Dungeon Diver: Stealing a Monster's Power

Chapter 3

There are 3 types of dungeons in this world.

The first being the "stable dungeons". Alpine Square Dungeon is a stable dungeon. It has a large open environment where monsters are spawned in very regularly. There is a boss in stable dungeons, a party can challenge this boss as many times as they'd like and the dungeon will remain exactly the same. Hunters are able to enter and leave the dungeon as they wish, monsters are not.

The second type is called a "dungeon break", it's similar to a stable dungeon because it has a wide open environment where many monsters spawn but the difference is the boss can only be fought once. After the boss is defeated the dungeon will disappear. There are two ways a dungeon break can happen. The most common way is a dungeon will appear in our world as they do from time to time, but the portal will be red. This indicates it is a different type of dungeon. Once hunters enter, both hunters and monsters are able to enter and leave as they wish. Keeping the safety of citizens in mind, it is a top priority to defeat the boss and clear these dungeons as fast as possible. A less common occurrence is when a stable dungeon turns into a dungeon break. When this happens the monsters are able to wander out into our world, the same urgency applies here. Hunters swarm to defeat the final boss during dungeon breaks because often there are much better item drops.

Lastly, the third dungeon is called a labyrinth dungeon. It appears as a green portal. Only hunters are able to move in and out of this dungeon. Labyrinth dungeons are a series of stable dungeons "stacked" together to create a maze of dungeons. Once you start a labyrinth dungeon, the only way to the next "floor" or next "dungeon" is by defeating the one before it. After each boss battle you are allowed to enter white portals that bring you to the next "floor". The only way back is by following your foot steps. You're able to retreat, and on the way back you do not have to re-fight the boss battles. They do spawn in, but if you can avoid them it's simple to make it back to the outside world in one piece. Some labyrinth dungeons have been said to have over 100 floors. Others have been reported having 10-15. They are really a mystery, all we know is the difficulty of monster gets higher the farther you travel in. If you can defeat the final floor, the labyrinth dungeon is cleared and disappears. This is the rarest dungeon type.

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Today I decided to try and find a party that would let me be a porter for their boss raid. The recommended level to subjugate the boss at Alpine Square Dungeon was a team of 5 at level 20, or solo at level 30. I am not strong enough to fight the boss myself, but as a porter I'll be able to gain some exp and also study the bosses movements for future battles.

After standing around in the village market for about 30 minutes I finally found a team looking for a porter.

"Yeah we'll do 25 bronze for the day. Carry our bag, and stay out of the way. We're going in for 6 hours, we'll fight the boss twice. You up for it?"

"Y-Yes I'm in."

I followed the leader out of the market with the rest of the team, he didn't look much older than me. We looked about the same height too, around 180cm. He carried a long silver sword and walked very confidently.

"Ya know, I hit level 26 last night. One of these days I think I'll face the boss solo, my swordsmanship skill is getting pretty refined."

Some of the other team members grinned a bit. A bigger guy in the back of the party that looked like their tank said:

"Yeah yeah boss. We're all over level 20 as well, we could take a crack at the boss solo too pretty soon, I bet we would gain a lot more Exp instead of splitting it 5 ways each time. With my body hardening I'm able to take more hits than all of you, the boss will be a piece of cake once I gain a few more levels."