The 4 of us backtrack and collect all the shattered black cores from the fallen golems. Their bodies of rock and sand have not disappeared at all.
They're just laying in chunks and piles all over the desert floor. It's been close to 10 minutes now, so that confirms my theory that the monsters that die out here won't dissolve until the Dungeon collapses.
The cores from the monsters that Abby and Maria took on are blown to pieces. The two of that Ari and I faced solo seem to still almost be in a fully salvageable state.
They're made of a hard black glossy crystal-like material. It glistens in the mid-day sun as I pick one of them up to examine at a closer range.
The core is palm-sized, and about 3kg. It's pretty heavy and feels like it's about to fall apart if I hold it any longer.
I throw the fragments of one of the cores into my item box, and Aire does the same with his.
Abby and Maria collect the larger fragments of the other golems and store them in their item boxes as well. We might as well grab everything we can get, these fragments may be valuable if they don't dissolve once the dungeon collapses.
Abby speaks up.
"Alright, let's all head to the break!"
I activate Enemy Detection and start to sense more monsters in the direction Abby points. They're approaching fast, in groups of 3-6.
I reach back into my item box to pull out my flaming sword, then think about throwing on my armor...
It's not necessary for these battles yet, but it wouldn't hurt to be prepared for the boss if it's a high-level mutant.
I speak up before we leave, pulling out my bonded set of lightweight armor.
"Hey, one second. Let me throw this new armor on."
Maria's eyes light up and she walks over while I fit the gear to my chest and arms.
"These are nice, where'd you buy them? The Association shop? Or was it a rare drop? Or..?"
I smirk, clicking the last silver piece onto my forearm, letting a few hundred mana points flow through the entire bonded set.
"It was a labyrinth drop, I got it in a boss room while training this week."
Arie joins the conversion.
"Nice set, you'll have to show me around the capital labyrinth when we get back."
I nod, then he points to Abby already making her way into the open desert.
"Come on, let's go."
The 3 of us follow, continuing our trek through the desert. According to Abby's calculations, the break is about 1.5km northeast of us.
The closer we get, the more enemies I spot on my radar.
They can be tracked by eye once they come within 200 meters or so. The visibility was alright up on top of the wall, but the rising and falling hill of the desert landscape make it harder to see where we were headed.
I'm relying on Abby's sense of direction and double-checking it by following the higher-density areas of enemies nearby.
We run into another few groups of golems on the way, but easily take them out. Every enemy ranges from levels 394-396. Even fighting one on one, all 4 of us can take the golems out on our own without a problem.
By the time we reach the portal, I have 6 full cores worth of fragments in my item box.
Maria calls out from beside Abby up front.
"That's it! I see it, the break!"
We climb up a final sandy hill and I see it as clear as day. There's a large dark red swirling portal of mana-imbued transport magic.
As we stare, more stone golems pour out.
The sound of stone scraping stone fills my ears as they step into our world.
The 4 of us jump down the hill and take out the final group in a matter of seconds, then jump through the blood-red gate.
Once inside, I look around to notice the landscape of the golem dungeon. The ground is hard stone, the exact same light brown color as the monsters we've been fighting.
There's a bright blue sky above and raised plateaus of rock walls and deep valleys for as far as the eye can see.
What puts a smile on my face is the approaching hoards of golems, unaware that they'll soon meet their end.
Using Inspect and Enemy Detection I scape out the area.
My teammates get situated and take in the view as well.
Just like the monsters outside, mostly all the golems in here seem to be around level 395. Although, closer to the back of the boss room, I sense two readings well over level 400.
It's odd though....
My Inspect skill labels each of them with a singular level while my Enemy Detection skill refers to these monsters as multiple enemies.
I'll have to face them and scan with my All-Seeing Eye to get a better sense of what's going on.
The 4 of us make our way through the unique landscape for over an hour.
For the large portions of deep valleys and canyons where it would take too long to walk down, Abby leads the way creating her floating stairs that crumble behind us.
I could give it a try myself, but she seems very content as the navigational leader right now. There's no need to show off just yet.
I'm waiting eagerly for the Mutants and Boss to come.
As we get closer and closer, the incoming golems get stronger. They're not powerful enough to put up a great fight yet, but their levels are nearing 400.
Another oddity I've found is that these golems dissolve back into the stone ground after they're defeated, even the shattered cores. None of the 2 dozen monsters that we've defeated so far have dropped a single item either.
Finally, an hour into our trek, we make it to a point of very open flat land. There's a massive structure of orange-brown stone to our left and a ravine to our right.
Peering downward, I can't even see the bottom.
We come to a halt and I take out some water to give to everyone in the group.
Arie looks down into the darkness below with me, then turns around.
"We're about halfway there right?"
Abby chimes in.
"Yep!"
I nod, picking up a few readings with my skills active in the background.
[1200m]
[Lv. 409]
[Lv. 408]
The distance between us and these final enemies is about the same as the distance we've already traveled into this dungeon so far. Between us and the mutants, there are about 40 more golems coming our way.
I kick a rock down into the empty pit below.
After waiting a few seconds, and hearing no impact with any ground, I speak up.
"There's two mutants about a kilometer away. If I had to guess, they're in front of the boss room."
We continue our short break and take out the golems that block our path. Not a single one of them drops an item.
The 4 of us are definitely over-leveled for this break, but it's a good warm-up for what's to come. Finally, after nearly two hours in this mid-grade C-Class dungeon, the action finally begins.
[100m]
[Lv. 409]
[Lv. 408]
The flat ground we're been trekking on for over a kilometer makes a steep drop off and a cliff falls down below us.
We peer over the edge, and the mutants I've been waiting for show their faces nearly 50 meters below.
As we walk to the edge of the cliff, two sets of bright orange eyes lock onto us.
These beasts are over 7 meters fall each and are made from much darker-looking stone. It seems to be stained orange from the energy coming out of its core.
The small cracks and gaps in their bodies of stone shine bright with mana-imbued energy.
Their faces look even more gruesome than their minions, and I can hear the light buzz of mana in the air from here.
Their shielding is already activated even though we haven't thrown a single attack.
Right behind them is a dark grey swirling boss room portal.
I activate my All-Seeing Eye, and everything begins to make a lot more sense....
The reason my readings showed 2 enemies per mutant is because they each have two cores.
Clear as day, with my perception skill active I can see a glowing orange core in each monster's forehead and chest.
"How interesting...."
Arie smirks and charges up an arrow, releasing it with great precision down at one of the golems below.
I watch as it collides with the shielding in front of this golem's chest. There's a flash of white light and an explosion of stone that obliterates the core. Rock fragments are sent flying in all directions and a cloud of dust hides the two figures from view.
He crosses his arms, but I watch attentively through the debris with my All-Seeing Eye on full blast.
As the rock and dust clear from the air, the scattered stone begins to reform and the golem stands up to its feet without a scratch on its exterior.
The monster is completely healed, despite its core being shattered to bits.
I take a closer look to see the energy in its forehead's core pulse brightly. My gaze drops down to its chest and the pieces of dead black core fragments come back together.
Its chest starts to glow orange again. Seconds later, both cores are as good as new.
It lets out a murderous roar, taunting us to come down and face it.
I let out a laugh, then turn to the archer.
"Good shot, but it looks like it's going to take a bit more than that to take out these Mutants."
As soon as I finish my sentence, the swirling mass of mana behind the two monsters pulses to let out an eerie wave of energy. It can only be picked up by my All-Seeing Eye.
Soon after, the Boss Room portal turns a slightly darker shade of grey.
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Author's Note:
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