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164,581/20,200,000 EXP till you reach Level 52
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Erik’s eyes closed as another screen appeared.
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You have 5 attribute points to use.
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He couldn’t feel excited and mechanically placed his attribute points: two into his Mana pool, one into Stamina regeneration, two into Agility.
His character sheet appeared.
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Name: Erik West
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Level: 51
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Race: Human
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Titles:
From the Grave II
Mana Emperor
Dungeon Master II
Reverse Alchemist
Poison Body
Fire Body
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Strength: (Base 36) +41
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770
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Agility: (Base 29) +65
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517
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Stamina: (Base 39) +19
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870
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Mana: (Base 8) +68
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760
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Mana Regeneration (Base 10) +55
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33.50/s
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Stamina Regeneration: (Base 41) +54
20.00/s
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I have reached Body Like Iron but I still have Body Like Earth iron to reach. The soul grounded. He repeated the mantra that he had first heard about Body Cultivation from Egbert. Now he finally knew what it meant.
I need to find a place that is heavy in Earth-concentrated Mana. A place of a natural phenomenon or variant Mana stones that are filled with Earth-attribute Mana. I need to suffer under the crushing gravitational pressure that comes with high Earth areas, letting it crush my body. I’ll need to hold myself together, to heal myself and be crushed until I can deal with high gravity or rapid gravity changes. The Fourth Realm is a place of phenomena and Mana chaos that go against the laws of nature. If I can find a place that can help me in tempering my body, then I can increase my Strength again.
Chapter: Dungeon Grind
The next day was filled with bleak skies. The mist that had been thinning the last couple of days seemed to return, as if to fit the current mood of the army. Just a quarter of the capital had been searched.
Han Wu and Setsuko returned to the special teams; a new section of the army was pulled from their recovery operations so they could go into the dungeon as well.
The special teams moved through to the third floor, using the monsters there to increase their levels. They would leave after clearing it. The newly spawned creatures’ levels had dropped back to normal and they weren’t as strong. Once the teams cleared the floor, they passed Old Xern some metals and headed out to the surface. They started the dungeon again, once again reaching the third floor and grinding out more kills against the beasts on the floor.
They cycled the third floor three times, with nearly everyone increasing their base levels by one.
After talking with Old Xern, they learned he truly didn’t mind other creatures of his race dying. He was a beast, after all, and death was normal cycle of nature.
What was shocking was Old Xern’s level. George reported that he was level sixty-three, which made them exceedingly wary of the Xerns of the next level, even as Old Xern maintained that they were nothing but weak young ones.
They took their time to create a plan to clear out the fourth floor using Old Xern’s intel.
“So the Xerns’ weakness is their love of metal. They’ve been deprived of it for centuries. Old Xern hates the taste of meat so now we meet him while wearing leathers instead of metal. Though these other Xern might not have the same hang-ups he does.
“So, we use some metal to lure the Xern and we do what we did on the third floor; we set up defenses and lay into them. Their vulnerability is to fire. We lace the area with poison, formations, and just bring them right into the trap,” Erik schemed.
“What if they don’t go for the metal?” Rugrat asked.
“Then we will retreat out of the dungeon. I think that they will go for the metal but we need to watch out. They’re smart and sneaky creatures. Old Xern has talked about how they will talk and entice someone close, with one Xern talking as bait, and then the other Xern will appear from the ground and ambush the person the first Xern is talking to,” Erik said.
“There are notes from the emperor talking about the Xern. Seems that he wasn’t the biggest fan of them,” Rugrat added.
They went over how they would place the barriers in the room beyond. They’d looked into it but they hadn’t seen anything inside the first room of the fourth floor. With the Xern being able to move through the ground as if it were water, they didn’t trust the emptiness.
***
Rugrat passed Old Xern his snacks as the two teams moved through the room.
Old Xern couldn’t hide his excitement, getting two iron ingots for every single person who passed him.
The soldiers reached the stairs down to the next floor.
“There are creatures hiding underneath the ground,” Roska reported, having used a Detect Life scroll.
“Plan three,” Erik confirmed.
The others all nodded. They had rehearsed it all night and this morning to make sure that they could carry out any plan they chose rapidly.
Rugrat held an iron ingot in his hand. He threw it hard to the other side of the room.
The ground exploded as Xern, similar to but smaller than Old Xern, jumped out of the ground to try and get the iron ingot.
“Oi!”
“It’s mine!”
“Metal!”
“Tasty treats!”
They went wild. Six Xern scrambled over one another, biting, scratching or sending Water and Earth attacks at one another.
“Floor clear!” Roska reported. Her only job—along with Simms, Xi, and Imani—was to sense into the floor to make sure that they weren’t ambushed from underground.
The front rows dropped to the floor and threw down barricades. Storbon, Deni, Yuli, and Setsuko put up defenses as Erik, Rugrat, Niemm, Han Wu, and Gong Jin threw grenades forwards at the Xern’s scrum. The others all opened fire with their weapons.
The Xern were packed in close together. Seeing the grenades were made of metal, they stuffed them into their various faces.
Explosions went off inside stomachs. Three died from the explosives, another two were badly wounded, and the last had taken a bite of the first metal ingot thrown by Rugrat.
“Ah, I hate reincarnating,” he complained as rounds and arrows focused on him, killing him in seconds.
People watched the distance as more watched the earth beneath them. The defenses were up and heavy repeaters and bolt action rifles were prepared for threats.
Rugrat threw out formation plates, circling the half-chewed iron ingot.
The ground started to shake as a Xern jumped up to get the ingot, only to be stunned by the formations and attacked by the defenders.
They kept on complaining as they were shocked, shot and blown apart, merely annoyed by the prospect of death.
It was hectic, with dozens of them appearing. A few tried to sneak around and attack them from the rear but Roska and her squad dealt with them before they could threaten the group.
It was systematic and cold slaughter. There were moments of panic but they were the special teams, the best of Alva’s fighting forces. They quickly recovered and adapted.
It took some time before the soldiers ceased fire. The room was a mess. Formation plates were broken. Bolts and bullet holes could be seen all over the place. Smoke rose and Xern corpses with tombstones covered the ground.
An annoyed but resigned deep and feminine roar ca
me from further within the dungeon. Erik and Rugrat knew this roar. It was from the Metal Devourer Miss that Old Xern had talked about.
“Yawen, send out your summon,” Erik said.
Yawen’s summoned beast went out, scouting the entirety of the dungeon, and found nothing left. It entered the floor boss room, seeing a deep pool of water with an altar in the middle of it. A head rose out of the water. The skin of the beast was composed of brown scales with blue lines carved into them that formed symbols that traced down the sides of her head. Her head was large, nearly a meter in size with beady and deep blue eyes that were difficult to make out in the darkness of the cavernous boss room.
It looked at the summoned creature before letting out a snort and lowering itself back into the water.
“Well, shall we go and pay a visit?” Erik asked Rugrat.
“Sure,” Rugrat said. “All right, same as we did with the third floor!”
Even with Old Xern’s words, they made sure to add in a number of traps behind them.
Erik, Rugrat, and George went to the fourth floor boss room.
A brown, white and blue scaled dragon head rose lazily from the waters. She looked at Erik, Rugrat, and then George. Her eyes thinned as she hissed at George.
George grew to his full size as he growled back. Her head was a size and a half larger than George’s when he was at his full size
She let out a series of hisses.
George looked confused with his head to the side and then let out a few yaps back.
The two of them looked at each other, the atmosphere tense as they seemed to be communicating with each other.
“What is going on, Rugrat?” Erik asked under his breath.
“She can’t speak human tongues but she can speak the beast language, same as George. Seems he’s arguing about us and she’s making fun of him being contracted to me,” Rugrat replied as he realized what she had said about George’s tiny human.
“Oi! It’s harder to level up for a human! Plus he gets all the monster cores and meat from the bits that aren’t good!”
George looked annoyed by Rugrat’s words as the dragon-like head laughed at Rugrat.
The two beasts got into an argument. It looked as if they were trying to outdo one another.
“What is she, some kind of water serpent?” Erik asked.
“Not like one back on Earth. Look at those scales—they connect to one another like armor, like an exoskeleton. If I was a guessing man, I’d say the scales are pretty strong, too. Close to as strong as iron armor and as thick,” Rugrat said. “ She kind of looks like a dragon mixed with a naga.”
During the argument, Metal Devourer Miss had lifted the majority of her body outside of her pool as she slithered about, somehow making it look like she was imitating Rugrat. She had two powerful back legs, two smaller forelegs and with her natural serpent like shape it would be easy for her to move through water. Though her forearms were stunted, on land she would probably use her back legs to run, kind of like a T-Rex. She was certainly as big as one. She was two times the height of George, who was already the size of a small truck.
Erik and Rugrat stood there as George and the floor boss spoke to each other.
George flashed his wings at one point and Miss let out a shriek, nipping at him. George yelled back and they seemed to get in an argument about something before George ruffled his wings but kept them down.
It was some time before George’s conversation with the dragon slowed down and George looked to Rugrat.
“What’s he saying?” Erik asked.
“Not really saying anything, it’s kind of like frigging mental Scrabble,” Rugrat said.
“Putting letters in the right place?”
“No, the one with dancing around, and pictures and other people guess.” Rugrat snapped his fingers, trying to remember.
“Like you trying to communicate to other humans?” Erik deadpanned.
Rugrat just looked at Erik with a ‘what the hell, man’ look on his face. He shook his head from side to side, shrugging a few times, unable to form words.
“So, what is he saying?” Erik asked again.
“She’s the floor master, been stuck here a long time and doesn’t like it. He said that we can control the dungeon and set her free. She’s all like, no, you can’t—you’re too weak and stuff, back and forth. But then she said if we can do it, then... Holy shit, she said she is willing to become your sworn beast!” Rugrat said.
Erik looked at the dragon looking at him with big eyes. He felt excited but also apprehensive, considering that such a large beast that might become his sworn companion.
The power of the Ten Realms descended as the creature seemed to have made an oath.
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Gilga has sworn on the Ten Realms that if you take control over the dungeon and free her from its constraints, that she will become your sworn beast. If either break this oath or harm the other, then it will result in their death.
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Do you accept this oath?
YES/NO
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Erik thought for a second before he nodded. “Yes.”
Gilga turned her head, examining him more closely.
The door behind her opened, revealing another stairway down.
Gilga swam back in her pool so she was closer to the doorway and roared into it.
“Gilly! It has been some time! What are you talking about? More people? Why are you telling me? You swore to be their companion!?” The man’s voice, which was calm in the beginning, turned to rage with the last sentence.
“I’ll tear them apart! I’ll destroy them!” The man’s voice turned more bestial and deeper.
Gilga turned around and rolled her eyes, making muah muah muah noises before she roared back through the doorway.
“Fine. I’ll meet with them.” The man still sounded angry but not bestially so now. “Okay, okay! I swear I won’t kill them, or allow someone else to kill them if they come down to this level of the dungeon unless they intend me or the others harm.”
Gilga roared again.
“On the Ten Realms,” the man said with gritted teeth as another oath was made.
Gilga waved her head toward the open doorway.
Erik pulled out a Mortal-iron metal ingot. Gilga’s eyes went wide as she cruised across the water and looked at the iron in his hand. Her tongue hanging out. She looked exceedingly cute, like a puppy eager for a treat.
Erik tossed it up and she caught it in her mouth, chewing on it with loud noises.
“Metal-eating beasts, great, just great,” Rugrat sighed.
“Don’t think I forgot when George got loose in the Alchemy garden,” Erik reminded as he walked ahead, his rifle up and ready.
Rugrat let out a dry laugh and then shot a look at George, who let out an indignant yowl. Gilga made some hukhukhuk noises as she laughed at him.
George let out a bark; a tongue of flame appeared from his mouth.
Gilga only seemed more amused. She continued munching on her metal, watching as they headed forward.
“Glosil, this is Rugrat. We have met with the boss on the fourth floor. They were amenable and we are heading to the fifth floor to meet with a new entity. We are safe for now. Be ready to support or pull back if needed. Do not open fire on the boss on the fourth floor. We have made an oath with her,” Rugrat reported through his communication device.
“Understood. We’ll wait it here.” Glosil responded.
“Rugrat out.”
The three went down the stairs. As they did so, Rugrat used his Dungeon Sense, locating the dungeon core and then shared it with Erik and Glosil via the sound transmission device.
It was brighter in this room, the first of the fifth floor. The light emitted heat, as if the sun beat down on them. A calm stream trickled through the room; in the center of the room there was a large humanoid creature. He had deep-brown eyes, a full mane of thick, bushy hair, and a full beard. His mustache was rolled u
p like tusks. He was squat but had a powerful body.
“Humans,” he spat, as if the word brought up a sour taste in his mouth as he looked at them.
The floor’s Mana was dense and moved quickly. The air around the man shook as a vein appeared on his forehead.
George let out a low and confused yowl.
“Wolf?” The man looked at George before Gilga said something from behind them.
“Hello, I’m Erik and this is Rugrat,” Erik said.
“I’m Dromm, the first beast of the fifth floor. Well, don’t you want to kill me and take my Experience?” Dromm’s body started to grow bigger and power started to roll off his body. He was much stronger than even Gilga and had passed level sixty-five.
Erik and Rugrat locked up for a second. A feeling of doom filled them, a feeling that any action they took could lead to their deaths, ran through them.
That crippling fear wasn’t unfamiliar to a soldier, it was something they mastered long ago.
Erik and Rugrat took deep breaths, coming out of the black and not focusing on their fear. They looked around, focusing on something else.
Fear was the mind killer; giving in to it would make them irrational. Using it as motivation, though, that could allow a man to do things they didn’t think possible. Using it they could run through a field under fire to reach their friend who had been wounded or run toward the enemy to kill them so that their friends could survive.
“If we don’t have to kill, we won’t,” Erik stated.
“Strange humans. Wouldn’t make good beasts,” Dromm huffed.
A tree appeared beside Dromm, growing from the floor in seconds. A face looked at them both from the tree bark.
“Elder,” Dromm intoned as he dropped to a knee, greeting this tree that studied Erik and Rugrat. They both bowed their heads slightly but didn’t lower them fully, checking the area for threats still.
“Humans, why are you here?” the tree asked.
“To take control of the dungeon,” Erik replied.
“Take control of it?” The tree questioned, sounding skeptical.
“We’re Dungeon Masters. Once we get to a dungeon core, then we can control it,” Erik said. “I want to ask, just what is going on here?”
The Fourth Realm (The Ten Realms Book 4) Page 25