“Per guild rules, I will be taking that role, yes.” She smiled at Matt as she held out her palm, calling forth her level triangle. The triangle blazed to life and filled both the bottom rows, showing the third row partially filled as well. Karan was Gold Four, a fact that seemed to take even Jack by surprise.
“Damn. I knew you were a healer, but Gold Four?” He looked from Blake to Karan. “How did you get a Gold Four cleric to lead the group?”
Blake shrugged. He knew she was strong, but he hadn’t thought much of it otherwise. Now that he did, though, healers were rare. Even rarer were clerics, because they needed to have a celestial affinity, which Blake had heard was becoming rarer over the years.
“Is everyone okay with me being the leader?” Karan ignored Jack’s comment and looked at the others. Everyone nodded in agreement. “Good, then we can officially form our party and get to know each other a little more.”
She pulled five crystal pendants from her robes, one for each of them.
“These pendants will serve to bind our party together. With them, we will be able to communicate with each other if needed, as well as tell if someone is in danger. The crystals will also ensure experience is shared throughout the party when we go dungeon diving.”
She handed the crystals around to the group, waiting until each person had one before she put hers over her head, the pendant disappearing into her robes.
Blake and the others followed suit. The moment the pendant hit his skin he felt a strange, almost electric, shock race through his body. It wasn’t painful per se, but it definitely made his skin crawl. After a moment, the feeling subsided and he was bombarded with a sudden heightened awareness of those around him.
“So, how do these work?” Jack was holding his pendant up, looking at the white crystal. A faint light glowed within.
“These pendants are created by the Adventurers’ Guild to link parties together. Each set contains five specially tuned crystals which are linked via mana to the others in the set. When a party is established and each member equips their pendant, the magic will interact with the wearer’s mana as well. We can communicate using the crystal, as it will carry our voices to each other if needed.” She held the crystal up to her lips and whispered into it.
“By holding it to your lips and focusing your mana into the crystal, it will project your words to each member of the party.”
Her voice rang clear from the crystal at Blake’s neck even though he was certain she was whispering too quietly for them to hear normally. This will make communicating inside the dungeon much easier.
“The magic in the crystal also links our experience gain and ensures each party member receives an equal amount of experience based on their level. This way, the party should level at the same rate so that we will all grow together.” She paused and looked at Jack, then Blake. “This means myself and Jack will be gaining experience at a much lower rate that our three Bronze-ranked members.”
“Welp, that’s going to suck,” Jack mumbled under his breath, just loud enough for Blake to hear. He chuckled, but hated the idea that Jack and Karan would be suffering experience-wise because of the three Bronze members.
“Typical thief, always thinking of himself.” It seemed Karan had heard Jack’s comment. “Now is the time we want our Bronze members growing the fastest,” she said. “Because the dungeon is new, the mobs should be a lower level. While they are low, the experience they provide Silver and Gold-ranked adventurers is negligible.
“As such,” she continued, “it is good to take this time to level our lowest ranked members quickly. That way, when the dungeon becomes stronger, we will hopefully have a solid team of at least low Silver-ranked members, aside from myself. At that time, all of you having your chosen class and affinity will be extremely important.”
She let her words hang in the air for a moment as everyone took in what she said. It made sense. As Bronze-ranked adventurers, there really was nothing that gave them an advantage in the dungeon.
If they were all Silver, though, they would each be able to bring unique skills and abilities to their fights. For now, they would need to just work on their teamwork, hone what skills they did have, and get used to utilizing mana in the dungeon as they fought against the low-ranked mobs.
“Now that everyone understands the situation, I do have some good news.” Karan brought everyone’s attention back to her, and she offered Blake a wink, one that made him uneasy. “As a group, we have one advantage the other groups do not. Blake’s already been in the dungeon.”
All eyes turned immediately on Blake.
“So he can give us an idea of what to expect for our first dungeon dive together.” Karan smiled at him wickedly and sat back as Blake decided how best to explain his dungeon dive to the group and prepare them for what they were about to face.
Chapter Twenty-One
“So, I’m guessing that’s new?”
Jack’s voice was filled with a mixture of awe and humor. The group, along with the caravan, were standing in the woods, staring at a large clearing. It was definitely the location of the dungeon; Blake wouldn’t forget the trees surrounding it, having gotten slammed rather painfully into one during his last visit. However, what they were staring at was a lot different from what Blake remembered.
“Yeah, that definitely wasn’t there last time,” Blake said.
Instead of a hole in the ground leading into darkness, a massive stone wolf skull appeared before them. Moisture clung to the lightly glowing rocks, dripping from the teeth, providing a terrifying yet awesome visual. Blake could see that as you walked into the mouth of the dungeon it began to slightly descend, leading deeper into the darkness.
“Wonder what else has changed, then,” Matt whispered, just loud enough for Blake and Jack to hear.
The archer and his sister were normally quiet, and when they did speak, it was in a soft tone. Blake had spent the whole night telling them of the dungeon, its layout, and the different mobs that they should expect – information that would also be shared with other explorers through Sean’s report, but not as detailed as Blake’s account, he was sure. However, he had to wonder how much the dungeon had changed in the month since his dive.
“It’s hard to say,” Karan said. “I can’t imagine a brand-new Bronze dungeon would be able to evolve that much in the span of a month. Dungeons need to kill adventurers in order to grow in power.”
Blake knew Karan had been in a dungeon before, but she’d avoided his questions about her experiences in them. However, her experience did mean she had the most information when it came to what they could expect in the future, and Blake could see why his father had asked her to lead them. With her in their team, he was certain they had nothing to worry about.
“What if—“ Blake paused as he shot a glance to Karan, “—the dungeon killed a Gold-level adventurer?” Something Karan had said made him realize a small detail from the first dive might not have been shared to the masses.
“A Gold-level adventurer wouldn’t be foolish enough to go solo into an unknown dungeon, and a brand-new dungeon would have little chance of killing one.” She glanced at Jack. “It would be more likely for a foolish Silver thief to get himself killed by trying to explore a dungeon before anyone else in the hopes of finding special loot.”
“Eh, I prefer to stay alive. No point doing anything foolish and getting myself killed young. There is still a lot I can offer the world.” Jack winked at Karan, causing her to scowl.
“I. Um. Can we go talk somewhere privately?” Blake motioned towards the trees away from the group of people.
His party offered him confused looks but nodded and followed him. After they disappeared into the trees, Blake turned towards the group and let out a sigh.
“What’s going on, Blake?” Jack leaned against a tree, casually peeling an orange. Blake made a mental note to ask where he kept getting all this fruit.
“Well.” Blake swallowed hard.
He had left out the
part about the mage’s betrayal and the whole nearly killing Blake part. He had also left out any mention of the celestial feather. Blake was certain that information was not supposed to leave the Guildmaster’s office.
“What is it, Blake?” Karan placed a hand on his shoulder, offering him a small smile.
He swallowed again and smiled weakly.
“The dungeon killed the Gold-ranked mage that was with us.” He let the words hang, and it seemed even the forest went quiet for a moment.
Jack and Matt simply stared at Blake, while Emily let out a small gasp and covered her mouth with her hand.
“How? That’s not possible.” Karan’s grip tightened on Blake’s shoulder and he racked his brain on how to explain it without giving away too much information.
He looked at the group and his father’s words echoed through his mind. They were his family, and he knew he needed to trust them.
“You all have to promise not to speak a word of what I’m going to tell you.” They all nodded, and even Jack, who had been lazily eating his orange, was staring at Blake, giving him his full attention.
“The mage that was with the group really wanted a piece of loot the dungeon had dropped.” He cut off Jack before the thief could ask what it was. He trusted his team, his family, but he figured it was best for their protection to not tell them what the loot was.
“He took me hostage, forcing my father to hand the item over.” Blake rubbed his neck, remembering the heat of the mage’s flames. “When my father gave him the item, he didn’t hand me over. He decided to use me as leverage so he could escape the dungeon.”
His eyes grew cloudy and he was in the moment again. He could feel the heat, feel the mage’s arm around his neck. He drew a ragged breath and shuddered.
“During the commotion, the dungeon respawned its boss mob behind the mage. The boss killed the mage in an instant.”
“Why didn’t you tell us earlier?” Karan was the first to break the silence from Blake’s story. Her words weren’t accusatory, but nonetheless, Blake felt like he had betrayed his team.
“I’m not sure. The Guildmaster mentioned she was going to handle that information, and I was afraid of telling you all.”
His voice cracked and he looked away, unable to hold eye contact with them. They had been a team for less than a day and he had already betrayed them.
“It’s all right.”
Emily’s soft voice pulled his attention to her. She offered him a small, sad smile.
“That must have been terrifying.”
He nodded, unable to speak.
“Yeah, don’t sweat it, buddy.” Jack shot him a smile and tossed him the orange he had been working on. “But I still want to know what the loot was.”
Blake caught the orange, and the juice splashed on his fingers as he shook his head at Jack. “I’m not allowed to say.”
“Course not. Just means we’re going to need to do a bunch of dungeon diving to get it to drop for us.”
“At the very least, this means we will need to be a little more careful on our first dive than I had previously anticipated.” Karan smiled at the group. “But even with this new information, the dungeon will still be Bronze ranked, and I am confident we will be fine. If anything, that mage’s betrayal just means the rest of you will level up faster, which is definitely a good thing.”
Her words lightened the mood and Blake felt himself smiling along with the others. The quicker they hit Silver, the better.
“But first,” Karan turned back towards the caravan, where Marcus was calling out orders, “we have to build the settlement.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Is it me? Did I do something wrong?” Ryan asked Erin as they watched the adventurers settle in for the night. They had arrived a week prior, yet not a single person had stepped foot in his dungeon. Instead, they started cutting down trees in a wide swathe around his entrance.
“No.” Erin sat wrapped in her silk blanket, staring at the scene.
The land around them had been changed immensely in a single week. What was once a great forest was now a small settlement, complete with wooden walls and buildings.
“I think they are just establishing a dungeon town before they start allowing adventurers to enter you.”
“Psh, they’re just teasing me.” He sighed and halfheartedly started sifting through his bone collection. “Maybe I should make some new mobs for them.”
Ever since he finished his renovations, Ryan had been searching his area for more skeletons. He had met with partial success, finding skeletons in varying degrees for snakes, a fox, an owl, and a bear.
“Are you still mad about that?” asked Erin. Ryan had been pestering her about making new mob types, but Erin kept telling him he should stick to a small number of different mobs for now. What was the point of collecting bones if he couldn’t show off his collection to the adventurers?
“I’m just so bored.”
As a dungeon, he couldn’t sleep. While he could lose himself to various tasks, such as when he renovated his dungeon, time moved painfully slow if he had nothing to do. Erin at least had the ability to nap to pass time. Ryan just got to amuse himself by occasionally trying to hit his mobs with rocks. Speaking of which:
“Ryan.”
Erin’s voice was as sharp as the stalactite that dropped from the ceiling, scattering the bones of one of his skuirrels. He quickly absorbed the bones and the loot drop. He knew he had a few minutes before he could summon the skuirrel again, but it didn’t matter. No one was coming exploring tonight.
“Hey now, I’m just practicing. I figure I can use those stalactites as another trap.” He had been working on a justification for his mob abuse and was rather proud of that explanation. “Also, it’s not like it hurts them.”
“Yes, but—”
“They don’t have nerves, or skin, or even minds. They’re pretty much undead, mindless zombies. I mean, the ratbies are actual zombies.”
“You still shouldn’t kill them pointlessly. The longer your mobs stay alive, the greater chance they have at evolving.”
“What?”
This was new information. Erin had a habit of forgetting to share things like this with him. Ryan wondered how much she had actually paid attention when she was being taught how to be a dungeon fairy.
“Well, uh.” Yup, she had definitely just remembered. He loved her, but she really made it hard at times. “The longer a mob exists in a dungeon, the higher the chance it has of naturally evolving. What triggers a natural evolution is random and dependent on the mob. So it’s best to just let your mobs live out their lives.”
“What type of evolution are we talking about? I’m not quite sure how much a pile of bones can naturally evolve.” He dropped another stalactite on another skuirrel without thinking.
“Ryan.”
“Sorry. It’s kind of become a habit.”
He chuckled as he absorbed the skuirrel, summoning another in the room. He had been killing the mobs in his first room quite regularly, though now he thought about it, it seemed the ones he had missed originally had taken to hiding more than the new ones he summoned.
“Well, if mobs evolve, you will be able to create the new version of the mob once it has been absorbed.” Welp. That meant dropping stalactites on skuirrels definitely didn’t lead to any new evolutions, since the ones he was summoning were all still basic skuirrels.
“Also,” Ryan liked also, “mobs that have evolved usually cost 1.5 times the amount the normal mob would cost.”
“So an evolved skuirrel would cost—” He did quick math. One times 1.5. Oh, duh. “1.5 points to summon.”
“Well, technically two. It rounds up to the next point.” Erin grinned as Ryan’s emotions sank. “But if they evolve naturally, the extra cost doesn’t count against you until it dies and you have to re-summon it.”
Well, that did offer him incentive not to kill his mobs. He stopped himself from dropping another stalactite.
�
��Well, then, I guess you just saved the skuirrels.” He shot her a bemused feeling through their bond, causing her to laugh. “Behold Rin, Savior of Skuirrels!” Another chuckle. “Oh, that could be the name of the next boss!”
“If you do that, not even the Goddess would be able to save you from me.” The tone of her voice sent chills through Ryan.
Note to self: don’t joke about naming a boss after Rin.
“Noted. Though if we don’t get some adventurers soon, we won’t have to worry about naming another boss for a long time.” Seriously, his experience had barely moved since killing the fire mage.
“Speaking of adventurers…”
Erin was looking into his diamond form at the scene outside the dungeon’s entrance. Five figures were slowly approaching, using the darkness to keep their forms hidden.
“Late-night visitors?”
The way they moved suggested they were trying not to be seen, and Ryan wondered if they had snuck out of the town. As they drew nearer, he could hear their frantic, hushed fragments of speech.
“If we get caught, Marcus is going to kill us,” one of the figures said.
“Aye, but we aren’t going to get caught,” the next one whispered, drawing up next to one of the wolf’s massive stone teeth.
“How can you be so sure?” the first figure asked.
All five wore dark cloaks with hoods covering their faces, making it impossible for Ryan to differentiate them.
“Because as long as we clear the dungeon quick enough, we can sneak back into town without anyone realizing we were gone,” a third one with a deeper voice said.
“Why are we even doing this?” the first one asked as the group started walking through Ryan’s entrance into the tunnel leading to his first room. “Marcus is allowing dives to start tomorrow. Why can’t we just wait till then?”
“Because,” the second one hissed, “I want us to be the first group to clear the dungeon. Then no one can look down on us.” The speaker turned and headed deeper into the dungeon with the others following.
Bone Dungeon (Elemental Dungeon #1) - A Dungeon Core LitRPG Page 9