Chapter 4.8 - Recovery Team

Serin assembled outside the dungeon with Jericho, Rachel, Allister, and Olma. Serin was less than pleased with the development. All of the teams seemed strong enough to take on level 1 of the dungeon, so either Elder Merrin made a mistake when checking teams, or Serin had overlooked something. Serin went over the battle plan. "We go in, we assess the situation, we kill monsters, we rescue people. It is imperative that we at least return their bodies. No sightseeing, no delays. If you cannot pick up the supplies as we move, we leave it behind."

Serin had used the [Permanence] spell on another set of bracelets. "This bracelet has the spell Mark cast on it. If I use it with Locate, I can find you."

Serin then continued, "We stay together as a group. The priority here is rescue. We are bringing the cart, but that is more for carrying the others out, in case they cannot move on their own."

Serin then looked at the dungeon. Serin was correct that the dungeon worked on a 24 hour cycle, as it was 24 hours since the previous group went through and according to his [precognition] skill, it was time to enter to get to where they needed to be.

Serin led the group in. Just as before, Serin went through the gate first, with a firebolt aimed. But there were no rabbits to be found. He saw the enemy kill count, and it showed he had 36 enemies to defeat. But this didn't make sense. Serin was sure the monsters would not resurrect if the previous team was still present, so it meant either the previous team had completely died on level one, or…

"Those fools." Serin then looked to see that the floor's monsters had found him. Crawling out of the ground were large creatures made up of several boulders. Serin used Observe and saw that these creatures were named 'minor earth elementals'. Serin fired off his firebolt, but it hit the rock and pinged off. The creatures slowly moved towards Serin. "That might be a problem"

***

The creatures 'minor earth elementals' were resistant to most of Serin's elemental magic. They were not resistant to direct force. An intermediate spell Serin had picked up back in Ston, named [Shatter] caused physical objects to break. Serin had to feed extra magic since the object he was attempting to shatter was rock, but thankfully the rock elementals were made of a porous rock. Had they been made of granite or even a metal, Serin would have been hard pressed to dispatch them. With their slow movement Serin was able to take them out with no worry.

Serin did not finish them all off before the rest of the team arrived through the gate. As they came through, Serin made sure to mention their resistance to normal weapons and elemental magic. Rachel test fired a magic arrow, and it did a little knockback and a small chip off of one rock elemental, but no significant damage. Allister did not bother, but instead raised a shadow and instructed it to search for the missing team.

Olma came through, and looked a bit defeated at the rock elementals. "How am I supposed to eat that?" Serin smirked, "We are not on a leisurely stroll. Plus I am not sure a scythe would work." Olma smirked, and Serin watched as her arm formed and grew into a large hammer.

"Basher Bug" was Olma's response, and she swung her large hammer shell of an arm down on the rock elemental, smashing it to bits. As one came close, she formed her other arm into a large insectoid plate. "Plate bug" and Olma, with hammer and shield, made quick work of the remaining creatures.

Allister's summoned shadow returned, Allister then reported, "The shadow I sent has not found any humanoids on this floor. Nor has it found any human corpses."

Serin shook his head. Jericho understood. Jericho commented, "So it looks like, through accident or on purpose this team went through the wrong door and went deeper into the dungeon."

Serin nodded in agreement, "That was my initial assessment when the enemies had reformed."

Serin then felt his precognition tug at him. "I have a feeling we only have so long until the second level, as i have a feeling like the starting point on the second level shifts just as the starting point on the first level."

Serin and the team nodded and moved. Olma tried by swallowing the core of the elemental, and even if it was the size of a small toe, she was able to gulp it down. She was pleased as it seemed she had in fact absorbed the essence of the fallen creature.

The team continued forward. Serin had summoned Ignis, his familiar this time to collect magic cores as they moved.

***

It took less than twenty minutes of moving at a brisk pace to encounter all of the enemies on the floor. Like the forest theme before, this section of floor 1 was also a forest, however this forest was less temperate and colder. The creatures found matched this, as after the minor earth elementals, they ran into hairy razor hogs, trihorn stags, and wind foxes. The boss of the floor was a large six legged creature that resembled the stag, but was larger and covered in thick wool. It's primary attribute was strength, so other than being able to take a lot of damage, it was fairly easy to dispatch. They took no time to explore for materials drops.

After beating it, Serin saw the two gates. "Alright, off to level 2. We don't know what to prepare for, so everyone stay alert."

Serin charged up an icicle on the end of his rifle, and headed through. As he walked through, it was more of the same. The temperature was a few degrees cooler, Serin looked and saw that the remaining enemies count was still 52/52. Serin shook his head. Serin looked and saw a shadow moving across the ground. He then saw that it was in the sky and saw as large birds were swooping down, claws outstretched at Serin. Their attacks bounced off his shield, and he shot one as it attempted to flap away for another pass.

Olma was second through the gate, and when she saw one of the birds flapping away her legs shifted into that of a cricket, and she jumped clear 30 meters into the air and grabbed the large bird. With her restraining it and her added weight it slowly plummeted to the ground. Olma quickly dispatched it.

Rachel, Allister, and Jericho came through shortly after to find Serin and Olma surrounded by bird carcasses and feathers. Serin looked at Jericho, "They are either dead on this level, or they went deeper."

Level 2 was not much more difficult than level one. And the dungeons started to hold a pattern. 4 types of creatures, and a boss monster. After dispatching the birds Serin identified as 'iron hawks' from their heavy metal claws, they ran into a nest of frost spiders as large as dogs, a pack of wolves that were larger than stags, and a patch of living vines that attempted to strangle Allister. These, unlike the pitcher plants, were in plain sight but did not show up as a threat until they started to move. The boss of the floor was a snow leopard. When the two gates appeared, Serin knew they had to head deeper into the dungeon.