My Dungeon Life – Chapter 1310-1312

Chapter 1310

I let go of the ledge, creating several steps until I landed on the ground. I was in a massive cavern about thirty meters high and perhaps two hundred meters long. There was a natural running river through it, not made of miasma, although it felt rich enough in mana that it felt like the beginning of a Waters of Life. This was truly a rich place full of potentially valuable things if the first thing I ran into was the primordial fairy spring. Well, without fairies, such a spring would never form, but it was interesting.

“Beautiful.” Alysia breathed.

With the algae giving off light, the entire room did have a gentle glow that reflected off the water. Other than the mirror labyrinth, this was probably the second most interesting place I had seen when it came to lighting. I’d consider noting this place for some kind of date night, but it seemed like it might be a bit dangerous.

Either way, I pulled up my Map, which was now centered deep in the earth. After making sure I could find it again, I pulled out and brought Chalm back into my vision. I then lifted my hand and summoned a portal. After a few moments, nothing happened.

“I thought this might be the case.”

The girls had been left with the ability to cast Portal. I wouldn’t have put it past them that something happened that kept them from using it. Maybe they had used up their portal earlier to escape a smaller threat, or maybe they had used it to get past an area. Maybe they had even wandered into a dungeon and couldn’t escape as I did.

However, it seemed like the truth wasn’t so simple. If I couldn’t use the portal here, then the girls definitely couldn’t have escaped with a portal. There was simply too much earth between here and the surface, and it blocked whatever allowed me to cut through space. It could also be the thickness of the mana that caused the problem. The only other time I had experienced an inability to teleport was when I was on the other side of the planet. The same reason I could portal from here might be why I couldn’t portal from there.

The only way I could do it was to build a massive transmitter and dump a bunch of mana into it. That was easier said than done. Either way, it was a problem I’d worry about later. I had come down with the expectation that returning wouldn’t be so easy, so really nothing had changed.

“Pait, you have any ideas,” I asked.

“How could I? If you wanted a dwarf to guide you through the Deep, you should have kidnapped a dwarf! I may have seen a map or two of the Deep once or twice in my life, but that doesn’t mean I can tell you anything about where we are or where we might go.”

“Ah…”

“Master, do you feel Terra or Garnet’s bond remnants? At all?”

“Not yet… However, it’s not like before. Before it was like it was too far away to tell. Now, it’s more like a compass that is spinning around wildly. Something is blocking my ability.” I explained.

There was a moment of silence, and then Pait spoke up. “Travel downriver.”

“Hmm?”

“What would flow down, right? So, if you travel downriver, you’d be heading more into the Deep.”

“I see… thank you.”

“Ehh… just find your girl.” Pait responded grumpily, but once we’re back on the surface, you’re going to owe me more than just a few good meals!”

“Deal.”

Chapter 1311

I was able to find several tunnels, so I selected the one the water was flowing toward. Whether this was the right direction or not, I couldn’t say, The luminescent algae didn’t exist uniformly across the Deep, so there were areas with light and areas without. As long as I had my Light spell, it was rather either to navigate through and didn’t feel much different from traveling in a dungeon.

The landscape was unique though. There were mushrooms the size of trees, and there were various other plants of exotic and strange colorization. In short, it sounded like life. The Deep was its ecosystem, and unlike the dungeons which were relatively silent except for my party and the occasional mobs, this place was lively. I could hear the sounds of slithering, crunching, clicking, and even bird calls, although it was hard to say if there were any birds down here or if it was something else.

The biggest problem being in this unfamiliar environment was that I didn’t know what was a threat. In a dungeon, it was fairly easy. If it was alive, it was likely to attack you. Down here, there was a lot of life, and some of it was hostile and some of it was not. I had to leave my Map and Sense Life up, looking for red. I wasn’t sure how this feature worked, but anything that seemed to wish me harm turned up as red, while allies were green and neutral life was yellow. Without this, I assuredly would have been having more trouble.

That’s because a few things that had seemed harmless turned out to be hostile. There was a large and beautiful plant that had ended up in my path, and if it wasn’t glowing red, I might have walked right by it. I watched as strange over-sized mole-creature walked by, and then plant latched out and swallowed it whole. So, even the plants were dangerous in this place. I wanted to just throw some fire at it, but that worried me as well.

Caves could be deceptively dangerous. There could be flammable gases that could ignite, plus the amount of oxygen was questionable. I didn’t think given my current constitution that I would be brought down easily by carbon dioxide poisoning, but I didn’t want to change it either, so I tried to remain as cautious as possible.

Of course, even being mindful of the red dots didn’t stop me from being attacked eventually. The beast that came out at me looked like a hairless rat, except that it was the size of a small car. I was able to defeat it easily with a single swipe of my blade.

That blade wasn’t Alysia. At that point, it had been only a short time before that she had been still acting as a drill. I didn’t want to wait a night for her to recover, so I had continued cautiously while she slept, using a spare blade. As I cleaned it, I noticed a bit of a rumbling sound.

I glanced around, frowning. Something big was moving, and it was heading in my direction. I squinted into the darkness. One of the biggest problems with the Light skill was that it created a light circle around me, but beyond that circle was darkness, and the light prevented my eyes from ever adjusting to said darkness. An orb could spread light to an entire cave, although the lighting might be dim.

Light was bright, but it only spread so far. Of course, the reason I remained on light is that it went only one way. If I used an orb in this dark world, then I would stick out like a sore thumb to everything down here.

That said, I started to see various red lights appearing at the very edge of my light. I started to realize they were eyes, and those eyes belonged to none other than the kin of the naked rat thing I had just killed. There was a stampede of hundreds of them coming right at me!

Chapter 1312

I had been thinking that the naked rat creature had been a bit easy, but like the insect levels in certain dungeons, their difficulty came in their numbers. They probably weren’t that easy. It was just that I was really strong. Alysia could cut through anything, and I had the strength, size, and stamina to be able to fight with many dangerous things.

In the event of a stampede, I could flee or hold my ground. Since I was currently in a corridor and heading back would leave me losing half a day of movement, I decided to stand my ground.

“Alysia!” I regrettably had to interrupt her rest.

“Yes!” She seemed prepared to act anyway.

She returned to my hand. I had let her rest after the long drill session, but since we had encountered an enemy that I couldn’t handle easily I’d need to depend on her again. This time, at least she could be in her more comfortable sword form. That’s that I thought, but the object in my hand wasn’t a sword, but the drill she had been using the last few days.

“Wh-what’s this?”

“Ah…s-sorry… I’ve been a drill for so long I forgot to change my form.”

“Crap, they’re here, no time!”

“Master, what do I do?”

“Drill! Drill!”

I braced myself slamming forward into the rat. The drill that had cut through miles of rock hadn’t dulled in the slightest. If anything, she was many times sharper and more decimating. She had plenty of time to perfect her form, creating the idea configuration that could dig through the hard earth like someone was cutting through butter. Suffice it to say that these naked rats didn’t have a chance compared to the chewing power of Alysia.

As the first rat lunged forward, it tried to bite down on her tip. With those massive incisors, it might have had the ability to tear through rock or even cheaper swords, but not only was Alysia wasn’t just made better stuff, but she was also spinning too. In a moment, its teeth were destroyed and the drill continued onward. The head eventually exploded and the insides were ground to dust.

We didn’t have a moment of rest before the next rats were on us. I realized that I didn’t have a choice. I had to go all out. I lunged forward, thrusting with the drill. Her blade chopped through rat after rat, turning them into splashes of flesh and blood. The lucky ones on the edges only had half their skin torn away by the passing drill. The rest were pulverized down the middle, becoming nothing but mush.

I ended up accessing my store, dropping the Heat Immunity that no longer was needed, and picking up strength enhancements. I found myself shoving through a wave of flesh. Blood and guts flew everywhere, and the hallways had become mulch.

When we finally pushed through the last rat, none of the surviving rats even dared to turn back to attack us. They fled the gory hallways as quickly as they came, and for a rare moment, it was like the Deep was silent, in shock of the slaughter that had just occurred.

“M-master… am I unclean?” Alysia broke into tears.

I had once shoved her up a troll’s buttocks and had to spend some time comforting her. It looks like I had put her through another traumatizing event. That was the setback of sentient blades, I guess.