[Discovered Dungeon: Orc Warehouse, Difficulty level: 20 ]
[Recommended level: 18 ]
[Recommended party size: 5 – 8 ]
Description: The orcs have taken the town of Doncaster as their own, ruling over most of the monsters inside of it with an iron fist. You have been either very fortunate or unfortunate to discover one of their important warehouses, brave adventurers go inside and slay the minions that guard it. The warehouse is an important strategic element to the orcs plan to rule the town, by either destroying it or taking control over it you will have done a great service and started the liberation of Doncaster.
Ding!
[ The players have gained a clue for the quest "A Journey to the West", go inside the dungeon that acts as an anchor point and defeat the boss to take control over it.]
"As we thought, the dungeon is the place where the link will be created." Wolf takes a good look at the dungeon door. It was a huge metal gate that led to an old dilapidated building, they had already scouted it and it was empty, which left them with the impression that the dungeon was definitely located in an alternate dimension, much like the one Beast's summons resided in.
They all nod at each other and enter the dungeon, it wasn't their first time doing something like this, the difference was that this time they had even more data, next to the difficulty level was even a recommended level and party size, something that was very beneficial to them.
A blinding light flashes at them and they all disappear from the spot. When they opened their eyes again they could see that they were in the same building that they previously checked out, only that this time it was filled with an incredible amount of wooden crates and chests. Reign goes over to one and opens it, he finds a lot of raw meat and the stench hits him straight away. The others do the same and discover different types of food inside, there were many different kinds of meat, some vegetables, and some weird slimy things inside, nobody knew whether the slimes were for consumption or not.
Outside of the building they could only see darkness, they couldn't see even 1cm outside which proved that their previous guess was correct, the dungeon was in an alternate dimension and was inaccessible by normal means. The building was enormous and they knew that a lot of time would be needed to cover everything so they set off quickly.
The room they were in was relatively small and it took them only a couple of seconds to get to the end, an old iron door was located there, presumably the only way out. Before they could get to it however they hear a sharp sound as the door opened and a couple of hobgoblins get inside, carrying supplies that were supposed to be stored inside.
As they were coming from the side the hobgoblins didn't notice them and simply continued forward to the designated location, leaving the door open. There were only two of them and Reign immediately goes towards them with Shadow, they were too big of liability if left alive and could spot them from behind later on so they had to be killed quickly and quietly.
The sword and dagger flash over the throats of the hobgoblins with a swift motion, decapitating them immediately. Before the bodies could fall down they hug them and slowly move them away to a more hidden place. The heads were caught by Wolf who follows after the two.
After finishing that they go back to the others and signal them to move. The outside of the door was not very different compared to the storage room they were previously in. It was still storage only many times bigger and had a couple of offices that were above the ground level, each was made from metal and had stairs that led to them. Inside each was a hobgoblin that was physically shorter and thinner than the others, the fact that they were put in the offices and acted as supervisors here meant that they had to be more intelligent compared to the average hobgoblin, and following that of course was the possibility of them knowing magic, something that would make assassination a very troublesome thing to be done.
Besides the offices there were a couple of Draifs on top of some shelves, looking down and surveilling the hobgoblins and goblins that were moving around like worker ants to make sure everything in the warehouse was functioning properly. The Draifs luckily seem to be newly turned humans as their levels were not that high, most of them being at level 15.
"I don't think stealth is a viable option here guys." Beast gulps as he looks at the myriad of monsters below them, the door they went through led them to a raised platform right next to an office, from there they could observe everything quite clearly and plan their attack.
"I there were only two of us and the plan was to simply sneak inside then it would be possible, but killing anyone here without the others noticing is indeed not something we can achieve, even the Draifs and the hobgoblin supervisors are a no-go as they cover each other almost perfectly." Wolf agrees with Beast as the warehouse defense was very well made, by putting supervisors in the tall offices and the Draifs on top of the shelves the enemy had covered all of their weak points perfectly.
"You three, you said you spent some time in the dungeon and hunted hobgoblins, how is that possible?" Wolf turns his head around and glares at Ronny and the other two who were standing there petrified and confused.
"T-that's because ours was different," Cameron says while looking around the warehouse in wonder.
"What?" Reign and everyone else immediately turns around and stares at them, they never even thought of something like this being possible, aren't all dungeons supposed to be the same except for the beginner ones?
"Well, it wasn't a warehouse-like this one. Our dungeon was actually underground, it was a huge cave that housed many hobgoblins and there were no goblins or Draifs like here. I-I'm confused as well, nothing of the sort happened in the previous dungeons, even when they were different it was only by a bit, not something major like now." Cameron quickly speaks out, afraid that Wolf and the others would get angry and not believe them.
"Hmmm that can mean one of two things, either the dungeon is different because of our quest, or there is an underground level of this dungeon as well and the spawning area changes depending on the number of people, levels, and probably more things." Wolf thinks for a bit before answering, this was not something they had expected, they didn't ask Ronny and the others about the dungeon previously because they said they were only in the outer layer of it and that they fought against some hobgoblins, that was all the information that Reign and the others needed from them as anything else would simply be useless.
Coming to the conclusion that the dungeon might have different levels was not something Wolf just came up with on the spot, previously when they went to beginner dungeon A everyone got transported to a different dungeon, each quite similar to the others but still a bit different. Looking over at the description and then the hidden quest he connected the dots and realized that they were all connected by some tunnels and paths.
Compared to video games the dungeons here are not as linear and the degree of freedom was very high. They could probably try to destroy the floor and gain access to the underground dungeon if they wanted to, but that would only be a waste of time now. Looking over at the enemies they knew that the Draifs were the most troublesome opponents because of their flying capabilities.
"It has to happen quickly and simultaneously so that they don't have time to use the alarm." Reign smiles confidently as he prepares his lightning bullet, the number of enemies here is incredible and will definitely give a lot of rewards as well. The Draifs were the first targets of the attacks, taking them out would mean no aerial support for the monsters.