The team moved further down the tunnel for a while, the only sounds that could be heard was the crunching of boots on the loose dirt. They have not encountered any monsters since the silver rats and their mother.
"We have about an hour or two before the dungeon shifts. Once we find some monsters in this tunnel, should we return to the surface after that?" Galahad asked while checking the time on his Karmic Plate.
At the stroke of midnight, the two moons of Endora would pass directly over head. When that happened, all dungeons across Endora would experience a massive quake that shakes the planet while the tunnels reform into an entirely new structure. Most people simply call it 'The Shift.'
It was dangerous to stay in the tunnels when the dungeons shift. Some adventurers were lucky when the tunnels they stood in would only reattach at two different points. Others wouldn't be so lucky as most tunnels would completely collapse with them still in it.
"That would probably be best, the mana orbs the silver rats dropped were more than enough of a haul, let alone the mother rat's pelt that will sell very well. Best not to get too greedy." Said Victor.
"Speaking of something along the lines of greedy, anyone hear about Alatue biting off more than he could chew last week. He just pushed Sensil and Clatia into breaking up, then tried swooping in just as the team started disbanding." Said Rosetta.
"What?!" Exclaimed Heath. "Sensil broke up with Clatia? When did this happen?" Exclaimed Heath.
He sounded sincere when voicing his concern, but the actual reason was his interest in Clatia. He always waited for a chance to snag a girl out from under most guys. One brother had an interest in riches, while the other had an interest in women; both were always thinking the other one was crazy.
"Lower your voice, remember where you are." Scolded Victor. He had no interest because he already knew the reason since Mydia had a knack for finding out secrets at her job and then sharing the burden with him shortly after discovering.
Clatia, Sensil, and Alatue were old classmates Galahad's team knew since the early school years. They had formed a separate group for dungeon hunting and occasionally worked with them. Now it seems like they won't be joining anytime soon.
"Apparently Alatue saw some conversations on Sensil's Karmic Plate, then told to everyone else on the team who he was talking with."
"Who was he talking to? Another girl? Money loaners? Casmus's sister?"
"The Royals of New." Said Victor before Mycroft started making more offensive pokes.
A few members of the team let out an some groans.
The Royals of New were a minor rebel faction of kingdom's citizens that broke away from the government because they believed themselves to be self righteous and act like their adventuring power was meant for taking control and reign siege over all people and land. It was a group that went against all the teachings from the Church of Nine.
The church taught that the powers given to them were gifts that could defend the surface, while the Royals believe nothing mattered in the face of absolute power.
"How did he even get in contact with them? Aren't they mostly concentrated in the bigger cities?"
"Oh those dumbasses are everywhere, they probably have the recruiters spreading out contact runes to convert over all the newly starting adventurers who feel their newly developed power go straight to their heads."
"Soooo, what's the deal with Clatia now? She too heartbroken to be asked out yet?" Asked Heath with very little concern about what the rest of them were actually talking about.
"Shut it, something is shining at the end of the tunnel." Trista said while changing the subject.
"Oh gods." Everyone's voices were lost after they realized what the tunnel opened into. It was a cavern.
Rarely did they ever find caverns in the dungeon. A cavern was an open space sometimes connecting to various tunnels. They would not form often, but when they did, it normally meant lots of monsters and lots of mana orbs. They were one of the best finds for adventuring teams.
Deeper in the cavern, a few more light crystals stuck out of the walls. Heath pointed out that the crystals looked more like they were jammed like spikes into the dirt instead of naturally emerging from the surface.
"Something was intelligent enough to uproot light crystals and place them along the walls." Stated Mycroft.
The area had a few other changes smaller changes to the tunnel as well. The humidity inside the cave was different from the tunnels, it formed droplets at the ceiling and rained down on the many stalagmites scattered along the floors. Everyone quickly ducked back when they spotted movement among the rocks.
A small, green figure wandered by from behind a knee high stalagmite, it was just far enough away that it didn't notice the intruders in its home, but plainly visible to them. It was the size of a large toddler with very large hands that carried a bone like a club on its shoulder. It was a goblin.
"Are you kidding me? Little goblin shits aren't worth anything, they're level fives at best." Trista scoffed as everyone put their weapons away.
Most monsters were set at a level range based on their species. The only way to determine the exact level of a monster was by killing it and taking its mana orb for appraisal. After a few fights with the same type of monsters; they knew what level they could expect of them.
Trista walked straight up to the little goblin with visible irritation in her steps. She managed to walk five feet up to the goblin before it even noticed her presence
Once it caught a whiff of her scent, it turned and snarled to revealed a row of jagged, yellow teeth trying to intimidate Trista while she was right up on it. Without missing a step, she continued with fast kick to the little monster that was flung into the air.
It silently flew as the air was knocked out of its lungs. It traveled in a short arc that to took the landing head first into a rock pile with a sickening thud. Its fragile neck had broken from the impact and died almost instantly.
"We find a freaking cavern, but it has to be filled with a single one of the weakest monsters imaginable." She shouted.
Galahad called out to Trista. "Umm. . . Trista?"
"What?!" She snarled.
"You do remember that goblins live in packs, thirty at an average." Galahad calmly replied.
"Huh?" Trista stopped raging and realized what Galahad was implying. The realization came to her just as quickly as the shoddy arrow that whistled past her ear. She turned around and was shocked by the scene suddenly changing behind her.
Emerging from behind the rocks and out of holes, were an endless stream of little green bodies. Some goblins carried bows, spears, or even just some sticks and rocks. They came out in a waves until the cavern floor was now encased with more green than brown.
A few looked at the retreating Trista and the dead goblin; they may not have been humanly smart, but they could put two and two together. Three of them let out what sounded like a gargled wail as they pointed at the female adventurer with their fat little fingers. The swarm of them were now focused on the team of six in the tunnel entrance.
It would have been one thing if it were a few dozen goblins, but this cavern was practically a colony. An ant was harmless to a spider, though with big enough numbers, the spider can learn to fear death by a thousand little ant bites.
Rosetta was still recovering mana from the previous fight, so she couldn't perform flame whip, let alone red spark at the moment. No one else on the team was had an effective range against the goblins, otherwise they would quickly get swarmed so everyone looked at Galahad as he didn't retreat.
Galahad was the one to step forward now with both fists forward. Rather than getting out his sword, he took a stance at the oncoming horde. No one stopped him because they knew exactly what he planned to do. The blue mana tethers trembled and snapped as they reeled back into Galahad. He was gonna use his mana on the only attack skill he possessed, 'Lightning Shot.'
Lightning shot required no incantations or complex movements, he simply pointed his index finger and pinky finger out at the closest goblin. A purple spark flitted between the two fingers for a millisecond, then shot forward like a stretched arrow into the goblin's chest.
The goblin's face distorted as it convulsed and instantly died standing up. It's tiny heart muscles nearly snapped at the electrical force causing disarray throughout its body, but the electric charge didn't stop there.
The attack made contact and continued through to create the same result in the goblin behind it, and the one behind that one. The purple bolt of lightning jumped from the goblins and kept hitting more, until fifteen went down in an instant.
Galahad's 'Lightning Shot' was his only attack skill, so he had only been using that skill since the team form three years ago. Since it was the only one he attacked with, the probability of upgrading its ability to chain with other monsters and increasing his attack power was frequent after every level up. His support class didn't give him much attack power, but that didn't matter against an army of level one and two goblins he could constantly fire upon.
Each time he hit a goblin, he shocked the tightly packed group of goblins his low damage attack was still enough to kill them since he was over twenty levels higher. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. Within ten seconds of firing, he unleashed eight bolts and wiped out a majority of them.
The team followed up behind Galahad and started swinging their weapons at the straggling goblins in the frontlines. Metal flashed through the unprotected green skin and tore them into multiple pieces. Eventually the green cavern turned into a red cavern with chunks of green, reeking of singed flesh and blood.
The ripped open bodies the attacking classes' quick battles made were giving off pungent smells and enough heat to make the whole cavern raise a few degrees in temperature. The cavern was practically steaming by the end of the battle.
"Alrighty, here comes the fun part, time to collect all the orbs. Rosetta if you don't feel well I have some cheap mana restoration potions in my bag." Galahad was reaching into his bag and pulled out a leather vial case with tubes of fluid and a couple empty punches for the mana orbs.
Rosetta stopped leaning on a rock and shook her head. "Thank you, but the low grade ones only give me a headache, I'll wait for the nausea to pass."
"I hear you. Can't be any worse than the time Trista had bet Mycroft to drink one." Galahad chuckled to himself, while he put away the potion case.
An audible groan could be heard from across the cavern as Mycroft recalled the five credits he earned were not worth it that day.
Rosetta shouted, "I told you battle classes can't handle concentrated mana fluid. That's your own fault."
"Well I know that now." He replied.
They took a few minutes to precariously collect all the little mana orbs and dumped them into a three tiny pouches in Galahad's bag.
Once everyone was situated, they each pulled out a Karmic Plate and pressed their index finger on the back. Slowly a magic array started generating on the crystals. As the arrays grew towards completion, a white glow started to envelope everyone in the party.
After twenty seconds, the white light gave off a bright flash and the tunnel was empty. Galahad and his friends blinked out of the dungeon and the only traces of their fights were the liquid monster corpses and scorched marks on the walls.