“Alright, we’re here.”
Aidan said with an enigmatic tone to cheer up the mood around the party, arriving at the entrance to the Crystalfang Dungeon.
He had seen the archway entrance more than a couple of times already, so the novelty wore off pretty quickly. However, this time was a little special as he looked back at his group, with a new member added in.
Nina looked on with a contemplative stare as always, dressed in her leather attire and cloak as though it was her lifeline. She looked like she barely packed for what would be a troublesome dungeon run, but her spatial bag more than made up for it. Haley and Van were also well-prepared, with Van’s newly acquired spatial bag proudly holstered on his hip.
Of course, Aidan had his own, prepared and prepped with his own materials and plenty of resource balls to use for crafting. And that wasn’t all. He had plenty of other supplies in stock, all for the sake of diving through the dungeon.
Because the plan was to get to the latest floor of the dungeon to rack up as much experience as possible, and this time, it won’t be just for Aidan.
As for why Nina was here, it was rather simple. Her plan on finding more people to help defend the city went utterly moot when none of them replied favorably, which is what Aidan would’ve expected from gang members and thugs in a pretty cutthroat society. Having decided to bet on no one else but Aidan, she decided to see how well Aidan could handle running through a dungeon mostly on his own.
That raised the question of why he brought the entire party with him. Needless to say, it was better to have some people around him when he’s trying to improve himself to be good enough for the threat that would arrive.
And the best way to do so is to head into the deepest layers of the dungeon and rack up some levels for improvement. On the way, he might as well help the others gain some levels as well.
In the end, he still wasn’t sure whether they would be strong enough for the demonic threat that would arrive. His vision felt distant since he last saw it, but he could still feel the sheer dominance the demon showed in his vision, proving that it was coming to destroy everything in sight and take as many people with it as possible.
By the way, despite the fact that this was still considered to be Red Riot’s territory, there wasn’t a hint of their members skulking about. That was how he knew that the Red Riot were too busy handling their own shit at the moment to even pay attention to the literal moneymaker they took control over. During that time, Aidan took all the advantage he could while the dungeon was practically up for grabs.
Soon enough they entered the dungeon, once again surrounding them in another layer of a different soul compared to the outside of the dungeon. He still felt like he was entering into a different body every time he entered, though it looked like he was the only one that felt that way.
“And we’re back here again,” Haley muttered to herself, adjusting the armor plates before unholstering her bow. She fiddled with the string. “I still feel like I’m out of my depth here.”
“Just stay behind me,” Van said. “Or rather, just leave it all to Aidan. I’m sure he can do everything by himself at this point.”
“Looks like you rely on him a lot,” Nina spoke up, which actually got Van to almost shiver at the reply. He managed to calm himself before she continued. “Exactly how strong are you now? This time I need to see it with my own eyes.”
“I learned a lot about myself through the past week,” Aidan said with confidence, stepping forward in the lead. “And I figured out some tricks to make things easier for traveling through the dungeon. Haley, let me know if you spot anything ahead of time.”
“Gotcha,” Haley answered with ease.
“Alright. Step back everyone.”
When the group did so under his orders, Aidan opened up his spatial bag and five swords floated out to the air. Each one carried themselves with ease, staying aloft before Aidan gave the mental command to let them do as they please.
His Soul Meditation activated in the back burner through his Multicast skill, driving the swords upwards and out into the air, separating into separate directions apart from the party. One stayed behind, which Aidan took into his hand. There was a reason why he didn’t just let all five swords out at once.
He recognized that he could actually expand far better with Sense Vibrations if he had several points acting as receptors throughout his perception field. With the swords acting as relay points, he can then send a sensory check through his main sword, which was connected via his Soul Meditation, then it would connect to the other swords flying out in different directions.
That allowed his Sense Vibrations to expand on a far deeper level, to the point where he could actually see the areas even if he had never really been there physically. That did send some minor headaches from all the sensory overload, but he could basically leave them on auto-pilot to search only for living beings within the floor.
Thanks to that, he pretty much got a good grasp of the entire first floor of the Crystalfang Dungeon. With his little technique, he saw various monsters living out their dirty lives within the dungeon. When he spotted some Hell Bunnies on the side, one of his swords went in for the kill, instantly killing the few and leaving them scattered and broken in bloody bits.
The rest of his swords fared just as well, tackling any monster that they came across. Before he realized it, a steady stream of experience points was hitting his way, all the while his party just waited behind him, expecting something to occur.
“With that, the first floor is in the clear,” Aidan said with a grin. “Anyone wanna tour around the first floor, see what’s interesting to take?”
The three sent him weird looks on that, but when Aidan did as he promised and led them around for the first few minutes, it was clear that they noticed the change immediately. Dead monsters lay around behind corners and from hidden areas, which prompted the party to go around at their own pace with not a single hint of worry in their eyes.
“You really took control of the first floor…?” Van asked in stunned surprise.
“I can see one of the swords just flying around above,” Haley said, her head lifted upwards with a gaping mouth. “I feel like we’re doing something illegal here.”
“In a way, it could be,” Nina said. A smile was plastered on her lips throughout the venture. “Taking advantage of an entire floor and keeping everyone out is genuinely a great way to deprive the city of its monster materials. Quests put up by the guild wouldn’t be completed as adventurers wouldn't be able to kill the monsters fast enough for them to collect. In fact, this is exactly how Red Riot usually do this; but to do it all with just one single person is… unexpected.”
“That’s also the method that popular adventurer parties use, at least ones in the higher ranks,” Van explained. “Only in smaller places like certain sections of the forest, or at a small part of the mountains. They would crowd around a popular spot with monsters that the city would want their materials the most, and cultivate a farm there to keep reaping the benefits.”
“So,” Haley asked. “Wouldn’t some of them come around if they find out Aidan basically stole an entire floor from them?”
“I’m not gonna do it for long,” Aidan said. “Plus, these monsters are barely doing anything for me anymore. Actually, if you want, there are some Cave Dwellers not too far from here. About a few miles in the west of here. You guys want some action and get some experience?”
The floor was large enough that Aidan didn’t have to worry about sharing experience with his party. He was already getting a decent enough number all on his own from farther away, where it would actually be a waste of time for them to travel to when they can just head directly to the next floor. Hearing that, Van and Haley were more than ready to get some experience points to level up as they followed Aidan’s instructions.
Sure enough, there was a group of dwellers standing by. They didn’t look anything out of the ordinary, and once Aidan made sure there were no surprises hiding around them, Van and Haley took it upon themselves to take them out swiftly with their empowered equipment.
This time, Aidan went and used Infuse on their armor to give them a decent boost in resilience and defense, allowing them to fight with ease. Even when the dweller hit them straight in the chest, it barely shook them off their feet, let alone actually damage and take any health points away.
In a matter of minutes, against the siblings’ almost invincible state, the dwellers were taken down and their corpses looted cleanly and without issue. They continued doing this kind of routine, with the siblings handling the monsters nearest to them while Aidan continued killing as many monsters as his swords could lay their blades on, before they eventually faced the stairs leading down to the second floor.
Just as quickly, a notification was sent to his vision telling him that they had arrived on the second floor.
You have entered the second floor of the Crystalfang Dungeon. Level Recommendation: 10-15.
As before, Aidan pulled the swords out and sent them off throughout the floor, bringing his Sense Vibrations to life as more of the floor became visible in his mind.
Unlike the first floor, the second floor was a lot larger in scope, which made Aidan truly wonder exactly how this dungeon is placed within the city’s range, or the country itself by this point. That’s when he remembered at one point about reading from a book how dungeons often dip their toes in spatial expansion, something that may seem expansive from the inside but isn’t really that large on the outside.
When he started thinking that dungeons were somewhat similar to spatial bags, all of his burning questions seemed to cease at the layout of it all.
Makes sense since the dungeon feels like a living thing on the inside. Maybe we’re in its stomach that is spatially expanded or something.
Again, the idea of being inside of a living creature made him feel a bit ill, but considering nobody died just by diving down through the dungeon was enough to set his mind at ease.
When the party kept moving along the pace, trying to head towards the official third layer of the dungeon, Aidan spotted the very same entrances they disappeared into to get away from the Dweller Prime.
Just to check, he sent one of the swords down into the pit, and his mind instantly noticed the sheer depth of the hole that kept going further and further down into the darkness. If Aidan wasn’t careful, he could actually find himself hitting against a wall from how far he focused into the deepening pit below.
Eventually his sword managed to find itself at the underground river where they landed before. He later relayed its location to the other swords, giving him the information that the sword was actually quite a few floors down in an adjacent branch of the caverns. His head was starting to ache from the sheer distance his sword was at, so he decided to keep things simple and brought his sword back up the hole and returned to the second floor before long.
When the others started to question why he was taking so long to answer, he explained what he just did, making Haley look rather pale while Van seemed to be deep in thought.
“I-I can’t believe we actually survived that fall,” Haley muttered. “If what you said is true, we would’ve died on impact if it was the ground…”
“We’re not going down that route again, so don’t worry,” Aidan said to appease Haley. When Nina looked at him questioningly, he explained what happened to them that caused them to jump into the pit in the first place. She didn’t seem all that surprised, though her soul seemed to rise in curiosity like any person would be. “It’s going to be quite a while before we find the third floor. Anyone wanna rest up?”
“I’d like to have a meal,” Haley instantly said, Aidan nodding in approval.
“You sure we can do that? The second floor has some pretty high level monsters and–”
“And none of them are any problems, don’t worry,” Aidan said to ease Van’s concerns. “I’ll be taking care of the more annoying ones myself. Then I’ll let you guys handle the easy ones.”
“I kinda feel like we’re being treated like children…” Van said.
“Hey, he can treat us like kids all he wants!” Haley said, slapping Van’s arm softly. “Come on, I’m starving!”
“You’re taking this situation too casually,” Van uttered, but in the end followed Haley who in turn followed Aidan’s lead on finding a small place to camp out for the short duration on the second floor.
Once they established a small camp and made their preparations to make a decent rest, Aidan kept an eye on his relay swords and kept tackling any monster they came across. Unlike the easy targets on the first floor, the monsters in the second floor were decent in combat and managed to survive the first few stab wounds inflicted by the swords’ ambush attacks.
That’s when Aidan pulled out his Multicast’s specialty and used Craft via his swords to disrupt the monster’s pacing and flow and instantly kill them with a well-timed strike. Just like that, the monsters died left and right across the second floor, giving him more than enough experience for the next milestone.
Level Up! From Level 19, you became Level 20!
You have gained:
+1 Free Attribute point
+3 Free Stat points
+1 Intelligence
+1 Toughness
+1 Dexterity
+1 Vigor
…..
You have reached level 20. Here are the choices you can pick from:
-Magic Bullet
-Flame Whip
-Glacier Spike
-Hurricane Thrust
-Earth Stomp
-Split Mind
Once again, he was surprised by the list of abilities he could learn this time from his Mage Class. It reminded him of his choices back at level 10 when he saw the list enlarged with elemental named abilities again, but they seemed grander as if they got upgraded.
Magic Bullet, according to the description, is a faster and more piercing-focused projectile-attack that is faster than Magic Arrow, making him wonder if, as long as he didn’t choose this particular spell, the Class would just give him better and better options to choose from in the later levels. Once again, he had his Craft spell that can easily make up for the fire power, and if nothing else, his first offensive Rend spell can easily make up for the lack of power.
The four elemental abilities seemed like upgraded versions, such as Flame Whip which is a stronger spell than Ember Shot, allowing him to make a whip made entirely of flames to attack anything and even wrap around it for continuous damage.
Glacier Spike is a projectile based attack that launches a large ice spike at enemies. Hurricane Thrust creates an air shot capable of launching a powerful attack at the cost of a slow buildup, and finally Earth Stomp which basically commands the earth to create spikes that can target his enemies from below.
All of which could be easily replicated with Craft, which really made him think that his Craft spell was severely overpowered right from the get-go.
The only thing that took his attention for the choice to make was Split Mind. Reading the description, he wondered if perhaps his Class somehow knew of his incoming struggles and actually made an ability suited for him.
Split Mind (Copper)
Enables your mind to expand by adding in partitions that increase the accuracy and efficiency of your thoughts when casting spells. Allows you to easily cast more spells at the same time at a slight cost of more mana spent. This ability can be turned on or off depending on your preference to keep casting spells on demand.
Mana Cost: Up to 5 mana every minute during Split Mind
A severely useful ability for potentially any Mage in Aidan’s guess, at the cost of a low mana burn during the activation. He supposed he can’t imagine anyone casting multiple spells at once considering they still needed to spend mana for their spells, but for someone like Aidan who can easily command and control his swords with the use of Soul Meditation, this would be extremely valuable to have on his kit.
He chose it immediately, and soon activated the effect of Split Mind. The earlier headaches and confusion he often had when using his sword relays dramatically decreased. It was as if he was seeing a map in front of his eyes, his swords slowly expanding onwards and making it clearer for his mind to see the floor for what it is.
He decided to change his mind and sent one of his swords back down into the pit now that he has Split Mind, and after a few minutes of wandering, Aidan chuckled to himself as now the distance barely seemed like an issue at all.
“This just keeps getting better and better,” Aidan smirked, catching the attention of Haley who was handing him some dry jerky and water to drink. He accepted it gratefully, his mind preoccupied with the swords creating chaos all around them.
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