Chapter 35 - The stupid dungeon

A dark room. It's interior possessed more space than the room actually took up.

It was a boss room.

"Why is it so dark in here?" A feminine voice suddenly echoed across the darkened space.

"Wait, don't worry I got it," A male voice replied.

"Be careful, we don't know what will set off this boss," A gruff male voice warned.

"It's better that we can at least see whats going on Rayes," another feminine voice rebutted.

"What was that spell again...?" The first male voice resounded.

"Let the Lord bring light? No... How about Let there be Light? No that's the from the old book..." Gordan's mumblings echoed through the dark room.

"Hurry up..."

"Wait I got it." Inhaling a deep breath, Gordan began chanting.

"My life mortal,"

"My sight limited,'

As Gordan chanted, a halo of light appeared on his staff.

"May the Holy Light shine my path."

"Guide me with eternal light."

THUMP!

Striking the staff onto the ground, the halo of light began spinning, slowly expanding until it suddenly exploded, covering the room. Revealing the room in its entirety.

The entire room was covered in dark bush, only the area directly around the adventurers was empty. Looking towards the center of the room, there was a large tree, covered in thorns. Next to it, was a green woman, who was kneeling next to a bush, her delicate hands holding onto a single rose.

But it was what was on her head which drew their attention.

A cluster of thorns covered half their face. Only her exquisite nose and mouth were revealed, and what seemed to be dried blood caked her face.

Six blood red roses decorated her crown.

"What...?"

The sight was shocking, some of them actually stepped back.

Crunch

Unintentionally, Sophia crushed a rosebud.

The dryad's head suddenly jerked up.

Her head unnaturally turning towards the adventurer party.

"UAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" A piercing scream resounded from the dryad, as two of the roses on her crown suddenly wilted, and dozens of vines sprouted from her back and began burrowing into the ground.

All the bushes began violently shaking, as hundreds of rosebuds suddenly began blooming and then rapidly wilting.

"What the?"

The rose vines snaked around on the ground, till the entire ground was covered in thorny vines.

"Area attack! Get out!" Jane yelled, and they all began running towards the door, however, it was too late.

Then, all the vines collectively began raising.

Like a demented festival ride, the vines began raising in a net, sloping towards the center of the room. Where the Dryad now stood. A curtain of thorns soon surrounded her. The adventurers were caught at the end of the net, now slowly falling towards the center, towards the thorny curtain.

Like a giant natural grinder, this was the ultimate ability of the Dryad. Blood Rose Garden.

"Split up! Rayes, Sophia interrupt the cast!" Jane yelled, slicing her flaming blade downwards. Creating a hole in the trap. Clint, grabbing onto Gordan, directly jumped down, landing with a large thud. Victoria landed lightly on her feet. And Jane broke her fall with a roll.

Sophia flew upwards, a shadow underneath her.

Dozens of vines moved to surround her. However, through some expert maneuvering and firing some weak spells to temporarily push them back.

However, the moment that she was above the dryad. Rayes jumped out of the shadow, blades flying he began ripping at the dryad, momentum pushing the dryad back, stopping her scream. He was able to swap several of the vines on the dryad, causing the vines attacking Sophia to lessen. However, all the remaining vines stopped their attack on Sophia and instead, all began converging around the dryad. Heading to attack the nearest threat, Rayes.

A few dozen vines instantly constricted Rayes, drawing blood. A flower on the bosses crown began blooming. However, before it could fully bloom, Sophia threw down a few ice bolts, striking at the roots of these vines, freeing Rayes. Then Rayes tapped his heels together. A purplish light appeared on his shoes and Rayes jumped onto Sophia's shadow, immediately sinking into it.

With the loss of their former target, all the vines immediately began raising up to catch Sophia. Who also immediately ran upon seeing the literal wave of thorns.

Jane released a slash with her flaming sword and even though it struck down a few of the vines, new ones immediately raised up and began targeting her!

During the duration of Blood Rose Garden, not only did the boss just have control of all roses within the room, the roses also had increased vitality and became increasingly faster. Attempting to destroy the vines at this moment was truly foolish.

The wave of vines crashed unto Sophia, ready to rip her apart and drain the blood. However, they were stopped by a golden barrier!

Gordan wasn't slacking at all, this whole time he was prepared to cast a barrier. He wasn't able to cast one on Rayes before because Rayes was too far away, but Sophia had just managed to enter his range when she escaped.

Despite that, the Divine Shield will not hold long. Hundreds of vines were wrapped around the golden ball, constricting it and slowly cracking the barrier.

Jane was busy sending flaming slashes, however, they didn't do enough damage to stop the assault.

However, the adventurers had their own aces.

"GORDAN! USE THE BELL!" Jane yelled through the almost deafening sound of moving bush. Then,

RINGGGG

A clear ring echoed throughout the room.

The main danger with adventurers was their unpredictability. Non-adventurers of the same combat class generally has fewer options and tricks than an adventurer of the same class. This can be attributed to a simple reason, any seasoned adventurer party would have at least three boss drop items with extremely useful effects, even if the item does not suit their class they will still carry it around or in more extreme cases, begin learning a new class from the ground up.

This adventurer party, Crimson Saber had four boss items with good and notable effects.

Jane's flame saber, which the party was named after, Sophia's broom, which greatly lowered mana costs for flying, Rayes' shadow walker boots, which allowed him to hide in a shadow five times a day and finally, a simple looking bell, usually held by Gordan, had the effect of temporarily stunning all creatures with a mana core, though the mana cost was not cheap, only Gordan and Sophia has the mana capacity to cast it once, and they were basically incapacitated afterwards. Despite that, a single moment can decide life and death.

The ring resounded throughout the room, the hundreds of vines all suddenly stopped and fell to the ground limply.

The boss fell to the ground, her hands clutching her ears as if trying to block out an unpleasant sound.

Once the vines fell, Victoria finally had a clear shot.

A barrage of arrows followed suit.

Jane and Sophia both launched their own elemental ranged attacks, a rain of ice and ranging slashing attack composed of flames followed the arrows.

However, at this moment, the boss suddenly recovered, seeing the rain of attacks, it whipped a vine around its neck and directly ripped her own head off! Using the momentum to fling it far away!

The barrage of attacks hit the remaining body, absolutely decimating it. However, the head, which was still flying in mid-air, had actually begun regenerating its body!

Another two roses on its crown wilted and died, as the boss and its newly formed body crashed in the far right corner of the room.

"REGROUP!" Jane's command sounded throughout the room. They had become far too separated in that initial skirmish almost getting dangerously far apart.

Sophia returned back to the group, and with her Rayes. Rayes jumped out of her shadow, his armor tattered and blood covering both his hands.

Gordan who was swaying left and right like a drunk person held out his hand to Sophia and grunted.

"Potion,"

Sophia handed a mana potion to Gordan, who downed the contents in a single sip.

"Burp. Good stuff, need to get that looked at Rayes?"

"No need, its just a few scratches," Rayes replied.

"No, the blood isn't stopping," Sophia rebutted, her finger swiping across Rayes' arm, dabbing a few drops of blood before putting it into her mouth, after a brief taste, she declared.

"There are anti-coagulants in the blood, we need to get it healed, you too Jane, Victoria,"

Unbeknownst to the two, they had also gotten scratched during the initial attack.

Gordan instantly began his work, sparks of light appeared from his staff, flying and landing on Rayes', Victoria's and Jane's wounds, when they faded the wound was gone.

Rayes reflexively flexed his arms, testing that they were still working.

"It's not attacking," Victoria commented, she's been keeping her eyes on the dryad since the moment they first spotted her, her bow drawn and pointed towards it.

"It seems to be a dryad, those roses on her head seem to be a counter for her abilities, she lost two during the first attack and another two when she regenerated her entire body," Gordan said after he healed everyone.

"But those roses can also regenerate, a rose half bloomed when it attacked me and it seems like more roses are coming back," Rayes said, his eyes peering into the distance, he could clearly see another dot of red appearing on the dryads head. Totaling to three and a half roses.

"It seems like she would have another full heal or another one of those attacks ready. Since it's a dryad the weak point should be its tree," Jane said, her finger pointing towards the thorny tree in the center of the room.

A dryad in the wild is usually linked to an ancient tree, at least a century old. The tree is deeply in tune with the earth and draws mana from the world around it. This mana is then given to a dryad, allowing the dryad to cast powerful spells and protect the tree. The older the tree the more mana it tends to gather, making the dryad more powerful.

The duo of Ent and Dryad is also an extremely annoying combo. Normally when fighting a dryad you go for the tree first, but when said tree begins beating you up with its branches you begin pondering about the life decisions you made that made you weaker than a tree. Not only that any tree that becomes and Ent is almost guaranteed to have near unlimited mana pools, basically unkillable when all that mana is given to a dryad which spam casts heal spells.

A dryad in a dungeon should be no different.

"Gordan, can you use the bell again?" Jane asked.

"One more time and I'm out," He replied.

"I will go and cut down that tree, Victoria will keep an eye on the situation, Gordan stay at a distance where you can support us, Clint, make sure that Dryad doesn't get past you, Sophia and Rayes stay at range and interupt her if she begins casting." Jane rapidly relayed her orders.

"Get into position, on my mark begin." They silently executed Jane's order.

Jane stood fifty meters away from the tree, any less and she risked aggravating the Dryad to preemptively attack.

Clint stood in between Jane and Dryad, Gordan stood a bit further away from the two. Sophia was on her broom again, ready to take off at a moments notice. Victoria and Rayes each found their own vantage points to attack from.

"NOW!"

Clint threw a handful of bombs, drawing the Dryads attention while Jane began her mad dash towards the tree.

The bombs landed a few meters short of the dryad, detonating and creating a bright flash of light.

The Dryad instinctively covered her face in front of the sudden brightness, only to get hit by two arrows at that moment.

Victoria memorized the Dryads position and fired the moment it was distracted by the explosion.

It quickly recovered, ripping out the arrows, a flower wilted and a green wisp of light touched her wounds, healing her.

However, several throwing knives hit her, causing the wisps of light to separate and focus on the new wounds.

The Dryad angrily turned towards the knife thrower. If they wanted to stay at a distance then it was fine by her. Two roses on her crown wilted and at the same time, multiple vines sprouted from her back, preparing to tunnel into the ground.

However this time she wasn't so lucky. A bottle fell from the sky, smashing into her head and breaking, releasing a white mist. Immediately after a single ice bolt flew down, making contact with the icy mist. Sparks of light flickered violently within the mist, as the mist touching the ice bolt immediately froze over. Not only that a chain reaction occurred, and the entire mist froze over! Stopping the Dryad from casting her ability and trapping her within the ice!

At the same time, Jane arrived at the tree, her sword slashing into the wood. When it bit into the wood, the vines on the tree came alive and wrapped themselves around the blade. However, this could not stop Jane, as she pulled her sword out and slashed again, this time fully severing the tree.

"UAAAAAAAAAH!" A muffled scream came from within the ice, the Dryad felt every blow to the tree. The link between a Dryad and it's home tree was powerful, that's why the Dryad could gain mana to power her Crown despite getting no mana from the dungeon.

However the stronger the link, the more painful it'll be when it's severed.

A strange silence came about, as the adventurers moved to surround the ice prison.

"I think we got her." Gordan was the first to break the silence.

"Yeah, without mana from the tree it'll die on its own even without the ice." Jane seconded.

"Well let's just wait, unless you guys want to get past this ice and finish her yourself," Rayes said, his knocking on the ice.

--~=~--

Well that was anticlimactic

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The Dryad was silent, she was dying and didn't wish to waste her last breaths.

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Come on, you can still fight!

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"My home tree is dead, the dungeon cannot supply me with mana and I am already out of roses." She finally replied, her voice strained.

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Finally learned to speak huh?

Well, let me tell you a secret to congratulate you.

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The Dryad was curious, this would be the first secret she has heard in her lifetime.

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I enjoy causing trouble, it literally keeps me going, and do you know why I gave you the Title: The Unbound?

--~=~--

The Dryad tried to shake her head, to no effect.

--~=~--

No need to force yourself, well the title was meant to stir some trouble, create some real narrative tension if you know what I mean.

--~=~--

The Dryad didn't know what 'he' meant.

--~=~--

Well no matter, the point is you don't need that tree.

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The Dryad was confused, she didn't understand.

--~=~--

You don't need that dungeon either.

You don't need anyone.

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You are The Unbound.

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--~=~--

You don't need anyone, no need to attach yourself to anyone.

Take what you need.

Why? Because

--~=~--

--~=~--

YOU ARE F̷͈͓̲̤̩͉̩̹̻̲̞̦͈͌͆̈́́͆́̉̌͜͝R̶̡̛͉̼͍̆̈́̈́͛͛̿̒̀͋̌̋̈́͒́̇̂͒̉̈̽͌̀̿̄̍͗͒͋̍̕͘͝͝͠Ȩ̷̧̛͔̠͉̫̙͇̻̰̝̬̠̜͇͛̆̆̄̄͗͐̎̈́̾͛͗̎͑̓̋̇̾͘͝Ë̶̢̢̧̞̦̲̮̖̼̦̘̪̟̟́̐͐̄̽̇̒͘ͅ

--~=~--

The Dryad finally understood. She didn't need to attach herself to anything. She was free.

"What the?" Sophia suddenly shouted in surprise.

Victoria's fox ears suddenly perked up, as she too sensed a disturbance.

Wind suddenly seemed to appear in the room, a vortex and at its epicenter was the frozen Dryad.

"This amount of mana..." Sophia said in a daze.

"Its... it's undergoing an evolution! We have to kill it quickly!" Sophia screamed, madly pointing at the block of ice.

When a creature evolves it is almost guaranteed to skip to the next rank. The appearance of a Gold Ranked Boss was enough to kill everyone here.

Jane activated the rune on her sword, but as the flames flared up, they faded as quickly as they appeared.

"How...?" Jane asked perplexed.

"It's sucking in all nearby mana! We need to kill it--" Sophia said, already she could feel herself shaking, it was only because that they were all Silver Ranks that none of them have collapsed yet.

Jane quickly understanding the situation, quickly relayed orders.

"Clint use a bomb!"

Clint was already working on it, to break through the ice it would require a large explosion, however, he fell down midway. The mana drain sucking all mana within his body, causing him to collapse.

Next was Rayes, then Jane, then Victoria, then Gordan and finally Sophia.

"Teleport... Scroll..." Sophia using the last of her strength she unfurled the scroll.

However, it did not activate.

"No... Mana interference..." And with that, she lost consciousness.

"Hey, whats going on!" Goblin yelled, his hands holding a collapsed Penny.

"Hey, you what the fuck is happening?" He turned his head to the dungeon core.

Only to see it flickering violently.

"The... Mana..." The core made one last comment before the light completely faded from it.

"What the fuck..." The goblin collapsed, his mana completely drained.

The world became completely still, no living thing moved.

At this moment nothing could move.

And it was nothing that decided to move.

With a snap of its fingers, the world turned grey.

A leaf falling outside stopped mid-fall.

A flying bird stopped in the middle of its flight.

The mana moving towards the Dryad also stopped, ceasing to move.

--~=~--

So that stupid dungeon finally decides to show h$%self

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At this moment a single blue screen appeared amidst the grey.

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A timestop huh, so the rumors are true.

--~=~--

The nothing moved through the dungeon, past the empty first boss room. Past the frozen dryad and adventurers.

Past the collapsed goblin and pixie.

Until it stopped in front of the core.

In front of the blue screen.

--~=~--

I'm glad to finally meet y$u face to screen.

--~=~--

The nothing simply watched the blue screen impassively.

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The @bomination Dungeon V#id

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