CH.447 Seaside Paradise Fissure, part 3
CH.447 Seaside Paradise Fissure, part 3
The dungeon was a bit easier than I first assumed. My assumption was that it would be as difficult as HomeBase was when we first time cleared it, but it wasn’t quite that bad. There actually weren’t B-rank monsters in the early floors like at HomeBase.
When I asked about it, I learned that that is because of the dungeon management. The dungeon masters make sure to keep the more powerful monsters deeper in, just so C-rank adventurers can get something out of the dungeon.
Yeah, speaking about that. You can get a lot of cool stuff from this dungeon. Different ocean plants are the early gets, and some of them are quite nice. Sure some are just ‘it tastes good, so people pay decent money for it’, but there are also plants that are necessary, or at least recommended, for potions.
Like the water mints for water purification potions, gotu kola which is used for regular healing potions, and kangkong which is used for underwater breathing potions.
I didn’t really need any of those. Healing potions made with gotu kola are just worse than once made with blood lilies. Water purification can be done with magic, as can underwater breathing. And do I need to mention that we have devices for underwater breathing.
As for the foods you can get here, the most popular is rice. You can get a lot of it for not that many dungeon points, so a lot of C-rank adventurers would get a bunch of it. I was considering it, but HomeBase already has a rice farm in the CropFields, so we don’t really need it. I’ll get some, as it might be a different kind of rice, but I won’t be stocking up or anything.
There were also a few spices like rosemary that we didn’t yet have, so I’ll check if I can get some of those. They are probably in the HomeBase catalog already, but just good to have some as a reminder.
As we headed deeper in, we ran into a few adventuring parties that were returning to the surface. We exchanged some words with them, mostly about the situation in the dungeon. Just so we could learn if they’d seen anything abnormal. Sadly they didn’t know anything more than that the evacuation order had been given.
They left towards the higher floors slightly in awe, hearing just who was leading our party, while we headed deeper into the dungeon.
By the time we stopped to sleep, we were about half-way down the dungeon, according to the dungeon master that was with us. I brought out food from Storage, so it was ready and warm for us to enjoy, which everyone liked. Some were very much envious of my skill, since Item Box and Inventory don’t keep food warm, while my Storage does.
Some magic bags can keep food warm, but that is more of an insulation thing, not like Storage which literally keeps the food ‘frozen’ in time.
While we were eating, I asked Wendy some questions out of interest, mainly about her armor, sword and shield.
“The sword isn’t his, but the armor and shield are.” Wendy told me. “The sword is … not something I can wield, but anyone with the race ‘Hero’, the title ‘Hero’ or the title ‘Descendant of the Hero’ can use the armor and the shield. I am the one currently allowed to use them, so I do.”
“So the sword has some additional requirements. Maybe some skills you don’t have or ..?”
“I prefer not talking about it.” Wendy said, clearing ending the conversation.
I went around talking with the others, mainly trying to learn about their weapons and equipment. Don’t blame me too much. I just want as much data on it as possible. And it isn’t like I didn’t show anything in return. While sure I didn’t bring our Errelitea, I did show some of the other stuff I had in Storage, as well as things like our custom duel disks.
For those wondering, Unika’s was the crowd favorite, followed by Eline’s. Alice and I didn’t get much love, as our duel disks are just regular duel disks. I guess mine is special because it can project a light blade, but that is about it. But then again, I did design Alice’s before I really knew what I was doing and before I figured I should add additional features into the duel disk. And mine is a dungeon terminal.
The next day we continued our track down to the depths of the dungeon. And while the monsters did get more powerful, the floors didn’t get super big.
I mean, they are large compared to places like TinaWood, but there were no massive ‘outside’ floors like there are in HomeBase.
We reached the ‘warning party’ or the other S-rank party at what I believe was floor 35. This dungeon has 42 floors, by the way. They reported that they hadn’t seen any pre-signs of the miasma blob, so after regrouping, we headed deeper into the dungeon, with our goal being the dungeon core.
On floor 37, the dungeon master in our party went to one of the walls of the dungeon and opened a secret passage for us, not unlike the maintenance paths I made to TinaWood. The difference was that without access to some of the card tech TinaWood has, these tunnels weren’t completely monster free, but they were still safer than taking on some of the last floors floor bosses, so they existed.
“I think we should break up.” Wendy said when she found out this tunnel will reach straight to the dungeon core. “I will take a group down the regular way, clearing away the boss monsters so we won’t have to worry about them. Brian, you take another group to the dungeon core. You know what to look for. Find out where in this dungeon it will be, so that we can go forward.”
“Fine with me.” I agreed.
We then split up our teams. Wendy’s team was her own crew from the Hero’s country, the S-rank guardian from Bella, as well as the S-rank party from Narra. I also asked her to take Alice with her, because Alice can access my Storage, and I can communicate with her through our System link.
The local S-rank party, Rudevik and the HomeBase crew would be coming with me towards the dungeon core.
The secret tunnel wasn’t all that bad, but it did have a few monsters. Luckily nothing crazy, as no big monsters would fit into these tunnels.
After about two hours of walking, we made it to a room, but it wasn’t the core room. It was the core floor of the dungeon, and thus after the ‘last boss’, but the floor itself wasn’t empty of monsters like the core rooms I’m used to.
Instead, it had a decent number of B and A-rank monsters, and at the center of the room, was what looked like a reinforced building or maybe a bunker, the dungeon core held inside.
After a quick mop up, we had cleared the floor. The dungeon master approached the bunker holding the core, and before he could do anything, a door formed in the solid wall of the bunker and opened.
“Hey. It isn’t time for a change yet.” The … should I call him the operating dungeon master or current dungeon master or … I’ll just call them DM1 and DM2. DM1 is the one that walked the dungeon with us and DM2 is the one that was with the core.
“It isn’t. Special circumstances.” DM1 answered.
“Is that why some S-rankers are clearing the place?” DM2 asked.
I didn’t listen in as DM1 explained the situation, instead getting in contact with Alice. They were making their way down, and they were currently on floor 38, so they had … I actually don’t know if this dungeon is technically 42 or 43 floors. The core floor might be floor 42, but it could also be floor 43. I’d have to confirm.
But anyway, they are making their way down.
After the two dungeon masters had finished exchanging words, they were going to go into the core room.
“I’m sorry, but the rest of you will have to wait here.” DM1 said. “Some monsters will likely appear, so keep guard, but also try to rest.” He warned us. “Sir Wood. Would you come with us?” He then requested.
“... are you sure?”
“We are inviting you in. Just don’t do anything stupid.” DM2 warned.
“I won’t.” I promised.
The two dungeon masters then let me into the core room, and it was nothing special to be honest. It wasn’t much more than your average apartment, with a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and an office, the office being the room that held the core itself. It could house up to three people.
“This way, please.” DM2 said, and brought me to the core. “Since you know what we are looking for, I’ll allow you to see. Dungeon Master, open.” He opened his skill, allowing me to see all of the dungeon information.
I quickly checked the basic information before asking if this dungeon had security cameras. Not all do, but since this place is SS-rank, it should have them.
DM2 opened them up for me, and soon six screens all showing different parts of the dungeon were shown.
“Can you open up floors deeper than 35?” I requested. Since we walked through the higher floors, I’m decently confident the fissure won’t appear on them.
I do also have a general idea from the info I got from the Goddess, but they couldn’t predict the location perfectly. And no, that isn’t just a dungeon thing. They just can’t pinpoint the locations. It is more like ‘it is within this football field’, style of prediction.
Normally it doesn’t really matter, because you can almost feel the pre-signs. They just emit this … feeling. I think it is the miasma. And with my cards, having the exact location doesn’t really matter, because of the size of the fissures. The fissures also always kind of just … find the location they were supposed to be at.
Exodia can also feel the weakest spots of the dimensional barrier, so that is also a boost, but I can’t just have Exodia walking around in the dungeon. Unless he shrinks, he can’t walk between the floors. And I’m not sure he can shrink. He probably can because he is Exodia, but I’ve never asked.
I looked over everything as well as I could, but I couldn’t see the pre-sign.
“Okay. Not on the low floors. It is possible it just hadn’t appeared yet, but it could also be on the higher floors. So let’s go over those now.” I said, and we did just that.
It took us a while to look over everything in the dungeon, but we didn’t find the pre-sign of the fissure. It must have just not appeared yet. I mean, there are still two days until the estimated pop of the fissure, so it does check out. We’ll just have to wait.
Wendy’s group made it to the core floor late into the evening, when most of us had already gone to sleep. The dungeon masters were sleeping within their little bunker, but the rest of us were outside of it, and taking turns keeping guard.
Wendy’s group wouldn’t be keeping guard, as they had cleared the boss monsters and were tired, so I just gave them some food, and watched as they went to bed.
Apparently they had faced a five headed hydra as the last boss. Just in case you were wondering.