Chapter 13

Pan instantly refocused his attention on the entrance to his dungeon. A small group of people were stepping through his doorway, but this party was quite different than the usual parties he encountered. They looked to be D ranked adventurers, but they felt much stronger, and Pan was having trouble getting an exact read on their levels. Even his spy flies had mixed results when identifying them. Every time his spies tried to discern their levels, they would get a level in the low teens, the average for people of the D rank. What was disconcerting was that each fly read a different level for the same person. Something was blocking him from seeing their level, and that worried Pan.

The group slowly worked their way through the first floor, avoiding other groups, and easily killing everything in their way. Pan was certain this group was much stronger than the D ranked group they appeared to be, and sure enough, they proved his suspicions correct.

Once they had worked their way past the other groups, far ahead of where most D ranked parties turned back, they stopped. The leader, a large man who liked to lead from the front with a large greatsword, called a halt. The party gathered around him, seeming to know what was going on. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the man started to produce gear way outside the scope of anything a D rank adventurer could get their hands on, and even the average C rankers. Pan was shocked to see the man had a spacial ring, an absurdly expensive storage device that was nearly undetectable, and could store cubic feet of items. This seemed to be a particularly large one, since it contained an entire parties gear.

When they changed into their new gear, Pan was finally able to successfully identify them. They were all over level thirty, with the highest being their leader at thirty-five. They were obviously very highly skilled C rank adventurers, nearing the level forty they needed to test for B rank. B rank was much like D rank, you needed to reach a certain level to test for it, D being level ten, and B being forty. To reach C and A ranks, adventurers needed to show sufficient mastery of a combat skill, or have some other unique skill that would allow them to pass to the next rank. For C, an adventurer needed to have reached the adept rank of their main skill, which was at level fifty, and unlocked the advancement tree for the skill. To reach A rank, the adventurer needed to achieve master rank, at level one hundred in the skill.

This party was C ranked, and they had been hiding their strength through some kind of enchanted items. Pan was wary of any group that concealed their strength, since they obviously weren’t hiding it from him, but from the guild controlling access to his dungeon. He often had C ranked parties test his dungeon, but never any as strong as this group. And this group was up to something.

When they finished equipping their gear, the leader barked an order for them to form up and complete their assignment. Unfortunately for Pan, he did not overhear what the assignment was, so he had no idea what to watch out for. But this whole situation was putting him on edge, and he nervously called for his strongest monsters to ready themselves for a fight. He watched the group go on to easily crush everything in front of them on the first floor, and even one shot the stone centipede guarding the second floor.

They showed no fear as they descended to the second floor, laughing about how easy their mission had been, and joking around with each other, even when under attack. They were treating a walk through Pan’s dungeon as if it was a walk through the woods, showing no fear whatsoever. Pan was growing angry at their display of nonchalance, even as the seeds of worry took root in his mind. How dare these impetuous adventurers mock him in this way. Even the other C ranked groups showed some care when traversing his caves. But he was still worried, since there was a reason people this strong came to his dungeon, and not having any inkling of their motives was worrying.

However, when he discovered their reason for being here, a spike of fear drove into his mind.

“Hey, can we hurry this up and grab the core? I want to get out of this shitty town and find somewhere to spend all of the money our guild promised us,” one of the group called out to their leader. The large warrior, who now carried a much higher quality greatsword, just gave the man a scathing look. But Pan had heard enough.

This group was out for his core, and were members of a hostile guild. They probably intended to bankrupt whichever guild set up the city around his dungeon, and maybe, if lucky, claim a dungeon core for their own. When a dungeon core was removed, if undamaged, there was a good chance it could survive, and be moved somewhere else. This was the opening salvo in a guild war, and they intended to cripple the local guild with their first strike. This group needed to die. At least the local guild thought they were a D ranked group, so their disappearance wouldn’t come as a surprise. Their patron guild wouldn’t be able to say anything either, since attacking a valuable dungeon would upset the king. No, this group was trying to capture and move his dungeon to their control, and if they controlled the dungeon, the king would have no choice but to allow them to hold the valuable resource.

Luckily, the group had descended to the second floor, instead of heading to the first-floor cavern where his core currently resided, but Pan needed a way to keep them on the second floor permanently, and preferably dead. He called for Adul, and impressed the importance of this group's death upon him. The group had a warrior, a healer, a fire mage, and an archer. Pan wanted Adul to target the healer and the mage first, since, without them, the group would be at a severe disadvantage. He needed to be smart in how he dealt with this group, they wouldn't expect any tactics from a low-level dungeon. For the first time since facing the necromancer, Pan felt that he was truly fighting for his life.

Adul had been commanded by his creator to kill a particularly nasty group of intruders. These ones wanted to directly harm his creator, instead of simply trying to strengthen themselves. He had orders to take out the physically weak ones in the back of the formation, since without their support the group would lose in a war of attrition. Adul had been designed to fight a war of attrition, and even his namesake defeated a superior enemy in that manner. He had been created to protect his creator from threats such as this, since he would rarely be allowed to leave his home at the cavern's exit to engage regular groups.

He set off in the direction of the cavern entrance that they would most likely enter through. He waited in the trees outside, dissolving into the shadows, undetectable. Sure enough, a half hour later, the group emerged. Adul could feel the strength of the group, and he knew there was no way he could take them in a straight up battle. Luckily, for Adul anyway, he had no plans to fight them fairly. They threatened his creator, their lives were forfeit, even more so than the common rabble who challenged his master in pursuit of strength and wealth. He was the floor guardian, so he only fought those who wanted to fight him, but by planning to attack his creator, their presence in the dungeon was enough to constitute an attack on him. He was glad he finally got to fight without his creator's arbitrary restrictions of only fighting those who looked for a fight with him.

He observed the group as they walked into the jungle, seemingly without care or fear. He could understand their lack of fear, since they had been much stronger than anything they would have faced so far. But the cavern was different. The cavern belonged to Adul and his comrades. They would be a challenge for this group, and it was not clear who the victor would be. He only needed to complete his task. Even if he died, there were others strong enough to defend the creator if he killed his target.

He waited for the group to get deeper into the jungle, streaming through the shadows above and behind them. His powers allowed him to rapidly traverse through the shadows, unseen and unheard. He waited for them to reach an ambush point that gave him the best chance for a successful attack. It was a particularly narrow strip of the path, and the foliage around it was dense, forcing them to walk single file. Adul was disappointed to see them line up in a way that the his target was not in the rear. It didn’t matter, his plans wouldn’t always go exactly according to plan, and his adaptability was one of his strongest traits.

When the group passed through the narrow patch, their formation fell apart, and became strung out. They were still on guard, since they were experienced adventurers, but they were a little more relaxed than they should be. That was when Adul made his move. The party was completely unprepared for an enemy like him. Stealthy, quick, and intelligent, he was able to launch an attack in a manner they had not expected. Silently, he sprung from the boughs of a tree next to the path, colliding with the healer and knocking the frail looking man to the ground.

The group's experience showed, since they almost immediately responded to the attack, but not quick enough. Before the group could answer his attack, he took the downed man in his jaws and sprinted away as fast as he could carry the unconscious man. A stream of fire followed him, and an arrow whistled past his head, but he was already too far away by the time they were able to respond. He had taken the primary target without taking any damage, but now the group would be on high alert, and all subsequent attacks would be much more difficult.

He took his prize to a large tree a few minutes run from the group. There he delivered the killing strike, a bite to the skull and a violent shake of his head to break the man’s neck. He stored the body high up in the branches of the tree, and returned to trailing the party. He was forced to stalk them at a greater distance now, since they were alerted to his presence, but he was still closer to the group than they expected, due to his magical abilities. The group was talking in hushed tones, and looking about rapidly. He watched them from the shadows above, remaining unseen.

He knew that any more attacks had a high likelihood of ending with his death, but as a named monster he would come back later. He was willing to do anything to protect his creator, who had allowed him to overcome death. The group was now quickly moving forward, trying to accomplish their objective as quickly as possible, since their healer was down, but had no idea that every step they took brought them even further away from their goal.

Adul dropped to the ground for the next part of his plan. He sent a mental message to his creator, asking him for a favor. His creator accepted. He slunk through the undergrowth next to the group, and flanking them. Once he was in position, he sent the signal to his creator. Then, from deep in the jungle, but still disturbingly close, came a roar from one of his comrades. It had the desired effect, and the group all startled and quickly spun to face the new threat. Leaping from his hiding spot, Adul targeted the mage.

He must have made some noise during his leap, since the archer started spinning towards him while drawing an arrow, but he was too late. Adul’s teeth had already sunk into the mage's shoulder, and his claws were tearing his back into ribbons. The man started to fall forward from the enormous weight of the cat crashing into his back, but as he fell, Adul dug his rear claws into the man's back, and used him as a launching point for his next leap. Before the archer had even turned around, and as the mage was beginning his scream of pain, Adul pushed off the body, flinging it into the heavily armored warrior. He used the force to redirect himself, and he was pivoting to return to the foliage.

But he was too slow. The warrior stumbled from his collision with the dying mage, but the archer had just enough time to lose one of his arrows. In a stroke of bad luck, it dug into Adul’s massive chest from behind, puncturing one of his lungs. He made it to the safety of the foliage, but he was severely wounded. He could feel the compromised lung collapsing, and his breathing was labored. But he pushed on, even if he died, he would come back. So why would he let a simple injury stop him?

He snuck back around to the path, the archer watched over the warrior as he tried to patch up the mage, but even healing potions were unable to fight against the traumatic bleeding. The warrior sighed and shook his head, seeming to know that the mage was done for. This little action momentarily distracted the archer, and Adul pounced again. This time, he aimed for the massive warrior, since he would be the hardest for his brothers to fight if he fell. He didn’t aim for the man, instead, he attacked his shadow. His claws shredded the man’s shadow, even as another arrow drove itself into his shoulder, and then his rear leg.

The man screamed, as his vitality was attacked. Without their healer, they had no way to dispel the wither status effect, and although the health draining would only last a few seconds, he would need magic to restore his vitality stat back to its full value. The man used his pain to drive a powerful overhead slash, but to a creature as quick as Adul, the man may as well have been underwater. Unfortunately, Adul’s injuries made themselves known, and as he tried to lead away, the rear leg with an arrow driven through it gave out, and the sword grazed his size, digging a long deep furrow into his flesh.

He howled in pain, the first noise he had made in combat, before it was cut off by another arrow to his chest, piercing his other lung, as well as nicking his heart. He felt the wound, and knew it was fatal, but he refused to die yet. He dove back into the fray, knowing he had only seconds to live, but to one such as him, high on the adrenaline of battle, those few seconds may as well have been a minute. With a powerful surge, he tackled the armored man, and his claws dug trenches through his muscle and armor. It wasn’t fatal, but would be crippling. With a surprising show of strength, the man threw him off, and Adul tumbled to the ground, the final remnants of strength draining from his body with each pump of his ruined heart. As the world faded to black, he saw the man’s sword come down to claim his head, and for the first time, Adul died.

Pan was very pleased with Adul’s performance. In all honesty, he had only expected him to get the healer, since he would only get the element of surprise once. But having another of the massive cats distract the group was brilliant, and Adul’s tactical thinking may have saved the day. Pan was confident in his ability to take the final two members, and he was growing excited at the thought of the loot he could get from them. He had already seen many pieces of rare equipment that he would love to dismantle and experiment with. But he was getting ahead of himself, he still needed to finish these invaders off.

Now that they had lost all of their magical support, it would be easy to overwhelm them with numbers, but he had no desire to lose too much of his carefully maintained populations. The fire mage had really pissed him off when his large gouts of fire had fried large swaths of his jungle ecosystems. He had had to make artificial rain to smother the fires before they spread to his whole cave. At least the two remaining adventurers couldn’t cause too much destruction.

He called for some of the other jungle cats to finish off the rest of the group. Four were able to reach them within a minute, just as the survivors were finishing off their health potions and bandaging their wounds. Pan was pleased to see that the large warrior had no way of removing his affliction, and remained weakened. The large cats stalked through the undergrowth, and across the large branched of the canopy, preparing to finish off these arrogant invaders. These two had incurred the full force of Pan’s wrath, and he did not at all feel inclined to let them live even a moment longer.

However, the regular cats did not have Adul’s abilities, and the archer seemed to pick up on their presence. He cast furtive glances all over, and nocked an arrow, but didn't seem to have noticed any of the cats. Suddenly, with a rapid motion, nearly rivaling the cats in speed, he drew back his string and let an arrow fly up into the canopy. He was rewarded with an angry yowl, and a cat fell from the tree, nearly sixty feet up. It hit the ground hard, but its powerful body survived the fall, although it was unlikely it would survive for more than a few hours. The archer, not taking any chances, pierced it eye with another arrow, killing it instantly.

“Careful, I can still feel more,” he warned his companion.

The warrior nodded in understanding, and cast his gaze around the forest, seeking out his hunters. The archer looked to the trees again, anticipating another attack from above. He drew back another arrow, but did not let it lose, the other cat in the canopy had learned from the mistakes of his brother, and remained hidden from the archer's view.

He unintentionally released the arrow when an unseen hunter burst from the underbrush next to him and bowled him over, ready to deliver a killing blow to his throat. Before the cat’s jaws could tear out his neck, the warrior stepped in, and with a mighty slash, cleaved the cat nearly in two, taking its head off in the process. The man continued with the momentum of his swing, turning to intercept the cat the had leaped for him while he was distracted by the first, meeting its claws with his blade mid-leap. Much to his surprise, he did not slice clean through the claws and pierce the body of the cat, instead, his blade was stopped by its claws, and the cat was deflected away from him. The strength of the blow flung the cat away, and it hit the ground hard, but instantly rolled to its feet, growling in challenge.

The man was all too happy to oblige the beast, and roared his acceptance, but before he had taken two steps towards the cat, an arrow flew past him and drove into its chest. It hissed in pain, and likely would die soon, but it charged him anyway, catching him by surprise. He had never run into animals before that were so willing to shrug off mortal wounds and die fighting. The familiar shaped of the animals had made him forget that at heart, these creatures were dungeon monsters.

He met its charge, and his sword tore through its body, removing its front leg, but its jaws managed to get ahold of his arm. It punctured his armor, and its rear legs came up and tore against his abdomen in an attempt to eviscerate him. Luckily, his armor was still strong enough to resist that attack , even as his arm and shoulder were brutally maimed by its teeth. He released his sword, drawing a dagger from his belt. He drove the dagger into the beast's head, stopping its violent thrashing. He watched as it died, and its heart stopped pumping blood out of the wound in its chest.

He turned around as he heard a scream behind him, and saw the archer being mauled by another of the massive cats. With a mighty surge, he tore the dagger from the head of the beast still clamped to his arm, and threw it towards the attacking monster. His aim was true, and it sank point first into the beast's chest, straight through its heart. It died quickly, and unlike the other cats, was unable to muster up enough strength for one more attack. The archer quickly got to his feet, looking for more of the cats, but it seemed like that was all of them. His back was torn to shreds, and the warrior wondered if he would even be able to draw his bow.

He took two glowing red potions from the spacial ring, and tossed one to the archer. The archer drank it immediately, and groaned as his back knit itself back together. To the warrior, it looked like a writhing mass of maggots spreading across his friends back. He stopped looking, and pried the jaws of the beast attached to his arm apart, releasing his crippled arm. He quaffed his potion, and the muscles pulled back together, almost hurting as bad as the original injury. Unfortunately, his tendons and ligaments didn't heal as completely as the muscle, and his arm was greatly weakened, and painful to move.

“Come on, we still need to complete our assignment,” he called to the archer.

“By now we have to have killed the best it could throw at us, you saw how much weaker these ones were than that massive one.”

“Yeah, but there’s no time for looting, we need to get out of here as quickly as possible, before it tries to overwhelm us.”

The archer looked disappointed at the prospect of not looting the enemies, but nodded in assent to the warrior. He could see the wisdom of getting out of this dungeon as fast as possible. Already they had been met with more surprises than they had expected. Losing party members was hard, but they needed to get out, before this cursed dungeon claimed their lives too.

Dungeon Menu

Level: 10

Type: Sentient Dungeon

Name: N/A

Titles: N/A

Mana: 12,721/25,000 (+1000)

Rooms: 122

Floors: 2

Animals: 100,000+

Plants: 100,000+

Monsters: 7,611

Skills: [Dungeon Menu], [Dungeon Manipulation], [Dungeon Absorption], [Dungeon Creation: Level 12], [Dungeon Expansion], [Dungeon Summon], [Targeted Evolution], [Monster Imbuement], [Dungeon Map], [Name Bestowal], [Drop Assignment], [Floor Creation], [Environmental Manipulation], [Alchemy: Lvl 15]

Dungeon Points: 715

Achievements: Evolver, Legend Slayer, Boundless