CH.178 TinaWood Challenge Rooms, part 1

CH.178 TinaWood Challenge Rooms, part 1

“So, what are your plans from now on?” I asked Diamond Sword after we had finished our meal. They actually didn’t ask any questions about Mystik Wok, as Alice bombarded me with them. I guess when someone asks fifteen questions quickly, most of the things you want to know will get answered.

They did actually notice the healing effects, but as they weren’t at full HP after going through a dungeon, I just said that the cooking method added some healing power to the food. Diamond Sword had also picked up some of the Emergency Provision crackers from the dungeon’s trade point, so they knew this dungeon could make healing food.

“We will try out some of the restricted entry rooms. We couldn’t do it last time because there were so many monsters.” Jack said.

“Yeah. It was crazy. Even with the healing areas between the larger rooms, we almost had to turn back.” Rayan, the main tank of the party, said.

“Sure the skeletons fall easily to light magic, but I ran out of mana super fast just because of the numbers.” Wolf, the long bow user, said. He could apparently also use light magic.

“And then you add in the little imp jerks that want to come in and backstab you. I really didn’t like having to look out for them.” Kalem added. Kalem was the member of Diamond Sword that had once died from sprites, but got resurrected. He was armed with a one-handed morning star and a small buckler. He also could use some fire magic.

I’m still surprised that Zay chose him over Rico, but I’m not going to say anything. I let him make the choice and he did.

And I’m not an idiot. I did notice that he wanted to thank me for it, but probably didn’t want to say it in front of Alice and Ria, as the two of them might not know about my abilities. Perhaps I should make an artificial situation where he can thank me.

“Oh, the challenge rooms. They can drop some nice stuff, but I think they can be quite dangerous.” I said. I hadn’t actually seen anyone try one out, so I’m not sure, but according to the info I have, they can spawn up to a B-rank monster. Or 5 C-rank monsters. And you have to fight them alone.

“If you call them dangerous, perhaps we shouldn’t go in.” Jack said.

“Well, you would be the first to try them. I never did as you have to enter alone and I’m not sure if I could summon something inside the room.” I admitted.

“Couldn’t you just send in one of your summoned monsters? If a summon dies, they’ll recover in a few days right?” Laith, the final member of their party and their resident mage, suggested. He was skilled in fire magic, especially large scale fire magic, but as that isn’t something to use in a dungeon, he had just been firing simple fire spells.

Firing fire. That sounds funny.

“... I probably could. I just didn’t think of that.” I could even see inside the room with my Dungeon Founder powers, so it’s not like I won’t know what happens inside the room. “That’s actually a great idea. If you have to test them out anyway, I can perform the first test with a summon, so in case it is too difficult, no one will die.”

“But as long as you are here, it won’t matter if someone dies, does it?” Alice blurred.

“Miss Watchman, you shouldn’t say something like that. Didn’t you learn anything from what happened to your dragon?” Jack instantly jumped to reprimand her. And bringing up the dragon that she had let down just a few hours ago clearly got to her and she realized what she said.

“Brian? What was she talking about?” Ria asked.

“I’ll explain some other day.” I answered Ria.

Before we left the core room, I made sure to get a magic flask for Ria. I also made another four of them and placed them in my Inventory. Unlike with putting a space-extended storage device inside of another space-extended storage device, I could put any sort of flask inside my Inventory. But they wouldn’t stack, unless they were in the exact, or near exact same state. So four empty flasks could stack into the same slot, but a full flask, a half full flask, and an empty flask would each take a slot of their own.

I also got Ria her own personal magic fanny pack, as well as few t-shirts and underwear, including some of the more ... interesting things the dungeon had added to its repertoire when I named Christina a dungeon master.

Ria looked at some of them with a hint of embarrassment, before putting it all into her new fanny pack.

And I didn’t forget to get the fabrics I had planned to give as a birthday gift to Earl Sawyer. I got one bolt roll of each of them. They are 1 meter tall and about 90 meters long, for a total of 90m2. But I thought that was a bit too little, so I got another two rolls of the tricot in different colors, as well as a second cotton roll, for a total of six rolls. I might put all of this inside a fanny pack and give it as a gift. Maybe add a weapon or something as well, if this isn’t enough.

Lastly, I made another 2 fanny packs to hold inside my inventory, in case I use one as a gift and if someone uses one. I’ll ask Angelina or Paulina if my gift is appropriate, or if I’ll have to add to it. Also some more clothes for myself. But now I had officially burned all of the points I got from that A-rank sword-horn bull. I still had some from today and the monsters absorbed on the travels, but not that much. I need to earn more if I’m going to make a magic flask for every villager in the dhampir village.

(Or we could make them with a normal flask that you install a Different Dimension Capsule into.) Laura reminded me that I have other options than just this dungeon.

And one last thing. I promise. I got a ... strongly worded ‘letter’ from Christina through our terminal link, commenting that I brought Alice into the dungeon without even stopping by. I got around that problem by saying that we would stop by the house on the way back.

“What to use? What to use?” I was speaking to myself while combing my collection for something I could send into the challenge room.

Oh? That will... (How about testing Sorcerer of Dark Magic?) Laura offered.

(And now you tell me. I just found something else. But I want to test out Sorcerer as well. What to do?)

“Hmm. Blue or Black?” I wondered aloud.

“Black.” Alice said.

“What?”

“Black. Black is better than blue.” Alice said.

“Because of dark magic?”

“Yes.”

“Then blue is better because water magic is better than dark magic.” Ria said.

“No it isn’t.”

“Yes it is. Dark magic cannot be used to heal.”

Spoiler[collapse]

“Dungeon Founder, open.” I said to bring up a camera feed that everyone could see.

I think it might help Diamond Sword on their report about the dungeon, so better to show them the inside of the room. I had already navigated it in a way where they can only see the camera feed and not any other information, as they don’t need to know that.

“I didn’t know you could do that.” Laith commented.

“Well, I can. I think any dungeon founder can. I think a dungeon master can as well, but I never asked Christina. But you should focus on that.” I said as I pointed at the screen.

After the Sorcerer of Dark Magic had walked into the room, the door had closed behind him. He was now standing there alone, until a monster appeared there to oppose him. It was a lich, not unlike the one that had been the final boss this time, but this one had a red robe, imitating my red robed Dark Magician. So the dungeon wanted to copy both versions.

The lich didn’t wait for SoDM, but immediately used magic to put up a fire wall between him and my monster. Then he began lobbing fire attacks through the fire wall. It was somewhat similar to how Jonathan fought against my Winged Minion, but the intensity and power of the lich’s attacks were on another level. Each of them looked like it could burn a person alive.

But my Sorcerer didn’t even flinch. He put up a barrier, seemingly without a chant, which stopped all of the fire coming from the lich. With each fireball that hit the barrier, the orange barrier would have a small blue wave run across it, as if the barrier was weakening, but I’m honestly not convinced it was.

“Pathetic.” We heard my Sorcerer say through the video feed. “These flames are at best something for cooking a meal. Let me show you some real flames.” He said as he raised his staff to the sky. The magic stone at the end of it glimmered lightly and the fire wall, as well as all the other fire spells that the lich had cast, vanished.

“Celestial Black Burning!”Yes, that is the Japanese attack name, but it just sounds better than Celestial Blast, especially considering the attack animation. Sorcerer of Dark Magic called out as he brought his staff down and pointed it at the lich. We watched as a massive wave a fire consumed the entire feed.

After our visuals returned, the only thing left in the room was my Sorcerer.

“Master, I have brought you the spoils.” He came back to us, holding a treant wood staff.

The staff looked like an imitation of his metal staff, having a three pronged end with a place for a magic stone left empty. If I end up using this staff, I’ll need to get a big monster core and convert it to a magic stone, then put it into the slot that is there.

“Thanks for your hard work.” I thanked him as I received the staff. I knew it was one of the possible drops and I didn’t have one yet, so I’m somewhat happy to receive it.

“Hard? That was barely a warmup. You would need at least ten liches on that level to cause anything that could be considered ‘hard’. No, they would need twenty.”

“Well, you can always play with Master of Oz in the factory.”

“I shall. That beast will be a good challenge until Master gains one of my true rivals.”

“Ultimate and Shining?” I asked, referring to Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon, the two opponents Sorcerer of Dark Magic fought in the movie, Pyramid of Light.

“Yes, them.” Sorcerer confirmed.

“Brian, would it be possible to make those challenge rooms any easier?” Jack asked, as we were moving up to the sixth room.

“Probably not, why?”

“It’s just... that lich. It was a B-rank monster, I think. And fighting a B-rank solo would be something only A and S-rank adventurers can do. So the dungeon would be at least A-rank in difficulty.” Jack said.

“But the early floors are easy enough where just Ria and Alice can take them down. And Alice is D-ranked. Wouldn’t it be better to have the different floors at different difficulties? At least the first and second should be doable for D-rank adventurers. Then the third, fourth and fifth for C-rank. Sixth and seventh for B-rank and challenge rooms for A and S-rank? And the challenge rooms on the earlier floors should be easier.”

“Hmm. Well, we need to test out the other challenge rooms to find out.” Jack said.

“Are you sure? What if another lich appears? I can’t take on something like that alone.”

“Don’t worry. You can hold onto this.” I said as I handed him a spell card, which wasn’t in a sleeve. “Now I don’t want you to say it, but it is called Smashing Ground. Remember that. If you say that, the card will activate and it should kill any monster that appears in that room. Use that, unless you are 100% sure that you can take on the monster that comes to oppose you.”

Spoiler

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“... if you say so. You will help me if it doesn’t work, right?” Jack confirmed.

“Yeah. I will. Any injury you suffer, I will heal. I promise.” I don’t want to have anyone die, just because of a test. Especially when I could just order my Sorcerer to do it. Oh, he is keeping watch. As I have him here, I’ll keep him here until the time is up.

We watched as Jack entered the challenge room and I brought up the video feed again.

His opponent was a skeletal beast that I had fought before. A skeleton dinosaur. I think it is about C-rank, so Jack should be able to deal with it, even without using the card.

We watched as Jack fought against the skeletal beast, attacking with his huge sword, while defending with water magic. While he did hold his own, he did take a few hits from the dino’s tail. But they didn’t seem to do major damage, as Jack kept pushing and didn’t activate Smashing Ground.

Eventually, he got a good slash in, which hit the core of the skeletal beast, shattering it to pieces.

We watched as Jack walked out of the room empty handed. Well, he did hold his sword, but nothing new.

“What happened? Did you not get a reward?” I asked.

“No, I got one alright. It just isn’t an item.” Jack said.

“... then what is it?” Rayan asked.

“A skill. An extra skill. Called Card Summoner.” Jack answered.