My Dungeon Life – Chapter 1611-1613

Chapter 1611

The theme of the bosses seemed to be creatures of the wild. I supposed that it made it easier when they died. Every time a boss died, their lore took a blow. The new version of themselves that replaced the old would be a bit weaker and more foolish. It wasn’t that hard to understand. The longer someone lived, then the more experience they’d gain. As they were exposed to the miasma of the dungeon, they would also grow more powerful too.

This was why some dungeons could be so uneven, especially when it came between the difficulty of the final boss and the other bosses. The lower you got, the longer it had been since a boss was defeated. Those bosses remained around longer, growing more and more powerful until they eventually became sentient beings with miasmic souls. Well, it wasn’t that easy to form a miasmic soul spontaneously, but it was far more likely on a long-lived boss over a brand new one.

In the great labyrinths, as they were called after you went down about 50 floors, the top dungeon divers had encountered a wall they couldn’t pass. It was a boss who had been undefeated for long enough that his skill and ability were undefeatable. Once a capable team defeated him once, it would break the bottleneck. Weaker teams would be able to defeat his now weaker form, and the progress in the dungeon would move another 10 levels until the next major roadblock. If enough time and luck went by that a boss wasn’t defeated and grew to be too powerful, then they’d lose progress.

This was the tug and pull that happened around the great labyrinths, and it was part of the reason I never had a straight answer on how far the dungeon divers had made it. Some rumors claimed they had made it seventy stories, while others claimed 50 was the farthest anyone had achieved. The Champion’s Gauntlet would be considered a 70-level dungeon if the islands had been converted to floors. This would be the most difficult dungeon I had ever versed.

However, it wasn’t quite as bad as Dirage for various reasons. The first ten floors, or island one, were completely boss-free and existed as a seeming staging area for convenience, as well as the entrance to the hidden pathway for the Fae. The way the dungeon was formed with islands, the more difficult boss on the fifth island could be defeated regularly, so they never built up to be too difficult. The one exception was the final boss, who had never been defeated. In our case, the bosses would have each been just defeated, making the new bosses their relative weakest.

One way to sidestep was to choose bosses whose ability was never dependent on intellect. A boss that was purely physical power and anger would still be strong, even after a recent death and reincarnation. I decided that this two-headed bear we had to fight fit along with those. He was extremely powerful, and while avoiding him wasn’t too difficult for me, I was also needing to protect Cici and Chance. Meanwhile, the paladins took the brunt of the beating. It was eventually one of the Titan Fall girls who delivered the final strike, severing his head.

After the battle, everyone was a bit battered and I had to heal them quickly. We were only at the equivalent of a level 20 boss and we were having this much trouble. I hoped we could keep it up to the final boss.

Chapter 1612

Before we could leave the second boss, I naturally made sure to check out the safe room. At this point, it was light outside. I looked outside very briefly to see if I could see the progress of the fog, but I was still too far. It was feeling the pressure of time on us. Back in the safe room, the girls were already sitting and waiting for me to continue to the story. I wasn’t sure that a single mural would add very much to what I already knew.

This mural seemed to be dedicated to talking about the Fey hero. It occurred before the second mural, but my best guess, and it seemed to be about her rise to power. She fought against the forces of darkness valiantly and was heralded by all of the feys as the great hero. The last part of the mural displayed her killing the demon king. If the shadowy creatures were this dungeon’s interpretations of humans, then wouldn’t it be a human king? He seemed to be powerful, and they had a triumphant battle. He died, and she seemed to be wounded in some way, although it wasn’t clear in what way. It showed her hitting her head just after delivering the final blow.

Of course, I didn’t deliver the story to the girls as the enemy hero slaughtering humans. It was a pretty cringy story when taken from the human’s point of view. Thus, I told it to them from the Fey perspective. To the little girls, it sounded much like the battles already going on in the north. The demons were the dark shadowy characters that came from the dungeon, and humans were those that fought valiantly to keep them at bay. It was a familiar story to them, and one they were able to grasp.

“Although the wise and beautiful hero was able to defeat the hum… ahem… demon king, it was already too late. They had no choice but to flee.” I ended the story like that.

Before the girls could say anything, I heard the clapping of two hands. We all turned to the door to see Calypso standing there, her hands still in chains. The paladins had wanted to spy on the girls during storytime and had come in to listen to the story. Nope, wait, three little girls were sitting in front of me listening to the story! When did Anne get there? Why was she sitting crisscross like a child?

“It was almost like you were there.” Calypso declared as she stopped clapping. “Are you sure that you’re not the hero that they spoke of?”

“Hardly… I’m just telling a story.” I responded. “How could I be the hero?”

“Whoever knows how long someone else’s story reaches.” She responded cryptically. “I wonder how far back your story goes.”

“Not very far.” I shot back, but I felt some unease from her words.

It felt like she knew something she wasn’t saying, and not something about this dungeon, but something about me. How did I end up in this world after all? I knew where my story began, but I couldn’t help but wonder where was my story heading.

Let’s go get the next piece of the blessing.

Chapter 1613

When my soul bonded with a blessing, I would gain the knowledge within that lore. Looking at the second piece of blessing attached to my skin, I couldn’t say the same. This blessing was only skin-deep. It didn’t contain the lore or the knowledge yet. It contained a little bit of the dungeon’s energy, which was why people who had them were stronger, but that was it. I wish it would tell me the story, so I could understand what this grand war-changing weapon would be.

Yet, as I found with all of these dungeons, the only way you could find the answers was to keep walking forward. We left the second boss room shortly after getting the blessing and then headed on to the third. I could occasionally hear the shout of a monster in the distance. The hallway carried echoes well, so it gave the entire route a scary feel to it. One would be excused for feeling like there were monsters all around them ready to leap at a moment’s notice. If I didn’t trust in my Sense Life, I would have been terrified.

As was, everyone else was on full alert. The two girls clung to me whenever there was a roar in the distance. Every monster that was formed in the thick miasma of the corridors seemed to leave before reaching us. They never appeared in front of us, although I had read in one book that the existence of mana being disturbed the local miasma, making it difficult for monsters to coalesce. I found myself dwelling on this as we walked, and that led me to wonder if one could increase the miasma in an area by continually stirring it with mana, allowing it to get ultra-concentrated. I already knew blowing miasma under a lake could eventually cause the lake to become a miasmic pool of death, so what other tricks were there?

We reached the third boss room. With Cici at the front, the door opened just like all the others. We entered the room, and sitting there was another beast. This one was some kind of giant boar. By giant, I meant that it was the size of a house. Intelligence wasn’t needed when you had tusks that big. The boar charged immediately, and the group scattered as it slammed into the spot we had been standing. I was holding two girls, one in each arm.

“Why did you grab me. I would have gotten him!” Chance cried out.

“I hate them. Pigs are really dirty!” Cici added.

“Just stay out of the pig… ah… boars way, okay?” I asked in a no-nonsense voice as I put them down.

I turned back and went after the boar. The thing had a lot of health, and it was difficult getting it down. The most effective spell turned out to be one of Anne’s. She held up her hands and cast it while the paladins were knocked around left and right. When it landed, the boar took massive damage, eventually collapsing in death. As it disappeared, a particular drop appeared. It was a massive slap of pork meat.

“Tasty…” Chance had come out of hiding and was staring at the slab with drool coming down her mouth.

“We don’t have time to break and eat,” I told her, causing her expression to sink.

That’s when I heard a rumbling sound from someone’s stomach. I turned to find it was Anne, who was looking at me desperately.

“We’re not!”

The paladins, seeing two girls in distress and me the apparent cause, gave me deathly stares.

Fine… I guess we could afford to take a little lunch break.