Chương 54: Fluffy Puppy

You have now entered floor one of The Caverns of Ignistone | Difficulty: Initiate | Danger: Reasonable-High The transition is instant, one moment I am on the comfortable floor zero, and the next I can feel an oppressive heat bearing down upon me. Glancing around, I realize I am alone in a large room made of reddish rock. A small river of what I think is molten rock runs nearby, and the room just has the feeling of a volcano. Not that I have ever been inside a volcano.

But from the stories I have heard, that is probably the best way to describe where I am. Dungeons tend to have a theme, in this case, its fire and lava and other such nasty things. But no matter, I will conquer it nonetheless. Right away, I pull Luma into the phylacter to keep her safe and then let Dovey out of the phylactery.

"Why the fuck is it so hot in here?" Dovey says, and a chilling breeze fills the air.

"Much better."

"So wait, just how much stuff can you do with that air magic of yours? Just how many tricks are you hiding away?"

"I would never hide such things from you, master. But honestly, I don't know, my magic is not yours, with all of its spells. I am freer, one with the wind, so I guess my tricks are as limitless as the air itself." Dovey says, and then flies off down one of the tunnels. When I hear him scream, I start running. The moment I round the corner, I feel a wave of heat hit me as I am surrounded. I bend over a bit, and feel the flames as they wash over my armor, which stops all but some quickly healed burns.

Damn, Stelan is already paying off. Distractions can wait, though, as there is currently a [Lesser Ignis Golem] standing in my path. The thing is quite small, perhaps a meter tall. But its twin arms are like flamethrowers as they spew out flames towards Dovey, who is barely holding on with a barrier. I Plane Step right next to the golem and with a solid thump, my hammer smashes into its side. Yet, the monster barely budges, despite half of its side being missing.

I don't stop though, and swing again, and again, and again. Every swing feels so much easier, like I am swinging a wooden training weapon. Yet each impact is just as devastating as the last. The golem tries to fight back, getting a good few burns on me, but it eventually dies with a ridiculously loud cracking sound as its body crumbles into dust. I grab the mana shard it dropped and stand back up, just in time as the lava river next to me starts to bubble.

"Oi Dovey, leave me and go scout around. Do try not to get killed, though."

"As you wish, master!" The bird says, shaking ash off his feathers and then darting away into the dungeon. I can handle the fighting on my own, but I need Dovey to tell me where to go. Both to find loot, but also the entrance to the next floor. Supposedly each floor has hundreds of entrances to the next one, but even finding one is the real challenge. You know, because people typically do not have a really fast spirit dove that they can use for scouting.

I quickly incant Spirit Link, so that Dovey and I can communicate. Then I brace myself as a lizard of some sort crawls out of the lava. [Fire Salamander], the system calls it. It swipes at me with its claws, and I dodge to the side. Stepping back, I cast a Water Ball just in time to absorb its flame breath. It doesn't relent though, and leaps at me at a speed that almost seems like cheating. Raising my arms, I figure this is a great time to test those armguards.

The monster crashes into me, sending us both tumbling to the ground. I can feel its fangs digging deep into my armor, but it holds them back from harming me. For fucks sake, why didn't I get proper armor sooner? Spinning my hammer around, I manage to swing it backwards right into the salamander's very unarmored skull. Resulting in that satisfying ding and rush of experience I have grown to love as of late. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Standing up, I brush the guts and blood off as best I can. I can't find any sort of drop on the salamander, so I just take a bunch of its scales. They seem like they could be worth something, a decorative embellishment at the very least. After using my chestplate's ability to repair my armguards and heal me up nice and good, I run through the caverns a bit. I end up tracing a path to some loot that Dovey informed me of. As I go, monsters just appear every once in a while, but I slay them with only minor difficulty.

All of my extra stats and bonuses are definitely making this easier than it should be. But these are merely the weak monsters, the ones to keep you on your toes and get you acclimated to so much fighting. Entering a large room, I spot exactly what I am looking for. A treasure chest, sitting on the opposite side. Oh, and what's this? In the center of the room is a really fluffy puppy! Damn, it is so bloody cute, I really must go pet it.

I walk up to it, and it perks its head up to look at me, floofy tail wagging in excitement.

"Aww, who's a good little puppy?" I say as I reach out to pat its head. Wait a minute, why is there a cute puppy in a dungeon? Instantly, I try to step away, but it is too late. The puppy suddenly triples in size, all cuteness and fluffiness lost as it transforms into a hulking [Lesser Shapeling]. Tentacles erupt from its mouth, wrapping me tightly in its grip and it starts pulling me in towards its mouth. Ah hell no, I am not going to be eaten alive this easily! My arms may be restrained, but I do have feet.

So, I use Plane Step to simply step out of the monster's grasp. It works somewhat, though I was not expecting the monster to teleport with me. Still, the disorientation from being teleported gives me enough slack to slip out of its tentacles. I jump several meters away in the time it takes to regain its composure. It lets out an earsplitting roar, but I am not afraid of an oversized puppy, mouth tentacles or not. Now that I think about it, didn't this exact same thing happen when I first met Claire?

Geez, not even cute puppies in this are safe, and by the name of the monster, I bet it can transform into a whole lotta other stuff too. So I launch myself towards the monster, sliding underneath its swipe. I come up right next to it, and elbow it hard in the side. It yelps and tries to step back, but that just ends up giving me enough room to charge up an Anvil Strike. The monster is thrown nearly a dozen meters away as Luxmore obliterates its side. Damnit, now I gotta clean monster blood off it again.

My next craft definitely needs to have an auto-clean imbuement. Unfortunately, the damn monster does not just lie down and die. It scrambles to its feet, and starts to limp-run towards me. With a sigh, I put it out of its misery with a quick swing. Wait, do monsters even feel misery? Probably not. If they did, perhaps I should let them suffer a bit… I am distracted from such thoughts as I watch the monster's corpse fly away, landing right in a river of lava at the back of the room.

Oh well, guess I am not getting any drops from it. I did get a fair bit of experience though, and from all the fights earlier of course. My resources are a bit low, so I sit down and meditate while I go over things.

'Ding', You have slain [Lesser Ignis Golem] … expand for 24 more notifications'Ding', You have slain [Lesser Changeling]'Ding', Magic smith has advanced to level 41. Stat points distributed.

'Ding', Dovey has advanced to level 39. Stat point distributed.

'Ding', Dovey has advanced to level 40. Stat point distributed.

'Ding', Spirit Mage has advanced to level 39. Stat points distributed. This all but confirms my theory that leveling is getting a lot slower. Twenty six monsters slain at near my level. Yet only two class levelups, and to be fair, the Spirit Mage one was mostly from Dovey doing whatever he is doing. I have felt him kill a monster or two, and it ain't like I am going to chastise him for it. I guess it does make sense to level slower, though.

Just killing a few monsters around my level at the start was a massive task. But now I am stronger and more experienced. So while it is still a challenge, I am naturally going to need far more monsters per level. Which is fine with me, fighting is fun, especially with all these skills and whatnot. Heck, if I hadn't started aging out of it, I would've still been adventuring in my old world. Now with my body in better shape than it ever could've been, there is no reason for me to ever stop adventuring!

Plus the crafting stuff is a lot faster and less tedious, so it's not like I need to take massive breaks just to repair and replace equipment, especially as I am not in a party. Thoughts aside, I figure I have recovered enough and exit meditation. Which means it is everyone's favorite part of adventuring: treasure time!