James vaguely recognized them from the fight in front of the wall, and the Elite Drake fight.
One of their number, a dwarf in heavy mail, red hair and beard called out, “Hey, it’s James, the life of the party!”
They all took items out of their inventories to show they, too, got the rewards.
Janine and Nathan deferred to James on this.
“Hey, and thanks for putting your lives on the line for the Guild. It was touch and go there for a bit.”
“Aye, but a good fight and fantastic rewards. We’re on duty, but I suppose you and the surrogate guild leader can make an exception to the schedule. Especially as there’s not many people entering the dungeon lately.”
Janine spoke next. “Thanks Gimlek. We may be taking a slot, yes. I’ll sign off on it if needed. But it’s actually up to Ken here.”
“Something to do with that wyvern?” asked Gimlek.
“Yes actually,” Ken said. “Why?”
“Look, I do this job a bit. We dungeon guards talk. I heard from Tony from Team Larken, who’d heard it from another team, that Marcus and some fresh guildies had done a guard rotation one time. It was completely out of the blue.” He paused for impact, then continued. “They said that they’d seen a caged wyvern on the path as they’d come to change shifts. No one knew where it came from. Marcus never did another guard shift again. And now here you are with a completely obedient and cage-free wyvern.”
They’d all been listening raptly to the little story.
“I knew something wasn’t right!” James said into the silence. “The more I hear about Marcus the less I like him. He abused Charlie here too. Julie told me that he had been abandoned, left to die, survived, then Marcus attempted to trade Charlie in for a new pet.”
Charlie let out a growl in confirmation.
“Well, the wyvern thing was all about two months ago, way before the dungeon rose.” Gimlek finished.
Ken walked up to the Dungeon entrances. A look came across his face and he turned to the other entrance.
“I’m getting a prompt saying that for at least one of our team members, there’s an existing dungeon run in progress.” Ken said as an explanation. “Does anyone have a current run?”
“I don’t think so. Maybe the one we did before still counts?” James replied.
“Maybe… let’s find out.”
It was Nathan’s turn to interrupt, with a polite “*Ahem*”.
Edward sighed. “Nathan is politely indicating he would be happy to join us but needs a party invite.”
A moment later he received a notice.
Nathan Grant has been added to the Party
“Most gracious of you,” Nathan said with a slight bow to Ken.
Ken activated the light enchantment on his staff.
“Ready?” he asked.
James summoned Charlie and Squire via their cards, ensuring that they were buffed.
He then took out his crossbow, loaded it but left the safety on. He nodded.
Edward had his warhammer out, Nathan, his massive sword. Janine didn’t get anything out.
James did a double take, had he ever seen her with a weapon?
She smiled and raised her fists. In her grip were a pair of gold rimmed knuckle dusters.
Ken may have been the first in, but Janine and Nathan were hot on his heels. Everyone else followed quickly after.
They’d entered the second portal.
Crossing the threshold was as quick as blinking. One moment the air was mid-afternoon crisp outdoor smell, the next, it was thick with the smell of soil.
Ahead, beetles the size of basketballs, crawled along the floor towards them. Otherwise the room was stereotypical stone block dungeon walls.
System Notice - Dungeon quest in progress.
Existing progress achieved: Dungeon Level 5
Quest 5: Reach Dungeon Level 6
First-Clear Bonus Detected.
Janine called out. “This is the first level of the normal dungeon. We appear to be part of an existing run where the first level, and likely the rest to five, have reset. You three should be able to handle this without us. Ken, are we in a rush?”
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Ken shook his head.
“In that case we will let you take care of this.” Janine said.
Edward ran forward and started squishing the beetles with his warhammer, like whackamole.
Crawler Beetles defeated: 3/100
James motioned Squire, Charlie, and Vern forward while switching his crossbow for his new enchanted steel short sword.
Even Ken started swinging with his staff.
The beetles had mandibles the size of scissors, and they tried to clamp down on anything that came close, but they were far outmatched in both speed, strength, and level.
Vern was not fighting like a wyvern should. Most of her attacks were lunges and bites. There were a few times the claws came into play, but then awkwardly, like the limb was too long. She didn’t try to fly, hover, dive, or tail whip at all.
James started to use his steel short sword like a rapier, poking over and over again. He was trying to keep the beetles at stabbing distance. His face grew warm when he noticed the ugly looks that all but Ken gave him. They were wincing very loudly at his every movement.
He tried swinging it like a bat instead, but that got vocal winces instead. When he hurt his own leg in the overswing he stopped swinging it, and went back to stabbing.
Play Card: Quick Heal
Target:
Crawler Beetles defeated: 15/100
Squire started doing loot duty, in between savage claw swipes.
System Notice – Essence Stabilized.
Additional information unlocked:
Crawler Beetle:
- Category:
- Rarity:
- Aspects:
- Slots Required:
- Abilities:
- Traits: None
- Crafter:
- Size: ~ 60 cm
- Weight: 8 kg
- Level Requirement:
- Rarity:
James bound one, instantly summoning it next to him with no additional buffs other than the summoning enhancement of +2.5 to all stats.
The beetle was faster and stronger than its brethren of course. But it was its application of mind bonus, also called cunning for non-sapients, that was the most evident. His beetle used angles of momentum, flipping its foes on to their backs, before crunching down on vitals, not just the first part they could reach.
It was still far worse than even James.
Still, he considered using a hundred of these as a boosted force. It dawned on him that that was why he had an active card limit. Fortunately triggers, and enhancements did not seem to count against the card limit.
James bound another ten of them anyway so that he could experiment.
While he’d been contemplating this the rest of the beetles had been defeated.
Crawler Beetles defeated: 100/100
Bond Progress Increased – Vern: +10%
Fighting with Vern was having the Bond progress he had hoped for. He contemplated bringing Nimbus out but decided it would be abusing the party's tolerance. Nimbus was not a war horse.
“Can I do the looting?” he asked.
Edward and Ken nodded.
“You have the biggest inventory, and frankly the better looting options,” Edward said.
“You have a looting ability?”
“Of course,” Edward said, again giving that look that indicated ‘how do you not know this?’
He continued. “Without a card, we can’t bind. Harvesting options only appear with the relevant crafting unlocks.”
James decided to harvest the rest.
Harvesting Level 1 Crawler Beetle ×89
Crafting Material Obtained:Basic Beetle Essence
A new card shimmered into existence in his deck
Resource Card – Beetle Essence (Basic) Type:Quantity:
The floor was cleared of Beetle corpses in a wave of small bursts of light.
James pulled out treats for his bond companions. He’d resupplied his beef jerky supplies at a store along the way. He now gave each of them a strip each.
His beetle was dead as well. Edward had killed it in a case of friendly fire.
He waited, but there was no system notice.
“Normally you would get a notice of completion, along with a small boost to experience gains,” Janine piped up helpfully.
“The next level entrance is over here,” she said as she walked to a set of stone stairs going downwards, built into the wall. “You should be able to handle the next couple of floors without guidance, and floor four and five with it. From there, we will need to participate.”
“Are there any secret rooms or hidden chests?”
Janine hesitated a moment before saying “Yes, but not on this level.”
They descended the stairs, double file, with Janine and Nathan in front, just in case of surprises. There were none, so they hugged the stair wall, letting Edward take the first “triggering” step of the next level.
This level’s enemies were also beetle based, but far worse. Dung beetles.
The smell of dung was everywhere.
The plan was much the same, except now they also had to avoid giant rolling dung balls. Their carapace was slightly tougher too. Not enough to stop James’s enhanced sword or any of his bonds.
Given Ken’s healing, anyone that did get hit was quickly brought back to full health.
Dung Beetles defeated: 10/100
Edward,
“Hell Yeah!” Shouted James among other shouts of congratulations.
Edward pulled out of the combat and went over to where Janine and Nathan were.
James was too busy fighting to pay attention but after general back thumping Edward was left alone to level.
James drew closer to Ken to allow his bonds to cover him as well.
Even without Edward, they had no issues dealing with the beetles, despite the large quantities. They weren’t very fast.
When Ken also shouted, “LEVEL UP!” James summoned three Crawler Beetles to help.
“Booyah!” James shouted.
James was starting to get surrounded when the numbers finally dropped down to ten.
Crawler Beetles defeated: 90/100
He counted them down as his blade pierced through carapaces, over and over again.
Eventually there were none, and he still hadn’t leveled up.
Crawler Beetles defeated: 100/100
Bond Progress Increased – Vern: +10%
He’d put off the looting notifications for after battle this time.
System Notice – Essence Stabilized.
Additional information unlocked:
Crawler Beetle:
- Category:
- Rarity:
- Aspects:
- Slots Required:
- Abilities:
- Traits: None
- Crafter:
- Size: ~ 70 cm
- Weight: ~10 kg
- Level Requirement:
- Rarity:
James again bound ten for experiments.
He was curious about looting, but everyone said he was not likely to get anything decent, even with combining loot in one go.
Harvesting Level 2 Dung Beetle ×90
Crafting Material Obtained:Beetle Essence (Basic)
He now had a lot of basic beetle essence.
Janine walked over to where the Dung Beetles had been getting their “ammunition” from.
She plunged her hand deep into it and pulled out a small chest, dropping it to the ground near the entrance steps. She then got out a card and pressed it to her chest. A wave of crystal-like liquid crawled over her, cleaning as it went.
James stared in wonder.