The group arrived in front of the dungeon. Asher had to admit that he was not looking forward to driving into the dungeon. After last night, he was worried about the faceless creature that had been haunting him. Themis had been acting strange as well. Asher would typically summon the tiny bird, and it would flutter back and forth. It would not stray too far from Asher, but today, the bird stood at attention on his shoulder and seemed uninterested in leaving.
"Varas, are you listening?" Kel asked, looking concerned. Asher snapped out of his thoughts.
"Oh yes. I will set the anchor." Asher quickly walked into the nearby field. The spatial anchor is a tool that every dungeon runner needs. It is a large nail-like magic item that can be driven into the ground to make a marker for emergency teleport crystals. The teleport crystals are single-use items that use the spatial elements to teleport a person back to the anchor it attains.
Asher pulled the spatial needle out of his inventory. As he walked, his mind was more preoccupied with the faceless monster. His foot was caught on something, and he fell face-first onto the ground. Asher quickly jumped back up and looked around his foot to see what had tripped him. Near his feet, he found a large nail poking up out of the ground near his foot. He did not need his scan ability to know what it was.
Asher looked around and found at least ten more that were covered by vines and weeds. The person who sets the nail is the only one who can safely remove it due to how the enchantment functions. If someone else tried, there was a chance the spell would backlash. Asher gulped as he realized what this field of spatial nails meant. Each one was possibly a person who would not return from the dungeon.
Asher found an empty area and used a rock to drive the nail into place. Once it was in place, he ran his finger over the surface, and a sliver circle appeared on the surface of the head, showing that the enchantment was active. Since the spell did not require much mana and the magic item was made from an advanced crystal, the enchantment would be active until Asher returned to collect it.
Asher returned to join the others. Without being told, he began passing out the ether filters while everyone checked their gear. They looked like gas masks, except they only covered the lower half of the face. Once he finished, he checked his gear.
Kel stood up and thundered, "Okay. Let's begin." The gate to the dungeon opened to a deep and dark tunnel lit by light markers every 10 feet.
Kel and Killa were in the front with Melios and Herta. Asher was in the middle with the ever-silent Ura. Asher thought it made sense since Ura was the most agile of the five, and he was the least experienced.
Each step moved them deeper into the dungeon. As they walked, the dungeon began to branch in different sessions. They had details on the dungeon as a whole. The first level had a lot of low-level monsters. The fiend hill ant was not uncommon. They would hide from them when encountering one, as they were not a high-priority target. Most of their targets were on the third level.
As they walked, Kel halted the group. "There is a trap."
Asher looked around but did not see anything. He turned to Ura and said, "I don't see anything. Kel must be very observant."
Ura said flatly, "He uses enchantment magic to see the dungeon traps."
"Enchantment! Does that mean that someone left it?"
"No," Ura stated with no intention of expanding her explanation.
Thankfully, Melios, the resident know-it-all, spoke up. "The high concentration of vapor can pool in certain areas. The energies are so chaotic that moving through those areas can cause random effects. At best, you will have green hair. At worst, your body will be ripped apart and scattered throughout the dungeon."
"That sounds... unpleasant," Asher replied as Kel pulled out an enchantment stylus. Asher decided to look through his vision spell to see what Kel was attempting to do. Melios was not kidding when he said the energies were chaotic. It was like a colorful vortex of energies.
Kel carefully moved to move his stylus, forming a network that allowed the vortex of energies to disperse. "Have people not been through here before?" Asher asked. If the vortex formed and it was that simple to dispel, then the fact it was here means no one had been here.
Herta replied, "The network wears out after some time. Think the same way you have to reapply magic circuits to a magic item after so many uses. They get worn out and overused."
Asher nodded as he understood. He observed Kel's movement. It might be helpful if he learned how to disarm traps like this. When Kel finished, the swirling energies began to shrink until they disappeared.
With the trap gone, the group could proceed deeper into the dungeon.
It only took them about an hour to find the way to descend to the second level, utterly different from the first. This level was a jungle if the first level could be called catacombs. It was a large open chamber with shining crystals that illuminated the area from above. Large roots dangled from the ceiling like massive trees, and thick brush covered the ground.
"We are still underground, right?" Asher asked.
"High levels of mana mean that the environment can be rather drastic. In this case, life miasma has drastically altered these plants to grow astronomically." Melos began to go off on a lecture on the flow of miasma. Asher looked at the other apologetically for causing that.
The group began their trek through the lush undergrowth. On the way, they collected what they could find with small plants such as heart weed, overgrowth vine, and pyre flowers. They were not hard to find as they grew rampant.
Kel and Killa had to cut through the thick brush, making the journey difficult and lengthy. As they cut and slashed through the jungle, Asher spotted a massive creature resembling a rhino beetle rubbing its horn against the tree root. Kel waved to the others to get down and stay silent. Asher poked his head up to scan the creature.
[Scan Complete]
Name: Zeus Beetle
Quality: Advanced
HP:1000/1000
MP:600/600
Description: A giant beetle that has grown underground, feeding on the sap of miasma-infused roots. The beetle's horn uses the lightning element to fire bolts of energy to cut into the trees to reach the sap in the roots with high essence content.
Asher looked at the at the roots that the beetle was scratching. It had marks like burn marks. Tiny sparks jumped off the beetle's horn as it scratched the bark. Yellow sap leaked out of the tree. When the beetle noticed the sap, it moved to suck up the sap. Kel motioned for the group to move forward, signaling Asher to stay back.
Kel began the attack, launching himself to slam into the side of the beetle. Fire and flames launched out of his fist as it connected to the black beetle side, causing it to screech.
[-5 HP]
Asher looked at the number, stunned. That fist would have cooked him like a well-done steak, but the beetle did not take much damage. The screech did not seem to be painful but rather more of annoyance.
Killa moved before the beetle to slash its face with a lightning-infused blade. But the beetle moved faster, parrying Killa's sword with its own horn. Lightning arced out from the clash. The lightning almost hit Kel, causing him to back off. The beetle threw Killa back before screaming. Small Blue-winged butterfly creatures began to swarm and approach Killa. Killa slashed one, and the tiny insect exploded into blue flames, burning Killa.
[-20 HP]
Asher was shocked again for such a short time. The massive damage such a small creature did was scary, but the flames faded, and the creature seemed to have disappeared. He turned his focus to one that was moving toward Killa.
[Scan Complete]
Name: Willow Butterfly
Quality: Novice
HP:5/5
MP:40/40
Description: The small butterfly swarm as a defense and uses fire elemental magic to set itself on fire and then attack enemies in mass. While one is not dangerous, they can take down much larger creatures in mass.
Asher was shocked to see another butterfly going in for another suicide attack. 'How unlucky do you have to be?' Those butterflies must have been nearby and came in response to the sound of fighting. With the sheer number of them, there was little hope of taking down the beetle.
Kel must have had the same thought because he signaled for a retreat. Ura stepped in, waving her spear, causing a tornado to form and the flaming butterfly to be flung back as Kel and Killa attacked. The black beetle seemed less interested in the retreating people as it simply went back to sucking sap.
Asher continued to watch the butterfly begin to swarm the beetle. He thought it would be the end of the beetle—after all, there were at least over 100 of them. However, the butterflies fluttered over the beetle. When the beetle seemed to have its fill, it moved, letting the butterfly swarm the hole to get some sap. This action shocked Asher, as most of the literature he read about dungeons described them as monster free-for-alls.
But these two types of monsters seem to have a symbiotic relationship. The beetle uses its horn to open the trees for sap, while the butterflies defend the beetle. Asher noted this in his journal before retreating with the others.
Killa cursed as Herta began to heal his wound. "Damn it. Fuck that hurt."
"Killing that beetle will be hard with all those butterflies," Kel said, annoyed. "Shame. That was a Zeus beetle. That horn would be an excellent addition to our payday. If lucky, those butterflies will kill the beetle, and we can collect the core."
That statement caught Asher's attention. From what he saw, the butterflies were unlikely to attack the beetle, which seemed to be the butterflies' food source. It was contradictory to what was considered common knowledge in this world. The beetle and the butterflies should have a blood bath battle, as Kel suggested. But they didn't.
Asher made three hypotheses as to why this would be the case.
1. This type of relationship is uncommon and rare and does not occur under normal circumstances.
2. This relationship is typical at the beginning of dungeons as the miasa levels are relatively low.
3. This relationship is common, and as creatures advance in level and intelligence, they become more common on lower levels.
Asher could not decide, which made him more scared. If the first was true, what abnormal circumstances occurred in this dungeon? If it were the second, it would mean that people's understanding of the world was lower than Asher previously thought. If it was the last hypothesis, no one lived to see this behavior, or someone was spreading misinformation.
It was known that some species would work with others of its species, like a hoard of undead or packs of wolves. But Asher remembers the Zeus Beetle from the debrief. It was a solitary creature prone to charging and had no record of using tactics with other species like the butterflies. 'Maybe I am just overthinking things. The butterflies' attacks were suicidal, which means a drawn-out confrontation would diminish their most significant power: numbers. I only saw the beetle move away and the butterfly land near the sap. Maybe it was nothing more than convenience that it happened at all.' Asher tried to calm himself but was much more alert than before.
The group continued into the dungeon's deeper depths. They found some smaller monsters. The most common were intermediate dog-sized monsters called Banshee Cockroaches that use sound to disorient anything nearby. It was hard as Ura could kite them by striking fast and retreating out of the range of their skill. They kill nearly 26 of them in 2 hours.
The other they came across was a novice creature called a Ditch Rat. They were hard to deal with, not because they were strong but because they were cowards. When any of them sensed anything within 100 meters, they would burrow and disappear underground. Even Ura, the fastest of the group, could not reach them before they disappeared. With their speed tracking, they were out of the question.
Melos took out some with magic, but they were novice creatures and not worth much. Asher suggested leaving the rats to him. Kel agreed, as no one in the group thought the rats were worth much, but to Asher, they were free to target practice. Using his water bow, he practiced his aim at the rats he spotted.
The hard part of the jungle environment was spotting them before they disappeared, but Asher began to get good at it. The trick was looking for movement from the vegetation: a grass flick or a bush shutter. Asher found 50 of the rats, but he only managed to kill 8. Some he spotted too late. Asher missed some, and the arrow hitting the tree behind them spooked him. Some he nicked but didn't kill. But he improved as he got more and more accurate, and by the end, he had a triple-kill streak.
The group made it to the path that led down to level 3. Next to the entrance was a Black orb. A stone ring was wrapped around it in a 5-meter-radius circle. Everyone but Asher entered the ring. Kel touched the orb, which came to life with a shining white light. Everyone else took off the miasma masks and rested their feet, which caused Asher to panic.
"What are you doing? The Miasma..." Asher panicked as he knew all the symptoms of miasma madness.
"Don't worry, the orb is a magic object. It creates a safe space free of haze. Think of it as a temporary rest stop. The orb will last about two hours, so we can take a break and let our masks recharge." Kel explained. "As long as you are in the ring, you will be fine if that orb is glowing."
Upon hearing this, Asher calmed down and entered the circle as well. For his sanity, he checked the orb with his Scan first.
[Scan complete]
Name: Anti-Maisma Zone
Grade: Knight
Quality:S
Description: Miasma will be covered into aether Within a 5-meter radius when activated. This effect will last for two hours.
Time remaining: 1:58:43
Cooldown: 3 hours
Seeing Kel was right, Asher relaxed a little. His mind still went back to the beetle and the butterflies. It was odd as they did not seem all that hyper-aggressive. He found a clear spot, pulled out the Monstrology guide, and began looking up the Zeus Beetle he had encountered.