Island Greendew was annoyed and excited, which was a strange mixture of emotions to be experiencing. On the one hand, a dungeon had been confirmed. On the other hand, the adventurers escorting him to the new dungeon were grating on his nerves like a [Woodcarver]’s file against wood.
Seventeen days ago, on the 22nd of Fading, 805 CE, a Fellowship of three adventurers had gone missing in the woods surrounding Mount Causafell, though they did have an auxiliary member of their fellowship who didn’t engage in combat that survived. She was a [Laborer] who tended to their camp and carried their gear, and she had reported that they had entered a cave in this area and never returned. She claimed to have seen a dungeon core inside the cave when her Fellowship members entered it. News spread like wildfire from town to town, and Alldredge claimed the dungeon was within their borders, while the neighboring kingdoms argued against it.
The matter was quickly settled, however, as the dungeon was on the east side of Mount Causafell, and the neighboring two borders were on the south side and west side. Alldredge owned most of the mountain itself, along with all the land north and east of it.
Once that debacle had taken a couple of days to be sorted, Alldredge’s Adventurer’s Guild moved fast, immediately posting a quest contract for a team of E-tier adventurers to scout out the dungeon. Normally, a new dungeon would be relegated to F-tier due to the fact it was likely to have only a couple of rooms and no loot at all, but considering an F-tier team had already died, an E-tier team was sent with orders to be cautious.
Greendew sighed, slumping his shoulders, his long ears mirroring the action. It had been hours of non-stop trudging through the forest ever since they left the road, and he was beginning to get a little tired. He had E-tier stats, higher than the average elf, but he wasn’t a combat classer. He gained little stamina per level and he obviously had no skills to make up the difference. Meanwhile, the four humans with him looked like they were taking a leisurely afternoon stroll despite being a whole tier below him.
The damned forest didn’t even have any interesting fungi to harvest. He bent down to look at a red wildflower that seemed to pulse every few seconds, the center swelling and the petals flexing before returning back to normal.
“That flower something special, Mr. [Herbalist]?” One of the humans asked in a voice that he wasn’t quite sure was devoid of curiosity, despite being a mocking tone.
“Dragon’s Heart.”
“Oh, that sounds good. Is it worth anything?”
“Not really. F-tier. Good for curing heartburn.” The elf shook his head. “In my hands, anyways. I’m not great with plants, better with fungi.”
The human [Rogue] shrugged and continued walking.
“Will you even be joining us inside, Mr. [Scholar]?” The [Archer] asked with obvious disdain.
“Why did we even bring along a multi-crafter? [Scholar]/[Herbalist] hybrid? What help will he be in the dungeon besides pointing out types of plants?” This time it was the [Mage]. Of everyone here, you’d think the mage would appreciate brains over brawn, but no, this one seemed to just enjoy lighting shit on fire.
“That’s exactly why I’m coming along.” The elf sighed, fed up with the haughty combat-classers. Despite being well into D-tier in both of his classes, he barely counted as an E-tier adventurer to the Adventurer’s Guild. He had almost no combat potential, but his stats were just barely on par with an E-tier combat classer, so he was allowed to take contracts of that type. This type of contract was the very reason he had joined the Adventurer’s Guild in the first place; seeking out new and exotic locations, such as newly formed dungeons, was the best way to level his classes.
Greendew’s two classes were [Deepdark Taxonomist], a [Scholar]-tagged class, and [Fungalkind Herbalist], a [Herbalist]-tagged class. [Deepdark Taxonomist] was a Shadow/Earth Affinity class, and though Shadow Affinity classes were mostly illegal, he got by due to it not being a combat class, the multi-affinity nature of the class, and due to being under the Adventurer’s Guild’s beck and call when his limited expertise was needed, for free. The class was specialized in identifying any and all information about plants and animals native to underground areas. The further underground, the better. [Fungalkind Herbalist], on the other hand, was an Acid/Slime Affinity class. The hypocrite humans didn’t care that Acid was a Shadow secondary affinity. Regardless, his second class had little combat utility, and was mainly aimed at gathering fungus of all kinds, from anywhere, and using them to craft potions and other medicines and poisons. It was technically a magic class, but [Herbalist] didn’t have the [Mage] tag, as [Herbalist] was the base class that evolved into his current class, not [Mage] or [Sorcerer]. Few people were knowledgeable enough to know this, but it didn’t matter. The magic his class specialized in was Alchemy, which was not a spell-slinging school.
All that was to say he was not combat oriented at all.
“It doesn’t matter. The Guild ordered us to bring him along, so we brought him along.” Replied the [Rogue], the only one that seemed to have a genuine head on his shoulders. The [Warrior] kept quiet during the exchange.
—---------—---------—
Notice! You have entered an unnamed dungeon.
Current floor: The Cave (1/1). Dungeon Tier: F Theme: None Affinity: None
“F-tier, no Theme and no Affinity.” Greendew said quietly as soon as they passed the threshold into the dungeon. His [High Appraisal] skill gave him more information than the others.
“Well obviously. There won’t be an official theme to the dungeon until it reaches E-tier.”
“You Alldregians and your weird ranking system. It’s Tin and Copper-rank.”
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“I’m not going to take naming advice from the people who call their Adventurer’s Guild the ‘Dungeoneering Society.’ You know how much of a mouthful that is? Besides, Adventurers do more than delve into dungeons.”
“Well we’re at one now, ain’t we?”
“Quiet. Three deaths have already come from this newly-formed dungeon. Let’s not make it more.” The [Rogue] said before slipping into the shadows. He would still be nearby, but Greendew’s eyes could no longer see him, even with [Moonlight Vision].
“Indeed. If you see the core, ignore it. The dungeon is F-tier, so barring unusual circumstances, it will still be gestating. You won’t be able to harm the core or the boss, and if you can, you likely will get no boon from breaking the core. Then we’ll be back to square one, waiting months or years for the next dungeon to spawn in this region.” The elf warned the humans. For the first time on this expedition, all of them seemed serious and they each gave a quick nod in unison. Greendew took a moment to look around the cave. It was dark, but he could see most of the first room quite easily. Sunlight filtered in around the white curtain-like-flaps covering the entrance combined with his [Moonlight Vision], an evolved form of [Lowlight Vision], let him see unimpeded. The first thing of notice was the fact that the walls, floors, and ceiling all seemed to be covered in a while film.
“Spider webs. Possible Arachne colony.”
The three humans shuddered.
“Spiders. It just had to be fucking spiders.” Complained the [Archer], before she pulled an arrow from her quiver and rested it perpendicular across her bow.
“We knew this was likely when we saw all of the web-covered trees outside of the cave.” Greendew said, sighing. The next thing he noticed was a floating mass of spiders with a green light coming from under them in the middle of the cave. “Dungeon core, maybe?” He asked, pointing at it.
“I know we aren’t supposed to break the core, but after seeing all of these spiders, I vote that we kill everything and destroy the core. Let a different dungeon spawn.”
As soon as the archer finished her sentence, Greendew knew something was wrong. It lasted a couple of seconds, but he felt a mana buildup deeper into the cave.
“You fucking idiot!” He spat at the archer. “If the dungeon master is intellig-”
Before he could even finish his sentence, the archer began screaming as she was hit in the face with a spell. A hand, or claw, of darkness and shadows grabbed the archer’s face, the skin where it made contact becoming gangrenous and rotten. From the ceiling, a creature dropped onto the archer and began stabbing her with its legs, biting her with its face, and wrapping its tail around her. The [Warrior] immediately began trying to pull the thing, the skith, Greendew belatedly realized, off of the [Archer]. Deeper into the cave, sounds of combat began. Most likely the [Rogue]. The [Mage] conjured a fireball in her hand and looked around, ready to burn something.
Greendew himself began backing up towards the entrance of the cave. “Be careful with your fire! These webs are likely highly flammable!”
Not heeding his words in the slightest, the [Mage] hurled her fireball at the mass of floating spiders, and they went up in a woosh of flame. The smell of burnt hair filled Greendew’s nostrils as crackling sounds filled his ears, and he watched a dozen large spiders fall to the ground, each glowing with embers.
Fuck this, it isn’t worth it. The elf thought, and turned to run out of the entrance of the cave. It was only a few steps, but immediately he was tripped by an invisible strand, and fell face-first onto the cave floor. His head bounced, and was immediately forcefully slammed into the stone again. His right eye flared with intense pain. He couldn’t see out of his right eye and the area around it was extremely tender. A broken orbital, maybe? That didn’t make sense. Health resistance should have prevented any real injuries until he was low… A second of confusion passed by until the words of the System registered in his mind.
Notice! You have taken 624 blunt damage in a critical hit!
Notice! You have taken 68 blunt damage.
Notice! You have taken 222 blunt damage.
Notice! You have taken 43 blunt damage.
He probably had a [Concussion], too… Oh man, this was bad. He felt like throwing up.
Greendew rolled over just in time to see the tail of the skith come down on his head a third time, and then everything went black.
—---------—---------—
When Greendew next woke up, he had felt quite delirious. His head was splitting, his eye throbbing, his body aching. His lungs burned, and several parts of his skin stung painfully.
Looking around with his one good eye, he noticed that the entire cave had gone up in a flash at some point, ashes sifted around on the air currents as sunlight filtered in through the cave entrance, sans curtains. The smell of smoke filled the air, and the air was hazy from it too. He didn’t see the glowing green dungeon core in the center of the room, so he guessed this dungeon was destroyed in the chaos.
The only thing that didn’t make sense was that he was hanging upside down from the cave ceiling, bound tightly in spiderwebs. The Fellowship members he had come with were nowhere to be seen. His thoughts were short, he didn’t have the mental capacity to think much beyond the pain.
Belatedly, he opened his status to see if he was as close to death as he felt.
[Status]
Name: Island Greendew
Species: Elf (High Elf / Elvafey)
Age: 68
Level: 120
Class: Deepdark Taxonomist 51, Fungalkind Herbalist 69
Vitals:
- Health: 3.1 / 1245
- Stamina: 956 / 1925.7
- Mana: 3159.57
Stats:
- STR: 364
- CON: 550
- DEX: 804
- AGI: 364
- SEN: 432
- INT: 1358
- WIS: 1376
- WIL: 432
- CHA: 364
- SOU: 755
Titles: [None]
Perks: [+]
Skills: [+]
Spells: [+]
Resistances: [+]
Status Conditions:
- [Concussion]
- [Fractured Orbital]
- [Fractured Skull]
- [Irritated Lungs]
- [Minor Burns]
Affinities: [+]