Leica practically jumped straight to her legs and faced the hallway, whereupon a deep guttural growl escaped her mouth. He also got ready, but not as expected. He created a new space with his earth shaping next to the actual corridor.
With a single thought he could get Leica to join this room.
Leica “Why? No fight? ”
Magna: “ Why should we?“
He started to grin. Not only had he spent the morning with his status, but he had prepared a little surprise for this dungeon. The wall, which was originally supposed to seal the camp from the river, was reduced by him so much that he could tear it down at any time with a few simple spells. He withdrew to the side room with the Leica when the first lizards dug their way through the walls into the main room. The moment they saw him, they saw him grinning. The wall in front of him closed, whereupon the one that held back the tides finally collapsed. He couldn't see it, but he could picture it.
Within seconds, the creatures were washed back through their tunnel into the neck of the bottle, where they plunged into the depths. Surprisingly, all enemies killed were counted towards him. He could very slowly watch the progress of his quest display, which showed him the progress of his purge.
However, the water slowly began to spread into the room, penetrating from a few cracks in the wall towards him, to which he could react with nothing else than to strengthen the walls further and further. After all, he had to withdraw further and further with Leica. He had to move the earth, the rock and everything else behind him to further stabilize his surroundings. Finally he made a rough estimate of where the dungeon was below him and first moved straight 100 meters through the earth from his current position and finally began very carefully to dig a tour into the depths. He didn't want to come out on one of the walls, but because he could only find everything with his thumb, he had almost no choice but to choose this path into the depths. A central column formed within seconds, while everything else on earth and rock was immediately compacted in the walls, the circular column and its steps. The circular path snaked like a snake on a stick down into the abyss and it didn't take much longer for him to stop. Very soon he seemed to have entered the spatial limits of the dungeon. A short system message should have been a clear indicator that Leica's fur was bucking wildly, whereupon she let out a growl. From there he had to move much more carefully.
It was completely uncertain whether he would not fall through a ceiling into the depths, burst into a monster nest or get into a basin with poisonous liquids. He didn't know the inside of the dungeon. Presumably this dungeon was never cleared. Exploring an unfamiliar place always requires more than just caution and attention. First, because he was already in the dungeon, he secured a retreat. He immediately began to form spaces around himself. These would serve as temporary shelter. Preparation had always been half the battle for him. In these rooms he left the second backpack, which he brought downstairs for dungeon diving, in which some spare resources were stowed, including some clothing, food, water and other necessities.
After a short break in order to fully regain his mana through meditation, he began further into the depths. In his theory it should be parallel to the large cavern. After a few more meters the earth began to crumble under his feet, whereupon he quickly took a few steps back. Contrary to expectations, there was not the cavern under it, but a branch of the dungeon that was certainly previously smaller. In this the water raged into the abysses of the dungeon and dragged some of the creatures with it, who screamed in panic and beat their arms in the water.
Magna: “Hupps, I didn't mean to disturb you. I hope you enjoy your bath! ”
Leica just looked at him crookedly when he commented.
Magna: “What? Oh, just because wolves are free from humor, is it also forbidden for me? ”
Of course, the she-wolf couldn't understand him under any circumstances, but who else should tell the joke? As a precaution, he closed the ground under his feet again. He only reinforced it enough to be on the safe side. It had been a while since his last bath, but he wasn't going to jump into this tunnel that fast. Presumably his actions had made the dungeon even more dangerous in its own structure. Instead, he decided to climb a few steps up again for the time being.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
He made a mark in the pillar with an inscription "Wildwasserbahn", which made him grin quite a bit. It was kind of sad that he alone would be able to enjoy this joke. But that shouldn't bother him any further. After a few yards he began digging passages in all four directions.
Outside the dungeon, the river began to dwindle very quickly. The water that used to flow into the lighter parts of the forest and beyond gradually disappeared. Fish wriggled on the dry river bed, like other water-bound creatures, gasping for breath helplessly.
In the depths below, however, a wall collapsed in front of him at that moment and his gaze fell on the glitter of the crystals in the cavern. Only three of the four corridors met other rooms. Two ended in similar caverns, but these were much smaller, whereupon he closed the corridors again and made markings on the tunnels, such as some notes on the walls. The last thing he wanted to do was get lost down there. The monster death rate reached 19% in the upper right corner where the quest progress was displayed. Very soon he would reach the first milestone without touching an enemy personally.
Inwardly, he thanked the system for crediting the killings, as well as the awarding of experiences. Although they were reduced, the bonus experience easily compensated for this and a little more. Just digging, could he feel the energy? Experience? Flocked to him. Into his body and from the system, as if converted by a converter, in order to then be able to distribute them.
It didn't take much longer for him and Leica to get to level 45. This brought him some points again, which he quickly put on his vitality in order to bring it to 100. Another 20 fell into his stamina. He saved the remaining 39 for an emergency.
Finally, he took his first real step into the dungeon. From the neck of the bottle at the top, the masses of water fell like from a fully turned on tap into the abyss and the pond below, where they gathered. The pond quickly turned into a lake, whereupon some of the deep tunnels were flooded very quickly. There seemed to be no trace of the mind mage. In the water some creatures seemed to squirm, which bit themselves through the fallen lizard goblins. She seemed to be having a little party. Their appearance somehow reminded him of crocodiles when they were pulling a living one underwater. But instead of green and gray, their scales, like those of the lizard goblins, were jet black. He could even see some of them vanishing with their tails into the tunnels below.
Finally he could only look around, whereupon he first created some walls around the exit. Thus, he could at least avoid a direct attack. The crystals on the cave walls reminded him a lot of the mana crystals from the beasts. However, these seemed much purer. But that couldn't be possible, could it? A look at his companion, who let out a thread of drool at the sight of the crystals, told him the opposite very quickly. This dungeon has really never been touched by human hands. It didn't take much longer for them to get their first company. He hardly had a chance to enjoy the sight. From the arid areas, some of the creatures hurried toward him with primitive weapons. Leica stood by his side immediately. Her fur began to harden, which made it look like iron from the outside. Her tail became as dangerous as her fangs were. Without another word, she snapped forward and began to tear the little creatures apart, while her tail tore up those she tried to go around.
He did not stand idly either, but began to throw wind scythes. He rightly believed that creatures had some immunity to both earth and water magic. After all, these caves were their natural habitat. It took a few moments for his wind scythes to hit the neck perfectly. Aiming with only your hands, as well as your eyes, should not be an easy task. As easy as it was for him to read novels in his past, it was not in reality.
Hitting moving targets always required a special skill, because you had to hold up to the target. He had to throw his magic where his targets would be, not where they are. Much of it remained feeling? Instinct? Intuition? There were a few words that came to mind that made him wonder why he still had the capacity to think about it during a skirmish. This had to be related to his intelligence value with great certainty. Although he did not think he had become any smarter, it clearly showed the ability to multitask, which was shown by the parallel thoughts. As if on cue, two new skills appeared to him, which he immediately accepted and faded out, because only after the fight would he want to take a closer look at them. Among the smaller creatures, which were clearly better suited for climbing, there were also some that looked like a cross between a troll and a lizard. There was something about them that he found deeply disturbing.
He couldn't describe it in words, but there was something fundamentally wrong about them. In contrast to their little relatives, they seemed to associate the properties of the lizard and the troll much better. Their non-natural regeneration made it difficult for him to bring them down. Even when a wind scythe drove you towards the pond and it was pulled under the water by the mouth of one of the crocodiles, he could see how the thing was constantly regenerating. Ironically, if the crocodiles were intelligent enough, they could use one as a source of food for eternity. Instead, one of them was joined by a few more, whereupon they literally tore the copy up. It was an utterly gruesome sight. As soon as the creature's arm or leg was torn off, it began to regenerate wildly, but before the stump could grow any further, another of these crocodiles would come and snatch it away from the troll. The battle itself ended much sooner than expected. In real combat, enemies never shouted out what they were going to do, nor did they hold endless monologues about what their plan was. No, real battles were quick, decisive, bloody and, above all, only filled with the noise of the battle itself. Interestingly, Leica didn't seem to touch the creatures or even think of eating them. Some natural instinct seemed to tell her that something was wrong with this meat.
The cavern calmed down as quickly as it filled before. Some of the creatures in the pond slowly came ashore and dragged a few of the fallen into the water. They just seemed to be watching the duo curiously.
Eventually the pool didn't seem to fill any further, for the water still seemed to plunge into the deeper tunnels, where it seemed to disappear into the ground. While he was making progress, in the same way, his first milestone still felt quite distant.
Ultimately, he decided to let Leica do the watch and pluck at least one of the crystals from the wall. It seemed like she was always staring with one eye on the crystal itself. Even as he seemed to be devoting himself to the crystal, more of the creatures appeared in the dry tunnels. It seemed as if some of them had pulled themselves out of the water, for their bodies shimmered from the wet, while rudimentary weapons were in their claws. However, they just stood around as if they were waiting for something ...