Dungeon’s Path

The shark-toothed lady stepped into the dungeon and made her way to the second floor so no one would realize she was there. A smart plan as soon enough people were back to delving. Sure, the first floor is less popular in theory, however it has more instances so while unable to delve the sixth, people would hit up the first.

After a quick look around, she took out a selection of weapons, each enchanted. Then came a set of five magical herbs, each one recognized and common as dirt on basically any planet besides a newly integrated one. She stares at them for a moment before nodding and going to the third floor before returning.

Doyle, of course, absorbed the assortment as soon as she left. This netted him an upgrade to level 50 for his axe, sword, spear, dagger, bow, arrow, mace, staff, and wand patterns. In fact, the only weapon pattern not upgraded was the pickaxe. Besides that, he got the patterns for the herbs Maiden’s Tear, Mage’s Delight, Springleaf, Meditation Lotus, and the Royal Lingzhi all at level 40. Though in the end, what interested him more was the enchantments he got.

They were all straightforward enough and came in two levels, 10 and 20. A good range as it covered the bases for all his current floors. Those enchantments were Sharpness, Impact, Piercing, Unbreaking, and Magical Efficiency. Interestingly, the staff was pulling double duty with both impact and magical efficiency on it. Also, since Doyle had already had the unbreaking enchant, he was able to confirm how the levels would work.

{Unbreaking [lv10, 12, 20]}

Not too exciting, but functional. Though it does make him question how it will look once more are available. It would take up way too much space if someone had all the enchant levels from one to one hundred.

While that is happening, the Guild lady has taken the time to set up a small chair and table off to the side of the second floor exit. Then, once it is all nice and tidy, she rings a bell. Not a normal bell though, as something about it instantly grabs both Doyle and Ally’s attention.

The Guild lady, “Ahem, if the dungeon fairy in residence wouldn’t mind, I would like to have a short talk.”

Doyle and Ally look at each other. Ally shrugs, ‘I think she only suspects me and doesn’t have a clue about you. Now, I know you’re against revealing yourself to the town outside, but how about her? She isn’t sticking around after all.’

Doyle tilts to the side, ‘She certainly won’t attack us, that’s in the contract. Outside of that, though, we can’t really be sure. How about you go and get a feel for what she wants and if advantageous enough I’ll consider it.’

Ally raises an eyebrow, ‘Well that’s a complicated way of saying no. Though I guess that is probably the best way to go about this. No reason to shock the Guild for no reason.

‘It does mean that I’m going to have to fly my way down there, which will take a while. Though she looks ready for it, already has a book out to read. So, I guess I’ll head off then. Not like we can’t communicate as long as I’m anywhere in the dungeon.’

Doyle, ‘Couldn’t you just use the floor portals to skip all the way to where she is?’

Ally laughs, ‘I could. Except such control over your portals would reveal the truth. No, if we want to keep the charade up, I’m going to have to fly all the way from here to there. At least primal glamor will get some work.’

And with that, Ally begins her journey to meet the Guild lady. Some floors were easier than others. In particular, the eighth was over quickly since she could ignore the dungeon playing around with gravity.

Though the easiest by far was the sixth floor. Being able to choose which portals work on her combined with an instinctive feel for the dungeon made the trip a straight line that was shorter than the first floor. The only way it could have been easier is if Doyle had directly connected the squares containing the entrance and exit.

After that, she makes short work of the fifth through third floors and is soon at the third floor entrance. ‘Okay, has she done anything besides read her book?’

Doyle, ‘Well, she is a quick reader it seems and is her third book. That and she seems to have some form of invisibility as when anyone ends up on the floor she would pack up everything and become transparent. After that she would leave and re-enter the floor to let monsters respawn.’

Ally nods, ‘Fair enough. Sounds like everything is alright so I’ll make contact.’

Ally removed her glamor and flew through the portal, entering the second floor. Once there, it wasn’t hard to find the Guild lady. In part because she hadn’t moved from her location, though mostly because while she wasn’t shouting to the world, her innate power commanded people to pay attention.

The lady looks up and smiles, “Hello dungeon fairy, please, no names. Consider me just a faceless drone for the Guild. If it becomes necessary, a proper political type will be stationed here to deal with things. Now, I’m sure you’re wondering why I’ve come to meet you?”

Ally raises an eyebrow, “Not particularly, the dungeon just got raided after the first official Guild outpost was set up.”

The lady rolls her eyes, “And instantly the script breaks. Whatever. So yeah, those items and enchants should be good fodder for such a young dungeon. Though don’t consider them a gift or repayment for what happened.

“Sure, the political types back at the office would like you to, but I’ve got something else to make up for the raid. Anyway, the fact you got such a young dungeon to agree to the Guild contract is impressive. Do you have anything you want to know in particular?”

Ally, “As I’m sure you know, the system is more than happy to dump info on me. How about some general gossip on this region? We’ve already got beastkin from another planet walking around.”

The lady laughs, “As much good that information from the system will do you. From what I heard, it is like being in the universe’s biggest library except someone mixed all the books up.

“Anyway, something the system won’t tell you is that this planet is one of the first in a new region. So expect some more immigrants as time goes on. That is, if the people of this world prove even halfway competent at accepting new people.

“Of course, as the integration continues it will try to place the unhomed on other newly integrated worlds. Still, you’ve got a mostly average world with only minor space-borne threats to worry about.

“Though speaking of space, I guess I can mention that both gas giants and the sun already have refugees. A little rare considering the human bent this universe has, but when dealing with such a large space almost inevitable.”

Ally nods, “Fair enough. Though seeing as this world was only native to humans, why are they sending non-humans?”

The lady rolls her eyes, “Strange world, there are more people willing to accept beastkin as equals than those willing to accept humans, but different. Though the ones who are fine with the beastkin would also be fine with other humans, the system is always looking for a place to move the humanoids that need a new world.

“Besides, the local population managed minor space travel with only non-magical means. Once things calm down, it shouldn’t take them more than a thousand years to create usable long distance space travel with magic involved.

“My guess is the system expects the people on this world to get out and colonize quickly enough that the additional populations won’t be a problem. Combined with the low density of space monsters, this is the perfect place to re-home beastkin and such. I honestly expect the planets closest to this in nature to be fully terraformed within a few thousand years.”

Ally shrugs, “Not that I’ll be able to play with that. Sort of stuck here for the moment. What with being a dungeon fae and all.”

The lady nods, “But it does mean that with how ahead your dungeon is, you’ll be able to grow quickly. Once long distance space travel is a thing, planetary distances become trivial. From there, the fact that your dungeon is likely to be the toughest challenge on-planet will gain you a lot of customers.”

Ally, “Okay, now that we’ve chatted a bit, what has the Guild sent over to make up for the raids?”

The lady pulls out a box and places it on the table. “Now, I want to preface this with the fact that the guild is trying to get on your good side. For the dungeon to not only have a fairy, but also have the world’s first true town built around it and the first true guild office on the planet being located in said town? Suffice it to say, they’re interested.

“Sadly, this material might be a little too high level for what you’re currently working with. Though even if the dungeon can’t use it right away, it will be able to store the pattern for when it can. Besides, a small bit of mithril isn’t going to break any banks.

“The only reason it will be hard to find on this planet is because of it being newly integrated. After all, magical ore requires magic. Though I guess calling mithril a magic ore is a bit of a misrepresentation.

“Sure, it can be magical, but in the end it is simply a really good conductor of any sort of mystical power. Useful as it seems, this world will have a slightly wide variety of powers kicking around.”

Then she opens the box. Inside is a small cube of metal, about a centimeter square. The surface of it appears to be in constant motion despite being completely solid and there is a slight dance of world energy that forms around it for just a moment.

Ally flies over and picks the metal cube up. “The dungeon might be able to make use of it right away. As you said, it isn’t a particularly high level or rare material and while the town doesn’t know it yet, there is a second boss on the tenth floor.”

The lady raised an eyebrow, “Well aren’t you the little speedrunner? A second boss already? Since you’ve managed that already, I really can’t wait to see how you guide the dungeon in the future.

“As for using the mithril, if you can manage it, a mithril core wand does wonders. If the second boss is a mage, I would suggest not giving it such a wand because that is going to be way out of balance.

“It won’t suddenly make spells a magnitude more powerful. In fact, without a special design or an enchantment, it won’t improve the power at all. What it will do is let the wielder cast faster and waste less power while doing so.”

Ally nods and keeps a straight face. She had already known this, in fact she knew a few ways to use mithril in a wand to increase spell power as well. However, the Guild representative didn’t want to share names so revealing that knowledge would only cause problems.

Not that she has to wait too long. There are a few more pleasantries shared and some general info about the planet itself that Doyle already knew, what with having lived there before the system.

Then the guild lady packed up her table and chair before pulling out some kind of magical or maybe mechanical recorder. “Okay, to finish this I’m just going to record myself stating that the dungeon is under control and won’t go berserk or all death traps because of the raid. After that, I want you to verbally confirm you have it under control.”

Ally nods, and the lady presses a button on the recorder. “I declare that after reviewing the dungeon who was a victim of an unsanctioned raid that the resident dungeon fae has things in hand. There is currently no chance of the dungeon going berserk or turning into a death trap.”

Ally waits a second and then says her part. “I, as the dungeon fae, declare that things are under control and that there is no threat of the dungeon going berserk or turning into a death trap.”

The lady clicks the button again and nods, “Welp, that’s everything. Have fun with the mithril!”

And she takes a moment to turn invisible before leaving the dungeon through the second floor exit. After that, she leaves the planet for real this time with no one being the wiser.