Chapter 407: Now that's a Dungeon Entrance

After looking at what was beyond the mountain range Joshua decided it was time to turn his attention to the task at hand. He looked back down towards the other side of the mountain and tried to figure out the best direction to head towards so that they could find the dungeon as soon as possible. It didn't take him very long to find a pattern that would lead the group in the right direction. He noticed that heading in a certain direction there were less and less beast around. Any other part of the mountain range that he looked towards was full of life even if it was hidden away under crevices or hidden caves. With his aura sense he had no trouble finding such things.

The only reason there would be less beast in one area than any other area on the mountain range was because there was a powerful creature in the area. Considering the levels of the creatures in the mountain area the only beast that Joshua could imagine strong enough to scare all of the others off would be the giant centipede that they had seen earlier. The moment Aito pointed out a few spots that looked like a trail that the massive creature had left behind as it dug in and out of the rock they all knew that was the direction they should head in. Joshua led the way as they started to make their way around the other side of the mountain as they followed the trail of the massive creature.

With the speed that the massive centipede was able to move through the rock from earlier they all knew that there was no way that they would be able to catch up with it unless they raced ahead. They couldn't do such a thing with all of the other creatures around the area or for any unforeseen traps that could get in their way. So they took things slowly as they made the trek through the mountains. Along the way they did end up coming across a few more groups of the lizards that seemed adamant in getting in their way no matter the situation. Whether there were three of the lizards or ten, they would all ways rush over as a group.

Luckily the lizards weren't all that powerful or hard to deal with. The group had no problem taking them apart within minutes since they no longer had to face them while hanging from the side of a cliff. Joshua on his own was easily able to take on several of them at a time, so the group was easily able to push past them. The other type of beast that seemed to be in the area in large amounts were the rabbits the lizards used as a food source. Although the rabbits were technically in the level seventy range they didn't actually try to fight anyone. They just ran away whenever they were spotted.

Lilly did calm a few of the rabbits down in an attempt to tame them which slowed their progress down a bit. Even though they weren't going to be helpful in a fight it was always good to have more types of beast in the stables in case in the future someone in their guild needed them as a beast companion. Lilly only tamed a few of the rabbits, but with how fast they could reproduce Joshua knew that within a year's time they'd have more rabbits than they could deal with. Although Joshua had written the rabbits off as useless in battle Lilly decided to prove otherwise. They weren't as useful as the two healing rabbits that she kept around for certain situations, but they had certain abilities of their own. Lilly quickly pulled up the information of one of the rabbits skills and surprised everyone.

[Danger Sense: These creatures have an incredible sense for when any type of danger is nearby. The danger could be another beast, a change in the environment that could end up killing them, poisonous plants or food that could lead to their death.

Bottomless Stomach: These beast eat and I mean eat in large amounts. However they are willing to eat anything and everything that doesn't pose a threat to them. Be careful leaving them around vegetation that you want to keep.

Adaptability: There is a reason that these creatures eat so much. Their bodies can adapt the abilities of whatever they eat allowing them to use it to their benefits. This can end up leading to them learning new abilities or becoming resistant to certain conditions.]

From these abilities Joshua was able to learn a few interesting things. The first thing he noted was to make sure to never leave any of these rabbits alone in the garden otherwise all of their medical plants would be swallowed whole in the end. He also noticed that these rabbits could be used as beacons for danger when exploring new areas. It could be extremely helpful for groups that didn't have someone like Joshua around that could sense out areas on a large scale. Lastly their adaptability could be potentially helpful in the future. If Lilly could sync up with one then she'd be able to adapt against any of the things the rabbit was able to adapt against. He had no idea where that could end up leading.

Joshua just admitted to Lilly that he was wrong about the rabbits as she gave him a smug smile before they moved on from the area. While fighting some the lizards along the way Joshua made sure to help Lilly tame a few of them as well. She wasn't nearly as excited about taming a bunch of the lizards, but they could be incredibly useful mounts while climbing through cliff areas or other large mountains in the future. They did end up running into some slightly more powerful lizards than the ones they had gotten used to coming across while scaling the mountain, but outside of just being a little bigger with higher stats there wasn't anything special about them.

When Lilly tamed the first batch of lizards she seemed disappointed when she looked at their skills and Joshua could see why right away after she showed off the skills to everyone. Unlike the rabbits that had multiple useful skills the only useful skill that the lizards had outside of their stats was their ability to camouflage slightly. That skill mixed with a rider that had the ability to hide their presence as well could be incredibly useful as a surveillance combo of some sort. Joshua kept that in mind in case they came across a situation that needed something of that sort in the future.

After a while of taming lizards and rabbits the group was finally able to move on further into the mountain range. It got to the point where they were no longer coming across any other beast which told Joshua that they were getting rather close to their target. After climbing over another rising point in the mountain range as they followed the trail of the large centipede they finally found an area that looked completely different from everything else they had seen as they explored the area.

"Holy hell that's what I call an entrance." Adrian said with a whistle they all looked down as the mountain range seemed to sink in to a large open area that was surrounded by cliffs on all sides with large rocks all over the place. What made the area look unnatural however were the massive arch ways that surrounded a giant hole in the center that was obviously leading down into a dungeon. What took everyone by surprise however was the fact the massive Centipede they had seen earlier was currently wrapping its body around the archways that surrounded the entrance of the dungeon.

In the centipedes current position it was easy to see how colossal of a creature it was. Even though it was far weaker than the snake that Joshua and Lilly had met in the cavern its' size was almost comparable to an extent. The beast could easily wrap around Tank several times over. Its metallic exoskeleton also made it seem even more intimidating as it chomped away at the remains of the lizard it had killed earlier. Joshua didn't know why such a powerful beast would go so far away just to hunt one of the many lizards on the mountains side, but he supposed it preferred to single out a target for a quick meal instead of going after a huge group, but that didn't seem to be the right answer based off of all of the left over bones of the lizards that had been eaten alive in the past. The entire area was filled with such bones which was probably the reason why none of the other creatures on the mountain would approach the centipede.

"Well now we know for a fact that the creature is actually the guardian for this place. I can see any other reason why it would lay around this area while blocking off the way into the dungeon." Henry said as he pointed out how the tail end of the centipede had looped over one of the arches and blocked off the way into the dungeon if you didn't just jump into the large hole without a care. By the way the ground seemed to gradually slope down on one side Henry was certain that there were actually stairs that were currently being covered up by the tail end of the creature.

"Guess we'll just have to take it down if we want to get into the dungeon. It is a guardian after all." Ivan said as he gripped his sword with anticipation. Joshua could see that there were a lot of members in the group that seemed excited to get in a fight with the beast. Everything they had faced so far on the expedition had been on the weak end of beast and they were all tired of spending most of the day just climbing around.

"What do you think of the beast boss?" Jayce asked as he looked at it with interest.

"The centipede's exoskeleton might as well be an armor that covers its entire body. If I had to guess it's a similar situation to the ant queen that we faced in the past, but this beast is much larger and more dangerous. The best way for us close ranged fighters to be able to do any actual damage to it would be to heat up the Skelton and quickly cool it down after to make it more brittle. Otherwise this could be a long drawn out fight that would rely too much on Amy and the mages." Joshua replied after looking over the entire frame of the creature. They had hidden their presence fairly well so that the beast wouldn't turn on them right away giving them the advantage of surprise and Joshua planned to put that to use.