Lewd Dungeon, Chapter 410

Chapter 410 – Caves

The Guild had warned them of the nature of the next few floors. Oppressive darkness and caves, with only a few key areas receiving any light. Pitfalls and other hazards were present, forcing people to rely on lights, which would potentially reveal their position to enemies, letting them prepare ambushes, or turn to other senses. Worse, relying solely on darkvision or other senses might blind you to clues written on the walls so that only normal vision would see them. There was no ‘perfect’ solution.

Thankfully, those kinds of conditions were far from rare, even outside of dungeons. Most Adventurers who lived long enough to reach Tier 2 carried both light sources and means of expanding their normal senses, with the ability to see in the dark or to target foes without seeing them being two of the most common ones.

Of course, each sense, magical or not, had its strengths and weaknesses. Darkvision gave you shapes clearly enough, with enough detail to tell one party member from the other, but you got no color, and ink on a page was completely invisible, unless it was specially made to be visible to darkvision. Tremorsense let you detect and target enemies wherever they were, even underground, so long as they were touching the ground in some way, but was useless against incorporeal or flying foes. And so on. That was why any competent adventuring team tried to find as many ways to catch threats as they could. Especially since there were more than a few creatures who had an ability like a Rogue’s [Sneak Attack], even if they didn’t have class levels.

Of course, the Guild had also told them about the floor’s other tricks. Starting with the ‘fallen adventurer’ in the pit trap just after they got to the floor, and the hidden Lewd Slime Lord below. Emblema’s [Dancing Spells] skill allowed her to control the track of her spells through her dance, causing the fireball to turn downward and loop into the overhang where the Lewd Slime Lord was waiting, destroying it without touching the adventurer’s backpack, and the all-important map it held.

If it wasn’t for the map, they could have avoided the pitfall altogether. The journal’s contents never changed, and they already knew what it said from the Guild. The waterskin and rations were nice, but they already had some of their own. Same with the torch. But the Map? It always showed the current configuration of the floor, with hints at where the minibosses could be found, and the talismans that were needed to unlock the boss room.

That, too, was a standard practice in many dungeons. Dungeons were living creatures, after all, and they were known to be intelligent. A floor where most of the area could be easily ignored was wasted space and energy, from the perspective of a predator. So, dungeons created reasons for Adventurers to not just rush to the end, where the best XP and loot from a floor typically was. Because dungeons were most certainly predators, and they wanted to get as much sustenance from their prey as possible, for the least work.

The two most common ways a dungeon encouraged exploration was through treasures and keys. Treasures scattered about enticed adventurers to look into nooks and crannies. Keys meant they had to face and overcome challenges, in order to advance. However, there was usually no set order in which one had to complete those challenges, only that they had to be completed before one got to the boss.

On the other hand, sometimes a dungeon cut out all the exploration on a floor, and made what was, in effect, a gauntlet. The two best examples of a gauntlet, where adventurers were forced onto a single path, that they simply had to endure as they passed through were the Water Temple and the Black Temple floors. Sure, the first floor’s trap-filled starting and ending sections were gauntlets, but most of the first floor was that open swamp area. The Water Temple and Black Temple, though, had only a single path, and you either walked it, or you used an [Escape Charm] to flee.

And so, Rhys and his Thralls advanced through the darkness. The Jolly Skeletons were not much threat, once one knew that fire was their weakness, though the fire did not kill them immediately. Which was a problem, since it seemed like the ingrained response for the skeletons when they were set on fire was to grab on to whatever had lit the flame and let the fire consume both of them. Setting too many on fire at once could be a problem, naturally.

The Lewd Assassin Vines they encountered in a patch of Jolly Mushrooms were also handled easily enough, since Elia had the [Clean Air] spell on them, blocking out the mushroom spores and allowing them to clearly see the vines. In truth, the vines were actually quite weak if you weren’t trying to fight your way out of their grasp. They relied on ambushes to catch their prey, after all. Ambush predators, even plants, did not typically fare too well when their prey avoided the ambush, and was capable of fighting back.

The first of the minibosses they faced was the four Dread Wraiths. Merewen cast [Fixed Form], which made all four undead solid, unable to phase through floors, and suddenly quite a good deal more vulnerable to the group’s attacks. The spell was originally designed to combat shapeshifters and illusionists, but it worked quite well against incorporeal foes, as well.

The second miniboss, the chainsaw-wielding undead, was actually far tougher for them than the Dread Wraiths. The human undead was immune to critical hits and sneak attacks, and his resistance against magic and weapon damage was incredibly strong. As in, he was resisting almost 75% of the damage they did. Even with it being six on one, the undead was one hell of a fight, and they found out the hard way that a chainsaw does very nasty things to flesh and armor when they meet. The fight lasted almost half an hour, and healing up and repairing their armor afterwards took almost as long!

They found a treasure room that had been marked on the map. It was trapped, obviously, but the trap was a clever one. Actually, it was not a trap in the normal sense. There was a very obvious tripwire towards the back of the room, in front of the treasure chest. But it did not register under [Trap Sense], because it was not a trigger, but structural. The line was under tension, holding the floor up. Cut the line, and the floor dropped into a pit. But the floor was perfectly stable and sound, if you left the wire alone. Unfortunately, leaving an obvious trap trigger alone went against every instinct adventurers cultivated going through dungeons, so, even knowing about the trap, there were still teams that found themselves falling into the pit full of slimes that ate metal. Which meant bad things for their gear, obviously.

The ‘Dark Bargainer’ tree was a nasty piece of work. Thankfully, Merewen, as a High Priestess of Selphie, had the [Mass Mental Defense] spell, which did not block the psychic tree’s lure, but instead turned it into background noise, without any real power. They could ‘hear’ the tree calling to them, urging them to get closer, and touch the trunk. to rest at its base. But it had no real power over them. Disturbing, though, absolutely. Rhys was profoundly glad when they plucked the key piece they needed from one of the lower limbs of the tree, and its lure faded behind them. He wasn’t the only one, either.

Then, they were at the sealed door. Three pieces of the key, locked into the proper indentations in the stone. The slab slid downward, revealing a single magical torch next to an old wooden pier leading to the Cursed Lake, and the single boat near the shore. Off, in the distance, they saw a single light, marking the other side.

Thankfully, the Guild’s information told them what to expect. Rhys and the others pulled the boat back, well away from the water’s edge, while Teffany kept watch, just in case Grandpa Earl, the Giant Ironscale Alligator Zombie that was the boss of this floor made an early appearance. They had a [Folding Boat] Elia’s inventory, but no one knew if ‘outside’ boats would fare as well in the cursed water of the underground lake. The dungeon’s boat was, at least, guaranteed to reach the other side. No one could promise the same with craft brought in from the wider world.

Rhys pointed his [Blacksteel Spellbow] at the water. Four pulls of the trigger, four magical bolts striking the water. For a moment, nothing happened. Rhys didn’t second guess himself. The Guild’s information had included this. So, he was ready when the water exploded.

Grandpa Earl was thirteen meters long from his snout to the tip of his tail, and every bit of him was powerful. But the undead had animal-level intelligence and tactics. A very, very powerful animal, especially with being turned into an undead, but still an animal. They knew how to deal with Grandpa Earl.

The thick scales of the undead alligator repelled slashing and piercing weapons. But that was only if you hit the scales. Danyll’s blades flashed as he popped out of the alligator’s shadow, stabbing the creature in both of its eyes. Of course, undead weren’t wholly reliant on eyes to hunt, even zombies, but it still lowered the creature’s effectiveness. Gave them an edge.

Elia used [Nature’s Wrath] a spell that dealt extra damage to unnatural beings like undead, demons, angels, and so on. The spell crashed into the gator’s side, causing it to turn towards her. The thing was fast for its size, but couldn’t turn for shit. They planned to use that.

Emblema’s foot came crashing down on the gator’s spine in an axe kick combining [Adamantine Strike] with [Unravelling Blast]. The first was a skill that dealt extra damage to constructs, and could shatter armor. Adding on the spell [Unravelling Blast] further damaged armor. Suddenly, there was a very large gap in the scales covering Grandpa Earl’s back. A weak spot.

Teffany took advantage of it, driving her spear deep into Grandpa Earl’s side, using her [Blazing Defiance] skill to add fire damage to the strike. She followed it up with a [Greater Taunt]. The boss turned to face her, even as she backed away, moving out of his reach.

The pattern was simple after that. Rhys would attack with his whip. Danyll would strike with his daggers. Elia’s spells hit home. Emblema opened up new gaps in the armor. Teffany drew the beast’s attention whenever it got too close to one of the others. The only one who did not engage in the attack itself was Merewen, who was keeping buffs up on the party, and ensuring that there was healing ready to go, just in case. If they did their jobs right, she wouldn’t be needed. But they hadn’t survived to get to Tier 2 by planning on things going right all the time.

They stuck to the plan. They were all seasoned enough to know that patience and persistence paid off more times than not. And, eventually, Grandpa Earl fell to the ground for the last time. The zombie disappeared into light, leaving behind a treasure chest.

Loot:

Ironscale Alligator Scales x12

Dominator’s Spellblaster

Submissive’s Choker of Faith

Shieldmaiden’s Spear of Curses

Rhys nodded as he looked over the spoils. Twelve scales which counted as high-grade Tier 2 materials for any metalworker or armorer. A device that looked like one of the pistols he’d seen on the Earth internet, but which functioned like an improved version of his [Blacksteel Spellbow], especially when he had his Thralls nearby. A choker that had a blank holy symbol over the throat, but that would change to match the wearer’s faith. The choker increased the power of the wearer’s spells by 50% if they were a Thrall or Slave, and that became a 100% increase if the wearer had sex with their Master sometime in the last twenty-four hours. After that, the spear was almost a letdown, since it ‘only’ did more damage than Teffany’s current spear, and ensured that the wounds it caused were cursed, impossible to heal by any means until the curse was lifted, and it could change size, growing from a short spear suitable to use in one hand, up to a lance six meters in length, and everything in between.

Teffany only pretended to grumble as she picked up her new toy.