Vance carefully went through the route forms of his martial art. He was using a short sword today, and it just felt off. You were supposed to try an assortment of different weapons before specializing after tier three, and Vance was positive he would not be pursuing a short sword. It just didn’t have enough reach for him to be comfortable with the blade. The young noble glanced around and once again saw Bancroft staring at him.
He hadn’t noticed the first few times, but he wasn’t that oblivious. He hadn’t done anything about it because he was trying not to draw attention. That plan wasn’t going very well, but whatever suspicions the Bancroft had, confronting him would surely just inflame them further. Vance sighed deeply, he was hoping to get away from politics with this little outing. He had actually met Gary once, a while back, when the Bancroft had come to the Storm family home for his brother’s birthday. They had not been back since that day, he wasn’t exactly sure if they hadn’t been invited back or just refused to come, it didn’t matter too much in any case. He had been ten when the Bancrofts had visited and Gary had been twenty, he shouldn’t be able to recognize Vance. Well, hopefully not at least.
He watched as a messenger ran up to Gary and whispered something in his ear. There had been a lot of that happening over the last few days. Lots of people were going to and from Corinth city, he wasn’t exactly sure why. There had been quite a few rumors going around, but frustratingly little facts. Whatever was going on the Bancrofts seemed to be keeping a tight lid on it. That probably meant the entire family was involved if they were being so secretive. Maybe they would be making a play to take over the dungeon.
Vance chuckled at the thought, his father had told him quite a few stories about the guild leader in charge here. Apparently, Silas had been quite the terror when he was younger and had even taught his father a little. The Bancrofts didn’t have anyone stronger than a tier four, they didn’t have a chance against a highly experienced tier five mage. That was the problem with the older families Vance reflected, swinging his sword in a practiced arc, too much time meant degradation. Sure, some of their ancestors were probably very impressive, managing to get to tier six was a feat to be proud of especially with the limited number of higher tier monsters around. Still, though it didn’t make the current Bancrofts any less stuck up, or power-hungry for that matter.
Vance sighed again as the messenger ran off and Gary resumed his fake training. He felt about ready to start trying to move towards tier three, he had probably been ready for a while, to be honest. Well better to be over-prepared than under he supposed, he would put a request in at the mage guild for a dungeon dive, and maybe a temporary party. It was always better to have someone to watch your back, especially in somewhere as dangerous as a dungeon.
----------------------------------------
Valens carefully carved another rune into the slab of stone he had set up. This particular corner of the twenty-second floor was completely deserted, which was probably for the best when playing with runes. He was immediately proven correct as his rune exploded violently, carving a massive chunk out of the desert floor. The core sighed, he had been hoping to finally start making some progress on his runes, but it wasn’t looking good. Maybe he just needed more practice, he could now consistently carve massive versions of the mana rune. Unfortunately, the other runes were still out of his skill range, even when he carved them at an enormous scale.
Well, nothing to be done about it, for now, he could try again later. Valens took a quick look around the twenty-first floor, which was steadily filling up with creatures. His lizards and hawks were doing particularly well on this floor, both creatures thriving in the hotter environment. The wolves were doing fine, losing most of their thick coats, and as per usual the goblins thrived no matter where they were.
Valens felt the hawks had been partially underutilized in previous floors, thick tree cover usually made it a little difficult for them to use their dive-bombing tactics. This floor was different though, there were trees around but a lot fewer of them than other floors. This let the hawks and tier two greater hawks operate with a lot more freedom and the monsters were shaping up to be absolute terrors. Death from above was taken quite literally on this floor with even Sora needing to keep an eye on the ceiling.
His boss might be holding a bit of a grudge against the feathered monsters, they had managed to catch her napping once. The diligent lizard had apparently not forgiven that, and she took every opportunity to bait out the flying hawks and then pounce on them. Valens checked Sora’s level and then checked again. The core started cackling madly finally, level 100, even as he watched as his boss collapsed to the ground twitching.
He rarely controlled his creatures directly, but he directed everything on the floor to steer clear of Sora while she evolved. He didn’t want to have any of the monsters taking advantage of her temporary incapacitation. It would be a poor reward for her evolution to let her be killed during the change. Valens was also very excited to see what Sora’s evolution would be, Magnus was still not telling him about his monster’s evolution paths. Not that the drake was talking much right now, he was still out cold.
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
Valens watched eagerly as Sora grew larger, muscles and bones painfully popping and stretching. The core winced as he saw that part, evolving looked like it hurt, he hoped his poor boss was unconscious for this. Eventually, the changes in Sora ground to a stop as the evolution ran its course. The core looked proudly over its first-tier three creature, Sora was now a dire salamander. The newly minted salamander slowly stirred to life, stretching her limbs and generally getting accustomed to her new body.
The core was practically ecstatic with glee, his boss was now far larger than even the greater wolves and would dwarf any human that had the misfortune of making it down to his lower floors. Sora’s head was now as tall as a full-grown horse, and her sinuous body was almost twice as long. The newly evolved boss tore her claws through the trunk of a nearby tree, Valens marveled at how sharp the new claws were.
Sora then went bounding off across the floor, randomly slaughtering the monsters she came across with contemptuous grace and ease. Valens chuckled to himself, he would have to stop her eventually but for now, he would let her have her fun. It was also another good reminder of how much stronger a tier-up could make his creatures. He redoubled his efforts on the twenty-second floor, the quicker he could get more floors the faster he would get to his next tier.
----------------------------------------
Vance stepped down onto the first floor of the dungeon, he had prepared as best he could for the upcoming delve. Checking his pack one more time, he found the rations he had paced earlier, along with a blanket, and his water pouch. The bag was cumbersome, but it swung easily off one of his shoulders and he could drop it at a moment’s notice when they encountered a monster. His armor was mostly leather but augmented with a steel breastplate and greaves. The armor looked ordinary enough, but the metal he wore had been inscribed for durability and strength. It was no temporary enchantment either, and he didn't need to recharge the inscriptions with his own power, not that he could in any case.
It was expensive work, but it had been his mother’s first gift to him after he had gained his class. His weapon was more ordinary, a simple great sword he had purchased from a blacksmith himself. The weapon wasn’t extraordinary or inscribed, but it was well made and had served him well.
“Where are the monsters? Shouldn’t we have seen a monster by now?”
Vance sighed, his companions were a little odd, to be honest, but the two of them had come highly recommended by the guild leader himself. “We just entered Arthur, and besides this dungeon is supposed to have more irregular monster placement than others. We should be fine for a little while at least. Besides, you've been in here before, haven’t you? Just take a deep breath and we'll be fine.” The young mage reluctantly nodded, and Vance had to hold back a sigh. As far as he could tell Arthur had gone into the dungeon the first time totally ignorant. After getting educated both by experience and the guild master it seemed like he had gotten a healthy dose of caution. That was fine as long as caution didn’t turn into cowardice.
The other member of their little party stood just behind Arthur holding a long wooden staff. She was the classic picture of a magic user and much more at ease in the dungeon than the younger mage. “Yeah, don’t worry about it, Arthur. You survived here before and that was without being able to cast anything competently, you’ll be fine.” Kira strolled past both of them and strolled off into the dungeon. “Come on guys, time to get a move on. I heard that the dungeon messed around with the stairs so it might take us a while to find our way down.”
Arthur looked vaguely surprised at the news and Vance suppressed a small sigh. You should at least do a little research before entering a dungeon, even if that research only consists of asking around the various bars. At least Kira seemed prepared enough for this, the mage guild attendant had said she was a tier-three mage so it made sense she would know what she was doing. You could get through tier one without really knowing what you were doing, like Arthur, but getting any further meant you were either truly beyond lucky or that you started to get competent at fighting monsters.
Vance liked to think that he was a decent enough fighter already, he had certainly been trained enough to be. His early levels weren’t earned daily per se, he had fought a series of arena battles against monsters his father had known he could handle. At the same time that was more combat experience than most nobles had at low tiers. Most just straight up tied monsters down, killing completely helpless monsters doesn’t help much with learning to fight, but it still gives full experience though.
“You coming back there?”
Shaking his head slightly Vance jogged to catch back up to Kira. “Yes sorry, just got lost in my thoughts a little bit.” The mage raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment. The noble was also surprised to see Arthur standing on the other side of Kira, suddenly looking focused. It looked like the younger mage was finally ready to actually fight monsters. Taking a second look Vance realized that Arthur was probably not that much younger than himself. Kira was definitely a bit older than the both of them, but he couldn’t quite tell by how much. Vance quickly dismissed the irrelevant line of thought before it distracted him again. Now was not the time to be lost in thought, it was dangerous in a dungeon even if they hadn’t encountered any monsters yet.
It was quite a pleasant walk all things considered if you took out the constant threat of random monster attacks. Fake sunlight streamed through the branches of the trees, which blocked the view of the ceiling. The air was slightly warm, but without being humid or oppressive. Vance could almost imagine that they were just walking in a normal forest on a nice spring day, it was uncanny really. The bushes rustled quietly, and Vance reached back to grasp the hilt of his sword, it seemed like they had found the monsters.