Chapter 9: The adventurer exam part 3
In the dungeon, floor 1, at the plains.
Mile’s party had finally finished resting and had now begun to move again towards the end of the plains where the end of this floor was.
“Hey, Robin and Luna can you guys go ahead and scout the area for what type of monster is here,” asked Rebecca.
“Of Course, that's no problem, we will go and check ahead while you guys follow behind alright, then let's go,” said Robin while gesturing to Luna to follow along.
After saying that Robin and Luna rushed ahead of the rest of the party to scout and while Robin was scouting the area he chanced upon a sunbathing flame salamander who was not paying any attention to the surroundings suggesting that there was no enemy of flame salamanders in this plains area.
After seeing this he immediately turned back and returned to the party to give the news and when he got there he noticed that Luna was still not there so he used his class skill [Nature's message] to inform Luna to return immediately to the party. After which a while later Luna returned to the party as well.
When they had all gathered together Robin told them about his discovery.
“Hmm if the flame salamander that you saw was so carefree of its surroundings in a plain then that probably means that it is the only monster species in this plains area,” said Rebecca.
“Oh then that's good news isn't it from the looks of things it appears that the dungeon is almost out of monster variety so after we cross this plains area we should be able to clear this dungeon floor and finish our adventurer's exam,” said Miles.
“Oh, it's not good news you hot headed idiot because didn't you see those lava eels. They were just a single type of monster but they still pressured us greatly didn't they? That's because they were an elite monster type” said Luke with an annoyed expression on his face.
“Indeed Luke is right, these flame salamanders should also be elite monster types as well,” said Rebecca.
“Um, actually what exactly is this elite monster type you guys are talking about?” asked Miles while having a puzzled look on his face.
“Seriously did you not even touch the guild encyclopedia or what because it's literally among the first monster-related knowledge in the monsters section, anyways here listen a elite monster type is a monster type that is the dominant monster of an area that has no other monster type in it to compete with it for dominance meaning it's like an apex animal species of an area” explained Rebecca.
“And the reason they're dangerous is that when there is no other monster type which interferes or threatens this monster type, this monster type can leisurely use group exclusive special abilities which it couldn't before because of the other monster type separating it into individuals and not allowing them to group,” Rebecca explained
“Ah I see then this is not good news because the flame salamanders are already very strong as individuals so if they group then we're really gonna have a hard time,” said Miles after finally understanding the severity of the situation.
“Hmm we should start moving while avoiding any groups of flame salamanders and killing any lone flame salamanders we come across until we cross this plains area,” suggested Luna.
“Yeah you are right, everyone let's go shall we,” said Rebecca.
After this, they kept moving forward and on their way, they encountered two flame salamander groups made up of three and five flame salamanders respectively though they had not met any new lone flame salamanders other than the first one which when they had gone to kill had already disappeared.
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After a good couple hours of traveling, they had very miraculously not once been detected by the flame salamanders and had crossed the plains area without even fighting any flame salamanders.
“Wait, did we just cross the plains area without being spotted even once,” asked Robin in disbelief.
“Indeed, weren't the flame salamanders supposed to be very dangerous so how did we do that?” said Miles with obvious confusion.
“I'm also quite speechless at this turn of events as our luck had been trash before so maybe the bad luck finally decided to stop," said Rebecca jokingly.
“You guys, let's just stop thinking about that for a minute and look ahead, will you?” said Luke with a very happy expression.
After Luke had finished speaking the party members had turned to face forward when they saw it. A gateway on top of a small mound signaled that the party had finally reached the end of the dungeon floor.
“Yeah finally we did it, we finished this dungeon” exclaimed Miles.
As he exclaimed he had already started running towards the gateway and so were the others in the party as they ran towards the gateway and when they reached it instead of the dungeon clear message that they got shocked them entirely.
[Congratulations to the challengers for completing the first floor of the dungeon.]
[Would you like to proceed to the second floor or would you like to exit the dungeon and receive your reward.]
“What in the name of all that is holy is this shit I thought this was a new dungeon so why in god's name does it have a second floor” swore Miles in anger.
And it was not just Miles but everyone who was seething with anger right now but even in an enraged state Rebecca made the most logical and safe choice of exiting the dungeon as they had made no preparations to fight through another dungeon floor and also they had no idea what the second floor was like and even while leaving the party members gave one last glare at the dungeon floor before exiting through the gateway.
***
Lucas pov.
Meanwhile, when the party of adventurers had just crossed the lava river and were resting our dungeon core friend Lucas had leveled up to level 2.
[Ding, congratulations host for reaching level 2]
[You have obtained one skill point and the dungeon floor limit has been increased to 2]
[Ding, hidden requirements met acquired the skill dungeon monster command]
[Dungeon monster command lvl.1
This skill allows the host to partially control the dungeon monsters to do tasks other than their primary task of protecting the dungeon core. Current monster limit:10]
Yes, finally enough creatures were killed inside my dungeon that I have reached level 2 and now I can finally make a new dungeon floor. Also, I managed to get an awesome new skill.
Hey, system activate skill dungeon floor designation and designate this area as the new second floor. As I said mentally while having the area selector cover a specific area of the dungeon space.
The empty dungeon space which was selected slowly started to be encased in a mysterious barrier after which air appeared out of nowhere. Then after seeing that I used my skill terrain manipulation to make rock and dirt to fill the floor in such a way that it was like a plain canvas that I could paint in any way I want.
Alright, this floor is now all ready for customizing in any way I want though it will have to wait as I have to first see what this new system message is about.
[Ding, a challenger party has completed the first floor. Please choose what reward to give them.
1) 100 gold and random equipment of iron rank per party.
2) 2 random equipment of bronze rank per party.
3) 1 selectable equipment of bronze rank per challenger.]
Oh looks like I can choose what reward to give to the challengers who conquer my dungeon floors, so let's see. Hmm, I think the third option is better because if I give them good equipment as loot then the news will spread and many more adventurers will come here allowing me to level up faster. Alright, then I have decided what to choose.
As I chose the third option a system window appeared before the party members of the challenger party which finished my dungeon's first floor asking them what bronze rank equipment they want as a reward in the square outside the gateway.
***
“Woah, I did not expect such generous rewards for just clearing one floor
man, I think I don't hate this dungeon anymore,” said Miles.
Others were also equally surprised and slowly started to not feel as angry as before and started to choose their equipment with serious faces.
First, Miles chose a pair of gauntlets as his equipment then Luke chose a spear as his equipment and then Robin chose a bow as his equipment after which Luna chose a pair of daggers as her equipment and Rebecca chose a staff as her equipment.
After this selection was over they happily went to the waiting tent to wait until the others had finished the test while looking at their new equipment with sparkles in their eyes.