My second life as a dungeon

We arrived at the area we were pointed to two days after the fight with the wolves with no other major issues, it took a further hour of searching around to actually find the portal into the dungeon. By the time we had found the portal it had just turned to dusk so we were all tired from a full day of walking and decided that the best course of action was to set up camp and then enter the dungeon in the morning once we were fully rested.

Once the camp had been set up everyone went to sleep while I was left on watch duty for the first shift. I had nothing better to do so I decided to double check everyone’s attributes, something that I could only do since I was the party’s official leader, as I hadn’t had a chance to after we had received our jobs. I was most curious about my attributes so I decided to check mine first.

I already knew what skills I had since the notification that told me I had reached level 5 had told me what skills I had received but I didn’t know where my attribute point went. The last time I checked my status I only had 14 in my Dexterity so it must have gone to that, it wasn’t that surprising as I did focus on the fluidity of my movements but I was starting to worry that my mental stats were being disregarded. As I made a mental note to do more mental exercises I moved on to Bill’s attribute screen.

As a ranger Bill used both her physical attributes and her mental ones so it was no surprise that her grades were evenly distributed. It was good to know that she had [Dark Vision] like I did so that if we were ever fighting in the dark I would be able to trust that we were seeing the same stuff. Other than that [Trueshot] and [Critical Strike] were pretty standard abilities for a new ranger to receive. Next was Shizu.

The first thing that caught my attention was [Nature’s acquaintance] as I had never heard of it before so I focused on it until another screen popped up that explained what it was. [This user is in tune with the nature surrounding them letting them have a slightly easier time getting fauna and even flora around them to do as they ask]. It seemed pretty useful in certain scenarios, although it wouldn’t have been useful with the wolves as I am pretty sure they were so hungry that they would have attacked us no matter what.

Since Shizu was a Druid they didn’t really need any physical stats other than dexterity so it was no surprise to me that they were focused on increasing their mental attributes while ignoring their physical ones, something neither I nor Bill could afford to do. [Minor Sense Life] and [Minor Nature Magic] they had already told us about so I moved on to Moso’s attributes.

Moso was the antithesis of Shizu, having high physical attributes and low mental ones, this was fine though as Moso was a Barbarian and didn’t need to worry about his mental attributes. [Taunt] I already knew about since he used it on the wolves but it turned out that the impressive cleave I saw was a skill, which didn’t take away how impressive it was at all. I already knew that his job had made his body tougher. I just didn’t know it was through the [Tough Skin] passive.

Now that I knew how everyone’s attributes had changed I was happy that I was ready for our dive tomorrow morning. It was good timing too as my shift was over so I woke up Shizu and then quickly fell asleep.

The next morning we woke up as the sun rose before quickly eating some rations that didn’t need cooking, packing up our tents and entering the dungeon giddy to get it started. We had all been in a dungeon before during our training but we had always been accompanied by a guide. This would be the first time we would be going into a dungeon by ourselves.

Just like the dungeon I had trained in the portal was an arch about 3 metres tall at the centre and 1.5 metres wide at the base, however this arch was a plain dark green indicating that it would contain a forest. Unfortunately it didn’t indicate what sort of monsters we would be fighting but just knowing what environment we would be fighting in gave us an advantage.

Since I was the leader I was the first one through the portal so that if something happened I would be the only one at risk. As I stepped into the dungeon I was suddenly surrounded by giant trees all around me, the only gap being an arch similar to the portal I had just walked through. Seeing that the room was clear of monsters I poked my head out and told everyone to follow me in.

As everyone came through I had a proper look around the room, it was pretty dark as the canopy was so thick that most of the light couldn’t get through, which made it feel reminiscent of the last lights of twilight before dusk truly started. As soon as everyone was through the portal we walked through the arch and into a path that was quite tight, forcing us to walk through it single file.

As we walked through the path I noticed a small catkin on one of the giant trees looking down on us, however I couldn’t get a good look at her as when she noticed me looking at her she was startled and scrambled to put the tree trunk in between us while still peeking around the trunk to observe us, which I thought was quite cute.

After barely a minute of walking we got to the room the path was leading us to, it was a grove about thirty metres across filled with slimes that were just bouncing around, not noticing us at the entrance. Everyone stayed behind me as I observed them for a few minutes counting eleven of them. They were quite slow and small, so they had to be low level, probably level 1 or 2, which made sense since they were just slimes and this was the first floor.

‘Ok, they look to be quite slow so I think Moso and I can just charge the close ones while you two make sure nothing can get at our flank.’ I said, only needing a few seconds to come up with a plan. Everyone nodded before getting into position and being as quiet as possible, one second everything was silent and then the next second the world suddenly exploded into action.

Moso charged into the room with a loud shout to [Taunt] as many of the slimes as he could. Just one step behind him I charged to the left of the room to join the melee. As I charged in, Bill let out a breath she had been holding as she let an arrow loose causing it to fly straight through a slime and into its core, killing it before the fight even started. Not wanting to be left behind Shizu snared one of the slimes with her signature vine before squeezing it until the slime burst, sending goo flying everywhere.

Only a few more seconds passed before Moso and I collided with the five frontline slimes, two were in melee with me while Moso took on the other three. Before we could do anything though the slimes simultaneously jumped at their nearest enemy. I quickly raised my shield to block one while stabbing the other one, using its momentum to make the stab hit harder, shattering its core.

Moso, not caring about defence, just swung his sword through the slimes so fast that if you blinked you would miss it thanks to the skill [Cleave], slicing them all in half in a single swing. Before the slime in front of me could try to get another hit I quickly swiped at it, I was too fast for it and struck its core straight on which instantly killed it. Looking around there were only two slimes left, Shizu and Bill having taken out another one each.

Moso charged at one and smashed it with the flat side of his great sword in an overhead swing, which was honestly a bit overkill for these weaklings but it got the job done so I didn’t mind. Bill then shot the last one as no one was close to it, her shot stayed true and hit the slime right in its core once again, shattering the core and ending the fight.

As the shards of the last slime’s core fell to the ground all of the monster’s remains disappeared to be replaced with loot. It wasn’t much, just a few tin coins and some crystal gems that could be sold to the Adventurer’s Guild when we got back to town. The whole fight had probably lasted two minutes but it still used up a lot of energy, so we took a minute to catch our breath and collect the loot.

After having our first taste of battle in a dungeon without anyone there to bail us out if we overstepped we all felt incredibly happy. If the rest of the floor was this easy then I had had nothing to worry about, I didn’t let it get to my head though and made sure to not underestimate the dungeon. It may have just been a bunch of easy slimes but there were so many of them that we could have easily been overrun by them.

After all the loot had been collected and we started to properly rest I had a look around the grove. It was still outlined by the giant trees but it had some smaller trees dotted around, each around 3 metres high at their peak, and a bunch of colourful flowers. It was honestly really pretty and if we weren’t in the middle of the dungeon then I would have loved to just spend all day here relaxing away from the sounds of a bustling town.

Unfortunately we had a dungeon to conquer so we couldn’t just stop to take in the atmosphere for long. Once we had our rest we exited the grove on the opposite side to where we had entered, walking for a little while until we came across the next room. This one was another groove but it was about half the size of the previous room, it had a plain wooden chest in the centre of it with a bunch of flowers surrounding it and a beam of light landing on it.

The whole thing looked cheesy and overdone to me but I am sure there are people out there that would absolutely love the sight of it. We couldn’t sit around admiring it all day so I approached it while looking around for anything that could be a trap. Not finding anything that would indicate it was trapped I told the rest of my party to stand back while I opened it.

Its contents weren’t that exciting, just 6 tin pieces, 5 bronze pieces, 2 silver pieces and a red potion, that, upon inspection, turned out to be a minor healing potion. I told everyone what was in there while putting it in my backpack, we would split the loot up evenly once we were finished to make it slightly easier as we would only have to split one big pot instead of multiple small pots.

Seeing as that was all the room had to offer we quickly went through the next path to another room. This time it only had six slimes, but as I examined them I realised that they were about double the size of the slimes from the first grove. They were also either almost completely colourless or a very dark blue, probably two different kinds of elemental slimes. ‘Looks like six elemental slimes around level five. Three of them appear to be Water slimes while the other three look to be Wind.’

I said as I walked away from the entrance and to the group, this would need a bit more planning, ‘It’ll be quite a bit tougher than the last fight but definitely still doable. I doubt any of us except Moso can take any of them out in a single hit so Bill and Shizu will both focus on attacking a single target together. Moso and I will distract the other slimes.’

‘Ok, that sounds good.’ Bill said trusting my leadership, ‘If you are happy with it Shizu, we will target the Aero slime on the right first so you two can focus on the slimes on the left.’ Shizu nodded in agreement as we looked at them. As everyone seemed happy with the plan we quickly got ready and, on my signal, started the fight. The first thing to happen was the wind slime Bill had pointed out was surrounded in vines to hold it still as Bill’s arrow pierced through it and hit its core, shattering it instantly. The arrow even kept on flying until it hit a tree and embedded itself several inches into the tree.  

As the frontline were charging at the remaining slimes the two wind slimes cast a single [Windblade] at me and Moso each, sending a thin slice of air that was about as long as my arm and practically invisible towards us. It was faster than I expected so I couldn’t get up my shield in time and was forced to dive forwards into a roll. I wasn’t fast enough and got hit by it but luckily it was mostly absorbed by my armour. I would have to be more careful next time.

On the other hand Moso, again not caring about defence, just ran through the Windblade tanking all the damage without even flinching. As this was happening two water slimes each sent two balls of water the size of a cannon ball at Moso. They shot through the air at tremendous speeds before hitting Moso squarely on the chest, he didn’t seem to even react as he just kept on charging at the slimes. I was starting to get worried that he wouldn’t be able to take all of this damage but I trusted Shizu to heal him if he got too low.

The water slime that hadn’t attacked Moso sent a couple of water cannons at Bill but she easily dodged both of them with a backflip. A second later I reached my slime before it could get another cast off and swung at it, however the slime was a bit faster than I was expecting so it managed to jump over my attack. Figuring that I wouldn’t be able to hit it by myself I discreetly signalled Bill to help me with a short whistle before waiting five seconds to attack it again.

As I expected it jumped over my blade but this time its path was intersected by a speeding arrow that went straight through its core like a bullet again. Although this time the arrow fell to the floor before reaching any tree. This had happened while Moso had been charging at two of the water slimes so he saw how fast they were. When he got to them he copied my swing making them jump over it. However, thanks to his high strength and decent dexterity, he was able to change the direction of his swing causing it to go through one of their cores and into the other ones ‘body’. Killing one and badly hurting the other.

As this was going on I engaged the final wind slime, this time bringing down my shield onto it so that it only had one way to go before swiping at it twice in quick succession, killing it quickly. Shizu did waste any time to use the fact that the injured slime had slowed down to ensnare in a cage of vines before finishing it off. The last slime was quickly finished by Moso charging at it and hitting it with enough force that it instantly shattered the core and sent goo flying all over the place and finishing the fight.

After the fight we had another break, but the grove was very similar to the first one so instead of taking it in I looked around the treetops to see if I could find our cute observer. I only had to look for a few seconds before I found her again, still up on a branch of another one of the giant trees. But this time I didn’t make it obvious that I had seen her so that she wouldn’t scurry off again.

She was too far away for me to tell exactly how she looked, the most I could tell was that she was a small female catkin with purple hair and fur. Once I finished picking up the loot that the slimes had left behind I gave up trying to look and just relaxed for the rest of our break before moving onto the next room.