Chapter 57: Vermins (2/2)
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”Hmm, how many floors does this one have?”
[Seed Grotto has been recorded to have seven, excluding the boss floor.]
”I see. I might as well go and see for myself then,” he said and refused the system prompt before continuing. While walking down the stairs, his HL abruptly ringed and a holographic screen with the caller was projected by the contacts. ”Answer,” he said and the call was picked up by Alexa.
Three names promptly slid into his vision's periphery. ”Hey, folks, I found something,” Allan's voice sounded. He had initiated a group call with the four of them through their HLs.
”What is it? A Dungeon?” Nyx's voice followed up as her name flickered on the projection.
”Not really. It looks like… some sort of ruins. My AI keeps telling me there might be something good in there but there's a sort of invisible barrier around it and it says I can't enter without being in a party of at least three people. Do you want to check it out?”
”Hm, where is it?” Flavia asked.
”It's straight to the East from where we took the Trial. If you go for about two miles, you should be able to find it.”
”I don't mind going there,” Nyx said.
”Neither do I,” Flavia conformed. ”What about you, Rakna?”
”If three is the minimum, go there without me. I'm currently inside a Dungeon and I'm not sure how long I'll stay here for.”
”A Dungeon, huh?” Allan muttered. ”How is it? Hard?”
”I can't draw any conclusions as long as I don't go deeper. Let's share what we found after meeting up. If you guys need more time, tell me. I'll do the same.”
”All right then. Teach, Nyx, I'll wait here until you arrive.”
”Understood. Give me five minutes and I'll be there,” Nyx said before hanging the call.
”It'll take a bit longer for me but I'll be there soon as well,” Flavia stated and also left.
”See you later, Rak.”
Rakna responded with a hum as he reached the fourth floor. ”Good luck to you,” he said and the group call was ended. His HL was turned off and he shifted his attention to the large creatures crawling on the ceiling and the walls with their hundreds of legs.
”Centipedes… Is this place just full of vermin like these?” Rakna uttered with some faint traces of repugnance in his tone. On the other hand, Pronos seemed to be completely revolted.
Then, instead of attacking, the long insects burrowed themselves into the walls by going through cracks in the ceiling. Their presence gradually lessened until even Rakna had to focus to just sense the general area they were in. A few seconds later, he sighed and drove Sonata inside the wall next to him without even looking.
A dying screech resounded through the stone and a greenish liquid, hemolymph, spilled out when he pulled his weapon out.
”This is starting to get bothersome,” he uttered and looked at Pronos. ”Little guy,” he said and simply pointed at the gaps that the centipedes had used.
Pronos immediately understood what he meant and quickly slithered up the wall. He headed for one of the cracks and a puff of purple smoke escaped his mouth as he gathered his mana. It only took him a few seconds before he released a significant volume of poison fog inside the hollow space behind the corridor's walls.
A minute later, the System notification appeared and the next staircase opened up. Then, Rakna silently continued the exploration.
The next three floors went pretty much the same way. The fifth floor was full of giant flying insects that were quickly dispatched after a use of the Cold Star Mist and Pronos' poison. The sixth floor had traps once again coupled with dozens of large ants.
But that still wasn't enough to stop Rakna who quickly proceeded to the seventh floor where every monster and trap was recycled to make one massive inclusive floor. This one took quite a lot of time compared to the rest, considering he wasn't willing to use too much power on them.
At the end of the day, he was overqualified for the normal difficulty of this Dungeon, and the fact that he had reached level 16 thanks to the Dreorins only meant that he wasn't even receiving any experience from it.
After forty minutes of trouble-free Dungeon exploration, he finally walked down the last staircase where the wide corridors he had gotten used to turned into a spacious dimly-lit circular room.
”Well, well, aren't you menacing?” Rakna spoke sardonically with his usual emotionless tone.
In the center of the room stood the boss of this Dungeon; a dark green praying mantis easily four meters tall with sharp-looking scythes and entirely black eyes with red dots in the center.
”Let's see if you're worth the time wasted.”