Not having found anything too interesting aside from a few books on magic, they decide to buy only two tomes for training the "Simple Pyromancer" and "Simple Cryomancer" Job Classes, and then purchase a ride to the next town with a dungeon in it, Lutzam.
Lutzam is a few days off, and while a few of the others traveling in the caravan attempt to make small talk with the odd fellow practicing magic, Kindle isn't very good at it. They're better with straightforward conversations, and it leads to a few awkward moments on the way, with the number of interactions between them and the others decreasing steadily.
Still, Kindle survives the trip, and the port town of Lutzam soon appeard before them. As the carriages come to a halt and they hop off, the breeze hits them just a bit harder than in Farentz, the sounds of the town a lot more abundant and mixed with shouts and the distant crash of waves. Lutzam is not as quiet as Farentz, certainly.
It doesn't take long before Kindle gets lost in town, looking through the shops of fish, gear, and more, before stopping by the decently noisy Dungeon Guild Office, where far more Dungeon Diving teams are around than in Farentz.
With curiosity getting the better of them, Kindle decides to enter, and is immediately met with dozens of Dungeon Divers in lines towards desks with nicely dressed receptionists, tables where they wait for their party members or prepare their equipment, and an area off to the side where they bring monster parts to be sold. It's a larger building than in Farentz, likely due to a bigger population of Dungeon Divers.
It seems even a Job Board is posted inside, though the jobs are specifically related to the dungeon itself.
"COLLECT FIFTY GIANT CRAB CORPSES, GOOD QUALITY ONLY. REWARD: 50 CIL"
Unlike in Farentz, it seems these folks instead have to get approval from the Dungeon Guild and pay a fee first , before they can accept a job or get a ticket to enter the dungeon. Kindle steps in line, waits patiently as the others do, and finally reaches the receptionist.
"A ticket to the dungeon, please and thank you," is what the man in front of them said, and what Kindle repeats to the receptionist, planting the same amount, 5 CIL, on the counter as well. The receptionist grabs the CIL, puts it aside, grabs an odd piece of thick, blue paper, writes the date, then stamps it and hands it over.
"Safe diving, sir," she speaks roughly, her voice a bit scratchy. Kindle accepts the paper with a nod, then leaves the Dungeon Guild Office to follow where the other Dungeon Divers are headed.
When they reach the outpost surrounding the Lutzam Dungeon about a half hour later, Kindle presents their ticket to the guards, who check it, then snip it in half and nod Kindle in.
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
Being that this is the first time Kindle has ever entered a dungeon other than the one they were born in, they're a bit excited. The Job Board postings sort of gave them a hint on what to expect, Giant Crabs, Sahuagin, the like, though they don't actually know what those are. Still, with ///World Eye/// and the fact the know the Divers entering are as low as LV. 1, they don't feel very worried about being too unprepared.
The inside of the dungeon is far different than the maddeningly borish dark stone and little else of the Farentz Dungeon, the halls far larger as well. Rooms full of water, hallways with streams following the walls, and and a consistently dim blue light emenating from the stone bricks of the walls and floor give an entirely different mood the place.
It doesn't take long for Kindle to find their first group of monsters, a few Giant Crabs. Giant is an understatement, the LV. 1 crustaceans only going up to Kindle's thighbone. They don't get far, a single slash from Kindle's weapon killing them. Still, Kindle notes that these monsters, unlike the undead in their home dungeon, still treat Kindle as an intruder despite being a monster too.
[NOTICE: GIANT CRAB (7) SLAIN]
[+35 XP; 1255/2100 XP]
It's only on Floor 5 when Kindle meets a different, far more interesting monster. Gilled bipeds with a grey-blue scales and a similar face as the fish from the shops in Lutzam, Sahuagins. They're shorter than Kindle, up to their shoulder, and carry crude weapons, mainly fishing spears or thick branches. Still, their inside splice open just as easily, LV. 5 Sahuagin not being much of a fight for Kindle, even in numbers.
[NOTICE: SAHUAGIN (5) SLAIN]
[+25 XP; 1720/2100 XP]
Floor 6 through Floor 9 are the same, the monsters too low-level to provide meaningful XP alone, but plentiful enough to be worth the time spent on killing the groups that Kindle encounters. The Giant Crabs are larger, up to Kindle's ribs, but nothing's really been much more interesting than the decently intelligent Sahuagin.
Floor 10, however, is a bit different. Not because they're stronger, they're still easy to kill when Kindle just spends enough MP, but the variety shifts drastically. The LV. 10 Sahuagins are split between the Lesser Sahuagin Warriors, who bear thicker scales, more strength, and weapons, and Lesser Sahuagin Shamans, who are thinner and taller while casting magic—often Aquamancy. Even the Giant Crabs have evolved into Lesser Megacrab, larger than Kindle now, though still not tough enough to survive a mana-infused slash of an unsharpened blade.
Best of all, they finally give normal XP again.
[NOTICE: LESSER SAHUAGIN WARRIOR (6), LESSER SAHUAGIN SHAMAN (3), LESSER MEGACRAB (2) SLAIN]
[+110; 2100/2100 XP]
[NOTICE: LEVEL UP; VITAL STATS RESTORED; +6 AP]
[LV. 14 -> LV. 15; 30/2400 XP]
Upon reaching LV. 15 and aware of the return to low-level XP gain, Kindle moves onto the next floor. Upon doing the same on Floor 11 and reaching LV. 16, then on Floor 12, reaching LV. 17, and so on and so forth until reaching Floor 19 and reaching LV. 24, Kindle pauses for a monent, realizing they don't know how long they've been here. They hadn't been keeping track, and not needing supplies means they don't really need to head back up until they're satisfied.
Having already gotten the "Simple Cryomancer (F)" Job Class through practice and study whilst traversing the dungeon, the only thing left for Kindle to do inside the dungeon is face the Dungeon Boss.
Surely it isn't a big jump in difficulty.
NAME: KINDLE
SPECIES: LESSER SKELETON SPELLSWORD
SEX: N/A
XP: 120/3600
AP: 0
HP: 480/480
MP: 480/480
SP: 480/480
CON: 24
AGI: 24
DEX: 24
PER: 24
INT: 24
SIMPLE ARCANIST (F)
SIMPLE CRYOMANCER (F)
SIMPLE SWORDSMAN (F)
SIMPLE SPELLSWORD (F)
///BIOLOGICAL IMMORTALITY///
///WORLD EYE///
///UNIFIED FORM (F)///
///HEROIC POTENTIAL (F)///
///UNDEAD DOMINANCE (F)///
///INSTINCTIVE CHANNELING (F)///
///NATURAL ARCANIST (F)///
///NATURAL SWORDMAN (F)///
