Inside the treasure chest was a shield, and a book. A Skill book this time – not a spellbook.

[Item]: The Application of Chivalry in Battle

[Rarity]: Rare

[Effects]: Contains knowledge on the Vitality technique [Knightly Tenacity].

“A physical technique! That’s new,” he said. Identifying the new skill revealed that it increased Vitality for each entity fighting alongside the user within a certain range. Learning it required five Spirit.

[Item]: Conviction – Rank 2

[Rarity]: Rare

[Effects]: Twice a day, unleash a blast of light from the shield that damages and knocks back enemies in a cone in front of the user.

For now, he kept the two new items with his Skeleton Mage and left looking disappointed.

When they approached the portal, the book in Alta’s hands disappeared. When he exited and moved to knock on the closed door, it swung open without his prompting.

The old guard outside nodded at them to leave, then locked it again before sitting back down. He closed his eyes as they entered the same carriage to return.

----

Back at his house in New Traxis, Caesar and Alta watched the Wit Duck continuously devour meat that weighed more than it and grew larger than its own body. Increasing its Rarity had caused it to consume more resources but offered it the opportunity to consume a Common catalyst.

“Is this how people without beastmaster abilities gain monsters for themselves?” he said out loud.

“Do look at how much luck might be required.” Alta put up three fingers and counted down. “One, they must find a creature with enough potential. We were lucky to find the duck. Two, they must create a material for them to consume. Without Talisvan’s experience, that might not work. Three, the creature has to survive the process. Unlikely without more riches.” She put her hand down. “And that’s not considering the possible other factors, like the creature suddenly gaining ambition and wandering away.”

“Thus, having an extra monster pet should be reserved for the lucky or the powerful. Then how many of those beastmasters in high positions happened to have wealthy parents as well?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Likely a considerable number,” said Alta. “It seems we have to be wary of fighting in Rishlik, if they enjoy hiding their true ability as well.”

He sighed. Another thing to watch out for, when confronting random people inside the Forest From Before. But maybe the Hidden Grotto will help, he thought as he watched his insect friends eat their share. Back at the Gauntlet dungeon, the Draugr King had done a great job of fighting. It never tired, even as it faced hordes of skeletons, nervous situations, and a Level 40 creature slightly taller than it.

Caesar acknowledged its might and decided to place its rank two free stat points into its Strength, Endurance, and Magic. Naturally, he prioritized a greater distribution in strength due to its immense flexibility when using weapons. Other than the greatmaul, he did own a lance. And with its undead constitution, Endurance became less of a priority but still synergized well with Rapid Regeneration, greatly extending its durability in battle. Yet increasing Magic was also necessary to improve the effects of Pestilent Nova – its primary way to spread the three plagues faster.

He settled for placing fifteen points into its Strength, five to Endurance, and ten to Magic. That gave it forty Strength, thirty Endurance, and thirty-five Magic.

Now for the dungeon, he thought. A problem appeared: with the dungeon’s level being Mid Rank 2, it might not be possible to summon the Draugr King directly inside. But he decided to try it anyway. The situation with dungeon cores made him doubt the power behind each dungeon. And he remembered rank one dungeons, which revealed only the maximum rank when identified, instead of both rank and levels.

Portals blocked those of a higher level from entering. It made sense for dungeon cores to be able to do that, as they only created an entrance into their homes. But could they also control the very environment inside? With what powers it showed in the Blight Cairn, it seemed not. No Gravekeepers had appeared, after all, meaning they lacked some powers.

Fighting above one’s level threshold was the best way to level up, and it wasn’t that hard either. Although it seemed unlikely, as one had to kill many, many bosses for that to work, what happened if an explorer killed enough same-level creatures to level up past the threshold? He wagered they’d probably level up and gain an advantage over the rest of the monsters, but that meant bosses should also gain that chance with enough time. It might simply be very rare for that to happen, and a little unnecessary to invest so much time to do that.

“Perhaps Identify is an ability as well,” he mused. “It only helps living creatures like us avoid dungeons too strong to combat.”

Alta agreed. “Perks do make a large difference in each fight. And Epics began appearing in rank two dungeons, which makes them all the more dangerous.”

Having convinced himself of the possibility, Caesar began to prepare to enter the Hidden Grotto again. The Doppelganger remained behind to keep up appearances of doing nothing while he snuck into the area where the Midnight Shroud hung over a dungeon at night. He summoned Max to sniff around for signs of human activity, before summoning the ant queen as well to dig a precise tunnel underneath the earth.

A glowing portal revealed itself, black as night in a small space underground. As the ant queen began to expand that space for even multiple men to hide inside, he stepped through it and vanished into the dark.

Inside the Hidden Grotto, an abyss glared at him once again. Now was the time to understand how his ability interacted with that level limit all dungeons had. He closed his eyes and summoned the Draugr King next him, right as that horrific screech from before sent spiders scattering upwards in fear again.

It works, he thought in relief. That made him much bolder in confronting the Epic monster that lay below. Before the auction arrived, he wanted a glimpse at the thing he needed to face to secure his second Essence of Harmony.

The Draugr wielded its greatmaul, wading into the spider swarm without care. Fangs could not bite through its skin, and poison did nothing to slow it down. Instead, its three diseases wreaked havoc on the arachnids, causing a few to bite those nearby. Presumably they thought of the twine in their vision as prey, and the new hunger had made them frenzied enough to turn on their kin.

Caesar, carrying the spear in one hand and Conviction in the other, clumsily stabbed at a few jumping spiders who leapt over his Draugr’s head. Seeing that he needed more practice, he unleashed two blasts of light and set the shield down. With his primary weapon in hand, he began to blend spider spawn into many pieces and scraps.

Insect blood spewed from around the Draugr, and waves of pestilent liquid flowed beside it, seeping into the piles of corpses still twitching nearby. It roared and smashed down its maul again, creating a crater with its force. As the many colors of insect body parts mixed together, a spot of darkest black flowed as well. More and more spiders crawled to surround it, burying the undead underneath the masses.

The rank two Phase Spider from his first excursion stepped onto the uppermost floor again, its body skittering forwards from fear. Yet it regained its senses when it spotted Caesar, narrowing its beady eyes at him before disappearing. But he was ready for it this time and let his spear bite when the spider suddenly appeared to his left. The two traded blows. His spear went forwards, then backwards. Fangs tore open a gash on his shoulder. He swiped to the left.

It disappeared once again and pounced. Caesar stepped back and almost stumbled, but smiled instead. As the Phase Spider moved to tear open his neck, stomping feet came from behind.

With a roar, the Draugr smashed its greatmaul into the spider’s body, caving it in. It shrieked and tripped itself trying to retreat, but the undead would not stop attacking. It continued to pursue, making the floor groan underneath.

Caesar stepped back and watched the fight, merriment across his lips. The Draugr slew it a few seconds later and threw the corpse into the pile, where a mass of blood was beginning to coalesce.

Spherical in shape, it appeared almost like the Flesh Elemental’s tumor ability, but its liquid body flowed unceasingly. A small bulbous shape appeared on top of it, which looked like a head. He watched in curiosity as it churned and writhed, black bubbles appearing from all over its body. This would take a long time, so he sat down and drank one of the Common potions to heal his wounds quickly before plague infected them.

The descent deeper into the dungeon was simple. An ascent though, would be much harder. One of the priorities of his trip was to find a portal that could take him aboveground, instead of having to turn a spider into a minion to create a passageway above. The other was to find the Epic boss and make plans to slay it, as he wanted to see the auction’s items first before he sacrificed one of his other minions.

They waited until the Sanguinary Aberration fully took form, looking most like the Phase Spider that fueled its existence. Although barely passing the threshold at Level 21, it nonetheless appeared menacing with black tendrils wriggling out from its liquid body, with a consistency resembling skin. Eight sunken pockets of air stared in the distance before its head twitched in Caesar’s direction.

Having spotted a living being, it moved to attack, but when the Draugr King stepped next to him to block its vision, the creature paused. It scuttled to the left, seemingly still detecting the human, but did not launch itself forwards.

“It’s not willing to harm you,” he remarked. “Yet I see you don’t have direct control over it either.”

The Draugr nodded, and gently took his hand to guide him away. The thing watched them, twitching to barely hold itself back on attacking. Eventually, as he and his summon descended down into the depths, it stepped over the abyss and dropped. He saw the blood spider disappear over the side and frowned.

“Let’s return.” They walked back up and searched the Phase Spider for a material. Only its fangs were suitable, but at rank one, was thus not what he had expected from a monster such as this. Are there more of these things beneath?