Eternal Rest

The trio reached a clearing by nightfall and rested in the cavern accommodations prepared beforehand. At dawn, they ventured towards the markings on the cavern wall denoting the dungeon entrance. However, Bones halted them before entering and gestured to follow him outside.

"Where are ye leading us, Boney?" Hem inquired, his curiosity evident.

"Patience, Hem. It's around here somewhere," Bones replied calmly. "We're searching for a faint outline of an arch on a tree bark in the vicinity."

"Are we searching for an entrance to the second stage?" Darsumi asked, and Bones turned to him, surprised. "No need to be surprised; Hem and I used to delve into dungeons with a party back in the day. Like any dungeon, there's bound to be an entrance to the next stage, or at least a prompt allowing you to continue from where you left off. I suppose this one has different entrances?"

Bones nodded and, after searching for a while, found the tree they had been looking for. "Can you do something to cover up the entrance? I doubt anyone would find this exact tree, but just in case. Also, make it easier for us to discern the tree in the future," Hem scoffed upon hearing Bones.

"Yer demanding quite a lot, but I hear ye! I have something in mind fer the main entrance, but it will take time! Dar, do something with the tree, will ye?"

"Fine, you two go on ahead. I'll be with you shortly."

The two returned to the entrance of the dungeon and waited. Soon, Darsumi returned. "Ready?" Bones asked, and Darsumi accepted the prompt. All three found themselves in the familiar safe zone of the first stage. As much as Bones would have liked to skip the first stage, he understood that their goal was to categorize the monsters and the items dropped.

Once again, it was up to Bones to clear the way because the two dwarves were adamant about just following and observing, stating that he needed to level up his skills. Roughly three hours and many ant monsters later, they arrived at the Queen's biodome. Bones rushed there by spamming his Bone Nova, and as the dwarves had said, he leveled up his skill.

"Anyone else want to take care of the boss?" Bones asked, but he already knew the answer. Both dwarves looked to the side, observing the biodome they had already seen and monsters they had already identified. They just couldn't be bothered with the low-level boss.

Bones got to work, and the boss was swiftly taken care of for the third time now. Loot consisted of mana stones and body parts as usual. Once the portal to the second stage appeared, Hem rolled his eyes and exclaimed, "Finally!" much to Bones' annoyance.

Hours after entering the dungeon...

"Do you always fight in melee?" Darsumi asked after noticing Bones continuously engaging in close combat with the summoned lance in his hands. Both dwarves found it odd that Bones cleared the first stage mostly by fighting in close range. Even Bone Nova was somewhat of a close-range ability.

"Not always, but I often do," Bones replied, knowing he should, as a caster, keep his distance when fighting.

smack

"Bah, no wonder ye managed to ruin the coat! Have ye thought about wut improvements ye want me to make?" Darsumi chimed in.

smack smack

"No, not yet. I even considered fighting without gear." Just as Bones said this, both dwarves looked at him with odd expressions.

sigh "Not nude, I have Bone Armor on me at all times."

"At all times? You can keep it up permanently?" Darsumi asked, surprised.

smack smack smack

Bones thought for a moment before replying, "Out of combat? Yes, permanently. In combat? Only with proper mana management and if I don't push myself too hard. Anyway, Hem… could you please stop smacking spy-quitos?"

"Sorry, Boney, it's hard to resist, ain’t it? Belmus could make ye some lightweight robes, reinforced wit’ spider silk ‘nd self-repair enchantments, ye know? Just don't get hit often ‘nd ye will be fine!"

Bones approved. "Sure, anyway, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to test my golem's fighting capabilities from here on out." Both dwarves shrugged and said they wouldn't mind. Bones took out the engraved bones he had prepared in advance and started constructing the golem, while the two dwarves were wasting time doing their own thing. Darsumi was keeping notes while Hem was mutilating the corpses of the spy-quitos. Bones did his best to create the nucleus, and it cost him a whopping five hundred mana once he was finished. He fused the nucleus with the construct, and the golem was completed.

After a few hours, the trio stood and watched the golem struggling to free itself from the spiders swarming all over it. Bones turned to the dwarves beside him and asked, "Was it really better to wait until the second stage to test the golem?"

"Eh? Yer golem is doing great, Boney! It might have been easier in the first dungeon, but ye wanted to level up faster, right? This is the way!"

Bones gave him a doubtful look. It was true that he was gaining proficiency in golem mastery faster, but his golem was struggling with every fight! The monsters far outleveled his golem. He looked to Darsumi, but the dwarf just nodded, proving Hem's words to be correct.

"Boney, yer golem's gonna break again!"

Bones turned, and indeed, he would have to intervene again. He cast Bone Spikes, one after another, pinning and crippling the spiders around the golem. Then he started removing the ones on it, one by one.

The golem broke and undid itself from taking too much damage, which only added to Bones' doubts about whether this was the fastest way to level his mastery. The dwarves had a lot more experience, however, and he was going to have to trust them on this one.

"So, what do you think of the dungeon? By now, you should have a general idea if farming the dungeon for parts would be profitable, right?" Bones asked, changing the subject while he worked on the golem.

Darsumi was the one to answer and said that any natural dungeon would be profitable, and this one is no exception! Plenty of monster parts dropped, which suited them perfectly. Chitin from the first dungeon, spider silk, and salamander scales from the second one. Darsumi also stated they had two teams prepared to farm the dungeon. Bones asked why just two, and Dar simply replied that they didn't have enough dwarves.

"We plan to hit both stages at the same time so they would come off cooldown around the same time."

"Wait, so…the stages within the dungeon have a separate cooldown period?" Bones knew dungeons had a cooldown, but it didn't occur to him that this meant stages and floors had separate cooldowns.

"Of course. You could think of them as entirely separate dungeons if you'd like. We still don't know the size and limits of the dungeon, and there are still many unknowns. I'm afraid, without the Runesmith to Identify the runes on the arch, we won't be able to find out unless—"

"—we go in and find out for ourselves!" Bones finished the sentence.

"Exactly!" Darsumi said and continued. "Since it's a small dungeon, we can only presume a few, but less than five groups of people can enter each stage at the same time."

"What about the enchanter in Stonefalls? Couldn't he identify the runes on an archway?"

"No. Rune Smithing is a broad term, Bones. Like crafting. Enchanting is just another branch of Rune Smithing. We need a scholar, a researcher! Someone with extensive knowledge of runes. A scholar like that would have a special add-on to the Identify skill that would allow them to read the runes."

Bones nodded, even though he didn't completely understand what Darsumi was talking about. He was still puzzled about how more groups could enter the same stage at the same time. “Wouldn't conflict often arise between different groups?”

Darsumi explained that just because the dungeon had more entrances and more groups could enter at the same time, it didn't mean that all the parties entering would be in the same instance of the same stage.

As for the limit to how many people could be in the same instance, Darsumi didn't have an answer. More accurately, there wasn't a correct answer as it wouldn't be found out without exploring and testing the limits of a dungeon. Most parties consisted of five members, but it wasn’t always the case. Medium and large-sized dungeons required more people to clear. Such dungeons were cleared by raid groups consisting of up to twenty-five people in a single raid. This limit had been thoroughly tested and accepted as a general rule.

"Alright, finished," Bones said after reconstructing the golem. The three continued exploring the dungeon. Bones had gotten his golem mastery to level 5, and the small threshold reached already had an impact on the golem's behavior. While his golem was still underleveled for the dungeon and its inhabitants, its movements clearly improved. The golem used the mace Bones had looted long ago, as it couldn't use his bone lance.

The choice of weapon came down to the golem's aggressiveness when attacking. It had no moral dilemma, hesitation, nor fear and attacked with reckless abandon. With the mace equipped, it pummeled the spiders it managed to hit to a pulp.

The party stopped at the miniboss. A Common Green Viper blocked their path, and this time, Hemdus stepped up to fight it, much to Bones' surprise. He wondered how the former adventurer fought, and soon, his expression turned unsightly. The dwarf fought even more recklessly than his golem. With a giant hammer in his hand—Bones suspected it was actually a two-handed warhammer—Hem kept charging the Viper, using crushing blows against its hard scales. With each hit, the scales were dented or would crack and break apart. Even the Viper's poisonous fog didn't have much impact on the dwarf's high constitution.

Darsumi, watching from the side, kept shaking his head as he wrote notes down. "No good," he said. Bones turned to him and asked what was wrong. Dar explained that the way Hemdus fought would ruin the scales. “You'll see! We need strong classes in our farming party for sure, but with enough precision so as not to damage the crafting materials. We will need a proper defender, preferably a peak bronze or early silver rank; an archer would be nice, and the rest could be mages. An earth and ice mage, no fire mages though."

"Don't want to scorch and damage the materials?" Bones asked, and Dar nodded. After he finished the fight, Hem proudly approached. "Did ye see that? Haha, wut an easy fight, barely a stretch!"

"Really? What about the loot?" Darsumi asked. Hem stopped, said "give me a sec," turned around, and ran to loot the body.

"Let me see, Pauldrons of the Viper, some mana stones, ‘nd uh, ahem..."

"Hm? What was that? What about the scales, Hem?" Darsumi inquired, sounding less pleasant.

"Right, the scales. A few intact, pristine-looking scales of the viper!"

"A few? What about the others?"

"Ruined," Hem admitted, embarrassed.

"Ruined! Thought they would be, considering you weren't holding back!"

"Sorry, Dar, couldn't help meself, ye know? It's been some time since I've stretched me legs!"

"No matter, I think we have all the data we need from the dungeon, except for one thing, the boss." Bones slumped his shoulders just as Darsumi said that and thought, finally, the boss!

"There's one more Viper, roughly in that direction," Bones said, pointing with his hand, but Darsumi waved his hand dismissively. "I'm sorry, Bones, we will be finishing the dungeon shortly so we can return as soon as possible. There’s still a lot of work to be done when we return. You only need to wait a month to return to the dungeon and grind skill levels to your heart's content! Core's content?"

Bones nodded in agreement. Darsumi was right. This run wasn't as much about clearing the dungeon as it was about gathering information. The three continued deeper through the jungle and toward the ruined temple.

It didn’t take long until they found their way out of the jungle and stopped in front of the temple. "We're here," Bones said as he turned to the dwarves. Hem nodded and after clearing his throat, added, "Arright, we'll be waiting for ye, so go right ahead!"

"Stop teasing him and go inside, Hem. We'll follow behind you, and this time, don't damage the body too much!" Darsumi rolled his eyes and warned him.

"Aye, aye." Taking out his "one-handed" hammer and a shield, Hem stepped inside the temple and continued down the corridor and into the main hall. Bones had warned them about the sneak attack beforehand, but Hem didn’t seem fazed or overly worried as he approached the center of the hall.

Bones soon witnessed why, as The Widow's sneak attack was stopped abruptly by a shield bash. The impact barely made Hem take a step back. Bones turned to the side and saw Darsumi wasn't there, already disappearing somewhere in the shadows. He too prepared and cast Bone Lance. This time, he would fight like a proper mage, from a distance.

The Widow was assaulted by the barrage of attacks from all sides. Hem's blunt attacks knocked the boss around and kept her from switching targets to a caster, and Darsumi’s precise attacks crippled the boss so it couldn't get away. And Bones? He had it easy, avoiding the acid projectiles and safely attacking from a distance. The Widow screeched her last not long after, and unfortunately, the mana core didn't drop.

"You'll get it next time, Bones!" cheered up Dar. Two pieces of armor dropped, along with crafting materials and mana stones. A new portal opened up, and without time to spare, the party entered the third stage.

The new area was hill-like, with lots of valleys and forests stretching far and wide. The entrance was located on a cliff overlooking a valley, and the first monsters they saw, far in the distance, were goblins. Bones groaned, while Dar frowned and Hem had no reaction whatsoever.

"Hm...this one could prove to be difficult," Darsumi stated, stroking his beard. Bones nodded, thinking that humanoid monsters and their levels presented a higher difficulty, but Darsumi had other worries. "Looking at the goblins in front of us, they seem organized and properly geared. No doubt the result of the dungeon remaining untouched for who knows how long."

Now that the dwarf mentioned it, Bones did notice the goblins had a different air about them. They moved differently and in formation. They were too far to Identify, but among a dozen goblins, a few had bows strapped on their backs, a few had a shield and a club, and the one that just appeared visible was riding a wolf-like creature.

"Worg rider?" Hem exclaimed in surprise. Bones questioned what worgs were. They resembled a subspecies of wolves, larger and far more vicious. Dar frowned and added that worgs ridden by orcs were even larger. The worg rider stood out among the goblins, being larger, better equipped, and exuding a more imposing presence. Perhaps an elite?

"Let's wrap things up here. We've seen enough, and it'll be a while before we assemble a proper team to tackle the third stage." Both Hem and Bones agreed to Darsumi's suggestion, and they left through the same portal that brought them here. They reappeared not too far away from the clearing, a few kilometers at most, where the forest met rocky terrain leading toward the distant mountain range.