The 10 Ranks
First: Wood-Rank
Sixth: Adamantium-Rank
Second: Stone-Rank
Seventh: Despair-Rank
Third: Iron-Rank
Eighth: Draconic-Rank
Fourth: Steel-Rank
Ninth: Calamity-Rank
Fifth: Titanium-Rank
Tenth: Divine-Rank
~ On page 3 of both the ‘Dungeoneering Guild Guidelines’ and the ‘Adventuring Guild Guidelines’
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Air Practitioner Beauregard
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Cave entrance of the Womb of the Earth Dungeon
Womb of the Earth Dungeon
A dungeon that was only recently formed 2 years ago where the Last Stand Dungeon once was.
This dungeon’s affinity is NATURE.
Current setting is: Nighttime (New Moon), Forest.
THE DUNGEON HAS PROHIBITED ANY FURTHER INFORMATION
“Well, that’s handy,” Beau remarked as she rolls her eyes, the blue box in her vision fading away as her focus returned to the dark forest in front of her, “I would’ve thought it was going to be a bit more forgiving with that sort of stuff.”
She turns her head to look back out the dungeon gate behind her which is now very, very far.
It’s incredibly bright outside compared to the sheer darkness of the dungeon.
It’s like a void of darkness... There’s no moonlight at all... Thank goodness for all that biolumi—...
She stands there for a while, trying to figure out how to pronounce the word before giving up.
She turns back to where the two others were, both of them standing a bit too close to the forest’s edge for her liking.
“Don’t get too close, guys!” she said, “What if something comes out to bite you or something?”
“This close to the edge?” Arthur replied in a hushed voice, still looking further into the forest. “Nothing’s going to confront us at this point, most of the monsters are asleep.”
“I don’t see anything anyway,” Orny said, turning back to look at Beau, “Just keep in mind everything that walkthrough told us.” Arthur looked at Orny with a curious tilt of his head, before shaking his head and turning back to the forest.
She thinks about the walkthrough Orny sent her, and the many dangers that now lie ahead of them.
Like the bears that could kill us in one hit? And the giant birds that could scratch our eyes out? Or the BEES?!
“Okay..." She stands there, a disturbed look on her face as she imagined herself being stung a thousand times, before continuing, “ Just don’t get too far from me please, guys?”
Arthur turns to look back at Beau, his face looking like he found it funny. “You’ll be fine, B,” he said, his tone teasing, “We won’t let them bite you.”
Orny nudges an elbow into Arthur’s leg, “She gets scared easily,” a mischievous look on his face as he turned to look at Beau, pointing at her. “If something comes at her, she’ll probably just take off her headset and leave the room.”
“Headset?” Arthur looked at Orny and then at Beau before continuing, “You really need to tell me more about your world,” he said with a smile before returning to a neutral but serious expression, “But now’s not the time.”
He adjusts his posture, slightly slouched over as he took a step closer to the forest, hiding behind a rather tall bush. “C’mon. Might as well start that quest, yeah?”
Orny nods and hides behind the same bush, crouching despite his gnomish stature making him far too short to be seen over it.
Beau follows closely, still a touch behind the two guys as they sneak quietly through the forest, holding her wand close to her chest. The ground smells like how a damp forest does; a really earthy scent from the rain.
She doesn’t like this.
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Umbra, Night-Fur Packmother
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Hidden in a cave alcove on the north-western edge of the Womb of the Earth Dungeon
The creature’s ear twitches at the sound of a baby bird chirping and a constant and steady thudding in the far distance, waking her and her mate up.
She looks at her pups all around her, still asleep and thankfully unbothered, before looking back out to where the disturbance was, her mate doing the same thing.
She walks out of their den, the smooth stone below them slick with water from the heavy rains that have just recently passed, her mate stays back with the litter, keeping them warm with his white, radiant and warm fur.
She won’t let her new family be taken again.
She merges with the shadows, becoming one with the darkness.
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Air Practitioner Beauregard
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Deep in the forest of the Womb of the Earth Dungeon
"Orny!” Beau yelled in as quiet of a tone as she could manage, the man turning to her mid-swing of his axe. “Take the baby out of the tree first, please?!”
He points at the baby bird in the tree, “I can’t reach that, bro!” He gestures with his empty hand to his body. “We’re short, remember? That’s like our whole schtick!”
“Keep an eye out, B,” Arthur chimed in as he still vigilantly searches through the darkness for any lurking threats, “The hatchling will be fine. Keep chopping.”
“What if the tree crushes it?!”
The axe hits the base of the tree once more, paying no heed to the chirps and tweets of the poor baby. It’s asking for its parents, no doubt.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The crickets are less active, growing quiet ever since Orny began chopping down the tree. She turns back to look at the forest, keeping an eye out for anything and everything. She doesn’t see anything, and that scares her.
She really, really, really doesn’t like this.
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Umbra, Night-Fur Packmother
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In the Womb of the Earth Dungeon, hidden amongst the forest's shadows, hundreds of metres away from the intruders
It lies in wait as it watches its prey, sneaking through the many pockets of darkness that are scattered on the forest floor when they turn their attention elsewhere.
The moon above provided it with a precious boon. One that it is grateful for.
The forest creaks as a tree is felled in its domain.
The forest—in all of its sacredness, generosity and beauty—weeps.
Man has returned to take advantage of it, as it always does.
She won’t stand for this defilement any longer.
Something must be done.
Her fangs make themselves known.
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The forest is dead quiet.
“Something’s in our midst.” Both of them turn around, their eyes wide and metal wands held in their hands. Orny drops the axe he was holding in his other hand, eyeing every single thing in the near vicinity—rocks, leaves, dead branches—while B just looks further out into the forest, keeping her wand out in front of her in case anything were to suddenly come rushing at her.
I keep my hand on my dagger, adrenaline coursing through me as I survey the area, my hearing honed to a cutting edge.
The wind is minimal but still present here, most likely stemming from the dungeon magic resonating through the entire cave system.
It is an odd thing to be in a forest, deep underground with its very own moon and its own speckle of stars to boot.
I know that it should be impossible. In fact, it is impossible.
Yet it simply ignores such an outcome.
Everything here is a mimicry of the reality of traversing through the many forests that litter the Continent—true forests, not one like this.
But it remains ever-so compelling that one cannot help but know that they are in a place of nature.
And in places of nature...
Nothing wants you there.
The ground beneath us shakes, something burrowing out from the ground.
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Giant Nightcrawler
Rank: Wood-Rank
Level: 3
HP: ??? | SP: ??? | MP: ???
A regular, old nightcrawler that has grown to a tremendous size. Thicker than even the fattest infant, and longer in length than the tallest human male.
It burrows deep into the earth, consuming any decaying matter—including whole bodies—through the ground, growing fatter and stronger.
It only leaves the soil once rain makes it difficult to breathe deep below, choosing to instead hunt its own prey during this period of time.
Has an affinity for NATURE, its elements being EARTH, DARK, and CONSUMPTION.
{Not yet added to Codex. Slay or subdue it to learn its stats, and its skills and spells if it has any.}
The ground beneath Orny erupts, dirt flying into his eyes and blinding him. He falls onto his back from the sheer force of the worm’s sudden appearance, the worm wriggling in the air violently before landing hard onto the earth, moving towards Orny as he struggled to rub the dirt out of his eyes with his back against the felled tree.
Worried for himself, Orny raised his wand with a blood-curdling scream, aiming in the direction of where he thought the worm was, an arcane bolt emerging from its tip with a speed that none of them in could even begin to comprehend. Thankfully, none of his party members were in the bolt’s way.
The worm, however, had only just wriggled out of the spell’s path, avoiding the projectile as it blasted through the side of a tree, its bark and chunks of wood being shotgunned in the direction of the bolt as they dug themselves deep into the many other trees behind it. A bird flies off from one of those said trees, retreating from the sudden attack on its home.
Arthur used the opportunity of the worm focusing on Orny to start stabbing deep into the hind of the worm, getting many instances of contact in the span of a single second using his Flurry of Blows Skill, red staining the backside of the worm as it reeled from the devastating attacks.
It quickly turned around with uncharacteristic agility, a hair’s breadth away from mauling Arthur’s face. Its many teeth were covered in a thick layer of saliva, a bit of spittle landing on Arthur’s forehead from the momentum of the turn. Its maw was terrifying, a black pit of nothingness, surrounded by circular rows of teeth that were curved inwards and jagged.
Arthur retreated from its reach, the worm still heavily focused on him, wriggling its way closer and closer but far too slow to catch up to Arthur.
The worm, knowing that it has lost the element of surprise, begins to dig down, burrowing deeper and deeper into the earth.
A warcry loosens itself from the female gnomish player.
“CUTTING GALES!” shouted Beau, her wand becoming the catalyst for the immense change of pressure around them all as the winds tossed the worm out of its burrow and dragged it against the sharp branches of the tree, with some embedding itself through the creature’s segmented body, the worm writhing in pain in mid-air from the onslaught of large splinters throughout its body.
The wind dies down, finally letting the nightcrawler out of its grasp as it lands harshly onto the soft, damp earth.
Beau collapses to her knees, her eyes fixated on the blood pooling out of the giant monster as it struggles.
Orny breathes heavily, his eyes constantly blinking in an attempt to get rid of the dirt that had embedded itself into his sight. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, this is fucked, man! I can’t see shit!” He rubs his eyes with the back of his hand, only making it worse.
Arthur stands over the struggling nightcrawler, plunging his dagger in its backside over and over to lessen the length of its suffering. He doesn’t risk going for the head, in fear that it might retaliate and harm him.
The massive branches stuck to the monster limit its ability to move around, grounding it to the earth.
Its movements turn sluggish and eventually stop.
It is dead.
Codex updated: Giant Nightcrawler
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Umbra, Night-Fur Packmother
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In the Womb of the Earth Dungeon, hidden amongst the forest's shadows, metres away from the intruders
The intruders begin to butcher the wolf’s dungeon-brethren, cutting its many segments into equal proportions and ripping its maw out, before twinkling into blue light in the hands of the tiny female intruder.
The tall one always keeps an eye out, only giving her a chance to move between the tree’s shadows when the two tiny ones communicate with him.
They rely too much on the tall one. But he is but a man, he is bound to make a mistake.
She focuses her sight on the tiny ones.
Magic. Dangerous. They will have to be taken care of first.
The tall one speaks to the tiny female, turned away from where she is hiding in the shadows, with the other tiny one chopping the already felled wood into smaller pieces, rubbing at its eyes.
A perfect opportunity to relocate.
The wolf circles around to the intruders’ right side, going further away from the many pieces of wooden shrapnel that had nearly landed on her from the blast of magic. She looks back at the one chopping the wood.
Very dangerous, indeed.
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“Can we just go back outside?” B pleads, watching as him and Orny have begun looking for another tree that has absorbed enough of the ambient magics to gain an affinity of nature.
Orny’s eyes were redder than an apple, a concerning stream of tears leaking out of his eyes.
“We can’t get the slaying reward with just one wood-rank monster,” I said as I constantly identified any trees I could see within my range.
“We nearly died, Arthur!”
“That was my fault,” Orny said as he rubbed his eyes again, “It won’t happen again, I promise.”
“Oh, sure, as if your girly scream would help you fight off another one of those worm thingies!”
Orny stopped in his tracks, turning on a heel and walking straight up to her as his face turned into a mixture of emotions that I couldn’t begin to explain.
“Fuck—” he began, anger and sadness making themself evident on his face, “Fuck you, Beau. You’re such a bitch to me.”
Orny twinkles into blue light, disappearing.
Party member Orny has left the party.
Beau’s face immediately became one of abject regret and self-hatred, her mouth opening and closing rapidly, as if finding no words to say.
“Go, B.”
Beau turns to look at me, her expression still of deep regret.
She closes her mouth firmly, tears forming in her eyes.
“Sorry... Arthur.”
She disappears as well.
Party member Beau has left the party.
I walk back the way we came, the only item I have to turn in being a single wood-rank maw of a Giant Nightcrawler in my rucksack. The rest of the heavy stuff—the segments and the wood—went to their inventories.
I sigh.
The sound of a twig breaking comes from behind me.
I turn rapidly, my dagger already out in front of me.
A dark, animalistic figure is in mid-air leaping for my throat, its jaw unhinged to such a degree that it could swallow my head whole.
I duck just in time for it to leap over me—but not fast enough—a single fang digging deep into the skin on my head, uplifting a chunk of my hair from my scalp.
I feel the piece of skin dangling and loose—as I quickly turn to face the monster—the pain unbearable.
Status Effect applied: (Head – Scalp) Severe Bleeding
I wince inwardly at the sudden intrusion of pure hurt that stems from my head, blood dripping and spurting down into my eyes, blocking my left eye.
Status Effect applied: (Left Eye) Blinded
The creature lands onto the ground, landing on the very same path I was taking to get out of this place.
I inspect the creature desperately, blood trickling its way down to my leather gambeson.
{Moonless} Night-Fur Packmother
Rank: Steel-Rank
Level: ???
HP: ??? | SP: ??? | MP: ???
A Packmother of a wolf den. Her deep, dark fur naturally blends into the surrounding shadows.
The Moon is an important factor to the wolves, often dictating how they act during a hunt and strengthening their bonds with one another depending on its phase.
All physical attacks made against the Packmother will deal half the damage. All magical attacks made against the Packmother will deal twice the damage.
Wolves become stronger when in a pack, with every increase to their number strengthening their bonds.
Has an affinity to NATURE, its elements being DARK, LUNAR, and BONDS.
Due to the setting of the dungeon being Nighttime {New Moon}, the Moon no longer guides her and her pack with its luminosity, making them more relentless in their attacks and more likely to work alone as opposed to working with one another.
"You've got to be kidding me..."