There was a huge settlement beyond the portal into Low Thicket, no different from a bustling market.
Ebony had sensitive ears and didn't like the noise, he lowered the volume into his ears and they asked around for the way out. It wasn't really hard to find the tall wooden walls.
Someone called out to them, asking why they were leaving as a group of two and telling them how it has been getting more dangerous further out but Ebony didn't hear the voice and Ning Xin just couldn't be bothered to reply. No one stepped forward to stop them anyway.
Even so, they didn't come across any creature till they got far out. As if the creatures were avoiding the settlement of people. The dungeon's food source.
Since they were moving at high speeds, he saw the first creature that had the form of a tiger. They were smaller than an average tiger but had a shiny grey horn atop.
[Steelhorn Tig Lvl 155]
[Steelhorn Tig Lvl 155]
[Steelhorn Tig Lvl 155]
Low Thicket wasn't an infant dungeon with weakened monsters, they had bonafide creatures that shouldn't be any weaker than an average monster of the same level outside.
None of them could've stopped the impulsive swordswoman by his side.
Ning Xin already charged forward while her blades weren't even fully drawn yet. He was surprised to see the Tig swing its head down and cross blades with its horn in time. Too bad its shiny horn turned red to white and was sliced off in moments, not even staying on long enough to slow her charge down.
Her blades cooled down quickly before she skinned the Tigs as one of her longswords went under its belly and neatly dug under their skin. The Tig tried to put distance with the other two Tigs leaping toward her as assistance but it felt weak and numb.
Ning Xin's blades were greedily consuming its blood as lightning mana coursed into its flesh body. One of the attacking Tig was met with the same fate despite being on the attack while the other found itself constrained by a blood ring around its neck. Her blood halo wasn't strong enough to instantly saw their heads off but she didn't stop trying to rotate and cut into the Tig.
When her blood halo drew blood, it dived into the open wound only to be strongly rejected so she opted to drain the leaking blood which worked. The other two Tigs she was facing already turned into dry meat, bones and organs. She was contemplating if she should try them but she already decided to feed dungeon creature blood to her swords, Scorching Gleam while she drank normal ones. And Ebony's.
Ning Xin stepped aside when something fell from above. It was a large frozen bird.
"It was called Caladria at level 153, I'm not sure what its speciality is." Ebony reported.
He noticed two types of birds, this Caladria had thick plumage of grey feathers. It was frozen through now so he couldn't tell much about them. The other bird had green feathers but flew too high and didn't attack them so he didn't bother shooting them down.
They heard some roars from deeper into the forest. The trees were pretty sparse and the ground was mostly flat with few roots sticking out, it made the forest was easy to traverse.
There were a couple of parties in the distance, the two of them joined the fun.
❅❅❅
Ebony had been wrong about the difficulty of traversing the forest as the most numerous of monsters were something called [Thress], their level range a little lower, 140 to 150. The Thress were plant based monsters, they camouflaged as the trees and couldn't be identified till they moved and attacked so even he was caught off guard the first time they encountered Thress.
Each and every Thress had significant differences in their size, strength, durability and most noticeably their reach. They could fire their leaves as projectiles sharp and fast enough to attach themselves to one of his Imperishable Frost Scale. Their branches were strong but not flexible while their roots were the opposite. They had bark thick enough that he couldn't break them without building up momentum even after they were frozen through and should have become more brittle.
They almost started a forest fire but calmed each other's flames down. His own doesn't spread well but Ning Xin might have been able to start a huge wildfire. She began to cut or burn down trees when their leaves moved a little even when they were just trees. Her reflexes were hard to keep up with.
The green feather birds [Caladris] were actually spreading poison dust or particles everywhere they go. Ning Xin was free from the effects since everything burned up in her body before it became a problem but he was poisoned. It made his skin turn green after breathing in quite a bit of it, his robe prevented skin contact so he was mostly poisoned through inhalation.
The effects were pretty weak, but they strengthened when he was out of mana so he could only assume it seemed weak since his mana pool was full and Constitution strengthened. It was a type of poison that made one tire more easily and drained physical strength but there wasn't much physical pain. They backtracked to get some common antidote from the settlement. This was why they should gather information beforehand.
He didn't take the antidote, since the effects were bearable. It was the perfect chance to build poison resistance, they could cope with the monsters anyway. Ning Xin actually thought it was a good idea before their Constitution got any higher and finding strong poisons wouldn't be as easy so she didn't use her fire enhancement and let herself get poisoned. She felt the effects stronger despite having generic tier 2 Sheer Poison Resistance. It might have been his Everlasting Tranquillity, Sustained Optimum Condition and the fact that he was partially mana.
Low Thicket was wide, even in two days of moving in a single direction they have not seen an end or any walls. It supposedly only had 3 floors.
They brought out their house when no one was looking and had an extremely awkward time. Although it wasn't the first time being housemates, they were never in such close proximity. Rather than foldable, the house would stretch to the sides like a drawer being pulled open. Their dining table was flipped from the wall and they sat facing each other.
Eating was fine since it was like any other day, it was sitting on the sofa without any television and the silence was strong enough that they just retreated to their rooms after taking turns with the bathroom. It felt weird. Different for whatever reason.
'Must be the new house…home?' He pondered as he meditated in the boiling bath.
❅❅❅
Ebony and Ning Xin went ham for a week.
Both for breakfast and for hunting but they were no longer in Low Thicket but in the highest floor of Mogat's Quest Hall, the city lord's office.
It was a woman with a bob cut and brown hair dressed in something like a tight-fit suit with a set of equipment being hung or displayed near the door. She had a rapier tied to her belt
"First of all, can I assume you're from Xienor? Oh, I'm Countess Petal." The Countess was a Grandmaster Warrioress.
Ning Xin nodded.
"My apologies, there are many people wearing similar masks. Although there aren't many cases, there are some that dare to pose as a Xeng with a simple mask. I didn't think you were posing as one with the problem we have on hand but I just had to make sure."
"What do you want?" Ning Xin cut to the chase, unhappy that they were forced out of the dungeon by a mana storm.
The settlement inside Low Thicket was unharmed but most of the dungeon was pretty bare at the moment.
"I personally couldn't care less but you put me in a tight spot. We already scheduled a large clearing festival for the younger citizens to rack up experience in a reasonably safe manner but that's gone down the sewers now." Countess Petal had a light headache because she would have to deal with a large number of complaints.
She was actually glad at how it turned out since it would save her a lot of expense as she didn't need to hire so many people to reduce Low Thicket's population and Mogat had a tight budget recently. She didn't have to worry about having insufficient antidote and the administrative work would decrease. The only problem she had was that huge portions of Low Thicket were burned down and it would likely take some time before it recovers and begins to give them materials again.
"And?" The red hair swordswoman sat comfortably with her enviable long legs crossed.
"Could you sell your materials to us, Caladria's feathers, Tig's steel horns and most importantly any part of Caladris?" Countess Petal tried her best to be polite, she didn't want any trouble in her city.
"We don't have them," Ebony replied.
Countess Petal was confused.
"Everything was either burned or broken. At least, Low Thicket should've reabsorbed them so it shouldn't take too long before they spawn a steady flow of creatures again." He tried to explain.
"Which way is High Thicket?" Ning Xin stood up.
Countess Petal's brows knitted.
They got a warning not to do anything as drastic and at least obtain the valuable materials to sell to the city. She was even nice enough to give them the authorization to enter any Uncommon dungeon in the Empire and not just her city without any testing and just her words were enough.
Two days later.
"We got kicked out of the city," Ebony said as he slowly drove away on their trailer.
"It's okay. High Thicket had too low a monster population. This happens to every one of the Xengs" She didn't speak as if she was one of them.
"We're only 132 and 134, most of the surrounding dungeons aren't that different in terms of average levels." He was referring to their levels and he levelled slower since Ning Xin was just too efficient at killing.
"...We have no choice but to hit up every single dungeon we come across while we travel towards central. There are a large number of dungeons there near the peak of Uncommon which might be tough but perfect for us. They are just very far away from our current location." She was kneading dough in the kitchen while he took the front.
"Too bad all the dungeons that I could find information on are small or medium-sized ones, Low and High Thicket dried up so quickly." The size of the dungeon directly affects how many people were in there to supply them with essence and energy after all.
❅❅❅
2 months later, 25.04.5537
Ebony struck off another name on one of his notebooks, the seventeenth one on the list of names.
There were a couple of people talking from behind him, inside the trailer. They have gotten their hands on a memory light player that was like a 50 inch screen. Ning Xin was watching something Mallory recommended apparently, it was some kind of skincare walkthrough or some other beauty-related topic. He wasn't all that interested and she was too embarrassed to watch with him sitting beside her.
The trailer was driving much faster than an average level 160 domesticated or tamed monster-pulled carriage at the moment.
Their next destination was one of those outposts like the one surrounding Ordina, the dungeon wasn't inside a city. The roads were more crowded here but some stray Rhoats still thought it was a good idea to attack people. They were free from that trouble since he activated the illusion that hide them.
They arrived at the dungeon that didn't have a road leading to it, it was far from the general populace of people. Situated at the bottom of a massive mountain that supposedly had a town on its summit. They were not too worried about dungeon breaks as they had an amazing defensive position and there was no town or city reasonably close to them so they could make it in time to inform other Quest Halls if they really had a dungeon break.
"I'll be back." He leapt off the front seat after informing Ning Xin.
A giant mantis screeched as it got close enough to notice their trailer. It swiped its sharp arms so fast, it couldn't be seen. It landed on Icicle while he was in mid-air and sent him 'tumbling' back but he quickly reorientated himself as the giant mantis was flying towards him against its will.
It was dragged along as a link of gravity mana connected its arm to Icicle. It decided to go with the flow of the pull on its arm and rained blows onto the small human.
Despite being guided by an unknown tug on its arms, it kept missing the human who stood on the spot and swayed left and right. The human raised its huge single claw to block but it sensed the same pain and shock through its body as the first attack it landed.
It didn't realise the large injury on its claws until it was completely removed from its arm even though the human never attacked, only blocking with the huge glowing claw.
Ebony decapitated the giant mantis that stared at its own missing arm for a second but the mantis continued attacking with its remaining arm for a whole minute after decapitation.
He chased the trailer that was moving on its own for a bit, he could let it go straight without input for a short while. That had not been the only disruption in their journey. It must have been because the woods weren't well maintained or because there were no roads around.
Ning Xin wasn't interested in eating the mantises so he dealt with the threats. They had wild game from time to time whenever they were on the move. The cupboards in the trailer were all much bigger than they appeared. Courtesy of sister Jing.
They finally reached the foot of the huge mountain that had been in sight for days. The green light that was the portal was unhidden and stretched up quite a bit, chances were, the dungeon was of decent size. There were only 5 buildings around wooden stakes pointing outwards. Not exactly fortified which was rare for a dungeon that had been around for some time.
He kept their mobile house in his bracelet a distance away from the congregation of houses.
They were gonna waltz in like always but the man who was lying down on a reclined chair with a wide hat covering the sunlight suddenly sat up, "Hold up!" He tried to find support with his arms to push himself up but failed and slipped more than once.
The man's flailing arms were about to grab onto Ning Xin but not before Ebony put himself in the way and helped him to stand up. The man had a flushed face and the strong stench of alcohol was noticed before Ebony helped him.
"Tha..buugh! Thanks my man." He burped loudly mid-sentence.
"I knew you would come to my town sooner or later, uhh, Rimestone and miss uh, I don't think I quite got your name." The man got his bearings well enough to speak.
"Scarlet." She introduced.
They have been getting noticed since they got banned from entering 17 dungeons now. Not by the Empire but by the dungeons themselves. They either had their monsters avoid them entirely or take the more drastic measure of constantly bombarding themselves with mana storms.
He had never attempted to take one of the mana storm lightning strikes because Ning Xin always dissuaded him. It was not something one would usually survive. She was especially worried since healing didn't work well on him, he didn't have her mask's healing ability and she was worried because the damage from 'mana' based storm was known to be unable to recover naturally and they didn't know how his not completely human body would react to the stimulation.
"Are you here to stop us from entering?" Ebony asked, the man wouldn't be the first.
"Huh? No no, we have a request for you but you two stopped showing up at Quest Halls or just getting information on the closest dungeons, leaving immediately after."
"Request?"
"A job, but wow, uhh…I last heard you were around level 160 but you're both 183. You're Rimestone right?"
"Ebony. But yes, that's me." He had managed to chase up in levels due to the increase of his stats and how he protected Ning Xin during the night.
Some dungeons had simple tactics of trying to get rid of them after they killed a large population. Just constantly sending more after them. It sadly never worked and other parties were very pissed as they were either interrupted or even gravely injured. The smart dungeons were the ones that hid their creatures or just stopped spawning for a day or two because there was nothing they could do. The dungeons weren't like Ordina and they couldn't talk or make deals with them.
As for whether their actions caused any people to die? They didn't know. At the very least, he checked with the Quest Hall if they had any additional deaths reported after a stampede. Since the dungeons would directly target them, he hasn't heard of anyone blaming them for any deaths because of that.
He would personally check his proximities as much as possible so that they wouldn't implicate anyone and he also noted how the Quest Hall was already watching their movements and posting notices that they were in the area, asking other freelancers and dungeons clearers to keep their distance.
"Good, good." He hiccuped once before continuing. "I should introduce myself since this is official business. Baron Vigoureed, I got my own title so don't put me together with that old coot Viscount alright. Just call me Ric." The [Master Light Archer Lvl 300] shook his finger left and right. Ebony knew the 'light' in Elcrian was referring to weight and not the element or brightness.
Ebony and his housemate exchanged glances.
"What what? Do you know that old coot?" Ric's eyes gleamed with mana to which Ebony noticed.
Ebony shook his head in reply. "We knew Ryley Vigoureed."
"Ryley? Ryley…sounds familiar. Ah! Fifth uncle's fourth son! I think… maybe. Well…how is he doing?"
"He's dead." Ning Xin threw out flatly.
"...I see. At least he doesn't have to worry about anyone worrying about that. I heard my fifth uncle got killed in some expedition a few years back too. Along with his other sons. And fifth aunt was killed by the old coot since she ran off with some man, too bad that man had to be another archer noble." Ric optimistically spouted.
The conversation was cut off by silence.
"His final words were that he was from the house of Vigoureed, he died in Ordina, his killer is dead." Ebony felt it was the least he could say.
"...I'll send word to the main family. Anyway!" Ric's facial muscles twitched at his own words. He clearly wasn't close to his family and quickly changed the topic. He was fully sober by now.
"Our little town is faced with a tiny problem. We've only managed to gather a few people willing to take the quest and I couldn't help but think of the famous duo, hated by dungeons, monster exterminators."
"Speak." Ning Xin hoped he understood she was asking him to get to the point.
The town atop the mountain, Crest, had noticed a recurring pattern of a larger number of monsters in the area. From deeper into their forest was a section called Vermin Paradise. There were no people or settlements in the vicinity past them because it wasn't habitable.
Vermin Paradise, as its name suggests, was filled with insect-type monsters big and small. The other reason Crest was the only town here was due to their defensive vantage point as the average monster deeper into Vermin Paradise was Grandmaster classed, above level 300.
'The giant mantis must have been young strays.' Ebony thought.
For reasons they have not found out, the congregation of giant insects building homes visible to their scouts were increasing exponentially. Species that they were not aware of were popping up every day and each seemingly stronger than the last.
"So yeah, perfect job offer right? Huge amounts of high-level monsters that we want you to kill and not the dungeon with resources that we don't want you to destroy. I'll let you raze this dungeon for as long as you like after helping us. You're happy, the Empire is happy and I will be happy." He packaged the offer nicely.
""No."" They replied in unison without hesitation, turning around and no longer planning to enter this dungeon.
Ric acted utterly shocked.