The next day, Jim and his new team are at it again, though this time they were able to skip straight to the sixth floor. The new starting location was a two-fold benefit for them. First was the fact that they didn’t have to fight through the previous floors and especially the boss fight. When the main thing that drove them off last time was fatigue, the gain from skipping earlier floors, even if it was basically just a walk in the park at this point, was immense.
Second, and almost more important, was that they didn’t have all the previous loot with them anymore. Sure, Jim didn’t need tens of goat steaks himself, but the town was still a little too close to the edge for those at the top to feel secure. Of course, the actual weight removed by this isn’t all that much, the bulkiness of the whole affair made the fights a whole lot easier.
That and the way they were fighting had gotten better. The group still lacked an off-tank, though Doyle felt that while useful, it wasn’t completely necessary for a six person party. Still, he can see what Ally had been getting at.
Of course, the founders weren’t idiots so could see the problem as well. They just decided on a different solution. Though this mostly came from not having enough trusted people to fill out the roster. The classic adventuring team setup wasn’t a cliche for no reason.
As for Jim’s solution to this lack of an off-tank? Mobility. It was more tiring, but the charging cattle weren’t able to change directions. So, while the tactic took longer, it was much safer for the team to kite the cattle around. Though from Doyle’s point of view, the biggest advantage was that while it caused more physical fatigue, little to no magic was needed, which left Doctor and Zach at the top of their game.
Not that they didn’t use magic. In fact, Zach found it a lot easier to handle than the straight up fight. After all, you don’t need all that high of a wall or deep of a dip to trip a stampeding cattle if it happens right under their feet. Still, over 500 cattle and all the other monsters on the floor would never be an easy fight.
Today, however, they didn’t plan on it ending with just the day. Previous attempts at the dungeon had all been basically rushed, trying to complete it in time to be out by dinner. Partly because it was possible and mostly so the raw meat wouldn’t go bad. This time around, they had a solution for that problem.
Bundles of beef were all packaged up and a paper talisman like you would see in an anime were applied to the bundle. From the outside it didn’t look like much changed, but Doyle was able to tell the inside had been frozen solid.
Ally nodded at that and explained, ‘Dungeon variant freezing talismans. They probably bought them from the dungeon supply store as they are cheap enough, mostly because of them being dungeon variants. A normal talisman or scroll requires more than just masterwork paper to make as it needs to hold the power for the effect. These types of talismans get around it by requiring a very special environment to work.
‘Technically, that environment isn’t just found in dungeons, but any other examples are so rare as to be non-existent. Anyway, it runs off of the purified world energy you put out just like everything else in your dungeon. Within moments of them leaving the dungeon, the talisman will break from the cruft pollution. Also, they’re pretty limited so you won’t see someone chain casting fireballs with it or anything. That and I think the system we are under directly limits them to utility, anyway.’
Doyle could definitely appreciate the things, though he wasn’t likely to pick any of them up in the near future. Those most likely to die would also be the least likely to carry them. Though since the price for them is five or less coppers, it isn’t like he wasn’t ever going to see them.
That aside, there wasn’t much else to see. Jim’s team had taken the entire day to finish the sixth floor and so had settled down for the night. Doyle was slightly worried about this as they were blocking him from respawning the floor. A problem that would likely be abused later on. After all, without an instance to prevent it, someone could pay a bunch of people to clear the dungeon, leaving a person behind on every floor so a completely fresh group could just walk to the end.
A problem for the future and likely solved in the future as well when Doyle gets more instances to use. Though he admitted to himself that it was likely the instances would all end up being used on the first floor and every floor right after a boss.
Then Doyle ended up watching the party sleep. He didn’t mean to; it was just a task to do and his mind kind of went on autopilot like when he was carving things. Though this time he couldn’t entirely blame it on being a dungeon. Even in pre-system times, he would occasionally see something and blankly stare at it as his mind thought of other things. The only difference was this time he didn’t have other things to distract him from it.
So the night passed peacefully enough and early next morning Jim and his team can be found cooking a couple steaks they had saved in preservation boxes instead of freezing. They had enough rations of course, but preserved food was better kept for emergencies when possible. Then, with breakfast over and everyone well rested, they enter the seventh floor.
Right away, Zach feels something is off. The stone ceiling and how it almost seemed to be moving, the strange wailing and creaking noises in the distance, the heavy yet patchy fog, and the odd structures. All of it together weighed down on him, but there was more. A taste of strangeness that he had felt a little on the sixth floor, but oozed out of the seventh.
Then Zach took a closer look at the ceiling and realized it seemed to bend upward and away, how the floor beneath them seemed as if they were in a depression in the ground no matter where they stood. Not even the walls of the almost buildings around them felt right despite looking normal enough.
As the group moved further into the room and the floor and ceiling continued to bend upward around them, Zach was the first to realize part of the situation. “We’re inside a sphere! This isn’t a flat floor.”
The others had been feeling that something was off as well and only Doctor sided with Zach when he stated it was more than just that. Not that Jim dismissed his concerns. In fact, since both Zach and Doctor felt something was off, it was likely magical in origin. They just couldn’t do anything about it until it revealed itself.
That didn’t take too long. Zach, being mainly a nature mage, felt a need to be more connected on this floor and so had been running his hand along the wall. The wall was flat within reason; it was still a stone wall after all and it hadn’t been made perfectly smooth. Then his hand felt the wall pull away from him despite neither moving apart.
This gives Zach quite the spook, so much so he misses the assassin vine hanging out nearby that grabs him. He, however, wasn’t so shocked that he couldn’t trigger a defensive cantrip that hardened his skin. So while the vine got a good grip on him, he was still able to shout for help.
His barkskin spell almost didn’t last long enough. That almost was way too close for his taste. While he hadn’t been slacking off on getting his Constitution up, he was a back line mage. Though the problem this time wasn’t his spell. Well, his spell had worked exactly how he had wanted it to and that wasn’t enough anymore.
Jim had the answer, “That assassin vine was a lot tougher than the earlier ones.” Though he also had questions, “So Zach, why weren’t you paying attention? Going by where the vine had been, you should have seen it.”
Zach gestures, “Run your hand along that section of wall. That was what had distracted me.”
Jim raises an eyebrow, but part of why Zach was getting him to feel the wall was that he couldn’t really explain it himself.
Jim shrugs and gives it a try only to be just as shocked. The difference is that he has an idea of what is going on. So with great care he goes back over the section of wall, marking out the boundaries and dimensions of the strangeness.
When he finishes, Jim turns to the others and shrugs, “Well, we have a strange one. Not that we didn’t already know that, but this here is a section of warped space. I have no clue what that will mean going forwards except that we will need to be extra careful about any assumptions we might make when it comes to terrain going forward. This section might be small, but who knows what we might find later on?”
Zach nods as he takes another look at the warped section of wall. Just looking at it doesn’t show anything strange, but the hand can easily feel the difference, which gives him an idea. A crazy idea, mind you, but an idea nonetheless.
So after warning the others, but before they can stop him, Zach sticks his head into the area of warped space. Jim pulls him back and starts yelling at him for being a fool, but Zach waves it off. “Our hands went into the space no problem, while I admit there was a risk, it was well within reason.
“Besides, I had to see! And see I did. Because of how it is warped, the wall looks flat from the outside, but once you get past a certain point, it opens up. Though I think that might be partly the mind playing tricks on me. Far as I can tell, it probably should be a more gradual reveal instead of all or nothing.” Find the newest release on novel·fire·net
Doctor walks over and casts a quick diagnosis spell on Zach before shrugging, “Well you’re fine enough. As for what you could see? The way I see it, normal people like us weren’t exactly designed to deal with nonsense like that. Maybe a race that evolved on a planet that had naturally forming spacial warps could handle it better, but humans from this planet and our beastkin friends didn’t exactly have that to deal with. If anything, I doubt you will find any races who could originally deal with it because without magic this isn’t really normal for a life-bearing planet.”
Jim nods, “For all we know, the system might be buffering our minds so things don’t go out of whack. I could totally see something causing a person to lose it.”
The group continues to debate the subject for a while longer as they aren’t exactly in a rush and Doyle takes this time to ask Ally about it. Though her answer is simple enough. Yes, warped space can drive most mortals some kind of crazy, but no, his would not and that isn’t a system thing. Rather, unless he purposely tries to make it harmful, space warping is considered a part of the normal terrain and not a hazard.
Sure, people can still get hurt if they’re stupid, but the same could be said about a campfire a small group of kobolds might set up. It isn’t there to hurt, but if you step in it, well, that’s your fault.