Lillene

Enjoy!

Shopping meant that Serenity didn’t manage to make it to the Guild hall until the next morning and then it was afternoon before he, along with Raz, Blaze, and Ita, entered the nearby dungeon. Riss, Legion, and the rest of the entourage were back at the market; Serenity was glad to be done. He could always visit in the future; the portal location meant it was certainly close enough to Earth for a day trip.

As it turned out, there were actually three dungeons relatively close to Tsallin. One was a simple combat area that specialized in orcs, or at least something close enough that the word worked: aggressive, primitive humanoids with a fondness for traps. The fact that they were generally about six to seven feet tall and tough with essentially no other notable variations from human meant that “orc” was as good a word as any. They weren’t really tall enough to call them “giants,” after all.

It seemed to be set up for Tiers one through three, with a difficulty that increased gradually as you traveled farther into the plains. It would make a good dungeon to test whether or not monsters would attack Serenity but not a good dungeon to actually delve; the rewards weren’t there. The dungeon didn’t have any real rewards at all, in fact, though there were some resources you could recover; it was the source for most of Tsallin’s iron and some of its bronze, in the form of mundane weapons wielded by the orcs. That was generally all you could actually pull out of the dungeon.

The second dungeon was the one Serenity and his friends had selected. It was a wider range, generally Tier Three through Six, since that was the planet’s Tier. The setting was a mana crystal mine, something that Serenity wasn’t certain existed in the real world; if it did, he didn’t know about it. Of course, there was no reason he would know about such a thing; he wasn’t a miner or an enchanter. He didn’t really care where his mana came from; in the rare cases where he did care, he’d carefully select the right type of monster to get a core from.

Unfortunately, all of the mana crystals it held were low quality, worse than a monster core of the same size. The mana crystals were mineable, technically, but cost almost as much mana to “stabilize” and allow you to bring them out of the dungeon as the mana they would later be able to release. As a storage mechanism, that was decent but not really worth much. 

Instead, the dungeon’s reward only came when you found mana crystals that were “already harvested” by the dungeon’s monsters. Some monsters would have more than others on them, but most of the rewards actually came from collection points. According to the Mercenaries’ Guild, it was fairly common for people to skip as many encounters as they could to get to those points, then try to sneak out. It wasn’t recommended, since it meant that a mistake or a bad injury could leave you with no safe way out, but it was still common.

The final dungeon was the one the lady at the Guild warned was truly dangerous. It wasn’t dangerous because it was overly difficult. Instead, it was dangerous because it was deceptively easy. It generated monsters of all Tiers from zero to six. Most of the monsters were weak and stronger ones started from the far end of the plains that were the last dungeon, but unlike the mines they didn’t stay there. Worse, they looked like all kinds of beasts and the visual indication of increased power was almost nonexistent. They didn’t hide their auras, but if you didn’t know how to check that, you didn’t know what you were facing. 

The setting didn’t help matters any. It was plains with various hidden features from tree-lined waterways and boggy areas to low hills and cliffsides that could reveal anything. The primary treasure found in that dungeon was plants that could only grow in high-mana areas, but higher-Tier monster meat was a close second. The chance to find truly valuable plants in an area that was only dangerous if you were unlucky drew in people all the time; more than a few were unlucky. 

Serenity knew his team wouldn’t have any problem with the monsters, but they weren’t set up to gather plants. While he was certain they could identify which ones were mana-rich, that was only one piece of what was needed. It was better left to the locals. The mine was definitely the best option.

When they got there, the dungeon was actually set into the side of a cliff. There was no clear cave opening; instead, this was obviously an instanced dungeon. Serenity glanced over the information on the dungeon; it was more limited than usual, but he could tell that he could ask for more if he wanted it. He didn’t see any reason to.

[Dungeon: Deep Into the Coblynau Mines]

[The Hidden Threat dungeon was created in a time of need to preserve the land it sits on, but that is not the entire purpose of its existence. It is designed to teach some of the less common dungeon features]

[Status: Active]

[Tier: Six]

[Maximum capacity per group: 5]

[Availability: 6 of 37 open]

That matched the information from the Guild. The miners were apparently coblynau; Serenity didn’t know what those were as distinct from any other tricky small cave-dwelling humanoid, but they were apparently miners. The one thing the Guild lady had mentioned was that they were vengeful; as long as you stuck to killing them, they’d fight back but they’d also let you retreat. If you started to abuse them or defile the bodies, retreat was off the table “at the minimum.” She wouldn’t say what else could happen, but Serenity could imagine all sorts of things, especially if the dungeon got involved as well as its creatures.

The existence of that sort of graduated response implied that there was a chance they might be able to get the coblynau’s assistance, but that wasn’t the goal of this trip. This trip into a dungeon was to find out how monsters in a dungeon Serenity had no connection with reacted to him. If they were hostile, it made things easy and would be a huge relief. 

If they were friendly like the demons on A’Atla and the monsters in Aki’s dungeon, he’d have to see how they reacted to people he was with; he hadn’t tested that on A’Atla, but the monsters in Aki’s dungeon seemed confused when he brought Rissa. Serenity had gotten the idea that, other than the kobolds, they’d have attacked Rissa if she strayed too far from his side.

The kobolds were simply unusual as dungeon monsters; they seemed to accept Rissa as “Dragon’s Mate” and were happy to see her. Since it wasn’t an instanced dungeon, there was every chance that they’d remember and be happy to see her if she went back on her own.

Inside the dungeon, Serenity left the others at the entrance while he went on ahead. It was best to find out on his own, and even a group of Tier Threes shouldn’t be a problem for him. He wasn’t fully Tier Eight in his Skills yet, but he didn’t need to be. He wore armor that anything at Tier Three would have a very tough time getting through, even if it was his own scales; at the same time, his manablade and ax were both strong enough to easily kill. Coblynau didn’t have especially tough hides or anything like that, so even his replicating knives would do the trick if he hit an unguarded spot; they simply wouldn’t penetrate armor. 

The sound of metal hitting stone was Serenity’s first indication that he’d found some coblynau. It echoed down the long tunnel and made it hard to figure out the origin, but there weren’t that many directions to check; this wasn’t a maze, after all. Serenity stepped around the curve without any attempt at stealth; the point here was to see how the monsters reacted, not simply to beat them.

The pause before any of them noticed him gave Serenity the chance to get a good look at the dungeon’s monsters. Coblynau looked like short humans. They definitely weren’t fantasy dwarves; there wasn’t a beard in sight. Either they were all clean-shaved or they didn’t grow beards. This group, at least, was dressed in what had to be sturdy overalls and work boots. Unlike real miners, none of them wore protective headgear; instead, they each had a small gray or black cap. 

“Invaders!” One of the Coblynau shouted after he finally noticed Serenity.

That wasn’t what the lady at the Mercenaries’ Guild had told them to expect; she’d said that while they did seem to talk, no one could understand them. The way most of the miners charged forward while two ran the other direction, probably for help, was exactly what she’d told them to expect.

It was not a fair fight. Serenity was able to slaughter them almost as quickly as they came at him; the wild pickax swings didn’t even touch his armor as he nimbly moved out of the way. The five miners that ran towards him fell in mere moments.

Serenity felt immensely relieved. The combat didn’t really help; it was barely even exercise. The knowledge that he could still delve as long as he made certain the dungeon didn’t in even a remote sense belong to him, on the other hand, was tremendous. 

Understanding the monsters when they spoke was interesting; were they based on something Serenity knew and the locals didn’t? 

Serenity wasn’t certain what language the coblynau spoke, so he had Aide play it back. He still understood the word, but he had no idea what language it was in. That was even more interesting. He had to have understood them because they were dungeon monsters. If he could speak to them the same way, he might be able to find some of the secrets some dungeons hid. He probably wouldn’t be able to find all of them, but even some would be valuable. 

Of course, to be worth anything to him they’d have to be more valuable than his portion of the tax revenue from multiple worlds, especially Earth. Lyka, Aeon, and Tzintkra all had things their Etherium could fund; Earth really didn’t, at least not yet. He’d have to find surprises in fairly high Tier dungeons, probably at least Tier Ten, before it made any notable impact at all.

Serenity looked forward to trying.

There was certainly no point in trying in this dungeon. It only went up to Tier Six and they almost certainly wouldn’t have time to get that high in it in any case; they were supposed to be back outside in seven hours so that he could meet Rissa for dinner. If they hurried, they might reach the Tier Five area; there was very little chance they’d get to the Tier Six area. That was probably just as well, anyway, since everyone else was lower Tier than Serenity. Blaze was well into Tier Four, which made him the second-highest in the group.

Serenity absently killed the miners’ reinforcements as they ran into the wide spot in the tunnel. If they wanted to throw themselves at him like idiots, who was he to deny them the chance to return to wherever monsters went when they died?

Serenity went back to the others and they continued forward. The Tier Three area was shamefully simple; the miners, while Tier Three, weren’t trained or skilled in combat. 

There was a big fight at the first collection point, just as the map suggested, but there were only two real surprises there. First, the cobelyn’s cap was red and seemed a little damp. Second, the red-cap knew how to fight. It wasn’t particularly good at it, but simply having the basics made it a tougher fight than the miners before it, especially since it could direct the miners in the room with it.

The Tier Four area was more of the same, but the groups were a little smaller and they all seemed to have a little combat training. The fight at the collection point was four red-caps and a couple of ordinary miners that seemed to have been there to drop off their mana crystals; they didn’t add much to the fight. Between Serenity and Blaze, it still wasn’t difficult.

At that point, they decided to turn around. There were no convenient dungeon exits and there was very little chance they’d make it to the Tier Five collection point before they had to turn around. As it was, they’d probably have an hour or two to spare before dinner, but that was all.

Lillene

I wonder how many dungeons Serenity’s going to run through while he’s off Earth? It probably depends on how much spare time he has; this one was easy to justify since he needed to know if he even could delve anymore, but he is on a schedule. It’s not a particularly tight one, but there isn’t really time for lots of multi-day delves.