Soon afterwards, Izuku discovers that inviting the beastkin to do a test run was merely the first of Shigaraki’s great ‘ideas’ that he didn’t think to share with Izuku beforehand. Because he also decided to follow the beastkin as they headed deeper into the Dungeon.
Why?
Izuku has no idea, and since Tomura was close to the beastkin at all times, he also couldn’t talk. And thus, he couldn’t answer Izuku’s questions. If he even bothered to ask them while knowing that it was just a waste of time.
But he didn’t.
He instead switched his attention over to Ochako, letting the beastkin send one of their own as a messenger to their forces outside the valley.
Ochako, together with Himiko, decided to hang out with Ay’zira. And by ‘hang out’ Izuku means ‘butcher some animals together’.
Which was bloody. So, just like all the girls in question liked it.
So, Ochako, I have news for you.
“Huh?” She freezes in place when she hears his voice in her head. She lacked [Butchering] skills so she was instead busy slaying and carrying the deer for them to process. Then the look on her face brightens instantly. “Izuku! What’s going on?”
She had a dead deer thrown over her shoulder and bleeding all over. Despite all of that, Izuku didn’t mind any of that and thought that seeing that smile of hers brightened his day instantly.
He was really deeply in love with her.
She was just so pretty, smiled so brightly, loved him back so much and (although in big part thanks to Himiko’s, errr, tutelage) showed him so many great and intriguing things behind the closed door of their apartment.
Not to mention how caring and kind and ready to break Shigaraki’s kneecaps if he showed up outside of the Dungeon Core and bullied him she was.
He had no idea what he felt towards Himiko, but he was certain that the situation was developing there as well. He liked her smile (big change from Japan when Himiko smiling usually meant that someone was at the risk of dying), he laughed at her antics, and all around liked spending his time with her, even if Ochako was definitely taking the first place in his heart by far.
The beastkin are here and they brought a few hundred of their kind for the battle that will soon happen.
And guess what?
They agreed to have some of our servants join their ranks for the battle.
Uraraka squeals. Which drags the attention of both Ay’zira and Toga, both of the girls pausing their work and looking at her over the corpses that they were butchering.
“Ochako? What’s going on?” Himiko asks. She can definitely see that it was something nice, and she definitely heard the word ‘Izuku!’, so she knew who brought the reaction, they just didn’t know what.
“Izuku got the beastkin to agree to some of us taking part in a battle!” Uraraka says, making Ay’zira’s face bloom into a wide smile. Himiko was less excited, and Izuku could easily guess that she loved seeing Ochako being so happy rather than the reason for her happiness.
“Yes!” Ay’zira shouts while raising her arms. “YES! And so quickly into being summoned here?! Physical Worlds are awesome!”
She was really easy to satisfy, it seems. Just give her some blood to spill from time to time, and she was happy with her life.
Huh.
“I gotta go ask others, especially Tokage-san, if they want in too!” Uraraka says cheerfully as she drops the dead deer. “I’m back once I get the answer from her! Izuku, don’t spoil it by asking her in my name. I want to do it myself!”
Alright!
Have fun, Ochako!
Uhm, shouldn’t you clean yourself from the blood first?
“Doesn’t matter now, I’m in a hurry!” She shouts back and runs out of the [Butcher’s Workshop].
Huh.
***
Tokage does, indeed, want to take part in the battle, proving to them once again that she was clearly getting influenced by Uraraka and was finding more and more enjoyment in combat.
Others lacked the same development.
The elven members of their group decided not to participate if only because they would stand out too much and weren’t sure if they would be able to hide their intelligence level while in combat.
In other words - if one of those 2-3 elves present on the battlefield spoke, shouted or something like this, it would be remembered and they still weren’t sure just how developed a Dungeon’s servants should be at this point.
Same thing with the ogres.
However, if the same thing was done by one of hundreds of beastkin scattered through the battlefield, the chances of anyone post-battle remembering that it was one of them in particular who spoke were slim, to say the least.
Spinner didn’t care about the battle, though he did admit that if Tomura wants him to participate, he will. However, they didn’t know just how common lizard people were among the incoming army.
Compress didn’t care about the battle and seemed completely disinterested in what he considered to be a pointless bloodshed, though once again, he would participate if ordered. Izuku didn’t feel like forcing anyone to do anything. And he couldn’t ask Tomura.
Himiko, as expected, was ready to follow Ochako all the way into the underworld if she asked, much less into battle.
In short, they had exactly three volunteers in the Dungeon, four if you counted Ay’zira. Not a lot. But it should be enough, if only to point their Cynocephalii swarm in the right direction.
Once Uraraka asks the questions to everyone, she goes back to working on mass producing the raw flesh that they need to manifest the Cynocephalii in their full number. They don’t know how deep the beastkin will get, so just in case they only store the meat for now.
They don’t want to physically manifest their spirits just to have them be slaughtered by the visitors that Tomura invited into the Dungeon.
Without consulting that brilliant idea with Izuku.
Yes, it makes Izuku be a tiny bit salty about the whole thing. Then again, he is already pretty salty about Tomura just existing.
Some time later, the wolfman used as a messenger comes back. Until it happened, elder Anaya and the others spent their free time chilling at their entrance level, sitting at a table and drinking herbal tea.
Or, to be exact, Anaya was drinking herbal tea. The others gave Izuku the vibes of not wanting to drink anything that wasn’t beer. Or water if they were suffering from a really bad hangover.
Tomura was standing in the background, his back resting on the wall and staring at the visitors. Not saying anything. Just, staring.
If the beastkin mentioned something interesting while talking with each other, Izuku could only hope that Tomura was listening in on them, because he certainly wasn’t. He was a bit too busy observing Ochako in her most enthusiastic self, trying to convince people to leave the Dungeon to fight in a regular battle out there with her.
Look, she was the prettiest girl in the multiverse, the enthusiasm was making her even prettier than that, and he refused to be ashamed of finding enjoyment in just… watching her bright smile.
“I’ve relayed the message.” The beastkin who returned reports. “They haven’t spotted any enemies, but they’ll start sending scouts into the valley. Mizar said that he’ll personally ensure that no place they find will be disturbed. Especially the elven burial grounds.”
“Good, good.” Anaya nods before taking a final sip from her mint tea, before glancing towards Tomura. “If the enemy doesn’t decide to take our bait, one of your servants will have to guide us to the mine entrance. I assume that you know that.”
“Yes.” Tomura replies dryly. “Start moving.”
He is still as much of a jerk as usual. And as usual, it worked as they intended it to.
***
As one can expect, early stages of the Dungeon weren’t exactly a problem to the beastkin.
Last time it was just Anaya, Uzar and that annoying catgirl that ended up forfeiting her clothes to the Dungeon (Izuku found himself unable to recall her name off the top of his head).
Today, though, it was Anaya, Uzar and five more wolf-morph beastkin, equipped to a similar standard as he was. They had actual metal armors, even if incomplete - but even a chainshirt was definitely an improvement over normal clothes.
They had shields, swords, spears, axes and so on. Their weapons were of decent quality as well.
It might not be the same level of equipment than the Rose Guard had, to be honest. But they felt much more experienced and dangerous.
In all honesty, the Rose Guard looking pretty but lacking a proper combat strength that should be coming with such great equipment was… well, now that Izuku thinks about it, wouldn’t it feel pretty on-brand for the Rapturous Ecstasy?
It definitely would.
First obstacle they encounter is the elemental level. And, well, it’s not an obstacle at all. They just walk through it, nearly completely ignoring attempts by the elementals to slow them down.
“Were there any changes to this level?” Anaya asks Tomura midway through the shortest route to the level exit.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“Yes.” Tomura replies. “Made it a few times larger. But it’s just more of the same.”
“I see.” Anaya nods. “Understandable. I assume the added space is for more people to harvest things inside you, and without the ability to completely suppress the elemental overflows on this level.”
“Yes.” Tomura replies again. “If I have to allow you to steal my stuff, I might as well make it difficult.”
Izuku is still amazed by how natural Tomura was at being a manchild. And the beastkin are buying it all wholesale! Lovely.
***
Third Level is where things get interesting. Because it’s a completely new addition to the Dungeon, and one that Lanna advertised as producing some quite interesting goods - and ones not interesting just for the Dungeon but also for those living outside of it.
The party doesn’t even get to leave the starting room when they can hear distant buzzing. Distant evil buzzing. The beastkin’ hearing was one of their greatest strengths as usual.
“Wait, what is that?” Anaya halts the groups’ advance, while listening to the buzzing attentively. “That’s a sound I don’t recognize.”
“I… I think that I do.” One of her sidekicks - not Uzar for once - speaks a few seconds later. “It sounds like the blood hornets.”
“The blood…” Anaya turns her head around to face that guy, her voice betraying how much she didn’t expect such an answer. “The blood hornets? Here?”
“It definitely sounds like them.” The sidekick replies. “When I was serving in the auxilia I was tasked with dealing with a large scale infestation of those. The sound’s exactly how I remember it.”
“Blood hornets?” Uzar asks Anaya.
“Spawn of Occasa.” Anaya replies. “Annoying. Disgusting. Extremely dangerous. Can destroy entire ecosystems if allowed to spread unchecked. But both the honey and the wax they produce are extremely valuable… and I don’t think that there’s any other source of those on Vestiria, at least not in significant numbers.”
Uh-oh. It seems that Lanna was right. The Occasa roll turned out to be extremely valuable.
“So the Dungeon just became more valuable.” Uzar nods to himself. “Not bad, not bad. It seems that our pursuit of Ekana is a gift that keeps on giving.”
“Correct.” Anaya replies shortly. “Their honey is considered a delicacy and like a lot of food originated from the Spiritual World, it’s extremely nourishing. I’ve heard that a single bottle of it can satiate the hunger of a grown adult for a whole week.” She glances at Uzar. “I also heard that it’s a minor aphrodisiac and that mead made out of it maintains that trait.”
Oh.
Well, that has only made that honey more valuable. Nothing sells better than sex - maybe except for All Might as a brand.
Of course, Izuku immediately suspects that it was done for a reason. Does Occasa sound like a deity ready to give freebies to people? Of course not. So why were the blood hornets producing such a delicious thing?
In Izuku’s opinion, it was so that the prey would willingly approach them so that the hornets could then sting it, paralyze it and use it to breed more of themselves, all while acting as an incentive for keeping small blood hornet populations alive.
After all, it was a Good Business™, right? Well, at least until something happened and you lost control of said population, making it spiral out of control.
“It’s true.” The sidekick who spoke earlier adds. His face looks perfectly neutral. “I can definitely attest to that.”
Well, someone seemed to have had some fun after dealing with that infestation, that’s for sure. Well, good for him.
“Good to know.” Anaya says dryly as one of the remaining sidekicks chuckles loudly. “As for the wax, it can be used for ritual candles, and for all the normal applications of wax. Such as lubricants for woodwork, ways to make paper waterproof and so on. In short, it’s greatly valuable and will likely become a major focus of our subsequent visits here.” She glances towards Tomura. “But if I may ask, where did you obtain those creatures?”
“Occasa likes it when her servants are killed.” Tomura replies calmly and with his signature unsettling stare. “Turns out that she’s ready to reward such behavior. So I just bought it from her.”
“I… see.” Elder Anaya seems oddly confused about the concept of the manchild right next to her managing to ‘buy’ something from a god. “Well, it was certainly a great choice. One that we’re greatly thankful for.” She looks in the direction of the deeper part of this level. “It’s… time to deal with the problem at hand. Don’t let yourself get stung. Keep your durability-enhancing martial arts on at all times.”
***
The fight is brief but brutal. Hornets immediately home in on the intruders and attack with near-suicidal ferocity, seemingly fine with having most of them die just to secure more food and more flesh to incubate more of themselves in.
It’s the behavior that they learned to expect from Occasa’s brood.
However, the enemy that they encountered was simply too strong for them. Despite making the corridors significantly taller and wider, they still know how to fight and do that as a team. As a result, the blood hornets are cut down swiftly and efficiently.
They know how to cover each other and they can do wide-slashes that can instantly kill two or three hornets if they position themselves correctly (and with their lack of intellect, the hornets position themselves correctly almost constantly).
To put it mildly, it was a sad spectacle. Although the fact that they considered the threat serious enough to keep their defensive techniques up was a saving grace.
“Lovely.” Tomura comments as they finally reach the level change room and fight off the swarm of the hornets coming from all directions. “Bad news is that I’ve added it very recently, so I don’t think there’s any of that honey to ransack. And it’s also a bit of a disappointment, difficulty level wise.”
“Please, don’t make it any harder than it already is.” Anaya replies immediately. Oh? “In fact, you should consider making it a bit easier. If Keran’s group was the one doing this, I don’t think they’d manage to get through this level without at least a single casualty. Hopefully just a temporary one, although the paralysis of those can last for a long time if I remember correctly. But if the victim gets the eggs instead of the paralysis, it’s going to be a problem.”
“I thought that Dungeons were supposed to be hard to access.” Tomura replies, faking (slight) outrage quite well.
“Yes, but it’s supposed to grow with every level in a more or less consistent manner, to make it so that only the stupid, the reckless and the overly greedy die a painful death.” Anaya replies. “This is a major difficulty spike. And if the next level is the one with the spiders, it really feels as if the difficulty stays roughly the same for two levels in a row.“
“Hmph.” Tomura grumbles. “I’ll think about it. Continue on.”
“I was promised honey and I was given none.” One of the sidekicks groans in the background, Anaya glaring daggers at him for a second before the group descends to the Fourth Level.
***
Fourth Level was as they expected it. A problem, but not a giant one. Something to delay this group rather than actually stop it or cause any injuries to them.
If anything, the beastkin warriors seem to be treating it like some sort of warm-up routine. Tomura looks annoyed by it and honestly, so is Izuku.
The absolute disrespect.
“We’ll have to get you some sort of smelting tools for this level.” Anaya comments as they’re passing by an entrance to one of the mining rooms, the two warriors acting as their vanguard slaughtering spiders that are trying to swarm them, not just on the floor but also on the walls and even the ceiling. “Transporting the ore outside of the Dungeon has to be…”
“My servants stole a mana-powered smelter from the elven mine before Ecstasy drove us out.” Tomura doesn’t let her finish. “But we’ve put it on a lower level than this. Too valuable and I don’t want anyone to steal it from us.” He squints. “I’ll be very angry if someone does that.”
“Oh, I … I see.” Anaya didn’t expect that to happen, that’s for sure. “If we provide you with a less… valuable one, more primitive and less efficient, will you be willing to put it on this level?”
Tomura tilts his head and stares at her without a word for a few seconds before finally speaking.
“Alright.” He eventually decides. “But not for free. Same with lowering the Second Level’ difficulty. If you want to dictate to me what I’m supposed to do in my own domain, I want something for it.”
There is a brief flinch on Anaya’s face that makes it clear that she isn’t enjoying spending time with Tomura and getting pushed around like this. But she plays along. Then again, it’s a deal that’s very profitable for her as well.
“Go on.” Anaya replies eventually. “What do you want?”
“Water.” Tomura replies. He is so cryptic about it, that he actually earns a confused look from her. “I want a water level. A flooded cave or something like this. Hot springs, maybe?” He tilts his head, managing to look convincingly confused. “Dunno how it works and what do I need to get that done. But you can definitely try.”
That wasn’t something that any of them discussed in the past. Izuku definitely didn’t expect that.
Tomura could show some surprising initiative, good to know. Something that he should definitely remember.
“Very well then.” Anaya decides not to have a fight over it, especially when it likely shouldn’t be a very hard thing to obtain for her tribe. “We’ll provide that as soon as possible.”
“We have a deal then.” Tomura replies shortly and the journey continues.
They’re going to have hot springs in their Dungeon? That was definitely going to improve everyone’s morale! And was also going to make their hygiene into a much more enjoyable thing and… oh, dear.
He just imagined himself, Ochako and Himiko in a hot spring. And oh, damn. If he had a body right now, he would become completely red in an instant. The mind images were just… they were a lot.
***
What comes next is the Fifth Level, which is the one with Kinoko Komori as the final boss. Izuku doesn’t have a lot of hopes for it, especially as elder Anaya wasn’t going to be surprised by her lack of fear of fire for the second time.
And, well, he was correct in not having high hopes. Because their journey through the Fifth Level ends up being pretty much how he expected it to happen.
Against so many enemies at once, Komori doesn’t manage to put up anything even remotely resembling a fight, and gets promptly chopped into pieces alongside the [Lesser Lignomorphs] that tried to fight alongside her.
“This level didn’t change a lot.” Anaya comments a moment later. “In fact, it doesn’t seem to have changed at all.”
“I haven’t gotten anything more to put here.” Tomura replies, sounding annoyed by the unspoken accusation. “Putting more Lignomorphs and more random plants and nothing more feels pointless.”
“You want more creatures of the Wild Courts?” Anaya replies with a question. “I’m sure we can provide some of them. We have some very annoying neighbors that we clash with occasionally. That’s how we got you some ogres.”
“Sure.” Tomura shrugs as Izuku can feel his desire for murder grow. “Have fun with that. Give me more of it and I’ll expand this level. With more plants.”
He did that explicitly so that he could annoy Izuku by having the beastkin kill people for them, didn’t he?
And this jerkface was going to treat that as being a payback for the whole ‘manchild’ thing, right? And he was going to be super smug about it as if it was actually good payback, allowing him to get an edge over Izuku.
Worst part was that he wouldn’t exactly be wrong about it.
Ugh.
***
The Sixth Level is when things become difficult. It was the level inhabited by the veritable army of skeletons, that thanks to being moved a level lower had their equipment a bit improved.
In fact, their melee fighters were now carrying somewhat aged-looking versions of the [Tribal Skirmisher Armor], which had mildly improved their resistance to hits. In the end, though, the beastkin almost immediately realized their weakspot.
Legs.
You could have an armor stick to a skeleton’s body by having it hung off its shoulders, but if you tried the same with their leggings, they’d just fall off. Same with leather thigh-highs. As a result, once the melee started, they immediately targeted the less-protected legs.
At one point, Izuku could see a single beastkin warrior immediately severing seven legs with one horizontal slash. Not good, to put it lightly.
But the sheer number of skeletons and the fact that they had their own archers meant that it at least somehow resembled a fight, forcing the beastkin to use their abilities and even actually block attacks.
“So…” Anaya speaks at some point of the beastkin’s aimless wander through many dead-end corridors of the level, under constant attack from the skeletons that seemed to converge on them from all directions. “... one of those elven burial sites is held by the Breathless Tide, am I right?”
“Yes.” Tomura replies shortly. “But if their leader didn’t come all the way to my domain, the Rampant Bloom’s forces would have killed me. I consider myself to be personally indebted to that particular individual and I’ll take any attack on them as an attack on myself.”
“Point taken.” Anaya replies. “Paying back your debts, both positive and negative, is something that my tribe understands well.” She then sighs. “But did you really have to make this level into such a maze?”
“Yes.” Tomura deadpans. “And I’m looking forward to making it worse.”
Anaya just groans. All while Izuku is looking forward to the lampades’ debut in the service of the Dungeon.