We traveled for hours back into the forest I had come out of just a couple of days ago. Strangely, I didn't feel any sort of dread of not making it back here, going into the forest where I had almost died several times. Instead, I was almost glowing with anticipation. I tries to hide it but Vanessa saw right through me anyway and commented while smiling about how she liked my enthusiasm.
With that I let the feeling take over and marched behind her while fully in the wonderful embrace of a hopeful future. Now I have a friend, a plan, and a whole lot of work ahead of me after all. Instead of being lost in this world I can officially start to make my way through it, and earn my way up!
With those feelings flowing through me we made our way to the skeletons I had parked in the woods and picked them up before continuing on our way in a slightly different direction than we had emerged from them.
We walked like this for hours. One thing I had barely noticed on my way here is that near as we got closer to the city, signs of life appeared and birds sat in the trees. I was relieved to see them. After so long I was wondering if they even had them in this world.
Now, after that walk, we were standing in front of what can only be described as something of a hole in the ground. You could call it a cave entrance but I feel like that would just be an insult to caves. It's a small hole in the ground, only just wide enough that a person could make it through by walking on their knees.
"This is an entrance I discovered myself." There is a tinge of pride in Vanessa's voice as she says this. "If we access it here then our chances of running into other adventurers will be next to nothing. If we head in now then we can get a couple of hours in before we need to come up to get some rest!"
She seems happy to be back in the dungeons again. I'll take it! We made our way inside on hands and knees and my skeletons followed. I'm all the way up to around thirty now so hopefully, we can take on the first layer of the dungeon.
Vanessa told me last night that the dungeon is split into layers that adventurers call floors, they vary in thickness and composition depending on where you are around here but generally, the first floor is in the dirt near the surface, and the second is in the stone under that. After that is when things start getting foggy for Vanessa. She has only ever been as deep as the second floor. According to what she has heard, the third floor is made of stone bricks and heavily trapped, especially in comparison to the floors above.
Thankfully the monsters of the first floor are much like we have seen outside. Most are boars. She didn't tell me any of the other kinds and instead smirked and said I'll have to find out.
That doesn't seem very helpful to me, but I think she would have told me if there was something we couldn't handle.
One thing to mention down here is the darkness. Obviously, without the sun to shed light on the tunnels they were pitch black, just like you would expect them to be. To remedy this, Five of my skeletons are given torches powered by the cores of monsters from further down in the dungeon.
Technically, all monsters have cores. But on higher floors, they were so small you couldn't even notice them if you were looking for it. Even if you could, they would be useless and worthless. After all they contain almost none of the power that makes these cores so special.
Using these lights we were able to make our way through the tunnels. They were just wide enough for three people to walk side by side in most areas, and so, I made deep ranks of skeletons in front of us and a layer of rearguard in the back. To command the skeletons we make our way more to the front and keept everything moving.
It isn't long before we run into our first resident. A boar comes screaming through the darkness and rams headlong into the front of the middle skeleton, breaking it to dust. Then through one more before its momentum is broken. With it stopped and two ranks into the rows of skeletons, it's quickly set upon from all sides and beaten. Vanessa quickly takes the hide and we're back on the move.
Soon another boar does the same. Crashing through three ranks this time before being overwhelmed.
These things must not have any survival instincts to speak of! Not that I'm complaining. I have the feeling that any smart enemies would be a real pain. If humans were as dumb as pigs we would have gotten nowhere as a species. If pigs were as smart as humans, I would bet their survival rate in the wild would go up, that's all I'm saying.
It isn't long after that when a third and then fourth repeat the mistakes of the first two. This is kinda crazy, four boars in what must be about half an hour of delving. That's as much as I could find on a good day by scouring the surface for them!
My enthusiasm isn't mine alone. Venessa next to me is looking very excited at the success of the hunt so far.
No time to stop now! My party's numbers are going down, let's see what we can do about that.