“At least the prying eyes will have a harder time looking at us, we’ll just have to worry about enemies over quite a high level”, Logan thought to himself as he looked over his guild house.
Marcus fastened belts and rope over his bags and clothing, patting himself down as if to check for wallets, keys, and phone. “Good to depart, Logan.”
Logan looked over Marcus, it seemed his friend’s evolution continued each day. The man never stagnated as his ideals and powers progressed, alongside his attitude shifting to being even more confident though following into cockiness a bit. Logan couldn’t question the man, he had been changing at the same pace.
From desk worker and somewhat active, Logan had become a pillar of power in a fantastical world. Magic came easy to him, as did reading and learning new techniques. Spellforce made everything so much easier and far more interesting. Was all of this just waiting inside of Logan to begin with though?
“Amalia is going to be busy with her smithing jobs, and helping out some of the guildies. So just you and me for a bit”, Logan informed his ally.
Marcus returned with a big smile, “Just like the ‘old days’ right?”, he laughed.
Logan stretched out his new gloves, making sure they covered his wrists and fell in line underneath his coat sleeves, “A little less on the desperation side, but yeah.”
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The first day's dungeon was to be one that Logan was asked to clear by Orichalcum. He was more than happy to do it, the group had done nothing but aid him, but also it meant the kingdom would prosper and be safer from his actions.
This was another outside dungeon, often confused by fresh-faced adventurers or the youth as an “Erupted Dungeon”, the entirety of the dungeon was open to the air with a few interior spots. It was a rather small distinction though, so nobody really belittled those who had no experience with them.
An erupted dungeon was one whose spellforce was no longer contained to a particular area, the easiest of which to contain it were large complexes or underground caverns. This would occur when someone altered the dungeon too much, or in the case of Logan’s newfound ability, tried to eradicate the dungeon so that it no longer functioned. If monsters could just spawn and go as they please it would upset the area's balance too much.
This outside dungeon was of the “Spellforced Dungeon” variety, the main contender for risk of erupting with poor handling. It had been made up of spellforce or events that ended with the area being a sort of battery or accumulator of spellforce which in turn created structures and monsters.
The Labyrinth of Aerstop. Several hundred miles from the capital, but only a handful away from small settlements, the labyrinth was comprised of tall green walls of stone, some destroyed during other dungeon raids, some made in such a way as to confuse adventurers.
It was clearly marked as a dungeon by similar paper talismans on the trees outside its domain, acting as both markers and protective barriers to keep the dungeon spreading further. Some of these were also placed on the labyrinth walls that made up the entrance.
Taking steps toward the dungeon, Logan and Marcus both felt the air was thick with spellforce, mixed with a sort of marshlike haze and dampness. The cackling of young children ran across its walls and echoed in the distance, an easy-to-spot trap for the two experienced adventurers, but easy bait for those who had more of a protective nature over lost younglings.
Unlike some other places that inherited the moniker, this labyrinth was one true to its name. There was but a single path that led to its centre, though muddled somewhat with the walls in disrepair.
Marcus patted his friend on the shoulder as he Enhanced the pair in preparation for entering the dungeon proper. The grey aura that surrounded them afterwards dissipated slowly, making sure they would not be found too easily or ambushed so quickly.
Taking the only path available to them, the duo pressed on. The cackling continued endlessly and got louder as their steps were added to the soundscape. Logan opened his vaskt eyes to keep a wider view of the area, checking both sides simultaneously.
Their precaution was met with confirmed traps. The walls on either side shot right down into the earth as if they were portcullises, revealing a dozen 2’ tall creatures. Draped in beggars’ clothing, these monsters looked like wispy white gremlins, with big black beady eyes and serrated shark teeth prized for dining on the intruders.
While the monsters summoned up orbs of magic in their claws Marcus jumped back, Logan’s movement sped up as he cast Haste, hands wide open to meet his new “friends”. Orbs of wind and rock came toward Logan who caught each deftly, with the mental command of, “Spell Absorb”, he vacuumed up the spells.
One of the spells had to be dodged, as he reached his cap, but it did little to dissuade his action. Instead, Logan let the spells return to their senders, similar orbs bashing into the small bodies of his foes and hurtling them into the opposing walls. With one final monster left standing it attempted to run away, but was met by a quick jab as Marcus cleaned up.
Chapter 198 - Ambush XP 1 [https://i.postimg.cc/vB7M2pkz/Chapter-198-Ambush-XP-1.png]
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The walls stayed in their descended position, though Logan could tell that the ambient spellforce would slowly return them to their original positions.
“That would explain the rank for this place. I doubt many adventurers would be prepared for such an ambush”, Marcus said.
“It was a contributing factor, however, I feel there are more reasons as to this dungeon’s abnormally high ranking for what actual monsters lie in wait”, Logan added, a hint of spite towards the adventuring guild halls’ lack of proper notations of difficulty.
Marcus looked around at the newly opened passages, one would loop to where they were, the other in the right direction. “I suppose going over isn’t an option. I’d bet a platinum that there’re protective measures against it… or worse a ‘penalty’ to face.”
“Mazes and labyrinths alike will have some form of danger if they aren’t just meditative or decoration. I’d take that bet and say all the denizens of this place would be alerted and attacked at once if we tried to ‘cheat’ our way to the centre.”
Marcus nodded.
“While I am confident I could take on the whole dungeon at once, that’s a foolhardy risk to take”, Logan rationalised in his head. “Umbra, Servoir”, Logan called out.
Logan’s shadow whirled and shifted, allowing his shadow and water elementals to form. It was more for show than effect, as Logan could re-summon his elementals almost instantly at this point.
“What is your command?” Servoir asked.
“Go down that corridor, one way each, until you face opposition and then come back here”, Logan instructed as he pointed to the right.
“With pleasure”, Umbra replied before both floated off in a hurry.
“We’ll wait here and Harvest.”
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Only a few minutes passed until Servoir returned through the path ahead of the pair, finding the path they would have taken regardless, and a minute longer had Umbra racing back through the right wall with monsters on his tail.
Easily dispatched, another dozen monsters were quelled. Umbra went back the same way, while Servoir checked the left wall’s break. The two elementals that seemingly got on the best, met midway, showing that the left wall’s southern path would be the way to go.
Taking the path that led to the middle, and not looping around to the entrance or taking longer, Logan and Marcus had a guarded advance.
The dungeon was nothing if not straightforward. With only a single path traversal was a cinch, the collapsing walls just added a bit more time and frustration. It was also quite a bit below the pair’s level, meaning they could easily take it on as a pair rather than a full party. The narrow corridors didn’t really facilitate larger groups anyway.
Every so often, those same creatures would bring down a wall or climb over them to ambush the party. With no hive mind to speak of they all tried to cast spells at Logan, the one thing he wanted them to do. Dealing with the packs was a quick process, only padding the time spent within the dungeon a bit.
Logan and Marcus would easily complete this place in a day, whereas it would take other parties several with the time to leave each day included. At least there were seemingly no barriers against teleportation magic in here, but then again, it could detect if Logan tried to leave or get to the centre through the use of such.
Before reaching the centre, Logan had also increased his Harvesting skill to tier 9 mastery.
“Level up! Gain: 8 HP, +1 Str, +1 Agi, +1 Con, +1 Int. You have 1 attribute point to spend.”
“Been quite a few levels these past few weeks. Won’t be long till I join the list of 30s”, Logan thought to himself as he put his additional point into Intelligence as usual.
Reaching the final stretch of land to the centre of the labyrinth, the pair checked over their statuses. Little to no resources had been used due to Logan’s repeated use of Spell Absorption. Logan’s main class skill had also jumped right up to tier 9 within the labyrinth. It was his bread and butter after all, similar to a Fighter’s Power Strike, if harder to train due to the constraints.
The list of dungeons that contained spellcasters seemed more redundant after this one had been completed, but with lower-level spells, he’d find it a slower process again.
Logan pulled out a piece of parchment and glanced over it, “This area hasn’t changed it seems. We’ll rely a bit more on you for this fight, the boss is rumoured to be highly resistant to spells.”
Marcus rotated his arms, “Good. This whole place was mostly a ‘you’ operation. Let me handle the rest of the fatigue.”
Logan drew out some blades as he inspected the path ahead, “I said a bit, not fully. I can still help out.”
The final courtyard of the labyrinth was far from empty. With the sun on high, it lit it up beautifully. Water features with waterfall-mouthed fish rushed in the corners while topiaries hugged the walls all around. The air grew thicker with the marshland-like atmosphere. A buzzing could be heard as bees and mosquitoes flew about the area.
Logan could feel his coat get heavier as the moisture in the air continued to get thicker, but aside from the vapour the air was also abundant in ambient spellforce. If people with low enough levels entered this place they would become catatonic over the sheer overwhelming force of it, similar to when he first met the Archmage a good 146 days ago.
The stone flooring was made up of mossy cobble, and large footprints, or rather, hoofprints could be seen across it. Approaching the archway that made up the entrance, the pair shot back as the walls started to shudder and violently form a door to block their passage.
“What the?”
The door then began to shift, its rocky nature breaking, bending, and extruding away from itself as it took on a familiar design. It became inlaid with golden carvings that depicted a large monstrous head, something of an amalgamation of orc and ogre, with four sets of fangs. A Madamra Rampart.
“Did the G-Hall mention this?” Marcus asked quickly.
Logan shook his head as he brought out his notes, shifting through the parchment, “No. Is it reacting to something? Or maybe a random occurrence?”
“I guess this is a sort of warning, letting us know what’s ahead will be a boss monster.”
Logan placed a hand on the door to sense its power, but he could not feel anything beyond it. Putting a hand into his coat, he pulled out the throughsight ring and planted it on the door, rotating it as he peered through its hole.
“Nothings—wait. I see the boss. It’s a minotaur… or rather a ‘mini’taur.”
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