Chapter 4 - Section 1 - A Labyrinth!

At the bottom of the stairwell there was a massive stone door at least 3 meters tall and wide enough for 4 people to walk shoulder to shoulder without touching one another.

The doors themselves were thick almost a foot of solid stone, on the face intricate carved circles and symbols.

Through the doors a long stone walled tunnel a sort of low natural light was projected from the walls, the floor was riddled with dead insects, small bones, and piles of ashes.

With our weapons drawn Kurama, and I advanced with caution while Shenron followed from behind, since he naturally gave off an aura of light, I asked if he could dim it to match the brightness of the surroundings not wanting to attract attention.

He managed to do it however informed that in this state use of barrier skills was not possible.

After only a short walk into the tunnel the surrounding changed, what we'd walked down so far was a single lone tunnel, but what we saw now was a split giving us three different routes to choose from.

Peering down each new path did not tell us anything, nor did my mini map help since it only showed area's I could see with my own vision, or places I've been to already.

"Hmm it appears this is a labyrinth does it not?" <Shenron>

"Sure looks like it, but that still doesn't answer whether the goblins came from here, or just settled here because of it, we should continue to search for a bit more, thanks to my map we can always return whenever we want" <Satou>

[Oh I should let Raisa know we're ok as well since she'll only hear about how we walked into the tunnel by ourselves and will probably lose her mind again… let's see huh? Oh right she's a member of our party perhaps I can use the party chat function, to speak directly to her]

<<Raisa it's Satou, Shen, Kurama, and I have gone to scout the underground if anything happens we'll let you know, but it's likely we will be down here for a while, but will try and be back before nightfall>>

'swoooosh'

The sound of something flying off rang in my head, I guess that means the message sent well not like she can send a reply or anything since she doesn't have the same skill as me so we should carry on for now.

Not knowing which way to go I decided to just let Kurama pick since his animal instincts might give us an edge.

With that he elected the left path.

The path carried on for a bit with a few monsters being sighted and quickly dispatched by Kurama.

They were utterly gross, first there was a 1 meter long bug type monster that looked like a cross between a crab and a Hercules beetle, it's exoskeleton was hard but Kurama just targeted the weak spots at the joints, the other was a giant rat it's teeth were impressive looking like with bite force alone it could shatter stones.

Once they were defeated the bodies slowly sank into the floor before disappearing in its place a couple of drops were found, weirdly enough though my gaming skill didn't give me any drops to pick up.

We left them where they were since I didn't see any use for a giant rats tail, and insectoid fluids.

The tunnel ended leading into a fairly large stone cavern, within which was a bunch of stone type monsters, of all different colors.

At first I thought it was just a rocky plain but after we entered all the stone stood up and started walking towards us.

[hmm mine, and kurama's weapons won't work on stone, I could leave this to Shen's magic but there's no guarantee with that so instead]

"Summon Rocky, and Creed" <Satou>

[Wait that would put me over the three summon limit, oh no what's going to happen]

'Flash Flash'

A pair of light flashes and both Stone golems appeared in front of me, both performing light stretches of their arms.

You know you're made of stone right? Stretching won't do anything…

"Uh Guys can you deal with this?" <Satou>

'Stomp' 'Stomp' 'Stomp'

With not even a wave goodbye both my stone golems started charges as fast as they could into the small army of stone monsters before them.

"Strange I thought the limit was three summons but I was able to summon a fourth, but its good I was able to, their fists are natural bludgeoning weapons perfect for fighting rock types" <Satou>

"You are currently only at your summon limit Master, since I do not count remember since I cannot be dispelled I am not classified as a summon anymore now that I am already here" <Shenron>

"Oh I see that's good to know" <Satou>

As the fight continued in front of me i pulled up my monster book to confirm but was shocked to see the news that even if Shenron was counted as a summon I wouldn't be at my limit, at best guess I would say I gained an additional summoning per 10 levels since I a new limit of 5 summons now.

'Smash' *Thud* 'Crash' *Pbt pbt pbt*

The pair of Golems smashed everything to pieces in front of them, scattered pieces of rock and metal flew all over the room, until everything sunk into the ground once again, though this time when I appraised their drops I found that they were Ores, and other metals, using the others we piled the drops together so I could take them all into my inventory at once.

Collected:[[ 25 Iron Ore, 13 Copper Ore, 7 Silver Ore, 1 Gold Ore]]

"Hey cool I got a decent amount of ores from that, when I get a chance I can use them for the blacksmithing profession, with a high enough level I could make myself better swords than I can buy in the store" <Satou>

After collecting the drops and dispelling the golem pair, our choices once again branched there were two tunnels to pick from now, one that allowed for limited visibility, according to Shenron a magic force was making it so we could only see 5 feet in front of us, the other tunnel on the other hand was normally looking except instead of stone walls and ceiling it was just dirt and looked like it might cave in at any time.

"So the choice is dangerous either way… Well not like I really feel like turning back we've yet to encounter a harrowing fight, plus theirs experience and drops to be earned here" <Satou>

With that the scouting of the labyrinth continued we encountered a few adversaries every so often, but we'd mapped out a rather large section if I had to guess from looking at the map I'd say we had covered ¼ of the total area.

The time was starting to get pretty late in the afternoon, every so often I would send a periodic update message to Raisa informing her of our progress, that there was still nothing to worry about and that we'd return by nightfall.

[She's probably pitching a fit right now since it's been over 24 hours now since she last got her hands on Vannaheimr food]

{{Master! Look there is a Chest in this room}} <Shenron>

Looking across the room we'd just entered I saw what Shenron had pointed out it was a large sized chest, but what made it out of place here was that unlike a wooden chest this one was made of a cool blue metal studded with yellow, and black gems.

'Ba-dump'

The gamer spirit in me broke out, and I charged into the room headed for the chest, it's another world full of fantasy but there sheer joy of a hidden treasure that you've have to work for is the best feeling, the unknown of what might be contained within the chest, is it a rare item, a relic, perhaps and artifact?

As my footfalls continued to echo throughout the room.

'Click'

[…. Oh no!]

'Swish'

The floor opened up to a pitch black chasm Kurama, and I started to fall into this black abyss, Shenron dove down after us, but the light from the room started to dim as the floor now started to seal itself up once again.

[Falling… I hate this feeling; perhaps this is the end of my journey in this new world? Even if Shenron can catch us and carry us, if this is a trap can we ever escape it]

'THUD'

With a crash landing on a cold stone floor, a second smaller collision landing beside meanwhile Shenron just floated to the ground like a feather falling through the air.

"ugh that was not fun!" <Satou>

"aro" <Kurama>

After a quick check I saw that though I had fallen down at least 3 stories my character page revealed I'd only lost about 1/10 of my total health.

"Best to be safe than sorry, besides I have ample stock of potions, Kurama you should drink one to we might be much more durable with leveling up but carelessness post trap could get us killed" <Satou>

Taking a pair of potions of minor healing out of my inventory.

[Ugh I know they heal my hit points but even still they taste like the worst cold medicine back on earth]

Dusting off my clothes and armor, I quickly fired off a new message to Raisa letting her know we'd fallen into a trap, and that we're safe but of course will be back much later as a result since we need to escape the trap first.

The area we landed on, let's call it the 2nd floor looked considerably different from the tunnels of the 1st floor.

Where the 1st floor was much like a labyrinth given the endless number of tunnels and maze like arrangement of them, meanwhile from what I can see from the map and layout of this 2nd floor it's more like a typical rpg dungeon.

The 3 of us continued on our travels exploring this new floor.

We encountered quite a few new monster types along the way, higher level advanced species like Goblin soldiers, and High Orc's, Even some new types I'd yet to see in this world like Skeleton Warriors and Archers from the Undead.

These enemies were particularly difficult since the undead would naturally heal themselves with time unless you could remove their lingering life-force and send them into undeath, Kurama and I would charge in smashing and slicing them to pieces but before they could regenerate and attack again Shenron would perform an exorcism using Holy magic to purge the negative energy from their bodies.

The clearing of the dungeon floor was fairly tedious, every new room and corridor had a new encounter or two waiting for us, after the first dozen the battles started to follow a similar pattern the enemies were more mechanical never adapting or changing their attack patterns, it might have been hubris but I even had Shenron, and Kurama hold back so I could delve some battles solo to increase the challenge.

I mean I could just summon another couple heavies to join Kurama in running the dungeon and getting out sooner but where's the fun in that, gaming is meant to be done by the player, if I just survived by use of my summons then I'd be no better than those Ko Nashi who create ai bot to just endless grind removing the challenge and fun from the game.

That being said if I can find a good partner or two I don't mind create a party to travel with, but it might be safer for me to just stick with NPC's I did see in the store I could purchase NPC's though the limitation to that would be I'd need to found a guild first, Pet's like Shenron, and Mounts are bound to a character but NPC's are shared within a guild.

As our journey continued I looked into the things I was talking about, the problem was that just like in the game in order to create a guild you needed a minimum of 3 players plus the guild startup cost of 1000 gold in the game.

The currency wouldn't be an issue since I've been selling monster mats and potions just about every day, but as it stands now I've only got one party member Raisa, of course she has no idea the extent of my skill and I could always just get someone to join my party just for the guild creation then kick them from the guild after its formation as the guildmaster.

'Doom' 'Doom'

"Huh what's that" <Satou>

""Apologies Master but I am uncertain however there is a large metal door at the end of this corridor"" <Shenron>

"A metal door… well if this is indeed a dungeon then that would mean it's either an Area Boss, a Floor Master, or the Dungeon Boss" <Satou>

""Indeed"" <Shenron>

"Grrr!" <Kurama>

"Haha well either way I'm sure we're in for quite a fight Kurama, so no need to worry you'll get to join no matter what" <Satou>

The metal door was defiantly massive to use a single word for describing it, the door reached 10ft all the way to the roof, the engraving on it was certainly a work of art but at the same time I would also call it imposing and terrifying, of course the sight was pretty commonplace in dungeons I'd seen through the hundreds of games I'd played through, the engraving depicted a one-side slaughter by a monster that looked like a massive Rhino of some sort running down and dismembering a party of heroes, or adventurers.

"Well if this is truly like a dungeon then this mural will give us a hint to both the dungeon monster within, but also its weakness." <Satou>

""Yes the pattern of this world is very much the same as you'd except from a game world, at least in some aspects Master"" <Shenron>

We spent some time to check over every part of the mural but nothing really stood out as a weakness, all the heroes depicted were wielding different weapons, [slashing, bludgeoning, piercing, and even magic] and the monster itself had no visible wounds on itself so a weak spot wasn't scout able.

With a final push our small party pushed open the door, given its size and construction I put all my weight into the push but the door swung open easily and quite quickly as if it was paper thin and hollow.

Walking in the room itself was pitch black the only source of light being the dim white aura being emitted by Shenron.

'Creeeeeaaaak' 'Dum dummmm'

The door slammed shut behind us and a rush of wind surged into the room.

'fwosh fwsoh fwsoh'

In a circle starting from the door torches lining the walls lit up with a blue flame, the room was lit in a pale blue light but enough to see everything within the floor was stonecast almost like pavement, on the far side a looming black figure stood stationary but that wasn't the most imposing thing about it, even though it's color was pitch black as if it was a creature whose hide was cut straight from the night sky its size was far greater than anything else.

Compared to me and my companions who were only human sized the beast before us stood at 5 meters in height and 25m in length.

In a word it was a Rhino just like the mural had shown to us on the door before hand, but quite unlike the mural this beast was quite a bit different.

It's body was armoured almost by what looked like scales, it's tail had bone like spike protruding from it, and on its head rather than a single horn there were three in ascending size running up the front of its head.

"Hmm this could be quite tricky; it's like a Dinosaur, but with that armour plating like hide it projects quite the air of defence, every joint looks protected." <Satou>

'Raaaaaaaaaaagh'

"Summon Rocky" "Summon Creed" <Satou>

"Everyone this is going to be tough protect each other, attackers look for vulnerabilities!" <Satou>

'Nod' 'Nod' <Creed><Rocky>

"Aro" <Kurama>

""Understood"" <Shenron>

The battle started with the rhino charging straight for us.

Creed, and Rocky took the charge with their shoulders digging their heels into the ground as much as they could to bring the beast to a halt.

Shenron meanwhile had distanced himself to take up the rearmost position, while Kurama, and I flanked on either side.

'Whoosh' 'Fwaaaaa'

Creed and Rocky were shot clear across the room each impacting the walls before slumping to the ground visible crack marks running across their bodies.

"Arrreeeee" <Kurama>

The hairs standing up all across it's body Kurama dove in wild with rage slashing and striking any where he could make contact.

'Swish'

As the rhino circled around, its tail came sweeping across the ground coming into contact with Kurama, he would've been blown away too if not for his twin daggers acting as an anchor point stabbing into the flesh of its tail.

"Gawah!"

The beast's cries of pain resounded throughout the room, continuing to whip its tail back and forth in an attempt to shake off Kurama.

I meanwhile remained in its blind spot as much as I could wait for the perfect moment to strike.

The healing completed Creed, and Rocky returned to the fight each landing a crushing fist strike on either side of the Rhino's head.

Raising its head up high in an attempt to push back against both assailants at the same time.

I took my chance diving down below its head, performed a quick change and swapped my twin swords out for a spear, i planted the butt of the spear on the ground, with the blade pointed straight up.

"NOW!" <Creed>

Calling out my command both my golems raised their fists high into the air dropping all four stone fists onto the top of the Rhino's head pressing down with all their might.

Unable to resist against the combined force of their blows, its head descended down coming into contact with my spear. The blade piecing easily through the thin hide on its underside but the impact didn't stop there as its head sunk further and further down the shaft of the spear.

As the free space was becoming less and less, I quickly dove out from my safe cover not being required in my position any longer but also risking great harm from exposing myself out in the open for a counter attack.

But thankfully the gamble paid off, as i glanced back from my prone position laying on the ground where i landed staring back at the rhino's form laying collapsed upon the ground, my spear sticking straight out the crown of it's head.

""It's not over yet, it might be incapacitated but we still need to finish it off"" <Shenron>

Getting back to my feet i once again used quick change to re-equip my twin swords drawing them both and joining in on the now frantic assault as fists, blades, and magic all rained down on the now immobile Rhino.

Minutes passed and in the corner of my eye i watched as mine, and my summons Stamina, and Mana bars dropped almost into the red.

Until finally the Rhino exploded into a scattering a black ash like particles that floated through the air until they disappeared into the ground upon contact.