The next two days flashed by in a blur of research. Mash had been restricted to his house, and he was happy to oblige with it. He had seen and heard several of the rumors surrounding him. None of them made him want to leave the house. He did get some visitors, in the form of several members of the royal family. All but the king himself had come by to give him their support and congratulations. That only led to others wanting to mimic them. Before the first day ended, he had escaped to the training area, and just focused on his golden body. Which didn’t really get him anywhere. As it turned out, he wasn’t really able to grow with just two days of training.

While he was busy avoiding the public eye, the others spent that time on research. Finding a dungeon that fit all of their requirements was annoying. Even after two days of searching Red only found one dungeon that would work. And even then, the dungeon wasn’t perfect. The monsters within were weaker than they wanted, and the dungeon itself wasn’t exactly pleasant. With all of that said, it was the one they had chosen since Jill and Luke hadn’t found better options.

The plan was set, and it didn’t take long to get to the dungeon in question. The dungeon wasn’t far, and their trip had been uneventful. It was located in the broken remains of a town. The town itself had been called Waterbury, for the blueberries that had grown on the bushes in the area. They had passed a few of those bushes on their journey. Mash had eaten a couple of berries too. The others couldn’t since they were extremely poisonous. Luke could’ve healed them, but none of them felt particularly inclined to consume poison. Mash didn’t care, and he was somewhat rewarded for it. They were sweeter than almost any fruit he had ever tried. The first bite he had taken had been surprising enough to make him spit it out. Although, the flavor had grown on him quickly. He made sure to grab some of the seeds to grow in his world.

Other than the bushes there wasn’t much to see. All that remained of the town was a few broken buildings and the vaguest semblance of a wall surrounding them all. A couple of scattered pieces of stone jutted out of the dirt and revealed the shape of the town. Unsurprisingly, the town was completely empty. The surrounding grasslands had some low-level monsters now, though none actually entered the town’s territory. The dungeon had frightened off the weaker monsters.

Normally, Mash would be thrilled to be entering a new dungeon. But even he couldn’t smile as he stared at the dungeon’s entrance. Unlike the other portals he had seen, this one lay atop the ground. It functioned as a hole that they would need to jump into. The grass around it was wet and the dirt had all turned to mud. Only Lisa seemed genuinely excited by the dungeon, and she impatiently tapped her foot as she waited for Mash. He was supposed to be the first one in. Admittedly, he was a little excited about the dungeon too. Even if the dungeon itself was a little unpleasant, it would provide him with the levels needed to advance. That thought spurred him to action.

The dungeon was well recorded, so he knew what to expect as he dropped into it. He stepped from the solid ground and jumped into the hole. It moved him like Jill’s teleportation skill, which did not feel natural. It was weird to know that he was falling without feeling like he was. He couldn’t even really react as his feet splashed against some water. The water quickly rose to cover his knees, and Mash instantly cut off his sense of smell. The water was a sickly shade of green. He could barely see the stone underneath. Without his domain, he would’ve tried swimming. He shuddered at the thought of swimming in the water.

As his eyes fully adjusted to the darkness, he couldn’t help but gag a little at what he saw. The dungeon was aptly called the “Used Sewer.” The walls had stains that he distinctly did not want to think about, and he ignored the disgustingly thick feeling of the water. He seriously considered leaving. This would not be a good representation of a dungeon for Lisa. Before he could come to a decision, the others dropped into the water around him. They were all wearing masks that had been drenched in perfume, but there was little that could be done to completely stop the smell. Several of them made gagging noises.

“The Kraken’s Lair would’ve been better than this.”

Jill grumbled as she tried flutily to push the smell away.

“We can’t breathe underwater. Nor are we capable of fighting a Kraken. It’s supposed to be over level 200.”

Red responded flatly although Mash noticed that she was just as desperate in her attempts to brush the air away from her face.

“Still. We could’ve done something.”

Jill mumbled back, but even she couldn’t make that claim confidently. Lisa interrupted their argument.

“Is it safe to just stand here? I believe you mentioned that this dungeon had a lot of monsters?”

Her head darted back and forth as she looked down the hallway. She didn’t really seem particularly bothered by the situation though. Her excitement had dimmed. There were only two directions for them to go. This was a pretty common starting location for the dungeon, so they knew what to do.

“It’s fine. We should be fine in the starting areas. Plus, I would sense anything if it got close.”

Mash responded as he observed his surroundings. His domain let him get a better feel for the way the hallway curved. The dungeon was designed with a circular pattern, and the first thing they needed to find was the curvature of that circle. The center of the dungeon was where the exit was.

“It curves around like this.”

Mash swung his arm down the length of the hallway so that the others could see. Mash started trudging through the water and ignored the moments when he stepped on something that wasn’t stone. The dungeon would actually be simple to clear for them. All they had to do was head toward the center of the circle and kill any monsters along the way. Mash was fairly certain they could complete it within the day if they wanted to. They weren’t going to though. This dungeon would reset every time it was entered so long as they hadn’t cleared it. If they did clear it, they would need to wait till tomorrow to enter it again. No, their plan was to get to the end and teleport out. Then they would start over from the beginning. This is where the unpopularity of the dungeon helped them.

It didn’t take long to run into their first pack of monsters. The creatures in question were some strange fish that scrapped against the ground. They had long poisonous whiskers and were the weakest of what they would find here. These monsters survived by eating the grime of the floor. Other than the poison, the creatures posed little threat. They could bite and had sharp teeth for that purpose. The fish weren’t able to do any real damage considering the group's defenses.

Before long all of the monsters had been killed. Mash hadn’t gained any levels. Lisa gained one level but no one else did. They weren’t really expecting to gain levels that quickly though. However, Mash was able to do something else with the monster bodies. He let a wooden mouth eat one, but the rest he absorbed into his body with chimeric reconstruction. It was the most consistent way to develop his golden body. The rest of the day progressed just like that.

There were other monsters, but nothing that was truly a threat. The dungeon was designed in such a way that the boss at the end was the main reason for the level rating of it. Most of the monsters they found would be between 60-100. The worst thing they had to deal with was some particularly nasty-looking lizards, which exploded into a cloud of spores. Mash was glad to learn that things he breathed in counted for his skill, so he was impervious to it. Luke’s healing covered everything. Red also turned out to be immune to most things.

The day went by quickly, and each of them killed hundreds of monsters. As day turned to night, they decided it was time for the last run. They prepared to clear the dungeon and face the boss monster at the end. This dungeon didn’t really have any rewards outside of levels so there wasn’t anything particularly special about clearing it. It didn’t stop them from wanting to do it though. The challenge alone was enough.

After having run the dungeon a few times already, they were pretty familiar with how to clear it. An hour was all it took for them to make it to the final room. The sewer had several rooms within its maze-like design, but the center room was notable for its size. Just like the whole dungeon, murky green water covered the floor. The water level had varied across their multiple attempts. Currently, it sat just above Mash’s knees. The water really inconvenienced only Lisa and Jill as they were relatively short. Lisa’s dwarven blood made her especially short so the water rose to her hips. Her slender build didn’t help, and she struggled to wade through the water.

It wasn’t a big deal considering that Jill would fight the boss alone. They had made a game of it, and she had won the right to the first clear. The final room contained a young basilisk and had been estimated to be around level 140. Although that evaluation was a little inflated because of its poisonous nature of it. Creatures that spread poison and disease tended to receive a higher estimated level. The dungeon had already proven that poison didn’t do anything to him. And Jill could dodge just about any attack.

The boss turned out to be as unimpressive as he had assumed. The basilisk struggled to hurt Jill, and when it did, she just teleported to Luke to get healed. She only got hurt twice. Once when the creature breathed out an acidic mist and another time when it secreted poison into the water around itself. Jill had only barely touched the mist, but it had dissolved nearly all the skin on one of her fingers. While the monster was a little disappointing. Mash’s attention was already focused on something else. It was toward his status and soul. Mash’s status filled his mind, and he completely forgot about the world around him. He was finally ready to do something with his Golden Body.

Name: Mash Stellumbra Class: Chimeric Vagabond

Level: 131 → 137

Health: 3109 / 3330

Energy: 3799 / 4590

Fortitude: 400 → 401

Endurance: 229

Strength: 341 → 343

Agility: 379

Intelligence: 230

Wisdom: 130

Charisma: 110

Free Stats: 0 → 60

Skills: Hunt, Magical Layered Wood, Inhuman Hibernation, Chimeric Transformation, Wooden Birth, Chimeric Reconstruction, Vagabond’s Path, Chimeric Domain, Reconstructed Adaptable Monster Core , Chimera’s Constitution, Wooden Body, Mimic’s Avarice, Harbinger of Nothing, Golden Body

Golden Body (Passive): Having stolen the techniques of another world, your body evolves beyond its old limitations. However, even this transformation is incomplete. Seek out the next Step and truly make this power your own.

Trial of the True Body: 77 → 100 / 100