Looking around the colossal cavern, Elaria made an educated guess that this was some kind of entrance zone for the dungeon. There didn’t seem to be any monsters or traps in the area, at least not visible ones. None of the monsters that she needed to defeat to clear the dungeon were types she’d encountered previously. Stonescale serpents were snake monsters of some sort, that much was blindingly obvious. She’d read about kobolds. Besides goblins, kobolds were one of the most populous monster species that could be considered to have a decent level of intelligence.
They consisted of various humanoid hybrids, often reptilian in nature but just as easily could be canine or even avian. It usually depended on the local environment. Wolf, dog or cat kobolds would be found in forest and plains regions, snake, dragonoid or frog kobolds would populate caves and marshes and the most intrepid of explorers have reported seeing bird kobolds nesting in high cliffs. Elaria could hazard a guess at the kind she would find in this underground cave dungeon, but nothing was set in stone.
As for brocks, she was at a loss having never even heard a whisper about them. Hopefully they wouldn’t pose too great a challenge for her and Luna, but she had confidence in their teamwork and combat abilities. They had yet to face a truly powerful foe together, but their bond had grown over the past few days together and given that Luna was originally a monster, her battle instincts were fiercely honed. Luna howled gently, calling Elaria over to a small entrance that had been hidden from her original position in the cavern. This was seemingly the only exit from the gem encrusted entrance zone, so without any other options the two made their way in, surprised to find a well maintained and expertly carved set of stairs leading downwards, lit up by the same sparkling gemstones as the cavern embedded at regular intervals into the wall.
Thankfully the staircase was not endless, despite seeming that way. After almost two minutes of careful walking, especially from Luna who had to delicately balance her paws between the stairs and the walls to support her huge body down the shaft that was only just wide enough to accommodate the hulking beast. The pair passed through an arched entrance which was engraved with a few words in a strange script that Elaria didn’t recognise and was unable to understand. Beyond the stone arch was a pitch black abyss. The darkness was so thick it was almost viscous and Elaria was unable to see anything beyond a few metres in front of her.
The moment both of them stepped fully through the entrance to the new area, a shimmering blue barrier formed in the arch, which Elaria found she was unable to pass through. Even when she punched it with around sixty percent of her full strength it only rippled gently. It seemed as if the only way to complete the dungeon was to keep moving forward. It might have been a good idea to try and bring some of the glowing gemstones with her as a source of light, but there was no way to go back and grab a few now.
All of a sudden, Luna’s hair raised and the wolf tensed up. A moment later Elaria realised why when she heard a rumbling noise and felt the ground shake. Something was approaching and judging from the sounds it was either a landslide or some kind of giant. Neither of her guesses turned out to be accurate, the source of the noise was revealed as a group of strange monsters. A round grey monster, roughly the size of a human head with a rocky face to match came flying from the darkness. Elaria hastily drew her sword and wielding it with both hands managed to block the monster’s strike.
The blow was heavy and left her arms quivering from the force, but she managed to keep a steady footing. The ground was smooth and hard, likely some kind of polished stone similar to the rest of the caves. There was a grunt from behind her and she dodged to the right just in time to avoid another rocky monster flying out of the darkness. Elaria inspected the first one that had attacked, thoroughly puzzled as to how the strange creatures were managing to pull off the grand feat of flight when they amounted to just balls of rock with arms and blank facial expressions that resembled a ‘-_-’ .
Her doubts were cleared up when the second ball of rock bounced over to the first one and the two shared a fist bump before grabbing each other's hand firmly. The second monster then spun the first around itself a few times before launching it at Luna with accuracy that would put any professional sportsman to shame. The wolf raised her front leg and swiped with her razor sharp claws, knocking the monster back into the darkness in a shower of pebbles and dust. It was, after all, a dungeon. There was only one solution to their predicament and so despite wanting to fish for more information about these mysterious monsters before taking them on, Elaria readied her blade and advanced on the first ball of rock.
It pounded the ground with its fists when she neared and the rumbling that followed told her these monsters were clearly used to hunting in packs. Not wanting to give them a chance to repeat the same acrobatic stunt and have sentient rocks flying at her once more she darted forward and swung with all her might at the impassive opponent. The monster was extremely solid and despite giving it her all she only managed to leave a shallow groove in the rough surface of the creature’s head. It retaliated with a heavy punch on her shin, rocking her balance and dealing a few points of damage. This would be a difficult battle if she had to rely on her poor quality weapon.
Not only was the steel sword already battered from just a few fights, it had been cheap to begin with and much less effective than her original blade. In addition, a sharp weapon was poorly suited for a fight against monsters made from rock. It would be just perfect if she had a hammer or a mace, some kind of blunt weapon that could convert her strength into brute force and shatter these annoying little creatures that strongly reminded her of a hugely popular cartoon franchise from back on Earth.
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Her practice with mana manipulation the last few days had given Elaria a few ideas about how to best utilise her mana pool besides the obvious Firestorm skill. While prodding the flow of mana within herself she’d discovered that she was able to pool it in certain parts of her body and had experimented with coating herself in a layer of mana. That hadn’t gone so well. The barrier held for a few seconds before collapsing in a rapid chain reaction that knocked her on her ass with the explosion that followed. Mana was exceedingly volatile and her control was not at a level where she could maintain complex structures yet. It was, however, good enough for what she had in mind to deal with the annoying monsters she was facing.
Two more rocky creatures had bounced over to join the first and they had all shared fistbumps and bounced around in a circle upon arrival. Very strange behaviour from a monster but Elaria wasn’t a scientist and had no desire to study their habits. She crept towards the monsters once more, while slowly gathering mana in her right foot. The distance between them slowly closed. Two metres. One metre. The mana in her foot was frothing and quivering, not liking how much she had compressed it into a small space. The monsters, confident in their defence after her previous strike utterly failed to do any damage, were rather lax about her approach. That was the last mistake they ever made.
Her mana enhanced stomp hammered into the unsuspecting monster, instantly shattering it into a cloud of dust and pebbles that was quickly lost as the surrounding stone floor also strained and cracked against her strike. The preceding shockwave pulverised the other two monsters in a similar fashion and left the area around her foot cracked and broken. Surprisingly, that neat little trick had only used up a quarter of her mana pool, leaving her with a few more chances to test out her new skill before she would need to replenish her reserves.
A message from the Chain informed her that her unfortunate victims were brocks, the previously unheard of monster that populated this dungeon. Checking the dungeon progress, Elaria saw that the counter was at 5/50 brocks defeated. She was sure her stomp hadn’t managed to destroy any more monsters beyond her line of sight, but a rumbling growl followed by a few heavy crashes and the counter increasing to 6/50 cleared up her confusion. Luna was working just as hard as she was against these little granite goons. The wolf’s physical stats were clearly leagues above Elaria’s own, given that she needed the boost from her mana to take out monsters that Luna seemed to be clobbering to death with her paws.
Brock x3 has been slain!
+84 XP
Heavy Stone x3
Clearly these monsters were quite a bit stronger than the tame examples in the plains of the kingdom she’d encountered thus far. It made sense. Dungeons were supposed to be brutal proving grounds for experienced adventurers and battle hardened soldiers, usually only appearing in the demonic zones and filled with powerful and deadly enemies. She’d had to work hard just to take down three of the brocks and with the mana she had left it would be a challenge to reach the quota of fifty.
Hopefully her weapons would be of more use against the other monsters in the dungeon but ‘stonescale serpents’ sounded like they’d be just as durable as these rocky fiends. Perhaps kobolds would provide less resistance to her sword given their fleshy nature. Her idle musings were interrupted when two brocks sailed out of the darkness, one on course to mulch her head and the other aiming for her chest. Sheathing her sword, the weapon only proving to hinder her manoeuvrability rather than give any kind of advantage she began gathering mana in both her fists.
Learning from her mistakes she started with a much smaller stream, compressing it gently at first, slowly feeding in more mana as the two monsters approached. The mana started to complain as it was tightly wound through the mana veins in her fingers, raging and shaking as more and more was crammed into the space. The first brock, aimed at her head, entered her range and she let loose a powerful punch, pivoting her whole body to put plenty of physical force into the strike. Mana seemed to function as a power multiplier so the stronger her initial attack the greater the end result would be. Her fist collided with the brock and with a satisfying crunch it shattered into dust.
Unfortunately she’d taken a little too long to react and the second brock was far too close to allow her time to prepare a second punch. The mana in her left hand was almost uncontrollable and Elaria was at risk of losing the appendage if she didn’t release it soon. In a stroke of genius, instead of unleashing the mana outwards, she caught the brock in her hand, allowing her mana to soften the blow, using the momentum of the monster to carry her round in a circle before throwing the thing back in the direction it had came, letting the mana explode out in a tiny point on her palm to launch it at tremendous speed.
The rest of the brocks seemed to be hiding out of sight because her gamble paid off massively, the Chain informing her that not only had the poor monster she’d tossed away been defeated, but it had taken two more brocks with it in the ensuing impact. Elaria noted another level up, glad to have found new types of monsters because taking down the same old slimes and goblins was barely giving her XP anymore. There was also a new skill in her arsenal, Basic Mana Manipulation, clearly brought on thanks to her experimentation with the stuff.
A pained howl brought her back to reality, Luna calling out desperately for help. Elaria turned to see her canine companion being swarmed by tens of brocks and starting to buckle under their furious onslaught.