Chapter 2 - Section 3: Instance Dungeon Part I

Ugh....

Coming to I found myself flat on my face after taking an intense impact to my unguarded back which slammed me forward and into the floor.

As I turned my head I could see the form of Kurama tightly gripping onto my back.

[Well that sort of explains the impact that sent me soaring, but why was it necessary?]

After adjusting further he was able to shift around picking the equally passed out Kurama onto his lap as he scanned the dungeon hallway with his eyes.

[So that's why, it's one of those instance dungeons, where the portal doesn't stay open but instead disappears until the dungeons have been cleared, a sort of trap dungeon for lower-levelled players who hastily use instance keys[

With that being said they must've seen the portal closing since the "party" had already entered the dungeon and in her haste, Kurama unleashed full power to dive in after me headbutting me in the back causing both of us to pass out momentarily.

I could be mean and forcibly awaken Kurama, but no sense doing that as we'd still be stuck in this dungeon anyway.

Testing to make sure there were no restrictions placed upon him the player within this dungeon, first accessing storage, then the store, magic, and lastly summoning.

So a no-restriction instance dungeon, well that's good means it's going to be a pretty low-ranked one which is good for us since it's a trap one.

"Kuuuuuu!" <Kurama >

Coming to finally Kurama turned her head peering up at Satou's calm face.

"Seems we're in a bit of a pickle here, can I count on you to help me in escaping this place to get back to our friends?" <Satou >

"Course!" <Kurama >

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An instance dungeon is much like a real dungeon except for one essential fact, and that is it brings the user party into their own pocket dimension until they leave the said dungeon.

During such time other users can not interfere with or even communicate with the instanced party as if they'd been removed from the world.

It was a common PVP strategy to run away in a losing battle to an instance dungeon rather than face annihilation and get looted plus endure the death penalty within the game.

"This dungeon is pretty straightforward thus far" <Satou >

Musing aloud as they continued their conquering of the dungeon, the first floor being mapped out as the fog of war was being cleared from the minimap in his field of view.

The first floor of this instance dungeon was a typical labyrinth style with a seemingly endless number of twists and turns.

The other identifying feature for an instance dungeon is that they are typical of a specific type, similar to the dungeons of the world since the one that we'd fought in thus far was, named the Pale Grotto and featured cave-dwelling creatures meanwhile this instance dungeon looked more like it was an underground tunnel network like that of an ant hill.

The few monsters that they'd come across thus far fit that bill as well since they'd come across 3 types of ant-type monsters as well as a few other insect types.

The clearing of this dungeon would be meticulous since they needed to find the stairs up or down first to get to the first floor, the other issue being that there was no way to know just how many floors this instance dungeon was.

Days passed as the clearing continued the advantage being that this was a great location to gather further drop materials, increase our levels, and acquire even more summoning cards to enhance my own versatility as a summoner.

While we couldn't create new food without a stove or heat source luckily there was saved food in storage and purchasable food in the game store.

with that at least we won't starve to death trapped here.

It looks to be a layered instance dungeon as we defeated the 5th floor and ascended to the 6th and the appearance changed, the hallways got darker, but the stone went from being a soft sandstyle to a more rigid rock style.

The monsters we faced also continued to rank up from lesser species into soldier and guard types specializing in group attacks and coordinated defence.

Surely this instance cannot go on much longer with the floor change happening after only 5 layers i'd say this one is gonna be 10 to 15 layers deep at most.

With 1-5 being normal ants, 5-10 is gonna be soldiers and guards, 10-15 being the royal guards who protect the queen and finally, the dungeon boss is gonna be the queen ant herself.

At least assuming that this dungeon is wholly linear like that rather than a random design which throws all manner of difficulty at you.

Those types are the worst as you could prepare yourself for one type of enemy kitting yourself in gear to exploit the enemy's weakness only to ascend a floor and find that now all your gear is meaningless against the new defenders.

Nothing grinds a dungeon crawler gears more than to be running an instance as anything other than a capped player and having to spend all your hard-gotten gains within said dungeon just to keep advancing,

At least as a capped player you can generally just brute force your way through, otherwise you have to use the attributes to your advantage.

Ants being earth creatures means that they are strong against fire, and electricity, but weak to wind and water, additionally weak to light magic since these types dwell in darkness and therefore are damaged by the light.

Satou's own attack style this time was to utilize his own summoning of bird types that could use wind magic, and beyond that was to purchase magic-imbued blades for himself and Kurama that possessed the power of water.

Lastly was to use his [Photosphere] magic to be used like a flashbang to stun the ants during conflict.

The battles continued and the number of victories rose, as did the floors they visited, and so did the number of hours and days they spent within.

With each fight their experience grew alongside their skills, and through that even as the monster of the dungeon grew in difficulty the grinding was more beneficial as each fight was getting easier.

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Satou (Kokei) Ekiken Age: 27

Race: Human Level: 37/30* +15 (Lvl: 67)+4 Class: *Conjurer* summons 16 max +5

Title: From Another World, Dungeon Conqueror (54-Pale Grotto), Dungeon Master (54)

Health D +1 Mana C

Strength E +1 Dexterity E +1

Vitality E +1 Intelligence C

Agility C +1

Skills:

Unique Skill: Gamer [Yggdrasill]

 Magic Hand (2) +1, Fire Magic (1), Lightning Magic (1), Dark Magic (2), Light Magic (2) +2, Deception (1), Mana Sense (1), Mana Manipulation (2) +1, Mana Vision (2) +1

 Summon (4) +1 (Unlocked Rank D Summons)

 Beast DEFG

 Insect DEFG

 Bird DEF

 Grass DE

Stone D (New)

 Professions:

 Alchemy (3), Blacksmithing (2), Cooking, (2), First Aid (4), Herbalism (2), Leatherworking (2), Mining (1), Scavenging (3)+1, Skinning (4), Tailoring (2), Treasure Hunting (2)