Inside the castle walls several groups of monsters were spawning in waiting for orders. There were several different groups of monsters. They weren’t interacting because they were friendly, and they weren’t friendly. They didn’t care. The reason they were not going at each other’s throats was because the Dungeon Crafter had complete control of her dungeon. Her control was less of dictatorship but more of demanding peace between the different monsters.

There was one four-star monster that was standing next to the DC. It was a human-sized lizard standing on two legs with a scorpion tail. It had razor-sharp claws dripping with toxins. It had a snarl on its face in a perpetual state of disdain.

“What’s the plan leader,” the Scorzard said.

“Patience child,” DC said.

The rest of the monsters stopped stirring as they looked toward the two leaders. They were separated by group and ranking. The smaller monsters who fought in packs were huddled together; they weren’t particularly strong when fighting in isolation they were deadly. They were a group of small metallic birds that charged lightning energy and connected to each other, increasing power after each bird was added to the connection.

The 2-star monsters varied there were several of many kinds that were in smaller packs. The level of difficult jumps when killing a two-star monster versus a three-star monster. Three-star monsters typically use their auras and have much higher vitality. They are more intelligent than their lesser ranked companions. Monsters in this world were all the same level. The scorzard, the four-star monster by the side of the DC, would never be below four-star ranking. A one-star metal crow would never be a two-star, it had something to do with their magic and mana.

The only creatures in the world that were able to grow their rankings were Dungeon Crafters, magic-users, and magical beasts. Magical beasts varied from monsters in the sense that they are native creatures to this world. These are creatures such as Akhekh, griffins, dragons, and kitsunes. They are born and they die like most animals in this world. The stronger the magical beast the higher the ranking.

This particular dungeon crafter has been crafting dungeons for nearly 1000 years. She has a love of creating brawl type dungeons. These are dungeons that are centered around defeating a lot of monsters or surviving traps and tricks that dealt with massive amounts of damage. Her dungeons were simple but difficult to defeat. The monster by her side was the final boss monster of the cave. She would allow the teams to attempt for one month to defeat her dungeon and her boss. If they do not, she will release the monster from the dungeon to wreak havoc on anything in its path.

She looked up, there was shimmer surrounding the dungeon walls. Their time of manifestation had finished. The dungeon was complete. As soon as the first team enters into her dungeon the monsters in the area will begin manifestations, as the dungeon raises the thickness of the magic, allowing for more monster manifestations.

Levi and his companions were walking to the dungeon entrance. Anna had said a long goodbye to Declan before heading out with her team. The team ultimately decided that Declan was not going to join the team, at least for this dungeon. The reason came down to two things, first, Declan was not a three-star sorcerer. He had not had his class evolution. Declan was close to three-stars, but they needed to leave as soon as possible. Not having his class evolution meant that he was not at his leap in strength, there was a high possibility that he would have reached three-star rank in the dungeon but that was not an ideal scenario.

The dungeon would be crawling with monsters and Declan would have new abilities, powers, and skills that he would have to learn right away. That was too risky in a three-star dungeon. Anna still didn’t like the decision, but she couldn’t argue with that reasoning. The second reason Declan was not chosen was simply what he brought to the table as a new team member. Levi brought a lot, especially fire powers. Tycen was new but he was a tank, heavy hitter, big defender. His Arch-Angel class evolution is a mix of Paladin and Tank. Paladins were known for powerful divine attacks, with some healing spells. Tanks were known for heavy defensive properties and shields. An arch angel was a perfect synergy of both classes.

Piper was the fast quick physical attacker. Her damage dealing was not strong, but she could do it many times. If Tycen was one-punch man, Piper would be death by 1000 cuts, a speedster. Anna was a heavy damage dealing witch. Her spells were powerful and heavy mana consumption, thus having two heavy hitters on the team. Declan was the same as Anna, that was not a good fit. It left Piper a bit more exposed than the team felt comfortable.

Levi was the odd one of the team. He was mostly staying back summoning monsters. However, with his ability to spell cast he adds complexity to the group. Anza could be the physical attacker with Piper. Levi had three utility familiars in: Vapor, Dameion, and Serenity. They all served various purposes, but they were not the damage dealers. His crystal wisps were a good source of damage dealing but they were special attackers, whereas Anza was the physical providing Levi with a good grab bag of familiars. If Levi could have any other familiars, which he was still undecided on, it would be a fighting healer. Levi elected to wait until his next rank up before making the decision on another familiar. He was satisfied with what he got and was curious if one of his familiars would get some healing abilities.

He talked in length with Anna and Tycen about the possibilities and they concluded that if any of the familiars were to have it, it would be Serenity. Levi disagreed and said it would be Dameion but the two scholars were not to be out argued.

The team approached the dungeon entrance. The dungeon looked like a small medieval barrack sitting in the middle of the field. It did not fit with any of the surrounding land, which Levi suspected that was the point. The team approached the gate and looked around. The other two teams had arrived just after them as they were waiting for the gate to open. It was decided that Levi’s team would enter first since they were the strongest team, and now that they were outside of the guild, rank mattered.

Dungeons would typically be operating for a set amount of time. During this time as many teams as possible could enter and challenge the dungeon. They could do this as many times as they wanted. This was allowed because the Dungeon Crafter was a live being who could and did change the floor layout per team that entered. They would hand out rewards based on how they judged the teams did. The more a team enters the less impressive the reward, this was a way to disincentives the teams from repeating. This only worked for those looking for fame and fortune. For those who used dungeons as a way to grind progress points., they didn’t care about the rewards.

The gates shimmered and lowered for the team to enter into the dungeon. Levi was in the lead and walked into the first building he saw. Once he entered, he was perplexed. It was a simple room; the walls were made up of brick and the floor was made up of darker brick. There was nothing on the walls, it was a small empty room. Once everyone had filed into the room, the door slammed shut and a small light appeared in each corner of the room.

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“That was creepy as hell,” Levi said. “Wait are we moving?” The platform shimmered just like the gates outside and they started to descend. They were on an elevating platform that took them down.

“Interesting,” Tycen mused. As the platform reached the end, they were standing in the middle of a room that was about the size of two soccer fields side by side. There was a shimmer on the walls surrounding the area.

“Don’t step off the platform,” Levi said. “That’ll start whatever our first task is. I want to look at my stats before we go to see if any bonuses happen.” Levi had looked and there were a couple notifications already waiting for him.

Quest: Clear the Brawlers Dungeon (0/5)

Attributes Total: 1300

Strength 125

Stamina 150

Speed 125

Vitality 225

Wisdom 625

Levi’s attributes saw a big boost from the battle of the guilds; he had taken out all those magic-users with various means. Mostly with his familiars. That is what gave his wisdom such a high boost. Levi didn’t like how lopsided he was becoming. He knew that if he wanted to be a 5-star he would have to even out his stats. That would have to wait, he had a dungeon to beat.

The team all finished looking at their attributes and nodded to each other. They took their step out of the square platform they were standing on. Rune circles began to appear on the ground all around the team, they lit up and there were fifty monsters waiting for them. The monsters were quadrupeds with no eyes, sharp buck teeth, fish scales and a serrated tail. They were about the size of otters.

“Blind glivals,” Anna said. “Their tails are vicious, and their teeth are worse. They are known to bite an arm completely off.”

“Hell yeah,” Levi said with a grin. He pulled out his staff, Dameion, Willow, Crystal, and Anza all manifested around him.

“They are two-star monsters but in a pack like this they are a three-star threat,” Anna explained. She looked over and saw that everyone was already fighting. She sighed and began casting spells.

“Sphere of stone,” Anna chanted. A black stone was encased in ice and sent toward a group of blind glivals. It smashed one like a bug, the other two dodged, but not without damage. One had it’s leg ripped off completely while the other’s tail was smashed to bits. Five of the monsters charged Anna at once. They were halted as a blizzard froze them over completely. She then conjured orbs of onyx to smash the froze monsters into pieces.

Levi sent the crystal wisps to do what they do best, swarm. The two spread their bodies out far and wide and covered a large group of the monsters. The wisps used their lightning attack, and it left the enemies paralyzed. This is where Anza came in, she was in full alpha form standing 9 feet tall with many more tentacles. Anza stood over the paralyzed monsters and started ripping them to shreds with her tentacles. Each lash of her tentacles were slicing a blind glival into bits and pieces. The ends were serrated much like the tails of the monsters. Causing significant damage.

Tycen pulled out his morning star and flew over the monsters. He chanted a spell that bolstered his morning star’s power. The morning star ball began to glow the same color purple as Tycen’s hair. With each smash a small burst of purple energy would flare out. Tycen had an easy task as he could fly over the monsters and smash them with his weapon. They couldn’t climb, they couldn’t come up with any strategy to take out a weapon in the air. He made short work of his task and the group of monsters had fallen.

Piper had just an easy time with the monster as Tycen did. She was able to run on top of the monsters with insane speed. In her hands she held her short sword. With every slash an enemies head would be cut off. Piper was a blur of speed, elegance, and savagery. With each slice she would speed off before the head would even fall off the monster. Levi looked over and saw nothing but a blur and blood splatter. Piper’s speed had improved but Levi had never seen it on display now.

After the last foe finally died the room glimmered, more runes appeared on the ground, this time few runes appeared but they were large circles.

“This is a wave monster fight,” Levi said. “So cool,” Levi was loving this as he knew he would. In a dungeon with his friends, fighting monsters, watching his badass lover effortlessly kill a bunch of weird looking creatures. He was having fun, and he was not afraid to show it.

“Any idea how many waves?” Anna asked. “That used a good chunk of my mana.” As she said that a ritual circle appeared under her feet. It glowed blue and Anna’s mana was being replenished. “Thank you,” she said to Levi. Levi nodded.

“No clue, but I assume each wave will get progressively harder,” Levi said. Levi was right this next wave of monsters were these bird-like creatures that were huge for birds and spewed toxic sludge on the team. The sludge wasn’t harmful on the skin, it became an issue if it got into any open wounds, sores, or openings in the body. The party had made quick work of that wave of monsters. The third wave they had trouble with the most.

A pack of wolves with wings, the size of a moose appeared. There were twelve unholy wolf moose. They were hard to pin down as they would fly around with the speed of a hawk. They had sharp claws that they would use to rake at the team. Tycen was an adept flyer, so he was able to take out the more dangerous wolves in the pack. Anna and Levi both called on their spells that reigned down terror from the sky. Anna’s hailstorm took out five of the wolf monstrosity. And Levi’s void storm took out another three.

One wolf had dived bombed toward Piper. The wolves were fast, but Piper was faster. The second the wolf got close, Piper jumped on its back and stabbed two kunai knives into its throat. With a soft adorable whimper, the wolf fell into the ground harshly. The fall would have killed the wolf, it were still alive, as it’s body was all twisted and misaligned. As Piper was falling to the ground another would grab her by the shoulders and dugs its claws into her shoulders. Piper grimaced in pain. She struggled to get any movement from her body.

Anza shot out several tentacles to not only secure Piper but also pierce and destroy the body of the wolf monster. This was successful but not without significant damage being done to Piper. She was protected by Anza as Anna was slashed in the back by the final wolf. This monster looked slightly different than the others. It was all black and looked like it was a dark streak in the night. This one was much faster than the others. The void storm and hailstorm were easily dodged by this one wolf.

Levi thought about it hard and decided to use an aura attack as soon as it got close. The wolf made a dive bombing move toward Levi. He was ready as soon as the wolf got close, Levi pushed out his aura and grabbed the wolf’s aura by the side. Levi had full control of the wolf stuck in Levi’s aura. Anza came and turned the wolf monster into Swiss cheese with all the holes that it now amassed. The room shimmered like it had done after every wave. Piper and Anna needed some assistance and fast. That is when Tycen stepped up and spoke an incantation.

“Heal all that is damaged.” A white like that looked like a ray of sunshine appeared out of manifested clouds over each of the ladies. The ray of sunshine covered each of the women and Levi watched as their wounds completely heal over. Levi had never seen or felt healing magic besides positions which were on a smaller scale than to what Tycen just performed. Levi knew that was a specific spell that Tycen had in his repertoire. The healing ritual he had were not nearly as potent in their magical healing. Levi nodded and was grateful to have Tycen on his team.

“Thanks, Ty,” Piper said getting up moving her shoulders once again. “I’m ready for another long battle.”