Chapter 415: Battling monsters
The world Eisjer Domain dungeon originally belonged to was something of an Mesozoic or Paleozoic era type of world. Meaning it had no intelligent life form living in it, only wild animals, crazed beasts, and instinctual monsters - something akin to a time period when dinosaurs used to roam on earth.
It was a budding high level of world barely in its diapers, still struggling to grow through the norms of evolution. _when it was pulled by the holes of planes and turned into a dungeon.
As one can take a wild guess with his half dead braincell, the energy of life/evolution stored in such dungeons is super super high. And the unexplored unused resources, infinite.
So when Eisjer first appeared it caused a lot of noise in Arcadia, but due to the suppression of the royal family and combined power of all nobility, the infighting with elites and high guilds came to an end, _Later this dungeon was given to the 2 barons to control.
(As for why barons, and not counts or dukes, it's easy to explain, royal family wanted to keep a balance of power. To make sure no one grows stronger enough to surpass or compare with their influence. Barons were too weak at first, so giving them this dungeon with low risk and high returns, meant they could grow strong over time.)
Obviously the native monsters and beasts didn't take likely to the invading humans and would cause many beast tides and wars from time to time, attacking and killing many people, but the rich minerals ripe in every mountain or mine, rare herbs growing like weeds at every corner, _ overall it was well worth it.
As time passed, the monsters living there witnessed these humans movements and started to learn and mimic them. Bringing forth the age of mutation in their bodies. They started getting intelligence, and learned ways to channel nature's energy to elevate their strength.
Plus they had the home turf advantage where they could instinctively feel the changes taking place in their planet, meaning they could use the shifts of tectonic plates to sense and follow movements of land's teleportation and gravity shifts _ thus planning their attacks accurately. Making them more dangerous.
—
When Rio stepped out of the portal, all he saw in the front were empty pavements. The forest area near the entrance was flattened to make camps, resting grounds, and security barriers.
But with both Ravens and Heartwells pulling their people out, now it was all just empty decoration.
He spread his mana to scan the area himself, and paid his system to do a new scan for any living or sneaking idiots, but when both came out satisfactory, he breathed in relief and turned around to face others.
"Katherine, you'll follow me." He said, and then stared at the others, "As for you, stay here. And protect our exit point."
"That's not what the goddess requested of us." The leader of them came forward and replied, their long hoods covering their faces, making it hard for Rio to judge their expressions.
So he just gave up on trying.
"I don't care," He said. "I don't know you. And I don't want someone I don't trust following my every move."
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"We are here just to protect you."
"And you can do that by staying here." Rio said and threw them a token, "It's a calling token, I'll call you if I need you."
"..."
[You should focus on your own mission, instead of wasting time on them. And besides they're yours to command, they'll do as you say now.]
[Let him go for now. Just keep a distance. Also if he provokes, don't pick a fight, _ or he will kill you. Don't give him a reason.]
Messages from Nyx popped up, one for Rio and another for her follower. Her response, surprising both parties. Rio for her willingness to give in, and Akun for the warning.
He looked at Rio, wondering why her goddess gave him such a high opinion when he was already limit ranked, but trusting her command, he nodded his head nonetheless.
"We'll stay here." Akun said, his words surprising the rest of his buddies in black too.
"Good." Rio said as his figure dashed in a deeper direction.
Katherine, who was silently watching everything, saw him leave, and after giving a glance to the cultists, she left behind him too.
"I thought they were here to help you clear this dungeon?" Katherine asked, once they were alone.
"I don't trust them." Rio responded normally.
"But they're sent by your goddess.." Katherine asked.
"And I don't trust her either." Rio replied, slowing down as he reached in the middle of the empty camps.
"Why? The rumors says she dotes on you?"
"And yet I was still trapped for two years." Rio replied and turned his face to look at her, "Gods don't care about anyone. And if you think otherwise, you've yet to learn a lot."
[Mara sneers at this guy's baseless talks. Saying you shouldn't listen to his nonsense.]
Katherine looked at him and then at her goddess's response, and then nodded her head in understanding.
[...]
While the duo of them were standing there, a smell of blood and decay wafted in the air like a tidal wave. Soon screeching sounds of hoofs and neighs could be heard from every direction. Moving closer and closer.
Suddenly, the ground beneath them trembled, and from the shadows emerged their first foe—a Gravorg, a creature with a hulking, boulder-like body, its skin coated with jagged stones and razor-sharp shards of rock. Its glowing, red eyes fixated on them, and without warning, it charged forward, its sheer size causing the ground to quake.
Rio leaped to the side just as the Gravorg smashed its body into the spot where he had stood. The ground splintered under the force of the impact, sending debris flying in every direction. Katherine rolled to her feet and spun her sword in hand, slicing through the air.
An icy wave of energy followed her move and hit the rocky monster, causing some stones to fall down and the brownish skin to be visible.
"They're not golems. They're living monsters who mutated and formed an armor to protect themselves. Unlike a core, or heart, or head, you need to attack their limbs. The only way they die is from blood loss." Katherine explained about the monster, telling Rio on how to deal with them, as she saw a group of them coming their way.
The camps have been empty for hours and these monsters have already infiltrated it all.
"Blood loss huh, that's easy." Rio said, waving his hands as the open injury from Katherine's attack enlarged and blood started gushing out from the monster nonstop.
"How many elements have you mastered?" Katherine said in surprise seeing him use blood magic.
Rio smiled as his threads pulled her back, "My shadow is a vampire, remember." He said in a matter of fact tone.
As his words finished the rocky monster fell down with a thud.
"Easie peasie." Rio said and clapped his hands over the monster's corpse, before being pulled away by Katherine suddenly.
"What..?" Rio asked in surprise.
"That's a female Gravorg." Katherine said as Rio nodded his head hearing that.
He turned back and looked down, as jagged rocks on the monster's body began to glow in an ominous red color, and with a thunderous crack, they were sent flying all over the place.
Katherine erected a wall of ice in time, to block the barrage of molten stone flying toward them. The heat and force behind them was intense, as Rio could feel the rising temperature and hear the sizzling sound of melting ice.
Once the sound died down, Katherine made the wall disappear, giving him a clear view to the monster's original skin and skeleton which had all been dried up.
"Even after they die, they don't let their killer off easy huh." Rio spoke.
"A trait of females only." Katherine replied nonchalantly, before charging in to face other Gravorgs, while Rio just stared at her back, wondering if her response was supposed to be her way of telling a joke.
[She's too monotonous to joke, host.]
"... You know it's all your fault. By copying her voice and cheering personality in my head for months, you've just ruined my mind. Now her cold tone just feels fucking off."
[You do know I have feelings too, right. Stop blaming me for everything. You're the one who said to pick the voice.]
"And you just had to pick hers."
[.... I didn't know she was gonna pop up here, okay.]
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. It's your fault anyway."
[.??.]
While complaining and arguing with his system, Rio didn't forget to pay attention to his surroundings. He raised his sword and slashed it in a wave. Charged with mana, the blade cut the incoming stone debris like butter, sending hot fragments skittering across the ground.
"And this is a male Gravorg." Katherine said, pulling his attention towards her.
Rio looked up to see her hanging on a monsters shoulders. Her fingers clasping the rocky exterior, before she thrusted her sword in the little gap. As she pulled her sword out, a stream of hot molten blood followed suit.
The monster howled in pain, trying to shake her off like a bug, but Katherine just moved from one side to another using her legs, and placed her hand over the open wound. Pouring her ice cold mana into the hot body, freezing the monster from inside out.
"So girls here become hot after dying and the boys are hot already. Quite the pairing, isn't it?" Rio thought in his mind, while wondering silently in his heart that the creator of this world must be a necrophiliac.
[....]
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Author note -
Eisjer domain was first introduced in ch123 and then later in ch217. If you want to know more read them and ask any questions in comments.
Next thing, Rio knows a lot, but he doesn't know everything. So him coming across a monster whom he can't recognize or remember from the novel is normal, as in the novel it can be written as "xxx character faced various different type of monsters and defeated them all."
How, why, or what they looked like _ weren't explained exclusively for every dungeon. Especially one that was as vast as Eisjer domain.