Alta responded, “I suspect they carry messaging artifacts with them. If they don’t hear anything, they’ll know. To remain in an advantageous position, we should strike now.”

“Well, they could already know. Enough time has passed.”

“Then we still don’t want them to secure this dungeon’s loot,” she said, waving her hands at the golden coffins. “It seems this might be the most place in the dungeon.”

He nodded. That made sense. And he wanted to snatch as much power from the dungeon as possible, since he had the Earthlord Python’s sensory talent to detect treasures buried in the earth. A perfect summon for this dungeon, although it was much too large to fit. He’d have to unsummon and resummon it every once in a while.

A set of stairs led them down to another corridor. He noticed holes appear on the side of a wall, and arrows stuck on the opposite side. Not only that, but an entire step had spikes coming from it, a few soaked in blood.

“What a cruel trap,” he remarked, following Alta’s descent.

As she landed onto the final step, another spike lanced from beneath her feet and tried to impale her, but she quickly pivoted away. Now they approached even the empty corridor with excessive caution, flinging loose pebbles and dirt forwards. Alta lunged forwards with her hand then quickly retreated. Nothing happened.

Their carefulness rewarded them when triple Bolts of Decay splashed onto the wall behind them, angled to strike from a bend in the corridor.

A wide room greeted them, with many more corpses on the floor. It seemed this was a room resembling an Arena dungeon, which trapped adventurers inside to fight. Wisps of black fog lingered around the ceiling.

“How long have those been there?” he asked, waiting while Alta investigated the entire room for more traps. Some raised parts of the ground caused more arrows to fire, although some failed to do so.

“It’s been more than a few minutes, and nothing has changed. I wager this fog has stayed for many days before they could go through.”

There was enough space here to summon his Earthlord Python. After a few minutes of flicking its tongue and slithering around in circles, it detected something buried in a corner, retrievable even with human hands alone. Elemental gems: earth, water, fire, and air. Enough to complete three sets. But the digging took a while, and the python had discovered another source of energy further down.

This time, denser earth packets appeared, and he summoned the Ripjaw Ant Queen to dig instead. Death Gems: imbued with necromancy. Quite rare, though the system still marked it as Uncommon.

“I wonder how long it would take for these to return. Traps, treasure, and monsters.” It didn’t take too long for the Starlight Deer and their flowers to come back, but they already had many replacements while the Blight Cairn looked more intricate.

Only one exit led them out the arena room and into another corridor, where surprisingly no traps appeared. Instead, branching paths and curved walls afterwards made him feel lost. The party quickly chose a direction and walked forwards, using similar tactics to probe for traps.

Fireballs, Frost Orbs, Necrotic Fog, and even Withering Blasts shot out from unexpected places all over the maze. Not even the air was safe from something randomly exploding as they moved forwards, let alone the ceiling or floors.

They encountered the first surviving monsters in the middle, having dodged most of the traps. From their sides came twin undead shambling towards them from two coffins, now opened. Armor coated them without noise, as if melded to skin, and they held iron weapons in their hands. Alta stepped forwards to clash, shoving both back from Caesar before seeing what they could do.

Grave Guard – Level 24

[Rarity]: Uncommon

Although only Uncommon, they lacked the critical weaknesses that zombies and skeletons had. These were much hardier, and solid blows to the head barely shook them. Instead, Alta had to strike many more times before their skulls burst into showers of bone. As the two guardians died, the sound of many more lids ahead slammed onto the ground.

Every Grave Guard was now accompanied by two Ghouls – rank one – but with festering claws, wreathed in a foul, green mist. They swung to behead Caesar. Somehow they continued to target him, as if they knew he was alive, and only became distracted once Alta struck them with her khopesh.

An empowered Fireball disintegrated half the approaching undead while he and Alta worked to kill the remaining Grave Guards. It gave them both a level.

[Notice]: Congratulations! You have leveled up to Level 27! +2 Free Stat Points

[Notice]: Congratulations! Your Doppelganger (Alta) has leveled up to Level 26! +2 Free Stat Points

Both his points went to increase his Vitality to thirty, while her points increased her Agility to twenty-nine. He had felt the danger during that last fight, and realized he lacked the power to defend himself from most enemies without access to a summon beside him. A little more Vitality should help him survive longer.

He took a deep breath and waited. No other enemies appeared, so Caesar closed his eyes to try and summon the Earthlord Python, just barely managing to fit it inside the corridor. He waited there for a few minutes with Alta and the Skeleton Mage while staring warily at the door to the next room.

It was already ajar, and a golden coffin was opened beside it, with its inhabitant slain on the floor and lacking a weapon. This corpse appeared more like some of the others in the sewers – black and blue with rot and death.

Not wanting to enter just yet, Caesar retreated a few paces in another direction and encountered ragged zombies instead. With skin peeling and carrying rusted weapons, these posed no threat at all. But there were a great number, and a few more empowered fireballs were needed to put a stop to the assault.

The third branch from his current location was empty. It was the path that the Fox Cult must have used to travel through without fear. He noticed two golden coffins here, which contained corpses with lengthy claws. Not all gold coffins gave interesting items, it seemed.

The Python shivered a little and tried to strike at the wall, signifying that something was there. He ordered the Ripjaw Ant Queen to dig it out, finding a little metal shard which appeared darker than even nights without the moon.

[Item]: Stygian Shard – Rank 1

[Rarity]: Rare

[Effects]: A material imbued with death.

He allowed the Skeleton Mage to keep it in a small pouch perfect for tiny items such as this. With that accomplished, they readied themselves to enter the next room. Alta activated Illusory Veil and snuck in, scouting the area first in relative safety since she could absorb a few attacks with her Horror constitution.

Minutes passed, and she hadn’t returned. Caesar frowned but trusted her to deal with whatever problems she might encounter.

He did not expect it when an explosion suddenly shattered the silence, making his ears bleed, and his accumulated essence immediately flowed to repair it. But instead of rushing in, he stayed where he was, readied his dagger, and summoned the Kelpie.

Alta staggered out from the doorway, smoke trailing from her burnt red flesh. She had regained her true face, with a grim smile from ear to ear and a severed head in her hands.

“Who is that?”

“One of the remaining Fox Cult leaders. He was struggling to solve a puzzle, so I helped him a little.”

A sacrifice? It seemed so to Caesar, who expected more from a person who could make so much progress in this high-level dungeon without much rest.

The next room was wide and expansive, with a ceiling that could fit his entire python from head to tail.

Caesar stepped through pools of water, frowning at the dozens of spherical bubbles inside them. Were those traps? Nothing happened when Alta had touched them. Wooden logs bridged a pathway above the caverns, letting them see the entire room from a higher point. But these also looked damaged. And dozens more suspicious marks marred the walls and ceiling.

Yet the entire room was empty; its traps disarmed by somebody, presumably the man Alta had slain. Which appeared suspicious: why hadn’t they done so for the traps beforehand? Clearly they had spotted many, and thus possessed the power to leave some behind for other people to deal with.

A unique condition. The thought immediately came to Caesar that this was a secret area of the dungeon. Entering through the normal passageways was simple, but there might be hidden tunnels to navigate the Blight Cairn with ease.

No obvious methods of detecting the secret area stood out to him, so he decided to rely on his Earthlord Python instead. He had not used its perk point, and thus chose to do so now on its Geomantic Locus. After giving Alta two of his four Common healing potions, a quick scan down the list made him smile.

[Geomantic Locus (A)]: An ability that designates a nearby area as the user’s locus of magic, bolstering the power and range of all Geomancy and Divination spells cast inside the radius while the user remains in contact with the earth. Cooldown is a day to shift the area to another location.

It also grants protection from negative effects of water within the radius, including spells, abilities, weather, and terrain.

[Perk Option 1 – Supremacy]: Geomantic Locus bolsters Geomancy and Divination abilities and talents as well.

[Perk Option 2 – Authority]: Geomantic Locus bolsters all spells cast by the user instead of only Geomancy and Divination.

[Perk Option 3 – Dominance]: Geomantic Locus gains two charges which replenish in twelve hours instead of a day.

The current situation demanded him take the first option to give it improved Earthen Sensing, which might help it locate the missing Fox Cult leaders. Although the second choice would help with the hydra if he fused a Pyromancy spell, it was not yet time.

It closed its eyes, basking in the glow of its ability for a single minute, before shooting forwards to strike at a wall. Three strikes and it fell, revealing a tiny space.

Alta and Caesar rushed down the corridor as fast as they could in a crawl. No traps appeared, and that helped them catch up to the overly cautious leader of the Fox Cult who remained wary. Clad in brown and black garments, she appeared completely surprised and began to flee, but the two Agility users rapidly caught up just as the cultist dropped into a new room.

“How did you two get in here?” she shouted before vanishing.

Caesar said nothing and summoned the Earthlord Python into the room with them, who immediately exposed the cult leader with Locate Enemies. Still enhanced with Geomantic Locus, it shot a flurry of spikes at the woman who deflected it with a tarry substance, slowing the attack just enough for her to easily dodge.

More of that black, foul-smelling substance splashed around the room and stuck onto the walls and floor. With a single spark from her hands, she let it burn brightly, laughing maniacally as she weaved under the party’s attacks. Caesar frowned and glanced around. No obvious exit appeared, apart from the entrance above. It was clear this room only contained treasure, but this leader of the Fox Cult in Placto was unwilling to let them have any chance of victory.

He thus ignored her actions and blinked away the tears in his eyes. His throat irritated him, but he withheld the urge to panic and summoned the Skeleton Mage. It immediately activated its facet and brought them both to the sole exit, where it began casting as he grabbed onto the ledge and crawled to safety. The dungeon shook as a massive python rampaged in the room.

[Notice]: Congratulations! Your Skeleton Mage has leveled up to Level 22! +1 Free Stat Points

Great job, he thought and resummoned Alta into the space behind him. Her flesh became burned once more and required two Uncommon healing potions to restore. But she – and the python as well – would fully heal eventually, with the flood of essence that further confirmed the woman’s death: a quantity greater than anything else he had seen before except for the Earthlord Python. Another enemy above Level 30. His successes made him feel exhilarated.

He waited there quietly for the flames and fumes to disappear before dropping down again. Unfortunately, the chests which contained loot had been incinerated in the blaze. His hands sifted through the ashes for a moment and came up with nothing.

Yet he felt relieved. With the threat gone, it was safe to now complete the dungeon slowly, using his Ripjaw Ant Queen and the Earthlord Python to uncover items inside the walls. The Pax Society apothecary would arrive very soon, so for now, Caesar returned to the lakeside house while Alta led the other two summons to roam the Blight Cairn.