Chapter 4.18 - Never Outgunned

It seemed that the dungeon followed a pattern. As Serin stayed in his biome, each time he went down, his biome became colder and more desolate. What little plant life was there was the hardy shrubs that could survive a near constant winter. When Serin reached level 29, the temperature was enough to turn standing water into ice. The beasts were more of the same. Hardy mammals and a few Serpents capable of enduring a cold climate. This biome seemed to give resources to reflect these changes. Other than the monster materials, there was various minerals, metals, and a few cold weather lichens. The perma-ice was able to be found on every level at this point, making it the most abundant resource found. Serin also found a black metal he would have to investigate later.

Serin took about an hour to refit his weapons and refill his stamina and mana. He wanted to be abundantly prepared for what creature came next.

Upon moving through the gate, Serin was met with an outrageously large humanoid. Serin used his [Observe] skill and noted that it was a 'frost giant'. He had heard of frost Giants before, but was unsure how a frost giant would be different. Then Serin saw the other two frost giants. Serin did not wait for the rest of his group to come through. Serin began shooting one of the giants at the knee joints and began charging up an icicle. Regardless of their immunity to cold, they would not be able to withstand the destructive force of a spear of ice hurtling at impossible speeds.

As Serin was running and gunning his bolter in one hand, he fired off the overcharged icicle into the chest of the third giant with his other arm. This left the second giant to chase after him. The first was on the ground in pain as his knee joint had been minced by the bolter rifle.

Serin assumed that the anatomy of the giants was the same as that of any other human, and when the second giant was almost close enough to grab him, Serin dodged to the side and Jumped above the giant, landing on the back of his head. Serin then aimed his scattergun into the side of the giant's neck and fired, partially severing the artery at this location.

All of this happened in about a minute, and by the time the group was coming through, Serin was calmly walking up to the first giant preparing to give the finishing blow.

The group stared at the absolute carnage that Serin had wrought as Serin breathed in a deep breath. Serin's scattergun discharged into the neck of the last living giant. The wound was not instant but it was fatal. The howls of the injured giant were replaced by the last gasps of air as his body tumbled, unable to hold itself up anymore.

"So it looks like this boss floor was protected by multiple enemies. I think this is a warning that these types of enemies will appear in the future."

Serin looked at the wagons. This was the point that he was glad he had decided to bring extra wagons. The first was loaded down with all of the extremely high value materials from the previous 29 levels and was at capacity. The second was also almost fully at capacity, filled entirely with Perma-ice. With a large portion of giant meat for changelings, it was brought up to capacity. Serin looked at the group, "We're gonna need more wagons for the next trip."

***

Like the 10th floor, the 30th floor had a chest. This one was the same size as the other, so like the others, it was loaded onto the last wagon. Serin knew that the rest of the teams were starting to be exhausted. They had been awake for almost 2 days, so even if Serin was clearing the floors faster than his first run, the rest of the guides were exhausted.

"I did not plan on stopping, so unless the group feels unsafe, we can keep going. If you want since this floor is clear, we can sleep for a few hours."

The group agreed, and with this they found out a secret of the dungeon, which was the dungeon shift.

***

Serin had slept a few hours, and was walking over the dungeon when it happened. The gate to the next floor flared brightly, and then returned. Serin realized that something had changed, so he spoke out loud.

"The gate down has changed."

Jericho, who was awake the entire time, commented, "It was exactly 4 hours after we entered the floor."

Serin was confused, "Have we never spent more than 4 hours on a floor?"

Jericho shook his head, "No. we usually rap up the fighting and harvesting in only a few hours. We have never met the 4 hour mark on a single floor."

Serin looked at the group. "Let them get another 4 hours. We will see if it happens again."

***

At the 8 hour mark since entering the floor, the gate flared again.

Serin woke the group and explained about the shift.

"We don't know how this has changed the environment we are heading to, but we know that the dungeon has several biomes and each biome is radically different from the others. What we don't know is where the gate down takes us."

Serin then looked resolute, "I am absolutely confident in my ability to take on the threats below. But it is up to the group if we continue."

Jericho was the first to speak, "You specifically killed the last enemy so quickly that we never even had the chance of being put in danger. I think it would be worth it to keep going. We can go to at least level 40."

This led to a few murmurs in agreement. However, Edel and Allister shook their heads. "We think it might be best for us to take the carts up. We stopped being capable of fighting multiple physical threats several levels ago."

Serin Nodded, "On future trips we will bring extra carts and we can pay volunteers to take carts back as they are filled."

With that, the group split, Edel and Allister both primary spellcasters heading to the surface, and the rest continuing down."

***