1590 Words

When Seth awoke the next morning, he was a bit disoriented and couldn't quite remember where he was. The now familiar wooden ceiling was now made of fabric and his heavenly soft new bed was hard as rock. When his brain also finally woke up he once again remembered that they would explore the dungeon again. The morning really wasn't his time of the day. He really bemoaned the fact that his field of study wasn't about the effects of nice beds and cushions on cultivation. On that path there was no danger to his life and it was comfy as well, but then on the other hand he wouldn't be rich and he wouldn't get to experience any adventures either. Why were there no purely positive choices in life?

Still mumbling and grumbling to himself he emerged from his tent to relieve himself and get his sore muscles healed so that he could survive this day only to suffer again tomorrow. Cog had once told him that he had never seen such an optimistic morning person, but he was sure there was a hint of sarcasm in his statement.

Once the whole group was ready to go they left the small camp, its caretaker and the protective formations behind and they entered the twilight of the underground jungle that encompassed the next ten floors. In the beginning they had used the broken paths that was barely visible and only illuminated by the occasional Mana stone. That had proven to be a disastrous move as they had been in the open while the hunters on that stalked them could ambush them at anytime and retreat back into the shadows. There had been quite a few deaths before they realized that no matter how scary the undergrowth was, being in the open was worse. The number of members in a team had also been enhanced as safety in numbers was a very real concept here, if only to minimize the chance that the unlucky one to be dragged away wasn't you but your neighbor. Another problem of using the pathways was that they led from one monster den to the other and once they felt that their offspring was in danger the beasts attacked with reckless abandon, leaving only mutilated corpses to be found of the lucky members that didn't get eaten.

As the only non-combat member and expedition leader he was naturally in the middle of the group, the safest position really, but even that did nothing to relieve his tension. Luckily every member of this group was an elite hunter and veteran dungeon diver, at least in comparison to the rest of the sect. Seth was only necessary by the virtue of being favored by Elder Torian and having read every single report and bit of information on dungeons available to the Sect. They were likely to encounter something unexpected or new and they needed someone who either knew what it was or could make an educated guess that could save their group from extermination. The jungle was eerily quiet and the rustling of leaves was the only thing to be heard until a scream broke the quiet.

The whole group rushed forward to see one of the weaker scouts being half-swallowed by a huge alligator that had been buried in the mud. Its snout was already bloody from his frantic blows with his small machete that he had used earlier to clear them a path. A few of the faster members had already arrived and under the onslaught of ten angry hunters it quickly died only to clamp down its maw in the last second. With a sickening crunch the scout's spine snapped and his eyes glazed over. Wether he was still alive and unconscious or already dead was impossible to say, but after a quick check with his Divine Sense one of the other hunters confirmed the first loss of their expedition.

Not wanting to leave their friend rotting in the dungeon, it took five hunters to force open the nameless alligators jaws and remove the corpse. It was then placed in one of the space bags so that they could bury him in the extensive graveyard near the Sect's headquarters. The alligators corpse was then processed, since it was no use wasting precious materials out of sentimentality. It helped neither the dead nor the living. When they resumed the exploration the scouts were kept closer and everyone's awareness was at the peak. After another 19 hours the group finally reached the end of the 15th floor, thankfully without any more casualties and they reached a safe room that was not yet occupied by any beasts.

The passage to reach it was a narrow tunnel and thus easily defensible by the five Inner Disciples that stayed here. They had been enlisted by the Sect to guard it for ten years, in which they would get preferential treatment by the sect. Namely better resources for cultivation and a free weapon and armor. They could also amass bonus contribution points by hunting or gathering natural resources and selling their gains to the Sect commissioned traders that would visit them once a month in the near future or discovering new important locations like beast hideouts, Mana geysers and ore veins in their allocated 5 floors. The death toll from these stationed Inner Disciples would of course be very high in the beginning, but once they were more accustomed to the dungeon and the dangerous locations were known the Sect expected the number of deaths to drastically drop. Every year there were masses of new Inner Disciples since the bottleneck from Mist Mana to Liquid Mana wasn't a big one and it wouldn't really hurt the sect to loose a few. The truly talented disciples had enough resources anyway and the ones with poor aptitudes would be filtered out until the disciples worth nurturing were left behind.

After leaving the scout's corpse in the camp so that they could get it on their way out they set out once again the next morning and after ten hours of running they made another stop on the 17th floor after encountering a fast flowing river with murky green water that made it impossible to know what dangers lurked within. Naturally the whole group was very tense and many threw nervous glances at the water, many of them had heard about instances where careless hunters had been ambushed and dragged down water holes or rivers. Since the Snappers, who were masters at this technique, had static jaws they could only rip out pieces of their prey and couldn't chew it properly, they drowned their victims first to make sure that it wouldn't escape afterwards. Drowning was one of the most horrible ways to go for a cultivator since they had a much higher lung capacity and could go much longer without air then ordinary mortals. That in turn meant, that their death sruggles could go on for hours with no hope for help.

The only warning they got was a low humming sound, before 5 Praying Mantis type beasts broke through the thicket behind them and started slashing at anything in reach of their claws. With a start Seth began to circulate his Mana and hurry to the site of the attack, together with everyone else. But as soon as the beasts realized that their opponents were stronger then they looked, they retreated back into the woods with the same blinding speed from their ambush and soon even the low humming sound of their wings wasn't audible anymore.

"Any losses?" He asked, fearing the worst.

"Karg lost his right arm when he protected his face. Only clean cut wounds that can be stitched together otherwise." Came the quick answer from Roman, his second in command who also doubled as his bodyguard.

"Quickly apply blood staunching salves and scent covering powder and then we have to move! The scent of fresh blood will have the beasts near us in a frenzy and we can't afford to still be here when they arrive." After a hurried first aid the Seth's team was once again on the move.

Six hours later they finally arrived in the camp on the 20th floor. It was once again a hard-to-reach cave with a narrow entrance tunnel that was located near the entrance to the floor and fortunately hidden from view behind a hill that was overgrown with tall grass. The exploration team had only found it because they had seen it on the map that was provided by the dungeon and a camouflage array had made sure it was not accidentally discovered by the beasts that entered the floor regularly.

Again a night had passed and the troop was one man shorter again as Karg was unable to really help them out and would soon even become a burden. Once the time came that they went back out he would join them again.

Once outside they convened together on the hill next to the entrance and enjoyed the panoramic view. Seth took a deep breath and thought to himself:

"This is so much better than the damn jungle."

Then out loud he said:

"Remember everyone. This floor might seem idyllic, but it is even more dangerous than the last and the fact that we can see everyone also means that everyone can see us. So be careful, be alert and let's hope we reach the 25th floor without any further losses."