Chamber of Goblins (Uncleared)
Level 3 - 15 Dungeon
Party limit: 4
Instanced: 3 / 3
Slot available
Enter solo? Yes / No
No
I'm level four and alone so the odds be definitely not in my favor… I ponder about risk versus curiosity, tethering in between before my Mana Sense got flooded by the sensation of the dungeon door shining in pulses of increasing intensity, the darkness within begin fluctuating with swirls of colors.
I ran for cover, it's gonna explode!!... … Nahh~
Hiding behind the unexpectedly intact elevator, I sense the mana build up inside the door spit out a blob of itself out onto the floor, which then grows into the shape of a… Goblin? That happened exactly ten times, creating exactly ten goblins, before everything calmed down and returned to how it was previously, if you don't consider the ten new Gobs that is. Well, at least that answers where they came from, hmm~ is that also where the ten extra cores come from, a fresh batch, which I didn't kill.
The ten newly spawned Goblins took quite a while to reorient themselves. There is a lot of chattering, some yelling and a few sucker punches involved before they manage to get a hold of some semblance of order.
'Inspect,' x 10.
** DING **
Goblin lv 6 x 1
Goblin lv 7 x 2
Goblin lv 8 x 3
Goblin lv 9 x 1
Goblin Scout lv 10 x 2
Goblin Warrior lv 10
Those are pretty high level, the ones back in their nest didn't have such a high average, If I remember correctly.
The dungeon is growing, improving.
They unhesitatingly march towards the supermarket, while I Sneak along, approaching the place like they own it and are familiar with the area, bet you they would've wrench open the door if there were any. Instead, they march up and through the open entrance before all ten, almost at the same time, stop dead on their track at the sights.
Wouldn't blame them, the weal-lifes are lounging all over the unnaturally clean place. On corpses, broken furniture, shelves, on the floor, you name it. Each of the sixty shining with various degrees of luminosity, from dim firefly-like blips to something slightly stronger than a candle. I noticed another ten corpses I definitely did not kill near the entrance, probably the source of the ten extra cores the spiders got me. My best guess is they came in at the wrong time yesterday and got killed by the rampaging roaches.
The gobs communicate among themselves before one of the scouts heads back towards the Dungeon, so I sent one of my disks to auto-follow at a distance to keep an eye on it, easily switching the view on or off as needed. The other nine slowly made their way towards the small hill of weapon-like items near the entrance and randomly equipped themselves while eying my weal-lifes... No way in hell!
I mentally commanded the mana creatures to fly up or run in deeper, while the one disk-ring I have with me detached from my thumb and returned into its default form. Even with one disk, I made short work of them. It helps that my armor hides me well and their defenses are basically nonexistent.
The lone scout coincidentally returned just as I came out of hiding. It nonchalantly approached the supermarket entrance, yelped in surprise at the sight of me and once again ran back towards the dungeon. Such a busy fella!
"Need to warn the master." It screamed. Ah, good to know it has a ma… I hurriedly chased after it before it got the chance to warn anyone. My Trilattic Swarm may be great for defense and Sneaking around, but clearly it's bulky and not at all great for running when multiple layers are used, speaking from experience!
The scout ran ahead of me, past the disk I made to follow it as it floated near the ceiling. The disks! I left one back in the supermarket, which leaves me with this one.
On command my disk zooms at the scout with a faint sound of air being cut, a sound audible enough that it, maybe on account of being a scout and probably drowning in the Goblins version of adrenalin, managed to make use of the warning and jump out of the way. Damn it! My disk struck the ceramic floor at an angle and slid away following its momentum, though a quick nudge got it back into the air and once again aiming at the fleeing, increasingly panicking Goblin.
No way we'll miss this time, I lock on to its mana signature and let loose! The Goblin scout upon registering another telltale sign of incoming danger screamed in defiance and lept at the door marking its home.
My disk struck true upon its torso, before one of its hands landed on the door and the Goblin Scout disappeared out of sight, the sound of my disk clattering onto the ground echoes throughout the now silent hallway. Unfortunately, I know the lucky critter made it back inside, my Mana Sense detecting the moment it dissolved into mana and was absorbed into the dungeon.
Right after the Goblin Scout made it back inside, I hastily retrieved my two disks and jumped into the dungeon, at the same time noting the small gap on the door slowly closing. The nine cores from my newest hunt is left inside their respective bodies... No telling what it would do with the information that lame scout brought it. I decided to take the fight to them rather than give them time to muster up a force.
—
Chamber of Goblins (Uncleared)
Level 3 - 15 Dungeon
Party limit: 4
Instanced: 3 / 3
Slot available
Enter solo? Yes / No
Yes.
The world darkens for an instant before I find myself standing in a small empty stone chamber, smooth floor, maybe roughly four meters in diameter, the room has one exit. Molds grow on random patches along the walls and ceiling. The place is dark enough to feel eerie, but has enough lighting that I can see everything in the room and a few meters into the corridor just fine. I can't detect what is causing the lights.
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I stood cautious for a few minutes looking for threats, nothing happened besides a System ding that startled me, still just the stoney interior and I. 'Updates, and the kill summary please.'
** DING **
Combat summary
Enemies slain:
Goblin lv 6 x 1
Goblin lv 7 x 2
Goblin lv 8 x 3
Goblin lv 9 x 1
Goblin lv 10 x 2
73 syscred and 607 exp awarded
You have entered a safe zone
Title awarded [Dungeoneer Pioneer Smuggleer]
Title awarded [Phantasmic Dungeoneer]
Trait gained Dungeon Phantasm
Title awarded [Title Progenitor]
Trait gained Dungeon Transceiver
Ahh~ yes, safe zones. Looking for threats inside one, best use of my time as of yet. Though it might pay to be cautious, oh well, live and learn.
Before moving forth, I decided to check the titles and traits while it's safe. Might also get something useful out of it that would help with this delve. 'Inspect, thanks System. Please keep me safe'. X4. Be alone for a day and I start praying to what is probably the most powerful existence in the multiverse, I chuckle. On second thought, that might be a good idea.
** DING **
Request denied, The System is neutral
Dungeoneer Pioneer Smuggleer. Great idea, pick the locked door that leads into a pocket space governed by a being with semi-godlike powers to smuggle into. Well, you've done it once, you can do it again.
Phantasmic Dungeoneer. Sometimes, being in the right place at the right time can substitute divine intervention, not till today. Gain extra random rewards every time a dungeon is cleared. Trait bestowed, Dungeon Phantasm. Progenitor Bonus, choose one from three different rewards instead, extra trait bestowed Dungeon Transceiver.
Dungeon Phantasm. A figment of its imagination, an illusion or an apparition the dungeon does not know. Your presence does not register on Dungeon Sense nor do you count towards the maximum party limit.
Title Progenitor. Look at you, achieving something The System deems important enough to garner a sliver of its attention that it bestowed a brand new title. As a progenitor, it is only your right to be superior. Affected: Phantasmic Dungeoneer.
Dungeon Transceiver. Whatever existence you are, wherever you lay and however you live, gossip is unavoidable, even for gods and dungeons. You're a natural at Dungeon lingo.
Damnit! Oh well, I tried.
Smuggleer is not even a word, though that might be the result of System translation. Anyways, so, now I can smuggle myself into any locked dungeons, or any locked pocket space? Hmm~.
The rest seems interconnected. I somehow got the title; Phantasmic Dungeoneer which rewards me with a trait and bonus Dungeon clear rewards. Due to being in the right time and place then getting into a locked dungeon, maybe. On that note, I'm also the first to have this title? Becoming the Title Progenitor, and that boosts the title further. Giving me another trait and also changes how the extra rewards work. The original reward makes me kinda invisible to Dungeons and the second, I can now speak Dungeonese? Dungeonic?.. something like that. Weird.
"WHEW! THAT INVADER NEARLY MADE IT IN, LUCKY WE CLOSED THE GAP ON TIME!!!"
A loud Contraltos (aka. Alto) voice reverberated through the room, startling me greatly! Before reading my updates, I would have answered that with a witty remark and a side of a threat for him to stop hiding, which is probably a bad idea.
"DO NOT WORRY MY CHILD, MOMMY WILL TAKE REVENGE FOR YOU!!"
Whoops, the dungeon is female?
"IS THAT SO?" There was a pause, "ALL KILLED BY A HUMAN YOU SAY? I CAN'T FATHOM HOW A HUMAN COULD BE SO STRONG AFTER JUST SIX DAYS?"
She seems to be in a conversation, I'll bet it's the scout.
"MAYBE IT WAS THE WHITE CREATURES AND THE USELESS HUMAN HAD ALSO JUST ARRIVED AS YOU HAD." So skeptical, what's she got against humans anyways!
Their conversations continued for a while as I got comfortable in the safe zone and listened to one side of it, guessing its contexts as they talk. The gist of it, as far as I can guess, is that this Core hates men for wronging her, this extends to women who also, I quote, 'collaborated' with them. She plans to amass a massive army and takeover all of Java while hoping to find her wrongdoers in the process, so she may torture them for all eternity in her capacity as a Dungeon.
First of all, she probably wouldn't expect to come out and find that java is now part of a much bigger whole and it's currently way too hard to make the distinction. Second, not sure what happened but she repeated the hate all men part no less than five times, in less than ten minutes of conversation with her minion. And lastly, that makes her sound like a human? A former mentally unwell human? Also, she's frickin' loud!
How did she become a Dungeon Core?
---
Finally, things seem to have calmed down for a while, no more of that desperate voice echoing through the whole room. I released one of the disks in my hand and made it hover near the only exit, checking if its presence elicits any reaction out of the Core. A few minutes passed and nothing happened.
Alright. Next, I approach the walls and try to use Shape Stone, but the spell found no purchase as the walls were saturated with foreign mana. As expected, both storage spells work just as intended. Finally, unwilling to create loud noises, I refrain from chipping at the walls to see if the stones can be mined, maybe later.
It's about time I stop procrastinating, resolved to survive and put a stop to her/its plans, I send the disk hovering by the door forward to scout ahead. Might be cool to have some kinda AI to do the scouting, huh?
The hallway is about 1.5 meters wide and goes on for quite a long way. Eventually after what I feel to be five minutes of flying, at close to its maximum speed, the disk exits into a huge chamber.
By huge, I meant massive! I had the disk increase its elevation to get a better scope of the area. All in all, we could probably fit two soccer fields and still have some space left. The ceiling curves into a dome, the walls up here have random protrusions of various sizes and on most of them are nests of various small Earth creatures like bats, rats, rabbits. All land animals sport mutations on their limbs that allow for proficient climbing. The smaller protrusions generally contain various insects and mushrooms.
The hallway exits onto fresh earth where the chamber starts. The Goblins live in a small village on one of the further corners, building shabby fences and huts out of wood. The rest of the area is a sparse forest of sorts, with two or three different species of trees I can't Identify, never really cared for trees to identify them by eye, though they are of differing size and shapes.
Everything seems kinda normal, despite the awkward placements and the unnaturally broad selection of species. There are pregnant animals visible on some of the nests and they seem to have a unique working ecosystem. No, the biggest tell of this being something built in a dungeon is how some of the nests would, once in a while, shine a little brighter to my Mana Sense, before a creature belonging to that nest would pop out of a blob of mana. This event is more prevalent in smaller species like insects or infant animals, to me, the view is eye-openingly enchanting. The creation of actual flesh and blood creatures out of mana. I can't help but take in the view for a long while.
Oh, and I managed to get Mana Sense to work with the disk-drones. Though it's more like accessing the skill already embedded inside, the one they use to home in on their target. I spend some more time scouting the chamber from above, looking for a safe place. Important to note that once in a while, a random tree would sprout out of the earth and grow at an accelerated rate up to about two thirds of the older trees before everything continues on, as if no tree had just gained years of life in a few minutes.
So far, after scouting around for what is probably half an hour, nothing stood out as the ideal place to camp out. So I dropped the pursuit and decided to just wing it for now. I've been stuck in this safe zone for what feels like two-something-hours and my patience is wearing thin.
It just occurred to me that I should've summoned more disk during the wait, what a waste of mana regen, though, better late than never. Checking my regen with SYMPHONY active while maintaining full use of my facility leaves me with a mana regen of 8 per minute, so after making one disk that costs me 150 mana, I would regenerate that by… I take out my phone to use the calc app, only to find out that it seems to need another charge. Dang it. 80, 160, so less than twenty minutes until the mana spent regenerates.
Seems alright, I summon one, leaving me with about 250 mp, and a third v3 disk. Now then. Food and beverages are plentiful in my repository, the last rock-cube I quickly infuse with another Lesser Heal, using up another 25 mana. One disk on standby in the massive chamber ahead, the last two hovering behind me, ready for action.
Time for another Goblin hunt.