Author: Thank you for reading
Tragedy tag is gone but losses and such remain. Except toward main party (give or take a few disasters.)
Healing magic ups a person's regenerative ability. If it was some miracle spell, than people wouldn't be getting scars or have missing limbs. So if something is crushed beyond it's ability to regenerate...whelp too bad.
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Domain of the God’s
“Nexu! Your pet just crippled my chosen!” (Angry God)
“Hmph, Kuro is no pet, and that brat had it coming. Didn't you repeatedly warn him, yet he kept saying, “A hero overcomes anything for the sake of his harem!”. Seriously, why in the infinite realms of hell did you pick him Selerius.” (Amare)
“Kuh, he wasn't like that before he was selected.” (Selerius)
“Hmm...true, but everything that happened to him in his life before his selection should have been a dead giveaway to him being a dud. After all, him being alone, hated, and driven out of his home was his own fault.” (Amare)
“It's not like all of it was his fault though. And other gods usually found success with people like him.” (Selerius)
“I know not all of it was his fault, but he did nothing to really prevent or rather overcome it either. He simply drowned himself into the life of an otaku (he became a serious closet pervert too). And those gods sent them to worlds far different from this one. His personality becoming twisted due to the situation and knowledge from all that stuff he read, lead him to going wild in this world.” (Amare)
“Look, this is beside the point. What I want to know is how that disg-*Amare emits a bit of pressure*...*cough* how your chosen beat him when he should have been overpowered by mine.” (Selerius)
“Better foundation, that's it. Kuro has been building up his control over his body rather than raw strength for a while now.” (Amare)
“I can't believe it to be such a simple thing when he is alre-!” (Selerius)
“I’m aware of what is going on, don't think such a thing will be tolerated *glare*.” (Amare)
“Whatever! Just tell me how you plan to compensate me or he will face retribution.” (Selerius)
“What are you going on about, it's not like the guy is dead.” (Amare)
“No, but he-” (Selerius)
“Your chosen tried to forcefully take someone under the care of my own chosen, the guy should just stay with his own group. Don't think you guys can do whatever you please. Now if that is all…” (Amare)
“Tch, this isn't over!” (Selerius) *Storms out of the area*
“...Idiot.” (Amare)
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Kuro’s POV
My group neared the location of the dungeon. The surrounding monsters were a bit stronger than normal even though they aren't usually difficult in other areas. No doubt it's the influence of a dungeon.
Not much is known about dungeons in this world, but Amare told me that they are born ‘similar’ to a [Dryad] but with a different evolutionary path. Similar being the key word.
Regardless, I will use it to get stronger.
…
After a bit of searching the entrance was finally discovered, hidden near a small cliff face. It looked particularly man made in my opinion, but it didn't really matter to me. After recapping our contingencies and things to watch out for before we finally enter, I gave Puerial a bit of encouragement since she seemed a bit nervous. Shiro as usual looked ready to go.
The fairy still remains in my pocket, unwilling to leave. As long as nothing gets past my defense she should be fine though.
As we entered and treaded across the even ground, the light of the sun quickly faded as if it was an unwelcome guest. The air turned a bit stale, and the only source of light came from the few torches that suddenly came to life as we approached. The place seems to be trying to set up a dreary atmosphere to discourage travelers from entering, or whittle moral. Either way I expect much from this place.
The first floor was of a straight line with a few rats here and there, nothing special. Basically it was a big entrance to set the mood. However when we descended down the first staircase, it felt like we passed a sort of invisible film. I wanted to find out what it was but decided not to waste time. From then on wards it finally got interesting.
As expected the monsters weren’t too difficult, but the difficulty didn't take to long to grow as we moved further in. That however wasn’t what was interesting, what was interesting was that the monsters would disappear and leave random objects. Since they were weak, it was basically some small copper coins or low grade materials, but it was pretty amazing nonetheless.
I would have definitely took advantage of this place long before if things were a bit different.
But I can still do so right now, best not to dwell on it.
When we reached the fifth floor, we finally encountered a trap, pretty simple to avoid though, but these things will no doubt get more complex and harder to see so I warned the other two just in case. Ever since we passed the film though I felt a weird presence in the surroundings. I couldn’t figure out what it was so I just kept an eye out just in case.
As we almost reached the tenth floor we all decided to take a break to preserve our strength. This place has gotten considerably more difficult and if my guess is right this room may have a surprise. As we rested I recalled the things we got or saw, up until the eighth floor, the drops were pretty much junk. The only good thing we got was a single monster core from some variant monster and lot’s of copper coins. Since it’s troublesome to carry so many copper coins, we decided to leave most of it besides what would be considered spare change.
When we felt rested enough we continued onto the next room. As the reports said from when this place was actively targeted by people. Every ten floors has a floor master. This one though is only a {Young Flame Salamander} and doesn't pose much of a threat to us. Most of the previous monsters were also just weaker varieties of this floor master so this dungeon may be lizard themed like from the reports.
Even if I know what to expect from reports, it's still better to confirm it since false information can likely pop up with everything going on.
The salamander died quickly and dropped a [Flame Wand] and [Monster Core]. Since Puerial doesn’t have an affinity for fire I took the wand to extract it's properties for my [Mana Synthesis] skill.
Spoiler :
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Flame Wand
Weapon
Rank: G
Description:
A crude wand that increases fire magic.
Effects:
Fire Magic up (Very small)
It’s not a really good wand but still, at least I can get something useful from it.
Everything proceeded the same as before, except the monsters and traps became more powerful and elaborate causing a few mishaps. However we were still able to manage, a bit taken aback though. Being lax is now no longer an option, even Puerial became more focused on her surroundings.
The second floor master was a {Lesser Drake}. The sudden jump in difficulty was annoying since the thing could fly around in this spacious room and shoot random bits of magic at us. However, even if we can't fight it physically, we can fight it magically as well. So the whole thing turned into a firefight with the lesser drake. The thing was pretty nimble and hard to hit with it's constantly shifting movements.
When it fell though it left some good leather, 3 small silver coins, and a [Fang Blade]. After checking the blade it seemed to be suited for Shiro. It was at the same level as her weapons, but with an enchantment to increase attack speed. So after upping its attributes, it was given to her. I’ll have to make a proper sheath for it later.
The third tier of the dungeon became labyrinth based rather than walking down corridors and checking each individual room for the stairs down. Before we proceeded I had the two start marking places they’ve been. If we are separated we can eventually track each other by following each other's trails. It was only a what if, but they understood the necessity of being careful in this place.
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Shiro’s POV
I followed Kuro into the, from what he said, third tier area of the dungeon. Like all the other areas, it smells old. Nobody has been here for a while since I can't smell anyone else besides us. Puerial has gotten really nervous but is still capable of pushing on.
I kept getting confused as we moved forward, but Kuro would always point me in a different direction saying that we already went down that path. Those markings we left were definitely on the walls so his plan worked. This place makes my head fuzzy though. When I told Kuro about it, he said to try focusing my mana into my head. When I did the fuzziness went away and I can think better.
He said it may have been a trap to make us take longer in the labyrinth. I will be more careful from now on.
With my head working better, this place wasn’t too hard to get through, the monsters also can’t attack in large groups so they are easy to beat. We walked down this place for hours and had to rest a bunch of times, the snacks Kuro prepared for this place was delicious even though it was a preserved food.
Puerial also started to calm down since we started getting used to this place. The puzzles we kept finding were annoying though. Kuro and Puerial would spend time trying to solve them together. Since I didn't want to be left out I tried my best too. These puzzles would give us some orb things when we solved it, which Kuro said might be a key or something.
How is an orb a key?
Before I realized it we were in front of a very intimidating door. There were a bunch of holes on the door...so those orbs were keys, as expected of Kuro.
We put all the orbs on the slots and a question appeared.
“The answer is simple. Don't think too hard. What loses its head in the morning and gets it back at night?”
Ah, wait how can someone lose their head and get it back? Is it a monster or something.
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Puerial’s POV
This is pretty easy, the answer is a pillow.
When I told the group the answer Shiro had a look of realization, tehe she must have been confused. But my mom loved riddles so this stuff is easy to me.
When I was about to put the answer into the spot to write on the door Kuro stopped me. He said I’m wrong, but what else could it be other than a pillow. When I was going to argue with him, he said it was a trick question. What does he mean a trick question.
He suddenly pointed at the first part, “The answer is simple.”...!? What? No way! I almost fell for that! Aue, mother will scold me if she ever finds out.
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Kuro’s POV
This place was annoying to navigate through, thankfully we marked our paths and avoided entering places we were in before. The marks though were slowly fading so we couldn’t waste time. The puzzles though were seriously aggravating. Puerial was able to solve most of them easily though. However what pissed me off was the dead ends we ran into that always head mocking words.
Overcoming it all though we finally reached this door with a lot of slots. Like I thought, those orbs were important.
The question that appeared though, was a similar trick question that I saw in my previous life. Puerial seemed to want to answer this one again though so I didn’t say anything, up until she tried to put the wrong answer. Last thing we need is for this thing to trigger an instant death trap.
She seemed dejected, but will be fine.
When the doors opened and light began to fill the room, what we saw was outside of our expectations.
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A/N: Not the best dungeon crawl ever written but…yea I want to advance the story.
I have work so I couldn’t make it too long but I did focus the chapter on them being in the dungeon rather than all over the place. (Chapter’s will always be 2,000 words and up guaranteed though.)