Chapter 34- Dungeon Diving, Again?

A knock on the door woke him up from his food coma.

He draped his cloak over his chest and went to answer the door.

“Hey Tim.”

“Good morning Morpheus, how did you sleep?” Tim asked.

“Better than a tent.”

“Only the finest for House Baylor, I have your breakfast and clothes ready.”

“Clothes?”

“Yes, you are representing House Baylor, even though people don’t know who you are."

“Well sure.” Morpheus said while opening the door and stepping aside.

Time walked in and put a large tray of food on the table. From his pouch he pulled multiple outfits all wrapped in cloth and laid them over the sofa.

“I would like to thank you for notifying me about my son Theo.”

“It’s no problem Tim, Theo saved my life. It’s the least I can do.”

“Well anyway thank you, and also I may thank you for representing House Baylor. Celene has been rather agitated trying to find a suitable candidate.”

“She did get straight to the point.”

Tim smiled. “Good luck in your levelling, Hermes speed Morpheus.”

“Thank you.”

Tim left and gently closed the door behind him, and Morpheus destroyed the breakfast platter.

He walked over to the clothes Tim had laid down on the sofa and began unwrapping them.

They ranged from pyjamas to full three piece suits, probably costing the five gold he was going to be paid for the event. The colours were majority lilac, to represent the House Baylor.

He left them where they were, except for the pyjamas which he quickly stuffed in his pouch.

He put on his trousers he received from the trial, and the vambraces Drakon had given him. Morpheus put on his chest piece and draped his cloak over him.

Fuzz in bird form bounced over and landed on his shoulder.

“You ready?” He asked Fuzz, to which he got a chirp as a response.

“Take that as a yes.”

Morpheus was still in his Brad Pitt appearance and decided to stay like that since he technically was meant to be hiding.

He strolled through the house to find Celene bending over mountains of paper.

“We have a date for a meal and after party before the event.”

“Can I ask what sort of party it is?”

“It’s mainly the different houses and their candidates, they’re usually very exciting.”

“Sounds good.”

“Oh, the other candidates of House Baylor will be coming tonight.”

“Is that Draghaul guy coming?”

“Yes, not staying here though. Just keep your head down when he’s around.”

“Is he scary?” Morpheus asked, quite curious.

Celene nodded.

“I’ll tread carefully. I‘m going to the dungeon today.”

“Good luck, guilds on the north side close to the palace.”

“Thanks.”

He strolled out the door and towards the gate.

“Morning gents, how are we?”

Both guards were silent and just opened the gate for him.

“Aww how kind.” He said as sarcastically as possible.

He lit a cigarette and headed over to the guild located on the north side. Morpheus enjoyed the walk, the sounds of the city slowly waking up. There were no clouds in sight and the sun beamed over Southcross.

He eventually found the guild, but it wasn’t much of a guild.

It was a huge courtyard with multiple buildings around the outside, benches placed in the middle with a few drinkers on them.

In the center at the back was the main building, or so he thought. Morpheus with Fuzz on his shoulder opened the door and walked up to the counter.

A young man looked up over his glasses.

“Do you have a dungeon booklet I can buy?” He asked.

“Badge and it’s ten silvers.”

Morpheus pulled his badge out with the ten silvers and placed them on the counter. The young man did not even bother to make eye contact, he just took the silver and replaced it with the booklet.

He subtly rolled his eyes and picked up the booklet. Morpheus found a stall selling ale in the courtyard and went to buy a cup. The young chimera sat down with it and opened up the dungeon booklet and began to skip through to the dungeon part.

‘Hares ending 25-50’ page 34

‘Dangling fiends 30-50’ page 35

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

…

‘Bulgur swamp-FIELD 75-150’ page 52

‘Chains of the damned 120-200’ page 54

…

‘Nest of the black wyverns FIELD-(HIGH RISK) 200-500’ page 72

‘House Ragorth (Unknown)-(HIGH RISK) 100+ page 74’

The Bulgur swamp looked like his best option, Chains of the damned sounded too sinister for him to even think about going there.

There were so many more dungeons compared to Ervos, many caught his eye. Even the unknown ones were drawing him to explore them.

He settled on the Bulgur swamp for the sole reason that we wanted to see them, and to of course level up.

“What do you think?” He asked Fuzz on his shoulder.

Fuzz chirped and he received a feeling of excitement.

“Sweet.”

The dungeon was located outside the city towards the south in a swampland, hence the name Bulgur swamp.

Morpheus set off at a jog through the city and out the South Gate. He sprouted his wings and took off, much to the amazement of everyone around him.

He flew down the beach, flicks of salt water hitting his face. He glanced out over the sea, far off from the coast was islands, small islands with a few houses on them.

He felt excitement, rather than just optimism. There were so many places the young chimera had not been and things he hadn't seen.

He flew inwards slightly, away from the ocean and over a few rolling hills. Eventually the ground started to become darker and in the distance was a swamp.

He tucked in his wings and gently floated down to the path where he saw multiple groups of adventures walking towards it. Before reaching the swamp there was a wooden shack, with five guards stationed around it.

He waited while another group paid the toll and walked up to the shack.

“How many in your team?” A guard asked.

“Just me.” Morpheus replied.

The guard raised an eyebrow.

“You do know bulgur's will single a person out?”

“I know.” He said like he was familiar.

“Well mate, your funeral. Fee’s a coppa."

Morpheus pinged a copper to him, ‘rather cheap’ he thought. He strolled into the swamp with Pride of the War Orc in his hands.

“Ok Fuzz, we’ll try the pilocal first.”

Fuzz flew off his shoulder and transformed into the pilocal and stuck by his side.

Morpheus walked up to a tree and attempted to make Fuzz fire off white quills around his neck.

“Fire.” He said.

Fuzz just stared at him utterly confused.

Morpheus brought his bow out and nocked an arrow, he fired it at the same tree.

Fuzz seemed to acknowledge what he was trying to do and fired off his quills towards the tree.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t the best at aiming and one of the quills stuck in Morpheus’s leg.

A Paralysing Toxin has entered your bloodstream.

‘Congratulations’ you have earned Poison Resistance Level (1). Increased resistance with level increase.

“So I get it now.” He said to himself and shortly after he slumped on the floor.

Fuzz came up to him while he was partially paralysed and began to lick his face.

“That’s unfair.”

A few seconds later he managed to get up.

“Hey buddy let’s try again but I’ll stand over here.” Morpheus said and moved far away from Fuzz.

Fuzz looked uncomfortable but fired off his quills regardless, all hitting the tree.

“Nice job Fuzz. Next we’ll try the mountain lion.”

Morpheus sent a message of a lion to him and Fuzz transformed into it. The shadow looked terrifying, the mountain lion was the same height as him on all fours and probably twice as high when he stood up.

“Good boy.”

“Now bird.”

Fuzz transformed into the swall long tail.

“Let's go.”

Fuzz flyed onto his shoulder and they headed deeper into the swamp. He chose the opposite direction to a few adventures he saw, because the last thing he wanted to do was draw attention.

The ground became more unstable and his boots sank into the mud. Large puddles of water surrounded him with a few muddy patches in the centre.

A few hundred feet ahead of him he saw a bulgur knee deep in the water. It was more disgusting than he could have imagined. It was six feet tall, and stood on long green and slimy legs. It’s body was a circular shape and it had a massive mouth with sharp teeth lining the outside. It’s arms were tiny little t-red arms, appearing useless. There were no eyes, ears or nose on the bulgur since it’s whole mouth covered the majority of its body.

(Bulgur, Level 107)

He stayed low and crept around the large puddles sticking to the low hanging trees. The bulgur seemed to be approaching something in a dead tree next to hit.

(Swamp Swinger, Level 72)

Suddenly a large tentacles shot out of its mouth and latched into the creature. It quickly retreated its tentacle and the swamp swinger disappeared into its mouth. The tentacle came out again and cleaned off the parts of the creature that it had just eaten.

“Fucking gross.” He whispered to himself.

“You ready?" He asked while looking at Fuzz on his shoulder.

Fuzz let off a small chirp and flew off his shoulder.

“Wait! where are you going?”

Fuzz shot off into the sky and began to circle the bulgur, confusing Morpheus.

He just sighed and began to approach the bulgur, now fifty feet apart. The young chimera pulled out his bow and crept forward just exiting the tree line.

Morpheus pulled the string back with all his strength and aimed at the main body. Trying to hit the skinny slimy legs would pose a challenge.

Before he fired, he checked to see if Fuzz was still circling the creature, he was.

Feeling confident he fired off his arrow and quickly put his bow in his pouch.

The arrow whistled as it flew into the bulgur, sticking itself in the giant lips.

Morpheus applied his buffs, a red aura cloaking himself and his weapon.

The bulgur opened its mouth wide, showing its hundreds of teeth and let out a sharp screech in the direction of Morpheus. The bulgur began to run at him, it’s long dangly legs somehow supporting its heavy body.

You have levelled up Fear Resistance Level (7)

The bulgur’s tentacle shot out of its mouth aiming for his face, he dodged with a sight movement and tried to chop it off but the bulgur retracted it too fast. He got a slight look at the tentacle, it had a beady eye in the centre and five flaps surrounding it all with hooked like teeth.

He used Arcane Step to blink closer to the bulgur and aimed for its leg. He chopped it off clean and the bulgur collapsed with sharp screeches.

Fuzz who was circling in the area dived down and transformed into a mountain lion. He landed on the bulgur’s body and began to sink its teeth into its green slimy skin, and tore out huge chunks of its body.

The bulgur in a ditch attempt, wrapped its tentacle around Fuzz and began to squeeze across his ribs.

Fuzz bit into the tentacle and completely tore it off and the bulgur instantly went limp.

For good measure Morpheus slammed his axe into it.

Fuzz leapt off the bulgur and into Morpheus. He began to lick his face with the bulgur’s black blood still in his mouth.

It stunk worse than a sewage pipe, causing Morpheus to vomit next to Fuzz.

“Fuzz, don’t be doing that.” He said cleaning off the black blood with his cloak.

Fuzz let off a whimper and transformed back into bird form.

“Hey it’s ok, you did a good job. Do you want to eat it?”

Fuzz chirped loudly and bounced off his shoulder engulfing the disgusting creature.

A second later a bulgur popped up in front of him.

“Bird form! Bird form!” He shouted.

Fuzz did as he was told and turned back into a bird and morpheus let off a sigh. It really was a disgusting creature. He checked his notifications.

Amazing! You have a slain (Bulgur, Level 107) For killing an enemy 20 levels above your own additional experience has been added.

Familiar gains the same amount of experience for killing (Bulgur, Level 107) as you would solo

You have levelled up Level (82) (1 stat point available)

‘Not bad’ he thought. He glanced at Fuzz to see his level.

(Shadow, Level 76)

“You’ll level up in no time.”

In the distance he heard screams and shouts, so he went to investigate.