The strange chirping roars and squawks of the various Dinosaurs in the plains filled the air. The Dino’s seemed to actively avoid going close to the forest and by extension the mountain beyond it. Leon and the Team gathered up at the edge of the forest when Leon stopped venturing farther ahead and let them catch up to him. There they gathered up in the branches of a large tree looking out over the plains.3

“Those things are massive. What are they called?” Lamia asked pointing to what Leon assumed had to be one of the bigger varieties of long necked Dinosaurs.

“We are out of range for my skill, so I can’t tell you exactly which species it is. But I know that its part of a group of animals referred to as Dinosaurs and most people just called the ones like those Long Necks… For obvious reasons.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a creature of that size that actually walked on land before.”

“Wait till you see the predators. Not as big as those, but far and above more dangerous than anything we’ve seen up to this point. We are going to need to be very careful from this point on. Also, we will probably need to start thinking about when we are going to leave. How long are we willing to extend this Delve?”

“I say we keep going until we’ve found the way down to the next floor. Once we’ve found the stairwell down, we can head back up and we will know how to get back more quickly. Then we can go to the next floor and do the same after a nice rest.” Cynthia interjected.

After a few minutes to get their bearings, the group headed directly west across the plains. Carefully making their way through the grass that rose above even Leon's head. There were areas where the grass was so dense that it was impossible to see even a few feet ahead, and other areas where it was sparse enough that normal visibility was about twenty feet. Of course, Leon’s spherical area of perception extended much farther than that at around 250 feet in every direction, and he was not alone in having perception skills. So, the group was only hindered a small amount.

The entire time they moved across the plains Leon kept up his stealth skills turned up to their max and watched the world around the team with as much attentiveness as he could muster. Even paying attention to what was happening below ground.

It was a surprise then when Leon spotted a creature only about forty feet away from them, it had managed to conceal itself until then, but the second that Leon spotted it he wondered how in the world he had missed it. It looked a lot like what Leon had always imagined a velociraptor would look like (At Least the ones portrayed in the movies) but when he used Identify on it he was treated to a bit of a prehistoric education.

Frenguellisaurus ischigualastensis (2nd Tier)

Frenguellisaurus ischigualastensis is a member of the Herrerasauridae family, a family of carnivorous basal saurischian dinosaurs. They are an early ancestor of both Theropods and sauropodomorphs. The many variants of Herrerasauridae branched in many directions due to their particularly robust genetic structures. Frenguellisaurus ischigualastensis stand between 6 and 9 feet tall at the shoulders and can reach up to about 20 feet long from the tip of the snout to the tip of the tail. Frenguellisaurus ischigualastensis is an ambush predator built for bursts of raw speed.

This specimen is only a few years old and is highly aggressive and territorial.

The second that Leon spotted the thing and identified it the creature lurched forward through the forty feet of space separating it from the group fast enough that he didn’t have time to react. The Frenguellisaurus ischigualastensis was suddenly on top of Cynthia with its massive jaws wrapped around her armored shoulder and bowling her over to the ground. One second it had been forty feet away, the next second it had Cynthia in its jaws, it was like it had teleported, but Leon hadn’t sensed any kind of mana being used. The thing had simply crossed the distance in an instant.

Fortunately, the Dino’s teeth were unable to pierce Cynthia’s armor deeply enough to cause a fatal injury and she had the wherewithal to grab a dagger from her belt and begin stabbing the shit out of its neck the instant she was knocked over. “Mother Fucker!” She screamed as she drove the dagger into its flesh, drawing a fountain of blood from the arteries in its neck. The dinosaur released Cynthia with a strange trilling noise as squawked in pain and confusion at not having succeeded in taking down its prey.

The second it broke away from Cynthia, Lamia hurled herself onto Cynthia sending waves of healing magic through her, while simultaneously both Leon and Far struck the dinosaur with ranged attack skills. Leon’s being a Horrific Missile and Far’s being her sword getting thrown with a skill of hers that sent the sword flying at near Mach speeds into her target. Leon’s Horrific Missile struck first with a resounding crack, followed by the meaty thump a sword being buried into the creature’s ribcage. The dinosaur flopped down dead on the spot from the massive trauma near instantly.

“How did it get past you?” Cynthia asked, blood marring her armor, both her own and the dinosaurs.

“Glad to see you are ok Cynthia.” Leon responded. Not entirely proud of the heart wrenching fear that had gripped him for a second when he’d seen the dinosaur taking his petite lover to the ground so violently. He wrapped her armored form in a hug quickly before setting her back down and getting to business, “I’m pretty sure it had a stealth skill that was strong enough that I didn’t notice it until it was very close. I used my Identify skill on it and it attacked in the same moment that I used the skill. That thing is an ambush predator and is designed for rapid bursts of speed. We got lucky that its teeth are not much longer. Otherwise, that could have been really bad.”

Everyone nodded at that. This had been their first real close call in the Dungeon. A few of the other Teams had reported near misses before from accidents and the like, but none of them had really seen the Dungeon throw something at them that was actually deadly yet. This was a wakeup call.

“Well, we just need to go slower from now on and you need to put everything you have into scanning for anything that could be using a stealth skill. Also, you might want to get out your creepy Centipede monsters to scout a bit for us and serve as meat shields a bit.” Daisy said

Leon had shown the girls his monster creations, it had been a necessity with living together. Leon refrained from bringing them out in the Dungeon because he was afraid that he could accidentally feed them to the Dungeon. And those things were scary. They’d crossed the threshold into Tier 2 already and had each developed skills related to the affinities that he’d given them. Lucifer the Imp had also developed into a Tier 2 with a skill that fired off what Leon thought of as a Hell Fire Bolt. Leon was a bit weary of the idea of feeding the dungeon anything that was actually a monster he’d designed. The ones that he’d made seemed like they would be inordinately dangerous in a Dungeon that was already well outside the norm in terms of its development.

“I’ll bring them out if things start to get really dangerous, but I don’t want to risk the Dungeon getting ahold of them just yet. They are not natural animals. They don’t fit in with ecosystems. The Dungeon has a theme of building solid ecosystems, and they would break that balance if it started making them. I don’t want to be the cause of an overflow that would release them into wild beyond the Dungeons confines.” He said gravely, “But I will be giving the Dungeon a few of the others that could probably fit in with the environments and screw with everything soon.”

“That sounds reasonable.” Daisy nodded sagely, “The Dungeon doesn’t need any fully invasive species yet that it can’t handle in its environments. But if comes down to it you’d better not hesitate to use them. I don’t want to die here for no reason.”

A brief discussion later and Team Terra was again on the move. Only this time they were moving much more slowly, and Leon was using every ounce of concentration he had to try and spot anything that might be hiding with the assistance of a skill.

They did not come across any more of the Herrerasaurids but they did run across several species of snake that they were already familiar with as they continued to move. Several kinds of bird circled overhead that were too far away for Leon to Identify and he was pretty sure he saw couple of pterodactyls soaring in the sky.

After a nearly two hours of travel through the tall grass Leon and the Team found themselves relieved when the grasses average height fell to just around waist height and they were all able see a good distance farther. Their relief was short lived because that was when they encountered a Dino that was not alone. It was big. And Leon had a little bit of a fanboy moment identifying it, but it also made him a bit weary.

Allosaurus Fragilis (2nd Tier)

The Allosaurus Fragilis was an apex predator of it time. This carnivorous Dinosaur hunts and operates in packs and have complex social interactions. They grow on average to be around 8 to 12 feet tall at the shoulder and 28 to 32 feet in length. Allosaurus do not have a natural limiter on their growth and will continually grow as they age until they reach a point where their size becomes detrimental, and they are no longer able to sustain themselves/ They generally range in body weight from around 1500 pounds to up to nearly 8000 pounds in the largest specimens.

This particular Specimen is Curious, Hungry, Territorial, and only three years old.

Team Terra was facing off against a pack of seventeen Allosaurus. The Dino’s in front of them ranged from barely bigger than the Herrerasaurids they’d already encountered, to nearly three times the things size. Within Seconds the Allosaurus’ had Team Terra surrounded. Lamia in the center of the group surrounded by Leon and the other three at cardinal points. This was a bad situation.

“Now might be a good time to bring out the creepy crawlies.” Daisy called out as she formed several balls of fire above her outstretched hands.

Leon grunted as he equipped a tower shield from his inventory along with a short sword. He had to admit that she was right. His centipedes had grown substantially and were even Tier 2 now. They were incredibly fast, strong, and resilient. Each one now was about four feet thick and nearly thirty feet long. With all ten of them deployed this fight would barely be a fight. Each of them could at least occupy one of the Allosaurus and give the Team time to take care of the problem.

Leon was still in the middle of contemplating the issue of using his monsters when the Allosaurus’ struck. Three of the massive lizards launching themselves at the group with lighting speed. Cynthia was the first to react, throwing up a Rock Wall directly in the path of one of the approaching dinosaurs. Farthallahn let out a battle cry as she activated a skill that made her suddenly start giving off a red aura as she brandished her sword and shield ready to intercept another. Leon took aim and launched a Horrific Missile into the third one that was charging, striking it square on nose.

The one that Leon hit fell to the side with a guttural cry, blood spraying everywhere as it staggered. The one that ran into the Rock Wall skill that Cynthia used had practically brained itself but was quick to recover, and Far found that the massive lizard had much more mass than she was prepared to deal with when it leapt on her outstretched shield and attempted to bite off her head while driving her to the ground. Fortunately, Far managed to get her sword into position and drove it through the roof of the Allosaurus’s mouth and into its brain cavity as the huge lizard brought its weight down her.

That seemed to be the que for the rest of the pack to attack. As one, the pack of Allosaurus rushed forward.

“Fuck it!” Leon shouted as he summoned up ten massive centipede monsters from his Utility Pocket. Leon did not need to directly control the monsters, they immediately moved into action rushing into the oncoming pack of Allosaurus with an aggression level that radiated off their bodies like an aura.

Even with ten of the Allosaurus pack occupied with massive centipedes that were quickly tearing into them, Team Terra still had to deal with the remaining six. Leon Quantum Blinked just as one Allosaurus attempted to bite his head off and landed on the offending creatures back. Driving his short sword into the base of its neck and severing the spinal cord.

As Leon was riding his suddenly limp attacker, he saw Daisy unleash a trio of fireballs that struck the face of one of the creatures facing her. The balls of fire exploded into a sticky flame enveloped the monster lizard as it screeched in pain. Cynthia was busy summoning up lances of stone that were turning her targets into pincushions. Far had managed to get out from under the first Allosaur that she had killed and was now speeding towards another one ready to deliver death on the edge of her blade.

Leon launched Horrific Missiles here and there, but the battle seemed like it wasn’t actually going to be all that hard. That was until Leon felt the ground shake and heard a roar that shook the world around him. The short battle they’d been having had drawn the attention of a true apex predator. Leon barely had time to register this fact before it entered his sphere of perception, and he threw out an Identify on it.

Epanterias (2nd Tier)

The Epanterias, or Allosaurus Epanterias, is the largest variant of the Allosaurus family of Theropods. Their bone structure is almost identical to their smaller cousins, and they share the same perpetual growth traits only faster. The main difference between it and its cousins is that it is a singular predator with an almost nonexistent social capability. The Epanterias is very fast for its size, has thicker hide and scales that contain webs of enamel that increase their physical resilience.

This specimen is twelve years old, currently enraged, and will attack any creature nearby.

The Epanterias was pretty much the same shape as the Allosaurus, but its scales were bulkier, and its coloration was a brilliant pink instead of the variety of greenish shades of its smaller cousins. The very first thing the massive creature did was pounce onto the back of the largest Allosaurus presently standing. It then proceeded to clamp its massive jaws around the base of its neck. The chaos that ensued was a mass of giant bodies rolling around with the five humanoids desperately trying to not be trampled. Four of Leon’s centipedes were crushed or otherwise killed. But the group managed to get through the chaos without being severely harmed.

At the end of the scuffle there were only three allosaurus left standing. The Epanterias slain by the pack but at a devastating loss to their own numbers. Team Terra did not give the three survivors time to recuperate. Attacking with a vengeance the second that they had an opening. The seven remaining centipede monsters ensuring that Team Terra had very little problem taking down the giant lizards. With the battle over Leon quickly gathered up all of the corpses but he pretty sure it was too late to keep the centipedes from the dungeon. Hopefully whatever intelligence was behind the Dungeon’s development would understand that it should not be using these creatures any time soon. And if it did use them, it should at least ensure that they were sterile.

After collecting the remains of the battle Leon quickly spotted a treasure chest and used instant harvest on it. This was accompanied with a sudden burst of knowledge flooding his brain along with a mental list of everything that had been deposited in his Utility Pocket. The group could already hear another group of large animals headed in their direction, so speed was of the essence. With the loot acquired Leon left his Centipede monsters out and had them running beside the team. No point in putting away the firepower now that the dungeon definitely already had them.

The animals that were approaching were still far enough away that Leon could not see them in his sphere of perception, but they were being very loud. Deep grunting noises could easily be heard to the east of their position as they made their way deeper into the new Dungeon Floor.

“What are they?” Daisy asked in a worried tone after nearly fifteen minutes of the sounds following them.

“Don’t know, none of them have entered my range yet. Whatever they are, there’s a lot of them though.”

Whatever the creatures were, they seemed to have decided that it was time to start their attack run because suddenly Leon spotted movement at the edge of his range. The movement turned out to be stones flying towards them at high speeds.

“Incoming!” Leon yelled as he turned and fired a horrific missile in the direction that the stones had flown from.

Cynthia instantly erected a wall of stone and Far raised her shield just in time to catch a stone the size of a watermelon on it, nearly bowling her over. Daisy and Lamia were protected by Cynthia’s stone wall, and Leon managed to dodge the small boulders by a hairsbreadth. The only problem was how many stones were flying. There were dozens, and they were flying at nearly the speed of sound. Each impact on the ground around them causing craters and sending debris flying everywhere. Leon’s centipedes were able to mostly dodge the incoming projectiles but one of them was clipped along its jaw and subsequently pummeled to death by the barrage of massive stones.

“I’m going full stealth. Everyone take full defensive posture!” Leon shouted as he activated Stealth, Muffle, and Perception Filter at their maximums while simultaneously using Quantum Blink multiple times in quick succession to spot the threat. They were giant apes of some kind shaped a lot like humans only much bigger and covered in long hair. There were at least thirty of them all chucking stones rhythmically. Once he was in range, Leon could see them simply manifesting the massive stones that they were hurling in their hands before winding up and chucking them in the direction of his team. Every time he could see a burst of mana before the stones appeared in their hands. Leon slapped an Identify on one of them thinking it must be whatever creature had spawned the myths of bigfoot.

Gigantopithecus blacki (2nd Tier)

The paleontologists of earth believed this creature to be similar to an Orangutan. However, the truth is that this creature is actually an offshoot of the Homo Neanderthalensis ancestry. These giant ancient cousins of the Human Earth Variant race are only the second largest of the Great apes to have ever lived on Planet Earth. Standing on average at nine foot one inches tall and weighing in at nearly seven hundred pounds. This great ape species is one of the few that have no sexual dimorphism with both sexes representing the entire range of heights and sizes. These creatures are normally rather docile and travel in groups of up to fifty individuals. When times are tough food wise, these giant apes will band together in hunting parties and hurl stones and sticks animals that they view as prey.

This specimen is a twenty-year-old male, hungry, highly antagonistic.

“Interesting history lesson.” Leon thought to himself as he Quantum Blinked behind the group of Chewbacca lookalikes. Drawing his daggers Leon pounced one of them and drove the tips of both daggers into its neck with as much force as he could muster. Much to his surprise the thing went down like a puppet with strings cut as Leon managed to sever its spinal cord.

One of their group suddenly dropping did not go unnoticed as the rest of the group began hooting and grunting in a panic swinging around themselves. Obviously aware that the threat was in their midst. Leon was glad that none of them seemed to have any advanced perception skills or mental defenses that could deal with Perception Filter.

Sadly, after all the danger that the giant monkeys had posed to the team, they were fairly easy to put down because of this. It took Leon all of five minutes to methodically sever each of their spines using a combination of Quantum Blinks and good old-fashioned athletic skill. Leon quickly stored all of the corpses and found the dungeon spawned chest reward. Using Instant Harvest on the chest, he was almost surprised when there was no information burst in his head and instead only a list of items deposited into his Utility pocket formed in his mind’s eye.

Returning to the group Leon found that his Centipedes had taken one more casualty, bringing them down to four total. “Maybe I was overly worried about them. In a regular world these things would be apex predators that could destroy everything in their path. Here they seem to be getting slaughtered by other animals.” Leon pondered as he dropped his stealth skills.

“Your creepy crawlies are getting banged up pretty bad here Leon.” Far commented, “You might want to make something a little more durable and get it trained to help us out. These things aren’t cutting it.”

Leon shrugged; she wasn’t wrong. They were not the toughest creatures he could make, and he could start making better use of his ability to make monsters. A flock of wyvern like monsters could be really useful in traversing this new Floor. But Leon couldn’t actually make anything that was immediately Tier 2 yet. He had to nurture them until they progressed naturally. It was a good longer-term goal for right now to increase his repertoire of monsters.

“I’ll see about making us some mounts that can fly soon. I’ll have to spend some time growing them up down here to get them to Tier 2 though.”

“Enough about that. What was attacking us?” Cynthia asked with irritation clear in her voice.

Rather than describe the attackers Leon simply dumped one out of his Utility Pocket and explained what they were doing. Manifesting projectiles that they were throwing.

“We need to be more careful as we travel here. If the Dungeon Monsters are using skills like that… It means that the Dungeon is much closer to Tier 3 than not. Which means that we are in very real and present danger at this very moment.” Daisy spoke, “Leon you had better go full stealth at all times from here on out. I say we go until we’ve gotten five more chests then make a raven line back to the tenth floor.” No one argued as Leon slipped back into Stealth and the team began heading out again. Making their way deeper into the floor.

Ameillia Crumbl

Ameillia walked around the AirShip that Gerald had purchased. He had kept the purchase a secret for a few days while he got a plethora of enchanting work done on its interior. The ship wasn’t anything pretty to look at. Essentially just a rectangle made of wood with loading bays along its sides and ends. The ships enchantments were actually top notch for such a lackluster design. Though its accelerators would need replacing in about ten years the main antigrav enchantment was good for at least another eighty years. The environmental control systems were astonishingly good, especially in the greenhouse segment that was essentially a copy of Annise’s. Gerald had had the Greenhouse installed, an Alchemy lab attached, and even a tinkers workshop alongside a forge for himself. It was honestly amazing, and she loved it.

However, Gerald didn’t realize what such mobility meant for the family. It meant that they would have to travel to meet the matriarchs, the leaders of the families. And it meant that he had just made it easier for the family to demand more marriages of her husband. She was frustrated and at the same time looking forward to everything that the family they had built together would be able to accomplish with this investment. Leon’s latest letter indicated that wherever he was would represent an incredible business opportunity soon and that they should be prepared to take advantage of it.

With the AirShip purchased and ready for flight the family would be more than ready.

Luna Everthorn

“Is this report accurate?”

“Yes Captain.”

“You know what this means right? We need to gather our forces. The Guild has the Founders Period set up for a reason. This may be the only opportunity to take a Dungeon for our kingdom that we will ever see. They’ve had too much time to prepare already we need to move swiftly. Call for a meeting with the King immediately.” Luna said in a calm tone imbued with urgency.

“Right away Ma’am.” The spymaster replied before vanishing.

Luna sat back at her desk. Tapping her fingers against the dark wood, contemplating the report before her. Somehow the Dungeoneers Guild had managed to keep a lid on the birth of a new dungeon for nearly two whole years before her spies had managed to track down its existence and its location within her own kingdom’s borders… Well not really within the borders if you asked their neighboring empire, it was in a contested area of the Platonic Sea. She was unsure why the sea had such a stupid name, but the Dungeon was located there well outside of any shipping lanes in an area that was almost never visited by ships. No fishing worth mentioning in the area, and no resources worth exploiting. Until now.

The rules of engagement with a newly formed Dungeon town were well established by the Dungeoneers Guild. A force of Tier 3’s no more than fifty of them along with a force of up to Five Hundred Tier 2 individuals were allowed to be deployed against the Founders. If those rules were adhered to the Guild wouldn’t retaliate if the town was taken and they would simply give it up as a loss if the Founders were unable to defend against the invaders. Any skill, magic, or enchanted equipment were allowed. But this type of takeover was only permitted by the guild during the Founding Period. After those first three years… Nations had been irradiated overnight for not stopping their attacks on the last day.

They only had one year to make sure that they were the owners of this new Dungeon. And Luna was just the woman to take on the job.