The final dungeon delvers in the main expedition force have finally been defeated by Vulcan’s team. I got a little worried there when they started bloating magic down the tunnel, but Vulcan managed to hold out against it, although he was pretty damaged after it. Mars and Virtus were able to hide behind him, avoiding any direct hits. Vesta didn’t have enough time to set up webs in the tunnel, so I resorted to using the biggest illusion I could create. I was still limited to black, white, and gray, but webs were relatively simple to create, as they were essentially the inverse of the shadow illusions. All of this effort was enough to push my ‘Illusion Magic’ to the next level, allowing me to finally add color to my illusions. I was going to use it to help Vulcan in his fight against their leader, but he waved me off, telling me he wanted to fight him on his own. He was still missing a chunk of his health, but I could tell how earnestly he wanted to test himself against a strong opponent, so I obliged him and released the illusion. Thankfully, he ended up the victor, and the rest were mopped up by the others, bringing an end to our current predicament. After all was said and done, this is how each monster of the team looked:
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Name: Willow
Race: Monster (Soullight Phantasm [Lvl. 6])
Blessing: Chaos-touched
Skills: Manipulate Mana [Lvl. 9], Glow [Lvl. 10 (Max)], Mana Projection [Lvl. 5], Identify [Lvl. 5], Possession [Lvl. 2], Illusion Magic [Lvl. 4], Mana Up [Lvl. 2]
HP: 450/450
MP: 684/684
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Name: Vulcan
Race: Golem (Bronze Golem [Lvl. 8])
Blessing: Blessing of Chaos
Skills: Manipulate Mana, Martial Arts Mastery, Club Mastery, Regeneration, Punch Flurry
HP: 582/1440
MP: 128/420
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Name: Mars
Race: Beast-type (Lizardman [Lvl. 6])
Blessing: Blessing of Chaos
Skills: Manipulate Mana, Sword Mastery
HP: 342/450
MP: 550/550
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Name: Virtus
Race: Goblinoid (Hobgoblin [Lvl. 6])
Blessing: Blessing of Chaos
Skills: Manipulate Mana, Spear Mastery
HP: 302/400
MP: 550/550
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Name: Caelus
Race: Middle Demon (Quazit [Lvl. 5])
Blessing: Blessing of Chaos
Skills: Manipulate Mana, Spear Mastery
HP: 315/350
MP: 600/600
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Name: Vesta
Race: Beast-type (Arachne [Lvl. 14])
Blessing: Blessing of Chaos
Skills: Manipulate Mana, Venomous Fangs, Webbing
HP: 184/215
MP: 82/165
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Name: Mors
Race: Undead (Skeleton [Lvl. 10])
Blessing: Blessing of Chaos
Skills: Manipulate Mana, Bow Mastery, Sword Mastery
HP: 205/205
MP: 145/145
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As a quick TL;DR, everyone’s levels have increased significantly. Vesta and Mors have seen the most substantial rise, as they’re still at their base evolutions. They haven’t earned any skills beyond their obvious ones tied to their main methods of fighting, but that can improve with time. My level is already being surpassed by the newbies, even though I’ve been in more fights, but that’s still expected. The biggest standout is Vulcan with a whopping 1440 health; no wonder he could take on that magic barrage and still fight. In another three or four fights, Vesta will probably evolve, and then Mors will follow in around six fights. It’ll still be a while for the rest of us to see our next evolution, so we’ll just keep on working on our skills until then. The threat of destruction shouldn’t be looming over our heads anymore, but there is still the possibility of the few dungeon delvers still inside making a mad dash for the core. I’m not detecting any signs of that, though, so I don’t think it’ll be a problem.
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…
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It’s been less than a day, but the strong party that ventured to the bottom is finally getting to the base on the second floor. They went past the rooms where we ambushed the main expedition force, although I already had Vulcan and his team move the bodies to the side for the slime and gather anything that looked valuable. They found a lot of coins and consumables, and the armed members of our group had found new replacements for their weapons and some back-ups. That zealot had some potions on him in addition to knives and gold, and of course, a holy seal of the Tristar Pantheon. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any more Chaos Infusers for me to juice up my Entropy. Aside from that, Vulcan took the damaged axe from the guy he fought and had me teleport him to the room with Pim’s cenotaph. He laid the axe before the broken spear, and then asked me to teleport him back to the throne room so he could train with the rest of the team.
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They’re still training now, reflecting on the results of their battles, but now I’m eavesdropping on the strong party as they finally arrive at the second-floor base. One of the stationed delvers goes to meet them, asking them about any news of the force down below. He has a confused look on his face as he begins to answer.
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Dungeon Delver POV:
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“Main expedition force? We only ran into a single party that went down to the sixth floor before us. We haven’t seen anyone else.”
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“There should be a force of 25 dungeon delvers making their way down, and an Inquisitor was hired to accompany them. You should have run into them on our way here.”
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Concern was etched across the dungeon delver's face as he worried about the current state of his fellow delvers deeper down, but the leader of the party only responded with an unconcerned air.
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“The layout of the fourth level did change, so we could have gone around them in an alternate route.”
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“The layout changed?”
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“Yeah, from what we could tell. The tunnels didn’t connect all the rooms in a basic straight line from staircase to staircase. There were a few forks in the path, so one of them could’ve routed us around without running into them.”
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“So the dungeon is mutating, like the initial report said. Doesn’t this mean a dungeon flood could happen any day now?”
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“Nah, not always. You’re still young, so you probably haven’t seen it before, especially in this central kingdom, but dungeons mutating are pretty common in the west. Especially in the grand dungeons in the capitals.”
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“So your party didn’t find anything below that would force us to destroy the dungeon?”
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“Not really, there was a small surge of monsters, but other than that, the monster materials were pretty disappointing.”
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“Wait, did you say there was a surge of monsters?!”
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“Eh, it was just a small one. There were an extra dozen or two of monsters in the area, but the dungeon probably wants to kick us out to continue mutating. It happens more often in the popular dungeons filled with delvers on every floor. A profitable change could occur, but we don’t have any more time to stay here to see what comes of this dungeon. Maybe on our way back, we’ll check it out again.”
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“Could the expedition force be fighting a surge of monsters then? They’d need reinforcements if it’s a lot of monsters.”
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“Eh, they should be fine. The surges aren’t too strong relative to the floor, more of a warning than anything. There’s still a fifth and unfinished sixth floor, and the fourth floor was recently changed. The Inquisitor might make them be thorough in their investigation, but they’ll likely consider the dungeon safe, even if they have to raise the danger rating of the dungeon.”
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“That’s good, at least. The dungeons have been pretty good for training and making a small bit of money from monster materials. We still have a few weeks of supplies left, so we’re ready to wait out an extra thorough investigation.”
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“I don’t envy your position, but good luck. Keep an eye out, though, even a weak monster can still kill you if it gets the drop on you.”
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“Thanks, I will. Good luck on your travels.”
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“Hopefully, the next dungeon is more profitable than this one.”
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With a chuckle from both men, the strong dungeon delvers departed for the surface and onwards to their next adventure. The bases on the first and second floor would continue to wait, but after two weeks had passed, there was still no word from the main expedition force. Worry spreads throughout the dungeon delvers despite the comforting words of the departing delvers from before. Even a thorough investigation of every floor should have produced some results by now, or a messenger from below should have been sent to bring any news, good or bad. But they received nothing. The two bases even had to return to the surface to resupply from the surface base, which had access to hunted meat and clean water from the nearby river. Eventually, the main force’s unknown fate pushed the dungeon delvers in the second-floor base to push into the third floor to find any traces of the main force. However, they wouldn’t find what they were looking for, rather something completely unexpected. Growing out of one of the rock outcroppings is a jagged, blue crystal. They had found a highly valuable growth of mana crystals, and where there was one, there were many more in the depths of this dungeon. Any dungeon delver who found mana crystals was obligated by national and guild laws to report the presence of these lucrative crystals immediately. The fact that nobody from below reported this could be the result of many different circumstances, but the simplest answer is usually the truth. These dungeon delvers could only come to one conclusion, but now the danger of the dungeon would be weighed against the enormous profits it could bring. However, no matter how they felt, this was now a matter for the bureaucracy to decide.
