Chapter Five: Dungeon Crawl

"Where are we going again?" Anakin asked. "Dungeon." Vader said as the two were walking the streets of Orario, heading towards the tower of Babel with people staying away from them, leaving them the most of the road for their own personal space.

"Not that I mind, but why are we heading there? Surely recruiting members for our newly founded organization is a better alternative to kill time, no?"

"Considering our current reputation, people will most likely not want to associate themselves with us. Our recent attempt at flaunting our false wealth did manage to turn heads, but not sufficient to convince people otherwise." Vader said.

"Be that as it may, how does delving inside of the dungeon help us solve our problem?" Anakin inquired.

"Two things influence the mind of people. First is wealth, it is a symnol of power and security. It represents the abilty to obtain goods and services that are valued and commodities that are enjoyed. It also provides a sense of control or leverage. The second one is..." Vader said but was cut off by Anakin

"Power."

"Indeed. Power is responsible for a person to achieve one's goals or to achieve a higher goal for their self interest or for the greater good. Power makes people different because it grants them what they want or the means to procure their desires. People crave these two things if it is not one over the other, then it is both." Vader stated.

"I suppose. Men are more easily led and governed through their vices than through their virtues. But I do not wish to lead an order that is built on greed." Anakin said with ire, though kept a tone of neutrality as to not offend his counterpart.

"As do I. However, it is a fact that all adventurers are ambitious by nature. I wish to make use of their internal drive to help them not only achieve their goals, but for the collective success of our familia as a whole." Vader replied.

"I see, and once we show off our power, we will then attract said adventurers. And by that point a selection process would be had then?" Anakin said, realizing Vader's reasoning.

"Correct."

"So, what's the plan?"

"We go do down as far as we can."

~~~*~~~

I

t was underwhelming. Really underwhelming for the Jedi Master¹ and Sith Lord. The monsters here, while interesting and looked formidable and thought provoking, died or gave out little to no resistance once the two force users started unleashing the force. Not to it's fullest extent mind you, and certainly not half of it. The two even decided to handicap themselves and only opted to use their sabers, making it a skill based fight trying to make it more challenging for them. Their handicap amounted to nothing.

It was boring for the both of them.

"You know, at this rate, we probably don't need a familia to pay off our debt. We can probably pay it off ourselves if we consistently do this everyday." Anakin said as he cut down a canine like monster.

"I agree." Said Vader as he used the force to collect the "jewels" the monsters dropped, hoping to sell them once they got out. The "jewels" looked to be of decent composition and had a certain splendor and beauty to it. He could see some children of noble descent from the empire, coveting it for accessories or by it's beauty alone.

"Find anything else of value other than the crystals dropped by the monsters?" Anakin asked, Vader merely shook his head no.

"We can't profit from selling beast hide and harvesting other useful monster body parts. Their bodies disintegrate when defeated or cut off. I wonder what's profitable inside the dungeon? Probably should have asked that Eina girl from the guild." Anakin added.

Though despite it being underwhelming, it wasn't completely uninteresting. There have been a few monsters that had abilities in their repertoire, occasionally surprising Anakin and Vader, though not catching any of them off guard. In particular there were some monster birds that were elusive when fighting as well as the occassional horned mammalians that were muscular and big who were seen carrying large weapons. Those two species in particular were a little hard to deal with.

Oddly enough the birds sometimes dropped golden eggs and the horned mammalians dropped their horns and nails. The canines who had horns also dropped some of their tooth and hide as well, leading the two of them to assume that whatever "loot" the monsters left behind were decided by chance.

A personal discovery they found quite odd. Why would the monsters drop a specific body part as "loot" when they can just taje it by butchering it from the monster? Though that thought was discarded when they tested the theory. The "loot" disappeared alongside the rest of the monster when it is killed despite it being separated prior to it's death. Meaning that whatever the "loot" may be, can only be acquired if it was a drop from the monster, which was by chance. The opposite can be said from the blue crystals or "jewels" Vader had collected, these things were a guaranteed drop, though the size and beauty differs from each species and even in some cases from different beings from the same species. They also noticed that the stronger the monster, the better quality they got from all of the "loot."

Before long, the two of them advanced quite deeper, following a set of stairs everytime they cleared a floor.

What felt like hours later, the two of them counted at least sixteen floors, and the more they descended the weirder the dungeon became and the stronger the monsters proved to be. There were also more of these mammalian creatures that they fought earlier at floor fifteen. They are currently at the sixteenth floor and are on route to the next one.

For even longer the two of them pressed on in this labyrinth like area until the two of them came across stairs leading to their desired destination.

The two of them felt no disturbance in the force and sensed no enemies in the earlier floors. Apart from a few adventurers they stumbled onto from time to time. This floor however, had not a single entity, not even monsters, who usually poured in whenever they descended a new floor. It was as if the dungeon itself went quiet.

The ambient light in the area turned from it's natural gradient blue to a more darker tone and the ground started to shake.

"There's a disturbance in the force." The two of them said at the same time.

The room trembled and pulsated with pressure, none of the two were intimidated, but it was enough to make Anakin worried enough to sweat and Vader worried. Anakin quickly sat down on the floor to quickly meditate- to quell his worry and dissaray and maintain his calm, similar to what Qui Gon Jin did and was told to him by Oni Wan Kenobi. Vader merely relished in the situation, amassing dark side energy the more weary he became.

What was once an empty room full of nothing but rock formations and empty corridors was no longer present and was replaced by cracks and craters when a giant grey colored humanoid monster with white hair barged in, flattening anything in it's wake.

The creature roared a mighty roar, it's deep cry bellowing throughout the entire dungeon. It looked at their direction and then onto them and started to walk. That walk changed to jog and transitioned to a run. It charged towards the two of them.

In response, the two of them unclipped their lightsabers from thsir belts and got on their respective fighting stances. Vader hid all the loot they acquired in some rubble nearby, not wanting to damage, lest they compromise the quality and price of it, or Force forbid lose it.

"What's the plan?" Vader asked.

"Try not to die." Anakin replied as he ran towards the side not wanting to get crushed by the stampede. Vader followed suit after Anakin.

Looking up, the creature had a black and crimson energy shrouding it. The two sensed huge amounts of dark side energy on the creature.

Vader launched red force lightning at it's face hoping to ward it off. It proved to be successful as it roared a pained voice, it's face badly damaged. It throwed a tantrum as a result flailing its arms around and kicking everything in sight. Anakin was quick to dodge it making use of acrobatics, Vader doing the same but instead with dashes as his body was not the same as Anakin's. It was due to this that Vader was inherently slower compared to his counterpart, which resulted in him getting kicked by the giant towards a wall.

Vader used the force to protect himself from the impact of the kick and the collision that followed suit. Vader qas physically unharmed due to this but he had a disoriented complexion

The monster focused on Vader as he was the one who shot the bolt of lightning. Vader did the same thing again as if mocking the creature.

Anakin seeing the opportunity ran to the walls and jumped onto it's neck. Using the settings on his lightsaber, he extended the blade to it's maximum length and attacked it from it's back. The neck was completely cut off, severing it's head. As Anakin was falling down however, the monster's body was falling on him.

'Damn! I can't dodge a thing that big midair!'

Vader saw this and used a force maelstorm to attack what remained of the giant, vaporizing it completely...along with the rest of the environment.

"Thanks." Anakin said.

"No need." Vader replied.

"This place looked likeit was comtinuosly bombarded by a star destroyer. I think you may have overdid it a bit." Anakin commented.

"I regret nothing."

The battle caught them a littke but off guard, but nonetheless didn't give them too much trouble. That is until another one of these things showed up. This time, it was bigger, had a darker skin and red glowing eyes.

"Ready for round two?" Anakin joked Vader merely stayed silent.

The two of them deactivated their lightsabers and put them in their belts, opting for a more...direct approach.

Anakin extended both of his arms, trying his best to restrict the giant in  it's movements. He was sucessful in binding the new giant, though the giant was still able to squirm, earning a grunt from Anakin in response. Vader on the other hand was preparing another force maelstorm, red electricity and black mist surrounding him.

"Any time now Vader!" Anakin exclaimed.

"Ready!" Said Vader after he charged for a good minute. Vader then extended both of his arms similar to Anakin and fired the attack.

The attack shook the entire dungeon in great magnitude, and the tower of Babel as an extentsion. The people outside and inside the tower panicked.

The giant that was hit was starting to disintegrate from the might of Vader's attack, bearing the whole brunt of the maelstorm, but not before firing a last ditch attack at the sith lord. With it's mouth open, it shone an red light spawning a huge red sphere- the size rivaling the entire body of an AT-AT Walker, which it shot at great speeds.

Vader was too slow to react and dodge it, his Cybernetics weighing him down coupled by the fact that he used entire stamina on that force maelstorm, an attack that he was not used to perform, which led him to draining his reserves.

Anakin tried to stop it with the force but it was too quick to track down, so instead he used the force to envelop Vader as a shield as well as using it to slow down the momentum of the blast.

It hit Vader dead center causing him to ragdoll and go through many walls deeply, embedding himself deep within.

"You! How dare you!" Anakin exclaimed as he saw Vader got hit and used what remained of his stamina to push what remained of the giant to a wall and crushed it mercilessly.

The giant died and vanished in a thick black smoke, atypical of the monsters in the dungeon.

Anakin rushed towards Vader's hole and peered seeing small white lights inside said hole. Presumably from Vader's armor's chest cavity and life support system.

Worried, he started yelling "Vader! Are you alright? Answer me!"

*KSSSHK KUUUH KEEERRR KIIIH*

There was no reply, but Anakin heard strained breathing from the hole, indicating Vader wass in fact alive.

Vader walked groggily from the wall in a slow pace his strained breathing the only audio heard in this entire floor other than his steps.

When he got out, Anakin saw Vader's cloak and the leathery part of his armor tattered and his life support system was sparking electrical flashes from one of the wires that poked out, and some of the buttons in the chest cavity who used to be lit up, were now turned off.

Vader wasn't hurt seriously, his armor and the force protected him and absorbed most of the damage. But the impact did leave him a bit battered and bruised, but it was of no concern, he had been ragdolled the same way when he fought Starkiller or Galen Marek, and thus the damage done to him was not something he could not shake off. That is to say that the initial damage was not life threatening. Even if Anakin did not use the force to protect him, Vader's armor made of Durasteel and Obsidian would take tha attack head on just fine.

He could not say the same for the life support system embedded onto his armor however. That was the main concern. It was damaged. Not severely, but it was still damaged enough to be of concern. There was a dent and some of the wires poked out and a few buttons were smashed. It also did not help that the suit sustained danage beforehand, courtesy of Loki when she hit the life support system with her full power with her divine armament in their scuffle previously. Vader had not made any repairs and maintenance to it. Both because of lacking the means to do so and that it only had suffered small damages at the time. Which led to the damage accumulating overtime and thus proved to be detrimental towards the suit's performance and overall durability.

His current state reminded him of his fight after the Jedi Cere Junda, he was in a similar state from back then.

What made this situation different and quite dangerous for Vader however, was that they do not posses the means nor the tools and the resources to fix  Vader's life support and armor. A dangerous plight. While Anakin was confident in his engineering skills to try and fix Vader, they do not possess the aforementioned necessitites for him to do so.

There might be one person who can help though.

"We need to get you to Hephaestus." Anakin exclaimed.

TO BE CONTINUED!

1 = Made a mistake that Anakin was a Jedi Grandmaster, he is only a Jedi Master. Thank you for the one who corrected me. I'll use this term in the following chapters.

Also, if you like (or dislike) the story, send me power stones do give me a review! it helps the algorithm for other readers to find the story.

I also posted a new book called "Highschool DxD: What Are Kings Compared to Gods" its basically Beerus in highschool dxd, do check it out if you are interested.