We passed through the chambers that represented the 9th layer. It was really messing up my dungeon terminology with the dungeon being laid out like this. The chambers were broken apart. The floors were rubble with almost all the environmental effects being cold effects.
As we made our way through the tunnel to the next chamber, which represented the Mana density of the 6th layer, the Mana spiked upwards rapidly. I slowed down while gesturing to Lanner to remain behind with Ozy.
Since Ozy could pick up on my thoughts from a distance, I was leaving him with Lanner while I snuck the rest of the way down the tunnel. The next chamber was even colder, and there was snow drifting into the passage.
I had to watch my footing carefully so I didn't make noise. Adjusting the angle of my foot landing was key. Reaching the end of the tunnel and the next chamber, I could see clearly across.
Along most dungeon floors that were flat, the floor of this chamber sloped downwards towards the passage, which was massive. Looking up there was another hole and passage leading upwards.
The monsters were a large mix of types with levels ranging from 50 to 90 from what I could tell. That meant the 10th layer up to 18th layer. My Danger Sense was going crazy at the three hundred monsters just standing around.
I retreated backwards, and we went back to the chamber we had come from.
"How bad is it?"
"Several hundred up to level 90. The passage openings are huge, and I saw what could be sunlight from the passage leading upwards. I couldn't get close enough to estimate how deep the passage goes, but it could go easily to the 18th layer," I said.
"That…we can't risk that," Lanner said.
"Not right now. I would have to prepare a tremendous number of runic traps. But such battles are how one improves quickly." Lanner looked at me as if I were crazy. "I am not afraid of a fight I can prepare for. The main risk is the unknown and a fight I am not ready for."
"Did you see a Champion?"
"No."
"There could be one hiding," he countered, and I nodded.
"Very possibly. The chance of a Champion is very high or some Abnormals. But fire should be highly effective, since most of the monsters appear to be cold resistant. Lots of fire. Also, the Mana will help as well. We just need to clear our back here and loop around the passage."
"But you said looping doesn't work."
"When we were further away and hadn't reached the passage. Now that we have the link between our position in the dungeon and the position of the passage, it allows us to move around the passage chamber or at least try to."
Depth Sense didn't link two locations; it merely guided a person within the dungeon. We had located the passage. Now was the time to kill the monsters and circle around. I wanted to circle to reduce the risk of extra waves of monsters showing up.
While it was unlikely to happen, it would let me check the passage chamber from other angles as well. The passage chamber was far larger than it should have been. I saw several other tunnels on the other side.
Based on the spread of tunnels, I estimated that there were 15 to 20 chambers circling the perimeter of the passage chamber. We began moving from chamber to chamber and I confirmed they led back to the passage chamber.
Unfortunately, after we had made a full loop, the monsters and chambers had been replaced. I didn't have any wide-area sensory skills to lock down much of the dungeon, which was frustrating.
That meant we couldn't clear all the chambers around the passage chamber without the dungeon replacing them. After a good night's rest, I prepared the next morning. Several stone plates with runes carved into them and using Mana cores as traps.
I had little use for my many Mana cores. For the upcoming battle, I was preparing far more than necessary. I carved a runic structure on the Mana core, which would activate after drawing a single line.
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The Mana in the Mana core would activate the full runic structure if anyone drew it ahead of time. It was like writing on a pool of ink. It took time and precision, both of which I had plenty of.
I made several stone plates as well. I also planned a special surprise in case there was an enormous threat moving through the passage.
All these preparations took days. We would move back to a chamber so Lanner could use up his wands and get more combat experience. Then while he worked on recharging them, I did all my crafting. Our speed was much slower since I wasn't clearing chamber after chamber, but it also meant that I had time for a lot of preparation work.
While I was probably going overboard, I would rather be over-prepared than under-prepared for whatever might happen. It would be too late to cry about a grave threat in the middle of the battle.
As I prepared, I considered whether it was worth the risk. I didn't have any other good options at my disposal. It kept constantly going through my head, but the dungeon was an unrelenting and uncompromising opponent. It was like fighting against a force of nature.
There was nothing I could do to beat it. I could only adapt. But I really needed to brush up on some way of navigating the dungeon after this. There had to be a skill out there. As for creating one, that depended on a person knowing how to act, focus, and use Mana.
I needed some ideas on how to use Mana to create a completely brand-new skill if I had a lower tier maximized and got enough inspiration. That's why I couldn't just create a Depths Compass type of skill or Depths Alteration. I didn't know how to use my Mana and shape it to achieve those effects.
That's why it was easier to create skills based on skill sets a person was familiar with. And it was easier to create clear effect skills compared to something esoteric. With Fireball, it took little thought to figure out how to use one's Mana. The process involved compressing Mana, focusing on the thought of fire, and then moving the Mana rapidly while projecting it away from one's body. But predicting the future or some faraway event, I had no clue where to even begin.
That was why the College had a lot of combat spell skills they taught since they were easy to teach and see results from. The more esoteric skills one would need, the more a class that synergized with such skills to help them gain them as well as advance them.
As for runes, the problem was similar. People knew simple effects like fire, explosions, and other elemental manipulations well. There were standard runic sequences and connections between runic languages. But there was a reason Runic Mastery was a tier 4 skill.
Combining runes to achieve effects that weren't standard was insanely difficult and dangerous. The Mana could act unexpectedly. Creating fire and wind was something I knew how to do well. But creating runes to create other effects became increasingly more difficult once I got away from elemental manipulation.
It was complicated to make runic circles to make plants grow faster. A runic structure could find someone, assuming I had their blood or other body parts with Mana. Something to get us out of this part of the dungeon? Not possible.
The question was where we would go after clearing the passage. If it led up to the surface, there would be nothing but monsters, demons, cold, and the ruined continent of the beastkin. There was nothing up there.
What I was thinking was that we needed to go deeper by one layer. Hopefully, that will allow us to escape the effect we were trapped in and provide us with more information.
I was unaware of how deep the immense passage went. The monsters prevented me from getting close while clearing the chambers leading to the passage.
There was no point in going up, but we needed to go down, probably two layers, so we could fight monsters from the 11th layer on the 8th layer if the pattern held. But then there was the risk of encountering monsters over level 100 if we went down.
But we could easily get trapped on a lower layer. The real danger was going too deep and being unable to return. The ascent was tougher because fighting began when leaving the passage or if climbing was slow. That wasn't a risk I could take lightly.
Our position was completely compromised. The problem stemmed from the absence of a safe retreat. Waiting was an option, though I didn't want to, because this area wasn't the best for skill growth.
I needed the larger fights that occurred on the 11th layer. Those were the fights that would maintain my skill growth at the level I desired. While I didn't mind helping Lanner acclimate to his chosen life as an adventurer, it would not be my full-time job. My focus was on improving my own strength. Maybe in time I could look at taking on squires like my mother had, but for now I was far too weak.
I didn't even have a Tier 5 skill. While that wasn't surprising or something I needed right now, it was a sign that I was far from even matching up against a legend.
First would be to see how deep the passage went and if anything showed up. I had a feeling that there would be a demon or some kind of powerful Champion. I had no proof, or anything else to go by, just gut instinct.
The upcoming fight would be very difficult. It wasn't enough to have traps and plans; I needed fallback locations. If a demon legend was going to come at me, I needed to be sure I could at least force it to give up on pursuing me. Even when I thought about ending my preparations, I kept doing more.
I had altered all the Mana cores in my possession, and I had made way too many stone plates. But it was absolutely necessary to ensure my survival.
Maybe it was my desire for more levels that pushed me to take this risk. Taking chances wasn't a negative thing. I just had to manage it and not let myself get killed.