{The Admirals adventuring party}
The admiral looks at the kobold statue with the thumbs up “It seems that the core of this dungeon agreed to let us go to their core with safe passage. So my party members we are going to go immediately. Get your stuff and we’ll be off.” Says the admiral while looking at 5 people.
A felinid called Ichthy, Badger the gnome alchemist, A silent crab-kin that has a chef’s hat on, Whazra Backcrusher a female orc cleric and Gideon the weasel-kin a unevolved adventurer. They grab their stuff, Gideon taking the longest.
“Great, everyone is here. Now Ichthy show us the way to the cliff.”
The group of six followed the small felinid following the water, going around the boiling lake to the cliff.
“You were not kidding Ichthy that it was a tall cliff. I don’t think cliffs can be this big naturally. Unless they are created by a powerful earth mage.”
Badger the Gnome in badger skin grabs a few potions from his many potion belts and gives them to each of the party members.
“Drink up this potion should work long enough to get us down hopefully landing in the roots rather than the water.
Gideon looks suspicious at the potion unsure if it really works that long it is very high the cliff.
“Y-you sure it will work that long? I-it’s very high here.”
Badger gives Gideon a side eye and drinks the potion an jumps off the cliff falling at the speed of a brisk walking speed. Everyone except Gideon follows quick.
“Look Gideon nothing to fear.” Badger says.
After a few seconds Gideon also takes the potion but instead of jumping drop of the cliff. Causing him to bounce off the cliff a few times before getting far away enough from the cliff. The 5 other party members minus the crab-kin are just talking while they hover down the cliff. Poor Gideon jumped too late if he wants to talk with the other he must shout. About a hour later they were reaching the bottom of the cliff. Unfortunately because Gideon didn’t jump he couldn’t reach the roots of the rootgrove. Luckily for him the water below was deep and filled with bubbles to catch his fall. The rest of the party grabbed parts of the roots where they sat and watched Gideon fall into the lower lake.
“How quickly do you think that he will get above water Whazra?” said the admiral while doing light physical training.
“mere seconds for he is a weasel-kin after all, weasel can swim good.”
Gideon fell in the bubbling waters sinking below the water for more than a few seconds.
“It seems that your are wrong Whazra he is longer down there than a few seconds.”
“Hmmm, maybe the clothing pulled him down or bubbles”
After 10 seconds of not seeing him they were getting worried. The crab-kin quickly gave his important stuff to the alchemist. His chefs hat several pans knifes spices etc. and jumped into the water towards where the weasel-kin should be.
“Whazra you might need to prepare that resurrection ritual already” the admiral said while poking the equally sized orc. Whazra just sighed and climbed to a spot in the roots where a ritual could be prepared.
The crab-kin stayed under water for more than 5 miniutes until crab-kin brought out the presumably dead weasel-kin. The admiral and Badger helped the crab-kin getting Gideon out of the water to the ritual circle.
“luckily he just died and without any wounds. I will make the cost and effectiveness of the ritual faster. Put him there in the middle of the circle.”
Whazra prayed to her god and resurrected Gideon. Gideon woke up and puked water immediately.
“I-I’m not dead?”
Whazra looks him over checking for any damage and after not finding anything she starts cleaning up the ritual.
“This place is nice, were going to camp here for a while, while you Gideon are going to rest until you feel better. And has anyone seen Ichthy.”
The crab-kin points towards a lower root near the water where Ichthy is drawing colorful amphibians. While he is drawing the one amphibian flashes red blinding the felinid.
“HAH, Ichthy were going to make camp here. So don’t go wondering off this forest is rather big.”
The felinid disorientated nods towards where he thinks is the admiral. The party stays here for a while resting while Gideon is sleeping. Ichthy find the same ferns as on the moss plateau while inspecting a blue fern he gets electrocuted by one. Almost falling into the water with all his books.
After 2 hours Gideon wakes up and they pack up camp. Grabbing the curios felinid they went back to going to the core.
“This forest is so interesting! Do you see those roots with white leaves? They float! Keeping the rest of the roots stable!”
Ichthy shows a piece of wood that he tied to a string. The wood barely floating.
“Sadly it seems that the floating effect lowers after it has been processed. Still very good material for skyships.”
The admiral looks at the felinid
“Skyships! Wonderful things great way to get to stronger monster faster and it lets you hunt giant flying creatures. Do you think there is enough wood to create skyships here Ichthy?”
“If the dungeon let the flora and fauna get even bigger than now, then yes. Keep in mind that if too many of these floating roots get taken away entire parts of this forest might collapse.”
“Good to know for when the acquisition guild causes the rootgrove forest to collapse.”
They slowly walked trough the dense roots. Some on the roots were big enough to just walk over, but in some parts climbing was the only way. In many cases their backpack or clothing got stuck on a piece of root. Gideon one time got stuck so bad he had to get cut out of the roots. Other than that a few hit blue ferns getting electrocuted. Except for the admiral he didn’t even notice that he was touching one.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
After 6 hours of moving trough the roots they came to the end of it. The roots became smaller and less high without the support of other rootgrove. Forcing the party to go into the marsh. Ichthy gave his backpack to the crab-kin to protect his books. Whazra and the admiral were most of the time tall enough to just walk on the muddy floor of the marsh. Ichthy and Badger sadly had to swim in the murky water. The crab-kin was just doing fine carrying the felinids backpack.
“Thank the gods the dungeon didn’t create the leeches yet.” Badger said while standing on a drier piece of marsh.
“Why did the research guild give the dungeon leeches Ichthy”
“O, the leeches yes. The guild gave them to the dungeon because back at the town of rivermarsh they were draining the marshes. Causing the leaches to go almost extinct. That’s the reason.”
After a minute of rest they went past the last part of the marsh. When they finally left the marsh the rain also stopped there. Clearing up the visibility. Letting them see the giant ironwood trees.
Gideon looking up “A-are t-those trees? Trees shouldn’t grow that big! How high is the roof, 5 kilometer?”
“very interesting there are also some “smaller” ironwood trees beneath the giant ones.” Whazra said pointing to the 300 meter tall ironwoods.”
“It seems that this place is less finished than the marsh. It just has the moss and ironwoods. And some ferns that probably spread from the marsh” Ichthy pointed out.
“That would make sense the ironwoods were gifted around 10 hours ago. Now it is Time to explore a new biome then.” The admiral said while already moving to the ironwood forest.
“hey wait there I see some movement.” Badger the alchemist in badger skin said while pointing to a badger in the forest.
“This badger doesn’t look like the basalt badger the acquisition guild gifted. This one looks like metal. A iron badger.” The admiral proudly said after naming the new creature.
Ichthy sadly writes it down in his book, sad that he didn’t get to name the new creature.
Unafraid except for Gideon they went into the forest. The crab-kin discovering metal-flowers. The flowers look like a succulent plant where several pure bars of iron are sticking out of. And in the middle one big stem is growing where the actual flower is.
“These are some quick metal-flowers. Either the dungeon gave them metal or the ground has a large iron ore vein.” Ichthy drawing the metal-flower said.
They went rather quickly trough the ironwood forest for the environment was a lot less hostile. No more rain high temperature and no electric ferns. Although there still was a little mist created by the river.
“The town shall be happy with this much pure iron and ironwood. The smelteries less. Maybe with this much iron we can convince the town and the nearest city to connect via train.”
“Admiral the closest town is past the drake-mountains. The town either needs to dig a tunnel or make the track trough drakes passage. The drakes wouldn’t be happy if a loud train went through their territory.” Badger said.
“True, true but we have a dungeon and that city doesn’t. so if that city wants easier access to the riches of the dungeon they need better access. It is only 2500 kilometers after all compared to the next closes dungeon near the capital, which is over if I am right 10000 kilometers away.”
“Aye that’s true as well. It would make the 2 month journey on foot less than a day.”
The party after a hour or 2 made it out of the ironwood forest. As they were exiting the forest the saw the river ending in pools of water. The water in the pools glowing blue. After a few minutes of walking they arrive at the stepped pools.
“The mana coming off these pools if very high.” Badger grabbed a empty bottle and filled it with a dense slurry of the blue goop.
They walked on the thin edges between the pools. Gideon and the crab-kin went both for a dive in the pools, Gideon unwilling. Eventually Ichthy saw a way smaller pool hidden away in a pool.
“Wow, this is pure liquid mana. Badger do you have any bottles to carry liquid mana?”
“Aye, let me take a sample as well. You don’t just find liquid mana just anywhere.”
As the gnome and felinid were gathering the liquid mana Gideon almost lost his balance, but a knife fell out of its sheath. When the knife fell it fell in the explosive algae exploding the knife destroying the pool it was in. Gideon was knocked into the water again unharmed.
Gideon half drowning “What was that”
“It seems that this biome does have some surprises. Some pools have liquid mana and other possible liquid death.” The admiral said chuckling while helping Gideon on the edge again.
After the liquid mana was collected they went back with they journey to the core. As they went deeper they saw a entire field of flowers was created and then a large drakeling was put into the field. The flowers they saw were over 4 meters tall.
“Those flowers are the fire-rose and water-hyacinth. With the possibility of a 3rd one can say for certain. Admiral what do you see?”
“The same, but a purple rose flower is there as well. Probably something to do with illusions.”
After a long time they reach the whispering fields. The spores already affecting four party members.
“Hey do you guys hear that? Something is whispering in there” Gideon asks
Whazra, the crab kin and Ichthy all nod. The admiral doesn’t think much of it and the gnome think that because of his mask he couldn’t hear it. The admiral as brave as he is enters the field. The rest follow soon.
As quickly as they enter does is go wrong. Wharra and Ichthy quickly see things and hear things that scares them. Both looking franticly around until one of them shouts “GORILLA” when the admiral come to check on them. Both try to run away but the admiral quickly grabs them.
“OH NO the gorilla has me. Save me Whazra” Ichthy trying his best to escape the muscles of the “gorilla”.
“I can’t the gorilla also has me!”
The admiral laughing very hard “These plant make people hallucinate. Now lets get you guys out of here.” The admiral knock both of them out and begins to walk out of the field.
Bager looks at the squirming crab-kin.
“Look for me to help you, you need to open that annoyingly small mouth of yours.”
The crab kin squirming while foam begins to come out of crab-kins mouth.
“Eh, I guess that’ll do” Badgers jams a potion in the crab-kins mouth.
After a few seconds the crab-kin calms down and Bager got of the crab-kin. 5 minutes later they left to get out of this field.
Gideon on the other hand sees bird like creatures stalking him. Hearing them talk about how tasty he is. How tasty ripping his arms legs off then eating his tasty organs. There are thousands of them. Until finally he gets surrounded by them. What can he do, he thinks. There are thousands of them I am just alone. I am not even tasty! He then falls unconscious by the sheer stress of the situation.
The admiral returned to the field to find Gideon. He found him surrounded by strange bird like creatures. They look similar to large landbound birds, but with claws instead of wings. He shooed them away grabbing Gideon. When he came out he saw the crab-kin and Bager starting a fire.
“I have found Gideon, I think he needs a new pair of pants” The admiral drops off Gideon down wind nest to the fire. Badger then grabs a kettle set and grabs some water from the river. He then sets the kettle on the fire.
“Do you want any tea admiral? I have an assortment of teas.”
“Ah, that would be lovely while we wait for the rest to wake up.”
In a minute the two who were knocked out by the admiral woke up. Laughing about what happened. Then a half an hour later Gideon woke up. Shaken by what he experienced shouting nonsensical things. After he got some tea and rest they went back on their way to the core.
“It seems that this Is the last part before the core. I hope the core already has made a floor boss for me to fight.” The admiral said while stretching his arms.
They came to the staircase leading into the arena where behind the gate was open. The admiral looked sad that there was no floor boss to fight. They then went past the 18 meter tall entrance entering the core room. When they entered they saw a giant blue core the same size as the gate they entered though. The core itself stood on a giant pyramid that was taller than the smaller ironwood trees. They then faintly heard a voice.
“Don’t worry it is only 2353 steps.”
As they entered all of them got a title.
Congratulations you have gotten a Title:
Titanic core reacher (1st floor)
You have reached the core room of the Titanic core
+10% size, +10% mana, +10% mana regen, +10% health
“Well then dungeon core let me get up there and show you the contract.”
https://discord.gg/5hNYqaue
