Chương 11: Growth

With Luna enjoying her first days and seemingly having no issues anywhere, Josh leaned back on his sofa with a cold drink while Princess happily snuggled against his side.

"And now for a Lord of the Rings marathon…" He reached for the controller, only to see a wall of red text appear in the air in front of him. SYSTEM ALERT! Divine power system could possibly be stressed.

"Eh, what?" Josh sat up straight. System detected unlimited use for all three appointed warlocks. Divine power could be damaged by overuse of spells. Limit uses? Josh stared at the message.

"Wait… System. Describe other entities' boons in comparison." He leaned forward. What followed was an hour of reading, comparing, and gradually realizing that he had made a rather obvious mistake. Most divine entities who possessed far more power than him only allowed their warlocks a small, limited number of spells. Their followers would then need to rest before the spells could be refreshed, preventing the divine boons from constantly draining their Patron.

The entities themselves could easily fuel millions of followers with unlimited spells if they had to, but apparently, most of them had followers spread across hundreds of thousands of worlds. Even gods with immense reserves therefore had to distribute their gifts carefully. Not accepting everyone as a follower was another important part of the system. Josh leaned back as the realization finally settled in. His current level could comfortably fuel up to five warlocks with unlimited spell use.

However, if all five were fighting at the same time, his Patron Points would actually start decreasing instead of increasing.

"I guess it's my fault for not really thinking about it." He frowned. Thankfully, the possibility of all three of his current warlocks being in a serious fight at the same time was extremely low. Five simultaneous warlocks would begin to strain his reserves, so Josh decided to follow the curve after the first three and grant power in a manner more similar to the other divine entities from now on. It was late afternoon by the time he finally closed the system window.

"Well, so much for my movie marathon." He groaned and reached for his drink.

"Dad! I'm back!" The front door nearly tore off its hinges as Luna rushed inside.

"Luna Steel! Door!" Josh shook his head.

"Oops." She looked back at the slightly crooked hinge.

"I, err… I'll fix it."

"No need." Josh sighed and used the tiniest bit of his power to repair the door. The hinge straightened itself, the wood settled back into place, and the door was as good as new.

"Please try not to destroy our home."

"Got it." Luna grinned before dropping her backpack onto the floor and immediately turning it upside down. Leaflets, papers, and all kinds of miscellaneous stuff rolled out across a table.

"It was great! I have seventeen classmates, so it's kind of a small class, but I love it!" She beamed as she began explaining her entire day, talking about some of her new classmates, the teachers she had met, the campus tour, the clubs, and everything else she had discovered. Josh simply listened. Every now and then, he asked a question, but mostly he sat there with a smile on his face as Luna excitedly told him about her first day at college.

- - - - - - - - - - Gaix arrived on the island of Waurtha, a place where most promising adventurers eventually came to test themselves. It held the second-largest dungeon in the known world, surpassed only by the one on the mainland. Discovered roughly two hundred years ago by sailors, the Dungeon of Khoor had fifty levels. That alone was considered crazy.

What made it even more impressive was that the very first level contained monsters capable of seriously testing a team that would otherwise casually clear dungeons back in the Empire. The dungeon held massive amounts of loot, but it also needed time to reset after being cleared. Because of that, people literally had to line up and purchase spots on a timetable. The longer a party intended to go, the steeper the price became.

And if they spent more time inside then what they payed for, the difference had to be payed. One might wonder how such a rule could possibly be enforced. The answer was simple. The strongest Hero-level adventurer lived on the island, Dorian Cobalt, was its lord. Anyone who broke the rules would be broken by him. No one dared to anger the man who had once conquered the entire dungeon alone. Dorian had retired, sure, but he had never stopped training.

Most people believed that meant he was probably still somewhere near his prime. Gaix stepped off the ship and immediately spotted the fifteen-foot-tall granite sculpture of Dorian standing proudly in the main square. It was so enormous that it could easily be seen from the bay. Honestly, the man had quite the ego. But at the same time, he had earned every bit of his fame. Gaix had once dreamed of becoming just as powerful, only as a magic user.

He slapped both cheeks to snap himself out of his daydream, tossed his backpack over his shoulder, and trudged into the dungeon city.

"Come on Bastion. Our new team waits for us." The poor ice wolf walked off the plank with shuddering legs. He swore to protect the Warlock, but the waives and the constant sea smell wrecked his gusts and nose.

"I will need a day at least to be ready. Also you may need to feed me extra as I kind of lost a bit of weight along the way." Bastion said with a tounge dangling from his muzzle, ears droopy from nausia. Gaix chuckled and hugged the big head of the wolf.

"Sure thing." The city was literally called Dungeon City, after all. It had been built almost entirely around the Dungeon of Khoor. Anything taken out of the dungeon was sold here, and merchants from smaller countries came in droves to buy up the stock. Magic stones, rare minerals and metals, rare herbs, alchemical ingredients… If it came out of the dungeon, someone in the city wanted it.

"Gaix! Here!" A man shouted from nearby. Gaix looked up and spotted a warlock dressed in the deep greens associated with a Cthulhu follower. The man's eyes had a slight green glow, barely visible in the daylight, and the staff in his hand was decorated with tentacles. Actually… The tentacles were alive.

"I take it that you are Rubeon Grey?" Gaix asked as he walked over to the man.

"In the flesh." The man smiled, his bald head almost shining in the sunlight.

"Come. The party is waiting for us at the Seventh Goose Inn." The walk through the city was exactly what Gaix had expected from a dungeon city. Almost half the population appeared to be adventurers, and barely anyone walked around without some form of armor. The Seventh Goose was a neat little inn located closer to the dungeon. In fact, it was one of three dozen inns in the immediate area, most of them built specifically to house adventurers preparing to enter the dungeon.

There was also a document every adventurer signed upon staying there. If they failed to return from the dungeon, everything they had left behind would become the property of the inn's owner. It was not something that happened often. But adventurers did die in dungeons. And here, they died more often than in almost any other place. The adventuring party was something not really seen on the main continent.

Since this island was famous and pulled in adventurers from across the known world, humans were actually a minority here. Rubeon Grey was the one who had paid Gaix's ship fees and invited him to join the party, but he was the only other human member. The rest were quite the sight. The shieldbearer and tank was a male donkey beastfolk, something so rare that Gaix had never even heard of one being mentioned when beastfolk came into conversation.

Then there was a female bat beastfolk scout armed with short swords and a wrist-mounted crossbow, a male faun druid who served as the party's healer, and a dwarf who fought with two axes. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Apparently, he was an "axe singer." Gaix though, doubted the young dwarf actually sang during a fight. As Gaix sat down with the group, he smiled awkwardly.

"Hi. Name's Gaix Tahinor." he said then pointed at the massive wolf beside him.

"And he is Bastion." the wolf only nodded.

"Rook Clod here." The donkey beastfolk reached across the table and shook his hand with a surprisingly strong grip.

"Pleasure to meet the Endless Caster."

"Endless Caster? Is that my new nickname?" Gaix asked with a smirk.

"I mean, it's quite appropriate," said the faun. His voice was much deeper than Gaix had expected.

"Dalius, at your service." He gave a polite nod.

"Mira is called Mira Levu." The bat beastfolk smiled brightly.

"Mira is joyful for a new face."

"The honour is mine." Gaix nodded toward her.

"Aborna Rustbeard. And don't you forget it, pup." The dwarf spoke in a half-angry, half-teasing tone. After the introductions, they walked to a nearby tavern to continue the conversation over a proper meal. As the new member, and the one who had been called in to join what was apparently a genuinely decent party, Gaix decided to pay for the first round of drinks. That simple gesture was enough to make any possible tension melt away.

Apparently, the party had managed to reach the seventh floor several times and had even survived the eighth once, though they had come out with several injuries. Their biggest issue was their lack of mana. Most of their damage came from Rubeon, whose devastating spells were incredibly powerful but limited by his mana reserves. Gaix had not been the only person the party had contacted, of course, but Rubeon's letter had seemed genuine.

Instead of filling it with honeyed words and exaggerated promises, he had simply laid out the terms of joining their group. Gaix liked that kind of straightforwardness. He decided to join them for a few runs and perhaps stay longer if the team proved to be a good fit. At first glance, they seemed like a fun party.

"So, we have a slot two days from now at sundown," Rook explained.

"Since the dungeon's time flows six hundred times faster than the outside world, even if we stay inside for a couple of days, we won't pass the second ticket timer."

"I heard the difference here is more than double that of the main continent's smaller dungeons, but six hundred?" Gaix murmured.

"That's crazy fast. No wonder people storm this place." A group of nods answered him. Soon, the conversation turned toward planning, dungeon routes, and the group's individual roles. - - - - - - - - - - Cthulhu was in the middle of a conversation with his favourite creation when a letter appeared in the void beside him. The name written upon it immediately caught his attention. Joshua Steel. Cthulhu remembered the god seed. It had barely been any time since he had given the little dragon a tiny boost.

Or perhaps it had been a very long time. He could never quite tell. Time was a mess within his realm, where centuries and moments often tangled together until even he found little reason to distinguish between them. With a thought, he caused the scroll to speak its contents.

"Hey buddy. It's been a while. I hope you're doing great. As my best friend, I thought we could chat about how you deal with your warlocks and worshippers and all that. Maybe hit up a club, have a drink? You know, friend stuff. Joshua Steel" The letter was written in such an openly chummy way that Cthulhu could not help but laugh. The sound rolled through the endless void like distant thunder, causing several lesser creatures to immediately reconsider their existence.

It had been his idea to make this deity his friend, but he had never expected it to turn out quite this well. The steel dragon had already made him laugh several times. One of Cthulhu's countless eyes had been quietly watching Joshua's life, giving him an almost constant feed of the young god's adventures. In all honesty, Cthulhu had begun to think this friendship was one of the best ideas he had had in millennia. The honesty in Joshua's letter was refreshing.

There were no hidden schemes, no carefully chosen words meant to flatter an elder god, and no attempts to bargain for greater power. Just an invitation to have a drink and talk like friends. Cthulhu found himself smiling. Perhaps not corrupting Joshua had indeed been the correct decision. He snapped one of his tentacles, and a blank scroll appeared before him. Chuckling to himself, he began writing his reply in the same overly casual style.

"Hey Steel bud, Doing pretty good. Time's still broken over here, but I've learned to live with it. I'd be happy to compare notes on warlocks and worshippers. Frankly, some of mine could use a lesson in not becoming complete lunatics. As for drinks and clubs? I'm in. Will visit you whenever... The Big C." The ancient god chuckled again before sealing the letter with a flick of his tentacle." Best friendship idea of the millennium," he murmured to himself.

The letter vanished into the void, already making its way toward Joshua Steel. - - - - - - - - - - It had been a month since Piur became the warlock of the metallic dragon god. He was getting stronger by the day. Pain barely mattered anymore. He was chosen. Not like some other kobolds who served lesser dragons or even greater dragons… NO. He was THE chosen of a dragon god. As such, pain was nothing. All day, every day, he praised Joshua Steel inside his head.

Every moment he was given when no one was watching, he prayed. He offered up his soul, his lineage, his future, and everything else he possessed. Then came the day when he was sent with the captain of the guard to deal with a rebellion. Their orders were simple: incapacitate the peasants and do not kill them. What Piur did not expect, however, was that his god was watching.

"I have seen your pain and your faith," the voice boomed inside his tiny head.

"It is not something I do often, but brace yourself, Piur." Piur froze. Tears of joy immediately flowed down his face. Then the dark curse wrapped around his heart shattered. There was no pain. The black chain simply broke apart and vanished. But that was not all. Piur's otherwise weak blue scales suddenly began to shine with such purity that the soldiers around him nearly went blind. Several cried out in pain, while others desperately covered their eyes. Piur's own eyes did not hurt from the light.

As the brilliance finally faded, he looked down at his arms and ran his claws over his scales. They were no longer soft. They were hard and sounded like metal when tapped with his claws. Yet somehow, his scales had retained their flexibility. His movements were just as quick as before, and his body had not become any heavier. Piur stared at his transformed scales, now navy blue and having a metallic glint for several seconds. Then his face split into the biggest grin he had ever worn.

"Wheeeeeee!" He screamed and bolted. The soldiers could barely blink before the little warlock disappeared, leaving them to desperately rub their eyes and try to recover from the literal flashbang that had just gone off in front of them. By the time their vision finally returned, Piur was nowhere to be seen. And the rebellion had surrounded them. - - - - - - - - - Josh was laughing as he watched the reaction of his newest warlock.

The blessing itself had been created from a titanium-alloy knife he had sacrificed to turn into a boon. The knife had been designed for divers, making it lightweight, rustproof, and, thanks to its alloy composition, less rigid and brittle than pure titanium. The system had interpreted the sacrifice as a medium-sized blessing. The result was that Piur's scales had gained the same properties as the knife. The blessing had cost Josh one hundred Divine Points, since Piur himself had no Wish Points to spend.

Apparently, this was how the system calculated blessings. If a warlock possessed Wish Points, they could request a blessing themselves: minor, medium, or major. A minor blessing cost thirty-five points. A medium blessing cost one hundred. And a major blessing cost a thousand. Of course, as the god in question, Josh could simply grant a blessing without requiring the warlock to spend any Wish Points. The downside was that the entire cost would then come directly from his own Divine Points. Josh nodded thoughtfully.

"Pretty balanced, all things considered." - - - - - - - - - The gate to the dungeon was massive, made entirely out of enchanted everstone. When closed, not even a raging wyvern could nudge it. At the entrance stood a small group of soldiers, while adventurers were constantly either walking inside or emerging from the dungeon a few minutes later. The longest wait Gaix had counted so far was almost fifteen minutes.

He quickly did the calculation in his head, taking the dungeon's six-hundred-times time difference into account, and let out a low whistle.

"Those guys were inside for more than six days?"

"Yep. They likely paid for three separate time slots. A few seconds later and they would have been charged for another five minutes." Dalius explained it casually, as though being charged for another several days inside a dungeon was perfectly normal.

"So we have to leave the dungeon just before two days pass so we aren't charged extra." Gaix nodded to himself.

"You catch on quick." Aborna gave him an approving nod. The wait was agonizing, made worse by the sight of group after group entering the dungeon and eventually leaving again. Then… One group did not come out. The light of the dungeon stones changed as the entrance began its reset cycle.

"Yeesh…" Rook shook his head.

"And here I thought we'd have to wait to see when a group died." Gaix shook his head.

"I've seen this happen on the continent. It's just way faster here." He shrugged, but his eyes remained fixed on the dungeon entrance. The team that had gone inside looked pretty young, around Gaix's age. Their equipment had been decent as well. They would have been an ace group in one of the lower-level dungeons back in his Empire. Just how strong was this place if it could chew up a decently equipped party in less than a minute? Gaix tightened his grip around his quarterstaff. His palms were beginning to sweat.

He took a slow breath and mentally steeled himself. Then, quietly enough that no one else could hear, he said a short prayer to Joshua Steel. Whatever waited for them inside, he would face it. He had not come all this way just to turn around at the gate. The moment they stepped through the gate, Gaix felt the world change. The dry air of Dungeon City vanished behind them, replaced by thick, damp air that clung to his skin.

A cold mist rolled across the ground, obscuring their feet as the distant sounds of water, insects, and something moving through the reeds filled the air. They stood in the middle of a vast marshland. Dark, stagnant water stretched between patches of muddy ground, while twisted trees rose from the fog like skeletal fingers. The mist was thick enough that Gaix could barely see more than a few dozen feet ahead.

"Damn it," Rook cursed. The others immediately prepared themselves. Mira drew both short swords, her wings twitching as she listened for movement. Aborna pulled out both axes, while Dalius raised his staff and began quietly preparing a spell. Gaix lowered his quarterstaff slightly and concentrated his magic into his free hand, blue-white sparks already dancing between his fingers.

"What happened?" he asked.

"We got a variant," Rook replied, glancing around cautiously.

"The normal first floor is a forest," Rook explained.

"Usually, it's full of orcs. Nothing too complicated for a properly equipped party." Giax nodded.

"Are variants the same as deviations in lesser dungeons?"

"Yep. Variants change the entire environment, and the monsters change with it." Gaix stared into the fog." Great. So we have no idea what we're going to encounter."

"Exactly." Dalius nodded.

"It's good and bad. Good because we got the variant on the first floor instead of somewhere deeper. If we were going to get one, this is the best place for it to happen. Bad because we have absolutely no idea what lives here." Aborna grunted in agreement. A sudden splash echoed through the marsh. Everyone froze. Another splash followed, much closer this time. Mira's ears twitched as she turned toward the sound.

"Mira hears something's coming." The water ahead suddenly exploded as a massive crocodile burst from the fog, its jaws opening wide as it charged straight toward them. Rook stepped forward and raised his shield, but Gaix reacted first. His hand flashed with blue-white light. The spell exploded from his palm with a thunderous crack. The bolt struck the crocodile directly, killing it almost instantly and leaving its enormous body smoking on the muddy ground. For several seconds, nobody moved.

The only sound was the faint sizzling of the crocodile's charred remains. Gaix slowly lowered his hand. Dalius was the first to chuckle. Mira covered her mouth as she tried not to laugh, while even Rook's stern expression cracked into a grin. Aborna simply shook his head.

"That was… a little too much," Rook said, laughing.

"You turned it into charcoal!" Gaix looked down at the remains. The crocodile was completely ruined. Its hide was blackened, its flesh burned beyond recognition, and there was barely anything left that could even be considered loot. Even Bastion had a smirk but we turned away so his master would not see.

"Oh." Rook clapped him on the shoulder.

"You did good, though. Very good, actually. Just try to keep the power down so we can… you know, loot it?" Gaix stared at the charred corpse for another moment before sighing.

"Right, less power." The party continued deeper into the foggy marsh, now considerably more cautious about whatever else might be waiting for them.