Beatrice looked at the faces of her party, feeling nervous, before she pushed open the door to the boss room. Over the last few months, everyone has come to love Thornkeep Sanctuary. It was well known for its slime [Monsters] and abundance of puzzles. Her own party had excitedly traveled across Deepvein Kingdom just to reach this very dungeon after hearing a number of tales about this dungeon. Everything they had heard had been true, but not everything was rainbows and sunshine.
Their bard immediately got to work, using her lute to buff their party before pulling out a matching set of daggers. Their healer held up a shield they had brought for extra protection from the boss's lethal projectiles. The man was strong enough to pull them out of danger before healing them and sending them back into battle. However, Beatrice was still nervous. No one in their party was higher than D-rank and they had heard the rumors about just how many other parties had been slayed by this thing.
At first, the problem had been caused by the unexpected contrast between the mostly peaceful first floor and the dangerous floor boss. Slimes were a rare dungeon [Monster] to see in the first place, so it wasn't like the guild had much information on them. It certainly didn't help that the one not on the boss being unusually dangerous had been misplaced due to a guild not being available in Millstone until just recently. It was only after reports started coming in that the neighboring city of Elesfield realized their mistake.
As soon as her group got close to the behemoth slime, the projectiles started firing off one after another. Despite their careful preparation, one of her party members immediately went down. Beatrice shook her head before jumping into battle herself. Her axe smashed down into the hard rock of the slime, causing a small chunk to crumble and fall to the ground. Unfortunately, an axe wasn't very well suited to such a boss and her weapon also took some damage. She blew a breath of frustration out as she smashed her axe back down into the slime, slowly crumbling apart the emperor rock slime's armor-like exterior.
"Frank's dead! Should we retreat?"
Their healer called out. Beatrice looked back in the direction of his voice, but that was all the time the boss needed to attack her, a huge projectile slamming into her, sending her rocketing backwards. When she came to, her arm was missing and their healer looked grim. They were no longer in the boss room.
"What happened?"
The man looked grim as he replied
"They're all dead. After you fell unconscious, I grabbed you and dashed for the exit. It's supposed to be locked, but, for some reason, it wasn't, this time. The others tried to provide cover while we left, but the boss's attacks shredded through the hedges and it was hard to get away."
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Beatrice tried to stand up, feeling disoriented as she did so.
"Take it easy. I was able to heal the worst of your injuries, but your arm is still missing. I'm not a high enough ranking and we don't have high enough quality potions to heal it. We'll have to see if we can get help from the adventurer's guild."
Beatrice grimaced. Now that he mentioned it, she did feel a bit odd. No wonder! Her arm was now nothing but a nub and she couldn't help but vomit off to one side. It was unlikely they'd be able to afford healing from anyone qualified to help them. If they were lucky, they could spend a few months farming resources in the dungeon until they could get the money together, but, by then, it would be even harder to get the help she needed. An A-rank could regrow her arm as things currently stood, but only an S-rank would be able to help her if she had to wait that long…
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Violet was unaware of just how much the adventurers in her dungeon were suffering. She had seen the party in her boss room nearly get wiped out. When they had chosen to retreat, she had unlocked the doors and let them out. She didn't want any unnecessary deaths on her hands. Those who had died in battle made her feel a bit more complicated. The dungeon had immediately released calming vibes, forcing her to settle down, when she had first started to panic as she noticed the recent deaths. However, now that she was calm, she couldn't help but think that, maybe, it was only natural.
Adventurers knew the risks of entering a dungeon. She had enough torches and signs designating the room as the boss room. Even if they couldn't tell by the fancy, larger door for the boss room, she had made certain they knew what they were getting into. If they chose to take on her emperor rock slime before they were ready, then she couldn't be blamed for their deaths. Besides, it would be wrong of her to deny them their right to challenge her dungeon. She couldn't afford to reduce the difficulty of her boss [Monsters] either as they were the primary form of protection she had.
Violet turned her attention to another set of names. This group had made it to the second floor. Their progress was slow as they constantly got locked into the various challenge rooms. There wasn't a single other group that had made it to the second floor today. She couldn't help but wonder if this meant the group would be camping out on the second floor for a few days. Would they try to take on her new redcap myconid boss [Monster]? She wasn't sure if they would even make it that far. Really, only time would tell, but it was most certainly an interesting new experience to get to watch as the various adventurer groups explored her dungeon.
Well, 'watching' is a bit generous. She could feel their energy signatures and she could see their current location with her [Guest List] skill. When their names disappeared, she knew they had either left or their lives had ended. She did wonder a bit what everyone thought of her dungeon, but she was too busy working on her third floor to be bothered with traveling down to the lower floors. Greeting her new guests would have to wait until later.