Chapter 29 My First Dungeon!

[Dragon Sanctuary Dungeon - Small]

The reason why I was cautious of this place was the fact that I don't know how strong the monsters inside are.

Even after being here for so long, I've yet to see another dragon flying around this place. So either they are exceedingly rare or they are located deeper inland. We live at the very edge of Dragon Sanctuary where the mountains are the smallest after all.

But for all I know, the dragons might be found in the dungeons themselves.

I did ask Mother about this and she confirmed that it was a possibility to find them in dungeons but she never confirmed where the other dragons are for some reason. I assume it's because she doesn't want me going to find them.

Though there are dragons that are considered magic creatures, there are monster variants of dragons as well.

The worst thing is that unless you try to talk to it, you can't be sure whether a dragon you see in the wild is an intelligent magic creature that is open to conversation, or a monster variant that would attack you on sight.

Not that the magic creature types wouldn't try to kill you either if you piss them off.

Dragons in this world are basically treated as forces of nature, similar to how you would treat a tornado headed your way.

One does not fight it, you simply hole up and hope it passes you by.

Unless you are strong enough to challenge a tornado of course, which is a possible level in this world.

But from what I can tell, even if you are at tier four for a particular skill, you would still be in a fight for your life against a dragon determined to kill you.

I just hope there's none inside this small dungeon and even if there is, I'll be able to escape.

My dagger proficiency is higher right now so I'll be using the two daggers as my main weapons. If the situation calls for it, I'll switch out my normal dagger with the sword to dual wield both enchanted weapons.

Giving my gear a final check, I made sure to tie up my long hair into a ponytail to avoid it being a nuisance while I'm fighting.

I have a boon that would prevent this from being a problem in the future but unfortunately it has yet to manifest itself. That's why I'm not cutting it either.

With everything ready, I stepped inside the cave.

The first thing I noticed was that I felt like I stepped through something thin, as though someone was dangling a cling film at the entrance of the tunnel.

I tried stepping back and got the same feeling again.

Good, I was a little afraid that I might be stuck here until I clear the dungeon or something.

With my worries assured, I stepped deeper into the cave where the tunnel eventually tapered into a set of stone steps.

Considering that the dungeons were made by gods, I wasn't too surprised by this change so I continued my descent.

The stairs eventually ended at an opening which opened up into a large cavern, giving me a clear view of the monster that was guarding the entrance to the dungeon.

[Name: Infant Frost Wyvern

Race: Monster

Stats:

120 Strength

70 Dexterity

100 Endurance

100 Magic

Magic Skills:

Cryomancy (Tier 2)]

How handy, it actually tells me it's a monster under its race.

Also… This is a Wyvern… Albeit an infant one… That's literally guarding the entrance to the rest of the dungeon… And it's supposed to be a small dungeon too…

Is this normal for all dungeons or is it just the case for this one in particular?

Can I… Oh, I can still leave. Although I'm not sure if it's because I have not stepped into the cavern yet or because we're allowed to run away from boss fights, assuming this is a boss fight and not just a random mob in the dungeon of course.

Still, if it's just one on one, I believe I can beat it. Heck, even the cockatrice back at home can beat it.

Stepping into the cavern with both my [Shadow Wall] and [Shadow Glide] activated, a solid wall of fog rose up from behind me the moment I did so.

Ah… So this is a boss fight after all…

Well, because I was still in stealth, the wyvern did not react to my entry and continued standing guard at where it was.

There's another wall of fog behind it so I assume that's the entrance that will open up the moment I beat this boss.

Now… I'm pretty sure those scales at the top look kind of hard so I'm going to aim for its soft underbelly instead.

Dashing through the cavern, I did a twirl and slashed both my daggers across its neck, drawing blood.

I continued past its neck towards its belly and continued slicing it several times even as it reared up its neck for a roar.

Feeling the temperature drop suddenly, I dashed out from under it just as the area under the wyvern exploded with ice. Had I been a second slower, those icicles would have skewered me.

It's a boss mob alright.

The wyvern reared back its head and blew out a breath of frost aimed at the entrance, which was the opposite of where I currently am. I guess it's just blindly blasting away and hoping to hit something.

Summoning my shadows, I commanded them to start attacking the Frost Wyvern while casting [Darkness Paranoia] on the wyvern.

Sixty of them immediately ran towards it, armed with a variety of weapons. It's so unfortunate that I don't get weapon proficiencies from making my summons use them.

It's a little funny that the summons were still in my younger form so it looked like a pre-teen was commanding a group of preschoolers in a schoolyard fight.

All of them stabbed and hacked away at the wyvern, landing blows all along its length.

The wyvern roared and swiped its tail in an arc, catching two of my summons in its attack and dissipating them.

I leapt onto its back, using both hands to slam my paralysis knife down but it only dealt a shallow cut. At least I know I can still cut through its scales but its underbelly is still the prime location to attack.

Taking advantage of it being distracted by my summons and its blinded state, I slid below it again and started slashing my knives along its belly.

A few of my summons also joined me in poking at it with spears.

The temperature cooled again and I had to leap away once more, commanding my summons to do the same.

Unfortunately, not all of them managed to get out in time and at least five were caught in the ensuing ice explosion.

Ugh… I know I can just summon more but seeing my summons die like that also feels like a waste.

Once the ice settled, all of us leapt in again. As big as the wyvern was, it was quite slow while it was on the ground.

While several of my summons kept its attention in front of it, the rest of us slipped under its belly and continued attacking it.

Just as I felt the temperature drop again, the body of the wyvern suddenly froze up and toppled to the side, unmoving.

Oh! The paralysis finally kicked in! That was faster than I thought. I didn't even need to resort to my other spells.

I called out the rest of my summons and we immediately started whaling away at the wyvern's unprotected belly, giving up on technique to simply smash at it with all we've got.

Finally, after a good minute of all of us attacking it, the fog wall finally lifted after the wyvern died.

Oof… Only the first room and I'm already beat…

Are dungeons supposed to be rooms where you challenge monster after monster? I had the impression that it would be some kind of labyrinth though…

I left a few of my summons behind to disassemble the wyvern while putting the rest back into my shadow to descend deeper.

It was another flight of stairs before I reached the next opening.

Oh? Ask and you shall receive it seems… The stairs tapered into stone walls with three corridors leading towards different directions.

Seems like I would get my labyrinth experience after all.

I unslung my bag and took out a chalk, using it to draw a mark on the wall.

Unfortunately, the mark disappeared after a while, so it seems like leaving traces on the walls to mark where I've been is not possible.

Guess I'll have to do this the hard way.

Using my [Screen] I opened a new journal entry and titled it as [Dragon Sanctuary small dungeon, Second Floor Labyrinth].

I then proceeded to record down my turns as I explored the corridors, using my summons to scout ahead in case of traps.

Turning a corner, we spotted a bunch of monsters down the corridor at the same time as they had spotted us.

[Name: Labyrinth Goblin

Stats:

Stats:

15 Strength

12 Dexterity

12 Endurance

5 Magic

Skills:

Martial Skill-(Sword Proficiency (Tier1))]

Huh… Their stats are the same as those cave goblins… This kind of feels like a letdown especially after fighting that wyvern…

And who designed this dungeon that you'd put a boss fight at the entrance and give such trash mobs right after?

Oh well, they're still a source of Mana Crystals and I'm definitely not going to say no to that! Go and attack my summons!

What? That's the whole point of summons right? So you can relax and have them fight the battles you don't want to?

In the meantime, I'll just be back here, creating more summons!

Let's breeze through this dungeon!