Chapter 164: Chapter 150: A New Challenge

"Hey, it's time to wake up," I said, giving Cluma a gentle shake. "I need to get you back home."

"Mreow?" she moaned as she stretched widely, punching me in the face in the process.

"...I think I preferred you when you were sleeping," I complained.

Cluma blinked a few times while her brain rebooted, before bolting upright, headbutting me in the chin.

""Ouch!"" we both yelped.

"Yup, you were definitely safer asleep."

"Why was I sleeping? What time is it? Ah! I drooled on you!"

I giggled at the panicking catgirl before standing up and stretching out my legs. "Come on, let's get back to Dawnhold."

Cluma looked around. The sun had long since set, and the only lighting came from the stars and a thin sliver of moon, leaving the land in almost complete darkness. The sea sparkled as the moon and stars reflected off the turbulent surface, rapidly jumping silver lights on a pitch black background. If it wasn't for the drool and physical assault, I'd have called the scene romantic.

"So pretty. I hope I can bring all of my friends here one day."

I couldn't see far now, but even in the earlier full sunlight, I couldn't see the end of the beach in either direction. It should be big enough to fit all her friends. Barely. We'd need a portal, though.

Were travel agents a thing? There certainly wasn't one in Dawnhold, but what about the cities, where there were more rich people? Well, whatever, I wasn't going to interrupt my delving plans to introduce package holidays.

I teleported Cluma back to Dawnhold, where the guild reception was thankfully deserted, then teleported myself back home, which wasn't. "I'm home," I whispered, joining my parents in the living room, and being careful not to wake Darren, who was already sleeping.

"Welcome back," answered mum. "You were gone a long time. Cleared your new dungeon yet?"

"Haven't even set foot in it. We went to the beach."

Dad grinned the grin of someone who had a very wrong idea of what we were doing on the beach.

"I haven't been swimming since I was back on Earth," I added, in the hopes it would help. It didn't. "So, are you going to tell me what you were discussing with Clana and Camus?" I asked, to change the topic.

"Nothing important," answered dad.

"Just some logistics," added mum. "A normal young couple wouldn't have enough money to buy out half of Dawnhold, for example, so it's customary for the parents to help fund somewhere to live."

And once again, I was caught out by how seriously everyone was taking things. It had only been a few days! "Isn't it a bit early to be having that sort of conversation?"

"Given that you were asking us about moving on the way, I'd say it was just in time."

Well, yes, but I wasn't planning on Cluma moving in with me immediately, or our parents clubbing together to help pay for it.

"So, have you decided when you want the wedding?" asked dad in a change of subject. "And will it be human style, beastkin style or a mix?"

I froze up, feeling the blush ascending my face in an unstoppable charge.

"Aww, leave the poor boy alone," said mum. "You know he needs to take this sort of thing slowly."

Maybe I should forget Dawnhold, and just sleep in the Serpent Isle barracks for the next few years?

"Hah, his ears have completely frozen up," laughed dad. "Fine, just don't leave the poor girl waiting forever."

"Speaking of ears, I called in on Grover on the way back. Turns out an etiquette enhancement enchantment does indeed exist, if you want to hand your outfit over. And how about cooking enhancement for the fourth slot?"

"Sure. Why not?" I took the dress out of my [Item Box] and handed it over to mum. The joke was a bit old now, but it was still a waste just to leave it to... gather dust would be wrong. There wasn't any dust in my [Item Box]. Leave it unused, then.

"And the rest," continued mum.

"Fine..." I muttered, bringing out the shoes, stockings, paws, collar and tail. Mum didn't move, still waiting. "You don't need the ears; the ones I've got on are better," I said.

"It's not the ears I'm waiting for."

"Fine..." I muttered for the second time, bringing out the shameful and disturbing items of black lace.

"Thank you. I'll be done in a day or two, then you'll have to take them to Grover to finish off."

Did she really think I was going to hand over black lace panties to Grover? There was no way that was going to happen!

"What's a beastkin style wedding like anyway?" I asked. We'd had marriages in the village, of course, but they weren't big fanciful affairs. Human ones tended to be late summer, and involved the new couple swearing a few vows in front of some of the older villagers before everyone moved to the tavern and attempted to drink it dry. Beastkin weddings always happened all at once nearer the start of summer, although 'all at once' was a bit of a misnomer when we'd never had more than two new couples in one year. They didn't have a public ceremony at all, and skipped straight to a feast, roasting large chunks of kafevoski meat over an outdoor bonfire. Either they didn't have a 'wedding' part of their weddings, or it was a private, family only thing.

Wait... Come to think of it, they were very near the start of summer. The evening of the final day of that two week period, in fact.

"No, never mind. Turns out I already know."

Dad snorted.

"I should get some sleep," I said, wanting to escape the conversation while I had the chance. "We'll be delving for real tomorrow."

"Okay, see you tomorrow."

The next day I dressed in my delving gear, checking off my lists of equipment. Potions, weapons, rations, crystals. All I was missing was maps, although with a dungeon full of snakes, venom was probably widespread. It might be worthwhile picking up a few more antidotes too. Cluma was dressed and ready by the time I got to her house, so we jumped straight to the island.

There were no delvers out and about when we arrived. Compared to the high throughput of Synklisi, or even Dawnhold, it was odd not to see anyone on their way in or out of the dungeon, or even just hanging around outside resting, or waiting for party members. With the sparser teleporters and large floors, this dungeon didn't follow regular hours like Dawnhold, so there wasn't an influx of people in the morning and exodus in the evening, nor did it close at night.

We went to the general store to pick up maps, and to see what extra information we could glean.

"Maps?" queried the storekeeper, a friendly young lady by the name of Sara.

Sara, Human, Gatherer, (13/33)

A [Gatherer], and not a [Trader] or a [Merchant]? Maybe she was married to a delver, who moved to this dungeon, and was doing whatever work she could. It wasn't as if there was much in the area to gather or hunt.

"Yes, we've just changed dungeon, after we grew a bit over-levelled for Dawnhold, so we need maps and information on this dungeon."

"Over-levelled? But you look so young. Where's the rest of your party? Are you the scout?"

Cluma took that as her cue to hug the poor lady from behind, eliciting a surprised yelp.

"No, I am!" she exclaimed.

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Sara looked down in confusion, the imprints of Cluma's invisible arms clearly visible around her waist.

"You shouldn't be wasting mana like that if you're about to enter the dungeon," she advised, presumably working out that [Stealth] was involved.

"She regenerates mana faster than [Stealth] consumes it. Unfortunately."

"Is that... so," said Sara, as Cluma finally released her. "Anyway, I'm afraid we don't have maps. Each floor is a single room, filled with jungle, with the entrance on one side and the exit directly opposite, so there's not anything useful to map. No traps to be worried about. Just be careful of being bitten; many monsters from floor six onwards are venomous. They start off sapping a few points of your stats and stamina, but get more potent as you descend the floors. From floor eleven onwards, the venom has an additional paralysis effect, and from floor sixteen it does direct health damage."

No maps? I suppose that does make sense in an open plan dungeon. They could map out every tree, but trying to keep track of our position would be a nightmare.

"How long does it take to clear, roughly? I noticed there's not many delvers walking around outside, so I guess it's normal to spend multiple days in there?"

"Yes, each floor is large enough that it takes a couple of hours to walk from one end to the other, once you factor in the jungle slowing you down. That makes it a full day from one teleporter to the next."

Yikes. So it's a four day trek from the main entrance to floor twenty, then, and that's not setting aside rest breaks to eat or sleep. Once again, I was thankful for my [Redistribute] spell. Given that you could travel upwards, it was likely that farming this dungeon involved reaching the floor fifteen boss and then killing it repeatedly for the silver ingots until the party's carrying capacity was reached. Bringing out one bar of silver every three days would be far too inefficient.

"How do we make sure we're heading in the right direction?"

"Navigation skills, or if you don't have any, you can follow the dungeon wall."

Navigation skills? [Clock] certainly wasn't precise enough to be useful, and I couldn't think of anything else a [Scout] or a [Ranger] could get. It must be something third rank, or a non-combat class. Or a general skill with no class requirement?

"What classes get navigation skills?" I asked, eliciting a rather suspicious look.

"[Scout] would be the obvious one, but everyone should know that... Then there's [Forest Walker], or other specialised classes."

Wait, it is [Scout]? Oh, right. "You're counting [Tracking] as a navigation skill?" I guessed.

"Of course. Enough people have made their way to the boss chamber that their trails are easy to follow."

Drat. Cluma hadn't taken that skill, and taking it now probably wouldn't be very helpful; it was unlikely to be good enough at level one.

"Well, thanks for the information. Even if there's no maps, are there monster lists?"

"Yes, snakes. Lots and lots of snakes. You'll have to check in at the guild's purchasing station to see which particular varieties they want more than the cores from, though. I don't know the exact names."

"I know it's all snakes, but what about special abilities, or bosses to watch out for, or anything like that?"

"Aside from the final boss, nope. No magic. No unique abilities. Just lots of snakes. Don't let them bite or constrict you, and there's nothing else they can do. Some of them have a few of the more common generic monster abilities, but nothing rare or special."

"And the final boss?"

That caused Sara to frown. "You've never set foot in the dungeon before, and seem to have some serious gaps in your knowledge, so it's a bit early to be thinking about fighting that monster. It's a level forty hydra."

What? Instead of the armies of Dawnhold or the Emerald Caverns, the final boss was a single monster. One that was level forty.

I'd seen an ogre at level thirty devastate a group of a hundred delvers, and now I'd have to fight one at level forty solo, if I wanted to rank up [Novice Delver]? And so would Cluma. At least she'd get [Victorious Underdog 2] along with it, unless she ranked up first.

No, ranking up for the hydra wouldn't be a problem. For [Victorious Underdog 2], she only had to beat a monster at level twenty. A single mob on the final floor would be enough for that.

But, as Sara said, that was a future problem. We had to get there first.

"What about the other bosses?"

"Nothing special, just collections of standard monsters from lower floors. The other bosses have been optional, too, ever since the big dungeon changes a few years ago."

There was already only one boss every five floors, but Erryn made them optional anyway?

"Thanks for all the help," I said.

"Yup, thanks," agreed Cluma, hugging her again as we left.

"Okay, let's go stock up on antidotes, then we can get going. Think you can employ your acrobatics and high jump ring to get above the tree line and keep us going in a straight line? Otherwise we'll trace along the walls like Sara suggested."

"Depends what the trees are like, but I can give it a go," offered Cluma. "Don't you want me to take [Tracking], though?"

"I doubt it would work at level one, but you can if you want."

"I'd rather save the points for when I hit rank three, especially if you think it won't work. It's a bit of a niche skill."

Hah, that was better self control than I had. I'd never been able to resist buying skills I wanted immediately when they were cheaper than something I was supposed to be saving for.

Plans made, I popped into the alchemist and stored a half dozen antidotes in my [Item Box], along with the one I kept at my waist, then checked in at the dismantling outpost to get a list of which monsters they wanted whole, and then the pair of us walked towards the portal.

"You again?" asked David. "Delving today, I see. Where's your party?"

Why does everyone keep asking that? Cluma had already snuck behind him in readiness, and sure enough gave the traditional response of "Right here," while giving him a hug from behind.

Much to his credit, David didn't even twitch. Then again, he'd seen Cluma in action yesterday, so he had a non-zero amount of forewarning.

"Aww," went Cluma in disappointment.

"Don't be disappointed that you didn't give someone a heart attack," I muttered. "Now come on. Let's go skin some snakes."

"Just the two of you? Where's everyone else?"

"There is no-one else. Don't worry, we know what we're doing. Mostly."

"That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence," said David, but he waved us through anyway, muttering something about the brash newbies having made it to his nice, peaceful island at last.

We stepped through the portal, which was rather different to the type used for logistics. As well as being transparent, there was no strange black space on the inside. In fact, there wasn't an inside at all. I could quite happily stand with one foot on the island, and the other... wherever the dungeon was. I assumed straight down, which was consistent with the change displayed by [Clock].

The portal came out in the middle of a jungle, with tall trees packed densely together. They had no low branches, but fought each other for height before erupting into wide, deep-green canopies. There was barely any of the faux sky visible through the roof of leaves, but what there was seemed like a natural blue. The dungeon 'wall' was a row of trees, packed closely enough that nothing was visible between them. It was basically a stockade, but between the natural bark, staggered placement and gnarls and branches, it didn't look too artificial. [Mana Sight] confirmed that above their tops, dungeon stone continued, glowing in the same blue as the sky. It was a literal sky-box, the entire thing providing light, with a single massive light stone acting as the sun.

The floor was wet and muddy, which would cause problems with footing, but it wasn't bad enough that we were sinking into it.

"Right. Let's get going," I said, taking the first step into our new challenge.