257 Chapter 203: Canyon Dungeon Part 5

Knowing the bats were no longer much of a threat Joshua took the time to observe them to see how powerful they actually were. In the group of bats that were collapsed around the large room most of them were around the size of the small ones in the canyon, but were still a bit bigger. That showed that they weren't the leaders of the hoard, but were still more powerful than their counterparts in the canyon. When Joshua observed these bats he could see that they were all level seventy-eight and had three stars by their name which proved they would have been far more of a hassle to deal with head on.

When Joshua turned to look at the leaders of the hoard he saw three large bats that were nearly three times the size of the other ones in the room. They were bigger than the elephant sized bats in the canyon by only a little bit, but the power coming off of them definitely seemed to be a step up. When Joshua observed the creatures he saw that each of the three bats were level seventy-nine with four stars which put them on par with the snakes and spiders from the canyon. He was certain that the group of three bats could give those far larger creatures a run for their money in a fight. They continued to glare towards his group even though they were badly injured which proved these creatures would have fought fiercely if they had been given a fair chance.

'Well do you want to try to tame them Lilly?' Isabella asked since most of the bats were still alive although they were gravely injured. If the bats in the canyon had been put into a similar situation then they would have all died, but these ones were still able to hold on.

'I can't tame them, it is as if their souls are connected to the dungeon somehow and they aren't willing to be tamed.' Lilly said with a frown as she tried to meld her aura with one of the larger bats. When it tried to twist and snap at her Cinder pinned its head to the ground with one of her legs and it wasn't able to resist any more in its current position.

'Well then I guess we will just have to kill them off for experience then.' Joshua said with a frown since this was the first time he had heard something like this coming from Lilly. He knew that she wasn't able to tame boss level creatures from dungeons, but this was the first time she wasn't able to tame a regular mob from such a place.

'These creatures are probably stuck here from breaking the rules.' Tank's voice appeared in everyone's minds. 'Remember I told you that creatures that cross the line get forced into dungeons. It wouldn't be surprising that these creatures' souls have been connected directly to the dungeon in a similar fashion to the boss. From what we've seen from the creatures in the canyon they seem to be the type to cross the line eventually. I can easily see a hoard of bats flying out of the canyon and attacking weaker creatures for a quick meal.'

'Makes sense, well we'll just have to put those thoughts aside for now and get a move on.' Joshua said with a sigh before taking out his scale blade and stabbing through one of the big bats' skull. The rest of the group followed his lead and got to work killing off all of the bats and putting their corpses in their inventory. The bats themselves didn't seem to have much worthwhile material to keep, but they could be sold to the system later for some extra system points. They sure as hell weren't going to try eating the bats since they had no idea what kind of diseases these newly evolved bats could carry especially after being poisoned.

After clearing out the room of all of the bats they got on the move again and went down another long path while avoiding any traps they came across. This became the new pattern as the paths started to lead to both beetle caverns and large bat rooms that the group took care of as efficiently as possible. They would take the beetles head on and search the room for any treasure chest while going with Isabella's plan whenever coming across a bat room. This made it so the group didn't have to expend so much energy while going through the dungeon, but it also made their progress through the place slow since they had to check every path. They did avoid going down the paths that simply lead to trapped filled areas, but every other path they would search out.

Eventually they decided to take a rest for the night since they had been on the move for hours and needed to take a break. They weren't in a race since there weren't any other groups in the dungeon and that made it easy for them to take things at a more cautious pace. Plus there was the fact that spending so much time in such a dark place could easily warp the group's sense of time if they allowed it. They needed to take breaks accordingly if they didn't want to end up pushing themselves to much by the time they came across something that was actually too dangerous for them to handle without being in top form.

Of course since they were in a dungeon they couldn't just rest without worrying about other creatures being able to appear and attack the group. From what they could tell so far the beast in this section of the dungeon tended to stick to their appointed locations until they were attacked. This made it easier for them to find a place to rest for the night. They cleared out one of the larger rooms that the bats had been staying in for some time since it would give them plenty of room to rest up while allowing Cinder and Tank to stay on guard for the rest of the group. Tank could use his aura sense to tell if any bats or beetles tried to approach the area while Cinder had a heightened awareness of her surroundings.

Tank first cleaned out the room with a large amount of water since it was a bat cave and all, who knew what type of disease they could pick up if they didn't clean the area first. Cinder then used her smoldering smoke to burn out all of the water in the area while creating a lot of steam to clear out even more, although fire spells were weakened inside of the darkness Cinders smoldering smoke wasn't effected since it technically wasn't a flame even though it did have a lot of heat to it. After that they had Amber cast a spell to create large rock walls to block off the entrance and exit to the room so that other creatures wouldn't be able to rush into the area easily while Cinder laid out some flame pyre traps just outside of the room that would be set off it any creatures got to close to them. The explosion would be more than loud enough to wake the group up if needed and would push the enemies back while the group got into position for a fight.

With everything cleared out and well defended they were able to set up a small camp for a short rest. They wouldn't be sleeping for too long of a period of time because they didn't know how long it would take for the bats to re-spawn in the room and for now they didn't want to find out. The group all got some sleep while Tank and Cinder were on guard duty. They only rested for around four hours before getting back up and having a quick meal. They decided to eat after getting some sleep so that the boost gained from the food would last a lot longer while they were on the move.

Just like that the group seemed to get into a rhythm where they would explore down the paths of the darkened part of the dungeon for a long while of up to twelve hours while taking short four hour breaks whenever the group started to show any signs of getting tired. During this time they were able to find several different treasures down different paths. They had come across several blue prints of which Joshua had to obtain each time since no one else would even try to open one of the chest. The only person that even came close to any treasure chest they came across outside of Joshua was Becca and that was only to make sure the chest wasn't booby trapped.

They had also gained some new equipment for different members of the group from time to time. If the equipment they found was something that no one in the party regularly used then they'd bring it back to the alliance and share it among the guilds. That way any guild member could contribute some guild points to obtain the equipment. By doing so the guild member gets stronger while the guild itself slowly becomes a higher rank. They came across several items that fit this category, but for the most part people in the group were able to use the new equipment they found if they wanted to.

The interesting thing about the equipment they were finding was the fact that a lot of it would probably be passed on even if it was usable by members in the group. It wasn't that the weapons and armor weren't great by any stretch of the imagination, but it was because of the fact that they had a high tiered blacksmith in Naomi that could make better gear at this point if given the right materials. In fact Naomi could take a look at the gear they were finding and remake similar weapons with better materials from the boss level creatures that they'd have to kill in the dungeon anyways. Just about every member in the group had that at the back of their minds whenever they found new equipment in the dungeons.

After a while it seemed as if the group had found the pattern they'd have to deal with to get through this part of the dungeon and in the end it took two days' worth of exploring to go through every path available while exploring the area. Of course they had to kill several bats and beetles while doing so. This lead to some members of the group leveling up and just about everyone in Jayce's group had leveled up twice by this point. Joshua. Lilly, and Amy were getting close to leveling up once again as well. Eventually the group was able to find the boss room and it wasn't difficult to tell when they spotted it since it was the only room in the entire path that had a lantern out front that seemed to light the entrance up.

The single lantern lighting the path ahead had shocked the entire group since any source of light that they tried to create was always squashed out by the darkness in this portion of the dungeon. For the one single lantern to light up the entire large hallway without so much as even flickering a little showed just how out of place it seemed. They all inspected it a bit, but there didn't seem to be any trick to the lantern so they turned their attention to the large door in front of them. It covered the entire hallway and had the same design as the one they had to go through to enter the path in the first place. There was still the image of the bat and the beetle fighting one another, but it seemed to be even more vivid as if the image of the two creatures could come to life at any moment.

'Well are you guys ready to see what types of creatures we will have to face to clear these paths?' Joshua asked through the mental link as they all stood in front of the enormous door. They had already taken a break not more than half an hour ago so they were well rested and in top condition.

'Yeah let's get this over with so that I can finally see with my own eyes once again.' Adrian said with a chuckle trying to loosen up the tension in the group. It would be the first time that they would face a boss level creature of higher level than themselves as a group.

'Well then let's get started, be on your guard and stay together. We have no idea how strong these creatures will be.' Joshua said before he placed his hands on both sides of the center of the door then started to push his way through.