Too Stubborn to Die

They moved closer to the jails, and Aaron wasted no time ripping the locks from the cells. And the three prisoners quickly rushed out and thanked them for their help. There was an ogre, and two humans, an old man, and a young one.

“Thank you, thank you,” the old man said, cupping Aaron’s hand.

“Me too, thanks,” said the ogre.

“No problem. Glad to help,” Aaron smiled. “But if you don’t mind me asking, how’d you get in there?”

There were so many similarities to video games in the multiverse that one of Aaron’s first thoughts was that these were some kind of System-spawned mobs just standing around waiting to be saved. Or were they real people?

“Captured,” the old man shook his head.

“We’re all like you. We came in here hoping to beat the dungeon, and ended up prisoners of the cult.”

“So, you’re from Superearth, I mean,” Aaron stumbled on his words. Their world didn’t have an official name yet.

“Huh?” The man’s brow twisted.

“Are you from our world?’ Talia said, stepping forward.

“I don’t think so?”

“No, doubtful,” the old man piped up. “I think we moved recently. The fog changed. It’s an indicator.”

“Well, if old man Benjamin says so, it’s probably true,” the young man said.

“You moved?” It was Aaron’s turn to furrow his brow in confusion.

“Yes,” Old man Benjamin nodded. “This dungeon dimension moves every couple of years. Always been like that.”

“Every couple of years? Wait, how long have you been in here? I thought you were sacrifices?”

“A long time,” Benjamin said. “They keep me around to look after the new sacrifices. These two were picked up at our last time, along with a few dozen others that are no longer with us.”

“That means…” the young man began to mutter. “We’re not going home, are we?”

“No home?” The ogre grunted.

“Just be glad you’re alive!” Benjamin scolded. “You have our hero here to thank for that! And whatever has been causing trouble for them. If not for that thing, they’d have sacrificed you already!”

“Causing trouble?” Aaron’s face lit up.

“The bear?” Talia probed.

“Bear? I don’t know about a bear. But I’ve heard the cultists talking about a beast causing trouble. They were sending out hunting parties for it up until they were cut off from their main base. Since then, they’ve been held up in here, terrified of it. It must be strong to scare somebody like Memphis.”

“I’m more than a little lost,” Aaron admitted, running his fingers through his hair. “What is going on in the place, and how’d you all get here?”

“Sorry,” Talia added. “We just finished our Tutorial and trials. We’re newly integrated.”

“OH! Why didn’t you say so? This would be confusing, wouldn’t it? They don’t go over the complexities of Dungeons. Well, simply, as long as a dungeon has power, it remains, and they usually move about every few years. Giving others a chance to conquer them. When their world failed, it moved here to give you a chance.”

“They failed?” Aaron said. “But this palace is only low D-grade from what I can tell. How would an established world fail to conquer it?”

“Because of the System,” Benjamin answered. “This place has a level cap of 150, keeping anything stronger out. And usually, the cultists are too afraid to engage intruders.”

“Right,” Talia nodded thoughtfully. “The beast lord. You think it’s the one causing all the trouble around here?”

Benjamin shrugged. “Dunno. I’ve been stuck in a cell,” he laughed. “But they sure do complain about it a lot. And we haven’t seen anyone come up from the fifth floor in a while.”

“Fifth floor? You mean to say that there are three more floors?” Talia said. “Looks like we’ve still got quite a bit ahead of us.”

“Aye, that’s where their main compound is. Where the one they call father is. That base makes this fortress look like a little outpost.”

“You’ve been there?”

“Many years ago.”

“His party actually managed to reach the fifth floor,” the young man said. “Hard to believe looking at him now.”

“Watch your tone, young man! Anyway,” Benjamin cleared his throat. “I can’t tell you much. It’s been a hundred years since then. But I can say that Memphis is the weakest of the family’s main branches.”

“A hundred years? How long has the cult been here?”

“Hmm, dunno. A couple of hundred years, I think?” Benjamin scratched his chin.

There might have been a level cap on this place, and maybe the worlds it visited weren’t anything particularly special, in regard to talent. But still, for these low D-grades to rule over a dungeon for a couple of hundred years as it bounced around the multiverse sounded impressive.

“And what about you? What’s your deal?” Aaron asked the ogre.

“Small tribe. Sneak in when humans not looking. This was chance for something more. Chance to claim treasures of dungeon. Maybe make tribe strong. But we failed. All others dead, only me survives.”

Roomarg the Stinky [ Level 92 ]

Level 92 was high compared to his world’s current average level, but in the grand scheme of things, this ogre was likely a nobody and not very strong, as were the other two. Especially since none of them had any titles. Still, the prisoners had information, and that was plenty valuable.

Also, the quest hadn’t rewarded them yet, and so he figured they probably had to help the prisoners out of the dungeon.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“We not as strong as you, but we can still help,” Roomarg said.

Aaron looked at Talia for an answer.

“It’s nice to offer, but if they couldn’t save themselves, I doubt they’ll be much help. Shouldn’t take long to drop them off outside the dungeon. It’s just one floor up.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Aaron. “Your quest ends here, guys. Take it easy. Be happy to survive this place.”

“Oh, my old bones. If only that were possible. See this?” Benjamin said, pulling up a sleeve to show a rune marked on his forearm. “We’re bound to this place until the boss is defeated.”

“Well, we can still drop you off by the entrance, if you like. Wait for us there?”

“No, not unless you’re planning on leaving the Dungeon uncleared,” Benjamin said. “Once you fully clear it, this place will start to collapse, and the entrance will close. The best place for us is nearby you. That way, we can escape through the gate that appears after the Dungeon is cleared.”

Aaron hadn’t heard anything about Dungeons collapsing after being cleared, but he glanced at Talia, and she didn’t counter what he said, so he just shrugged.

“I guess it’s a party then.”

“Fine,” Talia said. “Tag along, you guys.”

Aaron didn’t actually want any additional help with the fighting, at least not from people with mediocre potential. They needed to get stronger, and the experience was best saved for Talia, himself, and Zero. But he wasn’t going to leave them behind, and they could follow in the rear.

They continued to loot the outpost, but not much of value was found. However, there were a few decent bits of furniture that Aaron grabbed, just to have something to throw into his new home that was being built.

Unfortunately, their new companions seemed to know very little else about the dungeon, which was a massive disappointment. Things had started well, and Aaron had hoped they would have more to share as insiders within this roaming dungeon. But it turned out that the dungeon had changed a lot since they entered.

And from the sounds of it, it was all because of the beast lord. The young man and Roomarg explained that when they had entered the dungeon, there had been a deadly waiting party for them on the first floor.

Neither party had survived long, and most had been taken prisoners for sacrifice. Benjamin’s party had made it much further, but that was a long time ago, when the cult was far less established. Also, he seemed to be having memory problems, and often forgot what he was talking about mid-sentence.

Either way, it seemed that the entire dungeon had gone to hell since then. Because the cutlists were hiding away from the beast lord, the beasts and natural inhabitants of the dungeon had begun to take it back over.

This, in and of itself, was a worrying thought. Memphis mightn’t have been that strong, but he was still D-grade. And if the other main members of the cult’s main branch were even stronger, and yet still frightened of the beast lord, that had troubling implications.

After a short walk, following Aaron’s quest marker, they reached the next gate and descended to the third floor.

The prisoners were a little apprehensive of following them down, but they seemed to trust their strength to some degree.

Reaching the third stage, they found more corpses, including some cultists. There were still some beasts around, though, and they made short work of them.

But instead of heading straight for the fourth floor, they decided to make the most of the current level. After all, the beast lord was either going to be on the fourth floor or the following one, and Aaron wanted to get a little more experience while focusing on his core before heading down for the confrontation.

Also, the levels of the beasts were quite good within the dungeon, and it was a good opportunity to take advantage of. It wasn’t that they were super difficult, but strong enough to give decent progression, and not as dangerous as walking around the jungle and risking accidentally bumping into powerful D-grades.

And after several skirmishes, they had gained a decent amount of experience, clearing out most of what they could find.

Bonus Experience rewarded for killing a creature of a higher level than yourself!

[ Empty-Handed Energy Monk ] has LEVELED UP!

75 → 78

Taking a minute after their recent kills, Aaron put the 28 free points he’d accumulated into Perception, for a similar reason as he had been increasing Dexterity. The two Stats went hand in hand, and to keep pace with his increasingly powerful and fast body, he needed both Stats to be respectively strong.

Struggling to find anything else to kill, they decided it was time to head down to the fourth floor.

But as they walked toward the gate, they started to come across ruined settlements. Bodies lay all over the place, and it was confirmation that the beast lord was indeed using the cult to level against.

It was curious, though. If the beast lord was hunting the cultists, why had it left behind the fortress on level 2? Was it because of Memphis? That seemed unlikely. They already knew the strongest members of the cult were down on the lower floors, and so it didn’t make a lot of sense to go hunting down here if one was scared of Memphis. If anything, one would expect that the beast lord would be more cautious around here, assuming that it had intentionally avoided the fortress on the second floor.

Or perhaps it had simply missed it?

“You mentioned treasures?” Aaron asked.

“Yes. Dungeon realms like this are anomalies,” Benjamin replied. “They usually form around great treasures. That’s where they get their energy from.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“You don’t know? Right, you just finished your Tutorial. This stuff is more advanced. My old brain forgets these things. Anyway, there are many great treasures throughout the multiverse that form from System energy. Something acts as a catalyst, though I don’t entirely understand that part of it. But the important thing is that the energy of the System wraps around the catalyst, gathering greater and greater amounts of energy as time passes, until eventually something valuable is created. This can take eons to happen, but once a powerful anchor has formed, a dungeon like this will form around it. Usually, the power of the anchor is directly relative to the dungeon.”

“So, if this is a low D-grade dungeon, then this anchor isn’t all that powerful?”

“In the grand scheme of things? No, not really. But D-grade is still rather impressive for many weaker worlds. Like Roomarg here. Or even the dumb brat. For them, hitting D-grade is an honor. And a place like this could make them rich beyond their dreams.”

Aaron nodded a long. He had always intended to delve into dungeons as he found them, as quests alone had proven valuable. But if there was a valuable anchor at the heart of every dungeon, that made things so much more interesting.

Reaching into his scabbard, he pulled out the dungeon token he got from the 8th stage of the Trial of Travels. He hadn’t really paid it much attention at the time, but as he learned more about Dungeons, the item intrigued him more and more. The timer was a little over halfway now, meaning he had a month and a half before he’d be able to use it.

More importantly, the token wasn’t for just any old dungeon like this one, but had itself been a special reward. He wondered what that implied, and it made his imagination run wild. What might be at the heart of a special dungeon that could only be entered as a reward for completing trials made for the sector’s greatest warriors?

Not only that, but it was a communal dungeon, and he had a feeling that whatever prizes were to be found within it wouldn’t be easily won.

I’d better keep an eye on this thing. I certainly don’t want to miss out on something like that.

He returned the token to the scabbard, and they kept going. But there wasn’t a lot more to find on the current floor. It was mostly just corpses and ruined buildings. It was obvious that the beast lord had laid down a path of destruction down here, and there wasn’t much left standing in its wake.

They killed what few beasts they found, but the floor was mostly desolate. Worryingly, the beasts were stronger here. At the very peak of E-grade, they even ran into a couple of weak D-grades.

And suddenly, Aaron realized that the beast lord hadn’t avoided the fortress on the second floor, but that it had come down here intentionally, looking for the strongest enemies to grind and challenge itself against.

He got a bad feeling about this beast, but he wasn’t going to turn back. Regardless of how strong it had gotten, he had a feeling the ants were worse, and if they couldn’t best this challenge, what chance did they have against that one?

“You ready?’ He asked Talia as they walked toward the gate for the final floor.

“We-we might stay here,” the young man said. “Guard the gate for you. You know?”

“What about when we take the anchor?”

“We’ll follow in about fifteen or so minutes, if we don’t see you,” Benjamin said. “And meet up before you take it.”

“Fine by me,” Aaron shrugged. It was probably best not to have them in the way, anyway.

He doubted they would be of much help, anyway. And his thoughts were far more interested in what they might find, and whether there was anyone still alive in the cult waiting down there.