“At least we got a quick entry time,” I said as we descended to the first layer of the dungeon. “Thanks for that.”
“No problem. Having a platinum adventurer’s plate is a great way to speed things up,” Healer Melon said.
“I am thinking the 5th layer is how deep we should go. Rush down then rush back up with a day to spare,” I said.
“You think your Depth Sense is good enough?” Healer Melon asked me.
“At level 20, the 5th layer is fine. Even if we are late a day or two, I am not worried. The College won’t kick me out. Melody told me not to be too worried,” I replied.
“Well, that is good you are on top of things with the College,” Healer Melon said as reached the bottom of the stairs, leading down from Genoa’s dungeon entrance.
“That way to the next layer,” I said and set off. Ozy was resting on my shoulder. He was still young and couldn’t fly all the time.
The first chamber had giant bugs, which I easily cut through. I felt an odd sensation across my soul and shivered. I could feel it strengthen a bit. I took a moment to focus inwards after the monsters had been killed off.
“Problem?” Healer Melon asked me.
“Just feeling what earning experience is like,” I replied. “Like drops of water on a pool, with my soul being the pool. It is getting bigger, it feels like,” I replied.
“Yes, that is supposed to happen. That’s why someone who is level 1 shouldn’t have tier 4 skills. The pressure on their soul is too great. Like a large boat in a tiny pond. Your pond is just very well built, which is why there hasn’t been issue yet. When you level up, the experience will be more intense, just be ready,” Healer Melon said.
“Got it, no getting distracted in combat,” I replied and continued onwards. Ozy didn’t get excited at the low level monsters on the 1st layer of the dungeon. We soon found the passage to the 2nd layer and I began to fight the large Ice Millipede Champion monster.
This time I had Oxy take off and coordinate with me. His bounded Alchemical Field struggled to impact the monster. The size and effect were quite small. But that was fine as I swung at the giant millipede easily deflecting its mouth pincers. I had come a long way from being smacked around by a Troll.
Darting to the side, I cut into the millipede, and Ozy hit it with a burst of flames. The monster screamed. I then moved in and drove my sword into the back of this head killing it. For a singular moment, I felt my soul shift and become denser. I let out a heavy breath.
That had been intense, but I felt that my soul was stronger, more stable. I would reach level 20 in no time and get a new class. I was already level 2. The early levels came really quickly. Even if experience was being siphoned away, the amount was so small, I wasn’t worried. As for the experience earned, that depended a lot on the monster, level, danger, Mana in the air, Mana of the monster, and lots of other factors.
Matching the base level of the regular monsters while descending and matching every level with 10 stat points was the general rule of thumb for descending the dungeon. Starting at the 15th layer these rules became much more difficult to follow. With people taking more risks to get more experience in an attempt to reach level 100.
There were risk takers early on, but most of those adventurers died. Then there were the risk takers trying to reach level 100, where there were another batch of deaths. Between those early levels and later levels, leveling was fairly consistent for both skills and main levels.
Right now main levels were incredibly easy to get with the low experience requirement, but I would only get the class change, not use the free stat points.
I put my sword to the side and began working to extract the core. Ozy was hovering around, but held back from eating at my mental command. Once I got the core out, I let Ozy eat. He ate some pieces of the monster that had a slightly higher Mana concentration, but that was it, before he flew back up to my shoulders. A couple drops of blood fell from his mouth onto my armor, which was fine. I would clean it once I left the dungeon.
I really wanted that Clean spell skill, but that would take time. Next time I came down here, I would hopefully have it. Just as we approached the passage to the 2nd layer the ground shook.
Drawing my sword, I had Ozy quickly circle around. “What was that?” I asked out loud.
“I don’t know,” Healer Melon said nervously. There was a surge of Mana out of the passage to the next layer. It felt cloying, thick, and oppressive.
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“RAWR!” Ozy darted back from the passage as horde of level 15 monsters raced up the passage from the 3rd layer. That shouldn’t happen! I quickly retreated with Healer Melon to the edge of the chamber. Some of the monsters pursued us while the rest kept running towards the passage leading up to the surface.
Ozy unleashed a Bounded Alchemical Field of ice on the ground transmuting the water out of the air. The goblins slid along the ground as they lost their footing. I stepped forward and quickly struck out.
They were quickly finished off. Ozy was busy unleashing fire while Healer Melon stayed at the back ready to support, but he hadn’t taken action yet. A large clawed hand came over the edge to the next layer. The claws dug into the dungeon floor. A giant Winged Humanoid Lizard emerged from the passage. The Mana kept surging in the dungeon.
There were roars in the distance. My Danger Sense was spiking. The dungeon was going crazy. For a brief moment I thought that my mother must have done something, but that would be impossible. The dungeon was like the System, nothing could target it, it was a facet of existence like gravity. But then my mind thought of the flying College.
Focusing on the Winged Humanoid Lizard, it was breathing fire and had a ball and chain weapon. It had to be around level 100. A Champion monster from the 10th layer or a regular monster from the 20th. It was an Abnormal, but there were more monsters coming upwards.
“Justin, you have to attack. I will support,” Healer Melon said as the Winged Humanoid Lizard began advancing.
“Don’t worry. Once it is dead, we retreat towards that side passage and get away from this horde,” I replied with confidence that I didn’t have. When I had fought level 70 monsters, I had been under the supervision of my mother. There were more goblins racing out of the passage as well.
Death in the dungeon was rarely from singular creature. Death came due to being worn down. The massive metal ball was whipped around rapidly. I had no experience with that kind of weapon. It came hurtling at me. I side stepped and brought up the flat of my blade. The slight impact forced me back as the ball hit the wall of the dungeon chamber.
The chain was rapidly pulled back to the Humanoid Winged Lizard. It twisted while extending an arm. My mind quickly realized what would happen drawing from my Geometry skills as my Danger Sense spiked. I went into a roll as the large metal ball went whistling back over my head.
Coming back up to my feet, I kept racing forward. “Sleep!” The Winged Humanoid Lizard was twice my height. It stumbled down to one knee as Healer’s Melon spell skill hit it. But it wasn’t enough. Lighting burst outwards from the monster. I raced through it, trusting in my teammate.
I leapt upwards. “Soul Strike!” It was risky, but I needed to end this fight quickly, before other high-level monsters emerged from the passage. There was a brief moment where the monster’s scales bent inwards but didn’t puncture the scales. Then my sword went up and in under its jaw into its brain.
I drove my shoulder into the bottom of its jaw as hot red monster blood washed over me. The monster bent backwards and then collapsed to the ground with crash. I rolled free while yanking my sword out of the monster’s corpse.
Looking at the passage, more monsters were climbing upwards. “Let’s go!” I shouted and quickly ran back to the group, cutting down the goblins as I went. We raced down a side tunnel. We stopped halfway through, and I cut down the couple of monsters chasing after us.
There was no more. The monsters were racing towards the passage up to the surface. That was why we had been caught out for a moment. “What was that?” I asked while looking at Healer Melon.
“A dungeon break, but I never heard of one so large and powerful. Sometimes the Mana surges from the dungeon, and the monsters race after it. But a surge this big and the tremors, something might have happened,” he said. We both thought of my mother. “Good job with that Abnormal.”
“Thanks. Without both you and Ozy supporting me, it would have been impossible,” I replied. This reaffirmed in my mind that teamwork was key to going far in the dungeon. I looked at Ozy who was annoyed about not getting to eat, but he understood the danger.
“I think I got several levels from that,” I replied.
“I wouldn’t be surprised. Such a high level monster, even in a team, you took the most risk getting in close. Melee combat is brutal,” Healer Melon said. I knew what he meant. You had to put it all on the line to get in close. One wrong move and you could suffer a critical injury. Each fight you had to gamble with your life.
This exhilaration, this feeling. This was why I wanted to become the strongest spellblade. There was nothing else like combat against monsters. That moment of life and death. That was when I truly felt alive. With my mother it was impossible to feel that.
Perhaps I wasn’t right in the head. But I needed this more than I realized. Even if Healer Melon said it was for my health and to get a new class, it helped me a lot mentally. Studying was good, but the dungeon was truly the best teacher. Putting everything on the line, life or death.
“You think Genoa will be okay?” I asked.
“There is a reason dungeon entrances in cities are inside a fortress, for precisely this reason. Unless a level 200 monster emerges, I wouldn’t be concerned. Even then there are a lot of legends at the College that will quickly clear things up,” Healer Melon said. That was when the ground shook again and there was a much larger wave of Mana.
“We might want to get some more distance from the passage,” I muttered loudly.
“Yes, let’s go to the next chamber,” Healer Melon said.
“Ozy can reshape the tunnel to close it off as well,” I said and Ozy gave me a mental affirmative. We would hunker down for a day and then go back and check on the passage if the tremors and Mana surges stopped. I still needed to reach level 20. I resisted just calling up my level. I would check later on once I got closer to reaching that point.