Chapter 34 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

POV Val

I ran into cover. The rock was barely enough to keep me hidden, but I could feel that my stealth skill was able to make enough use of it. I looked towards the remaining quarry, a huge moose that had a defensive skill and a charge skill.

It was still quite far away from a mini guardian, but we had only just reached the 12th floor and hadn’t even been here for a month, so it was still a difficult fight. I aimed my bow and channeled my piercing shot skill into it. From years of training, my shot was on target, and I was able to do quite a lot of damage to the neck, but it wasn’t enough. Now the moose was looking at me and about to activate its charge ability.

I tried to hide once again, but my stealth skill failed. "Stupid moose, his vision is way too good." I tried to move away, but I was so tired, and my legs were barely responding. "Here, you stupid beast!" I heard Malcolm say, and I could feel a skill in those words. Thank God he was able to activate his taunt skill again.

I immediately turned around and started to shoot again, confident that the moose was no longer after me. If I would have been incorrect, I would’ve died. But I wasn’t and was able to start shooting. I did a little damage, making the moose bleed more and more. Agnes' magic missiles were doing good damage, and Malcolm was able to defend with his shield enough that we were able to put the monster down.

"That was way too close," I heard Malcolm say as he breathed heavily. Everyone else looked towards me, as I was the leader. "After the next tunnel should be the waystation. We should be able to rest as long as we need."

My words brought relief to everyone else and even to me. I’m pretty sure that the guy we bought the map from was reliable. Checking the drops, I saw that we got a whole rib side, which meant good eating today. But it also dropped a huge piece of leather.

I gave it to Agnes to check. After a 5-minute inspection, we saw that she started to smile widely. "The leather is definitely skill-enhanced." Those words cheered all five of us up. It will be worth so much, or it will be upgraded gear for one of us.

We left the room that looked like a forest clearing and entered the tunnel where I took point to look for any traps. Usually, there weren't any traps before waystations, but in this dungeon, you should always be careful. After a 10-minute walk, we saw the stone entrance of a waystation, and everyone let out a sigh of relief.

Usually, you should already be able to hear the people inside the waystation, but we were quite far away from the beaten path. So, when we walked inside, I wasn’t surprised when it seemed empty. I liked the atmosphere of this waystation.

Currently, it was like a picturesque forest scenery where one side of the room had a small stream running through it. Malcolm rushed to it and started to drink greedily. Every one of us followed with a little bit more dignity, but the water in Waystations was always the best.

Judging by the sunlight here, it should be around 18:00 up above. It was a nice touch that every waystation had the same time of day as outside. "OK, everyone, set up camp and we will rest here for at least a day, if not more. We have earned it. With the last drop, we can also feast on pristine meat today."

Everyone cheered at that and started to work, setting up our camping gear. I helped everyone else set up, and while others started to cook or just relax, I took out my maps and started to add more detail to them. After I did, I started to examine the maps for patterns, but I was interrupted.

"How are fine folks like you doing this beautiful evening?" a stranger's voice said, and everyone quickly gathered around the fire as we had practiced many times before. "Who are you? Show yourself!" I yelled into the room.

No one answered, and my mind started to run through different possibilities when an average-looking fellow, who looked like a swordsman, suddenly appeared about 30 metres away from our camp.

"I’m not here to hurt you," he said, with his hands lifted up and away from his sword. "Who are you and what do you want?" I yell back at him. "You can call me Syrup One, and I’m here with my party." I looked around and saw that there were four other people surrounding us, but none of them seemed to be paying too much attention to us and were acting quite casually. I still didn’t like the situation.

"If we have come into your territory, I apologise. I didn’t know that this area was claimed." My words didn’t have the desired effect as Syrup One started to laugh quite loudly. "You truly know much more than most who reach the 12th floor. But I guess you must if you have reached here. But I’m being rude; let me introduce everyone. That burly-looking fellow there is Syrup Two. And going counterclockwise, it is Syrup Three, Syrup Four, and Syrup Five."

My brain short-circuited for a moment. And why did every one of them greet us back as if those were their actual names? This situation was weird, but I was getting used to that in this dungeon. "We really aren't here to hurt you, but I do recommend scouting the waystation before you decide to camp," Syrup one said, but I still didn’t know if I could believe him. But before I could speak up, he continued, "I can still see the mistrust in your eyes; that is excellent. Tell me, do you have any desire to exchange ideas?"

Now, I wasn’t stupid. ‘Exchange ideas’ was a safe way to ask someone to join a dungeon guild without being compelled to tell the adventurers guild anything about it. "We are not interested, and once again, we apologize for coming to your territory," I responded.

I saw him shake his head; obviously, he didn't like my answer, but no one who had asked us on the 11th floor liked us declining. "I already told you that no one holds this territory, but I can excuse that mistake. We aren't asking you to join us, at least not like you are thinking; that was just a test to see how knowledgeable you actually are."

Now, I was quite confused as to what was happening. "There are more than just holders in this dungeon. Not everyone wants to be stuck to one area like yourselves. There are quite structured groups who like to move around, but they're also quite strict and usually move all together. We aren't one of those either. And of course, we aren’t the pathers or the speeders. We are something different," he said, now completely serious.

I knew who the pathers were; they were the people who stuck to the adventurer's guild recommended path. But who were the speeders? I think he saw my confusion, and I saw the disappointment in his eyes, so I quickly spoke. "Who are the speeders? I haven’t heard of them before."

A little bit of light returned to his eyes before he spoke, "Oh, perhaps you might know them as rushers?" Now, that name I did know. They were the crazy people who searched for the fastest path through the floor and then competed with others on how fast they could clear it. They also went through parts that required them to kill the mini guardians, which was quite crazy, as those monsters were really dangerous.

I nodded to him, which made him smile widely. "That's good to hear, but you are quite far away from the recommended path. What are you doing so far into the unknown regions?" That question changed the tone of our conversation once again, and everything got serious.

I was contemplating my answer when he once again spoke up. "Looks to me like you're hunting skill veins?" While I hadn't heard the term before, I instantly knew that he understood what we were doing here. My body tensed, readying for a fight, and I could feel how my friends responded to my action.

"Good, good," the man said, but when I looked around, he still looked casual, which confused me. "You have found quite a good one, but quite soon you will find that others are already here. And if you follow the skill vein even further, you will run into held territory, and quite close to a mini guardian."

That shut me up. Why would he volunteer that information? When my brain caught up to the implication, I winced a bit. I had hoped that not many others had noticed that skilled monsters appeared sort of like mineral veins, and in this dungeon, if a monster had a skill, there was a chance that it might drop a skill-enhanced material, which is quite an expensive drop.

"Okay, you passed the tests. I will be now completely honest with you; we have been observing you for a little while." That revelation shocked us. "Wait, while we were fighting?" I asked and got an affirmative back.

"Yes, you should be more observant in the future, but we had to make sure. We are more similar than you think. I’m pretty sure you know how special this dungeon is, but there is a need to exchange information and more precious resources with others. But not everyone does well in a structured group or wants to be tied to a single area."

"In fact, there are quite a lot of us who like our autonomy and freedom, but we don't like falling behind the other groups. So, we came up with a little bit of a different way to do things." He pulled out an object and threw it towards me, but he made sure that it landed a few metres away from me so I wouldn’t count it as an attack. "That item is an identifier. With it, you can get information from our network, sell information to it, and get news about pop-up exchanges that we organise."

I was going to reject that offer until the last point. Now everything clicked for me. Getting a piece of material that would help you upgrade the gear you currently have is an extremely rare chance, but if you could exchange with others who are doing similar things, well, your chances just got a lot better.

He was waiting for me to act, and after a quick look at my friends, I went and picked it up. The item was very clear about itself, like the gateway necklace. Binding to it would just make sure that no one else could use it, and it just stored a little bit of information that would allow it to identify who I was and who was the person who gave this necklace to me.

So, everyone would know that Syrup One was the one who recruited me. "It's so that if someone's a spy, the person who recruited that person will also be investigated. But now, I can explain everything more thoroughly. As a starter, in more populated waystations, you can find a member of our organisation by the red hat and a cut-up left sleeve."