We really had been getting stronger. Like a lot stronger. I noticed on the surface that we took out those larger Reavers and the Cleaver with little difficulty while we used to have trouble with just a few Young Reavers on the first floor, but I hadn’t quite realised just how much stronger we got.

The Juvenile kept biting into my arm and tried to shake its head like a dog with a chew toy, but my arm wouldn’t budge. It dented it a lot more than the hatchlings had, but the damage I was taking was still fairly negligible and the pain closer to an itch than agony.

I pulled back with my legs, and the Reaver braced itself but it still slowly slid along as I stepped backwards. It was like I was in a tug of war against an equal team, my step back slow and with all of my body behind my pull, but I was still in control of this struggle against a massive armoured bug that bit into my arm.

I raised my arm, and despite its struggles the Reaver couldn’t stop me. I grabbed its jaw with my other hand and pulled. The Reaver groaned and struggled, but its jaw slowly moved. Its struggle changed from aggressive to panicked as I kept pulling, its upper teeth stuck in my arm that I kept up high while its lower jaw kept going lower and lower.

It groaned in pain as a slow snapping sound echoed through the tunnel, and then the jaw snapped loose entirely. I quickly adjusted my grip on it, and slammed it down on the Krutnik’s head before it could run away. I struck again and again until the jaw broke, and the Krutnik ignored its hive rules by spitting acid inside the tunnels.

It wasn’t very accurate, and without its lower jaw half of the acid just poured over its neck onto the ground. I ignored the splatter of acid on my side and grabbed its head, pushing it down. The Reaver struggled and squealed as I pushed its head into the acid, the smoke caustic enough to even make my hand tingle unpleasantly. I didn’t let go until it was dead.

New Achievement! Masochist!

You just let yourself get wounded! Not because you weren’t fast enough to dodge, or taking a hit to deal a blow yourself, or to protect a squishier party member! No, you just stood there with the sole intent to get injured! That’s the kind of weird shit that will get you killed down here, or keeps you alive in some cases. Should’ve gotten this achievement before the third floor, though, there were a lot of kinky and interesting classes I could’ve given you if you’re into this kind of stuff…

Reward: You got a Silver Masochist Box!

New Achievement! Who needs weapons when you have enemies?

There are many badass ways to fight, but few are as badass as using your own severed arm as a club to beat your enemies to death with, or breaking your own bones to use the jutting out shards as wolverine claws! You did something almost as awesome, by ripping off a part of an enemy and beating them to death with it!

Reward: You got a Gold Brawler Box!

New Achievement! Blub, blub, motherfucker!

Sometimes you just have those enemies that aren’t worth staining your blade with, or foes unworthy of being given an honourable death. You want them to know just how great the difference between you and them is, and you went the extra mile to ensure it!

You just killed someone by drowning them in their own vomit, saliva or other liquid excrement! Or in this case, dissolving their brain. That’s still seriously fucked up, dude! Good job!

You got a Gold Psychopath Box!

“Uhm, Darryl?” Ben asked nervously. “Are you okay?”

“Hm? Oh, sorry. I was just listening to the achievements I just got.” I said. I looked at my side, which had stopped smoking, and popped another health potion. For me, those recharged a lot faster than the mana of my Heal spell. The coarse whiter skin turned a smooth deep blue again, as if nothing happened to begin with. “I guess I’m getting pretty tanky, I completely forgot about that wound.”

“No, I meant more…” Ben struggled to find the right words. “What you just did, it’s…”

“It’s kind of fucked up.” Thomas said. “You planned to get bitten and test your durability and strength, but then you did what you did to kill it.”

“Yeah. It was kind of…” Alexa said, looking a bit queasy. She had been looking away from the second half of the fight, I realised.

And now that I thought about it, it was kind of fucked up what I just did. I naturally went through the movements, but as I thought it over and cross-referenced it with my memories, it was…

A sense of disgust filled me, tainted the memories I just made. It didn’t quite feel natural, almost as if the feeling was tacked on because I know it had to be, but when it happened I hadn’t hesitated at all. And if I hadn’t thought about it like this, I might not have been distressed about it either.

As I thought about it, I realised that I literally took acid to the face and just shrugged it off earlier. I hadn’t even realised until now that a creature melted my eyes and rendered me blind in the middle of combat, and that I hadn’t thought of it any different than getting a flesh wound. Just heal it and it’s fine, no worries.

Volos said that this race would change my thinking, but this was...

Relax. Deep breaths. I’m still me. I’m still me.

“Sorry, guys. I don’t know what came over me, it won’t happen again.” I said.

“Don’t worry too much about it, these are the kinds of things we have to do to survive around here.” Thomas said. “We’re just worried about you, is all.”

Elise nodded. “Yeah, I did something similar, but I still stayed me. You got a lot more… different. It was the body language more than what you were doing that freaked us out.”

I nodded. “I realise it now; it is kind of strange how I just did these things on auto-pilot. I’ll be alert for this stuff happening in the future, don’t you guys worry.”

I lifted up the Reaver with some difficulty and popped it into my inventory to clear the path. “Is there someone else wanting to test out their new body or skills?”

No response. I looked at Alexa, but she didn’t seem like she had anything in mind. I already assumed that Thomas and Ben would be more accustomed to their power jump. Thomas had been increasing his intelligence massively with items before we even got to the second floor, and thus experiencing the changes of rising intelligence, and Ben’s main change was his dexterity. He had been using his increased speed and nimbleness plenty these last few fights, he already tested out his new limits.

These tests were more for me and Elise to get a grasp on our new strength and durability. Being stronger was pretty straightforward and reflected in the damage of our attacks, but what it meant was harder to grasp without experiencing it. We already experienced being able to lift up incredibly heavy items that Ben and Thomas couldn’t budge, troubled more by them being unwieldy and with poor handholds than their weight.

But unless you grappled a Krutnik Reaver and found yourself able to suplex it, rip off its arm and then hit it so hard with that arm that the shell shattered like Elise had done just before my experiment, you didn’t quite grasp how much more powerful you became in practice.

My experiment had been more to test out the new limits of my durability. It was a nice thought that I could take more punishment before dying, but it was hard to tell how much punishment that was. And if I would keep dodging and running away from hits that would turn out to be negligible, we would all suffer for it. I would have to know my limits and not hold back unnecessarily if we wanted to survive this place.

And then I went psycho on the murderous bug, experiencing my strength as well.

“Okay then.” I said. “Let’s move on.”

“Given what we’ve been seeing Darryl and Elise here do just now, I think that we can handle the Krutnik quite well.” Thomas said. “These bugs are actually a pretty bad match-up for us given that half our team is mainly using slashing and piercing weapons that are terrible against armoured foes, they are very resistant against most of my spells and there’s a lot of them. Even Elise who’s the most effectively armed to deal with these critters with her bludgeoning weapon, is fighting sub-optimally because the bigger ones are almost entirely resisting her lightning.”

“And yet we’re kicking ass!” Alexa cheered.

“And yet we are proceeding pretty well, or kicking ass as the youngsters say.” Thomas agreed.

“Aren’t you like 25 or something?” Alexa said.

“Doesn’t matter.” Thomas said. “With our newfound powers, we should be able to do this. But I don’t think we can handle a Borough Boss by ourselves, at least not a Krutnik one.”

“Right. Avoid the Borough Boss, but let’s kick some bug butt!” Alexa said.

With our spirits raised, we pressed on. With Ben scouting ahead and killing the Leavers on our path, the encounter rate was low and mostly just coincidental run-ins with us taking most Krutnik by surprise. There was one instance where a few Krutnik seemed to be permanently burrowed underneath the path as an ambush, but even those were dealt with after we overcame the surprise.

Then we reached the main hive, and our raised spirits plummeted all the way down to the deepest depths of this burrow.

New Achievement: You can’t fight City Hall!

But you can sure die trying.

You have discovered a City Boss!

That’s right. Let me say that again for the assholes in the back!

A.

CITY.

FUCKING.

BOSS.

Welp. If you gonna go, you might as well do it in style.

Just an FYI. As of in this moment in the current season of Dungeon Crawler World, not a single Crawler has faced a City Boss and survived. And for good reason. Only a complete moron would voluntarily put themselves in a situation where they had to fight one of the most powerful monsters on the level.

Reward: A lot of people are probably going to watch you die. That’s a better prize than most of us get.

Krutnik Blooming Hive Princess

Level 78

This is a City Boss!

There are many kinds of Krutnik, their species customized with so many variations and mutations that it’s hard to tell which ones are myths, made up by content creators or real creatures! They are like a Krakaren knock-off that solely creates bug-themed mutants! But one part of the Krutnik species remains a hard constant, and that’s their Queens. They are the biggest, the strongest and the most durable, but this is an all-natural state they evolved into the slow and steady way. Krutnik know better than to play around with the genes and anatomy of the ones tasked with the complicated process of laying eggs and making the next generation.

A Princess isn’t a Queen yet, but in a way they are more dangerous! While much bigger and tougher, Queens are all but immobile aside from a few limbs they can swipe around with. Princesses meanwhile are meant to venture out into the world and find themselves a prime spot to start a new hive! They usually start their journey burrowing through the dirt, but much prefer to colonize somewhere on or near the surface. While they can and if need be will lair deep underground, no Princess wants to be the Queen of a deep dank burrow where it’s slim pickings with no excitement whatsoever! As such, if you find a Princess about to bloom into a queen, then they’re likely but days or even hours away from sending a horde of death to the surface to exterminate!

This princess is currently in the process of blooming into a Queen! That is a very bad thing for everyone in a 50km radius, yet a good thing for you! A Blooming Princess is weaker than both the Princess and the Queen, as they are starting to lose their vigour and mobility but don’t yet have high-density plating and a royal guard! If there’s ever a time to try and take out the whole hive, it’s in this narrow timeframe! Blooming process: 16/174

New quest! Matricide!

It’s Gozilla! Aaargh! Gozilla! Not Gozilla! Waargh, run away!

Not so fast, random panicking Asian civilian! This isn’t Godzilla, but a Krutnik Princess. Which means that it’s not quite as threatening, and yet so much worse! One kaiju just requires you to not get trampled or be in a collapsing building, but this one will soon birth thousands of mini-kaiju that will be more focused on killing you specifically!

But fear not, because if this Princess is slain, then there will be ‘merely’ hundreds of Krutnik out for your blood (not counting the Gatherers and Leavers that actually make them number into the tens of thousands). But be quick, because once that timer runs out she’ll turn into a Queen and be a lot harder to take down! You’d need some kind of giant nuclear lizard to take her down once that happens! I wonder what you’d call a creature like that? Godzilla? Come on, we can’t call all the giant monsters that, stupid random panicking Asian civilian!

Anyway, slay this Princess to complete the quest. Pretty straightforward, especially for the reward involved. What’s more, I’ll give you a certain bonus for stopping her timer based upon how early you do it!

You will receive a Gold Quest Box upon completing this quest!

We looked at the massive Krutnik laying in a pool of putrid water filled with bulgy floating patches of what looked like algae-covered frogspawn. There were hundreds of Krutnik crawling around it.

The creature was far away from us, fortunately. The tunnel we followed to get here was situated somewhere near the top of a large bowl-shaped cavern, kept from collapsing with the power of dungeon nonsense because it was impossible for a cavern of this size to exist naturally or to be made by burrowing insects. Not to mention, the whole place was dimly lit by glowing moss.

Our height gave us a good view of the entire place, and the various larger Krutnik and smaller swarms crawling about. From up here, the large Juveniles and Cleavers looked like literal ants, making the size of the larger Krutnik near them all the more intimidating. There were other entrances we saw which were also situated at an elevated position for no discernible reason, meaning that it wasn’t the Krutnik but the AI who designed this place to give us this grand view and a tactical advantage.

“Level 78. A freaking level 78 City Boss.” Ben said, pale and not hiding the fear in his voice.

“I’m not fighting that.” I said. “I doubt even I can tank even a single hit from such a behemoth.”

“I doubt I could even dent it.” Elise sighed. “And if even the popular crawlers with their bullshit god items haven’t taken down a City Boss yet, I don’t like our chances.”

“On the bright side, we still have plenty of time to deal with this.” Thomas said. “This floor lasts for about 8 days, or 192 hours, and when adding the 6 hours before the 2nd floor collapsed we’re now about 16 hours in. With that, I take it that this Princess is timed to finish her blooming at the 168th hour of this dungeon, exactly one day before the collapse.”

“We don’t know if the Krutnik are going to come up to the surface at that point though, or earlier.” I said.

“Probably earlier. They started small, but will probably keep ramping up.” Elise said, peering at the City Boss in the distance. “There is a whole line of Krutnik in front of the Princess’s maw, continuously feeding her. Way too much to be sustainable if her appetite stays like this. Mostly dead Krutnik from the looks of it, but I’m also seeing blobs that might be people and animals.”

I looked at the large Krutnik, and I could see the line of activity in front of its mouth now that it was pointed out to me. But there was no way I could see individual blobs within that wavy line.

Looking around at details closer to me, I noticed that my eyesight regressed a bit. It wasn’t much, I hadn’t noticed it before now after all, but my farsight wasn’t what it used to be. Made sense, the Talossi were mostly miners and probably didn’t need to see far that often. Then again, even my human eyes wouldn’t have been able to discern the details Elise saw from over here. It was close, but probably just not enough.

“Are there hatchlings coming out of the pond?” Thomas asked Elise, his eyes numerous but similarly not meant to see across great distances.

“Constantly.” Elise said. “They’re being carried by some new kind of Krutnik, but those guys disappear behind the mud walls after a bit. Can’t tell where they’re going.”

“So the Princess is constantly churning out more Krutnik despite also being in the process of a metamorphosis.” Thomas said. “Rubies to piglets that the quality is going to raise as time progresses, and that we’ll be seeing different and more deadly Krutnik in due time.”

“Are you saying that we should fight this thing now!?” Elise said. “Because I’m pretty sure you’ll get outvoted.”

“No, that’s suicide.” Thomas chuckled, which with his new mouth was a fast clicking of his mandibles against one another. “We shouldn’t get anywhere near that thing and get trapped in the process. But if we know where they take the hatchlings, maybe we could smash their nursery.”

“Probably one of those big creatures, or very near it.” Ben sighed. “Which is probably going to be a Borough Boss.”

“It’s just a silver box. It’s probably good, but it’s not that good.” I said. “Let’s just give up on this quest, and maybe come back later.”

The others nodded in agreement and we were about to turn around, when suddenly there was a loud explosion echoing through the caverns. A large plume of smoke billowed up from its origins, pinpointing the location for us and the Krutnik alike.

“Elise, what do you see?” Thomas asked.

“Crawlers. They’re closer to us than the queen, so I can make out their figures just enough to see that their outfits are too much of a haphazardly thrown together hodgepodge of equipment to be NPCs. Not much else, though.” Elise said grimly. “From the looks of it they’ve been killing their way through, they paved a path of dead Krutnik behind them. They’re going to be overwhelmed in a few minutes at most regardless, and that was before the explosion. Right now, half the Krutnik on this side of the nest are converging on them.”

“How many people?” Ben asked.

“At least two alive, and probably about five dead.” Elise answered. “But I’m only seeing part of the scene through the gaps of walls and stalagmites.”

“Rescue, retreat or distraction?” I asked. “Right now we can get to the nearest nursery with minimal resistance, and probably destroy it before the thinned ranks can converge in force on us.”

Wait, what was I saying? It was pragmatic and a rational voice within me said that we might save more crawlers if we kept the Krutnik from emerging before the collapse, but the ease with which I could turn someone’s trouble into my opportunity was disconcerting.

Stop it. I’m still me. I’m me.

I took a deep breath and looked at the others. They hadn’t noticed my self-chastising, and if they thought my words were cruel then they weren’t saying anything about it. Only Alexa was looking at me with a frown.

“Rescue.” Alexa said.

“Yeah, they’re close and we don’t have to fight the whole horde if we’re in and out quickly. Considering the bugs aren’t spitting acid, I’d say we can handle it.” Elise said.

“We don’t know where the nearest nursery or hatchery is anyway, it’s unlikely we’ll find one before this ‘distraction’ would be over.” Thomas said.

“Rescue.” Ben said.

“Rescue.” I said, and I would’ve smiled if I still had lips.