Chapter 4.3 - Enter the Dungeon

Serin met up with everyone outside the dungeon. Olma had demanded they arrive early, as she was excited at the possibility of new prey. Allister and Rachel arrived together shortly after. Besides their stoic expressions, Serin could tell by how they walked that they were still very much in love. Serin was glad that they had found each other.

Last to arrive was Jericho. He looked a bit haggard. Jericho started to explain, "Childcare is expensive. The rates that these swindlers charge to watch a child is what a soldier gets paid on the front lines of a war in the Northern Kingdoms. I have collected bounties for Wyverns that paid less than those harpies charge."

Rachel and Allister laughed. They had long since resigned their abilities to a live-in caretaker. And since they had done so in the beginning like Serin and Olma had, they were able to get an early good deal on longterm care. They had entrusted the care of their son Jack to Malik. He was an older man, a Lybringer planetouched. Even though he was senior in years, Malik was still able to aptly care for children.

Rachel, despite her lack of tact and gruff demeanor, had made a wonderful caretaker for the other Orphans she had grown up around. Additionally, she had been spending a lot of time raising the older younglings of the various refugee races since their town had its first gate open. When it came to caring for their child Jack, Rachel was a perfect mother.

Allister had a complete lack of ability at childcare. His heart was in the task, but often his involvement did more harm than good. So to assist Rachel, so she could still work and perform her duties as a member of the town, they were glad to have hired Malik.

Malik had spent his years as a Soldier and then as an instructor of the Lybringer Military Academy. During this time he had also helped raise two boys, and when his sons went to war, he raised 5 grandchildren. Malik was the only one of his family that had survived the catastrophe, so besides being a relief to Rachel, Serin could tell from their limited interactions that Malik had found purpose in helping to raise a child. Especially one that would not grow up under the shadow of war. Allister was just glad that Rachel was able to take a break from parenting.

Serin was brought back to the present by Olma pulling on his arm. "We are all here. Is it time to go?"

Serin smiled. Jericho had brought the old Autocart, stripped of supplies. Other than their weapons for monsters (and the cart to carry resources they found) the team had no idea what would be needed beyond the gate. So for the first expedition, they had packed light.

As the group walked up to the doorway to the dungeon, Serin nodded at the others, and without a word Jericho, Allister, Rachel, and Serin activated their layers of defensive magic. Olma looked a bit embarrassed as she had never taken the time to learn defensive magics, so instead she instead tightened the straps on the dragonscale chestplate she was wearing.

The first through the gate was Serin. Wearing his dragonscale armor and having prepared a firebolt spell on the end of his shortened rifle, he found himself on the other side facing the first enemies through the gate. As Serin went through he found himself in a small clearing in what looked like a small forest under bright moonlight. Behind him was the arch of the dungeon gate, slightly shimmering. On the other side of the clearing were several horned rabbits. The rabbits looked a bit bigger than the wilderness counterpart, and their back legs had long black claws protruding from them. Serin didn't wait for the others, the rabbits had noticed him, and instead of running away like a horned rabbit tended to do, these rabbits quickly dashed in his direction. Serin fired off his firebolt spell and struck down a rabbit, but then resorted to rifle cartridges, as the charge for the firebolt was too slow to address the oncoming rabbits.

I will have to figure out some type of magic to deal with multiple targets, Serin noted.

He was firing away but they were still coming. Rachel was the next through. She wore no additional armor, but was wrapped in defensive magics imbued onto her clothing. She immediately began to quickdraw mana arrows from her bow and fire them at the incoming rabbits. Allister and Olma were next. Allister chose to use draining magic to weaken and slow the incoming rabbits. Olma jumped ahead, her arm turning into a giant insectoid scythe and cutting down the rabbits that had gotten too close. Finally Jericho came through. He had his sword in hand, pistol in the other, and then put both away. By the time he had walked through the gate, the fighting was complete.

Serin swapped his magazine.

Serin used the study skill on the horned rabbits. Reviewing their information, they were only listed between level 1 and 3, with one at level five.

Serin noted their strength and speed were entirely too high. They still went down fairly easy but Serin was sure that had he been alone he would have had to use more destructive magic to keep them at bay.

As everyone adjusted their equipment and readied themselves, Olma feasted on one of the horned rabbits of the Dungeon. She then jumped with joy as her Agility skill went up. This was the confirmation that Serin was looking for. He knew that these creatures were stronger, but he had wondered if they would give increased benefits. Olma pulled the magic stone from within the rabbit and Serin noted it was slightly larger than the magic stones normally found in the horned rabbits. Serin had also noted that even at a low level, the rabbit's danger icon changed from white to yellow when they came at Serin in a group. Serin smiled, this must mean i can even get experience from such low level creatures.

Serin was excited. He also saw that on his quest page, an automatic tracker appeared, registering how many more enemies on this floor were required to summon a boss creature. Serin had no idea what creature would appear as a boss. But he was sure that it would be dangerous.

Continuing on their trek through the forest dungeon, they had come across several small patches of mushrooms, wild herbs of the magical and mundane variety, and a small brook that carried several freshwater fish Serin had never seen before. Serin reminded himself that he would need to talk to the Demis Aquamancer about this. Serin had learned his name was Rupert. Serin had also learned that the human fisher-woman, Doris, had decided to stay with him. He had learned all of this over several evenings at Jericho's tavern, where their arguments over the fishing vs. fish farming were known to carry on for hours. Serin was still amazed that there was more than 15 minutes on the subject. But for now, Serin grabbed his hand into the water and pulled one of the fat fish out. He then used dirt to create an earthen pot and put the fish inside, and then filled the pot with water from the stream. Serin also created planters out of earth and dug up samples of the herbs and mushrooms. His apothecary skill was still very low, so he could only identify if they were edible or not, and whether they were magical or mundane.

While Serin was digging plants and catching fish, the rest of the party was studying the ceiling. At first the group thought it was a sky. Then they realized what they thought were stars were large bright glowing rocks far overhead. However the group's pause in action was not long lived, as not long after Serin had collected his plants and fish they were attacked by a flock of 1.5 meter tall birds. They were large and flightless, but that was compensated by their large feet ending in talons, and their beaks, which were almost half a meter long and ended in a sharp jagged point. Using Observe, Serin noted that like the horned rabbits before, they were leveled between 1 and 5. Regardless of their level, they still seemed extremely dangerous. They were also tenacious, completely unafraid of attacking Serin and his party. Most of them elicited a loud 'HONK' sound as they ran.

Still, their team was made up of mostly high damage output members, and before long the birds were killed. The group headed in the direction the birds had flocked from, and before long they came across a set of large nests with extremely large eggs in them.

Serin had the eggs carefully loaded in the autocart with the nesting material. It would be worth it if these animals could be bred on the surface, as the amount of meat on them was incredible.

Serin noted the appearance of fish remains near the nests, which led him to believe that besides attacking, these birds used their beaks as spears to hunt the copious fish swimming in the forest rivers.

Serin noted that the enemy counter was set to 47. They had so far defeated 27 creatures. Serin and the group continued farther into the forest. Within an hour of trekking through the forest, they encountered a few ambush predators waiting along the path. The creatures were large plants, which had buried their large pitcher shaped bodies under soft dirt, waiting for unsuspecting prey to wander and fall in. Serin realized all this because he had detected the enemy, and after firing a penetrating firebolt, the plant raised itself out of the ground in pain. It was a stationary target, so after several more shots, its pitcher was destroyed, spilling out its acidic contents, which contained several partially digested remains.

Once the creatures and their tricks were exposed, the group made short work of them.

The defeated enemy counter raised to 36. With the commotion of loud spells and the acrid smell of burning pitcher plants, Serin had attracted the next targets.

This small wolf pack that approached did not seem like wolves of his forests. Instead of acting like a pack of hunting wolves, these moved as scavengers. Trying to grab at the burned pitcher plants instead of attacking Serin and his group. However, an enemy monster was still an enemy. The wolves realized their mistake of approaching, but it was too late. They were quickly dispatched and Serin found his counter had risen to 46. It was then that he was made aware of the apex predator of the forest.

Approaching him was a rabbit, but unlike the rabbits he had faced before, this rabbit had no horn. It stood on two legs, and hopped forward, moving in short bursts of speed. It stood 2 meters tall and its large jaw did not try to hide the long rows of sharp teeth.

It dashed straight at the group, and Serin and Rachel began to fire at it as it approached. The monster rabbit then showed its true power, as it also seemed to know when Serin and Rachel were going to fire because as each shot rang out, it dashed left or right. The whole time running at the group. The shot that took it down was a pistol shot from Jericho. Jericho had fired one shot and it had passed right through the creature's skull, killing it less than 2 meters from Serin.

Serin looked surprised. Jericho calmly replied, "With creatures that fast, you don't aim where it is, you aim where it will be."

With the death of the 'boss' monster, two doorways opened in the nearby clearing. Serin could see one led to the outside as he could see people awaiting his exit. The other was dark, Serin assumed it led deeper into the dungeon.

"We promised our people we would tell them what we discovered. No need to get greedy." Serin said. Olma began to give a soft pouting expression. She had found several new creatures to feast on and personally dispatched 4 new varieties. Any changeling would want to venture deeper. But now was the time to play it safe and report. Serin used the Map spell to make a copy of his surroundings he had discovered and record them to a piece of paper. And with the creatures they defeated thrown onto the cart, they made their way to the surface.

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