I, Sagrado Araw, have led everyone into our first glorious battle. We have with us an acid snail.
Maybe my talent lies in prophetic words instead of the sword or the spell?
Should I enrol as a monk?
M-maybe a priest?
The snail squared us off cautiously. Obviously judging if we will be tasty or should it just burn our faces off.
After I joined the Snowdrifts, only bad things happened to me. Still, there is one thing I received… Well, two. The first is the Origin Cultivation Manual – Basic Series. It is given upon joining the guild, but it only increases lifespan and makes you healthy.
As for how many years longer I can live after an acid snail eats my face, I’m not hopeful.
The other thing the guild given us before this exercise is something they called an Origin External Cultivation Method. It is also part of the Basic Series and uses something called the Origin Energy to hone one’s physique.
Having fervently studied both manuals for dear life, I have managed to not really understand either.
Nevertheless, everyone was fully supportive of me. So much so that the other recruits were taught personally while only I am only monitored. I guess my orcish descent gave me pedigree.
Now, I shall show them all, how right they are!
…..
Sagrado Araw drew his blade against the acid snail and the 7 other recruits burst into cheers.
They clapped loudly as he waved his weapon fiercely at the snail.
*Splat!*
Green goo flew towards the overly excited human male. The snail decided then that this creature before it is insane. Better to burn it with acid then eat it and catch something strange.
“AHHHH!”
A terrifying scream shocked everyone. Relestia and Sparrow rushed to interfere, but they stopped midway.
Sagrado jumped and waved his sword wildly, anyone that comes too near might be cut. Then, his weapon flew out of his hand towards the snail’s back. A loud crack could be heard as the metal struck its shell.
*Weeee!*
The snail cried aloud tearfully before slithering away. Although it was not injured, that human is rabid and for its safety, the magical beast decided to tactically retreat.
Everyone had thought the acid splashed onto Sagrado, given the amount of screaming that was done, but it was just a morale boosting war cry. Look at how easily their splendid first recruit had deterred one of the deadliest creatures found on the first level of the dungeons.
Everyone thought that attacking a snail’s shell would be pointless, but if he had thrown his weapon at the beast but nicked it, the snail would have gone berserk and spit acid wildly and that will make things dangerous.
Everyone clapped with quite a few pats on his back.
Sagrado blushed heavily but it is a fact that they successfully came out unharmed. The little boy looked up at this senior brother of theirs with admiration and even reached out his little arms for him to carry.
Sagrado politely refused, claiming that big brother has to protect everyone.
In truth, his arms and legs are still trembling. If the acid fell onto him, he would have died.
He did not notice that his physique had improved greatly, to the point where a neglectful toss of his sword could break a magical beast’s shell.
Relestia nodded approvingly but Sparrow had a glint in her eyes as she noted down everyone’s reaction of this encounter, from the time they discovered the danger till things were resolved.
When the dungeon was selected as the place for their first training, Kairos had suggested Sparrow and Relestia to go with the recruits. The princess of Saint Empire had combat strength equal to a Class 8 or 9 Knight and could protect the group whereas the princess of the dwarves is a veteran city guard who can tell who will flee and who will stand and fight when there is danger.
Sparrow narrowed her eyes at everyone’s reactions. The grandfather and child… ummm, yeah, those two are only here for fun.
The other six. As expected of the captain of the group who has orcish blood. He dodged the acid snail’s spit easily and made a decisive attack. The act of throwing his weapon is a foolish one, but a common rookie mistake understandably.
She mentally marked the other recruits on who had wanted to run and who was preparing to fight.
They ventured deeper into the dungeon, letting the darkness envelope them. The only natural light they can find are glowing mushrooms that can be found sporadically. In here, besides magical creatures, there are traps, trap rooms, mechanical dolls and chests. Where these things came from are just as mysterious as the dungeon itself. Some claimed that an ancient wizard created all these, some believed the dungeon is an underground civilisation that had disappeared, and of course there are those with obvious agendas that claim the dungeon is because of the Elf King Veritus – because if anyone can make such a place it must be the most powerful and long-lived being on Axis Mundi.
The situation here changes every moment, and the group are fully alert after their encounter with an acid snail. While the upper floors are relatively safe usually, no one can guarantee that a fearsome creature from the depths would not surface. Nobody knows the reason why the creatures in the dungeon try to come outside every once a while, but if anyone happens to come across even a single lower floor dweller, it will be catastrophic.
On the first level, there will be snails, slugs, goblins, cave beetles and snakes. If they are unlucky, the strongest monster, a cave scorpion, might appear. Of course, this is excluding the possible mechanical creatures that guard the place and the monsters that infrequently came up from the lower levels.
Sagrado carefully checked every corner while making sure no one touches any suspicious objects. They did not need to light any torches, thanks to the dim glow from the mushrooms. The silent tunnels were overbearing and many of the recruits trembled uncontrollably.
The quietness did not get to everyone. At least the little boy is excitedly waving his sheathed dagger about in the air. He is animatedly showing his grandfather how Sagrado had defeated the acid snail.
In a place where dangers lurk around, it would be prudent to stay silent, but these newcomers did not think it to be serious. They only warned the boy to be more cautious and seeing that he had not loudly made a din, they relented to the child making soft phonetic imitations.
Little do they know that a soft shuffle of feet is enough to announce one’s presence to the bloodthirsty monsters in the dungeon a mile down the tunnels.
Veteran dungeon divers will wear cloth pads over their shoes and tie down all their weapons, armours, and anything that might clink. Although the group followed this tradition, they thought that the level of carefulness as unnecessary which is why they had not been too hard on the boy.
Sparrow frowned but when Relestia blinked at her, she held back her advice. They are only to protect the group and leave all the decisions to them.
Just as the two princesses thought, the noise quickly attracted a swarm of curious cave beetles. Each of them is the size of cats, and their shells are strong enough to survive attacks from a Class 1 Aura Knight or Circle 1 Mage.
Their ugly, elongated faces have small sharp pincers that could pierce through a chain mail and draw blood. While non-poisonous, its fangs are filled with saliva that comes with a myriad of diseases that could cripple even a robust dwarf.
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These creatures are painfully slow and pose little threat to the average dungeon diver, but for Sagrado and his group, they are impossible to deal with.
“Everybody, move back! We cannot get close to them.”
“Captain Sagrado, you should use your magic to deal with them. They are afraid of fire.”
“Sir, if you have water magic, you can flush them away too!”
“Captain, what should we do?”
Everyone panicked, even the little boy turned pale, and the grandpa held his weapon with both hands.
Sagrado made the fastest decision in his life, “Run!”
Without waiting, he turned around. The others reacted quickly as well, and they all started running away. When Sagrado ran past the grandfather, he offered to carry the boy to hasten the retreat.
Relestia and Sparrow nodded at their reaction. Nobody panicked too much and made things chaotic. As the leader, Sagrado could read the situation correctly, and it is a crucial trait in battle.
Alas, the group were untrained and inexperienced. Their retreat was disorderly, even if they had not fly into complete panic. At least, nobody ran into their companions, nor anyone stumbled.
Some of them were left behind, as others ran too swiftly and attracted the attention of other creatures around.
Soon, the group found themselves attacked on all sides.
The cave beetles slowly caught up with them from behind. More than one goblin was tracking them. Acid snails and slimy glow slugs hang above their heads. Worst of all, a cave scorpion blocked their path.
The eight of them huddled together. Sparrow and Relestia stood nonchalantly, one person at each end of the group.
In this situation, the recruits cannot do anything so naturally the exercise ended.
Sparrow did not hesitate to launch the first attack. She roared fiercely as she headed into the swarm of cave beetles, not forgetting to call Sagrado to follow behind her.
This is the first time the dwarf tried out the effects of the Origin Cultivation Method – Basic Series, along with the Origin External Cultivation Method. Every time she swung her weapon, something shattered or smashed. The ground underneath her target turned into pits because of her wild strikes and the entire section of the tunnel they are in vibrated with fearsome tremble. A delighted smile curved on Sparrow’s face. Her physique had improved noticeably. The external cultivation is built upon the existing foundation of the user, and given how the well-endowed the dwarves naturally are, they benefit from it more than the other races.
As a race beloved by the rock, metal, and fire, Sparrow’s endurance and defence are further enhanced another round.
As she destroyed all the bugs that futilely attacked her, her eyes turned dangerous and bloodshot.
Once a while, a talented dwarf might unlock the bestowment of fire in their blood – a power that turn them into a berserker that become immune to steel and fire with increased might and endurance. When the dwarf become a berserker, they can turn it on and off at will and there are no drawbacks to this ability, not even a period of weakening after use.
Not many could grasp such power, and Sparrow had never felt herself close to attaining.
Her swings became wider but more powerful. She discarded most of her defensive movements, confident that in her berserked state she could come out unscathed from most scuffles. Now, she only wants to tear every enemy into shreds. Excited in her battlelust, she kept moving forward and did not notice that gaps were left from her absence.
Soon, nothing moved in front of her, and then did the dwarf stopped.
The only injuries she sustained are some cuts to the back of her hands when she cut herself on sharp stone while swinging her weapon. Her own power was the only thing that could have hurt her when berserked. But when she looked down, Sparrow’s eyes widened when she realised all the scratches on her had already faded away, and in such a short period. The Origin Energy is as incredible as claimed. She felt incredibly lucky that she had accepted the guild invite out of curiosity.
Behind her, Sagrado huffed and puffed as his limbs shook with fatigue. A vicious yellow glint flashed across his eyes like some orcs would they are consumed by battle but it eventually faded.
He had tried to keep up with Sparrow, but she was like a tornado in battle. In the end, the man chose to deal with the couple of cave beetles that were left behind. He had noticed a great improvement in strength when he fought with the acid snail and is looking forward to test it again. As expected, the cave beetles died after a few strikes from his sword. Every bug he killed made his confidence grow. Sagrado felt an excitement grew in his chest. Perhaps he can soon unleash his orcish bloodline and stun everyone.
He did not notice that the other recruits that joined the battle had been slaying cave beetles in fewer hits. He was not the only person who benefited, but he is the one who benefited the least because of his fairy bloodline.
They were all too pleased with themselves to notice. These bugs that could withstand a Class 1 Knight’s strikes long enough to scurry away had all been exterminated. The recruits felt as though
As for the other creatures, Relestia took them down all by herself.
The acid snails that wanted to spit at the group from high ground, were the firsts to go and died without doing anything. Next are the glow slugs whose main attacks are to create slimes that entraps their prey. They move so slowly they are practically sitting ducks for Relestia. Incidentally, their glow came from eating the bioluminescent mushrooms and are dim enough that the mucus they leave behind cannot be seen. If left to their own devices, the whole group might be trapped and become easy pickings for the nimbler creatures.
Although they did not see a single snake yet, there might be one hiding in the dark, waiting for the chance to spring out.
The cave scorpion was the last to go. It sliced apart several clueless monsters that came too close with its giant pincers and snarled threateningly at Relestia. Completely blind, the creature relied on smell, but smell alone is far too slow to catch her when she could leave afterimages with the Gentleman’s Steps movement technique.
It expected the humans to scamper away in fear as it slowly hunts them down, but instead it only felt a searing pain as something punctured its face and as it quickly faded into darkness.
As for the goblins, they are perhaps the smartest monster on the first level, and they all scattered away when they saw Sparrow and Relestia’s strength. They did not participate immediately like the other monsters but observed their prey. Goblins are scavengers, carrion eaters, and opportunists. They will never risk themselves when their prey can still fight back.
Left over on the floor are the spoils of the hunt. The little boy’s attention had turned to the two pretty sisters. He realised that they are much stronger than Sagrado and now looked at them with sparkling eyes of admiration.
The group found a quieter place without bloodshed and all of them plopped down on the floor exhausted. With the boss on this level of the dungeon defeated, it should be relatively safe for a while. Since they did not kill a goblin, the day’s mission was a failure. Nevertheless, Sparrow carefully penned down every person’s performance, including the child and his grandfather.
Relestia looked at the recruits slumped over and chuckled. They are doing better than she thought and no one had any injuries. However, she still felt something was strange about this place and secretly released two dragonlings into the air. To protect Relestia and to ensure she could communicate with him in time, Kairos had left all three dragonlings with her. With their superior speed, the little ones can serve well as scouts, carry messages, or shield her from unexpected attacks.
The two dragonlings she chose for this mission are the fire and ice pair which could protect themselves now, leaving only the younger lightning dragonling in her robes. The two infant dragons are closest to reach adolescent amongst their siblings, with perhaps only Calculus’ golden dragonling that has the support of the entire Devilheart family could compare.
Avoiding the glowing mushrooms, they quickly darted into the darkness unseen. Their mission is to scout for things that should not be in this dungeon and report everything they find. The dimness of the dungeon does no bother dragons. In fact, the natural biome of Ancestor Dragons isn’t a solar system with gentle illumination covering the earth but an unending cosmos with dangerous lurkers and where light could flare brighter than the sun and darkness could stretch for lightyears.
..…
Not too far away from the Snowdrifts’ new recruits, a small band of dungeon divers are running for their lives.
A strange creature that could not be found at this level, chases them like how a cat toys with a mouse. In fact, it is not something any of them had seen before. The creature has ram horns, sharp canine teeth, goat eyes, and scaley feline body with hooves. It shrieks like a bird and all who hears it felt tainted. Under every scale, a small tentacle reaches out like fur and wriggles unnaturally.
This hellish horror is both beautiful and grotesque, attractive but repulsive. Those who are caught by are neither devoured nor slain but sobbed and gorged out their own eyes and throats and bleed to death whimpering.
Having seen the terrible fate of their friends, the divers could only run aimlessly. It is an act that would be otherwise foolish and attract hordes of monsters, but now there are nothing that dared to come close to them.
The band of dungeon divers is led by Circi Fer, a strikingly beautiful young woman with auburn hair like autumn leaves and large emerald eyes. Her features are soft and dainty, quite similar to Relestia but instead of the princess’ graceful flair she has spirit of wildfire in her eyes.
She is a rare half elf, so her ears are slightly pointed, and it explains her good looks. With a longer lifespan than normal humans, she appears to be sixteen for the last five years.
Circi’s talent in nature magic gave her a slight control over plants, the ability to talk to wild creatures, and to detect hostile intentions, and this made her warnings taken seriously in the hunting group she is in. In time, because she could find them valuable herbs and safe paths home, she had become the group’s de facto leader.
For the three years she led the team, Circi proved herself as a reliable leader that never left a teammate in danger and gained the respect of her team. Perhaps it was her past, as an abandoned child in a dwarven city, that caused her to never desert anyone who needs her and led her to her current position. She treated them as the family she never had, and all the resources they earned were invested back in the group.
The members who have family that needed care received more and those with certain talents are nurtured. Likewise, the team are made up of grateful people who returned the favour.
Of course, the team was not always amicable like this. There were selfish times and squabbles, but the likeminded ones stayed on and treated her as family too.
Unfortunately, this time round, her ability to discover monsters and beasts did not work on the abomination chasing them.
“Big sis, it’s catching up, what should we do?”
“Big sis, I’ll lure it away, you guys head for the exit,” one of them shouted valiantly.
“Fool, just shut up and follow closely, I’m not losing anyone else to that thing!”
They are all panicking, but they stayed together. At first, some of them tried going down another way when the path splits, but the fiend would swoop down on the smaller group, filling the tunnels with their cries of pain and despair.
Having recognised the creature’s delight in toying with them, they could only participate in its deadly game.