POV Blue Suns Adventuring group

Once everyone was geared up and ready for what they could potentially face in this new dungeon, they got into the dinghies and started rowing to where they found the entrance. But it was not there.

“The dungeon core must have learned from our last visit.” Said Anes.

“It’s learning. That means it is most likely autonomous and is intelligent enough to understand and adapt their dungeon based on the core’s experiences.” Remarked Divan, who was getting more concerned about what this meant for their first dungeon dive.

“That’s even worse. The easiest dungeons are the ones that go through the motions,” replied Neronia. It was her opinion that the dungeon cores that are not sentient and just follow their instincts are the best. These types of dungeons tend to be repetitive and can be predictive. Though these types of dungeons can be very dangerous or not that dangerous. All dungeons have different degrees of danger, but one of the goals of dungeon cores is to repel invaders. As such, the non-sentient, instinct-following dungeon cores are her preferred type of dungeon.

“I disagree,” stated the ever-silent Caliso, who was an avid lover of the study of dungeon ecology. He grew up in the town of Isamor, which was a town right outside a dungeon called the Jungle Dungeon of Isamor. It was this that he had come to love the intricate ecosystems that each dungeon produces. The dungeons that produce even more distinctive and majestic ecosystems are those that are sentient and do not just follow instincts.

“The more intelligent cores are better. But what it depends on is the core’s personality.”

Just like humans, dungeon cores have different personalities. Their personalities tend to distinguish how deadly the dungeon responds to intrusions. Whether outright trying to kill an adventurer as soon as they enter the dungeon or the more passive, getting more deadlier the further in one goes. It really depends, and through long dives and note-taking about the dungeon, can a dungeon’s personality be categorized. Though even then, it is not always correct. There have been cases where dungeons have completely switched their personalities for unknown reasons.

“Either way, let’s just hope the dungeon is more passive than anything.” Said Anse, who just hoped their first dive into the dungeon would not result in any deaths or permanent injuries.

“Let’s just find the entrance,” said Divan, who had mostly stayed out of the conversation.

They rowed the two dinghies around the iceberg and spotted an ice platform with a hole larger than the one they encountered the first time.

As they docked and attached the dinghies onto the ice, Divan looked over his teammates.

“Is everyone ready? Did everyone triple-check their gear and supplies?” Once everybody nodded, the group started to make their way into the dungeon.

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The entrance was not large enough for them to stand up in, so they were forced to crawl in a single file line. And even then, they had to stop every time there was a curve so that Caliso could mark it on the map.

Even though it went slow, they eventually crawled to the first room of the dungeon.

Divan, who was leading the group through the tunnels, saw the room first and stopped the group in the tunnel. He turned his head to look back at the group and said, “the first room seems to be a semi-aquatic environment.”

“Is there room to breathe?” Called out Neronia.

“Ya, we should be able to stand and be able to breathe. Anes, can you pass around the waterproof seals that you made?”

Since the dungeon was in an iceberg, there was some discussion about what the dungeon environment would be, and rightly so, talk about it being aquatic came up. So Anes prepared some waterproof runes, which acted essentially like a wetsuit that prevented the cold and created a thin barrier that prevents water from touching their skin. They tend to work very well, and it would help if all the rooms were aquatic in nature.

Once everyone applied the rune to their skin, the group slowly crawled into the room with their weapons at the ready, just in case the dungeon went all out at the beginning.

Slowly, they made their way through the room. They encountered regular kelp and a few non-enhanced animals, but when they were halfway through the room, Neronia made a quiet hissing sound.

“What happened?” Said Divan, alarmed that something had happened, turned to Neronia.

“The seaweed cut my hand.” She said as she held her hand above the water, showing a shallow cut with blood dripping from it.

This instantly made the group more alert.

Caliso quickly walked to Neronia and, using a dagger, cut a leaf off of the kelp and studied it.

“Yep, this kelp was definitely enhanced with dungeon mana. See these sharp edges?” He said as he excitedly showed the rest of the group. “The tip of the leaves are more dense and sharp, but still very flexible.”

Caliso grabbed another kelp, cut a stem off it, and compared the two.

“See, this one is the same type of kelp found in this area, but this one,” he said, showing the leaf with the sharp edges to the group. “Has been adapted by the dungeon. Isn’t this fascinating?” He said with a smile.

Caliso was usually silent, but when it came to dungeons and anything found in dungeons, he could talk someone’s ear off about it.

He put the dungeon-enhanced kelp sample into a glass jar, and the group continued to explore the room.

They had almost reached the end of the room before they were attacked.

As they walked through the water, a swarm of what may be shrimp started with what looked like ice growing out and around them, attacked.

The shrimp/krill monsters threw little chunks of ice at them through the water. Though they avoided most, when the ice touched their legs and torso, it started to spread. The ice that spread onto their skin was so cold that it burned their skin.

The group stabbed into the water, trying to kill off the monsters. But it didn’t do much.

The monsters were small and fast enough that they only managed to kill about half of the swarm before Anes got fed up. Setting off a wind rune in the water, it slammed the monsters into the wall, killing all of them and some of the animals in the vicinity.

Once all of the monsters were killed, the group started collecting the dead creatures and monsters and putting them into bags to give to the guild. It was then that Caliso identified the monsters as a type of krill.

As they harvested the monsters, Caliso spotted a small mana core, around one centimetre, within the monsters.

“Guys! They have mana cores!”

“What?” Divan said as he snapped his head to peer at Caliso.

“The monsters have mana cores in them!”

As soon as that registered in everybody’s minds, they quickly harvested mana cores from all the monsters, save for the ones they are bringing back for the guild.

“Let’s move on!” Declared Divan, who wondered what other treasures waited in the dungeon.