Aster Loka
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Chapter 23
🕑 Added 2021-12-01 17:04:01 +0000 UTCSomething dove at Levi with an angry screech, immediately after they stepped inside the dungeon. Levi caught the flicker of movement and jumped aside to evade.
Level 1
(Dire Turkey)
Health 100%
About the size of a chicken, but a bit leaner and a lot more vicious. He snatched it out of the air as it flew by, slammed it to the ground with one hand while he drew his short sword with the other, and decapitated it in a single fluid swing.
Behind it flew three more dire turkeys. Gremlin Two launched himself into the fray, slashing about with his dagger, and Levi joined in beheading two of the fowl while Two finished off the last.
Unlike every other type of dungeon, Beast dungeons preferred a more open floorplan. They didn't have treasure rooms, but treasure areas clear of monsters and protected from intrusion, and their boss didn't live in an enclosed arena but merely stood guard at the exit door.
The whole place was a vast terrarium, for all intents and purposes. The crystal ceiling resembled a clouded sky, the white luminance diffused enough to seem almost natural.
This one was a field. Thickets of brambles, a few stands of thin trees, and ubiquitous tall grasses were scattered throughout the dungeon floor, providing places to hide and launch their ambushes to any creatures lurking about. It was wide enough that Levi could barely make out the dark lump of the boss at the far side of the vast room.
A stand of trees right by the entrance was the domain of the Dire Turkeys; Levi saw a whole flock of the pestilential creatures perched on their branches, looking down at his gremlin like they'd spied a particularly tasty treat.
Levi tightened his grip on the short sword, wishing it had a power stone so he could activate its blade. That'd show the foul fowl their place.
Still, experience was experience. He needed to kill a lot of dungeon creatures if he was going to level up tonight. So he set off toward the stand of trees, ready to start swinging once the turkeys descended upon them.
The turkeys waited until Levi and Gremlin Two were right below their trees, then a squawk from one served as a signal. They all attacked, nearly a dozen at once.
Levi burst into motion, his shortsword a blur as he spun and slashed, pushing his body beyond its limits. His stamina dropped rapidly, but he was used to the strain. He only regretted the lack of a second sword, and the barely acceptable reach on this one. It was significantly better than his dagger, though. Enough to not make him ashamed of it at least.
Turkeys scattered as they were cut down, their beaks and claws ineffective against Levi's makeshift armor. He took a few scrapes on the backs of his hands, but nothing more.
One dropped almost on top of him, claws extended for his vulnerable face. Levi punched it hard, sending it flying in a puff of feathers. It slammed into a nearby tree, health dropping to almost half. Gremlin Two gleefully finished the disoriented bird off.
And then they were alone, the swarm of turkeys dispatched with relative ease. Gremlin Two walked from one to the next, checking each to be sure it was dead. If any so much as twitched, he slammed the dagger down to be sure he finished the job.
Levi could have told him they were just reflexes, they registered at 0% health in his interface and began disappearing back into the dungeon a moment later, but he'd found something else to occupy his attention.
Climbing the trees.
He found a decently sturdy tree with climbable branches and scrambled his way up. His level 4 body was less capable of proper climbing than he'd have preferred, but it got the job done with only a few near misses.
From his perch in the tree he could see out a good distance. The tall grasses and thicket of bramble hid most of the detail about their future adversaries, but weren't sufficient to conceal them entirely.
He may not be able to tell what they'd be up against, but he could certainly see where and how many they were from the shifting rustles of grass in the windless area.
Three somethings over by the brambles, small enough to conceal themselves, but large enough that their movements rustled the nearby vegetation. One large and hairy something right at the center of the room. A collection of probably more turkeys off to the left. Another three of the medium-sized somethings behind that. And a single dark definitely-boss at the far wall, in front of the exit.
Treasure rooms may not exist as such in the vast open floorplan, but he saw a flat area by the large central creature which looked awfully similar to the treasure rooms in layout. It could be a decoy, but he suspected it would be legit. Low level dungeons had better things to do than set up fake treasure spots.
Rifts split the ground in places, hard to notice except when seen from above, deep cracks that were probably the closest thing the Beast dungeon would come to traps.
"Be alert," Levi said as he dropped to the ground. “There’re trap rifts all over the place. Some are big enough to map out, but with the undergrowth as thick as it is there could be smaller ones we aren’t seeing. They’re going to make things interesting.”
Gremlin Two nodded seriously, drawing his dagger and holding it ready.
Levi smiled at his ambition, then set out. He angled toward the flock of dire turkeys first. Swarm type creatures were always the most likely to roam, while each of the other groups had clearly settled down to their own regions.
It would be best to get them out of the way before taking on the unknown hiding creatures or the big fuzzy thing in the middle - which he had the sinking suspicion was a Spider Skunk. If he wasn’t mistaken, so was the boss, though it was much harder to tell at this distance. The boss looked dark with white accents, like an inverse of the predominantly-white lump at the center.
Levi grimaced. He’d faced spider skunks before, his one time in a Beast dungeon. They were cunning and vile creatures, laying traps of enervating web and emanating a seeping miasma that only grew stronger the longer the fight went on. Of course, it should be easier this time with them being each alone, rather than roaming in packs… though he also didn’t have two dozen allies at his back this time either.
First he had to clear out everything else. He did not want to risk getting into a fight against a spider skunk and something else at the same time.
He and Gremlin Two successfully evaded the rifts on the way to the turkey flock and launched their attack.
The turkeys, while individually non-dangerous, could be a serious threat in a swarm. Gremlin Two was clawed to within an inch of his life in the first moments, Levi diving into the thick of the fray to extract his minion safely and finish off the front of the flock. The remaining dire-turkeys swarmed them, pecking and flapping, but once Levi had his stance set and his sword in motion, they didn't stand a chance.
He may no longer be a Swordsman class, but he still had years of combat experience against everything from swarms to behemoths.
He smacked one turkey from the air with a fist to its neck, slamming the shortsword down when its reinforced skin protected it from a snapped neck and quick end. It survived another second, no more.
Another dire turkey flew at Gremlin Two. The minion crouched and aimed both his dagger and his horn at it, skewering it mid-flight with a squeal of triumph. In a quick jerk, he tore it almost clean in half by twisting his head up and the blade down. The nearly bisected turkey fell to the ground, twitching.
There were more, but not an unlimited amount. Perhaps twenty turkeys all told. Soon enough they lay in sad little piles of blood and feathers, slowly fading back into the dungeon. Levi flicked the blood off his shortsword and returned it to its sheath.
He gave Gremlin Two a health restorative to get him back in fighting condition as soon as possible; he wouldn't need it himself at the moment, and he didn't have the patience to wait around for an hour for his minion's health to slowly return.
Every wasted minute was one minute closer to the portals opening and death beginning to flood across the earth. Levi waited just long enough for his stamina to reach a decent amount, then set off for the first set of bramble-lurker creatures.
