“This is boring.” Arthur sighed in annoyance that was about the fifth time someone had commented on their trip. He did have to admit that the endless underground forests were starting to get old, with just the exact same thing all the time no matter where you went. There was a screech from overhead and Arthur jerked his head down looking around fearfully, there were a few chuckles but not many. The tier two hawks on this floor were nasty creatures, where before the birds had only been able to do superficial damage at best, the ones on this floor were larger, stronger, and more willing to dive-bomb an unsuspecting adventurer.
The one good thing about this floor was the sparse numbers of tier two creatures. The floor was enormous, yes but it wasn’t full of monsters yet, with the occasional tier two and a bunch of tier ones from previous floors. They could handle the tier ones just fine but it frustrated Arthur to no end that they were no longer getting any experience from them, at least it had gotten their last party member into tier two.
As the party strode through a small grassy clearing Arthur felt the slight jingle of coins by his side and smiled. If they made it out alive this trip was already worth it, he had enough money to live comfortably for months, maybe even years if he spent it right. Granted he didn’t get any gold coins, just a few silver, but he thought that was for the best, on the whole, it made him stand out a bit less.
Stumbling over a tree root he hadn’t seen in the flickering torchlight Arthur did his best to not crash into the back of the person in front of him who had suddenly stopped. In front of there were half a dozen goblins chattering at them and striding with them was a green figure the size of a grown man. Arthur frowned, hobgoblin, at least there was only one of them.
Noticing the party of humans the goblins did what they always did and charged straight at them screaming for blood. They didn’t last too long, the appraisal team had long since gotten used to fighting the tier one monsters, the real challenge was going to be their tier two cousin. The hobgoblin ran forward a little behind the goblins clutching a tree branch that looked more like a small tree to Arthur. With a mighty swing disproportionate to its size the hobgoblins launched one of the adventurers a short way into the air.
As the unfortunate adventurer enjoyed his short flight through the air Arthur finished forming his first spell and lobbed it at the oncoming monster. He had gotten quite a bit better at making his spell and his aim had improved quite a bit as well. His mana bolt, as he had decided to call the thing, hit the hobgoblin right in the knee, there was a sharp crack as the monster’s leg went limp. A sword came down in a deadly arc but the hobgoblin wasn’t done yet, grabbing the sword by the blade the creature managed to yank the weapon out of its owner’s hands and fling it back at the adventurer.
Roaring in delight as blood gushed from a newly opened wound, the monster struggled to stand and failed to pay attention to a spear wielder sneaking up behind it. The spearpoint punched through the hobgoblin’s torso but it seemed to Arthur that the thing took way too long to stop moving. Sighing he checked his status and saw that this had gained him another level. It had been slow going after reaching tier two given the sparsity of tier two enemies to fight but he had still been making good progress and was now a proud level three acolyte. Arthur sighed again as they got moving again, it seemed like there was still going to be a long way to go before this ordeal was over. He just hoped that he lived long enough to enjoy the rewards he was promised.
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Silas was calmly focusing, trying to reach enlightenment on the most important problem of his life. He had struggled with this problem for decades and then centuries, but he had not even come close to finding an answer yet. What was the perfect place to nap? Was it under a tree? The old man liked trees but the roots always made his back hurt. What about just lying in bed? That was a boring place to nap, not even worth mentioning. So maybe just on the grass? This was a good napping spot and Silas’ current choice but he always got grass stains on his clothes.
He heard footsteps approaching and sighed deeply, it seemed like he would not be pondering the mysteries of sleeping anymore today. Kira came into view, and Silas quickly shut his eyes pretending to be asleep, which proved to be a bit of a mistake. The toe of a shoe poked sharply into his side, and Silas yelped as he hopped to his feet “Ouch Kira, did you have to kick me that hard?”
His tormentor snorted in amusement. “If I hadn’t kicked you that hard you wouldn’t even have felt it.” Silas nodded this made perfect sense to him, he was a tier higher than Kira so his body was quite a bit stronger than her’s.
“So what's up Kira, usually you don’t wake me up for no reason.” There had been a time when she had tried to institute a wake-up time at six in the morning. That had forced Silas to start putting up barriers around where he slept. It was better for everyone if he got his beauty sleep.
“Yes, you need to look over the files we have for the adventurers, make sure that they’re not criminals, and start drafting recommendations for when they get out of the dungeon.”
That sounded like entirely too much work. “Can’t you just look them over for criminals? Why are we even bothering with the recommendations so early, they might not even make it back at all.”
Kira scowled and thrust a bundle of papers into his chest. “I’m not going to do every little thing for you lazy old man. Also, we need to have those letters ready for if they get back, and I’m not asking you to write them all just get started on them. “ When she said it like that it sounded entirely too reasonable for his liking it looked like it was back to work. There had been entirely too much work going on ever since he was put in charge of this dungeon, he couldn’t wait to turn over the job to someone else. Even if that someone would be a noble.
“Have you even looked at who we sent into the dungeon?”
Silas snorted in indignation. “Of course not. No one sane explores a dungeon first, why would I care about the meatheads the Adventurer’s society sent to die in there. They’re a bunch of fools that should have known better than to sign up for an assignment like this one.” Silas didn’t like the Adventurer’s society, they were far too focused on getting just a little bit more money at the cost of almost anything. They were worse than mercenaries, most of the time at least.
“Well just so you know they weren’t all idiotic meatheads as you like to call chi users this time. There was a young mage that went in as well.” Kira tapped her chin thoughtfully as she spoke looking over meaningfully at Silas.
He sighed deeply and asked. “So let me guess. Poor family, who may or may not be dead, and the fool decides for some reason that he’d rather be a mage than a warrior, am I right.” The nobles didn’t join the adventurer society and anyone else didn’t become a mana user unless they already had a teacher or they were just plain stupid.
“Pretty much right. Almost his entire village was burned to the ground, and he then ran off to join the society almost as soon as he could. He even volunteered to come on the appraisal mission himself” Silas sighed again most of the time power-hungry fools tended to be a bit self-destructive. That being said, he had been one of those fools, once.
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“He’s probably dead already.” Kira nodded and waited, knowing him far too well.
“Even if he’s not dead he’ll probably run off to join a mercenary band if he’s smart.” Kira tapped her foot impatiently on the ground.
“Fine Kira, don't think I don’t see what you're doing. I might think about offering to teach him if he makes it out alive and doesn’t seem like a lunatic.”
Kira smiled and strolled off calling over her shoulder. “Don’t forget to start on those recommendations as well.” Silas sighed and plopped down on the ground files on his chest, he would get to work, in just one minute.
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Arthur gulped hard, it seemed like it was time for another boss, and after the first one, he wasn’t too happy about not getting at least a rest first. “We could have at least stopped for the night.” He grumbled under his breath.
“Best to just get it over with kid. We’re all ready to go and not many of us would be able to rest at all even if we did stop.” One of the older adventurers said as he passed by, Arthur thought it was one of the original tier twos but he wasn’t sure. “Name’s Micheal by the way, you can call me Mike though everyone does.”
“Arthur.” After distractedly shaking Mike’s hand, the other man went off to talk to the others in the party. At least this would be the last fight and then they could get out of here, he didn’t regret signing on for this contract exactly, he had gotten quite a bit of levels out of it, but he would still be glad to get out of here. There had been a few too many close calls for his tastes, and it would be nice to take a break for a few weeks with the money he earned. Just one more boss between him and a proper bed to sleep in.
He had asked Tobias earlier and apparently, the dungeon boss only showed up roughly every ten floors, with the notable exception of the final boss which was always located on the last floor of the dungeon wherever that might be. Tobias had told them that the bosses could leave their rooms and wander the dungeon but usually, they didn’t, the older adventurer hadn’t really known why, but then again he hadn’t been in a dungeon before either. They were rather uncommon this far north, at least discovered dungeons were.
The end of his short break came too quickly for Arthur's liking and he once again found himself sandwiched in the middle of the party, perks of being the only mage around were that he did not have to go first. Arthur was a little surprised when Tobias stepped up to the entrance of the boss room, the party leader hadn’t been fighting that much.
“Right, pay attention, this is definitely the final boss room. It’ll probably be just another tier two but keep your eyes peeled if it's tier three we’re running. Mike hang back and make sure the room doesn’t seal on us, and the rest of you if I say run you had better run if you want to see tomorrow.” Subdued nods of acknowledgment followed Tobias’ speech, and a wide grin crossed his face as he unsheathed a sword from his back. “Let's finish this, drinks on me when we get back to Corinth.” That got some quiet cheers out of the assembled adventurers as they cautiously entered the boss room.
Arthur clenched his hand on his knife’s hilt, holding the weapon so hard that his knuckles turned white. The room was a lot different than the previous boss room but it still had the same eerie quiet of the first. Rocks stood strewn about the room, cracked and with a multitude of small crevices running through them, unlike the previous boss room he could see all of the walls immediately. However there was no sign of the boss, but Tobias was one step ahead of Arthur as the more experienced adventurer brought his sword down on the rocks in front of him.
There was a huge plume of smoke and a startled hiss as the boss was flushed out from under the rocks. Arthur didn’t get a good look at the thing as it raced through the cloud of dust, but he saw a brief flash of scales, a snake maybe, or a lizard? They had been seeing quite a few lizards on this floor so that would make more sense.
A scream rang out to his left and Arthur jumped in surprise, when did the boss get over there? He began gathering his mana as one of the adventurers lay sobbing on the ground a bloody stump where his leg used to be. Arthur looked around searching for something to hit, but the dust wasn’t doing him any favors as it continued to cloud the arena. Fortunately for him, Tobias was significantly less impeded by the choking dust.
A soft scraping of stone was all he heard before a sudden blur of speed sent him dazed but unharmed to the ground, magic puffing around him in a useless cloud. He looked over his shoulder to see a huge lizard flailing through the air, he hurriedly got to his feet struggling to rebuild his spell. The monster lizard hissed in warning before turning tail to limp under an outcropping of rocks, but it wasn’t going to get away that easily again. A spear thrown from somewhere behind him sent the monster skittering to the side, and that was all the opportunity Tobias needed. There was a brutal flash of steel, and then a dull thump as the boss’ severed head hit the ground.
Arthur heaved a huge sigh of relief, doubling forward and coughing as he allowed his mana to dissipate. He almost got brained by the small bag of coins that formed right above him, he sighed when he saw the contents, only bronze this time. Well, he hadn’t really done much in this fight to deserve anything more, he looked over in time to see Tobias pocketing a scant few silver coins.
The dust finally started to clear up and Tobias started barking orders at the remaining adventurers, of all those who had entered the dungeon only ten remained. Arthur winced at the thought as he looked at the body of the adventurer lying on the cold stones, a look of fear and pain etched deep into his lifeless face. That easily could have been him, Arthur shook off the thought, he was alive and it was time to finish their mission and get out of here.
There was just one more room left to go, and when they stepped inside Arthur couldn’t help feeling disappointed. It was a tiny stone room, absolutely bare and with only the dungeon’s core floating in the middle. The core itself almost made up for the desolate room with a pure white glow that seemed to shimmer and dance and he could practically taste the waves of mana flowing out from it.
“...it's right there if we killed it no one would even know.” Arthur brought his attention back to his group with a growing sense of alarm. Killing a dungeon was very illegal and for good reason, a healthy dungeon could help huge numbers of people grow, and be a font of untold wealth for whoever controlled it. Arthur wasn’t sure why anyone would want to kill a dungeon it just didn’t seem worth it even before you considered that the only sentence for killing a dungeon for anyone was death on site. No trial or anything, even for a noble, just being hunted down like a common animal marked for death.
“Don’t be an idiot, we’d never get away with something like that, they’d know.” Nervous looking man with a wispy beard tried to talk sense into his friend.
“How would they know? It's perfectly safe, I bet there’s enough experience in there to get the both of us all the way to tier three.” The loud man proclaimed and a few of their fellow adventurers started shifting nervously, hands going to weapons and Arthur prepared himself for another fight.
“If you lot are going to be cowards about seizing an opportunity then fine, I’ll do this myself.” Striding forward the loud man pulled out a sword as he approached the core, before Arthur could even think about what to do next there was a wet gurgle. It appeared that Tobias had taken issue with the idea of killing the dungeon as well, his sword was buried in the throat of the loud man who slumped to the floor with disbelief in his eyes.
With a wet slurp, Tobias pulled his sword free of the dead man and wiped it clean on the body. There was only a shake to his grip hands as he turned to face the rest of them. “Allow me to spell this out for you idiots. The mage guild and adventurer society would know immediately if the dungeon collapsed, and the standard practice is to hold all members of the appraisal party responsible. That means a death sentence for all of us.” Steel glinted in the older man’s eyes as he gazed around at the other adventurers. “So if any of you have any funny ideas about the core, I would ask you to step forward now.”
Unsurprisingly no one took him up on the offer, and having laid eyes on the core Tobias soon rushed the rest of them out of the room. The self-styled Blood Fang made sure to be the last to leave the room, ensuring nothing happened to the core. Arthur took one last look behind him at the glowing core, then squared his shoulders, it was time to leave the dungeon.