It didn’t take long for the first dungeon delvers to arrive. Barely more than five hours.
It was quite interesting to watch, they even had pop-corn, and since they were hidden behind a basic formation, for people without cultivation that was enough, and there was no need to waste resources to power a stronger one, nobody even bothered them about how they were already in the dungeon.
Well, they probably wouldn’t have anyway, as they were watching using a drone that was hovering in the sky and transmitting what it saw. It was quite fortunate that this splinter was too small for the skywhales that occupied the dimension this splinter belonged to.
But anyway, what did the dungeon even look like? Well, it was mostly forest, just way larger with the trees reaching up to a height 500 meter.
The people in lower heaven were probably going to be happy about that, plenty of trees they could cut down for resources, once the dungeon integration happened.
The difference between dungeon break and dungeon integration you wonder? There wasn’t really any, technically anyway. But they were still considered different, as a dungeon break was when the dungeon still had hostile creatures in it, which would then endanger infrastructure and people.
While a dungeon integration was when a dungeon with no dangerous and hostile creatures finally became one with Lower Heaven.
The whole process was also quite fascinating, as even if the dungeon integrated in the middle of a city, it wouldn’t destroy anything, it was as if there was space added for the dungeon to occupy, but that wasn’t what this was about, this was about watching some adventurers explore the dungeon to assess the threat level the creatures in it posed, and if it needed to be raided. Which meant killing the dangerous creatures in the dungeon.
“How long do you think they will last?” Orion asked.
“While they probably look weak because of their lacking cultivation, they probably have at least one team member with a scouting boon, and if that one doesn’t die, they may just survive, otherwise, well, depends on how long it takes for something to find them.” Nylarthog replied, observing the adventurers with a curious expression.
Orion nodded in agreement, his eyes fixed on the group of adventurers as they made their way deeper into the dungeon. They were clearly well trained, which was expected of first response groups, as they had to deal with unknown territory and dangers.
“How about a bet what animal they are going to come across first? Shadowcat or snaptail?”
Nylarthog chuckled, ”I bet on webweavers, it’s unlikely for a shadowcat to attack a group of people, and the same goes for snaptails, but webweavers are rather immobile because they use webs to catch their prey, and if multiple beings come at the same time, it wouldn’t matter since the webweaver could just wait until the others left or got caught as well.”
Orion raised an eyebrow, considering Nylarthog's logic. "Hmm, that's a good point. I'll still say they'll come across a Shadowcat first."
After a while the adventurers sat down to put up camp, and both Orion and Nylarthog thought it unfortunate that they didn’t have audio to listen in into the conversations, but they would have to live with that for now.
As such, they could only wait for something interesting to happen, and, as there was nothing better to do, they both started meditating.
“I’m bored, I want to go kill some animals.” Orion suddenly stated.
So after notifying the guards that they would be going out, and the warning of a guard to ‘be careful’, they set of.
As they wandered deeper into the dungeon, Orion's eyes flicked around eagerly, searching for any signs of movement or life. Nylarthog walked calmly at his side, observing his excitement with amusement.
"You really do have a bloodthirsty streak, don't you?" Nylarthog commented, a hint of teasing in his tone. He wasn’t one to talk after all.
Orion grinned unabashedly. "What can I say? I just love the thrill of the hunt. It's like a dance, you know? A dance of death and victory."
Nylarthog shook his head, chuckling. "Just make sure whatever you hunt is actually dead at the end, don’t want a nasty surprise, do we?"
Orion simply shrugged, his eyes scanning the surrounding foliage. Suddenly, he froze in place, his hand tightening around the hilt of his sword.
"Over there," he whispered, pointing to a nearby cluster of bushes. "I think I saw something move."
Nylarthog followed his gaze, his own senses on high alert. Together, they slowly made their way towards the bushes, their footsteps soft and cautious.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
As they drew closer, a low growl reached their ears. Orion's grin widened even further, his body thrumming with excitement.
"It's a Shadowcat," he whispered, unsheathing his sword. "This is going to be fun."
The Shadowcat leapt out of the bushes with a fierce roar, its claws glinting in the dim light. Orion met it head-on, his own sword flashing through the air.
The clash of steel against claws echoed through the forest as Orion and the Shadowcat engaged in a deadly dance. Blood spattered the ground as the two combatants traded blows, each one trying to gain the upper hand.
Orion's movements were fluid and graceful, his sword a blur as he dodged and parried the Shadowcat's attacks. Despite the cat's size and strength, Orion was holding his own, his years of training evident in every move he made.
The Shadowcat was fierce and relentless, its teeth bared as it lunged at Orion. But he was too quick for it, sidestepping the attack and striking back with his sword. The blade sliced through the cat's flesh, drawing a deep gash along its side.
The cat roared in pain and anger, its claws lashing out in a desperate attempt to land a hit on Orion. But he was too skilled, too fast, and he danced around the cat with ease.
Finally, with a swift and deadly strike, Orion plunged his sword into the Shadowcat's heart, ending the creature's life with a final roar.
Blood and gore covered the ground, the stench of death filling the air. Orion stood over the fallen Shadowcat, his sword dripping with blood, a triumphant grin on his face.
“You have gotten quite a bit better since I last saw you fighting.” Nylarthog was about to continue, when they suddenly heard a scream. One that sounded quite human.
“It seems like our bet is about to come to an end.”
Orion nodded, clearly just as intrigued as Nylarthog as to who had won. "Let's go see what's happening," he said, and the two of them set off in the direction of the scream.
While on the way, Nylarthog couldn’t help but wonder, “This didn’t happen last time?”
“No, we didn’t leave the camp then, but there hadn’t happened anything fun anyway. I’m just as interested as to what happened as you.”
When they were finally close enough to see what was going on, all they saw was one of the adventurers having a breakdown because he hadn’t caught some rare monster in a game, and instead accidentally killed it.
Almost inaudibly, Orion commented “Yeah, that’s fair.” And Nylarthog couldn’t agree more, which was why he regularly saved games, and even had auto-save enabled if possible, he may not trust it, but there was a small chance of it coming in useful.
“Well, we should probably return, nothing interesting to see here.”
But before they could leave one of the adventurers turned into their direction, “I know you are there, there is no use hiding.”
Well, busted. But not for long, as Nylarthog immediately fast traveled both of them in front of the screen that showed the scene.
“Let’s see how they are going to react,” he commented.
“And now we are going to have audio as well. I dropped a small micro in the foliage.” Orion revealed with a mischievous grin on his face.
The reaction of the adventurers was quite fun to watch. The scout was insisting that somebody had been there, but they couldn’t find anyone.
Meanwhile, Nylarthog and Orion were trying their best to stifle their laughter as they watched the scene play out on the screen. It was all just a bit too amusing for them.
Orion couldn't help but chuckle at the situation. "They'll never suspect a thing," he said, grinning from ear to ear.
Nylarthog nodded, his own amusement evident on his face. "We'll have to do this more often," he said with a chuckle. "It's quite entertaining. Once with each group, if others come. Maybe we can even create some kind of rumor that this dungeon is haunted.”
Orion's grin widened at the idea. "That's brilliant! We could even rig up some simple traps to make it seem more convincing. I bet we could scare some of these adventurers right out of their boots!"
“Actually, let’s do that, we don’t have anything better to do anyway, right? Maybe the guards will be willing to lend a hand as well. Who are we going to kill in this group?”
If nobody died, there would be nobody to haunt the dungeon after all. And sure, they had already been ‘seen’ once, but humans tended to explain away things that didn’t fit what they believed.
“Me.” Orion stated.
“Obviously, but who among them is the easiest for you to impersonate? I would say the sword-user, but she is a woman, so the act would be quite difficult for you to pull off.”
Orion thought for a moment, scanning the group of adventurers on the screen. "I think the archer would be the easiest for me to impersonate," he said finally. "We could have him disappear, and then I could show up as his ghost to haunt the dungeon. It would be quite effective, I think."
Nylarthog nodded in agreement. "Yes, that should work. And traps would make that all the more believable.”
Orion and Nylarthog spent the next few hours planning and setting up traps around the dungeon while waiting for the archer’s turn to take watch. They also convinced the guards to help them by framing it as a training exercise.
As they worked, Nylarthog couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement. It had been a while since he had done something like this. Now that he actually thought about it, the last time he truly had had fun was before his transmigration when death had still been a fact, and not something that could maybe happen if he wasn’t careful.
It was a refreshing change of pace from his usual being overly cautious, even if he had been cutting back on that for a while now, at least on some aspects.
Once it was finally the archer’s turn, Nylarthog teleported behind the archer, still a distance away, since he had never been closer behind him.
But that wasn’t a problem, while he wasn’t yet at the Elemental Attunement Realm, he was getting ever closer to it. After he had leveled up his cultivation speed had increased quite significantly, so he estimated that he would finally reach the point where he would start with Elemental Attunement in the next few months.
And with him being so close, enhancing his body beyond its natural limits was in no way difficult anymore. It took only a few seconds, then he was behind the still unknowing archer, and had stabbed a dagger through his throat.
Only moments after fast traveling back to Orion, he already got the EXP notification. Well, that guy had died fast.
Killed Mortal (Mortal):
* Base EXP gain: 1.3 EXP
* Race Multiplier: 10
* Cultivation Multiplier: 1
* Combat Multiplier: 1
* Boon Multiplier: 1
* Total EXP gain: 13 EXP
And another step closer to level two. But that wasn’t important now.
It was that Orion could start playing ghost starting tomorrow.