As we got into the dungeon, I could sense that we were already being followed and Bell who had been watched from Freya's spyglass for weeks on end had picked up a sixth sense for when people were watching her.
No, literally I could see on her neck tiny goose bumps rising up as Bell shivered at the feeling of us being watched as we entered the dungeon.
"Jake, should we go a different way?" Bell asked me as we broke out of the line of dungeon farmers heading deeper into the dungeon for their day of work and I nodded at Bell's question as I smiled with evil apparent on my face.
"Yup screw the dungeon and anyone who is going to mess with us. Let me make our own dungeon Haha." I said boastfully as I took out a Titanium pickaxe and quickly built an almost airtight box of Terraria stone around us before I began digging downwards at an angle so there were admittedly steep as hell steps as I dug into the very dungeon itself.
Even as I continued my digging, I could tell the Dungeon was to put lightly fucking pissed at my audacity at not playing its rat race of a game in following the staircases between floors nonsense. But the Guild had explored and mapped out the dungeon for centuries and knew the literal exact layout of these Upper Floors and where the tunnels were in relation to the floors below damn near perfectly.
Now as for how the dungeon was reacting to me being the equivalent of a sentient splinter? Well, the walls as I dug down visibly tried to regenerate the dungeon stone I broke away but with a couple of hits of my pickaxe I would take a literal meter square of stone and disappear into my inventory so it wasn't able to match the speed of my mining, to say the least of when I put my own stone that it couldn't break down or integrate in place of the dungeon stone I broke away and took.
This wasn't going to be some little one-time deal. I was purposefully taking my time to hollow out a good five-meter-wide and three-tall tunnels downwards at an angle as I already was picking up bits of dungeon versions of normal ores like iron and other things, so I was literally going to make a rail cart system ride through this tunnel.
"Be careful this should be the next floor," I said before a loud crashing noise rang out from the back of the tunnel and I realized some asshole was trying to break into the large stone box I made at the top of my tunnel.
"Damn assholes... Better not be Ishtar's." I muttered frowning as Bell, and I broke through the walls of the dungeon and into another tunnel, so I quickly literally walled off the tunnel's sides from top to bottom.
But before I could fully finish walling off the area and break all the native dungeon walls and replace them with my own stone to prevent monster spawns. From the dungeon wall, I hadn't managed to break in front of the tunnel's entrance as we came from the walls violently shattered as the Dungeon showed its wrath at my disdain towards it.
From the dungeon wall came a squad of literal 'Black' as in Dungeon enhanced monsters designed to respond to divines whipping out their divinity in the dungeon aberrant version enlarged Dungeon Lizards.
Normal, Dungeon Lizards literally didn't even come up to your shin, but they were fast agile and had a decent bite. But aberrant Dungeon Lizards were actually quite dangerous as their bodies came up to my hip and I was a flat six-foot man, so they had the size to actually knock down an adventure and tear them apart which is how ninety percent of all adventures die.
Because in the end sure some people got their throat slit or crushed and ended up dying really quick, but the vast majority of accounts of monsters killing adventures consisted of the poor mortals getting knocked down and torn apart when they couldn't get the momentum to free themselves.
"Bell use the space gun," I ordered her, and I took out mine and laid a hail of laser fire upon the enhanced Aberrant's that most shouldn't be spawning as no god whipped out their arcanum but then again no one had ever been able to just simply burrow into the dungeon before.
Despite the squad of dungeon lizards being the literal strongest version of that monster breed, they simply didn't make the ten-meter distance between Bell and I before we cut them down with a hail of laser fire along with my summons dealing with them. Sure, they were more durable but, in the end, enhanced durability and a minute regeneration factor didn't matter when a single blast from our Space Guns could melt the heads of the monsters, and these didn't have the black Goliaths regeneration so once the monster's brains flash boiled within their skulls at the lasers entry they died instantly.
After we killed the monsters, I quickly broke the walls and replaced them so now we were in a new box of my stone Bell finally spoke. "Jake, how sentient is the dungeon? I mean it obviously planned that ambush and Eina told me black monsters only come out when divines use their arcanum. Should we keep doing this as it's going to be super dangerous if a bunch of enhanced Aberrant Silverbacks or what if we get jumped by like a bunch of such high-level Infant Dragons?" Bell pointed out and I had to concede his point.
Sure, before the bigger fog floors where the rooms opened up greatly, Bell and I could easily deal with the dungeon throwing a fit but once we get down to such floors it opens up a lot. The dungeon could quit playing games and literally throw a damned Juggernaut or something at me... And with it being conceptually immune to magic. Yeah, I will without a doubt die against such a foe.
"Bell the dungeon wants us to die simple as that. Yes, it's alive in its own way but yeah... We can't go past the eighth or ninth floor where it opens up greatly without the likes of Loki or another Familia helping us deal with the Dungeon's retaliation for us cheating." I said pointing at the clear staircase up between floors with not a single monster in sight as they couldn't get past my stone.
Bell nodded in understanding and bit her lip in thought before she sighed. "Jake if you can make a perfectly safe tunnel to Rivira the whole dungeon experience is going to be a completely different experience as all the huge Familia's are limited literally by the cart size, they can drag into the dungeon. To say nothing of how much of an impossible task it can be to safely push the extremely heavy carts down the large and long staircases between floors." Bell spoke as though she was reciting something Eina had probably drilled into her poor head.
I sighed feeling a bit bummed at my trick plan being pushed back but trying to push through the dungeon's concentrated effort to explicitly kill us with the same measures used when gods are being stupid made me well aware that this was entirely too dangerous for just the two of us.
"Loki owes me a favor... Here you turn in a few of these aberrant stones for some money for our double date tonight. I am going to the Loki Familia to try and explain my plan and how important it can be for Orario." I explained to Bell.
Bell took the aberrant stones from the enhanced we killed and honestly, they were more than triple the size they were supposed to be due to them being enhanced ones. "Alright, where should I meet you, Jake?" Bell asked me and I just told her to wait for me at the entrance of the dungeon after she... Yeah, after she meets with Eina her Guild guide, and deals with her inevitable freaks out.
If I was lucky, I could snag a Loki executive like Tiona who would probably come help just to see the dungeon flip its shit as such monsters even if they were Enhanced aberrants were a joke to her or other level fives.
Me and Bell quickly made our way back up through my new tunnel and reached the first floor in record time as it were. And thankfully whoever or whatever smashed onto my stone box at the top decided to leave without bothering to wait us out.
"Alright, Bell let's get going," I spoke as I had Staryu the summon I got from the Desert Scourge check out the area outside my stone box and give us the all-clear before me and Bell quickly made our escape from the Dungeon and temporarily went our separate ways.
-
Making my way through Orario I was assured Bell was going to be fine as attacking someone in the guild well... Even during the heights of Evilus's age of terrorism against Orario, they didn't dare directly attack the Guild building as Ouranos had no such compunctions about using his arcanum in the depths beneath the guild to protect it and people only needed to see their compatriots turn into a pile of ash as they started chanting a spell at the guild building a couple of times before no one dared to directly strike at the guild.
Me however I was quickly making my way through the streets of Orario in the most populated and busy sections of the city in order to deter anyone who may be following me from doing anything. So I was still facing a bit of danger with how much of a target I had made myself being the one to create these new boss monsters.
Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the 'villains' of Danmachi in Enyo/Dionysius and others were trying to find a way they could have me spawn a bunch of boss monsters in the middle of Orario to have them destroy the city.
Thankfully despite my paranoia, I safely made my way to Loki's Familia castle without being harassed or assaulted.
Coming up to the front gate of the Loki's large front gates I threw back my hood as I approached the two Loki Familia members guarding the gate.
"Hello, I am Jake Bariss and I have come to speak with a Loki Exectivue about our business between our Familia's," I spoke as I took in the two guards and recognized one of them as the leader of Loki's second string of lower-level executives in Raul something or another.
"Ah, you are the guy who can create boss monsters and swords that Ais cannot even break!" Raul said excitedly and my face twitched as I realized he seemingly was focused far more on how I made weapons Ais couldn't break.
"Yes... Thats me. Is anyone available? I know the Loki is planning a lesser expedition soon to acquire funds but it's rather important." I said clearly and Raul raised an eyebrow in thought before he nodded.
"Yeah, come on in. I will escort you into the waiting room and get one of the Executives." Raul said as he looked to the dwarf guard that was guarding the other side of the gate. "Brock, you got this?" He asked and the dwarf just grunted in assent as he waved Raul off to lead me into the Loki Familia's compound.