Chapter 24

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[Dungeon]

As the bird plopped into the ocean, a small spray leapt up from the sea, smattering onto the edge of the platform and just missing the group. Nice shot indeed.

As Kael took the lead again, he hopped over the platforms with ease, waiting each time as the others followed with far less grace. It was comical to watch.

The next fight went much the same, with a little more speed and a little less damage, just a few more cuts and scraped to be healed. Another polar bear dead, though this time they didn’t stop to loot it. Sebastien just jotted something down in his notebook and off they went again.

It took them another few minutes until they reached the first platform where the path split, though first they had to fight another polar bear, though this time the bear was standing proud as they jumped onto the platform.

With a rumbling roar that echoed around the room, the bear charged forward, actively attacking them instead of defensively protecting the chests that hid beneath their lumbering bodies.

Unlike the previous fights though, this was required, and there was no rewarding chest buried in the ice. Just the ability to continue with the level.

The bear charged forward, aiming for the fire mage, but Jackson managed to elbow her out of the way in time and the bear rammed into the shield instead, its teeth denting the metal and cutting large furrows like rows on a field as its teeth snapped shut. It growled in frustration and sent a paw flying at him, claws extended but the giant man was ready and switched his feet round, catching the paw on the shield as well.

With his feet planted right he only slid back a few meters, but it was still very close to the edge. I didn’t know whether or not I wanted to kill them. On one hand, hell yes, I did, killing them would be pleasure beyond words and the influx of energy from people so strong would fuel my growth for weeks. No energy absorbing and time wasting. But, on the other hand if they escaped then they would bring back far more adventurers and traffic to my dungeon. And more people meant more death, much much more death.

And death was good for me. I thought smiling.

A fireball flared into existence, bathing the bear in flames, that put off billowing black clouds of smoke as the fur crisped up and withered away in the intense heat.

Aware of the danger of such reduced visibility, Jenna cast a wind spell in order to clear the air. Just in time too as the now balding bear charged forward, aiming for the leader, Sebastien. Taken by surprise he dove left trying to get out of the way but was sent spinning as the bear clipped his legs, opening up fresh wounds that bled so profusely that a smooth trail was left over the ice. Aware enough of his momentum carrying him to a wet cold grave, Sebastien cut into the ice with his sword, stopping him from sliding off, although his legs did dangle down into the water.

A startled yelp sounded as the cold bit into his legs, though perhaps it numbed the nerves to the pain of the wounds for he didn’t seem to show any pain as he hauled himself back on to the ice.

Now hairless, the bear received a couple of arrows deep into its back and a compressed fireball that burnt a track across its shoulders. The steaming trench cauterised by the intense heat yet oozing still.

With a shout, Sigurd swung his axe, cutting into the bears neck about halfway and driving it to the ice. With a stop from the big man on the back of the axe, the blade sunk through the bone like a guillotine, separating head from body.

Another bear down and the path forward open. They were certainly doing well, though without Jenna they would surely be in a sorry state.

It took them a few moments to get set up again and much to Sigurd and Jacksons amusement, Sebastien had to ask Lorelei to dry his trousers, meaning that he stood half naked on the ice for a while.

When they were done, they crowded around the farther end of the platform and debated which way they would go. As I had designed it, there was one side that had smaller platforms that looked harder, but the other side were more wobbly. Up to this point all the icebergs had large flat surfaces and they didn’t wobble when you walked on them. From here onwards though, you either had smaller platforms meaning the danger of getting nocked off increased or larger, wobbly ones that could be even more perilous if you weren’t too steady on your feet. I wondered which way they would choose.

If they went down the wobbly route, then they might encounter the secret room , though I doubted that the opening would be timed right for their passage, but watching them climb over the icy mound should be fun, who knew maybe they would slide into the deadly water.

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As it turns out they did choose the wobbly platforms, jumping over without caution. When the platform shifted dramatically at Jacksons weight they stopped, looking scared and quickly backtracked, unwilling to chance fighting on such unstable ground.

It was the smaller platforms for them, and they jumped over much more carefully this time, though they looked relieved when the ice didn’t move beneath their feet.

Diving birds harried their progress making contact only once as Kael kept shooting them down with unerring accuracy. One only got through because two came at once and it slammed into Jacksons shield with a sad sounding clunk, before he kicked it off the ice with a small shuffle It slid over, barely reaching the end before toppling over. All in all, it was pathetic, but I would wait until a few more adventurers had experienced it before changing anything. This lot were not new at this and I wanted to see how the regular ones fared.

The next few fights were also a bit more touch and go with the edges, but they won with only a light scratch here and there, barely and blood.

The next path split was entirely arbitrary and only affected what the chests contained. Left went in favour of new equipment, and right in favour of money. They went right and by the time they reached the last few platforms they had accrued a significant sum of money.

I was slightly peeved that they wouldn’t get to experience the orcas this time, but it was hardly to be expected, Sebastien had noted something seemed off and had timed the run to perfection meaning that the orcas missed them entirely.

Though, any facet they missed would surely be a nasty surprise later on and I was looking forward to it.

The last fight went smoother than any before and they dispatched the bear without a single hiccup, not bothering to loot it but just pushing it whole into the icy depths in order to take the money hiding below.

As the last jump was cleared without issue, I could almost feel them exhale in relief as firm ground greeted them once more. Slippery still, it was ice world after all, but it was solid with no gaps leading to death and decay.

The archway was plain and as I watched them descend the stairs, I felt it could do with some touching up, perhaps a nice carved pattern or image to liven it up a bit. That was the thing about ice and snow, it was white, and whiteness was brilliant at covering up details and eventually it all became a bit bland, samey.

I realised it had been quite a while since I had looked at the dungeon information and although not much had changed for me, lots of things had happened. All the adventurers coming in and nosing around had kept me plenty busy. Thinking menu and up it came.

Menu       Name ??? Race Dungeon Titles _______ Renown Just Discovered + Skills ^ 30             Rating 4A Level 50 Health 3451 Mana 100k/100k (100k for lvl up) Knowledge 26,000 Dungeon points 18,612 Status ok Attunement E4, N3, I4, F1         Rooms 529 Floors 12+(2) Bosses 2+(1) Monsters 2000 Creatures 99,132 Creature Types ^ 1478         Unique Items 9 Item Types ^ 355

There were a few changes, first was the plus mark after just discovered, presumably meaning that although the world didn’t know I existed yet, more people had found me. My ice attunement had gone up one grade and I had a few more items, checking quickly they were as I suspected the makeshift spears and clothes from the young boys that had thought to steal my treasure. Burning the clothes and spears set that right, I didn’t need their tat clogging me up.

Most importantly though I had reached one hundred thousand mana and I could level up. Although I wasn’t sure if I wanted to just yet. If I levelled up, I would have no mana to work with and with Sigurd and his adventurer pals delving ever closer to my core I wanted something to keep in reserve. Besides, I still wanted to build my fire floors once they went to sleep and I would burn through a huge chunk of the mana doing that.

After pondering it for a good while, eventually I decided not to level up.

As the part continued down the stairs, I idly noticed that I had lost a lot of monsters as they rampaged through my dungeon and the natural ecosystem wasn’t actively replacing them. Since no one else had gotten anywhere though I was going to leave it to repopulate for now, but it was something to be wary of once things got crowded.

Apart from that I had a few more points to spend in the store for special items and more knowledge, though what that really meant I hadn’t yet worked out.

As they reached the next floor, I settled in to observe them, eager to see what they thought of my mirrors.