A Dungeon’s Survival

Connie

I didn't normally bother watching delvers too closely unless I was given a reason to, but I was curious. As was often the case, the members of the scouting group were the first ones to show up for the day. That wasn't exactly ideal. I was familiar enough with them to know exactly how things were going to play out without even needing to see it. There was no way that one of my Trentis having the Swordsmanship skill at level one was going make any sort of difference, and just like I expected, it didn't.

A single well-placed arrow from the archer was all it took to down the monster before it could so much as reach them. It didn't even get a chance to use its new sword before its untimely death. Still, the monster having the skill was enough to earn me a couple extra experience points upon its death. By no means did that make up for the mana I'd spent to give it a sword in the first place, but nevertheless, I hoped that would change with time.

Also, for the moment, I'd opted to give the Trenti one of my smith's practice pieces instead of a proper weapon. Overall, the twisted piece of metal was shoddy at best, but this way, I was at least being efficient with my resources. Also, due to its low quality, it was unlikely anyone would bother looting the piece of junk, so I was free to recover and reuse it over and over again until the thing finally broke, which brought me to the next matter.

Wait until they're all gone, give it a minute, and then retrieve it, I instructed my new familiar.

“Very well,” Loot hissed back from the dark spot where she was keeping an eye on things.

Since she was intelligent, I'd decided to make full use of that fact. Where the Shade Lurker before her had only been capable of replacing plants once a group had left, I'd decided to give Loot more responsibilities than that. For that reason, I was training her personally on what to look out for and what needed to be done as adventurers passed through.

She was currently watching and soaking up all of my instructions from the tunnel network that snaked its way overhead and throughout my Dungeon. From there, she had the potential to monitor things and make decisions based off of what was going on in real time. It would be a while before I felt she was ready for that, but it would also take time before the need actually arose. Once that time did come, though, I wanted her to be able to handle the general upkeep of some of the more mundane things around the place. After all, the more I could delegate to her, the more I could potentially save on mana costs by opting to utilize manual labor instead.

Overall, I was happy with her progress so far. The difference between her and her undead counterpart was night and day. As for Stein, I didn't even want to think about that. He'd improved significantly, albeit slowly, but considering where he started, that wasn't exactly saying much. Also, dealing with the ghoul was downright exhausting.

Regardless, his presence had begun to bear fruit as he'd succeeded in teaching the Trentis level one Swordsmanship. It wasn't much, but it was a start, and now that he'd found some degree success, I was keen to see what the results were. That was why I was interested in watching delvers handle my monsters with their new rudimentary skills. Sadly, the scouting group were the least likely people for the difference to matter to, so aside from how much more experience I was getting from their deaths, I wasn't learning a whole lot from this. Still, I could at least gauge their reactions and, by extension, the reaction of the Adventurers Guild, so there was that.

“That's some pretty bad timing,” the swordsman said.

Huh?

That was an odd choice of words and a strange reaction.

Bad timing? Bad timing for what?

“Well, if they're stronger, that should make thing more interesting, at least,” the rogue added.

“Yeah, but we won't be able to use them as a baseline now.”

A baseline? For what?

“Based on how that just went, something tells me we'll be fine. I don't think some sharp pieces of metal are going to make too much of a difference. Keep an eye out for other changes, though, everyone!”

I was left more confused from that interaction than anything. I had no clue what any of that meant, nor did I understand their reactions. I'd mostly expected surprise from them, maybe a bit of annoyance at the added difficulty or excitement at the small amount of extra experience they'd earned, but what I'd gotten instead was just strange. It gave me the feeling something was off, and I just wasn't seeing it, kind of like back when they had baited me into revealing my hand in the past by pretending to be about to destroy my core when they weren't. It gave me a bad feeling.

Loot, this group is an anomaly. Always be cautious around them, and take extra precautions. I'll give you more instructions later, but for now, I want to keep an eye on them. Something's off, I explained.

“Understood,” the Shade Lurker responded, and I focused on the scouts more fully.

They were tearing through my second room, which was normal for them, but if I wasn't mistaken, they seemed to be moving faster than usual. It wasn't that they were physically moving faster, though they did kind of seem to be; instead, it was that they seemed more capable. Their movements were more precise, their attacks seemed to do more damage, and their efficiency as a whole was on another level entirely. It was disconcerting. Then, there was also that large pack their frontliner was carrying. That, too, was new.

Have I not watched them for a while, or is something wrong here?

I honestly couldn't tell. The little bit I had been paying attention to them lately had been between my third room and the second floor since I had to manage my monster spawns between those two places. As for my second room, I'd been largely ignoring it.

Oh well, I guess I'll see how fast they clear the bog.

That was the only other place I had trained Trentis in, so I was already curious to see how they'd handle them, but now, I had another reason to closely monitor the group. What I ended up witnessing definitely wasn't right.

No way. Not possible. I refuse to accept it.

Lance had grappled a gator. That, on its own, wasn't surprising. He was significantly stronger, even if his smaller size leveled the playing fields slightly. What was shocking was seeing the gator futilely attempting to roll and not going anywhere. Even with the difference in their physical power, they could still normally yank free or at least drag him along with them, so why wasn't this one able to? Then, he rolled it.

Wait, no! That's not how this is supposed to work! I mentally objected at the absurd sight.

I watched as the swordsman tried and failed to lift the beast that had to have weighed at least half a ton. When that failed, he instead put it in a headlock and slammed it to the ground in the direction opposite the one it had been trying to roll in. It was no way near as impressive as the second tier invader who'd ripped the heart out of one directly, but it was still an uncomfortably inhuman display of strength.

Meanwhile, the Trentis weren't faring much better. One had been shot down before it could even get close, and while the other one had managed to sneak up on the apprentice alchemist, the moment it lunged at him with its new dagger, he swiftly produced some powder from his bag in a single motion and detonated a fireball in its face. It was a massacre.

So much for Knife Handling, huh? I guess that's my cue.

Even as the group cleaned up, I began rapidly preparing the second floor. It, much like the floor above it, didn't put up much of a fight. The scouts tore through the hallway and disposed of my boss on the other side in record time. It didn't make much sense to me. That was worrying, doubly so since they didn't immediately leave afterward. Instead, they spread out slightly, and their frontline fighter, Dan, removed his pack.

What are they up to now? Ugh, why can't they just go already?

It didn't take long for me to have my answer.

“Well, it's now or never, I guess,” Flur randomly said as Dan handed the moth girl a rope and his spear, “Wish me luck!”

Even as that happened, Lance took position below the shaft to the floor above. He bent his legs and put his hands together in a motion I remembered vividly.

No, they wouldn't, I thought in stunned disbelief at the sheer audacity of it.

I didn't want to believe it. I wanted to cling to denial, but with every passing second, it become more and more clear to me what was happening, and I didn't like it one bit.

You've got to be kidding me. There's no other explanation. Why?

Any last vestiges of hope I may have been clinging to vanished the moment Flur rushed forward.

What am I doing just watching? Argh! Adraugon, get ready up there! We have incoming. Vie, Pee, I need you at the shaft, now!

Even as I shouted out the order, the insectinoid girl jumped onto her friend's hands and let him boost her up into the shaft. From there, a similar scene to the last time they'd tried this played out, but this time, without the initial shock of what was to come and since I only had one of the rolling boulder traps currently set up, it went far smoother for them, even with the changes I'd made to prevent further attempts.

I'd removed the holes she'd used to hide in last time. So what? She just pressed off of the boulder falling on her and sprang from it on its way down, narrowly but effectively avoiding being crushed.

I'd coated the shaft with a slippery moss. So what? Once she'd climbed her way back into it, she completely ignored the stuff, instead planting her feet into one wall and stabbing the spear she'd borrowed into the other. Like that, she slowly scaled her way up.

I'd alerted Adraugon ahead of time. So what!? She put on a burst of speed and dodged his midair assault in an acrobatic maneuver that frankly shouldn't have been possible. Then, she pulled out a potion and chucked it at the wall above them. It burst open, and wind exploded forth, sending both her and the miniature dragon soaring to the ground below.

Just like that, we'd lost the initiative. Adraugon was grounded at the bottom of the shaft, barely having slowed his decent enough to have landed smoothly. The five adventurers were collapsing in on him, and he was out of range of his hoard. As for Vie and Pee, they were on their way, but there were going to be a long, few, precious moments before their arrival. Things had gone wrong fast.

Hey, Archie, I directed my thoughts to my alchemist, I'm going to need you at the shaft with potions. We've got uninvited guests.

Then, with only a moment of hesitation, I began making use of the DP these persistent thorns in my side had just freed up. They wanted to test my patience and push my boundaries? Fine. I had nearly three hundred DP, plenty of mana, and few ideas I'd been waiting to test out. I'd make this a learning experience for them and myself both.

Loot, in the wall of my Core Room, I've got something I've been saving for a rainy day. Fetch it for me, will you? Prism, help. It's probably a bit big for her to carry on her own.