Chapter 17

Chapter 17

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The Dungeon, Medea Island

Two Days Later

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As the final party of the day teleported out of the dungeon, it was with no small amount of relief on my part.

These guilders are relentless. Again and again they delve my first and second floors, despite losing an average of three of their number a day. Mostly Silver, but one Gold was lost to the fish. He was a swordsman, and his core seemed to lack an elemental inclination. I put it to the side with the rest, for later experimentation.

They haven't wavered in their resolve. At first I thought that I must have miscalculated the value of the bounty placed on me. Ten thousand gold coins certainly sounds like a lot, considering these people use the standard fantasy copper, silver and gold coin currency.

But it's more than that, and it took me a few days and a half-dozen more sets of memories to understand why.

I'm a challenge to these people.

Being a Guilder isn't a safe and easy life. They jeopardize life and limb every day in pursuit of personal strength, wealth, or even something as nebulous as fame. All of them, to a one, are made aware of the statistics of their occupation before joining, yet they join anyway.

There's something about the people here, or maybe it's the magic literally floating around in the air. Perhaps it's narrative causality. Either way, Guilders are just built different, beyond their physical abilities. In pursuit of their goals, anything considered obstacle is conceptualized as a challenge. Something to overcome, to beat into the dirt and take its lunch money.

Conquered dungeons are normally safe options for increasing their experience and skills; an environment controlled by a dungeon master and where the difficulty curve is carefully considered. It works, to a point. With their lives never truly in danger, guilders can only grow so fast. After reaching Silver rank, their growth slows. At this point some grow lax, often leading to early graves when they come up against an unexpected threat. Golds who push their limits by seeking tests of skill and strength are the ones who grow the fastest.

Wild dungeons are less challenging than I initially expected; pumping out hordes of barely-improved animals that prove little threat in the face of a party of Golds. There was the very real possibility of danger in older wild dungeons, as they gained in sentience and capability, but even their monsters and defenses were laughable in comparison to mine.

In the end, it's the lost dungeons which provide the greatest challenge for an up-and-coming guilder. Intelligent, lethal in their defense and often possessing a true hatred for their previous oppressors. Some were so much so, that they remained free for decades, killing hundreds or thousands of guilders. These were regarded as 'Grindstones'. Yes, a hundred may die in pursuit of glory, but it was often considered worth the loss to get a dozen Platinums in return for those hundred dead Golds.

I can kinda see the reasoning. Platinums are plainly superior in terms of physicality. Magically, they were also far and away better than Golds.

There were currently no active Grindstones on record. At least, until I became well-known and with the number of deaths associated with me growing daily that designation was a foregone conclusion. According to correspondence Neo received today, dozens of parties were expected to begin their trip to the island within a week; drawn by the challenge I represent. The bounty was practically a bonus for them.

So, as Neo began scrambling to have more accommodation built in a short as time as possible, I began excavating the sixth floor. The fifth wasn't yet fully developed, but the caverns were excavated and a couple of my experiments panned out. All that was left was populating the floor.

The sixth, I felt, needed to be a significant departure from the previous five.

Well. I am under a volcanic island perhaps it's time to start digging towards the magma chamber, rather than out under the ocean. It should be safe enough. The volcano is active, its crater lake boiling with toxic gasses is evidence enough of that.

Yes. Lava lakes, rivers and lavafalls. Extreme heat is the name of the game. The layout though... hmmm. This requires careful thought.

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Layla Losat wandered down the main thoroughfare of the little island port. With access to the dungeon cut off for the night she finally had time to relax before needing to retire to her rooms.

The docks had expanded again, she noted. Another warehouse had been erected to shelter their goods from the elements. Another two taverns had been built, to accommodate their large guilder population and their various habits. She turned right at the main square, towards the incline that led to the hill above the dungeon.

As she walked up the dirt path, sounds of nature replaced the quiet bustle of the town. She could hear the stream somewhere to her left, winding down the rocky hill. Most of the trees near the town had been cut down already, for lumber, though larger specimens had been left alone. One, she noticed, had a small altar. Upon the altar lay berries, fruits and edible roots; harvested from the local jungle.

She stopped and placed a handful of nuts from her pocket in a basket. She bowed towards the towering tree, an obvious shrine to the Goddess of Nature, and prayed. Thank you for your bounty, Goddess Kaisha; through your efforts are my people sustained.

This would be an entirely different experience, compared to the previous floors.

"This dungeon... is truly unique," he stated. His words were echoed by his companions.

"Yeah...", "You got that right.", "Man, I hate the jungle.", "Deal with it, wimp."

They trekked down the rocky path, soon finding themselves deep in the jungle. The noise was almost deafening. The droning insects, the rustling leaves above and the distant roar of a fast-moving river all combining to drown them in noise. There were no set paths through the undergrowth, and Litan found himself using his master-forged sword to clear a path more often than he would prefer.

Much like a jungle on the surface, the climate was hot and sticky. Under his armor Litan began to sweat just to cool off. Perhaps a cooling enchantment was in order...

All members of the party were hyperaware; their enhanced senses focused the slightest disturbances in their surroundings. It would be all to easy for a group of monster to ambush them here.

For ten minutes they traveled like this. The noise only increased.

Litan called the party to a halt as they approached a clearing. He peered through the foliage.

What he saw was astounding and worrying in equal measures.

A huge mound of dirt was piled up in the center of the clearing. At least ten feet tall, and covered in ants.

And not just normal ants. Each ant was ten times the size of their normal cousins, and there were hundreds of thousands of the creatures. He observed half a dozen thick lines spreading out from the anthill, with ants moving in both directions. The returnees carried gathered food; which was often as terrifying a concept as the ants themselves. Enormous wasps, spiders, beetles and bees. Slowly, it dawned on him.

These were the monsters.

He was sure, if they searched, they'd discover enormous hives of bees and wasps. these foot-long spiders likely littered the jungle. They were lucky they hadn't encountered any to be honest.

He turned to his allies, making the hand symbols to signal a quiet retreat. They moved quickly and as silently as possible. After what he judged an appropriate distance, he began to speak.

"We are incredibly unprepared for this floor," he informed them. "We'll do a bit more exploration, but at the slightest hint of danger activate your crystals. I'd prefer you alive to delve another day." He received solemn nods in response.

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The first party to ever make it to my third floor. This is a milestone.

Their attitudes were just as I wanted; paranoid and constantly alert. It's a bit disappointing they discovered the ants and reasoned that the real danger of this floor was its ecosystem so early, but there wasn't much I could have done about that. It does give the Kobolds a bit more protection in obscurity so I won't complain too much.

Speaking of, the Litan and his party had been shadowed by a group of Kobold Villagers the second they stepped into the jungle. High in the canopy, the kobolds had constructed a series of platforms and ropes, for quick deployment across the floor.

I ordered them to hold back and observe. These are the enemy, I explained, the kobolds' greatest weapon is that the humans don't know they exist. If they attack and even a single human escapes, that weapon is lost.

They accepted my orders and reasoning, bowing to my greater wisdom. It was still a little disturbing to be considered the god of a whole species, even if that species was only a few hundred members strong. Thankfully they were quiet and private in their worship, rather than the great celebrations the crabs threw every night.

The Platinums explored the third floor for another half hour. They discovered the river and eradicated a small spider nest in that time. Not that any nest of foot-wide spiders could be considered 'small'. By the time they decided to return to the surface the people there had been concerned, since they'd been down here for more than two hours already.

That they had explored my third floor was the news of the day, spreading at the speed of gossip. Details of the floor spread almost as fast. Arguments on the monsters raged. Most dismissed the claim the insects were the main danger, convinced that they had yet to encounter the floors true monsters. These people seemed to be ones that had less experience with jungle environments.

They'd soon learn not to underestimate insects.

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