Victor PoV

Bahahaha i knew things would get interesting by following him.

Now I’m getting to join a high level dungeon raid with real monsters. Not only that I’m even allowed to make this little blast turtle into an armored vehicle.

Because the path that was being made by the earth golem was completely flat Techno revealed something that made me laugh.

The turtle’s bulky metal legs lifted it up and from below two sets of wheels appear form below. The legs were retracted. The wheels weren’t rubber but four really large gears one next to the other to make a single wheel and made of steel.

Like this the turtle would probably reach around 60 km/h like a slow car.

If something happens i will be able to retreat faster. I was told to keep the turtle safe. Since it was also our forge it was really important especially for them.

As we entered the dungeon the road but a bit more bumpy.

I wanted to get at the minerals in here. This whale was one big massive deposit of ores. We just need to separate the veins.

When the light from the outside started to fade, the lights from the clockworks eyes started to light the way. I pulled out two lamps and stuck them into the suits auxiliary entrances for gadgets. The lights lit everything in front of us. We it...kind of was a bad idea i think.

As soon as the lights came on we heard the screeching.

It was deafening but when we looked up we saw what it was. The roof was covered in hundreds of bats. Huge bastards about the size of a person.

When i scanned it i saw the info. Black Cave Bat. How the fuck is this considered a bat.

Wait, considering every flying monster could come up from below this thing is probably the result of the mutations. Fuck.

Techno: ”Fire! Kill as many as we can quickly before they come down.”

I see Asura Techno lift the middle and back pair of arms up.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

From the one the back i saw three grenades each arm. The go all over the place. As soon as they are near the room all hell breaks loose.

BOOM~~! BOOM~~! BOOM~~! BOOM~~! BOOM~~! BOOM~~!

The new grenades can’t but impress us by the power. Made from real black powder their power was second to only to the real world on.

Some twenty bats fell down from receiving the blast straight to the face.

The others began to let go of the ceiling.

I lifted the minigun to aim up and simply let loose. All of us did.

DARARARARARARARA~~~~~!!!

All the miniguns or automatic rifles were unloaded on the bats. The ones closes began dropping like flies and those behind were injured.

It was then that i felt dizzy.

I was hearing a really high pitched sound from above.

Victor: ‘They….Use sonic….attacks.’

The others didn’t hear me no one besides Brock who was in a similar situation like to me.

Damn, those clockworks must have turned off their hearing to block out any possible sonic attacks. Damn cheat race.

I will myself up through the nausea and start to fire at the ones i think are sending the fucking noise our way. I see Brock lift his right fist and punch the ground.

The next moment the ceiling was covered in spikes which then began shoot down earth spikes.

The damned noise stops but is replaced with screams of pain. I saw the golem was breathing heavily. Must have taken a hell of a lot of MP for that attack. Still because of it we got a great opening to those near the top. The girl was doing the most damage like i had thought would happen. She was on the protector robot jumping up the walls while shooting her semi auto rifles on her arm and the protector who was mimicking her was firing off the miniguns on its arms.

Soon a swarm of nearly 200 fucked up bats were dead after they became desperate.

You party has killed a swarm of Black Cave Bats.

2 levels gained.

So these things were enough to get me 2 levels.

At level 32 now i was behind the others. They gained 2 levels as well. This place was a good grinding zone but the problem was ammo. We went from one to the next removing wings, fangs, hide, bones, and surviving bullets.

All were stored our inventory to see if they have use later. The bullets were mostly crushed from piercing the hard skins so we had to melt them again. I made ingots from the used bullets and left them ready. We had enough ammo to fight another swarm of these things. After that i would need about half an hour with techno to remake all the bullets.

With the lights already on and two also put on the back of the turtle we could watch our front and back now.

We continued for a bit before Brock called out.

Brock: ‘Hey guys, i feel something.’

Bulk: ‘Feel? What?’

Brock: ‘Vibrations. In the ground, it's a race skill which lets me feel for nearby creatures that are moving around and making enough vibrations. The creatures are coming this way and fast.’

We turned forwards and that’s when i heard it. Like some fast wheel rolling through.

Then from the bend up from it appeared. Spinning at high speeds a rock ball skillfully made the turn. Followed by it were 15 others.

Brock: ‘STAND BACK!’

He fell to his knees and hit his hands on the ground. A large ramp rose and the rocks flew into the air and slammed into the high ceiling before falling back down.

All of them fell and opened up. They were monsters armadillo like. Their shells were rocks but the inside animal. Without losing a chance Techno moved in and began shooting at the belly with his minigun and the two front arms which held rifles. Nova followed behind and I turned the turtle and started to fire as well.

They were the easiest monster we killed.

They also only filled my exp bar by 20% which meant they were weak.

Still, i guess it was because the golem stunned them by having them slam into the ceiling then drop down again to the ground. In any other case they would probably run us over like wild cars.

We break off the shells which i was dying to get my hands on. These things might make great alchemy ingredients to mix with scaled steel armor.

Like all other animals the claws and fangs were removed but after searching there wasn’t much else except the monster meat.

We get some since I need food. Brock can eat but he can survive off rocks as well.

We continue on and enter a large room. It had light coming in from several cracks in the ceiling and from one of them was small water fall which landed into a small pond which then ran down the room splitting it in two. The stream was small not even a meter long and shallow. The pond was about 3 meters in diameter and had clear water. All over the wall and floor around the pond and stream moss grew but where sunlight hit a few blades of grass or flowers appeared.

Techno: ”Not bad, this place looks like a resting spot. I bet anyone else would take too much damage from those two monster attacks and this room was made to rest in. Gather water so you can build up the used steam. Also fill the tanks we made so we can have surplus water.’

We did as he said. I moved the turtle near the water and jumped off. I did a bit of maintenance and then with a bucket i filled up the water tank inside the big shell.

While we repaired and filled up i took my time remaking the bullets and passing them around just to be safe. A drawn out battle will kill us so it’s better to be prepared.

With everything done we head on after making the turtle carefully walk over the stream.

Bulk PoV

This dungeon is rather interesting. It uses surprise attacks to kill its opponent. The monsters are higher level but are rather weak with obvious weaknesses. Bats have weak bodies which can easily be downed by explosives and shooting. Long range attacks seem to be the best but attacking from above works the best.

Armadillo’s would be really devastating if it wasn’t for the fact that they do a mad dash at us without care. Because of that it’s easy to stun them by sending them flying into the ceiling and having them fall down hard. Their bodies are heavy so it doesn’t help them.

We found lots of them but all of them ended the same. The armadillos we harvested since they come in smaller number. The leveling also seems slower than from the Beta. It might be a fix. We aren’t getting so much exp like we used to get even though we kill lots of monsters.

With 3 swarms of bats we only got 4 more levels. Nova and I reached level 42 already and Techno was 2 levels behind. Brock was at the same level as Techno and Victor was level 35.

It was clear that the experience needed for leveling was much higher than what we had before. We did fight some large creatures though before. The magma golem, we saved 4 races all of which the missions gave us some levels. Because of Gaia we had to do some Sky fishing which made a bit of an increase.

All in all, we never actually fought monsters our level.

For now we were returning to the base. We were going to sleep the night because monsters are stronger at night. That has been a solid rule in all games since who knows when.

On the way out we found a few monsters that spawned but not the full swarm. They died easily and we left. We casually walked through the path we made.

We weren’t in any hurry. We reach the ship at full night and find the area with several torches lighting up the area.

We entered the lowered hatch in the lowest deck and go to bed. Techno says he set himself and Nova to react to movement that isn’t from our party. I can log out and rest up.

Since it was noon already i log out and go eat and get stuff i needed done?

It was just basics but i still needed to wait a bit more than an hour and a half before returning or i would have to wait too much time.

When i returned the guys were waking up and we go back to the dungeon for the day. We gained another 4 levels. The experience was really small now for monsters so much more high level then us. I think there was something behind this. Maybe the more used to a monster we are the less experience we get. We hunted the entire day but go the same much of exp that we got from 3 hours of hunting from yesterday.

We leave in a somewhat sour mood since it had turned out like this. When i did say the theory the others seem to agree. In real life after you get used to something it gets less difficult no matter what it was before. The greatest amount of experience was from the first time done so after that it would give less and less.

I think it was so that we wouldn’t stay in one place. A system made to make people truly adventure the world and not stay in the safety of the few cities that were built.

As we were returned sour about the theory we were stopped by Brock on the way.

Brock: ‘Hey guys, someone is coming this way. It’s small and weak but it’s running on two legs and running desperately.’

Nova: ‘What is it?’

Brock: ‘Don’t know.’

Victor: ‘Let's get ready to shoot it.’

Victor arms his minigun and with Brock’s instruction we aimed at the spot it would come in from.

Soon we heard the bushes moving and the cracking of branches. When Brock made the path it also pushed the underbrush to the sides make a small wall of plants.

At once a small girl jumps through the bushes into the circle and freezes. She was breathing deeply from running.

I looked at her trying to understand what she was. She was a girl about 12 and was still developing but she already had developed leg muscles made for running and some build on the arms and abs. What threw me off though was that she had a thin coat of fur over her entire body. Over her belly the fur was white but on her back it was orange with black strips. On her back was a long tail and on her head was a set of cat ears.

Her fingernails were long and claw like and she had short sharp fangs in her mouth.

She looked at us slightly scared but then we heard a new noise from above.

She suddenly jumps and a ball of fire falls where she was. She lands just in front of both Techno’s and looks at him with tears building in her eyes.

Girl: ‘PLEASE!! SAVE ME’

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Armadillo

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120106094636/finalfantasy/images/6/61/FF4PSP_Armadillo.png

Black Cave Bats

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammeronline/images/0/0c/Giant_Bat_concept.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20080823142850

Female Tiger women (not this girl just model)

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/1/15776/1407704-tigra1300.jpg