It had quickly become apparent that the Dungeon was not the same as the one to which they'd become accustomed.
Bob had led the group down the canyon of ice for a hundred yards before the floor began to rise at a gradual incline, while the walls began to shorten. Another hundred yards saw the group arrive in a sort of valley. The walls of the valley were ice and snow with more than a dozen cracks that could be entrances to canyons like the one they'd come from. In the center of the valley was a stone block, rising fifty feet from the valley floor.
The block of stone would have been interesting enough, standing out as it did from the blue and white of the ice and snow with it's black and red, but it was the mass of creatures swarming over it that really drew the eye.
They'd found the Feral Winter Minks.
Bob was used to system monsters being chimeric horrors. The System seemed to generate its manifestations by slapping two or more creatures into some sort of terrible genetic blender, and then hitting frappe. On the scale of monsters Bob had encountered, the Feral Winter Minks weren't that bad. They were ten feet long, ignoring their tails which added another eight feet, with four legs, and a single head, which was a differentiation Bob wished he didn't have to make. Yes, they had a slightly oversized mouth full of slightly oversized teeth, but it was only the one mouth.
The real issue was that there were hundreds of Feral Winter Minks throwing themselves against the building.
"That's a lot of monsters," Dave said hesitantly.
"We need to pull them off the structure and into the canyon," Mike said. "If we try and fight them in the open, they'll overwhelm us with numbers."
"I suppose we could..." Amanda trailed off, her eyes fixed on the stone structure as a ring of lava appeared along the top of the walls, and began roll down, immediately engulfing a dozen of the monsters.
Everyone watched as the lava continued to flow down, pushing out from the base of the structure where the monsters were consumed.
The Feral Winter Minks earned their feral moniker as those remaining on the outer edges pushed themselves into the lava, snarling and hissing as they strove to reach the building.
It took less than two minutes for the entire swarm of monsters to be consumed. A few seconds afterward the lava stopped flowing, and eight seconds after that, it rapidly hardened, turning to stone, then cracking, turning to either dust or ash, finally disapating entirely.
"I'm not so sure that the building really needs our help," Eddi muttered.
"I reckon that's where we are meant to be, yeah?" Jessica said, shuffling to the front of the group. "Let's get down there, before more of those things show up."
Bob nodded and opened portal that deposited them just over halfway to the stone plug. The second landed them on the roof, where they came to face to face with an Eire.
He was assuming it was an Eire. It stood ten feet tall, and was seven feet across the shoulders. It had dark brown skin, marbled with gray, and was completely bereft of hair. In addition to its humanoid shape, it had human features, with a strong jaw and heavy brows. Its eyes were a deep, earthy brown, with glowing red flecks that were entirely different from the blood shot scalera that spoke to little sleep and the exhaustion that came with it.
"Vorstrach be praised!" It gasped breaking into a broad smile.
Bob had no idea what it had just said. The language sounded a bit like what you'd hear if you were run an avalanche through a iron works. Fortunately, he had a solution for that.
Savior.
Upon discovering that billions of potentially efficient circulators of energy would be rendered inert, you devoted yourself entirely to leading them to shelter within the System. You were engaged at every point of the developing operation to rescue these valuable resources, recruiting other users to aid you. Your efforts have acted as an argument for the expenditure of the System's resources to preserve the lives of sapient beings during the process of integrating their universes under the System. You have directly saved the lives of eight billion sapient beings. These actions have vastly increased the value of this Achievement.
Reward: The many languages spoken by the beings you saved did not deter you. Upon request, the System will translate any spoken language you hear, and translate your words to those you choose to hear you.
'Universal translator, engage!' Bob projected towards Trebor.
"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that, could you please say it again?" Bob asked.
"I said Vorstrach be praised," it replied, tilting it's head.
"My name is Bob, and these are my friends, we've been tasked with protecting the monitoring station," Bob said, trying to get a feel for how this scenario was supposed to work. Jason had shown him what were effectively NPCs in his Dungeon, so he knew it was possible, but it wasn't something he'd ever done, and the System doing it was... maybe not new. The Mad Eire in the village Dungeon was sort of an NPC. This was just the first time they'd encountered a friendly one.
"Truly, she watches over us. I am Nordrax, and I welcome any aid you can offer," Nordrax gestured toward the edge of the roof. "As you can see, I've engaged the stations defenses, but while it ran them off, they'll be back."
"How can we help?" Bob asked.
He knew that everyone on the team had the Savior achievement, to greater and lesser degrees, and they all had the ability to understand the Eire.
"If you can hold one, or better yet two, of the walls, I can increase the output of the stations defenses on the other two. We'll have to hold through several more waves though," Nordrax finished.
Quest Advanced!
Stop the Feral Winter Minks from overrunning the station!
Wave 1 of 8 will arrive in six minutes.
"We have a few minutes before they get here, do you mind if we ask you a few questions?"
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As it turned out, Nordrax was happy to answer any questions that had to do with the scenario. Questions outside of that were met with a blank stare.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The group discovered that the Feral Winter Minks were attacking the station because, according to Nordrax, they were being sent by an agent of Baldarkurax. They hadn't managed to pry the details of who Baldarkurax was, as that was apparently not within the scope of the scenario.
"This seems a bit crook, yeah?" Jessica said as they looked over the edge of the wall, waiting for the monsters to appear. "We did a full sweep of the planet, right? We've got a working model of the globe, and there is no one here but us, so who are these Eire blokes? The System wouldn't include them in the Dungeons if they weren't around."
"I've been wondering as well," Mike added as he adjusted his shield. "I checked back through the data, and unless I totally failed, I couldn't find any thing in the scans that indicated any large, or even midsize animals. And there should be."
"Let's not forget the trees that are basically just vines," Amanda added. "I went back through, and I'm pretty sure that all the trees are like that. From the tropics to the tundra. Maybe it's just how things evolved here, but..."
"You're not wrong," Bob replied. "There is definitely something weird about this planet, but so far, it's the best we've found, and until there is an actual problem, I'm going to do my best to ignore it."
"My concern is that we hit our tier caps, reincarnate back down, and then we find out that there is a real problem, and we aren't able to handle it, because we're low level, or we can't get away from it, because we can't fuel or fly the Freedom," Amanda said.
Bob was about to reply when he caught sight of movement at the edge of the valley. "Heads up, looks like the monsters are coming in," he said, tabling the discussion.
He summoned Jake at the base of the wall, opting to apply the Magma template, noting the tendrils of Earth and Fire mana that wove themselves through the pattern of the spell.
The super-heated UtahRaptor honked inquisitively as he inspected his surroundings. Then Jake caught sight of the oncoming horde of Feral Winter Minks, and his honk took on a tone of fury.
The minks were like a rolling carpet of fur, teeth, and claws. Their advancement across the valley floor left no doubt in Bob's mind that they were heavily invested in the Coordination attribute.
They washed up against the wall like a wave, hissing and spitting, their claws scrambling as they attempted to climb up to the roof.
The monsters who hit Jake first howled and screached as they tried to tear him apart. If the entire mass had turned their attention on the UtahRaptor, they would have overwhelmed him, despite the shield and healing effects Bob had chosen for his threshold bonuses. Luckily, the Feral Winter Minks were much more interested in getting on top of, and presumably into, the monitoring station, which left Jake fighting the few monsters that had quite literally run into him.
Amanda had summoned Auruffra, her giant wolf, utilizing her Magma Elemental Heart as well, which changed Auruffra's coat from grey and white to a brilliant yellow, with undertones of orange and red, as each hair of her coat was now aflame.
Dave spun his Magma-Infused Focusing staff in his hands, grinning broadly. "The rewards from our first Dungeon are going to make this so much easier."
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Dave had been absolutely right. While the Minks could, and did, manage to climb up over one another to the top of the building, Mike and Wayna were able to keep the engaged while the rest of the group focused the monsters down, one by one. Having Jake down below proved to be a waste, so Bob had dropped the summons, and brought the UtahRaptor back up on the top of the building, where he'd helped keep Wayna from taking too many hits, effectively doubling their off-beacon capabilities.
Dave, Amanda, Wayna, and Bob were all dealing fire damage, which the Feral Winter Minks appeared to be weak to, which meant that while Mike wasn't taking reduced damage, something he'd rather enjoyed in the Mad Eire Dungeon, the rest of the group were burning the monsters down much more quickly.
Nordrax had activated the lava flow on the other two walls, clearing those as well.
The entire wave had taken about five minutes to clear, with their team killing a hundred monsters. As soon as the last monster died, the group received another notification.
Quest Advanced!
Stop the Feral Winter Minks from overrunning the station!
Wave 2 of 8 will arrive in five minutes.
"Is that a set timer? Did we not clear it fast enough? Or do the waves just come more quickly?" Eddi asked.
"Well, it did seem a bit easy," Bob mused.
"Yeah, for you guys," Mike grumbled. "Those fuckers aren't just biting and clawing, they're dealing cold damage. Why doesn't my goddamn Magma Armor keep me warm?"
"Submit an Anomaly report," Bob suggested. "Maybe it's one of those imperfect multiverse, perfect System things."
"If the System were perfect, it wouldn't be on version three point whatever," Mike countered.
"Ssshhhh," Jessica hushed him. "The System is always listening, and I don't want to get crappy loot because you're complaining."
"Would that happen?" Eddi asked, eyes wide.
"Do you want to take that chance?" Jessica asked him.
"No," Eddi replied after a moment. "I want the best loot we can get."
"Smart boy," Amanda said.
"He's embracing the way of the munchkin," Dave intoned, his voice heavy and sonerous. "Soon his conversion will be complete, and he will finally understand the power of the dork side!"
Wayna, who was comfortable enough in various animal forms that she didn't shift out of them between fights, reached over with a massive paw and patted Eddi's head.
"That," Amanda shook her head. "I have no words. Please tell me you're recording?" She asked Dave, who pulled her into a hug.
"Of course I am," he assured her.
"Polar bear petting her human," Amanda's voice and laughter were muffled against Dave's chest. "I can't even."
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It turned out that the System did not care how quickly they cleared the waves. The timer reduced by one minute after each wave, until the final three waves effectively came as one.
That fight had been hectic, with Wayna having to step out and let Jake tank while she soaked up a regenerate and a heal over time as Jessica kept her focus on Mike, who was facing off against three, or even four, Feral Winter Minks at once. Auruffra got pulled into off-beacon duties as well, and while the fiercely flaming canine dealt heavy damage, she wasn't able to soak the hits like Jake could. Amanda had to resummon her several times.
The other group had a much smoother experience, as Harv and Elli proved once again why they were considered the premier adventurers in Holmstead. Harv's walls kept the monsters funneled into Jack, while Elli dealt with the overflow.
Both Jack and Mike had taken a beating, but Erick and Jessica had kept everyone up, although both healers were down to less than twenty percent of their mana pools.
Bob wanted nothing more than to sit down for a minute. The last wave had consisted of twelve hundred monsters, and quite a few of them had avoided the lava flowing from the walls, choosing instead to throw them at the party's defenses instead.
Before he could summon out a chair, he received a trio of System notifications.
Quest Advanced!
Stop the Feral Winter Minks from overrunning the station! Complete.
Quest Advanced!
Destroy ten of these minks to receive a reward! Complete.
Destroy one hundred of those minks to receive a reward! Complete.
Destroy one thousand of those minks to receive a reward! Complete.
New Quest!
You have exterminated the tides of Feral Winter Minks, and in the process have angered their progenitor!
Defend the station from the Glacial Lord!
"Fuck," Bob muttered at the same time as Mike and Jessica.
Wayna let out a huff, which when coming from a fourteen hundred pound polar bear, had a weight to it that humans just couldn't match.
"The question is, do we meet it at the station, or fight it before it gets here," Dave mused, leaning on his Magma-Infused Focusing Staff.
"I'd rather not move," Amanda sighed, "but we probably shouldn't risk it damaging the station during the fight."
"How are we supposed to know which way it's coming from?" Eddi asked.
Before anyone could reply, they heard a howl of rage, accompanied by a blast of even colder air.
Bob pointed in the direction of the howl, and the glacial burst of wind. "I'm pretty sure it's coming from that way."