The dungeon of the End of Days was a popular dungeon between adventurers from the Worker tree line. It was a simulation of a zombie apocalypse much similar to all the movies and games about the subject.Once inside the dungeon, the party was set inside a decaying city filled with zombies and few hiding spots. The objective was simple. Survive for 30 days. After that time, the party would receive a bunch of experience.
Because the objective was only to survive and not kill anything, non combat builds loved it. It was the best way for them to level up. Adventurers from level 15 to 30 frequently went inside to get their levels up.
However there was a secret boss in the dungeon. A Zombie Lord. A level 60 undead that created more zombies. Very few parties ever defeated him, since parties that could defeat a level 60 monster were few. Those few parties were rewarded with small pieces of Auricite.
Auricite still didn’t have much use on Earth. It was known that it could handle much more mana than regular crystals, but getting it out of the stone was a mystery.
This meant that Auricite was only expensive because of its rarity and not for what it could do. Because of that, the stones weren’t as expensive as other minerals like Adamantine and not many adventurers wished to risk their lives going after them.
Before embarking to Mexico, Matthew and the others met the party that was going to the dungeon with them.
The first one, the acting leader, was Richard Bellingham. A 46 year old black haired and green eyed man. He wore a nice polished armor with a black cape with a purple tower sewn on it. He had a long war pick hanging from his waist and a metal kite shield with the Black Tower engraved on it. Under his arm he carried a frog mouth helmet.
The second one was a hobbit woman named Daisy Lightfoot. She had braided blonde hair and hazel eyes. She wore simple clothes under a green hooded cloak. She carried a pair of knives with large crystals on the end of their handles. His feet were bare as most hobbits had.
The third one was a short man called Ferdinand Francesco. He was a dark skinned latin man with bright brown eyes and black long hair. He had a long goatee on his face. He wore a simple chain mail armor with a black tabard over it that supported the symbol of a purple tower. He had a rifle with him and a long knife on his waist.
"Only the three of you?" Tina protested when they introduced each other in the airport at Mexico City.
"We’re not even a fixed party." Daisy gave her a sad smile.
"I was even on vacation, but Elddoc insisted I came." Richard sighed.
"They just got anyone who was available." Ferdinand said in a thick Spanish accent.
"Does the tower not care about Bianca?" Tina asked with indignation.
"On the contrary, Miss Hawthorne. Assembling a hurried party like ours and even asking the help of an outsider instead of waiting for a formed party to be available shows how much they want to rescue her as soon as possible." Richard explained.
"And you are Matthew?" Daisy changed the subject. "They said you broke Valerie’s record. Did you really reach level 40 before 21?"
"Not long ago." Matthew nodded.
"Wow." Daisy exclaimed. "What’s your build?"
"It’s a complicated matter." Erin intervened. "Are we going directly to the dungeon? You three seem to be already geared up."
"Yeah. We’ll spend a long time inside the dungeon. There’s no need to check in with a hotel. Once you get in, you can’t leave until the 30 days are over." Richard explained.
"You have my stuff Erin?" Helen asked.
"No, Tina has yours. I only got mine." Erin said.
"Alright, let’s find somewhere to change." Tina guided the women away.
"You want to wear your armor, Ffyr?" Matthew asked.
"No. I like these clothes better." She said with a spin, showcasing a short black skirt, white sneakers, a sleeveless neon pink tank top and a denim jacket. "Sarah gave me these."
"Aren’t you cold?" Daisy asked. Even though they were in Mexico, it was still winter in the northern hemisphere and the city got cold at night.
"No?" Ffyr turned her head, not understanding the question.
"Don’t worry about her. She can use fire magic, if she gets cold she just warms herself.
"I see." Daisy smiled.
"And you, won’t you get ready?" Ferdinand asked.
Matthew then just dressed himself using the Shadow Form skill to shape the armor around him.
"Wow! That’s so cool." Daisy exclaimed.
"An elf friend of mine taught me." Matthew said while checking if the red dragon armor was tight around his body.
"So... You are a Shadow." Richard nodded.
"More or less. My unique skill is... Complicated. I have a bunch of different skills and no particular build. Just treat me as a jack of all trades." Matthew said.
"I know Tina is a Gemcutter. But what about the others?" Ferdinand asked.
"Erin is a Visomancer. She wants to pick the Somniomancer class after. Helen is a tank." Matthew smiled. "And Ffyr is my familiar. She can use fire and wind magic."
"I’m also a tank. Aegis class is my focus." Richard said.
"I’m a Seer, but my focus is on scouting rather than going to the Summoning path." Daisy explained.
"I’m a Gunner Mage mix." Ferdinand said.
"Oh. I have some questions for you then." Matthew said. "What kind of bullets do you use? Mine just can’t handle enough mana to damage high level creatures."
"Me? I use these." The Spanish man took out the clip of his rifle and showed Matthew the bullets. They were made of mana crystals. "These are not meant to pierce the enemies though. I use the Store Spell skill on them to shoot spells, using the gun to deliver them faraway instead of wasting mana with Project Mana."
"Nice." Matthew exclaimed.
"But if you want regular bullets... Mithril bullets are the best, but too expensive. Since you’re level 40 already, I recommend Morringium bullets." Ferdinand said.
"Morrigium?" Matthew was unfamiliar with the name.
"It’s an alloy developed by Morringan Dimsdale. It’s a mix of gold, titanium and niobium. It’s expensive, but Morrigium can store quite a lot of mana without collapsing. You can have some with you for when you fight high level monsters and use regular bullets against low level enemies." Ferdinand proposed.
"I’ll take a look into it later." Matthew said, thanking him after.
Shortly after, the 3 women returned dressed in their adventuring gear, the same they used in Nuilynn.
After that, they all went to the gate. The sun was just down and the city lights painted a beautiful way.
The gate to the dungeon was a couple of kilometers away from the city. It had appeared in the middle of the Tecocomulco Lagoon.
Airboats carried the adventurers to the dungeon through the labyrinth of reeds up to the gate.
The airboats carrying them docked in the complex built in the middle of the lagoon to guard the dungeon from overflowing. Differently from Matthew’s country of Tuntun, in Mexico all gates were owned and controlled by state forces and the fees to enter them were quite hefty.
Once inside the gate, they were transported to a place of darkness. A huge screen just like their stat screen appeared for them and simply read: "Initiating Dungeon".
At this point, Matthew heard a soft laugh in his ears. A male voice on his right ear and a female on his left. His blood froze.
"I’ve put all of us in danger." He said out loud.
"Why?" Richard asked.
"What do you mean?" Erin asked as well, but in a softer tone.
Then the screen in front of them shifted from blue to black.
"Outside interference detected.
Ceding dungeon control to foreign entity."
"What is going on?" Tina asked.
"Matt?" Erin sounded scared.
"It’s Belial." Matthew’s voice was full of anger.
"Belial?" Daisy asked.
"The Demon King." Ffyr explained, her playful demeanor was gone.
"New parameters have been set.
Good luck."
"New parameters?" Ferdinand questioned with his voice wavering.
"I’m sorry." Matthew sighed.
"It’s not your fault." Helen patted his shoulder.
"What’s going on?" Richard asked again.
"Matthew was trapped in Hell for the last 2 years. He only managed to get out because of Belial’s intervention." Erin explained. "We never knew what Belial wanted from him. But it seems the demon is finally showing his cards."
"Hell? What?" Richard was confused.
"We can explain it better later. But, for now, just be ready for anything." Tina drew her staff from her inventory.
They formed a circle and waited for the worst.
A bright light covered them, blinding their eyes. And then, when it receded, they saw themselves in the middle of a city. It wasn’t a modern city like the dungeon usually created. It was a city made of stone houses and cobblestone pathways.
"Where are we?" Daisy asked out loud.