The first few monsters that they encountered were quite simple; insectoids. Clearly powerful, monsterfied insects or basically anything that you could find hiding under a rock in a forest. Worms, pill bugs, ants; they were massive, almost filling up each of the tunnel's corridors on their own. According to Bree, the area opened up and beca a bit wider further in, but they had to get that far first.
As the monsters died, their bodies fell apart and left behind so simple rewards. In the case of this dungeon, it was just so small mana crystals, though. At least here on the first floor. Maybe in later floors, other 'items' would be dropped, but who really knew? Eisen doubted that this dungeon's master set things up for a proper cycle or to give sothing to intruders. Rather, it probably just used its own presence and power to forcefully increase the dungeon's strength, instead of boosting it step by step by gaining points by inviting and fending off intruders.
To this dungeon's master, this place was just a defensive wall; sothing to stop these pesty things from bothering them. Making it harder by providing the bare minimum to any possible intruders seed like the logical conclusion there. However, this sa thing made sothing else quite easy. Every monster that was killed had to give an adequate 'reward' in the form of a dropped item. In Fafnir, Eisen made it things that could be easily carried back and sold to the rchants at the entrance, or materials that could be used to request items from the craftsn there. Since there were quite a few different items, it might be harder to analyze sothing like the exact strength of the monster based on those items, but with it being just mana crystals, Bree was able to do so extrely easily. That was why she was able to gather all the information she needed even faster than expected.
With the rough size of this floor figured out, Bree was able to tactically deploy her sensor ability to quickly find the entrance to the next floor. It was quite similar to the one from before, just that there were less roots, and the cave's walls weren't made of the sa packed dirt as before, but had more clay and even stone mixed in. It was very probable that at least for the first few floors, the dungeon master just 'blew up' the real area. Basically, he took exactly what the first dozen or so yards downard from the tree looked like, and then stretched them out in size. Other floors would likely look different, but these ones were probably made to be like this as so kind of 'Easy' matter.
"It's probably made this way because of the mana restrictions in early floors," Bree explained, and Eisen nodded his head in agreent.
"I think so as well. That ans we can't quite rely on the monsters on these floors to figure out what the dungeon master is like," he added, quickly facing the rest of the 'attack squad' that was following along, "Once anyone here notices so unusual patterns in the monsters or dungeon layout, let us know imdiately."
Though, while Eisen said this, he knew that they didn't necessarily have the leisure to focus on things like that right away. The monsters on these first few floors were already incredibly powerful, as you would expect from a high-level dungeon like this. At the end of the day it wasn't anything that Eisen or Brody were worried about, but even they couldn't just stroll through these tunnels. Well, Brody moreso than Eisen, but the old man had to pay attention. He was actually pretty sure that Brody was holding back a yawn earlier as he cut apart a train-sized worm.
By the ti they reached the 10th floor, the first day was over and everyone seed quite exhausted, so they set up a camp in one of the larger cave-sections, and while Brody and so mbers of the attack squad were keeping watch, Eisen and Bree sat down together to try and figure out so more details about this dungeon.
The half-fey wrote down as many of the important details she had gathered into a notebook, so the two of them were flipping through it together to see if they missed anything on the way down, "From what I can tell, we're about to reach the first sub-boss," Bree stated, "The mana on each floor has been ramping up a lot like it does then."
Eisen slowly nodded his head, looking at the numbers she had jotted down. The way that the mana distribution in an item worked was cyclical and connected to the 'sub-boss' part of the system. They had to be placed at certain intervals, at the end of a particular 'zone' of a dungeon. In a dungeon that wasn't managed as closely as this, it probably was stuck at the baseline requirents as well. For example, from what they could tell, this dungeon most likely followed a pattern of ten zones and ten floors per zone. The overall pattern of mana within each consecutive zone was exponential. So the growth of mana from each zone to the next grew more and more. The total strength of the first zone could be '1', of the second '2', and the third would be '4', then '7', and so on.
That sa thing was happening on a smaller floor level; each floor would beco exponentially harder than the one before. But this growth was 'reset' after each sub-boss. If, approaching the sub-boss, a floor beca 50% harder than before, the first floor of the next zone might only be 5% harder than the last floor of the forr zone.
Knowing this in itself allowed for sothing very specific; because the speed of growth from floor to floor would at least sowhat mirror the growth rate across zones. So, with all of this knowledge combined, Bree was able to make a very educated guess.
"It's very likely that the boss itself would be around the strength of a 9th rank monster," she explained, smiling broadly, "So I think we're in the right place!"
Eisen let out a relieved breath. Of course, it wasn't necessary for a dungeon master to be stronger than the final boss, but in a dungeon like this that was pulled up in strength by the master, that was almost guaranteed. And if the boss was already comparable to a 9th rank monster, this acted as a confirmation that they were in the right place.
It was a relief to know, at least. Until now, Eisen had been acting under the assumption that the information from the black dragon was totally accurate, because there was nothing else to go on. But there was always the possibility that it was wrong. This ant that they could let the others know and have them join as soon as they can. The sooner they could co here after completing their own tasks, the faster it would be possible to conquer this dungeon.
Eisen was more than just grateful for their help in this situation. Obviously he would do the sa for them, without a second thought about it, but there was another reason why Eisen was placing so many ressources into this. He wasn't selfish enough to change the course and plans of an entire kingdom for his own purposes. After being saved, Silber was severely weakened. He was still powerful, of course, but not 'transcendent monster' powerful. But, if it was done right, it should be possible to resurrect Silber at his original strength, without the interference of Samuel placed onto him. Having a transcendent warrior like Silber, especially considering his massive skillset, would absolutely change the course of this 'war'. That was why ti could not be wasted, and Bree's ability was sothing that Eisen didn't dare lose out on.
The old man looked at the girl, "Any predictions for the sub-boss' abilities?"
"Hm..." Bree thought about it for a mont, flipping through her notes, "It's very likely to be sothing in the worm family. Their mana crystals had the most average mana. It should be around the strength of a lower 6th rank monster. Low magical abilities, but high physical ones. Most likely an earth-based ability set."
"Alright. I'll pass it on to Brody and the others. You just go ahead and rest, we'll need you for tomorrow," Eisen ruffled up Bree's hair, smiling as he left the tent.
Things were looking pretty damn good right now.
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