"Dungeons are the cornerstone of any successful city, offering both resources and EXP in reliable and sustainable ways. That said, dungeons are also the cause of many tragedies, from the simple missing person to the dreaded dungeon break capable of ravaging entire countries. So while dungeons are without a doubt a good thing when properly managed, improper management can and has led to a great amount of tragedy"
-The Duke of Evershire when asked about his opinion of dungeons
----------------------------------------
You have entered the Crystal Cavern dungeon Congratulations, as your party are the first sentient beings to enter, EXP and monster drops will be doubled until you leave the dungeon and monster drops will be increased by 33% for 30 days after you leave
Quickly reading the system prompt and finding nothing unexpected, though I did appreciate the exact numbers, I looked around my surroundings to see where the dungeon had dropped us. The area that we found ourselves in seemed like a mirror of the cave that we had made into our home with the exception of the glowing crystals that were growing out of the ceiling, faintly throbbing with a heartbeat like pulse and casting everything in a faint blue light. With no immediate danger to be seen, we decided that this was the best place to test out my meditation since there was only one entrance and the portal was right behind us in case we needed to flee.
Without any reason to wait, I sat down and started to meditate while the others watched the door for any enemies. After about a minute of trying to focus, the world exploded into fractals and reflections. Where outside the portal I could barely feel the energy unless I was looking for it, and even then it was more like a faint cloud, inside the dungeon it felt like everything was covered by a thick layer of crystal that was somehow flowing through the air while retaining its rigidity and refraction.
While I was tempted to start pulling the energy into myself, or even just marvel at the sight that the skill revealed, I already confirmed that the energy was way denser here and spending hours meditating would just make the others reluctant to help me with similar things in the future, plus there was a good chance that they would physically stop me from meditating if i took to long out of worry. Using all my self-discipline to end the skill, I stood up and let everyone know that the energy was denser here and tried to explain what it looked like only to be responded to with various drug jokes.
Experimentation over, we got into our standard formation and carefully walked down the only available path, which was a tunnel about three meters wide and was thankfully lit with the same crystals as the starting area. Not even a minute of walking later, we saw the first enemy, a group of three creatures about the size of a small dog that looked like hermit crabs with shells made entirely out of crystals of varying colors, with each creatures shell seemingly made out of a specific gemstone.
Crystalmit - Level 5
They seemed to notice us just as we noticed them, all three popping six legs out of their shells before scuttling at us with about the same speed as a running toddler, and just as much grace. All three of them went towards Leo who was a few steps ahead of the rest of us and they reached him almost unimpeded as the cards that Jason threw plinked off of their shells with only faint scratches to show that they'd even hit.
*ZAP*
Even though I managed to hit them with a bolt of lightning during their charge, it seemed to have almost no effect, with them not even pausing in their charge or acknowledging the strike. Visibly surprised, but not to the point of inaction, Leo positioned his shield to block the crystalmits, who quickly switched to using their chitinous claws after their original tackle failed to have any effect other than draining his stamina.
While Leo seemed to be able to dodge or block the strikes, it was clear he wouldn't be able to keep up for long. Thankfully, he didn't have to, since Jackson came in with a spear thrust that left a glowing trail in its wake and pierced through the non-crystalline parts of one of the monsters face, causing it to start twitching in what were clearly death spasms while the other two continued their assault.
Not trusting that my lightning would have better effects the second time around, and unable to control it well enough to avoid hitting the shell, I elected instead to run towards the nearest monster and use my staff like a golf club, managing to tip my target over and launch it a small distance away, though it took much more effort than I had originally expected.
With two of the three crystalmits taken care of, Leo made short work of the last one, using his shield to push down its claws before thrusting his now glowing sword into its face. Looking towards the one that I had tipped, I saw its legs and arms flailing about seemingly randomly, clearly unable to right itself without aid. I used the brief respite to check the system messages from the last two while the group walked over to the tipped monster and gave it a closer look.
Congratulations, you have defeated a level 5 Crystalmit X2 and gained 200 EXP
"Dang, that doubling is nice."(Mason)
"Uh guys? I didn't get anything."(Jason)
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
With Jason's revelation all of our focuses shifted from the two corpses that were quickly collapsing in on themselves and we had a quick discussion about why he didn't, despite the fact that he had thrown cards and participated the whole fight, if ineffectually. The fact that I got experience for two despite the only one's I actually did anything to being the one I hit with lightning and the one still alive and struggling in the corner, we knew that it gave me exp for one that I hadn't touched and we quickly came up with a theory. Since it was unlikely that The System discriminated against Jason in particular, we thought it was that it calculated the whole fight as a single thing, and so long as you made some kind of contribution then you would get an equal amount of EXP, though what the system counted as a single fight seemed somewhat vague, since one of the three was still alive and currently vigorusly kicking.
"Shit, there goes my plans of lazing about. But seriously though, my cards do nothing against those things, so what am I supposed to do."(Jason)
"The chitin parts didn't seem super hard, so maybe aim for those?"(Jackson)
"Use the one I tipped over to see if your cards can pierce the chitin."(Mason)
A quick bout of questionable animal testing, and 100 more exp to me, later, we found that he could damage the chitin with his cards but not only was the chitinous area of their body very small when upright, even when he managed to hit them the cards weren't very effective. It was decided that he would try his best for this run, but if we didn't get a weapon for him to use as a replacement then we would attach his knife to a stick to use as a spear for the next run.
In the meantime, the two from before had finished dissipating and left behind a crystal bracelet and a green orb. The bracelet gave +2 to INT and as I was the only person who actively used mana it went to me, while the uncommon loot orb popped into a canteen that would fill up with water when mana was channeled into it.
After waiting another minute or so for the last crab to dissipate and leave only disappointment behind, we set off in an altered formation that put me next to Jackson since my ranged attacks did almost nothing. Since we knew that the crabs couldn't get up if they were tipped, it became me and Jackson's job to try and tip them as soon as possible since we had the reach to do it safely.
A short amount of walking later, we encountered another group of crystalmits, this time a group of 6. With nowhere to hide in the surprisingly smooth and well-lit tunnel, we were quickly noticed and greeted by another scuttling charge. This time, we attacked proactively with Jason managing to get one of them in the leg with a lucky shot that he leveraged to take it out with a flurry of well-placed cards, Leo charged forward and collided with the foremost crab, making use of his immovability to use his shield to tip it over and then immediately engage the next one, meanwhile Jackson and I braced our stances and jabbed our weapons towards the topmost part of their crystals, Jackson using the blunt end of his spear to strike, which in combination with their own momentum caused it to tip over and slide on its back for a few seconds.
Meanwhile, I was unable to tip mine over, its momentum was enough to overcome my poor thrust, causing the staff to slide along its shell and barely giving me enough time to get out of its way. With Jackson and Leo quickly taking out their respective foes and moving on to the next ones, which were thankfully stopped from engaging all at once due to the size of the tunnel, I frantically dodged around mine until I managed to land a thrust in a rougher part of its shell and tip it over before moving onto the next, only to find that Leo and Jackson had already tipped the remaining ones so I joined them in finishing them off instead.
Congratulations, you have defeated a level 5 Crystalmit X6 and gained 600 EXP Congratulations, you have levelled up! You have 6 free points to assign
Assigning my points evenly to INT and WIS to balance them a bit more with WIL, I watched the corpses collapse in on themselves to leave glorious loot behind. My vigil was not unrewarded, as three of the six crabs dropped something. Namely a crystal shard about twice the size of my thumb, a perfectly clear orb a bit larger than the loot orbs, and a common loot orb that turned into a pair of fingerless gloves that gave 2 DEX. While the gloves went to Jason without question, the other two items instead became communal, though for two different reasons as their descriptions were-
Name: Alarm Crystal Rarity: Common Mana: 0/100 Requirements: N/A Effect Glows and makes a loud noise when a monster enters within 10 meters (10 mana per hour)
Name: Crystal Focus Rarity: Uncommon Requirements: N/A Effect Minorly reduces the cast time of spells
While the alarm crystal was undoubtedly useful, if less so considering the relative safety of our cave, the focus was completely useless as none of us knew any spells, nor did we know how to learn them or have classes that were likely to give them to us, as my class was the most magical one and seemed more intent based than actual spells. Nevertheless, the orb might be valuable after the tutorial and we had plenty of space in our backpacks.
"Alright, after the next fight let's take a break."(Leo)
No one argued with the need for a break, as while the fights may not be long they were tiring due to the running and heavy lifting involved in tipping the crabs. Jason's lack of tiredness was ignored and his turn with the canteen was skipped when he smirked at how tired the rest of us were.
The next group of crystalmits that we came across was much smaller, only consisting of two which were quickly taken care of in a way that made sure everyone contributed, netting everyone except me 200 more exp, while I only got 100 due to my increased level. Though I would not be alone in my fate, as Jason levelled from this fight, putting all his points into STR to increase the force that he could throw his cards, with Leo and Jackson only one fight away from levelling themselves.
Even though the fight was easy, we still decided to take a break for one hour, using the alarm crystal as a timer. Spending a few minutes to backtrack to a safer spot, everyone sat down in a comfortable position not tired in the way of needing to sleep but still physically needing a break. Naturally I took this time to use my meditation skill, my excitement overriding my physical fatigue and letting me enter the state of meditation much faster than usual.
While the process of absorbing the energy wasn't different from when it was thinner, and I could still only take a small sliver at a time, it was much harder to actually separate that sliver from the rest of the energy as it flowed, taking around twice the amount of time as it did when I was outside of the portal. But even with the increase in time, each sliver that I was able to take was far denser than what I could get otherwise, to the point that I could actually feel the difference in my connection to Crystal after the hour of meditation, though it still felt far from my connection to Lightning. The increased density also wearing me out faster and making me stop meditating before the time was up in order to ensure that I still had the mental energy for more fights.
With the crystal making a quiet but clear ding as it ran out of mana and signifying the end of our break, we once again set off down the path, but after following the tunnel for a minute after where we had fought our most recent group of crabs, we came upon a crossroad.