I wake up from my slumber, let out a large yawn and a big stretch. I take a minute to admire the building size aquarium and then gather myself. Today starts my grind. I plan to farm all the mobs from the first Dire Wolf all the way to the boss room. I'm currently level 90, and I want to be at least level 100, but preferably higher before attempting the boss. I know I can most likely beat it now, but I need to ensure I'm strong enough to face the first Elite monster on the third floor. Considering the difficulty gap between the Minotaur boss on the first floor and the first Elite Dire Wolf on the second, I don't want to be caught in a position where I might die like last time.
I leave my leaf bedding where it is as this will be my home for a little while longer. I walk around the golden throne in the middle of the room and stop at the front of it. Ya know, I have never actually sat in this thing. I park my butt on the throb and let out a big belly laugh with an artificial low tone trying to mimic a fat ruler sitting on his throne.
"It's really not that comfortable." I say noting how it's just a hard chair with no ergonomic properties whatsoever.
My stomachs let's out a massive gurgle informing me that I have been without nourishment for some time now. I know just the thing for breakfast!
I leave the arena and start making my way toward the exit to the pond. I pass many schools of lethal flying fish inspecting them closely for possible deliciousness. Nothing looks good at the moment. Then I got a good idea.
I ignore all the fishies until I came to a shark. This will be perfect. I had the opportunity to try shark when we went on vacation to Hawaii, and it was pretty good! I mean I would MUCH rather have a nice stack of pancakes, waffles, or at least a frosted Pop-Tart, but alas I'm stuck in a fucking dungeon. My options are fish or dog. I already tasted Cujo yesterday, and wouldn't mind some Cujo-Asada, I think fish would be easier to procure at the moment.
Killing the shark was easy as picking it from the shelf at the grocery, since it wasn't hostile to me at all thanks to my amulet. I just slashed it from jaw to tail allowing the entrails to fall to the floor. So satisfying. That makes my blood boil every time I see that. Once that was done, I cleaned off any attachments for the entrails, then literally picked up the whole shark and put it in my bag.
Seeing the small pouch the size of a softball open wide to swallow a massive shark whole, then shrink back down to its normal size, is just funny to watch. I chuckle knowing a full 10-foot shark is inside this tiny pouch.
I'm not even sure if this would work to be honest. Can the dungeon reclaim the dead shark from my inventory, or can I keep it and cook it? I stand and wait until the dungeon absorbs the shark's entrails, then I reach into the pouch and feel the shark safe and sound inside. It looks like I can keep it. I probably just need to keep it off the ground or the dungeon will take it.
I make my way back to the pond and swim back to the granite outcropping. This will do nicely for a breakfast spot. I scrounge the forest for sticks and logs until I have a campfire built. I then surround the logs with several flat rocks with about a foot of space between them. I sharpen a few sticks into skewers then set everything aside. I light the fire and then I go and retrieve several large leafs and set them on the rock. I will probably have to be quick about this before the dungeon does its thing.
I pull out the shark carcass and lay it on the leaf mat I created. I begin filleting the shark. As it turns out the dungeon didn't reclaim the shark while I was working on it. It seems the dungeon knowns if you are using something and refrains from reclaiming it until you are finished. Parts I discarded such as the head, bones, and skin of the shark were reclaimed by the dungeon almost immediately. It's nice to know you don't have to worry about clean up. Just throw shit anywhere you want, and, in a minute, it's gone! I even notice my old campfire in the cave was completely cleaned as well, without a single trace of it having been there. The dungeon didn't take my leaf mat though. Interesting.
I wonder how long I can keep raw meat in my pouch. Will it go bad or will it keep fresh. It is a magic pouch after all. After slicing up the shark into smaller fillets, I start dumping them into my pouch knowing they will stack inside. I keep a couple fillets out and proceed to cut them up into kabob size cubes which I then stick onto the skewers I made. I lay the skewers on the flat rocks surrounding the fire.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
I sit back and relax as the fire cooks my breakfast, or lunch, or dinner. Who knows. It's perpetually daytime in this place. I have no clue what time of the day it actually is outside of the dungeon. I could very well be eating at 2am right now. If I was old enough to drink, I'd be saying "fuck it, it's 5 o'clock somewhere!" At least that's what I heard my dad say on more than a few occasions. Had to google that one to figure out why he was saying that.
My meal is finally done, and I sit back on the rocks and enjoy some nice hot shark skewers. Well, enjoy is kind of a stretch. It's bland as fuck. I do t exactly have a professional kitchen packed full of herbs and seasonings. Would it kill this dungeon to have a fucking lemon tree?!
After eating I toss any leftovers that were over cooked and headed off to the forest to begin my slaughter. I don't even bother extinguishing my fire. What's it going to do, burn down the dungeon?! If it does, I have a convenient underwater home I can retreat to until everything burns, or the dungeon fixes it. Maybe that's worth a try. Burn the forest down. Maybe the dungeon will get pissed and kick me out! Yeah right. I might burn this place for shits and giggles if I get bored enough.
I begin my grind back at the starting Dire Wolf. I can kill it easily enough now that I'm stronger than it is. I make quick work of the wolf with a few looped off limbs and a deep slice through its neck. It actually dropped its pelt this time. I think this will make a more comfortable bed than some stupid leaves. I stuff the massive pelt into my pouch with another chuckle at the comical scene.
I goof it back to the stream draining off the pond and follow that which leads to several clearing with wolf packs. These are even easier to kill now as I far out level them. I clear out clearing after clearing until the large clearing with several wolf packs and two Dire Wolf Elites. I assume this clearing is guarding the way to the floor boss. I make quick work of the dozen small wolves and both Dire Elites leaving the ground stained red.
I spend my day going back and forth from the entrance clearing to the door to the boss room, slaughtering every wolf I can find. In doing so I figured out the spawn rate for the mobs in this dungeon. It takes around 30 minutes for the regular wolves to spawn, and around an hour for the elite Dire Wolves to respawn.
After I cook up some lunch, I come up with a routine for the foreseeable future. Basically, I'm going to start at the first entrance clearing with the Dire wolf, then make my way all the way to the boss room. It's about a 30-minute hustle if I walk quickly, but I can run the full distance in a few minutes at my current top speed.
I figure as I level, I'll be able to run this faster and faster as I am able to dispatch the wolves faster. My goal is to get to the boss room as fast as possible, wait for the regular wolves to respawn, then fight my way back to the first clearing in time for the Dire wolf to spawn. It's all about maximizing kill time and minimizing downtime.
I have been keeping up this routine for about two months now, presumably. The only way I can measure the passage of time is with the respawn rates for the wolves. I spent a good portion of every "day" farming the wolves. I trudged through this grind day after day. I sustained myself off nothing but fish and wolf steaks. God what I wouldn't do for a fucking Hot Pocket right about now!
As a result, I am now level 120, and can kill an elite Dire Wolf in less than a second. I figured this was a good stopping point as gaining levels has all but stopped for me. Took me 2 and a half days of farming wolves to get from level 119 to level 120. Spending any more time here would be pointless and I would probably go insane as well. Well, more so than I already am.
On the bright side I did get a bunch of gear and item drops from the thousands of wolves I killed. I found 3 more of these small black wolf pouches. I got new gloves from a Dire Wolf, and several other pieces of gear that didn't seem like they would benefit my current build. Since my Assassin class gives boosts to agility and speed, then any gear without these stats is useless to me, even if the other stats are far higher than on the current gear I'm wearing. The exception being the new gloves, as I wasn't wearing any gloves before, so I really didn't care that there was no agility and speed on them. The extra boosts to my stamina strength and determination were well worth it. I also found out that the maximum amount of small mana crystals that I can stack in a single item slot in a bag is 999. The large mana stones from the Elites top out at 99 per slot. I figure it's because they are so much larger. Fig size versus small melon size.
I also obtained a crapload of small wolf pelts and a couple hundred Dire Wolf pelts. I packed another bag entirely with fish fillets and wolf steaks. I learned quickly that items stored didn't rot, so the first few shark filets I put in my bag were just as fresh when I removed them almost a week later. The same worked with cooked foods. If I put a piping hot fish filet fresh off the fire into my bag, I could pull it out days later and it's just as hot. These bags are convenient as fuck.
I decide to check my status before I move on just to make sure I'm happy with my progress.
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Satisfied at where I stand at this point in time, I see no reason to not challenge the boss and move on. I turn toward the large ornately carved wooden doors in a massive tree at the back of the clearing. I walk up to the doors and push them open. I walk through the doors and through the tunnel bored through the tree and emerged into a gorgeous clearing.