The Outside World
[The Adventurers Guild of Stevensport]
"You're signing up a new party member? What is their current rank?"
The guild receptionist, Orelia, didn't have to deal with such requests often, the town being mainly a trading port and more a place for adventurers to come from than to be based.
"That is what I just told you," the party leader she was talking to, an unpleasant man by the name of 'Markus', responded with a sneer. Not that she expected any better from him, the way he behaved he was barely better than a bandit. "And she doesn't have a rank yet."
Orelia frowned. There was a reason most parties consisted of adventurers of the same rank, and it was always suspicious when higher ranked adventurers invited lower rank adventurers to their party.
"I'm not sure that's-" she began, only to be cut off by a sound no member of the guild wanted to hear.
Each guild had records for each adventurer known to be active in the area, connected magically to the adventurer.
Should the adventurer die, an alert would sound as the records updated.
"I have to take care of this," she told Markus, motioning for one of the other receptionists to take charge while she searched the records for whoever had just died.
She ran through the records from lower rank (and theoretically more vulnerable) to higher rank, wincing when the alert sounded once more before she found the first record.
After a moments deliberation she kept going from where she was already looking, on the basis that two deaths so close together were likely members of the same party.
Finally she found the records she was looking for.
Damien the Iron Knight and Cynthia the Hammer of Demons, both silver three-star ranked adventurers from the same party.
She checked the records of the other members of the party, to find they were still alive, which was a relief.
She'd always preferred dealing with Valerie to the other party members, the mage being just about the only one who didn't act as though she had something to prove.
The rogue had started his adventuring career as an alternative sentence after being caught as a thief, giving him a chance to demonstrate that he wasn't just a minor criminal, the knight had been an adventurer to earn acclaim for more than being the distant descendant of a hero.
And the priestess… there had always been something off about her, and her dedication to the teachings of Lumina.
Not that she ever wished any of them, or any other adventurers for that matter, dead, but at least the mage had survived even if half the party hadn't.
Something on the records caught her eye.
There wasn't an active quest recorded.
Normally each quest an adventurer took, whether alone or in a party, would be recorded so that if they did die the guild would know and be able to reassess the danger level of the quest.
For there not to be a quest recorded, but two members of the party dead, had to mean-
Orelia paled and ran back to the guild halls reception area, rapidly weaving a voice boosting spell.
"Everybody," she called out, grabbing the attention of everyone in the hall, whether staff or visiting adventurers, "I have reason to believe there is a new Dungeon in the area."
She could still remember the tales she had been told growing up, of people just vanishing when a Dungeon was nearby or monsters pouring out to attack nearby towns or cities.
There was no way she was going to let anything like that happen to Stevensport.
[With the adventurers]
Given the nature of their occupation adventurers often took the time to rest between accepting quests, unless they were particularly driven to raise their rank like the late Damien.
In whatever settlement they were based from this was easy, as unless the party was particularly bad with money they were able to afford decent housing.
When their quest took them to another town, however, buying a house… wasn't exactly practical.
And so the guild halls, as well as serving as a place to establish parties or accept quests, had areas for adventurers to rest and relax, no matter how small the town.
As such, there were a number of parties there to hear Orelias declaration, not to mention a few 'independents'.
Markus was already planning how to find the Dungeon, considering it a good 'audition' for his new recruit to his party of otherwise Gold one-star adventurers, while another party's leader, the Iron two-star ranked Diana, met the looks of her party, silently agreeing that they would take time to prepare themselves, improving their equipment as best they could with their lower rank.
And around them the other leaders made their own plans of how to deal with the Dungeon and independents prepared to take advantage of the increased number of available quests.
In short, the adventurers prepared for war.
[The Cathedral of Lumina]
Within the cathedral there were many priestesses, whether in-training or fully fledged, of whom a number were tasked with keeping an eye on their sisters of the order.
As such, within moments of Cynthias death within Taylors Dungeon, an initiate was hurrying to the side of the mother superior to report the fact.
"You are sure this was in a Dungeon?"
"That is what the Watcher told me, mother superior," the girl responded.
"Formalities will just waste time," the mother superior responded with an irritated wave. "How many priestesses do we have with experience in Dungeons?"
"I don't know, I'm only an initiate."
"Find out. We'll need to send some to the closest town to the Dungeon… Stevensport, you said?"
"Yes, its a coastal town on the continent of-"
"I don't need to know where it is, just that Luminas light will purify it. A minimum of three priestesses I think."
"And if I can't find that many priestesses with experience of Dungeons?"
"Fill out the numbers with priestesses new to the rank. In fact there should be three such priestesses in the party. Make sure they understand not to enter the Dungeon without a more experienced priestess to keep an eye on them."
"I'll see to it at once."
As the initiate left the mother superior turned her attention to the wall-sized tapestry of Lumina upon her wall.
"Soon we shall purify another group of Undersiders," she promised in a whisper. "Soon we shall be another step closer to being worthy of your presence once more…"
[A remote manor on the central continent]
"You mean to say my son is dead?"
The rage within the lords voice was terrifying to hear.
"I told that fool the life of an adventurer was too dangerous. We were already renowned as a heroic lineage, what need did he have to go out and get himself killed?"
"Calm yourself my love," his wife cautioned, laying a hand gently upon his arm. She turned her attention back to the messenger. "What do you know of how this happened?"
"I don't know much, just that it was the guild hall in Stevensport that heard first. There is a rumour of a Dungeon in the area…"
"So it was the Dungeon Master," the lord decided. "I'm going to make them suffer."
"Will we be setting a bounty on the Dungeon Masters head or hiring experienced adventurers directly," the lady asked, unsurprised by her husbands declaration.
"Both," he decided. "It could take time to recruit the experienced party while the bounty should ensure sufficient pressure on the Dungeon Master. A thousand gold for proof of the Dungeon Masters death, ten times that if you bring them to me alive."
"What are you waiting for," the lady asked after a moment, and the messenger realised she was talking to him.
"I'll report your quest to the guild," he hurriedly stated, all but running from the room.
He had heard rumours about the ladies family, and up to now had dismissed them.
But the way she'd acted...
He shuddered, promising himself not to take another message to the lord as long as there was another messenger available.
[The tower of the Fire Magus]
The title of Fire Magus could only be held by one mage at a time, thr greatest user of fire magic of the generation.
It was a position with a certain responsibility, to pass on at least a fraction of their skills.
As such the current Fire Magus had taken on numerous apprentices over the years since he retired from adventuring to his current position, many of whom had followed him into the role of an adventurer, not that the kingdom gave mages many options of what to do in the first few years after completing their apprenticeships.
One of these adventurers was a certain fire mage by the name of 'Valerie'.
The Magus did his best to keep an eye on the careers of his former apprentices, feeling that was the least he could do as their old master.
Not that he was able to use his magic to do so, a Magus he might be but he was still only human and his apprentices too numerous.
And with the records showing that Valerie was still alive nobody thought to contact him about the fate of her party.
At least not yet…
[Within the Dungeon]
Taylor stretched as she woke, taking a moment to remember what had happened to her arm the day before.
Now, however, her arm was fully recovered.
It would appear her new body healed a lot faster than her old one.
With the discovery that she was fully healed she turned her attention to the Dungeon notification before her.
New Floor Constructed
Mana Limit increased by 20
With the creation of a second floor it is possible to select a second type of monster to inhabit your Dungeon.
Remember that once a type of monster is unlocked it is available for all floors of the Dungeon.
Due to the age of the Dungeon only monsters of the same family (Arthropods) as the first floor.
Taylor… hadn't exactly expected such a restriction.
There was a second notification active at the same time, as well as the list of available monsters, so she turned her attention to the other notification.
Please select floor terrain
Sea Cave
Abandoned Mine
Volcanic Cavern
Her first thought was to select the mine as the natural continuation of the cave terrain she'd selected for the first floor, but hesitated.
She wasn't going to select the Volcanic Cavern, which was clearly an option due to absorbing some of the fire magic used against her Dungeon, seeing as arthropods on the whole were vulnerable to fire and heat, but it was only sensible to make sure the monsters and terrain matched.
To that end she'd need to select a monster type to fit the mine or Sea Cave, without it filling the same role as the spiders she already had access to.
Spiders mostly fit the ambush predator role, able to win by surprising theoretically stronger foes, so what she needed was something able to stand and fight, able to act as a distraction for her spiders.
There were the same options of millipedes and crickets she saw before, but this time with the added option of crabs.
The armoured shell of a crab would allow them to serve as frontline fighters, letting the spiders flank invaders. At least, in theory.
There was the question of why she had access to the Sea Cave terrain and crabs, so Taylor dug through the previous days notifications, the details of what the Dungeon absorbed from the adventurers holding the answer.
"A vial of seawater," she couldn't help asking herself. "I wonder why…"
The notifications had mentioned that items absorbed by the Dungeon unlocked new possibilities for its development, but this was the first time she had any experience with unlocks from items from outside the Dungeon.
Everything considered, the crabs and Sea Cave made the perfect fit for the second floor.
There was the possibility of using spiders with the crabs, but a sudden and complete change in the style of monster fought should throw off any adventurers, not to mention that the first floor achieved the designation of "Spider Floor" from a complete focus on spiders, allowing the floor to refresh its contents for free once there were no more adventurers active.
On which note Taylor recalled the pair she'd taken prisoner, who she should check on soon.
She brought up the Dungeon status screen first.
Dungeon Level: 2
Floors: 2
Rooms: 0
Room limit: 10
Corridors: 1
Corridor limit: 20
Monsters: 0
Bosses: 0
Traps: 0
Mana available: 100/90
Daily Mana intake: 25 (35)
DP Available: 505
Daily DP Allowance: 20
Mana cost for next floor: 150
Taylors eyes widened at seeing the Mana overflow.
Previously the mana intake had been capped at the mana limit, only exceeding it from absorption of the mana given off passively by the adventurers (or absorbing the bodies of two of them, which she was trying not to think about).
That was it.
The +5 Mana per prisoner wasn't limited by the storage capacity.
Which meant that each day she'd need spare capacity equal to or greater than her Mana intake if she didn't want to risk Mana poisoning.
Right, first things first.
One; use up some mana.
Two; visit the prisoners.
Step one was easy enough. The floor was currently just a short corridor, not unlike the first floor was to start with, just shorter.
Given that constructing rooms and corridors increased the Mana storage limit even as they cost Mana to produce they were the best option to deal with the Mana overflow quickly.
Each construction, room or corridor, cost five Mana, increasing storage by an equal amount, while increasing intake by one, for a total change in her current state of nine Mana each.
Given that she needed to deal with the ten Mana over her limit and the next days thirty-four Mana intake, that came to forty-four Mana to deal with, for a total of nine constructions before she could be safe tomorrow.
Of course all she really needed right now was to deal with the first ten Mana, so she set a second corridor into production, crossing the end of the pre-placed corridor, and that brought her Mana under control.
Now to visit the viewing area of the prison.
[Inside the prison]
"There's no point, Rhett," Valerie told her surviving party member. "There's never been a successful escape from a Dungeon before."
Garret turned back from where he was trying to dig into their prisons wall with one of the pieces of cutlery from the meal they'd discovered upon awakening.
"How else do you propose we spend our time waiting for your 'certain rescue'? I can't just sit around waiting for a rescue that may never happen."
"Then why not help me try to figure out why our accommodations are so…"
"Comfortable? Clearly this Demon Lord is still trying to convince us she isn't some kind of monster."
Comfortable was definitely one word for the prison.
Rather than the usual hard board to sleep on and bucket in the corner, if you were lucky, that Garret had told the to expect should they be thrown in prison, there were proper beds and furnishings.
In fact, other than the lack of any way out, it was like the fanciest of inns.
"You're awake," the voice of their captor said, and Valerie spun rapidly to see Taylor standing in a small area she'd seen earlier, but questioned the purpose of.
With the Demon Lord now present it's use became clear; giving her a way to speak with them without risking a fight.
"I would like to start by apologizing for the deaths of your friends," she continued, "but they didn't give me any choice."
"What do you intend to do with us?"
It wasn't the smartest move to take a confrontational tone with someone who had you at their mercy, but with all the stories of what happened to adventurers taken prisoner by demons of any type, the question forced it's way out of her.
"Would you believe nothing? I honestly would have preferred if you just retreated from the Dungeon. Nobody had to die, until your leader forced the issue."
"Are you going to release us?"
Taylor sighed. "With your comrades dead you have more than enough reason to seek revenge. If I let you go what's stopping you recruiting help and using your knowledge of the Dungeon to get to me?"
It had been worth a shot.
"So you're just going to keep us here?"
"Yes, until I feel it's safe to let you go. That reminds me, Garret, this prison is escape-proof. I'd recommend not wasting your energy trying to escape."
"Is that all you've come to say? You're sorry, but we aren't getting out and should just give up?"
"I was intending to ask about what I should expect from future waves of adventurers, why these 'Undersiders'," there was a curious tone in her voice at the name, "were banished from the surface. But I guess you aren't willing to answer any questions." She sighed. "I'll speak with you again tomorrow."
With these last parting words, she turned and walked through what appeared to be solid rock, presumably returning to the Dungeon.
"Perhaps we should have given her an answer or two," Garret commented, turning back to the wall. "We might've been able to find out what's happening outside."
"If we could believe what she told us. Better to just wait to be rescued."
AN: my plans for when to work on this story have been somewhat derailed by Covid, but I am still likely to update it at something approaching a regular basis.
As for this chapter, you can see the enemies starting to stack up can't you. And all from the single party being beaten.
Just imagine what the results of facing these further parties will be...