Trust your abilities, we teach them to you for a reason.

Davies - Head of Climber Academy

I returned to the dungeon after taking a brief nap in Tinder City. Now rested and refreshed I could tackle the dungeon without worrying about fatigue slowing me down. Luckily on the trip back I didn't see any evidence of the giant tree monster that chased us out of the area a couple days ago. I did find most of the monster corpses from rush to Tinder City and harvested mana cores like crazy. Even with the harvesting it only took me about 12 hours to return to the dungeon rock.

As soon as I arrived at the rock I searched for the entrance to this dungeon. I circled the area for a while without finding any noticeable entrance before I thought to just lift up the rock. While a rock that size should have been heavy it easily lifted up and revealed stone stairs leading into darkness. I lit a lantern I had bought a long time ago in Wingate and descended down into the depths of the dungeon.

Welcome to Heart of the Wilds Dungeon

Goal: Descend the dungeon.

Rewards: Dependent on floor cleared.

Dungeon Record: Floor 3

Current Location: Floor 1

I was in a small stone room with an arched doorway leading forward and a small stone table off to one side. Looking over at the table I found something.

Item: Return Token

Breaking this token in half immediately teleports the holder to the entrance of the dungeon. Rewards will be granted based on when this token is broken.

It looked like a wooden coin with a line down the middle. I put the token into my pocket instead of my bag so I would have easier access to it and proceed forward into the dungeon.

As I entered the first flood I found myself in a dark cavern with narrow walkways and pits that a normal person would have difficulty crossing. Honestly this dungeon appeared more like what I had expected of the Tower than the Tower itself. Looking forward, I could see further than the lantern would normally illuminate. I trusted my instincts and put out the lantern. Even without its light my vision was not reduced. This sort of magical lighting was common in the Tower on the easier difficulties although I hadn’t seen it yet.

Taking a running start, I jumped from platform to platform without even stepping on to the walkways. With my current strength and agility jumping 25 to 30 feet was not difficult. While I could try the walkways I had more confidence in my stats and jumping than trying to balance on a narrow path. After a few minutes of acrobatics I came to an area with an arched opening leading further down.

Floor 1 complete.

I continued down a relatively straight tunnel. As I moved forward slimes appeared on the tunnel walls. I don’t mean that I came upon the monsters but instead that the slimes oozed out of the walls themselves. An individual slime wasn't much of a worry. In fact slimes were the most common enemy someone would first face on the Easy Difficulty. The problem was that as I killed them more and more slimes poured from the walls. After a minute slowly walking and killing slimes started blocking the path around me. Still more slimes were flooding in and piling on top of the existing ones.

At first I was not concerned. The slimes were such an easy enemy that I doubted I would have received a single point of experience from them if I wasn’t at a cultivation bottleneck. I guess they could appear difficult if you didn't know how to kill them, but once you learn the trick they were easy enough. Each slime was a gelatinous two foot ball and inside the slime there was a core the size of an apple. If you struck anywhere except the core, the slime would completely ignore the damage. Just striking the core wasn't enough, to defeat the slime you either had to pierce all the way through the core or remove the core from the body of the slime.

I initially started by practicing my lunges and piercing each core. But once the tunnel started to fill, I realized I would be overwhelmed by sheer numbers if I continued to take my time to line up a precise thrust for each slime. Instead I used my superior strength and speed to reach into the slime and pull the core out as quickly as possible. Once the core was about a foot away from its body, the slime would dissolve into magical steam. There were some reports that slimes could absorb other slime cores to increase in size, so I stored each core in my storage bag as soon as the body disappeared.

After about half an hour, I came to the conclusion that I should have just ran through the hall and ignored the slimes in the beginning. I was only moving forward a dozen steps every minute. For each slime I killed a dozen more took its place and the way forward and back were completely blocked off. If I let the gelatinous monsters touch me they would start to dissolve my armor, clothes, and skin. The only reason I wasn't injured by plucking out the cores was my endurance and speed. My endurance allowed me to stick my hand into the slime for a portion of a second without taking any damage. My speed enabled me to pluck out the core in that short time frame.

As I moved on my momentum was slowed until I was barely even taking a step a minute. Finally after what seemed like an endless number of slimes there was an opening and I found myself walking through a familiar archway.

Floor 2 complete.

I sat down on the stairs and took a breath. Getting through those slimes was more exhausting than guarding the caravan. Scanning my bag, I found that I had managed to accumulate over 10,000 slime cores. For a brief moment I'd considered dumping them out, worried that they were filling up a sizable portion of my pack, but the wizard’s knowledge reminded me that they were useful in numerous spells and rituals.

I decided I needed to keep a close eye on my remaining time. I wanted to go as far as possible in the dungeon but knew I needed at least half a day to get back to the exit portal.

Time limit: 10 days

Time remaining: 24 days 23 hours, 44 minutes*

*Overtime in effect

Once more I descended downward but unlike the last staircase this one went farther and farther underground until it opened to a vast cavern. I took three steps forward before I felt the stone my foot had just landed on sink down an inch. Suddenly I heard a popping sound and I quickly stepped back as a magical flame shot straight into the air. A trapped room. This was considered one of the most tedious and difficult challenges for many on the easy floors. While monsters could be defeated with the right weapons and techniques, traps required paying attention to the area and quick reflexes. Looking out the cavern I could not see the other side and I wasn't sure if the exit was directly in front of me or off to one side.

Instead of venturing straight across I turned to the left and started following the wall while being careful for any section of the floor that looked abnormal or that might contain a trap. And managed to move 100 ft before I felt my foot once more landed on a trap plate. Once more there was a popping sound and I had plenty of time to roll out of the way before the magical flame shot up.

As I stood dusting myself off I couldn't help but smile. This dungeon was fun and far more straightforward compared to the weird Tower climb. As I continued to move forward I couldn't help humming a tune to myself and soon found myself dancing as I stepped across the trapped floor. Each time I landed on a trap the popping sound would let me know I needed to move quickly to avoid the fire shooting from the ground.

To some, dancing to a song in my head while avoiding traps might have appeared crazy but I couldn’t help enjoying myself. The smile never left my face as I made my way slowly around the vast cavern. I couldn't be sure how far I made it around the room before I finally found the familiar arched opening. Turns out I can dance for three days while singing to myself. I was having far too much fun and as such was easily losing track of time.

Floor 3 complete.

Time remaining: 21 days 21 hours, 21 minutes*

After taking another long staircase down I entered a simple hallway. As I walked forward I soon came to an area where the tunnel split into three different directions.

A maze.

I immediately put my hand out onto the left wall and started following it. I walked on taking every turn the left wall made. Hours and hours later I finally came upon an arched opening. Walking through the opening I was surprised to see stairs leading upward. I took the stairs and found myself in a familiar vast open cavern.

That didn't make sense. The left wall trick was supposed to be the way to easily defeat any maze. How could I have taken all the left walls and still ended where I began? Perhaps the path down was hidden in the middle of the maze.

The next time I took every straight path I came upon. It only took me about half an hour before I found the opening. I had to laugh at the simplicity of the maze. Whoever designed this had a couple of screws loose but understood that most would try to follow a wall. I walked through the doorway to find a familiar set of stairs leading upwards.

I know for a fact that I did not make any turns so how was I going upward again? Better yet how was I at the same stairwell?

Perhaps this was a different entrance. I reached out and put a mark on the wall, then turned around and walked straight for another half hour until I arrived at the doorway. Looking around I found my mark exactly where I had left it.

Ah, it was a magical maze. It probably required a pattern to complete.

Left, right, left, right … No

Right, left, right, left … Nope

Left, right, left, right, left. Left right left right left… Wrong again.

Over the next five days I tried every possible pattern I could think of to know avail. At one point I even picked randomly directions but I always ended up where I started.

No matter how I move forward, I always return to the beginning of the maze. No matter how I moved forward. Wait a minute. I couldn’t help smiling to myself. I turned around and started walking backwards. I ignored the turns and just kept moving backwards. After about 10 minutes I arrived at a new archway with stairs leading down.

Floor 4 complete.

Time remaining: 16 days 6 hours, 20 minutes*

On the fifth floor, I was once more walking down a tunnel. Suddenly I hear the familiar thwang of bowstring. Trusting my instincts I moved to the left and an arrow whizzed through the area I was previously. I rushed forward only to hear three more shots. Rolling forward the arrows once more pased throught the area where I had been when the shots were fired. Rushing forward even more shots were fired at me, which I continued to easily dodge.

After a few hundred more feet I eventually stopped and so did the arrows. Once more this was magic at work. If it had been a person shooting at me I would have met them already. Clearly the arrows were magically summoned along with the sound of the bow being fired. I guess the sounds were made to make this floor easier. The shots were always aimed for a vital point such as my head or chest but were easy to dodge by simply moving when I heard the sound of the arrow being fired.

Honestly this was so predictable and easy that it could have been on the first floor of the dungeon. What kind of person would have difficulty dodging such obvious arrows? I guess if hit the standard person would be hurt or easily killed, but again why would someone who entered a dungeon be dumb enought to stand still when arrows were being fired.

After about three hours of walking forward, I made it to the end of the tunnel.

Floor 5 complete.

After the stress of Kelly dumping me, this dungeon was just the thing I needed to reduce my stress. I continued down looking forward to what additional challenges the dungeon would send my way. I honestly was looking forward to whatever the dungeon threw at me next.