15 Dungeon Diving

Stella was currently standing in front of the dungeon checking over her supplies making sure she was ready to enter the dungeon for the first time.

The first floor wasn't all that difficult considering that her weapon was grades above the rest, a single good hit on a monster either turned it into paste against the floor, or a broken body against the wall.

Floors 2-4 weren't much different although the increase in numbers did pose a threat. Stella had started to improve her weapon skill by hitting multiple monsters in one strike or using the hammer as a bat and the monsters as balls launching them into each other.

She hasn't found any differences that the guild had stated yet though. Although that changed on the 5th floor where she started to see zombies, they had green skin and wore simple blue clothes. There was also a rare version that looked like a child and ran at a much faster speed. This caught her off-guard a few times with them jumping at her from behind. Although with how loud they were she only made that mistake a few times.

They also would sometimes have tools or armor and dropped some rather dubious items. They often dropped rotten flesh, or their brain and very rarely they dropped iron ingots or the gear they had on them.

The flesh smelled horrible, less so the brains but nonetheless, she picked some up. Maybe alchemy could find a use for them.

Things really ramped up on the 6th floor. The zombies on this floor and the other monsters fought each other, often ending up with the zombies losing but occasionally when the zombies won the dead monster came back to life as an undead.

Stella had reached the end of the 6th floor and at the stairs stood a much bigger zombie, easily standing at 3 meters tall and having glowing red eyes.

It rushed at her with speeds unlike a zombie, she quickly dodged to the right and swung her hammer upwards at the zombie's arm ripping it from its socket. The zombie quickly swung its other hand shattering the shield and quickly aimed for a bite at Stella's neck. Pushing herself back with her hammer, gaining some distance she decided to try out alumentum on a 'live' subject, throwing it at the zombie's head. The explosion quickly removed the top half of the zombie, sending it everywhere, with the bottom half dropping to the ground.

"Damn that is a lot stronger than it should be, is it affected by my skills?"Stella said aloud

With the defeat of the angry zombie as Stella had dubbed it, it dropped more flesh and brains just like the other zombies.

"God this stuff is gross, thank god they drop a mana crystal."Stella was happy she could at least get valis out of killing these gross things.

Stella eventually made it down to the 9th floor with no other changes. It seemed that the zombies only wandered the 5th and 6th floors. She decided to take a break and eat some lunch while eating, she used her node eye, as she realized that the more she used it the less it hurt her head.

After eating she put her eyepatch back on and made her way through the 9th floor. The monsters were getting much harder to deal with, the shield was breaking more and more often

She did find something on the 9th floor, a passageway that wasn't on the map. As she made her way down the hall she noticed a silvery liquid leaking from red spots on the wall. Gathering some of the liquid she found that it was far heavier than a liquid should ever be.

At the end of the hall was a red statue depicting someone in robes clawing at his eyes, the eyes also bled the same silvery liquid. The statue was unnerving, to say the least, but Stella marked the passageway on the map she was given and drew a sketch of the statue to see if the guild knew anything.

She also found at the base of the statue a symbol she had seen before. It was the same one that she had seen in the book she possessed and the same one on the monster's chest that she fought yesterday. It looked like the symbol for pi with 2 extra stems in the middle of the legs.

*That has got to be connected in some way, I've seen this symbol 3 times now and the robes on the statue look eerily similar to the ones the monster was wearing.* Stella was wondering if she would see another one of those monsters down in the dungeon.

Eventually, she made it to the 10th floor and she was starting to really struggle against the monsters. They were far faster than her and most of the time it took 3 or 4 hits to kill them, she even had to use alumentum a few times because of how many would rush her down.

*Maybe I should turn back? I am having a hard time killing these monsters.*Stella thought

She decided to try and make it to the 12th floor before turning back. The monsters on the 10-12 floors were orcs, imps, and bad bats, the real problem is that she is probably far out-classed by these monsters and them working together doesn't help in the slightest.

The orcs and imps worked as forwarding units with the bats covering the rear. She had to use the rest of her alumentum to get to the 11th floor before realizing that getting back up was going to be an issue.

Stella had enough vis for 3 more shields, and with no alumentum she would have problems with the monster's numbers. She decided to retreat and head to the surface avoiding fights on the 10th and 9th floors.

As Stella made it back to the surface it set in how bad that could have gotten if she tried to push any deeper. Luckily the delve into the dungeon was a huge success, she managed to kill monsters, train her proficiency with her hammer, and discover that hallway.

She made her way to the guild selling her mana stones, and the items that they would accept.

"Hey Eina you said the guild would pay for info right?"Stella asked

"Yes we the guild will pay for information did you find something?"Eina responded

"Yea there was an unmarked location on the map on the 9th floor." Stella handed over her version of the map.

"Wonderful! But did you say the 9th floor? Didn't you say that that was your first time in the dungeon by yourself?" Eina had a smile that was filled with anger.

"Yea? I stopped after the 11th floor because I was really struggling."

"You should not have gone that deep on your first attempt!"

"You could have been hurt or worse died!"Eina said

"So how much do you guys pay me?"Stella asked

"We have to determine the worth of the data first before payment."Eina explained

"Dang, well have a good rest of your day!"Stella exclaimed

Stella made her way back to the Twilight Manor and got Loki to update her status.

Strength: 223 G

Endurance: 147 H

Dexterity: 124 H

Agility: 154 H

Magic: 99 I

Magic: N/A

Skills:

Natural Thaumaturge: You are a natural-born thaumaturge! Understanding and learning thaumaturgy is much easier for you.

Discernment: You have a keen eye! You can more easily find out the properties of an object.

Tainted: You are infected by the taint! You are able to boost your abilities to ridiculous levels by using the taint inside you. All magic cast by you is naturally chaotic!

Curse of Primordia: Cursed by magic! You are incapable of using mana this includes being used to fuel spells, your spells have increased output by a large amount.

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Word Count:1329

I did say I'd get a chapter out, turns out that learning Python is a little harder than I thought! Tomorrow there should also be a chapter, maybe even 2 if I'm feeling generous! Suggestions and power stones are always welcomed!