BXBX NOVEL Chapter 125 - The Fifth-Floor's Settlement
"Behind." The generally emotionless voice of Lynol sounded out, warning Foster that he was moving past behind him. There were quite a few monsters on this floor, even more than on the past few floors. They had thought that the amount of monsters would disappear, but that wasn\'t really the case. This whole situation became a lot more bothersome, quite fast. With how fast these floors increased in difficulty, it became quite simple for everyone to understand why even the strongest people in this city weren\'t able to get past the 50th floor yet.
The sound of something dropping onto the dirt- and dust-covered ground declared the end of this fight, as the last of the monsters currently attacking the group had been killed. And, upon dying, they dropped some small gemstones onto the ground, even smaller than the ones they all got in the Fail-Type Dungeon they cleared.
As the fight was over, they all started to gather any magic stones that they could spot, putting them into the bag that Rachel was carrying for them. She didn\'t take part in the fights, so that she could watch the party\'s cooperation and general capabilities, so instead she simply acted as an interim porter for now. Although, there wasn\'t that much to carry on these lower floors in the first place. Since they were going to stay in the first settlement, they didn\'t need camping gear either, so she really just carried around the few magic stones that were dropping from these monsters.
"It\'s getting pretty late. We should hurry up and make our way to the settlement. After that, let\'s have you clear the sub-boss and rest properly." Rae suggested. This was what the group had decided on as they were making their way through the first few floors.
In this dungeon, every five floors, there was a \'boss\' monster. It worked basically the same way as the fail-type dungeon worked, just that there were more floors once you beat the boss. Generally, there was only one benefit to beating the boss monster now. They would have to beat it again next time they made their way through these floors anyway. However, upon clearing the first boss, you would receive a \'clear proof\' coin for this dungeon. It would change a little bit every time you cleared a new boss within this dungeon, to show your current progress within it. The greatest use this had was that you would receive slightly preferential treatment within the entrance section, at least compared to those that have cleared less floors than you.
That meant that the next time the party came here, they wouldn\'t have to wait as long to be able to enter the actual dungeon. Since they were making their way to the settlement anyway, which was constructed basically directly in front of the fifth-floor boss room, this was a good opportunity for them.
"What\'s the boss for the fifth floor anyway?" Foster asked, as the group continued through the fifth floor which they entered a short while ago. Of course, Kyla was able to respond to him immediately, "It\'s the King Mole! It\'s basically just a supersized version of the common monsters that we fought on the first five floors here. Well, normally, at least. If we\'re lucky, we\'ll be able to face a \'rare\' boss."
"Rare boss?"
"Yup~! Basically, for big dungeons like this, there is not always a single possible boss. For the fifth floor boss there\'s three different kinds. There\'s the King Mole, which appears about 95% of the time, and then there\'s the Rat Knight. The Rat Knight is a bit stronger than the King Mole, but in return you get better rewards as well. I mean, it makes sense, right? The rats only started appearing in the fourth and fifth floors together with the moles." Kyla explained diligently. It seemed like she really wanted the group to encounter the more rare Rat Knight.
Curious about something that Kyla mentioned, Octer asked her, "You said three kinds, right? Then what\'s the third?"
"Well..." Kyla replied, "I\'m not sure if it really counts or not? It might not be random. It only appeared a handful of times, I think."
Rae immediately nodded her head, "She\'s right. The Cave Golem is the third possible boss for the fifth floor. It\'s strong enough to be considered the boss for the tenth floor, if not higher. Or so I heard. Actually, that strategist friend of yours from the Grandosia guild encountered it once." She said while looking at Foster, who raised his brow surprised, "Huh, alright then..." He replied. That was pretty interesting, though. Was it a coincidence that Sam of all people encountered a boss that appeared only a handful of times?
Although, if it was something related to being an otherworlder, then Sam would have probably mentioned something about it... right? Either way, no matter which boss they encountered, it wouldn\'t matter either way. They were strong enough to handle anything that came up.
The rest of the floor wasn\'t that tough either. The giant moles and rats weren\'t a real threat to them, anyway. There were just a lot of them, although even that mellowed down soon enough. And it didn\'t take long to see the reason why the amount of monsters became less. It didn\'t take long to hear and smell the reason either.
The bustling noise of a busy town echoed through the caverns where earlier only the groans of exhausted adventurers could be heard, "Is this it?" Foster asked curiously. As they were walking, the tunnels of this cave became a lot better lit. And toward the end of the straight path they were currently walking, a wall made of stone-brick completely blocked off this large tunnel. At first, Foster nearly mistook that wall for the entrance to the boss room, but then he remembered that it was supposed to be behind the town.
They approached the gated entrance to the town. It was wide open, but as they passed by, it seemed pretty easy to push shut in case a flood of monsters came out. Once the party stepped through the gate, they finally found themselves in the dungeon\'s first and busiest settlement. They carved buildings into the walls of the cave, and the ground was paved like a proper road. There were restaurants and inns in here, and apparently, some people just permanently lived here.
There was one main road reaching through this settlement, and on the other side, a large iron gate could be seen. Clearly, it was the entrance to the sub-boss room. It looked a lot more impressive than Foster thought, considering that these first five floors were literally just caves.
"Wait, so... how do they stop the monsters from digging through the walls? They\'ve been popping up out of nowhere the whole time..." Octer asked as he looked around. It really didn\'t seem like there were any particular defensive strategies beyond the simple walls placed on the entrances to the settlement. "Actually, they-" Rae opened her mouth, ready to explain, but was quickly cut off by Kyla, "They don\'t need to! This is too close to the boss room for the monsters to form in the walls themselves, and they usually don\'t come all this way unprovoked anyway. But in that case, they would come through the open tunnels, and not through the wall~!" She explained with a broad smile on her face, excited to be able to talk to others so much about this dungeon.
Rae rolled her eyes and started walking down the paved road, "Either way, we\'ve got to hurry and get a room at the Inn. They usually fill up pretty quickly." She pointed out, before stopping and turning around, "Oh, and before you\'re surprised, the rooms at this inn are a bit.... different."