Chapter 237: Draconic Dungeon Chaos
The Draconic Abyss was one of Seoul’s three great Dungeons.
The second was “The Hells”, a demon-filled series of catacombs that looked like something straight out of Doom, and the third was called “Thalassophobia” because that was what you got after fighting your way through a series of caverns containing anything and everything that made the deep sea so terrifying.
But most people would still agree that the home of Dragons was easily the most dangerous of the bunch.
A Boss that was a [Raid Bosses] in terms of size and offensive power, only lacking the unnatural durability that let the real thing fight off armies.
Traps that could explode with the fury of a draconic breath weapon, using literally any kind of element.
And, well, Dragons.
The entrance was pretty normal, though. A couple of D-Rankers stood guard, their only job being to hand out warnings about the monsters within and report back to the guild if something went wrong, they weren’t expected to do more than that.
On the way over here, Isaac had tucked in his shirt, fully exposing the S-Rank badge at his belt.
“What are the official requirements to get one of those badges?” Amy asked, “By international standards, I’m classified as an S-Ranker, but they only hand out those badges here.”
“Knock the investigator’s socks off. If you do that literally, make sure it looks like an accident.” Isaac told her, earning a small laugh “Seriously though, just cast your strongest attack spell that you can cast off the cuff on the first target, create your shield while you’re doing that, and trigger the attack spell that you have to block, teleport to the other end of the room to show you can do that as well. All the while, be charging one of your big attack spells and throw that at the target to prove you can multitask.
“The ceiling will come down, but that’s just for dramatic effect, there are real protections on the outside of the room so the building doesn’t collapse, along with wards that make sure the rubble doesn’t fall on anyone.”
“Wait, they built the training room so it can be wrecked?” Amy asked incredulously.
Isaac shrugged “The Hunter’s Guild, Ranks, Adventurer chic, all of that is straight out Korean popular culture. As are scenes where the overpowered protagonist accidentally destroys the testing room. Why wouldn’t they build it like that?”
Amy just snorted and cast her pre-battle spell array. Basic protection cantrips, an enchantment on her clothes that reduced air resistance to virtually nill, a spell that rolled her hair up in a bun to keep it out of her face, and the bun would remain intact even should it be hit by an artillery shell. A few more spells to keep flames off her, a pre-cast, short-range teleportation spell that she could trigger once to dodge an attack before she had to recast it, and so on.
The guards looked at them with bored impressions, one of them briefly glanced down at Isaac’s badge. A [Skill] flashed in the man’s eyes and suddenly, he jerked into a pose that was probably meant to look professional but only served to highlight how he’d been slouching before.
“Isaac Thoma and Amelia Shaw for the Draconic Abyss Dungeon, I booked it ahead of time, it’ll be just the two of us.” Isaac introduced them.
“As an S-Ranker, it’s your prerogative to enter this Dungeon with fewer than the legally mandated number of individuals, do you acknowledge that you are making use of this privilege and not adhering to regular safety standards?” the guard rattled off and Isaac replied with a simple “Yes” before getting waved in.
This Dungeon was officially rated for a party of a minimum of seven A-Rankers, and ones with specialized combat builds to boot. Sure, there were people who’d reached high Ranks without specializing in combat, and that was damn impressive, but in this place, just being able to hold your own wouldn’t cut it.
As for S-Ranker-only Dungeons, they didn’t exist, Dungeons that powerful were destroyed the instant they looked like they might reach that point. They’d be too dangerous by then, and even a nation with seventeen S-Rankers like South Korea couldn’t clear it regularly enough to prevent Dungeon breaks.
Isaac dismissed his regular clothing, swapping it out with his current armor set. He kept switching it out as he got his hands on new sets, or Stagmer came up with something new, but he was hoping to eventually get something that could last him for longer.
His current outfit was mostly made from dragon scales, interwoven with heavily enchanted metal wires, all attached to a spider silk undershirt. Durable, form-fitting, reduced air resistance, flexible, everything he needed. It was a good set, but it was a little too ... generic.
Eventually, he wanted to get a set that was built perfectly to his requirements, everything attached to the exact right place. Everything he needed, positioned so he could grab it with a minimum of effort, extra armor in places that did not need to be as flexible with his specific fighting style, and so on.
“Holy shit!” Amy blurted out as they left the corridor, emerging onto a ten square meter platform situated over an empty, black, void.
“Yep.” Isaac nodded. He’d told her everything he knew about this Dungeon before they’d gone in, of course, but actually seeing this bottomless abyss that gave the Dungeon its name was a whole other thing.
In reality, the “void” was just a particularly deep pit, around two kilometers from top to bottom, but there were several annoying magical effects in place.
The first of these caused light diffusion comparable to being deep underwater, with an additional effect further muddying things at around five hundred meters distance, to the point where it was literally impossible to see any further, no matter where your [Perception] was. Furthermore, it muffled sound to the point where narrowing down the specific location of anything within the murk was downright impossible.
A sensory [Aura] could pierce the veil, but you’d still have to hit an enemy with it to see said creature, and this place was so large that the chance of landing a hit was nigh impossible.
And then there was the wonky gravity. A vastly increased draw for anything that wasn’t a dragon, making most methods of flight insanely expensive, while the dragons themselves might as well have been on the moon, capable of incredible feats of aerial acrobatics.
Which meant that the delvers were stuck taking the admittedly wide set of stairs that wrapped around the central column, all the while fully exposed to the flying, fire-breathing, lizards that could come from anywhere, anytime, in any number. Only on the ground would the fog lift and the monsters be properly combattable.
“Isn’t a big void like this a huge sinkhole risk?” Amy asked.
“It would be if they hadn’t reinforced the walls to a ludicrous degree,” Isaac said “There are also [Geomancers] and highly capable [Structural Engineers] on standby in case they have to destroy this Dungeon. They want to hold on because this place is the perfect farming ground for several valuable materials, but the guild learned its lesson about where they put Dungeons for aerial creatures.”
Amy winced “I pity the person behind this place.”
Isaac nodded.
And then, the descent began. Isaac kept several thin shells of [Aura] projected out into the void, not thick enough to get a whole lot of detail on anything that passed through it, but when something did head towards them, he’d know well before he saw it.
Amy, meanwhile, had several pre-cast [Magic Missiles] hovering over her hand, each infused with several powerful additional spells. Venom, something that caused temporary blindness if it struck anywhere near the face, and more. Much more.
The first hundred meters down were quiet. Too quiet.
“Do you think the Dungeon knows that holding back the monsters makes people more scared than just sending monsters after them?” Amy asked via the party, not wanting to give this place ideas.
“Probably,” Isaac admitted.
“Ore,” he pointed out a moment later, gesturing at the column.
While Amy watched his back, he used Balmung and gratuitous use of [Sundering Strike] to weaken the surrounding rock to extract it.
The Dungeon provided several incredibly useful materials, just randomly attached to the column, but extracting them wasn’t easy, and you were very vulnerable during that process.
So of course that was the moment the first monster showed its face. It was a regular old dragon, two wings, four tails, and a maw that could unleash a powerful elemental blast. This particular version spat acid. It was also barely ten meters long, a baby by most standards.
A single enhanced [Magic Missile] slammed into its face and it began to lurch drunkenly through the air. It had contained a variation on the curse that Isaac had bought from the cursemonger, specifically, the one that randomly changed the gravity of the affected. Coupled with its blindness, the beast’s flight became completely erratic and it slammed into the column below them.
Then, the dragon’s entire extended family made an appearance.
