Chapter 129: New Dungeon
"Am I the first person to discover this dungeon?"
As I said that, the plant on my back shook its leaves and hit my face with it.
"Sorry. I mean are we the first to discover this dungeon? There"s no trace of people entering this place."
Where are we right now?
We"re under the largest waterfall in the kingdom.
Why are we here?
Well, since my goal is to get stronger, I thought it would be great to enter a place with a lot of monsters.
People who knows me would be shocked to hear that. They will think that I"m not me anymore since Roy is someone who doesn"t want to enter such places.
They"re right though.
But since my Divine Vision can cover my surrounding, I know where and when I will encounter monsters. And I only choose to fight monsters that I can confidently… run away from.
Killing them? Of course I would if that"s possible. But my goal is to get stronger while I"m still alive. Not dying on the way. So killing monsters is not important. Getting stronger is.
The worst part is that to increase the strength of my Aura, I need to get hit more often. Though after getting this far, I can say that I"m getting better in taking a hit. But I can"t say it proudly.
After our first encounter with the hobgoblin, we encounter other monsters as well. Although only few of them are at least as strong as the hobgoblin, or stronger than the hobgoblin. And each time, I deliberately get hit by those monsters. Is there really no other way to get stronger than getting hit?
I feel like if my Aura is getting stronger, but it"s just a slight increase.
As for Sunny, she"s getting bigger now. But her growth rate is slower than before. I hope by the time we finish our training, Lina can reach Intermediate Level. Sunny did all the killing blow after all.
Sunny"s biggest change is that now she can walk on her own. She can move her vines and roots to leave the pot and walked on its own. Although her movement is slow, it"s better than being in the vase all the time. Lina will be surprised to see Sunny"s growth.
Our journey somehow led us to this waterfall. I saw some mages, probably hunters, fighting monsters in this area. Seems like this spot is a good place to look for monsters.
But I ignore them all. It was because I saw a dungeon under the waterfall.
It"s a difficult place to enter since you need to go through underwater tunnel right under the waterfall, and the length of that tunnel is more than three hundred meter. I think I"m the only one who can go there.
Of course there are also monsters in the water, so even mages will have difficulty to enter even if they see the underwater pa.s.sage.
But I"m fine. As for Sunny, I think her shaking her leaves means that she"s fine as well.
I thought too much water can kill plants, but I guess plant type monsters are different.
I entered the underwater cave and kill the monsters there with my spear. Sunny can"t attack underwater yet, but I guess her vines can be used if she"s stronger.
As I swum underwater, I see many human corpse. I think they were people who found this tunnel, but died underwater. Maybe there"s some powerful monsters inside this cave.
I activated my Divine Vision to see the surrounding and I managed to see a lot of holes on the wall and the ceiling of the cave. Does all dungeon always have holes in it? First it was the dungeon near Ca.s.sau, then here.
In any case, it will be easy if I just swim away from those holes. But I can"t just take it easy. After all, each of those holes are home to a giant snake or eel like monster. So first thing first, I need to see how fast they are. If they are as fast as the sea monsters I usually fought, then it"s okay to continue. If they are faster than that, I"ll just give up.
I picked a dead body from the bottom of the cave, and throw it to the wall filled with holes. This one should have died because he"s out of breath since his body is fully reserved and no damage on his body. It should be around two or three month since this guy died here.
As soon as the body get close to the holes, the giant eel come out of their holes and bit the dead body. Not just one or two, but all the eels near the body, come out of the holes and rip the dead body to pieces.
Hmm… seems like they are not as fast as the monsters in the sea. Maybe it"s because sea monsters and freshwater monsters are fundamentally different. Sea is too fast and the monsters there can freely swim wherever they like, but freshwater, like river or lake, are narrower. So the monsters have difficulty in adjusting their speed.
In any case, it"s easy for me to pa.s.s this area. I"ll just enter the dungeon and ignore those eels.
I can see the end of the tunnel already. And what I see is the entrance to a cave, but this time, it"s no longer underwater. There"s air in this area, and the monsters here varies.
"How is it Sunny? Can you continue?"
I asked Sunny who had been carried by me on the way here. She replied with a nod. But the pot she"s in now is too wet and the ground inside has decreased since I took it diving. I guess I need to fill it after we get out of here.
"Sunny, I think it"s better if you leave that vase and just wrap my waist with your vine or root. I"ll get you a new vase once we return. When we encounter a monster, I want you to leave my side and we will cooperate like usual, okay?"
Sunny nodded and wrap her roots around me. I should have done this from the beginning.
At the entrance of the real dungeon, I see a fully intact corpse of a male human. I guess he succeeded in entering the underwater tunnel, but can"t continue any longer. He should be died because of starvation.
I don"t have any sympathy with him because he has an explosive device inside his mouth. Why did I encounter someone from the cult in this dungeon? Could it be that the existence of this dungeon has been found by the cult, but it has never been explored since no one can reach this far?
No matter how powerful you are, you can"t enter this place just by defeating the monsters on the way. You need to be able to hold your breath the entire time, or have something that can help you breathe underwater. Like the oxygen tank I built back then, or have someone with air element accompany you.
Whatever the case, even if they know about this dungeon, they haven"t found anything. The only trace of people in this dungeon, is only this corpse here. But seeing this corpse still intact here meant that at least this place is safe and no monsters appear here.
"Sunny, for now we will rest here. I"ll go back to the water to catch some fishes. You just wait here."
Sunny leave my side and approach the corpse. What is she planning?
"I"ll be back soon."
I dive again and look for some prey.
I heard that eel are some kind of delicacy. Should I hunt one of them?
I grabbed my spear and approach one of the hole. The size of the hole is about 30m, but the length is 3 meter. As for the eel, its length is about one and a half meter. This should be able to fill my stomach.
But if I approach it carelessly, the surrounding eels will also come out. I need to be fast.
I"ve seen their attack before. As long as I haven"t entered its range, it won"t come out and attack me. Just two meter from the hole.
Then I quickly pierce my spear into the hole and stabbed the eel right on its head. As soon as I know that the spear has pierced the eel, I swum back quickly as to not get the other eel near the hole attacked me.
Before, when I saw them, they won"t leave their home. At least the tip of their tails are still inside the hole. But somehow, they are chasing after me now. They are many, and strong. But slow. So I can get to the exit before they reached me.
"Caught an eel! I wonder how it taste since I"ve never eaten one of these in the past."
I brought the dead eel with me to where Sunny is waiting. But when I see where Sunny is, I dropped the eel in shock.
Sunny"s roots are piercing the corpse!
"…Sunny, what are you doing? Are you using his body as fertilizer?"
Sunny nodded at my question.
"Is this your first time using a corpse as a fertilizer?"
Sunny nodded again. Affirming my guess.
"Then next time you need to do it, can you just use the corpse of a monster? Seeing you stabbing human corpse and use it as fertilizer is too scary for me."
Then Sunny raised two leaves on each side. I guess that mean "Can"t be helped."
"s.h.i.t. Now I lost my appet.i.te. I can no longer finish this whole eel. But half of this might be doable. I"ll let you have the other half and try using it as a fertilizer, okay?"
I can"t believe that I"m roasting a giant eel while watching a corpse sucked dry by a plant.
But at least the eel is delicious. I need to get more to bring home and let Lina cook them for me.