"Oh, I like that spear, Evren." Walter said as they met up to head to the 101st floor. "It's a bit long, isn't it?"
Evren nodded, "Long for a spear, short for a pike. I made it to fight the dragons with." The spear was three meters long, its blade was long and double edged with a sharp point at the end. The blade had a hole at it's base where the mana core rested, and below the core on both sides were the mana gems. The shaft was highly polished, with engravings and runes the entire length. At the bottom of the staff was a ball with a pointy spike on the end that seemed it could be a spear head almost on its own.
Noticing the color of the metal used, Walter asked, "Did you want me to use it?"
Evren shrugged, "If you want to use it, that's fine. I just wanted higher magic conductivity than adamantium would provide. I originally planned to use this myself."
Walter looked from the sword to the spear and said, "For now I'll stick to my sword."
Evren shrugged and looked to the others, but nobody was interested. He then said, "I'm honestly not sure if I'm going to use this or not, but I thought it would give us an advantage. I'll test it out and see."
"Alright then, is everyone ready? Has everyone let everyone know we'll be gone for a while?" Everyone nodded at Evren's question. "Ok then, double check you have everything and let's head down."
After a few minutes of checking each other, they teleported down to the 100th level. They followed the passageway to the cliff face, and Evren led them down the narrow ramp. They got to the platform and Evren checked down the cliff for the wyvern that was there previously. It was gone, so Evren looked around in the sky to see if it was flying nearby. He then started heading further down the ramp to the next platform. This one was a little bigger, but even with just five of them, it was a cramped space and not one for fighting in.
Evren guided the party at a steady pace to the base of the cliff, finding no wyverns on the way. The path led along the base of the cliff, one side a sheer wall, the other rocky terrain. It was leading them towards a valley between mountains, and appeared to climb along the right mountain, leading further to the right along a ridge. Evren lost track of the trail as it went further along. He could see something flying along the peaks of the ridgeline and thought it should be the wyverns that should inhabit these levels.
They followed the path for a while before the first wyvern approached them. It began by circling overhead at a distance, then it seemed as if it went away, but was actually lowering its altitude at a different location to fly at them with the trees of the mountain providing cover. Evren could sense the wyvern's approach and said, "Get ready, one's coming."
Everyone got their weapons out and looked in the direction Evren was pointing. Flying low over the treetops was the wyvern, it's skin a mottled brown and green. Evren said, "I'm not sure what it's going to do, so quick, spread out!"
The wyvern's course deviated slightly and seemed to have targeted Harley. Harley saw this and frowned. Instead of running away, she stood her ground and said, "'Goliath.'" A massive stone man rose from the ground looking like a soldier with a shield. It grabbed the wyvern as it tried to change course and slammed it to the ground. It then took its shield and slammed it down on top of the wyvern's head. Killing it instantly.
Harley said, "Thanks Mr. Goliath!" the massive elemental nodded and returned to the ground.
Evren approached the wyvern as it began to dissolve and said, "Oh, they're green now." As he picked up the green mana gem. "That was great, Harley. I kinda wanted to fight a little more, but that's fine. I'm sure we'll have more opportunities."
"Thanks Mr. Evren!" she replied.
"Now we know they use the terrain to their advantage and tend to go after what they perceive as the easier targets. Next time we meet one, I'd like Fletcher to get a few magic arrows into it and see if it deviates any. I'd like to get one on the ground if possible. The next time, Harley, I want you to stay with me, if it comes for me, I'm going to try for the wings. Please put a 'wall' up between me and the tail, preferably at an angle so it deflects the blow instead of blocking it. It should withstand the impact more that way. Everyone else, just be sure to avoid the tail… Oh and the back legs as well. Me and Harley will make sure you've got a 'wall' in front of you."
They continued along the trail, and another didn't come along for another hour. This time when they spread out, it didn't change its direction, heading for Evren and Harley. Fletcher was hitting it with arrows, causing it to falter, but it maintained its course. Harley cast a 'wall' in front of Evren and stayed behind. Evren lifted his spear and stabbed upward, aiming for the wings.
The wyvern's tail hit the 'wall' and bounced off, swinging back behind it. Evren's timing was off slightly and only managed to cut into the last few cm of the wing. They wyvern flew off screaming and circled around to come at them again. This time it was heading for Fletcher as he fired arrow after arrow at it. It flew past Fletcher and over Isobel who threw a knife at the wyvern, hitting the left wing. As it began to circle around and head back to the group, Isobel released the 'discharge' on the knife she through and the wyvern crashed to the ground with a thunderous roar that echoed off the mountains.
Evren and Walter chased after the wyvern, with Isobel trailing behind. Arrows and 'fire arrows' came past them from the rear, causing the stunned wyvern to scream. The wyvern got up onto its back legs, Walter approaching from the right, and Evren from the left. As Walter took some tentative swings towards the wyvern, it flapped its wings as if it were trying to get back into the air. Evren leapt forward, stabbing into the wings with the spear.
The wyvern tried to bite at Evren, while Walter slashed deep into its other wing causing the wyvern to flinch and give up its attack. Evren slashed the spearhead down the length of the wing and reversed direction with the spear, stabbing into the neck of the wyvern with the pointed butt end of the spear. Evren kept the spear stabbed into the neck and pushed the wyvern away from him. As the wyvern was distracted with Evren, Walter approached and slashed at its neck, causing a deep cut.
The wyvern backed off, rearing its head upward in pain, getting shot with magic arrows and 'skewers'. Isobel climbed the tail and back of the wyvern, tearing the wings at the base and stabbing deep into its back. She was gone before the wyvern could react. Evren spun the spear around and stabbed into the boney chest of the wyvern the same time that Walter did with his sword, killing the beast.
Evren picked up the mana gem and Isobel picked up her throwing knife. Evren asked, "It's not damaged, is it?"
Isobel examined the knife for a bit and shook her head, "Looks good."
Evren nodded and looked to everyone, "Alright, any thoughts about wyverns?"
Fletcher nodded, "Magic arrows don't seem to do the job very well. I could use the manticore arrows for better piercing, but if I miss, it'd be difficult to find them."
Evren nodded and looked to Walter, "The scales are tough, I didn't cut as deeply as I thought I would. The scales on the stomach are softer, but still offered some resistance."
Isobel spoke up, "I tried slashing the stinger off and it was the same for me, the scales were too tough to do much for damage. The wings felt like I was cutting thick leather with a dull knife."
Harley then said, "I had to switch to 'skewers' the 'fire arrows' didn't look like they were doing much in the way of damage."
Evren nodded, "Yeah, some intermediate or advanced spells would be great to have." He turned to Walter, "Did you try 'cut' on it at all?"
Walter nodded, "After I stabbed it, yes. I couldn't see what it did, but it died, so it must have done something."
"How was the spear?" Fletcher asked.
Evren looked at the spear and said, "I like this little spike I added at the end. I didn't have to flip the spear around to stab it in the neck. Cutting through the wing wasn't too difficult. I may need to make a new dagger for Isobel after this. Keep me updated on how that one's doing. If it gets too rough, let me know and we can switch for the remainder of the floor." Isobel nodded with a smile.
Two weeks later, they had advanced five levels. The transition between levels was like walking through a valley to the next mountainous area. Now when they were looking around at high elevations, all they see are mountains in every direction.
Walter said, "It's hard to believe this is all still a part of the dungeon."
Evren nodded and said, "It feels like the different levels are a big circle. When we first started the sun was at our back in the morning, but after a week it went around the left to the front in the morning, now it's come around to our right side and almost behind us again. Although the fights are getting tougher, it feels like the levels are getting smaller. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say the boss is in the center of the levels.
Evren saw some confusion in the eyes of his friends and drew on the sand on the ground. "Let's say here is the center where the boss will be. Circling around it will be the levels." He drew a spiral from the center outward and then lines to make little squares in between the lines. "If there's ten levels, one, two, three, four. In theory we should be here" he said pointing at one of the squares. "If I'm right, the next few levels will be smaller."
"If we're here, couldn't we have just gone this way to make it shorter?" Walter asked.
"Good question. Short answer: no. There's some sort of wall that would block us. I didn't show you when we were against the lamia, but remember the passageway between the levels and how it looked like a forest ran deep to the sides?" Evren asked.
Walter nodded, and Evren continued, "I checked those before I got to Anbuton the first time, there's a sort of wall there, or an illusion that makes the wall look like the forest. I believe if you were to go up high enough, you'd reach the ceiling, and it would still look like it continues onward."
Evren thought about it some more, "Well, it'd have to since we're all underground."
As it turns out, Evren was correct that the levels were getting smaller, but the difficulty had increased significantly. In the beginning, they would get a wyvern one or two every few hours. Now, there were moments when several attacked at a time, and more would arrive as they were fighting. Even so much as needing to get up several times a night to fight off wandering wyverns. After a total of 36 days, the exhausted team finally reached the boss's chamber, where they promptly set up camp and everyone fell asleep.