“Stupid monsters!” Elizabeth huffed as the stone humanoid finally collapsed, “They’re so hard and don’t take poison damage, so they’re a mission to kill!”
“Well, they are Stone Golems,” Chris chuckled as his sister pouted at him, “So that’s understandable. You wanted a tougher challenge, anyway, didn’t you?”
“Yeah,” the girl admitted, before grumbling, “This just feels unfair, though.”
“I wonder if the monsters are stronger because you’re here, Mr. Sanders,” Sharon muttered from the side of the corridor, rubbing her temples in pain as she sipped at a Mana potion.
“What do you mean?” Chris asked, “How would the monsters be stronger because of me?”
“There’s a theory about it,” the woman continued, getting shakily to her feet as she explained, “It’s called the ‘Scaling Theory’. It basically claims that the Dungeons, regardless of Rank or Difficulty, will only ever put a challenge in front of a person that enters them that said person will be able to overcome. This also applies to parties, as it is thought that the monsters’ strength is determined by the total strength of the party itself.”
“I see,” Chris nodded, thinking back to his first Dungeon, and how, even though he had no idea what was going on for most of it, it never seemed entirely impossible for him to complete a floor, “That’s an interesting theory.”
“Still only a theory,” Alan shrugged as he stood beside Jessica, the girl nodding along as she petted Aurum, “Just means we’ll have to fight harder and smarter in here than we thought.”
“Smarter?” Ayla chuckled, “You? With your sub-five Intellect?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Alan laughed along, “Not all of us have glowstick powers that take all of our Mana like you.”
“Anyway,” Chris interrupted, “This was your first fight in this Dungeon, how do you think this place is going to continue?”
“More Stone Golems, probably,” Elizabeth muttered, “And probably a big one for the Boss. This is going to suck.”
“They do have a weak point,” Chris chuckled as the others all looked at him in expectation, “I’m not going to tell you what it is, though. You’ll have to figure it out by yourselves.”
“My guess is the small gem in their chests,” Michael said as he joined the conversation, “They barely take any damage anywhere else, and that’s the only distinctive feature on their bodies.”
“I’m not going to confirm or deny that,” Chris just hummed, turning away as he tried to hide his smile, “Anyway, let’s get moving as soon as you two are ready.”
------
“You know, it’s weird,” Ayla hummed as they sat outside their tents, looking around at the strange architecture of the Dungeon in interest.
“What is?” Chris hummed as he concentrated on a weapon, molding the metal between his glowing fingers like clay.
“How every Dungeon we’ve been in so far has allowed us to pick a Difficulty,” the woman continued, “Except you said that the EX+ Rank Dungeon you did didn’t give you an option.”
“Maybe that’s a feature of Dungeons with the ‘+’ thing,” Elizabeth shrugged as she watched Jessica cook, “I mean, maybe it automatically sets the Difficulty because it’s supposed to be harder than normal?”
“That is a theory as well,” Sharon nodded, “Though, as there have only been a handful of Dungeons with the ‘+’ Rank discovered across the world, it’s still not entirely known.”
“Where else have ‘+’ Dungeons been found?” Chris asked as he finished messing with the weapon and looked at the other woman in interest, “I didn’t even think about there being more of them.”
“Well, there’s one in India, though it’s only C+ Rank, and another in Japan, which is B+ Rank,” Sharon said as she tapped her chin in thought, “The highest Rank one, apart from the one you entered, is an A+ Rank Dungeon in England.”
“Has anyone completed it?” Chris asked, frowning slightly at the thought of a Dungeon like that having a Dungeon Break.
“According to the British government, yes,” Sharon nodded, “But they haven’t given many details about the person. Apparently, they’re very private.”
“Chances are they have an A Rank Class at minimum, then,” Ayla sighed, “Makes you wonder about the Divers from the rest of the world. Are there other people just as strong as Chris that we just don’t know about yet?”
“I hope not,” Elizabeth chuckled, the others looking at her in confusion, “I mean, if there are, I at least hope they’re as nice a person as Chris. It’d suck if they were an asshole.”
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“True,” the rest of the group nodded, perking up as Jessica called out that the food was ready.
------
“Where the feck is my pint?” Andrew shouted, glaring at the scantily clad woman as she hurried over to him, offering him the beer, “About fecking time. I was about to die of thirst, ya lazy bint.”
“I apologize, Mr. Taker,” the woman said as she bowed, hurrying away before he could say anything else.
“Fecking ‘ell,” the man grumbled, looking at the other two lounging on the couches around the large room of the penthouse apartment, “You’d think that the blighters from the gov would at least give me some decent service girls, yeah?”
“I dunno,” one of the other men laughed, “I think they’re all pretty fit, mate. An’ this apartment is pretty swish as well.”
“Yeah,” the third person in the room hummed, the man taking a long drag from the cigarette in his hand, blowing the smoke up into the air in a large cloud, “Though I don’t get why you’re still drinking that piss, Andy. We can get much better booze now.”
“Oi,” Andrew growled, “This ‘piss’ is part of our ‘eritage, jack-off. You don’t get to talk shite about it like it’s not good enough fer us no more.”
“Don’t call me a jack-off, jack-off,” the third man laughed, “An’ what ‘eritage? We’re Chavs from Milton-Keynes. We have the ‘eritage of a fucking pot noodle, mate!”
“Truth,” the second man laughed along, Andy just scowling at them as he took a sip of his drink.
“Yeah, well we’re proper upper class now,” he said after a moment, “But that ain’t no excuse to lose sight of where we fecking came from, yeah?”
“What, you a philo-whatever now, Andy?” the second man chuckled.
“Philosopher, ya twit,” the third man laughed.
“Ooh, look at mister big brain over there, with his high as fuck Intellect,” the second man grinned, “What, you think that makes you Einstein now or some shit?”
“Shut the fuck up, ya fucking cunts!” Andrew suddenly shouted, making the other two look at him in surprise.
“Christ, what’s pissed in your cereal this mornin’, mate?” the third man asked.
“Nothing,” Andrew growled as he looked at his hand, taking a large gulp of his beer, “Just the cunts at the gov not letting me out of this shithole lately. I wanna go meet this ‘Strongest in the world’ bastard.”
“So you can ‘take’ from ‘im, right?” the second man laughed, “Yeah, that’d be a sight! You with an S Rank Skill or some shite.”
“Yeah,” Andrew nodded as he continued to look at his hand, a cruel grin crossing his face, “Exactly.”
------
“Ugh, finally!” Elizabeth shouted as the ten-foot-tall golem collapsed onto its back, the large gem in its chest cracked and broken, “That took way too long!”
“Hey, at least it was pretty easy after we figured out to only attack the gem after the Boss fired off that laser beam attack,” Alan chuckled as the group walked over to the golden chest, the man touching it to open it, “Huh, looks like we might have gotten some decent stuff.”
“Hmmm,” Chris nodded as he looked into the chest, “A Rank B Rockcrusher Mace and a Diamondskin Amulet.”
“Well, the mace obviously goes to you, babe,” Ayla laughed as he lifted the large item from the box, weighing it in his hands, “The amulet however…”
“Give it to Alan,” Chris said as he put the mace in his Carry-All-Bag, “It allows the wearer to double their endurance and defense for thirty seconds but also makes them unable to move.”
“Sounds perfect for me,” Alan nodded as he put the amulet on, slipping it under his armor, which was already looking pretty beat up, “Hey, think you could fix my gear up a bit, Chris? It’s making it a little hard to move.”
“Of course,” Chris nodded, looking at the C Rank armor, before scratching his chin, “Or we could upgrade your gear to something better?”
“We have better stuff?” the Defender chuckled, “Like what?”
“Well, the Golems were dropping B Rank heavy armor quite regularly,” Chris explained as he put his hand on his bag, searching through the contents, “I think we have a full set, so you could wear that instead.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Alan hummed happily as the other man began pulling pieces of armor out of his bag, “Huh, it all looks like it’s made from stone.”
“It is,” Chris nodded, “Stone Warrior’s Armor, gives you a ton more physical resistance, but makes you slower.”
“Not too different from my current gear, then,” Alan nodded as he started to strip off, “Though I am going to miss the extra magic resistance and ability to keep attention.”
“You’ll always have my attention, Alan,” Jessica giggled, making the man smile at her.
“Ew, straight people flirting,” Elizabeth laughed as the two looked at her in annoyance, “What? I’m going to say it every time you guys do it.”
“That aside,” Chris sighed, turning to the two others in their group, “How are you two fairing? What are your current levels?”
“Four,” the two replied, Chris nodding as he rubbed his chin again.
“Okay, and your Skills? What were they again?”
“I have two magic Skills,” Sharon replied, “Earth and Fire Magic. Neither of them has been that helpful so far, but they’re both at around level twenty already.”
“I have a Skill called Extreme Movement,” Michael said, “It is what has allowed me to jump around so much. My other Skill is Small Blades.”
“Right, so a pure magic user and basically a Rogue,” Chris nodded as he looked over their basic leather gear, “I think it’s time for you two to upgrade as well.”
The pair watched as he reached into his bag, pulling out a pile of gear for each of them, their eyes going wide as he explained what the items were.
“Are you sure it’s okay to just…give these to us?” Sharon asked as she picked up the robe, “I mean…a robe that increases Spell power for more Mana? That seems quite valuable.”
“It probably is,” Chris nodded, “But right now we need to make sure you two have the highest possible chance of survival. Plus, I have a few of those in my bag already, so it’s no big loss.”
“Thank you,” Michael nodded as he started to change out of his current gear, putting on the black leather outfit he’d been given, picking up the two short daggers as well, “What are all of these again?”
“Sharp Daggers and an Assassin’s Armor set,” Chris shrugged, “The knives are what they say they are, really sharp, and the armor gives bonuses to going unnoticed. It’s all only C Rank, so not that great, but a lot better than the D Rank stuff you were in before.”
“Hey, dad made that armor with love, Chris,” Elizabeth laughed, “Or, at least I think he did. I heard the Association got a few more dedicated Crafters in recently.”
“Right, right,” Chris chuckled along, “Anyway, let’s set up camp and go to the next floor once we’ve all had a good rest, alright?”
