After filling their stomach with a simple meal, they both went to sleep. They had been through a lot today, and rest was essential to a healthy lifestyle. Thufrat slept under the beast skin they had just harvested, and Ark just slept next to the campfire. It didn't take long for either of them to fall asleep, and the next day was quickly upon them.
Ark's plan today was to revisit the dungeon and continue to explore it and level up. Thufrat had similar thoughts, but he also wanted to test out his new strength. He didn't notice it yesterday, but this morning, he noticed a plethora of changes to his status. Which all stemmed from his bloodline awakening, of course, Thufrat didn't know what kind of bloodline he had awakened, but from the looks of things, it wasn't weak at all.
And bloodlines were very strong in general, even if it was a weaker one, it was still something to be excited over. The only annoying part about bloodlines was that you couldn't see what they were if they were self-awakened, unless you knew a lot about bloodlines, and knew what kind of skills you got from them. Thufrat had also leveled up to level 38 from the fight they had. If Ark knew this, he would be a little dumbfounded, since it implied that Ark got less experience than other people did. Or at least less than Thufrat did.
There were some simple reasons behind this, of course, Ark wouldn't find out until later, but still. The biggest reason was his growth skill since it was so strong, it needed more experience for the host to level up. Another reason was just that different people needed more experience than others to level up.
Since the wolf couldn't talk, Thufrat decided that he would take the initiative.
"I was wondering, do you want to go back into the dungeon?"
Ark nodded his head enthusiastically as he stood up and got ready to leave. But just as he was about to, Thufrats stomach growled a little. Therefore Ark decided to just hunt him a rabbit before they left for the dungeon. After that was done, they bore off on their journey towards the dungeon. Thufrat had no idea where this tree of Ark's was, and he, therefore, needed the wolf to show him the way to the dungeon.
As they arrived at the cemetery once more, Thufrat was just about to take out his prized Warhammer when Ark suddenly shot out from in front of him. While he was moving, Ark accumulated a massive amount of ice Mana in his left claws and got himself ready for a devastating move. As he arrived in front of the big amount of enemies, he unleashed the Mana he had been accumulating and sent it towards the undead. This time around, it was a lot easier than last time, his magic was a lot stronger after all.
As he slashed out, a big tornado made out of ice was sent out, its sole objective to utterly destroy, and it delivered. The undead didn't even get the chance to resist before they were torn to pieces by the ice shards flying around at tremendous speed. Thufrat was always surprised when this wolf used magic, it was always so extravagant, and such advanced magic. Most people just condensed their elements into a slash or a ball or something similar. Ark could of course also do this, but more often than not, it wasn't as effective.
As the undead were decimated, they both entered the dungeon quickly. Since it was a bit cramped in the stairs, Ark walked in the back. The reason was simple, if Thufrat walked in the back, he wouldn't be able to see past Ark at all, and in case something happened, that wasn't really anything good. As they arrived at the bottom, they were greeted by the sight of the caves system once again.
After a while, they entered the space were the caves branched out into three different paths. As Ark was about to walk to the right one, Thufrat walked towards the one in the middle. AS they both saw what the other was doing, they were both a bit surprised, they had just both assumed that the other took the same path to get to the jungle. It seemed like the three paths led to the same place, just that some held more danger than others. As he thought about this, Thufrat decided to ask a question.
"Are there any monsters in that path?"
Ark nodded quickly.
"Then we should take the one in the middle, there are strong ghouls in the left one, but there are no monsters in the middle one."
As Ark heard this, he was a bit surprised, he was almost sure that there would be monsters in all the paths, and in the beginning, he even thought that they led to different places. But since there were no enemies in the middle one, they chose to take that path.
It took them a couple of minutes to arrive at the entrance of the jungle once more, but this time, Ark didn't hesitate like last time and just spread out light Mana to protect them from the fog, since it could mess with their heads. And that would drastically affect their combat strength. Thufrat was pleasantly surprised by this since he had just used determination and perseverance the last time.
As they entered the jungle, Ark started to ponder, that horde of skeletons they had fought with, where did they come from? And why did they seem like an organized combat force? This dungeon didn't seem as simple as it used to when Ark first entered it.
As they ventured around in the jungle, they decided to avoid most of the monsters they ran into, this turned out to be a good move since Thufrat harvested a lot of magical herbs, that were worth a lot of money, at least according to him. It looked a little comical though, a wolf and a dwarf running around in a jungle and fervently picking up herbs.
As they had ventured around for a couple of hours, they both suddenly stopped. In front of them, the jungle suddenly ended. And in front of them, there was a large plain, upon which stood a castle. Compared to the castles he had seen in his past life, this one was a lot more magnificent, but that was only because the castles he had seen were from backwater places.
Out from this castle, came another squadron of skeletons, led by a high skeleton in scarlet armor. As Ark and Thufrat saw this, plans started to form in both of their minds. Ark wanted to conquer this castle since it seemed to be the boss of the first floor, that would lead them to the second floor, and he would surely get some levels if he were to take over it. Thufrat also wanted to level up, but he was more excited for the treasure they would inevitably find in this castle.
Since they didn't know the exact numbers of enemies, it would be stupid to just run in like some buffoons and end up dying. There was surely a strong boss monster in the castle as well, therefore, it was best to take out the underlings. Before Thufrat was able to voice his opinion, Ark made a noise to grab his attention. As Thufrat shot him an inquisitive glance, Ark started to draw on the ground.
His plan was to wait for some squadrons to go on patrol, like the one from yesterday, and ambush them until the castle couldn't send out any more. When that happened they would swiftly attack, and this time around, Ark would handle the big boss, while Thufrat would handle the small fry. As Thufrat saw this plan drawn on the ground, he started to grin, as he gave his assent to the plan.
And like this, the plan to conquer the first floor had officially started!