You are now entering [Nefarious Hole]
I summon two [Totems], and only then I invest part of my mind to process that notification.
“What the fuck is that name, and who keeps coming up with them!?”
You already asked this, and it was explained to you that it is the result of a mix of subconscious choices and the [System] itself giving me some clues that, as a [System Authority], I am free to interpret, and let us not forget that, unfortunately, I was born as a copy of you.
“Way to turn it around to blame it on my fantastically terrible sense of humor, [Buddy].”
Maybe I shouldn’t be wasting time arguing inside my own head, given the circumstances, but we got transported inside a dark cavern, the walls bare, rough, and uneven, completely absent in ambient light, and most pertinent of all, completely empty.
Like, except for shadowed rock, we were the only thing in here… and by that I also meant that I couldn’t see or [Detect] a way in or out.
“Hum… now what?” I ask out loud, the noise of my voice reverberating around the walls, jumbling itself into an incomprehensible and eerie echo.
“This is suspicious: the laws of the [Nexus] wouldn’t allow a [Dungeon] without a way in or out to be born”, after a reproachful look at me, probably for speaking before explaining that the coast was clear through sign language, Sheeno explained her doubts.
“Do the rules still apply when the thing is about to blow up?” I ask again, this time slightly more concerned.
[Luck] made herself known for a moment before, so she would have said ‘something’, if things were skewed that unfairly in our enemies’ advantage, right?
“It’s not like the interdimensional structure literally goes ‘boom’, Darwin. Once an [Outbreak] has been dealt with, [Adventurers] will enter the original [Dungeon] and clear it the usual way, although with a considerably increased number of enemies within, including often a few [Demons]”, and Undine now is disappointed in me that believes so little into the work of the [Gods] keeping us safe.
Thinking about it, I’m pretty sure that I already knew that, and it was only nerves talking.
Something ‘sparked’ in the back of my mind, and with a flinch I summoned four [Aurumons] with tower shields, and enough [Turrets] to blot the ceiling.
“Incoming!” I shouted, but after a brief and uneventful pause I hesitantly added “…I think-“
“Wait, no! [Dungeon] can be sentient! It was waiting for us to lower our guards!”
Luckily for us my [Teammates] put much more trust in my ‘hunch’ than I did, so they weren’t caught off guard when black swirls coalesced at the edges of the cave, and enemies came pouring out of them.
Like, literally pouring, with so many of them coming out at once that it was an unfortunate miracle that they weren’t trampling each other in their haste. For good measure I summoned another defensive [Aurumons], this one only with a kite shield in one hand, but with a long spear in the other, whose reach couldn’t be underestimated.
Then I had just enough time to draw a [Rune] for ‘deflection’ and the furry mouths with legs were upon us.
With unsettlingly human mouths filled with too many razor-sharp teeth, and a chattering noise reminiscent of a deranged laugh, these eyeless [Monsters] were as ungainly on their stubby feet as they made up for it in sheer numbers.
Somehow, I had forgotten that an [Outbreak] happened when too much [Mana] was left to accumulate inside a dungeon, and, depending on the theme, that directly translated into a bigger one, one filled to the brim with traps, or one bursting with [Monster] at the seams; and almost always they seemed to purposely verge towards the latter when they were to ‘erupt’, for obvious reasons.
Four tower shields closed us off on the sides, while a kite shield behind allowed us to peek above it and shoot some shots, and an icy whirlwind protected the remaining front, also allowing Undine and me to shoot our attacks within the melee. Not that it mattered, because the ugly things didn’t seem to mind where they launched themselves, as long as there was a target to munch on. Then all the [Turrets] shot their load as one unit, and the resulting thunderclap was almost deafening, but I fortunately already learned how to protect us from it.
In the resulting aftermath, we had a moment to appreciate that everything was dead… for maybe a second, then the portals started spewing more of these things, and I took the time to [Analyze] the-
Name:
Squiggly
Affinity:
Void; Sound (Aberrant Vibration); Mind
Danger:
Mid
Behavior:
Swarm; Hostile
Info:
Voracious pack hunter, it will eat anything that it can’t identify as ‘’ground’’. Deceptively quick despite its awkward forms, it mindlessly charges at its target until either it or the other is gone.
A single horde of them is known to incite true fear in the hearts of entire civilizations.
“Oh, splendid: [Aberrant] as always, and they’re a copyright infringement just waiting to happen- Wait, [MIND]!?”
Ignoring the 40 000 problems that were cropping up, I stopped directly controlling my [Turrets] and set them to automatic, only to let my [Gaze] have my full focus; but this time I’m not solely looking at the walking mouths, but also to what was happening ‘around’ them.
Uhm… Ok, yeah, they have some kind of [Madness Aura] emanating from their bodies at all times, and I didn’t notice because it’s very subtle and builds up over time, and then they resonate with one another in a cacophonous call to crazy.
Their chittering laughs were some kind of catalyst that was supposed to affect us, but too bad for them, my [Totems] were already set to protect us from the side-effect of sounds.
As if to prove me wrong, the [Rune of Deflection] that I made started to crack, clear as a sign as any that there was yet something else that I had failed to notice.
An instinctive feeling made me look down, and only then I noticed the black fog. ‘Fog’ was maybe an exaggeration for the thin mist that wasn’t getting past our calves, but the more I looked at it and the more I grew certain it was attacking us, somehow.
Maybe some corroding effect, tied to [Void], and with its innate destructive properties.
“Undine, can you clear the fog at our feet? It’s somehow getting past my [Barriers] and eating at our second line of defenses!” I shouted over, without stopping my free hand from flinging balls of [Mana] into the enemy horde, a little ‘bouncing alteration’ and off it went wreaking havoc among their numbers.
It was pretty obvious that my ‘on the fly casting’ had stalled, due to my reliance on my staff, and even such a simple modification to such a simple and basic manipulation of mana was unfairly effective when backed by my [Abilities]. This just shows that when reforging it, I will need to expand my horizon on what [Adaptability] means, both to me specifically, and how it would best fit a malleable spell-focus.
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One [Tier 2 Aurumon] got its shield breached, the gnawing [Squigglies] managing to bite off one of the lower corners, no doubt also damaged by the fog, but in the span of a breath, it was substituted by an exact replica, all without letting any of the nasties through, thanks to Sheeno widening her area to defend for long enough.
“Fog? What fo- oh, I see it! How subtle…!” The [High Priestess] was quick on the uptake, and a new current of wind started picking up, the flow carrying away the corrosive mist in short order, freeing me from the strain.
The [Monsters] clearly didn’t like that, and their big mouth twisted into an angered grimace. With newfound anger they started throwing themselves at us, uncaring of any comrade in their path, some ‘ literally’ throwing themselves, aiming high and trying to vault the enormous shields, but always found themselves promptly repelled by me and Undine.
We were doing good, really good, but there was only so much we could do against seemingly endless enemies and a hostile environment.
A second [Aurumon] fell, this time the knight-looking one, and we started flagging: No amount of [Repairs] could keep us in tip-top shape indefinitely, and the diminishing returns started hitting us hard, with even filling the hole with another knight of the same [Tier] costing more [MPs] than I was willing to part with. A sudden explosion of ice created an iceberg for a good fourth of our frontlines, and Sheeno retreated to the center to take a breather, but since we could see the creatures already eating through the icy walls she reluctantly went back in with a shake of her head.
Seeing as it was starting to look like we had bitten off more than we could chew, I thought it was time to bring out the ‘big guns’: Abusing my seemingly limitless resources, I summoned two [Tier 3 Aurumons] with golden capes hiding their features and golden scythes in their thin hands. They immediately started reaping the [Squigglies] like dry grass… or, at least, that’s what I had envisioned, and while still effective, they weren’t as overwhelmingly effective as I expected.
‘’I guess I’m not as far from the third tier as I last was when I did this; in fact, this didn’t even send me as in the negatives as I thought on my [Mana], only a few measly percent.’’
At least everything was going well enough, and the [Squigglies] were happy enough to switch targets to whatever was so closest to them, which quickly ramped up to the ‘reapers’’s favor, who could mow through increasingly bigger groups, while at the same time, we had to deal with less and less of them.
Eventually, we managed to kill them to the last, and the black vortexes that were spawning them, which had stopped replenishing their numbers a while ago, started winking out of existence.
Except for one.
We all knew what was coming, so we didn’t even need to coordinate to prepare the new front for the [Demon] that was inevitably coming out of it, together with any [Boss] this [Dungeon] might have had.
The four tower shields in front of us weren’t tall enough to block from view the first being that stepped through the portal.
Twice even Sheeno in height, the furred bipedal creature looked like someone swapped an Ogre's head with a [Squiggly] and then dressed it from neck to toe with winter furs. Unfortunately, its build wasn’t either of the spindly or flabby types, instead, you could see the corded muscles underneath his fur flexing at his every movement.
Name:
Oggrin
Classification:
Demon (Lvl: 25)
Affinity:
Void; Vibration; Mind; Dark
Danger:
High
Behavior:
Hostile; Aggressive
Info:
A Demon birthed from the [Void]. It seeks refuge in dark caves to reproduce through spores that spawn lesser versions of itself that, sometimes, have a chance to evolve into the same being as it.
Contrary to its previous stages, it prefers to fight alone, either using the lesser spawn as fodder for its own growth or to tenderize its future prey. Otherwise, it only works with other [Demons] that are able to beat it into submission.
This wasn’t good.
That [info] panel told me that none of these [Squigglies] were originally part of the [Dungeon], but simply devoured whatever was here before them and then this [Demon] kept producing more through its own powers.
And then, just when I was realizing that things were bad, they got worse: Two more beings stepped through the remaining portal before it too winked out.
One was a stereotypical [Demon] with red skin, spaded tail and black goat-like horns, dressed only in a loin cloth; the other looked like what you would get when you mixed a rottweiler with a centipede, slobbery pincers included.
I threw a look at their screens and the only thing I could be glad about was that none of them were particularly high-[Lvl].
Name:
Cupernal
Classification:
Demon (Lvl: 28)
Affinity:
Void; Fire; Dark; Curse
Danger:
High
Behavior:
Hostile; Aggressive
Info:
A Demon birthed from the [Void]. It prefers arid and hot climates, but isn’t below waiting in the dark to ambush its targets.
Despite its humanoid looks, it is savagery incarnate, barely able to keep itself from going into a murderous rampage at the first stimulus of any kind.
Name:
Centipug
Classification:
Demon (Lvl: 30)
Affinity:
Void; Dark; Nature; Poison
Danger:
Very High
Behavior:
Hostile; Aggressive
Info:
A Demon birthed from the [Void]. Its kind naturally grow in size with age and [Levels], making it a pretty good indication of how dangerous any exemplar is on sight.
It prefers to act like an ambush predator, but when that fails its prey quickly learns that its sturdy shell and massive pincer-jaws make it a terror even in open-combat.
The heat radiating from the red one was high enough that it distorted the air around it while just standing there doing nothing, and while the [Oggrin] was BIG, it looked relatively puny next to the multi-legged nightmare with a deceptively cute name.
Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that I had a clear visual on the normal-sized red [Demon] because when they came out the furred giant just roared and fucking pushed our shield-wall away, separating them long enough to show the other though the gaps in their line.
“DEATH! CARNAGE!” The most normal-looking one of the bunch suddenly shouted, waving angrily the two-horned scimitars in his hands.
“Do as you please, just keep your flames away from me!” The creepiest of the bunch scolded the other, moving its impressive bulk away from the walking furnace, all in a voice that sounded like it was choking on its own snot.
So gross.
“Rawr grar Brah!” The mountain of fur and muscles eloquently said, somehow earning itself a nod of begrudging respect from the other two.
“FIRE FIGHTS ICE!” The stereotypical demon shouted, and flung itself at Sheeno, who was left uncovered when the [Centipug] shoved one of the [Aurumons] aside.
Fortunately, she was too good to get caught unaware just like that; still, when its weapon exploded in flames against her frozen conjurations, she still had to flinch back at the sudden heat, which quickly pushed her on the back foot.
The giant jumped stupidly high, its head brushing the turrets on the ceiling, which were forced to move out of the way so as not to get smashed, but that had started shooting since their arrival to no apparent success, either with them dodging the shots or just shrugging off the damage. It landed behind us, closest to Undine, who became clear was its intended target when a long tongue flopped out of its oversized mouth and licked it with a depraved grin etched on it.
Which means I’m left with…
Oh.
The insectoid was already pushing past the surprisingly ineffective wall to get to me, and I barely had enough time to shiver in disgust before it was on me.