He wasn’t waiting for long before his first victim appeared. A soft clicking noise echoed down one of the tunnels and a human sized form began making its way towards Adama’s room. It was “human sized”, but the monster making its way towards the adventurer was actually a very large preying mantis. Its whole body was made of a bright sapphire colored crystal, with only its red eyes, characteristic of every monster, breaking that color scheme. Its gemlike form reflected the center lights in beautiful shimmering blues, the monster drawn inexorably toward the irresistible light.
“The Crystal Mantis is a rare monster found in the Middle floors. It is most commonly found on the 15th floor and its drop, the “Crystal Mantis Wing”, is very valuable. It is known to be attracted to crystals and beautiful minerals.”
That last bit of information was especially important to Adama. Crystal Mantises were immune to normal bait, but they could be drawn to you by especially compelling or beautiful crystals. That allowed him to make the connection when he had heard about the reflective blue crystals on the 18th floor. If he could attract these creatures reliably, they could function as a reliable source of income. It was just a hunch, but his hunch had seemed to pay off as his first prey wandered into his trap.
The moment the Mantis caught sight of Adama, it screeched and charged him. He exploded out of his sitting position, jumping over his crystal formation and rushing to match the angry monster’s charge. Adama smoothly ducked under its right pincer’s slash and brought his sword down horizontally, severing the beast’s abdomen from its torso in a clean blow. Normally, a creature this weak would die to a singular Rippling Sword, but the unique properties of the Crystal Mantis’s carapace meant that it was highly resistant to magic. Just to test how good Eina’s information was, Tim tried a Rippling Sword on the second Crystal Mantis to come waddling towards his trap.
Just as advertised, the magic shattered after making contact with the monster’s armor. The beast only clicked more angrily as it made a beeline for the adventurer, and he was forced to parry a few strikes before lopping off its head in a crisp and even strike. Neither this Mantis nor the earlier one dropped one of their precious wings, but Adama still had plenty of time, so he stepped back into his circle and continued his vigil.
Over the course of the next three hours, the swordsman was fed a steady diet of Crystal Mantises, interspersed with a few other monsters who had wandered over to investigate the strange blue light. Adama downed a few more Level 2s but received little from them besides magic stones in return. He was elated, however, to obtain one, then two Wings, allowing him to complete his Crystal Mantis quest. The only thing that punctured his happiness was the fact that the two Minotaurs he encountered remained stubbornly item-free. He decided to try his luck with his crystal trap for another two hours or so, looking to garner one last Wing for personal sale and perhaps the elusive Minotaur horn if he was lucky. Alas, after another hour, disaster struck.
The only warning the meditating man was given was some subtle rumbling beneath his feet. Thinking fast, Adama leapt out of the way as his underground assailant burst through the floor, disrupting his formation. The creature knocked most of the crystals to the side, but it also swallowed a dozen of them, as well as a magic lamp in its attempt to eat the adventurer. Adama stared for a moment in disgust at the hideous creature who had wrecked his plans. It was giant worm, with a gaping hole of a mouth filled to the brim with rows and rows of teeth. Its slimy form glowed eerily in the ghostly blue light, the portion of Adama’s setup it had swallowed still shining through its skin.
It only took the swordsman a moment or two to get over his disgust and slice the Dungeon Worm to pieces, but the damage was done. In theory, Adama could have persisted with the crystals and the lamps remaining, but he was running short on time, and it wasn’t worth it. The steady stream of Crystal Mantises had begun to slow anyways, as their population had thinned out. Adama packed up what remained and considered his options.
He still needed to complete his Almiraj quest, and his internal clock told him that the day was moving rapidly towards late afternoon. The Guild had put a 24-hour time limit between acceptance of these quests and completion. Even if no one had been there to see him take the quests, the fact that they had been taken would have been noted by the Guild. He needed to get back and turn in his quests before the day ended and the Guild closed shop to comply with the rules. Furthermore, Almiraj didn’t spawn below the 14th floor. Minotaurs, on the other hand, didn’t spawn above the 15th. He couldn’t pursue both quests at once, and he didn’t have time for both. He ran around on the 15th a little more as a last-ditch effort and managed to find and kill another bull man. His only reward was a paltry stone. He gave one last sigh of regret and began making his way toward the 14th floor.
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Once there, he promptly found a good location and started “fishing” for Almiraj. This time, strangely enough, Adama was more seriously challenged. Even without the presence of Level 2 opponents, the sheer quantity of bunny warriors was overwhelming, and their ability to target his weak points and threaten his vulnerable areas far surpassed that of the Hellhounds. He had no special defense against the Almiraj. Quite the contrary, their only asset, their speed, cut directly against his own natural abilities. Speed had always been his relative weakness and even if he was faster than the rabbit warriors individually, they had the numbers to keep him on the defensive.
To be fair, he did have a way of countering the Almiraj as well. The Endless Sword would wipe them all out with ease, but he had promised himself that he would go out of his way to avoid using it. Using it would trivialize his fights with the Almiraj and stunt his growth. It would also ensure that he would get fewer drops from defeating a single horde, since the magic had a particular tendency to vaporize the magic stones of the extremely fragile bunny fighters. Or so he had learned the hard way a couple days ago.
These constraints meant that Adama was forced into a high speed duel with a mob of the chattering creatures soon after he threw down the bait. Normally he preferred holding his ground against the horde and using his superior strength and skill to tear through whatever they threw at him. It was the faster way to kill them all and better for his all-around growth. This time, he chose to whip the mob of rabbits into a frenzy by killing a half dozen of their friends. He promptly ran away afterward. They followed him in a chorus of angry squeaks, a parade of white midgets chasing after the lone green fighter.
With bait in one hand and sword in the other, Adama managed to remain ahead of the pack by the skin of his teeth. He cut down and countered any enemy who got too close to him and thinned the herd with a Rippling Sword when he had the chance. He passed by a party of adventurers, who stared wide eyed as he dashed right past them, a chorus of enemies just behind. Shouts of “Pass Parade” rang out from the party, and they immediately turned tail and ran. They thought he was leading the monsters towards them, trying to lure the threats into attacking them instead.
For a moment, Adama was worried this might actually happen. He didn’t need unnecessary deaths on his conscience. And, arguably more importantly, there were his prey. He didn’t need to pawn them off on a third party. Fortunately, the bait in his hands ensured that the monsters mostly focused on him and him alone. It took quite a while, but eventually Tim successfully whittled down their numbers such that he was able to turn on his pursuers comfortably.
It was still a tense and difficult fight. White blurs bounced off the walls and a similar blur of the white sword in his hands swung around to cut them to pieces and deflect whatever they hit him with. Adama was supported in the fight by the Hunter ability, since he had already fought it out the Almiraj once, and that allowed him to avoid several near misses to the eyes and throat. Even so, he received a couple nasty cuts across the cheek, forehead, and one particularly dangerous nick on the neck. He managed to avoid being decapitated, though, and the more he culled the infestation the easier the fight got. Eventually, nothing surrounded him but the bodies of his enemies and the solid grey walls of the Middle floors.
He gulped down oxygen like a man who had narrowly avoided drowning, but the results were worth it. Harvesting the Almiraj’s dead bodies was a hassle, as they were scattered all throughout the tunnel in addition to the place of their final standoff, but he soon gathered 2 whole Almiraj furs. Even with the sheer number of enemies defeated, these were lucky drop rates reminiscent of the luck that he had found with the Hellhounds. In a further demonstration of good fortune, he soon obtained another Almiraj pelt when just fighting the creatures as he walked around the floor, putting his most recent progress at this:
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 x3. Reward: 90,000 val
4. Need, Almiraj Fur x4. Own x4. Reward: 110,000 val
5. Need, C. Mantis Wing x2. Own x2. Reward: 225,000 val
6. Need, Blood Onyx x1. Own x1. Reward: 90,000 val
Reward at full completion: 675,000 val
His failure to get the Minotaur horn still grated on him, but he suppressed the urge to go back to the 15th floor. He may have a bit of extra time now, but it wasn’t enough to backtrack, kill enough to snag a horn, then run through 15 whole floors to reach the surface to meet the deadline. Even now, he didn’t know exactly how much time he had left. If he was running later than he suspected, then he needed to get topside as soon as possible. With some lingering frustration, he let the final quest go and started heading home.
Little did he know, the Dungeon had more surprises in store for him today.