Chapter 44 Entering the Dungeon

Approaching the northwest gate, Marcus noticed a large building with the words adventures guild posted on it and had to stop and do a double take. Unable to contain his curiosity he headed inside the building finding that it looked to be a legitimate part of the guild. After doing a little asking around, he found that this branch was solely for missions pertaining to the Ocean Bluff Temple.

'I figure people must have gotten tired of making the long walk from the dungeon all the way back to the main guild in the center of town. I mean if I spent all day fighting tooth and nail in a dungeon, I would not want to walk over three hours to the main guild hall.'

Finished with his cursory examination Marcus exited the smaller branch guild and continued on his way, finding the gate, and easily exiting. Out of the city and in the open once more Marcus got on the road headed towards the steep cliff that dropped off into the ocean below.

After around fifteen minutes of walking Marcus had arrived at the guard station right outside the entrance to the temple. As he approached a lazy looking guard got up and hobbled towards him.

"Business for entering the temple?"

A bit surprised by the guards blunt and uninterested question Marcus took a moment before getting out his response.

"Ah, I am an adventure on a request to kill some bubbling crabs."

"Are you a steel or higher adventure."

"Um no."

"Then please pay the five-copper entry fee or go away."

'Damn, another entry fee they sure do not mind charging, I mean I guess I understand that the kingdom needs money to function, and they do not want just anybody wandering into the dungeon. Whatever I guess I will pay this time but going forward I will probably just sneak in.'

Handing the man five copper Marcus was allowed to continue down the path following some switch backs until he stood in front of the massive temple entrance in the middle of the bluff.

'Now this is outstanding, it looks like the entrance to a massive roman temple. I wonder how they even found this place since it is situated right in the middle of a sheer cliff. They must have spotted it from the ocean or maybe someone who could fly liked jumping off of cliffs.'

While being lost in his delusions the approach of more people coming down the path to the dungeon entrance snapped Marcus back to reality and he entered the Ocean Bluff Temple. Walking down a long set of stairs Marcus soon came out into a large room lit by the gentle blue glow of luminescent moss. Taking a look around Marcus saw a few other adventures either planning there trip farther into the dungeon or resting after finishing their exploration. Pulling out his map Marcus scanned over it looking for the best route to get to the bubbling crabs.

'They should be down a corridor to the southeast and in a large room that is partially submerged in water. I do need to be wary of sneak attacks while traveling, since down here there are a number of monsters that specialize in stealthy ambushes.'

Finding the passageway that would lead him to the area the bubbling crabs lived in, Marcus began making his way towards them. Unfortunately, even with his darkvision skill his visibility only extended for around thirty feet and Marcus decided to use his long neglected floating lantern spell to light the place up.

'That is better, now I can see around eighty or so feet around me, and just having a bit of light is comforting.'

However, Marcus' new light not only acted as a means for him to see, but also as a beacon for everything else in the dungeon. As he was walking past a pool of water in the long corridor, his danger sense started blaring and while jumping back to dodge, Marcus was grazed by a sharp needle like harpoon. Marcus then slammed into the wall behind him having used far too much strength dodging.

'Fuck I have not done any fighting since I was level eleven, and my new stats make everyone of my moves more powerful. I guess this is one of the drawbacks of leveling up a bunch all at once.'

However, Marcus did not have long to continue contemplating his situation as the needle like harpoon shot towards him again. Wary of his new stats Marcus tried to use less force to dodge only to use not enough as the harpoon slashed into his side causing a grey mist to leak out of the wound. Looking in the direction of where the harpoon was coming from Marcus locked onto a large six-foot-long cone snail sitting in the pool of water.

'Shit, I think that is an assassin snail, how unlucky can I get, those things are supposed to be really rare on the first level of the dungeon. It is a good thing I am not human and do not have actual blood otherwise its venom would have already killed me.'

Marcus then spent dozens of more rounds dodging the strikes from the snail trying to get a bearing on his new stats. After he had taken many more glancing blows and shallow wounds Marcus managed to get better control ever his new power.

'That should do, it probably is actually a good thing I ran into this guy because a level twelve assassin snail would normally be lethal for a lot of the lower-level adventure that hunt around this area.'

Used to his new strength Marcus took out his scythe and when the snail unleashed its next harpoon attack Marcus deftly sidestepped it before bringing down his scythe and cutting the membrane that connected the harpoon to the snail. While that snail was reeling in pain Marcus decide to try out his new tier three iron magic spell iron sphere. Casting the spell, a sphere of iron around the size of a soccer ball appeared and Marcus sent it flying towards the assassin snail. Perceiving the incoming threat, the snail slid into its shell only to find that the iron sphere smashed through like it was a sheet of thin glass. Horribly injured from the iron sphere the snail tried to run away but being a snail, it was incredibly slow. To finish it off Marcus pulled the iron sphere out of the snail's body and positioned it above its head before slamming the iron sphere down. With a loud squishing sound and a splash of snail juice the snail's head was pulverized and its body went limp.

'I am quite pleased; iron sphere is an incredibly powerful spell. Having a sphere of iron I can control like I have telekinesis is really useful for both offense and defense. The only problem is that it is a huge mana sink, so I need to be conservative with it.'

Marcus then collected the snail's harpoon and magic core figuring they would be worth a decent amount of money. He then decided to test the limits of his iron sphere finding that its maximum range was equal to his spirit stat and that the farther away from him it got the less fine control he had. Satisfied with the results of his first battle since his mass level up and the power of his new spell Marcus continued his way towards the goal of his job the bubbling crabs.