To my relief, more than a day passes before we are ready. Apparently getting the best equipment in the capital takes a little more time than Ahorn would like. I am actually wearing some armor procured for me, though I don’t plan on getting attached to it, on behalf of my track record. It is the good old chainmail and leather armor combo, that most tend towards due to it providing good defense without expending too much mobility.

When we are ready to go, I planned to show off a little by transporting everyone in the cart and travelling with my incredible stamina, but no cart is prepared for us. Only a set of backpacks and bedrolls.

“What? It’s really just us? No supporters or anything?” Connir asks.

“Yes, our goal is not to make money, so we don’t need them to carry anything. And it was Yos’ demand that no one weaker than that guy joins us” Ahorn answers while pointing at Vegar.

Vegar and Spetus have also been provided excellent swords and armor. The frontline will consist of me, Vegar, Spetus and Medeor, while the rest is will take up the duty of those, who usually wield spears.

We take the trip at a fast pace, compared to most other travelers, constantly jogging. The reason is Ahorn’s insistence, though many appear unhappy. I would rather just carry everyone in a cart, but I forgot to mention it, and now it seems weird to ask to go back and get one, so we travel like this.

The dungeon should be less that two regular days’ journey away, so Ahorn hopes we can make it and camp outside tonight. We have to run a while past sunset, but eventually, we make it. Everyone is looking tired as hell though, and quickly want to go to bed after eating from the provisions.

I don’t sleep, so I end up going a decent amount away from the main group and train until I get the refreshing feeling of all fatigue being cleared, at which point I quickly return to the group.

We form up shortly thereafter and start our expedition into the dungeon. With the overpowered team, we blaze through the floors at remarkable speed. I have seen so many different monsters today, but none of them pose any real resistance. Heck, the front line basically doesn’t get to do anything, as all were killed by the guys in the back with throwing weapons. Visel, especially, proves to quickly eliminate. Eventually, when we are on the 18th floor, we make camp for the night. Our progress is slower than in Berliso since the floors were not mapped out beforehand and we had to explore for them, and the fact that I insist on checking out the monsters of each floor, before we descend down. I remember dying to things I couldn’t even detect before, so I wanted to be sure.

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The food is supplied by the dungeon. If we see anything that looks edible, we bring it along, and then roast whatever monsters are available on the floor we are camping at, making it easy to travel without too many supplies. Wood, meat and other edibles are readily available, at least enough to sustain the eight of us. Most of the monsters we have come by so far have been small, which I guess is the reason for the dungeon being abandoned.

The entire expedition progresses without any major problems though. Heck, there’s nothing really threatening at all, even when we reach the 60’s, a point in Berliso’s dungeon, where I was for sure dying every day. Guess there really is something to that whole difficulty thing, Ahorn may just be getting his wishes fulfilled pretty easily. There also aren’t any of the variant monster present, at least not yet.

When we enter the 101st floor, I go down to scout. It should be pretty late in the day, the 8th day since we set out from the capital, but Ahorn wants us to press a little further.

I spot the monster and it is the very first sizeable monster I have seen in this dungeon. It is like a long, black centipede, but with sickles coming out from its sides. I try to approach to investigate, but as I do, it runs towards me with great speed.

I try to pierce it’s chitinous exterior, but my sword does not pierce at all, and it is running straight for my legs. I jump to avoid it, but so does the centipede, while it turns to slice the sickle through the air. I don’t find it painful immediately, but when I come down from my jump and land on the stumps that remain, the fierce sting sets the reality into me, fuck!

I panic a little and channel bestowal full throttle, to pierce the armor of the centipede, and so it does this time, but at the cost of most of my mana supply. I must still have some since my read vision is active and I feel there are many close by. I have to get back to the other immediately, a few times where I had trouble finding monsters they had come down because they got bored, I must warn them.

So I crawl on my knees and hands, not being able to stand. But I feel them approaching at much greater speed than I can crawl to the previous floor. As it catches up to me, I turn around to stab it, but it fails due to my lack of strength and the last thing I see is a sickle approaching for my neck.