Chapter 17: Chapter 17L

Luna advanced forward. She really shouldn’t have allowed herself to be captured by the vine trap so early—it meant she had used up one of the three potions she’d be afforded in this delve. 

Even if it was so worth it. Next time she came here, she’d have to bring a powerful regeneration potion with her, so that it could counteract the damage the trap was doing, and she could let herself be brought to completion in its cold, writhing grasp. 

Speaking of reaching completion … it really wasn’t fair she’d needed to extricate herself when she’d been so close. Her cheeks were flushed, and despite her best efforts, she couldn’t quite corral her thoughts as she progressed into the dungeon’s depths. Distractions weren’t something an adventurer wanted, headed into dangerous territory. Then again, Luna wasn’t risking much. Assuming the dungeon had its way with her and that was it, then she could simply let herself be used then stagger out. 

Though it wasn’t a guarantee the dungeon wasn’t lying … but that would be the strangest strategy she’d ever heard of to trick an adventurer into letting their guard down. Still, there was some small portion of risk, but risk was part of an adventurer’s life. Her gut said the dungeon wasn’t lying; that it wore its nature on its sleeve, and honestly.

She reached the first junction, the entrance hallway splitting into three corridors. It’s still rough around the edges, she thought, taking in the roughly chiseled stone. It must be even newer than I thought. Normally, a dungeon’s hallways would be a little more finely crafted: not these rough-hewn tunnels, without even a fully flat surface to walk on.

She picked the right-side tunnel without any particular reason. Some adventurers carried around notebooks to map out the dungeon as they went, but Luna had a good memory. If these got too branching, she’d pull it out, but considering this dungeon’s nascency, she didn’t think she would.

She gripped her spellcasting staff up and held it at the ready. The dungeon’s monsters would be appearing at any moment. She had made too much unimpeded progress … or so she thought. Luna was no expert delver. She didn’t know what was ‘normal’ or ‘unusual’.

Besides that a dungeon who wants to fuck me isn’t normal, she thought wryly.

Sure enough, not a dozen more paces, and the screech of a goblin—and the patter of its feet on stone—announced the first encounter.

[

Goblin
Lv. 1

[

Almost as much as the surprise of the invader, it was its low level that caught Luna off guard. Level one? This dungeon must be brand new, then. I’m definitely the first delver who’s found it. 

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Luna leveled her staff toward the charging goblin, steadying her aim, then unleashed a [Fire Nova]. A burst of flames rocketed from the tip of her staff, engulfing the green-skinned creature. She held the channel until it had stopped moving. 

Normally, flames would be a horrible way to die, but monsters—in exchange, she supposed, for having no lifeforce—were many times more resistant to pain. It hadn’t been pleasant, certainly, but not an excruciating fate, as it would have been to her, or any non-monster. The goblin didn’t scream as her flames engulfed it, and it keeled over, its charge coming to an abrupt end.

The gruesomeness of the attack did, however, sober Luna up. Ruins the mood a bit, she admitted. But it’s a dungeon. Of course there’s some real fighting.

The goblin—dead—dissipated in strands of pink mana, being reclaimed by the core. The strands sank up, into the ceiling, then were whisked off to wherever the core was hidden.

Pink mana. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of pink mana. It must be the type related to this dungeon’s strange nature.

The first fight had been comically easy, but that was expected. It’ll get progressively harder, even for a new dungeon. Maybe in ancient times, delvers hadn’t known why dungeons ‘pulled their blows’ early on, so to say, but in the modern day and age, the researchers at the Collegium Tower had put together a pretty good understanding of how dungeons functioned. 

In the same way dungeons were valuable resources to people who lived on the surface, adventures were valuable resources to dungeons. A symbiotic relationship. In fact, the mana her presence—and her spells—were feeding the dungeon core would be fed right back to adventurer society in the form of magical loot. 

With how new this one is, maybe it’ll be using the mana it gets from me to make the first chest. That was a funny thought to have. Her spells, providing the energy that would fuel her first-ever loot chest. I wonder what’ll be in it. Assuming she emerged victorious in the first encounter room. 

She moderated her expectations. Likely, not anything impressive. A first-tier dungeon wouldn’t be providing anything amazing, and this one was even newer than most. It probably didn’t have the resources available to put together an amazing loot chest.

She progressed forward. The next charge was two goblins, which meant the second one reached Luna before her [Fire Nova] channel ended. Luna hefted up her staff and traded blows with the creature. She took a swiping drag of a dagger against her legs, but her lifeforce ate any real damage it would have dealt. It did sting, though. Lifeforce didn’t act as a perfect shield.

The trap hadn’t dealt damage in a normal way—there’d been no pain associated, as there should have been. Or maybe I’d been having too much fun to notice. She didn’t think that was it. The trap had actually drained her lifeforce shockingly fast. It would’ve hurt a lot, if it’d operated by normal rules.

Onward and forward. The first encounter room would be soon.

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