“Duke, we’ve received a message from the Wolves of Chaos.” Dreah came bursting into the room, holding a letter in her hands.
The Duke of Eastwix looked up from his desk. He was an elderly wolf-mix, his fur gone grey from age. Despite his age, his eyes remained ferocious and focused, his fangs still sharp. He grabbed the letter and adjusted his spectacles.
“It’s the adventurer team I asked to check out the dungeon, right?" Dreah nodded. “A fine team. Depending on what they wrote, I might put in a good word for them. Their promotion to B rank would be deserved.”
The letter was lengthy, but the writing was steady - the duke made sure his citizens were educated, unlike in some of the other duchies.
“To the Duke of Eastwix:
More than two weeks ago, we received news of a new dungeon in Jukai Forest. At that time, we were recovering from a mission in the city of Leoniva. One of my party members, Ray, suggested we go visit, but I dismissed the idea on the basis that the dungeon was most likely only D rank.
Ten days ago, we received word from a D rank adventurer team that half of their members perished in a deadly trap, and that the goblin mage could be a C rank monster. Hearing that, we were prepared to head there, and as we were preparing in the city, we received the request from the duke.
The journey there was smooth, but as we neared closer to the forest, we began hearing of other teams venturing into the dungeon and never coming back. Passing through the nearby village, we learned more about the fire goblin and the deceased villager. Several D rank teams were staying in the village, inquiring about buying property and asking about any jobs.
A day ago, we arrived at the cave. There were already workers there, cutting down trees to make space for buildings, as well as several warriors protecting them. Personally, our team will also be staying here for some time in hopes to aid the development.”
The duke stopped reading the message out loud and laughed. “Adventurers, they’re all so greedy,” he commented.
As long as a dungeon wasn’t too remote, settlements always sprung around it. Adventurers and travellers would flock to dungeons in hopes of discovering some unique materials, and dungeons always had mana stones as treasure.
Thus, where adventurers went, merchants followed, and so did innkeepers, carpenters, and a variety of professions, hoping to get payment from adventurers who struck it rich. The dungeon was still new and undeveloped, and those that could gain an edge would later oversell to stronger adventurers.
“Regardless, we stayed in the camp for the night, learning what we could about the dungeon. A team had gone past the trap until they arrived at a pitch-black room. The rabbit mix, their rogue, had an advanced sixth sense and advised them against going in there.
From what we know now, they would have perished if they went in. The others must have ignored the warnings, so it was no surprise they all perished.
We entered the dungeon the next morning. The dungeon had no lighting besides the light streaming into the cave, so our mage, Hycan, carried the Everfire Lantern. The first room was different from what we expected. Instead of an ambush, what we saw was a single goblin wielding a sword and a shield.
The goblin challenged Ray to a fight. We feared it might be a trap, but despite my advice, Ray’s pride took over. The two of us scouted for any other enemies as Ray fought one on one. To our surprise, the goblin knew aura. It almost took off Ray’s arm in the first swing, charging at him with incredible speed.
Ray concentrated on his aura and the two began to fight properly. The goblin eventually lost due to his weapon breaking - it didn’t reach the second stage of aura. Categorising it, the strange elite is a low C rank with the potential of getting stronger. We tried interrogating the goblin, asking how it learned our language and aura, but it refused to answer.
Killing it, we proceeded through the dungeon into the second room. It featured a couple of regular goblins and warrior goblins, who we easily dispatched. Heading into the next hallway, we arrived at the location of the trap.
Our mage dispelled the illusion to reveal a simple pit trap. Judging from its position and the upcoming ambush, this was an intelligent dungeon. Hycan created a stone platform to cross the trap. Walking around the corner, we blocked the fire blast, created another platform where the trap was and entered the room.
The fight was harder than before, featuring the fire goblin, regular goblins and warrior goblins. The fire goblin was capable of slinging purple flame, and when Ray approached it, it fought ferociously in melee, possessing more strength than a mage should.
We disposed of the goblins, leaving the fire goblin alive, but it didn’t seem capable of Brevusian no matter how we interrogated it. It is likely different from the one that was initially reported.
If this was all there was to it, some D rank teams could get past it, but the worst was yet to come. When we arrived at the pitch-black room, even I started to get a bad feeling. Frankly, we were lucky we survived. If the creature had had any allies, we would be dead.
Stepping into the pitch-black room, our lantern dimmed. Even with it providing light, it was hard to make out the figure in front of us. Stepping further into the room, it felt like walking through murky water. The back of my shoes was stained black when I later removed my armour.
The thing in front of us was clearly the guardian. It wasn’t a goblin like we expected, instead, it was a demon. It vaguely resembled a human, though most of its features, excluding its red eyes, were covered in pitch-black armour, and it held a rippling longsword in its left hand. The right hand seemed strange to us at that time, but we didn’t think much of it. “
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“What the hell is this thing?” Famir shouted, drawing an arrow from his quiver.
They had been a team for five years, but none of them had seen anything of the like. “It’s a hellspawn,” muttered Ray, raising his spear.
The battle started with Famir letting loose an arrow. It soared through the air as the demon stood still. Finally, it raised its right arm to block the arrow. It pierced the demon's hand but went no further, and moments later, wood and metal withered away.
It began retaliating. The entire room shook, the darkness becoming deeper. It sprinted, swinging its right arm at them. Tendrils of darkness expanded from it, travelling faster than an arrow.
Ray was knocked back as the thing nearly cracked his shield. His aura blazed for a moment, and he went to receive the demon’s charge. Famir desperately dodged, but it was too fast. It went through his armour as if it was butter, managing to graze his left side. He had no time to nock the next arrow, tendril after tendril whipping towards him.
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Hycan created a stone barrier in front of him, rapidly chanting the next spell. He had to be faster, or else they would all die. He watched as Ray clashed with the demon, its sword striking the shield and coating it in an inky substance.
Its arm withdrew the tentacles, grasping Ray’s spear as it pierced through its body. Ray tried to pull back, but the creature was stronger. From where it touched the spear, the infection spread. The rate was much slower than the arrow, it being a magical spear, but it would crumble sooner than later.
“Amir,” muttered Ray. The spear crackled with electricity, sending current through the demon’s body. It roared as its body convulsed, involuntarily letting go of the spear. Still, it resisted the pain, swinging down at Ray’s head. He yanked the spear out of its body, dodging to the left, but the sword was faster. It cut straight through his armour, digging deep into his shoulder.
Ray retreated, examining his injury. The same inky darkness started to appear on his flesh, slowly spreading outwards from the wound. He retreated, trying to dig through his pack for something. The demon wouldn’t relent, chasing right after Ray, whipping black tendrils towards his back.
At the last moment, it threw itself to the side, narrowly dodging the jaws of a massive creature. Where he previously ran was now a wingless dragon, half-formed from the earth. Hycan waved his hand and the dragon flew up in the air, rapidly descending towards the demon.
Once again, he retreated, his right arm expanding into a shield. The dragon pursued him as Hycan’s party members drank potions and applied poultices. They had shallow injuries, but they couldn’t allow whatever it was to spread.
Hycan was having trouble controlling the dragon that far away, and the demon could sense it. Lodging its shield in the dragon’s mouth, he slashed through its body, sending a wave of darkness through it. The magic collapsed, leaving nothing more than a pile of dirt.
The two sides had an entire room separating them, but the demon was in no rush to close the distance. It dodged an arrow that exploded behind it and blocked another that swerved mid-air to hit it. It knelt down, plunging both its sword and its arm deep into the darkness.
“Dodge!” screamed Hycan, feeling the disturbance below ground. Moments later, a spike of darkness twice his height broke through the earth, sending tremors through the ground. Everyone desperately scrambled, not staying in the same spot for more than a second.
Hycan was the slowest of them. He dodged five spikes in a row before the demon got smarter. He felt the shadows rising in front of him, and too late he realised he would run straight into the attack. He closed his eyes, desperately trying to stop. Moments later, he was hurled through the air, not feeling any of the expected pain. Opening his eyes once again, he saw Famir lying on the ground, a hole running through his thigh.
The darkness struck him at an angle, which helped him avoid getting run through, but he was profusely bleeding, not to mention the corruption within him. He felt the tremors run through his body - another spike was rising. This time, it was Hycan who saved him, pulling him by his other leg.
They didn’t have to dodge for long. With every dodge, Ray was moving forward, using his aura for blinding speed. The ground stopped shaking as the demon retracted its arm, once again getting skewered by Ray’s spear.
This time, he immediately withdrew it, aiming for quick strikes to the head. The two of them engaged in melee, but it was clear he wouldn’t last long. His shield and armour were half gone, and the electricity on his spear lowered in intensity.
Hycan looked down at Famir and decisively started chanting again. The other was screaming in excruciating pain, the corruption gaining ground at a rapid pace. Desperately, he drank another healing potion, bandaging the wound.
No matter how much he stabbed, the demon continued its assault. Any regular creature with six holes in its stomach would be bleeding out, howling in pain, or trying to retreat, but not this one.
The sword wasn’t as bad. Although it was sharp and similarly applied the corruption, it did so at a slower rate. Whatever the demon’s right hand touched would wither away, and when it touched his skin, it brought agony.
The opportunity came soon. From the ground rose two pillars of earth, twisting around the demon and binding it in place. Ray immediately capitalized on it - taking a low stance, he concentrated his aura on his weapon. It glowed deep green, leaving a streak through the air as it shot towards the creature’s throat.
It once again tried to block with its arm, but the pillars hindered it. They were rapidly withering away, but they served their purpose. Ray’s spear went through its throat, silencing its roar halfway through.
Ray retreated, expecting the creature to drop, but it persisted as nothing happened. It bled black blood, and every second its arm was losing its darkness, but that didn’t stop its continued assault. The demon’s right arm went through Ray’s stomach, coming out the other end. With another burst of aura, he launched himself back but doubled over in excruciating pain in the process.
Slower now, it walked towards the downed Ray, its hand turning into sharp tendrils once again. It was so focused on Ray that it didn’t notice the arrow before it was too late. It pierced its leg, blue vines wrapping around it in the process.
“Now’s the chance,” Famir shouted, struggling to nock another arrow.
The joy quickly turned into horror as the creature began absorbing the darkness around it. Even he could feel the mana surging towards it. His sixth sense was screaming at him, pointing out the overwhelming feeling of death. Whatever it was doing, they would all die if it succeeded.
“Fuck, there’s no time. Kill it! Kill it!” Famir shouted in panic, grasping for the arrow that would finish it off.
The demon inhaled, breathing in the darkness. It opened its mouth, preparing to shout. Hycan clasped his hands together, drawing from his personal reserves of mana. Like the jaws of a massive creature, two walls of earth created a dome around the demon, crushing it with all their might.
Famir’s bow turned red, the arrow igniting in the process. Like a comet, it soared through the air, and when it hit the dome, everything exploded. The entire cave shook, parts of it collapsing. Famir didn’t stop shooting, explosion after explosion followed until not even earth was left. Only when the feeling of death faded did he stop shooting.
After that, he collapsed on the ground, panting. He knew he didn’t have the luxury to relax - another monster could appear at any time, but the relief of living spread through his body, alleviating the pain.
“Fuck this dungeon,” he said to himself.
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“And that was the end of the fight. We were lucky it didn’t use its ability earlier, though we were all injured and exhausted when it decided to use it. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been so deadly earlier in the fight, but we can only speculate.
For now, just to be safe, until we know all of its abilities, I would place it as a low B rank creature. After beating it, we recovered a guardian treasure chest, which placed it closer to C rank as well in terms of loot. No special equipment or ingredients were found.
After that, we took some time to recover. Although we were grievously injured, we had the obligation to at least see the second floor. Going through the gate, we descended several hundred metres until we saw plains that stretched beyond our vision. The only form of lighting was the luminescent moss from above and a few fireflies flying in the distance at the start of a forest. Deciding it was too risky to proceed, we ascended to the first floor and left the dungeon soon after. As a side note, we never saw the original fire goblin, nor any other elites on the first floor.
That concludes our report. We will be recuperating in the nearby village. We’ve written to a nearby cleric to visit the village in order to treat our wounds and further inspect what this black substance on our bodies is.”
The letter continued to give Famir’s thoughts on the dungeon and the guardian, further describing the lethality of the moves it used. After reading it all, he put down the letter and looked at Dreah.
“Thoughts?”
“Well, it’s not a beginner dungeon as it has more than one floor, and it’s very clearly both intelligent and dangerous. I can’t imagine the demon the letter is describing, but it sounded fierce,” she preened her feathers as she explained.
“You’re correct on that. Send a copy of the letter to the adventurer’s guild and another to the king. Hang around the guild for some time and see if any B ranks are heading to the dungeon. If there aren’t, hire some to go.”
“What is problematic is its location. It's located in the middle of nowhere, the nearest city being tens of kilometres away. We need to start working on proper roads to it and start investing in the settlement early. I’ll send over a few of my men to oversee the construction and to reign in the village mayor.”
Although the demon slightly concerned him, it was too low of a rank to matter. It was too close to the border as well, which meant adventurers from other kingdoms would seek to explore it. A new dungeon meant a whole slew of difficulties for his duchy, but it would flourish if he managed to properly seize the opportunity.
“Let’s see whether it’s going to be a gold mine or a disaster in the making.”