Chapter 151 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

Pov Carl

Ziiipe was busy doing her own thing, and I hoped that she was able to copy everything down before whoever guarded this place made their entrance. The stone structure continued to shake, but there didn't seem to be any reason for why it was shaking so much.

A particularly loud crack brought our attention back to the map. We could now see just above the floor a large crack that had formed and was widening.

There was something wrong with this scene, but I couldn’t put my finger on it until I saw the piece of stone between the floor and the rest of the structure move a bit, sort of like a tail. "Everyone out!" I yelled at the top of my lungs while moving to grab Ziiipe by her collar. "Hey, put me down!" Ziiipe yelled at me, but I didn’t listen.

We were about to get out of the structure when she yelled once again, "Faster!" I used one of my movement skills to get us out of there. A moment later, a tail made out of rock burst through the pillars, destroying the entire ground floor. The tail continued to whip around, but we were all out of its range and continued to back off toward the other side of this crevasse.

Fortunately, there would be enough space down here to fight, but it would be best to get out of here. I looked upwards and calculated how fast we could climb out, but by the time the tail stopped thrashing around, the cracking of stone got even louder. To our complete horror, one side of the tower continued to crack, revealing some sort of monster that was breaking free.

Soon, it was free enough that we could see its outline as it started to break itself free from the cliff and the tower while descending toward the ground. It looked like an overgrown lizard made completely out of rock.

Now, one side of the tower looked normal as there wasn’t that bulge in the middle. As soon as I came to that realization, the other side of the tower started to crack as well, revealing a similar monster.

The first one landed on the ground, shook itself, and then its eyes lit up with golden light. The light traveled down its spine, making complex symbols. The light continued to travel down its four legs, and when the light spreading ended, it roared out, causing a small shockwave.

"Carl, join me in distracting the first one. Vinny, Ziiipe, start attacking the other one before it gets free. Orcs, do you know anything about this enemy?"

I hoped that they did because these monsters felt really strong. They quickly answered that they hadn’t, which was troublesome. "I know what they are," Ziiipe said as she continued to fire her crossbow.

"Every crafter and, more specifically, artificers are forbidden to make constructs inside the dungeon. These constructs in front of us are an oversized version of one of the basic constructs new artificers are usually tasked to learn."

"Obviously, some idiot broke those rules, but I never expected that that simple design could be turned into something like this. These are usually used for noble children's toys that aren’t bigger than a shoe. Its weakness should be its eyes. The rock will also not crumble as easily and will mimic flesh quite well. I don’t know much more about them in the context of having to fight them."

It wasn't much, but that much information should be enough. Caspian was already defending and getting the attention of the first one. The second one was already missing its tail and one of its legs, but before they could do more damage, it finally was able to activate properly.

Immediately, its defensiveness shot up and, although each bolt buried deep into the creature, now it was barely leaving a mark.

I started to attack as well, and I was relieved to see that I was able to do some proper damage if I was given a good enough window to attack in. The orcs were in a defensive line but they weren't attacking, probably because this was still only our quest. They were, however, arguing with each other for some reason.

It was the 3rd dive that made me really start to hate this monster’s tail. It kept pushing me away too easily. So instead of focusing on the body or the head, I decided my first target should be to take care of this annoying factor. It attacked me again, but this time I didn’t back off; I simply dodged and delivered a huge overhead attack, cleaving through half of the tail.

It almost crushed me, as I had expected it to recoil in pain. It didn't seem to feel any pain. The next few moments were quite harrowing as the tail tried to crush me. With the deep cut, it didn’t move properly, which was actually an advantage for the monster as it made its movements even more unpredictable.

The problem was that we didn't have much time left before the other monster reached us, even with Vinny and Ziiipe doing their best to keep it from moving.

"We will help you fight and even escort you to the safe zones if you agree that the four other safe zones, the ones that don't connect to your home, will be my clan's right to claim," the Orc leader yelled out so we could hear him over the battle.

Caspian and I met eyes for only a moment before we yelled out, "Agreed!" It seems that not only we decided, but the rest of our party members yelled the same answer as well.

The next moment, the orcs descended on the other monster, but even for them, it took a while to whittle down the monster enough that they could strike a finishing blow on its head. Meanwhile, I had finally dealt with the tail that was so annoying and was starting to do proper damage to the monster itself. When the orcs joined our fight, it was over soon.

Their strength was monstrous, and when they started to use skills, the only thing that saved this monster from dying instantly was its ridiculous defenses. The battle altogether only lasted less than 5 minutes.

Without their help, I believe we still would have won, but it would've been a long and hard fight, and I don’t think I could have guaranteed that everyone would have survived, although we do have Sandy, and she's a miracle worker.

"What’s so special about the safe zone?" Caspian asked after we had gotten our breathing back to normal. The orcs looked at each other before one of them started to explain.

"They aren't true safe zones, but they are as close as this room gets. They are locations that are incredibly easy to defend, and there’s no spawning around them or in them. They are the safest places to build an outpost where you could bring members who are not that strong to survive out here alone or simply have a place where you can take a breather."

"I thought only the worthy can come here?" I asked the orcs. "You are offered the chance to come here if you're strong enough, but there are gateways in this room.”

“They have the same rules as every other gateway, although they are more limited as you can only connect them to one other gateway. It is dangerous to bring others here who are not strong enough to be invited, but it also gives them an opportunity to quickly gain strength."

"So, I guess the question is, did Ziiipe get the information down we needed?" Vinny said while looking at her. "Of course I did, although figuring out where we need to go next might be a bit harder."

All eight of us gathered around Ziiipe as she started to properly draw out the map, while the orcs consulted their own maps to try to figure out where we needed to go. Hopefully, we would be able to pick the right destination so we didn’t have to go to the four other ones, but we weren’t usually that lucky.