Chapter 131

My party and I stood next to Jasper in the hallway, we were only a short distance from where all of the miasma on the floor was concentrated. The door to Baron Morrister's former office was emanating miasma. Now that I'm closer, it felt like there was more than just the demonic miasma I had been sensing so far. My [First Explorer] title was tugging at me in its direction. This was the miasma of a dungeon.

I turned to the man next to me. "Jasper, have you ever been in a dungeon before?"

He raised a brow. "I've never had the opportunity. Why do you ask?"

I nodded toward the door. "That door is leaking more than just the miasma of a demon. It feels like we're standing outside of a dungeon as well."

Jasper silently turned and glared at the door for a moment. "What do you suggest?"

Morrigan stepped forward, uncharacteristically joining in the conversation. "We should proceed. If a dungeon is forming here, there's no doubt that it will spawn demons. We should intervene now before it can grow any stronger."

"How dangerous do you think this dungeon is?" Jasper asked.

I turned to Morrigan and let her answer.

"Probably not that dangerous. It's weak and newly formed, if formed at all."

Jasper gripped his sword and turned to me. "Bring your party, I'll select five men and the twelve of us will go in now. I don't know anyone else here that has any experience with dungeons so you may be the key to dealing with this situation, whatever it is."

He strode away to gather the appropriate men. I turned to look at my friends. "Is everyone ready for this?"

Silva looked at the door. "I've never heard of a dungeon appearing in the middle of a building before."

Morrigan who shrugged in reply. "I've never heard of one appearing in the middle of a city before either. We don't usually even find dungeons until they've been formed for a while. Midnight Castle was a young dungeon by our standards, seeing one that isn't completely formed is unheard of. I have no idea what to expect through there."

"How about you Mimi? Do you know anything about any of this?" I asked.

"No idea, I barely understand the difference between the dungeon and the outside. If you disregard the taste of the mana and miasma, I can't tell how you guys distinguish the two in the first place. Couldn't we just be on the floor of a much larger dungeon?"

Morrigan looked like she was going to respond but quickly got lost in thought instead. I grimaced, the thought didn't sit well with me. Until recently this world felt like nothing but a game to me, being on yet another floor of a dungeon felt eerily similar. Dungeons in dungeons in dungeons. Dungeons all the way down. Best not to think about it.

"Come on girls, lets not get distracted." I led the group to the collection of guards that was forming near the guard captain.

They were a varied collection of guards that included humans and beast/demi folk. Only two of them in particular stuck out to me. One was a large... ox man? He was somewhat like a huge satyr, mostly human looking but with huge armored digitigrade legs that ended in large cloven hooves. He was bulky and muscular, he carried a large metal tower shield and a sturdy looking bearded axe. The giant thing would be a two-handed weapon for most people but he held it in one.

The other person that stood out was a tall and thin vulpine woman with light tawny fur. It was easy to see at a glance that most of her stat points were in finesse based on how she moved. She wore a long straight sword on her hip with a simple basket handguard, making me assume it was similar to a rapier. That would make sense if I was right about her build. She also wore lighter armor than most of the other guards.

Once the group was fully assembled we gathered in front of the door. "Bertrand, you're on point. First we go in, then Lilith's team." He turned to me. "Are you comfortable following my orders inside of that thing?"

I nodded. "Within reason. I'm not going to let any of my team die but I have no problem allowing you to coordinate."

The tall fox beastfolk laughed. "That goes both ways then. Don't be surprised if we focus on our own survival if it comes down to it."

"Naturally. Is everyone ready?" I asked, turning to look at my friends. When I got a complete round of nodding I focused back on the door in front of us.

"Bertrand, go."

The tall demi-beastfolk opened the door and pushed in with his huge shield, only barely scraping through the door. The entire group of guards filed in before Silva and I followed, leading our party in after.

Inside what used to be Morrister's study was a huge library with bookshelves that rose up several stories. The room was much larger than the original space would have allowed but other than the bookshelves it was mostly empty, a large open space dominated the center of the room.

"Boss room. I don't see any other doors," Torien already had her bow out with an arrow nocked.

Small sparks of electricity started to crackle around Morrigan. "Uncommon mana type here, lightning. I can also feel shadow mana but I doubt that will be useful."

Mimi put a hand on my shoulder and pointed to the far side of the room. "Lilith, I see something. The armor on that wall is alive."

"Jasper, hold on." I glanced at Mimi. "Is it a Mimic?" I whispered to her.

Mimi shook her head. "No, Dullahan."

At her words the armor stepped away from the wall and the closed helm that had been sitting on top of it clattered to the floor. Dark miasma visible to the eye poured out of the armor's neck and a long whip made of bleached bone rolled out across the floor next to it. It calmly walked toward us without fear, dragging the whip along the floor. As it approached it became more and more obvious how much the thing dwarfed us. The suit of armor was twelve feet tall and even made the 8-foot tall Bertrand look small by comparison.

Our group spread out around the approaching armor. My hungering claymore felt comfortable in my hand, it was the first opportunity I've had to use it in a while. I cast [Blade Waltz] on myself so I would be able to keep up with it in melee. The suit of armor came to a stop in front of us and stood there stoically. That moment dragged on as our entire group tensed.

A flash of white suddenly streaked across us but before it hit anyone Bertrand pushed forward and met the attack. Unfortunately for him, the whip coiled around his shield and whipped him from behind. Before it could rip the whip through his back, Bertrand twisted his body and repositioned his shield to protect himself.

Several projectiles flew toward the armor to little effect. Torien's arrow and Morrigan's lightning magic was uselessly deflected by its armor. Bertrand swung his axe low at the armor's legs and even connected with one of them but the hollow clang that followed didn't betray any kind of damage it had taken.

Instead the armor stepped forward and reached out to grab the edge of Bertrand's shield, attempting to hold the ox man in place. The whip rolled back out and slashed past Bertrand and cracked toward Jasper. While the attack was unexpected, Jasper managed to block it with his kite shield but he was knocked off balance from the sudden attack. He stumbled back but managed to stay on his feet. The dullahan swept his whip back and intended to follow up with another attack but was caught off guard by a boulder that crashed into him suddenly.

I looked over and saw that Morrigan was conjuring stones from scratch, since the interior environment didn't give her anything to pull from otherwise. Bella was also disadvantaged here, there weren't any plants for her to manipulate with her nature magic. Silva and some of the guards moved in with spears and shields, attempting to lock down the armor's movement but the dullahan was wise enough not to let anyone get behind it. As soon as the guards began to encircle it the dullahan let go of Bertrand's shield and created some distance between itself and our group.

I was approaching now too, warm claymore in hand, to attempt to control the monster's movements. The dullahan continued to walk backwards and just as the encirclement would have been complete the monster took a stance and slashed out with the whip, knocking two of the guards to the ground.

The boss monster took the opportunity to escape the encirclement and get behind the fox woman. It lashed out at her but contrary to its expectations the woman was not an easy target. As if she was dancing she dodged right under the whip, stepped into the armor's space and thrust her sword through the armor's knee.

For the first time since the fight started it made a noise, a wail of pain that caught everyone off guard. The woman in the armor's space recovered quickly and leaped backwards with superhuman speed. After failing to hit the woman with its left hand, it slashed out with the whip in the right but by then the woman had already gotten out of range.

The armor now had its back to me so I took a chance at thrusting my own long claymore at the back of its leg. I didn't quite get the timing right so it just bounced off to the right. The dullahan spun around and slashed its whip at me next but I had been ready for that. I ducked under the attack and jumped backwards away from it. Before it had any chance to pursue me, one of the high speed arrows I was used to seeing from Torien struck right between the plates of its right arm causing it to wail once again.

As we fought with it the guards had begun to encircle it again since we were holding it in place from multiple angles. Bertrand's big shield slammed against it and this time the curved bottom of his axe wrapped over the dullahan's shoulder and pulled the armor in close. It struggled and jerked trying to get away from the large man who was pinning him to his shield but the dullahan was held tight.

Right as I thought we were going to finally trap the boss in place it dropped the whip and put both hands on the ox demi's shield. The dullahan pulled on it and lifted the ox man up and over its shoulder, freeing itself from the axe that was tying it in place. Fortunately the maneuver had disarmed the dullahan and the fox woman managed to deftly grab its weapon while it was preoccupied.

The monster turned and punched the nearest guard with its steel mitt and knocked him off his feet, making him slide across the floor. Another arrow clattered against its side and the dullahan turned and charged toward Torien. As it approached, Silva twirled her spear like a staff and from a low position, thrust up and into the dullahan, impaling it on her spear. That unfortunately only lasted a moment as the monster pulled away and ripped the spear out of itself with another moaning wail.

It turned once again to Torien and threw the spear at her like a javelin. Torien managed to dive out of the way of it just in time, the spear embedded deep into one of the bookshelves behind her. I slashed at the back of its knee again and got purchase this time but it quickly turned and punched me in response. Like the guard from before I was lifted off my feet and thrown across the room. I landed hard on my back and slid across the floor but I felt okay. I staggered back to my feet, happy that my new armor didn't cave in like my last breastplate. Despite the direct hit from the dullahan I only had a small scratch and some bruised ribs.

I felt rage pulse through my bond as Mimi jumped onto the creatures back, stabbing it in the armpit with a short blade that she must have formed from her shapeshifting. The armor wailed and tried to reach Mimi but her small figure managed to avoid the dullahan's reach.

The fox woman took advantage of Mimi's distraction by stabbed her rapier through the boss' other kneecap, causing the armor to flail wildly at her. Her rapier had gotten stuck so she was forced to abandon it as she jumped out of range of the dullahan's wild swings. Once the fox had fully slipped out of range the armor did something no one was expecting, it jumped backwards right onto its back and crushed Mimi into the floor.

"Mimi!" Bella screamed.

The armor rolled off of Mimi and started barreling toward the fox woman, now single-mindedly trying to hunt her down, her rapier was still pierced deep into the dullahan's leg. Lightning magic arced out and struck the rapier like a lightning rod and causing the armor to seize up and fall forward. Jasper stepped in and thrust his glowing gold sword right through the neck of the armor where its head would normally be.

I rushed over to Mimi to find that she was completely fine. She pulled herself out of the Mimi shaped hole in the floor and dusted herself off. Parts of her cloak was torn but other than that she looked completely unfazed. Her high density and vitality must have protected her from the impact. The only indication anything had happened to her at all was a small nosebleed.

I turned back to see Silva along with the other guards pinning the dullahan down with spears while Jasper repeatedly hacked into the miasma that was pouring out of the suit's neck until it stopped moving entirely.