Exploration- Chapter 35

Chapter 35- Level Appropriate

The spiral staircase led us down in loops past four doors. Each wooden door was marked with a simple number in metal. Although of course appearances could be deceptive in the dungeon. These door could probably withstand most any attack thrown at them, short of a god getting involved.

When we reached the 5th door, Samvek waited and glanced back making sure we were all ready. After we each nodded in response, he opened the door. Immediately all six of us, since we were grouped felt a shifting of space around us as we were pulled onto the dungeon’s fifth floor.

Space folded and unfolded around us, and then the dungeon released us onto its fifth floor as if testing our balance. It was so fascinating to me how magic worked here. There was no specific type to the mana, not at least that I could use, yet it accomplished different purposes just as our various mana affinities did. There was another difference though. Since my interaction with the core, the mana didn’t feel overly dense here anymore. Rather it was like I could feel the natural ebb and flow of it. Hopefully, that would translate into more efficiency with my casting.

Sound hit first, a layered roar of wind through canopies, distant bellows, the churn of water and something heavier moving beneath it. Heat and humidity pressed in immediately, thick enough that my skin prickled, while the smell of rot, sap, and mineral-rich mud filled my lungs. This place felt old, not ruined, but unfinished, like the world was still deciding what it wanted to be. A part of me wondered if this was an ancient place which the dungeon had tapped into or if it had simply created the floor with the sensation of age. Ultimately, it didn’t really matter.

The ground beneath our feet was dark loam shot through with veins of stone, resilient and unyielding in that way only dungeons managed. Pools of sluggish water reflected a sickly green light from bioluminescent growths clinging to roots and rock faces. Massive trees rose around us, their trunks wider than buildings, bark layered in plates like armor, with vines hanging down in living curtains. Beyond them, I could see the faint silhouettes of mountains, jagged and sharp against a sky that wasn’t a sky at all but a roiling canopy of cloud and ash-tinted light.

One thing was clear. This place was massive. I couldn’t even get a sense of how far it extended out but my best guess was hundreds of miles in every direction. That raised questions about how we would find the exit, but rather than worrying, I felt my blood pumping. This was true adventure.

The noise never stopped. Insects the size of dogs buzzed and clicked somewhere out of sight, while deeper calls rolled through the forest like distant thunder. Every sound carried weight and intent, as though the dungeon itself was speaking in a language made of threats and challenges. I felt the appraisal then, a subtle pressure sweeping over us, measuring, weighing, and sorting. It wasn’t hostile, but it wasn’t kind either, and when it settled I knew the floor had made its decision.

The influx of energy that followed was immediate. Hell mana seeped into the ambient flow, thick and oily compared to what I was used to, threaded with a chaotic undertone that resisted structure. This wasn’t the disciplined hierarchy of the Hell System. It was rawer, closer to destruction for the sake of destruction, and it made the air feel unstable in a way that set my teeth on edge. Chaos mana rode alongside it, louder here than anywhere I’d felt before, unfiltered and aggressive, like a storm that refused to organize itself.

Party Scan completed. Based upon level variations, the dungeon will initially be set to it’s lowest setting. Evaluation will continue and subsequent segments of the dungeon may be increased as seems appropriate to provide a challenge. Current challenge level: 250.

I smiled at that. Even level 250 was a big jump from the other dungeons we’d been in before in this realm. More than that though, there was a feeling of potency that came with the primordial aspect. This dungeon was going to throw everything it had at us.

I cast Area Flight out without ceremony, the spell settling over the group like an invisible net. The sensation of weightlessness followed, and everyone lifted slightly off the ground as the magic adjusted to each of us. Clay looked startled for a moment before he steadied himself, while Oliver’s eyes went wide as he tested a cautious hover. Lexa rose with quiet ease, roots retracting smoothly as she adapted, and I felt a flicker of approval ripple through the dungeon at the display of controlled power.

The mage laughed. “Flight made easy. I can fly, but to cast a spell that affects so many, so easily is something far beyond me. Even when you explained this would be part of the strategy, I still found myself caught off guard.”

“Just be careful. The rate you can fly at is based upon my movement rate. If you  fly at full speed and run into something you’ll go splat and the more damage there is to you, the more difficult it is to resurrect you.”

He shuddered but then nodded to confirm his understanding.

We moved forward slowly at first, gliding just above the swampy ground to avoid whatever lurked beneath the surface. The vegetation reacted to our passage, leaves curling, spores puffing into the air, and thick vines drawing back as if sentient but hesitant to attack. I stayed alert, senses stretched wide, tracking movement through vibration and shifts in mana rather than sight alone. Those vines might not be a threat on their own, but if they tangled us up in the middle of a fight, it might make a difference. This floor was vast, sprawling out in every direction, and the sheer scale of it made my chest tighten with anticipation.

The first sign of a true monster came from the water. A massive shape slid beneath the surface of a nearby pool, displacing enough liquid to send ripples racing outward. Then it broke through, a behemoth slug-like creature hauling itself onto land, its body segmented and ridged with mineral plates that glistened with moisture. It opened a circular maw lined with grinding teeth and let out a wet, reverberating roar that shook nearby trees. As it did, Identify did it’s thing.

Primal Slug (Legendary) Level: 250

Highest Stat: Vitality

Lowest Stat: Agility

Samvek and Selena were moving for it and I projected a force dome around the other three. We needed to gauge how dangerous these monsters were before allowing them to engage. They already knew this but I could still see all of them chafing at being coddled.

Lexa said, “Protect us, but at least let us land an attack.”

She was right, I should be able to keep them safe without a full on dome to protect them so I dropped it down to three individual shields in front of each of them. Oliver got his attack off first as a fireball leapt from his hand and struck the back half of the slug. It’s slimy flesh sizzled and put off a putrid smell, but it didn’t even react. It couldn’t Samvek and Selena were keeping it too busy.

The lightning that danced along Samvek’s spear seemed to damage it the most but even then it was healing faster than we would have liked. That was fine though. It was supposed to be a challenge. If it died too quickly that wouldn’t let us get our attacks in. Everything around Selena shifted as she wielded reality as much as her twin hook swords.

Clay managed to get an arrow off that went through one of the two eyestalks, and Lexa and put her hands into the murky water beneath us. In response, sharpened roots and come up underneath the slug driving deep into its body. Still it persisted.

It was only after Selena removed its head, and Samvek released a charge of electricity directly into its core that it finally died.

Your party has slain a primal slug. Primal creatures possess greater power than their level would suggest and accordingly award 150% XP. Your Dungeon Ally trait has activated doubling your XP and any loot. You gain 3000 XP. Current progress to next level: 3000/16,000,000.

I grimaced at the totals. This was going to take a long time, but I reminded myself that we weren’t here to level ourselves up. Oliver was practically dancing saying that he’d gained 3 levels in one kill.

Then as the body was absorbed back into the dungeon floor, our loot was left behind. I wasn’t sure what I’d had in mind when I thought about doubled loot, but this wasn’t it. There were four jugs of some sorta of viscous fluid.

Slug Slime- this is an epic tier lubricant. The uses are as limitless as your imagination and can be used in machinery, for traps, or even tapped for regenerative properties if you don’t mind bathing in it.

Well it was better than nothing, and I quickly pulled it into Save for Winter as had been agreed upon later. All loot would be split after the dungeon run was over, and we were just beginning.

The water nearest us erupted again, not with a single mass this time but with multiple breaches that came almost in rhythm. Long shapes surged up through the murk, bodies coiling and uncoiling as they cleared the surface, each one plated in overlapping stone scales slick with algae and mud. They weren’t slugs like the first, but serpentine, their heads wedge-shaped and crowned with mineral ridges that cracked as they flexed their jaws. Heat rolled off them in waves, and the swamp hissed where droplets struck their hides and flashed to steam.

Each one identified as a primal slug, so apparently there was possible variation on how they could be shaped and each of them was level 250.

I barely had time to register the Identify tags before they attacked. One lunged straight up out of the water toward Oliver, jaws snapping wide enough to swallow him whole, and I slammed a force plate into its path. The impact rang through my bones as the construct shattered, but it was enough to deflect the strike so Clay could haul Oliver sideways through the air. The serpent slammed back into the pool hard enough to throw up a wall of sludge, then surged again without hesitation. The mage wasn’t intimidated though as I saw spears of ice streak from his finger tips and slam into vulnerable spot son the monster. Much as Clay, he might not have the levels, but clearly had the experience and instincts of an adventurer.

“Spread but don’t separate,” I shouted, already moving. Area Flight kept us mobile, but the creatures were fast, faster than their bulk suggested, and they used the terrain intelligently. One dove beneath the surface and reappeared behind Lexa, snapping at her roots, while another coiled around a massive tree trunk and launched itself like a spring-loaded weapon toward Selena. The issue was that these monsters weren’t a true test of power for any of us from Earth, while they were overwhelming for the other three. It was going to test our coordination to the extreme.

Samvek met the first head-on, spear flashing as lightning poured down the shaft and into the creature’s skull. The strike punched through stone scales and into flesh, but the serpent didn’t die. It wrapped around his torso instead, crushing with relentless force, and I felt the pressure spike through our bond. I drove a force lance into the joint behind its head, twisting hard, and Samvek followed through by discharging a concentrated bolt straight into its core. The creature convulsed, coils loosening just long enough for him to tear free.

More came, five at once, surging out of different pools and channels, some from the ground and some from the air where they’d used trees as launch points. I layered force constructs around the weaker three again, not domes but angled shields that shifted as they moved, forcing attacks to glance instead of land. Oliver hurled spell after spell into the mass, fire and ice tearing chunks from stone hides, while Clay’s arrows punched deep and stayed there, bleeding mineral fragments and glowing ichor. I new he was better with his daggers but he needed a few more levels before closing distance with monsters like this. Lexa slammed both hands into the ground again, and this time the swamp answered her with violent enthusiasm.

Roots the size of siege cables erupted upward, snaring two serpents mid-lunge and wrenching them apart with a sound like splitting mountains. Selena was everywhere at once, reality bending so her blades always found purchase, her strikes landing where defenses should have been but weren’t. One serpent tried to coil around her, and she stepped through it, space folding so the creature’s own momentum tore it in half. The pieces hit the ground still writhing before the dungeon absorbed them.

I switched to offense then, lightning pouring from my hands in controlled arcs that leapt from creature to creature. This wasn’t chain lightning in the casual sense. I was shaping the current, forcing it through weak points I could feel more than see, letting the energy tear through cores and nervous nodes. Each strike left the air smelling of ozone and scorched stone, and each kill sent a ripple of approval through the dungeon that I felt in my teeth.

One serpent got through anyway. It burst up beneath me, jaws closing around my leg, and pain flared hot and sharp as stone teeth bit through armor. I snarled and drove Wayfinder down into its skull, riding the impact as it thrashed and tried to drag me under. Life mana surged reflexively, sealing the wound even as lightning followed the blade and detonated inside the creature. It went limp, jaws loosening, and I kicked free just as the body dissolved into the floor.

The wound was closing already but my armor would take more work to repair. It was what I got for taking this slowly while being overly confident. Yes, I could have cleared all of these monsters much faster, but it was important that we learned what our tag alongs were capable.of.

I made another discovery when I realized that Cone of Winter’s Debuff was apparently incredibly lethal to these slugs, no matter what shape they came in. Lighting seared them, and flame consumed them, but the cold either outright killed them or made them stiff so that a blow from a weapon could crack their bodies apart. That sped the process up.

We didn’t slow. We couldn’t. The dungeon must have realized that a few of these weren’t a challenge so it was throwing them at us in large numbers. The noise alone would draw more, and I could already feel heavier presences shifting deeper in the swamp, something vast stirring under layers of mud and root. The serpents kept coming in waves, and the weaker three were forced to push harder to keep up. That was the point. We couldn’t let them coast, not if they were going to have to face the awakened of the Order.

When the last serpent finally fell, the swamp went quiet in a way that felt temporary and threatening rather than peaceful. Steam rose from scorched water, broken trees leaned at odd angles, and the ground beneath us pulsed as it reclaimed the dead. My chest heaved as I took stock, senses still flared wide, waiting for the next assault. Somewhere out there, something much bigger had noticed us, and I knew this floor was only just getting started.

You have slain 188, level 250 primal slugs. After all benefits are calculated you have earned 564,000 XP. You have gained 752 jugs of slug slime and 376 slug eye stalks. These have multiple uses in crafting and magic.

It was still going to take us a long time, but Oliver had already reached level 150. Lexa was now level 161 and Clay was level 183. The closer they got to the level of the monsters they more they’d slow down but for now the progress was incredibly fast.

“Do you want to stay Oliver, since you’ve hit your level cap?”

He laughed. “Are you kidding. I haven’t had this much fun… well I had some fun when I met Tad, but most of the time, I felt like I was about to die. Here, you’ve kept me so shielded that I’ve been able to explore a bunch of different spell combinations. Getting creative is always fun.”

Selena added, “He may be able to carry over some of the XP that he gets. At least that’s how it worked for Clay.”

“Fair enough. Then is everyone ready to go on?”

They were all more than a little excited. I thought once they got past level 200 we could start lessening our protection, but that was going to take a bit and Oliver couldn’t reach that point without being awakened.