Chapter Three Hundred and Eight. Into the Dungeon.

Chapter Three Hundred and Eight. Into the Dungeon.

It was late spring, or so the NASA software said, which meant that days were about seventeen hours long, while the nights were about fourteen hours long.

While Bob had woken up a bit earlier than everyone else, it was clear that it would take some adjustment to get used to the longer days and nights. By the time everyone was up, dressed, and fed, they were still facing another four hours of darkness.

"Well, I don't see any reason to wait for daylight," Bob said once the group had gathered in the center of the camp.

"I'm super keen to see what these natural Dungeons are like," Jessica agreed.

Bob looked around, but found no dissent. He opened a portal and stepped through it, arriving on the far side of the river. The Dungeon was a hundred feet ahead, and he could see the glow.

The System hadn't hidden the Dungeons, but rather had formed them as glowing ovals of white light, which was a contrast as the rest of the planet was bathed in red.

Everyone else arrived, and they walked through the tall grass, arriving at the pillar a minute later.

"Give it a poke," Elli suggested.

Bob hesitantly reached out his hand to touch the pillar.

Dungeon 801972G610N497ISS6PM18D.

Capacity 28%

Estimated time until overflow 179 solar cycles.

User tier seven, semi-evolved. User grouped with eleven other sapient beings, tier six.

Dungeon set to Tier Eight, Level Thirty-Eight.

The System notification appeared as his vision flared white for a moment.

New Quest!

The tunnels beneath the great city of Krestor have become infested with uncontrolled magma elementals! They threaten to destroy the foundations of the city, causing it to fall deep into the planetary mass!

Destroy ten of these elementals to receive a reward!

Discover where the elementals are coming from to receive a reward!

Discover why the elementals are attack the city's foundations to receive a reward!

Stop the elementals from destroying the city's foundations to receive a reward!

New Quest!

You are the first user to enter this Dungeon!

Clear this Dungeon to receive a reward!This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com

(All Quest goals must be completed during the users first entry)

"Damn," he heard Mike's voice from behind him.

Bob turned around and found the group behind him, with the faint glow of the portal leading in and out of the Dungeon behind them. It provided just enough light to see his friends, but not enough to see the walls or ceiling.

He blinked as sunlight suddenly filled the area, courtesy of a ball floating above Erick's head.

He could see now, and based on pictures in nearly forgotten textbooks, he was pretty sure they were in a lava tube. It was circular, and about thirty feet across.

"Thank you," Bailli said sweetly to Erick, kissing him on the cheek.

"Yes, thank you," Jack said, moving to kiss Erick's other cheek before he was intercepted by a scowling Bailli, who waved her finger at him.

"Mine," she said possesively, linking her arm through Erick's.

"We all got the Quests?" Bob asked.

Jessica displayed her notifications, which were identical to what Bob had received.

"Well, the good news is that we know what we're going to be fighting," Bob sighed. "The bad news is I'll have to cast the fire protection spells free style."

"Just give them to the beacons and off beacons," Erick said.

Mike and Jack shuffled up to stand next to Bob, along with Wayna and Elli.

Bob began the process of delicately weaving the spell, but stopped quickly, frowning.

"Everything all right?" Jessica asked from beside him.

"The mana is... odd," he muttered.

Another notification was waiting for him.

Quest Advanced!

"I bet you can't kill just one."

Disperse ten manifestations of equal or greater level than yourself. Complete.

Disperse one hundred manifestations of equal or greater level than yourself.

Reward : Ten energy crystals.

"Well, it looks like that new quest is separate from the original," he said.

"I'm not looking forward to eight more of those fights," Amanda shuddered.

"I'm not interested in risking our gear, but it might be a good idea to get out a drone and use the thermal camera to scout ahead," Dave suggested.

"That's a great idea, although I may be able to save us the drone," Bob agreed. "I'm going to try and alter the Mana Sight spell to detect either heat, or fire aspected mana. Either one should let me see the Magma Elementals when they're sitting still."

"I'm going to switch to a boar, I'll still have my face way too close to that magma, but at least I can tear at them with my tusks without getting a mouthful of it," Wayna said shakily.

It took almost half an hour, but Bob managed to work out a variation of Mana Sight that focused on heat and fire aspected mana. It had been easy to create a weave that only saw heat and fire aspected mana, but that had left him blind to everything else.

With his new weave locked in place with persistent effect, the party was ready to move forward. The lava tube they were in didn't travel in a straight line, but turned from side to side, as well as sloping up and down. It was as they reached the bottom of a slope that Bob spotted a group of heat signatures.

They were clustered against a wall this time, and Bob counted twelve of them.

"Twelve of them about sixty feet ahead, clustered up on the left hand wall," Bob whispered to the group.

"Think there is twelve of them because there is twelve of us?" Jessica asked.

"Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action," Jack replied. "If the next group is twelve as well, I'll agree."

"Let's get our Beacons lined up, we should be able to lay some damage on them as we pull them to us," Dave suggested.

The group was almost in position already, with exception of Jake, who was walking behind the group, ostensibly to provide a rear guard, but mostly because no one wanted to walk to closed to the hungry-eyed UtahRaptor.

Bob pointed out the section of wall where the elementals had layered themselves, and Dave and Bailli attacked simultaneously, Bailli with a blast of Lightning, Dave with Eldritch force.

The elementals tumbled off the wall, their obsidian skin shifting to the angry yellow, orange, and red of magma as they flowed down the tube towards the waiting party.

Dave and Bailli struck again, and one of the elementals staggered. A third volley collapsed it, and a fourth damaged another, then the elementals were in range. Tentacles of searing hot magma lashed out as the Beacons drew their attention. Mike had been standing closer to Wayna, ready to pull one off of her if it ended up being too much, but her squeals when a tentacle landed on her flank were more angry than anything else, and her six foot tusks tore chunks off the elemental.

Jake had picked up the add next to her, leaving her to face only one.

Much like the previous battle, Harv and Elli worked together like the seasoned duo they were, while Mike and Jack both had the advantage of not needing to fight off as many elementals for as long, Jack starting with one fewer, and Mike losing one almost immediately as it was torn apart by a giant wolf, a t-rex, a bolt of lightning, and an eldritch blast.

Jessica and Erick were under less stress, and Jessica was able to keep Jack and Wayna healed up between blows. It took forty-five seconds, and the elementals once again attempted to retreat, to no avail.

"That was much better," Eddi grinned.

"Definitely," Wayna agreed. "No magma in my mouth."

"It sounded like it really hurt when you got hit thought," Jessica said.

"It did," Wayna admitted, "but the whole squealing thing is sort of an innate reaction." She shook her head. "When I shift to an animal form, I get the animal's instincts. It makes it easy for me to fly, or swim, or run on four legs, but it also means I get their reactions too. Boars do not like it when something smacks them in the side. They get angry."

"Well, our team work is making the dream work," Jack said with a grin. Just seven more fights and we'll complete the second kill quest."

"I bet that quest is never ending," Dave said.

"Not taking that bet," Mike replied. "It probably just keeps going up. Next will be a thousand, then ten thousand, etc."

"Hopefully the reward goes up," Amanda said. "I mean, it was great that we picked up twelve mana crystals for the first part, but if we only get another twelve, for ten times the kills, I'll be disappointed."

"Would be nice to get ten mana crystals each," Jessica agreed. "A hundred and twenty crystals would be a nice reward for the group."

"Anyone else seeing this pile of maga elemental chunks glowing?" Harv asked.

Bob looked around at the fallen magma elementals, but saw nothing but rapidly cooling chunks of rock.

"I don't see anything," he admitted.

No one else in the group did either, so Harv approached it carefully. He reached out to touch it, then his eyes widened and he grinned.

He showed the group his System notification window.

Manifestation remnants contain resources. Would you like to use your Harvesting Skill to collect resources?