“Why do I have no reports even mentioning these supposed ‘harmless bugs’, this is something that would have at least some writing documenting their nature but there is nothing at all.” Grifter was in his newly built office as he looked over many of the guild’s records trying to find something about the bunch of bugs he had captured into a jar. “But there is nothing at all, not even a fool would write down at least something about the dungeons they are delving into.” He was truly getting worried that someone or something is manipulating the information that is coming from the dungeon. It was as he was thinking about why someone would even do such a thing he heard a nook at his door “You may come in.”
The door opened and Arther, he walked over to the seat in front of Grifter’s desk and sat down. “You called for me sir?” “Yes I have found a most worrisome discovery about the dungeon’s condition.” He held up the jar with the bugs inside and shook it a little, making the bugs hit the inside of the jar, but they still did not move even though they were definitely alive. “These bugs are not natural, they don’t breathe, they don’t look around, and they don’t even eat food even if it was right in front of them.” He looked closely at the bugs as they did absolutely nothing. “The only thing they do is take mana from the air, purify it and then release it back into the air. In all my travels and all my dungeon dives I have never seen a dungeon create a creature like this.”
“Wait, are you saying these insects are helping clean the dungeons mana? That’s great! But if that is truly all you learned you could have just sent a messenger, what else did you discover.” Arther saw the worry on the face of the old man and he knew not something like this could make Grifter The Emperor of Tempest this worried unless something truly bad was happening. “You are correct that this is not the only thing I have learned about. There were multiple delver parties that were talking about seeing monsters hunting the bugs and if the bugs are helping the dungeon clean the mana, imagine how bad it will get once more of these bugs get killed by the rogue monsters.” Both Arther and Grifter paled even trying to picture what would happen. Grifter’s face got serious and said "Arther, you start the evacuation of the city while I will call all nearby guilds, I declare that this dungeon is now a threat to the Adventurers Guild and to all of mankind.”
In some crack somewhere on the second floor the slightly large rat Skitter Nail was waking up from his somewhat long nap but nothing too long since he was just too excited to get back into the fight and get some more levels. He needed to squeeze out of the crack because his body finally caught up with his stat changes and so he was larger, stronger, and smarter, he felt like no one could defeat him, the strongest rat. If he was on the 1st floor that would be correct but with each floor the monsters get stronger and stronger, yes it is only by one level per floor but that means all the monsters on this floor have classes while on the perverse floor it was only pack leaders and sludge drippers that were level 1.
But on the 2nd floor Skitter Nail watched as sludge drippers stalked the paths in pairs and sometimes they would find and fight what looked like a dirty looking dog that was as big as those towering titans. There were some rats but like him they were hiding under trash or in the shadows like the rats he and them are. He also noticed that there weren't any of those dungeon cleaners on this floor, probably already hunted and killed to nonexistence but it didn’t matter since they already started to not give him anything.
It was as Skitter Nail watching all of the different types of monsters that he saw something truly terrifying and he was having a hard time even thinking how such a thing could exist. In the tunnel that he was hiding in he saw a giant shadow walk around a corner, the thing that he could barely see due to how dark the tunnel got around the thing was easily double the size of one of those dogs. The massive monster was slowly rolling down the sewer tunnel as mud and trash drifted off its body, what only could be an over leveled mud slime did what slimes do and mindlessly moved forward eating anything that was in its way like a living wave of death.
Slipping out of the trash he was hiding in Skitter Nail ran as fast as he could, which is actually quite fast compared to the mud slime’s slow movements. Going around more than a couple corners he couldn’t even hear the blob’s tunnel cleaning, he slowed down his pace making sure he doesn’t exhaust himself more than needs be. The new tunnel he was in most had already been a victim of the mud slime’s glacial rampage because there was no garbage to be found which is beyond weird to see in the dungeon.
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It also helps Skitter Nail see that not many other monsters have moved back into the room, the rats don’t count since they are literally everywhere there is a crevice, crack, pipe, or shadow for them to hide in. That is why he wasn’t worried of not finding things to kill since he knows more about how the monsters work in this dungeon than most delvers, he took great pride in his stalking ability and his ability to not be noticed but it has gotten harder with his new size. The only problem is that he could not convince any of the rats to help or even come near him, it’s not like they know what he did or anything so why are they running from him?
Luckily rats weren’t the only thing that lived in the dungeon so it did not matter that the rats didn’t like him, speaking of other monsters, a pair of sludge drippers had just entered the room and looked like the hunt had just begun. With all of the stat changes he was close in power to a sludge dripper but now there were two of them and they seemed to not leave each other's side no matter how much he tried to lure one away, which was his whole plan to deal with them. But with some preparation Skitter Nail had set a trap, it was a mat of broken glass spread across the floor of the tunnel in a way that he could move without getting hurt but anything bigger than him would most certainly get glass to their feet.
The two lizards continued to walk forward straight into the glass shards cutting and imbedding into their feet making them go slower trying to hurt their feet even more. In the middle of the field of glass stood a rat that had its hands pointed towards them, Skitter Nail tried unruly in the day to cast his new skill, the instincts in the skill told him that it would be safer to cast out of his hands with this spell. Instead of the raw energy and pushing force that he felt when he casted mana bolt he felt heat, wildness, and light was flowing through his body to his hands, it was like fire ran through his blood but not in a painful way more like the warm embrace of a mother he never had.
From his hands a sickly pink cloud of sparks and embers shot out in a rain towards the now very startled dripper duo, the whole tunnel was brighted by the spell that even Skitter Nail had a hard time seeing. The spell did barely any damage but that wasn’t what it was made to do, after casting ember he then started to shoot mana bolts at the blinded and dazed pair. Most of the mana bolts hit the unmoving sludge drippers but even with almost a dozen bolts hitting both of the lizards are still alive, yes heavily damaged but still alive and it seems they are starting to clear their vision from the light.
One of the drippers started to carefully make its way towards him but even when it was being careful it still once in a couple steps stepped in glass, the other dripper was staying back glaring at Skitter Nail but soon he figured out it wasn’t just looking at him for no reason. Hitting him square in the chest a mana bolt had shot out of the ugly lizard's sharp maw, he was pushed back falling onto a glass shard that got stuck splitting one of his beautiful ears in two! Now he was really angry and nothing was going to stop him from killing these two wastes of air, grabbing two shards of glass into his small hands he began to run at the stupid lizards, he will make sure they regret fighting back, they will regret crossing paths with the great the mighty Skitter Nail!
Or so he thought before another mana bolt hit him and he was pushed back onto the ground luckily not landing on glass, Skitter Nail was now remembering that he wasn’t the best really when it came to fighting and that he had only got this far with a lot of luck. With a quick prayer to Kittumo the dragon of fortune he got up and instead of running forward like a fool he began trying to make it so the lizard that was running towards him was in between him and the mage dripper. The only problem was that he was running out of glass covered area to use and if he leaves it the sludge dripper running after him will most certainly catch up to him, he could try to jump the river but there is nothing saying that the other lizard could just continue to shoot at him while its friend crosses the river.
He hasn’t regained a point of mp back yet but even then he was having trouble choosing which spell he should use to fight back, it was as he was thinking about which spell to use that he noticed that wasn’t in a glassy area anymore then it was the roar. Skitter Nail tried, he truly did try but no matter how much he moved away he could not find a way to dodge the sludge dripper's possible fatal bite. But the bite never came as from the other end of the tunnel a gurgling cry came, both he and the lizard that was about to kill him looked back at the source and what they both saw made them pale.
At the end of the tunnel they saw a giant mass of shifting mud that blocked the whole tunnel and from the front of it the body of a sludge dripper slowly sank deeper into the mud slimes depths, then the whole tunnel was filled with the sound of flesh tarring and bones being chowed. For a few moments after the slime finished off the sludge dripper it stayed still but then from the muddy surface of the slime a large eyeball burst from the mud, as the mud slime changed into a creeping mud slime. The large new singular eye looked around for the first time until it landed on the two other residents of the room, it looked at them for a few seconds before from its muddy body a bubblish roar came out and it began to move towards them at more than double its old speed.
