"This place is massive..." Lydia mumbled as they entered the first dungeon they found on the route they chose.
It was incredibly dark. They would have had a hard time seeing what was going on if they didn't each have a kind of night or dark vision. Unlike the gate they used to enter, the hallway behind made them feel like ants.
Compared to the dungeon, the gate was like the hole of a mouse in the wall. Was appeared before them was reminiscent of a hallway in an ancient castle, lined with columns as high as high risers and just as thick.
The floor tiles were bigger than the size of a tennis court. It was just a hallway, but it wasn't hard to believe it would have its own microclimate.
"What is this? A castle for giants?" James exclaimed.
"Maybe we should start looking for the golden harp and the goose that lays golden eggs?" Jess joked.
"I don't get that. How would you know that they have a golden harp?" Azul asked confused.
"On all my travels, I never came across something like a goose that lays golden eggs. There are some legends of birds laying golden eggs, some types of Rocs, griffins, and Phoenixes, but a goose?" Duhu also couldn't quite follow the joke.
"It references an old Fairy Tale. It's about a boy who finds a castle of giants in the clouds and steals their treasures after they try to eat him." Ferdinand, team 3's healer explained readily.
"Oh, I see." the chimer answered surprised.
"The people of Urth are very imaginative. A goose that lays golden eggs," the Tigerman said shaking his head amused. still stuck to the golden goose, ignoring the talk of a castle in the clouds.
"Look out for the gaps, they are pretty wide," Lydia called their attention back to the situation at hand. The gaps between the massive tiles were big enough to fall into. If they were not careful, it was possible to lose their step.
"What monsters do you think this place holds?" Faenys asked vigilantly.
"You guys should look up, I think the first enemies will be giant insects," Archibald, the Archer, pointed out to them. Looking at the ceiling, they saw massive spider webs and big fat lv.92 spiders sitting in their midst. They looked no weaker than the creatures the Hive threw at them as their Elites.
"Insects again!?" Jess cried out exasperated. It had already been a burden on her mind to fight the Hive, she had more than enough of facing giant invertebrates. They suddenly heard a cracking and slicing from behind, followed by a notification.
<Ding! You killed Giant Cockroach lv.89. Experience gained.>
Everyone turned around, seeing Duhu with a disgusting yellowish liquid dripping from his axe. The tiger stood above the corpse of a roach the size of a tower shield, he had hacked in two.
"Be careful, this thing slipped just out from the gap behind us." He warned everyone.
"Oh, heck no! I'm out. I'm not gonna stay in this place and fight giant roaches!" Jess proclaimed squeamishly.
"Calm down, Jess. It's okay. I'm not letting them touch you." James calmed her confidently, lifting the Shield of Cerberus.
"Ugh, I know, but still... Can't we just look for a different dungeon instead?"
"No, we can't." Lydia shot her down. "Look at this place. This is just the first floor and the mobs are already in the early level 90s. It's exactly what we have been looking for. I doubt we will quickly find something better fit for our level range;" Lydia explained her decision.
Jess could only nod unwillingly.
"Don't worry. You don't have to fight the roaches. You, Azul, and Archer will aim for the spiders above. The Vanguard will make sure nothing that comes out of those gaps will surprise us." Lydia gave her orders.
She, Duhu, James, and Faenys faced the four sides, while Jess and James started casting. Archer immediately started firing. Unlike Lydia, who was chosen by Wepwawet a god with several aspects, Archer was chosen by Satet which made him a Divine Archer.
He had gained some AOE attacks, but his skill set was more focused on single powerful shots across a far distance. He was a sniper, so this was right up his alley. Using one of the core skills as a chosen, he summoned the weapon of his divine sugar daddy.
Right, unlike Lydia, who got materials, he directly got a skill to summon his own weapon. Not only were his arrows now imbued with the powers of Mable, they were also imbued with some non-specific divine power that increased damage against undead, dark, cursed, and demonic beings.
The power also increased the speed of his arrows and could make them really flashy. As the only ranged member who didn't have to cast, his arrows instantly started shooting toward the spiders in the nets above them.
It quickly showed, that the spiders were just waiting for them to come closer. The moment they started taking damage, they started to rope down to fight them on the ground. Taking into account the darkness inside the dungeons, it would have been a horrible experience if they had not known of them.
Walking through a wide hall of stone, not being able to see anything. Constantly being harassed by giant insects coming from the gaps in the floors and then being suddenly surprise-attacked by an unknown number of giant spiders from above. It just showed how important it was to be able to deal with darkness first and foremost.
This way, the situation had completely changed. While they could directly slay the creatures from the gaps, the spiders were just targets. Even if they started coming down now, they were helpless against the lightning, and Arrows.
The biggest frick you to this whole dungeon strategy was Jess. She was already nervous and pissed, so there was nothing holding her back. With the Torch of Hecate, her fire magic was not just tremendously strengthened. She also had Double Cast, like Seth, and could imbue the curse attribute into her magic thanks to Seth's demonic enchantments.
There was no escaping her storm of fireballs. The Nets above went up in flames like tinder. The spiders were first cooked in a sea of demonic fire before the floor under their feet was literally burned away and they took the over 100m dive to the ground. If they were still alive after that, the party did them a favor by ending their life.
In the meantime, Duhu, Lydia, James, and Faenys guarded the four directions. Two of them were chosen ones and all four of them had legendary items. The insect around level 90 died the moment they showed their faces, except when.
"Why didn't you kill it yet?" Lydia asked Faenys, looking at the massive centipede squirming on the ground. It had no outward injury, but it was probably caught in an illusion of fear the chosen of Phobos had cast on it.
"I feel a little bad killing it, since it looks like Puffles, don't you think so? They could be distant relatives," she mumbled embarrassed.
"You better hope Puffles never hears of this. Otherwise... I might have a team member less in the future. Put away those stupid thoughts and end its suffering already."
Faenys bumbled for a moment longer, shrugged, and sliced the centipede apart with her marvelous, magnificent, mad Yatagan Mim. Her powers as a chosen and the cruel notions of the weapon perfectly complemented each other.
The party kept working their way down the hallway. For a long while they were no doors branching off until the hallway finally came to a crossing. The was a massive door to the left, a massive door to the right, and a flight of stairs in the front which they could either follow up or down.
It was not just a giant dungeon, the floors were also not in a specific order.
"Where are we going? Down, up, or do we stay on this floor?" Lydia asked the team.
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