25: Dungeon Diving
Aidan was definitely thankful he went with the 5/10/15 stat spread as journeying from the town to the dungeon site took a bit out of him more than he expected.
He was already breathing hard when they went over several hills and rough terrain, spending hours on their walk towards the mountain side of the forest. Once they spotted the peaks over in the distance, it only took them about another hour before they eventually came face to face with a cavernous entrance that was seemingly made with human hands.
There was an archway that seemed to have aged with time, moss covering across its beige coloring with gray smudges spread all over, cracks appearing in several places. It was overtaken with nature covering more than half of its appearance, but while it looked as though an artisan personally made this entrance, Aidan sensed something different.
With his Sense Vibrations, the entryway into the dungeon almost felt alive, as if it was a breathing person right in front of him. It had an actual soul that overwhelmed him in sheer size, surpassing all the other souls he felt throughout his time living here in this world. In his own mind, he was facing a gigantic creature that could easily surpass a hundred feet high and just as wide, and the archway represented the yawning maw ready to swallow everything whole.
“This is the Crystalfang Dungeon,” Haley stated, turning to Aidan with a frown. “You okay? You look kinda pale.”
“This is the guy that’s going to protect you while we’re in there?” Van said, shaking his head. “I can’t believe this.”
“I’m fine,” Aidan quickly said, already starting to feel annoyed by Van’s words. “Just that it took a while for my senses to take in. So, can anyone tell me why this dungeon feels alive?”
“Of course it’s alive,” Van said as if it was obvious. “How else can it spawn monsters and keep itself fed?”
“Keeps itself fed?” Aidan asked.
“You really don’t know?” Van asked, furrowing a brow at him.
“He came from a far away place, but I’m surprised too,” Haley admitted, turning to Aidan. “That’s how it always works.”
“Does it… gain experience and level up too?” Aidan asked, curiosity taking hold of him.
“In a way?” Haley tilted her head. “That’s actually a pretty good question. Never thought of it like that.”
“It takes nourishment from the monsters slain there and, obviously, from the adventurers that died there as well. It absorbs magic and the mana cast by the people and monsters alike, making itself stronger so that it can spawn more monsters. That’s why adventurers like us often come by to dive in it once in a while.”
Van helped explain. Aidan nodded in understanding before realizing that they were taking too long. He took a gander, making sure that no annoying Red Riot member was around. To his surprise, despite the dungeon being under their control, there weren’t any guards situated around here.
He did notice from a few miles away that there was some spotter situated far above the peak of the mountainous walls, hidden within a cave. It must be some spy for the gang checking to see if anyone was stupid enough to enter into their turf without paying some kind of cost.
So to ensure they wouldn’t be caught, Aidan used Vanish on both himself and the siblings, instantly catching Van’s attention.
“Don’t say a word, you’re invisible now.”
Aidan simply said, keeping his voice low as Van just quietly accepted it. His soul easily startled at the sudden spell taking hold of him, but even he knew that the Red Riot was around here, and soon enough they managed to escape the watcher’s gaze.
Taking in a deep breath, he led the group into the dungeon, faced with a notification that felt straight out of a video game.
You have entered the Crystalfang Dungeon. Level recommendation: Level 5-10.
There’s even a level recommendation. That’s so weird.
Once he entered inside, it was like entering into another world, again. The soul that he felt earlier encompassed everything around him, swallowing up his perception and forcing him to focus on the details inside instead. It was a surreal experience in his head as he developed a new sense within the dungeon, scanning the area around him that gave off their own little vibrations.
Once he compared them to sensing the hidden vibrations of the souls of people, like being able to sense their emotions and the like, he found it a lot easier to handle than before. The inside was just a cavernous hall that seemed to expand in size the further along it went, various stone outcroppings taking up the space of the hall.
Water trickling down reached their ears, and there was a dawning emptiness that seemed to overtake their hearing, enough so that one could hear various far-away noises that were definitely not made by human beings.
“Haley, stay close. Do not stray no matter what,” Van whispered, pulling out his sword and bringing his buckler to his side.
“I know that,” Haley huffed. “Who do you think I am?”
“An idiot that signed away her life,” Van hissed, and Haley had to hold back her anger, forcing her raised fists to lower down. “I can’t believe you got found out by the Key Slinger… when the hell did everything go so wrong?”
“I don’t need you to tell me that.”
“Enough bickering,” Aidan stated. “And there’s no need to keep your voice down. I don’t sense anything around us for a good while.”
“What?” Van said, turning to him. “You mean you can sense monsters?”
“Monsters, other beings, I got it all,” Aidan said. “I’ll let you know when monsters come up. For now, let’s just keep moving forward. Haley, keep your eyes peeled and let me know if you find anything with that talent of yours.”
“I-I’ll try, but this is the first time I’ve been in a dungeon. It’s gonna take me a while to get adjusted.”
Aidan nodded to Haley before moving on ahead, bringing both the siblings along with him as they traveled down the hall.
Aidan already pulled up a torch from his pack, lighting it with his Craft spell to make it bright up the halls around him. He could already tell where he was going, but it was more for the siblings’ sake as he could feel their souls lighten up now that they could see into the darkness.
The hall quickly expanded into a large dome-like field that spread into miles underground. The moist air clung to Aidan’s skin as they traversed, going around raised stone crops and passing over wide holes that seemed to delve deep into hell itself from how far down they went.
He wondered if this was a way to get to the lower floors of the dungeon, but he also knew that the lower the dungeon, the tougher the monsters. He had no intention of instantly jumping down to the lower floors until he at least faced some monsters at his current location.
“Good thing we got someone who can sense things, huh?” Haley said, only leaving Van to let out a huff of air.
“Yeah, a mage that’s never been in a dungeon before.”
“Hold up,” Aidan held up his hand, stopping the siblings. “Incoming.”
While that got Van to look at him strangely, thinking he was just spewing hot air, the emptiness that dominated the caverns suddenly rattled with bits of crumbling and scattering, causing the more experienced Van to take up arms. Haley, despite her lack of experience, also pulled out her sword, both hands clutching tight onto the hilt and keeping it close to her torso as she glanced about nervously.
Aidan remained still, using Sense Vibration to its fullest as he pulled up his finger to his lips, telling the siblings without words to follow him. Within this spacious dome, there were large stone pillars that seemed to stretch endlessly upwards, perhaps reaching to the ceiling of this dome-like structure. After getting to one of the pillars, Aidan got the others to keep close to the stone and dragged themselves across it. Aidan pulled his hand out to stop the party, then he alone peered beyond the stone to see the creatures he sensed earlier.
They were little creatures, reaching up to his knees, hunched over with spines covering their backs and a scent that seemed to remind him of burnt charcoal. They scattered on the ground, their hands and feet touching the ground as they sniffed the dirt and soil as though looking for something. There were three in total, and each one had long floppy ears and coiling long tails that lashed about every so often.
Cave Dweller, Level 8.
Cave Dweller, Level 6.
Cave Dweller, Level 5.
The biggest one of them all was the highest level one, which raised its head up and sniffed the air like a dog looking for food. It turned its head, revealing a squat face with no nose and wide squarish eyes that closed horizontally rather than vertically.
“There really were monsters here… you weren’t kidding,” Van whispered, sounding astonished from the sound of it. With his senses, he could feel Haley shivering behind him.
“I’ll take care of them,” Aidan said, turning to the two. “If they come after us, you go and distract them.”
“How are you going to take them out?” Van asked. “They’re far away, and they aren’t so easy to catch. They’re fast, and they’re nasty little bastards that use their tails to deliver toxins.”
Aidan was impressed with the knowledge Van was giving out. He must have studied different kinds of monsters if he knew about the creatures he had no experience with. The tails certainly looked dastardly, the ends spiked and looking more like a weapon than something to just have around. Aidan nodded in understanding, but there was no need to fret.
If speed was their forte, then all he had to do was cut off their speed entirely.
Raising his hand, he commanded the soil underneath the dwellers to take hold. Sudden spouts of earth sprouted from underneath, coiling around the dwellers and entrapping their arms and legs in a tight embrace. The dwellers immediately began to screech, sounding like demons that came straight from hell itself.
Next, he pulled up his Harmonious Shortsword and truly considered it. Normally he would be able to make it float and control it with his mind while using Soul Meditation.
But in a way, this was a part of him. He didn’t even have to use mana to use the part of himself that was contained within the shortsword. As long as it exists, it would still retain a part of itself thanks to the Infusion spell. And it was at a deeper connection than when he made the sword for Haley due to using his own soul as a catalyst.
So without hesitation, Aidan dropped the sword and, with an act of his will, made it float in the air. It flew up, spinning itself and building momentum before Aidan made it fly across the expanse of the cavern, hitting directly at the weakest dweller right through its head.
It plunged through without issue, meeting no resistance. As the first one fell, Aidan commanded the sword to follow up with the next strike at the second. That went down with no problems as well. The two siblings could only watch with fascination and a bit of terror from their souls as Aidan completed the slaughter by finishing off the last strongest dweller with no mercy.
The field was left with dweller corpses pooling up blood underneath them. Unlike with the Night Goblin, the blood was bright crimson, making it a bit hard to swallow in this dark expanse of the cave with no available lighting other than the small fire they have on their side.
“Looks like that’s it,” Aidan said, pushing ahead of the two as he studied the corpses. Now that he was up close, he could really see the damage done to their heads. He had enough practice with just using his Soul Meditation, so being here physically made it more compact in his mind. He wondered if the increase in Intellect had anything to do with that. “Come on out, it’s safe.”
“Holy…” Van uttered, stepping up with careful steps. Haley followed after. “Okay… I take back what I said.”
“Yeah, you better,” Haley hissed. “I was worried he was going to do something to you if you kept bashing him like that.”
“Well, I didn’t think he could kill them so… easily,” Van said, the last word sounding weird even for him. “I mean, he’s still low-level, and he just… killed a group that would take a party ages to take down.”
“Are they that tough?” Aidan asked, turning to them after he finished looking over the corpses. He really had no idea what to do here other than to just stare at them. He could just take them into his pack, but Nina warned him about stuffing it too much with unnecessary items.
“Not tough, just annoying,” Van said, shaking his head. “Like I said, they’re fast and… well, I guess that doesn’t matter now that you’re here. Seriously, how did you manage to do that? I never heard of a Mage that’s capable of making a sword fly like that while using earth magic.”
“I don’t use earth magic,” Aidan simply said. He glanced over at Haley, seeing if she was going to say anything, but she didn’t, keeping her mouth closed. “Let’s just say I have access to special magic with my talent.”
“So you got a talent too,” Van uttered. “Just like Haley… is that why Nina’s so interested?”
“She can see other people’s statuses, so that’s why she took Haley in,” Aidan said. “It’s unfortunate that she was found, but it’s better than her dying.”
“Yeah, yeah, I heard,” Van said gruffly, standing over the corpses with Haley in tow. She went around, poking at the bodies with her sword.
“Wow, they’re really ‘dead’ dead,” Haley said, sounding more mystified than terrified. “Are you going to process them?”
“You mean take them apart for parts?” Aidan asked. “I don’t know how to do that.”
“Then I’ll do it,” Van said. “I’m experienced with it, and I’d feel better since I haven’t done anything yet.”
Van went ahead to do just that. He knelt down and pulled a small, specialized knife with a different blade shape than a normal knife or dagger. He pulled up the corpse roughly and edged the knife deep into its spine, sliding it across with ease. It was rough but well-practiced, showing his expertise as he cleverly avoided parts that would’ve exploded in needless bloodshed and easily took out part after part.
It was gruesome to look at, like seeing a real dissection of an animal right in front of him. However, he put the unnecessary body parts to one side and pulled out what looked like spines, scales, and especially the end of their tails as he pulled them up to Aidan.
“These things are worth a lot if you sell them to alchemists,” Van said, a rare smile on his lips. “Parties have to first cut off the tail in a fight to avoid getting hit with the toxins, but if you don’t cut them in a certain way, they’ll lose their toxicity and make them just simple tails with no value. A decent toxic tail is worth a few silvers.”
“Ooh,” Aidan clapped. “You can keep that then.”
“What? Really?”
“Well, yeah. I have no reason to have one… well, except maybe one for experimentation. You can keep the rest.”
“A-Are you sure that’s okay?” Haley asked. “Won’t Nina get mad?”
“She only cares if we found out where this quartz thing is useful for,” Aidan explained. “I don’t know how she does it, but she keeps finding different stuff all the time. I’m pretty sure she won’t mind a few things being given to her own subordinates. Might as well since we’re working for her and all.”
“And you won’t tattle us and get us in trouble?” Van asked.
Aidan didn’t know what to say about that. That sounded like a bitch move, so he just sent a glare. “That’s just messed up. I actually like you two. I know you’re just decent folks making a living.”
“Come on, Van,” Haley moaned. “That’s why you don’t have any friends.”
“Hey, I have friends,” Van argued, standing back up and rubbing his hands to get rid of the blood. They trickled to the ground, leaving his hands mostly clean. “I just don’t bring them over. They’re just not sociable.”
“I’m guessing adventurers aren’t nice people?” Aidan asked.
“They’re the type to prioritize having a meal over making friends,” Van simply said. “Like I said, not sociable.”
Aidan could only nod in agreement to that. In his world, he was one of the lucky few who didn’t have to struggle hard to get a meal. Sure, he was often forced to buy simple bread and ramen to get by, but he knew some people who struggled to put food on the table for their families, and were willing to do anything to get it, even if it meant stepping over others who are in the same position.
Once Van was finished dissecting and processing the dwellers, their packs full with decent monster materials, they headed off towards the deeper side of the floor. Eventually the cavernous rocky walls and ground were replaced with hard tiles that seemed to be created with human hands, even though Aidan had no way of figuring out how that turned out considering the wild rocky outlook from the exterior.
The tiles looked square and expanded further, creating a hallway that entered into diverging pathways. Thankfully there were stones that lit up the surroundings, though it was still a little dark for them to put away the torch. Aidan kept leading the group, and after a few minutes after reaching the new area, he stopped in his tracks.
“Welp… that’s unlucky,” Aidan muttered. “Incoming.”
“Shit, where?”
“They’re coming towards us,” Aidan answered Van’s hurried response. “I think they noticed us.”
“From so far away?” Haley asked in surprise.
“Well, it’s not surprising when you see them, look.”
Aidan said, pointing over at one side where he already spotted several creatures running at them at full speed. They were small, furry, and carried devilish eyes that sparked in crimson red like blood.
Hell Bunny, Level 4.
Hell Bunny, Level 5.
Hell Bunny, Level 7.
Hell Bunny, Level 5.
Hell Bunny, Level 8.
“Damn, those are ferocious bunnies.”
“Why are you just standing there? Keep guard!”
Van shouted, stepping up in front of the group and pulling his buckler out. The bunnies kept charging through, jumping one after another with one of them aiming straight towards Van. The bunny charged, becoming too fast for even Aidan to notice as it pounded Van’s buckler hard, pushing Van back a little.
The other bunnies quickly surrounded the group, using their speed to their advantage. But Aidan, despite facing a new enemy, wasn’t that disturbed.
It was the same for the Cave Dwellers as well. He wasn’t sure why, but he didn’t fear the new enemy type even with his lacking fighting experience. Their souls clearly screamed killing intent, yet it was negligible compared to the Night Goblin.
The fact that he felt fear with only just his sword against the Night Goblin and barely feeling anything against the dwellers and the bunnies was clear. They didn’t have any magic that could harm Aidan. At least through his Shortsword. Making it float in the air, Aidan waited for one of the bunnies to jump after him, its maw open wide to reveal sharp fangs ready to tear out his throat.
With a simple swipe of his hand, the sword pierced into the bunny midair, killing it instantly as it tore through its beating heart. With him being so close, he could feel where their beating hearts, the ones creating most of the vibrations in their souls, were located. He pulled the sword out and took out another one that was still running halfway through the arena, missing its heart but took enough of its torso to kill it with ease.
He glanced to the side to see that Van pushed one of the charging bunnies to the side, then stabbed it down with his sword. Haley kept sticking close to Van’s side, but one of the bunnies was heading right for her.
“Haley! Get back!”
“I-I got this!”
Haley shouted, clutching her sword tight as the bunny aimed right for her with a pounce. She swung widely, and the energy coated the sword before it was launched out in a crescent arc straight at the bunny. Having been in mid-air, the bunny had nowhere to go before it was sliced apart, getting bisected without mercy.
“Holy…” Van uttered. “What kind of sword do you have?”
“Van! Look out!”
Haley shouted, turning to find one of the bunnies aiming for Van’s back. Van was too slow to react, only barely holding up his buckler before the bunny was already aiming right for his face.
Aidan’s shortsword swiped through and beheaded the bunny right then and there, its blood coating the buckler and parts of Van’s stomach before the bunny fell to the ground lifelessly. Aidan let out a sigh of relief to see how easy it was to kill them. They probably had only a small amount of health points, mostly focused on their speed and numbers.
“You good?” Aidan asked, stepping up to the blood-covered man. Van looked almost embarrassed, unable to meet his gaze.
“Yeah! Yeah… sorry, I got distracted.”
“It’s fine, it’s the first time I saw how the sword works too,” Aidan said, understanding the poor man’s distraction.
“Man, Aidan, this is incredible!” Haley said, stepping up to the two men with giddy steps. “You think you can make some more for my brother too?”
“W-Wait, you said that Aidan made this sword?” Van said, pointing at the magic sword Haley held, then pointing at Aidan. “How?”
“It’s my talent,” Aidan simply said. “And yeah, I’ll consider it.”
“Sweet!” Haley cheered.
“H-Hold on for a moment. I can’t just accept that kind of thing for free. This is just–”
Van kept arguing that he wouldn’t accept such powerful items without paying some sort of cost, which Haley argued back on not saying anything at all if someone was willing to give you something for free. But none of it took Aidan’s attention as his mind was elsewhere right at that moment.
Something was coming. Faster than the bunnies, and its intent clouding everything around it. Its bloodlust completely flowed over the environment, coming ever closer to their side.
“Guys… guys! Watch out!”
Aidan for once screamed in a panic, unable to respond fast enough with his Sense Vibrations before pushing himself down onto the siblings and pulling them into the ground.
Suddenly the stone walls surrounding them crashed and broke apart, dust clouds covering the scene. His ears almost popped from the sound before a horrific roar ripped the air apart. His vision went blurry for a second, but he managed to look up to see a large creature crashing into the nearby wall, its bulging wide arms catching itself and landing on the ground, pounding it incessantly with abandon.
It roared again, and it charged right after the party with its wide, bus-wheel sized jaw.