My Dungeon Life – Chapter 1605-1607

Chapter 1605

The stairway continued down for some time, but we eventually reached the bottom. This opened up into a long hallway underneath the water. This would be the equivalent of the first level for this champion’s gauntlet. The miasma was far thicker down here, and much more similar to what I was used to from a dungeon.

“The monsters on the islands form down here?” I asked.

“Quite observant.” Calypso chuckled. “As expected from a fellow master. Yes, the surface miasma is far too low for monsters to be created. One could say that this is the true dungeon where the magic is made. The miasma is vented onto the island, and the monsters follow along with it.”

“Does that mean we’ll be encountering more monsters down here, or less?” I asked.

“I wonder.”

“Calypso.”

“Do you usually require so much information before entering a dungeon? Isn’t it better to just figure it out on your own? I could always be wrong, after all.”

I did tend to go into dungeons blind. Sometimes I would buy a map to copy into my map skill, but otherwise, I did very little research. This was not the norm. For most people, a trip into a dungeon was a major event that requires weeks if not months of preparation. A single level often took days to defeat, and there were 5 levels in between safe rooms, presuming you could even find the next one.

For those dungeons that were well documented, they would study up on them, hire guides like Raissa had once been, get maps, take testimonials, and even then, go in with full supplies. When they were venturing into parts unknown, it was even more serious. One had to account not just for camping in a potentially dangerous place filled with monsters, account for complete darkness, a need for food, water, and the potential for a need to suddenly escape, but they also had to deal with the miasma weighing down on them, something I took for granted these days.

It was clear that Titan Fall was uncomfortable diving into an unknown part of this dungeon without any prior reconnaissance. They were experts on dungeon diving, and also the ones most vulnerable to dungeons. The church had its defense against miasma. Calypso was a miasmic creature. I had a god soul. Cici and Chance were immune. Cici had been altered by my dungeon and Astria, while Chance had been altered by Roth. I had learned when I absorbed his lore that forcing young people to be exposed to dungeons regularly helped them build up an immunity to miasma. He had done this with every girl intended for his harem, so the lionesses, while not protected in the same way my slaves were, still had a high resistance to miasma.

So, it turned out Titan Fall was at the greatest disadvantage here. The only reason they weren’t complaining about it was because of Alysia. I’m sure they would have done things differently, and much more carefully. I realized that my methods truly looked reckless to an outsider. I knew I had access to Portal, Slave Communication, and my Soul World among other things. I had True Dungeon Diver as a job and had many different skills like Map, Tracking, Detect Traps, and Sense Danger which allowed me to navigate it safely. When I needed to escape it, I could do that just as easily.

“Stay close,” I ordered, and then continued.

Chapter 1606

The pathway did not seem to deviate by much. There were no turns or maze-like dead ends. It reminded me of Gram’s Passageway, although while that was a massive cavern with the room to move a full cart and horses through, this path was a hallway only large enough for two people to stand abreast. If we did end up having to fight, one person would have to take on the brunt of the battle, while the others would be trapped in the back only able to support. This was one of the reasons I wasn’t too worried about having Cici and Chance right behind me.

Of course, accidents could always happen. This might have worried me, but I also had one other trick up my sleeve. I could do a position shift with anyone in my party. I made sure I was at a party with the Titan Fall girls. If push came to shove, I could instantly teleport to the back of the line and bring one of them to the front. This was something Alysia and I had discussed with them ahead of time.

Thus, I remained on the lookout for any red enemies, ready to take them out quickly so we could continue onward. If I got overwhelmed, I could fall back into a supporting role, which was arguably always had been my forte. I remained in that state for some time, but nearly an hour of walking later, and we didn’t come up against a single enemy. I finally approached a large doorway to the side of the hallway. There was a 1 written on it.

“We’re there!” Calypso announced in a chipper voice.

“What do you mean, we’re here?” I shot back. “I thought you said the monsters spawn here.”

“They spawn, and then they leave.” She shrugged. “They don’t hunt these hallways.”

“How is this a gauntlet? You said it would be easier, but this is like the dungeon isn’t even trying!”

“You still need to defeat the six bosses, don’t you?” She shot back.

I let out a breath, deciding it wasn’t worth arguing with her. She could have told me that there wouldn’t be any enemies. I wouldn’t have been stressing out for the last hour. In retrospect, this was probably for the best. How could we catch up or surpass the Fey if we didn’t have an advantage that was at least this much? Whatever I just wanted to get this over with.

“Cici, Chance, stay back here.” I declared.

“What?”

“No!”

“If you wish to enter the dungeon room from this direction, Cici will have to be a member of your party.” Calypso declared.

I clenched my teeth for a second, but there was nothing I could do. With a sigh, I gave a nod. I wasn’t going to leave Chance out here alone. She was even younger than Cici! I did want them to get some experience. I guess it had to end up this way, fighting bosses in a dungeon.

“Let’s go!” I shoved open the door, heading into the first boss room of the Champion’s Gauntlet.

Chapter 1607

“This place looks creepy.” Chance clung to the back of my shirt.

Wasn’t she supposed to be my bodyguard? I mean, given her age, I was happier if she stayed behind me rather than racing off into dungeons. As far as escort missions go, she had so far been better than most. Although now that I was looking around, I had to agree. The back hallways had a utilitarian feel, but this boss room looked like a cave. The pillars rose into the blackness and there were a lot of dark corners to hide in. I was pretty sure the boss was in one of them because I didn’t see it anywhere else.

Cobwebs were floating in the darkness, and the sound of something suspicious was moving in the dark. I could feel both girls grabbing onto me. I had a feeling there would be some reveal event. Some boss monsters just sat and waited, but others liked to make a flashy entrance. I was guessing this was going to be one of the flashy ones.

Predictably, it was only once I reached near the center and the last person had entered the room that the boss door slammed shut, and the torturing began to turn on one by one in a menacing way. As they lit up, I started to get a better look at the area around us. It was webs. The entire room was covered in webs. That only meant one thing.

As the final torches turned on, a large black creature began to lower to the ground. It had enormous fans and eight long spindly legs that came out from a fat black body. It was taller than me, a massive spider.

“Ehhh! I hate spiders!” Cici cried out, leaping onto my back.

“It’s too big!” Chance whimpered. “Someone kill it!”

“We’ll stop it!” There was a sudden chorus of shouts just as I opened my mouth to speak.

Before I could move a step forward, the group of paladins blew past me. They all descended on the spider like a wave of maniacs. Even it seemed startled by their sudden aggression. They didn’t hold back a single hit, using powerful paladin light spells as they slammed their shields and swords into the spider. It let out some screeches, but at the end of the day, this was only the C island boss. It was quickly torn limb from limb.

The battle ended in only a few minutes when the screaming topped. The men had a few small wounds, but I didn’t offer to heal them. They could have probably avoided all of those had they not acted so recklessly. As they finally left the spider’s corpse, one of the paladins fell to his knee in front of me, looking at the two girls with a creepy smile on his face.

“We took care of the spider for you, my beauty!” He declared.

“Eeek!” Chance hid behind me even more. “Save me, my lord!”

“H-he didn’t even do anything though…” The knight glared at me.

“Why wouldn’t she be frightened, you’re covered in spider guts! You’re terrifying!” I shouted, giving him an accusing look.

He looked down at himself, and then at the other paladins who were also covered in spider gunk, and he made a horrified sound before running to Anne, who quickly scolded all of them as she healed them. I felt a bit more relieved though that it turned out that these men who were too dangerous to be around children were actually secretly pretty bad with them. At least there was still a balance to this world.