Chapter 11

George led his team through the dungeon. Today they would challenge the first-floor boss, so they had secured the first place in line. They had easily pushed through the first few rooms and their dark ant guardians. His D ranked team had no trouble with the little pests, and he knew that soon they would all be able to challenge for C rank. The party was ready, and only needed the guild to sign off on the promotion, and give them their advancement quest.

They hoped to make a name for themselves in the new dungeon, and had eagerly signed up to guard the developing city, especially since the guildmaster promised to consider them for promotion when he arrived. Their party consisted of five people, a mage, a healer, two warriors, and an archer. George was the main tank for the group, and his brother, Ronald, was a damage focused warrior who had fought by his side for years. Together they formed the front line, and the mage and healer supported them with spells and buffs. The rogue spotted traps, and his arrows took out any monsters attempting to flank the party.

They were a well-oiled machine, and the single dungeon floor was an easy obstacle for them to overcome. They had already killed the boss a few times, and with their relentless drilling, they had no fear for anything in the dungeon. Today, they had called in a favor or two to cut to the front of the line, and would head straight to the boss room. Its armor sold well to an alchemist, and stoneskin potions were plentiful in the growing city.

After clearing the twenty-eight rooms that made the shortest path to the boss room, they took a quick rest to recover their stamina and prepare for the boss fight. None of them expected it to be difficult, but it would still be prudent to be at their best. They had practiced enough that they could clear the dungeon in two hours, and they wanted to enter the dungeon first so they could clear it quickly with nobody slowing them down, and relax for the remainder of the day.

When they were ready, the party surged into the room, the mage leading with a beam of light magic, blinding and dazing the boss. George stunned it with a shield bash, and his brother’s sledgehammer pulverized the beast’s armor. It wriggled in agony, and tried to attack. Its rear half had been obliterated, and it was stuck to the ground, even as the still living front half scrambled against the ground in an attempt to attack George. Seeing it was immobilized, they all stepped back, and a few arrows slipped through its armor, finishing it off quickly.

There were smiles all around as they collected the parts, and the silver coin from the chest. They were definitely overpaid for the fight, a silver coin would cover the group’s expenses for a month. When they left the room to head back to the beginning, they noticed another hall, next to the one returning to the exit.

“Hey guys, did you hear about a new floor?” The mage questioned.

After a round of denials, the group decided to investigate, anything new would earn them a premium from the guild. They descended the surprisingly long staircase, and at the bottom, they saw why it was so long. If their first view of the incredibly lush dungeon had surprised them, this new floor left them in shock.

They had entered a room that was nearly a hundred feet across, and massive trees hugged the walls, creating a second ceiling below the sun globes on the cave's roof. The trees were nearly sixty feet tall, and even had a few of the glowing pods hanging from their branches amongst the vines. The moisture in the air left a thin mist, limiting their vision to about one hundred feet. The refracted lights from the glowing plants played tricks on their eyes, and every inch of the caves seemed to be lit up by strange luminescent plants. The first floor had just the hanging bulbs, and although this floor had them as well, there were many more types of glowing plants, as well as a few insects. The entire scene looked like some surreal painting, and the ambiance of tropical aromas and chittering insects and birds made the cave seem like a jungle paradise. George half expected fairies to be flying around the beautiful light display.

After the group had cleared their minds, and escaped the trance the dreamlike scenery had put them in, they went on guard. They had no idea what kind of monsters called this place home, but they were sure it would be new. If the pattern continued, they expected some more massive bugs, with bad tempers, and the distracting environment put them on edge. They pushed through the room, towards one of the smaller tunnels leading to the next room. Only it wasn't a small tunnel, but a forty foot tall crevice wide enough for them to walk two abreast.

They were startled a few times by incredibly quick rabbits bolting through the underbrush away from them, and even their archer missed one when it ran across the path. He mumbled something about the fast little bugger surprising him, and retrieved his arrow. The group was growing anxious, since they had not seen anything they could classify as a monster yet, and the suspense was making them nervous.

Just before reaching the crevice, they were attacked. Their relief was evident, as they swung into action. A small lithe fox was batted out of the air when it leapt for George’s face. Its chest was crushed by the massive warhammer, and it tumbled across the ground, before coming to a stop in a pitiful wheezing mess. An arrow ended its pain, and the group went to investigate.

It was larger than a normal fox, and its fur was a deep brown with black stripes. It was surprisingly soft for how sleek it’s fur looked, but it wouldn’t win any contests. It would still be valuable, and its skin was tougher than average. There would be plenty of low leveled adventurers wearing armor made from these monsters. They collected the carcass and forged ahead.

In the next room, two of the little monsters attacked them, and they were vicious. They were unbelievably fast, and their little needle teeth hurt. These ones never jumped for them, and it was much harder to hit them when they stayed on the ground. Their archer was almost useless, and he was the fasted among the group. It came down to George getting a lucky shot while tanking one, and their mage casting an area spell in his frustration. Their healer had to heal himself a few times, since the little bastards ran right through their lines and sunk their teeth into his ankles. It was a very annoying fight, but by the end of the ordeal, they had gotten much better at fighting them.

After three more rooms, the group's familiarity with each other and relentless drilling began to shine through, and they managed to face three of them without taking a scratch. When they faced four in the next room, they took some damage again, and were all in agreement that the foxes were quite a pain in the ass, despite the ample rewards for clearing each room. They continued on, and cleared twelve more rooms, getting up to ten foxes per room. At that point, they had trouble, and needed frequent healing breaks. They only continued because they were getting a silver coin in the room with ten foxes. When they cleared the thirteenth room, there was a much larger exit crevice.

“Do you think it’s the boss room?” The healer asked.

“It most likely is, boss rooms always have something different about them,” George responded.

They received their second shock of the day when they exited the crevice and found themselves in an enormous cavern. The walls curved away from them, and they couldn't see more than sixty feet through the mists and trees. There were a few paths through the underbrush, and they picked one to follow. There was a greater variety of plants in the room, every one of them oversized. From mushrooms over two feet tall, to flowers the size of a man’s chest, the cavern was a testament to the power of a mana dense environment.

The only thing missing was monsters, and they hadn’t been attacked by a single fox since stepping into the room. When they had walked about a quarter mile, something changed. The atmosphere grew heavy, and they all felt nervous. The archer broke into a sweat, and his eyes darted around.

“Guys, my danger sense is warning me,” he told the group, referring to his skill that allowed him to detect hostile intent.

“Bloody hell Mer, I don’t need a fancy fucking skill to tell that something is wrong,” the healer shot back.

George admonished them for bickering in a dangerous situation, a common occurrence between the archer and the healer, who was more of a rogue than the archer. How they managed to find such an uncouth healer was beyond him, but he was skilled, and a good friend to boot. The whole group was on edge, and the atmosphere was tense, something was stalking them, and they didn’t like it. They backed against a tree, George and his brother guarding the weaker support members.

The massive black cat stalked through the humid forest he called home. There were intruders around, and he could feel his creator willing it to sink his fangs into them, especially the robed one in the back. He was confused, since there were two robed men, but he picked a target, and hoped it was the correct one.

The foolish prey had backed around a large tree, seemingly unaware that trees were his preferred environment. He slunk across a couple branches, and launched himself through the air, landing silently on the tree they clustered around. He crept down, careful not to knock any bark loose, and circled around to the opposite side of the tree from the prey. When he was twenty feet above the ground, he returned to the other side, directly above the group. When he was in position, he let go, and dropped towards the unsuspecting group without a sound.

George heard a muffled thump behind him, and spun around as their mage squealed in surprise. What greeted his eyes was something that would haunt his dreams for the rest of his life, if he survived. A massive black cat had crushed their healer, and was tearing into his corpse. With a roar, George and his brother attacked, barely scoring a glancing blow when the cat twisted and avoided the blows, without moving from its spot. It counterattacked against his brother, and its massive claws gouged huge ribbons of flesh and armor out of his chest.

Both George and his brother screamed, one in rage and one in pain, but before George could attack, the cat was gone. He twisted to follow the black blur leaving his field of view, and got around just in time to see an arrow sink into its shoulder. Their archer had ran back to gain some distance, and had managed to score a hit. But at a cost. The cat nearly flew across the clearing, and pounced on the archer as he drew his dagger. It savaged his throat with its massive fangs, and its rear claws eviscerated his abdomen, even as he sunk its dagger into the beast’s chest.

The pain made it yowl, and it tore his throat out in anger, before turning back to the two warriors. And just the two warriors. The cowardly mage had bolted, as expected of the elitist light mage. He had never fully fit into the group, and George was more disappointed than surprised. He looked to his gravely wounded brother and nodded. It was their time, and they would go out fighting together. His only hope was that the mage ran into another monster like this one.

With a roar, he charged the massive feline with his brother. The cat paused for a second, looking between the two, and made a choice. It leapt for his brother, dagger still embedded in its chest. His brother timed his swing perfectly, but couldn’t have anticipated the sheer agility of the beast, even wounded. In the middle of its leap, it twisted in the air, and the hammer only grazed its forearm, instead of splitting its skull. It continued on its trajectory, and slammed into the warrior, knocking him to the ground. Instead of finishing the man, it twisted, and used his body as a springboard for its next leap, digging its claws into his chest as it did so.

It sprung for George, as he was turning to intercept it. He caught it on his shield, but it hooked its claws into the piece of steel, dragging his arm down as the cat fell. It landed on its back, and lashed out with its rear claws, digging into George’s shins. The claws tore through his armor like paper, and he started going down on top of the cat. Its claws found purchase higher up his body, and it dug into his groin, eliciting a massive scream from George, even as he collapsed on top of it, sword first. It howled in pain, digging its claws in deeper, pushing hard, and tossing him away.

He was bleeding massively from his shredded groin, and he knew his femoral arteries had been torn as well. He tried to do something, anything, but he was too weak, and the loss of blood was taking his consciousness away. Just as the hobbled cat limped to his broken body, his vision narrowed, and the world faded to silence. He breathed out one last time, and the world faded to black.

The mage was running through the forest, hopelessly lost. When that massive cat had tore into the healer, he had bolted before he knew what he was doing. He had been running for minutes, and his breathing was growing ragged, his stamina nearly depleted. He stopped in a clearing to catch his breath, and turned to look behind him. Thankfully he hadn’t been followed by that beast.

He turned back to the clearing, and had no idea who was more startled, him or the deer that had been grazing there. They didn’t look threatening, although a male was stomping and waving its antlers at him. It was no matter, it was fifty feet away, and he had hunted deer before, this was obviously its attempt at a bluff to scare him away. He scoffed at the pitiful animal, and cast a weak light spell in its direction, hoping to drive it away. He really wanted to be left alone, and those obvious prey animals might attract the attention of another massive cat.

What he wasn't prepared for was its reaction to his spell. It snorted in anger, and bunched its rear legs up under its body, like a coiled spring. It pushed off, and in less than a quarter second it had crossed the fifty feet between them, antlers first. He couldn't even get out a strangled cry before the noise was cut short. He was impaled on the antlers of the incredibly fast deer, and the momentum of its charge crushed his ribcage and vital organs. It carried him a dozen feet from that initial charge, before shaking the corpse off of its impressive rack of antlers.

Ivar, who was acting as the temporary guildmaster for the developing city was listening to reports of a new floor, as well as the missing D ranked party. It was their best D ranked party, and initial scouting of the floor had found no sign of them. It was concerning, but expected. It was, however, unfortunate that a rare light mage had died as well, but if they had died, it meant they had gotten overconfident, and bitten off more than they could chew.

The preliminary reports told him that the floor was split into two distinct sections, with the first being a reasonable challenge for D ranked adventurers, and the second giving all of the scouts a bad feeling. It was reported to be a massive cavern, but they had all turned and left, saying it was a dangerous place. Ivar assumed the cocky party had gotten ahead of themselves and pushed into the area anyway, despite the feeling of danger it gave.

The new floor was interesting, however, and it seemed to be a very lucrative place to hunt. Some rooms rewarded adventurers with an entire silver coin, and the pelts of the fox creatures would make decent armor for a beginner D rank. He hoped that the second half would prove to be just as rewarding, since this dungeon had been so profitable so far. Already word was spreading of a valuable dungeon, and reports came of hordes of adventurers, not just from his guild, setting out to strike it rich.

He hoped he had enough of the infrastructure completed to support the influx of people, and he sent out an order to prioritize completing the fort, as well as the fortifications around the plateau. The guild would receive part of the dungeon entrance taxes, and getting the proper protocols in place was a top priority. He only hoped they could keep horde of enterprising adventurers at bay, not to mention the rival guilds or greedy nobles hoping to take a slice of their pie. Already a few pushy nobles had tried to “buy” the land from Peter, but with the guild’s support they had backed down.

Ivar sighed. He had a lot of work ahead of him. He needed to protect the dungeon, and the guild's interests. He really wished he could tell the rival guilds and greedy nobles to shove off, but the guild had insisted that he be diplomatic, so he would be. But if shit hit the fan, even a retired A ranked adventurer like him had a few tricks up his sleeves.