World Sphere - 200 - Dungeon Reborn

Chapter 200: Dungeon Reborn

We watched the lightning elementals chase the shifter up and out of the shaft onto the island’s surface. I felt my connection to the elementals end after they exhausted their aether investment. The shifter hadn’t killed them, so I was confused. “Do we go up or back?” Hyperion asked from behind me.

I ignored him momentarily, sending a warning message through the ring to Sana. No one was to go near the dungeon entrance as the shifter was likely going to try to enter the dungeon to escape. How it would flee in the dungeon was a bit of a mystery, but maybe it knew something we did not.

Ending the problematic communication with Kiara’s interference, I looked to Relik for direction. I could fly up, but I would not force a confrontation with the creature alone. If we went back, it would take more time, but we would be at the Maelstrom. Relik understood and looked up before speaking, “We go up. That light up there means this must be one of the other entrances the Maven Seekers unearthed. If it is heading for the Progenitor Dungeon, we can orient ourselves and follow.”

Relik drank a potion, and I had to carry Hyperion with my flight spell. My speed greatly diminished, but I was able to lift the golden-haired elf. “Your hair smells nice. Like a baby’s,” he said as he hung on my back. If he was trying to make me uncomfortable, it worked.

“It is just my cleanliness spell. It refreshes the skin and hair.” I answered him but conveyed that this was not the time by my irritated tone. We reached the light source, and I sent an elemental ahead of our trio. The shifter was nowhere in sight. But Relik was kneeling nearby.

“He trapped your elementals here and ran,” he said pointing at the scorched earth with metal fragments of some device or artifact. “It is invisible and uses magic to cover its tracks,” Relik said while kneeling in the open terrain. It was rocky ground with just shrubs surrounding us on a small hill. Modest trees obscured us from viewing any distance. Relik pointed, “It fled that way, and it is the direction my guild residence is located. It is about seven miles by the feel. The Maelstrom should be in that direction,” he pointed right. “It will be quicker to run directly to the dungeon.”

“Run? I don’t think I feel like running today. Perhaps Storme can carry me again with his flight spell again.” Hyperion said hopefully with mirth in his tone.

“He needs to conserve his aether,” Relik barked, non-plussed by the humor, and started jogging. I followed and expected Hyperion to as well. I looked back once to confirm he was, even though he didn’t look happy about it.

My elementals couldn’t see invisible creatures, so they followed overhead as we moved into the woodlands. We crossed into fields, orchards, and farms as we went. Some of these farms and orchards had been abandoned. I guessed they might have belonged to the Bricios and had not been reallocated yet by Loriel.

Some destroyed branches and fences marked the shifters passing but we didn’t catch a sighting of it as we were moving cautiously, expecting to be ambushed. When we reached the edge of my estate near Wolfhaven, Relik finally pointed out some prints in the soft earth. “It dropped its spell, probably to conserve aether. I think I know why it is racing toward the dungeon. Aether recovery is higher in a dungeon, and your elementals must have drained the creature’s reserves.”

Shit, now I wished I had chosen to increase their aether-siphoning ability instead of adding a third elemental. Maybe we could have hindered the creature.

As we approached the dungeon entrance, it had changed drastically. The entry arch was now obsidian, and the runes identifying what lay within were now luminescent crimson. “Well, that isn’t sinister at all. The shape almost makes it look like a skull, too.” Hyperion announced cheerfully.

Relik ignored him and approached cautiously to read the runes. He scanned them all twice before talking to us, not taking his eyes from the entrance. “It added two levels. There are now seven floors. Unusual to add more than one, but not unexpected with all the resources we gave it to evolve.” I noted he said we and not me. Maybe the Duskhunters contributed and hadn’t told me.

Relik stood tall, “The danger with newly opened dungeons is you don’t know what to expect.” He indicated the runes. “This just gives you a peek under its skirt.” I did a double take at Relik, who still remained serious.

“I have never taken a dungeon’s virgin run before,” Hyperion said, cracking his knuckles, having seemingly forgotten the shifter was inside and picking up on Relik’s analogy.

“The party limit has changed to five, and the shifter will have assumed one of the spots. We can add another to our group,” he stated, but it was clearly a question for me.

“Anyone you suggest?” I asked. Kiara was immediately in my head volunteering, and I had to shut out her pleas to come. I was glad she was on the Titan’s Shield island, or she would have ignored my command and come on her own. Although she was loyal, she was in a rebellious phase like a teenager.

Relik shook his head, “No. The shifter is too dangerous, and the three of us can handle ourselves with your elementals for support.” I had expected him to include one of his delve team, but I guessed he still did not want to put them in danger.

I told Sana we were entering the dungeon in pursuit of the shifter and if she thought it prudent. She could set a trap on the exit of the dungeon in case it tried to flee. She took the suggestion and was rallying her Academy instructors.

Stepping through the archway after Relik, my vision took time to adjust. I summoned an elemental, and its ambient light helped me see. Before, the first level of the dungeon had been grassy rolling hills with blink bunnies and horned goats. Now, it was the opposite. Dead, twisted trees bereft of leaves dotted an expanse of dark soil. The sky was twilight with stars, which was odd in itself because the Sphere didn’t have stars and only a brief period of dusk.

Hyperion was focused on the sky, “Stars?”

Relik grunted, “No just lights high in the ceiling. It's not unique to Dungeons but does mimic the Outer Sphere. Send your elemental out to see if the shifter is on this level and what creatures the dungeon has populated its first floor with.”

I complied, and the elemental drake walked forward. A black puddle hissed and bubbled as it stepped in it a few paces from the doorway. Relik held up his hand to stop and inspected the mess the drake elemental was trying to shake off its foot.

“Black slime. Light acidic corrosion but very slow moving. They like to mimic puddles of water. Watch where you step, or you might lose your boots,” Relik said, unimpressed.

The elemental continued into the dead trees, and black slimes fell from the branches. They were well camouflaged but only hissed on touching the elemental before sliding to the floor in a bubbling mess. I took out a staff member to probe the puddle, and a decent-sized tier one aether crystal was in the mess. “Slimes tend to give good crystals,” Relik said as I pushed it out of the mess.

“Just black slimes on this floor?” Hyperion sounded disappointed. The elf’s tone made it hard to tell if he was being sarcastic.

Relik was still on hyper-alert. “No. There will be at least one more creature on the floor, not including the floor guardian. There are some rules the dungeon has to follow.”

“What happens if they don’t follow the rules?” Hyperion inquired as he studied a black puddle.

“After a time, they are recycled. Other dungeons adjacent to them break the walls down, purge the dungeon, and shatter the core.”

I recast my elemental as it was about to expire. “How do you know that, Relik? I have never read anything about that happening before.”

“It is not common knowledge and rarely happens. I don’t know how dungeons communicate with each other or how they understand the rules, but they do. The last record of a dungeon being purged in this part of the Sphere was over five thousand years ago. The dungeon was called the Pit of the Burning King. It was releasing its creatures in a dungeon break non-stop, causing a swarm of lesser demons to ravage the lands. A platinum adventurer team was sent by the Guild, but when they arrived, the dungeon was destroyed by four other dungeons adjacent to it in the ley lines.”

“How did they..,” Hyperion started to ask, but Relik cut him off.

“It is not the time to discuss such things. If you want an education on dungeon lore, attend an Academy in one of the major cities of the Sphere.” Relik motioned for us to continue our search.

My elemental led the way, and black twisted branches tried to ensnare it from the trees. I think the elemental thought the effort was funny as it just continued walking, and the vines disintegrated when they touched its body. “Lesser necrotic vines. They have a poison that takes days to work but will kill you if not treated.” Relik said off-handedly.

I reached out and let the vine wrap my hand before yanking a piece of the tree. My neutralize poison spell made short work of the tier 1 poison. It might be a way to level the spell, as it was a new poison.

As we walked through the dead forest, my only concern at the moment was I had not learned about either of these creatures in my lessons. There were thousands of different dungeon creatures, and the dungeons could fuse them into new variations as well. Relik was getting concerned for another reason. “I don’t see any sign of the shifter’s passage.”

“Do you think it tricked us into looking for it in the dungeon?” Hyperion asked while retrieving an aether crystal from another slime. The red crystal was probably four or five units, so close to a gold in value. If all the floors were like this, it was going to be a profitable dungeon.

Relik’s sword flashed out, cutting a black squirrel in half that had launched itself at him. I inspected the bloody halves with him. “Flying squirrel, but not a variety I have seen before. Its teeth are black and rotten so maybe this floor is some type of diseased or corrupted floor. No harvestables besides the aether crystals so far. This squirrel has no meat, and the pelt is mangy.”

It was almost like Relik had forgotten we were hunting the Shifter and doing a first delve analysis of the reopened dungeon. I used my tissue extraction on the squirrel to get the aether crystal. It was just a tiny red crystal, worth maybe twenty silver. We moved further into the woods, killing the black squirrels and slimes.

“Good,” Relik’s voice barked happily for once. The Shifter killed the guardian and went to the dungeon's second level. We walked into a clearing where feathers, blood, and flesh were littering the ground. “I think it was hippogriff like before—but with black feathers.” Relik picked up a black beak, a tongue still attached to it. “Dead about two hours,” he informed us.

Since we left the tunnels about twenty minutes after the Shifter, we had been moving cautiously, giving the creature time to get further ahead of us. “Oh, it left the reward chest!” Hyperion said happily. He sauntered over a black box, but Relik stopped him. “Don’t worry, I will freeze everything in place. Traps can not harm yours truly.” Relik released him, and Hyperion opened the chest. “Not trapped, but the loot is less than desirable.”

“It is the first floor of a dungeon but there should be a little extra since it was the guardiands first time being defeated,” Relik said interested. He informed me, “A pile of large silver, maybe 30 coins and a spellbook with the alarm spell.”

Remy was the accountant, but I could do the math in my head. A clear of this floor with maybe fifty black slimes, twenty black squirrels, and the black hippogriff would yield about sixty gold. There might even be some harvetables on the black hippogriff as well. That was roughly the same as before, but it should only take about four hours compared to eight hours prior.

We searched the clearing and found large prints from the Shifter in the gore. We let Relik consider the evidence. He finally stated, “It went to the second level. It most certainly did not circle back to the exit, but I am concerned that it didn’t use aether in the fight. We will head down and see if it exited there.”

A stone stairway circled down in the center of the clearing. Relik again led the way, and we appeared in another extremely dark room. I summoned an elemental for light, and dark gray stone walls surrounded us. I noticed that Hyperion was a little slow in following us this time. There were two exits. We could turn around and exit the dungeon or take the corridor before us, delving deeper. Relik seemed to consider the safe room we were in.

“It appears to be a dungeon maze or maybe something simpler. The good news is we should be able to see if the Shifter entered any of the rooms quickly.” Relik switched out his paired swords for a short mace and shield. The corridors did not appear wide or tall.

I sent the elemental down the corridor and it entered a large room, and nothing attacked it. It was looking around, confused when we caught up with it. Dozens of modest rat bodies were crushed and slashed in half. Relik pointed to the holes in the walls. “A rat swarm. It would help if you had a decent area of effect spell, or you would get nibbled on a bit before you could kill them all. I think the shifter got bit as this looks like an angry creature did this.” A rat on the ceiling fell to the floor in a small splat.

“Why is it dark?” I asked, having never seen a completely dark dungeon before.

“The dungeon probably expected you to bring a torch or other light source. It is rare for a dark dungeon to exist, but I have seen them before.” Relik was distracted as he studied the two exits from the room. One had a blood trail, and the other did not. I produced an aether light to brighten the room. I checked the rats, and they all had the smallest fragment of red aether crystal, like the black squirrels. Still, this swarm had over fifty rats, meaning there were ten gold worth of crystals in a mess.

Relik motioned for me to send the elemental down the blood trail corridor. The blood was from the rats, not the Shifter. The next chamber was also a bloody mess, and Relik hypothesized. “I think the Shifter is angry about something. The violence of the attacks is unnecessary for something of its power.”

“Or maybe it is trying to scare us by showing us its power. It’s working for me,” Hyperion chimed in.

Relik explored the gore while the elemental guarded us. He was trying to piece together what the creature might have been. I found an orange aether crystal about eight units in size and worth eight gold. So, whatever the creature had been, it was most likely a tier two creature. Relik finally gave his appraisal. “Some type of lesser giant humanoid. The skin doesn’t match an ogre’s, but the amount of material does. It was wielding a crude club. Fairly strong encounter for just the second level of a young dungeon.”

The next room had long blue stalactites in the ceiling and was freezing cold. Blue goo dripped to pile on the from the stalactites, slowly making stalagmites. “Don’t enter,” Relik warned. “The ceiling is crawling with ice slimes. Their fluids are muscle relaxants.”

I searched the ceiling and could make out the shadows. Relik was standing behind me, “This is an excellent find. A quality alchemy ingredient, and if captured, they can make good cold chests and consume kitchen scraps. They are mostly harmless but will clean your body of all its hair if it paralyzes you.”

“There are some spas that use them in the larger cities,” Hyperion chimed in. “I heard it is an amazing experience, and your hair takes months to grow back—if you like the bald look.”

“Overall, I am not impressed with the dungeon evolution,” Relik said tiredly. “The new creatures are not really that good for training new recruits on.”

“We can evaluate the dungeon later. We are here for the Shifter.” I said evenly. This was what Relik did for a living, so I understood his clinical evaluation. His Guild also owed a portion of the dungeon—or at least its delving rights. He showed some irritation, but we moved carefully through the room, avoiding the slimes.

The next room had a beheaded giant badger and access stairs to the next level. The head of the badger hadn’t been cute off but torn off by a powerful creature. A portion of the spine still remained with the head. The loot chest for the floor guardian was here and appeared unopened again.

“Doesn’t the beast care about the loot?” Hyperion moved to the chest and opened it. “Hahaha,” he started laughing. “The bugger tried to booby trap it. Some type of explosive artifact. Clever, even left the silver so it would sound like it hadn’t been opened.” He closed the lid and backed away from the chest. “Let’s get into the hallway before I release my hold on the chest, shall we?”

I let my elemental expire as we found refuge in the corridor. Hyperion didn’t give us a warning as a massive explosion blasted air into the corridor. I stumbled, my protections flaring, Relik remained firm, and Hyperion was knocked ten feet away. I healed the ringing in my ears, and the others drank a potion.

The corpse of the badger had been transmuted into a paste to cover the walls. “Maybe he thinks we are all dead,” Hyperion offered helpfully.

“Sound cannot be heard between floors in a dungeon unless it is an open design. This one is not,” Relik informed the elf tersely.

Even though there was a corridor going to a different room, Relik had us descend to the third level. He was fairly certain this floor was designed in a circle. You could go left as we did and reach this guardian room. Or go right and face three different chambers to reach this room.

The bright light of the next floor took a blink to adjust my eyes. A familiar scene was before me. The meadow looked very similar to the dungeon’s previous first floor. I even saw a bunny on a small incline eating some grass.

“It must have added its two new floors above the old,” I surmised.

“This shouldn’t be too difficult,” Hyperion said, taking a step toward the nearest bunny.

Relik berated Hyperion, “Foolish elf. Has your golden hair rotted your brain? This is the third level of the dungeon. Every creature here is probably tier two now. Those bunnies are no longer what they seem.”

I sent my lightning elemental forward to test the blink bunnies. The elemental proceeded cautiously, and the bunny stopped eating and watched it approach. I could have had it use its lightning breath, but we needed to discover how the dungeon had improved the creatures.

The bunny pinned its ears back and leaped at the elemental, disappearing, using its familiar blink ability to close quickly. When it reappeared, a force wave struck the elemental, knocking it back a few feet and creating a loud boom, causing our ears to ring from forty feet away. I healed my ears instinctively. “It’s a sonic attack,” Relik said. “Meant to stun and deafen but uni-directional. Just don’t get caught in the path of the attack.”

The bunny was faster, stronger, and more agile as well. Of course, we had Hyperion, who, with a thought, could restrain the blink bunny completely. It couldn’t use either of its abilities when in his ability’s grasp. The first bunny yielded a massive tier-one aether crystal, almost fifty units in size, worth about ten gold.

“Hey, Storme,” Hyperion got my attention. “The uni-horn goats are hear too.”

I looked in the distance to see a horse-sized goat with a metallic-looking horn. Well, the dungeon had definitely gotten more interesting.

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