Their rooms were neat and tidy, filled with the fresh and clean smell of a forest, creating a calming and relaxing atmosphere in the rooms, something that the girls did not hesitate to share about, smiles and pleased expressions on their faces, once the group was gathered together again after leaving their extra luggage in their rooms. The inn itself had no tavern attached to it, as many would often do, solving said need with a couple of small, but inviting diners nearby. All one had to do was walk outside the door, look around and there they were, a couple different choices to sate ones hunger.
Rex simply followed the girls lead as they chose one of said diners, spending almost an hour in the place, enjoying a rather filling meal while conversing about their next few steps. Since they had all the gear they needed, the obvious first choice was to visit the adventurers guild and see what kind of things do people and busineses desire the most around these parts. Clearly, most of the stuff would be aquired in the dungeon, but the precise items and whatnot varried and it was paramount to know what exactly to focus on aquiring, since they had limited carry capacity. In the dungeon one had to be particularily carefull with their luggage, since beeing too greedy would often lead parties to their demise.
With the meal done, they moved out, their next destination set. It took them a few dozen minutes to reach the guild hall of the city. The building was notably larger than most others around it, though nowhere near as impressive as the one that was built in Valrun. Still, it held a certain grandeur and specific charm, decorated with all kinds of magical metal ornaments, though none of them was trully precious. Still, the message was clear- an abundance of different materials could be aquired in the vicinity, appealing to quite a large number of willing and hopefull new adventurers, as well as countless smiths who greedily had flocked here in hopes of practising their craft, making the place one of the larger meeting spots of new and aspiring adventurers and smiths both.
As they entered, there was quite a large activity inside, even if it was already slightly past noon. A lot of laughter and complaining could be heard as they walked towards the bounty board, ready to inspect teh general make up of local quests and the rates of monster bounties in this place. Dungeons were special places where the corpses of monsters did not remain intact. Once slain, they would dissipate into mana dust, similar to how Rex's original drain would work, though always leaving behind a monster core and if one was lucky, some other monster drop. Something similar happened to adventurer themselves as well, though it took a couple of days before it happened, os if one wanted to burry their deceased companion, they had to leave the dungeon where it happened within days of the incident. It was also a reason why the return of an adventurers cards, found in the dungeon was rewarded by the guild. It was a sof proof of the demise of said cards holder. Sure, there were extremely rare occasions where that was not the case, though such events were rare, causing the local people to talk about the mirracle for weeks, if not months or sometimes even years after the fact.
"A solid rate going for the monster cores." spoke up Samanta after they had examined the board for a while now.
"Yes, the large amount of material requests also make delving quite enticing." added Veena as she looked through the numerous gathering requests. due to the presence of the dungeon, most of the problems and whatnot were connected with it as well, since due to the lack of general mana in teh area, all of it being hogged by the dungeon, there were few monsters that were willing to starve themselves and stump their growth, making it quite the goldmine for everyone willing to delve.
"There is something suspicious going on here though." Rex spoke up after a short while, having focused his attention on one of the more obscure and less interesting corners of the board, or so most adventurers would say. He ponted towards a certain page posted, only having a few sentences, warning about teh dissapearance of non adventurer type folk. It was followed by a rarher weird ramblings that it was a work of some sort of a monster, clearly targeting the weaker group of the local populace.
"Realy Rex? Such messages exist on every towns questboard. Sometimes you can even find a dozen of those during certain seasons." dismised Meru.
"Come now Meru." Rex smiled towards her "Do you really think I would depend on such a message alone? I have sensed something weird ever since we entered the town, though I have no idea as to what exactly that is. I will figure it out eventually, of that I have no doubt, but in the meantime, dont wander around alone okay?"
"But we should be fine, whatever it is, its targeting the simple folk. Clearly it is too weak to mess with adventurers." spoke up Alurial, fake bravado in her voice.
"For now, sure. But are we really willing to risk it?" Rex replied, the girls understanding that such follish action was indeed just begging for trouble.
"All right gals. From now on, no leaving the inn alone. Always travel in at least pairs." with a strong tone of voice spoke Samanta, her decision clear and non disputable. They spent some more time inspecting the board in front of them, before leaving the guild. Even here, Rex noticed quite a few stares landing on his group, salivating over the beauties in it. Luckaly, there were no fools as of yet who dared to come over and trow their supposed reputation of might around, hoping to strongarm any of the girls in servicing them, but it was only a matter of time before Rex would have to remove a limb or two to send a message. He did not care if there would be polite and respectable introductions, but he would not allow some idiots to interfere with his adventuring life. What was a few destroyed fools when wieghted against his fun.
With the general value and demand of most common and uncomon drops figured out, they returned to the inn, went over their own gear to take along and left the town, their next destination clear. The dungeon.
Another ten minutes later, walking along an obviously heavily used road that was traversed by countless feet day after day, they reached their destination. At the foot of the mountain, a rather odd looking cliff stood. The stone was of a rather odd and unnatural blueish-red color with a sickly green luster. At the center of it, a large crack, as if split by a mighty cleave of gigantic axe or sword, created a rather notable passage inside. What awaited further could not be seen, since a milky white and puffy looking, cloud like substance obscured ones sight. Even Rex's mana pulse could not penetrate said barrier.
"Now that is an interesting phenomenon." Calmy observed Rex, an interesting question arising in his mind. "Say, is every entrance in the dungeons like this one?"
"While the shape and form of the door itself varies greatly, from what I have seen so far, the dungeon mirror is pretty much the same, with the exception of its size, since that depends on the doors more than anything else." Another question that he felt the need to figure out. There were some sort of space laws at play there, and Rex was likely the only creature who could make that comparison, or had any hope of ever solving this particular puzzle. Regardless, that was a subject to delve into when he was otherwise idle and in safe and secure locations. Right now he should focus on the task at hand first and foremost.
As one of the two front line fighters, and more importantly, the main interceptor, he took point, with Meru taking her position slightly further behind him, followed by Samanta, then Ria and Alurial. The last in the formation was Veena who would ensure there were no attaacks from flanks. In case of an emergency though, Meru was free to rush there and cover the group there. And if all hell broke loose, their orders were to gather together and protect themselves, since Rex would go full monster mode, using his blood magic with reckless abandon, shredding through whatever stood between them and the path home.
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As they crossed the dungeon wall, a rather odd, but light and relatively pleasant feeling went through their bodies, creating a warm and fuzzy feeling in the bodies, as if it was the most natural thing to step into dungeons and raid the places for the treasure. Rex supposed that was one of the many reasons why so often would peole overestimate themselves and eventually lose their lives, biting off more than they can chew. Though the pleasant feeling dissapeared as fast as it came, revealing a rather uninviting cave before them. Rex slowly walked forward untill the entire group was on the other side.
As he looked closer around himself, he saw a rather ancient looking platform, starting with a Tori like gate that they just came through, and ending with relatively small stairs on the other side, leading them into the cave proper. Fist sized crystals were embeded in the walls, creating light just bright enough to be comparable with a full moon night without a single cloud in sight. With all that light it was quite easy to see dirrectly around oneself. Something that was even easier for a creature like Rex, his senses much more capable than your average person. The air was slightly damp, though suprisingly clear, not at all what one would expect from who knows how expansive cave system, closed off from the outer world.
"Lets take a few minutes to get used to the place." Rex suggested and with the unanimous agreement of his group, they did exactly so. A few minutes later, when they finally started to move deeper, they saw another group of adventurers come towards the gate. The new group of three men, looked dirty and exausted, multiple claw marks noticable on their banged up armour. heavye and tired sighs escaped their mouths every now and then, creating a rather comical and pitifull sight at the same time. Each of the men held their own sack, seemigly half loaded with loot from their delve.
They all had quite banged up shields, over which the sacks hung, as well as a sword each. The largest of the trio also had a pickaxe tied to his waist, indicating that the group might have some expertise with mining, or they were just hopefull fools. A more skilled group might have tried to use said pickaxe to maybee try to chip away some crystals from a monster that was still alive to test if such a method could yield said crystals, or would they scatter as mana dust as soon as they have left the body of their host. A question someone must have come up with some time in the past, though what was the answer, and can there be different results, based on the monsters tier or type? Rex did not believe that enough research and experiments would have been performed on the subject, at the very least not in recent times, since people would still be talking about such a bizzare experiment, or practice.
'Its fine. If needed, I can morph my weapon to be into the shape of a pickaxe to test out my ideas. When reinforced with my mana in sufficient quantities, it should become quite the tool, especially after each and every strenghtening that it will go through in the dungeon.' Thought Rex, already planning to create a veritable armor and weapon set, made of crystalized and superreinforced blood armour and weapons. In his hands, such a set would become terrifying artifacts, capable of competing with most, if not all artifacts in existance on this plane and win. While at the same time being just a sharp weapon or heavy set of armour to anyone else who tried to wield them, should he somehow, no mattter how unrealistically it could be, lose them.
While he thought to himself, the trio incoming passed them by, dissapearing through the portal moments later. Even with all the distractions, he noticed how one of the groups members stared at the girls for longer than advisable. 'And there it is. Most likely the first retard that I might have to deal with soon.' Rex thought to himself as he had seen a large amount of arrogance and entitlement in those eyes, hidden underneath an exausted and dirty body.
"I think its time." Rex was brought out from him musings by the voice of Samanta, who had drawn the attention of the entire group. With a few nods of acknowledgement, Rex once again took point, leading the group further into the cave. Just a few minutes later, they were in front of a cross section, the cave splitting into five roads further ahead. Next to each path was a scribble with a few words. Stuff like 'nibbler area ahead' or 'bat cave further' or similar other comments at the others. When Rex looked back, he noticed a similar marking near them, pointing to dirrection they had just came from, with a smiple 'Exit' written. The dungeon was a constant construct, allowing adventurers to delve deeper, explore it and mark their fidings, creating a rather stable and re;iabe;, as well as predictable, dungeon exploration. And while there would be people who live and breathe for the excitement of discovery, most of the adventurers simply wanted a reliable and safe way to earn money for their retirement days. No matter the world, pretty ladies never came cheap.
With Rex not caring too much about their next encounter, he allowed the girls to decide without his input. Eventually, they moved along the path that had a note about nibblers. The creatures looked something akin to an overgrown frog like creature, with their weird looking eyes on extended stalks and mouths that were filled with rings of sharp and disturbing rows of teeth. In general, they came in sizes from a german shepherd to, in extreme cases, the size of a horse, though the latter were extremely rare variants, guaranteed to drop some rare stuff.
A few more minutes deeper into the tunnel, their first encounter began, as moving past another curve, they came face to face with a group of four nibblers. These were of the smaller size, aproximately the size of a shepherd. Once Light's Oak walked into their line of sight, a weird, fox's yip like sound resounded, created by one of the nibblers, followed by a frenzied charge towards them. His swords and shield in hand, Rex picked up his pace, creating a larger distance between himself and Meru, while at the same time leaving enough room for both Samanta and Veena to blast the incoming nibblers with their arrows, or, if Alurial felt really frisky, a fireball or two in their general dirrection. There was enough firepower in the small half elf to create quite the pandemonium. As it turned out, Alurial was waiting for something more apropriate to blast into sminthereens.
With expert movements, like he had done this thousands of times, Rex used his shield to displace the charging nibbler, using his sword to wound said unlucky creature in the split second opening he had, going further ahead, repeating the same action with the next, and then the next creature, Meru quickly dispatching the bastards left behind or intercepting whatever got past Rex by simply avoiding him. Even as primitive and simple creatures as nibblers could sence the potent and dangerous aura that Rex exuded when he was not concentracing on supressing entirely. The bloodlust was oozing out of him, his experiences and memories of the past lives where he had killed thousands upon thousands of creatures shining through. And since he had mostly focused on the murdering of monsters and creatures with nature similar to nibblers, they could feel most of it.
Rex party could feel a slight shift in the air around them, as if an enourmous battle with countless warcries constantly resounding all around them was taking place. But unlike Rex's quarry, they could feel it electrifying and sharpening their focus. Rex himself was well aware of the fact too, slightly annoyed by his inability to controll his boundless killing intent perfectly as of yet. It was much better to use it in short bursts, disorienting a particularily annying or dangerous opponent, not create opressive atmosphere where the enemy was more inclined to make mistakes. The ordinary creatures, that would be prone to such actions regardless, due to their simple minds or lack of patience, would fall easily enough as it is. Still, the key to improve his controll was precisely doing what he was right now. Practice makes perfect after all. And with every moment spent in such a state, he could feel his grasp slowly improving, if only little by little. Not that Rex was in any rush at the moment. Most of the time in the coming weeks would be spent diving into the dungeon after all, giving him plenty of time and practice to hone his controll over it, giving gim yet another tool that would allow for a much better controll in dangerous situations that would inevitably arise. It was a dungeon after all and anyone who had delved long enough could almost swear on their lives that dungeon tries to trip every party which had spent long enough within said dungeons walls.