The Newt and Demon-7.55 - Kobold Dungeon

The naturally formed tunnels beneath Broken Tusk were expansive. Standing in the open cavern, Theo and Tresk squinted to see the monsters on the far side of the room. Although the alchemist’s eyes adjusted to the dark, it was still difficult. The light coming from the fungus was faint, barely creating the silhouettes of the foul-smelling creatures. He wasn't sure if they had a plan or if they even needed one. However, figuring out where the monsters came from became a sticking point in his mind.

“Do we have a plan?” Tresk asked. Theo could feel her itching to kill some monsters.

“We’ve never really fought alongside one another,” Theo said. “Remember, I use throwing weapons. So I need the right angle on these guys.”

“Yeah, just don’t use the throwing daggers that explode. Poison only, please.”

Although they had little experience fighting alongside each other, it felt as though they didn't need it. Their connection had become strong enough that Theo could feel all her intentions before she acted on them. It was growing to a ridiculous point of synchronicity that transcended even that concept. He thought he could feel things her body and mind would do rather than the things they were doing or had done.

Tresk was the first to move. She jumped through the shadows, appearing behind one of the eight monsters and driving her daggers into it. Theo unleashed a barrage of poisoned daggers from nowhere, drawing them from his inventory and snapping them out with blinding speed. They thumped into the hearts of three targets, but Tresk had already jumped to another kobold. A few more daggers and shadows-jumps later and the entire group hit the floor.

“Well, that was easier than expected,” Tresk said aloud. “You know, if you had a couple of stealth skills, we’d make a mean assassination duo.”

Smiling to himself, Theo turned his gaze to his companion. He drew upon the Tara’hek Union skill and then slipped into the shadows. He borrowed Tresk's ability to both blend into the shadows and jump through them, performing a few quick jumps to prove his point.

"Okay, fancy pants," she said, folding her arms. "Message sent and received."

With the borrowed stealth skills in mind, Theo and Tresk padded down the passages of the cave system. The level they had encountered the first kobolds seemed to be the far reaches of the monsters’ range. As they descended deeper, they found more permanent structures made by the kobolds. Of course, every monster they encountered died through a combination of flying daggers and knives to the back.

Theo snuck to the corner of another passage, poking his head around the side. There was another adjoining passage heading in the opposite direction that he peered down. He stopped to speak with Tresk.

“How are there more of them?” Theo asked, shaking his head. “This looks like more than just a few monsters coming from a dungeon. Or ambient mana.”

“Yeah, so we’re looking at the last option. Migrants from another region. Or some super-dungeon we’re not aware of.”

Massively powerful dungeons are all the rage nowadays. Theo wasn't eager to clear all of the tunnels by hand, but he had to wonder if it would be all that difficult. If he drew on Tresk's power of stealth, and she drew on his raw attributes, they could cut a path through an army of low-level monsters without even being detected. But how long would that take?

“Does it matter?” Tresk asked, sensing Theo’s concerns. “You got somewhere to be?”

Theo smiled to himself. No, he didn't have anywhere to be. There were projects that required his attention, but not today. He had sorted everything out, and everything was fine, so he shouldn't be concerned about finishing this job as quickly as possible. Instead, he focused on the task of clearing out the monsters. At least that might give them some sense of why they were here and whether they posed a larger threat.

Before proceeding on their murder spree, Theo made notes in his administrative interface. He warned the adventurers about attacks in the underground city from the kobolds. If they stirred up the nest, it was possible they would rush forward. However, that depended on how intelligent the monsters were; so far, they seemed to operate at no higher intelligence level than the goblins in the swamps.

“The density of the kobolds is increasing. I have an idea… why don’t we sneak past everything we can, and find the source of these kobolds,” Theo said. “That way, we’re not wasting as much time and we don’t agitate them.”

“As long as I get to stab a few things along the way, I’m game.”

Theo and Tresk worked their way deeper into the cave system, and it was deep. The naturally formed passageways were all sloped, heading down through the rock. At one point, the alchemists' ears popped, indicating exactly how far they had descended, and it just didn't stop. Three hours of sneaking and occasional stabbing later, they finally reached something that was different.

The collection of monsters had grown thicker on the last few floors. Their camps were more elaborate, and some had even excavated into the walls to create small houses. It was behavior the alchemist had never seen from system-generated monsters, and he was worrying. The pair hid in an adjoining passage which opened to a massive cavern with a rushing waterfall on the far side. Above the constant chittering sound the creatures made was the rush of water. Even the scent of the foul creatures was diminished, thanks to the smell of the flowing water.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Even from a great distance, Theo could see what shone beneath the waterfall. The strangely familiar glow, which pulsed like a heartbeat, stood out to him. It was the entrance to a dungeon.

“I see it,” Tresk said. “Let’s check it out.”

The monsters here were at a far higher level than those on the floors above, and at first, Theo hadn't bothered checking them. However, the last few levels had given him a strange sense, so he had started doing it. These creatures ranged between levels 25 and 35, which would normally pose a threat. He figured he could take on quite a few of them in a fight, but what he faced now was like a city. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of monsters roaming around, and it was difficult to make his way through them, even with the shadow-jumping ability.

Water splashed on the duo as they worked their way around the waterfall. To their surprise, the dungeon itself wasn't very well defended. There were the same number of random kobolds mingling here and there. They didn't seem to have enough sense to maintain a tight guard around it. But then again, maybe they didn't believe it could be a threat so far behind enemy lines. The alchemist approached the portal and pressed his hand against the cold surface. A system message appeared.

[Kobold Dungeon]

Level 25 Ascendant Dungeon

Monster Types:

Kobold

Description:

None

Trends:

Power draining for ascendancy.

Th𝓮 most uptodate nov𝑒ls are publish𝒆d on ƒreewebηoveℓ.com.

Level trending down.

Threat Level:

N/A

Theo felt sweat forming on the palms of his hands as he read through the description. It seemed like an innocuous enough description until he leaned heavily on both his experience and intuition. This wasn't a good thing. The level 25 Ascendant Dungeon tag at the top was concerning, but that alone wasn't cause for alarm. It was the first entry under the Trends section that raised his concerns. The only dungeon he had examined that was "Gathering power for ascendancy" was the Cave Dungeon. This one said “Power draining for ascendancy.”

“Ah, crap! Does that mean what I think it means?” Tresk asked.

Theo had already put it together, and Tresk had filled in the gaps. This dungeon had already reached level 100, gaining the flag required by the system to ascend. It was now spending all of its power until it hit level zero. It would ascend, although the alchemist couldn't even guess what that meant. The system had changed, which meant ascending shouldn't be possible. Yet, here it was.

“Bad news all around. Should we stop it?” Theo asked.

“You’re asking the wrong lizard,” Tresk said. “I’m thinking no one alive knows what the hell an ascended dungeon means. Could we even clear it?”

That was actually a good question. Theo couldn’t say if there were only Level 25 and below monsters within. The description said it was level 25, but it also had the ascendancy tag, which meant anything was possible. This was just about as unpredictable as the negative dungeons. Entering it might not even be an option. They also couldn't bring backup since they were far too deep within the cave system.

There were simply too many unknowns to proceed, and the alchemist wasn't sure what he should do.

“We’re going to wait here while I think,” Theo said. He opened his administration interface and made a record of what he had seen.

When Theo realized he couldn't think about the problem properly, he joined Tresk, and they made their way to the outskirts of the area. They targeted isolated groups of kobolds and defeated them, collecting no useful reagents but gaining a fair amount of high-level monster cores. These were always incredibly useful for upgrading the buildings in the city.

Unlike the monsters on the higher level of the caves, these ones seemed to care that their friends were mysteriously dying. Some rushed off to gather in the center of the shanty town, while others circled through the encampments with torches held high. They searched everywhere, trying to find the mysterious source of flying daggers and backstabbing lizards. But, of course, the duo was moving the entire time, avoiding detection by jumping through shadows and striking quickly enough not to be discovered.

“What was that?” Tresk asked.

The ground rumbled beneath Theo's feet. He steadied himself against a wall. The pair was perched on a ledge of rocks high above the cobalt shanty town. He narrowed his eyes, watching through the dim light of the camps as the monsters moved around. They surged forward, heading for the waterfall in the dungeon itself.

“Maybe they’re retreating,” Theo said, tilting his head to either side as though to get a better angle. “Can monsters go back in the dungeon?”

“Maybe? I’ve never seen it happen.”

The way the kobolds moved wasn’t like an army organizing. There was fear in their ranks as monster crushed monster underfoot. It was a level of sapience Theo had never seen with monsters, and it sent a shock through his chest. The water pouring forth from the waterfall shuddered, sputtering and stopping several times. As the curtain peeled back, the alchemist watched the surface of the portal vibrate. A pair of massive hands jutted forth, seeming to peel the dimensional rift apart.

“While this isn’t unexpected, I’m still mad at myself,” Tresk said. “Who could’ve expected a giant kobold to come out of the ascendant portal?”

“Literally everyone in this room,” Theo said, watching as more of the figure emerged. It was ten times larger than a normal kobold, and shouldn’t have fit through the portal. But as more of the monster emerged, the more wrong it seemed. “That ain’t right.”

The monster that came forward wasn’t just a larger version of a kobold. First the arms came, covered in patches of both hair and scales. Then the head came with its long snout and horns twisting upon its forehead. When its forebody came through, it came with the first set of legs. Then the wings and the rear body. Tresk vibrated with excitement as the nature of the monster made itself clear.

“Chimera,” Theo said, gritting his teeth. Whatever ascendant magic flowed through the dungeon had twisted the boss. “That’s some kind of centaur.”

“More like a dragon-kobold-taur!” Tresk shouted into Theo’s mind. “This is the top of the top things I wanna kill!”

Theo let out a heavy sigh, trying not to smile. She’d pick up on that. “Okay. But we need a plan. Oh… Actually, he’s looking straight at us.”

“Whoops!” Tresk shouted. She and Theo dodged to the side at the same time as a massive spear embedded itself into the cave’s wall.

“Guess we’re fighting,” Theo said.