The Pinnacle Warrior

From the seventh floor onward, the Wanderers strode with more care. While moving with purpose and speed remained a key necessity, they couldn’t simply blaze on any longer. If they did, they were opening themselves up to too many risks. Obviously, despite having spent several weeks in this Dungeon branch, they hadn’t stretched themselves in the Dungeon itself enough to have learned anywhere near all of its tricks. That brief view of the naiad’s willingness to attack beyond the bounds of the water was a sobering reminder that they were significantly more limited than their enemies, that the tier difference would continue to exert itself over them.

“I should’ve been thinking a little bit more about what they could do,” Skandr said as the party resumed a more sedate pace forward. They still were hurrying, their pace fast enough that Astrid wouldn’t be surprised if it put most Iron tiers to shame when they were pushing themselves. Instead of sprinting over a hundred kilometers an hour, they jogged at about half that speed.

“We all just need to get more used to fighting fully magical monsters,” Astrid said. “The closest thing to something like the naiads that we’ve fought until now was the flamespitters, as every other monster we’ve fought that used magic only used it to amplify its other, more physical abilities. Even the harpies, as physically weak as they are, didn’t use magic as their only avenue of attack.”

Skandr didn’t have much of an answer to that, but the party continued on their path, paying attention to the growing density of monsters. Each floor grew more dangerous, and not just because it was deeper in the Dungeon, where the mana grew thicker. The mana density was no insignificant threat in and of itself, but the monsters’ presence continued to grow. Though the party had taken the Dungeon as seriously as they could, this just served as the latest reminder of the difference between the Iron and Steel tier.

Simply said, they’d never had the exposure to monsters like these, and despite their strength relative to their tiers, the Great One never really intended for anybody to fight against creatures of a tier higher than themselves. These monsters had advantages over the Wanderers that couldn’t be easily overcome. And that was why they were here, to prove themselves worthy of greater blessings upon evolution.

Despite any misgivings and the very painful lesson they had all learned in a nearly deadly fashion, the party continued on its path. Benedict’s help ensured that the mana’s density in the branch hadn’t caused any trouble or discomfort so far. In fact, nobody had felt any real symptoms of mana toxicity, so far as Astrid knew.

The next floors continued apace, and as they drew closer and closer to their destination, Astrid allowed herself to... not to relax, but to begin to believe in the real possibility that they would kill a Steel tier Boss. Finally, they approached the thirteenth floor. Despite their plans and efforts, every member of the party was beginning to show small signs of exhaustion. Maintaining their pace at what Astrid estimated to be about 3/4 of their maximum speed when traveling through safe areas, the party had engaged in dozens of small fights.

Benedict, most of all, was exhausted. He’d been the key to ensuring that they all wouldn’t be poisoned by the mana here, and he’d been the sole consumer of the party’s mana potions to ensure he could constantly cleanse everyone through Gentle Touch. The little discomforts Astrid had barely noticed disappeared after a minute’s ministrations, and served as a reminder of the danger they were subjecting themselves to. Even as Benedict stretched himself to ensure that he could care for the rest of his allies and friends, he couldn’t take any more potions without poisoning himself with too many alchemical ingredients. So, instead, his constant Skill usage dwindled as he sang manaless songs to trigger Restful Reverberations. As it was, the party was about twenty minutes of travel away from the entrance to the final floor, and they were proceeding at the best pace they could manage.

“A pair of antlions approaches.”

Nobody said anything in response to Muti’s warning, instead reacting as Astrid stepped forward beside Felix, while the other three looked to occupy the naiad. Fortunately, this Dungeon branch wasn’t like the gnoll Dungeon outside of Kznietch, whose numbers constantly swelled with each additional floor. Yes, the population density had risen here, but it went from almost having to actively seek out a fight on the first three floors to stumbling across a monster every kilometer or so. Given that each floor required them to follow a path of 30 or so kilometers on the first floor, and that number steadily increased to where it was now, almost double that, the party was tired and a little bloodied.

Fortunately, though this branch’s inhabitants were monsters at the upper levels of the first watershed of Steel on the higher floors, the level of its inhabitants didn’t climb the deeper they went into the Dungeon.

“I’ve got all my charges of Body,” Astrid said. “Let me take the lead on killing one as fast as possible, then we switch, and you go to the naiad.”

Felix’s grunt was as much of an answer as she expected, and Astrid slowed down just enough to ensure Gravity Surge would deal a deadly blow in combination with everything else.

The rumbling ground grew closer, and Astrid pushed her stamina into her boon to ensure she could swing with all the force she could muster without sending herself flying. Then, the sand turned almost to liquid underfoot, and she sank down half a dozen centimeters as the antlion's mouth snapped open in front of her, large mandibles poised to rip into her abdomen.

A super compressed version of the localized Gravity Surge, focused on the head of her hammer, yanked the monster's head away from disemboweling her. Instead of hitting her armored torso, the mandible scraped off her shield as her hammer fell with a death knell. Just before the hammer blow fell, Astrid activated Spectre Burst and spent a charge of Body. She bared her teeth under her helmet as she let the fullest, deadliest attack she could muster loose on the monster's skull.

Its head was made for carving through sand, and though magic helped it to go faster, much of its ability to swim through the earth was due to the strength of its body and head. The top of its arrow-shaped skull was tough, tougher than any monster’s natural defenses Astrid had ever fought, with the exception of the turtle dragon Boss.

This single strike crushed chitin, bone, and everything underneath. The body fell to the ground, dead, and Astrid grinned fiercely as she strode forward to take Felix’s place.

Now, with the dangers presented being significantly reduced with the death of one of the monsters, Astrid stopped overextending herself quite so much. Instead, she threw herself at the other antlion and made herself the largest threat it could see. Three strikes scrashed into its side and head, and with that sound ringing off of its defenses, it wasn’t hard for her to ensure the creature would only pay attention to her, at least for now. Behind her, she heard the fight the others were having against the naiad, but Astrid maintained her focus on her own fight. After all, she didn’t need to kill a second antlion without any help, she was a member of a party.

The rest of the fight went pretty quickly, the naiad quickly being killed before Astrid could kill the other antlion. With four delvers fighting against a single monster they were long since familiar with, the naiad fight went quickly, serving more as practice and a forced slowdown to the pace than anything else.

Less than a minute had passed before the enemies were all dead, and the Wanderers were back on the move. Instead of taking the time to loot any of the bodies, they pressed on, having long since learned the lesson that .

“How long are you going to need in the passage before we go to the final floor to fight the Boss?” Astrid asked Benedict as they continued on their path.

“Honestly, I could probably use a couple hours,” he answered. “I know I’m not gonna get that, but as long as we can spare without risking ourselves to mana poisoning, I’ll take it.”

Astrid said nothing, but she nodded as they continued forward. Several more fights took place before they reached the final doorway, and here, unlike the floors before, the guardian Verdant Walker Grove didn’t remain below. Instead, they spread themselves like a large thornbush all around the door that led downward to the final floor. Somehow, they, like every other Verdant Walker floor guardian that the party had come across, knew why the Wanderers were there. So far as the party had seen, there were no messengers passing from one location to the next, so they learned this without talking to each other. After a quick greeting from the Warden of the Grove, the Walkers retreated back into their bush-like appearance and allowed the Wanderers to pass.

Though dozens of questions burned in Astrid’s mind, she refrained from asking them and instead focused on the fight that was coming.

“Minor Leviathan,” Astrid said by way of starting the discussion as they all stood in the center of the pathway down. “Our main issue still revolves around getting it out of the water, right?”

Only nods answered her as the rest of the party took the opportunity to recover as much as they could. Even Felix, the one whose role consumed the least amount of mana, sat on one of the stairs and just watched as she talked. As the only one who benefited from Immortal Warrior's body, Astrid‘s passive recovery was enough to keep going like this for at least a couple of days. As it was, this had been about twelve hours of hard delving, by Astrid’s estimation. They’d only rested for brief periods within the stairways between floors, and they were all tired, even if she could keep going without issue.

“Skandr,” Astrid asked, “how positive are we that the Leviathan’s magic is weak?”

“The official word, what we have all been told by everyone we’ve talked to, is the same as always. It should be about half as strong as a naiad.” His tone was as even as ever, though his face showed his frustration with her asking something that they’d all already drilled down on. Astrid’s stomach twisted in anxiety as the reality of what they were about to do, that they’d managed to get here, and were now going to be fighting a Boss higher tier than them, settled in.

“Nobody has anything on any cooldowns, I have all of my tools ready, so we shouldn’t be worried about anything,” Astrid stood up and began pacing up and down the stairs as she said it.

“If you have anything for us to review, say it,“ Benedict growled at her. “If you’re just going to be grumbling, be quieter about it so we all can have a few seconds to rest, can you? You’re nervous, I’m nervous, we’re all nervous, so sit down, shut up, and get a minute of rest.“

Astrid squinted at him, though the action was hidden behind her helmet. Even so, she didn’t say anything, but instead went silent and forced herself into a sitting position on one of the stairs. There, she couldn’t hold back all of her nervous energy and bounced one of her legs as she thought over everything that they needed to do, over every way it could go wrong.

“OK, that’s enough of that,” Benedict stood up and shoved Astrid roughly. Despite obviously using a fair amount of force and pushing her from the side without warning, he only barely managed to make her shift. Astrid smiled up at him as he shook his left hand and poked at his wrist. After a moment of consideration, he glared down at her.

“Are you constantly using your boon?” He asked, the accusation thick in his tone.

Instead of giving a verbal answer, Astrid shrugged and spread her arms wide, gesturing with her hands for him to try again.

“If I can’t even push you into the wall coming from behind when you’re not paying attention, what makes you think I’m going to be able to do anything when you’re ready for it?“ Benedict scoffed.

His distraction had worked, though, and Astrid quickly found herself joking around with the other members of the party instead of worrying about the fight they were about to begin. They didn’t let themselves relax for too long, though, the hours of travel out of the Dungeon branch looming overhead and combining with the faint sense of discomfort that Astrid could feel building up in her stomach. Could that be the first symptom of mana toxicity that she was experiencing? With that dread hanging over her head even more, there was no reason to wait any longer.

Once ready, they all descended to the final floor.

Different from the floors above, there wasn’t a spreading labyrinth of sparse sandbars to tread through, instead a huge arena of sorts. The same sand formed the paths here, but these were much larger than those found on higher floors. Instead of a confusing maze that spread out in every direction, there were two rings of sand around a massive, dark pool of water in the center of the floor. The inner ring was at least a hundred meters across, and the water was frighteningly still, even though they all knew the Boss was there.

“So,” Benedict asked, a quiver obvious in his voice, “do any of you know just how big this so-called ‘minor’ Leviathan is meant to be? I was hoping for… maybe the size of one of the flying serpents at most. What do you all say?”

Before anyone could give a response, the Leviathan burst out of the center of the lake and threw itself at the party.