Chapter 74: Me, Myself, and I Dungeoneering

I run through four dens, my [Sense Mana] split four ways but reduced to a quarter of its normal size as the tradeoff. I slay each monster and gather their bodies. With a large storage crystal in a mana silk backpack - the crystal has five slots or about five square meters of storage space - I can store a large amount. However, bodies aren't the most efficient use of space, so I still have to run back to the subcamps and deposit the bodies.

The backpacks themselves are a little larger on the inside than the outside, allowing for an even larger storage crystal. It was the result of an experiment I did on spatial enchantments, which was a partial success; the backpack is only about fifteen percent larger on the inside and getting it any better is difficult. There are two points I can try to get a larger space inside. One is a more efficient enchantment, the other is a better container. Up to a certain point, the larger the container is, the more enchanting mana I can use; however, this is offset by the amount of space I need to expand on the inside, so it follows the square-cube law. The backpacks as they are, are an optimized size, where if they are any larger the space inside will actually decrease and still take more enchanting mana.

The first boss I reach is in the arachnoid den. It's a lower level than what I fought in the Glade and the Ruins, so I easily kill it with my charged wolf fang spear. Because the spear is split five ways, including the true one ‘I’ am holding, its innate ability to discharge mana is also split in five, so I use my charged spear spell instead. With four clones slaying monsters, I burn through my mana very fast and have to take frequent breaks that I use to dump monster bodies at the subcamps, so even reaching the first boss took a few hours.

The bosses of the weaker dens are not able to provide any challenge, and even though they are higher level I don't get a lot of levels from them. When I reach the first floor boss of the arachnoid den, the entrance to the second floor is blocked off by a wall of thick webbing.

"So it's like this in every den? You have to slay the floor boss before continuing on, huh." I mutter to myself.

It's level three hundred. I turn my clone invisible and charge up a spell spear, almost twenty thousand mana going into it. I summon another clone next to it and transfer my primary mind over to it, charging another spear. Both spears hum with a high pitch, almost like a warning that if I push it any further the spell will fail and probably explode. I sneak right up to the unaware arachnoid as it squirms and looks around for the source of the humming, then stab it with both attacks. This takes most of my mana, so if it doesn't kill it, I'm going to have to wait for my mana to recharge.

Ting! You have killed a Champion Arachnoid (Major), Level 300 Web Guardian (Major), extra experience has been rewarded for being under-leveled and being solo, and for being in an enemy-empowering environment.

Ting! Your Class, Fairy Summoner, has obtained level 192! 15 status points awarded.

Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 317!

What? Just one level each? I was getting four or five while having the experience split for being in a party; why is it so low?! I am getting more exp bonuses, too; what's the deal?!

I sigh and calm myself; there are hidden variables when it comes to exp gain, modifiers like being under-leveled and getting solo kills are just bonuses that don't always factor into experience gain. What does always factor into experience gain is danger, stakes, and challenge. One could argue that effectively one-shotting the floor boss is a challenge, so I get experience for that, but there is no danger, there are no stakes; thus, the experience gained is very low.

With the others, even if I wasn't in danger, the rest of my party was, so the stakes were very high for ten people, thus the exp gain was high. It probably meant more since I consider Tana, Chyzu, and Esofy my friends. Those that mean more to me will be considered higher stakes than those I don’t care about much… although doing that kind of calculus with the lives of others isn’t a habit I want to get into. What this means, overall, is that I should fight in groups more or seek out higher challenges.

With my mana spent, I take a break and observe the Champion Arachnoid corpse for any magic materials. Several parts of the spider have gained magical properties – the fangs, web sacs and venom glands –, so I carefully take those out and store them, then continue on my way after dismissing my extra clone. sheathing my daggers that I used to dissect the boss

At the same time, in the Glade, I enter the floor boss's room with a different clone. Thunder rumbles and lightning strikes the ground; sleeping in a curled-up ball is a Felin with lightning coursing through its fur. It raises its head and cocks it to one side, as if sensing my presence but not actually seeing me. The Felin eyes the entrance as I slowly creep forward, invisible. I silently move around the side of the Felin, whose ears twitch and turn in my general direction.

Foe sense? Danger Sense? It's definitely got something; it knows there's something going on but not exactly what.

I summon another invisible clone that sneaks to the other side of the Felin, then both clones start charging spears. The Felin stands up with its hackles raised, lets out a warning growl and crouches for a pounce, keeping its eyes glued on the entrance even as the high pitched humming starts emanating from my spears.

I launch my sneak attack without giving it a chance. The spears burn into the Felin as it screeches in pain; it survives the attack with only a small amount of vitality left, so I start making fairies and empowering them as fast as I can. The Felin sends out a burst of lightning, but it doesn't disrupt my clones since they’re mostly made of beauty mana. It growls and looks around for its attackers; it can't see or feel anything, but it knows where the fairies are coming from.

Finally managing to get an attack in, the Felin swipes at one clone with its claws and sweeps the other with its tail. My quasi-real clone has its chest raked open, but the wounds close immediately; one of the backpack's straps is cut, but I'll fix it after the fight. I dance around the Felin as it attacks, but my insufficient dodging abilities are allowing it to continue hitting my clone. Regardless, I burn out the rest of its vitality with [Fairy Strikes], my clone's shape  reforming afterwards. The shredded backpack is too damaged and needs to be remade.

Ting! You have killed a Lightning Felin Matriarch (Grand), Level 330 Electrical Beast (Grand), extra experience has been rewarded for being under-leveled and being solo, and for being in an enemy-empowering environment.

Ting! Your Class, Fairy Summoner, has obtained levels 193-194! 30 status points awarded.

Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 318!

A little bit more of a challenge, this one… unlike the first floor boss of the rodent den, which I kill without particular effort after letting my mana recover.  I gather the monster parts, dumping many of the lesser Felin corpses to fit the Lightning Felin in my storage since I'm not good with skinning pelts, then take all the dead monsters back to the subcamp before heading deeper into the den. I’m wasting so much time going back and forth, I really need a ‘Scroll of Town Portal’ or something!

Actually, maybe I should examine the waystones and waystone key to see if I can learn a spell. It won't be the same thing – those are magic items after all – but If I can somehow use spatial spells to make a wormhole then it might just be possible... it may even help me make a larger internal space for my backpacks. The spell will probably need to make use of a link; the only way I know how to do that is to link crystals together as they are made, but the waystone can form a link after its creation, which is why I need to examine it. If I can figure out manual linking, that will allow me to make my own waystones and improve airship technology.

As I let my other minds do their thing in the dens, I walk my ‘real’ self towards Esofy.

"Do you still have the waystone key?" I ask. The portable waystone is in the main camp and the key is already linked to it, so I can't observe that. I need to observe the process of forming the link.

"Yes, why?" Esofy is currently taking inventory of our supplies. I have made a lot more healing and storage crystals and a defensive "spell cannon" for each subcamp. It's not actually a cannon, obviously, but it's the only thing I can relate it to in my mind.

"I want to study it; perhaps I can make something similar."

Ting! You have killed a Den King Rovlat (Grand), Level 250 Gnawing Biter (Major), extra experience has been rewarded for being under-leveled and being solo.

"That's actually a good idea." Esofy hands me the key, and I examine it as one of my clones slays another boss.

Perhaps there's something in the key or waystone, an anchor? No, a link is magical in nature, a type of magical effect; a linked item is a sort of pseudo magic item with one requirement, to be a twin of another object, which means that making a waystone such as this is currently impossible for my current skills. Perhaps if [Mana Manipulation] were enhanced, but that's still a long way off.

I still want to see the linking process in action in more detail, but there will be a time for that. I thank Esofy and go back to my tent and go back to drawing maps for the dens I am in.

That's when I notice something in the rodent den's second floor; at the edge of my perception, there seems to be some sort of stone structure. I make my way through the labyrinthine tunnels, getting closer and seeing more of the structure, which is revealed to be an entrance to what looks like another ruin. Gargoyle monsters are near the entrance in the rooms further in. This ruin is about at the same level as the Glade, the monsters starting at level one hundred.

Is it possible that there is a ruin in every den? The waystone is near the ruins too. I send enough fairies at the gargoyles to slay them and walk in after the monsters fall dead to the ground. There is a trap at the entrance, a hinged floor that falls down to a spiked pit; the latch of the floor is designed to give way if there is too much weight on the trap. The room directly ahead contains a mimic in the form of a treasure chest, with two more gargoyles standing like statues next to the door on the inside.

I test the trap by putting Rovlat rodent corpses on it, noting that it will only trigger once about the weight equivalent of two adult Runalymo – or one very heavy person – walks over it. It's easily avoidable if you know how it works. I note down all of that on a new map.

I work my way through the ruins, testing the traps and making notes of treasure chests and monsters. The first non-mimic treasure chest contains a steel sword with a sharpness enchantment and a pair of resizing boots.

I store the loot and move on; this ruin is cursed with the same bad RNG as the other; that or the good stuff is just that rare.

Ting! Your Class, Fairy Summoner, has obtained level 195! 15 status points awarded.

Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 319!

Focusing on another clone, I slay an Ant Champion boss in the giant tree, store its body and take it to the subcamp. The levels are starting to get harder to obtain; for each boss that I effectively trivialize, I get diminishing returns, the novelty of slaying higher level monsters quickly losing its bonus against my own gains.

Focusing back to my clone in the Gargoyle Ruins, I come across the first mini-boss, a massive mimic shaped like piles of gold and treasure chests. Mind essence fills the room just as it fills the mimic and several other, smaller, mimics in the room. I feel something enticing about this room, a sweet smell and a siren’s call, mind spells meant to lower my guard and go to the treasure; I feel safe in this room.

Treasure Hoard Mimic (Grand) Temptation Caller (Grand)

I see; it uses subtle mind magic to lure its prey in; mimics are ambush hunters, after all. Well, if it's just going to wait, then I'll respond with exploding fairies and charged spears.

Ting! Clear Mind has met the requirements for a breakthrough and will now continue leveling past level 90!

9th Breakthrough: You've maintained a clear mind, even while allured or seduced; this will help you resist such attempts.

Ting! Clear Mind has obtained levels 69-72!

The mimics don't even respond to my spears' high-pitched noise… and I don’t give them time to respond to my attack, either. As soon as my spear sinks into the boss monster's flesh my fairies dive bomb it and the smaller ones, quickly resulting in their death.

Ting! You have killed a Treasure Hoard Mimic (Grand), Level 230 Temptation Caller (Grand), extra experience has been rewarded for being under-leveled and being solo.

Ting! Your Class, Fairy Summoner, has obtained level 196! 15 status points awarded.

Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 320!

I take it that the danger was higher because I am still susceptible to mind fuckery?

Ting! Mental Fortitude has met the requirements for a breakthrough and will continue leveling past level 50!

5th Breakthrough: You've resisted allure or seduction; this will help you resist more such attempts.

Ting! Mental Fortitude has obtained levels 25-26!

As is usual, a treasure chest appears, and as usual, it holds mediocre loot. I go around exploring the entire floor of this new ruin, slaying monster after monster, boss after boss. All the way up to the floor boss. In the other dens, I reach the second floor.

Resting for some time after killing the bosses I explore the camp and observe the changes made. During the day, everyone got all the camps set up. My kills have already been processed, too, although some people grumbled about others ‘not doing their part’. Hey, I am; I'm the one making the maps.

The camp is better organized than last time, a reduction in people allowing for space to be made and an opportunity to better organize the warehouses.

I talk with Uloru and Kadona, admiring Uloru's new hammer. She keeps it in a reduced size most of the time, but she enlarges it as much as it can to show off. It really is a massive hammer, easily fit for a titan.

As the expedition leaders are about to have their meeting, I tell them about the new Gargoyle Ruins and show them my map, my discovery, sparking a long discussion.

As night falls, I put my minds on resting rotation and continue exploring the Gargoyle Ruins and the Glade.

Ting! Your Class, Fairy Summoner, has obtained levels 197-198! 30 status points awarded.

Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 321->326!

I finally hit my level cap, which means it's just Bond levels all the way from here.

In the Glade's second floor – perhaps better called the Woods, as the trees become denser and the rooms larger – I encounter a Speed Felin, a tricky one to catch and slay, as it climbs trees and jumps down from them at ludicrous speed. A Blaze Felin, one that seals off its room in flames and burns the whole area. An Earth Felin with a tough hide, which takes two hours to slay because of its regeneration and vast amounts of vitality. A Sonic Felin with screeches loud enough to make ears bleed, and possibly kill if I were physically present. A Gravity Felin that changes gravity for me, using its ability to disorient its prey. Finally, as a roaming boss, a Stalker Felin capable of camouflaging itself.

The pelts from the Sonic and Stalker Felins are quite good; the sonic pelt nullifies the sound made by the wearer, although that unfortunately includes speech, which will require some cleverness to work around, and the stalker pelt has invisibility effects. Combined, they have a near-perfect stealth effect.

The Earth Felin's heart has the ability to provide constant vitality generation, which works with its extra tough pelt. The Speed Felin pelt could go well with the sneaky ones to possibly make some ninja furs.

I look upon the second floor boss in the glade. A titanic beast with what looks like crystalline fur and massive diamonds coming out of its back. Its race, Bond, and classes are diamond essence, something I haven’t seen before. Wait... classes?

Diamond Felin Patriarch (Heroic) Diamond Resonator (Heroic) Diamond Regenerator (Heroic)

This is the raid boss, I don't know what level it is, but it's gotta be high. By the looks of its mana signature, some of it's skills are similar to the Alpha Spine Wolf's... I wonder which skills it has? Spell resistance, teleportation, or something else?

I scout past, into the next Glade zone; dark woods with a thick canopy. The rooms are massive, easily capable of fitting dozens of people with room to spare.

Dire Felin (Grand) Black-Ice Raker (Grand)

Yeah, this is the raid zone; if the normal mobs are Grand-tier, then this is going to be a tough area.