CH 243

"Say Zephyr, are we going to make our way till end today?"

"Correct. We're going to defeat the boss and clear away our first ever intermediate dungeon!"

"Really?! We can finally conquer an Intermediate dungeon!"

A content smile crept across the face of Lana hearing my reply to Hannah's query.

She surely was enjoying herself! I can't wait to have a showdown with the final boss either!

Intermediate dungeons are different from beginner dungeons as their difficulty spikes up dramatically. Let's just talk about their map, they are three times the size of a beginner dungeon.

Just this aspect alone should be enough to speak of the difficulty.

It had taken us two days to arrive at this point.

Initially, my plan by bringing the vanguard team members was just to let them get accustomed to changes brought by Intermediate dungeons but as they said, it's hard to change one's habit, our focus had already shifted from getting accustomed to capture! Now I just want nothing more than to clear away the dungeon right away!

I really regretted challenging the dungeon on saturday, last week. This one week felt so long I almost thought it would never end.

Soon after, we arrived at the <Intermediate Gate>.

And just we were about to make a beeline for <Dinosaur's Hill Dungeon> entrance, someone's silhouette appeared from the side.

That silhouette belonged to the Zezelthon who had the guidance role.

"Hey, guild Eden, the star of our hope. Going to <Jurrapa> again?"

"Bingo! We will challenge the final boss today! Wait and see Eden's first Intermediate dungeon capture!"

"Woah! You're already going to clear it? You have been there for only one week.'

"It's our second entry to be precise!"

Zezelthon's face was dyed in shock hearing Lana's remark. Rather than surprise, It was more like he heard something unbelievable.

Lana had a smug look on her face seeing his reaction.

"Zezelthon-san, has any group entered the <Jurrapa> yet?

"Hn? No one has entered yet today. Sure enough, the presence of monsters far stronger than its counterpart dungeons made it hard to progress and the fact that barely anyone can reach the 10th floor to activate teleportation circle within a day has made it far more desolate. Are you really sure you can do it in just your second entry? Wouldn't it normally take many tries to figure out the shortest route before finally trying to capture it? The bare minimum I heard take at least 6 tries."

Ohh! Zezelthon-san's face finally had a vivid look on his face.

But, he's right. In normal cases, that's how it begins, by exploring and mapping out the routes etc.

It's really one hell of a work to map out the intermediate dungeons with increased difficulty. They first have to fumble around their way to find where the road to the next floor is.

Unlike the ever convenient game features where mapping was easie-peasie with auto function which automatically recorded once trodden path on the corner of screen simultaneously, the mapping in reality is done by hands, so it's obvious for it to take time.

What's more, it's common to encounter problems like the bag to be completely filled from the things grabbed on their way, their consumption, and the lack of unscrupulous timing means they have to return back at least once when sketching a map.. That's all but the familiar troupe of dungeon games. The so-called situation of overflowing with materials, and the time limit due to the real world.

This all sums up how it's normal to take at least 2 turns before reaching the 10th floor.

So in a normal exploration case, the first turn is for probing/mapping, while the second being the exploration in true sense and reaching at the 10th floor.

This is all one step, and as the lowest floor of the Intermediate dungeons are 30, it's expected to take 3 steps before progressing to capture the dungeon.

It seems even Zezelthon-san didn't expect us to go around 20 floors on our first turn. Well, of course.

This is to be expected when I encompass all the short routes. So, I was also making a smug face beside Lana.

Also, there's no party trying to explore this dungeon yet. This is lucky for us. Being the only one means we don't have to struggle for resources and it also feels nice.

We bid our gratitude to Zezelthon-san who had an incredulous expression on his face, left that place and moved to the entrance.

A floating feeling passed by and like usual, we were inside the dungeon. However, Lana, who was curiously looking around the surroundings, was looking unhappy.

"Hmm? isn't this the first floor, Zephyr-kun?"

"Okay, don't be so down yet, look over there."

"Hn一? Ah, is that the teleportation circle!?"

"That's right. We can move to the 20th floor in jiffy from there."

The first floor of the dungeon is set as the default location for the entrance in the ground.

But different from the beginner dungeon, there were 2 two teleportation circles shining not far from there which connected to the 10th and 20th floor.

So fundamentally, you have to first arrive at the first floor and then move to the floor you want to through a teleportation circle. Though, it's a one way trip to return back to the entrance.

Incidentally, these teleportation circles can't be seen or used by anyone other than those who have activated them. So, one person can't carry the party member by clearing the condition alone.

I had once tried to confirm the location where it was shining in the beginning, but I didn't see the so-called shortcut teleportation circle anywhere. So I was quite curious about its mechanism.

"I see. I had heard about it from the rumours, but this is my first time seeing one. So this is the fabled teleportation circle of the shortcut."

Sierra looked at the teleportation circle in fascination.

The geometric patterns drawn on the teleportation circle were just out of comprehension for me, but I wonder if Sierra understood anything? So, I tried to ask her,

"No, I was just a bit curious. That would be impossible even for me."

Apparently she didn't. I should have thought so, these are just too mysterious and complicated.

"Stop dawdling around and hurry up! We're going going to start by challenging the revived field boss first!"

"Oops, almost forgot! Alright, buckle on, let's go!"

Everyone entered the teleportation circle at the urging of Lana. Our first stop was on the 10th floor.

According to Zezelthon-san, no one has entered the dungeon so field bosses must be all safe and sound. They should be re-popped by now.

Eden isn't someone afraid to take over any number of bosses shall they come and as such, we take down 10th floor boss <Jurra Saugus> and 20th floor boss <Jurra Torutoru>. While we're at it, if <Gold Chest> dropped again, then...... Fuhahaha!

By the way, it seems Lana was seriously looking for a rematch with <Jurra Torutoru> to vent out the fire that was left on the edge last time. My words, she was seriously flaring up.

After taking out both F-Boss (Read: Field Boss), we finally advanced to the 21st floor.