Chapter 4.14 - Deeper Towards Destiny

Serin kept moving down level after level, as he did he found that he had to expend a bit more mana, fire a bit more ammunition, and his reset time between levels grew longer. The quantity of creatures attacking on each level grew larger and larger. Additionally, the information for the floor no longer showed how many creatures inhabited it. Serin only knew when he was finished with the floor because the two gates appeared. Serin wasn't the only one to notice, the team was starting to notice as well. When Serin reached Level 20, he was once again met with a quest notice that he had been the first to reach the 20th level. This time, Serin was not met with an open bog, but instead he was met with a cave in the middle of a frozen field. The cave entrance was covered with icicles, and a cold wind blew through the floor chilling Serin to his bones. As Serin looked for an enemy, he was greeted by a gigantic white serpent slithering out of the cave.

Easily larger than the red dragon he had faced, the serpent was large enough to swallow the cart of supplies whole. And it seemed to move with a fierce intensity that showed an agility far exceeding what was expected of something that size. Serin looked at the creature, and realized the other guides probably did not have the defenses to deal with it, so Serin acted fast. Using [Dash], he sprinted as fast as he could away from the group, firing spells to get the creature's attention. The creature took the underpowered [fireball]s and Serin watched as the spells bounced off its scales.

Serin's real goal of gaining the creature's attention had worked, and the serpent sprang at Serin.

Even though the Serpent was blindingly quick, because of his heightened agility, Serin was able to dodge this beast, but just barely. Still using [Dash], Serin jumped on top of the lunging serpent and slammed his axe into its head.

With the massive amount of stamina that Serin used, the axe found purchase. The creatures wiggled and slammed against the rocks, but was unable to knock Serin from his mount.

Serin, with a grin on his face, pulled out his bolter, now loaded with adamantine, and pulled the trigger.

Rounds began to fire. The first few pinged off the scales and then off Serin's shield, but soon enough the scales began to shatter, then the rounds plunged right through the skull and into the brain. As the loud winding continued Serin held on as the Serpent's calculated lunges turned into the spasms of an injured creature. Then the creature stopped moving. Serin saw he had expended 200 rounds of adamantine into the creature's head. Serin's Stamina and mana each were half expended.

Serin started to use extract to retrieve the adamantine bolts he had expended. Adamantine was expensive and the hardest metal Serin was aware of. He looked at the scales that had taken several adamantine rounds. The skin of this Serpent would easily make light armor that would rival dragon scales, have much more coverage, and be much lighter than full plate.

***

Serin found that there were no treasure chests. The treasure of this level was instead found deep in the cave. There were veins of ice in the cave. The ice when chipped out, did not melt. It was permanently cool. Serin realized that ice that didn't melt would most likely be more useful to his nation than anything he had found so far, including the Serpent's scaled skin.

That was when Jericho motioned to Serin, "I know you want to go deeper into the dungeon Serin, but we have run into two problems." Serin was confused. Jericho looked at him, "Most of us agreed that it would have taken all of us working in concert to defeat that last monster, and not all of us would have likely survived. If we want to go deeper, the guides will need to get stronger, because if something happened to you, most of us would have died. Don't get me wrong, you are more than capable of handling the creatures past this level, but we as a group are not." Serin was a bit saddened the expedition ended here. Serin then looked, "What's the second problem?"

Jericho laughed, "We've overloaded the autocart and it's going to take all of us pushing it to move this much plunder out of the dungeon."

Serin then looked and saw that the cart was bogged down. They had attached the pull handles and push bars to the front, back, and sides. It would take the entire group to work.

Serin shook his head, "alright, we will call it here, but when we are stronger, I will first go past level 20. And also we will bring more carts."

***

As Serin's group of guides exited the dungeon, Serin watched as a bell was rung by the dungeon guard. This instantly caused a commotion in the town as other bells echoed the three rings. While Serin had been fighting deep in the dungeon, the representatives had let the town know what was going on. Many groups were excited to go past level 1, as they had learned from the rescued team the the rewards pulled from each deeper level were increasingly better the farther down they travelled. So with the first dungeon guide going down and word spreading that it was none other than Lord Serin himself, the town was excited to see what wonders were pulled from the depths.

It seems that the other representatives had met to prepare a return for the group. In all they were in the dungeon for 2 days, but once they exited, the crowds had quickly gathered from all over the town. It seemed that a set of bells were installed throughout the town as Serin was in the dungeon. Serin internally applauded the ingenuity, as it was a quick way to pass information throughout the town.

The group met with loved ones, and took time to relax, Serin spoke to the crowd.

"As you know, the dungeon is as dangerous as it is bountiful. It is in our interest to use this resource as best we can, but to do in a way that is safe for all. That is why we established the position of Dungeon guide." Serin looked at the crowd, "The dungeon guides are volunteers, selected from our most powerful of every race, and approved by the entire council of representatives. To be a dungeon guide, you must be able to defeat all of the creatures on a floor without the assistance of others." Serin watched the stunned expressions. "This is to ensure that when a team braves a lower level, the guide can ensure their safety."

Serin watched the eyes of the crowd. "However, although this elevated position is not a paid position, it still has its perks. A dungeon guide is approved to go solo into the dungeon onto any level of any biome he has previously soloed and they are exempt from paying tribute to the town from their delves."

This elicited some oohh's and awe's. Serin motioned for quiet. "The strongest were those selected. In the future there will be more opportunities for guides, but for the capital dungeon, these are the guides selected."

Serin then spoke to the crowd. "I volunteered as the first guide to delve. I was able to solo all the way to the 20th floor. Make no mistake, the reason I did not go farther was two fold, First, it had become too dangerous for the guides that were there evaluating progress. And Second," Serin motioned to the cart, "We couldn't bring anymore treasure back." This comment elicited cheers from the crowd.

Serin smiled, and motioned to the cart. "I will be meeting with various town members today about how best to utilize the items pulled from the dungeon, but just know that the entire town will prosper from this first expedition, and it will only get better from here."

Serin's announcement was met with cheers, and Now Serin would have to catalogue the materials they had salvaged.

***