Chapter 86: Centipede Graveyard Dungeon Part 5

The moment the body of the metallic creature started to crumble away its entire shape shifted one last time as it went back to forming a massive door that seemed to open a new path for them all to take. The gem was no longer there so the door wasn't locked and was left wide open so that they could all enter. Joshua quickly jumped off the cliff and floated down to get a good look at the new path before them while everyone else climbed down. The path was far bigger than any of the others that they had come across in the dungeon so far, but that made since considering how large the lizard they had just taken down was.

Joshua used his aura to push his floating body into the entrance where he landed and waited for all of the others to come in as well. With a quick aura pulse he was able to tell that the path didn't go very far in and could see that there was another room at the end of it. When everyone got into the entry way Joshua took the lead and headed towards the door at the back of the path.

'What do you think we'll run in to this time around?' Amy asked. 'I doubt that the only thing we'll find up ahead is a key to unlocking the door from earlier. Not after fighting that giant chunk of metal to get in here.' She seemed a bit annoyed at the thought of fighting the metallic beast since all of her attacks were useless when there were no insides for her to go after with her penetrative attacks.

'I'm sure there will be some sort of treasure, but I'm not sure what kind. Maybe a blue print of some kind based off of similar level dungeons we've come across in the past.' Joshua said just as they reached the large doors at the end of the path. Luckily these doors didn't have a gem on them so they didn't have to worry about another fight right away. Joshua didn't sense any presence on the other side of the door either so he let Marcus check the door for traps before opening it and going inside.

Cinder and Titus had to shrink down in size as they entered the room since it was much smaller than the path they had taken to get there. The first thing Joshua noticed about the room was how empty it was. There were no pillars inside of it like most of the rest of the dungeon had, it was just like a little cave that held only two treasure chest in it. One of the chest looked like a regular chest while the other was a royal blue in color which told Joshua right away that they were going to get a decent blue print out of it.

Joshua stepped aside and let Marcus check out both treasure chest. When he found both of them safe Joshua went ahead and opened the regular chest first which had a bronze key in it that seemed fit for one of the locks on the door all the way back at the branching point. When he opened the other treasure chest he received a blue print that he was excited to take back to the blue print shop later. It had been a little while since he got a new blue print and he was hoping to get something interesting out of it.

With that they had cleared one of the paths of the dungeon that they needed to and it was time to head back and explore the other path. If they were able to clear that path quick enough then it would be likely that they would be able to finish the dungeon within the day if they were lucky. They headed back the way they had come since there didn't seem to be any other direction that they could go. They had to climb back up the cliff, but this time around there weren't any lizards that got in their way. Once they got back up on to the ledge they followed the path back all the way to the branching point where the two other doors remained.

The moment Joshua took out the key from his inventory it flew into the air and shot towards one of the locks on the giant door. With a loud click they could all tell that one of the locks had been opened, now they just needed to go down the other path and find the other key. Since they had found a rather unique opponent at the end of one path they were fairly certain that they would run into another big fight once they reached the end of the other path.

'Let's go ahead and get this other path over with.' Henry said after the little magical side show of the door had come to an end. 'Since there were so many lizards on the path that we just came from you can all expect to run into quite a few centipedes going down this path.'

'Lines up that way.' Victor said with a shrug, but everyone in the group seemed a little tenser. They all knew that the centipedes were the true danger in the dungeon no matter how many lizards tried to gang up on them. Every time they had gone up against the centipedes so far in the dungeon they were the ones to get the jump on the giant creatures. The centipedes were always distracted by the lizards that they were trying to hunt down. Now they were likely to be headed in to the den of where the centipedes were coming from, so they all were prepared for more of a challenge.

Joshua took the lead as they headed down the new path and they were once again met with a pathway filled with pillars like most of the dungeon had been. The obvious difference between this path and the last one they took was the fact that it was much wider and had more room to the point where Titus only had to crouch a little bit to fit. Of course the giant gorilla and Cinder both shrunk down in size a bit so it would be easier for them to fight if needed, but the size difference was a clear indication that they were going to come across a different type of creature going down this path.

It didn't take very long for them to encounter an enemy as the skin crawling sound of a centipede's legs churning across the ground started to come from further down the path. The sound was soon followed by the sight of one the large centipede making a mad dash towards their group. Joshua quickly rushed forward to get into the path of the large creature before it could dive into the middle of their group and cause havoc. The centipede took this as a challenge as it felt Joshua's aura pressuring it and aimed its giant mandibles directly towards Joshua.

The collision of the centipede's charge with Joshua's scale blade sent him skidding back a bit because of the size difference, but with his rock steady ability Joshua was able to hold his ground and keep the creature from getting past him. Titus then roared before slamming his fist into the top of the centipede and sending its upper body crashing into the floor. Before they could focus on putting down the centipede Joshua could sense more coming from down the hall and decided to warn everyone else.

'This guy's got friends coming behind him. All tanks get up front while everyone else wears them down. Their defenses aren't as strong as the guardian's was so don't worry about having to fight them a certain way. Just overpower them.' Joshua explained as he coated his scale blade in aura and slammed it into the skull of the centipede in front of him. The force of the blow created a large indention in its exoskeleton and Joshua could see lots of blood gush out from the cracks on the exoskeleton.

Within seconds the group was met with three more of the centipedes that came rushing down the path. The centipede that Joshua and Titus were currently attacking was still thrashing around even if it was on the verge of death, but that didn't seem to frighten off the others. Jayce took the lead with a shield wall to stop all of the centipedes in their track before they could get to close to the rest of the group. The moment all of the centipedes were in front of the group the mages let loose with a barrage of spells. The resulting explosions killed off the centipede that Titus and Joshua had already knocked down and injured the rest. Even so the remaining centipedes were still relentless as they tried to climb up on the ceiling to get around Jayce's shield wall.

Adrian and Natsumi both leaped towards the ceiling and started cutting the legs off of the centipedes forcing them to fall down to the ground and squirm around to try to get back up. Their position made it easy for Victor and Allen to start cutting off more of their legs to immobilize the creatures. Once they were stuck on the ground they were easy pickings for Titus and Cinder who tore them apart. Amy on the other hand just slammed her fist into the skull of one of them shattering the insides of its head. The fight was frantic, but short in the end and the centipedes wouldn't stop struggling until either they had lost too much blood or their heads were completely destroyed.

Joshua smiled a bit at the feeling of experience he was gaining and he knew that he'd be reaching level eighty soon enough. The creatures were giving enough experience that a lot of his guild members had already gained some levels and he could feel that he was getting closer himself. He just needed something with a lot of experience like a boss to push him past that level eighty hump.

After putting away the centipedes in to his inventory Joshua lead the way once more further down the path. It didn't take very long for more centipedes to come after them, but they made sure to stop and hold their ground whenever they encountered any of them. If they tried to push through at too fast of a pace then some of the centipedes would get the opportunity to dive through the walls and take them by surprise if they weren't careful. Because of the situation it took a little longer for them to make it to the end of the path and they were once again met with a cliff that they would have to climb down. Dealing with the lizard while scaling the cliff was one thing, but the powerful centipedes would be a much bigger problem.

'Keep on guard everyone. I'll take the lead and make sure none of those things can take us by surprise.' Joshua said before stepping off the ledge and making his way down.