Touch of Fate

Chapter 177: A Zoological Encounter

Like pretty much every settlement he'd seen since reincarnating, the village had a wall, in this case a wooden palisade. The gate was currently open, and several well-armed individuals, that he assumed were adventurers, were entering and leaving in small groups.

[Maybe I should bring the others next time. This might be a good place to train.]

He sauntered through the main gate, attracting a little attention due to his getup, but much less than he figured. Evidently, rumors of his identity hadn't spread this far yet. Something to be thankful for, he supposed.

The interior of the small village was clearly designed with adventurers in mind. Weapons and armor shops were plentiful, only outnumbered by the taverns and bars. Stores that focused on magic items, delving gear, dismantling, and even dungeon maps were interspersed throughout. A large building bearing the symbol of the Adventurer's Guild stood along one side of the main street, which was also lined with a variety of colorful characters hawking all kinds of unusual items and services.

While he was tempted to do a little shopping, he knew that he really didn't have enough time to do more than a cursory glance, so he pointedly ignored the calls of the street merchants. Thankfully, his appearance was strange enough, or threatening enough, that people tended to avoid him as he followed the stream of traffic towards the base of a massive tree that dominated one side of the village.

As he got closer, he saw the dungeon portal swirling within a hollow formed by two giant roots. The entrance was so large, he thought Red could even fit through, albeit with a little of squeezing. He considered the idea for a moment before dismissing it. The dungeon passages were probably quite narrow, and would be problematic if the dragon got stuck.

A short line of adventurers had formed in front of the entrance, and guild personnel were checking them in. As he watched, a group of four walked into the portal, disappearing into the dungeon.

He took his place in line, once again feeling the strange incongruity of all of this taking place in reality. It was simply hard to believe that such a convenient thing existed, but he supposed he shouldn't be surprised. A defining quality of this world seemed to be that tangible rewards were always available to those who worked hard enough to achieve them.

With something like the System in place, with its tendency to reward effort and experience with increasing levels of power, he supposed it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine that, a similar concept could be put into effect on a smaller scale in specified locations. Not for the first time, he wondered what the gods were thinking when they created the current world.

He doubted that they simply wanted to restrict the rampaging mana, and just so happened to put features into place that benefited a very specific type of lifeform. It was possible they were merely looking out for their humanoid creations, giving them the ability to survive and thrive, but he doubted it. From the sounds of it, the divinities of this world were far too human-like to be that generous.

Lost in thought, he almost didn't realize it when his turn to enter the dungeon came.

"Are you by yourself?" A tired looking man working behind a weathered desk asked upon seeing him walk up. He was sizing Mike up with his gaze in a dismissive manner.

"That's correct."

The man motioned him over, "Would you mind displaying your Guild Card?"

He sighed when Mike did so. "Look, I know the listed difficulty for this dungeon is Rank 4, but that's just an approximation. Everyone's experience will be different, and it's entirely possible that you'll find yourself quickly surrounded by powerful monsters. Are you sure you want to take on this dungeon alone? It's strongly recommended that delvers below Rank 8 travel in groups, regardless of the listed difficulty."

Mike knew the guy was just doing his job, but it was hard to not be a little offended by the intimation that he didn't know what he was getting into.

"I appreciate what you are trying to do, but I'll be alright. Despite my rank, I have a lot of solo combat experience." He replied, enhancing his voice with a little mana to get his point across.

The man shrugged. "Fair enough. Just didn't want you to walk in blind. Anyway, as a Guild member, your entry fee is waived, so whenever you are ready, you may enter."

Thanking him, Mike walked towards the giant tree. With its root structures soaring overhead, and the dark shadowy entrance in front, it felt like he was descending to the burrow of some titanic beast. Although, he supposed that wasn't far from the truth.

After passing through the portal, he found himself in a dank, underground cavern. The walls were composed of damp earth with twisting and tangled root systems holding the dirt in place. While it was fairly dark, patches of sunlight streamed through small holes in the cavern ceiling. Out of curiosity, he tried to investigate one of them, only to discover an invisible wall that prevented him from getting through.

[They aren't even trying to make it realistic.]

At a loss to explain the laziness of the developers, Mike decided to focus on clearing the dungeon. After all, he was on a bit of a time crunch, so he began running randomly through the network of caverns, only stopping to quickly eliminate monsters and claim the dropped materials.

The inhabitants of this particular dungeon were almost universally bestial and animalistic, often resembling oversized or slightly exaggerated animals. They mainly consisted of large predatory mammals like wolves, lions, bears, and the like. Every so often, though, he would run across an unusual one.

He also fought chimeras of various shapes and sizes included, the worst of which was some kind of bear/eagle hybrid which had developed the ability to fire its feathers at him like projectiles.

He initially tried to use the methods described in the Beast Taming manual, on the off chance it worked on dungeon monsters, but it ultimately proved ineffectual. They just continued to attack him regardless of what he said or did. So, he was forced to simply kill his way through. Luckily, nothing proved truly challenging or surprising until he was about halfway through the fourth floor.

He had just finished clearing out a room of gorilla-like creatures with snakes for arms, which had to be biologically improbable without the aid of magic, and walked into the next chamber only to find it was significantly larger than the others.

[Did I get to the floor boss already, or is this some kind of mini-boss?]

He walked towards the center of the chamber, waiting for something to happen. Before he got there, a massive ball of fur dropped from the ceiling. It whirled on him, eyes flashing with murderous rage, wickedly sharp fangs stained with the blood of its enemies. It would have been terrifying if not for one thing.

"Really? A giant squirrel?" Mike couldn't help but ask.

Indeed, it looked exactly like the brown-furred, bushy-tailed, tree-dwelling squirrels he was used to in his old world, only on a much larger scale. This creature was a little larger than a city bus, but moved at the same blinding speed of an animal a hundredth of its size, as it pounced forward at him.

He jumped back to avoid its rush, but quickly found himself on the defensive as the monster kept up a blistering, almost frenzied, level of attacks. Needing a few moments to get his thoughts in order, Mike let it charge him one more time, before throwing up a solid barrier of stone.

Surprisingly, it crashed through the wall almost unimpeded, sending shards of rock exploding in every direction. The impact at least seemed to stun it, so he took the moment to try out a Fire Magic chant he'd recently picked up.

"Nemesis of my soul, be despoiled by the manifestation of my rage. From the origins of dark vengeance I command thee, castigate and consume. Rend the flesh and leave not but the bones of the wicked. [Crawling Conflagration]"

A wave of deep red flames roared to life in front of him, before sweeping forward like a crimson carpet. The squirrel didn't even have a chance to recognize the danger before the fire had already started to crawl across its body.

The monster released a high-pitched squeal of pain, and frantically attempted to put itself out. Unfortunately for it, the flames created by the spell would continue to burn until their mana had been expended. They continued to spread despite the creature's efforts. Not wanting to watch the animal slowly burn to death, Mike used a well-placed Stone Javelin to finish it off.

[This is pretty much the magical equivalent of napalm. Even if it was a dungeon monster, I feel a little guilty using something like this on a living being.]

The squirrel's body slowly dissolved leaving behind a large yellow mana core. Mike used Appraise excitedly. This was the first time he'd seen a core of this color, and he suspected that it was more potent than the red and orange ones that he'd been picking up from the other dungeon monsters.

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{Mid-Grade Mana Core}

Magic Material (Tier 2, Rank 2)

A mid-grade mana core.

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[How helpful..Anyway, the others have all been low grade so far. I guess the potency of a mana core is related to its color? Judging from the progression, I'm guessing it goes by the spectrum of visible light. Seems a little odd though. With the number of races living in this world, wouldn't most of them have different optical ranges?]

Putting aside another strange incongruity, Mike shook his head and continued on. The rest of the fourth floor turned out to be simple, and the floor boss, an oversized wolf, was even easier than the giant squirrel. After defeating it and collecting the resulting orange mana core, Mike took a second to consider what to do next.

By all accounts, the fifth floor was where this dungeon got really difficult. Although he felt confident in his abilities, part of him worried about getting wrapped up in something overly dangerous or difficult. He didn't really know how he measured up to a Rank 7 challenge. After all, he'd only come here to harvest materials and train a little.

However, it was hard to give up on the kind of rewards he'd receive for clearing such a challenge. Especially since his farming up till now had been phenomenally underwhelming. He was now well supplied with mana cores, but had found nothing else.

[Where's the fun in being overpowered if you don't occasionally do something difficult.]

Squaring his shoulders, and checking to make sure his familiar was still somehow asleep, Mike stepped into the portal for the next floor.

He immediately found himself standing in cold, knee-deep water, inside a vast circular chamber. In front of him was a low mound, which rose above the pool he'd appeared in. Golden sunlight formed a column of radiance which spotlighted a patch of grass growing from the exposed earth. At its very center stood one of the most majestic creatures Mike had ever seen.

It resembled a stag, even in terms of size, but had a presence that demanded his attention. With long branching antlers, a deep brown coat of glossy fur, and a regal, elegant bearing, it was clear that this beast was the ruler of this dungeon.

Mike was momentarily overwhelmed by the sight. It was exactly this kind of experience that made him so interested in exploring this world. He dreamed of finding these hidden moments of beauty and majesty. It was enough to make him consider taking up poetry, just so he could spread this kind of feeling to others.

The stag swished its noble head, summoning a barrage of stone javelins which were launched at Mike with terrifying speed.

"Oh, shit!" He exclaimed as he snapped out if his trance.

[Why can it use magic?!]