I woke up the next morning excited for the coming trial. “Come on Inkler, we have a dungeon to tackle today.” I said, shoving his head off my hip. “Come on, let’s see just how far we can get shall we?” Heading in to the kitchen, I opted for a smaller breakfast today. A few eggs, some toast, and some sausage patties. Inkler got one plate, and glared at me when I placed it on his own little table. “Oh no sir, you are not going to overeat and then try sleeping in the dungeon on me. We are on a time limit, and I still have to oversee the final bits of our own dungeon. So eat your breakfast and no complaining!”
After a tense few seconds, he chuffed and started in on his food. I nodded and finished what I was working on. Just as I was taking the last bite, the gong alarm went off to let me know someone was at the door.
“Oh hey there.” I said as I answered, noting that it was the guard from yesterday. “I didn’t catch your name, what can I call you?”
“Jo’ren sir.”
“Excellent Jo’ren. Come on in and tell me what brings you by today.”
“Well, sir. I was wondering what your plans were so that I could have a proper escort set up. Are you just planning to do some training in the yard again?”
“Ah, not this time Jo’ren. I’m more interested in heading over to the Descent into Madness dungeon and testing myself there.”
Jo’ren immediately paled and started stammering. “D descent into ma ma madnesss, sir?”
“Yes. I heard about it from a friend, and was wondering if you could tell me about it.”
“I, of course sir. Give me a moment, we will need at least four more guards.”
“Just remember, I’m heading into the dungeon solo.” I called after his retreating back, getting a wave from him. “All done Inkler?” I asked, catching him eyeing several plates that were close to the edge of the table. “Come on, we can wait outside. Away from all the temptations for you.” I managed to resist the piteous look Inkler gave me, and ushered him outside where we were just in time for Jo’ren to return. Odd, he had a strange badge on the left breast of his uniform. It was a solid blue hexagon with the number 81 written on it.
“Ok sir, follow me please. I’ll answer any questions you have along the way.”
“Sounds good. I guess I’ll start with your new badge. Is that something from the dungeon?”
“This? Oh, yes. Looking at the badge you can tell someone’s accomplishments in the dungeon. Solid colors denote a maximum party level. If you have six to nine members, you get a bronze border. Two to five members gets a silver border, and solo challengers get a gold border. The number in the middle is the maximum level you have cleared.”
“Interesting. I take it these act as bragging rights?”
“Correct. It is impossible to fake them, as they are bestowed by the dungeon.”
“What happens if you go with two different groups. Do you have two different tags?”
“Yes. You can have up to four different badges, they will organize into a diamond shape with the topmost being your solo score.”
“Alright. I suppose you don’t know how deep the tower goes, do you?”
“No. The furthest a group has ever made it was clearing level 335. We assume that to be only a third of the dungeon proper.”
“Wow.” I whistled, impressed. “Did they survive?”
“You aren’t aware? Of course you aren’t, my bad. This is one of two unique dungeons. It isn’t populated by the monster races, and anyone who dies in it is transported back to the beginning after receiving the experience penalties. If you do die, then you are blocked out for at least three days. If your entire group dies, then it is a week.”
“No wonder the drow control it. Sounds like the perfect place to work on small group tactics. Are the levels the same every time you visit?”
“Yes and no. Level one will always be a level 5 slime. Sometimes it is a normal slime, sometimes a variant. Oh, and here we are.” Motioning forward, I saw a line of drow waiting to enter an incredibly ornate gazebo structure. It looked like it was made of several bone white trees with their branches entangled, and there was a blue orb on a platform in the middle of the structure. As I watched, ten drow moved around until they were all within the structure. When they were ready, the leader touched the orb with a palm and everyone disappeared with a flash of mana.
“Instanced dungeon?” I asked.
“Yes. We haven’t hit the upper limit yet, though we aren’t truly trying. It can handle over five hundred groups at once.” I nodded at him, and we waited patiently in line. It seemed like a new group could enter once per minute, so the line was moving rather rapidly. As we neared, there were two guards that noted everyone’s names as they got ready to enter.
“Name?” The female on the left asked.
“Angus MacG.” I replied.
“First time?”
“Yes.”
“Follow me for a second, we have to go over some rules.” She pulled me off to the side, but inside the gate that people had to pass through to get to the gazebo. “Alright, I’ll make this quick. First time divers only have to pay half the fee, 25 gold. On top of that, 5% of the loot you pick up instead of the normal 10%. This can be done in a money transaction, or you can give us the equivalent in materials picked up in the dungeon. Would you like to place a bet on how far you will go today?”
“Sure, I’ll be stopping after clearing level 50.”
“Solo? You sure about that? You are only level ten.”
“I’ll be fine. Though I’m not going to be placing bets myself, you can let others who want to bet know.”
“Very well. Let’s get you back in line then.” She said, noting something down on a clipboard. We walked back up to the line, and the other guard held back the group that was next in line. “LISTEN UP! WE GOT A NEW CHALLENGER! Level ten Angus MacG claims he will be clearing level 50 today, and solo to boot! I give him 5 to 1 odds against, place your bets as you come through.” While there was murmuring in the line, she turned to me and said, “Head on up and place your hands on the pedestal whenever you’re ready. See you when you get back.”
Nodding to her, I followed her directions, feeling Inkler moving along at my side. Once we were on the pedestal, I touched the orb. That’s when everything went to Hell. The gazebo lit up in red light, a force field forming to prevent others from accessing the gazebo.
Welcome, divinity!
Are you here to challenge the dungeon? You will be transported to the Divine Monster challenge, where the rules are slightly different.
1) You may not leave until clearing level 50, or unless death takes you.
2) All monsters will be of divine rank.
3) Experience will be awarded on an all or none basis. If you are defeated, you get no experience but may keep the loot.
4) For every 50 levels you clear, you may access and alter the dungeon menu for those floors. Clear floor 1,000 to become the dungeon master.
Entering dungeon in 3
2
1
After reading through the message, I was transported to a large arena with a flash of light. “It’s ok buddy, we’ll get through this.” I said, patting Inkler’s side. He had plastered himself to my leg in fright, not that I blamed him. “Who would have thought that someone would have a crazy rule for divine monsters? This is ridiculous.”
Across the empty arena from us, a green summoning circle appeared, and a slime that easily reached my chest was summoned. I could see bubbles trapped within it, and it seemed like a very viscous form of slime.
Divine poison slime
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Level 5
Feared across the planes, divine poison slimes kill swiftly but painfully. Often they will allow their kills to rot for at least a week or two before consuming them, incorporating any toxins that have accumulated into their bodies.
“Inkler, you should probably stay back on this one. I don’t want you getting poisoned. [Dark bolt].” Knowing slimes were generally weak to magic, I fired off a dark spell and watched as a small portion was blasted off. The main body shook and quickly fixed the oozing wound, while all of the slime that had been blasted away started smoking on the sand. In retaliation, it fired two globs of acid in my direction. I only dodged one, wanting to see if Lolth’s gift would work. Sure enough, the poison splashed against me to no effect aside from a small loss of health from the impact itself. I even took a good whiff of the green smoke that was curling up from the impact site.
“Well, that’ll make things a lot easier.” I said with a smile, charging in to the slime. I wanted to get in close so that I could take out the core faster. Simple creature that it was, the core was in the exact center of the slime mass. While I shoved my hand in up to the elbow, I weathered a few slaps from poisoned tentacles. Pins and needles shot up and down my arm the entire time I was inside the slime. After a few seconds of running my hand through something the consistency of honey, I felt a stone the size of my fist. Yanking it out, I watched as the slime desperately tried to keep the core within it’s liquid. Unfortunately for the slime, I was faster and could change direction on a whim. With a feint to one side, I yanked the core down and out of the tentacle that had formed, and watched as the slime lost all cohesion.
Divine poison slime defeated!
Loot: Pristine poison core x1
Weak divine poison x1
I placed the core and vial of the slime essence into my bag, shocked that my health had dropped by ten percent. I guess I was immune to slime poison, but not the acidic properties of the slime body. “Stay away from that!” I ordered Inkler, as he was already starting to walk up to the puddles of slime that were rapidly steaming away into nothingness. Once they were gone, I got a notification that round 2 was starting.
Instead of one slime, I was now facing two level five slimes. “[Lance of light].” I fired once through the slime on the left, the spell unimpeded by the slime consistency as it easily pierced the core. As it splattered, the second one fired a few poison bolts at me as a distraction. As it slid over the decomposing body of the previous slime, it grew slightly larger as it absorbed the remains. “Rude.” I said, before blasting away at the body with alternating dark and light bolts. I spread them around, watching as the slime struggled to contain the damage. While it had an incredibly flexible membrane to contain the interior, it still took a while to seal itself up when a magic blast tore a hole in it. Seven bolts later, and I had enough removed that one last bolt was able to strike the core and destroy it.
“You been watching Inkler? You’ll have to attack from a distance, and try and get the core to take these guys down.” I gave him a slight lecture as I collected some slime cores and more of the weak poison. Once I had my loot, I got another notification for round three. This time I was facing a slime that burned with a bluish flame, a level 6 divine flame slime. This time defense was a much higher priority, as I didn’t want to get burned. Especially after seeing that the flaming globs of slime the creature fired burned for at least another minute upon impact. This battle, I was the distraction as Inkler closed in and shattered the core with his reality slash skill. I was disappointed to find out that the slime cores were not differentiated based on the variety of slime.
Once Inkler and I had our method down for the slimes, it was incredibly simple. Round three was a level 6 divine flame and a level 6 divine water slime. The water slime was the harder one to dispatch, simply because the core was constantly in motion. We had to basically remove all the slime before we could get a decent strike on it. Round four was a level 7 stone slime, which had bits of stone armor enmeshed in its membrane. While its attacks were much slower, we had to attack from a distance because of an instinctual reaction. Any time the membrane was pierced, hundreds of small spikes elongated in every direction, making it look like a sea urchin. Anyone foolish enough to get close would be perforated.
“Miniboss fight, get ready.” I warned Inkler, as round five was beginning. This time we were fighting a level 10 divine black cube, that was at least eight feet tall. We could see slight swirls in the dark material, but the core was well hidden. “Stay at a distance bud. I doubt our darkness attacks will be effective.” The entire battle was a pain in the ass. I had to keep my distance, and fire off a combination of light bolt, lance of light, followed by another light bolt. By the time the three spells had been cast, the cube was within attack range. Its main attack was smashing with a massive slime hammer, and I was forced to use dancing shadow steps to avoid the incredible speed of the attack. The other attack the creature liked to do was to speed across the arena and attempt to body slam me. There was one bit that was making the battle easier on my end. The slime blasted off immediately dissipated, so the slime couldn’t heal itself. Once I noticed this, I started targeting the first blast to take off a corner of the cube, causing just a bit more damage.
“Ugh, that was a pain.” I complained after finally taking out the cube. The battle had raged for nearly ten minutes, and the notification I received let me know I would have a five-minute rest before the second set of battles began. I downed a mana potion, as that was the only one of my pools that was not going to recover in time. “Don’t worry bud, I’m sure after round ten we will have some opponents you can sink your teeth into.” I comforted Inkler, who was obviously frustrated that he couldn’t help out with most of them.
The second round started, and Inkler was happy to be able to assist with more slimes. Round six was three divine armor eaters, two at level 8 and one at level 10. Small, fast little critters, they didn’t have any core whatsoever. We had to avoid them and slash at them from a distance, which was much easier said than done. I nearly shat myself when one launched itself at my face from a few feet away, and an instinct smash with my hammer splattered the offending slime all over the place. Though it did kill the slime, I was in a good bit of agony from all the little splatters that got on me. I even lost 25% durability on my weapon from just that one hit, another reason to keep them at a distance.
Round seven was three more level 8 slimes, and they were the most annoying yet. I had never heard of a sand slime, but these ones would slither around under the sands and try and erupt at your feet. They couldn’t immediately dive back in the ground, which gave us a window of about a minute to kill them. Their other attack was a ranged one. They basically turned themselves into a sand blaster, sending a stream of sand in our direction. It didn’t do much damage, but if you were facing them you were guaranteed to get grit in your eyes and lose a bit of visibility for a while.
The eighth round was four level 9 slimes. Three were stone slimes, while the last one was a healing slime. It had no offense, but was adept at hiding within the triangle formed by the three stone slimes and keeping their health topped off. Inkler was the one who finally managed to nail the little pink bastard, darting in while invisible and shredding it with a reality slash. Once that was down, the rest fell swiftly. Round 9 had three water slimes and one typhoon slime. It seemed to be a combination of air and water, firing both air blades and high powered water jets at us. The jets were hard to dodge, but didn’t do much damage once you were about half the arena width away. Once again I kited the slimes, and left Inkler to slash at them. As they turned to attack him while he was retreating, I could finally counter with a few magic blasts. Once they were down, I had to quickly drink another mana potion as well as a health potion. We were only given a one-minute timer before the boss fight would begin.
“Whoever made this recovery time limit is a right bastard.” I muttered to Inkler just before the last boss appeared. I was stunned for a second when it did, as it wasn’t anything like what we had fought before.
Divine Hydratail beast slime
Level 15
A variant of a beast slime, treat this creature as an extreme danger. Each of its six tails contains its own core, and can use powers from each of them. The main body is controlled by a seventh core, and the slime takes the form of the favorite prey. In this case, it is a planar growler. These cat-like creatures prowl the different planes, attacking from ambush.
“Oh shit, this is gonna hurt.” I swore, before giving quick instructions to Inkler. “Attack what you can, each tail has its own core. Beware retaliation from every part of the body.” With that, the fight was on. We split to each side of the beast, Inkler using a horizontal reality slash as I tried a vertical one in an attempt to split it in half. There was a small detonation as the skills collided, but I couldn’t do much more as I was busy dodging what I could from the tails. The stone spike and fireball were easy to move around, but the lightning bolt caught me right in the chest. Inkler must have done just slightly more damage, as the beast slime turned to face him.
“Fuck, this is a bad idea.” I muttered, as I charged in. I didn’t want them to concentrate on Inkler, as he had much lower stats than I did. The tails immediately reoriented on me, but it was too late for them. “Shadow and light, unite in annihilation. [Oblivion sphere][Dancing shadow steps].” I shot the sphere right at the base of the tails, teleporting away as six elemental attacks tore through the space I was recently occupying.
“You okay bud.” I panted as I appeared right next to Inkler, who had a smoking line along his right flank. He gave out a growling mewl, obviously annoyed by the slime creature. Looking back at it, my attack had been fantastic. All the tails were gone, removed by the explosion. Its health had dropped to a third of the maximum, and it was hissing at us. Instead of raising the hairs on its back, it was flashing its slime in hundreds of small spikes. The closest I could think to describe it would be a cornstarch slurry dancing on top of a speaker. “Well, the tails are gone. Shall we blast it from a distance?” I asked with a grin, and Inkler head butted me in agreement. Several magic bolts later, and the boss was done. Once I had collected the seven cores, a small treasure chest popped up in the middle of the arena. Opening it, I received 15 platinum coins as well as five health and mana potions strong enough to completely refill my pools.
Congratulations!
You have defeated the first floor guardian! You may progress to the next stage at any time, or wait until the half hour timer has finished.
Advance? Y/N
Experience awarded!
For finishing a boss level, you have earned the total experience from your previous fights.
Level up x3
“Let’s go ahead and take the full half hour break, what do you say bud?” I asked Inkler as I took out a small snack for us. The rest was most welcome, and something I would be looking forward to after each boss. The thing that concerned me was the level progression. If it kept up like it did, the boss of the final arena floor would be level 55. Something was telling me that it was going to start growing faster though, and I might have to fight something closer to level 100. While my effective level was 130 right now, it still wasn’t something I was going to be looking forward to. I couldn’t compare damage, as I hadn’t fought a slime before, but something was telling me that these divine creatures enjoyed a damage boost.