Despite the apparent safe choice being to run away from the stone door and make sure whatever might be on the other side wouldn’t get the chance to harm him, Stephen couldn’t let go of his curiosity.
Still, he wasn’t suicidal. There wasn't a good option between access to a floor’s boss or another safe room leading to who knows where. Instead, Stephen chooses to approach and barely touch the door.
As nothing happened, he stepped back, not daring to open the door. He had expected a system notice to appear in his sight, as it did for the portal, but it wasn’t meant to be.
As such, the only thing left in this dungeon was to explore the waterway leading from the fishing pools to the lake. Before, There was still a risk of finding foes. Now, unless a beast inhabited this path or it led to another cavern midway, Stephen doubted he would be in danger. Plus, he could always throw a few fish as bait ahead of him. There was plenty of them.
Stephen deemed the waterway safe after the fifth fish -and third still alive- was thrown down. He hadn’t heard anything, and after a quick trip to the lake, he even saw that the three living fish he had sent were still alive.
It might seem a waste of time, but he believed that even if there weren’t anything along the tunnel, it would still be good to know that path could be used later.
As it was, safe in the knowledge he shouldn’t be risking his life by doing this, Stephen removed most of his armour, only keeping his skin-tight suit. It was in bad shape, the sleeves and legs needing to be torn apart as strips of fabric barely held them. The only weapon Stephen took was a harpoon. The shaft was cut to ensure it would be only a smidgen larger than the tunnel. Using it as a brake if needed would also be possible.
The trip down the memory water line was short. The water smoothed the tunnel so much that even a plastic slide wouldn’t be as comfortable. Stephen’s only hint that there might be something in the tunnel was a glimmer in his sight on the tunnel’s ceiling, prompting him to stab his harpoon forcefully. His legs and arms were spread out as much as possible, yet he still struggled to stop himself in time to see what had drawn his eyes.
Along the wall, a slit could barely be seen. It looked like someone had cut away the rock while going up the tunnel. The only reason Stephen had noticed was from the glow inside the cavity. Or rather, the sparkling droplets which fell once in a while. Looking inside, the man only saw a shiny silvery thing with a hint of green at its core. It covered the wall on every side, the cavity only as large as a head. It took an embarrassing amount of time for Stephen to realise he was seeing another variety of moss.
And even longer to conclude that maybe, this moss was the reason for the healing waters. He checked immediately by returning to the fishing caves and testing its pools’ waters. It was.
Finally, his delve was complete. He could leave the dungeon. Or, well, he could loot everything, then leave.
Stephen didn’t intend to leave anything behind, no matter how useless it might prove to be. The armour, weapons and other tools found across the caves would serve in some way. Either as they were or to recycle them. Better to recycle metal from the dungeon than to look for a way to find some scrap of metal on Earth, which he likely would have to pay in some ways.
The huts and other construction he couldn’t carry were all dismantled, as Stephen wanted to keep the materials. Once again, his mindset was to use the infinite resource that was the dungeon rather than look for it on Earth. It didn’t matter if he didn’t use it. He could always sell it or give it away. For now, though, they were used to make sledges so he could carry all the other items.
The food, be it the fish or the mushrooms, was stored in nets or crates. The moss took more time to harvest, as Stephen also wanted to get all the clusters that could be found all over the floor.
The bodies, those of the two guardians, the five guards in the topmost cave, and another three less damaged corpses were put aside separately from the others. Either because they were different or because they were in better shape. The guardian by their physique, the topmost squad by their equipment. What could he gain from bringing back corpses? He wasn’t sure. At least from those ten, he hoped to dissect them and see how different they were from frogs and humans. For all the other corpses, he would surely find some use. Selling it as food might be possible. Who knows? There were weird requests everywhere these days.
During his many goings and comings, Stephen noticed the captive watching him. She wasn’t screaming at him or looking overly worried about his extended stay in the dungeon, so he didn’t try to talk to her again. She tried to engage with him, but he was busy emptying the dungeon and had already confirmed that he couldn’t understand her, as he had noticed upon meeting her the first time.
The cages containing the other two corpses of her kin were also dismantled. Their occupants were moved along with the rest of the bodies. That did raise some concern from the sole living captive. Stephen could only guess, but he wouldn’t be surprised if she had insulted him in one way or another.
All of this toiling went on for around four hours. In the end, Stephen had the feeling it was the most exhausting part of his delve.
Once all his loot was carried next to the door of his safe room, crowding the gallery for a dozen meters, Stephen returned to the snake lady he had left behind. Keeping her in her cage would have been nice since he didn’t trust her not to attack him, but too many columns and stalagmites impeded the path leading to his entrance.
He once more attempted to communicate with her, making her understand he meant no harm so long as she didn’t threaten him. It took some back and forth before they reached an agreement both could approve of while understanding each other intent. Eventually, Stephen freed her and was surprised when he found out she could barely move herself.
Turn out that not moving for so long and being weakened as she was had ill effects on her health. Who knew? At least, it served to remind Stephen to gather more healing water. With his finding of the silvery moss, he completely forgot about it. He wasn’t sure if the water would retain its properties with the moss gone, but considering the lake’s size, it should be okay. It was.
Even after letting the snake lady drink her fill of water and giving her a couple of cereal bars left in his bags, Stephen still had to carry her up to the entrance/exit. Bit of a hassle.
Even more so as she was now mostly cleaned up, healed, and very naked. Stephen was getting horny from feeling her body shape against him. It was the kind of situation where he'd rather not be thinking with his lower half, yet found himself wanting to, despite knowing he shouldn’t. He would prefer to be friendly with her if he had to bring her back, as she would be a valuable ally. On the contrary, if she hated him, he might be forced to kill her, as he wouldn’t have a way to keep her existence a secret if she tried to make herself known.
Back to his trouble of exiting the floor, since he didn’t know if the door wouldn’t close right behind him, the same way it did when he entered the dungeon, Stephen linked every sledge carrying his loot to each other. Finding enough ropes or similar bindings to do so was annoying. Dragging all of his loot was exhausting, even more so when he noticed the door had stayed open after he entered the safe room, to the point that he needed to be the one to close the door manually. Still, he chose to take the same approach to cross the portal leading to his home.
After pondering for a while, Stephen decided he’d rather lose the opportunity of having an alien as a companion than risk her existence being exposed to his world. As such, she was left in the safe room, where he spent some time building a rudimentary wall with the remnant of the cage and the other materials he had. Another thing which was left behind was all the corpses he had gathered. With the two captives, that made for sixty-seven bodies. Way too much to fit anywhere in his home. He only brought the sledge with the bodies of the two snake people, two larger frog guards he fought in the lowest cave, and the other five in the topmost cave.
The moment he crossed the portal, he was assaulted by an onslaught of system notifications and an orgasm-inducing rush of power flowing through his body. It might not have been intended this way, but as aroused as he was from the snake lady’s closeness, he couldn’t do anything about it. Talk about a weird coming home. Fortunately, there wasn’t a comity waiting for him.
Congratulations! You’re now awakened:
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Access unlocked to Status Screen – Skills [Identify] and [Inventory] – System shop
Quests completed:
Rewards:
Main quest - 1st floor cleared
4800 xp
4800 tokens
Dungeon Break's timer pushed back by 50h
5 skill points
Achievement - Earth’s First Delver
Title (Earth Trailblazer I: +1 to all basic stats)
1 Uncommon weapon of your choice, similar kind to the ones used during this delve
1000 tokens
10 skill points
+25% xp for this delve (1200 XP).
Hidden Quests Completed:
Rewards
First Contact: You’re the first to meet another world inhabitant.
Title (Earth’s Emissary: makes it 25% easier to learn the language of sentients whom you’re the first to meet among earthlings.)
Language book allowing communication with the natives met. (Parseltongue)
500 tokens
. . .
. . .
Stephen skipped the rest of the notifications when he saw the reward for the main quest completion, mainly how it delayed the Dungeon Breakout by 50h. He was exhausted. Not physically, as he had drunk healing water often by the end, and the stats earned from the title, among others, helped a bit. But mental fatigue was another matter.
Stephen only wanted to collapse on his bed and sleep by this point.
As he checked for the time, he noticed it was 9:48 pm. He had spent more than twelve hours inside this dungeon.
He really wanted to leave all his loot behind him, but the fish was a problem. Most were put in the freezer until he realised it would never fit. It had been a foolish thing to do to take all the fish he could. He gave up the task, lacking space and not caring any more about what would happen to those left outside, then went up.
After removing his armour and showering, he lets Comtess enter the house and finally falls asleep, cuddling his dog.
By midnight - Dungeon Breakout is in 4 days and 6 hours.