Toga had followed their orders to the letter. It took her a while to throw the skeleton through the crevice one bone at the time, and she also failed to do the same with the shield which was simply too wide to fit. But eventually, she finished with it.
She then crawled back, put her clothes back on (to Izuku’s honest relief), went outside, wore her shoes again, picked up the backpack, returned back to the collapse and put all the bones inside of it.
If you can find a detachable piece of rock in one of the collapsed segments, could you bring it with you?
Just in case a skeleton wasn’t enough.
“Sure thing, sure thing.” Toga replies cheerfully. Hey, she really enjoyed the trip! She made Izukun all embarrassed and conscious of what she had on the table, she got to stretch her legs a bit and she really enjoyed her new body! She hoped she could keep it. “Going back to the dungeon now!”
Yeah, yeah, we’re really waiting for that loot
And for you too.
Really?
What? She’s my teammate now, and I don’t think that killing a walking skeleton constitutes a crime in this world.
I treat her appropriately.
Riiight
Himiko only heard the exchange until the ‘and for you too’, which only made it better for her. Now she has to do her best so that Ochako will stop being so shy around her, and her cuties will be properly assembled!
***
Assimilating the goods that Toga brought has given them some new unlocks, but nothing truly groundbreaking.
Their [Entities] tab developed a new subcategory listed as the [Breathless Tide]. They didn’t magically obtain a full understanding of that term, but they were certain that it was the general name for all undead things in this world.
And they were nearly certain that one or more ‘evil gods’ like Luna were involved in it.
[Breathless Tide] had a further subcategory titled [Lesser Undead], where their newly obtained entity was. It was listed as a [Skeleton/White Elf]. Its estimated threat level was the same as that of the shards , confirming their suspicion that skeletons were weak. Although they could be elevated in strength slightly, by giving them weapons.
Which makes sense. They’re lacking all of the flesh that could be used to dampen impacts. Sufficient blunt damage can easily just break their bones, meaning that every skeleton will be naturally highly vulnerable to damage.
What’s more, they have no muscles, so not an awful lot of strength, and they aren’t even sure where they get their strength from.
So we have skeletons who are basic and weak, but at least can move around
There are also probably zombies that are tougher but slow
no idea if there are other types of ‘lesser’ undead
Makes sense to me.
The problem was that while they could create them and they would be a definite improvement over the astral duo, arming them would bring them from ETL 8 to ETL 12. That, in turn, would require AML of 1.2 to have them exist somewhere in the long-term.
On a sidenote, they now know that [Greater Undead] had to exist out there, and so did the elves.
‘White’ Elf, though?
What does that even mean?
I have absolutely no clue
Nor do I care
You know what, if you want to care about lore, fine, but I’m mostly focused on what’s practical right now
Sure.
What about the elephant in the room?
Don’t remind me
It turns out that the place you’ve found can be made into a ‘Muraekai Burial Site’ biome, whatever ‘Muraekai’ means, but we need more stuff from it to get it done, it’s only 4% unlocked
That makes sense, I guess.
The more valuable something is, the harder it is to unlock.
Decorations and random primitive weapons? Easy, you get it if you assimilate a person who pretty much got to see or touch them a few times in their life.
More advanced weapon is something we’ll probably have to get individually to replicate, same with armors, and immaterial things like skills and abilities.
And as for biomes, we need a lot of stuff for a single unlock
Yeah, yeah, makes sense
We definitely need to return there for more unlocks, but we need to be better prepared
Aside from the skeleton, the only thing they got was a spear. An [Aged Elven Spear] in the newly created [Old Kingdom of Vestiria] subcategory, made from [Aged Ironwood I] and [Rusted Steel I], both of which were materials that joined a newly opened [Items/Materials] subcategory.
They could theoretically create those materials, likely to act as a potential bait for adventurers. Put it in chests or on a shelf somewhere and let the adventurers take it. Except, both materials had a value rating of I , meaning that they were barely worth anything, likely due to age.
The fact that the normal wood and leathers weren’t showing up on the list, despite them assimilating those was actually somewhat confusing. They also should have [Iron] due to Toga’s knives, but…
You think that those materials are simply less valuable and easier to reproduce than iron, normal wood and leather, meaning that we’ve unlocked them earlier?
Yes
Check the details of the tab, we have ‘low quality iron’, beechwood and wolf leather partially unlocked, there is also goddamn limestone there that’s almost unlocked thanks to that small piece of rock you had Toga bring here
Huh, good to know.
Guess that covers all our new gains.
It was interesting and useful but now it’s time to expand this place a bit and focus on it.
I kind of considered sending Toga on a scout trip in the other direction now
No.
Why?
Just check what she’s doing right now.
Oh.
Toga didn’t participate in their talk simply because she was asleep. After returning to the Dungeon she immediately went to her room, put her knives, backpack and necklace on the small table in the corner of the room, and then went to bed.
When Tomura checked on her, she was fast asleep, hugging her pet slime (or Slimy-chan as she now called it).
Thankfully, she was actually wearing her clothes. Izuku feared what would happen if she didn’t. And even then, it was somewhat worrying to him because of being able to see everything at all times and without anyone knowing a thing, which was going to become kind of questionable if they were going to get more girls around.
Izuku doesn’t want to peep. But when he thinks about Toga he almost immediately knows where she was at the time and roughly her current state, which does involve the question of how much she was wearing at the time.
That felt very unethical, even if he couldn’t help it and he didn’t actually see her at the time.
Alright, so I guess that next trip outside can wait
Yep.
Wait, she didn’t fall into the trap on the way here?
No, because I told her where it was and she jumped over it.
Oh, I see
Anyway, let’s invest the mana we have into expanding the level a bit, we need it MUCH bigger
***
image [https://images.squidge.org/images/2024/03/09/image77217b51b04aa1ca.png]
1. Entrance, 2. Hidden Passage. 3. Hidden Passage. 4. Fall Trap. 5. Projectile Trap Room. 6. Toga's Room. 7. Dungeon Core.
It was the largest expansion of their Dungeon thus far, focused mostly on the area surrounding their new trap. To begin with, Tomura came up with an idea on how to creatively expand on Izuku’s original trap design.
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Namely, to apply the very concept of precise manipulation of stones used to create a nigh-undetectable trapdoor to something else. Like, say, the narrow secret passages.
As a result, each and every one of those passages was now a one-way route, locked by a ten centimeter thick block of solid limestone made to be outwardly identical to the rest of the wall. From the outside of the passage you could push it out on some stone rails, which wasn’t easy and required a lot of strength, but could be done.
It was impossible to push inside, at least not further than its closed state, because trying to open it that way would just make it hit a stone blockage.
Yes, they managed to do the same thing to the cave entrance crevice. However, it was almost certainly not going to last for long as it was clear that there was a limit to how much mana could pass through the small openings around the block.
In fact, just to allow this to work, they needed to create two extremely small and hopefully well-hidden vents surrounding the actual passage. Otherwise, they couldn’t vent enough mana and they’d probably all die.
Once someone would pass their trap and the two hidden shortcuts that should potentially allow them to flank enemies, they would find themselves in a large and somewhat regular shaped room - if someone gets that deep into their Dungeon, there’s really no point pretending that they’re not a Dungeon.
This one was a result of another idea that Izuku had, namely the fact that astral shards didn’t seem to need food. Or anything else for sustenance. So, there was theoretically no reason not to put them inside a hollow space inside the wall and use them to fire their projectiles through a small hole.
Sure, they wouldn’t be able to aim their fire, but with enough intensity of firepower, they could definitely make that room into a giant killzone.
There were a few hollow columns inside the room. Those were a trap as well. There were going to be more astral shards inside, ready to fire from the few holes in them right into whoever would try to hide there.
Once we recover RM we should expand on Toga’s boss room
Make it wider and taller, give it a sufficiently dark higher level that she can use to attack from above, probably place a few skeletons around to drag invader’s attention to them so that she can sneak attack them
That will work great only once.
Not quite, I have a few interesting design ideas th
oh fuck
Toga, wake up, now!
“Mmmm…” Toga yawns while rubbing her eyes with the hand that wasn’t busy hugging Slimy-chan. “Izukun, not so rough, my heart isn’t…”
We have INTRUDERS!
WAKE UP!
And that does wake her up, so she immediately abandons Slimy and leaps off her bed to grab her equipment.
This time it wasn’t a single person, but four. Which immediately made the situation downright desperate.
First was a dark gray haired catwoman in her late teens or early twenties wearing gear and armed similarly to the catwoman that tried to kill them. That alone made them immediately realize that they might have been visited by friends of the first one.
Second one was a male wolfman of similar age with a shield and a short spear, with black hair. The outfit he was wearing was similar in general design to the tribal outfit they already owned, the only exception being short trousers instead of a skirt.
Third one was a middle-aged wolfman, with a two-handed sword on his back, rather impressive musculature and towering figure. He was also wearing an actual piece of armor in the form of a chainmail shirt over the linen one. He also carried a few visible scars, including a nasty one on his cheek.
The final person was a woman in her fifties, with fox-ears and a tail, wearing an outfit that somewhat resembled a shrine maiden kimono: The long sleeves, the shoulder cuts, even the colorful obi around her waist.
The main difference was a number of tassles decorating the front of her lower body, including two red ones hanging off her ears of all places, making quite a contrast with her dark blueish fur.
She definitely looked important. She also spoke first, soon after she entered the cave, escorted by the bigger wolfman only to see the other two giving her a questioning look from the other side of it.
“Nothing?” She asks. Izuku and Tomura feel relief simultaneously as they do understand it. And that could be helpful.
“Nothing, elder.” The catwoman replies. “Are you sure that she came here?”
“I do not make such mistakes, child.” The foxwoman says coldly while looking around the cave. “Ekana was here. She entered this cave, but she didn’t leave it the same way she entered. Look for clues and put your back into it.”
Both the catwoman and the younger wolfman say nothing more, just start to thoroughly examine every centimeter of the walls. Leaving the older wolfman and the foxwoman to stand right next to each other, by the cave entrance.
Are they going to find it?
I don’t know, now shhh
“You could be a bit softer.” The wolfman says quietly. “It’s the first time that they’re taking part in such a mission. It’s natural to be excited, especially when you’re barely of age.”
“The youngsters need to learn discipline.” The elder replies dryly. And loud enough for the others to hear her. “They should also learn to think before they open their mouths. In both fields, the faster they achieve it, the better.”
“Is it about Ekana?” The wolfman asks, looking down on a much smaller woman… and yet, despite that, it’s clear who is the more important among them.
“Ekana is what happens when a youngster is allowed to do whatever they want for too long and listens to the teachings about seeking strength, glory and wealth for yourself, but not the ones about loyalty to their brethren, about warrior’s honor and respect to those who walked further on the path.” Elder replies, not even looking in the large wolfman’s direction. “If she listened to her elders a bit more, or if said elders put more effort into educating her, we wouldn’t be here, in the middle of nowhere, looking for her so that we can drag her back into the tribe to be executed for what she did.”
She didn’t say it but I can practically hear the unspoken ‘I told you so’ there
Yes, someone has an… attitude, that’s for sure.
But it seems that the catwoman that died in our Dungeon truly was an outlaw.
She probably decided to kill us to sell our remains in the next city over and escape from the grasp of her pursuers.
Yeah
“Elder, there’s nothing here.” The younger wolfman says. He and the catwoman are standing there, deeper into the cave. “No signs of her ever being here.”
The Elder sighs and walks forward, still shadowed by the older wolfman. She stops in the middle of the cave and closes her eyes, standing there for a few seconds.
And then her eyes suddenly open and immediately lock onto one of the vents they had to make. A small and otherwise completely unremarkable crevice that was much deeper than it looked from the outside.
shit
Elder says nothing, but her eyes jump from one part of a wall to another for a few seconds, the woman clearly examining it in detail. She must have already realized what was going on, she was just looking for the secret passage.
And she found it. Then Izuku and Tomura go to witness her cutting the palm of her hand with a blade and then using some sort of spell(?) that controlled said blood, so that the liquid could squeeze through the gaps in the wall. It then coalesced around the handle, and pulled it, opening the passage door. Telekinesis? Haemokinesis? Whatever it was, it was annoying.
They’ll have to alter their secret passages to deal with this problem.
“And now I’m certain.” Elder says while staring at the now open passage, the two youngsters staring at it as well but clearly slackjawed. “We’re inside a newly born Dungeon. The flow of mana is unmistakable, if faint.”
Guess we can’t hope to stay hidden from the visitors after all.
We can, unless they bring a stupid damn mage/sorcerer/shaman/whatchamacallit with them
“A Dungeon?” The older wolfman says, staring incredulously at the elder. “Here?”
“Yes, an unexpected boon from this trip.” Elder replies, with a thoughtful expression on her face and eyes still on the passage. “We need to investigate it, Ekana might be hiding somewhere inside. That, or the dungeon managed to kill her for us, in which case we’ll likely be attacked by something resembling her. You two.” She glances at the two youngsters. “You’re going in first. Uzan, you’re going to carry the torch. Be on your guard. And if you see a glowing cube, that’s the Astral Core. Don’t touch it, just come back.”
“Yes, elder!” They both reply immediately, looking quite… pumped up about it. And the ‘dots’ they all have on the map are orange, so trespassers but with no interest in actually killing them.
We’re going to need Toga to fight them and die so that they know that Ekana is dead
Seriously?
You want one of the few remaining members of the League to just… die?
I want her to die tactically
She’ll be fine!
…
“We’re going inside too?” The older wolfman asks as the two youngsters put their backpacks behind before pulling out torches and starting to work on lighting them.
“Yes.” Elder replies. “But we’ll let them test themselves since they’re so eager to do so. There shouldn’t be anything even potentially lethal in this place, aside from Ekana herself. If they die, it means that gods didn’t favor them.”
That’s… really cold.
Reminds me of Sensei.
… Do you want to talk about that?
wtf of course not
Sigh.
Toga, we need you to ambush the enemies, but there’re so many of them that they’ll almost certainly kill you.
But don’t worry, we’ll resurrect you afterwards, okay?
“Okay!” Toga replies. She was currently waiting by the entrance to the second hidden passage, ready to use it to appear behind the enemy group. “I trust you, Izukun! But if I do that, you’re going to have to call me Himiko instead!”
Errr… o-okay?
Shigaraki, is she really ready to just die because I told her to and because she can make me call her by her first name if she does so?
It’s Toga, I stopped expecting logic from her long ago
The youngsters pass through the narrow crevice, and quickly dispatch of the few shards and slimes that were gathered there. Their recent expansions cost them so much residual mana, that they simply didn’t have the time to produce more of the defenders. As a result, the first line of defense was weaker than it was when Ekana managed to easily barge through all of that.
Yes, this time they had some of the slimes attack from above at the first passage but only because there was no longer a second one. Still, it didn’t help. The rogue catgirl passed through the crevice and narrowly managed to dodge the attack from above, occupying the defenders attention for the time needed by the wolfman warrior to crawl through the crevice.
The moment he managed to spear two slimes to death with a single thrust, all while simultaneously stopping a shard projectile with his shield, Izuku realized that if the newcomers wanted to kill them, they’d die.
The youngsters reach the bend in the tunnel just as the older wolfman crawls through the first passage, immediately followed by the elder. Toga takes advantage of the gap between those two groups to move through the second passage in between the two groups.
“I think I heard something.” Wolfman is instantly on guard. Well, it’s not like you can slide limestone on limestone and make no noise, a problem especially with keen beastkin senses. “Stone grinding on stone. A secret passage opening, perhaps?”
“Ekana might be trying to sneak past those two.” Elder replies while dusting her clothes after the crawl. “If so, then she’ll walk right into us. Find that passage.”
“Elder, I’m not sure if I should…” The wolfman tries to protest.
“I can protect myself, Uzar.” The Elder cuts it short. “Go and deal with it.”
Wolfman nods, turns around and walks down the corridor. Right towards Toga. Who was currently hiding right next to the exit of the secret passage, both her knives in her hands. Well, great.
Honestly speaking, Izuku is somewhat reassured by that. She couldn’t die permanently, and Uzar seemed strong enough to not be at the risk of dying. If Toga did attack one of the two younger tribesmen, she might have actually killed or injured one.
Before that…
The one that’s coming towards you is a warrior, but his sword is sheathed.
He is alone.
He’s wearing a chain shirt, so go for the throat
…
While fighting, don’t speak a word. We still have no idea how we can get souls the normal way, and without that you wouldn’t be smart enough to speak, or so we think.
Let’s not make them realize we’re somewhat unnatural.
Good point
Toga gives them a sign that she received the orders by nodding a few times, then keeps waiting in ambush. This quickly makes it clear that there’s a design flaw in their passage, because the two tribesmen ahead almost reached the other end of the crevice, and this isn’t actually all that well concealed.
They end up having to send all of the remaining astral shards and slimes that aren’t part of any traps to charge at them to delay them for the time needed for the ambush to happen. They definitely had to make some changes after that.
Finally, Uzar reaches the edge of the passage. Toga leaps off the ground, then bounces off the wall to the south and flies towards Uzar the moment he steps past the edge of the wall that conceals the secret passage’s exit, knives ready to stab him.
He is surprised by it, but not enough for it to matter. He moves fast enough to grab her by her shoulders, his longer arms keeping his body outside of her knives’ range, and then delivers a massive upward kick to her chest with enough strength to have her slam into the ceiling.
She then falls into the ground, clearly stunned and with her ribs likely shattered into pieces by the kick. Despite that, she tries to lift herself up, but at this point Uzar has his sword in his hand, grabs it by the hilt and the end of the blade and then uses it as a guillotine and immediately decapitates her.
Well, that was… quick
someone’s definitely overleveled for this place
Your ability to see your subordinate get decapitated and react to it like this is truly incredible.
Complimenting me now?
That was not a compliment.
Oh
***
The Elder's outfit (ignore the odd hair color, it's kinda... err, I've been really struggling with this one).
image [https://images.squidge.org/images/2024/03/09/image1302c8057b40cff8.png]