Side Story 1 - A New Boss

"Yo! Gordon hurry up!"

"I'm up, I'm up. No need to yell leader." (Gordon)

I watch with unconcealed annoyance at my teammate who was still busy putting his trousers on while the entire party had already assembled.

"Again... you're too slow... hey leader can't we just dump him somewhere and hire another healer?" Another one of my party seriously asked. She's a half-elf half-beastmen woman, Victoria. A person like her is extremely rare since elves and beastmen usually attack each other on sight, given the beastmen defeat in the last sacred war mainly by the hands of elves. However, she is an extremely good scout and ranger, her skills in both nature magic and tracking is as good as either race.

"We. Can't."

"Clint's right, do you really think those priests from the Holy Light will join us? Given the numerous sticks up their asses?"

Clint, a silent type or a person with a speech disability, I have never seen his face or him outside of his full plate armor, which somehow hides a near limitless amount of Gnomish Explosives.

And Rayes, our party's thief, I don't know much about him only that he enjoys cracking jokes, stealing and goes after a woman every other week like a rabbits breeding seasons. However, you can't deny his skill, I once saw him steal the belt of a dwarven smith while he was still haggling the price of throwing knives, he left with the belt and a dozen throwing knives at half price. The poor dwarf didn't even notice his belt missing until he walked away and slipped on his fallen trousers.

"Hehe if the Bishop here heard that she'll definitely turn you down next time."

"That was a one-time thing! And I was drunk!" (Rayes)

Sophia, our resident witch, who first joined the party so she can directly acquire resources to fuel her witch profession.

"Hey leader' I'm ready!" (Gordon)

"Finally what took you so long."

And me, the leader of this Silver-Ranked Team Crimson Saber, Jane Arkos.

"Alright people! This is the boss room on the 30th floor of the Cavern Dungeon, we have been charged with capturing it. Follow my lead and we will be the first to complete floor 30!" (Loud fellow)

I watch with disinterest at the person who decided to designate himself as the Raid Leader. There was no point in listening to him, usually, every team will end up doing their own thing and only contribute to other teams when they think they can profit off it.

Including my party Crimson Sabre, we have a total of 4 Silver-Ranked parties. And are currently preparing outside of the boss room.

After it's discovery, not a single party was able to clear it and when 3 separate parties did not return from that room, the guild decided to gather parties who made it to that floor to attempt the boss together. If even 4 silver parties cannot clear it, then it can be deemed that the boss is minimum Gold Rank, depending on the information we bring back, a Legend Rank party may be dispatched to destroy it and the dungeon.

"How strong do you think this boss is?" (Victoria)

"Definitely Silver Pinnacle at least, all the previous parties that attempted it was all Silver Medium Rank or lower, the fact none of them made it back means the boss is at least 2 ranks higher." (Rayes)

"Will we be alright facing a Silver Pinnacle?" (Gordon)

"We. Will. Be. Fine." (Clint)

"Yeah, with 4 parties here we will definitely beat any Silver rank boss." (Jane)

But what if it's a Gold Rank? This question remained unasked, but everyone had it on their mind.

If we encountered a Gold rank even 10 Silver rank parties may not be able to beat it without heavy casualties.

"Alright, is everyone ready!?"

The loud fellow from before came back, he was annoying but, the parties were all ready.

(Third Person POV)

The doors to the boss room swung open outwards with a loud *CLANG* the parties cautiously walked in, weapons raised. The room was filled with water but wasn't deep enough to go past their boots.

*CLANG* The door closed behind them. Then, they heard it.

*SKREECH*

An otherworldly call, grating against the adventurer's ears.

In the middle of the room, it surfaced from the water. It was a purple worm-like creature, however, no worm could compare to it. Its back was filled with huge spines, 3 heads, and 10 unnatural eyes gazed at the adventurers.

The 2 heads to the side had no eyes, a single row of sharp top teeth and 2 large fangs on their bottom jaws. However, it was the last head that was terrifying. All 10 eyes were on the largest middle head in addition to a top row of sharp teeth, 4 huge fangs adorned the corners of the mouth, a green liquid dripped from its mouth, it burned water when it fell. Several claw-like protrusions came out of its base and settled it the ground, however, its tail was still somewhere underwater.

It glared at those who intruded upon its domain.

The adventurers weren't standing still like statues either. They were already in formation, seeing the huge monster, they decided to spread out, it was the correct decision, as the beast spewed a line of acid right where they were grouped up, an unlucky fellow couldn't move quick enough because of his armor. The acid burned right through his armor. He quickly undressed throwing away his armor before the acid touched skin.

"Priests use divine shield on the frontline! And everyone spread out!"

At the time no-one could be sure who said that, but nevertheless they immediately acted it out. Golden Light filled the room, before settling on the warriors as a glowing aura.

*SKREECH*

Two tentacles came from beneath the frontmost warriors, grabbing them and throwing them away, the beast spewed acid at the flying forms with great accuracy, hitting them mid-flight.

"SHIT! Steve hurry up and heal them!"

"Its no use they're already dead!"

The beast was repeatedly spewing drops of acids at the adventurers with no end. Before 5 minutes have passed, a quarter of the adventurers have already died.

"Sophia, Clint grab its attention!" (Jane)

"On. It." (Clint)

"It's no use it has magic resistance!" (Sophia)

Clint reached into his armor, pulling out 2 handfuls of explosives, removing the safety he started bombing the monster from afar. By the time he had done it, Sophia had already hit the beast with dozens of ice bolts, however, the creature seemed unencumbered by the numerous icicles, it did not seem the least bit like a creature who was half frozen.

"Unnatural beast! Face the judgment of the God of Light! Divine Chains!"

A priest from another party yelled this, as dozens of chains composed of pure light sprang from the ground, and tried to pull it down. However, the beast broke the chains with ease.

*SKREECH*

Changing its target it tried to hit the priest with an acid spew, however, the priest was surprisingly fast and dodged easily.

*BOOM*

Its attention changed back to the armored adventure throwing grenades at it. The explosions did not hurt it much, however, the noise and light created by each explosion greatly annoyed it.

*BOOM*

Another grenade exploded directly in front of its face, however, before it could spew more acid at the adventurer, a flaming sword cut at its eye.

*SKREECH*

It reeled back in pain, the first time it has done so since the beginning of the fight.

"Nice going, Jane! Everyone aim for its eyes!" (Reyes)

3 throwing knives sailed through the air, 2 were swatted away by a tentacle, the last landed just short of its eyes, bouncing harmlessly off its tough skin. However as it was distracted, a silver arrow accurately hit one of its left eyes.

*SKREECH*

This time it turned towards the origin of the arrow. The elven archer that shot it was already nocking another arrow in his bow, before stopping and quickly rolling away. A pool of acid was where he was previously.

"DO NOT FALTER! WE CAN KILL THIS THING! CONCENTRATE! ATTACK IT FROM ALL SIDES! AND AIM FOR ITS EYES!" (Loud fellow)

This time, no one disregarded him, he was right after all.

"This one's gonna be a bitch." (Gordon)

"Well, what did you expect? This thing did kill 3 parties." (Reyes)

The priests weren't doing nothing. After seeing their divine arts unable to bind the beast, they decided to focus on only healing and shielding.

Afterwards, this event will be called the Dungeon Explosion by historians. An event where dungeons everywhere suddenly and without warning, spawned monsters unseen before in this world. Such an event has only happened twice before in recorded history. This event brought great challenges to the adventurers, but also great wealth as one won't know what great treasures or resources these monsters could hide.

The dungeon that caused this, was busy cursing his bad luck at lottery at this moment.