Chapter 135 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

Pov Caspian

"Where are we?" I asked, no one in particular. My mind was still catching up with the fact that we almost died. However, I didn’t let my guard down. This place smelled different, even felt different than the dungeon rooms I was used to. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but at least we were safe for the moment.

My concentration was, however, broken when Ziiipe held out the necklace towards Carl. "I can barely hold it together," she said, and it was at this point that I saw the complete concentration she had and how a few drops of sweat were running down her face. The next moment, she collapsed onto the ground and as soon as her concentration lapsed, the necklace shattered into a million tiny pieces.

Our quest necklaces made a sound and I immediately looked to see what happened. It made me swallow the last bit of moisture I had in my mouth. This was bad.

Trapped in an unknown place.

Your group used a necklace you constructed from the blueprint you found in a ruin. The necklace design was already flawed and it broke as soon as it brought you to its designated destination. Look for clues and search for a way back.

Do so carefully, as you are in a place that will test you in more ways than one.

Make sure you don't wander into dangerous areas, as this place’s danger rating goes from 20 all the way to 30. Your quest will take you to places where the danger level could spike to 24.

As a reminder, not everything that lives here will be hostile; perhaps they could even be helpful, but that is up to you. Happy traveling.

There were three of us still conscious, and two of us looked questioningly at the one who should know what's going on. I saw Carl let out a tired sigh.

What followed was a short but unbelievable story about chance encounters and quests I never expected this place to have. Who would have guessed that the quests could be a lot more complicated than just, go and kill 10 of that kind of monster? I should have guessed from the coin quests alone that there should be more to the whole quest system.

We were simply too focused on getting to the front lines that we hadn't done proper research on what was behind us. "Do you know anything about this war business?" I asked Carl, to which he shook his head immediately.

"I have no idea what those madmen are about, but they seem pretty organized. One thing I can tell you is that no one needs to free this dungeon; it does whatever it wants to do."

Those words made me raise an eyebrow, but he didn’t continue to explain. This, however, was something I couldn’t just let go, but before I could ask anything, I saw him materialize his halberd.

I immediately got my shield up to defend myself against him, but he turned his back to me. "Something is in the forest." The fact that he turned his back on me made me immediately trust him a bit more. We readied to defend our unconscious companions.

From the forest, a mountain lion appeared—a mountain lion that was quite big, but that wasn't what worried me; it had green, moss-like fur. Well, perhaps I hadn’t done enough research in some aspects of this dungeon. I had memorized every creature, and this wasn’t one of those I knew. "Carl, do you know this creature?"

"No, and I know every creature." Now, while I might be confident in my memorization, the way Carl sounded made me utterly believe that he knew absolutely everything about every monster this dungeon had.

"Look at the grass," Sandy told both of us. As soon as she spoke, the grass rippled more, and vines shot out, trying to instantly wrap around our unconscious companions.

Sandy cast a spell that produced a mage bubble around both of them. The vines would have crushed through those bubbles in a few seconds, but I used my skills to make those bubbles stronger. My skills didn't help much; they were not intended for this purpose, but they bought us a little more time, and Carl made sure to use it well.

They both charged at each other, but the fact that the mountain lion was still alive after that crazy charge skill was a testament to how strong it was. It still only took Carl five seconds to end the creature. He really was good at dealing damage.

"We shouldn’t stay here; the teleport probably alerted a lot of creatures nearby. I can take Ziiipe and you, Carl, can take Vinny. Like this, we shouldn’t have any problems moving them away from here."

"Agreed, let's just wait a moment for this monster to be absorbed so we can get the loot. Who knows what we will need to survive here?"

It was sound reasoning, and I immediately agreed. But the seconds continued to go by, yet nothing happened to the body. Sandy was the one who had to go investigate the body that Carl was still next to while I stayed to look over our companions.

She laid her hand on the beast, or what was left of it, and immediately backed off. "It's not a monster, it’s dungeon-born." That meant there would be no loot, but instead, all of the monster's body would be available to be harvested if you knew what you were doing.

Dungeon-born creatures were incredibly rare and only wild dungeons had been reported to have some. But what were the chances that the first creature to attack us was dungeon-born? There had never been a report of a dungeon-born creature in this dungeon.

Before either of us could say anything, Sandy cast another spell that spread out into the distance. "No, stop, it will announce us even more," I tried to say, but it was already too late.

Carl, however, seemed a bit confused. "What is dungeon-born?" he asked, but before I could explain, Sandy gasped. "Everything around us is real; there are no fake plants, everything alive is actually alive."

It took Carl a moment to understand and probably to make the connection between dungeon-born and what Sandy said, but I was barely registering that. If before I was worried, I was now terrified.

Monsters are dangerous but not real. This dungeon’s monsters were extremely realistic, but the same monsters still acted the same way. This place where we found ourselves was more like the wilderness outside—aka the most dangerous place an adventurer could be.

It took all of us just another moment to process everything after which Carl ran towards Vinny, and I ran towards the Ziiipe. We needed to get the hell out of here, but then I remembered the quest. "What about the quest?"

"We will have to come back later; right now, we need to get out of here, and now," Carl quickly answered back. I did not argue. From the information I had, he was one of the more knowledgeable people about this dungeon, although perhaps none of our knowledge would work in whatever place we found ourselves in.

The next question was where to go. Our choice was made when we heard a loud and powerful roar coming from what I designated as east. All three of us looked at each other, and then I pointed in the opposite direction of that roar. All of us agreed, and we started to make our way away from this place. As we ran, I looked towards Carl and realized that he might not know who I was.

"By the way, my name is Caspian. I’m a tank, she is Sandy, healer and support." "My name is Carl, this is Ziiipe, her name is written with a Z, three I's, and an E at the end, but that is silent." I was confused about that, but Carl had a wistful smile on his face, so I thought it might be an inside joke between them.

"Anyways, having a tank and a healer is probably a good thing, as who knows how hard this quest actually is. And by the way, never completely trust the danger ratings. I do not know how they are calculated, but depending on your skill set, I know people who could easily go 5 danger levels above what they currently should be capable of and heard people die in places that should be easy."

I gave him a firm nod, but we then started concentrating on actually running away. I suspected we had plenty of time to get acquainted with each other. There was still one thing nagging at me, and that was one of the quest text lines indicating that we might find help in this place if we were open to it. What could that possibly mean?