Chapter 3.16 FIRST DUNGEON DIVE

Akhetaten Dungeon Town

4th Darkday of the Full Moon

The next morning, Flea was surprised he woke up to no tolls of bells. Jumping out of bed, he found Bob ready to go. The Dengre, on the other hand, was sleeping like the dead. Than’ro had explained this was his first time he had ever slept in a bed. Due to his size, he usually slept on the bare ground or a big pile of straw if he was lucky.

It took a pot of water to awake the sleeping yellow man. As soon as the group was ready to go, they left the inn and headed towards the dungeon.

“We should probably get you a weapon, Than’ro,” said Flea.

“No need. I clobber with fist,” Than’ro said as he punched his palm.

Flea still stopped by the market area near the gate and purchased the cheapest two-handed ax they could find for four gold. The Dengre was beside himself for receiving such a weapon. Exiting the market, the large man casually swung the ax a few times, causing snaps in the air as he created small vacuums of space.

“Than’ro, try and only hit their heads. If you hit them like that, you’re going to splatter them all over the place, and probably us too,” said Bob.

“Okay. Than’ro smashes head only.”

The dungeon entrance was a pair of white metal doors set inside a rocky face not far from the Dungeon Gate. A line of adventuring parties stood outside the entrance. They watched as a group walked up, opened the doors, and headed through. The next group waited till the doors completely closed, then they repeated the process. As Flea and crew slowly moved up the line, they realized another stargate-like portal was just behind the entryway. When it was their turn, Than’ro opened the door, and they walked through the same water effect as the World Dungeon Gate. As soon as they passed through the water, Flea found himself in a dimly lit hallway.

The water was gone, and in its place was a sandstone wall. Looking to the front, Flea could see they were at the end of a long tunnel made out of the same gritty sandstone bricks. A torch rested in a nook every ten feet or so.

“Alright, Than’ro, you’re our meat shield. You go in front while Bob fires arrows from behind, and I’ll be at your side as much as I can,” said Flea.

Than’ro nodded his head and began marching forward. It didn’t take long for the first group of beetles to appear. The creatures were at least twice the size of Flea. The Dengre tried to smash their heads but would instead turn the bugs' entire body into a paste.

“Sorry. Small head, hard hitting,” said the sad-sounding Dengre.

“Don’t worry about it. As long as we can loot the cores, we’re fine. Try to cut them in half next time,’ said Flea.

The trio continued to move forward. Each room they entered had a group of two to five beetles within. Flea felt a bit bad as Than’ro was doing virtually all of the work. Flea’s only contribution so far was picking up cores. The dungeon’s ease was starting to bore Flea. That is until they found the stairs to the second floor behind the largest of the beetles they had fought so far.

But his excitement for a “Boss” fight was short-lived. Flea had managed to pull his daggers just in time to see the giant beetle’s head roll past him.

“I got head! Than’ro proudly claimed.

Flea went to make a comment but then decided against it. He just gathered the core, patted the Dengre’s arm, and headed down the stairs.

Getting to the bottom of the steps, they found it ended with another gate of water. Touching the water, a box prompt showed in front of everyone.

“Woah, floating words! No understand,” said Than’ro.

Leave Dungeon [Select]

---

Enter 2nd Floor [Select]

“Let’s keep going,” said Bob.

Flea selected to enter the 2nd floor. A moment later, they were in an empty room with a small chest at the center. Flea walked around the chest, looking for any type of traps or triggers on and around the large wooden box. Not seeing anything, he walked back to the front and opened the chest up. Inside was a single pouch. Pulling it out, Flea opened it to reveal fifty Clear Cores.

“Not bad for an easy dungeon, that’s hundred-seven Clouded Cores, and fifty-one Clear Cores so far,” said Flea as he began to crush them.

Absorbed 107 Clouded Cores

+ 703 Energy

Absorbed 51 Clear Cores

+ 741 Energy

Flea then upgraded his bag to 10 using 1300 Energy.

“Upgraded my bag to level 10. I should be able to hold anything we get in the dungeon. The next goal is to reach level 20,” said Flea.

The three exited the only door in the room to find a small hallway extending out in either direction. Flea chose to go left, and soon after, the group came upon a set of beetles. These, unlike on the first floor, seemed to have red markings on them. Charging forward, Than’ro took a fireball to the chest as he went in to kill one of the creatures.

“They have mag...!” Flea began to shout but stopped at seeing Than’ro destroy them just as efficiently as on the first floor.

“Well, I guess weak magic doesn’t harm you, big guy.”

“Fire tickle,” The Dengre said, giggling.

The second floor ended up being nothing more than a large maze that took the group no time at all to finish. With Bob’s ability to mentally keep track of their location, he could direct them to the parts of the maze they had not yet cleared. The bosses of the second floor were two larger fire-breathing beetles and a smaller beetle with green markings. Flea decided to use his [Identify] skill for the first time on the green-marked beetle.

Identified Dynast Healer

With the name of the monster in his head, another prompt followed.

Dynast Healer

Found around the deserts of the Jangwa Moon.

Harvestable: Tier 1 chitin, Clear Core

After Than’ro took care of the two larger Dynasts, Bob and Flea killed the healer.

“So when I used [Identify] on the smaller one, the system told me it was called a Dynast Healer. Knowing the name, the information I had obtained from the Creatures of Mea book popped up with some info on it,” said Flea.

“Anything useful?” asked Bob.

“Not really, basic info you could probably figure out on your own.”

Entering the portal after the boss room, they transported down to the 3rd floor. This room as well had a bag of fifty Clear Cores in a chest. Flea crushed all the cores he’d gathered since the last treasure chest.

Absorbed 53 Clear Cores

+ 682 Energy

Absorbed 134 Clouded Cores

+ 703 Energy

Flea leveled his Wisdom to level 15, so he could bring his primary states up to level 30. The Gnome then leveled his Intelligence six times, bringing that to 21, then his Dexterity once to 21.

The third floor was quite a bit more difficult for the group. Each room had a few larger beetles with a healer mixed in here and there. Bob would stay back and, with his arrows, kill the healers as they showed themselves. Meanwhile, Flea stayed near Than’ro’s feet and jumped in and out of combat as needed.

Two hours later, they made it to the boss’s room. They’re waiting for them was a massive beetle with blue and brown markings on its carapace. Flea tried to use his [Identify] but was rejected for having lower Wisdom than the target.

“Be careful. Its Wisdom is above 15, so its other attributes are probably higher as well,” said Flea.

Than’ro charged at the monster but was immediately knocked back a step by the massive bug’s headbutt. Unfazed by the counterattack, the Dengre swung his ax low, taking the beetle’s right leg clean off and causing the beast to screech in pain.

Flea backed up and looked around the room. His new friends had said this was only a level 10 dungeon, and already they were up against a boss who could quickly kill them if they weren’t careful. Flea mostly worried for Than’ro as he wouldn’t respawn like he and Bob. Movement to his left caught his attention as Bob fired a light arrow right into the beetle’s face. The flash blinded Flea for a second. As the spots quickly faded, he saw massive balls of water forming above the beetle’s head.

“Watch out!” Flea warned his companions.

Bob dove to the side as the massive ball of water launched towards him and cracked the stone where he had just stood. The second ball of water hit Than’ro in the chest, but the Dengre stood his ground and shrugged the magic water ball off. Than’ro then raised his ax and swung down, tearing a large gash across the side of the beetle, clipping off two more of its legs. The beetle screeched again in pain.

The creature formed small spikes of stone from around its remaining appendages and shot them out at the trio. The spikes aimed at Bob and Flea were enough of a danger to force them to keep running around the room, unable to mount any kind of a counterattack. Than’ro, on the other hand, shrugged those off too and kept hacking at the beetle as fast as he could swing his ax. After a minute of such chaos, the Dengre got in a kill shot, and another beetle head rolled across the room.

Collecting the Clear Core from the boss took longer than usual due to its size. The group then decided to leave the dungeon, as they had spent the better part of ten hours inside. Before leaving, Flea crushed the cores they had collected on the 3rd floor.

Absorbed 72 Clear Cores

+ 1152 Energy

Flea leveled his Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom by two. If he was going to use [Identify] in the future, he had to make sure to keep the attribute leveled. It looked like he would be pushing almost all his stats up in the future now. Flea took a moment to review his Status one more time before they jumped through the gate,

Flea

Lv. 18

36.96

Gnome

Earth

53.11

Tin I

72 Energy

Strength

15

➕ [192]

Constitution

15

➕ [160]

Dexterity

23

➕ [216]

Intelligence

23

➕ [216]

Wisdom

17

➕ [180]

Magic Bag 🛈

10

➕ [275]

Shadow Meld 🛈

7/20

➕ [200]

Identify 🛈

5/30

➕ [450]

Open

When the group returned to the inn, Than’ro went straight upstairs to sleep on the bed big enough to hold him. The yellow man didn’t even want to bother with food. The Gnome and cat sat down for dinner and were soon joined by the group they had met the day before.

“You know, if we’re going to hang out often, we should at least know your names,” said Flea.

“Apologies, many do not exchange names around here often. I am Baccobus. This lovely Elf is Naexi. The two Dwarfs’ are drunkards, or you may call them Boldrit and Kiggud. They are brothers. Boldrit was the one we stayed behind to keep company,” replied the Centaur.

“I’m Flea. My companion here is Bob. Than’ro, our third is already in bed.”

“Well met. So, how did your dive into the dungeon go today?”

“We cleared out through the third floor and left. That last boss was a bit harder than we thought it would be.”

“What did you fight?”

“Large beetle, about half the size of Than’ro. Had blue and green markings and shot water and earth projectiles at us.”

“A Dynast Lord. They can be nasty. You normally only see them at the end of the fourth or fifth level.”

“How many levels are there in the dungeon? I don’t believe you said anything about that last night.”

“Excuse, Baccobus. We haven’t talked to new players in so many phases. There are five floors to the dungeon,” said Naexi.

“No worries. Any new information is greatly appreciated. Do you always get a bag of fifty Clear Cores at the beginning of the 2nd floor and above?” said Flea.

“No, that is a one-time award for clearing the floor. The system remembers such things, and you will not get them again,” said the Elf.

“Damn, that would have been some good farming.”

“Farming? Why would you farm inside a dungeon?” asked Boldrit.

“Excuse me. Where I’m from, we say ‘farming’ or ‘grinding’ when we talk about doing the same thing over and over again to level up,” said Flea.

“Ah, everyone has their own slang for leveling. The translations don’t always make sense.”

The group drank and exchanged stories with Flea and Bob about their adventures. Flea felt like this was by far the best part of the game so far. Like Tenzin, the NPCs here seemed to be much easier to relate and speak to compared with other games he’s played. The Gnome only wished he could stay in Fantasy forever. The summer was now half over, and it felt like time had gone by fast. The fall school semester was due to start in another month and a half. Flea would then have to spend precious gaming time studying and going to classes.

After the groups parted ways, Flea and Bob went up to their room to find Than’ro sleeping like the dead. Getting closer, the Gnome could feel the shift in the air every time the Dengre snored. The two companions looked at each other, shrugged, and smiled. Flea had Bob set an alarm so he could log out and head to the Nexus tomorrow. He wanted to hang out with Shaun a bit. Plus, the teen also wanted to find out how Senior and the rest were getting along in Outbreak.