tropical jungle just to name a few. I guess it wouldn’t be weird, seeing as how big the Belzac forest was, but there was nothing magical about the forest beyond its high rank. All the trees and plants looked just like you’d expect them to.
Floors five to floor nine, on the other hand, were exactly what you would expect from a fantastical forest. Bright shining dandelions grew around the small lakes and ponds of this place, shining bright colors from an assortment of colors as the wind dragged their pollen through the air, illuminating our surroundings. Despite not being classified as a monster or “treant,” the trees in this area could move independently without a floral magician like Cernust in the area, making me believe floors five to nine were all part of a single organism of sorts.
The monsters in this area fit the theme of the place, with giant colorful bugs flying around, raptor-type dinosaurs using the trees to prowl for prey, and sentient mushroom monsters. All of this happened as the “sky” of these floors was completely shrouded in darkness, never showing a hint of the sun while we were training on floor eight. Unfortunately.
“Fancily bright, sharp-ear forests give me a headache whenever I enter one. Feel at home, Tasianna?” Grimnir grumbled the moment we arrived here.
Tasianna shrugged as she replied, “Well, it beats brown rocks with some lava and gemstones here and there. This forest and Saelariel feel like they’re living and breathing, Sir Dwarf.”
“Hmph. It is precisely the lack of color underground that makes you appreciate the rare shining gems and ores you uncover. It is for this reason that we tazongs consider all our creations as art, worthy to dedicate all of our energy into.”
It was just idle banter; nobody actually got insulted by it. Tasianna was a fairy in the first place, and, unlike in some fantasy stories, the dwarves and elves in Peolynca had a friendly relationship that could be seen as an amicable rivalry.
“Hestia, if what those adventurers mentioned is correct, then I can probably take care of everything until we reach floor 15. Conserve your core’s energy until then.” Saori patted me on the shoulders as Grimnir moved forwards with the map we brought from the guild, leading our party through the shortest path towards the next floor’s staircase.
“Got it. This will be a long trip,” I nodded.
Since it was impossible to restore solar energy inside this place, I just had to let my party members actually support me this time. With Saori evolving into a rank B, Tasianna slowly becoming a force of nature with her catalyst, and Ellaine’s efforts showing fruit with [Storm Magic Lv. 1] and [Terra Magic Lv. 1], I could just chill in the back. Not to mention, Grimnir should be able to take my spot as the party’s “tank” temporarily.
While it isn’t necessary, I do not want to seem like dead weight.
Grimnir turned to me with a questionable look after I began producing music with [Aerokinesis] to share my buffs. After I explained to him how my unique skill [Idol] allowed me to share my buffs through music, he smiled.
“Gahaha, so that’s what it does. It’s got a weird name but if you can spread your buffs faster and more efficiently, then I have nothing to say but ‘impressive.’ So, as long as this [Music Resonation] buff is in my profile, I’ll reap the benefits of all your buffs? Good to know, thanks.”
Grimnir was about to turn around when Saori raised her arm up and stopped us before diving into her shadow. Moments later, the sound of rending flesh interrupted the peace before Saori walked out with the heads of three raptors.
“… Not bad, wolfkin. You’re supposedly hunter rank D too, like Hestia, right? By Crustacia, do some more Quests, that’s the biggest lie I’ve heard! Here.” And Grimnir returned Saori the map, conceding the front position to her. With Saori back at the helm, we began our way through the next couple of floors.
I guess we might as well get some wood to repair the ogre’s axe. Not like we need to use Cernust’s antler just yet.
Dungeons.
A monster-infested area born after the arrival of the Origin Gods to Peolynca, created by the Divine System to enclose a huge amount of mana into a separate area to prevent an excessive amount of monster spawning. This mana is then crystallized into a dungeon core, the “heart” of a dungeon, and the one responsible for the dungeon’s control and longevity.
Remove or destroy the core, and the dungeon would cease to exist, disposed of by the Divine System as its original purpose was now gone. Despite rumors spread by the uneducated, a dungeon wasn’t a physical place in the world of Peolynca, but rather a separate dimension created through space-time magic and maintained by the Divine System.
This was the reason why the ecosystems inside a dungeon, aptly called floors as each area was connected through stairs or holes, could be so diverse compared to its surface. Bountiful forests could flourish inside a dungeon located in the desert, or a perilous magma chamber inside the lands of green, fertile land.
Regardless of what was contained in these dungeons, one thing was for sure: there were monsters and treasures. While dungeon cores weren’t completely sentient, they were driven by an instinct to survive and grow like a beast, probably from the Divine System’s command. While it was possible for mana to enter its confines through its door like air, this method was nowhere enough to satisfy its drive to expand the number of floors inside it.
For this reason, monsters, and later treasures, were being born by expending the dungeon core’s stored mana. Like a piece of bait, surface beasts would be lured into these areas by the allure of prey. Some survived and learned from this new hunting ground, while others perished, becoming the fertilizer keeping a dungeon alive and strong.
A relatively endless supply of monster materials ready to be gained and harvested, it was to nobody’s surprise that even humanoids were attracted by this phenomenon. With dungeon delvers lured in, people interested in buying these materials off these hunters’ hands, whether it was a blacksmith or a simple chef, would undoubtedly follow them to the dungeon. This was how dungeon settlements were born.
That was how Cedaraille was initially formed during the first years of the Leosfalt Kingdom, the predecessor of Artorias. Despite possessing land perfect for agriculture, the wealth produced by a dungeon would always continue attracting new adventurers and merchants to visit the Greenveil Duchy.
While some adventurers would feast well from a successful day of work, fortune’s mercy cannot touch all.
“Quick! Throw the damn firebomb!” a young man shouted to his companions.
“Fuck! Why are there water slimes today, of all days?”
Today, the dungeon would dine.
“No! No! Noooooo!”
“Get a grip, you idiot! Do you want to fucking die?”
Multiple groups of adventurers, all around rank E and D in strength, were currently running away from a horde of mushroom monsters and water slimes, all led by a single treant-type creature.
Whether it was for greed or fame, adventurers were drawn to challenges with a sense of adventure. The existence of this barkwraith was a known fact by the hunter’s guild, seeing as they were a product of the dungeon’s ability to mimic the monster spawning process, which could recreate any creature the Divine System categorized as a monster.
Designated as a “boss monster” of floor nine, Quests were often issued to hunt these barkwraiths down for their bodies. To lower the risk of death, hunters who accept these Quests would cooperate with other parties. Thankfully, the reward was lucrative enough even for three parties of rank E or D adventurers.
Unfortunately, luck did not grace them.
“We need to run now!” Voices full of panic roused the survivors to flee.
Knopbries, which were attracted to the large grouping of adventurers, ambushed the three adventurer parties while these parties were preparing to fight the barkwraith. In this chaos, the barkwraith was naturally lured in by the noise of fighting and began using its extendable roots to support the knopbries, resulting in the adventurers relying on firebombs to escape with their lives.
It was just unfortunate that this knopbri group was relaxing at a nearby river, being cleaned by moss-loving river slimes. Without letting these slimes down, the knopbries rushed towards the adventurers with the slimes on their backs, who began shooting down firebombs out of their fear of fire.
It was a recipe for disaster and multiple young adventurers have lost their lives in this seemingly easy task. Either mauled to death by the knopbries or having their organs pierced by the treant.
“Arrghrhhh! Shit, my leg!”
“Naden!”
A young commoner by the name of Naden was caught in the vines of the barkwraith, shrieking like a banshee at the sight of blood streaming from his leg, drenching the grass red. The barkwraith pulled its arm back, dragging Nadan further away from his party and toward the fearsome jaws of the knopbries.
The young adventurer screamed with tears falling from his eyes, desperately hacking on the barkwraith’s wooden fingers with his sword. With little discipline, he shouted the Ability [Power Slash] over and over again, but any hacked back would quickly grow back without fire to suppress the monster’s regeneration.
Ashley! Hailey! Mother! Father! I will make it back! the young man’s mind shouted in denial as the gaping jaws of a knopbries inched closer and closer to his face. He could neither hear the shouts of his friends nor the maniacal laughter of the barkwraith. To him, the world became silent.
… Until the roar of thunder appeared.
“KNAKKkkkriiiiiii …”
Wha-What? entered Nadan’s mind, unable to understand why the dwarf-sized knopbri suddenly disappeared from his eyes. As he turned his head to the side, the moss-covered mushroom monster was twitching uncontrollably on the grassy ground while black lightning sizzled its body.
“Bladdarg! Come at me ya damn mushroom-lovers, think ya can’t handle somebody your own size? Huh?” The deep voice of a dwarven warrior echoed through the forest, sending a chill down the knopbries as they collectively turned their head towards their new adversaries. However, the one closest to him couldn’t react fast enough, being slugged by the dwarf’s warhammer like a baseball.
“Stop dreaming, watch out!” a young woman’s voice warned one of Naden’s party members, who was nearly pounced on by a hidden knopbrie.
Thanks to the warning, the adventurer was able to react and dodge the monster’s jaw. Before the monster could turn around and continue its attack, a teenage girl suddenly appeared from behind a tree, being flown into battle by a strong wind.
Holding a sword in one hand while an emerald ring glowed brightly on the other, the girl swooped into the battle and slashed the knopbrie’s arm. Jumping over the monster’s back, the girl landed on the ground before casting another [Wind Blast] to speed up her sword swing, helping her decapitate the monster with finesse.
Without giving the shocked adventurer another second of her time, the brown ring on her hand glowed and a wall appeared from the ground, sending her towards the next monster to slay. Mid-flight, a few river slimes suddenly shot out jets of water towards her. However, before they hit, daggers of ice descended down from the sky, blocking not only the water beam but also destroying the slimes’ cores before freezing them. The dagger rain did not stop, eliminating the remaining river slimes.
With a dwarven warrior and human girl slaughtering the horde of monsters, the adventurers regained their morale, charging back to support their lifesavers. Nadan’s party members, now free to help him, quickly burned the root holding him and dragged him away from the fighting.
As the knopbries were disoriented by the sounds of their fallen kind, the head of a wolfkin woman suddenly appeared from the shadow of one of them, her eyes glowing as a bright red mist covered them like a veil. Raising her shadow-covered arm, she slammed it on the ground before multiple black tendrils erupted, catching all knopbries and dragging them towards her.
“Hey! Bladdarg, that was mine!” the dwarf shouted as he missed his swing due to the wolfkin’s actions, grumbling at what he saw happened next.
After pulling herself out of the shadow, the wolfkin woman’s hand suddenly was covered in black lightning. She looked at the knopbries, wrapped together by her [Dark Tendrils], struggling to free themselves in futile wailing.
“Stygian Lightning.” With a wolf-like snarl, the thunder shot out of the woman’s arm and struck the gathered knopries. The collective cries of pain all ended in unison by the explosion of lightning, shaking the very air from dark energy.
The barkwraith watched all of this happening, dumbstruck by the sudden intervention of these new enemies. While it tried to support them, its wooden fingers and root weren’t able to extend any closer to the fighting, suppressed by red dust clouding around it.
While none of them were set on fire, sparks did happen wherever it tried to join the fight. It was confused, it knew fire could stop its regeneration and growth, but small sparks shouldn’t be able to. It was only when it noticed a new notification appear in its head did it understand what was happening.
“Once you have it, you can’t regenerate anymore. Doesn’t matter if you’re the best cleric in the world or the strongest troll. No health regeneration for you.”
Filled with dread, the usually emotionless barkwraith jolted its head towards the voice. Its instinct knew.
“Yo.”
The sound of cracking wood was the last thing the treant heard as its head tumbled on the ground.
Yikes, were it not for Tasianna, we probably would have missed what was happening here. Urgh, out of the 15 adventurers, five got killed.
I guess it was kinda ironic that I was reading a book about what dungeons were, written by some guy from the Folschrek Empire. I thought it would be a good read while we journeyed through this place, but I didn’t expect when I got to the “Quests would be issued for floor boss monsters” part that Tasianna told us a group of adventurers was about to be wiped out by some monsters.
Although capricious and usually useless, the surrounding spirits and spriggans finally gave Tasianna usable information. Most bamboozled us by sending us into traps, proving to us they were more trouble than necessary. When Tasianna mentioned that fae were tricksters, she couldn’t be more right, and Grimnir absolutely hated it.
This warning happened after we decided to camp on floor nine and go to sleep. Tasianna could be trusted, but the fae she spoke to were a different case. When we finally got Grimnir to move his heavy ass, Saori managed to hear the cries halfway through our sprint. The rest was history.
“Bladdarg. We tazongs ain’t built like sprinters! We got the stamina for marches and long runs, but don’t expect me to go from one spot to the other at the same speed like you lasses with your high agility. We’re dangerous in short distances,” Grimnir grumbled as he hacked the barkwraith’s body into pieces small enough to carry. It wasn’t the best wood, but the lumber from a treant was still better than from a normal tree.
After we wiped out the horde of monsters and managed to save who we could, our party went to claim the spoils. Saori, Tasianna, and Ellaine were dismantling the knopbries and Grimnir hacked the backwraith with a woodcutter’s axe while I tended to the injured. Some were bleeding excessively and others had broken bones, but nothing I couldn’t solve.
“Thank you very much, m’lady Priestess,” an adventurer in his twenties named Naden thanked me after I patched himself up, looking elated that his injuries wouldn’t cripple him for the remainder of his life.
“Barkwraith Quest, I guess?” I wondered, having seen a group of adventurers carry this monster’s body a week ago, which led to me wanting its timber after inspecting it. As Naden nodded with a frown, one of his party members patted him on the shoulder, thanking me and my party for helping out in the nick of time.
As they were about to offer me money, I rejected it, pointing their attention towards my other patients. “If I take your money, I have to take theirs, too. You only had one person I had to help out with [Major Heal], but not them. The normal price is 5000 Davi, but even my rate of 500 Davi per person still isn’t exactly cheap, especially after you handed us the body of the barkwraith.”
Inside a dungeon, rules couldn’t be enforced since guild officials weren’t able to wander around on all floors, so adventurers had to form unofficial ones to resolve issues. Even if the guild was to form rules, nobody could actually make sure they were followed if a guild official wasn’t around, so it wasn’t any different from not having rules at all. It was chaotic.
While collaborating parties would settle on a rule before entering the dungeon, it would be more chaotic in the case of a random party helping, or even “kill stealing,” another party’s prey. Some disputes get resolved amicably, but others … could get quite bloody.
“As if! That is our prey! We found it first!” I remembered one of the grieving adventurers shouting at Grimnir when he took out his axe to chop the barkwraith. “We found it, first! You think you can take it just for helping? YOU DIDN’T EVEN SAVE EVERYBODY! WE DIDN’T ASK FOR YOUR—URGH!”
“Shut your trap, you damn akong! Lad, are you sick of life or what? Should I have left you to turn into fertilizer for the damn dungeon?” Grimnir bellowed at one of the emotional adventurers, having just punched him in the gut for yelling at him. “Hmph! You want your prize, then raise your hand and fight for it.”
“Mister Grimnir, please, cal—” Saori tried to diffuse the situation but Grimnir quickly snapped at her.
“You four wanted the damn treant for your weapons and catalysts, and I’m chopping it for the dragonewt lass to carry it. You think what I’m doing is wrong?” Grimnir spat out, reminding us what we told him before. “We helped them and Hestia is healing their injuries. Fair game. Are we supposed to come out of this empty-handed after risking our lives?”
“No, I mean, these people just lost some of their party members. Aren’t you being a bit too harsh? We could share,” Saori suggested, but Grimnir argued back.
“You think they earned any spoils after doing nothing? You did most of the cleanup, and I’m not even thinking of taking some for myself, despite wanting a branch of two. You work hard, you get rewarded,” Grimnir scoffed. “I feel for the lads and lasses here, but I ain’t coddling milk drinkers. Death can get you emotional, but if it gets you to spit on your saviors, then I’ll hammer into their heads we tazongs do to ungrateful children!”
The glare Grimnir gave them afterward turned the adventurers meek. Haa … that was how we landed in this situation.
After I healed everybody’s wounds, some of the grieving adventurers began to bury their former companions, despite knowing what the dungeon would do to them. Our party decided to camp here and cooked a hot meal for the adventurers before we headed to bed with the monster materials securely in my storage. From the sounds of crying, I guess some of them couldn’t fall asleep.
Once our party woke up, we noticed the grieving adventurers had already left. Only Naden and his party, the only party that hadn’t lost anyone, stayed behind to thank us once again before departing themselves. We continued on a short time later.
Due to the size of this place, it took us a bit to cut our way through the forest, but we eventually found the stairs to floor ten. We had departed from Cedaraille at dawn, but it still took us a whole day, roughly, to reach floor nine.
Once we made it to the bottom of the staircase, there was no longer any sight of a forest.
“Wow, what a huge ravine!” I stated as I stared into the distance, trying to find the end of this huge place. The sky might have been shining blue, but sadly there was no sun in sight.
But my wonderment didn’t last long, for my attention was immediately taken by something flying in the sky.
“Shieeek!”
A bear-sized felwing was coming our way.
AbyssRaven Reminder to all kids, if you aren't an overpowered dragon idol with fire that can heal and complete-counter healing of others, then maybe work as a blacksmith or something …
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