Once he finished gathering his spoils, he went on his way once again. He walked through the remainder of the room, down the tunnel, and into the 18th floor.
The alternate name of the 18th floor was the Under Resort, and they called it a “Resort” for good reason. No monsters spawned naturally inside the room, which meant that it only supported a small population of monsters. These monsters mostly represented beasts that wandered into the floor from the 19th and 17th floors, and they represented only a minor danger to the inhabitants of the floor. This made the 18th floor the pre-eminent designated “Safe Zone” within the otherwise deadly Dungeon. There was even a semi-permanent settlement, the Adventurer town of Rivira, stationed on the floor. It was the only settlement of its kind within the Dungeon, and it stood as a testament to the relatively hospitable nature of the underground sanctuary.
But more remarkable even than that was the environment of the floor itself. In contrast to the floors both above and below it, the 18th floor was a totally open area. The massive underground chamber featured springs of purified water, lush forests, and sparkling overhead crystals that mimicked the sky aboveground. Most of these crystals shone with blue light, with a central grouping giving off the white light of the “sun”. There was even a day/night cycle to the crystal’s light, granting the opportunity to maintain regular circadian rhythms to the resident adventurers. All of this co-existing in an area as open and wide as any aboveground forest allowed the 18th floor to earn its title of “Resort”. It truly was an oasis of peace and tranquility amidst the desert of hostility and blood that was the Dungeon.
Why such a place existed, Adama didn’t know or care. He wasn’t here to vacation or solve the mysteries of the Dungeon. He was here to set his strategy into motion. If this worked, he would obtain a stable moneymaking scheme that would set him up for the future:
“Deep within the Dungeon, on the 18th floor, there are blue crystals on the ground that reflect the light given by the crystals overhead. They give the forest of the Under Resort a pale blue glow.”
Eina had given him this tidbit of information when he had inquired to her, out of casual curiosity, about the unusual 18th floor. The moment she said it, he filed it away as a piece of useless trivia, but after thinking about it a bit more he made an interesting connection with something else Eina had told him. If his hunch was right, he certainly wouldn’t have to worry about paying off the house. The moment he entered the Under Resort, he immediately began running around the forest. Since it was nighttime, the blue forest crystals stuck out like a sore thumb in the dim lighting. He had no trouble finding a nice cluster.
Facing it and taking a stance, he closed his eyes and once again made use of Take’s stone veins. He hadn’t tried the Endless Sword with the technique yet, as that was much more complicated, and he preferred to walk before he could run. For this job, the Rippling Sword would suffice, and it carved off pieces of the crystal cluster just fine. He kept using the technique on the crystals, carving them off into smaller and smaller chunks. It was slow going, as the Rippling Sword wasn’t at full power. But Adama was willing to take the extra time to train his abilities while also gathering the materials he needed.
It took a couple of hours, and he was forced to find new targets twice, but eventually Adama gathered everything he needed. He spent a bit more time after that practicing his chantless Rippling Sword, then he decided to get some shuteye. Spirit Healing meant that he automatically recovered Mind, even when he wasn’t resting, but he still recovered his mental energies faster when taking a break. He wanted to be at full capacity for the return stretch of his journey, so he climbed high into the tallest tree he could find, nestled himself between a few branches, and closed his eyes.
A few hours later, he awoke to the steadily brightening “sky”, signifying that a new dawn was fast approaching aboveground as well. Adama gave a yawn, and he re-assessed his questlist:
Quests
1. Need, Minotaur’s Horn x1. Own x1. Reward: 85,000 val
2. Need, Minotaur’s Horn x1. Own x0. Reward: 75,000 val
3. Need, Hellhound’s Fang x3. Own x0. Reward: 90,000 val
4. Need, Almiraj Fur x4. Own x1. Reward: 110,000 val
5. Need, C. Mantis Wing x2. Own x0. Reward: 225,000 val
6. Need, Blood Onyx x1. Own x0. Reward: 90,000 val
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Reward at full completion: 675,000 val
There was a lot of work to be done, and precious little time to do it, so he hopped out of the tree and started towards the path back up towards the Middle floors. When he got there, he set began setting up for his simplest tasks: Minotaur’s Horns and Hellhounds Fangs. He had brought specialty bait for both Hellhounds and Almiraj, but the humanoid rabbit monsters didn’t spawn on the 17th floor. Hellhounds, fortunately, did precisely that, so he dropped the relevant bait and began to wait.
He was not disappointed. Hellhounds were thicker on the ground the deeper you got into the Middle floors, so dropping that bait resulted in him wading through a veritable ocean of the canid monsters. They couldn’t burn him and even their bites had difficulty penetrating the dragon’s hide, so he mostly slaughtered them with impunity. Even the Almiraj caused Adama more problems than these dogs did. They could pose a threat to him if they managed to latch onto his vulnerable throat, but he shut down any attempt to do that. Eventually, they resorted to biting at his tattered cloak, trying to use it to pull him off balance. He put a stop to that as well, but not before his already damaged cloak got even more beaten up.
Eventually, the sea of snarling canines thinned out, but just as it seemed that they were starting to fail, a new set of roars echoed down the passage. A duo of Minotaurs, drawn by the noise of the carnage, came charging into the fray. Adama only smiled further. This was exactly what he had been waiting for, more enemies that would drop him the items he needed. The subsequent struggle was brief and brutal, as fighting the bull men while holding off the dogs was not easy. But it was mostly without suspense and both hulking monsters were turned into warm bodies in no time, with the herd of Hellhounds only growing thinner.
The Minotaurs wouldn’t be the only monsters drawn to the sound of the carnage, and by the time all the Hellhounds were dead and buried Adama was forced to bring down three more Minotaurs, two Wyverns, and a Level 2 class feline monster called a Ligerfang. If they had come at him all at once, it would have been a serious threat, but they had mostly just filed in one by one. The Dungeon, it seemed, had given up on targeting the lone swordsman for his affronts.
Not that Adama minded, of course. He hustled in the extraction process, and was delighted to find out that not one, but two Hellhound Fangs were dropped by the enemy. On the other hand, no other items were forthcoming from the others, including the elusive Minotaur horn. While the fight had been relatively easy, it had been time consuming, so he didn’t have the ability to spend more time hunting more bull men on the 17th. He had depleted the monster population in his area so thoroughly that he didn’t encounter much resistance as he made his way back up to the 16th floor.
It was on the 16th that he got yet another lucky break. As he was dashing up a long passage, he noticed something gleaming out of the corner of his eye. At the end of a small tunnel, branching off his current route, sparkled a crimson gem jutting out of a wall. When he went to investigate, Adama realized with a rush of discovery that the gem matched the description of a Blood Onyx. He set down his pack, rubbed his hands together, and dug his fingers into the stone surrounding the precious material. After a bit of straining, he was soon holding the blood red gem in the palm of his hand, and he was able to check another quest off his list.
He made another pit stop in one of the 16th floors larger rooms, and he dropped some more bait. The subsequent battle was even easier than the fight on the 17th. It followed a similar pattern, where Adama fought it out with an army of Hellhounds, interspersed with skirmishes against whatever elites he attracted with the commotion. It was easier, as the monsters were a little thinner on the ground on the 16th, but he earned another Hellhound’s fang with no trouble, as well as a Wyvern’s claw. Much to his interest, even one of the Minotaurs that he had killed in the melee dropped an item as well.
It was another piece of Minotaur skin.
He could only shake his head as he pocketed the drop item and moved on. His poor pack sagged under the weight of his burden, the combined weight of the crystals, items, and magic stones beginning to strain the leather. He would need to be a bit more conservative in what he gathered going forward. Fortunately, he was nearing a point where he would have the opportunity to lighten his load a bit.
The moment he entered the 15th floor, he began to set his master plan into action. He quickly found a suitable room. It was rather wide-open chamber, and it had 5 long passageways branching out into different directions. It was perfect, so he began setting up. He removed his neatly cut crystals from his bag and began sticking them forcefully into the ground in a circular formation. He was interrupted once by a small trio of Hellhounds who came to investigate the noise, but they were scared off by a single stiff glare. Perhaps their preternatural senses told them that this was not a man they wanted to mess with, or perhaps they were warned away by the many ghosts of their fallen comrades. Whatever the reason, Adama managed to create his circles of crystals without even needing to fight. There were now two concentric rings of the blue rock formations in the center of the room.
The final touch of this setup was complete when he drew out four magic lamps from his bag and stuck them in four different positions in between the outer and inner rings. He switched each lantern on, causing the crystals they lit upon to glow a vibrant, electric blue. The whole underground cavern, and the paths beyond, were bathed in an eerie cerulean glow. Adama then sat cross-legged in the center of the formation. He drew himself into a light meditation, careful to maintain awareness of the world around him.
Then, he began to wait.