The first thing I noticed after stepping into the Dungeon was that it looked different from the Dungeons that I was used to seeing.
The Dungeons I have been in so far were usually labyrinths with straight, winding corridors with a boss room on certain floors.
This Dungeon in particular seemed to look like a normal cave system which made me question if we just went into a normal cave instead of a Dungeon.
I was assured that this was indeed a Dungeon and not a normal cave.
The other thing was that it was really dark without any source of light. Jack and the others had brought along torches for it but they did not need to use it now since I offered to use my [Spotlight] spell to illuminate the area around us.
With that said… We’ve been walking for a while now but we’ve yet to encounter anything, not even other Dungeoneers or Mercenaries.
But everyone seemed to be on alert as though they were expecting something to jump out at us at any given moment.
Naturally, that made me concerned too so I was also on guard just in case something dropped down from the ceiling or something.
So far so good at least.
Loyd then made a noise from behind me and Jack stopped immediately with his shield raised up, prompting Markus to join him as well.
The others also moved into combat stances which told me enough that Loyd probably detected an enemy ahead of us.
Seeing that he’s the ranger of the party, maybe he has some enemy detection skill?
I took my place beside Melissa, just as a rumbling was heard up ahead of us.
We held our positions until what looked like a giant tortoise slowly ambled its way into the light of my light ball.
It was the size of a cabin and instead of a shell, it looked like it was carrying a giant piece of rock with holes for its limbs and head instead. On top of said rock, black crystals seemed to be growing out in small clusters.
[Name: Gold Tortoise
Race: Monster
Stats:
250 Strength
20 Dexterity
300 Endurance
100 Magic
Magic Skills:
Geomancy (Tier 1)]
I don’t see any gold though?
“Gold Tortoise! Flank it and strike from the sides! Markus and I will draw its attention!” Jack barked out his orders quickly.
The others moved to obey while I stayed with Melissa, acting as backline support for the party.
The tortoise let out a roar and stamped its foot on the ground, causing several stones to levitate up before shooting forward at us.
Markus and Jack immediately leapt in front and raised their shields, blocking the stone bullets from reaching the rest of us.
Loyd then pulled on his bowstring and loosed an arrow, shooting the projectile forward and hitting home on the tortoise’s head.
The monster barely even reacted to the attack, continuing its advance forward despite having an arrow stuck on top of its head.
Unperturbed, Loyd continued raining down arrows on the monster, shooting at any exposed parts that he could see.
Viera and Sabrina went to the left and right of the tortoise respectively while Jack and Markus charged towards the tortoise from the front.
Melissa pointed her staff at Jack, “I grant you strength through mystic force. Move the skies, the earth and the sea, nothing shall stop your awesome might. [Strength]!”
𝑂𝑽𝔩xt.𝕔𝓞𝑀
Light converged around Jack for a moment before dissipating and I did not need to ask to know that the spell must have increased his strength.
That must be a spell that you can cast when you reach tier two in Iatromancy I suppose?
Jack leapt up into the air and swung his sword down on the tortoise’s head with enough force to cause it to smash into the ground.
The cave shook with the force of the blow, a testament of how much his strength had increased.
Jack leapt back in time for Markus to slam his shield down on the tortoise’s head, enlarging the crater that it had already created.
Viera and Sabrina then stabbed their own weapons into the tortoise’s exposed limbs, drawing blood before they leapt back at the same time as Jack and Markus.
They seemed to have anticipated the tortoise’s next move as it raised its legs up at the next moment to smash them down, blasting out a small shockwave that would have sent them flying had they remained where they were.
“Aster! Static Bolt please!” Jack ordered.
Oh, for him to know what spells I could cast even though he was not proficient in magic and neither have I told him… That could only mean that he had gone to learn about what kind of spells each school of magic could cast to better coordinate his team fights.
Pretty impressive.
I obliged and made sure to chant the incantation for the spell since Melissa was beside me right now.
The ball of electricity shot forward and hit the tortoise on the head, causing its body to seize up momentarily as the spell took effect.
For a monster of that size, it would probably only be effective for a second or two but that was enough time for everyone to land a few more blows on the monster before backing off again.
Melissa went ahead to chant the same spell to buff everyone else, allowing them to strike harder against the tortoise while I concentrated on CC-ing it.
The monster then let out another loud roar, this time creating a large boulder that it used to shoot at Jack.
Markus stepped in front of their leader without prompting and swung his shield in an arc.
“[Shield Smash]!!”
I noticed the shield glow for a moment before it made contact with the boulder, smashing the entire thing into pieces.
If this was the old me, I would have thought that was some kind of magic shield or even a new spell, but I now know that he was using a Valour Skill.
“Look out! It’s not done yet!” Jack warned.
Just as those words left his lips, the tortoise let out another roar and shot forward as thought propelled by something.
This time it was Jack’s turn to jump in front with his shield raised.
“[Fortress]!”
The tortoise slammed its head against Jack’s shield and I thought that he would be able to deflect the blow, only to watch him fly back to crash against Markus and send the both of them rolling back.
Guess even with that Valour Skill, it wasn’t enough for him to defend against the full force of that tortoise.
Melissa immediately went to heal them while I stunned the monster with a [Static Bolt] again, allowing Viera to step up and get its attention temporarily by slashing her sword against the side of its neck.
The monster roared and tried to turn to face her, only to be stabbed from its other side by Sabrina’s spear.
Jack and Markus were soon back in the fight again, regaining the monster’s aggro so that the others could focus on attacking it.
As durable and strong as the tortoise was, it was still slow and we exploited that weakness greatly. With all of us working together, it could not even be called a hard fight even with the blow Jack suffered earlier.
With a final slash to the head from Jack, the tortoise let out a wail before finally collapsing on its belly, dead.
Jack sheathed his sword and nodded at us, “Good work everyone. Loyd, Sabrina, keep watch. Harper, Markus, let’s get started. Everyone else take a break and we’ll rotate every ten minutes.”
Oh, I guess they’re going to extract the Mana Crystal from the mon– Eh? Harper is handing out pickaxes to them? Are they mining the black crystals from the tortoise’s back?
“You seem surprised. I guess this is your first time seeing something like this, Miss Aster?” Viera asked, strolling up to me.
I nodded and pointed at the black crystals, “I’m guessing those things are the Monster Gold we came here for?”
“That’s right. Unpurified, they all look like that. It’s only after they are purified would they look like the gold that you know. A number of the monsters here would have them growing on them and we’ll need to mine it off their bodies to bring them back to the Guild.”
Despite how big the tortoise was, I’m only seeing three or four small clusters of those black crystals with three to five points each. That means we’re getting around fifteen or so of those crystals from this monster.
“How much money can one get from the crystals that are mined from this Dungeon?”
Viera scratched her cheek, “Well… From what I know… Around ten thousand of those crystals would be roughly equivalent to about a single small gold coin.”
“Woah… That much? Does that mean that we’ll get a gold coin if we were to deliver ten thousand crystals?”
She giggled, “No, no, we don’t get paid that much since it’s unpurified Monster Gold. If you were to deliver that much, it would be worth a large silver coin.”
Huh… So that means we’ll be paid a thousand Creas for enough crystals to make ten thousand Creas? We’ll be paid ten times less than its value huh?
Then again, a thousand Creas is quite a lot of money too… I suppose the refining and purification of the crystals might cost a lot anyway so it’s fair?
Oh well, that’s not my business anyway. I’m just here to kill time~