Chapter 61: Dynamic Dungeon Pt. 1: Captain’s Third Rule
The system sent him a notification right at that moment.
[Side Quest Assigned: Clear The Dynamic Ranked Dungeon]
[Rewards: ??]
[Bonus Reward: ??]
"You can’t be serious right now," Aiden said, referring to the message that had just popped up when they crossed into the dungeon.
"What is the matter?" Laela asked with a puzzled expression.
Aiden turned toward her and said, "This is probably your first time in a dungeon, but I’ve read about an open-world dungeon like this. They call it a Dynamic dungeon, and it’s not good news."
He went on to explain that a dungeon like this was called Dynamic because it was difficult to scale the maximum difficulty.
The minimum monster difficulty was B-rank, and the boss could go anywhere from A to S rank or even beyond that.
There was also no way to detect by measuring the magical energy or checking the structure size of the dungeon from outside to know if it was Dynamic Ranked.
The way it happened now, all of a sudden; was exactly how it usually occurred.
The only thing was, a Dynamic Dungeon hadn’t been seen in decades, and even then, it happened rarely.
Laela became somewhat nervous after hearing all of this.
Aiden was actually more worried about Laela than he was for himself.
The system had already assigned this to him as a quest to deal with, and frankly, he didn’t mind it either.
He thought of using his space portal skill but then remembered that dungeons had a spatial lock effect until that dungeon was cleared, which meant once someone entered a dungeon, there was no teleporting or creating a portal out of it.
However, the system replied to his thoughts at once:
[Such is the limitation of spatial magic portals]
[The Host has no such limit when he possesses the Authority over space]
[If you wish it, the space portal skill will take you out of this dungeon. But you would fail the quest]
"Okay, this is good," he said to himself again, which prompted Laela to look at him strangely.
Then he turned toward her and said, "I’m sorry, Laela, but this is too dangerous."
He stretched his hand in front of him as a space portal with a bluish hue formed before him.
[Space Portal]
From the portal, you could see the other side of it, and it was leading out of this dungeon and directly into the canyon.
Laela was shocked seeing Aiden cast a spell that projected a portal out. "How did you...?" she wanted to ask.
But Aiden cut in and quickly said, "That doesn’t matter at the moment, but I need you to leave this place."
He tilted his head toward the portal he’d formed so that she could leave.
Laela then asked, "What about you?"
Aiden smiled and said, "Oh, don’t you worry. I’ll deal with this and come back to you as fast as I can."
Laela looked at the portal, turned to look back at him, then said, "No. The Captain’s Third Rule says to look out for each other. If you’re going to fight this dungeon, then I’ll help you fight it."
"And I’m trying to look out for you by asking you to stay away from here," Aiden said again.
Laela shook her head in refusal, and from what Aiden could see, she had made up her mind to stay.
He sighed and let go of the portal. As soon as he released it, the system sent him a new screen:
[Special Quest Assigned: Protect The Elf, Laela]
[Rewards: ??]
[Bonus Reward: ??]
His face broke into a smile when he saw the new quest. It didn’t need to be a quest, that was definitely part of the plan now.
He looked back at Laela and said, "Let’s go then."
She nodded, and after that, they started walking further into the land that looked like it stretched on for miles.
...
They had walked for what felt like the better part of an hour, and around them both was a mana coating made of light magic
The spell Aiden had copied from the Grand Magus during the exams the previous day.
[Light Magic Guard]
This was to protect them both from the harsh environmental conditions of the dungeon.
Laela somehow wasn’t even surprised anymore with what Aiden could and couldn’t do with magic, and this was no place or time to ask questions.
Aiden then stopped in his tracks abruptly, stretching his hand to the side and in front of Laela to halt her. This was because his enhanced hearing had picked something up.
Aiden’s eyes took a draconian form; this was his Dragon’s Sight skill being used so that his vision could stretch farther.
That was when he saw them, fast approaching.
Monsters that looked like giant rhinos; Kragbuls, with riders on their backs holding whips.
And they were coming from everywhere, which meant he and Laela were getting surrounded.
Kragbuls were monsters found easily in B-ranked dungeons.
"There are monsters coming. Get ready to attack on my signal," he said to Laela.
Laela simply nodded and prepared herself accordingly.
Soon after, the monsters surrounded them, and from the looks of it, Aiden could count maybe twenty Kragbuls, each with a rider on them.
These riders had two tiny horns protruding from their foreheads, with pointy ears. Their skin color was too pale, their eyes glowed red, and their grins revealed clawed teeth.
One of them, whose horns looked longer than the rest, made his Kragbul approach even closer to Aiden and Laela, then said, "More humans in just two days, must be our lucky day."
The others grinned loudly at this.
There was no mistaking it. With their facial features and the ability to speak the human language, these were demons!
That was however, the only thing about them written in the books regarding monsters from the Academy wing’s library.
Aiden said nothing in reply to the demon that spoke, except to look it right back in the eyes.
This somehow seemed to anger the demon, as the human showed no fear. Then it commanded, "Kill the male human and capture the elf."
The commanding demon’s Kragbul stepped back as the others went forward from every corner to violently fulfill his command.
"Let’s go!" Aiden called out as a signal to Laela.
She immediately stretched both hands out and whispered, "Tree Binds."
In response, different large and thick vines sprung out from the ground, seeking out the Kragbuls. They aimed to have these creatures ensnared within their cluster.
The riders tried futilely to navigate paths that seemed to be getting clustered up by vines wrapping around their beasts.
And in that moment, at an insane speed, a sword of light traveled around in one circular motion, swiping off the heads of these demons from their bodies.
In a joint effort, the sword of light had killed the demons who rode the monsters, and the monsters themselves had been drained of their mana by the binding vines.
There was but one exception from this instant onslaught; the very demon who had commanded them.
He looked in shock from atop his Kragbul at how quickly his men had been killed off and the beasts they rode subdued.