Please leave any ideas for future monsters. Also naming animals and possible monsters born from them would help a lot.
I'm very open to any ideas you guys come up with so please post them.
PS. please leave reviews with feedback on whats good and bad so i can improve.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morgan PoV
Once all my men and our stuff were inside, the entrance vanished sealing us.
Before any of us could say anything about it we were all struck by the putrid stick inside this place.
Morgan: 'Fuck what is that?!'
I looked into the dark cave,which had several softly glowing stones around the room which gave us some light, we could see almost nothing.
The only thing we do catch though is the wall covered in a soft glowing moss and over that a small swarm of bugs eating away at the moss while several small rats come from a few small holes and eats a few bugs before scurrying away.
One of my men comes from behind and begins his report. I spot a few men near the wall to the right as well which is where he came from.
Man: 'Sir, this smell is probably the shit on the ground. The bugs, rats and some bats that fly around are all animals. On the other hand, sir, the moss on the walls was examined and seems to be a good quality alchemy ingredients used for potions.'
Morgan: Well, what do you know. This dungeon must like me to pay me back like this. 'Can it be harvested?'
Man: 'Yes sir but it is slow so as not to deplete the moss. It grows by eating magic power so we can cultivate it while we are here.'
Morgan: 'Do it then. Also gather the shit on the ground and burn it. This stench will dull our senses if we stay too long here. The rest of you set up camp.'
The men set about making a camp. The three several mages cast a spell normally used in dungeon raids that keeps monsters away from the area before they went about collecting the moss. The lowest ranked men here were given the job of shovelling any shit in the room before burning it.
In a few minutes the camp would be complete so i go about using the identification skill all adventurers get when they first begin.
Mavis PoV
These guys are a bit more annoying than I thought. Though I did take into consideration that they wanted to snag some monsters.
The annoying part is the spell used to make a safe zone. Still I bought myself a good bit of time by having all my monsters and animals shit in the first room. I know any self respecting adventurer with a bigger group than 10 would make a base came in a dungeon of any kind of danger where it is still unknown to them.
That said it still won't stop me. That spell keeps monsters away but the animals in my dungeon, though wild, can be used as puppets.
That said the poison and paralysis poison bugs are two sets of puppet animals I make live in the rooms.
Because the humans let their guards down with all the lesser bugs and beetles crawling and flying around I decide to poison them a bit earlier.
I already felt the presence of a magic item on all of them which I might guess was for poison but who would stop me from trying. Besides poison eaten is much more devastating than airborne ones.
I make several dozens of bugs enter the room with some that are appearing to go eat and have them fly over the group. Because it was night time my caves were all dark except for the low light from the rocks which released light. I have no control over those but it only gives them some small bits of light.
The trap of this dungeon is only opening at the start of the night. This gives me 8 or so hours where my monsters are powered up. It’s a strange feature of monsters but I don't really care since it helps me, I take it.
The bugs I control are just considered animals. Because of the magic power they have evolved but because I never gave them cores they aren't classified as monsters. That is why they were able to pass through the barrier put up like all the other bugs flying around.
They need little power really to maintain so any ambient MP can keep them alive while the work is done.
I quickly locate the food and once the coast is clear I have them start flying over it with a few other bugs that are there while releasing their poisonous scales. I have them move in and crawl into the deeper areas while releasing it. By the time they reach half way they die because they ran out of mana.
Because of the safe zone they aren't absorbed by me again but I bet as soon as they leave the area it will return. Not like it matters. Unless you know how to cook monster meat you would still get poisoned and the only herbs in my dungeon are in the room I made for the elves so that can season the meat they gather while removing the poison.
With my work here done I just let things roll. Dad also seems to be ready on his part and has the ambushes on stand-by. After thinking about the make up and seeing the tools they had. We remade the ambushes. Instead of all the strong ones being in the room it would be distributed so that the younger ones don’t get caught if they try to ambush them.
Now to just watch the show.
Morgan PoV
This taste like shit. The fresh meat and stuff we bought should have been fresh. Damn I’m going to skewer those merchants when I find them.
Anyways, with all the shit cleaned and the ground burnt to get rid of any piss that was around we eat the meat before we leave.
While we ate suddenly someone comes running.
Man: ‘BOSS~~!! WE HAVE A PROBLEM!’
Morgan: *sigh* ‘What?*
He pulls out several dead bugs both purple and yellow.
The man was pale as he held the bugs.
Man: ‘Sir...I found these inside the food cart. I had them examined by the head mage to be certain but these are definitely the poison bugs that the novices encountered during their raid.’
Everyone around us including myself, paled as we looked at the bugs then at the meat and food cooking over the fire.
Morgan: ‘GET THE ANTIDOTES THEN YOU IDIOT! HAVE THE MAGES MAKE MORE OF IT AS WELL!’
Man: ‘YES SIR!’
He ran off while the rest were scrambling to check all the rest of the food.
They examined one by one and at the end of it nearly half of the food cart was left. All the rest was poisoned. We were planning on staying days here but now we can’t stay for more than a day or two unless we eat the monsters in here. We don’t have the proper seasoning as well since they went out with the rest of the food.
As the antidotes are passed around my head mage appears. The man was in his late fifties and was a very powerful mage.
Mage: ‘Sir unfortunately the prepared herbs for the antidotes were the most coated or in poison or were eaten by the bugs.’
Morgan: ‘Weren’t monsters supposed to be blocked from coming into the barrier.’
Mage: ‘Monsters yes sir, but all the bugs here are animals. Even the poison ones can on the borderline between monsters and animals. That was the reason they lasted only until they got half the food. If they were pure animals we would have lost the whole carriage.’
I scowl hearing him talk. We prepared about 100 bottles of antidotes so we were still safe but we don’t know for how long. This dungeon is really showing us up. Though I guess it’s like how they say, the more carefully planned a building is built the more damage it will cause once it falls down. We were experiencing this right now. We can’t spare much more but I also don’t want to enter a dungeon at night.
Morgan: ‘Set up shifts. Burn the walls of moss and bugs. We don’t want any more mistakes like this. Keep the food heavily guarded as well. Anything besides human that nears it is to die no matter the size.’
The mage bows and goes off giving orders. With some reluctance they burned all the moss and bugs on the walls. When the burning started the bugs all flew off into the cracks in the walls. I guess the dungeon influences even the animals so we need to be extra careful.
We set up shifts to sleep and everyone except those left were allowed to rest.
During the night nothing else happened and soon it was morning. To our surprise the caves released light more brightly so we guessed it was another unique feature to this place.
It's too freaky this dungeon. I’m already thinking about simply conquering this place and kill everything in here. I never had so much trouble even before starting a dungeon run.
I better find my money at the end of this shit hole or I would keep it alive and let it slowly die as it tries to kill us off.
We set out once it was brighter. We undid the camp and the barrier and moved on. The corridors were disgustingly narrow. Though it was three meters it left little to desire in the case of formations.
We had to go with three lines and the carts we were lugging took up a large part. They practically split our forces in half.
I had fight of my top fighters in the back and the rest with me in the front while the rest were also evenly distributed to safeguard the carts. We were cautious of the cracks in the walls that appeared every so often since it was similar to the ones in the first room.
When we neared the first room that was supposed to be filled with the poison bugs we slowed down and carefully hid our remaining supplies before entering. What pissed me off more was that it was completely empty except for the moss on all the walls.
I doubt those brats that came first would lie. It was all too clear that the dungeon changed depending on the person or group that is inside. It planned its strategies, this wasn’t a normal dungeon, it definitely had a conscious with high intelligence, probably on level with humans.
We come into the room slowly but that is when I start her it. Buzzing from all over the room. It was bugs for sure. Were they going to swarm us?
Morgan: ‘Mages get ready to fire out spells. I think we have a bug sw…”
Before I finished from the corridor we came from a huge swarm of yellow and purple bugs fly past us and entered right into the cracks in the room. They passed over under and around us releasing a lot of their poison.
I cursed to myself by how simple and efficient the trap was executed.
Morgan: ‘Is the supplies alright?’
My voice was deadly low and filled with killing intent but I held myself together.
Man: ‘The supplies wasn’t affected sir but since everyone was take by surprise and the quantity was so large we were probably all poisoned again.’
I was grinding my teeth. We are 30 men, 10 of us are fighters including myself but the rest aren’t that strong. We already used 30 antidotes during the food incident and now this would leave us with only 40 potions left.
The brats said there were 2 rooms with bugs which meant that we would be poisoned again if we used the potions to heal us.
Morgan: ‘We stay without using the antidotes. There was another room with the bugs and we also don’t know when the swarm will fly at us again. If the next room has nothing then we move to the next one before using the antidotes.’
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
The men agreed and we moved on. From what I could gather the poison was slow acting but once it hit you would lose control of your body. The brats lost it at the fourth room where the beasts were so if we pass the third room and use the antidotes half way plus some regular health potions we can reach the beasts room with strength remaining.
We pushed on and like the brats said the corridors in between had animals but they were slightly larger wild cats or aggressive rats which weren’t on par with real feral rats.
They were killed instead of caught so we could vent our anger.
In the third room no swarm came. I knew it wouldn’t since we hadn’t used the antidotes so we simply went on. We met more animals but this time in larger number. Our movements were getting slowed down by the paralysis poison and I lost 2 men. We then used the antidotes and potions increase our rate of healing.
While we waited for the potions to take effect we moved slowly to get to the room with more strength.
Our movements got better with each step and we soon arrived at the next room. It was also empty but from what we know the ferals are in here and come out from the larger cracks in the walls.
There was a disturbing silence in the room and we slowly walked in. Just before we saw it we heard a sound that made us all pale. That same buzzing. I looked back fast enough to see the swarm come from the corridor over us and into the small cracks in near the ceiling before we heard a growl.
We were all poisoned for sure again and to top it off the plan this time wouldn’t let us recover.
I look back and see a child sized rat with hair only on his arms, legs and head with the hair being wild. The face still was of a rat but had gained some human like features which made it all the more disturbing.
They slowly appeared from the cracks spreading out. The last one to come out was the largest. He stayed near the opening he came from. He was nearly a third bigger than the other rats and looked like he could easily kill a novice.
Morgan: ‘That's the alpha of the pack?’
Mage: ‘Yes sir. It seems to be a variant. This is bad cause it looks smart, even the weaker ones look smart.’
Morgan: ‘They are playing with us.’
I began releasing killing intent and notice several smaller ones flinch but just as I was about to give the order to attack I heard screaming. I looked back through the side of the cart which was right at the doorway and paled. From behind the ferals had appeared and were attack.
I heard a loud screech from my side. The alpha let out a screech and several ferals rushed us. The claws of several started to glow and the tail of the rest as well.
Morgan: ‘Defensive positions. Get the shields on the front. The rest get ready to attack anything that jumps over.’
The men circled around the door with shields while the mage was preparing magic and the other close range fighters got ready for anything.
The rats arrived and with them the swung the glowing claws right at the iron kite shields we prepared.
The sound of the scratching was like iron on iron. It made me cringe imagining that going over our bodies.
The rest with claws attacked and following them the ones with glowing tails did a quick turn and whipped their tail low, hitting the legs of a few men. It cut clean through the leather and iron place leaving a huge gash on the leg.
Three men were able to remain standing while two of them fell forward or back. The rats capitalized and struck down those who fell forward while cutting his body to pieces and swiftly dragging his body away into the large group.
As soon as it started though it ended. With a screech from the alpha they all retreated with their game. It was from both sides as well. They vanished without a trace leaving us shocked.
I had the carts pulled forward to check the damage on the back.
Of the 15 men back there 6 lower ranked were killed. From the front 3 were taken down.
I cursed this dungeon with everything I had until I could vent some of my rage. The mage brought me an antidote to get rid of the poison.
I looked over at the area with 5 others who were injured. 14 men were down. Half my force, though all the fighters were still here the moral of everyone was at its lowest.
We have gone through hundreds of dungeons but we never had so much trouble on the FIRST FUCKING FLOOR of one.
The constant biological traps which scouts can’t spot or deactivate was literally eating us alive. We couldn’t do much about them until now we never found a dungeon that could plan such advanced strategies like this. I was sure the quick retreat of the rats was a method used to lower our moral further so that we would reach the next room near death.
I was sure none of the remaining weaklings would survive the next wave. The only ones that could survive was us 10 fighters and that was if we could somehow block the swarm from attacking us.
Our best bet was that our mage maintain a spell active aimed back to the swarm. But thinking of that, the dungeon would notice and simply attack us normally and wait for him to attack something else before sending the swarm.
This thing was dangerous. Not only a physical battle are we fighting but a mental one. He is working on our moral making us more desperate.
We wait for the injured to have their legs and the claw wounds cleaned and bandaged and some of the potions used to increase their rate of healing.
It’s impossible to make a potion for instant healing. We can make potions to increase our heal rate for a certain time. That was why the Mage’s were using healing spells. They are costly but we can’t be picky in this situation.
When the injured were healed we moved on. I could hear murmuring but I forced them on. We all knew that going back would simply make us more desperate and might even cause the traps to be redone. This time we left the cart behind. We took the food wrapped in leather and carried on our backs. The cart was getting in the way and we couldn’t risk an attack from both sides with our forces divided again.
The men were on guard completely. The shields were raised in front the sides and even the back. We didn’t know when something would appear. We finally reached the fifth room. Like the rest it was empty but not losing time we run to the side wall away from any cracks and set up a circular wall of shields. One group of shields would knee while another would stand behind them covering the top.
As we finish we saw it again. The alpha casually walked out following it was his pack that slowly filled out. I knew then that we were allowed to take this defense position. We weren’t going to get out of this room.
Morgan: ‘Prepare for the last fight. They aren’t going to let up from now on.’
I said that and the men tensed up.
The alpha then let out a screech and then we heard it. A loud roar similar to a tigers but slightly higher.
Our eyes went to both doors. From one we came from, small wild cats and more ferals ran in. From the one leading to the sixth room we felt total despair seeing what came out.
Just smaller than a tiger, with short brown with black stripes on its fur and two huge canines appearing from the top of its mouth huge felines appeared.
We all felt despair but still from adventures experience I used identify on one of them.
Race:Saber Tooth Wild CatLevel:25Health:430Magic:20Intelligence:150Strength(attack):150Endurance(defense):400Magic Defense:30Magic Attack:75Skills:Unknown
Even though it would cause morale to drop further I read out what I saw. It was all too well known that any feline with the name Saber Tooth was nearing the highest peak power of the feline family. They were still wild cats but should they gain the proper conditions they would easily become tigers, or if the dungeon wanted something with such high intelligence, Tiger Beast men.
I lift my great sword over my shoulder ready to swing if any of these bastards get near.
Morgan: ‘You all, we will fight and survive. Remember, this is the first floor. Even though it has used traps to weaken us these are still first floor monsters. We can kill them even if they outnumber us.’
It was a desperate attempt to raise moral. I even used the skill from my old warrior class known as “Battle Cry” while I said that. It boasted morale if you said the right things. Still I didn’t think we could get out. Not the weak ones at least.
The Feral rat screeched and everything was a blur from there.
The rats and cats attacked in waves. What was worse was that the cats also had magic based skill of wind nature.
Every so often a small animal like a wild cat or something that appeared from the cracks, a bat I think, nearly twice the size of a normal one, would attack from above but it was easily beaten back.
The numbers were depressing and one wave after another we were pushed further back.
It was then that we saw it. The alpha was running with his tail glowing. We bulked down ready to take the attack. Other rats have done the tail whip attack but it was like the claw one. It didn’t break through the shields.
When the alpha was in range, it stopped and did its turn. I instantly saw a difference in form. The muscles in its tail were clearly stronger. They tensed up and looked more like a spiked whip. It did a full 180 turn and released his tense tail.
It cut through the shield wall horizontally like paper. It reached the other side and even cut the leg of those kneeling clean off.
Three men were on the ground with their right legs, which was up against the shield to help support them, cut off. We paled at the power. When I looked back the monsters had made a circle around the alpha.
It was clear this thing was an elite of the dungeon and it hunted what it wanted easily. Its power clearly showed that it wasn’t a joke.
It screeched once more and the monsters came at once.
I swung my sword using a skill which sent my attack flying like a blade of wind. It cut down several regular wild cats but it was stopped by a large one who had glowing claws.
It rose its claw up before slashing diagonally. On our wall moments later a heavy impact and four deep claw marks were imprinted on the shields.
It was nearly the same skill but they sent four at once because of the claws.
The large cats were lined up when we looked back all with the same pose and at once they swung.
The last thing I remember before seeing black was the alpha rats glowing claw approaching my face right after I saw my men being chopped to pieces.