I wanted to take the class on a field trip. Twelve kiloters deep in the Dungeon, how did that sound? To , it sounded like leveling up and a painfully needed rank-up. Also so necessary ti-out from all this political craze.
I had so long-term projects for Windere and the region. Strengthen and re-enchant the walls, claim the wilderness around the ruins of Saegalla and create a new district, raise more walls around Saegalla, beat the righteous fear of the [Matriarch] into Sadian once and for all, getting Lonid to leave us alone or else, and…
Oh, that would be devilish. Carve a channel connecting Ekar's coast to the inner Uroko Gulf. This way, trade didn't need to go through the mouth of the gulf controlled by Sadian. That would end Sadian's iron grip on regional trade and the excessive amount of funds they had to throw after silly projects like invading Windere.
But that would co later when I was deep in the fourth rank and strong enough to fight a dragon-goddess.
I took all of the class (minus the dropout were-bear Prince), Mirina and Euric's servants stationed at the Academy (minus Julia that moved to the castle), plus Helger and Baritono along with a team of six dwarven [Miners]. A rry party of forty people. We gathered in the Academy arena.
"Well, to those of you that wished to ride the ice train, this is your opportunity."
I created a platform with Force magic and placed one of the legendary wagons on it. {Force Tongs} kept the vehicle locked in place. They walked around the wooden wagon on skis, admiring it.
"There will be enough ti for gawking once we are in the depths. All aboard!"
The excited students, distrustful knights, worried servants, giddy Royalty, and greedy dwarves boarded the wagon and I closed the bubble around them. Latching to the top of the vehicle, I opened a rift to the Ethereal and dove through.
Then I dropped down through the ground. The tunnels blurred past as my passengers scread in the first-ever roller coaster (no roller though) in Yznarian history. I kept an eye on the depth with my [Cartographer] Abilities as well as updating my ntal map of the Dungeon underneath Windere.
Once I hit eight kiloters underneath sea level, I started to go in a long spiral, greatly slowing my rate of descent and searching for a suitable spot to "surface". Here and there, I felt clumps of magic that must've belonged to bands of monsters. Very few Adventurers explored this deep and the monsters were mostly left to their own devices. The laws of the jungle ruled and the monsters grew stronger by killing each other, the older and smarter critters preying on new spawns and becoming stronger and smarter.
So sentient species thrive here, in regions where the world's magical density is lower and the monster spawns weaker. The soul fragnts that generated monster spawns didn't exist in those places and that made it possible for sentient life to thrive. These enclaves were rough places where the people were forced to fight constantly against wandering monsters and spawns.
As far as I knew, there was none of these underneath or near Windere. But as surface delvers seldomly reached these depths, it paid to keep an eye out for them. So far, nothing on my {Detection}. Another thing I looked for was a cavern big enough to turn into one of these enclaves, temporarily at first. This would beco our base of operations during our stay.
With my {Detection} abilities, I could map the Dungeon one kiloter around my position by tracking the soul fragnts and monsters' locations. Since there was none of it inside the stone, that gave an x-ray map of the tunnels and caves around . Around twelve kiloters deep, I found what I wanted. A roughly circular and large bubble I couldn't see the end in my detection range. That ant the opening was at least a kiloter wide and a hundred-fifty ters tall. It was also swarming with monsters.
Just perfect. I assigned everyone inside the wagon as "my party". There was no invite, just a need to recognize everyone as an ally and stay within range of my Perk. With everything set, I warned my passengers.
"Attention everyone. Thank you for flying with Ethereal United. We are now entering a zone of high Exp turbulence and you may experience dizziness, flashes of insight, and sudden leveling up. If you need to throw up, use the barf bags in the compartnt in front of your…" There was no bag. "Suck it up and don't soil my legendary ice train."
I don't think they were paying much attention. Well, here goes nothing. I opened a rift and crossed back to the material world, on the highest point of the cavern.
It was bigger than I thought. The ground, two hundred ters underneath , was uneven, full of crevices and holes. Abominations sward all over the place, feeding over so strange and pale vegetation. Stalactites and stalagmites chock full of trapped crystals punctured the roof and floor, so of them joining together in mighty columns. Millennia of seepage exposed several veins of minerals on the roof. The thick mana density created light effects as it interacted with these minerals, making the stalactites and these veins glow and diffract the light on the crystals.
The nearby monsters quickly sensed our presence. Abominations that had either insectoid or leathery wings took flight, a mass of teeth and spiky protrusions hungering for our flesh. On the ground, the ones without flight sward below us. Should I be concerned with the number of abominations in the Dungeon underneath Windere? A question for tomorrow. I fired quick {Appraises} at the swarm. The monsters were around level 175. Ti for a light show.
"Overcharge magic, M.I.T.H. Prismatic Spray!"
The multi-layered magic circle appeared over the Prismatic Spray diagram and the multihued rays of light started to pour out of it, splitting as they flew away and blanketing the whole cavern. Lasers with lasers. The light washed against the crystals dotting the stalactites and spread further. Hundreds of damage notifications popped up and flew past. The monsters didn't die with the first volley. {Appraise} told they'd lost around forty to sixty percent of their magic with the first strike.
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Good, I'd forgotten to taunt them. {Champion's Challenge} on the whole cavern and {Reprise}, using {Path Least Traveled} to let the [Spell-Singer] Perk work with [Wizard] magic.
The combined diagram sprung up automatically this ti and the light beams shot out again. {Ritornello} for a much-needed encore. I felt the monster bodies vanishing into the item box as more than five hundred Exp ssages flew up. I checked my Exp totals. I gained 23.4 trillion, with a split modifier of 0.07. The passengers all leveled up too.
You reached Half-Dvergar Half-Zenko-Kitsune level 19
You gained 1 Attribute point.
You gained 1 Ego, 1 Luck, and 1 Soul.
Ultimate Surpasser granted you 2 Attribute Points
You reached Grandmaster Crafter 19
You gained 1 Strength, 1 Mind, and 1 Willpower.
Ultimate Surpasser granted you 2 Attribute Points.
The five points went into Soul. I wouldn't reach the global Attribute cap before a rank-up. Fifty more trillions before getting it.
Level 158
Strength*: 99 23 (122) / 104 - Dexterity*: 92 31 (123) / 104 - Endurance*: 102 24 (126) / 104
Mind*: 101 36 (137) / 104 - Willpower*: 98 43 (141) / 104 - Charisma*: 104 24 (128)
Magic*: 104 43 (147) - Faith: 1 10 (11) / 104
Ego*: 104 32 (136) - Luck*: 88 34 (122) / 104 - Soul*: 93 34 (127) / 104
HP 150.798.288 (2.493.417 HP/s)
Energy 125.539.356 (217.418 E/min)
More monsters on the horizon. The racket and light show drew the attention of the whole cavern. But I had nothing but Energy to spare on wasteful spells and their repetition. I flew in a circular pattern over the cavern with my train, killing beasties. Another forty-sothing trillion Exp. Less than a quarter of what I needed to finally rank-up. I used {Soul Shepherd to gather the souls and fragnts, making it impossible for more monster spawns.
Another hour patrolling and killing stragglers, the massive cavern could be considered safe to land. Unfortunately, the pale vegetation was ruined by the prismatic rays but the item box auto-collected the dead plants as loot. So shattered stones that were hit by the prismatic rays. Once the destruction was over, I set Pandora out to circle around and absorb any stray soul fragnts to keep monsters from spawning.
I landed the train on the flattest section of land I could find. Not a great spot for a base but that only ant a lot of hard work terraforming the cavern. I opened the door and walked inside.
"We have arrived. All passengers must disembark. Did you have a good ride?"
By the looks I got, I didn't think my Yelp rating would get any better. But hey, that's airlines for you. Even in the other world.
"I ranked up. Almost Twice!" Remus, the multi-colored cheered.
Everyone was past Level 110, even the maids.
"Good! Now, we need to set up camp. Mages, ready your Earth-shaping spells. Those without spellcasting abilities, there are so storage rings here for you to pick up rocks and debris to clean up our area. I don't sense any monsters inside this cavern but there are still many undiscovered hazards. The ground may break or you might not see a hidden crevice. We are using the buddy system. Make pairs among yourselves and always walk together paying attention to each other. Mirina, Euric, I'd like to request your vigilant knights to keep an eye over everyone."
The two Royals agreed and we started to work. The dwarves used their abilities and stone-based Perks to identify dangers and possible easy-to-reach treasures. The students used their newfound Classes and bigger MP pools to shape, break, reinforce, and smooth the stones and the ground. The maids and servants played with the borrowed storage rings to collect the debris. anwhile, the knights kept a watchful eye over everyone.
I flew up and inspected so of the stalactites. A lot of quartz, gemstones, soluble tals, and a few mana-imbued crystals seeped in the Dungeon environnt for a long ti. I believe we were the first sentients to co here, at least with enough power to clear the monsters and harvest the resources. I encased the huge stalactite, about ten ters tall with a sleeve of Force magic, and cut it near the ceiling. Once separated, it went straight to the item box.
Back on earth a cavern such as this would be considered a heritage site and preserved. But here, it was just a bunch of pretty resources waiting to be plundered. The concern here was more on survival and gaining levels than admiring nature for the sake of beauty. Virgin areas marked for conservation were that way for a good reason, such as being elven of fae territory. There's also the ease of recreating such landscapes. Two lives ago, I created a massive archipelago with tropical forests in months. Now, with my improved abilities? I could do it in a week.
I didn't cut all the stalactites, leaving a few of the dium-sized ones with low resource concentration for decoration. On those, I set so sunrods for illumination. I needed to get one of the anglerfish to harvest more glowing organs. Though with the core-carving techniques, I could create light-aligned jeweled Cores that would work as well as the light-affinity fish organs.
After trimming the roof and removing several dozen tons of weight from the support structure, I checked for any damage and reinforced so cracks away from the ore veins. With the work on the roof done, I went around the edge of the cavern marking the access tunnels. Those numbered thirty-seven and had no monsters for a kiloter. Too many to defend and monsters would surely wander in after a ti. I couldn't guarantee our expedition's civilians would survive an attack by the high-level monsters lurking in these tunnels.
I had a solution for that. I prepared the mouth of each tunnel to receive a section of the enchanted wall from the Black Dragon Dungeon. Facing outward, the wall enchantnts would repel the soul fragnts and absorb excess ambient magic, creating a zone that was distasteful for the monsters and preventing spawns around it. Smart monsters could attack the wall but that would always be a risk. I attached an alarm enchantnt that would let us know if the wall took damage.
I placed four wall segnts before I had to retire for the day. The sunrods were tuned to give twelve hours of light and twelve hours of twilight. The dim light would hit the crystals in the stalactites I left behind and refract, giving the illusion of a starry sky. I didn't bother trying to keep it in sync with the sun above. Surface dwellers were used to seven hours of sunlight only. Visitors in this cavern would experience so jet lag one way or another.
They raised a small tent encampnt while I was away. The cooks were making so food and everyone was sitting around a campfire, trading stories. I joined them and the curtains fell on the first day of our expedition.
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